“There is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally,” McCain proclaimed, pointing to nothing in the way of substantial evidence. He went on to say that immigrants “set fires in order to divert law enforcement agents and agencies from them,” adding that part of the solution to the wildfire problem “is to get a secure border.”
[…] What’s more, a U.S. Forest Service official told CNN yesterday that while it appears that an “escaped campfire” initiated the widespread blaze, there’s nothing to suggest immigrants who entered the country illegally were involved.
McCain is 74. He just started another 6 year term in the Senate. There’s nothing in this for him politically — this is simply the plain old-fashioned bigotry and race-bating of a bitter old man.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
It doesn’t have to be true, just believable, and we all know the browns are entering to
feed their childrendestroy our country.Chris
Reminds me of a few years back, when a couple of British doctors turned out to be involved in a Salafist cell – and Fox News tried to push the story that universal health care causes terrorism.
Step up your game, Mac. I’ve seen your side do much better. And there wasn’t even a Tea Party Movement back then.
Well, that and he’s supporting the team. Doncha know. And of course his voters always love to hear that shit. And since he’s being branded in so many circles as “the RINO who lost us 2008,” he’s got an interest in entertaining his hard-right image.
shortstop
Well, that’s just silly. I don’t know how these people would have time to start fires when they’re so busy beheading folks, voting multiple times and obtaining healthcare for which they’re the only patients who never receive a bill.
Comrade Javamanphil
I will support raising the Social Security retirement age when the House and Senate adopt a mandatory retirement age.
cervantes
Also, it is really important for people to understand that the issue is not what sparked these fires. All of that fuel is going to burn sooner or later, no matter what. Dry lightning will do it. If a human happens to throw a lit cigarette butt or fail to extinguish a campfire, that will make it happen at a particular time, but it isn’t the “cause” of the fire.
Wildfire is a natural occurrence in Arizona and it has been for thousands of years. The reason these fires are so huge is because people kept putting out smaller fires until the fuel store grew to its current immense size and this is what you get. How a particular fire was ignited is totally beside the point.
cathyx
He’s just giving the people what they want.
Josie
Upon reading the article, I saw that he said the illegal immigrants set fires “to keep warm.” I am assuming that Arizona is about the same temperature as Texas or worse at this point, and I find this statement laughable.
Cacti
“Illegals caused the Arizona fires. Blacks caused the subprime crisis.”
Your 2012 GOP platform
patrick II
He’s prepping for his 2016 race. What — you thought he would stop at 80?
dpcap
@Josie, it gets cold in the desert at night.
Josie
@dpcap: Not that cold, and not this time of year. I’ve camped out there, and a fire was not necessary if you had a light jacket, especially if you were interested in staying hidden from law enforcement.
Linda Featheringill
Josie #11
Josie! You may have a more interesting past than I suspected. :-)
But you have a valid point about visibility of campfires. You can see them for a very long distance with the naked eye and probably a very, very long way with special equipment. A person trying to slip by the gendarmes just wouldn’t build a fire.
Linda Featheringill
What McCain is doing is scapegoating, a very serious and dangerous activity.
Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory
Cacti: Same as 2008, amirite?
schrodinger's cat
I iz in your Senate being a bigot.
draftmama
Someone please tell me why they insist on inviting that senile fatuous bigot on the teevee.
Maybe they figured out no one is watching anyway and have to put a butt in a seat.
Brian R.
I’m starting to believe that the old saw that you could caption every single New Yorker cartoon with the words “Christ, what an asshole” is now true for every single McCain statement too.
Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory
Most people who carry such age and hatred in their hearts, I always wonder where it came from.
At least with McCain, we know.
Oh wait, he was an asshole before he was a POW? Well, so much for that theory.
MattF
I suppose it’s a live issue in Arizona– and the Senator just wants to make sure everyone knows what side he’s on. So, thank you, John!
Roger Moore
FTFY.
Tom Levenson
More of this please. Let’s see if we can turn the Latino vote into a pillar of the emerging Democratic majority, can’t we?
Thanks John.
(PS — even with the help, you’re still a wretched, hollow shell of a man.)
Poopyman
Because he says “interesting” stuff. See mistermix @ top.
Just to add to Josie’s point, because I like real data I went to the NWS forecast page and clicked on a random point near the border. Overnight lows for this week are 62, 63, 64, 66, 65, and 64.
Anyway, McCain can’t help himself. He’s on autopilot, set for whatever keeps him on the media gravy train.
Hal
Once again the real McCain peers out from underneath his Maverick veil. Nothing too surprising here.
Poopyman
… Also, the forecast calls for “Areas of smoke after 11 AM.” Things are not going well fighting those fires down there. Everyone keep safe!
Dr B
Hey, being from Tucson, I can safely say I dislike McCain more than most. But…y’all (here, the media, etc) are conflating several fires into one. The eastern fire (the one that made the national news) was likely the one the Forest Service was speaking of about an “escaped campfire”. One of the myriad other fires was the Horseshoe fire in the Chiricahuas in the SE, that wasn’t an escaped campfire, which McCain was extrapolating into multiple fires.
Villago Delenda Est
The tragedy of McCain’s time is a POW is that he obviously learned absolutely nothing from it. Not a damned thing.
maya
Must be those brown chain smoking mothers driving down to the campgrounds in Cadillacs doing this.
negative 1
That’s right, white guys – vote GOP and none of it will be your fault!
SpotWeld
It’s like he’s trying to create his own Regan-esque mtythos.. and failing
Poopyman
@ VDE :
Not true. He learned how to use his Navy time and experiences as POW to give cover to his assholism in the guise of patriotism.
evinfuilt
@5 cervantes:
Keep your logic out of politics, you know it doesn’t belong there.
Wildfires and natural predators lead to beautiful areas, but humans of worked hard to stop both, and pay for it more and more every year. At least now it seems most forest services try and let small fires burn themselves out.
wasabi gasp
Laser-beam-eyed Martians pull the same exact shit. Never trust an alien, my friend.
cmorenc
The Wallow fire (the really huge one in far eastern Arizona now spilling over into New Mexico) originated a very long way north of the US-Mexico border, at roughly the same latitude as Phoenix in the Gila National Forest. The “illegals” would have had to cross over interstate 10 and hike past several other major roads to get to a location that isn’t along the way to anywhere in particular, in order to hang out at a location with relatively little of the sorts of employment (conventional or criminal) or social services in the area of the sort illegals allegedly come here for. It’s not like this location was e.g. in an area 20 or 30 miles above the border where illegals might be trying to use primitive backcountry trails to evade detection until they could melt into a more urban area.
Besides, there is the inconvenient fact that authorities have determined the likely cause was a negligently uncontained campfire, and are interviewing the potential perps (unlikely they’d have located the specific perps if they were illegals this long after the fire started, they’d have been long gone).
This is disgraceful bigoted rambling by a dishonest old coot to curry cred with the most racist portion of his electorate.
scav
Alternative title: The Lyin’ in Winter.
chopper
@Josie:
IMMIGANT! you’re one of them!
too bad mccain’s too busy yelling at a cloud or he would be so angry at you right now.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Go away! ‘Batin’!
catclub
Negative 1 @ 28
“Illegals caused the Arizona fires. Blacks caused the subprime crisis.”
I am trying to come up with the best statement to finish the trifecta.
Masturbation Causes Blindness
Real Estate always goes up.
Remember the Maine.
The Protocols are True. (and if you don’t know which Protocols, you haven’t been paying attention.)
Elvis is not dead.
shortstop
chopper, you crack me up.
Villago Delenda Est
Poopyman, I would contend that he learned those things that you mention before he became a POW, because by all accounts, his assholishness was in full flower before he crashed yet another plane, except this time in enemy territory.
Maude
Heard McCain on radio for a few seconds this morning. He sounds like his dentures are slipping.
AAA Bonds
I’m never sure why this matters.
How is the fact that some illegal immigrants commit crimes relevant to immigration laws?
Are we supposed to believe that the lawlessness of illegal residence leads to setting wildfires? Or drunk driving? Or murder or robbery or whatever?
Because that makes no sense. Driving without a license, yes. Identity theft, maybe. But setting fires? What the hell?
This all seems premised on the antiquated notion of a “criminal class”, with all the racist baggage that carries.
Ken
catclub @37, it would have to begin with a GOP scapegoat. The likeliest would be gays, Muslims, socialists, or atheists. Then you have to choose the problem, and from the examples I assume you get more points if it has nothing to do with the scapegoats. “Atheists caused Sharia Law,” perhaps.
Jim In Panama
I think most people know the Mexican race have always started fires. Its part of their religion and will take us a long time to change them. Its like trying to cure the gay people, first we have to be able to say that homosexed people can be fixed and made into normal people you would want for neighbors. John McCain is a true American hero who went through torture at the hands of the gooks and never told them about our top secret plans. It is brave of him to start the conversation about these Mexicans and the fires they start. A hero always takes the chances for the rest of us. I don’t whats worse, the fires they start or all those people they cut the heads off and left in the desert. It all comes back to education in the end. These Mexican types need to be round up and re-educated so as to fit in better up here. Teach them English and Christianity and that will solve most of these fire problems.
BeccaM
Time for someone to get going on the Wikipedia entry to add unsubstantiated notes that “some sources have contended that undocumented immigrants started those fires.”
Oh, right — he’s not Palin. He just inflicted her and her fawning minions on the rest of us.
MikeBoyScout
Turns out that the GOP’s decision to go with Miserable Failure, George W. Bush, in 2000 was the lesser of 2 evils.
McGramps would have been worse. Good News for John McCain!
bobbo
Patrick II:
This is exactly right. It’s classic denial of death. But also too he is a fucking bigot.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
Obama created the deficit.
negative 1
daveNYC
They hate us for our freedom.
catclub
I think DaveNYC wins the internets.
However, as the Al jazeera thread indicates, they actually hate us for our freedom to bomb them with drones and with apparent impunity.
chopper
i knew it was them. even when it wasn’t them, i knew it was them.
lovable liberal
McCain’s an attention slut. That’s what’s in it for him.
Keith
Wildfires are caused by people having to pay an estate tax and getting universal health care
quannlace
I start to hyperventilate just thinking of this guy in the White House.
shano
Did he learn nothing from Jan “headless bodies” Brewer?
She had to eat her words
d. john
@Josie,
have you ever been to a desert at night?
Clearly you haven’t, and you don’t know something most of us here picked up in 5th grade. Here comes the clue train: Deserts get cold at night..
Your statement was absolutely foolish and only served to highlight your ignorance about deserts. way to go
d. john
@Josie:
d. john
@Josie:
this is what a substantiated claim looks like:
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/narratives/ARIZONA.htm
You are full of shit, QED
HyperIon
#17 (Brian R.) wrote:
Except when he says that torture didn’t produce info for getting OBL. Which he did recently. So not every single statement.
Caz
Perhaps you should consider McCain’s substantial evidence before declaring that he’s a bigot and he’s wrong. Shouldn’t you evaluate both sides of an argument before reaching a conclusion? If so, then you need to evaluate McCain’s evidence before concluding that he’s wrong. I don’t know what his evidence is, but if he says there is substantial evidence, then he must be talking about something. Maybe it’s not very compelling facts – maybe it is. I don’t know. But neither do you. That’s why your opinion that he’s a bigot and he’s wrong is without merit.
Of course, I understand that your mission here is not to reach the truth, but rather to simply bash conservatives. So in that case, job well done! What are facts anyway, if not merely an impediment to your agenda. Facts schmacts!
Nancy Irving
The “AZ” after his name stands for Alzheimer’s.