Election

John McCain And Citizens Against Government Waste

Posted by on October 16, 2008 at 12:57 pm. NO Comments :

Now that all three presidential debates have been concluded, there is a notable thread of consistency that John McCain maintained throughout the process. In all three debates he cited Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) as a non-partisan watchdog group that voters could go turn for more information about his policies.

  • Debate 1: I suggest that people go up on the Web site of Citizens Against Government Waste, and they’ll look at those projects.
  • Debate 2: And now I suggest that maybe you go to some of these organizations that are the watchdogs of what we do, like the Citizens Against Government Waste or the National Taxpayers Union or these other organizations that watch us all the time.
  • Debate 3: Let’s look at it as graded by the National Taxpayers Union and the Citizens Against Government Waste and the other watchdog organizations.

The only problem is that CAGW is anything but non-partisan. Last month I wrote about how Fox News used CAGW as a source for a story on earmarks by correspondent William La Jeunesse (who may be the most politically biased reporter on Fox, and that’s saying something).

“[CAGW] has publicly endorsed McCain for president and donated $11,000.00 to him or to PACs he controls. CAGW has also worked as a shill to attack McCain opponents in a manner that may have violated election law. It has also been connected to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

On the board of CAGW is long-time McCain associate, Orson Swindle. They met as cell mates in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp where Swindle says that he and McCain ‘slept side-by-side for almost two years.’ Swindle is now the McCain campaign’s veterans liaison and was appointed to his campaign Truth Squad a couple of months ago.”

This is McCain’s idea of a non-partisan source? It’s not particularly surprising that McCain would exploit his cronies to boost himself. But it would be nice if the press would at least make a small mention of this deceit. Then, maybe I’m just too idealistic.

The Supporters Who Make John McCain So Proud

Posted by on October 16, 2008 at 11:40 am. NO Comments :

At last night’s debate, John McCain responded to the reports of derogatory and hostile remarks by his supporters by saying…

“Let me just say categorically I’m proud of the people that come to our rallies.”

Oh really? Are these the people that make you so proud?

“The latest newsletter by an Inland Republican women’s group depicts Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama surrounded by a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken, prompting outrage in political circles […] The October newsletter by the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated says if Obama is elected his image will appear on food stamps — instead of dollar bills like other presidents.”

Republican officials are now scrambling to apologize. But how seriously can we take their regrets when this seems to happen every other day. In fact, they are still apologizing for a racist web posting yesterday by the Sacramento County Republican Party that called for Obama to be waterboarded, and said that “The only difference between Obama and Osama is BS.”

It should also be noted that McCain’s defense of his supporters was in response to a question about the “pallin around with terrorists” comment directed at Obama. He excused his rally attendees by asserting that there are always a few people in the crowd who say things that are inappropriate. However, that comment was not made by his supporters. It came from the stage, not the crowd. It was Sarah Palin, his nominee for vice president, who made that statement.

McCain, his campaign, and far too many of his supporters are just plain repulsive. But they are a fair representation of the worst that the Republican Party has to offer.

Barack Obama Gets Fox News

Posted by on October 15, 2008 at 4:10 pm. 1 Comments :

At the end of a lengthy article in the New York Times Magazine by Matt Bai on Barack Obama’s efforts at “Working for the Working-Class Vote,” Obama acknowledges that the bias exhibited by the relentless smear tactics of Fox News can have a measurable impact on voters.

“I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?”

“I guess the point I’m making is that there is an entire industry now, an entire apparatus, designed to perpetuate this cultural schism, and it’s powerful. People want to know that you’re fighting for them, that you get them. And I actually think I do. But you know, if people are just seeing me in sound bites, they’re not going to discover that. That’s why I say that some of that may have to happen after the election, when they get to know you.”

It’s refreshing to hear a candidate speak truth to power-mad propagandists and media prevaricators. Frankly, I don’t think he went far enough. By only enumerating peripheral character issues like lattes and Volvos, Obama left more serious assaults off the table. He didn’t mention Bill Ayers, or Rev. Wright, or ACORN, or whether he was Muslim, etc. It’s understandable that he may not have wanted to refocus attention on those matters, but that is where the bulk of the disinformation campaign against him was centered.

It was also nice to read Obama’s framing of the problem with Fox News. Notice that he didn’t merely speculate as to whether things might have been different if Fox had reported differently. He hypothesized a world wherein there was no Fox News. Be still my heart. In that scenario much more would be different than the results of the current presidential campaign. All of Fox’s misrepresentations about the economy, the war in Iraq, civil rights, global warming, health care, etc., would have never tainted the public debate. We would never have had to waste time rebutting the perverse and divisive agendas of people like Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc.

Certainly it would not have been Paradise Found. Fox News is not the only media enterprise to exercise rampant dishonesty and self-interest as they diminish the once proud institution of journalism. But they are the leader, and the primary provocateur, and without them the others would not have fallen so quickly overboard.

Sarah Palin Still Stonewalling The Press

Posted by on October 14, 2008 at 12:23 pm. NO Comments :

The Palin Watch

Now that the investigation of Sarah Palin in Alaska has proven that she abused her power as governor and committed ethical violations in office, I thought I should issue this reminder that she has still declined interviews and has never had a press conference since being selected as John McCain’s running mate.

She did, however, manage to tell reporters on the campaign trail that she was gratified that the investigation cleared her. What the hell is she trippin on? She said the report concluded that she did nothing illegal or unethical. But the report specifically said that she did break both civil and ethical laws.

This is another reason why she won’t actually meet with the press. She is both ill-informed on policy matters and delusional about her own character.

Fox News: All ACORN All The Time

Posted by on October 10, 2008 at 4:38 am. 2 Comments :

In these last few weeks of the 2008 election, it is apparent that John McCain’s campaign has rolled completely off the tracks. His poll numbers are mirroring the collapsing trends of the Dow Jones (a Rupert Murdoch enterprise). Desperation has set in that is represented by his pathetic attempts to tie Barack Obama to a 1960’s radical with whom he’s had little connection. McCain has apparently concluded that the race is over if he does nothing, so if he does something nasty with the potential to backfire on him, he has nothing to lose.

Fox News has seemingly come to the same conclusion and they are aggressively pursuing a strategy they hope will either reinvigorate McCain’s campaign or cast suspicion on Obama’s presumed victory. Their plan is to hype problems reported concerning the voter registration activities of ACORN, a non-profit group that seeks to increase voter participation. But worse, their plan is to foment hostile dissent.

ACORN’s problems are real and they have much for which to answer. However, the allegations of voter fraud trumpeted non-stop by Fox News are a total misrepresentation of the nature of the problems. In fact, it is ACORN that is the victim of fraud, not the election process.

What is happening is that some of the people hired by ACORN to collect voter registrations are returning paperwork that is duplicated or falsified. In some cases they register the same name multiple times or they create registrations for imaginary figures like Mickey Mouse or Colonel Sanders. Since these people are paid per registration form that they turn in (see update below), when they hand over forms that are invalid they are, in effect, ripping off ACORN. That is indeed fraud against ACORN, who claim they are insufficiently funded to catch every instance of this scam.

What it is not is voter fraud. Not a single vote has been cast unlawfully as a result of these activities. Nor is one likely to be. While the dishonest canvassers can make a few extra dollars with this scheme, no one can actually vote who is not entitled to. Certainly nobody will show up at the polls identifying themselves as Mickey Mouse and asking for a ballot. Likewise, anyone for whom multiple registrations were submitted will still only be able to vote once because after the first time, their name is checked off by precinct workers and would not be permitted to cast another vote. So the only parties harmed here are ACORN and the political parties who receive data on registrations that is inaccurate. Since ACORN focuses on low income voters, it is mostly the Democrats who will be hurt by over estimates of new Democratic voters.

In short, there is a difference between voter fraud and voter registration fraud, and this is an example of the latter. Despite the fact that ACORN is the real victim, along with the Democratic Party, Fox News has turned their network into a 24/7 broadcaster of allegations of voter fraud that is not actually occurring. This is a deliberate attempt to try to bail out McCain’s floundering election prospects. The Fox anchors never disclose the facts enumerated above. To the contrary, they repeatedly imply that the purpose of the misbehavior is to boost Obama’s vote tally, although they never explain how that could occur.

In the past couple of days it has been impossible to tune in to Fox News without hearing another of these deceitful reports every quarter hour or more. Everyone at Fox – Brit Hume, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Steve Doocy, Megyn Kelly, etc. – is participating in the charade. It is despicable that this pseudo-news organization can so deliberately misinform their viewers, though that may be what Fox News has always done best. But what’s truly repulsive is that their covert agenda is to lay the groundwork for a disintegration of confidence in the election process.

There is actually good reason to be suspicious of election systems in this country. But not for the reasons for which Fox is obsessed. Electronic voting machines with no paper trail should cause citizens some discomfort. And voter suppression efforts by way of purging eligible voters from voting rolls, or challenging them at the polls is being uncovered everyday. But none of these threats to fair elections are covered by Fox News.

If Fox is successful, and Obama prevails on November 4th, they might well have set in motion a frightening scenario wherein Americans taken in by Fox’s lies are convinced that the election was fixed and invalid. The degree to which they may protest that imaginary outcome could conceivably escalate to violence. We have already seen the seeds of hostility sprouting at Republican rallies for McCain and Palin, with supporters expressing their disapproval with Obama by shouting “terrorist” and “kill him” and other epithets and threats.

Fox News is deliberately fueling this divisiveness, and when they aren’t spewing lies about ACORN, they are clamoring about fabricated, forty year old associations with radicals. We can only hope that the truth about these matters manages to seep through to the glassy-eyed viewers of Fox. They are a sheltered bunch who rarely venture out of the safety of the network devoted to reinforcing what they already believe. But the facts are available and it is crucial that they be disseminated, particularly to the Foxpods who are the most likely to snap.

Update: ACORN has responded to the allegations of voter fraud and have supplied facts that are enlightening and differ somewhat from what I wrote above. In particular, they state that their canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card, so there is NO incentive for them to falsify cards. (The incentive may lie exclusively with malicious Republicans). They also reveal that they are required to turn in all cards, even those they suspect of irregularities. And when they have done so, they have flagged the problematic cards, but their alerts have often been ignored and they are then accused of further wrongdoing. The full response is worth reading.

Fox News has set up an email box for viewers to report voter fraud: voterfraud@foxnews.com. Since they are so concerned about exposing and resolving this problem, it would be great if they received a torrent of email alerting them to the problems of voter caging, purged voting rolls, voter challenges, voting machine irregularities, poll and ballot access, etc.

Did Sean Hannity Host A Terrorist Leader?

Posted by on October 9, 2008 at 3:36 pm. NO Comments :

During a heated discussion with Barack Obama’s communication director, Robert Gibbs, Sean Hannity blurted out the names of controversial figures that he said have been guests on his show. He was defending himself from Gibbs’ assertion that basing an entire episode of his Hannity’s America on the commentary of noted anti-Semite Andy Martin could tag Hannity as an anti-Semite himself. Gibbs was actually just attempting to demonstrate that such guilt by association is not a valid strategy for debate.

One of the names Hannity listed in his defense was Khalid Mohammad. Was this the same Mohammad that was Osama Bin Laden’s propaganda chief? He is presently a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay and is considered one of the highest profile Al Qaeda leaders yet captured. The 9/11 Commission described him as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks,” and he has reportedly confessed that he had personally decapitated the American journalist, Daniel Pearl.

Hannity may have been referring to another Khalid Mohammad who was the national spokesman for Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam (NOI). He is hardly a less controversial character. This Mohammad referred to Jews as bloodsuckers and was dismissed from the NOI for being too radical (for the NOI?). In February 1994, Congress issued a denunciation of Muhammad, condemning his speech as “outrageous hatemongering of the most vicious and vile kind.” He died in 2001 of a brain aneurysm, so if Hannity had him on his show it was at least seven years ago.

It would be interesting to find out to whom Hannity was referring. But either way Hannity admits that he pals around with some unsavory folks. He surely has no business criticizing Barack Obama.

The FCC Probes Pentagon Propaganda Program – Finally

Posted by on October 9, 2008 at 10:54 am. NO Comments :

“World War Three will be a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.” ~ Marshall McLuhan, 1968

The FCC is finally beginning to take some action on perhaps the most egregious propaganda assault ever directed at the American people by their own government. From the International Herald Tribune/AP:

“The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday said it is investigating whether five television networks and 19 former military officers violated government disclosure rules in providing on-air analysis of the war in Iraq and other issues.”

It’s about time! The FCC is only now getting around to reacting to reports, originally published in the New York Times last April, that the Pentagon was actively engaging in possibly unlawful activity wherein they supplied supposedly retired military spokespersons to the media who were in fact trained and deployed to promote views favoring the Bush administration’s conduct of the war in Iraq.

Even worse, these unethical officers were simultaneously employed by defense contractors and received financial gain as a result of their brazen propagandizing. It was further disclosed in the Times that many of these spokespersons provided commentary they knew was false in order to protect either their access to the media or their profits. Was that their idea of supporting the troops?

When revealed, the Pentagon acknowledged the potential conflicts and announced that they would temporarily suspend the program “pending further review.” Barack Obama released a public statement saying that he:

“…is deeply disturbed by this latest evidence that the Bush Administration has sought to manipulate the public’s trust. From its misleading case to go to war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, to its argument for keeping our troops in Iraq indefinitely, the Administration has depended on spin because its assertions have not been supported by facts.”

More than 150 retired officers participated in this program, and most of them worked for – you guessed it – Fox News. However, letters sent by the FCC have only been received by CBS and ABC so far. None of the networks have commented on the investigation.

Another prominent figure who has not commented is John McCain, despite the fact that this issue directly impacts the welfare of American soldiers in harm’s way. McCain, of course, has been as vigorous a defender of the administration’s specious war policy as the lying Pentagon mouthpieces that hyped it. And he’s been just as honest as well.

McCain’s silence on this issue is further evidence of the hypocrisy and disingenuousness of his alleged support for soldiers and veterans. It should surprise no one that the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave McCain a “D” for his voting record on veterans issues (Obama got a “B”).

Whether the FCC will conduct a fair and comprehensive inquiry under Republican hack Chairman Kevin Martin is uncertain at this time. But commissioners Copps and Adelstein will do their best to make this a productive investigation. And there is a likelihood that the process will extend into the next (Obama) administration and an FCC with a new Democratic majority.

John McCain Thanks Osama Bin Laden

Posted by on October 8, 2008 at 11:00 am. 1 Comments :

As I predicted, the debate last night in Nashville was almost utterly devoid of constructive engagement. The rules agreed upon months ago by the candidates precluded any interaction or follow-ups, so both candidates were able to deliver de facto stump speeches.

In Barack Obama’s favor, his stump speech actually contains substance and detail on his positions and policies. John McCain, however, is a walking platitude machine telling us Americans how great we all are, in between telling us how frightening Obama is.

There was, however, one answer that McCain gave that I think deserves some wider recognition. In a response to a question about whether the U.S. should pursue terrorists into Pakistani territory, McCain offered this history lesson:

“Now, let me just go back with you very briefly. We drove the Russians out with – the Afghan freedom fighters drove the Russians out of Afghanistan, and then we made a most serious mistake. We washed our hands of Afghanistan. The Taliban came back in, Al Qaeda, we then had the situation that required us to conduct the Afghan war.”

The folks McCain glorifies as “Afghan freedom fighters” are better known as the Mujahideen, an insurgent force that included Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. And if it wasn’t bad enough that McCain publicly planted this big wet kiss on Bin Laden, he went on to dismissively refer to Bin Laden’s attack on America as “the situation” that precipitated war with Afghanistan.

So 9/11 was merely a situation, and Bin Laden deserves our thanks for driving the Russians from Afghanistan. These remarks underscore the cynical politicization of horrific events by the McCain campaign. They appear to be ready to use whatever assault, no matter how scandalous or repulsive, in order to benefit their naked ambitions. And when McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, are traveling the country alleging that Obama is “pallin’ around with terrorists,” I thought it should be noted that McCain took the time to send his regards to Bin Laden & Co. during a presidential debate on national TV.

The Hermetically Sealed Presidential Debate

Posted by on October 7, 2008 at 2:01 pm. NO Comments :

Heading into the final month of campaigning, John McCain is showing signs of desperation. His aides have announced that they cannot talk about the economy or they will lose. So they are resorting to personal smears and distractions. Sarah Palin is doing her part by associating Barack Obama with controversial figures from the past that he had little to do with.

All of this makes the stakes for tonight’s debate much higher for McCain who is falling farther behind in both national and state polls. But the debate format pretty much excludes any possibility for either candidate to make any significant movement.

The questions will from a group of allegedly uncommitted voters in the audience and on the Internet. Then moderator Tom Brokaw will select the actual questions the candidates are asked. There will be no follow-up questions from either the questioner or Brokaw. There will be no reaction shots following the answers. The candidates must stay within their “designated areas” and may not directly question each other.

Given these rules, I don’t why they even need to be in the same room. The format prevents any real interaction. This debate promises to be no more enlightening than a series of alternating clips of each candidate’s stump speech. The candidates can ignore the questions without repercussions, and their answers will never be challenged in a way that makes them accountable.

Designing the debate in this manner is a disservice to voters who will not get to see how the participants perform when challenged. It was negotiated months ago by representatives of the campaigns who obviously feared putting their candidate into a situation that could harm them politically. As it turns out, it will be a big advantage for Obama because it is McCain who needs to make a mark if he hopes to stop Obama’s momentum. This format will make that much more difficult for McCain.

Consequently, I predict that nothing of note will happen tonight, and McCain will hit the trail tomorrow with more and louder accusations and slander. He and Pit Bull Palin have much better luck manipulating the press at their rallies. They have even taken to corralling the media into virtual cages, not allowing them access to the candidate or even their supporters.

You can smell their fear. But so can the viewers, voters and the press. This election is all but over.

John McCain’s Smear Campaign

Posted by on October 4, 2008 at 9:55 pm. NO Comments :

As John McCain’s prospects for election diminish, the incidence of dirty tricks and nasty campaigning are likely to increase. Almost every event and news story in the past couple of weeks has resulted in voters trending more to Barack Obama. Polls show Obama gaining support after the conventions, after the first presidential debate, after the Wall Street legislative activity in Washington, and after the vice presidential debate. With less than thirty days until the election, McCain’s desperation is showing. As the Republican angst escalates they will more aggressively execute the tactics that McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, articulated a few years ago in a newspaper editorial:

“The premise of any smear campaign rests on a central truth of politics: Most of us will vote for a candidate we like and respect, even if we don’t agree with him on every issue. But if you can cripple a voter’s basic trust in a candidate, you can probably turn his vote. The idea is to find some piece of personal information that is tawdry enough to raise doubts, repelling a candidate’s natural supporters […] It’s not necessary, however, for a smear to be true to be effective.”

The onslaught of political mud has already begun. Top Republicans told the Washington Post that:

“Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama’s character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat’s judgment, honesty and personal associations.”

It appears that Sarah Palin has been tapped to be the campaign attack Pitbull (with lipstick). This afternoon she made the outrageous and offensive assertion that Obama associates with terrorists:

“Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

This is the sort of garbage that can be expected between now and November fourth. McCain has nothing else upon which to campaign, so he is resorting to slander, lies and defamation. The candid confessions of Republican operatives, including McCain’s campaign manager, that they intend to pursue this strategy, should remove all doubt as to what depths they will sink. And from now on, any attack that emanates from the McCain camp must be viewed through the prism of these admissions.

They have told us in advance that they will be personal and tawdry, and that they don’t care about the truth. These are their words and their stated objectives. We must remember that and make sure that every voter knows it as well.

Just for the record: It may be John McCain who was really “pallin’ around with terrorists:”