Never saw anything like this. I went to Real Clear Politics tonight, and here's the top three headlines they're featuring, all in a row:
Obama: In Need of a Game Changer - David Gergen, CNN
Conventions Need a Believable Script - Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal
Obama Needs a Narrative - Steven Stark, Boston Phoenix
All of the sudden, everybody and his little dog is telling Obama what he needs, including Karl Rove.
Well, thank you all for your concern. But I already know what Obama needs, I already said so in a diary earlier this week--and thank God some people at the Obama campaign woke up and now agree. Look at this:
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For almost a decade I have been tracking Jack Abramoff and the Culture of Corruption and since I became uid 9214, I’ve written about that work here on Daily Kos. For years, I have been writing about the many ways that John McCain covered-up the Abramoff Scandal.
I could write about how the Obama campaign is taking that fight to Curveball John:
There is more to that story and more reasons why McCain should worry about Jack, but I doubt it would break through the waves of panic shaking the netroots.
Yikes! The polls have tightened. Well, what did you expect?
Take a deep breath. Get a backbone. FOCUS.
It’s time to call out the summer supporters and sunshine campaigners.
More Please! At the moment only airing in Georgia... CNN? This is the first true Obama "Kidney Punch" of the season, lets see if the Media bites. Clearly it indicates a foul quid-pro-quo... low blow yes... effective? YES Finally some Chicago style bloodsport...
Script
"It was one of Washington’s biggest scandals. And the Republican power broker Ralph Reed was in the middle of it. In deep with convicted felon and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
"But when the Senate investigated, the senator in charge never even called Reed to testify....And that senator? John McCain. And who’s now raising money for McCain’s campaign? Ralph Reed. For 26 years in Washington, John McCain’s played the same old games. We just can’t afford more of the same."
I didn't want to write about this, because thinking about it makes me angry and depressed at the same time. Our functioning Democracy has been made increasingly dysfunctional by the Bush Administration. Police have been granted far broader powers to spy on American citizens, according to a new Washington Post article. Spencer S. Hsu and Carrie Johnsondescribe the expansion of police powers at the 18,000 local branches of law enforcement in the United States.
Senator John McCain may have helped investigate the Jack Abramoff affair, but the stench of the scandal continues to engulf McCain's campaign and his Republican Party. On Friday, convicted friend-of-Jack and former Ohio congressman Bob Ney was released from a Cincinnati halfway house. And on Monday, McCain will attend an Atlanta fundraiser hosted by former Christian Coalition wunderkind Ralph Reed, who partnered with Abramoff in extracting millions of dollars from tribal Indian clients.
There are some items up on News Unfiltered that may interest the community.
DNC released a new web ad on McCain's threat to Social Security titled "Roosevelt":
On the 73rd Anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act--creating a landmark program that has saved millions of Americans from poverty--the Democratic National Committee today released a new web video called "Roosevelt" that highlights the threat John McCain's radical, out of touch agenda poses to the retirement security of millions of Americans. The ad features President Roosevelt's grandson, James Roosevelt Jr., telling John McCain to "keep your hands off our Social Security."
Last month John McCain said that Americans are tired of the Internet. It's highly unlikely that he was actually speaking for all Americans, or even anything more than a small brood of Luddites. It is more likely that he himself is tired of the Internet, or perhaps just tired, period. He has never been particularly fond of it, even as he chaired the Senate committee responsible for regulating it.
Brought to you by... News Corpse, The Internet's Chronicle Of Media Decay.
John McCain is a Corruptionist. For those without a dictionary, that means that he is a politician who has protected and upheld corrupt practices throughout his political career.
His dirty work is obscured by his carefully constructed myth as a "maverick" and his false mask of a reformer. It is all hype. His reputation is built on a twisted web of lies and protected by a legion of well trained sycophants in the media.
Every now and then, a clear portrait of McCain emerges such as last week’s profile in the Phoenix New Times by Amy Silverman, who wrote about the sordid career of the Senator from Arizona—a man she has been covering for years. It is a must read.
Mark it down as yet more data points proving McCain’s deep corruptionist tendencies.
There are many more. His campaign is run by lobbyists and McCain’s bends over backwards to reward the clients of his staff with statements and policy positions.
In February of 2006, when we were just begining to get national traction on the crooked methods behind the "PERMINANT MAJORITY" aspirations of the Bush League wing of the republican party, I wrote an article that might as well have been titled, "Republicans Miss the Commies".
Well, I thought that in light of the Bush Administration`s single handed reignightion of the "Cold War", we could take a look at how Russia achieved such a quick rise to dominance, what role the Republicans played in causing this, and at what cost.
If China’s leaders took note of it, which they probably didn’t because they are too busy presenting themselves as "the Middle Kingdom" (the "middle" between Heaven and Earth) to the rest of the world, they would doubtless have been amused by Rush Limbaugh’s case of China-envy:
See, the ChiComs need their economy growing. They need people driving around, moving around. They need people to be able to afford fuel, so they're subsidizing fuel. They're not bailing people out of stupid home mortgage messes. They're buying their gasoline for them, because they need an economy. Know what energy means to this, the whole subject of economic growth. So meanwhile, the ChiComs, a country certainly growing, certainly on the rise, but it ain't the United States of America.
Presumably, what Rush would like is for the U.S. to subsidize gas so that people in the U.S. could live large like the Chinese leaders and fuel our economic growth.
In an interview today on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell-Greenspan, gets Carly Fiorina to try to name "one single legislative accomplishment" on energy in his 26 years in DC by John McCain.
Yet McCain limited the scope of his investigation to lobbyists who had given money, gifts and trips to members of Congress. His did not allow the committee to investigate any member of Congress. He busted the pimps and johns but granted immunity to the prostitutes who provided services in exchange for money and favors.
Senator McCain seemed to impose other limits that are hard to explain. He somehow failed to call several major players in the Indian gaming scandal to testify before his committee and never fully explained why.
Eric Cantor wasn't one of the prominent names in the MSM's McCain veep sweepstakes. The pundits focused on people like Mitt Romney, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal--you know, the usual suspects.
But tonight we read that McCain is vetting Virginia congressman Eric Cantor. Cantor's been mentioned before, parenthetically, but now they're getting serious. Which raises two questions: 1) Why now? 2) Who the hell is Eric Cantor, anyway?
John McCain is a Corruptionist. He is a politician who has protected and upheld corrupt practices throughout his political career. The recent trust of his lobbyist laden and Rovian directed campaign is just the latest example from a career that has always been more hype than action, more spin than substance.
John McCain is an empty old man chosen to lead the parade in this cycle when years of lies, corruption and divisive politics are finally catching up with the Republican Party and the conservative movement. McCain got the nod because he has always been trusted to create the illusion of action, while actually doing nothing. When examined, his legislative "accomplishments" are thin and shallow—like McCain himself.
McCain and his fellow corruptionists have one path to victory. They must run the dirtiest campaign in American history. It is ugly and it will get worse. Get ready, because McCain is surrounded by the architects of the Conservative Wrecking Crew destroying our Nation and he is one of them.
For almost a decade I have been tracking Jack Abramoff and the Culture of Corruption and since I became uid 9214, I’ve written about that work here on Daily Kos.
Recently, I came across a major link between Jack Abramoff and the modern Conservative movement that I had over looked.
I have known for a very long time that Jack Abramoff functioned as a Bag-man for the VRWC. I knew his roots went deep—back to the late 1970s, and that much of his work has always been crafted and executed in the shadows. I knew he played a part in the Iran-Contra Affair (working in the basement of the WH with Ollie North) and that he was a lobbyist for the Apartheid era South African Secret Police. I knew he was a dedicated movement conservative who wanted to establish One-Party Rule in the USA. I knew that he almost succeeded.
Hiding in plain sight was that fact that—for the last three decades—Jack Abramoff was also involve in a Domestic Spying program privately run and financed by his fellow co-conspirators on the Right.
He has built a career on a carefully crafted myth breathlessly repeated by his base of sycophants in the press. You know the hype: McCain the Maverick, McCain the Reformer, McCain the Straight Talker, McCain the ______ (insert worshipful drivel here).
Keep in mind that the same folks who sold George W. Bush and his failed policies to America are now working the streets to sell the myth of McCain—"the last honest man in politics".
Those willing to look behind the curtain will find a John McCain that has always surrounded himself with the most corrupt players on the political stage and kept himself one step ahead of exposure. His Abramoff investigation cover-up is a case in point (for details see this Diary).
Another one is the growing scandal swirling around his chief foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann.
Randy shapes McCain’s foreign policy and—surprise—that policy helps Randy’s former and future clients. Ca-ching!
