John McCain Flip-Flopping Mad, Hillary Needs a Miracle, Electronic Bush, Recruit a Felon, Young Voters, Bernie Sanders and Bill O'Reilly Dickhead.

What can you do with John McCain? First, you have to admire what he went through in Nam. Second, you have to admire some of his stands against his party on some tough issues.

However, now John McCain, once branded as a maverick, seems to have found a home up the back side of the extreme right wing.

He's been caught in too many changes of position and just making statements that are flat out wrong.

– McCain has said waterboarding “should
never be condoned in the U.S.” but voted
against a bill banning the CIA from using torture, specifically including
waterboarding.

– McCain says he is “a
consistent supporter of educational benefits” for the military but has
indicated he will not support the bipartisan 21st Century GI Bill.

– On at least three occasions, McCain baselessly
claimed Iran is training Al Qaeda in Iraq but argued the error was an isolated
slip of the tongue.

– McCain falsely suggested that Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a “sect
of Shi’ites.”

– McCain falsely claimed Moktada al-Sadr “declared the
cease-fire” after recent fighting in Basra and has said he is both a “major
player” in Iraq and that his influence “has been on
the wane for a long time.”

– Economists and nonpartisan analysts have said recently that the
numbers in McCain’s economic plan simply “don’t add
up.”

– McCain has made the elimination of earmarks a cornerstone of his
presidential campaign but he can’t name any he
would eliminate.

– In a matter of one day, McCain said Americans are both “better off”
and “not better off” than they were before
President Bush took office.

Of course, the media not paying much attention to John McCain right now. The Barack & Hillery show is much more exciting than watching poor John McCain clarify his opposing positions on the same issue.

But as the Sunday's WaPo's lead story shows that John McCain is pretty exciting himself.

In 1994, McCain tried to stop a primary challenge to the state's Republican
governor, J. Fife Symington III, by telephoning his opponent, Barbara Barrett,
the well-heeled spouse of a telecommunications executive, and warning of
unspecified "consequences" should she reject his advice to drop out of the race.
Barrett stayed in. At that year's state Republican convention, McCain confronted
Sandra Dowling, the Maricopa County school superintendent and, according to
witnesses, angrily accused her of helping to persuade Barrett to enter the
race.

"You better get [Barrett] out or I'll destroy you," a witness claims
that McCain shouted at her. Dowling responded that if McCain couldn't respect
her right to support whomever she chose, that he "should get the hell out of the
Senate." McCain shouted an obscenity at her, and Dowling howled one back.

Just what we need, another Republican president with little imagination and a lot of ego and temper.

It's kinda odd that the media spends so much time pretending that there is actually a race going on between Barack and Hillary. Of course, that spin will keep ratings higher than admitting that Hillary needs one of Pat Robertson's miracles to win the nomination.

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- To overtake Barack Obama in the
nationwide popular vote, Hillary Clinton needs a
bigger win in tomorrow's Pennsylvania primary than she has had in any major
contest so far. And that's just for starters.

After more than 40 Democratic primaries and caucuses, Obama, the
Illinois senator, leads Clinton by more than 800,000 votes. Even if the New York
senator wins by more than 20 percentage points tomorrow -- a landslide few
experts expect -- she would still have a hard time catching him.

Clinton needs ``blowout numbers,'' says Peter Fenn, a
Democratic consultant who isn't affiliated with either campaign. ``The wheels
would have to come off the Obama bus, and the engine would have to blow.''

Today will tell us a lot.

But what about November? Can we expect the same screwed up ballot counting that we've grown accustomed to in the last few elections? Thanks to the White House, probably.

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) said the bill he sponsored, House
Bill 5036, the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act, would help
make the nation's elections more accurate and secure by helping states move to
paper ballots over touch-screen electronic machines.

On Tuesday, the bill, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass, went down
to defeat in the House 239-178, with 223 Democrats in favor and 176 Republican
opposed, after the White House sent out a statement opposing the measure. The statement said the
administration "strongly opposes" the bill because it would "create a new
program that is largely redundant with existing law, and therefore unnecessary,
to reimburse States for the costs of making last-minute changes to their voting
systems by Election Day 2008."

I don't think McCain has a chance in November, even with the help of the crap electronic voting machines. I predict a blow out.

It looks like this country is finally doing something to help convicted felons make it in society after they've served their time. Put them in the Army. You know, the military needs a complete overhaul. But this ain't the answer.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Army and Marine Corps are allowing convicted felons
to serve in increasing numbers, newly released Department of Defense statistics
show.

Recruits were allowed to enlist after having been convicted of crimes
including assault, burglary, drug possession and making terrorist threats.

Since we have privately owned prisons now, it don't seem that far-fetched that they could just start selling their inmates to the military. If the Republicans stay in power, Blackwater's going to be the real military anyway and the inmates can do the dirty work for them. Cheap.

There's good news, though. The next generation is paying attention and they're voting.

Young people see themselves having as much of an impact on the outcome of
the presidential campaign as any other age group. Thirty six percent said they
thought their age group would have as much influence on the election as older
voters while 31 percent said they would have more influence. Thirty one percent
said they thought their age group would have less. And 75 percent said this
election will be the most important or one of the most important in their
lifetimes.

Eighty four percent of those under 30 said they are paying some or a lot of
attention to the campaign and 77 percent described it as interesting, compared
to 21 percent who said it was dull.

Maybe they can do a better job of controlling their politicians than my generation did. And I sure hope that they won't be as susceptible to the crap put out by the Right Wing Propaganda Machine.

Here's a Buzzflash interview with Senator Bernie Sanders. I like the hell out of Bernie. Read the interview and you will too. The man knows what he's talking about.

Senator Sanders: The answer is absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. Clearly
one of the serious problems we have in our nation is not just in George Bush
being the worst president in the modern history of the United States, but it is
a corporate media which consistently deflects attention from the reality of
American life. The middle class has been in decline for decades now, and it's
manifested in a transformation of the economy from a General Motors economy of
good wages, strong union, good benefits, to a Wal-Mart economy of low wages, no
benefits, and vehemently anti-union. That's the transformation of the American
economy. The corporate media has virtually ignored that.

Year after year since Bush has been President, they have told us
how "robust" the economy has been. That is totally absurd. There is no question
that the corporate media were stenographers for Bush's getting us into the war
in Iraq. The media have propped up Bush and not acknowledged that this is
perhaps the worst President in American history.

Clearly if we are going to move this country in a new direction, we
need to take on the corporate media. We need a very strong growth in the
progressive media, which is why the work of BuzzFlash and other progressive
websites is so enormously important -- enormously important, and I'm not just
saying it to flatter you. That's also why I'm on the Thom Hartmann show -
because it's desperately important that we get out a vision of American which
reflects the reality of ordinary people.

Why aren't all politicians like that?

Here's a story about what it's like to appear on Bill O'Reilly's show and not kiss his dumb ass.

Apparently O'Reilly does not like being called "the pot." He exploded,
repeatedly called me an "S.O.B." and assured me that he would cut my accusation
from the interview when the show aired. He also said I would "never ever" be on
his show again. At this point, I wasn't sure whether to take that as a threat or
a promise.

And finally, the latest joke from my e-mail.

Free Tickets

I have 4 extra tickets for the Robbie Knievel event at the State Fair Grounds next weekend if anybody wants them. He's going to attempt to jump 500 Democrats with a bull dozer.

There are people who find that funny as hell, you know. And no doubt, there are people trying to really get tickets for it.

Have a good Tuesday.

Later.