JOHN MCCAIN AT THE RNC: GIVE ME YOUR TRUST, YOUR MONEY, YOUR VOTES
NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT SARAH PALIN
HURRICANE HELL IN HAITI: NO HELP AS A BILLION GOES TO GEORGIA

No dummy he. John McCain did what most smart politicians do when they have a major TV speech. They speek to the TV audience, not just the people in the room. They reach out ostensibly to people who do not now agree with him or support him to broaden his base rather than consolidate the one he has.

He did that better than Barrack Obama even if he was surrounded by a pep rally—minus one activist from CODE PINK and aother from The Iraq Veterans Against The War—and could have played only to the crowd as his running mater and key supporters did. He tried to do more.

This is not to say that his focus on biography rather than defined bullet points will be acceptable. The Vietnam War was a long time ago , and does not enjoy the popularity that the Iraq War briefly did. His appeal to independents and focus on his version of change—he used the word ten times, Obama 16—sounded rather empty. His critique of his party was broad—and never mention that he voted with the Bush Administration 909% of the time or that it was his own party that was in power.

It doesn’t seem to matter. Its been reported that he raised $200 million at the econvention for his “fight.”

After the speech, Brian Williams of NBC used the word “Kerfuffle: to signify there were technical problems but the core problem was political. He was behind in the polls and puffed up his macho history—told with as much humility as he could generate to show those watching that he as flawed a human being as all of them. The crowd in the hall loved it, but it seemed as if Sarah Palin elicited more enthusiasm in this arena of self-satisfied and affluent self-styled patriots.

Like Palin, he was looking to strike an emotional chord, not a political one and s the critics who dismissed him as offering nothing new would persuade those who see him as something new—at least compared to Bush/Cheney. He pictured himself as more open, and used the word Peace which was absent as far as I can recall from Obama’s presentation which he was undercutting.

With all the insincerity he could muster to at began by taking a high road towards his opponents with “a word to Senator Obama and his supporters. We’ll go at it over the next two months. That’s the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. We’re dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. No country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn’t be an American worthy of the name if I didn’t honor Senator Obama and his supporters for their achievement.”

The critics were predictable and the disruptions were brave but pretty ineffective since it wasn’t clear to TV audiences what they were saying or why. Example, Here’s a typical critique by Ilan Goldenberg on the issues when the speech was saying I am a good guy, and I deserve your trust. He played his POW card –without of course talking about the bombs he dropped on civilians in a crowded city. He didn’t mention why he was greeted by angry people when he fell into that lake in Hanoi. A government that now tortures its prisoners has little right to criticize abuses by Hanoi.

John McCain’s Speech Highlights Failure of His
Foreign Policy Approach, Agenda and Vision
McCain Speech Wrap Up on Foreign Policy

We seriously learned nothing today about John McCain’s foreign policy. Outside of two paragraphs that really got into no detail. But let’s remember what we do know about McCain’ foreign policy

1. McCain’s is reckless and more extreme than Bush: He was the neocons choice in 2000 and his top foreign policy advisor, Randy Shueneman is a Neocon. He has had a more extreme position on Iran. More extreme position on Russia. More extreme position on North Korea. He has called our allies adversaries and took an offensive and aggressive tone in the run up to the Iraq war.

2. John McCain’s foreign policy is very similar to George Bush. McCain didn’t even use the word Afghanistan. He was talking about attacking Iraq and Iran one month after 9/11. He loves to tout the surge. But before the surge came the war. A war he said would be easy and that we’d be greeted as liberators.

That’s it really pretty simple Nothing new in the speech. And pretty weak.

JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM

Fact checking is important even in an event that has so more to do with perceptions than facts. The AP did some on Tuesday night;

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: “I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.”

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a “bridge to nowhere.”

PALIN: “There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.”

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, [Obama] was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: “The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain’s plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

GREG GUMA: THIS IS A STORY WE HAVE SEEN BEFORE

The 2008 Presidential race has gradually evolved from an historic high drama into a “high concept” mystery that would give the most adventurous Hollywood producer pause. The nomination of a biracial Senator was unlikely enough, but the twist of a split-personality warrior joining forces with an evangelical Hockey Mom on the competing ticket surely stretches credulity. Yet here we are, watching the latest Presidential Death Match blockbuster.

While elections certainly ought to be decided on the issues, the truth is that “undecided” voters – that crucial 10 to 15 percent who don’t pick a side until late in the race – often make their choices based on the personal qualities of the candidates. Sensitive to that, on the last night of the GOP convention John McCain portrayed himself as humble, respectful – even of his opponent, and open to “any willing patriot.” Speaking to an uncontrollable crowd that insisted on chanting USA no matter what he was saying, McCain promised that “change is coming.” Then he promised to get back to basics – lower taxes (for businesses), a strong defense, and a culture of life. At times, it sounded like he was reading a speech written for Reagan or some Bush.

There were a few specifics: school choice, cutting foreign aid, nuclear power, and oil drilling now. And some predictable villains: bureaucrats, unions, trial lawyers, partisan “rancor,” Iran and Russia. But the bottom line was that McCain has the scars to prove he’s a leader and Barack Obama doesn’t. “My country saved me and I will fight for her as long as I draw breath,” he said. “Fight with me.”

To understand the McCain-Palin phenomenon, it helps to look at some literary and cinematic precursors. On the surface, McCain looks like a maverick war hero, experienced and unassuming. But there’s another persona lurking beneath the surface, a creature unleashed by his ambition – the bitter, obsessed war lover who will say and do anything. The classic example of this tale is Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

In Stevenson’s original text, a London lawyer investigates strange occurrences involving his friend Dr. Henry Jekyll and the destructive Edward Hyde. It’s an early portrayal of split personality, a person who shows a dramatically different character from one situation to another. Today we call it “multiple personality” or “Dissociative Identity Disorder.”

The premise, adapted in more than 100 films and a Broadway musical, is that the unassuming Jekyll invents a potion that turns him into Hyde, a sociopat hic monster. He enjoys the creature’s moral freedom at first, but ultimately begins turning into Hyde involuntarily. Eventually, he runs out of potion and loses the ability to turn back into his original self. TV viewers, comic readers, and filmgoers are familiar with more modern versions of the character, including The Hulk, The Nutty Professor, and Harvey Two-Face from Batman. It’s the story of a flawed hero torn between a good and evil self.

THE I HATE EARMARKS GOVERNOR

The truth is out. Sarah Palin may have posed as an opponent of congressionally mandated earmarks, but when the slop was in the bucket, she was one of the first at Senator Ted Stevens’ (R-AK) trough.

The Seattle Times reported yesterday that she submitted 31 earmark requests totaling $197 million in the current (FY2009) budget cycle. According to that paper, it was “more, per person, than any other state.”…

Racism in Plain English/Eugene Robinson

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it finally happened: A Republican congressman has come right out and called Barack Obama “uppity.”

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), often described as one of the most conservative members of Congress (which is saying something), used that racially loaded term to describe Obama in a conversation today outside the House chamber with a reporter from The Hill. As you can see in The Post’s news coverage, the reporter gave Westmoreland a chance to take it back. Bless him, he didn’t.

I love it when everybody’s cards are on the table.

A spokesman for the congressman said later that his boss didn’t realize that term has long been used to describe African Americans who don’t know their place. If so, he is the only born-and-bred Southerner alive who is so oblivious. I should note, however, that the last time Westmoreland’s staff got such a damage-control workout was in 2006, when the congressman sponsored legislation to post the Ten Commandments in the House and Senate — and then proved unable to list them.

The notion that Obama is somehow reaching beyond his station has been a subtext of the attacks on his eloquence, his academic resume, his ambition — qualities that are usually prized in a leader but that are somehow twisted by Obama’s opponents into negatives. It is within even Lynn Westmoreland’s limited grasp to understand that “uppity” means one thing: Who does this black guy think he is to run for president? If Republicans are going to ask that question, they shouldn’t be allowed to do it through hints and nudges. Just do like Lynn Westmoreland and put it in plain English.

AS MCCAIN ANNOUNCED HIS EDUCATION INITIATIVES, THE LA TIMES REPORTED

Palin went to 5 colleges in 6 years.

JAMIE LYN SPEARS BACKS THE BARRACUDA DAUGHTER

Teen Moms Unite, Jamie Lynn Spears Helps Bristol Palin

THE FACT GAP IS SMALLER THAN THE FIGHT GAP

Senator Joe Biden was quoted as saying he would support prosecuting the Busheviks for various crimes. He now says he never said it:

Biden denies report: ‘No one’s talking about pursuing Bush criminally’

The possibility that Barack Obama might seek to bring criminal charges
against President Bush or members of his administration has been a
recurring theme during the presidential campaign, especially since the
Obama campaign has attempted to stress themes of bipartisanship. For
that reason, Democrats have been quick to downplay any hints of possible
criminal prosecutions.

Sen. Joe Biden aroused fresh speculations on Wednesday, when he
suggested, “If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone
for a criminal violation, they will be pursued, not out of vengeance,
not out of retribution, out of the need to preserve the notion that no
one, no attorney general, no president — no one is above the law.”

Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends raised that issue with Biden on Thursday
morning, asking about “a report that if you guys are elected … you’re
actually going to pursue criminal charges against President Bush’s
administration and different people that served there.”

“That’s not true,” Biden immediately replied. “I don’t know where that
report’s coming from. What is true is the United States Congress is
trying to preserve records on questions that relate to whether or not
the law has been violated by anyone. Anybody should be doing that.”

Biden emphasized that “no one’s talking about President Bush. … I’ve
never heard anybody mention President Bush in that context.” He noted
that “there’s been an awful lot of unsavory stuff that’s gone on … but
I have no evidence of any of that. No one’s talking about pursuing
President Bush criminally.”

NEWSMAX REPORTS: RUPERT MURDOCH MAKES PEACE WITH BARACK OBAMA

Rupert Murdoch agreed to a “truce” between his Fox News network and Barack Obama at a secret meeting with the Democratic candidate, according to the author of an upcoming book about the News Corp. chairman.

Writing in Vanity Fair, Michael Wolff — author of the Murdoch biography, “The Man Who Owns the News” — asserts that Obama viewed Fox News as among his most hostile critics and agreed to meet over the summer with Murdoch and Fox News Channel President Roger Ailes at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

Obama was “deferential” toward Murdoch, Wolff reports, but “lit into” Ailes.

“He said he didn’t want to waste his time talking to Ailes if Fox was just going to continue to abuse him and his wife, that Fox had relentlessly portrayed him as suspicious, foreign, fearsome — just short of a terrorist,” Wolff disclosed.

The three men then agreed to a “tentative truce,” Wolff writes.

Obama campaign spokesman Nick Shapiro acknowledged that the three men had an “opportunity to clear the air.”

A News Corp. spokesperson declined to comment on Wolff’s article, The Financial Times reports.

But one person at News Corp. disputed Wolff’s claim that Murdoch was becoming “embarrassed” that Fox’s right-wing positioning was “going a little far.”

STILL NOT DISCUSSED: STRUCTURAL ECONOMIC ISSUES

Hunger, Food Crises and Riots demonstrate socio-economic structural origins

Special to The Canadian

In recent months major international banks, financial newspapers and mass media have been forced to recognize that there is a major food crisis and that hundreds of millions of people face hunger, malnutrition and outright starvation. World conferences have been convoked and national emergencies have
been declared, as millions riot in nearly fifty countries, threatening to overthrow regimes. In North America and Europe, skyrocketing food prices, combined with stagnant wages, home evictions and debt payments threaten ncumbent regimes and increase pressures on all governments to take urgent action.

Mainstream responses are predictably inadequate, and their explanations for the crisis range from inadequate and self-serving to silly.

HELP NEEDED FOR HAITI—WHO IS TALKING ABOUT THIS?

Rescuers can’t get aid to starving Haitian city

GONAIVES, Haiti (AP) — The convoy rumbled out of the U.N. base toward a flooded, starving and seething city Thursday, carrying some of the first food aid since Tropical Storm Hanna drowned Gonaives in muddy water three days ago.

Hungry children at three orphanages were waiting for the canvas-topped trucks, loaded with warm pots of rice and beans and towing giant tanks of drinking water.

But the food never arrived Thursday.

The convoy crept over mud-caked, semi-paved roads past closed stores, overturned buses and women wading in water up to their knees with plastic tubs on their heads.

After about 45 minutes, the half-dozen trucks ground to a halt. U.N. peacekeepers wearing camouflage fatigues and bulletproof vests jumped out while others stood guard with assault rifles.

Before them, a huge gouge marred the road. The floods had split the asphalt, and water ran through the 10-foot-wide (3-meter-wide) gap.

The convoy turned around. And the children — like tens of thousands more in this increasingly desperate city — went another day without food.

Some 250,000 people are affected in the Gonaives region, including 70,000 in 150 shelters across the city, according to an international official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to=2
0release the information. Argentine Lt. Sergio Hoj estimated that half of Gonaives’ houses remained flooded Thursday.

Many houses were torn apart. Families huddled on rooftops, their possessions laid out to dry. Overturned cars were everywhere, and televisions floated in the brown water.

Gonaives — a collection of concrete buildings, run-down shacks and plazas with dilapidated fountains — lies in a flat river plain between the ocean and deforested mountains that run with mud even in light rains. Hanna swirled over Haiti for four days, dumping vast amounts of water, blowing down fruit trees and ruining stores of food as it swamped tin-roofed houses.

The official death toll rose to 61 on Thursday as Hanna finally moved north with near hurricane-force winds on a path toward the southeastern U.S. coast. But in the chaos there was no way to know how many people might be dead, or how many had been driven from their homes. Two other storms killed 85 people in August, and forecasters warned that fearsome Hurricane Ike could hit Haiti next week.

A BILLION FOR GEORGIA: WONDER WHY?

Try one word: OIL

Sarah Meyer writes from England:

I was wondering if McCain is more clever than we think. Did he choose Palin (massive continuing, obsessive news coverage) to keep the media away from buildup of war in Iran, do you think?

SPECIAL NEEDS LIKE MOM CHALLENGES PALIN: N PINSON WRITES FROM CAMBRIDGE MA

I’ve been a community organizer, and baby, I worked as hard as da mayor! I am a mother of a woman with significant intellectual disabilities and have them myself. She apparently has the cash so she won’t have to spend half of her waking hours fighting for services so her kid can have a half way decent life. Bully for her. She doesn’t speak for us. Like a lot of other people, male and female, I’ve had the misfortune to experience rape, economically and in other ways, has she? I am grateful that abortion is still a choice, albeit a truncated one for poor and young women.

Palin makes me ill, seems more the rapist type. It doesn’t surprise me that her seventeen year old is pregnant, this is characteristic of abused young women, who desperately need someone to call their own and to love. Your characterization was a good one, Annie Get Your Gun, death by image, but remember what happened to Marie Antoinette! The DNC could counter but doesn’t. Guys and Dolls has a great song, too, with the refrain “Can Do” as others have pointed out. However Nancy P and her crowd have adopted such a Can’t Do stance under the guise of “partisanship” whatever that is supposed to mean that it would be terribly embarrassing to use it.

I loathed both the Clintons and they can’t be gone enough for me. Thought Bill could have filed the Social Responsibility Act and the African-American and Indigenous People’s Restitution Act, if he wanted to open a dialogue about “race”. Instead, he brought us the so-called “welfare reform” “Personal Responsibility Act” that forced so many back into situations of domestic abuse and the VCCLEA, which has acted like the grandfather clause in the reconstruction era post civil war, disenfranchising a whole generation of young folks. Instead of another boring Presidential Museum he could have seeded a Museum of American Slavery, and made a real contribution, for a change.

I remember true sheros like Fanny Lou Hamer. I am glad I am on a TV fast. Amy’s face, full of the anxiety of PTSD, acquired no doubt in East Timor, made me so sad.

Susan Davis writes from Virginia Beach:

I am a person who has been watching all the political stuff going on and I have a question. It is noticeable to me that no one has asked the people who would make more war, the Republicans, what they plan to do about the shortage of soldiers we are experiencing at present with what wars we have going on. Is there any plan to reinitiate the draft should they be elected??? It seems the only possible solution to the present crisis in the military. Palin speaks about war being “God’s Work”, then wouldn’t a draft be” God calling our young men and women to serve Him ?” I would like to see someone ask the question just to keep things out in front during the campaign. I have no way to bring this up on a large scale, so I am sending this question to you. If you have any answers, great, if not can you ask the question? People really need to know.

Pete Simon asks:

The question knawing away:

HOW MANY AFFECTED PEOPLE ARE BUYING THE PACKAGING?

SARAH’S HANDLERS ARE ALREADY SHIELDING HER FROM BASIC-THOUGH-TOUGH QUESTIONS ABOUT HER TRIPS TO DC SEEKING EARMARKS, ETC. ETC., BY ALREADY SCREAMING (as your page already pointed out) “LIBERAL BIAS”.

IF THE KARL ROVE CONTINGENT GETS ITS WAY, SUCH BASIC-THOUGH-ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS WILL NOT BE ASKED. IF THE “LIBERAL” MEDIA BLINKS AND DECIDES TO NOT PRESS THE ISSUE, ONE OF THE FEW PLACES WHERE SUCH “CONTROVERSIAL” TOPICS MAY BE APPROACHED WILL BE DURING JOE BIDEN’S REBUTTALS DURING HIS ONE AND ONLY DEBATE WITH THE BARRACUDA.

MARK STENZLER FROM GENEVA:

When I heard the GOP faithful chanting “Drill, baby, drill!” at the convention, I can only conclude that the republic is totally fucked.

We have lost all sense of reason and responsibility.

Kelly Patin Brook writes:

I THINK YOUR WONDERFUL SITE SHOULD CALL THIS VEEP MESS — “BEYOND THE PALIN” — BY CHOOSING PALIN JOHN-BOY HAS GIVEN A POKE IN THE EYE (WORSE) TO EVERY QUALIFIED MAN OR WOMAN HE MAY HAVE CHOSEN FOR VEEP. SURELY AMERICA WILL WAKE UP. SURELY WE WON’T DO THIS TO OURSELVES. HER TAKE ON ANIMAL RIGHTS … BEYOND THE PALIN…

Deborah Emin writes:

A friend sent me this link about McCain which I think should get a lot more readers than just the UK folks for whom it was written. It would be great to start splashing up on the screens what Perot thinks of this man.

Also I see that the Enquirer now has a story about Palin and a paramour. Yikes, shades of John Edwards again, I do believe, as in could they be right again?

Then there is the whole economy that needs to be talked about fairly. I am sure you did not get a chance to hear Terry Gross yesterday but she asked a trenchant question about all that money Alaskans get per person every year from the oil/gas rights to their land. plus the tax money spent to get that oil/gas reserves, etc. It seems like those of us who have no money should head to Alaska where at least we would be getting some money from the government for our needs.

Right now, I have seen figures from $1200/person to $3200/person. But let’s not quibble, the point is, they get money on the sale of the oil and gas and thus have a huge stake in asking us to drill up there for our use. Can we begin to ask these questions? Can we begin to frame the debate in terms that are real?
This is the beginning of a long two months I fear and I just hope the work being done right now by VP Darth Vader does not throw us into WWWIII before the election occurs.

William Bowles writes from London:

And that’s why the GOP is gonna win. They discovered how to tap into the REAL US zeitgeist back in the days of Raygun. (See ‘The Programming of the President’ by Roland Perry, Aurum Press, 1984). Now if O’Bummer had been some guy from backwoods Mississippi made good it would have been a different story, but then the Dems are just stop-gap political party, a ‘just-in-case’ party, just in case the GOP fucks up big time aka Nixon.

PAUL FISCHE WRITES (VIA FACEBOOK): ANCHORS FIGHT CANCER:

And now for something completely different: All 3 network anchors will make a joint appearance on the major broadcast networks to raise awareness, money, and publicity for cancer research.. and self preservation…and Q ratings.

the conventions are over. apple pie and motherhood are spoken for. Jerry’s kids are spoken for.

Not to be outdone by McCain-Palin, Obama-Biden, the network anchors have decided their campaign is not about issues, it’s about personalities..and a post convention ratings bump as the fall tv season begins.
Cancer is an issue that can allow for personality to shine through with stories of personal couirage..and no controversy..unless someone advocates for embryonic stem cell research. ( Not very likely)

The publiic has tired of hurricane cliches. The evening news rating answer is no longer blowin in the wind.

If the anchors REALLY wanted to do something worthy about cancer research…they would quietly hit up their bosses to stop cutting jobs in journalism…stop the permalancer trend with no benefits..and stop cutting healthcare benefits for their dwindling fulltime staffers.

And they wouldn’t ask YOU for money.

BROADCASTING & CABLE: SOME EXECS ARE SPEAKING UP

Exclusive: News Execs Fire Back at GOP Media Attacks

After this week’s Republican National Convention unleashed a barrage of attacks on the news media for their coverage of vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, network news executives defended their coverage and dismissed the charges as a stale political strategy meant to distract viewers from legitimate election issues.

Happy 75th Birthday this weekend to Philadelphia’s Rabbi of conscience, the learned and wise Arthur Waskow.

And best to all of you. I will be on KPFA and KALW on Friday morning discuss the issus raised in my new book Plunder. Back to New York Sunday after, hopefully, some ‘power to the peaceful’ music in the park on Saturday with the great Michael Franti and Spearhead.

Sorry to those who sent items I couldn’t get to because it’s hard to write on the run.
Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org.