John McCain = America's Hypocrite And Bush's Pet

Disappearing into the morass of frenzy surrounding the pick of Sarah (Lipstick Pitbull) Palin as John McCain's Vice Presidential pick is the debate about who John McCain really is, what his policies are and how he would govern should the sheeple of America help the Republicans steal a third election in a row.

All of a sudden an unknown woman who has done little more than bark out thinly disguised disgust for all Americans that try in their every day lives to make a difference and help others, has become some sort of mainstream media icon, as though her sudden appearance on the national stage has heralded the second coming of Christ Himself.

Putting aside for the moment that this woman probably couldn't point out Delaware or Arkansas on a map of the United States, we had better start returning to the true issues at hand, and stop allowing mainstream media, and the far right wing fascists to control the conversation with their bait and switch tactics, lest we fall victim yet again to the old Karl Rove strategy of not talking about what ails the nation, but pandering to the most divisive issues that will pit Americans at each others throats long enough for no one to notice that they're even doing it again.

John McCain is no 'maverick'. How anyone has fallen for that baloney is beyond all reason, but fall for it they do. McCain's own voting record in the Senate shows him for the phony he his. That's not to say he isn't a very shrewd politician, because he is. So shrewd that he knew how to vote against an issue that he knew would be unpopular, then vote for the very same thing a couple of years later. How quickly people tend to forget that even George Bush said that John McCain was ready to set forth his agenda.

Everyone has stopped talking about the fact that John McCain voted along with Bush to privatize Social Security and that he still holds that position. He has stated that he still feels that the program needs to be privatized and would fight to do so were he to win.

John McCain voted right along the neo-con line for tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, and wants to make the giveaway to the rich permanent. The only ones that want these tax cuts to remain in place are the corporations, the fabulously wealthy, John McCain and the suckers he can convince that it would be in their best interest to accept the crumbs from the altar of excess.

Interestingly, as John McCain tries desperately to repaint himself as a reformer and a maverick, he doesn't have any qualms at all about taking huge sums of money from many of George Bush's biggest corporate lobbyist bundlers. Here's a couple of them listed below:

Wayne and Lea Berman of Ogilvy Government Relations, who have raised more than $250,000.

James Courter of Idt Corp., who has raised more than $200,000.

Alfonse D'Amato of Park Strategies, who has raised more than $250,000.

Thomas Fiorentino of Fiorentino & Hewett, more than $200,000.

David Girard-diCarlo of BlankRome, more than a quarter of a million dollars.

Gaylord Hughey, a lobbyist at large (Wasn't there another 'lobbyist at large' who visited the White House a lot?), more than $150,000.

Thomas Loeffler of Loeffler Group, more than $250,000.

That's just a few of Bush's campaign contributors that are contributing to John McCain and Sarah Palin's sprint for the White House lawn. If McCain is such a maverick, why would he need Bush's people to raise money? For that matter, why would the President's speech writers have to write Sarah Palin's speech for the convention? Because they're all one and the same group of people, wallowing through the same mud, the same blood of Americans, and the same steal all you can and get out group of corporate lobbyists.

Medicare patients who are thinking of voting for McCain may well wish to read over his plan to rewrite the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. On April 15th of this year, McCain said that he believes most people should be required to pay for their own medicine. In a glorious showing of his out of touch with reality mentality, he included 'most Americans' in with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. On the same day, McCain declared that he would begin to cut funding for and even eliminate many social safety net programs in order to jump start the economy by giving even larger tax cuts to corporations. Compared to the Bush Doctrine, wherein the President froze or decreased spending for domestic programs in order to facilitate his corporate tax cuts, one would have to draw the conclusion that John is really McSame.

George Bush, instead of denouncing the massive amounts of wealth being garnered by CEO's, said that CEO pay should be commensurate with the success of the corporation. That would be right in line of McSame's statement in April that Americans were fed up with watching CEO's make exorbitant salaries and perks, and that their pay should be based on performance. Not that there ought to be some sort of equality in pay, but just more of Bush's talking points.

It's 3 A.M. and a hurricane destroys a major American city, stranding thousands and thousands, bodies floating down streets, and millions of lives devastated. What does a President do? Well, if your name is Bush, you have birthday cake on the tarmac of an airport with your good friend John McCain. If your name is John McCain, you vote along neo-fascist lines and deny Medicaid coverage to the survivors of Katrina. You vote against investigating fraud and abuse in the aftermath. You vote to deny an extension of unemployment benefits to the disaster victims. You vote against forming a commission to try to discover what went wrong with the government's response, because you know damned well the commission is going to find that your Party was responsible for FEMA being under the control of a horse trader, and the umbrella organization known as Homeland Insecurity was the reason that FEMA couldn't respond quickly enough. And oh, yeah, you voted FOR all of that stuff. And unlike the photo op rush to be on the scene before the latest non disaster, you were actually campaigning in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina before someone in your campaign told you it might make a good photo op to appear in New Orleans. Long after everyone else had come and gone. Now THAT'S leadership we can count on!

But even better yet, in one of the most telling statements of McSame's politicking, he declared in January of 2008 that FEMA itself should be handed over to Wal-Mart and Fed-Ex. Privatized in order to make it more efficient. Or in other words, so they could rip off the tax payers just like the Oil Companies that are paying huge sums of money to elect McSame, or the Insurance Industry that has reaped windfall profits by ensuring that people on Medicaid can't go to their doctors or receive medications due to the program being privatized by Bush and the Republicans. is that called 'progress' or something?

And while Bush and Cheney were lying straight into the faces of every American and every ally and person the world over about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, John 'the surge' McSame said "Saddam Hussein continues to acquire, amass, and improve on his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. He continues to attempt to acquire a nuclear weapon. These are all well-known facts." Oh? What 'intelligence' did John McCain get? Was it the same 'memos' that Cheney was handing out? Or was he just spouting the party line? And if McSame believed so much in this war for oil, then why did he consistently vote against our troops every single chance that he had? he voted against funding for armor for vehicles, body armor for the troops, health care for the returning wounded, and even voted against H.R. 1591, a bill to provide funding to continue the war in Iraq, because it contained $1 billion in aid for the returning wounded. So why does John McCain hate our troops?

These are just a few of the hypocritical stances of John McSame and his religious adviser, er, Vice presidential pick. McCain will say literally anything to any group in order to get elected. Straight talk? Give that a rest. No one believes that crap any more. What America believes now are the words of our glorious leader that still squats in an office he was never elected to "There's an old saying in Tennessee--I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee--that says, fool me once, shame on--shame on you. Fool me--you can't get fooled again." You're damned right.......

God Wants To Talk To The Republicans

I and a group of true believers were speaking to God today. Not just in general terms mind you, like when you go to church or when you meditate, but He came down from on High and sat with us awhile. Surprised by His sudden appearance, we all immediately clamored to fetch refreshments for God, knowing how far of a journey He had come, just to speak with us lowly mortals. God pointed out that since He had come in Spirit form this time, that He obviously could not partake of physical food and drink.

He gathered us around into a circle, so that each of us was facing Him, and He could pivot to look each of us in the eyes as He spoke. He said He had come to give us a message to carry out to the rest of the nation, a message so important that He had come to deliver it in person.

He told us He had been watching the recent Party Conventions in this country that bandies His name about as though He were a mascot for one politician over another. He was upset that one Party was trying to claim that He advocated for them over the rest of the people in this particular nation. He wanted to set the record straight and He exhorted us to go forth with the newest Good News.

To say we were speechless would be the understatement of all time, but we shuffled in closer to hang on God's every word. He went on to tell us that the Republican Party of the United States did not have any exclusive phone line to Him, nor did ANY of the so called preachers like James Dobson or Ralph Reed. Pointing out where they had twisted and perverted the messages He'd left for us before, He said that He was becoming angry with them for their false claims and leading of His people into damnation.

The ground began moving under our feet and Bushes began burning before our very eyes as God angrily began a tirade against the messages against the poor and the helpless put forth by the Republican Party. Seeing us become afraid however, the Lord waved His hand and all became calm once more. But the fire never left His eyes as He declared the message we were to send forth. The message is this: God says to the Republican Party of the United States that they should remove themselves from the ballots in all 50 states. That He has grown weary of their lies and corruption, and their attempts to subvert His Word into political propaganda just to enrich themselves and their conspirator friends.

He said that should they obey Him this one time, He may once again let them back in His good Graces. But He warned of the consequences awaiting them when their time comes and they must stand and answer why they did not obey His word. As He pointed out to us, and told us to tell the world also, He ordered us to love one another, not kill in His name. He ordered us to take care of the poor, not declare they could fend for themselves. To help the sick and the infirm, not debate over who gets medical care and who doesn't. He decried the new money changing is His temples, and the money made by hucksters who disobey His very essence, which is of Goodness and Love, and Respect for your fellow peoples the world over. He declares that all wars must cease and that those who think they are on a mission from Him to kill in His name will be left in a very unpleasant place when the time of the Rapture comes. He also said that He will decide when that Rapture comes, and needs no help from the Republican Party.

For the rest of the world He delivers this creed. Feed His people everywhere in the world. He says we in this country have the means and the know how to end hunger the entire planet over, and that we should use our abilities to truly serve Him. House those with no homes, because with the massive amounts of money spent on guns and bombs and planes and nuclear missiles, He knows we could instead build houses and apartments for those who can't do it themselves. Deliver free medical care to the planet, no matter if you lose a few patents. God says He is tired of greeting His people at the gates of heaven before they are supposed to arrive, when He gave us the knowledge to prevent the untimely deaths of millions and millions every year.

He warned the tyrants and would be extremists that they had better stop what they're doing, lest He become fully angry at them for their despotic ways. He orders the disbanding of all far right wing 'churches', the ones who spew hatred and who claim to speak with Him, when in reality, all they do is suck up wannabe followers' money like a vacuum sucks up dirt. He admonishes those who are destroying the planet He made, that He will likewise destroy them, and to the purveyors of the perpetuation of division and rancor amongst the people, He says that your days are being counted down.

Because God says that as we enter the final phase of this bitter election season, He has heard too many lies of the Republican Party claiming to be the Party of God, when in reality, it is Satan that leads your cult of oil and profit stealing, and who brings you to hate all those not like yourselves. You bow and worship before the altar of the Liar, and accept his gifts of exorbitant fortune in exchange for the perversion of the Word of God. God demands that you halt this practice, and from what we could see, we don't think He was kidding.

With the message firmly implanted and seared into our souls, four angels descended from the skies and gingerly lifted God up, flying into the night sky in a great burst of light. As He was leaving He shouted out His warning one last time. "The Republican Party must throw this election or fall out of favor with God forever. And all those who vote Republican will be in peril of the fires of hell also". And with that God was gone, back to wherever it is that He hangs out when He isn't appearing to people every couple of thousand years or so to impart messages of world importance.

So you see, Sarah Palin, John McCain and the rest of you so called holy rollers who wish to dominate and control the rest of humanity, God is not on your side, He told me so in person. Now, according to what you tell your sheeple every day, God is never wrong, and so, you must cease what you're doing and change your ways. Or will you now claim that God never spoke to me, and if so, how do you know? Will you claim exclusive rights to communication with the Almighty? Will you claim that your God is different from mine? Because in order to make any such claim, you would have to admit that you follow a God of hatred and war and greed and contempt for your fellow human beings. And that the rest of us follow the words of a God of love and of peace and of caring and of respect for the rights of others. It's up to you. God has spoken, the message has been delivered, and you'll have to decide whether or not to obey the God you claim to believe in and wish to shove down everyone's throats whether they believe or not.

If you do all drop out of the race, then we'll have to believe you won't we? If you don't, we'll know we were right all along and that you are all a bunch of lying, conniving, disgusting non-believers who are as the Pharisees of old. Willing to say anything, do anything, become like a chameleon and blend into any background in order to hold the reins of power.

A Noun, A Verb, And A P.O.W.

If Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden would just switch one part of his now famous phrase he used against Rudy Giuliani during the Democratic debates earlier this year, he could keep reminding the entire nation what the McCain campaign is really all about. Which is quite frankly, nothing but drilling for oil. Biden's slap down of Giuliani by way of his saying that all the ex-mayor's campaign consisted of was "A noun, a verb, and 9/11", was probably a contributing factor in Giuliani's losing the nomination for his party. Everyone loved it. Everyone picked up on it. And then everyone saw that's exactly what Giuliani's campaign really was.

Here we are now, faced with the exact same circumstance that we found ourselves in back when Giuliani was the front runner in the Republican contest. We have in John McCain yet another candidate who will say anything and pander to any group in order to get elected. His themes are almost identical to Giuliani's, except McCain can't boast about being 'America's Mayor'. (Giuliani is no more 'America's Mayor' than the Dallas Cowboys are 'America's Team'.)

But let's see what the criteria would be for Biden to be able to use this new and improved phrase when describing the McCain campaign's plan for change in our country. It's so simple that even McCain and his pit bull can understand it.

John McCain's Noun: Oil. Lots and lots of oil. There's oil in the Gulf of Mexico that Cuba and China are trying to steal from us, there's oil in the Alaskan Wildlife Reserve that the polar bears and the wolves refuse to hand over to us, there's oil in the Dakotas that we could be using if it weren't for that pesky Environmental Protection Agency. California doesn't mind if we ruin some more of their landscape around Bakersfield and Kern County, there be Oil in that there land! There's oil in Iran that we could be using, and by hook or by crook, if we need to bomb bomb bomb them back to the Stone Age to get at it, then that's exactly what we'll do.

John McCain's Verb: Drill. As in "Drill Baby Drill!" being chanted over and over and over at the Republican National Convention, live, in color, on national television and the web. McCain, having been perverted by this past decade of hugging oil barons like Dick Cheney and George Bush, has come to the conclusion that all America needs to do to solve ANY crisis is to start drilling. Drill in the Gulf of Mexico. Drill in the Alaskan Wildlife Reserve. Drill in the Dakotas. Drill in Manhattan if there's even a hint of a barrel of oil under the island. Drill until there's nothing left to drill and then drill some more is the only message of 'change' coming from McCain and the obnoxious little side kick he's dragging around.

John McCain's P.O.W. status: Shut Up. We know you were shot down over North Vietnam because you were hot dogging it. That makes you stupid for disobeying orders, not a hero, and certainly does not qualify you to be President of the United States. In every speech we heard coming out of the St. Paul, there was virtually not one that did not say the phrase P.O.W. at least once, many speaking ONLY about John McCain being a P.O.W. To hear McCain and his followers talk, one could easily get the impression that John McCain was the ONLY P.O.W. in the entire Vietnam war, and that he single handedly wrestled the torturers tools out of the hands of the enemy, thereby saving all the other prisoners that weren't there. Hyping your revisionist history as a P.O.W. only invites open discussion of the days that you spent there drinking tea and eating biscuits with your captors, and why there are groups like Vietnam Veterans Against McCain on the internet who call you no hero. Ones that were there with you. Other (gasp!) P.O.W.'s who claim you served with no honor and you aren't fit to lead a group of Cub Scouts let alone be Commander-In-Chief. You should also remind the public to go back and review the hearings in 1991 that you were part of, and which effectively cut off the searching for more P.O.W.'s It would have interfered with the re-election chances of Bush number one, who had done absolutely nothing to try to locate them. Ross Perot knows the truth about that one doesn't he?

And don't think that everyone has forgotten your days of being a criminal. The Keating Five scandal may have faded out of the media's peripheral vision, but we have not forgotten your role in the Lincoln Savings and Loan crash and burn. Nor the slap on the wrist you received from your fellow Senators.

This is the message from the McCain campaign. Their big plans for America. Drill Baby Drill. The agents of change who want to recycle the exact same programs of George Bush and Dick Cheney, only they want to wrap it in the flag of our nation and tell us it's something brand new. A new type of Republican Party, even as virtually every Republican that's responsible for the mess we are in, McCain and Palin included, sat front and center in the Convention hall. They want us to forget about George Bush and Dick Cheney, and how McCain voted along with the Bush Doctrine 95% of the time. That McCain himself is to blame for some of the legislation that has been shoved down our throats by the most evil Executive Branch in the history of the United States.

Legislation such as the Patriot Acts, the Domestic Spying bills, the Expansion of Police Powers, Gitmo, Abu Gharib, the Refusal to Protect Our Borders, the Slashing of Domestic Safety Net Programs, The Free Trade Deals, The Privatization of Social Security, the Medicare giveaway to the Insurance Companies, the Medicaid giveaway to the Insurance Companies, the Tax Cuts for the Rich, Wars Wars Wars, and the Deregulation of Corporate Rules that has contributed to the state of the economy and the high unemployment rate.

The agent of change who has Karl Rove advising him, Phil Gramm, the designer of the economic collapse as his behind the curtain economic adviser, Henry Kissinger whispering foreign policy into his and no doubt Palin's ears, and who seeks out the advice of Bush's people on affairs of state, and writes speeches for the neophyte who would be queen.

Joe Biden could go on and on about the great harm Mccain and his neo-fascist buddies have done to America, but he doesn't really have to does he? Because when boiled down to it's basics, besides standing for more of the same, the campaign of John McCain to become President of the United States boils down to three words. A noun, a verb, and 9/11, er, a P.O.W..............

Palin's 'Speech' Was A Subtle Attack On The Poor

When Sarah Palin took the stage to read the talking points memo drawn up by Bush Administration officials, she showed the country and the world her true colors. In fact, the Republican Party in general showed America who they really are and what they stand for with their smirky and derogatory attacks on Barak Obama, liberal thinkers in general, the media, and pretty much anyone who does not subscribe to the most extreme far right positions the Republicans have to offer.

Palin, in belittling Obama's service as a Community Organizer, showed us something else. Contempt for the poor, the disabled, and the elderly. Contempt for education for the impoverished. In trying to tout her experience as the mayor of a town that would fit neatly into a four square block area of the city where I reside, Palin must have forgotten what she told the Mat-Su valley Frontiersman in October of 1996, when she was running for mayor of Wasilla, and was asked how she was going to run the city without experienced leaders. Palin replied " "It's not rocket science. It's $6 million and 53 employees." Yeah, great executive level stuff.

On the other hand, Obama, as a Community Organizer, fought the status quo in the South Chicago neighborhood where a sewage plant leaked putrid garbage, fought to force slum lords in the area to fix plumbing and fixtures in the apartments of the poor and working class, worked with area churches to give the poor a chance in life, and fought a pitched battle with the city to remove life threatening asbestos from the areas housing projects. In other words, he fought for the poor and the middle class, fought for 'the little guy'. And oh. He also worked with others who helped people in the community to get out and vote, the biggest cardinal sin for a right winger.

Palin can make no such claim. By belittling the work of Community Organizers, she spit in the faces of every person in this nation that works or volunteers at homeless shelters, food banks, soup kitchens, charities, neighborhood watch committees, and any other position that could be conceived as 'community organizing'. She herself did little to nothing to help the poor of the state of Alaska during her brief stint as Governor. If anything, the state legislators had to reign in her wishes to take money from social service block grants and give it to 'faith based initiatives'.

The $1.5 million dollars that went to the largest cities in Alaska to help keep the poor housed from the bitter Alaskan winters, to keep the food banks and soup kitchens open, to try to help those who had fallen on hard times, protect victims of domestic violence, help working class families pay medical bills, would have either had to curtail their missions or close entirely under Palin's redistribution of money. The plan was dropped only after a brutal dressing down from the State Legislators who saw Palin's ploy for what it was. An attempt to take money from the poorest areas of Alaska, and give it to the rich areas where the money was not needed. Beverly Wooley, the Anchorage Health and Human Services director said at the time that the Palin plan "stands to cripple the existing services being provided."

With the federal poverty level being set at less than 22 thousand dollars a year for a family of four, Alaska boasts the largest one year increase in children living in poverty under Palin's leadership. 2006 numbers show that 12% of children lived below the poverty level, while in 2007, the number increased to 17%. taking into account Alaska's very high cost of living, one can imagine the conditions those children are forced to live in.

This person running on a family values platform, who doesn't want anyone talking about her pregnant teen aged daughter, was the person who directly cut funding for Alaska's Covenant House by more than $1.1 million. Covenant House provides poor Alaskan unwed teen mothers a place to raise their babies for up to eighteen months, including not only food and shelter, diapers and what have you for both mother and child, but job training, education programs, and counseling to the teens that help prepare them to be self sufficient. Just doesn't fit into the 'Compassionate Conservative' agenda I suppose.

Yes, Sarah Palin cut spending in Alaska alright. She did it the way that every neo-fascist maniac has done it for the past 30 years in this nation. On the backs of the poor and the helpless. Other spending cuts include school lunch programs, fought desperately against sex education classes, (five kids and SHE fights AGAINST sex ed?), upheld the ban on salmon fishing in the southwest Aleutians causing a steep spike in poverty levels, cut state funding for Anchorage's only family shelter for the homeless, and cut in half the budget for Safe Harbors, a transitional housing motel for the homeless, with Palin stating that the public would have to donate the loss of revenue to keep the shelter open.

That's what this all boils down to. Another speech reader who will say whatever she thinks the Party Big Wigs want her to say in order to further her career. Her claims of fiscal responsibility come from the causing of untold misery for countless people by cutting off the funding for those in the most vulnerable positions. Another charlatan, another liar, another in a very long line of fascists who could care less about anyone other than themselves.

Do tell dear Sarah, as someone who despises the poor and unwed teen mothers, as someone who believes that Barak Obama's time as a Community Organizer working with the poor is easily dismissed as meaningless, how do you think that YOUR candidate, John McCain should act when he appears in New York City on September 11th to highlight the good works and achievements of................Community Organizers? Hypocrite. You're just Bush and Cheney in drag...............

John McCain: Why Weren't These Women Considered?

Forget Sarah Palin's daughter being pregnant. Forget the convoluted and twisted stories crawling across cyber space filled with accusations unfounded. Forget the morals and family values issues this pick by McCain entails. And forget what Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign said about not checking into Palin's background. (What is he, just crazy or what? That's like an open invitation to dig for people like me.) What we should be considering is why the women listed below were passed over for the Republican Vice Presidential slot, and what that says about the competency of McCain and the people who speak for the McCain campaign.

First there's Olympia Snowe from Maine. The only reason I can gather for not picking her is that the campaign didn't want a candidate from the Northeast. That would look like he picked a 'liberal' when nothing would have been further from the truth. Snowe's credentials look like a virtual banquet of experience, having served 8 terms in the U.S. House, been a state representative and a state senator. As a U.S. Senator now, she has sponsored or co-sponsored bills that champion the Republican's most cherished values. Dealing with business legislation, foreign affairs, health care, privatizing Social Security, worked directly with Pentagon officials, the White House, and with the numerous contacts she still has in the House, would have made Snowe the ideal candidate. That must be one they forgot about.

Next, there's Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. This woman's credentials read like she should have run for President herself. Her accomplishments include being instrumental in passing the Overseas Basing Commission legislation, working closely with the Department of Defense and Pentagon, fought to obtain funding for 1,500 Border Patrol Agents, helped draft the Airline Security Bill, fought FOR women's rights in the form of the Homemaker IRA Act which allows housewives to save for their futures in the same way as their husbands, worked on health care and Medicare legislation, and is a ranking member of the Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation. top that off with her work on foreign policy initiatives, and you have what's called a complete package.

Third. Elizabeth Dole. What better candidate could you ask for here? This woman has been on the political scene since the Nixon years, and in fact served as Deputy Assistant for Consumer Affairs from 1969 to 1973. Next, she was Reagan's Secretary of Transportation, Bush the 1st's Secretary of Labor, became the President of the Red Cross, which during her first year there she accepted NO salary and traveled around the world meeting heads of state, ran for President herself, becoming the real first viable woman candidate, and holds many awards, including the Foreign Policy Association Medal. Oh. And she's also a Senator.

Or even fourth, Susan Collins. Collins, as a U.S. Senator has been a Ranking Member of the homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, worked on bipartisan legislation to improve FEMA response time, is on the Senate Armed Services Committee, fought for Health Care rights, has a 100% rating from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, fought for Higher Education grants, helped push through the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, and helped strengthen security at America's ports when no one else wanted to talk about it. Sounds pretty credentialed, don't you think?

Four women with varied and immense credentials, all of which include local, state, national, and foreign policy credentials. Three women who could have added actual value to the Republican ticket other than the All American family look that the Party seems so desperate to portray. It seems, when one looks over the political landscape, that you could stop in at the House of Representatives and find many other women with far more experience than Sarah Palin.

If we're really honest with ourselves, we have the answers to why McCain chose Palin. First, they get to play the youth card, with Palin being only 44 years old. Second, McCain can present the family photo of the Palin clan, the good old apple pie pictures splashed on every front page. Third, Palin is a rabid far right winger. She'll be compliant as Vice President to the wishes of Big Oil, and will fight harder than McCain even for drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Preserve. She'll be guided by her religious beliefs to fight for anti-abortion laws. She'll press ahead with McCain for a strike and war with Iran, believing that it's the United States' destiny to bring about the Rapture and Armageddon.

If just the few things that we do know about Palin don't scare you enough to run for the door, then just wait until people dig up more dirt. Because despite what the McCain campaign says, and despite what a few misguided reporters are trying to also tell the public, once a person enters the arena of Presidential politics, nothing is 'off limits' at all. There should be no attack upon Palin's children themselves, but the family values and morality issues come directly into play here, as well as the abstinence only teachings shoved down America's throat. Obviously, they don't work.

But the real question that should be why at least four well qualified, well suited to the task candidates were passed over in favor of a political neophyte, who has no choice now but to turn to the Bush/Cheney people to get a crash course in both National and International affairs. That alone should give voice to the lie about what John McCain is really all about. More of the same. Women with foreign policy credentials passed over for a pliable plebe who could be shaped and molded into the Bush/Cheney brand name. A continuation of wars and terror. More tearing up of the Constitution, less liberties, and more of the push towards the theocracy that the Dobsons and the Reeds of America so desperately envision. With the other women, they couldn't try that crap, and so, here you have Palin. Willing and able to carry out the orders from the extreme right wing.

Run as fast and as far as you can from this mad hatter campaign the Republicans are piecing together as they go along. If you feel you must stick to the Republican Party, stay home. Because if they vote this clown posse into office, Americans are going to be heading for Canada by the millions seeking political asylum. Myself included.

How Our Government Workers Rip Off America

Have you ever come across legislation that you find incomprehensible? Ever wondered just how in the heck someone could have voted for a bill that seems, at face value, to be against the interests of the American people? Well, you're not alone. Several citizen oversight groups such as The Project For Government Oversight have been wondering the same thing, and are determined to get to the bottom of it all. Let's give them a few places to start.

As Congress tells the American people that they are reforming Washington, and making it harder for government workers to lobby for the industries they used to work for by instituting a 'cooling off' period of one year, what they failed to make public is that although the new rules state that one can not lobby the office in which they worked for one year, the slicksters conveniently left out any provision for lobbying the office right next door! And they also made a provision for government workers to obtain something called an Ethics Waiver. A what?

It works like this. Say you work for Congressman A. as their health care liaison. You want to go to work for the drug industry as a lobbyist for a lot of money. You leave the Congressman's office, go to K Street, and start lobbying the health care liaison of Congressman B, right next door. According to the pull the wool over everyone's eyes ethics reform, that's perfectly acceptable.

The most liberal media publication in the world, (I'm joking of course), the Wall Street Journal, has itself begun to decry the practice, noting that Tom Sculley, who was the person who wrote the rules on who profits from Medicare and Medicaid services, as the former head of Medicare and Medicaid Services, has just taken a job as the head of lobbyist law firm Alston and Bird LLP's health care division. Who would be in a better position than the person who wrote the rules, to help the firm help their clients obtain lucrative government contracts in the newly privatized Medicare and medicaid areas?

Alston also scooped up Colin Rosky, the Senate Finance Committee's head staffer on the Medicare Bill. And oh, I almost forgot. Bob Dole now works as a paid lobbyist for them too.

The game also catches Congress people in it's snare. Representative Bill Tauzin from Louisiana, a key player in the writing and passing of the new Medicare and Medicaid giveaways to the insurance industry, is reportedly considering a $1 million plus offer from PHRMA, the drug industry's largest lobbying firm.

Many others have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. For instance, ex-CIA station chief Barry Broman was the eyes and ears of our anti-drug efforts in Burma during the 1990's. Today, he does quite well as a $7,500 a month lobbyist for the government of Myanmar/Burma, petitioning the U.S. government to take a friendlier stance towards one of the most brutal regimes in the entire world. One that floods the streets of America with the very same products that Mr. Broman used to guard us against.

Former California Secretary of State Bill Jones Shoved forced through legislation to have California's old voting machines tossed out and successfully pushed for $200 million for all new high tech voting machines. Sounds ok, right? Not when you consider that Jones then left public office and went to work for Sequoia Voting Systems, the largest firm lobbying the then head of California's elections. Not only that, but two people who worked under Jones now work for the same firm.

The same holds true in reverse these days . We've got paid lobbyists in charge of agencies they used to lobby, in the same industry, making up new rules beneficial to that industry, then jumping back out of government after a year or two to go right back to their former positions, or better ones, leaving the American taxpayer holding the bag for even further deregulation. You might recognize the biggest name on the list of the revolving door of robbery. Dick Cheney. When he was running for Vice President with George Bush, he told a bald faced lie, wherein he said he no longer had any connection to Halliburton. That wasn't quite true the Congressional Research Service would find, telling the story of Cheney still receiving up to $1 million dollars per year in remuneration from Halliburton. But even the billions of dollars worth of no bid contracts weren't enough for the boldest mobster ever to sit in the Vice President's chair. In 2004, while on the taxpayer's dime on a trip to China, Cheney lobbied the Chinese to make a deal with Westinghouse for U.S. nuclear power technology. I thought the Communists were evil and had to be stopped at all costs?

There are many other notable public servants that have played the greed game against the interests of the People. Such as Tom Ridge, the former head of the run amok agency known as Homeland Insecurity. Ridge left his post and became a board member of Savi Technology, a maker of RFID chips, and a company being bought by Lockheed Martin. Paid in stock options, Lockheed Martin promised lucrative buy back of the stock. Ridge, of course, has lobbied all his old buddies in government.

This is why the United States is going broke. Inflated costs, middlemen that are not needed, ships being built that have to be scuttled because they don't float, pet projects for the defense industry, insurance companies running Medicare and Medicaid, blatant outsourcing of American jobs with the encouragement of those who are in a position to stop it, deregulation of virtually everything by this criminal cadre in the White House that everyone seems all too willing to give a pass to, the oil scam, the back room deals, and the make believe laws the law makers pass to protect their own. To make sure that the 'appearance' of propriety is maintained, the illusion that everything is above board, when the reality is that right beneath our noses, the fattened pigs wallow in our misery and call us whiners for complaining.

Think anything is going to change come November? Think again. This dysfunction is much too deep, and the only solution is to vote out of office virtually ever Senator, every House member, replace them with honest people, and commit this country to term limits for Congress people. It's because of the entrenchment mentality, and those in Congress who believe themselves impervious to ouster that the corruption continues and intensifies. Think about that when you enter the booth and see the name of the person who is up for re-election. Do a little digging on 'the Google' to see just how corrupt that particular politician really is, then vote accordingly. You might also wish to take a look at which campaign has the most paid lobbyists as advisers or behind the curtain whisperers.

Trust no one. Ask questions. Demand answers. The time has come when Americans must make the choice to either be sheep for the rest of their lives, led around by the nose and lulled into a losing ground by the day lifestyle, or to take control of our dire situation and hold accountable all of those, the government, the corporations, and the media, accountable to We The People.

Palin's Teen Daughter Pregnancy Is NOT Off Limits

Despite what Barak Obama and many in the corporate controlled media contend about the revelation (Ha! The Revelation!) by Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin that her 17 year old unwed teen daughter is pregnant being an 'off limits' topic, Americans have the right to decide for themselves what subjects are pertinent to a national discussion, and not have to sit and listen to talking heads tell us what we should and should not decide is an issue in the most important Presidential race in the history of our country.

This sudden departure and reversal of the 'family values' nonsense that the right wing has been shoving down our collective throats for over 30 years now, just dissipated into one big gaseous cloud of lies and hypocrisy, and do as I say, not as I do. The so called Christian Coalition and James Dobson's Hate Machine backpedaled so quickly that their bicycle spokes became entwined and the lies they've been telling for all this time are laid bare for all to see.

Since their inception, both Focus On The Family and the Christian Coalition have been responsible for many of the extremist laws foisted upon a complacent public. Laws such as Abstinence Only Education. And while they run around in their multi million dollar mega churches spouting off about that asinine accomplishment, they neglect to tell the rest of the story behind those pushed through when no one was looking laws. They forget to tell the public that a poll commissioned by both groups through Zogby International revealed that a full 88% of people under 65 felt it important for kids K through 12 to have a good knowledge and understanding of contraception and birth control along with the abstinence plan.

They decided that the poll was conducted wrong and forged ahead with their unholy crusade against the education and the safety of America's children by ignoring the results of a second poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, whose poll results were almost identical to the one commissioned by Focus On The Family and Christian Coalition. They completely ignored the AMA, ANA, AAP, IOM, a former Surgeon General of the United States, and over 100 other medical organizations that stood in opposition to their plan. If Governor Palin had paid more attention to people with actual medical degrees instead of hucksters with a degree in lying, her daughter wouldn't be pregnant.

And so, the rise in teen pregnancies can be laid at the doorsteps of both organizations, as well as the cowardly politicians who, being afraid of the far right, meekly voted to help destroy democracy in America. Not once. Not Twice. But over and over again. So the issue is not in any way off limits, and anyone who says so should start grazing on the grass at the meadow nearest their home. This issue stabs like a knife at the very core of what the right wing is running their campaign on. The so called 'family values' issue.

If Palin could not even control her own teen aged daughter enough to avoid an unwanted pregnancy, then how does that make her a more competent leader? Because the Republicans can't have it both ways here. If they say it was a planned pregnancy,as in the Governor knew about it before hand well, that would be criminal would it not? So, no, it had to be unplanned, and that would mean that Palin's concentration on her career caused her to devote too little time to her family values. Hence, a pregnant daughter. So why are the far right wingnuts from the two groups not screaming from the rafters about this? Because they're hypocrites of the worst kind.

In a 1998 article in the New York Times, Pat Roberston and Ralph Reed decreed ''Character matters, and the American people are hungry for that message. We care about the conduct of our leaders, and we will not rest until we have leaders of good moral character.'' That being the case, and accepting Ralphie at his word, then the story in the AUG. 31st, 2008 edition of the Huffington Post wherein Palin was on a right wing radio talk show earlier this year laughing at a vile attack on a political opponent should help old Ralph and James change their minds. The jock called Palin's opponent a b***h and a cancer, made fun of Palin's rival's weight with Palin laughing like a hyena. Great family values there.

You see, it goes like this. The Republicans, hoping to avoid yet another scandal decided to put the pregnancy out there, but then decried anyone even talking about it. They suckered the Democrats into silence on the hypocritical stance by claiming it to be an internal family matter. Que the buzzer. Annnt! Wrong answer. Absolutely nothing is off limits when it comes to a question of whether or not a person is fit to hold the second highest office in the land. And it can not be off limits when you are accepting the endorsements of two organizations responsible for some of the most draconian legislation since the Quaker days. Especially when both of those organizations do a complete flip flop on their 'family values' issue in order to accomodate their political puppets.

And so, it comes down to what are the real Republicans in this country going to do? It would seem by now to be obvious that the organizations that have hijacked your Party will do and say anything to retain power, even if it goes against their own stated positions. Deep down we all know that's a crock, as is the clarion call to respect the privacy of the Palins. Sure. Drop out of the race, and it won't be an issue any longer. Because the far right wingnuts may well wish to heed the words of Randy Tate, the Christian Coalition's Executive Director back in 1998. ''The moral crisis we now face is so obvious everybody sees it. ''Let me offer a small piece of advice to any candidate who is on the wrong side of the values issue. You are going to have one big problem on Election Day.'' Truer words indeed Mr. Tate, truer words indeed..................