Jim Webb Says No Bills Should Move Forward Until Brown is Seated

Welp, maybe healthcare won't get done so fast after all. I agree with Webb. Open up healthcare talks and come up with a bipartisan bill:

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) said the upper chamber shouldn't move forward with healthcare or any other bills until Brown is sworn in.

"In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process," Webb said in a statement. "To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated."

The statement from the centrist Webb is a warning shot to Democratic leaders who are now forced to confront how to move forward with health reform efforts and other top priorities in the wake of Brown's victory. Republicans now control 41 votes in the Senate, meaning they will have enough votes to sustain a filibuster if they all stick together. The Hill

Jim Webb Says McChrystal's Actions Confusing

It's clear, Gen. Stanley McChrystal needs to remember that he's on a team--Team America. Obama reminded staff at the National Counterterrorism Center this morning that there is one mission and one team. The precedent McChrystal is setting is potentially dangerous. The military can't be the boss of the President. Chain of command is crucial.

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Sen. Jim Webb Wants to Fix the Prison System

He writes:

Parade: America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation's prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous. We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives.

We need to fix the system. Doing so will require a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long and of how we address the long-term consequences of incarceration. Twenty-five years ago, I went to Japan on assignment for PARADE to write a story on that country's prison system. In 1984, Japan had a population half the size of ours and was incarcerating 40,000 sentenced offenders, compared with 580,000 in the United States. As shocking as that disparity was, the difference between the countries now is even more astounding--and profoundly disturbing. Since then, Japan's prison population has not quite doubled to 71,000, while ours has quadrupled to 2.3 million.

The United States has by far the world's highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. In addition, more than 5 million people who recently left jail remain under "correctional supervision," which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions. All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year.

The United States has by far the world's highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. In addition, more than 5 million people who recently left jail remain under "correctional supervision," which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions. All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year.

Why do we have the highest incarceration rates?

Over the past two decades, we have been incarcerating more and more people for nonviolent crimes and for acts that are driven by mental illness or drug dependence. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 16% of the adult inmates in American prisons and jails--which means more than 350,000 of those locked up--suffer from mental illness, and the percentage in juvenile custody is even higher. Our correctional institutions are also heavily populated by the "criminally ill," including inmates who suffer from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis.

Part of the fix appears to be preventing drug abuse, which in turn would prevent drug related crime, and in turn would keep people out of prison for drug crimes. But the real problem probably stems from an unequal shot at an education. For those in poor neighborhoods, drugs are a way out.
Rich drug abusers go to counseling, as opposed to prison. So the real solution seems to be ending poverty through a number of means, such as early childhood education and better social support systems.
The problem could also be related to our vapid culture of greed, which finally (maybe) has collapsed.
There's probably a money making element as well. Someone is getting rich off of prisons.
Another issue is plain economics. Since two parents have to work now, some working more than one job, no one is watching the children. If we all get back to living within our means, perhaps cost of living will decrease, people will get out of debt and one parent--father or mother--can pay more attention to their children.

Webb Said He Won't Be Vice President

Jim Webb really, really says no. 

The Short VP List and The Real List

There's a difference:

NYT: There are the real lists, bluff lists and lists of politicians who make a big show of saying they don’t want to be on the list even though they never were or would have been. Entire ballrooms in Denver and St. Paul could be filled with people who will claim to have been on Mr. Obama’s and Mr. McCain’s short lists.

“There’s a short list for show, and then there’s the actual short list,” said Chuck Todd, the NBC News political director. And the “short list for show” can actually become quite long. It could include names that the campaign releases as plums to key supporters, whether or not said key supporters are actually being considered as running mates.

Here's my speculation: Joe Biden is out. Jim Webb is out. Mark Warner is out. They've all said they're not interested and seemed to mean it.

Meanwhile, Frank Rich says we've all forgotten the war. Sadly, people are still getting killed but we've tuned out, largely because we want out.
Expect more war mongering from John McCain, though:

NYT: One neocon pundit, Charles Krauthammer, summed up this alternative-reality mind-set in a recent column piously commanding Mr. McCain to “make the election about Iraq” because “everything is changed,” and “we are winning on every front.” The war, he wrote, can be “the central winning plank of his campaign.” (Italics his.)

This hyperventilating wasn’t necessary, because this is what Mr. McCain is already trying to do. His first general election ad, boosted by a large media buy in swing states this month, was all about war. It invoked his Vietnam heroism and tried to have it both ways on Iraq by at once presenting Mr. McCain as a stay-the-course warrior and taking a (timid) swipe at President Bush. “Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war,” Mr. McCain said in his voice-over. That unnamed fool would be our cowboy president, who in March told American troops how he envied their “in some ways romantic” task of “confronting danger.”

Really, does anyone think we're "winning" the war. We don't even know what that means. But we can't discount McCain's fear mongering. Bush proved that it works.

Harold Ickes Perpetuates Popular Vote Lie

harold ickes, senior adviser to hillary, on meet the press.
hillary says she has more popular votes, uses it in her advertising and it's an outright lie. as americans, we have to stop accepting the lies that politicians tell us.
on hillary's popular vote lie: harold ickes said they're counting florida and michigan. they don't think the "uncommitted" votes were a vote for obama. they're not even giving those to him. the audacity. hillary's people are downright awful, doing anything to get hillary elected. the sooner they're gone the better.
superdelegates since super tuesday:
33 for clinton
237 for obama
tim asked if obama would make a good president.
"i think he would make a very good president."

McCain Stingy on Veteran Bills

mccain's voting record:

latimes: On Webb's GI Bill, he expressed opposition, and he was AWOL when it was time to vote on May 22.

* Last September, he voted against another Webb bill that would have mandated adequate rest for troops between combat deployments.

* On a badly needed $1.5-billion increase for veterans medical services for fiscal year 2007 -- to be funded through closing corporate tax loopholes -- he voted no. He also voted against establishing a trust fund to bolster under-budgeted veterans hospitals.

* In May 2006, he voted against a $20-billion allotment for expanding swamped veterans medical facilities.

* In April 2006, he was one of 13 Senate Republicans who voted against an amendment to provide $430 million for veterans outpatient care.

* In March 2004, he voted against and helped defeat on a party-line vote a $1.8-billion reserve for veterans medical care, also funded by closing tax loopholes.
more

McCain on the Wrong Side of GI Bill

what was he thinking?
mccain (and george bush, who also opposes the GI bill) obviously doesn't have any faith in the soldiers. he thinks they'd sign up for the military and bail after three years to go to college. even if they serve three years and go to college, that would be their right. obama supports the bill, sponsored by jim webb.

cnn: The bill, which passed the Senate last week 75-22, would expand education benefits for veterans who served at least three years in the military after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

A former Navy officer and prisoner of war during Vietnam, McCain says the bill would hurt military retention by 16 percent and be a disincentive for service members to become noncommissioned officers, which he called "the backbone of all the services." Democrats cite the Congressional Budget Office, whose figures say the expanded benefits would boost enlistment by 16 percent. Watch more of McCain's comments »

"I think John McCain has been outmaneuvered," said GOP strategist Ed Rollins, who had served as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign chairman. "Sometimes in politics, there are intellectual issues and emotional issues."

"John McCain is going against veterans groups; he is going against a constituency that should be his. ... But I think he is on the wrong side of this issue," Rollins said. "A lot of Republicans are voting for this, and I think to a certain extent as it moves forward there will be more and more. There will be tremendous pressure from veterans groups past and present and I think you will see a lot of bipartisan support for this as well." more

wesley clark makes the argument for why mccain is wrong:
The White House has voiced concern on the bill, arguing that if returning troops are offered a good education, they will choose college over extending their service. This is as offensive as it is absurd.

First, it is morally reprehensible to fix the system so that civilian life is unappealing to service members, in an attempt to force them to re-up. Education assistance is not a handout, it is a sacred promise that we have made for generations in return for service.

Second, falling military recruitment numbers are just as serious as retention problems. To send the message that this nation will not help you make the most of your life will dissuade a large number of our best and brightest from choosing military service over other career options.

McCain has made it a point to remind audiences that service to one's nation is bigger than one's self. Indeed, there is nothing more noble than risking your life for your country. Every day, Americans are doing just that, as they serve longer and more frequent deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

John McCain is a War Hero

and he wants you to know that, so get ready to hear it A LOT. for everything that mccain does is based on his deep knowledge of fighting in a war, which is why he, along with george, opposed the GI bill for veterans. seem ironic? the senate, by the way, overwhelmingly passed the bill, which pays for veterans education.
obama has supported the bill and is adamant about taking better care of veterans. obama has talked about this on numerous ocassions.
mccain thinks the GI bill, sponsored by jim webb, is too expensive and will hurt retention. the bill would cost $2 billion a year, equal to less than a week in iraq. here's his rant to the press:

......"When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house in New London, Connecticut, and a Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. My father immediately left for the submarine base where he was stationed. I rarely saw him again for four years. My grandfather, who commanded the fast carrier task force under Admiral Halsey, came home from the war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day. I grew up in the Navy; served for twenty-two years as a naval officer; and, like Senator Webb, personally experienced the terrible costs war imposes on the veteran. The friendships I formed in war remain among the closest relationships in my life. The Navy is still the world I know best and love most. In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home to the country they loved so well.

then he goes on and on:

At a time when the United States military is fighting in two wars, and as we finally are beginning the long overdue and very urgent necessity of increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps, one study estimates that Senator Webb's bill will reduce retention rates by 16%.

"Most worrying to me, is that by hurting retention we will reduce the numbers of men and women who we train to become the backbone of all the services, the noncommissioned officer. In my life, I have learned more from noncommissioned officers I have known and served with than anyone else outside my family. And in combat, no one is more important to their soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen, and to the officers who command them, than the sergeant and petty officer. They are very hard to replace. Encouraging people not to choose to become noncommissioned officers would hurt the military and our country very badly. As I said, the office of President, which I am seeking, is a great honor, indeed, but it imposes serious responsibilities. How faithfully the President discharges those responsibilities will determine whether he or she deserves the honor. I can only tell you I intend to deserve the honor if I am fo rtunate to receive it, even if it means I must take politically unpopular positions at times and disagree with people for whom I have the highest respect and affection.

"Perhaps, if Senator Obama would take the time and trouble to understand this issue he would learn to debate an honest disagreement respectfully. But, as he always does, he prefers impugning the motives of his opponent, and exploiting a thoughtful difference of opinion to advance his own ambitions. If that is how he would behave as President, the country would regret his election."

and he goes on and on.

obama's response
more from obama
GI bill facts
more analysis at dailykos.

Jim Webb Says He Doesn't Want Veep Spot

on npr minutes ago, jim webb, promoting his new book, answered questions about a possible vice president slot. here's some of what he said paraphrased.
if i had to pick a prototype politially, daniel moynihan is the man i admire the most. he was able to bring intellectual thought into the debate.
webb went on to say: i have a great deal of regard for barack obama, also hillary by the way. but i can do you a lot more good in the senate.