What Sort of American Car Should One Buy?

I have an eight-year-old Volkswagen now that still feels brand new. My last VW GTI (a 1985)was still running well at fifteen when I traded it in at the turn of the century.

But if I want to help Obama and the economy (and I can't readily think of another reason to buy an American car), what sort of American cars should I be considering when I consider buying another new car in another few years?

Just Asking.

John McCain will raise YOUR taxes

If you are lucky enough to have a job that pays for part or all of your health insurance, then your taxes will go up under John McCain's health plan (a.k.a., the private insurance company protection act of 2009).
Keeping it simple in today's Bob Herbert column in the Times, "McCain's Radical Agenda" :

" ... the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on.
“It means your employer is going to have to make an estimate on how much the employer is paying for health insurance on your behalf, and you are going to have to pay taxes on that money,” said Sherry Glied, an economist who chairs the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Ms. Glied is one of the four scholars who have just completed an independent joint study of the plan. Their findings are being published on the Web site of the policy journal, Health Affairs. "

"Why?" you might ask. The same blind and stubborn ideological faith in "markets" and morbid fear of "socialized" anything that has done so much economic damage over the last eight years leads him to believe that we'd be better off shopping for our own health insurance (as if dealing with the annual choice of four or five progressively less-attractive insurance plans at work is anything less than hellish as it is). But let's not cloud the issue by asking "Why?" Let's put it in the type of bullet points the electorate seems to understand.

• JOHN McCAIN WILL RAISE YOUR TAXES IF YOU WORK FOR A LIVING.
• PRESIDENT OBAMA WILL NOT RAISE YOUR TAXES UNLESS YOU MAKE OVER 250K/YEAR.

Maybe she thinks she's Little Red Riding Hood and needs protection from big bad wolves

Or maybe Sarah Palin is simply trying to protect that most important group of dyed-in-the-wool Republican voters, a.k.a. the Sheeple:

It's not just a coincidence that her name is an anagram for Sharia Plan

If the typical American voter were to read one article about the unknown governor from Alaska, I would recommend one that appeared in Salon today, "What's the Difference Between Palin and Muslim Fundamentalists? Lipstick: A theocrat is a theocrat, whether Muslim or Christian" by Juan Cole.

On censorship, the teaching of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God's will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts.

For another frightening religious angle today, here's a blog entry over at The Nation, "Sarah Palin and the Jews," by Jon Weiner, drawing parallels between Miss Congeniality Sarah and Queen Esther. Time to wipe out Persia again?

CNN is reporting poll results today showing that men are the backbone of Sarah Palin's support. At the risk of sounding sexist, I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say, Men are Fucking Idiots!

Is the Hockey Mom in this video running for V.P. of the U!S!A! U!S!A! ?

CLICK HERE to hear a "Pit Bull with Lipstick" in full-throated roar, but turn it down if you're at work!

And be sure to check out Sarah Palin's new blog, The PalinDrome.

Governor Sarah Palin's Modest Secret Proposal for American Energy Independence

God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
--Genesis 1:28

The Governor of Alaska, who this week has been anointed by God and God's Republican Servants to be John McCain's running mate and successor, has not only shown by her fruitful multiplication that she is a true servant of the one True American God, but also that she is an original thinker when it comes to expanding human dominion over the earth and its soulless creatures. Why stop with drilling under the habitat of endangered caribou and polar bears in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to fuel our pickup trucks and SUVs? Why not examine all the ways that we can add biofuels to the mix -- including those efficient biofuels in the abundant fat of the bodies of caribou, walruses, seals, whales, and polar bears of her home state? They're not doing anything productive, like posing for German zoo visitors or working to pull plows, and they're just going to die anyway when their ice melts and their tundra defrosts, so why shouldn't they share the burden of driving our families of seven to the mall?
If we had Siberia or India as a colony, we could also put a tiger in our tank, but until that inevitable day, we'll work with what we have.

Children Are Sacred. Quotes from our Presidential Contenders

“Let me be as clear as possible. I think people’s families are off-limits, and people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president.”

--Barack Obama, September 2008

“This is a very personal matter for the family. We should all respect the love they have for the child and the desire all parents would have for their children’s privacy. The media should respect Bristol’s privacy. That’s always been the tradition and practice when it comes to the children of candidates.”

--John McCain, September 2008

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

--John McCain, June 1998

David Corn's short article in Salon from June 25, 1998 about this "joke" is interesting in that it shows how ingrained the media bias in favor of John McCain has been for at least a decade.

"But the joke revealed more than a mean streak in a man who would be president. It also exposed how the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times play favorites when reporting the foibles of our leading politicians."

And How Many of His Houses and Condos Get Their TV Reception Over the Air?

I was reminded of the upcoming Digital TV Conversion fiasco (a.k.a, The Death of Free Television), when I stumbled upon this "Goodbye Rabbit Ears" column in the Times, and a link in its comments section to the DTVRedAlert.org blog, which is dedicating itself to questions about this transition during which cable companies and electronics manufacturers are planning to make a fortune.
It all just seems to fit so nicely with the (unanswerable) question about how many dwellings that John & Cindy McCain own (we can assume that none of them lack cable).
When John was pushing this Death of Free TV bill back in 2004, could he possibly empathize with a person getting his or her fuzzy moving pictures of the news and sports and game shows through the air with rabbit ears? Or was all his empathy spent on those with whom he shared private jets?

How Many Homes Do YOU Own? (Be Sure to Vote in the New Sidebar Poll)

Everyone that I know would answer the question with the numbers Zero, One, or Two (and those with two are rarities). Before last week, could you even conceive of anyone answering that straightforward question with John McCain's answer?

"I think — I'll have my staff get to you. It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

In addition to the absurdity of not knowing how many homes you own, you have to love the Bushian lack of sentence structure (though Dubya prob'bly woulda called those uncountable condos "condoms" and everyone woulda gotten a big chuckle out of it).

Joe Biden for Vice President (Part Two)

[I know this seems out of order between Parts One and Three, but this Part Two of my Joe Biden For Vice President campaign was originally posted on May 27th. It wasn't there when I wanted to look at it today after getting my text message from Barack. This afternoon (August 23) Barack and Joe will be making their first joint appearance as running mates!]

Bob Herbert has a great column in today's New York Times, "Roads, High and Low," which begins with these words:

"On Friday morning, Joe Biden gave us an example of a leading national politician exhibiting decency and class. Later in the day, Hillary Clinton gave us an example of something else."

No, Joe Biden wasn't again pointing out the "bullshit" and "marlarkey" underlying the President's latest utterance (at least not in those exact terms), but he was continuing to stay on the attack against the Bush/McCain foreign policy: "The idea that they are competent to continue to conduct our foreign policy, to make us more secure and make Israel secure, is preposterous. ... Every single thing they’ve touched has been a near-disaster." These statements, coming from the Democratic Senator with the most universally-recognized foreign policy credentials will carry even more weight if he is on the ticket in the fall. Picking the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his ticket will also reinforce Barack Obama's "Team of Rivals" theme of picking the best and picking (where appropriate) his adversaries for the nomination (John Edwards for Attorney General, anyone?). Picking Biden will also address the "experience" question at least as well as Richard "Dick" Cheney's selection answered the question about young Doubleyou's lack of "gravitas" in 2000. Biden not only has 28 years more service in the Senate than the Junior Senator from New York who is constantly of speaking of her experience, but he has 14 more years in the Senate than the presumptive Republican nominee (even though Joe Biden is 6 years younger than McCain, and only 5 years older than Clinton).

Biden may not be the best choice for all the crass ticket-balancing political reasons that have given us such great nominees as Dan Quayle and Joe Lieberman in recent years, but he's definitely worth some serious consideration (and, for what it's worth, he's my front runner).

OBAMA/BIDEN 2008
(anagram: An Idea Bomb!)