Slash and burn -- the domestic terrorism of the McCain campaign

In what the Huffington Post is calling "the voguish idiot question du jour," the mega-money Republican media machine (aka Fox ["Faux"] News) has been operating full bore to try to sell the American public the idea that Barack Obama is a closet terrorist -- or at least a "fellow traveler."

It seems John McCain has nothing more substantial to offer the American people than conjuring up chimeras -- a Tom Riddle (aka Voldemort) kind of pastime.

It isn't really just the Faux News disinformation and propaganda machine taking this tack but the entire Republi-Cain political apparat. Sara Palin -- whose capacity for reasoning and judgment barely aspires to attain the lowest common denominator of the 300 million residents of the United States -- is the point person, but Republican and "conservative" shills and operatives are out in force.

It is more than a bit much, and Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs finally employed turnabout to reveal the result of applying to Fox meta-propagandist Sean Hannity the same standard and "logic" he had been deploying against Obama.

Look around, you'll see what I mean. There's a rich vein of character-revealing conduct out there -- a treasure trove of indirect truth just waiting to be mined . . . in the body language of politics . . . the flow of electronic media . . . and the dew drops on the worldwide web.

Watch this fight on The View.

On the topic of domestic terrorism, it occurs to me that Timothy McVeigh was a Palin-style Republican . . . and then there is that small matter of the Alaskan Independence Party of which Sara Palin and her husband Todd were members as recently as 1994: Alaska First -- Alaska Always . . . "the fires of Hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American government" John Vogler, AIP founder.

And don't miss this review of McCainonomics and "the people behind the curtains."

On character, Jared Bernstein asks:

Why does McCain want to be president? Those who have followed him for years don't recognize his agenda, his tactics, his positions (e.g., the great populist regulator!). How could a man of seemingly deep conviction morph into this caricature? His campaign is empty, with no spiritual or intellectual core; its tactics have devolved into a series of crass surprises and Hail Mary passes.

and then concludes:

I get Obama in this regard. To get the country back on track, to reconnect middle-class living standards and growth, to rein in market fundamentalism, to rectify a series of unjust and even fatal policy choices, to restore America's standing in the world, he seeks to implement his change agenda.

But I don't get McCain. I hope the country doesn't get him either.

Sobering clues to a McCain foreign policy ....

This week two senior members of Senator John McCain's presidential campaign staff were forced to resign amid revelations that their lobbying firm took in hundreds of thousands of dollars representing Myanmar's brutal military regime.

Nevertheless, McCain's campaign is still headed by Charlie Black, who ran a lobbying firm that represented war profiteer, private security force Blackwater Worldwide, Iraqi "leader" Ahmed Chalabi, suspected of widespread fraud, Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko, and Angola terrorist rebel Jonas Savimbi.

Campaign co-chair Tom Loeffler used to represent Saudi Arabia.

These are documented facts and provide a sobering glimpse into what a McCain foreign policy would look like: coddling dictators, insensitive to untold human suffering, nasty and brutish, accepting of corruption, embarrassingly short of America's greatness.

Here are the sources:

"A Lobbying Firm and Its McCain Ties," MSNBC, May 12, 2008

John McCain's Lobbyist Connections," Public Campaign Action Fund

"McCain's Lobbyists in Trouble for Foreign Lobbying," Progressive Media USA, May 11, 2008

"McCain Aides Are Tied," New York Sun, May 12, 2008

"Obama Calls on Rice to Address Human Rights Violations in Saudi Arabia," November 19, 2007

"Saudi Arabia," Human Rights Watch World Report, 2007

MoveOn.org has a somewhat tongue-in-cheek poll on what McCain ought to do about this situation. Join the fun and express your opinion here.

And, of course, we can all Vote for Change and participate in the revitalization of democracy in America.

Stop the Fox virus

There's an epidemic of political smears that threatens to infect the mainstream media and undermine the health of our elective process. This video tells the story.

You can help fight this epidemic by signing a petition warning mainstream media to be more alert to the danger of compromised journalistic health. Sign the petition.

The video exposes the problem in a nutshell. But to fully understand the magnitude of the problem, consider the following:

Since June of 2007, FOX has spent months trying to smear Obama by associating him with selective quotations from Reverend Wright, as documented by the Media Matters watchdog group here, here, here, and here.

Senator John McCain calls televangelist Rick Parsley his "spiritual guide" and has accepted his endorsement. Here's what Parsley has to say about Islam and America:

I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed...

Bet you didn't know that. That's because Fox and the mainstream media have given it scarce attention, despite the profoundly disturbing implications of a statement like that from the "spiritual guide" to the Republican presidential candidate. Mother Jones has the full story.

Senator McCain has also said he is "honored" and "proud" to receive the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee, who has said that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for homosexuality, Catholicism is a cult and the "Whore of Babylon", and Jews are to blame for anti-Semitism. Odds are you didn't know this either, because it has been almost completely ignored by the big networks. At the same time, those same networks were putting heat on Obama for having been endorsed by Louis Farrakhan even though Obama, in contrast to McCain, had fully repudiated Farrakhan and rejected his support.

Fox's latest stunt is to give heavy play to the story about the McCain campaign's suspension of a "low level" staffer who had distributed an unauthorized video juxtaposing Senator Obama with Reverend Wright delivering the most inflamatory comments available without context. The Fox hit job is complete with two Greta van Sustern online polls, one insisting that Senator Obama is hiding something about his relationship with Reverend Wright, and an earlier one showing that viewers overwhelmingly took the position that suspension was unwarranted. In other words, race-baiting is okay is the editorial policy of Fox News.

Note: The earlier poll I cannot now find on Greta's blog. In any event, Greta's polls all seem to be overwhelmingly negative on Obama if they deal with him.