And so McCain being among the wealthy sees those as facing foreclosure on their homes as irresponsible whiners . If they were smarter they wouldn't be in financial trouble. He is able to keep within his budget so why shouldn't they. Of course it helps that he is worth some 40 to 140 million dollars. But again he does not speak for average Americans but for the wealthy. When will Americans lear that the wealthy in general do not share their concerns and could care less if they lose their homes or their jobs etc.
McCain also argues that Veterans Health Care should be privatised which may leave many vets without any real coverage for their health concerns.
McCain thinks the Iraq war is over . He does not support the troops or the veterans of the Iraqi War.
He Criticizes Obama for having the ambition to be president. Is this because such ambition is delusional given that Obama is a black man.
While McCain believes he as a Conservative white man and veteran is entitled to become president to keep America safe and pure.
Keith Olbermann- Countdown
Special Commentary
McCain: Senator, Grow Up!
Monday 18 August 2008/by: Keith Olbermann, MSNBC Countdown
"Though victory in Iraq is finally in sight," you told the V-F-W today, Senator McCain, "a great deal still depends on the decisions and good judgment of the next president. The hard-won gains of our troops hang in the balance. The lasting advantage of a peaceful and democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East could still be squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines. And this is one of many problems in the shifting positions of my opponent, Senator Obama."
The shifting positions of Senator Obama?
Senator McCain - on the 22nd of May, 2003 ... you said, of Iraq, on the Senate floor, quote:
"We won a massive victory in a few weeks, and we did so with very limited loss of American and allied lives. We were able to end aggression with minimum overall loss of life, and we were even able to greatly reduce the civilian casualties of Afghani and Iraqi citizens.
--------
John McCain another Bush-out of touch, self-satisfied with his own ignorance and stupidity. Shallow and always on vacation either physically or mentally.
Tuesday 19 August 2008 by: Jack Cafferty, CNN
Is McCain Another George W. Bush
New York - Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation.
His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.
Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.
I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn't bother to show up. Now I know why.
It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand.
As DailyKos points out it is now permissable to critique John McCain's assertion that his status as a veterean of Vietnam War and of being a POW somehow equips him for being a sensible choice for president. If McCain's assertion were to be accepted at face value then it follows that all veterans of the vietnam war are defacto good choices for being president.
But Bellavia of "Vets for freedom "claims that a veteran of the Vietnam war has no more qualifications for being president than anyone else. He appears to claim that only a veteran of the Iraq war has any substantive knowledge of the Iraq War and the military's and Pentagon's strategy there. Therefore McCain's military experience does not trump Obama's lack of military experience. And further only someone who has fought in Iraq should have any say about the strategy in Iraq or whether the United States military should stay in Iraq or immediately withdraw. So should " Vets for Freedom " take a poll of Iraq War Vets and American soldiers still serving in Iraq to decide what should or should not be done.
From DailyKOS
We now have license to question value of McCain's Service in Vietnam
by DefendOurConstitution
Wed Aug 20, 2008
Sorry for Short Diary, but I did not see anywhere and I think this is important in framing the military experience issue for the rest of campaign. That's right, thanks to right wing "Vets For Freedom" (Think Progress):
his experienced is based on what? The Mekong Delta. It’s based to Vietnam, a totally different fight, a totally different enemy, and by the way, it was 30 years ago.
DefendOurConstitution's diary :: ::
Of course he was attacking Hagel, not McCain, but once you open that line of reasoning why can't people apply the same standard to McCain? (I know that being POW is the instant shield, but sending some vets to attack other vets saying that their judgement is superior sure opens the door). Thank you Bellavia.
and atThink Progress:
Right-Wing Vets For Freedom Attacks Hagel’s Military Service: ‘Show Me What Battle He Fought In Iraq’
Today on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, a caller questioned Vets for Freedom (VFF) founder David Bellavia about the group’s attacks on Vietnam veteran Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE). Bellavia quickly praised Hagel, saying he was a “patriot.” “You don’t question another man’s service,” said Bellavia.” “I will never attack a Vietnam veteran, like some of these other individuals have during this political season.”
Content he paid enough lip-service to Hagel, he then began attacking the senator, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration. Bellavia’s dismissed the Hagel’s service in Vietnam — for which he earned a Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge — as irrelevant to the current conflict:
BELLAVIA: Sen. Hagel has never been shot at in Iraq, he’s never seen what an IED looks like or been detonated on. This is an individual that could embed himself instead of doing a two-day congressional delegation. Go out there, walk with the troops, see what’s going on on the ground. […]
Now, again, with Sen. Hagel — my problem with Sen. Hagel is, again, his experienced is based on what? The Mekong Delta. It’s based to Vietnam, a totally different fight, a totally different enemy, and by the way, it was 30 years ago.
also see MacCain blaming Americans for the housing mortgage crisis since he characterizes home owners as irresponsible . He does not accept that deregulation and greedy investors using predatory interest rates as part of the problem. Thursday, August 21, 2008 by Politico.com
McCain Unsure How Many Houses He Owns by Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen
McCain's Mansions and The Mortgage Crisis
No help offered to average home owners- Americans are Just Whiners
And when it comes to veterans McCain wants to privatize Vets health care while redefining what he would determine to be an injury or health concern which actually directly the result of combat. As we have seen time and again those who support him like the Neocons tend to be dismissive of issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or other psychological problems affecting war veterans.Check out this article at Common Dreams.org:
Thursday, August 21, 2008 by Inter Press Service McCain's Plan to Privatise Veterans' Health Care by Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO - If John McCain is elected the next U.S. president, wounded veterans could be in for a world of hurt.
On the campaign trail, the Republican's presumptive nominee has talked of a new mission for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and argued that veterans with non-combat medical problems should be given vouchers to receive care at private, for-profit hospitals -- in other words, an end to the kind of universal health care the government has guaranteed veterans for generations.
"We need to relieve the burden on the VA from routine health care," McCain told the National Forum on Disability Issues last month. "If you have a routine health care need, take it wherever you want, whatever doctor or health care provider and get the treatment you need, while we at the VA focus our attention, our care, our love, on these grievous wounds of war."
The Republican senator argues that giving veterans a VA card that they can use at private doctors would shorten the long wait times many veterans face in seeing government doctors, who are nearly universally viewed as among the best in the world.
A recent study by the RAND Corporation found that "VA patients were more likely to receive recommended care" and "received consistently better care across the board, including screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow up" than that delivered by other U.S. health care providers.
Virtually all veterans groups oppose McCain's plan. The Veterans of Foreign Wars' national legislative director has said the VA card would "undermine the entire system".
According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contribution than has Republican John McCain.
This may seem odd to some since McCain is a former naval officer, prisoner of war, and Vietnam War veteran.
However, Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and executive director of the non-partisan Veterans for Common Sense, says that for McCain, free market ideology is more important than providing care for former soldiers.
"Ideologues like John McCain and George Bush hate the fact that the VA exists," Sullivan told IPS, noting that the Republican candidate also wants to partially privatise social security and offer private school vouchers to students currently enrolled in public schools.
"They hate the fact that there's a functional example out there of the government providing better care at a lower cost than the private sector," Sullivan said. "The problem that the VA faces now is that the Bush administration failed to hire enough doctors and disability claims adjusters when they chose to go to war with Iraq. If these doctors had been hired, the VA would be an example of the government doing good work. Bush and McCain don't want the public to see that."
McCain has also never spelled out what he means by a "combat injury", leading many veterans worried they could be left out in the cold.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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