‘Nuff said.

On August 31, 2011, join Progressive Democrats of America Tucson Chapter, local MoveOn activists, and local nurses at Jon Kyl’s Tucson office (yes, he has one) at 6840 N. Oracle Rd., Suite 150, 6 p.m. Click here for a map. Click here to RSVP.

Arizona Senator Jon Kyl is a member of the new Super Congress which will decide our future and the future of our children and grandchildren. Tell Kyl to “have a heart”– not an ideology.

At yesterday’s northwest Tucson town hall Arizona Senator John McCain got an earful from progressives, conservatives, and other Southern Arizonans who are “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”

McCain tried to use the forum to push right-wing talking points– focusing on blaming President Obama for everything and pushing the idea of more corporate tax cuts, while freezing federal jobs. Unfortunately, the crowd wanted to know how Congress will create jobs– not cut jobs. Under the weak recovery, an estimated 1.5 million jobs have been created; with last week’s the debt ceiling/deficit reduction deal (which McCain voted for) an estimated 1.8 million jobs will be lost.

If you missed your chance to express yourself at the town hall yesterday, you have another chance today, August 10. MoveOn.org is organizing nationwide protests to Demand Congress Focus On Jobs Not Cuts.

Bring your signs, your sunscreen, and your floppy hats to Speedway and Campbell today. Here’s the information from MoveOn…

Tucsonans To Rally for Jobs and the American Dream
Rally Wednesday [August 10] at 4:30pm
NW Corner of Speedway & Campbell Tucson, AZ

In the wake of a final debt deal that raises the nation’s debt ceiling but fails to protect the middle class, local residents will gather Wednesday [August 10], at 4:30 at Speedway & Campbell to demand that our Arizona members of Congress stand up for the American Dream and focus on job creation rather than cuts to vital programs that many Americans depend on.

The debt deal, which will do nothing to create jobs, forces deep cuts to important programs that protect the middle class while asks nothing of big corporations and millionaires. And though it does not require cuts to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid benefits, it opens the door for these down the road via an unaccountable Congressional committee.

“We have a simple message: we need jobs, not budget cuts, said Ben Bosley a local MoveOn member. “We’re here today to say ‘enough is enough’ and demand that Republicans like John McCain and Jon Kyl stop their assault on the American Dream. It is far past time that Washington end the tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthy and use that money to revitalize our community and create good jobs that we so desperately need.”

The protest will take place on Wednesday at 4:30pm at the NW corner of Speedway Blvd & Campbell Avenue in Tucson.

Participants will also unveil a new Contract for the American Dream: a plan, written by over 125,000 Americans, to create jobs rather than destroy them. Local MoveOn on members will be delivering this document to Arizona members of Congress. The Contract was released Monday and can be seen here: http://contract.rebuildthedream.com.

Wednesday’s rally is one of over 250 such events nationwide, organized by the new American Dream Movement. In July, over 800 rallies were held across the country to protest the final debt deal that fails to protect the middle class. The American Dream Movement is a growing movement inspired by protests in Wisconsin and fueled by the brutal right-wing attacks on the middle class and the poor. MoveOn.org, along with countless organizations, have joined the American Dream Movement to fight to ensure that Americans have the opportunity to find a decent job, afford to go to college, and secure a future for our children and our communities.

Send this to every unemployed person you know.

The US-Mexico border fence between has been ballyhoo’d by the right as necessary to border security, denegrated human rights advocates as a contributing factor in border deaths, and repeated breached by Mexicans with ladders, hack saws, torches, catapults, tunnels, and memorials.

The most recent news is that right-wing Republican Legislators have started a fundraising to build more sections of the fence, since the federal government and the state government are strapped for cash. (Yeah, that’s the ticket ask us workers to pay for it, since we have so much extra cash on our hands.)

The latest assault against the border fence has been at the hands of Mother Nature, who knocked down a 40-foot section of the border fence using flood waters. Apparently, the multi-million-dollar border fence has a design flaw. [doh] Environmentalists and officials with the Organ Pipe National Monument officials warned the Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security of the potential for flood damage before the fence was built, but these warning were ignored.

From the Arizona Daily Star…

The design does not allow for the free flow of water in natural washes intersecting the border, he said. In washes, the fence has grate openings at the bottom that are 6 inches high and 24 inches wide with 1-by-3-inch bars.

“The fence acts as a dam and forms a gradual waterfall,” [Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Superintendent Lee] Baiza said. “It starts to pile up on the bottom as the grass, the leaves, the limbs start plugging up. The water starts backing up and going higher. The higher it gets, the more force it has behind it.”

Sunday’s storm dumped 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain in the area upslope from the area where the fence failed, according to the National Weather Service.

Bursts of strong rain are common at the park, meaning that other parts of the fence that are in the natural washes could be at risk of being knocked over, too, Baiza said.

The problems were anticipated by Organ Pipe officials.

In October 2007, before the fence was built by Kiewit Western Co. for $21.3 million, Organ Pipe officials told the U.S. Department of Homeland Security they were worried that the design would impede the movement of floodwater across the border; that debris would get trapped in the fence; that water would pool; and that the lateral flow of water would cause damage to the environment and patrol roads, according to a report issued by Organ Pipe in August 2008 about flooding that summer.

In response, the Border Patrol issued a final environmental assessment with a finding of no significant impact. It also said the fence would not impede the natural flow of water or cause flooding.
The agency said it would remove debris from the fence within the washes immediately after rains to ensure that no flooding occurred.

At a December 2007 meeting, Kiewit officials stated in a handout that the fence design “would permit water and debris to flow freely and not allow ponding of water on either side of the border” because the drainage crossing grates “met hydraulic modeling requirements.”

“Now we know who’s right,” said Matt Clark, Southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife. “Period. End of story.”
The situation is an example of how Homeland Security ignored expert advice from people within the federal government to ram through border-fencing projects, Clark said.

The first sign of problems occurred on July 12, 2008, when the 15-foot-high wire-mesh fence halted the natural flow of floodwater during a storm that dumped 1 to 2 inches of rain in 90 minutes around the border towns of Lukeville, and Sonoyta, Sonora.

Water pooled behind the fence and flooded into the Lukeville Port of Entry and private businesses, causing damage.
At the Gringo Pass convenience store, merchandise was damaged and the store was closed for cleanup, according to a lawsuit filed by the company against the U.S. government in 2009. The lawsuit says the flooding diminished property value by $6 million.

On Sunday, the storm also caused flooding in several buildings in Lukeville owned by Gringo Pass, Inc. after water pooled against the border fence and seeped into the structures. Those buildings now include a restaurant, post office, shuttle company and a duty-free store that had just received a new shipment of goods, said a store spokesperson. The convenience store is now out of business.

After the July 2008 flooding, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument officials issued a 17-page report detailing how it happened. Baiza said then he wanted government officials to revisit the design to prevent future problems.
To remedy the problem, the Army Corps of Engineers installed 50 to 60 liftable gates in 11 drainage systems as part of a 2010 drainage-improvement project. The system calls for the gates to be raised by a hoisting apparatus during storms so water can freely flow.

On Sunday, though, the gates were down, Baiza said.

Questions about the fence, the design and gates were not answered Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security or the Army Corps of Engineers.

The recent events show that there should be no border barriers in water crossings, Clark said. Officials should use alternative security measures such as ground sensors in those areas, which would not only allow floodwater to move freely but also create breaks for wildlife.

“Flooding is a very visual and physical reminder that walls block ecosystem processes,” Clark said. “There are major costs both fiscally and environmentally to building walls across watersheds.”

It’s highly ironic that the current social and political battle over our nation’s debt and deficit is occurring this week with the 46th anniversary of the signing of Social Security Act of 1965 on Saturday, July 30.

After a long political battle dating from Harry Truman’s presidency to Lyndon Johnson’s, Johnson signed this legislation creating universal, single payer healthcare insurance for the nation’s elderly (Medicare) and indigent (Medicaid).

From The Nation…

With reporters and photographers surrounding them, Johnson took a place beside former President Harry Truman, who the sitting president thanked for “planting the seeds of compassion and duty which have today flowered into care for the sick and serenity for the fearful.” [Emphasis added.]

These healthcare reforms were part of Johnson’s Great Society, which had two primary goals: to eliminate poverty and to eliminate racial injustice. After his landslide victory over Barry Goldwater in 1964, Johnson and his progressive Democratic Congress enacted forward-thinking reforms that were reminiscent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and began the full-on War on Poverty, which reduced the poverty rate significantly over the subsequent 10 years. Many important Great Society programs– aimed at improving labor, healthcare, and education for poor and working class Americans– are still in existence: Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, student loans for college, work study, and Head Start. These programs were strengthened under Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

It is so sad how far we have fallen from this level of compassion. The programs of Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society– programs that have provided a social safety net for millions of Americans and wiped out many inequities of the past– are now facing a full-frontal attack by conservatives, bankrolled by big business.

Republican Congressmen would have you believe that the nation’s financial problems can be fixed by just cutting spending– specifically dramatically changing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (long-term spending) and dramatically cutting other discretionary (non-military) spending (ie, food stamps, children’s healthcare, food safety, pollution abatement, etc) which actually makes up less than 20 percent of the budget. Oh, yeah, and they want to protect oil subsidies, corporate tax loopholes (which allow multinational corporations like Bank of America to pay no taxes; tax loopholes for the rich; continue the Bush era tax cuts that they fought so hard for in December 2010; dismantle Social Security (so retirement funds for those under 50 can be gambled on the stock market); and offer more tax cuts (more trickle down economics).

At a time of high unemployment, high gasoline costs, high food prices, escalating college education tuition, skyrocketing healthcare expenses, a disintigrating social safety net, and soaring corporate profits– Republicans want workers, the elderly, and the indigent to “tighten their belts” to protect the profits and tax breaks of corporate jet owners, big oil, big pharma, big insurance, and Wall Street gamblers and corporate execs everywhere.

From the Associated Press (via the Arizona Daily Star)…

Two years after economists say the Great Recession ended, the recovery has been the weakest and most lopsided of any since the 1930s.

After previous recessions, people in all income groups tended to benefit. This time, ordinary Americans are struggling with job insecurity, too much debt and pay raises that haven’t kept up with prices at the grocery store and gas station. The economy’s meager gains are going mostly to the wealthiest.

Workers’ wages and benefits make up 57.5 percent of the economy, an all-time low. Until the mid-2000s, that figure had been remarkably stable – about 64 percent through boom and bust alike.

Executive pay is included in this figure, but rank-and-file workers are far more dependent on regular wages and benefits. A big chunk of the economy’s gains has gone to investors in the form of higher corporate profits.

“The spoils have really gone to capital, to the shareholders,” says David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates in Toronto.

Corporate profits are up by almost half since the recession ended in June 2009. In the first two years after the recessions of 1991 and 2001, profits rose 11 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

And an Associated Press analysis found that the typical CEO of a major company earned $9 million last year, up a fourth from 2009.

Driven by higher profits, the Dow Jones industrial average has staged a breathtaking 90 percent rally since bottoming at 6,547 on March 9, 2009. Those stock market gains go disproportionately to the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans, who own more than 80 percent of outstanding stock, according to an analysis by Edward Wolff, an economist at Bard College.

But if the Great Recession is long gone from Wall Street and corporate boardrooms, it lingers on Main Street:

• Unemployment has never been so high – 9.1 percent – this long after any recession since World War II. At the same point after the previous three recessions, unemployment averaged just 6.8 percent.

• The average worker’s hourly wages, after accounting for inflation, were 1.6 percent lower in May than a year earlier. Rising gasoline and food prices have devoured any pay raises for most Americans.

• The jobs that are being created pay less than the ones that vanished in the recession. Higher-paying jobs in the private sector, the ones that pay roughly $19 to $31 an hour, made up 40 percent of the jobs lost from January 2008 to February 2010 but only 27 percent of the jobs created since then.

Hard times have made Americans more dependent than ever on social programs, which accounted for a record 18 percent of personal income in the last three months of 2010 before coming down a bit this year. Almost 45 million Americans are on food stamps, another record…

Federal Reserve numbers crunched by Haver Analytics suggest that Americans have a long way to go before their finances will be strong enough to support robust spending: Despite cutting what they owe the past three years, the average household’s debts equal 119 percent of annual after-tax income. At the same point after the 1981-82 recession, debts were at 66 percent; after the 1990-91 recession, 85 percent; and after the 2001 recession, 114 percent. [Emphasis added.]

At a time when Americans can least afford it and the income gap between the richest 1 percent and the rest of us is larger than the Grand Canyon, Republicans are asking for even further financial sacrifices from Main Street Americans AND they are willing to throw the world into financial crisis as they cling to their trickle down ideology of protecting the rich while casting the rest of us aside. If they want to “fix” Social Security, they should put Americans back to work at good-paying jobs. According to 2009 figures from the US Census, 14.3 percent of Americans (and 20.7 percent of American children) are living in poverty; 43 million Americans– the largest number ever.

What can you do about it?

Call your Congressional Representatives today and tell them to vote to:

• raise the debt ceiling (and stop the grandstanding),
• raise revenues (by cutting military spending, eliminating corporate loopholes that allow them to avoid paying taxes, eliminate Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, etc.),
• protect the programs that benefit millions of Americans: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment, college tuition grants, etc.
• solve the deficit problem by putting Americans back to work.

Here are the numbers:
CD8 Gabrielle Giffords: 520-881-3588 (local) or 202-225-2542 (DC)
CD7 Raul Grijalva: 520-622-6788 (local) or 202-225-2435 (DC)

CD6 Jeff Flake from Mesa (We need to lean on this guy who wants to be our next Senator.):
480-833-0092 (in Mesa) or 202-225-2635 (DC)

Senator Jon Kyl 520-575-8633 (local) or 202-224-4521 (DC)
Senator John McCain 520-670-6334 (local) or 202-224-2245 (DC)

What else can you do?

Progressive Democrats of America’s Tucson Chapter is holding a demonstration to show support for protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on Saturday, July 30 from 10 a.m. – noon at the corner of Speedway and Campbell.

Bible-thumping politicians abound in Arizona and across the US. You know who they are. They’re the ones who fight valiantly for the rights of the unborn, speechify about their faith and guidance from God, and go to church regularly (or claim to).

Ironically, they also are often among those who push for the most dramatic cuts in social programs while promoting guns, military spending, draconian immigration policies, union-busting, and corporate welfare. I’ve often wondered: What’s up with that? Were they sleeping during church?

Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the Earth,” but, so far, it’s not working out that way.

Enter the Sojourners.

This past Sunday, John Boehner (R-OH), Speaker of the US House of Representatives and one of those stingy Bible-thumpers, told the National Religious Broadcasters annual conference that cutting spending is the “moral” thing to do.

This prompted some 30 religious denominations and organizations to take out a full page ad in Politico on Monday. The headline asked: What would Jesus cut? From the Sojourners’ website…

The ad comes just a few weeks after the [US] House [of Representatives] passed a budget that disproportionately cut programs that protect the poor and help lift them out of their poverty. The House budget includes significant cuts to programs such as Head Start, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and critical international aid programs.

The advertisement calls for Congress to defend:
- International aid that directly and literally saves lives from pandemic diseases
- Critical child health and family nutrition programs — at home and abroad
- Proven work and income supports that lift families out of poverty
- Support for education, especially in low-income communities.

“… Our faith requires us to preach Jesus’ love for the poor, and to declare our conviction that the budget must not take away support from Americans who live in poverty — millions of whom are working families with children seeking a way out of their desperate situation with help only the government can provide,” Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, which represents 45 million people and 100,000 congregations in the U.S., is quoted on the Sojourners’ website.

In an open letter to Boehner on his blog, Sojourners’ leader John Wallis further challenged Boehner and the cuts supported by him and other right-wing politicians.

As religious leaders, we don’t believe that our most vulnerable people should bear more additional burdens. Do you agree? Why are there deep cuts in budget proposals to some of our most important programs that prevent deadly diseases among children in Africa and provide critical nutrition for our poorest families right here at home? These are not only cost-effective, but also relatively low in cost compared to massive expenditures in our military budget, corporate tax loopholes, and subsidies to oil, gas, and agribusiness companies — just to name a few of the things that were protected in the proposals from your House Republicans. Is that fair? Is that right? Is that moral?

Mr. Speaker, do you really believe that every weapons system and line item of spending in the military budget is necessary to keep us safe? That every dollar sent to defense contractors is more important than money for bed nets to prevent malaria or vaccinations to save lives in the world’s poorest places or for early childhood development and good education in our nation’s poorest neighborhoods? And should teachers, police officers, and firefighters bear heavier burdens than bankers, corporate CEO’s, and hedge fund operators in the name of deficit reduction? Those priorities seem backwards to many of us.

Since Sojourners started challenging politicians to act like Christians– and not just talk about being Christian– more than 10,000 people have sent e-mails to their Congressional representatives urging them to support social programs for the poor, the sick, and the defenseless– people Jesus would have comforted and defended.

The Sojourners’ website has an e-mail form if you want to send mail to Arizona Senators and hawkish Christians Jon Kyl and John McCain or any of Arizona’s members of the House of Representatives, but I would suggest going beyond our federal representatives and asking Governor Jan Brewer and state legislature: What would Jesus cut? Here is their contact information: Brewer, AZ Senate, AZ House.

Last week the US House of Representatives voted to extend the Bush Era tax cuts to poor and middle class but not to richest 2% of Americans. On Saturday, predictably, all Senate Republicans (including our own John McCain and Jon Kyl) + 5 Blue Dog Democrats killed the limited tax cut extension and continued to hold out for full extension of the tax cuts to everyone.

A recent CBS News poll shows that Republican grandstanding for the rich is out of step with most Americans. According to CBS, 53% of Americans favor extension of the cuts to income under $250,000, and only 26% favor extending the cuts to all Americans, including the wealthiest. You’ll note that only 10% of those “free-spending” Democrats want to extend the cuts to everyone, while 46% of those “fiscally responsible” Republicans want full extension.

Why are Congressional conservatives fiercely fighting for full extension of the Bush Era tax cuts? Their fight has even put national security at risk, according to Newsweek, because they have vowed to not vote on anything– not even the New START Treaty– until the tax cuts have been extended to all. Obviously, the vast majority of the constituents in Kentucky (Mitch McConnell’s state) or rural Southern Ohio (John Boehner’s district) or Arizona (John and Jon’s territory) will not benefit from extension of cuts to the richest 1% of Americans. So, why have these four men been been hawking millionaire welfare for months?

Besides the obvious link between the Republican Party and rich, conservative donors– let’s look at the Republicans’ cozy relationship with FOX News.

• Since its inception, FOX news has been a faithful 24/7 mouthpiece for the right.
• Before the midterm election, FOX News’ parent company even donated money to Republican candidates.
• Failed right-wing politicians– like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Karl Rove– often land high-paying pundit jobs with FOX after their political careers dwindle.
• FOX News regularly promotes Republican ideas and candidates while hammering all things progressive.

Now thanks to Newsweek, Ed Schultz, and Rep. Alan Grayson, we learn of another reason why FOX News has been pushing for full extension of the tax cuts: their millionaire pundits stand to lose millions if tax cuts for wealthiest Americans are not extended. According to Grayson’s speech and his comments on the Ed Schultz Show (below), here is how much more in taxes popular right-wing pundits would have to pay if Congress does not extend tax cuts to all Americans:

• Rush Limbaugh – $2,689,135
• Glenn Beck – $1,512,352
• Sean Hannity – $1,006,352
• Bill O’Reilly – $914,352
• Sarah Palin – $638,352
• Newt Gingrich – $247,352

So, FOX News donates to Republican candidates and peddles their ideas, and Republican Senators and Congressmen return the favor. After all, it’s all “fair and balanced” in the “no-spin zone.”

P. S. Glenn Beck makes $33 million a year on FOX? And he has the nerve to say government workers are overpaid?

“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT)– the weird US military policy that says gays and Lesbians can serve in the military as long as no one can tell they’re gay– has been in existence since the early 1990s. Repeal of DADT has popped up on the Congressional radar and on the campaign trail many times.

Presidential candidate John McCain said he would be in favor of repealing DADT– if the military brass approved. In the spring of 2010, General David Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “the time has come” to allow gays to serve openly in the military. But that wasn’t enough for McCain. In fact, he wouldn’t allow Patraeus to read his 8-minute prepared statement on DADT– obviously because he didn’t want to hear it.

In the summer of 2010, General Collin Powell said he had changed his position on DADT and now favors repeal. But that wasn’t enough for McCain– even though he had said he was waiting to hear Powell’s opinion.

McCain called for a survey of enlisted men on the subject of DADT. Recently, the results of that survey were released. It revealed that 70 percent of enlisted men and women think it would be no big deal to allow gays and Lesbians to serve openly in the military. Among combat Marine and Army combat troops, nearly 60 percent “said they thought repealing the law would hurt their units’ ability to fight on the battlefield,” according to an Associated Press story in the Arizona Daily Star.

Now McCain say the survey– that he called for– was flawed.

More details from the Star…

McCain seized on this finding to argue that forcing such a substantial personnel policy change in a time of war would be wrong for the military and the country. He also criticized the study for scrutinizing only how the law could be repealed, instead of whether doing so would benefit the military.

“At this time, we should be inherently cautious about making any changes that would affect our military, and what changes we do make should be the product of careful and deliberate consideration,” McCain said.

McCain’s statement was directly challenged by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the military’s top uniformed officer who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Repeal of the law will not prove unacceptable risk to military readiness,” Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Unit cohesion will not suffer if our units are well-led. And families will not encourage their loved ones to leave the service in droves.”

Mullen also said that Congress should act before the courts do, and that wartime is an ideal time for repeal.

“War does not stifle change; it demands it,” he said. “It does not make it harder; it facilitates it.”
McCain has previously suggested that Mullen’s opinion didn’t matter as much as other military commanders because he doesn’t directly lead troops.

In his opening statement, Mullen seemed to issue a direct challenge to McCain.
“For more than 40 years, I have made decisions that affected and even risked the lives of young men and women,” Mullen said. “You do not have to agree with me on this issue. But don’t think for one moment that I haven’t carefully considered the impact of the advice I give on those who will have to live with the decisions that advice informs.”

Marine Gen. James Cartwright, the No. 2 officer on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview that if Congress fails to act the military could handle an abrupt about-face mandated by the courts.
He like the other Pentagon leaders said that is by far the second choice, and would be disruptive for forces currently cycling through the military’s tightly planned rotation for wartime deployment.

“Bringing this into force quickly means that we have to do some of this in the battlefield. Probably doable, but it’s a bigger challenge than we really want to have to take,” Cartwright said.
Cartwright and the military chiefs of each service will testify before the same Senate panel on Friday. The focus will be on Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos because of the survey results showing high opposition to repeal among Marine combat troops.

“I cannot speak for him but I will speak as a Marine,” Cartwright said. “If the law is repealed the Marine Corps will lead the education, training, and bringing it in,” he said. “They will comply with the law, no doubt about it, and they will comply with the law aggressively.”

For more coverage on DADT and McCain’s flip-flopping, check out this link to The Daily Show’s archive. Particularly telling is The Daily Show’s clip from December 2– which provides some of the very specific questions that were asked (even the shower question).

Considering McCain’s long history of flip-flopping on DADT, I think it is obvious that his opinion on the issue– and other difficult questions– twists in the wind and depends upon the polls. I also think McCain is showing his age and his homophobia.

“John McCain never met a war he didn’t like.”

This phrase was repeated several times during the recent election. Stories on The Hill blog and today’s Arizona Daily Star prove that slogan to be right. From The Hill:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued in an interview Sunday that the U.S. has not exacted enough pressure on North Korea and that the current tensions in the region may present an opportunity for regime change.

“I think it’s time we talked about regime change in North Korea,” he said, quickly adding that he did not mean “military action.”

Yeah, right, he’s not talking about “military action”. How else do you accomplish “regime change?” McCain goes on to chide China– a diplomat, he’s not.

“We’ve got to understand that China is not what we want it to be, but is not playing a responsible role on the world stage, much less on the Korean Peninsula,” McCain said. “They [China] could bring the North Korean economy to its knees if they wanted to. And I cannot believe that the Chinese should, in a mature fashion, not find it in their interest to restrain North Korea. So far, they are not.”

“We have to make adjustments to our policies,” he said of China, calling it the “key” to keeping peace.

China has called for the renewal of the six-party talks, which would involve the U.S., Japan, Russia, and North and South Korea.

Not to be outdone in the saber-rattling category, Arizona’s other senator, Jon Kyl, has been delaying the ratification of the New Start treaty with Russia– saying the Senate has “higher priorities” in this lame duck session than nuclear treaty.

What could be a higher priority than national security and the control of nuclear proliferation? Tax cuts for the rich, of course. From the Arizona Daily Star:

Kyl denied there was any partisanship behind his calls for a delay. He said the Senate has more urgent business to attend to in the weeks before it breaks for Christmas, including dealing with potential tax increases and funding the government through the rest of the budget year…

Without [ratification of the treat], as of next week the U.S. will have had no weapons inspectors in Russia to verify cuts in its nuclear arsenal since the last treaty expired in 2009.

This is politics as usual from Arizona’s 2 Senators. They’re not taking care of business; they’re grandstanding in the media to pump up the importance of their largest patron– the military industrial complex. When the Congress starts talking about budget cuts next year– if they can make the case for an evil scary world– they can protect the Pentagon budget.

I got an idea, Jon and John, if you really want to deal with the countries budget problems: 1) let the tax cuts sunset; 2) don’t start any new wars; 3) end the ongoing wars; 4) wage peace; 5) invest in the country’s future– rather than investing in destruction.

>Senate Republicans– including Arizona’s John McCain and Jon Kyl– have repeatedly blocked extension of unemployment benefits in recent weeks.

Since benefits started to expire in May, more than 1 million Americans have lost their unemployment benefits.

Ironically, the same people, who spent like drunken sailors and cut taxes for the rich (thus reducing the country’s revenue) during the Bush years, now use the we-must-live-within-our-means excuse when asked to support measures that will help working class Americans.

“The debate has little to do with economic reality and everything to do with political posturing,” according to the NY Times.

At the same time they were ignoring millions of jobless Americans, Republicans worked to preserve loopholes in the banking reform legislation that would benefit wealthy money mangers and stopped moves which would halt tax avoidance by some small businesses– thus ignoring 2 strategies that would nip away at the deficit.

The Republicans don’t care about reducing the deficit; they’re just using it as an excuse to say, “no” to Main Street Americans, while continuing to say “yes” to Wall Street.

The Congress has now left DC for an Independence Day break. Too bad McCain doesn’t have any campaign events planned for this weekend. It would have been a great opportunity for jobless Arizonans to ask him about his vote.