Bye, Bye, John Sydney McCain, III!

There's nothing left to say about John Sidney McCain and so much to do to support the policies and priorities of President-elect Barack Obama. Let's get started!

Auto Industry October Stats Show Economy in Deep Crisis Mode

If the crisis in the American auto industry is any indication of the financial concern Americans will take into the voting booth tomorrow, a McCain (party in control) win would be a major miracle. The New York Times says today,

Vehicle sales in the United States tumbled to multi-decade lows in
October as tightened credit markets and an economic slowdown kept consumers away from dealerships.

General Motors on Monday reported an incredible 45 percent decline
in its sales, and Chrysler said its sales were down 35 percent. The Ford
Motor Company said it sold 30.2 percent fewer cars and trucks.
Toyota Motor said its sales were 23 percent lower, despite
offering no-interest financing and large discounts on many models. Sales were down 33 percent at Nissan and 25.2 percent at Honda. NYTimes

This is evidence of a generalized meltdown, not just of the American auto industry (Japanese car sales are only slightly better), but this is a meltdown of America's confidence in the economy and the ability to obtain credit to buy a car.

“If you adjust for population growth, this is probably the worst
industry sales month in the post-World War II era,” Mark LaNeve, G.M.’s vice president for sales in North America, said in a statement. “We believe there is considerable pent-up demand from the last three years, but until the credit markets open up and consumer confidence improves, the entire U.S. economy, and any industry like autos that relies on financing, will suffer.” NYTimes

John McCain is talking a lot about the "American Dream" on the campaign trail, but perhaps the first part of the American dream that any of us achieves, even before a high school diploma, is a drivers license and access to the family car. Even when we cannot afford to own a home, we can be proud of our cars and delight in the freedom they give us to move from place to place.

When Americans are doing all of that 40% less than they were last year, that's evidence of an economic crisis that goes far beyond the auto industry. One Ford executive cited in the above article describes the current Republican-led economic crisis as "similar to what we’ve seen after a natural disaster."

McCain Implicitly and Tacitly Concedes He's Unprepared for Oval Office

John McCain's campaign has been telling audiences and America that Barack Obama's preparations for the the Oval Office are presumptuous. If McCain really believes this, then he must also believe that it would be presumptuous for McCain himself to make preparations for the Oval Office. If so, we can assume that McCain hasn't made any preparations and would take the country on a misguided seat-of-its-pants roller coaster ride, much like McCain's own disjointed and lousy presidential campaign.

Are we really supposed to believe that McCain has made no preparations to take office? Yes, because McCain is so unlikely to win. Aside from promising plum ambassadorships to political contributors based on the amount of their contributions and bundling, John McCain is probably being entirely honest when he implicitly declaims having made any preparations for a transition. McCain is just as unprepared as his criticisms of Obama's preparations imply.

The Insanity of John McCain on Meet the Press - A YouTube Video

Hat Tips to Calitejano and Firedoglake.

When you see how incoherent John McCain is in the above Meet the Press interview, you realize that:

1. Interviews are far more useful than debates in showing how the candidate thinks (and fails to think);
2. John McCain cannot explain his decision to nominate Sarah Palin, because it is inexplicable in terms of the traditional purposes of selecting a running mate, and the polls are showing that most people agree.
3. If a man as incoherent as John McCain becomes the leader of the free world (or God forbid he has an aneurism and Sarah Palin takes control), America would be in for a biblical-sized time of self-immolation and implosion, even bigger than the Bush economic meltdown America is now suffering.
   

John McCain Voted With Bush 90% of the Time

In John McCain's own words

John McCain Boycotts Family Reunions with the Black McCains of Slavery

In the United States, we are so used to assuming that there is a solid line between white and Black people that we are surprised to learn that there are Blacks in the American South who are direct descendants of the descendants of John McCain who is now running for president. Eve though we know that whites owned Black slaves and that white men sired children with Black slave women, yet there remains a deep denial and fear of acknowledging the obvious fact that many whites alive now have Black relatives whom they need to acknowledge and invite to their family reunions. The fact that they are Black is no reason to ignore them, because "blood is thicker than skin color."

And yet, although John McCain's brother Joe goes to family reunions with his Black relatives who are McCain's, the Republican presidential nominee boycotts these reunions, having no apparent interest in meeting with those of his relatives whose skin is brown. This says something very bitter and shameful about the character of John Sydney McCain. Watch the videos below for more documentary information:

The New Republic Doubts the "Maverick" McCain "Ever Existed"

1972 Maverick,
a Rust Bucket Bottom of the Line Piece of Crap

McCain says he's a "maverick" and that's why he should be president of the United States. But, what is a "maverick", anyway?" It's a 1957 television series about the Wild West. But, 1957 is fifty years ago, and Americans like me, who are not yet retired, may well feel the need for a serious politics for our country based solidly in the 21st Century, rather than a politics co-opted from a 51 years old Hollywood script about cowboys and Indians.

A lot has changed since 1957, like the Internet, color television, DVD's space flight . . . John Sydney McCain says he's a "maverick", and that's why we should elect him president. But, what does being a "maverick" have to do with being the leader of the free globalized and nuclear-tipped world? John McCain may be trying to recapture his youth, but he's about half a century too old and too late to play the Maverick he remembers from the 1950's.

We still need pioneers in the sciences, but let's face it: McCain's no pioneer in politics; he's a derivative from Republican cookie factory, mass produced and "branded" just like the old Ford Maverick of which he constantly reminds us.

Maverick is also the name of a very basic car that Ford offered from 1969 to 1978, from the time he John McCain was 31 years old until he was thirty nine years old, thus, the nostalgia.

Is that all "maverick" means? Merriam Websters Dictionary, offers a definition that may get to the heart of John McCain's adolescence:

Main Entry: ¹mav·er·ick

Pronunciation: \ˈmav-rik, ˈma-və-\

Function: noun

Etymology: Samuel A. Maverick †1870 American pioneer who did not brand his calves

Date: 1867

1: an unbranded range animal ; especially : a motherless calf

2: an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party

So, the first "maverick", Samuel A. Maverick, was a bit of an anarchist, refusing to participate in the system that had been established for knowing whose cows were whose, while undoubtedly shooting someone if he believed they had usurped one of his cows by accident or on purpose. That hardly seems like a model for the complex world in which we live.

One definition of "maverick" is "unbranded range animal"and John McCain's campaign of late certainly seems unbranded as well as un-house-trained. That hardly seems like a model for a complex society in which the failures of one economy to act respsonsibly have caused an international meltdown, and now require intense diplomacy to put the interconnected system back together again.

The other definition of a "maverick" is "independent individual who does not go along with a group or party". In 1992, we were inclined to believe this image, even though McCain had gone along with other US Senators in the Savings and Loan payoff scandal that cost the US Treasury Billions of dollars to resolve, just like the current mess only on a smaller scale.

But now, after seen George W. Bush reach historic lows in his public approval ratings while John McCain has voted with Bush 90% of the time, McCain even in the most recent debate found it impossible to name any significant instances where he had broken with meaningfully with his party. He opposed torture, but the torture continued under his party. He urged that the war in Iraq be expanded for as many as a hundred years and voilá! The war continues unabated.

He urged that health care be deregulated and that individual states be forbidden by federal law from implementing any consumer protections that the US Congress would not approve. In this way, our medical care could benefit from the same unbridled competition and speculation that has led to an international meltdown of the banking and insurance system, to be followed by a bailout of the very same insurance companies - the most irresponsible bad actors - that got us into the mess in the first place.

If John McCain had ever been a conscientious "maverick" with a different moral compass than Republicans like George W. Bush, then McCain wouldn't have been photographed having a birthday party for himself, holding a cake with Bush, during the very day that New Orleans was inundated with water.

The editors of the New Republic online magazine have endorsed Barack Obama but, equally importantly, have pointed out some essential truths about John McCain, "the maverick": above all, that he never really existed. Recent history has shown that the "maverick" personality was always more hype than hope.

If the John McCain of 2001 or 2002 were running, this might be a far closer call. At that time, this magazine considered McCain a truly great political figure. During the 2000 primaries, we endorsed Al Gore and John McCain, an unorthodox step for us. Better than anyone in Washington, McCain made the case against creeping income inequality and political corruption. Oftentimes, we found ourselves wishing that his Democratic counterparts spoke with such clarity. Indeed, a cover story we ran urged him to switch parties. We didn't expect that he would listen, but we didn't expect that he would transform himself into a Sean Hannity conservative, either. And we certainly failed to appreciate how his impulsiveness could lead him to such spectacularly bad decisions (Sarah Palin) and such a spectacularly incoherent campaign. The implosion of the old McCain, if he ever truly existed as we imagined, saddens us, not least because the candidate he's become is so poorly suited to the challenges of the moment.

So, there are two fundamental problems with John McCain's Maverick schtick for 2008:

1) The intervening years since his first presidential run have proven that he never was a maverick, just an impostor of 1950's movie characters and relic automobiles, and

2) Mavericks (be they unbranded cows, elderly actors or long-discontinued car models, are irrelevant to the complex problems of governance that our economy and our nation faces in the 21st Century.

Lies McCain Told in the Last Debate

Hat Tip to Agent X.

Author: McCain Called Wife Cunt, Trollop

Author: McCain Called Wife Cunt, Trollop

In his book The Real McCain, author Cliff Schecter claims that John McCain made extremely ugly remarks about his wife Cindy McCain during a tirade witnessed by three reporters and two aides. "At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, 'You're getting a little thin up there,'" Schechter writes. "McCain's face reddened, and he responded, 'At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.' McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days." Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Here's Your Candidate, Whoever You Are

Here's the caption from Reuters, via Americablog.com:

Wed Oct 15, 11:15 PM ET

US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reacts to almost heading the wrong way off the stage after shaking hands with Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, October 15, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008

(USA)

In Nationally Televised Debate, McCain Lies About Qualifications of "Joe the Plumber" Some Two Dozen Times

Today, John McCain accuses ACORN (voter registration and poor people's organization) of being involved in historic vote fraud. But, not long ago, as this YouTube video shows, McCain was a special guest at an ACORN-sponsored rally in southern Florida. Hat Tip to Eddie G. Griffin (BASG).

Yesterday, in the last of the debates between Barack Obama and John McCain, McCain brought up one "Joe the Plumber" (Joe Wurzelbacher ) some two dozen times, using him as an example of hard-working American small businessman. Only, it turns out that "Joe the Plumber" is not a plumber, and he's not even a licensened plumber's helper. In possible contravention of Ohio state or local laws, Joe the Plumber performs plumbing work without ever having been formally trained to do so at all.

The point is not that he shouldn't perform plumbing work (that's for the local authorities to decide), but rather that John McCain should get his facts straight before he makes an obscure and unlicensed laborer into the centerpiece of his argument for his presidential campaign, while exaggerating Joe's professional qualifications to the American people.

We cannot help but remember when George W. Bush and his cronies filled the airwaves with false claims about Iraq, evidently caring little that they were easily disproven. The problem isn' that John McCain doesn't know the truth. The problem is that John McCain doesn't care about the truth.

ACORN at Rally with John McCain

Source: http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/a_lifetime_ago_sen_john.php

John McCain Hearts "Joe the Plumber" in Last Night's Last Presidential Debate

In last nights presidential debate, Barack Obama was the winner hands down. He was steady, personable, expressed deep and credible concern for the middle class, and talked knowledgeably about his focus on the economy. (See C-Span video.)

John McCain was scattered and attempted to rely on a conceit: "Joe the Plumber". To understand what McCain was talking about, you have to understand the back story: Recently, while Obama was walking through a middle class neighborhood and knocking on doors, a man accosted him and insisted that Obama intended to raise his taxes (while implicity John McCain would not). The video of this encounter is making the rounds of YouTube and the television networks.

John McCain might have hoped to rattle Obama by mentioning "Joe the Plumber" (he didn't), but then McCain returned to the "Joe the Plumber" storyline more than half a dozen times at different times during the debate, as if the phrase had some magical quality that would convince voters of McCain's sincerity or of his contention that Obama might raise taxes.

McCain made some very important concessions. He conceded that the Federal Budget had exploded over the last eight years, but he insisted he and his pal George W. Bush were not responsible for it. Meanwhile, McCain also insisted that if Obama 'wanted to run against George W. Bush, he should have run four years ago.' Once again, McCain effectively conceded that the Bush years are a disaster and McCain's only political hope is to try to disassociate himself from them, as Gore tried to disassociate himself from Clinton in 2000. As Geraldine Ferraro attempted unsuccessfully to disassociate herself from her husband's shady tax returns in 1984.

Meanwhile, normal Americans are feeling the hurt. Although the Social Security Administration announced today an abnormally large increase of 5.8% in 50 million Americans retirement incomes,

"Right now many senior citizens are feeling depressed because things seem out of control. They feel like they are in a boat being whipped around by rough seas," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Smith School of Business at California State University. "Their purchasing power has been going down because of higher prices for food and energy and a lot of other things while their savings have taken a hit because of what is happening in the markets." Yahoo News

In last night's debate, Obama, without specifically mentioning George W.Bush, reminded voters several times in several contexts that the last eight years' economic policies have not worked, and voters can see this plainly, grimly with their own eyes, in their own finances. McCain, in response, rattled off a list of ways in which he had been independent from Bush, like torture (old news and irrelevant to the current crisis); Iraq (a war that McCain supported and continues to support, and which is similarly irrelevant to the current economic crisis, except as one of the obsessions that has distracted the Republicans from the US economy), and so on and so forth.

By asserting incredibly that the has been independent in other ways, but without mentioning the economy, McCain effectively conceded that he has been a Bush lackey on what now matters most.

John McCain began his response to a question by mentioning offhandedly and irrelevantly that he had attended a professional sports game last weekend (probably in a battleground state), and Obama interjected crisply, "Congratulations!" The economy is in full meltdown mode, and John McCain spends his afternoon at a football game. So, now we know McCain's priorities. Unlike McCain, America thinks it's important that we resolve the meltdown in our economy, not play games.

Did I mention "Joe the Plumber"?

McCain Would Tax Employment Based Medical Benefits

Once again, in tonight's debate, Senator John McCain repeated his determination to tax the medical insurance provided to American workers by their employers. He says his goal is to discourage "Cadillac care," and yet his plan would tax the provision of ALL employer provided medical care, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

This is undeniably a new tax on health care services that would affect American workers including the poor and the rich.

In a related health care matter, John McCain says he would forbid abortion that are necessary to save the life of the mother.

If we look closely, we can see a certain perverted logic in John McCain's neo-conservative thinking: By taxing health care benefits and making it harder for Americans to see doctors, John McCain hopes to reduce the number of abortions in which doctors participate. See the logic? If there were no doctors, nurses and hospitals, then there would be no abortions. And that is the foremost public policy goal of one of John McCain's key constituencies.

Can John McCain Kick Barack Obama's Ass in Tonight's Debate?

Recently, John McCain publicly predicted and promised that he would "whip" Obama's "you-know-what" in tonight's presidential debate. This was a poor strategic move on McCain's part for a few of reasons: First, in the last two debates, McCain hasn't shown any ability to "whip" Obama in any way, shape or form, and so this bit of McCain bluster tells America how McCain would perform as president - as a loud-mouthed talker who can't size up his (our) situation and successfully put his fists where his mouth is when it comes to resolving conflict.

Second, McCain has set a high bar for himself that he probably cannot possibly meet. When the country sees that McCain was all talk, it will hurt McCain even more than if he hadn't made any predictions about the outcome of the debate at all. Moreover, McCain's prediction will increase the audience for a series of debates that have coincided with plummeting polling numbers for John McCain.

And tonight's debate format doesn't favor McCain, who has been unable to look Obama in the eye in past debates. The Washington Post points out that, "Unlike the two previous presidential debates, tonight's encounter will feature the two candidates seated at a table with the moderator." McCain is far more likely to get rattled and lose his cool, or seem angry and petulant, in this format than is Obama.

Third, McCain's bluster shows that he is desperate and that his supporters are egging him on to do something about the desperate state of his campaign. His promise to whip Obama is effectively a concession that he has failed to do so in past debates, and in the campaign in general.

If John McCain were smart, he'd have encouraged viewers not to watch the debates at all, since there's no evidence that the debates have done him any good. But, he might be of the opinion that the campaign is already effectively lost, based upon recent polling, so he has nothing to lose by promising that something will happen in tonight's debate that McCain has failed to accomplish in all the debates that preceded it.

I've found all of these debates to be ultimately pretty boring. Barack Obama has shown himself to be strong and steady, not surprising and making very little news through these debates. Meanwhile, McCain has meandered through his answers, calling the audience "my friends" in a way that is really annoying to those of us who don't consider him to be a friend of ours, including many Republican, Independent and undecided voters.

I'll watch tonight's debate but, with Obama in the lead and quietly trying to convince undecideds while running out the clock, it's hard to see how anything that happens there can be more monumental than the melt-down in the US and world economy that has dominated the news for the last few weeks.

Obama will keep doing what he has been doing in the last debates (making little news but seeking to reassure voters), while McCain may make a desperate move that will turn voters off even more than they already are - to him, to George W. Bush, and to their deregulated anything-goes banking, mortgage and health care systems.

The real news for the weeks leading into the General Election will be whether the candidates can get their voters to the polls and the Election Day chaos and spurious legal challenges to the final results that Republicans are preparing to submit to courts packed with Bush appointees.

Obama at 53%, Pulling Away from McCain

A majority of American likely voters seem to have realized that John McCain simply is not the man to lead the nation. According to The Washington Post, Obama now leads McCain by 53% to 43%, a ten-point spread. And this represents clear progress for Obama in convincing undecideds, Republicans and Independents, while McCain is moving backwards.

By Anne E. Kornblut and Jon Cohen,Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 13, 2008; Page A01

With just over three weeks until Election Day, the two presidential nominees appear to be on opposite trajectories, with Sen. Barack Obama gaining momentum and Sen. John McCain stalled or losing ground on a range of issues and personal traits, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. WaPost

Overall, Obama is leading 53 percent to 43 percent among likely voters, and for the first time in the general-election campaign, voters gave the Democrat a clear edge on tax policy and providing strong leadership.

Conservatives Losing Confidence in McCain?

It seems as though some conservatives have lost hope and faith in John McCain. David Broder, a fairly conservative columnist at the Washington Post is pretty much endorsing Barack Obama, by pointing out that even many Republicans find Obama's leadership on the economy more credible than McCain's.

I was struck by the survey of economists reported in the current issue of
the Economist, the London newsmagazine that covers America so well. It found much greater confidence in the economic views and advisers of Obama than McCain. The 142 respondents included far more Democrats than Republicans. But even among Republicans, the Obama team was rated superior -- and among the unaffiliated, the choice was overwhelming. WaPost

And George Will said a few weeks ago that:

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential
candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too
high. And it's not Barack Obama. WaPost

They're referring to McCain as "childish" and "untethered".

McCain's V.P. Pick Wants Alaska to Secece from the United States

Secession: That's the way to bring the country together.

By Paul.

It’s time that we discuss Sarah Palin’s associations.

What would Sean Hannity say if Michelle Obama was a member of a political party, for seven years, that advocated separating Illinois from the United States of America and whose founder talked about once professed his “hatred for the American government” and cursed the American flag as a “damn flag”?
Don’t you think he’d be on that subject night after night after night?

And what would Bill O’Reilly shout (he never just talks) if Barack Obama had attended a number of meetings of this hypothetical political party while being an elected official?
O’Reilly’s head would explode and cover our TV screens is gooey red mush.

But not so for the woman who will be a better VP than Thomas Jefferson AND John Adams (or so it seems).

The founder of the Alaska Independence Party — a group that has been courted over the years by Sarah Palin, and one her husband was a member of for roughly seven years — once professed his “hatred for the American government” and cursed the American flag as a “damn flag.”

More at the AfroSpear and Afrosphere Action Coalition's BlackPerspective.Net

Palin Billed Rape Victims for Rape Kits and Forensic Exams

The New York Times reports,

Even in tough budget times, there are lines that cannot be crossed. So I was startled by this tidbit reported recently by The Associated Press: When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the small town began billing sexual-assault victims for the cost of rape kits and forensic exams. NYTimes

Sarah Palin Can't Answer Basic Questions About John McCain's Talking Points

As African American Political Pundit points out, the above Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview shows that Palin cannot answer even the most basic questions about John McCain's foremost talking points. For example, Katie Couric asks as her last question:

Couric: I'm going to ask you one last time. Name one thing John McCain has done to increase regulations on the banking industry.

Palin: I'm going to have to get back to you on that.

Agent X Says Obama Won the First Presidential Debate

AgentX has left a new comment on your post "The First Obama McCain Debate is Victory for Georg...":

Me and the Pundit were talking about this on the Political Slugfest [online radio talk show] last night and it's pretty much a win for Obama. The CNN and CBS undecided voter polls show a clear swing to Obama.

McCain was not on his game tonight. He came across as uncalm, angry, and condescending. And this was his strong suit. I shudder to think how he's gonna do on Domestic Policy (surge of troops in the hood, remember that?? I hope the moderator brings that up) and Economy (the last topic I think). More people now trust Obama on Foreign Policy than McCain. Tonight and that Katic Couric interview by Palin have cost McCain huge points in the pollz. If you trust the pollz that is.

I'm not taking chances. I already registered absentee.

The First Obama McCain Debate is Victory for George W. Bush

I watched the first Obama/McCain debate. McCain said over and over again, in a Reagan-like fashion, "I think you just don't understand", in an attempt to drive home his thesis that Obama would lack experience.

The problem is, and everybody knows it, that McCain got us into the Iraq War and now he has no plan to get us out. He ignores the Afghanistan war, even though it's killing more us US soldiers than Iraq is now.

And McCain wants to expand the wars in the Middle East. McCain did a great job of expressing his undying support for Israel, without stating explicitly that that would lead him into war with Iran. But it would, and has top adviser, Douglas Holz-Eakin, has said as much.

The following is from the Truth About McCain blog, citing the Financial Times:

Would John McCain's election result in perpetual war in Iraq and elsewhere? Well, just look at what John McCain's chief adviser has to say about that. John McCain's chief policy adviser is Douglas Holz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, heads the Greenberg Centre for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and here's what he says about the loss of Americans lives and the economic cost of the war:

[T]he current and future budget cost and loss of life and health probably give the right magnitude. If so, the annual war bill represents only about one cent of the $12,000bn of national income each year, and the total military cost at most, a nickel. And that is the right lesson: the foundation of US international influence is its large, powerful economy which can absorb the narrow, resource costs of war and free the US to pursue strategic [WAR, WAR, WAR] and security goals. FinancialTimes.Com (emphasis added)

John McCain is always wrong about Iraq, and his errors are very dangerous. As when,

. . . he said the war would be "brief" and be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues. Or as he was in the 1990s, when he championed extravagant State Department funding for the war instigator Ahmad Chalabi, who'd already been branded untrustworthy by the C.I.A. (The relationship between Mr. Chalabi and the former lobbyist Charles Black, now a chief McCain campaign strategist, is explored in a new book, "The Man Who Pushed America to War," by Aram Roston.) NYTimes

Read the whole article. With McCain's chief adviser's reasoning, we can expect even more wars like the one in Iraq under a McCain Administration, since the Iraq War continues to be such a great bargain for America, both in terms of loss of life and expense to the US Treasury.

Meanwhile, Obama also knocked down on of McCain's (and all Republicans') chief criticisms of Democrats, as being pacifists unwilling to fight wars that are necessary for American security. Basically, the only thing a Democratic candidate has to do to win on this count is point out a country where he IS determined to fight a war, and show determination about it. Obama met the test.

McCain has been in Washington 22 years, watching the country get into the mess that it's in now, and providing some critical votes and support to this mess along the way, 90% of the time.

Between McCain and the battery of lobbyists that run his campaign, they probably have hundreds of years of experience - fleecing the American taxpayer on behalf of the rich and well-connected.

Americans want change and, precisely because McCain is so entrenched in the lobbyist merry-go-round, we know we will not get that change from John McCain.

If voters want another four years of George W. Bush, whom McCcain supports 90% of the time, then voters will support McCain, to continue the Bush legacy. If voters want change, clearly it's Barack Obama who offers change.

Viral Video Shows McCain's Lobbyist Connections, Glues McCain to Bush

Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly 2 Millions Dollars

John McCain says he's going to take on the lobbyists and the mortgage giants, but the AfroSpear's African American Political Pundit points out:

McCain's campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say. International Herald Tribune, via African American Political Pundit

McCain Brain Locks on African-American Question

When John McCain is asked a two-part question, the second part relating to what he has specifically done for African-Americans, note how his brain locks up.



This is what happens when a compound, complex question is asked and a person has no answer for the second part. Just thinking about the second part of the question dislodges memory of the first part.

McCain Adviser Says Mortgage Problem Exaggerated, Isolated to "Urban Areas"

John McCain has effectively announced that he would ignore Black urban areas if he were president, no matter how much they were suffering. Donald L. Luskin is a chief economic adviser to John McCain. In a Washington Post op-ed of September 14, before the AIG crash and the 700 Billion dollar mortgage bail out, Luskin said:

McCain campaign adviser and former U.S. senator Phil Gramm was right in July when he said that our current state "is a mental recession." Maybe he was out of line when he added that the United States has become "a nation of whiners." But when it comes to the economy, we have surely become a nation of exaggerators. Washington Post

To bolster his contention that the economy is not as bad as everyone says it is, and not as bad as the credit crisis would suggest, he says:

A housing "slump," a housing "crisis"? A "severe" price decline? According to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, the median price of an existing home is up 8.5 percent from the low of last February. And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median price of a new home is up 1.3 percent from the low of last December. Home prices may not be at all-time highs -- and there are pockets of continuing decline in some urban areas -- but overall they've clearly stopped going down and have started to recover. So why keep proclaiming a "crisis" after it's over? Washington Post

Two years ago, articles in USA Today and other national newspapers were pointing to increasing foreclosures and predicting a crisis. But Luskin argues, incredibly, that the mortgage crisis is not that bad because it is mostly limited to America's poorest people, "urban" neighborhoods, [and color groups]:

According to the MBA (Mortgage Bankers Association), 6.4 percent of mortgages are delinquent to some extent, and 2.75 percent are in foreclosure. During the Great Depression, according to Wheelock's research, more than 50 percent of home loans were in default. Moreover, MBA data show that today's foreclosures are concentrated in that small fraction of U.S. homes financed by subprime mortgages. Such homes make up only 12 percent of all mortgages, yet account for 52 percent of foreclosures. This suggests that today's mortgage difficulties are probably a side effect of the otherwise happy fact that, over the past several years, millions of Americans of modest means have come to own their own homes for the first time.

So, Luskin was still lauding and defending the predatory sub-prime mortgages that led to the current crisis, and could not be expected to oppose them even after all that has happened. Moreover, he thinks it is not cause for concern that 6.4 percent of mortgages are delinquent (and perhaps 6.4 percent of American homeowners are at some risk of losing their homes.) And he still hasn't understood that a cancer spread in America's poorest neighboorhoods has metastasized to a full-blown catastrophe for the nation as a whole.

Luskin's insistence that the housing mortgage crisis is limited to "some urban" (where Blacks live), and therefore is not really a crisis at all, is (a) not reassuring for Blacks who wonder whether a McCain Administration would show concern for us, and (b) still shows no understanding for the potential for bad loans in one sector to cause a generalized decapitalization and "run on the bank" in other sectors.

Anyway, how much cherry picking of statistics did Luskin have to do to compare the media price of homes now to the low of last December and declare that all is well? And Luskin cites, of all people, the Mortgage Bankers Association for the comforting belief that "today's foreclosures are concentrated in that small fraction of U.S. homes financed by subprime mortgages." After all that has happened, should the lobbyists for the Mortgage Bankers Association still be relied upon to determine when Bankers' abuses are grevious enough to require regulation, and whether the economy is threatened by their behavior or not?

The fact that John McCain's advisers were still talking like this on September 14 says that McCain is more concerned with reassuring his lobbyists and their mortgage lender clients than he was with preventing a meltdown in the American economy as a whole.

Good Thing We Didn't Privatize Social Security, Like the Republicans Wanted!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Original Graphic Collage

Contact: Francis L. Holland, Esq.
The Francis L. Holland Blog
http://francislholland.blogspot.com
The Truth About McCain Blog
http://truth-about-mccain.blogspot.com
(202) 657-4347
55 (73) 3288-1716
Skype: fazinformatica2005
MSN: francislholland@hotmail.com

How many Americans are wishing they had all of their retirement in mutual funds or the stock market today, after WallStreetizing their entire US Government Social Security retirement expectations? Not many, I'll bet!

Today,

Putnam Investments has closed a $12.3 billion money-market fund to limit losses to its investors, the large mutual fund company said today. The highly unusual announcement is the latest sign that tremendous financial pressures are now threatening even some of the safest kinds of investments. WaPost

The Washington Post says that there was effectively a 'run on the bank' at this fund, with its exclusively institutional investors all demanding their money at once. So, instead of giving the money out on a "first-come, first-served basis", with every successive withdrawal getting less of its money back than the last, until some got nothing at all, Putnam decided to just divide up what was left equally among the investors and liquidate this fund.

I know John McCain thinks the economy is basically sound, but the "bankruptcy" and liquidation of large money-market funds doesn't seem like a good omen to me. In fact, a lot of people have their retirement funds invested in mutual fund accounts, and such people have got to be increasingly nervous today, fearing that their hopes for retirement could be entirely wiped out.

One of the forces that could lead to a lot failures at these funds is that Moody's is downgrading the debt of a lot of banks, funds and other institutions, effectively making it harder and more expensive for them to raise money to cover their obligations. The more Moody's downgrades debt, the more companies will become cash-strapped and go under, in a downward spiral, unless the same brilliant president who got us into this mess somehow finds an unusually brilliant way to get us out.

Now, with money market funds in trouble, we can't help but ask ourselves what a mess we would be in now had we taken the Republican Party's advice and invested all of our Social Security retirement funds in the stock market? Wouldn't there be a lot of middle-aged and elderly people jumping out of windows right now, just like in the Great Depression?

It's a damned good thing we never let George W. Bush and John Syndney McCain, III privatize Social Security to invest the money in the institutions that are now going under!

Francis L. Holland, Esq.
The Francis L. Holland Blog
http://francislholland.blogspot.com
The Truth About McCain Blog
http://truth-about-mccain.blogspot.com
(202) 657-4347
55 (73) 3288-1716
Skype: fazinformatica2005
MSN: francislholland@hotmail.com

I just sent out the above press release, essentially saying that it's a damn good thing we didn't do as Bush/McCain suggested and invest everyone's retirement in the stock market and mutual funds instead of Government Social Security.

Imagine how much more complicated the bailouts would be now if they included ALL of the nation's retirement income!

Is John McCain's Cancer Back

One only has to look closely at photographs of John McCain to see the evidence of cancer ravaging his face. If he were elected, he might be the first American president who was inaugurated with potentially terminal pre-cancerous growths on his face. He might be forced to give press conferences with oozing white gauze strips covering his cheeks.

Of course there is always the possibility that 72 year-old John McCain could survive for eight uneventful years, after having had cancer three times. But, in all likelihood, the cancer would come back at some point, and doctors would be forced to cut his balls-like growths off.

In the above video, a high school student asks McCain if he is simply too old, and McCain calls the student a "little jerk", indicating that McCain may be too angry.

Then, Sarah Palin would become president and American would enter the End Times, when Armegeddon makes us pay all of our debts at once - even the ones we owe to China and all our outstanding credit cards and student loans.

Video Shows McCain Lying about Iraq, Economy, Taxes and Katrina

I think that because John Sydney Mcain, III (or 4th?) lies in the above video about Iraq, the American economy,his position on taxes and Katrina, it's safe to say that John McCain would say anything to get elected.

Secret Thoughts: From a Frog to a Prince

Satire by Eddie Griffin

Thursday, September 04, 2008

When they turn the frog into a prince, we’ll have to fight like hell to keep him from becoming king and taking the throne. Frogs don’t go on to become king. He is a frog.

Why eight is enough? Is eight years of deepening depression enough? Is eight houses enough? If eight is enough, then we have one Supreme Court Justice too many.

Read my lips: No new war.

White man speaks with forked tongue. Peace pipe, no work magic!

Who do I hate today? The Viet Cong? The American Indian and other related savages? The Japanese because of Pearl Harbor? Al-Qaeda because of 9/11? How about the Communist Chinese? Or, the Russians? I know, today I hate the Taliban, tomorrow the Palestinians? I hate Mexicans that sneak across the border. I hate the African-American hip-hop low lifes. Tell me, who do I hate, today?

Surely, the frog is wise enough to know. As a prince, he will give me a hate list, enlist me in his army, and send me out to fight the enemy of the day… as long as the enemy is not the white man, upon whose shoulders he would build his castle… as if eight is not enough.

Did Phil Graham have a part in the Sarah Palin selection?

Matthew Benjamin and Laura Litvan write in Bloomberg:

At today's event, Gramm also defended McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate.

“We went through a process of vetting all possible candidates,” narrowing it down to three before choosing Palin, he said.

When asked later whether he still has a role in the campaign, Gramm said, “I'm a supporter.”

I thought Phil Graham had resigned from John McCain’s campaign.

Gramm, 66, a vice chairman of UBS Securities LLC, stepped down as a co-chairman of the McCain campaign in July after telling the Washington Times that the U.S. is a “nation of whiners” facing a “mental recession”.

And, I thought John McCain distanced himself from Graham because of the comment.

After Gramm's July comments, McCain said, “Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me, so I strongly disagree.” People are not whining, he said, adding that “America is in great difficulty.

Could it be that Phil Gramm resigned only in word and continued to advise John McCain behind the scene? If so, he lied. If John McCain sought his input on his VP selection, then he is a hypocrite.

Governor "Abstinence-Only" Palin has 17 Year-Old Pregnant, Unmarried Teen Daughter

John Sydney McCain has chosen Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, even though Governor Palin's 17 year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant while the Governor herself vociferously opposes sex education. The Governor says that Bristol and her sex companion, Levi Johnston plan to get married, which will make everything alright for this teenage pregnancy.

This seems to be yet another example of where Republican ideology and reality refuse to accommodaate one another, and so reality wins and ideology is embarrassed.

Palin backed abstinence-only education during her 2006 gubernatorial race. In an Eagle Forum Alaska questionnaire, Palin gave this response to the following question:

Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

Palin: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.

*** UPDATE *** NBC's Abby Livingston adds that a McCain spokesperson in May 2007 said the Arizona Republican supported abstinence-only education, too. "Sen. McCain believes the correct policy for educating young children on this subject is to promote abstinence as the only safe and responsible alternative. To do otherwise is to send a mixed signal to children that, on the one hand they should not be sexually active, but on the other here is the way to go about it.

As any parent knows, ambiguity and equivocation leads to problems when it comes to teaching children right from wrong. Sen. McCain believes that there are many negative forces in today’s society that promote irresponsible and dangerous behavior to our children. The public education system should not join this chorus of moral equivocation and ambiguity.” MSNBC

Well, at least in the case of Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston, abstinence-only education doesn not seem to have prevented this pregnancy as well as a condom and foam might have.

Sarah Palin: Tar Baby?

Eddie Griffin urges Caution

Friday, August 29, 2008

Who would have thought that John McCain would make a “steal your thunder” comeback, after Barack Obama hit it out of the park last night? No sooner had the confetti settled, John McCain shocked the world by selecting Alaska Gov.
Sarah Palin.

OMG, we were still hung over from last night’s jubilation and, WHAM!

“Wow. This is like a knife to the jugular for Obama and the Dems,” writes Sylvia.

Gina blogs: For those who read and contemplate political strategies, everyone is buzzing about Senator John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, and the first ever female GOP VP pick… This was a game changer. McCain is taking all of the oxygen out of the newsrooms this morning.

Gina observes that there was only the appearance of Hillary Clinton voters reconciled and unified with the Barack Obama supporters. What people see as festering in this deep seated wound in the Democratic Party provides opportunity for John McCain to tap into former Hillary supports.

Baratunde writes: - this is a big move by mccain, but i don't like to throw the word brilliant around lightly, and this is not brilliant. it is big. it is desperate. it is also risky.

- oh, and as for a group of political reporters believing this was a game changer, that's fine. but that doesn't make it so, and it doesn't say which way the game will end. political reporters, especially groups of them, have been known to be wrong again and again and again. if anything, their unanimity makes me suspicious.

RESPONSE FROM: Eddie Griffin

It is my habit to work from the “worse case scenario”. If we can find the solution to the worse case situation, all other problems become feasible for solutions.

What problem does Sarah Palin present to the Democratic Party? None, I see. Other than being the first female GOP Vice President candidate, she is a non-factor and a potential “tar baby”. If the Dems fight against her, they can only become entangled.

I subscribe to the Theory of Self-Destruction, as in John McCain being his own worst enemy. The less you bother, the more inclined to self-destruct.

McCain Says Construction Workers Under Stress Because They Won't Pick Lettuce for Fifty Dollars an Hour in Yuma Valley

In the above video, John McCain insists that lettuce pickers in Yuma valley earn fifty dollars an hour "for the whole season". He tells a construction worker that he wouldn't do the same work, even for fifty dollars an hour, "because you can't do it, my friend."

I found the above video over at DailyWhitosphere. The user who posted this video hasn't got a single minority link on his entire user bloglist. That's why, as much as this participant might want to work against McCain s/he is bound, tied, and neutered by her/his own inability to join with others, regardless of skin color and ethnicity, in the fight for human and economic rights for all.

Has JiSM Physically Abused his Wife?

AgentX has left a new comment on your post "McCain Uses the "Tar Baby" Phrase":

Ugh...Some people never change.

Angles I'm working on this week:

1) McCain may have beat/attacked his wife. Those arm injuries and her excuse don't quite seem to match. Although there's no clear proof uncovered yet, a lot of people aren't necessarily buying the excuse of "enthusiastic supporters".

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/comments_blog/2008/08/a-handshake-ind.html

If you recall, she was in crutches early in the campaign.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/04/cindy-mccain-on-crutches-at-campaign-stop/
as a result of a twisted knee. She says it was a accident.

It would be nice to believe her if it weren't for Cunt-gate or her husband's voting record or her own habit of lying (forgot about her siblings on TV).

2) McCain has/had houses under assumed names.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0808/The_GOPs_2008_nominee_isEldon_Smith.html?showall
3) McCain has no decent picks available to counter Biden.
4) McCain's lobbyist buddies may have been responsible for the War Within Georgia. Still waiting for a tip on that front.
5) McCain flipflopped on the draft, again. See the Field Negro blog for info on that.
6) How does the deal with Iraq to exit troops by 2013 affects McCain- I see some meat here if it gets signed.

So, is McCain physically abusive to his wife, in addition to the emotional abuse of calling her a "cunt" in public. Well, let's just say that she's clearly "accident prone."

McCain Uses the "Tar Baby" Phrase

Hat Tip to the University of Dayton.

When John S. McCain uses the phrase "Tar Baby" in public, I think I know what words he uses in private.

How Many Homes Does John McCain Really Own?

John McCain really stepped in the McShit when he acknowledged in a Politico.Com interview that he doesn't know how many homes he owns.

A week dominated by vice presidential speculation and the run-up to the Democratic National Convention was quickly overtaken by the McCain miscue. In an interview with Politico.com, the presumptive Republican nominee was asked how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, heir to a beer distributorship, owned.

"I think -- I'll have my staff get to you," McCain replied. "It's condominiums where -- I'll have them get to you."

Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee pounced with remarkable speed. By mid-morning, reporters had received a video log featuring Cindy McCain's childhood estate in Phoenix, an Architectural Digest spread on another property the McCains had owned previously, and tax records and photos detailing seven houses and condominiums -- in Coronado and La Jolla, Calif.; Phoenix and Sedona, Ariz.; and Arlington. By 11 a.m., the Obama campaign had produced a television advertisement titled "Seven" and was answering the question McCain could not. Washington Post

Well, John McCain's white, so to many people his "I'm one of you" chatter will sound relatively authentic no matter how rich he is and how many houses he owns. But, economically I know John McCain is nothing like me because (a) I know how many houses I own, and (b) I don't own anywhere near seven houses. And none of my houses have been featured in Architectural Digest.

Cindy McCain Says She's an Only Child, But She's NOT

Why all of the lies?

Mark Silva of the Chicago Tribune's Washington Bureau, writing for the Swamp, reports on a half-sister of Cindy McCain whose existence Cindy McCain regularly denies when she tells the media that she is "an only child."

In the interview airing on NPR's All Things Considered, Cindy McCain's older half sister, Kathleen Hensley Portalski, "talks about their estranged relationship, and the difficulty she has when she hears McCain described as an "only child" by the media, and by McCain herself,'' NPR reports of the talk with Southwest Correspondent Ted Robbins.

Kathleen Portalksi, retired now in Phoenix, was born in 1943, a child of the late Jim Hensley's first marriage, the network says, reporting that his second wife, Marguerite, also had a daughter from her first marriage. Cindy Hensley was McCain's second wife as well - he had a daughter with his first wife and adopted her two sons, and has had three children with his second wife and adopted an orphan from Bangladesh.

NPR's Robbins notes that Cindy McCain often refers to herself as an only child, as she did on CNN last month: "I grew up with my dad. I'm an only child. My father was a cowboy and he really loved me very much, but I think he wanted a son occasionally."

And that's true: She was the only child in her family.

Yet, Portalski tells NPR: "I'm upset. I'm angry. It makes me feel like a non-person, kind of."

Of her relationship with her late father, Portalski says: "I saw him a few times a year. I saw him at Christmas and birthdays, and he provided money for school clothes and he called occasionally."

Documents show Kathleen Anne Hensley was born to Jim and Mary Jeanne Hensley on Feb. 23, 1943. They had been married for six years when Kathleen was born. He flew as a bombardier on a B-17 during World War II. He was injured and sent to a facility in West Virginia to recuperate. During that time, NPR reports, while still married to Mary Jeanne, Hensley met another woman -- Marguerite Smith. He divorced Mary Jeanne and married Marguerite in 1945. Cindy Lou Hensley was born nine years later, in 1954.

Jim Hensley, who founded one of the nation's largest beer distributorships in Phoenix, provided credit cards and college tuition to his grandchildren, and $10,000 gifts to Portalski and her husband, NPR reports. When Jim Hensley died in 2000, Portalski was named in his will, and she was left $10,000. Cindy McCain inherited his fortune and is chairman of the board of Hensley and Co.

Portalski's son, Nicholas Portalski, describes why the family decided to come forward: "I think the fact that we don't exist. The fact that we've never been recognized, and then Cindy has to put such a fine point on it by saying something that's not true. Recently. Again and again. It's just very, very hurtful." The Swamp

Granny says McCain is an Inveterate Bigot

GrannyStandingforTruth points out, citing CapitolHillBlue, that John McCain has a long history of anti-ethnic, color-aroused, misogynistic jokes that he tells his friends and reporters whenever he gets the chance:

McCain's collection of off-color jokes are riddled with racist words and sentiments. Advisors have toned down the raunchy rhetoric of his early years in Congress but close aides say his attitudes have not changed.

McCain opposed making the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King a national holiday. During his 2000 campaign for President, he told reporters on his "Straight Talk Express: "I hated the gooks (North Vietnamese). I will hate them as long as I live."

Katie Hong of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who reported the remark, wrote:

It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group.

It is alarming because a major candidate for president publicly used a racial epithet, refused to apologize for doing so and remains a legitimate contender.

For his 2000 campaign for President, McCain hired Richard Quinn, founder and editor in chief of Southern Heritage Magazine, to serve as his spokesman in South Carolina.

Notes Salon.Com:

Quinn's articles have called Nelson Mandela a "terrorist" and King a man "whose role in history was to lead his people into a perpetual dependence on the welfare state, a terrible bondage of body and soul." In another piece, Quinn said of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, "What better way to reject politics as usual than to elect a maverick like David Duke?" though he did condemn Duke's bigotry.

Irwin A. Tank, author of Gook: John McCain's Racism, notes a long and sordid history of racism from the presumptive GOP nominee, including:

• McCain's use of the anti-Asian slur "gook" publicly for 27 years before dropping the use for his current Presidential run;
• McCain's endorsement of George Wallace Jr., a frequent speaker at white supremacist events;
• His vote against establishing a holiday for Martin Luther King's birthday and then another vote to rescind the holiday.
• In answering a question about divorced fathers and child support, McCain called the children "tar babies."

The list goes on and on.

I tend to believe that McCain's calling his wife a cunt in front of a group of reporters is the incident that will most haunt him throughout this election cycle. Each of the other groups that McCain has targeted for bigoted remarks is a minority for whom the public might not have enough sympathy for the remarks to sway a vote one way or the other. But women are the majority of voters in the United States and, to my knowledge, the vast majority of them are VERY insulted when anyone calls them, or any other woman, a "cunt".

And that's why John Sydney McCain, III is NOT going to become president of the United States: Because women simply don't like being called "cunts", much less by the president of the country in which they live.

"Barack is 'The [Chosen] One', but is he Ready to Lead?" Asks McCain

In the above YouTube video, focused entirely on Barack Obama and the religious subtext to his political message, John McCain concedes, "Barack Obama: He may be the One. But is he ready to lead."

It seems to me that in this ad John McCain falls into the trap of repeating and popularizing his opponents' best lines for the purpose of vaguely trying to punch holes in them.

America is a very religious country, with ninety percent of people saying they believe in God. So a candidate who says that he feels a mission to lead and has been chosen to do so may have a much better change than another candidate who ridicules the religous content of his opponent's mission, without offering any religious content of his own.

John McCain's slogan is, "Barack Obama: He may be "The One", but is he ready to lead?" If American decides that Obama is more ready to lead than McCain, then McCain's McCain may find that it is essentially over.

Religious people take leaps of faith, and "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen." If McCain's campaign depends on convincing religious people not to have faith, that makes him a negative naysaying, a tool of doom rather than the man to lift up the nation in troubled times.

Hat Tip to Agent X.

YouTube Video Depicts McCain as Klansman

The above video is dispicable. Instead of focusing on the real historical evidence that John McCain doesn't like Black peeople, here and here:

"..McCain, speaking on ABC's "This Week," said he backs a proposed ballot initiative in his home state of Arizona that would prohibit affirmative action policies by state and local governments."
Field Negro

And yet, the abvoe video depicts McCain as a Klansman himself, when the truth is that he has only consorted with Klansman and relied on them for campaign contributions and political support, while taking policy positions calculated to win Klansman votes.

For instance, with 95% of Black in Louisiana supporting Barack Obama, 'I can't help wondering what JiSM was doing olding an (awful) campaign rally in Kenner, Louisiana [last month], considering Kenner's intimate connection with David Duke:

After spending a year in federal prison for mail fraud and tax evasion, David Duke was allowed to spend the final weeks of his sentence in a halfway house in Louisiana in April 2004. Needing employment to meet eligibility requirements, he worked for EURO (the European-American Unity and Rights Organization), his white supremacist propaganda organization.

Duke's sentence ended in mid-May 2004. To celebrate his freedom and to promote unity among white supremacist groups, EURO sponsored a conference on May 28-30 in Kenner, Louisiana, near New Orleans. Several significant neo-Nazi and racist figures attended the event, including speakers John Tyndall, founder of the British National Party; top National Alliance lieutenant Kevin Alfred Strom; Don Black, founder of the pioneering white supremacist Web site Stormfront; Willis Carto of the American Free Press and The Barnes Review; anti-Semitic attorney Edgar J. Steele; and Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf. In his own remarks, Duke urged the audience of 250 not to characterize themselves as white supremacists and racists but as devoted to the "white civil rights cause." AntiDefamationLeauge

Even McCain admits to the Washington Post that he was a "coward" when he flip-flopped on the Confederate Flag in South Carolina:

"I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. . . . In truth, I'd had the ambition for a long time."

That ambition led McCain into a moral lapse that appalled him. It involved an ongoing dispute in South Carolina over the tradition of flying the Confederate battle flag atop the state capitol, in Columbia. In a television interview, McCain said the flag was "offensive," and he appeared sympathetic to its critics. His aides were alarmed, fearing the consequences in the upcoming South Carolina primary, and they wrote a damage-control statement that McCain read repeatedly before television cameras. "I understand both sides," McCain said. "Some view the flag as a symbol of slavery. Others view it as a symbol of heritage. Personally, I see the battle flag as a symbol of heritage."

But that, McCain wrote a year later, was "a lie." The flag symbolized both slavery and the South's secession from "the country I love," and "should be lowered forever from the staff atop South Carolina's capitol."

"I had promised to tell the truth no matter what," McCain wrote in the book. "When I broke it, I had not just been dishonest, I had been a coward, and I had severed my own interests from my country's. That was what made the lie unforgivable."

Maybe, as Agent X says,

Anyway, also I'm sure you know about this too, McCain has a race card problem.
The celebrity ad has bit him on the ass (even the Hilton family, his biggest donors, are pissed at him, you can read this article on the Huff) and watch this video as he tries to defend himself by claiming that Obama played the race card against him- I think. Rick Davis, the campaign manager you outed as a lobbyist, was behind that attack.



And since the McCain camp has brought up the race card, I think it's time we delved into his past habits of racist remarks. Ask one of his former colleagues, Doug Thompson. Doug went to some of the same bars as McCain during his early days in the House and recalls several of his racist remarks.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x374031

This site republished the article from Capitol Hill Blue. Let's just say it puts yesterday's smear campaign into play.

Anonymous AgentX said...

From the article, a typical McCain joke:

Two dykes are talking at a bar and one leaves. As she walks toward the door, the other watches her leave and says out loud: "God, I've love to eat her out."

Two men are standing near by and one turns to the other and says: "I'd like to do the same. Guess that makes me a dyke."

Or another:

Question: Why does Mexican beer have two "X's" on the label?
Answer: Because wetbacks always need a co-signer.
When he ran for the Senate, I attended a gathering of GOP operatives at the National Republican Senatorial Committee where McCain outlined his campaign strategy:
"I play to win. I do whatever it takes to win. If I have to fuck my opponent to win I'll do it. If I have to destroy my opponent I won't give it a second thought."
See Agent X's report in Comments.

John McCain calls his wife a "cunt", he calls lesbian women "dikes", and he calls Mexican-Americans "wetbacks". I personally beleive his "cunt statement will turn out to be the "macaca momentof the 2008 election cycle, as soon as the debates arrive and he's forced to admit or deny the issue on national television.

Meanwhile, we've all seen this story before. Charges and counter-charges of "playing the 'race card', which Obama deftly blows off by focusing on the issues while his opponents increasingly focus on color, in an attempt to color-aroused the public. If it didn't work for Hillary Clinton, why would it work any better for John McCain, who is clearly a much less competent campaigner:

McCain Says He Might Increase Payroll Taxes

Here's more of the truth, provided by Agent X:

Another hot tip for you; remember the story you covered back in February when he flip-flopped on new taxes? He's done it again.

Mr. McCain likes to tell voters that he's the presidential candidate who wants to cut taxes.

"Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't," he often declares. Or: "If you want to raise taxes, then don't vote for me."

Except there is one tax Mr. McCain might be prepared to raise. When asked in an interview Sunday whether he was prepared to raise payroll taxes to correct social security's funding shortfall, he replied:

"There is nothing that's off the table. I have my positions, and I'll articulate them. But nothing's off the table. I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table."

The Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy group, found the response "shocking.

"Your comments yesterday send American taxpayers and businesses a mixed message about where you stand on this issue," the group's president, Pat Toomey, wrote Monday in an open letter to the senator.

So what is his actual position on Tax increases, if he has one?

JiSM's Had Skin Cancer Three Times

Cross-posted at the Truth About McCain blog.

John McCain, Yahoo News reports, has had skin McCancer three times, (hey, talking about JiSM makes me tasteless) and gets check-ups in Nevada every three months to make sure the cancer hasn't come back. In fact, he was in Nevada today to have a

small patch of skin removed from his face and biopsied as part of a regular checkup with his dermatologist. ( . . . ) The fair-skinned Arizona senator, who suffered severe sun damage from his 5 1/2 years in Vietnamese prison camps, gets an in-depth skin cancer check every few months because of a medical history of dangerous melanomas." Yahoo News

The New York Times said Sunday,

"Along with his signature bright white hair, the most striking aspects of Senator John McCain’s physical appearance are his puffy left cheek and the scar that runs down the back of his neck. New York Times

We all are aware of the normal actuarial risks of being seventy-two years old now, and seventy-six years old when and if his first term expired before he did. However, if elected JiSM would treat the public to a "does he have cancer or doesn't he" check-up every three months. In fact, he'll be getting another check-up like this around November 28.

Everyone's days are numbered, but John McCain's days are more numbered than most everyone else's. Shouldn't we know what his November 28th 2008 check-up will say before we risk electing him president on November 4?

Elizabeth Edwards' possibly terminal cancer became a big issue in the Democratic primaries. Can John McCain's candidacy survive that kind of scrutiny of his health conditions, particularly the risk that cancerous lesions will appear on his face?

What kinds of fluctuations in the markets could we expect on a quarterly basis before and after John McCain's check-ups? If John McCain were elected president, how much of his face would have to be cut off before . . . 2012?

Let's, be realistic, though. Ronald Reagan was 175 years old when he was elected president; was shot; underwent operations for bowel polyps; and probably spent most of his presidency with early Alzheimers Disease. When many of us thought he was nodding meaningfully, some of us knew he was nodding portentously. But he still survived to make liberals miserable for eight years.

Obama Succeeding Brilliantly on Foreign Policy Trip Compared to McCain

Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, it seems to me, is making all of the right foreign policy moves his trip overseas. I take particular note of the following passage, found at Yahoo News:

PARIS - Democrat Barack Obama said Friday that Iran should promptly accept an international call to freeze its uranium enrichment program, which some nations see as a potential step toward obtaining nuclear weapons, and not wait for the next U.S. president.

The presidential candidate met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, where they discussed Iran, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, climate change and other issues.

Speaking later at a news conference, Obama said Iran should accept the proposals made by Sarkozy and other Western leaders. He urged Iran's leaders not to wait for the next U.S. president to push them "because the pressure, I think, is only going to build." Yahoo News

Recently, John McCain and other anti-Obama forces (e.g. here) were able to convince the mainstream media to report that European leaders were afraid that Obama would not pursue an Iran diplomacy consistently strict with what Europe has been doing.

By meeting with Sarkozy and promising that "the pressure, I think ,is only going to increase", Obama is promising to apply even more pressure than the Bush Administration has, but within the framework set out by the Europeans, which does not include going to war with Iran.

francislholland :: Obama Succeeding Billiantly on Foreign Policy

Yahoo News continues,

The two men recalled their 2006 meeting in Washington, when Sarkozy was the French interior minister. Obama said the only other U.S. senator who Sarkozy visited then was McCain, now the presumed Republican nominee for president.

Obama urged U.S. political reporters to seek Sarkozy's insight because "he seems to have a good nose for how things play out." Yahoo News

Obama is promising and demonstrating through his diplomacy that he is going to pursue a strategy consistent with that of our allies. Meanwhile, McCain is insisting that a war that all of Europe opposed (Iraq) is still necessary, and McCain promises to attack Iran militarily, which is utterly inconsistent and counter to the European approach.

The following is from the Truth About McCain blog, citing the Financial Times:

Would John McCain's election result in perpetual war in Iraq and elsewhere? Well, just look at what John McCain's chief adviser has to say about that. John McCain's chief policy adviser is Douglas Holz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, heads the Greenberg Centre for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and here's what he says about the loss of Americans lives and the economic cost of the war:

[T]he current and future budget cost and loss of life and health probably give the right magnitude. If so, the annual war bill represents only about one cent of the $12,000bn of national income each year, and the total military cost at most, a nickel. And that is the right lesson: the foundation of US international influence is its large, powerful economy which can absorb the narrow, resource costs of war and free the US to pursue strategic [WAR, WAR, WAR] and security goals. FinancialTimes.Com (emphasis added)

John McCain is always wrong about Iraq, and his errors are very dangerous. As when,

. . . he said the war would be "brief" and be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues. Or as he was in the 1990s, when he championed extravagant State Department funding for the war instigator Ahmad Chalabi, who'd already been branded untrustworthy by the C.I.A. (The relationship between Mr. Chalabi and the former lobbyist Charles Black, now a chief McCain campaign strategist, is explored in a new book, "The Man Who Pushed America to War," by Aram Roston.) NYTimes

Read the whole article. With McCain's chief adviser's reasoning, we can expect even more wars like the one in Iraq under a McCain Administration, since the Iraq War continues to be such a great bargain for America, both in terms of loss of life and expense to the US Treasury.

Meanwhile, Obama also knocked down on of McCain's (and all Republicans') chief criticisms of Democrats, as being pacifists unwilling to fight wars that are necessary for American security. Basically, the only thing a Democratic candidate has to do to win on this count is point out a country where he IS determined to fight a war, and show determination about it. Obama met the test.

Yesterday,

Obama told reporters that "Afghanistan is a war we have to win." The Taliban and terrorist groups it supports, he said, pose an unacceptable threat to the U.S., France and other nations.

"We've got to finish the job," said Obama, who often has said the Iraq war was an unwise move that distracted the United States from efforts to find Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders and to root out the Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Yahoo News

In fact, there are very good alternatives to most wars the US might be called upon to fight, but most of the public wants to know that a president will be willing to fight a war if the need arises, and some actually want a war just for the fun or the lucre of it. The best way for a candidate to show that he has a war in him is to point out a place where he believes a war should be fought, and that's precisely what Obama did.