Eyewear designer Kazuo Kawasaki has been besieged by retail orders for the eyeglasses worn by Sarah Palin.

Gov. Palin is having a profound effect on American culture. If you think sales of eyeglasses are soaring, you ought to see the numbers for home pregnancy kits.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

Alaska is an interesting place for women to look for husbands. The men outnumber the women 10 to 1. You could say that the odds are good but the goods are odd.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

At their Minnesota convention, GOP delegates were overjoyed by Sarah Palin's selection. It fit the party's most pressing need that week. They had to have a candidate with no risk of being arrested in the Minneapolis airport men's room.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

For decades John McCain has been known for his trophy wives. Now he's dumped Mitt Romney for a trophy running mate.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

Sarah Palin's seventeen-year-old daughter is pregnant and plans to marry the father. It's no surprise. The Palin clan is anti-abortion and pro-gun, which means that shotgun weddings are all they know.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

A Republican victory would ensure cost savings at White House dinners. The ones McCain hosts will be early-diner specials, while the Vice President's dinners will feature something she went out and killed.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

President Bush Has said that Sarah Palin's family problems are a private matter. He must be so relieved. Who would have thought a year ago that his biggest failure as president would be his abstinence education program?

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

Sarah Palin is pro-life. She has a very original way to protect America's borders: defeat illegal immigration by boosting the Republican birth rate above Mexico's.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

Sarah Palin, her husband, her five kids, her pregnant daughter, and the teen father are guarded by the Secret Service despite the family's well-known aversion to using any protection.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

Sarah Palin's husband Todd: her high school love, hard-hat member of the Steelworkers Union, volunteer fireman, and part-Indian. She's married to the Village People... so much for family values.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

After sixteen years, Hillary Clinton's been replaced by a younger, sexier lightning rod.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

Sarah Palin was a huge hit at the GOP convention. Now comes the real challenge. She has a five-month old baby, a grandchild on the way and a seventy-two-year old running mate. How many diapers a day can one woman be expected to change?

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

This is a real image, not a Photoshop trick.

I'm not making a political statement. I just think the image is hilarious. I'd publish it regardless of who looks silly.... even if it were I.

Not that I'd ever look silly.

Labels: mccain, silly, tongue

Sarah Palin has been denounced by Democrats in speeches and interviews. They deny she's qualified to be president and deny her beliefs. As for her claim that she's the governor of America's largest state, consider this: when the ice melts, Alaska won't be any bigger than Rhode Island.

Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

The McCain campaign has been reluctant to allow her to do interviews or make any unscripted appearances. If Tom Brady had been protected like this, he would still be a quarterback.
Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

Democrats are asking themselves one question: if John McCain really is computer illiterate, how did he end up running with Yahoo?
Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

Sarah Palin has spelled out her role in a McCain administration. She'll stay busy. She would focus on energy, government reform and helping families with special-needs children, all while standing on the president's oxygen hose.
Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

For decades John McCain has been known for his trophy wives. Now he's dumped Mitt Romney for a trophy running mate.
Inspired by Argus Hamilton

Labels: campaign, humor, mcbush, mccain, McCainanites, palin

Labels: barack, biden, george w. mccain, john mc bush, mccain, obama, palin

Yet another band is complaining about John McCain's use of a song to promote his campaign. This time, it's the Foo Fighters.

The rockers sent out a missive telling the Republican presidential candidate to stop using "My Hero." They said they learned it was being use through news reports.

"The saddest thing about this is that `My Hero' was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential," the band said in a statement. "To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song."
Foo Fighters Fight Back

Those of you who have been paying attention know that McCain continues to fall on his face when it comes to picking let's-try-to-appeal-to-the-boomers music for the campaign.

Here are some superb examples:

• Clueless In The USA
• And The Hits Just Keep Coming
• Republican Head Stuck In Anatomical Orifice
• More Astonishingly Stupid Stealing

Will Kenny Loggins jump in to the fray? The McCainanites are now using Loggins' "Danger Zone," from the movie Top Gun.
Gonna take you
Right into the Danger Zone
Highway to the Danger Zone

Comforting, isn't it?

Labels: danger zone, foo fighters, george w. mccain, john mc bush, mccain, my hero, top gun

Dateline - New York City: March 26, 2008
McCain Rejects Broad U.S. Aid on Mortgages
By LARRY ROHTER and EDMUND L. ANDREWS

SANTA ANA, Calif. Drawing a sharp distinction between himself and the two Democratic presidential candidates, Senator John McCain of Arizona warned Tuesday against vigorous government action to solve the deepening mortgage crisis and the market turmoil it has caused, saying that "it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers."

Mr. McCain’s comments came a day after Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York called for direct federal intervention to help affected homeowners, including a $30 billion fund for states and communities to assist those at risk of foreclosure.

Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, has similarly called for greater federal involvement, including creation of a $10 billion relief package to prevent foreclosures.

As the foreclosure crisis has rippled across the economy, it has thrust itself to the forefront of the presidential race, with Democrats seizing on the issue in urging forceful government steps to alleviate the crisis.

Mr. McCain’s remarks Tuesday, to a group of Hispanic businessmen here, signaled a sharpening divide between the two parties’ candidates, with the senator [McCain] warning against quick, costly government fixes to a crises (sic) rooted in the private sector.

[ ... ]

"It sounds remarkably like Herbert Hoover, and I don’t think that’s good economic policy," Mrs. Clinton told reporters in Greensburg, Pa. "The government has a number of tools at its disposal." "I think that inaction has contributed to the problems we face today, and I believe further inaction would exacerbate those problems."

In addition to urging $30 billion in federal aid to states to help homeowners, Mrs. Clinton on Monday also endorsed federal legislation to expand the government’s ability to guarantee restructured mortgages, which she believes would lead more banks and other private entities to buy and resell mortgages.

Mr. Obama’s plan emphasizes making it easier to convert subprime loans to fixed-rate, 30-year loans, while requiring that borrowers have access to better data on loan costs and requiring greater scrutiny of lenders. On Tuesday, he said, "It’s deeply troubling that John McCain is suggesting that the best way to address the housing crisis is to sit back and watch it happen."

[ ... ]

Mr. McCain spoke at some length about the problems caused by lenders and by Wall Street, which bundled mortgages into securities that were chopped into pieces and resold to investors in the United States and abroad. But he did not call for any kind of legislative or regulatory measures to fix those problems, other than to say that the government should eliminate obstacles to the ability of financial institutions to raise more capital.

[ ... ]

John McCain (McBush): wrong about everything since he learned to pander.

As I said above, He Was Against it Before He Was For It.

Labels: bail out, Clinton, crisis, george w. mccain, john mc bush, mccain, mortgage, obama, private sector, regulation

Pick a topic, any topic.

OK, pick one of the following. No hype, no smear, no lies. Just facts - backed up by citations.

• Economy
• Education
• Energy & Environment
• Foreign Policy
• Health Care
• Homeland Security
• Iraq
• Jobs
• Lobbyists
• Rural Issues
• Seniors & Social Security
• Taxes
• Women

See it all at George W. McSame's Record

Labels: george w. mccain, issues, john mc bush, mccain

So you ask yourself "Self, why does someone obsessed with politics want to talk about 7 vertically-challenged guys who live together and have a who-knows-what relationship with each other and with a pretty lady?"

There is a political angle.

Every time John McCain appears on TV I think of that Silly 7. I don't know if he has allergies, and he's certainly no 'Doc,' but I ask myself "which other dwarf will be popping out of the Geezer's chest today?"

• Sleepy? He's been photographed snoozing through important business in the Senate.
• Happy? Well, he laughs at his own jokes, but little else. He is a dark person, one who sees only malevolence in the world. It's hard to be happy when you distill everything down to us vs. them.
  
• Dopey? [ Nah, too easy ]
  
• Grumpy? Probably.
• Bashful? Not likely. McCain certainly is never bashful - especially about avoiding reality and those pesky facts.

Mavericky? Not since he declared his candidacy for Prez.

Pandery? Bet on it. In fact, bet on a two-fer where pandery joins forces with one of the frightful five of the silly seven.

Labels: 7 dwarfs, 7dwarves, george w. mccain, john mc bush, malevolent, mccain, pander

At this point McCain's candidacy boils down to

• Damn, we are so desperate.
• I'm not Obama.
• No, really, I'm still a "maverick" (rhymes with "panderer").
• I haven't a clue. Not one single clue.
• Please protect me from myself.
• Old? I'm not so old - HEY! Look over there: it's an immigrant (or military faggot, or liberal, or whatever he needs as a diversion)
  
• I have nothing to hide.... except my past, present, and future.
• I did not say what you say I said. Your video and transcripts and eye witnesses are all wrong.
• My memory is,um.... what was I saying?
• Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!

Labels: campaign, george w. mccain, john mc bush, mccain, mccain moment, memory

Grip, Best Boy, Gaffer.

John McCain's problems with facts (this week's edition). He has raised the bar for making gaffes.

"I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," McCain said. The ABC posting added: “Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do.”

-“Somalia” for “Sudan” - As recounted in a reporter’s pool report from McCain’s Straight Talk Express bus on June 30, the senator said while discussing Darfur, a region of Sudan: "How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?" Senior adviser Mark Salter corrected him: “Sudan.”

-“Germany” for “Russia” - A YouTube clip from last year memorializes McCain referring to Vladimir Putin of Russia - following a trip to Germany - as “President Putin of Germany.”

-This spring, McCain said troops in Iraq were “down to pre-surge levels” when in fact there were 20,000 more troops than when the surge policy began.

-Also this spring, McCain twice appeared to mistake Sunnis and Shiites, two branches of Islam that split violently. Even though aides and Joe Lieberman repeatedly corrected him, he made that gaffe 4 times in 3 days.

-In Phoenix earlier this month, McCain referred to "Czechoslovakia,” which has been divided since Jan. 1, 1993, into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He also referred to Czechoslovakia during a debate in November and a radio show in April.

-In perhaps the most curious incident, McCain said earlier this month that as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he had tried to confuse his captors by giving the names of Pittsburgh Steelers starting players when asked to identify his squadron mates. McCain has told the story many times over the years - but had always referred correctly to the names he gave as members of the Green Bay Packers.

When he totally blew it on "The Surge" - when it happened, what events it triggered, he had to redefine it as "the surge", the one he defines as "a counter-terrorism measure".... just not the one for which the President takes credit, the one that the rest of the world understands.

And don't get me started on his campaign's anti-Obama smears - the ones that are chock full of lies. FactCheck.org

Labels: Best Boy, Czechoslovakia, Gaffer, george w. mccain, Grip, john mc bush, mccain, packers, somalia, steelers, sudan, vietnam

John McCain had planned to visit an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday to tout offshore drilling and the industry's environmental friendliness, but Hurricane Dolly canceled his plans. Dolly hit land in Texas Wednesday as a Category 2 storm, cutting oil and gas production by some 5 to 8 percent overall.

McCain and other Republicans have been pushing to allow more offshore drilling in U.S. waters, and emphasizing the environmental safety of offshore drilling is one part of the strategy. In a recent speech, McCain said, "As for offshore drilling, it's safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston."

Which, it turns out, isn't actually true. According to government figures,

• Storms in 2005 caused 146 small spills in federal waters


• Hurricanes Katrina and Rita completely destroyed 113 oil rigs and damaged 457 pipelines.


• The resulting oil spills were large enough to be seen from space. (But apparently not from campaign headquarters.)

Stolen from Grist

Labels: george w. mccain, john mc bush, mccain, oil rig, oil spill, problem with facts, problem with lying, problem with reality

What's the difference between salmonella poisoning and John McCain?

Salmonella has an exit strategy.

-- Argus Hamilton (more or less)

Labels: exit strategy, george w. mccain, john mc bush, mccain, salmonella

"The United States Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."
-- John McCain, 2008.06.13

Really?

Does that bonehead really think protecting the right to be heard in court is...

• worse than locking thousands of Americans in internment camps because they had Japanese ancestry? (Korematsu v. United States -- 1944)
• worse than forcing African Americans to sit at the back of the bus? (Plessy v. Ferguson -- 1896)
• worse than slavery? (Dred Scott v. Sanford -- 1857)

Does John McCain

• think it was OK for North Vietnam to hold him without a real trial before an impartial court in which he could defend himself against his accusers and the evidence?
• mind that they tortured him?
• have a problem with resolving problems (such as - has this person performed, attempted to perform, or conspired to perform acts of terrorism?)
  

There is a lot of misunderstanding about that recent Supreme Court decision.

That decision confirms right basic human right that says if you are accused of a crime, you have a right to a hearing before an impartial court.

That's all. No more, no less. If we are going to detain people SUSPECTED of illegal behavior, then we have to put them on trial.

That decision does not send lunatic terrorists out into the streets with no restrictions on what they want to do. It simply says that the accused has the right to a trial. Period. Well, not period. It also says that such human rights have been established for a thousand years (10 centuries, 100 decades, 500 generations), and that it's not appropriate to dump that right just because the government is running a fear campaign against its citizens.

How many 'detainees' have been convicted of any crimes connected to terrorism? None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

Given that track record, I'm inclined to think that your gubmint knows that it can't convict very many - if any at all - of those detainees. If they're not guilty, why are we holding - and torturing - them? The government has had 6 1/2 years to build cases against those suspected terrorists.

Let's get a grip on this. Those people are suspected terrorists. The government has shown no inclination to prove that those detainees are guilty of anything. Innocent until proven guilty, yada, yada, yada. Flag, apple pie, Mom, baseball, and the best legal system in all of the time this species has been on the planet.

I say we should put them on trial. If they're found guilty in a legitimate court, put 'em in a hellish prison. If they're not guilty, well, we made an oopsie. A one-way ticket home would be nice, an apology with the ticket would be nicer. No, wait. I forget. We're supposed to be a nation built on Christian principals. WWJD?

Does anyone remember how we got the detainees to detain?

1. Some were actually caught in situations where it was reasonable to arrest them and try to build a case against them. It's time to put them on trial and resolve it: guilty or not guilty?
   
2. Some were completely innocent of anything except being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and were rounded up by US troops or intelligence agents.
3. Most - this is so outrageous - were rounded up by bounty hunters and handed over to US troops with no evidence that they were bad guys . Again, wrong place, wrong time. The bounty hunters were Afghan tribesmen who worked on piece-rate. They got paid by the head, but didn't have to show any kind of evidence against the people they sold to the US government. Piece-rate with no quality control is a disaster waiting to happen, whether the product is clothes, cars, or humans.
   
   By the way, trafficking in humans- isn't that slavery?
   

Again, the recent decision by the Supremes doesn't free anyone from prison or overturn convictions or anything else nefarious. It's no more than an affirmation of human rights.

It also says to the US government that it's time to put these people on trial - or release them. Do something or get off the pot!

If those people really are terrorists, it shouldn't be hard to convict them. A speedy trial is the best thing for all Americans and for America's place in the world. After all, why should we try to out-do such dictatorships as China, Burma, the old USSR and Chile and Argentina, and dozens more rogue nations?

Let's regain some of the basic decency for which the USA had always been famous.

Labels: bonehead, bounty hunters, detainees, magna carta, mccain, slavery, supreme court, terrorists

It's right there on the tip of my tongue. Why can't I remember that? I know this! I know it!

Ar-r-r-r-r-gh!

Oh no! I'm having a McCain moment.

A Double McCain would be if I flip-flopped on it.

A Triple McCain? Deny that I said it the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth time - even when it's on film.

Labels: mccain, mccain moment, senior moment

In April 2008 I took John McBush to task for his unwarranted image as a maverick. Now I will correct him on an error of fact that he makes. To be fair, it is a mistake that many, many people make - even people who think of themselves as environmentalists.

Before he was a candidate for the nomination to run for president as a republican, GW McCain said "Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve our air quality."

That was then.

But, in time for the 2008 Iowa Caucuses, "I do not support subsidies, but I support ethanol and I think it is a vital alternative energy source, not only because of our dependence on foreign oil but because of its greenhouse reduction effects"

White man speak with forked tongue.

Worse, his knowledge of science is faulty.

"ethanol ... greenhouse reduction effects". Wrong! Where, oh, where to begin?

Everyone take notes. There will be a quiz on this.

1. Ethanol is a carbon-based source of energy. For you technically minded, its chemical formula is C₂H₅OH.
   
   
2. ANY and EVERY Carbon-based fuel releases energy AND CO₂ (Also known as Carbon Dioxide). CO₂ is a major component of our greenhouse gas problem.
   
   • The "C₂" part is the Carbon component of ethanol.
   • "H₅" is Hydrogen
   • "OH" means that a part of the ethanol molecule is a hydroxide, and consists of Hydrogen and Oxygen
     
   • The nice thing about the H and OH portions of ethanol is that when burned , as in an internal combustion engine, the by-product includes water - that's the sort-of good news. The bad news is that water vapor is a greenhouse gas.
   • Much worse - in terms of greenhouse gases - is that when the carbon in ethanol is oxidized (when it burns), it releases energy and forms Carbon Dioxide.
   • In other words, when you burn ethanol to release the energy contained therein, you release two greenhouse gases. There is a Law of Nature that covers the topic. It is inevitable.
     
     
3. Ethanol-as-fuel is a hot topic. But when politicians address Ethanol-as-fuel, they are referring Ethanol-as-fuel-made-from-corn, which translates into votes in the Farm Belt and campaign funds from such agribiz giants as Archer-Daniels-Midland and Cargill. They want you to believe that Ethanol-as-fuel-made-from-corn is a good idea, when the real issue is getting elected/re-elected.
   
   Ethanol-as-fuel is probably a good idea. Ethanol-as-fuel-made-from-corn is not just a bad idea, it's worse: it's a distraction from real issues regarding energy.
   
   In today's agriculture, corn is expensive to grow. From a financial viewpoint, it requires good soil, huge amounts of fertilizer and pesticides, and massive fuel-guzzling farm equipment.
   
   From any energy viewpoint, all of those items (except the soil) require petroleum to produce, transport, and use.
   
   In today's refinery system, corn is an expensive raw material for producing an energy source. It requires a lot of energy input, e.g., heat - to produce the ethanol.
   
   All things considered, it requires about 3 gallons of fuel to create, transport, and deliver 4 gallons of fuel at the gas pump. And - those 4 gallons of fuel do not produce as many miles as 4 gallons of petroleum-based fuel.
   
   That's just the tip of the iceberg. As corn production is diverted to ethanol production, corn is taken from the food supply. That causes food prices (and feed prices for livestock) to increase. Reducing the corn supply also impacts other parts of the food network. We are beginning to see shortages and price hikes of food other than corn. For example, if grain production resources were diverted to corn production, the price of wheat will shoot up; in turn, prices of wheat-based foods will skyrocket (you heard it here first).
   
   Ethanol-as-fuel-made-from-corn just doesn't make economic or ecological sense.
   

Do we need alternative sources of energy? Absolutely. BUT! Everyone needs to understand that

• substituting one carbon-based energy source for another is NOT a solution to the critical greenhouse gas / global warming problems that we face
• among Ethanol-as-fuel endeavors, ethanol-as-fuel-made-from-corn benefits politicians and agribiz. It does little, if anything for the rest of us.
• While any ethanol production will help reduce oil imports, it is more than anything else, a distraction from the pursuit of REAL energy solutions.
  

How do we solve our growing energy, dependence on foreign oil, and pollution (greenhouse gas) problems?

• We can't fall into the trap of seeking a panacea - a one size fits all - approach.
• Our biggest - best - easiest first step is conservation; we need a comprehensive national program to use less and recycle more.
• Make better use of "local" oil. Consider this: 40% of US oil production is exported. Reigning that in won't solve the greenhouse gas problem, but it would most certainly put a dent in oil imports. How can it make sense to export oil and import expensive oil that comes with strings attached. There are serious geopolitical issues involved in being at the mercy of people who despise us and use our money (money that we paid for foreign oil) to support terrorists who will most certainly attack us repeatedly.
• Develop good alternative sources of energy - preferably sources that don't carry baggage such as greenhouse gas production and destruction of the natural environment. Interestingly, developing and producing these alternative energy sources will help in another big way: it will encourage entrepreneurship and will create new jobs right here in the good ol' US of A.
  

Labels: alternative energy, carbon dioxide, carbon-based fuel, co2, conservation, ethanol, maverick, mcbush, mccain, misconception, misunderstanding