John McCain’s speech and policy constructs on Global Warming have gotten a bit of attention from the Energy Smart blogging world. The following are few of the worthwhile discussions to date.
Tag: John McCain
May 13 2008
McCain & Bush: New GI Bill “Too Generous”
John McCain stands with George W. Bush, and against the troops. These two politicians, have consistently funded the scandal ridden mercenaries of Blackwater and let the DoD shield KBR rapists from prosecution, and both men have continued to allow US tax dollars to be used to shore up a corrupt Iraqi government: while “Overlooking Rampant Corruption in the Iraqi Government
These two politicians, one the current Commander in Chief, and the other the GOP’s presumptive nominee to be the next CIC, have again allied to Oppose the new GI Bill. As Bob Herbert, writing in his NYT Column, “Doing the Troops Wrong” says:
There’s more…
May 12 2008
Die Dolchstosslegende
| The stab-in-the-back legend (German: Dolchstosslegende (help·info), literally “Dagger stab legend”) refers to a social myth and persecution-propaganda theory popular in Germany in the period after World War I through World War II. It attributed Germany’s defeat to a number of domestic factors instead of failed militarist geostrategy. Most notably, the theory proclaimed that the public had failed to respond to its “patriotic calling” at the most crucial of times and some had even intentionally “sabotaged the war effort.”
The legend echoed the epic poem Nibelungenlied in which the dragon-slaying hero Siegfried is stabbed in the back by Hagen von Tronje. Der Dolchstoss is cited as an important factor in Adolf Hitler’s later rise to power, as the Nazi Party grew its original political base largely from embittered World War I veterans, and those who were sympathetic to the Dolchstosslegende interpretation of Germany’s then-recent history. – Wikipedia |
For those of you unfamiliar with this blood libel the melody goes kinda like this-
We were winning our war of aggression until those Jews dirty fucking hippies meddling kids stabbed us in the back.
What makes it blood libel is the implication that people who were against the war and saw the utimate futility of it “sacrificed” the blood of our brave soldiers for nothing as if to have “sacrificed” it to a real God like Mars or Mammon were any better.
Once you put your money in the pot boys, it’s gone. I could so kick your ass at poker.
It’s hardly surprising that the American Theo-Corporatist Party is resurrecting this meme and their Presidential nominee is endorsing it-
(Glenn Greenwald below)
May 12 2008
Through The Looking Glass Darkly.
If Senator John McCain were the DEMOCRATIC nominee for President, the Republican Party, in the guise of Rush and Sean and Anne and Michelle, would destroy him as follows:
May 11 2008
Time For Hillary and Bill To Go!
I have no place in the church of Barack Obama. I do not believe Barack Obama is the messiah. I do not believe in Barack Obama.
May 09 2008
Exactly Right!
As some of you know I frequent RedState myself on occasion but this particular gem I owe to TBogg.
From a discussion of McSame’s VP choices-
With respect, that’s (excluding former officials of the current administration- ek) just the wrong approach to take. We have to build up a farm team of Presidential prospects. It just does not do to create a Caste of Untouchables merely because their resumes indicate that they have been doing something fairly important at some point in time between January 20, 2001 and the present day. We deprive ourselves of talent that way. And again, we could pick the Angel Gabriel himself, the Heavenly Host could sound its approval and the Lord could issue his unqualified endorsement but at most, that would cause a 48 hour delay before the negative ads start coming in.
Additionally–and this issue cannot be emphasized enough–as much as you and I may be (and are) disappointed with various aspects of the Bush Administration’s job performance, let us remember that we are criticizing the Administration from the right. A critique from the right, however, may not emerge as the dominant critique of the Bush Administration and indeed, thus far, the dominant critique has come from the left.
If we allow the left to continue critiquing, allow that critique to become the dominant narrative and then declare that consideration of Bush Administration officials for high office is verboten, we are effectively silencing a very large portion of our counter-message against the left’s critique and allowing that critique to morph into a larger narrative against Republicans and conservatives in general. In other words, by our silence, by our cooperation in shunning very competent Bush Administration officials when it comes to considerations for high office merely because they served in the Bush Administration, we will allow George W. Bush and anyone who served with him–no matter how good–to be used as bludgeons against Republicans and conservatives for decades.
This is already happening; there have been any number of seminars and presentations on the Left that have argued that the “failures” of the Bush Administration constitute “failures” of conservatism proper. By practicing The Politics Of Leprosy when it comes to personnel decisions, we are implicitly giving running room to that critique. And don’t think it will stop there; there is no reason to think that Cabinet decisions will not be subject to The Politics Of Leprosy as well. Give the Left an inch and it will take the height of the Roman Empire.
Pejman Yousefzadeh
My emphasis.
The Politics of Leprosy.
Preach it and practice it.
May 08 2008
Cindy McCain’s Arrogance
So, Cindy McCain says she’ll NEVER release her tax returns. Poor Miss Too Rich and Impossibly Blond Cindy McCain, heir to a booze fortune and wantin’ to be First Lady, but, by damn, nobody’s gonna know about MY finances.
The arrogance. The hubris. The Republicanism.
See The Video of Cindy sweetly sneering at even the notion that, as a public figure, and as wannabe First Lady, she has any obligation to come clean on her riches.
Wonderful. What a likable person.
Mu . . .
May 06 2008
Liar Liar
Arianna has a fine rant-
What John McCain Told Me, and What it Says About How Far He’s Fallen
Arianna Huffington
Posted May 5, 2008 | 04:43 PM (EST)
Update: Through a spokesperson with the colorful name Tucker Bounds, McCain has denied telling me he didn’t vote for Bush in 2000. “It’s not true,” Bounds told the Washington Post, “and I ask you to consider the source.”
My sentiments exactly — because John McCain has a long history of issuing heartfelt denials of things that were actually true.
He denied ever talking with John Kerry about his leaving the GOP to be Kerry’s ’04 running mate — then later admitted he had, insisting: “Everybody knows that I had a conversation.”
He denied admitting that he didn’t know much about economics, even though he’d said exactly that to the Wall Street Journal. And the Boston Globe. And the Baltimore Sun.
He denied ever having asked for a budget earmark for Arizona, even though he had. On the record.
He denied that he’d ever had a meeting with comely lobbyist Vicki Iseman and her client Lowell Paxon, even though he had. And had admitted it in a legal deposition.
And those are just the outright denials. He’s also repeatedly tried to spin away statements he regretted making (see: 100-year war, Iraq was a war for oil, etc.).
So, yes, by all means, “consider the source.
May 04 2008
Crackpot Theories on McCain
crossposted from orange
I am going into speculative territory here about John McCain.
There’s something bugging me about him. Yes, I know the press treats him as they do all Republicans — with even a little added approval because he knows how to play them. The press loves the whole “maverick” conceit, keeps them from having to think about who he really is and analyze what he says and does from a rational point of view.
But the more I think about who John McCain is, the more I come up with a blank, a disconnect I find disturbing.
May 04 2008
The Latest News – Three Must Reads
Cross-posted from THE ENVIRONMENTALIST
New guest contributors (and our staff) have managed to break new ground with these posts:
The Gas Tax ‘Holiday’ Shell Game
Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain have challenged Senator Barack Obama over his refusal to support their proposal that would suspend the .18 Federal gas tax for three months this summer. ~snip~ The lone ‘expert’ in support of Senators Clinton and McCain in this scenario so far? Spokesman for the Clinton campaign and SHELL OIL LOBBYIST, Steve Elmendorf.
Hillary Clinton’s ‘Victory’ in Pennsylvania: The Rush Limbaugh Effect
What if Democratic voters and the uncommitted super-delegates come to learn that Rush Limbaugh had a greater impact on Hillary Clinton’s victory in Pennsylvania, and maybe Texas and Ohio, than say, the Reverend Wright, and the so-called ‘bitter’ comments?
‘Friends of the Earth’ endorse Obama
The Friends of the Earth Action, the PAC political arm of The Friends of the Earth environmental organization, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President, citing Senator Obama’s stand for “real energy solutions instead of sham Clinton-McCain ‘gas tax holiday'” as the key reason for endorsement.
More at THE ENVIRONMENTALIST
TA!
May 03 2008
Senator McCraaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzy!
People here object to the kind of language….that I used to my wife…..in front of a bunch of people….so we can’t talk about what I called my wife…. in front of a bunch of people, that would be wrong…..but it wasn’t wrong for me to use that kind of language……in front of a bunch of people.
We are in Iraq for the oil!………..No we aren’t!………….ok, um….ok, um……Ok, um….sorta?
Tweety
“You know, if somebody else were to say that, they would be accused of being a communist, or radical, or a leftist…for John McCain, a war hero, to say that we’re fighting in the Middle East to protect our oil sources is an astounding development.”
If we cut the gas tax….the Oil Corps won’t just raise their prices!
Kick Russia out of the G-8! I’m sure they won’t mind a bit!
Fareed Zakaria calls “the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years.”
May 02 2008
Are Iowans Always Polite? Not When McCain Comes to Town
John McCain made a campaign stop in Iowa today and held a town-hall meeting at the Polk County Convention Center in Des Moines. It was attended by lots of typical up-tight Iowa Republicans, who clap politely when McCain talks about wars in Iraq and Iran, tax cuts for the rich, wacky economic ideas like the gas-tax holiday, etc.
Unfortunately for McCain, the town-hall was also attended by a Baptist minister named Marty Parrish.
Parrish stepped up to the microphone and politely asked McCain:
This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I’ve been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a cunt?