Things That Just Piss Me Off

Fox News did it again during the republican convention. They brought up John Edwards cheating on his wife as some sort of proof that the democrats are immoral. Well, the dems also had Bill Clinton.

But there have been so many republicans caught in sex scandals and indicted for crimes, that you would think the republicans would want to avoid talking about it at all.

No mention of John Mccain’s infedelity?

A former Arizona rodeo beauty queen and daughter of a millionaire Phoenix businessman, Cindy McCain was 25 when she met her future husband at a cocktail party in Hawaii. John McCain was a 43-year-old naval liaison officer travelling with a congressional delegation, his sights already set on a political career.

He was also still married to his first wife Carol. Carol later attributed the breakdown of the marriage to “John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again”.

McCain fell like a brick for Cindy, who was the heir to a brewery distribution business worth millions. For several years afterwards the McCains endured Washington gossip that he had dumped his first wife - who had been crippled in a car accident - in favour of a trophy bride to enhance his political ambitions.

It was in the late 1980s, after a series of miscarriages and giving birth to three children, that Cindy developed spinal problems and was prescribed painkillers after surgery.

Her husband and family had no idea she was secretly taking pills stolen from a charity she had created called the American Voluntary Medical Team, which sent mobile surgical units to war zones.

When federal agents began to investigate gaps in the charity’s records, Cindy telephoned her husband, a senator in Washington, and confessed.

She admitted at the time that the 1994 episode had “nearly destroyed both of us”. But she underwent treatment and attended meetings of Narcotics Anonymous as part of a deal with prosecutors who dropped charges.

I’m not attacking John or Cindy Mccain. People make mistakes. It doesn’t matter what political party they are in. But the republicans do not seem to realize they live in a glass house. They talk about Edwards and Clinton and act as if the republican party is full of politicians that have the high moral ground.

I call on John McCain and the republican party to start talking about issues and start saying exactly what they promise to do if elected AGAIN. Rather than making general “I’m a true patriot and you are not” statements and ads that only talk about Obama, run some ads that tell us what you will really do on specific issues.

I waited patiently through the republican convention hoping to hear what John McCain will do if elected. I don’t mean rhetoric like “I will lead us into the future”, “I will drain the swamp that is Washington”, and “I have the experience to lead!”. Those type of non-specific statements are hollow and only meant to cause emotion in the republican base.

At Saddleback, McCain and Obama were asked for a specific number to define who the middle class was that they both refer to in their speeches. Both say they are for the working class, the middle class, etc.

McCain laughed, then stalled, then said ok, 5 million dollars per year. Of course he does not really define those who make up to 5 million per year the middle class. But he used the joke to avoid answering the question.

His tax cuts go to those who make millions of dollars per year. His argument is that he wants everyone to pay lower taxes. He uses that to convince people he is also for the middle class when, in reality, his tax cuts benefit the rich, just like George Bush’s tax cuts.

Obama gave a number. He said below $250,000 per year is how he defines the middle class. His tax policy would raise taxes on those who earn more than that amount and lower taxes for those earning less than that amount. Mccain may say he is all about straight talk, but Obama ia the one that gave the straight answer.

Now McCain claims his is the party of change. He acts as if the republicans have not been in the white house for the last 8 years and that he is an outsider to Washington. He wants us to believe that the republican party is the only party that can fix what the republican party did in the last 8 years.

There was a budget surplus when George Bush and the republicans captured the white house in 2000. Now there is a huge deficit, larger than any time in history. John McCain says he wants everyone to have lower taxes. If you lower everyone’s taxes, then you cannot also bring down the deficit created by the republicans in office. So is he stupid or is he lying? McCain cannot do both, yet he continues to tell people he can.

His campaign continues to run ads about Barack Obama. No ads are running that explain what John McCain will do if elected. Nothing specific was in any speech he gave. All he does is tell you the other guy is bad. When all you can do is tear down your opponent to make yourself look good, something is wrong with you, not your opponent.

I am still waiting to hear what John Mccain will do if elected. I am still waiting for him to give a speech about himself and his platform and where he stands on the issues without making more than 75% of his speech about Barack Obama.

In 2007, the median annual household income rose 1.3% to $50,233.00 according to the Census Bureau. The real median earnings of men who worked full time, year-round climbed between 2006 and 2007, from $43,460 to $45,113. For women, the corresponding increase was from $33,437 to $35,102.

Just 26% of all households had annual incomes exceeding $100,000, 12.3% fell below the federal poverty threshold and the bottom 20% earned less than $19,178.

Only 2% of Americans earn more than $250,000 per year. 2% of Americans would pay more taxes under Obama. I don’t even care about those people. They don’t read my blog. They have someone read for them.

McCain wants to protect that 1.5% and give them tax breaks, leaving the rest of America to pay the taxes it takes to run the government.

So, we do know this. If you make more than $250,000 per year, then a vote for John Mccain will help you lower your taxes. If you make less than $250,000 per year, then a vote for Barack Obama will lower your taxes.

People should think about this.

Do you consider the job of Vice President an important position?

If Yes: Why did John McCain choose Sarah Palin after just one interview, the day before she was chosen? They did one interview. And not until the day before they announced her as his VP choice. So if you answered yes, John McCain obviously does not care about how he fills important positions.

If No: If the job of VP is not an important position, then having a woman fill that job is not really a step forward for women at all.

Does John McCain think the job of Vice President is important?

If Yes: Then he is guilty of dereliction of duty by not investigating his choice for VP. He did this just to get votes rather than picking someone who is best for the country.

If No: Then John McCain picked a woman because he thinks the job is unimportant and again is just doing it for votes.

So either way, the choice of Sarah Palin was a bad choice. Not because she is a woman.

How about Olympia Jean Bouchles Snowe? She is a moderate Republican. Snowe has become widely known for her ability to influence the outcome of close votes and Senatorial filibusters, in part making her one of the most influential modern U.S. Senators.

How about Susan Collins? Susan Margaret Collins is the junior U.S. Senator from Maine and a centrist Republican. Senator Collins is often labeled as more bipartisan than most senators. She is a member of The Republican Main Street Partnership and supports stem-cell research. She is also a member of The Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans For Choice, The Wish List, Republicans for Environmental Protection, and It’s My Party Too.

How about Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison? Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison, usually known as Kay Bailey Hutchison (born July 22, 1943), is the senior United States Senator from Texas. She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of “The 30 most powerful women in America” by Ladies Home Journal. She is the first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.

The point is that John McCain had a lot of choices. He could have picked someone with experience whether male or female. He claimed experience was really important in all of his attack ads on Barack Obama. Then he chose Sarah Palin. His supporters say it’s great because he wanted to pick a woman. Then why didn’t he pick and experienced woman from the republican party?

The fact is that he made this pick at the last minute. The fact is he didn’t bother to seek out a more qualified candidate. The fact is he was in such a hurry to try to get some of Hillary Clinton’s voters to like him that he made a poor choice. What will happen when he is faced with other important decisions if he is president?

This proves John McCain’s lack of judgement when making important decisions. Do you really want a president who has such poor judgement?

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney did the right thing by not going to Louisiana during this hurricane and the evacuation. Anytime a president goes to a city, local government and police resources are strained because of security and other matters. Officials in Louisiana were using those resources to prepare for Hurricane Gustav and did not need the distraction.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama said the same thing and stayed away from Louisiana during Hurricane Gustav. He knew they did not need the distraction and that there is nothing he can do anyway.

John McCain is not at his convention because of Hurricane Gustav supposedly. John, let me reassure you. They do not need you in or around Louisiana with a concerned look on your face because you think it will win you votes. You are running for President. You are not President. There is nothing you can do.

Fox News is the campaign and propaganda machine of the Republican Party. They claim they are fair and balanced.

During the democratic convention, Brit Hume, who I think played Lurch on the Munster’s TV show, actually said that he and the other “journalists” who work at Fox news were “hoping” for something bad to happen between Clinton supporters and Obama supporters. He said those words. How is that “fair and balanced”?

And Fox News has been having democrats on all during Hurricane Gustav. They keep asking them about how Gustav affects the election, if Clinton supporters will suddenly lose their mind and vote for McCain because of Palen, and other political questions.

The democrats have followed Obama’s lead and said that during Gustav, petty politics should be set aside so the focus can be on the disaster victims of Hurricane Gustav. But the so-called “journalists” of Fox News keeps asking them those questions even after they say they do not want to focus on petty political issues during the time that we should be thinking of disaster victims.

Fox News, during this election, has proven beyond all doubt, that they are campaigning for John McCain and the Republican Party. They have proven they are just a propaganda machine for the Republican Party. They barely try to hide it.

Yes, there is bias in media. Yes, newspapers tend toward being liberal. MSNBC leans more to the left than they do to the right, even though they ran John McCain’s biography this week in a positive light. They usually lean toward the left.

CNN runs both sides of every story and should be the news channel that is called fair and balanced. Fox News doesn’t just lean to the right, they are completely controlled by the right and will say anything to their listeners that will help any republican candidate.

Just today they were saying how poor Brown was mistreated because of Hurricane Katrina. He was not qualified to run FEMA. He was fired because he couldn’t even run horse shows. Bush appointed him anyway. It was because Brown helped during Bush’s campaign for president. Brown completely dropped the ball on Hurricane Katrina, but Fox News made him out to be a forgotten hero who just got a bad rap.

That is just one example of how Fox News will spin any story to convince their listeners “republican good” - “democrat bad”. I wouldn’t care. I don’t belong to either party. I just hate it when propaganda is put out under the guise of being a news channel.

I don’t like infomercials because they lie to people and people fall for it. Fox News is just one long infomercial that was created to get more people to vote for republican candidates. Republican pundits claim that they had to do it because they believe the media treats republicans unfairly.

Yes, it is unfair to report the truth, especially when the truth hurts republicans. The way to deal with media bias is to publically denounce or disprove what is being reported. If that was what Fox news did, it would be fine. But Fox news does not do that.

They spin everything to make people believe that everything the republicans do is right, no matter what. Gustav doesn’t need any more spin than it already has. Listening to Fox News, you would think that Gustav endorses John McCain.

Fox news does exactly what they accuse the rest of the media of doing. So this is how it works with republicans? They use torture because the terrorists used torture. They create a news station that lies for the right because they say the rest of the media lies to the left? So republicans have shown that it’s not do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s do unto others as they did to you.

Anyone who takes anything Fox News reports as actual news deserves to continue to have poor leadership. When Bush took office, there was a surplus and the economy was good. Now there is a huge deficit and the economy is bad.

After 911 he promised to go after Osama Bin Laden. He fabricated evidence that Iraq was more important and focused on that instead. And Osama Bin Laden is still out there.

Bush has ignored the law when it comes to wiretaps on US citizens. He ignored the law where it comes to secret CIA prisons and lied to us about their existence. He stood against our allies by ignoring both US law and International Law where it comes to the detention of enemy combatants.

He and Cheney let the oil and energy companies decide the energy policy in secret meetings. Talk about letting the fox run the henhouse. As a result oil companies made record profits while we pay for it at the gas pumps.

John McCain voted with and supported Bush 90% of the time when this was all going on. McCain’s record shows what he is about, no matter what he tells you while he tries to get you to elect him.

Even his first major decision tells us he is more concerned with being elected than he is about our country. Choosing a Vice President is important. You are supposed to choose the most qualified person you have available to you, because they may have to step in and run this country if something happens to you.

Obama did that. He chose Joe Biden. Joe Biden is a foreign policy expert who has 36 years of experience and could step in if something happened to Obama. The country would have confidence in him and confidence is very important during a crisis.

McCain had choices. Mitt Romney, Rudi Giuliani, Mike Hucklebee, and several others with a lot of experience and the confidence of Americans were available to him.

Instead, John McCain chose Palen. She has been a governor for one year. She worked for oil companies. Sound familiar? No one knows who she is so they have no confidence she could run this country.

He made the choice for political reasons. he made the choice because getting elected is more important than what is good for this country. He had better choices available to him, including women in the Republican Party who have a lot more experience than Palen. John McCain failed in his first important decision.

Ahh, but she might help John McCain win some more votes because she is a woman. John McCain obviously thinks so. I think John McCain seriously underestimates the women of this country. He believes that if he gives a woman a secondary position that women will suddenly think he will do something to help women get ahead in this country.

His voting record shows different and women are smart enough to see that this choice was all about getting elected and not a choice that would be good for this country.

John McCain’s choice for Vice President shows he and the republican party is more concerned about winning the election than they are about America. Choosing Palin as VP is a choice that attempts to get women voters who liked Hillary Clinton to vote for John McCain.

The choice for Vice President is supposed to be about choosing someone who can take over the duties of President if something happens to the President. The republicans keep saying she has executive experience. So did Mitt Romney, Hucklebee, and Giuliani, but they had a lot more of that experience than Palin does.

So his choice was about winning the election, not choosing the most qualified person to replace him if something happens to him. They want you to compare her experience to Obama. You should be comparing her experience to the others he could have chosen. He chose the least qualified VP he could.

That shows that Obama was right when he said John McCain lacks judgement. When Obama was faced with that same choice, he chose someone who is qualified to take office immediately if something happened to him. McCain chose someone who cannot.

For John McCain, the choice was even more important due to his age. No, I am not attacking older people. I’m older people. But even in my own small business, I am having to plan ahead so that if something happens to me, someone is there that is qualified to take my place.

John McCain chose someone to help him get elected rather than doing his duty to this country by choosing someone to replace him if the worst occurs. Just like Bush chose badly when he chose Roberts to head FEMA and we were not prepared for a disaster like katrina, John McCain, if elected, has chosen to leave this country unprepared for a disaster like the President becoming ill.

This shows the republican party is only concerned about elections and cronyism and not concerned about this country.

On another note, they also chose someone who has been friendly to the oil companies in republican controlled Alaska. They claim she took on the party when it comes to ethics, yet she is under investigation for ethics violations herself in a state full of republicans involved in corruption.

I believe voters can see through the ruse and will act accordingly by electing Barack Obama. The first important decision by both candidates has now been made.

Barack Obama chose Joe Biden because Joe Biden would be the best person to take over if something happens to him. He could have made the politically correct choice and guaranteed his win over John McCain byu choosing Hillary Clinton as his running mate, but he put the country first and the election second.

John McCain did not pick the best person to replace him if something happens. He made a political choice to try to improve his chances of being elected.

This first test of the two candidates running for president clearly shows Obama is more ready to lead this country and cares about this country more than John McCain.

Would the republicans instigate a conflict just to help retain the presidency? Many people believe they allowed 911 to happen so they could get the war they wanted with Iraq. So is it possible they would start a conflict that could be quickly resolved and boost John McCain’s chances for election? Putin says they did.

From the NYTimes

As Russia struggled to rally international support for its military action in Georgia, Vladimir V. Putin, the country’s paramount leader, lashed out at the United States on Thursday, contending that the White House may have orchestrated the conflict to benefit one of the candidates in the American presidential election.

In tones that seemed alternately angry and mischievous, he suggested that the Bush administration may have tried to create a crisis that would influence American voters in the choice of a successor to President Bush.

“The suspicion would arise that someone in the United States created this conflict on purpose to stir up the situation and to create an advantage for one of the candidates in the competitive race for the presidency in the United States,” Mr. Putin said in an interview with CNN. He added, “They needed a small victorious war.”

Mr. Putin did not specify which candidate he had in mind, but there was no doubt that he was referring to Senator John McCain, the Republican.

On Thursday, Mr. Putin, now prime minister, also said Russian defense officials believed that United States citizens were in the conflict area supporting the Georgian military when it attacked the separatist region of South Ossetia.

Well, what do you think?

John McCain says he knows about the Iraq war and Obama does not. McCain says he is the best judge of what we should or should not do in the middle east and Obama is not. Then check this out and tell me you want John McCain to make decisions about the Middle East.

Anyway, McCain, was holding a press conference in Amman, Jordan, with his potential veeps by his side. Everything was going just hunky dory until McCain said this: “Well, it’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq. That’s well known and it’s unfortunate.”

Oops. (The Raw Story has the video.)

Then Holy Joe leans over after an uncomfortable silence and whispers in St. John’s ear that it is Shiite insurgents who are going in and out of Iran, not al-Qaeda (whose fighters are Sunni and sworn enemies of the Iranians.) McCain turned four shades of red and coughed and sputtered into the microphone: “I’m sorry; the Iranians are training the extremists, not al Qaeda. Not al Qaeda. I’m sorry,”

John McCain doesn’t even know who we are fighting against, let alone what to do about it. Just because you fought in a previous war as a soldier does not mean you are ready to be Commander in Chief. John McCain was not a general. He has never led a war. So he has no more experience at running a war than you or I.

The criticism that the republican party and John Mccain have had about Barack Obama is that he is not experienced, that he will raise taxes, that he will not invest in alternative energy, and other soundbites they have been putting out there no longer hold any water.

In one speech, Barack Obama answered the critics. He told us what he believes in and exactly what he will do as president.

What has John McCain done? Only put out ads that make false claims about Barack Obama.

What does john McCain believe in? George W Bush. We don’t know anything else he believes in because his ads are all about Barack Obama. We do know he believes in George Bush because he voted with Bush on 90% of all bills Bush wanted passed.

We also know that McCain does believe offshore drilling will solve our dependence on oil. He wants you to believe that giving new drilling leases to the same corporations that Bush has been giving tax breaks to, the same corporations that are recording record profits, is the answer to our dependence on oil.

That’s like saying let’s supply local drug dealers with more street corners so that foreigners can’t sell dope on those corners. It wouldn’t solve the drug problem, but it would make sure that our dealers are the ones who profit from the addiction.

So it seems the choice is clear. If you believe that george W. Bush has done a good job of running this country, vote for John McCain because he will be almost as good as George Bush.

If you realize that Bush started out with a deficit and we now have huge national debt instead. If you believe that we should have finished the war in Afghanistan and gone after Osama Bin Laden. If you are tired of all of the tax breaks that go to the wealthy and to corporations like Exxon who reported record profits. If you realize that middle class means that largest percentage of Americans who do not make over $250,000 per year and that they are the ones that deserve tax breaks.

The worst has happened. For John McCain that is. Obama has picked Joe Biden as his running mate. The McCain camp was so fearful of this happening, they had their attack ads already produced, just in case.

Their attack ads are so weak it will not affect Obama’s campaign at all. He said, she said ads is what they are. During a debate, when one politician is running against the other, they say a lot of things to either show themselves in a better light or to discourage their opponents.

It happens in every race, including when John McCain was running in the primaries. So the ads were stupid. Now McCain has to try to choose someone who has never said anything derogatory about him. His choices are very very few.

Back when McCain had an open mind and was considered a maverick, (He isn’t anymore. Now he is a party puppet), conservative republicans had nothing nice to say about him. During the primaries, even Rush Limbaugh, the drug addict, had nothing nice to say about his fellow republican. Bill O’Riley the pinhead had nothing nice to say about him. Hannity, the guy who has his own america that is different from everyone else’s America, had nothing nice to say about him.

His fellow republicans in the senate had many harsh things to say about him over the years. Those he ran against, like Mitt Romney certainly had nothing nice to say about him.

So who does John McCain choose? There has been talk that he should choose a woman to run as his VP. Even then, only his wife would be available based on finding someone who never said anything bad about him in public.

Unless the ticket is going to say Elect McCain and McCain, whoever he chooses wil hurt him because the democrats will use the same attacks that McCain is using, against him. His current ads are going to backfire on him and the race will be lost to him and the republicans.

First let’s use John McCain’s own words; The economy is the number 1 issue. So what does John McCain think about John McCain and his economic expertise?

What does Mitt Romney have to say about John McCain?

Something few people picked up on at Saddleback. McCain stated he is a Federalist and that he thinks states should decide about the gay marriage issue. A Federalist believes in centralized government, not in states right to decide laws for themselves.

And when Mitt Romney compares Barack Obama to John McCain, what is his opinion on who would make a better president?

McCain will pick Romney. Democrats will use Romney’s statements about John McCain the same way McCain uses Joe Biden’s statements now. At least joe Biden never said McCain would be a better president than Obama.

I just started a new blog at www.barackobama.com and you can too. You can view my blog at http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/clydemcelroy