MichaelMoore.com : Anti-terror money sought for luxury

July 18th, 2008 9:16 pm
McCain adviser Gramm quits after 'whiners' remarks

WARREN, Mich. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain pledged Friday to help auto workers rebuild their industry and in the process jump-start the entire U.S. economy. On the day McCain visited one of the areas hardest hit by the economic downturn and rising gas prices, one of his top advisers, former Sen. Phil Gramm gave up his campaign position a week after saying the country was a "nation of whiners" facing merely a "mental recession."

Earlier in the day McCain was standing in a town hall meeting with hundreds of people and several shiny new cars and sounding at times like a confident, encouraging salesman as he praised General Motors' plans for a long-range electric car.

"The key, integral, vital part of our ability to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil will be directly related to that sign over there," said McCain, pointing to a sign for the Chevrolet Volt. "I wish you every success, and I want to help in every way."

Trailing Democrat Barack Obama in polling on economic issues, the likely Republican nominee sought to bolster his appeal to voters by speaking to those who've seen fellow workers lose jobs and homes in Michigan.

Even as Detroit's Big Three automakers try to adapt rapidly to demand for smaller, more efficient cars that sip $4-a-gallon gas, many in the industry fear the presidential candidates' talk of energy alternatives and conservation will translate into more job losses.

Earlier this week, GM announced $15 billion in cuts, borrowing and asset sales as it tries to weather a huge dropoff in sales of trucks and large cars on top of more long-term cost problems.

At the General Motors Corp. Design Center, GM CEO Rick Wagoner and other company officials gave McCain a tour before he spoke to engineers and other workers. McCain, who has proposed giving a $5,000 tax credit for those who buy a no-emissions car, said the successful technology would mean hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

Most questions from the crowd centered on economic issues like health care, free trade and the effect environmental laws could have on the U.S. auto industry.

McCain also pushed a plan for the government to help homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments get a new, cheaper fixed-rate mortgage.

"There's thousands and thousands and thousands of citizens in this state who can't afford the payments to stay in their homes," he said.

"We've got to hit bottom someplace and then it's going to start up again," he said, but until that happens, the government should work to keep people in their homes by giving them access to fixed-rate lending.

While polls show McCain trails Obama on economic issues, Obama trails McCain on foreign affairs issues. Each candidate is trying to shore up his credentials in those perceived weaknesses, McCain by hammering domestic economic plans and Obama with a trip to the Middle East and Europe.

Last week, the McCain campaign stumbled when Gramm said the country was in a "mental recession" and had become "a nation of whiners" — sentiments McCain rejected.

Gramm, a former U.S. senator from Texas, issued a statement late Friday saying he was stepping down as co-chair of the McCain campaign "to end this distraction and get on with the real debate."

At McCain's town hall event earlier Friday, members of the audience in Michigan needed no convincing about the country's poor financial state.

"We're close to hitting rock bottom," said Barry Narris, a McCain supporter.

"Every time it seems like it's going to turn around a little bit, something else bad happens," echoed Julie Ferries, a design engineer. "It's one step forward, two steps back."

John Evans, a mechanical engineer, said he had been leaning toward voting for Obama but liked much of what McCain said.

"Economically, it's a sad state we're in," said Evans, noting that two homes bordering his are in foreclosure. "We need some real change, because we're not getting enough people educated in high-tech."

One woman questioned McCain pointedly on Iraq and how he would approach Iran.

"We lost Vietnam. You said you knew how to win wars. ... I don't know if winning wars is necessarily something that a president wants to do or should do," the woman said.

McCain said the United States needs to keep a steady, firm hand in dealings with both Iraq and Iran.

"I believe that we can modify Iranian behavior. We need to exhaust every possible option before we can ever consider a military option. Americans have made great sacrifices and it has grieved us all," he said. "If we failed, if we were defeated, we would face much greater sacrifice of American blood and treasure."

July 18th, 2008 8:44 pm
McCain Questioned on Iraq Stance

By Larry Rohter / New York Times

WARREN, Mich. — Senator John McCain came to this Detroit suburb Friday eager to talk about energy independence and tout a new electric-powered automobile that General Motors is developing at its technical center here. But as so often happens these days, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan intruded.

Following a tour of the plant and remarks in which he praised GM’s “Chevy Volt” as “an incredible breakthrough,” Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, took questions from GM employees. Towards the end of the session, a woman identifying herself as the mother of a soldier in Iraq asked him to justify his support for the war there, given that the reasons it was undertaken turned out not to be true.

“Every intelligence agency in the world believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” Mr. McCain replied, adding that the Iraqi government had also violated human rights. But he quickly shifted to the need to persevere there, saying that he expected attacks by Al-Qaeda in Iraq “so they can erode support for the al-Maliki government” during the American election campaign.

“We will come home with honor and victory, and it will be dictated by facts on the ground,” he continued. “We have succeeded, and I am confident we will win victory, and that is all contingent on our commitment to making sure we withdraw according to conditions on the ground.”

The previous questioner had touched on similar issues, recalling that Mr. McCain had once sung “Bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann.” She also expressed some concern about Mr. McCain’s affirmation that “I know how to win wars,” wondering if that was something that should be high on a president’s list of priorities and what it portended for relations with Iran.

“We need to exhaust every possible option before we ever consider a military option” against Iran, Mr. McCain reassured her. But with the virulently anti-Israeli government in Tehran continuing to develop nuclear weapons “we need to have the most stringent possible sanctions we can impose on them” in order to “modify their behavior” and head off what he described as “a second Holocaust.”

The exchanges highlighted the important role that foreign policy issues, especially as regards Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, continue to play in the presidential campaign. Even with the economy slipping into recession and gasoline prices at record levels, voters are still pressing both Mr. McCain and Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, to justify their positions.

On Tuesday evening in St. Louis, for instance, Mr. McCain went to a frozen custard stand, the kind of feel-good Americana photo opportunity that candidates love. But as he was shaking hands there, a woman holding a baby urged him to bring the troops home from Iraq now, and when he gave a polite but non-supportive reply, repeated her appeal as he walked on, with a smile that also seemed frozen.

Mr. Obama is about to embark on a visit to both Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other points in the Middle East and Europe, and was not campaigning Friday. The trip is part of efforts by Mr. Obama, who has never been to Afghanistan and has visited Iraq only once, to establish his foreign policy credentials, but Mr. McCain told reporters that he did not plan to spend much time responding to his rival’s foray.

“I’m basing my campaign on our own campaign,” he said, and then criticized Mr. Obama for making a policy speech this week, before he has gone to the region and met with American military commanders there. “I hope he gets the message this time, that we have succeeded and need to continue this strategy,” Mr. McCain added.

Later, Mr. McCain again addressed Mr. Obama’s trip while speaking to donors at a fund-raiser at the Detroit Athletic Club, according to a pool report. While the Obama campaign has been highly secretive about the details of his foreign trip, Mr. McCain offered his own details.

“I believe that either today or tomorrow, I am not privy to his schedule, Senator Obama will be landing in Iraq with some other senators,” Mr. McCain said. “There will be a congressional delegation and I am sure that Senator Obama is going to arrive in Baghdad in a much, much safer and secure environment than the one that he would have encountered before we started the surge.”

July 18th, 2008 7:45 pm
Anti-terror money sought for luxury

But the Air Force has run into congressional objections to its 'comfort capsules,' designed for top brass.

By R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- The top Air Force leadership sought for three years to spend counter-terrorism money on "comfort capsules" for military planes to ease the travel of senior officers and civilian leaders -- with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs -- according to internal e-mails and budget documents.

Production has begun for the first capsule -- two sealed rooms that can fit in the fuselage of a large aircraft -- and four mobile pallets containing plush, swiveling leather chairs with footrests.

Air Force officials say the new capsules are necessary to ensure that leaders can talk, work and rest comfortably in the air. But the top brass' preoccupation has alienated lower-ranking Air Force officers familiar with the effort, as well as congressional staff and a nonprofit group that calls the program a waste of money.

Air Force documents spell out how each capsule is to be "aesthetically pleasing and furnished to reflect the rank of the senior leaders using the capsule," with beds, a couch, a table and a 37-inch flat-screen monitor with stereo speakers.

The effort has been slowed by congressional resistance to using counter-terrorism funds for the project and by internal deliberations about generals' demands for modifications.

One request was that the leather for the seats and seat belts in the mobile pallets be Air Force blue instead of brown and that seat pockets be added. Another was that the table be darker.

Changing the seat color and pockets alone was estimated in a March 12 internal document to cost at least $68,240.

In all, for the last three years the service has asked to divert $16.2 million from the war on terrorism to the capsules. Congress has twice told the service no, including in an August 2007 letter from Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) to the Pentagon ordering that the money be spent on a "higher priority" need.

Officials say the Air Force nonetheless decided last year to take $331,000 from counter-terrorism funds to cover a cost overrun, partly stemming from the design changes, although a senior officer said in response to inquiries that it would reverse that decision.

The internal Air Force e-mails, provided to the Washington Post by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight and independently authenticated, make clear that lower-ranking officers on the project have been pressured to create what one described as "world-class" accommodations finer than a business-class flight.

"I was asked by Gen. [Robert H.] McMahon what it would take to make the [capsule] . . . a 'world-class' piece of equipment," an officer at the service's Air Mobility Command said in a March 2007 e-mail to a colleague, referring to the command's top officer then. "He said he wanted an assurance . . . that we would be getting a world-class item this week."

Air Force officials say the program dates from a 2006 declaration by Air Force Gen. Duncan McNabb that existing seats on transport planes, including some that match those on commercial airliners, might be fine for airmen but were inadequate for the brass. McNabb was then the Air Mobility commander; he is now the Air Force's vice chief of staff. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates nominated him in June to lead the military's Transportation Command.

Explaining his instructions to subordinates, McMahon said he used the term "world-class" "in just about everything I discuss. . . . That represents an attitude." He said he wanted to "create an environment" that passengers "would be proud of," the government would be proud of and "the people of the United States" would be proud of.

Construction of what the Air Force initially termed the new Senior Leader Intransit Comfort Capsules began under a contract paid from general Air Force funds. One of the 18-by-9-foot capsules has been partly completed.

McMahon said the program has recently been downsized from 10 capsules to three, plus the four pallets fitted with swiveling leather chairs, known as Senior Leader Intransit Pallets.

Because of the cutback in the number of capsules and pallets, the program is currently estimated to cost $7.6 million.

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