69

Today marks 69 days until John McCain turns 72 years old.

70

Today marks 70 days until John Sidney McCain III turns 72 years old.

McCain, Campaign Crook, Criticizes Obama

A must read by Josh Marshall:

I mentioned earlier today that it was quite a thing to see John McCain denouncing Barack Obama for breaking his word on public financing when McCain himself is at this moment breaking the law in continuing to spend over the spending limits he promised to abide by through the primary season in exchange for public financing. (By the FEC's rules, we're still in the primary phase of the election and will be until the conventions.)

I want to return to this subject though because this is not hyperbole or some throw away line. He's really doing it. McCain opting into public financing, accepted the spending limits and then profited from that opt-in by securing a campaign saving loan. And then he used some clever, but not clever enough lawyering, to opt back out. And the person charged with saying what flies and what doesn't -- the Republican head of the FEC -- said he's not allowed to do that. He can't opt out unilaterally unless the FEC says he can.

McCain is violating FEC laws as we speak. When the head of the FEC confirmed this, Bush fired him and appointed a new lackey who might be more favorable to McCain's point of view.

Anyone who thinks McCain and the Republicans have any credibility on campaign finance is full of it. Obama is right to raise money from small donors, rather than get hemmed into these spending limits. After all, McCain has shown a willingness to break the law, and Bush has made it clear that he won't enforce the law.

McCain Flip-Flops On Immigration

No surprise.

Republicans who have been disgusted by Bush's performance on immigration issues better get ready - McCain would be just as bad.

Obama Crushing McCain In Newsweek Poll

Wow, that was fast.

Back on June 11th I predicted that at some point, we'd see a national poll showing Obama 10-15% ahead of McCain. I didn't expect to see it until August, perhaps not even until after the DNC convention.

But lo and behold, check out this new Newsweek poll:

Obama: 51%
McCain: 36%

In the previous NEWSWEEK Poll, completed in late May when Clinton was still fighting him hard for the Democratic nomination, Obama managed no better than a 46 percent tie with McCain. But as pollster Larry Hugick points out, that may have had a lot to do with all the mutual mudslinging going on between the two Democrats. By contrast, in recent weeks Clinton has not only endorsed Obama but has made plans to campaign with him. "They were in a pitched battle, and that's going to impact things. Now that we've gotten away from that period, this is the kind of bounce they've been talking about," said Hugick.

As we've predicted many times, Obama's stance vs. McCain was always being dampened by the divisive primary against Hillary Clinton. Lots of Hillary voters said they would vote for McCain, as did some Obama supporters. The same thing was happening during the Republican primary, back when half of the Republicans hated McCain.

Now that the primary is over and Obama and Clinton are united against McCain, these numbers are finally getting real. That's why I said, back in March, that McCain needed to develop a good 10-15 point lead if he wanted a strong chance in this election.

McCain never built a lead, and it is coming back to bite him. Which means one thing: the Republican smear machine is the only chance they have left. Hillary Clinton had the kitchen sink. Republicans are bringing the toilet bowl.

The Upside to FISA: Who Should President Obama Wiretap?

Since yesterday I've been in a funk about this FISA mess. The Democratic leadership, all of them, have basically capitulated to Bush's demands for telecom immunity and warrantless wiretapping capabilities. The biggest blow was when Senator Barack Obama actually supported the measure, albeit with reservations.

But instead of groveling and whining, let's look at the upside. Today, Republicans have invested the executive branch with near-dictatorial powers, free of oversight or impediment. 4th Amendment? Forget about it! And in just seven months time (fingers crossed) those powers will be bestowed upon President Obama.

So let's look at the upside folks, and start asking: Who should President Obama wiretap?

And don't worry, the Republicans won't complain about it. After all, they forced this horrible bill upon us! They begged for it, they stamped their feet, they put up counters telling us how long it's been since warrantless wiretapping was legal, they wrote op-eds and blog posts galore calling for this bill. So when Obama wields these powers, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

Obviously, we'll start by wiretapping the terrorists. That's a given.

But with a War on Terror going on, there are plenty more folks who might be impeding our victory. You know, folks who advocate reckless foreign wars that damage America's image, people who choose not to send troops into Tora Bora to catch Osama bin Laden, people who sew dissent at home using smear attacks against fellow Americans, people who try to bankrupt our economy by pushing huge tax cuts during wartime.

In other words, I think President Obama should wiretap every Republican politician in America. Along with ex-politicians like President Bush, Dick Cheney, guys like that. And former Bush administration officials like Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, Harriet Miers, Paul Wolfowitz, Ari Fleischer.

And let's add right wing bloggers to the list. Who knows what anti-American hatred they are privately brewing? For all we know, there might another Timothy McVeigh out there -- and we can't take a chance. Let's wiretap every right wing radio host, starting with Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage, then move on to all those Fox News pundits. What is Sean Hannity really hatching up, and will he continue to hurt America?

After all, these corrupt crooks have weakened America in the fight against terror. While the FISA court might not think the evidence is strong enough to tap their phones and read their emails, thanks to today's bill we don't have to worry about pesky courts or warrants or any of that stuff. President Obama can just appoint Hillary Clinton as the head of the National Security Agency, and she can exact revenge on the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy by, well, listening to everything they say.

It's not unconstitutional anymore. It's not wrong. In fact, as the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal tell us today, it's the right thing to do. Bush, Cheney, Mitch McConnell, and John McCain wouldn't support this bill if it could be abused, right? I mean, they do know that a Democratic president could inherit these vast new spying powers, right?

So today's cloud has a silver lining. Come January, Big Brother will have many new persons of interest to monitor. I think I'm starting to like this bill after all.

Depressing

It's very sad to see the Democratic leadership cave in to Republican demands for warrantless wiretapping and telecom immunity. Let's hope the Senate can stop it. I'm not optimistic.

You'd think with Bush at 24% approval, the Democrats would finally stand up to him. After all, Bush has the opposite of the Midas Touch. Everything he touches turns to shit. If you simply opposed everything Bush did over the last eight years, you'd be right about 99% of the time.

I was particularly dishearted to read that Obama has supported this capitulation/compromise. I don't really understand his reasoning, and I don't think he's being totally straightforward here. He is a former Constitutional law professor, he knows better than this. I think pure politics has led him to support this piece of shit bill. One, he prevents McCain and the right wing from making it an issue for the next five months. Two, he gives himself major bipartisan brownie points. Republicans and media pundits have been questioning whether Obama has ever took a stand against his base on a bipartisan issue. Well, this one definitely qualifies. Fighting this bad FISA bill has been the number one priority of the liberal blogosphere (outside of getting more Dems elected). And Obama has really -- to be polite -- disappointed us here.

Let's hope that if he is elected president, he'll either shut this warrantless wiretapping down, or use it to tap the phones of every corrupt Republican in America. And he better be serious about having his attorney general investigate Bush's crimes.

Obama's First General Election Ad

Smear-meister Larry Sinclair Arrested in D.C.

This low-life scumbag Larry Sinclair, who has been joining forces with Republicans to smear Obama, was arrested today by the metropolitan police in Washington D.C. after his appearance at the National Press Club. Sinclair is wanted for various felonies in Colorado, so presumably he will be extradited.

This is the kind of guy Republicans rely upon to smear Obama's record, which shows you how disgusting they are.

And, oh yeah, shame on the National Press Club for giving this guy more publicity.

How Old Is John McCain?

Get this -- John McCain is only five years younger than James Dean, who died in 1955.



John McCain is just one year younger than Elvis Presley.



And John McCain is one year older than Buddy Holly.



John McCain is truly from another era, another generation, another time.

McCain Confused About Cap & Trade

Yet another mental screwup by the old coot who wants to be President.

There are basically three explanations for what McCain said: (1) He is lying about his own policy; (2) He doesn't know what his own policy is; (3) He doesn't know either what the EU system involves, or what the term 'mandatory caps' means. Personally, I prefer some combination of options 2 and 3, which imply that McCain is completely unfamiliar with what is supposed to be one of his signature issues. But any of the three are damning, albeit in different ways.

Read the whole post. It's damning. Sooner or later, McCain's avalanche of confusion will catch up with him.

Horrible New Polls For McCain

Quinnipiac:

Florida
Obama (D) 47%, McCain (R) 43%
Margin of error: ±2.6%

Ohio
Obama (D) 48%, McCain (R) 42%
Margin of error: ±2.6%

Pennsylvania
Obama (D) 52%, McCain (R) 40%
Margin of error: ±2.5%

Obama has shown leads in Ohio and Pennsylvania before, but this is the first time he's shown a lead in Florida. Personally, I'm shocked by these numbers and surprised that they would come so soon.

I figured Obama wouldn't take the lead in Florida until after the VP or convention bounce, if at all. In a way, I expected McCain to lead in Florida until election day, thinking Obama might write off the state.

This could be an outlier, and McCain will probably lead in future polls. But if Obama is able to maintain a strong standing here, McCain is going to be in big trouble. He might be forced to pick Charlie Crist in order to hold the state. But even that won't solve his problems in Ohio. For McCain to have any chance in this election, he needs to win both of those states, period.

72

Today marks 72 days until John McCain turns 72 years old.

Happy 72 Until 72 Day, John!

Who's To Blame?

Very funny:

McCain, In Bed With Big Oil

As McCain tries to pretend that he is all for alternative energy, let's get some facts straight. He's an old school Republican who has voted against alternative energy funding and in favor of tax breaks for Big Oil. He wants offshore drilling, opposed Kyoto, and supports the bogus Gas Tax Holiday.

Check out this new video from Brave New Films:

MoveOn Hits McCain Again

When you take a step back and think about it, it seems outrageous that the Republicans would run a candidate who says we should be in Iraq for 100 years. Simply outrageous.

Who Is The Real Tough Guy on Terrorists?

It sure isn't McCain:



And it sure isn't Bush:



Republicans are making a mistake going after Obama on this. After all, he got into a huge dustup last August for appearing too hawkish towards Al Qaeda in Pakistan. But the Republicans have never been ones for consistency.

McCain Lies About His Military Service

John McCain has an honorable military record. So I don't understand why he is now trying to exaggerate it, to make himself look even more accomplished than he was. Essentially, McCain's campaign told the NY Times that McCain was about to make admiral when he resigned from the Navy in 1981. But McCain's autobiography and the testimony of fellow officers refutes this claim.

This is a must-read article, and one that provokes a lot of questions. McCain can answer these questions by releasing his full military record.

All of the evidence, indications and comments that the New York Times published a flattering lie about McCain's career on its front page are easy for John McCain to refute. All he needs to do is sign Standard Form 180, which authorizes the Navy to send an undeleted copy of McCain's naval file to news organizations. A long paper trail about McCain's pending promotion to admiral would be prominent in his file. To date, McCain's advisers have released snippets from his file, but under constrained viewing circumstances. There's no reason McCain's full file shouldn't be released immediately....

Some of the unreleased pages in McCain's Navy file may not reflect well upon his qualifications for the presidency. From day one in the Navy, McCain screwed-up again and again, only to be forgiven because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals. McCain's sense of entitlement to privileged treatment bears an eerie resemblance to George W. Bush's.

Despite graduating in the bottom 1 percent of his Annapolis class, McCain was offered the most sought-after Navy assignment -- to become an aircraft carrier pilot. According to military historian John Karaagac, "'the Airdales,' the air wing of the Navy, acted and still do, as if unrivaled atop the naval pyramid. They acted as if they owned, not only the Navy, but the entire swath of blue water on the earth's surface." The most accomplished midshipmen compete furiously for the few carrier pilot openings. After four abysmal academic years at Annapolis distinguished only by his misdeeds and malfeasance, no one with a record resembling McCain's would have been offered such a prized career path. The justification for this and subsequent plum assignments should be documented in McCain's naval file.

McCain's file should also include records and analytic reviews of McCain's subsequent sub-par performances.

But as we saw with McCain's health records and Cindy McCain's tax returns, the McCain family is extremely opposed to any sort of disclosure that might embarrass them.

But when you lie about your record, you lose the benefit of the doubt.

NY Times Tries to Soften McCain's Pro-Bush Tendencies

This article, while welcome, is an example of the sort of mealy-mouthed journalism we have come to expect over the past twenty years.

Basically, Elisabeth Bumiller investigates whether McCain really would represent Bush's third term. The answer, to any reasonable person, is yes. But Bumiller tries to fudge the issue, unwilling to take a stand and state the obvious.

Nearly all of the evidence in the article shows that McCain has either always agreed with Bush's policies, or simply came around to believing in them during the last 8 years. But McCain is different than Bush, Bumiller writes, because....well, because McCain says he will be different!

Here is a perfect example:

Perhaps Mr. McCain’s biggest departure from the president is on climate change. Mr. McCain has called for mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions, unlike Mr. Bush, who says such limits would be bad for the economy. Mr. McCain also supports a “cap and trade” system in which power plants and other polluters could meet limits on heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide by either reducing emissions on their own or by buying credits from more efficient producers.

Mr. McCain, who has a mixed record on the environment in the Senate — he has missed votes on toughening fuel economy standards and has opposed tax breaks meant to encourage alternative energy — has nonetheless tried to highlight what he considers his stark environmental divide with Mr. Bush.

“There is a longstanding, significant, deep, strong difference on this issue between myself and the administration,” Mr. McCain said last month.

Of course, Bumiller fails to tell you that in 2000 George W. Bush ran on a pledge to reduce greenhouse gases, then promptly backed off that campaign pledge after the election. And Bumiller notes that McCain hasn't actually voted in favor of any legislation that would address climate change. The only evidence she offers that McCain won't be like Bush? That McCain himself says he will be different.

The NY Times needs to get their act together. Stop going to McCain's ranch barbecues, tell us the real truth, and don't fall for the spin. If the vast bulk of McCain's policies mimic the worst president in our history, there is nothing wrong with telling us that.

Americablog Asks: Is John McCain Too Old?

John Aravosis has been getting feedback from his readers on whether McCain's age should be an issue.

Considering that my website is called "Old Man McCain", you know where I stand. But here's what a few of Americablog's readers have said.

Reader PHB writes:

How many 72 year olds think that they are up to one of the world's most intellectually demanding jobs?

I think that is the key to the age issue. Disqualifying people on the grounds of race and gender is telling people of the disqualified class that they are not up to the job. But most seniors have left their jobs by 72. They know that they are no longer as quick as they were in their 40s or 50s.

Septuagenarians who are working at that age are almost exclusively doing a job where their long experience makes up for their age. McCain was never a flag officer, never on track to make flag officer. He never commanded a large unit. Now he wants to be President.

Or put it another way. We are both in our 40s. Neither of us is going to make the finals of Wimbledon or Formula One racing driver. That's not ageist, it's just a fact that your reactions at 40 are not what they were at 20.

Another concurs:

You know, the thing about age is that John McCain is an "old" 72. Some 72 year olds are vital, healthy, and young for their age. You see them on the tennis courts, or in the gym, in great physical shape and, most importantly, they are really sharp mentally. You are blown away when you learn they are 72. But John McCain is not one of them. Mentally and physically he almost seems like late 70s. So the discussion about age and fitness for office, I think, has to be more than about chronological age. Then there is the fact that he has had four or five (I forgot how many) malignant melanomas removed which is not good.

I think there is nothing wrong with being ageist. After all, businesses do it all the time:

Four out of five companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 force retirement - typically at age 70 or 72 - for their directors, according to Institutional Shareholder Services. Law firms still tend to shoo aging partners out the door.

The rationale is that older people are less physically and mentally rigorous, and less productive. Ample research suggests that, on average, this is true. The Mayo Clinic studied septuagenarians and reported that 1 out of 11 displayed cognitive impairment.

New York State forces judges to retire at age 76, while Arizona forces them to retire at the age of 70. In other words, McCain is already too old to be a judge in his home state.

Call me crazy, but being President of the United States is just a wee bit more demanding that sitting on a judicial bench listening to arguments and writing up opinions. You have to travel constantly, stay up to date on hundreds of events, meet thousands of people, deliver countless speeches, all while presenting an air of vitality and confidence. It is an incredibly stressful job, not for the faint of heart.

If McCain looked sharp and agile, this wouldn't be an issue. But when he makes a new gaffe every single day, when he stumbles over words, when he blows up in anger at the slightest offense, and when he gets confused about real world events, then it is clearly uncertain if he is up to the task.

At such a critical time in this nation's history, I don't think we should take that chance.

More McCain Mishaps

This campaign really needs to get its shit together. It's becoming embarrassing.

First, we learn that one of these so called "Hillary Supporter For McCain" people is actually a racist:

A key organizer of John McCain's meeting Saturday with former supporters of Hillary Clinton is best known for her role in another bitter American fight: The effort by some white descendants of Thomas Jefferson to keep his possible African-American descendants out of family gatherings....

But Abeles first made the news in 2003, when she and her husband, then-Monticello Association President Nat Abeles, led the fight to keep members of the Hemings family -- descendants of Jefferson slave and, some historians believe, mistress Sally Hemmings -- out of a gathering of the Monticello Association, which is made up of lineal descendants of the third president.

Imagine if one of Obama's supporters had a history of discriminating against white people. It would be big news, to say the least. But you are unlikely to hear much about this from the mainstream news media.

In bigger news, McCain's campaign was forced to cancel a Texas fundraiser with a misogynist scumbag named Clayton Williams. Why?

Clayton Williams, who ran unsuccessfully against the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards (D), sparked controversy nearly two decades ago when he joked women should give in while being raped. "As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it," the oilman remarked at the time.

Williams -- who was planning to hold a reception for McCain at his home Monday -- also suggested at the time that he would campaign against Richards the way he treated the cattle he owned, vowing to "head her and hoof her and drag her through the dirt" like a cow on his ranch.

That wouldn't have looked too good, with McCain trying to woo female voters and all.



But there is more. McCain is refusing to return the money that Clayton Williams has raised for him:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will not return the $300,000 raised by a Texas Republican who joked in 1990 that women should submit to rape and "enjoy it."

"No, these are contributions from individuals -- not from Mr. Williams -- and it makes no sense to deny them the opportunity to support John McCain," the aide wrote.

These supporters could surely resubmit their donations on their own, if they so wish. As it stands, John McCain is more than happy to have Clayton Williams as one of his biggest fundraisers. Expect to see Williams at the White House if McCain is elected.

Obama: McCain The Wrong Choice For Women

Obama had to keep his powder dry against Hillary, knowing he'd have to woo her supporters after the primary was over.

But he has no such reservations with McCain. In fact, I think he relishes going after the old coot:

Sen. Barack Obama hit back at Sen. John McCain's recent attempts to court women voters who flocked to Sen. Hillary Clinton's failed presidential bid in droves.

"On almost every single issue that's important to women, he's been on the wrong side," the presumptive Democratic nominee told ABC News in an interview in Flint, Mich. Monday.

"You know, he is in favor of judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade. He has opposed equal pay. He has opposed the CHIP [Children's Health Insurance] program, that would make children insured," Obama said....

"He has opposed efforts to protect women against some of the discrimination that they experience in the workplace," Obama said. "You know, that's not going to be a track record that I think is going to be very appealing to women."

And McCain character isn't too appealing either. Let's be honest: the guy is a misogynist. McCain called his wife a "cunt", said that Chelsea Clinton (a teenager at the time) was "ugly", has fought the inclusion of women in the military, and laughed when one of his supporters called Hillary Clinton a "bitch".



So yeah, along with his terrible anti-women policies, I think McCain will have a tough time winning this demographic. He could score a lot of points by selecting a woman as his VP, but even this wouldn't make up for his terrible record on women's issues.

Ross Perot Is Back, With Charts In Hand

Ross Perot, who brought the Republican-created National Debt to the forefront in 1992, is back again with more charts.

Once again, it is clear that under Republican presidents, the deficit absolutely skyrockets. Under Bill Clinton, it actually began going down.


If you care about fiscal responsibility, voting Republican is absolutely the wrong thing to do.

Does Cindy McCain Have Any Recipes Of Her Own?

Or does she just steal them the same way she stole pills from that charity?

Another crack is showing in the McCain campaign's attempts at crafting a down-home image.

The campaign contributed a recipe to Parents magazine, "Cindy McCain's Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookies." However, it looks like it was copied directly from the Hershey's site.

The McCain campaign previously got caught copying some other recipes, purportedly from Cindy McCain herself, off of the Food Network's site. Just try to imagine the outpouring of pundit outrage and ridicule if a Dem did something like this once, let alone twice.

Gen. Wesley Clark Slams McCain

Good stuff:

Stumblemouth McCain: The Video

I'm sure we'll see plenty more of these as the election nears.

Stories the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear

A funny video about why the major news media won't report on McCain use of the c-word to attack his wife:

McCain 2008 v. McCain 1974 on Torture of POWs

The NY times has published McCain's National War College essay, written in April 1974. Although the point of the essay is to offer possible changes in the POW code taught to U.S. soldiers, it is a fascinating look at McCain's thinking vis-a-vis Vietnam War (was for it, unquestionably), the antiwar movements (he despised them), and -- most interesting -- his description of the North Vietnamese torture methods.

Guess what -- most of the North Vietnamese tactics are being used today in Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan. And while McCain has talked a good game about opposing these tactics, during the last eight years he has badly compromised these values in the hopes of winning over the pro-torture right wing Republican base.

Let's look at the contrasts between McCain in 1974 and the McCain/Bush policies of the last eight years.

Pages 7-8:

From 1965 to 1970 most prisoners were kept in individual cells or in small cells housing only two or three persons. All forms of communication between prisoners were strictly forbidden. Some of the most severe punishments were dealt out as a result of prisoners being apprehended while communicating....

Sounds like the description of Guantanamo Bay found on Wikipedia:

Detainees are kept in isolation most of the day, are blindfolded when moving within the camp and are forbidden to talk in groups of more than three. United States doctrine in dealing with prisoners of war states that isolation and silence are effective means of breaking down resistance to interrogation and is a deterrent to collaboration amongst detainees. Red Cross inspectors and released detainees have alleged acts of torture[21] [22], including sleep deprivation, beatings and locking in confined and cold cells. Human rights groups argue that indefinite detention constitutes torture.

While McCain has rightly called for the closing of Guantanamo, he also voted in favor of the 2006 Military Commissions Act that denies these prisoners the right to appeal their imprisonment. He also blasted last week's Supreme Court decision restoring habeus corpus as "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country".

McCain, page 8:

Psychologists say that after about 60 days of solitary confinement a human begins to suffer permanent mental deterioration.

Remember U.S. citizen Jose Padilla, imprisoned without charges for four years?

Now lawyers for Mr. Padilla, 36, suggest that he is unfit to stand trial. They argue that he has been so damaged by his interrogations and prolonged isolation that he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder and is unable to assist in his own defense. His interrogations, they say, included hooding, stress positions, assaults, threats of imminent execution and the administration of “truth serums.”

....

In the brig, Mr. Padilla was denied access to counsel for 21 months. Andrew Patel, one of his lawyers, said his isolation was not only severe but compounded by material and sensory deprivations. In an affidavit filed Friday, he alleged that Mr. Padilla was held alone in a 10-cell wing of the brig; that he had little human contact other than with his interrogators; that his cell was electronically monitored and his meals were passed to him through a slot in the door; that windows were blackened, and there was no clock or calendar; and that he slept on a steel platform after a foam mattress was taken from him, along with his copy of the Koran, “as part of an interrogation plan.”

Mr. Padilla’s situation, as an American declared an enemy combatant and held without charges by his own government, was extraordinary and the conditions of his detention appear to have been unprecedented in the military justice system.

McCain does not mention any instances where the North Vietnamese forced a prisoner into 4 years of solitary confinement, yet that is exactly what our government did to Padilla. While McCain questioned the treatment of Padilla, he did not use his influence with President Bush to see that justice was done. Instead, it was once again up to the Supreme Court to force Bush's hand; McCain was all talk, no action.

Page 9:

One of the standard methods to wear down a prisoner's resistance to their demands was the use of what could be described as "self-induced" punishment. That is to say, prisoners being ordered to sit, kneel, or stand for long periods of time deprived of rest or sleep. This form of torture, without laying a hand on a prisoner, was sometimes very successful in breaking his will.

As Marty Lederman noted earlier this year, McCain has apparently backtracked on his opposition to these North Vietnamese torture techniques (hat tip Hilzoy):

Senator McCain rightly insists that the U.S. may not (i) torture; (ii) engage in cruel treatment prohibited by Common Article 3; or (iii) engage in conduct that shocks the conscience, under the McCain Amendment. He also insists that waterboarding violates each of these legal restrictions, that the Bush Administration's legal analysis has been dishonest and flatly wrong, and that we need "a good faith interpretation of the statutes that guide what is permissible in the CIA program."

The Feinstein Amendment would have accomplished all of these objectives, but Senator McCain voted against it, presumably because he wishes that the CIA be permitted to continue the use of other of its enhanced techniques, apart from waterboarding. Those techniques are reported to include stress positions, hypothermia, threats to the detainee and his family, severe sleep deprivation, and severe sensory deprivation. Senator McCain has not explained which of these he thinks are not torture and cruel treatment, nor which he would wish to preserve for use by the CIA. But if the President does as he has promised and follows Senator McCain's lead by vetoing this bill, the CIA will continue to assert the right to use all of these techniques -- and possibly waterboarding, as well.

John McCain, Page 10:

Many ex-POWS have stated that due to the length and divisiveness of the Vietnam conflict, if the policy of the North Vietnamese towards the captured Americans had been of strict adherence to the Geneva Convention the North Vietnamese might have returned a group of men who would have been grateful and sympathetic to their problems in that part of the world. Instead, a dedicated group of anti-communists have emerged from that ordeal.

Sound familiar? This week's McClatchy article about the men who have been released from Guantanamo Bay stated this:

The McClatchy reporting also documented how U.S. detention policies fueled support for extremist Islamist groups. For some detainees who went home far more militant than when they arrived, Guantanamo became a school for jihad, or Islamic holy war.

Yet McCain, instead of using this as a reason to further oppose torture, uses it at a reason to keep people locked up forever. Here is what he said just last week:

I won't go through all the legislation we passed, and the prohibition against torture, but we made it very clear that these are enemy combatants, these are people who are not citizens, they do not and never have been given the rights that citizens of this country have.

And my friends there are some bad people down there. There are some bad people. So now what are we going to do. We are now going to have the courts flooded with so-called, quote, Habeas Corpus suits against the government, whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material. And we are going to be bollixed up in a way that is terribly unfortunate, because we need to go ahead and adjudicate these cases.

By the way, 30 of the people who have already been released from Guantanamo Bay have already tried to attack America again, one of them just a couple weeks ago, a suicide bomber in Iraq. Our first obligation is the safety and security of this nation, and the men and women who defend it. This decision will harm our ability to do that.

The fact that McCain uses the words "so-called, quote, Habeus Corpus" shows the depths to which he has sold out his honor and dignity on this issue, all in the name of political expediency. His complete disdain for the human rights of these detainees, many of whom are probably innocent, is shocking considering that McCain was a prisoner of war himself.

Page 11:

Within our society, especially in the military, members practice honesty and openess. In order to survive as a prisoner one has to learn to lie, deceive and steal.

Back in 1974, McCain knew that POWs would have to engage in whatever means necessary to survive. Yet today, he supports an administration that is so desperate to demonize these War on Terror POWs that even suicide is called "an act of warfare".

The hypocrisy on McCain's part is incredible and sad. For someone who was himself tortured, and who talks such a big game about following the Geneva Conventions and outlawing torture, his statements and actions over the last eight years show him to be either a shameless flip-flopper, a liar, or both.

Yet McCain doesn't have to worry about the repercussions of his actions, or the actions of his Republican friends. After all, tucked into the 2006 Military Commissions Bill that he helped pass is this little nugget:

Part of the act was an amendment which retroactively rewrote the War Crimes Act effectively making policy makers, i.e. politicians and military leaders, and those applying policy, i.e. CIA interogators and soldiers, no longer subject to legal prosecution under US law for what before the amendment was defined as a war crime.

I think Josh Marshall sums it up best:

Someone who is a master of the politics of opportunism can manage countless transformations. Not someone whose whole schtick is candor, authenticity and integrity. McCain is a good example of the fact that life can take almost everything away from you, and usually does. But your dignity you've got to give away. And he did.

74

Today marks 74 days until John McCain turns 72 years old.

Which means we are just two days from the magic "72 in 72" day!

Obama Helps Flood Victims, McCain is AWOL

Yesterday, we learned that the Obama campaign was using their website to organize flood assistance in the Midwest:

Not only is the Obama campaign helping to raise money for the relief effort, the websites Community Blogs are providing information on where volunteers who live in or near the affected areas are needed to assist local residents in building sandbag levees to protect peoples' homes. They had specific information on what towns needed help and where volunteers should go to offer their help. This included an appeal for volunteers to bring cold bottled water for the folks working at sandbagging - it is grueling hard work and the floods have contaminated many of the local water supplies.

And today we see that Obama is putting his money where his mouth is:



Sullivan:

Very deft p.r. from the Obama camp. This is the kind of thing a president would do - and the contrast with Bush after Katrina is powerful.

John McCain and George W. Bush, of course, are nowhere to be seen.

Sunday McCain Roundup

I've got visitors in town, so blogging will be lighter than usual today.

Here's the roundup of news:

Frank Rich laughs at the idea that misogynist McCain will win the female vote.

Ten years ago John McCain had to apologize for regaling a Republican audience with a crude sexual joke about Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and Janet Reno. Last year he had to explain why he didn’t so much as flinch when a supporter asked him on camera, “How do we beat the bitch?” But these days Mr. McCain just loves the women.

In his televised address on Barack Obama’s victory night of June 3, he dismissed Mr. Obama in a single patronizing line but devoted four fulsome sentences to praising Mrs. Clinton for “inspiring millions of women.” The McCain Web site is showcasing a new blogger who crooned of the “genuine affection” for Mrs. Clinton “here at McCain HQ” after she lost. One of the few visible women in the McCain campaign hierarchy, Carly Fiorina, has declared herself “enormously proud” of Mrs. Clinton and is barnstorming to win over Democratic women to her guy’s cause.

How heartwarming. You’d never guess that Mr. McCain is a fierce foe of abortion rights or that he voted to terminate the federal family-planning program that provides breast-cancer screenings. You’d never know that his new campaign blogger, recruited from The Weekly Standard, had shown his genuine affection for Mrs. Clinton earlier this year by portraying her as a liar and whiner and by piling on with a locker-room jeer after she’d been called a monster. “Tell us something we don’t know,” he wrote.

But while the McCain campaign apparently believes that women are easy marks for its latent feminist cross-dressing, a reality check suggests that most women can instantly identify any man who’s hitting on them for selfish ends. New polls show Mr. Obama opening up a huge lead among female voters — beating Mr. McCain by 13 percentage points in the Gallup and Rasmussen polls and by 19 points in the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News survey.

Teacherken thinks this race won't be close, but we should organize like it will be.

Maureen Dowd says that Europe is having Bush fatigue, while Bush is just as moronic as always.

Remember how the McCain campaign flipped out because Obama's VP vetter got a loan through Countrywide? (And no, I still can't figure out what was wrong with this). Well, the NY Times reports that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, may have violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act when he lobbied for Ukraine in 2005:

The issue of foreign lobbying has flared up in the current presidential campaign because of past dealings abroad by several former lobbyists working for Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

For instance, a lobbying firm owned by Rick Davis, the McCain campaign manager, has worked in recent years for a Ukraine politician, Viktor Yanukovich. Both Mr. McCain and the Bush administration supported the opponent of Mr. Yanukovich, who had close ties to Vladimir V. Putin, then the president of Russia and now prime minister.

During this time, however, Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis Manafort, never registered as a lobbyist for Mr. Yanukovich even though Paul Manafort, Mr. Davis’s business partner, had met with the United States ambassador in Kiev on Mr. Yanukovich’s behalf.

In a related development, Mr. McCain may have first become aware of Davis Manafort’s activities in Ukraine as far back as 2005. At that time, a staff member at the National Security Council called Mr. McCain’s Senate office to complain that Mr. Davis’s lobbying firm was undercutting American foreign policy in Ukraine, said a person with direct knowledge of the phone call who spoke on condition of anonymity....

Such a call might mean that Mr. McCain has been long aware of Mr. Davis’s foreign clients.

We'll see how long Rick Davis lasts. I think by the time the election rolls around, McCain's staff will look a lot different than it does today.

McCain cancels a fundraiser with a fellow misogynist who once said rape victims should enjoy the experience. Perhaps McCain should also return the $300,000 that this asshole raised for him. God, these Republicans are all creeps, aren't they?

Colin Powell ponders whether he should support Obama. First of all, this would be a major blow to McCain, since Colin Powell is considered the sort of respected bipartisan Republican that McCain makes himself out to be. But at the same time, it won't do much to revive Powell's legacy. His last chance to redeem himself was to resign from Bush's cabinet and endorse Kerry in 2004. He didn't, and well, the rest is history.

McClatchy tracks down many of the folks released from Guantanamo Bay. None of them were terrorists when they were arrested, the experience in Gitmo made them very anti-American by the end. No surprise. And of course, John McCain argues that because these prisoners become anti-American, we can never release them. I'm not sure where McCain plans to send them when he "closes" Gitmo, but I'm guessing a fair trial and possible freedom won't be in their future.

The Double Talk Express Continues

We have lots of video on McCain, plenty to refute his constant lies and misrepresentations. If the press woke up and started reporting this stuff, McCain would quickly develop a reputation as the biggest liar we've ever had running for President.