The Sliming of John McCain, Part II: Scumbags Strike Again

I'm no fan of John McCain, but one thing I will say for him is that he is a genuine war hero who suffered unimaginably for our country. Back in 2000, a scumbag named Ted Sampley harmed McCain's campaign by referring to him as a 'Manchurian Candidate' and an agent of the Vietnamese. These charges, both stupid and wrong distortions from an asshole with a long-time vendetta against McCain, likely helped contribute to his collapse in South Carolina.
Sampley was also the genius behind 'Vietnam Vets Against John Kerry' which he formed back in 2004 along with Gerard W. Kiley, another crazed scumbag. The two of them have teamed up once again to smear John McCain by distributing flyers in South Carolina claiming that he was a 'Hanoi Hilton songbird.'
This isn't just a lie, it's a damn lie, and these hacks should be ashamed of themselves, but since this is old territory for them, it is clear that they have no shame. Obviously politically motivated, they're attempting to do to him again what was done in 2000, and McCain, who served with honor, does not deserve to be smeared in such a way.
I'm saying this here because when I heard the story, I was furious. I hope McCain calls these assholes out on their filthy lies, but maybe he's just decided that they're not worth his time.
As a human being and a veteran, he deserves better than that...he may be wrong on many things, but at least he's not a chickenhawk like almost every one of the neo-con shitbags.
I'm glad that McCain won South Carolina despite these lying assholes. Good. Let the people decide based on TRUTH, not the pathetic accusations of paranoid and desperate men.
Information about this story can be found here:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/293/

They're worthless scum, and I will call them out on it whenever they climb out from under their rock.

I wouldn't be surprised...chickenhawk republicons hate our veterans, as Bill O'Rielly proved once again last week...

Just crazy assholes.

A lonely candidate for a museum...

He's a lying, psycopathic shitstain who is more of a danger to this country than Bush ever was.

These scumbags also went after Kerry in 2004.

i posted a thread about last week when SC was coming up because i knew Sampley would be involved. as much as i do not care for McCain i bet his victory was particularly sweet and vindicating for him after what happened to him last go round.

Yeah, I'm happy for McCain.
I don't want him to be their nominee, though.
Romney, all the way, baby!

i dunno if mccain is running a clean campaign or not, but it seems he's been playing a hell of a lot cleaner than huckster or mittens.

Here are some actual facts about McLame.

John McCain Hypocrite
by Doug Ireland

John McCain, the media's darling, has found a clever way around his own campaign finance reform law to take big corporate bucks in furtherance of his political ambitions while carrying water for the corporate mammoth providing the dough. But the national press is ignoring the story.


The Associated Press first ran the story of John McCain's odorous but lucrative Senatorial service to the communications giant Cablevision on the afternoon of March 7. But, while some local papers in McCain's home state (like the East Valley Tribune) have run the story, nothing has as yet made it into the print editions of the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, or any of the half-dozen other big city dailies I checked (although, if one searches the hundreds of AP stories available on the Post's website on its Politics page by clicking on "Latest Wire Reports," one can find it there--but how many readers would bother to do that?) One notable exception: the Kansas City Star.


Here's what the AP's investigation found:


McCain repeatedly intervened on behalf of a policy Cablevision favored -- one which "congressional and private studies conclude could make cable more expensive" -- while his chief political adviser, Rick Davis (who's masterminding McCain's probable '08 presidential rerun) solicited $200,000 in contributions from Cablevision to an institute that promotes McCain and pays Davis a $110,000 annual salary.


The Reform Institute was set up to promote McCain and his issues--especially campaign finance reform, embodied in the famous McCain-Feingold law. This Institute is "a tax-exempt group that touts McCain's views and has showcased him at events since his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign," and it "often uses the senator's name in press releases and fund-raising letters and includes him at press conferences," the AP says. And, of course, it provides a cushy sinecure with no heavy lifting for McCain's main man, Davis, as he prepares the pontificating Senator's next presidential run. Cablevision's contributions account for a whopping 15% of the Institute's budget.


http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0309-35.htm

his position on iraq is mind-boggingly nutso.
i just take issue with this one thing a couple of assholes did.

or what they're being promised

a ton of info about Sampley in one place.
http://bluenc.com/node/3783

i just found it and it appears someone did their homework.

i'll give it a closer read later

The Bushification of John McCain

By Ari Melber, AlterNet. Posted November 15, 2005.

The bad blood between the two men has been infamous since 2000, when Bush's campaign lied about McCain's family and war service, and McCain told Bush to "get out of the gutter."

But during Bush's reelection in 2004, McCain strained to embrace his former rival -- literally. In their first joint appearance, they hugged dramatically before 6,000 soldiers at a Fort Lewis rally. Those events made for great campaign visuals. Yet while most Americans saw McCain's big heart, Republican leaders saw hungry ambition.

Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative magazine National Review, recently described that campaign bear hug as nothing but proof of "the senator's presidential ambitions." Lowry argues it's just part of McCain's scheme to get "the Right to stop loathing him." In targeted moves since the election, McCain has continued his Bushification by changing positions on conservative priorities like creationism, gay marriage and tax cuts.

As the costs of Hurricane Katrina mounted, McCain went on national television and told Chris Mathews the Bush tax cuts must be maintained. But McCain voted against those tax cuts.

In fact, he was one of only two Republicans to oppose Bush's signature 2001 tax cut. Given the surging costs of Katrina, Iraq and Medicare, there is no policy rationale for reversing his position now. The only rationale is political pandering. And that's exactly how some influential conservatives see it. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, recently said that although McCain has "flip-flopped on a number of issues," he is still "anti-taxpayer" because "he's voted against every tax cut."

Yet the mainstream media is so attached to McCain's maverick image, most journalists didn't cover the tax reversal.


http://www.alternet.org/story/28266 /

an adulter. Which he admits to at least. Yet could you imagine one of the Democratic nominee's who had and extra marital affair at one time or another???
The party of moral values thats wants only the democrats to have to abide by and not get slimed.
Sorry its not about John McCains backround that bothers me. He is a warhawk just like Bush.

And this isn't trying to convince anybody that McCain is worth a vote. He's not.
It's just about respecting a veteran who served with honor.

you defending that SOB here on DU? Who cares what they do to someone who wishes to keep us involved in Iraq for 100 years??? WHY SHOULD WE CARE? HAVE AT HIM! That bastard is a Loyal Bushie...remember? Damn...this is as bad as people here wanting JOHN KERRY to make that bastard his running mate! Geezusfreakin'krist. The man is a WARMONGERING asshole and should NEVER be defended here.

Have at him...about FACTS. This is about a disgusting lie about his record in Vietnam.
I am defending him ONLY on this issue...unless you think it's OKAY for assholes like these guys to spread blatant lies like this just because you don't like McCain.
I may be a liberal, but I still think that a war hero shouldn't have to be subjected to this kind of garbage.
I said that about Kerry in 2004, and I'll say it about McCain in 2008.
Would I vote for him ever? Hell no!
But I WILL defend an honorable veteran against the unpatriotic lies of utter slimesucking scumbags.

Kerry was, McCain was a war criminal..

I can't believe anyone defending this piece of shit,
who just might be the Republican nominee.

McCain a war criminal:

It still seems absolutely outrageous how some 33 years ago -- on October 26, 1967 to be exact -- North Vietnamese agents traveled 12,000 miles from their own country; snuck into the United States; kidnapped the innocent American John McCain; smuggled him back to North Vietnam; and imprisoned him for five years.

Of course, in reality, McCain was the one who traveled 12,000 miles from his own country, invaded North Vietnamese air space on October 26, 1967, and was dropping bombs on that nation for the 23rd time when his plane was shot down. That's how he became a North Vietnamese prisoner.

No North Vietnamese had ever committed any act of violence on U.S. soil, or, until Americans invaded their country, against any American. Yet the United States rained death and destruction from bullets, bombs and chemical agents on that small impoverished nation for 10 years. McCain was an active participant in destroying that country, indeed, he volunteered to go there.

When he was shot down, McCain's bombing mission was to destroy a power plant in the center of Hanoi. What a perfect illustration of the essentially terrorist, war criminal-like nature of McCain's actions.

Torture is absolutely wrong, and to the extent McCain was tortured, his captors should be absolutely condemned.

And to the extent McCain bravely withstood his torture, he exhibited qualities of physical bravery.

But that only makes him a brave war criminal, not a war hero.

Because McCain dropped the bombs and Kerry didn't?
That's distortion. Kerry killed North Vietnamese soldiers, didn't he? He was an active participant in the war, wasn't he?

I guess you were not in Nam or was even alive and functional back then.
McCain came back and did what? Kerry came back and did what?

Now defend the Vietnam War....come on.....defend it
which it is what you are doing.

FUCK MCCAIN.

Don't be absurd.
I never did.
I hate the war, but I respect the veterans who fought in it, and suffered because of it.
And no, I wasn't alive back then.
Does that make my view illegitimate?

'But I WILL defend an honorable veteran against the unpatriotic lies'

'It's just about respecting a veteran who served with honor.'

Fuck he was not honorable and neither was the war.

McCain was one of the so-called "Keating Five" senators. He was investigated by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics in 1991 regarding the acceptance of favors from Lincoln Savings & Loan Association (Lincoln) and its owner, Charles H. Keating, Jr. Simply put, the issue was whether McCain and the other senators used their official positions to attempt to pressure Federal Home Loan Bank Board officials to go easy on the troubled institution. Eventually Lincoln went bust, costing depositors and taxpayers millions.

In its final report (November 20, 1991), here is what the Senate Select Committee on Ethics concluded about McCain's conduct:

"Mr. Keating, his associates, and his friends contributed $56,000 for Senator McCain's two House races in 1982 and 1984, and $54,000 for his 1986 Senate race. Mr. Keating also provided his corporate plane and/or arranged for payment for the use of commercial or private aircraft on several occasions for travel by Senator McCain and his family, for which Senator McCain ultimately provided reimbursement when called upon to do so. Mr. Keating also allowed Senator McCain and his family to vacation with Mr. Keating and his family, at a home provided by Mr. Keating in the Bahamas, in each of the calendar years 1983 through 1986.

"…rom 1984 to 1987, Senator McCain took actions on Mr. Keating's behalf or at his request. The Committee finds that Senator McCain had a basis for each of these actions independent of the contributions and benefits he received from Mr. Keating, his associates and friends.

"Based on the evidence available to it, the Committee has given consideration to Senator McCain's actions on behalf of Lincoln. The Committee concludes that, given the personal benefits and campaign contributions he had received from Mr. Keating, Senator McCain exercised poor judgment in intervening with the regulators without first inquiring as to the Bank Board's position in the case in a more routine manner. The Committee concludes that Senator McCain's actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him. The Committee finds that Senator McCain took no further action after the April 9, 1987 meeting when he learned of a criminal referral.

a crap about that bastard? They can slime him all they want. He deserves it.

as there would of never been anyone from the Republican slime machine or Media to defend Kerry much less Cleeland. Even Alan
Colmes let Hannity have it on this the other night. Asked him why he did not step up for Kerry. So how's it feel. Sometimes life just is not fair.............Ask John Kerry.

war criminal. He didn't serve "our country," he was an enthusiastic participant in a war of aggression. As for his captivity, he caused thousands as much suffering as he experienced. The sliming is of course vile. It should be enough to point out the intense cowardice that drives his lust for more war and more slaughter.

As for your take on his service, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

You said you see this cold-hearted murderer as a "genuine war hero." Unlike others who were drafted or otherwise conned into joining that murderous slaughter of 2-3 million people in a country that was never even interested in threatening the US, he wanted the massacres of innocents to continue even longer. And now he wants to do the same in the Middle East and who knows where else. His cowardice is so obvious in every declaration of one or another variant of the "kill them all" mentality that the kindest thing that could possibly be said about him is that he is an utterly damaged and depraved monster.

You called him a hero. The war machine and the transnationals also regards and spins him as a hero. You buy that shit and swallow it, but the thousands he maimed and murdered, and anyone who would not murder others for profit, will probably see him for what he was and is. A monster, then and now.

that have formed a group to attack Hillary with the same type of lies, distortions and rumors? Even if they are not...we will have the same problem if Hillary wins the election. I'll bet they can do a job initiating racial tensions too if Obama wins. Are we all doomed to this type of attack with 24/7 news and Utube? It's a damn scary future.

....good for one low-life scumbag to slime another?....what mcStick did forty years ago is old-business, irrelevant....

....what is relevant, is that he's too fuckin' old and would make a horseshit war-mongering president....how would mcStick be different from bushco?....

....as long as fascists slime fascists, hip hip hooray!

there's MORE than enough to hold against mccain that is perfectly LEGITAMATE!
why support lying scumbags?

filthy hands. He's fair game.

A real hero would not defend Bush's War! So what he's doing now cancels out any good doing in his past.

As I said before, wrong is still wrong.
But go ahead and defend those assholes.

In many of your posts and that is what pisses people off.

I don't care if he destroyed by his own kind.

ONE HUNDRED TO ONE THOUSAND YEAR FUCKING REPUKE WAR!!!

put a straight jacket on this ASSHOLE and TAKE HIM AWAY!!!

The kindest thing that can be said is he is DAMAGED GOODS...

or maybe he's going senile...
i have no idea where the hell he's coming from half the time, gave up trying to figure it out long ago.

Senator John McCain welcomed endorsements for his presidential bid from about 100 Reagan administration officials, including one who pleaded guilty and then was pardoned for his role in the Iran-Contra affair.


The aide, Robert McFarlane, pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress. He was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush, the father of the current president, for his role in the arms-for-hostages scandal.

``I am grateful to have the support of so many friends and colleagues who have all worked to build and maintain President Reagan's legacy,'' McCain said in a news release.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080106/pl_bloomberg/a3yr0li8kgi

Yes, his GOP cohorts played dirty pool, but in much the same way as I don't care how the mafia handles its internal conflicts, neither do I care how America's political mafia deals with its conflicts. The GOP will put up one scumbag or another and hopefully the democrat nominee with kick the crap out of them in the general election.

And the likelihood of that happening looks higher since all three of the main candidates this year seem to actually WANT to be president, unlike Sen. Kerry, who seemed to have only a passing interest in the idea...

in exchange for short term profits driven by cheap labor, how much more could a 'Manchurian Candidate' McCain do?

Eliminate all trade barriers to Chinese imports? Facilitate the shipping of critical/sensitive manufacturing capabilities to China?