John McCain

Education

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High School

John McCain went to Episcopal High School, a private boarding school, where is his words: “I did not excel academically, but I enjoyed it immensely, and I certainly did not have the most number of demerits at Episcopal or Annapolis, but I was close.” He was considered a punk (known as Punk, alternatively as Nasty, in another variation, McNasty) and “prided himself as a tough guy, seemingly ready to fight at the drop of a hat”

College

He then went to one of the best Universities in the Nation, the US Naval Academy. While in the Naval Academy McCain was rowdy, raunchy, a classic underachiever and ambivalent about his presence at Annapolis. Admiral William R. Smedberg III, the Academy superintendent said of McCain and his own son Ted (who had to stay back a year due to academic problems) “There stand my two biggest disappointments as superintendent of the Naval Academy.” and eventually finished school 894th out 899 (5th from last) I have no idea if he got a degree, or what his degree may have been in.

After College

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After college McCain went directly into military service as an Ensign in the US Navy, he trained for 2 and a half years as a naval aviator, where he earned the reputation as a partying man. Early in his career he was considered a sub-par flier and was at times reckless and careless, crashing 3 planes, Naval aviation experts say the three accidents before McCain’s deployment to Vietnam probably triggered a review to determine whether he should be allowed to continue flying. The results of the review would have been confidential. McCain’s commanders sarcastically dubbed him “Ace McCain” because of his string of pre-Vietnam accidents.

In 1965 McCain married swimsuit model Carol Shepp, his first combat duty began at age 30 and a lieutenant commander, he received medals for his flight missions over Vietnam. In 1967 he was shot down over Vietnam and held as a POW for 5 years. Because his father was Commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam, the North Vietnamese offered McCain early release, because they wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes. McCain turned down the offer; he would only accept repatriation if every man taken in before him was released as well. Such early release was prohibited by the POW’s interpretation of the military Code of Conduct. “To prevent the enemy from using prisoners for propaganda, officers were to agree to be released in the order in which they were captured” This is military law, per Code of US Fighting Force, Code of Conduct Section III, items E and F.

In 1968 still a POW, he was subject to severe torture, where he attempted to commit suicide but was stopped by guards, After four days of torture, McCain made an anti-American propaganda “confession”. He was released on March 14, 1973. His wartime injuries left McCain permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.

He returned to active duty and became commanding officer of a training squadron. He improved the unit’s flight readiness and safety records, and won the squadron its first-ever Meritorious Unit Commendation. During this period in Florida, McCain had extramarital affairs, and the McCains’ marriage began to falter.

McCain served as the Navy’s liaison to the U.S. Senate beginning in 1977, In August 1979, McCain was promoted to captain

In April 1979 he met Cindy Hensley and he urged his wife Carol to grant him a divorce, which she did in February 1980, and he Married Cindy in May 1980.

In April 1981 he quit the Navy because they wouldn’t promote him to Admiral.

After this he was given a job by Cindy’s father as Vice President of Public Relations (his only known non military, non political job), which he said himself he was unqualified and uneducated for. His father in law was also the beginning of his less than savory associations.

James Hensley (the father in law) was convicted by a federal jury in U.S. District Court of Arizona in March 1948 on seven counts of filing false liquor records. Hensley also was charged with conspiracy to hide from federal authorities the names of persons involved in a liquor industry racket with two companies he managed (which were owned by Kemper Marley) in 1953, Hensley was again charged with falsifying records at Marley’s liquor firms.

The Hensley family was involved with some of the most notorious—at least on the sides—some of the most notorious crimes committed in the state of Arizona, primarily the bombing and murder of Arizona Republic reporter, Don Bolles, and it’s on the edge, but it’s there. The key guy in the Hensley empire was a guy named Kemper Marley. Kemper Marley was a liquor magnate. He controlled a lot of the land in central Arizona. Marley was implicated-–—never charged—in the murder of Bolles, and it was Marley who basically gave the liquor franchise to Hensley back in the 1950’s, and that built their empire from there.

During this time he became friends with Charles Keating Jr (Of the Keating 5). and Fife Symington III (who was charged in a 1997 indictment for false statements to federally insured financial institutions, wire fraud, attempted extortion and false statements in bankruptcy proceeding)

In 1981 John McCain sat on the board of the US Council for World Freedom, an ultra right wing group chaired by Iran Contra figure Maj. General John K. Singlaub. The USCWF quickly became the US branch of the World Anti-Communist League (One of the major financial supporters of this was Sun Myung Moon). The USCWF began building support for the Reagan policy of aiding not only the Nicaraguan Contras but RENAMO and UNITA in southern Africa and rightist Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan. This branch has generated controversy, as it has been found to have illegally supplied firearms to guerrillas in the Iran-Contra Affair and, in 1981, the USCWF was placed under watch by the Anti-Defamation League, which noted the organization had increasingly become a point of contact for extremists, racists and anti-Semites

In 1982 McCain ran for US Congress and in 1983 won. While there he opposed creation of a federal Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

in 1987 He became a US Senator, where he became member of the Armed Services Committee, he also joined the Commerce Committee and the Indian Affairs Committee.

McCain became involved in the Keating Scandal, between 1982 and 1987 McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates In addition, McCain’s wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard Keating’s jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. In 1989 Phoenix New Times writer Tom Fitzpatrick opined that McCain was the “most reprehensible” of the five senators.

He was a member of the 1991–1993 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs

Since January 1993, McCain has been Chairman of the International Republican Institute

Starting in 1994, he worked with Democratic Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold on campaign finance reform

In 1995, McCain sent birthday regards, and regrets for not attending, to Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonano, the head of the New York Bonano crime family.

In 1997 Time magazine named McCain as one of the “25 Most Influential People in America”

In 1997, McCain became chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee; he was criticized for accepting funds from corporations and businesses under the committee’s purview

In 1998, G. Gordon Liddy’s home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator’s campaigns–including $1,000 this year.

Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as “an old friend,” and McCain sounded like one. “I’m proud of you, I’m proud of your family,” he gushed. “It’s always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.”

Liddy helped plan the Watergate break-in that would cost Nixon his presidency and landed Liddy a four-year jail sentence.

But Liddy’s career of inflammatory statements and actions exceed his Watergate actions.

While on Nixons Election committee Liddy concocted several plots, some far-fetched, intended to embarrass the Democratic opposition. These included firebombing the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., kidnapping anti-war protest organizers and transporting them to Mexico during the Republican National Convention, and luring mid-level Democratic campaign officials to a house boat in Baltimore where they would be secretly photographed in compromising positions with call girls

Liddy, on Vitenam:

“I wanted to bomb the Red River dykes. It would have drowned half the country and starved the other half. There would have been no way the Viet Cong could have operated if we had the will-power to do that.”

Liddy, advising Branch Davidians how to defend themselves from ATF agents during a radio show:

“If the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms insists upon a firefight, give them a firefight. Just remember, they’re wearing flak jackets and you’re better off shooting for the head.”

Liddy, on the impact Adolf Hitler had on him as a child:

When he listened to Hitler on the radio, it “made me feel a strength inside I had never known before,” he explains. “Hitler’s sheer animal confidence and power of will [entranced me]. He sent an electric current through my body.”

In 2000 McCain ran for President and lost.

In October 2005, McCain introduced the McCain Detainee Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill for 2005, and the Senate voted 90–9 to support the amendment

In 2006 McCain was named by Time magazine in 2006 as one of America’s 10 Best Senators.

In 2007 McCain voted in line with the president’s position 95 percent of the time, McCain’s support of President Bush’s position has been at the lowest, 77 percent (in 2005)

In Jan 2008 he said “in 24 years as a member of Congress, I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork barrel project for my state” but In 2003, McCain also slipped $14.3 million into a defense appropriations bill to create a buffer zone around Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, And in 2006, the senator teamed up with fellow Arizona senator Jon Kyl (R) to funnel $10 million toward the University of Arizona for an academic center named after the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist

In 2008 John McCain is Officially Most Absent Member of the Senate, Voting even less than Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of North Dakota, who suffered a brain hemorrhage

McCain had actively sought Pastor Rod Parsley’s endorsement, who called upon Christians to wage a “war” against the “false religion” of Islam with the aim of destroying it.

McCain had actively sought Reverend John Hagee’s Endorsement, who McCain proudly introduced as an ally. McCain also spoke up in the controversial pastor’s defense, McCain then said he could look past Hagee’s bigoted comments. Hagee has said things like, Jews deserved the Holocaust for worshiping the wrong god, that Adolph Hitler was a “hunter,” sent by God, who was tasked with expediting God’s will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel. Hagee also said: “Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist.”

Religion

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John McCain grew up Episcopalian. He went to an Episcopalian high school. For at least 15 years, he has been listed as an Episcopalian in authoritative directories such as the Almanac of American Politics and Congressional Quarterly’s Politics in America 2008. He told a reporter from McClatchy News Service in June 2007 that he was an Episcopalian.

Suddenly, in September 2007, he’s campaigning in South Carolina, the heavily Baptist state where George W. Bush barely managed to stop McCain’s presidential campaign 8 years ago. And guess what? McCain tells a reporter “By the way, I’m not Episcopalian. I’m Baptist.”

Misc.

He told his wife “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c*nt.”

He told Senator Cornyn “F-ck you”

Told Senator Grassley “I’m calling you a f–king jerk”

Told Senator Domenici, “Only an a**hole would put together a budget like this.”

Told reporters, “I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live”

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Barack Obama

Education

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High School

Obama went to Punahou School, a private college preparatory school Obama on a scholarship from 5th grade to graduation, Played Tennis and basketball for the school (got the School Basketball team to the state finals) Obama’s coach says he remembers Obama’s drive, always pushing for more minutes on the court. He says that while Obama wasn’t the best on the team, he might have worked the hardest. As an adult Obama admitted that during high school he used marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol and described it as his greatest moral failure.

College

After graduating High School he went to Occidental College (also on a scholarship) for 2 years where he was considered a serious, articulate, intelligent young guy, his Professors said his analytical ability, as expressed in classroom participation and writing assignments more than rigorous study, made him someone to be listened to. “He was the kind of student that comes along and you say, ‘Oh, I wish I had written that or thought of that.” His English Professor said. “Obama as an undergraduate, in my mind, demonstrated that he was a serious, talented, thoughtful person who had concerns beyond himself” said his Humanities Professor.

He then transferred to Columbia University where he says “Mostly, my years at Columbia were an intense period of study, When I transferred, I decided to buckle down and get serious. I spent a lot of time in the library. I didn’t socialize that much. I was like a monk.” He graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science specializing in International Relations.

Obama was accepted to Harvard University’s law school, where he graduated magna cum laude with a Juris Doctor and was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the Law Review’s staff of eighty editors. He was the first African-American to hold the post.

After College

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Between Columbia and Harvard Obama worked for a year at the Business International Corporation, and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.

After 4 years in New York he moved to Chicago where he was hired as director of Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization and worked there for three years from June 1985 to May 1988. During his three years as the DCP’s director, its staff grew from one to thirteen and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants’ rights organization in Altgeld Gardens

Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.

In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his Kenyan relatives for the first time.

In 1988 He entered Harvard.

Obama himself graduated with the legal world at his feet. He could have taken a highly paid job at a prestigious law firm, he was offered over 700 jobs, or a year’s clerkship with a Supreme Court justice, followed by an even higher-paid job. Instead, he returned to community work for a small firm in Chicago that specialised in housing, welfare and employment.

In 1992 He Married Michelle Robinson (also a Harvard Law Graduate)

Obama directed Illinois’ Project Vote from April to October 1992

In 1992 Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies

Beginning in 1992, Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years

In 1993 Crain’s Chicago Business named Obama to its list of “40 under Forty” powers to be.

From 1993 to 2002 Obama served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago

In 1993, Obama joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a twelve attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development

From 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation.

From 1995 to 2002 Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge,

Bill Ayers, who was a Vietnam War activist and member of The Weather Underground, bombed a statue twice and the Pentagon once (when Obama was 8 years old), and held a coffee for Obama in 1995 in his house, was one of 3 co-authors of Chicago’s winning Annenberg Challenge, Ayers also served with Obama on the Woods Fund committee contributed $200 to Obama’s re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate.

He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

He Also served on the board of directors for the Center for Neighborhood Technology

He also served on the board of directors of the Lugenia Burns Hope Center

In 1996 Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate

Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.

In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush

In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan’s payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.

Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, and again in 2002

In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee

He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations

In 2004 Obama was elected to US Senate. Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes’s 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history.

Obama was on the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations

Obama was on the Senate Committee for Environment and Public Works

Obama was on the Senate Committee for Veterans’ Affairs

Obama was on the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Obama was on the Senate Committee for Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

He also became Chairman of the Senate’s subcommittee on European Affairs.

In 2007 Obama voted 40% of the time with President Bush

Religion

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Obama was born to Atheist parents and raised in a non-religious house, as an adult he became a Protestant and was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ, the church or Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose sermons have been considered reverse-racism by some people

… telling the truth is a revolutionary act. –George Orwell

A little about John McCain for all those people talking about Obama’s money scandals, religion scandals, and palling around with terrorists…

McCain and Keating (you know, Charles Keating, the chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan, that was convicted of Fraud and Racketeering and cost 10’s of thousands of Americans more than $250 million dollars in retirement and life savings, and the Federal Government 3 billion dollars) had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981, and McCain was the only one of the five with close social and personal ties to Keating. Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona.

Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain’s wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard Keating’s jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.

In 1989 Phoenix New Times writer Tom Fitzpatrick opined that McCain was the “most reprehensible” of the five senators involved in the Keating Scandal.

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Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are both proposing tax plans that would result in cuts for most American families. Obama’s plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy.

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In 1998 G. Gordon Liddy, held a fundraiser at his home for John McCain and has donated around $5,000 to him, $1000 of which was from this year. Last November, McCain was on his radio show where McCain greeted him as “an old friend,” and stated, “It’s always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.”

Liddy, now a conservative radio talk-show host, spent more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary, one of the greatest scandals in American history. Then there was a whole messy situation about a plot to firebomb the Brookings Institution and another little plot to kidnap “leftist guerillas” at the 1972 Republican National Convention. Sounds like domestic terrorism to me.

Really, what a guy! And oh yeah, before I forget, he also tried to kill an unfriendly journalist and claims to have been inspired as a child by Adolph Hitler (note the stache above).

Yet, McCain has no trouble ‘palling around’ with him.

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In the 1980’s McCain spent some time serving on the board of the U.S. Council for World Freedom, a far-right conservative organization that had supplied arms and funds to paramilitary organizations in Latin America.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, in 1981 when McCain was on the board, the group was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League, which ‘has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and anti-Semites.’”

For instance, Roger Pearson, the chairman of the WACL, was expelled from the group in 1980 under allegations that he was a member of a neo-Nazi organization. There was also a Mexican chapter that “blamed everything on the Jews.”

Reagan did recognize the group, which funded many right-wing military operations. In a 60 Minutes segment aired in ‘86, the group was described as the President’s “secret weapon to sidestep a Congress that will not permit him to act in the areas where he believes that our security interests are at stake.”

Obama knew Ayers once he had reformed and worked with him on education programs, while McCain was a member of this group when it was full of neo-nazis.

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Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years (almost 2 million dollars) as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

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William Timmons, the lobbyist whom John McCain has appointed as head of his Presidential transition team, “aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.”

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On July 30, the Senate was voting for the eighth time in the past year on a broad, vitally important bill - S. 3335 - that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems.

Both the wind and solar industries depend on these credits - which expire in December - to scale their businesses and become competitive with coal, oil and natural gas. Unlike offshore drilling, these credits could have an immediate impact on America’s energy profile.

Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year - which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote.

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“I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork barrel project for my state… - John McCain”

“I would like to request that EPA either re-program $5 million out of existing funds or earmark the amount from an appropriate account,” McCain wrote in his Oct. 9, 1992 letter to then-EPA Administrator William K. Reilly, calling the earmark “crucial to protecting the public health and the environment.”

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“I’ve never done any favors for anybody - lobbyist or special interest group - that’s a clear, 24-year record. - John McCain”

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain secured millions in federal funds for a land acquisition program that provided a windfall for an Arizona developer whose executives were major campaign donors, according to a USA Today report.

McCain, an Arizona senator, inserted $14.3 million in a 2003 defense bill to buy land around Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona, in a provision sought by SunCor Development, the largest of 50 landowners near the base, the newspaper reported on its Web site Thursday, citing public records.

Upset with a state law that restricted development around the base, SunCor representatives met with McCain’s staff to lobby for funding, USA Today reported, citing the company’s president at the time, John Ogden.

The Air Force later paid SunCor $3 million for 122 acres near the base — three times its assessed value and twice the military’s estimated value, the newspaper said.

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McCain had no trouble fraternizing with ACORN in 2006 when their political interests coincided with his (calling them “What makes America special”). Now, his campaign is writing e-mails in his name-bashing ACORN as a tool of the Obama machine.

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John McCain On:

- Signing of the GI Bill: Now enthusiastically for it… after it passed. Previously attacked the Webb Bill. Didn’t even bother to vote on it.

- The Violence Against Women Act, McCain voted against funding for VAWA as recently as 2007. It was McCain’s second vote against VAWA, as he opposed the first version of this landmark legislation in 1994.

- Campaign reform: On political reform, McCain last January opposed a grassroots lobbying bill he once supported. In 2006, the “New York Sun” reported that his presidential ambitions led McCain to reverse his support of a campaign financial bill called McCain/Feingold.

- Alien Minors Act/Immigration: Last October he said he would vote against the development, relief and education for Alien Minors Act that he co-sponsored, and then said he would vote against an immigration bill that he introduced.

- Gay Marriage: In 2006, he said on “HARDBALL,” quote, “I think that gay marriage should be allowed”. Then after the commercial break he added, I do not believe that gay marriages should be legal.

- Abortion: On abortion, 1999, publicly supporting Roe v. Wade, privately opposing it in a letter to the National Right to Life Committee. In the 2000 debates, he would change the GOP platform to permit exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. May 2007, “flipped”, ABCNews.com reported.

- Nuclear Waste: No Storing Nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain earlier. Now flipped

- Negotiating with Kim Jong-Il: Negotiating with Kim Jong-Il not acceptable until President Bush did it.

- Negotiating with Cuba/Castro: Negotiating With Fidel Castro acceptable in 2000, not 2008.

- Negotiating with Hamas/Terrorists: Negotiating with terrorists appropriate when Colin Powell went to Syria and in 2006 when McCain said sooner or later we’ll talk to Hamas, but not appropriate now re: Obama’s willingness to use diplomacy.

- Pakistan: Unilateral action against suspected terrorists in Pakistan; “Confused leadership” when Obama suggested it, not when Bush did it.

- Warrantless Wiretaps: Six months ago, presidents had to obey the law, not anymore.

- Torture: Torture detainees, no way, except for the CIA. Hold them indefinitely, wrong in 2003, the right move in 2008.

- Iraq War: The Iraq war, the right course 2004, stay the course 2005. Today, McCain has always been a Rumsfeld critic.

- Tax Cuts: In 2001, he could not in good conscious support them. Now he can.

- Estate Tax: 2006, “I agree with President Roosevelt who created it”. In 2008, “most unfair”.

- Privatizing Social Security: This month not for privatizing Social Security, never has been. In 2004, he “didn’t see how benefits would last without privatizing Social Security”.

- Balanced Budget: In February, promised a balanced budget in four years by April, make that eight years.

- Windfall Profits Tax: In May, glad to look at the windfall profits tax. By June, that was Jimmy Carter’s big idea.

- Offshore Drilling: In 2000, no new off shore drilling. Last month, it would take years to develop. This month, very helpful in the short term.

- Coyotes..Bush Big Time Fund Raisers: The Bush fund-raisers McCain called coyotes breaking the law in 2000. By 2006, they were co-chairing McCain fund-raisers.

- “Agents of Intolerance”: Buddy Jerry Falwell…an “agent of intolerance in 2000″. Kissed Falwell’s ass in 2007… The Reverend Hagee and Parsley in, then out this year alone.

- Martin Luther King Holiday: In 1983, opposed Martin Luther King Day. Today, all for it.

- Confederate Flag: In 2000, defended South Carolina’s confederate flag as a symbol of heritage. Two years later, McCain calling it, quote, an act of political cowardice not to say the flag should come down. Quote, “everybody said, look out. You can’t win in South Carolina if you say that.”

- Evolution in Public Schools: In 2005, McCain said alternatives to evolution should be taught in school. “Evolving” the opposite position he had taken in 2000.

- Restoring the Everglades: On June 5, John McCain traveled to the Everglades to win over Floridians and environmentally-minded voters. There he proclaimed, “I am in favor of doing whatever’s necessary to save the Everglades.” McCain not only opposed $2 billion in funding for the restoration of the Everglades national park, he backed President Bush’s veto of the legislation in 2007. “I believe,” he said, “that we should be passing a bill that will authorize legitimate, needed projects without sacrificing fiscal responsibility.”

- Swiftboating: McCain’s sudden embrace of Swiftboating — which today is synonymous with a concerted effort to lie about an opponent’s history — is all the more deplorable because he has hired retired Col. George “Bud” Day, a proud member of the group that Swiftboated Kerry — and someone McCain once described as having “tunnel vision” — to lead what McCain is calling his “Truth Squad.”

- GITMO/Habeus Corpus: Despite John McCain’s outrage last week that the Supreme Court ordered Gitmo detainees know why they were being held, or released — in 2005 he argued they deserved trials, going so far as to say “if it means releasing some of them, you’ll have to release them.”

- Divestment from South Africa: During his June 2 speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), John McCain called for the international community to target Iran for the kind of worldwide sanctions regime applied to apartheid-era South Africa. Unfortunately, McCain’s lobbyist-advisers Charlie Black and Rick Davis each represented firms doing business with Tehran. Even more unfortunate, John McCain was frequently not among those offering “moral clarity and conviction” in backing “a divestment campaign against South Africa, helping to rid that nation of the evil of apartheid.”

- Opposing Hurricane Katrina Investigations: During a June 4th town hall meeting in Baton Rouge, John McCain answered a reporter’s question regarding Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the New Orleans levees by announcing:

“I’ve supported every investigation and ways of finding out what caused the tragedy. I’ve been here to New Orleans. I’ve met with people on the ground.”

As it turns out, not so much. McCain’s revisionist history neglects to mention that in 2005 and 2006 he twice voted against a commission to study the government’s response to Katrina. He also opposed three separate emergency funding measures providing relief to Katrina victims, including the extension of five months of Medicaid benefits. And until traveling there one month ago, McCain had made just one public tour of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina touched down in August 2005.”

- McCain On His Economic Abilities: “I have not. I have not. Actually, I have not.” “I said that I am stronger on national security issues because of all the time I spent in the military and others. I am very strong on the economy. I understand it. I have a lot more experience than my opponent.”

Sen. John McCain, in an interview on ABC News, when asked why he “admitted that you’re not exactly an expert when it comes to the economy.”

However, NBC News compiles past McCain quotes in which he said “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should” or “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”

- On Criticizing Obama While “Overseas”: Traveling in Colombia, he told reporters that he wouldn’t criticize Obama while he was overseas, but on the plane, he blasted Obama’s opposition to the proposed Colombia free trade…

- Temperment and Temper: “My temper has often been both a matter of public speculation and personal concern,” he wrote in a 2002 memoir. “I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the public’s.” Not true and not under control, according to many of those on the “W”rong side of McCain’s famous temper.

- Drilling For Oil and Automobile Efficiency: “Last week, Senator McCain reversed himself and said we need to drill more. Today, he has reversed years of failing to support more efficient cars, new energy technologies and green jobs.

- Offshore Drilling: Two weeks ago, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) offered “a bit of a capitulation to the oil companies” by announcing that he would end the federal ban on offshore oil drilling. Not only is McCain’s move a break with environmental activist, but it is also “a reversal of the position he took in his 2000 presidential campaign.

- Payroll Taxes: “When he was asked in 2005 whether he could see himself lifting the cap on the payroll tax, (McCain) said, ‘I could.’ Two years later, during a May 13, 2007, appearance on “Meet the Press,” Russert asked McCain if he was still open to lifting the Social Security tax cap as part of a compromise. “Am I opposed to tax increases?” said McCain. “Yes. But we’ve got to sit down together and figure out what our options are, and tough decisions have to be made, Republicans and Democrats. And I know how to do that.” Asked about the 2005 remark, a McCain spokesman acknowledged the tension with his current position while arguing that the Arizona senator’s criticism of his Democratic rival is still valid because McCain has spoken out against higher Social Security taxes as a 2008 White House hopeful.

- Ethics Reform and Abramoff: On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass. A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation.

McCain lies

Video of McCain Lies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0xzsogzAk)

Comprehensive list of McCain Flip-flops (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2…5880/710/545421)

Keating Five Scandal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five)

McCain lied about his marriage (http://articles.latimes.com/2008/ju…on/na-divorce11)

McCain lies about vietnam (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalp…nnsylvania.html)

McCain lies about factcheck.org (http://www.newsweek.com/id/158265/output/print)

McCain lied about his intervening with the FCC (http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic….ing_problem.php)

HERE’s a top 20 list of McCain and Palin’s lies by a reputable, non-partisan source (http://www.alternet.org/story/98502/mccain_and_palin%27s_top_20_lies%2C_myths_and_flip-flops_/)

Alternative energy? he has never voted for any bill(http://media.www.dailytargum.c…y-3414219.shtml) that would advance alternative energy(http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/…ergy-hypocrisy/)

more lies about his energy policy (http://grandrapidsprogressive.blogs…rgy-policy.html)

Tax Plan? his tax plan has proven to be much worse than Obama’s for middle and lower income earners, and much better for the very rich (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy…8060900950.html)

Maverick that stands up to lobbyists and big oil? his campaign team is filled with lobbyists FROM big oil and telecom (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy…2101131_pf.html)

McCain lies about his federal earmarks. (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/7/31/134349/867)

McCain lies about Obama on troops (http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/073008a.html)

McCain lies to a pastor(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-…n_b_119517.html), and rigs an interview that took place in a church(http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/0…ry4358523.shtml), by listening to all the questions given to obama, and going second

Do you think Palin tells the truth about anything?

-Palin Lied about having “struck” a deal for major pipeline. The “pipeline exists only on paper” and “federal approvals are years away.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/u…amp;oref=slogin)

-Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere, and it secured a 223 million dollar earmark, which will not be returned (http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCa…125537020080901)

-Palin lied about visiting Ireland (http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/…ireland-as.html)

-Palin lied about protecting Alaskan tax payers . . . There are no Alaskan state tax payers, DUR. (http://thecitizens.blogspot.com/200…ns-big-lie.html)

-Palin’s accusation about Obama never authoring a single major law or reform is a lie (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.c…n-on-obama.html)

-Palin lied about being tough on earmarks, she is one the biggest federal earmarks abusers (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080908…4TQHBox_COs0NUE)

Palin’s “Troopergate” scandal - blatant abuse of power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska…ioner_dismissal)

Heres a compilation of Palin Lies by CBS. that was censored, then un-censored once the google cache version spread.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008…in4414049.shtml

and that’s not the only example of media censorship on Palin stories.

John McCain

• McCain graduated 5th from last (849th out of 899) From The Naval Academy, and no one seems to know what his degree is in.
• He was in the Navy for 22 years and quit when he didn’t get promoted to Admiral in 1981
• After leaving the Navy he was VP of Public Relations for his father in laws company.
• He was elected US Senator in 1983.
• He was a member of the 1991–1993 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs
• Since January 1993, McCain has been Chairman of the International Republican Institute

Misc. B.S.

• He divorced his first wife after admitting he cheated on her and asked for divorce to marry his current wife.
• He was a Member of The Keating Five (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989) he was cleared but was mildly rebuked for exercising "poor judgment"
• He and his wife brought an abandoned three-month old girl needing medical treatment to the U.S. from a Bangladeshi orphanage run by Mother Teresa and adopted her.
• In 1997 Time magazine named McCain as one of the "25 Most Influential People in America"

Sarah Palin

• Palin graduated from University of Idaho in 1987 with a Bachelors in Journalism
• She was a sports reporter for 4 years.
• From 1992 to 2001 she was in offices in a town of 7,000 people, both as City Council member and Mayor.
• From 2002 to 2004 she was Ethics Officer and Chairman of The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
• From 2003 to 2005 she served in a 527 group, Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc. that was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in Alaska
• From Dec. 2006 until now she has been Governor of Alaska.

Misc. B.S.

• Palin admits to smoking marijuana as a youth, during the time Alaska had decriminalized possession, though she says she did not enjoy it.
• Palin hired the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for earmarks (some of which were criticized by John McCain)
• Palin is under investigation by the Alaska Legislature
• Palin’s oldest son is to be deployed to Iraq in Sept. 2008
• In 1984 she finished 2nd in the Miss Alaska contest

Barack Obama

• Obama Graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelors in Political Science, specializing in International Relations
• He Graduated from Harvard Law School with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude, specializing in Constitutional Law.
• He worked for Business International Corporation and New York Public Interest Research Group for 4 years (combined)
• From June 1985 to May 1988 he was director of the Developing Communities Project
• He was a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute From 1985 until 1988
• He was a Lawyer for Sidley & Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.
• He directed Illinois Project Vote from April to October 1992
• He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004)
• He was a Civil Rights Lawyer from 1993 to 2004
• He was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992
• He served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago from 1993–2002
• He served on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation from 1994–2002
• He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995–2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995–1999.
• He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• He served on the board of directors of the Center for Neighborhood Technology
• He served on the board of directors of the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.
• He was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996 and served until 2004
• In January 2003, He became chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee.
• He was sworn in as a U.S. Senator on January 4, 2005.
• He was on the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations
• He was on the Senate Committee for Environment and Public Works
• He was on the Senate Committee for Veterans’ Affairs
• He was also Chairman of the Senate’s subcommittee on European Affairs

Misc. B.S.

• Obama admitted that during high school he used marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol
• During his first year at Harvard Law School he was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review
• In his second year at Harvard Law School he was elected president of the Law Review
• He set the record for fund raising by a presidential campaign in the first six months of the calendar year before the election
• In January 2008, his campaign set another fund raising record for the most ever raised in one month by a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries.
• He again broke fund raising records in the first two months of 2008
• On June 19, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.

Joe Biden

• Joe Biden graduated from University of Delaware in 1965 with a double major Bachelors in History and Political Science.
• He Graduated from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968 with a Juris Doctor
• In 1969 He practiced Law in Delaware
• In 1970 he was elected elected to the New Castle County, County Council where he served until 1972
• In 1973 he was elected US Senator
• Since 1991, Biden has also served as a professor at the Widener University School of Law. He teaches a seminar on constitutional law.
• He is a long-time member of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which he chaired from 1987 until 1995 and on which he served as ranking minority member from 1981 until 1987 and again from 1995 until 1997.
• He is also a long-time member and current chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

Misc. B.S.

• Biden was the 5th youngest elected Senator ever (elected when he was 30, the minimum age)
• He is considered one of the least wealthy members of the Senate
• In 1974 he was named one of the 200 Faces for the Future by Time magazine
• He helped create the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, also known as the Biden Crime Law, and the landmark Violence Against Women Act of 1994
• His Oldest son is being deployed to Iraq in Oct. 2008

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away…

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public then buys your bull.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called ‘Cowkimon’ and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the shit out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy…

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive…

————–

from  this sit

All I Intended to Be Emmylou HarrisRelease Date: June 09, 2008 Total Songs: 13 Genre: Country Price: $10.99 Copyright Nonesuch Records for the United States and WEA International Inc. for the world outside of the United States.

So check it, and comment back if you like (or dislike ) it.

VANCOUVER, Canada — The Canadian government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws that could make information stored on iPods, laptops and other devices illegal, according to a leaked government document reported in Vancouver newspaper The Province.

The agreement also would force Internet service providers to hand over customer information without a court order.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which would not need approval from the Canadian Parliament, would see Canada join the U.S. and the European Union in a coalition against copyright infringement.

I would bitch about my freedoms being taken, but this is Canada, not America. I remember a few years ago, when Bush was voted in for his 2nd term, so many people threatened (and a lot even did) to move to Canada. I wonder how many of them will move back now.

Border guards and other public security personnel could become copyright police under the deal, and would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellphones for content that “infringes” on copyright laws, including music and movies.

The security personnel would determine what infringes copyright, and the agreement says any copied content would be open for scrutiny — even if it had been copied legally.

“This will end up in the Supreme Court of Canada if it goes forward,” said Darrell Evans, executive director of the British Columbia Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. “Under the constitution, everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure.

“Where you draw the line to protect copyright is very dangerous. This would give security people, who could be designated as any policeman, more license to pry into your data. If you’re carrying a laptop in a cafe, a cop could look at it.”

Beau Hunter, a director of the IPSA International in Vancouver, a consulting firm that investigates the theft of intellectual property, applauded the news.

“Canadian laws are very lax,” Hunter said. “Piracy results in lost revenues and jobs. The agreement would be a tool to punish folks for piracy.”

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement discussion paper was leaked online by Sunshine Media, which runs Wikileaks.org, a whistle-blowing website created to help circulate secret documents.

Michael Geist, Canada research chairman of Internet and ecommerce law at the University of Ottawa and an expert on Canadian copyright law, blasted the government for advancing ACTA with little public consultation.

Details of ACTA’s plans would not need to be leaked online if the process were open and transparent, Geist said.

International Trade Minister David Emerson said Canada would help create ACTA last October.

“We are seeking to counter global piracy and counterfeiting more effectively,” Emerson said at the time.

The new agreement will likely be discussed at July’s meeting of G8 nations in Tokyo.

The new class will use a unique rune system instead of mana, energy, or rage.

They will start out at level 55 and be creatable by anyone with a current level 55 or higher character.

They will be creatable on any server, regardless of whether you have a 55 there, as long as you have a 55 on any server.

So far it looks like their talent trees will focus on tanking, dps, or pvp, they won’t be able to use shields, they will be able to dual wield, and one of their tanking talents gives them a massive 45% boost in Armor.

Death Knights can be any race, wear plate, and can use 1h swords and axes, and 2h swords and axes. They wear plate, dual wield, and will have summonable pets (although they won’t be pet classes like Hunter/Warlock)

Read more about them at WoW Slave

Ok, so yeah, this kid is walking down the street jamming to Soulja Boy or something, only to have a MOTHAF’ING Helicopter land on his head and drag him down the street.

So, the news media does the right thing, and places blame squarely where it should be placed.

…

ON THE IPOD.

Yeah, because if he wasn’t CRANKIN DAT SOULJA he might have been able to dodge the Helicopter right? For some reason I doubt the iPod has much or anything to do with this kids death, but the media just loves to sensationalize everything.

Original Article