They Did What !

Have you heard about the current senate bill that is supposed to provide security for our votes? S3212 would allow electronic “verification” of votes cast on electronic voting machines. Huh? Isn’t the need for verification at issue because of the possibility of electronic errors? So how does one possibly faulty machine checking on another possibly faulty machine take care of the problem? We can thank our very own Diane Feinstein for introducing this masterful piece of oxymoronic legislation.

The House Judiciary Committee is getting ready to vote on whether or not to hold Karl Rove in contempt. Let’s see…

• Congress has the right and the responsibility to maintain oversight of government activities in order to protect the Constitution and maintain the balance of power among the three branches
• Karl Rove received a subpoena to testify in regard to what appears to be overstepping by the Executive Branch.
• Karl Rove refuses to appear.

Did you know that the State Department barred its employees from attending Sen. Barack Obama's speech in Berlin on July 24th? It would seem in Dubya’s world, when you go to work for the government you give up your right to spend your personal time as you choose. The explanation for this obviously partisan political action?
“…ensuring that Foreign Service officials will remain untainted by a ‘partisan political act’."

Speaking of Obama’s Middle East/European trip - what gives with John McCain? He criticized Obama for not going to the Middle East. But when Obama went to the Middle East and then some, all McCain did was criticized Obama for making the trip. The contrast between the two candidates was exemplified by their “German experiences.” On the same day, Obama, in Berlin, spoke before a crowd of 200,000 while McCain, in a German restaurant in Ohio, spoke to a small select Republican audience. It seems McCain’s only campaign strategy is to criticize and belittle Obama. I guess that is what you do when you don’t have much to offer in your own right.

In McCain's third attack ad (so much for his noble sounding statements about running a positive campaign) he starts out criticizing Obama for not holding hearings on Afghanistan. Obama is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe. Uh… maybe Mr. McCain doesn’t know that Afghanistan is not in Europe. Sort of like he didn’t know Iraq and Pakistan don’t share a border. Get that man a map! What McCain doesn’t mention when he goes after Obama about Afghanistan, is that even though he, McCain, is the ranking Republican member on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee on Afghanistan, he has missed every hearing for the past two years. Better check that plank in your eye John!

Another claim in the attack ad is that Obama had time to go to the gym but cancelled a visit to wounded troops in a German hospital because cameras were not allowed. The footage accompanying this claim shows Obama shooting hoops – but it is footage shot in Iraq. Oops, there’s that darn geography confusion again! And incidentally, Obama did visit wounded troops in Iraq and without any cameras.

The ad continues with a sanctimonious statement that John McCain is always there for the troops. McCain’s vote against the new Obama/Webb GI bill and his vote against $360 million for armored tactical wheeled vehicles for units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan seem a strange way of "being there" for the troops.