Clinton crosses a(nother) line

You all know what I think of John McCain and his disingenuous gas tax proposal. Well, now Hillary Clinton has decided to be both shortsighted and hypocritical, slamming Obama's opposition to McCain's proposal. Clinton is attempting to characterize Obama as unfeeling and unsympathetic to the American public, without noting her own opposition to the exact same legislation only 8 years ago.
I have refrained from caring about the Democratic Primary since my man Edwards dropped out, hoping against hope that neither candidate would stoop as low as any Republican would, thereby assuring our eventual victory in November. Clearly my hope has been misguided; both candidates have sought to disappoint me time after time. Obama seeks accommodation with the Republicans who want to destroy America, while Clinton wants "merely" to tarnish the front running Obama's image in an increasingly vain attempt to capture the nomination herself, apparently regardless of the cost to her integrity, our party, our country, and the world. By the time either of these people reach the general election, they will have ostracized so many factions of the populace that it will be hard to unite them in time to prevent the coronation of another Republican nightmare. Our greatest hope remains McCain's incompetence and truly mind-boggling episodes of mental deterioration--or is it merely convenient forgetfulness, as if that's better?--let alone his ceaseless pandering to the 30%ers still enamored of Smirky and the gang.
And that's sad.

John McCain: Republican garbage

I know the media likes telling the story that John McCain is "a maverick" and "a moderate", but anyone with 1/2 a brain can see that this is utter bullshit. He has been just as much an enabler of Smirky's brand of Republicanism as anyone you can find way out on the right wing. The latest evidence? McCain is brilliantly pandering to the worst instincts of the electorate by proposing a "summer break" in gas taxes. In how many ways is this dishonest? Let's see:
1) The taxes on gasoline go directly to upkeep on our highways and other transportation infrastructure; eliminating them hastens the complete destruction of our network of roads and bridges (remember Minnesota's collapsing bridge?). Heck, the gas taxes aren't high enough to pay for what needs doing as it is! (And here's a start.) But it sure sounds like he cares about us, doesn't it?
2) The likelihood that the oil companies would actually pass on the tax savings to the consumer approaches zero--seriously, does anyone trust them to ever do the right thing for anyone other than their biggest stockholders? The tax on a gallon of gas is 18.4 cents--I'll eat all of my hats if we see a reduction larger than 10 cents, and I would be hugely surprised if we see any reduction at all. When's the last time you remember a change in gas prices at the pump having anything to do with the price of a barrel of oil? So this is really about increasing profitability for the oil companies and reducing the income of the federal government--win/win (if you're a complete right wing rich asshole, that is)!
3) McCain's proposal actively hurts the conservation/green movement by appearing as if high prices are the issue, not our addiction to oil in the first place. Of course, that's because the Republicans are getting absolutely killed on both environmental grounds and charges of being in the pockets of the oil companies.
4) By making this kind of wholly disingenuous proposal, McCain demonstrates that he is just like Smirky, Dick, and the rest of the scumbags who will say/do anything to con the public into voting for them. If McCain truly cared about how much I pay for gas, why didn't he propose this, oh, say, 6 years ago, when prices began to rise precipitously? Or at any other time in his career? Answer: Because it wouldn't have helped him get elected to anything until now.

The problem is that the Republican Party has so successfully tarnished the concept of good government and what it can do to help the country, that few see the benefit in the concept of taxation. We must relearn that taxation is not the cause of any of our problems--it is what the government does with its income that has value (or not). Advocating for the elimination of taxes on April 15 is demagoguery, plain and simple. Anyone thinking that lowering taxes does anything positive clearly hasn't been paying attention, or simply doesn't care about our country. Our economy is staggering on the brink of total collapse thanks to 3 decades of economic irresponsibility, during which the Republicans have held the majority of the reins of power, and it's only getting worse. This is not a coincidence, for chrissakes! It is intentional, and they have been succeeding exactly through this kind of pandering. McCain is nothing but a typical Republican thug; believing anything else betrays the height of ignorance.