Forget Palin


The reason you shouldn’t vote for the McCain/Palin ticket is the odious John McCain himself. Talk about sleaze — the man has been a creepy, bullying, spoiled beast his whole life.

Similarly, in local politics, Michele Bachmann is corrupt. How these people achieved such a high position in our country’s leadership is incomprehensible.

Comments

  1. Adam says

    That Rolling Stone article really is devastating and should be required reading for any McCain supporter. McCain truly is a whiny, spoiled, petulant child. Plus, he called his wife a c%^t in front of reporters. Oh, and he’s a shitty pilot.

  2. says

    how these people achieved such a high position in our country’s leadership is incomprehensible.

    incomprehensible only to those who think we live in a meritocracy. sadly, we’re stuck in some type of kleptocratic decidership:

    a form of government with an idiot exercising absolute power and unrestricted control in a government who regularly disregards opinions, petitions or mandates of the people or elected representatives.

    on more amusing note, i just finished my farewell homage video to sarah palin.

  3. Aquaria says

    Nothing pisses me off more than McCain’s constant bleating about his POW experience.

    I knew a POW like Dramesi, who was one stone-cold bad-ass, and perhaps the only USPS supervisor I truly respected.

    He escaped from his POW camp once,, but the camp was set up so that an escapee couldn’t get his bearings and had camouflaged barricades surrounding it; this guy ended up back at the camp and tortured for days for trying it. On another occasion, he was chosen for interrogation. He refused to cooperate. Told them the name/rank/serial number stuff, and, btw, fuck off. To “convince” him to cooperate, the VC impaled his arm to the wall with a machete. And he hung there, for two days, refusing to give them anything. No food. Only a few glasses of water. He had to pee in a bucket. And he still didn’t give them one shred of information.

    That is courage. That is adhering to the Code of Conduct.

    Mention John McCain to him, and this POW spits on the floor and calls McCain “a fucking traitor.”

  4. Dahan says

    I’m actually kind of ashamed that I once had such high regard for McCain. There was a time (maybe 10 years ago +) when I really did think he was a “maverick” and “war hero” etc. What I’ve seen of his conduct recently has destroyed what little was left of that impression.
    Dog help us if he and Winky win this thing.

  5. Dahan says

    Aquaria @ 5,

    Right on. There are quite a few vets, including some of the leaders of Veteran’s for Peace (shameless member plug) who suffered many more hardships and for a far longer time (up to two years more) than McCain. Few, if any of them, claim that as a reason to support their beliefs. Why does McCain feel he has the right to do so, when so many others did just as much or more?

  6. Aquaria says

    Dahan: I’ve taken part in some of the Vets for Peace activities, although I haven’t ever joined, officially. They’re one of the few vets organizations I can respect.

  7. shonny says

    Just hope the Obama camp doesn’t shy away from using the RS material to show ALL Americans what the stakes are.
    According to one source, the North Vietnamese’s name for McTreason was ‘Songbird’. Hero, my ass.

  8. shonny says

    Just hope the Obama camp doesn’t shy away from using the RS material to show ALL Americans what the stakes are.
    According to one source, the North Vietnamese’s name for McShame was ‘Songbird’. Hero, my ass.

  9. says

    Dahan @6 – I once had a high regard for McCain, too. Whether he’s not the same man he was a decade ago or he never was that man, he sure isn’t someone I want in the White House. I don’t even want him to be in the Senate, in fact.

  10. says

    How these people achieved such a high position in our country’s leadership is incomprehensible.

    As many people as I’ve met who either don’t vote, or don’t stay informed enough to make votes that are in their interest, it isn’t incomprehensible. Why there are so many of them is the thing that’s incomprehensible.

  11. Brendan White says

    Honestly I have no problem with the fact that he confessed, he was being tortured at the time.

  12. Ichthyic says

    Why there are so many of them is the thing that’s incomprehensible.

    ever seen the movie “Idiocracy?”

    …yeah.

  13. raven says

    There are rumors flying that McCain is showing some alarming neurological symptoms. Maybe Transient Ischemic Attacks. Has anyone even seen him out and about much the last few weeks? Well, No!!! Palin seems to be running the campaign right now.

    Given his age of 72, his medical history which is basically that he has been through more than most people including several bouts with cancer, melanoma, and general current condition, he really should be taking it easy, not trying for a high stress, dangerous job, the US presidency.

    If it looks like the race is between Obama and Palin, that is because it is. I wouldn’t put high odds on McCain making through the first year of a presidency much less 4.

  14. Ichthyic says

    If it looks like the race is between Obama and Palin, that is because it is.

    Did I mention I’m moving to NZ?

    I’m sure I did.

  15. says

    Did I mention I’m moving to NZ?

    I’m sure I did.

    You really should get over to Australia sometime and catch up with some of the Aussie members here. There’s good beer and less kiwis per capita (just)

  16. raven says

    Did I mention I’m moving to NZ?

    I’m sure I did.

    All the time. Not a bad idea.

    I’ve seriously considered bolting the USA myself. I don’t have to live here whatsoever on economic grounds at least.

    When push comes to shove, it isn’t quite that easy. Family ties, farm and forestry landholdings, an attachment to the land and landscape if not to morons who ran us into the ground. It even comes down to who will feed the old cats.

    As a boomer, it seems easier to just keep ones head down and drink a lot of wine than to move on. If I was a few decades younger, a different story. Many people who flee US insanity are quite happy. As one said, “I can breathe easier and not go to bed every night appalled.” One of my colleagues has already gone, moved to SA. His grandfather came from Germany in the 1930’s. The family that stayed behind all disappeared, literally in a puff of smoke.

  17. Ichthyic says

    I’ve seriously considered bolting the USA myself. I don’t have to live here whatsoever on economic grounds at least.

    I keep thinking back to the between the wars when so many americans moved to France and started the ex-pat movement.

    I wonder if NZ could be the next “France”?

    wouldn’t that be a kick?

    When push comes to shove, it isn’t quite that easy.

    The first time I seriously started considering it was 6 years ago. I now have no personal ties left of any kind.

    …and regardless of the fact I’ve bought my tickets, I’m still not there, yet.

    there always seems to be one last detail to take care of.

    …I’m going to go watch Idiocracy to keep me motivated for the next week of financial crunchery.

    cheers

  18. Tristan says

    Did I mention I’m moving to NZ?

    I’m sure I did.

    You really should get over to Australia sometime and catch up with some of the Aussie members here. There’s good beer and less kiwis per capita (just)

    Y’all should make your way down here for the evolution conference next year. Good excuse as any.

  19. clinteas says

    I wish Larry King would stop inviting the Bachmann woman onto his panels,she is such a stupid liar for jeebus,its not funny.

    Read the linked article on McCain with big interest,thanks PZ.
    Seems to integrate seamlessly with my perception of the man’s character sofar.

    Count me in for the party with the Fishman when he makes it over to Oz !

  20. Katkinkate says

    Duh! They’re both politians, aka professional liars. The higher up the political career ladder they get, the more lies, obfuscations, denials of the truth, had to have been committed to keep them on the career path. Pollies that tell the truth don’t make it very far because the man/woman at the poll booth can’t handle the truth. They want comfortable lies and fairy tales, so that’s what pollies tell them.

  21. says

    There is more to Michele Bachmann and Greg Laden, Stephanie and I have been presenting a “carnival to Replace Michele Bachmann” to highlight her lunacy.

    Episode the Second is up here..

    Greasy Money from a Las Vegas Strip joint? We love our family values candidates.

  22. says

    I don’t understand where anyone has ever bought McCain’s bullshit.

    I lived in CA when he and Keating et al bilked tens of thousands of elderly people out of their life savings.

    He should just now be getting out of prison, he’s as corrupt as they get, as bad as Nixon or Bush, always has been.

    That Penguin vid was awesome!!!

  23. says

    More about Congresswoman Bachmann & Pardongate:

    http://is.gd/3Dbp

    “From a basement vault, agents took boxes and buckets of silver and gold coins, trays of jewelry, five stacks of $100 bills, boxes of gem stones, silver plates and Rolex watches. Agents also seized diamond rings and numerous paintings, including dozens with religious themes, such as the raising of Lazarus from the dead.”

  24. JasonTD says

    I don’t see why I should buy into what this article is selling. It has all the hallmarks of a political hit piece: quotes with little or no context, character assassination, and a few people whose integrity and accomplishments are played up to slam him for things he supposedly said or did 30 years ago.

    Some examples:
    “And he has engaged in a “practice of politics” so deceptive that even Rove himself has denounced it, saying that the outright lies in McCain’s campaign ads go “too far” and fail the “truth test.””

    Without any reference to where or when Rove said those 4 words they put in quotes, we have no easy way of finding out how accurate a picture of Rove’s view the author paints. A look at factcheck.org shows a fair number of factual errors on both sides, so singling out McCain is hardly objective journalism.

    “Trailing his hard-charging, hard-drinking father from post to post, McCain didn’t play well with others. Indeed, he concedes, his runty physique inspired a Napoleon complex: “My small stature motivated me to . . . fight the first kid who provoked me.””

    A whole world of context could be hiding in those ellipses that could shatter what the writer is trying to accomplish with that quote. And “runty physique”? More objectivity from a bastion of balanced journalism.

  25. MartinM says

    Without any reference to where or when Rove said those 4 words they put in quotes, we have no easy way of finding out how accurate a picture of Rove’s view the author paints.

    Lazy git.

  26. Steve LaBonne says

    I don’t see why I should buy into what this article is selling.

    Yeah, why should you be expected to believe the truth instead of what you feel like believing?

    For your information, there’s nothing new at all in that article- those of us who have actually paid attention to the McCain myth have known pretty much all of it for years (and yes, every bit of it is well-documented fact.)

    After you’ve assimilated that, you might want to look into the Hensley family’s organized-crime connections. Except that would probably make your head explode, or something.

    These are seriously bad people. And they get away with it because of the prevalence of idiots like you.

  27. Marc Abian says

    I don’t see what’s so dishonourable about cooperating under torture.
    I’d confess everything immediately if someone mentioned torture, even if in a sentence like “if you don’t confess, that’s fine, we’re not going to torture you”.

  28. clinteas says

    //I don’t see what’s so dishonourable about cooperating under torture.//

    I agree,must be an american thing.They expect you to keep your secrets for yourself while the enemy cuts your bits off,but when you come home they’ll cheat you out of your pension and medical care.

    Plenty to critizise about McCain apart from being called songbird by the Vietnamese.

  29. Steve LaBonne says

    It’s not dishonorable, I would never blame anyone for breaking under torture What’s dishonorable is pretending you were some kind of hero when there were those who DID stick strictly to name, rank and serial number under torture (for example, see Aquaria @ 5). That’s an insult to all those who really WERE heroic.

  30. says

    Marc Abian and clinteas are right. The truly disguting thing is that, when Bush & co. permited the use of the same kind of torture against “ennemy combattants” that he himself had to face in N. Vietnam, McCain still supported them.

  31. says

    I don’t know much about McCain, but I do know he was a POW. So he probably wasn’t too spoiled then.

    He’s definitely filthy rich and spoiled now, though. I hope you guys (that is, the US) won’t have to suffer his reign. He seems to be a two-faced bigoted war-mongering theocrat.

    In Israel, we often indulge in the fine masturbational habit of endorsing candidates who “support Israel” (the one thing I heard of Palin on Israeli newspapers is that she supports Israel, too)

    In my opinion, McCain and Palin can keep their disgusting support to themselves.

  32. says

    I found the most fascinating observation in the whole article to have been the fact that McCain has a overwhelming lust to be commander in chief because that’s the only way he’ll ever out-rank his father and grandfather. Pathetic.

  33. minimalist says

    #45, Just imagine, that could make two presidents in a row with infantile daddy complexes!

    Sleep tight.

  34. Jeeves says

    Preface: I realize there was a draft during Vietnam and people were forced to go, despite objections.

    But, still, shouldn’t we be leery of letting a guy who wanted to jump into Vietnam with two feet? Bombing villages to make daddy and granddaddy proud? For years afterward, saying the war should have gone on longer…Christmas bombing of Cambodia was great, should have been more. Why have politicians been judged on whether they fought in Vietnam? The two world wars, there can be a case made. And the Civil war and Revolutionary War, with the enemy at the door,I can understand. But it seems to be most people’s opinion through facts and research that Vietnam was a huge mistake, so you would think someone who couldn’t wait to get involved and then repeatedly says it was a good war and should have gone on longer with bombing more targets is in some logical hot water. Considering the times we live in now, shouldn’t that be disqualification enough?

  35. David Marjanović, OM says

    From the Rolling Stone article:

    In its broad strokes, McCain’s life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers’ powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives’ evangelical churches.

    In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

    ROTFL!

    (The McCain campaign did not respond to numerous requests for comment from Rolling Stone.)

    As usual.

    The Keating affair also taught McCain a vital lesson about handling the media. When the scandal first broke, he went ballistic on reporters who questioned his wife’s financial ties to Keating — calling them “liars” and “idiots.” Predictably, the press coverage was merciless. So McCain dialed back the anger and turned up the charm. “I talked to the press constantly, ad infinitum, until their appetite for information from me was completely satisfied,” he later wrote. “It is a public relations strategy that I have followed to this day.” Mr. Straight Talk was born.

    B-)

    “I’m sure John McCain loves his country,” says Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar under Bush. “But loving your country and lying to the American people are apparently not inconsistent in his view.”

    That seems to be a common phenomenon.

  36. Mrs.Schaarschmidt says

    I am vehemently anti-McCain. That being said, as a skeptic I was wondering if there is any corroberation for these stories. I just read the first one, and it distrubed me greatly. But how do we know if it is true?

  37. Mrs.Schaarschmidt says

    I am vehemently anti-McCain. That being said, as a skeptic I was wondering if there is any corroberation for these stories. I just read the first one, and it distrubed me greatly. But how do we know if it is true?

  38. Mrs.Schaarschmidt says

    I am vehemently anti-McCain. That being said, as a skeptic I was wondering if there is any corroberation for these stories. I just read the first one, and it distrubed me greatly. But how do we know if it is true?

  39. bernard quatermass says

    I may have made a similar comment already, but … having had the highest office in the land filled (in many senses of that word) by someone who isn’t competent to manage a Denny’s did a great deal to cement me into rock-ribbed atheism.

    Nothin’ better than that to demonstrate incontrovertibly how NO ONE’S IN CONTROL.

  40. costanza says

    #30

    Just to play devil’s advocate, I feel compelled to point out that Obama/Biden are ALSO politicians….

    And, as brilliantly observed by H.L. Mencken, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

  41. Dave says

    JasonTD,

    Yes, it is a political hit piece. As was said in another forum, “Great, this might have an impact on the whole 2 or 3 people who read Rolling Stone and dont yet support Obama.” At the same time, its interesting, well written and appears well researched. As far as Rove saying those four words, dont expect everything to be spoon fed to you. To those of us following the campaign closely, we remember Rove saying that, for those not following as quite as closely, google is your friend, the first hit for “Mccain rove truth test” give http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNdtZGqZA2Y

  42. LFP says

    Wow — that Rolling Stone piece was a real eye-opener. If even 50% of it is true, it’s still devastating.

    Obviously, it being released now was not coincidental, but so what? As long as the claims are factual, it deserves widespread attention. A real “hit piece” was the infamous — and factually dubious — Swift Boat attack on John Kerry…

  43. Kerry Maxwell says

    Several of those anecdotes in the RS article are straight from McCain’s autobiography (Crashing planes and taking pain-killers to go out partying, etc).

  44. Ichthyic says

    Bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran!

    Hey, it’s the evil midnight bomber what bombs at midnight!

  45. Skazz says

    Before you take my words into account, bear in mind that I’m a Dutchman, and as such, an outsider…
    But this article does seem a bit biased to me.
    This article, true as it may be, only lists the man’s bad aspects. I can’t help but think there must have been a few good things about McCain’s life that should’ve been mentioned.

    If anything, it ‘smells’ a bit dogmatic, demonizing even. Not the kind of stuff I’ve come to expect you pharyngulites to base your opinions on.

    Still, McCain -1!

  46. says

    Woah that article was brutal!

    This article, true as it may be, only lists the man’s bad aspects. I can’t help but think there must have been a few good things about McCain’s life that should’ve been mentioned.

    Maybe it’s that the good aspects of McCain’s story are already well known.

  47. says

    Was that an allusion to M*A*S*H?

    Hot Lips: [About Hawkeye] I wonder how such a degenerated
    person ever reached a position of authority in the Army
    Medical Corps.
    Father Mulcahy: He was drafted.