Money in the Bank

So my roommate asked me if he should take all of his money out of Washington Mutual when it was bought by JP Morgan Chase last Friday. I hesitantly said up to $100,000 of his money is safe, repeating the goverment's promises that I don't even believe.

I then stopped by my branch of 'formally known as Washington Mutual' at 5:30am on Monday on my way to work and all three of the ATMs told me they were not able to give me money. Good thing I had my 'emergency' $20 bill in my bag or I would have had trouble making it to my job.

These are crazy times and it scares the excrement out of me that I have to trust the Bush Administration to make it right. If Obama wins in a month and a half, he is going to be handed a worse situation than George senior left Bill Clinton. At least we saw Clinton steer that mess back into health, which gives me hope.

Hope Someone is Tallying the Lies, I've Lost Track

Sept. 24, 2008 | Salon.com |By Joseph Romm

If this election is about judgment, then John McCain should lose in a landslide. He said of his V.P. pick, "She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America."

We can judge knowledge by both breadth and depth. Palin lacks both. She said in the ABC interview with Charlie Gibson:

Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that's with the energy independence that I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.

FactCheck.org notes that this is "simply untrue." Instead of "nearly 20 percent," try "under 3 percent." On Sept. 14, Palin corrected that to: "My job has been to oversee nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas." In fact, as the Washington Post notes, "according to authoritative EIA [Energy Information Administration] data, Alaska accounted for just 7.4 percent of total U.S. oil and gas production in 2005." The Post gives her its highest (which is to say lowest) rating of "Four Pinocchios" for "continuing to peddle bogus statistics three days after the original error was pointed out by independent fact-checkers."

Just for the record, the statement is not true even if you replace the word "energy" with "oil." Alaska accounts for only about 13 percent of U.S. oil production. But the point is, you can't replace all energy with oil, as much as the "Drill, Baby, Drill" Republicans would like to. Palin made the same exact same overgeneralization in her convention speech, when she said, "To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of the world's energy supplies ..." Oil, maybe; energy, definitely not.

From Salon.com

What Do You Think of Our War in Pakistan

Sounds too much like Nixon going into Cambodia from our 'police actions' in Vietnam to me.

Officials: US Spy Drone Crashes in Pakistan

In Pakistan, the Pakistani military is claiming it’s recovered the wreckage of an American spy plane near the Afghan border. Pakistani officials say the drone crashed due to a malfunction, but villagers in the area say it was shot down. It’s believed to be the first time a US spy plane has crashed inside Pakistan. The news comes amidst ongoing US-Pakistani tensions over several US-led attacks inside Pakistan.

From Democracy Now!, Sept 24

US, Pakistan Trade Fire Near Afghan Border

In Pakistan, US and Pakistani troops have exchanged fire near the Afghan border. Pakistan says it opened fire after a US-Afghan force crossed the border. The US says its troops were behind the Afghan side. A series of cross-border attacks by US troops have heightened tensions between the US and Pakistan.

From Democracy Now! Sept 26

Afraid of Saddam Hussein? No, Police in the USA

North Korea? Burma? China? Iran? Sudan? Venezuela? Russia? Palestine?

No, the Republican National Convention, USA.

from Fear and Loathing: 2008 National Conventions

Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists

John McCain (right) with his former financial guru Phil Gramm,
who is credited with masterminding our present financial mess

Today's water cooler conversation, "My bank was taken-over, was yours?"

We are in the largest bank failure in US history.

My bank, Washington Mutual, the nations largest savings and loan, was seized by the federal government last night! I couldn't have said it better than Bill Moyers:

The big, bad government so despised in Wall Street boardrooms and Beltway think tanks has stepped in hoping to save Capitalism from the Capitalists.

I'm reading some hilarious emails from my right wing relatives trying to blame this on our 2 year old Democratically lead congress. I would give them more of my ear if they blamed Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Grabbing at straws. Funny they never mention John McCain's former financial guru Phil Gramm who is credited as the main player in this mess, by people who know more about our economy than the garbage coming from Fox News.

from the New York Times:

Thursday, in the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”

Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know."

Professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University and columnist for the New York Times Paul Krugman had this to say:

The general co-chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign, former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), led the charge in 1999 to repeal a Depression-era banking regulation law that Democrat Barack Obama claimed on Thursday contributed significantly to today’s economic turmoil.

….

According to federal lobbying disclosure records, Gramm lobbied Congress, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department about banking and mortgage issues in 2005 and 2006.

During those years, the mortgage industry pressed Congress to roll back strong state rules that sought to stem the rise of predatory tactics used by lenders and brokers to place homeowners in high-cost mortgages

Floyd Norris, the chief financial correspondent of The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, said this on Bill Moyers Journal on September 19th (you can video pod cast this by the way on iTunes):

I can only envision what the right wing would be saying if a Liberal Democrat had decided to nationalize the biggest insurance company in America. I don't think you would be hearing a lot of praise for it.

He went on to say:

It was only a few months ago that I had Wall Street CEOs complaining to me that their stock prices were so low because the press was mean to them, we didn't appreciate what wonderful business strategies they had...

Assistant business and financial editor and a columnist at the New York Times Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times said on Bill Moyers Journal:

The Ugly thing about this is, this is privatizing gains and socializing loses. So when things are going well, the managements make out, the share holders make out, the counter parties are fine, all the "private sector people" do well. But when something goes wrong, when decisions are made that turn out to be bad decisions, the US tax payer has to take on the problem. And there is something very wrong about that. Because all of those people that made all of that money are running off here into the distance, with the money, carrying it in their bags, and the United States tax payer is on the hook.

She went on to say:

I think that the free market idea, the free market constant mantra, that it would bail everybody out, or that it would operate in such a smooth fashion that you don't need the government, was absolutely behind, you know, the last ten to fifteen years of what we've seen. And I think now we very seriously need to question that.

I'm not partisan about this. I know Bill Clinton had his hand in the deregulation of our financial systems during his presidency. And I don't fully trust Obama can straighten this out (though I trust him and the team he will put together a whole lot more than I trust McCain/Palin. Kucinich, where are you?)

If you have trusted your home or retirement to our Republican lead government and our 'free market,' my prayers are with you.

Four More Years of Lies

I spent a morning in John McCain's Virginia campaign headquarters ghost-writing letters to the editor for McCain supporters to sign. I even pretended to have a son in Iraq.

"You can be whoever you want to be," says an inviting Phil Tuchman. "You can be a beggar or a millionaire. A mom or a husband. Whatever. You decide!"

The assignment is simple: We are going to write letters to the editor and we are allowed to make up whatever we want -- as long as it adds to the campaign. After today we are supposed to use our free moments at home to create a flow of fictional fan mail for McCain. "Your letters," says Phil Tuchman [ McCain campaign worker], "will be sent to our campaign offices in battle states. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Virginia. New Hampshire. There we'll place them in local newspapers."

Place them? I may be wrong, but I thought that in the USA only a newspaper's editors decided that.

From Salon.com

Writing is on the Wall

Your Vote Counts

Is Sarah Palin qualified to run this country? Vote at this PBS survey (<- vote here).

George Walker Bush is Truely Amazing

In his last General Assembly speech as US president, Bush continued on his White House theme of casting the UN as an irrelevant institution.

President Bush: “The United Nations is an organization of extraordinary potential. As the United Nations rebuilds its headquarters, it must also open the door to a new age of transparency, accountability and seriousness of purpose. With determination and clear purpose, the United Nations can be a powerful force for good as we head into the twenty-first century. It can affirm the great promise of its founding.”

from Democracy Now!

The Gall! The Hypocrisy! Is this guy so delusional that he is demanding "transparency" and "accountability" and "purpose" of an organization like the UN when he just did the opposite for the last eight years? But you know the real crime? Over seventy percent of the USA knows he is a liar and a large percent of those believe Bush, Chaney and Rove have committed serious crimes, but what do these citizens do? The majority complain about gas prices and do little more. Amazing. Truly shocking.

Listen to Our Veterans

Veterans Call for Bush, Cheney Arrest

In Washington, five members of the group Veterans for Peace unveiled a banner at the National Archives Tuesday calling for the arrest of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The twenty-two-foot-long banner reads: “Defend Our Constitution–Arrest Bush / Cheney–War Criminals.” The veterans occupied a ledge of the National Archives where they began a day-long hunger strike.

from Democracy Now! and Pacific Radio

In a press release, the group described the reasons for its protest:

Bush and Cheney’s serial abuse of the law of the land clearly marks them as domestic enemies of the Constitution. They have illegally invaded and occupied Iraq, deliberately destroyed civilian infrastructure, authorized torture, and unlawfully detained prisoners. These actions clearly mark them as war criminals. Accountability extends beyond impeachment to prosecution for war crimes even after their terms of office expire....

We are not conducting ourselves in a disorderly manner; our action is well-ordered and well-considered. We are not trespassing; we have come to the home of our Constitution to honor our oath to defend it.

from The Los Angeles Times

Will John McCain Really Bring Change?

Sen. McCain Defends $40 Million Payout for Campaign Aide

Senator John McCain has been campaigning to stop “multi-million dollar payouts to CEOs who have broken the public trust.” But on Monday, when asked on The Today Show about the compensation package that his senior economic adviser Carly Fiorina received after she was fired from Hewlett-Packard, McCain took a different stand.

Meredith Vieira, The Today Show: “But she left with a—I think it was a $45 million golden parachute, while 20,000 of her employees were laid off. She is an example of exactly the kind of person you say is at the root of the problem.”

McCain: “I don’t think so.”

Vieira: “The CEO—how can you say that?”

McCain: “Because I think she did a good job as CEO in many respects. I don’t know the details of her compensation package, but she’s one of many advisers that I have.”

Vieira: “But she did get a $45 million golden parachute after being fired, while 20,000 of her employees were laid off.”

McCain: “I have many of the people, and I do not know the details of what happened.”

From Democracy Now!

Socialism in America

Sweet, I thought I would have to exert all sorts of efforts to elect a far left candidate to bring Socialism to the USA but it looks like the Bush Administration is doing it for me. I just wish Bu$h Co. was there for me when my financial risks went south a couple of years ago. Oh, wait... only corporations get hand-outs under the 'free market' Republicans.

From Democracy Now:

US in $85B Bailout of Insurance Giant AIG

The US government has announced its second major financial bailout this month, agreeing to take over the troubled insurance giant American International Group, or AIG. At an $85 billion cost, the New York Times calls it the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank’s history. The AIG bailout comes just weeks after the government takeover of the federally chartered mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

From Democracy Now (July 9th, 2008):

In the latest issue of Mother Jones magazine, David Corn writes, “Who’s to blame for the biggest financial catastrophe of our time? There are plenty of culprits, but one candidate for lead perp is former Sen. Phil Gramm. Eight years ago, as part of a decades-long anti-regulatory crusade, Gramm pulled a sly legislative maneuver that greased the way to the multibillion-dollar subprime meltdown. Yet has Gramm been banished from the corridors of power? Reviled as the villain who bankrupted Middle America? Hardly. Now a well-paid executive at a Swiss bank, Gramm cochairs Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign and advises the Republican candidate on economic matters.”

From the 'fair and balanced' Fox News:

McCain was forced to fire Gramm, his economic adviser, after he called American a "nation of whinners" suffering from a "mental recession."

From the Financial Times:

In a capitalist economy, losers are expected to take losses and winners to gain. Private enterprise is best able to allocate capital efficiently and, where it fails to do so, markets make adjustments and capital is reallocated to efficient users. This basic tenet supports good and productive assets moving from the hands of weak players to stronger. Where this is not possible, the US system gives the government a hand in fostering that move through an efficient process called bankruptcy or reorganisation. This rule of markets and of law has always been the basis of our national supremacy in innovation and the reason ours was the world’s clear choice of a reserve currency. That was the world we lived in previously.

If it wasn't bad enough that my tax dollars are killing women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan, now my tax dollars are used to bail out out-of-control banks. America!

Bush's (America's) Third War

Don't underestimate the Bush/Cheney/Rove administration. With less than two months in office, it looks like they might just get their third war yet (or is it four, I lost count). Our tax dollars hard at work. Now we're fighting the Pakistanis... Wait, they are our allies, right?

From Democracy Now:

Pakistani Troops Fire at US Military Helicopters

In Pakistan, security officials said Monday that Pakistani troops had fired on US military helicopters and forced them to turn back to Afghanistan. The incident took place near a village in the tribal region of South Waziristan where US commandos in helicopters conducted a deadly raid earlier this month.

From the BBC:

'US raid' kills five in Pakistan

At least five people have been killed after a suspected US drone fired missiles at a village in north-west Pakistan, local officials said.

The officials said missiles hit the village of Baghar in South Waziristan, close to the Afghan border.

The missiles are reported to have struck a militant training camp.

The attack comes as the top US military commander met Pakistani officials to discuss increasing tensions over US attacks along the border.

At least six people were injured in the attack, said a BBC correspondent in the region.

A Pakistani army spokesman said the military was investigating reports about the incident.

From the Huffington Post:

Pakistan's public show of anger with the U.S. comes amid revelations that President Bush secretly approved new U.S. military raids in that country.

A former intelligence official told The Associated Press that President Bush signed the classified order over the summer. It gives new authority to U.S. special operations forces to target suspected terrorists in the dangerous area along the Afghanistan border.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the powerful but media-shy army leader, said a week after a deadly American-led ground assault in Pakistani territory that Pakistan would defend its sovereignty and that there was no deal to allow foreign forces to operate inside its borders.

He said unilateral actions risked undermining joint efforts to battle Islamic extremism and warned that "the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be defended at all cost."

"No external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan," he said in the Wednesday statement.

And Yemen doesn't want to be left out of the Middle Eastern American Hating club. From Aljazeera:

US embassy bombed in Yemeni capital

At least 16 people have been killed in an attack on the US embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa by a suicide bomber and armed fighters, the country's interior ministry has said.

A suicide bomber on Wednesday morning drove a car close to the embassy before detonating his explosives, witnesses said, leaving part of the building on fire.

Armed men then attacked the embassy from a second car, they said.

Six guards, four civilians and six attackers died in the assault, the interior ministry said.

A group called Islamic Jihad in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Should We Be Surprised McCain is Lying?

I'm really not sure what scares me more, the fact that John McCain is lying and distorting truth so much it is tough to keep count, or that I accept it as something Republicans do? After almost eight years of the Bush Administration's lies, I am used to being misled. It is what the US government does. When I hear the Department of Defense claim that they killed thirty suspected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, I instinctively translate that to mean something more like ninety Afghan civilians, including over fifty children (which was what Afghan officials are claiming happened in a US led air strike in the village of Azizabad last week). Ironically it seems a man named Oliver North is the one in the center of the lies this time. This now Fox News correspondent was indicted and then later pardoned in the 1980s for lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra scandal during on of our past Republican administration under Ronald Reagan.

Why are the left so surprised that McCain is lying? Shouldn't we expect this from these Rove Republicans?

She lies, She's Perfect for President (When Mc$ame Dies)

This from Democrats.com:

It is now thoroughly documented that Sarah Palin supported the $398 million "Bridge to Nowhere" when she ran for Governor in 2006, even though Congress cancelled the earmark in 2005.

She only opposed it in September 2007 after her final efforts to get $329 million more from Congress failed. Yet she kept the partial funding from Congress!
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/675/

So when Palin repeatedly says "I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere," she is repeatedly lying.

Palin first lied when she was introduced as McCain's VP choice on August 29. She repeated it on August 31, September 3, September 6, September 8, and September 9. All of these lies are documented:
http://thinkprogress.org/lies-nowhere/

Palin knows the truth, but keeps repeating a lie.

It is long past time for reporters to call Sarah Palin exactly what she is - a serial liar.

Religious Funda-mentalists

Every wonder why so many in the Middle East despise us (I know, many more around the world hate us but I'm focusing on this demographic)? Much of it has to do with our military bases on their land, yes. That was one of Osama bin Laden's demands of the Bush Administration: get US soldiers out of Saudi Arabia, and Bush did it. Ah, the bond between the Bush's and the bin Laden's... Now we have our countries leaders talking full on Holy War, The Crusades all over again.

My right wing relatives ask me why 'the Muslims' are so intent on killing Westerners. It's easy to criticize others but not so easy to look critically at ourselves. If the leaders of a powerful country were constantly threatening to attack the USA, might we be worried? Might we act presumptively?

From the Christian Science Monitor (September 19, 2001)

President Bush's reference to a "crusade" against terrorism, which passed almost unnoticed by Americans, rang alarm bells in Europe. It raised fears that the terrorist attacks could spark a 'clash of civilizations' between Christians and Muslims, sowing fresh winds of hatred and mistrust.

The Washington Post reports Bush said "God inspired me to hit al Qaeda, and so I hit it. And I had the inspiration to hit Saddam, and so I hit him."

"The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation," declared John McCain back in September 2007.

From the Huffington Post:

Comments Palin made to a group of graduating Wasilla high school students earlier this year...: "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

During that speech, Palin also promoted a $30-billion natural gas pipeline project, stating, “God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built.”

From the New York Times:

Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books...

Anne Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. “They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,” Ms. Kilkenny said.

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship,” Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support.

And as for commentary, Cintra Wilson's excellently written Salon.com article, though a bit angry and over-the-top in my humble opinion, can't be topped. An excerpt:

As a woman who does not believe what Palin believes, the thought of such an opportunistic anti-female in the White House -- in the Cheney chair, no less -- is akin to ideological brain rape. What this Republican blowup doll does with her own insides in accord with her own faith is her business. But, like the worst and most terrifying of religious extremists, she seems very comfortable with the idea of imposing her own views on everyone else.

Palin has also opposed extending hate crime laws to protect gays and lesbians and called for teaching creationism in public schools.

From the Guardian:

This is a woman who once addressed a church congregation, saying of her work as governor - transport, policing and education - "really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God".

According to the Huffington Post:

Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode."

In 2007 Palin signed a proclamation declaring "Christian Heritage Week" in Alaska.

Juan Cole has an interesting Salon.com article claiming Palin is a bigger radical than most fundamentalist Muslims.

Not scared yet? Watch this video:

Police State

Those freedom-hating, axises of evil countries who use the police to suppress democracy, stifle free speech and silence journalists - North Korea, Burma, Iran, Sudan... RUSSIA! Wait, these stories are from America! Did your news outlets report on these stories found on Democracy Now!?

Police Fire Flash Grenades, Teargas at RNC Protesters

Outside the convention Tuesday, police fired flash bang grenades and teargas at peaceful protesters after the end of a march led by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. The grenades are designed to produce a deafening bang and a blinding flash. Twin Cities police arrested at least ten people on Tuesday, bringing the total number this week to over 300. Dozens of activists jailed on Monday were still being slowly released last night. Democracy Now! caught up with a medic shortly after he was freed after more than twenty hours behind bars.

Medic: “There are still a whole lot of people in jail waiting to get out, and a lot of people are really uncertain about how they’re getting out. And some of them have various injuries from pepper spray and getting beat up by the cops before getting in there, just kind of uncertain what’s going on.”

Minn. Police Infiltrated RNC Protest Group

Meanwhile, the Ramsey County sheriff’s office has admitted it infiltrated and spied on a prominent protest group in the Twin Cities known as the RNC Welcoming Committee for the past year. Two informants and an undercover investigator posed as members of the group, which the sheriff’s office deemed to be an “organized criminal enterprise.” The RNC Welcoming Committee describes itself as an anarchist/anti-authoritarian organizing body.

Report: 40 Journalists Arrested, Detained at RNC

In Minnesota, a local estimate says some forty journalists were arrested or detained during last week’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The Minnesota Independent has published a list that includes Associated Press reporters, an AP photographer, a St. Paul Pioneer Press photographer, a New York Post freelance photographer, independent journalists, college journalists, and three of us at Democracy Now!—myself [Amy Goodman] and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.

Lawsuits Planned over DNC, RNC Protest Crackdowns

And legal and civil rights groups say they plan on filing multiple lawsuits over the crackdown on protesters at both the Democratic convention in Denver and the Republican convention in St. Paul. The National Lawyers Guild of Minnesota says it will sue police and city officials over tactics against protesters in St. Paul. More than 800 people were arrested during the Republican National Convention. In Denver, the group Re-create 68 says it plans to launch similar suits. More than 150 people were arrested during the Democratic convention. The American Civil Liberties Union is planning on representing Code Pink member Alicia Forrest, whose arrest became a widely seen video on YouTube. During a protest, a Denver police officer shoved Forrest with his baton, forcing her to the ground. Moments later, Forrest was seized and arrested by police officers as she tried to explain to reporters what had just happened.

Mavericks?

This from David Plouffe, Campaign Manager of Obama for America on the 9 of September:

Sarah Palin was a vocal supporter of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" -- the symbol of the Republican culture of corruption -- turning her back on it only after the project's bloated pork-barrel waste was exposed.

Their ad also claims John McCain has "reformed" Washington -- which would undoubtedly come as a surprise to the Washington lobbyists who are running his campaign and the special interests who have been funding it.

The most "maverick" thing about these two politicians right now is that they continue to support George Bush's disastrous policies long after we have all seen the damage they are doing to our country.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are ready to bring the change we need to Washington. They're on the campaign trail every day talking about it -- just today, Barack laid out his plans to transform education.

McCain and Bush DON'T Support Our Troops

For eight years the Bush administration has come up short on it's promises to our GIs who they put in harms way. John McSame is following in his footsteps. Don't take it from a liberal from San Francisco. Take 4 minutes and 23 seconds to hear from soldiers sent to fight George W. Bush's WMD war in Iraq. Promises were made and not kept. That is supporting our troops Republicans? And McCain is following suit. Actions speak louder than words.



From Brave New Films

McCain & Palin 'Stealing' Music

[sorry for the lapse in blogging, I sprained my shoulder in a bicycle accidentand haven't been able to post; but I'm back, mostly]

It's funny, as a high school filmmaking teacher, one of my biggest challenges is to teach students (11th and 12th graders) that just because you can download images or songs from the Internet without inputting your credit card information doesn't mean it is a legal acquisition of someone elses art. Looks like John McCain and Sarah Palin could take some time out of their busy campaign schedule to come learn something from my classes.

Back in February, McCain was playing John Melloncamp's “Our Country” and “Pink Houses” on the campaign trail. Melloncamp is a faithful Democrat and a John Edwards supporter at the time (that's a lot of 'Johns'). Melloncamp had his reps contact McCain asking him to stop playing his songs at his rallies according to Rolling Stone magazine.


Now People magazine is reporting that rock-n-roll sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, the backbone of 70's pop band Heart, have sent an email to the McCain/Palin campaign demanding that they stop playing Heart's "Barracuda."

"The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission," the statement read.

It continued: "We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored."

Even after the email, the Republicans continued to use the song. This also from People's website:

She and her sister Ann then emailed this exclusive statement to EW.com: "Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image.

"The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late '70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there."

McCain Angry at Palin Media Attacks

ARE YOU KIDDING!

A modern day Republican angry at personal attacks!!! The gall. This is the very definition of the modern day Republican party. I am beginning to realize that the GOP of Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld is not the fiscal conservative Republicans of my father's generation. But this is the very reason that Republican baby boomers should separate themselves from these "Family Values", war mongering, Evangelical, Neo-cons that are destroying the USA.

Palin's 17-year-old daughter has had unprotected, premarital sex and got pregnant, Palin's husband has a DUI as well as a violation of a fishing license. These are facts. Making these things public are taken directly from the Republican play book. Not pretty, but they seem to have set the precedent. I'm glad Obama/Biden have the decency not to follow this lead; our sensational media obviously has no such morals.

Oh, and Palin may have fired former state Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan for allegedly failing to dismiss a trooper who went through a messy divorce with Palin's sister before she ran for governor (search Troopergate). Seems like she maybe the perfect Republican choice for VP.

Experienced Military Pilot on McCain

If there is one thing I know about America's right wing, they claim to hold what experienced military people have to say as word. Here is a man who fought in Vietnam, who was shot down in Vietnam, who was a POW in Vietnam longer than McCain. He was awarded:

(2) Silver Stars
(2) Bronze Stars
(2) Legions of Merit &
(2) Purple Hearts

Listen to what he has to say about John Sidney McCain III:





The mainstream press has already begun to call out McCain for overusing his POW story. And it's cut across all political persuasions.

* "Whether he's deflecting criticism over his health-care plan or mocking a tribute to the Woodstock music festival, Senator John McCain has a trump card: the Hanoi Hilton. - Edwin Chen, Bloomberg
* "Noun, Verb, POW" - Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Monthly
* "The McCain campaign's constant invocation of the candidate's POW past is weird bordering on irrational..." - Ana Marie Cox, TIME
* "I think they are going to it way too many times." - Howard Fineman, Newsweek

This from Robert Greenwald and the Brave New team who produced this video:

Remember how Joe Biden got the press to refer to Rudy Giuliani as "A noun, a verb, and 9/11"? Well, let's actually take Andrew Sullivan's lead here and get the media to boil McCain down to a similar phrase: "A noun, a verb, and POW." Considering how often the McCain campaign invokes his POW story, isn't that what they're already doing?