McCAIN'S VOTING RECORD DOESN'T SUPPORT WHAT JOHN McCAIN SAYS

FIRST

SMILIN' PALIN - AW SHUCKS CUTE - OKAY ON A DOLL

We got one debate, limited interviews with Sarah Palin and yet we are now supposed to think Palin is qualified because she could deliver sentences she crammed for.

Debates are for the unengaged. If you don’t know who you are going to vote for by now, you haven’t been paying attention.

Charm is charm. Sarah winking at the TV camera is used for her charm offensive. It wins some hearts. It is not a characteristic needed for a national leader, as long as real substance is lacking. Class president and prom queen okay. Sarah’s claim that the past is irrelevant is wrong. That is a cop-out for not knowing substantive information about the past. I hope there will be enough of us who can see through the pretty, the constant smile and go with the consistency and brains this time.

McCain's Voting Record: He Does Not Support Our Troups and Veterans

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 - Since everyone is at least a bit familiar with John McCain’s record when it comes to strolling through a market in Baghdad with hundreds of his closest guards, or how he wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years (except when he flip flops on that).

But not that many really, truly know just how horrific his voting record is when it comes to the troops. And it is pretty consistent – whether it is for armor and equipment, for veteran’s health care, for adequate troop rest or anything that actually, you know, supports our troops.

This is chock full of links to the roll call votes, and the roll call votes have links to the actual underlying bills and amendments. I present this so that there is support and things that can be rattled off when saying that McCain is not a friend of the military. Feel free to use it as you want, but this can be tied into the "Double Talk Express". But here is a very quick statement - John McCain skipped close to a dozen votes on Iraq, and on at least another 10 occasions, he voted against arming and equipping the troops, providing adequate rest for the troops between deployments and for health care or other benefits for veterans.

In mid 2007, Senator Reid noted that McCain missed 10 of the past 14 votes on Iraq. However, here is a summary of a dozen votes (two that he missed and ten that he voted against) with respect to Iraq, funding for veterans or for troops, including equipment and armor. I have also included other snippets related to the time period when the vote occurred.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So there it is. John McCain is yet another republican former military veteran who likes to talk a big game when it comes to having the support of the military. Yet, time and time again, he has gone out of his way to vote against the needs of those who are serving in our military. If he can’t even see his way to actually doing what the troops want, or what the veterans need, and he doesn’t have the support of veterans, then how can he be a credible commander in chief?

Why John McCain Gets an “A” on Bush Economics and an “F” from Veterans Groups

Sarah Palin: Leading Alaska’s National Guard Across the Bridge to Nowhere

McCain's Shameful Voting Record on Vet's Issue from vetsforobama.org

Before you read this account (courtesy of Veterans for Common Sense) of John McCain’s voting record on veterans’ issues, try to pretend for a second that you know nothing about John McCain. You don’t know about his biography. You’ve never heard his name in connection with the letters P, O and W before. You don’t even know that he’s running for president. You just know that there is a United States Senator who has done the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then someone tells you that the Senator in question is a decorated war hero who spend five-and-a-half years in a POW camp in Vietnam, and is a symbol of what it means to be a veteran of foreign wars. Would you believe them?

A cursory dig through John McCain’s voting record begs the question: how can the same man who served so honorably as a soldier serve soldiers so dishonorably? How can we point to his experience in North Vietnam as the mold which forged his character, when the character that it forged voted against the interests of his fellow veterans time and time again?

McCAIN vs. McCAIN - WILL THE REAL McCAIN STAND UP? and furthermore THE SENATE BAILOUT BILL WENT OFF THE RIGHT TRACK

I had a good laugh with this first clip of

The Daily Show - Jon Stewart - October 2, 2008
...........................................................

...........................................................
Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Bailout Bill Passes

8:24

I am not happy with the Senate's Financial bailout/rescue bill. I am voting for OBAMA - BIDEN but that doesn't mean I agree with everything. This bill is not fit for the problem we have been hearing about since Paulson brought us the deal.

The Senate Breakdown of the Bailout Vote October 1, 2008

The House of Representatives Breakdown of the Bailout Vote September 29, 2008

WALL ST.'S RESCUE LEGISLATION: MAKERS OF RUM, TOY ARROWS TAG ALONG

Bill larded with 'goodies' for all

PAUL WALDIE

October 3, 2008

The U.S. government's $700-billion (U.S.) rescue plan won't just bail out Wall Street, it's also going to help rum makers, film producers, race car drivers, sheep farmers and children who play bow and arrows - provided their arrows are wooden.

The bailout legislation passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday night contains dozens of special tax breaks and spending measures, many of which have been pet causes for some politicians for years. They were inserted largely to make the rescue package more palatable to members of the House of Representatives, who voted down an earlier version of the plan on Monday.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed the rescue package last week as an emergency effort to get billions of dollars worth of bad housing-related investments off the books of financial firms. Since then, the plan has swelled from a three-page document to a 451-page piece of legislation loaded with $150-billion worth of extras. They include:

Dropping a 39-cent excise tax on wooden arrows made for children, a cause of politicians in Oregon to help manufacturers in their state;

Extending a cut in the excise tax on rum made in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands;

Increasing funding for the Wool Research Trust Fund, which provides grants to wool makers and sheep farmers, and for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund;

Extending tax breaks for film and television productions, mine rescue training, undercover operations, motorsport race tracks, railway maintenance, idling reduction units in trucks, refined coal used by steel producers, small wind power projects, donations of food or books to charities, hurricane relief employees and people affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill;

New rules for mental health benefits and the disclosure of information in terrorist cases.

Adding tax and spending measures to proposed legislation is common practice in the U.S. Congress, but the financial rescue plan was supposed to be an emergency, targeted at just the bailout.

The bill now heads for a vote in the House of Representatives, where some members are proposing to stick on more measures including a $61-billion stimulus package.

The legislation "is no longer an emergency package, it's no longer a bailout package, it's just your typical year-end Christmas tree with goodies for everyone," said Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union, which has opposed the bailout bill.

Read the full article

Vermont US Senator Bernie Sanders

Watch Video of Independent Vermont US Senator speak about the financil bailout

Here is Bernie Sanders Senate Floor Speech on the Bailout:

Easy Street -- 10/02/2008

While the middle class has declined under President Bush's reckless economic policies, the people on top have never had it so good. For the first seven years of Bush's tenure, the wealthiest 400 individuals in our country saw a $670 billion increase in their wealth, and at the end of 2007 owned over $1.5 trillion in wealth. We have the most unequal distribution of income and wealth of any major country on earth, with the top 1 percent earning more income than the bottom 50 percent. There has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthiest people in this country, when, among others, CEOs of Wall Street firms received unbelievable amounts in bonuses, including $39 billion in bonuses in the year 2007 alone for just the five major investment houses.

"“Maybe I am the only person in America who thinks so, but I have a hard time understanding why we are giving $700 billion to the secretary of the Treasury, who is the former C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs, which, along with other financial institutions, actually got us into this problem,” Sanders said. “Maybe I am the only person in America who thinks that is a little bit weird, but that is what I think.”

“Most of my constituents did not earn a $38 million bonus in 2005 or make over $100 million in total compensation in three years, as did Henry Paulson, the current secretary of the Treasury, and former CEO of Goldman Sachs,” Senator Bernie Sanders said moments before the Senate voted Wednesday for a $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

“Most of my constituents did not make $354 million in total compensation over the past five years as did Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers,” Sanders added. “Most of my constituents did not cash out $60 million in stock after a $29 billion bailout for Bear Stearns after that failing company was bought out by J.P. Morgan Chase. Most of my constituents did not get a $161 million severance package as E. Stanley O'Neill, former CEO Merrill Lynch did.”

Sanders argued that those who caused the problems in our economy should pay for the solution. "If we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from Bush's tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation, those people are the people who should pick up the tab, and not ordinary working people,” the senator had argued.

He offered an amendment that would have taxed the very wealthy to pay for the bailout. It lost on a voice vote.

So Sanders voted against the bailout bill, which nevertheless passed by a lopsided majority in the Senate. The plan reportedly is gaining ground in the House, which could take it up on Friday.

...........................................................

...........................................................
Palin Debate Training

02:10

Sarah Palin has been training a month for this debate, just like Bronson Pinchot did for "Circus of the Stars."

The Daily Show full episode October 2, 2008

.................................................

.................................................
Sarah Palin has her own rules. If/when she has problems as Vice-President and/or President one day, will she simply ignore the ones she doesn't like?

I think this question is ridiculous in a way: Who Won the VP Debate?
You can look good on the TV screen and come across as someone who has answered the questions good enough for a beauty contest, but that has no bearing on whether or not you are qualified to be Vice-President. I am hoping there are enough smart voters to see through the charm and vote for the one with real knowledge. The kind that didn't come from cramming.
.........................................................

.........................................................
Palin: How long have I been at this? Like five weeks?

I skipped all but a few minutes of pundits after the VP debate tonight.

Am I the only one who noticed, that Sarah Palin smiled all the way through this debate? This looked more like what a beauty contestant does. She smiled all through talking about war. War and smiling just don't go together.

I am voting for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. However, the Senate bailout bill is wrong. The extra junk in the bill are as wrong as those who sold mortgages to those who couldn't afford them. We need to do something. But doing something shouldn't be an excuse to do things with rum and arrows.