Olberman speaks about McCain, Palin and the Hate-Mongering

Olberman on McCain and inciting supporters to violence against Barack Obama.

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Academic Survey of Econmists by The Economist (UK) finds Obama’s Economic Plan in the Lead

Examining America’s presidential candidates | Examining the candidates | The Economist

http://www.economist.com/world/united…

The Economist’s poll of economists Examining the candidates Oct 2nd 2008 | WASHINGTON, DC From The Economist print edition In our special report on the election we analyse the two candidates’ economic plans. Here, we ask professional economists to give us their views AS THE financial crisis pushes the economy back to the top of voters’ concerns, Barack Obama is starting to open up a clear lead over John McCain in the opinion polls. But among those who study economics for a living, Mr Obama’s lead is much more commanding. A survey of academic economists by The Economist finds the majority—at times by overwhelming margins—believe Mr Obama has the superior economic plan, a firmer grasp of economics and will appoint better economic advisers. Our survey is not, by any means, a scientific poll of all economists. We e-mailed a questionnaire to 683 research associates, all we could track down, of the National Bureau of Economic Research, America’s premier association of applied academic economists, though the NBER itself played no role in the survey. A total of 142 responded, of whom 46% identified themselves as Democrats, 10% as Republicans and 44% as neither. This skewed party breakdown may reflect academia’s Democratic tilt, or possibly Democrats’ greater propensity to respond. Still, even if we exclude respondents with a party identification, Mr Obama retains a strong edge—though the McCain campaign should be buoyed by the fact that 530 economists have signed a statement endorsing his plans. Does their opinion matter? Economics is just one of the many things the next president will have to worry about; voters still seem to prefer Mr McCain on foreign policy. And even on the economy, economists may not have the same priorities as the population at large. Arguably, what a president says about economics on the campaign trail is less important than how he responds to the unexpected challenges that inevitably arise once he is in office. Yet economi…

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Debate: McCain on Veterans “I’ll take care of them…they know that I’ll take care of them”

ummmm…not so much

according to  Brian McGough at VetVoice.com, McCain isn't so much taking care of vets as preventing them from getting any care…

and apparently, he isn't so keen on protecting the troops in battle, either

McCain has voted 29 times against veterans' medical benefits.  In April 2006, McCain joined only 13 other senators in voting against an amendment that would increase funding for the VA to provide outpatient care and treatment.  Earlier that year, McCain voted against increasing funding for military and veterans' hospitals.  This was money that could have been used to fix the problems at Walter Reed before it became a national disgrace.

McCain was a staunch opponent of the bipartisan Webb/Hagel GI Bill.  This bill would have provided better educational opportunities to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  McCain called this bill "too generous" and tried to introduce his own watered down bill.  McCain didn't even bother to show up to vote for the bill.  After it passed the two staunchest opponents of the GI Bill, President Bush and John McCain, tried to take credit for its passage.

McCain has an equally bad record when it comes to supporting our active duty soldiers.  McCain opposed the Webb/Hagel Dwell time amendment.  This amendment would have ensured that for every day troops were deployed, they would spend one day at home.  This time would have allowed troops to decompress from combat stress and to focus on maintaining the equipment necessary to fight a war.  Our troops and equipment are now dangerously overstretched.

McCain opposed the Bayh amendment that would have provided $360 million for the procurement of up-armored humvees at a time when roadside bombs were killing American troops.

McCain voted to kill the Reed Amendment. This amendment would have begun to increase the size of the active army in 2003 and focused on stability operations.

McCain voted against the Dodd amendment that would provide an additional $320 million in protective gear for our troops in harms way.

McCain also voted against a Landrieu amendment that would have given our National Guard and Reserve troops the equipment they needed to survive on the battlefield.

There is a distinct pattern in these votes, and that pattern shows that John McCain is no friend to veterans on Capitol Hill.  He may say all he wants that he is, but that doesn't change the fact that he votes time and time again against the needs of veterans and active duty soldiers.

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over at Military.com, vets are trying – in vain it seems – to get McCain to support a new GI bill…

A leading political action committee founded by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has launched a new internet video and petition demanding that Sen. John McCain throw his support behind a new GI Bill.

The video — a joint project of Brave New Films, VoteVets.org and WesPAC, a group formed by former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe General Wesley Clark — is aimed at persuading the Republican nominee for president to agree to provide improved education benefits for soldiers returning home from the two wars.

The video features four veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, testifying about the problems they have with the current GI Bill.

they are also aware that McCain's voting record on their behalf hasn't exactly shown that he'll "take care of them"…

John McCain has refused to comment on the bill. Numerous calls and e-mails to McCain's Senate office in Washington and campaign office in Virginia seeking comment on this story went unreturned…

McCain's silence on the GI Bill may surprise some observers, given the senator's six years behind bars as a former prisoner of war in North Vietnam. On the campaign trail, McCain speaks almost daily about "supporting the troops."

But organizations that have followed the senator's voting record have noted that McCain's actions are rarely in line with the interests of veterans' organizations. In 2006, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a failing grade of "D" based on his voting record.

The same year, McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans just 20 percent of the time. The main reason for the low scores is a consistent pattern by Senator McCain of voting against appropriating money for veterans' health care and disability payments.

According to Disabled American Veterans, McCain voted almost a dozen separate times against spending additional money on veterans' health care in 2005 and 2006, even as hundreds of thousands of soldiers and Marines were returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and filing disability claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

During that time, McCain voted against expanding mental health care and readjustment counseling for returning service members, efforts to expand inpatient and outpatient treatment for injured veterans, and proposals to lower co-payments and enrollment fees veterans must pay to obtain prescription drugs.

"There was an effort to increase the budget for veterans' health care beyond what President [George W.] Bush had requested as part of his budget," Disabled American Veterans spokesperson Dave Autry said. "The idea was to increase funding for veterans' health care by cutting back on tax breaks for the wealthy. The proposals were pushed by Democrats and opposed by Republicans in almost straight party-line votes."

McCain's vote also helped defeat a proposal by Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow that would have made veterans' health care an entitlement program like social security, so that medical care would not become a political football to be argued over in Congress each budget cycle.

"The budget and appropriations process for veterans has been late the majority of the time the last 20 years and the funding proposed by the president is almost always insufficient," Autry said. "As a result, the VA could not plan for the number of returning veterans and staff the medical centers based on the likely demand. So we tried to make the funding sufficient, timely and predictable. If the Stabenow bill had passed, it would have been a big step in that direction."

Like the other funding bills, the Stabenow bill failed on a virtual party-line vote with John McCain voting against the veterans. According to Autry, virtually every single initiative to support veterans was defeated in Congress until the Democrats took control of both houses in January 2007.

McCain's Democratic rivals for president, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, both support the bipartisan effort to improve the GI Bill. In 2006, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Obama a B+ and Clinton an A-. Obama and Clinton both voted with the interest of Disabled American Veterans 80 percent of the time.

makes his claims at the debate completely false

something to think about…

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