I don't know about any of you but I'm sick and tired of the mainstream media assuming I'm a complete moron who can't remember the past and will swallow without question whatever fiction they decide to create in order to smear Obama and make McCain look good.
I'm tired of being fed blatant propaganda under the guise of "news". I'm tired of being lied to by politicians who think they can do whatever they want, follow whatever hidden agenda drives them, as long as they wrap themselves in the flag and sound all patriotic.
I get so angry when I see McCain's campaign ads, they get right all over my last nerve. The one touting his military service is laughable considering his recent screwup on the facts of the surge in Iraq (which CBS, translation 'See B.S.' kindly edited out to make McCain look better). Seriously, check it out, actual videos are up on YouTube. Nobody is questioning McCain's military record, but my questions is: McCain served in an unjust war in Viet Nam conducted only for political and financial gain, so how does that justify him forcing a new generation to do the same in Iraq? If McCain had truly learned anything from his experience, he would be working to stop this trumped-up war, not keep it running with no end in sight.
Another McCain campaign ad that really pisses me off is the one that advocates drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This ad claims Obama is directly responsible for the high gas prices we now have. What a blatant and outright lie on the part of the McCain camp, but none of the mainstream media is willing to call him on it. That ad claims we need to "end our dependence on foreign oil", which is only partly correct. What we need is to end our dependence on oil, period. Obama is the only candidate who will work toward developing alternative and renewable energy sources. McBush/McCain will only keep funneling money into the pockets of the oil companies and Bush's cronies while he continues the failed policies that have landed us in the mess we're in today.
It occurs to me that for a technologically advanced 21st century nation, we're far too reliant on 19th century technology. Internal combustion has seen its day, now we need to move on and develop new forms of energy that will carry our world ahead without damaging our own future with pollution. If you haven't watched "Who Killed the Electric Car?" yet I suggest you do so at your earliest opportunity. This documentary proves that we have the technology to make a tremendous dent in the oil hunger of this nation TODAY - we're not looking for a technological breakthrough, we had the necessary technology back in about 2004 but the auto companies and the oil companies conspired to take it away from us, to make sure we had no alternative but to continue burning fossil fuels and spewing hydrocarbons into our environment. For a great double-feature, follow that film with "An Inconvenient Truth". It'll really make your blood boil to consider how the greedy and short-sighted actions of a few extremely rich men who just want to get richer have the potential to doom the entire planet.
The mainstream media's love affair with McCain would be enough to drive lesser candidates to negative campaigning, but I'm proud to say that Obama hasn't stooped to McCain's level. McCain's puppet masters, the Republican National Committee, are operating from their standard playbook which says to simultaneously slander and pander. Slander in the form of the outright lies being aired in campaign ads, and pander to the media by cozying up to their decision-makers (like the barbecue McCain held for about a hundred of his closest friends from the press corps). Then get those friends to join in the slander the way Fox has since practically day one, with nasty insinuations about Obama having terrorist ties (terrorist fist jab, my ass!) and simple cattiness like referring to Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama" and pretending to confuse Obama's name with Osama bin Laden. The mainstream media must really think we're idiots if they believe we're going to fall for that sort of garbage, or they think that has a chance of influencing our votes.
The mainstream media is engaged in a campaign of mass distraction. Remember the song "Dirty Laundry" from back in the late 1980's? It's just like that. "We can do the innuendo, we can dance and sing, and when it's said and done we haven't told you a thing." That's exactly it, mainstream news broadcasts today consist of innuendo, slander, sensationalism and outright lies, with no time left over for factual, informative news.
Wow, looks like I came back with a vengeance! Yes, this is my first substantial post in about eight weeks. My summer session ended yesterday (YAY! I made it through! 12 credits closer to my degree!) and it feels good to sharpen my claws on the scratching post of politics once again.
Now I'm back to rabblerousing and agitating, I've missed it so.
Peace,
AuntieM
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
McCain is at it again, and again, and again...
This is just a brief post, something I came across that was simply too good not to share. I'll write something original soon, right now I'm in the middle of shredding Section 215 of the Patriot Act in a paper for my Political Science class. Feels good to sharpen my claws.
You just can't make this stuff up. And this guy is seriously running for President? Scary...
This is courtesy of the Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-bergmann/the-week-that-should-have_b_111983.html This paper is making it their mission to track McCain's activities and call him on his inconsistencies, inaccuracies, fabrications and just plain lies. So far they haven't had to work too hard - McCain's given them a lot to work with.
The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes
Posted July 10, 2008 04:39 PM (EST)
This is the week that should have effectively ended John McCain's efforts to become the next president of the United States. But you wouldn't know it if you watched any of the mainstream media outlets or followed political reporting in the major newspapers.
During this past week: McCain called the most important entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made -- TWICE. All this and it is not even Friday! Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him.
But let's unpack McCain's week in a little more detail.
1. McCain unambiguously called Social Security "an absolute disgrace." This is not a quote taken out of context. John McCain called one of the most successful and popular government programs, which uses the tax revenues of current workers to support retirement benefits for the elderly "an absolute disgrace." This is shocking - and if uttered from Obama's mouth would dominate the news coverage and the Sunday shows, as pundits would speculate about the massive damage the statement would cause him among retirees in Florida.
2. McCain's top economic policy adviser calls Americans a bunch of "whiners" for being worried about the slumping economy. Words cannot fully explain how devastating this statement should be from Phil Gramm. You would think it would be enough to sink McCain's campaign. Of course McCain only thinks that the economic problems are psychological.
3. Iraqi leaders call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, McCain gets caught in a bizarre denial and flip flop. The Iraqis now want us to begin planning our withdrawal - McCain however wants to stay foooorrreeevvveerrrr. So what does McCain say - First, he refuses to accept Maliki's statement as being true. Then he concedes that it was an accurate statement, but was probably just a political ploy to curry favor with his own people and WOULD NOT influence his determination to keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely. Yet, McCain in 2004 at the Council on Foreign Relations said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to go. No matter what. But that was apparently a younger and less experienced John McCain.
But let's just look at his comment that Maliki's statement is "just politics." If that is true, then it must also be true that the American military presence in Iraq is so unpopular with Iraqis that the government is forced to push for a timetable in order to survive at the ballot box. That's a reason to stay for 100 years.
4. McCain's economic plan to cut the deficit has no details and is simply not believable. There are so many things here. McCain pledges he would eliminate the deficit by the end of his first term (the campaign latter flip flop flipped about whether it was four years or eight years), but does not provide any details about how he would do it. Economists on both sides of the political aisle said that this was simply not believable, especially given McCain's other proposals to a) cut individual and corporate taxes even further, b) extend the Bush tax cuts and c) massively increase defense spending on manpower (200,000 more troops) and d) maintain a long-term sizable military presence in Iraq.
5. McCain's deficit plan includes bringing the troops home represents a major Iraq flip-flop. Speaking of the long-term military presence - a story that has gotten absolutely no attention is that McCain now believes the war will be over soon. The economic forecasts made by his crack team of economists predict that there will be significant savings during McCain's first term because we will have achieved "victory" in Iraq and Afghanistan. The savings from victory (ie the savings from not having our troops there) will then be used to pay down the deficit. The only way this could have any impact on the deficit in McCain's first time is if troop withdrawals start very soon. So McCain believes victory is in our grasps and we can begin withdraw troops from Iraq pretty much right away -- doesn't sound that different from Obama's plan does it. Someone should at least ask McCain HOW HE DEFINES VICTORY - and why he thinks we will achieve it in the next couple of years.
6. McCain campaign misled about economists support. In the major press release the McCain campaign issued to tout its Jobs for America economic plan that would balance the budget in 4 years, it included the signatures of more than 300 economists who the campaign claimed to support the plan. Only problem is that the economists were actually asked to sign up to SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Um, hello?
7. McCain makes a joke about killing Iranians. Haha... that's just McCain being McCain. I am sure that is exactly how it is being reported in Tehran. This guy is running for President not to become a talk radio pundit. Yet accoding to the AP this was just a humanizing moment between candidate and spouse - I am not sure when joking about the deaths of civilians became humanizing. (AuntieM: The comment in question did make the national media. McCain said that shipping American cigarettes to Iran was our way of killing them. The media played it like, oops, he put his foot in his mouth, how amusing.)
8. McCain denies, flatly, that he ever said that he is not an expert in economics. Are you kidding?
9). McCain distorts his record on veterans benefits in response to a question from Vietnam Veteran, who then proceeds to call McCain out on it.
10.) McCain demonstrates he knows nothing about Afghanistan and Pakistan. McCain said "I think if there is some good news, I think that there is a glimmer of improving relationship between Karzai and the Pakistanis." Pat Barry notes how crazy this comment is..."Just what "glimmer" is McCain talking about?? Maybe he's referring to President Karzai's remarks last month, which threatened military action in Pakistan if cross-border attacks persisted? Or maybe McCain is talking about Afghanistan's allegations that Pakistan's ISI was involved in a recent assassination attempt on Karzai? Maybe in McCain's world you could call that a silver-lining, but in reality-land I'd call it something else."
Peace,
AuntieM
You just can't make this stuff up. And this guy is seriously running for President? Scary...
This is courtesy of the Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-bergmann/the-week-that-should-have_b_111983.html This paper is making it their mission to track McCain's activities and call him on his inconsistencies, inaccuracies, fabrications and just plain lies. So far they haven't had to work too hard - McCain's given them a lot to work with.
The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes
Posted July 10, 2008 04:39 PM (EST)
This is the week that should have effectively ended John McCain's efforts to become the next president of the United States. But you wouldn't know it if you watched any of the mainstream media outlets or followed political reporting in the major newspapers.
During this past week: McCain called the most important entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made -- TWICE. All this and it is not even Friday! Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him.
But let's unpack McCain's week in a little more detail.
1. McCain unambiguously called Social Security "an absolute disgrace." This is not a quote taken out of context. John McCain called one of the most successful and popular government programs, which uses the tax revenues of current workers to support retirement benefits for the elderly "an absolute disgrace." This is shocking - and if uttered from Obama's mouth would dominate the news coverage and the Sunday shows, as pundits would speculate about the massive damage the statement would cause him among retirees in Florida.
2. McCain's top economic policy adviser calls Americans a bunch of "whiners" for being worried about the slumping economy. Words cannot fully explain how devastating this statement should be from Phil Gramm. You would think it would be enough to sink McCain's campaign. Of course McCain only thinks that the economic problems are psychological.
3. Iraqi leaders call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, McCain gets caught in a bizarre denial and flip flop. The Iraqis now want us to begin planning our withdrawal - McCain however wants to stay foooorrreeevvveerrrr. So what does McCain say - First, he refuses to accept Maliki's statement as being true. Then he concedes that it was an accurate statement, but was probably just a political ploy to curry favor with his own people and WOULD NOT influence his determination to keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely. Yet, McCain in 2004 at the Council on Foreign Relations said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to go. No matter what. But that was apparently a younger and less experienced John McCain.
But let's just look at his comment that Maliki's statement is "just politics." If that is true, then it must also be true that the American military presence in Iraq is so unpopular with Iraqis that the government is forced to push for a timetable in order to survive at the ballot box. That's a reason to stay for 100 years.
4. McCain's economic plan to cut the deficit has no details and is simply not believable. There are so many things here. McCain pledges he would eliminate the deficit by the end of his first term (the campaign latter flip flop flipped about whether it was four years or eight years), but does not provide any details about how he would do it. Economists on both sides of the political aisle said that this was simply not believable, especially given McCain's other proposals to a) cut individual and corporate taxes even further, b) extend the Bush tax cuts and c) massively increase defense spending on manpower (200,000 more troops) and d) maintain a long-term sizable military presence in Iraq.
5. McCain's deficit plan includes bringing the troops home represents a major Iraq flip-flop. Speaking of the long-term military presence - a story that has gotten absolutely no attention is that McCain now believes the war will be over soon. The economic forecasts made by his crack team of economists predict that there will be significant savings during McCain's first term because we will have achieved "victory" in Iraq and Afghanistan. The savings from victory (ie the savings from not having our troops there) will then be used to pay down the deficit. The only way this could have any impact on the deficit in McCain's first time is if troop withdrawals start very soon. So McCain believes victory is in our grasps and we can begin withdraw troops from Iraq pretty much right away -- doesn't sound that different from Obama's plan does it. Someone should at least ask McCain HOW HE DEFINES VICTORY - and why he thinks we will achieve it in the next couple of years.
6. McCain campaign misled about economists support. In the major press release the McCain campaign issued to tout its Jobs for America economic plan that would balance the budget in 4 years, it included the signatures of more than 300 economists who the campaign claimed to support the plan. Only problem is that the economists were actually asked to sign up to SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Um, hello?
7. McCain makes a joke about killing Iranians. Haha... that's just McCain being McCain. I am sure that is exactly how it is being reported in Tehran. This guy is running for President not to become a talk radio pundit. Yet accoding to the AP this was just a humanizing moment between candidate and spouse - I am not sure when joking about the deaths of civilians became humanizing. (AuntieM: The comment in question did make the national media. McCain said that shipping American cigarettes to Iran was our way of killing them. The media played it like, oops, he put his foot in his mouth, how amusing.)
8. McCain denies, flatly, that he ever said that he is not an expert in economics. Are you kidding?
9). McCain distorts his record on veterans benefits in response to a question from Vietnam Veteran, who then proceeds to call McCain out on it.
10.) McCain demonstrates he knows nothing about Afghanistan and Pakistan. McCain said "I think if there is some good news, I think that there is a glimmer of improving relationship between Karzai and the Pakistanis." Pat Barry notes how crazy this comment is..."Just what "glimmer" is McCain talking about?? Maybe he's referring to President Karzai's remarks last month, which threatened military action in Pakistan if cross-border attacks persisted? Or maybe McCain is talking about Afghanistan's allegations that Pakistan's ISI was involved in a recent assassination attempt on Karzai? Maybe in McCain's world you could call that a silver-lining, but in reality-land I'd call it something else."
Peace,
AuntieM
Friday, July 4, 2008
McCain and his notion of "truth"
The following is exerpted from the electronic newsletter "McCain Watch" published by the Huntington Post and distributed by MoveOn.org. I read this and realized it needed to be widely disseminated, since it is unlikely that mainstream news sources, which so far appear to be pretty fond of McCain (especially Fox, but that's another topic...) will share this sort of information.
McCain Uses Swift Boat Vet Bud Day To Rebut Wesley Clark
June 30, 2008 06:05:31 AM EST
The Huffington Post News Team
Sen. John McCain's campaign on Monday launched the McCain "Truth Squad" - a group of political and Vietnam contemporaries who would counter attacks on the Senator's military record.
In hopes of nipping any criticism in the bud, the campaign brought on board a man quite familiar with how these types of attacks gain legs: Bud Day, a fellow POW who was part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that worked so hard to defame Sen. John Kerry's own Vietnam record.
On the conference call, Day - in addition to the other participants - decried comments made by Gen. Wesley Clark over the weekend, in which he questioned whether McCain's war experience really qualified him to be commander-in-chief. Defending McCain's service, Day was quick to personalize his remarks, attacking Clark's military record in the process.
"Things were very difficult for [McCain]," he said. "He was horribly wounded in his extremities, and it was questionable if he would survive his experience. He set a high standard for himself because the Vietnamese tried to release him and he showed courage by refusing that to come about. We had an opportunity to watch a president in office, a Democrat who was extremely ineffective during those years. [McCain] learned an awful lot from that... General Clark spent a month in Vietnam, got badly wounded and was evacuated, that was his experience. I say let's hold the two of them up and compare them.
"That Day would politicize Vietnam in his defense of McCain is not surprising. During the 2004 campaign, he said of Kerry: "My view is he basically will go down in history sometime as the Benedict Arnold of 1971." And after appearing in a national advertisement for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, Day formed the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, an extension of the Swift Boat effort.
Asked to compare the attacks he helped launched against Kerry in 2004 to those being waged at McCain today, Day said the defining issue was truthfulness. "The Swift Boat attacks were simply a revelation of the truth, the similarity does not exist here. What the Swift Boat campaign was about was to lay out John Kerry's record. John Kerry has never produced any evidence to deny that. We are producing the evidence of these attacks right now to show that those remarks were completely inaccurate."
The irony of it all is that McCain publicly deplored the Swift Boat ads back in 2004, saying they were reminiscent of the smear campaigns launched against him during his initial White House run in 2000. "It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," said the Senator.
Not willing to let the irony go unnoticed, Kerry lashed out at McCain, on Monday, for using the same smear merchant he once decried."Colonel Day's comments today only further highlight the McCain campaign's disregard for a new kind of politics," said Kerry. "John McCain condemned these kinds of attacks in 2004 when he called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 'dishonest and dishonorable.' Senator McCain should condemn these remarks and cut ties with the Colonel and anyone else connected to SBVT. Day's comments only serve to disparage all those who served on swift boats in Vietnam."
Even prior to then, however, Obama had taken steps to distance himself from Clark's remarks. In a statement, spokesman Bill Burton, wrote: "As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark."
So apparently this is the sort of candidate we're being asked to accept and elect - one who will use any dirty trick he needs to in order to get what he wants. But then, we've had that kind of leadership for eight years now, maybe they don't think we'll notice the change.
I had an interesting conversation with a couple of colleagues over lunch yesterday. One of my colleagues is from Venezuela and is still getting used to the way things work in the US. She expressed the opinion that it was hard to believe that Bush lied so purposely about WMD's in order to start a war in Iraq that only benefits Halliburton, Blackwater and his oil buddies. We told her, stick around a few years and you'll be amazed at what you see - politicians of Bush's ilk will do anything to advance their own agendas and line their own pockets. (Okay, I used a rather snarky scenario involving Bush's grandmother, but you get the picture.)
After this conversation I started thinking, does the game of politics work differently in other countries? Are politics elsewhere somehow cleaner and more honest, so much so that they encourage a sense of trust in elected leaders? Or is it just the dark period that we've been immersed in under the reign of Bush II that's coloring all of my perceptions? It is my fervent hope that electing Barack Obama will bring light, hope and trust back to our own political process. It's really bad when you have to explain to an immigrant just how corrupt and twisted the leadership of our government really is. I'll be very happy once I can speak of how President Obama set right all of these wrongs and put us on a positive and hopeful course toward the future.
Peace,
AuntieM
McCain Uses Swift Boat Vet Bud Day To Rebut Wesley Clark
June 30, 2008 06:05:31 AM EST
The Huffington Post News Team
Sen. John McCain's campaign on Monday launched the McCain "Truth Squad" - a group of political and Vietnam contemporaries who would counter attacks on the Senator's military record.
In hopes of nipping any criticism in the bud, the campaign brought on board a man quite familiar with how these types of attacks gain legs: Bud Day, a fellow POW who was part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that worked so hard to defame Sen. John Kerry's own Vietnam record.
On the conference call, Day - in addition to the other participants - decried comments made by Gen. Wesley Clark over the weekend, in which he questioned whether McCain's war experience really qualified him to be commander-in-chief. Defending McCain's service, Day was quick to personalize his remarks, attacking Clark's military record in the process.
"Things were very difficult for [McCain]," he said. "He was horribly wounded in his extremities, and it was questionable if he would survive his experience. He set a high standard for himself because the Vietnamese tried to release him and he showed courage by refusing that to come about. We had an opportunity to watch a president in office, a Democrat who was extremely ineffective during those years. [McCain] learned an awful lot from that... General Clark spent a month in Vietnam, got badly wounded and was evacuated, that was his experience. I say let's hold the two of them up and compare them.
"That Day would politicize Vietnam in his defense of McCain is not surprising. During the 2004 campaign, he said of Kerry: "My view is he basically will go down in history sometime as the Benedict Arnold of 1971." And after appearing in a national advertisement for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, Day formed the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, an extension of the Swift Boat effort.
Asked to compare the attacks he helped launched against Kerry in 2004 to those being waged at McCain today, Day said the defining issue was truthfulness. "The Swift Boat attacks were simply a revelation of the truth, the similarity does not exist here. What the Swift Boat campaign was about was to lay out John Kerry's record. John Kerry has never produced any evidence to deny that. We are producing the evidence of these attacks right now to show that those remarks were completely inaccurate."
The irony of it all is that McCain publicly deplored the Swift Boat ads back in 2004, saying they were reminiscent of the smear campaigns launched against him during his initial White House run in 2000. "It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," said the Senator.
Not willing to let the irony go unnoticed, Kerry lashed out at McCain, on Monday, for using the same smear merchant he once decried."Colonel Day's comments today only further highlight the McCain campaign's disregard for a new kind of politics," said Kerry. "John McCain condemned these kinds of attacks in 2004 when he called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 'dishonest and dishonorable.' Senator McCain should condemn these remarks and cut ties with the Colonel and anyone else connected to SBVT. Day's comments only serve to disparage all those who served on swift boats in Vietnam."
Even prior to then, however, Obama had taken steps to distance himself from Clark's remarks. In a statement, spokesman Bill Burton, wrote: "As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark."
So apparently this is the sort of candidate we're being asked to accept and elect - one who will use any dirty trick he needs to in order to get what he wants. But then, we've had that kind of leadership for eight years now, maybe they don't think we'll notice the change.
I had an interesting conversation with a couple of colleagues over lunch yesterday. One of my colleagues is from Venezuela and is still getting used to the way things work in the US. She expressed the opinion that it was hard to believe that Bush lied so purposely about WMD's in order to start a war in Iraq that only benefits Halliburton, Blackwater and his oil buddies. We told her, stick around a few years and you'll be amazed at what you see - politicians of Bush's ilk will do anything to advance their own agendas and line their own pockets. (Okay, I used a rather snarky scenario involving Bush's grandmother, but you get the picture.)
After this conversation I started thinking, does the game of politics work differently in other countries? Are politics elsewhere somehow cleaner and more honest, so much so that they encourage a sense of trust in elected leaders? Or is it just the dark period that we've been immersed in under the reign of Bush II that's coloring all of my perceptions? It is my fervent hope that electing Barack Obama will bring light, hope and trust back to our own political process. It's really bad when you have to explain to an immigrant just how corrupt and twisted the leadership of our government really is. I'll be very happy once I can speak of how President Obama set right all of these wrongs and put us on a positive and hopeful course toward the future.
Peace,
AuntieM
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