Whither Trickle?

From Truthdig

Finally, let’s discuss the other bit of demagoguery in McCain’s most recent speeches, when he complains about the “redistribution of wealth” and equates an income tax rebate for working people with “welfare.” Leaving aside the racial subtext of those remarks, it is hard to say whether they display ignorance, dishonesty or both. The American tax system, like all other taxation in modern nations, has always redistributed wealth. Sometimes it sends streams of money upward, from low-income taxpayers into the pockets of corporate executives; at other times it sends those streams downward, to assist the very poor.

– Joe Conason

via The Greenbelt

Releasing the Hounds

From Dana Milbank's column at Washingtonpost.com:

"If you turn on the news tonight when you get home, you're gonna see that, yah, this is another woeful day in the market, and the other side just doesn't understand -- no!" she said at an afternoon fundraiser at the home of mutual fund giant Jack Donahue. "Especially in a time like this, you don't propose to increase taxes. The phoniest claim in a campaign that's full of them is that Barack Obama is going to cut your taxes."

Of course, Obama never promised to cut taxes for people at $10,000-a-plate lunches in air-conditioned tents on waterfront compounds. And the crowd -- among them New York Jets owner Woody Johnson -- reacted without applause to Palin's Joe Six-Pack lines. After they didn't strike up the usual "Drill, baby, drill" or "USA" chants, Palin, rattled, read hurriedly through the rest of her speech.

The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of "Palin Power" and "Sarahcuda" T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. "One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," she said. ("Boooo!" said the crowd.) "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she continued. ("Boooo!" the crowd repeated.)

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

McCain has forced his supporters to confront something about their candidate. His legislative pedigree and his choice of VP have drawn clear lines around the causes he's counting on for election:

The cause of the coddled billionaires who are praying for continued free rein and a laissez-faire government because they've been allowed to put their money where the economy can't take it from them.

That's his pedigree.

The cause of fear and bigotry that is looking for people to hate and fear in order to insulate and protect just one set of values and through intimidation and exclusion.

Milbank writes that at the Clearwater Florida rally One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy.

That's the rabid energy that his choice of VP has unleashed.

via The Greenbelt

Draft of Financial Bill Online

Download a *.pdf of the discussion draft of the Financial Markets Bill.

Nancy Pelosi gets some credit for making sure this is available online for 24 hours before giving it a vote.

Update: …and loses some points for unnecessary harping.