A Maverick or a Gambler ?

Jo Becker and Don van Natta Jr from The New York Times delivered a very interesting paper on John McCain and his relationship to gambling and the gambling industry*.

The man is a gambler, and members of his team as well as major sponsors of his campaign have close ties with the industry.

This doesn't come as a surprise and explains a lot about the man, and his behavior... particularily after a week during which the wheel kept turning in the wrong direction for him.

I want to raise the issue of timing. Why raise this issue right now ?

It sounds like more and more people, including in the GOP, are not feeling so comfortable with the McCain-Palin ticket.

Palin is a magnet for theocons, but a scarecrow for voters who want a reliable vice-president instead of a theocon puppet. McCain and Bush will have to invent a major diversion to cancel her "debate" with Joe Biden (even if the format of the meeting protects her : no direct confrontation, this impostor can safely recitate Schmidt's mantras)

McCain was relatively spared, but the media will be more focusing on his character in the days to come : a gambler, often bad tempered, a womanizer who dumped his first wife because she didn't look as nice after a dramatic car incident... not exactly a poster child for the religious right.

True Republicans will feel relieved if this ticket fails. It's the only way of reforming the GOP, of getting rid of the Bush-Cheney theocon-neocon clique who disgraced the party and the country over the past 8 years.

Expect more circumstantiated character destruction about John McCain and Sarah Palin in the days to come.

This character destruction will prevent the character assassination of the US of A**.


* see "McCain and Team Have Many Ties to Gambling Industry" (NYT 20080928)
** see "Change is coming" and Mac "will fight", but for whom and for what ?"

Obama answers 3 A.M. phony calls

If you think the 2004 campaign was nasty, sit down and watch the rivers of lies pouring down the screens.

I dubbed McCain's campaign manager Steve Schmidt "The Infratect" because he truly is Karl Rove's Mini-me and because McCain won't build anything good if he keeps working with such designers*, but everybody knows his nickname "The Bullet" and his prowess in Weapons of Mass Disinformation.

Schmidt's nasty jabs often strike below the belt, and even when the referee (independent media) cry foul, he keeps on trying new ugly tricks.

No, Obama is not a Muslim. But boy, does he have the Muhammad Ali mojo and punch on that one* :



This man won't let someone who spat on him dictate him what to say and what to do.

This man won't let "some member of his staff get back to you" when you ask him a tricky question.

And yes, this man can take any 3 AM phone call. We now the truly phony ones won't work.

Between 2001 and 2003, with bold lies, they managed to forge a case for a war that costs billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands casualties.

Between 2003 and 2004, with bold lies, they managed to get George W. Bush and Dick Cheney elected in spite of all the evidences likely to get the both of them impeached.

Between 2005 and 2007, with bold lies, they managed to make you believe their strategy was working, but all they did was to build walls of hatred all over the Middle East and even at home.

And now, with bold lies, they are painting Obama as un-American and McCain as un-Bush in order to get an extra 4 years and finish their work of destruction.

As the latest polls show, their bold lies seem to be working once again, but once again the loser will be America.


* Rove and Schmidt are better at destruction, as McCain himself could testify eight years ago. Now this guy is reshaping a Maverick into a carpet.
** CNN footage about the so-called "lipstickgate"

Play it again, Uncle Sam ?

So McCain is leading the polls and some people want to make you think the Democratic National Convention will be a failure for Obama ?

What's happening now is pure 2004 Redux : Steve "The Infratect" Schmidt and Co. are using the same strategy as they did when they served "Turd Blossom" and his protege.

The key ? attacking the opponent on his strongest points :

- Kerry was a war hero and Bush-Cheney coward dodgers / AWOL ? Let's swiftboat him and forge a tale to destroy the myth.
- Kerry was denouncing the fallacious, simplistic and pro-war propaganda ? Let's caricature him as a pompous professor and an un-American weasel sold to the French.

Here's today's sales pitch :

- Obama is a young and charismatic leader drawing crowds and McCain a boring white haired dude drawing yawns ? Let's caricature him as a dull celeb pretending to be Moses.
- Obama is the most favored candidate and the most likely to bring together people from all horizons ? Let's tell stories about doubts within his own camp and let's mock at his aura of inevitability.
- Obama tries to restore the values that made America respected by proposing more balanced views on a World that needs to abandon the us-vs-them, black-vs-white Bush rethorics ? Let's laugh at his complex sentences and let's train McCain as a Dubya look-alike down to the monosyllabic brawl.

I'm sick and tired of repeating the same mantra for over 5 years but damnit, it's high time to wake up, America. It's time to turn your back to those who want to destroy your country, to get rid of the Bushes, Cheneys and Roves (and of the pityful me-too nobody who used to be John McCain), and to vote for the good of your country, and for the good of the world.

Yes, you can and yes, you should vote Obama.

Riding The Bullet

"Where Have You Gone, John ?"

Good question and excellent answers by Jonathan Atler*.

McCain 2008 is definitely becoming a caricature of Bush 2004, and doesn't have much left in common with McCain 2000.

Already swiftboated in muddy waters by 527 Groups**, Barack Obama is now being parishiltoned by John's own Nightmare Team of campaigners, headed by The Bullet himself, Steve Schmidt, the ant behind The Architect in Karl Rove's masterpiece : George W. Bush 2004 election (remember ? Dubya lost in 2000 but Jeb won Florida for him).

How low can it go indeed ? Back in 2003, The Dixie Chicks would clearly denounce Bush's invasion of Iraq. Five years later, Paris Hilton is actually campaigning for John McCain. No wonder : compared to Nathalie Maines, this perfab rehab celeb has the IQ of a fencepost. Ever the superficial caricature of herself, she is not criticizing the Republican candidate for his program or character but for his age, the only field where she can outscore him (Mac also underwent cosmetic surgery, but for serious reasons - and no, I never considered dumbness a sexy attribute).

The air is almost getting fouler in pre-election America than in pre-olympic Beijing. Yet, even under this blanket of slime and mud, a serious debate seems to be emerging on energy issues. Obama knows the quickest way to curb emissions is to change behaviors, and McCain knows nuclear power should remain a major option.

Even nowadays, after the World's leader in percentage of electricity generated by nuclear plants disclosed series of embarassing incidents involving its beloved plants.

After all, there's been some improvement since 2004 : if France is still not really helping the GOP champion, at least Paris joined the Party.



* see his latest column (Newsweek 20080811) - and my previous blogules on this tragic Mac Drive : "The McCainistan War" (20080718), and "Values Question Marks" (20080512)
** see "The Case Against Barack Obama ? More propaganda from mud loving PIGs" (20080703)