Ghost-Writers for McCain

"I spent a morning in John McCain's Virginia campaign headquarters ghost-writing letters to the editor for McCain supporters to sign. I even pretended to have a son in Iraq."
Check out another one of the lie tactics we are up against.
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/I_ghost_wrote_letters_to_the_editor_for_the_McCain_campaign?OTC-em-sh2

John McCain's 10 Houses - Elitist & Out of Touch!

I received this email from Robert Greenwld and The Brave New Team. It is definitely worth passing along!
"Most working families today do not have homes that have anywhere near ten rooms. John McCain has ten houses. Many working people in America have to work two and three jobs to provide for their families and pay their car loans. John McCain hops on a private jet. Is it any wonder why McCain champions a George Bush agenda of cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy, helping oil companies turn record profits, and leaving working families to fend for themselves? McCain's velvet world leaves him utterly unprepared to make the tough choices we need to restore the middle class and ensure that everyone in America has quality, affordable health insurance."
- Andy Stern, President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Dear Donna,
John McCain is soaring to new heights of hypocrisy on his wife's personal jet. He flies around the country bent on duping the public into believing he's "one of them," a regular guy who can empathize with Americans facing an overwhelming economic crush. What's more, he disparages those who oppose his ridiculous policy proposals as "elitist." But who's the real elitist?

The REAL McCain is a multimillionaire who owns ten luxurious homes. The REAL McCain backs President Bush's tax cuts for big corporations. The REAL McCain empathizes only with the interests of our nation's wealthy minority, not its money-strapped majority. But far too many are buying into McCain's deceit because the corporate press won't present the whole picture, so we created this video to educate the public about the REAL McCain.

Watch the video and send it to everyone you know.

Together, you have been a force in making sure The REAL McCain videos have been seen by nearly 6.5 million people. But as Frank Rich noted in his NY Times column yesterday, 40% of Americans hear too little about McCain from the mainstream media, meaning "the public doesn't know who on earth John McCain is." That's why it's crucial you ensure this video is seen by as many as possible, and that we use each and every tool at our disposal to get the word out. Send this on to five friends and family members, and tell them to send it to five people they know. Get it to your local news outlets and blogs and networking sites like Digg. Raise hell about McCain's economic duplicity!

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney summed it up best when he said McCain "simply doesn't understand the challenges America's working families are facing because he isn't remotely affected by them." It's up to us to tell people who McCain really is, a jet-setting elitist more concerned with corporate lobbyists than hard-working Americans.

Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New team

McCain's cross in the sand story...PLAGIARIZED?

Last night at the Saddleback Forum, McCain emotionally reitterated his story about the cross in the sand drawn by a guard while he was captured in Vietnam.
The camera panned to a sympathetic Cindy McCain as the Evangelists cheered. But today all across the blogosphere and even in the Huffington Post, his story is decried as plagiarism from an Andrew Solzhenitsyn account of a too similar experience while he was detained in a Soviet camp. It just so happens that McCain is a great fan of Solzhenitsyn (maybe he thought his base wouldn't be intellectual enough to have read any Solzhenitsyn). Politics as usual - a little more serious that the Hillary sniper fire story - a lot more serious than the Cindy McCain recipe plagiarism. :>) But McCain sould be called on it.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/17/122230/161/239/569299 Long story short. In 1973, a russian author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, wrote about his time in in the book "The Gulag Archipelago" and relayed exactly the same story.

From the book:

"As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.
As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible."

There is a nice long excerpt from John McCain's book "Hard Call: The Art of Great Decisions " released in 2005, reprinted in the NY Sun, about what a big fan he is of Alexander Solzhenitsyn writings...

We all keep repeating how we respect and appreciate John McCain's service to our country as a captive (although you really should check out the information about the other part of his naval career - a good place to start is at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-klein/mccains-secret-questionab_b_107409.html, but we expect the truth from a man who now is running for our President.

McCain's False Tax Attack

Could Georgia Conflict Have Been Prevented?

Pictures: Reuters(L) & AP(R)

I've been listening to CNN all morning (MSNBC's political coverage not on due to Oympic coverage). Maybe its too soon to start being critical of the United States' foreign policy in regard to Georgia & Russia, but President Mikhail Saakashvili is quite angry and disappointed in the United States' lack of support. Since the violence began, I've read articles from 6 of the major papers nationwide, and the general feeling is that the U.S. has led the Georgian government to believe they would not be alone in defending their democracy against Russia. Now maybe that means diplomatic measures or pressure through sanctions or whatever, but I don't think that's what the Georgian president expected. The truth of the matter is that the U.S. has let this situation simmer the past few years, concentrating only on Iraq, and took its eye off of Russia who has been escalating its military strength and its power as a nation that could affect all of Europe eventually. Russia's attack (they call it punishment as if Georgia is a naughty child) on Georgia is a message to all, and especially the U.S., that Russia is back. They are flexing their military power and showing the world that they will not tolerate Democratic influence in their part of the world.

And then we have John McCain calling President Saakashvili and speaking for all Americans (his words) saying, "We are all Georgians today!. Yesterday the Georgian president even happily mentioned McCains' message in a rally. Today he disappointedly said that what McCain said was only words and that it should be backed up with action. WHAT IS MCCAIN THINKING? After accusing Obama for acting presidential before he is even elected, McCain is doing the very same thing! And he has used this horrendous situation for his own political gain. If McCain had the power, I think he would be planning to send troops to Georgia (maybe he could roundup some boyscouts or retired military since even our National Guard is already in Iraq and Afghanistan).

Well, President Bush will be speaking within the hour about this very situation. I'm sure he will be offering help for the rebuilding of Georgia, humanitarian aid for its people, and tough words for the Russians. Once more, our country is reactive to something that possibly could have been prevented (9/11).

Does anyone else share my feelings?

Below is a report from the associated press:

Key numbers from the Georgia-Russia conflict

By The Associated Press – 18 hours ago

LENGTH OF WAR: Six days of fighting in Georgia and two separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abhkazia, from Aug. 7 through Aug. 12 before a cease-fire was declared by Russia.

MILITARY: Russia has 1.1 million soldiers, Georgia has 37,000. The Russian armed forces have about 6,000 tanks and some 1,700 combat aircraft. Georgia has 230 tanks and 12 combat aircraft.

_ Russia sent 20,000 troops and 500 tanks into Georgia, according to the Georgian president. In Abhkazia alone, Russia estimated it had at least 9,000 troops and 350 armored vehicles.

_ The U.S. helped Georgia bring about 2,000 Georgian troops from Iraq during the fighting.

DEATH TOLL: About 2,000 people, most of them with Russian passports, were killed in South Ossetia as of Aug. 12, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Georgia's Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili said more than 100 Georgians died, including civilians and soldiers.

DISPLACED: The U.N. Refugee Agency estimates almost 100,000 people were displaced, according to figures provided by both governments. Georgian officials say a few thousand fled south into Georgia proper from South Ossetia, and up to 12,000 were estimated to be displaced within South Ossetia. Russian officials in North Ossetia suggest 30,000 people from South Ossetia remain in Russia.

OIL: Two pipelines were shut down. British energy group BP said Aug. 12 that it closed a pipeline in Georgia carrying "a limited amount" of gas and oil because of the conflict. Another pipeline operated by the London-based oil company in Georgia was out of action after a fire last week in Turkey.

MILITARY BASES: Russia seized a Georgian military base in the town of Senaki. At least four other Georgian air bases were bombed, including a base on the outskirts of Gori, the Vaziani military base on the outskirts of Tbilisi, the Marneuli air base, and another base in Bolnisi.

TOWNS HIT: Tskhinvali, Zugdidi, Senaki.

AMERICANS EVACUATED: More than 170 American citizens evacuated from Georgia to Armenia by the U.S. State Department.

JOURNALISTS KILLED: Three. Dutch TV correspondent Stan Storimans, and photojournalists Alexander Klimchuk and Grigol Chikhladze of Caucasus Images, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists. The group reported at least eight journalists were injured and two were missing.

WAR PRISONERS: The International Committee of the Red Cross said they visited two wounded Russian pilots detained by Georgian authorities.

___

Sources: AP reporting and UNHCR - http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/48a15c0d2.html

Compiled by AP's News Research Center.

The McCainoPot Calling the Kettle Black

Nine Houses & $520 Shoes?

Carol McCain & Children Praying for John in Vietnam

Everyone agrees that this election is Barack Obama's to win after 8 years of the Bush catastophe, the poor economy, the energy crisis, and the War in Iraq. So why are the polls so close? Why can't Barack break that magic 50%? Political pundits and the McCain campaign say its because we just don't know enough about Barack Obama. That he is exotic, not like one of us. That he hasn't been around long enough for us to know well.
Well, WHAT DO THEY WANT? Obama has written two biographical books, has repeated his life story over and over on the air and on a biographical tour across the country. I can repeat intimate details about he and his grandfather watching the astronauts land in the ocean, and his grandmother feeding him jello with grape halves. I've seen pictures of him as a small boy, of his mother and father and grandparents, of Barack at Harvard, of Barack as an organizer on the streets of Chicago, and on and on and on. And, "exotic"? I say "experienced" in life.
Why aren't we talking about McCain in this way? Why aren't we talking about his NINE houses, his $520 shoes, and the fact that his judgement wasn't so hot when he cheated on and then left his first wife and three children for a model and beer heiress named Cindy who was almost 20 years younger than he?(Scroll down to read my July 18th blog on THAT event in John McCain's life.)
Barack Obama said he would never smear Cindy McCain the way that the McCain campaign did to Michelle. Maybe its up to the rest of us to fight fire with the truth.
Rachel Maddow argues these points in the following video on Race for the Whitehouse yesterday.