John McCain, Still Fighting

- picture from John McCain 2008 - www.JohnMcCain.com

Update 10/08: Note, this article is from 2007.

Recently, I've stated that John McCain is in the first stages of his second failed presidential election campaign:

McCain has experienced the first stages of his second failed presidential election campaign. Two of his top advisors have resigned, marking the beginning of the end for his campaign. He is lagging in polls, lagging in respect from his party (for his immigration stance), and the public (for his support of the army surge). McCain is done for, yet again, there is always a spot for vice presidency right? Mitt Romney is next to go, just wait.

Yet McCain is still fighting, still trying to hold strong. Maybe I was wrong in predicting his defeat. One thing that is surprising to me is that the media is giving McCain no coverage. They are treating the guy as if he is already a second tier candidate. Huckabee seems to be getting more airtime and he hasn't even passed McCain in the polls (at this moment in the national polls, McCain is still beating Huckabee for the RCP poll average of August by 7.7 after taking a slight downturn overall). I agree with R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. from The American Spectator who views the media isn't giving McCain enough credit where it is do.

Call me a contrarian if you will, but the gloomy media mood shrouding the McCain candidacy is a reflection of the unseriousness inherent in the presidential campaign at this point in the news cycle. By historic standards McCain is perfectly acceptable as a presidential candidate. His presence in the Oval Office would be no surprise to Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan. The Democratic front runners' would. Being once a first lady in the most scandal-plagued presidency of recent memory or being a United States senator with only three years of service in the Senate are not sufficient qualifications for the Oval Office. In fact, they are the most meager qualifications of any frontrunners in modern American history.

Hopefully I was wrong about McCain and he does pull through (hope is the word). He did make an appearance on The Daily Show showing optimism towards his chances.




He has also released a new campaign video.
Yet with Thompson entering the race next month, the hype over him will surely cloud over McCain's chances.

McCain, saying no to quitting.

End the War in Iraq or to Look at it Realistically

Christopher Hitchens has a great article on the Iraq situation, looking at the conflict realistically. Below is an excerpt:

When people say that they want to end the war in Iraq, I always want to ask them which war they mean. There are currently at least three wars, along with several subconflicts, being fought on Iraqi soil. The first, tragically, is the battle for mastery between Sunni and Shiite. The second is the campaign to isolate and defeat al-Qaida in Mesopotamia. The third is the struggle of Iraq's Kurdish minority to defend and consolidate its regional government in the north...

The American public read this and scratched their heads in bewilderment.

Where I found this story:
RealClearPolitics

The Face of a Terrorist...Or Not

Here is a story of a seven-year-old boy being profiled, not once, not twice, but three times.

For seven-year-old Javaid Iqbal, the holiday to Florida was a dream trip to reward him for doing well at school.

But he was left in tears after he was stopped repeatedly at airports on suspicion of being a terrorist.

Rudy Giuliani read this and gave his campaign a new tagline: Expect More...Homeland Security Checks.

Where I found this:
Drudge Report

Who Edits Wikipedia Articles Anyways?

Well, now you can find out. It might even be from government officials.

Wikipedia Scanner -- the brainchild of Cal Tech computation and neural-systems graduate student Virgil Griffith -- offers users a searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block of internet IP addresses.

Inspired by news last year that Congress members' offices had been editing their own entries, Griffith says he got curious, and wanted to know whether big companies and other organizations were doing things in a similarly self-interested vein.

"Everything's better if you do it on a huge scale, and automate it," he says with a grin.

It's called Wikipedia Scanner. Find out who edited your favorite article. Find out who destroyed your balanced edit. Wikiscanner also provided a link to Wired's most notorious edits.

Good luck and good finding.

Where I found this site/article:
NewsBusters/Daily Kos

Venezuela Moves Closer to Dictatorship

What Chavez wants, he will get. Right now he is in the process of making himself indefinite leader of Venezuela. Furthering his Bolivarian philosophy to extreme levels.

President Hugo Chavez was presenting his blueprint Wednesday for sweeping constitutional changes expected to allow him to be re-elected indefinitely...

Critics accuse Chavez of seeking to become a lifelong leader, like his close friend Fidel Castro. Chavez denies allegations that he poses a threat to democracy, noting that he has repeatedly won elections by wide margins...

Chavez has revealed few details of his proposal, but has stressed the need to do away with presidential term limits that currently prevent him from seeking re-election in 2012.

All but a handful of the National Assembly's 167 members are Chavez loyalists.

Now, there are those that support Chavez's decision and there are those that are against it. Let's look at the two responses. First, the reasonable response.

"The majority of Venezuelans don't want socialism. He wants our country to be like Cuba, and we aren't going to accept that," said Linda Dos Santos, a 30-year-old shoe store owner who fears the government might seize second homes and distribute them among the poor.

Now the absurd response.

"Socialism will bring benefits to those who need it the most, but all of us can live together," said Angulo. He argued that opposition leaders oppose indefinite re-election "because they don't have any chance of being elected in forthcoming elections."

They "don't have the chance of being elected in forthcoming elections"? How about no one will have a chance. Chavez wants power, and he is getting it. Look at what he is doing to arm the nation.

He said the kind of war Venezuela wanted to fight was a people's war like in Iraq, "where an entire population is rising up against a foreign aggressor"...

Venezuela's armed forces have been carrying out a massive recruitment drive for new reservists.

Fighting a foreign aggressor or keeping Chavez's control throughout the nation? Threats against Chavez is the target. Look at what he is trying to do with television.

Chavez, however, denies his government has limited freedom of expression, arguing that his decision to turn RCTV's signal over to a public-service channel was part of a wider effort aimed at democratizing the airwaves.

Luckily, the station is fighting for it's existence, unlike the Venezuelan populace, and succeeding on some levels. Chavez shuts down the station to democratize the airwaves? It's a misuse of the word democracy.

So Venezuela is a sure thing, any hope for Russia?

Bill Kristol and Jon Stewart

Bill Kristol actually made some very good points, who would have thought?

Where I found this:
Politics TV

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

The guy should run for president, eh?

The Builders Now Have a Voice

Here is a video clip of the testimony of Rory Mayberry, a former Subcontractor Employee for the First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting Company. It's regarding the building of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. Just watch.

Here is an additional link with his testimony in text.

How could this happen? I'm speechless. Luckily he wasn't.

Where I found the story/video:
Fark/Video Shift

Johnny 5 Goes to War, Enemies on the Run

I thought I'd never see the day that Johnny 5 would go to war, but sure enough, here he is.

Technology gets sweeter every day.


Where I found the story/video:
Drudge Report