Author: Gerardo Orlando (Page 100 of 169)

Angry John McCain completes his conversion to the dark side

July 30, 2008 / Gerardo Orlando

John McCain’s campaign is so bad it’s starting to become embarassing. He’s completely embraced Rove-style politics, but he’s so incompetent that he gets caught telling outright lies as he’s tries to destroy Obama’s reputation.

The Washington Post details how McCain’s charge that Obama wanted to bring the press along on his scheduled hospital visit in Germany is completely false. This is so lame, and it comes from a man who pledged to run an “honorable” campaign.

I always had respect for McCain, but it’s amazing how low he will go to win. That respect is gone.

He’s probably trying to bait Obama to meet him for a fight in the gutter, but I suspect Obama will not respond in kind. Obama has plenty of ammunition with McCain’s policy positions, particularly recent ones where he has embraced George Bush’s policies. He can also focus on how McCain contradicts himself almost on a daily basis. He can leave the cheap shots to supporters who will be more than happy to point out where John McCain’s actions in life don’t live up to the “honorable” standard he claims to set for himself.

Conservatives, President 2008

dirty campaign dishonorable doubletalk express John McCain John McCain liar

Waste in Iraq

July 28, 2008 / Gerardo Orlando

The AP reports on a $40 million prison compound built in Iraq with American taxpayer money that is basically useless.

In the flatlands north of Baghdad sits a prison with no prisoners. It holds something else: a chronicle of U.S. government waste, misguided planning and construction shortcuts costing $40 million and stretching back to the American overseers who replaced Saddam Hussein.
“It’s a bit of a monument in the desert right now because it’s not going to be used as a prison,” said Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, whose office plans to release a report Monday detailing the litany of problems at the vacant detention center in Khan Bani Saad.
The pages also add another narrative to the wider probes into the billions lost so far on scrubbed or substandard projects in Iraq and one of the main contractors accused of failing to deliver, the Parsons construction group of Pasadena, Calif.
“This is $40 million invested in a project with very little return,” Bowen told The Associated Press in Washington. “A couple of buildings are useful. Other than that, it’s a failure.”
In the pecking order of corruption in Iraq, the dead-end prison project at Khan Bani Saad is nowhere near the biggest or most tangled.
Bowen estimated up to 20 percent “waste” — or more than $4 billion — from the $21 billion spent so far in the U.S.-bankrolled Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund. It’s just one piece of a recovery effort that swelled beyond $112 billion in U.S., Iraqi and international contributions.

Conservatives get furious if some Americans game the system and take advantage of social programs. Where’s the outrage for wasting up to $4 billion on useless projects in Iraq?

Iraq War

government waste

Iraqi Prime Minister supports Obama’s withdrawal plan

July 19, 2008 / Gerardo Orlando

Interesting news from the Iraqis:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months.
In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible.
“U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.”
It is the first time he has backed the withdrawal timetable put forward by Obama, who is visiting Afghanistan and us set to go to Iraq as part of a tour of Europe and the Middle East.
Obama has called for a shift away from a “single-minded” focus on Iraq and wants to pull out troops within 16 months, instead adding U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan.
Asked if he supported Obama’s ideas more than those of John McCain, Republican presidential hopeful, Maliki said he did not want to recommend who people should vote for.
“Whoever is thinking about the shorter term is closer to reality. Artificially extending the stay of U.S. troops would cause problems.”

From a purely political point of view, this helps Obama by giving legitimacy to his plans. Bush and McCain have always said that we would leave if the Iraqis asked them to stay.

It also isn’t a surprise. Malaki has been hinting at this for years, and he’s repeated it often in the last month. The Bush administration tried to negotiate long-term bases, but it’s becoming clearer that the Iraqis have different ideas.

As for what’s best for Iraq, nobody knows. Malaki is certainly trying to consolidate power, and by calling for a withdrawel be blunts some of the criticism coming from Sadr.

It’s certainly a positive development from the American point of view. We cannot maintain our presence there. It’s killing our economy, and it’s hurting the efforts in Afghanistan.

Iraq War, President 2008

Barack Obama Maliki troops

McCain team worried about Bayh

July 16, 2008 / Gerardo Orlando

The McCain team has sent out info reminding the press that Evan Bayh was an honorary co-chair of the neocon pro-war Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. He co-chaired the group along with John McCain and Joe Lieberman.

Bayh’s Iraq vote was always going to be a negative, but this takes things a step further. The important thing is that he subsequently removed himself from the group and he now says he would not have supported the Iraq War knowing what he knows now.

I don’t think this kills his chances. He brings so much to the table from an experience and electoral point of view. Also, they can emphasize that many supporters of the war have acknowledged they made a mistake, while McCain still thinks it was the right thing to do.

It’s interesting that the McCain team put out this information now. They must be terrified by the prospect of an Obama/Bayh ticket. If Bayh helps Obama win Indiana, it’s hard to see how McCain has a chance.

Democrats, President 2008

Barack Obama Evan Bayh Vive President