Six days ago, I wrote about how a solid contact inside the McCain campaign explained to me what’s left for McCain (http://thepoliticalcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2008/10/john-mccain-30-minute-man.html) in the remaining days of the election battle after his terrible performance in the third debate. “Voter suppression and wonky Diebold machines,” my contact said then, adding “It’s our last hope.” He stuns me into a long silence. Breaking the awkward pause, he quickly added, “I’m just kidding.”It turns out that, even though he did not know it at the time, my source was serious.“There have been meetings and conference calls between people here (at McCain’s campaign headquarters), people at the RNC and groups out in Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania and maybe a few other states creating a strategy to harass voters and challenge ballots,” he tells me this morning in a call he makes to me on his cell phone from the safety of his car. “This isn’t what I signed up for and I don’t want to be a part of it. I may resign in the next day or two.”I sit in my office, dumbfounded. Here is a relatively important person inside a presidential campaign acknowledging that McCain and the Republican National Committee are conspiring secretly with outside groups to sabotage the presidential election.Why, I ask, are they doing this?“I think it’s because they know the election is lost in a fair fight so they want to cast doubts on the legitimacy of Obama’s victory,” he says. “Hell, we’re losing it in an unfair fight in spite of the bullshit about Ayers.“Anyway, in the process they might just pull off a win if they can challenge enough voters or scare people away from voting,” my source adds. “With the polls against him, they need a distraction on election day.”Just Like ZimbabweI reach a second contact in the McCain campaign, a woman I’ve known for decades who works in one of the dwindling number of swing states, to learn if she’s heard anything similar.“Well, I don’t get a lot of the insider scuttlebutt ‘cause I’m not in McLean (Virginia, where McCain’s campaign office is located),” she reminds me. “But it fits with rumors I’ve heard and stuff floating around the office and on the web.”I wonder whether she thinks it is a legitimate strategy for a presidential campaign to condone.“Ask Steve Schmidt,” she shoots back with more than a tinge of bitterness in her voice. “It sounds like something straight from Rove’s playbook. If you can’t beat them, scare them. If you can’t scare them, make sure their votes don’t count.”I hang up thinking this sounds like Zimbabwe. Or Haiti or some other backwater country ruled by a tin pot dictator. I wonder if the United States needs the Carter Center to monitor the US elections as it did in Gaza and some African nations.Frightening RealityThe frightening reality is that GOP-backed groups are systematically looking for ways to prevent Democrats from casting a ballot Nov. 4. As Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC Tuesday night, (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27313887#27313887) Colorado has purged up to 12% of all voter registrations and, in a Rolling Stone article (www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23638322/block_the_vote) Kennedy details how the tactic is spreading to other states. Not coincidentally, Pres. Bush put former Colorado Republican Secretary of State Donna Davidson in charge of showing voting officials how to “clean up” their registration lists. For “clean up” you can substitute “get rid of Democrats, especially minorities in urban areas.”Even if your name isn’t purged and you aren’t challenged at your voting place, Kennedy notes your vote may still not count. The US Commission on Civil Rights investigated some of the 2000 returns from Florida and found that African-Americans were 10 times more likely than whites to have their ballots rejected, a ratio that holds nationwide, Kennedy reports in his Rolling Stone article.Fighting FirstUnlike the Democrats in 2000 and 2004, Barack Obama’s legal team and the DNC are not sitting passively for the vote to be stolen out from under the country.I speak with two sources inside the Obama election effort and neither is totally surprised, adding that legal teams are active in every state to help ensure that voters can actually vote. In fact, several thousand volunteer lawyers will be ready to move into counties and precincts on Election Day or during the counting process if trouble is reported.While there have been some problems with early voting, my friend Pete in Palm Beach County, Florida voted yesterday and said things went smoothly.“I waited in line an hour because the place was packed. Being curious, I asked an elections official how things were going. And they noted every early place in (the county) was just like this one: Open at 10AM to long lines and it doesn't stop until after 7 PM. “Like a lot of people voting, the couple in front of me were wearing Obama T-shirts and the guy behind me had an Alaska hat on but was voting for Obama. Why, I asked him? He said it’s because Palin has brought great shame on the state by her actions, greed, and outright fraudulent behaviour. He predicts that Palin will have a primary fight for sure if she loses with McCain. Why he is voting in Florida? He tells me winters are too damn cold in Alaska so he comes to Florida in September, returning in May. His son runs the business in Juneau during the winter.”Hopefully, things will run as smoothly straight through Election Day. But the McCain campaign, the Republican National Committee and groups they’re supporting are trying to ensure nothing goes smoothly.
- I orginally wrote this for LA Progressive and it appeared at www.laprogressive.com on Oct. 22, 2008.
Other articles in this series appear at:
www.vadimuspost.com/%e2%80%9cwe%e2%80%99re-going-to-%e2%80%98willie-horton%e2%80%99-obama%e2%80%9d/
www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/26/%e2%80%9cmccain-has-become-a-walking-disaster%e2%80%9d/
www.vadimuspost.com/mccain-can%e2%80%99t-afford-to-drop-sarah-they-won%e2%80%99t-let-him-anyways/
http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/10/10/you-can%e2%80%99t-trust-a-black-man-how-can-you-vote-for-one-radio-spots-planned/
http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/10/08/the-debates-obama-biden-3-mccain-palin-0/
First Presidential Debate
www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/27/the-morning-after-the-night-before%e2%80%99s-debate/
I am not a very trusting soul, I guess. This whole bailout idea sounds really suspicious to me. It is hard to believe George Bush under any circumstances since his lies got us into a never ending war with Iraq for none of the reasons he said. I notice the even Senator McCain is still repeating those lies. That is what one would expect a lackey to do, so I suppose it isn't really a blot on him. He is just a spear carrier. George Bush also lied about the telephone surveillance of Americans which we now have direct testimony from people in the business showing that it is not targeted or even controlled. I notice that Senator McCain is still repeating the controlled, targeted and necessary lies. That is what one would expect a lackey to do, since he is just a spear carrier. Now we have George Bush saying the sky is falling the sky is falling and the only thing we can do is take a couple of trillion dollars out of the treasury and give it to the Wall Street guys, and later give it to the bankers. No strings. And again, Senator McCain goes along. He even offers other ideas like cutting capital gains tax rates to seven percent. Weird when you think that most people will not have any capital gains this year, but much in line with George Bush's plans to give money to people who already have lots of it. A lackey, a spear carrier.
But I just feel that there is some agenda about this bailout that we don't know about yet. I can't imagine any problem with less than 10% of the sub-prime mortgages being big enough that we couldn't deal with it in the normal course of business with our existing agencies and practices. And if mortgages were it, why are all the bailout measures aimed at people who have nothing to do with mortgages? Just like there wasn't anything about Iraq that would have merited a single person being killed over it. Just like the crazy idea that you can spy on Americans because of things you don't know they are doing. Or that we were somehow relieved of observing the Geneva Conventions because we are exceptionally nice people.
Could this gambit be intended to take away the ability of the United States to borrow money for some time in the future? That will make the dollar a worthless currency everywhere but at the 7 Eleven on the corner. That could provide cover for all the Saudi princes to switch to the Euro for trading oil and stick the Russians with lots of worthless dollars and a struggling economy. We can already see that the future price for oil is dropping like a stone now. Nothing has changed about the oil, the supply or the demand. So maybe this sudden crisis is another misguided plan, half cocked by George Bush and his lackey Senator McCain, to deceive, defraud and leave destitute the American public, paralyze the government for some time to come (like during the Obama administration), and give aid and comfort to Saudi Arabia.
I don't know why, but a letter to the editor in the local paper prompted me to write a rebuttal. The letter was citing the works of Jerome Corsi, the conservative conspiracy theorist, in reasons not to vote for Obama/Biden. The letter can be found here. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, I just had to shoot out a rapid response to the editor. I don't know if it will be published, but the editor did email me right back witha question (one of the sentences had been cut off). So, just in case it doesn't make it into the newspaper, here it is:
In a September 9th letter to the editor, Thomas Harshbarger insists that Sen. Joe Biden has ties to Iran and Muslim extremists, stating the book “Atomic Iran” by Jerome Corsi as an inspiration for this pronouncement. It is important to note, however, that this source material is little more than conspiracy theory. Jerome Corsi is a controversial conservative writer who spouts off half formed conspiracy theories that even conservatives distance themselves from (such as Pres. Bush trying to merge the US, Canada and Mexico into one nation and that there is a government conspiracy concerning 9/11). The book in which Mr. Harshbarger has given his trust has garnered much criticism. One newspaper even labels him a “literary mugger” in an article about the book [Daily News (New York), 2/24/05]. Mr. Corsi has proven that he is not above inventing “facts” when they conveniently fit into his ideological theories. Given Mr. Corsi’s penchant for conspiracy theories based on inaccuracies, bias and hate (he is commonly quoted slurring not only democrats, but Muslims and Catholics as well), readers would be well advised to ignore any of the “facts” brought forth in his books when it comes to a situation as important as this election.
In a September 9th letter to the editor, Thomas Harshbarger insists that Sen. Joe Biden has ties to Iran and Muslim extremists, stating the book “Atomic Iran” by Jerome Corsi as an inspiration for this pronouncement. It is important to note, however, that this source material is little more than conspiracy theory. Jerome Corsi is a controversial conservative writer who spouts off half formed conspiracy theories that even conservatives distance themselves from (such as Pres. Bush trying to merge the US, Canada and Mexico into one nation and that there is a government conspiracy concerning 9/11).
The book in which Mr. Harshbarger has given his trust has garnered much criticism. One newspaper even labels him a “literary mugger” in an article about the book [Daily News (New York), 2/24/05]. Mr. Corsi has proven that he is not above inventing “facts” when they conveniently fit into his ideological theories.
Given Mr. Corsi’s penchant for conspiracy theories based on inaccuracies, bias and hate (he is commonly quoted slurring not only democrats, but Muslims and Catholics as well), readers would be well advised to ignore any of the “facts” brought forth in his books when it comes to a situation as important as this election.
Vladimir Putin accuses Bush of provoking Georgia conflict to help John McCain
Times Online - Aug 28 2008
“The suspicion arises that someone in the United States especially created this conflict with the aim of making the situation more tense and creating a competitive advantage for one of the candidates fighting for the post of US President.” Mr Putin said that his defence officials had told him that Americans were operating in the conflict zone in Georgia during the fighting. He added: “It should be admitted that they would do so only following direct orders from their leaders. Therefore, they were acting in implementing those orders, doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader.”
“The suspicion arises that someone in the United States especially created this conflict with the aim of making the situation more tense and creating a competitive advantage for one of the candidates fighting for the post of US President.”
Mr Putin said that his defence officials had told him that Americans were operating in the conflict zone in Georgia during the fighting.
He added: “It should be admitted that they would do so only following direct orders from their leaders. Therefore, they were acting in implementing those orders, doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader.”
Wild Conspiracy Theory?
Bush and Putin sit chatting at the Olympics while the Russians invade Georgia.
Flash Back to headlines about comments and polls about how a military conflict with Iran would insure a Republican – McCain Victory in November.
Bush and Putin back at the Olympics.
Putin: “So ve just invade Georgia, is McCain ready vid his speech?
Bush: Yup, I think he’s already on TV, this’ll give us the war “crisis” we needed to make McCain look like he’s a General or sumthing and no one can say we rigged it.”
Putin: “You will owe us for dis.”
Bush: “Yeah, 'member I’m gonna haveta step up the anti-ruskey rhetoric, maybe even sign that missile defense deal with Poland, but it wouldn’t go in place for years.
Putin: “Ve can negotiate this after McCain is elected.”
Bush: "Now, gotta work on disrupting the Democratic Convention, heh, heh."
This is it. This is the very first Blog entry. This is perhaps where I'll tell the story, long before I'd ever heard of Barack Obama. The story begins after the last election. I was so disheartened that Bush won AGAIN that I was committed to leaving the country for Europe (my wife is German) or doing something that would help change America for better. I needed to do my Kierkegaardian 'wrench in the machine' of the Hegelian necon oligarchy that is running the world rather poorly. So I decided, again long before I ever heard of Barack Obama, to make a movie... anyway I made Able Danger which has been touring the festivals and now i hope to bring it to the public on 9/11/08 and donate profits of the first week to Barack Obama. Because he's the future of America that I wanted to see and help bring about.
Why did you help shred the fourth ammendment? Please explain this for us. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt but this is very dissappointing to put it mildly. Many feel the same as I...
Read here.
McCain simply cannot be elected. His presidency would be the equivalent of a Bush 3rd term. McCain alread said we could be in Iraq for another 100 years. Then he did a flip-flop and said he would pull the troops out by the end of his first term. Which is is Mr. Keryy....err...I mean Mr. McCain?
The press and Obama have a difficult proposition to question him, because McCain is a combat veteran. Supposedly questioning John on the military would be like questioning patriotism. Well, as a fellow combat vet I respect McCain's, but will not endorse him because of his blind allegiance to the war in the Middle East.
He is another Bush. ----
I was talking with a friend last night and we wondered about a conspiracy of sorts. I am skeptical of conspiracies (other than Kennedy in 63...), but the rationale for it makes ruthless political sense, it's cold-hearted, and that means you have to consider it as possible or likely.
Hillary Clinton is 60 years old. Anymore for a politician, that's not very old. She probably has a 'shelf life' of about 10-12 years left. Her objective--what she feels she is ENTITLED TO--is the presidency (because $100 million just isn't enough for a normal, aw-shucks, blue-collar ex-presidential family to live on nowadays...).
The one thing Hillary can NOT have--that makes the presidency impossible--is an Obama victory in November. Obama is young enough that he could easily serve two terms and change the face of the Democratic Party...'change' means the destruction of the Clinton Empire and two terms gives her a shelf life left of four years...not enough for two terms as president.
Thus, it is in her personal best interests to make sure Obama is dragged through the mud and left unable to win in November if he is indeed the nominee. A crippled Obama makes it more likely McCain is elected--and because of Iraq, as well as his age, McCain is more likely to be a one-term president...and that leaves EIGHT YEARS for Hillary and since Obama would have lost--she becomes the obvious candidate in 2012 for the Democratic Party.
That means that no matter what happens in Carolina or Indiana, this party campaign WILL go on to the bitter end or until enough superdelegates come forward and force one candidate or another out of it.
Actually, what I hope comes from this--and remember, I AM Republican...I hope blacks realize that they are exploited by the Clinton wing of the party. They've forgotten which party enforced segregation in the South (Democrats) or farther back, which party actually ended slavery (Republicans), desegregated schools (Republican), and that George Bush actually has more minority members in higher positions than Clinton EVER did.
MY disclaimer is above--I am a Republican. Old-school. Small government, no interference in private lives. And I still support Obama's campaign for president.
DesertDoveDan remembers growing up in California, how Bobby Kennedy's assassination figured big in his childhood consciousness, & what it means to invest hope in an Obama presidency. He sees how political process could be different...
Listen to this episode of Interview4Obama...
Hillary Can't Win Indiana/Hillary Can't Win North Carolina
Am I the only one who believes that the Clintons and the republicans may be conspiring to "destroy", and eliminate Senator Obama from the race? I'm sure everyone remembers Bill Clinton's statement about it being nice to have two "real Americans, who love their country, on the ballot.
Think about the recent tactics by the Clintons, McCain and the republican party(s). Hillary's options seem to be one of the following:
1. Destroy Senator Obama to the point that he loses in November, giving her another shot in four years.
2. Destroy Senator Obama to the point that she's on the ticket with him as VP, but loses to McCain in the general and gets to try again in four years. If they win she might have to wait 8 years.
3. Destroy Senator Obama and join with McCain on the republican ticket as VP. They win and she can run again in four years.
There may be a couple of options that I left out.
Senator Obama's best option might be to run as an independent against McCain the republican and Clinton the Democrats.
Published: April 20, 2008 10:10 PM ET - Associated Press
PITTSBURGH Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton was endorsed Sunday by a former foe who personally funded many of the investigations that led to her husband President Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1998. The unexpected nod came from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper, whose owner and publisher, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, in the 1990s helped support conservative groups and publications investigating the then-president's financial dealings and sex life. It was one of a handful of endorsements the New York senator has received from Pennsylvania newspapers before the state's primary Tuesday. Most of the state's major papers have endorsed Barack Obama.
Read full article here.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003791695
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
Article about U.S. & Drugs
Another Article about U.S. Plane carrying drugs.
In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism.
MSNBC Article: U.S. Involvement in 9/11 Attacks
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.
Pearl Harbor Information
We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.
--------------I'd like to point out that a lot of what we've read or heard in the past few days have been clips combined together to sound like 1 large rant against america. I read some transcripts here and there (which I cannot find at the moment) and given the time of these speeches, and the circumstances involved, Can you honestly claim that he was out of line? I do not doubt a politician will lie in order to protect his image. I do not doubt that such a person is capable of ordering the deaths of American Lives. Especially true when our government was designed to limit war to 2 years.
The 9/11 Commision's only purpose was to keep people from revolting. Keep them from seeking their own answers too soon. 5 years is a long time to investigate. Imagine if that's how long it took police to investigate your car being stolen.
I think it's sad that because someone chose to speak out, raise to the surface the possibility of indecent acts being committed, we are forced to distance ourselves from him. I think it would be invaluable for us to consider all possibilities.
When was the last time you watched a court case where the accused murderer is acquitted by stating, "I'm Innocent, I was framed, and 7 of my friends investigated the case and agree!"
And as for the Palestinians in Israel. This is an extremely sensitive situation. But in a Country where Church & State is seperated, I am bewildred that a person could say "Well, it's in our Bible." The Bible also has 10 commandments but they must be more suggestive than an order from God. I guess the question I would have to ask is, What would we do if the Native American's came together and provided us with a copy of their spiritual texts which says God gave them all of the lands currently occupied by the United States.
It really irks me when people quote the Bible to reason their terrible deeds, yet seem to have missed many of the intended lessons it teaches.
Shortly after 9/11, I was angry too. I would have ripped apart the person responsible if they had been in front of me. And if it was a conspiracy by people within the U.S. and we let them get away with it, they'll only get better at it. Why Bin Laden hasn't been 'found' is yet another thing to keep in mind. I cannot blame Rev. Wright for believing that America has become evil. We threw out the checks and balances almost 100 years ago. And shortly after, we entered the first World War.
And when he says "The Rich White Man", is he wrong about the people who control the financial world, the media, oil? These are people with Billions of Dollars. And if they were true Christians, they would have a need for so much.
What do you think?
It's the same ol' story every time: a new vision, real change, believe believe believe.
Some people still have no idea who is really pulling the strings. Barak WAS my candidate of choice. That was before my eyes were opened. Take just a few minutes to do a search on CFR, or Bilderbergs, or Trilateral Commission. Basically they're all the same, all related to each other, and all hoping and working on NOT being seen in clear sight. CFR. COUNSEL on Foreign Relations. Obama is a member, as are ALL the candidates, Republican and Democrat. Only Ron Paul has the guts to stand alone. He's the only one willing TO TRY to stop the madness. Don't believe me. Look for yourself. If you call yourself an American, it's your duty to your country and to yourself and those you love to investigate the truth. Please. Do a quick search on CFR.
No, I'm not talking about faith as in religion and spirituality, though that may make an interesting post for later. I am talking about trust in the government, or lack thereof.
Conspiracy theories have run wild lately. There are always the nutcases wearing tinfoil hats talking about black helicopters. We'll always have those. But since 9/11, there have been much more serious, and perhaps credible, theories by people one wouldn't normally associate with that sort of thing. There are those that say that the government planted bombs in the WTC, and those that deny it was a plane that hit the Pentagon, but suggest instead that it was one of our own missiles.
I'll go ahead and say it right now- I don't believe either of these theories, despite some people I respect and sincerely look up to (not my family) believing in them. First, in the matter of the WTC. No, jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel. We can all agree on that much. However, steel does not have to melt for it to lose its structural integrity, especially with several hundred tons of weight resting on it. Consider that the first tower got hit closer to the top, and the second tower was hit closer to the middle. The second one fell first because more weight was resting on the compromised section of the tower. Would you say that jet fuel burns hotter than wood? Then consider that when I BBQ stuff in my grill, the steel grate that the coals sit on becomes glowing hot, and eventually starts to sag under its own weight. People also point to the windows blowing out as the tower fell. That is because the air was being forced down. Granted, much escapes from the top, as it doesn't exactly form an air tight container as it falls, but not enough escaped, so the several thousand tons of rubble falling combined with vibrations from the collapse were more than enough to blow out windows. As for the Pentagon... it has been said that very few people witnessed a plane crashing into it. Well, even fewer witnessed a missile crashing into it. The burden of proof lies with the accusers.
That's not to say I don't have my own ideas. I think, based on what I've read, that the Bush administration did know something was going to happen, they just didn't act on it. Whether it be that they intended a "wag the dog" (a war/disaster to improve approval ratings) or because they just didn't know what the hell they were doing, I think they knew something was going to happen. Of course, maybe that's just my own lack of faith in the government, which brings me to my topic.
