The Iseman Cometh...

"He [John McCain] has criticized the cozy ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, but is relying on corporate lobbyists to donate their time running his presidential race and recently hired a lobbyist to run his Senate office. "

Sorry folks, I just couldn't resist this most obvious of puns stemming, of course, from the revelation in this morning's NYTimes that John "Methuselah" McCain may have been cheating on Cindy Lou "Beer Fortune" Hensley McCain, back during the 2000 elections. This is likely not the most salient issue of the McCain breaking scandal - it is rather the ethics violations that may give old man McCain problems. It is reminiscent of the Keating Five Scandal that erupted back in the 1980s. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain received approximately $112,000 in political contributions from Charles Keating Jr. and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife and her father, James Hensley, had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family and baby-sitter made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. After learning Keating was in trouble over Lincoln, McCain paid for the air trips totaling $13,433.

The facts surrounding the present McCain scandal revolve around a lobbyist, Vicki Iseman. "The lobbyist, a partner at the firm Alcalde & Fay, represented telecommunications companies for whom Mr. McCain’s commerce committee was pivotal. Her clients contributed tens of thousands of dollars to his campaigns."

"A champion of deregulation, Mr. McCain wrote letters in 1998 and 1999 to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to uphold marketing agreements allowing a television company to control two stations in the same city, a crucial issue for Glencairn Ltd., one of Ms. Iseman’s clients. He introduced a bill to create tax incentives for minority ownership of stations; Ms. Iseman represented several businesses seeking such a program. And he twice tried to advance legislation that would permit a company to control television stations in overlapping markets, an important issue for Paxson."

Raine's FourFreedomsBlog - Is this McCain's blowjob?

Rick Renzi, Arizona co-chairman of Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, indicted.

Obama, Independents, and Republicans

Another Old White Guy Who is Voting for Obama

Dear Stephanie,
I guess that you are not the only one listening to right-wing radio, so we don't have to. Apparently a co-worker - sick of NPR's coverage of the steroid hearings in Congress - tuned into Rush Limbaugh on his way back to the library from lunch yesterday and relayed the following story to me: Rush took a caller who started his tirade with the usual "I've been a life-long conservative BS..." then he added a twist that just about made Rush apoplectic - the caller went on to say, "I'm voting for Barack Obama, 'cuz John McCain and Barack Obama is both liberals, but I would rather vote for the guy who is honest about his position..." This comment apparently shocked Rush into momentary stunned silence. Just thought you might enjoy hearing about the new constituency from which Obama is culling some votes - ain't it grand???

This is not a unique story, rather just about everyone who is paying any attention to politics these days can tell a similar tale - a story about a brother, a father, a formerly right-wing relative or friend who has decided to throw her/his lot in with Obama. This is significant because these are the folks who are likely to decide the next election, independents and moderate republicans, and the fact that they are impressed by Barack Obama should make every true Democrat sit up and take notice. Mind you, I have not heard one single moderate republican or independent voter make a similar comment about Hillary Clinton, in fact, just the opposite is often heard when Senator Clinton's name is mentioned. The response typically goes something like this: "If the race comes down to a choice between Hillary Clinton and John McCain, I'm voting for McCain." Case closed - we cannot risk another 4 (or worse 8) years of a republican administration, an administration that has promised to keep the U.S. in Iraq for another hundred years, an administration that is chomping at the bit to bomb Iran, an administration that is so out of touch with the American people that it has promised to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this country while the middle-class languishes, mired in debt and struggling to pay their bills.

This is simply not an acceptable option, I cannot entertain any scenario that may lead us to this disaster. Right or wrong, that is the frightening future that a Hillary nomination promises, and it is a risk I am not willing to take with my future or the future of this country, and the planet. The sooner the Clintons realize that their time is past, passe, over and done with, the better we will all be. The sooner we can move on with a real campaign that has already ignited the country and promises to take the nation by storm, the sooner we can reach that better tomorrow that lies just ahead of us, just around the bend. Viva Obama!

The Cost of Poverty

"To be poor in America today, even more than in the past, is to be an outcast in your own country. And that, the neuroscientists tell us, is what poisons a child’s brain."


(Photo by Aaron Huey, Igloo Housing Neighborhood - Pine Ridge, SD)

Paul Krugman's column , Poverty is Poison, this morning made me cry, not tears for myself which I have shed far too many lately, but tears for my country, this world, for every child that goes to bed hungry, or sleeps on a friend of his/her parents' couch or floor, for every child who does not know when her/his mommy or daddy will come home or what kind of mood that parent will be in whenever he/she arrives home. My tears were for a country that allows children to experience this kind of stress on a regular enough basis that the toll it takes is not only mental, emotional, but also physical. It turns out that poverty is more than a shame and a disgrace, it turns out that poverty is also toxic. It turns out that poverty causes neurological damage to young minds, damage that follows that person through the rest of her/his life. It impacts that person's memory and mental development and the damage is permanent.


(Photo by Aaron Huey, Trailer Home, North Ridge, Pine Ridge Village)

Is it any wonder that children who grow up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (one of the poorest communities in the country) suffer throughout their lives from the wounds and scars of growing up poor, and have a difficult, if not impossible time, breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and hopelessness? Unemployment is rampant (rumored to be somewhere between 50 - 85%), alcohol and drug abuse is pervasive, domestic violence (often a result of the twin problems of poverty and hopelessness) runs high, and many Native youth turn to gangs as a means of surviving in such a harsh environment. There are those who in spite of all of these seemingly-impossible challenges remarkably strive to walk the Red Road and live the Lakota way. They keep the language alive and participate in age-old cultural activities like sweat lodges and the sun dance. It is amazing that people can survive in such desperate conditions, conditions that would shock many Americans. These conditions are largely the result of broken treaties, stolen land, and culture denied. The promises that the American government made to Natives have almost all been ignored as soon as it was convenient for the government to do so, and the problems persist to this day, whether in the form of congressional inaction on the much-needed Indian Health Services legislation or the still-unresolved Cobell Trust Fund Litigation. There is much that this nation owes the ancestors of the original inhabitants of this land. It is a debt that I fear will never be paid in full. And still the suffering, bigotry and oppression continues....

There are organizations that attempt to provide some relief to Native children and to give them hope that education and keeping pride in their heritage are both important elements to surviving and thriving in this world. A few of the organizations are Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation, Futures for Children, and Running Strong for American Indian Youth.

Here's a link to the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Aaron Huey's Moving Photographs of Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

Obama's Electability Question

There has been some out-loud wondering around the internet about Senator Obama's electability. Some (Hillary supporters) worry that Barack will wilt in the mighty military shadow that John "Methusaleh" McCain (In Hebrew "Methusaleh" means, "when he is dead it shall come." - not a very promising moniker, it seems - I'd be looking very carefully at McCain's choice of a running mate, I'm just saying...). I myself am looking forward to a debate that will present a vivid contrast between what was (McCain) and what will be (Obama). I think that the contrast between an old wheezing geezer and a young African-American man will bring the choice that America will be charged with making in November all the clearer. I'm betting that American will go with true change, real hope, a decisive new course that will take us not further down the road of the Bush/Cheney lost, immoral, illegal and dishonest causes, but instead will launch us in a new direction, a path that promises new wisdom, fresh diplomatic foreign policy, an economic plan that won't rob the poor of their very livelihood to make the rich wealthier. I see Barack Obama as the face of a new America, and John McCain as a tired old Washington insider who is willing to sell his soul, willing to say anything, to change any position to placate the far right-wing of the republican party to get himself elected including the astounding reversal of his stand against waterboarding as torture.

I can't help but smell another stinky campaign tactic that is coming from the Clinton camp in this most recent attempt to worry the Democratic party faithful about Barack Obama's electability. It is no coincidence that this has been the major worry of many Democrats about Hillary Clinton's potential nomination. I just don't think that Obama brings the same baggage to the race that the Clintons bring with them. And I think that every poll taken since McCain became the inevitable republican nominee demonstrates this thesis. Obama routinely beats McCain by a sizeable margin while Clinton runs neck and neck with McCain, and if the race is that close, I wouldn't put it past Karl Rove to come up with another stolen election. That is a scenario for which I would have a very difficult time forgiving my Hillary-supporting friends/acquaintances. Here're the polls I'm talking about.

Check out Jack Cafferty's recent blog post: Who Would Win the McCain-Obama Generational Battle?

Check out the John.He.Is video that demonstrates a few reasons why a McCain presidency would be an extension of the idiot-in-chief who's in the white house now: McCain - Like Hope, But Different

Check out Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maoddow on Countdown: John McCain’s Tortured Logic And Flip Flop On Torture (via Crooks and Liars)

Check out this recent story: McCain's Sharp Tongue: an Achilles Heel? (Washington Post, February 16, 2008)