McCain and John Lewis

At the Aug. 16 Saddleback Civil Forum, hosted by millionaire televangelist Rick Warren, John McCain was asked to name three people on whom he would rely during his administration. One of those he named was John Lewis.

Lewis (R-GA) is as an icon of the American civil rights movement. He was responsible for organizing student and civic groups and led voter registration drives in the segregated South. He may best be remembered for the events of ‘Bloody Sunday’ - March 7, 1965 - when, standing on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, he and 600 peaceful demonstrators were attacked and beaten by Alabama State Troopers. The brutality was televised, sparking national indignation. A second march, two days later, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., resulted in the death of one protestor. Lewis’ name remains synonymous with courage, determination and the peaceful advocacy of voter equality.

One wonders what Rep. Lewis must have thought when he heard his name invoked by the candidate who repeatedly voted against the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday (in 1983, 1987, 1989 and 1994). During his 2000 South Carolina campaign, Mc Cain initially defended the Confederate flag, calling it a ‘symbol of heritage’ (January 12, 2000). After the February primary, he changed his view, admitting: "I feared that if I answered honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So I chose to compromise my principles." (April 19, 2000).

There’s also the problem of Richard Quinn, McCain’s SC state field manager in 2000 and editor-in-chief of the Southern Partisan Review, a neo-Confederate publication with a history of white supremacist views. Quinn famously referred to Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke, as a ‘maverick,’ deplored the MLK holiday, and sold t-shirts praising the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Quinn currently serves as an unpaid adviser to the McCain campaign in South Carolina.

Asked about Mc Cain’s Saddleback remarks, Rep. Lewis answered: “Sen. McCain and I are colleagues in the US Congress, not confidantes. He does not consult me. And I do not consult him.”

My friends: Multi famam, conscientiam pauci verentur. (Many fear their reputation, few their conscience.) (Pliny)

Ad augusta per angusta

Jack Abramoff will long be remembered as the poster boy for Bush Administration “pay-to-play” insider corruption. Through extensive White House connections, bribes and manipulation, Super Lobbyist Abramoff steered legislation and influenced Bush Administration policy. He’s now better known as Inmate #27593-112, serving a 70-month stretch for conspiracy, tax evasion and fraud.

One of Abramoff’s closest associates was former Christian Coalition leader, Ralph Reed. Reed had known Abramoff since their College Republican days in 1981 and abetted many of Abramoff’s schemes to defraud Indian casino owners, launder money and gull the Christian community. Reed received more than $4 million from Abramoff - you can read extensive emails between the two which illustrate the extent of Reed’s collusion: In 2000, Reed was in charge of communications for George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in South Carolina. It was on Reed’s watch that a low-rent whispering campaign was run – using flyers, emails and ‘push poll’ calls – insinuating that rival candidate John McCain had fathered a black daughter out of wedlock. Reed’s gutter-level tactics - deliberately aimed at evangelical voters - cratered McCain’s bid in the Palmetto State and, eventually, the nation.

It is, therefore, ironic that – now – John McCain has embraced the very same Ralph Reed to solicit funds for “McCain Victory 2008” in Georgia. It is also noteworthy that, in 2006, when McCain’s Senate Indian Affairs Committee was investigating Abramoff’s fraud - extensive evidence notwithstanding - McCain deliberately chose not to call Reed to testify.

My friends: Ad augusta per angusta. (To high places by narrow roads.)

Like Father, Like Son

The apple, as they say, doesn’t fall far from the tree.

In an underreported story, Andrew K. McCain, son of presidential candidate John McCain, abruptly resigned (07 29 08) from the audit committee of Silver State Bancorp and Silver State Bank of Henderson, NV. Neither McCain nor the bank would comment on his hasty departure, but he may have gotten out of Dodge as financial hardship loomed.

Bank stock was downgraded recently from ‘hold’ to ‘sell’ and had tumbled more than 85% since Andrew joined the bank staff. The bank reported second quarter net losses of $62.7 million.

Those following along with the music will recall that the elder McCain was neck deep in the infamous Keating Five Investigations of the late 1980s – the largest in the national S&L scandal – where life savings of the elderly disappeared and taxpayers were fleeced for more than $2 billion. John McCain was one of five senators who blocked federal investigation of Charles Keating’s bank – Lincoln Savings of Irving, CA. Keating was a key McCain contributor (giving over $110,000) and business partner of McCain’s wife, Cindy and her father. The McCain’s were frequently flown to Keating’s Bahamas townhouse and vacationed there – at Keating’s expense. The senator later admitted his “poor judgment” but evaded censor by the Senate Ethics Committee.

DoJ Corruption

NH patriots are depressingly familiar with the rampant politicization and corruption infecting the Bush Administration at all levels. This inner rot was confirmed – once again – by Dept. of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. (07 30 08)

Fine cited Monica Goodling, White House liaison and senior counsel to disgraced former AG Gonzales, who screened DoJ candidates by asking: “[W]hat is it about George Bush that makes you want to serve him?” and “Why are you a Republican?” Experience and qualification were mere afterthoughts.

Fine underscored the extent of DoJ perversion by ‘loyal Bushies’ who put political ideology ahead of national security. In one instance, William J. Hochul, Jr., an award-winning candidate for Counter-Terrorism prosecutor, was rejected by Goodling because his wife was a Democrat. An unqualified Republican candidate was awarded the position. Gifted applicants – often Rhodes Scholars – were rejected for being too liberal, pro-choice or lacking sufficient conservative credentials.

The coda to Fine’s presentation came on August 12 with AG Michael Mukasey declaring that no DoJ personnel would be prosecuted for these violations of civil law, stating “… not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime.”

This - my friends - from the nation’s top lawyer.

Pottery Barn Economics

NH taxpayers, staggering under the millstone of George W. Bush’s Iraq Deficit, have learned that the Iraqi government will amass a $79 billion budget surplus from oil revenue (2005 to present).

US taxpayers continue to lavish approximately $10 billion/month into Iraq, while Bagdad stockpiles money in American banks – so much so that our government paid them $435.6 million in interest alone (through 2007) for money in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

Why haven’t some of these huge oil surpluses gone back into Iraqi reconstruction and infrastructure improvements? Why must Americans, now paying nearly $4.00/gallon for Middle East oil, be the sole contributor - pouring money into the Iraq abyss - when its own government won’t chip in?

Admittedly: we broke it and we bought it, but – surely – our Iraqi ‘partners’ can assist.

“We are talking about a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon." (Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, March 27, 2003)

The Surge Has Worked!

Professor Juan Cole, wrote this on his blog. And here were my comments:

First off, I'd like to thank you for your basic description and explanation of the facts on the ground post "surge". I always understood that claims of its success were fundamentally and intentionally misleading, but the complexity of the factions' interaction made it difficult to counter the Administration's and its cheerleaders’ slogans and talking points. So again, thank you, Professor Cole.

I'd been searching for just such a lucid outline of the facts for a while now, and frankly was counting on you, above others, to furnish it.

However, I must take issue with you and many others on the point of whether the "surge" has succeeded. IMHO, the Surge was never intended as a military or political initiative. It was and is purely a propaganda play, and as such has "succeeded" quite well.

Based on the now continuously repeated drumbeat of the slogan of "the surge has worked", which mainstream Democrats now parrot, and supported by the out of context fact of a narrowly defined reduction of violence in specific areas distorted as a broad assertion, the Surge's central objectives have been met:

• Americans are accepting the false premise that general conditions are improving
• They are coming to believe that our far-seeing Leaders were wise and correct in "persevering"
• War dissenters were wrong in giving up when "victory" was just around the corner
• The "change in course" in military strategy equals wisdom
• All the other highly-effective propaganda we've heard over the last few months.
  
  

As a propaganda play, it has effectively removed Iraq and its wider implications as the top concern of Americans, and dampened domestic public outrage. To the extent possible, it has also stemmed some of the deterioration of the Republican brand going into the November elections.

And the Democrats are also satisfied with the ploy's effectiveness and the cover it provides, given their complicity with the Iraq war in particular, and the USA's overall imperial overreach in general.

As always, the nation in general, and I in particular owe you our gratitude and thanks for your courageous journalism.

The UK and Torture

To gauge the depth to which George W. Bush has desecrated America’s moral reputation, one need only consult the British House of Commons’ Ninth Foreign Affairs report.

This paper states that Britain “can no longer rely on U.S. assurances that it does not use torture, and we recommend that the government does not rely on such assurances in the future."

Plainly stated: our staunchest ally – co-signee of the Atlantic Charter (1941) - shoulder-to-shoulder member of the Coalition of the Willing - no longer believes that America does not torture.

Thanks to the Bush Administration’s admission that it has waterboarded prisoners, America’s prestige has fallen so low in world opinion that even our long-cherished partner does not trust us.

“No position taken has done more damage to the American reputation in the world — ever.” Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.