Saturday, May 17, 2008

So, Dan Abrams read my letter on the air last night

While I understand that the media will take something and twist it to their purpose, I don't take kindly to being misrepresented. Mr. "I'm a fair broker, I call it like I see it" pissed me off. If you're such a fair broker Dan, why didn't you read what I actually wrote?

So Wednesday night Dan Abrams does a segment on Hillary as VP. He goes on and on about how she, and I quote "deserves to be VP", then asks to hear from Obama Supporters on why they don't want her on the ticket. I fire off this letter to Mr. Abrams:

To: Verdict with Dan Abrams
Re: Exactly why Obama supporters don't want Hillary on the Ticket

Three letters. SNL. The intro last weekend was spot on. Whether the media wants to admit it, or cover it, that is as close as it gets to the truth about how we feel. Politics may be politics, but the winds of Change are blowing in this Country, and we, the Obama supporters, will not accept politics as usual as the excuse for bad behavior. Hillary Clinton flies in the face of Obama's message of Hope and Change. We will accept no less than what we deserve, and that is to take our Country back from the Politicians of Washington DC. And that includes taking it back from Hillary Clinton.

You asked "Doesn't she deserve the VP spot?" Don't you get it Dan? No, she doesn't deserve it. The Vice Presidency of the United States is not a consolation prize. She fought hard. She lost. There is no second place. Besides, doesn't Barack Obama deserve to pick his own Vice President?

And this is what ended up being read on the air:

You asked "Doesn't she deserve the VP spot?" Don't you get it Dan? No, she doesn't deserve it. The Vice Presidency of the United States is not a consolation prize. She lost. There is no second place.

AND this is Mr. Dillweed's response:

Nina I'm not saying Obama should pick her to compensate her, I agree there is no such thing as deserving the VP slot, I'm saying she has a huge constituency and I fear Obama supporters don't want her on the ticket just 'cause they don't like her.

Which of course elicited this response from me:

To: Verdict with Dan Abrams
Re: Regarding my letter and your response

Here is what I wrote:
You asked "Doesn't she deserve the VP spot?" Don't you get it Dan? No, she doesn't deserve it. The Vice Presidency of the United States is not a consolation prize. She fought hard. She lost. There is no second place. Besides, doesn't Barack Obama deserve to pick his own Vice President?

Here is how it got edited and read on the air:
You asked "Doesn't she deserve the VP spot?" Don't you get it Dan? No, she doesn't deserve it. The Vice Presidency of the United States is not a consolation prize. She lost. There is no second place.

Firstly I don't much care for the misrepresentation on air of what I wrote. My statement gave credit for a hard fought campaign, the one you read did not. Are you intentionally trying to portray Obama supporters as fifth graders?

You want the truth? Some Obama supporters think Clinton would make a great VP. Many don't because they believe she represents Old Washington. Still more don't like her. She has attacked Obama, many times unfairly, and many times unjustly, all in the name of politics. She has attacked us for believing in what she calls rhetoric. That was the first point in my letter, which you didn't read because it made a valid point and you insist on treating us like we are unreasonable. Besides, we currently have an Administration we "don't like" as you put it, it's time we had an Administration that we can be proud of and believe in. And this business of "don't like" treats us like we are in grade school. We've grown up, it's time you do as well.

The letter that was read after mine made the point, and I'm paraphrasing, that the author doesn't trust Hillary Clinton. Of course Dan dismissed that as a valid point as well. I however, think it's directly on point. Dan, I'm sick and tried, and BITTER that I can't/don't trust my current Administration, why in hell would I want someone else anywhere near the White House that I don't trust?

Apparently Mr. Abrams doesn't quite get it. The Politics of Destruction are unacceptable to us. I tried to make that point, but obviously the media wants no part of it, they're going to milk it for all it's worth. After all, ratings are money.

Original here

Flashback: McCain once sought to push the NRA out of the GOP.»

In Louisville, KY today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will address nearly 60,000 gun enthusiasts at the annual National Rifle Association convention. McCain requested the speaking spot, but, as Cliff Schecter points out, McCain once said the NRA shouldn’t be embraced by the Republican Party:

The NRA is entitled to their advocacy. I don’t think they help the Republican Party at all, but I don’t think they should in any way play a major role in the Republican Party’s policy making. [CNN, 5/12/00]

Watch it:

U.S. News and World Report notes that McCain is expected to flip-flop on his position regarding the closing of the gun show loophole.

Original here

Obama Memo: 17 Pledged Delegates Away From Winning Primaries

In a sign that they are likely to declare victory in the presidential primary very soon, the Obama campaign is now boasting in a memo to reporters that they are on the cusp of winning the pledged-delegate majority, thanks to the endorsement from John Edwards and a group of his delegates.
By the Obama campaign's math, they are only 17 elected delegates away from the pledged-del majority, a number that they are guaranteed to pull off next week in Oregon and Kentucky. Expect them to court super-delegates to break their way en masse after that happens, on the basis that Obama has the popular mandate to be the nominee.
Original here

Bush Lied About Giving Up Golf: Video Proof


President Bush said with a straight face this week that he gave up golf in honor of the fallen soldiers in Iraq, claiming that he quit after the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003:

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."


Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization's high commissioner for human rights.

"I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life," he said. "I was playing golf -- I think I was in central Texas -- and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, 'It's just not worth it anymore to do.'"

In fact, Bush went golfing two months after the bombing the UN headquarters, and Keith Olbermann found the video:

Original here

Huckabee jokes about Obama ducking a gunman

From

CNN

Watch Huckabee's joke at the NRA Convention Friday. (starting at 0:50).

(CNN) – During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain — joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman.

“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

Obama supports extending the assault weapons ban, limits on gun sales, and a national law against carrying concealed weapons, with exceptions for retired police and military personnel. John McCain – whose legislative record was awarded a C+ rating by the NRA in 2004, but has received a perfect score – will address the group later Friday afternoon. His speech will include remarks "on the issue of unconditional negotiation with state sponsors of terror" that aides tell CNN’s Dana Bash are a direct response to Obama’s comments earlier Friday.

UPDATE, 8:28 PM: Huckabee released the following statement regarding his comments Friday, according to the New York Times website:
During my speech at the N.R.A., a loud noise backstage, that sounded like a chair falling, distracted the crowd and interrupted my speech. I made an off hand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama. I apologize that my comments were offensive. That was never my intention.
Original here

Obama Responds To Bush, McCain Appeasement Attack

WATERTOWN, S.D. — Barack Obama laid into John McCain on Friday for advancing a tough-guy foreign policy that he called "naive and irresponsible," serving notice that he's ready to launch a full-throttle challenge to the Republican presidential contender on international relations in the general election campaign.

Lumping McCain together with President Bush, Obama declared: "If they want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that's a debate I'm ready to win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for." He blamed Bush for policies that enhance the strength of terrorist groups such as Hamas and "the fact that al-Qaida's leadership is stronger than ever because we took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan," among other failings.

McCain agreed, at least, that there were huge differences between himself and Obama on foreign policy, and said he'd be happy to let the American people decide who was right.

"It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that's not the world we live in. And until Senator Obama understands that reality, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe," McCain said in a speech to the National Rifle Association in Louisville, Ky.

McCain rejected the naive comment, saying Obama should have known better, and added: "Talking, not even with soaring rhetoric, in unconditional meetings with the man who calls Israel 'a stinking corpse,' and arms terrorists who kill Americans, will not convince Iran to give up its nuclear program. It is reckless. It is reckless to suggest that unconditional neetings will advance our interests."

His campaign issued a statement accusing Obama of making a "hysterical diatribe."

The three-way dustup over foreign policy _ Bush vs. Obama vs. McCain _ began a day earlier, when Bush gave a speech to the Israeli Knesset in which he criticized those who believe the United States should negotiate with terrorists and radicals. Obama said Bush's criticism was directed at him, and took umbrage; the White House denied the president had Obama in mind; McCain said Obama must explain why he wants to talk with rogue leaders.

Obama continued the debate on Friday at a town-hall meeting in a livestock barn. He said he had planned to focus on rural issues during his swing through South Dakota, but felt compelled to answer the remarks from Bush and McCain.

"I'm a strong believer in civility and I'm a strong believer in a bipartisan foreign policy, but that cause is not served with dishonest, divisive attacks of the sort that we've seen out of George Bush and John McCain over the last couple days," he said.

Obama said McCain had a "naive and irresponsible belief that tough talk from Washington will somehow cause Iran to give up its nuclear program and support for terrorism."

Speaking of McCain and Bush together, he added: "They aren't telling you the truth. They are trying to fool you and scare you because they can't win a foreign policy debate on the merits. But it's not going to work. Not this time, not this year."

Obama vowed to turn the foreign policy debate back against Bush and McCain, rejecting the notion that Democrats critical of the war in Iraq are vulnerable to charges of being soft on terrorism. Meeting with reporters, he argued that tough-minded diplomacy and engagement with rivals have long coexisted, citing the foreign policies of former Presidents Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan.

"That has been the history of U.S. diplomacy until very recently," Obama said. "I find it puzzling that we view this as in any way controversial. This whole notion of not talking to people, it didn't hold in the '60s, it didn't hold in the '70s ... When Kennedy met with (Soviet leader Nikita) Khrushchev, we were on the brink of nuclear war."

He also noted that Nixon opened talks with China with the knowledge that Chinese leader Mao Zedong "had exterminated millions of people."

Laying down a marker for the fall campaign, Obama offered a challenge to the GOP nominee: "If John McCain wants to meet me anywhere, any time to have a debate about our respective policies ... that is a conversation I am happy to have."

Other Democrats accused McCain of hypocrisy Friday, saying the certain GOP presidential nominee had previously said he would be willing to negotiate with the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

McCain told reporters in West Virginia: "I made it very clear, at that time, before and after, that we will not negotiate with terrorist organizations, that Hamas would have to abandon their terrorism, their advocacy to the extermination of the state of Israel, and be willing to negotiate in a way that recognizes the right of the state of Israel and abandons their terrorist position and advocacy."

McCain said there was a "huge difference" between his own statements and Obama's willingness to negotiate with "sponsors of terrorist organizations."

"I'll let the American people decide whether that's a significant difference or not," he said. "I believe it is."

Obama said he has stated "over and over again that I will not negotiate with terrorists like Hamas."

Obama closed out his campaign day with a noisy rally in Sioux Falls before about 6,500 cheering backers, perhaps showing some of the strain of a long campaign day. "Thank you Sioux City," Obama said, as a roar greeted his entrance. He quickly corrected his reference to a nearby Iowa town.

"I've been in Iowa too long," said Obama, referring to his long campaign to win that state's leadoff caucuses in January.

Original here

Audio Recording of McCain's Political Endorser John Hagee Preaching Jews Are Cursed and Subhuman


Yesterday I discovered an astonishing audio recording of a sermon, by controversial McCain endorser Pastor John Hagee, in which Hagee elaborates on his view that Hitler and the Nazis were divine agents, sent by God to (with gruesome inefficiency it would seem) chase Europe's Jews towards Palestine. In his 2006 book "Jerusalem Countdown", Hagee proposed that anti-Semitism, and thus the Holocaust, was the fault of Jews themselves - the result of an age old divine curse incurred by the ancient Hebrews through worshiping idols and passed, down the ages, to all Jews now alive. In the sermon Hagee also clarifies a point, on his theological views, that has long concerned me...
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topic: John Hagee

I might have used any number of titles to describe this sermon by Pastor John Hagee, given in the late 1990's and then mass marketed as part of a book Hagee published in 2001 and republished in 2003, "The Battle For Jerusalem".

It could have titled it:

McCain's Hagee: God Sent Hitler, or...

Pastor Hagee says Jew Have Dead Souls. or...

Hagee says God mandates ethnic Bantustan for Jews

I think all those titles would have been valid, point being: Hagee says a LOT of horrible things. And, Hagee and McCain have given each other mutual endorsments.

In the following audio sermon, which I have put into a video [and that includes other viciously anti-Jewish statement from John Hagee], Hagee says:

- Jews are not "spiritually alive".I have a copy of John Hagee's "Prophecy Study Bible", which makes quite clear Hagee is talking about all Jews now living - whom Hagee singles out, from among all other non-Christians on Earth, to note that they specifically do not have living souls. Indeed, Hagee says the souls of all Jews now living are dead. Dead souls. McCain endorser John hagee says Jews have dead souls.

- Hitler and the Nazis were sent by God, to chase Jews back to the land of Israel. Because that's where God intends them to be. So, the Holocaust was a gruesomely inefficient system of divine "persuasion", and Hitler and the Nazis were doing "God's work". But Hagee also depicts this divine ethnic cleansing imperative as a future project: it will happen [see bolded section of transcription, below].

- In Hagee's 2006 "Jerusalem Countdown", Hagee says anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust, were and are the fault of Jews - a divine curse for worshiping idols.

Now, some people might make the claim that John Hagee himself is not calling for the ethnic cleansing (and genocide) of Jews - he's saying God wills it...

That's a classic dodge: fact is, John Hagee is interpreting Biblical scripture and then holding up his interpretation as the "will of God" but he himself, John Hagee is constructing that "will of God" message. Hagee is projecting his own voice and his own view, his own opinion and his own hatreds through "the voice of God".

It is John Hagee himself, and others of his Christian persuasion, who choose to validate Hitler, the Nazis and the Holocaust by ascribing those agents and their actions to divine will. But there's little in the New Testament which supports such hate-filled Biblical exegesis.

As a final point, note that, in his February 28th public acceptance of John Hagee's political endorsement, Senator John McCain reciprocated Hagee's endorsement. McCain himself endorsed Hagee - that's especially significant given that John McCain, during the 2000 Republican Presidential primaries, called evangelists like Hagee, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson that is, "agents of intolerance". John McCain also attacked George W. Bush for visiting Bob Jones University and declared, "I would never do such a thing. John McCain called the behavior of Bob Jones "racist and cruel" and challenged Jones to "get out of the 16th Century".

Now, less than a decade later, John McCain is himself, according to his own words, retreating to the 16th by embracing such evangelical leaders; McCain needs the votes he knows those leaders can command.

To assert that any human group is somehow spiritually different from the rest of humanity is the most extreme form of racist bigotry. In the sermon recording I discovered, John Hagee does just that: Hagee clearly states his theological view that Jews are not "spiritually alive". Hence, John Hagee singles out Jews as being of a lesser order than other humans: subhuman. In his sermon, Pastor Hagee asks how God will get Jews, whom Hagee refer to as "dry bones", to go back to the land of Israel. As an answer John Hagee cites Jeremiah 16, verses 15 and following:

Jer. 16, verses 15-18 15

"but, 'The Lord lives who brought up the Children of Israel from the kand of the north and from all the lands where he had driven them. ' For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.

16 "Behold, I will send for many fisherman," says The Lord, "and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

17 "For My eyes are on all their way; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.

18 "And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols."

In citing Jeremiah 16, Hagee implies that God caused the Holocaust because of Jewish "iniquity" and "sin", and for filling God's "inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols." Hagee cites Ezekiel, chapter 37, the "Dry Bones" prophecy, and Hagee states that Jews living today are at Ezekiel 37:8:

Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.

The context, of the whole prophecy, is of course highly important and here are the key parts:

11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel...

12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel...

14 I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it,” says the LORD.’”

- In Hagee's 2006 "Jerusalem Countdown", Hagee says anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust, were and are the fault of Jews - a divine curse for worshiping idols. Below is a transcription of the excerpt from Hagee's sermon:
Pastor John Hagee:
"Again he said unto me “Prophesy unto these bones, and say unto them, ‘O you dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!” [Biblical reference: Ezekiel 37, New King James Version, “Dry Bones” prophecy], and he spoke to them and they stood and they became an exceeding great army - meaning they physically came to life. Now how is God going to bring them back to the land? The answer is fishers and hunters. The answer is given in Jeremiah 16, verse 15 and following. God says in Jeremiah 16 - “Behold I will bring them the Jewish people again unto their land that I gave unto their fathers” - that would be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - “Behold I will send for many fishers and after will I send for many hunters. And they the hunters shall hunt them” - that will be the Jews - “from every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.” If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the Holocaust... you can't see that. So think about this - I will send fishers and I will send hunters. A fisher is someone who entices you with a bait. How many of you know who Theodore Hertzel was? How many of you don't have a clue who he was? WOO... Sweet God! Theodore Hertzel is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew that at the turn of the 19th century said - “this land is our land, God wants us to live there”. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said, “I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel”. So few went, Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the Holocaust. Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone who comes with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says - Jeremiah righty? - “they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and out of the holes of the rocks”, meaning: there's no place to hide. And that will be offensive to some people. Well, dear heart, be offended: I didn't write it. Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said, “my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come BACK to the land of Israel”. Today Israel is back in the land and they are at Ezekiel 37 and 8. They are physically alive but they're not spiritually alive. Now how is God going to cause the Jewish people to come SPIRITUALLY alive and say, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He is God”?"
Here's the video version I originally posted here: Here's a collection of some pieces I've done on Hagee, and Hagee-Mccain 2001 John Hagee Film Shows Gangsterish Rabbi, Foppish Catholic Priest In League With anti-Christ McCain Endorser Pastor Hagee's 'Thrilling' Scenario Includes Nuclear Strike on US Coasts :
The initial controversy over Pastor John Hagee's highly public endorsement of Senator John McCain's presidential bid, at a nationally televised press conference viewed potentially by millions of Americans, arose when the Catholic League, a far-right Catholic defense organization headed by William Donahue, attacked the endorsement on the basis that Hagee was virulently anti-Catholic. Beyond Hagee's demonizing of Catholics and Catholicism, pastor Hagee appears radically anti-American to the extent that he hopes and expects, as evidenced by a 2006 Hagee appearance on WHYY's "Fresh Air" radio show and also in Hagee's 2006 best-seller "Jerusalem Countdown", that God will incinerate most Americans now living - with a nuclear strike on America's coastal regions. In 2006 Presidential hopeful John McCain appeared to hold a similar view on possible outcomes of a US war with Iran. In an April 2nd, 2006 appearance on Meet The Press, Senator John McCain, describing to Tim Russert McCain's view of the possible result of a US war with Iran, declared war with Iran "could be Armageddon". Recently it has come to light that John Hagee declared "America is under the curse of God" but Hagee has also stated that, in the war he predicts will ensue a US or Israeli attack on Iran, God might punish the majority of Americans living, immolating them in a Russian nuclear strike on America's east and west coasts. Given that Hagee has repeatedly advocated for a US and/or Israeli attack on Iran, and especially in light of enthusiastic adjectives ("thrilling", for example) with which Hagee describes the expected outcome of such an attack on Iran, it logically follows that John McCain endorser Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee hopes and advocates for a US foreign policy course that he thinks might kill the majority of Americans now alive.
McCain Backer Hagee: Abortions Easier To Get In Public School Than Aspirin:
In a sermon given at his San Antonio, Texas Cornerstone megachurch that was telecast and available in up to ninety million homes worldwide, controversial pastor John Hagee, who has endorsed the presidential bid of Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, Jr., claimed that American public schools provide abortion services. Hagee stated, "Your daughter can get an abortion in public school without telling you but she can't get an aspirin without your approval." The pastor also claimed that public school teachers can force their students to study a "precursor to witchcraft" and suggests that America has invited "satan" and demonic spirits into its public school systems by failing to display the Ten Commandments on classroom walls. Presidential hopeful John McCain, Jr. has said he is "glad to have" Hagee's support and "admires" the leadership of the Texas pastor - who has declared God has cursed and doomed America.
McCain Endorser Pastor John Hagee: God Curse and Doom America:
"As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now." That ominous slam at America came from Pastor John Hagee, whose endorsement Republican presidential candidate John McCain sought, secured, and recently affirmed to ABC News that he is "glad to have." Hagee claims God's "curse" and "doom" is upon America because of two key issues: reproductive freedom and broad support for the teaching of the theory of evolution.

Although Senator McCain recently told George Stephanopoulos in an interview that his seeking of Hagee's endorsement was "probably" a mistake, he then doubled back to affirm his approval of Hagee's endorsement, stating, "I'm glad to have it."

If McCain did not know of Hagee's belief that God is against America, he should have: Hagee's pronouncement of God's "curse" and "doom" on our nation was not a passing comment. It was a major theme of Hagee's book, Day of Deception (1997). In fact, Hagee devotes a whole chapter to it. Here's the curse and doom quote in context:

In "America Under a Curse," a seventeen page chapter in Day of Deception, John Hagee wrote, "As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now. Look at the scriptures and see for yourself. The stand we have taken on abortion, the stand we have taken against God in our classrooms, just may have sealed or doom."

McCain-Backer John Hagee lies, to Jewish Bloggers, On His Motives For Supporting Israel:

On January 24, 2007 Christians United For Israel founder, Pastor John Hagee (CUFI), participated in a conference call with Jewish-American bloggers. The intent of the call was to familiarize the bloggers with CUFI and to assure them that CUFI's motives were benign. The following video showcases evidence demonstrating Hagee's motives were far from benign:

McCain-backer Hagee's 'Thrilling' Worldview: Rapture, Then "Holocaust" (Bruce Wilson)

McCain Courted Hagee for at Least a Year (Frederick Clarkson)

What Secret "Other Matters" Did McCain Discuss With "Apocalypse Now" Hagee ? (Bruce Wilson) McCain Reneges on Pledge To Never Seek anti-Catholic Support (Bruce Wilson)

Hagee Acknowledges McCain Sought His Endorsement (Bruce Wilson)

McCain Backer Hagee Showcases 'Islamic Terrorist' Implicated as Possible Fraud (Bruce Wilson)

McCain Backer Hagee Envisioned "Worse Than Auschwitz" For Israeli Jews (Bruce Wilson)

McCain Was After Hagee Like a Dog In Heat (Bruce Wilson)

AIPAC Event Helps Mainstream Allegations Of "Satanic Liberal Jewish Conspiracy" (Bruce Wilson - story details full extent of Hagee's ideological extremity)

Boldly Backwards To The 16th Century: McCain For President (Bruce Wilson)

Senior McCain Advisor: Religious Right is a "Serious Problem" (Frederick Clarkson)

On Bennett Show, McCain Waffles Over Hagee Hate Speech (Bruce Wilson)

Bomb, Bombs Away! - Did Fox's Britt Hume Just Imply McCain Has Early Alzheimer's ? (Bruce Wilson)

Navy Friend, Colleague of Admiral Says Senator McCain's Father Would Be Rolling Over In The Grave

DoD Funded Research Suggests McCain's "Faith Based" Approach Would Increase Terrorism

Symbolic Terrorism Revisited: Hagee's CUFI 'Wipes' Islam's 3rd Holiest Site From Logo"

"Pro Israel" Christian Leader Blames Jews For The Holocaust

"Be Jewish In Five Easy Days", The Twelve Tribes Of Hagee

AIPAC Event Helps Mainstream Allegations Of "Satanic Liberal Jewish Conspiracy"

Holocaust For Zion : CUFI's Christian Zionism Made Simple

GOP House Minority Whip Roy Blunt To Help Nuclear War Advocate

What Secret "Other Matters" Did McCain Discuss With "Apocalypse Now" Hagee ?

Dick Armey Denies Bush Administration Trying To Provoke "End Times"

AIPAC Cheers an Anti-Semitic Holocaust Revisionist (and Abe Foxman Approves) (Max Blumenthal)

The Goy Who Cried Wolf: The Israel lobby gives America's leading Christian right warmonger a warm welcome (Sara Posner)

Israel, the US, and the Christian Right: The Menage a Trois From Hell (Max Blumenthal)

Holy Warriors Set Sights on Iran (Bill Berkowitz)

Christian Zionism all juiced up (Esther Kaplan)

Armey: Bush Believes in Tribulation, but not Trying to Make it Happen (Richard Bartholomew)

Lobbying For Armageddon (Sara Posner)

"As Bush's War Strategy Shifts to Iran, Christian Zionists Gear Up for the Apocalypse" (Sara Posner)

Pastor Strangelove (Sara Posner)

"Apocalyptic preacher John Hagee says McCain is 'on target'" (Sara Posner)

Original here

How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power

Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president

George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.

Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.

While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade. The Guardian has seen evidence that shows Bush was the director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that represented Thyssen's US interests and he continued to work for the bank after America entered the war.

Tantalising

Bush was also on the board of at least one of the companies that formed part of a multinational network of front companies to allow Thyssen to move assets around the world.

Thyssen owned the largest steel and coal company in Germany and grew rich from Hitler's efforts to re-arm between the two world wars. One of the pillars in Thyssen's international corporate web, UBC, worked exclusively for, and was owned by, a Thyssen-controlled bank in the Netherlands. More tantalising are Bush's links to the Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC), based in mineral rich Silesia on the German-Polish border. During the war, the company made use of Nazi slave labour from the concentration camps, including Auschwitz. The ownership of CSSC changed hands several times in the 1930s, but documents from the US National Archive declassified last year link Bush to CSSC, although it is not clear if he and UBC were still involved in the company when Thyssen's American assets were seized in 1942.

Three sets of archives spell out Prescott Bush's involvement. All three are readily available, thanks to the efficient US archive system and a helpful and dedicated staff at both the Library of Congress in Washington and the National Archives at the University of Maryland.

The first set of files, the Harriman papers in the Library of Congress, show that Prescott Bush was a director and shareholder of a number of companies involved with Thyssen.

The second set of papers, which are in the National Archives, are contained in vesting order number 248 which records the seizure of the company assets. What these files show is that on October 20 1942 the alien property custodian seized the assets of the UBC, of which Prescott Bush was a director. Having gone through the books of the bank, further seizures were made against two affiliates, the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation. By November, the Silesian-American Company, another of Prescott Bush's ventures, had also been seized.

The third set of documents, also at the National Archives, are contained in the files on IG Farben, who was prosecuted for war crimes.

A report issued by the Office of Alien Property Custodian in 1942 stated of the companies that "since 1939, these (steel and mining) properties have been in possession of and have been operated by the German government and have undoubtedly been of considerable assistance to that country's war effort".

Prescott Bush, a 6ft 4in charmer with a rich singing voice, was the founder of the Bush political dynasty and was once considered a potential presidential candidate himself. Like his son, George, and grandson, George W, he went to Yale where he was, again like his descendants, a member of the secretive and influential Skull and Bones student society. He was an artillery captain in the first world war and married Dorothy Walker, the daughter of George Herbert Walker, in 1921.

In 1924, his father-in-law, a well-known St Louis investment banker, helped set him up in business in New York with Averill Harriman, the wealthy son of railroad magnate E H Harriman in New York, who had gone into banking.

One of the first jobs Walker gave Bush was to manage UBC. Bush was a founding member of the bank and the incorporation documents, which list him as one of seven directors, show he owned one share in UBC worth $125.

The bank was set up by Harriman and Bush's father-in-law to provide a US bank for the Thyssens, Germany's most powerful industrial family.

August Thyssen, the founder of the dynasty had been a major contributor to Germany's first world war effort and in the 1920s, he and his sons Fritz and Heinrich established a network of overseas banks and companies so their assets and money could be whisked offshore if threatened again.

By the time Fritz Thyssen inherited the business empire in 1926, Germany's economic recovery was faltering. After hearing Adolf Hitler speak, Thyssen became mesmerised by the young firebrand. He joined the Nazi party in December 1931 and admits backing Hitler in his autobiography, I Paid Hitler, when the National Socialists were still a radical fringe party. He stepped in several times to bail out the struggling party: in 1928 Thyssen had bought the Barlow Palace on Briennerstrasse, in Munich, which Hitler converted into the Brown House, the headquarters of the Nazi party. The money came from another Thyssen overseas institution, the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvarrt in Rotterdam.

By the late 1930s, Brown Brothers Harriman, which claimed to be the world's largest private investment bank, and UBC had bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, fuel, steel, coal and US treasury bonds to Germany, both feeding and financing Hitler's build-up to war.

Between 1931 and 1933 UBC bought more than $8m worth of gold, of which $3m was shipped abroad. According to documents seen by the Guardian, after UBC was set up it transferred $2m to BBH accounts and between 1924 and 1940 the assets of UBC hovered around $3m, dropping to $1m only on a few occasions.

In 1941, Thyssen fled Germany after falling out with Hitler but he was captured in France and detained for the remainder of the war.

There was nothing illegal in doing business with the Thyssens throughout the 1930s and many of America's best-known business names invested heavily in the German economic recovery. However, everything changed after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Even then it could be argued that BBH was within its rights continuing business relations with the Thyssens until the end of 1941 as the US was still technically neutral until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The trouble started on July 30 1942 when the New York Herald-Tribune ran an article entitled "Hitler's Angel Has $3m in US Bank". UBC's huge gold purchases had raised suspicions that the bank was in fact a "secret nest egg" hidden in New York for Thyssen and other Nazi bigwigs. The Alien Property Commission (APC) launched an investigation.

There is no dispute over the fact that the US government seized a string of assets controlled by BBH - including UBC and SAC - in the autumn of 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy act. What is in dispute is if Harriman, Walker and Bush did more than own these companies on paper.

Erwin May, a treasury attache and officer for the department of investigation in the APC, was assigned to look into UBC's business. The first fact to emerge was that Roland Harriman, Prescott Bush and the other directors didn't actually own their shares in UBC but merely held them on behalf of Bank voor Handel. Strangely, no one seemed to know who owned the Rotterdam-based bank, including UBC's president.

May wrote in his report of August 16 1941: "Union Banking Corporation, incorporated August 4 1924, is wholly owned by the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. My investigation has produced no evidence as to the ownership of the Dutch bank. Mr Cornelis [sic] Lievense, president of UBC, claims no knowledge as to the ownership of the Bank voor Handel but believes it possible that Baron Heinrich Thyssen, brother of Fritz Thyssen, may own a substantial interest."

May cleared the bank of holding a golden nest egg for the Nazi leaders but went on to describe a network of companies spreading out from UBC across Europe, America and Canada, and how money from voor Handel travelled to these companies through UBC.

By September May had traced the origins of the non-American board members and found that Dutchman HJ Kouwenhoven - who met with Harriman in 1924 to set up UBC - had several other jobs: in addition to being the managing director of voor Handel he was also the director of the August Thyssen bank in Berlin and a director of Fritz Thyssen's Union Steel Works, the holding company that controlled Thyssen's steel and coal mine empire in Germany.

Within a few weeks, Homer Jones, the chief of the APC investigation and research division sent a memo to the executive committee of APC recommending the US government vest UBC and its assets. Jones named the directors of the bank in the memo, including Prescott Bush's name, and wrote: "Said stock is held by the above named individuals, however, solely as nominees for the Bank voor Handel, Rotterdam, Holland, which is owned by one or more of the Thyssen family, nationals of Germany and Hungary. The 4,000 shares hereinbefore set out are therefore beneficially owned and help for the interests of enemy nationals, and are vestible by the APC," according to the memo from the National Archives seen by the Guardian.

Red-handed

Jones recommended that the assets be liquidated for the benefit of the government, but instead UBC was maintained intact and eventually returned to the American shareholders after the war. Some claim that Bush sold his share in UBC after the war for $1.5m - a huge amount of money at the time - but there is no documentary evidence to support this claim. No further action was ever taken nor was the investigation continued, despite the fact UBC was caught red-handed operating a American shell company for the Thyssen family eight months after America had entered the war and that this was the bank that had partly financed Hitler's rise to power.

The most tantalising part of the story remains shrouded in mystery: the connection, if any, between Prescott Bush, Thyssen, Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC) and Auschwitz.

Thyssen's partner in United Steel Works, which had coal mines and steel plants across the region, was Friedrich Flick, another steel magnate who also owned part of IG Farben, the powerful German chemical company.

Flick's plants in Poland made heavy use of slave labour from the concentration camps in Poland. According to a New York Times article published in March 18 1934 Flick owned two-thirds of CSSC while "American interests" held the rest.

The US National Archive documents show that BBH's involvement with CSSC was more than simply holding the shares in the mid-1930s. Bush's friend and fellow "bonesman" Knight Woolley, another partner at BBH, wrote to Averill Harriman in January 1933 warning of problems with CSSC after the Poles started their drive to nationalise the plant. "The Consolidated Silesian Steel Company situation has become increasingly complicated, and I have accordingly brought in Sullivan and Cromwell, in order to be sure that our interests are protected," wrote Knight. "After studying the situation Foster Dulles is insisting that their man in Berlin get into the picture and obtain the information which the directors here should have. You will recall that Foster is a director and he is particularly anxious to be certain that there is no liability attaching to the American directors."

But the ownership of the CSSC between 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland and 1942 when the US government vested UBC and SAC is not clear.

"SAC held coal mines and definitely owned CSSC between 1934 and 1935, but when SAC was vested there was no trace of CSSC. All concrete evidence of its ownership disappears after 1935 and there are only a few traces in 1938 and 1939," says Eva Schweitzer, the journalist and author whose book, America and the Holocaust, is published next month.

Silesia was quickly made part of the German Reich after the invasion, but while Polish factories were seized by the Nazis, those belonging to the still neutral Americans (and some other nationals) were treated more carefully as Hitler was still hoping to persuade the US to at least sit out the war as a neutral country. Schweitzer says American interests were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The Nazis bought some out, but not others.

The two Holocaust survivors suing the US government and the Bush family for a total of $40bn in compensation claim both materially benefited from Auschwitz slave labour during the second world war.

Kurt Julius Goldstein, 87, and Peter Gingold, 85, began a class action in America in 2001, but the case was thrown out by Judge Rosemary Collier on the grounds that the government cannot be held liable under the principle of "state sovereignty".

Jan Lissmann, one of the lawyers for the survivors, said: "President Bush withdrew President Bill Clinton's signature from the treaty [that founded the court] not only to protect Americans, but also to protect himself and his family."

Lissmann argues that genocide-related cases are covered by international law, which does hold governments accountable for their actions. He claims the ruling was invalid as no hearing took place.

In their claims, Mr Goldstein and Mr Gingold, honorary chairman of the League of Anti-fascists, suggest the Americans were aware of what was happening at Auschwitz and should have bombed the camp.

The lawyers also filed a motion in The Hague asking for an opinion on whether state sovereignty is a valid reason for refusing to hear their case. A ruling is expected within a month.

The petition to The Hague states: "From April 1944 on, the American Air Force could have destroyed the camp with air raids, as well as the railway bridges and railway lines from Hungary to Auschwitz. The murder of about 400,000 Hungarian Holocaust victims could have been prevented."

The case is built around a January 22 1944 executive order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt calling on the government to take all measures to rescue the European Jews. The lawyers claim the order was ignored because of pressure brought by a group of big American companies, including BBH, where Prescott Bush was a director.

Lissmann said: "If we have a positive ruling from the court it will cause [president] Bush huge problems and make him personally liable to pay compensation."

The US government and the Bush family deny all the claims against them.

In addition to Eva Schweitzer's book, two other books are about to be published that raise the subject of Prescott Bush's business history. The author of the second book, to be published next year, John Loftus, is a former US attorney who prosecuted Nazi war criminals in the 70s. Now living in St Petersburg, Florida and earning his living as a security commentator for Fox News and ABC radio, Loftus is working on a novel which uses some of the material he has uncovered on Bush. Loftus stressed that what Prescott Bush was involved in was just what many other American and British businessmen were doing at the time.

"You can't blame Bush for what his grandfather did any more than you can blame Jack Kennedy for what his father did - bought Nazi stocks - but what is important is the cover-up, how it could have gone on so successfully for half a century, and does that have implications for us today?" he said.

"This was the mechanism by which Hitler was funded to come to power, this was the mechanism by which the Third Reich's defence industry was re-armed, this was the mechanism by which Nazi profits were repatriated back to the American owners, this was the mechanism by which investigations into the financial laundering of the Third Reich were blunted," said Loftus, who is vice-chairman of the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg.

"The Union Banking Corporation was a holding company for the Nazis, for Fritz Thyssen," said Loftus. "At various times, the Bush family has tried to spin it, saying they were owned by a Dutch bank and it wasn't until the Nazis took over Holland that they realised that now the Nazis controlled the apparent company and that is why the Bush supporters claim when the war was over they got their money back. Both the American treasury investigations and the intelligence investigations in Europe completely bely that, it's absolute horseshit. They always knew who the ultimate beneficiaries were."

"There is no one left alive who could be prosecuted but they did get away with it," said Loftus. "As a former federal prosecutor, I would make a case for Prescott Bush, his father-in-law (George Walker) and Averill Harriman [to be prosecuted] for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They remained on the boards of these companies knowing that they were of financial benefit to the nation of Germany."

Loftus said Prescott Bush must have been aware of what was happening in Germany at the time. "My take on him was that he was a not terribly successful in-law who did what Herbert Walker told him to. Walker and Harriman were the two evil geniuses, they didn't care about the Nazis any more than they cared about their investments with the Bolsheviks."

What is also at issue is how much money Bush made from his involvement. His supporters suggest that he had one token share. Loftus disputes this, citing sources in "the banking and intelligence communities" and suggesting that the Bush family, through George Herbert Walker and Prescott, got $1.5m out of the involvement. There is, however, no paper trail to this sum.

The third person going into print on the subject is John Buchanan, 54, a Miami-based magazine journalist who started examining the files while working on a screenplay. Last year, Buchanan published his findings in the venerable but small-circulation New Hampshire Gazette under the headline "Documents in National Archives Prove George Bush's Grandfather Traded With the Nazis - Even After Pearl Harbor". He expands on this in his book to be published next month - Fixing America: Breaking the Stranglehold of Corporate Rule, Big Media and the Religious Right.

In the article, Buchanan, who has worked mainly in the trade and music press with a spell as a muckraking reporter in Miami, claimed that "the essential facts have appeared on the internet and in relatively obscure books but were dismissed by the media and Bush family as undocumented diatribes".

Buchanan suffers from hypermania, a form of manic depression, and when he found himself rebuffed in his initial efforts to interest the media, he responded with a series of threats against the journalists and media outlets that had spurned him. The threats, contained in e-mails, suggested that he would expose the journalists as "traitors to the truth".

Unsurprisingly, he soon had difficulty getting his calls returned. Most seriously, he faced aggravated stalking charges in Miami, in connection with a man with whom he had fallen out over the best way to publicise his findings. The charges were dropped last month.

Biography

Buchanan said he regretted his behaviour had damaged his credibility but his main aim was to secure publicity for the story. Both Loftus and Schweitzer say Buchanan has come up with previously undisclosed documentation.

The Bush family have largely responded with no comment to any reference to Prescott Bush. Brown Brothers Harriman also declined to comment.

The Bush family recently approved a flattering biography of Prescott Bush entitled Duty, Honour, Country by Mickey Herskowitz. The publishers, Rutledge Hill Press, promised the book would "deal honestly with Prescott Bush's alleged business relationships with Nazi industrialists and other accusations".

In fact, the allegations are dealt with in less than two pages. The book refers to the Herald-Tribune story by saying that "a person of less established ethics would have panicked ... Bush and his partners at Brown Brothers Harriman informed the government regulators that the account, opened in the late 1930s, was 'an unpaid courtesy for a client' ... Prescott Bush acted quickly and openly on behalf of the firm, served well by a reputation that had never been compromised. He made available all records and all documents. Viewed six decades later in the era of serial corporate scandals and shattered careers, he received what can be viewed as the ultimate clean bill."

The Prescott Bush story has been condemned by both conservatives and some liberals as having nothing to do with the current president. It has also been suggested that Prescott Bush had little to do with Averill Harriman and that the two men opposed each other politically.

However, documents from the Harriman papers include a flattering wartime profile of Harriman in the New York Journal American and next to it in the files is a letter to the financial editor of that paper from Prescott Bush congratulating the paper for running the profile. He added that Harriman's "performance and his whole attitude has been a source of inspiration and pride to his partners and his friends".

The Anti-Defamation League in the US is supportive of Prescott Bush and the Bush family. In a statement last year they said that "rumours about the alleged Nazi 'ties' of the late Prescott Bush ... have circulated widely through the internet in recent years. These charges are untenable and politically motivated ... Prescott Bush was neither a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathiser."

However, one of the country's oldest Jewish publications, the Jewish Advocate, has aired the controversy in detail.

More than 60 years after Prescott Bush came briefly under scrutiny at the time of a faraway war, his grandson is facing a different kind of scrutiny but one underpinned by the same perception that, for some people, war can be a profitable business.

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Clinton defends Obama from Bush


Hillary, today in Rapid City, South Dakota, defended Obama from President Bush's apparent comparison of him to Neville Chamberlain, Ken Vogel reports.

She told reporters:

President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy. This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address and certainly to use an important moment like the 60th anniversary celebration of Israel to make a political point seems terribly misplaced. Unfortunately, this is what we’ve come to expect from President Bush.

“There is a very clear difference between Democrats and Republicans on foreign policy and that difference will be evident once we take back the White House.

Obama also released a statement this afternoon attacking McCain, who said in Columbus that he took Bush's press secretary's word that Bush had not meant to refer to Obama, but picked up the thread, saying, "This does bring up an issue that we will be discussing with the American people, and that is, why does Barack Obama, Senator Obama, want to sit down with a state sponsor of terrorism?"

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor responded:

It is the height of hypocrisy for John McCain to deliver a lofty speech about civility and bipartisanship in the morning and then embrace George Bush's disgraceful political attack in the afternoon. Instead of delivering meaningful change, John McCain wants to continue George Bush’s irresponsible and failed Iran policy by refusing to engage in tough, direct diplomacy like Presidents from Kennedy to Reagan have done.

Clinton took a similar tack, linking Bush's comment to McCain's speech on his vision for his first term.

"I think today we’ve had two examples of why this country is going to be voting for a Democratic president. And I hope that people really look seriously both at President Bush’s comment and at Sen. McCain’s speech and realize that the only way we’re going to restore our leadership and our moral authority and deal with the very real challenges we face in the world is by electing a democratic president and I believe that I am a stronger candidate against Sen. McCain and will be a president who could accomplish that," she said.

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LIKE FATHER LIKE SON. THE COVER-UP CONTINUES ON THE USS LIBERTY


When Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., Commander in Chief, United States Naval Forces, Europe, ordered the cover-up on the attack of the USS LIBERTY GTR-5 it was a sure act of treason perpetrated on the American people and the crew of the LIBERTY to hide the true facts surrounding the unprovoked attack by the Government of Israel on our ship, the USS LIBERTY.

As most of you know, the Government of Israel attacked our ship in international waters on June 8, 1967. On this bright, sunny day our ship had been positively identified as American and friendly. This very fact has been repeated by our attackers, Israel. They knew we were there but around 1:00 they forgot about us. This was the excuse given, that they accidentally took us off their war table, like we just vanished into thin air.

Doesn’t that sound like a fairy tale? Well, it is. How could this lie hold water with the Board of Inquiry conducted by Admiral Isaac Kidd along with Captain Ward Boston, JAG officer, reporting to the Judge Advocate General, USN and Admiral McCain. The answer to that question is very easy. It goes right back to Admiral McCain. He did not want the truth to come out. He ordered those two respected career naval officers to hide, cover-up and lie in their official Board of Inquiry which McCain signed off on in approximately 10 days. Can you imagine a Board of Inquiry of this magnitude could be completed and signed off on in ten days? It is unheard of, ever, in the annuls of US Naval history.

Also, can you imagine this same Admiral would recall all rescue aircraft coming to our aid, along with MacNamara and the president himself, LBJ.

We were set up to sink. The Israelis, along with our own government, would blame it on an Arab combatant, Egypt.

As we now know, Cairo was only 120 seconds away from a nuclear attack from the US Government, all for the benefit of Israel, the killers of 34 Americans, the wounding of 174 others and the near destruction of a $40 million ship that ended up being scrapped.

Captain Ward Boston said to Admiral Kidd that he knew this was wrong but must follow orders from Admiral McCain. As far as I and most of the crew are concerned, Admiral McCain, Jr. has LIBERTY blood on his hands. Captain Ward Boston has since recanted his remarks in the Board of Inquiry as lies ordered upon him by Admiral McCain, Jr. God bless him for his courage to come forward with the truth.

Now, we come to what has happened in the past few years. A man called A. J. Cristol, a Jewish bankruptcy judge from Florida, wrote a book called THE LIBERTY INCIDENT, in which he says Israel is exonerated for the attack on the LIBERTY because it was a case of mistaken identity. The book is full of lies, falsehoods and continues the cover-up for Israel’s blatant murder of American sons on the high seas. The survivors call this book a bunch of hog wash. Guess who endorses this book as factual? YEP! You guessed it - Senator John McCain. He knows all about the cover-up on the LIBERTY attack but he follows in his father’s footsteps and praises this piece of garbage. He, along with his father, has the blood of the LIBERTY crew on his hands.

Please email Senator John McCain and express your outrage for this continued cover-up never heard of before in US Naval history. All McCain cares about is the Jewish vote and pleasing Israel. No one should be allowed to get by with murder, not even Israel nor our elected officials. They all should be held accountable for the murders and wounding of Americans and the subsequent cover-up, especially Senator John McCain.

I love our country and I want it back to be the home of the brave and the land of the free where honest Americans care about our homeland, not Israel. We can’t fight anymore wars for Israel with the blessing of our congress. It is killing our sons and daughters and has bankrupted our government, all for the sake of Israel.

That, ladies and gentlemen, are the facts, sad but, oh so true.

Phillip F. Tourney, survivor


tonktime5@yahoo.com

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Wall Street Journal Bashes Angry Renter on Page One!

You know a web site is making a difference when the Wall Street Journal publishes a hit piece on the front page!

We don't find it particularly shocking that a grassroots group working for limited government would launch a grassroots petition opposing a government housing bailout...but hey, we're not in the newspaper business.

We're not sure how a reporter can call this effort "fake" or "astro-turf" when we've put our name on every page and when over 48,000 real people have voluntarily visited and signed the petition.

FreedomWorks was founded back in 1984 and we're headquartered in Washington, D.C. We're based in D.C. because we fight for taxpayers and Washington, D.C. is where they pass the laws and spend trillions of your tax dollars every year. We are a non-profit organization chaired by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey with over 20 staffers across the country. Like every non-profit organization, from Sierra Club to the AARP, we respect the privacy of our donors and do not disclose them. (You can donate online if you'd like to support our mission and work.)

FreedomWorks is proud of our Angry Renter campaign, and we’re glad that over 48,000 real people have signed our petition against a government housing bailout. We invite you to sign as well. You don’t have to be a renter -- you could be a responsible homeowner or a person of any situation who understands that Congressional meddling in a necessary housing correction will unfairly reward the wrong people and penalize the responsible majority.

Our petition signers put it best:

"I would like to thank you for providing this venue to voice my deep concern on how my government is making new, open-ended commitments to bailout investment banks, speculators, the GSEs, and unresponsible borrowers WITH MONEY IT DOES NOT HAVE. They are irresponsibly burdening our children with a mountain of debt, trashing the USD, while protecting Wall Street. Let's see how long this fuse takes to burn." -- James O., North Arlington, NJ

"I agree and I am happy I found this site. Renters need a voice.” -- Gerald W., Auburn, CA

There are literally tens of thousands of comments like theirs, all opposing a government bailout.

The bottom line is that our campaign against the housing bailout is working, and the big banks, the housing flipper lobby, the builders, and their friends in Congress and the media are striking back. We’ll happily take any media attention we can get, because it is critical that America understands what Congress is doing with their tax dollars. So thanks for stopping by, and please share this site with your friends.

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