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Hernando Today

Flip-Flopping, Faking And Baldfaced Lies

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By FRANCES EARL

Call to Patriots

Published: July 2, 2008

So, what exactly did General Wesley Clark say that is being attacked by the right? Apparently, he said what I did two columns ago, on June 19, that although Sen. John McCain's service to his country and his suffering of more than five years as a prisoner of war was more than admirable, none of this provided him with the "experience" needed to be president of the United States.

McCain, as a prisoner of war, was shot down and all decision-making was removed. Gen. Clark was severely wounded in battle, underwent surgeries in three different hospitals and returned to service. I, like Gen. Clark, maintain that being a "hero" is not a qualification in and of itself, for the presidency. What kind of judgment is McCain currently displaying is the question.

Let's see, Monday at a campaign stop, McCain bragged about the passage of the 21st Century GI Bill (not an "expansion" but entirely new bill), taking credit for it. Our mentally challenged president made a speech praising the passage of the bill he had promised to veto, claiming "close collaboration with the Administration" and clearly included McCain as instrumental in its passage.

This bill vastly improves the benefits our current troops should have had but have been denied and McCain, in full agreement with George Bush, has claimed the bill was "too expensive," would mean less of our servicemen and women would renew their enlistments and, therefore, McCain was fully against passage and was absent for the vote. The reason Bush did not veto it was because the Democrats included it in the Supplemental Appropriations Bill, which continued funding for the "war" in Iraq. Those who did show up to vote in favor of the bill included 50 in the Senate and 302 in the House, crossing party lines. No credit is due McCain.

Although McCain co-wrote the McCain/Feingold bill (public financing for campaigns) he later was against it. McCain accuses Sen. Barack Obama of "flip flopping" on public financing, but the truth is that McCain, early on, signed on for this due to lack of donations he was receiving. Once he had signed on, he applied for millions of dollars in loans, solely based on what he would be receiving through public financing, then turned around, with the loan money safely in his pockets, and said he had changed his mind.

This was not only a "flip flop" but could constitute fraudulent activity. Obama, since his donations come almost totally from you and me and everyday people, is actually doing public financing in its purest form, and the Republicans are just ticked off that they find themselves running against a guy with guts and judgment and their lack of ability to force him to follow destructive practices that they themselves ignore.

McCain and Gov. Charlie Crist are now for drilling off our coasts. One of the lies they tell is that the Chinese are already drilling out there so we should too, despite the fact that both of them were previously dead against this. In truth, the Chinese are doing only exploration and no such work has begun.

Secondly, McCain points to Katrina and says that with all the damage done by this storm, the offshore rigs withstood the storm intact. That is a big lie as 113 oil platforms were completely destroyed by Katrina producing 124 oil spills off the East Louisiana coast. Does Florida think we'll never have another hurricane here? And what about the 39 million acres of offshore leases the oil lords already have and have never even begun drilling? Media tells us Crist is "very popular" with Floridians. Ask yourself if this is true since he is a traitor to Florida's future and is putting his hope to run as vice president ahead of our beautiful state.

Of course, close on their heels comes U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, as always in lock step with the Bushies. This woman who touts herself as, above all, the protector of our vets, apparently did not know our wounded were coming to the states for treatment and being housed in rat and roach infested quarters, did not hear a whisper of the human experimentation on some of these wounded as they were given the drug Chantax, which they were told would help them stop smoking. What they were not told was that a bunch of them would commit suicide as a strong side effect.

If I know about this, why didn't Brown-Waite? She knows even less about the disastrous possibilities of drilling off our coasts and ignores the fact that the possibility of lowering our prices at the pump would take at least 10 years or more and would amount to pennies, not dollars. She agrees to anything and everything Bush tells her to agree to, period! Several solar power plants to produce clean energy have been denied beginning operations. More next week.

Frances Earl, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, is a former vice chairwoman of the Hernando County Democratic Central Committee. She can be contacted at fearl@tampaby.rr.com.

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