WE Blog

Hmmmmm… It appears no one cares. Where are all the Republicans who should be here supporting their candidate? Oh, that’s right, they’re on another thread, dissing the other party’s candidates. Typical.

And this, my friends, is how we got GWB for 8 years.

McSame has pledged to continue the same failed policies of Bush. How is that change?

Well I’m not a republican but I will be voting for McCain. He is the only logical candidate. Obama refuses to take a stand on anything unless it is far left. He has never implemented any initiative that has changed anything for the better. No experience, no track record, no experience, questionable associates for years, mob ties, hatred preached in his home church for over 20 years and while I’m at it why is the last quote on the McCain thread one from Obama. Check the Obama link. Do you see a McCain link? The press has already started their Obama push.

That was also in the context of supporting a real two-state solution – which I also support. I don’t think Obama has ever expressed support for continued annexation of the West Bank as Bush has.

“Hmmmmm… It appears no one cares. Where are all the Republicans who should be here supporting their candidate?”

Go McCain Go! YEAH!

*CHEER*

Maggot I say that Obama is an opportunistic politician who says whatever his current audience wants to hear. To see the real Obama you had better be looking at his past associations. They tell the real story and it isn’t pretty. He is so far left he makes John Kerry look conservative.

McCain would have never been my first choice and is too far left for me on GW and immigration. He does however lean right on judges and taxes. Therefore he will be getting my vote.

Depends if the meaning of ‘change’ means Depends!

Yeah McCain! Go McCain!

“gster as least he has a record to run/walk on.”

Stalin has a record too, so if Stalin were running against Obama then you’d vote for him. Great standards. I see McCain will get the lunatic vote this year.

McCain’s record on Iraq (which he confuses with Iran but he is incompetent on military and foreign issues but it’s not like Republicans care).

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we will prevail and there’s no doubt in my mind, once these people are gone, that we will be welcomed as liberators.”

“The obstructionist diplomats, and many of the antiwar demonstrators, closed their eyes to the threat of Saddam Hussein and the terror of his regime. They ought now look at Iraqis who are greeting the Marines as liberators.”

Ouch, I guess those thousands of dead Americans were just greeted with too much enthusiasm.

Back in 2004 McCain said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course. … I am confident that an imperfect democracy is what we’ll get out of Iraq will be vastly superior to what the people of Iraq had prior to this.”

Back in 2002 McCain said, “I believe that the success [in Iraq] will be fairly easy.”

But I guess if you can stroll in any market with hundreds of marines, helicopters and armored vehicles then we can safely conclude that everything is going well.

Maggotpunk,

We were greeted as liberators. There were people in the streets cheering that were happy Saddam was gone. Children waved and smiled and greeted our soldiers happily.

Unfortunately, a well orchestrated campaign of violence and terrorism against US forces and targeting secretarian violence has led us to where we are today.

And yes, Iran was and continues to be behind some of it.

Change a la McCain is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Change a la McCain is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Naw, on the Hindenburg.

Maggotpunk,

Have you ever been to Iraq? Spoken with people who have lived there under Saddam in person?

I am pretty sure, that on this subject, I am almost infinitely more knowledgable than you are.

Nathan, you have proven yourself incompetent on a myriad of issues. Just because I took a vacation to Mexico doesn’t make me an expert on Aztec history.

You are probably better than me at making ear wax sculptures, and that’s about it.

Good point outlander, I certainly won’t vote for Bill Clinton this election. You won another one there with your brilliance and relevance.

“You won another one there with your brilliance and relevance.”

thanks Maggie. Honestly though, winning against you isn’t that hard.

Don’t Cuss the Fiddle

I scandalized my brother
While admittin’ that he sang some pretty songs (and he did)
I’d heard that he’d been scandalizing me
And, Lord, I knew that that was wrong (and I was)
Now I’m lookin’ at it over
Something cool and feelin’ fool enough to see
What I had called my brother on
Now he had every right to call on me

Chorus:
Don’t ever cuss that fiddle, boy
Unless you want that fiddle out of tune
That picker there in trouble, boy
Ain’t nothin’ but another side of you
If we ever get to heaven, boys
It ain’t because we ain’t done nothin’ wrong
We’re in this gig together
So let’s settle down and steal each other’s songs

I found a wounded brother
Drinkin’ bitterly away the afternoon
And soon enough he turned on me
Like he’d done every face in that saloon
Well, we cussed him to the ground
And said he couldn’t even steal a decent song
But soon as it was spoken
We was sad enough to wish that we were wrong

Chorus:
Don’t ever cuss that fiddle, boy
Unless you want that fiddle out of tune
That picker there in trouble, boy
Ain’t nothin’ but another side of you
If we ever get to heaven, boys
It ain’t because we ain’t done nothin’ wrong
We’re in this gig together
So let’s settle down and steal each other’s songs

If McCain has all this experience, what has he utilized it to accomplish?

“If McCain has all this experience, what has he utilized it to accomplish?”

He got those tanker jobs sent to France. Doesn’t that account for something? I can’t say he did it alone though, Brownback, Roberts and Tiahrt voted with him.

Go McCain! Yeah!

McCain could give you change you can count!

McCain knows that Obama won’t accept until he’s the only one in the running and Hillary has bowed out. So McCain will try and make hay while he can.

Yeah McCain! Go McCain!

Very good, Nathaniel. Now tell us why you support him and why you’re cheering.

“McCain could give you change you can count!”

Good one. Remember, the Shrub could also, he’d just have to take off his shoes for those BIG numbers above 10.

McCain could give you change you can count!

Just what I was thinking, Phantom, and all in nickels and dimes, with maybe a quarter, now and then.

I actually used to like McCain. He really was a maverick in the Republican party. But when he began flip-flopping and following along in lock-step, I lost respect for him. Now he’s little more than a joke. At least as far as I’m concerned. Too bad, really.

Exactly predestined: McCain had my vote until he started pandering to the Rush Limbaugh types. Your right. It is a pity.

The Dept. of Energy predicts that oil would fall by between .41 pb to 1.44 pb if we drilled in the ANWAR, over the next 20 yrs.
Now you see why bush and the repubs. have pushed so hard for it!

okobserver,

“Maggot I say that Obama is an opportunistic politician who says whatever his current audience wants to hear.”

HAW HAW HAW HAW! Dude, seriously, you need to try harder. Could you have said ANYTHING more readily applicable to John “which way is the Right-Wing wind blowing this second?” McCain?

Here’s a selected list of his policy reversals and expedient “stands” on various issues:

“* McCain pledged in February 2008 that he would not, under any circumstances, raise taxes. Specifically, McCain was asked if he is a “‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 pledge. “No new taxes,” McCain responded. Two weeks later, McCain said, “I’m not making a ‘read my lips’ statement, in that I will not raise taxes.”

* McCain claims to have considered and not considered joining John Kerry’s Democratic ticket in 2004.

* In 1998, he championed raising cigarette taxes to fund programs to cut underage smoking, insisting that it would prevent illnesses and provide resources for public health programs. Now, McCain opposes a $0.61-per-pack tax increase, won’t commit to supporting a regulation bill he’s co-sponsoring, and has hired Philip Morris’ former lobbyist as his senior campaign adviser.

* McCain’s first mortgage plan was premised on the notion that homeowners facing foreclosure shouldn’t be “rewarded” for acting “irresponsibly.” His second mortgage plan took largely the opposite position.

* McCain vowed, if elected, to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term. Soon after, he decided he would no longer even try to reach that goal.

* McCain’s campaign unveiled a Social Security policy that the senator would implement if elected, which did not include a Bush-like privatization scheme. In March 2008, McCain denounced his own campaign’s policy.

* In February 2008, McCain reversed course on prohibiting waterboarding.

* In November 2007, McCain reversed his previous position on a long-term presence for U.S. troops in Iraq, arguing that the “nature of the society in Iraq” and the “religious aspects” of the country make it inevitable that the United States “eventually withdraws.” Two months later, McCain reversed back, saying he’s prepared to leave U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years.

* McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now he opposes it.

* McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. Now he’s against it.

* On immigration policy in general, McCain announced in February 2008 that he would vote against his own legislation.

* In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving “feedback” on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that he opposes his own measure.

* McCain said before the war in Iraq, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later, McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”

* McCain said he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as “a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”

* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.

* McCain went from saying gay marriage should be allowed, to saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.

* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but then decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.”

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15227.html

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You need to try harder, okobserver, so that refuting you takes more than one Google click. At the moment, you’re small and getting smaller.

Barack Obama is going to beat Straight Talk like a drum–a withered, dishonest, shifty, scaly drum.

CF2K – you left out a couple for McSame: he lauded as great spiritual leaders and advisors both Hagee and Parsley and said he was proud to have their support. Until he changed his mind …

In 25 years in the Senate Johnny has done nothing — NOTHING – to resolve the immigrastion problem — and he’s from a border state ……

He allowed himself to be blackmailed in 2000 by rove and bush —- means he can be bought again and again —-

He hasnt met a lobbyist that he didn’t like. He is delusional — not unexpected in a man of his age …..

his time has come and gone —– thanks for the memories John

Here’s a really chilling example of McCain taking two positions at once: Should the Executive be allowed to spy on the American people without a warrant?

McCain’s new tack towards the Bush administration’s theory of executive power comes some 10 days after a McCain surrogate stated, incorrectly it seems, that the senator wanted hearings into telecom companies’ cooperation with President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, before he’d support giving those companies retroactive legal immunity.

As first reported by Threat Level, Chuck Fish, a full-time lawyer for the McCain campaign, also said McCain wanted stricter rules on how the nation’s telecoms work with U.S. spy agencies, and expected those companies to apologize for any lawbreaking before winning amnesty.

But Monday, McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin, speaking for the campaign, disavowed those statements, and for the first time cast McCain’s views on warrantless wiretapping as identical to Bush’s.

Which John McCain do you believe?

If were talking private work experience what has McCain done? His entire life has been in the employ of the US government.

Boy. The Wingnut silence with regard to McCain kind of says it all, does it not? Are they really going to let us have the Straight Talk pinata all to ourselves?

Poor Nathan: since (Right Said) Fred Thompson dropped out, it’s been a fruitless search for a new Wingnut man-crush.

But if Obama picks Hillary for VP will you vote for the ticket then, Blue Jay?

Hillary and Obama aren’t the only minority candidates in this race; McCane seems to be running as a dead guy, on a platform of zombie rights.

MP,
Not quite; Reagan broke virgin ground for all the future imaginary presidents and demonstrated their value in the political arena. I’m waiting with bated breath for Daffy Duck to announce his candidacy. He couldn’t possibly be worse than what we have now!
McCane is a tribute to the power of taxidermy and animatronics.

P.S. http://www.oliverwillis.com/index.php/2008/02/20/zombie-reagan-close-to-mccain-endorsement/

Rage,
Beautiful link!

What Makes McCain Tick?
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080603_what_makes_mccain_tick/

By Robert Scheer

Will the real John McCain stand up? Actually, I don’t expect him to, now that he is the Republican presidential candidate, pandering to the irrationalities that drive his party. Nor is it likely that the fawning mass media will pressure him to the point of clarity. But I remain genuinely confused as to what makes him tick.

McCain is the most confounding of candidates, veering as he does from the stance of provincial reaction to sophisticated enlightenment within an almost instantaneous time frame. He did it last week when he blasted Barack Obama for being soft in appraising America’s adversaries, while in the same moment calling for sensible rapprochement with Vladimir Putin’s Russia on nuclear arms control. While such unpredictability can be appealing in a senator, it is unnerving in a possible president.

Unpredictability is welcome as evidence of fresh thinking, but not when it suggests inconsistencies that may be born more of crass opportunism than of insight. There are major contradictions in the McCain America has witnessed over the years that are truly troubling.

One is squaring the Mr.-Clean-of-the-Senate McCain, who teamed up with the remarkably principled Democrat Russ Feingold to sponsor historic campaign finance legislation, with the McCain who has brought big money lobbyists into the center of his Senate office and campaign operation. Those connections with the Beltway bandits remind one that McCain was previously one of the “Keating Five”—senators whose support of deregulation, a code word for undermining legitimate government oversight of business shenanigans, facilitated the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s and ’90s. Not a happy association at a time when the consequences of bank deregulation surface amid the subprime mortgage lending scandal that is wrecking the U.S. economy.

Then there is the heroic-warrior McCain, who rose above his own wounds to team up with fellow Vietnam War hero, Democrat John Kerry, to pave the way for normalization of relations with Vietnam. McCain had the courage to reach out to Hanoi, despite a very strong domestic opposition that accused him of betraying the MIAs left behind in Vietnam by negotiating with the former enemy. The subsequent progress on that issue, where U.S. teams could more freely investigate plane crash sites in Vietnam, vindicated McCain, who has favored other diplomatic overtures, including a controversial suggestion of meeting with Hamas. Yet he now attacks Obama for saying he would meet with the leaders of Iran.

On a related point, it is difficult to square the ex-POW’s unequivocal condemnation of torture with his accommodation to President Bush’s torture policy. Holding Senate hearings on torture, McCain brought the weight of his own experiences against the administration’s flimsy rationalizations. He even held to that principled position during the early primaries, but then ended up voting for legislation that has helped make torture legal, at least in the eyes of the president.

The third major gap between the principled Sen. McCain and the presidential candidate McCain concerns his stance toward the military-industrial complex that has seized upon the fearmongering in post 9/11 America to justify the biggest peacetime military budget in any nation’s history. As a senator, McCain was a rare and forceful voice against enormous waste in the military budget for programs designed to fight an enemy that no longer existed and which could not be justified in the name of fighting terrorism. Thanks in part to McCain’s vigilance, a defense contracting scandal he exposed resulted in a Pentagon procurement officer and the CFO of Boeing being sentenced to federal prison when it was revealed that the Air Force was leasing unneeded air tankers at an initial cost of $30 billion.

It was not the first time that McCain had risen on the Senate floor to accuse the Pentagon of being in cahoots with defense industry lobbyists, and he does deserve high marks for being one of the few members of Congress willing to hold the military-industrial complex accountable. But we hear little from that McCain these days as he goes on and on praising a pointless war in Iraq that has become the main excuse for wasting trillions in so-called defense dollars.

This last is the deal breaker. It is simply not possible to be a genuine small-government-give-taxpayers-a-break president while planning to pour trillions more down that rathole of failed imperial adventures.

Evidently, the candidate of “change” is all for continuing George Bush’s illegal program of wiretapping Americans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/us/politics/06mccain.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Even better, this actually represents a flip-flop of his previously stated position.

“Although a spokesman for Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, denied that the senator’s views on surveillance and executive power had shifted, legal specialists said the letter contrasted with statements Mr. McCain previously made about the limits of presidential power.

In an interview about his views on the limits of executive power with The Boston Globe six months ago, Mr. McCain strongly suggested that if he became the next commander in chief, he would consider himself obligated to obey a statute restricting what he did in national security matters.

Mr. McCain was asked whether he believed that the president had constitutional power to conduct surveillance on American soil for national security purposes without a warrant, regardless of federal statutes.

He replied: “There are some areas where the statutes don’t apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, however, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is.”

Following up, the interviewer asked whether Mr. McCain was saying a statute trumped a president’s powers as commander in chief when it came to a surveillance law. “I don’t think the president has the right to disobey any law,” Mr. McCain replied.”

***********************************************

Having to watch this doddering fool contradict himself, to have to see the pretzel logic by which he tries to wear the mantle of “change” is many orders of magnitude more ludicrous than a previous episode regarding the meaning of “is.” “Free Ride” is SO far out of his political league that it isn’t funny–at all.