Comments on: McCain Eyes Longer Gas Tax Holiday

Says Proposal To Suspend Tax For The Summer May Need To Be Extended

[hasher47]

he is the republican nominee and gets my vote without thinking.
Posted by GOP_forever at 10:38 AM : J
-----------------------------------------
"WITHOUT THINKING"
Boy, that says it all!!!

Thinkers, Vote Obama ''08!!!

[dowell100]

I don''t know if the gas tax holiday idea will work or not, but I am glad McCain is suggesting something specific.

With Obama it is all empty-headed talk about "change" but no specifics. All talk with Obama, no plan for specific action.

[missingamerica]

By contrast, McCain said [...] that the Social Security system [...] in which younger people pay taxes to support the benefits of retirees, is an "absolute disgrace" --

Posted by starleo14672

That is a crock, SL...the system has always worked that way.

The Republicans are simply trying to use THEIR vice - greed ("Why should I have to pay for that old woman''s food?") - to create a split in America that fragments the nation along age lines.

But their end game is to sucker the younger people into putting their money into stocks where it can be accessed and drained away by the heavy hitters who will never have to worry about their own retirements.

Did you notice how quick Treasury Secretary Paulson (Republican) was and is to bail out the big banks and financial houses that might affect the wheels on the Street?

Did you see him do anything help those people who are losing their homes - homes that many thought they could eventually use to help pay for their own retirements?

Nope.

Do you see those who want take Social Security money and put it into the market doing anything about the number of corporations who are eliminating retirement pensions and health care programs they promised their retirees through 30 years of hard work?

Nope.

The GOP does NOT care about the youth of this nation any more than they care about the aged of this nation - they just want your money badly enough to lie and lie and lie.

[hasher47]

whitemale08,
Don''t know if I can agree will you.
There are some people making boad loads of bucks.
It''s mainly the lower and lower, middle class that are really feeling the pince. But hey, their''re only 65% of Americans

[starleo146]

starleo14672, I dont care if he eats live human children, he is the republican nominee and gets my vote without thinking.

Posted by GOP_forever at 10:38 AM : J

Yep, I understand the GOP logic, Party over country. Party over people. You are true to form, vote GOP don''t think, do as Bush and MCBush logic, say anything ,don''t think, and you can mess up a country even more than it already is,if that is possible.

[whitemale08]

Do you think America can afford another 4 years of George Bush economics?

I doubt if our will survive another month or so.

The signs of trickle-down voodoo economics are evident in the devastation surrounding us in this economy.

So really the question is: Could John McCain resurrected the failed economy?

We are passed the question: Will the economy survive? Bush answered that with his idiotic policies and the answer was "no" it didn''t survive Bush and the Republicans already.

You are looking at a failed economy. You''re looking at it RIGHT NOW !!! not tommorrow when Obama comes into power but RIGHT NOW !!! the economy as failed ALREADY, TODAY, RIGHT NOW AT THIS MOMENT IT''S FAILED !!!

[hasher47]

The "Gas Tax Holiday", a smoke and mirrors gimmick that doesn''t really solve the gas price problem, creates another problem by taking money away from much needed maintenance of roads and bridges, but gives willing Americans a psychological boost.

If that''s the kind of problem solving you want running this country the vote for this guy.

[DCropp]

McCain says lower taxes benefits the economy, then eliminate ALL taxes. That will really boost the economy.

Of course, it will mean the end of our Democracy, but heck Bush is doing that anyway. Glad to know McCain agrees with Bush.

[starleo146]

Media Coverage of Obama and McCain: "Nuts" or a "Disgrace"?

By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America. Posted July 17, 2008.

The Beltway press has become dysfunctional, failing to see news when it happens and hyping non-stories that require no real reporting.

[starleo146]

Journalism, by nature, is not difficult. It really isn''''t. Most of the key attributes for solid reporting and editing come naturally to most people; fairness, hard work, and -- most important -- common sense.

News judgment, for instance, consists mostly of editors and producers using common sense to determine, based on the limited resources at hand, which breaking events and stories should be covered, and which ones can be set aside as less important.

During the slow summer months of a presidential campaign, that judgment and that common sense is usually even easier to put into practice because, traditionally, so little happens on the campaign trail with the candidates that what ought to be covered becomes self-evident.

[starleo146]

Yet the Beltway press corps has become so borderline dysfunctional that even the simplest tasks, such as selecting which stories to cover -- such as using common sense -- now escape most of the major players at the mainstream news organizations.

Two events in recent days reaffirmed that sad conclusion, when entire news organizations opted to throw all sorts of time and attention at what was essentially a pointless campaign-related sideshow, while simultaneously displaying blanket indifference to what should have been the campaign story of the week, if not the month or possibly the entire summer.

[missingamerica]

lollll....what do you want to be some investment group told McCain:

"Further analysis has determined that gasoline taxes will have to be eliminated for at least X months before roadwork is so far behind that the public is blinded by their anger enough to think that privatizing the road system is a good idea.

We realize this is an inconvenience and places you at more risk of being linked to us, Senator, so here is another $5 million - appropriately bundled and camouflaged - for your campaign."

[starleo146]

Last week, after being hyped by Matt Drudge and Fox News, the Beltway press unanimously decided that Rev. Jesse Jackson''''s whispered comments, picked up on a live television set mic, in which he expressed anger with Sen. Barack Obama and used some crude language to convey his sentiments (i.e. he wanted to cut off Obama''''s "nuts"), represented a hugely important event. It was the most-covered campaign story of the week.

By contrast, McCain said at a campaign appearance in Denver on July 7 that the Social Security system as structured in America, in which younger people pay taxes to support the benefits of retirees, is an "absolute disgrace" -- but his proclamation was mostly passed over as being irrelevant. The disconnect between the coverage was astounding.

[shoebox119]

This proposal coming from a man who openly admitted he knows little of how an economy works should come at no one''s surprise.

Goodnight, Grandpa McCain...

[starleo146]

As of Sunday morning, only 17 major metropolitan newspapers in America had reported on McCain''''s "disgraceful" remark, in a total of 20 articles and columns, according to search of Nexis.

By contrast, more than 50 major U.S. dailies published a total of 126 articles and columns about the Jackson story. Several influential newspapers went back to the story ad nauseam. Combined, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Los Angeles Times published 39 different articles and columns that referenced the Jackson-Obama controversy.

By contrast, the combined number of stories and columns those three newspapers published that made reference to the McCain "disgrace" controversy? One.

[starleo146]

On television, the disparity was even more striking. Again, as of Sunday morning there had been nearly 900 mentions of "Jesse Jackson" over the previous five days on the cable and networks news channels, according to a search of TVeyes.com.

On those same news outlets there had been less than 24 references to McCain''''s "disgrace" comment. And not a single network newscast reported on the Social Security story. For reporters and pundits, "nuts" reigned over the "disgrace." Even days after the Jackson story faded, I was still left scratching my head trying to figure out exactly what significance, if any, the episode represented. Yes, it was embarrassing for Jackson. Yes, Jackson is famous. Yes, it''''s mildly amusing to hear what famous people like Jackson really think when they assume they cannot be overheard. But that doesn''''t explain why Jackson grabbed approximately 900 television mentions last week, or why reporters spent an inordinate amount of time "analyzing" the repercussions from the "nuts" swipe.

[starleo146]

I could see how it would''''ve been a big deal if the person behind the hot mic had been a prominent Clinton supporter, for instance, and how the same type of crude language might have reflected a larger, possibly still-lingering rift between the two Democratic camps. Thus, the comments coming from that person would have had real political meaning.

But Jackson is a civil rights leader who often speaks for African-Americans -- who, according to the polls, are among Obama''''s most stalwart, unwavering supporters. I just didn''''t understand how Jackson''''s comments could be interpreted as representing a larger, widespread problem for the Obama campaign (i.e., actual news). Jackson, obviously speaking only for himself, said something nasty under his breath about the Democratic candidate whom he supports. That''''s blockbuster news that has to be mentioned on TV 900 times in the span of just a few days?

[starleo146]

It seems the only reasons the Jackson story got so much attention was that it was easy to cover (i.e., it required no real reporting), it included a juicy off-color quote, it did not involve any sort of public policy issue, and Matt Drudge said it was important.

Note that the exact opposite requirements were needed to address the McCain story: Some actual reporting had to be undertaken, the topic at hand was Social Security, no blue language was involved, and the Drudge Report completely ignored the "disgrace" episode.

It''''s hard to downplay just how shocking McCain''''s Social Security comments were. In fact, they were likely unprecedented for a modern American presidential campaign. It wasn''''t just the stock GOP misinformation McCain spread in Denver about how Social Security was going bankrupt soon. (It''''s not.) It was the proclamation by McCain that our pay-as-you-go Social Security itself was an "absolute disgrace." Period.

[starleo146]

As Josh Marshall put it at Talking Points Memo: "In other words, there''''s no question that John McCain thinks that the problem with Social Security is the way it was designed at the very beginning, the way it was always designed to work."

Does McCain think Medicare is a "disgrace" too? Our postal system, national parks, highways? What other landmark government-funded initiatives does McCain dismiss as a "disgrace"?

The campaign spin of his July 7 remarks was that McCain was referring to the fact that it''''s a "disgrace" that Congress has not been able to solve future funding issues for Social Security. That represented an interesting and plausible take. But it matched virtually none of what McCain said in Denver. Or what he said on CNN that week: "[Younger people] pay their taxes and right now their taxes are going to pay the retirement of present-day retirees. That''''s why it''''s broken, that''''s why we can fix it."

[starleo146]

Bloggers noted it over and over last week: John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, thinks that Social Security, widely regarded as the most effective government-run program in the history of the United States, is a "disgrace."

What was so revealing was that not a single member of the campaign press caravan that heard McCain''''s shocking swipe at Social Security immediately thought it was newsworthy.

Here''''s just a partial list of print news outlets that had reporters covering McCain''''s Denver event but that did not mention the "disgrace" comment -- that did not consider it to be newsworthy in real time: