RantDuJour

Unlike many others, I’ve not fallen in love with Obama.  Whether it is an affectation or not, he is not my ideal choice. With only 2 candidates in the race, it was pretty obvious that Clinton is not a viable candidate. Obama, OTOH, has plenty of assets. His decision to go back on his word and talk to Fox shows that he has some maturity issues. I have no respect at all for Fox. However, they do have an audience. And, their audience is not limited to the 28% dead-enders. Fox “News” is on all over the place. I go into bars (not frequently) and Fox is on. Fox is the only channel shown to the military. So, ignoring Fox, while certain to make one feel better, is not useful until it’s audience deteriorates even more than it has. Of course, Obama saying awhile ago that he wasn’t going to go do Fox was just stupid. Or, as I prefer to say, immature. He is still growing as a candidate/politician. These are just growing pains.

His answers, as far as I was able to tell, were fine and will appeal to the more moderates and non-political junkies. So, his positives should go up. Handling rightwing hack Wallace was good and well done.

On the whole though, he is more conservative than I would like. And, while he makes nice noises every once in awhile, I’ll not be fooling myself that he’s the 2nd coming of John Edwards.

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Really. I’ll throw in my Pennsylvania prediction in a later post. But, for now, I’m building into a rant on how the media coddles McCain. It boggles my mind that the media gave him a standing ovation for some event that he showed up to. It boggles my mind that Stephanopolous and Gibson belittled their audience with such pathetic questioning. But, this you tube video, found at The War Room on Salon.com really hits my buttons.

Again and again, we see the beltway media fall in love with people with money (except, of course, for the Clintons who they despise.)  So, it doesn’t matter that McCain contradicts himself in every sentence. It doesn’t matter that he’s a doddering old man who can barely complete a thought.  It doesn’t matter that he’s not a maverick. It doesn’t matter that his empathy with the working man is an unbelievable joke. It doesn’t matter that McCain is so hypocritical as to take one’s breath away. It doesn’t even matter that he has treated women like trash his entire life. What matters to the beltway group is that he won’t take away their capital gains tax cut (thank you for lying about this, Charlie Gibson.)

If you want a pretty unbiased commentator who will show you how t hese people think, listen to Bob Brinker (Weekend archives from 1-4pm). All Bob cares about is money. He doesn’t care about people or government programs or the American way. His only goal is maximizing his profits. So, anything that gets in the way of that, will get his goat. (Talk about a guy that reminds one of the grandpa Simpson!) He has ripped bush for the war because it costs him money. Lives are not so important. Needless to say, he is merciless to the Democratic candidates. Of course, like most fiscal conservatives, he doesn’t let facts get in his way. Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy in the ’90s and the economy boomed out of this world. But, it’s Reagan with his alleged tax cuts that excites Bob.  This is your beltway media, just they’re a bit more polished about it.

McCain’s $100+M wealth and his tax cut mantra is enough to keep the beltway kids lying about him.

I cannot wait for the primary to be over so that Obama and his running mate can start ripping him. Every day that McCain doesn’t get attacked is a free day for him. Obama gets ripped twice a day. McCain gets basically a free pass. His negatives have to go down. It’s time for him to be buried.

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In some many ways. The way that I want to discuss right now is Guantanamo. It is inconceivable (”that word does mean what I think that it means”) to me that what is being done in Guantanamo can be defended in any way, shape, or form. Even if these guys were guilty of something 5 or so years ago, our treatment of them is illegal, unconstitutional, and immoral. In addition to the ongoing illegal torture or these people, the “trials” are mock. Here is a story that is a clear example of just how wrong it is what we’re doing at Guantanamo. Why is this allowed to happen? How do the people who are driving this behavior live with themselves? The US government and the military brass are criminals. We didn’t need to have direct evidence that the highest levels of our government were involved in torture, but fascinating that after 5 years, we now have that. These people are brutal, unconstitutional thugs. These are the same people who were running the Nazi government back in the ’30s. These are the same people who lynched black people in the 1900s in the south. These are the people who are in charge.
I don’t know for sure what McCain would do if, god forbid, he got into office. I do know that he has done everything that he could to support these people.
I have been disgusted for years. I can’t get more disgusted.

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One of the things that I really appreciate about McCain’s campaign is that, for the most part, he is talking about what he wants to do as President. He slips. He slides. He can’t remember from one day to the next what he was talking about. He’s a dithering old fool. However, he is, for the most part, honest. Contrast McCain’s campaign with bush’s two campaigns. Bush’s plan was to lie repeatedly to the American people. And, since he had the media in his pocket, he really got away with it. Can you imagine what would have happened had Bush been honest in 2000? If he had said that he was going to implement PNAC? He was going to invade Iraq and take it over? He was going to spy on Americans because he doesn’t believe in the constitution. He was going to torture whomever he wants because he is so incredibly stupid as to believe that torture can produce results. He will proactively work on a virulent anti-choice program. He will promote morons to high public office. He will push judges who think that we belong back in the 18th century.

What a different campaign that would be! Almost honesty would have given Gore and Kerry victories in virtual landslides. And, because McCain doesn’t see or doesn’t care that the polls show him on the losing side of every single issue that he believes in, plus his temper will lose even more votes, there’s really no way for Democrats to lose the presidency in November. And, if it’s a smart campaign, i.e. Obama, it should be a landslide.

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“who constantly explodes. ….If McCain is the president, we’ll be in Iraq for 100 years. We’ll be at war with Iran.”

 Who said this? Was it Obama? Clinton? Reid? Pelosi? Edwards?

No.

These quotes are by Pat Buchanan.

Nobody likes McCain. And, why should they?

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http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/04/07/a-trollop-and-a-ct/

The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, which will arrive in bookstores next month, reports an angry exchange between McCain and his wife that happened in full view of aides and reporters during a 1992 campaign stop. An advance copy of the book was obtained by RAW STORY.

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.

 

McCain is bad enough with his wacko rightwing ideas and his foot-in-his-mouth a day speeches and his complete misunderstanding of what is going on in Iraq. But, his temper and his inability to control himself is really another key issue to understanding how bad a candidate, and a human being, John McCain is. Imagine even using that word outside of theoretically discussions, but imagine using to your own spouse, in public!! And, in response to a really, really minor bit of teasing.

What a f’ing idiot.

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Geezuz Christo! “Free Speech” does not mean that a person will not have repercussions if they say something objectionable! How does one come up with that interpretation? “Free Speech” is shorthand for part of the 1st amendment. And, in context, it means that _the government_ can’t take you away for something that you’ve said! It has no bearing whatsoever on commercial companies firing or, in the case of Randi Rhodes, suspending an employee. How f’ing stupid could one be? I hate to take it out on Stephanie Miller, who is indeed a bit vapid, but I’ve had to endure her bitching about Rhodes suspension through mp3s of 3 shows so far. It could have been 4, but I started skipping through the show. Stephanie: RANDI’S SUSPENSION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FREE SPEECH!!! Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

This is a bit pent-up because I was listening to some other moron who was venting about some other idiot who said something stupid and was fired. This other moron was wondering ‘what happened to free speech’. NOTHING HAPPENED TO free speech. Well, nothing related to these decisions by these companies regarding their employees (don’t like the decision, go work somewhere else.)

Bush has taken away free speech by illegally listening in on your phone conversations and then deciding whether to send you to Gimo or not. That’s a free speech issue.

I’ll remember the other person in a bit and then I’ll update this post.

For now, I’ll just say again, getting suspended by Air America has nothing to do with free speech. Nobody is going to imprison Rhodes because of the pretty stupid thing that she said. She just has to deal with the repercussions of her comment by her employer. She can quit the company. She can get another job somewhere else. Nobody is stopping her. That’s free speech.

That’s all. End of Rant. Back to your regularly scheduled program….

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um, so what? I mean, really. So. The. F***. What? Surely, nobody would jump to the conclusion that the Clintons having been poor or, at most, lower middle class, most of their lives (Hillary having more money than Bill), would say that they are suddenly not empathetic to the working poor.
I just heard Milbank say exactly that, that they [the Clintons] cannot “connect with the working poor”. How silly is that?
I don’t even care that they have ‘cashed in’ on their celebrity. I mean, it’s not like Bill sought to be president for the financial windfall that he got after he left office. So, they made a bunch of money? So what?
The only thing that I would care about, and this might come out soon enough as people start digging through the documents, is if either Bill or Hillary received a bunch of money from odious foreign nations. I guess that if they got money from odious companies for some consulting work that’d be a bad thing as well.
However, making money from speeches and book seems fine to me.
I say, good for you guys.
Now, just drop out of the race for president and enjoy your wealth!

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