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Obama Smears

Internet rumors & lies:

McCain 527

Washington Post 4/21/08:

during a forum shown on MSNBC, host Chris Matthews asked McCain if he would "sit down with the Democratic nominee . . . and agree to them that there will be no outside sleazeball attacks by either side, that you will tell your people you will condemn any attack, like a swift-boating, and you will both agree to do that upfront, right after you get the nomination?"

"I would love to do that," McCain replied. "During the primary, there was a 527 that sprang up. And I asked them to stop."

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McCain Abortion

John McCain is as much of an anti-abortion zealot as anyone in Congress.

• During his political career, McCain has participated in 130 reproductive health-related votes on Capitol Hill; of these, he voted with the anti-abortion camp in 125.
• McCain has consistently backed rights for the unborn, voting to cover fetuses under the State Children's Health Insurance Program and supporting the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which allowed a "child in utero" to be recognized as a legal victim of a crime.
• He has voted in favor of the global gag rule, which prevents U.S. funds from going to international family-planning clinics that use their own money to perform abortions, offer information about abortion, or take a pro-choice stand.
• And he has voted to appoint half a dozen anti-abortion judges to the federal bench, as well as Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. During the Bork hearings, McCain attacked the Court's creation of a right to privacy in Roe v. Wade: "Whether one is pro-or anti-abortion," McCain said in an October 1987 hearing, "it is difficult to argue that the Court's opinion is not constitutionally suspect."
• McCain also joined efforts supported only by the radical wing of his party. He voted, for instance, with only one-fifth of the Senate to remove family-planning grants from a 1988 spending bill and with only 18 senators that same year against allowing Medicaid to pay for abortions in cases of rape or incest.
• In 1994, the year after abortion provider David Gunn was killed outside a Florida clinic, McCain voted with 29 members of the Senate against establishing penalties for violent or threatening interference outside abortion clinics. Many solidly pro-life Republicans--Mitch McConnell, Kit Bond, John Danforth--voted in favor of the bill, called the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). "We tried to get as many co-sponsors as we could, and we postured the thing as anti-vigilante violence," recalls Judy Appelbaum, a Washington lawyer who was counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy at the time and the lead Hill staffer on the bill. "We argued that, even if you oppose abortion, you should not condone these actions." According to Appelbaum, law enforcement officials, newspaper editorialists, health care providers, and law-and-order politicians all supported the bill. "There were a number of very anti-choice senators who voted for FACE," she says, "and [McCain] wasn't one of them." Instead, McCain joined senators like Orrin Hatch and Jesse Helms in opposition.

McCain Age

John McCain was born on 8/29/36. If elected, he will be 72 when he is sworn in in 2009 - the oldest start of any Presidency. He would be 76 at the end of his first term, and if re-elected in 2012, would be president until age 80.

McCain's age is already an issue, due to his many jokes and "senior moments."

• In July, McCain referred repeatedly to Czechoslovakia as though it still existed and to Vladimir Putin as though he were still president of Russia. More significantly, he has claimed that Iraq borders Pakistan, that the Anbar Awakening occurred after the surge, that the Iraq war was America’s first major armed conflict since 9/11, and that, unlike Obama, he would prefer to speak outside the country only after being elected president.
• In May, McCain incorrectly said the U.S. had drawn down its forces in Iraq to pre-surge levels. In March, he wrongly claimed that Iran was training Al Qaeda operatives. Last April, he mistakenly said General David Petraeus regularly drove around Baghdad in an unarmored Humvee. In each of these “McCain moments,” political life would have been easier for the candidate if his statements were true. But none were.
• On 5/5/08, McCain said the "League of Nations" needs to deal with Iran. The League of Nations was disbanded in 1946 when John McCain was 10.
• On 10/21/07, McCain advocated a missile defense system for "Czechoslovakia." Nearly 14 years earlier (1/1/93), when McCain was 57, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
• In his autobiography, McCain declared himself a man of the 20th Century, which is natural because he lived his best 64 years in it.
• In 2000, he told Jim Lehrer, "in 2004, I expect to be campaigning for the reelection of President George W. Bush, and by 2008, I think I might be ready to go down to the old soldiers home and await the cavalry charge there."

McCain is a cancer survivor

• McCain has had skin cancer (melanoma) four times
• In 2000, the melanoma was classified as Stage IIa (out of IV) with a 65% survival rate after 10 years

McCain's family history is risky

• McCain is two years older than his father was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at 70.
• McCain is 11 years older than his grandfather was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 61.  

Is McCain's mind failing?

McCain's many "senior moments" are listed here. Does he have a medical problem?

Gerontologists and retirement planners have learned that aging brains compensate for cognitive decline by relying on templates of familiar knowledge more than problem solving. That’s usually a good thing, but neuroscientists have also found that memory loss can lead people to substitute incorrect information. This phenomenon, called confabulation, rather than being random, often takes the form of untrue “facts” that make them feel better — giving them what scientists have called “the pleasantness of false beliefs.” So are McCain’s stumbles simply misstatements, or evidence of a mind filling in blanks with wish fulfillment? Well, we really have no idea. But neither does McCain: His aides told reporters in May that he has had no mental evaluations in the past eight years. 

During his first presidential run, eight years ago, McCain disclosed hundreds of pages of records to reporters as he sought then to counter what aides called a "whisper campaign" questioning his mental fitness. In those records, medical personnel concluded that his years in prison, including solitary confinement, left him with no psychological wounds. Aides said McCain has had no mental evaluations in the past eight years and none was included in the documents.

McCain's memory could also be affected by prescription drugs:

• The arthritis drug Simvastatin, whose side effects include memory loss.  
• McCain also takes Ambien to sleep, which can cause amnesia and "fugue states" like the one that caused Rep. Patrick Kennedy's late-night car crash. 

Could McCain's mind get worse?

13% of Americans over 65 have Alzheimers. 22% of Americans over 70 are affected by mild cognitive impairment, a decline in brain function that causes memory loss and can lead to dementia. (Each year, 3.5% of healthy 70-79 year olds develop mild cognitive impairment, with men twice as likely as women to get it.) Further, 35-40% of older adults have neural deficits that lead to poor decision making. 

Ronald Reagan turned 70 two weeks after his inauguration in 1981 and many questioned whether he was too old. He was formally diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994 at age 83, but early symptoms were apparent during his re-election campaign in 1984, which he dismissed with a famous prepared joke: "I'm not going to hold my opponent's youth and inexperience against him."

McCain's brain has endursed physical, chemical, and physiological abuse:

• He competed as a lightweight boxer for three years and lacked skills but was fearless and "didn't have a reverse gear," as he later put it. No one knows how many blows he took to his head, but repeated head injuries in boxing (especially in non-proficient boxers) predispose these boxers to brain disease later in life.
• As a young man and officer, his reputation for hard partying and hard living was prodgious: "being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck." Binge drinking and chronic heavy alcohol use also decrease brain function in later life.
• From 1967 to 1973, McCain was a Vietnamese prisoner of war and was tortured. McCain has constant functional limitations from the torture (he cannot lift his arms above his head). According to his publicly released medical records, McCain also has chronic pain resulting from numerous fractures; his captors when he was a POW did not provide adequate care, and the fractures did not heal properly. Torture can produce psychiatric disease (especially PTSD), cognitive impairments, or both. The experience of being a POW has - in WWII POW's - also been shown to be associated with neuropsychiatric impairment.
• In 1993, McCain was diagnosed with melanoma (skin cancer). After treatment for the intial diagnosis, the melanoma returned two more times (2000 and 2002). Both chemo and radiation used to treat cancer may also lead to permanent cognitive impairment.

Does McCain have PTSD and its consequential psychiatric problems?

• According to the records, McCain has said that immediately after his release from military prison in Hanoi there were "times when very realistic or frightening memories" came back to him. But McCain "can successfully put these memories out of his mind," the medical records said.

According to Dr. Kirk James Murphy, a V.A. physician who has long experience treating veterans with PTSD:

Sen McCain's life history indicates that his brain is at greater than average risk of dysfunction and impairment in the following areas:

• capacity to learn, recall, and reason with complex new information
• judgement and impulse control
• capacity to devote sustained attention.

Sen McCain - like all victims of trauma and torture - is entitled to absolute privacy regardiing his personal medical history. We as American citizens, however, are entitled to all possible information about the men and women who choose to ask act us to select them as president.

At the very least, Sen McCain's history raises many questions about the presence of objectively determinable disruption in neuropsychiatric function. He and his camapign have been forthcoming with his medical records in the past; his brain history strongly suggests that obtaining and releasing the results of current neuropsychiatric testing, imaging studies (perhaps including functional MRI and or auditory evoked potential findings) and other relevant assessments would be required in order to conclude that Sen McCain would bring to the Oval Office a brain functioning sufficiently well to serve as the second President of the 21st Century.

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McCain American

Is John McCain eligible to be President?

Under the Constitution, the President must be a "natural born Citizen" of the United States.

But McCain was not born in the United States. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone on Aug 29, 1936 at the Coco Solo Naval Hospital; at the time of McCain's birth was NOT located within the Canal Zone. (It was later added to the Zone by Franklin Roosevelt through EXECUTIVE ORDER 8981 on Dec 17, 1941, when McCain was 5 years old.)

Therefore John McCain is not a citizen "by birth" or a "natural born Citizen."

Instead, McCain is a citizen "by law" because his parents were both American citizens.

The Supreme Court has never decided whether a citizen "by law" is eligible to be President, because no citizen "by law" has ever won a Presidential election.

• Barry Goldwater, who ran in 1964, was born in Arizona while it was still a U.S. territory. Although Arizona was not a state, it was a fully organized and incorporated territory of the United States, making it debatable whether or not he was born outside the United States.
• George Romney, who ran in 1968, was born in Mexico to U.S. parents. Romney’s grandfather emigrated to Mexico in 1886 with his three wives and children after Utah outlawed polygamy. Romney's parents retained their U.S. citizenship and returned to the United States in 1912. Romney was 32 years old when he arrived in Michigan.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. was once viewed as a potential successor to his father, but was seen by some as ineligible since he had been born on Campobello Island in Canada.

Several federal lawsuits have been filed that challenge McCain's eligibility:

• Nashua NH
• Riverside CA 

More info:

• Wikipedia: Natural Born Citizen
• New York Times 2/28/08: McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

McCain Bush

John McCain has kissed George Bush's ass ever since Bush beat him in the vicious 2000 GOP primary in South Carolina, when Bush's dirty tricksters used "push polls" to spread lies about McCain's "black babies."

McCain's devotion to Bush has been especially ardent on Iraq.

But with Bush's approval rating down to 19%, McCain suddenly wants to keep Bush as far away as possible, according to the NY Times.

McCain Cancer

John McCain has a history of melanoma (skin cancer):

• 93 left shoulder in-situ 
• 00 left arm in-situ
• 08/00 invasive melanoma on his left lower temple
  • Michael L. Hinni, M.D. a head-and-neck surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said the August 2000 lesion was 2.2 mm thick at its thickest part and was 2 cm in diameter. 
  • "A 2-cm margin of normal skin was removed around the 2-cm melanoma, resulting in a 6-cm-by-6-cm roughly circular wound on the left side of the senator's face," Dr. Hinni said. "The underlying parotid salivary gland was also removed to assure a clear deep margin, to protect facial nerves from injury and to remove the sentinel and other lymph nodes that were inside the parotid gland."
  • Dr. Hinni said none of McCain's nodes showed any evidence of metastasis. He said McCain has been closely followed since 2000 and has remained melanoma-free since 2002.
• 02 left nasaql sidewall in-situ
• 7/28/08 removal of a growth from his upper right cheek:
  • "The biopsy that was performed did not show any evidence of skin cancer. No further treatment is necessary."

McCain Cindy

McCain called Cindy a "cunt" in front of 3 reporters in 1992:

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

Cindy's fortune comes from her father's beer distributorship, which had many ties to the mob.

Which may be why McCain refused to release Cindy's 2006 and 2007 tax returns.

Back in 2004, then-Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie excoriated John Kerry in the media as a result of the presumptive Democratic nominee's similar decision not to publicly release information on his wife's substantial assets -- so we can assume that he will hit McCain for doing the same thing this year, right? I'm not holding my breath. In fact, Heinz Kerry did release a portion of her 2003 returns during the 2004 campaign.)

The partial release of Cindy's tax returns could be hiding something very important:

These media reports, therefore, have advanced the McCain campaign's comparison between Cindy McCain's limited release of financial information and Heinz Kerry's, and in doing so, ignored a key distinction in the information they released: Unlike Heinz Kerry, Cindy McCain did not release sufficient information for the public to determine the extent to which she benefited from the tax cuts her husband supports extending.

Slate writes:

Aside from a Wachovia checking account, in which he keeps between $15,000 and $50,000 (wouldn't some of that money earn more interest in a certificate of deposit?), all of the couple's assets are in Cindy's name. John McCain's tax return is so anemic, so marginal to the couple's actual financial situation, that he doesn't even take a deduction for interest on his home mortgage. Presumably Cindy does, since disclosure forms indicate that she has several mortgages.

We don't know for certain whether she does, because the campaign has declined to release Cindy McCain's tax returns. This data gap sets McCain apart from his Democratic opponents, who have released jointly filed tax records going back a minimum of seven years. Thanks to McCain's lack of genuine opposition in recent months, there has been very little clamor to release Cindy McCain's returns, even from those Republicans who loudly insisted that Hillary and Bill Clinton were hiding something in theirs. 

Cindy says she will never release her tax returns, even if she becomes First Lady!

McCain Coward

John McCain claims to be a brave war hero. So why is he afraid to even talk to Iran? As Jonathan Singer writes,

The Obama campaign is completely right to invoke Presidents Kennedy and Reagan in talking about the importance of speaking with both friend and foe. They might have even invoked Teddy Roosevelt, who McCain claims to model his career after but who in fact McCain seems to know and understand little about, a President who won a nobel peace prize while in the White House specifically because of his willingness to engage with the world.

But I'd go even a step further and ask why John McCain is afraid to speak with Iran. What is it about Iran that scares McCain so much? Or is it that McCain believes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei are so crafty that they would trick an American President into inadvertently ceding the state of Maine or American Samoa to Iran? Or alternatively, is it that McCain simply does not know how to act in a manner different from his true political role model, George W. Bush?

Here's a simpler possibility: John McCain is simply a coward, just like all the macho war criminals in the Bush Administration.

McCain Critics

Republican critics of John McCain

Ron Paul

• 5/2/08 Having a Republican win the upcoming presidential election is “secondary” for Paul who is more interested in defending the Constitution, having the country go in what he considers the right direction, having a sound currency, and achieving balanced budgets. Paul parts ways with McCain over McCain’s support for the Iraq war, his approach to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and his willingness to spend federal dollars to support military operations in Iraq. Instead, Paul favors Sen. Barack Obama because of positions on foreign policy. “But that’s doesn’t mean that’s an endorsement,” Paul quickly added.

Frank Schaefer, author of "AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes From Military Service, And How It Hurts Our Country."

• In the 2000 Republican primary season I went on numerous conservative and religious radio talk shows to argue for McCain against the Bush crowd and against the Republican right.
• McCain has taken his lack of good judgment about Iraq to the next level. He has joined himself at the hip to the Bush disaster by demanding a "win." While we may empathize with our soldiers, who have given so much and who may grimly want to be vindicated when it comes to "sticking it out" and wanting to "win" what we can't do is elect a president whose idea of honor guarantees more wasted sacrifice.

McCain Crooked Talk

John McCain's "talk" is a lot more crooked than straight.

• 7/08: One thing I, in all my travels here -- Americans want a respectful campaign. They do, they want it. Now, people say, well, negative ads move numbers. They may. But do we have to go to the lowest common denominator? I don't think so. 
• "Why not 100?" That was McCain's reply to a voter when asked about keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for 50 years. McCain said it more than once, even proposing 1,000, 10,000, and a million years. A straight-talker would admit it - only a crooked talker would deny it.
• 5/2/08: "I will have an energy policy... which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East." That means the current war in Iraq is about oil, doesn't it?  A straight-talker would admit it - only a crooked talker would deny it.
• 5/1/08: McCain said Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner was "wrong at the time." On 6/11/03, McCain told FOX's Neil Cavuto, " "the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished." On 6/12/03, McCain told Salon's Jake Tapper, "the mission is 'accomplished'."
• 5/1/08: McCain said only that earmarks divert money from necessary projects toward unneeded pork-barrel ones. The day before, McCain said: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."
• 4/24/08: McCain said he didn’t know what his plans would be. "That’s why we need to go back," he said, "to have a conversation about what to do about it. Rebuild it? Tear it down? Ya know, whatever it is." From North Carolina, Clinton seized the opportunity to attack. "Sen. McCain said he might want to tear down the Ninth Ward instead of rebuilding it," she said. "But I went to the Ninth Ward after Katrina and met with people there and saw the destruction and I saw the resilience in their eyes and they deserve our help to rebuild and regain their lives and their homes." Steve Schmidt, a senior McCain aide, said Clinton’s attack was "inaccurate." "Sen. McCain has said the levees must be strengthened on time so people can make a decision on whether to return based on safety," he said, adding that he would like to see a "safe, vibrant community emerge" after the appropriate flood plan. Even before Clinton made her comments, McCain had been asked to clarify. "I don’t remember ever saying it," he said Thursday afternoon on his way from Xavier University to the New Orleans airport.
• 3/18/08 "Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are are coming back into Iraq from Iran... I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not Al Qaeda." McCain mistakenly said Iran was training Al Qaeda Sunnis on 3 occasions.
• 2/3/08: RUSSERT: Senator McCain, you have said repeatedly, "I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." Is it a problem for your campaign that the economy is now the most important issue, one that, by your own acknowledgement, you're not well-versed on?    McCAIN: Actually, I don't know where you got that quote from. I'm very well-versed in economics.
• 3/28/07: Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told CNN that that President Bush’s escalation in Iraq is going so well, "General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee." On Monday, he told radio host Bill Bennett that there "are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today." This morning, during an interview with McCain, CNN’s John Roberts rebutted McCain’s assertions, stating, "I checked with General Petraeus’s people overnight and they said he never goes out in anything less than an up-armored humvee." He added that a new report by retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey "said no Iraqi government official, coalition soldier, diplomat reporter could walk the streets of Baghdad without heavily armed protection." Faced with overwhelming evidence that he was wrong, McCain denied he’d ever said it: "Well, I’m not saying they could go without protection. The President goes around America with protection. So, certainly I didn’t say that."
• 3/16/07: "Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?" McCain: (Long pause) "You've stumped me."
• 9/17/03: "I believe that Saddam Hussein presents clear and present danger to the United States of America with his continued pursuit of...to acquire weapons of mass destruction." [CNN Late Edition, 3/3/02] "I never said that it was a, quote, clear and present danger because of weapons of mass destruction."

Watch these Youtubes:

• 5/13/07 Flip-flops on tax cuts
• 1/26/07 Flip-flops on Iraq, the Confederate flag, Agents of Intolerance (Falwell), Gay marriage

McCain Democrat

Jon Perr writes,

Four days after Arianna Huffington first reported it, John McCain’s 2000 VoteGate has become the election issue du jour. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have all run stories confirming Huffington’s account that in 2000 a still steaming McCain did not vote for George W. Bush, the man who savaged him and his family during the Republican primaries.

Of course McCain tried to lie about it to Bill O'Reilly - but his tongue slipped and he accidentally told the truth!

O'REILLY: Did you vote for President Bush?

MCCAIN: Of course not.

Beyond McCain's guilty conscience, and all the witnesses at the Hollywood dinner party, there is more evidence McCain voted against Bush in 2000. In the spring of 2001, McCain seriously considered leaving the Republican Party and caucusing with Senate Democrats!

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist... 

Daschle said that throughout April and May of 2001, he and McCain “had meetings and conversations on the floor and in his office, I think in mine as well, about how we would do it, what the conditions would be. We talked about committees and his seniority … [A lot of issues] were on the table.”

Absolutely not so, according to McCain. In a statement released by his campaign, McCain said, “As I said in 2001, I never considered leaving the Republican Party, period.”

So who are you going to believe, McCain or a half-dozen Democrats who participated in these discussions?

Other senators who played major roles in the intense recruiting effort, according to Democrats, were then-Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) as well as Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

All of McCain's semi-Democratic friends know it's true, but now they're either lying or covering it up. The liar is John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist, who actually started the conversation with Tom Downey. The coverup is by Marshall Wittman

a McCain loyalist and strategist six years ago, put the odds of McCain leaving the Republican Party at “50-50.” Wittman, who now works for Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), declined to comment for this article.

Two other obvious witnesses were not interviewed: Jim Jeffords, who actually left the Republican Party to caucus with Democrats that spring, and Lincoln Chafee, who got close but chickened out.

McCain Dictators

In May, McCain was forced to fire two key staffers because of their lobbying work for the brutal dictators of Myanmar (Burma).

But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to McCain's ties to brutal dictators.

Charlie Black, campaign chairman (Hilzoy)

• Ahmed Chalabi, the smooth talking Iraqi exile who helped manufacture the WMD charges against Saddam Hussien that led the U.S. to invade (more here).
• Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, found guilty of torture, executions, disappearances, and human rights violations, who hired Black to "improve" his image in the U.S.
• Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, who's army massacred between 40,000 and 50,000 civilians in two years.
• Dictator Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), who amassed a vast personal fortune and repressed rival political parties while his country's children starved.
• Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi of UNITA, an ally of apartheid-era South Africa, who started a civil war which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and ordered the torture and murder of countless opponents (more here).
• Nigerian Dictator Ibrahim Babangida ran a one-party regime, who arrested his opponents, and murdered journalists. 
• Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

More at FireTheLobbyists.com.

McCain Economics

Back when John McCain was a "straight talker," he said this about economics:

• “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.” (11/26/05)
• “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should. … I’ve got Greenspan’s book.” (12/18/07)

Here's McCain's economic plan in a nutshell, based on his statements and writing:

• Cut taxes on corporations from 35% to 25%.
• Lower taxes on capital gains and dividends from 15%
• All interest rates at zero.
• Fix the economy by telling people it's good. Give fireside pep talks.
• Deregulate and abolish Sarbanes-Oxley
• Check in Greenspan's book
• Lower interest rates, and destroy the standing of the dollar
• Ban Accountants. They are offensive.
• Blame the last eight years on Democrats
• Freedom Works

McCain Elitism

It Takes Real Chutzpah for a Guy Who Owns Eight Houses (McCain) to Call Barack Obama an "Elitist"

The McCain campaign is managed by a cadre of Washington-insider special interest lobbyists. He and his current wife are estimated to be worth about $100 million. He reportedly owns eight houses. His let-them-eat-cake economic policies are based on George Bush's failed radical conservative "you're on your own buddy" philosophy. One after another he supported trade agreements that protect the rights of corporations, but ignore the rights of labor, and have devastated one Pennsylvania community after another. He gets most of his campaign cash from the wealthiest corporate interests around. And he has the gall to call Barack Obama an "elitist"?

McCain English

In May, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) launched a Spanish-language campaign website, greeting voters with, “Bienvenido! Estamos Unidos con McCain” (Welcome! We are united with McCain):

This new website comes despite the fact that McCain voted in 2006 for Sen. James Inhofe’s (R-OK) amendment to “declare English as the national language of the United States and to promote the patriotic integration of prospective US citizens.” In March, McCain skipped a vote on an amendment by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), aimed at “blocking lawsuits by employees challenging English-only workplace rules.” Both Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) voted against the measure, but McCain left Washington to attend a fundraiser.

McCain Extremists

Republicans and the Corporate Media spent months attack Barack Obama over his ties to his crazy pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But what about John McCain's ties to crazy rightwing pastors and other extremists?

Rev. John Hagee

McCain said he was "very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement." Reverend Parsley calls McCain a "strong, true, consistent conservative."

• 10 outrageous quotes

G. Gordon Libby

• 5/4/08: Now a conservative radio talk-show host, [G. Gordon] Liddy spent more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary. That was just one element of what Liddy did, and proposed to do, in a secret White House effort to subvert the Constitution. Far from repudiating him, McCain has embraced him. ... "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."

Rev. Rod Parsley

McCain calls Parsley "a spiritual adviser."

• 3 outrageous quotes

McCain Fearmonger

Just as George Bush did in 2004, John McCain's 2008 campaign is centered on fearmongering.

• 3/15/08 McCain: al Qaeda Planning Spectacular Attacks In Iraq To Sway U.S. Election

McCain FlipFlops

Torture: McCain was against it, before he was for it.

• Glenn Greenwald: "He holds himself out as a principled torture opponent but is, in fact, the single greatest enabler of legalizing torture in this country, from his 2005 bill which exempted the CIA from torture prohibitions to his 2006 leadership in enacting the Military Commissions Act to his opposition this year to the waterboard ban."
• CBS: After first insisting that federal law clearly and unambiguously outlaw “torture,” McCain suddenly caved to White House pressure on the MCA, allowing the Administration to insert into the law a clause that effectively allows (and, indeed, legally buttresses the efforts of) the executive branch to implement torture as a means of interrogation.

Public Funding of Elections: McCain was for it, before he was against it.

Immigration: McCain was for it, before he was against it. It's impossible to keep track of McCain's immigration flip-flops without a scorecard, but luckily Steve Benen is keeping one. Here are some of the major flips:

• 5/22/08 Told pro-immigration business leaders "we must enact comprehensive immigration reform," then insisted his policy remained "secure the border first."
• 1/30/08 McCain said he “would not” vote for his own immigration bill now.
• 5/05 Introduced the McCain-Kennedy "Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" which featured legalization ("shamnesty") and guest worker programs. This formed the basis of the  Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 and the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007.

Iraq:

• 1/3/08 The United States military could stay in Iraq for "maybe a hundred years" and that "would be fine with me" ... U.S. troops could be in Iraq for "a thousand years" or "a million years," as far as he was concerned.
• 2/25/08 "that reminds me of that “100 year thing”.  My friends, the war will be over soon.  The war, for all intents and purposes, although the insurgency will go on for years and years and years.  But it will be handled by the Iraqis, not by us."

Global Warming: He was against it before he was for it.

• 08: He brags on his website that he has been “a leader on the issue of global warming with the courage to call the nation to action.”
• 2/28/08: Governors from coal- and oil-producing states spelled out their problems with McCain’s energy policies, and he was responsive.

McCain Foreign Policy

McCain wants to replace the United Nations with a "League of Democracies."

• Fareed Zakaria: The approach lacks any strategic framework.... How would the League of Democracies fight terrorism while excluding countries like Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Singapore? What would be the gain to the average American to lessen our influence with Saudi Arabia, the central banker of oil, in a world in which we are still crucially dependent on that energy source?

McCain also wants to throw Russia out of the G8 and exclude China while adding India and Brazil

• Fareed Zakaria: The single most important security problem that the United States faces is securing loose nuclear materials. A terrorist group can pose an existential threat to the global order only by getting hold of such material. We also have an interest in stopping proliferation, particularly by rogue regimes like Iran and North Korea. To achieve both of these core objectives—which would make American safe and the world more secure—we need Russian cooperation. How fulsome is that likely to be if we gratuitously initiate hostilities with Moscow? Dissing dictators might make for a stirring speech, but ordinary Americans will have to live with the complications after the applause dies down.
  To reorder the G8 without China would be particularly bizarre. The G8 was created to help coordinate problems of the emerging global economy. Every day these problems multiply—involving trade, pollution, currencies—and are in greater need of coordination. To have a body that attempts to do this but excludes the world's second largest economy is to condemn it to failure and irrelevance. International groups are not cheerleading bodies but exist to help solve pressing global crises. Excluding countries won't make the problems go away.

McCain Gays

Gay Marriage

• 5/22/08 On the Ellen DeGeneres Show, McCain said people should be encouraged to enter into legal agreements, particularly for insurance and other areas where decisions need to be made.
• In 2007, McCain said he was opposed to New Hampshire’s bill legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples. “If I were a citizen of New Hampshire, I would oppose it,” he said. “Anything that impinges or impacts the sanctity of the marriage between men and women, I’m opposed to it.”
• In 2006, he also told the late Rev. Jerry Falwell that would support a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, even though he opposed such a measure in 2004.
• On Nov. 19, 2006, ABC’s George Stephanopoulous asked McCain, “So you’re for civil unions?” McCain replied, “No.” He instead said they should be able to only “enter into contracts” and “exchange powers of attorney.
• In 2005, he supported an Arizona amendment that would change the state’s constitution “to ban gay marriages and deny government benefits to unmarried couples.”

McCain Health Care

McCain wants to businesses to stop offering health care to their employees, and to force everyone to buy insurance individually. The Des Moines Register writes,

The proposal [by McCain] should scare the heck out of the millions of Americans who rely on employer-based coverage... Buying individual policies means having your health history reviewed. It means not having the bargaining power and protections that come with being part of a plan offered by an employer. And it's expensive...

The senator is correct that the employer-based system of health insurance in this country isn't working. Businesses are saddled with the high costs of coverage, putting them at a competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace. Insurance shouldn't be tied to jobs.

But the more reasonable solution is to offer everyone what Medicare already offers: health coverage financed by a combination of tax dollars and participant contributions, thus allowing the huge bargaining power of millions of Americans to leverage down costs.

That idea is nowhere near as radical as forcing millions of Americans to shop for their own coverage in a profit-driven, private-insurance sector.

McCain is lying about the Democratic plans to make private insurance affordable to the 47 million uninsured Americans, claiming Democrats want a "massive government takeover"

"There are those that want a massive government takeover of the health care system in America," Mr. McCain warned Thursday in Des Moines, as he made the case for his more market-based approach...

"But before you decide to sign on to that kind of a program, go to Canada, or go to European countries that have government-run health care systems," he continued. "My friends, they don’t work, they’re inefficient, and they end up in a two-tiered system where the wealthiest can afford to pay for their own health care and those with low income sometimes wait six or eight months for a routine kind of treatment. And that’s what I’m not going to let happen to the United States of America."

McCain Iraq

From the beginning, John McCain has been the strongest Senate supporter of invading Iraq to replace Saddam Hussein with the famously corrupt and double-crossing Ahmed Chalabi.

• In November 1997, he announced on Fox News that it had been a mistake not to oust Saddam during the first Gulf War of 1991 under George Bush I, and he called upon the Clinton administration to set up an Iraqi government in exile.
• In the fall of 1998 - in the face of opposition from both the Pentagon and the State Department - McCain co-sponsored the Iraq Liberation Act, which committed the United States to overthrowing Saddam's regime and to funding opposition groups. McCain welcomed Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), to Washington and pressured the administration to give him money. When General Anthony Zinni cast doubt upon the effectiveness of the Iraqi opposition, McCain rebuked him at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 
• In 2000, McCain was Chalabi’s favored candidate in the 2000 election since Chalabi knew that he would be able to free up the $97 million in military aid plus millions pushed through in Congress and earmarked for Chalabi’s exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, but held up by the Clinton State Department.
• In the fall and winter of 2002, when the Bush administration was lying about the threat posed by Iraq, McCain put himself squarely on the side of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the neoconservatives. Like them, McCain evinced a blithe optimism about America's ability to transform Iraq. Asked by Chris Matthews in March 2003 whether the Iraqis would treat Americans as liberators, McCain replied, "Absolutely, absolutely." Echoing The Weekly Standard, he also promoted the most alarmist versions of the threat posed by Saddam, insisting that "Saddam Hussein is on a crash course to construct a nuclear weapon" and that "the interaction we know to have occurred between members of Al Qaeda and Saddam's regime may increasingly take the form of active cooperation to target the United States." And he indulged wildly optimistic scenarios about how the war might liberalize the Middle East, arguing that "regime change in Iraq" could result in "demand for self-determination" throughout the region.
• In April 2003, with Saddam's military crumbling, McCain signed a letter with four other Republican senators complaining that Chalabi's INC was not being funded. Appearing on "Good Morning America," he argued for "bringing in Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress as soon as possible."

When the invasion of Iraq turned into a disastrous occupation, McCain became its strongest defender. Now McCain claims to be the strongest critic of Bush's mismanagement of the Iraq War.

• Video: McCain's Double Talk Express: A Day At The Beach

Timeline:

• 2/12/08: “The argument is really almost insulting to one’s intelligence to say how long we’re in Iraq,” McCain said, noting that the U.S. has maintained thousands of troops in Germany, South Korea and Japan for decades. But no American soldiers were killed during those occupations, while 50-100 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq every month since the invasion.

McCain Jobs

John McCain admits he knows little about economics. But what little he knows is enough to kill good American jobs. 

3/08: Boeing lost a $35 billion contract for Air Force tankers to the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS), which cost 44,000 good U.S. jobs.

• 3 top McCain advisors worked for EADS
• EADS contributed $14,000 to McCain's presidential campaign, more than they gave to any other Member of Congress
• McCain helped block an earlier tanker contract with Boeing and prodded the Pentagon in 2006 to develop bidding procedures that did not exclude Airbus.

McCain Jokes

John McCain pretends to be civil and charming, but his ugly sense of humor gives him away as a nasty and vindictive SOB.

• 9/22/08 In Scranton PA, McCain tells a joke about drunk Irish twins, thereby insulting many Irish voters.
• 11/13/07 a supporter asks him about Hillary: "How do we beat the bitch?" After trying to bite his tongue, McCain finally bursts out laughing and calls it an "excellent question."
• 4/24/07 tells Jon Stewart he'd brought him an IED from Iraq as a gift, at a time when thousands of American soldiers had been killed or maimed by IED's. Rep. Jack Murtha challenged McCain on the House Floor: “In the last four months, we’ve lost more troops than any other period during this war. … Imagine a presidential candidate making a joke about IEDs when these kids are blown apart! It’s outrageous!” McCain replied on Good Morning America: "All I’m going to say to Murtha and others. … Lighten up and get a life."
• 4/19/07 Sings "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" at a campaign event at a time when the White House is threatening to do exactly that and possibly start World War III. When challenged about it later, he snapped, "My response is, lighten up and get a life."
• 10/06 "I think I'd just commit suicide." — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quoted by Radio Iowa, on what he would do if Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate. We did, but he didn't honor his promise - instead he ran for President.
• 6/98: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

McCain Katrina

In New Orleans on 4/24/08, McCain said: “I would’ve landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally.” But as Newsweek notes, on Aug. 29, 2005, when Katrina had just hit New Orleans, McCain was posing with President Bush for his 69th birthday.

McCain aggressively sought the endorsement of conservative evaneglical leader John Hagee, who said repeatedly repeated that Hurricane Katrina was punishment to New Orleans.

McCain told reporters he was not sure if he would rebuild the lower 9th ward as president. "That is why we need to go back is to have a conversation about what to do -rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is," he said. Transplanted Texan writes,

I guess it's no surprise. McCain has opposed the creation of an independent 9/11-style commission to investigate the failure of the levees, voted against a 2006 bill that included $28 billion in hurricane relief, and opposed Medicaid and unemployment benefits for Katrina victims.

McCain Lies

Lies About Obama

Obama wants to teach kindergartners about sex before they can read 

9/9/08 “Education” Ad (TV :30)
ANNCR: Education Week says Obama “hasn’t made a significant mark on education”.
That he’s “elusive” on accountability.
A “staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly”.
Obama’s one accomplishment?
Legislation to teach “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners.
Learning about sex before learning to read?
Barack Obama.
Wrong on education. Wrong for your family.

Truth:

Campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs told CBS News the legislation Obama supported provided information to children on what to watch for when with an adult they don't know, such as inappropriate advances or touching. 

“It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls – a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn’t define what honor was. Now we know why,” says Obama spokesman Bill Burton in an emailed statement.

Obama would increase capital gains taxes on 100 million Americans

• Lie 4/20/08: "Senator Obama says that he doesn’t want to raise taxes on anybody over — making over $200,000 a year, yet he wants to nearly double the capital gains tax. Nearly double it, which 100 million Americans have investments in — mutual funds, 401(k)s — policemen, firemen, nurses. He wants to increase their taxes."
• Truth: "Investments contained in 401-K's (Or in the case of 'policemen, firemen' usually a 403-B), pensions, IRAs, tax deferred variable annuities, and similar retirement vehicles aren't subject to capital gains tax -- they're not taxed at all. Changing the capital gains tax rate will have zero effect on them. Withdrawals from tax deferred accounts by retirees are generally taxed at whatever the income tax rate is for that person at the time of withdrawal (Which, incidentally, is usually a hell of a lot more than the current long term capital gains tax rate, yet another way to rip off the middle class)." 

Lies About Himself   

McCain crowd estimates

• Lie 9/13/08: Virginia rally drew 23,000; independent estimate was 8,000

McCain created the DoNotCall list:

• Lie 8/17/08: "2003 – McCain led in creating the FTC’s ‘Do-Not-Call’ telemarketing registry"
• Truth: FTC Chairman Tim Muris announced in October 2001 that the FTC was going to create the Do Not Call list

McCain co-authored the CAN-SPAM Act:

• Lie 8/17/08: "2003 - McCain co-authored the CAN-SPAM Act to regulate the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail (”spam”) 
• Truth: According to the Library of Congress, three Republicans and four Democratic senators introduced the CAN-SPAM bill in 2003. John McCain was not one of them.

Lobbying for Lowell Paxson 

• Lie 2/21/08: "No representative of Paxson or [Paxson's lobbying firm] Alcalde and Fay discussed with Senator McCain the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proceeding...  No representative of Paxson or Alcalde and Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC regarding this proceeding."
• Truth: [Floyd] Abrams asked [McCain during a deposition for a Mitch McConnell lawsuit fighting McCain's campaign finance reform]: "Did you speak to the company's lobbyist about these matters?"
  McCain: "I don't recall if it was Mr. Paxson or the company's lobbyist or both."
  Abrams: "But you did speak to him?"
  McCain: "I'm sure I spoke with him, yes."
• Truth 2/22/08: Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson today contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf.
  Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.
  Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, attended the meeting in McCain's office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting. "Was Vicki there? Probably," Paxson said in an interview with The Washington Post today. "The woman was a professional. She was good. She could get us meetings."
  The recollection of the now-retired Paxson conflicted with the account provided by McCain about two letters at the center of a controversy about the senator's ties to Iseman, a partner at the lobbying firm of Alcalde & Fay.

McCain Lobbyists

John McCain brags that he's friends with lots and lots of lobbyists:

I have many friends who represent various interests ranging from the firemen, to the police to senior citizens to various interests particularly before my committee and I had meetings with hundreds of them and that was my job to do to get their input. Obviously, people who represent interests are fine, that's their constitutional right, the question is do they have access or unwarranted influence and certainly no one ever has in the conduct of my public life and my legislative agenda.

At least 59 lobbyists have helped McCain raise nearly $50 million. Below are some of the most powerful corporate lobbyists who have the most influence over McCain - and always put their clients' interests ahead of the interests of the American people. (Also watch "Friends" - a great video by Brave New Films.

People:

McCain Marriages

Daily Mail 6/8/08: 

She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.

But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries...

For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.

Carol insists she remains on good terms with her ex-husband, who agreed as part of their divorce settlement to pay her medical costs for life. ‘I have no bitterness,’ she says. ‘My accident is well recorded. I had 23 operations, I am five inches shorter than I used to be and I was in hospital for six months. It was just awful, but it wasn’t the reason for my divorce.

‘My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.’

Some of McCain’s acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to ‘play the field’. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.

McCain was then earning little more than £25,000 a year as a naval officer, while his new father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was a multi-millionaire who had impeccable political connections...

In 1979 – while still married to Carol – he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage.

Carol and her children were devastated. ‘It was a complete surprise,’ says Nancy Reynolds, a former Reagan aide.

‘They never displayed any difficulties between themselves. I know the Reagans were quite shocked because they loved and respected both Carol and John.’

Another friend added: ‘Carol didn’t fight him. She felt her infirmity made her an impediment to him. She justified his actions because of all he had gone through. She used to say, “He just wants to make up for lost time.”’

Indeed, to many in their circle the saddest part of the break-up was Carol’s decision to resign herself to losing a man she says she still adores.

Friends confirm she has remained friends with McCain and backed him in all his campaigns. ‘He was very generous to her in the divorce but of course he could afford to be, since he was marrying Cindy,’ one observed...

despite his popularity as a politician, there are those who won’t forget his treatment of his first wife.

Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: ‘I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is – deceit.

‘When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it.

‘Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better.

‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’...

 Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.

‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said.

‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’

Matthew Yglesias on VickiGate:

Obviously, I don’t know whether or not McCain had sex with Iseman. I suppose by “what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is” standards, he didn’t even deny having had sex with Iseman. Certainly it’d be a bit rich of McCain to get outraged that anyone would even suggest that he might engage in sexual improprieties. After all, it’s well known that he repeatedly cheated on his first wife Carol, of a number of years, with a variety of women, before eventually dumping her for a much-younger heiress whose family fortune was able to help finance his political career. That’s well known, I should say, except to the electorate, who would probably find that this sort of behavior detracts from McCain’s “character” appeal.

McCain Media