John McCain

McCain, desperate, hires Robots to Attack Obama for Terrorist Ties and Socialist Tendencies

RobotPirateNinja bullshit, government, ninja, robot Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

John McCain is dropping honor by the wayside in this campaign.  The latest chapter involves a bunch of robots.  Lying, evil robots.

I think we need to take a closer lok at that army of robots he has hired to lie for him.  They are bothering people and calling Obama a Terrorist.

[yes, that’s the real audio.  Someone did a nice job of putting it to culture]

The automated calls in Maine, Nevada and other states — they are commonly known as “robo calls” — say Obama “has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home and killed Americans.”

The charge is misleading: The bombings, which took place more than 35 years ago, didn’t result in fatalities and the group didn’t claim responsibility for the attack on the judge’s home.

[full article]

So McCain has hired a bunch of robots to lie for him.  His campaign is totally on-board with these tactics, obviously.

The McCain campaign says the calls are warranted because Obama’s connection to Ayers — the two met many years after Ayers’ anti-Vietnam War activities had ended — raises questions about the Democrat’s judgment and record.

“This is an association that is highly questionable and not out of bounds,” McCain spokesman Rick Gorka said.

The tactics, using robots to spread lies, has been widely condemned by rational thinking people.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two senators in opposing political parties asked Republican presidential candidate John McCain to stop the automated phone calls that link Democratic candidate Barack Obama to a 1960s radical.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, made separate appeals to McCain on Friday. Collins faces a tough race for re-election and serves as a co-chairwoman of his Maine campaign.

“These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics,” Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley said. “Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately.”

Not to be outdone personally, McCain is now openly accusing Obama of being the ultimate U.S. boogey-man buzzword…a “socialist”.

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Saturday accused Democratic rival Barack Obama of favoring a socialistic economic approach by supporting tax cuts and tax credits McCain says would merely shuffle wealth rather than creating it.

“At least in Europe, the Socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives,” McCain said in a radio address. “They use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candor from Sen. Obama. Raising taxes on some in order to give checks to others is not a tax cut; it’s just another government giveaway.”

McCain, though, has a health care plan girded with a similar philosophy. He proposes providing individuals with a $5,000 tax credit to buy health insurance. He would pay for his plan, in part, by considering as taxable income the money their employer spends on their health coverage.

[full story]

Remember, it’s not “socialism” when Mccain does it.  It’s not “socialism” when he advocates the government directly buying mortgages.  It’s not “socialsim” when he holds up a workin’-class everyman as, well, everyone.  It can’t be, because, DUH!!!, McCain isn’t a socialist and Obama is.

McCain then continued with his UNABASHEDLY SOCIALIST RHETORIC.

[McCain] also was sharply critical of the Bush administration, saying it should be more aggressive in buying up the home mortgages of those trapped by high interest rates and falling housing values.

“The administration is not doing it. The secretary of the Treasury is not doing it,” McCain told the crowd. “We need to buy up these mortgages, give you a mortgage that you can afford, so you can pay your mortgage and realize the American Dream of owning your home.”

I don’t think McCain quite understands hows this works.  Just because the Government buys your mortgage, it doesn’t mean that you, yourself, own it.  The Government owns it.  You still have to pay for it.

McCain seems to be saying that the Government can solve everyone’s problems by buying everyone’s mortgage and then giving them back to the People.  That’s Socialist Rhetoric 101 people.

Now if that bit of hypocrisy isn’t enough for you, check this out.

Speaking to a boisterous crowd at Florida International University, McCain expressed dismay that the fame he brought on Joe Wurzelbacher has now turned the Ohio man into the focus of endless publicity, not all of it favorable.

For this, McCain blames his opponent, Barack Obama.

“The response from Senator Obama and his campaign yesterday was to attack Joe,” McCain said. “People are digging through his personal life and he has TV crews camped out in front of his house. He didn’t ask for Senator Obama to come to his house. He wasn’t recruited or prompted by our campaign. He just asked a question. And Americans ought to be able to ask Senator Obama tough questions without being smeared and targeted with political attacks.”

[full article]

This is the most complete and utter crap I’ve heard this election season, and that’s saying A LOT.  The guy tries to ambush Obama with a hypothetical question, conservatives go nuts over a soundbyte[*], “Joe” starts doing appearances on Fox and Rush, McCain himself brings up the guy 20 times during the debate….AND…..it’s Obama’s fault.

[*] BTW, in my long “Joe the Plumber” expose, I link to the entire, roughly 6-minute exchange between Sam and Obama.  Obama ends with this bit…

Obama said his tax plan, which he said focuses on bigger breaks for people making lower incomes, would be good for the economy. “If you’ve got a plumbing business, you’re going to be better off if you’ve got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you,” he said. “Right now, everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody. And I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Sounds like a fairly benign comment, right?  Just pointing out that a rising tide lifts all ships, right?

No.  You see, you have to read this (and you can’t watch the whole thing, that’s too easy).  You need to read this through NutJob Republican eyes [i.e. like Rush, Hannity, and Fox].  When you do that, the exact same paragaph reads as…

SPREAD THE WEALTH AROUND!!!!1!!  I WANT TO TAKE ALL YOUR MONEY AND SUPPRESS YOUR SPEECH AND GIVE IT TO THE OTHER BLACK PEOPLE!!!!   I LOVE STALIN!!!!

And if you are “Joe the Plumber” you hear the above and you see a black guy in front of you, dancin’ like Sammy.

—

Presidential Pose Off 2008

RobotPirateNinja media, Poli-Fi, President 08, robot, us Tags: , , , , 1 Comment
Presidential Pose Off 2008

Presidential Pose Off 2008

UPDATE: The story behind the photo..

The third and final debate between the 2008 U.S. presidential nominees had just ended. Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama and Republican nominee Senator John McCain had just shaken hands moments before and turned away from each other, when Senator McCain suddenly lunged forward with his hands out in front of him and stuck out his tongue.

It appeared to me that McCain was reacting to moderator Bob Schieffer informing him that he was headed the wrong way off the stage, that he was not supposed to be following Senator Obama, but was supposed to be heading towards his own wife and family around the other side of the table.

In any case, when I saw McCain lunge and his hands start to come up I hit the shutter and made two frames before it was over. Some other photographers who were there expressed surprise when they saw my picture and said they had never seen it happen at all and asked when it had occurred.

[Jim Bourg’s story continues…]

“Joe” the [Tax Dodging] Racist Republican “Plumber”

RobotPirateNinja bullshit, business, government, media, money, ninja, pirate, Poli-Fi, President 08, stupid, us Tags: , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

So it turned out that Joe the Plumber became a big part of the debate last night.  Much like the Bill Ayers “connection” that McCain made a centerpoint of his failing campaign, making Joe the Plumber the centerpoint of the third debate is currently is backfire mode.

All right, now let’s deal with that loaded title…

“Joe” in in quotes because the guy’s real name is “Sam”.  As in “Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher”.

Republican is not in quotes because Sam is a Republican.

Linda Howe, executive director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said a Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher, whose address and age match Joe the Plumber’s, registered in Lucas County on Sept. 10, 1992. He voted in his first primary on March 4, 2008, registering as a Republican.

—

It was [Wurzelbacher’s] “spread the wealth around” comment that caught the attention of conservative commentators, including Rush Limbaugh, and in discussions on the Internet. Mr. Wurzelbacher was a guest of Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Tuesday.

“Plumber” is in quotes because a quick search of licensed plumbers named “Wurzelbacher” in Ohio turns up empty.

Racist is not in quotes because of this interview…

COURIC: Could you just, Joe, explain quickly, and then we’ll let you go, how you met both of the candidates?

WURZELBACHER: I’ve yet to meet John McCain. Obama came to my neighborhood and my son and I were outside tossing the football, and all of a sudden he showed up, and there went our football tossing for a while. And, you know, neighbors were outside asking him questions, and I didn’t think they were asking him tough enough questions, so I thought, you know, I’ll go over there. You know, I’ve always wanted to ask one of these guys a question and really corner them and get them to answer a question of—for once instead of tap dancing around it. And unfortunately I asked the question but I still got a tap dance. Do you – almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr.

Ooh, I tell ya, ‘dem blackies can dance!!

Now I don’t think he’s an out and out racist. And I don’t think he would actually admit it on TV, but as read his answers to the other questions begin expose a revealing pattern.

COURIC: Well, he supposedly will raise taxes only on people who make over $250,000 a year. Would you be in that category?

WURZELBACHER: Not right now at presently, but, you know, question, so he’s going to do that now for people who make $250,000 a year. When’s he going to decide that $100,000 is too much, you know? I mean, you’re on a slippery slope here. You vote on somebody who decides that $250,000 and you’re rich? And $100,000 and you’re rich? I mean, where does it end? You know, that’s – people got to ask that question.

This was before the previously posted answer (Sammie) and after this one..

COURIC: And again, why don’t you just reiterate quickly for us, Joe, because I want you to get back, get to your local news station where you are, how you felt about the statements made by the candidates vs. the statements you heard when they were out on the campaign trail talking to you.

WURZELBACHER: …

Obama speaks well, but the one thing that’s really important, that everyone in America really need to know is, you know, talk is talk. You know, he can speak pretty, but, you know, there’s got to be action behind it. We’ve seen McCain, we know his actions. Even if you disagree with him, at least you know where he stands. McCain – or Obama, we’re not sure where he stands yet, even after his debates. Like I said, he speaks eloquently, better than I do, but I honestly, I still don’t know where he stands. He’s said a lot, but none of his experience has backed it up. You know, the only experience I’ve seen or his actions are raising our taxes, so, you know, I’m middle class. I can’t have my taxes raised anymore.

[source]

I’ve put everything that I’m talking about here in italics.

Bascially is what Sam is saying, going back to the Sammie Davis, Jr. comment that he ended with (and that is important), is that he can’t trust Barack Obama because he is black.   He can trust McCain because he is white.  When you look at statements of candidates and records of flip-flopping objectively, both guys have done it, and McCain has a longer record of doing so, particularly in the last eight years. 

Sam met Obama.  Sam has ample access to the Internet and has watched the debates.  To still say that you don’t understand simply stated policies and just don’t trust a guy you’ve met and researched.  And the main reason you give is that the guy talks pretty?!   That is a statement that sets off my b.s. alarms.

And it gets worse because the guy, Obama, isn’t planning on raising the guy, “Joe the Plumber”‘s, taxes at all.  As Joe mentioned, he’s not near that tax bracket.  His taxes would go down under Obama’s stated plan. 

But he doesn’t trust the guy, and then to give an example of how pretty he talks, he picks a black icon known for how pretty he danced.

 

And for your viewing pleasure, here’s Obama “dancin’ like Sammie”.

Yea, doesn’t seem like much of a tap dance to me either.

[Note: When you watch that knowing that Joe is making up his hypothetical income, you can see how he doesn’t really want to hear the answer, which would explain why he still doesn’t understand Obama’s tax plan.  UDPATE:  Here’s the full, six-minute talk.  At the end, the guy says he gets it.  He plays along with his lie more obviously in the full clip as well.  The “spread the wealth” soundbyte is in reference to a generally good economy, BTW, and not explicitly tied to tax policy as McCain has tried to make it.]

I know exactly what Joe was thinking while he was standing there in the sun and it’s not uncommon among rural Republicans.  

It’s a basic distrust of someone standing in front of you, trying to answer your questions.  It’s standing there, nodding your head on the outside, but calling them a liar on the inside [this is exhibited in the video above with the classic “crossing the arms” X sign].  In this case, given the facts and the evidence, I think it’s fair to call that reaction racism, and Joe the Plumber needs to get over it. 

He also needs to get over idiotic Republican tax policies that have stagnated working wages and accelerated executive pay for nearly 30 years, that as I point out here haven’t worked out so well for everyone.

Here is Joe talkin’ ’bout how he, you know, just can’t trust the guy.

Yea Joe.  I know.  I’m from Texas.  I see this crap all the time.

Joe, you and I are about the same age.  Please wake up.

I know you represent the last vestiges of holdouts that only have one real reason for not voting for Obama.  It’s the only thing that is keeping this from being a 20-point landslide.    McCain thinks this makes up a samll percentage of his support, but I would put it at upwards of 30-40%.  This is the 15% of Americans that still think Obama is Muslim (assuming they are part of the 50% that vote and will do so to keep Shariah law out of the U.S).  And, yes, it is that big a part of McCain’s remaining support.

Just ask Joe.

Or ask Gayle Quinnel, she sill believes it after being told it wasn’t true by John McCain in person.

—

[source]

UPDATE: I think this is kinda funny…more on Joe on taxes…

Wurzelbacher this morning told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer that he was talking about, in Diane’s words, the prospect, the hope that someday he would make $250,000.

“Well, exactly,” he said. “Exactly. I mean not that I don’t want to be taxed. You have to be taxed. But to — just because you work a little harder to have a little bit more money taken from you, I mean, that’s scary. You know as opposed to other people. I worked hard for it. Why should I be taxed more than other people?”

[source]

And it turns out that taxes don’t like Joe so much either…so much so that I had to update the title of this post.

LUCAS COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
J. BERNIE QUILTER, CLERK
700 ADAMS STREET
TOLEDO, OHIO
TIME:   12:55:14 PM
DATE:   10/16/2008
CASE: G -4801 -LN -200701803-000    
TITLE: S/O VS SAMUEL J WURZELBACHER  
JUDGE:     STATUS:   ACTIVE/LIEN
FILING DATE: 1/26/2007 CASE TYPE:   ACV   ACTIVATION OF CASE  
MONETARY AMOUNT: $1,182.98 DOCKET/PAGE:   DOC 460 PG 303  
ORIGINAL COURT:   TAX TYPE:   PERSONAL INCOME TAX  
PREVIOUS CASE NUMBER:   STATE OF OHIO NUMBER:  

[source]

Obama vs McCain Round Three (Final Round!!)

RobotPirateNinja bullshit, business, government, media, ninja, Poli-Fi, President 08, robot, us Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment
Ding Ding!!!

And we have a loser…

McCain takes one to the gut that he thinks from

McCain takes one to the gut that he thinks from

I might throw up some real analysis of the debate later, but I think this one was great on the split screen.  I didn’t watch it with the dial-thingies, I really don’t like ’em, at least the first time through.

When you watch the debate (which can be quite boring and technical) with the dial, you tend to watch the stats, not the game.  Kinda like all those “fantasy” players.  Head lost in the numbers, they forget to enjoy the fact that it’s a game.

Politics, on the other hand, is a different kind of game, as the winners get the right to declare war on people and use nuclear weapons. So the sports things is fun and all, but as a metaphor it ultimately fails.

In that line of argument, I would have to say that of the two candidates, I liked the calm, friendly, smart one.  Not the eye-rolling, thunderstruck, attacking one.

McCain seemed to be giving a lecture on conservative politics from the early 80’s, when he was elected to Congress.  He seems to have missed what he has wrought with those policies.    What policies you may ask?  Cut taxes and spend.

Republicans always complain about Democrats being “tax and spend.”  The sad part is that they do so with such vigor that their supporters (and even some themselves) miss the fact that “cut taxes and spend” is an even worse theory.   Here’s the graph for the Federal debt since John McCain went to Congress in 1982.U.S. Debt Since McCain went to Congress.

U.S. Debt Since McCain went to Congress.

U.S. Debt Since McCain went to Congress.

[source]

Pay special attention to that part of the top graph post-1982, when John McCain went to Congress.

THAT’S WHEN IT GOES CRAZY!! Is it a conicidence?

Not really, IMHO, as McCain continued to advocate all sorts of new programs and government support (buying mortgages [$300,000,000], buying banks [$?], fighting autism [$?], fixing healthcare [$?], winning wars [$?], achieving energy independence [$?], ) while at the same time arguing VERY stenuously against any posibility of raising any kind of tax on anything anywhere.  In fact…saying he is going to…somehow…enact a spending freeze.  Does that make any kind of sense at all?   It works emotionally….”I’ll solve all your problems for less than free…”

[UPDATE: real analysis of the debate…listening while writing…late..McCain even goes to the point of using “Joe the Plumber” to accuse any type of tax increase as being against “The American Dream”….and in fact denying it. That’s crazy.  It’s not “Joe’s the Plumber’s” money that needs to be spread around.  It’s the guys who got $125,000,000,000 is bonuses the last 6 years…remember…those guys on Wall Street!!?!

“No one likes taxes, let’s not raise anyone’s taxes.  O.k.?”    Yea..and then let’s get high on Unicorn farts and live in peaceful communities sharing the means of production.  Sounds great on paper.   Works like shit on Earth.]

Unfortunatley, this is the type of politics that leads to a graph like the one above.

And he views any tax on anything anywhere to be a tax on everyone everywhere.  It’s crazy, and it’s the exact same philosophy that Reagan and W used to run up such a huge debt.  Bush I raised taxes and Clinton slowed the bleeding, even reversing it before W & The Republicans used the same “trickle-down, supply-side, voodoo, laffer-curve, tax-cuts-pay-for-themselves, debts-dont-matter” economics to erase $11,000,000,000,000 of U.S. wealth in just two weeks.

It’s a political and eoconomic philosophy the market just went crazy proving was nuts.   An idea built on the confidence that it was true, rather than evidence it made any rational sense.

AND IT’S JOHN MCCAIN’S GUIDING ECONOMIC PRINCIPLE.

Check the 26-year record since he’s been on the dole in D.C.  It speaks for itself.  Very, very loudly.

Joe the Plumber notwithstanding, you have to pay for that lunch ’cause ain’t nothing free in this world except nothing and….as some would have you believe….tax cuts.

Yea, that's how I felt...

Yea, that's how I reacted...

UPDATE: From that “Fair and Balanced” channel…so you know it’s true…

The Simple Disconnect of the McCain / Palin Campaign

RobotPirateNinja media, Poli-Fi, President 08, us Tags: , , , , 2 Comments

After it is all said and done (inshah allah) and Obama wins the Presidency, many people are going to wonder what went wrong with the McCain campaign.

There are lots and lots of things to point to, as I have done many, many times.  I think once central area of problems that will have been diagnosed was the campaign’s lurching from topic to topic and theme to theme and attack to attack.

They’ve had a very difficult time finding any traction.  IMHO, this boils down to one simple reason.

They are running against each other.

Sarah Palin is running against the “Good Old Boys”.  The Washington insiders and lobbyists who spend their entire lives in Washington.  The rich and the insulated.  Career politicians with deep D.C. family ties and a profound sense of entitlement.  People who live their whole lives on the public tab while things get worse.   People with historical ethical lapses and lots of powerful friends.  It would be harder to fine a better example of this than John McCain.

John McCain is running against that outsider whippersnapper wtih some questionable relationships.  That young and inexperienced, yet personally very charming Politician with a bright future and a relatively short, kinda cloudy, past.  Mccain’s entire argument for a year and a half was about experience and being ready to do the job on Day 1 and then he went and picked a laughable neophyte as a running mate.

This jarring contrast in Message is killing any other argument they want to make.  Much like Palin’s charge that Obama “voted against the Troops”, when McCain had done the same exact thing.   And McCain hammering away, again today, on the need to be ready to go on Day 1. 

This contrast and inability to communicate clearly (and the fact, IMHO, that what they are selling policy-wise, is crap) is why McCain and Palin have fallen so far behind that it would take an epic event (knock on wood) to really change things back.   The Undecided are deciding, and they are largely breaking for Obama.

As you watch MCain and Palin speak, see if you can imagine they are, in fact, attacking each other.  See how it holds.

For example, can you tell me who said this today?

“We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now. We have to fight,” [she] said at a rally in Virginia…

—

“The fact is that [Sarah Palin] was not truthful in telling the American people about [her] relationship. Very frankly, Dana, I don’t give a damn about an old unrepentant [secessionist], but what I do care is telling the truth to the American people,” the Arizona senator said in response to a question from CNN correspondent Dana Bash.

—

A massive crowd of at least 20,000 spread across the parking lot of Richmond International Raceway, and scores of people on the outer periphery more than 100 yards from the stage could not hear.

“Louder! Louder!” they began chanting, and the cry spread across the crowd to Palin’s left. Some pointed skyward, urging that the volume be increased.

Palin stopped her remarks briefly and looked toward the commotion.

“I hope those protesters have the courage and honor to give veterans thanks for their right to protest,” she said.

Some in the crowd tried to shout toward her what was really being said, but she couldn’t hear them.

O.k. you got me.  That last one was Sarah being Sarah.  Trying to shame into silence people who were trying to understand what the heck it was that was coming out of her mouth. 

Now they know better for trying.

Projector vs. Projector

RobotPirateNinja cool, Doh, government, money, nerd, President 08, robot, Sci-Non-Fi, tech, us Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment
notaprojector.jpg
My friends, during last night’s presidential debate, McCain took That One to task for approving funding for an “overhead projector.” Howard Covitz, who used to work at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, prepared this helpful graphic for McCain to show the difference between an overhead projector and a planetarium projector.

Note to McCain: Overhead projector is not a planetarium projector

via Note to McCain: Overhead projector is not a planetarium projector – Boing Boing

—

A bit late on this, but McCain has been using the “projector” in his stump speech, so it would be worthwhile to mention the real story behind the projector and the people who try to get other, younger, people interested in science.

—

UPDATE: Another excellent article on the topic.

McCain Steps Back From the Rovian Brink (Lynch Mob Update)

RobotPirateNinja Poli-Fi, President 08, us Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

I recently posted how McCain/Palin rallys had recently become something of a throwback to the civil rights rallies of the 60’s.  No, not those rallies.  The ones that didn’t get broadcast.  The ones held at night, in the woods, with torches and shit.

It looks like the tide has finally turned, and with it comes the final nail in McCain’s coffin.  Really, this is the 10-second ad that completely obliterates their latest argument…you don’t know Barack Obama.

Somebody just tossed this together.  As I think it completely encapsulates the end of this race, it goes first. 

Yes…he is talking about Barack.  You can see the longer question and answer on YouTube.  And yes, he does get booed for this.

This was needed because, as I mentioned previously, his attack line that “Barack Obama is an America-Hating Terrorist” was finding fertile ground amoung his supporters.

Please note…

These are not the type of people that McCain wants to represent him.  Palin…were not so sure.  So far she hasn’t done anything to disavow her scuriolous attacks.  

This is leading some realize that her behaviour is exactly the big problem with the Republican party.  And I, strangely, find myself agreeing with David Brooks.   In this essay, he is gently pointing out that having stupid people run things because you hate government is not a sound political philosophy.

This year could have changed things. The G.O.P. had three urbane presidential candidates. But the class-warfare clichés took control. Rudy Giuliani disdained cosmopolitans at the Republican convention. Mitt Romney gave a speech attacking “eastern elites.” (Mitt Romney!) John McCain picked Sarah Palin.

Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. But no American politician plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin. Nobody so relentlessly divides the world between the “normal Joe Sixpack American” and the coastal elite.

She is another step in the Republican change of personality. Once conservatives admired Churchill and Lincoln above all — men from wildly different backgrounds who prepared for leadership through constant reading, historical understanding and sophisticated thinking. Now those attributes bow down before the common touch.

[full story] [edited so I could still agree with it.  An averagely brain-blessed woman can appear intelligent if she is hot.  Until she starts talking a bunch.  Then you realize she is average in the brain and genius in the body.  This is also true for men.]

The thing about it is, when you hate government and run on that platform relentlessly, you end up only having supporters that can’t see the inherent illogic your very party represents.   Which is to say, dumb ones.  When a big part of your platform is hating smart people, and everyone who runs your party is actually pretty smart in real life, the disconnect is so severe that you get…well…you get a country run into the freaking ground.  That’s what happens.

And you do it to cheering, blaming the other “team”.

And because you have shit on everyone who ever rubbed two neurons together in the race to the bottom, now your party is in shambles, as it would have been in late 2004 *if these very same tactics hadn’t worked*.

Success can hide many faults, but when you use that success to pat yourself on the back, rather than fix your problems, failure becomes catostrophic.  Now you have not only the faults that were ignored to deal with, but they are now multiplied by the very real faults any working piece of machinery develops over the years.

A political party is much like an engine, and when you think that winning one race means you don’t need to change the oil (hey, it worked last time!),  you can’t be surprised when that engine explodes in your face during the next.

McCain vs McCain (Both John and Cindy)

RobotPirateNinja bullshit, government, media, pirate, Poli-Fi, President 08, stupid, us Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Looks like there’s trouble in POW-land.

First up, when attack ads comd back to bite you in the ass.

That’s a good ad. Nice when you can devastate an opponent and you don’t have to use a word.  Advanced political Judo.

Speaking of attacks backfiring.  Here’s Cindy the Vixen on the campaign trail.

Until recently Mrs McCain and her husband, the Republican presidential candidate John McCain, have refused to discuss their two sons serving in the US military.

However, all that changed at a rally on Wednesday night in the swing state of Pennsylvania.

“The day that Sen Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body,” she said. “I would suggest that Sen Obama change shoes with me for just one day and see what it means… to have a loved one serving in the armed forces and more importantly, serving in harm’s way.”

[full article]

If a black guy scared you by doing his job in the Senate, I can only imagine how you felt when your very own husband DID THE EXACT SAME THING.  Joe Biden pointed this out in the debate the other night when Palin tried to make the sane spurious claim.  The “telegraph.co.uk.’ seems to be a parody website, as somehow they forgot to fact-check this smear and just went with it.

In fact, Biden’s statement was correct: While McCain did not vote on a later version of the appropriations bill, he voted against the measure on March 29, 2007, and said at the time that he was opposing it, in part, because it “would establish a timeline” for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

As Media Matters for America has documented, on March 29, 2007, McCain voted against H.R. 1591, an emergency spending bill that would have funded the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and would have provided more than $1 billion in additional funds to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Senate passed H.R. 1591 by a margin of 51-47. Once the bill’s conference report was agreed to by the House, the Senate again passed the measure on April 26, 2007, by a vote of 51-46, but McCain did not vote on that version of the bill. By contrast, Sen. Barack Obama and Biden voted for the bill on both occasions. President Bush vetoed the bill, citing its provision for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

So McCain doesn’t even want to buy his own kid body armor and didn’t vote….right…which is about the same level of analysis that Cindy offered.  These kinds of attacks are foolish. 

Bringing out the white woman is probably a good idea, as Michelle Obama can’t really fight back (and won’t, and will just stay classy like San Diego) and Biden’s wife doesn’t seem to want to get involved.  Palin’s husband is currently falling on sword for her.

The thing about Cindy is, you know, being a beer heiress and a drug addict who started a “mobile hospital” to cover for her addiction, she probably shouldn’t be throwing too many stones.

Not to mention the fact that she stole her husband from another woman, but these are the kinds of things that are history now, and should only be brought up when someone starts flingin’ the poo.

Cindy McCain is so middle class, she only spent $300,000 for her outfit at the RNC.

When most middle class families, according to The McCains, make around $5 mil a year, $300G for a dress is pricey, but within most people’s budget and perfectly reasonable.

Vote for McCain, I need Another House!!

Vote for McCain, I need Another House!!

UPDATE: Looks like we’ve diagnosed Cindy McCain’s chronic “cold chills”.   Turns out it wasn’t withdrawal symptoms after all.

September 2007: McCain voted against the Webb amendment calling for adequate troop rest between deployments. At the time, nearly 65% of people polled in a CNN poll indicted that “things are going either moderately badly or very badly in Iraq.

July 2007: McCain voted against a plan to drawdown troop levels in Iraq. At the time, an ABC poll found that 63% thought the invasion was not worth it, and a CBS News poll found that 72% of respondents wanted troops out within 2 years.

March 2007: McCain was too busy to vote on a bill that would require the start of a drawdown in troop levels within 120 days with a goal of withdrawing nearly all combat troops within one year. Around this time, an NBC News poll found that 55% of respondents indicated that the US goal of achieving victory in Iraq is not possible. This number has not moved significantly since then.

February 2007: For such a strong supporter of the escalation, McCain didn’t even bother to show up and vote against a resolution condemning it. However, at the time a CNN poll found that only 16% of respondents wanted to send more troops to Iraq (that number has since declined to around 10%), while 60% said that some or all should be withdrawn. This number has since gone up to around 70%.

June 2006: McCain voted against a resolution that Bush start withdrawing troops but with no timeline to do so.

May 2006: McCain voted against an amendment that would provide $20 million to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for health care facilities.

April 2006: McCain was one of only 13 Senators to vote against $430,000,000 for the Department of Veteran Affairs for Medical Services for outpatient care and treatment for veterans.

March 2006: McCain voted against increasing Veterans medical services funding by $1.5 billion in FY 2007 to be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes.

March 2004: McCain once again voted for abusive tax loopholes over veterans when he voted against creating a reserve fund to allow for an increase in Veterans’ medical care by $1.8 billion by eliminating abusive tax loopholes. Jeez, McCain really loves those tax loopholes for corporations, since he voted for them over our veterans’ needs.

October 2003: McCain voted to table an amendment by Senator Dodd that called for an additional $322,000,000 for safety equipment for United States forces in Iraq and to reduce the amount provided for reconstruction in Iraq by $322,000,000.

April 2003: McCain urged other Senate members to table a vote (which never passed) to provide more than $1 billion for National Guard and Reserve equipment in Iraq related to a shortage of helmets, tents, bullet-proof inserts, and tactical vests.

August 2001: McCain voted against increasing the amount available for medical care for veterans by $650,000,000. To his credit, he also voted against the 2001 Bush tax cuts, which he now supports making permanent, despite the dire financial condition this country is in, and despite the fact that he indicated in 2001 that these tax cuts unfairly benefited the very wealthy at the expense of the middle class.

Live-Writing the Presidential Debate #2

RobotPirateNinja 3_RobotPirateNinja, business, government, media, Poli-Fi, President 08, us, war Tags: , , Leave a comment

Below are my transcribed notes of the Presidential Debate conducted on October 7, 2008.

It goes on a for a bit…and I fell asleep near the end [hence the illegible….suiggly…transcription]

[Oh, and I thought both did well.  I though Obama had the best line…

“Senator McCain’s campaign announced last week that they plan to ‘turn the page’ on the discussion about our economy and spend the final weeks of this election attacking me instead. He and Governor Palin are out there saying all kinds of stuff,” he said in a not so subtle nod to Palin’s recent comments that Obama associates with “terrorists.” “I can take four more weeks of John McCain’s attacks, but the American people can’t take four more years of John McCain’s George Bush policies.”

McCain doesn’t like it, and Palin doesn’t get it, but George W. Bush was a Republican.  And so were his policies.  McCain and Palin, for all their mavricky rhetoric, are also Republican, and have the policies to prove it.]

I scored the debate: 14 to 5 for Obama [note: my scoring is like the electoral college, one winner a question, no partial credit]

UPDATE: Here’s Obama backstage before and after the debate.

See detailed analysis below.

Continue reading →

WTW : Understanding the Economic Crisis, Part 1

RobotPirateNinja africa, asia, bullshit, business, Doh, environment, europe, Examples of Work, government, internet, latin, media, middle east, money, My World, ninja, pirate, Poli-Fi, President 08, robot, tech, us Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Below you will find a video I made regarding the current economic crisis.  I explain where I think it came from, what happened, who profited, who lost, why, what we can do, and who should pay.

That is here…

The rest of the World This Week October 5, 2008 show should be up tonight or tomorrow morning.  The video is in the can, now it’s just editing time.  I think I did a decent job with the above video and learned a couple more tools.  Things should keep improving, and I should have a PIP debate in Part 2 of the Update.

Hope ya’ll are having a nice day, as more money evaporates from the computer harddisks of the world.   Watch the video to understand why.

McCain and Palin Putting Together a Lynch Mob

RobotPirateNinja bullshit, government, ninja, pirate, Poli-Fi, President 08, stupid, terror, us Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

MisterTweak 2008-10-06 06:06:21 PM

McLost: “what is Barack Obama?”

(Angry barrage of insults)

McLost: “My friends, you ask these questions, and you get an angry barrage of insults.”

via FARK.com: (3924197) John McCain goes half-retard and his audience goes full-retard, calling Barack Obama a terrorist.

—

And here’s what Palin has been pushing.

“For me, the heels are on, the gloves are off,” she announced at high noon Monday to a group of Republican donors at the Naples Beach Club.

—

Barack Obama, she told 8,000 fans at a rally here Monday afternoon, “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist!” This followed her earlier accusation that the Democrat pals around with terrorists. “This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America,” she told the Clearwater crowd. “I’m afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country.” The crowd replied with boos.

McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off-limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: “I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more.”

—

The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of “Palin Power” and “Sarahcuda” T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. “One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,” she said. (“Boooo!” said the crowd.) “And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,’ ” she continued. (“Boooo!” the crowd repeated.)

“Kill him!” proposed one man in the audience.

Palin also told those gathered that Obama doesn’t like American soldiers. “He said that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, ‘air-raiding villages and killing civilians,’ ” she said, drawing boos from a crowd that had not been told Obama was actually appealing for more troops in Afghanistan.

[full story]

I’m telling ya this from deep in the heart of Texas…this is how a lynch mob starts. Just a couple voices in the crowd, agreeing with what the speaker really “means”. You can see how surprised McCain is to hear the man yell, “Terrorist!!”, but maybe he hasn’t been listening to his running mates base attacks. She is calling him a friend to terrorists, which is the same as being a terrorist, which is why the one guy yelled “terrorist”.

And it’s why they other guy yelled “Kill him!!!”

Because they all know you are supposed to kill terrorists….

Even if Bill Ayers never got charged with a crime, never was even accused of hurting anyone, turned himself in, and the FBI guys who “investigated” the Weather Underground got in so much trouble for how they conducted themselves [wait till the bomb goes off, then the plant calls it in] it took Reagan to pardon them in the 80’s for what they did in the 60’s. [note: I was born in the 70’s and didn’t even hear about the Weather Underground until the great documentary came out]

But then again, those are the kinds of facts that a lynch mob just ain’t hearin’, ya hear!

Now get out the way, boy! There’s a doings transpiring.

A Terrorist may get elected President. Only YOU!!! can stop him.

Things are not looking good…for Obama.

UPDATE: This was part of the preamble to Palin’s speech.   This is how you incite a crowd.

Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott took the stage moments ago as one of the introductory speakers at a rally here for Sarah Palin. After delivering brief remarks in support of Palin, Sheriff Scott flipped the switch and used Barack Obama’s middle name in order to incite the crowd of thousands of people who have already gathered here.

“On Nov. 4, let’s leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happened,” the law enforcement officer said.

UPDATE: Palin campaign spokesperson Tracey Schmitt issued the following statement on Sherriff Scott’s remarks: “We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character, and experience that voters will base their decisions on this November.”

—

Many of the thousands of people in attendance roared their approval at Sheriff Scott’s dig at the Democratic nominee, whose Kenyan father shared the same exact name as his son.

After Sheriff Scott left the podium, local radio host Mandy Connell took the stage next. She too drew a loud ovation when she said Obama “hangs around with terrorists.”

[full story]

There is some serious hypocrisy here emanating from Tracey Schmitt.  Riiiight, his name is out but the terrorist down the street in his neighborhood (who was given a citizenship award by the City of Chicago in 1997) is in.

UPDATE2:  The Sheriff is now under investigation. You aren’t supposed to campaign as a law enforcement officer.  But then again, this guy was elected under Bush (and Gonzales) and partisanship “justice” was a hallmark of their administration.

Comparin’ The Candidates (Using the “=” Sign)

RobotPirateNinja cool, funny, government, media, performance, pirate, Poli-Fi, President 08, robot, us Tags: , , , , , 2 Comments

This is the latest political meme that is sweeping the interwebs.  I found it over at Fark. 

As the nation as a whole has now had a chance to see each of the four candidates up close and personal in a variety of situations, we can now begin to stereotype each one by building simple cultural metaphors.

This can be done quite easily with Photoshop™ and/or MSPaint (I use Fireworks).

 Here’s some of my favorites.  I think you will get the idea quickly.  Feel free to add your own.

Star Wars

Star Wars

  Continue reading →