McCain's Sense of "Humor"

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

Sound like something from the Colbert Report? Bill Maher? Try again. John McCain uttered this joke at a Republican fundraiser in 1998. Think his humor has become a bit more PC since then? On his campaign bus in February, discussing staffers who had left his campaign, a writer from the New Yorker captured this gem; "At one moment, bursting into laughter, he exuberantly explains why, after “a short period of waterboarding to find out what they did in their absence,” he would take back some of the staffers who fled his campaign at its low point." Nothing like a good 'ole waterboarding joke to lighten the mood.

Ben Smith from Politico wrote about how McCain's sense of humor often backfires. Check out the full article Here

Continuing in the same vein, we have McCain's Eight Most Inappropriate Jokes Here

My favorite? His "humorous" reinterpretation of the Beach Boy's classic song, "Barbara Ann". Do we really need 4 more years with a President who is most valued for his entertainment value and lack of self-censoring?

Bush Thinks He's Untouchable.....Again

Another fine example of Bush's arrogance occurred today. Read the news release Here

Bush claimed executive privilege in order to withhold key FBI documents relating to the Valerie Plame fiasco. The documents included a transcript of an interview with Dick Cheney, who is widely thought to have intimate knowledge of the Plame situation. Rep. Henry Waxman summed it up best, I think, saying,

"This unfounded assertion of executive privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person. If the vice president did nothing wrong, what is there to hide?"

Have we ever had a more arrogant administration? I think anyone on either side of the aisle would be hard pressed to argue that one..

McCain Defends NAFTA

McCain spoke Monday before the National Council of La Raza Full Speech Here
McCain gave his usual "I'm all for Immigrants rights (so vote for me please, Latinos) BUT, we need to secure our borders from terrorists (so vote for me please, right-wingers). McCain's take on NAFTA: "I reject the false virtues of economic isolationism. Any confident, competent country and its government should embrace competition, It makes us stronger.”

There are a number of things wrong with this statement. First, McCain seems to be under the impression that if you aren't a proponent of NAFTA, you are, by default, in favor of economic isolationism. That is patently untrue. NAFTA is not a black and white issue. Personally, I am not in favor of NAFTA, nor am I in favor of economic isolation. I would argue that a vast number of those who are opposed to NAFTA are more in favor of a true "Fair" and "Free" trade agreement, as opposed to becoming a country of economic hermits.

Secondly, NAFTA isn't exactly an exercise in "embracing competition". NAFTA was created by the elite, wealthy members of the three countries, in order to benefit the elite, wealthy members of those countries. Sound familiar? Far from inspiring greatness through competition, NAFTA has led to huge job losses at home and abroad and stagnant or reduced wages for those jobs affected by NAFTA.

McCain is good at saying what people what to hear and tailoring his speeches for his particular audience. Hopefully the issues of free trade and immigration reform will be discussed more prominently before the election, so that McCain will actually have to take a solid position and defend it against actual critics.

McCain Squirms Out of Answering on Women's Health Care Issue

This is almost painful to watch. You can just see his brain running through each possible answer and running into a brick wall. "No, brain, that will make me sound stupid!". Too late Johnny. It doesn't help that you admit to knowing next to nothing about the issue yet voting on it anyways."I don't usually duck an issue"...um, but I'm going to right now.

Curious to know if he ever did get back to her....and kudos to L.A. Times reporter Maeve Reston for asking a question that actually required Mccain to think, we could all use a little more of those!

A Nation in Decline

Bill O' Reilly's latest column, Here, takes the "bible of the American Left", the New York Times to task for opining that America is in a state of decline. Let's take a quick look at some of O' Reilly's points.

O' Reilly argues that America is hardly in decline by pointing out a few examples of other countries around the world, writing, "Overseas, the world is largely a mess. Africa remains a chaotic cauldron of corruption, China continues its authoritarian rule and there's no letup in the India-Pakistan hatred. Would you like to live in those countries?
Russia continues to lead the league in corruption, Mexico is fighting a brutal war against its own drug traffickers, and South America remains mired in poverty. Call me crazy, but I don't see many immigrants pounding on those doors."

While he has a valid point that we are not necessarily clamoring to move to the India-Pakistan border or to some lawless, drug-producing regions of Mexico, he somehow fails to ignore some 170+ of the other countries in the world. Would I mind living in Canada, England, Spain, or Italy, just to name a few? Not so much. Nor would a great number of Americans. Is it not true that immigrants are "pounding" down the doors in Spain, South Africa, and basically the vast majority of Western European nations? Apparently not in O' Reilly's world.

O' Reilly goes on to proclaim that "Against all odds, U.S. forces have almost single-handedly defeated Islamic fascism in Iraq, one of the most complicated battlefields in history." Um..do we even need to address this one? That's a pretty big "almost" there, Bill.

"In Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO troops continue to hammer the vicious Taliban on every front. The only reason those fascists are operating is that Pakistan protects them." Really? That's the onlyreason that the Taliban is surviving in Afghanistan? It has nothing to do with the local support? With the fact that, for all practical purposes, the Taliban controls large swaths of Afghanistan, and has for generations? Way to dig deep on that one, Bill.

Finally, O' Reilly ends by saying "So, it comes down to this: the committed left believes that America has been too aggressive fighting the war on terror and not aggressive enough when it comes to government mandated economic and social engineering. Thus, in their view, the country is in decline."

That's such a simplistic view of Liberal ideologies that it's hard to take his statements seriously. Nevermind that the Fed. Chief Bernanke has conceded that a recession is likely, saying "Our estimates are that we are slightly growing at the moment, but we think that there's a chance that for the first half as a whole, there might be a slight contraction."This is a man who cannot afford to be free and loose when discussing the economy, but rather a man whose every word can affect global markets instantaneously.

Is O' Reilly somehow going to paint Bernanke as a Socialist now? Actually, at this point I wouldn't be surprised...