Community > Posts By > mnhiker

 
mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 07:35 PM

So how do we communicate this desire to our legislators?

Wouldn't they be the ones to get that change made?



Maybe you could start a petition. ohwell

Change begins with you.

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 07:30 PM
Edited by mnhiker on Mon 10/06/08 07:31 PM

It is funny to hear the critiques older people have about the materialism many younger people worship, but where or who did they get it from? Thought this might be a welcome break from the back bitting of yesterday.


The younger people learned a lot from the oldsters about greed and materialism.

Those who are smart reject those tenets.

Where do you think the term 'yuppie scum' came from?

Greed and materialism are nothing new, but if they make you happy, go for it.

I find happiness in other sources.

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 07:17 PM
Edited by mnhiker on Mon 10/06/08 07:18 PM


Sarah Palin charges that Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

How come Bill Ayers is considered a terrorist for his actions to protest the Vietnam war, but G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North are considered "heroes" by the right?

Palin also says, "We see an America of exceptionalism."
How's that different than "elite?"



because ollie took it on the chin for Iran Contra and wore the spanking.

Ayers tried to bomb the capital building and had his heart set on bombing the Pentagon, and is unrepentent for that act of terrorism.

He has said within the last decade that he wished he'd done more.

That is screwy.

Ollie was a man under authority to his superiors and loves this country and was willing to put himself in great jeopardy due his potriotic fervor.

Ayers is still trying to destroy this country and recreate it in his own socialist image.
But for a man that whines about juveniles getting their troubled little hands on guns, more so than slapping them and seeing to it that these little south side murderers are tried like adults, as tough love setting an example for peers to rethink their youthful violent streak in Chicago, he would rather coddle them and prop up his lack of legitimacy with a Harvard law professor that taught only one class a year and call it community organization.

I fail to see any moral equivalence in the comparison.

But then, I am jaded and cynical and suspicious of enablers.

my bad.
slaphead




Ollie North sold arms to the Iranians, thus strengthening them.

How is that 'patriotic'? Arming our enemies?

He got these arms from the Nicaraguan Contras.

This scandal also involved bank fraud and cocaine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbt9PsaSUiI&feature=related

He wasn't a hero, he was a disgrace.

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 07:00 PM


No doubt some people think that it won't matter who wins this Presidential election.

You may not like your choices, I don't, I wish I had better ones.

But we are left with the choices we have.

And whomever you pick, it will decide the direction this country will take in the next 4 years.

The choices are clear. The same path or a different path.

If you are satisfied with the same path that we have been going in the past 7 1/2 years, then pick McCain-Palin.

But if you want a different path, pick Obama-Biden.

By not voting you let others choose the path.

By voting for another candidate you risk taking away votes from the least objectionable choice between the Democratic and Republican tickets, and may just be throwing away your vote.

The choice is yours. :thumbsup:


I don't vote, and here is why: The Electoral College, what a washed up poor idea. What these few people can do is look at the majority votes and say "I don't like those votes" throw away the votes and vote against the majority. It really is the dumbest idea as opposed to a true Democracy where every vote is counted and the popular vote wins, here we have 538 representatives choosing for us after looking at votes. How do you think Bush got a second term? The Electoral College voted him into office for a second term against the popular votes hence why there was an uproar for a voting recount...he in fact did lose, but the brilliance that is the Electoral College thought it better for him to do another term.


I don't like the Electoral College either, and think it should be abolished.

The system need improvement, but I'm still going to vote, because it's a right denied to people in other countries and I still have that right.

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 06:57 PM

Oh heck...why pay our own bills when we can keep increasing our debt to China among others.

Personally, I only spend what I can afford. I have no respect for people who live on credit....oh wait...that's the American way isn't it?

How can it be even a little okay to ignore the national debt that has wildly increased under Bush. He hasn't raised your taxes right? Nah, he has only insured that future generations will be paying the interest on that debt for their whole lives.

I personally consider that a reckless and halfassed way to live or to run a country. Not to mention it is a threat to our physical and economic security. But oh well...it's not as bad as raising taxes right?

Man, I'd like to see what your budget at home looks like if you feel that way and conduct your affairs that way. Because if you do, that makes you part of the problem.


I try to only spend what I can afford as well.

And that's because I have credit debt, but not because I wanted to buy a big screen plasma tv or a new car.

It's because I had to live on something after my call center closed and my severance pay ran out.

And all the call center jobs got shipped to Bangalore thanks to globalization.

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 06:49 PM

The mudslinging has begun and now all types of rumors and innuendos are flying around.

First off is Palin stating that Obama is a terrorist.

Mon, Oct. 06, 2008
Palin criticizes Obama's relationship with former radical Ayers
By NICHOLAS AZZARA
McClatchy Newspapers

With 29 days remaining before the presidential election, Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin again went on the offensive, calling into question Sen. Barack Obama's patriotism and his association with the co-founder of the violent Weather Underground group whose members were blamed for several bombings.

Obama's relationship with Ayers has become a key attack point for Republicans in recent days. The Associated Press reported that Ayers hosted a small event for Obama in 1995 and the two once worked on the board of an anti-poverty group between 2000 and 2002, but Obama has denounced Ayers' radical views.

You can read the rest here:
http://www.kansascity.com/445/story/829378.html

I wonder if Palin knows that Hillary Clinton tried this same tactic and LOST!

Next we have Barack Obama and his attack on McCain

Obama Hits McCain on Keating Five as Attacks Heat Up (Update1)
By Julianna Goldman and Hans Nichols
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) --

Democrat Barack Obama, after attacks on his character and past associations from John McCain's campaign, is hitting back by highlighting the Republican candidate's ties to the ``Keating Five'' savings-and-loan scandal in the 1980s.

You can read the rest here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPhSaL.Ohd7Y&refer=home



Is this information supposed to sway voters?
Or is it being retold to get the American public’s mind of off the economy?

Share your thoughts……



Right!

They're just regurgitating what has been circulated before, in hopes it will stick.

Can you feel the fear and desperation of the Republicans?

They are going to lose.

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 06:45 PM
Edited by mnhiker on Mon 10/06/08 06:46 PM

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 06:42 PM


Palin's just a zookeeper tossing "red meat" into the crowds gathering to hear her smear Barack Obama. Palin rants,
"And, according to the New York Times, he (Ayers) was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol."

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

You on this board who echo this sick strategy of republican campaigning must be so proud.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/in_fla_palin_goes_for_the_roug.html


I read the article. Palin is just wrong for doing that. How can it be allowed?


Fearmongering is all the Republicans know.

They are really desperate and afraid they will LOSE this election that they will lie, obfuscate and grasp at anything to try to mischaracterize Obama.

Too bad McCain chose the lightweight novice Sarah Palin.

He should have chosen someone else.

Perhaps someone with more experience.

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 06:38 PM
Who has controlled Congress for most of the past 7 1/2 years?

Answer: Republicans

They are primarily responsible for the economic mess this country is in now.

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 06:34 PM

McCain's Kremlin Ties
by Mark Ames & Ari Berman


Over the course of the presidential campaign, John McCain has repeatedly
emphasized his willingness to stand up to Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin as proof that only he possesses the fortitude and
judgment to become the next leader of the free world. In his acceptance
speech at the Republican convention, McCain lashed out at Putin and the
Russian oligarchs, who, "rich with oil wealth and corrupt with
power...[are] reassembling the old Russian Empire." McCain rushed to
publicly support the Georgian republic during its recent conflict with
Russia and amplified his threat to expel Moscow from the G-8 club of
major powers. His running mate, Sarah Palin, suggested in her first
major interview that the United States might have to go to war with
Russia one day in order to protect Georgia--the kind of apocalyptic
scenario the United States avoided during the cold war.

Yet despite McCain's tough talk, behind the scenes his top advisers have
cultivated deep ties with Russia's oligarchy--indeed, they have
promoted the Kremlin's geopolitical and economic interests, as well as
some of its most unsavory business figures, through greedy cynicism and
geopolitical stupor. The most notable example is the tale of how McCain
and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, advanced what became a key victory
for the Kremlin: gaining control over the small but strategically
important country of Montenegro.

According to two former senior US diplomats who served in the Balkans,
Davis and his lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, received several million
dollars to help run Montenegro's independence referendum campaign of
2006. The terms of the agreement were never disclosed to the public, but
top Montenegrin officials told the US diplomats that Davis's work was
underwritten by powerful Russian business interests connected to the
Kremlin and operating in Montenegro. Neither Davis nor the McCain
campaign responded to repeated requests for comment. (Davis's extensive
lobbying work, especially on behalf of collapsed mortgage giants Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac, has already attracted critical media scrutiny.)

At the time, Putin wanted to establish a Russian outpost in the
Mediterranean, and Montenegro--a coastal republic across the Adriatic
from Italy--was seen as his best hope. McCain also lobbied for
Montenegro's independence from Serbia, calling it "the greatest European
democracy project since the end of the cold war." For McCain, the
simplistic notion of "independence" from a country America had gone to
war with in the late 1990s was all that mattered. What Montenegro looked
like after independence seemed not to interest him. This suited Putin
just fine. Russia had generally sided with Serbia against the West
during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, but for the Kremlin, cutting
Montenegro free from Serbia meant dealing with a Montenegro that could
be more easily controlled. Indeed, today, after its "independence,"
Montenegro is nicknamed "Moscow by the Mediterranean." Russian oligarchs
control huge chunks of the country's industry and prized coastline--and
Russians exert a powerful influence over the country's political
culture. "Montenegro is almost a new Russian colony, as rubles flow in
to buy property and business in the tiny state," Denis MacShane, Tony
Blair's former Europe minister, wrote in Newsweek in June. The
takeover of Montenegro has been a Russian geostrategic victory--quietly
accomplished, paradoxically enough, with the help of McCain and his top
aides.

In mid-September The Nation's website published a photo of McCain
celebrating his seventieth birthday in Montenegro in August 2006 at a
yacht party hosted by convicted Italian felon Raffaello Follieri and his
movie-star girlfriend Anne Hathaway. On the same day one of the largest
mega-yachts in the world, the Queen K, was moored in the same bay of
Kotor. This was where the real party was. The owner of the Queen K was
known as "Putin's oligarch": Oleg Deripaska, controlling shareholder of
the Russian aluminum giant RusAl, currently listed as the ninth-richest
man in the world, with a rap sheet as abundant as his wealth. By
mid-2005 Deripaska had already virtually taken control of Montenegro's
economy by snapping up its aluminum plant, KAP--which accounts for up to
40 percent of the country's GDP and some 80 percent of its export
earnings--in a nontransparent privatization tender strongly criticized
by NGO watchdogs, Montenegrin politicians and journalists. The
Nation has learned that Deripaska told one of his closest associates
that he bought the plant "because Putin encouraged him to do it." The
reason: "the Kremlin wanted an area of influence in the Mediterranean."

In mid-2005 Ambassador Richard Sklar, the former lead US official in the
Balkans, ceased advising the Montenegrin government (he'd worked as a
pro bono adviser after leaving the US diplomatic service) when it became
clear the plant was being handed to Deripaska under heavy Russian
pressure. "I quit because it was a bad deal, not for any political
reasons. The Russians scared all the other buyers off. They offered far
too little money and got themselves a sweetheart deal."

Russia's virtual takeover of Montenegro was well under way by January
2006, when Rick Davis introduced Deripaska to McCain at a villa in
Davos, Switzerland. They met again seven months later, at a reception in
Montenegro celebrating McCain's birthday, as reported in the
Washington Post.

The story of how Oleg Deripaska, 40, rose from a Cossack village to
become a Putin-blessed aluminum tycoon with an estimated $40 billion
fortune does not begin with a lemonade stand and old-fashioned elbow
grease. Like most post-Soviet success stories, Deripaska's rise began
abruptly and violently, during the chaotic reign of Boris Yeltsin. Among
all the battles for control of valuable state assets in the 1990s, none
were as bloody as the "aluminum wars," in which organized-crime gangs
hired by competing interests assassinated dozens of executives,
shareholders and bankers. During a visit to the United States in 1995,
Deripaska threatened the lives of two aluminum rivals, Yuri and Mikhail
Zhivilo, according to a RICO lawsuit filed against Deripaska in New York
district court in 2000. The RICO case is just one of many lawsuits,
including one filed in Israel by a former business partner claiming that
Deripaska illegally wiretapped an Israeli cabinet minister. In addition,
German prosecutors have begun a criminal money-laundering investigation
in Stuttgart. (Deripaska did not respond to requests for comment.)

Deripaska understands that success in Russia today comes from a mixture
of brute force, political influence and personal connections. In 2001,
about a year after Putin signed a decree granting legal immunity to
Yeltsin's family, Deripaska married Yeltsin's granddaughter, thereby
cementing his own immunity and power. Throughout Putin's reign,
Deripaska has adhered to an unwritten understanding between Putin and
the oligarchs: as long as they support the Kremlin, they can operate
with impunity. Deripaska has thus taken on numerous projects dear to
Putin, such as building a new airport in Sochi for the 2014 Olympics and
buying out Tajikistan's aluminum plant to help Putin reassert control
over that key ex-Soviet republic. Deripaska openly admits that his RusAl
holdings are subservient to the Kremlin's wishes, telling the
Financial Times last year, "If the state says we need to give it
up, we'll give it up."

Yet Deripaska faced a serious obstacle to his business ambitions,
hampering his duties as a Putin surrogate. Because of numerous
accusations of involvement in death threats, extortion, racketeering and
money laundering, he had been barred from entering America since 1998.
Putin has lobbied for Deripaska's US visa. In an interview with Le
Monde earlier this year, Putin complained, "I have asked my American
colleagues why. If you have reasons for not delivering him a visa, if
you have documents on illegal activities, give us them.... They give us
nothing, explain to us nothing, and forbid him from entry."

The visa ban was costing Deripaska billions: for years he and fellow
RusAl shareholders had sought to cash in their wealth by launching an
IPO in London, which could have netted up to $10 billion for RusAl's
owners. However, finding institutional buyers would be difficult if not
impossible as long as RusAl's primary owner was barred from entering the
United States.

Despite rampant Russophobia among Republicans, Deripaska turned to
powerful GOP figures to solve his problem--especially to Republicans
connected with McCain. In 2003 Deripaska hired former presidential
candidate Bob Dole, who had nearly picked McCain as his running mate,
and Dole's lobbying partner Bruce Jackson (also a McCain aide) to lobby
the State Department to overturn the visa ban, according to Glenn
Simpson and Mary Jacoby of the Wall Street Journal. Over the next few years
Dole's firm, Alston & Bird, was paid more than $500,000 to push for
Deripaska's visa.

Deripaska also reached out to a Washington-based intelligence firm,
Diligence, chaired by GOP foreign policy hand Richard Burt, McCain's top
foreign policy adviser in 2000 and an adviser in '08 (Burt left
Diligence in 2007 to join Henry Kissinger's consulting firm).
Deripaska's business partner in London, Nathaniel Rothschild, an heir to
the English Rothschild fortune, bought a stake in Diligence, according
to the New York Times and confirmed by a Rothschild spokesman.
The firm offered Deripaska many useful services: corporate intelligence
gathering, visa lobbying through considerable GOP connections and,
crucially, help in obtaining a $150 million World Bank/European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development loan for a Deripaska subsidiary, the Komi
Aluminum Project. Getting the loan was useful in providing a layer of
comfort to Western investors skittish about RusAl. So Diligence, now
partly owned by Rothschild, provided a "due diligence" report to the
World Bank, which the Bank then used to approve its loan to Deripaska.

Not surprisingly, the lobbying worked: in December 2005 Deripaska was
issued a multientry US visa, according to the State Department. During
his brief stay he signed his World Bank loan, spoke at a Carnegie
Endowment meeting and attended a dinner for Harvard University's Belfer
Center, where, thanks to a generous donation, he became a member of its
international council.

However, Deripaska's trip did not end well. Under the visa's terms, he
was forced to endure lengthy FBI questioning. According to the
mining-industry newsletter Mineweb, the list of his enemies had
grown from jilted former business partners to the heads of powerful US
metals companies and government officials unhappy with RusAl's control
of key Third World bauxite mines, which threatened beleaguered US
aluminum giants. The interview went badly--according to people who know
him, Deripaska had little patience for prying bureaucrats. When he left
the country, the visa ban was reinstated. Once again Deripaska turned to
powerful Republicans--this time, to McCain and campaign manager Davis,
who arranged the January 2006 Davos introduction. The McCain campaign
later claimed that "any contact between Mr. Deripaska and the senator
was social and incidental," but afterward Deripaska thanked Davis for
arranging "such an intimate setting." The Washington Post
reported that Davis was "seeking to do business with the billionaire."
Indeed, Deripaska's subsequent thank-you letter mentioned his possible
investment in a metals company Davis represented through a hedge-fund
client.

If you're wondering how Deripaska came to know Davis & Co., the
answer lies in Russia's next-door neighbor Ukraine.

In December 2004 Ukrainians poured into the streets of Kiev and other
cities in the peaceful "Orange Revolution," which overthrew a
Putin-backed corrupt leader, Viktor Yanukovich, who had tried to steal
the country's presidential election that year (during which the
pro-Western opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, was poisoned and
almost died). It was a serious blow to Russia's geopolitical standing.

Putin's Ukrainian proxies were also in trouble. Shortly after the Orange
Revolution, a murder investigation was launched against the country's
richest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, Yanukovich's main backer. Akhmetov
fled the country. In exile in Monaco, he turned to Davis's business
partner, Paul Manafort--the second name in the lobbying firm Davis
Manafort. An old GOP hand, Manafort, like Davis, had played a key role
in Dole's failed 1996 presidential run and had worked for dictators like
Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire.
Akhmetov initially hired Manafort to improve the image of his
beleaguered conglomerate, SCM, but soon Manafort's role shifted to
helping Yanukovich.

Manafort assembled a skilled team of political operatives in Ukraine and
set about raising the popularity of Yanukovich's pro-Russian Party of
Regions, which Akhmetov financed. It was a very lucrative deal for Davis
Manafort--and successful (according to Ukrainian investigative
journalist Mustafa Nayem, Akhmetov paid Manafort upward of $3 million).
Yanukovich's disgraced party won a resounding victory in the March 2006
elections--and Akhmetov returned as the top Ukrainian oligarch. Thanks
in part to the work of Davis Manafort, the Orange Revolution was
essentially undone, putting Putin back in the chess match over Ukraine's
future.

Publicly McCain and his campaign chief's lobbying firm were on opposite
sides. In 2005 McCain had nominated Orange Revolution hero Yushchenko
for the Nobel Prize, and that spring he'd honored Yushchenko in the
headquarters of the International Republican Institute, whose board
McCain has chaired since 1993. But behind the scenes the former head of
IRI's Moscow office, Philip Griffin, was recruited by Manafort to work
on Yanukovich's campaign against Yushchenko. Davis Manafort's work was
considered so detrimental to US interests that a National Security
Council official called McCain's office to complain, according to the
New York Times. The McCain campaign denies receiving the NSC
complaint.

But the firm's work was only just beginning. The same month Davis
Manafort helped deliver this victory to Putin's proxies, it started work
on another key Kremlin success story: an independent and
Russia-dominated Montenegro.

First, a little history. Montenegro was the smallest of the former
Yugoslavia's six republics. When Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown in
October 2000, Montenegro's longtime strongman, Milo Djukanovic, figured
the West would reward him by supporting his push for independence. But
the European Union and the United States opposed Montenegro's secession,
which they feared would undermine the new, pro-Western leaders in Serbia
and bring more war. So under heavy pressure from the EU, an agreement
was struck in 2002 putting off an independence referendum for at least
three years.

Djukanovic then looked beyond the West for support. That same year his
closest ally and mentor, Milan Rocen, was dispatched to Moscow as
ambassador of the Serbia-Montenegro confederation. Rocen nurtured ties
to Putin's Russia, and by 2005 the biggest Montenegrin industrial asset,
the KAP aluminum plant, was snatched up by Deripaska at Putin's request.
After that, Russia surprised everyone by dropping its objections to
Montenegrin independence, which Russia's historic ally Serbia vigorously
opposed. "There seemed to be a belief that Deripaska and the Russians
wanted to gain control of the aluminum plant as part of a Russian move
for greater influence throughout Montenegro," says former ambassador
Sklar.

Meanwhile, Rick Davis was also eager for a piece of Montenegro's
independence, lobbying hard for Davis Manafort to run the referendum
campaign. Bob Dole, who has been paid $1.38 million by the Montenegrin
government since 2001 to lobby for it in Washington, urged his
Montenegrin friends to hire Davis. Whether it was because of Dole or, as
some speculate, the Russians, Davis got his deal.

Though Davis has claimed no connection to his partner Manafort's
controversial activities in Ukraine, he nevertheless hired at least
three specialists recommended by Manafort, from the same team Manafort
used for Yanukovich's victory, to work on Montenegro's independence
referendum. They included Russian political operative Andrei Ryabchuk,
an elections specialist who had previously worked on pro-Putin campaigns
in Russia. Ryabchuk told The Nation that he was "recruited by
Manafort's people" out of Moscow to the Ukraine operation and then on to
Montenegro.

Davis's team was vetted by Montenegro's Russian ambassador Rocen, who
was returning from Moscow to oversee the independence campaign. Why was
Davis hired? The top McCain aide was as much a political symbol as a
campaign consultant. "I think the Montenegrins hired Rick to have
political cover--it was important to show they had support from the
United States," said an American democracy expert who's worked in
Montenegro. Though disclosure is required by Montenegrin law, Davis
Manafort's contract with the ruling Montenegrin party was never publicly
released. In addition, Djukanovic's party never listed payments to Davis
Manafort on its election filings, lending credence to private claims by
top Montenegrin officials that Russian business interests paid for
Davis's work through hired third parties, an oft-used though illegal
tactic in Eastern Europe to disguise money trails.

At key points in the campaign, Davis reached out to Deripaska's allies
for help. With the referendum too close to call, the Serbs tried to sway
public opinion by threatening to revoke scholarships and other education
privileges of Montenegrin students if the country should secede. This
caused a panic--so to counter the Serbs, Davis turned to Deripaska
emissary Nathaniel Rothschild (Rothschild has reportedly become the
richest of all the Rothschilds, thanks to his privileged role as a
Deripaska adviser).

Three weeks before the independence referendum, Davis asked Rothschild
to come to Montenegro. After arriving in his private Gulfstream jet,
Rothschild was trotted out before the cameras with the Montenegrin prime
minister, where he pledged $1 million to support students who might be
hurt by Serbia's scholarship threat. Another Deripaska ally brought in
to secure the student vote was Canadian billionaire Peter Munk, CEO of
Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold-mining corporation (it was Munk
who had hosted the Davos meeting between McCain and Deripaska a few
months earlier). Munk, who serves on the advisory board of RusAl,
delivered pledges of support from Canadian universities.

At the same time Deripaska's allies were employed by Davis, Dole was
lobbying McCain to promote Montenegro's independence. Dole's aides held
a teleconference with McCain's Senate office when Montenegro's foreign
minister visited Washington; shortly thereafter, the referendum passed
by a razor-thin 0.5 percent. In April 2006 McCain announced that
Montenegro's independence was the "greatest European democracy project
since the end of the cold war." Despite opposition cries of vote
rigging, the United States and other major powers accepted the
results--and Putin's Russia recognized newly independent Montenegro
before the EU did.

A few months after the vote, McCain and a contingent of GOP senators
visited Montenegro. The day before they arrived, Djukanovic had flown to
Putin's dacha on the Black Sea. "Your government made it possible for
large-scale Russian investments," Putin told the Montenegrin leader.
Djukanovic then returned to Montenegro and warmly received McCain, who
also met with the Montenegrin president, speaker of Parliament and
opposition leader Predrag Bulatovic. Bulatovic told McCain about how
Russian capital was taking over the country and of his concern that
"this investment can have a negative impact on the democratic process."
McCain listened but kept criticism of Russia to himself. Meanwhile,
Davis was still in the country, helping Djukanovic's Russia-allied party
win the upcoming parliamentary elections. (At the time, Djukanovic was
under investigation by Italian prosecutors for cigarette smuggling and
"Mafia-type activities.")

Soon after the referendum, the powerful figures behind Montenegro's
independence were carving up the country. That summer Rothschild started
discussions with top Montenegrin officials about gaining control of the
valuable shoreline, including the half-billion-dollar Porto Montenegro
project, which aims to become the world's top mega-yacht marina,
complete with luxury hotels, shopping and the country's first
eighteen-hole golf course. The property was handed to the
Munk-Rothschild-fronted offshore consortium for a pittance, according to
MANS, the local NGO partner of Transparency International, in yet
another backroom deal. Eventually, Deripaska's role in Porto Montenegro,
which was initially secret, was formally acknowledged, although the full
list of owners is still a mystery. Deripaska is also developing an 8
billion-euro resort in southern Montenegro and seeking control of a coal
mine and a thermal power plant.

Roughly two years later, in March of this year, Rothschild hosted a
high-dollar fundraiser for McCain at London's posh eighteenth-century
Spencer House, which Rothschild donated for the occasion. Given the
close relationship between Rothschild and Deripaska, some speculated
that Deripaska was the hidden hand behind the event. The conservative
watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a complaint with the Federal
Election Commission, alleging that the fundraiser amounted to an illegal
contribution by foreign nationals to McCain's campaign.

Aside from a little campaign dough, what has McCain gotten out of all
this? It's hard to tell--either he was utterly clueless while his top
advisers and political allies ran around the former Soviet domain
promoting the Kremlin's interests for cash, or he was aware of it and
didn't care. McCain was reportedly so angry about Davis Manafort's role
in stifling Ukraine's Orange Revolution that he almost removed Davis as
campaign manager. But in the case of Montenegro, he should have known
what Davis & Co. were up to. After all, McCain lent a helping hand.
And by the time he visited the country, the Russian takeover was plain
to see.

The story of how McCain's closest aides and employees have been
undermining his vociferously expressed opposition to Putin and Russia's
oligarchs offers a highly disturbing preview of what a McCain
administration might look like. When McCain's campaign proclaims
"country first," one has to wonder, Which country? The one with the
highest bidder?



This article can be found on the web at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081020/ames_berman




Further proof that McCain truly IS the Manchurian Candidate.

mnhiker's photo
Mon 10/06/08 06:29 PM
No doubt some people think that it won't matter who wins this Presidential election.

You may not like your choices, I don't, I wish I had better ones.

But we are left with the choices we have.

And whomever you pick, it will decide the direction this country will take in the next 4 years.

The choices are clear. The same path or a different path.

If you are satisfied with the same path that we have been going in the past 7 1/2 years, then pick McCain-Palin.

But if you want a different path, pick Obama-Biden.

By not voting you let others choose the path.

By voting for another candidate you risk taking away votes from the least objectionable choice between the Democratic and Republican tickets, and may just be throwing away your vote.

The choice is yours. :thumbsup:

mnhiker's photo
Sat 10/04/08 04:44 PM
Just more B.S.

Here's a lie Sarah Palin's circulating about Obama:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/04/palin.obama/index.html

McCain-Palin are getting really desperate, slinging this crap in hopes they can 'Swiftboat' Obama like Kerry was swiftboated in the last election.

Trouble is, there are enough gullible people to believe it.

mnhiker's photo
Wed 10/01/08 07:16 PM

debates have nothing to do with qualifications...they have to do with public perception. I gather that what you are saying is that anyone not qualified for a position should not be a candidate for that position. Using your logic on the Palin/Biden issue, please expand that to the Obama/McCain comparison. Kindly compare the foreign policy qualifications of the two presidential candidates.

After all, the main qualification for veep is to have a heartbeat...no other responsibilities belong to them.


patiently waiting for your comparison on the pres candidates foreign policy experience and qualifications while knowing it will never come....lol


Since either VP is a heartbeat away from the Presidency (more so in Sarah Palin's case) qualifications are absolutely relevant.

And that also goes beyond knowing just foreign policy.

mnhiker's photo
Wed 10/01/08 07:07 PM

It's pretty pathetic what the DEMS have become...so much for trying to get rid of the tax & spend label when we all know it still exists...

Adding spending...the lib way...


President George Bush Jr. has spent more than 1,000 hookers in a French perfume store since he got elected.

I guess that makes George Bush Jr. a liberal, huh?

mnhiker's photo
Wed 10/01/08 07:00 PM

Well, I looked outside after the vote...and discovered much to my amazement, and the news medias chagrin....the sky was not falling. To tell you how bad the economy was today: I manufacture atv/snowmachine trailer. Took orders for 8 today...most in the 9 year history of the company...and everyone paid cash. Yes it is going to get a little tight for all the idiots who live beyond their means, borrow money and use credit cards to pay the bills. Myself, everything I own is paid for, and if I do not have the cash money to pay for it, then I obviously do not need it. Just go ahead ppl...keep on spending more than you earn, or, take a lesson from the govt and the wall street folks and get a little bit of financial self control and maybe you won't end up like them. JMAO


I don't always agree with you, but I will agree on this one.

I say nay to all the Chicken Littles (including the President) that think we should throw money at the problem for a 'quick fix' that might only compound the problem and make it worse.

To all those vultures who preyed on first time homeowners and got them to sign their lives away in shady real estate deals and ARMs, I say to you:

I hope Hell has a special place reserved for you.

mnhiker's photo
Wed 10/01/08 06:52 PM
Of course.

I hope God keeps them both safe. :angel:

mnhiker's photo
Wed 10/01/08 06:46 PM
Well, let's see.

Joe Biden:

-Long serving member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and serves as chair in the 110th Congress.
-Considered one of the Democratic Party's leading voices on foreign policy.

http://usforeignpolicy.about.com/od/2008presidentialrace/p/jbiden.htm

-His assignment on the Senate Judiciary Committee has given him experience on immigration, citizenship, and international narcotics regulation.
-Biden voted in favor of the Iraq War resolutions but has since said the Bush Administration misrepresented the case for war, and he called for Congress to repeal the authorization to use force in Iraq.
-Biden has called for NATO action to end the genocide in Darfur, and he has advocated stronger U.S. action on global climate change.
-For the last Congressional term, Citizens for Global Solutions gave Senator Biden an A+ rating on his foreign policy positions.


Sarah Palin:

-On a clear day, she thought she could almost see Russia from her house.

Other foreign policy experience:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20081001-0017-palin-foreignpolicy.html

-Has negotiated with only one country, Canada, and until last week had met with the leader of only one other, tiny Iceland. Her portfolio expanded last week when she went to New York and met seven foreign leaders attending the U.N. General Assembly.

No brainer here as to who's more qualified in foreign policy.




mnhiker's photo
Tue 09/30/08 09:53 PM

These are important to see Hiker. Thanks.

http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/55310-john-mccain-economic-disaster

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008157607_mckeating04.html







drinker

Let's see.

Where'd I put my tar and feathers? explode

mnhiker's photo
Tue 09/30/08 09:51 PM

by Thomas DiLorenzo at September 30, 2008 10:07 AM

The mainstream media are screaming their heads off about the "failure" of the House of Representatives to plunder middle-income America for the benefit of the Wall Street/Washington plutocracy. This morning on MSNBC Mrs. Alan Greenspan (Andrea Mitchell) was screeching like a wounded bluejay over the chutzpah of the American public in failing to "rescue" what's left of her husband's legacy.

Speaking of Greenspan, where the hell's he been? Wasn't it just a few years ago that he was portrayed by all the world's media as the Master of the Economic Universe, the "maestro" whose central planning expertise was the sole source of everyone's prosperity? Has anyone heard a peep from the Maestro about the current economic crisis?




I think he's laying low for awhile.

mnhiker's photo
Tue 09/30/08 09:14 PM


Well I just wanted to make it clear that it's BOTH partys that are at fault for this mess.

I still say McCain like BUSH were knocked down when confronting DEMS that this was a problem.

So? Now! I have issues with some postions REPS take but this was not one of them. THEy tried to be responsible. REPS are fiscal conservatives while DEMS are tax & spenders.

DEMS have to own this one ...so why would anyone vote for DEMS who created this mess again?


Dems did not create this mess! Many hands were involved.


Right!

It was deregulation of the financial industry that created this mess.

Check out this video:

http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/55310-john-mccain-economic-disaster

Remember the Keating 5?

John McCain was involved in that fiasco too!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008157607_mckeating04.html

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