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Time to begin to watch the Rs and the high jinks of John McCain, so that you can be forewarned and forearmed against the notion that McCain is somehow not as bad as George W. Bush and his cronies have been in their efforts to dismantle our democracy. Want to contribute? Send emails and I'll post what I can that is clean and factual. Many thanks in advance.. BCDP Website Ed.
Some of the links go to PDF files, which require Adobe Reader. Click here to download if needed.
Repubs Declare Dem Voter Reg Drives Fraudulent McCain Spiritual Advisor Hates Islam Pentagon Secretly Shaping "Independent" Commentary w/UPDATE Oust Rice for Lies Under Sworn Testimony Republican Campaign Against Likely Democratic Voters Begins by: Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet The GOP's latest accusations are long on rhetoric but short on facts. Across the country and on the Republican National Committee website, a handful of GOP office holders and party officers are trying to discredit recent voter registration drives and record-setting turnout by Democrats in 2008 primaries, saying efforts seen as benefiting Democrats are rife with "voter fraud." Click here to see the full text of this AlterNet piece in pdf format and print. Click here to see the full article in TEXT format and print. Many thanks to Victoria Bailey for the head's up about these phony fraud actions against Democrats.
You may find these books for purchase at https://unionshop.aflcio.org/ To print the reading list from a pdf, click here; to print a text file, click here and then copy the file into Notepad and print. In Notepad you may have to click Format and then Word Wrap to fit the print on a letter-sized page.
Pat Buchanan on the Progression of Right-Wing Republican Conservatism: Paraphrasing the social critic Eric Hoffer, Buchanan says: "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." From: The Fall of Conservatism – Have the Republicans Run Out of Ideas?by: George Packer, The New Yorker - Monday 26 May 2008
Read the full text of the Packer article at:http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/26/080526fa_fact_packer
Thanks to Karen Sterling for providing this link.
FYI - Bush Knows About Nazi Appeasing - Just More Hypocrisy
Consortiumnews.com is a product of The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc., a non-profit organization . The irony of George W. Bush going before the Knesset and mocking the late Sen. William Borah for expressing surprise at Adolf Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland is that Bush’s own family played a much bigger role assisting the Nazis. If Borah, an isolationist Republican from Idaho, sounded naïve saying “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided,” then what should be said about Bush’s grandfather and other members of his family providing banking and industrial assistance to the Nazis as they built their war machine in the 1930s? The archival evidence is now clear that Prescott Bush, the president’s grandfather, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from and collaborated with key financial backers of Nazi Germany. That business relationship continued after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 and even after Germany declared war on the United States following Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. It stopped only when the U.S. government seized assets of Bush-connected companies in late 1942 under the “Trading with the Enemy Act.” So, perhaps instead of holding up Sen. Borah to ridicule, Bush might have acknowledged in his May 15 speech that his forebears also were blind to the dangers of Hitler.
Thanks to Marsha Correira for the reference to this article.
Click here to read the entire article on Consortium.com.
Click here to read the entire article in pdf format and print.
McCain Spiritual Advisor Has His Own Problems You may have heard of Rev. John Hagee, the McCain supporter who said God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its homosexual "sins." Well now meet Rev. Rod Parsley, the televangelist megachurch pastor from Ohio who hates Islam. According to David Corn of Mother Jones, Parsley has called on Christians to wage war against Islam, which he considers to be a "false religion." In the past, Parsley has also railed against the separation of church and state, homosexuals, and abortion rights, comparing Planned Parenthood to Nazis. John McCain actively sought and received Parsley's endorsement in the presidential race. McCain has called Parsley "a spiritual guide," and he hasn't said whether he shares Parsley's vicious anti-Islam views. That's because the mainstream media refuses to ask. And so, we've taken matters into our own hands, joining Mother Jones to present the truth about McCain's pastor: Watch the video: http://bravenewfilms.org/watch/20007615/38133?utm_source=rgemail Since the media won't question McCain about his deeply bigoted pastor, it's up to you to call attention to this issue. Make McCain's pastor problem a major story by forwarding this video to your family, friends, and colleagues. Digg it! Anything to spread the word. We can't let McCain get away with aligning himself with a religious leader who's called for an all-out war on Islam, someone who draws no distinctions between Muslims and violent Islamic extremists. Now is the crucial time to act.
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No matter what kind of spin John McCain is trying to put on his idea to pass a law to "save gas taxes for the summer", it is bad policy and puts even more money into the hands of the already flush oil company executives. It also costs around 10 billion and he proposes nothing to pay for it. Alister Bull of Reuters put it succinctly in his online article written 4/30/08. Here are some excerpts to help you understand why it is bunk to make Americans think this can be done.
"A gas tax holiday proposed by U.S. presidential hopeful… John McCain… is viewed as a bad idea by many economists... "Economists said that since refineries cannot increase their supply of gasoline in the space of a few summer months, lower prices will just boost demand and the benefits will flow to oil companies, not consumers. "You are just going to push up the price of gas by almost the size of the tax cut," said Eric Toder, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in Washington. Many economists ... said that the McCain… gas tax plan sent the wrong signal on energy efficiency and was at odds with pledges to combat climate change by encouraging lower U.S. carbon emissions. "I think it is a very bad idea," said Gilbert Metclaf, a economics professor at Tufts University currently working with the National Bureau of Economic Research. "If we want people to invest in energy-saving cars, we need some assurance that the higher price paid for these cars is going to pay off through fuel savings," he said. "It is a very short-sighted, counterproductive proposal." Economists also saw it is a poor way of getting money to the households that need it most and warned that it might end up in the cash tills of the oil companies. "If you want to provide households tax relief, a direct rebate ... is more effective. Not all of the tax relief from a gas tax holiday will be passed on to consumers. Some will likely be kept by refiners," Mankiw said in an e-mail response. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was similarly underwhelmed: "It's Econ 101: the tax cut really goes to the oil companies," he wrote on his blog on Tuesday.
Ed: Note that McCain's same tax plan also reduces taxes again for businesses across the board. Click here to see an article from The Boston Globe website about the plan in pdf format and print. Click here to see The Boston Globe article online.
Have you seen this revealing comment made by John McCain, which he said and he meant? Click here to see the devastating DNC ad that replays McCain's remarks. A vote for McCain means a vote for four more years of Bush's profoundly destructive and devisive policies. Had enough - vote democratic! Libby Quaid - April 23, 2008 - Associated Press (Huffington Post) Yes, John McCain, when asked why in committee he voted against the bill that would require equal pay for women and men doing the the same work, said that he was familiar with the disparity, but that there, "are better ways to help women find better paying jobs. They need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else. And it's hard for them to leave their families when they don't have somebody to care of them." Huh? Does the Senator not realize that these women are already trained and being paid less than men paid more for the same job? Excuse, me? Why doesn't he allow the bill to go to the floor for the up or down vote that the Repubs so cherish? To read the entire AP article, click here.
Click here to sign a petition to be sent to McCain, demanding
that he take back his sexist statement and stop blocking an up or
down vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Back to Top
Home Does anyone remember the Keating Five
Scandal?
Yes, John McCain was one of the Keating Five. William Black
can revive your memory of this enormous and debilitating scandal
from the 1980's, where John McCain had the opportunity to prevent a
disastrous bank failure and chose to do nothing. Read Black's
article at: http://www.ourfuture.org/progressive-opinion/keating-five-legacy
Thanks to Marsha Correira for her contribution
of this item. John McCain Repeatedly Confuses Terrorist Sects John McCain can't keep the basic facts about the Middle Eastern
Islamic sects straight. He has five times in the most important venues, including in the senate
hearing chamber, claimed that Al Qaida is in cahoots with Iran. As we all know well by now, the
Irani Shiia bear millenia-old bitter enmity toward the Sunnis, including Al Qaida.
Can he make the same mistakes repeatedly as president? Guess we're used to that by now,
considering W's propensity to flub basic facts and language. Want 4 - 8 more years of confusion and
imperious rule? Vote for George W. McCain.
Project VoteSmart's record on John McCain's
voting
Thanks to Vickie Vogel for sending along this website, where you can see McCain's voting record. And,
you'll find the website also in the left side-bar on the home page. Check this one out:
http://www.votesmart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=53270
Things You Need to Know About John McCain – MoveOn.org
Click here to see a printable view There are some surprising things here that you probably did not know.
Sources are noted beneath each item. Click on the title to read the entire article
associated with it.
1)
McCain voted against the bill to establish a federal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. He says that his position has "evolved" but he continued to oppose
civil rights laws.
a) "The Complicated History
of John McCain and MLK Day," ABC News, April 3, 2008; and,
b)
"McCain Facts," ColorOfChange.org
April 4, 2008
2) According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish on Iraq, Russia and China
than Bush. Conservative Columnist Pat Buchanan said McCain makes Cheney look like Gandhi.
a) "
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/environment/77913/," Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008; and,
b) "Buchanan: John McCain 'Will Make Cheney Look
Like Gandhi," ThinkProgress, February 6, 2008
3) His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill
to ban waterboarding that passed and then applauded the Bush veto of the ban.
a) "McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of
Anti-Waterboarding Bill," ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
4) McCain is opposed to a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus
Wade. It should be overturned."
a) "McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned,"
MSNBC, February 18,2007
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.
a) "2007 Children's Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan
Congressional Scorecard," February 2008; and,
b) "McCain: Bush right to veto kids health
insurance expansion," CNN, October 3, 2007
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.
a) “Beer Executive Could Be
Next First Lady,” Associated Press, April 3, 2008 and,
b) “McCain Says Bank Bailout
Should End ‘Systemic Risk,’ “Bloomberg News, March 25, 2008
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.”
a) “Will McCain’s Temper Be a Liability?,”
Associated Press, February 16, 2008; and,
b) "Famed McCain Temper Is Tamed," Boston
Globe, January 27, 2008
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 candidate.
a) "Black Claims McCain’s Campaign Is Above Lobbyist
Influence: ‘I Don’t Know What the Criticism Is,’ ” ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008; and,
b) "McCain’s Lobbyist Friends Rally ‘Round Their Man,’” ABC
News, January 29, 2008
9) McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The
pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide, “ Rod Parsley, believes American’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.”
a) “McCain’s
Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam,” Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008, and,
b) "Will McCain Specifically ‘Repudiate’ Hagee’s
Anti-Gay Comments?,” ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008; and,
c) "McCain ‘Very Honored’ By Support of Pastor Preaching
‘End-Time Confrontation With Iran,’” ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
10)He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0 – yes,a zero – from the League of
Conservation Voters last year.
a) “John
McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record,” Sierra Club, February 28, 2008
Behind TV Analysts,
Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
UPDATE on this story:
(See Links to original just below this update) Two weeks ago, a
7,600-word exposé in the New York
Times revealed that military
propagandists had overrun networks like
Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN to spin
the Iraq war using scripts provided by
the Pentagon. White House officials even
called their planted pundits "message
force multipliers." Both the White House
and Big Media are doing everything
they can to cover up this scandal. White
House spokeswoman Dana Perino abruptly
ended her daily press briefing last week
when an independent journalist asked
about it. The broadcast networks and the
cable news shows have basically blacked
out coverage. But something amazing
happened along the way. Bloggers and
independent journalists from OpenLeft,
DailyKos, Huffington Post, The Nation,
Salon.com, and Democracy Now!
have kept news of the scandal alive. And Congress is
taking notice. On Tuesday, Reps.
Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and John Dingell
(D-Mich.) sent a letter to the FCC
urging an investigation to determine if
the networks violated federal law by
deceiving the American public. Sens.
John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Russ Feingold
(D-Wis.) have asked the Government
Accountability Office to shed light on
the scandal. Please contact
your Senators, Congressional Reps, media of all types, along with
friends and relatives to urge investigation of the White attempts to
cover up this scandal. Thanks again to Karen Sterling for the
update on this important story.
Take action:
https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?id=257
Take action to notify your friends:
For more information:
www.freepress.net
The New York Times released another of its in
depth, thoroughly researched articles to expose the Pentagon
and Bush Administration efforts to secretly mold public opinion in
their favor. These retired generals of the military are hired
by news organizations as independent consultants to provide
information and guidance based on their experiences. It
appears from the article that we got what the Pentagon wanted us to
hear as though it were unprejudiced commentary. This is a long
article, but well worth the time spent to be able to fully
appreciate that you should consider questioning every word from the
media as to the sources, agendas and/or biases of those reporting or
providing commentary.
To download, read and/or print as pdf,
click here.
To go to The New York Times and read on-line,
click here.
Many thanks to contributors Mitzi
VanSant and Karen Sterling for referring this article.
Petition to Oust Sec of
State Rice
ABC News has release information, concerning
the active participation of then National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice in the approval of the use of torture, followed by
her testimony in front of Congress and the world that specifically
denies torture was approved. In short she lied to Congress
about her part and the approval. Please click on the image
below to watch the video evidence and sign the petition to insist
that all candidates for president demand the resignation of Ms.
Rice, given her sworn statements that were NOT the truth.
Bush and Cronies Consider Bush an Emperor The New York
Times Magazine journalist Ron Suskind published on October 17, 2004
an article entitled "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of
George W. Bush". In the article is a
quote that will jar you to your core and explain a lot about what's
been going on for years now. Here is the quote from Suskind's article:
"In the
summer of 2002, after I had written an article in
Esquire that the White House didn't like about
Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes,
I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He
expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he
told me something that at the time I didn't fully
comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the
very heart of the Bush presidency.
"The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we
call the reality-based community,' which he defined
as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from
your judicious study of discernible reality.' I
nodded and murmured something about enlightenment
principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's
not the way the world really works anymore,' he
continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we
create our own reality. And while you're studying
that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll
act again, creating other new realities, which you
can study too, and that's how things will sort out.
We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you,
will be left to just study what we do.' ''
Does that chilling statement explain the arbitrariness and
empirical nature of the Bush Administration? To see the entire
article, click:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html
There is a wealth of books to read these days that will help inform
your life and your attention to preserving our democracy. One
of the best around is The Age of American Unreason by Susan
Jacoby. She takes a profound look at the American Cultural
phenomenon - "one that is at odds with our heritage of Enlightenment
reason" not to mention "with modern secular knowledge and science."
"At this critical political juncture, nothing could be more
important than recognizing the 'overarching crisis of memory and
knowledge' described in this impassioned, tough-minded book which
challenges Americans to face the painful truth about what the flight
from reason has cost us as individuals and as a nation."
And, she discusses how the Repubs and the Bush administration have
contributed to this decrease in collective education and intellect. You can find this fine book at the Bastrop Public Library.
Quotes are from the front jacket summary of the book. |
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