John McCain Has A Temper,Say Many. He Is as Hard-Headed as Bush II Try this Google search to read other stories:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=McCain%2BTemper%22&btnG=Google+Search
"There's going to be other wars. I'm sorry to tell
you, there's going to be other wars. We will never surrender, but there will be
other wars." — United
States Senatorand presumptive
Republican presidential nominee John McCain
This quote scared the hell out of me when I first read it.
Of course, it's true. McCain is a realist, and I'm not naïve enough to believe that
man will ever stop waging wars. That's not what scared me.
McCain's temper is legendary. Don't believe me? Do a
Comcast Search on "McCain+Temper." He kind of reminds me of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman
from Full Metal Jacket. Dude drops
F-bombs in the Senate, called a high school kid a "little jerk," and
wants the Beach Boys to perform at the Bombing of Tehran. Do we really need a
Commander in Chief with a beef? At this time in our history, the last thing we
need is a President, blinded by rage, having a knee-jerk reaction to an
incident, foreign or domestic. Turns out I'm far from alone here.
In January, Republican Senator Thad Cochran, who has known John McCain for more than three
decades,said, "The thought of his
[McCain] being President sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is
hotheaded. He loses his temper, and he worries me." Cochran then endorsed McCain a month later.
Retired Army colonel Larry Wilkerson, who was former
Secretary of State Colin Powell's top aide, put it this way, "No dissent,
no opinion to the contrary, however reasonable, will be entertained [with
McCain]. Hardheaded is another way to say it. Arrogant is another way to say
it. Hubristic is another way to say it. Too proud for his own good is another
way to say it. It's a quality about him that disturbs me."
Now, before the cries of "liberal bias" come rolling in, note
that I have a lot of respect for John McCain. A United States
Senator since 1987, McCain served
our country admirably during the Vietnam War. A skilled naval
pilot, McCain was shot down over North Vietnam. He fractured both arms and a
leg, and then nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi.
He was pulled out of the lake, only to be beaten by locals and held as a
prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. He was tortured, interrogated,
lost 50 pounds, and his hair turned white. So who could blame the guy if he loses
his cool?
"My temper has often been
both a matter of public speculation and personal concern," McCain wrote in
his 2002 memoir, Worth the Fighting For.
"I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with
varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the
public's. I have regretted losing my temper on many occasions. But there are
things worth getting angry about in politics, and I have at times tried to use
my anger to incite public outrage. I make no apologies for that… When public
servants lose their capacity for outrage over practices injurious to the
national interest, they have outlived their usefulness to the country."
I will never question John McCain's contributions to our country,
nor do I believe he's outlived his usefulness. Nonetheless, his temper is an
issue to consider when voting for our next President. I, for one, don't want a President with a notorious
temper — one whose colleagues have called him "erratic" and "hotheaded" —hovering over the Red Button.
Message Edited by Kevin_Boyce on 03-28-200810:20 AM
Since 2006, private tax collectors hired by the IRS have been paid $86 million to collect unpaid taxes. How much have they recovered so far? $49 million! Yes, that’s right the same wing of the government that cleans out your bank account every year, is taking that money and giving it away to it’s contracted collectors, with getting absolutely nothing to show for it!
Typical government BS. Spend $86 million to recoup $49 million. There has to be a cheaper way to collect these unpaid taxes without breaking the bank? But as Keith explains, its not so important of how much the collectors recoup, but rather who gets to do the recouping.
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - U.S. President James Madison
"Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death". - Adolph Hitler
"If it is true that freedom and free markets are the keys to America's greatness, who poses the greater threat to Americans, Ben Bernanke or Ben Laden? If Ben Bernanke is a threat, what are the implications for George Bush, not just as the man who appointed Ben Bernanke, but also as the office of the President of the United States who has the ultimate duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States, which unarguably precludes the Federal Reserve?
"Here is what Thomas Jefferson had to say: 'Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies... [The] Bank of the United States... is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution... If the American people allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'" – Paid up subscriber of S & A Digest-Bob
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And speaking of Ron Paul, I’d be remiss to not post about his American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007 which he’s introduced in the House. His speech to the House upon introduction:
The Alliance For Democracy Joining Together To End Corporate Rule.
This partnership established by the executive branches of the governments of Mexico, the US and Canada is mostly unknown to the majority of Americans. Yet it has dire consequences for them economically, environmentally and socially. Watch the slide show below to become informed. Send on to others to help educate the country.
Mary White Threats to Our Communities & Our Water: SPP, Super-Corridors, NAFTA
Thousands of citizens from across Massachusetts and beyond are coming to Boston to demand action from their elected representatives and learn effective tools and strategies to utilize in their communities. Citizens will engage in a weekend full of activities, including workshops on climate organizing, city/town break-out sessions around Green Jobs, and Soul Purpose Live: an afternoon rally on the Boston Common complete with music, activism, and leadership. The weekend will culminate on Monday with a lobbying push at the State House to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act and set Massachusetts as a national and global model by reducing Massachusetts' Greenhouse Gas Emissions 80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050, and 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 (in keeping with what scientists say we need to do in the developed world in order to avoid the worst consequences of Climate Change).
George W. Bush and
the World Trade Center
George W. Bush says it alright to use the images of 9-11 in the 2004 election because voters needed to remember his leadership during that time. After 4 years I finally agree with him on something. So lets look.....
Before 9-11
WASHINGTON (AP) -
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, said in a speech six months before the Sept. 11 attacks that the Bush administration was "paying no attention" to terrorism. "What they will do is stagger along until there's a major incident and then suddenly say, 'Oh my God, shouldn't we be organized to deal with this,'" Bremer said at a McCormick Tribune Foundation conference on terrorism on Feb. 26, 2001. Source:AP "Frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know. . . I think the way he has responded to al-Qaeda, both before 9/11 by doing nothing, and by what he's done after 9/11 has made us less safe, absolutely. I think he's done a terrible job on the war against terrorism."
White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke Clarke worked on conterterrorism under Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II In Bob Woodward's "Bush at War," the president himself acknowledged that Osama bin Laden had not been a central focus in the eight months before the attacks. "I was not on point," Mr. Bush was quoted in the book as saying. "I have no hesitancy about going after him. But I didn't feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling."
*WHITE HOUSE, 4/01: FOCUS ON BIN LADEN "A MISTAKE"* A previously forgotten report from April 2001 (four months before 9/11) shows that the Bush Administration officially declared it "a mistake" to focus "so much energy on Osama bin Laden." The report directly contradicts the White House's continued assertion that fighting terrorism was its "top priority" before the 9/11 attacks (1). Specifically, on April 30, 2001, CNN reported that the Bush Administration's release of the government's annual terrorism report contained a serious change: "there was no extensive mention of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden" as there had been in previous years. When asked why the Administration had reduced the focus, "a senior Bush State Department official told CNN the U.S. government made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden." (2). The move to downgrade the fight against Al Qaeda before 9/11 was not the only instance where the Administration ignored repeated warnings that an Al Qaeda attack was imminent (3). Specifically, the Associated Press reported in 2002 that "President Bush's national security leadership met formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks yet terrorism was the topic during only two of those sessions" (4). Meanwhile, Newsweek has reported that internal government documents show that the Bush Administration moved to "de-emphasize" counterterrorism prior to 9/11 (5). When "FBI officials sought to add hundreds more counterintelligence agents" to deal with the problem, "they got shot down" by the White House.
Sources: 1. Press Briefing by Scott McClellan, 03/22/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1211298&l=24793. 2. CNN, 04/30/2001. 3. Bush Was Warned of Hijackings Before 9/11; Lawmakers Want Public Inquiry, ABC News, 05/16/2002, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1211298&l=24794. 4. Top security advisers met just twice on terrorism before Sept. 11 attacks", Detroit News, 07/01/2002, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1211298&l=24795. 5. Freedom of Information Center, 05/27/2002, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1211298&l=24796.
