Bush will keep secret Afghanistan report quiet to help McCain

Is there nothing sacred in Washington? Has all truth and accountability been lost? The troops with their lives on the line in Afghanistan are being used as a political tool in Afghanistan just as they are and have been used in Iraq, yet no one seems to object to any of this? The report is not being released because if the public found out that McCain has been wrong, they may not vote for him?

Bush Administration will keep secret 'grim' Afghanistan report quiet until after election
John Byrne
Published: Tuesday September 23, 2008


A secret US intelligence report which says the political and military situation in Afghanistan is "grim" will be withheld from the public until after the election, a new report says.

Intelligence officials are finishing up the National Intelligence Estimate on Aghanistan, according to ABC's Brian Ross, "but there are 'no plans to declassify' any of it before the election," an official said.

Keeping the intelligence report under wraps would likely help Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). McCain has focused on what he sees as the success of the Iraq "surge," in which the US added troops to lessen violence. Attention to problems in Afghanistan would put the spotlight on President Bush's failures, which might rub off on the Republican presidential nominee.

"According to people who have been briefed, the NIE will paint a 'grim' picture of the situation in Afghanistan, seven years after the US invaded in an effort to dismantle the al Qaeda network and its Taliban protectors," Ross writes.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen told Congress last week the US is struggling to retain control.

"I'm not convinced we're winning it in Afghanistan," he said, adding, "we're running out of time."
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Republicans compare McCain to Jane Fonda on propaganda and POW cover-ups

Republicans Allege McCain Covered Up His Collaboration with the North Vietnamese While a POW

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted September 21, 2008.



Allegations resurface that McCain made propaganda statements and tried to keep Viet Cong records about him classified.

A 1992 video featuring a Republican senator, Republican congressman and top Capitol Hill staffers who worked on Vietnam prisoner of war and missing in action issues say John McCain collaborated with North Vietnamese while a POW, and then covered up that involvement to the detriment of POW/MIA families seeking access to classified Pentagon records about their own family members.

Watch the Video


The video raises probing questions about the 2008 Republican presidential nominee's war record, especially after McCain made his captivity a major part of his qualifications for the presidency at the Republican National Convention. In 2004, the GOP focused on Democratic nominee John Kerry's war record to criticize his candidacy.

To date, the video has been posted on a handful of blogs but has been ignored by the mainstream media. While it features Republican stalwarts on POW/MIA issues, it also suggests that McCain's war records at the Pentagon and in North Vietnam would reveal potentially very controversial details about the GOP's presidential candidate.
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History books have that McCain told the Vietnamese that he was the son of an admiral and that he did propaganda speeches for the Vietnamese as well. There is a lot that McCain won't talk about. This is just more of the same.

One more thing that is brought up in this is that if McCain had gotten out early, he would have had no career and his father would have been humiliated.

When a Loved One is Deployed, the Whole Family Goes to War

Blue Star Family for Obama Event-
When a Loved One is Deployed, the Whole Family Goes to War (Meeting)
An Invitation A Blue Star Family for Obama Event When a Loved One is Deployed, the Whole Family Goes to War Monday
9/22/08 - 7:00 P.M. Marlton, NJ
The Bush/McCain Iraq/Afghanistan Wars are often described as wars that have required "sacrifice by a few."
Vets for Obama, military families for Obama and Obama supporters who care about what is happening to vets and military families, please join us. RSVP - 856.952.4865 or DebbieIngraham@gmail.com.
Hosted by a Blue Star for Obama military mom and sister - 3rd deployment.

Deployed Military Personnel Donated 6 Times More to the Obama Campaign than to the McCain Campaign. Who's Looking Out for U.S. Veterans? The Former POW or The Community Organizer?

21st Century GI Bill - Obama supported and voted for the bill. McCain did not support. Publicly said he opposed the measure because the benefits would "encourage more people to leave the military."

Increase Funding for Veteran's Health Care - Obama co-sponsored bill to provide an additional $1.5 billion for veterans' medical care (Time, 2/20/06).

McCain voted to cut, eliminate, or gut veterans' health care funding at least 29 times since 1990.

Improve Military Health Facilities - Obama sponsored the Dignity for Wounded Warriors Act to improve the quality of care at military hospitals like Walter Reed. (Reuters, 2/20/07).

McCain voted against establishing a $1 billion trust fund to improve military health facilities, like the Walter Reed Hospital (S.Amdt. 2735 to S.Amdt 2707 to H.R. 4297, Vote 7, 2/2/06)

Provide Better Counseling Services for Veterans with Mental Disorders - Obama proposes more mental health professionals, improved screening, fairer system to set Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) benefits and established standards of care for traumatic brain injuries (www.barackobama.com)

McCain voted against an amendment to appropriate $500 million annually from 2006-2010 for counseling, mental health and rehabilitation services for veterans diagnosed with mental illness, PTSD or substance abuse. (S. 2020, S.Amdt. 2634, Vote 343, 11/17/05)

Served on Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee - Obama requested to be assigned to Veterans' Affairs Committee. McCain never served on Veterans' Affairs Committee in his 26 years in Senate.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/gsxvfj

This last part is the most telling of all. Think about that glowing fact! McCain just counted on the veterans voting for him because he's one of them but he never deserved their trust and they are finally starting to see they should have been a lot more important to McCain considering he is one of them.

`Sex ed' ad educates us on the character of John McCain

My point is a simple one. This bill, which Obama supported but did not write, is about teaching children to beware of people who may hurt them, like pedophiles they may tend to trust. You don't need to search your memory much further than the scandal that rocked the Catholic Church when priests were simply transferred instead of put into jail. These men were trusted by families and kids. The kids thought it was wrong but no one told them that it was not ok for a person to ever touch them the way these kids were being touched especially by someone in the position of being a "man of God" instead of a criminal. No one every thought to warn kids back then but now we know better. They have to be warned in a way many parents are not sure how to even begin the subject with innocent young children who should never have to worry about something like this. The problem is, they need to be warned so they will have some way of knowing what to do about it. That is what this bill was all about but McCain, well he decided that he could use it as an attack against Obama instead of an important bill to support to protect children from being sexually assaulted. What the hell is wrong with this man? kc

Originally posted: September 12, 2008

`Sex ed' ad educates us on the character of John McCain
It wasn't too surprising that a notably vile and false attack ad would pop up in this presidential campaign. After all, partisan passions are high and independent advocacy groups have never shown much restraint when it comes to slimecasting.

So the brazen inaccuracies in this ad that cropped up last week --




Script: Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners. Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama: Wrong on education. Wrong for your family.

-- didn't catch me up short. Nor did the use, at the end, of a very unflattering images of Obama, his collar wrinkled, smirking and looking down, as though at a child. Typical unhinged sleaze.

The surprise came at the end: :

I'm John McCain and I approved this message.

With that infamous admission, McCain surrendered his integrity and signaled a willingness to say or do anything to get elected.

The claims in the ad are false -- Illinois Senate Bill 99 (or see below for the text) was not Obama's bill, was not an "accomplishment" since it died in committee, and was not a call for "comprehensive" sex education in kindergarten. But because these claims involve the explosive topic of children and sex, they rise to the level of scurrilous insinuations

McCain's ad heavily implies that the purpose of the 2003 bill -- actually a proposed amendment to the Illinois School Code -- was to rob children in the early grades of their innocence by exposing them to graphic sexual instruction, when, in fact, the purpose was to protect children from exploitation and disease.

In six places, SB 99 stressed that all sexual education instruction be age and developmentally appropriate; in three places it underscored that parents could opt out of any such instruction.

Carpetbagging firebrand Alan Keyes tried attacking Obama on this same point during the 2004 U.S. Senate campaign. But we expect such repellent attacks from Keyes.

We used to expect better from John McCain. No longer.
go here for more
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/09/sexed.html

Bush is McCain's man in the mirror

John McCain wants you to believe he will bring change to Washington? How? The only thing he's changed is himself. This is coming from someone who voted for him in 2000. I ended up voting for Gore after Bush won the GOP primary. No, I was not a Republican. I was an Independent. Back then I thought if anyone was going to understand veterans, it would be McCain since he was one. Oh, how times have changed.

Back then while I adored President Clinton and liked Al Gore, I was not happy with the way the veterans were still suffering. The Vietnam veterans were still not being taken care of properly and the Gulf War veterans were faced with having to fight for their lives after they came home with illnesses no one understood the cause of. They came back with depleted uranium poisoning on top of everything else. I was just as hard on Clinton as I have been on Bush because of the veterans. When it came to them, no one was living up to what we owed the veterans.

Anyway, last night I couldn't get to sleep so I turned on CNN. I watched the documentary on McCain. Once again I was reminded of how much he's changed and why I am thoroughly disgusted with him. He has become the mirror image of Bush in order to win the presidency. Now he's trying to sell himself as not being part of the problem?

The problems for veterans got worse while McCain was sucking up to Bush. When he could have been front and center on veterans needs, McCain was against what they needed. He was part of the congress when the devastation hit our veterans harder than at another time. Obama was not. He was not part of the creation of this catastrophe. Obama was part of taking on cleaning up the mess people like McCain created. Most of the changes for the better happened since the Democrats gained control, albeit limited control, of the senate. They had a stronger majority in the House. What they have managed to do is increase funding for the VA and passed the new GI Bill and they had to fight hard to do it with veto threats from Bush. McCain was not part of the change the veterans needed. He was part of the problem and total ignorance the congress had up until 2007 when the committees were then controlled by Democrats.

There are some Republicans who are fighting for veterans and when they do, I'm more than happy to post about what they are doing but McCain is not one of them. He has not fought for veterans even though he's one of them. What makes it worse is that he has fought against them. This is why I'm so hard on McCain. I expected a lot more out of him and feel like a total damn fool that I supported him in 2000. I won't make that mistake again. The stakes for our veterans are just too high a price to pay. He can say he wants to bring change to Washington all he wants but so far the changes he says he wants to make are not in their favor.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.namguardianangel.org/

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Ret. Col. Vic Ogilvie has high hopes for Obama and troops

Vic Ogilvie of Altamonte Springs is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel.
My Word, Orlando Sentinel
High hopes for troops under Obama
Vic Ogilvie
September 5, 2008
DENVER - As a pro-military, Hillary Clinton delegate from Central Florida, I went to the Democratic National Convention in Denver with the realization that she would not secure the nomination, but I was determined to get a better understanding of Barack Obama's plans for veterans and the military.

Having spent my entire professional life serving with the military and working for veterans in a health-care setting, I feel a strong bond with them and a keen awareness of their needs and concerns. The veterans I know are selfless individuals, who have made untold sacrifices for their communities and the nation. Many experience disruption or abrupt termination of their career plans, physical injury and deep emotional distress and some, even death.

Most know the risks when they enlist, but they do so out of a desire to serve a cause greater than themselves. Is it not then reasonable to expect that we, as a nation, will provide adequate benefits to restore employability and medical and mental health care to heal the terrible wounds of combat trauma?

Sadly, this has not been the case during the past eight years. The recent scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center involving patient care and building neglect was a shocking wake-up call for all Americans. The Department of Veterans Affairs does a good job treating traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress disorder, burns and amputations -- the signature wounds of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan -- but it has always struggled for adequate funding, particularly under the Bush Administration.
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This is also one of the biggest reasons why I am so appalled with McCain and the GOP. With all the speeches, all the talk about how bad Obama is over the convention (and before) none of them manage to address the dire needs of our veterans. I know I've said this way too much but considering McCain keeps talking about how being a POW, he should have cared more about his fellow veterans than he has. McCain always wants them standing behind him but never stands behind them when they needed him. kc

Fake Soldiers Used In RNC Video To Get Emotional Reaction

I am utterly appalled they pulled a stunt like this. How dare they? How dare they use the men and women serving this country like pawns? Hiring actors to act out one of the most emotional moments of a military family's life is beyond excuse.

Isn't it bad enough that when the families do want coverage by the media to report the funerals of the fallen or even go to the airport to cover the flag draped coffin returning to their home town, the military will not allow it? Now the McCain campaign decides that they can hire actors to portray a funeral for political gain? I want to throw up!!!!!!

I'm going off on a huge rant right now so if you're not in the mood to read it, please skip past this part and move onto the report from CBS. My husband said that my mouth should have been sent to Vietnam and it would have been over in a week. Chaplain hat is off and veterans advocate hat, wife of Vietnam vet, daughter of Korean vet battle gear is on!!!!

This son of a bitch has used the military long enough! McCain does not own the word patriot any more than he deserves to use the fact he was a POW to cover up every single shifty dirty deed he has done since the day he was released from the Vietnamese. He does not own history any more than he owns his own facts and considering there are a lot of other POW's who see right through him, it's time for him to just use that "whatever" that got him thru those days as a POW and face some truth for once in his life. He proved what he was when he came home and dumped his first wife who was in an accident for Cindy. We all know that story. As a veteran he also proved that he does not give a shit about any other veteran as long as he's taken care of an bowed down to as if he is a hero equal to those who have lost limbs trying to save lives and ended up having to fight the government to have their wounds taken care of when he turned his back on all of them by voting against increasing the VA budgets and all other measures that would provide the adequate care for them.

Don't let the Walter Reed scandal pass your memory here either. After all, how many trips did he make sure he mentioned when he "visited the troops there" but never, ever once stood up to say how deplorable those in the wards hidden from public view were being treated no matter what was being reported before and after the Washington Post got their hands on the story? Do you really think any of this was a secret from an insider like McCain when he was sucking up to Bush and Rumsfeld? People talk.

Now this son of a bitch turns around and uses, yes uses, imaginary dead soldiers to sell his script of being all so in tune to the suffering of military families? What the hell does he know about what any of them are going through or even care? I've spent the last 26 years fighting to keep them alive and if McCain really gave a shit about any of them he would have made damn sure that every little thing that needed to be done was being done for all of them. After all, when he was released from the POW camp, he managed to get all the care he needed and yes, got his claim approved for disability and I bet that he never once had to file a single appeal for it. He never had to suffer because the VA would not honor his claim or show up at the VA to have PTSD treated only to be told they didn't have the time to see him or tell him when he called a suicide hotline that he needed to call back in the morning! He never once had to endure any of this because after all, he came home as war hero who was honored while the rest of the Vietnam veteran were being shafted from here to eternity and kept suffering while he lived off the tax payers going to college and then collecting disability he was entitled to while not caring about the others who were not getting anything for all his years in the Senate when he had the power to do something about it. This is all pure bullshit!

I wonder how many times he'll manage to talk about how he was a POW tonight in his speech. I didn't watch last night. I opted to watch America's Got Talent instead. I knew it would be bad enough having to read the speeches today online. I won't watch tonight either. I won't waste my time knowing the person doing the speaking is lying through his teeth! I'm sure he'll have some other Vietnam veterans standing behind him. I doubt they ever noticed how McCain never seems to manage to stand behind any of them and fight for them!

So many have died when they still could have been alive. They died after they got home. They died because they took their own lives because people like him never once showed they cared about any of them. He used them. He's still using them. Now, go and read this and understand that it's not the fact he's a Republican that I can't stand him. I have a lot of Republican friends who can't either. What I can't stand is this POW degrading the service of all others by using this part of his life as a stepping stone to power. He should have been proud of his service and brought honor to it instead of degrading it. When it comes to being a veteran, he's a cardboard cutout.







Kathie Costos (rant over, next post Chaplain hat back on)
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Fake Soldiers Used In RNC Video
Patriotic Montage Shown At RNC Featured Actors Hired For One Day Shoot, Not Military
Comments 141
Sept. 4, 2008


CBS) CBS News Investigative Producer Michael Rey wrote this story for CBSNews.com.

It was a video that was supposed to elicit soaring patriotism and real emotions about the Pledge of Allegiance. But to do that, it used fake soldiers and a staged military funeral instead of the real thing.

On Tuesday night, 15-year-old Victoria Blackstone, a sophomore at the St. Agnes School in St. Paul, led the crowd at the Xcel Energy Center in the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience heard her 434-word essay, “Pledging myself to the Flag of the United States of America,” an essay she’d entered in the “Wave the Stars & Stripes” essay contest and won. The RNC turned that essay into a three and a half minute video, a visually stirring montage rolling over Victoria’s words about sharing the Pledge with Americans who have stood at important moments in history.

There’s the Continental Congress…A real WWII vet…Photos of workers at Ground Zero. A close-up of a folded flag presented to a grieving widow at a military funeral… profiles of soldiers swelling with pride in slo-motion.

But CBS News found that the footage of the ‘funeral’ and soldiers is what is called ‘stock’ footage. The soldiers were actors and the funeral scene was from a one-day film shoot, produced in June. No real soldiers were used during production.

The footage, sold by stock-film house Getty Images was produced by a commercial filmmaker in Chicago. Both Getty and the production company, Mr. Big Films, confirmed that the footage was shot on spec and sold to the Republican National Committee.

One of the actors, Perry Denton of Chicago, Ill. also confirmed that he was hired on a day-rate as an actor for the shoot and told CBS News he was surprised to learn the footage was shown at the convention.
go here for more

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/04/
cbsnews_investigates/main4415886.shtml

McCain was against Palin before he was for her?

McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin
Three times in recent years, the Arizona senator's lists of 'objectionable' pork spending have included earmarks requested by his new running mate.
By Tom Hamburger, Richard Simon and Janet Hook Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 3, 2008
WASILLA, ALASKA - For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.
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Another Vietnam POW comes out against John McCain

POW Imprisoned with McCain Goes on TV: McCain 'Not Cut Out to be President'
Brave New Films
Sep 02, 2008
September 2, 2008, Los Angeles, CA - Dr. Philip Butler on McCain: "I think I can say with authority that the Prisoner Of War experience is not a good prerequisite for President. John McCain is not somebody I would like to see with his finger near the red button. Dr. Philip Butler, a highly decorated combat veteran who was imprisoned alongside John McCain at the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' prison in Vietnam, has gone on record with his opinion of the GOP presidential candidate in a short video interview with Brave New PAC. Click here to watch the video of Philip Butler.
Dr. Butler was shot down over North Vietnam in April, 1965 and was brought to the Hanoi Hilton prison, two and a half years prior to McCain's arrival. He spent eight years in captivity. Butler is critical of McCain's habitual use of his P.O.W. story to advance his presidential campaign.
"John has allowed I think the media to make him out to be the P.O.W., the hero, and in fact there were over 600 just like him who performed just as well." Echoing a similar assertion from General Wesley Clark two months ago, Butler continues, "I think I can say with authority that the Prisoner Of War experience is not a good prerequisite for President of the United States."Having lived across the hall from John McCain at the U.S. Naval Academy prior to combat, Butler was a close witness to McCain's famously volatile temperament. "He was very sensitive and touchy and just easy to anger," says Dr. Butler. "John McCain is not somebody I would like to see with his finger near the red button." Butler continues, "John McCain's temperament makes it clear that he is not cut out to be President of the United States."
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/11054

Big election on small issues

When Obama said that we shouldn't vote on a big election for small issues, some of the people in this country were just not listening. They still want to vote on what someone does in their private life. I'm not just addressing the right who want to control what a woman does with her body, or those who want to make sure gay people cannot be afforded the equal rights the rest of us have. I'm talking about those who think Bristol Palin's pregnancy is an issue on both sides. The "right" think it's great and a fine example of deciding to keep a child, while the "left" want to point out that she's only 17 and was taught "abstinence only" along with even more who still claim that Trig is her child pointing to pictures taken of her before Trig was born and slim now that her mother says she's five months pregnant. Statments made are they "support the choice she made to have the baby" but they don't want anyone else to have the same right to decide what to do. Is it something to gossip about? Sure but it is not something to vote over. What happens in Palin's family has no bearing on your family or on mine.

Palin wanted all she could get for her tiny town, wanted to separate Alaska from the rest of the US and wanted the bridge to nowhere while she was supporting Stevens, then said she didn't want it because of the backlash. She then tries to portray herself as against earmarks. This all has to do with your family and mine. She has been under investigation for getting someone fired because they wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law, a State Trooper who was serving the people of Alaska. This also has to do with your family and mine. The actions of Palin have a lot to do with us.

Palin does not know anything about the big issues facing us. The people supporting her are focused on guns, abortion and gay rights. It's their right to think that the rest of it doesn't matter like global warning, science, diplomacy, energy conservation, the economy, the infrastructure, education on and on, all big issues that do matter to their family.

We cannot get thru to the "right" when it comes to what really matters to us and I think it's time we gave up trying. We need to focus on the people in this country, 60% who do not vote. We need to make sure they get it. That they understand when they decide to not vote, they end up supporting the people who have taken this country into a direction that is destroying it. We need to make sure the students understand that what the elected do today will affect the rest of their lives. We need to make sure people understand they are responsible for elections even if they do not pay attention.

An example of this is the amount of veterans being interviewed about John McCain. How many times do we have to read they are supporting him because he is one of them? After all, how can they miss that fact when almost every time he opens his mouth he reminds them? What they do miss is his deplorable voting record on veterans. They need to make an educated decision. If even knowing the facts about McCain's record they still feel loyal to him, it's a problem nothing can open their eyes to.

We need to pay attention and focus on the big issues and make sure they know what we face. If we focus on Palin's daughter, then we will get what we deserve. Stop wasting time on the sex lives of someone else when we can't even manage to feed the hungry or house the homeless now.

This is the last time I will post about Bristol Palin. Believe me, I've seen the pictures and had to stop myself from posting about all that is in the blog world. Wow was I tempted but then I read about another veteran who committed suicide and understood that the Palin story belongs in the gossip magazines.

Now this does matter
Palin's Alaska Town Secured Big Fed $$$ 384
Washington Post: Gov. Palin Hired Lobby Firm To Secure $27 Million For Town Of 6,700

Presidential campaigns vie for vets’ vote

Presidential campaigns vie for vets’ vote

By Matthew Brown - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Aug 31, 2008 17:21:45 EDT

BILLINGS, Mont. — Retired paratrooper Vernon Kinn liked what he heard when Sen. Barack Obama came to Montana recently with a promise to build more health centers for veterans. That could end the 500-mile, roundtrip drive Kinn faces each time he needs a new hearing aid from Montana’s only VA hospital.

But Kinn, who served two years in Vietnam, was unsure he could turn his back on Republican Sen. John McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp.

“It’s going to take a lot of thought. After the war, nobody liked us. They spit on us. Now we’ve got to stick together,” said Kinn, 62.

As the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns vie for support from the nation’s 25 million veterans, Kinn illustrates the mixed feelings among some in a crucial voting bloc.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_veterans_vote_083108/

Kinn has the right to view McCain anyway he wants but in the process, he is giving McCain loyalty he does not deserve because he has not returned it to his fellow veterans. His support of Vietnam veterans and all veterans is just not there but he fully expects to receive it from them while he is always reminding them, after all, he was a POW. What he has done against them, well that shouldn't matter. What he wants to do to them instead of for them, that doesn't seem to matter either, in McCain's mind anyway. The veterans service organizations have failed him for his votes, not for the fact he is a veteran. The problem is, we should expect a lot more out of him because he is a veteran.

McCain just gave election to Obama on a silver platter

McCain picks Alaska governor as running mate
John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket for the White House, a senior McCain campaign official has told CNN. The 44-year-old Palin, now in her first term as governor, is a pioneering figure in Alaska, the first woman and the youngest person to hold the state's top political job.

Palin's term has not been without controversy. A legislative investigation is looking into allegations that Palin fired Alaska's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire the governor's former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Palin acknowledged that a member of her staff made a call to a trooper in which the staffer suggested he was speaking for the governor.


full story



Just think of the vision of something happening to the senior senator and Palin becoming president! This is just too stupid to believe. Does McCain have any respect left at all for the Republicans or the American people? No wonder they can't give away 10,000 seats to their convention.

Tammy Duckworth, Wounded Iraq veteran rips Bush, McCain

Wounded Iraq veteran rips Bush, McCain
By CHRISTOPHER WILLS | Associated Press Writer
9:23 PM CDT, August 27, 2008
DENVER - Tammy Duckworth, an Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in Iraq, told the Democratic convention Wednesday that Republican John McCain has unfailingly backed a Bush administration that "let our warriors down."

"Our troops are courageous, strong, fierce. This administration has redeployed them until they are overstretched, stressed and strained," said Duckworth, now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs.

She berated McCain for backing President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, calling it a diversion from the true battle -- fighting in Afghanistan to destroy al Qaeda. And Bush has failed to give adequate care to the soldiers injured in that war, she charged.

"Too often they get bureaucracy, not benefits. They find inadequate access, inferior facilities and infuriating paperwork," Duckworth said.
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McCain's "us" is really "them"

McCain's heart belongs to Bush. Not us.

When McCain says the word "us" most of us think he's talking about us, the regular people. We think he's talking about the men and women who are in fact the backbone of this country. Everyday people who go to work, dealing with problems the majority of the citizens deal with. Yet, when you consider what he's really saying, what he's proven to really be interested in, the "us" is really the people like McCain and not like the rest of us.

Jim Webb is one of us and cared about us while McCain went against us.

McCain, well, he never had to worry about paying for college because he served and the tax payers took care of his bill. Not that he needed the funding but because he earned it. This is one thing he thought was too good for the men and women serving today when he tried to kill Jim Webb's GI bill. He fought against it saying "it's just too generous" and "will hurt retention" by "making it more attractive to leave the military" and then he flipped when the bill was passed saying he thought it wasn't generous enough. Yet if you raise the fact Obama and his wife spent years to finish paying off their student loans, McCain will say that "but I was a POW and spent five years getting an education at the hands of the Vietnamese."

McCain never had to worry about healthcare because yet again, the tax payers took care of his medical care, because he was a veteran and senator. He doesn't think the rest of the veterans in this country deserve the same care and has proven this by voting against the increase needed for the VA to be able to take care of the new veterans and especially the wounded. We've all read how bad it has been for them but McCain, well, they are just not in the same category he's in. If you say that Obama and his wife had to worry about it most of their lives, he'll yet again say, "but I was a POW and instead of having his health taken care of it was jeopardized at the hands of the Vietnamese."

McCain never had to worry about filling his gas tank to get to a job. As a matter of fact, he didn't even know what gas prices were. Speaking of jobs, he never had to stand in an unemployment line either. He's been on government payroll all his life never having held a regular job the rest of us do and the rest of the veterans have to deal with when they are done serving and have to deal with trying to find a job in the economy Bush/McCain policies created. As veterans come back dealing with trying to readjust, the VA has been unable to keep up with the demands of helping them. Then we have the citizen soldiers who are members of the National Guards and Reservists who have to leave their jobs over and over again, their families, their incomes only to return to find their jobs and businesses are no longer there and their homes have been foreclosed on. Yet again if you raise this with McCain he'll say "I was a POW and my job was staying alive" which he ended up doing what it took in order to survive. He's been doing that ever since. Stooping to any level in order to get elected.

While the rest of us are worrying about losing our homes, McCain can't remember how many he has. Again when this was raised McCain did in fact bring up the fact for five years he was living as a POW at the hands of the Vietnamese.

McCain has never been poor and never living off government payroll. When it comes to his term of "us" he means people in his class not the rest of us. When he refers to "us" as in veterans, he's talking about the ones who are not paying attention and not having to fight to survive for over thirty years trying to have their wounds taken care of and their bills paid when they lost the ability to pay them because they were wounded serving in Vietnam, in the Gulf War and in the two occupations going on right now.

McCain is not one of "us" he's proven he's one of them. The people responsible for the hardships we have to live with because he cared more about the "them" that did it all to us. kc

McCain needs to explain where he's been when all this was happening

Full Text of Senator John McCain's Speech at the VFW Convention
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/10957

It's a speech. A speech made to come out as if McCain had nothing to do with the problems of Walter Reed, the backlog of claims, the worsening situation the troops were coming home to or anything that has been done while the troops suffered. He wants us to think his hands are clean because after all, a veteran wouldn't treat other veterans a deplorably as his record indicates if he really cared. In his speech, he went to great lengths to attack Obama instead of attacking his own record against veterans. While he wants people to always see him as a "war hero" so they don't look at what he has done since Vietnam, he will not do it with honesty.

McCain wants to paint Obama as being so ambitious that winning is all that matters to him, but that is just an attempt to take factual focus off of himself. If McCain were not ambitious, he wouldn't not be running for the presidency and he treats us as if we were stupid enough to not notice this. Winning, as he puts it, in Iraq, was accomplished back in 2003 when ever goal the troops were given was in fact achieved.
Where was McCain calling for the plans to do what the Bush administration was finally forced to do after the 2006 election if McCain really understood anything about Iraq or winning?
Where was he when the commanders in Iraq were shifting from fighting the Iraqi people to paying the Iraqi people to take up their own arms and fight the few members of Al-Qaeda causing most of the problems?
Where was McCain's judgment when all the evidence about the reason Iraq was invaded proved beyond a doubt there was never a need to invade especially given the fact there was already an ongoing campaign in Afghanistan in direct response to the attacks on our nation that was not "accomplished" and they were warned pulling troops out of Afghanistan was a dangerous move to make so much so that generals quit in protest?
Where was McCain when NATO was screaming for more help in Afghanistan years ago when all he talked about was Iraq?
Where was he right after 9-11 when he was already talking about the need to invade Iraq when everyone else was trying to focus on Afghanistan and the Taliban and Osama?

This is what needs to be focused on but McCain, well if he limits what he says to words that paint a picture of a "war hero" then people won't see what's behind the facade. They won't see that McCain wants combat veterans treated differently than all others when it comes to the medical care they were all promised equally. They were all willing to risk their lives. While the combat veterans do have needs above peacetime veterans, we have failed all of them already by what "leadership" like McCain's has already proven. It's time to get this right and with McCain, his judgment, his lack of support of veterans and the truth, it will be more devastation for those who serve this nation. kc

McCain campaign doesn't know Madonna is not on Obama Campaign?

Madonna is not on Obama's campaign. All they managed to do was call attention to Madonna and whine about what she said. When will the two people who want to run this country, get back to us? McCain is trying to drag a very positive, hopeful outlook for America into the bowls of hell and when Obama does fight back, the pundits complain that Obama has gone negative. Now it looks like citizens cannot voice their opinion either. No one needs any of what we saw with the 507's attacking the campaigns of either man when they are doing such a good job of it themselves. This is nothing new. Look back in history and see some of knock down attacks made since the beginning. Every time you have someone trying to focus on us, someone came along and made sure the attention was taken off us and focused on crap.

We have serious problems in this country. Men and women who serve this country need the help of the country to heal from the two occupations the politicians sent them to and veterans from past wars who are still trying to find the help they need to heal. How many posts do you have to read to understand how serious this all is but attention from the media is diverted onto personal attacks on both men. That's the job for the rest of us to do as citizens. It's the media's job and responsibility to focus on what matters to all of us. Why aren't they doing it? Have you heard any substantial discussions on any of what is going on? Pick a station you'll find a political topic that has nothing to do with what either man can do to solve our problems. It's always about nothing that will solve anything.

Madonna will not be able to save the life of a single veteran or ease the burdens on families as we suffer. She has no power to do much at all but she does have attention. I wouldn't have had a clue what she said or even cared if the media didn't focus on it and the McCain campaign didn't point it out to whine about it.

McCain camp lashes 'outrageous' Madonna

Aug 24 08:45 PM US/Eastern

John McCain's campaign hit back at Madonna on Sunday after the pop diva kicked off her world tour with a concert that bracketed the US presidential candidate with Adolf Hitler.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds angrily condemned the segment of Madonna's concert in Cardiff on Saturday that appeared to draw a comparison between McCain, Hitler and Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe.

"The comparisons are outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive all at the same time," Bounds said in a statement reported by Fox News.
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McCain campaign excuse is always "POW"

Was John McCain a POW? Yes, but so were all of these. Does that mean they get to run for President too and cover anything they did after with the fact they were a POW? Does the fact McCain was a Senator after in any way, shape or form take away from these others? Does it mean that whatever McCain did after does not matter because he was a POW? See, this is what the media keeps missing.

12 February 1973 was the beginning of Hanoi's release of U.S. POW's and the last 67 held by the DRV left Hanoi 29 March 1973.

http://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/PeaceAccords&ReleaseOfPOWs.html

Nam-POW List
543 POWs who are active members of NAM-POWs Corporation are listed alphabetically with Rank & Service at Capture, Country where captured (see code), A/C Flown or Ground, Missing Date, Release Date and the number of days they spent as POWs. It should be noted that deceased POWs and non-members are not included in this list. Full listing of 802 POWs can be found at the following address: http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/pmsea/files.htm Look under Status "EE" (Escapee) or "RR," (Returnee). This page has been accessed times since December 31, 2001.

http://www.nampows.org/nampowslist.html

What caused this? Today, yet again, McCain and staff used the fact McCain was held as a POW when they were trying to address the fact McCain did not know how many homes he owns. They came out with McCain only had one home during Vietnam and that was a prison. Big problem is that if they keep using the POW part of McCain's life to excuse all he has done after, then that would mean it's all McCain has to run on. He cannot run on his record as being a veteran because simply, his record as a veteran stinks. He doesn't vote for them and now he's even talking about a draft. He didn't stand up and say the troops need the rest time between deployments and he never once came out and said how he would "win the wars" he claims he knows how to win or how to catch Osama when he says he knows how to do it.

Aside from the Vietnam POW's and the missing who still have not been accounted for, we also have the missing from Korea, which was over 8,000 and the other wars. We also have these from Iraq who were held as prisoners.

Spc. Ahmed K. Altaie 41 Army reservist assigned Provincial Reconstruction Team Baghdad Ann Arbor, Michigan On October 23, 2006, Altaie was categorized as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown when he allegedly was kidnapped while on his way to visit family in Baghdad, Iraq. The Pentagon changed his status to missing-captured on December 11.

Spc. Edgar Hernandez 21 507th Maintenance Company Mission, Texas Was missing after an Iraqi ambush at Nasiriya on March 23, 2003. Rescued April 13, 2003, north of Baghdad.

Spc. Joseph Hudson 23 507th Maintenance Company Alamogordo, New Mexico Was missing after an Iraqi ambush at Nasiriya on March 23, 2003. Rescued April 13, 2003, north of Baghdad.

Spc. Shoshana Johnson 30 507th Maintenance Company El Paso, Texas Was missing after an Iraqi ambush at Nasiriya on March 23, 2003. Rescued April 13, 2003, north of Baghdad.

Pfc. Jessica Lynch 19 507th Maintenance Company Palestine, West Virginia Was missing after an Iraqi ambush at Nasiriya on March 23, 2003. Rescued April 2, 2003, by U.S. troops from Saddam Hospital in Nasiriya.

Pfc. Patrick Miller 23 507th Maintenance Company Walter, Kansas Was missing after an Iraqi ambush at Nasiriya on March 23, 2003. Rescued April 13, 2003, north of Baghdad.

Sgt. James Riley 31 507th Maintenance Company Pennsauken, New Jersey Was missing after an Iraqi ambush at Nasiriya on March 23, 2003. Rescued April 13, 2003, north of Baghdad.

Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams 30 Company C, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment Florida Captured after his AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter was shot down near Karbala, Iraq, on March 24, 2003. Rescued April 13, 2003, north of Baghdad.

Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young 26 Company C, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment Lithia Springs, Georgia Captured after his AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter was shot down near Karbala, Iraq, on March 24, 2003. Rescued April 13, 2003, north of Baghdad.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/pow.mia/

When it comes to being a POW, McCain has a lot of company. When it comes to being a veteran, he has even more. But when it comes to answering for what he says and does after, he needs to answer for it all and stop hiding behind all the other people who have been also held captive as a POW. McCain may be the most famous POW this country has known, but while we know his name, the truth is, none of us really know him. By the looks of it, we never will. He says one thing one day and then something else the next day. If he has his way, no one will ever ask him any serious questions about what he's done since Vietnam.

Now his latest is Jim Webb's GI Bill was not good enough and that's why he didn't want it to pass. The truth is, he was saying it was just too generous and would cause the troops to leave service. McCain's biggest problem is not that he was a POW, it's what his mouth has done. He forgets he's on tape. As for him claiming he's a "war hero" that one really doesn't hold him up higher either when it comes to the truth. We lost a Medal of Honor hero from Vietnam who finally got the award. We've also lost heroes who have given up their lives for the sake of others. McCain, well, he's been living his life as if he's owed anything more than any other veteran or POW. And I do mean "more" because he doesn't want them to get the best care possible and doesn't want all of them to be taken care of by the VA either. It's really a wonder why more veterans are not standing up and demanding McCain finally earn the glory he's been given all these years while he takes away the real honor we owe all of them.

Hero, well that belongs to all of the men and women who have served and yes, a special place should be held in our hearts for all the POW's, but that special place does not dismiss accountability. It does not allow him to do and say whatever he wants and everyone in the country is supposed to be afraid to ask him to explain himself. It does not allow him to call or elude to anyone who disagrees with him as being any less patriotic. It does not allow him to get a free pass on anything. Especially when it comes to taking care of the troops and our veterans. If anything it should require him to be held to a higher standard considering the power he's held as a Senator all these years. A position he wouldn't have come close to being afforded had he not been a POW during Vietnam. He wants to use it instead of thanking God he survived it and show appreciation by taking care of all who came after him. McCain thinks he's the only one who should matter because he's the only one who matters to himself.

I am not writing this as a chaplain right now but as a person who thinks McCain has let down veterans and the troops while he wants to excuse it all away by being a POW veteran. It just really is a shame he didn't use his power for the greater good instead of himself.

McCain can't remember houses, wife can't remember sisters

Would that make this a reverse Cinderella story? Two step-sisters left out of the will?

Watchdogs make it harder for politicians to stretch the truth
Cindy McCain's past is the latest to be questioned after errors were found.
By Alexandra Marks| August 20, 2008 edition
Gilding the lily is nothing new to politics. From the 1840s when William Henry Harrison claimed to have been born in a log cabin (it was actually a Virginia plantation) to Ronald Reagan’s reminiscing about flying over Germany in World War II (he did, but only in a movie), politicians have taken perfectly good stories and embellished them.

This campaign is no exception. During the primaries, Hillary Rodham Clinton had to back away from claims she “ducked sniper fire” in Bosnia in 1996. Mitt Romney found himself having to explain how he “saw my father march with Martin Luther King,” when it turned out his father never marched with the Rev. Mr. King.

The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. 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.

The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.

Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)
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Linked from RawStory

Americans lose homes, McCain doesn't know how many he owns?

Yet McCain wants to come off as he cares about us? We suffer and lose our homes in the mess his pal Graham created and he doesn't even know how many homes he owns? When are people going to wake up to the fact McCain is only playing with us and does not care about us at all? He's been doing it all along while supporting whatever Bush did in order to gain power. Obama had to pay off student loans like the rest of us.

McCain not sure how many houses he and wife own
Days after he cracked that being rich in the U.S. meant earning at least $5 million a year, Republican presidential candidate John McCain acknowledged that he wasn't sure how many houses he and his wealthy wife actually own.

WASHINGTON —
Days after he cracked that being rich in the U.S. meant earning at least $5 million a year, Republican presidential candidate John McCain acknowledged that he wasn't sure how many houses he and his wealthy wife actually own.

"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," McCain responded to a question posed by Politico, according to a story Thursday on the publication's Web site. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you."

Later, the McCain campaign told Politico that McCain and his wife, Cindy, have at least four in three states, Arizona, California and Virginia. Newsweek recently estimated the two owned at least seven properties.
go here for more
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008129061_apmccainhouses.html

Former P.O.W.: "Why I Cannot Support Senator John McCain for President

I was just listening to Thom Hartman. Turns out that McCain told his little story of the cross being drawn by a Christian while he was a POW, may have come from Ivan Solonevich and not McCain's memory. A lot of other things were pointed out on his show aside from the sudden story of this event that may not have happened and did not appear in his books.

What really got to me was the mention of this. Thom said it was over on Military.com but I wanted to do some digging. Looks like this piece of information has been around since McCain took a stab at the presidency in 1999. If I had read this back then, I wouldn't have voted for him either when he was running against Bush in the primary. I ended up voting for Gore. Back then I thought a lot of McCain, but it looks like he was not honest even then.

Former P.O.W.: "Why I Cannot Support Senator John McCain for President"
Posted by Calpernia
USA at 4/21/2008 3:42 PM and is filed under Mia,veterans,pow,Vietnam,McCain

29 August 1999 - by Mark A. Smith, Major, USA, Retired

"I wish I could support John McCain as a fellow returned POW. I have found I am expected to support him, but I cannot.

If I cannot support him, then the next best thing I find is that I am expected to remain mute and say nothing. As I have proven in a terrible jungle prison, I have the ability to remain mute in the face of those who wished to trade me my very life for just a few words. My remaining mute then, is the driving factor behind my feeling compelled to speak out now.

When John was blown from the sky over that lake in Hanoi, did the enemy already know whose son he was? No, they did not until John told them. He was seriously hurt in his ejection and he needed medical attention. In exchange for what the rest of us would call "First Class" care, he talked. He not only told them who his father, the Admiral was, but he expounded in detail on the Chain of Command and then built himself up by describing himself as one of the "very best pilots". You will not find this form of "resistance" in the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) or in the Code of Conduct. As a matter of fact, it is expressly forbidden. Now, if the US Navy wants to give John a pass on this, it is all right with me, but that free Pass negated John's pointing fingers at others, or at least it should have.

Just ask Robert Garwood, or anyone else who crosses him, if he is a finger pointer. He is the worst.

After McCain was recovered from his wounds, did he cease and desist from making propaganda? The answer is an emphatic "NO". So we go back to the same question again: Should John get a free pass on this from the Navy?

Well, the Navy and some of the Air Force got together and supported the "Return with Honor" scenario. I darn sure did, even from my hole-in-the-ground in Cambodia. But I do not now support, nor would I ever have, if I had known, "Return with Honor" would be some kind of "amnesty" program. The main reason was simple. No one, not Stockdale or the real Senior POW Colonel John Peter Flynn, USAF, had the authority to grant "amnesty" for collaboration in the prisons of Vietnam. The recommendations of these Senior, honored POWs must be given weight in the consideration of charges or amnesty. They could fail to file charges, but they could not grant amnesty or "absolution". The problem is that they did so. Of course, one rarely hears of John Peter Flynn these days, as he somehow ceased to be the Senior POW, and Admiral Stockdale is described by nearly everyone as having filled that role. That it is not true seems to have no import on the media, historians nor my fellow POW's.

Most of all, McCain has never made the correction.

One must realize, it's as if we are some self-promoting, social club rather than a band of honorable men , welded together by common suffering. Our group says a lot of things which are not true. I have seen them stand Ev Alvarez up time and again in front of the nation and proclaim him as "America's longest-held Vietnam POW". It is not true, but this line has gone on for so long, it has entered the history books. Not one time has the man John S. McCain, not the Senator, the sailor, the pilot, the Ex-POW, but the man ever stood up and said; "Now hold it right there, Floyd James Thompson, Major, US Army Special Forces, was captured before all of us".
go here for more

http://blog.barofintegrity.us/2008/04/21/former-pow-why-
i-cannot-support-senator-john-mccain-for-president.aspx

As you can see McCain is not only a bad pilot and student, he is also not a very nice person either. He prides himself of being bad and trying to look good. He wants to run as a veteran but has run away from them when it came to his votes. No wonder why he calls everyone "my friend" because he does not know what one is. Strangers are his friends because a lot of the people who really know him, don't like him at all.