Tag: Fox News

Cindy McCain Lied About Mother Teresa

Trish

A mailer used in South Carolina during the primaries trades on John’s anti-abortion stand, recently beefed up, and Cindy’s non-existent relationship with Mother Teresa. The image appears PhotoShopped, with Cindy walking and Mother Teresa standing. Note Cindy’s hair color back then. Also, the mailer claims Bridget was adopted in 1993, which contradicts all other McCain lore. Was that the year Cindy finally met Mother Teresa?

In a whopper rivaled only by Hillary Clinton’s Bosnia snipers and Mitt Romney’s dad marching with Martin Luther King, Jr., Cindy McCain was caught lying about Mother Teresa.

The legendary fable about how the McCains came to adopt their daughter Bridget from an orphanage in Bangladesh in 1991 held that Cindy was directed personally by Mother Teresa to take the little girl to America. Cindy was so moved by the nun that she marched home and handed the bundle to John McCain, saying, “Meet your daughter.”

The McCain sins are being treated like those of George Bush and the members of his corrupt administration, which is to say, pre-emptively ignored

The media ate the tale with a spoon and served it back to us.

A story earlier this year on ABC’s “Good Morning America” stated, “With Mother Teresa’s encouragement she brought her fourth child, Bridget, home.” An April 2008 Wall Street Journal profile states that Mother Teresa “implored” Cindy to bring the girls to the United States. Other articles say Cindy did it “at the behest” of Mother Teresa.

Ah, what a story! What a feat! What a woman!

What a bunch of hooey!

None other than the Christian Science Monitor has blown the lid off the Mother Teresa melodrama.

According to biographies of Mother Teresa, in 1991 she was in Mexico where she developed medical problems. From there, she went to a hospital in La Jolla, Calif.

A McCain source acknowledged that Cindy McCain did not meet Mother Teresa during the 1991 trip to Bangladesh but said McCain did meet her later on, although the source could not say when or where. The campaign has since reworded the reference to the adoption on its website.

Alexandra Marks, who wrote the Christian Science story, says that while most politicians and their peeps either gild the lily or have mental lapses, the important thing is evidence of patterns. As an example, she notes that Barack Obama claimed Kennedy funds financed the airlift that brought his father to study in America in 1959. In fact, the Kennedys didn’t contribute to that effort until 1960.

Obama’s mistake seemed to be an honest one, based on the lack of a pattern of distortion. Which brings us back to Cindy McCain.

Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.

But that’s not all.

McCain told the Chicago Tribune earlier this year that on one of her medical missions to Vietnam she was in “the very hospital – and in the very room – where her husband was brought after being shot down and then beaten by a mob during the war.”

A 1992 Washington Times story recounts a different version: “Mrs. McCain asked to see the operating room and her husband’s cell, but was turned down. She took the rejection philosophically. ‘It’s 27 years later. Let’s go on,’ Mrs. McCain said.”

Let’s all pause for a moment and conjure up an image in our minds of the news cycle that would result from Michelle Obama being caught lying about a relationship with Mother Teresa. Can you see the sputum flying from Bill O’Rilley’s livery lips? The gleeful braying from Rush Limbaugh? How FOX News would interrupt regular programming for back-to-back coverage of the unfolding crisis?

And yet, here we are again, with basically nothing being said about Cindy McCain’s flagrant fabrication of a non-existent yet supposedly life-changing encounter with Mother Teresa.

The McCain sins are being treated like those of George Bush and the members of his corrupt administration, which is to say, pre-emptively ignored. Journalists need to stop deciding in advance what we will and will not want to know about, and just report what’s out there, whether it helps or hurts those in power, or those who want to be. We need to take back the White House, but we need to take back the American press too.

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones Has Died

Jon Ponder

Early reports that Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones had died were incorrect, however her condition appears to be very serious.

Cleveland Plain Dealer at about 1:30 p.m. EDT:

Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, had a brain hemorrhage and was in critical condition with limited brain function, a doctor said Wednesday.

Tubbs Jones, 58, suffered the hemorrhage while driving her car in Cleveland Heights on Tuesday, said Dr. Gus Kious, president of Huron Hospital in East Cleveland. The congresswoman had been driving erratically and her vehicle crossed lanes of traffic before coming to a stop, police said.

The hemorrhage was in an inaccessible part of the congresswoman’s brain, Kious said during a news conference. A team of doctors who evaluated her determined she has limited brain function.

The Associated Press is reporting that Rep. Tubbs Jones died today at 6:12 p.m., in Cleveland.

Fox News Perpetuates McCain’s False Claim That He Supported GI Bill He Criticized As ‘Too Generous’ To Troops

Jon Ponder

Events in the campaign this week offer a case study in how Fox News assists the right wing — in this case, the McCain campaign — disseminate disinformation:

Monday: Speaking before the Veterans of Foreign Wars, John McCain falsely claimed credit for supporting the 21st Century GI Bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.):

As a political proposition, it would have much easier for me to have just signed on to what I considered flawed legislation. But the people of Arizona, and of all America, expect more from their representatives than that, and instead I sought a better bill. I’m proud to say that the result is a law that better serves our military, better serves military families, and better serves the interests of our country.

In reality, the bill McCain “sought” was not Webb-Hagel, which he opposed because its tuition benefits were “too generous” to the troops. The version he sought was a different bill that he co-sponsored:

The GI Bill as approved in no way resembles McCain’s so-called proportional proposal. The GI Bill provides 100 percent tuition payments to those who have served 36 months in active duty, and gives 80 percent to those who have served 24 months. By contrast, under McCain’s proposal, a soldier would have had to serve four times as long — 12 years in active duty – to be eligible for the most generous benefits.

If McCain’s version had passed, service members would have to wait to start college until they were 30 years old or older.

In the end, McCain did not even bother to show up on June 26 to vote on the bill, which passed the Senate 92 to six. All six senators who voted against it were Republicans. (The only other senator who did not vote was Ted Kennedy, who had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor.)

But McCain may have been prevaricating to the wrong crowd. Turns out VFW leaders supported the Webb-Hagel bill:

VFW’s deputy director for legislative affairs Eric Hilleman: The Graham-Burr-McCain plan is “very partisan and is seen as a way to convolute the GI bill, or to slow the Webb-Hagel proposal down.”

VFW National Commander George Lisicki: “People are leaving after their first enlistment because they are tired of being shot at, and their families are tired of the frequent deployments … Whether they stay in four years or 20, we owe this newest, greatest generation the gift of education.”

Tuesday: Fox News runs with the story that McCain supported Webb-Hagel:

CAMERON: John McCain initially took some opposition to it [the GI Bill], because in McCain’s view, it didn’t proportionately give GI benefits to servicemen and women, depending on how long they were actually in active duty and service. He thought it should be a more proportionate award. He fought for it, it was inserted into the legislation, and in the end, McCain supported it.

In reality, the 12-year term was not “inserted in the legislation,” as Fox News asserted, and not only did McCain not “support” it, he didn’t even pause in his campaign long enough to vote for it “in the end.”

Either Fox did not bother to fact-check, or they were deliberately lying on McCain’s behalf.

Cheating at Saddleback: McCain Appparently Knew Question About Supreme Court in Advance

Jon Ponder

MCCAIN: Could I — are we going to get back to the importance of Supreme Court Justices or should I mention —

WARREN: We will get to that.

MCCAIN: OK. All right. OK.

WARREN: You’re jumping ahead…

The McCain campaign is fighting hard against charges that McCain cheated on the rules of debate at a rightwing evangelical forum in a California megachurch over the weekend by cribbing the questions in advance. They are so desperate, apparently, that a McCain operative even played the POW card, citing McCain’s imprisonment by the Vietnamese 40 years ago as evidence somehow that he did not cheat Saturday night.
What’s suspicious here is that the topic of the Supreme Court had not come up in McCain’s interview, so it was not a topic to go “back” to.
Even “Pastor Rick” Warren, the multimillionaire evangelist who hosted the event — and who clearly favored McCain in the questioning — has admitted that McCain was not sequestered during the live session with Obama.

Warren told the live audience in the hall and on CNN that McCain was in a “cone of silence” to prevent him from having the advantage of hearing the questions in advance. In fact, McCain was in his car during much of Obama’s session, where he certainly could have listened to the interview.

And this exchange from the forum appears to indicate that McCain knew that Warren was going to ask him a very specific question about the Supreme Court. Notice how McCain asks if he can go “back” to a question about the court:

WARREN: Let’s deal with abortion. I, as a pastor, have to deal with this all the time, every different angle, every different pain, all of the decisions and all of that. Forty million abortions since Roe v. Wade. Some people, people who believe that life begins at conception, believe that’s a holocaust for many people. What point is a baby entitled to human rights?

MCCAIN: At the moment of conception. (APPLAUSE). I have a 25- year pro-life record in the Congress, in the Senate. And as president of the United States, I will be a pro-life president. And this presidency will have pro-life policies. That’s my commitment. That’s my commitment to you.

WARREN: OK, we don’t have to beleaguer on that one. Define marriage.

MCCAIN: A union — a union between man and woman, between one man and one woman. That’s my definition of marriage.

Could I — are we going to get back to the importance of Supreme Court Justices or should I mention —

WARREN: We will get to that.

MCCAIN: OK. All right. OK.

WARREN: You’re jumping ahead…

(CROSSTALK)

MCCAIN: When we speak of the issue of the rights to the unborn, we need to talk about judges. But, anyway, go ahead.

What’s suspicious here is that the topic of the Supreme Court had not come up in McCain’s interview, so it was not a topic to go “back” to. On the other hand, Obama had been asked a question about the Supreme Court during his earlier session, which McCain supposedly had not heard:

[…]

McCain Cites POW Status in Denying He Cheated at Evangelical Forum

Jon Ponder

Did John McCain cheat by cribbing questions in advance at the rightwing megachurch forum Saturday night?
UPDATE


McCain operative Nicole Wallace vehemently denied claims that McCain heard Barack Obama being questioned, even though McCain was not sequestered in a “cone of silence,” as Rick Warren, the multimillionaire evangelist and moderator of the forum, had asserted to the live audience.

What’s bizarre here is that Wallace cited McCain’s status as POW 40 years ago as evidence that he did not cheat Saturday night:

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said. [Emphasis added.]

Here’s how Warren described the “rules” he established for the forum in his introductory remarks to the audience Saturday night:

RICK WARREN, PASTOR, SADDLEBACK CHURCH: Now, what I decided is to allow for proper comparison, I’m going to ask identical questions to each of these candidates. So you can compare apples to apples. Now, Senator Obama is going to go first. We flipped a coin, and we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence.

During his session, Obama gave what post-game analysts have called “thoughtful” and “nuanced” answers, which is a coded way to say he overthought the questions and his answers were too wordy.

However, when it was McCain’s turn, he gave very short answers — you know, like bumperstickers — and often interrupted Warren to start answering before the question was complete.

Was McCain in the “cone of silence” while Obama was questioned? According to Rick Warren, in an interview on CNN on Sunday, he was not:

[…]

Bush’s Pastor Questions McCain’s Christian Devotion

Trish

Rev. Kirbyjon Caudwell marries Jenna Bush and Henry Hager

It’s probably statistically impossible to be wrong all the time, and the Rev. Kirbyjon Caudwell is living proof. The good pastor is known as George Bush’s spiritual adviser, and recently officiated at Jenna Bush’s wedding. He has also led a ministry for recovering homosexuals and wannabe recovering homosexuals at his 14,000-member Windsor Village (mega)Church in Houston. Oddly, he has come out (so to speak) in support of Barack Obama.

‘The Senator made a comment regarding his wife entering some Buffalo Chips contest which is this topless deal and my personal opinion, that’s not not, N-O-T, not the type of expression that a presidential candidate, or anyone who is a follower of the Christian faith, ought to make.’

But Obama is not the only thing he’s right about. He’s also appalled, as was I, that John McCain recently stood in front of a mob of drunken bikers in Sturgis, S.D. and offered his wife up as a contestant in the Miss Buffalo Chip contest. The pageant consists of egging nearly-nude women into becoming as close to fully nude as they will go in order to earn the colorful title. The disrespect shown to the potential First Lady by her husband boggled my mind, and evidently Rev. Caudwell’s.

“Well, I don’t know a lot about John McCain’s family history, I do know, however, that as recently as last week I think it was, the Senator made a comment in South Dakota regarding his wife entering some Buffalo Chips contest which is this topless deal and if she were to enter she would probably win it and my personal opinion and based on my understanding of the Christian faith, that’s not not, N-O-T, not the type of expression that a presidential candidate, or anyone for that matter who is a follower of the Christian faith, ought to make,” said the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell.

The fun part of all this is hearing the response from the McCain team. A reporter offered them a gaping out by asking if McCain realized the contest was so explicit. Hell yes, his campaign answered. But they added McCain was only kidding.

Asked if McCain was unaware that the Buffalo Chips contest often features contestants topless, a McCain aide told ABC News that he believes the senator was aware but emphasized that the presumptive GOP nominee was joking and would not want his wife to participate in such a contest.

That was their initial response. Later, they added some blustering umbrage as well.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers has responded to Caldwell’s criticism by saying: “These people are Obama campaign surrogates. These kinds of personal attacks are disgraceful. This absolutely exposes the hypocrisy of Obama’s claim to represent a ‘new kind of politics.'”

Another McCain-ite, this one anonymous, threatened the Obama campaign with opening a big ol’ can of scandal on their asses. Which is hilarious, because if they had anything, they a) would have used it long before now, and b) would use it no matter whether the Obama campaign talked bad about McCain or not.

“My advice to the Obama people: ‘proceed with extreme caution.’ They don’t want to get into a discussion of character and background. They are opening a door that they will not be able to close. They are putting on the table issues and personalities that they do not want to discuss.”

Sounds juicy!

Asked which personalities? The GOP strategist cited the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and former Obama law partners.

Oh. Whatever.

For their part, Obama’s folks are staying out of it.

The Obama campaign had no immediate reaction to Caldwell’s comments or the McCain campaign response.

Limbaugh: Edwards Sought ‘Woman Whose Mouth Did Something Other Than Talk’

Jon Ponder

Sometimes what comes out of the rightwing is so outrageous and disgusting that even their enemies feel something akin to embarrassment for them. When I first heard the audio of Rush Limbaugh’s latest and maybe vilest smear yet, I was too repulsed to write about it. But this one needs to be aired, in the sense of “vented.”
“Rush Limbaugh is a hole.”
– Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann covered the story on MSNBC’s “Countdown” on Tuesday. See video above, and here is a transcript of the highlights:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: We‘ve been told that Elizabeth Edwards is smarter than John Edwards. That‘s part of the puff pieces on them that we‘ve seen. Ergo, if Elizabeth Edwards is smarter than John Edwards, is it likely that she thinks she knows better than he does what his speeches ought to contain? And what kind of things he ought to be doing strategy wise in a campaign? If she is smarter than he is, could it have been her decision to keep going with the campaign?

In other words, could it be that she doesn‘t shut up? Now, that‘s as far as I‘m going to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: Actually, it wasn‘t. Never is. A minute later—

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIMBAUGH: It just seems to me that Edwards might be attracted to a woman whose mouth did something other than talk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[…]

Dumb Move: Clinton to be Up for Nomination at the Convention

Trish

Diehard supporters of Hillary Clinton are getting their way. The senator’s name will be placed in nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

“Both sides agree that it is in the best interest of party unity and making sure that everyone’s voice and vote is honored to make sure her name is put into nomination,” a person close the negotiations said. “It’s to honor everyone who worked so hard on both sides.”

Oh please. Whoever loses the nomination always has supporters who worked hard. That doesn’t mean they get to ignore the fact that they lost.

After both Clinton’s and Obama’s names are placed into nomination there will be a roll call vote

Some details are still being worked out, but Clinton’s name will be put into nomination at the Denver convention on Wednesday. That will be one day after Clinton addresses the convention.

“This truly was a joint decision,” according to the Clinton source. “This wasn’t something she was itching for, looking for. But so many of her supporters said it was important to them. And the Obama people got how important it was to smooth over any tensions and that it was the right thing to do.”

What also hasn’t been settled yet is who will nominate Clinton and whether she will stand up with the New York delegation when they are called on.

What has been settled, however, is that after both Clinton (sic) and Obama (sic) names are placed into nomination there will be a roll call vote.

So then can we get behind Obama? Or will Clintonites come up with another demand?

I hope the party executives know what they’re doing. As anyone who’s read my previous posts knows, I have zero confidence in Howard Dean. Moves like this aren’t helping give me any.

McCain Finally Apologizes to Black Reporter, Insists He’s Not a Racist Because He Was a POW

Trish

A full week after it happened, John McCain finally found time to apologize to the black reporter, Stephen Price, who was thrown out of the press area during a McCain stop in Florida. And while the candidate maintained the incident was the fault of the Secret Service, not his campaign, he went out of his way to explain that he isn’t a racist, according to the story Price wrote about their conversation. For proof, he dragged out his reversal on supporting the Martin Luther King birthday holiday, and his capture as a prisoner of war.

Wait a minute. “His capture as a prisoner of war?” How is that relevant?

When pressed to answer why he first voted against the King holiday, McCain said, “That was back in 1983. I was wrong and I have stated I was wrong, sir. … I’m very proud of my record I’m not saying it is perfect.

“I know what it is like to be deprived of your rights. I know what it’s like to be in confinement. I know what it’s like to be beaten. I know what it’s like. So I think I have a special appreciation that maybe a lot of people don’t have for what it’s like to be deprived of your rights. … We all improve over the years and we learn and we grow.”

Um, is that not the most convoluted and self-serving explanation you’ve ever heard for why someone voted against the King holiday? And total crap besides?

Price also asked McCain what his campaign is doing about voter registration in Florida, where the most recent numbers (new ones will be out soon) show 106,508 new voters registering as Democrats compared to only 16,686 new Republicans.

“I don’t get into those type of details,” McCain said. “Obviously, we want voter registration all over America. … We’ll do everything we can to get maximum turnout.”

Wow, what an inspiration McCain must be to Republican volunteers.

The End of the Affair – With John Edwards

Trish

Pensito Review editor Jon has come under flak for the mere mention of the Edwards affair. I made my strong support of John Edwards known on this very news and information web site before the Florida primary. I liked all of his policies, found him personally non-annoying, and of course, loved his wife. Still do. Read her book, logged on to her blog — I’m a total Elizabeth fan.

Edwards says he confessed to Elizabeth first, as soon as he ended the affair. If only Bill Clinton had done the same.

So when Jon brought the National Enquirer story to my attention a couple of weeks ago, I hoped it wasn’t true. But I told him and Buck it bothered me that at the time of the announcement Elizabeth’s cancer was back, there was no physical contact between her and John. They stoically did not cling to one another, or even drape an arm around a waist. or clench hands. Early in the press conference, when Elizabeth wiped away a tear, John didn’t reach over and touch her. I noticed it, and looking again at it now, I am amazed at how unironic they both were as they talked about how they had faced hard times together before. We all thought they were talking about losing a son and an election campaign. Maybe they were.

In announcing he had an affair, Edwards said there was nothing bad we could say about him that he hasn’t already said about himself. I think he’s telling the truth there, and I think that’s an appropriate attitude. His own shame should outweigh any we can heap upon him. I would be even more disappointed in him to think otherwise.

It’s inevitable that we will draw comparisons with Bill Clinton, the other handsome Democrat who didn’t keep it in his pants when we wished he had. But one difference jumps out at me: Edwards says he confessed to Elizabeth first, as soon as he ended the affair. If only Bill had done the same. Instead, Hillary was the last to know, after reporters, Congressional committees, and yeah, you and me. Bill let Hillary go out there and defend him, knowing the whole time it was lies, lies, lies. At least Elizabeth got the courtesy of a private heads-up.

As I also told Jon and Buck, divorce is only one of many possible responses to adultery. It’s the one we see on T.V., the one that usually involves running up a credit card bill for dozens of pairs of expensive shoes and sticking the cheater with same, but it’s not always the one we reach for in real life. Marriage is much more complex than situation comedy, thank the lord.

I have almost no interest in whether John Edwards is the father of the other woman’s child, or the fact that he lied to reporters during the presidential campaign. My thoughts are with Elizabeth. And if anyone wants to second-guess her choice to remain married, or to support her husband in their shared vision for this country, they should find something else to do.