McCain v. Palin or "He said, She said"

Sarah Palin and John McCain seem to hold different views on certain issues. Here's how they disagree on two of those issues.

A national marriage amendment to the Constitution

He said: McCain does not support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. McCain believes that such matters should be left up to the states to decide.

She said: Despite the fact that Palin claims to be "more of a federalist," meaning she believes individual states should have more say in the laws they pass and how they run their governments, she would welcome an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that specifically defines marriage as between one man and one woman, Palin, in her interview with David Brody said "I wish on a federal level that's where we would go because I don't support gay marriage."


Robo calls

He said: It didn't matter that robo calls were used against him by the Bushites in 2000, nor did it matter that Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine and Senator Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota asked him to "stop these calls immediately," he is not going to do it.

In fact, McCain hired the same people who instigated those vicious robo calls attacking him back in 2000, to create robo calls to viciously attack Senator Obama in 2008.

McCain insists that robo calls claiming Obama "pals around with terrorists" are legitimate because that "palling around" casts doubt on Obama's "judgment and record."

She said: In Colorado Springs, "If I called all the shots, and if I would wave a magic wand, I would be sitting at a kitchen table with more and more Americans, talking to them ... and not having to rely on robocalls ... "


Oops!

Republicans for Obama

One of the latest Republicans to hop on the Obama bandwagon is Colin Powell. That's "old" news (as of yesterday) and was less than surprising as it had been hinted at for several weeks, and yet carries a great deal of symbolic weight, for Powell had been an insider, a member of the George W. Bush team, a card-carrying representative of the Republican establishment.


The CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt "plans to join executives from other technology companies in announcing their support for Mr. Obama and will appear at an event in Florida on Tuesday with the Democratic candidate" according to the Telegraph.co.uk. Schmidt's joining hands with Obama is also powerfully symbolic, if for no other reason than as a counterpoint to the political union between the former CEO of eBay, Meg Whitman and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina with John McCain.

Then there's Ken Adelman, described by Michael D. Shear of WaPo as "a key part of George Bush's defense agency," and a senior political adviser to "Presidents Reagan, Ford and even Nixon."

Adelman is, says Shear, "a staunch conservative."


While I am not aware of Mr. Schmidt's feelings about Sarah Palin, both Colin Powell and Ken Adelman indicated a major source of their displeasure with John McCain was his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Adelman said "That decision shows appalling lack of judgment. Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office ... But that selection contradicted McCain's main two, and best two, themes for his campaign -- Country First, and experience counts. Neither can he credibly claim, post-Palin pick."


Mr. McCain thought, I'm sure, and for awhile events seemed to bear him out, that Sarah Palin would revive his moribund candidacy. It didn't take long, however, before all but the most rabid, racist and homophobic members of his base became painfully aware of Palin's shortcomings.

The Palin choice was a calculated move to propel him into the White House. Now it appears it will only propel him into oblivion.

It can't happen soon enough.

Palin and "The 700 Club"

Palin has, for the most part, avoided the mainstream media since McCain chose her to be his vice presidential running mate. That avoidance was surely by command of the McCain campaign as they soon realized she was an airhead who could not speak in coherent sentences unless they gave her a script to follow. Even that didn't always work.

As everyone knows, Sarah Palin is a fundamentalist Christian, connected to the most extreme elements of that persuasion. It is natural, I suppose, that she would agree to be interviewed by David Broder, a reporter (and blogger) for the Christian Broadcasting Network, the brainchild of the rightwing nutcase, Pat Robertson.

This interview will be televised tomorrow on "The 700 Club," but Broder has posted excerpts on his blog. What follows is a summary of some of what Ms. Palin said.

1) Brody asked her if she was still "okay with the 'pal around with terrorist line" ... did she "want to rein that back a little?"

Palin: "No, I would say it again. I would say it again because again, it, it, according to the information we have, the association that he's had with Bill Ayers wasn't just one or two time (sic) sitting on a board together where. No, there's been quite a few associations and events and meetings and discussion and emails and calls and to not disavow that too, I think is troubling."

2) Brody asked her if she would support a constitutional marriage amendment.

Palin: "I am, in my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that that's where we would go because I don't support gay marriage. I'm not going to be out there judging individuals, sitting in a seat of judgment telling what they can and can't do, should and should not do, but I certainly can express my own opinion here and take actions that I believe would be best for traditional marriage that, that instrument that it's the foundation of our society is that strong family and that's based on that traditional definition of marriage, so I do support that."

3) Brody asked her if she wanted to "clear up exactly" what she believes relative to her own faith, "The Pentecostal stuff, the gifts of the Holy Spirit ... because there have been some editorials and others taking shots at you regarding -- "

Palin: "Yeah, and I think the saddest part of that is that faith, not just my faith, faith and God in general has been mocked through this campaign, and that breaks my heart and that is unfair for others who share a faith in God and chose to worship our Lord in whatever private manner that they deem fit and my faith has always been pretty personal. I haven't really worn it on my sleeve. I haven't been out there preaching it. I've always been of the mind that you walk the walk. You just don't have to be talking the talk about your beliefs, so just wanting maybe my life to be able to reflect my faith. So it's always been pretty personal and that was kind of a surprise in the last couple of months that people would misconstrue and spin anything that has to do with my faith or anybody else's and turn it into something to be mocked. That's very sad. I don't think that there's anything that I can do about it, so you know, I won't. I won't whine or complain about it, but nobody is going to convince me that my foundation of faith is not good for me and for my family no matter the mocking, no matter what anybody says about it. I'm going to keep plugging away at this and I'm going to keep seeking God's guidance and His wisdom and His favor and His grace, for me, for my family, for this campaign, for our nation. Again no matter what anybody else says about it it's between me and God, and I am so thankful that he has strengthened me with this understanding and this belief that I can count on Him. I can reach out to Him asking for that strength, asking for the blessings that He so freely gives and I don't know how anybody would want to do this if they didn't have real strong faith in God that He's got it all under control."

4) Brody questioned her about her rallies and the nasty things people said about Obama and whether she felt responsible to stop such talk.

Palin: "Absolutely. But what we have heard through some mainstream media is that folks have hollered out some pretty atrocious and unacceptable things like 'kill him' or some, we have not heard that. If I ever were to hear that standing up there at the podium with the mic, I would call 'em out on that, and I would tell these people, no, that's unacceptable, let's rise above that please. We haven't heard that. What I heard though is even in the other camp though some negativity that has been injected in the campaign with the candidate himself, with Barack Obama telling his supporter to get out there and quote 'get in their face, argue with them.' That, you know, that's kind of inciting and a bit negative and John McCain and I will have nothing to do with that, but it is unacceptable if we were ever to hear the shout outs that are so negative that we have heard being reported, if I were to hear that I would say no, we don't stand for that."

5) Brody asked Palin to explain what she prays about "and what are some things that people can pray for you?

Palin: "Pray of course for about my family that my kids will not be adversely affected by some of the political shots of course that, that we've been taking the last couple of months. I pray for my son's safety over in Iraq fighting for us in a striker brigade in the US Army and for all of our troops and I pray too for in the grander, greater scheme of things also that God's hand of protection would be over our country and that we as individuals would be endowed with strength to do all that we can to protect our nation and protect our Constitutional rights and do those things that I believe will make our country better, greater, but it's going to take even more than that truly it will take God's hand of protection to be continually over our land and His wisdom, His grace, His favor I pray for that for our country. I pray for that for other nations also, so that other nations would be safe, would be healthy, that the people who live there - especially the children who are growing up in some of these nations that are certainly not as privileged as we are would know that there is hope, that there is opportunity if they seek that and if they seek God's guidance."

6) Brody also approached the issue of Barack Obama as a "strong Christian family man." He asked Palin if abortion and homosexuality are in contradiction to "biblical values."

Palin: "I think the most troubling issue that I know of that Barack Obama is completely the other side of John McCain and that I am on is, is the abortion issue because his abortion stance is so extreme. It's so, so far left that it's way out of the mainstream. I think he's in some sense succeeded in trying to package up, and pretty-up some of his policies to make them look mainstream even on abortion, but American voters have got to realize his opposition to parental consesnt, his opposition to a ban on partial birth abortion and most troubling is his opposition to the child born alive act, I think should be, and I say this, I mean, this is mild to say it is quite concerning. But to withhold medical intervention for a baby who is born alive as a result of a botched abortion and to allow that child to die without the medical intervention that child deserves I, it's appalling to me ..."

7) Brody asked Palin why she would not go on the 24/7 cable networks.

Palin: "Well sometimes it just doesn't do any good. I mean you set yourself up just to continually be mocked, you so sometimes that doesn't do any good ..." Palin goes on to say that she has been trying to get their message out to the people without its being "filtered" by the mainstream media which distorts and contorts their message.

8) Brody asked Palin about her baptism.

Palin: "Well, it was a neat thing to be able to do. I was baptized with my family, all my siblings, and we all got baptized together in Little Beaver Lake in Big Lake, Alaska by Pastor Riley. It was significant to me because I knew even at that time as a young kid, middle school aged, I knew that there was something bigger than I out there, and I would be smart to dedicate myself to something that was bigger than I was. Of course that's God, my Creator. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to handle all that was laid out in front of me in life if I did not have strong faith in my Creator, a mission towards trying to fulfill my own destiny and trying to make the world a bit better for others, so that the manifestation of that belief that I had, I was very aware of what I could do about it at the time, and at the time it was to take that that public step to be baptized and the principle behind that too is as you're raised up out of the waters it's like, 'hey world, this is my confession of faith that I'm going to try to lead and live my life according to my belief that God as my Creator has good plans for all of us, and we are to seek those plans and seek the destiny that he has for all of us.'"

8) Brody also asked Palin what she would say to Obama if she found herself alone with him.

Palin: I would talk to him specifically about some of the issues that he has taken on that I do not believe are best for America. When he supported withdrawing funding for our troops over there in Iraq and Afghanistan. I want to talk to him about that ... I'd ask him about the comment that he made to our troops over in Afghanistan are merely air raiding villages and killing civilians. That's not what our troops are doing over there. They're fighting the terrorists. They're protecting us. They're building schools for the children ... so I would speak to him about his record, his record, not getting into so much into values or principles that he would hold, but just calling him on his record and trying to find out why? Why have you done some of these things that I do not believe and I don't believe the vast majority of Americans can support."

++++

Now, if all of that doesn't convince you that Sarah Palin is an empty-headed, self-righteous, Christian fundamentalist moron, nothing will.

Several things are immediately obvious:

a) She cannot speak in sentences that make sense. She should return her college diploma and start all over again.

b) She is either ignorant or she is an out-and-out liar. For example, Obama has never been against saving babies born of botched abortions. And she has taken his Afghanistan quote out of context, changing the meaning to put Obama in a bad light. Furthermore, study after study have concluded that Obama's views on abortion are much closer to what "Americans believe" than the pap she hands out. She would know this if she read material other than that handed to her by her Rovian handlers. But, then again, I'm not sure she is smart enough to decipher truth from fiction.

c) It comes through loudly and clearly that she believes the United States to be a Christian nation, and that only through belief in her particular god can someone receive the wisdom and strength to govern.

d) Her comments with regard to the hateful things said at her rallies are simply lies. Both she and McCain have heard those comments - hell, they incited those comments by their vicious and untruthful rhetoric! As for her statement that Obama told his "supporter" to "get in their face, argue with them" -- well, first of all, that's not such a bad idea - it certainly isn't instigating violence - but I don't believe her. I would love to find out the source of that "information."

5) You will notice that the questions asked of Palin by Mr. Brody are, for the most part, softball questions, and lead directly into the same talking points she uses on the campaign trail. In that sense, Brody doesn't "interview" Palin so much as he gives her a forum for perpetrating the same nonsense she spews over the country daily. Why, for example, didn't he ask about her views on energy -- her self-described field of "expertise." Or, why didn't he ask about her vast foreign policy experience, about all the countries she has visited, about her relationships with world leaders? Why didn't he ask about how she would end the war in Iraq and what she thought the United States should do in Afghanistan now that it appears the Taliban are resurgent and will soon control most of the country again. Why didn't he ask about how to deal with a nuclear Pakistan and a nuclear India? Why didn't he ask her views about the budget deficit and how she thinks we should go about cleaning up the financial mess made by her Republican friends in Washington? Why didn't he ask about health care for all Americans -- does she even believe in that? Why didn't he ask her about public schools and whether she would favor vouchers whereby the government would give tax dollars to people to send their kids to parochial or other private schools? Why didn't he ask her views on faith-based programs in which the government doles out tax money to religious institutions to do social work. Why didn't he ask what she believes about fighting AIDS in Africa and whether American aid should be withheld from agencies that provide condoms or information about abortion? Why didn't he ask her how she would go about resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? Why didn't he ask her views on separation of church and state? Or torture? Or spying on Americans? Or immigration? Or global warming? Or about what to do with the country's decaying infrastructure? Does she believe in the constitutional right to habeas corpus? And does she want to "bomb, bomb, bomb" Iran?

You can add your own "Why didn't he ask..." here.

6) Sarah Palin appears to be a vacuous teenager in a woman's body who has never quite made the transition to adulthood. She proves once again, in this interview, that she is completely and totally unprepared and unqualified to hold the position of vice president.

Palin's medical records

Why does Sarah Palin and the McCain campaign refuse to release Palin's medical records?

Of course, McCain has provided incomplete records (the important stuff was missing!)

Is there something they don't want us to know?

Why the hell isn't the MSM all over this?

McCain's choice

John McCain had a choice.

He decided he would rather be president than a man of honor.

Now it looks like he will not be president.

And he has proven to the world he is not an honorable man.

Obama in Missouri

One hundred thousand people showed up to see and hear Barack Obama in Missouri!

"Wow!" said Senator Obama

'nuf said.

When is an archbishop not an archbishop?

An archbishop is not an archbishop when he wants to talk against abortion and pro-choice Catholic politicians.

That's a neat trick if you can do it.

Charles J. Chaput (rhymes with kaput) is the archbishop of the Denver archdiocese. On Friday evening, October 17, Chaput spoke at a Catholic women's dinner. Guess what? He doesn't like Obama.

Chaput said that Obama's the "most committed" abortion-rights candidate from a major party since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Bad, bad, Obama!

Then he took after a Catholic law professor named Douglas Kmiec who wrote a book suggesting that "good" Catholics could vote for Obama. Eric Gorski, AP religion writer put it this way: "He argues the Obama campaign is premised on Catholic social teaching like care for working families and the poor and foreign policy premised on peace over war. Democratic efforts to tackle social and economic factors that contribute to abortion hold more promise ... than Republican efforts to criminalize it."

Hmmm. In other words, while Obama upholds the right of women to choose, he also believes abortions are a serious matter. But Obama respects women and the right of women to choose in this most personal of matters. Furthermore, Obama's policies would actually result in fewer abortions than would a policy of banning all abortions, which is, of course, the Roman Catholic position.

The archbishop of Denver did not want to hear that. Oh no. Catholics who would vote for Obama "seek to contextualize, demote and then counterbalance the evil of abortion with other important but less foundational social issues," preached the archybishoprick.

What does this really mean? Roman Catholics like archbishop Chaput cannot see beyond their own noses, number one. Number two, it really comes down to control. The Catholic church does not respect women! The Roman church has always been about control and through the abortion issue it controls the women of the church.

The fact is that Obama's approach leads to less abortions. That should be a good thing. But it would mean the church would lose control of the women and that would never do, so Obama's gotta go.


Pro-life always refers to abortion. Pro-lifers are often the most adamant supporters of capital punishment and war. Pro-lifers are often not pro-life at all, they are merely anti-abortion. Someone once castigated the Roman Catholic bishops for not speaking out against the bombing of women and children in North Vietnam. He said that if U.S. planes were dropping condoms, the bishops would be screaming in protest. Bombs that killed innocent people were okay.


And then, one final, important question arises:

How can this archbishop speaking to a group of Catholic women address a political issue and suggest that Catholics cannot, in good conscience, vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, or for any Catholic politician who fails to follow to the letter the church's rule regarding abortion?

Does this not violate the law? Well, in fact, it does. But that has never bothered Roman Catholic poohbahs, either, for they believe they are the representatives of the one, true Church, which is the representative of God on earth.

And, said the archbishop, he wasn't speaking as a clergyman person, he was speaking as a private citizen. Ha, ha, ha.

He stands there in his clerical garb, addressing a Catholic women's dinner as the archbishop of Denver and he says he spoke as a "private citizen."

It just ain't that easy, archybishop. You broke the law.

Enough already, with Sam (or Joe) the plumber!

Yeah, his name isn't Joe, it's Sam, as in Samuel. And he's a Republican shill who got conned by the McCain team and now his ass is in a wringer and he's crying about the "bad" media who dare look into his personal affairs and turn his life upside down.

Screw you, Sam! You asked for it!

And McCain, dumb ass that he is, keeps talking about Joe the plumber who isn't Joe the plumber but Sam the non-plumber. In fact, when campaigning (again) in Ohio today, he said this about Sam, the non-plumber:

"The real winner this week was one of Ohio's own -- Joe the Plumber. He's the only person who could get a real answer out of Senator Obama ... Congratulations, Joe, you did what nobody else has been able to do. That's an impressive achievement."

Yuk, yuk, yuk. Hell, McCain's so dumb he doesn't even need Palin to pull down his campaign. He's doing it all by himself!

I think Colin Powell said something like that today when he endorsed Obama for president!

Back to Joe, or Sam. Enough already. Joe is not Joe, he's Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. He is not a licensed plumber or a plumber's apprentice, either. And there is no way in hell he could have ever bought a plumbing business. He makes about $40K a year. Twice divorced, he and his son live with his dad.

Wurzelbacher is also a registered Republican.

He is not a member of the Plumber's union. Gary Hamilton, director of the plumbing division of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry, said "He [Sam] doesn't speak for me as a plumber." And as regards the 350,000 member of the union, Hamilton, said Sam "sure doesn't represent them."

The union, in fact, has endorsed Obama.


Now, Sam the Republican shill, pretended to Obama that he wanted to buy the business where he works. Hah! The business wouldn't come close to $250,000 taxable earnings. To do that, according to the Wall Street Journal, a plumbing company like the one Sam works for would have to have $5 million in sales annually. Not likely!


Was Sam really a shill? You decide. Not only did he set up an unlikely scenario for Senator Obama, he lied about his name and his "plumberliness" and he pretended he could buy a business and net $250,000 annually. Then, he said he didn't like Social Security and would refuse it when he hit retirement age. He also said that Obama's health plan was "socialist."

It's very likely that Sam wouldn't know "socialism" from a "soccer mom." And do you really think Sam is gonna turn down a gift from Uncle Sam every month when he hits retirement time?


So, enough already with Sam or Joe or Schmo the plumber!


And why the hell are we talking about any of this when there are real issues with which Mr. McCain ought to be dealing.

Hey, Mr. McCain, here news for you: even if Sam the non-plumber bought the business, Obama would give him a tax break.

The lies of the Florida Republican (Christian) Party

According to Joe Follick of the Star Banner's Tallahassee Bureau, hundreds of leaders of the Republican Party of Florida held their quarterly meeting yesterday at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort.

What ensued portrays once again the moral degradation that seems to typify most Republican organizations these days. It is truly a party without a soul. It is a party of predatory swine, feeding from the swill at the bottom of the trough.


Jeff Kottkamp, the Lt. Gov., told the poohbahs assembled that the Republicans would win in Florida, just like they always have. He said that the Republican Party stands "for faith, for family, for lower taxes and job creation, not the party that wants to raise taxes, to kill the economy."

He said that with a straight face!

Then Paul Senft, who hails from Polk County and is a national committee member, brought up the Rev. Jeremiah Wright - the guy that said "God damn America." McCain has studiously avoided any discussion of the Rev. Wright, and suggested that his minions do the same. (Evidently, McCain has lost control of the troops. And he wants to be "commander-in-chief"!)

Senft, believing that the Republican Party is the party blessed by God, and a true Christian party, went on to say, "I want you to pray hard between now and Nov. 4. I know that everybody in this room has not been in a church where the pastor said, 'God damn America.'"

How would he know that? Notice, too, that Mr. Senft conveniently "forgot" to mention that this is really old news and that Obama not only resigned from Wright's church but roundly condemned Mr. Wright's comments.

That's bad enough on the part of Senft. He wasn't done, though. Senator Obama's tax and health care plans are "Marxist," he said. "It's Marxist. It's communist. But let's just call it socialism."


Where, oh where, do these morons come from? These are Bush's people. These are the people that have controlled the government for eight years! These are the people who have run this country and the state of Florida into the ground.

YOU, MR. SENFT, AND YOU, MR. KOTTKAMP, REPRESENT THE PARTY THAT KILLED THE ECONOMY!!!!

And Mr. Senft, do you really believe that if you pray to your god she will help you win the election? Does your god commend your gutter-tactics and your lies and your character-assassination?

"Marxist?" "Communist?" "Socialism?"

You really ought to make up your mind, because those words all refer to different things. Marxism is one particular form of communism. Communism is a political system. Socialism is an economic system in which the government controls some of the economic engines that run the society.

Furthermore, the United States has always been "socialistic," at least in part. What do you think public schools are? What you think NASA is? What do you think Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are, if not "socialistic"? What about the Post Office? The military? The judicial system? The Interstate Highway system? The TVA? The Veteran's Administration?

You use those words to attack the character of a sitting U.S. Senator with whom you want to disagree but can't figure out how to go about it because you and your Republican friends don't even care enough to discover what it is you disagree with!

Furthermore, when you call upon your god to turn the election your way, you are connecting your political system to your religious beliefs which could lead, if you had your way, to some kind of a Christian United States, which was one thing of which the so-called "founding fathers" were deathly afraid!

You also debase your faith and your fellow citizens by pretending that your Christian god loves you and your Republican friends more than she does the other people of our land. If that is true, Mr. Senft, your god stinks to high heaven!


The Republican Party is dead! Long may it stay that way!

The real meaning of "Support Our Troops"

[A Guest Post by Bob Poris]

I watched PBS News Hour the other night. On the screen, they rolled the pictures and the names of those who have died serving in our current two wars, as their names and pictures have been made available. PBS does this on a regular basis.

As far as I know, these pictures and names are the only ones we are allowed to see. These pictures and names are our only opportunity to learn who they are and what they look like. Otherwise, they are unknown except to those that families, friends, and comrades at arms.

They arrive in secret, cared for by funeral details, draped in a flag and delivered to families and friends -- all of this hidden from public view. Their fellow warriors do the honors and the families receive the flags and listen to the words honoring them but the general public never hears or sees them, nor does the public see their grieving families and friends. We only hear the obligatory clichés whenever our leaders or the media decide in their infinite wisdom we are sufficiently numbed to handle the information.

We have lost over four thousand anonymous young men and women in our current wars. They are not real to any but those that knew them. The families never forget them, no matter how many years go by. Each time I watch that segment of the News Hour, I think back to WW2 and those men whom I came to know and who are now gone forever. It is usually a brief moment, but the mind can still see and remember. The family and friends never forget.

But today, they remain out of sight to the the public. To our leaders these individual men and women with families and friends become mere statistics on a list of casualties.

None of this has to do with how one views these wars. Once one dons the uniform, they do what they are asked to do.

I do not understand why our Veterans’ Organizations have accepted keeping them hidden. Our dead are a cost of war and we should all be sharing in the sorrow their deaths bring. We should all be aware of who they are and honor them. The magnetic bumper stickers have become clichés and meaningless.

It is time that we all learn their names, see their pictures, and honor them publicly for serving when they were called.

Our media should be honoring them publicly and regularly. They are not statistics. They are our neighbors and part of our neighbor’s family. They will never return and should never be forgotten or hidden from view. They should not arrive secretly. They represent the horrible cost of armed conflict and deserve better treatment regardless of one’s view of the politics of any war that we send our youth to fight.

Bob Poris

The last one to die

President George W. Bush has resolutely refused to establish any kind of timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. John McCain has not only praised Mr. Bush for maintaining this position, but has used it as a test of character against Barack Obama. McCain has mocked Obama's desire for a withdrawal timeline, saying that Obama would rather be president than win a war.

Mr. Bush has changed his mind and evidently failed to consult with Mr. McCain.

According to a story by NPR, "American and Iraqi negotiators have reached a tentative agreement governing the use of American forces in Iraq over the next three years...

"The draft Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA as it's called ... hasn't been released to the public."

SOFA contains two items which appear to be sticking points for both sides - the U.S. and the Iraqis. One says that American personnel, military and civilian, who are "accused of committing serious crimes while off-duty and off-base can be tried in Iraqi courts."

The other sticking point is the timeline. "The draft calls for all American combat troops to be out of Iraq by 2012."


McCain, as Senator Obama has pointed out, was wrong about the Iraqi invasion from the beginning and he's wrong about what to do now.

The war in Iraq cannot be "won" because it is not a war, it is an occupation, and we are involved in fighting native insurgents, not to "win" anything, but to keep the peace until the politicians can get their heads together and figure out an ass-saving way to get out of the mess.

It appears the end may be in sight. And as the Iraqi situation begins to draw to a close, sadness washes across us for once again we are bludgeoned with the realization that it was all so unnecessary.

Saddam Hussein had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11, and in fact was a hated enemy of our real enemy -- the man who did perpetrate 9/11, Osama bin Laden. Saddam was not a nice man, but he was no threat to the United States, in spite of the rhetoric spewed across our land by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and the rest of the neocon desk "warriors."

2012. That's the proposed withdrawal date. That will be the actual date if SOFA is approved by the respective governments involved.

* * * *

The Associated Press reported today that "at least 4,185 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003."

Here are some other numbers:

Britain - 176
Italy - 33
Ukraine - 18
Poland - 21
Bulgaria - 13
Spain - 11
Denmark - 7
El Salvador - 5
Slovakia - 4
Latvia and Georgia - 3 each
Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania - 2 each
Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea - 1 each.


While we credit these men and women for their commitment to their countries and to whatever ideals drove them to fight in Iraq, the terrible, horrifying, eternal fact is that each died in vain.

Not one single death was necessary! Not one! But how many more will die needlessly in the next four years?

Their blood drips from the hands of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Dick Rumsfeld and the neocons who cooked up this godawful disaster. Frankly, if there is a god, he's gonna get 'em, whether they believe in Jesus or not!


And I can guarantee that one of the questions most present in the minds of those still left in Iraq as the months and years slip by is simply this: "Will I be the last to die?"

Obama and McCain ads - a comparison

Today's local paper compared three of the most frequently-aired ads for the week ending October 12 by the Obama and McCain campaigns.

The comparison may give a clue as to why McCain is losing.

Ad I -

Obama's ad talks about Obama's health care plan and warns that McCain's plan will tax health care benefits "for the first time ever."

The ad is truthful and does not deal with McCain's character or lack thereof.

McCain's ad labels Obama as "Dangerous," and claims that Obama is "dishonorable." It attacks Obama's voting record on Iraq. It falsifies a comment Obama made about Afghanistan.

The ad is untruthful and attacks Obama's character.


Ad 2 -

Obama's ad has to do with Health Care Reform. It contrasts Obama's health care plan with "two extremes," or alternative health care plans.

The ad is truthful and does not deal with McCain's character of lack thereof.

McCain's ad is titled "Ambition," and attacks Obama personally for "bad judgment," and references Obama's non-relationship to William Ayers.

The ad is untruthful and attacks Obama's character.


Ad 3 -

Obama's ad is titled "Unravel." It claims that McCain's health care plan will "raise costs of employers," which might result in someone's health being either reduced or dropped entirely."

The ad is truthful and does not attack McCain's character or lack thereof.

McCain's ad is called "Tax Cutter." It asks the question, "Who is Barack Obama," and claims Obama "voted 94 times for higher taxes."

The ad is untruthful and attacks Obama's character.


And all of this should provide a bit of insight into how these two candidates think and how they approach differences between people. It also clarifies which candidate is more honest.

These comparisons also show rather clearly that McCain cannot run on his record nor his plans for the future and thus descends into the gutter by attacking Obama's character, and by lying about Obama's proposals.

Republican hate - Florida style

Thanks to Pensito Review for this.

Pompano Beach, Florida. The McCain campaign office.

Hanging on the wall is a poster, titled "Barack Hussein Obama." Underneath that title, these words: "This is the greatest nation on the face of the earth. Join with me as we change it." -- Barack Obama.

McCain says his people should not denigrate Senator Obama. Then McCain does just that. As does Sarah Palin. Wonder why his people around the country have evidently not gotten the word?

You'll notice the post equates Obama with Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Fidel Castro.

Isn't that funny?


The "official" Republican response was predictable. Chip LaMarca, chairman of the Broward [County] Republican Party said the poster "disgusted" him and that he would hightail it up to Pompano Beach and take it down!

We don't "condone" such things, said LaMarca. Right.

Do you really think that LaMarca had not seen or heard of this poster before it was "brought" to his attention?

No. As we have seen, this expression hate-filled bile, this character-assassination is typical of too many local Republican units all over the United States; the result, as we suggested, of the type of campaigning engaged in by both John and Sarah.

And isn't it interesting that the Obama camp does NOT respond in kind, either nationally or locally.

Republican hate - California style

We've previously ranted about an official Republican hate site in Sacramento, California. And we've pointed out a Republican group that is airing despicable hate-filled anti-Obama ads in other areas of the country. And we've taken notice of all the hate-filled people at McCain and Palin rallies.

But these particular slices of Republican life reveal only the tip of the iceberg -- a small fraction of the kind of hatred that advocates of McCain/Palin harbor in their hearts.

Here's one more incident from the tip.

Back to California. The culprit is Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated, headed by Diane Fedele. The most recent issue of this organization's newsletter featured an illustration of a $10 food stamp with Barack Obama's face on a donkey body. He is shown eating fried chicken, ribs and watermelon - which is, of course, an obvious connect to old, racist smears.

The newsletter warns that if Obama gains the White House, his image will appear on food stamps rather than on one dollar bills like other presidents.

Like most of her cohorts, Fedele claims innocence. Gee whiz, we didn't mean anything bad about it. There was nothing racial about it. "I never connected," said Diane, "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

Nothing like racist, bigoted Republican women who are also inveterate liars!

Michelle Bachmann - Minnesota moron

Michelle Bachmann is a disgrace, and those Minnesotans who voted for her should hide their heads in a collective gesture of guilt and shame and then beg the people in Minnesota and all other Americans for forgive them for electing this wingnut to the U.S. House of Representatives.

In a previous post, we mentioned, among other things, Bachmann's fundamentalist Christian views, which she promotes as often as she gets a mike in her hand and her "palling around" with an extremist pastor, one Mac Hammond, who is under investigation by the IRS for misusing his church's funds.

Bachmann is back in the news again, not because of her belief that global warming is a hoax, or because she thinks god got her elected to the House of Reps, or because she thought John McCain was too liberal, or because she doesn't believe in evolution, or because god is on her side, but because she is incredibly stupid and accepted an invite to appear on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Bachmann derives from the same mold as Sarah Palin, but, as unbelievable as it sounds, she may be even more stupid than Palin.

That stupidity became vividly and embarrassingly evident when Bachmann, on camera, smeared Barack Obama and other members of the United States Congress.

Bachmann accused Barack Obama of being "anti-American." She said, "I'm very concerneed that he may have anti-American views. That's what the American people are concerned about. That's why they want to know what his answers are. That's why Joe the plumber has figured so highly in the last few days."

Huh?

Like Palin, Bachmann is incoherent.

"In his book," claimed Bachmann, "Barack Obama had pointed to Jeremiah Wright as one of his mentors and also Father Pfleger as one of his mentors. Two of the three mentors are Father Pfleger and Jeremiah Wright. Now, these are very strange, anti-American mentors."

Bachmann wasn't done with her smearing, so she continued: "Barack Obama has been associating with anti-Americans, by and large -- the people who are radical leftists. That's the real question about Barack Obama."

She also said that it was fair to say that Obama "palled" around with terrorists.

Then she accused several members of Congress of having an "anti-American nature." When Matthews asked to name some of them, she couldn't or wouldn't. Nevertheless, she thought it would be a great idea if the anti-American members of Congress were investigated for the anti-American views.


Takes one right back to the good old days of Joe McCarthy! Bachmann is a freak of nature, who lives in a fantasy world derived from false images of the 1950's.

The real problem, though, is that's she's just as mean and nasty as Sarah Palin. And, like Palin, her meanness and nastiness is, in the eyes of many flummoxed and bamboozled fundamentalist Christians, cleansed and legitimized because she's been "saved," or "born again" and loves Jesus and prays and goes to church, and wears the flag on her sleeve, and just knows what god wants for America.

I guess when you really love Jesus, anything goes!

In fact, you can even take credit for projects you voted against! Click here.

Barf!

Republican nuts and ACORN

[Photo of John McCain at an ACORN rally in Miami in 2006 where he was the main speaker}

It is hard to comprehend how Repugnicans can, with a straight face, accuse any other group of voter fraud. Repugnicans invented voter fraud. Repugnicans perfected voter fraud. It was Repugnican voter fraud along with the U.S. Supremes that gave Bush the White House in 2000, and it was Repugnican voter fraud that sent him back there in 2004.

The so-called Attorney General scandal is all about voter fraud; about a Bush-crony-controlled Department of Justice subverting justice in order to ensure Republican victories in several different states.

So when Sarah Palin and others complain about ACORN, all one can do is laugh at their hypocrisy.

ACORN is a community organization that registers voters. ACORN does a magnificent job. ACORN is not perfect, however, and sometimes hires people who fill out voter registrations falsely in order to get through the day without working too hard. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen sometimes.

Even the Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, said the whole controversy is a tempest in a teapot, that any voter registration problems in Florida have been minor this go-around. In other words, stop beating up on ACORN.

The thing is, an occasional faux voter registration is not voter fraud. Anyone walking into a polling place on November 4th with a phony registration would not be allowed to vote. Furthermore, the reason we know that there have been some false registrations is because of ACORN itself. ACORN is required by law to turn in ALL voter registrations and the fine is steep for failure to do so. ACORN works very hard to flag registrations it suspects are illegitimate.

And NEVER, not once, has ACORN been involved in a case of voter fraud.

The Republican outcry about ACORN is a politically-motivated stunt to take attention away from the fact that the Republican candidate is a failed candidate with no viable plans to deal with any of the important issues of our time. But what's got the Repugs so pissed has nothing to do with voter fraud, it has to do with the fact that ACORN has registered 1.3 million new voters and it is suspected that most of them will vote Democratic!


Then we have Sarah Palin, the perfidious liar, out beating the bushes for votes, who, like McCain, will say or do just about anything to try to get a vote or two. And, as usual, her big lies have to do with Senator Obama who so outshines her in every way that when one compares the two she comes across as lightweight, way out of her league.

In Maine, Palin tied Obama to ACORN, and then said that he wouldn't "disavow a group committing voter fraud." She told other lies also, painting Obama as unpatriotic and not loving America - the same old shit - but hopefully the people noticed she has absolutely nothing to offer this country of a positive nature. She's an empty shell.

And Obama is NOT tied to ACORN. His only relationship to ACORN had to do with working with the United States Department of Justice in a legal action related to ACORN. Palin purposefully attacked his character by misrepresenting who he is and what he does.


The truth is, and I'm sure that Ms. Palin is too ignorant to know this, Republicans have been working with ACORN for years. In fact, one of ACORN's big supporters was John McCain.

In February 2006, John McCain landed in Miami to attend an ACORN rally at the Miami-Dade Community College. Here's the press release:

"The rally will feature sponsors of the bill, prominent leaders representing various constituencies, and immigrants themselves. Sen. John McCain, chief co-sponsor of the legislation, will be the main speaker."

The event "is being sponsored by the New American Opportunity Campaign (NAOC, a coalition of local and national advocacy organizations), in partnership with ACORN." Others involved were the Archdiocese of Miami, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, People for the American Way, and the Service Employees International.

The reason McCain was the "main speaker" at this event was because ACORN was backing his immigration bill. This bill, which he co-sponsored, he now disavows!!!!

God is on Palin's side and Obama's the bad guy

Prior to her ascension to the Alaska state house, Sarah Palin was blessed by a kooky witch doctor bishop from Kenya who prayed that god would protect her from all forms of witchcraft. Palin believes that it was the prayers of this bishop witch doctor that lit a fire under god to make her the governor of Alaska. Her governorship was no accident, nor was it merely the result of people voting. Palin believes it was god's will that she became governor of Alaska.

Palin also believes in her heart of hearts that god wants her to become president of the United States. [So do all her spiritual mentors, for they think she will be god's messenger during the end times which are soon to be upon us!]

While campaigning in North Carolina, Palin played to the hoi polloi, most of which, it is safe to say, are conservative Christians. After bashing the media for treating her so badly, she said she's been upheld by the prayers of her supporters.

"...it's at events like these and our rallies that we are so energized and inspired and we know that we are not alone. We feel your strength and we feel the power of prayer, so many of you tell us that you are praying for us and praying for our country and that's why we so appreciate your being here."

Palin referenced a slight uptick in the polls for McCain and she told the audience that change was in the air. "We even saw today, thank the Lord [she said, looking toward the sky and raising her fist - Pentecostal style]. We saw some movement."


Obviously, if god wants Palin to be prez, he/she doesn't want Obama to be prez. And that can only mean: Obama is frustrating god's plan! Obama is anti-god! Obama is doing the work of the devil! Maybe Obama is the anti-Christ!


Palin is one sick puppy!

Joe, the plumber, Vickie Iseman and McCain campaign weirdness

Further evidence that the McCain campaign is running amok comes from the Republican plant, Joe the plumber, who rose up out of nowhere at an Obama rally just as Obama was walking down the rope, to ask Obama a pointed question, the answer to which was irrelevant. Obama was set up by this non-licensed plumber who's never made $250K in a year in his life.

McCain can't give Joe up, though, in spite of the fact that none of this has a damn thing to do with anything except to showcase McCain's lies about Obama's tax plan. In fact, McCain called Joe today and they discussed "stuff." Isn't that wonderful? And then McCain suggested people e-mail Joe to show their support for him. The problem is that the Internet-challenged McCain didn't offer a way to e-mail him as he didn't give out Joe's e-mail address.

Weird.


It's get weirder. Vickie Iseman, the lobbyist, who earlier this year was thought to be having an affair with McCain, told the National Journal magazine just the other day, "I did not have a sexual relationship with Senator McCain."

What the hell's going on here? Vickie Iseman's been old-news for many months. So far as I know, nobody at this point is asking whether she had an affair with her pet goat, much less McCain. So why would she make such a statement, "out-of-the-blue," so to speak?

One reporter suggested that something may be in the wind and Iseman is trying to head it off before it starts. Hmmm...


Both McCain and Iseman have denied there was anything inappropriate in their relationship.

She could be telling truth. Here's what we know: Iseman works for a lobbying firm which represented Paxson Communications for which McCain did some favors back in 1999. Those favors involved writing letters to the FCC to suggest the FCC give rapid consideration of Bud Paxon's request to buy a license for a TV station in Pittsburgh.

Paxson, at the time, was personally giving big bucks to McCain for his 2000 presidential bid, and Paxson employees gave McCain over $20K. Paxon also gifted McCain with the use of his company's jet on at least four different occasions in 1999 for campaign travel.

We also know that both McCain and Iseman have lied. McCain said, "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust." He must have forgotten Mr. Keating or he has a really warped view as to what it means to "betray" the public trust.

Iseman lied when she said "I have never even been alone with Senator McCain." According to news reports she was alone with McCain on a Paxson jet flight from Florida to Washington.


Back to square one: Why, in god's name, would Ms. Iseman bring all of this to the fore now? What possible motivation could she have? Unless...unless...as suggested above, someone is about to make public allegations about herself and Senator McCain.

Or maybe she just wants 15 more minutes of fame.

Weird.

Palin avoids reality

Sarah Palin, speaking at a fundraiser in North Carolina, told those assembled that her staff tries to distract her from reading campaign stories in the media. They warn her, "Oh, my gosh, don't watch. You're going to, you know, you're going to get depressed."

Such a deal. When reality impedes on your internal truth, avoid reality!


The reality is Sarah has good reason to be depressed. Unfortunately, for her, avoiding news reports about the sinking McCain campaign will not cure her depression.

One of the most important facts that Sarah may have missed by neglecting campaign reporting is the fact that a number of large newspapers across the country have endorsed Senator Obama for president. The latest of these include the Washington Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and most significantly, The Chicago Tribune, which has never before endorsed a Democratic nominee for president in its 161-year history.

All of these newspapers provide powerful editorials justifying their choice of Obama. Palin ought to read those, at least. She might learn something; about McCain and more importantly, about herself.

She would learn, for example, that the Rove's and the Eskew's were wrong. She would learn that slinging mud tends to get one dirty. She would learn that the American people are a lot smarter than she thinks they are. She would learn that the fact she is an empty-headed tart, chosen for her looks and her religion, has come through loud and clear. She would learn that loving Jesus is not warrant for racist attacks against the Democratic nominee. She would learn that her jingoist rhetoric is false--that pro-Americans are not necessarily Republicans and that they live in all areas of the country, not just small towns. She would learn that, in fact, most of those men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan came, not from small towns, but from large urban areas.

She would learn that in almost every area, she is full or horse-hockey.

John McCain & Nancy Reagan

The first thing ol' John said when he settled in his chair before last night's debate and after he had thanked everyone for their hospitality, blah, blah, blah, was that Nancy Reagan was in the hospital. Again, John put on his serious, sincere face while pretending that he gave a damn.

But why wouldn't ol' John give a damn?

Because Ronald and Nancy Reagan never forgave the Arizona senator for his year-long affair with the blonde bimbo, Cindy Hensley, and for his subsequent dumping of his crippled first wife, Carol, in order to marry the Hensley money. The Reagans, along with Ross Perot, didn't speak to McCain for years. In fact, Nancy Reagan felt so badly for Carol she gave her a job in the White House.

Talk about crocodile tears!