Month: June 2008

Who is behind the recent vandalism of 60 city-owned cars in Orlando — spray-painted with anti-Obama and anti-McCain messages — is an interesting question. On the one hand, they could really be, as they claim, from a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Business-card-sized notes signed by “CR” were found that disparaged Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama on one side, while supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton on the other. The cards also had statements such as “Legalize Marijuana/Stop Building Prisons,” “Ladies I’m Single Some Girl Step Up” and “How About Them Gators.”

On the other hand, it could be a frame job.

The cars were parked across from city hall late Saturday night. Investigators say the culprits tagged notes such as “Obama smokes crack” and a racial epithet. They even left business cards on each vehicle.

Witness Mike Lowe first told police about the damage. He saw three cars with anti-Obama messages, while the others were just heavily painted.

“I’m driving by and every car I see has been hit with spray paint,” Lowe said told WKMG-TV. “There is so much damage to them. There is messages written on them and the vandals left their business card, which is crazy.”

Crazy or deliberate in implicating people like that lady who went off after the Florida and Michigan Democratic delegation seats were decided. Police are asking you to call 800-423-TIPS with clues, but they should probably start by checking that woman’s thumb to see if it’s blue.

A New Low in Republican Hypocrisy Has Been Reached

This is not a joke. A pair of Republican U.S. senators who disgraced themselves with extramarital affairs have signed on as sponsors of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would prohibit same sex marriage anywhere in the United States.

The senators are David Vitter of Louisiana, who admitted he consorted with prostitutes over a long period of time, and Larry Craig of Idaho, who pleaded guilty to a charge of soliciting sex in a men’s room.

Both Vitter and Craig were 2007 nominees to Pensito Review’s GOP Adulterers Hall of Fame.

The amendment states, “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”

In an interview posted on the website of the London Telegraph last week, John Bolton, one of the most belligerent of the neocon war hawks, predicted that Israel will attack Iran sometime after the U.S. presidential elections November 4 and January 21, the day George Bush and Dick Cheney leave office.
“An Obama victory would rule out military action by the Israelis because they would fear the consequences given the approach Obama has taken to foreign policy.”
— Bolton
Bombing Iran has long been a neocon objective. Last February, New Yorker reporter revealed that Dick Cheney had secret plans for creating an “open confrontation” with Iran and that the Pentagon was ready to start bombing within 24 hours of a signal from the White House. One supposedly non-neocon pol who was on board then was John McCain. During a campaign stop in South Carolina in April 2007, McCain made a joke of bombing Iran by singing “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys song, “Barbara Ann.”

But Bolton now believes Bush and his senior aides have succumbed to political reality and will not pursue the attack using U.S. forces. According to the Telegraph, Bolton said, “It’s clear that the administration has essentially given up that possibility… I don’t think it’s serious any more. If you had asked me a year ago I would have said I thought it was a real possibility. I just don’t think it’s in the cards.”

About his suggested timeframe of November to January, Bolton said, “The Israelis have one eye on the calendar because of the pace at which the Iranians are proceeding both to develop their nuclear weapons capability and to do things like increase their defenses by buying new Russian anti-aircraft systems and further harden the nuclear installations.

“They’re also obviously looking at the American election calendar. My judgment is they would not want to do anything before our election because there’s no telling what impact it could have on the election.”

Bolton suggests that Israel will attack Iran on Bush’s watch because they fear that if Barack Obama is elected, he would stand in the way of such of an attack, because Obama has signaled he would seek negotiations with Iran before bombing. “An Obama victory would rule out military action by the Israelis because they would fear the consequences given the approach Obama has taken to foreign policy,” he said.

About the approach of John McCain, Bolton said, “With McCain they might still be looking at a delay. Given that time is on Iran’s side, I think the argument for military action is sooner rather than later absent some other development.” Bolton is a McCain supporter.

Bush named Bolton as his UN ambassador as a recess appointment in 2005, but he only served a year because Democrats in the Senate refused to confirm him.

Is this someone’s idea of fair and balanced? On the same Newsweek page as a story about how one of heiress Cindy McCain’s seven properties — the one in ritzy La Jolla, Calif. — was in tax arrears is a photo gallery of, “A Maverick’s Path: A look at John McCain’s long and varied service to his country.”

Puh-lease! Can the MSM not say the words “John McCain” without simultaneously throwing in, “maverick?” Can we come up with a new inaccurate cliche to apply to this guy? And what’s it got to do with Cindy’s taxes?

I also guarantee-damn-tee you that a story about how Michelle Obama neglected to pay taxes would not be listed under the heading, “Real Estate.” I’m thinking you’d find it under “Politics,” “National News,” and “Oh Boy, We’ve Got Him Now!”

In an interview with the Orange County Register during his swing through California this week, John McCain was asked, “When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?”

“Oh, I don’t remember,” McCain answered. “Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters.”

Off the top, this would seem to indicate that McCain is out of touch with the concerns of regular Americans. The classic instance of this was in the 1992 campaign when George Bush Sr. appeared not to know what the optical scanner was in a supermarket checkout.

And while it’s true that the price of gas doesn’t matter to a guy like McCain, whose wife has $100 million in assets, it strains credulity that he doesn’t know what gas costs.

The spike in gas prices has been one of the most-covered stories in the past few months. And we know he’s aware of it because he did a 180-degree flipflop on offshore drilling this month for the sole purpose of addressing the rising price of oil.

And even if for some reason he didn’t know he was recommending risking the natural beauty of the coasts of California, Florida and elsewhere for the sole reason that gasoline prices are going through the roof, is it possible he has failed to notice the signs at gas stations as he motors around the country in his chauffeured SUVs?

If he is not out of touch, the only other conclusion is that McCain was annoyed by the question and, on an impulse, he simply lied when he said he didn’t know what gas costs.

If so, he really is just like George Bush Jr., for whom lying is an apparently irresistible impulse — a reflex.

What is also similar to Bush here (at least in his first term) is that whether McCain’s answer was a gaffe that revealed him to be out of touch or whether it was a lie, the media will ignore it. As a writer at Newshogger put it, “[If] Obama had said it you would hear about nothing else on the Sunday talking heads shows and it would be on the front page of all the major papers. But St John gets a pass.”

Same as it ever was.