McCain on Waterboarding

Just a reminder - we executed Japanese men for waterboarding our soldiers during WWII. From the era of the presidential debates of 2007, former candidate Arizona senator John McCain speaks on torture, waterboarding and prosecution:

QUOTE Republican presidential candidate John McCain reminded people Thursday that some Japanese were tried and hanged for torturing American prisoners during World War II with techniques that included waterboarding."There should be little doubt from American history that we consider that as torture otherwise we wouldn't have tried and convicted Japanese for doing that same thing to Americans," McCain said during a news conference.

He said he forgot to mention that piece of history during Wednesday night's Republican debate, during which he criticized former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney after Romney declined to publicly say what interrogation techniques he would rule out."I would also hope that he would not want to be associated with a technique which was invented in the Spanish Inquisition, was used by Pol Pot in one of the great eras of genocide in history and is being used on Burmese monks as we speak," the Arizona senator said. "America is a better nation than that." UNQUOTE

Congrats to the Winners & Condolences to the Losers

De Blues Brothers

"If Elected I Promise"

For my American readers, a gentle reminder that Christ told us to not "put our trust in princes nor sons of men." Vote on Tuesday, in accord with your conscience, your mind and your convictions. Always remember that the USA is a place where "I may disagree with what you say, but I shall defend to the death you right to say it."
Never ever give in to those who say we should hate because others are hateful, that we should war because others are warlike, that we should grab and worship the golden calf because others have ill-gotten gains. Stand tall, America. You are better than that, and if you have fallen, get back up.

Both presidential candidates voted for the obscene “bail-out” that was just stolen from our national treasury against the documented wishes of 85% of Americans. The rhetoric has gone beyond empty—it is a vacuum that sucks rationality and critical thinking from the minds of a panicked public.

There was one candidate who actually represented “stopping the madness” in this election cycle: Ron Paul. His candidacy is over, thanks to a media black-out, but the movement he represents is in full swing. We at the Campaign for Liberty are trying to bring together third-party and independent voters from all across the spectrum. We want your help whether you are Green party, Naderite, Independent, Constitution Party, Libertarian, or even a Democrat or Republican. We will be in your area soon, and we hope to talk about things that matter.
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The Lesser of Two Evils Is Still Evil

From the Glimpses and Thoughts Blog, a pithy argument for writing in Ron Paul or for voting for one of the more principled third party candidates. (The author endorses Chuck Baldwin).

QUOTE Russell Kirk often said that politics is the art of the possible. Republicans have proven that it is not possible to trust anything they tell us they will "do" for the pro-life movement. The hour is late. People have to be won by ideas, not by desperate idealogues who will say anything to get elected. Ideas cannot penetrate when people vitiate their convictions for a "win." The fight against abortion will not be won by trying to channel Reagan by saying "win one for the Gipper - vote McCain." It will not be won by people who two-step when asked about litmus tests and abortion.


I don't know how it will be won. God knows. And He knows that you aren't "obliged" to vote for someone just because he has a chance of winning. Sometimes the truth loses. It's as good a time as any for all of us to learn that lesson. Yes, even lawyers in New Jersey, wasting their vote on John McCain, where Barack Obama will win in a landslide, need to learn that lesson too.


Yet unlike said lawyers, I know that we've just survived arguably the worst Presidency in American history. We'll survive Obama's too. UNQUOTE
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Camille Paglia On Palin

The resolute and sparky Ms. Paglia explains her view of Sarah Palin as a feminist force of nature, takes the Democrats to task for their treatment of her and, most amazingly, admits abortion is murder and roundly chastises the Left for its refusal to admit that pro-lifers do indeed have a valid point. She even goes so far as to say that " there is plenty of room in modern thought for a pro-life feminism ." Well I'll be darned.

From Salon. You know the drill: be sure and read it all. Good stuff.

QUOTE But the pro-life position, whether or not it is based on religious orthodoxy, is more ethically highly evolved than my own tenet of unconstrained access to abortion on demand. My argument (as in my first book, "Sexual Personae,") has always been that nature has a master plan pushing every species toward procreation and that it is our right and even obligation as rational human beings to defy nature's fascism. Nature herself is a mass murderer, making casual, cruel experiments and condemning 10,000 to die so that one more fit will live and thrive.
Hence I have always frankly admitted that abortion is murder, the extermination of the powerless by the powerful. Liberals for the most part have shrunk from facing the ethical consequences of their embrace of abortion, which results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue. UNQUOTE

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McCain Request For Endorsement

From The Raw Story

QUOTE Ron Paul held a press conference urging voters to select a third-party presidential candidate instead of Barack Obama or John McCain. The Texas congressman said that he fielded a phone call from the McCain campaign on Tuesday asking him for an endorsement. "They called and it was a bit of a surprise to me," Paul said, "because their request was that I endorse John McCain today. "But he "didn't like the idea of getting two to three million people angry at me," so he turned them down, Paul told the laughing crowd.
"The idea was that he would do less harm than the other candidate," Paul complained.

Paul was accompanied at the news conference with third-party presidential candidates, including Ralph Nader and former Georgia Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney. UNQUOTE
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On the Rez With Zmirak

God is good, he has writers like John Zmirak over at Taki's Magazine who still have wit and a sense of what is right. God bless you, Mister Zmirak.

I feel you, man, truly I do. Yeppers.

I know I always say this, but really, really, be sure and click over to read it all. You'll be glad you did. Me Vote Pretty This Time is the read of the week.

QUOTE I also forgot to watch either party’s national convention. Just plain missed ‘em. Perhaps I have been in denial, avoiding the fact that our nation’s choices boil down to a Chicago “community activist” (i.e., ghetto shakedown artist who mau-maus Whitey for handouts) and a crackbrained Deer Hunter nostalgist whose vision of America is one vast and well-policed Navy base… where we all march in formation, pick up cigarette butts when ordered, and ask our commanders for “liberty”—which they’ll grant us one weekend per month.

Yes, the outcome of the primaries left me feeling… disenfranchised. To the point where I’ve found myself checking on my passport, to make sure I’m still an American—and wondering if I won’t someday end up on a reservation for white, blue-collar Catholics. Where, of course, we will offer bingo. UNQUOTE
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Best Article on Palin Yet

Out of the media frenzy over the past week since McCain announced his choice for the VP slot on his ticket, today I read the best of the lot. It comes from The Times Online (UK). Fabbo, fabbo, fabbo.

Please note: I don't whole-heartedly endore any slate this year, believing that the whole picture is not addressed by any candidate and that the most worthy politcial work is currently being done by a retired oilman on his own dime (T. Boone Pickens) and however I vote this year I will be doing so with my nose firmly held, unless I write-in Ron Paul. That said, I do love seeing the liberals squirm.

QUOTE: The best line I heard about Sarah Palin during the frenzied orgy of chauvinist condescension and gutter-crawling journalistic intrusion that greeted her nomination for vice-president a week ago came from a correspondent who knows a thing or two about Alaska.

“What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama?”

“One is a well turned-out, good-looking, and let's be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye-candy.

“The other kills her own food.”
.......
It never ceases to amaze me how the Left falls again and again into the old trap of underestimating politicians whom they don't understand. From Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to George Bush and Mrs Palin, they do it every time. Because these characters talk a bit funny and have ridiculously antiquated views about faith, family and nation, because they haven't spent time bending the knee to the intellectual metropolitan elites, they can't be taken seriously. UNQUOTE

Be sure and click on over to read it all. Jolly good.

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A Stalking Horse: Palin Horse, Pale Riders

QUOTE I believe what the selection of Sarah Palin is supposed to convey is that a McCain administration would save babies' lives, protect gun rights and shrink the size of government.
This is, of course, utter nonsense.
So what is Sarah Palin's true purpose? Whether she knows it or not, she is a stalking horse. UNQUOTE

The premise that Sarah Palin a a "stalking horse" for McCain and the warmongers, the "pale riders" alluded to in my title above ~ is one that has been burbling around in my subconscious and found piquant and sharp articulation in the comments of author Stephen Carson, and Eric Parks at RSE. She herself is endearing, spunky, independent and smart, but who's that shadowing her? Using her libertarian streak to their own ends? I smell a rat.

The whole article can be found over at Lew Rockwell.

QUOTE Although the veep may attract a few more voters, the truth is that this election remains, sadly, a choice between Scylla and Charybdis. UNQUOTE

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Paris Hilton For President?

I actually laughed out loud, roared is more like it, at my TV news the other night when they played this hilarious faux ad which Paris Hilton made in response, tongue-in-cheek, to John "Warmonger" McCain's feeble slam on "Pollyanna" Obama, in which he likened Barack to pop tarts Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears. Bikini alert for those sensitive to such things.

How about this for a slogan ~ "Paris Hilton: Change We Can Believe In, Dude".

Too durn funny.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

McCain Refuses To Use Modern Communications Technology

From The Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/johnmccain/2299694/John-McCain-
John McCain refuses, to use email or the internet. He is typical of many older, haughty State officials, who think such tasks are for their aides & secretaries, and not for "the rulers". Just another example of why the war hero is past his prime and unfit for command in this day and age. A President who can't find his or her way around the internet or use email is like a President who won't learn to drive since the chauffer is always around, or one who refused to learn to boil an egg since the chef is almost always on duty.

(Psssst, John ~ It's not at all hard. That's why first graders can do it.)
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