(Above: John McCain interviewed on Iraq.)
St. McCain is quickly becoming the Lauren Caitlin Upton of the GOP with yet still another Iraq gaffe:
In an interview with CNN earlier today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that he has long understood the influence of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr:
I said he was still major player and his influence is going to have to be reduced and gradually eliminated.
But in a report on The Situation Room today, the network noted that just two weeks ago McCain — trying to paint a rosy picture of Iraq — described Sadr very differently while speaking to CNN’s John King in Baghdad:
His [Sadr’s] influence has been on the wane for a long time.
Yikes.
Meanwhile, Joe Lieberman, pimping his BFF on Fixed News, seems to be equally confused.
If we did what Sen. Obama wanted us to do last year, Al-Qaeda in Iran would be in control of Iraq today.
Apparently, St. McCain’s cluelessness is contagious. It’s only a matter of time before he starts putting a "the" before "Iran." I mean, Iraq.
Whatever.
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zed-wow! even after reading!
Is the grrrl in the vid McCain’s choice for VP? She’s qualified, far as I can tell.
BT!
Howdy.
Like Bush, these guys are dopes. Like what happened with Bush, if you put these guys in charge, you will have dopey policies, dopey decisions, and one god awful disaster after another.
Good for CNN. I hope they highlight the stupidity all week long.
Never let a good talking point be shot down by reality.
McCain has no clue whatsoever. Why on earth are the media taking him seriously?
“..Al-Qaeda in Iran would be in control of Iraq today.” Now, THERE’s a slip (Freudian or not) if I ever read one. I assume we hear heads banging on desks on a daily basis in the state of Connecticut. I hope Ned Lamont’s phone is ringing off the hook.
It’s not cluelessness. If you want the US military to stay in Iraq, if you want a war with Iran, this is what you say. The facts don’t have any role in this approach to politics.
I think you guys are doing that poor young woman a serious injustice.
My God just how long can all the *cough* serious realists in the Press keep propping up these Drooling Hand Puppets.
I mean don’t Bobo Brooks or Dean Broder ever feel…icky after saying how great McCain or Joe is.
I can hardly listen to them talk on the news without falling asleep or losing my lunch.
Yeah, sorry. I’m a meanie.
McCain: I WANT YOU.
Mis-statements due to a senior moment or clueless? And does either excuse matter?
bom dia, pups
wow. so much ignorance packed into one body.
Someoe should photshop the pic & put in McCain’s face.
Juan Cole (yes that Juan Cole) agrees with you. He thought her answer had some merit, and said so.
which pic?
a blue meanie
hi BT. i m from texas too. hey HUgh you mean kinda like the three stooges huh ?
McCain must live in fear of short French Girls who hear voices coming to wreck another 100 years of war!
Speeching of war wit Iran anyone hear see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(film)
The one in the “I Want You” poster.
that is McCain’s face!
The goofs are too funny except that they have such serious results. Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his father are the same characters who gave Saddam such grief encouraging uprisings and assassination of the Iraqi leader. Saddam got daddy Sadr and baby badr sneaked out of the country to sit it out in Iran. He was sooooo happy for the US invasion. He could never have so much power without all those US dollars and lives spent on handing him power on a golden platter. Didn’t cost him a dime.
Poor McBush knows as much about the area as his mentor knew when he invaded Iraq. My advice to McBush is to get better educated and pick up an out-of-date travel book to Iraq and Iran, sit down and have a good read. It is much more informative than the whispers of the mentally impaired (Bush, Lieberman) educating the mentally impaired.
Where in Texas?
What we’re finding out (and can only pray the MSM will discover) is that McCain has more positions than the Kama Sutra and the only ones that seem to work involve auto-eroticism.
No but I’ll keep my eye out for it!
crooks and liars has this up now;
Read the book if it doesn’t get to your area.
Everyone knows Odom is an unserious paleocon appeasement monkey with BDS.
Good. Now, if only somebody will listen…
He’s gotta be lookin’ for an early retirement.
lol, yeah, i’ll have to wait till it hits cable ;)
Odom retired long ago.
Another senior moment the press is going to pass on for McSame.
“I was in a conference in Germany over the weekend and President Putin of Germany gave one of the cold war style speeches as he addresses the conference.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ENwej0fpc
Well, Odom is a jerk. Remember he’s the one who wants to disappear the State Dept into the DOD. (Not that State hasn’t disappeared already. A friend told me that there are more employees in military bands than in the whole State Dept, but don’t take my word for it.)
What the hell is doing going before Congress at this juncture?
Orange
What he is telling the truth! The GOP either has to ignore him which well WE Bloggers CAN MAKE THAT PIPE DREAM IMPOSSIBLE.
Or they have to discredit him which will bring up comparisons to the Hack Job the GOP did on General Shinseki.
Watching Bush and McCain spin the Surge is working and they listen to the troops on the ground just as long as they keep reading their lines….or else, should be interesting.
Great the GOP is voting for the next Reagen the full dementia Reagen. Why doesn’t McCain have any handlers this is Dan Quayle all over again only the press is ignoring or excusing these mistakes.
Vald is the leader of Russia how does a cold war Republican not know that?
Here’s an interesting little tidbit to follow up on Jane’s post from yesterday where St. John (again) basically calls another kid “a little jerk”:
“I Hope Attendance Here Was Not Compulsory”
“The boldest inquiry came from junior Katelyn Halldorson, who asked what exactly the senator was doing at her school.
“I think judging by the amount of press representatives here and also by the integration of your previous political endorsements in your earlier personal narrative, we can see that this isn’t completely absent – er political motivation isn’t completely absent,” she said. “Yet we were told that this isn’t a political event. So what exactly is your purpose in being here – not that I don’t appreciate the opportunity, but I’d just like some clarification.”
“I knew I should have cut this thing off. This meeting is over,” McCain joked, before launching into a long description of his biography tour and it’s emphasis on “the values and principles that guided me, and I think a lot of this country in the past.” He said he also hoped to provide voters with “a vision of how I think we need to address the challenges of the future.”
McCain concluded the visit by saying, “I hope that attendance here was not compulsory…I apologize if you were unwillingly in attendance here.”
According to one EHS staff member, attendance was required, although it was unclear what the punishment would have been if a student had refused to show.”
(my bold)
http://hotlineblog.nationaljou…..endan.html
I just want to say that making jokes at the expense of John McCain’s age is completely fair and should not insult anyone.
First of all, in relation to the other candidates, being black, or being a woman has absolutely no effect on how well you can do the job of President. Being old, or as old as John McCain is, clearly does. Reagan was younger.
Second of all, we may not all be black and we may not all be women, but we will all most definitely get old one day (unless we die, in which case, the joke’s on us.) So what ever we dish out to the old people now, we’ll get to hear it all when we turn 71 too, especially if we run for President.
So the idea that making fun of old people is the same as say, making fun of fat people, or disabled people, is unreasonable.
John McCain is old. My neighbor is seventy one and if he’s driving, you better get off the road. My mother is younger than him, and she can’t even watch my kids. I don’t know how John McCain at 71 has the energy to get through this campaign, and that’s great for him. But, it’s a real issue if he’s running this country at 75, or even 80. And that’s on top of all his bad ideas.
So let’s make a joke out of him now, because, I remember when George W. was just a joke. And now he’s a nightmare.
“I don’t know how John McCain at 71 has the energy to get through this campaign…”
I like to imagine St. John lying in bed late at night, whispering in the dark to himself, “What the fuck am I doing, what the FUCK am I doing?”
Just a reminder but the first set of dates for a possible attack on Iran likely initiated by the Israelis is this coming weekend April 5-6.
Hmmmm…I don’t think Lieberman’s remark was a “mistake”….First there was Al Qaeda, then there was Al Qaeda in Iraq (to justify continued occupation and fighting there); now, they are trying to ramp up this Iran thing and tie Iran to Al Qaeda by calling the so-called Iranian influence in Iraq, Al Qaeda in Iran. We all know how the Neocons like to name everything to suit their agenda….Anyway, if they can successfully start calling the Iranian influence in Iraq as originating from a new Al Qaeda group in Iran (which is totally absurd, but they figure Americans won’t know that), they will say that they can use force without going to Congress based on terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. Voila. No accident.
Apparently, McCain voted against there being a Martin Luther King day….
See, I’ve been trying to point out that when he was a POW, he missed the murder of MLK and Bobby Kennedy…He missed a crucial bit of life experience that changed our country. He has a missing link in his brain about things.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..y-in-1983/
It’s the missing think!
“attendance was required, although it was unclear what the punishment would have been if a student had refused to show.”
attendance required says it all. I’m surprised the crowd wasn’t prescreened and asked to sign a loyalty oath.
What facts are you using I’m not arguing just curious.
You know, as an old teacher I look at this young girl and just feel sorry for her. You know, she really is a child. Not an adult. Not even close to an adult. Just a big kid – with a brain that is yet to be mature.
In other words: with her there is hope. With McCain?
(draw your own conclusions, you know?)
I wonder if McCain is on something to give him pep? Which would aso help explain his senior moments.
Date of new moon.
I think the girl was great it takes a lot of guts to stand in front of a crowd and say something you think might get you hassled later on.
She was a little shaky in her delivery but her question was logical.
Now the FACT that John McCain had to dodge the question by talking about his life story suggests that the Press has been throwing him way too many softballs.
Cause if McCain can’t handle a little kid just how can he handle Al Quieda.
We need McCain in a debate where the questions are not known in advance and if the debate moderator is a biased dweeb (Tweety, Pumpkinhead, Andrea Mitchel etc”
Then the candidates should be able to ask each other follow up questions and regular questions to help keep things honest.
John needs debates more than us we got more votes and money so we should set up debates on our terms.
I say bring the League of Women voters back to moderate the debates.
Our current debates are a snore.
I didn’t forget. I am positively haunted by it.
It has something to do with human sacrifice? Maybe starting a war for Odin?
IANAME (I am not a military expert) but I believe it has to do with bombing advantages without the light of the moon. Maybe so they can’t see the planes as well, while we have guided bombs that don’t require natural light. Anyhow, that’s my understanding, but don’t take my word for it.
Well…”this” is just ducky….Israel handing out gasmasks to the total population:
http://www.voanews.com/english…..-voa27.cfm
I second that statement!
As stated in Wikipedia:
Hey I was just wondering I’ve speculated and been wrong about war with Iran a few times:) I hope we both stay wrong.
We need a post on this !
every time i see the ’new moon’ as an attack date mentioned,
i keep wondering what the new moon has to do with anything.
iran isn’t using bows and arrows and muskets.
radar isn’t powered by the moon.
heat seeking missles don’t use the moon to seek out their target.
on and on……..
so, i don’t get the significance of no moon in modern warfare combat.
unless the gravitational pull of the moon affects their equipment.
or they need the light of the moon to read the dials.
add to my 61 and then there’s a little visual aid called night vision goggles.
darkness
There are a few things. Bush and Cheney’s rejection of the NIE report, for example. The NIE blew the Administration’s increasingly shrill war retoric right out of the water, and made Senators look stupid for passing Kyl-Lieberman. Still Cheney has never shown the least inclination to give up on what he wants. His SOP when stymied is to go sideways. In this case, that means the Israelis. Part of what he was doing engineering the ouster of Admiral Fallon and his recent trip to the Middle East can be seen in this light.
Then you need to look at the ground situation in Iraq. Th troop surge is ending and troop levels will decline by several combat brigades in the next 2-3 months. This establishes a narrow window of opportunity. Indeed you can see (again in part) Cheney’s supposed backing of Maliki’s military moves in Basra as a setup where “Iranian” influence in Iraq was diminished prior to an attack on Iran.
As to the specific dates, you need only look at a calendar and the phases of the moon. The optimum time for an attack is at night on a new moon and over a weekend Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday. That means around April 5th or 6th.
There are also various other tidbits. A meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss possible fallout from an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, civilian “drills” in Israel, and carrier movements.
A brief scenario would go like this: an Israeli attack, followed by an Iranian response with this being used as a pretext for American involvement or piling on.
yeah elliot, (hi) maybe in wwII or even vietnam, but way different thing now.
armies even have heat-sensitive goggles. don’t use light.
all the things i mentioned at 61….
that don’t use the light of the moon.
technology doesn’t use the light of moon to be accurate.
don’t need to ’see’ the plane to ’see’ the plane.
don’t need to ’see’ troops to ’see’ troops.
and if you discount the tech side, if they can’t see us, we can’t see them, which is another ’tack’ in the debate.
no advantage either side.
so i think it’s a boo boogeyman thing going around with no logic to it.
not with today’s weapons.
Yes, but the key question here is what kind of equipment do the Iranians have? Low flying planes and cruise missiles are not readily seeable by radars. Darkness further confuses the situation. It is also the time when most of us are less alert, and when most of us are in fact home in bed.
hugh at 66–hi hugh, oh, i bet they have plenty of equipment. they are not without resources and friends.
you’re a country that america named to the axis of evil list-if you don’t have it yet, i bet you start stocking up.
they’re not a poor country. or without stauch allies with connections of their own. our boycott wouldn’t do a thing to inhibit that.
there’s plenty of countries still doing trade with them.
i see what you’re saying, but the ’new moon’ talk is not twitchin’ my antennae. : )
50 years ago it would have, maybe, but that would be another type of argument.
and ok, for argument’s sake, let’s forget the radar, i haven’t even mentioned laser technology. been around at least 10 years in the public eye. no way they don’t have it.
so, just not logical.
i just can’t ’see’ it……..but bush/cheney aren’t known for their high level of brain usage.
so i could be wrong.