Sunday, August 31, 2008

How McCain views his Veep,,,Creepy!

Umm...Yeah. totally Professionally...Right!

Egalia Explained



http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=183521

Good Pix, Bad Pix


We ran into a couple of things on the hike.

I've seen this berry several times at this time of year but I have yet to identify it. The bush is a couple of feet high and the berries grow directly off the stem. Anybody know?

And then there was this nice gift from someone who took down the cable and rode their ATV past the signs. I guess it is too much to ask them to buy a backpack to carry their child with them into the woods, and even more trouble to ask them to carry out their trash and their dirty diapers. This was lying right in the middle of the trail.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

A Game of Risk

With the choice of Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate, John McCain has done what Democrats could not. This election is now about him and his decision making ability...And how long he can live.

If you want indisputable proof that Republican hacks can lie with a straight face, watch, as they try to make the argument that Palin is qualified and ready to assume the duties of the Vice Presidency, much less Presidency. No thoughtful or rational human being would believe it. That won't stop Republicans.

We are busy learning about Mrs. Palin, who has served as the Mayor of a town slightly smaller than Rockwood, TN and, for less than two years, the Governor of Alaska.

Alaska is a state. It has very few people in it and is widely considered the most corrupt state in the union, which is questionable by those of us who live in Tennessee, and the scandals that are so far associated with Palin are more of the misuse of power variety rather than the normal money stealing corruption we usually associate with Republicans.

Here is a compendium of her record in government. Don't blame me if it seems a bit short.

The Cliff notes version of Palin's record is that she is a tax, borrow, and spend Republican, who doesn't believe in science, think creationism ought to be taught in school, loves big oil, and dislikes polar bears. With only her short time in public office, though, she has developed a penchant for using her power to destroy people she doesn't like or who won't misuse their office to do her bidding, Her heart beats as one with John McCain in the character trait of petty vindictiveness. She's being investigated.

That last link, oddly enough, was removed from Palin's Wikipedia entry, which was apparently scrubbed by an operative named "Young Trigg" the night before her announcement.

A blogger who lived in Wasilla, Alaska complains about Palin's record of decaying public schools and her love for Mal-Wart.

So...What does Karl Rove think about McCain's Veep pick? Here is what Rove said...

I think he's going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice," Rove said. "He's going to view this through the prism of a candidate, not through the prism of president; that is to say, he's going to pick somebody that he thinks will on the margin help him in a state like Indiana or Missouri or Virginia. He's not going to be thinking big and broad about the responsibilities of president.

...it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States?


Only Karl Rove said that three weeks ago about Governor Tim Kaine, whose credentials were way too light for the job in Rove's view. Kaine had only been governor for twice as long as Palin, and before that mayor of a city with a larger population than the entire state of Alaska. I wonder if Rove's head exploded when he heard McCain picked Palin?

The bottom line on all this is that now America can plainly see that John McCain is erratic, unpredictable, and is in fact the far more risky candidate for president when compared to Barack Obama.

Peace,

Steve

Friday, August 29, 2008

Watch Obama's Speech



But don't worry, Republicans...John McCain will rise to the occasion and deliver...

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Privacy?

For some reason there are always some folks who seem to think they should be able to tell other folks what they should do and not do in their personal lives.

Chief among those are personal medical decisions, such as whether people should be able to end their own life, or refuse life sustaining medical treatment beyond a certain time, such as after higher brain function has ceased as it had in the famous Karen Anne Quinlan situation. I find this same willingness to interfere in others lives to be at the root of some of our more divisive social issues, such as the misnamed "prolife" movement.

The pro-life movement is actually simply the anti-abortion movement, or the anti "Roe v. Wade" movement, and is mostly driven by certain religious opportunists who gain self importance by attempting to force their opinions and views upon others. Their announced goal is to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that regulated the state's ability to intrude on a woman's right to make her own medical decisions and not have those decisions made by her government. Contrary to what the Pro-life folks will tell you, Roe v. Wade was not a decision directly about abortion. It was a decision affirming a woman's right to privacy. It is one of the greatest and wisest decisions ever handed down by the Supreme Court and the majority of Americans support it and want it upheld. This is a problem for right wing evangelicals and others who want the power of control over women's personal medical decisions.

But, for politicians, there is a problem with being direct and honest with anti-abortionists...Even though they are a small number of voters(roughly 13-17%), they vote as a mindless one issue block. The Republican party, starting with Ronald Reagan, has pandered to this group who were somehow able to delude themselves and accept that pro-war, pro rich, pro multinational corporation, pro gun, anti-middle class, and anti working class, ideologies somehow went along with the anti constitutional, anti privacy, ideology that overturning Roe v. Wade would actually represent. To think that these various ideologies support each other is nuts. Absolutely institutionally asylum lock up batshit crazy. But for conservatives it works.

Is it worth noting that pro-life voters are the most pro-war constituency in America? Does that make sense?

I'm sticking with nuts.

Anyway, 13% is a big enough number that Democrats feel like they have to do what can be done to neutralize this voting block without actually giving in...OK, maybe pandering to them but in such a way as to not compromise the vast majority of Democrats who understand and support the idea that abortion should be available under the just restrictions of Roe v. Wade and remain "Safe, Legal, and Rare!"

A meeting was arranged:


"In 2004, we couldn't get a word in. This time, they reached out to us," says Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life, a six-year-old advocacy organization that sponsored a convention gathering that featured antiabortion Democratic Rep. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee. "The big tent is opening up."

The platform states that the party "strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade," the 1973 Supreme Court decision affirming abortion rights, "and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion." But it asserts that the party "also strongly supports access to comprehensive affordable family planning services and age-appropriate sex education" that "help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions."

You should read the entire piece. In some ways it worries me. I see this as a very smart strategic move, but if anyone thinks they are going to reason with conservatives they are wrong.

Negotiate, yes...Reason? Hasn't happened yet and no evidence abounds to make me think it ever will.

Wall Street Journal

Peace,

Steve

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Will we let John McCain start World War Three?

Covering up any real public attempt to answer the question John McCain's suitability for the office of president is the incessant blather that he was a prisoner of war and therefore a hero.

Getting shot down on a mission may be nothing more than an indication that he is a bad pilot, and the additional evidence of his numerous other lost aircraft would seem to support that finding. We know that McCain was passed over for promotion to the rank of Admiral and left the Navy as the first failure in his military lineage, so we know that even if he could explain away such things as flying a Navy jet into the marsh on his way to the Army Navy football game, McCain cannot explain away the fact that his judgement on military matters has been a dismal failure and costly in money and devastating in the cost of lives for our Military.

Even before George W. Bush began the beat of his war drum, John McCain was already calling for the invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq!

...the emotion of Sept. 11 overwhelmed his former cool-eyed caution about deploying American troops without a clear national interest and a well-defined exit, turning him into a tool of the Bush administration in its push for a war...


John McCain called for the first target in the war against Al Queda and retribution for 9-11 to be Iraq. As we knew then, Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. As we know now, Iraq had absolutely ZERO Weapons of Mass Destruction. As we should all know then and now, John McCain has exactly No Rational Judgement on these matters...He simply wants war.

McCain has been nearly as great a failure as George W. Bush in his life, his military career, and his judgement. Other "heroes" who survived the same POW camp have gone public and stated that McCain is not fit for the presidency. They do not want his vicious temper, so ready to strike out at anything and anyone when he is angered, to be anywhere near the trigger for war...Especially nuclear war.

In the aftermath of the dismal failure of his beloved Iraq war, we have to ask whether McCain has learned anything? Apparently not as his saber rattling for a war in Iran so obviously indicates:

The Sept. 11 attacks “demonstrated the grave threat posed by a hostile regime, possessing weapons of mass destruction, and with reported ties to terrorists,” Mr. McCain wrote in an e-mail message on Friday. Given Mr. Hussein’s history of pursuing illegal weapons and his avowed hostility to the United States, “his regime posed a threat we had to take seriously.” The attacks were still a reminder, Mr. McCain added, of the importance of international action “to prevent outlaw states — like Iran today — from developing weapons of mass destruction.”


So has McCain learned anything from the tragedies caused by his championing Ahmed Chalabi and the mishandling of the Iraq war? Thousands of our troops died, remember. Well, no! His immediate call, when Russia rolled into the Republic of Georgia, was for Georgia to immediately be inducted into NATO. This was a stupid call on McCain's part. If Europe had been so stupid as to heed McCain's call, we would be facing off with Russia in what could easily become World War Three.

John McCain is a warmonger who, having failed in Vietnam, failed in Iraq, failed in Afghanistan, failed in Pakistan, is looking for a war he can win. What in the name of all that is peaceful and good does he think he will accomplish by picking a fight with the one other super military power in the whole freaking world with the capability and the will to decimate America? Of course it will decimate Russia as well, but who the hell wins in this kind of confrontation?

McCain has nothing in the way of temperament or international diplomacy skill that can guide America through the treacherous world climate that he himself was so instrumental in creating. He is that proverbial man, who has only a hammer in his tool box and therefore sees all the world and its complex problems as a nail. Given his track record of being exactly wrong on every single international issue, he cannot be allowed to take his little hammer out into a world that has the capability of hitting back with disastrous results.

Democrats must make the case that is so obvious...John McCain is unfit to lead America into anything except World War III.



Peace,

Steve

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Wake up America!

Michelle

If you missed Michelle Obama's speech last night, you missed a historic event, but in addition to that, you missed one hell of a speech.

Except for the awesome and inspiring Ted Kennedy, the evening was about as underwhelming as these things can be, until Michelle walked up and took, not only the podium, but every heart and mind in the room. Chris Matthews and Tom Brokaw teared up, and so did I.

Michelle Obama will be the greatest First Lady in the history of America, and to show you why, here's the last 9 minutes of her speech.



The rest of her speech and the cutest kids ever can be checked out in this diary.

Peace,

Steve

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Exactly!

What buhdydharma said

Since the Republicans have held power the country has gone to hell in a handbasket due to their partisanship, ideology based governance and pure stinking REPUBLICAN incompetence.

This election is not, and cannot be allowed to be, a referendum on Obama. This election is about throwing out the politicians who have turned America from the world leader it was before the Republicans took power, into what it is today

"Of the People" or "For the Lobbyists"?

George W. Bush likes to joke about his "C" average in college. After completely bungling a presidency, we all feel the brunt of how much damage a C student can do to a nation in only a few short years. Well now we are faced with the possible presidency of John McCain who, at forth from the bottom of 859 graduates, is not even up to a grade of C.

Jack Cafferty of CNN states the obvious(Well, about time!):

George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.

He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.

I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like him.


Frankly, John McCain is not just like Bush...he is far worse. I mean if you don't have a soul in the first place, you can't be faulted for making a deal with the Devil, as George W. Bush did. John McCain may have once had a soul. It's gone. What did he do with it?

I think he sold it to Karl Rove.

This would explain how he runs a commercial stating how he is taking on "Big Oil" while at the same time scheduling a photo op aboard an off shore drilling rig and talks about solving high gas prices with the absurd scenario of adding one percent to our domestic oil capacity ten years from now by handing Big Oil the rest of our National Seashores.

That'll show 'em.

And to really rub it in, keep your 9 billion dollar tax break.

This Presidential campaign should be putting a stark spotlight on two forms of government that are battling it out for supremacy...Government by human beings for the good of the People versus Government by Lobbyists for the good of the Corporations.

Nowhere is this morality play more evident than the fact that John McCain's main staff advisor on the Georgia Russia war was paid $800,000.00 last year as Georgia's lobbyist in the United States. I feel really good about the objectivity of McCain's information on all that. I wonder if folks will remember that McCain's main proposal was to immediately admit Georgia to NATO, a move that would have put immediate war between the entire European continent and Russia as a high priority option?

Shouldn't we require that our President at least finish the war he is already fighting before he starts another one? Is McCain's strategy to take all these little wars involving this small country and that small country, and roll them all together into one big war involving the whole freaking world?

Anybody who has looked at the map of the Middle East, including Georgia, Russia, and the oil ports on the Black Sea, knows that this conflict is all about Big Oil and the pipelines that cross from the Russian oil fields through Georgia to their customers in Europe.

John McCain is letting himself be manipulated by his own staff who, at the same time they are working to get him elected, are being paid as lobbyists for foreign leaders.

"...I'm here to tell you...There will be more wars" said John McCain. If he gets elected, this is the one statement John McCain has made that I believe with all my heart.

Peace,

Steve

Monday, August 18, 2008

An Important Message...I didn't Exhale!

The Flaming Pants of John McCain

McCain and Obama were supposed to be asked the same questions at the recent forum at a California Church. Neither candidate was supposed to know the questions in advance, but Obama went first while McCain was supposed to be in the church and sequestered where he could not hear the questions or Obama's answers.

He wasn't and he could!

Eyebrows started rising when John McCain started answering questions before they were even asked. Several news commentators spoke about this and the McCain campaign has gone ballistic, demanding that the comments be stricken from the record.

At the beginning of the forum at California megachurch, Warren told the crowd and TV audience, “I'm going to ask identical questions to each of these candidates, so you can compare apples to apples. Now, Senator Obama is going to go first. We flipped a coin, and we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence.”


That turns out to be a lie (or rather, let me call it a "mis-truth") on the part of Pastor Warren.

John McCain was no where near the Church and in fact, was still at his hotel, according to CNN.

Then comes the "truthiness" part, and anybody who has raised a child can spot this one:
"Warren told CNN Sunday evening, “we flat out asked him” if he heard any of the questions. The McCain campaign “confirmed that McCain did not hear or see any of the broadcast” in the motorcade or after he arrived, Ross said."


That is obviously a carefully parsed question that allows the McCain camp to lie with the truth...McCain did not hear or see...But they did not ask him if any of his staff "Heard or Saw" and told him the answers.

I can see little John looking his mom straight in the eye saying, "I did not touch those cookie, Mamma!" ("But the gloves I was wearing might have")

The McCain camp is furiously working the refs trying to keep this from boiling to the top. So far it is working for them.

An even more transparent "fib" simmering at the same time is McCain's story about a guard in his POW camp who drew the sign of the cross in the dirt and let him get away without getting a beating. Of course that story did not appear in any of his writings and in fact was sort of situationally contradicted by them, until he was running for resident decades later. It's one of those stories that really sounds good until you realize it never happened to John McCain at all. It is from a tail told by Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags.

So we are starting to see solidifying evidence that the Straight Talk Express is nothing more than John McCain's imagination. Worse than the question of whether John McCain is someone who can't tell fact from fantasy in his own mind is the realization that he is someone who is willing to cheat and then lie about it.

Peace,

Steve

Update: McCain's staff is working extremely hard to kill this story. That is leading some news people to push back and question why? Is it true?

Friday, August 15, 2008

Search Me

I ran into an old friend in Utah a few days ago.

He handed me his card, which read "THINKOLOGIST". "Big money in that," I asked?

He laughed and introduced me to a guy who had created a digital vest. It had monograms that were sensors that controlled an Ipod and phone. He could listen to music and answer his cell phone by touching his vest in the correct places. I think the monograms spelled "geek" but I'm not sure...It could have been "dork".

As I was wishing him luck, he told me that he had written a search engine, and before he could fill me in my next appointment wandered up and I lost my thinkologist friend in the hubub of the convention center.

Search engines are big.

Any number of them have been written, used, and tossed aside when they were replaced by faster or more accurate search engines. It takes money to get them going and money to keep them going, what with the server farms that house the information and software that you and I use every time we "google" something. I personally have used Google exclusively since the first time I tried it. It was different, somehow...and it was really fast. Rather than a plain "look up" search, such as Yahoo, it mathematically weighted web information and I got what I wanted almost every time, particularly after I learned how to use the logic instructions to tailor my search. This is good...and this is bad!

The good thing is that I get what I want. The bad thing is that 90% of all searches are performed by three engines,, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. This is dangerous in the long run, much like the fact that our news is delivered by only a few very large corporations which at one time were noble and served the ideals of democracy, but now serve the ideals of corporate profits.

Corporate News outlets make decisions every minute that control what we learn. Do they challenge an obvious bit of slanted information or let it go because it helps a particular corporation friendly politician? If you've watched Fox News lately and then seen the same news item interpreted by another news outlet, you can see the most egregious example of this in our time. In a Democracy, voters must have accurate information in order to make the decisions required of an electorate. Control the information and you control the elections and the ability of a government to manipulate its people. How else can you explain the obviously false opinion being formed by 68% of Americans that Saddam had something to do with 9-11 in the run up to the Iraq war?

The antidote to bad news is good information and regulation of news outlets. At the moment, regulation is out. News media have been deregulated to the point that they now have monopolies and now support a particular political party that continues to lie to the very people who are supposed to own the airwaves that carry the lies. Monopolies, like corporations, are essentially incapable of being altruistic. They serve themselves by intent... others only by accident. That leaves us to search for good information all on our own.

And that brings us back to search engines. what you find when you search for something can be easily controlled by your search engine. I trust Google at this point and maybe Yahoo, to some lessor degree. Sorry, but I don't trust Microsoft. At some point, Google and the others could be faced with a monumental decision involving monumental profits versus the good of my Country. All of the major news outlets have made these decisions in favor of their own pockets, with Fox being the worst offender. Now, CNN/HNN is vying for second, with the insipid Glen Beck as the most obvious symptom. If the few major players in media can fall victim to the corporate monopoly disease, so can search engines.

When we ask a question, do we want the answer to be tailored to serve those in power? No way! The most dangerous people on this planet, the ones with the most power to harm me and my family, are the people in control of my government. This is why Net Neutrality is such a big deal and why John McCain is disqualified, extremely unqualified in fact, from being able to lead my country. He doesn't get it. Actually, he doesn't have a clue. A man who has never sent an email has an understanding of the issues involved with what will be the dominant avenue of human communication and commerce somewhere on the order of a housefly.

Enter the people who have done more to provide accurate information than anyone in history, and as a result, are most hated by conservative forces...Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is an open source online encyclopedia. The information and articles it contains are written and fact checked by you and me, and everybody else on the planet with internet access. Try to put false information on Wikipedia and get banned. It is a self enforcing reverence for truth, fact, and accuracy that makes Wikipedia the most valuable online tool ever conceived. Now JImmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia has announced his plan to create Wiki Search.

Nobody can predict how well this project will turn out but I am very optimistic. If nothing else, it will keep Google on its most honest toes.

I suspect Wiki Search will be immediately banned in China.

Peace,

Steve

Thursday, August 14, 2008

McCain Approves W




Update: Even Better:

Why Does Karl Rove have Press Credentials to the Dem Convention?

Are Democratic Organizers....

a. Nuts

b. Stupid

c. All of the above

d. Deciding that the convention floor be a good place to arrest Karl Rove for Inherent Contempt of Congress?

e. I'm going with chickenshit

The Story

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Ross Perot on McCain

But Ross Perot, who paid Carol's medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both she and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel -- even by the standards of modern American politics.

"McCain is the classic opportunist," the billionaire -- who ran for president as an independent in 1992 and as the nominee of his short-lived Reform Party in 1996 -- told the Mail. "He’s always reaching for attention and glory. After he came home [from Vietmam, he discovered that] Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona."And the rest is history."


From SkeeterBites

T. Boone's Boy: "Will Lie for Money"

The Swift Boater returns with his book about Obama.

As you look at this preface, remember that nearly every single one of the claims in his book about John Kerry were proved to be false. The claims of one member of Kerry's command was taken over the statements of eleven others, who stated that John Kerry was a superior commander and a great warrior.

Now Jerome Corsi turns his evil pen toward Barack Obama. Here is his preface. As we read it, one has the obvious perception that it is a book with a purpose...To attempt to maintain the Neo-Conservative hold on America in opposition to our Constitution and Democratic principles, and with little regard to the truth.

The veracity of Corsi's book is destroyed as being nothing more than a scandal sheet which elevates gossip and wingnut blog propaganda to the level of actual verified research. Media Matters tears it apart, with a look at his sourcing and erroneous statement after erroneous statement, in the form of hyperbole and touted as truth.

The original financier of the Swift Boaters, T. Boone Pickens, is currently refusing to pay the one million dollar reward he offered for anyone who proved the Swift Boat claims to be false. He is carrying his total lack of credibility into what looks like a fight for wind power and alternative energy, but is in fact an attempt to get tax money to pay for the infrastructure to his personally owned wind farms, where after he will be in a postion to make billions more at the public trough.

What an interesting world we live in.

Peace,

Steve

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Running From Red




Something I've noticed about John McCain... Since RED is ugly right now...He is trying to be BLUE.



John McCain is running away from the Republican Party so hard that his colors are running, too. Little John must be trying to confuse voters into thinking he might be slightly Democratic or Progressive (not necessarily the same thing), or...a maybe Maverick.



A "maverick" is a lost cow, by the way. One that refuses to run with the crowd. If Little John voted with President George W. Bush 95% of the time, would the 5% be enough to call yourself a maverick?


I don't THINK so.





Do you think this is a plot to steal the election by pointing at the electoral map on the evening of the election and saying, "All your Blue States are belong to ME"?


If I have any advice for Obama's campaign staff, it would be to paint McCain RED...The Red of Fascism and the Republican Party...The Red of corruption and selling your Country and its Constitution for the sake of Corporations...The Red of Lobbyists...The Red of War and the Red of the blood of a million innocent civilians in Iraq. The Red of lie after lie and the war that may well destroy America's economy.


John McCain cannot steal BLUE!... He is red...through and through.


If McCain paints his stickers and his yard signs and his campaign BLUE... Wouldn't that be a lie?


Blue is for Progressive. John McCain is a half assed Conservative, even if he does lie like one.

If we let him have BLUE, the next thing he will try to steal will be GREEN.


Peace,

Steve

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Yeah!

The whole world loves Barack Obama. He's really popular. That's why we shouldn't vote for Obama.

Why should we vote for John McCain? People don't like him all that much...Yeah!

Barack Obama is really smart. He graduated Magna Cum Laude at Harvard Law School. That's why we shouldn't vote for Obama.

Why should we vote for John McCain? There were only four people even dumber than him in his whole graduating class at Annapolis...Yeah!

Barack is really fit. He's tall. He can dunk on you. That's why we shouldn't vote for Obama.

Why should we vote for John McCain? He's even shorter than Jimmy Carter...Yeah!

Barack Obama runs rings around everyone else with his work ethic and leadership skills. We don't want an effective leader as our president. That's why we shouldn't vote for Obama.

Why should we vote for John McCain? He doesn't work weekends. He needs his sleep...Yeah!

Barack Obama has detailed policies laid out at his web site for everyone to read and think about. That's why we shouldn't vote for Barack Obama.

Why should we vote for John McCain? John McCain has never sent an email. He's backward and ignorant, with no concept of what Net Neutrality means...Yeah!

Barack Obama has asked the Democratic National Committee to join him in refusing to accept lobbyist money and thinks the link between lawmakers and money must be broken in order to fix America. We don't want a leader who will answer to the people instead of lobbyists. That's why we shouldn't vote for Obama.

Why should we vote for John McCain? John McCain opposed offshore drilling for thirty steadfast years until just a few weeks ago when he needed some campaign money. For only a couple of million bucks in campaign donations, John McCain completely sold out his principles and constituents...Drill, Baby, Drill!

...Yeah!

Peace,

Steve

Update: Or maybe we should vote for Paris Hilton?

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Principles for Sale...Inquire at www.McCain4Prez.Ho

There are Two stories here.

First is the sudden flip flop of John McCain's position against offshore drilling after an unblemished record of 30 years in opposition. What made him flip? He got bought.

John McCain has now taken money, a lot of money, from Big Oil. Until he flip-flopped on offshore drilling, they had not been very generous. "We don't pay for competence," Big Oil said. "We pay money to people who do our bidding...Kiss my greasy ring."

John kissed greasy rings and oily asses, and John got money. Lots of it. Everybody in the Hess Oil family gave John and the Republican party a lot of money. A lot of money, in this case, is $28,500 a piece. Not only did ten Hess executives give $28,500 each, and office manager and her husband gave $28,000 each. Not only did ten executives, an office manager and her husband give $28,500 each, a man listed as a "driver" also gave the maximum to McCain.

So, I see that you are asking yourself, "How really serious about their politics these nice people must be, since they gave more money than the median yearly income for the lower middle class neighborhood they live in?"

Um, yeah. Wonder what the "bonus" sheet looks like for Hess employees right now. Not only is this kind of thing frowned upon by the election laws in our country, but it makes John McCain a whore.

"Will Flip-Flop for Cash" the card board sign reads.

Second...You forget I said there were two stories, or did you think republicans shredding U.S. election laws was the other one? Nah, nothing special or particularly newsworthy about Republicans breaking the law. Get real.

OK, Second, is our national news media leading every story about Obama's energy policy with "Flip-Flop".

Barack Obama elaborates a studied and considerate energy policy involving his willingness to discuss drilling offshore only if adequate environmental considerations can be insured and the media starts in with the flip-flop yapping like the ankle biter rat dogs they are.

Which story do you think should be the lead...John McCain changes his policy for money? Or Obama discusses an elaborate energy policy with everything on the table?

I'm going with:

John McCain is a Money Grubbing Ho!

Peace,

Steve

Update: LA Times says that McCain Flipped on offshore drilling AFTER Hess fundraiser.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Happy Birthday, Barack Obama

Born 47 years ago today, Barack Obama will be the first Hawaiian to be nominated by his party to run for President of the United States of America.

He will also be the first candidate for president who will face an opponent, John McCain, born in a foreign country, Panama.

If you haven't read it, I recommend you take a few minutes to read this short biography of Barack Obama.

"When we get together for Thanksgiving or Christmas, our family looks like a mini United Nations. I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."

(Bernie Mac, as this was written, is unfortunately critically ill with pneumonia in a Chicago hospital. Here's hoping for the best.)

Sunday, August 03, 2008

mcCAIN isn't Abel

Surge, Baby Surge!

John McCain says that word over and over. I think it has something to do with the blue pills he gobbles.

"Surge"...It's the NEW Grunt!

Starting with a proposal for a military strategy thought up by a marketing person, McCain has now seized on this essentially meaningless term as his cure all for the manifest ills that infect America. Put aside for the moment that there was, in fact, no real "Surge" in Iraq. Now, John McCain is touting the Surge as his plan for solving inner city violence.

Let's re-brand this "Surge for America" proposal of McCain's for what it is...A Police State.

John McCain:

"And some of those tactics — you mention the war in Iraq — are like that we use in the military. You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control. And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement, etc, etc."

via Think Progress

That, of course, only follows in his current campaign motif, "Keeping America safe from Brown People!"

Protect Brittney and Paris from Evil...elect John McCain? I don't think so.

So I'm wondering...Has anybody asked the wingnut religious right about the kind of mental gymnastics that are required to go aghast at a very accomplished person with the middle name of Hussein, while at the same time go rah rah behind a man whose last name means "Son of Cain?"

Never, since I've been aware, has a Presidential campaign come down to so clear a choice between good and evil. We have one candidate who accepts the depths of disgust with which the rest of the world hold George W. Bush and the reality of the task ahead. Obama understands that he faces the task of a thorough cleaning of America's Augean Stables.

And then we have John McCain, whose proposals for America are to simply pile on more horse shit.

Looking at his campaign ads, he's already doing just that. I mean, how can anyone honestly buy into McCain's "Vote for me, I'm Not very popular" campaign slogan?

When you think about McCain's obsessions and his plans to "surge" America, you have to wonder, even though McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time, we may be better off under Bush than we will be under McCain.

If John McCain is elected, it is well possible that we will look back on the disastrous administration of George W. Bush...With sad fondness.

One thing we can be certain of if John McCain is elected...

America is gonna' get SURGED!

Peace,

Steve

Friday, August 01, 2008

Or as I call it...Their Base

Very little has been said about the political racial vandalism directed at the Obama campaign, but it is real and it is happening. The Obama folks have chosen to turn the other cheek as much as possible.

John McCain's folks, however, were ready to play the race card by claiming Obama had "played the race card from the bottom of the deck" in a comment about McCain's "Celebrity White girls and Obama" ad when Obama said,

"So what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name, you know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

Um, yeah...

It's a lot worse than we have heard, but no worse than we expected. We all know that part of the Republican base are racist. How large a part, we shall see as this campaign goes forward.

So far it looks like a fairly large percentage.

Peace,

Steve


Update: Capitol Hill Blue has a much stronger piece on this same thread.

Mal-Wart

Unions ought not to be needed... Neither should antibiotics.

But when an organism gets taken over for the explicit and emphatic benefit of one part of what should be a team, and to the detriment of the other parts, with death as a possible result, it's time for an inoculation.

Antibiotics have their down side and so do Unions. Neither can be used without discretion or some limits and controls. On the other hand, the unfettered run of the unholy alliance of CEO's, and Lawmakers has had disastrous consequences for blue collar jobs in America.

Our country no longer has a manufacturing base. Unions were attacked nearly out of existence and now the factories, what few there are left, are closing for good. Wal-Mart originally built its brand with big "Made in America" signs that Sam Walton proudly stood next to. Then Wal-Mart got listed on the stock exchange and then Sam died. Wal-Mart now has over 600 factories in China and ZERO in the United States. No Unions, No EPA, No breathable air, and back in America, the people who work in Wal-Mart have No Unions, No retirement, No Future.

The small town retailer has gone away with Sam Walton, down to struggling local pharmacies giving way to national chains, and antique stores. Wal-Mart is the largest employer. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer. Wal-Mart is the death angel for a huge segment of America.

The folks who run Wal-Mart, now, have decided that it will be bad for them if someone comes along and tries to fix America. They've called their staff in and essentially told them to tell the employees not to vote for Democrats.

I guess if we stop Small towns from dying it will be bad for the vultures that feed on the carcasses.

One issue that has been left off the table in this Presidential race is a serious discussion of what to do about America's manufacturers. There are viable small manufacturers but once they reach a certain size, they get bought up by larger entities and the jobs get shipped off shore. Our tax structure cannot be allowed to promote such a thing, only it does. Rather than have factories that are regulated for safety and environmental cleanliness, we see our manufactured goods show up at the dock, having come from a mystery factory with god knows what kind of working conditions and environmental emissions. Along with those goods comes the bad air, which blows right over the Pacific and rains down on us with every drop of water from our skies. America pays the price for cheap labor and lax environmental controls, and only a select few reap any benefit.

Let's have this discussion, shall we?

And could all you folks who have the least bit of a Democratic tendency realize that you diminish America every time you spend a penny at Wal-Mart?

Peace,

Steve