August 2008 Archives
'they flee from me, who sometime did me seek';
...It's about honesty. The question should be whether McCain--and all the other Republicans who have been going on for months about Obama's dangerous lack of foreign policy experience--ever meant a word of it. And the answer is apparently not. Many conservative pundits woke up this very morning fully prepared to harp on Obama's alleged lack of experience for months more. Now they face the choice of either executing a Communist-style U-turn ("Experience? Feh! Who needs it?") or trying to keep a straight face while touting the importance of having been mayor of a town of 9,000 if you later find yourself president of a nation of 300 million...
...How could anyone truly believe that Barack Obama's background and job history are inadequate experience for a president, and simultaneously believe that Sarah Palin's background and job history are perfectly adequate? It's possible to believe one or the other. But both? Simply not possible. John McCain has been--what's the word?--lying. And so have all the pundits who rushed to defend McCain's choice.
This is especially damning to McCain because his case for himself (besides not being Barack Obama, a standard under which many of us might qualify) has rested on his honor and integrity. The North Vietnamese couldn't break him, and neither could the Brahmins of his own party in the Senate. He was a maverick who always told it straight. So much for that.
Politico;
1. He's desperate. Let's stop pretending this race is as close as national polling suggests. The truth is McCain is essentially tied or trailing in every swing state that matters -- and too close for comfort in several states like Indiana and Montana the GOP usually wins pretty easily in presidential races. On top of that, voters seem very inclined to elect Democrats in general this election -- and very sick of the Bush years.
McCain could easily lose in an electoral landslide. That is the private view of Democrats and Republicans alike.
McCain's pick shows he is not pretending. Politicians, even "mavericks" like McCain, play it safe when they think they are winning -- or see an easy path to winning. They roll the dice only when they know that the risks of conventionality are greater than the risks of boldness.
.The Republican brand is a mess. ...
...4. He's not worried about the actuarial implications of his age. He thinks he's in fine fettle, and Palin wouldn't be performing the only constitutional duty of a vice president, which is standing by in case a president dies or becomes incapacitated. If he was really concerned about an inexperienced person sitting in the Oval Office we would be writing about vice presidential nominee Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge or Condoleezza Rice...
...There is no plausible way that McCain could say that he picked Palin, who was only elected governor in 2006 and whose most extended public service was as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (population 8,471), because she was ready to be president on Day One.
Nor can McCain argue that he was looking for someone he could trust as a close adviser. Most people know the staff at the local Starbucks better than McCain knows Palin. They met for the first time last February at a National Governors Association meeting in Washington. Then, they spoke again -- by phone -- on Sunday while she was at the Alaska state fair and he was at home in Arizona.
McCain has made a mockery out of his campaign's longtime contention that Barack Obama is too dangerously inexperienced to be commander in chief. Now, the Democratic ticket boasts 40 years of national experience (four years for Obama and 36 years for Joseph Biden of Delaware), while the Republican ticket has 26 (McCain's four yeasr in the House and 22 in the Senate.)
As always, citizens know most fastest -- these three comments on NYT blog coverage of Palin choice particularly cogent;
Karl Rove must be pulling out his last remaining hair follicle this morning, as McCain picks Sarah Palin as his running mate for the GOP ticket.
44 year-old television celebrity Palin was the Mayor of a town of 7,500 people in Alaska a year ago.
If McCain were to win, she'd be one heart-beat behind a multi-melanoma-suffering older gentleman from being our Commander in Chief.
There goes the GOP's main "Obama/Biden have insufficient experience' argument..
Palin has also been under an intense state probe about corruption since taking over as Alaska's Governor a year ago ("McCain ticket hits Alaska iceberg"). Pressure from her staff to fire a state patrolman who is her sister's former husband ... led the Chief of Police to resign in disgust.
The investigation has been all the Alaska political news the last few months ... and it's not the only issue about her experience;
Palin has another problem. After Alaska's public-safety commissioner Walt Monegan was fired (Monegan has said he felt pressure to dropkick the trooper) Palin replaced him with the former police chief of the city of Kenai. But he quit after it became known that he received a reprimand after sexual harassment allegations were filed against him in his former post.
At the very least, that incident raises some questions about Palin as a chief executive .
The celebrity argument was also just crushed -- former beauty-queen Palin will now be the GOP's Paris Hilton.
Romney's chief strategist said last night on CNN after the phenomenal success of the DNC in Denver that it's probably a really good year to get the call that your candidate was NOT chosen to be GOP VP.
I'm sure he's feeling even more that way this morning.
.
Is this a great day to be in Denver or what?
I went for a swim at my athletic club this morning. Guy in the locker room told me Barack was up playing basketball in the gym.
Went to the gym and shot hoops for 30 minutes with Barack. He didn't want to play a game ... and no one there wanted to risk being the one to give him a black-eye on the day of The Speech
Two things to report:
1. He can shoot lights-out from beyond the arc
2. I was struck by how at ease he was -- with the folks at the gym and with his place today in history.
And no, I didn't get a photo. Just shooting hoops, and I didn't have my camera ... so my kids will just have to believe all this...
Watch the huge Chinese women swimmers who suddenly out of nowhere are setting world records and placing in positions that are nowhere near their historic performances (200 fly tonight -- 1 and 2 both under world record; 100 free #1 but DQ'd for false start).
None looked in the least fatigued at the end of their races... look at their faces compared to those just behind them.
None of them appeared in international meets, where they would have been drug tested, during the two year run-up to the Olympics.
Why?
Because they would have been on the doping test grid.
Instead they train with whatever supplements while off the grid, then are weaned far enough ahead of the Olympics that the regime doesn't show up during the Games themselves.
Remember the East European women swimmers in the '70s?
Remember the fake firework footprints on opening night?
The 9 year-old lip syncher?
Add it all up....
TPM; ...Sargeant is the owner of an oil-trading company that has a lucrative
Pentagon contract to supply fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq by way of
Jordan -- and he's also reportedly getting sued by the brother-in-law
of the King of Jordan over that contract...
...A few months ago, NBC News laid out the facts about the lawsuit in this piece.
According to NBC, Sargeant's company, called International Oil Trading
Company, has a Pentagon contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars
per year to supply fuel, mostly aviation fuel, to the military, which
it ships to Jordan and then across the border into Iraq. The company's
latest contract is worth $913 million over two years, and the Pentagon
confirmed to NBC that it wasn't the lowest bid. ...the upshot is that one of the more prolific bundlers for McCain appears
to have bagged a huge contract to deliver fuel to the U.S. military in
Iraq, even though he wasn't the lowest bidder for that contract,
allegedly by relying partly on a connection in Jordan to deliver it.
NY Times; The Jordanian business partner of a prominent Florida businessman, who has raised more than $500,000 for Senator John McCain, appears to be at the center of a cluster of questionable donations to his presidential campaign.
Campaign finance records show Mr. McCain collected a little more
than $50,000 in March from members of a single extended family, the
Abdullahs, in California and several of their friends. Amid
a sea of contributions to the McCain campaign, the Abdullahs stand out.
The checks come not from the usual exclusive coastal addresses, but
from relatively hardscrabble inland towns like Downey and Colton. The
donations are also startling because of their size: several donors
initially wrote checks of $9,200, exceeding the $2,300 limit for an
individual gift...
...Through Mr. Abu Naba'a's connections, Mr. Sargeant has raised more than
$100,000 in contributions from several dozen Arab Americans in
California, including the Abdullahs,
Faisal Abdullah, a Palestinian
immigrant who works as a director of operations of a window treatment
company, identified himself in an interview as the driver behind the
McCain donations from his relatives and friends. He sent them to Mr.
Abu Naba'a, whom Mr. Abdullah described as an acquaintance. Mr. Abdullah is an unlikely McCain fund-raiser, admitting he had soured on the Republican Party as a result of President Bush... H...e
told his friends and relatives that the contributions were
tax-deductible, something he later seemed surprised to learn from a
reporter was not true. Many in his circle appear to have little
affection for Mr. McCain but said they gave mostly as a favor to Mr.
Abdullah. Abdullah Makhlouf, the owner of a discount stereo
store who is one of Mr. Abdullah's closest friends, and his wife
contributed $9,200. "He's like a worse copy than Bush," Mr. Makhlouf said of Mr. McCain. When a reporter initially contacted Mr. Makhlouf, he denied giving to the McCain campaign. After eventually admitting to the donation, Mr. Makhlouf added, "I'm still not going to vote for him."
Billion-dollar defense Iraq oil contractor bundling McCain money from...???? L'Air du McCain Scandal ; Harry Sargeant III, a former naval officer and the owner of an
oil-trading company that recently inked defense contracts potentially
worth more than $1 billion, is the archetype of a modern presidential
money man. The law forbids high-level supporters from writing huge
checks, but with help from friends in the Middle East and the former
chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit -- who now serves as a consultant to
his company -- Sargeant has raised more than $100,000 for three
presidential candidates from a collection of ordinary people, several
of whom professed little interest in the outcome of the election....
....Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant's network live in modest
homes in Southern California's Inland Empire. Most had never given a
political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his
associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics.
And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet,
records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for
various candidates between December and March.
Both Sargeant and the donors were vague when asked to explain how Sargeant persuaded them to give away so much money.
"I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in
the Middle East. I've got a lot of friends," Sargeant said in a
telephone interview yesterday. "I ask my friends to support candidates
that I think are worthy of supporting. They usually come through for
me."
Sargeant's business relationships, and the work they perform
together, occur away from the public eye. His firm, International Oil
Trading Co. (IOTC), holds several lucrative contracts with the Defense
Department to carry fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq.
This is particularly piquant;
...Abdullah Abdullah, a supervisor at several Taco Bell restaurants in
the Riverside area, and his wife have donated $9,200 to McCain.
Reached at work, Abdullah said he knows little about the campaign.
"I have no idea. I'll be honest with you," he said. "I'm involved in
the restaurant business. ..."
....Faisal Abdullah, 49, said he helped organize all of the
contributions from members of his family. When he was asked who
solicited the contributions from him, he said: "Why does it matter who?
I'm telling you we made the contribution. We funneled it through the
channel in Florida because that's the contact we had. I was responsible
for collecting it."
Hmm... non-voting Abdullahs in America max-ing out their donations to McCain when solicited by the former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit on behalf of a shady company with $1 bill in Defense contracts to provide petrol to American forces in Iraq....
Sally Jenkins has a strong column at the WaPo on all this, we'll see how long they let her stay in Beijing; The slow strangling death of the Olympics at the hands of the Chinese
officials continues. Their Olympic motto of "One World, One Dream" is
beginning to take on an ominous tone, what with the gagging of
athletes, and the censorship of the press, and the basic all-around
stamping out of Olympic spirit. The only vision of the world that's
permitted is their own, judging by the fact that gold medalist Joey
Cheek was denied admittance to these Summer Games for the following
offense: He spoke.Darfur. That's the word that so alarmed Chinese officials that they
revoked Cheek's visa, a day before he was to fly to Beijing. We'll see
how quickly the Chinese surveillance blocks the word from the Internet,
or whether the cops show up and invite me to the departure lounge at
the airport for writing it. The Olympics are supposed to be apolitical,
Chinese officials continually bray; they will not allow any signs, or
protests. And now it seems they've issued another edict: no
humanitarians.
...Cheek is just one athlete from Team Darfur who has been denied a visa.
Synchronized swimmer Kendra Zanotto, a 2004 bronze medalist, planned to
attend the Beijing Games as a freelance journalist, but was denied a
visa. Most disturbing, a number of athletes from other countries who
belong to Team Darfur have quietly called to drop out of the group in
the run-up to these Games, because they were pressured by their Olympic
committees to disassociate from the group.
Would you have the courage to speak out on these issues if you were involved in the Olympics? How about if you were a superstar gabillionaire NBA player? Apropos of not much, Sally's pop Dan Jenkins (Semi-tough; Dead Solid Perfect) has another hilarious novel out that is about a reverse triple flip with a double twist in political incorrectness compared to the above... The Franchise Babe... say no more... Those Jenkins are a tough impressive crew....
Now that the Republican slime machine that controls the country is in full sewage mode, and the mainstream media are dutifully slinging it along , the Obama campaign is clearly the national underdog. That's a good thing as it allows them to play on the visceral emotional favoritism America has for the challenger. It will be interesting to see if corporate media steps up to challenge McCain's personal cowardice in hiding behind his operatives' sludge ... a complete 180 from everything he's ever stood for as a 'maverick' 'war hero'...
Will he renounce the Bush Torturer-in-Chief policies? ...It is the story of how a small group of determined men and women
thwarted international and American law; fought off powerful challenges
from colleagues within the Justice Department, the State Department,
the National Security Council and the C.I.A.; ignored or circumvented Supreme Court
rulings and Congressional resolutions; and blithely dismissed a growing
clamor of outrage and contempt from much of the world -- all in the
service of preserving their ability to use extreme forms of torture in
the search for usable intelligence.... ...No one knows how many people were rounded up and spirited away into
these secret locations, although the number is very likely in the
thousands. No one knows either how many detainees have died once in
custody. Nor is there any solid information about the many detainees
who have been the victims of what the United States government calls "extraordinary rendition,"
the handing over of detainees to other governments, mostly in the
Middle East, whose secret police have no qualms about torturing their
prisoners and face no legal consequences for doing so. This vast
regime of pain and terror, inflicted in the name of a war on terror,
rests in large part on the untested belief of a few high-ranking
leaders in Washington that torture is an effective tool for eliciting
valuable information. But there is, Mayer persuasively argues, little
available evidence that this assumption is true, and a great deal of
evidence from numerous sources (including the United States military
and the F.B.I.)
that torture is, in fact, one of the least effective methods of
gathering information and a likely source of false confessions.
Probably about when he stands up to Daddy Rove's racist campaign tactics. Reminds me of Weekend at Bernie's ... the Rovers standing up the dead McCain doll with the age-old race-bating fear props.... Will the Cowardly Lion ever show any courage?
And a coward until he disavows his campaign's race-baiting. ...Mr. Obama has to endure these grotesque insults with a smile and
heroic levels of equanimity. The reason he has to do this -- the sole
reason -- is that he is black.
So there he was this week speaking
evenly, and with a touch of humor, to a nearly all-white audience in
Missouri. His goal was to reassure his listeners, to let them know he's
not some kind of unpatriotic ogre. Mr. Obama told them: "What
they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not
patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like
all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky." The audience seemed to appreciate his comments. Mr. Obama was well-received. But
John McCain didn't appreciate them. RACE CARD! RACE CARD! The McCain
camp started bellowing, and it hasn't stopped since. With great glee
bursting through their feigned outrage, the campaign's operatives and
the candidate himself accused Senator Obama of introducing race into
the campaign -- playing the race card, as they put it, from the very
bottom of the deck. Whatever you think about Barack Obama, he
does not want the race issue to be front and center in this campaign.
Every day that the campaign is about race is a good day for John
McCain. So I guess we understand Mr. McCain's motivation.
As is every Republican who doesn't publically disavow this hate-campaign.
McCain has promised honesty and integrity. His Rove-driven campaign is spewing hate and lies. He's a coward to hide behind his handlers. That's completely contrary to his self-image;
"I had promised to tell the truth no matter what," McCain
wrote in the book. "When I broke it, I had not just been dishonest, I
had been a coward, and I had severed my own interests from my
country's. That was what made the lie unforgivable." Will the honest warrior override the cowardly pol?
|
This page is an archive of entries from August 2008 listed from newest to oldest.
July 2008 is the previous archive.
September 2008 is the next archive.
Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.
|
|
|
Subscribe
...I can't wait to see the geezer and the beauty queen on those campaign posters. If he looked old before, he's going to look like a fossil next to her.
Let's see, population of Wasilla, WA (sic) approx 5,500, population of Alaska approx 670,000, population of the US approx 300 million.
I was on my student council in high school AND college. Can I be secretary of state?
-- Tracy