McCain, Georgia, and change you can Xerox
There was a point in the spring when the media was abuzz with talk of “plagiarism.” Apparently, Barack Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D), who are friends, shared some a few rhetorical lines. Politicians do this all the time, both Obama and Patrick had each other’s permission, and there was nothing untoward about it. The media flap lasted a few days before everyone suddenly realized how inane the story was, and the political world moved on.
I’m wondering if we may be poised for yet another “plagiarism” flap. CQ’s Taegan Goddard has the story.
A Wikipedia editor notices some similarities between Sen. John McCain’s speech today on the crisis in Georgia and the Wikipedia article on the country Georgia. They appear similar enough that most people would consider parts of McCain’s speech to be derived directly from Wikipedia.
At one point in the speech, McCain described Georgia as “one of the world’s first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion.” The Wiki page describes Georgia as “one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion.”
This one was a little more interesting. Here’s the Wiki page (emphasis added throughout)…
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia had a brief period of independence as a Democratic Republic (1918-1921), which was terminated by the Red Army invasion of Georgia. Georgia became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 and regained its independence in 1991. Early post-Soviet years was marked by a civil unrest and economic crisis.
…and here’s the McCain speech.
After a brief period of independence following the Russian revolution, the Red Army forced Georgia to join the Soviet Union in 1922. As the Soviet Union crumbled at the end of the Cold War, Georgia regained its independence in 1991, but its early years were marked by instability, corruption, and economic crises.
Taegan has a third, which was relatively similar, but not quite as blatant.
Now, I suppose the most obvious question is one of timing. Is it possible the Wiki page was edited after McCain’s speech, and that the person who changed Georgia’s entry relied on McCain’s speech for the content? I suppose, but if a Wikipedia editor noticed the similarities, it’s likely that the Wiki page came before the speech.
Truth be told, McCain’s done far worse than rely on lifted text for a speech. Hell, practically his entire policy and political agenda was lifted from Bush’s playbook, and few called that plagiarism.
Nevertheless, it strikes me as something of a gaffe, which when added to the list, points to an embarrassing situation. McCain thinks Czechoslovakia is still a countrybetween Sudan and Somalia; he’s confused about how many U.S. troops are in Iraq; he’s confused about Iran’s relationship with al Qaeda; and he doesn’t understand the difference between Sunni and Shi’ia.
And now, McCain can’t give a speech about the war in Georgia without relying on an online encyclopedia for content.
As Taegan added, “It should be noted that Wikipedia material can be freely used but always requires attribution under its terms of use. Whether a presidential candidate should base policy speeches on material from Wikipedia is another question entirely.”
It’s not a scandal, but it is embarrassing.
I believe Wikipedia tracks who changes its pages and when and also how it was changed -- so I suspect if a page was changed after McCain's speech it would be fairly to do see it.
Now that he has perfected "Cut and Paste" the only question that remains is, "Can he color inside the lines?"
Give him a blank map of the United States, a red and a blue crayon, and let's see how he does!
Sorry for the repeat.
YORK, Pennsylvania (AFP) - Republican White House hopeful John McCain Tuesday stepped up a fusillade against Russian "aggression" and declared that today, "we are all Georgians."
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Addressing voters in Pennsylvania, McCain said he had spoken by telephone earlier with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who he said wanted to thank the American people for their support.
"I told him that I know I speak for every American when I say to him, today, we are all Georgians,"
Talk about kissing each others asses these to guys take the cake.
This isn't quite plagiarism - it's more like how a grade schooler changes wording for a book report.
Still blatantly incompetent, though.
.
Maybe he donates to Wikipedia every year from the Big Oil stash he has.
McCain thinks Czechoslovakia is still a countrybetween Sudan and Somalia;
I think there's an editing error that's conflating two separate gaffes. (Even McCain's geography isn't that bad.)
Lost in this whole debate about if it is plagiarism or not, why would we want to support a country that has an official religion? I thought that one of the core tenants of our democracy was freedom of religion, and that the government would not pick a religion.
I wonder if Georgia was one of the first countries to adopt Islam as the official state religion if John "Keating 5" McCain would highlight that?
I can't wait for the debates. Grampi could come up with a hum dinger.
JGabriel @ 4:
Well grade schoolers don't understand plagiarism, but grownups are "supposed" to. High school teachers and college professors are "supposed" to be calling students out for doing it.
McCain Confuses Somalia & Sudan
To the Editors... I think this is the missing link!
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/30/mccain-confuses-sudan-and-somalia/
This post is incomplete.
It does not tell what Cokie Roberts, David Broder, and Jonah Goldberg think of this issue. Because they are so in touch with
America and it's values. If Obama would have town hall meetings in any place but Hawaii and quit being a liberal fascist, McCain
wouldn't have to lie, cheat, steal and smear his way to a dismal defeat in November.
Sorry, but it sounds like this is about as significant as the Obama/Patrick "plagiarism". Which means, of course, that the media will probably shout about it more than any of McCain's real foreign policy nonsense
God invented war to teach Americans geography.
The Post Shows Some More Love John
The Media calls him a "maverick" on taxes (for opposing Bush's tax cuts in '03) but no one seems to be able to focus on his actual, current tax policy.
The headline of a Washington Post article read: "Obama Tax Plan Would Balloon Deficit, Analysis Finds."
But while the headline focused on Sen. Barack Obama, the article itself reported that the Tax Policy Center found that Sen. John McCain's tax plan would add $5 trillion to the national debt while Obama's plan would add $3.4 trillion.
I guess ol' John's startin' to finally get the hang of them there tubular intragoogles.
His speechwriter may use Wiki for quick reference when Duke Nukem has to spew something quick.
In light of this and other foreign policy errors, how can anyone continue with the meme that McCain is "ready from day one" or that his strength is foreign policy and military matters?
Moreover, this casts considerable doubt over McCain's staff. I think we can safely assume that McCain himself didn't do the cutting and pasting. In fact, I'd be encouraged to learn that he was capable of such a thing. So this error is attributable to a paid staffer. Given the importance of this issue, the staffer had to be pretty high level. We can therefore assume that foreign policy under a McCain administration would be guided on a factual level by Wikipedia. Scary.
I was going to make an acidic comment about McCain's foreign policy and diplomacy being Wiki based when it occurred to me that this would be a vast improvement over the current illiterate policy.
Plagerism... 'you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.'
This is not entirely insignificant. McCain, in giving us ignorant fools a lecture on the history of Georgia, tried to puff up his foreign policy experience creds. The same guy who doesn't know where Iraq and Pakistan are situated relative to each other, who thinks Czechoslovakia still exists, who wasn't even aware that Putin is the EX-president of Russia for cryin' out loud, thought that he would come out swinging with this speech and show that he can speak extemporaneously on whatever world crisis that presents itself.
Reality: He, or his staff, simply browsed wikipedia's entry on Georgia, History Of and plucked out bits and pieces. Did he give any particular insight into the history and trajectory of Georgia? No. Did he offer a special perspective that can only come from age and wisdom? No. Leadership is more than having wikipediac knowledge of the world.
That said, Obama didn't have anything inspiring to say either, which is probably a big mistake on his part. He is the one that needs to come out swinging and show he's ready for these things.
Arthur A @ 19:
What do you think it means?
OK, McCain is an idiot,and Obama is a celebrity. Is either man a STATESMAN?!?!?!? These guys are running for president!! I am so sick of this and every other fucking "political blog",as well as the MSM, and anyone else who comments acting as though they have found some compelling reason why one or the other of these men are unfit to be president. The fact is that NEITHER man is fit to be president if this is the kind of crap we have been reduced to as deciding factors. President is not a popularity contest!!!!! It is a serious position that can result in decisions that can KILL or IMPRISON people and DESTROY lives, nations,and economies!!!!! Until you fuckingimbeciles take this seriously, we are doomed to elect morons and fucktards as our nation's leaders until we no longer have a nation to lead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Peter G @ 18:
Do you suppose they will try to spin this as being demonstrative of McCains improving computer skills?
Jersey Jon @ 17:
Actually, It will probably be guided by Conservapedia (tm). Not that's terrifying!
republicans block efforts to subpeona global warming documents...."it's a hoax" but they won't come clean..if it's absolutley not true prove it. i heard the ceo of lloyds of london they have great concern about global warming
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/2008/07/global-warming.html
I'm not so concerned that McCain "Xeroxed" the Wikipedia article as I am that McCain and, dishearteningly, Obama, have BOTH "Xeroxed" the White House meme that the EVIL RUSSIANS are suppressing Georgia, this tiny outpost of Democracy.
In broad terms, the Bush administration's policy of attempting to bring many of the former Soviet Union's client states into the fold of NATO and US-sponsored "democracy" - despite Reagan's and Bush Sr's assurances that the US would NOT do so after the breakup of the USSR - is at fault.
And in narrow terms, US (and French and Israeli) military backing for the Pinochet-wannabe Saakashvili and his INSANE stated intentions of bringing Abkhazia and South Ossetia back under Georgian rule, and his attempt on August 7th to do so are to blame.
And if Obama were TRULY "my guy" he'd be hammering the Bush administration and the presumptive (and presumptuous) ReTHUGlican nominee McCain on precisely the broad point: that Bush administration DUPLICITY with and PROVOCATION of Russia - including the proposed missile and radar bases in Poland and the Czech Republic - are to blame.
There WAS a window of opportunity for the US and Russia to cooperate after the breakup of the USSR. The NeoCons have taken it as a window of opportunity to encircle and weaken Russia.
WTF did they expect?
Oh yeah, for the Russian Bear to roll over and play dead.
Arthur A @ 19:
McPlagiarism? Is that OK?
oops .. double post .. sorry
whoops sorry wrong thread #26
obama should take advantage of mccain's sophomoric stand on this issue to prove that mccain's touted foreign policy expertise is all hot air; that in fact mccain is more hawkish and simplistic than bush.
please read
McCain: Let's Compound the Blunder!
http://www.belgraviadispatch.com/2008/08/mccain_clueless.html
The announcement this morning that Russia will halt its military operations in Georgia will almost certainly be followed by another. No doubt, the McCain campaign and its conservative amen corner will claim that John McCain's tough talk is responsible for it. As with the July release of Colombian hostages and the recent dip in oil prices, Team McCain will claim the credit.
For the details, see:
"Coming Soon: John McCain's Georgia Miracle."
JGabriel @ 4:
exactly.
Like a stoner in school who procrastinated on his homework, McSame and the GOP are always looking for the answers in the back of the book as a shortcut, copy the answers and present them to the teacher, ie the American people, as their original work.
Republicans as well as the stoners in school, never realized that the teacher was always one step ahead of them.
What about the plagiarism of thousands of mainstream journalists repeating as news the talking points faxed to them from the White House?
Oh, right: IOKIYAR
On the same topic of "plagiarism" .. check this out.
Google News page has routinely featured video from Russia Today during Georgia's War On South Ossetia. That's where I found this today. It's also on YouTube.
Cameraman accuses CNN of using his footage of Tskhinvali (capital of South Ossetia that Georgia attacked last Thursday) and claims it is footage of Gori (the city in Georgia whence the attacks originated) to "prove" that the Russians attacked Gori.
CNN use footage of Tskhinvali ruins to cover Georgian report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVNblG9PJMk
Copyright Problems
McCain should give a speech about copyrights, I hear wikipedia has some great articles.
Not worthy!
McCain aide Michael Goldfarb reports that the clip of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey doing their "we're not worthy" routine from Wayne's World has given their newest webad some copyright problems:
"Myers had his people call the campaign to demand that the video be removed from YouTube for copyright violation. Apparently, we are not, in fact, worthy."
Plagerism… ‘you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.’
*"It's inconceivable!"
* "Stop saying that!"
Read this:
MCCAIN: LET'S COMPOUND THE BLUNDER!
Adult perspective you're not gonna get from the neoclowns and their MSM Court Composers..
Another good one:
Lonely Night in Georgia
You would certainly not be castigated at this time to be fish-eyed and trench-mouthed about the stinking mire of the upcoming election, but reflection on what got us to this vomitus projecting conjunction is what is most valued and needed at this time What got us into this slippery Mucinex-related morass is the educational system, which now prepares students for the job market (Would you like to supersize that?) instead of offering a general education, kind of like adding more fiber to your mental capacity. Politicians, those festering gobs, the pork rinds of our communal food for thought, are elected on the exploitation of the economy, despite fish-lip service to family values, and worker ants and their families are expected to subordinate their lives to the needs of their manipulators. Material success is the crux of existence, rather than goals and Yahtzee bonus points such as parenting, teaching, and serving the community, which are considered worthless and their practitioners the dimmest of rubes. Those elites with the angry means and real stopping power can succeed while all those creatures lacking are abandoned by the freeway or worse, in La Habra. The cause: The anomie cultivated by the American Dream and, since the prominence is on the competence of the market economy, political opportunism and crime are often seen as the most foxy strategy for making obscene and pointless material gains. The Dream also embodies the use of material success to measure one's self-worth, which gives the sub-par intellect infidel Boosh his shit-eating smirk.
bvac @ 23:
Possibly so. It surely illustrates that neither McCain's speech writers nor McCain himself has much use for actual foreign policy experts. Consulting one would probably have taken whole minutes of his valuable time.
Loonie @ 15:
Wait til he visits whitehouse.com instead of whitehouse.gov !
I'm sorry. I don't have the time or inclination to explain it. Have you actually followed the link? Plus, it's an interesting fact. How many different ways can you say it? And if you use a similar version you need to attribute it to wikipedia? What about one of the hundreds of books on the subject that say 100 variations of the same thing. Did he steal from all of them?
The words aren't even the same. They're similar. And similar on a mundane subject. A recitation of common knowledge. Anyone who thinks this represents plagiarism is grasping at straws.
Albatross @ 33:
Isn't that more akin to stenography?
Arthur A @ 41:
It's not blatant plagiarism, but it does illustrate that McCain and his staffers has no clue on how to deal with foreign policy. We all know that McCain doesn't know how to navigate the internet. This is just laziness on his staffers part if nothing else.
The first poster is correct. Just click on the History button near the top of any Wikipedia page, and you can review the full editing history of that page, including dates and times.
Arthur A @ 41:
The point is that before yesterday McSame had NO IDEA what, where or who Georgia was, other than one of the red states Obama will take from the GOP in November. So in an effort to 'hurry up' and appear as if he's knowledgeable on the subject, he did what all web-savvy people do, they go to WIKI !
It's OK to copy from WIKI, but when you're running for president and claiming your expertise is in foreign policy, you look like a dunce when you have to get all your information from WIKI at the last moment.
Maybe he should look up "economics" in Wikipedia.
ThunderMonkey @ 43:
Did you plagerize my post #45 ?
;)
Do they have a "support the troops" section in Wikipedia?
I wonder if they have a map of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan in "Wiki."
Captain Bitter Whiner Hussein Kangaroo @ 48:
yes, it's under ENLIST YOU LAZY WARMONGERING FAT ASS!
Captain Bitter Whiner Hussein Kangaroo @ 49:
Yes, and the borders of those countriesan dtheir neighbors are clearly defined. So we can safely assume McSame has NOT visited those web sites.
They do have the history of Czechoslovakia. McSenile, just click on the blue letters and you can learn something about world history.
beancounter @ 22:
So when do you announce your candidacy? And do you have a website where we can read about your platform?
Arthur A @ 41:
Indeed the words are similar. As someone who has marked many a paper I appreciate when a student goes to the trouble to consult a thesaurus and make the necessary changes so they don't copy someone else's work word for word. Usually, however the content and order of presentation of ideas gives them away. It is nice to know that McCain's speech writers have that kind of respect for a thesaurus.
L.A. Confidential @ 3:
Here's an interesting little video that tries to explain the situation in Georgia:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&It...
Peter G @ 54:
As someone who has failed many a student for less--having my decision upheld by the judiciaries every time--I can tell you that it is, in fact, plagiarism. Despite the words being slightly different at times, the structure is intact, and the meaning is the same.
Don't have the time or inclination? Then why bring it up, especially when you don't have any idea what you're talking about?
Yellow Elephant Safari @ 53:
Candidacy: Not gonna happen. I'm a drunkard with a past. In this day and age, I wouldn't make it onto a local ballot for dogcatcher.
Platform:
1) Single payer healthcare (not health insurance!!!). We already pay for it folks: bazillions to insurance companies who spend more money fighting claims than they do paying them.
2) A JFK moonshot-style program for alternative energy. If we can pay Halliburton billions to electrocute GIs in Iraq, we can pay competent engineers to develop new energy sources.
3) A tax system based on income: the more you make (i.e. the greater the benefit you derive from living or doing business in the US), the higher the percentage you pay. Don't give me the crap about how this is a disincentive to production-- those who want to make money will find a way to do it. They always have. No entrepreneur worth a shit has ever said, "I chose not to make money because I would have had to pay too much in taxes. The ones who are simply gaming the system will be the ones who are complaining.
4) Reduce the pentagon's budget by 50%, and invest that money in infrastructure. Then, when we have something worth defending, we can think about raising their budget. Personally, I would prefer that we train more statesmen than soldiers, though.
5) I love a free market. It's too bad the free market does not exist in the US. If your business is working, why should the government be subsidizing you? If you're dumb enough to invest in a high-risk, high-return free market, and you lose your shirt, I guess you'll just have to go around naked from the waist up. After all, you weren't going to share your income with the rest of us if you had scored big! If, on the other hand, you choose to invest your hard-earned money in a safer, lower-return government-regulated vehicle, then you deserve to be protected to the extent that was agreed upon when you made your investment.
6) If you are the George Bush of some other country, you have nothing to fear from the US beyond harsh words and sanctions. If you invade another country, the US will lobby the UN to push you out. The US will not act unilaterally, but the US will not be mute.
7) I don't care what your religion is, or whether you even follow a religion, you are welcome in the US. The same goes for your ethnic background. If you are convicted of a crime in the US, you will be imprisoned or deported, but your existence in the US does not constitute a crime. I would prefer that all immigrants learn English, and assimilate themselves as much as they feel comfortable with into American culture. English as a second language courses would be free to anyone.
Given time, I could probably come up with a few more planks to my platform, but I hope you noticed that nowhere in this fantasy platform did I denigrate a possible opponent. A campaign for ANY public office should be limited to what he candidate has to offer the people he or she wants to SERVE. Everything else is bullshit: haircut, amount of cleavage shown, lapel pins, race, religion, military service, who inhaled, and who lied about it, etc., etc. etc., etc. And that's all I'm seeing during this presidential campaign is both sides focusing on the bullshit so we won't notice that their candidates have nothing to offer us.
Until we, the voters DEMAND more from our leaders and from our media (ALL of our media), we'll continue to get this bullshit soap opera we pretend is a campaign. And we'll continue to elect fucktards like Bush, and have only fucktards like Obama and McCain to choose from. But hey, football starts before the elections, so at least there'll be some relief!!
McImpotent can now add "plagiarist" to his long litany of outstanding credits. This guy is such a flaming moron reading every word of every speech that it's nauseating. Does he have a brain in his head?
More of the same lame bullshit!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's funny how you totally omit the heart of that debacle, you dismiss it as just some media fluff but it was driven and hammered directly by the Clinton campaign in a pathetic attempt to smear Obama's oratory skills. You even borrowed Hillary's shameful rehearsed smear line in the debates for your headline. Let's not try to protect them anymore. They are still at trying to sabotage Obama.
beancounter @ 57:
A Presidential election is a popularity contest, and your background fits the profile perfectly, if the past eight years are any indication. Problem is, your platform actually sounds pretty decent.
You ARE kidding, right? Taegan posted that item early yesterday and has ANY of the MSM picked up on it? Nooooooooo! Instead, John McCain is being praised for his "comprehensive knowledge of the history of Georgia"!
Why? Because we, the voting public, can't be exposed to the truth about John McCain and the fact that, if he's elected, he got there in part, by plagiarizing part of his speeches.
Nope; can't have that!
i wonder who among the msm will discuss the culpability of the u.s. in this crisis. so far, the msm is making it seem that it's all russia's fault. it's iraq all over again.
malveaux was interviewing russia's un ambassador and did not seem to know what to make of what he was saying about the u.s. encouraging georgia. i suppose she's waiting for the corporate go-signal on what can be further dissected and she doesnt have that permission yet.
Not to defend McCain, who's a douche, but whoever wrote the Wiki article took it mostly from the CIA World Factbook, which is in the public domain and available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gg.html. It's possible that McCain's people used tha Factbook information rather than Wikipedia. Most Wikipedia text is copied from somewhere else. A lot of it is written by U.S. government agencies, so it's considered public domain. The problem is that people don't cite it like they should.
Let's move on and discuss the issues, okay?
McSame's team denies it. Seems the man himself was calling the shots! HA!
And here's - the proof?
Well that convinces me! Doesn't it convince you?
Libertina @ 64:
Even if they cribbed it from there, tell me how that is better than a deep seated expertise? You just go on line and get the words. Come on!
Here is a very good interview Amy Goodman did with a Col. Gardiner regarding what is REALLY going on between Russia, Israel, the U.S., Georgia and South Ossetia:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20492.htm
RancidVenison @ 61:
That's the point I'm trying to make: background trumps ideas in America today. We campaign and we vote as if we're running for highschool office. The stakes are so high that this is astonishing to me. Do we have to collapse as a nation to wake everyone up?
beancounter @ 68:
I got the point, thanks, and unfortunately, maybe/probably so...
calscientist @ 65:
F+
Here is an article John McCain and warmongers like Kristol should read:
A Path to Peace in the Caucasus
By Mikhail Gorbachev
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The roots of this tragedy lie in the decision of Georgia's separatist leaders in 1991 to abolish South Ossetian autonomy.
...
Through all these years, Russia has continued to recognize Georgia's territorial integrity. Clearly, the only way to solve the South Ossetian problem on that basis is through peaceful means. Indeed, in a civilized world, there is no other way.
...
What happened on the night of Aug. 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond. To accuse it of aggression against "small, defenseless Georgia" is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity.
Mounting a military assault against innocents was a reckless decision whose tragic consequences, for thousands of people of different nationalities, are now clear. The Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of U.S. instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of NATO membership, emboldened Georgian leaders into thinking that they could get away with a "blitzkrieg" in South Ossetia.
In other words, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was expecting unconditional support from the West, and the West had given him reason to think he would have it. Now that the Georgian military assault has been routed, both the Georgian government and its supporters should rethink their position.
...
Over the past few days, some Western nations have taken positions, particularly in the U.N. Security Council, that have been far from balanced. As a result, the Security Council was not able to act effectively from the very start of this conflict. By declaring the Caucasus, a region that is thousands of miles from the American continent, a sphere of its "national interest," the United States made a serious blunder. Of course, peace in the Caucasus is in everyone's interest. But it is simply common sense to recognize that Russia is rooted there by common geography and centuries of history. Russia is not seeking territorial expansion, but it has legitimate interests in this region. (emphasis mine)
...
A lesson from recent events is that geopolitical games are dangerous anywhere, not just in the Caucasus.
The writer was the last president of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 and is president of the Gorbachev Foundation, a Moscow think tank. A version of this article, in Russian, will be published in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper tomorrow.
read on:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR200808...
read on:
RancidVenison @ 56:
You've failed people for LESS? Where? Regent University? Break it down for me 'prof'. How is statement 1 different from saying 'the united states was the first nation to put a man on the moon.'
Statement two, the meaning is the same because... wait for it... it's a recitation of history. The meaning of these facts comes later in the speech, when he tells you what these facts mean. That's not in the part you see here. And the structure is the same because when you explain the order of events to arrive at something, it's normal to say them in the order they happened.
Quit reaching for something that isn't there. It's embarrassing. Focus on the fact that he still thinks there's a country called czechoslovakia and that Afghanistan and Iraq share a border. All you do is lower the
plagiarism' bar, making it easier for the RNC to paint Obama as the plagiarist the next time he talks about the American revolution and some dumb-a$$ goes online and finds a similar explanation in Wikipedia or in his 4th grade text book that Obama happened to remember when giving his speech. And those guys will get to make the case on national television. And you'll be left sputtering because it's exactly the same charge you leveled against McCain back in August.
Finally the chickens have come home to roost. To hear Condi Rice today proclaim the integrity of internationally established borders, and then go on to cite international law as back-up, it all actually made me physically ill. Tell that to the Serbians and the situation in their Kosovo province. The Russians aren't doing one one-hundreth of the damage we (the USA under a Democratic administration) inflicted upon the civilian infrastructure of a sovereign nation that posed no harm to the U.S. Remember the Democratic refrain? Knock down every bridge, turn out every light...so disrupt their economy....
And again....just like in Kosovo...the media plays along and puts everything in terms of black and white. Good guys and bad guys and nothing in between. No shades of grey.
As I watch Albright, Holbrooks, and Wesley Clark and all the rest of the neo-con Democrats gravitate toward Obama, I'm beginning to think the "third-party" crazies aren't all that crazy after all. The rest of us are.
Although a snarky question, I'm tempted to ask the Obama campaign: "Can I get a refund?"
Arthur A @ 72:
University of Texas and Ohio University, "Arthur." Too elitist for Regent?
By the way, single quotation marks are for quotes within quotes, and your second would be placed properly outside the period, dumb@ss.
I'll concede the point that i have bad blog grammar, if you'll stay focussed on the discussion at hand.
Hope you all enjoy being Georgians-for-a-Day. It wasn't part of this speech, but in comments about the war made by McCain today he said, in very somber tones:
"I think I can speak for all Americans when I say we're all Georgians today."
ya...he is running an idiotic campaign....duh
but here is the real deal
with guys like heil hannity and el druggo praising mcistealfromwiki, on his tuff....errr....empty rhetoric....why is no one talking about how the russian response to georgia was not seen in advance? how did it happen when there are american military advisors on the ground as we created and continue to train the georgia military
well now we know, as it is being reported that all our spy satellites are now trained on afghanistan, iran and iraq
yes...the war in iraq has sure made us safer
and why did no one ask bush, that when putin shot out of the olympics, did he not do the same?
so we have a prez that is only interested in world affairs when they dont interfere with his looking at beach volley ballers asses....or reading my pet goat
“we are all Georgians" is a rip off of JFK and his "we are all Berliners" speech in West Berlin.
Something poetic about McPlagarist borrowing a phrase and comparing himself to a donut...
McDonut 'old and crusty on the outside, soft and rotting on the inside'
McPlagiarism's WikiPresidential campaign is becoming Wikity Wikity Wack. Good thing he played the I-don't-know-anything-about-computers card, now he can blame his staff.
I want to hear a McCain strategy to foreign policy that does not involve war. I hope he remembers "the surge is working" and our troops are a little preoccupied with that. He can find out more about foreign policy at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy.
OK. Just a test. In about the same number of words, please state the facts of the Georgia Wiki entry without looking like the source was Wiki or you are plagiarizing.
The problem with the past is it is almost entirely anecdotal and written by the victors. If you weren't actually at the scene when events were unfolding, you are going to have to mentally plagiarize someone else's account of what occurred to even come to an opinion you can vocalize. The account you are likely to form your opinion from is likely to be that of the winner.
Look at it from the bright side. McCain and his team are getting technically adept. When they need quick answers to questions they can now Google it like the rest of the world. And I love the Wiki source. Priceless. An encyclopedia of "facts" that can be edited by anyone with a computer. Wiki is another great tool in the GOP kit for rewriting history - I'll bet McCain now has it bookmarked with Mosaic as his home page on his screaming Mac ii.
For forensics sake, lets keep an eye on style and word usage on Wiki. Its just like a signature...
You can manipulate McCain's foreign policy by editing the Wikipedia entry for Georgia.
Clearly someone rewrote parts of the wikipedia entry and incorporated them into his speech to provide background information. The fact that the language is so similar probably does demonstrate that he or she was looking at wikipedia as the speech was written.
I'm surprised that anyone is shouting plagiarism over this -- it just seems pathetic. For one, we know that John McCain has probably never used wikipedia in his life, so he's certainly not the culprit.
So if we want to make this a scandal what do we have:
1) John McCain doesn't write his own speeches (Don't think anyone cares)
2) A John McCain speech writer leaned heavily on a pseudo-academic source when writing about a foreign country. (Blaming John McCain on that is just insane)
3) The John McCain campaign thinks wikipedia is a reputable source --> thinks that everyday people can just re-write history.
Now that's an abomination! That's the president's job.
edgarallenpoe @ 81:
Win.
Does McCain have a college degree?
what isnt able to be xeroxed out of this guys campaign?
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