McCain VP pick laughed as radio host called Alaskan Senator a 'b*tch' and a 'cancer'

Rawstory:
On January 15, 2008, McCain VP nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called into a radio talk show and laughed as the host questioned Alaska Senate President Lyda Green's parenting, and then further attacked the cancer survivor calling her a "bitch" and a "cancer."

At 7:11 in the audio of the program, the host says "Governor, you can't say this, but we can. She is a cancer and she is nothing but a very jealous woman."

Then again at 10:12 in the audio obtained by Raw Story from the Bob and Mark Show, the host says to Palin, "Well, I'm going to say what I wish you could say...Lyda Green is a bitch, and she needs to go away because she is a cancer on the progress of the state of Alaska."

You can listen to the interview here

MORE: 2 Top Alaska Newspapers Question Palin's Fitness

Top 10 Reasons Why Palin is Wrong for America

Dkos:

TOP TEN REASONS SARAH PALIN SHOULD NOT BE ELECTED VICE PRESIDENT

#1: Palin opposes a woman's right to choose what to do with her own body, opposing the right to an abortion even for rape victims.

#2: Palin believes that Creationism should be taught in public schools, which runs both counter to well-settled evolutionary science, and to the Constitutional separation of church and state.

#3: Palin is a global warming denier, who (as with her views on evolution) has expressed skepticism about the well-settled science.

#4: Palin opposes listing polar bears as an endangered species, because it means oil and gas companies might have to be just a little bit careful out there.

#5: Palin is rabidly dedicated to drilling in the Artic wildlife refuge, known as ANWR.

#6: Palin is in the midst of a growing ethics scandal, involving the alleged abuse of her gubernatorial power to punish a State Trooper who is her sister's ex-husband, firing a State Commissioner who refused to go along.

#7: Palin called Hillary Clinton a "whiner", even as she cynically tries to woo Clinton voters to the McCain ticket.

#8: Palin has very little experience for the Vice Presidential job, serving less than two years so far of her first term as Governor of a state with fewer residents than Fort Worth, Texas. (Previously, she was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, pop. 8,500.)

#9: Palin has no foreign policy experience at all, so little in fact that her supporters are reduced to citing Alaska's proximity to Russia.

#10: Palin is virtually untested, unvetted and unknown to Americans, a fact which throws into relief the hypocrisy of the many unfair criticisms leveled at Barack Obama during this campaign.

BONUS REASON, #11: Palin only recently said that she doesn't even know what the job entails, saying on the CNBC show Kudlow and Co. that:

"[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?" (July 2008)

A Take on Sarah Palin from an Alaskan Blogger

What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan’s Perspective.

“Is this a joke?” That seemed to be the question du jour when my phone started ringing off the hook at 6:45am here in Alaska. I mean, we’re sort of excited that our humble state has gotten some kind of national ‘nod’….but seriously? Sarah Palin for Vice President? Yes, she’s a popular governor. Her all time high approval rating hovered around 90% at one point. But bear in mind that the 90% approval rating came from one of the most conservative, and reddest-of-the-red states out there. And that approval rating came before a series of events that have lead many Alaskans to question the governor’s once pristine image. (cont.)

McCain’s VP Choice Is Under Ethics Investigation For Abuse Of Power In Alaska

Thinkprogress:
In Dayton, OH today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will announce that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be his vice presidential running mate. Palin, who entered office in 2006 after running as a reformer, is touted by conservatives as being “a politician of eye-popping integrity.”

But Palin’s reformer image took a hit last month when she was accused of attempting to get a state trooper fired. That state trooper was her former brother-in-law who had gone through “a messy divorce” with her sister. After the trooper’s boss wouldn’t act on the governor’s request, she fired him. Though Palin says she doesn’t “have anything to hide” and she “didn’t do anything wrong there,” an investigation has found that one of her aides pushed the firing: (more)

McCain: Iraq Is ‘A Peaceful And Stable Country Now’

HUH? The idea that McCain is completely out of touch is wholly supported by his statements in this interview.

Thinkprogress:
Today, Time Magazine published an interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that it conducted aboard McCain’s campaign airplane. Reporters James Carney and Michael Scherer described McCain as “prickly” and “at times, abrasive” during the course of the interview.

Carney and Scherer noted to McCain that the Iraqi government is calling for a deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq even though McCain’s previously stated definition of “victory” — “a peaceful, stable, prosperous democratic state” — has not been achieved. The Arizona senator dismissed their characterization of the situation, saying that Iraq is “a peaceful and stable country now”:

Q: Some members of the [Iraqi] government have made it clear in the last month or two that they might want to withdraw before complete stability, before totally secure borders, before some of the completeness of victory as you described. Is there any change, do you think there is some wiggle room there because what you described with Petraeus was an end point that was rather complete — a peaceful, stable country.

MCCAIN: Its a peaceful and stable country now.

It’s Not Just McCain, It’s Republicanism

C&L:
In an op-ed at Murdoch’s London Times, associate editor Anatole Kalestsky writes that America must give the Republicans “a good kicking” to reassert the most important facet of democracy - not just to elect good governance but to get rid of bad governance. It’s an op-ed that is highly critical of the Democratic party’s choice - Murdoch’s UK papers preferred Clinton - and of Dem tactics to date. But it really gets the message across on McCain and the GOP.

Whether or not Mr McCain would continue the policies of President Bush (and much of the evidence suggests that his would be a Bush presidency on steroids), he would keep in power the coalition of interests that the Republican Party represents: the energy and military-industrial lobbies, the religious conservatives, the anti-environment interests and the neoconservative think-tanks. These groups - which have gained enormous influence, both financially and intellectually, under President Bush - are as responsible for the blunders of the Bush Administration as Mr Bush himself, arguably more so, given the President’s notorious lack of interest in the details of any of his own policies.

If a Republican is again elected president, these same centres of power will continue to dominate Washington. However many wars they encouraged, however high the price of oil rose, however many tax dollars were redistributed in their favour, the neoconservatives and Pentagon contractors and religious fundamentalists and oil and Wall Street lobbies would conclude that there would be no political price to pay for failure. They would be justified in concluding that there is no longer any democratic check on their ambitions.

It is only by ejecting the Republicans from the White House that American voters can send the message that they are still in charge of their country and that gross government incompetence will not go unpunished. Accountability - not personality or rhetoric or colour or age or gender - should be the overriding issue in this election.

"America, We Are Better Than These Last Eight Years"... Targets McCain And Bush... "Change Is Coming"

AP:
Surrounded by an enormous, adoring crowd, Barack Obama promised a clean break from the "broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush" Thursday night as he embarked on the final lap of his audacious bid to become the nation's first black president.

"America, now is not the time for small plans," the 47-year-old Illinois senator told an estimated 84,000 people packed into Invesco Field, a huge football stadium at the base of the Rocky Mountains.

He vowed to cut taxes for nearly all working-class families, end the war in Iraq and break America's dependence on Mideast oil within a decade. By contrast, he said, "John McCain has voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time," a scathing indictment of his Republican rival on health care, education, the economy and more.

You can watch Obama's speech here

Putin accuses U.S. of orchestrating Georgian war

CNN:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.

McCain Adviser Sums Up Health Plan In 2 Words: Emergency Room

TPM:
This is starting to get more and more attention today: In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, a health care policy adviser to John McCain appeared to suggest that anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has health insurance.
The adviser, John Goodman, who is not paid by the McCain campaign but is widely quoted as one of the campaign's advisers and an author of McCain's health care policy, offered the following solution to the health care crisis to the paper:

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American -- even illegal aliens -- as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

The problem with this analysis, according to an expert quoted in the article, is that people without insurance are less likely to seek non-emergency-room care, which ultimately drives up the cost to the health care system.

Despite CNN Distortion, Americans Prefer Obama Tax Plan

C&L:

As ThinkProgress reported, CNN on Tuesday showed a deceptive chart which wrongly suggests that John McCain’s tax plan provides more Americans with greater savings than that offered by Barack Obama. But CNN’s upper-crust income brackets, which start at $161,000 and represent only 5% of taxpayers, conceal the inescapable truth that Barack Obama’s proposals offer working and middle class Americans steeper tax benefits at every income level up to $110,000. And according to a new Gallup poll released this week, that truth isn’t lost on American voters.
By 48% to 43%, Americans surveyed by Gallup say Obama would better handle the issue of taxes than John McCain. And with good reason. As the Washington Post detailed, an analysis by the Tax Policy Center showed:
“Obama’s plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy.”

80 percent says United States is on the wrong track.

Thinkprogress:
A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds, “Eight in 10 say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the USA, and even more rate the economy as ‘only fair’ or poor. Seven in 10 say it’s getting worse.”

The Daily Show Welcomes Republicans to St. Paul

C&L: As seen on the I-94 greeting motorists arriving from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, home to the Republican National Convention

Buchanan accuses 'McCain's neocon warmonger' of treason

Rawstory:
According to conservative commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, Sen. John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann is a 'dual loyalist,' 'neocon warmonger' involved in activities that 'none dare call treason.'

In his recent history, Scheunemann was a key member of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which lobbied President Clinton for war with Iraq for years before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He was also a signatory on a letter to President George W. Bush, just days after the terrorist attacks, demanding an invasion of Iraq and threatening political consequences if the president did not comply.

I Spent Years as a POW with John McCain, and His Finger Should Not Be Near the Red Button

Military.com:
A fellow Vietnam POW of McCain's warns of the candidate's "quick and explosive temper" and suggests McCain is exaggerating his imprisonment.

John McCain is a long-time acquaintance of mine that goes way back to our time together at the U.S. Naval Academy and as Prisoners of War in Vietnam. He is a man I respect and admire in some ways. But there are a number of reasons why I will not vote for him for President of the United States.

McCain Tied to Last Two Financial Meltdowns

TPM:
One story that needs to be told by the MSM and hammered on by Obama is McCain direct connections, through close personal friends and associates, to the last two serious financial meltdowns in the US economy.

The first time was the Savings and Loan Crisis in the 80's & 90's, when McCain was implicated in the Keating scandal for influence peddling. The failure of Keating's Lincoln S&L meant the loss of life savingsfor the 21,000 depositors, many of them elderly, who were swindled byLincoln. McCain's close buddy, Charles Keating, was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. Keating was a close personal friend of McCain's and McCain took unreported (until he was caught) vacations at Keatings luxury vacation homes. The S&L crisis contributed directly to the recession of the late 80's / early 90's and the government was required to bailout the bad decisions of McCain and his friends.

More recently, McCain is directly tied to the current US financial meltdown. Until last month the Chairman of McCain's campaign was none other than Phil Gramm, the former Texas Senator, Vice-Chairman of banking giant UBS and chief proponent of financial deregulation when he was in the Senate (Gramm stepped down from the campaign after calling the US a nation of whiners). UBS, not coincidentally, was one of the largest promoters of sub-primemortagage backed securities that have played such a significant role inthe recent financial meltdown.

McCain campaign throws Social Security’s birthday cake in the trash.

Thinkprogress:
In honor of the 73rd anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of the Social Security Act, the New Mexico Democratic Party attempted to sing “Happy 73rd Birthday to Social Security” outside of a McCain campaign office, “only to have the birthday cake thrown in the trash by the campaign”:

While McCain supporters screamed, “Obama sleeps with a Teddy Bear and a night light,” staffers approached the Democratic group, yelling, took the 20 inch sheet cake that said “Happy Birthday Social Security” and threw it away.

Conchita Cruz, the press secretary for the Democratic Party of New Mexico, called the cake trashing a “perfect metaphor” for McCain’s approach to Social Security policy.

Russia: Blame Cheney for Georgia Crisis

UK TimesOnline:
Russians were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, to stop Barack Obama being elected president of the United States.

When you look at this, in addition to the fact that McCain's senior policy advisor happens to be a paid lobbyist for the Republic of Georgia, things start to look fishy:

"John McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

The payments raise ethical questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann’s personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue."

John McCain on Russia: Angry, Bellicose, Belligerent and Extreme

The Hill:
John McCain needs to calm down, stop telling the world he speaks for the American people, stop escalating his warlike rhetoric almost by the hour, and stop the phony tough talk that makes a bad situation worse and would only heighten the danger at a dangerous enough moment.

McCain takes too much advice from a lobbyist who makes money paid for by Georgia. He takes too much bandwidth making threats that neither he nor President Bush nor any American president can back up without creating even more damage to American security and more danger to world security.

John McCain should stop talking as though he is the president, and Americans should and I predict will take note of the dangers he would bring, if he ever is the president.

McCain's new ad touts "renewable energy," but his energy plan offers little to support it.

Factcheck.org:
A McCain ad shows pictures of wind-driven turbines while the narrator says: "Renewable energy to transform our economy, create jobs and energy independence, that's John McCain." But, in fact, his energy plan doesn't specify any new federal spending for renewable energy and says only that he'd "rationalize" existing tax credits to provide incentives. In the past, however, he's opposed extending such tax credits when paid for by tax increases elsewhere.

The ad also insinuates that Obama would bring "higher taxes" for "your family," another in what has become a pattern of misrepresentations of Obama's tax plan. Obama actually proposes to cut taxes for all but the most affluent families. He wants to restore tax rates to pre-Bush levels only for those making over $250,000 a year.

Linked to 'big oil,' incumbent Tenn. GOP congressman loses primary

Rawstory:
Being linked to "big oil" turned into a big problem for Tennessee Republican freshman Rep. David Davis, who became the first congressman from that state to lose in a primary in more than four decades.

Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe beat Davis by a 500-vote margin Thursday in the solidly Republican 1st District in the northeastern corner of the state.
Roe's victory came after a bruising campaign in which he accused Davis of selling out to "big oil."

CONSERVATIVE OBSTRUCTION ON ENERGY

Center for American Progress:
House conservatives are not looking for any fix to gas prices: They are intent on drilling and drilling only -- and simultaneously filling Big Oil's coffers. These same conservatives have voted to block legislation that would have released oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, block legislation banning price gouging, and block legislation requiring oil companies to first drill on the land already leaded to them. Conservative leaders have blocked or voted "no" on eight different energy bills aimed at addressing rising prices, including bills that raised vehicle fuel efficiency, provided tax incentives for renewable energy, invested in energy efficiency, required a 15 percent renewable electricity standard, and expanded commuter rail and bus services while reducing transit fares. Opening new offshore sites to drilling is a boon only to Big Oil companies, and they have responded to conservatives' efforts by opening their wallets. Just in the last year, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), one of the leaders of the floor standoff, has received more than nearly $100,000 from the oil and gas industries, with $20,000 from Chevron alone.

Former FBI Official: After 9/11, White House Told FBI To Blame Anthrax Attacks On Al Qaeda

Thinkprogress:
The New York Daily News has a new twist in the administration’s attempt to peg the anthrax attacks to its own bellicose aims. Immediately after 9/11, the Daily News reports, “White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda,” according to a former FBI official:

After the Oct. 5, 2001, death from anthrax exposure of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens, Mueller was “beaten up” during President Bush’s morning intelligence briefings for not producing proof the killer spores were the handiwork of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to a former aide.

“They really wanted to blame somebody in the Middle East,” the retired senior FBI official told The News.

As the Daily News noted, similar to its efforts with Iraq, the White House on multiple occasions suggested that the anthrax attacks were tied to al Qaeda operatives abroad (cont.)

Suskind: Bush ordered fake letter linking Iraq to 9/11

Politico:
A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery – adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official “that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.”

Report: McCain Received $881,450 From Big Oil Since He Announced Support For Offshore Drilling»

Thinkprogress:
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has made his complete reversal on offshore drilling a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, insisting that expanding offshore drilling into protected areas would lead to more oil supply on the market “within a matter of months” — regardless of the Energy Information Agency’s projection that oil would not reach the market for nearly a decade and “would not have a significant impact” on oil prices.

The report notes that these enormous contributions represent a seven-fold increase in donations, compared to McCain’s 2000 campaign