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What the cadidates are saying.
Where The Presidential Candidates Stand On 22 Issues
The Associated Press
Published: September 19, 2008
Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama will share the stage this Friday for the first of three presidential candidate forums. The first, to be held at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss, will focus on domestic issues. The second, on Oct. 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, will be a town-hall format with questions submitted by the audience. The third, on Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in New York, is devoted to foreign policy questions. A debate between the vice presidential candidates, Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin, is scheduled for Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis.
Here is a snapshot of where the presidential candidates stand, and a look into what has been found about the public's mood, on 22 issues:
1. ABORTION
McCain: Opposes abortion rights. Has voted for abortion restrictions permissible under Roe v. Wade and now says he would seek to overturn that guarantee of abortion rights. Would not seek constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
Obama: Favors abortion rights.
You said: According to a Gallup poll in May, 54 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal under certain circumstances.
2. AFGHANISTAN
McCain: Favors unspecified boost in U.S. forces.
Obama: Would add about 7,000 troops to the U.S. force of 36,000, bringing reinforcements from Iraq. Has threatened unilateral attack on high-value terrorist targets in Pakistan "if Pakistan cannot or will not act" against them.
You said: An Associated Press poll this month found that a plurality of Americans favors increasing U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan, with 28 percent strongly favoring and 20 percent somewhat favoring it.
3. CAMPAIGN FINANCE
McCain: The co-author of McCain-Feingold campaign finance law is running his general campaign with public money and within its spending limits. He urged Obama to do the same. He applied for federal matching funds for primaries but later turned them down so he could spend more than the limits. The Federal Election Commission belatedly approved his decision to bypass the primary funds, but rejected McCain's claim that he needed no such approval. He raised more than $160 million before having to stop to accept the $84 million in public money for the fall. McCain accepted primary campaign contributions from lobbyists.
Obama: The presidential campaign's fundraising champion has brought in more than $450 million. He is raising private money for his general election, despite his proposal last year to accept public financing and its spending limits if the Republican nominee does, too. Obama refuses to accept money from federal lobbyists and has instructed the Democratic National Committee to do the same for its joint victory fund, an account that would benefit the nominee. Obama does accept money from state lobbyists and from family members of federal lobbyists.
You said: According to an April 2007 Gallup poll, most Americans would prefer that presidential candidates not take public financing for their campaigns, and most think private financing is the best way to fund a presidential campaign.
4. CATASTROPHE FUND
McCain: Opposes a national catastrophe fund as a way to help stabilize homeowners insurance premiums. Says he will work with governors of the most affected states to pool insurance risks against hurricanes. He says broad pooling will improve prices and effective regulation can support the quality policies needed by homeowners and businesses.
Obama: Supports the creation of a national catastrophic insurance program as a way to help stabilize homeowners insurance premiums. He co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that would spread the risk of hurricanes and other natural disasters to provide homeowners some relief, and pledged to sign the bill into law as president.
You said: Public opinion has not been measured by a major independent polling organization. A bill to establish a national fund has passed the House, but not the Senate, and President Bush has said he will veto the legislation if it does pass. The congressional budget office estimated the fund would cost taxpayers $25 billion annually.
5. CUBA
McCain: Ease restrictions on Cuba once the United States is "confident that the transition to a free and open democracy is being made."
Obama: Ease restrictions on family-related travel and on money Cuban-Americans want to send their families in Cuba. Open to meeting new Cuban leader Raul Castro without preconditions. Ease trade embargo if Havana "begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change."
You said: According to the 2007 Florida International University's Cuba Poll, approximately 65 percent of the South Florida Cuban-American community would support a dialogue with the Cuban government.
6. DEATH PENALTY
McCain: Has supported expansion of the federal death penalty and limits on appeals.
Obama: Supports death penalty for crimes where the "community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage." As Illinois lawmaker, wrote bill mandating videotaping of interrogations and confessions in capital cases and sought other changes in system that had produced wrongful convictions.
You said: According to Quinnipiac University poll in July, 63 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder.
7. ECONOMY
McCain: On Friday, said the Federal Reserve should stop bailing out failing financial institutions. As president, would create a Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Although he has generally championed deregulation throughout his career in the Senate, he now calls for a commission to find out what went wrong in the financial markets and how to better regulate them. Supported legislation in 1999 that tore down Depression-era legal walls separating commercial banks, investment banks and insurers from one another. President Clinton, a Democrat, signed it into law.
Obama: On Friday, said he supports giving "broad authority" to the Treasury Department to deal with credit crisis, but says he's not giving details of his own plans in order to avoid roiling the markets further. Says a recovery plan should not reward reckless business leaders. Refused to put a price tag on a plan he would support, but said it would not bar him from advocating middle-class tax cuts.
You said: A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll this month found the economic problems that most concern Americans are the price of gasoline (35 percent), the availability of jobs (28 percent), mortgages and home values (18 percent) and taxes (18 percent). The economy, the poll found, had replaced the Iraq War as the most important issue voters would weigh in voting for a presidential candidate: 31 percent cited the Iraq War in June 2007, but only 13 percent said so in September.
8. EDUCATION
McCain: He is not proposing a federal voucher program that would provide public money for private school tuition, in contrast to his proposed $5 billion voucher plan in 2000. Only proposes expansion of District of Columbia's voucher program. Sees No Child Left Behind law as vehicle for increasing opportunities for parents to choose schools. Proposes more money for community college education.
Obama: An $18 billion plan that would encourage, but not mandate, universal pre-kindergarten. Teacher pay raises tied to, although not based solely on, test scores. An overhaul of No Child Left Behind law to better measure student progress, make room for non-core subjects such as music and art and be less punitive toward failing schools. A tax credit to pay up to $4,000 of college costs for students who perform 100 hours of community service a year. Obama would pay for part of his plan by ending corporate tax deductions for CEO pay. Has backed away from his proposal to save money for education by delaying NASA's manned moon and Mars missions.
You said: According to an Associated Press poll in June, most Americans would be willing to pay more in taxes if the money were spent on hiring more teachers and improving public school facilities.
9. ENERGY
McCain: Favors increased offshore drilling, but is opposed to drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Argues that prohibiting more drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf stands in the way of energy exploration and production. Thinks states, including Florida, should be able to decide whether to expand drilling off their coasts. Would use federal money to help build 45 nuclear power reactors by 2030. Proposed suspending the 18-cent a gallon federal gasoline tax but idea got no traction. Global warming plan would increase energy costs.
Obama: Now would consider limited increase in offshore drilling, but opposes drilling in Arctic reserve. Proposes windfall-profit tax on largest oil companies to pay for energy rebate of up to $1,000. Opposed suspension of the gas tax. Proposed releasing 70 million barrels of oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve to boost supplies. Global warming plan would increase energy costs. Supports forcing oil and gas companies to drill on the 68 million acres of already leased areas, but remains skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term. Says care must be taken to protect Florida's coastal resources and the tourism industry they support.
You said: A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll in August found most Americans favor increased offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, and most favor drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. A Mason-Dixon poll in August found 61 percent of Floridians favor drilling for oil and natural gas off the state's coast.
10. EVERGLADES
McCain: Expressed support this spring for Everglades restoration and his commitment to doing so as president. He missed the vote on the issue and later urged President Bush to veto a broader $23 billion water bill that authorized $2 billion for Everglades clean-up. McCain said that was because it included millions of dollars for other projects he considered wasteful.
Obama: Says he supports the restoration of the Everglades and as president will make this project a top environmental priority. He supported the Water Resources Development Act, which would have allocated $2 billion in federal funding to help Florida restore the Everglades.
You said: Public opinion has not been measured by a major independent polling organization. As conceived in 2000, the restoration plan was to be a 50-50 split between the state and federal governments. A bill to have the federal government spend about $23 billion on water projects, including $2 billion on the Everglades, passed Congress, was vetoed by President Bush, then overridden by Congress.
11. GAY MARRIAGE
McCain: Opposes constitutional amendment to ban it. Says same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into legal agreements for insurance and similar benefits, and states should decide about marriage. Supports the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages and gives states the right to refuse to recognize such marriages.
Obama: Opposes constitutional amendment to ban it. Supports civil unions, says states should decide about marriage. Switched positions in 2004 and now supports repeal of Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages and gives states the right to refuse to recognize such marriages.
You said: According to an Associated Press poll this month, 49 percent of Americans think the federal government should not give legal recognition to same-sex marriages, and 47 percent said it should.
12. GLOBAL WARMING
McCain: Broke with President Bush on global warming. Led Senate effort to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Favors plan that would see greenhouse gas emissions cut by 66 percent by 2050.
Obama: Ten-year, $150 billion program to produce "climate friendly" energy supplies that he'd pay for with a carbon auction requiring businesses to bid competitively for the right to pollute and aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. Joined McCain in sponsoring earlier legislation that would set mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Increase federal fuel economy requirements beyond 35 mpg.
You said: According to a Gallup poll in March, most Americans worry about global warming and think the effects of it are already happening, but do not think it will pose serious threats to their way of life during their lifetime.
13. GUN CONTROL
McCain: Voted against ban on assault-type weapons but in favor of requiring background checks at gun shows. Voted to shield gun manufacturers and dealers from civil suits. "I believe the Second Amendment ought to be preserved, which means no gun control."
Obama: Voted to leave gun manufacturers and dealers open to suit. Also, as Illinois state lawmaker, supported ban on all forms of semiautomatic weapons and tighter state restrictions generally on firearms.
You said: According to a Quinnipiac University poll in July, most Americans support stricter gun control laws but oppose a constitutional ban on individual gun ownership.
14. HEALTH CARE
McCain: $2,500 refundable tax credit for individuals, $5,000 for families, to make health insurance more affordable. No mandate for universal coverage. In gaining the tax credit, workers could not deduct the portion of their workplace health insurance paid by their employers.
Obama: Mandatory coverage for children, no mandate for adults. Aim for universal coverage by requiring employers to share costs of insuring workers and by offering coverage similar to that in plan for federal employees. Says package would cost up to $65 billion a year after unspecified savings from making system more efficient. Raise taxes on wealthier families to pay the cost.
You said: An ABC News/Washington Post poll in June found most Americans think it is important to provide health care coverage for all, even if it means raising taxes.
15. HOUSING
McCain: Open to helping homeowners facing foreclosure if they are "legitimate borrowers" and not speculators.
Obama: Tax credit covering 10 percent of annual mortgage-interest payments for "struggling homeowners," scoring system for consumers to compare mortgages, a fund for mortgage-fraud victims, new penalties for mortgage fraud and aid to state and local governments stung by housing crisis.
You said: According to a Gallup poll in March, most Americans favor having the federal government take steps to prevent people from losing their homes because they can't pay their mortgages. In a breakdown, most Republicans oppose federal intervention and most Democrats and independents favor intervention.
16. IMMIGRATION
McCain: Sponsored 2006 bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to stay in the United States, work and apply to become legal residents after learning English, paying fines and back taxes and clearing a background check. Now says he would secure the border first. Supports border fence.
Obama: Voted for 2006 bill offering legal status to illegal immigrants subject to conditions, including English proficiency and payment of back taxes and fines. Voted for border fence.
You said: According to an Associated Press poll in April, 49 percent of Americans favor building a fence along the border between the United States and Mexico, and 48 percent oppose it. However, a majority of all respondents are not confident it would reduce the number of illegal immigrants.
17. IRAN
McCain: Favors tougher sanctions, opposes direct high-level talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Obama: Initially said he would meet Ahmadinejad without preconditions, now says he's not sure. "Ahmadinejad is the right person to meet with right now." Says direct diplomacy with Iranian leaders would give the United States more credibility to press for tougher international sanctions. Says he would intensify diplomatic pressure on Tehran before Israel feels the need to take unilateral military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.
You said: According to a Gallup poll in July, Americans ranked Iran as the country's greatest enemy (25 percent), followed by Iraq (22 percent), China (14 percent) and North Korea (9 percent).
18. IRAQ
McCain: Opposes scheduling a troop withdrawal, saying latest strategy is succeeding. Supported decision to go to war, but was early critic of the manner in which administration prosecuted it. Was key backer of the troop increase. Willing to have permanent U.S. peacekeeping forces in Iraq.
Obama: Spoke against war at start, opposed troop increase. Voted against one major military spending bill in May 2007; otherwise voted in favor of money to support the war. Says his plan would complete withdrawal of combat troops in 16 months. Initially had said a timetable for completing withdrawal would be irresponsible without knowing what facts he'd face in office.
You said: According to an Associated Press poll this month, most Americans are in favor of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
19. SOCIAL SECURITY
McCain: "Nothing's off the table" when it comes to saving Social Security.
Obama: Would raise payroll tax on wealthiest by applying it to portion of income over $250,000. Now, payroll tax is applied to income up to $102,000. Rules out raising the retirement age for benefits.
You said: According to a CBS News poll last October, most Americans think the financial situation of Social Security is threatened, with 30 percent saying it's a crisis.
20. STEM CELL RESEARCH
McCain: Supports relaxing federal restrictions on financing of embryonic stem cell research.
Obama: Supports relaxing federal restrictions on financing of embryonic stem cell research.
You said: An April 2007 Gallup poll found a plurality of Americans, 38 percent, think the federal government should ease restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research.
21. TAXES
McCain: Pledged not to raise taxes, then equivocated, saying nothing can be ruled out in negotiating compromises to keep Social Security solvent. Twice opposed Bush's tax cuts, at first because he said they were tilted to the wealthiest and again because of the unknown costs of Iraq war. Now says those tax cuts, expiring in 2010, should be permanent. Proposes cutting corporate tax rate to 25 percent. Promises balanced budget in first term, says that is unlikely in his first year.
Obama: Raise income taxes on wealthiest and their capital gains and dividends taxes. Raise corporate taxes. $80 billion in tax breaks mainly for poor workers and elderly, including tripling Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credit for larger families. Eliminate tax-filing requirement for older workers making less than $50,000. A mortgage-interest credit could be used by lower-income homeowners who do not take the mortgage-interest deduction because they do not itemize their taxes.
You said: In a Gallup poll in April, 52 percent of Americans think the amount of federal income tax they have to pay is too high. The poll found most Americans think lower-income people are paying too much, middle-income people are paying their fair share and upper-income people are paying too little.
22. TRADE
McCain: Free trade advocate.
Obama: Seek to renegotiate North American Free Trade Agreement to strengthen enforcement of labor and environmental standards. In 2004 Senate campaign, called for "enforcing existing trade agreements," not amending them.
You said: A Pew Research Center poll in April found that a plurality of Americans, 48 percent, thinks the effects of free trade agreements are bad for the country.
Sources: The Associated Press, Tribune research by Michael A. Messano, and Tribune reporter Billy House in Washington
The Associated Press
Published: September 19, 2008
Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama will share the stage this Friday for the first of three presidential candidate forums. The first, to be held at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss, will focus on domestic issues. The second, on Oct. 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, will be a town-hall format with questions submitted by the audience. The third, on Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in New York, is devoted to foreign policy questions. A debate between the vice presidential candidates, Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin, is scheduled for Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis.
Here is a snapshot of where the presidential candidates stand, and a look into what has been found about the public's mood, on 22 issues:
1. ABORTION
McCain: Opposes abortion rights. Has voted for abortion restrictions permissible under Roe v. Wade and now says he would seek to overturn that guarantee of abortion rights. Would not seek constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
Obama: Favors abortion rights.
You said: According to a Gallup poll in May, 54 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal under certain circumstances.
2. AFGHANISTAN
McCain: Favors unspecified boost in U.S. forces.
Obama: Would add about 7,000 troops to the U.S. force of 36,000, bringing reinforcements from Iraq. Has threatened unilateral attack on high-value terrorist targets in Pakistan "if Pakistan cannot or will not act" against them.
You said: An Associated Press poll this month found that a plurality of Americans favors increasing U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan, with 28 percent strongly favoring and 20 percent somewhat favoring it.
3. CAMPAIGN FINANCE
McCain: The co-author of McCain-Feingold campaign finance law is running his general campaign with public money and within its spending limits. He urged Obama to do the same. He applied for federal matching funds for primaries but later turned them down so he could spend more than the limits. The Federal Election Commission belatedly approved his decision to bypass the primary funds, but rejected McCain's claim that he needed no such approval. He raised more than $160 million before having to stop to accept the $84 million in public money for the fall. McCain accepted primary campaign contributions from lobbyists.
Obama: The presidential campaign's fundraising champion has brought in more than $450 million. He is raising private money for his general election, despite his proposal last year to accept public financing and its spending limits if the Republican nominee does, too. Obama refuses to accept money from federal lobbyists and has instructed the Democratic National Committee to do the same for its joint victory fund, an account that would benefit the nominee. Obama does accept money from state lobbyists and from family members of federal lobbyists.
You said: According to an April 2007 Gallup poll, most Americans would prefer that presidential candidates not take public financing for their campaigns, and most think private financing is the best way to fund a presidential campaign.
4. CATASTROPHE FUND
McCain: Opposes a national catastrophe fund as a way to help stabilize homeowners insurance premiums. Says he will work with governors of the most affected states to pool insurance risks against hurricanes. He says broad pooling will improve prices and effective regulation can support the quality policies needed by homeowners and businesses.
Obama: Supports the creation of a national catastrophic insurance program as a way to help stabilize homeowners insurance premiums. He co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that would spread the risk of hurricanes and other natural disasters to provide homeowners some relief, and pledged to sign the bill into law as president.
You said: Public opinion has not been measured by a major independent polling organization. A bill to establish a national fund has passed the House, but not the Senate, and President Bush has said he will veto the legislation if it does pass. The congressional budget office estimated the fund would cost taxpayers $25 billion annually.
5. CUBA
McCain: Ease restrictions on Cuba once the United States is "confident that the transition to a free and open democracy is being made."
Obama: Ease restrictions on family-related travel and on money Cuban-Americans want to send their families in Cuba. Open to meeting new Cuban leader Raul Castro without preconditions. Ease trade embargo if Havana "begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change."
You said: According to the 2007 Florida International University's Cuba Poll, approximately 65 percent of the South Florida Cuban-American community would support a dialogue with the Cuban government.
6. DEATH PENALTY
McCain: Has supported expansion of the federal death penalty and limits on appeals.
Obama: Supports death penalty for crimes where the "community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage." As Illinois lawmaker, wrote bill mandating videotaping of interrogations and confessions in capital cases and sought other changes in system that had produced wrongful convictions.
You said: According to Quinnipiac University poll in July, 63 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder.
7. ECONOMY
McCain: On Friday, said the Federal Reserve should stop bailing out failing financial institutions. As president, would create a Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Although he has generally championed deregulation throughout his career in the Senate, he now calls for a commission to find out what went wrong in the financial markets and how to better regulate them. Supported legislation in 1999 that tore down Depression-era legal walls separating commercial banks, investment banks and insurers from one another. President Clinton, a Democrat, signed it into law.
Obama: On Friday, said he supports giving "broad authority" to the Treasury Department to deal with credit crisis, but says he's not giving details of his own plans in order to avoid roiling the markets further. Says a recovery plan should not reward reckless business leaders. Refused to put a price tag on a plan he would support, but said it would not bar him from advocating middle-class tax cuts.
You said: A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll this month found the economic problems that most concern Americans are the price of gasoline (35 percent), the availability of jobs (28 percent), mortgages and home values (18 percent) and taxes (18 percent). The economy, the poll found, had replaced the Iraq War as the most important issue voters would weigh in voting for a presidential candidate: 31 percent cited the Iraq War in June 2007, but only 13 percent said so in September.
8. EDUCATION
McCain: He is not proposing a federal voucher program that would provide public money for private school tuition, in contrast to his proposed $5 billion voucher plan in 2000. Only proposes expansion of District of Columbia's voucher program. Sees No Child Left Behind law as vehicle for increasing opportunities for parents to choose schools. Proposes more money for community college education.
Obama: An $18 billion plan that would encourage, but not mandate, universal pre-kindergarten. Teacher pay raises tied to, although not based solely on, test scores. An overhaul of No Child Left Behind law to better measure student progress, make room for non-core subjects such as music and art and be less punitive toward failing schools. A tax credit to pay up to $4,000 of college costs for students who perform 100 hours of community service a year. Obama would pay for part of his plan by ending corporate tax deductions for CEO pay. Has backed away from his proposal to save money for education by delaying NASA's manned moon and Mars missions.
You said: According to an Associated Press poll in June, most Americans would be willing to pay more in taxes if the money were spent on hiring more teachers and improving public school facilities.
9. ENERGY
McCain: Favors increased offshore drilling, but is opposed to drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Argues that prohibiting more drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf stands in the way of energy exploration and production. Thinks states, including Florida, should be able to decide whether to expand drilling off their coasts. Would use federal money to help build 45 nuclear power reactors by 2030. Proposed suspending the 18-cent a gallon federal gasoline tax but idea got no traction. Global warming plan would increase energy costs.
Obama: Now would consider limited increase in offshore drilling, but opposes drilling in Arctic reserve. Proposes windfall-profit tax on largest oil companies to pay for energy rebate of up to $1,000. Opposed suspension of the gas tax. Proposed releasing 70 million barrels of oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve to boost supplies. Global warming plan would increase energy costs. Supports forcing oil and gas companies to drill on the 68 million acres of already leased areas, but remains skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term. Says care must be taken to protect Florida's coastal resources and the tourism industry they support.
You said: A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll in August found most Americans favor increased offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, and most favor drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. A Mason-Dixon poll in August found 61 percent of Floridians favor drilling for oil and natural gas off the state's coast.
10. EVERGLADES
McCain: Expressed support this spring for Everglades restoration and his commitment to doing so as president. He missed the vote on the issue and later urged President Bush to veto a broader $23 billion water bill that authorized $2 billion for Everglades clean-up. McCain said that was because it included millions of dollars for other projects he considered wasteful.
Obama: Says he supports the restoration of the Everglades and as president will make this project a top environmental priority. He supported the Water Resources Development Act, which would have allocated $2 billion in federal funding to help Florida restore the Everglades.
You said: Public opinion has not been measured by a major independent polling organization. As conceived in 2000, the restoration plan was to be a 50-50 split between the state and federal governments. A bill to have the federal government spend about $23 billion on water projects, including $2 billion on the Everglades, passed Congress, was vetoed by President Bush, then overridden by Congress.
11. GAY MARRIAGE
McCain: Opposes constitutional amendment to ban it. Says same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into legal agreements for insurance and similar benefits, and states should decide about marriage. Supports the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages and gives states the right to refuse to recognize such marriages.
Obama: Opposes constitutional amendment to ban it. Supports civil unions, says states should decide about marriage. Switched positions in 2004 and now supports repeal of Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages and gives states the right to refuse to recognize such marriages.
You said: According to an Associated Press poll this month, 49 percent of Americans think the federal government should not give legal recognition to same-sex marriages, and 47 percent said it should.
12. GLOBAL WARMING
McCain: Broke with President Bush on global warming. Led Senate effort to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Favors plan that would see greenhouse gas emissions cut by 66 percent by 2050.
Obama: Ten-year, $150 billion program to produce "climate friendly" energy supplies that he'd pay for with a carbon auction requiring businesses to bid competitively for the right to pollute and aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. Joined McCain in sponsoring earlier legislation that would set mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Increase federal fuel economy requirements beyond 35 mpg.
You said: According to a Gallup poll in March, most Americans worry about global warming and think the effects of it are already happening, but do not think it will pose serious threats to their way of life during their lifetime.
13. GUN CONTROL
McCain: Voted against ban on assault-type weapons but in favor of requiring background checks at gun shows. Voted to shield gun manufacturers and dealers from civil suits. "I believe the Second Amendment ought to be preserved, which means no gun control."
Obama: Voted to leave gun manufacturers and dealers open to suit. Also, as Illinois state lawmaker, supported ban on all forms of semiautomatic weapons and tighter state restrictions generally on firearms.
You said: According to a Quinnipiac University poll in July, most Americans support stricter gun control laws but oppose a constitutional ban on individual gun ownership.
14. HEALTH CARE
McCain: $2,500 refundable tax credit for individuals, $5,000 for families, to make health insurance more affordable. No mandate for universal coverage. In gaining the tax credit, workers could not deduct the portion of their workplace health insurance paid by their employers.
Obama: Mandatory coverage for children, no mandate for adults. Aim for universal coverage by requiring employers to share costs of insuring workers and by offering coverage similar to that in plan for federal employees. Says package would cost up to $65 billion a year after unspecified savings from making system more efficient. Raise taxes on wealthier families to pay the cost.
You said: An ABC News/Washington Post poll in June found most Americans think it is important to provide health care coverage for all, even if it means raising taxes.
15. HOUSING
McCain: Open to helping homeowners facing foreclosure if they are "legitimate borrowers" and not speculators.
Obama: Tax credit covering 10 percent of annual mortgage-interest payments for "struggling homeowners," scoring system for consumers to compare mortgages, a fund for mortgage-fraud victims, new penalties for mortgage fraud and aid to state and local governments stung by housing crisis.
You said: According to a Gallup poll in March, most Americans favor having the federal government take steps to prevent people from losing their homes because they can't pay their mortgages. In a breakdown, most Republicans oppose federal intervention and most Democrats and independents favor intervention.
16. IMMIGRATION
McCain: Sponsored 2006 bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to stay in the United States, work and apply to become legal residents after learning English, paying fines and back taxes and clearing a background check. Now says he would secure the border first. Supports border fence.
Obama: Voted for 2006 bill offering legal status to illegal immigrants subject to conditions, including English proficiency and payment of back taxes and fines. Voted for border fence.
You said: According to an Associated Press poll in April, 49 percent of Americans favor building a fence along the border between the United States and Mexico, and 48 percent oppose it. However, a majority of all respondents are not confident it would reduce the number of illegal immigrants.
17. IRAN
McCain: Favors tougher sanctions, opposes direct high-level talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Obama: Initially said he would meet Ahmadinejad without preconditions, now says he's not sure. "Ahmadinejad is the right person to meet with right now." Says direct diplomacy with Iranian leaders would give the United States more credibility to press for tougher international sanctions. Says he would intensify diplomatic pressure on Tehran before Israel feels the need to take unilateral military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.
You said: According to a Gallup poll in July, Americans ranked Iran as the country's greatest enemy (25 percent), followed by Iraq (22 percent), China (14 percent) and North Korea (9 percent).
18. IRAQ
McCain: Opposes scheduling a troop withdrawal, saying latest strategy is succeeding. Supported decision to go to war, but was early critic of the manner in which administration prosecuted it. Was key backer of the troop increase. Willing to have permanent U.S. peacekeeping forces in Iraq.
Obama: Spoke against war at start, opposed troop increase. Voted against one major military spending bill in May 2007; otherwise voted in favor of money to support the war. Says his plan would complete withdrawal of combat troops in 16 months. Initially had said a timetable for completing withdrawal would be irresponsible without knowing what facts he'd face in office.
You said: According to an Associated Press poll this month, most Americans are in favor of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
19. SOCIAL SECURITY
McCain: "Nothing's off the table" when it comes to saving Social Security.
Obama: Would raise payroll tax on wealthiest by applying it to portion of income over $250,000. Now, payroll tax is applied to income up to $102,000. Rules out raising the retirement age for benefits.
You said: According to a CBS News poll last October, most Americans think the financial situation of Social Security is threatened, with 30 percent saying it's a crisis.
20. STEM CELL RESEARCH
McCain: Supports relaxing federal restrictions on financing of embryonic stem cell research.
Obama: Supports relaxing federal restrictions on financing of embryonic stem cell research.
You said: An April 2007 Gallup poll found a plurality of Americans, 38 percent, think the federal government should ease restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research.
21. TAXES
McCain: Pledged not to raise taxes, then equivocated, saying nothing can be ruled out in negotiating compromises to keep Social Security solvent. Twice opposed Bush's tax cuts, at first because he said they were tilted to the wealthiest and again because of the unknown costs of Iraq war. Now says those tax cuts, expiring in 2010, should be permanent. Proposes cutting corporate tax rate to 25 percent. Promises balanced budget in first term, says that is unlikely in his first year.
Obama: Raise income taxes on wealthiest and their capital gains and dividends taxes. Raise corporate taxes. $80 billion in tax breaks mainly for poor workers and elderly, including tripling Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credit for larger families. Eliminate tax-filing requirement for older workers making less than $50,000. A mortgage-interest credit could be used by lower-income homeowners who do not take the mortgage-interest deduction because they do not itemize their taxes.
You said: In a Gallup poll in April, 52 percent of Americans think the amount of federal income tax they have to pay is too high. The poll found most Americans think lower-income people are paying too much, middle-income people are paying their fair share and upper-income people are paying too little.
22. TRADE
McCain: Free trade advocate.
Obama: Seek to renegotiate North American Free Trade Agreement to strengthen enforcement of labor and environmental standards. In 2004 Senate campaign, called for "enforcing existing trade agreements," not amending them.
You said: A Pew Research Center poll in April found that a plurality of Americans, 48 percent, thinks the effects of free trade agreements are bad for the country.
Sources: The Associated Press, Tribune research by Michael A. Messano, and Tribune reporter Billy House in Washington
McCain Secretly Plans New Tax on Middle Class
September 16th, 2008
John McCain should not be traveling in a bus called the Straight Talk Express. No, that equivocating multimillionaire who kowtows constantly to the wealthy should be riding in one of those private, gilded railroad cars.
That would be symbolically appropriate as well since he is trying to railroad the middle class on taxes.
He is actually proposing a brand new tax on the middle class.
This has gotten so little attention it is astounding. And frightening, frankly, as television reporters and commentators focus instead on inane incidents like the lipstick-on-pigs remark.
McCain intends to tax workers for the value of health insurance that they receive from their employers.
Really.
Although it’s not included in the description of his plan on his web site. It is, however, on the site of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that specializes in health policy.
I understand McCain neglecting to mention this new tax on the middle class. If I were proposing this shocking tax increase, one that will cost the average American worker an additional $110 a month in taxes out of the blue, I would conceal it as best I could too.
So let me provide you with some clarity. This comes from the Kaiser Foundation evaluation of the McCain and Barack Obama health plans. It says McCain would “reform the tax code to eliminate the exclusion of the value of health insurance plans offered by employers from workers’ taxable income.”
The value of the typical plan provided by an employer to a family is $12,106, of which the employer pays $8,824, and the worker pays the remaining $3,282. The median household income is $44,389, which places most American families in the 15 percent income tax bracket.
McCain wants to add the employer’s cost — an additional $8,824 — to that middle class family’s income, then tax it. The hit to the average family is 15 percent of the McCain-added income — $1,323 more in income taxes.
This new tax would affect the 158 million Americans who are insured through their employer.
Right now you should be yelling, “What?” And demanding to know why you haven’t heard about this before. That is because the media keeps focusing on McCain’s proposed health care tax credits — $5,000 for families and $2,500 for individuals.
McCain certainly wants the attention to stay on those credits. It sounds so much better to be giving families tax credits than tax increases. But what you need to know about those tax credits is that they don’t go to you – they’re to be sent to the insurance companies. You never get actual money in your pocket. McCain says it right on his web site: “the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider.”
So if you choose to remain with your employer-based insurance, there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever see any benefit from that $5,000 payment. In addition, giving young healthy workers $2,500 to buy insurance on their own, where it won’t be taxed, will encourage them to leave employer-based plans, quickly raising the costs for everyone remaining and thus eliminating benefits of the tax credits. Finally, the tax credits rise only at the rate of inflation, not the vastly faster rate of medical costs, so, again, their value will quickly erode, according to several studies, including one released last week by health economists from Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan and published in the journal “Health Affairs.”
Still, somehow, no one mentions the new tax part of McCain’s plan. Even the credits don’t sound so great after you hear the whole story.
John McCain wants to kill employer-provided health insurance. He wants every American to go out on his or her own and try to buy insurance. He says that on his site if you read between the doubletalk. He says, for example, “The key to health care reform is to restore control to the patients themselves.. . .Health care. . . should not be limited by where you work.”
Here’s the way the New York Times put it in an April 30 story, in which there was only straight talk: “Mr. McCain’s health care plan would shift the emphasis from insurance provided by employers to insurance bought by individuals.”
Since 2000, the percentage of employers offering health insurance has declined from 69 percent to 60 percent.
Many more companies would dump their plans as soon as the federal government offered tax credits to individuals who bought their own. Corporations would disingenuously justify this abandonment the same way McCain does — by saying workers would get the advantage of carrying their individual plans from job to job as they move around the country.
They won’t mention the cost, however. To buy plans comparable to what workers now receive from employers, families are going to have to shell out a lot more money from their own pockets.
The math is simple. To buy the $12,106 plan with the $5,000 family tax credit, a worker is going to have to cough up an additional $3,824. (That is the $8,824 the employer previously paid toward the plan minus the $5,000 credit.)
That is, assuming, of course, that you can get coverage. Insurance companies are notorious for rejecting anyone with pre-existing conditions, including acne, being overweight and diabetes.
John McCain himself would likely be unable to find an insurer on the private market since he’s had the most serious form of skin cancer, melanoma, more than once.
But he doesn’t have to worry because, as a U.S. senator, he’s covered by a government plan. And he’s certainly not proposing eliminating that!
McCain could resolve the exclusion problem by requiring insurance companies to accept people with pre-existing conditions. But he doesn’t. Instead, he suggests setting up a system in which states would become responsible making sure those people get insurance. He says he won’t shift the costs to the states, but what’s the chance of that? He’s establishing a pool of all of those rejected by insurance companies – thus those with the highest risk. And he’s telling the states to deal with the problem that creates.
Meanwhile, insurance companies would be left to profit big time by providing insurance for the young, the healthy and everyone who doesn’t have anything at all wrong with them. What a deal!
He claims this plan will increase competition and drive down prices – as if an individual worker, on his own, without any real knowledge of the system, has the negotiating power of a major corporation with full-time experts on its staff whose only function is to buy insurance for a pool of hundreds or thousands of workers.
While McCain is planning to increase your taxes if you’ve got insurance at work or to force you into the insurance market at a huge financial loss, he intends, at the same time, to cut taxes on corporations — you know, like those giant oil companies that just raked in the largest quarterly profits of any firm ever in the history of mankind. And he plans to permanently retain those income tax cuts his friend George W. Bush gave to the rich, because, of course, the wealthiest Americans, like McCain and Bush, need a break today.
In the meantime, McCain is traveling to states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, hard hit by the economic devastation caused by eight years of Bush administration fiscal policy failures. At each stop, McCain is sucking up the middle class – as if his administration wouldn’t cost workers dearly.
He needs to stop lying to America’s workers.
In fact, maybe Mr. Straight-Talk-Express needs to slap on some lipstick. Because sometimes the truth is a bitch.
Permalink | Comment on this story (9 posted)
By United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under Politics, Healthcare .
September 16th, 2008
John McCain should not be traveling in a bus called the Straight Talk Express. No, that equivocating multimillionaire who kowtows constantly to the wealthy should be riding in one of those private, gilded railroad cars.
That would be symbolically appropriate as well since he is trying to railroad the middle class on taxes.
He is actually proposing a brand new tax on the middle class.
This has gotten so little attention it is astounding. And frightening, frankly, as television reporters and commentators focus instead on inane incidents like the lipstick-on-pigs remark.
McCain intends to tax workers for the value of health insurance that they receive from their employers.
Really.
Although it’s not included in the description of his plan on his web site. It is, however, on the site of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that specializes in health policy.
I understand McCain neglecting to mention this new tax on the middle class. If I were proposing this shocking tax increase, one that will cost the average American worker an additional $110 a month in taxes out of the blue, I would conceal it as best I could too.
So let me provide you with some clarity. This comes from the Kaiser Foundation evaluation of the McCain and Barack Obama health plans. It says McCain would “reform the tax code to eliminate the exclusion of the value of health insurance plans offered by employers from workers’ taxable income.”
The value of the typical plan provided by an employer to a family is $12,106, of which the employer pays $8,824, and the worker pays the remaining $3,282. The median household income is $44,389, which places most American families in the 15 percent income tax bracket.
McCain wants to add the employer’s cost — an additional $8,824 — to that middle class family’s income, then tax it. The hit to the average family is 15 percent of the McCain-added income — $1,323 more in income taxes.
This new tax would affect the 158 million Americans who are insured through their employer.
Right now you should be yelling, “What?” And demanding to know why you haven’t heard about this before. That is because the media keeps focusing on McCain’s proposed health care tax credits — $5,000 for families and $2,500 for individuals.
McCain certainly wants the attention to stay on those credits. It sounds so much better to be giving families tax credits than tax increases. But what you need to know about those tax credits is that they don’t go to you – they’re to be sent to the insurance companies. You never get actual money in your pocket. McCain says it right on his web site: “the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider.”
So if you choose to remain with your employer-based insurance, there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever see any benefit from that $5,000 payment. In addition, giving young healthy workers $2,500 to buy insurance on their own, where it won’t be taxed, will encourage them to leave employer-based plans, quickly raising the costs for everyone remaining and thus eliminating benefits of the tax credits. Finally, the tax credits rise only at the rate of inflation, not the vastly faster rate of medical costs, so, again, their value will quickly erode, according to several studies, including one released last week by health economists from Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan and published in the journal “Health Affairs.”
Still, somehow, no one mentions the new tax part of McCain’s plan. Even the credits don’t sound so great after you hear the whole story.
John McCain wants to kill employer-provided health insurance. He wants every American to go out on his or her own and try to buy insurance. He says that on his site if you read between the doubletalk. He says, for example, “The key to health care reform is to restore control to the patients themselves.. . .Health care. . . should not be limited by where you work.”
Here’s the way the New York Times put it in an April 30 story, in which there was only straight talk: “Mr. McCain’s health care plan would shift the emphasis from insurance provided by employers to insurance bought by individuals.”
Since 2000, the percentage of employers offering health insurance has declined from 69 percent to 60 percent.
Many more companies would dump their plans as soon as the federal government offered tax credits to individuals who bought their own. Corporations would disingenuously justify this abandonment the same way McCain does — by saying workers would get the advantage of carrying their individual plans from job to job as they move around the country.
They won’t mention the cost, however. To buy plans comparable to what workers now receive from employers, families are going to have to shell out a lot more money from their own pockets.
The math is simple. To buy the $12,106 plan with the $5,000 family tax credit, a worker is going to have to cough up an additional $3,824. (That is the $8,824 the employer previously paid toward the plan minus the $5,000 credit.)
That is, assuming, of course, that you can get coverage. Insurance companies are notorious for rejecting anyone with pre-existing conditions, including acne, being overweight and diabetes.
John McCain himself would likely be unable to find an insurer on the private market since he’s had the most serious form of skin cancer, melanoma, more than once.
But he doesn’t have to worry because, as a U.S. senator, he’s covered by a government plan. And he’s certainly not proposing eliminating that!
McCain could resolve the exclusion problem by requiring insurance companies to accept people with pre-existing conditions. But he doesn’t. Instead, he suggests setting up a system in which states would become responsible making sure those people get insurance. He says he won’t shift the costs to the states, but what’s the chance of that? He’s establishing a pool of all of those rejected by insurance companies – thus those with the highest risk. And he’s telling the states to deal with the problem that creates.
Meanwhile, insurance companies would be left to profit big time by providing insurance for the young, the healthy and everyone who doesn’t have anything at all wrong with them. What a deal!
He claims this plan will increase competition and drive down prices – as if an individual worker, on his own, without any real knowledge of the system, has the negotiating power of a major corporation with full-time experts on its staff whose only function is to buy insurance for a pool of hundreds or thousands of workers.
While McCain is planning to increase your taxes if you’ve got insurance at work or to force you into the insurance market at a huge financial loss, he intends, at the same time, to cut taxes on corporations — you know, like those giant oil companies that just raked in the largest quarterly profits of any firm ever in the history of mankind. And he plans to permanently retain those income tax cuts his friend George W. Bush gave to the rich, because, of course, the wealthiest Americans, like McCain and Bush, need a break today.
In the meantime, McCain is traveling to states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, hard hit by the economic devastation caused by eight years of Bush administration fiscal policy failures. At each stop, McCain is sucking up the middle class – as if his administration wouldn’t cost workers dearly.
He needs to stop lying to America’s workers.
In fact, maybe Mr. Straight-Talk-Express needs to slap on some lipstick. Because sometimes the truth is a bitch.
Permalink | Comment on this story (9 posted)
By United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under Politics, Healthcare .
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Double Standard
THURSDAY SEPT. 18, 2008 05:07 EDT
What does Sarah Palin have to hide in her Yahoo e-mails?
Some adolescent criminal (in mentality if not age) yesterday hacked into a Yahoo account used by Sarah Palin for both personal and business email, and various sites -- including Gawker -- posted some of the emails online. While the bottom layers of the right-wing noise machine (the kind that make you run for the shower after reading them) are moronically describing the hacker(s) as "liberals" and "left-wing," nobody actually has any idea of their identity, let alone their political leanings (if any). The available evidence strongly suggests the hacker is loosely part of an assorted band of Internet pranksters ranging from the juvenile to the psychopathic. Conventional political agendas ("Vote Obama!") don't exactly appear to be their interest. Either way, whoever did this committed a serious crime -- it's rather revolting to see screen shots of someone's inbox splattered across the Internet -- and the hacker should be apprehended and prosecuted.
Still, it's really a wondrous, and repugnant, sight to behold the Bush-following lynch mobs on the Right melodramatically defend the Virtues of Privacy and the Rule of Law. These, of course, are the same authoritarians who have cheered on every last expansion of the Lawless Surveillance State of the last eight years -- put their fists in the air with glee as the Federal Government seized the power to listen to innocent Americans' telephone calls; read our emails; obtain our banking, credit card, and library records; and create vast data bases of every call we make and receive and every prescription we fill and every instance of travel and other vast categories of information that remain largely unknown -- all without warrants or oversight of any kind and often in clear violation of the law.
The same political faction which today is prancing around in full-throated fits of melodramatic hysteria and Victim mode (their absolute favorite state of being) over the sanctity of Sarah Palin's privacy are the same ones who scoffed with indifference as it was revealed during the Bush era that the FBI systematically abused its Patriot Act powers to gather and store private information on thousands of innocent Americans; that Homeland Security officials illegally infiltrated and monitored peaceful, law-abiding left-wing groups devoted to peace activism, civil liberties and other political agendas disliked by the state; and that the telephone calls of journalists and lawyers have been illegally and repeatedly monitored.
And the same Surveillance State Worshipper leading today's screeching -- Michelle Malkin -- spent the last several years deriding those who objected to the President's illegal spying program as "privacy crusaders" and "constitutional absolutists" and "civil liberties absolutists".
Shouldn't these same people be standing up today and insisting that if Sarah Palin has done nothing wrong, then she should have nothing to hide? If Sarah Palin isn't committing crimes or consorting with The Terrorists, then why would she care if we can monitor her emails? And if private companies such as Yahoo can access her emails -- as they can -- then she doesn't really have any "privacy" anyway, so what's the big deal if others read through her communications, too? Isn't that the authoritarian idiocy that has been spewed since The Day That 9/11 Changed Everything -- beginning with the Constitution -- to justify vesting secret and unchecked surveillance powers in our Great and Good Leaders?
And then, even better, there is the righteous outrage over the fact that this hacker engaged in what they call [spat with whispered contempt] . . . . "illegal surveillance." Why, whoever broke into Palin's Yahoo account broke the law, and we all know that that can't be tolerated! Bill O'Reilly last night called for the FBI to arrest not only those who did the hacking, but also those who own and manage Gawker ("a despicable, slimy, scummy website"), simply for posting the emails. This is what O'Reilly said:
It's a felony -- a federal crime -- also a crime in Alaska -- to hack into people's private correspondence . . . We have no privacy left in this country anymore. The website knows the law, and says "you know -- I'm going to do it anyway. I dare you to come get me."
Indeed. What kind of grotesque monster would invade people's private communications even though they know it's illegal to do that? It's almost like this despicable criminal-hacker did something like this -- from Scott Horton's Harpers interview yesterday with The Washington Post's Barton Gellman:
For the next three months, Addington and Cheney tried to suppress a growing legal insurgency. Andy Card acknowledged to me that Bush was out of the loop. By early March, Jack Goldsmith ruled that parts of the [NSA warrantless eavesdropping] program were unlawful. Ashcroft and Comey backed him. . . .The next day, Thursday March 11, Bush renewed the program anyway. He signed new language–again written by Addington -- declaring that he, the president, was the ultimate authority on what was legal.
Notably, the people whose communications George Bush was illegally intercepting for years (with the virtually unanimous support of the authoritarian Right) were private citizens who -- unlike Sarah Palin -- had done nothing to cede their privacy, and who had not been found by any court of law to have done anything wrong or even to be suspected of wrongdoing. As despicable as I personally find the Palin hacking to be, it pales in comparison to the Bush crimes, because when someone runs for President or Vice President, they voluntarily cede vast amounts of their personal privacy, which is why they're required to disclose things like their medical records, tax returns, assocational history, and other financial documents -- all information that private Americans, at least in theory in the pre-Bush era, had the right to keep private. Those subjected to Bush's illegal surveillance programs have done nothing to cede their privacy -- other than live in a country which has decided to abolish most privacy protections.
Last night, O'Reilly angrily lamented that "we have no privacy left in this country anymore." That's the very same Bill O'Reilly who went on television last October to gravely warn that John Edwards was a "Far Leftist" and detailed all the dark things that would happen in America if Edwards were elected President:
Would you support President John Edwards? Remember, no coerced interrogation, civilian lawyers in courts for captured overseas terrorists, no branding the Iranian guards terrorists, and no phone surveillance without a specific warrant.
And then there's the McCain campaign, protesting this "shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law" even though the GOP nominee has supported every last expansion of surveillance power and stood by the President's every last violation of our surveillance laws. I wonder if the laws which the Palin hacker violated are similar to the federal statute that makes it a felony -- punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each offense -- to eavesdrop on the communications of Americans without warrants, or the multiple statutes (.pdf) which expressly outlaw the telecoms from allowing government spying on their customers without warrants from a court?
Maybe the hacker who invaded Sarah Palin's emails can hire lobbyists to pour money into the campaign coffers of Jay Rockefeller and Steny Hoyer so that they'll meet with Dick Cheney -- again -- and sit together and write a law to retroactively immunize him for the hacking. After all, this country has very significant problems that we need to fix. We need to look forward, not get bogged down in nasty partisan wars of the past. Besides, wasn't the hacker well-intentioned, acting as a good patriotic citizen, concerned about credible and obviously newsworthy reports from McClatchy that Sarah Palin -- just like the GOP administration she wants to succeed -- has been illegally using her personal email accounts to conduct business in order to evade subpoenas? What's a little lawbreaking among friends when the criminals can justify it afterwards with some good purpose?
All these privacy fetishists and (to use Joe Klein's term) "civil liberties extremists" screeching today over Sarah Palin's "privacy" need to get some sense of proportion. If Sarah Palin has nothing to hide, if she's not a Terrorist, why would she mind anyone going through her emails? And just because these things -- those things that some overly-earnest people call "statutes" or "laws" or whatever the new trendy Leftist term for them is today -- say that you can't invade people's private communications without committing a crime, does anyone other than shrill Leftists really take that seriously, really think that someone who does what the law says you can't do should get in trouble or -- more absurdly still -- be arrested? Isn't it time -- just like David Broder and so many other of our Elite Guardians have directed -- that we stop criminalizing our politics?
-- Glenn Greenwald
What does Sarah Palin have to hide in her Yahoo e-mails?
Some adolescent criminal (in mentality if not age) yesterday hacked into a Yahoo account used by Sarah Palin for both personal and business email, and various sites -- including Gawker -- posted some of the emails online. While the bottom layers of the right-wing noise machine (the kind that make you run for the shower after reading them) are moronically describing the hacker(s) as "liberals" and "left-wing," nobody actually has any idea of their identity, let alone their political leanings (if any). The available evidence strongly suggests the hacker is loosely part of an assorted band of Internet pranksters ranging from the juvenile to the psychopathic. Conventional political agendas ("Vote Obama!") don't exactly appear to be their interest. Either way, whoever did this committed a serious crime -- it's rather revolting to see screen shots of someone's inbox splattered across the Internet -- and the hacker should be apprehended and prosecuted.
Still, it's really a wondrous, and repugnant, sight to behold the Bush-following lynch mobs on the Right melodramatically defend the Virtues of Privacy and the Rule of Law. These, of course, are the same authoritarians who have cheered on every last expansion of the Lawless Surveillance State of the last eight years -- put their fists in the air with glee as the Federal Government seized the power to listen to innocent Americans' telephone calls; read our emails; obtain our banking, credit card, and library records; and create vast data bases of every call we make and receive and every prescription we fill and every instance of travel and other vast categories of information that remain largely unknown -- all without warrants or oversight of any kind and often in clear violation of the law.
The same political faction which today is prancing around in full-throated fits of melodramatic hysteria and Victim mode (their absolute favorite state of being) over the sanctity of Sarah Palin's privacy are the same ones who scoffed with indifference as it was revealed during the Bush era that the FBI systematically abused its Patriot Act powers to gather and store private information on thousands of innocent Americans; that Homeland Security officials illegally infiltrated and monitored peaceful, law-abiding left-wing groups devoted to peace activism, civil liberties and other political agendas disliked by the state; and that the telephone calls of journalists and lawyers have been illegally and repeatedly monitored.
And the same Surveillance State Worshipper leading today's screeching -- Michelle Malkin -- spent the last several years deriding those who objected to the President's illegal spying program as "privacy crusaders" and "constitutional absolutists" and "civil liberties absolutists".
Shouldn't these same people be standing up today and insisting that if Sarah Palin has done nothing wrong, then she should have nothing to hide? If Sarah Palin isn't committing crimes or consorting with The Terrorists, then why would she care if we can monitor her emails? And if private companies such as Yahoo can access her emails -- as they can -- then she doesn't really have any "privacy" anyway, so what's the big deal if others read through her communications, too? Isn't that the authoritarian idiocy that has been spewed since The Day That 9/11 Changed Everything -- beginning with the Constitution -- to justify vesting secret and unchecked surveillance powers in our Great and Good Leaders?
And then, even better, there is the righteous outrage over the fact that this hacker engaged in what they call [spat with whispered contempt] . . . . "illegal surveillance." Why, whoever broke into Palin's Yahoo account broke the law, and we all know that that can't be tolerated! Bill O'Reilly last night called for the FBI to arrest not only those who did the hacking, but also those who own and manage Gawker ("a despicable, slimy, scummy website"), simply for posting the emails. This is what O'Reilly said:
It's a felony -- a federal crime -- also a crime in Alaska -- to hack into people's private correspondence . . . We have no privacy left in this country anymore. The website knows the law, and says "you know -- I'm going to do it anyway. I dare you to come get me."
Indeed. What kind of grotesque monster would invade people's private communications even though they know it's illegal to do that? It's almost like this despicable criminal-hacker did something like this -- from Scott Horton's Harpers interview yesterday with The Washington Post's Barton Gellman:
For the next three months, Addington and Cheney tried to suppress a growing legal insurgency. Andy Card acknowledged to me that Bush was out of the loop. By early March, Jack Goldsmith ruled that parts of the [NSA warrantless eavesdropping] program were unlawful. Ashcroft and Comey backed him. . . .The next day, Thursday March 11, Bush renewed the program anyway. He signed new language–again written by Addington -- declaring that he, the president, was the ultimate authority on what was legal.
Notably, the people whose communications George Bush was illegally intercepting for years (with the virtually unanimous support of the authoritarian Right) were private citizens who -- unlike Sarah Palin -- had done nothing to cede their privacy, and who had not been found by any court of law to have done anything wrong or even to be suspected of wrongdoing. As despicable as I personally find the Palin hacking to be, it pales in comparison to the Bush crimes, because when someone runs for President or Vice President, they voluntarily cede vast amounts of their personal privacy, which is why they're required to disclose things like their medical records, tax returns, assocational history, and other financial documents -- all information that private Americans, at least in theory in the pre-Bush era, had the right to keep private. Those subjected to Bush's illegal surveillance programs have done nothing to cede their privacy -- other than live in a country which has decided to abolish most privacy protections.
Last night, O'Reilly angrily lamented that "we have no privacy left in this country anymore." That's the very same Bill O'Reilly who went on television last October to gravely warn that John Edwards was a "Far Leftist" and detailed all the dark things that would happen in America if Edwards were elected President:
Would you support President John Edwards? Remember, no coerced interrogation, civilian lawyers in courts for captured overseas terrorists, no branding the Iranian guards terrorists, and no phone surveillance without a specific warrant.
And then there's the McCain campaign, protesting this "shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law" even though the GOP nominee has supported every last expansion of surveillance power and stood by the President's every last violation of our surveillance laws. I wonder if the laws which the Palin hacker violated are similar to the federal statute that makes it a felony -- punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each offense -- to eavesdrop on the communications of Americans without warrants, or the multiple statutes (.pdf) which expressly outlaw the telecoms from allowing government spying on their customers without warrants from a court?
Maybe the hacker who invaded Sarah Palin's emails can hire lobbyists to pour money into the campaign coffers of Jay Rockefeller and Steny Hoyer so that they'll meet with Dick Cheney -- again -- and sit together and write a law to retroactively immunize him for the hacking. After all, this country has very significant problems that we need to fix. We need to look forward, not get bogged down in nasty partisan wars of the past. Besides, wasn't the hacker well-intentioned, acting as a good patriotic citizen, concerned about credible and obviously newsworthy reports from McClatchy that Sarah Palin -- just like the GOP administration she wants to succeed -- has been illegally using her personal email accounts to conduct business in order to evade subpoenas? What's a little lawbreaking among friends when the criminals can justify it afterwards with some good purpose?
All these privacy fetishists and (to use Joe Klein's term) "civil liberties extremists" screeching today over Sarah Palin's "privacy" need to get some sense of proportion. If Sarah Palin has nothing to hide, if she's not a Terrorist, why would she mind anyone going through her emails? And just because these things -- those things that some overly-earnest people call "statutes" or "laws" or whatever the new trendy Leftist term for them is today -- say that you can't invade people's private communications without committing a crime, does anyone other than shrill Leftists really take that seriously, really think that someone who does what the law says you can't do should get in trouble or -- more absurdly still -- be arrested? Isn't it time -- just like David Broder and so many other of our Elite Guardians have directed -- that we stop criminalizing our politics?
-- Glenn Greenwald
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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