Your Daily Politics Video Blog: John McCain's got so much experience in dealing with rogue regimes that he's got the rogue regimes' lobbyists running his campaign.

http://www.veracifier.com/episode/TPM_20080325

John McCain is asked why he voted against a law creating a national MLK holiday in 1983. He responds "I changed my view a very short time after," which is not even remotely the truth.. unless by "short time" he meant "11 years."

John McCain opposed a state MLK holiday in 1987, a new MLK Federal holiday in 1989, and funding for commission encouraging recognition of a holiday in 1994.

John McCain is running solely on his military record, yet knows nothing about the new GI Bill that would provide tuition money for soldiers.

More at therealnews.com The Real News Network does a first take on McCain's foreign policy . 

The Real Story is a test of a new format for The Real News Network. More like a television show, we plan to make this a regular feature of our future programming. Please let us know what you think. If you like it, the best way to say so, is with a donation. Thank you for watching!

Robert Lopez served 8 years in our military, fighting in Iraq as a tank commander.  He was told he'd get his whole education bill paid for when he got out of the service, but like so many others, Mr. Lopez has faced the bleak reality of a government that has turned its back on its veterans.

That is why Senators Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel proposed the new GI Bill, which would bring back WWII-style standards of providing vets with full tuition, room and board.  And that is why 51 senators have signed on, including 9 Republicans like John Warner, giving this GI Bill tremendous bipartisan support.

But it isn't enough.  Faced with unprecedented filibusters, the only way to ensure Senate passage of the GI Bill is to get 60 co-sponsors. So far, John McCain has refused.  The same McCain who insists he supports our troops.  The same McCain who is voting lockstep with the Bush administration (who have also resisted this bill).  We need to get John McCain to lead — to sign now and signal to other Republican leaders that we should be strongly behind our vets.

Robert Lopez thinks John McCain ought to stand in his shoes to know how difficult it is to be a vet and have to pay staggering education costs.  THIS is your call to arms.  Pass the video along and implore your friends to sign the petition.

Vote Vets, WesPAC, and Brave New Films feel passionately about giving our veterans the support they rightly deserve.  Our government owes our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan the opportunity to receive full educational benefits.  These patriots have fought hard for our government; it's time our government started fighting hard for them.

From JedReport:

Last fall, John McCain said that he wanted a Christian to be president because he felt that the Christian faith was a better guide than other faiths. He also said that his faith was an important part of his qualification to lead, adding that the United States Constitution established America as a Christian nation.

Leave aside for the moment whether John McCain's religious bigotry is acceptable in modern America.

Instead, ask yourself what the media would have done if Jeremiah Wright had uttered those words, especially if he had been talking about race instead of religion?

Americans United for Change just released this video.  There's no denying the similarities between Bush and McCain.  And there's no denying that we're headed into a recession, whether or not you believe our "fundamentals are strong."

 

Watch more of this stuff at www.theyoungturks.com

At a town-hall meeting in Texas on Friday, corporate lobbyists best friend John McCain decided to emphasize his support for NAFTA. That's fine John, that’s certainly your right to embrace a treaty that has cost thousands of American jobs. But do you have to lie when you do so?

McCain said in his comments that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement which would jeopardize crucial military support from Canada.

We need our Canadian friends, and we need their continued support in Afghanistan. So what do we do? The two Democratic candidates for president say they're going to unilaterally abrogate NAFTA.

What happened to that straight talk John, you’re in danger of losing your street cred. Too many martinis with the K street boys? Or perhaps lingering senior naps in the sweltering Arizona sun haved dulled your senses. The truth, is that neither Clinton or Obama said they would abrogate NAFTA. You see, the word abrogate means to abolish or repeal and they never said such a thing.

What Obama and Clinton actually said, was that they would "renegotiate" NAFTA and would threaten to opt out of the agreement unless Canada and Mexico come to the negotiating table. Here are their exact quotes. Clinton then Obama.

I will say we will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it, and we renegotiate on terms that are favorable to all of America.

I will make sure that we renegotiate. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced.

Tell the truth John and while you're at it, tell the people of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas why you don't give a damn about them losing their jobs.

From Republican presidential debate 10/9/07...

Media Matters just posted a very thorough piece on McCain's lobbyist ties, complete with gems like these:

• Lobbyist fundraisers. Two of the co-chairmen of McCain's national finance committee were registered to lobby Congress as of year-end 2007 (the latest disclosure data available), and a third previously lobbied Congress. Another co-chairmen is one of Florida's "most powerful lobbyists" (St. Petersburg Times, 10/1/06).
  

• Lobbyist advisers and staffers. At least 24 McCain staffers or advisers were either registered to lobby Congress (as of year-end 2007) or were previously lobbyists, according to a Media Matters review.

The report goes on to dissect the media's love with "the straight-talking maverick."  The mainstream press has tried to paint McCain as the anti-lobbyist candidate, but as HuffPo political editor Thomas Edsall reported,  the McCain's campaign has "11 current or former lobbyists working for or advising McCain, at least double the number in any other [presidential] campaign."  And this just scratches the surface...

McCain has surrounded himself with lobbyists at every level of his campaign.

Well, as if we needed any further convincing about how disastrous a president John McCain would be, here’s some more ammo for that special dinner with your conservative friends. It turns out no one is less green than John McCain.

According to the latest League Of Conservation Voters Scorecard, McCain missed every single crucial environmental vote in 2007, garnering him a big fat score of ZERO!  You read that right, a ZERO! To make matters even worse, McCain scored lower than every other single member of Congress, all 535 of them, including those who were out for much of the year due to serious Illnesses and even lower than some who died during their term. Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director said this on the subject,

We were appalled two weeks ago when John McCain was the only Senator who chose to skip a crucial vote on the future of clean energy in America, dooming the measure to fail by just a single vote.  As it turns out, this was merely the most recent example of a clear pattern of missing the most important votes on energy and the environment, as his abysmal score clearly demonstrates. The reality is that McCain missed votes that would have saved his constituents almost $499 million dollars at the pump and at least $550 million on their energy bills, while creating more than 10,000 new clean energy jobs in his home state.

John McCain's often talks about his concern for the environment; well this exposes the real record behind his rhetoric, and its an abysmal one.

No shocker here, but is there actually a coherent Bush agenda? You know, besides enriching his friends and making more families mourn over lost children in a war based on lies?

Oh, I answered my own question I guess....

PS Rove just gave Mccain $2,300. So there's that too...

Here it is, in all it's disrespectful glory.....

Even funnier that it happened as he pandered and pulled away from his previous position on immigration (it's now all about border control, not "free trade," the resulting conditions in Mexico and most importantly unscrupulous, largely REPUBLICAN business owners who employ undocumented workers).

Oh, and thanks for stopping your misuse of Mr. Mellencamp's songs (kinda reminds you of his idol Ronnie and Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA).

Thanks to the casting sensibility of Arianna Huffington, we learned that John McCain has been channeling Dr. Strangelove!  Duly inspired, Phillip and our Issues 2008 team jumped into action, and 24 hours later, here's the video!

Pass it far and wide and pitch us your casting ideas for John McCain in the comments.

I don't think so. Nice Try Johnny on the wrong spot...

Watch the video!

Seriously, I thought John might have been actually entering the Elysian Fields he looked so bad during this thing. I hope they had a gurney at the ready just in case. Hell, I half expected them to come out for him and to hear him utter "I'm not quite dead yet, sir."

A good metaphor for Republicanism and conservative ideas in general. 

Stolen via Kagro X. This shuffled down the DKos page too fast last night because of the debate threads.

According to Wilford Brimley, voting for John McCain is the right thing to do.

"Wilford Brimley is our response to Chuck Norris," McCain said on his campaign bus. "He's huge in every way."

Really? Guess Bob Barker was busy, Grandpa Munster and Orville Redenbacher are dead and Abe Vigoda only does O'Brien.

Tim Russert interviewed John McPain on Press the Meat. Once again, here are my patented, award-winning, internationally-recognized quick-notes that come with the following disclaimer: They're notes, not transcripts. Anything in quotes is a quote. Anything not in quotes is paraphrased. Both are representative, but not all-inclusive. For that, go to the NBC transcript. These are highlights. Disclaimer over.

On Bush: I criticize him but we haven't had another attack since 9/11. "He unites us." It's all Rummy's fault, because I don't want to be too harsh on Bush.

On tax cuts:  "I was a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution." Tim: But you voted against tax cuts. McPain: We need to make tax cuts permanent. We also need spending cuts. Tim: But your vote didn't include spending cuts. McP: Non-responsive. Mentioned Reagan again.

On immigration: "No one can be rewarded for illegal behavior." "You round 'em up and you find 'em...What's the choice?"  Secure the borders, fine them, have a temporary worker program along with tamper-proof [?] biometric I.D. systems and electronic documentation. I "won't deport 80-year-old grandmothers."  

On Willard Romney:  "He's a good man...a good family man...He's changed his position on nearly every major issue."  This isn't personal. Tim: Would you support him if he won? McP: I'd support the nominee of my party. And I won't run as an Independent.

On Osama Bin Laden and Musharraf: "I'll get him." We passed up opportunities. I'll improve human intelligence...Blending them into the culture isn't easy. Musharraf and I "have a relationship that goes back years." "Sure he can be trusted!...He's a good man!" He "made mistakes!" "He's a very smart man."

On Iraq and his 100-year remark:  "If Americans aren't dying" it's fine to stay in Iraq. "It's not American presence, it's American casualties" that bother Americans. Tim: So permanent bases are acceptable? McP: "If necessary."  Re, the surge: "I was right."

On voting to authorize the war: Hussein was still a threat, U.S. planes were shot at every day [here's why]. "It wasn't whether we went in, my friend, it was how it was handled." I'd still go in. "The 'war', the mission was not a mistake. The handling was a mistake." 

Did I mention I have a lot of experience?