Hard to believe, isn't it? Drinking Liberally isn't technically old enough to drink (we're just over 4 years old), and we're about to meet for the 50th time. To celebrate, we have a host of exciting news and events you can't live winout:
Announcing the Drinking Liberally SLOGAN CONTEST! Listen, people, we need your help. Every great organization has its byline, and Drinking Liberally is no different. But what should our byline be? Samples: Hash House Harriers, a Drinking Club With a Running Problem; The GOP, Helping the Rich Get Richer Since 1854. Email your suggestions to [email protected]. We'll vote on the top three at our gathering on Wednesday, and the winner will get a FABULOUS PRIZE!
You can now eat liberally, too! We've moved the City Grill, 199 8th Street, in downtown Boise.
Watch the last presidential debate with us!
Come early (6 PM) and stay late (?) for a rousing good partay with your fellow Red State Rebels and Liberal Drinkers.
Drinking Liberally can't get enough of the political fun either! Want to feel like a majority? Join us to watch the second presidential debate TONIGHT at 6:30 at the City Grill (199 8th Street) in downtown Boise.
If you're not on Drinking Liberally's email list, well, you should be. Get busy. Sign up here for laughs, meetup reminders, and the occasional reference to Idaho politics, campains, or ukuleles: drinkingliberally.org.
Talk about trickle-down economics: The national financial crisis hit home in Idaho today as Gov. Butch Otter ordered statewide budget hold backs and cautioned all state agencies to reserve another 1.5 percent of their budget for possible further cuts. Jill has more at New West.
Meanwhile, a McClatchy Newspapers article in the Idaho Statesman today noted how Barack Obama wants to provide $25 billion in relief to state and local governments to be used on whatever the states and municipalities need most, along with another $25 billion for public works projects like roads and bridges. Whatever Idaho's share, it would go a long way toward relieving our current budget gaps and infrastructure needs, wouldn't it?
John McCain calls it a gimmick, and of course he of all people should know a gimmick when he sees one. But maybe Otter and his fellow Republicans ought to consider whether voting GOP is the best move this fall, or whether it's time to give Democrats a chance to put the country together again.
John McCain made a big show yesterday of saying he'd "suspend" his campaign to work on the financial crisis. Many Americans immediately suspected that McCain was throwing his second "Hail Mary" pass in a month - and indeed, we learned today, as Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said:
John McCain did not “suspend” his campaign. He just turned a national crisis into an occasion to promote his campaign. It’s become just another political stunt, aimed more at shoring up the Senator’s political fortunes than the nation’s economy. And it does nothing to help advance this critical legislation to protect the American people during this time of economic crisis.
There was ample evidence today - in commercials aired, surrogates spinning, and volunteers welcomed - that the former "Straight Talk Express" has lost whatever credibility it still had. You have to wonder: What's the real reason John McCain doesn't want to debate Barack Obama? This is pathetic.
Update, Friday morning: The debate is on. McCain is accusing Obama of political posturing during Thursday's White House meeting (at which the hapless McCain reportedly sat mute for 40 minutes). Such leadership.
In one of the most startling developments of the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain this afternoon said he wants the first presidential debate delayed so Congress can hunker down and finish the bailout bill before the markets open next Monday.
This interesting news comes on the heels of the latest ABC-Washington Post poll showing that McCain - who admits the economy is a mystery to him - now trails Barack Obama by 9 percent overall and by double-digit margins on the economy. (Independents now give Obama a whopping 21-point lead when asked which candidate is best equipped to deal with the economy.
The financial crisis was more than a decade in the making. We all need to wonder: What's the rush? And also: What does this say about John McCain's ability to handle multiple demands on his energy?
Update: The Obama campaign says the debate is still on. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief debate negotiator, told MSNBC that "we can handle both."
Update, Thursday morning: It became clear yesterday that Barack Obama, not John McCain, was the one who first suggested some sort of joint statement on the economy. From the Los Angeles Times: "The day's head-spinning events began about 8:30 a.m. on the East Coast, when Obama, who was campaigning in Florida, called McCain in New York to suggest that the two rivals reach agreement on a joint statement of principles for any Wall Street bailout." (More here.)
Meanwhile, the two candidates will go to the White House later today and meet with President Bush and Congressional leaders. As of 9 a.m. MST, Congress is reportedly nearing a deal that would include more protections for taxpayers than originally proposed in the Bush-Paulson plan. McCain is still maintaining today that he'll skip Friday's debate if a deal hasn't been hammered out.
John McCain is 72 years old and has several serious health conditions. Particularly considering the national inexperience of his vice presidential running mate, Americans need to be able to take McCain's health history into account before making a decision on his fitness for the world's most difficult job. Watch this video and sign the open letter asking McCain to release his health records.
In other news, U.S. Senate candidate Larry LaRocco plans a repeat visit to Daily Kos today to discuss his plans for health-care reform. The Idaho Democrat is calling for an American-based system that will provide more options, both public and private, with added portability. Join Larry online at dKos from 1 to 2 p.m. Mountain/noon to 1 Pacific.
Remember eight years ago, when we let Republicans get away with saying that Al Gore claimed to personally invent the Internet? Well, John McCain is now claiming that he paved the way for cell phones, wi-fi, even the Blackberry! Who knew?
Read this diary at Daily Kos, which explains how McCain (unlike Gore) has actually stood in the way of many technological advances we now use daily. A snip: Of pending legislation, McCain is not a sponsor of the "Connect the Nation Act" – though Senator Obama is. McCain is not a sponsor of Senator Rockefeller's call for a universal next generation broadband by 2015 – though Senator Obama is. And of course, McCain isn't a sponsor of the "Internet Freedom Act" that would ensure net neutrality – though Senator Obama is. ...
So, McCain's "guiding hand" seems to consist of opposing the legislation that laid the groundwork for the communications we have today, and authoring failed legislation designed to benefit big carriers. Of course, we should probably be glad that John McCain really didn't invent the cell phone or wifi, otherwise we'd all be getting our wireless services from one monolithic company free to restrict our access to only the pages that pay for the privilege. And we'd all be using "Jitterbugs."
We have a lot of swing voters here in Idaho who are (still) employed in the tech and telecommunications industries. They need to read this and show it to their colleagues, too. John McCain is so thoroughly 20th century, it hurts to think about it.
If the economy wasn't the top issue for voters before today, it certainly will be now. Which candidate is best prepared and most able to shepherd our shaky economy through its deepening crises? It's a no-brainer.
John McCain and his wife are unspeakably wealthy through his wife's involvement in a beer distributing empire. He doesn't know how many houses he owns.
He insists that the economy is fundamentally strong. (Watch him dodder through this statement today, even as Wall Street giants collapse and the stock market reels.) He said earlier this year that he really doesn't understand the economy. He supports Bush economic and tax policy that favors the wealthiest Americans while offering little to the middle class. His key economic adviser says Americans are "whiners" and that the recession is all in our heads.
Barack Obama is a product of the middle class who only recently became well-off due to book sales. He understands what middle-class families are going through. He and his wife Michelle own one home.
Obama's economic policy is based on tax cuts for the middle class and creation of top-notch new jobs for the 21st century. He would end tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and he would bring more oversight to the financial and housing markets. Watch Barack Obama and Joe Biden talk about the economy and what working families really care about.
As Obama spokesman Bill Burton said this morning, "Today of all days, John McCain's stubborn insistence that the 'fundamentals of the economy are strong' shows that he is disturbingly out of touch with what's going in the lives of ordinary Americans. Even as his own ads try to convince him that the economy is in crisis, apparently his 26 years in Washington have left him incapable of understanding that the policies he supports have created an historic economic crisis."
Update 9/16/08: Obama released this ad today:
Update, Wednesday afternoon: Check out the fastest flip-flop in U.S. political history. The economy is strong. No, wait, it's not! Nice straight talk there, senator. And now McCain adviser Carly Fiorina is telling the media that neither McCain nor Sarah Palin nor Barack Obama nor Joe Biden could run a major corporation. But actually, after 19 months of watching Obama build a powerhouse organization, I'm dead certain he could run HP, or anything else.
For a recap of how the economy is now dominating the presidential campaign, check out this AP story, which leads with this statement: "Economic fears are suddenly dominating the presidential campaign, shoving aside lipstick on pigs and every other issue." And not a moment too soon ...
Nothing I can add to this, other than be sure that it's seen by your friends, family, and colleagues who are considering a vote for McCain.
I've also added a new blogroll at right: Sites for Skeptics. It includes Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films, which made this video and many other good ones; FactCheck.org and PolitiFact/Truth-o-Meter, which offer nonpartisan assessments of campaign ads and claims; News Hounds (motto: "We watch Fox News so you don't have to"); Media Matters for America, a progressive group keeping tabs on media coverage; and The Ed Schultz Show, the best common-sense, mainstream Democratic talk radio show out there. (Schultz airs from 4 to 7 p.m. weekdays on AM 630 in Boise and noon to 3 Pacific on KPTQ AM 1230 out of Spokane. Or listen online at any of dozens of stations listed on his website.)
Barack Obama has hit the airwaves with two new ads: one on how "change" isn't just a slogan, but a deep commitment to solving real problems, and another on just how stuck in the past John McCain really is. Enjoy 'em and share 'em!
