Military Assaults

Sexual assault in military 'jaw-dropping,' lawmaker says

[Rep. Jane Harman, D-California] said Thursday that her "jaw dropped" when military doctors told her that four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military.

A government report indicates that the numbers could be even higher.
[...]
"My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military"
[...]
But when it came time for the military to defend itself, the panel was told that the Pentagon's top official on sexual abuse, Dr. Kaye Whitley, was ordered not to show up despite a subpoena.
[...]
"The Defense Department appears to be willfully and blatantly advising Dr. Whitley not to comply with a duly authorized congressional subpoena," Tierney said.

Here's more from Colonel Ann Wright:

Rep. Elijah Cummings joined Rep. Waxman in speaking of cover-ups. Cummings raised the cases of military women who had been sexually assaulted before dying in “non-combat incidents.” He spoke specifically about Army Pfc. LaVena Johnson, who was found beaten and dead of a gunshot wound at Balad Air Base, Iraq, in a burning tent owned by the contractor KBR. Her parents suspected that Johnson had been murdered and that the homicide was being covered up by the Army, which deemed the death a suicide. Cummings also spoke of Army Pfc. Tina Priest, who was raped at Taji, Iraq, and found dead 10 days later of a gunshot wound. After her family had measurements taken of her arms and of the angle of the bullet and found that she could not have pulled the trigger of her M-16 with her finger, the Army said she had pulled the trigger by using her toe.
[...]
Lt. Gen. Rochelle, the Army chief of personnel, reported the little known statistic that 12 percent of reported rapes in the military are of male military personnel.

[Representative Christopher Shays (R - CT)] said he had no confidence in DoD or the military services and their policies of prevention of sexual assault, and asked how recruiting will fare when young women learn that one in three women is sexually assaulted and when young men find out that one in 10 men is raped while in the military.

Leave it to a republican to be mainly concerned about how rape and sexual assault will affect recruiting.

Of course the rape and sexual assaults are not just confined to the military ... (maybe confined is the wrong term considering the incredibly low rate of prosecutions and even lower rate of jail time)... the American mercenary companies in Iraq have enjoyed complete immunity from any prosecution in Iraq, including rapes of fellow Americans.

They could have been prosecuted, it's American on American crime after all, but the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense refused to do so.

The most notorious and publicized rape by a DoD civilian sub-contractor has been Jamie Leigh Jones who was employed by KBR and was only able to report her rape by a cell phone given to her by a sympathetic KBR guard holding her captive in a shipping container.

And now that KBR thinks the heat has died down what is their reaction?

Iraq contractor bans cell phones for 'safety and security'

[...]
According to an e-mail obtained by CNN, the company issued the order to all KBR employees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait
[...]
In the e-mail, employees are ordered to stop using their cell phones as of 8 a.m. Saturday and turn them in to the company's human resources department.

"Any individual using a personal cell phone will be disciplined," the e-mail says. "Termination is an option of discipline. The cell phone will be confiscated."
[...]
A KBR employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was "not aware of any security breaches involving the use of cell phones" and that employees were not given any reason for the order.
[...]
"KBR has a communication system, but as with any system it does fail and we can only communicate with another installation by use of the cell phones," he said. "We pay for this use with our own funds."

So according to a male KBR employee this policy makes all KBR employees less safe, and they're willing to pay for this safety on their own dime.

I wonder what KBR employees would pay not to be raped? And I really wonder what KBR would earn if their employees can't report being raped. Golly, their shareholders must really be upset that KBR only made $48 million last quarter instead of the $140 million they made in the first quarter.




Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles

Genius:

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Seriously, there will always be a contingent that would vote Republican even if Josef Stalin was the R candidate for President. They could never be persuaded to vote D under any circumstances. Those folks will find this ad annoying and insulting. Good, they deserve to be annoyed and insulted.

Thanks, Paris. This is the most worthwhile thing you've ever done. Check that: probably the only worthwhile thing.

Plastic, Fantastic ... Man?

From a US study on Phthalates in 2005:

The Rochester team, who examined 134 boys, found women with higher levels of phthalate-related chemicals in their blood were more likely to give birth to boys with undescended, or small testicles, small penises, or a shorter distance than usual between the genitals and anus.

It did not take exceptional levels of exposure to produce an effect - abnormalities were found in women exposed to levels below those found in a quarter of US women.

And fast forward to today:

Lawmakers Agree to Ban Toxins in Children's Items

Congressional negotiators agreed yesterday to a ban on a family of toxins found in children's products, handing a major victory to parents and health experts who have been clamoring for the government to remove harmful chemicals from toys.
[...]
Phthalates make plastics softer and more durable and also are added to perfumes, lotions, shampoos and other items. They are so ubiquitous that in one 1999 study, the Food and Drug Administration found traces in all of its 1,000 subjects.

The measure had wide support in the Senate, but it bogged down in the House, where the chemical industry waged a costly battle to defeat it. The campaign was led by Exxon Mobil, which manufacturers diisononyl phthalate, or DINP, the phthalate most frequently found in children's toys. The company spent a chunk of its $22 million lobbying budget in the past 18 months to try to prevent any ban.
[...]
"Chemical additives should not be placed in products that can impact health adversely until they are tested and found to be benign," [Sen. Dianne Feinstein] said.
[...]
"There is no scientific basis for Congress to restrict phthalates from toys and children's products. With over 50 years of research, phthalates are among the most thoroughly studied products in the world, and have been reviewed by multiple regulatory bodies in the U.S. and Europe," [Sharon Kneiss, a vice president of the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry lobbying group] said.

Exxon Mobil contended that banning phthalates may inadvertently expose children to greater risks, because manufacturers will be forced to use substitute chemicals that may be even more hazardous.
[...]
The industry's position was repeated by Keith Hennessey, director of Bush's Economic Policy Council, who wrote to the Senate saying that a ban could hurt children.

OK, a couple of points here:
1) Why is Bush's Economic Policy Counsel weighing in on a public health concern?
2) Why is Bush's EPC parroting the exact same line that Exxon is?
3) Why is the the American Chemistry Council lying about the safety record of these chemicals considering the fact that Europe has already banned them?
4) Why is Exxon threatening to use even more dangerous chemicals to our children's health if these are banned, especially considering many alternatives already exist?
5) Why aren't chemical additives tested BEFORE they are put in children's toys?

The answer is simple: Bush, (who threatens a veto for this legislation), and all the lawmakers who voted against this bill, are hypocrites. They claim to be about family values and Christian morals, but they consistently put their profits over their prophets. The next time some concern troll cries "but what about the children!?" ask them what is in their baby's toys.

For more information please follow the actual links to scientific studies.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

I hear their gentle voices calling Old Black Joe

It's been quite a week in John McMaverickypants' campaign, what with his latest insulting ads.

Oh hell, here's the first:



Celebrity? Young, vacuous, slutty white women? Of course, serious Villagers like Ross Douthat don't see it that way:

That's the takeaway, so far as I can tell, from this Josh Marshall post, which starts with the dubious claim that this McCain ad - which Ramesh and John Weaver rightly call childish - is actually playing on white America's subliminal fears that Barack Obama wants to sleep with promiscuous white starlets, and proceeds to the claim that any pundit (like Milbank, say) who uses the word "presumptuous" to describe Barack Obama is just playing along with the McCain campaign's vile attempt to caricature Obama as an "uppity young black man whose presumptuousness is displayed not only in taking on airs above his station but also in a taste for young white women."

Um, no. One of Ross' commenters schools Ross:

If the McCain campaign burned a cross on Obama's lawn the usual suspects would say there was nothing racist about it and that it was just making a positive statement about Christianity and alternative energy sources.

The usual suspects swore up until the bitter end that Macaca Allen was not a racist. They lauded the despicable Jesse Helms when he croaked and insisted he was no racist.

Indeed. Many more of Ross' commenters share similar views.

Even David Gergen, hardly a Liberal pundit, gets the intent behind the McCain ad:

"There has been a very intentional effort to paint him as somebody outside the mainstream, other, 'he's not one of us,'" said Gergen, who has worked with White Houses, both Republican and Democrat, from Nixon to Clinton. "I think the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it, but it's the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows that. There are certain kinds of signals.

As a native of the south, I can tell you, when you see this Charlton Heston ad, 'The One,' that's code for, 'he's uppity, he ought to stay in his place.' Everybody gets that who is from a southern background. We all understand that. When McCain comes out and starts talking about affirmative action, 'I'm against quotas,' we get what that's about."

Yep. Here's the awful ad he's talking about, The One, in which Obama is presented to radical Christionists as the anti-Christ:



Jeez, how bad is this? Here's the full text of one of the Obama quotes edited out of any semblance of context:

"It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

Yeah. It's about America, not Obama. And it's Republican racism being used to disparage Obama.

In support of that argument is a commenter on the Huffpost piece about Gergen claiming race:

Gergen is from the south. Those of us that are of a certain age who grew up in the south can read between the lines. Obama elitist translated is Uppity. The two young white girls shown with him (Britney and Paris) translated is we all are afraid these black men are going to rape our women. Obama being a picky eater translated as who does he think he is someone needs to put him in his place. I am sorry that the south was ever that way. But it was and some people still feel that way and I think the message while subliminal was there.

Indeed.

Bastards.

Can't Hide

If you hesitate you lose. Check him out!

Update, from Steve: Here's a video of young Calvin Prior:

Come crawling faster, Obey your master, Your life burns faster, Obey your master

The Republican clowns in Congress held a little circus today, so they could dance for their puppet masters:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House, turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.

Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m., and they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.

. . . Right at the stroke of five Georgia Rep. Tom Price announced that House Republicans were ending their impromptu protest on the floor of the chamber, ending a five-plus hour rebellion with a round of "God Bless America."

The assembled tourists, aides and members in the chamber gave Price and his compatriots a standing ovation. They left the chamber to shouts of "USA! USA! USA!"

Never any actual intent to do anything productive. Never mind that the oil companies aren't drilling on the majority of the land they currently lease. Never mind that any new drilling sites wouldn't impact the American energy needs for 10 years.

Say, what about those oil companies . . . do you suppose they were pleased by the Repub stunt today? Why do you think I called them puppet masters? It's because the Republicans on the floor have taken more than $3 million in Big Oil money.

Member Big Oil $
Blunt $362,248
Boehner $185,000
Brady, Kevin $369,797
Cole $277,050
Conaway $487,418
Culberson $301,961
Feeney $19,600
Foxx $47,100
Herger $99,425
Hoekstra $13,025
King, Steve $22,450
Lungren $38,200
Manzullo $45,965
Nunes $78,750
Pence $150,950
Poe $128,650
Price, Tom $22,450
Putnam $70,300
Shadegg $119,495
Shimkus $184,161

(source: Open Secrets)

Surprised? Shouldn't be. Here's how some of those Republicans voted on actual energy bills:


Political theater? Yes. Helping Big Oil? Yes. Meaningful energy policy? Not so much.

Here's the real tell, also from OpenSecrets:

2008: Energy Co. Contributions:
Democrats: $4,796,968 (26%).
Republicans: $13,571,049 (74%)

Bastards.

And we are homeless, homeless; Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake

This would be good news, if 'twere true:

Chronic homeless population down 15%, U.S. says

But of course it's not true, it just reflects Bushco's redefining of 'chronically homeless':

In general, a chronically homeless person is an unaccompanied disabled individual who has been continuously homeless for over one year.

So to be 'chronically homeless' you also have to be disabled and without a family.

Bushco also redefined 'homeless', ignoring the law that already defines 'homeless.'
Bushco Law:

This is the third annual national HUD count, and in previous years, some cities had been counting families who were living two families to an apartment, for example, or those living in RVs, as homeless. This year, they weren't. This count, say the report's authors, is the most successful to date in tallying only those who were actually in shelters or on the streets — the official HUD definition of a homeless person.

Actually, if you go on the HUD website, their official definition is the same one that is established in federal law:

§11302. General definition of homeless individual
(a) In general
For purposes of this chapter, the term “homeless” or “homeless individual or homeless person” includes—

1. an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and

2. an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is —

1. a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill);

2. an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or

3. a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

That's pretty clear, and it's the only definition of 'homeless' on the HUD site. (Why can I Google something in 2 minutes that Time's reporters can't find in a month of research?[/rhetorical question])

And the Federal definition of homeless is pretty accurate, if it's not your home you are staying at, you are homeless.

Having been homeless a couple of times I can tell you it's really great to have family and friends that put you up until you can get back on your feet. But I was just a single guy and even then I sometimes wore out my welcome. I can't imagine what would have been my welcome if I'd had a wife and children.

And I really don't want to imagine what my life would have been like if I had no other place to go except a homeless shelter, or more probably an underpass or less elegant accommodation because all THE HOMELESS SHELTERS ARE FULL!

And it's just going to get worse. Between the record home foreclosures, bank failures, high unemployment and food & gas prices we're in for a bumpy ride for years after Bush and his minions are gone.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

And we'll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home

(Video showing McCain's real support for the troops)

The (Manchester) Guardian has a take on the latest Swiftboat McCain ad:

John McCain is portraying Barack Obama as a lightweight better prepared to walk a red carpet than sit in the Oval Office. A television advert released today links the Democratic candidate for president with two starlets of questionable reputation: Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

. . . It's unclear how effective the McCain spot will be. A Gallup poll released yesterday shows that 61% of registered voters aged 18-29 back Obama, compared to 31% for McCain. That would indicate a large segment of Hilton and Spears's fan base already plans to vote for Obama.

The Democrats today wasted little time in mocking the McCain camp for using the two women – most recently in the news for giving up custody of her children to ex Kevin Federline, in Spears's case, and for violating her probation in a drunk driving case, in Hilton's - in the advert.

McCain's ad is not only stupid, it's well, stupid. For one thing, it's not substantive, and it's pretty insulting to:

• Millions of Americans who voted for BO during Primary season,
  
• 200k Germans who showed up to hear BO speak,
• Nouri al-Maliki, who is supposed to be the most important Iraqi leader ever,
• Every American, Dem or Repub, who takes Presidential elections seriously.

That McCain's camp sees this as a positive attack shows a pretty shallow belief in American politics.

But that's no surprise, since they took this line of attack when BO didn't visit the 'right' troops in Germany. From Media Matters, a timeline of a smear:

At 7:42 a.m. ET on July 24, the German magazine Der Spiegel's online "Obama Live Ticker" reported that "Obama has cancelled a planned short visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl US military bases in the southwest German state of Rhineland-Palatinate." According to Der Spiegel: "The visits were planned for Friday. 'Barack Obama will not be coming to us,' a spokesperson for the US military hospital in Landstuhl announced. 'I don't know why.' Shortly before the same spokeswoman had announced a planned visit by Obama." Accusations by conservative bloggers and Republican officials -- echoed in the media -- that Obama was "snubbing" wounded soldiers or that he placed greater importance on "working out" or "shopping" immediately followed the Der Spiegel report:

In a July 24 Hot Air entry, posted at 10:50 a.m. ET, citing "Der Spiegel's blog report[ing] on Obama's priorities," blogger Ed Morrissey wrote that "thousands of screaming German fans at the Tiergarten take precedence over visiting Americans serving their country at Ramstein and Landstuhl. Maybe one of the networks following Obama could interview a few of the soldiers about how they perceive that set of priorities from Obama." Morrissey later updated his post to say: "Obama canceled a previously-planned stop to visit thousands of American service personnel, including troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan being treated at Landstuhl, so he could hold a political rally for Germans and go shopping in Berlin." Morrissey's purported source for this claim was a blog entry by ABC News senior national correspondent Jake Tapper that did not mention the cancellation of the troop visit or that Obama planned to go shopping.

In an 11:38 a.m. post on The Swamp, the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau blog, reporter Jill Zuckman wrote: "A Republican friend of the Swamp helpfully points out that Sen. Barack Obama seems to have time to visit the gym for a workout today, but not to visit the troops during his stay in Germany tomorrow." Zuckman went on to write: "Thanks to a statement from senior adviser Robert Gibbs, the issue seems to be one of ethics and propriety, rather than time." Zuckman quoted Gibbs' statement: "For the second part of his trip, the senator wanted to visit the men and women at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign." Zuckman also quoted the McCain campaign's response: "Barack Obama is wrong. It is never 'inappropriate' to visit our men and women in the military."

Politico senior political writer Jonathan Martin wrote in a 1:46 p.m. entry to his blog that Republicans were "smartly" attacking Obama over the Der Spiegel report, adding: "The optics here are not good: Obama has time to get in a workout and give a speech to a crowd mostly comprised of Europeans, but can't be bothered to visit American troops wounded in action recovering at a military hospital."

On the July 24 edition of Fox News' Your World, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) said that "one of the things that you try to do at least once when you've been to Afghanistan and Iraq, as I have, and as John [McCain] has many times, is to stop by Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, and visit the hospital there at Landstuhl." Kyl continued: "It is a tremendous experience, but a life-changing experience. And not to be too critical, but I notice that Obama had plenty of time to shoot hoops and do some things like that, get a workout, but he didn't have time to stop by there. And I would have thought that would've been something he would really want to do on this trip."
On the July 24 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, radio host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham said: "I think Barack Obama could have gone there and given a very pro-American and very strong speech. I don't think this was it. I think it was a good delivery. He looked great. I think the fact that he didn't go visit the troops at the military bases, and yet figured out how to have enough time to work out in the Ritz Carlton gym -- I think that looks really bad. I don't think that plays well in Ohio. I don't think it plays well in Michigan."

In addition to the statement from Gibbs, quoted above by Zuckman, Obama campaign adviser retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration issued this statement, as reported by ABCNews.com on July 25:

"We learned from the Pentagon last night that the visit would be viewed instead as a campaign event. ... Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event when his visit was to show his appreciation for our troops and decided instead not to go."

ABCNews.com also reported Gibbs' subsequent remarks to reporters on the Obama campaign plane:

"The statement that I sent out and the statement that General Gration sent out are consistent in that what General Gration learned from the Pentagon, that the trip to Ramstein and Landstuhl will be viewed as a campaign stop. ... The decision that Senator Obama made with that information was that we would not put our warriors in the position of being involved in a campaign stop. Therefore he made the decision not to make the stop."

[...]

"He could go as a United States senator, but it was pretty clear from the guidance that we received from the Pentagon that the trip would be viewed as a campaign stop. ... Given the information that we had received, Senator Obama made the decision that we were not gonna have wounded men and women become involved in a campaign event or what would be perceived as a campaign event."

By July 25, conservatives in the media began claiming that Obama had canceled the visit because there would be no media allowed inside the Landstuhl hospital. In an update to a July 24 entry to NBC News' First Read blog, NBC News chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski and Pentagon producer Courtney Kube wrote:

A U.S. military official tells NBC News they were making preparations for Sen. Barack Obama to visit wounded troops at the Landstuhl Medical Center at Ramstein, Germany on Friday, but "for some reason the visit was called off."

One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama's representatives were told, "he could only bring two or three of his Senate staff member, no campaign officials or workers." In addition, "Obama could not bring any media. Only military photographers would be permitted to record Obama's visit."

The official said "We didn't know why" the request to visit the wounded troops was withdrawn. "He (Obama) was more than welcome. We were all ready for him."

In a July 25 Hot Air entry posted at 7:21 a.m., Morrissey cited Miklaszewski and Kube's First Read post in claiming that "[w]hen Obama found out he couldn't use the visit as a photo op, he canceled." (First Read made no such allegation -- indeed, the military official quoted in the post claimed not to know why Obama decided not to go through with the visit.) Conservative radio hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh made this same accusation later on June 25. On the July 25 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh claimed:

LIMBAUGH: By the way, he canceled that -- two appearances yesterday with the troops in Germany, and you know what the excuse now is?

Aw, Jeebus, just read the whole thing. As a serious issue, and as journalism, it falls somewhere between a game of Telephone, and making crank calls asking if they have Prince Albert in a can.

But the Right take this crap seriously. Thus showing their un-seriousness.

Bastards.

I keep straining my ears to hear a sound, Maybe someone is digging underground

I spent my early years in the California high desert, in Victorville. In that desert, although not too near, were and still are lots of mines. Dangerous abandoned mines.

Blue Girl, Red State has this about that:

Scattered all over the western United States are more than 12,200 abandoned mines on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and National Parks Service (NPS) lands, many of which pose significant dangers and public health risks. A recent audit (.pdf) by the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior finds that not only are many of the sites a danger to the public health and safety, but apparently, because they were worried about liability and cost, supervisors told staff members to ignore these problems and that employees "were criticized or received threats of retaliation" for identifying contaminated sites.

To prepare the audit, the Inspector General's staff visited more than 45 abandoned mines. The report highlights two distinct dangers to the public - dangerous levels of contaminants such as arsenic, lead and mercury are present at sites easily accessible to the public; and immediate threats to public safety posed by frequently unmarked open mine shafts and crumbling yet unsecured, access points (see above). "The potential for more deaths or injuries is ominous," the report states. The office said a "limited search" of accident records showed that 12 people were killed at abandoned mines from 2004 to 2007. Go back five more years to 1999 and the number of fatalities rises to 33.

The IG's team found that many of the open shafts weren't even marked. Placement of signs such as this, that could warn unsuspecting hikers, ATV riders and off-road mororists that a mine shaft is in the area and there is the possibility of death or injury.

Population growth and the use of off-road vehicles in the Western states are likely to increase the incidence of additional deaths or injuries.



Some of the open, unmarked shafts are large enough to swallow up an entire vehicle.

Catch that? The BLM, a federal bureau, is ignoring the problem. Think this is a silly topic? Anyone remember Kathy Fiscus?

On the afternoon of Friday, April 8, 1949, Kathy Fiscus (born August 21, 1945 - died April 8, 1949) was playing with her sister Barbara and cousin Gus in a field in San Marino, California when she fell down the 14-inch wide shaft of an abandoned water well. Ironically her father, David Fiscus, worked for the California Water & Telephone Co., which had drilled the well in 1903. He had recently testified before the state legislature for a proposed law that would require the cementing of all old wells. Within hours a major rescue effort was underway with "(d)rills, derricks, bulldozers and trucks...from a dozen towns...(t)hree giant cranes...(and f)ifty floodlights...from Hollywood studios." After digging down 100 feet, workers reached Kathy Sunday night. After a doctor was lowered into the shaft an announcement was made to the more than 10,000 people who had gathered to watch the rescue: "Kathy is dead and apparently has been dead since she was last heard speaking." It was determined that she died shortly after she fell, peacefully, from a lack of oxygen in the shaft.

Lassie isn't going to save Timmy if he falls into a mine. It's time to not only reclaim the White House, the Congress, but all the regulatory agencies who haven't been, you know regulating, during the GWBush regime.

Banking/mortgage down the toilet? Check.

Big ass holes in the ground? Check.

Veterans living in filth at Wlater Reed? Check.

Oil profits at a record level? Check.

God, it makes me tired, oh so tired.

Oh, and can anyone figure out the connection with this video? Full disclosure: I played this in a band in '68.

Now would I say something that wasnt true?

The HonorableJohn McCain, who is famous for his straight talk has finally lied so egregiously that even the MSM took notice. February 2008:

When Stephanopoulos asked, "Are you a 'read my lips' candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?" McCain responded affirmatively: "No new taxes."

Fast forward to July 2008:

McCain told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview on "This Week." "I think that’s the way that Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill did it -- and that's what we have to do again."

When asked if that includes a possible hike in the payroll tax, McCain reiterated that nothing -- including such a tax hike -- is "off the table."

WTF! McCain's equating Reagan, a republican president who was responsible for the 3rd worst deficit in American history, (before Bush I and Bush II), with Tip O'Neill, the Democratic Speaker of the House who called Reagan "Herbert Hoover with a smile" and "a cheerleader for selfishness" and "am amiable dunce."

And if you call now you get this bonus quote:

[Carly Fiorina, a key lieutenant to McCain who was fired from Hewlett-Packard] "The reality is when an economy is slowing, if you raise taxes and you curtail free trade through isolationist policies, bad economic times become worse," she told reporters.

Maybe it's just me, but I think that hiring a person who's firing elevated HP's stock 7.5% would be a bad economic adviser, (tho she's vying for Phil Gramm for absolute worst economic adviser ever), especially one who thinks raising taxes will lead to a depression on the same day that her boss and republican presidential contender says raising payroll taxes could be a good idea.

UPDATE: Maybe the bloom is off the rose in McCain's love affair with his base. First up, a quote from McCain's latest attack ad:

The McCain campaign yesterday unveiled its latest TV ad, which hits Obama for -- among other things -- cancelling a visit to meet with wounded US soldiers at Landstuhl. "He made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops," the ad goes. "Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras. John McCain is always there for our troops. McCain. Country first."

Next a quote, (follow the link to video), from NBC's Andrea Mitchell, who definitely can't be called an Obama supporter, but she was actually there:

Andrea Mitchell said, "That literally is not true.

Let me play a bit of Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman reacting to that today… The point is he had no intention of bringing cameras. I was there, I can vouch for it. Why put up an ad claiming that's why he didn't visit the troops?" [MSNBC, 7/28/08]

Cross posted at VidiotSpeak