Paying More Than 30 Cents at the Pump is Madness

It costs five cents per gallon to produce and to distribute gasoline. That's it! The price at the pump in Iraq and Iran is five cents. In Venezuela the price is 12 cents, because their crude is full of gunk that must be removed. Since the Russian Mafia controls their distribution, $1.00 is the price there. The Brits and the Israelis pay an $8.00 per gallon tab at the pump. Why? Socialists think car ownership is a luxury and they controlled gas pricing in the past.
Americans are mad to pay more than 30 cents [18 cents of it in taxes] per gallon at the pump.

What We Stand For - in Twelve Words

Fair wages, fair markets, health security, retirement security, equal justice…for all. - Bernie Horn, OurFuture.org

Is Anybody Decent? Huckabee in Jerusalem

Is Anybody Decent?

McCain and Huckabee profess allegiance to a democratic nation that has killed over 6,000,000 Asians since the beginning of the Vietnam era. At the moment a US armada is steaming towards the Persian Gulf with the ability to end life for 72 millions Iranians.

Huckabee is in Jerusalem lecturing us on proper behavior [supporting John McCain].

If Americans had any decency, they would lock men such as McCain and Huckabee until the devil comes to take them.

Do they intend to vaporize Iranians to gain a few points in the popularity polls?

Fear Right and Left

Fear Right and Left

The Republicans fear massive arrests and executions for crimes against humanity and murder. Three preemptive wars have killed over six millions Asians and tens of thousands of Americans. Ironically, the Republicans have constructed an 'injustice' system geared to put them to death without trial.

Democratic officials are largely aboard this sinking Ship of Fools. They accepted bribes at similar watering holes. They stood by while the FBI sold our nuclear secrets to Muslim powers. They joined the bankers in the looting of America. They voted to fund the three wars and supported the perpetrators when they were discovered.

The Patriot and Military Commisions Acts can define the majority of Democrats as enemy combatants. As such, they can rot in prison without trial with the Republicans totally f**ked.

Unfortunately, this concept is beyond the Pale for most brain washed Americans. They will muddle through until the backlash from one of their preemptive wars puts them out of their misery.

by Jason Paz

Progressives Don't Know Jack About America

Progressives Have No Idea of America's Culture

If I may paraphrase from the movie The Departed, this is America. If you aint rich, you are a douch bag.

McCain defines 'rich' as making over $5,000,000 per year. True to his words, John treats the rest of us as douch bags. As long as he bashes the Negro in the head, the ton of racists in the USA don't mind the douch bag treatment.

To paraphrase The Departed again, cops become cops because they can smash a plate glass window with a Negro's head.

America adores crooks. The gangster movies most popular, we must see 'Swordfish' to learn about our country. To know progressives, we can watch Mike Dukakis answer Bernard Shaw in the 1988. "What would you do to the man who raped and murdered Kitty Dukakis?" When Mike gave his spiel against capital punishment, he lost the election.

When reporters became too critical of George H W Bush, the President gave the order for his CIA to drown them in bathtubs. As long as Andrea Mitchell remains above water, the media will denounce Obama.

by Jason Paz

Chinese Capitalism versus American Plutocracy

In the article, Kuznet and Cohen make good sense. Having a man with a brain in the White House is a tremendous asset. Dealing with the brain of Putin, Bush became his poodle. McCain will fight anyone to the last drop of American blood.
Using authoritarian means, the Chinese have constructed the best capitalist economic growth engine on earth. Why? They execute corrupt officials who impede economic growth.
By contrast, the US has rewarded corrupt corporate and government officials until they have bled the country dry. The authoritarian leadership suppresses the citizens through ignorance, poverty and intimidation that impede and distort the capitalist system.

You Had To Be There

Almost everyone believes the poll numbers. After the Republicans have rigged many recent elections, I remind that it is much easier to distort the polls.
Aside from a number of well-paid trolls on the Internet, I have encountered no John McCain supporters. [Very few people prefer homelessness, joblessness and economic disaster. Even fewer are willing to be vaporized to further the dreams of empire.]
The ordinary citizens have been bullied and brain washed into submissiveness. I witnessed our Republic in 1950, when Americans stood up and fought for their rights. You had to be there.

Rogue State America

The Rogue State

The USA is a rogue state bent on world domination with or without people. Thoroughly cowed the native population is unable to confront or change the leadership. The 2008 elections will change a few faces at the top, but will leave the military/industrial complex intact.

The preemptive attacks staged by the US have given common cause to the nations of Asia. As never before, they are exploring new areas of co-operation.

The Americans are mostly bluster, bluff and blunder. They have borrowed enormous sums to lose three wars. They rely on international gangsters to administer food and fuel prices.

The world nations can blunt America's sword by calling in her debts. The WTO and the IMF should be removed from the world stage. To gain our good graces, she should do away with the CIA, the FBI, the INS and the Federal Reserve. The US government should fire its employees and join the British Commonwealth of Nations. Retired British civil servants should man key posts in the Cabinet and in the bureaucracy.

There are alternate choices. If the Americans continue on the perpetual war path, the nation can become a radioactive cinder.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Early Favorites

Why Haven't the Dems Prosecuted the Evil Doers?

In 2006 the Republicans underestimated the extent of public discontent. They rigged the voting machines to gain a maginal win. The scheme backfired when Democrats voted in record numbers.

The Dems wasted a golden opportunity to fill the jails with seditionists, war profiteers and criminals against humanity. Instead, the Dems pandered shamelessly to the GOP ilk. All of them came up dirty.

The people have opted for a visit from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Happy Trails, Jim!

by Jason Paz

Pravda Tells the Truth for a Change

Pravda Tells Truth Bush and Rice Lie

The sheer hypocrisy of Bush and Rice

Pravda
Friday, Aug 15, 2008

Were it not for the unadulterated arrogance of George W. Bush and Condoleeza Rice, their sheer hypocrisy would be laughable, yet due to their brazen instrusiveness and insolence, their very presence rankles, their words grate in the ears. Their messages cannot go unanswered.

Here we have a George W. Bush and a Conzoleeza Rice, with expressions of total preoccupation on their faces (are they worried about the implication of US military advisors in the act of butchery perpetrated by Georgian forces against ethnic Russians and Ossetians, when in one night 2.000 civilians were slaughtered?), speaking about the need to adhere to international law at the beginning of the 21st century.

Here we have a President and his Secretary of State condemning Russia and supporting Georgia without one single word of mention of the Georgian war crimes which started this whole sorry affair. Not one single word of mention about the obligation Georgia had to hold a referendum in Abkhazia and South Ossetia under the terms of the Soviet Constitution, namely as regards its provisions for the voluntary dissolution of the Union or secession of Member States.

Here we have two senior members of a regime which entered Iraq based upon a tissue of lies, which then declared that the goal was regime change and which proceeded to mastermind a kangaroo court which changed the judges numerous times until who they purport as being His Excellency President Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti was hanged by the neck. Then they complain about Russia wanting to remove that criminal murderer, Saakashvili?

They have the audacity to complain about Russia violating Georgia’s frontiers, when the US armed forces invaded Iraq and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of civilians? They have the cheek to complain about Russian military operations when cluster bombs were dropped into civilian areas in Iraq, when prisoners were tortured in Abu Ghraib, when innocent people were rounded up and sent to the illegal concentration camp at Guantanamo, where they did not even have access to a due legal process?

They have the sheer, pig-headed arrogance to speak about the territorial integrity of Georgia, when Iraq was invaded outside any norm of international law, its civilian structures were targeted with military hardware and reconstruction contracts were doled out without tender to White House cronies?

Suppose Russia claimed that it wanted regime change in Georgia, invaded the country, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of its citizens, deployed WMD in civilian areas, raped and tortured prisoners, caught Saakashvili and hanged him? Morally, Bush, Rice and their entire odious and satanic regime would not be able to say a single word without the label “hypocrisy” choking them in their throats.

In the 21st Century Nations Do Not Invade Nations

In the 21st century Nations Do Not Invade Other Nations
McCain
I hate the gooks McCain admits
“I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live,” – John McCain, when asked about his continued use of the racial slur, “gook.”
The American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq doesn’t count as an invasion, because “Gooks” populate these so-called nations. As sub humans do not qualify as citizens in a sovereign state, they can be bombed until they die or go away.
“We are all Georgians,” McCain says. He means, “We are all white people.”
McCain’s racist warmongering boils down to the Red Menace and the Yellow Peril. Three generations have absorbed these slogans as mothers’ milk.
Obama is toast.

Torture Approved by American Psychological Assn

Torture Supported by American Psychological Association

This must stop, wrote psychoanalyst Stephen Soldz in a Sunday Boston Globe Op-Ed, Ending the psychological mind games on detainees:

Psychologists have been identified as key figures in the design and conduct of abuses against detainees in US custody at Guantanamo, the CIA's secret "black sites," and in Iraq and Afghanistan. Psychologists should not be taking part in such practices.

Yet a steady stream of revelations from government documents, journalistic reports, and congressional hearings has revealed that psychologists designed the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" techniques – which included locking prisoners in tiny cages in the fetal position, throwing them against the wall head first, prolonged nakedness, sexual humiliation, and waterboarding.

Jane Mayer ... reports that the central idea was the psychological concept of "learned helplessness." Individuals are denied all control over their world, lose their will and become totally dependent upon their captors.

Talk About Becoming the Enemy

We also know that, even after the supposed banning of some measures that had been previously approved by the Secretary of Defense, these techniques continued at the detention center at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, and probably other prisons, even while the Inspector General was putting a seal of approval on the whole affair.

As Josh White wrote in the Washington Post last Friday:

At least 17 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay were subjected to a program that moved them repeatedly from cell to cell to cause sleep deprivation and disorientation as punishment and to soften detainees for subsequent interrogation, according to U.S. military documents.

Defense Department investigations of abuse had previously revealed that the program was used in a limited manner and only on high-value detainees, but the documents indicate that the program was far more widespread and that the technique was still used months after it was banned at the facility in March 2004. Detainees were moved dozens of times in just days and sometimes more than a hundred times over a two-week period.

Military police logs for cell blocks at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, show that guards used the program -- dubbed the "frequent flyer" program in official documents -- on numerous detainees and noted the program in their 2003 and 2004 records. The logs, reviewed by The Washington Post, also indicate that the frequent cell movements took place on the same days a Navy admiral was visiting Guantanamo to assess possible detainee abuses.

Pack Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile

I am glad to hear from two Americans who don't worry about perpetual war, ecological disasters, joblessness, soaring food and fuel prices, national economic collapse and homelessness. Barack Obama can't solve these problems, as the public is unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices.
With luck, McCain will continue the aggressive American war policies in Asia. He will goad the Russians into an all-out nuclear war.
Vaporized, we will cease worrying about the national debt.

We Have Slept for Sixty Years

The last major event for me was Statehood for Israel in 1948. I've been grateful to live in a place removed from gas chambers.

Other events form a repetitious jumble in my head. They came as hope, lingered for a while then sank into despair. The Bush Administration shed new light for me. It collected the evil excesses of the centuries and dropped the chaos directly on our heads.

Julius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Pedro the Cruel, Torquemada, Blackbeard, Vlad the Impaler, John Dillinger and Dick Cheney are alive and thriving in Washington DC.

Since most Americans have slept through the last sixty years, I doubt if many of them will rise from their slumbers before the Messiah comes.

by Jason Paz

When is Kosher Meat Not Kosher?

When is Kosher Meat Not Kosher?

Dark Meat

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld

ACCORDING to the Jewish calendar we are now in the month of Av, a period of increasingly intense mourning that culminates with a total fast on the Ninth of Av, which this year coincides with Sunday, Aug. 10.

One of the customary practices in these nine days is the avoidance of meat: it’s the way we commemorate the destruction of the Temple, where daily animal sacrifices were once brought.

Refraining from food is symbolic, of course. The idea is not just to avoid meat but to limit ourselves so that we can better focus on the spiritual.

Unfortunately, this year kosher meat has become a different type of symbol, one not of mourning and spiritual devotion but of ridicule, embarrassment and hypocrisy. In May in Postville, Iowa, immigration officials raided Agriprocessors Inc., the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the country.

What began as an immigration sting, however, quickly took on larger dimensions. News reports and government documents have described abusive practices at Agriprocessors against workers, including minors. Children as young as 13 were said to be wielding knives on the killing floor; some teenagers were working 17-hour shifts, six days a week.

This poses a grave problem and calls into question whether the food processed in the plant qualifies as kosher.

You see, there is precedent for declaring something nonkosher on the basis of how employees are treated. Yisroel Salanter, the great 19th-century rabbi, is famously believed to have refused to certify a matzo factory as kosher on the grounds that the workers were being treated unfairly. In addition to the hypocrisy of calling something kosher when it is being sold and produced in an unethical manner, we have to take into account disturbing information about the plant that has come to light.

The affidavit filed in the United States District Court of Northern Iowa, for instance, alleges that an employee was physically abused by a rabbi on the floor of the plant. If true, this calls into question the reliability and judgment of the rabbi in charge of making sure the food was kosher.

What’s more, two workers who oversaw the poultry and beef division were recently arrested for helping illegal immigrants falsify documents. If they were willing to break national immigration laws, one could reasonably ask whether they would be likely to show the same lack of concern for Jewish dietary laws.

Unfortunately, the responses of the leading Orthodox organizations, the Rabbinical Council of America and the Orthodox Union, have, in my opinion, fallen far short of what is needed to be done and have done little to diminish the extent of the desecration of God’s name. I am a member of both groups, but I am dissatisfied with their stance, which asks us to sit back patiently and wait for the results of a federal investigation. On some level, this might be prudent, but on another it is unacceptable.

What is needed is for the Orthodox Union to appoint an independent commission whose members have not in the past been paid by either the Orthodox Union or Agriprocessors. Such a commission would select a team of rabbinic experts to spend an extended period of time at the plant and then make suggestions and recommendations. This independent team would make sure the plant upholds basic standards of kashrut and worker and animal treatment — and that it is in full compliance with the laws of the United States.

Hebrew National used to run a commercial that said: “We answer to a Higher Authority.” Well, we do. We need to express shame and embarrassment about the reports coming out of Iowa, and we need to actively work to change these matters. Then we should ask ourselves if our behavior and our values need improvement. Only if we truly think about these issues will we truly be keeping kosher.

Shmuel Herzfeld, rabbi of Ohev Sholom-The National Synagogue, is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America.

America Resumes Cold War

America's foolish misadventures in Asia have invited the Russians to restore the USSR. The Georgians started it. The Ambassador is lying.

If the massive US Navy force makes a preemptive strike against Iran, we'll see if Putin is bluffing with his assertion to defend that country.

If China has any common sense, she will collect the $4.6 trillions owed her before the US becomes a radioactive cinder.

Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish

Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish

I saw Mahmoud Darwish over more than two decades in Beirut, in Damascus, in Washington, in New York, in London, in Paris, in Geneva — and last month in Ramallah. He was part of my life, and part of the lives of every Palestinian in Jerusalem and Ramallah and everywhere. And now, he is gone, and the world is not the same.

She shares her favourite poem with us - a biblical story of Yousef:

Oh my father, I am Yusuf
Oh father, my brothers neither love me nor want me in their midst
They assault me and cast stones and words at me
They want me to die so they can eulogize me
They closed the door of your house and left me outside
They expelled me from the field
Oh my father, they poisoned my grapes
They destroyed my toys
When the gentle wind played with my hair, they were jealous
They flamed up with rage against me and you
What did I deprive them of, Oh my father?
The butterflies stopped on my shoulder
The bird hovered over my hand
What have I done, Oh my father?
Why me?
You named me Yusuf and they threw me into the well
They accused the wolf
The wolf is more merciful than my brothers
Oh, my father
Did I wrong anyone when I said that
I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon
Saw them kneeling before me?

Jordanian Samer Marzouq, writing at Jazarah, says Darwish's death is a big loss for the Arab world.

Bad news, the greatest Arab poet, the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish has died today in a hospital in Huston in the USA, this is a big loss for the Arab cultural scene, rest in peace Mahmoud Darwish, rest in peace.

Tunisian blog Khil We Lil [Ar] marks Darwish's death saying:

عملاق آخر يمضي
Another giant passes away.

Radwa Osama, from Egypt, is shocked at the news and awaits a message from Darwish - via another poet:

In a sad tone, Amr told me that Mahmoud Darwish passed away. I have repeatedly asked him not to break such stories to me in one go. A little while later, we listened to Mahmood Darwish's voice on the computer. I can hear his clear sadness. I don't find a lot of words to add but I am extremely sad. I was thinking that next time his visited Cairo, it would be at the American University. I was preparing myself for that event. It has really been a long time since I last heard Darwish. I used to listen to him every time I felt annoyed. He was able to calm me down. Amr asks me: "What do you think Mahmoud Darwish is doing now?" I think logically and say: "Mahmoud Darwish is now contemplating on the experience (of death), in order to write a poem, and send it to us, the people who are eager for the truth. Very soon, I will stop enjoying poetry. Mahmoud Darwish, do you still think that death mistakes us?! I am looking forward for a poem from you, with the first person who contacts you
. Poets never die.

You may view the latest post at

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/09/arabeyes-mourning-for-mahmoud-darwish/

MIT Solar Energy Process

MIT Solar Energy Process

If you view the rooftops of Tel-Aviv, you will see a forest of white water tanks. Each with a solar panel, it heats the water for a family.
More ambitious solar projects we have executed in the USA the hardware too expensive for Israel.
We all know the electric and hydrogen patents for cars were bought by the auto industry. Hopefully, these firms will go bankrupt and be forced to sell the patents to the Chinese.
It will be interesting how the energy companies suppress the new MIT process.

What Would George Do?

What Would George Do?

If George Bush wanted to promote an impeachment, he would declare his Congressional opponents as enemy combatants. Thrown into Gitmo without trial or communication, they would have little chance of contesting for their seats.

Any newly elected Congressman reluctant to follow orders could sit in Gitmo as well.

Progressives lack intestinal fortitude. Mike Dukakis provided sufficient example. If his wife were raped and murdered, he would not support the death penalty for the culprit.

Every woman asked. "If he won't protect [avenge] his wife, how can he protect me?"

If Progressives [Congressmen] can't impeach Bush, they can sit in jail for fortitude training.

by Jason Paz

The Oil Industry Criminal Cartel

The Oil Industry Criminal Cartel

The falling price of oil — and gasoline prices, too — should lower inflation and lending rates, boost consumer confidence and could even influence whom voters chose in November's presidential election.

For motorists, it could mean oil prices under $100 a barrel later this year and deeper price declines at the gasoline pump. Already, the national average for a gallon of gasoline, which stood at $4.10 a month ago, was down to $3.83 on Friday, according to the AAA Motor Club.

Thirty-two years ago I asked a service station attendant for a gallon can of gas. My Volkswagen had sputtered dry a mile down the road. When he asked me if I had tripped the emergency gasoline supply, I nodded yes.

He explained in the last Venezuelan revolt the rioters had requested gas in small amounts to make Molotov cocktails.

Finally, I thought, a good reason for fossil fuels.

I was in the Andes Mountains to determine the potential market for tethered communication balloons. In Caracas, I was also working on windmill generated electricity delivered by underground residential cables.

My firm was doing marketing research on earthquake detection devices, anti-submarine surveillance, grain silo monitors and many other avenues. My favorite team examined the Bay of Fundy tides as electricity generators.

Two years after the OPEC Oil Embargo everybody with a brain in his head knew there was no future for fossil fuels.

Most politicians are well-paid shills for the special interests who have sat on technological progress for generations.

They are enemy combatants.

Communistic Capitalism

Communistic Capitalism

Naomi Klein, HuffPo

So far, the Olympics have been an open invitation to China-bash, a bottomless excuse for Western journalists to go after the Commies on everything from internet censorship to Darfur. Through all the nasty news stories, however, the Chinese government has seemed amazingly unperturbed. That's because it is betting on this: when the opening ceremonies begin friday, you will instantly forget all that unpleasantness as your brain is zapped by the cultural/athletic/political extravaganza that is the Beijing Olympics.

Like it or not, you are about to be awed by China's sheer awesomeness.

The games have been billed as China's "coming out party" to the world. They are far more significant than that. These Olympics are the coming out party for a disturbingly efficient way of organizing society, one that China has perfected over the past three decades, and is finally ready to show off. It is a potent hybrid of the most powerful political tools of authoritarianism communism -- central planning, merciless repression, constant surveillance -- harnessed to advance the goals of global capitalism. Some call it "authoritarian capitalism," others "market Stalinism," personally I prefer "McCommunism."

Note: The reader might note the similarities between ‘authoritarian capitalism’ and Corporate America. Why are the Americans wallowing in disaster? They have world class expertise in merciless repression and in constant surveillance. Where do they fall down? They have little or no central planning. The corporations do not plan on a comprehensive scale. They are industry specific.

Kuwait Violates Human Rights of Foreign Workers

Kuwait Violates Human Rights of Its Slave Laborers

Kuwaiti Officials Beat and Torture Foreign Workers

By Mezba, Global Voices

Most of the Muslim Student Associations in universities in North America have a very vocal content about supporting Palestine issues. Many of them also have a strong pro-Arab camp, where they harp on supporting the Arab countries against Israel on many issues, and whenever Arabs are mistreated or discriminated against, it is painted as an "Islamic" issue. Many converts to Islam here also have an idolized view of the Arab lands.

Having lived in the Middle East before, I have a different view on these issues. Here's something I caught on the news recently.

Some time ago Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait went on strike because they had not been paid by the Kuwaiti authorities for more than 3 months. These are already dirt poor people doing menial jobs saving whatever scraps they can to help their families back in Bangladesh. So what did the Kuwaitis do?

They beat up the striking workers, locked many of them up and deported them all to Bangladesh. There were also tales of torture when those deported people reached Bangladesh.

Today, I found a letter in Kuwait Times where one resident writes "Bangladeshi cleaners, Thank you."

I would to thank all the Bangladeshi cleaners who used to collect the garbage from sunset until sunrise, to clean up the dirt and the leftovers of mine and of all residents of Kuwait. They were, in fact, doing a great job and excellent work.
.
.
.
While we enjoyed the luxury of new, clean clothes every day, the dirty, yellow dirty uniform was the costume that they lived, ate and maybe even slept in.
.
.
.
Salaries: Why do you work? This is not a new topic, it's an old one and a natural request. Why do any of us go to work and how many of us would work for free?

Meanwhile, now Kuwait, probably hit by the garbage on the streets, have admitted responsibility (where have we heard this before?).

I have said it before and I have said it again, the problem lies in governments of countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka making no attempt to ban their citizens from working in slavery-conditions in these countries. Blind by the lure of foreign currency and cash these workers bring, they have trampled on their welfare and rights.

Next time an Arab supporting MSA comes around to ask me for support against Israeli oppression against Palestinians, I am going to ask, "how are you any better".

Posted by mezba at 8:18 PM

Economic Liberty

“Economic liberty is embodied in the practice of
free-enterprise capitalism, which functions best if largely unconstrained by
government taxation and regulation.”

This is a lofty statement. If all the components described
the American reality, our nation would be in fine shape. Unfortunately, none of
this describes the conditions on the ground so to speak.

Corporate America
controls 99% of the government and of the media. The idea is to strip the
ordinary citizens of their Constitutional and human rights so they have no way
to redress grievances. Through Federal control of the school curriculum, they
have dummied down the population to be unaware of the rights they once had and
of the duties involved in maintaining liberty.

Law enforcement and judicial officials do not serve and
protect the people. Rather, they work to suppress free expression by
dissidents, whistle blowers and other rowdies who seek liberty and justice for
all.

Deregulation has set loose a collection of robber barons,
organized thieves and seditionists to degrade the populace and to loot the
public treasury.

Very few enterprises are competitive and none of them allow
the free movement of labor, capital and the factors of production.

Dressing up negative campaign ads with quotes from the
founding fathers won’t benefit anyone.

McCain Ends Campaign Faces Prison for Counterfeit

Will Mud Slow the Juggernaut Obama Campaign?
Barf Report IBD Editorials by Eugene Robinson
It's awfully early for John McCain to be running such a desperate, ugly campaign against Barack Obama. But I guess it's useful for Democrats to get a reminder that the Republican Party plays presidential politics by the same moral code that guided the bad-boy Oakland Raiders in their heyday: "Just win, baby."
The latest bit of snarling, mean-spirited nonsense to come out of the McCain camp was the accusation, leveled by campaign manager Rick Davis, that Obama had "played the race card." He did so, apparently, by being black.
On Wednesday, at a campaign stop in Missouri, Obama had predicted that Republicans would try to "make you scared of me. You know, 'he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name,' you know, 'he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.' "
So what does Davis do? He promptly tries to make voters scared of Obama by feigning outrage over the presumptive Democratic nominee's "divisive, negative, shameful and wrong" remarks.
Of course, the McCain campaign isn't really offended that the first black major-party candidate for president in American history might mention this distinction from time to time. The idea is to slow Obama down before he runs away with this thing, and the weapon of choice is handfuls of mud.
Remember St. John the Reformer, who promised a high-minded campaign and said he wouldn't question his opponent's patriotism? Clearly, he's been replaced by an evil twin. The switch seems to have taken place during his opponent's world tour, when Obama's prescriptions for Iraq and Afghanistan began to look prescient — and McCain's began to look irrelevant.
The Counterfeit Dollar Does In McCain
... But what's really classic is that McCain put Obama's face on a dollar bill over a month ago!

Is the media buying McCain's story that Obama played the race card, using his description of McCain doing things analogous to putting his face on a dollar bill? Of course, most everyone has taken it as an analogy and McCain, as well as some of the media, have been looking to crucify Obama for it. The thing is, McCain actually DID put obama's face on a dollar bill -- over a month ago in a little-seen web video. The point is, Obama's analogy -- whether he realized it or not, and maybe he heard about the video and only recalled it subconsciously -- isn't even an analogy, it's true!

Plus, Team McCain turned him pansy yellow, made him all starry-eyed, then blew him up.
Michael Shaw, HuffPo