Wednesday, August 27, 2008

John McCain is a Schmuck

John McCain is a schmuck. John McCain is a sniveling weenie. John McCain is a bumbling buffoon of a fuddleduck. John McCain is a sleazy, pandering, deranged, and insufferably vapid goon. John McCain is, let there be no doubt, a right-wing extremist. But lest I be accused of hyperbole, for a republican candidate, he’s not so bad. After all, he got tortured in Vietnam, which apparently imparts upon one a higher degree of wisdom or morality, or something. It probably tends to engender a diminished proclivity to torture other people, as in McCain’s case. I guess that explains why he is nearly unique among his extremist comrades in that regard.

Besides his opposition to torture, there are a couple of other ways in which McCain is not so bad. But I can’t think of any right now. Suffice it to say that McCain is no George W. I sincerely believe that he isn’t an evil bastard, as opposed to the shrub, though he obviously lacks the degree of integrity or personal fortitude which would be required to counterbalance the seething tide of wickedness promulgated by his cohorts, and indeed, he seems to keep blissfully in step with their sinister ploys, except when doing so gives him nightmares that make him pee his bed, apparently.

Let me make my case.

First, he hardly ever makes any sense. For example, one of his keystone issues is domestic drilling. He talks about it everywhere he goes and acts like it’s some kind of “magic bullet” that will solve all of our energy problems, saying that it would “be very helpful in the short term resolving our energy crisis." Hmm. That puts him at odds with virtually every analyst in the country, including the Federal Energy Information Administration, whose 2007 study concluded that domestic drilling “would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030”. Other analysts put the return on investment even further out. The FEIA study also says that “Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.” THAT MEANS THAT THERE WILL BE NO IMPACT ON DOMESTIC GAS PRICES FOR AT LEAST 20 YEARS, and then, the impact on prices will be “insignificant”.

Shut up, already.

Why does he get away with spouting that nonsense all the time? The reason, of course, is that his followers either don’t bother to listen to objective analysis, or they get all their news from Fox and Rush Limbaugh. The effect in the mind of the uneducated voter becomes, “well, at least McCain is going to do something to make my gas cheaper”. The fact that the Republican party so uniformly supports domestic drilling in the face of it’s total purposelessness is, of course, simply an illustration of the extent to which they are in the pocket of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations. We might as well call them the Exxon-Mobilicans.

Another of my favorite inane statements from McCain came forward a couple of weeks ago in the form of a major policy statement, “What we need today is an economic surge. The surge has succeeded in Iraq militarily -- now we need an economic surge to keep jobs here at home and create new ones.”

Of course! A surge! It worked so well in Iraq, so obviously it’ll work in when implemented in a totally unrelated way, in a totally unrelated arena. The details of this “surge” remain undefined, except for massive tax breaks for the largest corporations, of course, as well as a continuation of Bush policies. But hey, who needs sound economic policy when you can just, “surge!”? Sounds good to me.

But perhaps the scariest thing about McCain is his apparent inclinations when it comes to Supreme Court nominations. When asked by Rick Warren, “What Supreme Court justices would you not have nominated?” McCain responded, “…Justice Ginsberg, Justice Breyer, Justice Souter and Justice Stevens” accusing them of “legislating from the bench”, a charge I’ve never quite understood. Clearly then, he has no problem with Scalia the Evil, or Clarence “The Government derives it’s right to rule from God” Thomas the Stupid (or as Obama put it, “He’s not a strong enough legal thinker”). If McCain wins the presidency, we are headed for a true disaster in the Judicial branch.

Please don’t let anyone you know vote for that schmuck.

8 comments:

Andy said...

great post!
sadly, though, he flip-flopped on the torture thing and backed down from the debate/fight over water-boarding. He came to a compromise with Bush admin over that one and agreed it was a useful type of interrogation that didn't violate Geneva codes.

Andy said...

two articles from boston globe and time mag about McCain selling out

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/16/mccain_drops_the_torture_ball/

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1729891,00.html

Andy said...

plus the schmuck doesn't even know how to use a computer, cell phone or check email...

WHAAAA???!????!!!??? It's 2008 and this deush who wants to be president gets his wife to read him stories off the web...that should go great when communicating with other foreign leaders who are using the technology on a daily basis.

This guy is totally out of the loop and can't relate to the majority of the general public (no matter what the polls say, btw screw the polls, bunch of media bs anyway...) Johnny McTorture-Drill-Hole may be worse than Bob Dole

Trey said...

Yeah, but he is a meager voice for moderation, or at leat regulation in the torture department.

Joe said...

Thank God you have resumed posting.

And you didn't even mention dementia or post traumatic stress!

From democrats.com:

Nor can we afford the risk of dementia. 22% of Americans over 70 are affected by mild cognitive impairment, while 13% of Americans over 65 have Alzheimer's. Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 83, but early signs were evident during his first term. Britain's "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher developed dementia at age 75.

McCain has never had an Alzheimer's test, even though he has 6 of the 10 warning signs , including his inability to remember recent facts like the number of homes he owns, the $1M lawsuit he filed in 1990, or the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

John McCain owes America a thorough neurological examination for cognitive impairment and possible Alzheimer's long before Election Day.

Trey said...

there are myriad reasons to criticize McCain. I was just pointing out some of the less noted ones.

I've been insanely busy all summer with moving to hoover, fixing up the house, trying to make some money, etc. I'm going to try to resume regular posting.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see that you are writing again Trey, but I cannot understand your support for Obama.

John McCain may be a Schmuck, but he is no Communist. When Barack Obama talks about Change, he means the most fundamental kind of change to our way of life. If you think that Bush did a lot to further a police state in America, wait until Obama proceeds with the socioeconomic phase of the plan.

In the totally unbiased media orgy over the Barack Obama campaign, is it possible that you missed him campaigning for the only openly Communist member of the Congress, Bernie Sanders (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIlIpOkRh2A)?

How about his co-sponsorship of the Global Poverty Act (http://www.ibdeditorials.com/ibdarticles.aspx?id=288920093794177)?

Did you know that Obama was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, a powerful Chicago-based lobby, for his Senate seat (http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng45.html)?

What about his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis (http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obamas-communist-mentor/)?

Or the fact that he is endorsed by the Communist Party of America (http://cpusa.org/article/articleview/975/1/147/)?

Or Hamas, for fucks sake? (http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/04/020315.php)

Obama wants to tax the wealthy, and redistribute it to the poor. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. (http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=154933). (The irony here is that progressive tax increases for the wealthy are passed on to the poor through increasing prices for goods and services.)

And one more note on taxing the top 5% of income earners, as Obama plans to do: The top 5% of income earners already pay 60% of the taxes (http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?PageID=6) in the United States. According to Obama, any family making more than $153,542 deserves to pay an additional 6% in annual taxes "because they can afford it". I bet $153,542 must sound like a lot of money to someone living in central Kansas, but here in San Francisco the average home price is $1,153,269 (http://www.rereport.com/sf/ron/). For a condo the average price in San Francisco is $850,000. Let me be the first to tell Barack Obama, my family cannot afford a 6% tax increase.

At the same time Obama calls for new taxes, he calls for giving that same money away to foreign governments, who "need" it more. Well, fuck you, Barack Obama, you sniveling Ivy-League-school-privileged little weasel. Part-time lecturer at UCLS. Columbia AND Harvard graduate. This is the man of the people, those glassy-eyed hero worshipers at the DNC. A LAWYER?

Welcome to Amerika, you voted for it.

Trey said...

I don't remember endorsing Obama, James, but i suppose that is implicit in my anti-McCain post. Certainly, the Democratic Party and Obama himself are fraught with ideological shortcomings, in my view. But, in contrast to your apparent leanings, my uneasiness about Obama/ democrats arises from a feeling that they are too far to the right. Go figure.

Who Obama endorsed/ was mentored by/ is endorsed by doesn't bother me. I think the only important thing is to evaluate where he stands on the issues... agree or disagree. I will say that the nations with the highest standard of living are more "socialist" than we are, so there may be something to that.

Also, the top 5% of income owners may pay 60% of taxes, but they also own more than half of the wealth. To me, that represents a socialogical problem that has only been exacerbated under Bush/ republican policies.

And it is true that higher taxes on corporations may result in higher consumer prices, but more income in the hands of the average american results in more revenue for corporations I think that sound tax policy lies somewhere in the balance.