McCain gets lost in the economic fog
Eugene Robinson
Updated on Sep 22, 2008
from South China Morning Post: http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=d611bedb0d48c110VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=Insight&s=Opinion
John McCain was telling the truth when he said that economics wasn't his strong suit. In response to what many economists have called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Republican presidential nominee has sounded — and let's be honest here — totally, embarrassingly and dangerously clueless.
His now-famous remark about how "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" would almost by itself be enough to justify my assessment. But he committed what was probably an even worse gaffe last Tuesday when, as the insurance behemoth AIG teetered on the brink, he said: "I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG. We cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else."
Within hours, the federal government had bailed out AIG to the tune of US$85 billion. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — and others who know how Wall Street works — understood that, if AIG were to collapse, much of the financial system might follow.
Senator McCain quickly changed his tune, saying the government was "forced" to rescue AIG because of "failed regulation, reckless management and a casino culture on Wall Street".
That sounds OK, but wait a minute. If he had any idea of what he was talking about — if he had any inkling of how big AIG is, or how central it has become — then why on Earth would he have taken a stand against a bailout in the first place?
Senator McCain released new television adverts last week regarding the economy. "I'll meet this financial crisis head on," he says in one. "I won't tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk. Your savings, your jobs — I'll keep them safe."
In fairness, Barack Obama has no magic bullet to solve the financial crisis, either. There are differences, though. For one, Senator Obama's proposals for action — a stimulus plan, protection for homeowners in peril of foreclosure, increased regulation — are more specific than Senator McCain's.
For another, Senator Obama blames the crisis on "an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary". Senator McCain now calls for better regulation, too. In other words, Senator McCain is running against his own record. To cite one example, he backed landmark legislation in 1999 that removed the walls between banks, investment firms and insurance companies. That bill allowed a company like AIG to expand beyond its traditional insurance business into exotic new products that ultimately brought the company down.
Senator McCain, who told The Wall Street Journal in March that "I'm always for less regulation", now asks voters to believe he will be a champion of tough, unblinking oversight. He's outraged that Wall Street's preening Masters of the Universe threw a drunken toga party and smashed all the furniture — but he helped buy the beer and told the police to look the other way.
This is the man who's going to reform the US economy?
Eugene Robinson is a Washington Post columnist
Fellow Americans, for the sake of our country, citizens, and for fellow humans around the world (i.e. think innocent civilians in Iraq who have had family members and friends killed or injured and don't feel safe even in their own homes), please vote OBAMA. McCain will no doubt bring about 4 more years of the last 8 which have been the worst in Amercian history — wars, lies, deception, accelerated global warming, and innocent lives destroyed. Don't be selfish and pick McCain just over 1 or 2 issues that you THINK McCain would help more than Obama. McCain is promising ANYTHING he thinks will get people to vote for him but he hasn't been telling the truth. And many of his promises do not add up at all if you really stop and analyze them with a bit of common sense. Worse, he's been telling us things that are in fact the OPPOSITE of reality and the truth. Just check YouTube for much proof of that. Most recently, listen to the comments he made before and after AIG got bailed out. Or check out these:
- The Real McCain - Part 2
- John McCain vs John McCain
- The Real McCain
- The Real Mccain in his own words. Lies and flipflops
- Ad on Sex Education Distorts Obama Policy
McCain is really no different than Bush. Ditto for Palin.
We need real change and the RIGHT (morally and ethically correct, for the people and not for only the rich and big oil companies) decision-making that OBAMA will bring.
It's all about decisions!... Who do you trust to make the right decisions on such key issues as our economy, Iran, climate change, and health care? (See: US Elections Issues Guide from the BBC) Come on people, use your decision-making power to vote and make the RIGHT decision by voting for OBAMA!!
Cheers,
Derek
Here's a interesting article by Elizabeth Drew, author of "Citizen McCain"...
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13541.html
How John McCain lost me
By: Elizabeth Drew
September 17, 2008 10:53 PM EST
I have been a longtime admirer of John McCain. During the 2000 Republican presidential primaries I publicly defended McCain against the pro-Bush Republicans' whisper campaign that he was too unstable to be president (aware though I was that he had a temper). Two years later I published a positive book about him, "Citizen McCain."
I admired John McCain as a man of principle and honor. He had become emblematic of someone who spoke his mind, voted his conscience, and demonstrated courage in bucking his own party and fighting for what he believed in. He gained a well-deserved reputation as a maverick. He was seen as taking principled positions on such issues as tax equity (opposing the newly elected Bush's tax cut), fighting political corruption, and, later, taking on the Bush administration on torture. He came off as a man of decency. He took political risks.
Having emerged, ironically, from his bitter 2000 primary fight against Bush as an immensely popular figure, he set out to be a new force in American politics. He decided to form and lead a centrist movement, believing that that was where the country was and needed leadership. He went against the grain of his party on the environment, patients' bill of rights, and, of course, campaign finance reform.
While McCain's movement to the center was widely popular (if not on the right) — and he even flirted with becoming a Democrat — there's now strong reason to question whether it was anything but a temporary, expedient tactic. (In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," he wrote, revealingly, "I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president... In truth, I'd had the ambition for a long time.")
When he decided to run for president in 2008, he felt he couldn't win without the support of the right, so he adapted.
In retrospect, other once-hailed McCain efforts — his cultivation of the press ("my base") and even his fight for campaign finance reform (launched in the wake of his embarrassment over the Keating Five scandal) now seem to have been simply maneuvers. The "Straight Talk Express" — a brilliant p.r. stroke in 2000 — has now been shut down.
When the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, widely opposed by Republicans, began to seem a liability during the 2008 primaries, his reforming zeal gave way to political exigencies, and he ceased mentioning his one-time triumph. Though in 2003 he had introduced a bill to fix some other problems with the campaign finance system, in later years his name was no longer on the bill.
When Bush, issued a "signing statement" in 2006 on McCain's hard-fought legislation placing prohibitions on torture, saying he would interpret the measure as he chose, McCain barely uttered a peep. And then, in 2006, in one of his most disheartening acts, McCain supported a "compromise" with the administration on trials of Guantanamo detainees, yielding too much of what the administration wanted, and accepted provisions he had originally opposed on principle. Among other things, the bill sharply limited the rights of detainees in military trials, stripped habeas corpus rights from a broad swath of people "suspected" of cooperating with terrorists, and loosened restrictions on the administration's use of torture. (The Supreme Court later ruled portions of this measure unconstitutional.)
McCain's caving in to this "compromise" did it for me. This was further evidence that the former free-spirited, supposedly principled, maverick was morphing into just another panderer — to Bush and the Republican Party's conservative base.
Other aspects of McCain, including his temperament, began to trouble me. He seemed disturbingly bellicose. He gave the Iraq war unflagging support no matter the facts. He still talks about "winning" the war, though George W. Bush gave that up some time ago. As the war became increasingly unpopular, he employed the useful technique of blaming its execution rather than recognizing the misconceptions that had led him to be one of the most enthusiastic champions of the war in the first place.
Similarly, in making a big issue of having backed the surge (and simplifying the reasons for its apparent success), he preempts debate on the very idea of the war. He has talked (and sung) loosely about attacking Iran. More recently, he oversimplified this summer's events in Georgia and made intemperate remarks about Russia, about which he's been more belligerent than the administration for some time. (He has his own set of neocons.)
There's an argument that all this compromise wasn't necessary: some very smart political analysts believed from the outset that McCain could win the nomination by sticking with his old self. And they still believe that McCain won the nomination not because he gave himself over to the base but as a result of a process of elimination of inferior candidates who divided up the conservative vote, as these observers had predicted. (These people insisted on anonymity because McCain is known in Republican circles to have a long memory and a vindictive streak.)
By then I had already concluded that that there was a disturbingly erratic side of McCain's nature. There's a certain lack of seriousness in him. And he does not appear to be a reflective man, or very interested in domestic issues. One cannot imagine him ruminating late into the night about, say, how to educate and train Americans for the new global and technological challenges.
McCain's making a big issue of "earmarks" and citing entertaining examples of ridiculous-sounding ones, circumvents discussion of the larger issues of the allocation of funds in the federal budget: according to the Office of Management and Budget, earmarks represent less than one percent of federal spending.
Now he's back to declaring himself a maverick, but it's not clear what that means. If he gains the presidency, is he going to rebel against the base he's now depending on to get him elected? (Hence his selection of running mate Sarah Palin.) Campaigns matter. If he means "shaking up the system" (which is not the same thing), opposing earmarks doesn't cut it.
McCain's recent conduct of his campaign — his willingness to lie repeatedly (including in his acceptance speech) and to play Russian roulette with the vice-presidency, in order to fulfill his long-held ambition — has reinforced my earlier, and growing, sense that John McCain is not a principled man.
In fact, it's not clear who he is.
Elizabeth Drew is author of "Citizen McCain" (Simon & Schuster, 2002; paperback with new introduction, 2008.)
(c) 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC
Taken with our 5-year-old AXIS 2100 network camera.
I'm waiting for an iMac (or perhaps a new "mini" Mac Pro) with eSATA to come out. Won't buy any new personal computer without an eSATA port. I wonder what's holding up both Apple and PC makers. And they must find a way to make it "hot swap" — add and remove eSATA devices while the computer is running, just like USB and FireWire devices work (currently, your computer must be switched off before you can remove an eSATA hard disk). Here's some discussion that reveals why eSATA is so desirable: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=440925
UPDATE (2008-03-11): After I read Apple in Talks with Sony about Blu-ray Drives, I wish for the next iMac to also come equipped with a Blu-ray drive. Would also appreciate the traditional matte (non-glossy) display, at least as an option. Apple, please don't disappoint!
Here are my recommendations for time synchronizers for PCs (Macs have this functionality built in)… Both update automatically using a frequency you set.
Accurate time on your servers is essential if you are running an Apple Xserve that is bound to your Windows Active Directory (for user authentication) since Apple’s “Active Directory DS plugin” uses Kerberos which is very time sensitive and basically won’t work if the time skew between itself and the AD servers is too large.
1. ArGoSoft Time Synchronizer - freeware
http://www.argosoft.com/rootpages/TimeSync/Default.aspx
Simple with “Synchronize Now” button and settings for update frequency. Settings via a Control Panel.
2. Dimension 4 - free for personal use (donations welcome); US$10 for commercial use
http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/
Has a lot of features and a nice System Tray icon to either “Synchronize now” or “Open” to change settings.
Screenshots:
This is crazy... a new post after over 2 years!
Well, I just thought I'd throw this out there in hopes it might help someone else. Apple support and warranty service is the absolute worst in the world!...
2 problem-resolution items here for Apple Xserve (Mac OS X Server 10.4.9):
PROBLEM-RESOLUTION 1:
When attempting to connect to an Apple Xserve (bound to a Windows Active Diretory) by hitting Command-K, entering afp://server (e.g. afp://x1.bbdohk.com), and using Active Directory credentials, the following error pops up:
Connection Failed
Unknown user, incorrect password, or login is disabled.
When logging in using a local, Open Directory account, connection is successful.
On the Xserve in the Console app, a ton of the following errors are logged:
May 11 08:42:54 x1 DirectoryService[90]: Active Directory DS Plugin: Kerberos Time Skew Too Large. Check Date/Time!\n
May 11 08:44:54 x1 DirectoryService[90]: Active Directory DS Plugin: Kerberos Time Skew Too Large. Check Date/Time!\n
May 11 08:46:54 x1 DirectoryService[90]: Active Directory DS Plugin: Kerberos Time Skew Too Large. Check Date/Time!\n
So the fix is to match the times on the Xserve and Windows AD servers.
PROBLEM-RESOLUTION 2:
In Windows, when attempting to connect to an Apple Xserve by entering \\servername (or using the IP address, such as \\10.1.1.20) in an Explorer window, the following error appears:
Windows cannot find ‘\\servername’. Check the spelling and try again, or try searching for the item by clicking the Start button and then clicking Search.
Fix is to start the “Windows” service on the Xserve using Server Admin.
The problem is on my Xserve, the Windows startup state (Running or Stopped) does not stick after a reboot. And it may even stop on its own. Not sure what the fix is for that.
