And McCain blathers on the Late Edition.
It must be wearying to be a hard core Neocon these days. Every week they have to make up new reasons why an until that day very respected Republican Senator, former Republican leaning general or former Republican representative is now just a left-leaning, pinko, commie SOB and why they were in fact never to be trusted in the first place.
The latest Republican who will be receiving these honours is Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) as reported by Politico. Pressler was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the United States Senate and is the latest in along line of Republicans backing Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign
Pressler, who said that in addition to casting an absentee ballot for Obama he'd donated $500 to the Illinois senator's campaign, cited the Democrat's response to the financial crisis as the primary reason for his decision.
"I just got the feeling that Obama will be able to handle this financial crisis better, and I like his financial team of [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin and [former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul] Volcker better," he said. By contrast, John McCain's "handling of the financial crisis made me feel nervous."
How right you are Mr. Pressler. It might also be McCain’s increasing senility that is worrying people like Pressler. In an extraordinary statement on CNN’s Late Edition McCain said:
“I would have vetoed literally every spending bill, even those that I had voted for, if I were president of the United States…”
Huh?
If you would have vetoed the spending bills, why vote for them? I mean, was the option of voting against them not there?
It’s becoming increasingly clear that McCain’s aberrant behavior is worrying even the staunchest of Republicans, who are praying fervently that this demented old man doesn’t, by some fluke become president and even worse, die in office, so that the moose killing sycophant gets her shot at destroying this country.
Showing posts with label McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McCain. Show all posts
Monday, October 27, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
McCain Camp Tied to Attack on Staffer
As reported by the Talking Points Memo, in an amazing but not altogether surprising twist, it would appear that a spokesperson for the McCain camp released inflammatory details of the faked attack on a Pennsylvania woman before they had been released by the police.
John McCain's Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established -- and even told reporters outright that the "B" carved into the victim's cheek stood for "Barack," according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.
The implications of a McCain staffer telling reporters a much more embellished and explosive story than the available facts at the time would allow are obvious. In a nutshell, it is the same propagandist style which has been Palin’s approach these past weeks – to generate hatred against the opposition. The intention is to coerce Midwestern white America into believing, “If you vote for the Muslim Black Man who pals around with terrorists, this will happen to you.”
I can’t wait for November 4th - a farewell to John bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, McCain, a goodbye to the moose killing nutcase and a return to sanity for this country so we can start putting things right again.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Slap in The Face For Bush, McCain & Palin
So here we are arguing back and forth – pull out with a timetable, pull out without one. McCain, and Palin ridiculed Obama for wanting to set a timetable and said it showed his lack of experience in such matters and they endorsed Bush’s inane view that pulling out with a timetable was equal to defeat.
Defeat of what I ask? Because no one has won anything in Iraq and no one is likely to win anything in Iraq. Iraq is pretty much as it was except about a million more dead, a completely destroyed infrastructure and the loss of most of its academics. Other than that – yes, Saddam Hussein is no more, but what difference does that make in a country where people are still being blown to bits and tortured on a regular basis?
Setting a timetable for withdrawal is hardly likely to make things worse. But the Bush Administration won't have any of it because they still hope for some kind of miracle when they can pull out with clean hands and demonstrating strength and control.
So it’s slightly more than laughable, that the latest draft for the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces agreement on the U.S. military presence states unequivocally that US forces are to withdraw by the end of 2011 as reported by Gareth Porter of IPS. It is unambiguous and clear. What is also clear is that even a non-combat US presence in that country is not wanted and will not be tolerated.
I’m laughing my socks off because here’s McCain and his hound dog Palin pretending like they’re going to make the rules.In fact, the only thing standing in the way of this agreement being ratified, is that the Shiites under Moqtada El Sadr, remember him, are revolting against it because they consider the pullout date for US troops to be too late.
This development signifies the entire loss of not only bargaining power but also legitimacy of the Bush regime with regards to Iraq. Here they were pontificating about how they would decide when to pull out the troops when in fact, it had already been decided by the Iraqis:
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Baghdad Aug. 21, the United States accepted for the first time a firm date of 2011 for complete withdrawal
The Oct. 13 final draft, a translation of which was posted by Raed Jarrar on his website Oct. 20, reveals that the Bush administration has been forced to give up its aims of softening the deadline for withdrawal and of a residual non-combat force in the country.
The collapse of the Bush administration's ambitious plan for a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq highlights the degree of unreality that has prevailed among top U.S. officials in both Washington and Baghdad on Iraqi politics. They continued to see the Maliki regime as a client which would cooperate with U.S. aims even after it was clear that Maliki's agenda was sharply at odds with that of the United States.
"The degree of unreality.....
"Vote for McCain if you want another four years of a few more degrees of unreality. Barack got it right again.
Defeat of what I ask? Because no one has won anything in Iraq and no one is likely to win anything in Iraq. Iraq is pretty much as it was except about a million more dead, a completely destroyed infrastructure and the loss of most of its academics. Other than that – yes, Saddam Hussein is no more, but what difference does that make in a country where people are still being blown to bits and tortured on a regular basis?
Setting a timetable for withdrawal is hardly likely to make things worse. But the Bush Administration won't have any of it because they still hope for some kind of miracle when they can pull out with clean hands and demonstrating strength and control.
So it’s slightly more than laughable, that the latest draft for the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces agreement on the U.S. military presence states unequivocally that US forces are to withdraw by the end of 2011 as reported by Gareth Porter of IPS. It is unambiguous and clear. What is also clear is that even a non-combat US presence in that country is not wanted and will not be tolerated.
I’m laughing my socks off because here’s McCain and his hound dog Palin pretending like they’re going to make the rules.In fact, the only thing standing in the way of this agreement being ratified, is that the Shiites under Moqtada El Sadr, remember him, are revolting against it because they consider the pullout date for US troops to be too late.
This development signifies the entire loss of not only bargaining power but also legitimacy of the Bush regime with regards to Iraq. Here they were pontificating about how they would decide when to pull out the troops when in fact, it had already been decided by the Iraqis:
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Baghdad Aug. 21, the United States accepted for the first time a firm date of 2011 for complete withdrawal
The Oct. 13 final draft, a translation of which was posted by Raed Jarrar on his website Oct. 20, reveals that the Bush administration has been forced to give up its aims of softening the deadline for withdrawal and of a residual non-combat force in the country.
The collapse of the Bush administration's ambitious plan for a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq highlights the degree of unreality that has prevailed among top U.S. officials in both Washington and Baghdad on Iraqi politics. They continued to see the Maliki regime as a client which would cooperate with U.S. aims even after it was clear that Maliki's agenda was sharply at odds with that of the United States.
"The degree of unreality.....
"Vote for McCain if you want another four years of a few more degrees of unreality. Barack got it right again.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Who's Responsible For the Financial Crisis?
If you’re a right wing pundit, you’ll still be bleating that the market meltdown was the result of Wall Street pulling it’s money out of stocks in fear of an impending Obama Presidency.
Actually, what now surfaces as reported by Yahoo, is a GOP construction that is so stinky I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae allegedly paid DCI, a Republican Consulting firm more than $2 million in order to scuttle legislation that would have led to regulation of the mortgage markets and would, in retrospect, have prevented much of the housing and therefore, credit crisis.
Ironically, the bill that DCI was targeting was written by Chuck Hagel R-Nebraska. The Bill was preceded by a letter written by Chuck Hagel and 25 other senators; here is an excerpt:
"If effective regulatory reform legislation ... is not enacted this year, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole,"
Talk about foresight. To be fair to the Republicans, when the bill was sent to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, all Republican members of the committee voted for it, whilst the Democrats opposed it. That was back in 2005 and that was when FM and FM started using DCI’s services to target Republicans to oppose such legislation.
DCI's chief executive by the way is Doug Goodyear. John McCain's campaign later hired him to manage the GOP convention in September.
Why this is funny is because one of the illogical lies that McCain has been spreading about Obama is that the latter had taken advice from the heads of FM & FM. What McCain fails to tell his supporters is that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, or his lobbying firm has taken more than $2 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 2000. In December, Freddie Mac contributed $250,000 to last month's GOP convention.
In the end, the efforts to kill the bill were successful as nine of the targeted Republicans opposed it. Again to be fair, had the Democratic Senators backed it unanimously, it would have passed.
The amazing upshot of all this is that Freddie Mac CEO Richard and Daniel Mudd, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fannie Mae Syron pocketed nearly $19.8 million and $12.21 million in compensation last year respectively, whilst people lost their homes because of the deregulated market.
These are the people who pulled this scheme out of their butts out of sheer greed. The result of their actions are tens of thousands of destitute families across America – the very ones that the GOP is terrified Obama might want to try to help should he become President.
Actually, what now surfaces as reported by Yahoo, is a GOP construction that is so stinky I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae allegedly paid DCI, a Republican Consulting firm more than $2 million in order to scuttle legislation that would have led to regulation of the mortgage markets and would, in retrospect, have prevented much of the housing and therefore, credit crisis.
Ironically, the bill that DCI was targeting was written by Chuck Hagel R-Nebraska. The Bill was preceded by a letter written by Chuck Hagel and 25 other senators; here is an excerpt:
"If effective regulatory reform legislation ... is not enacted this year, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole,"
Talk about foresight. To be fair to the Republicans, when the bill was sent to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, all Republican members of the committee voted for it, whilst the Democrats opposed it. That was back in 2005 and that was when FM and FM started using DCI’s services to target Republicans to oppose such legislation.
DCI's chief executive by the way is Doug Goodyear. John McCain's campaign later hired him to manage the GOP convention in September.
Why this is funny is because one of the illogical lies that McCain has been spreading about Obama is that the latter had taken advice from the heads of FM & FM. What McCain fails to tell his supporters is that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, or his lobbying firm has taken more than $2 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 2000. In December, Freddie Mac contributed $250,000 to last month's GOP convention.
In the end, the efforts to kill the bill were successful as nine of the targeted Republicans opposed it. Again to be fair, had the Democratic Senators backed it unanimously, it would have passed.
The amazing upshot of all this is that Freddie Mac CEO Richard and Daniel Mudd, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fannie Mae Syron pocketed nearly $19.8 million and $12.21 million in compensation last year respectively, whilst people lost their homes because of the deregulated market.
These are the people who pulled this scheme out of their butts out of sheer greed. The result of their actions are tens of thousands of destitute families across America – the very ones that the GOP is terrified Obama might want to try to help should he become President.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Rolling Stone Nails Palin
"Mad Dog Palin"
The scariest thing about John McCain's running mate isn't how unqualified she is - it's what her candidacy says about America
Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.
The Palin speech was a political masterpiece, one of the most ingenious pieces of electoral theater this country has ever seen. Never before has a single televised image turned a party's fortunes around faster.
Until the Alaska governor actually ascended to the podium that night, I was convinced that John McCain had made one of the all-time campaign-season blunders, that he had acted impulsively and out of utter desperation in choosing a cross-eyed political neophyte just two years removed from running a town smaller than the bleacher section at Fenway Park. It even crossed my mind that there was an element of weirdly self-destructive pique in McCain's decision to cave in to his party's right-wing base in this fashion, that perhaps he was responding to being ordered by party elders away from a tepid, ideologically promiscuous hack like Joe Lieberman — reportedly his real preference — by picking the most obviously unqualified, doomed-to-fail joke of a Bible-thumping buffoon. As in: You want me to rally the base? Fine, I'll rally the base. Here, I'll choose this rifle-toting, serially pregnant moose killer who thinks God lobbies for oil pipelines. Happy now?
But watching Palin's speech, I had no doubt that I was witnessing a historic, iconic performance. The candidate sauntered to the lectern with the assurance of a sleepwalker — and immediately launched into a symphony of snorting and sneering remarks, taking time out in between the superior invective to present herself as just a humble gal with a beefcake husband and a brood of healthy, combat-ready spawn who just happened to be the innocent targets of a communist and probably also homosexual media conspiracy. She appeared to be completely without shame and utterly full of shit, awing a room full of hardened reporters with her sickly-sweet line about the high-school-flame-turned-hubby who, "five children later," is "still my guy." It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag.
Within minutes, Palin had given TV audiences a character infinitely recognizable to virtually every American: the small-town girl with just enough looks and a defiantly incurious mind who thinks the PTA minutes are Holy Writ, and to whom injustice means the woman next door owning a slightly nicer set of drapes or flatware. Or the governorship, as it were.
Right-wingers of the Bush-Rove ilk have had a tough time finding a human face to put on their failed, inhuman, mean-as-hell policies. But it was hard not to recognize the genius of wedding that faltering brand of institutionalized greed to the image of the suburban-American supermom. It's the perfect cover, for there is almost nothing in the world meaner than this species of provincial tyrant.
Letterman Nails McCain
John McCain appeared on Letterman last night to make amends for his having skipped out on the TV showmaster a couple of weeks ago. Then, McCain had claimed that he was canceling the appearance because of the financial crisis. Letterman however showed footage of Mccain preparing for a Katie Couric interview instead.
All this is water under the bridge and the Letterman Show was as usual interesting but Letterman didn’t make it all fun and games. He pressed McCain on the latter’s association with Gordon Liddy. Letterman asked:
“Did you have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?” McCain appears confused and says:
“Uh ahh – I’ve met him…”
Letterman then asks:
“Did you attend a fundraiser at his house?”
MCain replies, “Gordon Liddy’s?” And looks lost.
After a commercial break, McCain then more confidently adds:
“"I know Gordon Liddy. He paid his debt, he went to prison.... I'm not in any was embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy."
Now that’s a fascinating reply. Here are two things that should now be taken into account:
The Republican Party made thousands of phone calls last night to potential swing voters informing them that Barack Obama "had worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.” The same Bill Ayers who was convicted for his role in the Weathermen, served his sentence and is now such a model citizen that Chicago named him their citizen of the year in 1997
Gordon Liddy is a convicted felon who has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in "if necessary"; plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a "gangland figure" to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap "leftist guerillas" at the 1972 Republican National Convention -- a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis. Liddy also once famously gave his supporters advice on how best to kill federal officials (he recommended shooting them in the head because they might be wearing flak jackets). Liddy has also been unrepentant about his actions.
McCain, who seems too senile to appreciate the irony of the situation claimed during last night’s interview that he “was not in any way embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy.”
Of course not. The right wing is all about being against scumbags unless they’re in one’s own ranks, then they’re all for them.
McCain two faced? You betcha.
All this is water under the bridge and the Letterman Show was as usual interesting but Letterman didn’t make it all fun and games. He pressed McCain on the latter’s association with Gordon Liddy. Letterman asked:
“Did you have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?” McCain appears confused and says:
“Uh ahh – I’ve met him…”
Letterman then asks:
“Did you attend a fundraiser at his house?”
MCain replies, “Gordon Liddy’s?” And looks lost.
After a commercial break, McCain then more confidently adds:
“"I know Gordon Liddy. He paid his debt, he went to prison.... I'm not in any was embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy."
Now that’s a fascinating reply. Here are two things that should now be taken into account:
The Republican Party made thousands of phone calls last night to potential swing voters informing them that Barack Obama "had worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.” The same Bill Ayers who was convicted for his role in the Weathermen, served his sentence and is now such a model citizen that Chicago named him their citizen of the year in 1997
Gordon Liddy is a convicted felon who has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in "if necessary"; plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a "gangland figure" to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap "leftist guerillas" at the 1972 Republican National Convention -- a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis. Liddy also once famously gave his supporters advice on how best to kill federal officials (he recommended shooting them in the head because they might be wearing flak jackets). Liddy has also been unrepentant about his actions.
McCain, who seems too senile to appreciate the irony of the situation claimed during last night’s interview that he “was not in any way embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy.”
Of course not. The right wing is all about being against scumbags unless they’re in one’s own ranks, then they’re all for them.
McCain two faced? You betcha.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
McCain With Parsley On The Side
Or Why McCain Won't Do Part II
"Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art."
- - Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616) Spanish novelist.
In our friend’s case it’s Televangelist Rod Parsley whom we are talking about, who’s endorsement of the Republican Presidential front-runner is valuable to McCain who, it has to be said, is not that picky. The trouble is that our Televangelist is one of those with a particular axe to grind. It isn’t enough for Rod Parsley to proclaim, quite falsely, but who cares at this late stage in the proceedings, that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is:
"In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."
Holy Mackerel! Say it like it is, Bob, But before that statement even has a hope of being asorbed by the surrounding audience it get’s worse. What? You think it can't get worse? Listen up!
Parsley is not shy about his desire to obliterate Islam. In Silent No More, he notes—approvingly—that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America." He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between Christianity and Islam is unavoidable
"Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art."
- - Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616) Spanish novelist.
In our friend’s case it’s Televangelist Rod Parsley whom we are talking about, who’s endorsement of the Republican Presidential front-runner is valuable to McCain who, it has to be said, is not that picky. The trouble is that our Televangelist is one of those with a particular axe to grind. It isn’t enough for Rod Parsley to proclaim, quite falsely, but who cares at this late stage in the proceedings, that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is:
"In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."
Holy Mackerel! Say it like it is, Bob, But before that statement even has a hope of being asorbed by the surrounding audience it get’s worse. What? You think it can't get worse? Listen up!
Parsley is not shy about his desire to obliterate Islam. In Silent No More, he notes—approvingly—that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America." He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between Christianity and Islam is unavoidable
Christopher Columbus set out to defeat Islam? Holy Smokes! That's revisionist history if ever I heard it. Last I read, Columbus wanted to find India. But at the end of his chapter on Islam in which he invokes its destruction, Parsley asks:
"Are we a Christian nation? I say yes." Without actually specifying how Islam should be eradicated, he effectively calls for a new crusade. Parsley was eventually made to shut up but not before he had thoroughly discredited every Muslim in the world as an enemy of the United States.
The core of the matter however is this:
McCain's relationship with Parsley is politically significant. In 2004, Parsley's church was credited with driving Christian fundamentalist voters to the polls for George W. Bush. With Ohio expected to again be a decisive state in the presidential contest, Parsley's World Harvest Church and an affiliated entity called Reformation Ohio, which registers voters, could be important players within this battleground state.
In view of the fact that the Ohio Republican Party has been reduced to shreds by the myriad of scandals that have befallen it and that Ted Strickland, a popular Democrat, is now the state's Governor, McCain and the Republicans will need all the help they can get in the Buckeye State this fall. It's a real question: Can McCain win the presidency without Parsley?
And who is he, that he has to rely on a nutter to do so?
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
