Dear L.A. Times: Faith Forum, Jerome Corsi edition

By GottaLaff

The L.A. Times letters are always interesting:

Re "Contrasting styles, views in sharp focus," Aug. 17

Even though I strongly believe in the separation of church and state, I listened with interest to the Saddleback forum on the radio. I was surprised to see how Barack Obama's and John McCain's answers were portrayed in the subhead of the article in The Times.

Instead of saying that Obama was open and thoughtful, it called him "analytical" and "nuanced." Instead of saying that McCain pandered, it said he answered "crisply" to "greater applause." In that forum, did anyone expect that McCain wouldn't get greater applause? I was pleasantly surprised at how much applause Obama did get, without obviously pandering to the audience.

Obama was clearly the more impressive candidate; but you'd never know from your subhead.

And...

I'm shocked that The Times didn't raise the issue of whether a religious official should inject himself into a political discussion. Rick Warren's questions frame the race in an evangelical Christian context -- to the detriment of citizens who don't share those beliefs. The founders separated government from religion not to persecute Christians but to ensure that all could believe, or not believe, as they desired.

As U.S. senators, neither Obama or McCain should be promoting any particular religion. And church officials should not attempt to influence the voting preferences of their flocks, regardless of which religion is doing the influencing. Citizens must be free to select candidates without interference from religion -- not to promote a secular society, but to protect freedom of belief for all.

And...

Re "Character is key, Warren says," Aug. 18

That Warren won't vote for an atheist shows extreme prejudice -- much as a racist won't vote for Obama, but cites reasons other than prejudice to account for his mind-set.

A president does not act alone -- he has a Cabinet, advisors and the Constitution. Human advisors are more likely to give informed advice than the supernatural advi- sor(s) of the ultra-religious.

And finally:

Re " McCain denies flippant remark on 'Obama Nation,' " Aug. 16

McCain quips about Corsi's new book on Obama: "Gotta keep your sense of humor." But in August of 2004, McCain disavowed an ad based on Corsi's "Swift boat" attack on John Kerry, saying: "I deplore this kind of politics. I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable."

In August of 2004, McCain was not a candidate, and did not benefit from Corsi's smear tactics -- but that was then, and this is August of 2008. He should have swiftly disavowed Corsi, but he missed the boat.

Religion in the 2008 Presidential Campaign

Coming up now on the Diane Rehm Show at 10a EST (you can listen at the link). I sent in Cesca's question. Let's see if they ask it.

McCain camp slams Kos over Cross in Dirt story

By GottaLaff

Wow, we progressives have more power than I thought. We're making J Sid's team nervous. Now they've come up with a "witness" to the Cross in the Dirt tale, and what a witness he is!

A kind of witness.

Orson Swindle, a fellow POW, says that he remembers McCain telling the story about the cross in the dirt sometime in 1971.

Orson Swindle's charity, Consumers Against Government Waste, laundered money for Jack Abramoff. The Senate Finance Committee report is here.

Are you impressed yet? From J Sid's blog (I guess someone over there learned how to use the Interwebs):

In the least credible and most vicious corner of the internet, liberal bloggers at the Daily Kos are accusing John McCain of plagiarizing from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The story Solzhenitsyn told was of a prisoner who drew a cross in the dirt in a Soviet Gulag. McCain's story is of a guard who drew a cross in the dirt in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp.

It goes on and on from there. You can read more of their little rant here. Meantime, as I mentioned down thread, we must give credit to the Righties for coming up with those lefty, hippie, liberal accusations first, as the post goes on to point out:

The McCain camp intends for Barack to cut off the Kos, ladies and gentlemen. Get ready because here it comes.

ETA: To make sure this stays right at the top (thanks, dlcox1958), the Free Republic made this charge first. Yes, Mr. O'Reilly, I'm talking to you and your staff.

Now back to real life already in progress.

The Illustrated Definition of "Rich" according to John Sidney McCain

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

Via Think Progress:

During the Saddleback Church presidential forum on Saturday, when Pastor Rick Warren asked both Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to define where “you move from middle class to rich,” McCain reflexively joked, “How about $5 million?” He then added that “it doesn’t matter really what my definition of rich is.” Noting that “McCain’s answer is just profoundly out-of-touch,” Ezra Klein put together a graph showing just how off-base McCain’s definition is compared to actual income distribution.

Paints quite a picture, doesn't it?

Eye witness spots McCain at event earlier than he claimed

By GottaLaff

I came in at the tail end of this, but per David Bender, this could sink J Sid on his Cone of Silence, Honor System, I-Swear-To-God-It's-True story:

McCain was at the Fake Forum event earlier than his campaign manager said he arrived. An eye witness named Michelle just called this in to the Rachel Maddow show (David Bender is hosting). She was directly behind his motorcade.

I'll update if I hear more details.

More on the Cone of Not-So-Silence

Tapper finds the nut and runs with it. You're honestly going to tell me that in the time running up to McCain's arrival at the forum he wasn't being drilled? I mean, that's just the way these things run. If you want to, you can even go as far as to claim maybe JSMcIII wasn't aware that his prepping was taking place with the aid of whoever was coaching him knowing the questions, but are we supposed to extend this POW code of honor bullshit to all his staffers? /roll eyes

2) The McCain campaign's responses so far are entirely focused on McCain's geography and whether or not he himself could hear and see Obama being questioned.

To wit: McCain adviser Charlie Black told CNN, "We were in motorcade until 5:30 p.m. ET; then a holding room in another building with no TV."

Nothing that I've seen so far from the McCain campaign touches on whether or not any aides with McCain were getting reports on their Blackberries or cell phones on the questions Obama was getting and then sharing them with McCain.

Video: Pastor Rick confirms McCain NOT in "Cone of Silence" during Obama Q&A

By GottaLaff


Video via CNN.

Of course, there would be no access to the televised Fake Forum Q & A with Obama in J Sid's limo, right? So he'd have absolutely no idea about the questions that were about to come his way, nor any chance of his "people" prepping him.

Of course not. Because straight-talking P.O.W.s and pastors don't lie. And the audience didn't pay $2000 to clap extra loud in support of their guy. And Orange County, CA (where I happened to have passed through yesterday) isn't skewed Republican either.

All in all, this was a fair and balanced forum, wouldn't you agree?

NBC Nightly News "Reporter" Calls Obama Forum Answer "Almost Flip"

How is his answer "flip"? Obama is neither a scientist or theologian, so yes, it is "above his paygrade". The President of the United States isn't g-d to decide either, never mind what GWB may think. Funny, Lee Cowan has been favorable to Obama up to now. Did he find it necessary to editorialize to balance the criticism?

Fake Forum: John Sidney McCain was Coneless

By GottaLaff

This is for Anonymous, and other Commenters who have been discussing J Sid's supposed isolation from Obama's interview at the Big Fake Forum. John Sidney McCain didn't have the cojones Cones he said he did. He never has, but that's another post for another time.

No, there was no Cone of Silence for J Sid while Obama was thoughtfully and thoroughly responding to Pastor Rick's questions. There was no Sphere of Silence, Cube of Silence, or Cylinder of Silence. There was, however, a Cone of Deceit:

Pastor Warren, the host of last night's forum was just on CNN. In an interview with Rick Sanchez the pastor admitted McCain was not even at the Church for the first half hour of the event. This admission comes as a surprise to those of us who watched the event and were told many times that McCain was at the Church and in isolation.

CNN says they talked to McCain's camp and they said no one in his camp was listening. The honor system, are you kidding me?

I think it is pretty clear at this point McCain did indeed know the questions in advance.

Yeah, that was as transparent as Bush's cranium, all right. Nothing like a level playing field, huh god-fearin', straight-talkin' J Sid?

John Sidney McBush: The black and white candidate

By GottaLaff

This occurred to me as I cringed and gagged throughout the Fake Forum last night:

My gut reaction was that J Sid was doing his best George W. Bush impression, and that the pundits were once again buying into it. He was chuckling it up and piling the manure high as he gave blunt black-and-white answers to questions that demanded critical discernment and careful insight.

We as a country have had our fill of simplistic, dumbed down, action-figure responses to complex issues.

We as progressives should push this message. Obama's acuity is something to be treasured, not ridiculed. Name me one parent who hopes his child will eschew intellect and vision for reckless, unenlightened brashness. I mean other than 41 and Bar.

The Fake Forum: Short Version

By GottaLaff

I'm using the hotel computer, so I don't have much time. Here's my recap of last night:

"Noun. Verb. P.O.W."

[We'll be driving home soon. We hit an enormous traffic jam due to an overturned, burning big rig yesterday which added an hour to our drive, so we'll see how long it takes us coming back. I'll check in when we finally get home. AND THANK YOU ALL FOR THE WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY WISHES. YOU MADE MY DAY.]

Saturday alert: Faith Forum with Obama and McCain

By GottaLaff

If you'd like to watch this, here's the info. I'm off to work for awhile:

Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain "make back-to-back appearances Saturday at an evangelical conference aimed at getting the presidential hopefuls' views on issues dealing with leadership and compassion," USA Today reports.

Rick Warren, the pastor of the 22,000-member Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life, "will interview each candidate separately for about an hour on the presidency and Constitution, the role of the United States in the world, global poverty and, possibly, abortion."

However, in an interview with David Brody, Warren suggests he'll also ask both candidates about personal issues each has had to deal with. Expect questions on McCain's marriages and Obama's past drug use.

Oh, please do ask about McCain's... marriages? Or affairs? Either way, by all means, ask.