...I was still digesting [the "Britney" ad] when the "Moses" ad came out. The point of this one was that there are voters who are so tragically, laughably ignorant they're actually thinking of voting for someone who inspires them. They're assholes. You know, like the Israelites. People with faith! They'd be sad if they weren't so damn funny! Don't they get it? It's a garbage existance -- even if Jihadists don't kill you -- and you're just making fools of yourselves with this "change" bullshit. So pull up your socks, stop acting like some love-struck German, and vote McCain...
“Sen. Obama is still opposed to a comprehensive energy plan,” McCain claimed. “It seems to me the only thing he wants us to do is inflate tires” to improve gas mileage. Just like Bush: "you can believe me or you can believe your lying eyes, rubes." At this point I don't care if Obama flips on every single issue, I will do everything I can to see this jackass defeated. Ugh.
...Obama is correct to suggest that inflating tires properly and getting regular tune-ups “could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling” — and by a long shot. According to the Energy Information Administration, if Congress lifted the moratorium on offshore drilling, by 2030, oil crude production in the “lower-48″ outer continental shelf will increase by about200,000 barrels per day. By contrast, the production offset based on Obama’s proposal will likely approach 800,000 barrels per day, immediately.
"Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. You're a - you're a - you've been given sovereignty, and you're - viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between - sovereign entities."
Barack Obama:“So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so 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. That’s essentially the argument they’re making.”
McCain Campaign Manager, Rick Davis:“Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck... It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”
John McCain on Davis' statement:“I agree with it, and I’m disappointed that Senator Obama would say the things he’s saying...”
Steve Schmidt, McCain Campaign:“The McCain campaign was compelled to respond to this outrageous attack because we will not allow John McCain to be smeared by Senator Obama as a racist for offering legitimate criticism. We have waited for months with a sick feeling knowing this moment would come because we watched it incur with President Clinton."
Now watch a McCain web ad inserting Barack Obama's face on a hundred dollar bill.
They really should leave the comedy to the non-Republicans. McCain and his campaign went apeshit over Obama's "doesn't look like other presidents on dollar bills" comment, accusing him of injecting race into the campaign. And now it looks as if the very thing they were so outraged about was in fact ACTUALLY PERPETRATED by the McCain campaign over a month ago!
Granted, Obama didn't speak specifically to this video, he was speaking in general terms, although one wonders if he did see the video in passing or perhaps someone had described it to him. But you have to admit it's an interesting development nonetheless to have actual McCain campaign ad footage of the very thing that Obama described and then accuse him of playing the race card.
It's two separate incidents, but it's one BIG coincidence.
God, how I hate that word. Veepstakes. Who thought that was a bright idea? Do you think that Kathleen Sebelius, Tom Kaine or Jack Reed are sitting at home waiting for Ed McMahon to show up at their door with their veepstakes tickets to the White House?
Anyway, with all the hoopla on a possible VP pick for Senator Obama, all we've gotten from the media is that Hillary Clinton is probably off the short list. No shit. These people get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to analyze this crap and I could've given you that tidbit of wisdom even before the primaries were over.
Then Virginia Governor Tim Kaine was in the mix, and perhaps still is, but it seems to me that when you're getting major exposure on being a possible pick, it ain't you anymore. Another name mentioned since Day One has been Kathleen Sebelius but what worries me, and perhaps I'm reading too much into this, is all the nutty Clinton supporters (not ALL Clinton supporters, just the nutty ones) who would take a Sibelius pick as a slap in the face in lieu of Hillary. Too many times I've heard "if it's a woman other than Hillary, I'm voting McCain." See the logic in that? That's why I call it nutty. Their numbers don't worry me, but the possibility of the McCainstream Media pounding the "Hillary was dissed" meme at the expense of covering substantive issues does.
Months ago I was speaking with Armadillo Joe and we were tossing around names as well. Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Jim Webb... and then we came across Wesley Clark.
I think Clark would compliment BarackObama well. You can't dismiss his military service, he knows his foreign policy, and hell, he was Supreme Fucking Allied Commander Europe of NATO during the Clinton years. That's a helluva lot more experience than "getting shot down in a fighter plane."
I wouldn't object to Clark as a VP candidate even though he was a Hillary Clinton supporter during the primaries and has since publicly endorsed Sebelius as the next VP choice. But I prefer Clark. He has the gravitas you want in a running mate and people know him. His comments on "Face The Nation" will probably resurface for a time and then fade as fast as the attention span of most voters. Also, because of those comments, picking Clark might be seen as a "fuck you" to the GOP and the McCain campaign, and we can always use more of those.
...Obama's going to need people like Clark close by to help him manage the military, which is going to be hostile to his leadership. The Man Called Petraeus is gearing up for his run in 2012 and they already injected themselves into the campaign by sandbagging Obama with that visit to the wounded troops flap. It's not going to be easy.
So what do you think? Obama/Clark '08? It sounds really good to me.
I happened to be home to watch the first segment of Hardball today. Guest host Mike Barnicle was filling in for Tweety and of course, all the talk was about how BOTH John McCain and Barack Obama were running negative campaigns. EXCUSE ME?! Equating John McCain's "Britney" ad (she's a W. supporter by the way) which he says he's "proud of" to Barack Obama's rebuttal ad correcting the record of the lies told in the McCain ad, and insinuating that they are equally negative is appalling but that argument is for another post.
What I wanted to bring attention to was good ol' reliable Pat Buchanan and his recurring meme that there's nothing wrong with using Obama's middle name "Hussein" in ads or speaking it when referencing Obama, to which everyone on the panel, Michelle Bernard, Bob Shrum and Barnicle just went giddy over. They couldn't stop laughing at Buchanan for comparing Barack Hussein Obama's name to Richard Milhous Nixon.
Hey Pat, it's not what you say but how you say it. Bernard eventually said there's absolutely nothing wrong with the name but it's wrong when you say it in a tone that makes people think they're electing a jihadist to be president. At one point, even Buchanan just starts chortling because I'm sure even he couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth.
When I first watched it I was enraged, but then I looked at it again and just laughed along and shook my head at the ridiculousness of "Statler's" statements. Attempting to call the subject of McCain's attacks "real issues" because that's the only way he can get close to winning is a complete joke. Those Republicans talking point regurgitators will literally say anything and not care how stupid they look when saying it. Same goes for Ron Christie and even Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
...as the longest serving Republican Senator is indicted on seven criminal charges"of falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home."
Prosecutors said Stevens "took multiple steps to continue" receiving things from oil services company VECO Corp., and its founder, Bill Allen. At the time, the indictment says, Allen and other VECO employees were soliciting Stevens for "multiple official actions .... knowing that Stevens could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of VECO during that same time period."
The wheels are coming off.
UPDATE (9:52pm): It seems the good Senator was not charged with bribery because the statute of limitations had expired.
Andrea Mitchell started to vindicate herself yesterday when taking on the GOP surrogates for McThuselah and stating the obvious - that McCain's new ad criticizing Obama for not visiting the troops because he couldn't bring cameras, or that he couldn't find time to visit them but found time to go to the gym is "literally not true", a kinder way of saying that the Maverick is a fucking liar.
I rippedMitchell in the past for dumb remarks she's made towards BarackObama, so I must give her kudos for acting like a journalist in this case. I suppose that even she can't let some of the McCain gaffes and specious lies go without calling them out for what they are - a betrayal of "straight talk" and "respectful campaigning," my friends.
Later in the day, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow took a look at McCain's record of how he supposedly supports the troops.
Hopefully as we get closer to the election, the reporting of John McCain will stray away from the St. Barbecue style that it has been to this point and will concentrate more on the gaffes, hypocrisy and inanity of some of his statements.
MITCHELL: Did he make a bad call deciding not to go to Ramstein? He had every right to go to Ramstein, to visit the troops in Landstuhl. He had already been to visit the troops in Iraq. Without cameras, without an entourage. And he got-his people, rather-got so backed off by warnings from the Pentagon. Now please be careful, don’t bring your military aide, because he’s now a political aide. The Pentagon was way too aggressive probably in that. And they got so nervous: oh this is going to look political. And they were damned if they did or damned if they didn’t. Let me just finish what I was saying…just this one point…there was never any intention-let me be absolutely clear about this-the entourage was never going to go. There was never an intention to make this political. But by tacking it on to the tail end of a political-the political leg of the trip, they opened themselves up they feared to the criticism, and if they’d gone, they’d be criticized and not going, they were criticized and the McCain commercial on this subject is completely wrong! Factually wrong.
Here it is, the puppets repeating the right wing talking points in discussing McCain's new ad ripping Obama for not visiting the troops that he was told not to visit by the Pentagon. Good ol' reliable Joe Scarborough took a back seat and lobbed softball questions to intrepid pundit, Pat Buchanan.
Scar (paraphrase): And you know if McCain had been told by the Pentagon that he wasn't allowed to visit the troops he would've asked, "What's your name, rank and serial number because you're fired." And the other guy that's not Joe, we'll call him Scooter, said "Yeah, McCain would've said, 'Rules be damned. I'm going to visit those troops.'
But I guess we'll never be able to test that, will we guys?
Here's what Morning Joe looked like to me this lovely Monday morning.
Andrew Giuliani claims he was dismissed without cause from the golf team earlier this year because coach O.D. Vincent III wanted to cut the team of 13 players by about half. The lawsuit claims the coach has interferred with Giuliani's efforts toward becoming a professional golfer.
Hey Andy, don't you think that if maybe you were that good, you woudn't have gotten kicked off in the first place? Does not being on the golf team prevent you from playing or practicing? Get the fuck outta here, you whiny, little bastard.
Here's how I remember Andrew Giuliani - hogging up the camera at Mayor 9/11's inauguration:
What a fucking embarrassment. That punk should've gotten a little corporal punishment then, and it looks like Jack Cafferty agrees.
In his zeal to show how well the surge has worked in Iraq and to trip up BarackObama by wagging his finger in disgust to Obama's opposition of the surge last year, John McCain screwed up the timeline on when the Sunni sheiks turned against Al-Qaeda in Anbar province, referred to as the "Anbar Awakening." Whether this was intentional or not to give the surge more credence remains to be seen. But facts are facts, and they are becoming fewer and far between in the McCain campaign.
McCain: "...Colonel MacFarland was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history."
Actual history will prove otherwise, and McCain knows the actual history, or is he getting confused again?
... Spencer AckermanandIlanGoldenberghave reported, the record firmly establishes the opposite: instead of being caused by the surge, the key signs of the Anbar Awakening occurred not only before that strategy was implemented, but before it was ever conceived.
...The fact remains, however, that the military official cited by McCain, then-Colonel Sean MacFarland,described the Anbar Awakening in September 2006 -- four months before the "surge" was even announced -- noting that tribal leaders were "stepping forward and cooperating with the Iraqi security forces against Al Qaeda." Moreover, amilitary reviewwritten by MacFarland notes that his unit actually left Anbar before most of the surge troops arrived; his success in the region came between June 2006 and February 2007.
...Especially notable is that McCain himself was not always confused as to the start date of the Awakening, and whether or not it was caused by the surge. Fresh off one of his much-touted trips to Iraq, McCain delivered remarks to the conservative American Enterprise Institute on January 5, 2007. Alongside fellow Senator Joe Lieberman, McCain specifically advocated for the newly proposed surge, and cited the already-in-progress turning of Sunni sheiks as a reason to send more troops.
UPDATE (7/24/08 9:20am): It's all semantics according to McCain. The surge was a combination of events including the "Anbar awakening" even though the surge was announced in January 2007 and the Anbar awakening began happening in September 2006.
But if that's really the case, why did CBS decide to cut and paste another answer to the question posed by intrepid anchor Katie Couric? Were they trying to cover McCain's decrepit ass as he stuck his foot in his mouth again? CBS has since put the full transcript and complete video online. Here's a side by side video comparison from the Jed Report.
And yet, the GOP and wingnuts proclaim that BarackObama is the media darling while McCain gets a bum rap. And yes, I'm taking a shot at Couric, who'll let a bumbling fool like McCain get away with an answer like that, probably because she doesn't know any better and doesn't know the history either, while she belabored the surge question with Obama and overall asked accusatory questions of Obama while asking McCain softball questions about... Obama!
- You talk about a residual force remaining in Iraq, but you've been hesitant to really give a number … to people. You haven't been specific... Why can't you be more specific as to what you envision? - Before the surge, as you know, Senator, there were 80 to 100 U.S. casualties a month, the country was rife with sectarian violence, and you raised a lot of eyebrows on this trip saying even knowing what you know now, you still would not have supported the surge. People may be scratching their heads and saying, "Why?" - ...do you not give the surge any credit for reducing violence in Iraq? - But talking microcosmically, did the surge, the addition of 30,000 additional troops ... help the situation in Iraq? - ...I really don't mean to belabor this, Senator, because I'm really, I'm trying … to figure out your position. Do you think the level of security in Iraq... would exist today without the surge?
- If you believe, Senator, Afghanistan is, in fact, the central front in the war on terror, why was this your first trip there? And why didn't you hold a single hearing as chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the fighting force there?
(SenatorObama is the chair of the European subcommittee, Katie. Nice try.)
- You reportedly chaff when your foreign policy expertise is questioned. If foreign policy is not your weakest area of expertise, what is?
- Senator McCain, Sen. Obama says, while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that? - Sen. Obama also told me, Sen. McCain, that the money spent on those additional troops, on the surge, might have been more effective had it gone to Afghanistan or even to a better energy policy in the United States. What's your response? - Sen. Obama describes Afghanistan as the central front on the war on terror. That is where, after all, Senator, 9/11 was plotted. And now the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan seems to be a hot bed of alQaeda activity. Why do you believe Iraq is the central front in the war on terror? - Do you agree with Sen. Obama's contention that up to three additional brigades should be deployed to Afghanistan? - Sen. McCain, you sound very frustrated with Sen. Obama's perspective. - What is your biggest fear about bringing troops home too soon, Senator? - Finally, Senator, your campaign released a video today complaining about what you call the media's love affair with Sen. Obama. (LAUGHTER) Clearly you believe you're getting unfair coverage. Why do you think that's the case?
The kicker to all of this are the headlines used on the CBS website for each interview. For Obama's, it's "Obama: Surge Doesn't Meet Long-Term Goals." For McCain's, it's "McCain: 'We Will Come Home In Victory'."
What's going on with Andrea Mitchell? I used to think she was a pretty credible journalist (even though she is married to Alan Greenspan) but now I'm starting to have my doubts. For the most part she can pretty much play it down the middle, but on occasion she blurts out some not-so-objective statements like she did yesterday on Hardball when covering Obama and his trip to visit troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mitchell: "Let me say something about his message management. He didn’t have reporters with him. He didn’t have a press pool. He didn’t do a press conference while he was on the ground either on Afghanistan or Iraq. What you’re seeing is not reporters brought in, you’re seeing selected pictures taken by the military, questioned by the military and what some would call fake interviews because they’re not interviews with a journalist so there’s a real press issue here. Politically it’s smart as can be, but we’ve not seen a Presidential candidate do this in my recollection ever before."
And the phrase "what some would call" is just doublespeak for "what I would call." But as far as her recollection of a presidential candidate ever doing this before? John Amato at Crooks & Liars might refresh her memory.
AMATO: I understand the need to get footage of Obama is her job, but to say they were phony was like saying his trip was like those fake news reports the administration sold to local networks that were presented as real new stories. I wondered if John McCain handled any of his overseas trips in the same way and guess what?
McCain’s visit was not announced and he was believed to have been in the country for several hours before reporters were able to confirm his arrival. It was unclear who he met with and no media opportunities or news conferences were planned.
So I think the GOP and wingnuts should stop whining about the supposed love-in the media is having with Obama on his trip, given the fact that they probably would have gone with McCain as well had he given them a heads up.
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