Let's Hope He Doesn't Shop While He's Here!

Bad things happen when Senator John McCain goes shopping.

So naturally, I felt a little queasy when I found out he's coming to Memphis on April 16th. If he does shop while he's here, there's no word yet on whether he'll be wearing a flack jacket and carrying a military and Blackwater entourage with him.

Perfectly Safe. Uh huh.

I know, I've already talked about McCain's insane comments that Iraq is a perfectly safe place for Americans to walk around...

But here's a photo demonstrating just how safe he felt.

Oh, and just in case that isn't enough--- It seems that the Iraqi insurgents want to send a message about how safe it is too. 21 Iraqis died to bring you John McCain's photo op.

The latest massacre of Iraqi children came as 21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital.
The victims came from the Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress.

Straight Talk, My Arse.

There is pandering. There is Koolaid drinking. And then there is complete, blithering idiocy on a scale that would make even George W. Bush shudder.

John McCain has been displaying that just recently.



To quote Dennis Miller back from the time years ago that he was actually funny, I don't mean to go off on a rant here... Wait. Yeah. Yeah I do.

John McCain made a mockery of the threats that our soldiers, our contractors, and even our journalists face today. CNN's Michael Ware was not only right to call him out on it--- But that's what needs to happen more often.

All too often, out of fear of being called "liberal", the mainstream media is far too slow to play the "bullshit" card. Any preposterous claim made by this administration or any of its apologists goes completely unchallenged, so complete absurdity is accepted as fact.

I would like to thank the man that's been reporting in Iraq for four years for debunking the myths spread by a man that spent a few minutes on a Baghdad street surrounded by Blackwater operatives.

Give it up, Senator McCain. Not only is it not time for you to be president, but your senate career seems to be well past its expiration date.

For as much as I know it may look like it sometimes, Capitol Hill is no place for fools.

Rove and the Push Poll

This is the moment that I lost all respect for John McCain. See, if you look closely, you'll notice that George W. Bush has all of his teeth, and he's not lying on the ground in a daze.

See, that's the natural response of a man whose family was dragged into the epicenter of a political tactic so nasty that it made the antics of Richard Nixon look downright saintly by comparison.

In 2000, the Republican primary looked like it was going to be a close one. Bush took Iowa. McCain took New Hampshire.

And then, they reached South Carolina--- A state that had, by that point, flown the Confederate flag over all state buildings for nearly four decades. The state's stance on race relations had been clear since its inception--- An anti-slavery clause was removed from the Declaration of Independence by a delegate from South Carolina who insisted that his state, North Carolina, and Georgia would fight on behalf of King George if the new government infringed on their right to own and exploit others for economic gain. The state seems to be shameless about racism--- To this day, a statue of Benjamin "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman stands on the grounds of the state capitol, a monument to a long dead governor who boasted of taking part in the Hamburg Massacre and proudly told delegates at a state constitutional convention "We have done our level best [to prevent blacks from voting]...we have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it."

The idea that a race baiting push poll could gain traction in the state was far from a foreign concept. Richard Hand, a professor at South Carolina's Bob Jones University (Most famous for being one of the last schools in America to break the color barrier, and with a rule against interracial dating that was still in effect at the time) had spread a vicious email rumor that McCain had fathered a child out of wedlock.

The push poll, while there's no evidence indicating that it was coordinated, seemed custom designed to build on Hand's rumor-mongering. Not only was McCain the father of an out of wedlock child, but--- Gasp! She was black! The question was always a variation on "Are you less likely to vote for John McCain because of his out of wedlock black daughter?"

The child in question did exist. But not quite as they said. The McCains had adopted a baby girl out of Bangladesh. Her skin was just dark enough to make "half black, half McCain" plausible. When Cindy McCain found her, the baby's cleft pallate was so severely deformed that she couldn't eat. She was mere weeks from a slow, agonizing starvation death when the McCains adopted her and brought her to the United States for a series of life-saving surgeries. And as any proud father running for the presidency would, he took this beautiful little girl with him when he made campaign stops across the country. Including South Carolina.

Karl Rove was put on the hot seat yesterday while making an appearance at Troy University in Alabama. And as usual, he attempted to tar the people that questioned him.

From CNN:

"Do you think people of South Carolina find it attractive to hear that kind of charge made against John McCain," Rove asked at the Troy University event. "Or do the people of South Carolina respond to it as they should have, 'What a remarkable thing that John and Cindy McCain adopted a child from Asia, took him into their home as an act of compassion and kindness.'"...
"The Bush campaign had nothing to do with it, and the Bush campaign endeavored to stamp out those kinds of things because they hurt George Bush and helped John McCain, not the other way around," Rove added. "Either I'm a genius, or I'm an idiot. Only an idiot would spread trash like that and expect to do their candidate any good."

Okay, I'm voting for "idiot". At Karl Rove's instruction, I'm now rethinking my original position that he was an evil genius. It now appears that he's a complete moron who stumbles his way from victory to victory, the political equivalent of Shaggy and Scooby, who usually catch the bad guy not by cunning or guile, but by virtue of having accidentally knocked the bad guy out while trying to escape.

I suppose it comes from having seen their devotion to honest campaign rhetoric. In 2004, we all saw the Swift Boating of John Kerry. But let's not act like it was anything new--- John McCain was "swift boated" in 2000, dogged by J. Thomas Burch, who tried to rally Veterans For Bush by standing on the dais with Bush and announcing that McCain came home from Vietnam and "ignored veterans", an accusation so absurd based on McCain's legislative record that it would be like accusing Paris Hilton of dressing conservatively. And just like he would again in 2004, when asked by his opponent to condemn false statements, Bush did nothing. The scale was smaller, but the inaction was the same.

Rove's tactics always involve astroturf movements. Whenever the Bush White House tries to promote something unpopular in its agenda, the fake grass roots groups always turn up. "Concerned Women for Harriet Miers", among many others. The only real question is whether the Bush 2000 campaign did it themselves or used an astroturf group to keep their hands clean. After seeing them in action through two campaigns now, I think the answer should be clear.

The outrage should be directed not at those who expect better of our leaders, as Rove proclaims, but at those who cynically take advantage of the most poisonous aspect of the human condition for political gain.

What A Waste of an Apology...

John McCain and Barack Obama have both had to apologize in recent days for using the word "wasted" in reference to the lives that we've lost in Iraq, both resorting to the word "sacrificed" instead.

Of course, that's made a bit sticky by the actual meaning of sacrifice. A baseball player hits a sacrifice fly to advance a base runner. Primitive tribes sacrificed virgins, tossing them into the volcano so the gods wouldn't become angry and kill the rest of the village.

See the important part we're missing here? A sacrifice means that you actually gain something in return. What have we gained in Iraq? We didn't stop some nascent mighty military with the capability to conquer the world, thereby strangling Hitler in his crib--- We beat a military that had decayed in the decade and change since its soldiers, in a mad rush to wave a white flag for anyone that looked vaguely American, surrendered to CNN camera crews.

We didn't destroy some nascent nuclear weapons program--- We re-bombed the buildings that hadn't been rebuilt since being destroyed a decade earlier. We didn't dislodge a regime that encouraged Islamic extremists to attack America---- We dislodged a regime that Islamic extremists wanted to dislodge as well.

We didn't destroy a breeding ground for Islamic extremists--- We created a new one where operatives can get practice in the field killing American soldiers.

The only people that thinks this is the definition of "sacrifice" are the same people that think hanging a 99 cent decal on the back of a gas guzzler amounts to "supporting the troops".

To McCain and Obama: Grow a pair. Mean what you say, and say what you mean. Obama has opposed this war since day one. McCain--- Well, it depends on what day of the week it is.

But both men know that the back end of "sacrifice" means gaining something in return for the 3100 lives snuffed out on the battlefield and the sea of limbs left behind in Iraq. Without a real threat to take care of in Iraq, the lives lost are indeed a waste.

The McCain vs. McCain Debate

Fact: John McCain wants to be president.

So much campaign rhetoric has been thrown about over the last few months that it's only fitting to go ahead and kick off debate season now. And I'll be moderating the first debate.

In one corner, we have Maverick Senator John McCain.

In the other corner, we have the only man bold enough to stand up to Maverick Senator McCain--- Presidential Candidate John McCain.

Maverick Senator McCain, you won the coin toss, so you get to start things off. Tell us what you think of the evangelical movement in America.

Maverick Senator McCain: Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right. (2/28/00)

Me: Very good, Senator. Presidential Candidate McCain, you may now rebut.

Presidential Candidate McCain: I met with Rev. Falwell. He came to see me in Washington. We agreed to disagree on certain issues, and we agreed to move forward. (4/2/06)

Me: Clearly, our two candidates disagree. Now, I'll ask our two candidates: Has the war in Iraq been properly managed? Presidential Candidate McCain, I'll let you start this one.

Presidential Candidate McCain: We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement — that's the kindest word I can give you — of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war. The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously. (2/19/07)

Me: Well, you can't get more clearly stated than that. Shades of the "Straight Talk Express". Maverick Senator McCain, your response?

Maverick Senator McCain: While Secretary Rumsfeld and I have had our differences, he deserves Americans' respect and gratitude for his many years of public service. (11/06)

Me: Straight talk indeed. Maverick Senator McCain, I'll allow you to start this one. Where do you stand on Roe vs. Wade?

Maverick Senator McCain: I’d love to see a point where it is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to illegal and dangerous operations. (8/24/99)

Me: Presidential Candidate McCain, your rebuttal?

Presidential Candidate McCain: I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned. (2/18/07)

Me: Short and straight to the point. Since the Clinton years, the Republican Party has been on a bit of a tangent against adulturers, and rightly so. With the entrance of Rudy Giuliani in this race, who was so bold that he moved his mistress into Gracie Mansion, it's bound to come up again. Presidential Candidate McCain, you're scheduled to give a talk to South Carolina students advocating that they forgo sex outside of marriage, right?

Presidential Candidate McCain: [Silence] (2/17/07)

Me: Wow. Even shorter, even more to the point. Maverick Senator McCain, your views on sex outside of marriage?

Maverick Senator McCain: Let me say that I am responsible for the breakup of my first marriage. I will not discuss or talk about that any more than that. If someone wants to criticize me for that, that's fine. (2/12/99)

Me: Not... Exactly what I was shooting for, but I admire Maverick Senator McCain's willingness to own up to his mistakes. Maverick Senator McCain, could you tell me your views on the "surge" in Iraq?

Maverick Senator McCain: Took us a long time to get in the situation we’re in, and to say that — and somehow assume that in a few months, that things are going to get all better I think is not realistic. (2/4/07)

Me: Presidential Candidate McCain, your response?

Presidential Candidate McCain: I think in the case of the Iraqi government cooperating and doing what’s necessary, we can know fairly well in a few months. (2/4/07, 47 seconds later)

Me: I want to thank you both for showing up today. We'll see you on the campaign trail.

Get On the Doubletalk Express!

Ha! And you thought John Kerry was a flip flopper...



My father always used to tell me when we discussed politics that he thought John McCain was "crazy as a shithouse bug". Of course, Dad was a lifelong Republican voter that hated McCain for the few times he voted with Democrats.

But after seeing McCain's little meltdown in Davos, I'm beginning to think Dear Old Dad was right.

Toward the end of the conversation, I raised my hand and asked McCain:

"Given that you've said that you are 'scared to death that it's going to be a very hot spring in Afghanistan,' and given that you have also said, repeatedly, that only a substantial increase in troops in Iraq would make a real difference, why not send the 21,000 troops headed to Iraq, in what is clearly an act of desperation, to Afghanistan instead?"

During his response, McCain equated those opposing his position with "the far left."

"Do you consider Sam Brownback part of the far left?" I jumped in.

The Senator flared and told me that if I'd only let him finish his answer instead of interrupting, we could have "a civil discussion."

He then continued on about why he supports the escalation (see his speech to the AIE if you need a refresher). Along the way, he denied that he had used the phrase "the far left."

Wow, I thought, the Straight Talk Express has run so far off the rails McCain is now denying things he'd said in front of close to two-dozen note-taking journalists not half-a-minute before.