Out on a Limb(augh)

Talk about tortured logic.  O’l Rushbo can’t get enough of the taste of his own feet these days.  Take this utterly ridiculous statement from a recent broadcast:

LIMBAUGH: The idea that torture doesn’t work- that’s been put out from John McCain on down- You know, for the longest time McCain said torture doesn’t work then he admitted in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last summer that he was broken by North Vietnamese. So what are we to think here?

As reported by ThinkProgress.org, Limbaugh once again took a statement completely out of context and twisted it to suit his own needs.  While McCain did, in fact, say that the VC “broke” him during a torture session, you need to dig a little deeper to find the truth.  I’ll let McCain’s own words speak for themselves:

Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed. – Faith of My Fathers

And this quote from a 2005 Newsweek interview sums it up nicely:

“In my experience, abuse of prisoners often produces bad intelligence because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear — whether it is true or false — if he believes it will relieve his suffering.”

In other words, torture doesn’t work.

So, in answer to Rush’s question, what are we to think here?  How about “Rush, you’re a fat, lying, puffed-up, egotistical, narcissistic jackass and a coward.”  How about “Rush, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about and should keep your fat pie-hole shut.”  Or how about just “Rush, fuck off and die, you useless coward.”

And that, my friends, is what we’re to think.

Thank God this guy isn’t President

John McCain seems to have lost his tenuous grip on reality. Take, for instance, his recent comments on the stimulus package:

“I do say, in all candor, that it was a bad beginning,” McCain said about the way the stimulus passed without support from Republicans. “It was a bad beginning because it wasn’t what we promised the American people, what President Obama promised the American people, that we would sit down together.”

“Look, I appreciate the fact that the president came over and talked to Republicans,” he added. “That’s not how you negotiate a result. You sit down together in a room with competing proposals. Almost all of our proposals went down on a party line vote.”

How’s that again? The president talked to Republicans, but that’s not negotiation?  The mind boggles at the notion of McCain talking to international leaders.  What he really means is that Obama didn’t completely cave in to the Republicans, so they took their shriveled, dried-up, useless balls and went home.  The real reason the package vote went along party lines isn’t because the President didn’t include some Republican ideas; it’s because he didn’t include ONLY Republican ideas. Un-fucking-believable. After eight years of the Republican “my way or the highway” style of bipartisanship, they’re still trying to say that bipartisanship is doing what they say.

Nearly 40% of the stimulus package is composed of tax cuts, the only economic concept Republicans both understand and will vote for.  I suppose the real problem with it is that the bulk of the cuts go to the middle class, who genuinely need it, instead of the wealthy and powerful, who don’t.

And the idea of the Republicans, the party who for eight years gave us trillion-dollar deficits, skyrocketing national debt, an unnecessary and illegal war, the national and international embarassment of Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and other overseas torture chambers, and economic and social policies that have bankrupted the nation, are now the arbiters of morality and fiscal responsibility, is beyond ridiculous.  These people are lucky to have the Congressional seats they currently hold.  They should be put on a pedestal – so we can all throw rocks at them until they fall off.

The Empress’ New Clothes

According to recent revelations, regular gal, hockey mom and average citizen who does not pal around with terrorists and probably does not eat arugula Sarah Palin spent more than $150,000 in donor contributions to the McCain campaign on clothes and makeup.  Since she’s only been associated with the campaign for about two months, that’s a rate of nearly $1 million per year.

Wow.  I’m sure all the Joe Sixpacks, Joe Bag o’ Donuts, Joe the Plumbers, and GI Joes out there can relate.  After all, doesn’t every middle class “real American” family spend that kind of money on looking good?  Sarah Palin just spent, in two months, nearly three times the annual salary of the average American citizen.  On clothes.

This may seem trivial to some, but it isn’t.  Remember when John Edwards was mocked for spending $400 of campaign money on a haircut?  If he’d done that once a week, it would have taken him nearly 7 1/2 years (or two terms of a presidency) to reach the stratospheric levels of public fraud that Polar Girl has reached in just two months.

But then, what did you expect from this woman?  She, after all, has a well documented propensity for wasting government and public money.  She’s been doing it her entire political career.  The mind reels at what will happen if she ever gets control of the national budget.

John S. (“Saddam?”) McCain

This one deserves comment, but I’ll just let it speak for itself for now.  From the Huffington Post:

William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

I’ll bet Barack Hussein Obama can’t say that.

Pallin’ around with terrorists

My friends, we have a national scandal on our hands.  One of our presidential candidates has been in the company of a convicted criminal and known, unrepentant terrorist as recently as last year.  Worse, this candidate has repeatedly lavished praise upon this individual, despite his well documented crimes and conspiracies.

The terrorist in question has a long and sordid record of plotting arson, orchestrating burglaries and kidnappings, and once called on followers to kill federal officials.  He claimed “no responsibility” for any deaths that acutally resulted from his irresponsible and reckless language, though, in typical terrorist fashion.

Who is this vile degenerate, and who is the candidate that’s been “palling around” with him?  Is it this guy, one-time member of the Weather Underground?

Nope, it’s not William Ayers.

It’s actually this guy, G. Gordon Liddy, architect of the infamous Watergate break-in, co-conspirator of bomb plots and kidnappings during the Nixon years, thug and scumbag who once exhorted his listeners to

“…if the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they’re going to be wearing bulletproof vests.”

G. Gordon Liddy - Conspirator, Convicted Felon and Terrorist

He also bragged about taking target practice using sillhouettes named “Bill” and “Hillary”.  And this is the guy whom John McCain, the candidate who does not “pal around” with terrorists, lavished praise upon as recently as last November:

LIDDY: Your experience in the Hanoi Hilton is remarkable. I mean, I put in five years in a prison [for masterminding the Watergate burglary, and associated crimes], but it was here in the United States, and they didn’t torture – the only torture that I had was being forced to listen to rap music from time to time.

McCAIN: Well, you know, I’m proud of you. I’m proud of your family. I’m proud to know your son, Tom, who’s a great and wonderful guy. And it’s always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon. And congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.

Riiiiiight.  What principles would those be, exactly?  Using threats of violence and fear to advance your agenda?  Well, judging from the behaviors of crowds at his recent campaign rallies, that’d probably be a resounding “yes”.

Way to not “pal around” with terrorists, Senator McHypocrite.

Through the Looking Glass with Rick Davis

Well, well.  After last week’s disastrous performances by POW Jack and PolarGirl on the campaign trail, what with riling up the crowds with rhetoric not heard since a certain world leader’s speeches at Nuremberg and audience participation strongly resembling that of angry mobs in Tehran, McCain has been forced to attempt to ratchet back the hate.  However, some in his campaign appear not to have gotten the memo.  Watch as Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign advisor, attempts to defend POW Jack after the Republican candidate was called out for his campaign’s hateful language by Congressman John Lewis:

Get that?  John McCain and Sarah Palin have a week on the trail that makes George Wallace seem likeable, a black man calls them out on it, and it’s Barak Obama who needs to apologize?  Hey, folks, remember – John McCain spent 5 1/2 years in a box where he couldn’t incite racism and hate, so give the old guy a break.

There’s only one man who owes anyone an apology, and that’s John McCain.  John Lewis was telling the truth.  McCain and Palin are spreading lies and hate.  The Straight Talk Express has become the Hate Talk Express.  If they win we’ll have four more years of the “Divided States of America”.

Now, will someone in the so-called mainstream media please ask PolarGirl about the terrorist secessionist traitorous Alaska Independence Party and why the “First Dud” was still a member of it until only a few weeks ago?

Cindy McCain insults troops with PTSD

In what is fast becoming both a pathetic cliche and a sad reality of the McCain campaign, prospective first “lady” Cindy McCain has once again uttered a completely ignorant, insensitive and disrespectful comment about the troops in an interview.  Talking to Marie Claire magazine recently, she had this to say about her husband’s wartime experiences and the possiblity that he still suffers from them as a result:

MC: I heard that when you were in Vietnam recently, you found yourself in the same hospital room where your husband was taken after he was shot down. How did that feel? Surreal, or all too real?
CM: Yeah, actually, that’s a great description of it. You know, I had this feeling that that was the place. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. And then they proceeded to tell me that indeed it was the hospital and it was the room where he’d been photographed — you know, that famous photograph of him.

MC: Did you get a chill?
CM: I did. I got a chill, and I also was very poignantly reminded of just how strong my husband is, how tough and determined.

MC: You met your husband after his POW days. To what extent is that still with you — or is it a part of history?
CM: My husband will be the first one to tell you that that’s in the past. Certainly it’s a part of who he is, but he doesn’t dwell on it. It’s not part of a daily experience that we experience or anything like that. But it has shaped him. It has made him the leader that he is.

MC: But no cold sweats in the middle of the night?
CM: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. My husband, he’d be the first one to tell you that he was trained to do what he was doing. The guys who had the trouble were the 18-year-olds who were drafted. He was trained, he went to the Naval Academy, he was a trained United States naval officer, and so he knew what he was doing.

We’ll put aside the laughable assertion that her husband “doesn’t dwell on it” when in fact he and his surrogates never miss a chance to bring up his POW history even in the most trivial of circumstances.  And maybe she’s telling the truth when she implies he doesn’t have nightmares as a result of it.  If that’s the case, then that’s great for him.  He’s a lot better off than probably most of his fellow prisoners.

But to suggest that the only troops who suffer from PTSD are the 18-year old draftees is not merely ludicrous, it’s ignorant, insulting and demeaning.  To suggest that her husband doesn’t have it because he had proper training is equally stupid and ignorant.  To say this at a time when our nation is at war on two fronts overseas, and our young men and women are returning home with very real symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (even the officers), and treatment for PTSD is being denied them or is simply unavailable, is irresponsible and reckless.

And to say all this when your husband, the Republican candidate for President, is a man who has voted repeatedly against funding for veterans’ health care, and who voted against a funding bill that would have provided improved body armor for combat troops because it included a timetable for withdrawal, is more than a little ludicrous.

It’s insane.  It’s insensitive.  It’s unworthy of a first lady.  Cindy and John McCain owe the troops a massive apology.

John McCain, hate group leader?

How far the mighty have fallen.  Senator John McCain, once the proud standard bearer for the Republican party, media-anointed “maverick”, American war hero, has been reduced to nothing more than a demoagogue and hatemonger.

Well, it was inevitable.  After all, his campaign never had anything behind it other than “vote for me, I’m old and it’s my turn”.  And his volunary association with Rove protege Tim Griffin only made it worse.  But did it really have to devolve to this?  Twice in the past week, campaign rallies for the McCain/Palin ticket have begun with race-baiting jackasses working the crowds up to frenzied emotion by raising the specter of domestic terrorism and falsely linking it with opponent Barack Obama.   At both events the warm-up acts used Senator Obama’s middle name as an epithet to incite hatred, and cries of “terrorist” and calls for his assination could be clearly heard in the background.

Neither McCain nor Palin have denounced these hateful acts, leading one to believe they condone them.  Oh, sure, they can always say they didn’t know the speakers were going to do that, but the words will ring hollow especially considering there was no public repudiation of the speakers at the time of the event.  But then, McCain never was able to constructively deal with insults being directed at his opponents at his own rallies:

So, what did we expect?  Running as the Republican candidate this year was always an uphill battle, made the worse by McCain’s direct and very close relationship with the Bush administration.  But these latest events are really beyond the pale.  It’s one thing to want to win the race; everyone who runs for president wants that.  But it’s another thing entirely to want to win it so badly, so desperately, that you’ll do anything to claim that brass ring.  Its one thing to run a few negative ads against your opponent; that’s expected.  It’s another entirely to spew lie after lie in to the public consciousness and to tolerate and even encourage a steady barrage of hate and bile against the other side and hoping some of it will stick.

Fortunately, it seems not to be working.  Recent polls indicate that Obama is leading in nearly every battleground state, including several that were supposed “locks” for McCain.  And for their parts, the idiot who appeared in front of the crowd in his police uniform and incited hatred, and the idiot who shouted “kill him” are now currently under investigation.  The former for misusing his public office for political purposes, and the latter for, well, being stupid enough to call for the assassination of a presidential candidate.

The Secret Service takes these things seriously, as it turns out.

They’d better quit while they’re behind.  The McCain/Palin campaign is turning into this:

The surreal world of Cindy McCain

As reported in the Huffington Post today:

Cindy McCain said today that she expects her husband to clear the record at tonight’s debate and let America know where he truly stands.

McCain, who stopped to visit a half-dozen children at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt today, said the presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has “waged the dirtiest campaign in American history,” and her husband Sen. John McCain will use tonight’s debate to correct the distortions.

Has she been paying attention lately?  Talk about out of touch.

Let’s make it a dozen

Remember all that talk about Sarah Palin being “just another hockey mom” and “working class gal”, etc. etc. etc.?  That’s all ancient history, as the Washington Times reports:

Their combined income of nearly a quarter-million dollars last year was five times the median household income for Wasilla’s 7,000 residents. They own a single-engine plane, two boats, two personal watercraft and a half-million-dollar, custom-built home on a lake that is worth three times the average of other homes in town. For the future, they also have a 401(k) retirement account compliments of Todd Palin’s years as an engineer with oil giant BP.

So, between McCain and Palin, the two families of the Republican ticket own 12 (or more) properties, 2 planes and at least 14 cars.

That’s working class for you.  Now, who’s out of touch?