Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Another letter to the editor from the Post-Intelligencer of October 10 by Patrick Switzer of Lynwood, Washington demonstrates how far Dino Rossi is from economic reality with gas, food and about everything else connected to the cost of living is hurting those at the low end of the wage scale.

Switzer writes concerning the Republican Party's 2008 gubernatorial nominee in the state of Washington:

"On the subject of Dino Rossi wanting to reduce the minimum wage if he is elected governor:  That would be a huge mistake.

"I was one of the many people who gathered signatures for the I-688 back in 1998 to get the minimum wage increased and indexed to the consumer price index.  If he were to attempt this, there would be a huge backlash because he would be thwarting the will of the people.

"Hundreds of thousands of people signed the petitions and a majority voted it into law that year and the majority of the people who live on the minimum wage are the sole breadwinner in their family.  

"I happen to be currently living on it myself and will rally people to resist this misguided effort if he is elected.  Working people will not stand for this attack from someone who does not care about the needs of the working people."

Dino Rossi along with the developers have managed to so overbuild in Seattle and its satellite cities that we are over-borrowed with overbuilding.  But not to worry, most developers take their juicy cut off the top.  And with Mayor Greg Nickels' proposal for allowing approximately 12 years with no taxes as an incentive to this endless overbuilding cycle, developers can rest on their hefty bank accounts.

All this occurs while the average homeowner who pays his monthly mortgage faithfully is forced to compete when selling.  With bank "funny money" overloading the market generating a myriad of unsold properties, this can well explain why 117 U.S. banks are in deep trouble.  Quite a few banks have closed or merged with other banks.

Virginia M. Paulson of Seattle accurately explains why some homebuyers gambled with their own economic future.

Paulson in her October 10 letter to the Post-Intelligencer wrote the following:

"Between 1980 and 2007 homeowners sold their homes at the highest possible price, often making considerable amounts of money beyond any investment in their houses.  Home buyers without realizing their economic limitations bought houses, often mega mansions, at grossly inflated prices, leading to the housing bubble.

"Home buyers did not read their mortgage contracts or seem to be able to do the math about the full costs of a subprime, interest-only or ARM mortgages.

"The bottom line is that Americans who sold and bought houses during this time have only themselves to blame for the current economic crisis if they bought beyond their means."

John McCain, along with his insurance lobbyist campaign operatives and supporters, have a health care plan to take care of you.

Ella C. Larrick in her October 10 letter reveals who the McCain plan really covers and it is not you the victim-consumer:

"John McCain stated, 'I believe the key to real reform is to restore control over our health care system to the patients themselves.'  This sounds uncomfortably similar to George W. Bush's statements in his attempts to privatize Social Security.  Ask anybody right now if they would like to have even their Social Security benefits in the stock market, let alone their 401(k).

"As if trusting one's health care insurance to the open market weren't enough to scare us away from that route, let's look at other, even worse effects of the McCain/Palin health care reform.  The per family $5,000 refundable tax credit ($2,500 for individuals) would be taxed on one's paycheck as the Social Security tax is now.  That is a TAX INCREASE!

"'A study from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain/Palin plan.'  (Bob Herbert, The New York Times, Sept. 16)."

"Double speak" is mentioned in George Orwell's book "1984" exposing how politicians speak out of both sides of their mouth.  Perhaps Sarah Palin read "1984" and it gave her some ideas.

After the lengthy investigation in Alaska to determine if she broke any laws or abused her powers as governor, the outcome is revealed.

Sarah's sister was married to a state trooper.  They divorced and the clash was ferocious.  An investigation was launched to determine if a man supervising this ex-husband was fired because he refused to fire the state trooper Sarah's sister claimed had threatened her.

The investigation concluded that Sarah Palin had broken no laws.  Nevertheless it was determined that Sarah Palin as governor had engaged in an abuse of power.

When Sarah was questioned by the media regarding the outcome of this much publicized investigation, the happy face, bubbly vice presidential candidate joyously exclaimed that she was "pleased" with the outcome.  She claimed that the special prosecutor had cleared her of any "abuse of power" or "ethical violation", which was the opposite of what was stated in the report.

As Rachel Maddow said on her MSNBC program October 13, it was clear that Sarah Palin "lied" in making such a bogus claim, which was refutable based on the language of the report.

After such a blatant example of "double speak" I wondered if Palin might have read Orwell's deeply prophetic allegorical political novel about a terrifying future world.

Then I dismissed that idea as I recalled that Sarah isn't into a lot of reading, since she was unable in her interview by Katie Couric to provide the name of one newspaper or periodical that she read regularly.  For that question Palin had the audacity to blame Couric for practicing "gotcha" interview tactics.

To paraphrase an old saying, if the message overwhelms you then blame the interviewer.