Monday, September 15, 2008
I'm feeling political lately
With election fever consuming the land, it seems only fitting that my mind should continue down the political road. Today I was reminded that John McCain was an adulterer and that he allegedly referred to his wife as a "cunt" in front of campaign aides and media reps during a 1992 campaign stop. I was reminded of the adultery thing by some Photoshopped photos at Jill Greenberg's website. For those that don't know, as I didn't before today, Jill Greenberg is a well known photographer who shoots for magazines like The Atlantic Monthly, Sports Illustrated, etc and so on. Her homepage (where all of her McCain pics can be found) is here.
Apparently, ol' Jill got herself in a bit of trouble with the shoot she did for The Atlantic a few months ago. John McCain was the coverboy, and Greenberg is a militant Bush-hater, so when Bush's new best friend came through her studio, she decided to take a bunch of shots in unflattering light, which is to say she made him look like a film noir villain. Honestly, with the way this man has sold his soul for the sake of a shot at the Presidency, I think it was a fitting choice, if not very well thought out. Radar Online has some of the details here.
Thing is, John McCain once carried some appeal with me. He used to be a reasonable alternative to the militantly right wing nutjobs holding so much sway over the Republican Party. He even went so far as to speak out in favor of keeping Roe v. Wade on the books, until her recently declared that it must be overturned. He's done a lot of incredible flip-flopping for the sake of this election and is catching nearly no heat for it from Republicans, which is to be expected.
At this point, I have more respect for someone like Sarah Palin, who has a lot in common with the right wing screwballs that have made the Repiblican Party their playground. She's anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, pro-war, pro-free markets, etc. And I will give her credit for the fact that her son is actually an enlisted man in the Army. Normally, the most pressing danger to life and limb for a politician's son or daughter is drug addiction or drunk driving, but Palin's son is willing to put his ass on the line for what he and his mother believe in. That's respectable, but John McCain has essentially turned his back on the entirety of his political career, effectively divorcing himself from any credibility by continuing to refer to himself as a "maverick", for the sake of a shot at the White House.
He and Palin now admit that Republicans effectively blew over the past 8 years, to the point that they are talking about "massive reforms" and "shaking things up", but they accept endorsements, support, and advice from the same people responsible for nearly a decade of fucking up. They bill this political move as "change". Things have changed, that's for sure, but I do not believe McCain or Palin will bring any real change to Washington or the Republican Party. What they will bring is a weathered, broken, discredited war veteran with little gas left in the proverbial tank and a woman with some scary religious views and a history of taking money from the government, while claiming to have told them "no thanks".
Republicans are eating this shit up and it is looking very much like this election could come down to another clostely guarded, Diebold controlled, vote tally, which is to say, this will very likely end up being another tight Republican "victory". If that's the case, we may as well call it a game and give up, but it will be amusing to see what McCain might call Palin, should the two ever end up in a heated discussion. Maybe he'll score with her and leave Cindy for his younger, MILFish VP. Now THAT would make for some good photoshopping! lol
My favorite Photoshop job of the bunch would probably be the image below. Not because I fully believe he was actually stupid enough to say such a thing to a woman he supposedly loves, but because that smile, those wrinkles, and that creepy lighting are a golden combination. :)
In honor of McCain's abandonment of principles and integrity, I leave you with this most excellent song by The Black Keys. Enjoy. :)
Labels: politics
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If you think he's the only politician to change his views for a chance at the white house than you have lost your mind. Have you ever gone through Obama's voting record. I spent 4 hours one night going through it and any vote that had any real political reprecusion he generally just ignored and choose not to cast a vote.
Now, I will admit that I did also look at McCains and he just voed present a lot of the time too, but not nearly as much as Obama.
What will Obama do when he's presisdent and a contriversal issue comes up, just say, "Present"
They are all crooked as hell! There is no winning in this election.
When the only defense is "everyone else is doing it", there's really no defense at all. He's not the first, and he won't be the last, but currently, he's the worst. When a man flip-flops on something as polarizing and fundamental as abortion (he was pro-choice, now he's declaring that Roe v. Wade must be overturned), I think there's a bigger problem. I read an article that kind of put it into perspective for me.
McCain's first wife, who was a model and mother of his first three children(2 adopted, 1 biological) when he left for Vietnam, went through the windshield of her car and became physically disabled during his time in the Hanoi Hilton. When he finally came back to America, he had her and three children to take care of. Instead of doing that, he started sleeping around and had an affair with a much younger, and much wealthier woman - whom he married 1 month after divorcing his first wife. Cindy McCain is the type of woman that sleeps with married men...these are not quality people. The author posed the question: If McCain was willing to discard his morals and his marriage for a woman, what is he willing to discard for the White House? I think it's a fair question.
The Daily Mail, which is admittedly a highly biased paper in the UK, had an article about the whole situation here. Ross Perot (who knows McCain personally and even paid his first wife's medical bills immediately after the accident) summed it up like this:
"McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory," he said.
"After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history."
FactCheck.org has a more non-partisan, but no less unflattering article about the whole mess here.
Now if that's not a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is! lol
And no, I seriously doubt Obama will be an absentee President. Even if he took as much vacation as Bush, I'd still want him over a womanizing adulterer who can't make up his mind on abortion, on Iraq, on the economy, on ethics in politics (McCain was under investigation on ethics charges at one point in his career), and so on and so forth. Obama isn't the Messiah some Democrats make him out to be, but John McCain sure as Hell isn't the "maverick" war hero people are making him out to be. The more I learn about him, the more he sounds like a slightly conservative Bill Clinton with his time as a POW serving as a shield of protection against valid criticisms.
You can find just as nasty stuff about Obama on the crazy far Right side... http://www.theurbangrind.net/?p=2570
All this stuff has to be taken with a grain of salt. The far Left and far Right fanatics and haters will say anything, and they can even make it sound convincing. As you know, writing is a very powerful thing, especially if you go into it already having a dislike for the subject. It would make the words that much more convincing, but it is so easy to twist words and exaggerate the truth and make a person sound evil.
As far as why he left his wife, anyone who claims to know this answer is a fool. Who are we to judge, especially those of us who don’t know the hardships of what a war can do to a marriage. Even the best of marriages can be severely strained during and after a war… not to mention a marriage that has been separated for years due to being a POW and tortured. To expect that after that ordeal, the marriage could continue to be perfect would be CRAZY. Even from the wife’s perspective, things change. You learn independence, you learn that you can survive without him, you resent him for leaving you, to deal with daily life and its problems, you cry yourself to sleep every night out of fear of wondering if he will come home alive, you resent him for putting you in the situation that you have to fear for his life and all the while you are loving him and missing him like crazy. The soldier fears for his life, he resents his wife for learning to live without him, he resents the fact that her life still goes on without him and may EVEN be having fun, all the while missing her and loving her like crazy. It is a roller coaster of emotions that a lot of marriages cannot handle.
Yes, she was paralyzed and things weren’t the same, and that may have been a factor into the divorce, after all, with everything they went through, an added strain of a physical disability could have very well pushed the marriage over the edge. Does it make it right… not necessarily, does it make it wrong… not necessarily. BUT, to say he strictly left her because of her physical looks is an outrageous accusation that one should not make so lightly… unless they are John McCain.
Do we know how she treated him, no, do we know what went on behind closed doors, no. Do we really know if he is a good guy or a bad guy, no, for every person who doesn't like him there are 5 that do. I bet if someone were to delve into your past, they could find people who didn't like you and/or who didn't have great things to say about you. That is true for all of us, even Obama.
When it comes to something as personal as marriage and divorce… it is so hard and wrong to make any assumptions. I don’t condone cheating, I think a person should get out of an unhappy marriage before it gets to that point, but I can also feel for their struggles… sometimes. Example: Wife doesn’t like to have sex, EVER or maybe once a month (like it or not, sex is a very important part of a marriage) the man gets frustrated with this situation that lasts for years and he eventually gives into temptation. Now, like I said if he was unhappy he should have left before he got to that point…. But, what if he did love her and kept hoping things would change, what if he didn’t want to see his kids only every other weekend, etc, etc. It doesn’t make it right, but it does make it more understandable. Does every situation happen like that, no, some people have the best marriage and still cheat because they are just whores, but it is a very personal issue that makes it hard to judge because no one knows what goes on behind closed doors. Even with our friends, I don’t condone in any way what he did, but I will also not pretend to know what went on behind the four walls of their house or what his mental state was and/or is after the war.
I’m not saying all of this just because I support John McCain, I just finished an essay on Obama in my ethics class where I defended him for similar reasons. Someone was taking actual verbiage he said and twisting it into their personal agenda/opinions. I defended him because I didn’t know the truth, and until I do, who am I to say it’s true? It is a very slippery slope when we start to believe everything we read and/or hear, especially from the bias media and far Right and Left radicals. With the internet, blogs, etc. it is so easy to find information on the internet, but if you take time to take a step back you’ll realize it is people taking small known facts and twisting them to form their own conclusion. I would bet most things we read are just a fallacy.
Holy schnikes! lol
I appreciate where you are coming from, but there are a couple of things to note.
1.) FactCheck.org is recognized as a non-partisan, facts only website, and they confirmed the adultery. Was he sleeping with multiple women before hooking up with his current wife? Maybe, maybe not, but he was hooking up with his current wife before divorcing his first one. As you said, if he was unhappy, he should have gotten out. You know how I feel about adultery. If the man's word is no good to the woman he loved, I'm sure as shit not taking his word as someone he couldn't care the least about.
This isn't the only knock on McCain, but it is one of the most powerful for me personally. I'm not saying it makes him the most evil man on Earth, but it certainly knocks him out of the running for President in my eyes. I'd be saying the same thing if it were to surface that Obama was sleeping with his wife.
2.) McCain has a history of questionable morals, hence the ethics investigation earlier in his career. He's also flip-flopped on every major issue in this campaign. He was against drilling for oil in May, now he's for it. He was protective of Roe v Wade, now he's calling for its abolition. The economy is sound, it's in crisis, etc, etc.
3) The guy behind that Obama video is also behind this: http://www.illuminatipictures.com/ATIsm.mov
Yikes! lol
McCain's got big problems. That's not to say Obama doesn't have issues, but McCain is turning his back on damn near everything he stood for a year ago. And I just can't vote for a Republican after what has happened to the country over the past 8 years. The deregulating, free market dogma Republicans have been preaching for decades is destroying the economy today. 8 more years of this and we're done. I would vote Dem if Obama weren't their Presidential candidate in this one, but I think Obama brings much more to the table than he is being given credit for.