Glenn Beck: Idiot

Of course, my title is redundant. He is claiming that the ANWR oil field will yield 100 million barrels of oil a day, an overstimate of SEVEN THOUSAND PER CENT. (The true figure would be, at maximum, about 1.45 million.)

Will CNN correct him? Don't hold your breath.

Again: why does this ludicrous right-wing hack deserve a show on CNN?

McCain's ASTOUNDING Record of Flip-Flops

Steve Benen has the remarkable list here. Highlights:

* McCain supported the drilling moratorium; now he’s against it.
* McCain strongly opposes a windfall-tax on oil company profits. Three weeks earlier, he was perfectly comfortable with the idea.
* McCain thought Bush’s warrantless-wiretap program circumvented the law; now he believes the opposite.
* McCain defended “privatizing” Social Security. Now he says he’s against privatization (though he actually still supports it.)

Wait, I’m not done with the last two weeks yet….

* McCain wanted to change the Republican Party platform to protect abortion rights in cases of rape and incest. Now he doesn’t.
* McCain thought the estate tax was perfectly fair. Now he believes the opposite.
* He opposed indefinite detention of terrorist suspects. When the Supreme Court reached the same conclusion, he called it “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”
* McCain said he would “not impose a litmus test on any nominee.” He used to promise the opposite.

Benen notes that McCain has switched positions on major issues FORTY-EIGHT TIMES. This is so he can basically grovel to the wishes of right-wing fanatics.

John McCain: Don't like his positions? Wait a week.

General Clark Tells the Truth About McCain's So-Called Foreign Policy "Expertise"

As in, he doesn't really have any:

Baracknophobia!

McCain vs. McCain, Round 3!

Condolences to Tim Russert's Family and Friends

Fifty-eight is way too early to check out. I often was critical of Russert, but this is still very sad news.

Still Think McCain Won't Be a Bush Clone?

Check it out:

More Evidence of the Republican Gutter-Level Campaign Against Obama

Sheer, despicable racism, pure and simple. (Scroll up to see image.) It really is, after all, the foundation stone of American conservatism.

John McCain: Right-Wing Fanatic on Reproductive Rights

McCain: Opposed to abortion under ANY circumstances, even if a woman has been raped, even if she's a 14 year-old who's been molested by her father, even if the woman will die if the pregnancy continues.

McCain: Siding with those who want to abolish ALL forms of birth control, even going so far as to hint that he would favor overturning the key Supreme Court decision that legalized birth control.

McCain is a full-throated enemy of women's rights in every area, but no more so than in reproductive issues. He wants to reduce women to 2nd class status, just like the rest of Radical Extreme Right. I would hope any self-respecting, independent woman would reject McCain out of hand.

via videosift.com

This is Why We Need to Win This Year

(Click for larger image. Hat Tip: Bartcop)

Prominent Republican Says, Yes, McCain WOULD Be An Extension of Bush

Read and weep, right here, wingnuts of America.

A John McCain Quote We Need to Ask Him About

Digby has linked to this, and it's a powerful statement written by John McCain some years ago in a forward to a book about the Vietnam War. Check it out:

It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn’t support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay. No other national endeavor requires as much unshakable resolve as war. If the nation and the government lack that resolve, it is criminal to expect men in the field to carry it alone.

Does it sound like any conflict we're involved in now?

More on Phil Gramm, McCain's Walking Disaster of an Advisor

Involved in the creation of the massive Reagan deficits? Check. Involved in the S&L fiasco under Bush I? Check. Mixed up in the Enron stench? Check. Involved in deregulating the finance sector with catastrophic results? Check. Involved in the subprime meltdown? Check. Everything Phil Gramm has touched has turned to crap, in typical right-wing reverse Midas fashion.

Joe Conason and his commenters lay it all out here.

Electing McCain: Recipe for disaster? Check.

McCain vs. McCain, Round 2

This is HILARIOUS! Spread it around!

John McCain's Chief Economic Advisor, Phil Gramm: Out-and-Out Bastard

From the late, great Molly Ivins, a deeply insightful column about one of the worst human beings who has ever sat in Congress--Master Con-Man/Insider/Right-Wing Fanatic Phil Gramm. Excerpts:

Gramm both looks like a snapping turtle and has the personality of one. When he ran for president in 1996 and finished fifth in Iowa, all the profiles written of him included the line "Even his friends don't like him." Self-righteous and strident, Gramm demonized his opponents and used bitter, polarizing rhetoric. During a Senate debate over Social Security, a member pointed out that the proposal under consideration would hurt 80-year-old retirees. "Most people don't have the luxury of living to be 80 years old," Gramm scoffed, "so it's hard for me to feel sorry for them." Well, there is that.

On another occasion, Gramm ridiculed a newspaper photo of poor people who were forced to cut corners to put food on the table. "Did you see the picture?" Gramm asked a crowd. "Here are these people who are skimping to avoid hunger and they are all fat!... We're the only nation in the world where all our poor people are fat." During the fight over health care reform, Gramm said, "We have to blow up this train and the rails and the trestle and kill everyone on board." When an elderly widow in Corsicana told him that cutting Medicare would make it more difficult for her to remain independent, Gramm said, "You haven't thought about a new husband, have you?"

When he first ran for Senate in 1984, Gramm's main attack ad focused on how his opponent, a young state senator, had received a check for $600 raised by a gay group at a male strip joint in San Antonio. He had not solicited the contribution and promptly returned it, but Gramm ran lurid ads about the gay strip show for months.

**********

Gramm, the great crusader against government spending, has spent his entire life on the government tit. He was born at a military hospital, raised on his father's Army pay, went to private school at Georgia Military Academy on military insurance after his father died, paid for his college tuition with same, got a National Defense Fellowship to graduate school, taught at a state-supported school, and made generous use of his Senate expense account. In 1987, a Dallas developer named Jerry Stiles flew a construction crew to Maryland to work on Gramm's summer home. Stiles spent $117,000 on the project but was kind enough to bill Gramm only $63,433. When Stiles got in trouble for misusing funds from a savings and loan he owned, Gramm did him some "routine" favors with regulators. Stiles was later convicted on 11 counts of conspiracy and bribery.

As a member of the Senate Finance Committee and the recipient of enormous banking contributions, Gramm did an even bigger favor for the financial industry in 1999 when he sponsored the Financial Services Modernization Act allowing banks, securities firms, and insurance companies to combine. The bill weakened the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to help meet the credit needs of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Gramm described community groups that use the CRA as "protection rackets" that extort funds from the poor, powerless banks. The bill is also a disaster for the privacy of bank customers and weakens regulatory supervision. As Gramm proudly declared, "You're not going to find a single bank, insurance company, or securities company that will say they were hurt financially by this bill."

To be fair, Gramm occasionally found it in his heart to assist the poor -- like the time he suggested that mothers on welfare would be better off working for $2.50 an hour. A more typical Gramm vote, though, came on an energy bill that benefited oil and gas companies at the expense of consumers. "There are winners and losers in every economic decision," Gramm said portentously. He was then getting more oil and gas money than any other member of the Senate.

Gramm has been a MAJOR player in the subprime mortgage meltdown that is wreaking so much havoc. One observer has put it well: There isn't a single predatory financial practice that Gramm hasn't supported, worked for, and lobbied for. He is the lowest of the low, a right wing Welfare Queen who basically defecates on the poor while lining his own pocket and the pockets of his rich buddies with government cash. AND THIS IS McCAIN'S CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISOR. One of the architects of our current fiscal insanity is giving advice to the Republican candidate for president.

Want four more years of Bush-style catastrophe? Support McCain. Want a total scumbag like Gramm running our nation's economic policies? Support McCain. Want to turn America toward a more hopeful future? Hell, that's easy:

VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA ON NOVEMBER 4

Vincent Bugliosi is My New Hero

This will blow your mind:



I say: PROSECUTE THAT MURDERING SON OF A BITCH BUSH.

McCain's Pro-Iranian Senior Advisor and Lobbyist Friend

It's none other than ultra-low life Charlie Black, who has had his hands in more dubious business than almost any other fixer and hustler in Washington politics. The highlights from this story:

In the summer of 2005, John McCain's chief strategist Charlie Black, working for his firm Black, Kelly, Scruggs & Healey, was paid $60,000 to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of the Chinese oil conglomerate CNOOC. At the time, CNOOC was mounting an aggressive bid to buy Unocal, a California-based oil giant, and Black was tasked with churning up congressional support. But the bid ultimately fell through, in part because of objections over the China oil industry's ties to Iran, a country in which it had already invested tens of millions of dollars.

"This transaction poses a clear threat to the energy and national security of the United States," wrote Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican. "U.S. national energy security depends on sufficient energy supplies to support U.S. and global economic growth. But those supplies are threatened by China's aggressive tactics to lock up energy supplies around the world that are largely dedicated for their own use."

Flash-forward nearly three years and Black's old client -- which later scored a $16 billion deal with the Iranian government -- could now create major headaches for his current boss. On Monday, McCain, in a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, called for a broad and aggressive international campaign to divest from Iran.

Remember, folks, with these right-wing Republicans, it's ALWAYS do as I say, not as I do.

BTW, this Charlie Black is a real piece of work. Check this out:

On Iraq, John McCain Doesn't Know What the Hell He's Talking About

In John McCain's arrogant, stupidly wrong opinion, he considers himself an "expert" on Iraq and offers to "educate" Barack Obama on the situation there. OK, so let's look at this "expert's" opinions and views on the Iraq War:

--He is dead flat WRONG on Al Qaeda's relationship with Iran.

--He is dead flat WRONG about the situation on the ground.

--He is dead flat WRONG about the number of troops currently in Iraq.

--He has REPEATEDLY confused the difference between Sunni and Shia Islam, an elementary-level mistake.

And remember, this is the same John McCain who claimed we would "greeted as liberators"; the same John McCain who predicted the struggle for Iraq would be short-lived; the same John McCain who has repeatedly said the "next six months" would be critical; the same John McCain who, absurdly, keeps claiming the war was the right thing to do while working to undermine the GI Bill to aid Iraq War veterans.

And this is supposed to be his area of "expertise"!! My God, what a dangerous fool this man is!

BTW, here is a REAL Middle East expert discussing McCain's shocking ignorance and deception. It's a must read.

P.S. Remember this post from your rampant friend J. Miller from 2 May.

McCain and W: Blood Brothers

John McCain has voted with Bush (when McCain has bothered to vote) ONE HUNDRED PER CENT this year. Last year McCain voted with Bush NINETY-FIVE PER CENT, and has an overall NINETY PER CENT pro-Bush voting record since 2001.


"Maverick" John McCain? What a joke.

REMEMBER: McCAIN WOULD BE NOTHING BUT A THIRD TERM FOR BUSH.

Psychotic Cretin Michelle Malkin Strikes Again

The pathetic story is here.

The sad things about this?

1. That Dunkin' Donuts actually caved in to this right wing idiot.
2. That the right wing idiot probably thinks she struck a blow against the "Islamofascists".

Really, just when I think conservative pundits couldn't get any stupider or more irrational, they always surprise me. You'd think I'd have learned by now.

On Memorial Day 2008

We today honor those who fell at Lexington and Concord, Saratoga and Yorktown. We honor those who fell in defending Ft. McHenry and those who marched with Winfield Scott. We recall those who "gave the last full measure of devotion" at Antietam and Gettysburg. We honor those who charged San Juan Hill, fought at Belleau Wood, and died at Guadalcanal, Anzio, Normandy, and Iwo Jima. We reverently remember those who sacrificed at Inchon, Khe Sanh, and in the Gulf War. And we honor those who have fallen in the current struggle. And we always, always remember: WE MAY CRITICIZE THE WAR, BUT NEVER THE WARRIORS.

May all rest in peace. And please, some day Lord, may there be no new ones.

"Well, both if we could."

Unbelievable. Horrible. Typical Fox "News".

McCain Debates McCain!

Right here.

Heh heh.

McCain Preacher Hagee: God Sent Hitler to "Hunt" the Jews

If this doesn't convince you Hagee is a ranting psychotic, nothing will. And remember, McCain sought Hagee's endorsement for an entire year.

This son of a bitch Hagee is one of the worst people in America. He's also damned dangerous, and he would be a MAJOR influence on McCain. For my money, that's absolutely damning.

OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT

I'll Be Away for a Week

Back atcha on Wednesday, 21 May.

The Bush "Legacy"

Wow. Check this out.

Says it all, as far I'm concerned.

Ha ha ha! This is So DAMN Funny

He's always been an asshole, apparently.

Women, Are You Pregnant Because You Were Raped or Victimized by Your Father?

Then John McCain says "too bad." You can't get an abortion. Even if the preganancy might kill you, he will still not make an exception.

Look. I'm generally anti-abortion, too. But to force someone who has undergone a horrible sexual assault to bring the assailant's child to term is perverse. A first trimester abortion, prior to the onset of brain wave activity and sentience, is morally a gray area, and one in which we could say the sooner the better. McCain has simply caved in to far right fanatics on this issue.

By the way, McCain's right-wing buddies ARE TRYING TO OUTLAW BIRTH CONTROL AS WELL. They also think they have the right to dictate the private sexual behavior of adults. These people are Stalinists who seek to regulate the most intimate aspects of human life--and John McCain has thrown his lot in with them whole-heartedly.

You've been warned.

This One Should Be Played on National TV

"We get off on warfare!"

Chilling. Absolutely chilling.

Want Four More Years of Neocon Lies and War? Go With McCain

The invaluable Glenn Greenwald again exposes the astonishingly dishonest Neocon liars that dominate Republican foreign policy. These gutter-level frauds are now desperately pushing for a war with Iran. The extent of their mendaciousness is almost beyond belief. They claim they are not agitating for a war, but their record of lies proves otherwise. Excerpts:

In late 2006, I wrote about virtually identical deceit from this same group, that time with regard to Iraq. On National Review in December of 2006, Ledeen -- just as the Beltway establishment was finally turning against the war in Iraq and in the wake of a lengthy Vanity Fair article identifying the neocons who were to blame -- claimed: "I opposed the military invasion of Iraq before it took place."

In fact, Ledeen, throughout 2002 and 2003, had repeatedly and explicitly urged the invasion of Iraq in countless venues, including: The Wall St. Journal's Op-Ed Page ("If we come to Baghdad, Damascus and Tehran as liberators, we can expect overwhelming popular support"); in an interview with David Horowitz's Front Page ("Question #2: Okay, well if we are all so certain about the dire need to invade Iraq, then when do we do so? Ledeen: Yesterday."); on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews ("if President Bush is to be faulted for anything in this so far, it's that he's taken much too long to get on with it, much too long"); and in National Review (calling for "the desperately-needed and long overdue war against Saddam Hussein and the rest of the terror masters").

**********

The neoconservative war-lovers behind this effort have not changed, nor have their tactics. They realize, as many of them acknowledge, that they will have four more years in power if John McCain is elected. But they also realize that he may not be, and that their last hope for their long-desired attack on Iran lies in convincing the current administration to provoke one before its tenure ends. As much as one wishes it weren't true, as much as the fixation on petty election issues might obscure it, the truly depraved extremist group that brought us the invasion of Iraq still exerts substantial influence and is quite busy trying to exert it.

Want four more years of these rotten Neocan bastards dragging your country into one war after another? Then support John McCain.

I, on the other hand, being reasonably sane, will be voting for Barack Obama. I hope you will be, too.

The TRUE U.S. Inflation Rate: Between 6 and 9%

Kevin Phillips has the appalling story here. The government's chief measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index, virtually ignores the costs of food and energy--two things everyone has to buy in quantity!! Foreign investors and bankers know the real story and are acting accordingly. Excerpt:

Critics, by contrast, smell a potential disaster. Oil is up over 80 percent in the last twelve months. The New York Times' consumer reporter, W.P. Dunleavy, wrote on May 3 that his own groceries now cost $587 a month, up from $400 a year earlier. That's a 40 percent increase. Reports in the financial press make frequent reference to foreign investors who distrust the U.S. dollar because they calculate true U.S. inflation at 6% to 9% including food and energy.

California economist John Williams, who runs an organization called Shadow Statistics, contends that if Washington still used the CPI measurements applied back in the 1970s, inflation would be in the 10 percent range. My own analysis, set out in much more detail in an article in the May issue of Harper's, comports with that of the cynical foreign investors.

Therein lies the danger. If the current inflation rate is really 6-9 percent instead of the 2-3 percent claimed by government and most U.S. money managers, then Washington's official estimates that the economy still grew at a rate of some 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008 become nonsense. Subtracting a 6-9 percent inflation rate from nominal GDP growth would identify an economy that was deteriorating and shrinking, not growing. Concerned foreign dollar-holders would become even more concerned.

Many writers love to prattle on endlessly about the supposedly growing prosperity of the Middle Class. Such specious arguments often rely on CPI data, which Phillips here exposes as fraudulent. In truth, the Middle Class of this country is squeezed and pressured on all fronts. (If we are honest, the mad frenzy to possess everything everyone else seems to have is part of what's wrong as well.) Most Middle Class families must contend with health care worries, multiple jobs, little time off for most people, and now the skyrocketing prices of food and energy. Consumer debt has reached phenomenal levels and housing costs have bitten deeply. All in all, it paints a grim picture--one which official Washington is loathe to recognize.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Next President of the United States, Barack Obama

After a big win in North Carolina and a razor-close finish in Indiana, Obama now has an effectively insurmountable lead for the Democratic nomination. He will be the nominee. I hope that all factions of the Democratic Party, all Independents, and all decent Republicans worried about the course our nation is on will unite to put him in the White House and vastly enlarge the Democratic majorities in Congress so that the business of helping this country recover from the catastrophic effects of eight years of Radical Right-wing government can begin.

OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT

Rampant Readers, I Need Your Help

Please, please, PLEASE spread this around.

McCain is getting a pass on outrageous associations. That's got to stop.

McCain's Friend John Hagee: Dangerous Lunatic

This is a thousand times more alarming than the nonsense being thrown around about Jeremiah Wright. John Hagee, whose endorsement John McCain sought FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR, is quite frankly a mentally unbalanced lunatic. Some (extensive) excerpts, which I hope the author of the original will forgive:

Beyond Hagee's demonizing of Catholics and Catholicism, pastor Hagee appears radically anti-American to the extent that he hopes and expects, as evidenced by a 2006 Hagee appearance on WHYY's "Fresh Air" radio show and also in Hagee's 2006 best-seller "Jerusalem Countdown", that God will incinerate most Americans now living - with a nuclear strike on America's coastal regions. In 2006 Presidential hopeful John McCain appeared to hold a similar view on possible outcomes of a US war with Iran. In an April 2nd, 2006 appearance on Meet The Press, Senator John McCain, describing to Tim Russert McCain's view of the possible result of a US war with Iran, declared war with Iran "could be Armageddon".

Recently it has come to light that John Hagee declared "America is under the curse of God" but Hagee has also stated that, in the war he predicts will ensue a US or Israeli attack on Iran, God will punish the majority of Americans living, immolating them in a Russian nuclear strike on America's east and west coasts. Given that Hagee has repeatedly advocated for a US and/or Israeli attack on Iran, and especially in light of enthusiastic adjectives ("thrilling", for example) with which Hagee describes the expected outcome of such an attack on Iran, it logically follows that John McCain endorser Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee hopes and advocates for a US foreign policy course that expects would kill the majority of Americans now alive.

**********

On the available evidence it is not clear if Hagee expects that the nuclear incineration of what Hagee himself notes would comprise most Americans now living would be "thrilling", whether Hagee feels the "Rapture" which he expects will vacuum him and other "Bible-believing" (fundamentalist) Christians up to Heaven, prior to that nuking, where they can safely look down on the ensuing global carnage, will be "thrilling" or whether Hagee feels that the "Rapture" and the nuking of America would both be "thrilling". [more on Hagee's 'thrilling' worldview]

**********

A close reading of Hagee's statements and writings shows Hagee's belief closely follow the mainstream view of Apocalyptic Premillennial Dispensationalism, that most Jews in Israel (and presumably along with them most non-Jews as well) will be killed in the train of events and conflicts following "Ezekiel's War". In that view, a "remnant" of Jews who have converted to Christianity, traditionally numbered at 144,000 (12,000 for each of the 12 Tribes of Israel), will survive and will be granted superhuman, divine powers to, acting as what some have termed "super Billy Grahams", will evangelize all humans who have survived the predicted global holocaust.

In his book "Jerusalem Countdown", pastor Hagee states that historical anti-Semitism, culminating in the Holocaust, resulted from God's curse upon Jews, as a people, because of the ancient Jewish worship of idols described in the Bible. In the book Hagee also writes that Hitler and the Nazis were acting as divine agents, to drive European Jews towards Palestine where, per Hagee's view, God appears to demand be their only residence on Earth and where, according to Hagee's apocalyptic theological views, those Jewish settlers will be most killed in the conflict Hagee militates for by advocating an attack on Iran.

The extermination of most of the world's Jews and the conversion of the surving remnant?? Hitler as a divine agent?? A "thrilling" nuclear war which will kill most Americans?? WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS??

McCain has said he rejects the "offensive parts" of Hagee's beliefs. My question is:

WHICH ONE OF HAGEE'S BELIEFS ISN'T OFFENSIVE TO McCAIN?!?

Jeremiah Wright would have NO influence in an Obama administration. John Hagee would have MAJOR influence in a McCain administration. Draw your own conclusions.

Take the Quiz! Bush or McCain?

It's loads-o-fun and it's right here.

And if you do well enough, you can guess the difference between McCain and a carrot!

(Thanks, Geneve!)

Something You HAVE to Pass Around

It's an amazing list of John McCain's contradictory, inaccurate, inconsistent, and just downright boneheaded remarks about the Iraq War. Some examples to whet your appetite:

On the Run-Up to War

"But the fact is, I think we could go in with much smaller numbers than we had to do in the past. But any military man worth his salt is going to have to prepare for any contingency, but I don't believe it's going to be nearly the size and scope that it was in 1991."John McCain, September 15, 2002.

On Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction

"I remain confident that we will find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."John McCain, June 11, 2003.

On Being Greeted as Liberators

"There's no doubt in my mind that we will prevail and there's no doubt in my mind, once these people are gone, that we will be welcomed as liberators."John McCain, March 24, 2003.

On a Rapid Victory and Mission Accomplished

"Well, then why was there a banner that said mission accomplished on the aircraft carrier?"John McCain, responding to assertion by Fox News' Neil Cavuto that "many argue the conflict isn't over," June 11, 2003.

"We're either going to lose this thing or win this thing within the next several months."John McCain, November 12, 2006.

On the Safe Streets of Baghdad

"[There] there "are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today."John McCain, after touring a Baghdad market wearing a bulletproof vest and guarded by "100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead, April 1, 2007.

On President Bush and His Team

"We are very fortunate that our president in these challenging days can rely on the counsel of a man who has demonstrated time and again the resolve, experience, and patriotism that will be required for success and the hard-headed clear thinking necessary to prevail in this global fight between good and evil."John McCain, on Dick Cheney, July 16, 2004.

On the Non-Existent Alliance Between Al Qaeda and Iran

"[It is] common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate."John McCain, March 18, 2008.

On a Permanent American Military Presence in Iraq

"I asked McCain about his 'hundred years' comment, and he reaffirmed the remark, excitedly declaring that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 'a thousand years' or 'a million years,' as far as he was concerned."David Corn, January 3, 2008.

This guy has to be stopped. The best quote I've heard on McCain?

"McCain will be like Bush on steroids."

Miserable Failure Bush Now Most Rejected President in History

The details can be found here.

Oh, and just as a reminder:

On the 5th Anniversary of "Mission Accomplished": What Digby Said, Part 9,275

Digby rips into Commander Codpiece here and it's letter-perfect. Bush's disgusting dress-up game that day almost made me puke. (The disgrace of that gesture was only overshadowed by the craven, mewling, Bush-worshiping behavior of the press as noted by Eric Alterman here. The Bush Suck-Up Festival that day was surely one of the low points in the history of the media.)

Over 4,000 of our best young men and women dead. Over 30,000 others injured, many of them horribly. At least 100,000 dead Iraqis, 2,000,000 more Iraqis in exile, and potentially trillions of dollars down the drain. Just so little Georgie could prance around and pretend he's a real by-God man.

And you wonder why I hate him?

A Warning From a Great American

Few people have contributed more to humanity than Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution that has saved the lives of uncounted millions of humans. So when he's worried about the epidemic of stem rust disease that is devastating the world's wheat crop, I'm worried, too. The United States under Bush was initially playing a positive role in this crisis, but, unsurprisingly, the Bush Administration's usual behavior took over:

But more recently, the administration has begun reversing direction. The State Department is recommending ending American support for the international agricultural research centers that helped start the Green Revolution, including all money for wheat research. And significant financial cuts have been proposed for important research centers, including the Department of Agriculture’s essential rust research laboratory in St. Paul.

This shocking short-sightedness goes against the interests not only of American wheat farmers and consumers but of all humanity. It is tantamount to the United States abandoning its pledge to help halve world hunger by 2015.

If millions of small-scale farmers see their wheat crops wiped out for want of new disease-resistant varieties, the problem will not be confined to any one country. Rust spores move long distances in the jet streams and know no political boundaries. Widespread failures in global wheat production will push the prices of all foods higher, causing new misery for the world’s poor.

Really, is there anything these Republican conservatives do any more that DOESN'T causes devastating damage to the world?

"The Sweet Talk Express"

Heh heh heh. Gawd, I just love it.

Why Isn't Limbaugh Being Arrested?

The charge: inciting to riot. Limbaugh is hoping for AND CALLING FOR violence at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

He won't be arrested. He won't be suspended. He won't be driven off the air.

Why? Because in America, right wing radicals can do or say anything they want with impunity.

Don't believe it? Ann Coulter, a sick, homicidal maniac, casually calls for the mass extermination of the Iranian people. Nothing happened in response.

Ted Nugent, perverted, gun-masturbating idiot, threatens Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama with death by machine gun. Virtually nothing happened in response.

John Hagee, John McCain supporter, says he wants a preemptive nuclear strike on Iran to provoke Armageddon, the End of the World, and the extermination of the vast majority of the world's Jews. The reaction was maybe one-one thousandth of that generated by Barack Obama's pastor's intemperate remarks.

The radical right can say or do ANYTHING, aided and abetted by their buddies in the national media. Remember, Brian Williams of NBC calls Limbaugh his friend. Think he'll make a big deal out of this Limbaugh thing?

There is no "liberal media". The media is controlled largely by conservative corporations. Never forget that. I've said it before, I'll say it again:

Democrats and progressives, the corporate media are your enemies. Treat them as such.

The Ultimate Reject and His Apostle, St. John

His name is George W. Bush, and he has now achieved the highest DISAPPROVE rating in the history of the Gallup organization, which has been polling since FDR's time.

BTW, did you know that so-called "maverick" John McCain has supported Bush in the Senate
NINETY PER CENT OF THE TIME?

Ohio Democrats Have the Right Idea!

McCain's Free Pass

Joe Conason describes the two different standards that are applied to Democrats and media darling John McCain here. (Subscription or day pass may be required). Excerpts:

Why otherwise would the campaign press corps have demanded the Clinton tax returns while nobody insists that McCain release the returns filed by him and his beer heiress wife, Cindy? When the Arizona Republican releases his 2007 return, as he has done today, will anyone urge him to cough up returns from previous years, as the Clintons did? It is an act of transparency that he has neglected to fulfill for the past quarter-century of his public service, without a peep from his press fans (despite the precedent of his wife's highly questionable shopping-mall investment with savings and loan crook Charles Keating).

And having raked Bill Clinton's charitable foundation for evidence of conflicts of interest, when will the press corps take another look at McCain’s "Reform Institute," the nonprofit think tank that has served as a soft-money conduit and cushy sinecure for his political advisors?

Will anyone ask McCain why he doesn't wear an American flag pin, the burning question that the ABC anchors pressed on Obama? Perhaps the former POW deserves a pass on that issue, but it is interesting to note that photos of McCain with a flag pin are very scarce -- which may simply prove that not every patriot must constantly sport Old Glory on his lapel.

It would be refreshing to place the likes of Gibson and Stephanopoulos and their peers on the witness stand for a change to explain their choices and prejudices. Why did they require Democrats to make tax-cutting pledges that are based on bad economics and worse journalism? Why should they focus on Obama's tenuous connection with a reprehensible but inconsequential figure like former Weatherman Bill Ayers, when they have never mentioned the White House coddling of Cuban exile terrorists? Why do they obsess over the "bitter" gaffe by Obama while passing so lightly over the confusion of Sunni and Shia groups by McCain, supposed master of foreign policy?

Why? Because the vast majority of our elite media corps is violently hostile to Democrats and all snuggly-wuggly with conservative Republicans. Again, we have to call them on this, and repeat, again and again:

"The Liberal Media label is a right-wing myth--and a damned lie."

The Beltway Media: Blood Enemy of the Democrats

If you have been one of the few regular readers of this little blog, you know that I consider America to be a nation in crisis. This crisis has been brought on in no small measure by media figures who are determined to smear and destroy every Democratic candidate for president. (BTW, the phrase "Liberal Media" is an absurd lie. There is no such thing. It's a conservative fairy tale circulated to intimidate media people.) Their favorite method for doing this is to widely parrot and faithfully circulate every radical right-wing slander and talking point directed at Democrats. In EVERY election, the Democratic candidate is "elitist", "out of touch", "not a Regular American", "not one of us", and other similar vomit. Meanwhile, Republican silver spoon aristocrats like George W. "Aw, shucks, y'all, I'm just like you are" Bush are given the red carpet treatment, fawned over, protected, and portrayed as Real People. Never mind Bush's phony accent, his phony ranch, his multi-million dollar personal wealth, or his amazing record of failing his way upward through the use of family clout and corrupt influence. Why, he's WAY better than any of those fancy-pants librul Democrat Party types, ain't he? Now, Barack Obama is being subjected to the same filthy, despicable tactics. As always, the inimitable Glenn Greenwald is on the case:

The reason the establishment press fixates on these adolescent themes has nothing to do with what "Americans" want. It has everything to do with the fact that it's what these journalists always do; it's what they're programmed to do; and, at this point, it's all the empty and slothful media stars know how to do.

Critically, they're not just assaulting Obama (and, before him, Clinton and Edwards) with randomly selected petty trash. It's purposeful and familiar: all of these Drudgian paper cuts are intended to expose Obama as an exotic, bizarre, effete, vaguely American-hating elitist who is out of touch with Regular Americans and plagued by a personality so unlikable that you can't possibly vote for him even if you agree with him on all of the issues -- just as was true for virtually every national Democratic leader before him. All of this happens while the media reverence for John McCain and his character, "strength," likability and integrity grow -- far beyond even the affection they acknowledge they have long harbored for the amiable war hero, George W. Bush, and which is obligatorily directed at the canonized Ronald Reagan.

As I wrote in Great American Hypocrites:

As always, Drudge rules their world and they become his echo chamber. If he selects a petty, personality-smearing story to trumpet, and the media (as they always do) dutifully follows, then that alone constitutes "proof" of the story’s importance, evidence that "plenty of people" care about it, which in turn justifies the media's continuous chatter about it.

Most certainly, the press will pretend to be above it all ("this is not something that we, the sophisticated political journalists, care about, of course"). But they yammer about Drudge-promoted gossip endlessly, and then insist that their own chattering is proof that it is an important story that people care about. And because they conclude that "people" (i.e., them) are concerned with the story, they keep chirping about it, which in turn fuels their belief that the story is important. It is an endless loop of self-referential narcissism—whatever they endlessly sputter is what "the people" care about, and therefore they must keep harping on it, because their chatter is proof of its importance.

They no longer even need Drudge to lead the way. They find that path on their own now. Journalists like [David] Brooks and his friends fixate on these issues because they're what interests them, because it takes no work and no thought to chatter about it, because they have been fed their trashy storylines by right-wing operatives ever since they formed their partnership with them during the Clinton sex witch hunts, and because the people who become media stars become media stars because this is what they do best (Digby has more on that here). Blaming the American public for the behavior of these journalists only compounds the deceit and scurrilousness of it, particularly given that nobody is more removed and insulted from what "Regular Americans" think than the coddled, pack-mentality media stars who fantasize that they are their spokesmen.

Now, couple this with the fact that the vast majority of Beltway Media people are fervently supporting McCain. They purvey pro-McCain BS 24/7, throw him namby-pamby softball questions, and ignore his $100 MILLION+ personal fortune while portraying him as just a "regular guy". They also ignore McCain's neglect of veterans issues, his bitterly right wing stance on reproductive issues, his corruption, his vile temper, and his questionable mental stability. But Barack Obama is subjected to a constant wave of petty, lying, idiotic bullshit because he is the likely Democratic nominee. We have to call these bastards on it NOW before they succeed in bamboozling enough Americans to get another right-wing radical Republican in the White House.

Remember, Democrats and progressives: the Beltway Media figures ARE YOUR ENEMIES. Treat them in the way they deserve to be treated. They need to be DEFEATED, not compromised with.

Period.

More Stupid Economic Ideas from McCain

He proposes a massive shift of money from consumers to the oil companies--er, I mean a gas tax "holiday" . He also continues the utterly irresponsible policy of advocating the continuation of Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy. Excerpts from Jared Bernstein's post:

First, the gas tax holiday is smart politics but lousy policy. As Taplin aptly described, high gas prices are sending an important economic signal and jamming that signal is ill-advised. On the other hand, as one of the commenters points out, this idea could really help some strapped families.

The problem is there's absolutely nothing to stop the oil companies from claiming a big chunk of this subsidy by raising the pretax price of gas at the pump. Prices go up in the summer anyway, and I'll bet you a gallon of premium that they go up even more than usual, such that some of that 18.4 cents/gallon ends up back in Exxon's wallet, not yours.

Which leaves us with a nice little transfer from taxpayers to oil companies. Nice work, John.

**********

Finally, and this is the most worrisome aspect of McCain's economics, if he gets what he wants, he has two fiscal choices: deeply cut entitlement programs, especially those related to health care, or blow a massive hole in the budget.

I give the details here, but the arithmetic is simple: you can't extend the Bush tax cuts forever, same with the war, end the AMT, finance big health care subsidies, and slash the corporate tax rate all on the backs of "savings from earmark, program review, and other budget reforms." Like I said, you either end much of government as we know it--a standard conservative goal--or become unsustainably indebted.

Folks, this guy is a dangerous ignoramus. The Democrats MUST stop their internecine warfare and train their political guns on McCain, the biggest threat to America's survival since...well, George W. Bush.

John McCain: Uncensored, Unreported, Unhinged

Check out this and see if you don't agree.

I wonder: why won't our political press tell us about--

--McCain's connection to some pretty shady characters in Arizona's underworld?

--The full extent of McCain's vicious temper?

--McCain's connection to Sun Myung Moon (through Charlie Black, a lobbyist supporter of "Mr. Intergrity")?

--The full story of how McCain has crawled to Religious Right fanatics?

--The ways in which a McCain presidency would simply be a third term for Bush?

--"Mr. Straight Talk's" lies, deceptions, and spine-cracking flip-flops?

Gee, could it be that most of the Trad Media is in the tank for St. John? Hmmmm.

McCain: Ignoramus or Knuckle-Head?

You decide!

...Groaning error is nothing new when this famous straight-talker heads out on the trail. During Campaign 2000, McCain made an endless string of policy errors—errors which his pals on the bus tended to gaze away from. You name it, the hopeful seemed to bungle it: Tax cuts, prescription drug prices, health care, school voucher plans. But reporters tended to downplay his blunders, focusing instead on his highly authentic straight-shooting maverick straight-talk. He seemed to be comfortable in his own skin as he authored his string of mistakes.

When McCain made his foolish remarks in that Baghdad market last year, we ran through some of these previous episodes. As McCain keeps bungling Sunni and Shia, some have asked if he’s showing his age. But McCain has always bungled big-time. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 4/4/07, for a run-down from earlier days.

We asked a question in last year’s post, as we did during Campaign 2000: When a senate veteran knows so little about a string of policy matters, is it possible that his serial ignorance betrays some sort of a character problem?

Is McCain's Violent Temper a Disqualification for the Presidency?

Read the disturbing details here.

Man, this guy is scary. He definitely has unresolved rage issues.

How McCain's Friends in the National Media Cover for Him

The outrageous details are here.

McCain's favorite pastor wants to nuke Iran to help bring on the freaking Apocalypse.

Response from the national media:

(Sounds of crickets chirping.)


UPDATE: If you want me to publish your comments, do NOT do the following things:

1. Recycle discredited right-wing slanders and lying Republican talking points.
2. Indulge in racist insinuations.
3. Send me a comment in all CAPS. That's the equivalent of shouting at me, and no one shouts at me on my own blog. Got it?

Mr. "Support the Troops" McCain and the New GI Bill

Martin Luther King was murdered the next evening--40 years ago, 4 April 1968.

God bless you, Martin

How Bad Does It Have to Get?

Any nation that would return the Republicans to power after the nightmare our country has gone through since 20 January 2001 is going to die. In fact, voting Republican this year is no more or less than an expression of national suicide. How much worse does it have to get, America, before you wake up out of this absurd right-wing dream world you live in?

1. YOUR COUNTRY WAS LIED AND MANIPULATED INTO A NEEDLESS WAR. That war has killed over 4,000 of our best young people, wounded more than 30,000 others, often cruelly, and mentally shattered countless others. It has killed perhaps more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians, driven 2,000,000 other Iraqis into exile, and immensely strengthened radical Islamists in Iran. Iraq is again descending into civil chaos after a brief lull. Every one of the stated premises for the war has turned out to be false. And yet, many of you want to vote for the one man--McCain--who will keep this monstrous conflict going indefinitely, and who even hints at wanting to expand the war into Iran.

WHY?

2. YOUR NATION'S ECONOMY IS TEETERING ON THE BRINK OF DISASTER. Economic analysts are already using the frightening term "worst since the Great Depression" to describe the escalating crisis our economy is in. Government debt has risen SIXTY PER CENT under George W. Bush. The economic con artists have been building a financial house of cards, and now it's crumbling, as the deepening mortgage meltdown attests. Right-wing Republican economic idiocy has caused this dilemma. And yet, many of you want to vote for someone--McCain--who has pledged to keep the same failed policies in place, or even accelerate them.

WHY?

3. CORRUPTION AND INCOMPETENCE HAVE SELDOM BEEN MORE WIDESPREAD. Republican cronies, crooks, and incompetents have looted the federal treasury at a shocking rate. The Iraq War has been a gold mine for Republican-connected companies like Halliburton and KBR. Corporate greed and corruption, such as in the case of Bear Stearns, are the worst since the 1890s. The Katrina disaster was only one symptom of the breakdown of government in America and Republican mishandling of virtually every issue. And yet, many of you are prepared to vote for a man, John McCain, who is more tied into lobbyists and Republican special interests than almost any other politician in America.

WHY?

4. REPUBLICAN SOCIAL POLICIES HAVE BEEN A DISASTER. Under the Republicans since 2001, poverty has risen. The number of those without medical insurance has risen. The gap between the wealthiest and the poorest has enormously expanded. "Abstinence-only" sex education has been a wretched, miserable failure. The gap in the life expectancy between rich and poor has grown. And yet many of you are prepared to vote for a man who has one of the most radical right voting records in the Senate, McCain.

WHY?

5. RIGHT WING FANATICS AND LUNATICS CONTROL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. From Pat Robertson to John Hagee, borderline-insane zealots control the Republican Party. Hagee is trying to bring on a war with Iran to precipitate the Apocalypse. Many who run the Republican Party are so-called "Dominionists" who want to drive anyone who isn't a right-wing fundamentalist End Times Protestant out of the government, or even deprive them of citizenship. Hatred of Roman Catholics, hatred of Jews (despite the "pro-Israel" rhetoric of many of these nut cases), hatred of women, murderous hatred of gays, and a lust for a worldwide religious war are common themes among these profoundly dangerous people. These same lunatics hate science, hate public education, hate environmental protection, hate the court system, and are determined to interject the government into the most personal of all decisions, from the Terri Schiavo tragedy to how married people can have sex. (No joke.) And yet many of you want to vote for someone--McCain--who crawls to these people, begging for their support.

WHY?

People, your nation is in crisis. Despite what the McCain-loving hacks in the media tell you, and despite what the conservative-controlled corporate media are tring to sell you, we're in big trouble. Almost 80% of Americans say this country is headed in the wrong direction. And yet, McCain--who would be nothing but a third Bush term-- has a better than even shot at winning. Why? Because he was a hero in Vietnam? Many men were heroes in Vietnam. Are they necessarily therefore qualified to be president? I respect McCain and honor him for his service, but it doesn't mean he should be president. His record in public life has been atrocious. His policies are utterly wrong for America. He is allied with some of the most dangerous people in the country. He is the new leader of the political party that is strangling this country's future to death. And yet, he might win. So one more time, I ask:

WHY?

McCain: Economic Idiot

This devastating analysis of John McCain's economic illiteracy should be a warning to all Americans. A key section of the article:

McCain wants to extend the Bush tax cuts, which he once opposed as a needless sop to the rich in a time of war. (I await David Brooks' inevitable explanation of how opposing taxes in a time of war in 2001 and 2003, when deficits were low, but supporting them in 2011, in a time of war and high deficits, is deeply moral and admirable.) But McCain wants to see Bush's tax relief and raise it some. McCain would slash the corporate-income-tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent (because corporate profits as a percentage of GDP didn't spike enough this decade?), and he'd abolish the Alternative Minimum Tax, which would be a welcome move for many upper-middle-class taxpayers. "In all, his tax-cutting proposals could cost about $400 billion a year, according to estimates of the impact of different tax cuts by CBO and the McCain campaign," the Wall Street Journal reported.

And how to make up for the lost revenues? Hmmm. McCain promises to cut earmarks; to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse; and to reduce the projected growth of Medicare; but he won't provide many numbers. As the WSJ deadpanned: "The cost will make it difficult for him to achieve his goal of balancing the budget by the end of his first term." That's perhaps the understatement of the year. The 2009 budget calls for a deficit of $407 billion on projected receipts of $2.7 trillion*, as this table shows. Essentially, McCain wants to cut revenues by about 15 percent from current levels, with nothing close to that in spending reductions, in a time when, even after spending excess Social Security payroll taxes, the deficit is running at more than $400 billion. Here's some straight talk: McCain's fiscal program is either a joke or a fantasy.

Yes indeed, a very bad joke or a very sick fantasy. This country is already teetering on the brink of economic disaster and McCain apparently wants to give it one big final shove over the cliff.

Every way you look at it, electing this man would be a disaster.

From the Screw-Ups (Bush & McCain) Who Brought You Iraq...

it's a RECESSION.



Sick and tired of Bush? Then why in the HELL you would even CONSIDER voting for McCain?!?

McCain's Ties to Hagee Are a THOUSAND TIMES More Dangerous Than Obama and His Pastor

The Washington Spectator has the scoop here:

TWENTY MILLION ARMAGEDDONITES—Hagee's theology is at best bizarre and at worst toxic. It is rooted in the teachings of apostate Anglican preacher John Nelson Darby, who left the Church of England in the 1820s to found his own sect. Pre-millennial Dispensationalism divides the world into seven epochs, or "dispensations." According to Darby's eschatological calendar, mankind is nearing the end of the penultimate dispensation. The final dispensation will be 1,000 years of peace, which arrive after Christ's defeat of the Anti-Christ (and Satan) at Armageddon. For Hagee, this is not a metaphor but a place in the Middle East. Hagee's eschatology also involves "the Rapture"—the physical ascent into Heaven of sanctified and reborn Christians.

Before all that can come to pass, however, certain biblical prophecies have to be fulfilled: the reunification of biblical Israel under Jewish control; the in-gathering of the world's Jewry to the parts of their ancestral home made up of Israel, Judea and Samaria; the rebuilding of the Temple (on the spot now occupied by one of three of Islam's most sacred mosques); etc.

Hagee's focus on End-Times prophecy has turned him toward American foreign policy in Israel and Palestine.

He's not alone.

American Conservative co-publisher John Basil Utley cites Christian writer Gary North's estimate that 20 million Americans are Armageddonites. "Many of them," Utley writes, "have an ecstatic belief in the cleansing power of apocalyptic violence."

**********

John Hagee is committed to the cleansing power of apocalyptic violence. He preaches it. He writes about it. And he puts his money—or his congregants' money—where his theology is. Hagee has raised more than $8.5 million for Israel, much of it used to relocate Jews from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to settlements in the West Bank—to Hagee the eastern extension of biblical Israel. Only after a critical mass of Jews have been concentrated in Greater Israel can the End-Times prophecies begin to unfold.

**********


All this would be harmless enough (perhaps) if confined to Rev. Hagee's temple. But John Hagee has a constituency that extends beyond his congregation. He used that constituency to build a foreign-policy advocacy organization—Christians United for Israel (CUFI)—that is now pressing for a pre-emptive war with Iran. CUFI brought 4,500 End Times activists to Washington for its July 2006 inaugural event, followed by a day of lobbying on the Hill.

Hagee was straightforward in announcing his agenda: "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West," he said. He saw this step as "a biblically prophesied End Time confrontation . . . which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation . . . and the Second Coming of Christ." [My emphasis]

**********

A REPUBLICAN RELIGION?—John McCain has been pressed to renounce Hagee. He cannot. Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, whose unsolicited "endorsement" created a problem for Sen. Barack Obama, can preach religious hate. But he works on the fringe of American religion and politics and is an unlikely guest at anyone's White House. The influence of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright—Obama's longtime pastor who is cut from a different cloth than Farrakhan—doesn't extend beyond the African-American community in Chicago. The Republican Party, on the other hand, is deeply invested in John Hagee and his followers.

On the Sunday before the 2006 election, for example, Texas governor Rick Perry and sixty other candidates (almost all Republicans) stood before the altar at Cornerstone Church with Hagee, each candidate angling for an election-day bounce with evangelical voters.

But John Hagee is bigger than Texas. In 2000 he was on presidential candidate George W. Bush's "values team." Since then the right wing of the Republican Party has responded to Pastor Hagee's altar call. In 2002, Republican majority leader Tom DeLay was the keynote speaker at Hagee's "Night to Honor Israel." In 2006 Hagee met with Elliot Abrams, Bush's fervently pro-Israel deputy national security adviser. Hagee later said he and Abrams are largely in agreement regarding Middle East policy.

Joe Lieberman (I-CT) got most of the media attention at CUFI's second annual gathering, in 2007, because the Jewish senator compared Hagee to Moses. But Republican house whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) attended and John McCain also joined the pro-Israel Christians when they met in Washington in July. McCain praised Hagee for "doing the Lord's work in Satan's city." That's not San Antonio but Washington.

That's right, folks. McCain can crawl on his hands and knees and BEG for the support of this psychotic End Times fool and virtually nothing is said of it, certainly not compared to the Wright flap with Obama. Read the whole article, if you can bear it. Hagee is violently ANTI-CATHOLIC. Despite his so-called "Christian Zionism", HE BLAMES THE HOLOCAUST ON THE JEWS. He is a wretched fundamentalist lunatic of the worst kind, and a con artist to boot. And yet McCain is given a free pass on him. Outrageous.

Hagee is powerful and influential in the Republican Party. If "Bomb Bomb Iran" McCain is elected, John "Pre-emptive War on Iran" Hagee will be an honored guest in the White House.

If that doesn't scare the hell out of you, I don't know what will

What 4,000 American Dead Look Like (in Mosaic Form)

And the two biggest advocates of keeping the war going.

Smashing McCain's "Cred"

Is there a bigger fraud on the American political scene than John McCain? He claims expertise in subjects about which he is a know-nothing; is allowed to tell lies because he's a "straight talker"; and generally, gets away with things no other politician possibly could. Check the links here at Kevin Drum's page, and see if you don't agree.

NO THIRD TERM FOR BUSH--NO TO McCAIN!

Radical WHITE Preachers Endorsing McCain? Hey, No Problem!

Read the exasperating details here.

Democrats, the MSM is in the tank for St. Johnny Boy. It's a reality we have to deal with.

Does McCain Even Know What He's Talking About?

See for yourself here.

And this guy has the nerve to assert that he's an "expert" on Iraq? On what planet?

McCain: Unfit for Command

Josh Marshall gets it out straight here:

But this is really just the tip of the iceberg with McCain. In almost every discussion of foreign policy, not just today but in previous years, what stands out is McCain's inability to see beyond the immediate issues of military tactics to any firm grasp of strategy or America's real vital interests. His free willingness to commit to a decades long occupation of Iraq is an example, his push for ground troops to be introduced during the Kosovo War is another. His refusal, almost inability, to grapple with the political failure of the surge is the most telling one if people will sift through its deeper implications...

Hillary Clinton has stipulated to McCain's qualifications as Commander-in-Chief; and Obama, implicitly, does the same. But his record actually shows he's one of the most dangerous people we could have in the Oval Office in coming years -- not just because he's a hothead in using the military, but more because he seems genuinely clueless about the real challenges and dangers the country is facing. He's too busy living in the fantasy world where our future as a great power and our very safety are all bound up in Iraq.

Yes, a hothead and an Iraq obsessive (not to mention a lunatic on Iran). McCain would indeed be a disaster as Commander in Chief, and progressives need to communicate this to the world.

No Third Term for Bush

BTW, this is the same John McCain who's not sure about the difference betweem Sunni and Shi'a, thinks Al Qaeda goes to Iran to train (it doesn't) and proclaims himself an "expert" on Iraq.

I Urge You to Set Aside 38 Minutes

and watch this:



Simply brilliant and remarkable.

Why Does Senator Inhofe Hate Our Military Men and Women?

The radical right-wing conservative Republican from Oklahoma has the most ATROCIOUS record in the Senate on veterans and active service members issues. Some telling details:

Something else that would probably surprise many victims of Republican propaganda is that they [The Republicans] have also been horrible for our veterans and horrible for our active duty military personnel. Let's look at the far right extremist senator from Oklahoma, James Inhofe. Most folks just know him as a Climate Change Denier but that barely scratches the surface of what's wrong with Inhofe. For someone who is so aggressively pro-war, he's incredibly anti-veteran and anti-service member. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America looked at his voting record and gave him a D-. On October 5, 2005 his deciding vote against the bipartisan Health Care for Veterans Amendment killed a bill that had passed in the House 398 to 19. The following month Chuck Grassley and Barbara Boxer co-sponsored a bill to get desperately needed funds for counseling, mental health, and rehabilitation services for veterans diagnosed with mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, or substance abuse. Again, Inhofe voted against our military veterans. That's been his pattern, a pattern that includes outrageous tax cuts for millionaires while short-changing vets.

But vets aren't the only people Inhofe has consistently short-changed. His voting record on active duty military personnel is abysmal-- the worst in the entire U.S. Senate. Of the 14 roll calls involving the welfare of our fighting men and women since May, 2003, Inhofe has voted against them a breathtaking 14 times.

If any Republican deserves to be thrown out on his ass, it's James Inhofe. Go to Act Blue and send some love to his Democratic opponent, a great candidate named Andrew Rice.

America's military people will thank you.

Horrible. Sickening. Despicable.

Read this if you can stand to.

Bush and Cheney are war criminals. There can longer be any doubt.

This is UNAMERICAN. I refuse to see this as acceptable, DO YOU HEAR ME?

The Chicago Tribune: Obama Has Done NOTHING Illegal in the Rezko Matter

Read all about it here.

Now about John McCain's financial angels in Arizona in the 1980s...

Hey McCain! Where Are Your Tax Returns?

Kevin Drum discusses the issue here.

Funny, isn't it? The Washington press corps barks at Hillary Clinton regularly on this issue, but their fair-haired boy St. John gets a pass. Gee, what a surprise. Why, it's almost as if the mainstream media are in the tank for him.

Want to Fight Fox "News" and the Smears Against Obama?

You will after you see this. Watch it all the way. The punch line will astonish you.




Now, ACT. Spread this video as far as you can.

Obama: Integrity and Moral Clarity. McCain: Craven Pandering

Barack Obama's eloquent, convincing statement on his church, his faith, and his pastor is here.

John McCain's crawling to the likes of Hagee, Parsley, Robertson, and the (happily late) Falwell looks pretty disgusting in contrast. And remember:

HAGEE AND PARSLEY ARE CALLING FOR A WORLD WIDE RELIGIOUS WAR BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM. THAT IS A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE THAN ANYTHING OBAMA'S MINISTER HAS EVER SAID.

Got it?

It's Not Just Hagee: McCain's Other Lunatic Friend

Another right wing radical demagogue who supports John McCain is coming under scrutiny: the demented Rod Parsley, who has called for the extermination of Islam as a religion. And no, I'm not exaggerating:

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: "We find now we have no choice. The time has come." And he has bad news: "We may already be losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than nearly any other force on earth at this moment."

Yes, folks, the whole point of America is to destroy Islam. Parsley evidently agrees with Osama bin Laden that we need a worldwide religious war between Christianity and Islam.

And John McCain is delighted to have his support.

It's time to ask some hard questions to the Arizona Senator, whether he likes them or not.

(Oh, and if you want deleriously funny delights, Google the following search term: Rod Parsley+UFOs. Heh heh heh.)

McCain: Screwing American Workers to Help Out His Lobbyist Pals

Check out this highly revealing post about Mr. Straight Talk and Airbus:

The Boeing deal would have supported 44,000 new and existing jobs across 40 states -- jobs that will be shipped to Europe and elsewhere as a results of the tag-team combination of McCain in the Senate and McCain's lobbyists pals on K Street. At a time when the economy appears to be faltering and America faces tepid job growth -- or even job losses -- it's not clear to me that the American public is clamoring for someone who is so tone deaf about employment issues.

McCain can, and likely will, try to spin this as an example of his reformist ways. But looking at all of the details, it's becoming ever more clear that McCain's interest is not as much in reform as it is whatever is in the best interest of his lobbyist supporters and pals.

Read the whole thing and tell me again about McCain's "integrity".