Bad Deeds for 4-29-2008

John McCain’s Foreign Policy: Restart the Cold War – On March 26, McCain gave a speech on foreign policy in Los Angeles that was billed as his most comprehensive statement on the subject. It contained within it the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years. Yet almost no one noticed. In his speech McCain proposed that the United States expel Russia from the G8, the group of advanced industrial countries. Moscow was included in this body in the 1990s to recognize and reward it for peacefully ending the cold war on Western terms, dismantling the Soviet empire and withdrawing from large chunks of the old Russian Empire as well. McCain also proposed that the United States should expand the G8 by taking in India and Brazil—but pointedly excluded China from the councils of power. … The neoconservative vision within the speech is essentially an affirmation of ideology. Not only does it declare war on Russia and China, it places the United States in active opposition to all nondemocracies.

John McCain Frequently Used Loophole to Fly Wife’s Jet for Little Cost – Given Senator John McCain’s signature stance on campaign finance reform, it was not surprising that he backed legislation last year requiring presidential candidates to pay the actual cost of flying on corporate jets. The law, which requires campaigns to pay charter rates when using such jets rather than cheaper first-class fares, was intended to reduce the influence of lobbyists and create a level financial playing field. But over a seven-month period beginning last summer, Mr. McCain’s cash-short campaign gave itself an advantage by using a corporate jet owned by a company headed by his wife, Cindy McCain, according to public records. For five of those months, the plane was used almost exclusively for campaign-related purposes, those records show.

The senator was able to fly so inexpensively because the law specifically exempts aircraft owned by a candidate or his family or by a privately held company they control.

Last summer, just before starting to use his wife’s plane, Mr. McCain was quoted in a newspaper report as saying that he did not plan to tap her substantial wealth to keep his bid for the Republican presidential nomination going. “I have never thought about it,” Mr. McCain was quoted by The Arizona Republic as saying at a July appearance. “I would never do such a thing, so I wouldn’t know what the legalities are.”

Hundreds of U.S.-Funded Reconstruction Contracts in Iraq Terminated, but We Paid for Them – A report from the Inspector General in charge of overseeing Iraq reconstruction that details the scores of projects left unfinished and millions of dollars wasted. Hundreds of reconstruction contracts in Iraq have been terminated for the U.S. government convenience or due to the contractor’s default, said a U.S. audit report released on Monday. The report by the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction (SIGIR) said approximately 42.23 billion U.S. dollars has been appropriated for Iraq reconstruction activities since 2003, with 35.3 billion out of it obligated as of January 2008. “Rebuilding Iraq is a U.S. national security and foreign policy priority, and constitutes the largest U.S. assistance program since the Second World War,” it said.

However, among 47,321 projects accounted, nearly 855 reconstruction contracts or task orders under individual contracts have been terminated as of March 20, according to the report. It said 743 contracts were terminated for the U.S. government convenience, meaning “it has the right to cancel work under a contract whenever it determines that cancellation is in its best interest.”

The Bush Administration Redefines Solitary Confinement – From John McCain’s Faith of My Fathers, discussing his imprisonment by the North Vietnamese:

It’s an awful thing, solitary. It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment…. There is little doubt that solitary confinement causes some mental deterioration in even the most resilient of personalities…. Through flashed hand signals when we were moved about, tap codes on the wall, notes hidden in washroom drains, and holding out enamel drinking cups up to the wall with our shirts wrapped around them and speaking through them, we were able to communicate with one another.

The government’s argument that Gitmo detainees imprisoned in isolation are not in solitary confinement, according to the New York Times: “The prosecutors argued that the way that Mr. Hamdan was being held did not constitute solitary confinement in part because “detainees can communicate through the walls.”

So. Either John McCain, who’s been campaigning on his mistreatment at the hands of the North Vietnamese for more than a quarter of a century, did not experience solitary confinement, or the government’s position is wrong.

What will McCain say about this?

John McCain is Very Mixed Up About Capital Gains Taxes (and the Economy in General) – On ABC TV’s This Week, McCain said, “Senator Obama says that he doesn’t want to raise taxes on anybody over — making over $200,000 a year, yet he wants to nearly double the capital gains tax. Nearly double it, which 100 million Americans have investments in — mutual funds, 401(k)s — policemen, firemen, nurses. He wants to increase their taxes.” is that is flatly false. It is in fact so fundamentally, embarrassingly wrong that if any other Presidential contender said it, that comment alone might be the end of their bid for the White House.

Investments contained in 401-K’s (Or in the case of ‘policemen, firemen’ usually a 403-B), pensions, IRAs, tax deferred variable annuities, and similar retirement vehicles aren’t subject to capital gains tax — they’re not taxed at all. Changing the capital gains tax rate will have zero effect on them. Withdrawals from tax deferred accounts by retirees are generally taxed at whatever the income tax rate is for that person at the time of withdrawal (Which, incidentally, is usually a hell of a lot more than the current long term capital gains tax rate, yet another way to rip off the middle class).

Ft. Bragg Barracks Has Deplorable Conditions
The YouTube video of a Ft. Bragg barracks below shows paint peeling and falling from exposed pipes, mildewed ceilings and showers, a toilet seat torn in half and a soldier standing on a sink trying to unplug a bathroom drain. Sewage appears to cover the bathroom floor.

The video was made by Edward Frawley, the father of a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division who returned from Afghanistan on April 13 and is among the soldiers now living in the barracks. “This is unbelievable,” Frawley says in the video. “It’s disgusting. It makes me mad as hell. If these buildings were in any city in America and were called apartments, dormitories, they would be condemned.”

Frawley said his son, Sgt. Jeff Frawley, a member of Charlie Company’s 2nd platoon, lived in the remote mountains of Afghanistan near the Pakistan border for most of his deployment. Frawley said his son went eight weeks without a shower and just as long without outside contact. “These solders spent 15 long, hard, difficult months in some of the most remote, dangerous areas of the mountains of Afghanistan,” Frawley says in the video. “They didn’t complain, they just did their job. Now you are going to see what we did for them when they returned home.”

 

Regards,

Jim