Tag: John McCain

I belong to the generation that had school drills for the Big One.  Many of us can remember the look of terror in the eyes of our parents as we sat around the TV watching President Kennedy announce the “quarantine” of Cuba on October 7, 1962.

Will the world’s families once again feel that horrible terror?

(cross-posted on dKos)

Perhaps the saddest thing about the spectacle of folly and degradation that the US Presidential election contest has become is that Obama lacks the courage to deliver the speeches necessary to put the truth before the American people. Out of frustration, I have decided to draft a few of these imaginary speeches and publish them here. The first one concerns McCain’s shameless use of his POW experience as a magically inexhaustible source of honor.

Speeches Obama will never deliver: #1 – John McCain’s Bottled Honor

John McCain does not receive enough credit as a politician. His career has been built upon a feat that is unrivaled in modern American history. Senator McCain took one episode of courage from his wartime experience and transformed it into a permanent claim of exceptional honor. It is as though he filled a bottle with honor during his POW ordeal, and this bottle has never run dry.

But can honor really be stored? Isn’t honor something that we have to validate every day of our lives? How can a man insist that all behavior subsequent to a notably honorable action is irrelevant? Let us consider the honor of Senator John Sidney McCain and consider if what is stored in the bottle marked POW Honor is sufficient to wash away the stains of his subsequent actions.

I ask you to judge if a man who betrays a loyal first wife is a man of honor. I ask you to say if a man ensnared in the Keating S&L scandal is a man or honor. Is a candidate who curses his wife in front of reporters a man of honor? Is a politician who embraces a President who slandered him a man of honor? Is a torture victim who voted to enable torture a man of honor? Is a candidate who accuses me of teaching kindergarteners about sex a man or honor?

John McCain cannot replenish his honor from a bottle that was filled in Vietnam. The shelf life of that bottle expired many, many years ago. John McCain is not a man of honor today; he is a man so consumed by ambition that he will commit one dishonorable act after another to win the glittering prize of Presidential power. Honor is not a preserved and stored attainment that excuses any subsequent action, and it is particularly dishonorable to use past glory to claim permanent exemption from the consequences of bad conduct.

So take a closer look at the bottled honor of John McCain, my fellow citizens, and ask yourselves why Senator McCain acts dishonorably today. Honor cannot be permanently attained by any man before his death. He must defend and preserve his honor in all the acts of his life. Whatever honor John McCain attained in Vietnam has been spilled and scattered in the imprudent and ambitious actions of his subsequent career. Look again, America, and see that the bottle of John McCain’s honor is empty. It is as empty as McCain’s promises for reform and as useless as his obsolete and dangerous views on foreign policy. The highest duty before us is to preserve our country, my fellow Americans, not our nostalgia for the lost honor of John McCain.

I’ve wondered why some Governors haven’t come out to speak to what their involvement is as to their States National Guard, when there isn’t a Natural Disaster,  the involvement as the Commander in Chief of those Guard Units, as well as the Involvement when the Federal Government steps in and takes Command, sending them into occupations as regular military units, as right out of the gate Mrs Palin claim was to broad experience in Guard affairs.

Well I need ask nor wait any longer.

Palin put her ‘Experience’ as a Commander in Chief to rest last night in the Interview on ABC with Charlie Gibson, in her answer on the ‘Bush Doctrine’, as a Governor with her States National Guard units being called into National Service and Fighting Overseas, She doesn’t know It and apparently never understood what it was nor the implications to her state and her state guards readiness if she had a need to call them into duty.

I have a problem not unlike the one that got KO fired. 9/11 gets dragged out and almost celebrated by the fear-mongering right. It is a tragedy that gets relived over and over by a populace that had rarely know large-scale tragedies on its soil. I find the way they use it is abusive, true abuse in both the misuse fashion and the masochistic type.

2,974 dead. I remember my horror, my tears as it occurred.

4,076 Americans dead due to their being sent to invade Iraq for a crime Iraq did not commit.

1,255,026 Iraqis dead. Where is the horror for their deaths, the remembrance ceremonies for those who had their lives taken in retribution for something they had no part in?

It brings to mind what John Trudell said (not just in Thunderheart, but in real life when Leonard Peltier was framed.) “Sometimes they just HAVE to kill us. They have to make someone pay.”

Iraq is the biggest patsy ever created, created mostly for profit.

FT: “Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama’s faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election. Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain’s jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence. A Democratic fundraiser for Congressional candidates said some planned to distance themselves from Mr Obama and not attack Mr McCain.”

RealClearPolitics reports McCain beats his opponent in the polls, on favorables, and on Intrade. But that’s not the most worrying news facing Dems: the generic congressional gap has closed to 3 points, as even the popularity of George W. Bush continues to inch upwards, although Dubya is still loathed at a rate of roughly 2:1.

Dem internals are probably far worse. This week saw the candidate of hope scrambling to spin an ‘innocent’ version of his ‘stinks like old fish’ remark, lining up one of his celebrity buddies to find a place for him. Letterman clearly didn’t get the job done cause a second appearance on Saturday Night Live follows this weekend. That may have been the plan all along.

Or the candidacy may be cratering. Smooth to slick to creepy is not the transformation the campaign had in mind, but Obama’s famous smile seems increasingly forces and there’s a tension in his strut that suggests the writing on the wall is coming into sharper focus. Obama has been pandering to the Republican base. Young people are famously fickle. Time to shuffle the deck.

Goofing for the camera; and abasing himself for a few cheap laughs may add some temporary lustre to a campaign clearly gone stale and cold. What comes after that? Another temple? More insults? Obama has nothing new to say, although it seems clear a large number of Americans are still waiting for a message. Therein lies the tension. Obama has nothing new to say other than ‘I’m cool’. So what?

With no meaningful response to offer, other than ‘we’re cool, together’, enthusiasm for the Obama campaign wanes. The ‘what ifs’ are endless. Had the press decided not to protect John Edwards a different candidate might have won the Dem primary. But the real blame can be placed on the shoulders of the candidate himself, who continues to alienate voters with his arrogance, his elitism, his breezy condescension and his volatile impatience with any who question his honesty and integrity.

Dems are paying attention and are genuinely fearful of finding themselves on the wrong side of a President America trusts and admires.

Domestic and foreign policy concerns meet on the questions of energy and Iraq. Jobs, government expenditures, national security and the environment are all affected.

An American victory in Iraq is necessary and achievable. Victory means political stability, with bases for US troops who will remain the ME fulfilling the mission of the Carter doctrine. Complete support for US troops and their families is the cornerstone of McCain’s policy. Service merits nothing less. A ticker-tape parade or two is likely in the offing as well.

Nuclear energy is America’s only option if Americans are serious about reducing dependence on foreign sources of carbon fuels. McCain will build 45 new nuclear plants, creating energy and jobs. McCain’s pro-nuclear position and clear specifics stands in stark contrast to that of the Dems.

President John McCain and Vice-President Sarah Palin, along with a reformed and genuinely chastened Republican party are ready to lead America into the reality of the 21st century. The alternative is a dream.

Dear Senator McCain,

Enter public life determined to tell the truth; to put problem-solving ahead of partisanship; to defend the public interest against the special interests; to risk your personal ambitions for the sake of the country and the ideals that make her great. Keep your promise to America, and you will keep your honor. You will know a happiness far more sublime than pleasure.  source

It rains down on you like a cold shower, doesn’t it?  These are your own words, Senator.  In the rush of the past couple of weeks, have you stopped to take a look at what you are doing, what path you are taking?

We all understand that the truth gets stretched in a political campaign.  Usually there is at least the facade of truth, a plausible link to the truth, that lets the practice be tolerated.  But you’ve chosen to dispense with the facade of truth.  You choose to lie.

Your ambition to be President is so great that you have completely sublimated your identity and personality to grasp that which you covet.  Your ability to make decisions and stand for yourself is gone.