Palin touts stance on 'Bridge to Nowhere,' doesn't note flip-flop : comments

Completely over politically ambitious
sorry Palin you are just not a truly
capable Governor..only when your
state coffers are completely over
flowing..which has to do with gas prices
so high..the gasoline prices and heating
for homes..is totaly 2 high.

166 January 23, 2009 - 8:21am | tobis

Interesting

Hi,

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165 January 8, 2009 - 8:13am | alwazercom

its good

Thank you
The article is quite remarkable
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164 October 5, 2008 - 8:10pm | SandyAK

From Glory Boy to PW

Thank you so much for all that information. After reading this I can now see why he picked Palin, they are 2 of a kind!

163 October 5, 2008 - 8:02pm | SandyAK

Give it up Palinbots, some of us are not stupid!

This goes to show Palin is only about what is good for her/hers benefit once again. And don't you love it when she takes credit for good things that weren't her doing. Yeah we should all be very proud........NOT! Truth and transparency and public safety....just lies she told to become Governor. Cut public safetys budget by 10%. I've seen as much bad judgement from Palin as well as McCain and I for one will not support or condone either of their continual LIES. Maybe Palin should admit wrongdoing in her 3 ethics complaints but she accepts no responsibility or accountability for anything that goes on in her administration. She puts it on other people and they either A: go on paid vacation or B: get thrown under the bus. Palin has shown her true colors and they are not red, white and blue!

162 October 5, 2008 - 11:45am | Dkl87

Please read

I hope if you read this slanted story about Sarah you understand that she did change her mind after figuring out it was wrong.. I think we need politicians who can admit when they are wrong and do the right thing... adn has a thing against sarah as they are as liberal as the voting record of obama... so read the story but look for the facts...and remember this obama is making lots of promise he can not begin to keep ...

161 September 7, 2008 - 9:06am | dmak

Hockey Mom Needs a Rink

Much has been made of Sarah's insistence that Wasilla foot the bill for a big-time sports facility, but what all the reports fail to mention is that she pushed for the deluxe ice rink/sports facility (about $15 million worth) at precisely the moment that her son could and did benefit from such a facility.

It tells you all you need to know about Sarah that, rather than build an ice rink in her own backyard, as most parents do, she instead decided that the town should go $15 million into debt so that her boy would have a luxe place to play hockey.

You've all met this woman, in some form or another, in your own lives, either at the office, the PTA, or at little league/soccer/pee-wee football. Sarah was (and apparently, still is) THAT woman, your worst PTA nightmare, the mom who takes the little league or soccer game way too seriously, and who apparently sees even her children's pee-wee soccer, baseball or hockey game as an opportunity for career advancement.

Please, America, don't let her do to the country what she's done to Wasilla and Alaska.

160 September 3, 2008 - 12:12am | AmericanVoice

From Glory Boy to PW

From Glory Boy to PW Songbird
John McCain: War Hero or North Vietnam's Go-To Collaborator?

13/06/08 "Counterpunch" -- -- If you have no idea what war is about, thank your gods. It is not what you see in Mel Gibson movies, nor is it hidden within the Big Lie Big Brother tells you about Pat Tillman’s heroic “Army of One” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When my father was in New Guinea with the 32nd Division in 1942, his fellow American soldiers would point their long Springfield rifles skywards and shoot at American pilots flying overhead.

“Glory Boys,” the long-suffering ground troops called them.

The pilots had comfortable quarters beside the airstrip in Port Moresby. When orders for a mission came down, they’d climb in their planes, rattle down the runway, and soar over the Owen Stanley Mountains with the clouds in spotless uniforms, breathing fresh clean air. The Glory Boys weren’t trapped in the broiling jungle, in the mud and pouring rain, their skin rotting away, chewed by ghastly insects, bitten by poisonous snakes, stricken with cerebral malaria, yellow fever, dysentery, and a host of unknown diseases delivered by unknown parasites.

If the Fly Boys perished, it was in a blaze of glory, not from a landmine, or a misdirected American mortar, or a Japanese bayonet in the brain.

One day my father and his last remaining friend, Charlie Ferguson, were walking through the jungle up to the front line. One the way they passed a group of bare-chested Aussies in khaki shorts sitting round a grindstone sharpening their knives. Every once in a while one of the Aussies would hoist his rife and casually put a bullet into a Japanese sniper who had tied himself into the top of a nearby tree. Not in any place that would outright kill him, but some place painful enough to make the point.

A little further toward the front line, my father and Charlie came upon Master Sergeant Harry Blackman, an adult man in his forties, regular army, a grizzled combat veteran. A few days earlier in a fight with the Japanese, a young lieutenant, a “90-Day Wonder,” had curled up in a fetal position when he should have been directing mortar fire. As a result, US mortar rounds landed on several US soldiers. Blackman, in front of everyone, took the lieutenant behind a tree and blew his brains out.

As my father and Charlie waked through the jungle they saw Harry Blackman perched on the lower limb of a huge tropical tree, babbling incoherently among the butterflies and flowering vines, driven stark raving mad by sorrow and jungle war with the Japanese.

Several days later my father was sent on a patrol into Japanese held territory. He was the last man in a formation moving single file through the jungle. Plagued by malaria and exhaustion, he kept falling behind. Around noon, a group of Japanese soldiers sitting high up in trees dropped concussion grenades on the patrol. As he lay on the ground, unable to move, my father watched the Japanese slide down the trees. Starting with the point man on patrol, they pulled down the pants and castrated each man, before clubbing him to death with their rifle butts or running a bayonet into his gut.

War. If you’re a Glory Boy like John Sidney McCain III, you really have no idea what it is. You drop bombs on cities, on civilians, maybe on enemy forces, maybe on your own troops. Glory Boys like John McCain rarely get a taste of the horror they inflict on others. Their suffering rarely extends beyond the high anxiety that they might get shot down and that some bombarded mob on the ground might take its revenge.

Magically, my father was spared that day when his patrol was slaughtered. Against regulations, he had stolen a cross-swords patch and sewn it on his shirt sleeve. At the age of 16, he thought it looked cool. On the morning of the patrol, when the new “90-Day Wonder” told him to take it off, my father said “Sure.” He and the lieutenant stared at each other for a while and then the lieutenant moved away. Insubordination was the least of anyone’s worries. No one expected to survive the patrol, anyway.

When the Japanese who had ambushed the patrol got to my father, they stood poised to mutilate and kill him. Then they saw the cross-swords patch. They apparently felt that dear old dad was an important person with inside information about American forces. Instead of killing him, they took him prisoner. When they realized he was just a stupid kid, the Japanese sent him to a POW camp in the Philippines.

Being a POW is what my father and John McCain have in common; although their experience as POWs was as different as their class and their character.

Class indeed has privileges, and while the government refused to provide my combat-veteran father with medical benefits for his malaria, McCain, who spent ten hours of his life in mortal danger, was decorated with the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.

And thus the “war hero” myth was born.

McNasty
In the fall of 1967, Navy pilot John McCain was routinely bombing Hanoi from an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. On October 26, he was trying to level a power plant in a heavily populated area when a surface-to-air missile knocked a wing off his jet. Banged-up John McCain and what was left of plane splashed into Truc Bach Lake.

A compassionate Vietnamese civilian left his air raid shelter and swam out to McCain. McCain’s arm and leg were fractured and he was tangled up in his parachute underwater. He was drowning. The Vietnamese man saved McCain’s sorry ass, and yet McCain has nothing but hatred for “the gooks” who allegedly tortured him. As he told reporters on his campaign bus (The Straight Talk Express) in 2000, “I will hate them as long as I live.” (1)

Americans have to hate people, and dehumanize them as “gooks” or “rag-heads” in order to drop bombs on them. Stirring up such hatred is the forte of the US government, as witnessed by its Israeli-driven PR campaign against Arabs and Moslems. That’s why Bush and his media minions tied “brutal dictator” Saddam Hussein to 9/11 – so Americans would hate Iraqis enough to kill and abuse them in a thousand ways, everyday, for five years. Or, according to McCain, for 100 years if necessary.

The flip side to the equation is that people generally hate those who drop bombs on them. When the Germans dropped bombs on London, the Allies called it Terror Bombing. The French resistance especially hated the Germans, especially after the Gestapo set up shop in occupied France in 1940.

Likewise, Iraqi and Afghani resistance fighters hate the Americans (who more and more resemble the Germans of 1940) for occupying their countries. They especially hate our Gestapo – the CIA – and its torturers. But that’s War for you, and John McCain is lucky the locals didn’t eat him alive – like Uzbek nationalists trapped in a horrid prison camp in Afghanistan nibbled on CIA officer John “Mike” Spann shortly after Spann summarily executed a prisoner. Spann was killed in the ensuing riot, shortly before the CIA and its Afghan collaborators massacred the remaining Uzbek prisoners on 28 November 2001.
The Vietnamese had good reason to hate McCain. On his previous 22 missions, he had dropped God knows how many bombs killing God knows how many innocent civilians. “I am a war criminal,” he confessed on “60 Minutes” in 1997. “I bombed innocent women and children.” (2)

If he is sincere when he says that, why isn’t he being tried for war crimes by the U.S .Government?

In any event, the man who rescued McCain tried to ward off an angry mob, which stomped on McCain for a while until the local cops turned him over to the military. McCain was in pain, but suffering no mortal wounds. He was, however, in enough pain to break down and start collaborating with the Vietnamese after three days in a hospital receiving treatment from qualified doctors – something no other POW ever enjoyed.

War is one thing, collaborating with the enemy is another; it is a legitimate campaign issue that strikes at the heart of McCain’s character…or lack thereof.

There are certainly degrees of collaboration. As a famous novelist once asked, “If you’re a barber and you cut a German’s hair, does that make you a collaborator?”

Being an informant for the Gestapo, or its stepson the CIA in Iraq, and informing on the resistance and sending them to their death, is different than being a barber. In occupied countries like Iraq, or France in World War Two, collaboration to that extent is an automatic death sentence.
The question is: “What kind of collaborator was John McCain, the admitted war criminal who will hate his alleged torturers for the rest of his life?”

Put another way, how psychologically twisted is McCain? And what actually happened to him in his POW camp that twisted him? Was it abuse, as he claims, or was it the fact that he collaborated and has to cover up?

Covering-up can take a lot of energy. The truth is lurking in his subconscious, waiting to explode. A number of US officials, including Andrew Card, have commented on McCain’s inexplicable angry outbursts.

In a July 5 2006 NewsMax.com article, former Senator Bob Smith (R-NH), was quoted as having said about McCain: “I have witnessed incidents where he has used profanity at colleagues.... He would disagree about something and then explode.” Smith called it “irrational behavior. We've all had incidents where we have gotten angry, but I've never seen anyone act like that."

So, you say, McCain has a short fuse behind the plastered TV smile. So he calls his colleagues assholes and shit-heads. In high school they called him “McNasty.” That’s just how he is. Always was, always will be.

Well, maybe. And maybe it’s not a quality we want in a president. And maybe that repressed anger actually has its roots in a Vietnamese POW camp, where John McCain betrayed his forefathers and his country.

The Admiral’s Bad Boy

In the forced-labor camp where my father was tortured by the Japanese, the POWs killed anyone who collaborated. Indeed, the ranking POW in my father’s camp, an English Major, made a deal with the Japanese guaranteeing that no one would attempt to escape. When four prisoners escaped, the Major reported it. The Japanese sent out a search party, which found the POWs and brought them back to camp, where they were beheaded on Christmas morning 1943.

The POWs held a war council that night. They drew straws, and the three who got short were given a mission. A few hours later, under cover of darkness, they crept to the major’s hut. My father had gotten one of the short straws and kept watch while the other two POWs strangled the Major in his sleep.

That’s how it happens in real life.

McCain, in his carefully prepared statements, claims he was tortured while in solitary confinement, and that is why he signed a confession saying, “I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pirate. I almost died and the Vietnamese people saved my life, thanks to the doctors.” (3)

However, on March 25, 1999, two of his fellow POWs, Ted Guy and Gordon "Swede" Larson told the Phoenix New Times that, while they could not guarantee that McCain was not physically harmed, they doubted it.

As Larson said, "My only contention with the McCain deal is that while he was at The Plantation, to the best of my knowledge and Ted's knowledge, he was not physically abused in any way. No one was in that camp. It was the camp that people were released from."

Guy and Larson’s claims are given credence by McCain’s vehement opposition to releasing the government’s debriefings of Vietnam War POWs. McCain gave Michael Isikoff a peek at his debriefs, and Isikoff declared there was “nothing incriminating” in them, apart from the redactions. (4)

McCain had a unique POW experience. Initially, he was taken to the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison camp, where he was interrogated. By McCain’s own account, after three or four days, he cracked. He promised his Vietnamese captors, "I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital."

His Vietnamese capturers soon realized their POW, John Sidney McCain III, came from a well-bred line of American military elites. McCain’s father, John Jr., and grandfather, John Sr., were both full Admirals. A destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, is named after both of them.

While his son was held captive in Hanoi, John McCain Jr., from 1968 to 1972, was the Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Pacific Command; Admiral McCain was in charge of all US forces in the Pacific including those fighting in Vietnam.

One can only wonder when the concierge at the Hanoi Hilton started taking calls from Admiral McCain. Rather quickly, one surmises, for the Vietnamese soon took John Boy McCain to a hospital reserved for Vietnamese officers. Unlike his fellow POWs, he received care from a Soviet doctor.

“This poor stooge has propaganda value,” the Vietnamese realized. The Admiral’s bad boy was used to special treatment and his captors knew that. They were working him.

For his part, McCain acknowledges that the Vietnamese rushed him to a hospital, but denies he was given any "special medical treatment."

However….two weeks into his stay at the Vietnamese hospital, the Hanoi press began quoting him. It was not “name rank and serial number, or kill me,” as specified by the military code of conduct. McCain divulged specific military information: he gave the name of the aircraft carrier on which he was based, the number of US pilots that had been lost, the number of aircraft in his flight formation, as well as information about the location of rescue ships. (5)

So McCain leveraged some details to get some medical attention. That’s not anything too contemptible. And who among us civilians is to judge someone in the position?

On the other hand, according to one source, McCain’s collaboration may have had very real consequences. Retired Army Colonel Earl Hopper, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, contends that the information that McCain divulged classified information North Vietnam used to hone their air defense system.

Hopper’s son, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Earl Pearson Hopper was, like McCain, shot down over North Vietnam. Hopper the younger, however, was declared “Missing in Action.” Stemming from the loss of his son, the elder Hopper co-founded the National League of Families, an organization devoted to the return of Vietnam War POWs.

According to the elder Hopper, McCain told his North Vietnamese captors, “highly classified information, the most important of which was the package routes, which were routes used to bomb North Vietnam. He gave in detail the altitude they were flying, the direction, if they made a turn… he gave them what primary targets the United States was interested in.” Hopper contends that the information McCain provided allowed the North Vietnamese to adjust their air-defenses. As result, Hopper claims, the US lost sixty percent more aircraft and in 1968, “called off the bombing of North Vietnam, because of the information McCain had given to them.” 6

The Psywar Stooge

McCain was held for five and half years. Collaborating during the first two weeks might have been pragmatic, but he soon became North Vietnam’s go-to collaborator for the next three years. Given the quality of the military information he allegedly shared, his situation isn’t as innocuous as the pragmatic French barber who cuts the hair of the German occupier. McCain was repaying his captors for their kindness and mercy.

This is the lesson of McCain’s experience as a POW: a true politician, a hollow man, his only allegiance is to power. The Vietnamese, like McCain’s campaign contributors today, protected and promoted him and in return, he danced to their tune.

Not content with divulging military information, McCain provided his voice in radio broadcasts used by the North Vietnamese to demoralize American soldiers.

Vietnamese radio propagandists made good use out of McCain. On June 4, 1969, a U.S. wire service headlined a story entitled "PW Songbird Is Pilot Son of Admiral.” (7)

The story reported that McCain collaborated in psywar offensives aimed at American servicemen. "The broadcast was beamed to American servicemen in South Vietnam as a part of a propaganda series attempting to counter charges by U.S. Defense Secretary Melvin Laird that American prisoners are being mistreated in North Vietnam."
On one occasion, General Vo Nguyen Giap, the top Vietnamese commander and a nationalist celebrity of the time, personally interviewed McCain. His compliance during this command performance was a moment of affirmation for the Vietnamese. His Vietnamese handlers thereafter used him regularly as prop at meetings with foreign delegations.

In the custody of enemy psywar specialists, McCain became what he is today: a professional psywar stooge.

It is impossible to prove exactly what happened to McCain short of traveling to Vietnam and tracking down his captors, and picking up thee trail where it begins. According to The Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, McCain says he only collaborated when he brutally tortured by his Vietnamese captors and a wicked Cuban he referred to as Fidel. (8)

He says his confession led him to a suicide attempt.

“In the anguished days right after my confession,” McCain said in his autobiography Faith of My Fathers, “I had dreaded just such a discovery by my father.”

But as McCain discovered, dear old dad did know.

“I only recently learned that the tape I dreamed I heard playing over the loudspeaker in my cell had been real; it had been broadcast outside the prison and had come to the attention of my father,” McCain said. “If I had known at the time my father had heard about my confession, I would have been distressed beyond imagination, and might not have recovered from the experience as quickly as I did.”

But wait! McCain did not commit suicide. In fact, he’s alive, running for President on the “war hero” ticket, and promoting more war everywhere. The new McCain feels no distress at having been a collaborator or a war criminal – if he ever did.

According to Fernando Barral, a Cuban psychologist who questioned McCain in January 1970, “McCain was "boastful" during their interview and "without remorse" for any civilian deaths that occurred "when he bombed Hanoi." McCain has a similar recollection, writing in his [autobiography] that he responded, "No, I do not" when Barral asked if he felt remorse.” (9)

McCain told [Barral] that he had not been subjected to “physical or moral violence,” and “lamented in the interview that ‘if I hadn't been shot down, I would have become an admiral at a younger age than my father.’”

“Barral said McCain boasted that he was the best pilot in the Navy and that he wanted to be an astronaut.” The Cuban psychologist concluded that McCain was [a] ‘psychopath.’” (10)

"He felt superior to the Vietnamese up there in his plane, with all his training," Barral recalled.

Psychopath McCain emerges, now, as a contemptible elitist, stewing in the crucible of his class conscience, the ultimate right wing psywar stooge.

McJekyll and McHyde

There are no public records from other POWs to confirm McCain's self-aggrandizing claims, but his detractors, like fellow POWs Ted Guy and Gordon "Swede" Larson, and Colonel Hopper, have yet to be discredited or silenced by McCain’s PR team.

Hopper, Guy and Larson are part of a larger movement concerned with the fate of the 2,000 American veterans still missing in Vietnam. They’ve been pressing McCain to own up to his POW experience, drop the “war hero” posturing, and do more to provide a full accounting of the POWs and MIAs who were not as fortunate, privileged, or willing to collaborate as the would-be president.

McCain’s supporters are trying to quiet detractors by ignoring them. "Nobody believes these idiots. They're a bunch of jerks. Forget them," said Mark Salter, McCain's chief mythologist. Salter is credited by casting McCain as a modern Teddy Roosevelt, “the war hero turned domestic reformer.” (11)

By in large the Salter strategy has worked. The American media accepts McCain’s “war hero” myth as gospel and, in so doing, bolsters the “straight talk” image so essential to his success in politics. In a recent TV interview with John Kerry, victim of the Swift Boat Heroes for Truth Movement in the last election, another “fortunate son,” Chris Wallace, actually took umbrage when Kerry criticized McCain. Son of media admiral Mike Wallace, Chris made Kerry admit that McCain was a hero.
When it comes to psywar, the Vietnamese have nothing on the good old USA.

McCain learned his lesson well from the Vietnamese propagandists who used him for their psywar projects. But it’s not the collaboration that makes John McCain unfit for office; it’s the fact that he has managed to rewrite his collaboration into political capital. “He’s a war hero, respect him, or die.”

As a pedigree, the McCain family’s stature rests on the status and prestige of its achievements in the military: rank, medals, and most importantly to John McCain’s presidential campaign, the image of warrior masculinity: the straight talking maverick of the Republican Party, the 21st century rendering of Teddy Roosevelt.

Not exactly. In his current presidential campaign, he’s cozying up to the hate-mongering Christian right he once criticized. He’s reversed positions on so many issues that his Democratic rivals have assembled his contrasting statements into “The Great McCain Versus McCain Debates. (12)

Underlying the Jekyll-Hyde reversals is McCain’s hidden past of collaboration. Somewhere in the unplumbed human part of John Sidney McCain III, he knows his POW experience contradicts the war hero image he projects. This essential dishonesty, this lie of the soul, is a sign of a larger lack of character - like the major in my father’s POW camp, but without the come-uppance.

McCain is not some principled leader, not a maverick cowboy fighting the powerful. He’s a sycophant. He believes in nothing but power and will do anything to attain it. He explodes in anger when challenged because, when a criticism hits to close to home, it goes to straight his deep-seeded shame.

McCain’s handlers have turned his unspeakable reality into a myth worthy of Teddy Roosevelt. No wonder the Glory Boy has stuck around Washington so long.

Contribution of D.Valentine

September 9, 2008 - 9:41pm | hope4librT

From Glory

Thanks for the post very informative. I saw an interview with a a gentleman who serve with McCain. He said he would not support him. Now I know why. Thank You for the telling.

159 September 2, 2008 - 11:59pm | AmericanVoice

Alaska here is John McCain's voting Record for Veterans!

McCain's Voting Record: He Does Not Support Our Troops and Veterans

This is chock full of links to the roll call votes, and the roll call votes have links to the actual underlying bills and amendments. I present this so that there is support and things that can be rattled off when saying that McCain is not a friend of the military. Feel free to use it as you want, but this can be tied into the "Double Talk Express". But here is a very quick statement - John McCain skipped close to a dozen votes on Iraq, and on at least another 10 occasions, he voted against arming and equipping the troops, providing adequate rest for the troops between deployments and for health care or other benefits for veterans.

In mid 2007, Senator Reid noted that McCain missed 10 of the past 14 votes on Iraq. However, here is a summary of a dozen votes (two that he missed and ten that he voted against) with respect to Iraq, funding for veterans or for troops, including equipment and armor. I have also included other snippets related to the time period when the vote occurred.

September 2007: McCain voted against the Webb amendment calling for adequate troop rest between deployments. At the time, nearly 65% of people polled in a CNN poll indicted that "things are going either moderately badly or very badly in Iraq.

July 2007: McCain voted against a plan to drawdown troop levels in Iraq. At the time, an ABC poll found that 63% thought the invasion was not worth it, and a CBS News poll found that 72% of respondents wanted troops out within 2 years.

March 2007: McCain was too busy to vote on a bill that would require the start of a drawdown in troop levels within 120 days with a goal of withdrawing nearly all combat troops within one year. Around this time, an NBC News poll found that 55% of respondents indicated that the US goal of achieving victory in Iraq is not possible. This number has not moved significantly since then.

February 2007: For such a strong supporter of the escalation, McCain didn’t even bother to show up and vote against a resolution condemning it. However, at the time a CNN poll found that only 16% of respondents wanted to send more troops to Iraq (that number has since declined to around 10%), while 60% said that some or all should be withdrawn. This number has since gone up to around 70%.

June 2006: McCain voted against a resolution that Bush start withdrawing troops but with no timeline to do so.

May 2006: McCain voted against an amendment that would provide $20 million to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for health care facilities.

April 2006: McCain was one of only 13 Senators to vote against $430,000,000 for the Department of Veteran Affairs for Medical Services for outpatient care and treatment for veterans.

March 2006: McCain voted against increasing Veterans medical services funding by $1.5 billion in FY 2007 to be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes.

March 2004: McCain once again voted for abusive tax loopholes over veterans when he voted against creating a reserve fund to allow for an increase in Veterans' medical care by $1.8 billion by eliminating abusive tax loopholes. Jeez, McCain really loves those tax loopholes for corporations, since he voted for them over our veterans' needs.

October 2003: McCain voted to table an amendment by Senator Dodd that called for an additional $322,000,000 for safety equipment for United States forces in Iraq and to reduce the amount provided for reconstruction in Iraq by $322,000,000.

April 2003: McCain urged other Senate members to table a vote (which never passed) to provide more than $1 billion for National Guard and Reserve equipment in Iraq related to a shortage of helmets, tents, bullet-proof inserts, and tactical vests.

August 2001: McCain voted against increasing the amount available for medical care for veterans by $650,000,000. To his credit, he also voted against the 2001 Bush tax cuts, which he now supports making permanent, despite the dire financial condition this country is in, and despite the fact that he indicated in 2001 that these tax cuts unfairly benefited the very wealthy at the expense of the middle class.

So there it is. John McCain is yet another republican former military veteran who likes to talk a big game when it comes to having the support of the military. Yet, time and time again, he has gone out of his way to vote against the needs of those who are serving in our military. If he can’t even see his way to actually doing what the troops want, or what the veterans need, and he doesn’t have the support of veterans, then how can he be a credible commander in chief?

Contribution of the Veterans for Common Sense

158 September 2, 2008 - 6:41am | pizzaiolo

Last time I checked...

...John Edwards was not the Democratic candidate for Vice President. Perhaps you might look for another stone to throw.

157 September 2, 2008 - 6:22am | abstinence

Palin has no CREDENTIALS - forget "Experience"

Palin has no CREDENTIALS - forget "Experience."

Interesting how the GOP are twisting the 'experience' word and omitting the "Credential" word.

She has no CREDENTIALS in dealing with:
* ethnic groups (there are none in Alaska)
* foreign policy
* national economics
* national border control, etc.

It will interesting to see if the media, in print & tv, spotlight on Palin's lack of credentials to be a heart beat away from a 72 year old President.

September 2, 2008 - 8:27am | calendae

I'm not arguing that she has

I'm not arguing that she has any relevant experience, but you need to remove the reference to ethnic groups. There are over 80 languages spoken in the Anchorage School District alone. Alaska has many, many ethnic groups.

156 September 2, 2008 - 6:29am | abstinence

Palin's corruption fits right in with Bush/McCain/Cheney doctrin

Palin:

* ABUSE OF POWER - Wasillia librarian-gate & chief-of-police-gate.
-- 1996 Fired librarian because librarian would not “ban” books Palin deemed inappropriate. (she fits right in with Bush/McCain doctrine)

-- 1996 Fired Police Chief because she had a “gut feeling” he wouldn’t support her because he voted for her opponent. (she fits right in with Bush/McCain doctrine.)

-- 1996 Gag-order-gate: 1996 Mayor Palin told the department heads they needed HER permission to talk to reporters. She put a gag order on those people. (she fits right in with Bush/McCain doctrine.)

-- 2008 Trooper-gate: Fired Monegan because he won’t fire her ex-brother in law. (Bush/McCain doctrine)

-- 2008 John Bitney-gate: Palin fired Bitney because Bitney was dating the ex-wife of Palin’s husband’s good friend. (Bush/McCain doctrine)

* BOLD FACE LIAR: Lied about saying “no” to Bridge to Nowhere money - umm... she took the money & used it. (lies fit right into Bush/McCain doctrine)

-- Lied to Newsweek on 8/29/08, when she said SHE sued the oil companies - umm... She was not governor when Alaska sued oil companies in 2005. (lies fit right into Bush/McCain doctrine)

* Palin did sue on BEHALF of big oil to remove polar bears from the endangered species list.

* Hypocrite: Preaches abstinence only - refuses to educate teens on protection - the “Abstinence Only Theory FAILS in Palin‘s own home ... This sure proves Palin should have been open to teaching RESPONSIBLE sex education.

Bottom Line: Palin fits right in to the Bush/McCain’s lies & abuse of power policies. McCain really did pick someone just like HIM & BUSH ... & CHENEY.

155 September 1, 2008 - 9:32pm | adeyn

Still better than Obama

After what Obama did to Hillary and knowing Obama is friends with a terrorist, bought his house in a shady real estate deal with a felon and has 0 political accomplishments (Illinois poverty has increased AND they have the 4th worse job growth in the nation since Obama got into office.)

I don't care if Sarah has 20 kids, all pregnant or decides against spending 400 million on a bridge, I'll still vote for McCain.

Let's not forget people, Sarah is running for VP NOT president. I'd rather have the inexperience on the #2. Don't even mention the heartbeat thing either because Mr useless drunk Biden (he's no prize) is also a heartbeat away!

I have a LOT of female friends that feel the same way, we are even thinking of setting up a "chapter" of P.U.M.A. here to organize McCain/Palin meeting groups.

Anyone but Obama!

154 September 1, 2008 - 12:22pm | MassDem

countrygirl113

You Alaskans are very concrete thinkers aren't ya. Yeah.

September 2, 2008 - 3:51pm | fred

Spoken like a true

Spoken like a true Masshole..

September 1, 2008 - 12:24pm | countrygirl113

MassDem

I'm not an Alaskan. But I've managed to educate myself about the area. Unlike you.... The sophisticated (by the way- you need a dictionary or spell check) gentleman from Massachusetts that says he going to vote for a "colored man". That's class.

September 1, 2008 - 3:57pm | Phreejazz

buzzing the tower

I'd be ready to duck if I were you, otherwise that next low-flying plane might hit ya instead of just going right over your head.

153 September 1, 2008 - 9:58am | jc5614

Palin concerns

Hello from Missouri. I'm a middle-aged (hate that phrase) female who is an independent voter. I was leaning toward Obama, but felt that I could also support McCain. I've kept a very open mind regarding Gov Palin and listened to her speak in O'Fallon, Mo. She is very articulate and came across as a very bright, gutsy individual. But, after reading as much as I can about her, I will definitely not vote for McCain. Although I believe Palin is intelligent and has strong leader qualities, I don't believe 20+ months as a Gov of a smaller state is sufficient time to truly know the real Palin and how she can possibly step in as the President of the most powerful nation in the world. The honeymoon is not over in Alaska. I want to see how the state feels about her 4 years from now. Let's keep her as Governor and if I'm wrong, I'll vote for her in the next election. Meanwhile, I'm scared to think what could happen in our nation at this extremely critical time should McCain be unable to serve.

October 5, 2008 - 8:21pm | SandyAK

Concerns.............how soon can we get rid of her?

We don't want her either but sure can't peddle her off on the American people. I hope after the 3 ethics complaints against her are done, we will no longer have to put up with her LIES and embarrassing, poor performance and behavior. She has no honor or integrity and if you are unsure then you better start doing some research! I guess she was a quick learner..........of Ted Stevens.

September 1, 2008 - 3:09pm | dkentkasia27

Any person who has any nerve

to mention Palins qualification as a vice president, is being hypercritical to the facts of Obama's resume. Palin is a vice presidential nominee, and Obama is a Presidential nominee. Thats a huge huge difference. One will be running our country , and the other would only be a backup......PERIOD. Think, it doesn't take much of the brain to realise how stupid your and others argument on this has become.

September 5, 2008 - 8:46am | katyotatie

palin's qualifications

Palin is a would-be President. When McCain croaks, (older than dirt, history of the most dangerous and a very recurrent type of skin cancer) she will be #1. So to say that she is only a backup is BS. One of every three VP's has taken the place of our Prez's in US history. That is too large of a percentage to count her out as the next President. Oh, but it's ok if she becomes President because, according to Cindy McCain, Palin's state's close proximity to Russia makes her a foreign policy expert.

September 1, 2008 - 8:56pm | texasjoe

Palin is no Obama

First of all, she's not just a VP candidate or just a "backup." She would be the VP of potentially the oldest President ever to be elected to a first term. If he gets to a second term, he would be the oldest President ever. It's not just his age that is disturbing, but his 1000-page medical history is especially cause for concern. John McCain is essentially hand-picking the 45th President of the United States, and she is in way over her head.

And to compare her to Obama is just laughable. He's a constitutional lawyer, an accomplished state legislator and US senator. His background is in Chicago, a cosmopolitan city, where he fought for unions and citizen participation. He has a reputation for standing by his word (can someone say "Ketchikan?"). He has proven that he can work across party lines. The only thing that they have in common is that they both tackle corruption.... which makes me wonder if she's only riding McCain's coattails to get a chance to cut out Karl Rove's throat.

September 9, 2008 - 9:51pm | hope4librT

Well said and

LOL , jeez you almost made me rethink...no I can wait.

152 September 1, 2008 - 8:31am | countrygirl113

Hey MassDem

That's a pretty stupid notion - how many of you would travel to Alaska to support any of those? Who could afford to take NASCAR there? Real great idea- you show more and more of your ignorance Mass.. It's not whether the Alaskans are tough, but can the rest of the states handle it!!!

Just curious? Is this what we can expect in an economic plan from the Democrats? Good luck!!

And Annie Oakley is a better role model than the majority of Democratic Presidential contenders. Hey MassDem- let's get John Edwards to tell the truth about his "girlfriend" and how about a paternity test for that little baby he's denying. So many Democrats with their knickers around their knees. And Bill Clinton- yeah, what did he do with a "child" in the Oval Office. Great role model. You'd think they'd know better by now. Oh guess "stupid is as stupid does". You are clueless.

September 2, 2008 - 6:48am | pizzaiolo

Last time I checked...

...John Edwards wasn't the Democrat candidate for Vice President. Perhaps you need to find another stone to throw. Maybe something that fits in with your knickers remark. You know, maybe something contrasting Edwards with, say, your righteous wing-nut icon Larry Craig?

151 September 1, 2008 - 7:16am | MassDem

countrygirl113

If Alaskans are so tough, how come they don't have a team in the NFL, NBA or NASCAR, huh? Answer THAT one Annie Oakley! The next Prez will be a colored man. Then what'cha goona do, move to the Arctic Circle?

September 1, 2008 - 7:38am | dkentkasia27

This

has got to be the dumbest post I have read in many months. Now our Prez would be based on if he is from a state that has top pro sports? If Obama wins then Alaskans are gonna go to the artic cause he is black? Repeat the dumbest and for that matter a common Democrat way of thinking. We can all laugh at this stupidity as this made me smile.

September 1, 2008 - 8:04am | MassDem

this

Making you smile was the idea, knothead.

September 1, 2008 - 3:11pm | dkentkasia27

actually you were just being yourself and the dumbness of your comments made me smile. You personally had no intensions of doing it, you just typed what an ignorant person would type.

150 September 1, 2008 - 7:16am | MassDem

countrygirl113

149 September 1, 2008 - 6:12am | dkentkasia27

Most funny poll

Democrats Enter Convention Down on U.S. Economy August 22, 2008
In the first half of August, twice as many Democrats (54%) as Republicans (25%) give the economy a “poor” rating. Independents (46%) are more aligned with Democrats than with Republicans in their economic views.

Funny us Republicans should have said poor more considering its the Democrats who have run congress since 2006. Thats right people the Democrats have majority in congress not republicans. Even after 911 the economy was still better off under Republicans and yet a poll was taken awhile back and 63% of Americans to this day thought the Republicans were majority in congress. Congress a few months back hada approval rating of 9% , lowest ever in US history. The media has got this country brainwashed against Republicans and the koolaid drinking fans of thre Dems don't care to really know. The head of the congress is Pelosi and wow what a nutcase she is becoming. She still telling the Catholics what they believe about when life starts for an infant or is Obama's camp still trying to shut her up cause it shows who are dems? Why btw considering she is all for the theory Global warming , scientist say world avg. temperature from 2001 to early 2008 the world temp has dropped -1 C. Well incase some of you dems and nutcases don't know , if this is truly global warming then we should never drop in world temp but always at some rate slowly climb.

September 9, 2008 - 9:59pm | hope4librT

Where are you getting your info???

Almost everything you posted is false. Been watching Fox again haven't you? IF you want to really be informed you need to diversify. ALOT!

September 2, 2008 - 7:58am | cigi

The Dems cannot change at

The Dems cannot change at this time with a simple majority what YOUR President and his administration fouled up for the last eight years. Give them the majority that the Republicans had prior to 2006 and then they can fix ALL of your boneheaded mistakes as a party.

By the way, you Republicans can continue to tout her energy "expertise" (sarah's) and you can drill til the moose come home in Anwar, we will still be paying "world set prices" on that commodity. I live in Texas and we drill more oil than y'all do and guess what, I don't pay a dime's difference for that fact, yet even get a dollar or two off. Business is greedy and why spoil even 2000 acres of a wildlife refuge for so little in return.

Global warming is becoming a scientific fact and perhaps ssomeday you will have educated to yourself to it's possibilities of happening, rather than denying it could even be a possibility. Your conservative views on the subject could be your own end.

September 1, 2008 - 10:03pm | texasjoe

The real problem...

Yes, Democrats have a majority in Congress. But the real problem is that they don't have a strong enough majority. Republicans are still there to block reform and progress. That's why many people still think of it as a Republican controlled Congress. Tell you what... get the Republicans to start cooperating with the majority and people's opinions will change almost overnight.

September 1, 2008 - 9:07am | snowcappedmountains

Even after 911 the economy

Even after 911 the economy was still better off under Republicans and yet a poll was taken awhile back and 63% of Americans to this day thought the Republicans were majority in congress. Congress a few months back hada approval rating of 9% , lowest ever in US history.

After 911 the economy was still in good shape only because it takes years for its effects to come to light. The Dems inherited the mess and are in the process of cleaning it up like they always have too.

September 1, 2008 - 9:39am | dkentkasia27

again funny

but the economy was doing very well till this past year or more and that can be thanked to you Congressional leaders. The truth hurts doesn't it. But hey why don't we blame it on the president. Thats what any person who has no idea how this country is ran would do. Congress for the most part controls this country and all us dumba** americans elected these morons in there now and look how we are doing now. Truth hurts don't it snowcapkid, again Congress has the lowest approval rating in history and Democrats have majority in it. Dems hate the truth. The GDP Growth Rate in April was lowest in 5 years.

September 1, 2008 - 10:41am | snowcappedmountains

when Bush too over the Oval

when Bush too over the Oval office the economy was great thanks to Clinton.
Bush declares war on Iraq. War costing trillions of dollars. Repubs were in control of the house at that time. That is the start of our economy failing. Look it up. But will the truth hurt?

September 1, 2008 - 3:02pm | dkentkasia27

Actually

I have been watching this stuff my whole life and you really need to do class work on the GDP GROWTH RATE OF THIS COUNTRY THE PAST 15 YEARS. You are wrong again and will always be cause you ofcourse as a Dem are very uninformed.

September 1, 2008 - 5:48pm | snowcappedmountains

lol I am not Dem I have been

lol I am not Dem I have been a Republican all my voting life and have always voted Republican.

148 September 1, 2008 - 5:01am | jennyd

Cost cutting conservative

What bothers me is she cut funds to the museum and library, while she "even pushed for a sales tax increase to build a pet project, a new sports complex for ice hockey."

September 1, 2008 - 10:07pm | texasjoe

Also...

A real "cost cutting conservative" wouldn't build a road to an empty beach just because the federal gov't would take the money back if they didn't spend it. I used to work at a government agency in a small satellite office and one year we spent $100,000 on plasma screens that we didn't need, just to avoid our budget being cut. It may be standard operating procedure, but it's ridiculous. We need to fundamentally reform the way federal funding works.

September 9, 2008 - 10:09pm | hope4librT

I CAN HEAR THE ANGELS SINGING AMEN TO THAT!

Truth, it just warms my heart!

147 September 1, 2008 - 3:44am | haztec

The Female Quayle

In a separate USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Aug. 29, about 40 percent of respondents said they consider Palin, a 44-year-old first-term governor, qualified to be president -- the lowest level since President George H.W. Bush picked Indiana Senator Dan Quayle as his running mate in 1988. One-third of the people surveyed don't think Palin is qualified, and the rest had no opinion.

By comparison, 57 percent of Americans considered Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden qualified to take the top office if necessary, with 18 percent doubting his qualifications.

Palin may not attract large numbers of disillusioned supporters of Hillary Clinton. Only 9 percent of Democratic women said Palin makes them more likely to support the Republican ticket; 15 percent were less likely to back McCain. Among all women, 20 percent said Palin's selection made them more likely to vote for McCain and 11 percent were less likely.

Half of those polled had never heard of Palin before her selection, the Gallup/USA Today poll found.

GREAT NEWS, yes McPalin groupies? Let's see how your hockey arena gets filled this week, I'm sure there will be more protesters there than attendants. Herd em to Wasilla for Gov. Palin's Obama-like speech? You would still find empty seats and he did it on someone else's turf. Face it and wake up OBAMA/BIDEN 08 for REAL CHANGE!

September 1, 2008 - 5:58am | dkentkasia27

I am still waiting for

someone to tell me what change? I still haven't heard a speech nor any of his followers say how he is gonna change Washington? He says he is gonna get us off oil in 10 years , which is rather comical considering we use 5.4 million barrels a day on home products,car products, cosemtics, aspirin, etc. Many of our daily products are made by oils and yet we are gonna just get rid of it all? Is Obama Hudini? Get off the pipe people he is for change yet no one person or himself can tell us what change. Your own democratic media was skepticial about his message and others during the convention asking for substance. To bad you people don't get it but hey a guy on the radio summed this whole thing up for me about Obama's followers. He was asked why are you voting for Obama and he said cause he is black and I am black. Ignorant and yet I hear this alot. We are doomed. But we need a low substance change. Give us reasons not just a read speech thanks. OBAMA/BIDEN 08 for the word CHANGE but not much else!

146 September 1, 2008 - 3:40am | haztec

A politician's job description: AND BREAKING NEWS!

1) Get elected.
2) Get re-elected.
GREAT NEWS!
Obama leads McCain 49-41 percent in the most recent Gallup Poll daily tracking survey.

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