Sunday, April 06, 2008

Reuters photo Repugnican Arizona Sen. John McCain had the gall to show up at the former Lorraine Motel, which is now part of the National Civil Rights Museum, in Memphis this past week. The motel is where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated four decades ago. McCain pretends to give a shit about civil rights even though he voted against establishing a national holiday for King and his Senate voting record on civil rights is dismal. Similarly, I saw McCain years ago at an Earth Day event in Sedona, Arizona, where he pretended to be an environmentalist. (The pro-environment group League of Conservation Voters gives McCain a zero on his Senate voting record for the environment.) 'Moderate' 'maverick,' my fat ass Rarely do I regurgitate something from an e-mail (that I actually agree with, anyway...), but I think that it's important to get the word out about the truth about Repugnican presidential wannabe John McCain. MoveOn.org's latest e-mail is titled "10 things to know about McCain," and those 10 things are: 1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1* 2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2 3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded ["President"] Bush for vetoing that ban.3 4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4 5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5 6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6 7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7 8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8 9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9 10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0 -- yes, zero -- from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10 John McCain is not who the Washington press corps make him out to be. Please help get the word out... And if you want us to keep you posted on MoveOn's work to get the truth out about John McCain, sign up here: http://pol.moveon.org/mccaintruth/?id=12407-1454062-tgvsfs&;t=232 No. 10 is especially poignant for me, becasue I was in McCain's presence years ago, in the 1980s, when he showed up at an Earth Day event in Sedona, Arizona, with his Barbie-doll wife, proclaiming to be so environmentally conscious. The people there bought it. Perhaps because he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam -- a biographical fact that he never tires of repeating -- people feel sorry for McCain, whom, now that he's a doddering old man, people seem to think of as a well-meaning and essentially harmless if misguided grandpa figure. So many are taken in by the McCain mystique and so few bother to check McCain's Senate voting record -- they go on his word and the corporately owned and controlled mainstream media's word that he's a "moderate" "maverick," when he is, in fact, neither. *Sources are documented fully here. 1:10:07 PM    Comments []

Dear Friend, When I turn on the TV all I hear is negative words. The news stations keep telling you that we're down and out. But that's plainly not true. I'm on the trail every day for Hillary and the crowds are bigger than ever before, and let me tell you - they are excited! I wanted to show you a video from a recent event with Hillary in North Carolina - you can see for yourself Hillary's packed events and enthusiastic supporters. Click here to watch the video. Sincerely, Terry McAuliffe Chairman, Hillary Clinton for President   If you feel you have received this message in error, we apologize. You can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President Contributions to Hillary Clinton for President are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. Corporate contributions are prohibited by law. All content © 2008 Hillary Clinton for President 4420 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203 The latest progressively desperate e-mail from the Cunton camp -- with the risible subject line of "The crowds" -- is above. (Be sure to click on the links!) Apparently Team Billary was able to get some people together, took video of it and is now using the video as "evidence" of Billary's incredible popularity. Reminds me of the faked video of the "crowd" of Iraqis at the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 2003. Team Billary increasingly is resorting to the tried-and-true propagandistic tactics of the Bush regime. 'C' is (still) for cunt and 'D' is for fucking desperate Can you see the vultures circling around Billary Cunton's dying campaign for the White House? I can. They're hungry, and they're soon to land for a feast. I'm on Billary's e-mail list -- I don't recall ever putting myself on Billary's e-mail list, but somehow I'm on it nonetheless -- and the Billary campaign e-mails are getting more and more desperate. A recurring theme of the increasingly desperate e-mails is that We can't let Barack Obama win only because he is raising more money! I mean, you have to give people a pretty good reason to shell out some of their hard-earned dough to a candidate whose campaign is tanking, right? So let's claim that if -- no, when -- Obama finally emerges as the victor, it was money alone that made him the victor. This "argument" ignores the fact that people "vote" with their dollars. Clearly more people like Obama than they like Billary. Obama outraised Billary by two-to-one last month -- by $40 million to $20 million* -- and the lion's share of Obama's contributors are small contributors, individuals like you and me. Obama is more viable than is Billary -- otherwise, he wouldn't have outraised her by two to one last month. Obama's fundraising prowess will be important for the November general election; Billary's lackluster fundraising indicates that she would be weaker than would Obama going into the November general election. Billary has the Clinton trademark, yet she's losing Democrats to Obama. That's significant. For having the Clinton brand name and for having been the presumptive 2008 Democratic presidential nominee for so long, she should be doing much better than she is now. If she's struggling to win the support of the majority of her own party now, how will she beat Repugnican John McCain in November? Billary should drop out -- especially if she loses the Pennsylvania primary on April 22. Pennsylvania should be her last stand. I'll leave you with a couple of Billary 'toons. The cunt's quixotic quest for the White House is becoming so increasingly ridiculous that the political cartoonists increasingly are lampooning her. *Reports the Associated Press: Barack Obama raked in $40 million in March, leaving Hillary Rodham Clinton and her $20 million in the fundraising dust and stuffing his campaign treasury so he can outspend her in the crucial Pennsylvania primary. His haul in new donations also buttressed his argument to Democratic superdelegates that he has built a vast network of donors and volunteers that they wouldn't want to lose by denying him the nomination. Obama has attracted nearly 1.3 million donors, largely through the Internet. He has raised $131 million in just the first three months of this year to $70 million for Clinton. Republican John McCain's campaign has not revealed his March fundraising, but he has been far behind the Democrats, raising less than $23 million in January and February combined. Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, claimed a double benefit from the Illinois senator's fundraising. "Many of our contributors are volunteering for the campaign, making our campaign the largest grass-roots army in recent political history," he said. ... Indeed, the numbers, even for the lagging Clinton, are remarkable. While both raised less than they did in February, the March contributions came during a lull in the presidential contest. There have not been any primaries or contests since March 11, and the most competitive showdowns were March 4 in Texas and Ohio. Obama's money has given him a significant spending edge over Clinton in Pennsylvania, where the April 22 primary is the biggest delegate prize left on the Democratic calendar. He has purchased more than $2.7 million in television ads in the state, according to data compiled by TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ads. Clinton has spent almost $900,000 on ads in the state. ... Obama's money also provides a separate story line focused on his powerful network of donors. With neither candidate able to win the nomination on the basis of delegates selected by state primaries and caucuses, the burden falls on party officials and elected officials -- the so-called superdelegates -- who are weighing a variety of factors in making their selection. "His ability to raise more money than Hillary Clinton is part of the handicapping that is going on by superdelegates," said Steve Murphy, a Democratic consultant who worked on Bill Richardson's presidential campaign but who is now unaligned. Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic strategist who worked on John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, noted that while 1.3 million donors is only a fraction of the total number of people who have voted in the presidential contests so far, "it still represents a ground force unlike anything we've ever seen." "It's hard to argue that he's not a representing a 'new kind of politics' with 1.3 million donors," she added. ... Some unaligned Democrats remain wary of the entire situation, afraid that the quantities of money and continuing competition will hurt the eventual party nominee as McCain builds up his support with little opposition. "Obama and Clinton's fundraising numbers are impressive," Donna Brazile, Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000, said in an e-mail exchange. "There's no question that voters remain excited about the two candidates, but if this money is used to tear the party apart or to destruct the other while McCain is out on a bio tour, it would be akin to pouring it down the drain." 11:16:07 AM    Comments []

Associated Press photos Former National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston -- who was such an iconic stupid white man that as an actor he portrayed Moses, for fuck's sake -- has finally gone to hell. He is shown at left at a KKK -- er, a wingnut get-out-the-vote -- rally in 2002 and at right receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from "President" Bush in 2003. Why the medal? Heston was instrumental in preserving white people's freedom to shoot non-white savages (wait, that's redundant). Finally, those cold, dead fingers that Chucky liked to talk about Ding dong, Charlton Heston is finally dead. He lived 84 years too long. As a kid I loved the Chuckster as the oppressed human in "Planet of the Apes." But that was just a movie; apparently that role didn't teach Heston anyfuckingthing about oppression. As an adult I was mortified to see Heston, in the Best-Documentary-Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine," openly air his racist views.* Apparently we white people need guns in order to be able to protect ourselves from those savage non-whites, Heston indicated in his admittedly ambush interview with filmmaker Michael Moore. (And surely the non-white savages are just genetically, inherently savage due to their inferior race -- it would have nothing whatsofuckingever to do with centuries of oppression at the hands of whites.) Even after his "Bowling for Columbine" embarrassment, Heston continued to wave a rifle in the air at all-white or almost-all-white NRA and other KKK-like rallies, proclaiming that we'll get his rifle when we pry it from his cold, dead fingers.  Yes, Heston was of a dying breed -- the old, stupid, rich, racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, pro-military white male -- and thank Goddess they're finally fucking dying. Good riddance, Chuck. I say that we don't bother to pry your rifle from your cold, dead fingers. I say that we just bury your fucking rifle with you. You'll need it to fend off the demons in hell. P.S. to any pussies who are offended: Just because you die, you don't suddenly become a saint. An asshole who dies is just a dead asshole. So fuck you. *Notes The Associated Press: ... The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative candidates. In June 1998, Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association, for which he had posed for ads holding a rifle. ... Heston stepped down as NRA president in April 2003, telling members his five years in office were "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of it." Later that year, Heston was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "The largeness of character that comes across the screen has also been seen throughout his life," President Bush said at the time. ... In late years, Heston drew as much publicity for his crusades as for his performances. In addition to his NRA work, he campaigned for Republican presidential and congressional candidates and against affirmative action. ... 9:58:43 AM    Comments []