McMaverick category archive

McHack, the common man:

Early in 2007, just as her husband launched his presidential bid, Cindy McCain decided to resolve an old problem — the lack of cellular telephone coverage on her remote 15-acre ranch near Sedona, nestled deep in a tree-lined canyon called Hidden Valley.

By the time Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid was in full swing this summer, the ranch had wireless coverage from the two cellular companies most often used by campaign staff — Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

Verizon delivered a portable tower know as a “cell site on wheels” — free of charge — to Cindy McCain’s property in June in response to an online request from Cindy McCain’s staff early last year. Such devices are usually reserved for restoring service when cell coverage is knocked out during emergencies, such as hurricanes.

GRAPHIC: After a request from Cindy McCain, Verizon Wireless proposed installing a cell tower close to the couple’s home near Sedona, Ariz.

In July, AT&T followed suit, wheeling in a portable tower for free to match Verizon’s offer. “This is an unusual situation,” said AT&T spokeswoman Claudia B. Jones. “You can’t have a presidential nominee in an area where there is not cell coverage.”

H/T Karen for the link.
So, just what do you think would have happened when you called up Southwestern Bell Cingular AT&T or Verizon and said, “Look, I don’t get any cell phone coverage here at my place. Can I have my own cell tower?”

Think they would have said, “Sure! Here! It’s on the House Senate. Just tell us where you want it”?

If you do, wanna buy a bridge?

From Fact Check dot org. Follow the link for the full analysis (emphasis added):

A McCain-Palin ad claims Obama was rated the “most liberal” U.S. senator, which was true only for 2007 but not for his entire Senate career. He was rated 10th and 16th in his two previous years.

The ad also misquotes Obama. It says he defended himself against the “most liberal” rating by saying “they’re not telling the truth” and “folks are lying.” Actually, Obama said McCain and Palin weren’t truthful about the “Bridge to Nowhere,” and he was correct. And his “folks are lying” remark referred to anti-abortion groups that accuse him of favoring “infanticide” because of votes he cast in the Illinois state Senate.

After twisting Obama’s words, the ad accuses him of being “not presidential.”

And McHack is?

Well, maybe. Given the record of the Current Federal Administrator, I guess lying is the presidential thing to do.

In the third major segment of This American Life this week, Alex Blumberg deconstructs the Republican lie that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac caused the collapse of the mortgage market, and therefore the collapse of the housing market, and therefore of the collapse of the whole wide world.

Of course, believing that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, rather than criminally negligent and even some fraudulent practices by banks and mortgage companies, mortgage brokers and real estate salespersons, is convenient for Republicans, because it absolves their failed stewardship of governance from responsibility for what happened.

And, as I have demonstated, conservatives never take responsibity for their failed policies.

Remember who was in charge from 2001-2007 and who blocked anything from happening in Congress in 2007-2008.

From the website (emphasis added):

Alex Blumberg returns (in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast) with the latest in the financial crisis. This and other stories about people trying to find new solutions to age-old problems—solutions that sometimes cause problems of their own.

From Fact Check dot org. Follow the link the for the full analysis (emphasis added):

In a TV ad, McCain says Obama “lied” about his association with William Ayers, a former bomb-setting, anti-war radical from the 1960s and ’70s. We find McCain’s claim to be groundless. New details have recently come to light, but nothing Obama said previously has been shown to be false.

In a Web ad and in repeated attacks from the stump, McCain describes the two as associates, and Palin claims they “pal around” together. But so far as is known, their relationship was never very close. An Obama spokesman says they last saw each other in a chance encounter on the street more than a year ago.

McCain says in an Internet ad that the two “ran a radical ‘education’ foundation” in Chicago. But the supposedly “radical” group was supported by a Republican governor and included on its board prominent local civic leaders, including one former Nixon administration official who has given $1,500 to McCain’s campaign this year. Education Week says the group’s work “reflected mainstream thinking” among school reformers. The group was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, started by a $49 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation, which was established by the publisher Walter Annenberg, a prominent Republican whose widow, Leonore, is a contributor to the McCain campaign.

For Fact Checks I missed while rebuilding the server, go to the FactCheck website.

Ya know, the lies are bad enough.

But what is truly appalling is that Republipartisans are so willing to wrap themselves up in willful ignorance as to profess them. And maybe even believe them.

I do not think that Senator Obama is the second coming.

Remember, I was a Dodd guy.

But, frankly, the basic rule, based on the experience of things seen, is this:

Any Democrat is better than every Republican.

The rest of the political discourse starts from that point.

The Current Federal Administrator has proved that and sealed it with a kiss.

General Wesley Clark (ret.) on Candidate McCain: Longevity is not experience:

Via Deoliver47.

Olbermann looks at the big picture.

This doesn’t have to do with “Liberal” vs. “Conservative.”

This has to do with truth vs. lies.

Transcript here.

Via the Huffington Post.

More of the same:

No, McHack can’t be a referee of every advertisement.

But he could publically disavow lies and smears (emphasis added).

GOP presidential contender John McCain says he can’t control every attack ad aimed at Democrat Barack Obama and fully expects he’ll face a similar barrage, sounding the bell for a raucous general election brawl.

“I can’t be a referee of every spot run on television,” McCain told the Herald in an exclusive interview. “I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments, but we all know there are groups who want to attack me.”

The Arizona senator’s hands-off posture on attack ads by now-infamous tax-free and unaccountable political groups called 527s marks a softening of his view on the negative campaign tactic – and opens the door to a no-holds-barred five-month scramble.

Via Steve.

What Digby said.