Anyway John McCain it appears for some inexplicable reason has been getting a free-ride from the American Media. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton get pounced upon by the Media for everything they say or do and for their relationships with various individuals or groups. The Media in their cases is willing to either dig up whatever dirt they can find or take whatever criticisms made of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama at face value. Meanwhile in the case of McCain the Media does not go after him or ask the pertinent hard questions but rather ignores the contradictions in McCain's statements and policies and his flip-flopping.
For instance he was enthusiastic about going to war with Iraq and claimed it would be a " Cake-Walk " later he claimed he was not in favor of the war and believed if the U.S. invaded Iraq it would not be easy. He said he was against torture but now he is in favor of torture or considers techniques used by American interrogators as not constituting torture.
He claims if he had been president at the time of Katrina he would have gone to New Orleans immediately yet at the time he was with Bush as they celebrated McCain's birthday and seemed uninterested in the Katrina disaster.
As for McCain's days in Vietnam as a POW it seems that he did collaborate with the Vietcong making a number of confessions and speeches which were taped .The thing of it is is not that he did what he had to in order to survive the ordeal but that he continues to lie about what he did.Sort of like Hillary under heavy gun fire and shelling in Bosnia. Are they both delusional or does lying just come so easily to them. The hope for America is that Obama is as forthright as he claims to be. Everyone makes mistakes the point is whether an individual can admit to mistakes or errors in judgement and then move on.
For more on McCain :Media Matters has set up a webpage dedicated to McCain's contradictions and his flip-flopping on issues & how the press ignores the facts or spins them in McCain's favor.
Free Ride: Media Myths of McCain
As Media Matters puts it :
Free Ride: John McCain and the Media
We live in a "gotcha" media culture that revels in exposing the foibles and hypocrisies of our politicians. But one politician manages to escape this treatment, getting the benefit of the doubt and a positive spin for nearly everything he does: John McCain. Even during his temporary decline in popularity in 2007, the media continued to bolster him by lamenting his fate rather than criticizing the flip-flops and politicking that undermined his media-driven image as a "straight talker."
In Free Ride: John McCain and the Media, David Brock and Paul Waldman show how the media have enabled McCain's rise from the Keating Five savings-and-loan scandal to the underdog hero of the 2000 primaries to his roller-coaster run for the 2008 nomination. They illuminate how the press falls for McCain's "straight talk" and how the Arizona senator gets away with inconsistencies and misrepresentations for which the media skewer other politicians.
Keith Olbermann Countdown John McCain & Media Matters
update on Omar Khadr child-soldier:
Once again the Bush administration has shown its disregard for the Canadian government of Stephen Harper in another detainee case. They have also been dismissive of other governments in this matter . Beyond that the Bush administration and the Pentagon and the American Justice department has shown its dismissive attitude to the Geneva Conventions and other international agreements concerning detainees in general and in this case the treatment of what are referred to as " Child-Soldiers ".In these cases one wonders if it is just the belligerence of the Bush Regime and its appointees or is this something the American people agree with.
Its odd how certain groups are so concerned about Human Rights abuses of the Chinese government and yet are silent on Human Rights abuses of the Bush Regime.The American government launched an illegal war of aggression against Iraq which has led to the deaths of some 600,000 or more Iraqis. Meanwhile tens of thousands of Iraqis are held as prisoners in over crowded jails in Iraq where abuse of detainees is rampant.
It is believed that over two thirds of those being held are not guilty of any serious crimes.
( For more on misadventure of the Bush Regime and Human Rights abuses for instance see: FEAR UP HARSH ( p. 2007 ) by Tony Lagouranis & WEB OF DECEIT (p. 2007 ) by Barry M. Lando & FIASCO: THE AMERICAN MILITARY ADVENTURE IN IRAQ (p. 2006 ) By Thomas E. Ricks.
US Rejects Canadian's Child Soldier Defense By Jane Sutton /Reuters/02 May 2008
Miami - A Canadian captured in Afghanistan at age 15 can be tried for murder in the Guantanamo war crimes court, a U.S. military judge ruled in rejecting claims that he was a child soldier who should be rehabilitated rather than prosecuted.
Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr, now 21, is charged in the Guantanamo court with throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002.
His military lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, had argued in February hearings at the Guantanamo naval base that Khadr was a child soldier illegally conscripted by his father, an al Qaeda financier. He urged the judge to drop the charges, which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, issued a ruling on Wednesday agreeing with prosecutors' position that the law authorizing the Guantanamo trials contained no minimum age.
Brownback's ruling clears the way for Khadr to be tried in the special tribunals created by the Bush administration to try non-U.S. captives it considers "unlawful enemy combatants" outside the regular civilian and military courts.
Kuebler called the ruling "an embarrassment to the United States" and said Canada would share in the embarrassment if it allows its citizen to be tried at Guantanamo. He said Khadr would be the first child soldier tried for war crimes in modern history.
The United States and Canada have ratified an international treaty, the Child Soldier Protocol, that outlaws recruitment of combatants under age 18 and requires governments to help child soldiers recover and reintegrate into society.
It does not specifically bar prosecution of child soldiers but says they should not be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and that they cannot be subjected to life imprisonment without possibility of release.
Khadr, who was shot twice in the back by U.S. soldiers during the battle that led to his capture, is charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiring with al Qaeda, providing material support for terrorism and spying on U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan.
checkout previous post United States Contravenes International Law by trying a " Child-Soldier ", Omar Khadr Feb. 08, 2008
Bush ,Cheney , Hillary & McCain can't wait to attack Iran!
WAR WITH IRAN
Democrats Okay Funds for Covert Ops
Secret Bush "Finding" Widens War on Iran By Andrew Cockburn 02/05/08 "Counterpunch"
-- - Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope."
Until recently, the administration faced a serious obstacle to action against Iran in the form of Centcom commander Admiral William Fallon, who made no secret of his contempt for official determination to take us to war. In a widely publicized incident last January, Iranian patrol boats approached a U.S. ship in what the Pentagon described as a "taunting" manner. According to Centcom staff officers, the American commander on the spot was about to open fire. At that point, the U.S. was close to war. He desisted only when Fallon personally and explicitly ordered him not to shoot. The White House, according to the staff officers, was "absolutely furious" with Fallon for defusing the incident.
Fallon has since departed. His abrupt resignation in early March followed the publication of his unvarnished views on our policy of confrontation with Iran, something that is unlikely to happen to his replacement, George Bush's favorite general, David Petraeus.
...Petraeus is said to be at work on a master briefing for congress to demonstrate conclusively that the Iranians are the source of our current troubles in Iraq, thanks to their support for the Shia militia currently under attack by U.S. forces in Baghdad.
Interestingly, despite the bellicose complaints, Petraeus has made little effort to seal the Iran-Iraq border, and in any case two thirds of U.S. casualties still come from Sunni insurgents. "The Shia account for less than one third," a recently returned member of the command staff in Baghdad familiar with the relevant intelligence told me, "but if you want a war you have to sell it."
Once again America acts like a rogue state without any regard to international law .
and so it goes,
GORD.
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