I don't think John McCain really understands that the United States was founded primarily on the ideals and principles of the Enlightenment, rather than simply "Judeo-Christian values.”  Sure, such religious values played an indirect role in the founding of the country, but the fact remains that our founders were convinced that an official state religion should be avoided at all costs.  Indeed, several of our founding fathers - including Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin - were actually deists rather than traditional Christians.  More importantly, the First Amendment guarantees “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  

The fair and balanced FOX news has created a new affiliate that they're calling FOCKS news.  I have been hired as their new investigative journalist.

For my first FOCKS report, I have been doing some investigative work into where our great hero, John McCain, stands on the issues.

I was surprised to find, despite his being a former POW, that he is really a radical liberal who wants socialized medicine.

You know, Count Orlok.

Enough with this Hillary nonsense.

We all know what Obama's real problems are versus McCain:

Age.

Experience.

Sheer calculating evil, without the capacity for feeling mercy for man or beast.

Obama's choice is going to be Nosferatu.  Trust me.  You know it.  I know it.  Vegetable lasagna knows it (has that reference become "obscure" yet?).

So let's stop fucking around and plan for keeping the blood banks open 24/7 in Denver.

(more)

McCain: 49% Obama: 44% Barr 3% Undecided: 4%

Yes this is the real deal. McCain's tactics recently have been working, in which the recent poll from USA Today/Gallup. Obama experienced a 10% decrease among voters under 30 years old where some analysts believe this may result from McCain's appearance at the faith forum with Warren the other night. It is believed that the higher percentage of religious people under the age of 30 gave a boost to McCain. The poll also found that Obama's recent statement regarding his answers to the Georgia-Russia conflict has made him weaker among national security issues among people polled overall in this poll.

Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee emerged from the GOP nomination process as the leaders of their respective GOP factions. Huckabee represents the social conservatives. He aspires to speak for the evangelicals, who reportedly make up 25% of the electorate. Romney represents the business side of the GOP. He is the consummate executive and as a former CEO is the GOP’s possible poster boy for someone to fix the economy. These two factions are warring for the chance to have someone from their camp land as the McCain VP and the fight has major long-term implications for the party.

This is John McCain, in his own words, in his book "Worth the Fighting For."  Keith Olbermann showed the audio version with McCain speaking last night.

"I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to become president. I was sixty-two years old when I made the decision, and I thought it was my one shot at the prize."

"We cannot forever hide the truth about ourselves, from ourselves."
-Fictional Maverick John McCain

Sooner or later, the day comes when you can't hide from the things that you've done anymore.
-Fictional Character William Adama, Battlestar Galctica

I'm through with it.  I'm sick of listening to, as one diarist referred to it, The Legend of John McCain.  And because I am sick of it, because forcing myself to watch his zombie base mindlessly applaud his pandering, talking points performance at Rick Warren's bloated, ego driven Christianity for Happy and Bigoted Capitalists Forum unsettled me for the last three days, I am going to rant and attack.

I recently wrote about how the near media hagiography of John McCain was so slanted, even many Liberals in the media -- people to the left of me and even I can see that McCain has become a figure of the far right --  routinely engaged in skewed analysis to fit their sophomoric John McCain crush.

All throughout the end of the primary season when it looked like Obama was headed
into  battle with John McCain, he would magnanimously say that "John McCain is a
genuine American hero, and I respect his service but..."  The first time was OK, but he says it every time he makes a campaign appearance.  He must stop this now!

Ok, I will admit it, I like Maureen Dowd, there I said it!  I'm not sure if I like her because of the light or heat, but I like her.  

Edit: I'm not suggesting, advocating or supporting that the story linked is accurate factually, only the practical impact.  

Today (tomorrow), her piece titled "Two Against The One" strikes truths others would not speak.  The only issue I have is her title, it should read 3 plus the media.  The media likes to admonish itself for the heavy coverage of Obama but ignores that disproportionate volume of that coverage is negative.  We actually had a network ask,

"Is Obama the Anti Christ?"

this week, kinda like the "How long ago did you stop beating your wife?" question.  I'm not naive, I know her history, for whom she worked and her opinions but it's ok she's cuts deep and I like her.  I'm convinced that Dowd first and foremost enjoys calling people on crap, anyone but particularly the press.  

At the risk of dredging up the saddleback forum again ... I have to state something kind of obvious which no one seems to have brought up yet.

According to McCain spokesman Charlie Black, McCain's motorcade left his hotel at 5 p.m. Saturday, the same time that Senator Obama took the stage with Pastor Rick Warren.

It was agreed in advance that McCain was supposed to be sequestered in the 'Cone of Silence' during Obama's interview segment.  But McCain was only just leaving the hotel at the time when he was supposed to be sequestered.  Now, the McCain campaign is blaming his tardiness on traffic, but the fact of the matter is that, even without one iota of traffic, John McCain was not on schedule to abide by the rules of the forum.

John McCain had no intention of being in the 'Cone of Silence' for the entire hour.

Or else his campaign is so completely in disarray that they can't get him to a 5:00 appointment on time.

It should be noted from the outset that this diary is not moralistic--it is not cut from a we're-above-this-type-of-ugly-campaigning cloth. But this diary also is not a case for a new, Democratic Swiftboating campaign to be waged against McCain.

Instead, what follows is a brief exploration of how, in both substance and form, the "McCain wasn't tortured" line mirrors almost perfectly the attacks waged against Kerry in 2004.

Whether it's an attack strategy that WE should use is up to the masses, or Obama, or both. (Or some rogue 527.)

McCain says because he survived 5½ years of brutal torture, while a prisoner of the communist Vietnamese, he is better qualified to be president of the United States than any other candidate. McCain claims his POW sufferings included three years in solitary confinement where he was tortured so badly that he "broke," causing him to attempt suicide.

Democrats are hand wringers, we are.

Many want to win so bad that every tick, tip; view of a poll gets everyone going.

Me, I don't care about the horserace, which is for the cable desk clerks.

I care about the state polling, which is still soft now, and the ground game.

This is what won Obama the Democratic Nomination, it will bolster him across the final line, but we cannot continue to have these negative ads go unanswered or unchallenged.

In two recent articles at HuffingtonPost.com, Paul Abrams makes a compelling case for Wesley Clark to be Obama’s VP pick. I hope someone at Obama HQ is listening to him because I think he’d be a far better choice than the 3 frontrunners listed by the MSM.

Isn't it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?  - Sophocles

When I need some red meat, nothing replenishes my system better than some good old McCain mockery.  I don't go for that 'new kind of politics' shit.  When I get hungry, I need my politics with the blood still dripping off the meat as I shove it in my mouth like a starving beast.

So feel free to browse this collection of McCain mockery and feel free to add your own favorites below.

Just a quick thought, based on what's now old news but McCain did bring it up again Saturday - the idea that he "knows how to win wars".

Here's what I'd ask McCain if he ever held a town hall on Long Island (HAH!) and I managed to get hold of the mike:

Sen. McCain, you graduated in the bottom 1 percentile of your class at Annapolis. In training, you crashed 3 planes. You never held a command position in the Navy, and your only combat experience was in a war we lost. How do you know how to win wars, and what's the secret?

In followup, I'd also like ask if he'd shared with the current President his ideas on how to catch Bin Laden, and (A) if not, why not, (B) why he was unable to persuade Bush to execute his masterplan, or (C) why the plan failed.

I was just watching the Olympics and saw a McCain ad.  It starts off with "Washington is broken.  John McCain knows it."

So, I thought it was the beginning of an Obama ad since it starts out all grainy and black and white.  I thought, "Yeah, bring it to him."

And then I saw the McCain website URL and realized it really was an ad.

The ad is about as straightforward as they come - "He's the ORIGINAL Maverick. John McCain."

Which made me think - WTF?  What are Obama and his group of soft-shoe soldiers doing to counter this?

Unlike those who just complain, I have a suggestion - it's time to do a parody.  Make fun of McCain - he's like a 60 year old out-of-shape man with a combover in a college bar trying to pick up a  20 year old.  To let this kind of ammunition go untouched is malpractice -
restraint.