McCain is still bedazzled by his rich booze babe's moves on those disco dance floors!

He coulda said the Bee Gees!

Aloha Gotham

What does that say about you? love patty

McCain's favorite song?

'Dancing Queen' by ABBA.

You can't make this stuff up.

See

http://www.blender.com/WhiteHouseDJBattle/articles/39518.aspx

John McCain's favorite song is Dancing Queen by the Swedish pop group ABBA. I kid you not.

Blender magazine asked McCain and Obama to list their top 10 favorite songs. McCain listed two ABBA tunes in his top 3.

::::

Barack Obama's 10 favorite songs:

Ready or Not, Fugees
What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
I'm On Fire, Bruce Spingsteen
Gimme Shelter, Rolling Stones
Sinnerman, Nina Simone
Touch the Sky, Kanye West
You'd Be So Easy to Love, Frank Sinatra
Think, Aretha Franklin
City of Blinding Lights, U2
Yes We Can, will.i.am

John McCain's 10 favorite songs:

Dancing Queen, ABBA
Blue Bayou, Roy Orbison
Take a Chance On Me, ABBA
If We Make It Through December, Merle Haggard
As Time Goes By, Dooley Wilson
Good Vibrations, The Beach Boys
What A Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong
I've Got You Under My Skin, Frank Sinatra
Sweet Caroline, Neil Diamond
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, The Platters

::::

If you didn't know a damn thing about where each candidate stood on any issue, all you'd have to do is look at those two lists to decide who to vote for.

Merle Haggard? Gimme a fuckin' break.

"As Time Goes By'? Well, I guess it 'was' a big hit in 1942.

Though it may have been unchallenged in his Blender Magazine interview on what's your favorite song, John McCain's explanation of why he loves "Dancing Queen" by ABBA is clearly a LIE.

Of his "Dancing Queen" answer, McCain later told the Aspen Institute that,

"If there is anything I am lacking in, I've got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life. I've got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again."

http://www.politickerco.com/jeremypelzer/1996/if-loving-abba-wrong-mccain-doesnt-want-be-right

You can also see it, written about last week here:

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/08/9286_mccain_war_service_pow_abba.html

ABBA came to America in the 1970's, but it wasn't until 1976 that they released "Dancing Queen".

John McCain had returned from his prisoner of war incarceration three years earlier: 1973. By 1976, McCain was commanding officer of the Florida squadron where he enjoyed his greatest command successes--returning to flight rotation a squadron of aging bolt-buckets, while conducting extra-marital affairs on his disfigured first-wife Carol, for which he has since apologized.

It was in 1979 that he began his affair with Cindy, at the height of disco fever. That's probably when he heard "Dancing Queen" played incessantly on the dance floor of Studio 54 or some such place.

This was long after he "impacted a surface-to-air missile with [his government-issue] airplane."

Oh, btw, McCain lied, contradicts himself on Cross(in the dirt/sand) story, the prison guard one he tells(with various versions) and told most recently at the Faith Forum with Rev. Warren. (This is bigger than the "cone of silence" dishonesty and "cheating" by both McCain and Warren.)

In the latest example of his problem distinguishing between fact and fiction, John McCain repeated the "cross in the dirt" story in the Rick Warren's Faith Forum.

For those of you unfamiliar with with the story here is a recap:

On Christmas Eve, as he was in solitary confinement, a prison guard loosened the ropes that were tying him to the wall. On another occasion, the same prison guard came over to McCain, as he was let "out of my cell to stand alone in the outdoors and look up at the clear, blue sky...," and with his foot, drew a cross in the dirt in front of McCain.

Now, this is a very touching story, if true. By writing this, I in no way want to demean the service of McCain to the United States. I do, however, question the use of his service for political gain.

The version that he gives in his book "Character is Destiny," is different than the dramatization from a primary campaign commercial he released in 2007, where the guard uses a stick to draw a cross.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=7WTu7drLfRc

We'll get back to these different versions in a moment.

But, people are now questioning the truth of this ENTIRE story.

Why?

Because Alexander Solzhenitsyn had a very similar experience.

The story is very similar to a story about Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags:

------------------------------------------------------------------
" Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian author who spent many years in the gulag of Siberia, bears witness to the power of the cross. After long suffering in the work camp of Siberia, he fell into despair. Like other prisoners, he had worked in the fields day after day, in rain and sun, during summer and winter. His days were filled with backbreaking labor and slow starvation. On a particular day, the hopelessness of his situation became too much. He saw no reason to continue living, to continue fighting the system. He thought that the rest of his life was meaningless since he would most likely die in this Siberian prison. His life made no difference in the world. So he gave up.

Laying his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude work-site bench and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to many other prisoners.

As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly, he lifted his eyes and saw a skinny, old prisoner squat down next to him. The man said nothing. Instead, he drew a stick through the ground at Solzhenitsyn’s feet, tracing the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the sign of the Cross, his entire perspective changed. He knew that he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet in that moment, he knew that there was something greater than the evil that he saw in the prison, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that the hope of all mankind was represented in that simple Cross. And through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.

Solzhenitsyn slowly got up, picked up his shovel, and went back to work. Nothing outward had changed, but inside, he received hope."

Excerpt from "The Gulag Archipelago" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, which was released in the US in 1973.
------------------------------------------------------------------

I do question if John McCain had read this story, seeing as McCain thinks Solzhenitsyn "was a writer with unusual gifts, utterly devoted to his art, brilliant and exacting, producing work that would stun not just literary worlds but the entire Cold War political world."

http://www.nysun.com/opinion/solzhenitsyn-at-work/83117/

And I do question if John McCain has, in a mix up of perception or clarity, claimed this story as his own.

If you had had this extraordinary experience. And a famous writer, a writer that you have written about your admiration for, had a very similar experience. Wouldn't you publicize it? Wouldn't you write about it? And wouldn't you have talked about it at the faith forum when you we're relaying the story?

You and Alexander S. have this incredible shared experience of being imprisoned , having someone draw a cross in the dirt, it inspires you and you don't publicize it? You don't talk about it? You don't write about it even as you write specifically about Solzhenitsyn and your admiration of him.

So, there are different versions and there is an example of a famous author having a very similar experience.

I call bullshit on this story.

Here's the thing:

"Shortly after John McCain came back from Vietnam in 1973, he wrote a detailed 12,000 word report of his experiences that was published in US News and World Report:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/01/28/john-mccain-prisoner-of-war-a-first-person-account.html

So even though McCain at the Faith Forum said:

"It was Christmas day, we were allowed to stand outside of our cell for a few minutes, and those days we were not allowed to see or communicate with each other although we certainly did. And I was stadning outside for my few minutes, outside my cell. He came walking up. He stood there for a minute and with his handle [sandal?] on the dirt in the courtyard he drew a cross and he stood there and a minute later, he rubbed it out and walked away. For a minute there, there as just two Christians worshiping together. I'll never forget that moment so every day -"

http://thepage.time.com/partial-transcript-of-saddleback-forum/

That moment he will never forget wasn't worth spending a few of those 12,000 words on.

Religion seem to have been important for the POWs though:

"In March of 1971 the senior officers decided that we would have a showdown over church. This was an important issue for us. It also was a good one to fight them on. We went ahead and held church. The men that were conducting the service were taken out of the room immediately. We began to sing hymns in loud voices and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Which makes you wander even more why seeing a fellow Christian on "the other side" doesn't get an explicit mention.

There is a story of a humane North Vietnamese guard though:

"It was also in May, 1969, that they wanted me to write—as I remember—a letter to U. S. pilots who were flying over North Vietnam asking them not to do it. I was being forced to stand up continuously—sometimes they'd make you stand up or sit on a stool for a long period of time. I'd stood up for a couple of days, with a respite only because one of the guards—the only real human being that I ever met over there —let me lie down for a couple of hours while he was on watch the middle of one night."

Which sounds strangely familiar to John McCain's statement yesterday, about the "Cross in the Sand" guard:

"One night I was being punished in that fashion. All of a sudden the door of the cell opened, the guard came in, a guy who was just what we call a gun guard. He just walked around the camp with a gun on his shoulder. He went like this and then he loosened the ropes. He came back about four hours later, he tightened them up again and left."

So is that the same guy? Or is John McCain just making stuff up as he goes along?

Even so, that was May 1969, so the next Christmas, according to John McCain above, this guard draws his cross in the sand, right? Except that:

"In December of 1969 I was moved from "The Pentagon" [he means "The Plantation" camp] over to "Las Vegas." "Las Vegas" was a small area of Hoala Prison which was built by the French in 1945."

So that Vietnamese guard is following John McCain around from camp to camp?

McCain told the same story on the 2000 campaign trail, except NOT ABOUT HIMSELF, as reported by the New York Times:

"Many years ago a scared American prisoner of war in Vietnam was tied in torture ropes by his tormentors and left alone in an empty room to suffer through the night. Later in the evening a guard he had never spoken to entered the room and silently loosened the ropes to relieve his suffering. Just before morning, that same guard came back and re-tightened the ropes before his less humanitarian comrades returned. He never said a word to the grateful prisoner, but some months later, on a Christmas morning, as the prisoner stood alone in the prison courtyard, the same good Samaritan walked up to him and stood next to him for a few moments. Then with his sandal, the guard drew a cross in the dirt. Both prisoner and guard both stood wordlessly there for a minute or two, venerating the cross, until the guard rubbed it out and walked away."

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904EFDE1239F93AA15751C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

In his 1999 book "Faith of my fathers" John McCain tells this story in the first person though.

Let me be clear, there is no way we can prove that McCain's Cross story is absolutely false, he may have lifted it from the Cross story that was attributed to Solzhenitsyn as retold by Billy Graham in the 70s and 80s.

But what is clear is that McCain,

1) He did not mention the remarkable Cross story in his 12,000 word essay of his experience sin Vietnam.

2) Looks like this is McCain's first draft of the story...

It's another very touching religious moment in McCain's captivity which he also did not mention in the 12,000 word 1973 recollection, but this one he had made up as early as 1974:

Excerpt from Time Magazine's article "The Power and The Story""

"Reagan was Governor of California in 1974, when he invited McCain to a prayer breakfast in Sacramento. McCain has never been a particularly reverent guy; but that morning he found himself telling the silent crowd about a discovery he made when he was thrown into solitary confinement in a 6-ft. by 9-ft. hole in the ground. On the wall was etched a testimony, scratched into the stone by a previous occupant: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty," read the jagged writing. The words sustained him, McCain told the crowd, through his 2 1/2-year solitude. When he finished, the audience, including the Governor, was sobbing. "I realized," he says now, "it wasn't really me that moved them. It was the Story that did it.""

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,992801,00.html

The cross in the sand story would have been worth mentioning as well. It fit perfectly. This story also is not mentioned in the 1973 article by McCain.

3)The nutjobs at the most popular Republican conservative blog FreeRepublic.com were actually the first to spot the similarities between McCain and Solzhenitsyn. Of course they would. They all love Solzhenitsyn and at the time, they all hated McCain. The year was 2005.

Then most Freepers called B.S. on McCain's Cross Story.

And McCain had just published his latest book of embellished tales. A Freeper posted the reference to the Cross in the Dirt story, and Freepers accepted it with, lets say, something less than enthusiasm.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1538054/posts

Among some of the responses are:

"Do I sense a run for president coming up? Sorry if I'm too cynical."

"Perhaps McCain is making obvious Christian statements to gain support for 2008.
----
Perhaps??? :-)"

and of course:

"This guy is so full of $hit his eyes are brown. He is a sellout RINO. I would not believe a word he says."

But my jaw hit the floor when I read this. The commenter saw the connection:

"Hmmmm. Looks like McCain has been reading Solzhenitsyn.

From The Mayor's daily posts at FR's Finest and The Canteen from the devotional "Our Daily Bread" comes Sunday's reading...

World-famous Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was sent to a Siberian prison because he criticized communism. Languishing there under intolerable conditions year after year, he decided to end his life. But suicide, he firmly believed, would be against God's will. He thought it would be better for a guard to shoot him.

So at a public assembly of the prisoners, he sat in a front row, planning to get up and walk toward an exit, compelling a guard to kill him. But to his surprise, another prisoner sat down, blocking his exit. That unknown man leaned over and, to Solzhenitsyn's astonishment, drew a cross on the dirt floor."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1538054/posts?q=1&;page=51#93

And what more? Cindy McCain lied about meeting Mother Teresa who supposedly convinced her to adopt an orphan from Bangladesh.

The Christian Science Monitor in their August 20, 2008 edition reports that Cindy McCain was caught lying about meeting Mother Teresa:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
"The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.

The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.

Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)"

"The story about Mother Teresa “convincing” Mrs. McCain to bring home two children from an orphanage in Bangladesh has been retold many times. Initially, the “About Cindy McCain” page on the McCain campaign website read: “Mother Teresa convinced Cindy to take two babies in need of medical attention to the United States. One of those babies is now their adopted daughter, 16-year-old Bridget McCain.”

The media picked up the theme. A story earlier this year on ABC’s “Good Morning America” stated, “With Mother Teresa’s encouragement she brought her fourth child, Bridget, home.” An April 2008 Wall Street Journal profile states that Mother Teresa “implored” Cindy to bring the girls to the United States. Other articles say Cindy did it “at the behest” of Mother Teresa.

But a source who was with McCain on that 1991 trip, and who asked that his name not be used because of prior legal dealings with the McCain family, says that Mother Teresa was not at the orphanage when Cindy decided to bring the two girls home.

A McCain source acknowledged that Cindy McCain did not meet Mother Teresa during the 1991 trip to Bangladesh but said McCain did meet her later on, although the source could not say when or where. The campaign has since reworded the reference to the adoption on its website."

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/08/20/watchdogs-make-it-harder-for-politicians-to-stretch-the-truth/
-------------------------------------------------------------------

The article goes on to say that Cindy has been caught lying or exaggerating on other occasions as well. I guess my major questions about this are:

If it was Michelle Obama would this not be all that was talked about for about two weeks? There would probably be talk of it overshadowing the convention or something. God knows Fox would have 24/7 coverage and find a way to link it back to the Black Panthers or something.

Second, this is not a little white lie. Lying about meeting and conversing with Mother Theresa about adopting your child is delusional, not a little white lie. What do you think?

If this had been Michelle Obama, what would the Reaction have been?

Hannity would have wet his pants, Fox would have ran 24/7 Michelle Obama as "Anti-Christian" Coverage, Bill O'Reilly would have interviewed bishops asking "Why do the Obama's Hate Catholics?" Glenn Beck would have connected this lie to the Weathermen and Ayers in some way. Lou Dobbs would have questioned whether the adopted daughter was legal. Keith Olbermann would perhpas have been the only voice of sanity. McCain would have ran another Anti-Christ Ad saying "Who else would lie about Mother Theresa?" He would have said "My Friends, Americans do not, American do not this sort of thing American."

Re. 7

TalkinPointsMemo had a great blog a couple of months ago with background on how Cindy was having drug problems during this period, using the charity to get drugs illegally, and how the adoption may have been for political advantages.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/05/cindy-mccains-tarnished-halo.php

""If there is anything I am lacking in, I've got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life."

Um, OK. Now I'm supposed to vote for him, based on the fact that he has no taste?

"I've got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again."

A noun, a verb, and POW - this is how he constructs sentences.

Everything he says seems to be coded to say to corporate CEO's "Hey I'm the Perfect Stooge. I'll do anything you want! I'm your man!"

Yogi-one wrote:

'A noun, a verb, and POW - this is how he constructs sentences.[Credit to Joe Biden]

Everything he says seems to be coded to say to corporate CEO's "Hey I'm the Perfect Stooge. I'll do anything you want! I'm your man!"'

***

Here's a gem of a video clip from earlier this year courtesy of The Jed Report. During the January 30 GOP debate at the Reagan Library, Janet Hook of the LA Times asked John McCain why he was more qualified than Mitt Romney to manage the economy. In response, McCain managed to:

* Say nothing about the economy
* Say he was more patriotic than Mitt Romney
* Cite his experience as a POW
* Argue that "radical Islamic extremism" is a more important issue
* Criticize a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq
* Did I mention, say nothing about the economy?

It's truly a hall-of-fame moment in the annals of chronic dodgery. Video and transcript below:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BT6h0Ni-pxA

Transcript:

"JANET HOOK, LA TIMES: What makes you more qualified than Mitt Romney, a successful CEO and businessman, to manage our economy?

JOHN MCCAIN: Because I know how to lead. I know how to lead.

I led the largest squadron in the United States Navy. And I did it out of patriotism, not for profit.

And I can hire lots of managers, but leadership is a quality that people look for.

And I have the vision and the knowledge and the background to take on the transcendent issue of the 21st century, which is radical Islamic extremism. I've been involved in every single major national security crisis since -- in the last 20 years. I'm proud to have played a role in those, and I'm proud to have played a role in making sure that we didn't raise the white flag and surrender in Iraq, as the Democrats wanted us to do and we would have done if we had set timetables for a withdrawal.

So, the fact is -- so the fact is that I have the qualifications and the knowledge and the background and the judgment. I don't need any on-the-job training.

I had the great honor of serving this country in uniform for 22 years.

I had the great honor of being inspired while I was in the prison camps of North Vietnam by the news of a governor and his wife who cared very much about those of us who were in captivity.

And when I came home, I was inspired by him, and I voted for him, and I supported him, and I was proud to be a leader in the Reagan revolution -- I mean, a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution, as we fought these wars together with unshakable courage and principle. And I'm prepared to follow in his tradition and in his footsteps."

Here's another McCain favorite, from the Intentblog archives. John on June 11, 2008 at IB wrote:

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

In the same interview [in which he proudly claimed he cannot operate a computer] 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/

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

That's when McCain was a High School sophomore (56 years ago.)

The shocking news from across the Atlantic this week is that Margaret Thatcher is suffering from dementia.

From 2002 she is out of the public eye. It was revealed by her daughter that she first suspected this when at the age of 75 the Iron Lady couldn't remember that the Falkland Island war which she won for Britain has never happened.

One wonders if McCain's recent "forgetfulness" has something to do with his mental health. His medical and Naval records are not fully revealed. One thing we know is that he takes Ambien when he is stressed.

I think the GOP power handlers are very happy to have one more senile puppet as their possible president.

McCain may not forget the Vietnam war, but he may claim that Iraq war never happened. He maybe perpetually fighting the Vietnam war and the Cold war, and sees himself as a Prisoner of the World while he got a beautiful girl, a fortune, and a political career flashing his POW card.

Of course, it's standard operating procedure for McCain to play the POW victim card in an effort to deflect tough (and easy) questions. According to one report, he's been doing this since 1982:

"Running for Congress from Arizona in 1982, John McCain was repeatedly assailed as a carpetbagger, which he pretty much was.

At a candidates forum when the matter was brought up yet again, McCain responded abruptly, telling his rival, "Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the first district of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/the-pow-card.html

Apparently, it played well back then, and McCain has been flashing it at every opportunity since. Recently, his campaign even used it to deflect criticism that he was pimping his own wife:

"After McCain jokingly offered his wife Cindy as a contestant at a biker beauty pageant, and was criticized for it, McCain spox Brian Rogers said Americans "know that John McCain's faith and character were tested and forged in ways few can fathom.""

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/the-pow-card.html

Oh Jesus, he is right. Since '82, if you dared to criticize McCain on healthcare, violating cones of silence and other policy matters, you could expect to be hit with POW!

But, last night, McCain officially promoted his POW card to punchline status by flashing it at Jay Leno--a clear invitation for the entire comedy world to cheapen and mock this specious line of defense:

"BURBANK, California (Reuters) Aug 25, 2008 - John McCain, who often invokes his ordeal as a Vietnam war prisoner to show his devotion to his country as he runs for U.S. president, drew on the experience again on Monday -- this time to deflect sniping over the number of houses he owns.

McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama last week accused the Republican senator of being out of touch with ordinary people after he was unable to say in an interview how many houses were owned by him and his wife Cindy, a wealthy heiress to a beer distributorship.

In an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, McCain, 71, said his priority was to keep Americans in their homes in tough economic times.
Then he recalled his Vietnam experience.

"I spent 5 1/2 years in a prison cell without -- I didn't have a house. I didn't have a kitchen table. I didn't have a table. I didn't have a chair," he said.

"I spent those 5 1/2 years ... not because I wanted to get a house when I got out."

What a joke.

Rachel responds to "POW!" with "BAM!" and "SMACK!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdZjZIh-750

This is a GREAT way to get Obama elected! and I'm sure he's proud of you Gotham! I know I am! Tell us more stuff, love it.

Of course thats his favorite song, ding dong
And why should it be..

I really don't get your angle, what your point?

The reason why McCain's POW excuse is relevant is because he is going to get a pass for being a shitty president because he didn't have a home for 5.5 years. I mean, record deficits don't matter because McCain stayed in the Hanoi Hilton; high unemployment doesn't matter because McCain stayed in the Hanoi Hilton; a healthcare crisis that won't get fixed doesn't matter because McCain stayed in the Hanoi Hilton; losing the strategic initiative throughout the world doesn't matter because McCain stayed in the Hanoi Hilton; that our nation's infrastructure will fall further into disrepair doesn't matter because McCain stayed in the Hanoi Hilton; the list goes on and on....

There will be no criticism allowed of McCain because of what he went through 40 years ago. You should get that by now.

The point I'm making is that the way McCain runs his campaign gives a window onto how he would run his presidency. Dissent is stifled by saying, "You can't criticize anything I do because of what happened to me." It would be the same thing if he were president - I mean, is it so hard to conceive of his press secretary saying, "The Administration's economic policy is inviolable, President McCain was a POW."

McCain jumped the shark long ago.

I believe it was called the "Keating Five" banking scandal.

And hey, don't bother criticizing John McPOW for those free flights on the Keating private plane- he couldn't ride on ANY JETS for 5 1/2 years!

Having the Keating debacle bailed-out by US taxpayers was just making up for lost time, when in the Hanoi Hilton didn't have much of a chance to defraud anyone!!

McCain would be worse than Bush, his VP nominee or some other off-stage lobbyist (McCain has plenty of them) would run this country as their personal fiefdom.

But hey, how is that any different than the last eight years?

One could suspect that POW's face higher rates of disease or illness than the rest of the population. Here's soem evidence via a source, a POW who was imprisoned with John McCain"

"Most of us who survived that experience are now in our late 60's and 70's. Sadly, we have died and are dying off at a greater rate than our non-POW contemporaries. We experienced injuries and malnutrition that are coming home to roost. So I believe John's age (73) and survival expectation are not good for being elected to serve as our President for 4 or more years."

http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,164859_1,00.html

We don't know if John McCain is dying of cancer, and neither does the press. All we know is that he released 1500 pages of medical records for his 2000 campaign and this cycle he allowed selected journalists to look at certain documents for three hours.

I accidently posted the on the OT.

I registered to vote today.

After all the spinning facts and swirling info, there are two things that speak more than anything else.

McCain didn't know how many homes he owned and it is SEVEN and ABBA, top of the list.

The first sickens me to my core.
The second has not completely sunk in. There still some core issues there.

I will not support anyone that is so completely disconnected.

That's all I need to say on that matter.

peace comes from peace

derek

Oh one more seed
The desire to gain large amounts of money and power and property must become the new social disorder that people need therapy for. Like meth addiction. It kills and corrupts an other wise peaceful people.

If McCain's health(physical and mental) is in question...that makes the VP chocie very crucial, and the GOP knows it.

That reminds us of why there are deep divisions within the Republican party regarding McCain's VP.

The neglected story is that the selection of Joe Biden is exposing the fault lines and the weak bench of the GOP.

From Politico Playbook:

"Republican officials say Sen. John McCain still plans to wait till the day after the Democratic convention to announce his choice for vice president, even though the officials believe he's leaning heavily toward former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The officials say Sen. Barack Obama's choice of Sen. Joe Biden finished off any remaining chance for youthful Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to be on the GOP ticket. "Can you imagine what Biden would do to Pawlenty in the debate?" asked one top Republican.

"It would just be sad." "

http://www.denverpost.com/dnc/ci_10286740

Christy Mihos: The Mitt I know: A warning for McCain and the GOP,

"He never gives up. He believes it’s his destiny to be president of the United States. He will adopt any position or embrace any person or group to make this happen.

This is the Mitt Romney I know, and I worked with him in Massachusetts state government when he was governor."

http://www.enterprisenews.com/opinions/x633544658/Christy-Mihos-The-Mitt-I-know-A-warning-for-McCain-and-the-GOP

McCain's VP choice will not only pale compared to Biden, it'll expose at least one of the many rifts that people choose to ignore.

Just imagine the Joe Lieberman choice, for example. For one thing, it reminds all conservatives that the over the hill McCain is going to be 72, and they worry about Lieberman being a heartbeat away from being President.

Of course, the real hot-button issue for conservatives is that Lieberman and Tom Ridge are pro-choice.

"Limbaugh warned on his radio show Tuesday that McCain would ensure the GOP's defeat if he picked either Tom Ridge, a former Pennsylvania governor and homeland security secretary, or Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an Connecticut independent who was the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee. Both Ridge and Lieberman support abortion rights. "

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/20/gop.vp/

That same CNN report pushed the Ridge trial balloon:

"One Republican insider said McCain campaign manager Rick Davis has called several state party chairs and indicated that Ridge will be the Republican vice presidential pick this cycle."

We know how well that went over, and Biden, the kid from Scranton, PA, makes Ridge much less likely a pick. McCain got burned by the pro-choice VP discussion:

"John McCain remains on the defensive about rumors he will pick a running mate who supports abortion rights, only days after a strong performance at a forum on values issues had reassured social conservative voters."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/08/20/ingraham_implores_mccain_to_sk.html

even as McCain was in the process of turning lemonade into lemons,

"They said that Mr. McCain’s recent public flirtation with Tom Ridge, a former Pennsylvania governor who supports abortion rights, was as much to give the appearance that Mr. McCain had an open mind on the issue as it was an embrace of Mr. Ridge."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/us/politics/20veep.html

IOW, it was all bullshit, designed to bolster McCain's image with the press.

But it's not just the pro-choice issue that is a party splitter. Don't forget that Romney and the GOP have a Huckabee problem:

" In an interview on Fox News today, Mike Huckabee registered his objection to the idea of Mitt Romney joining this year’s Republican ticket.

“Mitt Romney has had very definite swings of positions— not just one or two little things, but on many of the issues,” Huckabee said. He later added: “I think that there are better choices for Senator McCain, that would have the approval of values voters.”"

http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/huckabees-v-p-choice-anybody-romney

Of course, front-runner Romney has a few houses of his own to add to McCain's housing headache...

Oh, and don't even go there with a 'woman candidate'. Not only is the GOP bench weak, the GOP base won't tolerate it.

"A Republican woman VP could actually hurt McCain. A full 20% responded that they would be LESS likely to support the GOP nominee if he selected a female on the ticket."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/08/05/1248541.aspx

In fact, wherever he turns, McCain is going to have a king-sized VP migraine, particularly if he picks someone he ran against in the primaries (let's relive how well McCain and Romney got along, shall we?).

Ref. 19. Here's the full story of the POW McCain-mate:

Why I Will Not Vote for John McCain
Phillip Butler | March 27, 2008

http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,164859_1,00.html

[Doctor Phillip Butler is a 1961 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a former light-attack carrier pilot. In 1965 he was shot down over North Vietnam where he spent eight years as a prisoner of war. He is a highly decorated combat veteran who was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legion of Merits, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Heart medals.

After his repatriation in 1973 he earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at San Diego and became a Navy Organizational Effectiveness consultant. He completed his Navy career in 1981 as a professor of management at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is now a peace and justice activist with Veterans for Peace.]

God is in the room and the ego sits trapped in the corner like a rat. It can't run so it is going put up a fight.

But you know who will win, with a little cheese.

My daughter has a pet rat, so I know they can be tamed. She is actually quite nice.

I had this real dream last night surprisingly John McCain was in it with me. Sometimes I think these dreams are like remote presence; like remote viewing. Of course it could represent the future, but in the dream he did not carry the authority of the President.

In it McCain’s plan is to make themselves look bigger than they really are. That was what my character suggested. There was a reference to a movie they were going to watch which depicted the strategy. Of course it may have been in the context of dealing with Russia or China and not the campaign. Some female had been killed on a bridge and there was a Frisbee involved, not sure how that was connected you know how dreams work sometimes.

McCain was asking me (the character I was witnessing through) to put together a presentation on the concept for National Security so he could understand it. He said he needed it today, my character didn't really care that he wanted it today, he should understand this stuff, and he didn't get it.

Well you know it was just a dream... thought I would share it.

Okay, I don't get this - what's wrong with the Abba song "Dancing Queen"? I love the song...maybe it's the tune I like - it's upbeat and makes one want to dance to it. I don't know what the words in the song say - maybe it's silly and whatever...but I do like many of the Abba songs...

hello all,

The Dancing Queen....I get it.....it fits...the song is very happy, upbeat....and I can see John and Cindy singing this in their private jet which was loaned to them from their fave corporate lobbyist as they prance about the nation visiting home, after home, after home, after home, after home, after home, after home.....gee, my fingers cramped....yeah, I mean to have so much that you cannot EVEN keep track ........must be a very happy, happy, time and it must make one just want to dance and dance and dance.....and there is no better song with which to do it with.....ahhhhhhhhh..I can only dream, dream, dream.....ruth

Doodleman...you seem like a really nice dude...but Sheesh....

Why didn't you register to vote in 04 because of Teresa Heinz net worth? She could buy and sell Cindy McCain and never feel a ripple in her bank account? Do you think John Kerry could have named all her holdings?

god, we get bent out of shape about the silliest things....it used to be that we applauded accomplishment...but now...it's something to be avoided...unless of course you're Algore, and have huge houses and fly private jets and pollute more than any 100 normal folks...but that's OK...cause he cares...he really cares...the polar bears....wah, wah, wah.....

and....a guys favorite song disqualifies him?

what the hell kind of post is this anyway... I think Light G has way too much time on his hands!

:)

Richard...can I get some of your drugs?

Is it the amaranth or the rock dust? You're a cool guy...but you're out there man, really out there....

I said it before, but you're either so smart you don't belong here...or else you're a frickin lunatic!!

Thankfully, you're nice!!

:)

I think the song is okay, they still play it at the clubs. However Dancing Queen is all about a big ego drama from a divine perspective. Which is the approach the McCain campaign managers tend to favor.

That's why I like techno, trance, and dance.

Not to big on lyrics even though they can both create or destroy illusions I don’t really identify with ego drama like we find saturating country music.

I think the intent is to dissolve the illusions like it says on illusions.me [click my name] they are the cause of the pain and suffering.

Which we would note that illusion.me is dominated by McCain ads, it may appear random but I think there is some intelligence behind it. Sometimes Obama and Scientology show up though, interesting to watch.

With Obama elected we could save most of the planets population.

If McCain is elected then the strategy is to save a few in off grid sustainable independent Little Cities. It comes down to the dominant consciousness of the voters. If the voters vote in Obama then it demonstrated a general population worth saving.

If McCain is elected then it means most are not worth saving being stuck in the lower consciousness. We only want to preserve the higher evolved consciousness which is how evolution works.

So if McCain gets elected anyone wanting to survive will need to move to Michigan and Ohio, the Great Lakes Region and the Ohio valley.

Dear Martha #25:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REElUors1pQ

Richard, I'm in the Ohio Valley...does that mean I'll survive? :)

do you smoke it, snort it, or shoot it up?

:)

By the way, after reading your post, I think Hank Jr just became my favorite artist....you know, "I've got a shotgun, rifle and a 4 wheel drive and a country boy can survive..."

Trapped by my own illusion....I need a fourth Jesus.... aaaaiiiiiieeee!!! Obama, please, come walking down the Ohio river....I'll be waitin at the boat dock....!!

Actually if you keep your vitamin C levels high enough it diminishes the enzyme that breaks down enkephlins and endorphins (natural opiates) produced by the body. DL- Phenylalanine does the same combined work really well.

So then you don't need drugs and anti depressants to get really high. Enkephlins are 100 times stronger than morphine, they simply have a shorter half life, which makes sense.

But the disease industry doesn’t promote that approach. If we had a health industry they would. It all depends on where the profit is at.

This also the solution to the drug problem, which is really an addiction problem aggravated by nutritional deficiency mainly magnesium. Current produce has 57% less magnesium then it did in the 70’s thanks to nutrient depleted soil and the use of petro chemical fertilizers, which is the reason for the surface soil Remineralization.

So the War on Drugs is an Illusion, what we need is to implement the solution to addiction.

It is all based on science, not profit driven pseudo science.

If you take the time to check it out the Skeptics are now having a change in attitude.

Skeptic.me [Click my name]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd3rA89VhtA

Hi skinny, it is not that difficult to project the fourth Jesus on that picture :)

Richard...I love you man...we've both been here off and on since the beginning, but anyone who would write this is either deluded, nuts, or high...I don't know which... :

"With Obama elected we could save most of the planets population.

If McCain is elected then the strategy is to save a few in off grid sustainable independent Little Cities. It comes down to the dominant consciousness of the voters. If the voters vote in Obama then it demonstrated a general population worth saving.

If McCain is elected then it means most are not worth saving being stuck in the lower consciousness. We only want to preserve the higher evolved consciousness which is how evolution works."

Sorry pal....you're outta your mind.... I'd rather believe that, than just flat out call you an arrogant ass...because i really do think you're a nice guy....

Just the opinion of one stuck in a lower conciousness....

:)

Ego is like a localised hump-shaped wave that soon slumps and expires.

Spirit is like a soliton wave. A well-defined wave that can travel for a long distance holding the same shape

Okay I will concede that nothing is for certain, and form that rises from chaos can be hard to predict, and if McCain gets elected, the results could be just what we need to provide an impetus to send everyone seeking, and create a massive uprising leading to evolution.

Electing Obama could actually stifle our evolution if he were to succumb to the forces of Ego and gets fiction filled advice from his advisors.

On the other hand we don't want humanity to resort back to the land of Barbarians modernized with 4 wheel drives and shot guns. Or maybe we do, either way I will do well in either scenario. Sound somewhat adventurous though doesn’t it?

So McCain could be the best president for us from an evolutionary perspective I don’t know enough to make that decision myself so that is why we some up a bunch of individual decisions which allows God to decide.

If McCain were to become president one would do their best to support him, I wouldn't be upset because I know everything happens perfectly.

A Peaceful planet doesn't have much entertainment value from a divine perspective but it is a nice place for a vacation. Would you watch a War movie or one about Heaven? Would you want to live in a war or heaven? I guess it depends on your desire for excitement.

So the question is what industry do he people of earth want to participate in, Travel or Entertainment?

A little of both? I suppose it could be mixed purpose.

Of course there is the educational perspective.

My mother who instilled compassion in me makes the point when I speak of ending wars and temptation to be greedy; how will souls learn?

So if we look at the earth from the school perspective it gets devalued if we reduce the number of subjects offered.

I agree it can't be by force but only natural evolution, let them gravitate instead.

I guess everything is just perfect the way it is.

Travel, Education, and Entertainment

Yo Skinny
A song shouldn't qualify a candidate.
But when he picks this song as his favorite, it does reveal a lot about him in context of becoming a world leader.

You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen

Friday night and the lights are low
Looking out for the place to go
Where they play the right music, getting in the swing
You come in to look for a king
Anybody could be that guy
Night is young and the musics high
With a bit of rock music, everything is fine
Youre in the mood for a dance
And when you get the chance...

You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen
Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen

Youre a teaser, you turn em on
Leave them burning and then youre gone
Looking out for another, anyone will do
Youre in the mood for a dance
And when you get the chance...

You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen
Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen

I picture him in the oval office.........

Yo I should have registered many years ago but something about this election caught my interest.

I get the feeling Al Gore knows what he owns and he seems very aware of his foot print relative to the change he is making.

Not caring about our planet and the accumulation of excessive wealth and power are old school my friend.

derek

I think there would be common agreement through the entire universe from every perspective that pollution and suffering is not desired; of course both are an impetus for evolution.

Skinny, Richard isn't crazy, he is sweet and kind and playful. He has an amazing imagination and he's a super cool dude, one of my favorites! I miss you Richard, are we ever gonna hand out and eat chocolate fortune cookies again? Did that happen or was it a dream?
I love you.

dgdgg

hey Hi Steve,

yes, I watch Fox News! One has to these days if one wants to get the fair and balanced :)...but seriously....it is important to watch Fox because then we know what propaganda if being shoveled about on any given day. I, especially, enjoy Hannity because he just gets so indignant about the arrogance of the liberal left....it really bothers him....him being the host of one of Fox's fair and balanced TV talk shows and being more humble than, well, Jesus, I guess I can understand his upsets....:)))))

so I'll probably be watching again tonite to see what they say about Hillary's speech...I bet they will really like her's, now. They will probably say things like.....boy.....she really deserved that VP spot....John would pick her in a minute, if she would cross over....boy....that Barak Obama is really ignoring Hillary's supporters, John would really listen and care about them....if only....the would cross over.....yes, we feel for Hillary...boy she got our vote...those Democrats...treating a woman that way...no, we wouldn't have betrayed them that way...but what can you expect from the liberal left....those arrogant.....asdfjkl;!!

:))))))))oh, I am in a mood today...and just having some fun with the political parties....and it's craziness....

have a fun time with it...because it's nuts at the core.....hats and rabbits My Friends!!

Derek...I get your sincerity...but who in the hell gives you the say so on what quantifies excessive accumulation of wealth? Is it someone who works for 10 bucks an hour? they are wealthy compared to someone who won't work...sorry Craig... Is it someone who makes $200,000? That person probably is responsible for creating employment opportunities for several people and for working 60-70 hours per week. Is excessive wealth 10 million bucks per year?

You can't quantify it...and anybody who tries is perpetuating a class warfare, usually born out of jealousy and feelings of inadequacy. In other words it's bullshit.

Cindy McCains Father, fought in WWII. He scraped together $10,000, to start a beer distributorship. He worked his ass off and created the most successful beer distributorship in the country. Cindy inherited it. McCain married Cindy. She is an american success story.

That just galds the ass of a liberal doesnt' it?

Class warfare!!! Did I hear class warfare?!?

YES! Class warfare!

Everybody worth over 100 million dollars give it up now, peacefully; we don't want anybody getting hurt.

And you know they will choose the money over their lives!

The one thing I could not do, and will not do, is kill somebody over my belief system; because then my entire philosophy would be forsaken.

I guess that is what separates me from people willing to kill others to "free" them.

Like Derek says peace will only come from peace.

Soon enough I am quite sure I will be a homeless cretin wandering the streets mumbling to myself; but not on this day.

So now I shall cry some sorrows to those who care to hear . . .

My mother has been busting her 63 year old ass all her life to just survive. They just raised property taxes here in nice old conservative Spokane again, and she worries to death, she is literally worrying herself to death, that she will not be able to afford this little shanty of a “house” for another year:

as I live in the basement doing nothing!

I cannot even look at her, I don’t hardly talk to her, and . . .

Yeah

If I got a job that paid ten dollars an hour after the creditors and child support got through with me I would roughly be making maybe, maybe, 4 bucks an hour. While local lawyers make 100 times that amount an hour.

A damned lawyer gets to make my hour wage a hundred times over and give me their condescending looks of superiority while I hand them their food:

screw that.

I oppose war yet my tax money would funds wars:

screw that.

I believe marijuana should be a legal anti-anxiety and anti-depression drug, in start contrast to a known depressant like alcohol, and yet my tax money would buy another platoon of cops busting pot growers:

screw that.

I believe in a small municipal/state/federal government yet my tax money supports people like John McCain who have been on welfare their entire lives, and even after they get super-rich they are still on the government dole:

screw that.

...
screw that.
...
screw that.
...
screw that . . .

I can work as hard as anybody, but working simply to pay the bills is not what I am here for.

Alas though, as I preach about wanting to help the world’s poor and downtrodden, and seek social justice in this nation and throughout the world, I myself am hastening my own mother to an early grave. Great. Just fricking great . . .

I cannot work with my own people in the prison system, educating and trying to give them hope, or teach in a school perhaps giving our children a different view of things, b/c of course I am a convicted felon, and the only people that can help my people are from the suburbs and have gotten their Masters in social work, or majored in criminal “justice” . . .

So just build another prison, I guess that takes care of my retirement plan too.

Indeed, can I borrow that shotgun, and one bullet, we could toss down a few straight shots of some Wild Turkey, and then you can drop me off in the woods anywhere . . .

K, well, sorry for venting, I have not done my “o woe is me” bit in awhile. I just feel trapped, useless, tired.

Peace

The key point is 12 ships carrying 12,000 each for 144,000 arrived here beginning the game. 12 tribes if you will. Which tribe will win?

Twelve ships will take 144,000 players away, during the rejuvenation, as part of game continuity, think Star Trek and Warp Drive.

All those that are out of the game, or perish with the fictions, are where they have always been back in the Crystal City, everything is perfect there, where everyone gets to watch, but they do not get to participate in the game, which is where all the real fun is at. They don’t have oceans and forests either.

Part of the game is figuring out how to get on the list, the database of life and be one of the 144,000 so that you can stay in the game and don’t end up just being part of the audience.

If you doubt the storyline check out esoteric.me or click my name.

all in good fun of course...

Wonder what that 144,000 means in Hebrew? Perhaps there is a quite more esoteric meaning other than simply 144,000 people . . .

Hmmmmmmmmm

Your right Skinny no one can quantify what is excessive.
It is the responsibility of each person.

There is a difference between creating a business or venture to create jobs and opportunities and the accumulation of wealth simply to accumulate it.

McCain and Al Gore are good examples.
Now I don't know them personally, so I am doing a little assuming.
Looking at the two and both are wealthy, McCain seems to be letting his money accumulate to accumulate and Gore is using his money to change the world.

In my opinion, McCain is excessively wealthy and Gore is not. Not because of how much money and stuff they have but because of the way they use it and their awareness of their fellow man.

I'm sure there are people who can come up with facts to spin this in both directions, yo, this is just my gut feeling.

I believe the humanity is moving on, away from the old dysfunctional systems. What we have now is no longer going to work in the years to come. Our priorities as a people are changing.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." Jimi Hendrix
Thank you Jimi

derek

I think Rudy says it about right, "He made a big mistake", and thats OK, but I don't believe he can pull it off now, it would have been a done deal. O well, I do think he is a good man and would make a good president, but he clearly made a desision that went against what most folks wanted ( 18 million people is a bunch ) and I believe the price tag is his election as president, to bad, for him and us.
I would love to be proven wrong though : ) anyway, goodnight, yall.

Hi Tammy, thanks, I guess if it is in the Divine plan. It was a shared dream different from a solitary dream.

love
Richard

I didn't understand any of that Richard, but I love you too. I emailed Mccain and told him to ask Ms. Condi Rice to be his running mate, wouldn't that be a hoot! Love and miss you : )

hi there Tammy,
Interesting link to the Rudy commentary.

Maybe ... Joe Biden should reconsider his acceptance as VP, and pass the baton to the more popular (and some would say, more capable) ... Hillary Clinton
:-)

Hi Richard!

There's the thing Kate;

"Hillary, he ignored eighteen million votes, and chose Biden as his VP, what else will he ignore if he were to be elected? I am sorry I can not vote for him, that was a slap in the face to the people and a test, he failed. He is not electable anymore.
I believe Mccain has the upper hand and will take the election.
Stay healthy, and learn much. I'll see you at the polls in 2012 ! we' ll be READY! "

Tammy,
I think it possible Barack could lose because of this choice as VP, and his seeming inability to appreciate the strong contigent of Americans who voted for Hillary as the Democratic nominee.
time will tell ...

dear please stay healthy and yes, we will see each other, in 2012 - and all the years in between, i hope!

Hi Tammy

I have to agree with you. Hillary did what she has always done, she put the interests of the people first. Barack Obama puts Barack Obama first. Therein lies the biggest difference.
It's up to him now. We shall see.

Love
bonnie

note,
comment #55
is just my (humble)
opinion

First, let me say this the stupidist post for a blog GOTHAM! Who gives a crap about what Mc Cain's or Obama's favorite song is. That just tells me you shouldn't vote, period. This is just another choice between two evils. If you think either one of these guys is going to do fig for the people or make any kind of useful change, think again. They are(like all the rest up there on the hill) bought and paid for by the Washington elite.

We(the people) are the government(it says so in the U. S. Constitution and that document is the law of the land) should fire everyone of those
s(l)ob's and take back our country.
First an elected official should receive no pay(and certainly not be allowed to vote himself a raise as Congress does every two years. Can you imagine going into your bosses' office and saying "Oh by the way, I just gave myself a 28% salary increase and I'll be doing the same thing next year even though I have acomplished none of the work I promised I would when you hired me. Hell I wasn't even qualified for this job, I lied.)

If you want to serve the people then you should be willing to do so without pay. You can receive a stipend, a house, a car to drive, an expense account (which will be examined closely) and that's it. Nor will you be allowed to make tons of bucks off appearences, speeches, etc... When you leave office you can do whatever you want.
Also if you don't at least make an effort to do whatever it is you promised then we the people can toss you out on your ear before you term is over. And no more of this crap of serving for two years and the receiving retirement pay for the rest of your life. Likeise no more life time appointment for judges( with the exception of the U S Supreme Court, it takes that long to read and understand the U.S. Constitution. Notice I did not say interpet)no one should hold a job that they can't be fired from!

This could be a start if we all tried.
Let the revolution begin.

Much compassion~paulisoso

Nate at FiveThirtyEight.com writes:

How you'll know that Hillary's speech was a winner:

If the principal Republican talking point tomorrow is: "the speech was too good! It just proves that she should have been the [Presidential/Vice Presidential] nominee!"

******

Well, I don't know about repubs, but some Clinton deadenders here, who haven't yet moved on, are sounding just like that.

hi dear Craig,
for you I found this quote, as I was reading tonight:

Emerson said in his eulogy to Thoreau: "He chose to be rich by making his wants few, and supplying them himself."

love & a warm embrace,
~ Kate

Is the candidate's taste in music an issue for the election? Seems hard to believe. A truly entertaining post.

I shudder to think just how hyper some would get if he had said that he also considers the Blue Danube and The Merry Widow as favourites.

BTW I still think Dancing Queen was and is a great song and ABBA were a class act, as were the Beatles or Elvis etc.

Just my cheery two bits. Have a great campaign.

Dara

hi there Dara,
and how about the ABBA song,
Waterloo
!
~love Kate

The Politico: The GOP's 2008 nominee is...Eldon Smith?

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0808/The_GOPs_2008_nominee_isEldon_Smith.html

Who is Eldon Smith, you ask?

Why, that would be none other than John Sidney McCain [The Politico]:

" It turns out that this isn't the first time the issue of John McCain's lavish multiple residences has emerged in the heat of a campaign.

In 1986, when then-Rep. McCain was running for the Senate seat vacated by Barry Goldwater, he quietly began remodeling a $500,000 house in central Phoenix owned by his wealthy father-in-law James Hensley. The $225,000 project -- which included the construction of a 4,000-square-foot addition, swimming pool, jacuzzi, cabana and barbecue -- held political peril for McCain, who was already fighting charges that he was as an opportunistic carpertbagger.

The new house was located in Phoenix's fourth congressional district -- outside of the first district in Tempe which he represented at the time.

AP caught wind of the work at 7110 North Central Ave. shortly before the general election and dispatched a reporter to examine blueprints at the planning department. They found the permit applicants were listed as Hensley and a mysterious "Mr. Smith."

The reporter tracked down McCain's plumber, who told him he'd been told Mr. Smith's first name was "Eldon."

Eldon Smith, it turned out, was John McCain."

Good old Eldon John didn't want people to know that he was planning to leave his congressional district - and also wanted to hide the cost of his lavish quarter-million dollar renovation plans - so he came up with a ridiculous nom de maison, hoping to keep his plans buried under a sockpuppet. Of course, this might help explain why he lost track of the number of homes he's got.

I, for one, would like to learn about what else he's done in his life under an assumed name.

'Much compassion' from the 'Thoreau' here in Britain!

Yo Katissimo~~~~paulisoandso

Anothrer of McCain's favorite song.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal posted an article quoting McCain aide Brooke Buchanan saying that "Gasolina" was McCain’s "favorite."

Gasolina not to be confused with "gasoline" ...in Latina, it is .... slang for sperm, or male ejaculation.... the song is about demanding more sperm...and about screwing....not about demanding more offshore drilling...

McCain endorses song about "f***ing" at high school... also violating Arizona Law.

Read for Details:

http://dailykos.com/story/2008/8/27/0050/93650/765/575892

The song in question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gSuviM9uks

This, btw, is one of my favorite party songs, though I wouldn't expect a politician to endorse it to high school girls:

"Something is wrong with our priorities here if the Republican conservative candidate can appear at an American high school before an audience of ecstatic teenagers and plug a song about "f***ing"--and that goes largely unnoticed. Yes, we should all be concerned that the media is giving far too much coverage to the PUMAs to the detriment of real news--but let's not make the mistake of giving too little coverage to a seventy-one year old white man who's plugging a "f**k song" at a high school, to court the Latino vote."

"Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal posted an article quoting McCain aide Brooke Buchanan saying that "Gasolina" was McCain’s "favorite."" #65

He also said that "Gasolina" means "Energy independence."

Trust Me

"You're a financial planner and you want to invest my retirement savings in scratch tickets?"
"Trust me. I was a POW."

"You're a plumber and you're going to fix my clog with a stick of dynamite?"
"Trust me. I was a POW."

"You're a firefighter and you're going to put out the flames with gasoline?"
"Trust me. I was a POW."

"You're a jeweler and you're going to fix my Rolex with a hammer?"
"Trust me. I was a POW."

"You’re a nuclear physicist and you're giving out 'free samples' of enriched uranium to children?"
"Trust me. I was a POW."

"You're a surgeon and you're using a rusty hacksaw?"
"Trust me. I was a POW."

"You’re the Republican candidate for president and you want to fix the country's problems even though you don’t know much about the economy, you don’t know how to use the internet, you don’t know how many houses you own or what kind of car you drive, you admit you don’t think clearly when you’re tired, you make frequent gaffes on foreign policy, you think offshore drilling is a short-term solution to high gas prices, you support torture and keeping the Guantanamo prison open, you make rash decisions and statements from which you have to quickly backtrack, you have an explosive temper on a hair trigger, your idea of health care reform is 'wear more sunscreen,' you're for stem cell research except when it's done on stem cells because you consider them all American citizens, and you voted to support the policies of the worst president ever 100 percent of the time this year?"
"Trust me, my friends. I was a POW."

Only in Republicanland.

--Bill Harnsberger

Tammy, I was saying yes it was real.

Hi Kate.

In a bold leap forward in his nationalistic rhetoric, John McCain yesterday warned the World to get off America's lawn.

Addressing the American Legion Convention in Phoenix, McCain complained about Barack Obama's Berlin speech of last month. Obama had declared that by working together the nations of the world could more effectively address international terrorism and other problems we face in common. You'd have thought that was pretty uncontroversial, but you wouldn't have reckoned with John McCain's slick presidential team. It decided that what Americans want to see is more confrontation with the rest of the globe, in the guise of "leadership". It turns out that America also wants to be reminded yet again that McCain was once a POW.

From McCain's speech:

"My opponent had the chance to express such confidence in America, when he delivered a much anticipated address in Berlin. He was the picture of confidence, in some ways. But confidence in oneself and confidence in one's country are not the same. And in that speech, Senator Obama left an important point unclear. He suggested that the end of the Cold War proved that there was, "no challenge too great for a world that stands as one." Now I missed a few years of the Cold War, as the guest of one of our adversaries, but as I recall the world was deeply divided during the Cold War -- between the side of freedom and the side of tyranny. The Cold War ended not because the world stood "as one," but because the great democracies came together, bound together by sustained and decisive American leadership."

http://www.standardnewswire.com/news/21813256.html

Steve Benen wonders "Why would a man running to be Leader of the Free World publicly reject the notion of international cooperation on global challenges?":

"McCain seems to have gotten Obama's speech backwards. Obama talked about taking on global challenges -- counter-terrorism, global warming, counter-proliferation, the international drug trade -- and encouraging Europeans to join with the United States because, "No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them."

[...] As Obama described it, encouraging our allies to follow our lead ultimately serves our interests, and the interests of free people around the globe.

McCain perceives this as lacking "confidence in America." I'm afraid today's bizarre criticism says more about McCain's twisted worldview than Obama's faith in American strength."

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_08/014417.php

'Bizarre' is one word for McCain's hyper-nationalistic chest-thumping. He went on in his speech to insist that oppressed people around the world "do not resent or resist America's democratic influence in the world". Nope, no resentment at all - especially not in the neocon proving ground for exporting democracy, Iraq:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq26-2008aug26,0,4355364.story

Ay fair Kate: indeed!

always

Aye

The Politico reports that Barack Obama's VP choice is making John McCain's more difficult:

"Democrat Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as a running mate is complicating Republican John McCain’s analysis of his prospective vice presidential contenders.

Biden will make his formal debut Wednesday with a primetime address. McCain is expected to announce his pick after Obama accepts his nomination here on Thursday.

Some insiders are pressing McCain to make a strategic selection, one that beefs up his economic strength, enhances his chance to grab a state or amps up the partisan firepower.

“McCain knows Biden well. He knows how good he is as a knife fighter. He’ll take McCain apart,” said one Republican operative.

But a review of the much-rumored McCain shortlist clearly exposes the weaknesses each person on it might bring..."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12867.html

#65

John "McCain endorses song about "f***ing" at high school... also violating Arizona Law."

Song "Gasolina"(meaning sperm) was a song by Yankee Daddy who endorsed McCain, and he embraced him at a high school...to court Hispanic votes...

Here's some new development. Politico is reporting that Obama rebuffed Yankee Daddy, who then went to McCain:

"There's some amusement today about John McCain's endorsement by the Puerto Rican performer Yankee Daddy, who has an assault charge and some some seriously racy lyrics.

There's a bit more backstory, though. A Democratic Party source tells me a representative for Yankee Daddy approached Obama's Latino outreach staffers earlier this year about possibly endorsing Obama.

But he didn't pass the vetting, and Obama's aides said they weren't interested in his support. So, apparently, he moved over to McCain.

A spokeswoman for the performer didn't return a call seeking comment on the claim."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Dem_Obama_rebuffed_Yankee_Daddy.html#comments

McCain's most dishonest ad yet, attacking Obama's Iran policy:

The AP, points out that the ad is incredibly misleading:

"The ad is misleading because it states that Obama said Iran is "tiny" and "doesn't pose a serious threat" without noting that Obama was comparing the threat Iran poses today to the Soviet Union, the nuclear-armed adversary of the U.S. during the Cold War ...

In calling Iran "tiny" compared to the Soviet Union and having a small fraction of the Soviet military force, he noted that direct diplomacy with the Soviets was a bipartisan policy for decades in spite of their threat."

TPM has an analysis:

New McCain Ad Badly Distorts Obama's Words About Iran
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/new_mccain_ad_badly_distorts_o.php

McCain "prickly"

Well, it appears as though some in the MSM are starting to exit the "straight talk express".

In a new Time interview with John McCain, done on board his campaign plane, James Carney and Michael Scherer highlight the fact that "Candidate McCain" is a far different man than "Senator McCain". John Kerry made the right call last night in separating the two men in his speech.

Also, to use the word "prickly" in describing McCain's attitude in the interview speaks volumes. When I hear that word, I think irritable and spiteful. Exactly what that wrinkly, old white guy has become since transforming into "Candidate McCain".

Here is the article: McCain's Prickly TIME Interview

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1836909,00.html

McCain is clearly not comfortable or happy about the new direction the Rovians have taken his campaign. But rather than be a leader and say enough is enough, he chooses to go along with it and be angry instead. Good for us, I guess! It won't take much in the debates for Obama to piss McCain off enough to allow him to "go off" and make a complete ass of himself. I can hardly wait for that moment. For now, his campaign controls everything McCain "can do" and "not do" and even what he has to say and think.

Anyway, here are some key excerpts from the article:

And so when TIME's James Carney and Michael Scherer were invited to the front of McCain's plane recently for an interview, they were ushered forward, past the curtain that now separates reporters from the candidate, past the sofa that was designed for his gabfests with the press and taken straight to the candidate's seat. McCain at first seemed happy enough to do the interview. But his mood quickly soured. The McCain on display in the 24-minute interview was prickly, at times abrasive, and determined not to stray off message.

There's a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us?

"Read it in my books."

I've read your books.
"No, I'm not going to define it."

But honor in politics?
"I defined it in five books. Read my books."

::::::::::::::::;;;;;

YIKES! Johnny boy! Calm down!!!

[...]

Do you miss the old way of doing it?
"I don't know what you're talking about."

Really? Come on, Senator.
"I'll provide as much access as possible ..."

In 2000, after the primaries, you went back to South Carolina to talk about what you felt was a mistake you had made on the Confederate flag. Is there anything so far about this campaign that you wish you could take back or you might revisit when it's over?
[Does not answer.]

Do I know you? [Says with a laugh.]
[Long pause.] "I'm very happy with the way our campaign has been conducted, and I am very pleased and humbled to have the nomination of the Republican Party."

You do acknowledge there was a change in the campaign, in the way you had run the campaign?
[Shakes his head.]

You don't acknowledge that? O.K., when your aides came to you and you decided, having been attacked by Barack Obama, to run some of those ads, was there a debate?
"The campaign responded as planned."

[...]

Wow. Just wow. Candidate McCain really has issues...

post#64

Ed~ :)