Clipmarks | merrie's 'mccain' clips

Veterans Hit The Battlegrounds

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:09:00 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: We need to finish the job. . . . No matter who is president."

Hegseth says his group is not operating on behalf of McCain and notes that federal law prohibits the organization from coordinating the ad with his campaign. The states were chosen, he said, not because they are crucial swing states for McCain, but rather because the heightened interest in those states will give it a larger audience.

"We're going to tap into that heightened awareness," he said, noting that his organization has supported several Democratic candidates in the past year or so. "It's not an attack on anybody. We're not taking on any presidential candidates."

He said McCain has been the "strongest advocate" for the veterans of the two wars.

"We would hope that success in Iraq could benefit everybody," he said.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Sen. John McCain is getting battleground-state help this week from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who will appear in a television commercial aimed at convincing the public that the United States is winning the Iraq war and should stay to finish the job.

Produced by Vets for Freedom, an organization of veterans of the two wars, the ad will run in Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and on cable nationwide. The group, with about 20,000 members, will spend $1.5 million on what it says is the first of many spots during the next month.

"As an organization, we have four months here," said the group's chairman, Pete Hegseth, an Iraq veteran. "A window of opportunity of heightened awareness. We think it's crucial that the success our troops have made on the battlefield is relayed to the American public."

"We changed strategy in Iraq," one of the soldiers says in the ad. "And the surge worked. Now that's change we can believe in. We need to finish the job. . . .

Tags: mccain, iraq/afghanistan veterans, vet for freedom, michigan, new mexico, ohio, pennsylvania, virginia, nationwide cable

New And Not Improved! New York Times

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:55:43 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: the death penalty and gun control. Mr. Obama endorsed the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the District of Columbia’s gun-control law. We knew he ascribed to the anti-gun-control groups’ misreading of the Constitution as implying an individual right to bear arms. But it was distressing to see him declare that the court provided a guide to “reasonable regulations enacted by local communities to keep their streets safe.”

We were equally distressed by Mr. Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court’s barring the death penalty for crimes that do not involve murder.

Mr. Obama’s shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics.

We don’t want any “redefining” on these big questions. This country needs change it can believe in.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Editorial

Barack Obama stirred his legions of supporters, and raised our hopes, promising to change the old order of things.

Now there seems to be a new Barack Obama on the hustings. First, he broke his promise to try to keep both major parties within public-financing limits for the general election

The new Barack Obama has abandoned his vow to filibuster an electronic wiretapping bill if it includes an immunity clause

The Barack Obama of the primary season used to brag that he would stand before interest groups and tell them tough truths. The new Mr. Obama tells evangelical Christians that he wants to expand President Bush’s policy of funneling public money for social spending to religious-based organizations — a policy that violates the separation of church and state and turns a government function into a charitable donation.

On top of these perplexing shifts in position, we find ourselves disagreeing powerfully with Mr. Obama on two other issues:

Tags: obama, mccain, war in iraq, taxes, health care, campaign finance, fisa immunity clause, gun-control law, death penalty, supreme court nominations.

McCain: Pump This!

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:51:13 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Meanwhile, the centrists McCain spent years impressing with his outraged denunciations of conservatives, Swift Boat Veterans and Christians will be voting for Obama. They think he's cute.

The irony is, the only people McCain can count on to vote for him are the very Republicans he despises -- at least those of us who can get drunk enough on Election Day to pull the lever for him. In fact, we should organize parties around the country where Republicans can get drunk so they can vote for McCain. We can pass out clothespins with his name as a reminder and slogan-festooned vomit bags. The East Coast parties can post the number of drinks necessary for the task to help the West Coast parties. For more information, go to getdrunkandvote4mccain.com.

This year, moderate Republicans have hit the jackpot. John McCain is the Platonic ideal of a "moderate Republican."

Clip Source: www.redstatesusa.com

The vote on ANWR was almost entirely along partisan lines, with all Republicans, except a handful of "moderates," voting for drilling, and all Democrats, except a handful of sane Democrats like Zell Miller, voting against drilling.

John McCain opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because he polled soccer moms and found out they were against drilling.

Even Sen. Chuck Hagel voted for drilling in ANWR. But John McCain, "our" candidate, voted against it.

Two weeks ago, McCain skipped the capitol prayer breakfast in California, instead appearing with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at an environmental event in nearby Santa Barbara. Schwarzenegger's absence marked the first time a governor skipped what has come to be known as "the governor's prayer breakfast." I guess in the world of moderate Republicans an environmental event qualifies as a religious observance.

Not being ignorant "centrists," we know what a world-class disaster B. Hussein Obama will be.

Tags: anwr, mccain, schwarzenegger, moderate republicans, "centrists", environmental event, religious observance

FARC Hostage Ingrid Betancourt Freed

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:21:20 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: But in becoming so famous, the 46-year-old Ms. Betancourt also became more valuable to the FARC, which was feeling the heat from the government under U.S.-ally President Álvaro Uribe (who, it so happened, hosted Sen. John McCain on Tuesday). FARC funds itself largely through drug trafficking and kidnapping, but despite such activities had found a friend in Hugo Chávez. The Venezuelan president and FARC had sought to use the selective release of hostages to get governments allied with him, such as Ecuador and Nicaragua, to grant the group diplomatic recognition -- a move that, if followed by other countries in the region, would undermine the Colombian government's offensive against the FARC and by extension U.S. influence in the region. Mr. Chavez had declared his motives to be purely humanitarian; but, in any event, it is the Colombian military that has now done the selective releasing.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

On Wednesday, Colombia's defense minister announced that military intelligence agents, by infiltrating the guerrilla ranks, had tricked the rebels into giving up Ms. Betancourt and 14 other prisoners without a single injury. Among those freed were the longest-held American hostages in the world, three Pentagon contractors captured in 2003 when their drug surveillance plane went down. But Ms. Betancourt -- a minor presidential candidate when she was abducted in 2002 -- is the headline name. As reporter Jose de Cordoba described in a Page One story last month, Ms. Betancourt, who holds dual Colombian and French citizenship, had become the face of the hundreds of FARC captives and their heart-breaking suffering. In Europe, she is so famous that she is simply known as "Ingrid." Her portrait hangs on the facade of the Paris city hall and in Milan's main piazza, and across the world, more than 1,000 cities and towns have declared her an honorary citizen.

Tags: ingrid betancourt, farc hostage, president alvaro uribe, columbia military intelligence agents

McCain vs. Obama On National Security

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:31:41 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: that espouses the destruction of the State of Israel as its fondest wish and pledges undying enmity to the United States to possess the weapons to advance their malevolent ambitions." He also rejects "unconditional dialogues" with Iran.

Obama has delivered messages on Iran that were more mixed. But that only makes diplomacy more important. If we must use military force, we are more likely to succeed, and will have far greater support at home and abroad, if we have exhausted our diplomatic efforts." In the same speech, however, Obama promised: "aggressive, principled diplomacy without self-defeating preconditions....Obama missed a vote on a controversial amendment offered by Sen. Jon Kyl and Lieberman that proposed labeling Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Obama called the amendment a repeat of the mistakes that led to war in Iraq; however, he had cosponsored an earlier bill declaring the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization

Clip Source: newsblaze.com

IRAQ WAR

John McCain cosponsored the 2002 vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq, arguing at the time that Saddam Hussein was "a threat of the first order." Although he was a vehement critic of the administration's "mismanagement and failure" during the early war years, he advocated the surge of additional troops to Iraq and the need to stay as long as necessary to win the war.

In 2002, when he was an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama opposed the war. However, after he was elected to the U.S. Senate, he voted against early proposals by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and others to set a timetable for withdrawal; now Obama votes consistently in favor of establishing a timetable. Obama's plan for exiting Iraq would send home one or two combat brigades a month, with most combat troops out by the end of 2009.

IRAN POLICY

McCain has been clear about his position on Iran. In February 2008, he told an audience: "I intend to make unmistakably clear to Iran we will not permit a government

Tags: mccain, obama, iraq, iran, missile defense, nuclear weapons, north korea, guantanamo bay

Flooding Spurs Ethanol Backlash

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:01:36 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: But others remain strongly in support of biofuels.

"Abandoning our commitment to ethanol and biofuels, as some would suggest we do, would do nothing to provide meaningful relief from high grain prices today or in the future," said Bob Dineen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association. "It would absolutely force the price of gas through the roof and require the import of more record-high foreign oil."

Clip Source: www.upi.com

New federal energy regulations call for increased production of ethanol in an effort to limit dependence on foreign oil. But already the rise in corn prices, with final damages from flooding still to be assessed, has created a backlash against biofuels, The Detroit News reported Monday.

Railway cars and the remains of the span of the Sutliff railway bridge lie in the Cedar River June 22, 2008, after flooding collapsed the bridge in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 10 days ago. Floodwaters have receded enough to begin to asses the damage. (UPI Photo/Mark Cowan)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry in April cited steep increases in cattle feed prices while asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to cut in half its 2008 mandate of 9 billion gallons of biofuels this year. More recently, 24 Republican senators, including presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain, also noted the rise in food prices in asking the EPA to revisit the regulation.

Tags: midwest flooding, crop loss, ethanol, biofuels, cattle feed, epa, republican senators

McCain's Staff And The Equal-Pay Facts

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:48:02 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: During his Albuquerque speech, Obama criticized McCain for supporting the Supreme Court ruling on the pay-equity issue.

Clip Source: www.cnsnews.com

That is in contrast to Republican presidential candidate John McCain's Senate office, where women, for the most part, out-rank and are paid more than men.

McCain, an Arizona senator, employed a total of 69 people during the reporting period ending in the fall of 2007, but 23 of them were interns. Of his non-intern employees, 30 were women and 16 were men. After excluding interns, the average pay for the 30 women on McCain's staff was $59,104.51. The 16 non-intern males in McCain's office, by comparison, were paid an average of $56,628.83.

The Obama campaign did not respond to written questions submitted on the matter Thursday by Cybercast News Service .

Tags: john mccain, women equal pay, obama

Obama's "Equal Pay" For Women [Not So Much]

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:39:19 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The average pay for the 33 men on Obama's staff (who earned more than $23,000, the lowest annual salary paid for non-intern employees) was $59,207. The average pay for the 31 women on Obama's staff who earned more than $23,000 per year was $48,729.91. (The average pay for all 36 male employees on Obama's staff was $55,962; and the average pay for all 31 female employees was $48,729. The report indicated that Obama had only one paid intern during the period, who was a male.)

Clip Source: www.cnsnews.com

While Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has vowed to make pay equity for women a top priority if elected president, an analysis of his Senate staff shows that women are outnumbered and out-paid by men.

"Mr. McCain is an honorable man, we respect his service. But when you look at our records and our plans on issues that matter to working women, the choice could not be clearer," Obama told the audience in New Mexico, a voter-swing state. "It starts with equal pay.

On average, women working in Obama's Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator. That's according to data calculated from the Report of the Secretary of the Senate, which covered the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2007. Of the five people in Obama's Senate office who were paid $100,000 or more on an annual basis, only one -- Obama's administrative manager -- was a woman.

Tags: obama, women, identity politics, equal pay

McCain I Am

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:14:00 GMT

clipped by: missjackson

Clip Source: www.floppingaces.net

In this tale, the classic “Green Eggs and Ham” has been adapted with the title “McCain I Am.”

Here’s a taste:

MCCAIN I AM: Will you debate me? Will you please? How about we do it on TV?

OBAMA: I will not debate you on TV. I will not debate you in a tree. I will not debate here or there. I will not debate you anywhere. I will dodge and I will weave, but I will not open my mouth and watch my supporters leave. I will not debate you now or later. I won’t debate you in an elevator.

And Coming Soon:

Dr. Seuss: The Amazing Obama Flip Flop Machine

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:11:11 GMT

clipped by: missjackson
clipper's remarks: McCain’s still trying to get some traction. But when he points to my lies, I just call it a “distraction.”

I laugh and I smile and charm the voters relentless. And in November, I hope they’re defenseless.

If I con enough voters before they catch on, I’ll have a big party on the White House lawn.

Clip Source: www.floppingaces.net

The Amazing Obama Flip Flop Machine
When I ran in Ohio I said I’d can NAFTA. Now that I won, I really don’t hafta.

Gun control was the rule when I ran in DC. Now I think guns are totally cool.

I pledged to support campaign finance restrictions. But that went like some of my other great fictions.

I could not disown Rev. Wright at first. But later I learned there were more votes in the reverse.

A FISA filibuster was high on my list. Now, I think I’d rather desist.

I said I would debate anytime, anywhere. But my advisers think I’d better not dare.

I count on my minions, the Obama supporters, they get so confused yet still give their quarters.

Not a flinch. Not a flicker. Not a hint of shame. It’s all part of playing the Obama game.

If there’s an issue you can bet I will try it: on both sides at once and voters will buy it.

You’ve watched me spin and now you are dizzy. But I don’t really care if you’re in a tizzy.

So many lies and all my jive. McCain can’t stop me, he’s like a hundred and five.

It's All About Obama

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:11:17 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Americans overwhelmingly find it a hopeful, optimistic sign that the country could elect an African-American president. But they rightly want to know what kind of leader he might be. They may well reject as cynical any maneuver to discourage close examination of him by suggesting any criticism is racially motivated.

The candidate's self-centeredness has been on display before. Having effectively sewed up the Democratic nomination, he could have agreed to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations (states Hillary Clinton had carried). While reducing his lead by 50 to 55 delegates, it would not have altered the outcome. But Mr. Obama supported cutting these battleground-state delegations in half. At a time when magnanimity was called for, the candidate decided he'd strut.

In a contest over who is willing to put principle above personal ambition and self-interest, John McCain, a war hero and a former POW, wins hands down.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Last month he replied "anywhere, anytime" to John McCain's invitation to have joint town hall appearances. Last week he changed his mind. Fearing 10 impromptu town halls, Mr. Obama parried the invitation by offering two such events – one the night of July 4, when every ambulatory American is watching fireworks or munching hotdogs, and another in August. His spokesman then said, "Take it or leave it." So much for "anywhere, anytime."

My former White House colleague Yuval Levin pointed out that Mr. Obama, in his first national TV ad rolled out Friday, claims credit for having "extended health care for wounded troops," citing the 2008 defense authorization. That bill passed 91-3 – but Mr. Obama was one of only six senators who didn't show up to vote. This brazen claim underscores the candidate's thin résumé and, again, his chutzpah.

Mr. Obama has now also played the race card, twice suggesting in recent weeks that Republicans will draw attention to the fact that he's black

Tags: obama, clinton, mccain, wounded warriors health bill, race card, townhall debates

You Can't Fool All of the People All of the Time

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:32:11 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Instead of Drill! Drill! Drill!, their motto could be: Kill! Kill! Kill!

In response to skyrocketing gas prices, liberals say, practically in unison, "We can't drill our way out of this crisis."

What does it mean? Finding more oil isn't going to increase the supply of oil?

It is the typical Democratic strategy to babble meaningless slogans, as if they have a plan. Their plan is: the permanent twilight of the human race.

Liberals complain that -- as Obama put it -- there's "no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you are looking at five years or more down the road."This is as opposed to airplanes that run on woodchips, which should be up and running any moment now.

Clinton proposed a 26-cent tax on gas. John Kerry said it should be 50 cents. Gore endorsed the Malthusian proposal of Paul and Anne Ehrlich in "The Population Explosion"
[t]hat taxes gas gradually

Clip Source: www.humanevents.com

Say, you know what we need? We need a class of people paid to anticipate national crises and plan solutions in advance.

If only we had had such a group -- let's call them "elected representatives" -- they could have proposed drilling five years ago!

But of course we do pay people to anticipate national problems and propose solutions. Some of them -- we'll call them Republicans -- did anticipate high gas prices and propose solutions.

Six long years ago President Bush had the foresight to demand that Congress allow drilling in a minuscule portion of the Alaska's barren, uninhabitable Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In 2002, Bush, Tom DeLay and the entire Republican Party were screaming from the rooftops: Drill! Drill! Drill!

We'd be gushing oil now -- except the Democrats stopped us from drilling.

The other party -- plus John McCain -- ferociously opposed drilling in ANWR, drilling offshore or drilling anyplace else.

Tags: oil, domestic production, anwr, congress, exploration restrictions, obama, carter, clinton, al gore, paul ehrlich

A Trifecta Of Gaffes Has Obama Taking Heat

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:37:41 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: By laughing not with, but at, Obama the mainstream media again demonstrated the type of emotional distance one might almost mistake for journalistic independence. (Conservative pundits have been mocking Obama’s elite iconography for some time.)

For patriotic Americans holding traditional value this was a bit of civic blasphemy.The presumptuousness was only outdone by the lack of reverence for existing symbols of the U.S.

Obama played the race card - loudly and blatantly. He suggested, with no evidence whatsoever, that Republicans were pointing to his race as a reason to question his fitness for the presidency. That tactic seemed further evidence that his effort to minimize race are over and he now intends to use race as a sword to attack his Republican opponent. It however is a potentially dangerous strategy, certain to turn off some segment of white voters who do not want to be bludgeoned by racial politics.

Here Obama has done what weeks of McCain ads and speeches could not

Clip Source: pajamasmedia.com

Barack Obama is endangering his status as the media darling of the 2008 presidential campaign. In fact, he has been the villain in the campaign story over the last few days.

The trigger for the downward slide was his decision to abandon public financing.

To make matters worse he concocted a false and misleading, indeed an “operatic” explanation that those mean Republicans forced him to take private money.

And for once, the media joined in the Obama-bashing and perhaps was even harsher.

In short, the campaign finance move exposed the Great and Powerful Oz as an ordinary man behind that curtain.

Clip Source: pajamasmedia.com

The second incident was comical but telling. Obama had a faux seal of the U.S. — a knock off of the Great Seal — constructed for his benefit.

Never have they questioned or examined the messiah-complex which envelops the Obama movement. Certainly, they have not seriously examined the arrogance of a man who knows so little but claims such grand wisdom.

Tags: obama, campaign finance, faux great seal, race card, mccain

A Clear Majority Of Americans Want To Drill Here

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:11:49 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Al Gore, philanthropist, Climate activist, and winner of the Nobel Peace prize, is the single greatest advocate in the war against humanity. Millions of innocent lives, people whose only crime is being poor. We need to protect not only others wellbeing, but our own freedoms, our own rights. We need to defend ourselves from Eco-Terrorist ideas, perpetuated by cheap theatrics and scaremongering. We need to defend ourselves against Eco Evangelist Al Gore.

Energy Independence: President Bush asks Congress to lift the 1981 drilling ban on offshore oil. The no-drill Democrats will call it flip-flopping. We call it change you can believe in.

The Democratic response to Republican determination to end our dependence on foreign oil has been to call for more taxes on oil companies and to pressure, even sue, OPEC. A group of 10 Democratic senators on Tuesday called for Bush to file a complaint against OPEC.

http://www.smartgreenusa.com/

Clip Source: www.smartgreenusa.com

Good energy policy is easy to distinguish from bad energy policy: Good policy leads to more supplies of affordable energy, and bad policy leads to less. The recently rejected American Energy Production Act of 2008 (S. 2958), sponsored by Senator Mitch McConnell R–KY), sought for the most part to make it easier to access domestic energy supplies by undoing past constraints, including restrictions on domestic oil production.

Though intended to help consumers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the ethanol mandate has done just the opposite, contributing to high food and gas prices with little environmental benefit. Representative Jeff Flake (R–AZ) has introduced H.R. 5911, the Remove Incentives for Producing Ethanol Act of 2008, which would eliminate the mandate and other benefits for ethanol, and other measures may soon be introduced.

Heritage Foundation Condemns Bush Administration's Polar Bear Decision

Gore Financially Invested in Climate Cause

Exposing Eco Hysteria!

Tags: energy independence, lower gasoline prices, sen. mcconnell, sen. mccain

Obama throws campaign seal under the bus.

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:59:43 GMT

clipped by: Smoke TNT
clipper's remarks: It's got to be crowded under their with his grandma, preacher, church, terrorist pals, etc...

Clip Source: moonbattery.com

Actually on the level.

At last the Obamessiah has been laughed into abandoning his pompous pseudo-presidential seal:

Journalists said the seal, which features an eagle clutching arrows and an olive branch, smacks of arrogance. John McCain's camp had a field day, calling the seal "laughable, ridiculous, preposterous and revealing — all at the same time."

The seal was conspicuously missing from Obama's lectern when he spoke to a group of women in Albuquerque on Monday. Not surprising, given how much grief Obama took from a normally laudatory press corps after unveiling the seal at an appearance in Chicago on Friday.

"What a bizarre and dumb idea," railed NBC political director Chuck Todd. "It really feeds the arrogance narrative."

By now we know that Snobama's arrogance narrative doesn't need feeding. But he's got to have some kind of seal, to help his cult pretend he's a grownup. Right Wing News offers a few possibilities, including these:

Tags: obama