Magic ponies, Democrats and November

from FDL

But the Democratic Party, while not in total denial, is not running on a platform to address any of these problems. They’re silent. And without knowing what, if anything, they plan to do about the monstrous issues facing the country, and trying to enlist the voters’ support in tackling those issues, they’ve given the voters no reason to vote for them.

To which I can only say ... Any left (or even center) leaning person that gives a shit about this country and does not vote for their local Democratic candidate for the House or the Senate should sit beside the 2000 Naderites on the "I am a dumbfuck" bench. There are no excuses for allowing a Republican takeover of Congress just because you didn't get a magic pony when Obama was elected. Suck it up and be a grownup.

My Campaign Platform - Part 1 of ?

Inspired by my Facebook friend Alberto Pupo (hi Alberto) I have compiled a bulleted list of some of what would be my election platform if I were so silly as to run for national office.

• Withdraw all troops from Afghanistan
• Withdraw all troops from Iraq
• Withdraw most troops from South Korea
• Cut Defense Spending by 30%
• Make university education free for all that can maintain a suitable GPA. Say 2.0 for undergrad, 3.0 for Masters level and 3.5 for PhD. Admission to a particular school would still be controlled by the school.
• Make community college/vocational training free for all that can maintain some reasonable standard of progress
• Universal single payer health care.
• Drop corporate income tax to 30%
• Change personal income tax brackets to be 10%, 20% and 30% at $50000, $100000 and $250000 respectively with anyone under $25000 paying no income tax
• Phase out of mortgage interest deduction. Existing mortgages will still have the interest deduction honored but mortgages entered into after election day will have only 5 years of tax deduction at which point the deduction will end.
• Elimination of most, if not all, tax deductions.
• Payroll taxes to be paid on all earned income
• Capital gains to be taxed as ordinary income with a lifetime $2000000 exemption.
• Estate tax of 30% with an exemption of $2000000. This can be added to any of the capital gains exemption that has not been used.
• End of software patents
• End of Business Process patents
• Immigration policies that encourage highly skilled people to come here without dealing with a multi-year process
• Enforcement of laws against hiring people without proper immigration status
• Pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers that have been here for 5 or more years.
• "Unskilled" worker visa.
• Elimination of TSA and DHS
• $150Billion over 10 years for public transportation
• $100Billion over 10 years for
• $50Billion/year for k-12 education to be distributed using a strict per-student formula.

I am sure that I will come up with some more points but this is a start.

McCain for Prime Minister

It occurred to me while reading a post over at Angry Bear that perhaps John McCain has just become confused as to which election he is running in.

Canada is having an election as well and since he thinks that Crocs and the Blackberry are the kinds of things that make this country great, maybe he is talking about Canada.

As a Canadian living in the US I am not sure that I would wish him on my native country but I sure as hell know that I am not very interested in having someone as out of touch with reality as he seems to be running my adopted one.