Outrage: Bush praises McCain for GI Bill

Seriously, I wouldn't have even believed this if not for the video above. A little while ago today, President Bush, with a straight face, offered up praise for leaders of both parties for passing the G.I. Bill, including John McCain. What's so crazy about that, you ask? Well, as I've written about it before, McCain has been inexplicably opposed to the bill from jump, and he didn't even cast a vote in the Senate for the final bill.

I really don't see how any normal, rational, even passively political person couldn't conclude that Bush told a whale of a lie, and knew it, during this press conference. It's one of the things that drives me crazy about Bush - his blatant lying, when he knows he'd doing it. Okay, I'm not naïve enough to believe that there are many honest politicians in our country, if any, but that doesn't make Bush's words above any less wrong.

But it takes a special sort of contemptible scoundrel to drop a complete lie with a straight face before the cameras. During the last 7+ years, Bush has joined the ranks of Clinton, Reagan and Nixon by telling so many lies, it actually now stands out more when Bush is honest, because those instances are few and far in between. Today is just another sad, pathetic example.

A few other things are worth noting here. I'm wondering just what, in fact, Bush was thanking McCain for - opposing the bill as much as possible behind the scenes until public opinion overtook both men's opposition? It's a very poorly kept secret that Bush opposed the bill as much as McCain did, the former calling the bill "too expensive," which is incredibly laughable, since we are spending between $3 and $4 billion per week in Iraq.

Bush's signing the G.I. Bill into law is a typical move from the Bush play book, too - turning around and supporting a bill that he initially vehemently opposed - kind of like the Department of Homeland Security Bill in 2002, which was sponsored by Sen. Lieberman, back when he really was a Democrat. So, the play goes like this - Bush fights a bill he hates like crazy, and when public opinion proves him wrong, he turns 180 degrees and takes the credit by supporting it.

I'd love to know how many tens of millions of Americans who now think that McCain and Bush "support the troops" because of what Bush said about McCain after signing the bill.

McCain's "support" for the bill? How about not even showing up to vote for it. This is another one of many examples of McCain's strategy that he's employed for many, many months now - not showing up for votes, so he can't be criticized either way. So, if the public supports the bill, no one can say he voted against it. And if there are problems with the law's implementation later, no one can say that McCain voted for it. That's called a blatant lack of political courage. Translation: This must be more of what McCain calls his "straight talk" and another reason why the subservient press continues calling McCain a "maverick."

One final thought - the GOP, whose members never misses an opportunity to wrap themselves in the flag and to thump their chests while screaming, "We support the troops," should be called out on this fact - 22 senators voted against the G.I. Bill, all of them Republican. Now that's supporting the troops!

But wait! Look! Over here! Obama's not wearing an American flag on his lapel!!! He doesn't care about the troops! He's not patriotic!

Anyway, don't take my word for it about who voted what on the GI Bill - the non-partisan U.S. Senate Website has the roll call vote. People should remember this when, months from now, Bush is busy licking himself all over, saying he "supported the troops by signing the G.I. Bill." He initially didn't, and 22 Republican senators didn't when it counted, either.

I'd love to say the press won't let Bush and McCain get away with their lies about this, but I know better.

Cartoons of the Week

I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. Since when is Hillary's campaign debt my problem, or any voter's problem? Don't shed any tear for the Clintons - they are millionaires dozens of times over. It's also worth noting that they've earned every penny of it. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Clintons' public service and always will, but I couldn't care less about her campaign debt, and I wouldn't donate a penny toward it. Sorry, Hillary, but you'll be just fine.

I thought it was a little cheap for Obama to write a check to Hillary toward her campaign debt, and the press just lapped it up. Talk about buying supporters - it just seemed a little beneath Obama to do such a thing. Then again, Obama can't control what the press reports on, and the press never disappoints - as usual, the coverage has ranged from the inane to the insane - real issues be damned.

I know I'm being a little critical of Obama here (I'm not above that, and I'm not a sheep), but McCain deserves the most criticism, by far. His nakedly obvious courting of Hillary supporters is beyond revolting, especially since the Clintons have been GOP enemies #1 and #1a for the better part of 20 years. Now all of a sudden McSame and his ilk all have a "tremendous amount of respect for her"? You've got to be kidding me.

If Hillary's supporters vote for McCain en masse (and I simply don't believe that will happen), then these morons deserve exactly the sort of country we will get - more of the same Bush failed policies. And these will be the same people who will march in the streets and spend the next four years whining and complaining about his presidency. Judases, all of them.

I don't blame Obama for foregoing public financing, but he'd better live up to his word, and make more than a half-hearted attempt at fixing the way we finance our elections (and not just the presidential elections, either). It's a system that's clearly broken, and until it's fixed, our democracy won't truly return to the people it really belongs to - everyday American voters. As things stand right now, corporate interests (aided by their lobbyists) run Washington, and I'm including both political parties here, without qualification.

I smiled when I saw this one. That's right, America, it's time for generations X & Y to take over. Clearly, older Americans aren't happy about it. Guess what? Too bad.

To first Carlin cartoon is the best one I saw all week. I didn't get a chance to write about Carlin's passing this past week, but it really did sadden me. I grew up watching him (most of the time, without my parents knowing about it). I didn't always find his stuff funny, especially his more frivolous observations about our language - "Why do we park in a driveway and drive on a parkway?" Answer: I don't really care.

But, an overwhelming majority of the time, I loved his observations, humor, and most of all, his political activism. His best work was definitely his fight against our country's censorship laws. It's not a stretch to say that he's had a remarkable and enduring influence on our culture, and our First Amendment rights.

The best personal tribute I can think of to Carlin...

George, we'll fucking miss you.

Okay, so it's not original, nor particularly witty. But, it is fitting and heartfelt.

There are certainly a number of reasons for the mortgage disaster facing our country, and millions of home owners, but I've little doubt that a lion's share of the blame is from not regulating the mortgage industry.

Many anti-government GOPers (a double negative, IMHO) love to decry government regulation, but many times when investors and American citizens have gotten screwed in the last decade or so, some sort of deregulation has been behind it. From cable TV, electricity, mortgages, the airline industry, oil prices, the environment and the credit card industry, (and many other areas) the working men and women in this country all get financially raped when it's left to the corporations to police themselves. I'm not for excessive regulation, just smart and appropriate regulation.

I'm wondering when our federal government is finally going to wake up and deal with the levee systems that are supposed to protect our towns and cities from mother nature's fury, a problem that is only going to get worse in the coming decades with global warming?

What's going on in the Midwest right now is another classic example failure of the oft-repeated GOP mantra, "(Topic X) should be up to the states." A story in the New York Times this week revealed just how mismanaged the levee system is all along the Mississippi River (including New Orleans, which is still very poorly prepared for a major hurricane). Some levees are privately owned, others managed by the state, and the NYT story even quotes some government officials saying "we don't even know where some of the levees are."

Really? This is the best way to manage this system? I don't know if a federal take over of the levee system would be an improvement, but can it be worse than what we're seeing now?

I've been railing against our horrific energy policy for a while now, and I know I've promised I'd share some letters that I'm writing to the Obama campaign about this critical '08 election issue. I'll have more on it tomorrow. However, for now I'll say this, the cartoon immediately above is as apropos as ever. We can and we must vastly improve the mass transit capability in the U.S., as well as build a massive infrastructure for hydrogen cars, most notably filling stations for these cars.

Right underneath terrorism, homeland security and reigning in the deficit, energy policy must be an urgent policy in the next administration, no matter who wins the presidency.

I'm not significantly wowed by McCain's battery proposal, but it's a start. I wrote it several times this past week, and it's worth repeating - Obama MUST step out in front of this issue in the coming weeks and months to show voters he has bold, revolutionary energy policies of his own.

Pretty soon, it's going to get to the point that people simply won't fly, including me. I will always have to fly to some extent, since I have family on both coasts, but sadly, it won't happen as much in the coming years unless airlines fares get reigned in. (Fat chance) Just in case you live in a cave and you don't grasp the enormity of the problem of our reliance on fossil fuels, here's another nugget to chew on over your morning breakfast - it's all well and good to come up with alternative energy sources for our automobiles (in itself a monumental task), but what about airplanes? Tractor Trailers? Our jet fighters that protect our homeland? It's not hyperbole to say that coming up with an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels is perhaps the biggest challenge ever faced by humankind. We can do it, if we can stop fighting and arguing how for five minutes, and must up the political will to just get busy with the research and incentives for people to do this.

What a shocker - it's certainly a cliché but an apropos one - but Barack Obama should use this in his campaign (or a close cousin of it) - Are you better off now than you were eight years ago? For an overwhelming majority of Americans, the answer is an emphatic No. After that, hammer away at McCain's record of supporting Bush on nearly, oh, everything, and even moreso now that he's supporting Bush's tax cuts and just about anything else he thinks will court far-right conservatives, the people he needs to have any possible hope of succeeding in November.

If he does all that, Obama will have a chance for his own Mission Accomplished banner come November.

I find it incomprehensible that our government can't do more to prop up the sagging dollar. It just strikes me as unreal that the Bush administration (and Congress) all sit idly by while the dollar plunges. As an added bonus, this is driving up the price of oil (but is not the only reason), because the price of a barrel of oil is based on American dollars. Great. Is there an orifice on our bodies that the Bush administration hasn't screwed during the last 7+ years?

I still can't believe that an American institution like GM is having the hard times that it is. Actually, all of the Big Three in Detroit are bleeding profusely, and part of that reason is rising oil prices. All of them mercilessly milked the SUV cow dry in the 1990s and the early '00s, and now they have little to show for it.

Part of me (okay, a small part of me) thinks that GM deserves it. If for no other reason (and there are plenty) than for killing its EV-1 program in the mid-1990s, a program that came up with a viable electric car that had zero emissions and ran on no gas at all. The movie Who Killed the Electric Car does a great job in revealing much about his outrage.

Who knows? Maybe GM can turn it around. If not, almost all of its misfortune is of its own doing.

This one says it all, & it underscores another thing I've been saying for years now - when Bush and his supporters love a judicial decision, they praise the responsible judges and the decision, but when they dislike a decision, they whine about "activist judges" who are "legislating from the bench." You can't have it both ways, people. Then again, with Faux News, I guess you truly can.

W leaves another leader at a loss for words

I know, I know, I need to get over it, and someday, when the War in Iraq is over, maybe I will, but I still can't believe, nearly eight years later, that this man became president of our country. I've never seen any world leader, anywhere, as inarticulate and embarrassing as Bush is.

During a press conference with Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo the other day, Bush had this to say:

BUSH: Madam President, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the Oval Office. We have just had a very constructive dialogue. First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that - in which there's a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the - of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House. (Laughter.)

ARROYO: Yes.

BUSH: And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President.

ARROYO: Thank you.

As if Arroyo had anything to do with it. I'm reminded of an incident while I was working in a supermarket years ago, when an elderly woman was working there to handle out samples to customers. I was standing at the table getting a snack with a coworker, who was black, when the woman asked my coworker, as another black man walked by the table, "Why does he wear his pants like that? Do you know him?"

Sure lady - all black people know each other! What morons. The woman and our president, I mean.

Rendell to Bill Clinton: "Get over it"

Gov. Rendell hit the nail right on the head - President Clinton really does need to "get over it."

If Clinton can regain his bearings (and he certainly seemed lost, bitter, angry and at times politically incoherent during the primaries), he can be a tremendous asset to Barack Obama.

President Clinton has a tremendous role to play in this election, if he wants it.

I'm voting Republican because...

No, no, not ME (!) - watch the clip above.

I'm a little late to catch onto this one, but it's funny. No, check that, it's an instant classic so far in this young presidential campaign.

Tragically, this film says a great deal about the state of the Republican Party these days. The GOP led by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower is long dead.

My favorite line:

I think the government should be run by one big corporation - it would be so much cozier!

Wanted: GOP demagogues; 4 month temp. position, pays well

So this is the kind of rabid, revolting talk that Americans are going to be subjected to for the next 4 1/2 months - fear mongering at its worst about a would-be Obama administration. What a surprise.

Here are a few despicable examples of the many that have been broadcast over the airwaves in recent weeks. Listen to the video clip above as conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt leaves no demagogic stone unturned when talking about an Obama victory in regard to the USC/Ohio State game on Sept. 13. (Too bad the game isn't on Sept. 11 - that would have been too perfect.) An excerpt:

And none of the USC people will give up their tickets to me. I'd pay fair price. They — they know Ohio State's gonna slaughter the Trojans. They know that they're gonna slaughter the Trojans, and therefore they do not want me there at the bloodbath, since it's probably the last football game we'll ever get to see before the United States gets blown up by the Islamists under Obama. I — I would like to see Ohio State slaughter USC. This is what I'm living for right now.

And they said that Jerry Falwell is dead.

But wait, there's more.

John Gibson of Faux News fame recently entertained former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on his radio show. Wild comedy ensued when the two began fear mongering discussing a possible (probable) Obama Presidency. Take a listen to this claptrap...

GIBSON: The Obama team is going back to some of the old complaints about the war and the war on terror... that the left has been articulating for a long time now, and not really coming up with anything new.

BOLTON: Yeah I think honestly that's an optimistic view of it, that it will simply be a replay of the Clinton administration. It will simply have more embassy bombings, more bombings of our warships like the Cole, more World Trade Center attacks. That would be the best outcome from that perspective.

Does Bolton have any credibility at all? Did he ever as our ambassador to the UN? Many who look at his record would probably strongly conclude that he has none. My favorite Bolton bon mot - speaking about the UN in 1994, he is purported to have said, "There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States. [...] The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If you lost ten stories today, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

Quite naturally, Bush nominated him to be our UN ambassador. And Bush wonders why he couldn't get Bolton confirmed in the Senate. In fact, Bush had to use a recess appointment to get him to the UN in the first place. That one ranks right up there with appointing Michael Brown as head of FEMA, a man who had as much experience at handling natural disasters as I do.

Someone needs to give Bolton a little history lesson...

• The September 11 attacks happened on Bush's watch

• The 1993 WTC attack happened a mere 36 days after President Clinton took office

• The attack on the USS Cole happened on Oct. 12, 2000, and the FBI's final report was issued on Jan. 19, 2001. Just imagine those headlines from the right-wingnuts in the media had Clinton responded in the waning hours of his presidency: Bill Clinton retaliates for Cole attack to deflect attention from presidential pardons!!! would have screamed Faux News, etc.

• The embassy bombings? Yes, they happened on President Clinton's watch, and when the U.S. military retaliated on Aug. 20, 1998, Repubes in Congress, who were busy impeaching him for a blow job, cried that he was trying to deflect attention away from the Lewinsky witch hunt scandal.

I'm not absolving President Clinton of all blame for the terrorism that rocked U.S. locations around the world in his second term (and the first WTC attack early in his first), but to blame him for these attacks is absurd, and in the case of 9-11, utterly laughable.

The myth that Clinton did nothing to combat terrorism in the 1990s has been thoroughly debunked, so I'm not going to waste a whole lot of time on it here. All I'll add is that it's been refuted by people who were there, such as Richard Clarke and George Tenet.

My point is that trying to blame Clinton for every bad terrorist attack is absurd, but we've seen these plays called by Republicans before, most recently before the 2006 election. Let's hope they keep trotting out this cliché time and again before November. I don't think a majority of voters could possibly be naïve enough to believe it.

Comedy on the Roof Top

I found a pretty cool Website this morning, Roof Top Comedy, and after some poking around, I narrowed it down to three clips I thought I'd share. The narrowing wasn't easy, either - there is some seriously funny stuff on this site. Anyway, the usual warnings apply - not suitable for kids, or at work. Enjoy!

This one's pretty funny, but probably only because a black man is saying it. You have to love the title of this clip, too. And take it easy, people - it's a joke. (I'm envisioning some hate mail.)

Very non-PC, but there's more than a kernel of truth in here, too. Any person who has even a passing knowledge of American foreign affairs knows that we went to war in Iraq over oil. Not because of WMD (there weren't any). Not because of Saddam brutalizing his people (we let him get away with it in the 1980s because he was our dictator back then - just ask our National Embarrassment's daddy). Not because Hussein had nuclear weapons (he didn't). And not because of 9-11 (unless you're a member of Bush's cabal, and you have the incurable Saddam was involved in 9-11 fetish). We went there because of oil, and we were told the overt lie that Iraq's oil would help pay for the war, which I find disgraceful. We wonder why the Iraqis hate us - can you imagine a country invading the U.S., and that invader saying "Hey, all the coal in the U.S. will help pay for the war." Yea, we'd be pissed, too.

Wait, I'm talking about comedy here - sorry. It's just that it's kind of hard to laugh about the incalculable harm that the Iraq War has caused, and will continue to cause us, in the decades to come.

So, we have to try and laugh a little about it right now.

And VOTE in November.

This one is just great - the morons who know so little getting all uppity when people slam Bush. Just ask the Dixie Chicks how ignorant some can be. I just got a bumper sticker in the mail that reads, So, the Dixie Chicks were right after all. Damn right they were.

Anyway, there's nothing better than when I get hate mail saying, "Your retarded"* in response to a post I've put up on here. It makes my day, and it also proves who the retarded person really is.

* - Crack a grammar book if you don't get the joke. :o)

TDS: Terror Attack + Election = GOP

In light of McCain's chief strategist Charlie Black's breathtakingly asinine remark about another terrorist attack prior to the '08 election (I'll get to that in a minute), John Stewart took aim at the GOP's tried-and-true election strategy last night. And, Action!...

"Why is it that a terror attack helps Republicans? Well, it's quite simple. A terror attack, when added to an election, equals Republican. Why is that? Let"s show our work. First we have to solve for "R." Now, if you add 7 1/2 years of Republican administration, times the five years we've been at war, which has divided the nation, add in the government's incompetent response to the domestic disaster of Katrina, minus the equity in your home that's disappeared, plus the price of oil squared, over the boon that the Iraq War has been to terrorist recruiting, times torture, minus the resources we could have been using in Afghanistan, plus the resources we could have been using to catch bin Laden, carry the Cheney and...

Daaaaamn! I su-huuucked at Math in high school (and college) and this equation totally makes sense.

And Stewart isn't totally off his rocker, either, considering Black's, comments in a recent interview with Fortune that a terrorist attack would be a "big advantage" for McCain. To read the entire interview, click Here. An excerpt:

On national security McCain wins. We saw how that might play out early in the campaign, when one good scare, one timely reminder of the chaos lurking in the world, probably saved McCain in New Hampshire, a state he had to win to save his candidacy - this according to McCain's chief strategist, Charlie Black. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December was an "unfortunate event," says Black. "But his knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who's ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us." As would, Black concedes with startling candor after we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. "Certainly it would be a big advantage to him," says Black.

Just curious, but if saying something patently absurd like that isn't a fire-able offense, then what is?

McCain's response to Black's comments:

Wow, he "strenuously disagrees." Well blow me down, Popeye.

Is it me, or are Republican politicians okay with just saying whatever comes to their minds, then later backtracking by saying, "I don't know the context?" McCain is big on using the word "context," when he knows full well in this instance in what "context" the remark was made. Presumably, the two were in the same room when the interview with Fortune took place. That is, unless you believe that John McCain and Charlie Black were interviewed in separate rooms. And I don't believe that for a second.

This is simply another McCain lie that he'll presumably get away with, as usual. I strenuously think the man is full of it. No, check that, he's lying, plain and simple.

So much for running a positive campaign. Then again, who honestly believed that cock and bull in the first place?

Crooks & Liars has more on Charlie Black's disgusting track record, a record I would think that McCain wouldn't want the American public to examine about his chief strategist a mere 131 days before the election.

KO not amped over McCain's battery plan

I don't completely agree with what Keith Olbermann and Chris Hayes from The Nation Magazine about John McCain's battery proposal. It seems to me that Olbermann is sniping here a little, but I do agree that McCain seems to be offering this as some sort of magical solution to our energy problems. It's not - it's one of dozens and dozens hundreds of possible technologies that are going to be needed to kick our addiction to foreign oil.

However, they both Olbermann and Hayes do make a very good point about McCain's parade of proposals regarding oil: first, it was the gas tax holiday, and that one faded. Then, it was offshore drilling, and now that one is falling by the wayside, especially given the political calculations and riskiness of such a move in Florida (and, to a lesser extent, California).

My favorite bonhomie from the above clip is when Hayes says that "drilling off our coasts for oil is like digging for change in your couch to pay for your mortgage." That's absolutely right - the amount of ignorance on drilling for domestic oil is more staggering than gas prices themselves these days. Drilling off our coasts is going to expose tens of thousands of miles of coastlines to potential spills and accidents, with little benefit for a decade, or more. What's more, I don't think for a nanosecond that oil prices will go down if the oil companies are permitted to drill. The rich will simply get richer. If we were to drill and hit major oil, we would just be getting our oil from a different source, but the price isn't going to change. In addition, it will simply prolong our destructive and mindless addiction to oil.

Electric cars and hybrids are an important part of a multi-spoked solution, though. I really would like to hear more ideas coming from Barack Obama about oil. So far, I'm not hearing much - he needs to step to the forefront on this issue, now.

Oh, and that $280 million bridge? One would assume that McCain is talking about the notorious proposed Gravina Island Bridge, endlessly pimped by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), the longest tenured Republican Senator in Congress. (The actual proposed cost, before the project was mercifully canceled by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, was $398 million.) Stevens (of "Internet Tubes" fame) threatened to quit Congress if the funds were withdrawn a few years back. Promises, promises, senator.

This Modern World: Our racist race

[Click the image to go to the complete cartoon]

Tom Tomorrow tackles the latent and blatant racism that is already rearing its ugly head in the presidential campaign merely in its embryonic stages. It's gonna get ugly. However, each and every time stuff like this appears on Fox News or is spewed by right-wing hate radio, it needs to be called what it is each and every time. Just because it's so omni-present doesn't excuse it.

A little humor to start the day...

G'Mornin' - I got a kick out of this one this morning - sent to me by my friend Susan. Lots to get to today, but I figured I'd start things out with a laugh, because there's plenty to frown about in our nation's capitol. Be back in a bit...

Cartoons of the Week

It was an interesting and very news filled week, from the Supreme Court ruling about the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, to Tim Russert's passing to Barack Obama forgoing public financing for his fall presidential run. I won't offer too many comments on the cartoons this week, but I will be commenting a great deal on these issues individually.

As always, my comments are below selected cartoons.

[Click on any cartoon for a larger image]

I'm just as unhappy about it as the next person, but the fact of the matter is that nuclear power is going to have to be a power option for the US, at least in the near-term. I'm also unhappy that the government hasn't come up with a viable solution for nuclear waste, but honestly, nuclear can't possibly be worse for the Earth than the thousands of coal and oil fired power plants around the world.

And drilling off of our coasts and ANWR? Forget it. We cannot and will not drill our way out of this mess.

... and I've got absolutely no problem with that. Obama needs to get out in front of our energy crisis and offer some real, viable solutions. He also needs to be honest and straightforward with the American people - it's going to be a long, painful weaning process from fossil fuels, but we've got to start somewhere. John McCain offered up some viable proposals over the weekend, and Obama needs to start doing the same. Simply offering up a windfall profits tax for the oil companies (which was just blocked by Republicans in Congress) isn't going to do it.

I'll have plenty more on this in the coming days, including my letter to the Obama campaign.

This too will be a long, arduous process - repairing and undoing much of the damage done by the Bush administration. Actually, if Obama wins, I hope to see a litany of Executive Orders from the White House on Day 2 (we'll give him a day to get settled) that undo some of the more absurd policies of the Bush administration, including torture, some environmental regulations, IRS policy, energy policy, and I won't even get started on education (at least right now).

The cartoon immediately above is the best one I saw about Tim Russert all week. Right after his death, I found the coverage to be a bit overbearing, but the tributes to him during the viewing and funeral were more than appropriate. I was especially moved by the tributes on his show, Meet the Press.

I in no way mean this as disrespect to Russert himself, but the tributes and nearly around-the-clock coverage of him during the few days following his death are a pretty sad commentary on the corporate media in this country - collectively, our media personalities never miss an opportunity to tell us how great they are, and they sure didn't miss a chance this time.

It's tragic, a moral outrage and patently absurd that we now know more about Tim Russert than we do about what's going on in our name on the streets of Baghdad right now. Last week, a suicide bomb went off, killing over 50 people, and we received a whole lot more coverage of Russert than we did that bomb.

Incidentally, how are things in Baghdad, Senator McCain? It might be time for another stroll down a Baghdad market for McBush, flanked by 50 soldiers while wearing all the protective gear he can fit on his body. What a farce.

It's criminal that our government can't keep our food safe, period. There's plenty of blame to go around, but I'll offer up this comforting chestnut - thank God the terrorists who hate us are as hapless/unmotivated/underfunded as they are, because tainting America's food supply is startlingly easy if one were so inclined. I love it when Bush and Cheney get on TV and lick themselves all over with pride and pomposity that there haven't been any major terrorist attacks in American since 9-11. Well, it sure as hell isn't for lack of opportunities, that's for sure.

I'll never tire of pointing out just how insanely stupid opponents of gay marriage are. I really can't think of any way to put it better than that.

I'm yet to hear a compelling argument as to why detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba should not have any rights under the Constitution. As I understand it, the Constitution applies to everyone on foreign soil, not just American citizens. What's more, our government has the right to call anyone it likes, including American citizens, an enemy combatant, and anyone of us could be hauled off to Gitmo, without knowing why or having the right to counsel, before this ruling. How American is that? We are supposed to be the country that abides by the rule of law, where all people have their day in court when accused of a crime. Why should this not apply to terrorists?

Now, all of a sudden, people who are applauding the SCOTUS ruling are siding with terrorists or are in favor of making the US less secure and safe? C'mon! I will NOT apologize, ever, for not supporting my government's right to torture people. We are supposed to be better than that. But, the Bush administration has seen to it that we are not. Color this as another one of the many black eyes that Bush has given this country over the last 7+ years.

(See my Tim Russert comments above.)

Catchy, and true, in many ways.

Reports are coming out of Iowa from people who have had to wait days and days for FEMA to arrive with water, food and shelter. Hmm, doesn't that sound familiar? I'm quite certain that the Bush administration has learned a few lessons from Hurricane Katrina, but thank God we'll have a new administration soon, and whomever wins in November, I don't see how either candidate could possibly handle natural disasters worse than Bush has.

I have to say, though, that Bush's visit to Iowa last week (as well as McCain's) was a stupendously bad idea. Whenever a president visits one of these areas, valuable resources are used to squire him around for his photo op. Bush would have been much better to simply stay away, and do all he could for Washington, D.C. And McCain should have stayed away, period. Last week, Barack Obama sagely canceled a trip to the flood-battered Midwest.

Will McCain '08 = Dole '96? It's hard to say - 12 years is a long, long time and so much has changed since then. But, like Clinton that year, Obama ought to mop up the floor with McCain, but that doesn't mean he will.

A little morning Dave to get you movin'

Happy Friday, everyone. My fingers are still sore from all the typing I did yesterday, so I have some other things to take care of this morning. I'll be back later on this afternoon, though, so please check back.

In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying your Friday, wherever you are. I'm blessed with a gorgeous day here in Philadelphia - I'm going to try and get out with my cameras later on today.

Here's a little Dave Matthews Band for your listening pleasure, and the song starts out with the thought that embodies my political philosophy, including what I hope to accomplish with this blog:

To change the world, start with one step
However small, the first step is hardest of all
Once you get your gait, you will walk in tall
You said you never did, 'cause you might die trying
'Cause you might die trying, 'cause you...

What can I say? I know I post him on here from time to time, and you might not all be fans, but he really is a lyrical poet - I think DMB is the best band since the Beatles.

And even if you like the music, you truly can never appreciate the music unless you've seen them live. (I hope that doesn't sound like musical snobbery, because I really don't mean it to be.) But, in this age of over-produced music and stars made in the studio, these guys deliver live, as good as, if not better than their studio albums (which are fantastic in their own right).

Anyway, enjoy the day - I'll be back in a bit.

-PECAD

The would-be first ladies take center stage

This morning, Cindy McCain appeared on ABC's Good Morning America for an interview while she's in Vietnam. It was a pretty interesting interview for several reasons, but first, I must give her heartfelt and much-deserved praise for her work with Operation Smile. I mean that in all sincerity, and good for her and Senator McCain for putting their money where their mouths are by adopting a baby from Bangladesh, Bridget, in 1991.

I don't know too much about either Cindy McCain or Michelle Obama, but it certainly seems like the media is keeping the whole pseudo-controversy alive about Michelle Obama "not being proud of her country." It probably wasn't a very smart thing to say, but so what? I have to be honest with you, I haven't been proud of my country in recent memory in many (but not all) ways - Bush's ill-advised War in Iraq has cost us hundreds of billions, and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. What's to be proud of there? Or Hurricane Katrina? Or Abu Ghraib? Or Haditha? Guantánamo Bay? Torturing terrorists? Valerie Plame? Bush, in a thinly veiled threat that cheapened the presidency (he's beyond cheapening at this point) calling Barack Obama an appeaser in front of the Knesset? The Bush presidency, aside from the immediate aftermath of 9-11, has given me very little to be proud about. Does that make me (or Michelle Obama) any less of a patriot? Please.

Tonight, Dan Abrams unearthed a pretty interesting piece of John McCain footage from March of this year...

I really didn't love America until I was deprived of her company.

I'm not a veteran of the military, and God willing, unless tragedy strikes, I won't be in this lifetime, but I've read enough about the military to appreciate what McCain is saying here. I don't really see anything wrong with what he said, and Dan Abrams is right on - McCain's comments are eloquent.

But, at the very least, this ought to blunt the stupid criticism that the media is keeping alive about Michelle Obama (like the interview at top).

Will Abrams' footage end this stupid distraction? Fat chance.

Oh, and Lars Larson? Another Rush Limbaugh wannabe that we can add to a growing roster of right wing jackasses polluting our airwaves.

It's America, and Larson has the right to say what he wants, but it irks me to no end that a company will give him any sort of job to spew his hateful comments. It's totally amazing to me that the left has Air America Radio and little else, and right-wing talk radio has dominated the airwaves for decades now. Hmm - I wonder if the corporate media has anything to do with that? You don't need an MBA to make that connection.

McCain vs. McCain

This is pretty funny - a video of McCain contracting... himself, taken from from his press conference in early June (in the lower right hand corner) and some other recent videos.

The only thing I'll add here is that McCain's assertion that he has differed with Bush is a total crock. I've written about it before Here.

PTSD troops getting screwed: watch the vid

I just tonight finally got around to watching last Friday's installment of NOW on PBS, Fighting the Army. I found it very, very difficult to not be totally outraged at what the military is doing to our psychologically damaged soldiers. In short, in many cases, the military is stringing along soldiers with promises of help until they can't take it anymore. The result: they get bounced out on misconduct discharges. This is not to say all cases, but even five of these cases would be too much.

These are soldiers who have made tremendous sacrifices, and this is the thanks they get when they return home. Worse yet, soldiers who are given misconduct discharges are forced to pay back thousands of dollars in signing bonuses.

For those who think that Barack Obama has done nothing while in the Senate (and I know several people who firmly believe just that), he led the way in forcing the Pentagon to begin to change its discharge procedures. However, the changes are far from perfect, and many changes still need to be made.

Count this as just another way that soldiers are getting short-changed by the country they serve. (And the list of ways is tragically long one.) Whether it's getting stop-lossed, receiving inadequate armor and protection on the battlefield, receiving poor care if they are wounded in battle, to symptoms of post-traumatic stress order being ignored, in some cases it's difficult to tell who's screwing our soldiers more - the people throwing bombs at them in Iraq, or the people who see no problem short-changing them deep in the bowels of the Pentagon.

You can watch the entire 30-minute episode Here.

I urge all of you to write your members of Congress to demand that our soldiers, especially those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, be given the proper care that they need. To find your legislators' information, click Here, or better yet, call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and leave your legislators a quick message that this type of treatment needs to stop, NOW.

Best of all, you can vote for the candidate in November who wants to end the madness in Iraq ASAP.

I'll share my letter with you to my members of Congress tomorrow.

The Bush Legacy Tour Bus

I love this idea - the Bush Legacy Tour Bus. Visit the Website, and sign up for e-mail updates. You can e-mail in what the Bush legacy means to you (keep it clean - they are using some submissions on the bus), and you can also make a donation, if you're so inclined.

Hopefully this baby is coming to Philly. If it is, I'll be there, and I'll share news and pictures.

Uh, Sen. McCain, about that Iraqi peace...

If Gen. David Petraeus really wants peace for our forces on the ground in Iraq, he ought to simply call John McCain and tell him to keep quiet. Because recently, every time he talks about how swimmingly things are going in the country, there's a huge attack. Above is a speech given by John McCain at the end of last month, when he smugly asserts that all is well in Iraq and Baghdad.

Well, a few days ago, 51 Iraqis were killed by a suicide bomb, including the child below...

This unspeakable, gruesome photo is of a father kissing the body of his two-year-old son, Akeel Faisal Ghazi, who was killed in a minibus bombing in the Huriya district of Baghdad on Tuesday. The blast, which killed 51 people, was the deadliest to hit the capital in three months. [Above photo by Karim Kadim/Associated Press] I know the photo is gruesome, and I debated heavily about whether I should post it, but Americans really do need to start seeing more and more what is happening in our name in the Middle East. I apologize if any of you are offended, but imagine how the Iraqis feel. Sort of puts it into perspective, doesn't it?

I guess things are pretty quiet, eh, Senator McCain? He really ought to just shut up - his mouth seems to bring more bad luck to the beleaguered country. Check out these other incidents from this year, [below] when two of his speeches were interrupted on cable news channels to report on violence in Iraq.

On April 7, a McCain speech was interrupted on MSNBC to mention a mortar attack in Baghdad...

And on March 24...

Like a host of other issues, when McCain opens his mouth about Iraq, a litany of half truths, distortions and inaccuracies are sure to follow.

Shocker: McCain's Hillary love is about two weeks old

There was a time not long ago when Hillary Clinton was persona non grata in the Republican Party. But, in recent days, American's Profiteer, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain have been making nice with Hillary. Why? Because McCain desperately needs her supporters if he even has a remote shot at becoming president. (And because 9iu1ian1 desperately wants to be McCain's running mate - the only way he'll ever have even an outside shot at gaining national elected office.)

And there was a time not too long ago where McCain thought it was funny when one of his ignorant, asinine supporters called Hillary a "bitch" during a Q&A session. Now that's classy.

It gets better. McCain also had to apologize once for making this unspeakable joke about Chelsea Clinton at a Washington dinner in 1998:

Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.

Hmm. He calls his wife a "cunt," laughs at a joke calling Hillary Clinton a "bitch," and calls Janet Reno a "man." And women are considering voting for this guy?

He later apologized for the joke, but how could Hillary, Bill or Chelsea take that apology seriously? How do you unring a bell like that?

I have to give the Clintons credit - they have much thicker skins than I could ever hope to have - reason 1,001 why I'll never go into politics. Me? After that crack about Chelsea (she was 18 at the time), if I were Bill Clinton, I would have sent him a gift certificate to Hollywood Tan so he can darken the scars from the two melanomas he's had removed. I know, I'm no better than him now, and I'm okay with that. I was brought up with manners, and 95 percent of the time I have them, but that five percent is saved for churlish rubes like John McCain. Then, I can get into the gutter with the worst of them. I'm not proud of it, but I absolutely detest misogyny, or picking on someone's kids - something that McCain finds amusing.

What sickens me even more is that many women, simply out of spite, are even considering voting for him just because their candidate didn't win. Well boo hoo - Howard Dean lost in '04 and I campaigned like hell for John Kerry in Bucks County, Pa. because his party (MY party) believes in things that are completely foreign to President Bush. Taking a look at McCain's history of hateful comments about women, much less his voting record, ought to disabuse Hillary supporters of the notion of voting for him, but we'll see soon enough.

And by the way, Chelsea Clinton is about 1,000 percent prettier than Cindy McCain, or the McCains' daughter, Megan. <-- She's 21, so I don't feel bad.

Gen. Taguba: US guilty of war crimes

Similar to how Attytood worded it yesterday, the headline above doesn't come from a partisan Website, or from Keith Olbermann or Air America Radio - it comes from a retired hero, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, the general that President Bush asked to look into our military disgrace, Abu Ghraib. From the Boston Herald:

WASHINGTON - A Cambridge-based human rights organization said it has found medical evidence supporting the claims of 11 former detainees who were allegedly tortured while in American custody between 2001 and 2004, in what a former top U.S. military investigator said amounts to evidence of war crimes.

Medical evaluations of the former inmates found injuries consistent with the alleged abuse, including the psychological effects of sensory deprivation and forced nudity as well as signs of "severe physical and sexual assault," Physicians for Human Rights said in a report scheduled for release today.

The report also alleges that in four of the cases, American health professionals appeared to have been complicit by denying the detainees medical care and observing the abuse but making no effort to stop it - charges that, if true, represent gross violations of medical ethics.

Incidentally, of the 11 mentioned in the report above detained at Guantánamo, Afghanistan or Iraq was ever charged with a crime. Their fate? The doctors found:

One detainee who said he was repeatedly stabbed in the cheek with a screwdriver had wounds consistent with such treatment, the doctors reported. Another who said his captors sodomized him also had physical signs that supported the allegation, while several others had burns and psychological problems the doctors concluded were consistent with electrical shocks.

Above, Barbara Starr yesterday gave a report on CNN about Taguba's opinion on what went on at Abu Ghraib. A partial transcript:

Starr: One thing perhaps worth noting in this report, Heidi, is the forward, the preface to the report was written by retired Major General Anthony Teguba. [right] He's the army general [who] led the investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. in this report the general says, "there is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes."

The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held into account. Pretty tough words from a man very well regarded inside the army when he conducted the investigation into Abu Ghraib. For its part, the Pentagon continues to say that it deals with detainees in a humane fashion, that there is no policy toward torture, and if there was any misconduct, any abuse, it was in violation of government policy. but this report clearly a pretty damning indictment if it stands on its own.

I distinctly remember the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh bending over backward (metaphorically, of course, because we know Rush couldn't really do that without a fistful of OxyCodone). Limbaugh even went so far as to say that it appeared that troops who were torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib were "blowing off steam." Hmm, I guess if blowing off steam were a synonym for torture, then he's be in the ballpark there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy that this report concludes what it does - far from it. Something like this isn't a stain on the military - it's a stain on America.

However, I'm not holding my breath that the likes of Limbaugh, O'Reilly or Hannity are going to apologize anytime soon.

As for Taguba, a highly decorated officer who gave 34 years of his life to the military? He was ordered to retire in in 2006 no later than January 2007 by by Gen. Richard Cody, the Army's Vice Chief of Staff. No explanation was given as to why he was being ordered to retire.

Thus ended a 34-year military career, all because he did his duty and reported the ugly truth about Abu Ghraib. Maybe now those responsible within the Bush administration will be held responsible. I'm not holding my breath, since our Democratically controlled Congress has shown little backbone in punishing those in the Bush administration who deserve it.

Pop-Up Double Talk: McCain on Katrina

The people over at McCain Source are doing an excellent job of pointing out all of the McCain inconsistencies and his true voting record. One of their latest features is dubbed Pop-Up Double-Talk, and it had me laughing, until I started reading all of the pop-up facts in a speech McCain delivered in Louisiana about Hurricane Katrina.

This video was put out a little while ago, but I figured it was apropos, since the Midwest is being devastated by flooding as you read this, and those people are going to be in dire straights for a long time, if the government's help following Katrina is any indication. Anyway, when you have a minute, go to McCain Source - it has a wealth of information about McCain's background and voting patterns, as well as lots of new, funny, original stuff.

KO tackles the "Enronification" of oil prices

I defy you to watch this and not get angry. A report aired last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann about the Enronification (Manipulation) of the price of oil. This is a good old-fashioned piece of journalism, which we get appallingly too little of these days.

What's more, the connection to McCain is pretty damning. I watched this with a critical eye, and of course I'm not suggesting that it's all McCain's fault, or anything even close to that. However, it appears that there are some pretty clear-cut connections between former Sen. Phil Gramm, a McCain campaign adviser, and the mess that our commodities markets are in.

I've been writing it for days, and it's worth mentioning again - drilling is absolutely, positively NOT the answer to our energy problems. What's more, I think politicians like McCain and especially President Bush are using the current crisis as a very convenient excuse to try and open up our coasts and ANWR to oil and gas drilling. Even if this passes, and it had better not, it will take years for this oil to reach the market, and what's more, it will only prolong our addiction to oil.

It's pretty interesting to hear Bush and McCain complain that a new refinery hasn't been built in over 30 years. Mr. President, then why don't you tell your oil buddies to build one? Better yet, why doesn't Congress force Big Oil's hand? God only knows, the industry is getting enough taxpayer money, so demand action!

Despite generous contributions, it looks as if even McCain has to go with public sentiment and go against Big Oil, finally.

Jason Rosenbaum at The Seminal has written an excellent column about why drilling for more oil is a flat-out fraud.

What you can do:
The Sierra Club has an online petition out that you can sign about new drilling - sign it.

Better yet, contact your Congressional leaders and let them know that you won't stand for more drilling on our coasts, or in Alaska. Click Here to get your Congressional legislators' contact information. E-mail is good, but a quick phone call is better, and believe me, they pay attention. The Congressional Switchboard number is (202) 225-3121 - the operators are very helpful - give 'em your zip, and they'll connect you right away.

Obama forgoes public funding

Earlier today, Barack Obama decided against public financing for his campaign. There's no doubt that money has ruined politics in this country, and he acknowledges this in the video above, but accepting public financing would have put him at a tremendous disadvantage against John McCain this fall, who will no doubt enjoy a steady, deep river of cash for his corporate benefactors and lobbyists.

Update: Predictably, McCain is plenty peeved at Obama's decision. "Today, Barack Obama has revealed himself to be just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient for Barack Obama," McCain campaign communications director Jill Hazelbaker said in a statement. McCain's campaign also said that Obama's decision "undermines his call for a new type of politics." My take? The shoe is finally on the other foot. For years and years, Republicans enjoyed a substantial fund raising advantage, but Obama has more than made up the difference, and the GOP isn't happy about it.

I just hope that once Obama wins this November and the Democrats gain majorities in both Houses of Congress, they make a concerted, genuine effort to do something about public financing of all of our elections. We are way overdue for it.

In the meantime, please contribute all you can to his campaign by going to his Website, even if it's $5. We cannot afford a John McCain presidency in so many ways.

Gingrich at his demagogic worst, as usual

In case you missed it a few days ago, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was on Face the Nation at his demagogic best following the Supreme Court decision last week that detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have rights under our Constitution.

For a quick refresher, here's a brief report on the Supreme Court ruling, via MSNBC...

Anyway, Gingrich really drank the Kool-Aid with his comments on FTN, specifically this passage:

GINGRICH: I will say, I think the recent Supreme Court decision to turn over to a local district judge decisions of national security and life and death that should be made by the President and the Congress is the most extraordinarily arrogant and destructive decision the Supreme Court has made in it's history.

REID: In it's history?

GINGRICH: In it's history. Worse than Dred Scott, for the following reason: The court has now knowingly stepped in, this morning's newspaper say, smugglers had actually gotten the design of a nuclear weapon, that we now have the evidence that people out there had a nuclear weapon design. And this court is saying that any random district judge, based on whatever their personal caprice is, whatever their personal ideological bias, can intervene with a terrorist in such a way.

Pretty amusing to hear Newt Gingrich talking about ideological bias.

Two things: 1. To say that this decision was worse than the Dred Scott case is quite possibly the dumbest thing to ever come out of this man's mouth. And that's saying something, because there's quite a bonehead buffet to choose from - Gingrich once publicly stated that the US ought to re-institute orphanages for unwanted children.

To compare this decision to arguably the worst decision in the Supreme Court's history - that Congress had no authority to outlaw slavery, is the height of stupidity and ignorance. But, these sorts of statements are the norm with Gingrich. No wonder the man's been married three times - he has the morals of a promiscuous rabbit, and the ethics of a corrupt politician. Oops.

There's lots of fear mongering going around surrounding the Supreme Court decision, but again the question is worth asking, What's so wrong with allowing these criminals a trial by jury?

And 2. I'd much rather have a court decide the merits of a charge against a terrorist than an ideological president with political ulterior motives, be it Democrat or Republican.

It's amazing to me that people like Gingrich think that our judicial system isn't the answer to dealing with terrorists. I much prefer these trials than the secret military tribunals that the Bush administration favors, which includes torture, trials without representation, and a suppression of basic human rights in some cases (and that's just what we know about).

As with so many political issues, Gingrich is on the wrong side of public opinion. But, that's nothing new to him. This guy's more often wrong than right. (Clinton Impeachment, drilling in ANWR, etc.) Even when he's right, he ends up being wrong. I remember the laughable Contract with America in 1994 - term limits were a provision in that contract, and the public wanted it. However, that was conveniently left behind when politicians realized it would end their feeding at the public trough.

Matt Drudge: still a GOP stooge

[Click for a larger view]

Every once in a while, I enjoy pointing out just how absurdly moronic Matt Drudge is. I know, it's not particularly newsworthy, and really, it's a demonstration that I have a firm grasp of the obvious. But, every once in a while it bears repeating. Why? Because his Website is one of the most visited on the Web.

For some reason, the GOP and its shills like Drudge still seem to have a fetish for Al Gore. Perhaps its because of Gore's success and the inroads he's making in raising the warning flag about global warming. Who knows? But, the misinformation and attacks are like the Energizer bunny - They keep coming... well, you know the rest.

The above image is a screen capture from the Drudge Report a few days ago, featuring a prominent story about Gore's energy consumption. What a joke. The link goes to a story Here, by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a blatantly right-wing funded organization. (I wrote about it Here when these morons tried to embarrass Gore just hours after his ground-breaking movie, An Inconvenient Truth, won several Oscars.)

Gore's energy consumption habits aren't really of interest to me or anyone else other than the most rabid GOPers. And, of course, his energy consumption only tells part of the story. Here's a guy criss-crossing the globe trying to make a difference with global warming, in addition to the fact that he buys green energy, and he has solar panels installed on his very large home, yet he's getting his balls busted by partisan hacks who don't have anything better to do.

Meh - enough of it - I guess I'm no better than they are, but it's worth pointing out that Drudge will do whatever he can to smear prominent Democrats, and this is just another example.

I'll never tire of pointing out that the idea of a "librul media" is unadulterated bullshit. Drudge is one of the most visited sites on the Web (and many news networks report what his Website says, like it's news! And not just Fox News, either), Fox News is the most watched cable news channel during most time slots, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the largest media conglomerate in the U.S., and the top three radio personalities are all GOP shills. Oh yea, we have a "librul media" alright.

No wonder the right is panicked about the possibility of a Democratic Congress re-instituting the Fairness Doctrine.

I'm pleased that Obama has talked publicly about enforcing the Sherman Antitrust Act if he becomes president. It's about time - no president has enforced it since Reagan effectively gutted it when he became president. It's still a law that's on the books, it's in the public interest, and it's about time that some of these huge corporations be broken up, specifically our mass media conglomerates.

Olbermann savages McCain about the troops

This is an excellent, spot on Special Comment by Keith Olbermann last week that I forgot to post, but it's still as apropos as ever. (Heck, it could have been last night and it would still be appropriate - better yet, maybe he should just keep replaying it.) In it, Olbermann takes on McCain's absurd comment that it "doesn't really matter" when the troops come home.

To his credit, Olbermann provides plenty of context for McCain's comments, too, including many of his asinine statements in the past about how quickly we were going to achieve victory in Iraq, and a myriad of other statements regarding the war, very few of which have proven to be true.

Recently, Olbermann has stumbled a bit at times, and I've been critical of him. After all, I'm not slavishly devoted to any commentator, liberal or (gasp!) conservative, but it's comments like these where Olbermann is at his very best, and, dare I risk hyperbole, he's doing an important service for his country. His show is still "can't miss TV" every single night. I hope he keeps the heat on McCain and Bush, as he's been doing for the last five years.

It's my hope that people who believe McCain is the strongest candidate when it comes to foreign policy are paying attention to all of his misstatements and inaccurate predictions about Iraq. There's a lot to choose from.

What's more, it's important to remember all of his war mongering about Iran, too. I almost spit up when I saw McCain's ad (below), which paints him as a man of peace, or something. Take a look...

The first seven seconds are all you need to realize how utterly inconceivable this ad is. "Only a fool or fraud talks tough or romantically about war..." Is he joking? He's been talking tough about Iraq for years, and recently, Iran.

McCain must think most Americans are pretty stupid, or indifferent. Does he think that we haven't been paying attention for the past eight years? What other conclusion could you draw? I guess he thinks a packaged, slick advertisement will be a good deodorant for the stench of dead Americans and Iraqis in the Middle East that he has whole-heartedly supported and endorsed for over five years.

Again, I sure hope that Americans remember this stuff in the voting booth.