Jim Truth.  I served in Vietnam.  That fact does not entitle me to hold public office and it does not make me a hero.  The fact that McCain was shot down while dropping bombs on the North Vietnamese does not make him a hero.

McCain’s refusal to extend to Iraq/Afghanistan vets the same educational benefits that were available to both McCain and I when we returned from Vietnam smacks of hypocrisy and betrayal.

On policy, your hero McCain offers us only perpetual war and economic disaster.  He is to the right of Dick Cheney on foreign policy and as clueless as Herbert Hoover on economics.  His “surrender” rhetoric is an abomination.  We had neither the right nor a lawful reason to invade Iraq in the first place.  The reasons for this war were spelled out by the neocons in their Project for a New American Century—the creation and maintenance of a permanent base of operations in the oil rich Middle East.  This war of choice was never intended to benefit the American public; imperial conquest never is.  It is intended to further enrich the billionaire class whose money-grubbing mitts reach deep into the public trough—specifically, it is intended to benefit the military-industrial complex, KBR, Blackwater and other war profiteers, plus the oil cartel which has experienced a 300% increase in profits since we invaded—an oil cartel that despite record profits was handed some $14 billion in subsidies before the Republicans lost control of Congress.

According to Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel prize winning economist, the Iraq war has already cost this nation $3 trillion, and your “hero” McCain would have us remain for 100 years.

There are only two valid descriptors for supporting McCain—idiocy and insanity!

Say what you want about LBJ, Nixon and the disaster that was Vietnam.  At least they didn’t betray vets by denying them GI Bill education benefits upon returning from multiple tours of duty.  Bush/McCain have no problem asking for yet another $178 billion supplemental to fund the imperial conquest of Iraq, most of which goes to KBR, Blackwater and the other war profiteers, but both are opposing Jim Webb’s GI Bill that would provide between $2.4 billion and $4 bill in education benefits for returning Iraq & Afghan vets—something that was available for both John McCain and I when we returned from Vietnam.  In my case, those benefits were vital and assisted me through college and into the first year of law school.  For McCain, who dumped his first wife to marry an heiress, to run on his so-called hero status as a former POW while at the same time opposing such a basic benefit for the working class stiffs who have served is beyond hypocrisy and truly embodies chutzpah.

Hmmmm!  Looks like Howard Dean neglected to send the “Democrats don’t appeal to hate and divisiveness” memo to the Clintons.

Dean: GOP Uses “Hate” and “Race Baiting” to Win
  By Klaus Marre
  The Hill

  Sunday 04 May 2008

  Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Sunday that Republicans are using “hate and divisiveness” to win elections.

  Dean argued that the use of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) former pastor Jeremiah Wright in GOP ads in local races is “race baiting.”

  “When you start bringing up things that have nothing to do with the candidate and nothing to do with the issues, that’s race baiting,” Dean said on Fox News Sunday in response to a question whether the Wright issue and his ties to Obama hurt Democrats down ticket.

  “There’s a lot of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats on issues, but the biggest issue of all is we don’t use this kind of stuff. We never have used this kind of stuff, and we’re not going to start now,” said the DNC chairman. “America is more important than the Republican Party, and that’s the lesson that the voters are about to teach the Republicans.”

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050508N.shtml

Let me add to that last post.  It is going to take a democratic pres and a veto-proof majority in Congress to unravel the damage done to the rule of law over the past eight years, starting with a repeal of the abomination known as the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which granted an immunity for all crimes committed by Bush administration officials in service of the so-called war on terror.  McCain is to the right of Dick Cheney on foreign policy and as clueless as Herbert Hoover when it comes to the economy.  Given the serious damage done to the very concept of separation of powers by the Bush regime and the now four Federalist Society jurists now on the Supreme Court—all of whom subscribe to the radically subversive “Unitary Executive theory” that is behind the more than 800 presidential signing statements that assert a president can essentially pick and choose which portions of a law he will enforce—in direct violation of both the Constitution and the oath of office which mandates that the executive enforce the law—a McCain presidency portends to permanent war, an economic collapse that will make the Great Depression look like a picnic, and, through one more Federalist Society appointment to the Supreme Court (making a majority of five), the end to the rule of law as we know it.

You have made some astute observations at Truthdig, but your statement that you would vote Mad Dog McCain into the presidency is, with all due respect, incredibly stupid.  Sorry if that offends you, but it is how I see it.

Sorry, CY, but this ranks as your worst post, ever!

You and I will have to disagree on this one, CY.  Once the Dem nomination process is over, the winner (probably Obama) will be in a position to begin dismantling the media-concocted veil shielding McCain; to demonstrate that McCain is to the right of Dick Cheney on foreign policy and as clueless and Herbert Hoover on economics.  As the 80% figure in the polls indicate, the vast majority of Americans have come to understand that, with Bush/Cheney at the helm, the U.S. ship of state is the Titanic, heading straight for an iceberg.  There are a lot of die-hard Hillary supporters who “tell” the pollsters “now” that they would not vote for Obama, but when the time comes and they have the choice between Obama and a continuing a course toward certain disaster, they will chose Obama.  This will not merely be a Democratic victory but a landslide, that may well secure a veto-proof Senate.

Lighten up, GS.  Stewart is a comedian.  O’Reilly is a propagandist.  Stewart interrupts when he thinks of something that will bring out a laugh.  O’Reilly tries to dominate an interview and steer it only in the direction that he believes will reinforce the Republi-puke talking point of the day.

The difference is O’Reilly wants people to think O’Reilly is serious about what he says.  John Stewart knows that most of his audience knows that he is simply being flippant.

Dean knows what’s up. No matter what these Republicans try to do, Progressive Democrats will overcome because it doesn’t stop with this election. We need to get active in our Democratic chapters and push influence towards progressive policy! Let’s get single-payer health care! Let’s get common-sense law and sustainable agriculture! End the drug war! Bring our troops HOME!

Stewart pissed me off in this interview. Compare it with the Newt Gingrich interview the other day.
  I swear his stye of interuption..asking a question, then not letting the guest answer, is WORSE than O’Reilly! (Is he trying to immulate Colbert, who has usurped his glory?)
  In fact, Stewart’s shouting style (like some bogus impersonator of Jerry Stiller) is his whole routine, now.
  Daily Show has jumped the shark!!
  Maybe let another of the cast take the helm, and put Johnny to pasture.

Good point on the fact that the Dems have been able to run an election before the election in 48 states, having accomplished an unprecedented voter turn-out and registration, DESPITE the efforts of the Cabal in conjuction with the US Supreme Court in their attempts to disenfranchise millions that would vote for the democratic nominee.

The repugs don’t have that advantage, (how many states have they actually campaigned in) and since old ass John is the last one standing, we know he can’t possibly cover them all in 6 months, even if he DID have something to offer.

The down side of course, is that Hillary is doing his campaigning for him. I bet he chooses her as his running mate, to run against Obama and whomever WE choose as his running mate in the general election.

The end result though, is that the Democrats will still win. (the real ones that is)