Thursday, May 15, 2008

"DEFENDER OF DEMOCRACY"

Here's part of a recent MoveOn message:

"John McCain says he's a defender of democracy. But the folks running his campaign have been playing for the other team.

Two of John McCain's senior campaign staff were forced to resign this week after revelations that their lobbying firm was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to represent Burma's brutal military dictatorship.1

And it gets worse—turns out this goes all the way to the top. Charlie Black, McCain's campaign chairman, ran a lobbying firm that represented brutal dictators like Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire—along with terrorist rebel Jonas Savimbi in Angola. Together, these men have been responsible for massive human suffering.2

And for good measure, Charlie Black has represented war profiteer Blackwater Worldwide and Iraqi fraudster Ahmed Chalabi.3"

...

"P.S. McCain's campaign staff have too many connections to dictators to list in this email. It's unbelievable. But the non-partisan reform group Public Campaign Action Fund created a great fact sheet laying it all out:

http://www.firethelobbyists.com/facts.html

Sources:
1. "A Lobbying Firm and Its McCain Ties," MSNBC, May 12, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3654&id=12651-3436740-mNRbiW&t=5

2. "John McCain's Lobbyist Connections," Public Campaign Action Fund
http://www.firethelobbyists.com/facts.html

3. Ibid.

13 comments:

JIm said...

The alternative to McCain appears to be Obama, the Hamas candidate. McCain has a lot of faults (many were listed on previous posts) which I prefer not to list again because it makes me depressed, but at least he is not radical Islam's candidate. Obama has already said he will negotiate with Ahmadinejad. At least I have confidence that McCain will not be a weakling like Obama and the former president he seems similar too, good old dictator and terrorist lover Jimma Carter.

Anonymous said...

I guess we can expect "Uncle Duke" from Doonesbury to go on John McCain's payroll soon.

Harryn Studios said...

if these are the kind of shenanigans that mcCain and his staffers are up to now [when he risks exposure], i can’t wait for the other skeletons to come parading out ...
and bush’s speech in israel yesterday, despicable ...
glad to see he’s receiving such a warm reception from the saudis this morning ...
bush and his tactics are making being an american beyond embarrassing ...

Harryn Studios said...

furthermore, i think congress should issue an official reprimand for bush's behavior abroad ...

JIm said...

Harryn, As long as congess is going to issue reprimands, how about good ole Jimma, the Hamas lover and Honored Democrat past president.

Harryn Studios said...

'past' is your only accurate and operative word ...
there's also a distinction between loving and communicating ...
and honor is something bestowed upon an individual for their adherence to a code of standards [see u.s. constitution and bill of rights for details] ...
easy jim, you know what happened the last time you guys pissed off a group of pennsylvanians [see declaration of independence for details] ...

Anonymous said...

For years this allusion to appeasers such as Great Britain's Neville Chamberlain has been reasonable and customary.

Bush's direct reference to Republican Senator from Idaho in 1939 William Edgar Borah was his only mention of an American politician.

This is simply a matter of people feeling guilty. They protest too much.

Being that all three contenders for the presidency are senators they all have ties to lobbyists.

The horrible dictators mentioned may just have been graduates of American University. This is the US university of low intensity combat.

Anonymous said...

While I do not agree with McCain's views on many issues, he is at least cleansing his campaign of lobbyists.

Lobbyists are agents in selling out our economy, security and freedoms.

Obama has made his allegiances known in reference to his revulsion of 'white America' and his naive views of the office of the President of the United States.

In Obama's own words,

From Dreams of My Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'

From Dreams of My Father : 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.'

From Dreams of My Father: ; 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on , to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.'

From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'

Anonymous said...

While I do not agree with McCain's views on many issues, he is at least cleansing his campaign of lobbyists.

Lobbyists are agents in selling out our economy, security and freedoms.

Obama has made his allegiances known in reference to his revulsion of 'white America' and his naive views of the office of the President of the United States.

In Obama's own words,

From Dreams of My Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'

From Dreams of My Father : 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.'

From Dreams of My Father: ; 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on , to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.'

From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'

Anonymous said...

Didn't Ronald Reagan negotiate with Iran-- and sell weapons to them? In violation of the law? Arms for hostages or something? Or am I just dreaming?

Anonymous said...

Ronald Reagan did not sit down with the leaders of Iran, which is what Obama has stated he would do in the debates.

This is not an issue of negotiation through delegation, this is an issue of the president sitting down personally without pre-arranged parameters.

After being rebuffed in the debates, Obama has changed his tune to the usual pre-arranged circumstances that would precedecthe president sitting down with a world leader.

The presidency of the United States is not an entry level position that includes on the job training. All of the candidates in that debate made that point.

The Reagan incident was possibly more complex han we have been told. Iran was contacted to exert influence on the Lebaneese who were holding an apparent CIA operative. The illegality was in the arms to the Contras and possibly other dealings that have only been hinted at.

Sadly all the presidents do this sort of thing under the guise of the CIA or NSA.

I have been wondering why the Democratic majority in the House and Senate are not being held accountable for their effect on our economy in their two years in office.

Lally said...

Yeah right anonymous. If it wasn't for the Democrats, everything would be peachy. Wait until the Democrats have a real majority in the Senate and hopefully a Democrat is in the White House and then they'll be able to pass the bills necessary or take the actions necessary to turn the economy around, which, by the way is in the shape it's in because of rising costs of oil and food and the war, all Republican administration and Republican Congress doing. John, I appreciate your trying to argue with anonymous, but it's futile. His guy's actions are justified, our guy's ain't. As in, the bad economy that cocurred after Bush Junior got in the White House was blamed on Clinton, the bad economy we get from seven years of Bush is the Democratic Congress's fault, even though the Democrats do not have a veto proof majority in the Senate etc. etc. I won't add any more to this after anonymous makes his new points that won't address the facts of our arguments or questions but merely repeat talking points from the Republican play book. Tedious, and ultimately pretty boring I'm afraid.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't our economy in better shape (i.e.-oil and food prices) before the Dems attained a majority in the House and Senate in 2006?

A president has so many powers and responsibilities. The economy (i.e.- interstate commerce) is the realm of the Congress. Education is the province of the states. Medical care and infrastructure maintenance are the responsibility of state and local government.

Facts can be tedious and boring, I agree.