And Yet Again ... Moar Politics
Sep. 24th, 2008 03:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhiannonmrI've been pretty outspoken on my political views here. Like most Americans I am watching our economy go down the tubes and watching the bastards in DC try yet another attempt at armed robbery. I remember 1988 and the S&L crisis that happened. As it is, I lost money because I had a savings acct in an S&L that ended up going under. Oh yeah FDIC insured it, and I got the principal back less interest. But yeah we ALL paid for that one. And now they want another bail out, with a bill written well in advance that they want to ram down our throats ASAP! With no bloody oversight whatsoever? They don't want to take away the excessive executive compensation or assist the common guy out there who worries about making that ARM(adjustable rate mortgage) payment. Umm and they want us, the normal people to pony up money through our hard work and tax dollars on our flattened salaries to support these rich white guys? One question ... why?
I mean it. Why should we pay for the mistakes of the incompetent? Or the thieves? Why should we mortgage our grandchildren's future for them to take home their 'golden parachutes'? We've already sold out our children here. What does it take for people to say this is so far gone wrong that you're not to be trusted?
McCain never met a deregulation bill he didn't like. And he wants us to put him in the White House to preside over the failure of his party's dream, with nothing new to bring to the table except more of the same. This is a man whos behavior this past week has made me wonder if he's all there mentally. He's flailed just about as hard as our economy. Do I want him in charge?
What really set me off is something I found on the Internet and read recently about him. John McCain has made his POW experience a central part of his campaign. His speech at the Republican convention told the story of his capture. What it did not tell was the lengths he has gone to hide certain things about it. McCain broke. He broke under torture, and he 'confessed' to 'war crimes' in writing and broadcast for the North Vietnamese. I can't and won't judge that. I've never been tortured. Now this is a man who is third generation military, he grew up with it, he lived in it all his life. And if he'd never been captured by the North Vietnamese, he'd have probably retired as an Admiral, like his father and grandfather before him. Instead, he suffered the 'kindness' and 'hospitality' of a country that damaged him physically and I believe mentally. He never expected to break like he did, and when he did he had to live with the knowledge that he'd given up information that perhaps in the long run meant little or nothing, but to him it was information he should not give according to the Geneva Convention. A playbook the Vietnamese DID NOT play by.
This had to have an affect on him emotionally. Such things have meaning to those in the military, and McCain was raised with the ideal of, duty, honor, country. Sidney Schanberg has documented what McCain has done since in office concerning the release of any information concerning POW/MIAs from the Viet Nam era. It's not a pretty story and in many ways I find it terribly dishonorable. McCain has along with past administrations effectively buried the information that yes, we DID leave men behind and yes we KNEW they were there. Hollywood and Rambo had it right. I believe he feels to this day, shame and guilt that he 'confessed' in the POW camp. I believe such feelings have influenced how he behaved when he got into office and was on a committee to investigate POW/MIA issues in the early 90s. I believe with that behavior he has in fact behaved dishonorably. I do not feel he behaved dishonorably while in captivity. What happened to our men in Viet Nam was beyond the scope of how they were trained to behave as POWs. I believe he feels dishonor because of it, and that dishonor has informed later behavior. I believe he's never come to terms with what happened in Hanoi and in a very real way he's still there. I believe the mental scarring, and physical effects haunt him to this very day, 35yrs after he's come home. And I believe he is NOT fit to be president because of it.
Link to Schanberg's article:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/schanberg
I mean it. Why should we pay for the mistakes of the incompetent? Or the thieves? Why should we mortgage our grandchildren's future for them to take home their 'golden parachutes'? We've already sold out our children here. What does it take for people to say this is so far gone wrong that you're not to be trusted?
McCain never met a deregulation bill he didn't like. And he wants us to put him in the White House to preside over the failure of his party's dream, with nothing new to bring to the table except more of the same. This is a man whos behavior this past week has made me wonder if he's all there mentally. He's flailed just about as hard as our economy. Do I want him in charge?
What really set me off is something I found on the Internet and read recently about him. John McCain has made his POW experience a central part of his campaign. His speech at the Republican convention told the story of his capture. What it did not tell was the lengths he has gone to hide certain things about it. McCain broke. He broke under torture, and he 'confessed' to 'war crimes' in writing and broadcast for the North Vietnamese. I can't and won't judge that. I've never been tortured. Now this is a man who is third generation military, he grew up with it, he lived in it all his life. And if he'd never been captured by the North Vietnamese, he'd have probably retired as an Admiral, like his father and grandfather before him. Instead, he suffered the 'kindness' and 'hospitality' of a country that damaged him physically and I believe mentally. He never expected to break like he did, and when he did he had to live with the knowledge that he'd given up information that perhaps in the long run meant little or nothing, but to him it was information he should not give according to the Geneva Convention. A playbook the Vietnamese DID NOT play by.
This had to have an affect on him emotionally. Such things have meaning to those in the military, and McCain was raised with the ideal of, duty, honor, country. Sidney Schanberg has documented what McCain has done since in office concerning the release of any information concerning POW/MIAs from the Viet Nam era. It's not a pretty story and in many ways I find it terribly dishonorable. McCain has along with past administrations effectively buried the information that yes, we DID leave men behind and yes we KNEW they were there. Hollywood and Rambo had it right. I believe he feels to this day, shame and guilt that he 'confessed' in the POW camp. I believe such feelings have influenced how he behaved when he got into office and was on a committee to investigate POW/MIA issues in the early 90s. I believe with that behavior he has in fact behaved dishonorably. I do not feel he behaved dishonorably while in captivity. What happened to our men in Viet Nam was beyond the scope of how they were trained to behave as POWs. I believe he feels dishonor because of it, and that dishonor has informed later behavior. I believe he's never come to terms with what happened in Hanoi and in a very real way he's still there. I believe the mental scarring, and physical effects haunt him to this very day, 35yrs after he's come home. And I believe he is NOT fit to be president because of it.
Link to Schanberg's article:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/schanberg
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Date: 2008-09-24 01:23 pm (UTC)