The Drudge Report has posted a link on their site today to an 8 year old story about John McCain making references to his North Vietnamese captors as “gooks”:

FLASHBACK: MCCAIN: 'I HATE THE GOOKS'...

Obviously, the Drudge Report is trying fuel the (race) fire and suggest that John McCain is something he is not…a racist.

If anyone on the planet has the right to call those who tortured, beat and maimed him and the other soldiers that were in captivity any name in the book, it’s John McCain. It’s a pretty low blow considering what he and others had to endure during their captivity . He was/is very specific about who he was referring to…his captors and only his captors. He was one of the senate leaders of the postwar efforts to normalize U.S. relations with Vietnam.

Shame on the Drudge Report…

Fear – Drudging up (no pun intended) old stories to inject additional racial tensions in the current political arena.

Uncertainty – Trying to cloud the real issues by highlighting comments out of context.

Doubt – Attempting to sway people’s opinion of Senator McCain by insinuating that he is a racist.

John Edwards has left the building…

“Any answer I give could have the effect of articulating publicly — and to our adversaries — the limits and contours of generally worded laws that define the limits of a highly classified interrogation program.”Sounds like he may be channeling Alberto on this issue.

Fear – If we discuss this issue publicly, the enemy will know our tactics. Well, chances are pretty high that they already know about this tactic.

Uncertainty – Leaving the door open only fuels the fire. Go ahead and close the loop on this. The Geneva Convention has served us well for over 50 years, Article 17 in particular:

Article 17

Every prisoner of war, when questioned on the subject, is bound to give only his surname, first names and rank, date of birth, and army, regimental, personal or serial number, or failing this, equivalent information. If he wilfully infringes this rule, he may render himself liable to a restriction of the privileges accorded to his rank or status.

Each Party to a conflict is required to furnish the persons under its jurisdiction who are liable to become prisoners of war, with an identity card showing the owner’s surname, first names, rank, army, regimental, personal or serial number or equivalent information, and date of birth. The identity card may, furthermore, bear the signature or the fingerprints, or both, of the owner, and may bear, as well, any other information the Party to the conflict may wish to add concerning persons belonging to its armed forces. As far as possible the card shall measure 6.5 x 10 cm. and shall be issued in duplicate. The identity card shall be shown by the prisoner of war upon demand, but may in no case be taken away from him.

No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.

Prisoners of war who, owing to their physical or mental condition, are unable to state their identity, shall be handed over to the medical service. The identity of such prisoners shall be established by all possible means, subject to the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

The questioning of prisoners of war shall be carried out in a language which they understand.

Doubt – Do these methods actually produce any results? Some of those in the administration (non military) seem to think so. Those who have been subjected to it probably have the best opinion on its effectiveness. We should listen to them.

Here is a comparison of the 2003 State of the Union speech and the 2008 speech. Looks like there was a lot promised back in 2003, as well as some “promises”…Too much FUD here for me to enumerate one by one. Come to your own conclusions. I think the key words though are:

Terrorists
Iran
Uranium
Defend

Here is the 2008 Speech…

…Bill Clinton.

Divide and conquer. The oldest strategy in the book. Stirring up the pot by injecting race (and by extension, gender) in the campaign. Maybe he just likes playing the bad cop, or maybe he is just itching to get back in the White House, under any circumstances. In any event, it seems that the old play book is being dusted off…use any method necessary to gain the advantage.

Fear – Injecting the code words in his statements, “fairy tale, articulate”.

Uncertainty – That Senator Obama hasn’t always opposed the war in Iraq.

Doubt – Planting seeds that Senator Obama isn’t being truthful.

Stick with positions on the issues. That will further the debate and serve the country in a much more productive way.

Truth Out reports that:
“Amid the controversy brewing in the Senate over Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reform, the appears to have changed its strategy and is devising a bold new plan that would strip away FISA protections in favor of a system of wholesale government monitoring of every American’s Internet activities. Now the national director of intelligence is predicting a disastrous cyber-terrorist attack on the U.S. if this scheme isn’t instituted.”

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The administration has been after this one for quite a while. They have always had the ability to initiate surveillance on anyone they wanted, they just had to get a warrant. even after the fact if a particular agency deemed it critical to get the information and could not wait to get a warrant beforehand. The key to this is that the requests were documented.

This administration is clearly after one thing…undocumented surveillance. The ability to gather information without any oversite.

And the administration complains about Vladimir Putin.

Fear – One attack from a cyber terrorist will bring the country to its knees.

Uncertainty – Will this warrantless activity really prevent such an attack?

Doubt – If you don’t support this effort, will you be contributing to weaker national security?

Well, our prez, the “Deceiver in Chief” himself, propagated 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction and 28 about Iraqi links to Al Qaeda. according to the study by The Center for Public Integrity. Not that this will change anything now, but at least the lies and falsehoods have been documented (and searchable) for time eternity (that is unless of course the prez opts to make searching this particular database illegal in the interest of national security!) Colin Powell must also be proud of his falsehood accomplishments as well. That’s the saddest part for me. I always considered him a man of integrity.Here is the breakout:

27.8% of the total. That’s pretty close to his approval ratings! We can only hope that assembling the information in this manner might start the pendulum to swing the other way. Having such overt lies so unapologetically put forth by this administration is simply unconscionable. It’s one thing to try and sell your position on something, quite another to manufacture the facts to your own specs.

I don’t think history will be kind to this administration.

If you want to petition your two U.S. Senators and one Representative to impeach President Bush and Dick Cheney, you can do it here…

I can hear Cheney grumbling now, “F%$k ‘em all. I ran this country for 8 years from the back seat, and all they can complain about is making up a couple of stories! Just wait until I am back at Hailburton, you ain’t seen nothin yet.”

The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern.They have developed a database to track statements by administration officials about the war in Iraq.

False Pretenses
“Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.The massive database at the heart of this project juxtaposes what President Bush and these seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (chiefly major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches, and interviews. ”

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See the New York Times article about this site here.

Way to go! Our 1st FUDBuster post!

Yep, Mr. Action Hero himself saying that John McCain is too old to be president.C’mon Chuck. 72 is the new 62! And you are 67 for Pete’s sake! If he were to die in office at least we wouldn’t have to worry about Dick Cheney becoming President!

Fear – The “oldest” in the book. He is too old.

Uncertainty – Would he die in office?

Doubt – Does he have the wherewithal to perform at the level the job demands.

…Rudy Giuliani, that is. Yep, America’s mayor.

The New York Times has an interesting article regarding Rudy’s payback for crossing him during his time as the mayor of the Big Apple:

“In August 1997, James Schillaci, a rough-hewn chauffeur from the Bronx, dialed Mayor Giuliani’s radio program on WABC-AM to complain about a red-light sting run by the police near the Bronx Zoo. When the call yielded no results, Mr. Schillaci turned to The Daily News, which then ran a photo of the red light and this front page headline: “GOTCHA!”

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Man, FUD just doesn’t get any better than this. Classic smear campaign against ANYONE who is perceived as disloyal or critical. Can we tolerate a president who takes any and all criticism so personally?

Fear – By using intimidation tactics against ordinary citizens to “bring them in line”. We’ve seen that before, haven’t we.

Uncertainty – Leveling false charges (publicly) in an attempt to destroy the opponent’s credibility.

Doubt – If Rudy goes after a cabbie…what about me?