[Illustration by ALEX FINE]
[via Obama For America]
McCain’s Gas Tax Holiday Would Cost Pennsylvania $330 million and 11,500 jobs. John McCain’s gas tax holiday would cost Virginia $330,462,939 in federal funding for local road and bridge projects and 11,493 highway related jobs. [American Road and Transportation Builders Association]
State Highway and Transportation Officials: “McCain’s Gas Tax Holiday Would Devastate Highway and Transportation Programs;” Savings Would Be $28 For the Average Motorist. 
“Presidential contender Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has called for a suspension of the federal gasoline and diesel fuel taxes from Memorial Day to Labor Day. AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley said, “This proposal would have devastating impacts upon the federal-aid highway and transit programs, sharply reducing funding available to states and jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide. Such a move would be short-sighted and damaging to our nation’s economy, while providing little relief to America’s drivers.” AASHTO estimates that for the average motorists, driving approximately 12,000 miles per year, the savings would amount to roughly $28, less than the cost of a half tank of gasoline.”[American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials]
150 Economists: Research Shows Waiving Gas Tax Would Generate Profits for Oil Companies Rather Than Lowering Costs for Consumers. “As economists who study issues of energy policy, taxation, public finance, and budgeting, we write to indicate our opposition to this policy. Put simply, suspending the federal tax on gasoline this summer is a bad idea and we oppose it. There are several reasons for this opposition. First, research shows that waiving the gas tax would generate major profits for oil companies rather than significantly lowering prices for consumers.” [Economists Letter, 5/2/08]
THE SWAMP: In today’s speech, Obama hit McCain early and often in his speech, saying that his call to renew the Bush tax cuts during war time was irresponsible. “John McCain once opposed these tax cuts — he rightly called
them unfair and fiscally irresponsible. But now he has done an about face and wants to make them permanent, just like he wants a permanent occupation in Iraq. No matter what the costs, no matter what the consequences, John McCain seems determined to carry out a third Bush term,” Obama said. MORE
WIRED: If elected president, Senator John McCain would reserve the right to run his own warrantless wiretapping program against Americans, based on the theory that the president’s wartime powers trump federal criminal statutes and court oversight, according to a statement released by his campaign Monday. McCain’s new tack towards the Bush administration’s theory of executive power comes some 10 days after a McCain surrogate stated, incorrectly it seems, that the senator wanted hearings into telecom companies’ cooperation with President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, before he’d support giving those companies retroactive legal immunity. Chuck Fish, a full-time lawyer for the McCain campaign, also said McCain wanted stricter rules on how the nation’s telecoms work with U.S. spy agencies, and expected those companies to apologize for any lawbreaking before winning amnesty. But Monday, McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin, speaking for the campaign, disavowed those statements, and for the first time cast McCain’s views on warrantless wiretapping as identical to Bush’s. MORE
JOHN MCCAIN: Bringing Troops Home “Not Too Important”
JOE BIDEN: “Senator McCain’s comment is evidence that he is totally out of touch with the needs of our troops and the national security needs of our nation. I think many of our brave soldiers and their families would disagree that it’s ‘not too important’ when they come home…Like President Bush, Senator McCain cannot tell the American people when, or even if, Iraqis will come together politically – which was purpose of the surge in the first place. He can’t tell us when, or even if, we will draw down below pre-surge levels. He can’t tell us when, or even if, Iraq will be able to stand on its own two feet. He can’t tell us when, or even if, this war will end.” [via TIME]
WIRED: A new poll from CNN/Opinion Research Corp. now quantifies the percentage of Clintonites who might actually switch party allegiances. CNN reported Monday that if Barack Obama doesn’t choose Clinton for vice president, 22 percent of the New York senator’s supporters would stay home this fall — and another 17 percent would vote for McCain. Meanwhile, CBS News last Wednesday found that McCain currently leads Obama by eight percentage points among independent voters — an important factoid, given that the number of voters who have registered as independent has risen to historically high levels this election cycle. As for those CNN poll numbers, don’t expect them to stay the same through November. As the late psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross has documented through her work — there are five stages of grief over severe losses –denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. MORE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EX-HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTERS FOR JOHN MCCAIN: This is a ANTI-OBAMA web site. The use of this site is for people to post information about the truth of Obama. We DO NOT ALLOW ANY OBAMA LIES here.
JOHN CUSAK: Take The Bush/McCain Challenge
CROOKS AND LIARS: Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich spent some 290 minutes on the House floor Monday, reading Articles of Impeachment against President George Bush. Not that you would notice, as there was a virtual media blackout on the story, but Keith Olbermann ran with it right out of the gate on Tuesday’s Countdown. Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley joined Keith to commend Kucinich and his impeachment bill, which is now co-sponsored by Rep. Robert Wexler. While Turley says there are numerous crimes for which Bush could easily be impeached, the President’s greatest ally has been the Democratic Congress who have skirted their constitutional duties and consistently given him a pass rather than practice any oversight.
It’s clear impeachment will remain off the table for the remainder of Bush’s term, but as Keith put it, problems like this will never be solved if people like Kucinich and Wexler don’t stand up and say something.
Olbermann: “I’ve often argued here, that even if you don’t think the words aren’t lead to any actions, say the words anyway, simply to get them on the record for history and simply because, nothing has ever changed from bad to good in this country without somebody first saying, this is bad. Assess the importance of what Dennis Kucinich did last night.”
Turley: “You know, it is very important. The fact is, that this is not supposed to happen the way it’s happened in the last seven years. The framers, I think, would have been astonished by the absolute passivity, if not the collusion of the Democrats in protecting President Bush from impeachment. I mean, they created a system that was essentially idiot-proof, and God knows we’ve put that to the test in the past few years, but I don’t think they anticipated that so many members of the opposition would stand quietly in the face of clear presidential crimes.” MORE
HOT DOC: Rutgers Law Prof Sues George W. Bush For Crimes Against The Constitution
