Short Takes: McCain May Foreshadow that He's Trying to Fix the Election

He claims that he'll win it (the November election) in "the last 48 hours." Read about it here.

On the other hand, McCain also said on another occasion in early June, that he'll win the election in January. Hmmm. Maybe he's too confused to know what and where he'll be on Election Day.

McCains Don't Pay Taxes on LaJolla Home for Four Years



The McCains own at least seven homes in a variety of trust arrangements. One is nearing default. It appears they haven't pad taxes on the condo for four years. Check it our here.

Around the Blogosphere: Great Reads

Here are some links worthy of a read:

From Bradblog: The dark history of McCain's senior adviser. http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6111#more-6111

From The Daily Howler: A must read about media self-adulation and simultaneous dis-information). http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh062608.shtml

from Nance Greggs Rants (at Democratic Underground), her unique take on the presidential race. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/NanceGreggs/403

From David Swanson's Journal (at Democratic Underground), a contrast in Fourth of Julys--then and now. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/davidswanson/524

From Crooks and Liars: An article about how the infamous "swift-boat" publisher has taken aim at Obama. http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/27/swiftboat-publisher-targets-obama/

From FiredogLake: A story about how the GOPher rationale for votes fails the logic test. http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/27/wingnuts-on-heller-vote-republican-to-save-us-from-republican-appointed-judges/

Happy reading!

How to Sell the Voters Down the Sewer: Case Study--Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has written, rather alarmingly, at the facts behind the FISA vote. And yet, evening after knowing these facts, thinking about them and writing about them, he caves. This week, he voted for cloture on the FISA bill. Why is that?

Read some thoughts on this here. Read more about it here.

Sheldon Whitehouse is a study in gutlessness, faltering courage, and uselessness to our nation and Constitution. And there are so many more where he came from, a number of them in the Senate and 105 of them in the House, who actually passed the FISA bill, which makes lawful spying on Americans, fails at needed safeguards, and gives Americans no legal recourse against the unnecessary and abusive use of the government against them.

We have just a few months to persuade the Bush-enabling cavers that it doesn't have to be this way. Foolishly they assume that we won't have to worry about Bush after November (make that January). And so they keep pacifying him, giving him whatever he demands, and mis-serving Americans.

But such blissful ignorance also assumes (though it shouldn't) that the current administration will put its power to good use. Already, we know that it hasn't. We have a needless war, the upending of habeas corpus, Abu Graib, torture, illegal spying by the government of its own citizens (that alone previously cost Richard Nixon his job). Such ignorance also assumes the reigns of power will be turned over by the powers that be willingly, without sabotage, and without incident. What are the odds that the Bush boys will go quietly into their respective retirements?

And so, Mr. Whitehouse, what then? What if you have given in one too many times? What if the country you swore to serve and the law you promised to withhold have been utterly demolished by then? What if you have changed our government irreparably? And, what, Mr. Whitehouse, will you tell your children and grandchildren you did about it? You had the power. And you continually fail to use it. You were more afraid to "lose" (though you probably wouldn't) that to actually serve this country. And so you failed utterly and completely. And you, not just George W. Bush, bear the responsibility.

Reason No. 6 Why John McCain Should Not Be President: Hollow Man McCain Admits Proposal Will Do Nothing



It doesn't get much emptier than this: One of John McCain's proposals to remedy the energy crisis will, by his own admission, do nothing to stave off the problem. If that sounds familiar, there's a reason. It's the same kind of empty solutions we've been getting for more nearly 7.5 years.

Tired of tired, shopworn and empty promises? It's time for a Barack Obama presidency.

FAUX NEWS Gives Platform for Inciting Violence and Racism

Over and over FOX "News" gets away with slander, malicious lies and general mischief as a pretense for news. FOX is the practical equivalent of a subsidiary of the Rove wing of the Republican Party. As the Glen Greenwald documentary OutFoxed illustrates, FOX "News" gets its talking points White House each day. And these talking points are one and the same with other Republican talking heads who fan out to fill the airwaves with like bilge in lieu of straight talk. Their drivel gets circulated from FAUX to other media and passed on, propaganda-style, as fact.

But FOX doesn't stop there. FOX "News" attempts to stir up hatred, and sometimes even violence, (see the example of Liz Trotta in No. 4 below) against Democrats and progressives. And FOX has ushered into the race the most malignant race baiting, hatred and stereotypes.

For example, here are just a sample of citations illustrating the vilification of Barack Obama found at FAUX News

[Hat tip to colorofchange.org]:

1. Fox News' E.D. Hill insultingly and appallingly asked if Barack Obama and wife Michelle gave "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab?" Media Matters, June 6, 2008
http://mediamatters.org/items/200806060007?f=h_clips

2. FOX used the expression Baby Mama" to smear Michell Obama with the term suggesting that she is an unwed mother. "Fox News in trouble again over Obama smear: 'baby mama'" Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2008
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/06/baby-mama.html

3. FOX News Chief Roger Ailes caused Dems to cancel a debate over at Fox over supposed "joke." See CNN.com, March 10, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/10/debate.canceled/index.html

4. Listen to this incident in which Liz Trotta on Fox News Channel, May 25, 2008, conflated Obama with Osama Bin Laden and it only got worse from there... She actually suggests that Obama be "knocked off." (Is not inciting such an act illegal (like crying fire in a crowded room?) And why are she and folks like Ann Coulter allowed to imply violence against Democrats, progressives, or liberals is OK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYpkvcmog0

5. "Fox Attacks: Black America," FoxAttacks.com, June 2007
http://foxattacks.com/blog/572-fox-attacks-black-america

6. "Fox Attacks: Obama, Part 2," FoxAttacks.com, June 2007
http://foxattacks.com/blog/32376-fox-attacks-obama-part-2

7. "Fox News and its problem with African-Americans," ColorOfChange.org overview, March 2007
http://www.colorofchange.org/cbci/message.html

8. Here's a smear falsely suggesting that Obama's Books Contain Racially Incendiary Remarks," FighttheSmears.com, June, 2008
http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/therealquote

9. Schlussel asks whether Barack Hussein Obama should be president "when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam"?," Media Matters, December 20, 2006
http://mediamatters.org/items/200612200005

10. "Tennessee GOP Smears Obama With (False) Alleged Ties to Anti-Semitism and Farrakhan," TPM Election Central, February 27, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/28y72j

11. "Obama, Clinton to skip Fox-backed debate," MSNBC.com, April 10, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18035439/

You get the idea. The question is: When will pols stop appearing on this rag of a station? And why does FOX take up a prominent space on the cable lineup? Americans deserve better than this.

One for the Books: John McCain is an Idiot (and So Are His staff)--Reason No. 5 to Vote for Barack Obama over John McCain

[Hat Tip to Gray Havens at RK.]

"John McCain is aware of the Internet," Mr. Soohoo said. "This is a man who has a very long history of understanding on a range of issues."

Really? I don't think so... Read the entire article here. Indeed one gets the feeling that John McCain has a few wing-nuts loose.

Remember that "internet is a bunch of tubes" description of the internet by one hapless and somewhat brainless Republican? Maybe that wasn't an isolated incidence of idiocy among Republicans? Now comes John McCain's staff to illustrate both the missing brain matter of the candidate himself and the McCain spokesperson too.

Not long ago, McCain proclaimed that he didn't know much about economics. That characterization of his comprehension (or lack thereof) about one of our most vital areas of policy should give voters pause. Also not long ago, John McCain needed Joe Lieberman to set him straight about just who the terrorists in the Middle East really are. He gets confused about who is the enemy, what kind of threat they pose, whether or not they have WMD, and how long we should engage our troops on behalf of the Bush war machine.

More and more, John McCain shows why furthering the Bush debacle with a disastrous third Bush term would further the unraveling of everything good America has achieved. And McCain just doesn't get it. Do you think the collective media will ever come clean on their McCain adoration? What are the odds that this information will be widely available? Media will tell the truth if they have a reason to do so, such as the possible loss of their revenue. It's time to go into overdrive on media watch. Hold them accountable. Viewers, listeners, readers and bloggers must force these issues onto the news pages. The public has a right to know about McCain's incompetence and the media who've kept the fact of his incompetence from them.

Newsweek Poll Shows Obama with 15-Point Lead Over McCain

Read about it here.

FISA FACTS: It's Time for Bush Enablers to Face the Music

As this link indicates, the vote giving FISA immunity to telcoms was abetted by a host of complicit Dems. There is no justification for these companies to break the law, much less be retroactively protected for doing so. But that didn't stop them. Our side of the aisle, was caught again, bleating like sheep. Read it and weep.

McCain's Sordid Campaign Finance Behavior Doesn't Stop Him from Attacking Barack Obama (Who's campaign finance actions, unlike John McCain's, walk the walk).



John McCain put his name on McCain-Feingold (campaign finance "reform, which actually allowed limitless soft money into campaigns and reformed campaign finance not one iota")and then gutted key provisions of the bill. McCain-Feingold made it harder for ordinary citizens to donate, harder for political parties to do so, but made it easier for PACs and other go-around groups looking for gaping loopholes to plow through. Any equation of John McCain with campaign finance reform needs an asterisk, adding "wink, wink."

But recently, in addition to having lobbyists running his campaign, he (illegally)used the promise of securing public financing as collateral on a loan for his primary run. Now comes McCain to pretend that he is squeeky clean on finance and that Obama is not. Ironically, Obama is so much less beholden to the lobbying class than McCain, that Obama's campaign sets an example for how to run on donated monies from everyday voters not vested interested interests. Obama's is the true grass roots campaing which defies those cynical pols like McCain who tried to destroy the ability of the grass roots to compete with the moneyed interests on K Street.


Every single time this story has run, the media owed it to the public to tell them the truth about John McCain. But they won't because they are his biggest fans. So, Dems and bloggers will have to do the work for them.

McCain-Feingold "Campaign Finance Reform" is an oxymoron. And McCain is an idiot to think we'll let him get away with his revisionism.

Reason No. 4 To Vote for Barack Obama Over John McCain

Keith Olbermann did a nice summary of the real context of John McCain's tortured positions regarding the war and more. McCain's thinking is muddled, his consistency nonexistent. Here is evident for all the world to see what a huge mistake conveying the reins of government to John McCain would be.

Joe Lieberman would have you believe that no one can question McCain's muddled claims on Iraq because McCain is a war hero (more on the idiotic, manipulative Lieberman contention another day). But nonsense. Taken in context, the instances chronicled here show John McCain unfit to lead NOW. And NOW, not forty years ago, is what we are talking about. Here is the video.

Voting Republican? This One's For You

[Hat tip: MattH at RK.]

Reason No. 3 for Supporting Barack Obama Over McCain: Here's How Important the Supreme Court Is

We are one vote away from decades long takeover by the radical wrong justices subscribing to the Scalia Doctrine, which is essentially "what he (Bush) says."

Today's vote restoring the accused's right to challenge their detentions under post 9-11 Constitution-obliterating legislation is the very least a court could do, but even that would not be possible if John McCain wins in November.

Here's video on the latest ruling:

Reason No. 2 to Vote Obama Over John McCain: McCain Thinks It's Not Important When Troops Come Home from Iraq

Watch the footage here:



The man is losing it. He's confused about who the enemy really is, spaced out about details, and now thinks it is not important when our troops come home. In what universe and in what orbit does John McCain live?

Over 100 Reasons to Support Obama over John McCain



Reason 1. John McCain's health care savings accounts instead of health insurance under-insure most, benefit the well and the rich, punish the sick, and push more Americans over the edge and into health care catastrophe.

Here's what The Center for American Progress had to say about McCain's plan:

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/11/existing-coverage/

Not Even a Pretense of the Real News: E.D. Hill's Pathetic Innuendo



This appalling conflation of a gesture between Barack Obama and Michelle with--are you ready?--"terrorism" is the most pathetic overreach in reporting I've heard thus far in the campaign. And it just goes to show, FAUX News will stop at nothing in its effort to be a mouthpiece for the GOP.

The need for alternate media is more apparent each day.

Media Watch: The SO-Called "Liberal" Media and the Coverage of Candidates

It seems to have escaped the consciousness of "mainstream" news editors and reporters that Barack Obama had some pretty big news this past week. Instead, the night he won the needed delegates for the nomination, we saw John McCain's prime-time attempted take-down of Barack Obama. And then we saw Hillary's non-concession wrongfully asserting the number of votes she received (her math included zero for Obama in Florida and Michigan), despite her shameful Bush-like signing statement that she wouldn't run or campaign in either state. And so it went all week. The Hillary Rodham Clinton show, unfurled through the weekend. As if...

The media kept alive the false claim that Hillary lost because of sexism, despite the fact hat she got at least as many votes because of sexism (it is sexist to support Hillary because she is a woman). The media failed to consider that Barack Obama won because he ran a superior campaign. He raised and managed his money better. And he didn't base his tactics on the worn, tired strategies of the Mark Penns of the world. The media fanned the rift between Obama and Clinton supporters, and generally kept up the sour-grapes story-line. Her supporters will support McCain we were told. As if... If they vote against their own interests, they will have only themselves to blame. But I'm not buying it. had the shoe been on the other foot, despite how angry I became at Hillary's divisive tactics, I would never have voted for McCain, and would have, at minimum, voted for Hillary. I really don't think Hillary supporters are that foolish. But the media wants us to believe otherwise. It's a better story.

Last night NBC's Nightly News with Brain Williams had John McCain appear, as if by magic, right on the screen live, in a real-time interview with Williams, the Nightly News now used for a pro-McCain "conversation." Only softballs were lobbed. Obama got less than a minute, while McCain got an "in depth."

Today, Katie Couric used part of a McCain campaign speech in her CBS Evening News presentation. The clip featured McCain actually lying about Obama's tax/economic plan. No biggie. (She gave a few seconds to Obama's rebuttal.) And so it goes.

Rupert Murdoch, whose support of Hillary Clinton was always suspect, has given new piles of cash in support of Republicans. Did Hillary really think it would be otherwise when she allowed Murdoch to throw a fund raiser for her? And so we have the hint of things to come: Not even the faintest attempt to give Obama his due, not one ounce of fairness in the aftermath of his victory, and the usual McCain-fawning press. As Chris Matthews has said repeatedly, the press are his (McCain's) base. So, what's new?