It Is Going to Be a Wal-Mart Christmas

An excerpt from this excellent article by Marie Cocco, of the Washington Post, November 19, 2008: [click on title above for link to full text of column]

"The company that is now the biggest private-sector employer says the average hourly wage of its workers is $10.86. Wal-Mart has said it considers a 34-hour week as full time, though it declined to respond to my questions about this and other employment issues. Assuming the full-time week is 34 hours, a full-time Wal-Mart "associate" averages $19,200 a year. That's about $2,000 below the 2008 federal poverty level for a family of four."

Wal-Mart: Where your manager makes you work 45 hours per week, and you get paid for 34 hours! Shop Wal-Mart - Live Better! You won't see this blogger darkening the doorway at my local Wal-Mart!

How Did We Ever Let This Guy Get Away with Being a War President?

as posted on www.AlterNet.org

By Gary Brecher, eXiled Online. Posted November 17, 2008.

"Only a fool like Bush could pick an anti-American Arab country, add an invading army, and expect a nice fluffy democracy souffle."

Click on title, above, to link to full text of article. A great analysis of Bush & Chene's follies in Afghanistan & Iraq.

Senator-Elect Begich Makes It 58-40!

Congratulations to Mayor Mark Begich, the newly elected Senator from Alaska! Hard to believe so many knuckle-heads voted to keep their grumpy-old-white-man Ted Stevens, but they did. Thankfully, about 3,700 more voted for the right guy!

The recount in Minnesota's US Senate Race is going well, slogging through county-by-county, hand-counting each ballot. Al Franken's chances look good versus Sen. Norm Coleman.

If Franken is declared the winner in Minne-sOH-ta, then it will all come down to the run-off contest in Georgia on December 2nd. Will Georgia voters suffer "campaign fatigue"? Will Bill Clinton's stumping for Jim Martin spell the difference?

Senator Jim Martin of Georgia Would Make it 60!

Well, that's if you count "independent" Sen. Joe Lieberman as a Democratic vote.
But with Sen. Ted Stevens now falling behind Mark Begich in the recount in Alaska, and Al Franken taking the lead over Sen. Norm Coleman in Minnesota, the prospect of the G.O.P. fielding only 40 players on their Senate team come January is a real one! Click on the link above to support Jim Martin's runoff campaign in Georgia. You'll recall Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia as the first-termer who defeated Sen. Max Cleland back in 2002, running commercials so despicable that even Sen. "Songbird" McCain called them "reprehensible".

Winners Take Landslide Victories !!

Wow! What a four-day weekend it was!
Your blogger spent all day Saturday and Tuesday (Election Day) canvassing parts of Highlands Ranch & Roxborough in northwest Douglas County on behalf of Sen. Obama and CO-Senate candidate Mark Udall. (Udall won!) Sunday and Monday had to work.

Tuesday night it all paid off when we enjoyed the South Metro Young Democrats at their Victory Party at a Park Meadows eatery, and settled in to their comfy sofas to watch Barack's speech begin about 10:00 p.m. MST.

Impressions from the weekend:

Barack's speech: Loved it! Enjoyed seeing the close-ups of the moved-to-tears reactions so many in the huge crowd were having. The story of the 106-y-o lady from Georgia who voted yesterday for Obama -- a great way to tie all the themes of this campaign together -- and how we need to be mindful of our history of other successes, and mistakes, our country has made in the last 100 years.

Barack is cool, composed -- a real "Iceman". Just the type of leadership we need.
No more knee-jerk, "Cowboy-knows-best", "I know it in my gut" responses to issues of grave global import.

I LOVE the early trial balloons being floated that Caroline Kennedy might be our next Ambassador to the United Nations; and her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head up the Environmental Protection Agency.

I like that Illinois' Governor is considering Jesse Jackson, Jr. as a possible appointment to Obama's open Senate seat. Haven't heard yet what might happen with Biden's open seat.

I love the fact that so-called "Millionaire [Betsy] Markey knocked off 4-term incumbent Marilyn Musgrave in CO's 4th Cong. District. That District last had a Dem. representing it in 1973.

I loathe the fact that my new Congressman is Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman, who defeated challenger Hank Eng for the seat opened up by Tom "Nuke all the Mexicans" Tancredo. Coffman spent the last few weeks before our election diligently following the Karl Rove playbook of systematically purging as many new registrants from the polling lists, some of them for as silly a reason as failure to check a box next to the space to list the last four digits of your S.S. #. Happily, several county clerks took Coffman's office in to see Federal judges, all of whom told him to knock it off. Hope "Tricky Mike" enjoys being a freshman MC in a very distinct minority of GOP House delegation.

Memo to Darth Vader Cheney, George H.W. Bush and your crony-clients in the Oil bid'ness and Saudi Royal family. Go ahead and let those gas prices rise back to summer levels. Nice try, lowering them from $4.25 / gallon to $2.25 / gallon in three short months to try to buy your neo-con spooks another four years, but it didn't work. Let's get the prices back up to keep spurring on solar energy investment, hybrid vehicle technology, etc. And start packing your bags to get the SAM HELL OUT OF TOWN!

Two final words to George "W" and Laura Bush: "BUH-BYE!"

Wal-Mart: Save Money - Live Better ???

Members of the Denver Crime Lab investigate the scene of a carjacking that occurred late Thursday night in the parking lot of the Wal Mart at Smith Road and Quebec in the Stapleton area. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post - October 31, 2008)

[from the DenverPost.com]:
A man was shot and killed by a carjacker in the Stapleton area after being abducted from Wal-Mart parking lot Thursday night, police said.

The car was ditched a few blocks away and, after midnight, police continued to comb the area around Martin Luther King Jr. Park with flashlights, dogs and helicopters.

The stolen Pontiac Grand Prix was left in a nearby alley between Oneida and Newport streets police said.

The body found in or near the car had not been positively identified at midnight as the person abducted from the store on Smith Road near Interstate 70. The abducted man initially had been a passenger in the car.

The car's original driver was left behind unhurt at the Wal-Mart, although shots were fired there, police said.

The shooting happened the same day that police issued a Crime Stoppers Alert in the wake of two violent attempted carjackings this week.

"It does not appear be connected to the other crimes," Detective Sharon Hahn, a spokeswoman for the Denver Police Department, said.

Thursday's carjacking began near the same Wal-Mart at Smith Road where a woman went for help Sunday after she was shot while waiting at a nearby red light.

A man was shot Tuesday night in an attempted carjacking in the same area, Martin Luther King and Central Park boulevards.

In both cases, witnesses described a white or Latino man in his late teens or early 20s who was wearing a red bandanna. In the Sunday incident, he fled in a gold sport utility vehicle.

Police did not immediately have an description of the man involved in Thursday night's carjacking, as the driver of the car was still being interviewed.

Our Sympathy goes to the family of the murdered man.
Wal Mart's dirty little secret
Wal-Mart Watchdog Website

Full text of Denver Post article - Click here

The Fix is In! GOP fixin' to steal this one.

from the www.HuffingtonPost.com (Mitchell Bard, Oct. 28, 2008):

The Ohio problems are not unique. Early voters in West Virginia had their computer monitors flip their Obama votes to McCain, and a confusing North Carolina ballot, which excludes the presidential race when someone chooses to vote a party line, may cost Obama, by one estimate, tens of thousands of votes. Today brought news of a flyer in Virginia telling Democrats to vote on November 5 (the day after the election), and a man in Florida posing as a worker for a Democratic candidate for Congress (but whose information was traced back to a consultant of the Republican incumbent) taking ballots from Democrats and promising to deliver them. And that doesn't even include the widespread purges of voters in Democratic neighborhoods conducted by Republican state officials. An excellent article on voter fraud, also co-authored by Kennedy, can be found here.

Full text of article - Click here!

Big Business Funds "Right-to-work-for-Less" Amendment #47

& Boycott American Furniture Warehouse! (owner Jake Jabs is one of the early backers of this measure).

AMENDMENT 47: Vote NO

Amendment 47 will limit the ability of firefighters, nurses, teachers and police officers to work as a group to advocate for better working conditions, protective equipment and appropriate staffing levels that keep them - and us - safe.

If this measures passes it will let government interfere instead of allowing employees and employers to negotiate what's best for them in the workplace. Unfortunately, a small group of special interests believe their ideology is more important than a sound Colorado economy.

For more info.: http://www.protectcoloradosfuture.org/index.php

Winners Make Citizen's Arrests!

Karl Rove: You're First! Next up: Bushie, Cheney & Rumsfeld.

When Karl Rove took the stage at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco today [originally posted by Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet at 7:00 PM on October 21, 2008], CODEPINK women in the audience staged a citizen's arrest of the former Bush Administration chief of staff, under California Code 837. This action follows on the heels of yesterday's appearance on stage of Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK, who disrupted the convention to ask for a moratorium on foreclosures.

Janine Boneparth, 58, of Ross, CA, walked on the stage with handcuffs and placed a cuff on Rove's wrist before he yanked it away, while stating, "I have to make a citizens arrest. You are under arrest for treason."

At the same moment, Nancy Mancias, 38, of San Francisco, CA, held a banner in front of the stage that read, "Rove (hearts) torture, treason and fraud!" "Ladies and gentlemen, Karl Rove is not fit to address you today," Mancias said. "Karl Rove was involved in lying to the American people about the Iraq war."

Sen. Obama: Please Repudiate This Endorsement!

So Gen. Colin Powell, the former Bush Secretary of State, finally gets around to endorsing Sen. Obama, 16 days before the election, and when most state and national polls are pointing to the "L" word for Obama (hint for Palin supporters: the "L" does not stand for 'loser'!).

BIG WHOOP!

Gen. Powell's speech to the United Nations in 2003 was full of outright lies, half-truths, and Bush-speak. He should be prosecuted for war-crimes, along with "W", Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Addington, Gonzalez, et. al. I urge Sen. Obama to repudiate this endorsement, and any campaign contributions made by Powell should be donated to charity, preferably one which benefits the children of our servicemen and women who have lost their lives fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Anyway, in case you missed it this morning, here's the endorsement from "Meet the Press":

Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish with 7 min. Meet the Press clip

Denver Post Endorses Obama for President

An excerpt from the Denver Post's endorsement:

Given this inescapable economic agenda, The Post believes Barack Obama is better equipped to lead America back to a prosperous future.
It's time to change course.

Today we learned the Los Angeles Times, which hasn't published any endorsement of a presidential candidate since 1972; and the Chicago Tribune, which has never before endorsed the Democratic nominee for President; both are endorsing Sen. Obama. These follow Sunday's endorsement by the Toledo Blade, timed to coincide with Barack's arrival in Toledo for a three-night stay in which he prepared for his third and final debate with his opponent.

19 Days Left Until the "Real Mission Accomplished"

Thursday evening, Oct. 16th 2008, Highlands Ranch, CO-
Stayed up too late last night watching a) the debate; b) post-debate analysis; c) "Friday Night Lights" - commercial free on the 101 - thanks, DirecTV!; d) more post-debate coverage, flipping from MSNBC to CNN to CSpan. Impressions:
1. Rachel Maddow is a Goddess!
2. Wish I could call up Warren Buffett and talk "economy".
3. Staying away from the local Denver networks as the Udall vs. Schaeffer for Senate commercials are running, sometimes 4-5 in a row. ENOUGH!
4. Glad there are only 19 days left until "Mission Accomplished -- Hasta la Vista to Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Bush-speak, et. al."
5. By the way, October 21st will be the 2000th day since Pres. George dWi "Flyboy" Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Click on this link for a cool countdown clock: http://www.ironingtheflag.com/
Hopefully, our next President will swiftly end this occupation, bring our troops home safely, and re-direct our $10 billion / month to domestic priorities.
6. Just wondering: What do Karl Rove and his GOP operatives have cooked up to spring on us between now and Nov. 4th? The capture of Osama bin Laden? (and give some credit to Sen. Songbird for the mission to catch him?) ... Let's see, steal the electoral votes of Florida again, or Ohio? or some other state? Stay tuned, this may get more interesting before it's over.

Senator Obama Scores Hat Trick !! Wins Debate # 3

The candidates' closing statements say it better than this blogger, or anyone, can write:



Any undecided voters who missed the third & final debate can watch this YouTube clip and in 4 minutes they'll know whom to entrust the country to for the next four years!

This Year, Winners Join with the HRC to End Hate Violence

The Human Rights Campaign has assembled a powerful montage of photos depicting the devastation left behind by the perpetrators of hate crimes.

Click here to open the photo slideshow

Winners Prepare for Debate Win #3 in Toledo, Ohio!

Barack Obama arrived Sunday afternoon in Toledo, Ohio to prepare for Wednesday's third and final debate against Senator Songbird. He will be staying at Maumee Bay State Park Lodge on the shore of Lake Erie. Prior to checking in to the Lodge, he did some old-fashioned, Toledo-style retail politicking; knocking on doors off of McCord Rd for about 45 minutes. Appearing at a campaign event or two the next three days will ensure Obama dominates the local news in the crucial T.V. markets in Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland and Columbus. Recent polls show a "Rust-Belt" sweep shaping up for Barack, with his ticket likely to win Michigan, Ohio & Pennsylvania.

Ask Wal-Mart: Why Are All The Security Cameras Inside the Store?

Winners Don't Shop at Wal-Mart (or Sam's Club) !!

Winners shop at merchants who offer a living wage, affordable health care insurance, and who voluntarily enter into collective bargaining when their employees choose by majority vote to be members of a trade union.

www.WakeUpWalMart.com

Enjoy your 5-day work week? How about your 8-hour workday? Have a pension or a 401-K retirement plan? Take your 15-minute paid breaks for granted? Thank your fathers, grandmothers, and great-grandfathers who joined unions, fought for the right to collective bargaining, and walked picket lines for these benefits, and above all, a living wage.

We'll only Post about Winners, From Today On!

You can say you heard it here first. Your moderator has declared the G.O.P. ticket, especially, "Songbird", the grumpy old man at the top of the ticket, IRRELEVANT! We will no longer add posts, videos or photos of anyone on the G.O.P. side of this year's presidential election. Messrs. Obama and Biden, of course, are increasingly relevant with each passing day, so look to this blog to cover topics such as: Obama's cabinet -- who's in, who's out?; fulfillment of campaign promises -- how soon will we start to draw down our troops from the illegal occupation of Iraq?; economic melt-down issues -- once elected, will Pres. Obama still show concern for working folks, or will the Wall Street cabal captivate him and co-opt his first 100 days in office? No more words with "Mc-" in them, or Sarah, the Wasilla Guerilla. Yes, It's a liberating feeling. Settle back and enjoy the landslide, folks, and watch "W" pack up the back of his Chevy pick-up truck and haul ass back to Crawford, Texas!

Winners Learn New things Every Day!

Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User: How Many of these did you know; or not know before reading this?

Is McCain Really the "Family Values" Candidate?

This is Not the John McCain your Father Knew!

Nashville Prez. debate # 2 - We Have a Winner!

Obama clearly won tonight's debate. He performed calmly & coolly and rationally explained his positions and pointed out the substantial ways his plans are different than McCain's. He effectively made the point that the judgment made by Bush and supported by McCain, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc. was wrong; that we had no business invading Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein, especially when our top priority should have been sending more troops to Afghanistan to rout the Al Queda cells which lately have been re-forming and growing stronger.

McCain's tired response is: "Obama was wrong about the surge and won't admit it!" I say: "SCREW the surge, if the underlying occupation is illegal, unsupported by the folks back home, (and considering the original stated Goal was to remove Saddam as the despotic leader-for-life of that country was accomplished back in 2003); then who needs a surge? Draw down our troops; get them home with some leave and our thanks, and figure out who is the best trained and the most healthy to be able to serve another tour in Afghanistan. McCain tried his best to appear forceful, confident and friendlier, but overall, Obama's stage presence is just so much more inspiring.

Well, one more debate to go, and I'm confident Obama will do just as well, if not better. The polls are coming around commandingly in Barack's favor. It's his to lose at this point.

159,000 Jobs Lost in September, the Worst Month in Five Years

Winners Promote Job Creation; Not Job Elimination (nor Creationism, either!)
[click on Title, above, to read full New York Times article - front page, Oct. 4, 2008]
Nice job, Bushie!
Let's see, you hold the record for 2nd Place, too.
Weren't you the Prez five years ago?

Rachel Maddow Show Clip About McCain's Birthday Bash on Yacht

Rachel Maddow Reports On McCain's Celebrity Birthday Bash

Click on the link above for the 6-minute video and a link to The Nation magazine's scoop photo: showing Maverick McCain boarding a yacht in Montenegro, accompanied by his campaign manager, Rick Davis; the host for the occasion: a convicted Vatican Bank swindler, Raffaello Follieri, and his then-girlfriend, Hollywood starlet Anne Hathaway. This was in 2006, when Songbird was in Montenegro with a "Congressional delegation" and also coincided with Mack's 70th Birthday. Can this get any better?

A Winner Since 1982: Rep. Marcy Kaptur - D, Toledo Ohio

"Pray for our republic," said Representative Marcy Kaptur, a leading opponent of the measure. "She's being placed in very uncaring and greedy hands."

My hometown Congresswoman since 1982 was quoted today after voting "NO" again on the Bush Welfare for Wall Street Financial Bailout Plan. Rep. Kaptur has been a stellar public servant since she re-claimed Ohio's 9th Congressional District, which fell into GOP hands in the 1980 Reagan landslide. I had the privilege of volunteering for Marcy on Election Day, 1982, and attended her victory party that evening at the UAW Hall in Toledo, where she entered the packed room to the "Rocky" - "Gonna Fly Now" theme song. If you or your family member have visited the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C., you have Marcy Kaptur to thank. At the urging of a letter from one of her constituents, Marcy led the drive to raise money and build the Memorial on the National Mall.

Thank you, Marcy, for voting the right way today, and keep up the Great Work!
Ohio's 9th Congressional District
Rep. Kaptur's Warning About the Trillion Dollar Bailout Plan
from Rep. Kaptur's website - leading the push for the WWII Memorial
Rep. Kaptur refuses Congressional Pay Raise - gives $$$ cash to Toledo Food Bank

Sen. Joe Biden: Winner of Last Night's Debate

Hats off to Sen. Joe Biden, who clearly won last night's debate by clearly articulating the many differences between Obama's plans, and the Bush, Ver. 3.0 we would be stuck with in a McCain/Palin administration. His points about the Obama tax plan, the sucky ideas for health insurance tax changes McCain has in mind (surprise: another gift to big insurance companies!), and the need to withdraw our troops from Iraq were calmly and rationally supported by facts, voting records and reason.

Palin succeeded in the sense that she did not have any more "Katie Couric moments" but that's thanks to the timid tactics employed by moderator Gwen Ifill, who could have followed up by challenging many of the Guv's "answers" as nothing more than rote talking points.

And we learned that Sarah Palin pronounces NUCLEAR "nuke-you-lur", just like our faux-cowboy prez from Connecticut! Gheesh!

Today's laugher (well, besides the pork-loaded Welfare-for-Wall Street bill passed by the House and immediately signed by "W") was Gov. Palin's insistence that she and Todd could turn the "Michigan problem" around for McCain by walkin' aroun' them auto manufacturin' plants and talkin' to the workers, dont'cha know... Thanks, Sarah, but Michigan auto workers heard enough from her crotchety running mate when he told them during the GOP primaries "those jobs you lost to overseas plants, they're gone ... gone for good". Click here to read Salon.com story about McCain's Jan. 2008 Warren, Michigan visit

Sarah & The First Dude of Alaska will be here in the Denver area tomorrow for a fundraiser in Centennial. Obama supporters here in Douglas County are rallying around "Women for Change" at Civic Green Park in Highlands Ranch, near the library at 10:00 a.m. My daughter and I will be there. See you there!

Biden Wins, although Sarah avoids train wreck

Winner's Don't Quit

If only "W"'s Daddy had "pulled out"!
as posted on October 2, 2008: [click on title above for link to full text]

McCain pulling out of Michigan
politico.com — John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play. A McCain event planned for next week in Plymouth, Michiigan, has been canceled.

Winners Don't Pick "Joe Six-Pack" to be Their Vice-Prez Running Mate !

For the full text, click on the Title bar above.
Here's an excerpt, from Bob Cesca's post on TheHuffingtonPost.com, Oct. 1, 2008:

Here's the difference, though, between President Bush's Joe Six-pack persona and Sarah Palin's. For better or worse, George Bush -- and I can't believe I'm writing this -- had attained a respectable level of schooling while also coming from a family deeply rooted in American politics. In other words, be it the fake Crawford "ranch" and his cowboy drag, George W. Bush is mostly pretending. He's "Joe Six-pack" insofar as he's running away from his silver-spooned, cheerleading, Skull & Bones background. That doesn't mean he's any less ignorant. He's still a disconnected, incompetent nothing. But at least he possesses something resembling the heft required of the office. And it's worth noting for the sake of context that he initially ran for president as the "guy you want to have a beer with" in 1999 and 2000 -- a time of relative peace and prosperity. Bored Americans figured, Whatever. Might as well.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is, by all indications, a bonafide hooplehead -- so dangerously out of her depth and so delusional -- perhaps blinded by ambition -- that she is in total denial about the real-world ramifications of her ineptitude. Instead, she's excusing her embarrassing television interviews and farcical candidacy as an historical breakthrough for "normal Joe Six-pack Americans."

Winners Never Gamble With Their Wive's Money!

Click on Title bar above for full text of this article posted on The Huffington Post on Sept. 29, 2008:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-posner

Here's an excerpt:
I am only reporting now Perot's rumor/information about McCain because of today's New York Times story. Perot told me that McCain had a gambling problem and he had uncovered details that McCain was bailed out in the late 1980s from a big gambling debt by his wife, Cindy.
If true, it raises a question as to whether McCain's gambling might ever have put him in a situation where he was pressed to repay his debt through Senatorial favors.

An enterprising reporter has to ask Ross Perot if he will acknowledge what he shared with me 14 years ago, and if so, if he will now provide the evidence to back up the assertion. Perot hasn't talked to me since I published my unauthorized biography, so unfortunately, I am not the person to ask. And some reporter should ask McCain, directly, if he has ever had a gambling debt that his wife had to pay off. American voters have a right to know.

Winners Don't Talk From Both Sides of Their Mouth!

click on the Title/link above for this 3-minute collection of clips of McCain.
You know, "Mr. De-Regulator"; "Mr. Straight Talk"; "Mr. The fundamentals of our economy are strong"; a/k/a "Songbird"

this video originally posted on www.theREALMcCain.com

Wanna-be-Winners Would Take Bob Herbert's Advice:

Click on the Title bar above for the full text of Mr. Herbert's column; This excerpt from his column of Sept. 26, 2008:

“We have trade missions back and forth,” said Ms. Palin. “We do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to our state.”

It was surreal, the kind of performance that would generate a hearty laugh if it were part of a Monty Python sketch. But this is real life, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. As Ms. Palin was fumbling her way through the Couric interview, the largest bank failure in the history of the United States, the collapse of Washington Mutual, was occurring.

Winners Never Lose Ohio !

WASHINGTON — Recently trailing or tied, Democrat Barack Obama now leads Republican John McCain in a trio of the most critical, vote-rich states five weeks before the election, according to presidential poll results released Wednesday.

The Democrat's support jumped to 50 percent or above in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania in Quinnipiac University surveys taken during the weekend -- after the opening presidential debate and during Monday's dramatic stock market plunge as the House rejected a $700 billion financial bailout plan.

Combined, these states offer 68 of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory on Election Day, Nov. 4.

LIZ SIDOTI | October 1, 2008 12:48 PM EST | as posted on www.HuffingtonPost.com

Winners Don't Block Release of their Military Records!

Wait a sec, wasn't this guy a "Hero" and all that? ... Think again, Virginia:

1992 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA's

This is a 7&1/2-minute-video from 1992 featuring a Republican senator, Republican congressman and top Capitol Hill staffers who worked on Vietnam Prisoner of War and Missing In Action issues, who say John McCain collaborated with the North Vietnamese while a POW, and then covered up that involvement to the detriment of POW/MIA families seeking access to classified Pentagon records about their own family members. The U.S. House voted 401-0 in favor of the bill. McCain blocked it in the Senate.

Click here to send John McCain a message and demand that he release all of his U.S. Naval Service (including POW records) files NOW!

What are you hiding, Sen. McCain?

For more background on McCain's history as a collaborator, click here.

McCain's Secret Service Code Name should be: Songbird !

[Currently, it's "Phoenix". Wife #2, Cindy is called "Parasol".]
The following is from the nonprofit Web site, www.UnfitMcCain.com.

In McCain’s 1999 autobiography, Faith of My Fathers, he admitted to smoking cigarettes provided him by his captors, a violation of the Code of Conduct for U.S. prisoners of war. It is reasonable to assume the North Vietnamese weren’t aware he was addicted to nicotine. Thus, if McCain, a two-packs a day smoker, had initially refused the tobacco favor, nothing would’ve been said or inferred.

On the other hand, when he took that first puff, his captors knew instantly McCain had a weakness that could make him more vulnerable to disclosing military secrets during interrogations, which he did.

In return for medical treatment at a civilian hospital, a privilege never granted to other injured POWs, McCain reportedly told NVA interrogators the name of his aircraft carrier, how many Navy pilots had been lost, the number of planes in his flight formation, tactics used during bomb runs and the location of rescue ships in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Because of the revelations which McCain repeated in propaganda radio broadcasts, the North Vietnamese contemptuously nicknamed him “Songbird.”

On June 4, 1969, a U.S. wire service story headlined, “PW Songbird Is Pilot Son of Admiral,” described one of McCain’s radio recordings: “Hanoi has aired a broadcast in which the pilot son of the United States commander in the Pacific, Adm. John McCain, purportedly admits to having bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam and praises medical treatment he has received since being taken prisoner.”

During his six-week hospital stay and for months afterwards, McCain continued to cooperate with NVA interrogators. He made more radio broadcasts for the enemy and met with foreign dignitaries, enjoying hot tea, coffee and cigarettes in posh settings while back at the Hanoi Hilton and other internment camps, his fellow POWs struggled to stay alive.

In one case, while meeting with Cuban journalist Fernando Barral in 1970, after McCain was no longer being physically abused by his captors, he voluntarily spoke in Spanish, even though he was obligated as an American POW to be evasive during their conversation. Had McCain feigned ignorance of Barral's native language, the one-hour interview, which North Vietnam exploited for propaganda purposes, might not have lasted five minutes.

Although McCain claimed he didn’t discuss military matters with Barral, the Hanoi Hilton's U.S. commander, SRO Jeremiah Denton, later issued an order forbidding POWs to be interviewed by visitors.

Right from McCain's E-mail blast to wing-nuts Friday night:

Here's what Sen. McCain sent to his supporters Friday night right after the "debate":
"In a few hours, I will return to Washington to resume negotiations with the Administration and Congressional leaders from both parties to forge a bipartisan solution to our economic crisis. I am optimistic we will come to a final agreement soon. All voices must be represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.

We cannot be interested in who would get credit for finding a solution and who would be blamed if an agreement cannot be reached. We must put our country first to solve this economic crisis. Because in the end, that's what leaders do in times of crisis."

I ran this statement through my de-coder machine and here's what he meant:
"Everyone in both the Executive branch and in Congress have been sucking up to Big Business for so long and ignoring the plight of the dwindling middle / working-class, but now our bosses at Goldman, Lockheed-Martin and Halliburton insist that we bail out the speculators who got us into this mess in the first place. After hiring 117 lobbyists to work on my staff in the last seven years, I'm going to keep up the charade these next 5 weeks of actually caring what's important to the little people"

And notice how his statement mentions "taxpayers" and "homeowners"? That's Rush-O'Reilly-Hannity code for "we don't give a rat's ass about what happens to working folks who happen to be RENTERS; and the disabled, poor & elderly who have next to little or no INCOME, therefore they pay essentially NO income tax, which means there will be no "Life-line" in the "bail-out plan" (which FOX NEWS has now re-named a "Rescue Plan" -- doesn't that sound niftier?) for the working class, only for our millionaire friends.

She'll be really strong in Salem, Massachusetts!

Huff Post contributor Max Blumenthal went specifically to see a pastor visiting from Kiambu, Kenya named Thomas Muthee. Muthee gained fame within Pentecostal circles by claiming that he defeated a local witch, Mama Jane, in a great spiritual battle, thus liberating his town from sin and opening its people to the spirit of Jesus.

Muthee's mounting stardom took him to Wasilla Assembly of God in May, 2005, where he prayed over Palin and called upon Jesus to propel her into the governor's mansion -- and beyond. Muthee also implored Jesus to protect Palin from "the spirit of witchcraft." The video archive of that startling sermon was scrubbed from Wasilla Assembly of God's website, but now it has reappeared.

Click here for the YouTube version (Palin appears after about 7:00)

Winners Stay Engaged -- & Multi-task

It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again!

With apologies to Yogi Berra, here's a trip down memory lane, to the year 2000, February 25, 2000 to be exact: San Francisco Chronicle article: McCain Backs Out of Debate In California Bush campaign claims senator is abandoning state

Quitters Never Win!

The news this past week has been so awful for McCain/Palin/Rove et. al. that now Sen. McCain says he wants to postpone this Friday evening's debate! Sen. Obama rightfully replied, "I don't think so!" Are we going to postpone the election in November, too?

This reminds me of "Rotten Rudy" quitting his New York Senate race against Hillary! when all the polls showed he was going to lose, big-time.

McCain was chairman of the Senate Commerce committee for seven years, he hasn't shown up in the Senate for a vote since April, but now all of a sudden he'll be too busy repairing our financial meltdown Friday night so he must dodge the debate in Mississippi. Hmmmmhh. Perhaps he's unsure how to respond when Mr. Lehrer asks him how HE is going to be "the man" to reform Wall Street, when his own campaign chairman, Rick Davis, was taking $15,000 / month to lobby on behalf of Freddie Mac, right up until two weeks ago?

[This just in: September 25, 2008 -- Rick Davis explains he wasn't PERSONALLY receiving the monthly fees (which added up to about $500,000 since 2005) -- they went to his COMPANY, or one of them, anyway. His companies go by the names "Davis Manafort"; "Davis Manafort Partners"; & "Davis, Manafort, Inc.". I'd have to be some kind of really smart Republican businessman to understand the difference between being paid personally, and having ones company in which one is a director & officer being paid, instead. As a paid-by-the-hour Democrat, this is all to sophisticated for me to figure out. For the skinny, go to http://www.newsweek.com/id/160713

Or how is he going to explain why he hasn't made full disclosure of his medical records? And what's wrong with his left eye? Has anyone else noticed in the last couple of days how McCain's left eye appears blood-shot, swollen, and blinking? Can't wait 'til Friday night! Perhaps McCain should send (former) Sen. Phil Gramm as his spokesman, as Gramm has his heart set on being appointed our next Secretary of the Treasury (right!). Tune in Friday night...

Why the Blog?

1. Because I'm obsessing about the 2008 political campaigns in my outgoing e-mails, daily water-cooler talks at the office, daydreams, night-dreams, etc.! So, it's really a spiritual cleansing process.

2. I'll spend less time watching T.V., which lately means over-exposing oneself to the continual spin of the talking heads, and repetitious campaign (and "shadow-campaign" / 527) commercials.

3. Ummmh, it's an important election, who thought one could be more important than 2000, or 2004?