Update (12:28AM, Nov. 3): On Sunday, John McCain launched the final attack of his campaign, a fraudulent assault on Barack Obama that serves as a fitting reminder of the fundamental dishonesty not only of his own campaign, but also of the dishonesty of his allies in the right-wing propaganda establishment: Matt Drudge and FOX News.
All you need to know to understand the video is that the Drudge, FOX, and the McCain campaign joined forces with Newsbusters to push a story that the San Francisco Chronicle had concealed an eleven month old recording that supposedly contained devastating audio of Barack Obama proposing to bankrupt the entire coal industry.
Not only was that story false (more detail below), but it turns out that Barack Obama and John McCain have the same position on clean coal technology (update: for more on why clean coal is kind of like a healthy cigarette, see Brad Johnson's excellent post on the topic), and Ohio's Republican senator said McCain's plan to fight global warming would "put coal out of business." Here's the video:
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Here's the facts that the McCain-Drudge-FOX axis of weasel does not want you to know: The Chronicle had not concealed the recording, which had been on the newspaper's website all along. And rather than reveal some sinister scheme, what it actually demonstrated was that Barack Obama supported clean coal technology -- a position he shares with none other than John McCain.
Despite the fact that both candidates support clean coal technology, the McCain campaign tried to make the case that Barack Obama wanted to take away jobs from coal country in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and both Drudge and FOX were happy to oblige.
But just three years ago on the floor of the United States Senate, John McCain's Republican colleague George Voinovich of Ohio took to the floor to argue against a proposal by McCain to curb greenhouse gas emissions. McCain's proposal, Voinovich said, would "put coal out of business" and cost thousands of jobs, an argument that McCain did not contest.
In fact, McCain agreed that his plan would require sacrifice, but he also argued (correctly) that in the long-run, America would be better off. In other words, he made the exact same arguments as Barack Obama -- and as you can see above, it was all on video.
The clips I used from FOX were actually attacking Barack Obama, but the fact that you could just as easily have swapped McCain in place of Obama reveals how their media enterprise is really a propaganda operation in which political figures are nothing more than character actors taking up space in their pre-ordained dramatic narrative.
They aren't dealing with reality, they are trying to construct a new reality. For years, they've been able to maintain political power by doing just that, but now that the reality of their disastrous governance has caught up to them, their ability to lie their way to victory has been severely damaged.
For better or for worse, it's a lesson they still haven't learned. They still think they can fake their way through it.
But that's not really the important thing. The important thing is that we are overcoming their grip on power. And for that, the world is a better place.
p.s.: By popular demand, the siren stays up.
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Original post: As you probably know, the last gasp of the desperate McCain campaign is to attack Barack Obama for supporting clean coal technology and legislation that would protect us from the threat of global warming.
Video of a June 21, 2005 Senate floor debate between Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) and John McCain on legislation proposed by McCain to fight global warming has just surfaced. I'll post video within the next couple of hours, but for now, here's some text. Voinovich told McCain that his legislation would "put coal of out of business." McCain agreed that his legislation would "require sacrifice" acknowledging that critics said it would cost "thousands of jobs." Nonetheless, McCain (correctly) stood by his legislation, and even said that he wanted a tougher set of rules.
Here's more from Voinovich's statement:
On one side of this debate, there are proposals to create a mandatory domestic program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as the amendment that will be proposed by Senator McCain, to my understanding, and I strongly urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment.
It is my understanding that the amendment, according to Charles Rivers Associates, which analyzed its provisions, would cause the loss of 24,000 to 47,000 Ohio jobs, in 2010, and energy-intensive industries to shrink by 2.3 to 5.6 percent in 2020. We are talking about manufacturing industries, energy-intensive manufacturing and chemical and many others.
The McCain amendment will put coal out of business by forcing fuel switching to natural gas.
And John McCain's counter-argument:
Does it involve some sacrifice on the part of the American people? Yes. ... This amendment, I am sure, will be attacked--thousands of jobs will be lost, we will find some obscure scientist, some will talk about the dangers of encouraging the use of nuclear power. The fact is, we are going to win on this issue. The reason we are going to win is because every single month there is another manifestation of the terrible effects of what climate change is doing to our Earth.
The video coming soon.
p.s.: Yes, that siren is mocking Drudge, and yes, I will take it down soon. It's just cracking me up.
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