Who is John McCain?

The free ride that John McCain is getting from the mainstream media continues. McCain has been around so long that the cozy relationship that he's built with the media for many years is turning out to provide a super-Teflon coating for the candidate of 2008. The flip flops, back-flips, miss-statements, and outright deceptions go uncovered by reporters eager to curry favor with the candidate.

The Nation magazine this week does a brilliant job of first acknowledging McCain's likability, then his blatant pandering, and lying. It's both common knowledge and unspoken criticism that the candidate McCain of 2000 is vastly different than the candidate of 2008. Eric Alterman and George Zornick sum it up succinctly below the fold:

Let's take a moment to sum up: the anti-torture candidate supports torture. The pro-immigration candidate opposes immigration. The candidate who opposes tax cuts for the rich supports them. The pro-campaign finance reform candidate has a campaign that is run almost exclusively by lobbyists, and exploits loopholes in the law to skirt spending limits--even the laws the candidate wrote. The candidate who opposes "agents of intolerance" in the Republican Party embraces them. The candidate with the foreign policy experience frequently confuses Sunnis and Shiites and misreads Iranian influence in the region, but is proposing permanent war. The candidate who claims to be a fiscal conservative wants to bust the budget. The candidate who claims to take global warming seriously does not want to take any serious action to address it.

It seems as though the issue of trust is at stake. Which McCain do we trust? The one that panders to the various conservative Republican constituencies to win election, or the one called "maverick" that truly believes in bi-partisanship, campaign finance reform, and legitimate immigration reform? I makes me wonder because he last time we heard from a candidate that talked the game of "moderation," "compassionate conservatism," and "quiet determination," we got a completely different President Bush. What in the world will make us think that McCain would be any different?

On issue after issue, and from every side of the journalistic political spectrum, a campaign of deception and distortion has helped to ensure that McCain's extreme positions and politically inspired flip-flops remain far from the consciousness of the average voter. Just as the media-promoted notion that George W. Bush was the kind of guy with whom one might enjoy a few beers managed to obscure the predictable catastrophes that lay in store for this nation once he became President, so too can the deep-seated media denial of McCain's extremist policies and addiction to political expediency mask the fact that his victory in November would result in a continuation--and even, in some instances, an expansion--of the very policies that have brought the nation to the brink of irreversible disaster.

From this Chinese menu of disingenuous pandered policy positions, one can pick which seems most egregious. Is it the tax cut reversal? Is it the tax cut reversal coupled with the call for endless war? Is it the supposed "fiscal conservative" breaking the bank with an even bigger tax cut coupled with the aforesaid endless war? Or perhaps you object to the fact that his campaign is being run by the very lobbyists he seeks to control? If you are into the "guilt by association" game you can always label McCain a Nazi-loving, gay-bashing, homophobic, Christian zionist supporting, war-mongering gigolo. Whew!

Folks there is so much to be wary of in the candidacy of John McCain. It is certain that we simply won't know who we will get, should he pull the upset and win the election. It is also certain that McCain will continue the love-fest with the reporters who cover his campaign who will most certainly continue to write about the McCain that they've largely created out of their own imaginations. You know, the President we'd all like to have, JOHN mcWAYNE! Beware, this is a make-believe hero they are writing about! That Republican Dream World has brought us to the brink of disaster already. Let's put an end to it in November.

The Decider's Accomplishments as President:

This post from today's Daily News Record comments section found by blogger, brokenanvil, deserves to go viral. A truly eye-opening post (original is here) that puts all of President Bush's accomplishments together on the dis-Honor Roll. Copy and post it everywhere.

The Decider's Accomplishments as President:

• I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record. I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week. I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.
• I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
• I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period. I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
• I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
• I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, had a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
• I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President.
• I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.
• My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History, Enron.
• My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.
• I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history.
• I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
• I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.
• I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
• I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history.
• I created the Department of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
• I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.
• I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
• I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.
• I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
• I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
• I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.
• I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
• I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.
• I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.
• I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, preemptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.
• I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families-in-wartime.
• In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.
• I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.
• I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a jumbo WMD.
• I have failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.
• I have wiretapped millions of American phone conversations while ignoring the legal requirement for a court order to do so.
• I have signed over 750 Signing Statements (indicating I have no intention of following the laws I signed into effect) which is more than all Presidents in U.S. history combined.
• And, after receiving the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission (which I opposed from the start) I was given a failing grade" from that Commission on implementing their anti-terror programs, with the Commission stating that if there was a grade "lower than failing" I would have gotten that instead.

Regarding "draining the swamps"

The idea of "draining the swamp" is a commonly held belief of war supporters and does contain an element of truth, ie; terrorists live in the swamp, drain the swamp, solve the terrorist problem. Easy to understand, easy to repeat, contains a germ of truth, requires no further thought or debate, and effectively sanitizes the War.

"Draining the swamp" is but one of the beliefs that comprise the Republican Conservative Creed. The fixed set of values, beliefs and morals constitutes a quasi religion. They hold fast to these beliefs very well. More about the myths that drive the contemporary conservative movement here. Now back to draining the swamp...

Here's what happens when you "drain the swamp." First the cost in human lives:

American Deaths Since war began (3/19/03): 4092
American Wounded: Official - 30333; Estimated 23000 - 100000
Other Coalition Troops: 313
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 514

Disclaimer: The following numbers reflect the diverse points of view regarding who should be counted as "dead." The lower numbers reflect only the "bad guys." The higher numbers count some of the civilians who were killed with the bad guys. The highest numbers reflect the total number of casualties regardless of status. Take your pick.

Iraq Body Count: March 19, 2003 - March 10, 2008, 81,874 - 89,353
Iraq Coalition Casualty Count: March 1, 2005 - March 10, 2008, 40,662
Brookings Iraq Index: May 2003 - February 2008, 103,567
The Associated Press: April 2005 - February 13, 2008, 31,245 dead, 35,436 wounded
The Iraq Family Health Study (the “WHO study”) March 2003 - June 2006, 151,000
The Lancet, “Mortality after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq” March 19, 2003 - July 31, 2006,
426,369 - 793,663

The human toll:

Over 2.4 million vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq, up to 1.5 million were living in Syria, and over 1 million refugees were inhabiting Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Gulf States. Most Iraqis are determined to be resettled to Europe or North America, and few consider return to Iraq an option.

Of course, the sanitized attack methods used by the US airforce that targeted only "repairable" infrastructure minimized the damage caused by the Air War. It was the looting and the ensuing insurgency and sectarian violence that caused much more damage the Iraqi infrastructure. Of course the looting and the insurgency are two of the things that will happen when you drain the swamp but don't plan ahead.

Other costs include the destruction of the clean water supply, the electric service, the roads, the bridges, universities, schools, hospitals, healthcare for the citizenry.

The total cost of "draining the swamp" will be 5 TRILLION US dollars.

Casual use of the truism "draining the swamp." is like casually dismissing human life. It's a bloodthirsty, violent, and dangerous use of truth.