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I Can Think Of A Reason, Max Boot

By Matt Duss on Jun 9, 2008 at 10:03 pm

boot2.gifResponding to David Ignatius’s suggestion that the commander of Iran’s Quds Force hopes that “the next administration will be more favorable to Iran’s interests,” Max Boot auto-writes:

There is, of course, no earthly reason why the Quds Force commander could expect that a John McCain (whose campaign — full disclosure — I advise on foreign policy) would be more favorable to his interests. So the implication is that Iran’s top terrorist is hoping that Americans will elect Barack Obama this fall.

No earthly reason? Oh, I don’t know about that. Given that two Bush terms have resulted in the destruction of Iran’s greatest rival, the installation of an Iran-friendly regime in its place, and the extension of Iran’s power and influence throughout the region, I think it’s quite possible that a Quds Force commander would be rubbing his hands with glee over the potential Iranian gains to be realized from McCain mucking about in the Middle East — especially since so many of the super-geniuses who helped Iran out by getting up the Iraq war are now advising McCain.

Politics

Senators introduce bill to block military propaganda campaigns.

By Matt Corley on Jun 9, 2008 at 9:10 pm

The Crypt reports that Sens. John F. Kerry (D-MA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced legislation today “to prohibit the Defense Department from using money for ‘propaganda.’” The bill would also “require the DoD inspector general and the Government Accountability Office to deliver related reports to Congress within 90 days.” The legislation is a response to the secret Pentagon propaganda program revealed in April by the New York Times.

Health

Industry Questions McCain’s Plan: Proposes Regional Purchasing Pools, Not Individual Markets

By ThinkProgress on Jun 9, 2008 at 8:10 pm

mccainindustry.JPGThe Wonk Room has previously written that Sen. McCain’s plan to have families purchase health insurance on their own in the individual market will leave us without protection from the power of large health insurance companies. Instead of bringing families together through employers, McCain’s radical approach would have families seek coverage by themselves. Jane Bryant Quinn’s piece in Sunday’s Washington Post offers the latest support for the Wonk Room’s position.

While not addressing the McCain plan directly, Quinn talks about health policy perspectives from ERIC, The ERISA Industry Committee. (ERISA is a federal law that helps governs how employers offer employee benefits, like health care.) With a membership of 110 companies that reads like a who’s who of American business, including Boeing, 3M, Lockheed Martin, and Exxon, ERIC proclaims itself as the, “organization dedicated exclusively to representing the employee benefits and compensation interests of America’s major employers.”

Quinn discusses ERIC’s concept to build regional purchasing pools so that employers can band together in negotiating with insurance companies. The reason?

“On their own, ‘even large companies don’t have much negotiating power when facing large health plans,’ said ERIC President Mark Ugoretz.”

The largest companies in the world are trying to find ways to band together as purchasers, while McCain wants the country to move in the opposite direction and leave families on their own to buy coverage. If Boeing, 3M, Lockheed Martin and Exxon all feel like they can’t successfully take on the insurance industry by themselves, what is an individual family supposed to do?

Progressives are trying to find ways to bring purchasers together to buy health insurance so that there is a fair and equitable marketplace. In fact, the purchasing pool idea isn’t new at all, as asserted by Quinn. A year and a half ago, John Edwards’ health plan would have let businesses purchase coverage through his regional purchasing pool model. Sen. Obama wants to create a “connector” to allow individuals to come together to purchase coverage, like the Massachusetts plan. In contrast, McCain would leave families to fend for themselves to hope for the best against health insurers.

Politics

O’Hanlon: McCain ‘has been proven right about Iraq.’

By Ali Frick on Jun 9, 2008 at 7:49 pm

Commenting in an article about Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) foreign policy advisers, Iraq war apologist Michael O’Hanlon insisted McCain has been “proven right” on Iraq:

I don’t think they’re neocons. I think they’re pragmatists because they’ve been right. He (McCain) himself has been proven right about Iraq, and so on Iraq, I think you can say McCain has a strong track record.

O’Hanlon is hardly known for being a tough critic, considering he gave his own record on Iraq “a score of 7 out of 10.” Despite the right-wing’s constant attempt to declare Bush “right” on Iraq, McCain’s record doesn’t lie.

Politics

McCain: ‘It’s a Google.’

By Amanda Terkel on Jun 9, 2008 at 6:46 pm

Today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was fundraising in Richmond, VA, and joked about how he vets prospective VP candidates:

“We’re going through a process where you get a whole bunch of names, and ya … Well, basically, it’s a Google. You just, you know, what you can find out now on the Internet. It’s remarkable, you know.”

Watch it:

This, of course, is not to be confused with “the Google.”

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Climate Progress

Global Warming Committee Will See EPA Documents After Five-Month Delay

By Brad Johnson on Jun 9, 2008 at 6:43 pm

Johnson and BushThe Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has announced today it has reached an accommodation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to see documents requested in January — and subpoenaed on April 2 — which “relate to EPA’s decisions on global warming emissions regulations for vehicles, and on the agency’s ruling on the risks of heat-trapping pollution to public health or welfare.” The announcement:

Under the agreement, the EPA will allow the Select Committee access to the documents in a timely fashion, but to not interfere with the current regulatory deliberations currently underway within the administration. The Select Committee will not withdraw the subpoena still outstanding against EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

The “regulatory deliberations” are the EPA’s work on issuing an Advanced Notice of Proposed Regulations (ANPR), a gambit to delay action first suggested by the Heritage Foundation.

Essentially, the committee is agreeing to all of the terms the EPA made in an April 16 offer but one — that it withdraw the subpoena in return for limited access to the documents. The EPA offered to “make the requested documents available to the Select Committee for review at the time the ANPR is published later this spring or in any event no later than June 21.” Global Warming Committee spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder tells the Wonk Room that the committee accepted these terms, including the June 21 deadline — over five months after the initial request and nearly three months after the subpoena. Burnham-Snyder added, “I don’t know exactly what the access level will be” to the documents in question.

Climate Progress

You can’t be too rich or too dirty

By Joe Romm on Jun 9, 2008 at 6:19 pm

parishilton-08-big.jpg

Rich and thin is pass©. What’s hot now is rich and dirty.

Why is a smart energy and climate policy so elusive for this country? In three words — money, money, money.

The nation’s energy bill is now about a trillion dollars. That means the super-rich fossil fuel companies have enormous profits they can spend on lobbying to ensure their continued dominance. How much? Jeff Goodell has the answer here:

In the first quarter of 2008, Big Coal’s new front group, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, spent a record-breaking $1.9 million in federal lobbying expenses. To put that in perspective, in the same period, the Solar Energies Industries Association spent all of $75,000….

Individual coal companies have been even more generous to our nation’s cash-starved policymakers:

Read more

Politics

McCain Adviser: The Press Want To ‘Convince Everyone That The Economy Is In Recession’ To Hurt McCain

By Matt Corley on Jun 9, 2008 at 6:05 pm

In his Bloomberg column today, Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute charges that the news media is guilty of a “politically motivated pessimism” when it pushes “the idea that the U.S. is in a terrible recession.” Hassett, who is an economic adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), argues that the “Democratic-leaning press” may be trying to “influence the election” against McCain:

The bias has an easy explanation. Yale University economist Ray Fair has shown that a weak economy hurts the incumbent party. If a Democratic-leaning press can convince everyone that the economy is in recession, then it can influence the election.

Our analysis indicates that the treatment of the economy would be much different if there were a Democrat in the White House today.

To support his argument, Hassett cites a “highly flawed” study he conducted with John Lott that claimed to show that newspapers “give more positive news coverage to the same economic news when Democrats are in the Presidency than for Republicans.”

But he also neglects to mention that the candidate who he claims would be hurt by the purported “bias” hasn’t been shy about describing the economy as in a recession. In fact, on April 14, when McCain was asked directly, “Are we in a recession?” he responded, “I certainly think so.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/04/mccainrecession04452.320.240.flv]

McCain’s comments to the Associated Press in April weren’t an isolated incident or a mere slip of the tongue. On March 8, he told reporters that it was “very likely” that America was “probably, quote, ‘in a recession.’”

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