Fantasy Politics USA

Republican candidate John Cox has come up with a solution for Iraq called the Iraq Marshal Plan. The original Marshal Plan was in 1947 to 1951 to help rebuild Europe after the destruction of W.W. II. It was to help build a strong ally buffer zone to help fight communism. We pumped in 13 billion dollars in economic and technical assistance to help rebuild those countries that agreed to join the Organization for European Economic Co-opertion. We also offered help to the Soviet Union and her allies but only if they made some political changes, but they refused. Now John Cox wants a similar plan for Iraq. In a recent email Cox proposed;

The Iraq Marshall Plan

The Iraq surge report brings up more debate. Let’s cut through this and do what is necessary to get victory: an Iraqi Marshall Plan to rebuild their economy and get their people to work. All the government and security in the world won’t do any good if the electricity doesn’t work and the unemployment rate is north of 50%! Let’s do what we did after WWII – rebuild their economies by rebuilding their oil industry. This will work immediately because it won’t take much to get their oil revenues going – just pump the oil and sell it. In post WWII Europe, we needed to first rebuild factories, train people, etc. Here, all we need to do is pump and sell and get the revenue into the economy. Let’s get it done, let’s stabilize that country and get our soldiers home with victory and honor!

So just like that, we can have victory in Iraq, with a strong ally. And all it takes is Iraq’s oil.
Alan Cosgrove

The Green Party held it’s 2007 National Meeting in Reading, Pa. the last few days and presented some of their 2008 presidential candidates. Among the candidates attending was 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Many still blame Nader for putting Bush in the White House, but Gore couldn’t even win his home state Tennessee. The Green Party said their top goal is to get their presidential and vice presidential nominee on all the ballots in all 50 states. They focus most of their attention towards the Democrats and the courts. Carl Romanelli was denied ballot access in a 2004 senate run and he blamed the courts. He had this to say about the courts, “Their partisan conduct … was reprehensible, and the courts should be held accountable for this hijacking.” Nader continued with this theme adding, “Pennsylvania is now the King Kong of ballot-access busters in the 50 states. Philadelphia is now the center of a judicially implemented strategy that can just about knock off any third-party candidate … so this is clearly a corrupt system. This is clearly an unconstitutional system.” “The first thing we have to do is generate a level of public indignation that is lacking now,” Nader said, noting that independent parties have played major roles in America’s past. “If we liked that, we should like it in the 21st century as well.” “No other country comes close to providing voters with such a small number of choices and making third party candidates hurdle an almost insuperable number of obstacles just to get on the ballot,” said Nader as he called for a single federal statute to govern ballot access for candidates for federal office. This would make it easier for a third party candidate to run for office. Nader also directed some of his attention towards the Democrats. Nader said he is considering another run, but said he would have to assemble an army of volunteers and pro bono lawyers to defend him against the “Democratic quadrennial assault.” “We’re going to be ready for them. We will confront them on every level,” Nader told a news conference. “They better have clean hands.” This time the Republicans have their own version of Nader with Mike Bloomberg. It should be fun with two big third party candidates on the ballot. Americans deserve the right to see all the candidates on the ballots. Bring on Nader and the Bloomberg billions so we can bust up this corrupt two party system.
Alan Cosgrove

Mike Huckabee admits he has not seen Michael Moore’s new movie ‘Sicko’, and says he probably won’t either. Huckabee himself was once a bit overweight, and lost over 100 pounds after he was diagnosed with diabetes said this about Moore, “Frankly, Michael Moore is an example of why the health care system costs so much in this country. He clearly is one of the reasons that we have a very expensive system. I know that from my own personal experience.” “I know how much more my health care cost when I didn’t take care of myself than when I do take care of myself, not only in terms of doctor visits but regular diseases, illnesses, chronic things that come up, monthly prescription bills,” Huckabee said. “All of those things have gone dramatically down since I’ve taken care of myself and worked to live a healthier lifestyle.” So don’t worry about the millions without health insurance. All we need to do is get them exercising and eating a better diet. Huckabee also attacked Moore for going to Cuba during the film. “Let me ask you, have you ever met anybody when they were really sick say, ‘Oh my gosh, I have a desperate disease. Get me to Havana, I’ve got to have the best health care in the world,'” Huckabee said. Since he didn’t see the film, it is hard to judge why those people went to Cuba with Moore. I don’t think they were looking for the best health care, just any care that was within their budgets. So that’s Huckabee’s spin on the health care crisis in America, just take better care of yourself. “Anything we could do to help steer people to healthier habits comes back to us many times over and that’s a real focus that needs to happen,” Huckabee said. Preventative medicine is a good idea, but that is hardly the fix for America’s millions without any form of health insurance, or affordable health care. But that seems to be the best that Huckabee can offer saying, “Right now, insurance companies will pay $100,000 or more for a quadruple bypass but wouldn’t pay a couple hundred dollars for a person to have nutrition counseling and maybe to work with an exercise physiologist to determine how to get those extra pounds off. … It’s a lot better to spend some more money on the prevention side than it is on the intervention side.” What he is failing to understand is, millions are without any insurance that would let them see an exercise physiologist, nutrition counselor, or even a simple country doctor.
Alan Cosgrove

There was a time when John McCain was the man to beat. He may have lost to George W. Bush in 2000, but he came out of that election a very popular tough guy politician. At the beginning of this election many considered him the front runner, but since then Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and now Fred Thompson have all moved past him. Ron Paul has more money in his campaign war chest than McCain. The McCain campaign started this whole thing thinking they would raise 100 million dollars, and they have spent money like they did raise that much, but they have had pretty disappointing fundraising numbers. They have gone through 23 million dollars in the last six months, and haven’t even aired one T.V. commercial. He has promoted the war in Iraq, and supported President Bush’s policies there. He just returned from another trip there, and I bet he bought another rug at the market. He went straight to the Senate floor and argued for support of the surge. McCain was also on the unpopular side of the immigration thing. Conservatives will never forgive him for joining up with Russ Fiengold and Ted Kennedy. Now this week his top two aides quit because of money woes in the campaign, and McCain has asked a third aide to step up without any pay. Campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver both announced they were leaving, and some rumors have them both going to Fred Thompson’s campaign where they are still paying. Weaver has been with McCain since the 2000 Presidential run, and was responsible for promoting McCain as a straight talker. These two resignations, along with others, comes just a week after he had to lay off dozens of other staffers because of poor fundraising numbers. McCain got the news of the resignations as he was on the Senate floor promoting Bush’s war in Iraq. Yet McCain is still undeterred. “We will continue to campaign the way I do best, which is not with money, but with town-hall meetings and face-to-face encounters with the voters. And I’m confident we will do very well,” McCain said. “I am confident, as I was in the past, that I can out-campaign any of my competitors.” Just like he out-campaigned George W. Bush in 2000. McCain needs to look in the mirror and do a little straight talking to himself. He doesn’t have a chance right now, but the 70 year old Senator can still look towards 2012.
Alan Cosgrove