McCain is subpar in his own words.
Repost for Jersey-Boy Joe R Originally posted 10-9-08

BTW - Sparky is a ex-NASA guy. Let's just say it was another reason to despise Reagan and any who adore him ...

Let's seize the narrative. Go after their hearts and minds ... Last thing we need is a worse pilot than “W” at the "tiller" — especially one divorced from the reality of us poor normal folks ...

---

McCain Causes Crises Never Solves Them




The current economic crisis demands that we understand John McCain's attitudes about economic oversight and corporate influence in federal regulation. Nothing illustrates the danger of his approach more clearly than his central role in the savings and loan scandal of the late '80s and early '90s.

John McCain was accused of improperly aiding his political patron, Charles Keating, chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. The bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee launched investigations and formally reprimanded Senator McCain for his role in the scandal. Today, John McCain is the only major party presidential nominee in US history to have been rebuked, censured or otherwise admonished after a Congressional ethics investigation.

At the heart of the scandal was Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which took advantage of deregulation in the 1980s to make risky investments with its depositors' money. McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating with federal regulators tasked with preventing banking fraud, and championed legislation to delay regulation of the savings and loan industry -- actions that allowed Keating to continue his fraud at an incredible cost to taxpayers.

When the savings and loan industry collapsed, Keating's failed company put taxpayers on the hook for $3.4 billion and more than 20,000 Americans lost their savings. John McCain was reprimanded by the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee, but the ultimate cost of the crisis to American taxpayers reached more than $120 billion.

The Keating scandal is eerily similar to today's credit crisis, where a lack of regulation and cozy relationships between the financial industry and Congress has allowed banks to make risky loans and profit by bending the rules. And in both cases, John McCain's judgment and values have placed him on the wrong side of history.

---

McCain is subpar in his own words.

He was 894 out of a class of 899. Bottom 1%. Essentially C minus average and squeaking by at that. They didn't flush him out because it would have been too embarrassing for his grandfather to have his grandson be a total washout. Same grandfather thought that McCain was a total tool. There's a reason he never made it to a real command position. His duty as a soldier in enemy hands was:

1. Die rather than give out information. He was an mid-ranked officer and not some fresh grunt.
   
2. He saved himself by giving the enemy real information - the sources said it led to several missions failing.
   
3. That meant men actually died as a result.
4. This is understandable; But, caving in due to torture doesn't make you as a war hero.
5. A soldier is supposed to take any opportunity to get out, you are required to do so. Inside information would assist our side.
   

Those who know him suggest it was 'bad blood' between his father and him over a girl that kept McCain there. Given his hothead attitude, ego, and self-serving personality, his reason for why he stayed was not in line with his responsibilities as an officer, staying baffled his superiors as well.This is one reason his post Vietnam 'command' failed.

That and his pre-"Tailhook Scandal" mindset established him as "creepy" to the new women officers. His flaws prevented him from being a Flag Officer. These screw-ups and his general attitude about life alone would be reason enough that you'd never want him to be an admiral or similar. Evidently he got into politics when it was clear even to him that he had no real career left in the military; and it wouldn't advance any further.

“There is less than a month left in the race, and it's not looking good for John McCain — legendary scumbag Karl Rove says that if the race were held now, Obama would win it. McCain has clearly decided that he might as well piss away any remaining vestiges of the dignity and honor he accumulated during years of service to this county. In a desperate attempt to eke out a victory, he's sent Sarah Palin out with a racially-tinged attack accusing Barack Obama of palling around with terrorists and being generally un-American. ...”

---

JOHN MCCAIN A TERRIBLE PILOT, HORNDOG, AND EVIL ROVE-IAN CAMPAIGNER

Two stories today look at Republican presidential candidate John McCain's history, particularly in the Navy. In the Los Angeles Times, the paper notes that, due to the three pre-Vietnam air accidents by the son and grandson of admirals, McCain was nicknamed "Ace McCain" by his superiors. In Rolling Stone, they go a bit further, showing McCain as a "undisciplined, spoiled brat" who spent a summer in Rio in the '70s because, despite his wife and three kids, he said he had a better chance of "getting laid." (Also he had better nicknames in school: "Punk" and "McNasty.") And then there's the whole P.O.W. thing— did it change him? Um, sort of! "The reckless, womanizing hotshot who leaned on family connections for advancement before his capture in Vietnam emerged a reckless, womanizing celebrity who continued to pull strings."

McCain has also allowed the media to believe that his torture lasted for the entire time he was in Hanoi. At the Republican convention, Fred Thompson said of McCain's torture, "For five and a half years this went on." In fact, McCain's torture ended after two years, when the death of Ho Chi Minh in September 1969 caused the Vietnamese to change the way they treated POWs. "They decided it would be better to treat us better and keep us alive so they could trade us in for real estate," Butler recalls.

By that point, McCain had become the most valuable prisoner of all: His father was now directing the war effort as commander in chief of all U.S. forces in the Pacific. McCain spent the next three and a half years in Hanoi biding his time, trying to put on weight and regain his strength, as the bombing ordered by his father escalated. By the time he and other POWs were freed in March 1973 as a result of the Paris Peace Accords, McCain was able to leave the prison camp in Hanoi on his own feet.

The whole thing is pretty wild—and most disturbing is the way in which McCain is emulating the campaign that destroyed him back in 2000, right down to hiring Karl Rove's staff.

But perhaps the most revealing of McCain's flip-flops was his promise, made at the beginning of the year, that he would "raise the level of political dialogue in America." McCain pledged he would "treat my opponents with respect and demand that they treat me with respect." Instead, with Rove protégé Steve Schmidt at the helm, McCain has turned the campaign into a torrent of debasing negativity, misrepresenting Barack Obama's positions on everything from sex education for kindergarteners to middle-class taxes. In September, in one of his most blatant embraces of Rove-like tactics, McCain hired Tucker Eskew—one of Rove's campaign operatives who smeared the senator and his family during the 2000 campaign in South Carolina.

Hilariously, Rove is still out to get him.

---

"It's easy for me to go to Washington and, frankly, be somewhat divorced from the day-to-day challenges people have" says McCain

By Leo F. Walsh

After weeks of negative campaigning and mud-slinging, John McCain made a stunning admission this week. During a presidential forum Sept. 11th, McCain said, "It's easy for me to go to Washington and, frankly, be somewhat divorced from the day-to-day challenges people have."

McCain's own words never more clearly highlighted the truth about his political record and his distance from middle-class families.

While pledging to recycle George W. Bush's economic policies of more tax breaks for corporations who move jobs out of the country and for corporate executives, John McCain refused to even mention in his convention speech that working families are faced with a five-year high in the unemployment rate, high inflation in food, energy and health care costs, and a home foreclosure epidemic of historic proportions.

John McCain rejected the 21st Century GI Bill, which provides expanded educational, job training, and medical benefits for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. His surrogates called the benefits a "handout," and he described the benefits under the bill "too generous."

He has proposed privatizing Veterans Affairs hospital and medical care for veterans, characterizing guaranteed treatment for veterans as a "burden."

He helped block the reauthorization of the State Children Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP,which would have provided health insurance for about 4 million uninsured children of working families who can't afford the high cost of insurance premiums.

He has called for a three-month "gas tax holiday" that would put literally several dollars into the pockets of gasoline consumers – but only if oil companies decided to pass the savings onto them.

He has repeatedly voted to block or kill investments in renewable alternative energy for the auto industry, for wind and solar power, and for clean coal. This, while working families want 5 million new jobs in the clean energy sector.

While working families have seen the public schools their children go to being forced to cut programs or to close their doors, John McCain has called for abolishing the Department of Education and gutting funding for public schools.

When asked by a reporter about the number of homes he owns, John McCain couldn't recall and said he'd have to get back to the reporter. Working families later learned that McCain owns at least seven homes valued at about $2 million each.

In explaining his refusal to support fair pay for women workers, John McCain said that women need more "education and experience" before they can expect equal pay, not understanding that women are the most educated segment of US society.

While he has claimed to favor tax relief for middle-class families, his top economics advisor, Doug Holtz-Eakin told a reporter that the next president will have to raise taxes. To prove it, John McCain is sneaking a new $3.6 trillion tax increase on middle-class families into his health care plan. So far most analysis of the tax plans of the two presidential candidates shows that Barack Obama's plan will provide the best relief for working families.

While nearly 7 in 10 Americans want the war in Iraq to end, John McCain has pledged a 100-year occupation and to "stay the course."

On trade policy, John McCain advocates for more "free trade" deals like NAFTA and fast-tracking them through Congress without much public scrutiny. He told a Midwestern audience during the Republican primary campaign that good-paying jobs will be lost and there wasn't much he planned to do about that.

His combined views on Iraq and NAFTA prompted one conservative TV commentator to say John McCain is running on a platform of "less jobs and more war."

After weeks of using distortions and open lies to attack Barack Obama, John McCain got one thing right: it is easy for him to be divorced from the challenges working families face.

---

---

We'll investigate these later:

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/topiclist/30

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_John_McCain

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/7538/

http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20081009/D93MVT5G0.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/04/campaign.wrap/?iref=hpmostpop

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/you-dont-need-a-weatherma_b_132432.html

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2008/10/08/obama-spokesman-robert-gibbs-hannity-fox-news-anti-semitic

Not dead yet - Sparky can't believe these racist turds call themselves patriots when they sat on their fat asses through the Bush II years.

HuffPostCo: Stefan Sirucek: Independent journalist and foreign correspondent:

EXCLUSIVE (Update): Palin's Tea Party Crib Notes

UPDATE: (Huffpost Exclusive)

Closer inspection of a photo of Sarah Palin, during a speech in which she mocked President Obama for his use of a teleprompter, reveals several notes written on her left hand. The words "Energy", "Tax" and "Lift American Spirits" are clearly visible. There's also what appears to read as "Budget cuts" with the word Budget crossed out.

(Photos AP)

Final Thoughts:

Just to be clear: The notes most likely weren't for her speech, for which she used prepared remarks, but for the Q&A session that followed, during which she glanced at the hand in question.

But in my opinion that's even worse.

There were no specifics on there, just general concepts and things she supports.

The takeaway is that this presidential contender apparently can't remember her supposed core principles and needs a cheat-sheet when simply asked about her beliefs.

To quote Charlie Brown:

Good grief.

-----
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (8 PM CST)

Ahh sweet Earl Grey Revolution! Sarah Palin knew that speech like the back of her hand. The Q&A answers, however, were on the front of her hand.

Or so it appeared.

During the Q&A following her speech at the Tea Party Convention, Ms. Palin appeared to read from her hand in answering.

The following image was caught by some sharp-eyed Twitter users, notably @jryanlaw

->Tweet Photo link

UPDATE #2: A high-quality video on youtube seems to prove that something was indeed on the palm of Palin's hand. The question is what.

Close-Up:

UPDATE #1: And, via ThinkProgress, the Video:

Crib Notes? This potential presidential candidate and "movement" leader was using crib notes to answer basic questions?

This would mean:

A) That she knew the questions beforehand and the whole thing was a farce. (Likely.)

and

B) That she still couldn't answer the previously agreed-upon questions without a little extra help.

If true, this is supremely rich coming immediately after a speech in which Palin took a shot at President Obama for using a teleprompter to read his prepared speeches.

You can bet that the President wasn't reading scribbles off his extremities while he sparred with Republicans and Democrats in an unscripted format in his recent Q&As.

Palin, on the other hand, seems to need a cheat-sheet just to get through a contrived lovefest with a smitten interviewer and an adoring audience.

I'm no fan of the Tea Party movement - if it can be called such - but if this is their leader I actually sympathize with them.

---

====================================================

---

Thank god she is an idiot. I'll get this up on both blogger spots ... Wonder how the xenophobic dicks will spin this.