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TechnoratiAre Americans unusually stupid or is it something our president put in the water? ? As millions surrender their homes and sacrifice other standards of our nation's economic and political reputation to the caprice of the Bush-Cheney imperium, a majority of voters tell pollsters that they might vote for a candidate who promises more of the same.
Assuming that likely voters are not now thinking of yet another Republican president simply because John McCain is the only white guy left standing -- an excuse as pathetic in its logic as the decision four years ago to return two Texas oil hustlers to the White House because they were not Massachusetts liberals -- must mean that tens of millions of Americans have taken leave of their senses.
If not the white-guy syndrome, why would even a shocking minority of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters say they prefer McCain to the other Democrat? How otherwise to explain the nation's widespread bipartisan rejection of the Bush presidency and yet a willingness to let McCain continue in that vein?
To be sure, as a senator, McCain has exhibited flashes of independence on behalf of taxpayers, as in his support of campaign-finance reform in which he partnered with Democrat Russ Feingold. McCain's investigations of the military-industrial complex's shameless exploitation of terrorism fears set a high standard, as in exposing the air-tanker scandal that dispatched a Boeing exec and a former Pentagon employee to prison. But his political ambition is showing. Although he previously harshly criticized the enormous waste in the Iraq occupation, today, as a presidential candidate, he opens the door to a hundred years of taxpayer dollars tossed down the drain in Iraq. The man who was tortured now hugs a leader who authorized the same.
By so unabashedly embracing the most glaringly failed U.S. president ever, McCain has surrendered the right to be considered an independent candidate, judged on his own merits and personal history. A vote for McCain is a vote for that rancid recipe mixing religious bigotry, imperial arrogance and corporate greed that he had stood against in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election when he challenged George W. Bush, but to which he now has capitulated.
Too harsh? Then consider just how tight the space is between the rocks of our failed Mideast policy and the hard place of our impending financial disaster. The sudden out-of-control spike in the cost of oil -- the key short-term market variable, the specter that stokes inflation fear and limits moves to avoid recession -- is not a natural disaster or in any realistic way the result of inefficiency in the use of energy. What more than doubled the price of petroleum in the short run was not that too many of us bought Hummers, but rather that the political stability of the region that contains the bulk of that oil was deliberately and recklessly roiled.
In the name of fighting the 9/11 terrorists, the Bush administration overthrew the one Arab government most adamantly opposed to the Saudi financiers of that son of their system, Osama bin Laden. Instead of confronting the royal leaders of a kingdom that supplied 15 of the 19 hijackers, we invaded a nation that supplied not a single one. While Bush overthrew Saddam Hussein, who had no ties to the hijackers, he embraced the leaders of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the only three nations in the world that had diplomatically recognized and supported the Taliban sponsors of al-Qaida.
Consider that historical marker at a time when the UAE and Saudi Arabia bankers are buying major positions in distressed U.S. financial and other key corporate institutions. I know, it all sounds too conspiratorial, like imagining that we might wake up from this national nightmare and discover that the CEO of Halliburton, who replaced Dick Cheney when the latter selected himself to be Bush's vice president, now has his headquarters in Dubai, tucked safely into the obscenely oil-revenue-rich UAE that our troops were sent to Iraq to protect.
There is no national outrage, or even seriously sustained media interest, over the fact that Cheney's old company profited enormously from ripping off U.S. tax dollars going into the Iraq occupation. Nor is there even much curiosity about the shenanigans of Halliburton, which is doing business with Arab oil sheiks at a time when the U.S. banks these Middle Eastern oil interests bought into are moving to foreclose on American homeowners.
It's just the sort of egregious betrayal of the trust of the taxpayers that Sen. McCain would have gone after, before he sought to don the soiled robes of the Bush presidency.
Robert Scheer is editor of Truthdig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.
© 2008 TruthDig.com
100 Comments so far
Show AllIt doesn't automatically have to be one thing versus the other.
Americans can be unusually stupid all on their own, plus there can be "something in the water."
And if you take literally-poisoned water to also mean something more figurative, like poisoned mass-mental impressions, you would have an interactive poli-causality to explain the maddness: endogenous stupidity, interacting with physically poisoned brains, interacting with reality-twisting propaganda.
In fact, I think something like this is what is happening for real -- probably even more complexly. And probably the first step in any antidote to it, is for individuals to first accept that it IS happening, and then:
[1] fight mental laziness (be aware that it is an engine of premature death)
[2] ingest purer liquids and foods; love earth's beauty and protect it
[3] turn off your MSM fonts, and start feeling life's truths for yourself and with your immediate neighbors.
Life and a good society can be renewed from these simple things.
Isn't this the perfect time to elect independants for congress? Democratic primary voters should have acted a long time ago to challenge incumbents. It has not happened. Has anybody here been involved in this?
The election is not really about who should be president. The election is to choose a new congress and president. The more important election is for congress. There is no evidence that incumbents are in danger. there is no talk of throwing out incumbents. there is no news about how that is going. Bush didn't do anything congress didn't help him with. A truly well functioning democracy would see challenges to incumbents at the local level. No such thing is evident. Even pelosi will win. The presidential race is a distraction. Congress should be overhauled. I predict that, as usual , 95% of incumbents will retain their seat. What do you think is going to change? Who is are your congresspersons and what are you doing about it? Who are the target senators? How many will be replaced? I really do wish we were talking about that.
Visit the Nader Page...
http://www.nader.org/
He writes inspiring articles EVERY week. Even now, while campaigning for office.
He will be a great President. Someone to be proud of and respected. He needs your support. Don't just sit there, do something. Donate if that is all you can do. It's called support and he could use your help.
Thank you...
Until they stop indoctrinating the children into religion through the fear of god, and going to hell if they do not submit, nothing will change.
http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/1267-Restore-the-Rule-of-Law.ht...
Restore the Rule of Law Friday, April 11. 2008
Ralph Nader Page http://www.nader.org/
Prominent Constitutional law experts believe President Bush has engaged in at least, five categories of repeated, defiant "high crimes and misdemeanors", which separately or together would allow Congress to subject the President to impeachment under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution. The sworn oath of members of Congress is to uphold the Constitution. Failure of the members of Congress to pursue impeachment of President Bush is an affront to the founding fathers, the Constitution, and the people of the United States.
In addition to a criminal war of aggression in Iraq, in violation of our constitution, statutes and treaties, there are the arrests of thousands of Americans and their imprisonment without charges, the spying on Americans without juridical warrant, systematic torture, and the unprecedented wholesale, defiant signing statements declaring that the President, in his unbridled discretion, is the law.
In 2005, a plurality of the American people polled declared that they would favor impeachment of President Bush if it was shown that he did not tell the truth about the reasons for going to War in Iraq. Congress should use its authority under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution to officially determine what President Bush knew before going to war in Iraq.
For more information on how you can help build a national, grassroots initiative to investigate and disclose any crimes by the Bush Administration go to http://www.restoreruleoflaw.com. This website contains valuable information and allows for you to send a letter to your members of Congress, asking them to pursue the Rule of Law.
VOTE NADER 2008...
The ruling elite have figured out how to manipulate our minds which has lead to their catastrophic success, which will victimize them as surely as it is destroying us. Obviously we are incapable of using democracy to fix our calamitous situation and our only real hope is if enough of the rich see that we would all be better off going in a different direction. How incredibly f****d is that
The Fundamentalists identify themselves as sinners- yet cant bear to actually admit their true sins. They listen to Christ's teachings because it is their high ideal, but most engage in sinful acts before they are out of the pews on Sunday. That is why they can vote for someone with terrible character flaws, if he comes in the right package; Elder, hero, "statesman" they fall for it bcause it is the same insular view that doesnt allow them the pain of witnessing their own sins. It's complex and yet so simple.
lobo gris,
Your post at 2:25 AM above is the first I have heard of Michelle Obama owning a car dealership and putting the public at extreme physical and moral risk by asking folks to use cars. Please tell us more. "Inquiring minds" want and need to know.
endCapitalism, As angry and disillusioned as I am, I have to disagree with you wrt AMericans having this realization. Especially those growing up in the middle of the century. We were known as the bread basket of the world and the great innovators and inventors, and the light on the hill...and we believed it. The world was not such a small place as it is now...and though the writing was on the wall (as evidenced by books like 1984 and Animal Farm) this was all percieved as a response to communism...people weren't looking inward (or outward for that matter). My point is, I don't think Americans "instinctively" know what you say...I think that's why CD is full of people like me who are disillusioned and angry... It's only just becoming apparent to many of us with the advent of the internet and the overtness of the current administration....Ignorance IS bliss
Let me break it down for you Mr. Scheer: The American people are stupider than hell. The fact that McCain can outpoll his opponents in a time when there is a war without end and a severe economic downturn just demonstrates how stupid and idiotic the American people are. Sometimes when I see other Americans I feel like punching their faces for being the willing sheeple that they are. If McCain wins, and unfortunately I believe he will, then America deserves to be invaded and pummeled from all the four corners of the Earth. Americans deserve everything that is coming to them. Rev Wright was right (pardon the pun): Goddamn America!! And you can print it!!
Has anyone considered the fact that the relative wealth U.S. citizens enjoy comes about because of U.S. imperialism's super exploitation of the Third World? Maybe the ordinary American would not articulate it quite that way, but he/she knows it instinctively. One just has to look at the mass of humanity living on $2 a day and see that if it were not for the advanced and very expensive killing machine of the American military this status quo would not be able to exist. Ordinary Americans know that by supporting this they remain the "haves" and not become the "have-nots". At least this is the theory pounded into Americans through every aspect of the ruling class's propaganda. It is little wonder that so many would choose to support a candidate that promises to continue to keep the U.S. the world's only super power and continue to use violence wherever necessary to hoard the wealth of this world and "protect America's way of life".
I really think McCain will be elected in the fall! I think American's have become a very immoral people. I don't mean from sexual promiscuity that's rampant. I don't see that as being the dangerous kind of moral decay we are facing as a nation. But from it's inability to know right from wrong anymore. To come face to face with massive corruption that's eating at us like a cancer. That's going to destroy us as a nation if something isn't done about it. To root it out at the highest levels and bring a halt to it where ever it's found. To insist politician's who are elected follow the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the law!
I noticed it last election when Fundamentalist Christian's poured into the polls to vote the most corrupt President in recent history back into office. They should have been horrified at his blatant law breaking. His track record spoke for itself then. The very people who are supposed to be morally upright, know right from wrong and be a shining example to the rest of us heathens. These people chose to embrace all the vices they constantly rail against greed, murder, torture, immorality, wholesale corruption, lying, cheating, stealing. The list is growing to long to go into to. Except I lost every last bit of faith I had in the American people to do the right thing in that election. Bush should have lost in a massive way. In fact, he should have been run out of town on a rail. The Christian's who support him should be the first to repudiate him, his immorality and his corrupt Administration. But, they don't seem to have the moral's anymore to see what's wrong with him. So it won't surprise me a bit to have another one like him. I just don't think American's care anymore how corrupt the government is. I am not certain why?
What other proof do these excrement-eating Democratic voters need to stop voting for the 'lesser of two evils'? How stupid can they be?
These parasites still think there's an ounce of difference between Repugs and Dims, between McCain and Obama/Clinton, even with an incredible amount of evidence to the contrary starring them in the face.
One very obvious and simple evidence out there that even the average retarded Democratic voter would understand: Democrats could've stopped the Iraq war even before gaining the majority in 2006, but they refuse to do it even now that they're in the majority. What part of the word CORRUPT don't you understand?
Its clear a major paradigm shift is needed to pull our once great nation out of this funk. It is true that there has been a general sense of large scale economic stability which, combined with a historically unparalleled police presence, has surpressed any kind of revolutionary action. It is a far cry from the country imagined by its founders, and at this point, its a far cry from the country I remember before 9/11.
There is however, reason for optimism. If one recognizes that energy waves have their peaks and valleys, we can assume there is no lower valley than George w. Bush. I mean, if this guy isn't rock bottom, then he is the dirt underneath that rocks bottom. A president quite simply cannot get any worse. He has literally destroyed every business he has ever touched, and has done as much as anyone possibly could to destroy our nation economically, socially, and spiritually. The ironic beauty of it all, is that he is destroying the republican party in the process, and all who associate themselves with him.
With new leadership, we can further the exposure of the crimes committed by this administration, and further the growth of green technologies dedicated to ending our dependence on foreign oil. This means domestic energy produced by domestic companies with domestic jobs, without pollution, and without war. The partners of this administration will find themselves isolated in a baking hot tax shelter in the desert. A new day will dawn.
There is no secret why Republicans will vote Republican in November. Our elections are like our sporting events. It doesn't matter how morally depraved some of the players on the team are, just that they are on our team. It doesn't matter that the coach is delusional, or that the players are negotiating bigger contracts with other teams while they carry the colors of our great sports program. Winning isn't everything, it is the only thing.
Besides the U.S. and Israel there is only one other organization that I know of that is advocating an attack on Iran, and that is al-Queda. Don't expect MSM (masochistic sodomizing media) to tell Americans about this fact. That may actually get the rabid fans of "Deal Or No Deal" to maybe understand the symbiotic dynamism between Bin Laden and Bush. Nah, not likely. I'll take the brunette with the big tits.
Chicane, what's good for the goose is good for the gander...Banks with money shouldn't loan money to people they know won't/can't pay it back. So..bailing out the banks to "save the system" is OK, but helping the homeowners is bad because they were just stupid? I guess it's better to be powerful and dishonest than stupid? You're all for corporate welfare?
Americans are stupid fools. Just look at what its people call leadership. Bush? Or look and listen to the candidates the Democrats offer - an inexperienced junior senator and a woman who thinks being married to a president constitutes experience. Jokes, both of them. Look at the Republican policies that have produced war and recession, an increase in poverty and a growing disparity between rich and poor. Then look at a population which falls over itself to vote for to keep them in power. I'm disgusted and bitter about the state of the nation, and see little possibility for change, not now, not in my lifetime.
I feel a oblique joy in reading the comments of the disaffected Americans. How much longer would one need to go on thinking the electorate is pure, the political class contaminated. Who voted for who. Who casted their vote when. Which of them ran to public office, and from where did they run.
Whenever I turn the television set on, my eyes are opened and my jaw dropped in horror to the most rudimentary and banal of creatures: journalists. These voters, tell the voters watching them, all about the frightening nothingness that makes up the politicking discourse in America---Obama's paster, McCain's face, Clinton's encounter with an airport. And after they vote, and their viewers vote, you almost want to lay down and die. But you don't. It wouldn't make things easier.
There are reasons why so many people have become politically stupid, destructively self-absorbed, and inclined to authoritarian pudding. But no highly visible person so far has been able to put the reasons together in a way that illuminates and empowers the Many.
So far, the only well-heard person who comes near to doing this is Barack O. --but he falls far too short of the mark to awaken the many deep sleepers, choosing instead to just soothingly stroke their discontent.
With more pain, which is surely coming for our country in big measure, it may happen that enough people will be able to wake themselves internally; turn to each other, and begin building a new country without need for manipulative and bogus authority figures.
We can only hope that, by that time, if that time comes, we won't also need to fight an occupying Army [foreign or domestic] in our own streets.
The Neocons' Weakly Standard is talking about liberals calling the American people "dullards". This is supposed to insult the American people's "intelligence" and help shift their loyalty back to the right to be rewarded with free lobotomies.
As I was out and about today on the net I came across a shocking fact. Michelle Obama owns a car dealership in Illinois. Yes that's right she is involved in distributing cars to the public. Now don't try to label me as some kind of neo-prohibitionist trying to outlaw cars. I'm not I am an American citizen trying to outlaw Michelle and Barack Obama from becoming first family. In fact I own a car and use it moderately on occasion with no ill effects. However no way, no how, should anyone involved in distributing them be involved in a leadership position in our country.
Did you know:
That cars in accidents are the cause of 45 to 50,000 deaths on our roadways every year.
That cars are the cause of X number of drunken driving incidents every year. After all if the people that got drunk didn't have cars they would just be drunks.
That cars cause X number of unwanted pregnancies every year when horny people who have no place to go use the back seat of their car to consummate the act. They are also responsible for some of the STD's acquired while having unprotected sex in the back seat of cars
That cars are the cause of 99.5% of the drive by shootings in the country. If people didn't own cars they wouldn't be able to engage in these violent acts.
That cars are the cause of 99.5% of the bank robberies in the U.S. If there was no car to get away in the robbery wouldn't occur.
That hospital ER's are clogged because of automobile accidents.
That jobs are lost because the car broke down one too many times causing a person not making it to work.
That divorces are caused by people committing adultery in the back seat of cars
Absurd? You bet, but no more absurd than DD's post at Daniel David April 16th, 2008 11:23 am.
Transference of the frailties of the human condition to an inanimate object, be it alcohol, a car, or the computer you are sitting in front of reading this is always absurd.
Lobo Gris
We can yell, scream,"rend our clothing and pile on the ash to our bodies", or we can do the only thing possible that will stop the madness. VOTE---VOTE ANYTHING but republican! I hold the current administration in MORE contempt than I do child molesters, and that's VERY CONTEMPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm not sure of the premise, that Americans are stupid. For example, if you look at the 2 oilmen elected to the White House - remember they were put in by the Supreme Court. The more we find out about Florida the more it stinks. I read about 53,000 people that were voters (92%) democrats who would have voted for Gore not able to vote because they were put on a felons list.
Another, who's to say the polls are not ficticous, I mean if we look at everything else in the MSM we see a trend thats not good, the polls would be a natural in shaping public opinion. Consider them rigged.
Another, the democrats. Just after 9/11 the 2 top democrats experienced murder attempts. Daschle and Leahy. Now we know the anthrax (AMES Strain) could only have come from a U.S. Lab. Five democrats were actually killed. Where the f**k is the Grand Jury investigation??? If it were republicans this would have been made out to be the biggest event in the history of politics. Don't you think this had a chilling effect?
Anyone interested in some beachfront Florida property?
I don't get the part about blaming arabs for the subprime mortgage crisis. When it comes down to it, people who borrow money on credit are entering into an agreement. Right or wrong, they couldn't or didn't pay. You can point your fingers at everyone else but in the end it is the borrowers responsibility. Don't borrow money if you can't pay it back.
McCain is as daft as Bush, an intellectual lightweight with only the most superficial understanding of the daunting issues facing our country. He share's Bush's jingoism, militarism, aversion to true diplomacy and (nowadays) steadfast belief in voodoo economics. Where he differs is that he is spineless, whereas Bush is stubborn to a fault. Bush is a man of enduring, perverse principles cloaked in patriotic and religious rhetoric, while McCain occasionally has lapses and does the right thing. However, it's much rarer than his reputation as a maverick would suggest. McCain seems to have a few weak principles that surface briefly from time to time, but are subsumed to Machiavellian calculations to appease the fundamentalist Christian-conservative Catholic base of God's Own Party.
The answer to "why would even a shocking minority of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters say they prefer McCain to the other Democrat" is in his opening question.
There are unusually stupid Americans who support each candidate, much to McCain's benefit.
At least Johnny Bomb Bomb can't get ALL of the unusually stupid Americans to vote for him.
I'm reminded of this quote. "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." – John Stuart Mill
Please. Americans know very well that the reason we're fighting a needless global "LIFESTYLE WAR" is to preserve their 17th-century colonial-minded delusion that we, as the conquerors of the Western Hemisphere, are born and entitled to more-than-plenty (as long as they're willing to exploit, cheat and murder living things for it). The Earth is a circle and the "march westwards" has come around to find the East awake and "militant" against more of the same (a militant is somebody who actively dislikes you). And they think they can continue to get away with it all by sheer denial---keep your face in the trough, keep paying your war taxes so that corporations wealthy beyond calculation can get wealthier in "defense of your freedom." Hillary's ego is going to produce ugly gold for the parasitic, imbecilic media as they come out of the convention, Obama will run against McCain starting out "far behind in the polls," and prove unable to overcome the tragic (sob, sob) legacy of America's "not being ready" for a nonwhite President. GOD I hope I am wrong. But don't tell me that Americans have somehow taken leave of their faculties. In 2000 the election was stolen, in 2004 the same (with Kerry's craven refusal to resist)---so why will these sheeple upset such a wonderful apple-cart of democracy with all Obama's promise of change---"in wartime"?
This is a good article about McCain. With a few reservations.
Contrary to the statements made by Scheer, there is very little evidence the UAE ( United Arab Emirates ) actually supported the Taleban - they only had a diplomatic relationship - and precious little more.
The US never invaded Iraq to ``protect'' the UAE, despite the assertions made by Scheer. There were many pretexts given for the invasion, but protecting the small nations of the Arab Gulf did not happen to be among them.
It is undeniably true the Arab Gulf nations, flush with petrodollars are investing heavily in the US, with the American government's tacit approval - not that there is anything wrong with that.
The only surprise will be IF the American people actually get their heads out of their a____s and make themselves heard. The sad and pathetic truth is that most Americans don't care. Jefferson was right, we need a revoltution every 20 years to keep the government on track. Depressingly, it's probably too late. I believe that there is no chance for a King or Ghandi like character to rise because I think the government/corporations would terminate with prejudice at the first sign of a real leader rising.
I have heard this stupity on a few occasions --- the disdain for Obama and Hillary forces one who would most likely vote for a democratic candidate (and loathes the Bush Administration) --- to vote for McBush in November. The LOGIC of this is BEYOND ME! I'd vote for Nader or Cythia McKinney before I would EVER, EVER think of pulling the oily lever for McBush.
Rent the move IDIOCRACY...this will be America (if not already in some ways) 4 years from now. The Masses are the Asses...and this is what our goverment depends on...thrives on..."they" and I mean the ruling establishment, by "they" wins every time...how Bush was elected the second time around is a prime example of this!
We need to reach the SUV drivin' USA, USA, USA chanters, Love it or Leave it - Still standing tall T-shirt wearers...we need to reach these oblivious "masses" in order for change to happen. Now, how do we do this?
Who's making up the BS that McCain would not have started the Iraq war?
He voted in favor. He's on the record.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/10/11/iraq.us/
'But Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said the United States needs to move before Saddam can develop a more advanced arsenal.
"Giving peace a chance only gives Saddam Hussein more time to prepare for war on his terms, at a time of his choosing, in pursuit of ambitions that will only grow as his power to achieve them grows," McCain said. '
Or this ...
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-mccainiraq23mar23,0,1620102,full.story
'In October 2002 McCain again rose to back the Bush administration when it sought congressional approval for a resolution to use force if necessary to disarm Iraq. The Iraqi tyrant, McCain repeatedly warned his colleagues, was "a clear and present danger" to U.S. security.
"He has developed stocks of germs and toxins in sufficient quantities to kill the entire population of the Earth multiple times," McCain said, according to the Congressional Record. "He has placed weapons laden with these poisons on alert to fire at his neighbors within minutes, not hours, and has devolved authority to fire them to subordinates. He develops nuclear weapons with which he would hold his neighbors and us hostage."'
-------------
That's from about 30 secs on Google. Some serious research should be able to turn up the Congressional record accounts of the speech he made in favor of authorizing the war.
The candidate that I know of that was talking about privatizing Social Security was Obama. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/opinion/16krugman.html
No big surprise since he's Wall St's candidate and its Wall St that has the wet dreams of being able to steal all the money in the SS fund.
Is Ron Paul running in the general election?
Silly article based on nonsense. Very few people are paying attention to the McCain v Democrat race right now. One truism of political campaigns is that most voters don't pay any attention until the last three weeks. The polling data he cites now is just noise.
What it does show is the bitterness of the Democrats internal fight. That's why you are seeing Democrats saying they might vote for McCain if their favorite pro-war, pro-corporate rule candidate doesn't get the nomination.
McCain's got two big boat anchors tied around his neck. He's tied to economic policies that have been screwing the majority of American voters for the last decade. And now many of those voters are really feeling the pain from that. And he's tied to an unpopular war that some 70% of the American people want over ASAP.
The only flotation device McCain has at this point is that the Democrats won't really go after him on either issue. The Democrats have supported the same economic policies all along, and the Democrats have supported this war... and both Obama and Hillary are pledging to still have troops in Iraq in 2012. So the Democrats will do their usual bit of silly sniping around the edges, but they will have to hold off on any telling body blows against McCain on these issues because of their own stance as the other pro-war, pro-corporation party.
But, McCain is going down. He doesn't have a prayer in this election.
So, why this nonsense? This is the BS line from the Democrats for the election. McCain is the next bogeyman. After years of painting Bush as the problem, even though he's obviously just a puppet, the Democrats try to spread the myth that electing the Dems will solve the problem. To continue that, they now paint McCain as the next bogeyman. To hide the fact that their nominee is also pro-war, pro-corporation, they'll run this line about McCain and how awful he is. You just aren't supposed to notice that electing Democrats never changes anything.
Ie, its the politics of fear. Just like the Republicans. Different bogeymen that we are all supposed to be afraid of. But still the politics of fear. You are supposed to be so afraid that you wouldn't dream of voting for a non-corporate approved candidate.
Ron Paul.
So, instead of McCain we should vote for Mc Cain lite? (Obama.)
That's our choice? Well that is no choice.
I bet McCain will soon "see the light" and have a miraculous conversion to some right wing evangelical church. He absolutely needs to this in order to consolidate his power base. If he does not take advantages of the free votes this would bring, then he isn't really a politician's boot lace.
If he can claim that god talks to him, after his born again conversion, then that would be even better. Not only would it bring more votes, he can use it to claim righteousness for any action he chooses to take. "God told me to smite the Iranians, and I did".
bbr-001, both McCain and Bush are equally ideologically rigid and fundamentally agree on policy. McCain will try to implement the same failed economic policies that have destroyed the country, he'll still try to topple democratic governments if investors here want them out, he'll do nothing to go after the weapons industry here or the militarization of our society, he'll try to pretend that he's against privatizing SS but will probably make the fiscal situation worse, or at least not much better, which will give him an excuse to "reluctantly" back at least a partial privatization, amongst other things. The only difference I see is that McCain is more competent (who isn't) than Bush. So when he appoints people to the Pentagon, they'll have close connections to the weapons industry, big business and in all likelihood have a reactionary foreign policy outlook (probably not all but most), they'll just be more competent, which for the people outside of this country whose resources we want to steal is not a good thing. Bush's incompetence and EXTREME cronyism has shielded them from some of our imperial violence.
I doubt that all that many voters will be switching parties between the primaries and the general election, no matter who the Dem nominee is. Remember all that clamor from the right-wing slime machine how they would campaign and vote for Hillary if McCain was their party's choice? Now that the Republican reality IS McCain, I haven't heard a word about getting their listeners to vote for Hillary. (I also remember O'Reilly said he'd become if Democrat if no WMD were found, so these guys are used to lying for attention.)
I think a lot of "new" voters, energized by Obama, will stay at home if Hillary is nominated. I think most Hillary supporters will vote for Obama if he gets the nod, although there may be a few who think "the country" is not "ready" for a black president and may stay home or a few might vote for McCain.
Of course, there's always the brilliance of the American voter to contend with. My favorite was a nice older woman who was interviewed by the MSM during the California primary. She thought the country was headed in the wrong direction was she was looking for change, so her vote was going to McCain! Naturally, the talking head interviewer did not question her about this apparent disconnect in her rationale.
This all supposes that Cheney will actually let go when his term is up. Like others here, I have thought for years that a false flag "terrorist" assassination of our beloved president (who now serves conveniently only as Cheney's empty-headed front man, like the rubber human suit worn by a slavering alien space-lizard) will put Cheney in the seat he occupies now by proxy, from which he will invoke martial law and cancel elections so America can face this new and terrible threat to her sovereignty.
Not unusually stupid....just stupid as usual.
like deer caught in the glare of the FOX NEWS headlights...unable and unwilling to think for themselves, but content in the warmth of the "We're Numba One!" sloganering and basking in the glow of the Flag bumper Stickers
"Anybody who would authorize torture must be out of their mind." -- Isabelle Allende
"The violence diminished! The surge worked!
Yuk-yuk, I'm a demented American! Anybody can tell me anything!"
No, the violence declines then it rises again. Sometimes we can bribe people. Who can even hold the entire indictment of the Bush administration together in their head?
Our soldiers shoot the wrong people. Our contractors do the same. Our president shoots the wrong countries. Like our vice-president, all these people shoot anything that moves.
Our president favored the rich and ruined the economy. He did his worst for the sick, for public education, for manufacture and agriculture.
He placed every obstacle in the way of science. He spent money like water. He diminished the supplies of water, money and food. He raised the price of gas. He sowed discord at every opportunity.
He illegally spied on innocents, illegally infiltrated and harassed environmental groups, illegally persecuted government lawyers and anyone who held different political or religious beliefs.
He tortured.
"Nothing positive comes out of Iraq."
--Pope Benedict
A war hero comes home and supports veterans. 55 R and D senators, so far, have signed on to Jim Webb and Chuck Hagels 2008 G.I. Bill. McCain (and L. Graham - close that closet door) have not. The G.I. benefits that McCain and Webb got have disappeared at the pens of Congress, and the new bill is pathetic, but better than none. Yesterday McCain said those changes would make vets want to not renew. Now that is supporting your military.
McCain was tortured, so he should know that torture is done to draw out info that is WANTED, not info that is true.
Watch the media propel McCain the vet, McCain the one to keep our fearful asses safe.
I realized watching McCain gaffes, not on msn but via clips on crooksandliars, that McCain, like my military career dad (RIP Ed), is crazy. He salutes, he followed some orders, but he gives them blindly. He doesn't know Sunni from Shia, he doesn't know we have alienated everyone in Iraq. He apparently doesn't know that occupations NEVER end well, but they end. Does he know that probably every sect in Iraq is supported by Iran, and mostly our puppet Maliki is?
Worst, he probably knows. But, still crazy, he just gets up and lies every day. Just like his BBF George.
John McCain is a War Hero. I do not want a War Hero for president. I want a Peace Hero. Too bad for America that Desmond Tutu wasborn in South Africa.
HUCK WRITES: "McCain spent five years in a prison of War Camp in North Viet Nam. By representing him as Bush is a cowardly lie by another wimp who never set foot on a battlefield much like Obama and Clinton."
You should add Nader's name to those who never set foot on a battlefield. Which proves the point that combat experience does not necessarily make a good political leader, nor does lack of military service make for a bad president - FDR, for example.
I live in a small town in Southern Oregon. One of every ten cars on the road still have their
BUSH-CHENEY bumper stickers on their cars or trucks. Voter registration is still 70% republican.
McCain probably would not have gotten us into Iraq. He probably would not have sponsored or allowed all the phoney baloney "evidence" presented to justify the war.
As president, McCain would probably govern more like Bush the elder and would have a more moderate approach compared to this administration putting every decision through the neocon spin machine. He would probably pull the hacks and minders out of State, NASA, FEMA, EPA and the pentagon... and let the pros do their jobs. He also sponsored one major global warming bill (a ruse?) and has a GW plan similar to that of the other candidates.
His close association with Lieberman is a concern. That's too close to the neocon/PNAC/AIPAC lunatic fringe for me. Those guys gotta go.
Obama is the clear choice, but even McCain is a half step in the right direction. Maybe that's not saying much. Attila the Hun or Emperor Nero might be better than what we have now.
End empire, end the ruling US oligarchy, bring back the "we the people" part of the Constitution.
We have one party of the rich in this country or ours. It has two branches-Democratic and Republican--doesn't this strike you are insane?
I find it very hard talking to anyone about the current financial, economic, social and political state of affairs in this country. Nobody seems to care. Politics at work is taboo. Friends? Strangers? They are busy shopping and filling their gas tanks. This forum seems to be my only contact with reality: talking to people I have never met before but who share and voice their concern for the future of this nation.
I do not understand how the Dems can be so stupid. I worked at the polls in Ohio last March and I was shocked to see how many Reps crossed the party lines, voting for HC since their primaries were practically over and "el nono" (Italian for grandfather) was the presumptive nominee. It was a clear battle for destroying Barack (I am a fan by the way). The Presiding Judge (Rep) would encourage his party voters to change their affiliation for the March primary election saying that they could change back in the 2008 presidential elections, which, on the other hand, is true. I sent emails to the Institute of Voting rights complaining about this, but their response trivialized my concerns. So, I think the Dems should change the election rules. It is not fair that in April we still do not know who the Dem nominee is. Voting should be done and over with by March of the election year. Allowing people to cross party lines is, in other countries, illegal. What kind of constituency can we have when cheating, lying and being disloyal are praised? I have always voted Dem but I admire the well organized party the evil Reps have created and sustained. Their members are faithful soldiers, they do what they are told.
Doesn't matter who we vote for. McCain will be the one chosen - in whatever manner.
The turning point came and went, un-noticed. Does anyone remember the last time that speaking truth to the lies or shining a light on the wrong-doing brought a swift and brutal retaliation? Can you pinpoint when such things became so immaterial they were answered with a mere shrug, or contemptuous "So?"
It won't matter who we vote for. We're already screwed.
I never voted for a Republican in my life and have no intention of doing so now either. Nor have I voted for a Democrat since McGovern ran in 1972, nor do I have any reason to vote for one in 2008.
That said McCain is NOTHING like Bush. As a Viet Vet I find this type of bombast appalling! McCain spent five years in a prison of War Camp in North Viet Nam. By representing him as Bush is a cowardly lie by another wimp who never set foot on a battlefield much like Obama and Clinton. McCain has also endorsed Bill Mckibben's environmental prescriptions: McKikken is a RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALIST who also regularly posts on this site.
Conversely, Obama and Clinton are endorsing Biofuels and Nuclear as environmental solutions to climate change: both are inimical to the Earth.
More of the same? Yeah, that is what the other two Republican candidates will give us. Obama and Clinton are corporate owned trash.
My vote will go to Nader again.
Americans' fear and ignorance are nourished daily by the corporate media's ever-flowing fountain of McCool Ade. Johnny Bomb Bomb is their man and they will tell you so.
Drink up. It's not bitter and there are no elitist snipers serving it.
George Carlin did nail it.....However, those of us living abroad have known for years that the powers controlling the American Political System are not the politicians.
The elections of 2000 and 2004 were stolen through computer irregularities. (See the movie "Uncounted"...Read the MIT/CalPoly Tech Study of the 2000 elctions and Election Data Services numbers for the 2004 Election.) And, the control by three Republican Connected Computer Companies: Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia was known by both Democrats and Republicans.....Senator Dianne Feinstein´s committee on the elections found nothing wrong with the elections and anyone who knows her husband Richard Blum knows why she votes 90% with George W.Bush.
The problem is that the National Media is controlled by the same people that control all the "Think Tanks" and all corporations with contracts with the U.S. State Department and Department of Defence.
When Condi Rice admitted that she participated in discussions about "Torture", the Media immediately went with the "Propaganda Machine´s" "Harsh Methods of Interrogation", there was no use of "Torture".
The fact that the American People have been denied the "Critical Information" to make rational decisions is the National Media´s Fault.
There is an International Movement calling for an "Independent Investigation of 9/11"... World Trade Center #7 was an obvious demolition with explosives.....The White House knows that and if you think that the Pope´s Visit to "Ground Zero" is not another "Propaganda Effort", you are wrong........He will pray for all the victims of a terrorist act instead of asking for an "Independent Investigation".....The American people will be asked to forget and go on with their lives.
The American National Media paid no attention to the Iraq Veterans Against The War....The American National Media paid no attention to the Presentation made at the European Union by four experts who question the 9/11 Commission´s "Official Version".....
Until the American People are asked to critically think about the information they have been given, The "Power Elite" will elect who they want to finish the job and they have done that before and no one questioned it.
George Carlin made an interesting observation once upon a time. Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, remember there's half the population dumber than that. Democracy indeed.
Citizen McCain has already promised us more wars. He said so and he means it. That means: Iran, Syria and possibly Venezuela. None of that can be accomplished w/o conscription. There are, after all, only x number of mercenaries available. The conventional wisdom has it that a reinstitution of the draft will be suicide for any individual or political party that proposes it and pushes for it. But watch, my friends. Citizen McCain will push hard for it; he'll get it; the pimps and whores of the MSM will tell you it's a good thing and one's patriotic duty. And then, quietly, like sheep wearing thick wool socks, young Americans will march without comment over the cliff. There will be a bit of resistance - much less than during the Vietnam War - but it will be overcome by a combination of governmental violence and 36 month sentences to be served without parole for any resisters. Citizen McCain is from the warrior class of the American elite. He is also at the end of his life. For this American Caesar who, like the Romans, sees war and militarism as the highest virtues, and who is getting ready to check out of here, run-of-the-mill political caution can be thrown to the wind, along with countless young lives. This is what you want, America. Go choke on it!
hello_kitty, thanks for that clip. You're right, he did nail it, and sadly he's right.
Elections in this country are not about the people. Watch the YouTube video "George Carlin nails it."
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9KReZyAZLI0
The system was not designed for change. The system was designed to preserve itself. The "people" are sheep... "Four legs good, two legs baad!" If you want to change the system, you have to change yourself. You need a new ideology, a new way of thinking. The system is breaking down, some would say, "broken." You have a three options. You can accept the system, you can work for change within the system, or you can work for change outside of the system. As the benefits of working within the system diminish, more of us will create parallel institutions to take over where government fails. Unfortunately, the only parallel institutions taking over from the goverment today on a large scale are oligarchical corporations. The only effective means I can think of to counter this threat is an ideological change. A change in who we trust. Too many of us trust big business. Too many of us see big business as sacred. We will not change our condition until we change that which is within ourselves.
There seem to be indications, based on several factors, that under a President McCain there could be a re-activation of the military draft.
Food for thought in the article ...
"Military Draft Needed for War With Iran and Syria?"
By Steve Hammons
Truthout.org
20 September 2006
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/64/22754
The McCain support comes from the Americans that are afraid.
The top Iraq myths are:
1. If we leave Iraq we will lose. All the world will think we are losers.
2. The terrorists will follow us back here and we'll have wars in our streets.
3. If we leave the terrorists will team up with Iran to build nuclear weapons then attack us.
4. It is cowardly to back out.
5. We will have to fight them later anyway.
6. The war in Iraq is strengthening our military.
Most Americans are heavily influenced by television. The issue of Iran has been mixed so heavily with the Iraq affair that it is hard to tell the two apart anymore. Ask around and you will see that many people really believe that Iran is directly supporting terrorist operations in Iraq, constructing nuclear weapons, and planning an attack against the USA.
The Clinton-Obama garbage is becoming too dramatic to stomach and others are defaulting to McCain simply because they can't stand the Democrat crap anymore.
Basically the choices are fight until we win - McCain, or maintain a status-quo - Clinton/Obama.
If the American people had any faith in the Democrats at all, McCain wouldn't stand a chance.
thinkingmom, you're right, I should have said SOME. I was speaking generally of course. There are older people who did work hard on these issues and they did lay the groundwork for whatever activism we see today. If you listen to Chomsky he claims that AWARENESS of the issues is much higher now than in the 60's. If he's correct then whatever older people that were active should be commended. I just think it's illogical and wrong to blame this mess of a country on young people. Yes, they're largely mindless and conformist but they're that way by design, thanks to the type of capitalist consumerist country they've been raised in, and whose values they're told 24/7 to follow. If you look at countries that have functioning, vibrant and participatory democracies you'll see that there is a culture that is nourished. Being politically active doesn't mean just voting, it means educating yourself & others, organizing, participation in economic and governmental decision making, etc. That all is missing here, it wasn't in past generations, but it is now.
The Greatest Country on Earth is gonna vote for McBush 'cause he never tires of telling it how great it is.
I agree with BOTH WTF and alaskamaid
"Are Americans unusually stupid or is it something our president put in the water?"
I vote both.
Scheer is definitely on the right track. If you preface this article with a discussion of the lies and fraudulent testimony that got us into Gulf War I under Bush senior, the view gets more interesting.
Just think = we had given our puppet Saddam explicit permission to invade Kuwait - then turned on him, etcetera.
Think about it
"Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as a progenitor of evil.[12]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel
I'm not religious, just curious I am handy with pushing buttons and Wikipedia.
Just had to look it up and share.
The future is so bright.. I am afraid he will treat all of us little people the way he treated the man who saved his life.(sorry, couldnt find link to the article)
Just say NO to Johnny bomb-bomb.
progenitor
One entry found.
progenitor
Main Entry: pro·gen·i·tor
Pronunciation: \prÅ-ˈje-nÉ™-tÉ™r, prÉ™-\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 a: an ancestor in the direct line : forefather b: a biologically ancestral form
2: precursor, originator..
..of evil, folks. Nothing to look at here. Move along. Play on your pods. Loved the comment Alaskamaid.
Hey, It's MC CAIN after all.
Son of a bush!
WillD:
I have listened carefully to Ron Paul. He has given me a few good reasons to vote for him and many, many good reasons not to.
Grant...what you mean to say is SOME young people do care and SOME young people are materialistic, mindless sheep.... And remember, the same can be said for every generation. Not all young people of the 1960s were invovled in the movements then...there were just as many Dick Cheney's back then as there are Dicks now... But I do think you're right to point the finger at the older generations for letting things get to where they are now, and to bristle at the comments here that seem to put all hope and some blame in the youngsters..what is that about I wonder too?
It's hard to imagine a people that elected or helped put in office a man so shallow as George W Bush would not be 'stupid.' Chicken shit is another adjective that is appropriate here. Stupid and scared. Then we can add apathetic. Chicken hawks and chicken shits that don't give a damn until it's biting them on their own dumb ass. Welcome to 21st century America. George W Bush my ass…
I think you are right, Claudius. I think things in this country have to get much much worse before the populace as a whole wakes up.
Reminds me, if I'm not mistaken, about the Goddess Kali, who is the symbol of dissolution and destruction. It is not considered a bad thing in Hindu culture as things that are broken need to be dissolved and destroyed so that a much-improved re-growth can occur.
This country's government is very very broken. There are some who say that this country has outgrown the presidency and will never recover from the corruption. They see a whole new type of government being installed before the year 2100 -- a type of "governing COUNCIL" where no one person holds the last card anymore. I think it's inevitable.
That's why I believe the whole US will come tumbling down brought on my greed, prejudice, and corruption. Totally. Then it can be rebuilt in a new and stronger way so this never ever happens again.
Bill from Saginaw:
And here I believed that all the intellects lived in Bay City.
Young people do care, what are they to do? Political activism spreads when it is nurtured by older generations. We don't have a bottom up political participation in government, this system of government we have has little to no participation from the general public in decision making. We have an outdated form of government and are hopelessly ideologically rigid. The students from the 1960's parents were labor and leftist organizers from a time when the US had an active and influential workers movement. There were values passed on that don't exist anymore. There is nothing like that anymore, there is no activist culture to be brought up in. It's wrong to pass the responsibility to young people, sorry to say but it's the older people who created and nurtured this materialistic world we live in, where you are what you own and don't care about the well being of others. It's the older generations that did nothing as this country had an immoral and violent foreign policy, usually it took nothing more than a few patriotic platitudes to get the country to support our international violence. It's the older generation who created this hell hole of a healthcare system, who allowed the financial markets to take the place of democracy and who didn't for decades invest in younger people's education. It's the older generation who created the military industrial complex, slowly over time, and did nothing when it started to undermine whatever shell of a democracy we have here and it's the older people who didn't create a culture that fostered political participation. Young people are brought up in a country dominated by corporations, a media owned and operated for the benefit of its owners and the corporate class that pays its advertising revenue (who control what they think and determine their values), in a country who thinks that democracy is simply voting, where their country is extremely violent while their citizens do nothing and where the violent military industrial complex keeps the economy going. To think that they, by themselves, are supposed to create something in THIS environment is to not take any responsibly for the world that the adults here have created. Young people's parents and grandparents have created this mess and they also are monopolizing the benefits of the economic system for themselves at the expense of their younger family members. Older people had social protection, they had a government that created the middle class and didn't ask for them to compete against poor people to provide the lowest wages for corporate America. You can't take all that away, give them a crumbling and immoral country and expect miracles. Young people ARE materialistic, mindless sheep these days and it's exactly the type of brain dead consumers that the older people worked hard to foster for the last few decades in this country. If they do turn it around it will be in spite of, not because of, the older generations.
Scheer's first question is the one currently driving me nuts. TruOrange's comment threw me, a hard reminder. I need to believe in the apparent youth turnout so far, but all comments here ground me in reality. During this week's 'bitter' episode I said to my husband 'Really stupid people are going to decide this year'. He reminded me 'They usually do'.
For sanity, I have to believe that when it is Obama sans Hilary, McCain will have a media opponent, poorly covered, but an opponent. When Obama wins he may only be able to stop some bleeding. The internet may really make a difference in 2008. There are hundreds of races that look good to purge a lot of crazy people. A less crazy Congress may a first incremental change.
We who see through garbage and turn off TV and read as the only way to evolve are of course outnumbered. It is like being in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, in a sea of pod people, not knowing who is who. Maybe foul drinking water will get us before my nightmares do. Of course there may be an October, or June, or August 'surprise'. But nobody controls the millions of things that change course for good or bad. It remains wide open.
Sad to be reminded of John Edwards by USAn. I'll leave remembering that he, and Jonathan Turley, and Joe Cirincione, and Gen. Odom, and Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald, and Sam Seder, and Robert Scheer, etc., are among the non pod people walking among us.
Unfortunately, a great deal of Obama support appears to have grown from his being the anti-Clinton candidate ...
Now that Clinton's defeat appears as "inevitable" as her expectations of the nomination were dubbed to be a year ago, most of the GOP anti-Clinton mouthpieces and many "independent" forces ARE likely to realign behind McCain ... Obama, they will "suddenly" realize is too much of a social liberal for them or lacks "electability" (I love it when people defect from a candidate due to "electability," don't you? like the winning candidate has YOUR NAME in their book to thank when the dust settles) ...
I worry about it, a lot. The MSM is fundamentally pro-status-quo. I worry about the November election ... but even more I worry about the next 4 years and then the next ...
McCain should have been laughed off the podium six months ago --- that's he's being taken seriously and apparently gaining in popularity is reminiscent of GWB's peculiar assent to the oval office and I think Gore (and even Kerry) were better candidate for president in terms of both experience and character ...
I'm appalled at this state of affairs. I was delighted when this younger generation discovered politics... but their knowledge and involvement and commitment appears to me to be rather shallow and emotional ... when it stops being fun or fashionable... y'know?
If anybody ever said it was going to be easy, fast or fun, they didn't know what they were talking about. I've talked to young people who seem to have been taught that the 1960's civil rights and antiwar movements were "fun" and "easy" and "cool" ... without understanding just how much blood, sweat and tears were involved ... and fear and work and disappointment and fear ...
I think that some of this fascination and approval for McCain, despite his political similarities to Bush, are due to a failure of the corporate media. McCain is consistantly portrayed as the bipartisan "maverick". A lot of people view him as a centrist candidate while completely failing to view that he is quite the right-wing candidate that is taking a pro-war stance.
As long as the media continues to focus their attention on the horse-race coverage of the election and fails to have a real conversation on policies and their effect, I'm afraid that we will continue to see this disconnect.
I have not yet read all of the discussion but...
The huge propaganda machine is working so well that otherwise intelligent people are now voting againts their own best interests and don't see it.
As an agnostic and quasi-socialist I am being outvoted, even by my siblings in regards to my mother's health care and future. That fight I will stay with till the end.
I will once again fight for this election. If HRC or McBush wins I will leave this country, and I suspect I will be but a part of the beginning of a mass migration.
I would like to add that it seems that the only ones that complain about this country is the ones on the right: "god damned taxes," "god damn services," "god damned liberals." But let any of us complain and it's "Love this country or leave it." Well, I have started to say that whenever I hear anybody complain about anything. They can't believe it when they hear it. I tell them they're being unpatriotic.
As for the coming election, a group of associates and myself will be hanging banners on overpasses to/from conservative suburbs into the liberal city saying things like "if the republicans don't trust government why do we want them running it?" etc.
See you in Belize in two years.
Flouride in the water, Thimerosol in the vaccines, and supersaturation of the aether by broadcasting frequencies, who besides me is sensitive to areas where wi-fi has been installed ?
There was a Star Trek Next Generation episode which didn't make much sense to me at the time but now it does -- the Enterprise is providing transport for some 'benevolent alien' group, and the group makes gifts to the whole crew of these virtual game gadgets. Pretty soon the entire crew, from Capt Picard on down, is hooked on playing this game, and all anyone can talk about is what level they've gotten to. Except Wesley Crusher, who -- despite a lot of pressure to join in --refuses to play and ultimately finds out that the no-longer-benevolent alien group has secretly taken over the ship while the crew plays virtual games. That episode aired in about 1993, and while it seemed kind of dumb at the time, it doesn't anymore.
to Bill from Saginaw,
You're quite right that America has many partiers who would probably vote all-the-more FOR McCain if they knew about the magnitude of his beer business.
I believe there are just as many in the evangelical protestant churches who WOULD NOT if they knew. This business of McCain wooing the churches with his anti-abortion stance is about to make me physically sick.
Are we so dumb as to not know that more unplanned pregnancies come out of the experience of being irresponsibly horny while drunk or high than from any other cause? And McCain has sold millions of dollars of the mental "lubricant" for this and now wants the support of THE CHURCH? Telling the ladies they're stuck with the baby that some boyfriend implanted while drunk on McCain's beer. It's "an hypocrisy too far" for me. And it will only work if that whole CHURCH ignores the McCain beer issue. The CHURCH must be made to either get right on this or be exposed and ashamed. McCain CANNOT win without those folks.
The most insidious act of this administration has been its co-optation of America's media by facilitating corporate consolidation (i.e. the relaxation of ownership limitations). Unfortunately, most Americans are either too lazy or too preoccupied to dig for the truth and accept the prevalent pro-administration coverage by the MSM as reliable information.
jj
"...must mean that tens of millions of Americans have taken leave of their senses."
USA/Gallop poll: 76% of Republicans STILL support The Decider. That's approximately 41 million Americans who have taken leave of their senses - and have taken up