The following stories, which touch on things that can have a real impact on our future, cannot generally be found easily in the “popular” media. Not on CNN, CBS, ABC, and certainly not on Fox News. But we can get Rev. Wright, the bitter remark and flag lapel pins 24 hours a day on multiple channels.
McCain’s Promises Would Cost Billions But He’s Vague on How He’d Pay for Them – McCain is handing out a campaign grab bag of goodies. There are little treats like a summer gas-tax holiday and new mortgages for struggling homeowners, and there are big plums like tax breaks for corporations and families with children. McCain has pledged to balance the federal budget, although he has backed off an earlier promise to do so in his first term and now says he would do it within eight years. McCain has proposed two business tax breaks, a credit for research and first-year expensing of equipment; his campaign says they essentially would cost nothing, but the Treasury Department has estimated they could cost more than $140 billion annually. McCain’s tax cuts would be double the size of President Bush’s. (And we all know how well that’s worked for our country.)
McCain is Against Wasteful “Earmark” Spending, But Doesn’t Know Which Ones are Wasteful – McCain criticizes “earmarks,” pet projects tucked into spending bills. He said Wednesday that the bridge collapse in Minnesota last year would not have happened if Congress had not wasted so much money on pork-barrel spending, despite the suspicion of federal investigators that the problem may have been design-related, not spending-related.
He also won’t list which “earmarks” are wasteful because there are more than 9,000 of them. “How could I possibly?” he said Wednesday. “Are you crazy?” Even the earmarks he rails against include things he supports, such as aid to Israel. Last month, after McCain promised to eliminate all earmarks as part of his economic plan, his campaign said he remains committed to aid for Israel. Thus, the reality of cutting spending may be very different from rhetoric, as McCain has found time and again.
On a swing through Alabama’s rural Black Belt last week, McCain rode a ferry boat from tiny Gee’s Bend, a town once cut off from ferry service to keep black residents from crossing the Alabama River to push for civil rights. McCain rode across the river with several elderly black women, quilt makers from Gee’s Bend, who sang gospel hymns and held his hands. McCain even took a turn driving the ferry just before it docked. The ferry came into existence with $3 million in earmarks — the kind of spending McCain says he would stop.
McCain on Health Care (Or Lack of, for Us) – On May 1, John McCain sent out an e-mail about his health care plan that start out with the phrase, “My friends.” A good rule of thumb: When John McCain says “my friends,” start looking for a bomb shelter. Another good rule of thumb when McCain utters this trite phrase: Dishonesty is about to morph into full scale hypocrisy.
Here is a man who has been on government healthcare his entire life (daddy was an Admiral) — all seven decades — who dares deride it by saying, “Unlike my opponents, I do not believe that all of our nation’s problems can be solved by turning control over to our government….”
No, only his own healthcare is worthy of that.
In case you missed McCain’s position: Government healthcare is good enough to pay his hospital bills — with your “taxes” to quote him — but it is not good enough for the rest of us — oh and by the way, he ends his e-mail by asking for “a contribution of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000, or $2,300.” That means a lot coming from a guy who enjoys lounging at 8 different houses on his wife’s inherited dime, and laughably calls other candidates “elitist.”
The McCain Health Plan: Millions Lose Coverage, Health Costs Worsen, and Insurance and Drug Industries Win – McCain wants voters to think he is going after health care cost inflation. In reality, he wants to dismantle the employer-provided system that now covers over 60 percent (or about 158 million) of non-elderly Americans, forcing millions of us who now get fairly decent health insurance on the job to instead buy whatever they can find on the individual market controlled by unregulated and predatory insurance companies. And he would drive health care costs upward, not downward.
McCain’s Temper, Just What We Don’t Need in Today’s World on Edge … – It is unclear precisely what issue set off McCain that day. But at some point, he mocked Grassley to his face and used a profanity to describe him. Grassley stood and, according to two participants at the meeting, told McCain, “I don’t have to take this. I think you should apologize.” McCain refused and stood to face Grassley. “There was some shouting and shoving between them, but no punches,” recalls a spectator, who said that Nebraska Democrat Bob Kerrey helped break up the altercation. Former senator Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican, expresses worries about McCain: “His temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him.”
McCain Avoids Audience Question About Another Instance of His Temper – A member of the audience asked McCain during a candidate forum about a rumor that McCain had once used a profane word to describe his wife. Here’s a transcript of the remarks:
PARRISH: This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I’ve been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a (expletive)?
MCCAIN: Now, now. You don’t want to … Um, you know that’s the great thing about town hall meetings, sir, but we really don’t, there’s people here who don’t respect that kind of language. So I’ll move on to the next questioner in the back.
“This is about character,†Parrish said, when reached by telephone afterward. “And in a moment of intemperance, he called his wife the most despicable name a person can call a woman. Parrish was escorted from the event and questioned by Secret Service, but not charged.
How John McCain Uses False Bipartisanship to Serve His Own Purpose – When the president of Common Cause, a non-partisan group devoted to open government, saw the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law had too many loopholes, McCain tried to have her removed from her office. One of the witnesses of this event, Mark Schmitt, says the following about it:
“This is where I lost my admiration for McCain. And as I’ve watched McCain’s modus operandi on other issues, such as the torture legislation, I’ve continued to see echoes of the Common Cause episode: Corner the market on bipartisanship. Move to claim the position of bipartisan intermediary, and then use that position ruthlessly to serve his own purposes or sell out his allies, because they are dependent on the reality or perception of bipartisanship. As a study in the art of exercising power, it’s quite impressive. Until people see through it.”
The Preacher Problem That Can Kill Us – If you’re following America’s electoral theater at all, you know that we have a candidate with a preacher problem. And that the candidate in question has been put in the uncomfortable position of having to repudiate some of said preacher’s remarks (while not alienating those voters in the flock who actually, you know, agree with what the Reverend was saying).
Of course, I’m talking about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama. Errr, wait … that’s not right. That’s not who I’m talking about at all. No, I’m talking about the Rev. John Hagee and His Maverickness, John Dubya McCain.
The relationship between McCain and Hagee only gets mentioned in the press only 8% as much as the relationship between Obama and Wright. But there’s two differences: Hagee is looking forward to the end of the world, and McCain welcomes his endorsement. Oh, great, hot-tempered McCain’s finger is on the red button and Hagee is on the other end of the phone at 3 am!
Another McCain Supporting Preacher Who Thinks We Should be Destroying Things – Most media outlets are yet to report on the comments of another McCain supporter, World Harvest Church senior pastor Rod Parsley, who has written of Islam: “The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed.”
The Media Ignores the Pentagon Propaganda Scandal – On April 20th, the New York Times published its expose of the Bush administration’s use of Pentagon-approved, prepped, and financially-enriched “military analysts” to appear on TV to help sell the invasion of Iraq, and then put a positive spin on the occupation — even as conditions on the ground deteriorated. It was a powerful illustration of the Bush administration’s commitment to propaganda and disinformation. But it was also a damning indictment of the mainstream media’s complicity in the wholesale deception of the American public on the single most important decision a country can make — the decision to go to war.
How big a story was it? John Stauber of the Center for Media and Democracy called it the Pentagon Papers of the Iraq war. So it only stands to reason that a story this explosive would quickly become the subject of extensive follow-ups by TV and print journalists, and endless debate on the political talk shows, right?
Wrong. Instead of opening their reportorial and analytical floodgates, the mainstream news media have all but ignored the story.
How the Media Gushed When the Mission Accomplished Banner was Hoisted Five Years Ago – On May 1, 2003, Richard Perle [a neocon] advised, in a USA Today Op-Ed, “Relax, Celebrate Victory.” The same day, exactly five years ago, President Bush, dressed in a flight suit, landed on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and declared an end to major military operations in Iraq — with the now-infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner arrayed behind him in the war’s greatest photo op.
Chris Matthews on MSNBC called Bush a “hero” and boomed, “He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics.” He added: “Women like a guy who’s president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It’s simple.” PBS’ Gwen Ifill said Bush was “part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan.” On NBC, Brian Williams gushed, “The pictures were beautiful. It was quite something to see the first-ever American president on a — on a carrier landing.”
Bob Schieffer on CBS said: “As far as I’m concerned, that was one of the great pictures of all time.” His guest, Joe Klein, responded: “Well, that was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day. That was the first thing that came to mind for me.” Everyone agreed the Democrats and antiwar critics were now on the run.
One newspaper — it happens to be The New York Times — covered the Bush declaration and its immediate aftermath. One snippet: “The Bush administration is planning to withdraw most United States combat forces from Iraq over the next several months and wants to shrink the American military presence to less than two divisions by the fall, senior allied officials said today.”
What Happened in Iraq, According to General Ricardo Sanchez, the Commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq in 2003-2004 – The original operational concept that had been prepared by CENTCOM (led by Gen. Franks) before the invasion of Iraq was launched included Phase IV (after combat action) operation that would last twelve to eighteen months. The concept was briefed up to the highest levels of the U.S. government, including the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, and the President of the United States.
But then CENTCOM had completely walked away by simply stating that the war was over and Phase IV was not their job. Victory parades were planned. That decision set up the United States for a failed first year in Iraq. There is no question about it. And I was supposed to believe that neither the Secretary of Defense nor anybody above him knew anything about it? Impossible! Rumsfeld knew about it. Everybody on the NSC knew about it, including Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, and Colin Powell. Vice President Cheney knew about it. And President Bush knew about it.
There’s not a doubt in my mind that they all embraced this decision to some degree. And if it had not been for the moral courage of Gen. John Abizaid to stand up to them all and reverse Franks’ troop drawdown order, there’s no telling how much more damage would have been done.
In the meantime, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent, and worse yet, too many of our most precious military resource, our American soldiers, were unnecessarily wounded, maimed, and killed as a result. In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty.
What the Media Covers About McCain, and What They Forget – The media gave widespread coverage that, yesterday, John McCain went out of his way to say that President Bush shouldn’t be criticized for posting the “Mission Accomplished†banner. But they did not make the comparison to the other story of the day where the Whitehouse disagreed with McCain and took responsibility for the banner. The media also forgot what McCain said on Fox News in 2003:
NEIL CAVUTO (host): “Senator — after a conflict means after the conflict, and many argue the conflict isn’t over.”
McCAIN: “Well, then why was there a banner that said mission accomplished on the aircraft carrier? Look, the — I have said a long time that reconstruction of Iraq would be a long, long, difficult process, but the conflict — the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished, and it’s very appropriate.”
Chris Matthews’ Demeaning Comments – Using overtly sexist language, he has referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as a “she devil” and compared her to a “strip-teaser.” He has called her “witchy” and likened her voice to “fingernails on a blackboard.” He has referred to men who support her as “castratos in the eunuch chorus.” He has suggested Clinton is not “a convincing mom” and said “modern women” like Clinton are unacceptable to “Midwest guys.” He has called her “Madame Defarge” and “Nurse Ratched.”
CNN: We Ignore a Lot, But We Make Sure to Have Ann Coulter On – Ann Coulter’s newest round of pundit appearances included going on CNN to call millions of Americans “traitors” and suggest that Sen. Barack Obama is a covert terrorist assassin. What did Ann Coulter do this week to earn this right to appear on the most trusted name in news? She published a weekly syndicated column laced with violent-rhetoric in which she suggested that an Obama Presidency would result in the destruction of the U.S. by terrorists and–she joked about lynching Africa-Americans.
Are you just a bit disgusted yet? Will the media treat McCain like they did Iraq? McCain (Iraq) is all so wonderful until we’re in a mess, but they’ll just ignore it until that happens. It won’t change until we tell the media and their sponsors that we want real news, not soap opera.
Regards,
Jim
Andy Hailey