John McCain

Before Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the town received no federal funds. As mayor, she hired the Anchorage law firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, to help the town obtain federal funds. The Wasilla account was handled by Steven W. Silver, a partner in the firm and former chief of staff to indicted-for-corruption Sen. Ted Stevens, who helped secure $67 million in federal earmarks for the town of 6,700 residents–$4,000 per person. (Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars.) Palin has stood up to corruption, blowing the whistle on unethical behavior by the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party despite taking a lot of heat for it. But she’s also gotten into some trouble of her own, and it almost seems that she fell into her anti-corruption role by accident. A description of Palin from her fellow Wasilla, Alaska resident Anne Kilkenny is well worth reading. (Kilkenny is also quoted regarding Palin in this New York Times story.) For further perspective, here’s another close-up view of Palin as she’s seen in Alaska. UPDATE (September 4, 2008): As governor of Alaska, Palin asked for $550 million in earmarks in her first year in office, and for 31 federal earmarks totaling $198 million so far this year. Oink! John McCain has long been a critic of earmarks. Turns out he has specifically been critical of earmarks requested by Sarah Palin.

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars shows that McCain’s VP nominee, Sarah Palin, didn’t take long to utter her first falsehood as candidate. Near the beginning of her acceptance speech, she said: And I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress – I told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks,” on that bridge to nowhere. (APPLAUSE) If our state wanted a bridge, I said we’d build it ourselves. ...

Barack Obama has supplied his answers to the fourteen questions from Sciencedebate 2008. John McCain has said that he will also be supplying answers. UPDATE (September 17, 2008): John McCain has also supplied his answers to the Sciencedebate 2008 questions. Click here to see their answers side-by-side.

We put a Barack Obama for President sign in front of our house on Sunday; it’s already gone today. A Google search for “Obama sign stolen” shows that thefts of Obama yard signs are occurring all over the place–Midland, TX; Staunton, VA; Springfield, MO; Ivins and St. George, UT; Sartell, MN; Upper Arlington, OH; and so on. A Google search for “McCain sign stolen” shows allegations about McCain stealing a prisoner of war story, Cindy McCain stealing a recipe, and stories of thefts of Obama yard signs–but no reports of stolen McCain signs. I suppose either our sign was stolen by an unethical Obama supporter for their own use (in which case the stolen sign should be popping up elsewhere), or by an unethical McCain supporter who has no respect for freedom of speech or private property. I suspect it’s probably the latter. UPDATE (November 5, 2008): Here’s a story about a university instructor who wrote about his stealing a McCain/Palin sign in Minnesota–he has resigned his visiting professorship at St. Olaf College as a result. Philip Busse is described in the article as a journalist and political activist from Portland, Oregon. ...

Jack Cafferty writes at CNN about how McCain seems to be as intellectually vacuous as George W. Bush. Hume's Ghost (2008-08-23): He has to be, doesn't he? The inmates are now running the asylum in the GOP and their presidential candidate has to run against reality to appease the base.Hence the mocking of Obama when he made the accurate statement about tire inflation and care maintenance. ...

The Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group has sent a letter (PDF) and ten questions (PDF) to John McCain, Barack Obama, and the 114 candidates for the Arizona State Senate and House of Representatives who are listed in the Citizens Clean Election Commission candidate statement booklet. Any received answers will be posted here. The ten questions are: 1) Given a legislative voting scenario that presents you with a direct conflict between your religious beliefs/values and your duties to uphold the Constitution which do you choose and how would you make that decision? 2) What is your position regarding prayer while acting in your official capacity as an elected official and what role if any do you think prayer should play in the legislative body you wish to hold? 3) What is your position on enacting law that has religious tenets and/or dogma as its main motivation and reasoning? 4) Is it acceptable for elected officials to hold back or alter scientific reports if they conflict with their own views, and how will you balance scientific information with politics and personal beliefs in your decision-making? 5) Should the modern synthesis of Creationism known as “Intelligent Design” be taught in the public school and is it acceptable for religious ideology to interfere in science? 6) Would you allow a non theistic individual (atheist, humanist, freethinker, etc) to openly serve on your staff? 7) What is your position on a constitutional amendment to define marriage and if in favor of a constitutional amendment to define marriage are your motivations religious or secular? 8) What is your position on abstinence-only sex education? 9) What is your position on government regulation and funding of stem cell research? 10) With regards specifically to the establishment of the United States as a nation, the history of the United States, and the law of the United States do you consider our country to be a “Christian Nation”?

Blair Gadsby, a 45-year-old adjunct religious studies professor at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, has gone on hunger strike until John McCain agrees to meet with him about 9/11 conspiracy theories. Gadsby thinks that the U.S. government destroyed the World Trade Center towers and Building 7 with explosives, even though he’s apparently read the Popular Mechanics book on Debunking 9/11 Myths, for which McCain wrote the foreword. In how many different ways is this guy an idiot? 1. He’s bought into nonsensical conspiracy theories–his version has both Islamic terrorists flying planes into the WTC and explosives put there earlier, so he must believe something like this. 2. He apparently can’t understand the refutations of them. 3. He thinks a hunger strike is a good way to meet John McCain. 4. He’s an adjunct professor of religious studies. Feel free to add to the list. ...

On yesterday’s “Daily Show,” Jon Stewart pointed out a quote from Cliff Schechter’s new book, The Real McCain, where McCain used the word “cunt.” I didn’t think he made it clear who McCain was referring to when he said it, however. The Raw Story has the quote from Schechter’s book: Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain’s intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain’s hair and said, “You’re getting a little thin up there.” McCain’s face reddened, and he responded, “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.” McCain’s excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.Nice. Apparently McCain was known as “McNasty” in high school for his foul-mouthed tirades. Sounds like another LBJ, in that regard. (Previously, regarding McCain’s f-bomb habit.)

McCain continues to demonstrate mind-boggling ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, for someone who has already sworn numerous times to uphold it. He’s clearly unfit to be president–he’s either ignorant of U.S. history or being dishonest in order to pander to the religious right. (I previously reported similar remarks by McCain last October.) The Bible and the Christian tradition do not support a limited constitutional republic–if you got your politics from the Bible or Christian tradition, you’d argue for a monarchy with virtually limitless power. That’s probably part of the reason that the Bush administration has argued against any limits on executive power. (From Atheist Media Blog by way of Pharyngula.) ...

Charlie Black, a senior advisor to the McCain campaign, lent his name to and helped arrange the bizarre March 23, 2004 event on Capitol Hill in which Rev. Sun Myung Moon was crowned King of America and declared himself to be the Messiah. Rev. Moon is a very powerful, wealthy man who has been regularly supported at public events by people such as former President George H. W. Bush and evangelical Christians like Tim and Beverly LaHaye (he helped found the Institute for Creation Research through his Christian Heritage College, co-author of Left Behind; she is the head of Concerned Women for America) and Jerry Falwell. Jonathan Wells of the Discovery Institute is a member of Moon’s Unification Church, which makes DI another organization where evangelical Christians join hands with members of Moon’s cult. Most of these people probably don’t agree with Moon’s nonsense, but they like his money and aren’t above prostituting themselves in order to receive some of it. UPDATE (May 13, 2008): More on Charlie Black, from FiretheLobbyists.com: Charlie Black, McCain’s senior counsel and spokesman, began his lobbying career by representing numerous dictators and repressive regimes ...