As the grumpy old man from Arizonia continues his ongoing campaign of incoherent rants, endless policy flip-flops, public tantrums over imagined slights and sputtering rage at just about everything and anyone–many in the media are wondering what happened to the “Maverick” they thought they knew and loved back in 1999.
The cognitive dissonance that John McCain is creating in Washington among the political and media class is palpable. It is a raw thing. The distress and confusion is moving into the open as more and more folks try to sort out what McCain is doing and why–and to reconcile that with the John McCain myths they created back in the 1990s.
Call this new field McCainology. The first reports of this field of study surfaced in TNR back in 2004 as they explored “How McCain sold out” his virtues, principles and convictions by his full-throttled embrace of George W. Bush. In trying to explain the gap between McCain’s actions and the McCain myth a new field of study was born and those who study the contradictions of the man were identified as “McCainologists”.
Since then the field has grown as more and more try to reconcile the bitter angry old man driven by irrational grudges, deep hatred and endless rage over losing his run for the White House to a black man with the John McCain of the 2000 Presidential Campaign who would suck up to anybody and everybody who took the time to visit him on the mythical Straight Talk Express bus.
The dissonance that crazy bitter John McCain has created is spilling over and in the wake of today’s DADT vote, it seems that the angry, hypocritical, vindictive John McCain is becoming the dominant McCain narrative. Good. It is about time.
It was Dana Milbank who left the Straight Talk Express McCain myth behind today as he focused on what a total dick John McCain really is:
If John McCain gets any more hostile toward his Senate colleagues, they might consider having him go through the metal detector before he enters the Capitol. [snip]
McCain’s statement on the floor was roughly one part argument, four parts tantrum. [snip]
On Saturday, McCain’s rage was all the more striking because the general tone of the debate was tame. [snip]
The loss of Republican votes, no doubt, made McCain even angrier.
And Milbank didn’t even talk about McCain calling efforts to support the first responders of 9-11, “fooling abound” and a waste of his time–but others did.
It is good to see that more and more folks recognize John McCain for the small-minded weasel that he is and it is fun to see that members of McCain’s former base (the DC press) are starting to resolve their dissonance by embracing the cold fact that John McCain is simply a prick who acts of out of peevishness and not out of integrity.
No doubt that McCain still has many lovers in the DC press who still have stars in their eyes as they recall romantic moments with St. John in the back of the bus a decade ago. And because of those starbursts one can be sure that John McCain will still be a regular on the Sunday shows. But as the new angry McCain narrative grows those starbusts will fade. And yet, McCain will still be booked on those shows. But more and more he will be booked as a freak who can easily be poked and tormented and goaded into saying something crazy and irrational out of anger. He will be the go to ‘angry old man’ who yells at clouds as a predictable punchline.
And each batshit crazy rant will create more opportunities for McCainologists to comment on the McCain freak show. This will be a growing line of work in DC as more and more of McCain’s former DC press corps lovers will be compelled to try to talk about “what happen to John McCain” as a new way to fill air time, blog posts and column inches.
John McCain is joke and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.
Cheers
dengre
ps: TNC has a spot on take down of McCain’s rantings which he aptly describes as being “in full-throttled white populist mode”. Go and read it and while you’re there be sure to read this one as well. TNC is on my daily must read list and I think he is doing some of the best work being done on the internets.
General Stuck
He’s a fucking nut
Tattoosydney
I need a cigarette after that.
NobodySpecial
Temporary insanity in the Village, that’s all.
Tomorrow they’ll be reporting it as how much he loves the military, and that made him so upset.
Maude
Keating Five.
That is how McCain could be judged back then and nothing has changed in the meantime.
He hated Obama before the DADT vote, he hates him even more now.
Hal
Is it at all possible McCain has some type of brain lesions as a result of his Skin Cancer? Maybe he’s slowly suffering from brain metastases.
Or he’s just an asshole.
shortstop
…which will prompt another round of McCain meltdowns, which will inspire another round of stories, which will prompt another round of McCain meltdowns…
Mmmmm, so delicious.
kay
@General Stuck:
He is. He sounded completely insane on the commercial radio snippets and sound bites I heard today. They sort of cut the rambling down in ways that seemed to make it more incoherent and fragmented.
They really didn’t do him any favors playing it over and over, every hour.
Chyron HR
Unlikely. John McCain is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being they’ve ever known in their lives.
Shadow's Mom
One of the more enjoyable moments I had today was watching McCain stuttering and befuddled response to Harry Reid. Reid was asking that the 30 hour rule be waived, McCain began ranting that the amount of time being allowed for debate wasn’t enough. Reid turned to him and politely stated, “I agree with you. How much time do you want?” McCain just stood there, foundering, unable to respond appropriately when his bluster was met with courtesy and respect.
Shortly thereafter, the motion to waive the rule passed and so did the repeal of DADT.
Johannes
Ah, the schadenfreude of seeing DADT repealed is sweetened by McCain’s continued slide into irrelevance–even Lieberman, his erstwhile Wormtongue, has deserted him, now….along with his daughter and wife.
As you say, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
General Stuck
@kay:
Did you hear his execrable and thoroughly unhinged rant the other day on liberals in general? And he almost switched to being a dem after 2000.
John - A Motley Moose
Like most people, I only knew the broad outline of McCain’s story in 2000. The more I learned about him the less respect I had for him. That respect is long gone. He doesn’t even qualify as a hero with feet of clay. He is what he’s always been, a total assh0le.
El Cid
I really don’t understand how this could have happened. This just isn’t the same John McCain that my family sat around on Christmas Eve talking about as we prepared to place the Maverick Star atop the tree. It was one of my cherished childhood memories, but, all things must come to an end.
S. cerevisiae
He’s turned into Abe Simpson.
Mark S.
Don’t forget the tire swing.
As I mentioned in the last thread, McCain also spent today trying to fuck up the START treaty in the stupidest way possible. He’s not up for re-election in six years, but he’s acting like he’s trying to appeal to Palin’s base. Sorry, Johnny, President Palin isn’t going to put you on her ticket.
Evolved Deep Southerner
He’d be just another peri-senile Republican political hack among many had he not unleashed Sarah Palin on the world. That I cannot forgive.
Dennis SGMM
A sure sign that McCain has completely lost it:
On CNN’s State of the Union this morning (Added:Nov. 28, 2010), host Candy Crowley asked Senator John McCain what he thought of Sarah Palin’s recent firestorm of media attention — her new book, new reality show, and all the other publicity she has been receiving recently. When Crowley asked if McCain felt Palin might be divisive, he responded: “A guy named Ronald Reagan used to be viewed as divisive.”
“She’s doing a great job. I think she’s motivated our base,” McCain added. “She had a positive impact on the last election, and I’m proud of her.”
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Chyron HR: FTW
Comrade Luke
And as he fades away he will be replaced with another “straight talking” Republican.
Linda Featheringill
@Hal:
I had wondered about something physical because he doesn’t always seem to be completely in control.
You can be a jerk and still be sick.
Calouste
Democratic Senators have to start worrying when McCain shows up with a walking stick in the Senate.
mr. whipple
OMG, this is funny.
shortstop
@Hal: Everything McCain has ever done can be categorized as “What He Thought Would Benefit Him at That Particular Moment” (I say “what he thought would benefit him” rather than “what would benefit him” because as we have seen, his judgment on this point is atrociously off).
It really is all about him all the time; there is no principle, no standard, no issue of integrity on which he has ever stood firm. Ever. When you look at it that way, the policy flipflops, the incoherent rages and the petty obstructionism all make sense. The reason people think he’s changed is that he’s no longer getting most of what he wants and the fawning press coverage he had for 25 years is, except for the Sunday shows, shutting down.
He’s always been an asshole. I really doubt there’s dementia or other brain disease going on–what we’re seeing is the rages of a control freak who isn’t listened to and consulted and coddled anymore, and who on some level realizes that what history will remember him for is losing to Barack Obama, making Sarah Palin into a national figure and hanging tight on anti-gay bigotry. Which just makes him rage harder.
Dennis G.
@Chyron HR:
They will turn on him like a jilted lover, but it will be as a spectacle–not as an inquiry into the truth or into any facts. McCain’s madness will be played for ratings and some of his biggest former fans will be leading the charge.
A crazy old man yelling at things has alway been a freak show and now McCain has the starring role. It is hard to think of any issue where he has any creditability. He is all about his anger and that is all he is good for–but that does make for good teevee.
Cheers
gizmo
The only thing McCain has going for him is his years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. His entire political life has been enabled by his status as a former POW. Without that, he’s just another old white guy married to a beer heiress with too many houses.
Jay in Oregon
I prefer to think of it as “Intelligent Mavericky-ness”.
Svensker
@mr. whipple:
What? What?
John McCain has always been about John McCain. And he was always a good little fascist. His “moderate” appeal was just that he had no principals, but he always loved him the top-down gummint.
shortstop
@General Stuck: I missed this. Do you have a link?
Dennis G.
@S. cerevisiae:
That sort of slanders Abe Simpson. McCain is more like the old man on Courage the Cowardly Dog.
Cheers
El Cid
@S. cerevisiae:
mr. whipple
@Svensker:
Oops!
This: http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/manic_progressive_vs._obama_supporter/
Tim
I’ve long despised McCain, but after watching his latest round of angry, semi-coherent anti-gay rants, I really think this is more about early onset Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in the preliminary stages. He’s not in full control of himself.
Seems the most likely explanation for the over the top crankiness and apparent personality changes too.
Anyone else agree?
Dennis G.
@Calouste:
Word. Especially if he is with some younger, stronger nut-job from the House.
The Dangerman
I’m not huge into conspiracy theories (though Oswald wasn’t the lone shooter), but I’d love to know the truth about what happened on the USS Forrestal. Not saying McCain did anything wrong (see conspiracy comment above), but … something stinks.
mclaren
@General Stuck:
Pot, meet kettle.
As usual, nothing but name-calling from this commenter. You could replace this commenter with a bot spewing non-stop insults and no one would be able to tell the difference.
kay
@General Stuck:
Yeah, sure he did. He was so durn mad at that Karl Rove, he…did nothing.
I feel vindicated on John McCain. I always disliked him. I don’t know what other people saw, but I didn’t and don’t get the attraction.
Picking Palin should tell anyone all they need to know.
MattR
I think Milbank summed McCain up pretty well with this
shortstop
@mclaren:
Yeah, General Stuck, stop calling John Sidney McCain names at once. Have you no decency, sir?
MikeJ
I understand that during the vote he was wearing an onion on his belt, as was the style at the time.
Back then the ferry cost a nickle. Nickles had pictures of bees on them. “Give me five bees for a quarter” you’d say.
Chyron HR
@mclaren:
Mmmm, that’s good unintentional insight.
me
McCain was always a calculating asshole without principles but he’s probably gotten so senile over the last 10 years that he’s lost the ability to disguise it.
El Cid
@MikeJ: Audio.
MikeJ
@El Cid: Goddamn you’re fast.
Anya
@S. cerevisiae: More like Cotton Hill.
General Stuck
@shortstop:
It was on the senate floor, a couple of days ago. I don’t have a clue where, or if a link to it would be.
Linda Featheringill
@Tim:
I agree. It looks to me to be something physical.
General Stuck
@mclaren:
teehee. coming from you
suzanne
McCain and Kyl have been my Senators since I was in grade school. I have a hard time deciding who I hate more.
In other news, the induction is scheduled for Tuesday morning, my mother-in-law comes tomorrow, and I rescued a kitten from my mother’s roof on Wednesday night who will be my new kitteh as soon as the vet gives the A-OK. Life is never fucking dull.
bago
He’s nuts. Walnuts.
Ross Hershberger
Maybe not senile. but he’s got hardening of the brain. Unable to let go of a fixed idea. All he needed to do was realize that all of the hoops he set up on DADT had been neatly jumped through and say “Okay. I still don’t like it but go ahead” But no. It didn’t fit his decades old ideas of the military and he just couldn’t let it happen. Couldn’t BELIEVE that it could happen.
shortstop
@General Stuck: I’ll have a gander eventually.
@Linda Featheringill:
His behavior is not really consonant with dementia of any sort. He is most definitely emotionally ill, and possibly physical or chemical issues are exacerbating this.
gogol's wife
@mr. whipple:
Very funny. It should be front-paged here. (That will be quite a thread.)
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@mclaren: What was the point of this? Don’t we have some Latin term for your response to Stuck? Stick to the statement.
MikeJ
@suzanne: Last lunar eclipse for four years on Tuesday too. We demand you name your girlchild Luna. Or your twin boychildren Romulus and Remus. We also demand video of humans emerging from your hoo-hah.
This is only our starting position for negotiations though. We’ll settle for happy and healthy, and would like bonus of pics soon after.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Every time I see that picture of him I visualize the caption that should be under it:
“If I ever got my hands on Lady Liberty, first I’d bend her over, then lift her robe, grab her by the hips and drive it home!”
I think Walnuts lost it because he tried to be the moderate for 2000 and lost since the Republicans, and the voters, decided that they wanted the Frat Boy for president just because he would be a great guy to have a beer with! Stupid won out over moderate in 2000 so for 2008 Ol’ Walnuts decided to kick it up a notch and wingnut his way to a win in the primary. After that he picked a running mate who was a relatively unknown crazy woman, who was never vetted properly, in an unsuccessful attempt to pander his way into office. America decided that after eight years of ‘Fun and Adventures with President Frat Boy’, they decided that the calm, smart, responsible, reasonable sounding guy was probably a better pick. That the guy who won was black was the icing on the shit cake he thinks he was handed.
No wonder he has that nasty look on his face.
Dennis SGMM
Considering that McCain has spent his entire political career sucking Ronald Reagan’s dick his vehement homophobia is certainly at odds with his past.
suzanne
@MikeJ:
That’s the dog’s name.
Um, fuck to the no.
JGabriel
Dennis G. @ Top:
shortstop:
I don’t know why you doubt it. McCain was showing minor signs of forgetfulness and incipient … Alzheimer’s?, dementia?, senility? … as far back as the 2008 campaign. Nothing obvious, but recognizable and worrisome to anyone who had seen their own relatives display the same symptoms.
So, yeah, McCain’s been a vindictive, self-serving, jackass for years, but that doesn’t mean he’s not developing some type of age or illness related dementia too.
.
Ross Hershberger
I always wondered what they call what the stork carries infants in. Mystery solved.
MikeJ
@suzanne: So Romulus and Remus are still under consideration?
Dennis G.
@mclaren:
Watch McCain talk about the START treaty yesterday and tell me he is not, in fact, “a fucking nut”. It was in his comments of yesterday that he once again attacked the first responders of 9-11 for wanting help with their massive medical bills. Sometimes a short bit of slang is very accurate as it was when General Stuck used the phrase.
But I can see how the phrase might give you the vapors as you are so well known for your civility, decorum and unwillingness to name call and pick fights over trivial matters.
Your courage to type things on the internets is just inspiring and one hopes that Kevin Costner will play you in the movie of your life and struggles. In the spirit of the Holidays, good luck with all of that.
Tattoosydney
@suzanne:
Best wishes for a boring delivery.
Anya
@shortstop: More bizarre than this: John McCain’s Bizarre Closing Rant On “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
Reality-based
My favorite bit of McCain lore is the fact that he was an astonishingly piss-poor pilot – cracked up 3 planes before getting shot down. If Daddy hadn’t been an admiral, the would have washed out of flight school.
The LA times, in a fit of actual journalism before the election, published this great story about ol “Maverick.” and flying.
John McCain was training in his AD-6 Skyraider on an overcast Texas morning in 1960 when he slammed into Corpus Christi Bay and sheared the skin off his plane’s wings.
McCain recounted the accident decades later in his autobiography. “The engine quit while I was practicing landings,” he wrote. But an investigation board at the Naval Aviation Safety Center found no evidence of engine failure.
The 23-year-old junior lieutenant wasn’t paying attention and erred in using “a power setting too low to maintain level flight in a turn,” investigators concluded.
The crash was one of three early in McCain’s aviation career in which his flying skills and judgment were faulted or questioned by Navy officials.
….Though standards were looser and crashes more frequent in the 1960s, McCain’s record stands out.
“Three mishaps are unusual,” said Michael L. Barr, a former Air Force pilot with 137 combat missions in Vietnam and an internationally known aviation safety expert who teaches in USC’s Aviation Safety and Security Program. “After the third accident, you would say: Is there a trend here in terms of his flying skills and his judgment?”
Jeremiah Pearson, a Navy officer who flew 400 missions over Vietnam without a mishap and later became the head of human spaceflight at NASA, said: “That’s a lot. You don’t want any. Maybe he was just unlucky.”
Naval aviation experts say the three accidents before McCain’s deployment to Vietnam probably triggered a review to determine whether he should be allowed to continue flying. The results of the review would have been confidential.
Pilot McCain
also, Joe Klein unloaded on him today:
His public fall has been spectacular, a consequence of politics–he “needed” to be reelected–and personal pique. He’s a bitter man now, who can barely tolerate the fact that he lost to Barack Obama. But he lost for an obvious reason: his campaign proved him to be puerile and feckless, a politician who panicked when the heat was on during the financial collapse, a trigger-happy gambler who chose an incompetent for his vice president. He has made quite a show ever since of demonstrating his petulance and lack of grace.
just a myth, all along, Joe – like Santy Claus
Alison
I fucking hate McCain and can’t stand to even see his half-corpse face on TV. Plus, his insane crankiness is catching. Before the DADT vote MSNBC had video of him ranting about START and I ended up yelling at my TV saying PLEASE STOP SHOWING THIS ASSHOLE GET HIM OFF MY SCREEN BLARRRG.
I don’t really believe he was ever principled or whatever. As others have noted, I think it was *always* calculated bullshit, he was just really good at it. Now he’s old and almost dead and losing his mind and so he can’t hide the vile nasty hatred and arrogance anymore. Well good. Better to know who someone really is.
shortstop
@JGabriel: But I have spent a lot of time with relatives with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, and I didn’t see this in McCain’s behavior during the 2008 campaign. I saw him proffer a lot of criminally uninformed opinions and sometimes struggle for the words to defend them, but other than the minor noun retrieval issues that occasionally affect pretty much everyone over 40, I haven’t seen signs of anything too serious in that department. Perhaps I just haven’t seen him on those days.
Anyway, I’ll amend my comments to this: I think that if dementia plays any role in McCain’s behavior, it’s a relatively small one. I think the guy suffers from serious control issues and he becomes deeply enraged when challenged–either by Democrats or Republicans. And I think the fact that his rages and sputterings are worsening is mostly a function of his losing a lot of the kinds of battles he used to win.
hardtoport
I have to agree with Gimzo@24. Take away the *Political POW Cloak of Invincibility*, what remains?
Before POW-
Graduates last in his class at Annapolis
Crashes 5 jets
How did he accomplish the above and stay in the service? His dad was an admiral.
After POW-
Marries into money
Services Charles Keating, becoming a member of the Keating 5.
Loses 2 bids to be President
Any legislation he’s championed, he now refutes…why? because he is and always was an unprincipled opportunist. The only reason he got named “The Maverick” instead of “The Unprincipled Opportunist” is that POW cloak – and its worn pretty thin by now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The cognitive dissonance between telling himself he’s the infallible war-hero-turned-statesman that Tweety, Russert and Brokaw have told him he is for the last dozen years, and the nagging, growing realization that his only political legacy is Sarah Palin, may actually lead to a stroke
shortstop
@Ross Hershberger: I recently told my gyno that we should bring back the term “hoo hoo” (or its variant, hoo ha). She informed me that in the profession, that term has never actually gone away. I love her.
Dennis G.
@JGabriel:
He could be in early stages of dementia, but then again it would be hard to tell as he has always acted the way he is acting now, but in the past he had his myth of the “Maverick” to protect him.
Still, mental illness can not be ruled out completely as anger is an aspect of some early stages of dementia. This just helps to make the living National joke phase of McCain’s career that much more pathetic for everybody.
amk
the old unscrupulous punk, the vile tundra trollop and the racist teabaggers are really media creations. The fourth estate is truly the fifth columnists in us of a.
Ross Hershberger
Remember during the campaign when McCain suddenly called everything off so he could rush back to DC during the beginning of the financial meltdown and… well, he never explained what he did there. There was a lot of head scratching over that one.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/johnmccain/3075569/John-McCain-puts-presidential-campaign-on-hold-ahead-of-debate-with-Barack-Obama.html
El Cid
@MikeJ: I was looking for it since my post earlier. Fox must keep it off the YouTubes.
S. cerevisiae
@Anya: Oh yeah, Cotton Hill is perfect.
El Cid
@Ross Hershberger: Reporting from people who were there [or who talked with staffers or whatever the hell it was or wasn’t and I imagined it all] said that he did about nothing, and that Obama did a good bit of the talking, and the assembled politicians were like, WTF, and Obama supposedly badly pissed McCain off by actually asking McCain to say what he thought should be done.
Of course, McCain didn’t actually call everything off and he kept on campaigning during the whole Emergency I Don’t Know What I’m Doing hold.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kay:
I’ll admit, I fell for it. When other people were telling him how great he was, which was every time he was on TeeVee, he played the aw-shucks guy well, not taking himself too seriously and could actually be pretty funny for a pol. And I confused our shared hatred for George W Bush for something like principle, but:
Amen. The act of an impetuous, arrogant, ill-informed and deeply cynical man.
JGabriel
shortstop:
I remember footage from several different stops where he couldn’t remember his position on policy issues, or lost his thread halfway through a response and either moved on or stopped to recover and re-organize his thoughts.
Fair enough. I think it may be a growing problem for him, but obviously it isn’t bad enough to prevent him from forming sentences or structuring arguments yet. And I don’t have any evidence for it beyond the behavior itself.
.
anonymoose
Me thinks that McCain may need to retread the tire swing and schedule a bunch of BBQs for the reporters real quicklike before they all jump ship.
I’m starting to wonder when we will see the story breaking that deals with McCain’s decent into madness tied to a rift in his family. Tensions between his daughter and wife on the campaign trail when they saw what McCain was doing to try and secure the Presidency.
The story where the wife got tired of his tirades at home and had enough of being called a trollop and a c*nt, and other things worse. After speaking her mind and telling her husband she was OK with teh gays, DADT should be repealed, global warming was real, and illegal immigration was not a sign of the apocalypse, McCain decided then and there to do everything he could…not to piss off the liberals….but to piss off his wife.
I’m pretty sure the article will also delve into a the starbursts he had for Palin on the campaign trail.
…Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.
amk
@mclaren: Will go one step further to fulfill your wish.
You’re a fucking nut if you don’t think john mcccain is a fucking nut.
You’re welcome.
Ross Hershberger
The great Rolling Stone cover story on McCain from 10/2008 appears to have slipped down the ‘tubes. Bummer. It’s really good and I hope it resurfaces.
Apparently he’s always been somewhat of a loose cannon.
From memory, his major stated reason for going overseas was that the nookie is better.
Nice.
shortstop
@Ross Hershberger:
And by “better,” he meant “less likely to put up an argument.”
Tattoosydney
I love the Lieberman quote at the end of Milbank’s article:
Ouch.
Triassic Sands
@Alison:
The thought just occurred to me that when McCain dies the eulogies will very likely be among the most hyperbolic and phony in the history of death. With luck, he’ll just disappear and we’ll have to wait seven years (or whatever) before he’s declared dead, at which point everyone will have forgotten about the miserable old POS.
mr. whipple
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I switched registration in 2000 so I could vote in the GOP primary. I knew Bush would be a disaster, but thought McCain would have been better. Not so sure, now.
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: I expect a dirty Jew comment to come flying out of Grandpa’s mouth after seeing that. Walnuts is not known for his powers of forgiveness.
Aren’t you glad your Senate can’t fuck things up like this?
shortstop
@El Cid: If reports are to be believed–and IIRC several people gave pretty much identical recaps–that gathering was a perfect example of how deep and irrational McCain’s anger can be. He’s the one who insisted that Bush call the damn meeting, then he refused to say anything at it and got furious (and sarcastic) at Obama for actually having an informed opinion. What an ass.
Dennis SGMM
@Reality-based:
I spent my first two years in the Navy assigned to a training squadron in South Texas. This was at the end of the Sixties and at the height of the Vietnam War when the Navy was desperate for aviators. Young pilots were washed out for making three hard landings (Ones in which the aircraft was subject to enough G’s to require an Airframes inspection). That’s a hell of a lot less than losing an aircraft through poor judgment or lousy flying skills. I’d say that McCain got a pass because daddy was an admiral. That someone who had no business flying may have been kept in the cockpit anyway suggests that both poor judgment and a sense of entitlement may be hereditary.
Mike Kay (Team America)
New York Daily News is calling him “McWeasel” in print
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/12/18/2010-12-18_mcweasels_at_it_again_rips_zadroga_bill_push_as_fooling_around.html
NobodySpecial
@Tattoosydney: The Stopped Clock versus the One The Hands Fell Off, right there.
JGabriel
Dennis G.:
Exactly, and it looks like McCain is publicly lashing out more now than previously. That’s not definitive though, so maybe you’re right: he’s just the asshole he’s always been. But I think there’s a developing dementia there. No doubt we’ll know for sure in a few years.
.
suzanne
@MikeJ:
Well, it’s a girl. And only one. So, no. But I did try to talk my husband into naming her Minerva. He gave it the oh-HELL-no, unfortunately. I love it.
@Tattoosydney: Thank you. “Undramatic” is the adjective I’m aiming for, myself.
In regards to McCain’s possible senility, I really, REALLY hope that isn’t it. Partially because, while I can be a lowercase-a asshole at times, that level of suffering isn’t anything I want to wish on anybody. I want to really passionately enjoy hating him, too, and I can’t do that if there’s some pity mingling with my distaste. Also, I’d like to think that, on some level, those who cause such suffering for other people eventually get hit by the karma stick, and that will be meaningless if he, like, can’t remember it.
Sharl
The Phoenix alternative paper Phoenix New Times has had McCain’s number for years. Their collection of McCain stories is here.
handy
The less I have to hear this twerp say “Friends” when he’s doing his suck-up-to-voters schtick, the better. Maybe the media will finally realize what a fraud this guy was all along and they’ll stop pointing cameras and microphones at him.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
You made a funny.
ETA: Now they just need to pass the 9/11 health bill and START and I’ll be quite a happy boy. Stewart’s segment with the four first responders was heartbreaking. I hope Senator Grumpypants has a conniption over those too.
freelancer
@suzanne:
We named the dog “Indiana”.
You’re gonna have a lot of fond memories of this
dogkid.Malron
@mr. whipple: I almost cosigned an animated clip made with the same characters, then I played and realized it was the original clip that inspired the response at RumpRoast.
I think “Obama took my penis” is the next meme/catch phrase.
Carl Nyberg
During the 2000 presidential campaign McCain called for aggressively destabilizing rogue regimes.
Bush was calling for a humble foreign policy.
McCain’s ideas on foreign policy were batshit crazy even when he was a “principled” compromiser.
The guy has had impulse control issues going back to his early time in the Navy.
Having an erratic dickhead in the Senate is no big deal. In theory having 100 Senators should cause their individual idiosyncrasies to come out in the wash.
But he would have been a disaster as POTUS.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JGabriel: as with his fellow Beltway Naked Emperor, Broder, I think age is relevant only in that they’ve both gotten more arrogant, more convinced of their own myths, as they’ve gotten older. Where Broder reacts to criticism with dismissive condescension, McCain is enraged by any suggestion that he’s less than what he sees in the mirror.
I remember back when McCain was hinting about switching parties, there was a story that didn’t get much play, an anonymous GOP operative (Rove? one of Poppy’s people?) said something to the effect of, ‘you can have him, he’s an arrogant dumbass who’s more trouble than he’s worth’
jaywillie
I’m definitely of the school that McCain has always been a shifty, shameless, self-promoting, resentful, bitter little fucker. I think the Maverick image was just some clever political rebranding in the wake of the Keating Five scandal to rehabilitate his career and cast him as the successor to Goldwater’s late career as a politician (when he was openly dismissive of people like Jerry Falwell, etc.)
He is whatever he thinks he needs to be: Bush beats him in 2000, in turns on W out of bitterness/resentment; turns around a few years later and embraces W when he needs his support. He gets schooled in the ’08 campaign, but occasionally said reasonable things like, “No, ma’am, Barack Obama isn’t a Muslim.” Loses to Pres. Obama and spends the next two years seething and raging, obviously incapable of containing how much he hates the President for beating him in an election. Once said he’d support repeal of DADT if military leaders backed it; reneges on that once he commits to going full-Teabagger to secure his re-election; supported the Dream Act one point or at least the ideas behind, reneges on that; openly violates his own campaign finance laws during 2010 midterms, doesn’t give a shit; etc etc.
I don’t think there has been a modern presidential loser more graceless in defeat than McCain. Hell, even Bob Dole, once called the Darth Vader of the Senate, got over losing to Clinton (who remembers his 96 hours to Victory bus tour during which he whined incessantly, “Where’s the outrage?”) and started pimping Viagra.
jwb
@Tattoosydney: Liebermann isn’t stupid, so to have said this means either that McCain was doing this all for show or that Liebermann believes that McCain no longer has any power.
NobodySpecial
@Tattoosydney: I’m assuming they pass neither one. I’m assuming nothing gets passed beyond boilerplate the next two years, actually. The GOP is in full snit-fit power now.
Tattoosydney
I try not to indulge in nutpicking, but the reaction on DADT on Gaypatriot is just too awful to miss. (reached from the Sadlies).
McCain would be proud.
Tattoosydney
@jwb:
I’ll take both for a dollar.
BobS
@mr. whipple: I voted for McCain in the open Michigan primary in 2000, the only time I’ve voted for a Republican in nearly 40 years of elections. My only reason was to say “fuck you” to Governor John Engler, who’d guaranteed Michigan for Bush.
jwb
@mr. whipple: McCain, had he been elected, would not have selected Darth Cheney as VP, and so would have been unlikely to have strayed so far to the Dark Side as did W. On the other hand, McCain likely would have made a number of other mavericky decisions that would be proving severe headaches now.
Scamp Dog
@hardtoport:
He’s an enemy ace!
Shadow's Mom
@suzanne: So, will you settle for healthy and with all of the appropriate bits in the appropriate places?
Best of luck on the induction and delivery.
Regards,
Shadow’s Mom (formerly KDP)
Jamie
He’s one thing making Obama look pretty good right now. Could you imagine him as POTUS right now?
NobodySpecial
@BobS: I voted him in the primary in Illinois as well, because I knew Bush would be an absolute disaster. I also wrote him in on my general election ballot because I knew there was no chance in hell the state wasn’t going to Gore, but I was fucking disgusted with Gore running away from the previous eight years because Clinton was only slightly more moral than Jimmy Swaggert.
Jamie
@Scamp Dog:
I thought it was only 4.
Yutsano
@Jamie: The Forrestal crash was his fourth, his fifth was the one he went down over North Viet Nam in. If I’m remembering this right.
Dee Loralei
@suzanne: The Solstice and a Lunar Eclipse first time that’s happened in almost 500 years. Wow, you may be birthing a future President or first Queen of the One World! Congrats!
Because it’s so rare, the eclipse/solstice concurrance thing, no one knows if it actually agurs anything. ( I read an article today linked from HuffPo, yes I was that bored, to a Toronto paper, Canadian, nevertheless.) That said not even the Wiccans knew if it meant good or bad, LOL.)
You know, you could weave an entirely magical, fairytale, fanciful tale for your daughter about her birth. You’d just have to make sure her big sister didn’t feel slighted during the telling. Think of Jesus’s older brother, Won’t someone!
Or after the effects of global warming and there are but a few straggling home sapian sapians left, they may cling to her birth story and found a new religion based on it.
So before you tell her the story of her birth and the concurance of the Solstice and the Lunar Eclipse, you better damned well make sure it will hold up to scrutiny for 2,000+ years!
Best of luck to you. Keep John or someone informed. We demand pics! Last baby we birthed here was SamKitten and we need another.
And best of luck with the new kitten, too. Have you thought about letting your older daughter name it, and tell her it’s her kitten? Make her feel loved and special and neccessary, ya know.
If not, might I suggest the name Moses for a boycat, from the great James Herriot story, Moses the Kitten?
LOL, I’m tipsy and rambling.
JohnO, I’m sorry about your cat, you’ll do your best when the time comes, dude. And we’ll be here for you afterwards.
DennisG, great article. Remember Milbank fell out of love with McCain a few months ago and was one of the few Villagers to question his (Dana’s) respect and loyalty? This sounds like Dana once again riccoched into reality with McCain. These swerves into reality will come with more frequency now. They always do, when one finally accepts even one smidgen of doubt. Which is why right-wingers and religionists always, always, ALWAYS lance the boil as quick as it appears.They cut of an arm if they get a small splinter in one finger. It must be contained and stopped! It’s why they never question, or doubt. Not in their own minds, and never in public. Once the truth finds a small rivulet, it becomes a stream and then a coursing river overwashing them and everything they beleive and hold dear.
Honestly, I think McCain has always been a petty, small selfish man. His military career proves that. (5downed planes, the USS Forrester.) But he also had dreams of greatness, that he got from his father and grandfather. (Mostly he wanted to better them, but still he felt some of the same urges they did.) And that explains why he stayed as a POW when he could easily have gone free.
Most of his political life is either Oedipal or self-serving BS and ass-covering. And for 10 years mostly bitterness. But in the last three years, I’ve felt like something more was at work, like the anger, bitterness, alcohol abuse had finally reached critical mass and he no longer truly has control of whichever brain activity controls his public behaviors. I don’t think he’s a fully functioning sentient human anymore. I think something inside him has more control over some parts of his personality than he does. Everyone plays to their base to win a nomination and most move centerward to get the election . For the last three years we’ve seen McCain move right, move further right, move more right, ( nominate Sarah), move more right ( Ignore even things he used to champion, to beat to win the nom for Senate.) Move further right, even ignoring the human rights of Hispanics to win an election. And then move further right still, after the election, to trash the military and its leaders, in re. don’t ask don’t tell. And he’s doing it all without any logic or coherent thought. Surely he doesn’t think he’ll be running again in 2006, he’ll be 86 or so?!?
I think something broke in his brain.
Shit sorry, tl/dr: I feel is comming.
Jamie
McCain flying history fact checked.
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_mccain_crash_five_planes_did_he.html
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
Ah, Johnnie McCain.
Well speaking as a flight instructor, I don’t fault him for bending some airplanes. Flying is something that some people cannot be taught to do properly. That’s not his fault.
What I do fault him for is being a pathological liar and con artist.
He has always been a nasty, mean asshole …. but he used to cover it up better. Now the energy it requires to cover it up is too much for him, and the facade is falling away.
He is also a crook. His relationship with Charles Keating was rotten to the core, and he has lied about it since the day he got caught.
Elie
@jaywillie:
I think that you and many are right that what we are seeing about McCain is not a result of brain disease or old age — this guy has always been without character — an exploiter and manipulator caught at last, in the reality of the many contradictions that he has projected.
Please. People. We cannot/should not expect to lose our integrity and character to this degree just because we are old. It is not an old thing. Even with organic brain disease, people can become irritable, but you don’t change your basic character. He is the person he ALWAYS was. I bet his wife could tell you tales that would make your hair curl. Her wealth buffered her from the extremes of having to BE with this very difficult person, but his family has known this man becoming more and more evident to the nation for quite a while. We should shudder with fear at the thought of how close this guy got to the Presidency. I don’t think I need to mention the other catastrophe that he almost foisted on us with Palin.
Man, we are fucking lucky to be posting these comments in this context tonight. Lucky lucky lucky…
Zuzu's Petals
My brother knows McCain. He was a fundraiser for him in 2000 and served on his finance committee in 2008.
Even he admits the guy is on the nutty side and not all that smart.
suzanne
@Shadow’s Mom:
Yes. But I would appreciate the extra added benefit of having the epidural work this time.
@Dee Loralei:
Fo’ realz? That’s kind of awesome.
I’ve always wanted to start a fund for my kids. For Harvard and/or bail. If one of them ever got arrested for attempting to burn down, say, the 2024 RNC, I would feel most proud as a parent.
My older daughter helped name the dog, and will most likely be the one to name the kitten. We shall see. Bringing home a stray kitten the same week I bring home a newborn person wasn’t really the plan. But… fuck it.
JimPortlandOR
McCain’s first problem is the common problem of being senile. He can’t recall what he said yesterday or two hours ago. There is no there there, anymore.
This senility could be charming if it was NOT mixed in equal portions with seething hate for having been ‘passed over’ in 2008 by a guy with no military experience who is also BLACK.
McCain’s decline started when he was taken out of the command/promotion line and sent to Congress as a liason, before he first ran for the Senate. His dad had been an Admiral, and gosh darn, he (John) should have been one too because he ‘earned it’ by his background – which included the unfortunate habit of crashing planes on and around aircraft carriers.
He’s a bitter, foul-mouthed, bastard, and his colleages are sick of it in the Senate. Linday Graham seems to be his only friend, sniffing around John’s butt like the new Omega dog in the pack.
trollhattan
I would have preferred McCrazy over Bush in ’00, but I’d have also chosen having my eyeballs sanded over a Bush presidency. I’ll cite this TDS piece for hammering the last several nails in the box that contained my belief that McCain could adequately do…anything. As it was I didn’t recognize the coot running in ’08 but perhaps it was the “real” McCain unleashed at last. What a treat.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/fri-september-5-2008/john-mccain–reformed-maverick
After they aired this McCain, a frequent guest never appeared again. Wonder why?
Yutsano
@suzanne: I did some digging around on the Internet trying to find a euphonious foreign word for moon. Didn’t find any that sparked my interest, so probably wouldn’t spark yours either. You could always threaten to name her Guinevere just for the priceless reaction.
Malron
The “McCain is gone senile” is the new cover-your-ass meme for people who insist on adhering to the mythology that John Sidney McWalnuts was once an honorable and principled man.
Just sayin.’
Elie
@Yutsano:
Isn’t the name Diana for the Greek godess of the moon?
Or how about just “Luna”?
What a cool comment from Dei Lorelei… maybe auspicious?
In any case, enjoy your new one and have a smooth and happy delivery and magic holiday with her..
Elie
@Yutsano:
Sorry! Didnt mean to wish you a good delivery, but Susanne…
Chris G
@S. cerevisiae: Maybe (as my wife just said) he’ll tie an onion to his belt, and get five bees for a nickel.
SRW1
Before anybody asks, yes there is a German expression that perfectly describes John McCain. It is ‘Bruchpilot’, i.e. a pilot with flying abilities so marginal that a crash (Bruch) is a regular feature among his achievements.
suzanne
@Yutsano: I actually like Guinevere, but it would sound mega-stupid with my wop-tastic last name.
@Elie: Unfortunately, we named the dog Luna.
There’s been more than a few times I kicked myself for having cats named Nico and Scout. I would have loved to use either of those two names for the kidlet, but whaddya gonna do.
Thanks for the best wishes for the delivery. I am also hoping to avoid crapping on the table this time.
suzanne
@SRW1: There’s a German expression to describe pretty much anything that’s shitty.
That’s why, despite the food sucking ass, Germany is kind of awesome.
jeffreyw
So,yes it is true that we named you after the first thing we saw out of the window when you were born. Why do you ask, Two Dogs Fucking?
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
Have you been holding out on us, hon?
alwhite
I am wondering if there is some form of dementia occurring also. As a kid I had a neighbor that had been on Corregidor and Battan, he said his doctors told him his physiology was pretty good – for a guy 20 years older than he was. THe deprivations he suffered could have a lot of effect.
But I also think he is sick at heart, whatever he may have believed about himself as a public servant has been wrecked. He lost to the filth that is Karl Rove when he tried to be himself & again when he tried to be more like turdblossom’s marionette. He sold his soul & now it is too late.
I never bought the McCain shtick but its hard not to feel sorry for him at some level. Like Nixon, barracked in the White House, alone, forsaken by his friends, hated by just about everyone and no longer able to pretend otherwise. Deserved but still sad.
Yutsano
@suzanne: Hmmm…potential solution for thekids both having birthdays near Christmas: Feast of the Seven Fishes. Yeah I know it’s supposed to be Christmas Eve, but nothing says it can’t be stretched out a day or two. Of course the real difficulty is getting good seafood in Phoenix. I bet it’s possible but not cheap.
@Tattoosydney:
That was my exact same reaction when my friend the gay cowboy in Wyoming had a son. The old fashioned way.
Dee Loralei
@suzanne: Yea, seriously, for realz. Winter Solstice and a Lunar Eclipse, first time in 497 or so years. I say it must be an auspicious day and event. Though the Wiccans in the story I read, didn’t know what it meant,and no one asked them about birthing on such a day.
As I said, you could embue her with such a story that you told to her at bedtime to make her feel so special in this world.
Think of it…..
.. On the day you were born, the mother earth turned once again towards the sun…….
….but the Moon who had heard Earth’s cries for light and warmth got between Mother Earth and Father Sun ….
And whilst they were sorting out their differences, a child was born. A child, not unlike every other child who had ever been born in all of history…
And the Moon unblocked father Sun, and mother Earth turned her northern face to greet him each day and the days grew longer….
The moon waxed and waned, the earth spun and rotated on her axis, the sun corona-ed and basically they ignored each other. As was their wont.
I repeat that; As was their wont.
And yet still, the young girl-baby, who was born during their strength and attention, continued to grow. She knew as she sickled the breast and bottle discovered her thumbs and toes, that she was destined, of all creation to get Father Sun, Mother Earth and Sister Luna to agree.
On what they were to agree, no one could agreee.
But everyone for all creation, knew that the three of them had to eventually agree…….
See, writing the story of her birth is easy, with such signs……….
SRW1
@suzanne:
You know, you deal with the things life gives you to gnaw on. I hear eskimos have 18 expressions for snow.
NobodySpecial
@suzanne: BTW, Greek name for the moon was Selene, which is a nice girl’s name.
Best of luck with the delivery.
suzanne
@SRW1:
If that’s what they’re gnawing on in Germany, then I’d say their reputation is well-deserved. Ewwwwww.
“DUDE! What the fuck is wrong with German people?!”
xian
“My fellow prisoners”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mBi7d6e5KI
Yutsano
@suzanne: I will say this: best Italian food I ever had was in Germany. Granted I was with a guy who I was somewhat trying to seduce (said he was str8 but seemed to like attention from me too much) so that might have colored my perceptions, but eating good food in a trattoria next to the Rhine river is pretty damn fabulous.
suzanne
@Yutsano: I had some excellent Spanish food in Munich. It’s just, yanno, their native cuisine that sucks teh ballz.
Were you successful in your seduction attempt?
Yutsano
@suzanne: Nope. We stayed good friends until he graduated however. Kind of the dumb semi-jock type. Fit my pattern well.
Neo
Now there is one less reason to avoid the draft
… and one less way to get out of military service, once enlisted
Once we get women into combat, white straight males will finally have equality
freelancer
@suzanne:
Couldn’t it be that they’re just a tad too infatuated with scheisse?
freelancer
@Yutsano:
Wow, if that doesn’t describe a male nurse at my hospital named Paul. Super nice to everybody, but apropo of nothing, he remembered that I was in a random restaurant (with my best friend, who is male) LAST FEBRUARY, and he happened to be there at the same time. That he brought it up 11 months later, it was a bit odd. Like, WHOA! I didn’t realize that Paul a) was gay b) had been carrying a small torch for me. Kind of sad, he’s a really nice guy, very kind, just barking up the wrong tree and has the wrong idea of me. The ladies in my department laugh, but I feel kinda bad. I don’t like rejecting, hurting or being dismissive of good people.
SRW1
@suzanne:
As you may have guessed I’m a German native, though I haven’t lived in that country for 20 years now. When Ieft, I was somewhat tired of what I thought of as provincialism, but after having spent 20 years abroad in three different countries, I think it is kind of what it seems to be everywhere (including the US). As for the Irrungen of the 20th century, I can’t explain that.
Concerning German food, I don’t think it is among the more refined cuisines in the world, but I also suspect that part of its poor reputation is due to that fact that a lot of what you get for German food in other countries is crap. The liquid stuff tend to be wines of the sweet sugary variety and the beer piss-thin bavarian imitations. The solid stuff often suffers from the fact that it’s being offered more for pseudo-folkloric reasons than anything to do with taste.
And I would content that as far as breads and sausages go, German variety and quality is top notch. You just have to get access to the real and fresh stuff.
asiangrrlMN
I had a modicum of respect for McCain back in 2000. I lost it pretty quickly, and by the time the 2008 elections rolled around, I couldn’t stand listening to him talk. He’s an arrogant, entitled, embittered, nasty old man who has always gotten what he’s wanted. He assumed the presidency was his, and now that he knows it’s not, he’s going to be as hateful as possible on his way out. I think his anger makes him loss control of his thinking faculties (I can relate), and it’s more that rather than dementia. I’m not saying he couldn’t have dementia–I just agree with shortstop that it’s probably not the defining feature.
@suzanne: YAY! Kitteh and bebe all in the same week (or so). Want pics of both. Named bebe Selene or Selena (also moon-related). Or, Suki (Tsuki in Japanese).
ETA: Damn you, NobodySpecial, for beating me to it!
@Tattoosydney: All I can tell you is that it’s not mine.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
Small subtlety I want to mention here, not that it would necessarily change the coolness of the name: suki in Japanese means like, as in I like something. It is in fact the name of my SIL’s cat.
@freelancer: Is Paul the kind of guy the ladies all consider their sassy gay friend or do they moon over him?
SectarianSofa
@Dennis G.:
Trying to type on my phone isn’t working out for me at present, so I’ll just say this — delightful post, dengre.
SectarianSofa
@Dennis G.:
Trying to type on my phone isn’t working out for me at present, so I’ll just say this — delightful post, dengre.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Huh. Did not know. Still. It’s a pretty name. Though, might be a tad disconcerting for a non-Japanese child.
First guy I had a massive crush on in college was gay. We were bestest friends, and everyone would tell us what a perfect couple we made. My response: Too bad I’m the wrong gender. I wonder whatever happened to him? His name is too common for me to find him by Googling him (and I’ve tried).
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Facebook? One-eighth of the planet is supposed to be on that thing by now. So even if you don’t find him you might find someone who knows of him and where he is.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: So sayeth the man who refuses to join. I will try, but he transfered out after one year. He was a troubled guy, and our friendship did not end well.
ETA: Too hard. Too many on FB. Sigh.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Hm. I found one that looks a lot like him–but it was twenty years ago, so I can’t be sure. How weird would that be (for me to drop him a message)?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Worst answer you could get is, “Who the hell are you?” then you know you’re wrong and move on.
NobodySpecial
@asiangrrlMN: Ok, now I’ve been properly damned. Will you tell the others in the top thread how to do it?
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: This is true. And, mebbe he’s NOT gay, in which case…bonus for me! (He’s cute like the one I knew).
@NobodySpecial: Heh. You just take it better coming from me ‘coz I’m so delightfully charming and disarming.
freelancer
@Yutsano:
He’s not sassy, so much. He’s just a thin, redheaded altruist that no one says anything bad about, and is just kind of goofy and aloof. Think a younger, redheaded Paul Bettany with the personality of a younger Lloyd Dobler, but containing NO interest in Ione Skye.
I’d consider becoming friends with him, if I didn’t think that would be a mis-step in that I’d be leading him along, so to speak. I hate to think so highly of myself, at least physically (seriously, I’ve gone downhill the last 2-3 years in the looks dept), but I still think it’d be unfair to even hint at anything more than being platonic friends.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Ya know, you really shouldn’t flip your hair when you say things like that. It could be mistaken as sardonic, not to mention with your hair length it could be considered a deadly weapon.
@freelancer: Then don’t. Set the boundaries from the outset and don’t be afraid to discuss any misunderstandings along the way. Your lack of availability shouldn’t ruin the chance to be friends with the guy. Lord knows I have enough straight male friends.
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
Don’t denigrate the man for shirking facebook. I’m someone who got rid of his account. If it’s newsworthy, and needs to be read, and its exclusively on FB, then it isn’t that important. If it, for realsies, is important, I’ll catch it on the larger web. I don’t need to hear about bullshit kept behind a gossipy firewall.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Bwahahahahaha! Assault with a deadly weapon. You are too right. Still, I would hazard a guess than many a person would be happy to die such a delightful death.
@freelancer: I only use it to make bon mots and witty comments that make me the life of the party. Much like I use BJ, Twitter, and whatever other electronic medium I control. And, for as much as I screamed against getting an account (for fear I would use it too much, which I do), I have to admit that it’s a good way to get a message to all my friends at the same time.
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Luddite. Facebook serves its purpose for those that utilize it. Personally, I think its too much of a timesuck and a vehicle for passive aggressive resentment, petty judgment, and virtual stalking. Maybe that’s a poor reflection on me and where I’m at psychologically but there you go.
@Yutsano:
You can never have enough straight male friends! White ones too! In Sarah Palin’s America, we’re the ones that’ll keep you from being put up against the wall.
asiangrrlMN
@freelancer: Yeah, I hear ya. It is a timesuck for sure. That’s why I take periodical breaks from it. And, I agree with Yutsy. I have friends of all different types. Just be honest and be clear about your boundaries, and you should be fine.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: I r occasionally smart.
And I r tired. So I will talk to y’all on the morrow.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: U r always smart. I iz tahred, too. Night, all.
Origuy
@suzanne:
As Elie mentioned, Diana was a moon goddess. If you want to go unusual, the Etruscan moon goddess was Zirna. I wouldn’t go with the Hindu goddess, though. Candi sounds like a stripper name, or someone who dots her i’s with hearts.
http://www.goddess-guide.com/moon-goddess.html
Rathskeller
@trollhattan: the link changed at TDS. it is now this. Hysterical, I had missed that. I think he was avoiding TDS before then, though…
matoko_chan
McCain has Alzheimers onset.
Reagan was full blown Alzheimers the last two years of his presidency.
/shrug
bob h
I was among those taken in by McCain years ago, and have Elizabeth Drew’s admiring “Citizen McCain” in my bookcase. Even the astute Drew was taken in.
Resident Firebagger
You’re right. I gotta start reading TNC…
cermet
I am lost – this is the exact same McInsane who was around in 2000 – the media created a myth because they were having him lick their ass’s. The loon sold out his faithful wife for money and power even before 2000. Why are people only now releasing what a dirt-bag he always was, remains, and will always be.
gypsy howell
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Out of curiosity, why would your brother want someone like that to be President?
Dennis G.
@DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective:
Yes, McCain is corrupt. And let’s not forget the way he 86ed the Jack Abramoff investigation to protect Grover Norquist in exchange for Grover’s support for his 2008 Presidential bid.
And then there was the scams he ran against Native Americans in AZ or the shady land deals. Then there was the legislation and statements to help his cronies land lucrative contracts from former Soviet Union connected states and territories. Compared to John McCain, Charlie Rangel is a Saint.
Cheers
Chris
On the general subject of John McCain (hope no one’s posted this yet);
http://www.fuckjohnmccain.com/
Like I’ve said before… my disgust that I even considered voting for this guy is outweighed only by my relief that I ended up not.
Zuzu's Petals
@gypsy howell:
To be fair, I think it is a more recent conclusion on his part. For instance, I think he was more starry-eyed in 2000. Maybe he just got to know him better over time.
He is also a diehard, toe-the- line Republican.
Finally, there is probably the personal identification. He is also a former fighter pilot, with two tours in VN (and coincidentally was born in the Panama Canal Zone just a few years after McCain).
cckids
Ha! Ain’t it the truth. I think those days may be coming, especially with the blurring of lines as to where “combat” is & so on. I remember when my daughter was around 10 & first realized that female soldiers can’t be in combat. She was outraged. Lots of kids in their generation think it is a stupid rule. As my son says, “But she’s so much meaner than I am.”
Laura
I think the problem is clinical…dementia, to be precise. Afterall, there are 545 members of Congress, x % are over 60, x % are over 70, etc. Extrapolating from the general population, a certain % MUST have dementia or Alzheimers…it’s just statistics. And, even though they all have wonderful medical coverage, great coverage doesn’t save you from the ravages of time.
His time has come…he just didn’t have the commonsense left to leave on a roll! Poor Cindy McCain.
Bill
@Hal: Yes.
JR in WV
Isn’t John McCain the ass who publicly called his wealthy second wife, Cindy, a “cunt”? This would be the woman he left his first wife for, and the woman who pays for all his toys, houses, campaigns, and all, right?
That right there tells me there’s something bad wrong with his mind. To say something like that in private would be bad enough, to say it in front of people, I can’t believe she didn’t dump him like a sack of vomit.
He also picked an incompetent woman he didn’t know anything about to run for VP with him, strange and self-destructive.
I think he’s senile, and is losing the restraint that enabled him to pretend to be a gentleman. He was allowed to pretend to be successful in the USN because his Dad was an Admiral who was respected, and so was his Granddad. He was, well, not so much.
He is basically evil and despicable and runs on hate; in the past he was able to conceal this, but as he ages he had reached the point where he doesn’t care to work that hard any more. That’s what’s wrong with him. No surprise, move along.
Agent420
McGoo is not a hero, he is a traitor. Just look up “Songbird” and look into his voting record. He was a failure and sold out to the NV. In addition he has voted against every bill to deliver on our promise to our defenders.