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Full disclosure, McCain style

Friday, May 23, 2008

John McCain released his health records to a selected group of reporters today. Well, he didn’t exactly release them. He gave them three hours to review 1,173 pages of medical records, which they weren’t allowed to copy.

If you do the math, that means they had to review six and a half pages a minute, or one every 9.2 seconds. That might give you eight seconds a page when you subtract the time it takes to turn them.

I have to review medical records quite often. I represent people in disability cases, so it’s part of my job. I probably have more familiarity with medical records than most reporters, and I freely admit that most of the time I don’t know what I’m looking at. One thing’s for sure, I’m incapable of reviewing 6.5 pages a minute.

It would be interesting to know (we are not told) whether the AP reporter that was privileged to review the records (we are not told about the selection criteria) was a doctor, or allowed to bring a doctor to interpret these records.

No story about an old Republican’s medical records would be complete without a testimonial from his doctor telling us that he’s not just healthy; he is, in fact, superhuman:

But Mayo internist Dr. John Eckstein, his longtime personal physician, lauded McCain’s performance on a heart stress test — sweating it out for 10 minutes when Eckstein routinely sees patients decades younger quit at five or seven minutes.

“I think physiologically he is considerably younger than his chronologic age based on his cardiovascular fitness,” Eckstein said in an interview Thursday. “I got a call from the cardiologist who said that he had not seen anyone that age exercise for that long in a long time.”

Indeed, he probably does see people who crap out after five minutes. He deals with sick people all the time. This quote is reminiscent of the stuff we heard about Ronald Reagan, weightlifter, who also was an elderly gentleman of superhuman Republican strength. We didn’t get confirmation of his creeping dementia until after he was safely out of the White House, though it was pretty obvious for those of us with eyes to see.

I have no idea if John McCain is healthy or not. But I submit that a three hour review of over a thousand pages of medical records by a handpicked reporter, followed by a meaningless but flattering sound bite from his doctor (who may be a tad self interested) tells us nothing. I further submit that if this reporter was unaccompanied by a doctor that he or she had no way of knowing what to look for. How hard would it be for the McCain staff to put the stuff they wanted up near the top (making it so much easier for the reporter), so the McCain loving press would report in accordance with the “McCain as fit as a fiddle” narrative, particularly if the handpicked reporter was among the legion of McCain worshippers in the national press?

If McCain was being truly forthcoming, he would have allowed copying, so the records could be reviewed by experts. We are no more informed today than we were yesterday, but because this is McCain we will hear no more on this subject. This empty gesture, which the press would scorn coming from anyone else, will likely be considered sufficient, and the medical records story will go the way of the Hagee story, and the Cindy’s tax return story, and the can’t tell a Sunni from a Shiite story, and all the other stories that belie the McCain myth.

This method of “disclosure” by the way, is a tried and true method of information control. If you’ve ever been an elected official you know what I’m talking about. Staff gives you a huge quantity of information prior to a meeting-so much information, presented so haphazardly, with so little time to absorb it, that it is essentially meaningless. But you can’t complain, because it’s all there somewhere. At least in those instances you get a hard copy.

Update: More informed comment here.

Filed in Presidential Politics, The Real McCain | | Comments (1)

McCain to telecoms: Five Hail Mary’s and a sincere Act of Contrition

Friday, May 23, 2008

A McCain spokesman says his man is against giving the telecoms immunity, until, that is, they express “heartfelt repentance”.

As president, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain would not support immunity for the telecoms that aided the Bush administration’s warrantless spying program, unless there were revealing Congressional hearings and heartfelt repentance from those telephone and internet companies, a campaign surrogate said Wednesday

We Catholics, both present and ex, are very familiar with the concept of repentance. Each and every day of my grammar school career I said an “Act of contrition”, in which I told god I was “heartily sorry for having offended” him. Who knows, on one or two occasions during those eight years I may, in fact, have been heartily sorry. If called before Congress to say for sure, I would have to confess that like everyone who works for George Bush, I simply can’t recall.

Nonetheless I understand the concept of heartfelt repentance, it having been drilled into me all those years. Without it no confession is truly valid, and your ticket to heaven will not be punched. One of the prerequisites for heartfelt repentance is a heart within which said repentance is felt. In law, a corporation is an artificial person, which means it has, at best, an artificial heart. It is, perforce, incapable of heartfelt anything.

We know without asking that John McCain would consider mere heartfelt repentance insufficient to forgive we humans who transgress. That is for god to do, though the Christians who make up his party would recommend that He stay his hand. For us there are prisons and foreclosures. For telecoms there is immunity, bought at the price of an “Act of Contrition” as rote as those I parroted after Confession.

The law is an imperfect thing. The common law recognized early on that it is well nigh impossible to afford perfect redress. Not even from a human defendant does it require heartfelt repentance. The quality of such feelings can never be truly assessed and, even if truly heartfelt, repentance rarely helps the victim. So, in their collective wisdom, centuries of judges have arrived at the conclusion that it is more efficacious to inflict pain on the transgressor in the form of a transfer of money, cash on the barrelhead, to the victim. Not perfect, but it has proven impossible to come up with a better approach. And, though corporations are incapable of a true act of contrition, they are very capable of feeling pain. The point is to change behavior, and it has worked remarkably well with corporations. The products we use are safer, not so much because of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, but because of good, old fashioned products liability cases. In the case of the telecoms I’d suggest that we each get one free month of telephone service as compensation for the invasion of our privacy. This may not induce heartfelt repentance in the telecoms, but I can almost guarantee that they will not trespass against us again.

Filed in Creeping Totalitarianism, Presidential Politics | | Comments (0)

David Sirota coming to Madison

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

A few weeks ago I got an email from David Sirota, who must truly do his homework to have discovered this blog. Sirota, you may recall, worked on the Lamont campaign. He has written a book called The Uprising, and will be in Madison a week from today at : R.J. Julia Booksellers, 768 Boston Post Road, Madison, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. From the press release:

On May 28th, bestselling author and nationally syndicated columnist David Sirota will join Ned Lamont in Madison, Connecticut to discuss his newest book, THE UPRISING: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street & Washington (Crown Publishers, May 2008).

THE UPRISING, which follows Sirota’s New York Times bestseller Hostile Takeover (2006), reports on this seething popular discontent on both the Right and Left, which is creating a new populist political movement roiling the 2008 presidential campaign and national politics. From behind-the-scenes meetings on Capitol Hill to an ExxonMobil stockholder meeting and the dusty campsite of the California Minutemen guarding the U.S.-Mexico border, Sirota traveled the United States to report on this anger and the populist uprising it is creating. Publisher’s Weekly says Sirota “weaves entertaining case studies, keeping his tone conversational, the narrative fast-paced and the content accessible,” adding that “this book presents a rousing account of the local uprisings already in effect.”

The book traces the historical roots of populism, from its start in the rural West in the 19th century all the way through the 2006 Connecticut senate race. It also explores the ongoing efforts to thwart populism, including a close look at the Democratic Party’s construction of the “superdelegate” system now playing a key role in the presidential campaign. THE UPRISING features exclusive reporting on icons across the political spectrum, from CNN’s Lou Dobbs, to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillorsen to Senate candidate Ned Lamont. THE UPRISING asks the vital question—“Will a real movement emerge from all this rage?”

If you’ve never been to Madison, this is a great excuse to go. It’s a neat little shoreline town, a bit like Mystic before it went totally tourist. There are a number of good restaurants and R.J. Julia is a great bookstore, well worth checking out even if David Sirota and Ned Lamont weren’t there.

Barring some disaster, we’ll be there.

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Joe Courtney endorses Obama

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Joe Courtney endorsed Obama today. I suppose we can argue about timing, but better late than never, and better now than later. After yesterday, it seems likely that Hillary will die the death of a thousand cuts, as the remaining superdelegates announce overwhelmingly for Obama.

Here’s Joe’s Announcement in full. It’s especially good that he recognizes the young people at UConn who helped put him in Congress:

5/21/2008

Today, I am pleased to announce my endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States.

Our country has experienced a remarkable contest for the Democratic nomination with a field of unprecedented talent, including Connecticut’s senior Senator Chris Dodd whom I originally endorsed. The race has boiled down to an historic choice between the nation’s first African American or woman president, and the party, and our nation, are richer for this contest.

The results last evening from Oregon have clarified that Barack Obama will be the nominee for our party. As John McCain continues to act with a free hand in the Republican contest, it is clear that we must unite and rally around a nominee to give the nation a strong alternative in the Fall. With our economy languishing and our foreign policy in tatters, the last thing our country can afford is a third Bush term, which I believe John McCain would deliver if elected President.

While I am making this endorsement, I want to take the time to recognize Senator Clinton for her contributions to this contest and to our nation. Hers was a gutsy effort, and one that spoke to the economic anxiety that so many in eastern Connecticut and across the nation are feeling after eight years of George Bush’s rule. As the father of a young daughter, I was also heartened that we took a step closer to the long overdue day when we elect a woman to serve as President. Senator Clinton has been an important leader of our party and will continue to play a key role in the years ahead.

I am enthusiastically endorsing Barack Obama because I believe that he can lead this nation and bridge the partisan divide that has hindered progress in our nation over the past eight years. Barack Obama has demonstrated leadership in pledging a new direction to drawdown our forces in Iraq and end our disastrous engagement that has stretched our military to the breaking point, damaged our economy, and diverted our attention from terrorist threats in Afghanistan and across the globe. Senator Obama’s economic vision would revive our sluggish economy and invest in our middle class which has been so neglected in the Bush era. The power of Barack’s words is matched by the force of his ideas.

In addition, by endorsing Senator Obama I am keeping faith with the new and young voters who helped propel me to a razor-thin victory in 2006. At UConn and on campuses across eastern Connecticut and the nation, Barack Obama has inspired new voters to engage in the political process and make their voices heard. A torch has been passed to a new generation to help solve the serious challenges facing our nation.

Our country is in desperate need of change in the White House. Today, I endorse Barack Obama to deliver that change in January after victory in November.

On another subject, and another Joe, if you click on the link you will see that the Courant is still referring to Lieberman as an “independent Democrat”. Since when is there such a thing? It’s a little like me calling myself an atheistic Catholic. I might find the moniker convenient, but the Pope would have a legitimate grievance if the newspapers played along and let me steal his brand. Lieberman is a lot of things, few of them good, but he is not a Democrat, no matter what limiting adjective you use.

Note: This post was changed a bit from one that was up for a short period. I inserted Joe’s announcement and made a few other minor changes.

Filed in Joe Courtney, Local issues, Presidential Politics | | Comments (0)

Barack takes a shot at corporate media

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

More evidence that Obama gets it, and has not yet been ruined by Washington:

Democrat Barack Obama said on Sunday he would pursue a vigorous antitrust policy if he becomes U.S. president and singled out the media industry as one area where government regulators would need to be watchful as consolidation increases.

“I will assure that we will have an antitrust division that is serious about pursuing cases,” the Illinois senator told an audience of mostly senior citizens in Oregon.

“There are going to be areas, in the media for example where we’re seeing more and more consolidation, that I think (it) is legitimate to ask…is the consumer being served?”

Filed in Media, Politics | | Comments (0)

Sad news

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

From TPM:

New York Rep. Vito Fossella said Tuesday he will not seek re-election as a result of “personal mistakes,” a decision that comes after a drunken driving arrest and disclosure that he fathered a child in an extramarital affair.

For a while it looked like he was going to tough it out. Too bad.

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McCain campaigns on fear itself

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

According to the New York Times, all John McCain has to do to put Barack Obama “on the defensive” is to criticize him on a foreign policy issue:

Senator John McCain put Senator Barack Obama on the foreign policy defensive once again Monday, criticizing him here in his hometown for saying Iran did not pose the serious threat to the United States that the Soviet Union once did.

In order to make the charge, McCain had to mischaracterize what Obama said, but we’ll let that pass for the moment.

I guess this is a test: Are the American people as stupid as John McCain and the New York Times thinks they are? I can remember the days of fallout shelters and instructional films on what we should do when the bombs dropped. Many people believed that an all out nuclear war was nearly inevitable, and both sides had the ability to make that a reality. And, by the way, the Soviet Union was evil incarnate too, just like Iran. By any measure, the Soviet Union was the bigger threat, and most people with an ounce of sense and a shred of memory know that.

Have we really sunk so low in our public discourse that a politician can be said to be “on the defensive” for saying something that is demonstrably, indisputably, incontestably, incontrovertibly, indubitably, undeniably true?

I guess we’re about to find out. Personally, I think that the last 8 years have opened a lot of eyes and, to quote the old song, we won’t get fooled again. Fearmongering has run its course.

At least I hope it has.

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Contributions for Andy, et. al.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

MGB, a faithful reader, asked, in a comment to a recent post, how one goes about making a contribution to Andy Maynard to help him reach the 300 contributors that he needs to get public financing.

I’ve attached a certification form, which you can download below in either PDF or Word Format. If you want to contribute to someone other than Andy you should download the Word version and make changes as appropriate. You need to know whether the candidate is trying to qualify for public financing, of course.

You should send the form to the candidate’s treasurer, along with your check of $5.00 to 100.00. In Andy’s case they should be send to Dennis Popp, 41 Cottage Street, Groton, CT 06340.

I know, by the way, that Betsy Ritter, state rep from Waterford and liberal drinker is looking for her last few contributors, so if you live in Waterford (remember, you have to be in the person’s district to count), send Betsy a check. Her treasurer is Bridget Baird, 28 Old Mill Road, Quaker Hill, CT 06375. It’s not yet clear if Betsy has an opponent. Andy does, though it remains to be seen how vigourous a campaign she will wage.

By the way, we attended Andy’s convention last night. Very efficiently run. We were in and out in no time.

Contribution Form (PDF)
Contribution form (Word)

Filed in Local issues | | Comments (1)

Stealing from the poor to give to the banks

Monday, May 19, 2008

Dean Baker, writing at Truthout, reports that Senator Dodd’s bill, which allegedly helps homeowners avoid foreclosure, may end up being financed by diverting money from rental assistance programs for the poor. According to Baker, Dodd’s bill does too much for the banks, and not enough for the homeowners, who may still end up losing their homes in time:

Congress has shown little interest in ensuring the new guarantee prices reflect fundamentals, making it likely many of the people “helped” under the program will end up facing foreclosure a second time. However, to make matters worse, they came up with the idea of financing the plan by taking away a stream of funding that had been dedicated to help low-income renters.

That’s right; Congress wants to take away money from low-income renters to help bankers that made bad loans in the housing bubble. As we all know, when the banks are in trouble, it is not the time to talk about the free market.

Once again the root cause is Republican intransigence. While they had no problem getting taxpayers to pony up to help Bear Stearns, or to provide money for homebuilders, it’s a different story when it comes to any bill that will help regular people, even if that help is being inefficiently delivered:

Reports are that Senator Shelby will only agree to the new FHA program if it is paid for by non-taxpayer funds. Senator Dodd’s bill also creates a housing trust fund with resources from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to build or preserve rental housing for extremely low and very low income people. Senator Shelby wants those funds to be used to pay for the new FHA program instead.

“After the $30 billion taxpayer guaranteed bail out of Bear Sterns and the $25 billion Senate-passed taxpayer funded bail out for homebuilders, for Committee Republicans to insist that the taxpayers should not pay $1.7 billion to prevent homeowners from losing their homes, has to be called what it is – hypocrisy,” said Sheila Crowley, President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

As Senator Dodd has learned to his sorrow, it takes 60 Democrats to pass a bill, and only one Republican to stop it, given the Harry Reid filibuster rules. It might behoove the Democrats to consider that every time the Republicans do this sort of thing they make yet another small contribution to the crushing defeat they seem poised to endure in the fall. They have been in power so long, and have gotten away with this sort of hypocrisy for so long that they are unable to see that times have changed. The Democrats should call their bluff. Let the country watch them filibuster a bill to help people avoid foreclosure. Make them really stand up and put their mouths where their money is. Will they really want to do that in an election year?

Filed in Economics, Politics | | Comments (0)

Andy Maynard needs 300 friends.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Today my wife and I hosted an event for Andy Maynard, our state Senator. In order to qualify for campaign financing funds, Andy needs to get donations from 300 individuals in his district, so the purpose of this event was to get as many donors as possible for Andy, with the amounts of the donations being somewhat secondary. My wife organized the party, with lots of help from other Groton Democrats.

The day started out great, weather-wise, but the cloudy, near cold weather arrived promptly along with our first guests. Nonetheless, judging by the amounts of food and drink consumed, people seemed to have a good time.

Anyway, we made some progress toward Andy’s goal of 300 contributors. That number, by the way, might need to be reconsidered. It doesn’t sound like that many, particularly given the fact that a donation of as low as $5.00 is acceptable, but in practice it is turning out to be fairly difficult.

Here’s Andy, with State Representatives Betsy Ritter and Elissa Wright, neither of whom yet have opponents. Andy does have an opponent, which made me feel better (I don’t know if I can say the same for Andy), because I would have felt a little funny asking people to help him get state money that he wouldn’t need.

If you’re in Andy’s district please consider donating to help get Andy to 300. If you’re in another district, and there’s a candidate you support, make a donation to him or her, even if in a nominal amount so they can qualify for public financing.

Filed in Local issues | | Comments (1)