McCain Misspeaks

Too close to election time. I forgot to post this. Here’s a list of all the McCain gaffes and misspeaks he’s said this past election.

2007: McCain: “I was in a conference in Germany over the weekend and President Putin of Germany gave one of the old Cold War style speeches as he addressed the conference there.”

2008: McCain: “And I’m going to tell them, I don’t agree with Senator Obama that they cling to their religion and the constitution because they’re bitter.”

2008: McCain: “I believe that, when he said that we had to leave Iraq, and we had to be out by last March, and we had to have a date certain, that was in contravention to, and still is, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General David Petraeus.”

2008: McCain: “And I’m afraid it’s a very hard struggle. Particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.”

2008: McCain: “Because of the surge, we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others and it began the Anbar Awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.” (The Anbar Awakening began in September 2006, months before the surge was even discussed.)

2008: McCain: “The fact is we had four years of failed policy; we were losing. We were losing the war in Iraq. The consequences of failure and the defeat of the United States of America in the first major conflict since 9/11 would have had devastating impacts throughout the region and the world.” (Afghanistan anyone?)

2008: McCain: “We continue to be concerned about Iranian taking Al Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.” and “Well, it’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.” (Joe Lieberman had to correct him.)

2008: McCain: “It was al-Sadr that declared the ceasefire, not Maliki.” (It was actually members of Prime Minister Maliki’s government who brokered the ceasefire in Basra, Sadr agreed.)

2008: McCain: “How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?” (Mark Salter corrected him by saying “Sudan”.)

2008: McCain: “We have drawn down to presurge levels.” (The US currently had 150,000 troops in Iraq at the time. Pre surge levels were at 130,000.)

2008: McCain: “Basra, Mosul, and now Sadr City are quiet.” (Mosul on the same day suffered three suicide bombings.)

2008: McCain: “I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.” (Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore. It’s the Czech Republic and Slovakia.)

2008: McCain: “I think it’s a pretty good timetable, as we should have our horizons for withdraw.” (Which then he denied a day later) “I didn’t use the word timetable.”

2008: McCain: “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.” (McCain seems to forget that the hostages were freed because of the Algiers Accords which Warren Christopher and the Carter Administration had negotiated. Nothing to do with Reagan.)

2008: McCain: “Ahmadinejad is, was the leader.” (Political authority rests with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, not the president of Iran. As for foreign policy, Ahmadinejad has very little influence.)

2008: McCain: “There is a very clear standard in the Constitution requiring not only just compensation in the use of eminent domain, but also that private property may not be taken for public use.” (The constitution says “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation”.)

2008: McCain: “In the twenty first century, nations don’t invade other nations.” (Did he forget Iraq again?)

2008: McCain: “So the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties. I think that there’s a movement amongst the governors to try, if not, quote, renegotiate, certainly adjust to the new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource.” (Talking about the Colorado River Compact. Mitt Romney later corrected him.)

2008: McCain: “We should be able to deliver bottled hot water to dehydrated babies…”

2008: McCain: “I’ve bought American literally all my life, and I’m proud.” (Yet he owns a Honda, Volkswagen, and a Lexus.)

2008: McCain: “Across this country, this is the agenda I’ve set before my fellow prisoners…”

2008: McCain: “If we had done what Senator Obama wanted done in Iraq, and that was set a date for withdrawal, which General Petraeus, our chief, chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff…” (Again, Petraeus isn’t the chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff.)

2008: McCain: “I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama’s supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about western Pennsylvania lately… And you know, I couldn’t agree with him more…”

In an effort to not be 100% bias, here are a few gaffes of Obama’s.

2008: Obama: “On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes, and I see many of them in the audience here today…”

2008: Obama: “If they just gave him some treatment early and they got some treatment and a breathalyzer or inhalator. Not a breathalyzer. I haven’t had much sleep in the past forty eight hours, so.”

Janny October 31, 2008

Got Another One…

You know, I’m really getting tired of getting emails and reading news articles and postings by people who are so ignorant. I just got another email today about how Obama said how the flag to some is “a symbol of oppression” and how “the anthem itself conveys a war-like message”. Of course snopes.com has this as false.

I read more and more how Obama is a Muslim or Arab, can’t be trusted, has terrorist ties, etc. Why don’t people fact check? Why are some people so ignorant? They say he’s a Muslim but then what’s all this controversy about a Christian Pastor? This is all stupid. And anyway, what’s wrong with believing in another religion? To steal a line from South Park, I thought this was America! Maybe people here are shocked and suprised that people have tolerance and acceptance towards other ideas. It’s like they woke up and said “Wow, I can’t believe it! America is actually how we imagined it!”

And I blame John McCain for not setting these people straight. If he says “I have repudiated every time someone’s been out of line, whether they’ve been part of my campaign or not, and I will continue to do that.” Then, tell me, how come he doesn’t come out about the people at Palin’s rally’s, shouting “terrorist” and “kill him”? How come Palin hasn’t come out and said anything about it? How come McCain’s own spokesperson, Nancy Pfotenhauer has said that parts of Virginia who are responsive to McCain are “real Virginia”, McCain hasn’t repudiated that? What about all the shouts of “kill him” and “terrorist” at Palin rally’s, McCain hasn’t repudiated that? How come McCain hasn’t repudiated his own VP pick for saying the “real America” and “pro-America” places of the United States? What about Rush Limbaugh’s reason of how Powell endorsed Obama because of race, yet McCain won’t repudiate it?

McCain seems to not repudiate anything. He’d rather sacrifice his integrity and support hatred than loose a campaign. Doesn’t he not want to be a part of this? If he doesn’t, I don’t see how.

Janny October 21, 2008

Bri’s Idea Of How To Fix The Housing Market

As many of you know, Brian was running for House Of Representatives until my father passed away. Things got crazy (and it’s still crazy) so he decided to drop out. Before he did, he gathered a bunch of views and ideas he had and put them up on his website.

Since the idiots in Congress can’t get their act together and pass a bill that would try to save us all from hell, I persuaded Brian to start calling around and tell them his idea. This idea would fix the housing market which would lead to a more stable economy, thus saving us all from a recession or depression. Here’s his plan (from his website):

In the past couple of months many people have noticed mortgage companies and banks have been losing a lot of money and people are being forced out of their homes. It is terrible when people lose their life savings, their homes, and have their credit ruined all in one fell swoop. I think there are a couple of very simple steps to correct this situation so no more people will fall prey to this kind of lending again.

The first thing to do is save people who are in foreclosure or who are about to go into foreclosure. In order to do this, I propose that we use the HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) to refinance all the loans that are resetting to higher rates into fixed rate mortgages. I would also increase the amount of time that a family has to pay back the loan from a traditional 15 or 30 years so that they can spread out the payments to something that they can still afford today (say a 60 year mortgage) with no penalties for early payment. People can say in their homes with a mortgage that is manageable. Also, they should be able to pay towards the mortgage what they can afford to spare in order to pay the loan off faster without penalty.

The second step to saving the mortgage industry is to enact legislation that will stop predatory lending. This legislation should force mortgage companies and brokers to make potential buyers more aware of the consequences of the loans they sign.

Just wanted to put Brian’s idea out there. He already called a few of our Maryland congressmen and explained it. They probably won’t get back to him cause they don’t care.

Brian doesn’t care if he gets credit for this idea or not. He just wants a solution, as do I, as should all of us.

If you think this is a good idea, share it or whatever.

Janny October 1, 2008