Category: Media

Damn You McCain!!! Damn You to Hell!!!!!!

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I made a promise about She Who Must Not Be Named last June.

I promised the following:

I am not referring to the city of lights, neither am I referring to the similarly named town in Texas.

Rather, I am referring to the hotel heiress.

Absent some sort of political activity, such as endorsements, running for office (PLEASE GOD NO!!), or her attempting to assassinate someone, she will not be mentioned here.

Now, you force me to say the following:

Damn you John McCain!! Damn you to hell!*

Because, your lame ass add, and the subsequent condemnation of that ad by Kathy Hilton, the mother of She Who Must Not Be Named:

It is a complete waste of the money John McCain’s contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country’s time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States.

What’s more, Kathy Hilton has actually contributed to your campaign!

How can I ignore that. How can I let all that pass…..Damn you.

*Yes, I know that the stakes are high in the presidential campaign, and that this post is really all about me, but I’ve never claimed to have class, or vision, or for that matter, hair on the top of my head.†
†Hair on my back, and my ears….that I claim proudly.

McCain Loses the Wall Street Journal

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We have a straight news story that calls out his hypocrisy

RACINE, Wis. — Sen. John McCain continues to slam rival Barack Obama for wanting to raise taxes on Social Security, even as he periodically explains that he might be willing to do the same.

Pretty amazing. They are actually checking out what he says.

Then there is a columnist who literally asks, “Is John McCain Stupid?” and says that “This isn’t a flip-flop. It’s a sex-change operation.”

And he loses Howie “Mr. Conflict of Interest” Kurtz, whose wife is a Republican consultant, when he describes McCain as having, “gone tabloid“.

McCain Loses St. Petersburg Times (Florida)

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From ‘straight talk’ to smear campaign.

I see a parallel between 2008 and 1992, where the press realized how badly they were played by GHW Bush against Dukakkis in 1988, and were careful not to be played again in 1992.

Maybe I’m just an optimist though.

On a related note, John Weaver, who has been a close friend and confidant of McCain for years, is denouncing his current ad campaign as childish, “There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn’t at Obama’s. For McCain’s sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop.”

The IOC: The First Bastards Up Against the Wall When the Revolution Comes

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The IOC just meekly assented to allowing the Chinese government to filter internet access for the reporters at the games, despite promising otherwise just weeks ago.

What a bunch of losers.

That being said, ShaMao’er asks the question that immediately comes to mind, “The same old question… why are they so dumb?”

Meaning the Chinese government. They had to know that this would be found out in short order, and they had to know that the consequences of being found out would be worse than anything that a reporter pulled off Amnesty International’s web site.

My only guess is that is about a need to be in control trumped their need to get good foreign press.

A number of analyses have suggested that the primary audience that is being targeted by the PRC for the Olympics is internal, not external, and that would explain this action.

McCain Loses…..

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Time’s Karen Timulty, “So how many more times are the McCain campaign and the Republicans going to repeat what is a thoroughly baseless charge?” (emphasis mine)

The front page of the Washington Post, “For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.” (emphasis mine)

And the New York Times Editorial Board, “Many voters are wondering whether a McCain presidency would be an extension of Mr. Bush’s two disastrous terms. If the way Mr. McCain is running his campaign these days is an indication, Americans don’t have to wait until next January for the answer to that one.” (emphasis mine)

Could it be that the “Straight Talk Express” has worn out the batteries? Because this stuff looks suspiciously like journalism.

Wearing Out the Batteries on “Straight Talk”

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Well, it’s starting to look like NBC has found limits to their man-crush on John McCain (see also here), and are starting to actually report on what he says, and what it means.

Additionally, it appears that McCain may be losing Chuck Hagel on his scurrilous attack ads.

I had thought that there were no limits to the amount of excuses that the beltway kule kidz would supply for McCain, but it appears that I was wrong, at least for ABC (earlier posts) and MSNBC.

The WaPo, still appears to be alibiing with the best of them though.

Is the Media Beginning to Explore the Hypocrisy That is John McCain?

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John McCain has argued that Barack Obama has not attended enough hearings on Afghanistan. Well, ABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf burnt a very small amount of shoe leather, and determined that McCain has attended no hearing on at all on Afghanistan in the past two years, though McCain is apparently asking for a get out of jail free card on this because, “McCain’s years of previous foreign policy experience make up for his recent lack of attendance at hearing.”

It’s amazing that the McCain loving press is actually mentioning that he’s criticizing Obama for things he’s done worse.

What a Bunch of F&%$ing Whiners

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Yes, we are now seeing hand wringing from the pampered self-centered Washington press corps.

The example given is when Adam Nagourney and Megan Thee write a piss-poor article on polling about Obama, Poll Finds Obama Isn’t Closing Divide on Race, and he’s offended, when the Obama campaign launches a point by point rebuttal that makes him look like a complete pratt.

If you don’t want to look like a pratt, stop being one.

The press needs to get over itself.

More Media in the Tank for John Sidney McCain III

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Well, in the aftermath of CBS’s selective editing, we have Howie Kurtz, “Mr. Conflict of Interest”, alibiing for CBS deliberately mis-editing the interview.

Seriously, someone is in the tank for McCain…Hell, everyone in the media has this “man crush” for McCain, which is why this is not wall to wall 24/7 news right now, because they “know” McCain, and they “know” it’s not fair to hold him to his word.

McCain’s Meets With Jindal

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So it appears that John Sidney McCain III is spending some time in Louisiana, but besides mentions of a visit with governor Bobby Jindal, nothing else is specified.

Maybe they want the performing whack job, he has claimed to have performed an exorcism, to be VP. It certainly would be entertaining.

Of other note, it article indicates that Bob Novak got owned on the leak that McCain would announce a VP pick this week:

Robert Novak, the columnist who helped trigger the VP frenzy with a blog posting Monday, told Fox News on Tuesday that he might have been duped by a McCain campaign aide.

Novak said he was encouraged by “a very senior McCain aide” to put out the story that McCain would name his running mate this week. He said he since has been told by “certain people” he “may have been used.”

Gee….You think????

What Member of Rodentia Scrambles to Leave a Sinking Ship?

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Ah….Yes…Republicans…..

Senate Republican leaders are now allowing senators to vote as they wish in an attempt to keep seat losses to a minimum in November.

We also have reports that Republicans see Bush as a “jinx”, and that they are trying to avoid the party brand.

No wonder they aren’t letting press into Bush fund raisers. They are afraid of pictures of the candidate and Bush together showing up in the press.

Maybe Republicans should campaign with a more popular member of the Bush administration, like Dick Cheney….I think that I just threw up in my mouth.

The Sick Old Man Can’t Even Get the Facts Right on His Signature Issue

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John Sidney McCain III barely graduated from Annapolis, 894 of 899, and then only because because daddy was a high ranking admiral.

Now, he gets the escalation in Iraq wrong, claiming that the so-called “Anbar Awakening” was the result of the “surge” even though it pre-dated Bush’s first mention of escalation in Iraq by 6 months.

Of course, this is Katie Couric’s CBS, so when the gaff was made, they edited it out, because by the rules of the “kule kidz” in the press corps, any gaff by McCain is an honest mistake, and the public must be shielded from seeing the “straight talker” when he shows himself to be a complete pratt.

McCain Money Man Funded Terrorists

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Not surprisingly, it was an executive at Chiquita, formerly United Fruit, which did so much to destabilize and de-democratize Latin America, who is involved, Carl H. Lindner Jr., whose firm admitted to knowingly supporting a terrorist organization:

Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati businessman, was CEO of Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the company’s board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University’s National Security Archive as an “illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country’s most notorious civilian massacres.”

Following a Justice Department indictment last year, Chiquita admitted to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita’s payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001.

According to the Justice Department, the payments “were reviewed and approved by senior executives” of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September 2000 “that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization.”

Lindner has hosted a number of fund raisers for McCain, and is on his “Ohio Victory Team”.

Chiquita also did gun running to the AUC, which I suppose is one way to keep the banana plantation workers from organizing.

And, of course, Mr. Straight Talker also did favors for the guy regarding a land deal in Arizona in the 1990s.

Oh, and I almost forgot, his chief political advisor, Charlie Black, lobbied for both Chiquita and Columbia.

What a bloody witches brew we have here….but the press won’t cover it, because McCain is a straight talker and honest.

On Olbermann’s Special Comment

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Really, REALLY weak.

The logic was circuitous, and and the fire was just not there.

I believe that Charlie Pierce was right when he worried that Keith may be wearing out the batteries on hiss special comments.

While I think that it was accurate, it was just a realistic listing of what was going on politically, without any of the fire that you normally get.

on edit:

You can get a clip and a transcript of the special comment at Crooks and Liars. Interestingly enough, unlike most of his special comments, it reads better than it shows.

Wes Clark Completely Owns John McCain

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His statement on Face the Nation, “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president,” is both devastating and complex.

  • It plays into the views of most servicemen and ex-servicemen, that the “flyboys” are a bunch of pampered over appreciated folk.
  • It compares to JFK’s statement on his heroism, “It was unavoidable, they sank my boat”.
  • Clark’s position as a general and a soldier allows him to put McCain’s record on the table.
  • It raises McCain’s actual record, which is not so good, he almost made negative ace, which is now on the table.
  • It takes one of the central pillars of his public personae, and challenges it.

After all that, finding out that Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr accusing the Republican Party and John McCain of being lying jackals is sort of an anti-climax, but it’s nice to see him piling on.