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For the moment forget Palin, look at how eratic McCain is. Look at the Wall Street buddies he has surrounded himself with and ask yourself has McCain ever done anything for the middle class?
#41 - Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:51 PM EDTBack to the topic......What is the chance the LA times will release the video of Obama's friend, Palestinian activist Khalidi ....now that would be a news event.
#42 - Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:46 PM EDTI've already voted as well for Obama....Just hope all votes count.
#43 - Fri Oct 31, 2008 11:42 PM EDTObama and Biden make a perfect team and will handle anything that comes their way. Look at ALLLLLLLLL of the crap, Mcnasty has thrown at Obama and he's never been anything but a gentleman in return.
#44 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 1:48 AM EDTARE YOU BLIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know quite a few people who will be writing in a vote or choosing one of the other 3 thus virtually wasting their votes. The reality is that is one vote neither of the other candidates will receive. I know who I am NOT voting for which is one of the 5 and I know my reasons for making that decision. It has nothing to do with race or political parties. Common sense, my own common sense and my right to my opinions and worries, prevent me from voting for someone who has ever associated with or who currently HAS as friends, that have set off bombs inside of my country! Or, spent 20 years sitting in a church listening to hatred! It is not a white vs. black thing at all. It is not a she vs. he thing at all. For me it is about who has loved this country their ENTIRE lives and not just to run for a political office. I remember with sadness September 11th. I go there every year to pay my respects and I live 4 hours away from there. I WILL NEVER forget what that day did to me and the worries it created in an otherwise mundane life. I wish everyone would remember but it is easy to forget and therefore easy to vote someone in to run our country who has, in the past, condoned the actions of friends who have done the very same thing, only on a smaller scale.
This country is in bad shape right now. Even my own family has saw some lashback from what's occurring financially. I do not blame Bush for every single thing that's wrong in this country and I don't agree with everything he has done. However, I do not want change so badly that I will vote for someone with so much hidden in their past just to get it.
People want change. Well, you better hope you'll be ready for it when it comes because sometimes we wish for things that in the long run we learn, much too late, we should have never wished for.
This is the saddest election I have ever witnessed. I am very scared for this country, for my kids, my grandkids and yours too.
#45 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 8:11 AM EDTNOW THE SOICALIST NUTJOB IS SAYING IF I DON'T WANT TO PAY EVEN MORE TAXES THAN I ALREADY DO I'M BEING SELFISH? UNPATRIOTIC AND SELFISH. That's intersting. I have given thousands of dollars to charities...the company I work for has created more jobs in the last 10 years than ever before.
This guy is REALLY SCARY.
#46 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 8:43 AM EDTOBAMA IS NOT A SOCIALIST! Get your facts straight! Even the socialists in this country don't think he is a socialist. Do you believe everything McShame says? You and people like you are the ones that are scary! These tactics worked in 2000, and 2004, but they ARE NOT going to work this time. America is too smart! We need real change, not stolen change filled with lies, hate and arrogance! OBAMA!!!!
obama will be a job killer
#47 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 8:44 AM EDTI can hear it already "It is necessary for everyone's taxes to go up because I didn't know the economy was THIS bad"...but he'll say it so smoothly it'll go down like kool aid...
Just like he never heard the anti-American, anti-white hate mongering coming out of Jeremiah Wright.
Just like he didn't know Ayers was an unrepentant terrorist.
This guy is nuts.
#48 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 8:53 AM EDThe won't be able to get the tax money he needs for all his charity work when everyone loses their jobs.
#49 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 8:57 AM EDTLISA......Finally, someone on this board that is not brain-washed. I'm tired of trying to explain and reason with these people here. Most of them are misinformed and downright hostile toward ANYTHING that is not entirely PRO-OBAMA. It's incredible, STUCK ON STUPID!
You are absolutely correct that is he is elected, the blame game will start in earnest! The programs Obama promised will get the axe or the taxes will go thru the roof....THERE IS NO OTHER WAY!
VOTE SMART
Two Words
SARAH PALIN --------- VOTE SMART???????
Joe Biden is, in McCain's words "the gift that keeps giving".
And yes, VOTE SMART!
VOTE SMART! VOTE OBAMA! To all the brainwashed McCain supporters...OPEN your eyes, OPEN your ears and use some common sense! And please, please stop watching Fox! You are really scaring my children!
Mamm,
Your children should be scared....and so should you. As for the media, you have to be an idiot not to realize that it leans left. Not very fair if you ask me.....how about you Christine, is that fair?
NOBAMA for me.....I'm voting SMART and helping others to understand why.
1st time voter, researching facts,how can Obama have 3 different birth hospitals? Why is a Kenya certificate of birth for Obama not in the news, where was he actually born? Who is responsible for speaking the truth on these questionable birthplaces? Why are the rules to be a president of the United States of America not enforced? I need to know the truth,I am worried about our future.
#50 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 9:50 AM EDT1st time voter, researching facts,how can Obama have 3 different birth hospitals? Why is a Kenya certificate of birth for Obama not in the news, where was he actually born? Who is responsible for speaking the truth on these questionable birthplaces? Why are the rules to be a president of the United States of America not enforced? I need to know the truth,I am worried about our future.
#51 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 9:52 AM EDTHello andre-677946
I too believe that Ron Paul is a great person and the best choice, but why waste your vote like that! What do you hope to accomplish by writing his name in? I'm just curious. My vote will be for Obama. I don't know, I just hate to see a vote wasted like that. Please reconsider and vote for Obama.
#52 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 11:45 AM EDTObama scares the hell out of me. ANYONE who would listen to an anti-American, anti-white, hate mongering preacher like Jeremiah Wright for over 20 years scares the hell out of me. then add in the terrorist friends and the "spread the wealth" talk and the "I will not wear that pin" talk and the "For the first time in my adult life I'm proud of my country" talk and Farrakhan, and Rezco, and the missing birth certificate, and no experience and ZERO accomplishments....
#53 - Sat Nov 1, 2008 6:58 PM EDTLisa....I am with you100%, our country depends on it. Let's pray that America picks the "right" one. No facts from Obama just ever-changing numbers and rhetoric. A very shakey background with terrorist ties, no experience, and free passes from the media on tough questions. A smooth talker no doubt, but perhaps he should be re-vetted in 4 years.
They should stop drinking the koolaid before it's too late.
NOBAMA
Oh... for a second there, Lisa, I thought you were going to say anyone who would listen to Rush Limbaugh, Hannity and Ann Coulter's hate mongering for years scare the hell out of me...
Hate mongering goes both ways... it's just one kind is called the American Way, and people are lying to themselves about what it really is. One is not worse than the other.
Hate is Anti-American
I think you are getting your candidates mixed up...hate mongering is something McCain prides himself on. You people are so uneducated on the issues. I don't know if you missed it but McCain didn't even wear a flag pin to the 9-11 site. Obama had his pin on. I also didn't see a pin on McCain during the debates. What's up with that? Obama had his pin on. STOPTHINKVOTE.com Wake up people!
You won't report it anyway. Where's the story on Obama booting 3 reporters off his plane because their papers endorsed McCain, then adding Ebony, Jet, Chicago Times & Tribune?
#54 - Sun Nov 2, 2008 9:26 AM ESTIf anyone actually believes that Obama didn't know his aunt was an illegal alien then they win the bobo award. Heaven help the USA! He knew what he was doing when he funded Acorn with my tax dollars and he knew well that this was his own promotional organization. He knew damn well what Reverend Wright was ranting about; he sat and listened to it for 20 years. He knew about Ayers and his hatred of America. Why would sane freedom loving American vote for this man. Currently he is preaching Marxism in America, buying votes with cheap promises, Jimmy Buffet concerts, and free water and donuts at the polls. Wake up America. We have fought communism and maintained a free country with the blood of our brave men and women and you are ready to welcome this ideology to our shores. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. "(George Santayana) If you vote for him remember socialism and communism do not work, they have never worked. Either you can't remember or you are to uneducated too know. John McCain has proven himself a hero and the change he will work for will be for all Americans; the change Obama wants is to back himself a demigod and destroy our freedom. He has proven it. This man has done nothing since being in office except self promote. He talks about selfishness, he is selfishness, and narcissistic to boot. America beware.
#55 - Sun Nov 2, 2008 10:27 AM EST"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Quote by Albert Einstein. Vote for Obama to end the insanity! McCain/Bush economics have not worked! How many times do you bang your head against the wall, before you say enough is enough! It's time for new ideas! Obama/Biden
I feel sorry for you JR! You are a scared, uninformed voter! If you really had taken the time to find out the facts on Obama, the true facts, and not the smears stated by the McCain campaign, you would not be feeling the way you do. Here are some questionable McCain ties, which obviously you left out of your research.(stopthinkvote.com)
A WWII bombadier, Hensley returned to the United States with an injury sustained while flying over Europe. While recovering, he met Margueritte Smith and left his wife and two-year old daughter for Smith whom he married in 1945. That same year, he and his brother Eugene began working for Kemper Marley, owner of United Sales Company in Phoenix and United Distributors in Tucson, and purported mafia boss. In a 1953 New Mexico State Police report, Kemper Marley, "is reputed to be the financial backer for the bookies" and "owned a wire service formerly operated in connection with bookmaking of the Al Capone gang." And though never charged, Marley is suspected of ordering the car bomb assassination of journalist Ken Bolles in 1976. In 1948, Jim and Eugene Hensley were indicted for falsifying liquor records to conceal illegal distribution of whiskey against post-war rationing regulations. Both men were convicted in U.S. District Court on federal charges of conspiracy and Jim Hensley was also convicted on seven counts of filing false liquor records. In 1953 Jim Hensley and Kemper Marley were again charged with falsifying liquor records. This time Jim was defended by future Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. Both men were acquitted. In spite of being a convicted felon, Jim Hensley was somehow granted a state liquor license in 1955 (and later a federal liquor license) to found a beer distributorship. Hensley later switched to distributing exclusively Anheuser-Busch beer, and by 1980 Hensley & Co. Distributors and Hensley & Co. Wholesale had made Jim Hensley a multi-millionaire. Read more about McCain and Hensley in the article by John Doughtery and Amy Silverman.
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Hensley was Cindy McCain's father, John McCain worked for Hensley as Vice President of Public Relations for Hensley & Co. when he and Cindy first married, and Hensley used his money and influence to launch John McCain's political career.
Liddy served four and a half years in prison in connection with his conviction for his role as mastermind of the Watergate break-in and the break-in at the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Liddy has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in "if necessary"; plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a "gangland figure" to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap "leftist guerillas" at the 1972 Republican National Convention — a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis. (The murder, firebombing, and kidnapping plots were never carried out; the break-ins were.) During the 1990s, Liddy reportedly instructed his radio audience on multiple occasions on how to shoot Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents — telling listeners, "Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests" — and also reportedly said he had named his shooting targets after Bill and Hillary Clinton. Liddy has donated $5,000 to McCain's campaigns since 1998, including $1,000 in February 2008. In addition, McCain has appeared on Liddy's radio show during the presidential campaign, including as recently as May. An online video labeled John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07 includes an audio discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as an "old friend." During the segment, McCain praised Liddy's "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great," said he was "proud" of Liddy, and said that "it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program." Liddy called for the murder of federal agents, served time in jail, plotted murder - and after that, John McCain applauded him and took his money
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: In 1998 Liddy hosted a campaign fundraiser for McCain and McCain has accepted campaign donations from Liddy over the last a decade, most recently in February 2008. McCain has appeared as a guest on Liddy's radio show multiple times, most recently in November 2007 during the presidential campign when Liddy greeted McCain as "an old friend." During the interview, Mccain stated he was
Charles H. Keating, Jr., is the former chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. The "Keating Five" were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. McCain and four other senators were accused of improperly aiding Keating., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). McCain received $112,000 by 1987 from Keating and Keating's relatives and employees to McCain's Senate campaign, more than any of the other Senators. In addition to campaign contributions, McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. It was also found that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental Corporation (parent of Lincoln) jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain also did not pay Keating for some of the trips until years after they were taken, after he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. The Lincoln Savings and Loan's collapse cost taxpayers $3.4 billion After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee criticized McCain for "questionable conduct," and did not mete harsher punishment because of McCain's future presidential ambitions.
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: John McCain was a close personal friend of Charles Keating, McCain and his family vacationed at Keating's Bahamas mansion, Cindy McCain had investments with Keating.
In late August, 2006, McCain celebrated his 70th birthday aboard a yacht, the Celine Ashley, rented by Raffaello Follieri and his then-movie star girlfriend Anne Hathaway. Follieri, who posed as Vatican chief financial officer in order to win friends and investments, pleaded guilty in a Manhattan district court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. As part of the plea, Follieri admitted to misappropriating at least $2.4 million of investor money and redirecting it to foreign personal bank accounts that were disguised as business accounts.
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: McCain spent his 70th birthday aboard Follieri's yacht in August 2006.
Renzi, Arizona Congressman 2002-2008, is currently under indictment for conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, concealment of money laundering, transactions with criminally derived funds, extortion, insurance fraud and criminal forfeiture. In robocalls to assist Renzi in his re-election bid in October 2006, McCain stated, "Rick has represented the first district of Arizona with tenacity, honesty and integrity beyond reproach." The indictment also names business associate James Sandlin, and Maryland attorney Andrew Beardall. The indictment also refers to two companies involved in the transactions, Company A and Investment Group B. Prosecutors allege Renzi criminally concealed information about land deals to both Company A and Investment Group B, and used his seat on the House Natural Resources Committee to try to force their hand. The indictment says Renzi was trying to help his business associate, Sandlin, finish paying off an $800,000 loan Sandlin owed to Renzi. Renzi was in financial straits and needed the money and also states Renzi also never claimed the $733,000 in his 2006 House financial disclosure statements.
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Until February 2008, Renzi was co-chair of McCain's Arizona 2008 presidential campaign, member of McCain's 2008 National Leadership Team, and a personal friend. In October 2006, McCain stated, "Rick has represented the first district of Arizona with tenacity, honesty and integrity beyond reproach."
Davis is currently John McCain's campaign manager in his bid for the U.S. presidency. Davis' lobbying firm — Davis Manafort — received payments of $15,000 a month between 2006 and August 2008 from Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant that was recently placed under federal conservatorship. As the mortgage crisis has escalated, almost any association with Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae has become politically toxic. But the payments to Davis's firm, Davis Manafort, are especially problematic because he requested the consulting retainer in 2006 — and then did barely any work for the fees, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement who asked not to be identified discussing Freddie Mac business. Aside from attending a few breakfasts and a political-action-committee meeting with Democratic strategist Paul Begala (another Freddie consultant), Davis did "zero" for the housing firm, one of the sources said. Freddie Mac also had no dealings with the lobbying firm beyond paying monthly invoices — but it agreed to the arrangement because of Davis's close relationship with McCain, the source said, which led top executives to conclude "you couldn't say no." Freddie Mac's roughly $500,000 in payments to Davis & Manafort began immediately after Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in late 2005 disbanded an advocacy coalition that they had set up and hired Mr. Davis to run. From 2000 to the end of 2005, Davis received nearly $2 million as president of the coalition, the Homeownership Alliance, which the companies created to help them oppose new regulations and protect their status as federally chartered companies with implicit government backing. That status let them borrow cheaply, helping to fuel rapid growth but also their increased purchases of the risky mortgage securities that were their downfall.
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Davis is currently John McCain's presidential campaign director, and McCain told Newsweek in 2007 "Rick is a friend, and I trust him."
Currently a chief strategist and senior adviser for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, in June 2008, Charlie Black stated in an interview with Fortune magazine that another terrorist attack on the United States would "Certainly it would be a big advantage to him." Black is a registered as a lobbyist and is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates. His clients have included right-wing guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi of Angola and such dictators as Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, as well as Nigerian General Ibrahim Babangida, Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the countries of Kenya and Equatorial Guinea, among others. As of February 2008, Black said he is still being paid by his firm and does work for clients in his "spare time," recusing himself from lobbying McCain: "I not only do not lobby him [McCain], but if an issue comes up that I have a client on, I will tell him that and stay out of the discussion." Though McCain often portrays himself as an anti-lobbyist politician, his senior advisor has earned more than $57 million dollars since 1998 as a Washington lobbyist. Some of his other clients include: Alcoa - $100,000; Amerada Hess Corp. - $80,000; American Financial Group - $80,000; Asoex Chilean Exporters Assn. - $40,000; AT&T - $1,185,000; AT&T Inc - $720,000; Bristol-Myers Squibb - $690,000; ChevronTexaco - $140,000; Chilean Salmon Farmers Assn. - $100,000; Colombian Textile & Apparel Industry - $80,000; Comasa, de la Optica - $80,000; Contran Corp. - $505,000; Freddie Mac - $820,000; Glaxo Wellcome Inc - $40,000; GlaxoSmithKline - $590,000; Global Strategies Group - $180,000; Honeywell International - $220,000; Importers Service Corp. - $540,000; International Franchise Assn. - $290,000; JP Morgan & Co - $140,000; JP Morgan Chase & Co - $724,000; Lockheed Martin - $487,500; Mortgage Bankers Assn. of America - $140,000; National Assn. of Mortgage Brokers - $60,000; National Foreign Trade Council - $40,000; Occidental Petroleum - $1,650,000; Occidental Petroleum - $1,650,000; Philip Morris - $1,292,500; Tobacco Quota Warehouse Alliance - $120,000; Yukos Oil - $155,000;
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Charles Black is McCain's current chief strategist and a senior advisor to his 2008 presidential campaign. Black said he is still being paid by his firm and does work for clients in his "spare time".
Beginning in 1981, Richard Quinn became the Executive Editor in Chief of the racist Southern Partisan Quarterly Review and as was still listed as the owner of the magazine as recently as 2005. Like McCain did originally, Quinn opposed the Martin Luther King holiday, writing it "should have been rejected because its purpose is vitriolic and profane." In 2000, People For American Way called on McCain to fire Quinn, listing his disparaging of Nelson Mandela as a "terrorist," his promotion of David Duke ("What better way to reject politics as usual than to elect a maverick like David Duke?") and his selling of t-shirts praising Abraham Lincoln's assassination. McCain wouldn't fire him. He rejected the guilt-by-association charge, defending the man and disavowing the publication.
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: The that McCain paid Quinn's firms $184,000. An article that was posted on McCain's website in 2008 — that is no longer available — described Quinn as "a senior political consultant to the McCain campaign."
In a 2006 address, Hagee stated, "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West... a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ." Over the years, Hagee the right-wing pastor has waged "an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church" by "calling it 'The Great Whore,' an 'apostate church,' the 'anti-Christ,' and a 'false cult system.'" During an interview with National Public Radio, Hagee also blamed Hurricane Katrina on gays, saying the devastating storm "was, in fact, the judgment of God against ... New Orleans." The city, he continued, "had a level of sin that was offensive to God" because "there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came."
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Despite McCain's statement in 2000 that "Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right," McCain spent more than a year actively seeking Hagee's endorsement. In February 2008, McCain stated, "I'm very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement today." Only after public outcry did McCain repudiate Hagee.
Parsley has stated that "Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world." Parsley has further stated that "The fact is that America was founded — I'm gonna stagger you right now — America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed." He also said that Mohammed received revelations from demon spirits.
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: McCain actively sought Parsley's support to get evangelical votes. In February 2008, McCain stated, "I'm truly honored today to have one of one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide — Pastor Rod Parsley." . Again, after public outrage over Parsley, McCain was forced to repudiate him.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fierce states' rights group whose primary goal is for the state of Alaska to secede from the United States. Sarah Palin herself was never a member of the party, according to state officials. Founded in 1973 by Joe Vogler, Vogler stated, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." "Keep up the good work," Sarah Palin for their 2008 convention, telling them to "keep up the good work."
Andrew K. McCain, sat on the boards of Silver State Bank and of its parent, Silver State Bancorp, both in Nevada, but resigned in July citing "personal reasons," corporate filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. Andrew McCain also was a member of the bank's audit committee, responsible for oversight of the company's accounting. Regulators on Friday, September 5, shut down Silver State Bank, saying the Nevada bank failed because of losses on soured loans, mainly in commercial real estate and land development.
HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Andrew McCain is John McCain's son from his first marriage to Carol Shepp, the wife John McCain cheated on and left behind for Cindy Hensley.
Christine,
Get real..... You need to get off the koolaid girl. Stop watching the left media for 5 minutes and wake up. Let's see some facts to back up your statments because they are NOT RIGHT......typical of comments here....
Christine is correct. Go to the Independent Station if you can, and see the bio on both men. McCain's first wife even speaks kindly of him. But what bothers me is that the Documentary stated McCain applied for a marriage license before he actually divorce his first wife, although they had been separated for a number of years, the facts remains the same..Adultery.
I agree Concern - and about the t.v.stations - I was turning through FOX news tonight and they actually had a headline on there that read, "Breaking News - Obama bankrupts coal plants" Quickly followed by a time of discussion by Hannity and Anne Coulter. I couldn't believe it - I had just mentioned their names earlier. And what's with the Fox fake news headlines? Why don't they choose to join reality? They are getting as funny as John Stewart and Stephen Colbert... just a lot less factual.
People have pretty much decided and voted. Nothing is gonna change it. Besides, all the negatives have come from the republicans and people have tuned that garbage out.
#56 - Sun Nov 2, 2008 12:53 PM ESTThose who live in glass houses, should not throw stones...John McCain's Questionable Ties continued: Realchange.org
Adultery
For a guy campaigning on family values, John McCain has broken up a lot of marriages. When he met his first wife (a swimsuit model), she was married to naval academy classmate of his. After he broke that marriage up, she stuck by him loyally as he went off to war and was a prisoner for 5 and a half years. When he returned to America, though, he found out that she had been in a car wreck and wasn't as pretty. So he had a series of affairs, by his own admission, and dumped his wife and adopted family for a younger, very rich blond (now Cindy McCain.) Cindy, the daughter of a wealthy Budweiser beer distributor, was addicted to prescription narcotics and even stole hard drugs from a medical charity that she ran. In February, 2008, the New York Times ran a big article about the unusually close relationship between John McCain and a young telecommunications lobbyist named Vicki Iseman (who looks uncannily like Cindy McCain did when SHE was 25). They became so close that his staff, convinced they were having an affair, confronted both McCain and Iseman, telling them to back off. Now, a lot of people have criticized the Times for hinting without actually saying that McCain had sexual relations with that woman. But really, it doesn't matter. It's a matter of record that he accepted money and favors from her, spent a lot of time for her, and did favors for her clients. Among other things, McCain wrote two letters -- from a draft provided by Vicki Iseman -- to the head of the Federal Communications Commission -- which was way out of line, since McCain headed the Senate Commmerce Committee, which controls the FCC. McCain's pressure was so outrageous that, even though McCain was in charge of funding his commission, the FCC commissioner wrote a letter back rebuking him for his interference, at the height of McCain's "ethics in government" campaign.
So, was McCain sleeping with her, hoping to sleep with her, or being subconsciously manipulated by a cute young woman? It doesn't really matter. He was being led by his groin into ethical violations. Let's face it, he was 64 at the time and is 72 now. Whether he is still cheating or not, he seems to be led by his dick; witness the videos of McCain checking out Sarah Palin's butt during the speech where he introduced her.
Gambling at the $15 dollar minimum-bet tables if not higher (in some cases, he has been seen betting $100 chips). This has been confirmed by his top campaign aides over the years (Mark Salter and John Weaver). His longtime friend Wes Gullet says they would play in Vegas for 14 hours at a time, (10am to midnight), and that McCain is superstitious, blowing on the dice and such. It's not hard to see his love of gambling in his political choices, such as Sarah Palin for VP. All very exciting when he's gambling his own money or his campaign; but if America has a showdown with Russia over some neighboring country, that might be a bit less charming. And McCain's entire presidential campaign has been a series of high-risk, high-stakes gambles, which is not a good sign for what his presidency would be like.
Founding Member of the Keating 5 Back in the old days, defendants in famous trials got numbers -- the Chicago Eight, the Gang of Four, the Dave Clark Five, the Daytona 500. McCain was one of the "Keating Five," congressmen investigated on ethics charges for strenuously helping convicted racketeer Charles Keating after he gave them large campaign contributions and vacation trips.
Charles Keating was convicted of racketeering and fraud in both state and federal court after his Lincoln Savings & Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $3.4 billion. His convictions were overturned on technicalities; for example, the federal conviction was overturned because jurors had heard about his state conviction, and his state charges because Judge Lance Ito (yes, that judge) screwed up jury instructions. Neither court cleared him, and he faces new trials in both courts.)
McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating after Keating gave McCain at least $112,00 in contributions. In the mid-1980s, McCain made at least 9 trips on Keating's airplanes, and 3 of those were to Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas. McCain's wife and father-in-law also were the largest investors (at $350,000) in a Keating shopping center; the Phoenix New Times called it a "sweetheart deal."
McCain was not convicted of any crimes, though the Senate concluded that he exercised "poor judgment." (Furthermore, he got off on some charges by a technicality -- that he was still in the House when he took those vacation trips, and so the Senate couldn't prosecute him. The House concluded that THEY couldn't prosecute him because he had moved to the Senate.)
That New Time Religion John McCain grew up Episcopalian. He went to an Episcopalian high school. For at least 15 years, he has been listed as an Episcopalian in authoritative directories such as the Almanac of American Politics and Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America 2008. He told a reporter from McClatchy News Service in June 2007 that he was an Episcopalian.
Suddenly, in September 2007, he's campaigning in South Carolina, the heavily Baptist state where George W. Bush barely managed to stop McCain's presidential campaign 8 years ago. And guess what? McCain tells a reporter "By the way, I'm not Episcopalian. I'm Baptist."
When pressed, he said he's attended the North Phoenix Baptist Church in Arizona for more than 15 years, though he has never been baptized in that church. Now see, that's exactly the problem. Baptism is kind of a big thing in the Baptist Church. (That's how they got the name.) No baptism, not Baptist.
Anyway, details aside, this is one very clear indication of how McCain has changed. Now, he's just another hungry politician, happy to pander if it helps him win. Which eliminates the very reason people were excited about him in 2000 -- his honesty.
Mafia Ties Arizona (which borders Nevada) has long had a serious presence. In the 1970s, a reporter was assassinated for looking into them. In 1995, McCain sent birthday regards, and regrets for not attending, to Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonano, the head of the New York Bonano crime family, who had retired to Arizona. Another politician to send regrets was Governor Fife Symington, who has since been kicked out of office and convicted of 7 felonies relating to fraud and extortion.
Junkie Wife Cindy McCain, McCain's frighteningly skinny second wife, is quite a presence in his campaign. She is out giving speeches and attacking Barack Obama on ethical grounds. But her only record is far from clean, not even counting the fact that she seduced McCain when he was a married father of four. Cindy and her father -- who have hundreds of millions of dollar from her dad's Budweiser distributorship -- invested in one of convicted banker Charles Keatings projects, even as her husband was helping him fight off bank regulators in the days before Keatings savings and loan went bankrupt. Cindy has refused to release her tax returns, making it impossible to tell what other conflicts of interest she may be hiding.
But most dramatically, Cindy was a serious narcotics addict who created a charity for sick children (American Voluntary Medical Team or AVMT), then used it to get fraudulent prescriptions for Vicodin and Percocet. And a whistleblower from her staff says that John McCain and his senate staffers helped Cindy smuggle her ill-gotten narcotics through customs.
Tom Gosinski was fired from AVMT after expressing concerns about her addiction and habit of writing prescriptions in other people's names to get drugs. He says that John McCain himself got her a diplomatic passport, which prevents customs officials from searching her bags, and his aides Mark Salter and Torie Clarke coordinated with him (Gosinski) on Cindy's logistics for his trips abroad. (Mark Salter is still one of McCain's top aides.) In 1993, Gosinski told the Drug Enforcement Agency that Cindy wrote false prescriptions in his name that year. McCain claims he didn't know Cindy was an addict when he got her a diplomatic passport, but that's hard to believe since she had a stretch in rehab back in 1991. Cindy McCain faced 20 years in prison for obtaining "a controlled substance by misrepresenting, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge." With a wealthy father, high-priced lawyer and Senator husband, she got the lightest possible punishment -- charges were dropped in return for her entering rehab. Any regular, much less poor person who had written fraudulent prescriptions, stolen narcotics from a charity and smuggled them around the world would have received several years in prison. Her doctor, for one, lost his license and never practiced again.
Ironically, this incident was a rare care where John McCain was NOT able to control how the press reported about him. (While his supporters are now claiming the media is biased against McCain, he has been the biggest media favorite of any candidate in either party for 20 years.) In the Gosinski case, he was fired in January of 1993, and he thought it was because he raised the issue of addiction. He went to the DEA first, then a year later filed suit for wrongful firing. The McCains went to the police charging that Gosinski was blackmailing them, because he offered to settle for $250,000. This doesn't really make sense, because a blackmailer doesn't go public or go to the police -- that's what you try to get money for NOT doing. But the heavy-handed effort launched investigations which put the whole business in the public record, which allowed the media to get hold of it.
#57 - Sun Nov 2, 2008 1:12 PM ESTAll the republican rants and raves, and joe the plumer, who has publicity agent (gee i wonder who would do that for him) and the gun toting wild acting Pailan idiot, acts more like a terrorist than a vice pres. elect, no wonder so many real rebpublicans are turning to support Obama, right now they are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him, but he stands up to it all, even tempered, with steel in his spine. Poor old McCain was rambling after 40 min.'s into the debates, and when asked on a interview he was telling the news caster who the chief of staffs were that supported him, he listed 4 of the five, then went back over the list again, and still couldn't remember who the 5th 1 was, and finally said "that other guy" ,It reminds me of my dad when he was in the first stages of dementia. We need a huge house cleaning and change from w/ in, and that can only come w/ Obama!!! Please vote Obama 08
#58 - Sun Nov 2, 2008 1:30 PM ESTIf a major event happened against Obama you wouldn't report it. Where's your story on the 3 reporters being kicked off his plane because their newspapers endorsed McCain? And that he added the Chicago Tribune, Sun Times, Jet and Ebony magazines? Freedom of the (non-objective) press, I guess.
#59 - Sun Nov 2, 2008 6:29 PM ESTBecause those reporters making up lies and spreading filth. And it's Obama's plane and his campaign which is running smoothly - unlike McCain - he wouldn't let anyone with any sense be in his campaign which is limping badly and fighting within. It might be good if McCain had some discernment - he sure didn't when it came to Palin.
I told my wife she cannot go to SlenderLife until after Nov 4... She cannot walk, swim, workout, run or do anything that will burn calories until after Nov 4 ....because ........ I WANT THE FAT LADY TO SING OUT AND SING LOUD SING PROUD FOR PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA!!!
#60 - Mon Nov 3, 2008 9:14 AM ESTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
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If something does occur, I'm confident Obama will handle it better than McCain.