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McCain and the Mob Mentality
Barack Obama has become a metaphor for those who are considered culturally different. Disturbingly, we have been down this road of hatred and divisiveness before. Who can forget the chilling memories of America's civil rights leaders being slain, segregation being fostered, synagogues being burned, black citizens being lynched, and law-abiding Muslims being shot and killed after 9/11?
This is the dark side of America that I'd rather forget, but once again has reared its ugly head through the campaign discourse of John McCain and Sarah Palin. McCain and Palin’s campaign rhetoric directed against Barack Obama has fueled the basest instincts of many misguided Americans.
McCain's effort to link Obama to a terrorist Muslim script is rooted in the most despicable form of hatred and bigotry. The fire has been stoked, and now his supporters are cheering McCain and Palin with chants of… "Obama is a terrorist, kill him!" Having crossed that ugly line, even the candidates themselves have been unable to stave off the damage they have wrought.
This pattern of inflaming the bigotry of the masses through divisiveness and venom is frighteningly reminiscent of the Nazi regime during World War II. Adolf Hitler and the German Nazis, under the elitism of white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, sought and successfully slaughtered those who they perceived as ethnically and racially different. As Germany fell on hard economic times during the global depression, they looked for scapegoats to explain their financial decline. It wasn’t long ago that the Jews, those associated with Jews, Russians, the mentally ill, the physically disabled, artists, and the intelligentsia were sent to concentration camps and murdered. The mob mentality had worked and "cleansed" Germany of those who were perceived as funny looking and different.
John McCain and Sarah Palin have sought out the politics of personal destruction. They have willingly tried to demonize Barack Obama by painting him as an evil outsider who is a threat to the security of our democracy. Amazingly, some Christians have made this a personal vendetta by suggesting that Obama is the anti-Christ. On the other hand, other so-called God-fearing Christians have suggested that he portrays himself as a messianic figure. Barack Obama has become a metaphor for those who are considered culturally different. Disturbingly, we have been down this road of hat... more -
All is forgiven; McCain returning to Letterman
David Letterman and Sen. John McCain will get a chance to make up.
The Republican presidential candidate is scheduled to appear on Letterman's "Late Show" on Thursday.
It will be McCain's 13th visit to the CBS program but his first since he angered Letterman by canceling last month.
Letterman was unhappy when McCain sat for an interview with Katie Couric instead of him on Sept. 24.
At the time he said he first felt like a "patriot" to let McCain off his commitment to deal with the economy but "now I'm feeling like an ugly date."
A McCain spokeswoman said at the time that because of the economic crisis, the campaign "felt this wasn't a night for comedy." David Letterman and Sen. John McCain will get a chance to make up. ... more -
Bush has bigger heart than Obama
Copy and Paste the Link here - http://www.creators.com/opinion/larry-elder.html
Obama calls increasing taxes and giving them to the needy a matter of "neighborliness." Vice presidential running mate Joe Biden calls it a matter of "patriotism."
Yet when it comes to charitable giving, neither Obama (until recently) nor Biden feels sufficiently neighborly or patriotic to donate as much as does the average American household: 2 percent of their adjusted gross income.
In 2007, President George W. Bush and his wife had an adjusted gross income of $923,807. They paid $221,635 in taxes, and donated $165,660 to charity — or 18 percent of their income. Vice President and Mrs. Cheney, in 2007, had a taxable income of $3.04 million. And they paid $602,651 in taxes, and donated $166,547 to charity — or 5.5 percent of their income.
Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, earned between $200,000 and $300,000 a year between 2000 and 2004, and they donated less than 1 percent to charity. When their income soared to $4.2 million in 2007, their charitable contributions went up to 5 percent.
Joe and Jill Biden, by contrast, made $319,853 and gave $995 to charity in 2007, or 0.3 percent of their income. And that was during the year Biden was running for president. Over the past 10 years, the Bidens earned $2,450,042 and gave $3,690 to charity — or 0.1 percent of their income.
Liberal families earn about 6 percent more than conservative families, yet conservative households donate about 30 percent more to charity than do liberal households. And conservatives give more than just to their own churches and other houses of worship. Conservatives, especially religious conservatives, give far more money and donate more of their time to nonreligious charitable causes than do liberals — especially secular liberals.
So let's sum up. The "compassionate" liberals — at least based on charitable giving — show less compassion than "hardhearted" conservatives. The rich pay more in income taxes than people think. Voters, clueless about the facts, want the rich to pay still more. Copy and Paste the Link here - http://www.creators.com/opinion/larry-elder.html ... more -
Racism/Prejudice Litmus Test
How Racism Works:
What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said "I do" to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?
What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to painkillers but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama were a member of the "Keating 5"? What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.
Look inside yourself and your friends and acquaintances... How Racism Works: ... more -
Same old sh#t from the palin' mcSame campaign!
For a man who claims to represent change, from a man who self-titled himself a Maverick, from an old Washington insider we get:
- misrepresentations and outright lies
- intentionally misleading people evoking, be they staged or not, hatred and fearful outbursts toward a respected United States Senator and likely the next United States President;
- a nobody Vice Presidential running mate who epitomizes the worst of soccer moms or the worst of pit bulls with lip stick who also lies and distorts the truth;
- a VP candidate with precious little knowledge or comprehension of national or international issues;
Is this any different that what the Busheney gang has perpetrated against Americans and the nature of the Iraqi threat, let's not for get the now executed Sadam? Isn't this business as usual for the unscrupulous Washington culture desperately grasping for any thing to stay in control?
What is the change he offers us? Correct me if I am wrong, but it's just the same ol' sh#t isn't it?
There is a serious problem with a person who wants to win at any cost. There is an even bigger problem with a person who isn't aware that there is a cost to his / her actions. What if an individual who (foolishly) trusts 'palin' mcSame', acted out of mcSame's provocations and attempted to murder Obama or his family?
Would mcLame deserve a public hanging for his willful and malicious provocations of hatred, anger and fear toward Obama and disregard for the health and well being of a respected United States Senator? And for what? So he could claim the Whitehouse in the last years of his life for mccain's ego's sake?
Seeing the lengths mcLame is willing to go WIN, does anybody, ANYBODY need to know any more about the psychological makeup of John McCain and Sarah Palin?
Judgment? How about sanity? How about integrity? How about pathology? Isn't it clear he's acting as a psychopath to everyone? Of course I'm preaching to the choir here. For a man who claims to represent change, from a man who self-titled himself a Maverick, from an old Washington insider we get: ... more -
As governor, Palin bonded church and state
The camera closes in on Sarah Palin speaking to young missionaries, vowing from the pulpit to do her part to implement God's will from the governor's office.
What she didn't tell worshippers gathered at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown was that her appearance that day came courtesy of Alaskan taxpayers, who picked up the $639.50 tab for her airplane tickets and per diem fees.
An Associated Press review of the Republican vice presidential candidate's record as mayor and governor reveals her use of elected office to promote religious causes, sometimes at taxpayer expense and in ways that blur the line between church and state.
Since she took state office in late 2006, the governor and her family have spent more than $13,000 in taxpayer funds to attend at least 10 religious events and meetings with Christian pastors, including Franklin Graham, the son of evangelical preacher Billy Graham, records show.
Palin was baptized Roman Catholic as a newborn and baptized again in a Pentecostal Assemblies of God church when she was a teenager. She has worshipped at a nondenominational Bible church since 2002, opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest and supports classroom discussions about creationism.
Since she was named as John McCain's running mate, Palin's deep faith and support for traditional moral values have rallied conservative voters who initially appeared reluctant to back his campaign.
On a weekend trip from the capital in June, a minister from the Wasilla Assembly of God blessed Palin and Lt. Gov Sean Parnell before a crowd gathered for the "One Lord Sunday" event at the town's hockey rink. Later in the day, she addressed the budding missionaries at her former church. The camera closes in on Sarah Palin speaking to young missionaries, vowing from the pulpit to do her part to implement God's will... more -
McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire
I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein Obama.
Never mind that this evokes -- and brazenly tries to resurrect -- the unsavory, cruel days of our past that we thought we had left behind. Never mind that such jeers are deeply offensive to millions of peaceful, law-abiding Muslim Americans who must bear the unveiled charge, made by some supporters of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, that Obama's middle name makes him someone to distrust -- and, judging by some of the crowd reactions at these rallies, someone to persecute or even kill. As a secular Muslim, I too was offended. Obama's middle name differs from my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me as a pariah too? Do McCain and Palin think there's something wrong with my name?
But never mind any of that.
The real affront is the lack of firm response from either McCain or Palin. Neither has had the moral courage, when taking the stage, to grasp the microphone, turn to the presenter and, right then and there, denounce the use of Obama's middle name as an insult. Instead, they have simply delivered their stump speeches, lacing into Obama as if nothing out-of-bounds had just happened. The McCain-Palin ticket has given toxic speeches accusing Obama of being a friend of terrorists, then released short, meek repudiations of some of the rough stuff, including McCain's call Friday to "be respectful." Back in February, the Arizona senator apologized for the "disparaging remarks" from a talk-radio host who sneered repeatedly about "Barack Hussein Obama" before a McCain rally. "We will have a respectful debate," McCain insisted afterward. But pretending to douse flames that you are busy fanning does not qualify as straight talk. I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin ra... more -
Sensitive Palin ethics report kept secret, for now
The first-term Alaska governor has been accused of firing a state commissioner to settle a family dispute. But the report is also expected to touch on whether Palin's husband meddled in state affairs and whether her administration inappropriately accessed employee medical records.
The inquiry, approved by a legislative committee's bipartisan vote, began before Republican presidential nominee John McCain named Palin his running mate. The first-term Alaska governor has been accused of firing a state commissioner to settle a family dispute. But the report is also expe... more -
McCain faces conservative backlash over mortgage plan - CNN.com
John McCain is facing a fresh round of anger from members of his own party deeply opposed to the Arizona senator's proposal for the federal government to purchase troubled mortgage loans.
The pointed backlash from several economic conservatives -- many of whom already distrust McCain's commitment to free-market principles -- couldn't come at a worse time for the Republican presidential nominee less than four weeks before Election Day as he stares at a significant deficit in national and state polls.
But at a time when McCain can't afford to worry about a lack of support from his party's base, several conservatives are openly criticizing the plan as a flagrant reward for reckless behavior among lenders.
In a sharply worded editorial on its Web site Thursday, the editors of The National Review -- an influential bastion of conservative thought -- derided the plan as "creating a level of moral hazard that is unacceptable" and called it a "gift to lenders who abandoned any sense of prudence during the boom years."
Prominent conservative blogger Michelle Malkin went one step further, calling the plan "rotten" and declaring on her blog, "We're Screwed '08."
Matt Lewis, a contributing writer for the conservative Web site Townhall.com, told CNN the plan only further riles conservatives upset with McCain's backing of the massive government bailout plan passed last week.
"Fundamentally, the problem is John McCain accepts a lot of liberal notions, unfortunately. There is somewhat of a populist streak," he said. "Most conservatives really did not like the bailout to begin with, and this was really kind of picking at the scab."
It's not just the plan conservatives are unhappy with, but how it was first unveiled as well -- out of the blue at Tuesday's town-hall debate during which Republicans were instead hoping McCain would present a spirited attack on what they view as Obama's overly liberal positions.
"Here we are watching the debate hoping this is a good format for John McCain to excel at, and the first thing he does is spring this on us," Lewis said. "This is not a good way to win friends and influence people."
"He spent the entire debate assailing massive government spending -- while his featured proposal of the right was to heap on more massive government spending to pursue home ownership retention at all costs," Malkin said.
It's a proposal that is fundamentally at odds with the conservative principle of individual responsibility, and is the latest in a string of public spats conservatives have had over the years and in this election with their party's standard bearer.
But for McCain, the move is another gamble for a candidate in need of a game-changer and one that lends credence to the self-proclaimed maverick's repeated claim that he's unafraid of bucking his own party.
(more at the link) John McCain is facing a fresh round of anger from members of his own party deeply opposed to the Arizona senator's proposal for t... more -
George F. Will - What McCain Learned From the Rough Rider - washingtonpost.com
John McCain, like many Americans who should know better, extravagantly praises Theodore Roosevelt. He is a kindred spirit of the impulsive Rough Rider, but the visceral McCain is rescued from some of TR's excesses by not having TR's overflowing cupboard of ideas. John McCain, like many Americans who should know better, extravagantly praises Theodore Roosevelt. He is a kindred spirit of the impul... more
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McCain in a Bear Market
"Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign.
In the closing days of his 10-year quest for the presidency, it's less that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.
Demonstrated by bad associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seems surreal -- or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being savaged by a dead sheep."
Recently Obama noted -- perhaps to torment and provoke conservatives -- that McCain's rhetoric about Wall Street's "greed" and "casino culture" amounted to "talking like Jesse Jackson." What fun: one African American Chicago politician distancing himself from another African American Chicago politician by associating McCain with him.
After their enjoyable 2006 congressional elections, Democrats eagerly anticipated that 2008 would provide a second election in which a chaotic Iraq would be at the center of voters' minds. Today they are glad that has not happened. The success of the surge in Iraq, for which McCain justly claims much credit, is one reason why foreign policy has receded to the margins of the electorate's mind, thereby diminishing the subject with which McCain is most comfortable and which is Obama's largest vulnerability.
McCainseeking traction in inhospitable economic terrain, said that the $700 billion bailout plan is too small. He proposes several hundred billions more for his American Homeownership Resurgence -- you cannot have too many surges -- Plan. Under it, the government would buy mortgages that homeowners cannot -- or perhaps would just rather not -- pay, and replace them with cheaper ones. When he proposed this, conservatives participating in MSNBC's "dial group" wrenched their dials in a wrist-spraining spasm of disapproval.
It might be prudent for McCain to throw caution, and billions, to the wind. Obama is competitive in so many states that President Bush carried in 2004 -- including Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico -- it is not eccentric to think he could win at least 350 of the 538 electoral votes.
If that seems startling, that is only because the 2000 and 2004 elections were won with 271 and 286, respectively. In the 25 elections from 1900 to 1996, the winners averaged 402.6. This, even though the 1900 and 1904 elections -- before Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma attained statehood, and before the size of the House was fixed at 435 members in 1911 -- allocated only 447 and 476 electoral votes, respectively. The 12 elections from 1912 through 1956, before Hawaiian and Alaskan statehood, allocated only 531.
In the 25 20th-century elections, only three candidates won with fewer than 300 -- McKinley with 292 in 1900, Wilson with 277 in 1916 and Carter with 297 in 1976. President Harry Truman won 303 in 1948 even though Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat candidacy won 39 that otherwise would have gone to Truman. After John Kennedy won in 1960 with just 303, the average winning total in the next nine elections, up to the 2000 cliffhanger, was 421.4.
"Someday, Labour will win an election. Our job is to hold on until they are sane." Republicans, winners of seven of the past 10 presidential elections, had better hope they have held on long enough. "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John Mc... more -
Obama: McCain's mortgage plan shows 'erratic' leadership - CNN.com
Under McCain's proposed $300 billion mortgage rescue plan, much of the burden of paying to keep troubled borrowers in their homes would shift to taxpayers.
McCain's original plan called for lenders to write down the value of these mortgages and take those losses. Under McCain's proposed $300 billion mortgage rescue plan, much of the burden of paying to keep troubled borrowers in their homes... more -
Is This Photo Sexist? YOU DECIDE: Fair or Unfair photo of Governor Palin?
This is yet another example of pure sexism. Why is it acceptable to photograph Sarah Palin in this manner? Imagine if this were to happen to Hillary Clinton? This is yet another example of pure sexism. Why is it acceptable to photograph Sarah Palin in this manner? Imagine if this were to hap... more
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"my fellow PRISONERS..." WTF?
"MY FELLOW PRISONERS..."
Now, I don't mean to brag, but didn't I say mccain had untreated issues pertaining to his having been a POW - those of you who read me that is?
Has mccain ever received treatment for the psychological impact it has had on him?
Wonder why mccain has a temper? (There can be many causes for it, but the fact his psychological paralysis resulting from his having been a POW has never been therapeutically treated, means the monster of that experience is still alive and well within john mccain.)
Why is this significant? People who suffer emotionally traumatic experiences generally are not capable of therapeutically counseling themselves. This is the second time I have personally observed mccain's traumatic POW experience play itself out and I am sure there are many many more instances I am unaware. He does after all, have a long standing reputation for having a temper.
The temper tantrums mccain suffers is a result of the lack of treatment. John can't help but perceive the world through this "tainted" lens of experience where he lost ALL control over himself - as a person who is kidnapped is or a young child who is abused. The effects are the same.
The evidence of this is most noticeable when mccain is at his most stressed, be it psychologically or physically. I must say, the rally where he made that unconscious slip of the tongue immediately followed the debate with Obama where he was clearly uncomfortable and appeared sickly and more aged (like grandpa) than a Presidential candidate than ever before. The next day offered him no rest and walla - the energy he invests to suppress the effects of the psychological trauma sapped from campaigning wanning, he slipped up revealing himself.
Palin is going to try to cover for him for her own ambitions sake - rather than encourage mccain to preserve the last of his few years of life on planet earth in comfort and relaxation. Instead, and although I disagree with him completely, I don't wish this on him, but he may not last the election if he doesn't take it easy.
The President of the United States MUST be psychologically and physically healthy. This is not a game of chance, this is our lives, our children lives, our grandchildren lives and the rest of our lives.
We can can have compassion for him, for what he's suffered as a result of serving our country, but making him President for it would be a disservice to us all, especially mccain - who like a good soldier, marches on. Someone tell him to rest - that the war is over!
Additionally, it is well known that an individual who suffers as mccain does, unconsciously seeks to recreate the situation which victimized him in an unconscious effort to overcome it. The President of the United States doing so will make victims of us all - and there is no amount of dead Iraqi's, insurgents, Al Queda or innocent lives lost that will quench or satisfy the "urge" to overcome ancient demons of mccain's past.
It truly is a different world than the one mccain visualizes. "MY FELLOW PRISONERS..." ... more -
Paris Hilton still running for president (Martin Sheen says she'll be a good ...
We've got some bad news for John McCain: Paris Hilton is still running for president. Oh wait, it's *fake* president. And she's got some great ideas about FoPo (that's foreign policy). Not to mention the economy. Seriously. We've got some bad news for John McCain: Paris Hilton is still running for president. Oh wait, it's *fake* president. And sh... more
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Foos fight McCain over song use
First it was Heart and their hit track Barricuda...
Now the US rock band the Foo Fighters have had to warn John McCain to stop using their song "My Hero" in his presidential campaign, saying it "tarnishes" the track. "The saddest thing about this is that My Hero was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential"
Does McCain's hypocrisy know no bounds? First it was Heart and their hit track Barricuda... ... more -
Can McCain still win?
The John McCain camp remains optimstic despite poor polls and a thorough defeat in Tuesday's election, saying that they were "withing striking distance." The John McCain camp remains optimstic despite poor polls and a thorough defeat in Tuesday's election, saying that they were ... more
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O’Reilly is proof of God
O'Reilly makes an ass of himself, watch the video.
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Sean Hannity Gets Owned!!
Robert Gibbs puts Sean Hannity in his place after the debate last night. This is really funny.
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Oh to be AIG. "Rescue" then relax!
WASHINGTON - The White House said on Wednesday it was "despicable" that American International Group Inc. executives spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a posh California retreat just days after getting a federal bailout.
Lawmakers investigating the meltdown of AIG said the retreat didn't include anyone from the financial products division that nearly drove the company under, but they were still enraged that executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary spent $440,000 on the retreat, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings.
"It's pretty despicable," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
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In common-folk terminology: beyond fucked up. WASHINGTON - The White House said on Wednesday it was "despicable" that American International Group Inc. executives spent h... more
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