Sooner Be Blue

Newsweek is publishing an embarrassing report on the McCains...revealing that they have failed to pay taxes on their beach-front condo in La Jolla, California for the last four years and are currently in default.

 

Only the little people pay taxes?

 

I remember when he said he's not good with economy stuff, but if the McCains can't manage to pay their dang property taxes, why should we trust him with the finances of an entire nation?

 

After all...he IS running on experience....

 

From Newsweek: "When you're poor, it can be hard to pay the bills. When you're rich, it's hard to keep track of all the bills that need paying. It's a lesson Cindy McCain learned the hard way when NEWSWEEK raised questions about an overdue property-tax bill on a La Jolla, Calif., property owned by a trust that she oversees. Mrs. McCain is a beer heiress with an estimated $100 million fortune and, along with her husband, she owns at least seven properties, including condos in California and Arizona.

 

San Diego County officials, it turns out, have been sending out tax notices on the La Jolla property, an oceanfront condo, for four years without receiving a response.....

 

....Dan McAllister, treasurer- tax collector for San Diego County....said. "Under the law, the property owner is responsible for keeping the address current. We're only as good as the information we are given."

 

 

Common folks pay their taxes or get their houses taken away from them...do you think they'd let Joe Sixpack go four years?

 

"The McCains own at least seven homes through a variety of trusts and corporations controlled by Cindy McCain."

 

I guess it would be easy enough to forget...maybe they were too focused on the other six luxury homes and the oceanfront condo fell through the cracks. Talk about being out of touch with ordinary people...talk about elitist...the average American doesn't have so many houses that their full-time staff of accountants can overlook the taxes on one.

 

Especially with working-class people losing their homes because they can't afford their payments.

 

McCain will pass the buck to his wife's corporation. So...whenever reporters visit McCain in Arizona, they're visiting Cindy's ranch, not John's.

 

One of my favorite funny lines: "I couldn't understand why he'd be interested in me..."--Cindy McCain

 

Yeah, why would a 42 year old man be interested in a 24 year old blond millionaire heiress to a beer dynasty? Jeez, I can't imagine...and can't you just see his old Tailhook buddies laughing about that.

 

Some Dems are saying that the easiest way to defeat John McCain this November is to make him mad.

 

We've all heard stories about McCain's cranky temper, and he sure showed where those stories came from yesterday when he got pissy after Obama had the nerve to disagree with him about Jim Webb's GI Bill extension.

 

From the Boston Globe, May 23, 2008:
"McCain misses vote on a new GI Bill, scorns criticism from Obama
Support for the troops returned as an issue to the presidential campaign yesterday with harsh words from both sides.

 

The Democratic National Committee accused John McCain of being AWOL from the Senate vote yesterday for a new GI Bill to provide better education benefits for returning veterans. McCain was in California on a campaign and fund-raising trip, while both Democratic contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, left the campaign trail to vote for the bill, which passed by a veto-proof 75-to-22 majority.

 

On the Senate floor, Obama questioned why McCain opposed the bill. "I can't believe why he believes it is too generous to our veterans," Obama said. "There are many issues that lend themselves to partisan posturing, but giving our veterans the chance to go to college should not be one of them."

 

McCain, a Vietnam War hero, didn't take the criticism lightly - and while Obama is careful to honor McCain's military service, he mentioned Obama's lack of it.

 

"I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did," McCain said in a statement. "Perhaps, if Senator Obama would take the time and trouble to understand this issue he would learn to debate an honest disagreement respectfully. But, as he always does, he prefers impugning the motives of his opponent, and exploiting a thoughtful difference of opinion to advance his own ambitions. If that is how he would behave as president, the country would regret his election."[..]

 

 

Obama then came back with:
From politico.com: "I am proud to stand with Senator Webb and a bipartisan coalition to give our veterans the support and opportunity they deserve. It's disappointing that Senator McCain and his campaign used this issue to launch yet another lengthy personal, political attack instead of debating an honest policy difference. He should know that this is not about John McCain or Barack Obama — it’s about giving our veterans a real chance to afford four years of college without harming retention. Senator Webb’s bipartisan bill will do this, and the bill that John McCain supports would not. These endless diatribes and schoolyard taunts from the McCain campaign do nothing to advance the debate about what matters to the American people."

 

 

Now I ask you -- which candidate sounded Presidential? And which one sounded like a cranky old man?

 

McCain saying that if we are too generous it will deter troops from becoming "career" military, is just plain silly. If anyone in this country is deserving of generosity, it's the troops that are putting life and limb on the line every day.

 

Besides, if the deal is sweetened, wouldn't it draw more kids into the military?

 

McCain is probably just being honest about why he needs the kids to re-up instead of go to college -- we've got two wars going and need a larger military for all the wacky adventures he plans for his administration.

 

After a week of the media flogging the Wright story as hard as they possibly could, you'd think that the number one worry that concerned voters was Obama’s relationship with his former pastor, right? It’s a reasonable guess to make, but boy would you be so totally wrong.

 

A new NBC/WSJ poll has been released asking which of the candidates liabilities they were most concerned about.

 

Nope, neither Obama’s relationship with Wright nor with the former Weather Underground buddy made the top of the list...instead finishing a paltry fourth place among chief concerns from voters. What made the top of the list?

 

John McCain’s close alignment with President George W. Bush.

 

From MSNBC: "....according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, the bigger problem appears to be John McCain's ties to President Bush.

 

In the survey, 43 percent of registered voters say they have major concerns that McCain is too closely aligned with the current administration.

 

By comparison:
36 percent have major concerns that Clinton seems to change her position on some issues (like driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband signed but which she now opposes)

 

34 percent say they’re bothered by Obama’s “bitter” remarks

 

32 percent have a major problem with the Illinois senator’s past associations with Wright and the 1960's radical William Ayers

 

27 percent have serious concerns that Bill Clinton would have too much influence on U.S. policy decisions if his wife is elected"

 

 

Pat Buchanan said on MSNBC that if President Bush is more unpopular than Rev. Wright, the Republicans are in a lot of trouble.

 

It's worth noting that the polling for this ended on Monday, before Obama's public denouncement of Wright.

 

I've thought all along that voters who cite Wright as a problem are voters who didn't like Obama in the first place. There was, perhaps, some doubt back in March when the issue first came up. But Obama handled it well in his Philadelphia speech on race...showed how his campaign sooo differs from the views of Wright. Wright's shenanigans last week only confirm those differences.

 

Let's get some perspective here:
Who cares about a two term president and his party who took your country into a terrible wasteful war which most people think was a bigger foreign policy mistake than Vietnam?

 

Who cares that the Bushies have molested your constitution, and with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo made the US a global brand and target for torture?

 

Who cares about the scandal of sub prime mortgages which are causing a wave of recessions across the world? Or the fact that 40 million Americans have no healthcare?

 

No, no, no...Bush and his party and their catastrophic mismanagement of everything from Iraq to Katrina to tax cuts are unimportant. The public doesn't care about them.

 

What they really care about is a local preacher in a church in Chicago who said goddam America a couple of times.

 

NOT.

 

This is also interesting -- A Media Matters for America review found that since February 27, the date that televangelist John Hagee endorsed John McCain for president, The New York Times and The Washington Post combined have published more than 12 times as many articles mentioning Rev. Wright and Barack Obama as they have mentioning Hagee and McCain.

 

 

Remember Rev. John Hagee? The one who says the Catholic church is the Whore of Babylon, and that sin is to blame for Hurricane Katrina?

 

4 Americans were killed in Iraq yesterday, 44 injured ...but watching TV you wouldn't know it. Just in case all those cable news talking heads are interested -- IF they can break away from their faux outrage over Rev. Wright's latest comments -- there is a war raging in Iraq. And it IS raging:

 

Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; Page A10

 

"BAGHDAD, April 28 -- Four U.S. soldiers were killed in two rocket attacks in Baghdad on Monday as clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen intensified, the military said.

 

Three soldiers were killed about 1 p.m. in eastern Baghdad, where fighters loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have battled U.S. and Iraqi troops. The fourth American soldier was killed at 4:15 p.m. in the western part of the capital, a U.S. military spokesman said. The military provided few other details about the attacks.

 

The deaths marked one of the deadliest days for U.S. troops in Iraq since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an offensive against Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra in late March, prompting retaliation there and in the vast Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad. Forty-four U.S. troops have died in Iraq in April, according to iCasualties.org, which tracks military fatalities, more than any month since September. [..] "

 

 

Our troops are not safe in that quagmire called Iraq even in the Green Zone. In fact, the Green Zone will prolly soon become the most dangerous area of the entire city of Baghdad. What an ironic -- yet totally expected -- turn in this sad ugly saga.

 

Obviously the insurgents have changed tactics. I read that they are flush with money from the poppy harvest and they can buy rockets with longer ranges. (Remember Hezbollah's bombardment of Israel?)

 

Where does this put John McCain...given that he has no problem with keeping our military in Iraq for 100 years, as long as our troops aren't shot or harmed while stationed there?

 

Who will be the last to die for a mistake?
Whose blood will spill?
Whose heart will break?
Who will be the last to die for a mistake?
-Bruce Springsteen

 

 

Bill Maher went hard after John McCain for his repeated misstatements on the Iran/al Qaeda connection on last Friday’s episode of Real Time, here's some of it:

 

New Rule: Old soldiers never die, they get young soldiers killed. This week John McCain said for the third time in two days, that Iran, a Shi’ite stronghold was training al Qaeda a militant Sunni organization. That the Hatfields of the Muslim world would be working with the McCoys is so not true even Dick Cheney hasn’t said it.

 

Now the press, which loves McCain because he feeds them BBQ, dismissed this as just one of those senior moments. Not to worry, he’s only going to have his finger on the nuclear trigger.

 

But it’s not just a ‘gaffe,’ it’s what McCain really thinks. And therein lies the paradox of this campaign: McCain’s strength is really his weakness. He’s a warrior who’s dumb about war.

 

Whoever read The Art of War, chapter three of The Art of War says, “Know thy enemy.” And John McCain plainly doesn’t. He thinks the solution is our presence in the Middle East. No, the problem is our presence in the Middle East.

 

That’s why I don’t care if John McCain is better than Bush on global warming or torture or campaign finance, because he’s exactly the same as Bush on the war. They both don’t get the same thing. As long as we’re setting up shop in the heart of the Arab world, we’re not keeping America safer.

 

Bin Laden goes ballistic over cartoons in Danish newspapers, and Goober and Grandpa want to put up a Hooters in Fallujah.

 

They don’t “hate us for our freedom,” they hate us for our fiefdom. Winning the War on Terror comes down to this: what will make us safer from pissed off Arab teenagers who are willing to die? There are a number of good answers to that question, but occupying their land for the next 100 years is not one of them.

 

Some people look at McCain and see a tough guy who is going to protect us from the “Islamofascists.” I look at him and see a walking Tom Clancy action figure who is going to get us all killed.

 

And yet a new poll shows that a majority of Americans believe John McCain is the candidate best qualified to answer when that red phone rings at 3:00 a.m., because he’d be up anyway, trying to pee.

 

Yes, 55% of Americans think it’s McCain who should answer that phone, because they know John McCain is a warrior. He will not waver or hesitate. He will answer that phone and give the order that sends men to die ....and it will turn out to be a recording asking him if he’s happy with his mortgage."

 

Bill has plenty more to say about current events here: