Gotham Chopra: 'When asked in an interview if he is a Mac or PC guy, McCain answered: "neither, I'm an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance I can get.'

There are those who chafe a bit when people take shots at McCain's age, but there's always a deeper point lurking behind many of those shots (cheap or not) -- leading the world's sole superpower in this digital era should require basic understanding of those things which drive the modern culture and economy.

Atrios responds:

"I think in 2008 computer use and understanding of the internet should be part of the basic skill set we expect from people in positions of prominent public leadership. It's pretty much impossible to have any kind of understanding of how people in the modern world go about their lives and work without that. The internet is not a fad or the playground for 17 year olds."

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_06_08_archive.html#4993185117354515288

Technology now infects every corner of our lives, from cell phones to computers to the internet. It has given us access to the world's libraries, empowering us with direct access to information. It has connected us with people all over this country and world, dramatically redefining what the word "community" means. It is dramatically reshaping entire sectors of our economy -- from the nation's thriving tech sector, to legacy sectors like publishing, music, motion picture, medicine, and retail. And how many workplaces remain without computers?

How can a candidate who admits he is stuck in the 20th century lead a country in the 21st, when he lacks even the most basic understanding of how this brave new century operates? He doesn't know how people interact and communicate. He doesn't know have the faintest idea of how they work. And this from the guy who once chaired the commerce committee!

Is it any wonder that McCain has been completely unable to adapt to the rigors of a 21st century campaign, in which YouTube and blogs can instantaneously expose every single one of his myriad flip flops and capture every one of his ghastly grins?

And no, McCain doesn't have his 72 years as an excuse. Some estimates show that only 15 percent of a typical political blog's audience (in the US) is young 18-34; similar to the percentage of young voters in an election. And over 40% are above fifty similar again to the percentage of older voters. I suspect at least 45% of Intentblog's audience -- which is more of a spiritual blog -- is above 50.

Age isn't the dividing line. There are clearly those who evolve with the times. But there are those, like McCain, who insist on living in the era of James Garfield and Teddy Roosevelt. How that's supposed to help him lead the America of the 21st Century is beyond me.

I disagree with Gotham Chopra: McCain is not just "computer" illiterate, he is tech illiterate.

In today's world, computers are as ubiquitous as telephones were to previous generations. Would you elect someone to run the country if they didn't understand how to use a phone? What's their excuse -- they always had their butler work the phone for them?

In the event of a national crisis McCain will be sure to fire off a telegram to our allies and dispatch morse code directions to the commanding officers in the field.

Indeed, Freyja.

According to polls from 5 years ago (i.e., the numbers are going to be notably higher now), 79% of Americans use a computer and 75% use the internet (half went on daily).

http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/155/Public-Opinion-About-Internet-Information-Technologies.html

I haven't seen the recent polls. I'd bet the numbers are up to around 90% and 85% now.

And he's the best the repubs have to offer.

That is really, really sad. What a long fall from the likes of Howard Baker, et al.

If I were an up-and-coming Republican, this is one election I'd stay as far away from as possible. They're in damage control mode right now, who would be crazy enough to try to convince America the Republicans are offering a better deal than the Democrats? Only the desperate, and the insane.

The field of GOP Presidential candidates is the worst I've ever seen and perhaps the worst in US history. Not all Republicans are drooling idiots and why this year's field was composed exclusively of them suggests that smart people don't want to be caught under an oncoming landslide.

McCain is this year's sacrificial lamb.

That's his reward for being abused by Bush in 2000 and not running in 2004. Sucker!!

OMG!!!! John McCain's computer illiteracy is such a large and looming crisis issue. I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight. Oh! the horror. I just know I will have nightmares.....

#5

Stop acting up. And get a good sleep.

It's the age of McCain's IDEAS that is the problem.

Most Disturbing is when he says something in the morning and then in the afternoon denies saying it. "I never said that. When did I say that?" And he's not just being obtuse -- he really doesn't remember saying it.

I've seen that behavior associated with early-stage senility. Scary thought that he could potentially be the president of a major nuclear power.

"It's the age of McCain's IDEAS that is the problem."

I've been one to complain about John McPa in the past. I think it's ageist. But what's more important point is that it's not simply his age, but his outdated ideas and skills.

Or as Indiana Jones put it, "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage."

Re. 6

Exacty. I think 80% of what people want to communicate when they talk about McCain's age is that he's completely out of touch with mainstream Americans (thanks also to his wealth and privilege). There's also the health issue, the signs of deteriorating mental capabilities that may or may not be age related, but a lot of it is his not-so-well-aged ideas.

"In today's world, computers are as ubiquitous as telephones were to previous generations. Would you elect someone to run the country if they didn't understand how to use a phone? What's their excuse -- they always had their butler work the phone for them?" (posted by dothead)

It's 3am and the phone rings...

Oh, wait, that's that thingy, what's it called, a raspberry? Whatever it is, it's chirping or something. Honey can you answer it for me and tell them to call me back on the real phone. I don't want to talk into one of them loganberry things. I don't even know how to hang them up.

In the same interview they asked McCain what his favorite new movie was that he had seen THIS YEAR. His answer was "Viva Zapata".

http://edition.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/02/08ers-weigh-in-on-their-favorite.html

Viva Zapata! (1952)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045296/

WTF?

"John McCain's computer illiteracy..." #5

Actually its kind of important -- Ref. Freyja #1 -- here's the full quote from Atrios:

"I think in 2008 computer use and understanding of the internet should be part of the basic skill set we expect from people in positions of prominent public leadership. It's pretty much impossible to have any kind of understanding of how people in the modern world go about their lives and work without that. The internet is not a fad or the playground for 17 year olds.

I don't mean it's important for someone running for president to spend his/her days on Facebook or becoming immersed in all of the various internet subcultures. But how can you have any genuine sense of contemporary life unless you at least have some clue?"

God save McCain, but please also save us from a Computer Illiterate president!!

It is inconceivable that the POTUS shouldn't have some minimal personal sensibility for Information and Communication Technologies in the 21st century.

It's not just Technology either. McCain makes the same astonishing claim for Economics, for God's sake!

One of his big problems has been his astonishing lack of intellectual curiosity. How in the world could you be in the Senate, supposedly tasked with being a major player and not even care to play around with a computer to see what the Information Age is about? I mean, he never asked his wife or daughter to just show him how to get on the net? It's not difficult! It draws you in.

What's the story?

Does he lack curiosity?

Is he stupid?

OR ... is the war hero ... afraid of technology/ things that are new? Not comfortable with Change of any kind?

This is unacceptable. Age is not the issue. I can easily imagine an older candidate embracing technological issues.

The important issue is that we can no longer reward the ignorance of a Presidential candidate by laughing it off as cute and folksy.

I still have nightmares about watching Jesse Helms ask questions of Bill Gates in an open Senate hearing about technology. The vast gulf of intellect between those two men was breathtaking, but it's always the ignorant that have the power to make the laws to restrict the intelligent.

You can bet that the leaders of Japan or Germany that are 70+ years old understand what the internet is and what it's potential is for transforming their society.

This cadre of gleefully, non-technical men has damaged our security and our prosperity by being willfully "illiterate" on technical issues. We can no longer afford to let them make decisions about these things, our very future depends on it.

This is actually an important matter. How is McCain going to respond to issues like "Net Neutrality" as well as other 21st technology issues (such as communications infrastructure) if he doesn't understand how to basically use a computer? Do we really want this country's technology or Internet policies being set by Microsoft and Comcast?

I'm not expecting him to learn Javascript or anything like that -- but how about just being able to search the Web for information? Remember a few years ago there was some sort of report that one of the government search engines couldn't handle multi-term searches like "al Qaeda"? How is he going to be able to direct responses to that sort of thing if he doesn't at least have a working knowledge of the technology beyond playing Freecell?

My 78-year-old father-in-law is quite computer-savvy so age is no excuse.

I think the Republicans calculated this year was gonna be a loser, so they thought "what the heck...it's his turn, let him have it".

The religious right don't like him & vice versa.

The neo cons don't trust him & vice versa.

The fiscal conservatives dont believe him/vice
versa.

The Libertarian republicans s have nothing in common with him.

The Military republicans are getting nervous of possible escalations in Iraq/Iran.

The moderate women who want 'choice' for their rights will run away from him.

What about all the 'first wives' who will sympathize with his first wife Carol??

Read:

The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html

"McCain likes to illustrate his moral fibre by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children.

But there is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator’s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three eldest children.

When McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier.

‘My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.’

Some of McCain’s acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to ‘play the field’. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.

McCain was then earning little more than $25,000 a year as a naval officer, while his new father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was a multi-millionaire who had impeccable political connections.

He was a privileged, but rebellious son. His primary interest was women and his conquests ranged from a knife-wielding floozy nicknamed ‘Marie, the Flame of Florida’ to a tobacco heiress.

Carol fell into his fast-living world by accident. She escaped a poor upbringing in Philadelphia to become a successful model, married an Annapolis classmate of McCain’s and had two children – Douglas and Andrew – before renewing what one acquaintance calls ‘an old flirtation’ with McCain.

Friends say privately he was ‘appalled’ by the change in her appearance (after accident) ‘John started carousing and running around with women'."

then:

"In 1979 – while still married to Carol – he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage.

Meanwhile McCain moved to Arizona with his new bride immediately after their 1980 marriage. There, his new father-in-law gave him a job and introduced him to local businessmen and political powerbrokers who would smooth his passage to Washington via the House of Representatives and Senate."

this from a close friend:

"Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: ‘I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is – deceit.

‘When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it.

‘Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better.

‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’"

this from Ross Perot:

"But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.

‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said.

‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’"

Even a "POW" must earn the disrespect, that McCain deserves!

More about Carol from the Daily Mail article link provided by Indy above:

"...She is McCain’s first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965.

She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.

But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.

When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter.

Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self.

Today, she stands at just 5ft4in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.

For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later."

"...Carol insists she remains on good terms with her ex-husband, who agreed as part of their divorce settlement to pay her medical costs for life. ‘I have no bitterness,’

she says. ‘My accident is well recorded. I had 23 operations, I am five inches shorter than I used to be and I was in hospital for six months. It was just awful, but it wasn’t the reason for my divorce."

***

"...It was in 1969 that Carol went to spend the Christmas holiday – her third without McCain – at her parents’ home. After dinner, she left to drop off some presents at a friend’s house.

It wasn’t until some hours later that she was discovered, alone and in terrible pain, next to the wreckage of her car. She had been hurled through the windscreen.

After her first series of life-saving operations, Carol was told she may never walk again, but when doctors said they would try to get word to McCain about her injuries, she refused, insisting: ‘He’s got enough problems, I don’t want to tell him.’

H. Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, future presidential candidate and advocate of prisoners of war, paid for her medical care.

When McCain – his hair turned prematurely white and his body reduced to little more than a skeleton – was released in March 1973, he told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol again.

But friends say privately he was ‘appalled’ by the change in her appearance. At first, though, he was kind, assuring her: ‘I don’t look so good myself. It’s fine.’

He bought her a bungalow near the sea in Florida and another former PoW helped him to build a railing so she could pull herself over the dunes to the water.

‘I thought, of course, we would live happily ever after,’ says Carol. But as a war hero, McCain was moving in ever-more elevated circles.

Through Ross Perot, he met Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California. A sympathetic Nancy Reagan took Carol under her wing.

But already the McCains’ marriage had begun to fray. ‘John started carousing and running around with women,’ said Robert Timberg.

McCain has acknowledged that he had girlfriends during this time, without going into details. Some friends blame his dissatisfaction with Carol, but others give some credence to her theory of a mid-life crisis.

He was also fiercely ambitious, but it was clear he would never become an admiral like his illustrious father and grandfather and his thoughts were turning to politics.

In 1979 – while still married to Carol – he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage.

Carol and her children were devastated. ‘It was a complete surprise,’ says Nancy Reynolds, a former Reagan aide.

‘They never displayed any difficulties between themselves. I know the Reagans were quite shocked because they loved and respected both Carol and John.’

Another friend added: ‘Carol didn’t fight him. She felt her infirmity made her an impediment to him. She justified his actions because of all he had gone through. She used to say, “He just wants to make up for lost time.”’

Indeed, to many in their circle the saddest part of the break-up was Carol’s decision to resign herself to losing a man she says she still adores.

Friends confirm she has remained friends with McCain and backed him in all his campaigns. ‘He was very generous to her in the divorce but of course he could afford to be, since he was marrying Cindy,’ one observed. "

***

"...And yet despite his popularity as a politician, there are those who won’t forget his treatment of his first wife.

Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: ‘I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is – deceit.

‘When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it.

‘Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better.

‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’

One old friend of the McCains said: ‘Carol always insists she is not bitter, but I think that’s a defence mechanism. She also feels deeply in his debt because in return for her agreement to a divorce, he promised to pay for her medical care for the rest of her life.’

Carol remained resolutely loyal as McCain’s political star rose. She says she agreed to talk to The Mail on Sunday only because she wanted to publicise her support for the man who abandoned her.

Indeed, the old Mercedes that she uses to run errands displays both a disabled badge and a sticker encouraging people to vote for her ex-husband. ‘He’s a good guy,’ she assured us. ‘We are still good friends. He is the best man for president.’

But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.

‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said.

‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’"

"When George Bush was asked if he was a Yahoo or Google guy, he responded that he used "the google" every once in a while. Why am I not surprised by this?"~Gotham Chopra

To his credit, Bush confessed he uses Google's senior citizen tool "The Google" to "pull out maps" once in a while.

He also said "I hear there's rumors on the internets..." (not the internet)

wow!

YouTube - Rumors on the internets
George W. Bush clip with the famous: "I hear there're rumors ...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKTH6f1JfX8

YouTube - George Bush uses 'The Google'
George Bush uses 'The Google' to spy on people. ... I bet he ...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=90DKubFKwVo

Dear Bonnie,
#5.
This man is guilty of the most heinous crime as serious as the charge of not wearing a lapel pin was trivial -:)

Love
dara

Ref. #19 Dara.

No he isn't "guilty" of not being able to adapt to changing times; it is understandable. On the contrary he is aggressively ignorant, and, seemingly proud of it.

A-maz-ing

A legacy pledge to the Naval Academy where he finished 895 of 899 (pretty much the same story for Bush.)

Can we weather two aggressively ignorant CEOs of the Ship of State in a row?

I think not.

Harry Reid:

"McCain, he said, “doesn’t have the temperament to be the president of the United States. Everyone who’s ever worked with John McCain knows of his temper. It’s explosive to say the least.”

Reid went more macro and accused Republicans, in general, of using “Orwellian dialect.” “Whatever they say, believe the opposite,” he said. "

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/11/1133520.aspx

Right up your spiritual alley
comes the wicked tech savvy
cartoon kid bearing a grin

Gotham,

Do you worship the computer/tech gods? Do you really think this way of life is here to stay? I'm not so sure. If Mercury in retrograde can wipe out computers anything can. Our civilized/mainstream systems are crashing. Though most people panic in fear at this I see it as a return to earth centered values. What will life be like without computers...what will people do? This is not doom and gloom -- for me.

Be happy~

Trish~~

How can McCain be the hope of the republicans? They must have something up their sleeves. Or maybe he's the last of a dying species.

Trish
I like the thought of this frenzy of technology finding it's balance. There is much value in green technologies as there is much value in treading lighter on our planet.

Long ago we tasted of the fruit of knowledge and we can't seem to get enough. When we finally get our fill we will stop the feeding frenzy.

I'm still working on my second piece of pie even though I feel stuffed. I think I already know too much.

derek

Hello Gotham and Everyone,

WOW. I wonder if that will make him lose the election?....if mean, how dare the lazy ole fa*t think he can be President if he can't f-ing even IM any other world leaders???????????:)))))

have a wonderful afternoon...from a cellphoneless American..ruth

Yo Keith
I live on an alley.
Not a very spiritual one though.
Just a way for my neighbors to get to their back door. Out my dining room window I see them come and go, they wave, I wave back.
Some of them have laptops in their laps, they're on the phone with their kids in the back seat and driving dangerously close to the side of my house............I should sell coffee out of my dining room window.........that'll slow 'em down, at least when they are passing by my window.

derek

Hey Ruth
I wonder if Mr. Obama has taken the computer literacy test. If so I wonder what his score was. The kids around me often score much higher than the adults.

derek

Okay, it seems a couple of cynical posters in this thread want to talk about things "that do matter."

Lets talk about John McCain's stance on women's issues and reproductive rights. It is abysmal.

From SCHIP (McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion) to HIV and condoms ("Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund contraception to prevent AIDS?"... McCain: (Long pause) "Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy") to the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (McCain: "I don’t think you’re doing anything to help the rights of women, except maybe help trial lawyers and others in that profession"), McCain is in lockstep with George W. Bush on disrespecting women (and men and children, which is quite a triple play).

Joe Conason, writing in Salon, notes:

"Nowhere is the gap between "straight talker" and pandering faker more obvious than on questions of reproductive freedom and sex education. Usually obscured by his image as a "maverick" Republican and (former) critic of the religious right, his actual record infuriates many women when they learn what he believes -- and how he has voted."

www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/04/11/mccain_abortion/

From a March DNC memo that Conason links to via Marc Ambinder:

"Women panelists in the focus groups reacted surprisingly strongly to the fact that Senator McCain opposes requirements for health plans to provide contraceptive coverage and favors abstinence-only sex education. Even among women who described themselves as pro-life, those aspects of Senator McCain’s record cast him as someone who is "unrealistic," "out of touch," and "stuck in the past." Many of the women in the groups were resentful when they learned that Senator McCain favors overturning Roe vs. Wade, and were disappointed because they expected him to be more moderate on this issue."

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/03/a_dnc_memo_on_mccain.php

Put more bluntly:

"You want to know what's coming with a McCain presidency? How about the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. I'm not kidding. The latest case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court on abortion made it clear that the two newest justices, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, will vote for substantial incursions into abortion rights, if not their outright elimination. It turns out that Roe isn't a "super-duper" precedent after all. It's now hanging by the thread of 87-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens' continued vitality.

The next president will be the decider on whether women's emancipation from the slavery of the womb will continue in this country. We are on the cusp of losing the right to control our bodies and determine our family size. McCain promises as much."

www.sptimes.com/2008/03/09/Opinion/Why_McCain_should_wor.shtml

From EMILY's list and Debbie Wasserman Schultz:

"We are now moving into general election mode," Malcolm said, "and it's quite clear there are vast differences on the issues between Sen. Obama and John McCain. ... We are focused on the goal, to change the direction of this country, and we will do that."

McCain is "wrong on issues that matter to us most," Wasserman Schultz added. "There is a real fear that John McCain is dangerous for women. ... The last thing that women need to do is to vote for John McCain."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/06/mccain-women-1.html

There'll be more on this topic... much more. McCain's COMPUTER ILLITERACY can't shield him from his own words. The interesting thing is many voters don't know this about McCain's positions on reproductive rights.

They will by November.

"There'll be more on this topic... much more. McCain's COMPUTER ILLITERACY can't shield him from his own words. The interesting thing is many voters don't know this about McCain's positions on reproductive rights.

They will by November."

Well said, Freyja. Indeed. Indeed!

From Planned Parenthood:

For the past 25 years, John McCain has consistently voted against women's health. From opposing funding for family planning programs to voting against requiring insurance coverage of birth control, McCain has taken extreme positions. He has voted against women's health and has not supported legislation that would help reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion. This has earned him a zero rating the lowest rating we give in the U.S. Senate.

"Sen. McCain believes government has the right to interfere with the most personal and often the most difficult decisions affecting a woman's health. Most Americans believe just the opposite and, as more voters realize Sen. McCain's ardent anti-choice position, this will be an issue for him in the general election."

— Cecile Richards, president, Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Just as alarming, Sen. McCain wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, potentially putting the lives and health of women in jeopardy. Sen. McCain is out of step with America's pro-choice majority: 62 percent of all voters support Roe v. Wade and, by a 20-point margin, voters believe abortion should be legal.

In battleground states, the situation is striking. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund recently polled 1,205 women in 16 likely battleground states, finding that

* Despite his extreme voting record, 51 percent of women voters in battleground states have no idea what John McCain's positions are on women's reproductive health issues.

* Forty-nine percent of women currently backing McCain express pro-choice views, and 46 percent of women supporting McCain over Obama/Clinton want to see Roe v. Wade upheld.

* In McCain-Obama/McCain-Clinton matchups, 36 percent and 38 percent, respectively, of pro-choice McCain supporters say they are less likely to vote for McCain when told that he opposes Roe v. Wade.

http://www.ppaction.org/ppvotes/08_antichoicemccain.html

McCain has voted consistently against women's health, and he supports overturning the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade.

McCain's positions on women's rights is atrocious--it's high time he was exposed:

*McCain opposed spending $100 million to prevent unintended and teen pregnancies.

In 2005, McCain voted NO to allocate $100 million to expand access to preventive health care services that reduce the numbers of unintended and teen pregnancies and reduce the number of abortions.

*McCain opposed legislation requiring that abstinence-only programs be medically accurate and scientifically based.

McCain voted NO on legislation that would help reduce the number of teen pregnancies by providing funding for programs to teach comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality education and other programs to prevent unintended teen pregnancies.

*McCain opposed Title X, the nation's family planning program.

In 1990, McCain voted NO on legislation to extend the Title X federal family planning program, which provides low-income and uninsured women and families with health care services ranging from breast and cervical cancer screening to birth control.

*McCain opposed requiring insurance coverage of prescription birth control.

In 2003, McCain voted NO on legislation to improve the availability of contraceptives for women and to require insurance coverage of prescription birth control.

*McCain opposes comprehensive sex education.

In an interview aboard the "Straight Talk Express," McCain struggled to answer questions about comprehensive sex education and HIV prevention. He also stated that he supported "the president's policy" on sex education.

*McCain unsure where he stands on government funding for contraception.

"Whether I support government funding for them or not, I don't know," McCain said about contraceptives.

*McCain opposed repealing the "global gag rule."

In 2005, McCain voted NO on legislation to overturn the "global gag rule," which bars foreign nongovernmental organizations from receiving U.S. family planning assistance if the organization (using its own, non-U.S. funds) provides abortion services or information or advocates for pro-choice laws and policies in its own country.

*McCain supports overturning Roe v. Wade.

In February 2007, the AP quoted McCain stating, 'I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.

*McCain says Roe v. Wade was a "bad decision."

In May 2007, during an appearance on Meet the Press, Sen. McCain reiterated his support for overturning Roe v. Wade, saying, "I have stated time after time after time that Roe v. Wade was a bad decision, that I support a woman — the, the rights of the unborn." He went on to say, "My position has been consistently in my voting record, pro-life, and I continue to maintain that position and voting record."

*McCain would have signed 2006 South Dakota abortion ban

In February 2006, the Hotline reported, "According to a spokesperson, McCain 'would have signed the legislation, but would also take the appropriate steps under state law -- in whatever state -- to ensure that the exceptions of rape, incest or life of the mother were included.'" As the New York Times' Paul Krugman points out, "That attempt at qualification makes no sense: the South Dakota law has produced national shockwaves precisely because it prohibits abortions even for victims of rape or incest."

*McCain touts "pro-life" credentials at conference of FRC Action, the political arm of the Family Research Council.

At a speech at the FRC Action Voter Values Summit in October 2007, Sen. McCain said, "I have been pro-life my entire public career. I believe I am the only major candidate in either party who can make that claim."

Hello Gotham and Everyone,

Seriously, Gotham writes, "Frankly, I think it's disastrous that the potential next president of the US is so glib about the most common type of technology that exists today."

I think the fact that you find it disatrous and John McCain can be glib is age....the young "think" it is disatrous while the older generation "knows" it is "really" not. He is running for the Presidency he has "peeps" to do it for him...you know, delegate...delegate..dance to the music...I'm sure he could pick it up in no time..afterall, most public libraries offer classes for free!:)))))how bout it John I could sign you up??

ruth

Hi Derek, I am sure Obama being of the "younger" age group than McCain and Clinton...has a very high computer literate score...I bet he IM's all the time :)))

have a great day everyone, ruth

#32 ruth.

Sorry. Age is not an excuse.

My 81 year old grand aunt regularly emails me. She does some stuff on computers better than I do. McCain is techno-illiterate, and that's not good in the 21st century.

Don't look now but the Obama propagandists are back and they can really turn one off to voting for their guy....really, if Barak Obama loses this election it may be because of the obsessive nature of his computer-blogging campaign workers..they are coming across as obnoxious propagandists reminding one of "the Rove" style of propagating info...ugh...

so, for all the Obama propagandists you might want to lighten it up and help your Candidate of Choice instead of hurting him.....just a thought...

ruth

Re. 33

Same with my 80-mumble-year-old grandmother. She's been using e-mail since the mid-90s. And she lives alone, so she figured it out herself.

They are the generation of self-reliance. My Mom thought the IBM Selectric was the greatest innovation since the teevee. She just kept upgrading technology ever since.

Hurray for our octogenarians!!

It's not the age. It's the McCain.

He's had a hard life what with the POW camp and all, and it's aged him beyond his years -- more accurately, as someone above put "its the age of his ideas" that's the problem -- I'd feel sorry for him if he wasn't running for president. Now I just feel scared there's a 'chance' he could win.

I agree with Chopra and strongly disagree with ruth.

There are some people who are unable to change and are averse to learn new skills. They fear new technologies. McCain seems to belong to that category.

I can't give leeway to a person who serves in the U.S. Senate and is running for president yet doesn't understand the technology that will make or break our nation in the 21st century. How can you make or enforce laws about subjects you don't understand?

Perhaps he thinks it is a positive and is proud of his illiteracy, also hoping many senior voters identify with him.

More evidence that he will be just another Bush

Seems like he will just sit on his ass and let everyone else run the country.

Think about it. Who would hire McCain for anything?

Really, what is he qualified to do in today's world? Not much apparently besides the most complex, difficult job in the country?

How he isn't Bush II is anyone's guess.

I agree the importance of being able to use technology to facilitate one’s capability and increase efficiency is paramount. The ability for a president to make use of this tool and the Internet communications infrastructure is going to be essential to meet the demands. This skill results in an exponential increase in management capability and effectiveness.

The most essential skill for the president is communication, I think everyone will agree. Is their any wisdom in choosing one without this skill that is dependant on others? This dependency creates the burden of latency, disrupts flow, and increase the probability of error.

I am writing this as softly as I can about Ruth -- who posted #34 -- It’s all about me (not)

I was curious as to what is going on in one of the hot heads of Hillaryland -- ruth at Intentblog -- now that the primary race is over. I read these posts from ruth here with some curiosity since the nomination race had ended. She does concede that Obama is the nominee and, unlike some Clinton supporters on line, she doesn’t say she plans to protest by staying home or voting for McCain. Her last post is illuminating though.

Whether or not the campaign and their "propagandists" reach out to Ruth or any other online members of a blog is hardly the major issue of 2008.

It is great when other candidates and their supporters have been in contact with me making a case for the candidate, but that is not why I supported any particular candidates. The election is about what we do about Iraq, restoring civil liberties, restoring the checks and balances on the executive branch, improving access to health care, and many other issues. It is not about whether a candidate and his supporters reaches out to me or Ruth.

I wrote this the other day, perfect timing I guess, and think I may make this into a viral video.

McCain or ♠Obama◄? A No Brainer by Richard Thomas
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
A “no brainer” from a scientific perspective, all fictions aside.

The future president needs to be able to learn and grasp some very complex issues and understand the systems so that he can preside, lead and direct.

You know the old saying one cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

This is because the ability to form new neural connections is greatly reduced at an advanced age. There is also a build up of lipofuscion (cellular waste) that impairs brain function. Repair mechanisms are also substandard.

So based on fact and wisdom if one subscribes to the truth and not some popular fiction there can only be one rational choice since the demands on the 2008 president are going to be like nothing ever before.

I think McCain with his wisdom and dislike of war can be very effective as a member of congress in a support role. The president needs to very smart and capable of learning new things very quickly and act, a fine tuned discerning mind cpabale of seeing through the fictions. He can not be dependant on others to think for him, because decisions need to be made fast, allowing adaptive planning.

Of course it didn’t have to be this way for McCain if not for a medical industrial complex with it’s focus on profit and developing disease as a profit center and being supported in doing so by that unquestioning status quo and a corporate media bribed with pharmaceutical advertising.

Seniors can avoid brain deterioation if they simply apply the proper health protocols.

Had McCain known about the Neurogenesis boosting compounds…. Of course Obama being connected to The Source knows, he also has the Wisdom Based Presidency papers, wouldn’t some like to know what is in them? It’s classified for his eyes only, so is the special communications channel. It’s all about the circle of influence, when electing a president, a divine circle that leads to resolved conflict, Peace & Prosperity.

This is from aarp.org

Understanding how and why brain functions change as we grow older may lead to new therapies and medications that could slow, stop, or prevent these processes altogether. (Note: If you click my name you will find that this is already figured out and an immediately available to solution)

Of course, other health problems—like high blood pressure, diabetes, or deafness—that people either have or develop as they grow older profoundly affect how their brains change with time.
Specific changes vary greatly from one person to the next, and may include the following, depending on their medical and psychological history:
•Brain mass shrinks
•Outer surface thins
•White matter decreases
•Chemical messengers decrease

Brain mass shrinks: Beginning in our 60s or 70s, some people's overall brain mass may shrink a bit. Certain brain areas shrink more than others, including the frontal lobe (important for mental abilities) and the hippocampus (where new memories are formed).

Outer surface thins: The cortex—the heavily ridged outer surface of the brain—thins slightly with age. This thinning is not, as scientists once believed, the result of widespread loss of brain cells. Instead, the thinning of the brain's outer surface is likely due to a decrease in synaptic connections (a process that starts when we're about 20 years old). Synapses are like intersections. They allow brain cells to communicate with one another and to form connections.

White matter decreases: Many studies have linked aging with decreases in the brain's white matter (so called because it's made up, in part, of myelin—a fatty, white substance). Myelin helps to improve communication between brain cells.
Research shows that changes in white matter are linked with changes in speed of cognitive processing. Cognitive processing includes memory, attention, action, problem solving, and decision-making abilities.

It's important to remember, though, that aging is not a process of decline. Many of our gifts and abilities—including wisdom and problem solving—improve as we age.

Chemical messengers decrease: As our brains age, they generate fewer neurotransmitters (chemicals like serotonin, which carry messages between brain cells), and have fewer receptors that lock onto these messengers. This change may have an effect on memory.

Of course if you click my name the bio chenistry and compounds that allow An old dog to learn new tricks is available 2U.

Or google the "End of Disease".

it looks like the NY granny is leaning Mcsenile...give 'er time and she'll get ova her disappointment billary lost...

More worse is that... McCain may not lack the intellectual capacity rather he lacks intellectual curiosity (a trait he shares with Bush). Or he thinks the world should serve him (another trait he shares with Bush.)

I don't think McCentury is stupid. I find the reasons why he doesn't know how to use a computer far more problematic. He's stubborn. He doesn't want to learn. He prefers to let others do HIS work.

Wow, the jokes about him being a mini-Bush aren't jokes are they? These guys are cut from the same cloth.

Should be "lipofuscin" above.

Please excuse the other syntax errors..

We know McCain is senile. Now cool it, Ruth. I understand McCain is your new proxy for your anti-Obama feelings.

Here's why he is senile. (Never a day passes without a McCain gaffee.)

After all, in order to attack Obama on the environment last Friday, he had to 'forget' his own bill from 2007, as Obama inconveniently co-sponsored it.

As we know, McCain's current strategy can be summed up as 'green': a less-than-convincing attempt to use an unflattering secondary color to paint himself as some sort of born-again environmentalist, a la Bush in 2000.

So when McCain 'forgot' his own climate-change bill in an attack on Obama, was it an outright lie, or another convenient hole in his memory?

McCain took his 'green' agenda to the Everglades this last week in an attempt to convince some crucial swing voters that the Republican agenda is, despite all evidence and popular belief, the truly environmentalist one. CNN reported:

"On Friday, McCain attacked Obama's record on the environment during a campaign stop in the Florida Everglades.

"Sen. Obama has no record of being involved in this issue that I know of," he said. "I will stick by my record and my commitment of many years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/10/mccain.strategy/index.html

A direct if not particularly deft assault following the media narrative of Obama's supposedly sparse record. Or it would be, except that Obama was a cosponsor of McCain's own climate-change bill, introduced in January 2007, and designed to, well, reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/1/12/17937/0703

That's right - in order for McCain to not be 'aware of' Obama's record on the issue, he'd have to have completely forgotten a bill he cosponsored a little over a year ago. So is McCain just that dishonest? Or is he as ready for the "old soldiers' home" as he predicted he'd be in 2000?

On a flatter note, guess who else is attached to that bill? Limpin' Joe Lieberman. I wonder if he'll take a break from practicing his speech to the Republican convention to correct the record on a concern he claims to share with the Democrats?

doodleman #24:

"How can McCain be the hope of the republicans? They must have something up their sleeves. Or maybe he's the last of a dying species."

Because people in the GE don't look for leaders.

Maybe they did once, but ever since I can remember, people who vote in November have responded to the candidate who makes them feel comfortable.

It has nothing to do with issues. But it may have everything to do with race this time -- not in a blatant fashion, and many voters won't even understand that's their primary reason for voting Republican.

It's just that McCain LOOKS LIKE what people expect a President to look like. He doesn't sound great, but he doesn't have to. People will project their expectations of "leadership" on him.

McCain looks like what THEY expect a President to look like. He's a white male war hero.

Kinda funny.... Light G has his panties all wadded up because McCain doesn't do computers....
hmmmmm....yet....he hero worships Curious George, who thinks we have 57 states....one is 'uncurious', the other is just dumb! God, What a choice we have this november!!

Politico: Kerry: McCain 'confused', 'unbelievably out of touch'

June 11, 2008

John Kerry, who's served in the past as Obama's heavy-hitter on national security, expressed incredulity at McCain's remark this morning that the timing of troops return is "not too important."

"It is unbelievably out of touch and inconsistent with the needs of Americans and particularly the families of troops who are over there. To them it’s the most important thing in the world when they come home," he said. "It’s a policy for staying in Iraq."

Kerry and Obama aide Susan Rice also both said McCain is "confused"* -- a line some in McCain's camp will surely take as a shot at the candidate's age.

"He confuses who Iran is training, he confuses what the makeup of Al Qaedais, he confuses the history going back to 682 of what has happened to Sunni and Shia," Kerry said.

Rice cited a "pattern of confusing the basic facts and reality that pertain to Iraq."

UPDATE: Asked if "confused" was a shot at McCain's age, Rice responded: "What I meant by that was very simple: That on critical factual questions that are fundamental to understanding what is going on in Iraq and the region, Senator McCain has gotten it wrong, and not just once but repeatedly."

Kerry called the suggestion it had something to do with age "unfair and a ridiculous."

"There are plenty of Senators and Congressmen in Washington, D.C., who understand the difference and don’t make the mistakes that he has made with respect to those policies," Kerry said, mentionin John Warner. "They know who the Sunni are and they know who the Shia are."

***

Dems pound McCain for new Iraq quote

Kerry claimed “an enormous, fundamental flaw in his candidacy for the presidency, which supposedly has hung on his strength as commander in chief and his understanding of foreign policy.”

Susan Rice, an Obama foreign-policy adviser, accused McCain of “a real disturbing, even disconcerting, pattern of confusing the basic facts and reality that pertain to Iraq.”

Kerry, saying McCain is “really having a debate with himself” on Iraq, said the “Today” show comment was part of a “policy for staying in Iraq” and “underscores … the broad array of contradictions in John McCain’s statements about Iraq.”

“It is really becoming more crystal clear to a lot of Iraq that John McCain simply doesn’t understand it – that he confuses who Iran is training, he confuses what the makeup of al-Qaeda is, he confuses the history … of what has happened between Sunni and Shia and how deep that current runs,” Kerry said.

Rice criticized “real confusion and lack of understanding of the situation in Iraq and, indeed, the larger region, that John McCain evidenced yet again in his comments on the ‘Today’ show.”

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was first out of the gate with a statement, calling McCain’s comment “a crystal clear indicator that he just doesn’t get the grave national-security consequences of staying the course. … We need a smart change in strategy to make America more secure, not a commitment to indefinitely keep our troops in an intractable civil war.”

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) said McCain had “displayed a fundamental misunderstanding about the situation in Iraq, our strained military, and American troops and their families.”

Amazing, McCain or ♠Obama◄? A No Brainer

Is now on Obama's web site

Click my name

yo flabsy..u always tell us u are a smart man who neva went to college...and a man who is happy to drive his tractor helping out the nabes...

ok then..have u never made a Freudian slip? u are making such a big freakin' deal ova 'bama's momentary lapse...gimme a break...normette...i thought u were a really smart dude....damn!
btw...ur party's candidate...Mcsenile...says may veto every beer in america? dang....whoa!

says multiple..."My 81 year old grand aunt regularly emails me."..yeah right, high school jock...and u'll be 18 this fall too....whoa! btw...McCain owns most of the beaches in zona...too! eeekkkkkkkk!

It makes no difference at all because he is IT illiterate not to him being a potential president as he will have admin staff and people on his staff that would be dealing with all that stuff for him anyway while he concentrated on politics and decision making.

It certainly makes absoloutly no difference to him as a person because he chooses not to jump into the technology tidal wave that most of us have done.

Eventually IT will become second nature to our way of life in the way that we get things done indeed it is almost that way now. John McCain will probably be gone from this world by the time it does in the next thirty years or so and the next generation of old people will be us and the kids who have grown up with the technology revolution.

ICT is my business I run programes that teach people at all levels to utilise IT for Education. To me I see IT as an inevitable change for everyone. How ever.... When the Automobile was invented... not every single person rushed out and learned to drive. Yet how many of us own a car or can drive today? In actual fact I respect someone who chooses not to drive and uses alternative methods of transport.

Maybe John McCain does not use a PC or a Mac because he figures well everyone is using the damb things and how much demand is that putting on energy supplies?... Maybe he decides that Computers are great for those who want to use them but he still likes the calculator and fountain pen.

I respect anyone who doesn't just do what is expected and chooses to be different when everyone else is emailing and surfing away in a world of their own.

Love

Simon xx

Do, Gotham, I emailed my young, corporate, "republican" nephew a link to your blog entry and this is what he wrote back:

Well,

Considering that my boss (age 40) has no idea how to attach an email,
yet runs a successful business, is the head of four different boards,
and is very involved in various charitable organizations, does being
computer savvy really matter? That's why he has me and the president has
staff.

Regardless of how internet savvy the next president is, he won't have to
use those skills ever,

Ps, write a letter to the idiot speaker of the house (Pelosi) and tell
her to stop this partisan political block of drilling in the gulf. China
is drilling off of cuba now and they are stealing our oil.

These liberal environmentalists should be executed. Newsflash! The rest
of the world could care less about the environment so no matter what we
do in America, we cant stop others like china and japan from dumping
toxic gas and chemicals into the air and water.

PPS Obama is the next Jimmy carter, spend, tax, spend tax....

this dude is aping familiar repub propagada...he's not saying anything different from what right-wing hacks say day in and day out on the radio...and btw...if Mcsame is comp. illiterate...what else is he illiterate in?????????.

e14studio: "Obama is the next Jimmy carter"

McCain:

"Sen. Obama says that I'm running for a Bush's third terms. It seems to me he's running for Jimmy Carter's second. (LAUGHTER)"

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/09/1126247.aspx

Zing! Good one, John!

Rasmussen, July 2007:

Jimmy Carter
Approve: 57
Disapprove: 34

George W. Bush
Approve: 41
Disapprove: 59

Carter, in fact, is more popular than Bush Sr. or Bill Clinton. And that was a year ago, with a much more "popular" Bush than today. Now, he's mired in the 20s.

And what is with McCain and always looking back to the last century?

Easy. Talking about the 20th Century makes Johnny feel au courant.

McCain tells USA Today (June 6, 2008):

"I believe that people are interested very much in substance," McCain said, contrasting himself with Barack Obama's charismatic style. "If it was simply style, William Jennings Bryan would have been president."

McCain is claiming that Obama reminds him of William Jennings Bryan, a great American orator who failed to win the presidency after running several times between 1896-1908.

McCain is right. I’m assuming he personally witnessed Bryan’s losses, so he’s got first hand experience.

It's unclear just how relevant this comparison will be to the average American though. No voters alive today can remember Bryan's campaigns for president, which occurred in 1896, 1900 and 1908.

For some reason the right hates Carter. Especially lately. I can't explain why, but it goes way beyond the standard hatred they have of most Democrats.

Obama is effective, tough, and diplomatic.

They're trying to label him a "Carter" because people saw him as ineffective. However, he is also one of the first Presidents to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And he is highly regarded as a humanitarian now.

I think if we are going to fight this, we need to point to the fact that Obama clearly is effective. One has to look at his skill and leadership in beating the nominee. He also has been highly effective at voter registration and getting people to turn out for him.

He's highly intelligent and can communicate effectively with people. Clearly, the ways he's shown to be a tough leader, not a wimp, has already occurred. The first day of being the 'presumptive nominee,' he set down firm campaign finance laws for his own campaign and the DNC. He cornered Joe Lieberman and gave him a little 'helpful' words. Just yesterday he moved the DNC to Chicago, to merge with his campaign Head Quarters, formally taking over the party, in an unprecedented move for a democratic nominee.

He's going to be tough and he's going to be diplomatic. And he's highly effective already.

"For some reason the right hates Carter. Especially lately. I can't explain why, but it goes way beyond the standard hatred they have of most Democrats."

Because for all the religious bluster on the right, the sincerity and magnitude of their faith is as a mustard seed's to Carter's.

And I say that as an atheist.

Precisely.

Carter not only walks the talk, he lives it. No republican, currently or formerly in office, can touch him on that and they know it.

Do they hate him as much as they hate Bill Clinton? Mentioning Bill Clinton sends my closest Republicans into frothing fits.

Want to see them foam at the mouth?

Say we need more presidents like Carter. Then back away and grab a towel, cause the spittle will fly further than the dog's drool on Turner and Hooch.

Wow

Great reference.

"Are you aware of your drooling problem?"

Lizard brains yes, but also potentially Israel hawks. Carter is pretty well despised by hawkish Israel supporters given his book comparing the treatment of Palestinians to apartheid and his recent meetings with Hamas. I honestly don't know if McCain is going for the lizard brains, or hawkish Israel supporters, or both. I suspect just the former, because this is consistent with his shoot-from-the-hip snark.

Jimmy Carter responds:

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/i_got_what_america_needs_right

I read that before. Greatest Onion ever. That should be mandatory reading!

"But who comes to me, huh? Fucking nobody. Why ask old Jimmy anything? What the fuck could he know about peace in the Middle East? It's not like he fucking won the Nobel Peace Prize for that shit. You myopic pricks. Back in '79, I sat Sadat and Begin right down and made those two dicklicks shake hands. It was beautiful—I had all the pieces lined up and I smiled and waved in my best fucking suit and tie right there on TV. And what do you do, you pieces of shit? You screw the whole goddamn pooch."

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/i_got_what_america_needs_right

They hate Carter because he has become what they despise:

An elder statesman that does good work to benefit the world through charity and righteousness without being "righteous" about it.

As opposed to an elder candidate that is too vain to wear glasses so he screws up everything he tries to read on the teleprompter.

Like my deaf grandaunt, that sits through Thanksgiving dinner laughing at the wrong time, nodding inappropriately, and looking confused because she refuses to wear her hearing aid.

They hate him because he was right.

He committed the unpardonable sin of telling the unvarnished truth. Cons either have to admit he was right and they were full of shit, or deny he was right and sound like a bunch of retards. Either way, they look stupid.

"And what is with McCain and always looking back to the last century?" #55 John

Well, the 20th Century was just great. You had World War I, which killed the most people of any war ever. You had World War II, which was technologically more advanced and efficient at killing people. You had the Korean War and all that cool brainwashing. You had the dreamy Vietnam war. And you had the wonderful Cold War, which went on for decades.

You could almost say that the 20th Century was "The Century of Total War". In fact, Raymond Aron didn't almost say that, he wrote a whole book about it.

Let McCain enjoy his nostalgia, and his hopes for a 100-year war in Iraq and violence as a way to solve all our problems. All this "peace" chitchat is just too 21st century for him.

Oh, wait...now I get it!
When he called his wife the *c* word, he must have been thinking "*C*omputer literate".

"Obama is the next Jimmy carter, spend, tax, spend tax...."

--e14studio #53

In his effort to run the best campaign of 1980, John McCain has hauled out the dusty tax-and-spend label from the GOP basement and tried to wrap it around Barack Obama. He's even opened the crate where they keep the "biggest tax increase in history" banner (well-worn, since Republicans use it every election cycle) to attach it to Obama's proposed tax plan. In a way, it's nice to see that Republicans don't bother to change one word of their approach, even when they've just finished executing the fiscal equivalent of a plane crash. On a nursing home. With nuclear weapons.

And of course, McCain's statements aren't talkin' anywhere near straight, as as fact-checker Larry Rohter points out.

"Economists of various ideological persuasions, however, view Mr. McCain's assessment as inaccurate or exaggerated. Some question whether Mr. Obama's tax plan can even be characterized as an increase. Some also argue that contrary to Mr. McCain's assertions, the Democrat's proposals, if enacted, would actually reduce taxes for the middle class — the voters both candidates see as the key to victory."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25133125/

Hmm, inaccurate or exaggerated. Yes, that sounds like the Bush third term, all right. It looks like the Republican rhetoric is as stale as the Republican candidate.

"In a study of the candidates' plans made public Wednesday, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center concluded that in contrast to Mr. McCain, "Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers."

So wait, if Obama's plan offers bigger tax cuts than McCain, does that mean that McCain is threatening the super-duperest biggest tax cuts in a jillion years?

"Ps, write a letter to the idiot speaker of the house (Pelosi) and tell her to stop this partisan political block of drilling in the gulf. China
is drilling off of cuba now and they are stealing our oil."

--e14studio #53

Pathological!
_______________________________

More of this sort of bluntness, please:

"GOP claim about Chinese oil drilling off Cuba is untrue"

Erika Bolstad and Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: June 11, 2008

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/40776.html

"WASHINGTON — As Congress has debated energy policy over the past several days, an unusual argument keeps surfacing in support of drilling off the U.S. coastline and in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Why, ask some Republicans, should the United States be thwarted from drilling in its own territory when just 50 miles off the Florida coastline the Chinese government is drilling for oil under Cuban leases?

Yet no one can prove that the Chinese are drilling anywhere off Cuba's shoreline. The China-Cuba connection is "akin to urban legend," said Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida who opposes drilling off the coast of his state but who backs exploration in ANWR.

"China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period," said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Martinez cited Pinon's research when he took to the Senate floor Wednesday to set the record straight."

Who's guilty of spouting this particular line of bull?

"Vice President Dick Cheney, in a speech Wednesday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, picked up the refrain."

Surprise!

But guess what? It wasn't a lie, it was "faulty intelligence!"

"Cheney quoted a column by George Will, who wrote last week that "drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are."'

The article also catches House Minority Leader John Boehner -- whose otherworldly tan is itself rumored to be of offshore Chinese manufacture -- repeating this crap, as well as relative nobody Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA). It also reportedly appeared in an Investor's Business Daily editorial earlier this week. Boehner and his tan, for their part, blame... The New York Times:

"The office of House Minority Leader John Boehner defended the GOP drilling claims. "A 2006 New York Times story highlights lease agreements negotiated between Cuba and China and the fact that China was planning to drill in the Florida Strait off the coast of Cuba," said spokesman Michael Steel."

Boehner's tan had no comment, but was allegedly later sold for $136.38 a barrel.

Moral of the story: These guys will lie about absolutely anything. WMD. War and peace. POW rescues. The combat records of actual war heroes. Whether or not they marched with Martin Luther King. Everything.

And you can't "work out bipartisan compromise" with liars. Compromise requires at least two genuine positions to start with.

#68 - thank you for putting the 'c' comment out there...

And apparently no one reported on it because there was no way to get it into the local papers...
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_temper_boiled_over_in_92_0407.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/01/mccain-asked-did-you-call_n_99744.html

made me feel kind of sick when I read this... you'd think a man who'd survived POW camp and been a fighter pilot would be better in control of his emotions/temper.

To me, this speaks volumes - I really do want a wiser man in the white house. The stress levels of the job would mean this streak of insecurity which results in a temper would be always be at the forefront...

A president needs to have particular power over his sense of proportion to insult. What happens if Putin calls McCain a big fat red faced idiot? The resulting malicious response would more likely be nuclear annihilation? Something to ponder...

Executives do not need to be computer literate, but their secretaries do.

Executives do not need to be computer literate, but their secretaries do. I remember when Golda Meir could not type.

#73:

Keyboarding skills are just a small component of computer literacy. I'm sure that Golda, if she were still breathing, would be able and ready to google.
;-)

McCain Forgets his Social Security stand

Another "Ooops! I Forgot About You Tube!" moment for John McCain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyBwMy27Aoc

Hmm... McCain was For, then Against privatizing Social Security....

Indeed John, McCain was in full Mitt Romney mode yesterday, contradicting his previous position on privatizing Social Security:

"I am not for privatizing Social Security. I never have been. I never will be."

Well, that's not quite true.

The Youtube Video John posted shows the slightly different perspective McCain had about privatization in November of 2004.

So McCain actually was in favor of privatizing Social Security, just not now - when it's no longer politically expedient.

Obama in Columbus, Ohio:

"Now, John McCain's ideas on Social Security amount to four more years of what was attempted and failed under George Bush. He said he supports private accounts for Social Security - in his words, "along the lines that President Bush proposed." Yesterday he tried to deny that he ever took that position, leaving us wondering if he had a change of heart or a change of politics.

Well let me be clear: privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George W. Bush proposed it. It's a bad idea today. It would eventually cut guaranteed benefits by up to 50%. It would cost a trillion dollars that we don't have to implement on the front end, permanently elevating our debt. And most of all, it would gamble the retirement plans of millions of Americans on the stock market. That's why I stood up against this plan in the Senate, and that's why I won't stand for it as President."

Last fall, I was hoping the Republicans would nominate Romney. But McCain is proving almost as good.

Newly released financial documents show that multi-millionaire John McCain can't even balance his family budget.

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/mccains-report-more-than-100000-in-credit-card-debt-2008-06-13.html

"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his wife reported more than $100,000 of credit card liabilities, according to financial disclosure documents released Friday.

The presidential candidate and his wife Cindy reported piling up debt on a charge card between $10,000 and $15,000. His wife’s solo charge card has between $100,000 and $250,000 in debt to American Express.

Another charge card with American Express, this one for a “dependent child,” is carrying debt in the range of $15,000 and $50,000."

Reckless indebtedness during a year in which Cindy McCain sold one of their 10 or so residences for a profit of more than a million dollars. That is a pretty sure sign of financial irresponsibility. By contrast, documents for the far less wealthy Obama family show that they have no credit card debt. Quite the opposite, the Obamas have set aside funds for their daughters' college education.

By piling up credit card debt when he can easily afford to pay it off, McCain finally has convinced me that he was speaking the truth (for once) when he said last December,

"The issue of economics is something that I've really never understood as well as I should."

This is the man who wants to lead the US at a time when the the federal debt has reached record levels - thanks to the reckless fiscal policies of George Bush, which McCain would continue.

Little wonder then that McCain has also been all over the map regarding a balanced federal budget and the state of the US economy.

Characteristically, McCain is both FOR and AGAINST making it a priority to balance the federal budget.

*McCain promised he’d offer a balanced budget by the end of his first term. Feb. 15, 2008 [NY TIMES]

*Mr. McCain — who said in February in Wisconsin that he would balance the budget by the end of his first term as president — seemed to reconsider that on Tuesday, saying at a news conference later in Villanova that “economic conditions are reversed” and that he would have a balanced budget within eight years. April 15, 2008 [NY TIMES]

*John McCain will not leave office without balancing the federal budget. He will not do it with smoke and mirrors. When he leaves office, he wants to leave a budget that stays balanced after he is gone... April 15, 2008 press release [JohnMcCain.com]

*Republican John McCain said yesterday that cutting taxes and stimulating the economy are more important than balancing the budget... April 20, 2008 [Boston Globe]

Confused? So is John McCain.

Ref. #69 Scott Tiger

Obama takes on the top 1%

Over the past few days we have been treated to dueling tax policies from the two candidates, and if there were ever any question about the contrast between the two, and the direction Obama wants to take, this was it. Obama made it clear that not only is he serious about doing something about inequality in the country, he understands the role of tax policy in exacerbating the divisions that began to grow in the late 1990s.

One of the best breakdowns of the two plans comes from CNN.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/11/news/economy/candidates_taxproposals_tpc/?postversion=2008061113

The most thorough comes from the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm

What is clear is that Obama intends to require those who have benefitted from the uneven prosperity of the last 10 years to give something back to the country that made that wealth possible. That the purchasing power of ordinary Americans is falling dangerously should be apparent to anyone; spreading prosperity more widely is not only a matter of fairness, it is essential to keeping our economic system humming and preserving social stability.

Compare the treatment of the top 1% under the two plans, per the Tax Policy Institute:

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

Here's how the average tax bill could change in 2009 if either John McCain's or Barack Obama's tax proposals were fully in place.
MCCAIN OBAMA
Income Avg. tax bill Avg. tax bill
Over $2.9M (top .1%) - $269,364 +$701,885
$603K and up (top 1%) - $45,361 +$115,974
$227K-$603K (95-99%) - $7,871 +$12
$161K-$227K (90-95%) - $4,380 -$2,789
$112K-$161K (80-90%) - $2,614 -$2,204
$66K-$112K (60-80%) - $1,009 -$1,290
$38K-$66K (41-60%) - $319 -$1,042
$19K-$38K (21-40%) - $113 -$892
Under $19K (0-20%) - $19 -$567

There are three things to notice here: first, under McCain's proposal no one's taxes are raised to replace lost revenue. He evidently believes the Tax Fairy will take care of things. Second, under Obama only the top 1% of earners will see their taxes increased. For the top .1% (approximately 335,000 filers) the difference between the two plans is almost a $1 million difference in their tax bills. Of course for the tippy top, the 146,000 tax filers with the multi-million dollar incomes, the increased tax bill will be very high indeed. Third, the lower four quintiles (0-80%) do better under Obama's plan than McCain's, increasingly better as one goes down the income ladder. This is real relief for the middle class and working poor.

So Obama is pretty aggressively making the case for greater tax equity, appealing to the 99% who will do better under his tax plan. But don't expect the top 1% to give it up willingly, despite how much their incomes have increased over the last ten years. They will fight Obama tooth and nail, through surrogates and shadow groups, with faux populist rhetoric and traditional GOP dirty tricks.

Under current law, except for certain provisions relating to retirement savings, all of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 expire in 2010. For the most part the law would automatically revert to what it was in 2001. (This was done to disguise the long-term effect of the Bush tax cuts if they were made permanent.) The figures in the table above are based on reductions average taxpayers would see from current tax levels if each candidate's proposals took effect in 2009, rather than measuring them as an increase or decrease from the levels to which taxes would revert if the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 simply sunsetted as current law provides.

The main differences between the plans are that Obama keeps most of the Bush tax cuts for those with incomes under $227,000 (all but the top 5%) but restores the top two income tax brackets to pre-Bush tax cut levels, raises the capital gains and dividend tax rates to a maximim of 25% for filers over $250,000 in AGI (top 3%), freezes the estate tax at next year's levels and restores the phase-out of many deductions for high-income filers.

In addition, today Obama said again today that he wants to make salaries over $250,000 subject to the Social Security tax, but continue to exempt wage and salary income between the current cap ($102,000) and $250,000. He believes this is preferable to raising the retirement age, something that would create a hardship for people in physically taxing occupations and in poorer health.

McCain would extend almost all of the Bush tax cuts but impose a small (15%) tax on estates above $5 million ($10 million per couple). He would further reduce corporate taxes.

That CNN analysis was perfect. I saw that tape segment and once in a million hours, they do something really really good. It lays out directly and succinctly how Obama's plan helps "you" and McCain's plan only helps "them".

John McCain's affect is strange. It reminds me a little of Tom Delay's mug shot: always smile for the camera, even when your pants are down and you're mad as hell that someone cornered you.

His jokes...well, he tries to pull off geniality like Reagan did, but just underneath, right beneath a thin skin of protocol, you can see he's seathing when he quips. I mean, seathing.

Reagan was cool.

McCain's as hot as an exhaust manifold hung on a 455 cubic inch V8 after a 15 second all-out run in the Arizona desert on a July afternoon. You might win the race with that sort of equipment, but holy shit. Why would you want to?

frighteningly...JM ...the dino from zona...could be the next prez if all the dumb republicans decide to vote! eeeeeeeekkkkkk...damn!it! no! way!

Hi Gotham,
I bought a 2008 Ford Focus and am thinking about you because it has a Sync system which is a partnership between Microsoft and Ford. I guess this purchase does put my trust into our technological and computer driven world. (Now I have to learn to use the thing.) The car is bright cobalt blue and has a satellite radio, mag wheels and moon roof. It also gets 35 miles per gallon. I plan to approach the dealership to ask for their sponsorship for a concert I'm organizing in their area. For my contribution to them I'm thinking they can give back. Will they think this way as well?

Trish~~

This is too funny, yet too true. McCain would invest time and energy setting up support centers for people like himself who are too uninterested to learn, while Obama would inspire programmers,designers, and computer enthusiast to be more creative than ever. Reminds me of the difference between a CEO at a large, old corporation, vs. the progressiveness and excitement of a new start up company with a visionary CEO. Interesting stuff. I guess its just a matter of if this country is ready to let go of the illusion of security for a little adventure and growth. I think we are. :)