A note from MeanMesa: There have been serious computer problems here at Galactic Headquarters for a couple of weeks. Thanks to IT Guy, Dave, everything is once again fill of vim and vigor and back on line -- including MeanMesa! All kinds of stuff has been happening which needs a little Short Current Essay treatment, so we'll be "catching up" together. Glad you're here!
Let's Start With A Little Name Calling
The alternative is apparently either desperate sobbing or suicide
"Right off the bat" in a post like this one there is the almost unavoidable temptation to "identify" these two stinky "patriotic" Senators as representing some sort of "official authority" as GOP "leaders" or "spokesmen." Staking out such a claim, while greatly simplifying MeanMesa's Complaint in this post, would be too far a departure from this little blog's formidable, world renown reputation for equanimity into the easily dispatched cess pool of wing nut name calling.
Given that caveat, let's just settle on a more comfortably genteel characterization of "the terrible two." Say,
The geriatric "war expert" and the fainting Southern Belle.
There, there now. Absent so much as a single "18 and over" descriptive term, MeanMesa has handled all the literary demands of the whole affair in an admirably civil manner.
The pair could hardly be "thrust upward" into some sort of "responsible position" in the Republican Party any way. Such a reckless appraisal would be oxymoronic. The oligarchs in command of the GOP don't like "leaders" -- perhaps because those cowardly billionaires have wet dreams of becoming "leaders" themselves or perhaps because the same bunch can't trust anyone in a position of power from which such a "leader" might turn on them.
MeanMesa has written on this topic before. Just look at the list. There was Reagan -- astrology loving geriatric dementia with "star appeal," there was the quivering Bush H., there was the Junior Bush with his evil familiar, McCain and his VP Palin,and we can't have already forgotten the "gaff riddled" Mittens and his VP -- what's his name. The oligarchs will bank roll any candidate they consider to be "adequately manipulable."
When we look at those on the oligarchs' payroll found even closer to swamp level, the field remains utterly devoid of any characters which could even generously be considered "leaders." These would be "hired hands" such as Hannity, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and a few stumbling tea bag Congressionals FOX foists before a microphone routinely.
Given these faces for a stage setting's back ground, sometimes even hired suits such as McCain and Graham appear somewhat stable. They aren't. They fit into this careening clown car quite comfortably.
We haven't really even arrived at the "treason" part, yet.
Sacrificing Democracy in the Defense of Racism
It's always important to stick to your ideals -- even if they stink.
Let's take a quick look at what these two were broadcasting to the entire world.
Daily KOS
McCain's Essay
[Excerpts from DAILY KOS artticle. Read he original DAILY KOS article here.]McCain's Essay
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday drew from a new source in arguing that President Barack Obama has been too 'soft' on Russia: An article Obama wrote back when he was in college. In a blistering speech on the Senate floor, McCain blamed Obama in part for Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression amid the Ukraine crisis, days after Russian forces moved in on the Crimean peninsula.
So McCain finds some 1983 essay that Obama wrote for a student newspaper
while he was a senior at Columbia and decides that essay means Obama is
responsible for Putin's actions in Ukraine? And if that's not
ridiculous enough, McCain's whole spiel was centered less on what Obama
(who was 21 at the time) actually said than it was on what a right-wing
pundit's interpretation of the essay:
In his article, Obama blamed "U.S.-Soviet tensions largely on America's war mentality and the twisted logic of the Cold War," McCain said, quoting from Goldberg. "President Reagan's defense buildup, according to Obama, contributed to the 'silent spread of militarism' and reflected our 'distorted national priorities' rather than what should be our goal: a 'nuclear free world.'"
CBS New
John McCain slams Obama on Ukraine: "Most naive president in history"
By Jake Miller
February 21, 2014
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a frequent critic of President Obama's foreign policy, blamed the administration's "naive" approach to dealing with Russia for the recent outbreak of political violence in Ukraine.
Pointing to the attempted 'reset' of U.S.-Russia relations during the president's first term, McCain told Phoenix radio station KFYI on Thursday that Mr. Obama is "the most naive President in history."
"The naivete of Barack Obama and [Secretary of State] John Kerry is stunning," he said. He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he described as "amoral," "cold," "distant," and "tough," had "played us so incredibly."
"This thing could easily spiral out of control into a major international crisis," he said. "The first thing we need to do is impose sanctions on those people who are in leadership positions."
"Watch Putin after the Olympics are over. He may try — and I emphasize may — try to have some partition of…Ukraine," McCain said. "Putin believes Ukraine is an integral part of Russia. He will not go quietly into the night about when Ukraine moves into the European orbit, so to say."
MSNBC
GOP skewers Obama’s ‘weak’ response in Ukraine
The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal editorial boards have skewered Obama’s approach to the Ukraine crisis.
“President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks
the world should operate than on reality,” the Post wrote. “As Mr.
Putin ponders whether to advance further – into eastern Ukraine, say –
he will measure the seriousness of U.S. and allied actions, not their
statements,” the editorial added.
“The only concrete U.S. action was to suspend participation in
preparations for June’s G-8 summit in Sochi. Seriously? Mr. Obama and
every Western leader ought to immediately pull the plug on that junket
and oust Russia from the club of democracies,” wrote the Journal.
McCain has called on the U.S. to give economic aid to Ukraine and to
install U.S. missiles in the Czech Republican. And Rogers said the White
House should not attend the G-8 summit and should seek international
sanctions.
A MeanMesa Fiction
The Phone Call
Rather than ranting and raving about this travesty, please indulge MeanMesa in the following fiction. We can only imagine the details about how these two fine American Senators receive their orders, so -- in that absence of any particular facts -- let's just look to our imagination with a little fiction.
 |
| Senatorial Uber-Patriots Graham and McCain [Courtesy of Urantian Sojorn - image] |
"Miss Lindsey Graham and still animated corpse, John McCain" - Sojourn
Our two Senators slipped wordlessly down the hallway from the Senatorial elevator in the Capital building. Although there was no sign of other people around, Graham kept nervously jerking his head to peer back through the abandoned corridor. McCain just trudged forward, determined to reach the fire escape stairway as quickly as possible.
Once through the the pair passed the "EXIT" sign on the side stairway, both stopped. Opening the card board box left there, Graham drew out a change of clothes for himself, handing the remaining contents to his older peer. In a moment, the thousand dollar suits and ties were jammed into the same box -- temporarily abandoned along with two pairs of patent leather loafers.
Now, appearing to be more or less normal working men, the two quickly descended the stairs to the loading warehouse on the basement floor. Scuttling uncertainly out onto the adjacent loading dock, Graham continued to parse back and forth, looking to see if anyone had noticed them.
The rusty old Plymouth appeared from nowhere in a matter of seconds, pausing at the stair leading to the truck loading dock. The Senators quickly installed themselves in the back seat.
The driver said nothing. He was always the same driver, and he had never spoken so much as a word to them on any of these "quiet trips." The car's rear windows were so heavily tinted that the outside world presented only a faint, dimmed image as the Plymouth made its way through D.C. and on to a seedy Holiday Inn located just beyond the beltway.
It flew past the registration office and then on beyond even the rooms, circling slowly in the alley behind to a small shed-like building attached to the end of one of the old motel's wings.
Without hesitating the Senators emerged and went immediately to the shed's doorway. For the first time during the entire affair Lindsey Graham spoke to his friend. "I hate this place." McCain nodded stoically and followed him inside.
The room contained practically nothing. At one end there was a tv table with a speaker phone. Positioned directly facing it were two seedy kitchen chairs. The Senators quickly took their places as the driver closed and locked the door.
The sound of the pad lock closing below the steel hasp was unmistakable from within the room.
The Senators glanced at each other as they waited for the inevitable buzzer on the phone before them. The wait seemed to amount to hours, but both of them knew that someone -- probably the driver -- was informing their "sponsor" that his remote "audience" was in place.
Finally, the telephone buzzed ominously. It answered itself. "Did anyone see you two on the way over here?" the voice blurted out through the phone's speaker.
"No sir. We were checking all along. There was no one anywhere." McCain answered.
"Good. At least you two didn't screw up that part of my instructions." The voice on the speaker answered. It continued, "We called you in here today to straighten out a couple of items that we got from our think tanks this week."
The voice rattled on -- devoid of any identifiable emotion. "You both know that the President is moving into some delicate territory with Putin over the Crimea invasion. I mean, you DO know that, right?"
Both Senators grumbled just loud enough that the speaker phone could pick up their affirmative responses.
"Well, we want you both to get out on the media -- right away, too! The PR managers have already set up interviews on nine of our talk shows for this week. The schedules will be forwarded to your appointment secretaries. We want to hammer this message home to the hill billies and bigots in our base."
An apparently confused McCain gingerly asked, "What's the message?"
The voice on the phone exploded. "Both of you will be doing everything possible to undercut Obama on this one. Our base is waiting to hear that the black guy is out of touch -- in way over his head. Both of you have to repeat over and over -- real simple words, too, dammit -- that Obama's weakness has emboldened Putin to act recklessly and probably opened the door for another round of Stalinist Cold War terror."
"Don't worry. Rush will be backing you up on this."the voice on the phone added.
McCain cautiously countered, "But, but, it's the damned Ruskies! Don't you think we should maybe at least act like we're standing with the President on this one? At least enough to get Putin and the oligarchs to have a little doubt in their minds? There might be more on the table here than just another round of politics."
The voice on the phone, clearly upset, addressed Lindsey Graham, "Are you there Lindsey? You can turn your little ass around, and talk this crazy nonsense out of that old geezer's head. Right now!"
McCain broke in again, "What about the national security interests? I mean the country's foreign policy reputation is at stake here. Couldn't we just wait a few days and then stab him in the back then?"
Now the voice on the phone had begun to speak even more loudly, "Hey, gramps, remember -- he beat your pants off in 2008! Can't you even remember THAT?"
McCain grumbled an unintelligible acknowledgement.
The voice began again. "Both of you, damn it, listen to me. You follow orders. You don't go wandering off about national interests. It might be a good idea to remember who you're working for, here."
The voice continued. "We've already got primary candidates lined up to obliterate both of you. All we have to do is juice up the local hill billies in your states, pump in a few hundred million and set our network media loose on you losers, and you'll both be geriatric "has-beens" before your own primaries are even held."
After a moment of strained silence, the voice returned. "Lindsey, we are holding you personally responsible for getting McCain ready for the, uh, 'interviews.' We've already taken care of the questions, so there won't be any surprises. You'll both be getting a transcript of what's going to be said on those shows, so get your asses ready."
The speaker phone relayed the sound of a long sigh before the voice returned. "Both of you are too old to make a living at anything besides the Senate. If either of you cross us now, you won't know what hit you. I expect the interview cracks to be made EXACTLY the way they're written on your scripts. Believe me, the whole world -- including the Ruskies -- will be soaking up every damned world. Nail that black bastard."
John McCain, puffing himself up as much as possible as he sat before the speaker phone, dared to repeat his objection -- quite timidly. "But what about the country? Do you have a plan to bail out the country's image after being humiliated by Putin?"
Lindsey Graham glanced nervously at his fidgeting senior accomplice.
The speaker phone barked coldly, "Lindsey!"
The dejected voice of Graham was uncertain as he answered quietly, "I know, I know. Primaries against candidates with hundred million dollar war chests. I'll take care of him."
After a moment of stilted silence, a dial tone replaced the voice on the speaker phone. The orders had been given, and message had been delivered.
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