Johann Hari in a revealing piece on Senator John McCain of Arizona in London’s Independent January 24 sounded an astute cautionary message advising voters to go beyond thirty second spots and television advertising to learn his real identity:

“If we don’t start warning that the Real McCain is not the Real McCoy, we might sleepwalk into four more years of Republicanism.”

Hari’s warning should be evaluated in the wake of the latest example of New York Times Kool-Aid drinking.  It will be recalled that not that many years ago the journal that states it runs “all the news that’s fit to print” got dizzy on Kool-Aid manufactured by noted fraud Ahmed Chalibi, who fed as fact to Time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Judith Miller.

Miller treated Chalibi’s manufactured horror story of Saddam Hussein amassing large quantities of poison gas to unleash on American cities as fact in the Times, which in turn fueled the case being made by Empire proponents of Bush Incorporated to invade Iraq.

Now we have a fresh Kool-Aid episode at the Times with its endorsement this week of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and McCain as Republican standard bearer.  The Times posited that same easily refutable contention that McCain is a sensible talking “moderate” whose refreshing candor is welcomed by independents turned off by the Bush-Cheney administration.

On some points Senator McCain has been indeed been candid, and his comments bear analysis, something we have not been getting from McCain Kool-Aid drinkers at the New York Times and at other strategically important centers of the mainstream media.

When McCain was asked at the last Republican presidential candidates’ debate held this past week on January 24 in Florida if was knowledgeable in the field of economics he thrust out his chest and proudly proclaimed, “I was there at the beginning of the Reagan revolution!”

This proud proclamation is understandable concerning his present economic recommendations and the track record of Ronald “Doctor Feelgood” Reagan.  Reagan in his two terms tripled the national debt, no mean feat. 

The Bush-Cheney team, however, reduces Reagan’s stalwart efforts to child’s play in that America stands very close to a $10 trillion debt that will be realized before the current administration completes its second term of office.

In the midst of the planet’s most soaring debt, what does McCain offer in the way of economic solutions?  For one thing he has finally come around to the position of his competitors, Mitt Romney, Mick Huckabee and Rudolph Guiliani of making Bush’s tax cuts permanent.  McCain also supports a stimulus package to revive the moribund economy.

Considering what this combination of actions would do to an already exploding debt, it is understandable why McCain is so proud to associate his name with that master of political fantasy and economic irresponsibility, Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of McCain and others who have followed in his image.

When McCain insists that we should stay in Iraq just as long as it takes, he assumes a consistent posture with his view of the Vietnam War. 

Despite the loss of three million lives along with disasters reeked on survivors by the debilitating effects of Agent Orange along with the psychological demoralization and political conflict that divisive war had on America, McCain believes that it was wrong to withdraw forces from Vietnam.

It was wrong just as it would be currently wrong in McCain’s view to remove them from Iraq, despite that fact that the Iraqi people by a large margin believe that they should promptly leave.

McCain was asked at the January 24 Republican candidates’ debate about whether continuing the conflict with American forces was sustainable.  McCain strongly asserted without qualification that it was sustainable, despite numerous warnings from military figures to the contrary, including General David Petraeus.

McCain’s dogged assurance and non-compromising matter on issues such as the economy and military issues square with his “full speed ahead” views on other military issues. 

As Johann Hari noted, “(A)t a recent really, he (McCain) sang ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran’ to the tune of the Beach Boys’ ‘Barbara Ann.’  He says North Korea should be threatened with ‘extinction.’”

McCain graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, ranking 894 out of 899 students.  He comes from a Navy family and is a solid proponent of Empire in the family tradition. 

McCain describes as an “exotic adventure” the effort of his grandfather Slew in the Philippine wars at the turn of the century, helping crush local resistance as the populace was forced from their homes at gunpoint into “protection zones.”  McCain notes that his grandfather “generally enjoyed” this mission.

McCain’s father John Sr. led the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 against forces loyal to Juan Bosch, who was democratically elected and committed to land redistribution and assisting the poor. 

In the McCain family tradition of enriching imperialism, John McCain Sr. intervened to insure that supporters of democratic government would be crushed.

John McCain Sr. spoke about the Dominican Republic mission and its role in the grand scheme of perpetuating empire in the same manner that his son now speaks of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. 

The mission taught the natives “how to behave themselves” and he envisioned the effort as part of a wider mission to cement “World Empire.”

So at one point the New York Times and other mainstream media elements drink and distribute the Kool-Aid of Judith Miller and alleged “weapons of mass destruction” while currently Senator John McCain is saluted as a force for moderation and a positive image on the American political scene.

A common thread links the two subjects, the steady and insidious forward push to World Empire in the form of the New World Order that George Bush the Elder spoke of glowingly, and which his son and others, including the mainstream media, appear so dedicated to achieve.