John McCain vs. John McCain

See the latest McCain Vs. McCain video.

This one is on the current financial crisis and the economy.

ELECTION IN A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY

It is coming down to crunch time in the U.S. presidential election, and the nation is in the grasp of incredible uncertainty. The mind numbing occupation of Iraq still continues, and neither of the two leading candidates will say exactly when this insanity will end; only ambiguous time tables , or time horizons, are floated out there, with caveats of “when conditions on the ground make withdrawal possible” or “when the mission is brought to completion”.

For John McCain it is all about winning, or at least not losing. A part of the Arizona Senator believes that with enough fire power, boots on the ground, and bribery of important local militias, the situation can be made manageable.

For Barack Obama, the Illinois Senator tries to assume the moral high ground by saying he was against this war from the start. But as veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk has noted: “what does Obama want to do with his soldiers once he withdraws them from Iraq? He’s going to send the poor devils back to Afghanistan, that graveyard of foreign armies where the Taliban were so utterly defeated in 2001 that they are now stronger than ever.”

Uncertainty has become the lay of the land. The economic troubles, so exacerbated by petrol inflation, has lead to massive job loss, home evictions and bankruptcies. What were once seen as aberrations, have now become standard signs of the spiraling down economy. The main response from Senator McCain to the oil crisis is to drill drill drill! Senator Obama speaks of a windfall profits tax on Big Oil, and even mentioned swift boat funder T. Boone Pickens, who said: “this is a crisis we can not drill our way out of.”

How any of these suggestions will lower the price of gasoline is any body’s guess. The higher the price of gasoline, the more the profits of Big Oil increase. Exxon-Mobil’s recent quarterly earnings were the largest in history. Senator Obama mentions this, but how he would be able to get taxes on Big Oil through the legislature remains to be seen.

Then there is the business of the election itself. The McCain campaign have made it their number one focus to try an impugn Obama’s character as much as possible, by any means necessary, so as to plant xenophobic seeds of doubt that they hope will grow in the minds of the electorate, until they become convinced that the ambitious graduate of Harvard Law is not “one of us” and not ready to lead.

It has also been noted that black Americans are uneasy about Barack Obama’s candidacy. Not because they don’t support him, they do. But there is an uncertainty among plenty of folks, who have difficulty imagining him actually accomplishing this historic task, and fear their hearts will be broken, by hook or crook, or something even worse.

One thing that seems to have disappeared is the idea of any kind of landslide victory. That is why some democrats say that Senator Obama should choose Senator Clinton for the vice presidential ticket. Hard core Obamakins would howl of course, but they may just have to get over it.

Historically it should be remembered that John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were not good friends, when he was picked as JFK’s running mate. And it should also be remembered, that with Lyndon on the ticket, Kennedy won the state of Texas. Without winning that state, in that very close election, John Kennedy would have never become the President. It just might be that Senator Obama faces a similar dilemma in this election.

It is worth noting that Hillary Clinton won the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries, among others. She proved to be strong among older white women in those states. These are votes that Barack Obama will certainly need, in the event of a very close election.

This all may seem strange to those who bought into the idea of a new kind of politics. But Senator Obama has proven, with many recent reversals in policy, to be in fact, a flexible, pragmatic politician. Conventional wisdom has it that he will pick for VP a governor or senator from a state that seems to be in play. But many of the people glowingly mentioned by the mainstream news are somewhat unknown to the general public. By contrast, everybody knows Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

WILL IT EVER END?

It really is all about oil. This is where the neoconservative and neoliberal visions merge. After the hell fire that President Bush ignited by invading Iraq, causing many thousands of unnecessary deaths, now there is talk of bringing in big corporate oil companies, to get those valuable resources under control. Ah yes, the holy blessings of the free market (Barack Obama is a believer, he himself has said it) that will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit (John McCain is also a believer, he himself has said it) of profit and efficiency.

If the truth be told, the United States government did not give a damn about what Saddam Hussein did to his subjects. During the cold war, the Central Intelligence Agency helped him to be a handy anti-communist tool. Not even when Iraq nationalized its oil supply did relations with Washington go sour. It should be remembered that Saddam Hussein defied the OPEC embargo of the 1970’s, and sold oil to the United States. No, that did not stop the love fest. When Iraq attacked Iran, the United States sided with Saddam, because the US government wanted some pay back for the hostage crisis.

No, what tore it , between Saddam Hussein and Washington, was when he demanded euros instead of dollars for the oil. This would never do. And besides, George Bush knew Saddam was a bad man, he tried to kill his daddy.

The current estimate is that the US spends $138 billion annually on protecting the oil supplies, a figure that continues to increase. Despite all the patriotic pandering about bringing democracy to the world, the control of oil is what all this slaughter is truly about. But should it be? The real question is: by what constitutional mandate is the government given the right to interfere with the sovereignty of other nations. Sovereign nations who may have bad governments (don’t we?) and problems, but are what they always are, their own.

That is why the presidential process has become such a disappointment. Neither McCain or Obama are willing to do the proper constitutional mandate of withdrawing our troops from foreign entanglements. Instead they argue over who knows the best way to fiddle. Both want to increase military spending. Both want to keep pushing around the world.

All of this partisan pagaent politics is a huge distraction from realizing this country’s constitutional crisis. Both Republicans and Democrats are evading this, hoping that fear, uncertainty, doubt, will win over the gullible before they realize that the country they live in, the country they have been told, all of their lives, that holds so much promise… that country no longer exists.

Neoliberalism like neoconservatism has delusions of empire. After the guns comes the carpetbaggers. Control of fossil fuels is a brutal industry, whether it is Nigeria or The Baltic States. For many, oil is the only business, and everything must be sacrificed: human rights, environment, the rule of law, in order for the flow to be continuous. If continuous war is a consequence, so be it. A disasterous policy to be sure, but for for those on top of this pyramid, who cares? There is still plenty of money to be made.

I recently found a picture of an Iraqi Muslim family celebrating Christmas. They are wearing their Santa hats and smiling, in front of their Christmas tree.
I look again at the photograph and ask myself: why, with all that is holy, would anyone want to blow these people up? That is of course the problem of this world. Politicians justify savagery and call it being strong.

THOUGHTS ON JOHN McCAIN

By; thebeerdoctor

There is an uneasiness about the Senator from Arizona. You see it on his face when a lesbian television host asked him about same sex marriage. Its a kind of whole body nervous laugh that suppresses uncomfortable anger. “My friends, my friends,” he will often say, that is almost his trademark, like Richard Nixon’s let me make one thing perfectly clear.

Identity and clarity have become a problem for the Republican Presidential Candidate. In this hyper-driven media universe, perception has become a constant concern. Not only are there tiny camera phones, microphones etc., but there is the 24/7 internet, ready to swallow it whole. So endorsements from crackpot pastors and former lobbyists with dubious connections, becomes a kind of odd parlor game, to see who is the next in line to be thrown to the curb. This of course is bipartisan.

What is referred to as mainstream media long ago dubbed John McCain as a Maverick. This designation has been kind to the Arizona senator. For those who know the meaning of the word, he is perceived as an independent thinker, a straight shooter as it were, ergo, the straight talk express. For those who do not know the word’s meaning, it invokes a cool riverboat gambler, a young Jim Garner, long before he became a shill for reverse mortgages. Whatever the perception, the label has helped in the past, and even now it is still trying to be applied.

Unfortunately, the archive of time has a way of catching up with you. Difficult transgressions from your past can suddenly resurface. The Keating Five scandal of 1989 was about the perception of corruption. John McCain said: “The appearance of it was wrong. It’s a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators , because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do.”

It appears that conveying the wrong impression is a top priority to avoid. The recent release of Mrs. McCain’s tax records, despite her desire to keep them private, was done so there is no appearance of trying to hide something. As song writer Leonard Cohen once said: “soon there’ll be a meter on your bed, which will disclose what everybody knows.” Psychologically, presidential politics is a very tough arena, especially with all this, all inclusive, all invasive technology. For a man over seventy years old like John McCain, sometimes it must be bewildering.

So it is not too surprising that in a poll conducted with voters over 65 years of age, over seventy percent thought that John McCain was too old to be president. That is not age discrimination but a more honest assessment of what we are capable of, in different stages of life. This review of the job resume is important.

Senator McCain’s efforts to unite with the Republican party are difficult. Having to pander and subsequently abandon the more toxic extremist elements that usurped the Grand Old Party, has made Senator McCain appear awkward at best. The Middle East gaffe, with Senator Lieberman whispering in his ear, was quickly dismissed by big time media, as simply the Senator was having a moment.

One of the biggest assertions that attempts to make McCain’s biography bullet proof, is the claim that he is a genuine American hero. This is of course based upon his harrowing years as a POW during the Vietnam war. Never mind that he was participating in an illegal war by dropping bombs on a country with mostly agricultural peasants. If he had been put into an American prison for refusing to follow unconstitutional orders, citing the Nuremberg War Crime Trials as precedent, he would be a hero, but not in the Republican party.

Senator McCain often appears to be a thoughtful man, but other times, seems to head in the opposite direction. This is the famous temper that is whispered about, of an angry man with expletives flying out from his mouth. Then of course there is his rather weird sense of humor, that some of his colleagues have commented to not be very funny at all.

On Halloween, 2005, John McCain paid tribute to Rosa Parks from the floor of the Senate. “Rosa Parks was a civil rights icon,” John McCain noted, “who galvanized the American civil rights with her simple act of protest. She will be dearly missed but her legacy will never be forgotten.”

Certainly this was a somber tribute to a historic person. McCain, being a seasoned politician, knows how to wear different hats for different occasions. Ten days before the Halloween elegy, he was all fun and games at the Al Smith Memorial Dinner, with “my good friend, Mike Bloomberg.”

“I’m glad the Mayor, my fellow Republican is here.” The Arizona Senator remarked. “But Mike, I think we’re all relieved that the organizers decided against holding this dinner at the Apollo Theater.”

Some folks say that the straight talk express is a riot.

It will not be surprising if some new archival material, be it audio or video, will emerge to reveal the Senator from Arizona, in a hard to explain, off color moment, designed to betray his strong leadership image. No, it would not be surprising at all. The party that John McCain professes to belong to, does not actually exist any more. To maintain political survival, McCain has had to kiss the blarney stone of Bush. When running against George W. in 2000, he soon discovered he did not have the big steam money of the House of Bush. The very same evangelical knot heads he attempts to embrace now, spread vicious lies about him and his family then, the South Carolina primary being a glowing example. It would be kind if someone close to the Senator said: “John, this is not your father’s republican party.”

But that is not going to happen. The Big Wheels at Republican Central have some problems with some of McCain’s views, but these can be adjusted. He is wealthy, but he is not Big Money, so he is forced to do a dance for contributors. Attempting to pilot the ship of state, after the Cheney-Bush junta, is a formidable task. My friends, John McCain wants you to know, is ready to take on the job.