Tag Archives: mccain

McCain Introduces Bill To Make Obama More Powerful Than A King

Posted on by LtL

S.3081 is obscene. S.3081 is profoundly anti-law. S.3081 allows for indeterminate detention for pretty much anyone the President “considers appropriate.” S.3081 is backed by Republicans who talk a big game when it comes to freedom and liberty and the rule of law, but who, as this bill demonstrates, are really bullies and thugs who have no regard for the Constitution, the rule of law, or basic ethical principles. McCain and Lieberman (and the others who have signed onto this bill) are doing the terrorists work for them by allowing the United States to become a land ruled by fear and imperial dictate rather than a system of justice that presumes innocence until guilt is proven.

Go ahead, someone prove to me why giving the President the power to label someone a “high-value detainee” based on whatever reasons that President decides to make up and then holding that person indefinitely is a good idea for a democracy. I thought the whole fucking point of the United States was that we didn’t live in a dictatorship/monarchy.

And I hope all you fucking teabaggers and libertarians take down the GOP for their desire to concentrate even more power in the hands of the President. But somehow I don’t think you will because you were perfectly happy to give up your rights to Bush and his cronies, and you’re now too busy whining about the fact that liberals want to actually get you better health care.

CRITERIA FOR DESIGNATION OF INDIVIDUALS AS HIGH-VALUE DETAINEES- The regulations required by this subsection shall include criteria for designating an individual as a high-value detainee based on the following: (A) The potential threat the individual poses for an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the United States or upon United States citizens or United States civilian facilities abroad at the time of capture or when coming under the custody or control of the United States. (B) The potential threat the individual poses to United States military personnel or United States military facilities at the time of capture or when coming under the custody or control of the United States. (C) The potential intelligence value of the individual. (D) Membership in al Qaeda or in a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda. (E) Such other matters as the President considers appropriate. Text of S.3081 as Introduced in Senate: Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010… OpenCongress

via Glenn Greenwald

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McCain Hates Poor People

Posted on by LtL

I wonder why McCain hates poor people so much? Probably because he spent five years as a POW.

Obama and McCain Tax Proposals
According to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are both proposing tax plans that would result in cuts for most American families. Obama’s plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy. For the approximately 147,000 families that make up the top 0.1 percent of the income scale, the difference between the two plans is stark. While McCain offers a $269,364 tax cut, Obama would raise their taxes, on average, by $701,885 – a difference of nearly $1 million.


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[From Obama and McCain Tax Proposals - washingtonpost.com]

Seriously though, I think that one of the most impressive aspects of these numbers is the fact that Obama’s plan demonstrates a commitment to the poor and working-class of this country. That he has the courage to say, flat out to the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country that he is planning on raising their taxes tells me that he has a lot more invested in doing what is right rather than what is politically expedient.

Today, John McCain’s website talks of serving a cause greater than yourself. Yet, when faced with the largest national debt in history, a war that costs millions of dollars a day, a fragile and crumbling economy, McCain doesn’t seem interested in asking the wealthiest people in the country to serve any cause other than themselves.

I don’t know what you call that, but I call it hypocrisy.

Oh, and I don’t know what you call going around the country telling people that Obama would raise taxes for most Americans, but I call it lying.

(via Joya)

McCain Watch – Straight Talk Express, The Musical!

Posted on by LtL

Yeah – McCain used the word “trollop.” The gall of him.

Oh yeah, and that other word . . .

So I loved the musical theatre bit and wanted to come up with a song list for the rest of the musical:

  • I’m Old, but Dagnabit I’m Young Enough for You
  • Women, Git Yerself Educated
  • War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero
  • Lobbyist Love
  • The Right to Choose . . . ME!
  • Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
  • Telecoms Fly Free
  • The Free Market Suite:
    • I’ll Protect the Strong
    • Taxes for You, Tax Holes for Me
    • She’s a Sexy No-bid Contract and I Think She Likes Me
    • The Profit Anthem
  • I’ll Straight Talk You Right ‘Round the Bend
  • Trollops & Cunts!!
  • If By Experience (You Mean Old, I’m Your Man)
  • God So Made the World/Darwin is a Dunce
  • When the Truth is a Lie is the Truth is a Lie is the Truth
  • I Won’t Die
  • You Can’t Go Wrong (With the Religious Right)
  • Bush League Player
  • A Womb Under My View
  • Diplomacy Shmiplomacy
  • War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero War Hero Reprise
  • 100 Years Ain’t Nuthin’ to Me

(Video via Pandagon)

Hillary Clinton Supporters Do Not Vote McCain

Posted on by LtL

Umm . . .

They’re mad as hell, and Hillary Clinton’s supporters aren’t going to take it anymore.

Some Clintonites are so mad about Barack Obama’s Tuesday victory that they’ve launched a web site to build support to launch a lobbying group to support Republican John McCain.

“We’re going to run campaign ads to defeat Obama,” says Ed Hale, a 63-year-old rancher and a Clinton supporter from Wellington, Texas. “We have doctors, lawyers, CPAs, the blue bloods, and then we have rednecks like me. It’s a very diversified organization.”

[From Angry Clinton Supporters Start Rallying for McCain Online | Threat Level from Wired.com]

Can we all just agree that this is bullshit and anyone who is a real Democrat, anyone who is a real Hillary supporter is not going to deliberately hand this country over to a madman who has no respect for the constitution and who thinks women are too dumb to make equal pay for equal work and who believes it’s just dandy to torture people as long as it’s done by the intelligence community and not the army and who doesn’t want to support veterans and their ability to go to college?

So let’s all just agree that any of these so-called Hillary for McCain supporters are most likely asshole Republican’s who are attempting to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt. If you believe in what Hillary Clinton believes in then you will NOT vote for McCain.

Ok? Ok.

Media outlets who simply accept the statements that these people are Clinton supporters are playing directly into a politics of lies and deceit. Yes, I’m looking at you Wired.

McCain Watch: Is A Holy War So Wrong?

Posted on by LtL

Can someone explain to me why Obama gets dragged over coals because of his association with Reverend Wright and McCain proclaims this jackass a “moral compass” and the mainstream press just skip merrily on past the hypocrisy of someone like McCain pandering to a dangerous, religious ideologue who probably has more in common with Osama bin Laden than with Christ:

Of course if you want to see America become embroiled in a holy war against all of Islam, then by all means, vote McCain. Just don’t be surprised when the economy tanks, all of our constitutional rights are flushed down the toilet, and our use of violence breeds millions of enemies who see the US as a bully and a rogue nation.

McCain Watch – Geneva Shmeneva

Posted on by LtL

So you think that McCain is against the use of torture? After all, he was tortured so he must be against it. He says he’s against it, so he must be against it (because politicians never ever lie).

Well, not quite:

In September, 2006, McCain made a melodramatic display — with great media fanfare — of insisting that the MCA require compliance with the Geneva Conventions for all detainees. But while the MCA purports to require that, it also vested sole and unchallenged discretion in the President to determine what does and does not constitute a violation of the Conventions. After parading around as the righteous opponent of torture, McCain nonetheless endorsed and voted for the MCA, almost single-handedly ensuring its passage. That law pretends to compel compliance with the Conventions, while simultaneously vesting the President with the power to violate them — precisely the power that the President is invoking here to proclaim that we have the right to use these methods.

[From John McCain and Bush's torture powers - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com]

Furthermore,

In 2005, McCain led the effort in the Senate to pass the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA), which made the use of torture illegal. While claiming that he had succeeded in passing a categorical ban on torture, however, McCain meekly accepted two White House maneuvers that diluted his legislation to the point of meaningless: (1) the torture ban expressly applied only to the U.S. military, but not to the intelligence community, which was exempt, thus ensuring that the C.I.A.—the principal torture agent for the United States—could continue to torture legally; and (2) after signing the DTA into law, which passed the Senate by a vote of 90–9, President Bush issued one of his first controversial “signing statements” in which he, in essence, declared that, as President, he had the power to disregard even the limited prohibitions on torture imposed by McCain’s law.

McCain never once objected to Bush’s open, explicit defiance of his cherished anti-torture legislation, preferring to bask in the media’s glory while choosing to ignore the fact that his legislative accomplishment would amount to nothing. Put another way, McCain opted for the political rewards of grandstanding on the issue while knowing that he had accomplished little, if anything, in the way of actually promoting his “principles.”

[From John McCain and Bush's torture powers - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com]

So yeah, McCain can talk all he wants to about how awful torture is as long as he doesn’t stand up against the White House and its culture of violence, lawlessness and torture. Not exactly the type of courage and strength I want in my President. What about you?

McCain Watch: Newsweek Damn Near Libels

Posted on by LtL

So, I’m in the midst of writing an indignant post about a quote I saw in Newsweek and I decided to look at the primary text that they are referencing and damn if it didn’t turn out that Newsweek, by changing one word in a quote by McCain, completely turned around the meaning of his words. Here is the post I was writing:

From the Presidential candidate who often claims his experience of imprisonment and torture as a POW as a moral calling card:


We have enemies for which no attack is too cruel.


Statements like this are sure to elevate America’s moral standing in the eyes of the world . . . not! Especially as he sounds no different than an Islamic radical terrorist. This is neither the rhetoric of strength, nor is it the rhetoric of morality. When you say that there is “no attack . . . too cruel” you are speaking from weakness and hatred and immorality. You are speaking the language of bin Laden.

Come on, America, we are better than that.

Link

But here is what McCain actually said:

We have enemies for whom no attack is too cruel . . .

That “whom” makes all the difference! And while I still think there are lots of reasons to beware of McCain and to fight against his candidacy, he’s not quite as bloodthirsty as Newsweek portrays or as my own prejudices seemed so eager to accept.

Link to McCain’s actual speech prepared script

McCain Watch: Yes Please, No Please

Posted on by LtL

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On the McCain news, a few interesting tidbits:

The Maverick thumbed his nose at the FEC when his latest campaign finance report showed that he blew past the public financing spending limit. He had agreed to take public financing when his campaign was in the crapper and he needed the matching funds. Once his political fortunes turned around, he decided that he wanted to withdraw from the system, and take private money. There’s also the possibility that he used public money to obtain a loan. The AP shows why he’s in trouble (or at least he should be . . .

Link

Since the presidential campaign began last year, no remaining candidate has been more absent from their day job than Sen. John McCain. The Arizona Republican has missed more than half of the votes in the Senate since January 2007. One MSNBC host is wondering whether the media-friendly GOP presidential candidate isn’t getting a pass from the national press and if McCain would have a better grasp on the issues if he had bothered to show up more often.

Link

The Senate voted today to ban the CIA from using torture on suspected terrorists and the most famous POW in the Senate voted against the bill. The Maverick is now most assuredly dead and the betrayal is complete. The blogosphere was all over this issue, and thankfully the measure passed, but for McCain, it was a show of pure cowardice. In other words, the Senator who himself was tortured for years and has previously spoken out against it, voted to allow the use of torture on others to save his political hide and pander to a party base that despises him. Is this the sort of weakness you want from your Commander in Chief?

Link

McCain TODAY: Complained About Wait Times at VA Hospitals. [Town Hall in Springfield, PA, 3/14/08] McCain LAST NIGHT: Skipped Vote to Help Veterans Get Veterans the Care They Need. McCain skips vote on amendment “To provide the Veterans Benefits Administration with additional resources to more effectively meet their increasing workload and to better address the unacceptably large claims backlog.” [2008 Senate Amendment 4194 to S.Con.Res.70, agreed to in Senate by Voice Vote; Thomas.loc.gov]

Link

There are, by some poll or other, an estimated 28% of Clinton supporters who would vote for McCain over Obama. I imagine that they are those Democrats who are anti-abortion, pro-torture, and don’t care about campaign finance reform (McCain-Feingold what?) or our Veterans, and are eager to start a war with Iran, support the telco’s in gaining immunity for breaking the law, and are pro-business and pro-lobby. They must be that group of Democrats who believe that abstinence only sex education is a good thing, no matter the statistics that point to it’s failure, believe that Catholic’s are evil and that Hurricane Katrina was punishment delivered upon New Orleans for its sins (God Damn America – which is only ok for white preachers to preach), and believe that we live in a fundamentally religious and and Christian country rather than a secular republic. (For more on McCain and religious issues, follow this link.)

Those 28% must be awfully confused.

McCain Watch: Foreign Who? Foreign What? Foreign How?

Posted on by LtL

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Someone please explain to me just exactly what McCain’s foreign experience consists of? I mean, has he been an Ambassador? Has be brokered peace somewhere? Has he demonstrated in-depth knowledge of other peoples, places and cultures?

The media consensus that national security is some sort of great asset for McCain is completely baseless. Just go read McCain’s pre-invasion speeches and they are filled to the brim with the most extreme, gullible and false assertions about Iraq. This whole McCain Myth is predicated on the Beltway principle that anyone who supports war and cheers on war and wants to prolong the occupation of Iraq is inherently Serious when it comes to National Security, no matter how little they know and how unbroken a record of Wrongness they’ve compiled. And in McCain’s case, the fact that he was in Vietnam 40 years ago immunizes him from having his National Security expertise questioned (though it didn’t for John Kerry).

[From Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com]

Can someone please point to any significant achievement that McCain has made in terms of foreign policy or why he is, somehow, an expert on national security?

I don’t get it.