Third Graders Debate Iraq War

An excerpt from a presidential debate in Mr. Faustmann's third grade class, Alma Michigan.

McCain Lies About Bush and the Iraq War

McCain supported Bush and Bush's disastrous war in Iraq until, well, until he went on Meet the Press this morning, when he offered a false history.

Jed Lewison put together this short video contrasting McCain's statements today with his previous statements.

"On the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I have been totally in agreement and support of President Bush" (June 2005) becomes "I was the harshest critic of the failed strategy in Iraq" today.

He was either lying then, or he's lying now. Doesn't matter. He's lying.

New Obama Ad: "Defining Moment"

A serious ad from a serious candidate.

The Legacy Of Bush's War of Lies

A sobering and powerful ad for Tom Udall, candidate for Senate in New Mexico. The young soldier's name is Erik Schei.

John McCain Hires Saddam Hussein Lobbyist to Run His Transition Team

McCain Transition Team Head William Timmons on the left; his client Saddam Hussein on the right.

Really. I'm not even kidding.

Murray Waas, HuffPo: McCain Transition Chief Aided Saddam In Lobbying Effort

William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government.

I can't WAIT for McCain to bring up William Ayers in the debate. What should Obama say? "Well, at least I didn't hire him to run my transition team, like you hired Saddam Hussein's lobbyist." is one way to go. Or, "I was eight years old when Williams Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground. You were 56 years old when your transition team head was lobbying for Saddam Hussein. What, did you forget about that when you selected him to your team? Or did you just not care?"

Bush v. Bush, McCain v. McCain

If you're not watching the Daily Show, you're not getting any analysis deeper than a puddle on current events.

Jon Stewart brilliantly puts Bush's pre-Iraq-war speech side-by-side with his bailout (which he calls "Clusterf#@k to the Poor House") speech:



And then McCain's wild shifting of positions on the economy in the past 10 days, and then his "rush" to return to Washington:

Rep. Jim McDermott: "King Henry"

Mr Speaker,

The people in Washington State are very troubled by the fact that King George has been disposed of by King Henry.

We picked up Newsweek magazine today and we have a new King... King Henry?

We're supposed to give him 700 billion dollars of our money. He doesn't want any review. He wants to be able to do whatever he wants with it. He doesn't want any Congressional oversight. And worst of all, the new king is just like the old king: He doesn't want any sacrifice.

He says, "Oh we can't threaten the salares of the investment bankers who drove us into a ditch. We can't get anyone to pay for this."

This is the third time we've done it with this bunch. First the war, that didn't get paid for. Then the tax cuts, that didn't get paid for, and now King Henry takes over to distribute 700 billion dollars. He's going to be there for four months. And in four months he will make deals and then he'll go out and he'll be able to catch a pass he threw to himself.

You may remember Rep. McDermott from Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11.

Now That's A Powerful Campaign Ad

Norm's Gotta Go, run by the Democratic National Committee.

Good Question

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asks this question at today's Senate Energy Policy Forum:

WHITEHOUSE: Gentlemen, we’re in the middle of a near total mortgage system meltdown in this country. We have a health care system that burns 16 percent of our GDP, in which the Medicare liability alone has been estimated at $34 trillion. We’re burning $10 billion a month in Iraq.

This administration has run up $7.7 trillion in national debt, by our calculation. And there is worsening evidence every day of global warming, with worsening environmental and national security ramifications. In light of those conditions, do any of you seriously contend that drilling for more oil is the number one issue facing the American people today?

(Long silent pause during which nobody answers.)

WHITEHOUSE: No, it doesn’t seem so.

Now that would make a powerful ad.

Well-Traveled?

The McCain camp is desperately trying to portray their empty dress Sarah Palin as having strong foreign policy credentials. Ludicrously, they claim that because you can see Russia from Alaska, or because Alaska is right next to Russia, she has foreign policy experience.

They've also attempted to present her as a citizen of the world who has traveled.

When she was chosen by John McCain as his running mate, aides said she had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq.

Let's look at the record, shall we?

Visited Ireland? LIE

Her "visit" to Ireland was an airline stopover at Shannon Airport. Maybe two hours in an airport lounge.

Visited Germany? Exaggeration.

She made a "morale tour" of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany. One day at most.

Kuwait? Yes. Two days.

Iraq: LIE

She never set foot in Iraq. Zero time in Iraq.

In the infamous Charles Gibson interview, Palin now claims to have visited Canada and Mexico.

The facts? Vacations:

Canada: Once, last year. No details available. (If there were details beyond it being a vacation, wouldn't the campaign have rushed them out?)

Mexico: On vacation. No details available. (I am thinking, Cabo counts as foreign travel?)

I own a two-year old suitcase that has traveled more than One-Heartbeat-Away Sarah Palin.

Boston Globe: Palin camp clarifies extent of Iraq trip
Says she never ventured beyond Kuwait border

Sarah Palin: "Cocky Whacko"

Dependable Renegade

That's what former Republican Senator from Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee called Sarah Palin yesterday. He also called her dangerous. He's right on both counts.

She holds whacky and dangerous views. In saying goodbye to her son who was deploying to Iraq, she said Iraq had caused 9/11 -- a view so extreme that even George W. Clusterfuck doesn't say that any more.

In her series of interviews with Charlie Gibson, she said that if Russia invaded Georgia, we would go to war (bottom of page, continues on to page 3). And starting World War III didn't phase her one bit. She delivered her answers in her bizarrely chirpy cheerleader voice as though it were perfectly normal to contemplate World War III. She'd be a war president.

Sarah Palin isn't lipstick on a pig. She's George W. Bush in lipstick, ready to be a war president but having no idea or concern about what that would mean for the country and for the world. A dangerous cocky whacko.

But That Wasn't On The Study Sheet!

With her vast foreign policy experience, somehow Caribou Barbie does not know what the Bush Doctrine is. I guess two weeks in a room with Karl Rove's minions is not enough to become familiar with the depth and breadth of American's foreign policy. Preemptive war? Never heard of it.

Now we know why they've been hiding her from the press. She is not ready to be Vice President. She's not ready to teach current events in a high school history class. Charlie Gibson doesn't let her hang out there very long; he gives her the answer after she says the Bush Doctrine is "his worldview".

My friends, this ill-informed dolt is John McCain's choice to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency.

Charlie: Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?

Palin: In what respect, Charlie?

Charlie: What do you interpret it to be?

Palin: His worldview.

Charlie: No, No, the Bush Doctrine. He enunciated it in September 2002, before the Iraq War.

Palin: I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is to rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hellbent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made. And with new leadership--and that's the beauty of American elections and democracy--with new leadership comes the opportunity to do things better.

Charlie: The Bush Doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory defense. We have the right to preemptively strike any other country that we believe is going to attack us.

No More War

John McCain wants to be a war president, just like George W. Clusterfuck. He expects more wars. He wants more wars in more places. He thinks there is a military solution to every problem.

No to more wars. No to four more years. No to McCain. (Warning, graphic scenes of violence in this five minute film. The violence the Pentagon has erased from the media for six years now.)

McCain Is A POW, All Hail McCain

Hilarious.



Dissent is treason.

Boondoggle

wikipedia: Cost of War

The U.S. taxpayer is paying to rebuild Iraq, while the Iraq government has $79 billion dollars sitting around in bank accounts unused. That nonfunctioning government is sitting on a huge pile of cash while the Iraq people do not have clean water, reliable electricity, or any of the things that constitute modern life.
Remember when Paul Wolfowitz said the war would pay for itself? Only if you are Exxon, or Halliburton, or the Iraq government.

NYTimes: As Iraq Surplus Rises, Little Goes Into Rebuilding

168 More Days of Bushit

Smithsonian: Easter Island

Blogging is for people who have time, and I'm busy this week getting ready to go on vacation! So here are some links to news of the world:

That government scientist involved in the anthrax probe who committed suicide last week left lots of questions behind. The omnibus post on the subject is from the redoubtable Glenn Greenwald. A more abbreviated discussion here from Jay Rosen at HuffPo. The most interesting questions are these: Who were ABC's four off-the-record sources in 2001 who lied to ABC, telling the network's reporters that the anthrax came from Iraq? And why did John McCain go on the Letterman show on October 11, 2001 and say the anthrax may have come from Iraq? All of which will lead us to someone high up in the Bush Administration who was pushing for war with Iraq, no doubt. I put my money on Cheney. John McCain, Cheney's lapdog.

David Gergen went on ABC's This Morning with George StephaFlagPinHypocritanopoulos and informed the panel that yes, McCain's ads are dog whistles to racists, that McCain is calling Obama "uppity". You can watch the video at TPM, or here's the quote:

When McCain's camp calls Obama "The Messiah" and "The One", he's really calling him "uppity." I'm from the South, and we understand what that means. That's code.

When John McCain was asked why he has accused Barack Obama of playing the race card, and what he has ever done to advance the cause of civil rights, he couldn't think of anything to say for a quite a while (watch video here). Then he lied about his dismal record.

Today is Barack Obama's 47th birthday. He'll always be younger than John McCain. And smarter. And more honest.

John McCain's Daily Bald-Faced Lie

McCain has a new campaign ad out attacking Obama. It's getting a lot more attention in the media than he's paid for, as it is only running in a few markets:

“Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan,” the ad’s announcer says. “He hadn’t been to Iraq in years. He voted against funding our troops. And now, he made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring cameras. John McCain is always there for our troops. McCain: Country first.” It concludes with the candidate’s voice: “I’m John McCain and I approve this message.”

Of course, Obama has attended more Afghanistan subcommittee meetings in the last two years than McCain.

Both McCain and Obama have voted against troop funding bills that contained provisions they didn't like.

It was McCain came out against the new GI Bill and its increased educational benefits for veterans, then didn't bother to vote when the final bill passed, while Obama made a special trip in from the campaign trail to vote for increased funding for veterans.

McCain voted against improved health care for disabled veterans.

McCain is against the very concept of VA healthcare and wants to shunt veterans into the private healthcare system where they will stand in line with (or behind) the rest of us.

Obama only canceled the hospital visit at the last minute after the Pentagon said at the last minute that he could only go with Senate staff (nothing was said about cameras, and Obama had visited wounded troops a couple of weeks ago at Walter Reed -- with no cameras present.). Since Obama was on a campaign visit and traveling with campaign staff, that was impossible.

(And on a related note, when John McCain was in Europe in March, he didn't go to the hospital in Landstuhl either, even though he was just as close to the hospital as Obama was.)

On the whole, the lowest point yet of a very low campaign.

hat tip to
Carpetbagger Report: When the going gets tough, McCain gets disgraceful where I got a lot of these links.

An actual truthful headline from the corporate media: New McCain Ad Bashes Obama for Not Visiting Troops Using Footage of Obama Visiting Troops (credit where credit is due, it's Jake Tapper of ABC News).

Corporate Media Misleading

Third World Traveler

I've briefly summarized these posts about the horrible media coverage of politics we get here in the old U S of A. Click on the links and read the entire articles because I'm just giving you a flavor of these pieces.

Here's something you'd only read from the international press: Obama impresses a reporter for the Jerusalem Post; while McCain & Bush are surrounded by aides when interviewed, Obama goes solo and understands the nuances of Middle East issues.

Devastating critique of the media by Digby; these two passages are my favorite:

After watching them have a mass four year orgasm over George W. Bush standing on a pile of rubble with a bullhorn saying "Ah hear you. And the people who did this are gonna hear from us real soon! yuk, yuk" like he was reciting Shakespeare's Henry V St Crispin's day speech, it's a little bit hard for me to take seriously the idea that they have anything but a bias toward cheap, shallow ignorance (which naturally favors movement conservatism.)

The problem with our media isn't that they like or dislike a politician that we also like or don't like. It's that they treat politics like a celebrity game show and it makes it very difficult for the people to even know what their interests are, much less who best represents them.

In a ridiculous article spammed out to all the media outlets who use AP, two "journalists" declared that the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq. JurassicPork at Brilliant at Breakfast let's 'em have it:

I read the news today, oh boy. The Yankee army has just won the war.

Imagine my surprise when I clicked on this article entitled “Analysis: US now winning Iraq war that seemed lost” that began with this breathtakingly ballsy sentence: “The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost.” Well, gee, there are very few people who would like to believe that more than yours truly. Still, I wanted to see who’d drawn up this analysis but after several paragraphs it was obvious that this “analysis” was cooked up by the same two guys who wrote this article, Robert Reid and Robert Burns.

Indeed, the breezily optimistic opening line was immediately deflated with the next sentence: “Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years.” Considering that our involvement in World War II lasted just over four years against two awesome war machines across two continents, it would seem to me that this 5½ year-old war isn’t close to being over if we have several more years of terrorist and insurgent activity to look forward to.

Yet, to Burns and Reid, the insurgency is (let’s all say it together, people, with feeling and harmony) in its last throes. So how have we beaten or won over the insurgency that we’d created by disbanding the Iraqi Army?

They launched the insurgency five years ago. They now are either sidelined or have switched sides to cooperate with the Americans in return for money and political support.

So we’re buying their loyalty with cold hard American taxpayer dollars and political favoritism. Yeah, that’s certainly a firm foundation for a lasting, peaceful alliance.

John McCain's Daily Bald-Faced Lie

YouTube is not John McCain's friend. Today on This Morning with George StephaFlagPinHypocriteopoulos, McCain claimed he didn't use the word "timetable" during his Friday interview with Leslie Blitzer on CNN. Except he did. From my new favorite blog, The Jed Report, the evidence:

John McCain's Neverending War

I posted this last night, but I'm putting it up again to make sure every who visits here regularly gets to see it. John McCain's own words on the war in Iraq: