This 2003 music video from the USA is the original American Life video by Madonna, un-edited.
From Dutch NOS TV (translated):
Mega pop star Madonna in her new world tour ‘The Sticky & Sweet Tour’ equates United States presidential candidate McCain with Hitler and Mugabe.
Pictures of those three men are visible on a video screen, after images of destruction and consequences of climate change. Next, there is Barack Obama, in a row of pictures with John Lennon, Al Gore and Gandhi.
See also here.
Though all historical comparisons are necessarily imperfect, John McCain’s singing Bomb bomb Iran, and
talking about 100 years United States war in Iraq, should set off alarm bells even among United States voters who so far have always voted Republican.
It is a pity that Madonna stopped her 2003 anti Iraq war video “American Life” when Bush actually invaded Iraq.
Canadian Conservative Stephen Harper called a fascist: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Madonna is another celebrity who may be successful in the fantasy world of show business and flaunting herself, but when it comes to politics, she is an airhead. Furthermore … John McCain has not only proved himself with over 40 years of service to America, but when he was a prisoner in Hanoi, and he was given the chance of early release, and he chose to stay … out of honor and love of America, even though it meant years of additional captivity and torture, it showed remarkable integrity and character … something Madonna doesn’t even recognize … let alone acknowledge. Madonna’s comparison of John McCain to Adolph Hitler is a travesty … and another example of how these spoiled celebrities who support Obama, enjoy the benefits and sacrifices made by others, while these ingrates trash American heros like McCain who suffered to insure their freedoms and opportunities.
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Hi Howard, you have very uncritical hero worshiping views on John McCain. For a more critical analysis, including Vietnam, see here.
Also, it is not Adolph Hitler, but Adolf. As I said, all historical comparisons are inexact at some point. I would also not equate Robert Mugabe with Hitler. One important difference between McCain and Hitler is that McCain has never been head of state yet. So, George W. Bush has more points in common with Hitler than John Mccain has. Andrew Sullivan, ex-Weekly Standard, compared Bush to Hitler because of torture: which used to be a difference between Bush and McCain … until McCain flip flopped on torture as he has flip flopped on many other issues.
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Madonna is a complete idiot. What knowledge or education does she have to even comment on the political arena? She spends her entire time working out, dressing up, or in the recording studios.
The American people do not need entertainers telling them how to vote. It just appalls me that some one would think just because he is in the limelight he has the knowledge to prejudice people one way or the other.
I am in education, have a master’s degree, watch political viewpoint channels often, read much, and would never have the audacity to tell some one how to vote or if one candidate is better than another. I may give my opinion privately, but will not go on a soapbox.
I believe it is up to the individual voter to make his choice based on his readings and listening to the candidates, not by listening to “Hollywood”.
I cannot understand how “Hollywood” can think they are so knowledgeable on history and politics. Celebrities should stick with what they know. If they want to voice their thoughts privately to their friends that is another matter, but to broadcast in the media is absolutely reprehensible.
On another note, how dare Madonna even compare some one who has been tortured for five years for our country to Hitler. Where is Madonna coming from? She has no soul! Even if Madonna does not agree with McCain’s viewpoints, for her to compare him to Hitler is abominable. He is a loyal American patriot who has given more than she will ever give to his country, the United States of America. Madonna is not even residing in America, which says a lot right there.
All Madonna cares about is her body and ticket sales. Enough said.
Please excuse any grammatical errors, but this is “off the cuff” quickly and with no editors, since I do not have the money to hire editors as some do.
God Bless America and every individual’s right to vote his choice.
Frances
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This Video is John McCain, a war monger. John McCain is fascist. In one of John McCain’s fundraisers JOHN MCCAIN said and is interested in REINSTATING THE DRAFT if he becomes President. John McCain and his people are the ones that started that stuff with Georgia and Russia. This would put McCain in a better place since he had war experience, NOT. If you would like to know more about John McCain please go to The Bill Press Show on the internet and view 101 REASONS TO VOTE AGAINST JOHN MCCAIN. John McCain is an evil man. You go Madonna, you rock.
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Since John McCain was a prisoner of war and we all know war is a terrible thing why is he so interesting in starting war. BOMB, BOMB IRAN and he wanted to be in Iraq for 100 years, SO SOME PEOPLE CAN GET RICH AND YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN DIE NEEDLESSLY!!!!
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Re #3: quote: “What knowledge or education does she have to even comment on the political arena?” Supposedly, the United States is a democracy. That means all citizens, be they tinker, tailor, or singer/dancer like Madonna, have the right to comment on politics.
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Hi Tetiana, especially your last sentence in comment #5 is very relevant. As for comment #4, indeed a top McCain adviser until very recently was a lobbyist for the Saakashvili regime in Georgia.
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Posted by: “Compañero” companyero@bellsouth.net
Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:53 pm (PDT)
Abramoff scandal figure raises McCain money
Ralph Reed touts himself as a member of McCain’s ‘Victory 2008 Team’
The Associated Press updated 2:50 p.m. ET, Wed., Aug. 13, 2008
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. – A political strategist tied to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal is helping raise money for John McCain, urging his fellow Georgia Republicans to attend a fundraiser for the presidential candidate in Atlanta.
Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition, touted himself as a member of McCain’s “Victory 2008 Team” in an e-mail that solicited donations on McCain’s behalf. The Republican National Committee is hosting the fundraiser set for an Atlanta hotel on Aug. 18.
A House investigative committee in 2006 found that Reed interceded with the Bush White House to help some of Abramoff’s clients. Reed’s public relations firm also received $4.2 million from Abramoff to mobilize Christian voters to fight the opening of casinos that could compete with Abramoff’s Indian tribe clients.
Reed later said he regretted the actions, which contributed to his 2006 Republican primary loss in a bid to be Georgia’s lieutenant governor. Abramoff went to prison for conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion.
McCain led a Senate investigation into Abramoff’s dealings with Indian tribes, which included information about his ties to Reed. McCain said in a November 2007 presidential debate: “I led in the Abramoff hearings in the, in the obscure Indian Affairs Committee, for which people are still testifying and going to jail.”
On Wednesday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean criticized what he called “McCain’s decision to cozy up to one of the central figures in the Republican culture of corruption.”
Reed didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The McCain campaign referred questions to the Republican National Committee.
RNC spokesman Alex Conant said, “It’s laughable Democrats would try to make this a political issue, considering John McCain led the Abramoff investigations and has a record of fighting to reform Washington.”
Conant noted that Democratic candidate Barack Obama has had fundraising controversies, too, including instances in which Obama returned donations from tainted contributors.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week that Reed sent a message to an undetermined number of Georgia Republicans, saying that McCain “will be coming to Atlanta on August 18 for a very special event at the Marriott Marquis downtown and I have agreed to serve as a member of the McCain Victory 2008 Team.”
Reed urged the recipients to donate money, saying, “If you select to use your credit card, you may fax the form to me.”
The House Government Reform Committee reported in 2006 that Reed, who was close to Bush political adviser Karl Rove, helped Abramoff obtain a spot on the administration’s 2001 transition team at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency important to his clients.
“Do you think you might be able to contact Karl, as I am sure you have more weight there,” Abramoff said in an e-mail to Reed. “Be happy to,” Reed replied.
The House report found at least 14 instances in which Abramoff asked Reed to contact Rove on matters including political appointments “and obtaining favorable actions on client matters.”
The report confirmed e-mails that Time magazine published in 2005 in which Abramoff asked Reed to help block the proposed appointment of the wife of Orson Swindle – who was a Vietnam prisoner of war with McCain – to an Interior Department job.
“Can you ping Karl on this?” Abramoff wrote. “I can’t believe they just don’t get this done.”
Reed responded: “Talked to Rove about this and I think I killed it. He’s on it. Keep this between us, don’t want to raise expectations, but I banged on this one hard.”
Swindle’s wife did not get the job. Swindle has been an ally of McCain’s campaign, criticizing Obama supporter Wesley Clark last month for saying that McCain’s Vietnam service doesn’t qualify him for the White House. Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26181974/
——————————
—
“Religions and prisons and races
Borders and nations, FBI agents and congressmen
And corporate radio stations
They try to keep us apart, but we find each other
And the rulers are always aware
That they’re the tiny minority
And WE ARE EVERYWHERE”
-David Rovics
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Posted by: “bigraccoon” bigraccoon@earthlink.net
Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:38 am (PDT)
25 AUG 2008
THE MCCAIN STORY THE MEDIA HASN’T TOLD YOU
Phoenix News Times 2000
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2000-02-17/news/haunted-by-spirits/
[Senator McCain’s] wife and — more important — his father-in-law, James Willis Hensley, are very wealthy people. Like his father and grandfather before him, McCain was a career Navy officer. His earning power and his inheritance were modest. At its peak, his pay as a captain was about $45,000.
But he retired from the military in 1980, divorced his first wife, wed Arizona native Cindy Lou Hensley and moved here to plunge into the world of politics. His first job in Arizona was as a public affairs agent for Hensley & Company, one of the nation’s largest beer distributors. He was paid $50,000 in 1982 to travel the state, touting the company’s wares. But he was promoting himself as much as he was Budweiser beer. A better job description might have been “candidate.”
In 1982, Cindy drew more than $700,000 in salary and bonuses from Hensley-related enterprises as her husband was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in his first political campaign. . .
From Day 1, Hensley money has enabled McCain to be a full-time politician, free from financial concerns. . .
John McCain’s political allegiances to liquor purveyors and his father-in-law’s interests are subtle. That narrative is marked by a pattern of patronage.
The Hensley saga, meanwhile, swirls with bygone accounts of illicit booze, gambling, horse racing, deceit and crime. James Hensley embarked on his road to riches as a bootlegger.
It was December 6, 1945. World War II had ended a few months earlier.
Joseph F. Ratliff was just about to wrap up another day as office manager at United Distributors Company when two of his bosses, Eugene and James Hensley, paid a visit to Ratliff at the company’s Tucson liquor distribution warehouse around 5 p.m.
The Hensley brothers were partners with a powerful Phoenix businessman named Kemper Marley, who had cornered a large share of Arizona’s wholesale liquor business after Prohibition was lifted in 1933.
Ratliff had gone to work for United Distributors in September 1944. His job was to oversee shipments of whiskey into and out of the United Distributors’ warehouse by keeping track of invoices, filing tax and sales reports with the federal government and monitoring cash flow.
During and after World War II, the sale of whiskey was tightly regulated by the federal government. Demand for whiskey was high, particularly on the black market, where prices were more than double the regulated market price.
“‘Well,’ Gene Hensley says, ‘It is five o’clock, why don’t you go home? It is time to close,'” Ratliff told Assistant United States Attorney E.R. Thurman in sworn testimony in March 1948.
Ratliff went home.
Upon his return to the warehouse the next morning, Ratliff found a disturbing sight.
“When the warehouse man came down and opened the warehouse, I started out through the warehouse to go to the men’s room, and I noticed there was two rows of whiskey there the night before that wasn’t on the floor that morning. So I went back to the office. I thought we had been robbed.”
In his office, Ratliff found another surprise.
“There was a bunch of invoices in my desk that had been made out after I had left the office, apparently,” Ratliff testified.
The invoices appeared to be related to the whiskey — about 50 cases — that had disappeared from the warehouse overnight.
Ratliff went outside to empty some trash and noticed “a pile of empty whiskey cases out there.” Tangled up in the pile of boxes were federal tax serial labels that were supposed to remain with the liquor when sold to a retailer.
Ratliff recognized the handwriting on the invoices as belonging to then-25-year-old James Hensley, who had become general manager of the Tucson operation in June 1945 after a three-year stint in the military. James Hensley had served as a bombardier on a B-17 and was shot down over the English Channel on his 13th mission.
Ratliff wasn’t sure what was going on until later that day, when James Hensley returned to his office.
“He came in and paid me for those invoices,” Ratliff testified. “Cash sales.”
Ratliff dutifully marked the invoices as paid.
The seven invoices prepared by James Hensley — after the warehouse was closed — indicated the liquor had been sold and delivered to seven establishments in southern Arizona. . .
In fact, none of the liquor went to the retailers named in the invoices prepared by James Hensley. Nobody but James Hensley knows where it really went, and he never told authorities. He declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story.
What is certain is that what occurred that December day was standard operating procedure for the Hensley brothers between April 1945 and January 1947. During this period, a 1948 federal criminal indictment charged, the Hensleys made approximately 1,284 false entries related to the sale of thousands of cases of liquor by their two companies — United Sales Company in Phoenix and United Distributors in Tucson.
Ratliff’s testimony eventually led to James and Eugene Hensley’s conviction on federal conspiracy charges “with the intent and design to hide and conceal from the United States of America, the names and addresses of the person or persons to whom the said distilled spirits were sent, and the prices obtained from the sale thereof.”
A federal jury in U.S. District Court of Arizona in March 1948 convicted James Hensley on seven counts of filing false liquor records in addition to the conspiracy charge. Eugene was convicted on 23 counts of filing false statements and the conspiracy count. Eugene was sentenced to one year in prison, and James to six months. Neither brother testified during the trial, relying instead on their lawyers, who included Louis B. Whitney, a prominent attorney who served as mayor of Phoenix from 1923 through 1925.
After a two-week stint in the Maricopa County jail, the men were released on bond on May 17, 1948, pending an appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit. The appeals court affirmed the conviction on February 8, 1949.
Two weeks later, a judge sentenced Eugene to one year in a federal prison camp near Tucson, but suspended James’ sentence, placing him on probation instead. Both men were fined $2,000. United Sales and United Distributors were also convicted and fined $2,000.
The criminal convictions had little immediate impact on the brothers’ fortunes.
James Hensley profited handsomely from his association with liquor magnate Kemper Marley, a man police suspect ordered the 1976 murder of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, who had written about Marley’s business and political dealings. The man convicted of placing a bomb beneath Bolles’ car testified that Marley also wanted former Arizona governor and then-attorney general Bruce Babbitt murdered because Babbitt had filed an antitrust lawsuit against the liquor industry in 1975. (Marley, who died in 1990, was never charged in the Bolles case. Babbitt is now U.S. Secretary of the Interior.)
By 1955, James Hensley had launched a Budweiser distributorship in Phoenix, a franchise reportedly bestowed upon him by Marley, who was never indicted in the 1948 federal liquor-law-violation case — or a subsequent one — despite his controlling financial role in the liquor distribution businesses.
James Hensley’s conviction didn’t deter the State of Arizona from granting him a wholesale liquor license in the mid-1950s. The Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control turned a blind eye to repeated liquor-law violations at the company. State liquor regulators did nothing when James Hensley failed to disclose his federal felony conviction on a sworn 1988 disclosure statement to the department and the City of Phoenix.
Today, Phoenix-based Hensley & Company is the nation’s fifth-largest beer wholesaler — a privately held business that 80-year-old James Hensley still controls. He built the Budweiser distributorship into at least a $200 million-a-year business, with annual sales of more than 20 million cases of beer.
James Hensley owns nearly all of the voting stock, and most of the rest of the closely held securities are in trusts for his grandchildren or owned by his daughter, 45-year-old Cindy Hensley McCain — wife of U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful John McCain. . .
Although Hensley wealth has helped propel McCain’s political career, the senator will never get his hands directly on the Hensley fortune because of an ante-nuptial agreement he signed before his 1980 marriage.
A centerpiece in McCain’s remarkable and sudden rise to national prominence is his promise of campaign-finance reform.
Yet McCain has relied heavily on the financial contributions from big corporate donors — with the liquor and beer industry near the top of the list. McCain won — one could say bought — his first election to the House of Representatives in 1982 with lavish sums of Hensley beer money. . .
Since 1982, Hensley & Company employees have donated almost $200,000 to federal political candidates and campaigns. . .
Liquor spirited from the Hensley brothers’ warehouses helped fuel a lively nightlife at some of the Valley’s most exclusive clubs in the mid-1940s. The Green Gables, the Silver Spur and the Cowman’s Club were recipients of black-market shipments, according to testimony presented at the 1948 federal trial of the Hensleys and their two companies, United Sales Company in Phoenix and United Distributors in Tucson.
Jack Baldwin, a salesman and supervisor at United Sales, testified at the 1948 federal trial that Eugene Hensley regularly instructed him to draw up false invoices, transfer scores of cases of liquor offsite and deliver premium whiskeys to selected black-market clients.
Baldwin testified he was ordered by Eugene Hensley in September 1946 to kick in a door at the United Sales’ warehouse on North 19th Avenue and take five cases of scotch for a black-market sale to the Green Gables.
In other instances, Baldwin testified that he took as many as 50 cases of whiskey from the United Sales warehouse and stashed them on the back porch of his central Phoenix home for later delivery to black-market buyers.
“I can name you 20 deals like that,” Baldwin testified. . .
“Why would you make invoices that did not show the true fact situation?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thurman asked.
“The liquor went someplace else,” Baldwin stated.
“Under whose direction did you make these invoices?”
“Gene Hensley,” Baldwin replied.
“After these were made out, these particular invoices, what did you do with them?”
“I took them home, burned them usually,” Baldwin stated. . .
Sometimes the Hensleys sold liquor to unlicensed individuals who would transport up to 55 cases at a time to states including Oklahoma and Utah. Carl “Kid” Carter from Ogden, Utah, purchased dozens of cases of whiskey at a time, loaded them into a late-1930s sedan, covering the illicit cargo with a blanket before heading home, 600 miles north. . .
While the bootlegging operation was in full swing, the Hensleys and Marley dissolved their partnerships and created two corporations in September 1946 — United Sales Incorporated in Phoenix, and United Distributors Incorporated in Tucson. At the time of incorporation, Eugene Hensley, 32, was president of the companies, while James Hensley, 25, served as secretary. Kemper Marley, 39, was listed as vice president of both companies.
Despite Marley’s title, federal prosecutors stated that Marley had purchased control of the companies in January 1946.
Over the years, Marley built the companies, which became United Liquors, into Arizona’s largest wholesale liquor distributorship. Along with his vast land holdings, political, gambling and prostitution ties, Marley built a fortune worth more than $39.2 million by 1980.
On February 26, 1953, James Hensley once again found himself charged with federal liquor crimes. This time, the government alleged that James Hensley and other officers of United Liquor Company and United Liquor Supply Company falsified records to reduce the company’s tax bill.
On the opening day of the trial in federal court in Tucson, Judge James A. Walsh granted a motion by Hensley’s attorney — former Maricopa County Attorney Lynn Laney — to dismiss all charges against Hensley and other individuals. The case continued against the two companies.
The government alleged the companies falsely stated that about 400 cases of whiskey were transferred from Tucson to Phoenix on December 30, 1950, and December 30, 1951, to avoid paying higher liquor taxes levied in Pima County, where Tucson is located. The government charged that the liquor never left the Tucson warehouses.
On the third day of the four-day trial, Kemper Marley — owner of United Liquor and United Liquor Supply — unexpectedly took the stand as a defense witness. Prosecutors successfully halted his testimony, claiming it was immaterial and irrelevant.
Defense attorneys argued that although the liquor was never transferred to Maricopa County, all taxes were nevertheless paid to Maricopa County, therefore nothing further was owed. Defense attorney Joseph Jenckes said the companies were simply trying to meet their tax obligations in the most practical way, according to an October 17, 1953, story in the Arizona Daily Star.
The next day, a jury acquitted the two companies on all 11 counts.
In December 1952, James Hensley joined his brother Eugene in the purchase of Ruidoso Racing Association in south central New Mexico. Prior to the purchase, Eugene Hensley operated a couple of nightclubs in Phoenix, including Hensley’s Horseshoe Bar on Van Buren Street, with his first wife, Billy.
The New Mexico venture proved to be more trouble for the Hensley brothers, who became embroiled in a controversy with the New Mexico Racing Commission over hidden ownership.
The commission was concerned about the Hensley brothers’ ties to Phoenix gambler Clarence E. “Teak” Baldwin (no relation to Jack Baldwin). The commission asked the New Mexico State Police to investigate in 1953.
According to a March 26, 1977, article in the Albuquerque Journal, the 1953 New Mexico State Police report stated that Teak Baldwin was a “bookmaker for leading tracks.” According to the Journal article, the police report stated that the Hensleys’ Arizona liquor business partner, Kemper Marley, “is reputed to be the financial backer for the bookies. . . .”
The Journal story appeared shortly after a group known as Investigative Reporters & Editors — spurred to action by the murder of Don Bolles — unleashed a series of 23 stories on organized crime, land fraud and political corruption in Arizona.
The Journal reported that the 1953 New Mexico State Police investigation stated that Marley “owned a wire service formerly operated in connection with bookmaking of the Al Capone gang.”
The Journal also reported that the state police report included a transcript of a phone conversation between an officer in Santa Fe and a Phoenix police officer who said, “… Our confidential files built up on Baldwin (and others) was loaned to some officials and never returned. We’ve never been able to locate them.”
With the police report in hand, the New Mexico Racing Commission grilled the Hensley brothers in May 1953 about their ties to Baldwin. While the brothers were forthright in disclosing their liquor business ties with Marley and their subsequent federal felony convictions, they told the commission that Teak Baldwin had nothing to do with the track.
Eugene Hensley told the commission in May 1953 that Baldwin steered him to look at the track as a possible investment. Former commission chairman Tom Closson told the Hensleys “the commission would not have Baldwin connected in any way, shape or form down there [Ruidoso Downs],” the Journal reported.
The Hensleys denied that Baldwin had any interest in the track, the Journal reported.
But two years later, according to the Journal, records indicated that Baldwin actually had a one-third stock interest in the track with the Hensleys. . .
In April 1955, James Hensley sold his interest in Ruidoso Downs, for which he was listed as secretary-treasurer, and had no apparent connection to the track thereafter.
Eugene Hensley’s problems at Ruidoso Downs were just beginning. In 1963, Eugene Hensley was sued by minority partners for $415,000. The partners alleged Eugene Hensley used track money to make improvements to his Scottsdale home, used the track’s airplane for personal pleasure and built and operated a guest house for his personal use. The lawsuit was settled the same year after Eugene Hensley agreed to return 1,000 shares of Ruidoso Racing Association stock that was by then worth $350,000.
The civil suit was prelude to an eight-count federal criminal indictment filed against Eugene Hensley in 1966, alleging income tax evasion. Eugene Hensley was convicted on all counts in a scandalous trial that revealed he had purchased several automobiles using track money and given them to his wife and a girlfriend.
Despite his 1966 conviction and subsequent five-year prison sentence, Eugene Hensley remained free on bond and continued to control operations at Ruidoso Downs until the New Mexico Racing Commission banned him from the track in 1968. After his criminal appeals were denied, Eugene Hensley entered a federal prison in La Tuna, Texas, in 1969.
That same year, Eugene Hensley sold his remaining interest in the track to NewCo Industries Incorporated, which immediately signed a 20-year concession contract with Emprise Corporation of Buffalo, New York.
Emprise had documented ties to organized crime, and was the concessionaire at Arizona dog tracks. One of the company’s strongest Arizona supporters reportedly was the Hensleys’ old business partner — Kemper Marley.
In the early 1970s, Arizona racing officials began to clamp down on Emprise after the company was convicted and fined $10,000 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for its hidden ownership in the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The IRE series reported that as a defendant in that case, Emprise was linked to several prominent organized crime figures.
Emprise reorganized in Arizona as Ramcorp and was allowed to keep its lucrative concession contracts while its Los Angeles conviction was appealed. But all the company’s proceeds from dog tracks were funneled through a trustee, former Mesa rancher and farmer Dwight Patterson.
Patterson, according to the IRE, urged then-Arizona governor Raul Castro to appoint Kemper Marley to the three-member Arizona Racing Commission, a position Marley reportedly was eager to get. Marley would replace Robert Kieckhefer, who had been an opponent of Emprise.
Castro received more than $19,000 during his 1974 gubernatorial campaign from Marley, and another $5,000 from Marley’s daughter — colossal sums at the time for an Arizona political campaign. Castro appointed Marley to the racing commission in 1976.
Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles wrote a series of stories documenting Marley’s questionable performance in appointive posts he’d previously held. Bolles’ stories doomed Marley’s appointment, forcing him to resign soon after being named to the Racing Commission.
On June 2, 1976, Bolles was mortally wounded by a car bomb. Before lapsing into unconsciousness, Bolles uttered the words, “Adamson, Emprise, Mafia.” He died 11 days later.
John Harvey Adamson confessed to luring Bolles to a Phoenix hotel parking lot and placing a bomb beneath the reporter’s car. The bomb, Adamson testified, was detonated by James Robison, a Chandler plumber. Adamson testified he was hired to kill Bolles by Max Dunlap, a Phoenix contractor and close associate of Marley’s. Marley had extended a $1 million loan to Dunlap, which had not been repaid. Adamson said Dunlap hired him to kill Bolles because Marley was upset over Bolles’ stories.
Adamson served a 20-year prison sentence and has since been released. Dunlap was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced in 1994 to life in prison. Robison was convicted, but his case was later overturned on appeal and he was acquitted in a 1993 retrial.
In 1981, Marley filed a libel suit against IRE for a 1977 story that linked Marley to organized crime and the Bolles murder. Marley sought a “six-figure” award for compensatory damages and a “seven-figure” punitive award. A jury ruled that Marley had not been libeled by the stories. However, the jury ruled that IRE had inflicted “emotional distress” on Marley. The jury awarded Marley $15,000 in punitive damages, a fraction of the damages he was seeking.
Marley died in 1990 at age 83.
He was never charged in the Bolles case and denied any involvement.
After selling his interest in Ruidoso Racing Association, James Hensley turned his attention to a wholesale beer distributorship he reportedly founded in 1955 in Phoenix with 12 employees. . .
Some liquor industry observers say Hensley was given the Budweiser distributorship by his old business associate Kemper Marley, but a search of public records has not confirmed this theory. What the records do show is five decades of steady growth for Hensley’s enterprise under the lax supervision of the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control. . .
One can only speculate how a convicted felon who falsified federal liquor records managed to obtain a state and federal wholesale liquor license within a few years of his 1949 conviction and 1953 indictment. But apparently, Hensley did. . .
However, it is extremely unlikely that a person with a similar conviction today would get a federal liquor license, says Allison Stevens, ATF Phoenix Area supervisor. . .
State records show James Hensley applied for another liquor license in 1988. This time, Hensley did not disclose his federal conviction when asked specifically on the form whether he had ever been convicted of a felony. James Hensley signed the sworn and notarized statement that warned false information “could result in criminal prosecution.”. . .
Hensley & Company is reported to be the 12th largest privately owned company in Arizona, with nearly 500 employees and a sales and delivery fleet of more than 300 vehicles, according to a September 1999 article in the trade journal Beverage World. . .
Company records show that as of January 1996 James Hensley controlled through a trust 2,110 shares of stock, of which at least 1,655 shares were voting stock. Cindy McCain owned the largest block of stock with 7,436 shares, but only 177 shares were voting.
Her three children, John, James and Meghan, each had 1,370 shares — including 336 voting shares each — held in trust. An adopted child, Bridget, had 600 non-voting shares.
The company placed a value for tax purposes of $1,467 per share on the stock in 1996, making Cindy McCain’s stake in the company worth $11 million. The trusts for the four children are worth about $7 million. Delgado, meanwhile, controlled 4,572 shares of non-voting stock worth $6.7 million.
The Hensley & Company stock is only part of the McCain clan’s wealth. According to Senator McCain’s financial disclosure statement for calendar year 1998, Cindy McCain controls more than $1 million worth of Anheuser-Busch stock that generated between $15,000 and $50,000 in dividends. Cindy McCain and her children also report owning real estate in Mesa, Sedona and Yuma worth more than $2.5 million. . .
Senator McCain’s personal wealth is tied completely to his wife.
Tom Fitzpatrick, Phoenix New Times, 1992
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1992-10-21/news/call-my-travel-agent-theres-an-election-coming-up/
McCain is the perfect example of evil masquerading as good. He made an advantageous marriage to the daughter of state beer baron Jim Hensley, the Budweiser distributor. This made him an instant millionaire.
Hensley is a man who understands loyalty. In his earlier days, he and his brother took falls for his then-boss Kemper Marley. Hensley and his brother were convicted. Their rewards were exclusive distributor territories in Phoenix and Tucson. Since then they have become inordinately wealthy.
Marley, now deceased, was one of the state’s richest men. His name surfaced as the power behind the 1976 car-bomb murder of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles.
At Marley’s funeral, Frank Sinatra’s signature tune “My Way” was played by the organist over the objections of the church’s pastor. The man responsible for this unusual tribute was Max Dunlap, whose trial for Bolles’ murder is scheduled to begin next month.
It is no longer fashionable in local journalistic circles to mention McCain’s close friendship with Charlie Keating. It’s a shame they had a falling out. They seemed to have so much in common and enjoyed each other’s company so much.
They met in 1981 when McCain moved to Arizona. Keating was a World War II pilot. McCain made nine vacation trips to Keating’s home in the Bahamas from 1984 to 1986. The trips were made free of charge on jets provided by Keating.
Because the ethical violation was so obvious, McCain was eventually forced to pay $13,433 for the flights to Keating’s company, American Continental Corporation.
He escaped ethical censure because the trips were made while he was a member of the House of Representatives and the trips didn’t come to light until he was a member of the Senate, which conveniently declared it had no jurisdiction.
The House couldn’t act, either, for the same reason. Keating contributed $112,000 to McCain’s 1982 and 1984 House campaigns and his 1986 Senate run. McCain’s father-in-law and his wife also took advantage of the chance to make a lucrative shopping-center investment with Keating.
NY Times, 2000
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404E5DD1430F932A15751C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
In his rise to political influence, Mr. McCain, who had no ties to Arizona until he married Cindy Hensley and moved here in 1981, also won the critical blessing of the city’s business establishment through his close friendship with another of the state’s power brokers, Darrow Tully, the publisher then of the state’s dominant newspaper, The Arizona Republic. ”Duke” Tully led an ad hoc group of business executives and self-appointed political kingmakers known as the Phoenix 40, whose backing helped Mr. McCain in that first Congressional race and assured his Senate victory four years later. . .
Mr. Tully was a far different patron from Mr. Hensley. A swaggering, fun-loving 6-foot-4, he was comfortable with business executives and politicians alike. Mr. Tully, an accomplished pilot, loved to regale people with tales of his exploits flying jet fighters in the Korean and Vietnam wars. His house and office were filled with photographs of him alongside all manner of military aircraft.
”He’d point to his teeth and say, ‘See these? They’re steel. I lost the others when I crashed,’ ” recalled Pat Murphy, a former columnist and editor at The Republic. . .
The Phoenix 40 was an unofficial group made up of the city’s leading businessmen — bankers, partners from the largest law firms, chief executives and, of course, executives of newspapers. The group was created in the early 1970’s by Eugene C. Pulliam, the conservative founder of Central Newspapers and grandfather of former Vice President Dan Quayle.
The goal was to promote policies that its members felt were good for the city and state as Arizona expanded from a quiet rural state to a Sun Belt powerhouse.
It was also the closest thing to a political machine in Phoenix, and anointment by the Phoenix 40 almost invariably translated into victory at the polls.
Mr. Merrill, the Arizona State professor and political observer, said the power was exercised quietly and effectively.
”When you control the major newspaper, the TV stations and the people who make most of the political contributions,” Mr. Merrill said, ”you have enormous influence”
Mr. Tully harnessed that influence to Mr. McCain’s political career from the outset, leapfrogging him over Republicans who had waited patiently for a shot at Mr. Rhodes’s seat in 1982.
”There was a lot of resentment among Mesa Republicans, none of whom had ever heard of John McCain until he was suddenly the designated hitter,” said Terry Goddard, a Democrat and former mayor of Phoenix. . .
But the newspaper publisher who had helped so much was not there to savor the victory. The day after Christmas 1985, after rumors began to circulate that Mr. Tully was not all he claimed, he acknowledged that he had never served in the military, and he resigned from the newspaper and left Arizona. But the war hero for whom he had done so much was well launched on his political career.
The Arizona Republic, 1989 – Sen. John McCain had more than a constituent relationship with Charles H. Keating, Jr. prior to 1987 . . . The McCains – sometimes with their daughter and baby sitter – made at least nine trips at Keating’s expense from August 1984 to August 1986 aboard either Keating’s American Continental Corporation’s jet or chartered planes and helicopters owned by Resorts International. Three of the trips were for vacations at Keating’s luxurious retreat in the Bahamas.”
Phoenix Gaztte, 1990 – The liquor case is particularly intriguing as it resulted in criminal charges against Marley’s subordinates, James and Eugene Hensley. If the last name sounds familiar, it’s because James is papa to Cindy McCain, who is wife of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is infamous lately as a member of the Keating Five . . . Marley also has been a shadow figure in the 1976 slaying of Republic reporter Don Bolles. Bolles wrote extensively about Marley’s lucky past. And about how the Hensleys (Marley’s managers) bought Ruidso Downs racing track in New Mexico. He wrote about Eugene Hensley spending five years in federal prison for a skimming scam.
And about the Hensleys selling their track to a buyer linked with Emprise Corp. And about Marley’s liquor ties with Emprise . . . one of Bolles’ final dispatches appeared as Marley was about to become a member of the Arizona Racing Commission – the agency that regulates racetracks, including those run at the time by Emprise . . . the story dispatched Marley’s appointment.
Two months later, a car bomb killed Bolles.” “Bradley J. Funk, an antique dealer linked to the 13-year-old Don Bolles murder case through his family’s former ownership of dog-racing tracks, has died of a heart attack, authorities said Jan. 2 . . . Bolles, 47, a former investigative reporter with the Arizona Republic, died June 13, 1976, about 11 days after a dynamite-based bomb blew up beneath his car . . . in his last statement before lapsing into unconsciousness, he mentioned the Mafia, John Adamson and Emprise Corp., a Buffalo, N.Y. company with a far-flung sports empire which once included ownership of the Boston Bruins hockey team and the former Cincinnati Royals basketball franchise . . . now known as Delaware North Cos., Emprise was convicted in 1972 of a federal charge of conspiring to hide Mafia interest in a Las Vegas, Nev., casino . . . Emprise and the Funk family were partners in six dog-racing tracks in the state and the Prescott Downs horse track, and Bolles had ripped their operations in print.
Arizona Republic, 1990 – When reporters called him with questions last year about previously unknown ties to Keating, an investment by wife Cindy McCain in a Keating shopping center and trips to Keating’s Bahamas home, McCain went into a rage
Phoenix Gazette, 1990 – Cars, homes and bank accounts of 18 people, including eight state legislators, were confiscated in a civil racketeering lawsuit that paints a portrait of lawmakers eager to sell their influence for as little as $660 and as much as $750,000 . . . Richard Scheffel, another lobbyist indicted but not targeted in the civil racketeering suit, is reputed to have been paid $20,000 to identify and approach lawmakers interested in trading votes for money . . . in a bid to establish his professional credentials with Stedino, Scheffel is reported to have boasted that ‘(U.S.) Sen. John McCain’s father-in-law gives money to politicians through him’ . . . Bauer, in his report, said Scheffel claimed that ‘each January he receives $30,000 from the local Anheuser-Busch distributor, Jim Hensley,’ adding that Hensley also supplied him with names of people to list as contributors.”
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Everybody should read this book “AMERICAN FASCISTS”. The Christian right and the WAR on AMERICA. By Chris Hedges. These are the people that are going to be supporting John McCann and Sarah Palin. These people are scary people!!!
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Madonna is a asshole.she hates american unless your black.sound familiar Barack Obama & wife
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the people who write stuff on this blog a unamerica. nazi’s
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why don’t all the american hater go to cuba with Madonna & her steroid faggot Cancesco asshole liberals
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Tetiana is an AMERICAN Faggot
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Tetiana YOU R THE SCARY ON FREAK
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Madonna compares McCain to Hitler . MADONNA MAKE A GOOD JUDUS. I COMPARE HER TO A HERPIES, OR A DAY OLD SHIT
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YOU GOT THAT RIGHT A GOOD AMERICAN
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Re #11 and #12; “mary”, though your comments contain racism and unsubstantiated attacks, I have not deleted them, so that people can see for themselves what the level (also in the English language) of at least some McCain supporters is.
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By the way, all comments 11-17 here are by one and the same person, canieatujulie@yahoo.com. So, “mary”, “A GOOD AMERICAN”, and “ANOTHER GOOD AMERICAN”, and “Joan the American” are all the same person. I am not reacting to that person’s comments any more. As schizophrenics need to talk to a psychiatrist; not to me.
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Re #10: Tetiana, more about Chris Hedges and that book is here on this blog.
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If you want to open your eyes and have an open mind you should read these two books TRAIN WRECK by Bill Press and THE WRECKING CREW by Thomas Frank.(Air America on the internet & 1310 am.) I even know Republicans that are disgusted with the Republican system and they say that they need to clean house!!!Chris Hedges went to these fundamental church’s and he quotes from their speech’s. It’s sad that people are easily influenced by these people and don’t have a mind of their own. These right wing religious fantastic do NOT follow the word of Jesus Christ they are hypocrites and do more wrong then good. They want to take over the world and have one religion and it will never happen!!!! Have a wonderful day people. 🙂
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Thank you Administrator for that video. Everyone should view this video and open there eyes and mind “#20” DO NOT MAKE JUDGMENT UNTIL YOU SEE THIS VIDEO. PEACE!!!!
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Thank you as well, Tetiana. Indeed, peace!
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Administrator, you should check out the web site the onion.com it’s a satirical weekly newspaper poking fun at and culture jamming popular news stories. If you go to http://personals.theonion.com/ you can join as a friend or looking for a relationship. You can join without paying if you want. I really like the blogs especially the political ones. One is The official Repukeblican track record. The one republican said “She lacks the irony gene. It renders her sarcasm-impaired. I said that “maybe they will find a cure for ignorance someday.” I said allot more them that. You find a few good people. I have say my one friend Wendi use to be a republican. She was a Real Estate Developing but Wendi decided to go to Law school. Well, Wendi changed her views on politics in law school and did not like the way the republicans ran their system. Wendi became a democrat. I still remember her saying two years back just because people do not like to hear the good things of the democratic party still say them. At least you will plant a seed within that person and one day that seed may bloom and they will see things differently. I agree with that. I believe in speaking your mind. We should stand up for what we believe in to make this a better place to live!!! Only if it’s good and does not cause harm to others.
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Hi Tetiana, thank you for your information and your thoughts. I hope that people will stop wars like in Iraq, Somalia, Osseria, etc.
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I agree with that!!!
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Hi Tetiana, and how can blogs like this contribute to that in their own small way? Some thoughts on that are here.
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Posted by: “Compañero” companyero@bellsouth.net
Sun Aug 31, 2008 12:57 pm (PDT)
Why the Senator is Not a War Hero
John McCain in a New Context
By PATTY O’GRADY
Did you know that when John McCain was away from home for extended periods of time working as a U.S. Senator, Mrs. Cindy McCain would tell her children with his acquiescence that he was “deployed” and imagined herself just another lonely – albeit very, very wealthy – naval wife?
As a military wife and daughter I don’t think living in D.C. – wining and dining lobbyists – is the equivalent of deployment to Afghanistan, Iraq or Vietnam.
Why is this story worth repeating? The Cinderella quality of such imaginings provides a telling context – revealing the man and his presumptions hiding behind the mask of war hero.
In this election season, understanding the full context of presumptions is very important. My husband, also a former Vietnam Prisoner of War (1970-1973), spent time in both the “Hanoi Hilton” and a secondary camp -“Plantation Gardens” – as did John McCain who never mentions time spent in the latter. I am also the daughter of Colonel John F. O’Grady who was known to be a POW captured on the border of Laos and Vietnam in 1967 and who never returned. Like John McCain, John O’Grady was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (1952). John O’Grady earned 7 military commendations for heroic service including the Silver Star and two Distinguished Flying Crosses.
There were many heroes in Vietnam – and there are many freshly bloodied heroes returning from new wars started by old men – and John McCain’s claim is tarnished by long forgotten historical facts that few are brave enough to proffer today for fear of vicious attack on their “patriotism”. My father’s legacy protects me from such attack and so demands that I ask the unspoken questions and remind voters of the forgotten history. When the Vietnam POWS came home in 1973, President Nixon traded a small group of them celebrity status – anointing them as “heroes” – for political support of his failed war policies. John McCain was one of the anointed heroes while others were virtually discarded in exchange for their continued support of the false Nixon plan of “peace with honor” in Vietnam.
Politics can magnify or ignore heroism as it suits. In turn, the select POWS were introduced to very wealthy and influential members of the Republican Party, their records were elevated over other POW heroes with more compelling stories, and many difficult questions were not asked of them.
Today, some of those same POWS are employees of the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute and many others have profited greatly from their staunch affiliations within the Republican Party.
In 1973, “patriotism” was traded like a commodity and heroes were used as political props. Essentially, the architects of both Vietnam and Iraq (Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al.) launched a highly successful propaganda campaign (remember the Private First Class Jessica Lynch POW shameful sequel) using Vietnam POWS – at least the ones that were willing to be used wittingly or unwittingly – in an attempt to prop up the failing Nixon administration. Yet, if Mr. McCain is now intent on running on his character and his war record almost – because he has nothing else to offer – while suggesting that others do not care about their country as much as he does – then the wife
and daughter of two other Vietnam heroes has a few questions for him:
In the interest of full disclosure why do you refuse to release your Department of Defense POW debriefing?
In the interest of full disclosure why have you failed to release all military medical records including psychological studies – 1973-1993?
Why do you only reference the time spent as a prisoner in the Hanoi Hilton”?
When will you provide details about the time spent in the prison referred to as “Plantation Gardens”?
Did you ever receive any preferential or atypical treatment while a POW in any location where you were held? How soon and when did you reveal your true identity to your Vietnamese captors – did you simply give name, rank and serial number?
Has any other former Vietnam Prisoners of War or Vietnam veteran questioned the record that you claim particularly your claims of “torture”?
What was your connection to the “Peace Committee”?
Have you ever referenced the “blue files” in any speech that you have given? What are the “blue files”? Where are those files housed? Why do you not want those files released?
Have you ever lost your temper with military families who challenged your position?
Have you ever acted in an inappropriate way or in a less than gentlemanly manner with any female spouse of any active duty military personnel member?
Why not let citizens, who know the personal and painful history better than anyone else, ask the questions? Why not let these questions prompt more thorough investigation and scrutiny and less shilling by the press? Why shouldn’t change really mean accountability as framed by ordinary people who also made an extraordinary sacrifice? The answers might provide all citizens the context needed to fully judge some less than credible claims that have aged into myths over time.
There is always the context to consider…
Patty O’Grady, Ph.D., teaches in the Department of Education at the University of Tampa.
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Administrator you should check out USA today’s blog. http://content.usatoday.com/community/comments.aspx?id=32478874.story&p=1 Presidential campaign: Watch. Their are a lot of crazy people their. Their are so many people that are so unread and they sound so ignorant!!! You would think in today’s day and age people would get with the program, it’s really sad. 😦
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Hi Tetiana, the Rupert Murdoch media may be part of the explanation for this.
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I like how CNN are continuously questioning Sarah Palin and John McCain. I hope the whole truth comes out about her. She is a very evil person. She is a George Brush in a dress. She said no to kids health care, She wants to get rid of the unions. She cut funding for young girls in trouble. She threatened the librarian in Alaska that if she did not let her take books to burn she would get her fired. She is under investigation in Alaska etc. She does not care about the environment and she is a tied to the big oil people. Sarah Palin’s husband works for BP OIL. DRILL, DRILL, DRILL
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You should be able to re-edit the blog. I meant BURN. I type to fast and make silly errors. Can you edit the blog or not????
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Hi Tetiana, I can edit blogs. Which word do you want replaced with “burn” in #31? By the way, there are regularly posts about Sarah Palin on this blog; eg, here.
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Yes, thanks for the video. I have been sending the web links to friends and acquaintances. I actually saw Barack Obama Sunday morning in Detroit. It was sweet. I cannot believe 2 days notice by the Obama campaign and they attracted over forty thousand plus people. At this point I think he is bigger then J.F. Kennedy now. What do you think?
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Hi Tetiana, at the moment my views on Barack Obama’s candidacy are:
1) The enthusiastic grassroot supporters of Obama might really bring positive change to the USA,
2) Obama himself is a lot better person and better candidate than McCain. A McCain presidency would be a disaster,
3) However, I should be honest and not hide my doubts and criticisms of some sides of the Obama campaign (the Afghan war; some, of the, especially economic, advisers; vice presidential candidate Biden, who is a better candidate than Sarah Palin but that is not saying very much),
4) Bloggers like me, the peace movement, women’s movement, worker’s movements, etc. should fight their fights independently from the government; whoever runs for President, or is President.
You can search with “Obama” in this blog to find blog posts mentioning him.
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Thanks for the info. I have to laugh at the republican convention. It actually made me very angry. They are bunch of rich hypocrites that don’t care about the average person. It was a very, very negative campaign. The people do not need the same old politics that doesn’t work. They don’t care about job loss, job creation, people losing their home or the environment etc… They never brought up the important things like I just said. Cindy McCain is the laughing stock in Canada and now the USA. I cannot believe that she said Sarah Palin has foreign affairs experience. I am sorry but living in Alaska and being close to Russia does NOT give her that experience. Cindy McCain is not very intelligent neither is John McCain. John McCain said the same thing in an interview (DUMB AND DUMBER) and people want to elect these ignorant people in, that is a scary thing. I cannot wait till the democrats take over. I am counting down the days:)
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Hi Tetiana, thanks, and best wishes for you and the people of the USA!
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Hi Tetiana, re #36: “There was little or no criticism of the brazen cynicism of the speech—which managed to avoid any mention of Palin’s political party, now deeply unpopular—or its essential vacuousness. While presenting herself as an everywoman, Palin made no mention of the actual social problems which confront working class families: rising joblessness, plummeting real wages, the lack of affordable health care, the immense growth of economic inequality.”
Source: here.
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Did you see Barack Obama go on The O’Reilly Factor last night-right into the belly of the beast? While we didn’t want Obama to appear on FOX initially, he wisely chose the same night John McCain delivered his RNC speech (the same night FOX received some of its highest ratings) to make an appearance. Talk about stealing the GOP’s thunder!
Obama was no doubt trying to appeal to conservative voters, since 88% of FOX viewers voted Republican in 2004. But FOX won’t let their conservative base go without a fight. That’s why O’Reilly needled and interrupted Obama, trying to get him to simplify many of his answers-a far cry from the softballs O’Reilly lobbed at many prominent Republicans like Rudy Giuliani in the past. And that’s why FOX has been attacking Obama with the same relentless smear tactics that they used against John Kerry four years ago. Watch them use the exact same attacks.
Watch the video and spread it to everyone you know.
Don’t let FOX repeat its history of distortions. Send this video to everyone you know! And get a copy to networking sites like Digg as soon as possible. Make sure everyone knows that FOX is always willing to distort, slander, and smear-whatever it takes to advance their conservative agenda.
And for more on how damaging FOX and the corporate media have been, tune into Meet the Bloggers today at 1pm ET/10am PT. Our guest host, punk rock icon Henry Rollins, will be joined by bloggers Jonathan Kim (FOX Attacks!), Liliana Segura (AlterNet.org) and Paul Waldman (Media Matters) to discuss the media’s overt bias.
Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New team
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Obama raises hopes but pledges more war
By Barry Sheppard
September 14, 2008 — Socialist Voice — The nomination of Barack Obama
as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party is historic. He is
the first African American presidential candidate of one of the two
major capitalist parties. He may win the election and become the first
black president, something inconceivable only two years ago. That a
black man might become head of government in a society still marked by
ingrained racism puts race at the centre of the election campaign —
more on this below.
* Read more http://links.org.au/node/630
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Nice post! Listen the real russian rap Красное Дерево – К.И.Д.О.К! Download Free Now!
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You know McCain acknowledges having said intemperate things in years past, though he also says that many stories have been exaggerated
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