Tag: John McCain

John McCain is pushing the meme Obama isn’t being open or honest about his association with Bill Ayres. Well John, openness and honesty, truthfulness should start with YOU. Every time you get in front of a camera with that self serving smirk and exhort Barack Obama to tell the truth, to be straight with Americans, remember you are the fraud here, you are the liar.

John McCain exists simply for John McCain, for him there is no higher purpose than nurturing and protecting his myth. McCain is a survivor, like a cockroach. Follow me below the fold for the truth about the little man who would be president, the truth too many have forgotten. A look at the real John McCain stripped of the patriotic myth and maverick hype.  

A two part answer to the question of how McCain can fix Social Security. First, Social Security is not broken and does not need fixing. Second, McCain can’t fix Social Security.

Social Security and Medicare are often lumped together as “entitlements”, and the threat of Social Security not paying off to the current working generation is used to try to grease the wheels of efforts to allow Wall Street to gain income from Security taxes.

Ezra Klein capably addresses the point that Social Security is not “in crisis” in Social Security as Signifier, so I’ll focus on why John McCain can’t fix it. But to get the basic … look at that gentle slope in Social Security … look at that massive explosion in Medicare … Medicare, that’s an entitlement crisis. Social Security, not.

The ‘town hall’ debate actually merits a kudo, amid its problems: there were actually serious questions about energy and global warming, including a direction mention of green jobs.  

In the debate, Barack Obama consistently reiterated that energy is a top-tier issue, linking it to financial, environmental, and international security challenges.  Obama spoke of energy in holistic terms, speaking from individuals to nation/globe, about producing power and seeking energy efficiency, about … Obama sounded like he understood what he was talking about and that he has a plan for solving multiple problems at the same time when it comes to energy.

John McCain also emphasized energy, but his comments were filled with incomplete, disingenuous, and non-truthful elements continuing a sad tradition by both John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Had he lived, today would have been my wonderful Dad’s 80th birthday.  And I am fairly sure he would be facing a dilemma he had never faced before.

My Dad was a very proud graduate of the United States Naval Academy.  As I’ve written before, the physical rigors of the Academy were a huge challenge to him — like me, he was no athlete, and like me, he was a restless, relentless night owl.  He did Walk the Yard on many occasions for being late to formation (often because he had been up late the night before helping his fellow midshipmen with their homework); as my Mom says, it was a good thing he was so smart because he often had little time to study.  (He graduated in the top 10 in his class.)  But he never, ever, either while he was a Midshipman or any time during his service or his life, violated the Academy’s Honor Code.

This is today’s iteration of that Code (which I daresay has not changed a great deal):

Midshipmen are persons of integrity: They stand for that which is right.

They tell the truth and ensure that the full truth is known. They do not lie.

They embrace fairness in all actions. They ensure that work submitted as their own is their own, and that assistance received from any source is authorized and properly documented. They do not cheat.

They respect the property of others and ensure that others are able to benefit from the use of their own property. They do not steal.

Source ~ United States Naval Academy(My emphasis added.)

As the Academy’s website notes:

It is our responsibility to develop a selfless sense of duty that demands excellence both of ourselves and of those with whom we serve. We must honor our loyalties without compromising our ultimate obligation to the truth. Our leadership must set a standard that reflects loyalty to our goals and the courage to stand accountable for all our actions, both those that lead to success and to those that end in failure. We will never settle for achieving merely what is expected of us but will strive for a standard of excellence that reflects the dedication and courage of those who have gone before us. When we attain our goal, we will raise our expectations; when we fall short, we will rise up and try again. In essence, we espouse leadership by example, a leadership that will inspire others to follow wherever we may lead.

Source ~ United States Naval Academy(My emphasis added.)

Throughout his life, my Dad had little patience — and even less respect — for those who behaved dishonorably.  The only offense (besides failing to live up to high academic expectations) for which my brother and I were punished severely was lying.  We learned early on never to do so.

Occasionally, I believe, my Dad was really naïve  (this is another trait, alas, that I sometimes share).  But his (like mine) was a naivete born of faith in his fellow human beings; because he did not behave dishonorably, he found it hard to believe that others could.  

I suppose this explains, somewhat, why he was a loyal Republican — even during the Nixon Administration and later that of Ronald Reagan.  I don’t think he liked (or respected) either of these men very much, but I know he voted for them.  He did like and respect George H.W. Bush; he did not live to vote for his son.

This year, though, I am pretty sure his vote would be for Barack Obama.  

I think my Dad would recognize the great disrespect — disdain even — that John McCain has shown for the honorable tradition of the USNA, and for its principles.  I cannot believe that he would not have been horrified by the sleaze emanating from Sen. McCain’s campaign, by the outright, provable lies Sen. McCain has told not only about his own past and positions, but also about those he has repeated, ad nauseum, about Barack Obama.  McCain Lie Counter

And I am one hundred percent certain that he would have been apopletic by Sen. McCain’s shameless and dangerous choice of the utterly unqualified (as well as uneducated) Sarah Palin as his running mate.  

Our Democratic Party has run and elected honorable graduates of the United States Naval Academy during the past several decades, including:

President James Earl Carter, Jr. (Class of ’46; 59th in his class of 820)

Senator James Webb (Class of ’68; awarded the Navy Cross for heroism)

Rep. Joe Sestak  (PA-07)(Class of ’74; second in his class)

Eric Massa (candidate for NY-29)(Class of ’81) Donate.

John McCain is not honorable.  And this year, I think, for that and other reasons, my Dad, had he lived, would be casting his first vote for the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

I miss you, Dad, so very much.  I am grateful for the chance to remember you tonight.  

First off it’s October 6th, and most days bring with them a history of the past, much forgotten quickly and lessons not learned.

Here’s just one for today which I’ll call The bush Families & GOP’s Favorite Terrorist Pal, and no it’s not the one nobody thinks about anymore, especially the little bush:

Yes, they went there: the LA Times is featuring on its homepage a major story examining a portion of John McCain’s military record:

Mishaps mark John McCain’s record as naval aviator

Here’s the subhead:

Three crashes early in his career led Navy officials to question or fault his judgment. A Times review of his record suggests he was cocky, occasionally cavalier and prone to testing limits.

The once-sacred-cow, the Time Period Of Which We Dare Not Speak, is now fair game for the corporate media.

This cannot be good news for McCain.

My oldest son and his fiancee came down for a visit, so we took them on a winery-crawl through what’s called the “Yadkin Valley Wine Region”, an area in the heart of North Carolina with a lot of up-and-coming wineries. We must have drove over 200 miles on various back roads finding our way to various wineries. On hundreds of lawns, we saw McCain/Palin lawn signs. Hundreds. Nowhere on any of these back roads did we see  a single bit of Obama signage. Not a single Obama sign or bumper sticker to be seen. I made some crack about “southern crackers”, but my son said “No, we were driving from Philly to Harrisburg the other week and we took the scenic route, and that’s all we saw up there too.”

And this  got me to wondering. We think North vs South; old vs young; white vs black; progressive vs traditional. Maybe it all boils to to something as simple as: urban vs rural. Maybe this  is a battle of rural values vs urban values, a battle of the utter and inflexible resistance to change vs an environment where change is embraced because it is the rule, rather than the exception. Maybe it’s as simple as: rural people want things to stay exactly the way they were for their parents and grandparents, while urban people  have seen so much change that they crave it compulsively.

Just a brief, caffeine-fueled Sunday morning reverie.