but according to the Republicans in last night’s debate, terrorism has nothing to do with American foreign policy.

Maybe last night no one mentioned it, but Ron Paul's statements has been harping about blowback for a long time.

"It’s not American presence that bothers the American people, it’s American casualties"

Actually, I am quite bothered by the fact that we have bases all over the world. It is destroying our economy to pay for these things, and the blowback is enormous.

"Team" John McCain . . . (the men behind the curtain)

Richard Lee Armitage
Bernard Aronson
William L. Ball III
Stephen E. Biegun
Max Boot
Brig. Gen. Tom Bruner
Lorne W. Craner
Lawrence S. Eagleburger
Brig. Gen. Russ Eggers
Maj. Gen. Merrill Evans
Niall Ferguson
Michael J. Green
Gen. Alexander M. Haig
Maj. Gen. Evan "Curly" Hultman
Robert Kagan
Brig. Gen. Robert Michael Kimmitt
Henry A. Kissinger
Col. Andrew F. Krepinevich
William Kristol
Adm. Charles Larson
Robert "Bud" McFarlane
Brig. Gen. Warren "Bud" Nelson
Brig. Gen. Eddie Newman
Maj. Gen. John Peppers
Maj. Ralph Peters
Brig. Gen. Maurice Phillips
Gen. Colin L. Powell
James R. Schlesinger
Randy Scheunemann
Gary Schmitt
Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft
George P. Shultz
Brig. Gen. W.L. "Bill" Wallace
Maj. Gen. Gary Wattnem
R. James Woolsey

Is it just me, or is McCain proposing that the US prop up an Iraqi dictatorship in the name of making Americans safe.

Sorry Senator, but wasn't that pretty much the status quo BEFORE the invasion. Well, we weren't actually propping up the dictator at the time of the invasion. We actually hadn't propped up that particular bloodthirsty dictator since the Reagan/Bush 1 years.

Take a good look at your next President. It looks like the media will elect McCain and Obama as our candidates to run against each other. Our sheepish electorate, both Democrats and Republicans will take the bait. Obama will never match up against McCain. They have already attacked Obamas foreign policy experience. Between now a next year a small terrorist attack will take place, and woola, there you have it President McCain! People don't pick Presidents anymore folks, the media does. What kills me is how stupid people are. The whole thing is a set up, and everyone is just going along and buying it!

Mr. bomb-bomb-bomb Iran isn't getting elected to anything.

flatearth friedman @ 6:

it looks like madman mc cain is the last best hope of the GOP.

Indeed, he satisfies their blood lust.

I'll say it again. For christ sakes, McCain, give it up and go home. I'm right about the brain cells in a lot of old codgers. Myself included. If I babbled on like McCain, I'd be shipped off to the nearest rest home and given meds to just be a little bit lucid. McCain doesn't have a snowballs chance in hell of being POTUS. The younger generation in this country will see to that.

Rico @ 8:

This sounds simply like a call for more welfare and handouts for the war class in America. One can even hear the athiests calling out "God help us!"

god IS helping us.

LOL McCain, the despised black sheep of the GOP is elevated only by the horrid quality of his competition. He is a warmongering, unstable personality. Talk about goopers holding their nose to vote against the hillbilly preacher, there is despair enough for all factions in the gooper tent. They are being forced to vote for an unelectable maniac.

If you have a few minutes to spare, check out my newest videos, brought to you by the republicans part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llIiNOFJ1NU (about 1 1/2 minutes)
and part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25wISP8-TVw (about 4 1/2 minutes)
Comments and ratings are appreciated

raker @ 14:

Since when is it appealing to see the US as permanent strongman enforcer in a volatile, unstable nation in perpetuity - with a goal of merely surviving (and siphoning off resources?) while lives of the people we've subjugated don't matter. What kind of bizarro reasoning makes people see McCain as the honest, reasonable candidate when he positions himself as a Bush/Cheney fascist?

In your guts, you know he's nuts.

Isnt every candidate?

dont ALLpresidential candidates want to keep a strong military presence overseas?

I trust...in your guts...there all nuts!

[deleted - feel free to take these to the open thread, this is off topic.]

Diebold still going to be dominating the electronics in November?

Anyone on top of that situation?

Bush the Liar @ 4:

Why are the Muslims attacking America and our troops?
Its not "because they hate us for our freedom".
They want Americans out of the Holy Land. They have be saying this for a long time but no one wants to talk about it.
Too much money is being made by the war.
Wake up America, you've been played.

I agree with you but Ron Paul talks about it. Our politicians have a hard time understanding occupying another country tends to piss the people who live there off.
Rudy and Mitt last night missed Paul's point completely. If we believe in free trade why are we there? Wont a free market fix it all? And if the world sets the price of oil why are we offering protection with our tax dollars to benefit China and Europe?

McCain seems to have the same affliction as bush. He too laughs at all the strangest unfunny times. I'm trying to figure out why they do that.

If McCain is the next president of our country we are all so f*cked. I mean, seriously. He isn't as evil as bush, but he's mentally unsound and that can be just as dangerous. Plus I'm betting he would ask Lieberman to be his veep. He almost owes him that.

He is advised by neocons.

Nuff said.

odanny @ 32:

L.A. Confidential @ 27:

Diebold still going to be dominating the electronics in November?

Anyone on top of that situation?

Ohio spent 100 million since 2004 and their system is still easily corrupted, according to the Secretary of State's thousand page resport out last month.

Thanks. I figured that might still be the case.

Here we go again.

L.A. Confidential @ 27:

Diebold still going to be dominating the electronics in November?

Anyone on top of that situation?

By CLIVE THOMPSON
Published: January 6, 2008
Jane Platten gestured, bleary-eyed, into the secure room filled with voting machines. It was 3 a.m. on Nov. 7, and she had been working for 22 hours straight. “I guess we’ve seen how technology can affect an election,” she said. The electronic voting machines in Cleveland were causing trouble again.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06Vote-t.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

I am so happy that Sen. McCain has his finger on the pulse of the American people and KNOWS that we don't mind spending over a trillion dollars, long term, ruining our economy and neglecting the real issues that face this country for the rest of this century, just as long as our guys aren't getting blown up. I know he isn't exactlly a genius, but this oversimplification of what Americans think and need is absolutely insulting. I was glad to see Romney, who is truly an empty suit, fall in the polls. I guess that I forgot that when one guy falls, another rises.

So here's to whomever the Dems nominate. You've got my vote.

L.A. Confidential @ 27:

Diebold still going to be dominating the electronics in November?

Anyone on top of that situation?

a link, ..this time!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06Vote-t.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewa...

If anybody is fighting and dying in anyplace that we control, because we have effectively colonized the place, that is unacceptable. It's bad enough that we are commiting crimes against humanity by waging wars of aggression for purposes of conquest and subsequent exploitation through de facto colonization. I wouldn't have thought we could sink any lower into abject moral bankruptcy until this morally bereft baboon opened his mouth.

John McCain,

Thanks for whatever honorable service you may have rendered long, long ago. But, now? It's time for you to go quietly into retriement. You are becoming a source of shame and embarrassment. Just go away, Dude. You are on the wrong side of history. You are on the wrong side of principle. You are on the wrong side of morality. Just go away.

After hearing this from McCain I wonder what a patriotic Iraqi would think or who they might he look towards for guidance.

Maybe these guys - I wonder what these guys would do in his position.

John Adams
John Dickinson
Benjamin Franklin
John Hancock
Patrick Henry
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
Samuel Adams
Alexander Hamilton
William Molineux
Thomas Paine
Paul Revere
Nathanael Greene
Nathan Hale
Francis Marion
James Mitchell Varnum
Joseph Bradley Varnum
George Washington

Mad Hatter McCain strikes again.

Kathy in St. louis @ 39:

So here's to whomever the Dems nominate. You've got my vote.

You are a herd animal Kathy.go back to sleep. its not time to vote yet...

No way the Village People will tolerate the Huckster. They WILL tolerate McCain however, if their first choice, the maleable Mittster doesn't make the grade. And just wait 'til all the kool-aid has been drunk and the Dem roster has been reduced to Barak singing "Kumbaya". That's when the gloves will come off and the ads with Clapton singing "Cocaine" over images of Obama and Willie Horton will be rolled out. You don't think that the repugs have let this pass, do you? Still think Barak is electable? And when all else fails there's always Diebold! Reality is a bitch ain't it?

milquetoast @ 49:

Kathy in St. louis @ 39:

So here's to whomever the Dems nominate. You've got my vote.

You are a herd animal Kathy.go back to sleep. its not time to vote yet...

Lighten up. I agree with Kathy, it will be a cold day in hell before I trust another Repug.

Radically Moderate @ 53:

milquetoast @ 49:

Kathy in St. louis @ 39:

So here's to whomever the Dems nominate. You've got my vote.

You are a herd animal Kathy.go back to sleep. its not time to vote yet...

Lighten up. I agree with Kathy, it will be a cold day in hell before I trust another Repug.

Agreed..................

It's cool as long as Iraqis are the ones dying? Fuck you, McCain, you piece of shit. I hope you get hit by a truck.

VietVet8666 @ 56:

Sany at 9

I think you basically hit the nail on the head.

I ask again. If what you say is true, what alternative do we have? I also wonder if what happened in Iowa was people driven or not.

Every time he says 'my friend' a cold chill goes up my spine. I think the man is just as psychotic as Bush himself. If he is installed as President, he will be another WarPig and probably make George look like a boyscout as far as continuing the policy of aggression. He brings up the American presence in Korea, Japan and Germany....NEWS FLASH.....they want our military there, the Iraqi People do not. The only entity in Iraq that wants an American presence is the installed government. One also has look at the fact that these foreign Governments came to rely on American dollars fueling their economies at one time. That could change. Now it's the other way around. Our dollars aren't worth the paper they are printed on any longer and our economy is relying on foreign money. Bush is borrowing money from anyone who will give to him. If this guy wins the prize I am definitely moving to Canada. He will continue the WarPigs domestic policy of governing through fear and intimidation and a foreign policy of aggression. McCain is a dangerous man.

#9 -(People don't pick Presidents anymore, the media does.)

You are so right about that. It is such an obvious manipulation and I really don't see there is anything we can or will do about it before Nov. The GOP is so pathetic that McInsane is their final hope and the "liberal media" could possibly cheerlead him right into the WH. That will be made easier for them if either Hillary or Obama is our nominee. It would, I think, be a little harder if it was Edwards because they would finally have to cover him and the people would hear the message. I disagree that the American people are stupid but there is an abundance of ignorance (again, thanks to the media). Ignorance can be corrected.

"It’s not American presence that bothers the American people, it’s American casualties...I believe we can achieve is a reduction in casualties to the point where the Iraqis are doing the fighting and dying"

The acme of the Ugly American.

I imagine a McCain administration would be every bit as astute in diplomacy as Dubya's has been.

This man goes from sometimes somewhat sane to absolutely crazy. I would love to hear about how a country occupies another during a civil war, yet does not suffer casualities. It is just a tad unrealistic.

Radically Moderate @ 53:

milquetoast @ 49:

Kathy in St. louis @ 39:

So here's to whomever the Dems nominate. You've got my vote.

You are a herd animal Kathy.go back to sleep. its not time to vote yet...

Lighten up. I agree with Kathy, it will be a cold day in hell before I trust another Repug.

It will be a cold day in hell before I trust another politician.

I think if you asked em' Hillary and Obama and have exactly the same attitude as McCain...(expressed differently)...in the end its the same Repub or democrat...Military presence overseas will continue...regardless...

if you want war to end...

and you end up voting for Hillary or Obama...because it who the dems (and media) choose for you.

Well...thats just mindless partisanship

Seventy year old Senator "More-of-the-same" McCain dodders onto the scene, the biggest pygmie left standing, and clutches to the coattails of the Decider. "The SURGE," he cries, "The SURGE!" and the bombs keep exploding, and the death rate keeps rising.

One more year, no more.

Steve - And sadly, you are correct. This is the America the rest of the world sees.

milquetoast @ 49:

Kathy in St. louis @ 39:

So here's to whomever the Dems nominate. You've got my vote.

You are a herd animal Kathy.go back to sleep. its not time to vote yet...

Don't listen, Kathy, I feel the same way. Talk about herd animals, I just don't understand why anyone would want another Repug in the Whitehouse.

When Temmeh got onto the subject of staying in Iraq for 100 years my blood began to boil. St. McCain said, well we've been in Japan for sixty years and have bases all around the world. My question has been and still is, why are we in Japan, Germany and other countries when they don't have bases in our country? What purpose does it serve draining our dollars from being put to better use here in America? This is exactly the point Ron Paul made yesterday while the rest of his fellow R'pubs snickered and made faces.
Why throw billions away if not trillions over the years into countries acting as the worlds policeman? Just doesn't make sense, when those dollars could be put to better use here at home in areas like education ad rebuiding a crumbling infrastructure.

This nation will elect another white male Republican over a woman or African American any day no matter how corrupt the Republicans are. There is no doubt in my mind. The MSM has this next election all sewn up and has hedgeded there bets well. McCain vs corporate democrats like Obama or Hillary. Good going Dems!

Sany @ 79:

This nation will elect another white male Republican over a woman or African American any day no matter how corrupt the Republicans are. There is no doubt in my mind. The MSM has this next election all sewn up and has hedgeded there bets well. McCain vs corporate democrats like Obama or Hillary. Good going Dems!

Well said.

anon @ 82:

Concerned American @ 80:

A freak like McCain with his finger on the deployment button of a multi-warhead tactical nuclear weapons? McCain is a child who never grew-up and stopped playing with his military toys. I would be very afraid of what he would do if he were to be President with his misguided infantile views of the world and where the US resides in it.

I live in Arizona. McCain isnt well understood. He isnt a child (although I understand why you say that). He, like Bush, is an aristocrat - a child of influence and privilege. His dad was an admiral, His grandfather was an admiral etc. He was supposed to be an admiral (he was a captain which is a high rank in the Navy) when he was taken prisoner. He received the press he received BECAUSE he was a child of privilege. (Others didnt - or can you name ONE other prisoner other than McCain).

One of his sons is either set to graduate of just graduated from Annapolis. You can expect him to become an admiral as well.

Exactly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f34fIpTwEyw

More on the goddess...

Concerned American @ 86:

anon @ 82,

Yes, I understand as I have other insights on McCain from people who have dealt very closely with him for decades. I consider McCain a "Dangerous American" and little more. McCain as President would be exponentially disastrous for the US.

I couldnt agree with that more.

I'm sure McCrazy was thrilled and supported the Vietnamese when they said, "Hey, as long as it's the American soldiers who are dying or being tortured, we're all for it!".

What a dumbass this man has become.

If McCain wins New Hampshire then i'm certainly going to vomit.

I believe the Republican Party won't be satisfied until our reputation and treasury is totally wiped out. Let's face facts: our military is broken, thanks to Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy we are bankrupting our children's future. I only hope sanity prevails, We need solutions, not more war.

naschkatze @ 94:

Man, I hope this nut is not the Republican nominee. I don't want to face the most infinitesimal chance that he might get him. My blood pressure would explode make my head explode.

Oh God, C & L, can you just wipe my comment away? I've never made so many mistakes. Just shows you what I mean about what would happen to me if McCain became president. I don't think I could even take the campaign.

CNN tried to soften this combover death merchant's image with that awful diner segment yesterday

Sorry, should have been "I am sick as shit..."

How about when he said that the WMD's in Iraq didn't make any difference in his support for the war and that he supported the invasion and occupation irregardless of WMD's.

Fair warning, America, a McCain Administration will be all war---all the time.

Sounds like we will stay the Worlds Policeman in a McCain Administration.
I wonder how many more BILLIONS That will cost the American Tax-payer.

We should have left his ASS in Vietnam,and let them shock his NADS.

McInsane is my Senator...

Please send money to us in AZ for our meds for puttin' up with this war-monger comb-over nutcase.

His logic: If we have US troops 'there & ready' for the next Big Thing, well, we can kick ass and take names immediately....

His logic taken a few steps further: Let's just put troops in every city in every country on the planet. Fuck sovereignty.

Stalin, Napoleon, & Hitler would be proud of John's, uh, "thinking"

This is the kind of statement that have just sent me over the top with these arrogant, lying ass, sleazy bastards.

The people of Iraq have said over and over and over, they want the US out of their country. This right wing Rupert Murdock, controlled media will not tell you that.

We have simply destroyed the lives of millions and millions of people in that country. Why in Gods name would they want us to stay their and continue raping, sodomizing, torturing and humiliating them?

It just shows how sorry and sick these right wing ass holes are and how we have allowed them to take this country down this deep dark road, with these warped greedy policies, they have enacted.

You see this is the reason these bastards don't want Huck in office and will opt for this nasty, ugly McCain bastard, because he will carry out the corporate right wing policies that got us into this mess, just like Bush.

He would stay in that country, against the will of both the American people and the good people of Iraq and in reality so would Huck, but he would do it so much nicer. He would show us were it would be God's will to stay and continue the slaughter and have us praying over it.

It gives me a headache that people vote for this jerk , what a stupid lot they are , it is true you can fool some of the people all of the time .

Vote 4 mccain
and get more of the same

diamondmc @ 63:

milquetoast @ 58:

Radically Moderate @ 53:

milquetoast @ 49:
Lighten up. I agree with Kathy, it will be a cold day in hell before I trust another Repug.

Sorry, just cant stand mindless partisanship...(just look at the mindless religious right and how they mindlessly vote republican!)

Im trying to provoke her non thinking brain (very dangerous) ....and i hope Kathy will now offer her opinion on her choice between edwards obama and hillary...

instead of her milquetoastattitude!

I think Obama or Edwards and even Hillary would be better then any repug. I am willing to take a small step on the plus side, instead of another for years in the wrong direction.

Thanks for all the input, folks. Who would you have me vote for? The Green Party, maybe the Mayor of NY if he runs as an independent? I am not a shrub. I know there really isn't much difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. However, I marched against this war before the first troop was on the ground in Iraq. And I refuse to vote for anyone who stands up to say that Americans don't mind our presence over there as long as we don't have a lot of casualties. I would like to vote for someone who has a couple of brain cells still functioning, and McCain ain't the guy.

And by the time Missouri votes on Feb. 5, this one will be over. No doubt it will be Obama and McCain in November. And for the umpteenth time since I started voting I will have the rare privelege of voting for someone I probably wouldn't have chosen first. I would have voted for Biden. To the guy who called me a sheep, the reason I would have chosen Biden is because I think that he's capable of finding most of the world's trouble spots on a map and might know what's going on there.

anon @ 75:

I have made this point over and over. Half the people of the US (who voted for Bush not once but twice) love ... and I mean LOVE Bush's policies. What they dont love is losing. McCain is going to insist that when the surge works - and it should reduce violence - that we will be winning. What he never says and those same 100 million americans dont care about is that the war was a crime from the beginning. In their minds if they win it was just and noble.

It took me a while to come to this understanding. Bush was appointed and stole elections ... AND ... Bush precisely represents the heart and soul of half of this country.

Its the US that should be partitioned not Iraq. Financially the blue states are carrying the rest of the country - I say that while living in Arizona, both red and a net importer of blue money. The red state 'values' (principles of theft and murder) are driving the expenditure of blue money. That either comes to an end at some point or the blues just become slaves. And I dont see - now that they have tasted blood - the reds ever relenting. They will never admit having made a mistake. They will never say they are sorry. They will never STOP trying to accomplish what they will insist they have accomplished now again in the future. How do you stop a group that wants to (and has in many cases) entirely subverted the political process and constitution to their will, religion and political preference without regard for the wishes of others - and at the expense of those very same others?

I dont see a pleasant future. Instant runoff paper ballot voting at the very least and that wont happen. Not even that. Why? The reds know it would mean their end. This may before its over devolve into open political warfare - assuming it hasnt already. Political and politically based arrests and prosecutions etc.

McCain and the others (including the corporatist democrats) do speak for america. Which is why those core issues - that speak to corporate and aristocratic wealth - will not change.

I watched PBS's House of Saud again last night. John, you should post this link to encourage people to watch.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4383835181717429209&q=house+of+s...

Sorry for the long post.

No apologies necessary, for you speak the truth.

America may be the worlds strongest Brand, but it needs my State of California, more than California needs America.

Thanks for the link to the PBS vid. I saw the preview a few years back on PBS' website, but I never saw that the full program was released. The preview alone was very informative and I look forward to watching the full show tonight.

1<3

McCain is a giant turd!!!!
Go to hell you asshole!

Underground Pirate @ 118:

McCain is a giant turd!!!!
Go to hell you asshole!

No, it's a Giant Turd Sandwich, or a Douch, those are your choices.

vote for mccain
and get more of the same

whad up , must be all of the years as a pow that has warped his brain , this man is sick ! .

I spent the afternoon composing a long post about smiling/smirking McCain and the rest of the repubs (and I felt so much better just getting it off my chest!). This being C&L, I realized that I am preaching to the choir. Remember when "they" were asking about having a beer with Dubya - I feel like I have been the poor shlub sitting in the barstool next to one of these maniacs and wanting to find the nearest exit STAT. Peace to all. And heaven help us.

He is absolutely correct inasmuch as he says the American People are OK with people dying in Iraq - as long as they are Iraqis and not Americans. Most of the people who are dying from suicide bombs are innocent people, children, mothers and fathers who - had we not invaded their Country - would no doubt still be alive.

Maximum props to comments 58 62 72 75

My feeling of the day is that this soulless fucker is going to beat Obama (with the help of the media of course). Readers of this site might say ridiculous!, how could another republican win? I think the problem is that Mccain is right -- the reason bush's support has fallen from 50 to 30 was because America was seen by those 20% as losing in iraq and a little bit because gas prices are too high, dagnabbit. not only couldnt they care less about iraqi lives but they would be pretty pumped with a steady stream of dead foreigners if sold to them the right way.

The only hope I see is : 1) some evangelicals stay home and tip one key state or something 2) he is crazy enough and has bought into his own straight talk myth that maybe he can be goaded into saying some truly psychotic things (I hope Obama is as smart as every says and can do something miraculous in the debates, a little like Kerry did talking about Bush's father) or 3) he is old enough to have health problems -- but he is so power hungry he would likely hang on to croak after being in office for a few months.

This video clip NEEDS to get on the MSM -- anyone have any ideas?