Political Punch

Maybe McCain will cut ties with the 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 lobbyists working for his campaign. I doubt it, though. What democrat in their right mind would support McBush?

Beware of Republicans pretending to be Hillary supporters who say they aren't going to vote for Obama.

They call it Operation Chaos.

Beware of the paid Obama internet supporters trying to sweet-talk Hillary supporters into voting for Obama.

We aren't going to fall for that crap. Our opinion of Obama isn't going to change--and we won't forget the way many Obama supporters treated Hillary or us.

It's Hillary or McCain and we mean it.

John McCain, A strong American...He will get my vote!

Di,

I am with you. Talk about audacity!

Hillary has said she will go on until everyone has voted...and Obama say's he's having a party on 20th to celebrate being a Dem' nominee, say's who?! How arrogant can he get! He has no respect for Hillary, or the party! His comment regarding celebrating negates the fact that States are still to vote, plus DNC decide on the 31st about FL & MI, but is he concerned, NO WAY!!! He thinks he's UNTOUCHABLE and his smugness makes me so very angry!
What he forgets is that the States he won will revert to Republican in the GE! He's also ignoring the fact that super delegates can change their minds, right up to the point that they vote. He thinks Edwards endorsement of him helps get the white working class vote, and it will take much more than that!
I believe Hillary can do it! Especially when you have the McCain campaign gunning for him and the Rezko trial will show his links with all the corruption he's linked to. Hillary has all the swing States and only she can win the GE to be the first Woman President!

Welcome to the DOUBLE SPEAK EXPRESS.
McCain = McWar = Old man Jenkins.

Shame on the GOP for nominating a senile man. With Mitt Romney the republican might have taken the White House, instead they nominated a Cyborg and all he does is speak from the hole between his butt cheeks. MY FRIENDS, MY FRIENDS, what an as_.

elfriede,

You are ageist. among other things.

John McCain is a very old, pretty senile, incredibly idle, openly sexist and amazingly primitive warmonger.

He'd make a great Republican President.

javalation,

Whether or not you agree with Justice Scalia is beside the point. You do not follow what he is presuming you understand. His only mistake is that he assumed the audience would have a vague understanding of constitutional law and legal precedent. He was using legal words with legal meanings; you were listening to common words with common meanings.

FYI:

All Scalia was saying is that according to Supreme Court precedent, the 8th Amendment only applies once someone has been convicted. It doesn't even apply to pretrial detainees. Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 671–72, n.40 (1977) ("these cases demonstrate, the State does not acquire the power to punish with which the Eighth Amendment is concerned until after it has secured a formal adjudication of guilt in accordance with due process of law. Where the State seeks to impose punishment without such an adjudication, the pertinent constitutional guarantee is the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."). Two people in jail, one sentenced on a misdemeanor and one awaiting trial, are both waterboarded. Only the one sentenced can have an 8th Amendment claim (the other would have a due process claim).

IN sum, cruel and unusual treatment does not apply as a constitutional guarantee. Note also the complication that we are talking about detainees as "enemy combatants" so that further muddies the water. Are they "persons" in the constitutional sense in which they are entitled to the full panoply of constitutional rights afforded to each of us??

McCain has promises to appoint ultraconservative Supreme Court justices like Scalia who on 60 minutes recently said that the Constitution provides protection against torture as punishment, but not when the authorities want information. With McCain appointments, our right to privacy would be under assault and Roe could be overturned.

Countallthevotes,

Your point is well taken. Lobbyist can, and usually do, provide a necessary service. Fortunately, American voters tend to evaluate such associations, on some level, and generally make a reasonable choice. An argument could be made they were mistaken in 2000 and 2004, but considering the alternatives, I'm not so sure.

Call John McCain to fire Charlie Black!

McCain's chief adviser, lobbyist Charlie Black, worked for some of the world's worst dictators—mass murderers, terrorists, and tyrants - such as Marcos, Mobuto and Savimbi!

Call John McCain to fire Charlie Black!

Nothing about the new McCain conflict-of-interest policy victim this morning, Eric Burgeson, an energy lobbyist?

Nothing about the new MoveOn video about Charlie Black's various ties to murderous dictators? And the demand to have Black fired for that very (and very good) reason?

What a VERY incomplete report...

Are you a McCain backer, Mr. Klein?

anyone remember the Constitution?
McCain is against it. He is against your right to be charged with a crime, your right to see evidence and your right to cross examine witnesses, and oh by the way, he is ok with your being waterboarded, if they are in a hurry to find out what you know.
Ask him. He supports the anti-terrorist bill, which is the successful ploy to destroy democracy in America.

texasdemocrat,

I had always been opposed to lobbyists. For the past three years I have been a Board member of a professional, non-profit group. We were very much wooed by unions hoping we would affiliate. Their main pitch to us is that they have hundreds of paid lobbyists!!! That is primarily what they talked about. So funny to see Obama who is so opposed to lobbyists then turn around and seek and accept the support and endorsement of unions. Where does he think the lion's share of union dues go?

As it turned out we did not affiliate with any union. We found them to be heavy handed and did not want to loose our autonomy as professionals. The organization was just too new. Instead, we hired our own lobbyist. It has been the best investment we ever made. The lobbyist is our eyes and ears at the legislature and really knows what bills, if any, would impact our professional lives. He also, of course, has opened doors for us as to meetings and hearings we could not obtain on our own.

Upshot, you cannot paint all lobbyists with such a broad brush. Most are true professionals and have a developed expertise. As I said, we are a professional organization and we did try to go it alone. We found that we were spinning our wheels showing up at sessions that were totally unrelated to our interests and through our ineptitude probably causing more damage than anything else.

McCain supports waterboarding prisoners.
That is both un-American, and against the Geneva convention.

Lobbyist provide information and resources, and in some cases, personal enrichment to politically connected civil servants. The motives of the lobbyist, can be a useful tool in determining the character and quality of the civil servant. Media reports are crowded with the names of fallen politicians, identified by the indictment of a lobbyist.

Obama wishes his candidacy had the pro-American aura that McCain so naturally gleams.

The choice is obvious. The choice is McCain.

McCain - Change You Can Beleive in!! He is coopting Obama here.

Note, while Obama clains no acceptance of donations from lobbyists, that is just plain false. To be sure, Obama enjoys the endorsements and support of unions; the heart and soul of unions is their ability to lobby through their paid lobbyists. The union support for Obama has been substantial. While Obama says he accepts no "donations," he certainly accepts all the union workers who get out the vote and pound the pavement and knock on the doors. He also accepts substantial donations from all those "law firms" which in fact lobby.

McCain has beat Obama at his own game. Good for McCain.