McCain Meets Beauty Queen Once and Asks Her to Be His Vice President.

I'm sure McCain will give the same careful consideration to other decisions he will make regarding our defense and the survival of the world as we know it as he did to his choosing
Sarah Palin. Sarah, please don't tease John. You could go from Queen to a "cunt [who] plaster[s] on makeup like a trollop" in one quick display of that famous McCain rage.

What Are We Thinking If At All?-Notes From Folks More Noble In Reason Than Most.

“Why is it, my Learned Friend, that with all the dissatisfaction over the economy in general, gas prices, the war in Iraq, banking and foreclosure disasters, that the Democratic candidate and his newly announced VP candidate, can do no better than a dead heat in the latest polls with McMore of the Same?
Why? Why? Maybe its because they don't have James Carville.
'It's STILL the economy, stupid'.
Somebody better take charge of that campaign, or as Archie Bunker said, "They are going down the terlet.” From John
“Adam was but human-this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.”From Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar
What A Piece Of Work We Are.

Chris's Chili sausage cheese burger with fried onions

McCain Doesn't Know How Many Homes He Has. Out of Touch and Senile?

Interviewer: How many houses do you have?"

John McCain: "I'm not sure, I'll have to check with my staff"

"Later, the McCain campaign told Politico that McCain and his wife, Cindy, have at least four in three states — Arizona, California and Virginia. Newsweek recently estimated the two owned at least seven properties.
Last week McCain cracked that being rich in the U.S. meant earning at least $5 million a year. With most Americans feeling the pinch of a worsening economy, the remarks allow Democrats to suggest that McCain cannot relate to ordinary voters.
It's also another example of how McCain, nearly 72, can be fuzzy and forgetful on some facts." Obama raps McCain for ignorance of his own houses By MATT APUZZO

Without a grasp of basic facts (even where he lives) and a cold war mentality, this man is dangerous. His staff is suspect too. It would also be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for McCain to have any empathy for ordinary folks. Obama has been poor. The money that he does have, he earned. He, unlike McCain neither inherited nor married it.

He is in touch with these guys.

But not with us:

Paranoia Strikes Deep. Who’s Not A Terrorist?

"Tom went into some sort of hyper-tense state that the Canadian agents could smell 10 cars away. . . . He planned to camp overnight, . . . He'd filled the car, as usual, to the roof with photography equipment, maps, bird books, enough power bars to feed Vancouver for a month, loose clothes, and a sleeping bag, tent, and so on. . . . Naturally Canadian Customs took the car apart. They ask him several times if he had any prior convictions -- before this one, he supposed." Messy, sweaty, suspicious people taking pictures -- Must be a terrorist. by Patti
How I long for the days when we only had to worry about getting Charlie off the MTA.

Here's another Golden Oldie For What It's Worth.

Now This Is Rich

The Values Displayed by Rick Warren & John McCain Are Rovian-Not Christian.

"A source at the debate tells me that McCain had access to some communications devices in the few minutes before he went on stage with you [Rick Warren] and that there was a monitor in his green room, in violation of the debate rules." Rick Warren responds to the flap over John McCain and Saddleback questions

Rick Warren.....
"'How was it like in the CONE OF SILENCE "
John McCain....
"I tried to put my head against the wall to see if I could hear any of the answers' Laugh Laugh
It's not the deed ... it's the cover up.... Why is the McCain camp all riled up ? He cheated. Why wasn't his answer " You know Rick... I have to be honest.. I got here late and didn't make it to the CONE OF SILENCE when I needed to be, but I didn't hear anything." Comment by Ron to above. See, also, Warren Asked Obama and McCain Different Questions By: Jon Perr
They don't seem to care what was promised or how it looks. They are angry that anyone should even raise questions. It'll take more paint and a bigger brush than the woman here has to make this look good.

Obama Wins at Saddleback. McCain Pandered & Lied About Being In The Cone. Obama Told The Truth. It Matters.

McCain, once a proud straight talker, said what he thought his audience wanted to hear. He also cheated. He's betting evangelicals are simple and one dementional as portrayed by the mainstream media. They aren't.

Hillary Lost The Nomination Because of Iraq. Too Damned Bad That She Didn't Follow Her Moral Compass Instead of Her Ambition & Her Advisors.

"The media has been filled in recent days with new speculation about the reasons Hillary Clinton will be standing before the Democratic convention in Denver as her party’s runnerup, not as its standard-bearer. But the truth is, when she speaks to the convention’s delegates, she will do so as a candidate vanquished by one issue, and one issue only: Iraq.
Clinton, and her supporters, gave Barack Obama the political opening to enter the race - not just by her vote to authorize the war but her refusal to stand before her constituents when she ran for reelection in 2006, explain her vote and admit she had committed a grave error. Without minimizing Obama’s impressive political campaign and personal talents, his decisive support came from people vehemently opposed to the war.
Rather than take a moral stand, Clinton listened to her political operatives, whose only calculus was winning, not morality. Of the many great strategic and tactical errors her campaign made (and one hopes a positive outcome of this race is the diminished roles of Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson in shaping the Democratic Party), the greatest one was believing that a vote for the Iraq war would be a strength. Stop and think of that for a moment: to win a political office, she was willing to live with the specter of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and a huge financial cost to our country, which, by one estimate, will be $3 trillion. . . .
Had Clinton used her Senate reelection race in 2006 to admit her vote authorizing the war in Iraq was wrong, she would have been preparing to accept the Democratic nomination for President. But she failed - and her supporters failed her. People like Nadler and others, having no backbone to confront a then-feared political machine, refused to demand that she admit her vote for the war was a mistake. By falling into line, they allowed her to slide by in 2006 - and they therefore bear some responsibility for her failure in the 2008 presidential race.
But, forget political careers for a moment. The real tragedy is this: Because of her national profile and, even back when the war was being debated, her seemingly clear path to victory in the 2008 primaries, Clinton could have been a national voice against the war. With her power, celebrity and influence, she could have prevented the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of American soldiers, not to mention the loss of an unconscionable amount of money. Measured against the war’s devastation, her defeat in this election pales by comparison." Hillary Clinton’s Original Sin, by Jonathan Tasini
Thanks to Dr. S

The Secret Of Being Ernest For a Long Time.

BUSH WANTS TO TEACH THE BEAR HIS OWN LESSON

How interesting, with Russia's invasion of Georgia, Bush and McCain have discovered that, "in the twenty first century, nations don't invade other nations"! Having finally learned that lesson, presumably down stream of our Iraq invasion, Bush wants the Russian Bear to learn it as well. Surprising that just as Bush and McCain move into the current century, Putin displays his own cold war mentality.

Bush's neocons assumed America was the only super power and hence free to ignoring rules that apply to others. With America's militarily exhausted and tied down in the resulting folly in Iraq and needing Russian cooperation with terrorism and Iran, Russia has decided it too is a super power again. The Georgia invasion is a maneuver to extent its sphere of influence. For what? Same reason Bush invaded Iraq, Oil. Russia is about to replace our man in Georgia (or intimidate him) thereby extending their control over a potentially significant source of oil in Central Asia. They are selling oil, we are buying. In the end this is about economics, not democracy, their up ours down.

Can Europe, which needs Russian natural gas as well as oil really punish Russia for this, as Bush is threatening? Perhaps, if not then Bush will have broken the rules and lost while Putin, capitalizing on that loss, will have broken the same rules and won. (Perhaps it is better to elect leaders that are smart rather than ones you would like to drink a beer with?) In either event, has this problem not been seen coming for sometime? Are we not here because our government has been more interested in the welfare of western oil companies than preserving economic security (and the environment)? Undue special interest influence over the decision making process in our society has generated this situation.

Had we, as Carter urged, continued on the path of conservation and development of alternative energy following the OPEC embargo, the incentive for this happening in Georgia would be absent. There would be more oil still in the ground and less demand for it, less carbon in the air, a dollar stronger, a more favorable balance of trade, less debt owed to sovereign wealth funds and our economy more secure.

The up side is, it may be good for the environment. Perhaps, with a newly renegade Russian Bear standing more squarely and less benignly on a larger part of the world's oil supply the public interest can break through the three hundred pound linemen of the hydrocarbon industry lobby toward a rational energy policy.

U.S. & Russia Polish Their Rockets.

The cloud man (left) was caught in the act. I'm not sure of his nationality. He could be either.
“. . . in Moscow, the deputy chief of general staff, Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said US plans for a missile base in Poland ‘cannot go unpunished.’ . . . A White House spokeswoman said US President George W Bush "was very pleased with this development." US and Poland sign defence deal
We still rely on our buddies the Russians to run our space program though. See, Experts: Reliance on Russia makes NASA weak By Lara Farrar
Sleep well tonight. This administration is still as awake as it ever was.
Thanks to Orve for the NASA tip.

Will We Have A Female President After All?

Smear sent this to Jane who forwarded it to me. McCain is pictured on the left.
"Subj: IS MCCAIN SECRETLY A WOMAN...OR EVEN WORSE?

For the love of God and the love of this country, you will forward this email onto all your friends and family. The fate of the free world may rest solely on this information becoming mainstream. If we cannot stop this, I pray for all of our souls. God speed!
I have confirmed these facts through my reliable sources. I suggest you take it to heart – feel free to confirm these disturbing truths. Please print out copies and hand them out or mail them to friends and neighbors without access to the Internet.
Who is John McCain?
US Presidential candidate, John SIDNEY McCain, was born in Panama (thus the reason he doesn't mind his people flooding across our borders). He tries to hide his middle name by constantly referring to himself as John S. McCain. Do not let this fool you. John SIDNEY McCain, the probable presidential runner-up, has a woman's middle name. At the very least, the concealment of his middle name, SIDNEY, raises serious questions about his true gender and whether he is a SECRET woman. He has admitted that economics is not an issue he understands well. A certain gender is well known to be less inclined towards math and numbers. Then there are his $500 shoes. If elected, it's very likely McCain will institute mandatory lingerie pillow AND tickle fights.
John SIDNEY McCain was raised by parents of Scots-Irish and English ancestry. At their most harmless, the Irish are notorious drunks who enjoy fighting while stashing large piles of gold underneath rainbows. In the extreme, the Irish are violent TERRORISTS attempting to overthrow the government. While no evidence exists explicitly linking McCain to a TERROR organization, he has never denied membership in the IRA. It is also unclear whether he or any of his drunken relatives ever knew anyone who might know someone who once interacted with or passed in the street a member of the IRA. Given the challenges facing our country, we need confirmation that McCain is not affiliated nor knows people affiliated with TERROR organizations.
Born in 1936, John SIDNEY McCain moved around a lot throughout his early years, which coincided with World War II. The exact details of McCain's behavior during this time are sketchy at best. It is interesting to note there is no record of McCain denouncing the actions of the Nazis while they were committing genocides. He was noticeably silent. He may not have been a NAZI SYMPATHIZER, but this raises doubts about which side he was rooting for during World War II. This also raises questions about his potential loyalties as president, given our current wars and the wars he promises to start.
John SIDNEY McCain served as a naval pilot during the Vietnam War. While executing a mission in 1967, McCain was captured in Hanoi, where he stayed in the Hanoi Hilton for 5 long years. McCain's fellow soldiers battled valiantly against the evils of Communism while McCain was lounging in a hotel (most likely alternating between the pool and the hot tub to enhance the experience of both) run by Paris Hilton! If McCain had fought alongside his comrades, we may have never needed Rocky to defeat Communism.
After Vietnam, McCain returned to the US to discover his first wife with horrific injuries from an auto accident. He promptly began an affair with a woman 17 years his junior, eventually divorcing his disfigured first wife in 1980. As President, McCain will be faced with a similar situation, given the current wreck that is our country. He will be tempted to fool around with other countries. It will just be a matter of time until he divorces the US for a newer, younger, and more attractive country that offers him more than we can.
During this presidential election, we must be vigilant to prevent a John SIDNEY McCain presidency.
Can we really risk having a drunk, fighting Irishman who may or may not have ties to TERRORIST organizations? When trouble times arrive, will McCain fight for us or will he fall into the arms of another more-youthful country that looks strikingly like his current country? Do we really want to trust this country to someone who may secretly be a woman or a NAZI SYMPATHIZER?
Please forward to everyone you know. We cannot have this (wo)man leading our country.
Your Friend,
Bo Gus Smear"

Females Have Led The Ancient Celts, England, Germany, Ireland, Israel, India, and Pakistan For God's Sake. Why Not the USA? See Below.

A CASE OF COLD FEET? WHO TO FEAR?

McCain’s campaign has overtly descended into leveraging fear, ostensibly related to Obama’s lack of foreign policy and military experience, but more likely seeking a darker subliminal foundation. It is a timeless strategy to provide a clean rational as a permission slip for views with emotional roots unacceptable to the conscious mind or for public expression. Yet it is McCain that should be feared as experience can blind as well as enlighten and Presidents can be subliminally motivated by emotion as well as voters.

Until recently few would view a McCain presidency as anything fearful. He certainly does not look frightening and in times past has been widely viewed with favor for his independence from his party on domestic issues. After he lost to Bush the straight talk express jumped the track, principle finally yielded to ambition and McCain became just another pandering politician; some what pathetic in contrast to his own prior heroic example. Still for many, anywhere left of the far right, he seemed among the least objectionable of the Republican candidates. That is until he started ranting about staying in Iraq for a hundred years to achieve some undefined victory over an ill defined enemy and proscribed “bomb, bomb Iran” as a solution to our difficulties with that country. Such views in a Presidential candidate, especially given recent history, should give rational minds pause.

We now know that the Bush administration intended from the beginning to establish a permanent military presence in Iraq following the war, which is to say “bring it under our sphere of influence”. This of course means it was about oil all along. Such thinking reflects the obsolescent concepts of the “neocons” that have dominated Bush foreign policy. McCain’s statement about Iraq and Iran, as well as about dealing with Russia and China reflect the same mind set, one from a world that passed away in the last century, one in which military power is the prime measure of national stature and one in which great powers cobble together alliances and dependencies in an effort to construct self-sufficient economic spheres upon which to found that power and compete, empire against empire, through force and the threats of force. In such a world might makes right, there being few other arbiters of any conflict.

Economic integration (globalization) has changed how the world works, muting the validity of traditional conceptions of how nations succeed and interrelate. The bomb made all out war between great nations impossible but economic integration has made any real war between great nations impossible. The very commencement of such hostilities today would result in economic chaos to all that a half century ago could only be visited upon the vanquished after years of sustained warfare. A nation’s power and prestige today is a function primarily of economics not military power, its success determined by ability to play well with others, trade and compete. Nations have found it necessary to submit to the rule of law rather than the law of the jungle as the price of gaining access to world markets. Only backward nations prefer independence of action to economic success (North Korea and Iran). The most important discussions between nations today involve central bankers not generals.

More importantly, economic integration has changed the source of violent conflict. The principle conflicts today are not between nations so much as between cultures. With a few exceptions, terrorism is a much a threat to the governments’ of the states from which it springs as others. Economic integration promotes social integration. Together these have given rise to cultural insecurity. For some nothing is more fundamentally threatening. Terrorism is the heat of paranoia arising from the crushing together of cultural plates being driven by the pressure of economic integration and globalized mass communication. Having no nation, terrorism is a poor target for military power. Useful in a situation such as Afghanistan, where the State had overtly been co-opted by terrorist, the use of military power is otherwise as likely to promote as prevent terrorism, Iraq being a prime case in point. It is obvious that violence that emanates from a mindset and not a state and which takes the form of suicide attacks is not likely to be defeated by the use of force or the threat force. If the causes of terrorism are not addressed we can maintain troops in Iraq for a millennium and there will be no resolution to the “global war on terror”; no surrender on the deck of some battleship. Yet McCain is all about achieving military victory over terrorism by staying in Iraq where there was none before we arrived and were our presence is a continuing provocation to it. A surgeon may as rationally refuse to close his incision until the patient is well as to say we will not leave Iraq until terror is defeated, even more so as we have cut on the wrong patient.

Like Bush, McCain will provide the friction of belligerence where the lubrication of discourse is needed. He will maintain an alien occupation where distance and self sufficiency are needed. He will generate instability where economic opportunity is needed. It is a classic case of "experience" being counterproductive as his experience originates in another world and another time and likely has been adversely colored by his bitter personal Vietnam experience, another doomed from the beginning military adventure that he personally invested in and which one now must suspect he is subliminally motivated to vindicate with “victory” in Iraq, there being no other apparent explanation for his obsession with staying when rationally victory is by definition leaving.

Bush has been a destructive monster on the world stage, undermining our essential economic strength, our values and our credibility as a nation while promoting world violence by waging an unnecessary war in pursuit of irrelevant and unattainable goals. McCain will be his twin reincarnate, ignorant of the critical realities around him, inclined to unilateral military solutions to complex multilateral problems and oblivious to the opinions of other nations. He will fill veteran's hospitals not universities, lay mines not open minds. It is a mentality he was raised with, steaped in a family military tradition.

The bumper sticker says, “these colors do not run the world”. True, but they can lead the world, forward into the world that is emerging, one built on security derived from mutal dependence and ruled by law developed by consensus, economically integrated, secure to and tolerant of cultural diversity, or backward into arrogant supper power unilateralism, instability and violence. For clarity the later is the course we have been on and I for one am fearful of continuing it.

The Puck Fair is August 10, 11, & 12. My Heart, at Least, Will Be in Killorglin.

Men Of Action Effectively Execute the Maneuver In Different Ways.

Thanks to Bruce.

Gold Robot Records

"Rogers native Hunter Mack took a novel approach in securing the latest release on his limited edition vinyl label, Gold Robot Records. He wrote Will Oldham a letter. And he included some of cousin (and longtime man on the scene in Fayetteville) John Harmon's poetry. An email correspondence between Mack and Oldham followed and, as Mack says, "without asking or even hinting" Oldham, using his Bonnie Prince Billy handle, put some of Harmon's lyrics to song and agreed to let Mack release them on his imprint. What a coup!

Reached by phone in Oakland yesterday, Mack, who's doing post-doctoral work in mechanical engineering at UC Berkley, said that 300 of the 500 copies of the single are gone. They went on sale on Monday. Better hurry.
This is the ninth release on Gold Robot, which Mack started almost a year and a half ago. Mostly, he's released Bay Area projects from friends. In the coming months, he'll put out a record from a young band from Idaho, an EP from a San Francisco band called Railcars that Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu produced and a six song EP from Lady Genius, a Bay Area pop band that's starting to blow up.
He says he's committed to limited runs, "because it’s a side project—no one’s making any money—it’s easier to sell 500 of something than 5,000." All his releases thus far, save the BPB record, are also available digitally.
You'll notice, from the caption above, that Mack supplied the artwork for the BPB release. He's currently also got a show in a prominent Oakland Gallery. Check out his work here.
Check also, Macktronic, the mp3 blog Mack's run for years.

Posted by Lindsey Millar " This is shamelessly copied verbatim from the Arkansas Times Rock Candy Blog.

Choosing Hell

from Aug. 12 The Christian Century
Walpola Piyananda, a Sri Lankan who was ordained a Buddhist monk at age 12, studied at Northwestern University and lived on the campus of Garrett Seminary. He says he was treated respectfully by most seminarians except for one, who told him, in front of other students, that as a Buddhist he would land in hell. Piyananda replied that he believed his challenger would go to heaven, but that his "noisy theological disputes" would create a racket that would disturb Piyananda's meditation if he were there too. Piyananda said that "he would voluntarily choose hell, where he might compassionately serve suffering souls." The proselytizing stopped.

The forgotten and left behind

I found this piece from Sojourners' Jim Wallis particularly interesting. Being a grandmother, I have a heart for children. That some are hungry is troublesome...it just shouldn't be.

Wallis: Having talked to Sen. John Edwards and to you, it strikes me that while you probably disagree on many things, you both are trying to raise up those people who are often forgotten and left behind. It helps me believe that fighting poverty could become a nonpartisan issue and a bipartisan cause.

Huckabee: It’s something we could and should do. I have a philosophy of politics. For politicians, everything is horizontal—left, right, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican. For most Ameri­cans, politics isn’t horizontal, it’s vertical. They don’t care whether the solutions are coming from the left or the right. What they care about is, are we going up or are we going down? It’s those who have vertical solutions that the country will be looking to for leadership. I just hope we can get there. That’s my personal dream and goal.

Drop Kick Me JesusThrough The Goal Posts of Life.

I've got the will, Lord if you've got the toe.

Gabby Johnson Endorses John McCain Who Accuses the Colored Boy (He Couldn't Remember His Name) of Playing The Race Card.

McCain, while listening to Rush Limbaugh play Barak the Magic Negro, offers Obama a laurel, and hearty handshake. Here's Gabby and a younger John McCain making a similar presentation: