Inflation up again, consumer spending drops

So you mean the "rebate" checks are finished already? No! I can't believe it! Let's face it America, we're a nation of whiners. Just imagine what a McCain/Gramm economy would look like in four years.

U.S. personal income tumbled unexpectedly in July and spending slowed as the effects of government stimulus wore off and an inflation measure was at a 17-year high, a government report released on Friday showed.

Personal income fell 0.7 percent in the month, the sharpest decline since a 2.3 percent plunge in August 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, the Commerce Department said. Analysts were expecting July income to stay flat.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of national economic activity, rose 0.2 percent, as expected, the slimmest gain since February, after gaining 0.6 percent in June. However, inflation-adjusted spending dropped by 0.4 percent, the sharpest slide in four years.

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Mayor Nagin orders mandatory evacuation from "the mother of all storms"

Mandatory evacuation from a storm that is "worse than a Katrina":

Mayor Ray Nagin late Saturday warned that Gustav is the "mother of all storms" and ordered a mandatory evacuation for the West Bank of New Orleans for 8 a.m. Sunday and noon for the East Bank.

"We want 100 percent evacuation," said Nagin. "It has the potential to impact every area of this metropolitan.

Katrina had a footprint of about 400 miles, he said. Gustav is about 900 miles and growing, Nagin said.

"This is worse than a Betsy, worse than a Katrina," Nagin said.

The mayor speculated that Gustav is so fierce Baton Rouge likely will experience 100 mph winds.

This is very, very, very scary. Our thoughts are with all the people of New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast.

Check out this image from NOAA:

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Palin's buddy Pat Buchanan on women

More of the views that apparently attracted McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, to Pat Buchanan:

2007: "The rise of women to power in a civilization is very often the mark of its decline."
-- Pat Buchanan, On The McLaughlin Group, July 6, 2007

1983: "Rail as they will against ‘discrimination,’ women are simply not endowed by nature with the same measures of single-minded ambition and the will to succeed in the fiercely competitive world of Western capitalism…The momma bird builds the nest. So it was, so it ever shall be. Ronald Reagan is not responsible for this; God is."
- Pat Buchanan, Washington Times. November 18, 1983

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So is this what McCain means by putting country first?

"I know the power of the Israeli lobby and the other lobbies, but we need a foreign policy that puts our own country first." - Pat Buchanan, Meet the Press Interview. September 12, 1999.

Buchanan is the guy Sarah Palin, McCain's VP choice, supported for president. Brings a whole new meaning to McCain's slogan of putting country first. Read More......

RNC's sick abortion plan

These people really are sick. And this time they got caught. Read More......

First poll, Palin a bust

From Editor & Publisher. Read More......

Gustav soon to be Category 5 hurricane

UPDATE: McCain is talking about postponing the convention. I don't buy it. I think he's just saying this to look nice and concerned - you know, he CONSIDERED postponing the convention, so it's okay now if they move ahead anyway. Having said that, as I note below, it's very difficult to hold a political convention, with people hooting and hollering, wearing funny hats and swigging down beers, while the TV shows a split screen of a hurricane destroying an American city. Then again, if anyone can celebrate while a hurricane destroys our homes, it's John McCain and the Republicans:



Category 5. Time for the Republicans to drag out a big birthday cake for John McCain at their convention this week. I really am curious as to how the GOP is going to "celebrate" while American cities are getting wiped off the map, again. John McCain was AWOL when Katrina hit New Orleans - in fact, McCain was with George Bush out west sharing a birthday cake. We posted about the outrage at the time. This, the anniversary of Katrina, the anniversary of John McCain's birthday snafu, is a bad time for the GOP to again show America how out of touch they are with anything that happens inside or borders. Let's all remember this photo, still on the White House Web site, of John McCain and his buddy George Bush laughing over a birthday cake as Katrina was quite literally obliterating New Orleans. Read More......

Sarah Palin and children conceived out of wedlock - an uncomfortable question needs to be posed

FOX News' Alan Colmes reports on this same issue, and notes that Sarah Palin's son was born on April 20.

Now a word from religious right leader James Dobson:

"[O]ur conviction is that birth and adoption are the purview of married heterosexual couples. Traditional marriage is God's design for the family and is rooted in biblical truth. When that divine plan is implemented, children have the best opportunity to thrive. That's why public policy as it relates to families must be based not solely on the desires of adults but rather on the needs of children and what is best for society at large." - James Dobson of Focus on the Family, TIME, December 2006

Joe and I discussed this post before writing it. We weren't even sure we were comfortable posting this because, as Democrats and progressives, we don't pass judgment on children born out of wedlock, or their parents. Every child is a gift, and we don't believe it's the government's, or anyone else's, business what you do in your own bedroom.

But the conservative base of the Republican party, the very base that McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, was chosen to woo, does care about legislating your sex life. Though it was 20 years ago, who can forget the infamous Murphy Brown controversy, when then Republican VP Dan Quayle criticized a fictional TV character, Murphy Brown, for having a child out of wedlock. For conservative Christians, aka "values voters," getting pregnant while not married is still severely frowned upon. Remember, it was only 18 months ago that religious right leader James Dobson famously, and publicly, criticized vice presidential daughter Mary Cheney in a column in TIME magazine for having a child out of wedlock. It is exactly Dobson who McCain is wooing with the choice of Palin.

As Joe notes in his post below, pregnancy and birth control - and overall sexual mores - are key issues for conservative voters, and for the Republican party leadership. It is therefore newsworthy, and a legitimate issue, while admittedly somewhat uncomfortable, to inquire as to the practice of those very same issues in Sarah Palin's own life. Let me walk you through the issue:

1. Sarah Palin's first son, Track Palin, was born in April 1989 (we don't have the exact day). Actually now we do, courtesy of FOX News' Alan Colmes. He was born on April 20. For the purposes of this analysis, we will give Sarah Palin the benefit of the doubt and assume that her son was born on April 30, 1989, the longest possible April date from her marriage.

2. Sarah Palin was married on August 29, 1988. She eloped.

3. 38 weeks is the typical human pregnancy.

4. 38 weeks before her son's birthday, April 20, 1989, is July 28, 1988 - i.e., that would be the hypothetical day of conception.

5. If this data is correct, that would mean that Sarah Palin eloped four weeks after her son's conception.

6. Sarah Palin's son could still be legitimate if he was born four weeks premature, AND if he was conceived on the night his parents eloped.

Again, Joe and I aren't very comfortable discussing these kind of issues because, honestly, we don't care when Sarah Palin's son was conceived. But Sarah Palin and John McCain and James Dobson care very much about the conception of your children. James Dobson, the very man McCain is wooing, himself decided that Mary Cheney's out of wedlock conception was worthy of an entire commentary in TIME magazine only 18 months ago. It is at least fair to ask that Sarah Palin meet the James Dobson/Mary Cheney standard, and clarify for James Dobson and values voters everywhere whether her actions match her words. Read More......

We know McCain, Palin and the GOP will reverse Roe v. Wade. They also want Griswold gone. That means birth control.

The traditional media thinks the Palin pick means Roe v. Wade is now part of the presidential debate. It always has been -- McCain wants to reverse Roe (although the punditry often overlooks that extreme view.) The real question isn't Roe. We know how the GOPers feel about that. The bigger issue is birth control. Remember how freaked McCain got when he had to answer a birth control question?

Roe is based on the holding in Griswold v. Connecticut, which held we have constitutional right to privacy. If Roe goes, Griswold is on the chopping block. Griswold overturned a Connecticut law that prevented the use of contraceptives by married couples. That case was decided in 1965. Think about that: 43 years ago, in Connecticut (not Alabama or Utah), married couples were prevented from using contraceptives.

Here's are a couple questions for any reporter who has access to the GOP ticket: Do John McCain and Sarah Palin want to reverse Griswold v. Connecticut? Do John McCain and Sarah Palin want to prohibit any forms of contraception? Do John McCain and Sarah Palin think "the pill" is an abortifacient?

These are important questions.

In case anyone doesn't think that Republicans want to ban the use of contraceptives like the pill, watch this video of Mike Huckabee, who is from the same theocratic wing of the party as Sarah Palin. Huckabee thinks the pill is abortion:



Then read the draft RNC platform with that in mind:

Faithful to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence, we assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life.

For the GOP, the pill is abortion and all abortion must be stopped. Ergo, no pill.

Earlier this month, we did an online chat with Congresswoman Diana DeGette about her new book, "Sex, Science and Stem Cells: Inside the Right Wing Assault on Reason." In the chat, I asked her this question:

I’m interested in the issue of birth control. In the book, you describe the debate about expanding insurance coverage for birth control - an issue that has recently come up in the presidential race. It sounded like Rep. Chris Smith and some of his right wing colleagues really would just prefer to ban birth control. Are there people on Capitol hill who would ban access to contraception?

DeGette gave this response:

There are many examples in my book where far-right members have tried to deny access to birth control. For many years, we gave international HIV/AIDS prevention money to religious organizations which would not provide information about condoms about AIDS prevention. Rep. Smith tried to exclude certain types of birth control methods to be covered in federal employees' insurance plans and exclude birth control pills, IUD's the patch, and others. There are other juicy examples in the book.

As I say in the forward to the book, I have concluded that many powerful politicians want to ban birth control altogether and think we should have some sort of Christian nation (according to their views) where people should be abstinent until marriage, and then only have sex for procreation. I have not arrived at these conclusions lightly.

This is real. And, the American people need to know where McCain and Palin stand. Will any reporter dare to ask them about birth control? Read More......

McCain impressed by Palin's courageous work at the PTA

My sister, Karen, directed me to this quote People Magazine. This says a lot more about John McCain than Sarah Palin:

Sen. McCain, of all the candidates you considered, what drew you to her?

JOHN: Obviously, I found her to be very intelligent and very well-versed on the issues. But I think the important thing was that she's a reformer. She's taken on special interests since she ran for the PTA and the city council and mayor. The courage, I guess, is what most impressed me.

That's what most impressed John McCain. Granted, McCain doesn't really know Palin, but that's still frightening. Knowledge and understanding of all the foreign policy crises to which McCain is always referring -- al Qaeda, Islamo-facists, Iran, Russia, Georgia -- that stuff doesn't really matter if one stands up to the special interests at the Wasilla PTA, according to John McCain.

John McCain showed once again that he doesn't have the mindset to be President. Read More......

Alaska's GOP State Senate President on Palin: "She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?"

Did the McCain campaign do any research on Sarah Palin? Talk to anyone in the state? Even do a google search?

Apparently not. Check out this hometown smack down:

State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news.

"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" said Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"

All politics is local. Palin doesn't like State Senate President Lyda Green. Palin laughed out loud when a radio talk show host called Green a "bitch" -- and a "cancer" (Green is a cancer survivor):


Now, if Palin had been vetted by the McCain campaign, some of this stuff might have come up. But, McCain is erratic and impulsive. It was more important for McCain to "win" the news cycle than pick a v.p. who was qualified. Read More......

Sarah Palin doesn't know much about the Iraq war.

You have to hear Sarah Palin's views on the war in Iraq -- from Sarah Palin. She really doesn't know what "the plan" is or too much about Iraq or foreign policy.

Just listen to excerpts of Sarah Palin from an interview with TIME magazine. It's from August 14, 2008. That's just two weeks ago. This should make you feel safer. She'd be one heart beat (or another bout of cancer) away from the being the leader of our nation. In these dangerous times of which John McCain so often speaks, John McCain made a craven political decision. He's willing to entrust the safety of our country to someone who knows nothing about keeping us safe.



I can confidently say that the readers of AMERICAblog are far more clued into foreign policy then McCain's choice for vice president. Read More......

Gustav is gathering strength, headling towards Gulf Coast states

From the National Hurricane Center:

DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE CONTINUED TO INCREASE AND ARE NOW NEAR 120 MPH...195 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. GUSTAV IS A DANGEROUS CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE. GUSTAV IS EXPECTED TO PASS OVER WESTERN CUBA AS A MAJOR HURRICANE...AND COULD REACH CATEGORY FOUR STATUS BEFORE MAKING LANDFALL THERE. ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING IS POSSIBLE OVER THE SOUTHERN GULF OF MEXICO

And, the latest projected track has it hitting the coast of Louisiana in the very early hours of Tuesday:



Scott McClellan thinks this good be good for the Republican Party. Seriously:

"If it's a major hurricane, I think that they certainly need to show they learned lessons from three years ago, both from a policy and perception standpoint," McClellan said.

He also suggested that McCain could benefit politically from such a scenario: It would allow Bush to mount an effective GOP response to a disaster while removing the unpopular president from the convention roster.

"It could be a two-fer," McClellan said.

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Palin supported anti-Semitic Pat Buchanan for president

1. McCain is 72 years old.
2. He's had 4 bouts of cancer.
3. His VP choice has no experience in foreign policy or national security whatsoever.
4. She wanted anti-Semite Pat Buchanan to be president.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess how good a friend of Israel, and Jews more generally, President Palin will be if President McCain, God forbid, dies or becomes incapacitated in office. Would President Palin appoint Pat Buchanan to her administration? Would he have her ear?

Watch Pat Buchanan praise his former suppoter Sarah Palin:

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Bankruptcies soar for senior citizens

I'm guessing those declaring bankruptcy might be wishing they had even one house, let alone twelve. To be fair to McCain, seniors don't really show up to vote anyway so this shouldn't present a problem.

First came the health problems. Then, unable to work, Ada Noda watched the bills pile up. And then, suffocating in debt, the 80-year-old did something she never thought she'd be forced to do.

She declared bankruptcy.

While the bankruptcy filing rate for those under 55 has fallen, it has soared for older Americans, according to a new analysis from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which examined a sampling of noncommercial bankruptcies filed between 1991 and 2007.

The older the age group, the worse it got — people 65 and up became more than twice as likely to file during that period, and the filing rate for those 75 and older more than quadrupled.

"Older Americans are hit by a one-two punch of jobs and medical problems and the two are often intertwined," said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor who was one of the authors of the study. "They discover that they must work to keep some form of economic balance and when they can't, they're lost."

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FDIC warns on banks

Can you imagine how much worse things can get with ? His good friend Phil Gramm helped create this record of failure and that's who McCain believes is an expert. The worst thing is that this is not even close to being finished. But remember, the Republicans are the economic experts. From CNBC:

The number of problem banks on a regulatory watch list increased to 117 by the end of the second quarter from 90 at the end of the first quarter, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said.

The combined assets of the problem banks increased to $78 billion from $26 billion, the agency said.

The housing slump and worsening economic conditions forced U.S. banks to set aside $50.2 billion in loan loss provisions during the second quarter, the FDIC said in its quarterly industry update.

That figure is more than four times the $11.4 billion that the industry set aside in the second quarter last year.

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