The Case Against John McCain

Former Abu Ghraib Interrogator Asks McCain to Renounce Torture
By Elizabeth DiNovella, August 7 2008
Joshua Casteel, a former U.S. military interrogator at Abu Ghraib, is asking John McCain to renounce his recent position on torture.

http://www.progressive.org/mag_wxld080708
will he uphold the American views without showing his flags?

I've noticed that both McCain and Obama talk about support for Israel. That's one of the reasons I don't like either candidate; Israel is not a democracy in the Middle East, it's a apartheid country in the middle of the Middle East.

McCain make a statement today that we are all Georgians! My A$$!

Obama is a politician, remember that! I've noticed him waffling like mad over Hillary Clinton and she has effectively sabotaged his campaign, like "see I told you, I am more EXPERIENCED!

The real America is morose, indebted, worried, more religious and out of gas... a large number of their workers are in poor health; the education system has fallen behind Europe's; their society, smothered by its obsession with security, is less free and less innovative than before.
John McCain, a hero of the Vietnam War, has already joked that he doesn't know much about the economy, but he would know with whom to surround himself. His policies are close to George Bush's: fewer taxes, free enterprise, more privatized health care. He is in favor of a cap and trade [system] of gas emissions, just like Barack Obama. However, either one or the other should tell Congress about it. This same Congress, controlled by the Democrats, just refused to pass a plan to combat climate change.

Change, you say? Yes, we can dream about it. But America is a damned rotten cargo ship that doesn't change as quickly as that.
http://watchingamerica.com/News/4019/attention-angry-voters/

You're quoting someone else and the author's word is his opinion! Much of what he says is true to a degree! Whose fault is it? US, of course! Insteed of demonstration, Congress, thinks we don't agree. Couldn't be further from the truth. We're all waiting for the other shoe to drop!

I fully agree with this.

Did McCain ad lift 'cross in the dirt' story from Russian novelist?RAW STORY
Published: Sunday August 17, 2008

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), in a Christmas-themed December ad for his presidential campaign, told the following story:

"One night, after being mistreated as a POW, a guard loosened the ropes binding me, easing my pain. On Christmas, that same guard approached me, and without saying a word, he drew a cross in the sand. We stood, wordlessly, looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas. I'll never forget that no matter where you are, no matter how difficult the circumstances, there will always be someone who will pick you up."

"It just sounded so fake and so contrived, so I did a little research about it," said DailyKos contributor rickrocket. The research revealed a similar story by recently departed novelist and McCain favorite Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recounting his experience in a Soviet gulag in The Gulag Archipelago, released in the United States in 1973. Luke Veronis, in The Sign of the Cross, recounts:

"Along with other prisoners, he worked in the fields day after day, in rain and sun, during summer and winter. His life appeared to be nothing more than backbreaking labor and slow starvation. The intense suffering reduced him to a state of despair.

On one particular day, the hopelessness of his situation became too much for him. He saw no reason to continue his struggle, no reason to keep on living. His life made no difference in the world. So he gave up.

Leaving his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude bench and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to other prisoners.

As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.

Solzhenitsyn slowly rose to his feet, picked up his shovel, and went back to work. Outwardly, nothing had changed. Inside, he had received hope."

Senator McCain's ad, as posted to YouTube by his campaign on December 20, 2007, is embedded below.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Did_McCain_ad_lift_cross_in_0817.html

He might have lifted the story, but then again it might be true.
None of us were in prison with him, so we dont know.
I think it would be fair to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

mysteryman, hahaha.

Many of the Vietnamese were Catholics. I have heard similar stories from other former POWs.

ticoian or gobian, it's all the same shuck and jive.

Why would you even suggest that you give such an accomplished liar the benefit of the doubt. He's been given a free ride for for too long.

Republicans are running a presidential campaign at a moment of historic unpopularity for their party and with a candidate who has a panoply of potentially negative associations for voters. In the first place, John McCain's stances on the issues, while consistent with the desires of his party's base, are at odds with the professed wishes of the American people. Second, while he bills himself as a man of principle, he has in fact changed his position--"flip-flopped"--repeatedly on fundamental issues such as immigration, taxes, campaign finance, reproductive choice, etc. (See "Loving McCain," July 7.)

Third, owing to the inheritances of the woman with whom he conducted an adulterous affair before leaving his disabled first wife, the Republican enjoys eight separate residences across the country as well as the corporate jets she puts at his disposal, and he ambles around in shoes costing more than $500 a pair. At 71, he would be the oldest first-term President in US history if elected; and on the campaign trail he frequently becomes confused, loses his temper and sings songs about bombing Iran. He has engaged in discussion with supporters about that "bitch" Hillary Clinton. On one occasion in 1998, he joked that Attorney General Janet Reno was the "father" of the "ugly" teenager Chelsea Clinton.

His opponent has no such liabilities. His party is on an upswing. His positions are popular. He has never been associated with personal scandal; has earned, together with his wife, all of his family's money himself; is young, vivacious and without McCain's mean streak.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080901/alterman

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12685.html

Do you believe (or suggest) that his wealth or the fact that he owns multiple properties disqualifys him from the presidency?

No, but perhaps it reveals that he is an elitist who knows nothing about the lives of the common man - he married into what most American would describe as 'super wealth' 25 years ago, he wears 500 dollar shoes, has private jets, and doesn't know how many houses he owns.

You don't think there's a populist attack to be built there? McCain tried to do the very same thing against Obama earlier this year. What's good for the goose...

Cycloptichorn

George OB said
Do you believe (or suggest) that his wealth or the fact that he owns multiple properties disqualifys him from the presidency?

Thing is George, when Bush 41 was running for re-election he visited a grocery market and came out to the press saying "they' got this technology where they can just scan an item and it rings it up automatically" he also continued to press the "stay the course because the economy is just fine" and now from the McCain people we hear "people losing their jobs and houses are just a bunch of whiners" and then McCain doesn't know how many homes he owns?

McCain claims he will get Osama bin Laden when he becomes president. What's wrong with this picture?

Obama is also saying he will get Bin Ladin.
Do you also have a problem with that?