Democratic Socialists

Mccain on Womens Rights

Mark — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:59:49 EDT

Ladies and gentlemen, if we were to look at Mccains record on womens rights, it would remind us of Chinas record on human rights.

It is abominable. John Mccain has spent over 25 years working against womens rights. He voted against womens healthcare 125 times. He plans to overturn Roe VS Wade and outlaw abortion.

I admit im no fan of abortion myself, but who am i to think that i know better than a woman or her doctor about an issue that doesnt affect me AT ALL!? I wouldnt force my views on the American people, and neither should John Mccain!!!

Because his views are not right for the american people! or the women of america!!!

Moreover, who is John Mccain to decide? Or his judges in black robes?

What do they know? Asking a judge on advice about abortion is like asking a Soccer player to perform surgery! The two just dont go together!

Then theres also Mccains Birth Control and Viagra Moments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6IlGXhCUHo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkQDbfF4RqA

Ladies, is THIS the guy you want in the Oval Office making decisions about YOUR rights that he doesnt even KNOW ABOUT?

Ladies, vote for Barack Obama, he supports womens healthcare, and a womans right to choose.

Men everywhere, do the right thing, be a real man, stand up for women and vote for Barack Obama.

Do it for your wives, sweethearts, daughters, sisters, nieces, cousins, aunts, mothers, grandmothers, and all your female friends.

Help us STOP John Mccain!

DO THE RIGHT THING MEN!!!

Calling All Americans

Mark — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:59:52 EDT

Fellow Americans, the saying is true.

ITS TIME FOR CHANGE.

Mccain and Palin offer nothing but the same, albeit with minor changes. But the message they send is loud and clear!

They want to maintain the status quo and give us 4 more, and even, founding fathers help us, 8 more years of Bushonomics!

I have friends that are uninsured, because they just cant afford it. I have friends that have to put their head down and keep going when theyre sick or hurt because they cant go and be treated.

And ladies and gentlemen, there are 47 MILLION more uninsured Americans!! 47 MILLION!!! 18 MILLION women! 9 MILLION CHILDREN!!!

CHILDREN!!! UNINSURED and UNPROTECTED!!!

This is NOT acceptable! What has happened to America!?

We know the answer! BUSH AND MCCAIN!!!

They have worked against progress at every turn and led us to ruin!

Now Mccain wants to take over and lead us further down the path to ruin!!

Enough is enough!!

This November we will face a choice... But when you compare Mccains record to Obamas, there is no choice! it is clear and undeniable!!

We must elect Barack Obama president, and put an end to this needless suffering of 47 million Americans! We must protect womens rights, as Mccain has voted against them for nearly 30 years! We must STOP the oil madness and pave the way to the future with investment in alternative energy! We must withdraw from Iraq, an unauthorized, mismanaged drain on our resources and most importantly our FINEST, BRAVEST and BRIGHTEST! Who even now fight, bleed and DIE for a war that is based on a LIE!!!

We MUST make changes! We MUST elect Barack Obama not only for ourselves, but for our CHILDREN, and for WOMEN!!!

Women will suffer with Mccain as president!! His record on womens rights reminds me of Chinas record on human rights!!

We must stop funding aggression and start funding our future!

Men EVERYWHERE, vote for Barack Obama! Not only for yourselves, but for your children! Your daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, friends, aunts, nieces, cousins!

VOTE FOR REAL CHANGE!!

Stand together, unite for change, spread the word and elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States!

http://www.democrats.org/page/group/STOP

Dumb and Dumber: Bush/Cheney '04 and McCain/Palin '08

Mark C. Eades — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:07:15 EDT

Immediately following George W. Bush's re-election victory in 2004, Britain's Daily Mirror expressed the world's shock with the cover you see at right. "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" the headline screamed in exasperation, the subheadings calling the news an "election disaster" and a "no brainer" (as in "no brain"). "Doh...!" Homer Simpson seems to say in a banner at the top of the front page, "...4 more years of Dubya!" (click here or image at right to see larger view).

I wonder how dumb the world will think we are if 51% of us in 2008 vote to elect John McCain and Sarah Palin. My guess: Pretty gosh-darn dumb. Dumb as a fencepost. Thicker than two short planks. Just plain stupid. Could it possibly get any dumber than that?

Last week, the Democratic National Convention delivered us a stellar pair of candidates for the office of President and Vice-President of the United States: Barack Obama, a visionary leader who, seemingly out of nowhere, has answered the need to remove Republicans from power with an all-out mass movement for change; and Joe Biden, who complements Obama's vision and ability to inspire with a tough, pragmatic style and a wealth of national and international experience. Should any tragedy or incapacity befall President Obama while in office, Vice-President Biden would be more than ready to step in and fulfill the duties of the president.

This week, the Republican National Convention rolled out a very different package to voters: a bitter and befuddled old war-horse at the top of the ticket, and in the second slot a snarky religious zealot with zero experience in national or international affairs. Following a Democratic National Convention strong on style as well as substance - offering not only an inspiring slate of speakers but also a detailed plan for the economy, health care, energy independence, and foreign policy - the Republicans gave us four nights of smug, self-righteous posturing and snarling rage against "liberals." No plan for the economy or for anything else, just a lot of red meat for the base, a lot of flag-waving, and a lot of lies.

In any other modern democracy the outcome of such a contest would be a foregone conclusion, and the smart, progressive side would have little if any reason to fear. Only in America, for some strange reason I have yet to fully untangle, does the Dumb Ticket actually have a chance of winning. After all, who else in the world would have re-elected Bush/Cheney in 2004? Nobody, that's who.

Make no mistake: the editors at the Daily Mirror were not saying that all Americans are dumb, only those who voted for Bush despite overwhelming evidence that his administration was a disaster of global proportions. Almost as many Americans voted for Kerry/Edwards as for Bush/Cheney in 2004, but as we know, almost doesn't pay the rent or put intelligence in the White House.

After eight years of dumb, Americans have no excuse this year for doing something even dumber than what 51% of us did in 2004. Let's try and get it right this time.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

Sarah Palin's Religious Extremism: Says Iraq War is a "Task from God"

Mark C. Eades — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:40:42 EDT

Does America really need a religious extremist a heartbeat away from the Oval Office? If your answer is Yes, then vote for Sarah Palin.

Since Palin's pick by John McCain as Republican vice-presidential running mate, video has surfaced of a speech given by Palin in June at her hometown church, Wasilla Assembly of God. The video, first reported by the HuffingtonPost, is from an address by Palin to the graduating class of commission students at the Wasilla church. Describing her family, Palin tells students about her oldest son, 19-year-old Track, set to be deployed to Iraq with the U.S. Army. Then, she urges students to pray "that our leaders... are sending [soldiers] out on a task that is from God." Palin added, "That's what we have to make sure that we are praying for: that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan" (see also Washington Post, UPI).

In the same speech, Palin also referred to God's role in her work as governor, telling the congregation that construction of a 1700-mile natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Alberta, Canada, is also part of God's plan: "I can do my part in working really, really hard to get a natural gas pipeline, about a $30 billion project that's going to create a lot of jobs for Alaska. … [but] I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that...." Palin said, "...I can do my job there in developing our natural resources, in doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded. But really that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's hearts aren't right with God."

A review of sermons by Ed Kalnins, senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God since 1999, offers a deeper and yet more disturbing glimpse into Palin's longtime spiritual home. In his sermons, Pastor Kalnins has preached that critics of President Bush will be condemned to hell and questioned whether people who voted for John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted into heaven. During the 2004 election season, he said of Kerry to his congregation: "I'm not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I'm sorry." Kalnins added: "If every Christian will vote righteously, it would be a landslide every time." In 2005, Kalnins bristled at the treatment President Bush was receiving over the federal government's handling of Hurricane Katrina. "I hate criticisms towards the President," Kalnins said, "because it's like criticisms towards the pastor -- it's almost like, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That's what it'll get you." Kalnins has also preached that the 9/11 attacks and the war in Iraq are part of a "world war" over the Christian faith, one in which Jesus Christ had called upon believers to be willing to sacrifice their lives; and telling his flock that Jesus himself operated in a "war mode."

What you see in a terrorist -- that's called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say "war mode." Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he's like the good shepherd, he's loving all the time and he's kind all the time. Oh yes he is -- but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.

As for Sarah Palin, Kalnins has asserted that his former congregant's election as governor was the result of a "prophetic call" by another Wasilla pastor who prayed for her victory. "[He made] a prophetic declaration and then unfolds the kingdom of God, you know." Kalnins also preaches repeatedly about the "end times" or "last days," declaring at his appearance with Palin in June: "I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them."

Palin's own history with Wasilla Assembly of God is a long one: She was baptized there at the age of 12 and attended the church for most of her adult life. When Palin was inaugurated as governor, the founding pastor of the church delivered the invocation. In 2002, Palin switched her membership to a nondenominational church, but she continues to worship at a related Assembly of God church in Juneau. Meanwhile, according to a statement from Pastor Kalnins' office, Palin "has maintained a friendship with Wasilla Assembly of God and has attended various conferences and special meetings here."

I wonder if our mass media will subject Pastor Kalnins and Wasilla Assembly of God to the same scrutiny they have lavished on Reverend Jeremiah Wright at Barack Obama's old church.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

Demand Apology from Steve King and GOP for Bigoted Remarks on Obama's Upbringing!

Mark C. Eades — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:08:39 EDT

Republican congressman and certified bigot Steve King of Iowa has followed up earlier caustic remarks on Barack Obama's cultural background with fresh comments suggesting that Obama did not have the right kind of upringing for a potential president, and that due to his "exotic" background Obama cannot even be considered a real American. Speaking to the Iowa GOP delegation at the Republican National Convention on Thursday morning, King said that Obama's upbringing was devoid of patriotic teaching or the values that make America great: "There is no part of [Obama's ubringing] that I would subject a child, a young man or woman to," King said, "I don’t think that there's a nurture there that shows a thread of patriotism or a sense of appreciation of free market capitalism or the destiny of America or what has made this country great" (see Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier).

King's remarks here and previously may be only a hint of what we can expect from Republicans in the weeks ahead as they struggle to hold onto power: play on the racial and cultural fears of less-educated white voters by contrasting Obama's "exotic," cosmopolitan background with those of McCain and Palin as "real Americans." While they alienate urban residents, immigrants, people of color, non-Protestants, campus communities, and especially community organizers, Republicans hope to shore up enough support among their rural, white, Protestant base to win in November. Hence the new GOP emphasis on "biography" in the absence of anything else to offer.

King's statements also echo comments he made back in March predicting that terrorists would be "dancing in the streets" if Obama were to win the presidency (see Associated Press). King based this prediction not only on Obama's pledge to pull troops out of Iraq, but also on Obama's Kenyan heritage and his middle name, Hussein. "The radical Islamists, the al-Qaida..., would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11" King said, "because they would declare victory in this war on terror." In Steve King's world, apparently, native-born US citizenship and 35 years of age are not enough to qualify one for the presidency: one must also be of unmistakably European and Christian heritage. "His middle name does matter," King said. "It matters because they read a meaning into that."

Experience teaches us that Democrats cannot ignore attacks such as these. Steve King himself should be pressured to apologize for his remarks while the Republican National Committee and the McCain campaign should be pressured to issue repudiations. E-mail/online contact info for all three are as follows:

Steve King: steve.king@mail.house.gov
Iowa residents: http://www.house.gov/steveking/email.shtm

RNC Chairman (Mike Duncan): chairman@gop.com

McCain campaign: http://www.johnmccain.com/contact

------------------------------------------------

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

A Question of Character: Sarah Palin's Radio Cancer Problem

Mark C. Eades — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:24:34 EDT

Thanks to a strange act of usefulness by a supermarket tabloid, millions of Us Weekly readers this week are being treated to a glimpse, based on actual facts, of what a crude and spiteful individual Sarah Palin actually is. Based on audio recordings and coverage in the Anchorage Daily News that many in the Lower 48 might otherwise have missed, Us Weekly tells its loyal millions about how the governor of Alaska phoned into a radio talk show and giggled as a morning DJ launched into a series of tasteless and puerile attacks on the president of Alaska's state senate.

On the morning of January 15, 2008, Palin phoned into the Bob & Mark Show at KWHL 106.5 in Anchorage. Early in the conversation, DJ Bob Lester referred to state senator Lyda Green as a jealous woman and a cancer. In fact, as Palin was fully aware at the time, Green is a cancer survivor. Rather than suggest that perhaps Lester was going a little too far with his remarks, however, Palin played along as Lester intensified his attack on Green. When Lester questioned Green's motherhood, asking Palin if she thought Green even cared about her own kids, Palin laughed; then laughed again as Lester declared: "Lyda Green is a cancer and a b*tch"; then laughed again as Lester made fun of Green's weight with a reference to Green's "big and cushy" chair in the state senate. In audio, Palin is clearly relaxed and enjoying Lester's jokes at Green's expense, hardly "caught off guard" as she would later claim. Finally, when Lester suggests a visit for himself at the state capital, Palin responds: "I'd be honored to have you."

An editorial in the Anchorage Daily News (Jan. 25, 2008) following Palin's appearance on the Bob & Mark Show clearly stated the paper's opinions of the governor's behavior:

"She came off looking immature herself, almost high-schoolish. It was conduct unbecoming a governor. She should have thought twice about appearing in such a sophomoric venue. Not much good can come of it."

A follow-up piece by Dan Fagan in the Anchorage Daily News (Jan. 27, 2008) took Palin even more harshly to task:

"The governor's appearance on KWHL's 'The Bob and Mark Show' last week is plain and simple one of the most unprofessional, childish and inexcusable performances I've ever seen from a politician.... Anchorage DJ Bob Lester unleashed a vicious, mean-spirited, poisonous attack on Senate President Lyda Green last week while our governor was live on the air with him.... It was conduct unbecoming a human being, never mind a governor."

Following Palin's pick by John McCain as Republican vice-presidential running mate, Alaska state senator Lyda Green - also a Republican - had the following to say to the Anchorage Daily News (Aug. 29, 2008) on Palin's readiness to serve:

"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"

Far from distancing herself from the Bob & Mark Show, meanwhile, Palin appeared again with John McCain on the show Aug. 29.

Audio of Palin's January appearance on the show can be found in its entirety at The Raw Story, with highlights available at Youtube. Everyone should hear this.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

Essays - Let's Light a Path To The Future

Ray Pairan — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:01:37 EDT

All the below essays may be read at-

http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

[The Illusion of Justice]
Unique boundless power is exerted upon those citizens that are unfortunate enough not to be among the corrupt few. Regardless of your stature, education, or intelligence those unscrupulous corporations and other guardians of government 'disservice' who command influence over our judges will engage in any action that will perpetuate our obedient servitude to their slanted economic system. It is an economic system integrally tied to a legal system woven to snuggly fit our corporate culture manipulated by a few business elite who use it to their exclusive benefit.

With staggering sums of money being spent by the elite to maintain a legal web of forced obedience on the part of the general citizenry is it any wonder that a citizen of modest income is 'priced out' of obtaining council for anything other than trivial cases.
...

Essays written in August-

Our Survival Depends Upon Cooperation
Don't Become another One of the Worn-Out
Citizens Gather to Hear Message of Hope & Change
A Sustainable Future for America Built Upon Equali...
Americans United Behind a More Equitable Future
One Nation, One World Willing To Dream
Pragmatic Solutions to Global Economic Problems
Henry Ford Realized the Importance of Adequate Wag...
Reach Out For the Radiant Light of Hope
Production Camps Build Upon Tumor of Greed
Unity Vanquishes Selfish Destruction
Business Alchemists Believe In Their Infallibility...
Democrats and Republicans Extol Business Party Lin...
Russia's Plan for Reestablishing Empire
The Programming Wasteland
Crumbling, Neglected, Cheap American Society
Shock Waves from Russian Conflict with Georgia
Corporate Masters Marginalize Current Citizens
Collusion to Lower Wages and Thus Fix Prices
The Corporate Beast Reigns Supreme over Everything...
Human Labor Exploitation Has Occurred For Eons
Message from Behind the Economic Iron Curtain

It is important that all our efforts be directed at getting Barack's message of positive change out because it is currently being overshadowed by the news coverage devoted to Sarah Palin.

Wasilla: Sarah Palin Sought to Purge City Officials and Censor Public Library Books

Mark C. Eades — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:12:30 EDT

Enough, already, on the non-issue of the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's unmarried 17-year-old daughter. There's nothing the Republicans would like more than to make this presidential race all about having babies. What they don't want us talking about is Palin's own checkered political past and very questionable political character.

While much of the mainstream media focuses on the pregnancy story, real investigative journalists on the internet have turned up some pretty disturbing details from Palin's tenure as mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska. Soon after her election as mayor in 1996, Palin moved to carry out a Stalinist purge of city officials who had supported the incumbent mayor she opposed in the election. As the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported on 10/28/96, the new mayor sent resignation requests to all of Wasilla's top managers, including the chief of police, public works director, finance director, and head librarian "in order to test their loyalty to her administration." An additional official had previously resigned after Palin eliminated his position. "Wasilla is moving forward in a positive direction," Palin unapologetically stated at the time, "This is the time for the department heads to let me know if they plan to move forward or if it's time for a change." Meanwhile, Palin prohibited Wasilla officials talking to news media on this or any other topic without her permission (see also Anchorage Daily News).

Among officials asked for their resignations, only librarian Mary Ellen Emmons was finally allowed to remain at work following public protest against Palin's attempt to force Emmons out and against moves by Palin to censor library books. According to a 12/18/96 report in the Frontiersman cited by Politico, Emmons said that Palin had asked her outright if she could live with censorship of library books. "This is different than a normal book-selection procedure or a book-challenge policy," Emmons told the Frontiersman, "She was asking me how I would deal with her saying a book can't be in the library." "Many issues were discussed," Palin said in response, "both rhetorical and realistic in nature."

Palin's efforts at purging city departments and censoring library books are detailed also in a scathing comment to the Washington Independent by Wasilla resident Anne Kilkenny, who published her comment despite fear of retribution from Palin.

As details like these emerge, so emerges also an increasingly ugly picture of Palin herself.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC Convention

Damien — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:50:44 EDT

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest can be seen here: link

McCain/Palin Travel to Hurricane Zone for Photo-Op while Obama Mobilizes Volunteers and Contributors to Actually Do Something

Mark C. Eades — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:31:35 EDT

As the Gulf Coast awaits Hurricane Gustav, John McCain and Sarah Palin are traveling together in Mississippi for "briefings" and photo opportunities while Barack Obama chooses instead to mobilize his vast grassroots network of volunteers and contributors in the hope of actually doing something to help. It isn't clear what McCain and Palin hope to accomplish on their trip beyond making speeches and appearing before news cameras with their shirtsleeves rolled up, which as we know doesn't really help anyone. Indeed, some number of local officials and public safety personnel who could be helping with storm preparations will instead have to babysit McCain and Palin while they "assess the situation" and pose for photos. Obama chose not to openly criticize McCain for the trip, but did suggest that organizing aid rather than making a personal appearance might be a more useful allocation of everyone's resources: "The thing that I always am concerned about in the middle of a storm is whether we're drawing resources away from folks on the ground because the secret service and various security requirements sometimes it pulls police, fire and other departments away from concentrating on the job," Obama told the New York Times Sunday. In addition to its call on the Obama website for volunteers and contributors to help storm victims, the campaign also plans to mobilize its mammoth e-mail and cell-phone network of volunteers, contributors, and supporters both in the hurricane zone and around the United States to solicit aid. "What we want to do is we want to find out first from folks on the ground what is going to be most helpful...." Obama told CNN,"...I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary." The Obama website also includes emergency information for residents of affected areas which can be sent to others by e-mail. The 3:00 a.m. phone call came, and Obama answered it.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

McCain's V.P. Choice

funkfresh01 — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:12:16 EDT

After months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience. (1)

Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest. (2)

She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. (3)

Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools. (4)

She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change. (5)

Sarah Palin Is the New Harriet Miers

Mark C. Eades — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:20:42 EDT

In his choice of Sarah Palin as vice-presidential running mate, John McCain has once again demonstrated a stunning lack of intellectual depth as well as of political judgment. The only comparable recent case I can think of offhand is that of Harriet Miers, whose 2005 Supreme Court nomination by George W. Bush failed due to her total lack of relevant experience or knowledge, a major embarrassment to the Bush administration and a highly negative reflection on Bush's own decision-making skills. John McCain's choice of Palin is a clear attempt to pander to woman Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries and whom McCain hopes will now vote for him insead of Obama. The problem for McCain is that, beyond pandering value, Palin brings as little to recommend her for the vice-presidency as Harriet Miers brought to recommend her for the Supreme Court.

Elected governor of Alaska less than two years ago, Sarah Palin has scarcely half the experience in that high office that Barack Obama has in the US Senate. Previously, Palin was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town with a population of less than 8000 (while Barack Obama served a constituency of 210,000 as an Illinois state senator). Wasilla is the adopted hometown of the Idaho-born Palin, who attended and played basketball for Wasilla High School and was elected Miss Wasilla before placing second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant. Palin has a Bachelor's degree in journalism and worked as a sportscaster before entering local politics in Wasilla.

McCain's choice of Palin for VP is as hollow and ill-conceived as Bush's choice of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. As the running mate of a 72-year-old presidential candidate whose mental acuity seems to fade almost by the day, Sarah Palin could hardly be expected to step in and take over as president should something timely happen to McCain. With precious little experience even in state politics, Palin has zero experience in national politics and zero background in foreign affairs or national security. Finding Republican women governors and senators with more experience than Palin would have been easy for McCain; finding one with less experience would been the difficult task

Palin also enters the presidential race with a ready-made scandal brewing in her home state. Accused of using her position to force the firing of a state police officer (and ex-brother-in-law) for strictly personal reasons, and of firing her public safety commissioner for refusing to participate, Palin is currently under investigation by a bipartisan Alaska legislative council for abuse of power. I look forward to seeing more on this in the national media over the weeks to come.

Palin's lack of experience will of course become apparent when she has to face Joe Biden in the vice-presidential debate scarcely a month from now - hardly enough time for her to make up for the vast knowledge gap between herself and her Democratic opponent. While it will be a little sad to watch poor Sarah get disassembled by Biden (certainly far less satisfying to watch than McCain being taken apart by Obama), it will be a reflection on McCain's judgment America needs to see.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

Kerry: McCain is "Pathetic" and "Desperate"

Mark C. Eades — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:47:55 EDT

Speaking last night at the Democratic National Convention, senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry delivered precisely the kind of blistering attack on John McCain we need to see more of from Democratic leaders. For far too long, leading Democrats have been far too soft on McCain, effusively praising his war record and offering only meek or vague criticism even as McCain and the Republicans have launched a barrage of vicious and dishonest personal attacks on Barack Obama. The time for praising old heroes has passed. It is time now to attack McCain on all fronts and to take the old man down.

Kerry's attack on John McCain last night was exactly what it should have been: direct, explicit, specific, and personal. Describing McCain's campaign tactics as "insulting," "pathetic," and "desperate," Kerry took aim even at McCain's age and experience by saying that when we elect a president we should do so on the basis of "judgment and character, not years in the Senate or years on this earth." McCain's judgment and character - or rather lack thereof - are precisely what Democrats should be taking aim at, as Kerry did relentlessly throughout his speech, refreshingly free of undue praise or softened rhetoric.

Earlier in the day, California senator Barbara Boxer made a few equally strong remarks on McCain's personal temperament, suggesting that McCain's angry outbursts on the Senate floor are evidence of unfitness to serve in such a critical position as that of president. I have long felt that Democrats should be more aggressive in going after McCain's personal character and fitness to serve, particularly given the personal nature of McCain's recent attacks on Obama. McCain's out-of-control temper, his grotesque attempts at humor followed by adolescent giggling at his own stupid jokes, his spotty memory, and his staggering personal dishonesty should all be considered fair game for attack. John McCain has the emotional maturity of a 14-year-old, the mental clarity of an Alzheimer's patient, and few of the characteristics of a competent adult. These facts need to be pointed out to voters, again and again and again.

Meanwhile, as I have suggested, praise for McCain from Democrats needs to stop. If I have to sit and listen to one more Democrat sing loving odes to what a "great American hero" and "maverick" John McCain is, I think I'm going to puke. John McCain does not deserve praise. He deserves relentless attack and defeat.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

Obama's Impossible Muslim Standard

funkfresh01 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:48:17 EDT

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9456

Source: Foreign Policy
Author: Joshua Keating

Steve Clemons gives the Barack Obama campaign a good thrashing from the left today for the candidate's willingness to accept the resignation of his Muslim outreach coordinator, Mazen Asbahi. The Wall Street Journal reports that Asbahi, a Chicago lawyer, resigned because of questions about his ties to an Illinois-based Imam named Jamal Said who has been accused (though not indicted) of fundraising for Hamas. The two served together for a few weeks on the board of an Islamic investment fund back in 2000. Predictable smug outrage has followed on right-wing blogs.

According to the Journal, the tenuous connection between Asbahi and Said was first noted by the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, a subscription-only Web site that tracks the international activity of that Islamic party and its supporters. The WSJ says the Report is published by a "Washington think tank," but there doesn't seem to be any author or organizational affiliation mentioned on the site, and a Whois lookup yields no clues.

The Report employs a fairly loose definition of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates that includes fairly mainstream organizations such as the Islamic Society of North America and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Amusingly, recent FP contributors Graham Fuller and Marc Lynch are also described as Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers. As Passport readers know, Lynch has indeed met with senior Brotherhood leaders in Cairo, but they hardly see eye to eye. Fuller's supposed ties are of the six-degrees-of-Mahdi Akef variety.

Obama Muslim Coordinator Resigns

funkfresh01 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:42:30 EDT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080601081.html

By Perry Bacon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 6, 2008; 9:45 AM

Barack Obama's national Muslim outreach coordinator has resigned amid a controversy of over his connections to a man who the Justice Department named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the racketeering trial last year of several alleged Hamas fund-raisers.

Mazen Asbahi, a Chicago lawyer who had been appointed to help Obama reach out to Muslims, stepped down on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported late last night.

The paper had inquired about his relationship with Jamal Said, who served on a board with Asbahi in 2000 that is a subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust, which holds titles to mosques, Islamic centers, schools, and other real estate around the country. Said had been named in an investigation of alleged Hamas fund-raisers, which ended in a mistrial last year, the paper reported.

John McCain: Diplomatic Disaster

Mark C. Eades — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:51:18 EDT

John McCain is a diplomatic disaster just begging to happen. A more generous observer than I might excuse his frequent factual gaffes - repeated references to countries and borders that don't exist, forgetting that Sunni al-Qaeda and Shiite Iran are sworn enemies, putting events such as Iraq's "Anbar Awakening" and the US military "surge" in the wrong chronological order - as the normal mental slippage anyone might experience while they near their twilight years. What cannot be so easily overlooked are those comments and actions of McCain's which suggest that he really is a rather angry and hateful old man, not to mention something of a loose cannon on the deck.

Take for example his efforts at humor involving the fantasized slaughter of Iranian civilians: His singing of "bomb, bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann" back during the primaries and his more recent suggestion that exporting cigarettes to the Iranians might be a good way of killing them, neither of which should be coming out of the mouth of a prospective president. Following the "bomb, bomb Iran" incident McCain's lack of tact was made even more painfully obvious when he callously refused to admit any error in offending the Iranian people by suggesting that they would be better off dead. Whatever we might think of Iran's rulers, the Iranian people are not our enemies, and making jokes about killing them with bombs and cigarettes is no way to win "hearts and minds" in the Middle East or anywhere else.

McCain's remarks about killing Iranians echo previous comments made by him regarding the people of Vietnam. "I hate the gooks," McCain told reporters during his 2000 primary campaign, "I will hate them as long as I live." However rooted these comments may be in McCain's own war experiences, and however excusable they may be for any private citizen likewise scarred by war, they simply cannot be overlooked in a prospective president: the stakes are too high, the need too critical for a competent Diplomat-in-Chief in the Oval Office. Taken in the context of his later remarks about killing Iranians, they would also seem to suggest a fairly callous and cold-blooded attitude on McCain's part toward peoples he regards as enemies. Made once - and on the basis of such deep-seated hostility as that McCain appears to harbor toward certain peoples of the earth - such remarks may all too easily be made again, and again, and again.

Then we have the matter of McCain's infamous temper, such as when he reacted to disagreement on immigration reform from fellow Republican senator John Cornyn of Texas by screaming, "F*ck you!"; such as when he called fellow Republican senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico an "a**hole"; and such as when he called fellow Republican senator Charles Grassley of Iowa a "f*cking jerk." Keep in mind that these incidents occured, not in private or among political enemies, but on the floor of the United States Senate among fellow Republicans; and could therefore just as easily happen, say, at a G-8 Summit or a gathering of NATO leaders. How would it look on the world stage for a red-faced, whited-haired John McCain first to get all the countries wrong, then to make jokes about bombing one of them, then finally to blow his stack and call one of their presidents a "f*cking jerk"?

Indeed McCain's outbursts and insults have already, on occasion, occured before the eyes not only of America but of the world. His hatred of "gooks" and his desire to kill Iranians have both been widely noted in the world press, and would likely precede him on any presidential tour of Asia or the Middle East. While our French allies were fighting alongside US troops in Afghanistan, McCain had the following to say: "You know, the French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who is still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it" - not only insulting, but irrelevant, and quite possibly a reason for pro-American French president Nicholas Sarkozy's enthusiastic endorsement of Barack Obama. Once in a 1987 meeting at the height of Central American tensions, according to fellow Republican senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, McCain reached across the table and physically assaulted a Nicaraguan representative, seizing him by his shirt collar. "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine...," Cochran later said when endorsing Mitt Romney for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, "...He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

If McCain worries even his fellow Republicans, then how worried should the rest of us be?

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

Democrats: Hit McCain Hard and Keep Hitting

Mark C. Eades — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:31:22 EDT

There was a time when I honestly believed that John McCain might actually hold true to his promise to wage a clean and respectable campaign against Barack Obama for the high office of President of the United States. There was a time when I bore McCain no personal enmity despite my political allegiance to his opponent. Perhaps this is only because I didn't know as much about McCain as I know now; perhaps I had been told about McCain's "maverick" status so many times by the media that I actually believed it; perhaps I hoped that McCain's experience with Bush-Rove tactics in 2000 would prevent him on moral grounds from employing the same tactics in 2008. Whatever the case, that time has now passed.

John McCain is attempting to win the White House by dragging the 2008 presidential election into the same pit of Rovian filth that won for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. McCain is running a campaign based, not on issues and ideas, but on cheap shots and negative personal innuendo. Clearly unable to compete intellectually with Obama, McCain has deliberately sought to lower the level of discourse in this contest to that of the locker room and the back-alley brawl. While Obama strives to maintain the high ground, McCain wallows in sewage and asks the rest of us to join him. If this general election contest has taken a hard negative turn of late, it is entirely McCain's doing. It didn't have to be this way.

John McCain deserves no mercy from Democrats. He deserves no respect, no personal or professional consideration, no hero treatment. He deserves to be hit hard, again and again and again, until there's nothing left of his campaign but a bloodied corpse. He deserves to have every personal failing drawn out for all to see, every bit of dirty laundry from the McCain past taken out and waved before the cameras, every skeleton exumed. He deserves to be pummeled by Obama in the upcoming presidential debates until he is reduced to a helpless, quivering blob of hairy cottage cheese. He deserves to have his infamous temper provoked, and to be baited into making a public ass of himself just as he has done so many times before. He deserves all this, and more - much, much more. If in the end his Senate career is destroyed along with his presidential bid, so much the better.

When John McCain tells Americans that he has always been a passionate supporter of civil rights, Americans need to be reminded that McCain voted against the federal Martin Luther King (MLK) holiday in 1983, that he supported a Republican governor who rescinded Arizona's state MLK holiday in 1987, that he voted to eliminate federal funding for the MLK Federal Holiday Commission in 1994, and that he voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1990 no less than four times. Only days ago, however, McCain claimed to "have supported hundreds of pieces of legislation which would help Americans obtain an equal opportunity" and to have been instrumental in "fighting for the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday in my state." John McCain is a liar.

When John McCain tries to convince Americans that he has always been right on the war in Iraq, Americans need to be reminded that back in 2003 McCain told us victory would be achieved easily and quickly, and that US troops would be greeted in Iraq as liberators. When John McCain tells Americans that he is a reformer, Americans need to be reminded of his role in the "Keating Five" scandal, of his more recent improprieties as a member of the Senate Commerce Committee with corporate telecom lobbyists, and indeed of the fact that his campaign is entirely run by lobbyists. When John McCain talks about "family values," Americans need to be reminded how he flip-flopped on Jerry Falwell, calling the late religious bigot an "agent of intolerance" one day and then kissing Falwell's fat, hairy behind the next. When John McCain talks about the "sanctity of marriage," Americans need to be reminded how McCain shamelessly dumped his own first wife, following her crippling injury in a car crash, in favor of the younger, prettier, and much richer woman who bankrolled his entry into politics and to whom he is married today. John McCain is a hypocrite.

While I am pleased that the Obama campaign has begun to hit back against the McCain attack machine, I also understand Obama's need to hold the high ground and not allow himself to be dragged into the same cesspool McCain occupies. This, alas, is the difficult balance Obama must maintain if he is to win. Thankfully, the rest of us have no such tightrope to walk, and no such need to go easy on one bitter old gas-bag who needs to be put out of his misery and ours. For Democratic leaders in Washington, for local Democratic activists, and for Democratic bloggers, the time has come to start taking John McCain apart.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

"Angry, Bitter Old Man": John McCain Finally Gets the Attention He Deserves

Mark C. Eades — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:21:06 EDT

For weeks now John McCain and his campaign have been grumbling that the media pay far too much attention to globetrotting elitist Barack Obama and far too little attention to hometown hero McCain. With McCain's apparent shift now to a campaign strategy based on nothing but negativity, it would seem that the Unhappy Warrior is finally getting the attention he deserves.

McCain's latest series of petty attack ads and whining complaints against Obama have drawn jeers and expressions of disappointment even from McCain's supporters. Most embarrassing to Republicans was the McCain ad comparing "celebrity" Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, described by former McCain strategist John Weaver earlier this week as "childish." Time columnist and former McCain admirer Joe Klein likewise expressed disappointment at McCain's negative new line of attack: "A few months ago, I wrote that John McCain was an honorable man and he would run an honorable campaign...," Klein wrote Thursday, "...I was wrong." The same day, ABC News suggested that in going so overwhelmingly negative McCain risks caricaturing himself as an "angry, bitter old man." Meanwhile, the New York Times charged that McCain has now dropped any "straight talk" he may once have offered voters in favor of a ride on the "Low-Road Express":

"In recent weeks, Mr. McCain has been waving the flag of fear (Senator Barack Obama wants to "lose" in Iraq), and issuing attacks that are sophomoric (suggesting that Mr. Obama is a socialist) and false (the presumptive Democratic nominee turned his back on wounded soldiers).... 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."

Quickly following McCain's "celebrity" ad came the charge that Obama was playing the race card against McCain, apparently based on the fact that Obama occasionally mentions the challenges of being the first African American with a real shot at winning the presidency - a charge from the McCain camp that Eugene Robinson describes in today's Washington Post as nothing more than a piece of "snarling, mean-spirited nonsense":

"Of course the McCain campaign isn't really offended that the first black major-party candidate for president in American history might mention this distinction from time to time. The idea is to slow Obama down before he runs away with this thing, and the weapon of choice is handfuls of mud.... Remember St. John the Reformer, who promised a high-minded campaign and said he wouldn't question his opponent's patriotism? Clearly, he's been replaced by an evil twin. The switch seems to have taken place during his opponent's world tour, when Obama's prescriptions for Iraq and Afghanistan began to look prescient -- and McCain's began to look irrelevant."

Here, McCain seems to have completely forgotten his own previous opportunistic praise for Hillary Clinton's run as America's first potential female major-party presidential candidate - an attempt to pick off Clinton supporters at Obama's expense that by McCain's new standards would make him just as guilty of playing the gender card as he now says Obama is of playing the race card (one might also recall those numerous recent instances in which McCain has played the age card, the I'm-more-American-than-you card, and the tortured POW card). Also in today's Washington Post, E.J. Dionne berates McCain for running precisely the same type of campaign George W. Bush and Karl Rove ran against McCain himself in the 2000 Republican primaries:

"...It's hard to imagine the American electorate buying McCain's new advertising effort to undermine Obama by accusing him of being a "celebrity" and comparing him -- OMG! -- to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. McCain has made matters worse by falsely accusing Obama of wanting to raise taxes on electricity and by offering a phony account of why Obama decided not to visit wounded American soldiers in Europe.... By running an attack campaign that is almost a parody of George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 exertions, McCain is chucking away his greatest opportunity, which is to show that he could reform Republicanism and offer voters an alternative way of breaking with a past they have come to loathe.... Voters are in a mood to give the status quo a swift kick. Instead of offering puerile ads trashing Obama, McCain should show how he'd be the change we've been waiting for."

Be careful what you wish for, John: You just might get it, and you just might deserve it.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

Obama Just an American with a Muslim Middle Name

funkfresh01 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:22:00 EDT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080720/pl_bloomberg/awwoetconzuu_1

Source: Bloomberg
Author: Caroline Alexander

A year ago, Palestinian medical student Wessam al-Ghoul in the U.K. thought Barack Obama would break new ground in bringing Middle East peace. Today, he says the Democratic presidential candidate is merely “the lesser of two evils.”

Al-Ghoul changed his mind after Obama toughened his rhetoric against Iran and said on June 4 that ``Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.'' Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital.

``He has become virtually indistinguishable from any U.S. politician running for office,'' said al-Ghoul, 24. He added that presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, 71, is worse only because he would continue the foreign policies of President George W. Bush, whose war in Iraq, now in its sixth year, has made him unpopular in the Arab world.

Email Attacks on Obama Spark Debate on Racism

funkfresh01 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:00:33 EDT

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080719/FOREIGN/936574761/1014/ART&Profile=1014

Source: The National
Author: Sharmila Devi

“The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out. What better way to start than at the highest level â€" through the president of the United States, one of their own.”

So reads an email widely distributed in the US from unknown senders as part of a smear campaign, satirised with mixed results by The New Yorker magazine last week, against Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee.

The liberal weekly might have been making a joke when it pictured Mr Obama as a Muslim terrorist, his wife, Michelle, as an armed radical, and the US flag burning in the fireplace in the Oval Office. But some Americans actually appear to believe it, according to opinion polls.