Since Mitt Romney’s not a candidate for office, I’m free to disparage his character — he’s not the trustworthy guy in the book. Therefore, I assume it’s not an abstract love of truth that’s inspired him to slam John McCain for lying:
UPDATE: Ah . . . this is from January. I was duped by Matt Stoller — he can’t be trusted!
Nothing says “just folks” working class credibility like owning your own tanning bed. My understanding is that this is fairly common among reasonably prosperous Alaskans — in the wintertime, of course, there’s very little sun. A tanning bed can help make you feel better during those long, dark months. And nothing says “I own a tanning bed” quite like walking around with a tan in the Alaskan winter.
But that’s all pretty weird. Normal Americans don’t live in Alaska, don’t experience 22 straight hours of darkness ever, and don’t own personal tanning beds. Long story short, tanning beds are about as all-American as moose stew, which is not to say not all-American at all but rather idiosyncratic elements of the culture of an odd state located northwest of Canada.
The McCain campaign said tonight that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) “won’t speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner” in the controversy known as “Troopergate.” The campaign declared the investigation to be “tainted,” despite the fact that the five-member committee is composed of three Republicans and two Democrats. Palin had previously agreed to cooperate and thus was not subpoenaed. Reporting the story tonight, Keith Olbermann said, “It is like installing a giant neon sign over her head saying, ‘I’m hiding something.’”
A week ago I argued that Obama had gone back to a losing message (see “Campaign update: If you’re not attacking, you’re losing“). But a week is a lifetime in politics.
Now I think they have found the winning counterpunch. I have posted a discussion of this elsewhere: Obama Nails the Winning Message… But Does He Know How to Win with It?
If they repeat this message until you are sick of it, I think they’ll win.
A. Serwer brings to light some pertinent information about America’s favorite mark of elitism: “consider that arugula, which is available to the rich and famous at any local McDonalds, is ‘exotic’ while moose is now as American as Thanksgiving turkey.” I was kind of hoping it would turn out that there’s no McDonald’s in Wasilia but there’s one right in what I assume is the downtown area. Of course I bet people who own eight houses don’t know a great deal about what’s on the menu at McDonald’s so I suppose McCain can be forgiven his ignorance of this point.
Meanwhile, like normal people I usually encounter arugula as part of a mix of salad greens. Consequently, it wasn’t until this presidential campaign that I ever really had an opportunity to consider my view of arugula in isolation. But I’ve been thinking about it, and I have to see that it’s really not the best thing out there.
Meanwhile, how is it that nobody seems to sell moose meat? There’s a whole elk meat website but I’m seeing nothing on moose. Doesn’t seem fair.
PEER reports, “In a blistering ruling the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Commission has found that racially ‘discriminatory and demeaning comments and adverse treatment” were ‘severe’ and ‘permeated the workplace’ in an enforcement branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.” An example of the complaints of EPA Special Agent George De Los Santos, who is based in the Criminal Investigations Division office in Dallas:
* His supervisor accusing him of stealing license plates and reselling them for profit in Mexico;
* Women co-workers were routinely referred to as “pussies”;
* Native American co-workers were called names like “Squatting Eagle” and “Two Dogs F__king” while an African-American colleague was ridiculed as mentally slow.
De Los Santos’ supervisor called his conduct “Special Agent grab-assing” and said he needed to quit complaining and “act like a man.” The EEO Commission found that many of these offensive comments “occurred in front of supervisors immediately after a meeting about EEO issues, demonstrating that agency officials did not take EEO issues seriously.”
Today on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, former Virgina governor George Allen (R) scoffed at claims that Americans are addicted to oil, calling it “an elitist point of view.” Allen insisted it was freedom, not oil, that Americans were actually addicted to:
ALLEN: I love that statement, America is addicted to oil. What an elitist point of view. Americans are not addicted to oil. Americans are addicted to freedom — the freedom and liberty to move where and when we want.
Listen here:
Allen stands alone in his defiance. Alongside energy experts and progressive politicians, prominent members of Allen’s own party have long since admitted the truth. In 2006, President Bush declared, “America is addicted to oil,” and just this past June, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) said, “America is so addicted to oil it will take us years to wean ourselves from it.” Does Allen think Bush and Schwarzenegger are elitists?
Our guest blogger is Will Straw, Associate Director for Economic Growth at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Senator John McCain today responded to 14 questions from scienceblogs.com about aspects of his science policy. The questions are part of a project by 38,000 scientists, politicians and business leaders who initially proposed a televised presidential debate focused on science and technology issues.
It was hard to expect much from the self-confessed computer “illiterate” described by former FCC chairman Reed Hundt as a “technological troglodyte,” who had a lackluster record as two-time chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and has voted over 90% of the time with the President who refers to using “the Google.” McCain didn’t disappoint with not a single reference to “broadband” and only passing references to the “Internet.”
At a time when the United States has slipped to 15th out of the 30 rich Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in terms of broadband penetration and when a “digitial divide” has developed with a lack of access in rural areas, this has become one of the most important areas of science policy.
In fairness to McCain, his campaign website does set out that he “Will Pursue High-Speed Internet Access For All Americans” but it is vague about how he would do so offering mealy mouthed proposals to “encourage private investment” and relying on “people acting through their local governments (sic).”
Obama’s response to the ScienceDebate2008 sets out explicitly that he will provide “broadband Internet connections for all Americans across the country.” His website contains a detailed six point plan to “restore America’s world leadership in this arena.”
This includes proposals such as “unleashing the wireless spectrum” that were set out in the Center for American Progress’ own report, A National Innovation Agenda by Tom Kalil and John Irons. Other ideas include:
- Creating tax incentives for companies that invest in next-generation broadband networks and provide access to underserved urban and rural communities.
Permanently extending the moratorium on taxes on Internet access.- Investing in R&D that will allow us to make better use of the existing spectrum, such as “cognitive radio” that will be able to intelligently detect, which channels are in use and which are not, and maximize our use of the spectrum while avoiding interference.
- Supporting state efforts to accelerate broadband deployment.
Pat Garofalo profiles John McCain’s team of economic advisers to help you get a better sense of how he got so sure that the fundamentals are strong.
In July, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services quietly amended its list of required vaccinations for immigrants applying to become citizens. One of the newest requirements? Gardasil, which vaccinates against the human papillomavirus (HPV). From the agency’s press release:
CDC’s revised Technical Instructions to Civil Surgeons for Vaccination Requirements require the following age-appropriate additional vaccinations to adjust status to legal permanent resident:
* Rotavirus
* Hepatitis A
* Meningococcal
* Human papillomavirus
* Zoster
This regulation goes directly against the advice of Dr. Jon Abramson, chairman of the CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices. In Feb. 2007, Abramson said that he and other committee members advised that Gardasil should not be mandatory because HPV is not a communicable disease like chicken pox.
The problem with this regulation is that the HPV vaccine is not mandatory for U.S. citizens. Therefore, U.S. citizens are allowed to weight the costs and risks associated with Gardasil, but immigrants are forced to pay-out-of-pocket for a vaccine they might not want to take. Some of the problems with this scenario:
Cost: Without health insurance, the three-shot vaccine can cost $162 per dose, making it the most expensive vaccine on the market. Gardasil manufacturer Merck, which lobbied heavily for state mandates for school girls, would profit greatly from the new regulations
Testing on underserved populations: WOC PhD writes how immigrants and women of color have historically been used as human test subjects: “[Although] Gardasil has already been approved by the FDA recent complications in patients using the drug, 3500 major complaints in a single year and 8000 since the approval, as well as multiple deaths, could indicate that more testing is needed. Why pull the drug off the market when you can study the results through a mandated population?”
Immigration barrier: Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress, expressed concerns to ThinkProgress that this mandate will block women from immigrating: “Given Gardasil’s high cost, and the fact that there does not seem to be a public health justification for this particular mandate, I’m concerned that its real purpose is to create a financial barrier for immigrant women who seek to lawfully enter this country.”
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection in the United States. The two most deadly strains are “responsible for most of the cervical cancer in the U.S., affecting over 10,000 women each year and killing more than 3,700 of them.”
Gardasil has so far proven to be extremely effective in preventing women from contracting HPV and should remain a widely available option for women. But as Jill at Feministe notes, “[E]very woman deserves the right to decide for herself if the benefits of Gardasil outweigh the risks. And we all need to be vigilant when we see the history of reproductive exploitation of bodies of color repeating itself.”
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