zed

did ya see chumpy hangin on to McVain at Huffpo?

*sigh*

Hi Eli!

Nooo. Was this from before or after this story broke?

true love,and hi Eli

http://images.huffingtonpost.c…..-large.jpg

Hi, Elliott!

Hi! Wow, that’s all kind of creepy. Dubya really has a thing for inappropriately possessive body language.

(And this is spoken by someone who is spectacularly oblivious to body language)

Please keep it up. Big earmarks story on Moyers. Coincidence?

Heh. I was expecting all the comments to be, “Ohjeez, not *another* McCain post”…

i kinda have a theme song for them ,hope you like it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..re=related

(In my defense, this is my first post since the story broke, so I’ve been chomping at the bit for a while now.)

Not “Who’s Johnny?”

2 part harmony

http://www.truthdig.com/images…..ug_300.jpg

Ivory… and ivory…

Editorial in the local paper which endorsed McCain in tne primary saying hsi actions don’t match his rhetoric. If we beat this particular story to death, people will get sick of it. But this should be a recurring theme from now until election day.

hahahahahahahahaha,you funny
and then there is this
oh my…….
http://images.google.com/imgre…..n%26sa%3DN

This story is an opening for the dem nominee to attack McBush where he pretends to live- honor. If the straight talk expresser ain’t straight- well then he’s NOTHING.

If McCain *really* wants to get him some good Bush lovin’, he should shave his head. Dubya has a freaky thing for bulletheads.

What my friend? It’s an honorable post. I look forward to more.

eli – i wasn’t comfortable with the nyt story either. it wasn’t just wingnuts.

EXACTLY. It’s his whole appeal. If he’s exposed as Just Another Republican, he’s toast.

I’m satisfied with the post, I was just a little worried that there might be McCain fatigue by now.

Snuggles McCain.

Time to uncover every piece of business McBush has conducted with a lobbyist for the past twenty years or so- monkey business or otherwise- and cram it down his throat.

Well, my point is that “Did McCain have an affair with a lobbyist OMG?” is not the sum total of that story. You can take that piece of it completely out and it’s *still* pretty damning. But what the Republicans want to do is use that piece to invalidate the whole thing, including the legitimately, unquestionably damning parts.

mccain fatigue, yes.
eli fatigue, no.

The NYT story was a story about doin favors for a lobbyist- who happened to be an attractive woman 30 years younger than McBush. Did they have sex? Who knows, but he DID do favors for this woman and her clients that were inappropriate. Was it for money, sex, or power? Beats me. Does it matter?

Aw, shucks. You’re too kind.

Anyway, I’ve had McCain on the brain since it broke and I *had* to get it out of my system. I don’t think I could have written about anything else, except maybe a quickie asking whether Katherine Harris would be allowed conjugal visits with Rick Renzi…

he is very much like his pal chumpy….cept he married the money…he does not seem to be the sharpest ice pick in the toolbox

OT. Patty Murry is being crucified for earmarks and putting really major crap into the congressional budget for campaign gifts right now on PBS. Man it looks like she is the worst.

Yes; he was in bed with her figuratively, it doesn’t really matter whether he was there literally too.

just a drive by…

Rather
Shuster
and now NYT

seems like the journalists get swiftboated now…

I disagree with Greenwald’s take on this story (”It shouldn’t have been published, at least not in that form”). It’s perfectly appropriate to report this stuff – even if it is unclear what happened – because it comes from such an important close adviser.

Can you imagine having this info and NOT publishing it? What would we think of the Times then? We’d all be outraged.

Great work Eli, thanks.

Limbaugh, conveniently omitted that Drudge published most of this in December. Pills then went on to say that he hoped St. John would learn his lesson, about the New York Times and “who his friends are.“

I hope the New York Times learned their lesson too, about who their friends are.

i think the damning part was mccain’s response to the article.

here’s glenn take (which makes sense to me):

I agree completely with Greg Sargent, the editor of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and many other McCain critics that the NYT’s story on McCain yesterday was extremely poor journalism — filled with unsubstantiated irrelevancies (his alleged affair with a lobbyist) and, where relevant (McCain’s intervention on behalf of Paxson), composed exclusively of long-disclosed news to which the story added nothing new. It shouldn’t have been published, at least not in that form.

But what is significant is the seriously misleading statements that McCain made when denying key parts of the NYT story.

People Will Say We’re in Love

That’s it in a nutshell.

“It’s the corruption, stupid.”

ah, well.

He is probably dumber than Bush according to a gooper I know who has worked with him—it was no accident that he barely got out of Annapolis 6th worst academic record in his class.

Why do the goopers always give us dumbies?

More easily manipulated?

i better call it a night. i’m way over my quota for pissing people off this week.

later pups.

Predictably, the conservative response is that there’s no proof that McCain had an affair, and it’s all innuendo based on anonymous sources. Yes, it’s true that there’s no proof of an affair, but the NYT never claimed that there was an affair, merely that McCain’s aides were spooked by the appearance of impropriety.

and in fact, we have flips in mccains votes that miraculously favor this women

this is not a sex thing, it’s a bribery thing, mccain is selling our law, he’s taking law from you and me and selling it for a few thousand bucks to mega industry

Absolutely not.

This is about the fire sale of American government. To mix metaphors the Vichy Democrats are almost as deeply in bed with K Street as the Republicans. Vicki and St. John are simply the metaphor.

Could be- but there hasn’t been a gooper with a brain in the White House since Nixon.

Nobody is talking about whether McCain is the final nominee. Any chance Huck could gain the vote? Any chance the Mitt will come back in? Either I’m stupid and missing a huge piece of news, or nobody is addressing this.

How do you know that all this is true about McBush?

He is a politician from Arizona… On the day Renzi indicted on 35 counts which if you review the RICO laws…. that one should be thrown in too… On the day that former Gov Mecham died who was impeached in 1988… Where Rep Colbe who was implicated in the Mark Foley Congressional Page scandal… JD Hayworth and Shadegg and then there is Gov Fife Symington who was convicted of fraud and had to resign.

Yep…. great bunch of folks these AZ Repug ….

I don’t see any way McCain can lose the nomination unless his delegates revolt.

And my first thoughts from reading the first couple of graphs here has to do with what 60 min. is planning on showing this coming Sun. I sure hope that both they and we will be ready to push back hard against the wingnut fury that is sure to be unleashed.

In a report published Monday, the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania detailed its findings of a four month study of the intelligence quotient of President George W. Bush. Since 1973, the Lovenstein Institute has published it’s research to the education community on each new president, which includes the famous “IQ” report among others.

According to statements in the report, there have been twelve presidents over the past 50 years, from F. D. Roosevelt to G. W. Bush who were all rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they alone produced without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several other psychological factors which were then scored in the Swanson/Crain system of intelligence ranking.

The study determined the following IQs of each president as accurate to within five percentage points:

147 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)
132 Harry Truman (D)
122 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
174 John F. Kennedy (D)
126 Lyndon B. Johnson (D)
155 Richard M. Nixon (R)
121 Gerald Ford (R)
175 James E. Carter (D)
105 Ronald Reagan (R)
098 George HW Bush (R)
182 William J. Clinton (D)
091 George W. Bush (R)

The six Republican presidents of the past 50 years had an average IQ of 115.5, with President Nixon having the highest IQ, at 155.

President G. W. Bush was rated the lowest of all the Republicans with an IQ
of 91. The six Democrat presidents had IQs with an average of 156, with
President Clinton having the highest IQ, at 182. President Lyndon B.
Johnson was rated the lowest of all the Democrats with an IQ of 126.

No president other than Carter (D) has released his actual IQ, 176.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh gawwwwwwwwwd,those 2 killed off every brain cell they were born with before they hit 25

On the other hand, I guess there might be a scenario where Romney gets back in the race and sweeps the remaining primaries. The fact that the Republican primaries are winner-take-all would be a big help there, but I still think it’s a pretty slim chance.

yup and for no fukkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkin reason what so ever gasoline is up 25% here in 2 weeks

Think there was trouble at a refinery.

It could also be a function of the Republican primaries, that maybe Republicans don’t like voting for know-it-all college boys.

rwcole said:

The NYT story was a story about doin favors for a lobbyist- who happened to be an attractive woman 30 years younger than McBush. Did they have sex? Who knows, but he DID do favors for this woman and her clients that were inappropriate. Was it for money, sex, or power? Beats me. Does it matter?

The U PA law professor who was early on on MSNBC called it an article about “moral hubris.” That would cover power, corruption, cozy-crony relationships.

We Sunshines have dubbed it “Old Goatitis.” Not a flattering image of one used to preening like a peacock. [yes, I did consider that metaphor]

That’s a pretty good guess.

I have to say this is a rare moment where I disagree with Glenn.

The story — well documented by the NYT I think — is that the McCain team was worried that a lobbyist (who happened to be a woman McCain was taking to events and riding on planes with) was running around DC saying that she could influence McCain. In fact, there was evidence that she had done so (Paxson letters). They were worried this story could damage his “straight talk” campaign, enough so that they attempted to block her from seeing him.

People read that and decided it was a sex story and criticized it because it didn’t have good sourcing on their relationship. I don’t think that is the story, but it’s definitely an inference that people are going to make given the way his staff responded in the aftermath.

wow Poppy 105…apple not far from said rotten tree

Think there was trouble at a refinery.

The forkers are still refining the best way to continue the looting of the treasury.

“I did not peddle influence for that woman.”

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,guess Darth had Blackwater do a little industrial espionage

So…interesting timing on the NYT article again.

I’m thinking the NYT put out just a little bit, and is giving McCain a chance to own up and shut up. He won’t, of course, and soon the Times puts more…and more…

Like little kids. You want to make this more difficult?…

oh my bad Poppy only had 98,Saint Ronnie was 105…on his best 2days put together,perhaps

I strongly agree with Greenwald and have been saying since the story broke that it really pisses me off. It was extremely irresponsible. The sex angle should have been completely removed. It’s National Enquirer level garbage that overshadowed the corruption angle.

Oh, I hope so. Josh Marshall thinks they have more:

I find it very difficult to believe that the Times would have put their chin so far out on this story if they didn’t know a lot more than they felt they could put in the article, at least on the first go.

sadly that’s the way my spouse saw/read it and he’s pretty smart. It’s going to take more work for us all to point to the real story and that won’t go mainstream unless the MSM looks beyond their fascination with all things “moral” meaning bedroom and fleshes out the real story so that joe sixpack can get it.

You can tell the Bushes are dumb as fence posts. I am not surprised by the study.

that would be just incredibly stooooooooooooopit

Yeah, I’m not sure I buy all of those. I really don’t think Poppy is *stupid*, and 98 is below average by definition. Hell, I think even Dubya isn’t completely stupid – just not nearly smart enough to be president.

OMG. 91 sounds like an absolutely correct IQ for W. He can function minimally, but only with help from loyals on academic issues.

He doesn’t show a sense of appropriate social behavior. He doesn’t keep up on US or world affairs, as far as I can tell. No curiosity…

Fits.

I still find a lot of the public reading the wrong part of this story and disregarding it entirely.

What I think is happening, is that this NYTimes piece is being analyzed by others, or soundbited, or responded by McCain staff on only this selected piece. The entire focus (not from NYTimes, but from others looking at this article) is on the alleged affair.

I understand that a lot of people are somewhat upset about these things happening at election time, because they seem so manufactured, or, like this story was just -waiting- until the perfect time to be ‘released’. To those who don’t have time to get buried in the details, it looks like a well timed political attack, and people are sick of that sort of thing these days. Therefore, they disregard the entire story as a sham, as an attack. And McCain and his staff do the same. CNN had a poll a coupla days on their website along the lines of ‘Is the NYTimes article about McCain good journalism, or a smear?’ 70 percent of the respondants said ’smear’.

It’s regrettable, because the NYTimes article is more than this one detail. I hope the rest of this doesn’t get buried with Iseman. I’m thankful FDL and the community here is able to discuss this without falling into the same pits that others are. It helps me explain to friends and family what is actually going on. It helps me explain that John McCain is not the straight-talking maverick washington outsider his humongous PR is trying to make him out to be.

On another blog I post at, this story came up a day or so ago. Even though 70-90 percent of the posters can be identified as Democratic voters (based on support of Obama), I was stunned that everyone focused on the alleged affair, and completely dismissed McCain’s elbow-rubbing with big lobbyists. I was stunned that everyone thought it was just a nasty tactic, a smear. Just another sex affair from a politician. Just another political attack.

Sooooooo…..It’s important to get the word out there. Even democratic voters are turned off by this NYTimes article, and that is a big problem.

Regan was another dim bulb.

McVain will be there at the bottom of the list if the ever rate him.

Howie says that Cindy McCain is the one who put the ban on Iseman being around St. John. There are no doubt details of that kind (if not that one specifically) that got lawyered out of the piece that might make it a little more — dare I say? — fleshed out.

Seems like she would understand this modus operandi

W sadly has few neurons left from cocaine coupled with alcohol abuse the combo creates a powerful cynergy….he is barely eeking his way about…Poppy seems just average,slow on the uptake…Prescott prolly was th eone with the brains and chutspah

There is that…

I didn’t have time or space to get into it, but one of the troubling aspects of the National Guard story is that it smelled like a setup by senior management – the same CBS exec who tried to prevent the report from airing also insisted on personally taking charge of vetting the Killian memos, and of course did an incredibly piss-poor job.

So the question is, was the NYT story designed for the same purpose? To tie legitimate issues with McCain to something questionable, thus discrediting the legit along with the dodgy?

I don’t trust the NYT a whole bunch, but I’m not sure they’re *that* devious.

That sounds right and I’ll bet Cindy didn’t mention it to St. John. She just screamed and yelled at his staff to do it.

Alas.

When speaking off the cuff, Dubya *does* tend to sound like an eight-grader trying to fake his way through a book report on something he didn’t read.

The funny thing is, he always thinks he’s gotten away with it and he’s got all of us dumb rubes fooled.

Not “Who’s Johnny?”

Why not, He’d be Number 5…! *g*

wow Poppy 105…apple not far from said rotten tree

So, when they say Jeb’s the smart one in the family, what are they saying? IQ of 106?

If your’s didn’t break the century mark, would you release your IQ score… I truly think McCain’s is below even Shrub’s 91…!

(Henry Rollins has a funny bit about Dubya, that just before he goes off-script he cocks his head like a trained dog hearing a signal offstage. He says that when he sees that, he knows he’s going to hear something raelly spectacular.)

Henry Rollins is a seriously funny dude. TV Party is a great tune.

I was fortunate to see him live the last couple of times he was in Pittsburgh. Hilarious.

Probably groaned simultaneously! “Follow the phonetic script, damn it!” ;-)

I completely agree with you about the National Guard story. That was classic Rove. Draw CBS into Bush’s greatest weakness and then count on the fact they’d all miss the CSI moment. The date of the letter put it before the time it could have been typed on a word processor.

As far as the straight c*ck express the McCain and Vicki story, are concerned NO ONE, not Democrats and not Republicans wanted the press talking about the “L” word, Lobbyists.

Unfortunately, the MSM depends on all the advertising revenue from elections, so they have a vested interest in eventually dropping this. All it does is educate low information voters about the need to publicly fund elections. That would drive down advertising revenue.

The fact of the matter is, is that John McCain’s campaign is run by lobbyists. As to the possibility of him having an an affair with anybody? I really don’t give a fuck.

CNN’s top story….Hillary’s spending. Waiting to see how they report the McCain story

Or if.

Ohhhh. Juice.

OKK, did you see Coburn’s brief flirtation with reality? Sadly, it was a fleeting affair…! ;-)

Keep the McCain McStories coming as long as needed to keep the real issues in view and to pushback against the wingnuts. This is all happening in the Very Serious Village Kabuki world. So many of the rules and rituals will seem very strange to normal mortals who cook for themselves, work at real jobs, wipe their own…. But the Great High Kabuki Battle for permission to do real reporting on McCain has begun, and the outome is important, even if at times it looks like a ridiculous pile of nonsense.

Seems to be space for the immigration, global warming, Afhgan and Iraq stories in between. The stakes are very high. We have to keep this dangerous man out of the WH.

One nice thing it is demonstrating: the ridiculous double standard that has existed in the corporate press, which turns self-contradictory whirly-gigs on a dime. Heard a Very Serious Pundit roundtable on radio on…

The Grave Danger and Moral Dilemmas of Using Anonymous Sources in News Stories.

Lots of clucking and shaking of heads. Using their mighty opaque and oracular wisdom, they squeezed out the doom that they were not sure taking that great risk was justified for this particular story, therefore it had an obscure inexpressible taint, and perhaps, in some vague sense, it should not be considered too seriously.

Do Tell. Who would ever have thunk that?

Well, not to mention the fact that the media are all pretty much owned by Republicans, and/or giant corporations that benefit from Republican policies…

Notice it seems it’s always male politicians who are accused of having afairs. Are we to believe female politicians are immune to this indescretion?

Maybe they’re just better at being discreet about their indiscretions.

Oddly enough, no-one ever seems to mind when anonymous Republicans plant smears and propaganda, or out covert CIA agents…

Funny, but true.

Lahoma tells me she wants to have an affair. With me. I confess, I’m yielding to temptation.

The sex scandal is just a small part of the HYTimes article, which is about the bigger stuff about Abramoff and lobby improprieties. But ironically because this is America, sex and politics mix is combustive. So if his campaign sinks, which I still believe it will, it’ll be because of that smaller component, instead of the much more substantial one about the bankruptcy (loaded word these days, but hell) of the lobby industry and about his ties to the Abramoff labyrinth, which you need a Blackberry, Palm Pilot, or even Excel to unpack…

Aren’t there too few to have established any sort of track record…? I think there’s still huge shards left in the glass ceiling…

Josh Marshall:

Now the Post has asked Paxson himself, now retired, and he says, Yep, I met with McCain and asked him to write the letters. And he thinks he remembers Iseman being in the meeting too.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/179783.php

Whoops!

Oh no, I’m not sure about that anymore. I listened to these pundits very closely. They were very grave and serious. Deep moral issues were discussed.

Sometimes it is Ok to rely on anonymous paid hacks who spew unverifiable prattle rumor and speculation. It’s all very complicated. I can’t explain it. Very deep.

That poor poor Mr. McCain. Such a nice man, fun to be with. Jokes with me an everything.

Patty Murry

Patty Murray…*g*

It’s certainly another reason why it’s so vitally important for the Republicans to debunk it, even if it doesn’t take down the rest of the story.

I think the key to the lobbyist/corruption element will be how effectively the Democratic candidate uses it to tarnish McCain’s shining armor.

One you’d have a beer with? ;-)

Keep us posted.

interesting article from the Wasington Post where Paxson says that MCCain did in fact discuss the issue with Paxson and that it may be possible that Iseman was there. if I ate popcorn, i’d make some now

Jane:

OMG! I wrote my 102 before I read yours. Late coming to the thread (I’m working downthread)…too much fish to fry.

Is it really possible that we think alike? Scary…*g*

Katherine the Great……………………..Mules etc

Hey, I mentioned you in my post…

Dang, I did see a donkey show in TJ once…!

Ok, I am going to put on my tin foil hat for a moment. Suppose that the NYT piece was a plant to give the appearance of the MSM really hammering McCain. Of course, he will ultimately be cleared of the allegations, likely in time to have a noticeable effect on the election. And we, the liberal media, will be Dan Rather’d.

Nasty people think nothing of playing games like this. And the bush republicans are really nasty people.

Food for thought Bb

See, look what yhou meanies have done to poor noble St. John. So rattled by scandalous accusations against his integrity, he’s confused and all mixed up. He’s getting little details wrong. This is what happens to good honest conservative men and women when things become undignified. Look for the Broder column tomorrow, I am sure he will discuss what happens when political manners are forgotten, if he has recovered from his righteous, but composed and appropriate level of, wrath and outrage.

02.22.08 — 9:40PM // link | recommend

Not Looking Good
Maybe they’d prefer to go back to the affair story?

When John McCain went before the press on Wednesday to deny having an affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, he also made a series of categorical denials about the non-sex, influence peddling part of the story. Only many or most of those claims now appear to be demonstrably false.

McCain said and his office later released a statement claiming that McCain hadn’t met with anyone from either Paxson Communications (the broadcaster wanting the favors) or Alcalde & Fay (the lobby shop trying to get them the favors). Today, though, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff dug up a 2002 deposition in which McCain said that he had discussed the issue directly with Lowell Paxson, the head of Paxson Communications. Now the Post has asked Paxson himself, now retired, and he says, Yep, I met with McCain and asked him to write the letters. And he thinks he remembers Iseman being in the meeting too.

–Josh Marshall

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/179783.php

Yep, yep, yep. (It’s good to be part of a community of …well, fill in the blanks.)

Which post?

darn, you beat me too it while I was funning around

How do others judge a person besides that 11 seconds in the first meeting?

It is who do they surround themselves with…. their advisor’s and consultants…. The quality of your friends…. If you surround yourselves with thief’s and people of questionable character then can’t we question their judgement?

Not if you are a Repug….

Duh like this post maybe? Can I go look before I look like a complete ass?

This one!

Still, the pushback strategy is clear: Just as they did with the Bush National Guard story, conservatives believe that if they destroy this one wobbly bit (L’affaire Iseman), the rest of the story will collapse with it, and no-one will ever be allowed to speak of McCain’s coziness with lobbyists ever again. He will be immunized.

Well, well, well….

WAPO:
Broadcaster Lowell “Bud” Paxson today contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson’s behalf.

The plot thickens!

I saw that LOL I’m such an ass at times. I dunno that wobbly bits can be destroyed, they just always seem to be there

But what of the female spouses of male politicians? And what, say would the outcome tomorrow be, if for example we suddenly hear or read rumors that Senator HRC, or Mrs. McCain, or the Speaker, or Mrs. Romney, or Mrs. Obama, or Laura Bush, or Mrs. Huckabee had been, shall we say, “carrying on”? It’s all speculation. Of course. It’s a head-scratcher. ;0)

If this is some kind of double reverse Rovian plot, it didn’t factor McHothead into account. One thing I think Bush has over McCain is political shrewdness and rudiments of self-discipline. McCain is shooting off his mouth so much with more incriminating material, and providing more and more leads, that he will foil any such plot, if one exists.

McCain: Corrupt *and* dishonest!

I think that might be one of the laws of thermodynamics, actually.

Well, there was that Congressman’s wife that Shadegg got busted with…

Do you think the Times expected the press to zoom in on the sex angle? And if the thrust is influence peddling wasn’t that sex innuendo a formula to divert the thrust of the story and turn it into a dud?

They must be aware of the attack the Times crowd out there. They should be playing this smarter you would think.

Oh yeah they had Judy Miller, Michale Gordon, Bill Kristol and BoBo andI still remember Safire. So their judgment ain’t so hot, is it?

Or the wife of a Southern Baptist preacher staying at a Hooters Hotel…? ;-)

Conspiracy theories bore me. *yawn*

What we have here is an incompetent NYT almost screwing up a really good story. At least other newspapers seem to be doing the job correctly.

I am looking forward to seeing phrases like “John McCain’s web of deceit” pop up here and there.

I’ll have to trust you on that

How could they not? Besides, they kind of featured it in the story, leading and concluding with it.

Is anyone else getting deja vu?

You know I thought exactly this when I first heard the story break, what you say, that NYT was going to get Rather-ized and McCain therefore immunized. And that the Times will be scared of its own shadow for the rest of the election season.

… and you know, Eli, you should come back and visit your old Eschaton friends every now and again. Don’t be too good for us!

Yes. I had that in mind, my friend.

It’s not exactly scandalous, but it *is* really damn funny.

Yep, so did I. Just had to wait for my timeslot to come up and hope no-one else blogged the same thing. Someone probably has.

Well, the CNN piece was more favorable to McCain than I would have liked. They even interviewed a former staffer who says he would have known if something was going on and he wasn’t aware of anything. AC did mention that the top 2 guys working for McCain are lobbiest, but then he ruined it by quoting one of them as saying “but I never lobby McCain”. Who would believe that, I’m not sure, but AC let it stand. The only promising note was that AC said that more was sure to be added to this story.
Most disturbing, they started the piece with that quote about the NY Times routinely doing hitjobs on repubs.

I swear Marcy deserves a Polk award…

Rut Roh.

Bud Paxson’s memory seems to corroborate that of McCain’s former aides and McCain’s signed deposition, both of which suggest that McCain met with Paxson–and Iseman–personally before he sent his letters to the FCC. Or, to put it another way, Paxson says McCain’s little promises yesterday were false.

She’s a gem…! *g*

(Good to see you, BTW! And “too good” has nothing to do with it, really.)

“McCain’s web of deceit”?

That would be nice.

I’m not a political Kabuki expert, but I think that would a sign that the battle is over, and you could leave your battle station. I will let you know if I see or hear it.

Paxson is clearly a disgruntled former lobbyist.

Remember our concern about Halliburton building all those concentration camps? well, another blog has picked up on that too, especially in context of new restrictions on REENTERING the country, etc
http://unrulymob.blogspot.com/

One thing I think Bush has over McCain is political shrewdness and rudiments of self-discipline.

Nah, Chimpy just has better drugs and more focused handlers.

Well, I was thinking more of the blogosphere – I would be absolutely shocked if it showed up in the Liberal Media. If it did, that really *would* be the beginning of the end.

Maybe we should call Anderson…AC/DeeCee.

He seems to like the cocktail weenies.

Obama will eat McCain’s lunch in the upcoming debates. Provided of course McCain lasts that long. I notice that GWB came to McCain’s defense earlier today.

(Good to see you, BTW! And “too good” has nothing to do with it, really.)

(I know, of course, I know.) (I would like to get over here more often, but hadn’t gotten around to registering, or I was stubbornly resistant to the only letters and numbers in your nym thing, and I probably already, er, spend enough time over there …)

NYT would not have made the clear “insinuation” if they didn’t have something. They were advised, they know how serious those implications are….They have a legal department, and they have to cover their collective legal *ss. They must have something. JMHO

I sure do hope so.

On the other hand, Rather thought he had something, too.

Moyers had a piece about earmarks tonight. This is all part of the buying of critters and getting ROI on their little contributions. McVain is definitely a master at quid pro quo.

A nice long piece about his staff and buds in the “lobby
industry” needs to be written.

This would be a great New Yorker piece.

Rove and Cheney at work?

The Pentagon on Friday tried to cast doubt on an account of military equipment shortages mentioned by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

if web of deceit appeared in the corporate press, then we would move from political Kabuki to the world of Noh Chance for McCain. Which would be nice.

The NYT story is easy meat to chew on, but it’s probably tainted Republican tripe.

It’s better for us Dems to simply continue our primary season without getting snared by a Republican teaser.

There’s plenty of time to focus on McCain later on.

They must have something.

Even if that’s true, then that “something” should have been in the article. I get more and more skeptical as time passes and the NYT says nothing more on it.

Rick Hertzberg get on this influence peddling. This needs to be in the spot light.

Exactly.

I’m thinking the NYT has a whole string of people to corroborate the story. McCain had a chance to come clean/own up, and chose to behave like an 11 year old.

The authority figures are getting to work.

Poor John. Just didn’t have the strength to be honest.

Somehow… I just don’t see voters next November flocking to McCain.

If you’re referring to what Obama said in the debate, the facts check out:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit…..act-3.html

Moyers Rawks! I still have another three hours to wait…

Lieberman likes McCain. And they both like George W. Bush. What else is there to say?

Nor do I, in fact I see a Dem Tsunami a’brewing…! The turnout numbers alone stand out, 2:1 Dems across the board… *g*

He is a treasure.

Kiddo you are correct about McVain. The people will vote heavily for dems this cycle. It will make it harder for them to steal elections.

I suspect the polls will be overwhelmed and we should be getting on poll access NOW.

Moyers and Chomsky. They da men.

You know you’re hitting the bottom when Mr. 19% speaks up for you.

I think he did actually.

I mean, he thought the memos were totally vetted and bulletproof. They were not, obviously. They may have been authentic, but the evidence wasn’t strong enough to put them on air as such.

I’m confused about this # reply thing.

sorry, talking aabout the camps in context of shooting down the spy?satellite and martial law http://unrulymob.blogspot.com/

We’ll see…

I don’t foresee McCain drawing 37,000 votes in Hawaii’s Repug caucus in May! Considering, the Dems only drew 5,000 total during the ‘04 cycle, and turned out 37K this cycle! Change is a’coming…!

You are right, but I guess what I’m saying is that what he said was the truth, but their “evidence” didn’t hold up. Lesson learned. In the case of the NYT and McCain, I think they have something, but unless they get sued, it won’t come to light. It would be nuts for an editor to let the story go out without concrete backup.

The past 8 yrs have been very hard on most Americans. They are majorly pissed about almost everything.

Can you believe that (the 19% thing)? Have a good night my friend. May the Lord bless you and yours. ;0)

OT
bigbrother February 22nd, 2008 at 7:26 pm 131
Kirk James Murphy, M.D. February 22nd, 2008 at 6:14 pm 118
physi prof, thanks for your answers. although we do not agree, i’m glad we havee this chance to exchange our views!

The point is somewhat missed I suspect… Kirk lays out some impacts that have accurred to McCain which he has in common with people that show pscho-trauma.

A mind body relation that exists that add additional influences to McCain’s mental state.
A personality inventory like The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) could reveal behavior tendencies and personality charateristics that would not enhance presidential behavior and judgement.
The observation that McCain has had past trauma is simply true. Seeing the two Bush and McCain in a hug is two people out of their league mentally. We do not need party animals making life and death decisions.
Thank you for the information. The post was interesting informative and a wake up call…is there someone more qualified to make rational decisions? Does Senator McCain’s manager’s need a leach to keep him out of trouble like his lobbyist handlers?
An evaluation would be welcome…like who’s driving and are they sober!
Excellent post.

That’s kind of my point. The *story* was solid, the reporting was solid, but they showcased these questionable documents and it discredited the whole story, even though it was 100% true.

I’m hearing faint Native Indian love calls from upstairs.

Goodnight, dear friends.

Lahoma and okk

…Republican who likes torture, war, and unlimited executive power.

is either (D) candidate campaigning for the repeal of the Military Commissions Act?

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/d…..sions.html

In the final hours before adjourning last year, Congress passed and the president signed the Military Commissions Act (MCA). In doing so, they cast aside the Constitution and the principle of habeas corpus, which protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment. They also gave the president absolute power to designate enemy combatants, and to set his own definitions for torture.

yeah, I thought not. Unless they have the guts to say they stand for restoration of the ancient writ of habeas corpus, they are a distinction without a difference from the (R) troglodyte.

By voting for a candidate who would maintain the MCA as the law of the land, you also affirm your disrespect for 800 years of legal tradition.

If the candidate of ‘change’ can’t talk about repeal of this odious, un-american legislation, then the rhetoric stands revealsed as audacious hype.

If you’re referring to what Obama said in the debate, the facts check out:

And how! It’s a sorry state of affairs… A West Pointer pointing it out too…!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..OUPQJ7.DTL

Even the documents, finally, were proven accurate…

Yup. Nuts.

Aloha, ya two love birds…! *g*

Then save your contributions for congressional races next year, and back congressional candidates who will restore congress to a branch of the federal government.

Congress is just as important as president, so if disillusioned by presidential race, then there is still hope for a better congress.

That’s right.

By voting for a candidate who would maintain the MCA as the law of the land, you also affirm your disrespect for 800 years of legal tradition.

800 years for European American males.

European American women got the vote in 1919.

African Americans, Native Americans, and many other minorities were routinely denied the great writ (and a lot other things) until the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960’s.

Personally, I’m only disgusted with one of my critters, Sen. Inouye, everybody else ranks high on Progressive Punch’s list…!

But not necessarily genuine. Which was the problem. Shouldn’t have been enough to derail the whole story, and CBS should have defended the whole story rather than stubbornly defending the memos themselves.

The ‘Typeface’ differential was debunked… If I can find the link, I’ll give it to you…!

I know. The memos have been neither proved nor disproved.

We are going to lead by example, by maintaining the highest standards of civil liberties and human rights, which is why I will close Guantanamo and restore habeas corpus and say no to torture.

(APPLAUSE)

Because if you are ready for change, then you can elect a president who has taught the Constitution, and believes in the Constitution, and will obey the Constitution of the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

http://www.newsforchristians.c…..ama04.html

The after-shock of this admin may carry over economically for 3-4 more years too!

Obama references this frequently. Talks about it in terms of his time spent teaching Constitutional Law. He flat out says he’s going to restore Habeas right away.

BTW, just caught some of his Austin rally streaming live at CNN. Jeezus, he just keeps getting better. He seem more comfortable now, and can be really quite funny. Had a great line about how the DeeCee pundits and Press like to make fun of his “hope” talk, and then said, “You know, they’re making fun of y’all too. They say you can’t think for yourselves and a blinded by excitement. What do you think of that Austin?!?” (paraphrase).

Brilliant framing and turning the tables. Obama just got tens of thousand of people to question the Conglomerate Press. Perhaps the Revolution is indeed warming up? It’ll be up to us to get Better and Better Democrats in Congress, and all this can turn into tangible realities soon!

aye, and if we go back that far there are plenty of skeletons in all the closets.

voting is not nearly as significant a right as the right to not be seized and held prisoner without recourse, I mean, c’mon.

though I notice under ‘civil rights’ on his issues page

There is no more fundamental American right than the right to vote. Before the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, barriers such as literacy tests, poll taxes and property requirements disenfranchised many Americans, especially minorities. More than 40 years later, there are still numerous obstacles to ensuring that every citizen has the ability to vote

Barack Obama seems to beleive it is.

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

under “Homeland Security” Obama’s first priority is protecting chemical plants, not American’s right to have their day in court if snatched up by some Secret Police.

woops, standing corrected… glad to see it referenced … please hold him to it if/when he gets there.

voting is not nearly as significant a right as the right to not be seized and held prisoner without recourse, I mean, c’mon.

When you don’t understand the symbols you use, you risk doing more harm than good. The chain gangs in the old South werent’ the worst of it for African Americans, it was lynching.

Please read about W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington.

White supremacists didn’t like Dubois, because he wouldn’t back down on the vote.

That drove white supremacists to their hero Booker. All he wanted was money for schools to educate the recently freed slaves. Dubois told Washington he was nuts that without the vote, they had nothing. Without the vote, African Americans were segregated. There were four high schools in 1920 in the state of Florida that admitted student of both genders who were not European American. African Americans were routinely denied access to education, housing, credit, the courts, attorneys, and medical support. Dubois had to flee to Europe to avoid getting lynched.

Should Saint John need to back out of the race for health reasons, I hear that Alan Keyes is available! Awesome! Keyes vs. Obama II, the Rematch!

Ha! Reminds me of a classic debate moment between them. Obama does a masterful job of handling the avalanche of BS rudely served up by Alan in this clip:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_9B…..re=related

Some of Obama’s looks are priceless.

Predictably, the conservative response is that there’s no proof that McCain had an affair, and it’s all innuendo based on anonymous sources. Yes, it’s true that there’s no proof of an affair, but the NYT never claimed that there was an affair, merely that McCain’s aides were spooked by the appearance of impropriety.

IOKIYAR! When rumors erupted that Bill Clinton had an affair, a special prosecutor was appointed. Just sayin’.

Here’s an infinitely better McCain/Lobbyist scandal:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..390/462347

Senator McCain was clear : he never went to see Paxston and Vicki Iseman at the same time in 1999, before he sent the 2 letters to the FCC on behalf of Paxson, but today ,Feb.23,2008, the W.Post and the N.Y.T. reports on Paxson himself saying that McCain and Vicki Iseman were indeed there at the same meeting with him doing the push, and then McCain sent the 2 letters to the FCC , which found them insulting and bordering on illegal….but hey ! Straight shooter McCain has 2 key advisers to distract from the “little misunderstanding” , Wayne Berman and Henry Kissinger, the first one is the point man for the biggest Hedge-Funds in D.C. and the second,well…we all know the power of Henry ” the Butcher ” Kissinger in D.C., he is the King of Neocon himself, the master of wars and death, no one human survives against him, he spread death and destruction promoting the Vietnam War,then the Condor Operation in Latin America and then he pushed for the Iraq war in the 2002 White House,a real darling of the death indeed…so McCain is in good company, Berman ,Kissinger with Joshua Bolten and Eliot Abrams are masters themselves at twisting truth and facts to fit the neocon agenda, they will have McCain, Lieberman and Bloomberg in the White House in no time, honest elections are just a “little detail” for these neocons,and besides, they count now with a secret weapon: Ralph Nader is running as a Green Independent, to steal votes from the Democrats and push McCain into the Oval Office, brilliant ! ….95 % of the population in the USA don’t know that Ralph is a good mensch, a good soldier of the Knesset, so it’s a done deal ….

b) and about Wesley Clark, he was Nato commander bombing Serbia and killing thousands of christians in total excess and then he went on to Lobby for Private Data companies, making millions of dollars from it, and also to Lobby for certain companies pushing databases of people and businesses to “neocon contractors for the Government with plans to spy on americans” in 2002 to 2005, remember ? ,so this israeli-american lobby’st must explain what he gets from Adelson, Murdoch, Leviev, DeBeers,Bloomberg and his partner Merrill Lynch, Blankfein and Goldman Sachs , and from Maurice Greenberg , the guy that as chairman of A.I.G. collected disabled workers premiums and put them in his company as income and for his stock-options instead of paying the States, then he got caught and paid 400 million dollars in fines to these States and SEC and went home nice and easy , take that for power and neocon abuse !

c) just to see the power of these neocons, the other day Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal had a op-ed editorial pushing Avastin from Genentech-Roche for breast cancer, and since Rupert has made billions of dollars in ads from woman’s make-up, eyeliner,deodorant and lipsticks,and since these chemically-loaded products (specially phtalates and colorants) by gravity end-up in the womans breast with no exit and turn into bad cells and cancer,he must feel the pain,so now he pushes a colon and lung cancer medicine for breast cancer, at 92.000 dollars a year for treatment !!, amazingly and criminally brilliant !!

Rupert has personally benefit with hundreds of millions of dollars in stock options and salary from these womans products ads in his TV ,cable,tabloids, etc.,and now his partners in Genentech and the FDA ( the top approval team is like a neocon club) are moving in for the kill, the financial kill that is,the other ,the woman’s,they don’t have time for that…what a criminal shame that Washington D.C. never did anything to.stop this crime ,shame ! …….so the FDA just approved Avastin for breast cancer, when they never mentioned what most in the medical community know,that chemicals in face make-up and lipstick is what goes down to the breast and turns into cancer cells, but the “grease ” is powerful,money bends politicians in D.C. as well as some doctors and medical investigators, so silence while more woman get cancer ….money is powerful indeed !!!

i would urge all woman to only use organic and natural make-up , lipstick,eyeliner and deodorant,etc.,with NO CHEMICALS OF ANY KIND AND NO PHTALATES OR DERIVATIVES OF IT , and to consider getting together and finding a good lawyer to get some Justice, so that no one woman more in the world gets cancer from these chemicals ,not one more !

d) and since we are talking about toxic chemicals, 2 Los Alamos Labs smart investigators ,Martin , Kubic and their team have come up with a way to use potassium carbonate to absorb carbon dioxide, why not install these “filters” on coal power plants and nuclear plants? , cars ,trucks and airplanes? , President Bush and Congress could push a serious plan to bring practical solutions to market right now , helping private industry move on it fast, will they do anything ?

http://www.lanl.gov/news/index…..y_id/12554

that’s why Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee must stay “in” until Convention and for the American People , we still don’t know the end of it ….