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HAT TIP AND KUDOS TO THE CARPETBAGGER REPORT FOR THIS RATHER WORTHWHILE (AND WORTH READING) ITEM asking which version of John McCain can you trust as credible and accurate when it comes to socioeconomic policy pronouncements in his Indecision 2008 Presidential bid:

The Tax Policy Center prepared an interesting report (pdf) this week, noting the key differences between the economic policies articulated by John McCain and the economic policies presented by John McCain’s presidential campaign. There’s a bit of a gap — to the tune of $2.8 trillion (that’s “trillion,” with a “t”).

According to the study, the tax plan McCain’s campaign laid out privately is different from the one he’s selling on the stump. If you include the policies he has advocated publicly—such as repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, increasing the dependent exemption to $7,000 right away, and reducing the corporate tax rate to 25 percent immediately—then the deficit after 10 years would actually be $2.8 trillion greater than if you go by his private plan. There’s also a rhetorical gap for Obama, but in his case the public version generates more revenue than the private one, thanks to a suggested hike in payroll taxes for people who make $250,000 or more.

How does the McCain campaign respond to this? As it turns out, hilariously.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s chief economic adviser, told Slate, “[McCain] has certainly I’m sure said things in town halls” that don’t jibe perfectly with his written plan. But that doesn’t mean it’s official.”

Got that? If we want to better understand John McCain’s economic policies, we should overlook what John McCain says about his economic policies. McCain’s “official” positions don’t come from McCain.

As Yglesias summarized, “Basically, the McCain campaign’s position is that their candidate should be allowed to produce one set of “official” numbers for the purposes of expert scrutiny. But when going around the country talking to voters, McCain should be allowed to produce a different set of “unofficial” proposals — perhaps made with his fingers crossed behind his back — that are designed to trick voters into believing he means what he says, while really they’re just unofficial proposals he doesn’t mean. Or something.”

Wonk Room dug a little deeper.

Two problems: the numbers Holtz-Eakin gave to the Tax Policy Center in their initial analysis weren’t available to “anyone who asks,” and pointing out the gaping distinctions between what McCain says on the stump and what his advisers say in private, is far from parsing.

For months, the McCain campaign had not offered specific numbers on his profligate budget proposals. In June, Robert Bixby of the Concord Coalition, a prominent advocacy group for balanced budgets, told Bloomberg news: “I haven’t received anything, and if some of the other groups have then I’ll be really ticked off…If he’s got some more complete budget proposal he can send I’d love to get it.”

Detailed figures did finally appear publicly in the first Tax Policy Center report and later in the Washington Post, but are still not available on the campaign’s web site. And no wonder: there are still serious inconsistencies between what his advisers provide to the wonks at the Tax Policy Center (and the editorial board of the Washington Post) and what appears on McCain’s web site and in his stump speeches.

As Douglas Holtz-Eakin himself has said, only “Senator McCain speaks for Senator McCain.” Silly us, we believed him.

Let this be a lesson to all of us — according to the McCain campaign, we shouldn’t take too seriously the things John McCain actually tells us. Good to know.

As well as plenty of worthwhile ammunition for to swift-boat McCain with, and then some.

Especially when you consider where the conservative propaganda masheen is pushing that rather groundless, McCarthyist meme of Barak Obama being some class of a "Communist," "European Socialist" or "Manchurian Candidate" type as is keeping these connexions from public notice when, in fact, McCain is more than likely to be the real Manchurian Candidate in view of his subjection to psychological abuse and cruelty in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war facility in the Vietnam War as may wind up afflicting his thought processes to the point where irrational decisions may ensue without warning or provocation.

And let's not forget that incident where he supposedly referred to his wife with a vulgar term for the female naughty bits as is definitely among the infamous Seven Dirty Words unfit for radio or television broadcast.

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FOR SOME REASON OR ANOTHER, 21ST-CENTURY AMERICAN SOCIETY--OTHERWISE EXPECTED TO BE ENLIGHTENED AND REFINED--has stooped to the point where ignorance and stupidity are being excused as "virtuous" among the Great Unwashed.

And that such exercises in stupidity are to be seen as "healthy" and "necessary***to protect those in positions of power and authority, confidence and trust;" any displays of Knowledge and Intellectualism are to be seen as one with "Communism" or otherwise being in league with His Satannic Majesty.

Up there with the Oceanic police state of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four--only such exercises in stupidity were to be looked upon as using doublethink to protect Big Brother and Ingsoc.

Leonard Pitts, Jnr., who writes for the Miami Herald, tells us "Not so fast, bucko!" thus:

I love comic books.

For 41 years, I've studied them, collected them, written and read exhaustively about them. So I hope you'll agree I'm qualified to judge the merits of a comic book created by one Brent Rinehart as a tool in his campaign for reelection as a commissioner of Oklahoma County, Okla.

It is really, really bad. You may see for yourself by clicking the link to be found at www.anorak.co.uk/anorak-in-new-york/185867.html.

Now, you may think my less than glowing appraisal stems from its rank anti-gay bigotry, including a depiction of a gay man with horns. Or from the artwork, which looks like something scrawled by a gifted 6-year-old.

Well, yes. But here's the main reason Rinehart's work offends: It is astonishingly stupid.

Voters should support him because an angel does? His opponents are in league with Satan? Old Scratch is working to ''get kids to believe homosexuality is normal'' and Rinehart is their only defense? And I haven't even mentioned the creative punctuations and multiple misspellings.

I am not an Oklahoma County voter, so maybe you wonder why I care about Rinehart's campaign. I don't. What I do care about is what I will call the ongoing stupidification of America, of which this is but one glaring example among many. Think of the congressman who advocated bombing Mecca to teach Muslims a lesson. Think of the ''zero tolerance'' policy that required a 10-year-old to be suspended for bringing to school the tiny toy gun from his GI Joe. Think of the ''Jay Walking'' segment on The Tonight Show where average Americans cannot answer basic questions of civics and history. Think of those cable shows where we are theoretically entertained by coarse women vying for the affection of washed-up rock stars. Heck, read your junk e-mail.

And then tell me you don't feel the nation's collective IQ dropping like stocks.

I am not talking about ignorance. Ignorance is a lack of information; we're all ignorant in one way or another. Nor am I talking about people prone to punctuation or spelling errors; we all make mistakes.

No, I'm talking about stupidity, which I define as an inability to analyze, draw conclusions from, or otherwise use information even when one has it. And stupidity is often characterized by smug indifference. When a CNN anchor drew Rinehart's attention to his spelling errors, his reply was, ''I don't necessarily care.'' This is, I feel constrained to remind you, the elected representative of 220,000 people.

For as much as we obsess over black vs. white and red vs. blue, I suspect the defining division of this technology-driven era will be between those who have and can exploit information and those who do not and cannot. Between intelligence and its opposite. One wonders how long we can continue to equate stupidity with ''keeping it real,'' being a regular Joe or Jane, and hope to continue leading the world.

There's a movie, Idiocracy, which posits a post-intelligent future in which the stupid have inherited the Earth. It's not a great film, but there is a truth to it. You watch the characters watching a reality show that consists entirely of some guy being kicked in the testicles and you realize you wouldn't be surprised to see that show on VH-1 tomorrow.

Why not? In recent years, we have seen intelligence demonized as the sole province of the ''elite,'' a term that once described accomplishment, but is now used to condemn anyone who looks like he might have accidentally cracked a book or had a thought.

Not long ago, I gave a commencement address in which I told young people I am less concerned with what they think than that they think. Because we are losing that skill. Me, I find that alarming.

Maybe you disagree. I bet you'll feel differently when Brent Rinehart is president.

As for the Zealots and True Believers in Neo-Conservatism--Good Christians All, remember?--they will blame "Public education! Public education!" in that annoyingly grating singsong meme in the key of "Ring around the collar! Ring around the collar!" for same, and guess what they'll recommend as the ideal antidote:

Nothing better than tuition vouchers "opening the magic doors to freedom of choice" as turn out limiting access to religio-sectarian "Christian Academies" placing an idealised "Traditional Values" syllabus over core skills, reinforced by parroted-out bumper-sticker slogans virtually on cue @ assemblies ... mandatory prayer and chapel as is really nothing more than a drunken tirade ... mandatory paramilitary training with live ammunition ... in short, a general climate of "healthy [and] patriotic" fanaticism rivalled only by Nazi Germany and, to a lesser extent, apartheid South Africa.

Or, alternately, using same towards homeschooling materials whose syllabus is essentially the same as apartheid South Africa's Nasionale Christen Opverdoing such--again, placing an idealised delusion of "Traditional Values" over core skills, reinforced by deliberate social isolation based on the delusion that Knowledge must be some class of a Loathsome Disease requiring all manner of quarantine lest the end result be in the same league as that scene which seems common in films of the Godzilla stylee: Otherwise innocent people in the streets suddenly screaming out their lungs, running in outright panic en masse while police sound trucks repeatedly proclaim "Please remain calm! Do not panic!" and air-raid sirens wail all over town in the "attack" mode in the prelude to a general state of mayhem tinctured by paranoia.

Otherwise known to psychatrists of a certain time as "schizophrenic germs," based on a lack of medical, let alone psychological, knowledge about the root causes of schizophrenia or schizoid-spectrum disorders, as if suggesting that "schizophrenic germs" were something in the vein of germs as can cause typhoid, influenza, common colds, tubuculerosis, even the HIV/AIDS virus, among other Loathsome and Disgusting such.

Which probably speaks volumes of the 21st century, expected years ago to become the Age of Aquarius, now becoming the Age of Doublethink in service to a warped and misguided agenda. And to be excused as "healthy" and/or "patriotic" if and when asked.

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MEANWHILE, YOU MAY HAVE HEARD WHERE FOX PROLEFEED ACTUALLY REFUSED(!!) TO ACCEPT PETITIONS SIGNED BY SOME 350,000 PEOPLE the other day, as called on Fox Prolefeed to stop pandering to latent feelings of racism and bigotry among its Great Unwashed audience and start being a serious "news" channel for once.

Prompting Your Correspondent to wonder if Fox Prolefeed is actually receiving super-secret payments from racist and white-supremacist organisations to advance their "talking points" in the guise of "news and information," and--if such be the case--failing to disclose the fact to viewers. Not to mention resorting to elaborate ruses to avoid arousing suspicions among "meddling Secular-Progressive bloggers."

Up there with what I said in a previous Open Letter about whether Fox Prolefeed is engaging in a "cash-for-comments" scam designed solely to advance conservative "talking points" for "winning of hearts and minds" in the guise of news reportage, with intent all the while to mislead or confuse viewers by not disclosing such payments, or the exact emouluments thereof, or how same are made.

As if that weren't enough, Fox Prolefeed should be reminded that their "mothership," News Corporation, shows a general tendency towards reckless and irresponsible journalism, as the recent Invasion of Privacy case Formula 1 president Max Mosley brought against the News of the World (and for which Herr Mosley, son of British Fascist majordomo Sir Oswald Mosley, won some £60,000 in damages the other day) revealeth.

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OH, AND ONE THING MORE (as Paul Harvey oft closes out his news bulletins absent a "For What It's Worth" item):

How do we know these same Zealots and True Believers in using stupidity as a device to keep the Lower Classes in line all the more aren't secretly plotting designs on delibertately feeding into culturally-deprived environments a carefully-crafted, and @ once deliberate, stream of "eleegant poornoo!" (yes, that phrase was spotted of Your Correspondent in a "spam" e-mail promoting adult websites) in its crudest forms of depravity?

Especially the kind of "poornoo" as is, put simply, explicit hardcore, as if suggesting where Kankerdom is quickly bored by "schoolboy" soft porn of the Playboy/Penthouse/Hustler stylee, that their "folk culture" actually "tolerates" indecent jokes, songs and stories in mixed company--especially such involving farm animals, children and "inferior" peoples.

Not to mention generically packaged as Adult Sex Videos cheap and cheerful, all lacking any sort of underlying plot or story--in other words, just nothing more than random sex scenes over a reechy-sounding travesty of Muzak as soundtrack, with the occasional scenes of animals mating slipped in for variety. And without the common courtesy of a warning that such should not be sold or rented to anyone under 18 years of age, let alone the usual "nonsense" (as the conservative "foundations" likely subsidising the project will claim in their usual anti-regulatory mode) about "all models in this video are certified to be 18 years of age or older."

The latter, perhaps, concealing the likelihood of child-sex scenes somehow being slipped into these videos "for variety" as turns out to be deliberate, yet all the while denying responsibility (or expected to) if and when pushed.

8 hours old

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THUS OBSERVED TANK "THE SHREDDER" EVANS IN SURF'S UP LAST SUMMER in explaining himself, all the while glossing over the fact (evident as the film goes on) that he plays arrogant to the point of dirty when it comes to surfing competition, thus earning him much enmity--and costs him a tenth Big Z Memorial Surf-Off Competition, losing to the most unlikeliest of competitiors:

None other than Chicken Joe out of Sheboygan.

(And it turns out that Big Z had been in hiding all along as Geek.)

I bring this up as something of a reflection on how Your Correspondent approaches weblogging, especially considering where a number of Zealots and True Believers in conservative misinformation hold dear their own deluded fantasy about Secular-Progressive bloggers being somehow "reckless and irresponsible" when, in fact, the charge amounts to projection seeking to protect conservative Zealotry and True Belief rooted in lies, half-truths, distortions of fact and misinformation which, as required, can involve pornographic distraction having no other useful purpose or benefit.

And I take my Secular-Progressive leanings as a Badge of Honour--please note this, Bill O'Reilly and suchlike among thy ilk deluded in your own warped arrogance, in case you stumble upon this blog, let alone this item. And you ain't whistling the Horst Wessel for nothing!

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AND SPEAKING OF "SECULAR-PROGRESSIVE," TURKEY'S PRIME MINISTER HAS CALLED FOR NATIONWIDE CALM ahead of a hearing Monday by the Constitutional Court on a petition to have the ruling AK Party (successor to the now-banned Welfare Party) disbanded for Promoting an Overtly Islamist Agenda incompatible with the Turkish Constitution's mandate of a Secular-Progressive Republic.

(Memo to those Americans who call yourselves "patriots" and "defenders of the Constitution:" Read Article VI, clause (c) of the United States Constitution in its entire--especially so the last part, proscribing use of "religious test" as a political qualifier. And don't come crying to moi.)

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YOUR CORRESPONDENT MAY BE, PERHAPS, THE FIRST TO WONDER if the ongoing flap over Michael "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" Savage in the wake of his ill-advised remarks about autism and autism-spectrum disorders may be enough for some talkback-radio broadcasters to start doing some serious soul-searching as to whether they should continue in the format, if not already.

Which they may want to now more than ever, especially considering:

• the strident and, @ times, vitriolic tone among especially conservative-leaning talkback-radio hosts;
• the appeal of especially conservative-leaning talkback hosts, and their message, to the easily-influenced, vulnerable and marginalised of Society (including some with serious mental and/or emotional disorders as are too easily open to suggestion or influence);
• the risks some talkback hosts (and their broadcasters) are unaware of when said hosts cross the line into outright bigotry, racism, hatemongering, xenophobia or appeals pandering to the crudest and basest of "patriotic" feelings--especially so when such raises questions of incitement to hate crimes; and
• the vast majority of advertisers on talkback radio shows, especially the kind supporting conservative viewpoints, tending to the dubious, questionable or otherwise disreputable, especially so the likes of:
• precious-metals dealers selling gold and silver for "wealth protection" and "investment;"
• "turnkey home business" and "money-making opportunities" tending to overdo it on glowing generalities when it comes to earnings claims as may really be transient to the point of illusory;
• "wealth preservation" programmes crossing the line into offshore "pure trusts" designed solely for tax avoidance more than serious "wealth preservation," if Truth be known;
• "debt consolidation" and "credit repair" companies more than likely demanding payment in advance, notwithstanding the law proscribing the practice;
• "guaranteed approval" offers for loans, grants, credit cards, student loans and other financial services; and
• "travel clubs" that would make Clark Griswold look like Johnny Test, for all we know.

All in all, I would just love to see such broadcasters clinging feebly to talkback radio in these interesting times--especially so such too heavily dependent upon syndicated hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Neal Boortz, Glenn Beck and others of obvious conservative leanings--do some serious soul-searching to the point of:

• perhaps receiving a number of unsolicited "cold-call" offers to buy the station outright, in the hope of making some worthwhile changes in programming and format (especially if the would-be buyers are "hometown" interests);
• putting the station up for sale outright;
• moving to the "woop-woop" and broadcasting on reduced power, in the end meaning a serious dilution in the audience numbers; or
• essentially dropping talkback radio outright and switching to a preferably music-and-personalities-driven format (as WCCO 8-3-0, the Good Neighbour to the Northwest up in the Twin Cities, called "Real Radio" in the early to mid-1980's), the preferred playlist being what the industry calls "middle-of-the-road" ("MOR" for short), a diverse mix of light pop, country, easy-listening, soft oldies and show tunes (encompassing both Broadway and Hollywood soundtracks) interspersed with chatty talk and regular news bulletins.

Even if it requires, for a Reasonable Interval, having to come up with some sappy filler to fill air time and pay the bills pending final sale or other change in format; one such I can recall reading about was where one California station as was in the process of sale a few years back played nothing but the Eagles hit "New Kid in Town" in all manner of possible permutations to fill air time ... and another was an FM station in suburban Duluth featuring nothing but classic and contemporary radio commercials for awhile.

For which we can indirectly thank Michael Savage for bringing about--and, in the end, for the better among American listeners.

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WHICH SHOULD BE THE VIEW OF ALL RIGHT-THINKING AMERICANS BEING TRICKED, DUPED OR OTHERWISE MANIPULATED INTO SUPPORTING THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG, otherwise known as John McCain, for Indecision 2008.

Especially so considering where the Mainstream Media is little more than outright lackeys to McCain's propaganda machine, and can be expected to manipulate their line to McCain's deluded notion of a Greater Collective Will as Will Save America From Herself.

Not to mention a belief that the free-market and self-regulated capitalism with American characteristics is and will forever be the Great White Father of especially the Lower Classes heretofore "enslaved" by State welfare into "embracing Socialistic or otherwise un-American beliefs and feelings" all the more discreetly. That said free market will actually lead the Lower Classes all the more towards a New Golden Age of Empowerment based on Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life thanks to wider selection ... greater choices ... and lower prices "as will greatly help the Lower Classes help themselves."

Which, unfortunately, winds up only keeping the Lower Classes all the more in poverty, fecundity and stupidity, the same to be excused as one with True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command.

Let alone epitomising as an ideal worthy of study and emulation an idealised small-town and rural Arcadian vision of Traditional Moral and Familial Values--the kind which, on closer inspection, is really nothing short of Peyton Place; IIBC, studies have shown that "moral turpitude" is all the more likely to be pronounced in rural and small-town America, notwithstanding a tendency to keep such in the closet out of a misguided belief that "neighbour trusts neighbour" and same all the more aggravated by a lack of worthwhile socioeconomic opportunities based on the very free-market paradigms and models which McCain and his droogs still insist on seeing as a Shining Beacon and Guide for the Lower Classes in Particular.

This while risking the further moral as much as socioeconomic bankruptcy of America thanks to weird and unwholesome associations and connexions which McCain is likely to cultivate while officially proclaiming himself to be a superdivine Saviour and Redeemer of America as will Reclaim Her from Herself--howbeit in his mind, not to mention delusions which may issue forth therefrom without provocation or warning that could risk our soverignty being further compromised to the point of potentially dangerous elements exploiting what McCain will likely have wrought via his psychoemotional demons.

And how will McCain likely respond?

As President, "he is above mortal error and weakness."

Don't fall for it.

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MEMO TO READERS: Because "truth is mighty, and shall prevail," those of you who especially value "letting America be America again," to paraphrase Langston Hughes, by their opposition to the McCain Presidential campaign, and its articles of faith, would do well to please share this blog item to their e-mail circles all the more.

Especially when it happens to include John McCain sympathisers, Zealots and True Believers; whether this will change their minds is anybody's guess, in all honesty.

And yet do so responsibly; besides, "spam" only hurts the effectiveness of a campaign, and can risk backfiring upon its creator.

"Money is the root of all evil."
Why not put yours in United States Savings Bonds?