The Tragedy of John McCain

By now, I'm sure many of you have heard John McCain's position regarding the use of torture (ahem) enhanced interrogation techniques, the waterborading of Khalid Shake Muhammad and the Death of Osama Bin Laden.

In short?

1) Traditional methods of interrogation led to Bin Laden's capture
2) Torture doesn't work and produces bad information
3) The Republicans are full of shit on this one.

Now let me say up front: There's a LOT that John McCain does, says, believes and champions that I don't not support or agree with.  (And to be fair, as it turned out, I can say the same about Obama! LOL) And I'm well aware that his "Maverick" label is more a creation of his own campaign strategists and the media than anything based in reality.  But in those rare instances when a Republican gets it right and speaks the truth, 80% of the time that Republican seems to be John McCain.  (And before you dispute that, do the math, and first consider how rare it this that this actually happens!)

Unfortunately, these rare occasions when Senator McCain stands up to his party, stands up to popular (on the Right anyway) but ultimately immoral and illegal behavior, and shows himself to be a fine, upstanding, principled, American Public Servant, only serve to contrast John McCain-R the party sell out that we saw in the years between being knee-capped by George Bush in the 2000 Republican Primaries and the 2008 Presidential Campaign in which he became a more reliable proponent of party talking points than all of AM Talk Radio and Fox News combined.  Oh, yeah, and along the way... INTRODUCED AMERICANS TO SARAH F. PALIN!

WTF happened? 

It like after the 2000 Primaries he made a personal pact, George Wallace style, that he'd never be out-niggered (or out-liberaled) ever again, and started a steady march to the Right that continued even after his 2008 Presidential electoral loss to Barack Obama!

I mean... How can someone who demonstrates that they have enough of a conscience to make a statement like this one, spend so much of the rest of their time trying to prove otherwise?!  How does a guy that I probably would have voted for in 2000 (yeah, though admittedly I learned a LOT in the years that followed) become such an utterly despicable sell-out, and then have the nerve to show me something like this, as if to say, "The John McCain you admired once? The one that would have kept you in the Republican party (albeit in the libertarian faction)? He's still here!  Deep down.  I did all I could to suppress him all these years, but I'm too old to ever run again, so I'll let him out occasionally. Just to tease you a little, and make you think of what might have been!"

For brief moment, seeing him on CNN the other day, I felt like I should party like it was 1999. 

I'm sure it won't last.  The Right can't allow the truth to be told.  Especially not on national television.

Justice served, at long last!

I'm over in Germany right now, and just got off the plane when I heard the news that OSAMA BIN LADEN HAS BEEN KILLED.  Congratulations to President Obama and to the U.S. Armed Forces for this momentous occasion and tremendous success.  There's still a long way to go (there alwasy is when you declare war on common nouns) but a day like today is what we're fighting for, and I am glad to hear that, for today, we are victorious, even as the fight goes on.

My only regret, being in Germany, is that I will miss the Right Wing Media attemtps to somehow credit this to the Republicans, or to Bush.  Maybe this is just proof that the Bush Tax worked or something absurd like that. Hey: I'll give them one thing... There was ONE Bush policy that allowed OBAMA to capture/kill Bin Laden...

The IRAQ WAR.

Yep.

Becuase if it weren't for the Iraq War, BUSH would have caught this assmuncher about SIX YEARS AGO! 

Now, in all seriousness, too many have died, on ALL sides for me to be makoing light of this.  And no one should ever celebrate the death of another human being, even a bloodthrity, psychopathic piece of shit like Osama Bin Laden.  I can only hope that the numbers that will inevitably follow in his path, only to find their own meaningless deaths waiting for them, are over-estimated.

But getting back to my previous tone... (sorry, can't help it!)

Hey, REPUBLICANS?  SUCK IT, FUCKERS! WE GOT HIM! WE GOT HIM! 

And by year's end Obama will have acieved Reagan's elusive victory as well when Kaddafi falls from power in Libya.  Two great successes where the Right failed.  I can't WAIT!

So if you're a hawk? (Deficit, as I've explained before, or otherwise?) VOTE DEMOCRAT.

THIS is what effective mid-east policy looks like.  One country after another overthrowing thier regimes - Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and now SYRIA (!) - and Osama Bin Laden dead and buried.

THAT'S what happens when you don't go decalring unecessary wars.

(And I'll stop acting like a mirror image of the Right now.) (Still... USA! USA! USA!)