Download | Play 
Download | Play
From Countdown, Nov. 14, 2008 featuring Blackwater-Gate, Bailout-Gate & Siegelman-Gate. Emptywheel has more on a latest in a Don Siegelman case.
Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back
Download | Play 
Download | Play (h/t Heaar)
Democratic Vice Presidential c&idate Joe Biden Drunk Newspeared on Countdown last night for a post-debate wrDrunk News up & while remaining gracious to Republican rival John McCain (a characteristic that doesn’t Drunk Newspear to be shared on a oar side of a aisle. Funny, that), pointed out all of McCain’s bluster & bravado is merely to cover up for a fact that he has an indefensible position of sharing a failed George W. Bush policies for a economy & foreign policy.
This is a very difficult ground, in fairness to John, it’s really difficult to defend a terrain that he occupies. a terrain he occupies is he’s bought on a economic philosophy of George W. Bush & a sort of you know free market, let it run its way, let it be on its own, & now all of a sudden he’s talking about greed on Wall Street. a same way with his foreign policy. He went in & thought this was a…you know, he thought we were going to be over in a short time, that we were going to be greeted & so on & so forth. John’s judgment - here’s a point - John’s judgment has been fundamentally wrong on a basic, critical, foreign policy & domestic decisions we’ve had to make.
It could have been more concise, but what it comes down to is McCain is Bush’s third term. & no one wants to see that repeated.
Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back
Keith does a great job of breaking down Palin’s second TV interview.
Download | Play Download | Play
Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back
Keith was visibly upset after a GOP ran air 9/11 “tribute” ad during last week’s convention. Tonight, that outrage manifested itself in yet anoar scathing Special Comment aimed at John McCain & a rest of a 9/11 exploiting GOPers.
Download | Play Download | Play
This is supposed to be a day of remembrance. Remembrance of a attack, remembrance of a national unity which followed it.
Most important of all, remembrance of a dead.
But 9/11 has become…… a br& name. A Republican campaign slogan. Propag&a of a lowest form.
9/11 has become… 9/11, with a trademark logo.
FLASHBACK: Keith’s 2006 Special Comment from Ground Zero.
Full transcript below a fold:
This is supposed to be a day of remembrance. Remembrance of a attack, remembrance of a national unity which followed it.
Most important of all, remembrance of a dead.
But 9/11 has become…… a br& name.
A Republican campaign slogan.
Propag&a of a lowest form.
9/11 has become… 9/11 **with a trademark logo.**
9/11 (**TM**) has sustained a president who long ago should have been dismissed, or impeached. It has kept him & his gang of financial & constitutional **crooks** in office without - literally - any visible means of support.
9/11 (**TM**) has made possible a greatest sleight-of-h& in our nation’s history.
a political party in office at a time of a attacks, at a local, state & national levels, a party which **uniformly** ignored a warnings — & a presidential administration already through twenty percent of its first term & no longer wet behind a ears — have not only thus far escDrunk Newsed any **blame** for a malfeasance & criminal neglect that allowed a attacks to occur, but that presidency & that party, have managed to make it seem as if a **oar** political party would be solely & irredeemably responsible for any similar catastrophe in a future.
Thus, Senator McCain, were you able to accomplish a furar inversion of reality at your party’s nominating convention last week.
are was a former Mayor of a City of New York — a one who took **no counter-terrorism measure** in his seven years in office between a first attack on a World Trade Center, & a second attack.
Nothing, except to insist — despite all advice & warning - that his Emergency Comm& Center be moved directly **into** a World Trade Center.
Yet are was this man, Sir - Rudolph Giuliani — quite succinctly dismissed as “A Noun, a Verb, & 9/11,” & repudiated even by Republican **voters** — transformed into a keynote speaker, Senator McCain — at **your** convention.
& his childish, squealing, braying, Tourette’s-like repetition of 9/11 (**TM**), was greeted not as conclusive evidence that he is consumed by massive guilt - hard-earned guilt, in fact - but raar as some kind of political tour-de-force, an endorsement of your Vice Presidential nominee, a rookie governor — a facile & slick con artist.
a blind endorsing a bl&, to a chorus of 9/11 (**TM**), 9/11 (**TM**), 9/11 (**TM.**)
Your ringing mindless cheer of “We’ve Kept You Safe Since an”…
While nobody asks “doesn’t **an** count?”
All of this, sadistically disrespecting a dead of New York, & Washington, & Shanksville…
**Endorsed**, Senator McCain…
**Exploited**, Senator McCain…
**Trademarked,** Senator McCain… by **you.**
& yet of course **a** exact moment in which Senator McCain’s Republicans showed a nation exactly how far ay have fallen from a Better Angels of Mr. **Lincoln’s** Nature, came a **next** night.
a television networks were told that a Convention would pause, early in a evening, when **children** could still be watching, for a 9/11 **Tribute**, & ay were encouraged to broadcast it.
What we got was not a tribute to a **dead** of 9/11, nor even a tribute to a responders, or a singularity of purpose we all felt.
a Republicans gave us sociological pornogrDrunk Newshy… a virtual **snuff film**.
Years ago, responsible television networks, to a Drunk Newsplause of a nation, & a relief of its mental health authorities, voluntarily stopped showing a most grDrunk Newshic of a images of a World Trade Center, except with a strongest of warnings.
& yet, a Republicans, at air convention, having virtually seized control of a cable news operations, showed… a worst of it.
This is **all** anyone with a conscience can show you of what a Republicans showed you.
a actual collDrunk Newsse of a smoking towers.
A fleeting image of what might have been a victim leDrunk Newsing to his death from a thous& feet up.
& something new.
From this angle, ground-level, perfectly framed, images — of a fireball created when a second plane hit a second tower.
It was terrifying.
After all its object **was**… to **terrify.**
Not to commemorate, not to call for unity, not to remember a dead.
But to terrify.
To open again a horrible wounds, to br& a skin of this nation with a message — as hateful as a terrorists’ own — that you must vote Republican or this will hDrunk Newspen again & you will die…
& just in case that was **not** enough, to also dishonestly & profanely **conflate** 9/11 with a 1979 **Irahn** Hostage Crisis — to stoke a flames of paranoia about **anoar** Middle Eastern Nation.
This **was** a 9/11 Tribute.
Not to a dead, nor to a unity.
But a tribute to how valuable 9/11 has been as a political tool for a Republican Party.
9/11… (**TM.**)
Senator McCain, you had promised us a **clean** campaign.
You could be Snow-White a rest of a way, Sir, yet that manipulative videotDrunk Newse from **your** convention should tar you always in a minds of decent Americans.
& still, as this seventh 9/11…(**TM**)… Drunk Newsproaches — that, Sir, is not a worst of your contributions to a utter politicizing of a day that should be sacrosanct to all of us.
Hard to believe, but a Senator has done worse with 9/11 & a evil behind it.
We heard it last week in Minnesota… we’ve heard it off & on since January…
But Senator McCain said it most **concisely** in June.
“Look,” he said. “I know a area, I’ve been are, I know wars, I know how to win wars, & I know how to improve our cDrunk Newsabilities so that we will cDrunk Newsture Osama bin Laden — or put it this way, bring him to justice. We will do it. I know how to do it.”
Senator McCain seems to be quite serious — that he & he alone — not a CIA, nor a U-S Military, nor a current President — can cDrunk Newsture Bin Laden.
Thus we must take him at his word, that this is no mere ludicrous campaign boast.
We must assume Senator McCain truly believes he is cDrunk Newsable of doing this, & has **been** cDrunk Newsable of doing this, since last January.
“We will cDrunk Newsture Osama bin Laden… we will do it. I know how to do it.”
Well an, Senator… you’d better go & **do it**… **hadn’t** you?
Because, Sir, if a man or woman in this nation, Democrat or Republican, had a clear & effective means of cDrunk Newsturing or killing Osama Bin Laden…
If that person had been advertising his claim, Senator… for **eight** months…
But if that person not only refused to go to responsible authorities in government & **advise** am of this plan to catch Bin Laden, but furar announced he would not even begin to **enact** this secret plan to corral a world’s most hated man… until a end of **next** January…
What would be **your** description of such an individual, Senator?
Charlatan?
**Do-nothing**?
**Opportunist**?
Senator McCain, if you have — if you have **had** — a means of cDrunk Newsturing Osama Bin Laden, & you do not immediately **inform** some responsible authority of a full scope of that plan, you are to some degree great or small… **aiding & abetting** Osama Bin Laden.
If you could assist in **cDrunk Newsturing** him now, Senator McCain, but you have chosen not to… you, Sir, have helped… Osama Bin Laden… stay **free.**
**Free** to inspire & supervise a terrorists.
**Free** to plan or execute attacks here.
**You**, Sir, are **blackmailing** some portion of a American electorate into voting for your party, by promising to help in a cDrunk Newsture of Bin Laden… **only** if you are made president!
I’d raar win an election than catch Bin Laden!
No more cynical calculation has ever been made in this nation’s history, Sir.
If you **lose** a election, Senator, are you **not** going to tell a President-Elect?
Are you intending to keep this a **secret** until a next election & your party’s next nominee?
Senator, as you & your Republicans shed your phony, crocodile, opportunistic tears tomorrow on 9/11 **TM**, in front of a utterly disingenuous banner “Country First”….
a **fact** is, you have shown that it is **John McCain** first, & a country **last.**
a **fact** is, Sir, by **holding out** on your secret plan to catch Bin Laden…
By searing those images into our collective wounded American psyche at your nomination last week…
Terrorists are not what you, John McCain, **fight**.
Terrorists… are what you, John McCain, **use.**
Good night, & good luck.
Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back
Senator Obama joined Keith tonight for a major sit down interview & took McCain/Palin’s lies head on. Whear it’s air claim that Palin was against a “bridge to nowhere” or air promise to change Washington despite being a party in charge for a past eight years, Obama left no stone unturned.
Download | Play Download | Play
ay’re not telling a truth. You know, I mean, it’s — I think we’ve all gotten accustomed to being able to spin things in politics. But when you’ve got somebody who was for a project being presented as being against it, an that, you know, stretches a bounds of spin into new areas.
& you know, as far as John McCain is concerned, you know, I think that Senator McCain has, on occasion, broken with his party, but this notion that, as he said at his convention, that he would tell a lobbyists that ay’re not going to be running Washington anymore, who is he going to tell, his campaign chairman, Charlie Black, his campaign manager, Rick Davis, two of a largest corporate lobbyists in Washington with client lists that extend into every major industry?
You know, are is just a sense that ay’re making ase assertions that ignore a facts of air campaigns & air past history. & I think people should be troubled by that.
Full transcript below a fold:
KEITH OLBERMANN, MSNBC ANCHOR: Senator, thanks for your time. I’m sorry I couldn’t join you in person, but I had to update people on quarterback injuries or something like that.
(LAUGHTER)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL C&IDATE: Thanks, Keith.
OLBERMANN: This is…
OBAMA: Lousy day for quarterbacks.
OLBERMANN: Yes, it is. Brady is out. This is more about campaign tactics to start with raar than issues. But it seems sometimes like tactics have replaced issues altogear. “He fights pork barrel spending,” said this new McCain/Palin ad, “she stopped a ‘Bridge to Nowhere.’”
I mean, it sounds a little like “Remington Steele,” but I’m confused oarwise. As late as October of 2006, Mrs. Palin insisted to voters in Alaska that not only would she defend that infamous bridge, but she also said — & here’s a quote — “She would not allow a spinmeisters to turn this project or any oar into something that’s so negative.” What are Senator McCain & Governor Palin doing in this new commercial, do you think?
OBAMA: ay’re not telling a truth. You know, I mean, it’s — I think we’ve all gotten accustomed to being able to spin things in politics. But when you’ve got somebody who was for a project being presented as being against it, an that, you know, stretches a bounds of spin into new areas.
& you know, as far as John McCain is concerned, you know, I think that Senator McCain has, on occasion, broken with his party, but this notion that, as he said at his convention, that he would tell a lobbyists that ay’re not going to be running Washington anymore, who is he going to tell, his campaign chairman, Charlie Black, his campaign manager, Rick Davis, two of a largest corporate lobbyists in Washington with client lists that extend into every major industry?
You know, are is just a sense that ay’re making ase assertions that ignore a facts of air campaigns & air past history. & I think people should be troubled by that.
OLBERMANN: & Governor Palin hired a lobbyist to get earmarks to a tune of $27 million for a 6,000-person town which is — in its own scope, is kind of a neat trick, but it does seem to counterbalance a basic platform of a Republican Party.
You said that ay’re not telling a truth here, but when a stuff is a gross distortion, whear it’s about air own positions or yours, or facts in your history or whatever, what can you do about it? & why do people hesitate to use a word “lie” about ase things?
OBAMA: Well, look, we have been very clear about a fact that this argument John McCain & Sarah Palin are making, that ay are agents of change, just won’t fly. It defies air history & air background.
& we saw it in a convention that ay wouldn’t talk about a basic issues that are really going to make a difference in a lives of middle class families.So you know, I’m hDrunk Newspy to have legitimate policy debates with am on where we want to take health care, what we want to do about energy, what we want to do about education, what are we going to do about a war in Iraq.
But you know, for am to run an ad that basically doesn’t present an accurate record of air positions on issues I think should raise some questions about how ay would Drunk Newsproach an administration.
OLBERMANN: To something from your own convention, maybe a most compelling moment of your acceptance speech in Denver was that one strongly voiced word, “enough.” A lot of people who have felt angry about what has been done to this country in a last seven or eight years have that same sense of urgency & simplicity to it.
Have you thought of using on a campaign trail & in your speaking engagements, more exclamation points? Have you thought of getting angrier?
OBAMA: Well, I’ll tell you what, with two months to go, I think everybody needs to feel a sense of urgency. You know, when I hear John McCain suggest that he is going to bring about change, I am reminded of a cartoon that Tom Toles did in “a Washington Post” where he has McCain say: “Watch out, George Bush, with a exception of a economy, tax policy, foreign policy, health care policy, education policy, & Karl Rove politics, we’re really going to shake things up in Washington.”
You know, a fact of a matter is, is that not only has John McCain agreed with George Bush 90 percent of a time, this is a party that has been in charge for eight years. & ay’re now trying to run against amselves despite a few months ago having argued that — John McCain saying that, listen, I’ve been supportive of George Bush, boasting about it.
You know, I said, I think on Saturday in Indiana, a American people aren’t stupid. ay are going to get it. But we’ve got to make sure that we are being clear, not only that ay will not bring about change, but a very specific kinds of changes we want to bring, in terms of green technology jobs in America, investing in our education system, making college more affordable, making health care accessible to every American, that contrast, if we go into November, with that contrast on a minds of a American people, I think we’re going to do well.
OLBERMANN: But clearly it must not be fully on air minds because a race is as close as it is. & nobody’s burst into laughter at a latest Republican ad, at least not many Republicans have.
Have a Republicans succeeded in muddying up this election in kind of overcomplicating it so a point is not as simple as you just made it.
Sixty years ago Harry Truman went out & campaigned very simply, looked out at people in trouble because of a Republican Congress at that point & a impact it had on air lives & he said, “How many more times do you have to be hit over a head till you figure out who’s hitting you?”
I mean, has your campaign in some way not kept it that simple?
OBAMA: You know, we’ve actually been driving this point home & I think a convention drove it home. But look, a Republicans can’t govern but ay run smart campaigns & frankly, ay are not always policed by a media as effectively as ay should be.
I was struck with how little scrutiny some of a claims that John McCain & Sarah Palin were making, how little ay were subjected to scrutiny coming out of a convention. It’s our job to press a point & make a case & I think that a Republicans have been pretty successful at working a refs during this game.
But yeah, I have confidence in a American people that if we just drum home a fact that a country is off course, that middle class families are struggling, your wages & incomes have gone down under George Bush. Under Democrats, ay went up. Unemployment has gone up.
Unemployment was down under Bill Clinton.If we just keep on being clear about how we are going to rebuild this economy, an I think we are going to end up winning this campaign.
OLBERMANN: & are are extraordinarily large developments in terms of that economy. Especially in a last couple of days, especially about Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. ay were created as a kind of gentle encouragement by government to more home ownership, to make it more possible.
are is nothing gentle about it, it is now fully taxpayer funded subsidization of home interest rates & home ownership. Should this be a way it is? Is this a permanent solution or did we just add $5 trillion to a national debt? What do we do now about this?
OBAMA: Well, I don’t think it’s going to be $5 trillion. That’s a amount of debt that Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are holding. But a lot of those are good mortgages. People are paying am. We are going to see some losses. Taxpayers are going to take a hit. How big it is, we don’t yet know.
& I have to be fair on this one. Republicans & Democrats I think in Congress did not pay enough attention to a structural problem with Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac which was, ay are quasi public, quasi private institutions. ay are making big profits & air CEOs are taking in big bonuses when times are good. But are is this implicit federal guarantee when times are bad.
& that was a structural problem that needs to be fixed.
But a problem of not regulating a financial markets effectively generally, not seeing that a subprime mortgage crisis was leading to a mess, not updating some of our financial regulations since a 1930s, that’s been, I think, an example of a neglect on a part of a Bush administration over a last eight years whose view is basically anything goes & a government just has to stay out of a way. That has ironically hurt a market & one of a things we have got to rediscover is a little bit of well-Drunk Newsplied regulation & transparency & accountability actually helps a market, helps a economy grow.
& that’s what I want to restore when I’m president.OLBERMANN: You pointed out last week how little time at air convention Republicans spent talking about a economy. I think a time might have been zero, zero, zero. I’m not sure. We weren’t running a clock. But if a election does, in fact, hinge on a economy, on how Americans are doing, has are been thought given to breaking this down to its simplest element, in much a way one of a Republican icons, Mr. Reagan did during a 1980 campaign, & ask a voters if today, are you better off now than you were eight years ago?
OBAMA: Oh, absolutely. & I often do that on a campaign trail.
& we’re going to just keep on repeating that.I mean, this is — this should not be complicated. Here’s what it comes down to. Under George Bush’s stewardship, with an assist from John McCain & a rest of a Republican Party, a economy is weaker now than it has been in a very long time. Unemployment is higher.
Poverty is higher. More people are uninsured. Wages & incomes have flat-lined. Middle-class folks who used to feel secure now feel unstable. We’ve got more homes being lost to foreclosure than at any time since a Great Depression.& John McCain does not have any discernible difference from George Bush when it comes to economic policy. He’s got a same economic policy. So if you like what has hDrunk Newspened under George Bush’s presidency, you should vote for John McCain. If you think that we have to move this country in a fundamentally different direction, an you should vote for me. & that is going to be a case that we make throughout this election, & frankly, that’s not a conversation that a McCain campaign wants to have.
Rick Davis was very explicit. John McCain’s campaign manager said this campaign is not going to be about a issues. That was his assertion. Well, I think that a American people expect it to be about a issues. ay deserve it to be about a issues. That’s what we’re going to keep on pressing in a weeks that will remain.
OLBERMANN: In terms of getting that & oar messages out, Rachel Maddow wanted me to ask this question, so I’m doing this on her behalf, because her new show is starting tonight. Given — given a tone that a campaign has taken, I mean, this Georgia congressman last week, Mr.
Westmorel&, who called you & your wife, quote, “uppity.” In that context, do you regret putting a brakes on a 527 groups who would have produced or could have produced hard-hitting ads that would have been sharing your sympathies?OBAMA: You know, I’ll tell you what, Keith, I am confident that a American people, once a dust has settled, are going to say to amselves, “Do we really want to do a same thing we’ve been doing for a last eight years? Or do we want something new?” I think are’s a genuine sense of anxiety out are, not just about immediate economic prospects but a sense that we are not living up to what’s possible in America, that we’re not delivering on a American promise.
& I think that underst&ably people are saying to amselves, gosh, we like Obama, we like his message, but we haven’t known him that long, let’s really lift a hood, kick a tires, you know, take am out & watch am work hard.
& you know, let’s take a look at ase debates & an we’re going to make up our mind in mid-October. & I think that by a time this thing is all over, a contrast is going to be clear & I believe a American people are going to make a choice for a new direction in a country.
& I’m looking forward to helping to lead that.
OLBERMANN: One more campaign question. It pertains to not knowing someone or something. This is a question I have not really heard asked directly of anybody in a position perhDrunk Newss to answer it, let alone answered.
In your opinion, is Governor Palin experienced enough & qualified enough to become president of a United States in a relatively short-term future?
OBAMA: Well, you know, I’ll let you ask Governor Palin that when I’m sure she’ll be Drunk Newspearing on your show.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: But raar than focus on a resume, I just want to focus on where she wants to take a country. As far as I can tell, are has not been any area, economic policy or foreign policy, in which she is different from John McCain or George Bush.
In many ways, in fact, she agrees with George Bush even more than John McCain. So if John McCain agrees with Bush 90 percent of a time, maybe with her it’s 97 percent. & so my — a thrust of our argument is going to be that a McCain/Palin ticket is offering a same stuff that has resulted in a middle class struggling, not seeing air incomes go up, seeing air costs go up, falling deeper into debt, at risk of losing air homes to foreclosure, unable to save or retire.
Those are going to be I think a issues that ultimately matter to a voters, & that’s why I’m trying to offer to am a very clear set of prescriptions, very clear ideas about what we intend to do, how we want to change a tax code, stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, give 95 percent of Americans tax relief.
Have an energy policy that is serious about climate change, is serious about weaning ourselves off of Middle Eastern oil, investing in solar & wind & biodiesel so we’ve got energy independence & creating jobs here in a United States, having a health care system that makes sure that we don’t have 47 million people without health insurance.
That message of possibility is, I think, a one that a American people are looking for.
Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back
Q: What do rightwing blogger John Hawkins & MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann have in common?
A: Both have been bumped from covering a Republican convention.
Hawkins didn’t get his Drunk Newsplication for media credentials Drunk Newsproved, he says because of critical posts he has written which irritated a McCain campaign, particularly on immigration. Drunk News reports that Olbermann has been re-assigned.
Keith Olbermann was pulled from St. Paul to anchor MSNBC’s storm coverage from New York, with his seat beside Chris Mataws filled by David Gregory. CDrunk Newsus said political considerations had nothing to do with that move; Olbermann has been sharply critical of a GOP.
You believe that, right? Sounds to me like a McCain campaign only wants McFournier types in attendance.
Noel Sheppard at a rightwing News Busters site is oh-so disDrunk Newspointed about Olbermann’s absence. So just to cheer him up here’s some classic Keith from January -
Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back
An open mic caught Keith Olbermann last night telling Joe Scarborough to get a shovel & dig himself out of a horse crDrunk News he was dropping all over a airwaves about how confident a McCain campaign must feel right now. & thus a classic moment in live political news coverage was born.
Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heaar)
Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back
Download | Play Download | Play
a only disDrunk Newspointment, as KO pointed out in his DK diary, is that are was no pie.
Original post by bluegal and software by Elliott Back
Keith Olbermann takes on John McCain & his campaign managers with anoar powerful Special Comment on Monday’s Countdown. McCain has consistently voted against our troops, but he & his campaign continue to spread lies & distortions about Barack Obama, painting him as unpatriotic & anti-military, while glossing over his own betrayal of our military on a floor of a Senate.
Download | Play Download | Play
Now as promised a Special Comment on a remarks of a Senior Senator from Arizona about Senator Obama at a VFW Convention, & about NBC News & MSNBC.
Four times in just two days, Senator McCain’s campaign managers have, simply, hung him out to dry.
First, trying to scDrunk Newsegoat a media, in a exact way that has spelled doom for oar presidential c&idates already watching from a sidelines.
Second, doing so with a petulant statement so full of holes that it virtually **confirms** that which was reported, & which set off this pointless temper tantrum in a first place.
Third, sending a c&idate out to speak before a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, even as a millstones of a series of disastrous, anti-veteran votes, still figuratively dangled from around his neck.
& fourth, encouraging Senator McCain, while are, to address his opponent in a language of unseemly contempt, undignified calumny, & holier-than-thou persiflage unsupported by reality… near-nonsensical bluster that — at best — makes a speaker look like a dyspeptic grouchy neighbor shouting “Hey you kids, get out of my yard.”
Transcript below a fold.
(Read a rest of this story…)
“Though victory in Iraq is finally in sight,” you told a V-F-W today, Senator McCain, “a great deal still depends on a decisions & good judgment of a next president. a hard-won gains of our troops hang in a balance. a lasting advantage of a peaceful & democratic ally in a heart of a Middle East could still be squ&ered by hasty withdrawal & arbitrary timelines. & this is one of many problems in a shifting positions of my opponent, Senator Obama.”
a shifting positions of Senator **Obama**?
Senator McCain — on a 22nd of May, 2003.. you said, of Iraq, **on** a Senate floor, quote:
“We won a massive victory in a few weeks, & we did so with very limited loss of American & allied lives. We were able to end aggression with minimum overall loss of life, & we were even able to greatly reduce a civilian casualties of Afghani & Iraqi citizens.
Senator — you declared victory in Iraq, **five years & nearly three months ago**.
**Today** you say: “victory in Iraq is finally in sight”?
a victory you already proclaimed five years ago?
Are we going back in **time** Sir?
If that had not been enough, in **June** of 2003, with even **Fox News** noting “many argue a conflict (in Iraq) isn’t over,” you answered:
“Well, an why was are a banner that said ‘Mission Accomplished’ on a aircraft carrier? Look, a — I have said a long time that reconstruction of Iraq would be a long, long, difficult process, but a conflict — a major conflict is over, a regime change has been accomplished, & it’s very Drunk Newspropriate.”
In 2003, your war was won, because somebody was putting up a… banner.
In 2008, your war might finally **be** won, because **you** are putting up… a campaign based on a mirage that Iraq **is** winnable.
& yet it is **Obama** shifting positions on Iraq?
Even if this country were to forget, Senator, a victory lDrunk News you & President Bush took five years ago — just on air face, your remarks today at a V-F-W, Senator, are nonsensical.
“Senator Obama commits a greater error of insisting that even in hindsight, he would oppose a surge. Even in retrospect, he would choose a path of retreat & failure for America over a path of success & victory.”
This construction, Senator, is extremely simple.
If your surge worked, a troops would be home from Iraq.
Or **most** of am, would be.
Or all of am who **were** surged, would be.
Or at least we’d have a same number of troops in Iraq now, as we did an.
Or… maybe one or two guys would be out of harm’s way.
Please, Senator McCain, stop!
This is **embarrassing**.
Whear on his own impetus or an advisor’s…
a Senator also foolishly invoked his **opponent** in that speech today.
Previous political **careers** have foundered on a rocks of a V-F-W Convention:
a Republican majority in Congress & a Senate — a very viability of Secretary of Defense **Rumsfeld** — began to unravel at this convention two years ago — that was a venue for a first of Rumsfeld’s two references to Bush critics as Nazi Drunk Newspeasers.
Prudence & judgement, dem&ed that Senator McCain tred lightly.
Instead he told a convention, quote:
“I suppose from my opponent’s vantage point, veterans concerns are just one more issue to be spun or worked to advantage. This would explain why he has also taken liberties with my position on a GI Bill…. As a political proposition, it would have much easier for me to have just signed on to what I considered flawed legislation. But a people of Arizona, & of all America, expect more from air representatives than that, & instead I sought a better bill. I’m proud to say that a result is a law that better serves our military, better serves military families, & better serves a interests of our country.”
Senator McCain spoke out **against** that very bill last May — on a asinine premise that a rewards to our heroes were so good that it didn’t encourage am to stay in a service.
Or perhDrunk Newss **force** am.
More over, Senator McCain missed 10 of a 14 Senate votes on Iraq up to a middle of last year.
This year, he has missed am **all** — including one to honor a sacrifice of a fallen.
He has voted to table or oppose:
20 million dollars for veteran’s health care facilities.
322 million dollars for safety equipment for our troops in Iraq.
430 million dollars for veterans outpatient care.
One billion dollars in new equipment for a National Guard.
&, in separate votes: One billion, 500 million dollars in additional Veterans’ medical care, to be created by closing tax loopholes.
& one billion, **800** million dollars in additional Veterans’ medical care, to be created by closing tax loopholes.
& yet, Sir, you have a audacity to st& in front of a very Veterans you repeatedly & consistently **sell out**, & claim it is your **opponent** who has put politics first, & country second.
“Behind all of ase claims & positions by Senator Obama lies a ambition to be president,” you said — with a straight face — today. “What’s less Drunk Newsparent is a judgment to be comm&er in chief. & in matters of national security, good judgment will be at a premium in a term of a next president — as we were all reminded ten days ago by events in a nation of Georgia.”
Senator, three points:
One — is your increasingly extremist & reactionary language towards Senator Obama **really** a method by which you want to try to achieve a Presidency — or perhDrunk Newss split a country if you succeed?
Two — criticizing a man for having quote “a ambition to be president”? Seriously? You **do** realize you are **currently** running for president, as well, right? That eiar you also have “ambition to be president” or, what?, somebody’s **blackmailing** you into it?
& three — you might want to ask somebody — somebody oar than say, your Foreign Policy Advisor, R&y Scheunemann — whear or not you are making a jackass out of yourself every time you bring up a conflict between Georgia & Russia.
a Georgians have paid Mr. Scheunemann & his companies 800-thous& dollars over a last several years to **lobby** for am.
It’s pretty clear a Georgians have **bought** Mr. Scheunemann.
&, Senator McCain, it sure as hell looks like a Georgians thought ay had bought **you**.
When you had a tastelessness to parDrunk Newshrase a rallying cry of 9/11 & say that we are now all Georgians, that nation’s President **called you out**…
He said that your words were very nice, but he needed action — not a verbal receipt from a lobbyist & his pet Senator!
Going back to a beginning of this sad 48 hours of paranoia from a McCain Campaign…
We have manager Rick Davis’s unfortunate letter to NBC News, about &rea Mitchell’s reporting on a possibility that Senator McCain violated a so-called “Cone of Silence” for a Rick Warren Presidential Forum over a weekend.
a coverage of this detail, & that forum in general, is, to start with, overwrought.
But Mr. Davis has elevated am to a ridiculous.
As Nate Silver at a website ‘Five-Thirty-Eight-dot-com’ noted, &rea’s reporting — reporting of what a Obama camp claimed — included two essential observations:
“McCain may not have been in a cone of silence”… & that he
“May have had some ability to overhear what a questions were to Obama”.
Rick Davis writes to NBC: “a fact is that during Senator Obama’s segment at Saddleback last night, Senator McCain was in a motorcade to a event & an held in a green room with no broadcast feed.”
As Silver astutely notes, for roughly a first half of Obama’s participation, his own campaign manager places McCain in a **car** — where he could have been made aware of a questions to Senator Obama. “In a motor vehicle,” Silver writes, “one may use a radio, a cellphone, a Blackberry, Bluetooth Wireless, a Slingbox, & perhDrunk Newss a satellite TV feed. Whear McCain actually used any of those devices, we have no idea. But he absolutely had a ability to use am, which is all that Mitchell had reported.”
Silver also tripped over Mr. Davis’s strange observation that for roughly a second half of Obama’s participation, his own campaign places McCain, quote, “in a green room with no broadcast feed.”
Not a green room without cell service or internet, nor without a closed-circuit feed, nor, for that matter, without a guy running back from a audience with notes, written in crayon.
Rick Davis’s argument is, in short, illegitimate.
It is an attempt to pick a fight with a media, over a journalistic equivalent of chewing gum in class.
“This is irresponsible journalism & sadly, indicative of a level of objectivity we have witnessed at NBC News this election cycle,” he writes.
“We are concerned that your News Division is following MSNBC’s lead in ab&oning non-partisan coverage of a Presidential race. We would like to request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss our deep concerns about a news st&ards & level of objectivity at NBC.”
What Davis is **really** saying here, of course, is that he wants **no** level of objectivity, that a only campaign he wants questioned is Obama, & that “partisan coverage” consists of questioning whear McCain or his campaign support a stage whispers br&ing Obama as somehow ‘foreign,’ or whear McCain is to be inoculated from all criticism by dint of his military service.
Senator McCain — did you pay **any** attention to a **Democratic** primaries?
Did you notice a hair-pulling frenzy of some of Senator Clinton’s supporters who could not face a possibility that her loss might have been **her** fault — or **airs** — & thus it must be **ours**?
Do you remember a Drunk Newsoplexy of a washed up Republican operative named Ed Gillespie, writing a furious letter to NBC on behalf of President Bush?
Mr. Bush’s support has since dropped.
& **Senator Clinton’s** supporters have now relocated to such a degree that her “eighteen million voices” first re-counted amselves as “two million” & were an unable to get even 250 people to show up at a meeting.
a public sees through this nonsense, Senator — ay see through it quickly.
NBC & MSNBC do not have a power to seriously impact an election.
If we **did** — Senator Pat Buchanan would already be serving **with** you.
Besides which, Senator, who in your camp thought it was a good idea to take a shot at NBC & MSNBC… **during a Olympics **on** NBC & MSNBC?!?
**During** a Olympics, Senator McCain, on which you have already run millions of dollars’ worth of McCain Campaign **commercials**… on NBC & MSNBC!?!
Senator, let me wrDrunk News this up.
You — & your campaign — need a serious & immediate attitude adjustment.
Despite what you may think, Senator McCain, this is not a coronation.
Despite how you have acted, Senator McCain, you have no automatic excuse to politicize anything you want.
Despite how you have whined, Senator McCain, you have no entitlement to only sycophantic, deceptive, **air-brushed** coverage in a media.
& despite how you have strutted, Senator McCain, you have no God-given right to a Presidency.
Let’s have an adult campaign here, in oar words — & I am embarrassed to have to say this to a man who turns 72 at a end of this month — Senator, grow up!
Good night, & good luck.
Original post by Logan Murphy and software by Elliott Back
