John McCain's 100 Year War......

McCain's Spiritual Advisor....John Hagee.

MCCAIN: PURIM = HALLOWEEN?

Posted: Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:07 AM by Mark MurrayFiled Under: 2008, McCain When McCain made a foreign policy gaffe in Jordan on Tuesday, it was Sen. Joe Lieberman who quietly pointed out the mistake, giving McCain an opportunity to correct himself in front of the international press corps. In Israel yesterday, NBC’s Lauren Appelbaum reports, Lieberman once again intervened when McCain made an incorrect reference about the Jewish holiday Purim -- by calling the holiday "their version of Halloween here." McCain made the incorrect statement during a press conference with Defense Minister Ehud Barak after touring the Israeli city of Sderot to view buildings damaged by Hamas rocket fire. McCain was discussing the numerous rock attacks on the city. "Nine hundred rocket attacks in less than three months, an average of one every one to two hours. Obviously this puts an enormous and hard to understand strain on the people here, especially the children. As they celebrate their version of Halloween here, they are somewhere close to a 15-second warning, which is the amount of time they have from the time the rocket is launched to get to safety. That's not a way for people to live obviously." Purim is not the equivalent of an Israeli Halloween, Appelbaum notes. The holiday -- although a joyous one -- commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from mass execution. When Sen. Lieberman had a chance to speak at the press conference, he placed the blame of the mistake on himself. "I had a brief exchange with one of the mothers whose children was in there in a costume for Purim," Lieberman, who is Jewish and celebrates the holiday, said. "And it's my fault that I said to Senator McCain that this is the Israeli version of Halloween. It is in the sense because the kids dress up and it's a very happy holiday and actually it is in the sense that the sweets are very important of both holidays." "Could I just say that I understand this is the holiday of Hadassah, otherwise known as Esther," McCain later said. Those in attendance quickly made light of the mistake. McCain’s mistake wasn’t a big deal. But what is interesting, Appelbaum points out, is Lieberman's role during this trip. In two days, Lieberman has intervened twice in front of the press -- once helping McCain with a correction on Sunnis/Shiites and once putting the blame on himself regarding the description of Purim.

McCain Mis-speaks Regarding Iraq........

JERUSALEM — Senator John McCain’s trip overseas was supposed to highlight his foreign policy acumen, and his supporters hoped that it would showcase him in a series of statesmanlike meetings with world leaders throughout the Middle East and Europe while the Democratic candidates continued to squabble back home.

But all did not go according to plan on Tuesday in Amman, Jordan, when Mr. McCain, fresh from a visit to Iraq, misidentified some of the main players in the Iraq war. Mr. McCain said several times in his visit to Jordan — in a news conference and in a radio interview — that he was concerned that Iran was training Al Qaeda in Iraq. The United States believes that Iran, a Shiite country, has been training and financing Shiite extremists in Iraq, but not Al Qaeda, which is a Sunni insurgent group.

Mr. McCain said at a news conference in Amman that he continued to be concerned about Iranians “taking Al Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.” Asked about that statement, Mr. McCain said: “Well, it’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.”
It was not until he got a quiet word of correction in his ear from Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who was traveling with Mr. McCain as part of a Congressional delegation on a nearly weeklong trip, that Mr. McCain corrected himself. “I’m sorry,” Mr. McCain said, “the Iranians are training extremists, not Al Qaeda.”

Mr. McCain has based his campaign in large part on his assertion that he is the candidate best prepared to deal with Iraq, and the Democrats wasted little time in jumping on his misstatement to question his knowledge and judgment.“After eight years of the Bush administration’s incompetence in Iraq, McCain’s comments don’t give the American people a reason to believe that he can be trusted to offer a clear way forward,” Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. “Not only is Senator McCain wrong on Iraq once again, but he showed he either doesn’t understand the challenges facing Iraq and the region or is willing to ignore the facts on the ground.”

Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, responded: “In a press conference today, John McCain misspoke and immediately corrected himself by stating that Iran is in fact supporting radical Islamic extremists in Iraq, not Al Qaeda — as is reflected in the transcript. The reality is that the American people have deep concerns about the Democratic candidates’ judgment and readiness on matters of national security, and that’s why the D.N.C. launched their attack today.”

The Democrats noted that Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, had made similar comments about Iran training Al Qaeda in an interview with “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” a radio program he called from Amman. “As you know, there are Al Qaeda operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they’re moving back into Iraq,” Mr. McCain said, according to a transcript posted on the show’s Web site.
It was not the first time that Mr. McCain’s remarks during a

Congressional trip overseas have caused headaches for his campaign. It was nearly a year ago that his talk about the improving security situation in Iraq made headlines, after a trip he made to a marketplace there was guarded by more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees and attack helicopters, becoming fodder for Democrats and critics of the war.
Mr. McCain later said he misspoke. And in a speech he gave last April about the need to succeed in Iraq, he made light of it. “I just returned from my fifth visit to Iraq,” he said. “Unlike the veterans here today, I risked nothing more threatening than a hostile press corps.”

The latest trip was a Congressional fact-finding mission, but Mr. McCain, a presidential candidate, planned to hold a fund-raiser on Thursday at a stop in London. He traveled with two senators who strongly support his presidential bid: Mr. Lieberman, an independent of Connecticut, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. Their trip to Iraq on Sunday coincided with one by Vice President Dick Cheney; both trips, in which the visitors spoke about the improvements in Iraq, were somewhat overshadowed by a bombing on Monday that killed more than 40 people in Karbala.

From Iraq, Mr. McCain traveled to Jordan, and then here to Israel, where he and his colleagues paid their respects at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, and then met with President Shimon Peres of Israel at his residence.Mr. Peres called Mr. McCain a good friend of Israel. And noting that Mr. McCain had been hopping all over the Middle East, Mr. Peres told him, “I really admire your courage and stamina.”

McCain's Role in Plane Pact Spotlights Ties to Lobbyists

By Michael D. Shear and Matthew MoskWashington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, March 12, 2008; Page A06

To show that he's a crusader against wasteful spending and congressional corruption, Sen. John McCain repeatedly brags about his leading role in stopping a scandal-plagued air tanker contract between the Air Force and Boeing in 2004. Four years later, a $35 billion contract has been awarded to Europe's Airbus consortium to build the latest generation of tanker planes. The decision has sparked anger from Boeing's congressional supporters and critics of outsourcing. It has also focused attention on McCain's reliance on lobbyists in his campaign for president because his finance chairman and several other top advisers lobbied for Airbus last year when it was in fierce competition with Boeing for the Air Force contract.

McCain has spoken out for years against the influence of special interests in Washington, but his campaign includes a number of prominent Washington lobbyists, including campaign manager Rick Davis, who founded a lobbying firm, and top political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., chief executive of a well-known Washington firm. Neither of them lobbied for Airbus.

McCain finance chairman Thomas G. Loeffler and Susan E. Nelson, who left Loeffler's lobbying firm to be McCain's finance director, both began lobbying for Airburs's parent company in 2007, Senate records show. William L. Ball III, a former secretary of the Navy and frequent McCain surrogate on the trail, also lobbied for Airbus, as did John Green, who recently took a leave from Ogilvy Public Relations to serve as McCain's legislative liaison. "Airbus, I have to give them credit," said R. Thomas Buffenbarger, the president of the International Association of Machinists, which represents Boeing employees. "They know they need that kind of lobbying help. And they went after people who could deliver."
It is not clear what specifically the McCain campaign advisers did for Airbus. Lobbying registration documents list only "initiatives and interests regarding the KC-30 Aerial Refueling Tanker Program." Loeffler did not respond to e-mail requests for an interview.

McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said the senator from Arizona and his advisers have done "nothing improper" in the tanker deal. "John McCain was never personally lobbied on this issue," she said.
Nonetheless, Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Washington state, where Boeing has long had a significant presence, have lambasted McCain for laying the groundwork for a decision that will cost their economy thousands of aerospace jobs. Lawmakers in Kansas, where Boeing has a plant, have also been critical.

On the campaign trail, McCain hails his involvement in the years-long search for a modern tanker as clear evidence of his commitment to rooting out special interests. In 2004, he led the congressional investigation that uncovered a bribery scandal in which top Boeing and Air Force officials went to prison or were forced to resign.

"I saved the taxpayers $6 billion in a bogus tanker deal," McCain said during a recent debate. But the easy applause line at his town hall meetings has become a much murkier issue for the presidential hopeful.
McCain has acknowledged sending two letters to Defense Department officials urging them to level the playing field for a deal that would provide a fleet of in-air refueling planes for military aircraft. In one 2006 letter, McCain urged officials to change their criteria for evaluating bidders for the tanker contract.

Nice work dude......send our MILITARY contracts to another country! Now THAT'S national security. Savings? We pay less for the inital sale but the taxes paid by the thousands who lost their jobs would pay more than the difference.....gee....you're RIGHT. You DON'T know anything about economics Maverick....

Sen.McCain would tell you that he represents the veterans. Check out how often he has left them out of bills he voted on and against. Remember that it's not listed but he also voted in FAVOR to make it legal for the CIA to use waterboarding! That is against the very same Military Code he demanded that we adhere to. There is NO EXCUSE for TORTURE.
Let's call it what the WWII era US called it.....TORTURE!

Veterans:
In 2006, McCain voted against a funding amendment (S. Amdt. 3704) to provide $20 million to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for health care facilities [source: U.S. Senate].
He voted against another 2006 amendment (S. Amdt. 3642) which provided the VA an additional $430 million in funding for outpatient care and treatment for veterans [source: U.S. Senate].
McCain voted against S. Amdt. 3007 in 2006, which would have provided an additional $1.5 billion in funding for veterans' health care in FY 2007 by closing tax loopholes [source: U.S. Senate].
In 2005, he voted in favor of an amendment to provide an additional $500 million for veterans' mental health care for each year between 2006 and 2010 (S. Amdt. 2634) [source: U.S. Senate].
McCain voted for the successful passage of H.R. 2528 in 2005, which provided funding for veterans' benefits and service for FY 2006 [source: U.S. Senate].
In 2005, he voted in favor or providing emergency funding for veterans' services for FY 2005 (S. Amdt. 1129) [source: U.S. Senate].
He voted in favor of an amendment in 2004 (S. Amdt. 3409) proposing a guarantee of funding increases for veterans' health care adjusted for inflation and population increases [source: U.S. Senate].
McCain voted no on an amendment S. Amdt. 2745 in 2004, which would have increased funding for veterans' medical care by $1.8 billion by "eliminating abusive tax loopholes" [source: U.S. Senate].
McCain voted against an increase of $650 million for veterans' medical care in 2001 (S. Amdt. 1218) [source: U.S. Senate].
Also in 2001, he voted in favor of a yearly increase of $1.718 billion in discretionary funding for veterans' health care (S. Amdt. 269) [source: U.S. Senate].

John McCain is George W's Mini-me

Now that the GOP has gotten past their "More conservative than thou" litmus test, they have chosen as their Bush heir apparent......John McCain. Only eight years ago George W "Shrub" Bush ran one of the ugliest campaigns against McCain. Bush insulted his wife with tales of drug abuse and even made his daughter who was adopted a target as well.

You would think that this alone would have given McClain a cause for pause when he chose to support a candidate in 2004, but amazingly enough he endorsed Bush proudly. He weakly defended John Kerry, a fellow decorated Vietnam vet but in the final analysis never chose to denounce the members of the Republican 04 Convention when they chose to wear band-aids on their faces with tiny purple hearts as a means of mocking Kerry's three medals.

Apparently the Republican Koolaid was strong enough to make this an acceptable parody in spite of the fact that by not speaking out that he also chose to not defend others from every war past and future as well as failing to support the decorated Kerry. Granted he fought Bush on several issues including the "Torture" bill he sponsored but when the Senate recently voted on a bill that would allow Waterboarding to be done by members of the CIA, he voted in favor of the very same means of torture that his fellow Vietnam vets had suffered nearly forty years ago.

It appears that his love of Bush/Power/hegemony far exceeds his loyalty to not only his fellow soldiers but even his fellow Americans. Let's not forget. He is perfectly happy to keep this war going for a century. He doesn't care who has to pay for it in terms of money or lives. He wants his war and he wants to be a war President. Just say NO to this madness.....