Once I started reading I knew it was LowerManhattanite, of all the writers here his metaphors, And smilies.
I hope this one gets read and linked widely. It should help people frame clearly what's wrong with the man.
Look I know y'all have the right to post pictures it your blog but I told this to Hubris b/c of the giant sized picture of Rove's pasty face and now I'm telling you you have to put a disclaimer or something if you're going to post pictures that sick.
Seriously, McCain as Gollum?
If I puke on my laptop I'm sending you the bill mister!
Nicely thought out... the metaphor of Gollum is a bit of popular cultural genius but brings a very thoughtful piece down a notch to me. Thoughtful becomes a bit more of the just slick... again to me.
The real issue... you are right... this man should not be President. He would be dangerous to the Republic and our future. He represents a third Bush term in Foreign Policy, without the subtlety. McCain has proven in his campaign that he is not up to the job.
Senator McCain is a war hero and deserves respect for his lifetime of service. I have no problem with his role in the Senate and wish he had kept to it.
His campaign for President now and in the past, puts his real life heroics in danger of becoming just talking points. It really is sad to see such former glory sucking up to the criminals and fools of the Bush Administration... but not unexpected.
"Those that the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad."
agree with this part: "the metaphor of Gollum is a bit of popular cultural genius"
the man doesn't deserve to be a senator either, his last vote on torture was disgusting
GOOD STUFF!
If it were only a story we were reading, it might be entertaining. The fact that we all watched this scumbag unroll this whole putrid mess of a life is beyond the novel into the daily life of politics in the republican party. Blogged it - link back here.
The last two posts are a great pair. Thank you LM.
Good stuff, LM!
And that is a RUINOUS photograph. :o)
We'll get LOTTTTTTTS of mileage out of that, in the general. :o)
KURTZ:
The horror! The horror!
yeah, although gollum is an excellent metaphor. kurtz (the original conrad on the congo) is the one that captures me.
It would appear from strolling around the web, that half the democratic sites are supporting gollum.
I suppose it is to be expected. The new kid has some really enthusiastic supporters and that old dem style difference comes back to haunt the dems again.
Some of the pro-hillary sites are about ready to do a "Mena Airport, Obama has had murdered list." Truly it is akin to reading American Spectator circa 1992-1999. At least they learned something from 8 years of white water and Ken Starr.
LM you have nailed him, I truly hope that as the election season goes forward, you treat him with the contempt he has earned, and with the acumen with which you sliced and diced 9ui119ani.
However Bill has promised the USA that if Hillary is the nominee against McCain it will be the most polite campaign ever.
At least Col. Nicholson comes to realize what he's done... too late, but he does realize.
And being a rambunctious, rabble-rouser doesn't mean you're a jerk-off right off the bat (disciplinary problems and graduating w/ low standings reminds me of High School!).
But McCain is broken. The GOP is broken. At least they could salute on deck as the wreck sinks below them, but these are the rats leaving the sinking ship.
A real RAT KING.
McCain = Gollum.
LM- Thank you for your brilliant elucidation of this simple political equation.
Damm, you make him sound like the Anti Christ, a person who has lost all morality, indeed sold his soul to the devil in return for the ultimate prize, and if indeed he has no soul, then he has no need for a conscience, hence voting for torture, yet just like Gullum we feel some pity for him, the poor old f**ker cause it's not all his fault.
brilliant and true. This is the definition of a soul that made me so uncomfortable, watching Jon Stewart interview him (last year?) and ask if he's sold his soul (deeply paraphrased) only to hear Sen. McCain say 'yes'.
his next stop should be help & real healing for his heart and mind, not imposing the worst of it on us and the rest of the world...
I like the Gollum 'shopping, you've captured the man.
However, if someone who knows the program would Photoshop McCain with an albatross around his neck, I will buy the mailer to 59+ white Republicans using the picture and the poem.
They like to think they're edjumacated.
McCain's embrace of Bush after the shit Rove pulled in South Carolina in 2000 was the "aha" moment for me. Even in politics, there is a bright shining line that if you cross you will never get your integrity back. His endorsement of Bush in 2000 was that line.
LM,
Great post. It really brings it all together. This needs to be cross-posted and read by all the people that are saying that they will vote for McCain if Hillary or Obama doesn't win the Democratic nomination. The fact that McCain seems to be in the middle of really weird stuff(like getting hit by the errant rocket on the Forrestal) is like icing on the top of why not to vote for him. Some people got some crazy karmic voodoo working against them and I don't want to be there when that shit hits the fan.
“yet just like Gullum we feel some pity for him, the poor old f**ker cause it's not all his fault.”
Exactly, Baba. I don't think of McCain as a pathologically evil jerk like Bush. He is a guy who busted his ass, got his very psyche damaged a little, and probably feels he was never properly acknowledged for it.
And he has made a bargain with some summarily evil folk in return for a bit of recompense. Doing that has basically put him in a place where he let people trash his wife, kids and the service that caused his body to be so damaged—all for a pat on the head.
Hate him?
No.
I pity him. Just like LOTR readers pitied the quest-gnarled Gollum.
“his next stop should be help & real healing for his heart and mind, not imposing the worst of it on us and the rest of the world...”
Ab-solitely.
I had respect for McCain's service and the pains he suffered (that no one disputes) as a result of that service. But for everything else I have no respect for him, and will work as hard as I can to see to it that he does not gain the Presidency.
The final straw was watching him puke up the last vestiges of his integrity and honor in voting down the ban on torture. How well can he stand to look in the mirror now, to see his scars and know, KNOW, that he has doomed other human beings to this kind of treatment? That he has placed the lives of our troops in danger?
You have to realize that Gollum was the only reason the Rig Quest succeeded.
Gandalf had a very very interesting statement regarding evil, punishment, and just rewards.
"What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature [Frodo declares] when he had a chance!"
"Pity? [Gandalf replies] It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that [Bilbo] took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity."
"I am sorry," said Frodo. "But I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum."
"You have not seen him," Gandalf broke in.
"No, and I don't want to," said Frodo. "... Now at any rate he is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death."
"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And
some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not he
too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise
cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured
before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with
the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to
play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the
pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many--yours not least."
This passage has resonated with me ever since I first read this as a child. A truly powerful and fundamental moral statement.
This is the part of the book the freaky right passes over to read more elves, ponies and battles, and that's why they never "get" the book.
And they never "get" the meaning this has on real people's lives.
That is why they fail.
Your savaging of Giuliani was probably over too soon.
Your explanation of the McCain "arc" is painful to read and all too accurate. Unlike my attitude toward Rudy, I do still feel empathetic toward McCain, but he has displayed a number of really bad behaviors and made some equally bad decisions over a long life that disturb me, and at present his enthusiasm for the Iraqathon is the worst of them.
Yet, we must look at Hillary and see the same types of behavior perhaps only on fewer occasions and to a slightly lesser degree.
The realities these politicians have to live with in terms of the pure besaculoismo of political life are sad.
But some do more of the kissin' than others.
A work of genius, LM.
Well sad, LM, though I can't say I feel particularly sorry for McCain. Maybe there are elements of tragedy in his story, but he made his decisions. Nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to leap into bed with the very same gangsters that dragged his family through the mud back in 2000.
As for his wartime "heroism", dropping bombs on women and children from the safety of 20,000 feet isn't really what I'd call heroic.
Nicely thought out... the metaphor of Gollum is a bit of popular cultural genius but brings a very thoughtful piece down a notch to me. Thoughtful becomes a bit more of the just slick... again to me.-Amuseinc
Hhhmmm, consensus thus far... Yep - just you.
McCain as tragic hero is a new idea for me to digest
“McCain as tragic hero is a new idea for me to digest.
Not a tragic hero—just...a man who tragedy has befallen and twisted.
Well, if we're dumbshit enough to nominate Clinton, the moment she makes her acceptance speech in Denver, McCain's VP selection will become the most important in our history.
As for his wartime "heroism", dropping bombs on women and children from the safety of 20,000 feet isn't really what I'd call heroic.
McCain flew an A-4 Skyhawk, not a B-52. That's a light bomber which can be launched from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Which means he was doing low-level attacks, at least some of them against heavily defended targets.
You don't have to agree with the war -- and I sure as hell don't -- to recognize it takes a degree of personal courage to fly an airplane at people who stand a good chance of shooting you down. And whom you know are not going to be very nice to you, if you survive getting shot down.
Damn, hit "Publish" instead of "Preview".
Just wanted to chime in with the chorus, and add that that was a superb Photoshop, LM. "Pop culture" it may be, but if the shoe fits ...
And this one fits like a Gucci loafer.
If anyone needs to hear more about MCCain, the pub's, or Shilary, they have been brain dead for the past two years.
I'ts all been said, it's all been writ.
Pakistan votes may spell the doom of our planet a Musharref seems to be losing. That's a free pass to the key to the kingdom for Bush/Cheney.
I LIKE the dialogue's about the stupor delegates, for THAT may save the theft of yer ANOTHER election.
CA, and the USA, are headed downhill economically FAST. I live in CA. In Sacto. The budget cuts here, and federally, are gonna severely tarnish the Golden State.
Recession or depression, as we spend $10 BILLION a month on war, and Bush says it's the over build of houses that's killin our economy.
There are gonna be MILLIONS more homeless, and destitute, in the months to come.
I tire of McCain story's. I tire of Shilary Story's.
And we have until November to deal with any of the DLC/DNC and RNC shit that might fuck with a free election outcome.
And yes, I just caught a look at one of the greatest triple threats to grace our lives in any fashion, be it sports or entertainment.
Sammy Davis, Jr. was one of the most talented and brave fuckers to ever have lived.
I was a lover of baseball in my youth, and Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, and Curt Flood, are brave fuckers, too.
So were Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson.
I'm tired of hearing about the obvious, and the choir preaching. Fuck McCain. N Shilary, too. Her attack of Mr. Obama on supposed plagerism issues is pure skank shit, and crap.
I'd like to hear some about THAT shit. *G*
N bottom line, bring me some meddlesome priests to trifle with. There are MANY of them. N they are mostly Pub's, too. Right n rightous, too. *G*
How do you propose to spread the word about these terrible things -- when the U.S. media seem committed to presenting him as St. John McCain The Perfect!
I don't understand how anyone cannot see that McCain is dangerously flawed. He has no position on anything that he holds dear enough to keep because the allure of power is greater than his convictions. I suppose since he fought for this country and was tortured and is a national hero makes him even that more dangerous considering his fluctuating principles.
Scarier than this will be the hordes of neocons that vote for him when he is the nominee after they considered him so dangerous and flawed!
We're living in scary (flawed and dangerous) times indeed...
John D. -- Nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to leap into bed with the very same gangsters that dragged his family through the mud back in 2000.
How do you know they didn't? Perhaps they did.
-----------------
He is a tragic "hero" in the sense that tragedy means he was overcome by his own flaws.
He should not be President.
George Washington said, "Anyone who wants the job of president doesn't deserve it." Amen to that.
Off topic--I ran a System Recovery and my PC is performing like it once did, so I don't think I'll need to replace the hard drive after all. 
Just to clarify... I don't want McCain anywhere near anything more powerful than the clapper - and probably not even that.
I don't think the military will enjoy hearing that they've been extended in Iraq & Afghanistan for 1,000 years.
Especially anyone who's "short!"
El Cruzado wrote: "I hope this one gets read and linked widely."
Before reading the comments I had already posted it on Democratic Underground. We'll see if they follow the ling, though.
great graphic, that's really gross! the Gollum characterization really works too, for all the reasons you said, plus that creepy, bad "masster love Smeagol" feeling i always got lookin at that picture of him grinding-up on bush...brrr! whoever gets the ring is still stuck smack in the middle of an erupting Mount Doom though, must be nice to be gathering moss w/ Tom Bombadil & Al Gore right about then...
This is what I've been saying about John McCain for the last three years.
The man has been taken over by his obsession.
I used to really respect him. Now, I just think he is pitiable.
Hillary, BTW, is in almost as poor a case. Same problem: she has an obsession which has control of her. But she isn't nearly as sick this way as John McCain is.
OT: Glad to hear that your Windows system is back up to par, IBW.
Still, if you have a "scratch disk" or two lying about - you know, those 10 and 20 GB disks from nearly a decade ago that are Too Damn Small to use for anything much, today - you might want to start playing with this technology.
You will discover a whole new way of thinking about data on disk. And when you do have disk issues, you won't be sitting there helpless, resigned to the loss of your OS and/or data.
I had some pity for McCain this morning... until I learnt he's gaming the Public Financing system:
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say this is a promise to perpetuate a fraud on the American taxpayers: if he no longer intended to seek the presidency, he made a legally-binding promise to pretend to remain in the race just long enough to collect public money to repay the loan. … Is this illegal? Who knows. … What we know is that McCain found a way to use the public funds as an insurance policy: If he did poorly, he would use public funds to pay off his loans. If he did well, he would have the advantage of unlimited spending. There’s a reason no one’s ever done anything like this. It makes a travesty of the choice inherent in voluntary public financing, between public funds and unlimited spending.
"Off topic--I ran a System Recovery and my PC is performing like it once did, so I don't think I'll need to replace the hard drive after all." -- Ivory Bill...
who was never heard from again...
I saw the USS Forestfire movie twice. I thought McCain fired the missile. All of us thought that.
I would've gladly voted for McCain in 2000. I wouldn't now for any reason.
Nice work, LM.
I've never understood just what could make ambitious Republicans abase themselves so completely as to chase the ring of the Presidency after Nixon. Reagan didn't completely wallow in the pig shit of the Republican base. But G.H.W. Bush sure did, as did Bob Dole, and G.W. Bush -- and that's only the Republicans who won the nomination.
Senator McCain allegedly provided good constituent services for Arizona. But that's not real leadership - that's the price one pays for re-election. And a flawed military career -- however honorable and courageous the service is -- is still flawed. I'm willing to believe the possibility of a real mental/emotional meltdown is real as McCain campaigns, and that's without the matter of his somewhat compromised health (metastatic skin cancer treated with both radiation and chemotherapy) not fully disclosed) even being considered.
Not suitable for further service, IMHO.
SInce it has been mentioned a few times that folks are seeing their Windows PC slow down. If your PC is on 24/7 and has active programs running in the background, the command from the Operating system to process Idle tasks will not be generated. Try this as a way to make your system run a lot smoother.
Run Command from the Start button
Type in CMD ( this will open a command prompt window ( looks a lot like dos )
In the command window, Type the following all as one string no line breaks:
Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
hit the enter key
type exit
hit the enter key.
All the cleanup and maintainence tasks that windows has queued will be performed. This can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 minutes.
googling ProcessIdleTasks will bring more granular information about what all is done and how windows queues tasks.
Damm LM give some of us ADD smucks a break once in a while
Really thoughtful piece LM. I wonder though, if there is still a part of McCain that hates Bush for what he has done to him and that maybe he will get some revenge should it be our misfortune that he becomes president.
"John D. -- Nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to leap into bed with the very same gangsters that dragged his family through the mud back in 2000.
How do you know they didn't? Perhaps they did."
Even if this is true - and frankly, I don't believe it; McCain, IMO, doesn't deserve the rather dubious benefit of the doubt here - then St. McStain of the 100 Years War is still going along to get along in order to snatch a term in the White House for himself. That little scenario doesn't exactly cover him in glory, does it?
But why should we believe he was blackmailed or "forced" in any way to cooperate with the Bush Junta? As with the "liberal" media scum and the DLC style Democrats and their sadomasochistic relationship with their good buddies, the Rethugs, this is simply the way the game is played, and McCain has been nothing if not a willing participant. Why make excuses for him?
If modern day politics teaches us one lesson, it's this: Never attribute to incompetence (or, as in this case, some back-stage thuggery against an "innocent" like McCain) to what naked, self-serving ambition and pure, egotistical selfishness can easily explain. Bush "forced" McCain to lick his own blood off of Bush's cowboy boots and like it (much to Junior's giggling, sociopathic joy, no doubt) and McCain is just fine with that. So fuck him.
As for McCain's "heroism" during the war...
"You don't have to agree with the war -- and I sure as hell don't -- to recognize it takes a degree of personal courage to fly an airplane at people who stand a good chance of shooting you down. And whom you know are not going to be very nice to you, if you survive getting shot down."
I'm merely judging McCain by his own current day standards. According to him now, torture is no big deal. What he suffered at the hands of the Vietnamese people was just a doddle! Don't believe me? Then ask John McCain, circa 2008. Why, torture is as American as apple pie! La, la, la! Whee!
I see absolutely no reason whatsoever to defer judging John McCain by his own exalted standards. If he'd used his military background to make a serious attempt to derail Bush back in 2000 by comaring his own real record with Bush's pretend one, or if he'd used his status as a torture victim to throw a wrench into the neocons' plans over the past few years, it would be different. But we all know how things turned out. McCain has earned our everlasting contempt, and I, for one, intend to give him just that.
"There isn't any finer folks living than a Republican that votes the Democratic ticket." Will Rogers
There is a simple reason I suggest we lower the scorn ratio on Old John and that there could easily be a backlash. I understand John D's concerns but suggest they be kept under control. Any excessive pillorying of the old reprobate could come back to haunts us. I just want the juxtaposition of a young, vibrant intelligent Democrat like Obama against this Bob-Dole-esque bitter old man.
Wow. This is so well written and one of the saddest tales around. It's epic.
No way in hell can this deeply disturbed man be our President.
My God, I have a feeling he would be worse than Bush.
Well, there's always the danger of a backlash, Amuseinc, even when nothing has happened to "backlash" against. You know? Bullies don't generally need a reason to behave like assholes, as the rank and file of the current day Republican Party and the multi millionaires in the "liberal" media prove quite nicely. Responding to the ugliest abuse with tolerance, gentle good humor and tongue-clucking indulgence didn't exactly work wonders for Michael Dukakis, Al Gore or John Kerry, now, did it?
You may well be right. I don't pretend to know what's going to happen. But keeping our heads down and not causing a fuss didn't help elect the 3 gentlemen I mention above (actually, you can make that 4 if you count Jimmy Carter's campaign against Ronnie Raygun), and I don't think it'll work now, in this time and place. I don't think Ron Paul is going to oblige us by filling the Ross Perot role in this election, which was as much as a factor in getting Clinton into the white house as anything else.
John D:
All I'm saying is that unlike high-altitude bombing -- which is what you were saying McCain did in Vietnam -- low-level ground attacks (a) involve a greater element of risk to the pilot, and (b) tend to be directed against what most people would agree were military targets. It's not the same as carpet-bombing from an altitude where most of your opponent's air defenses can't get at you.
Sure, there's more than a bit of moral hair-splitting in that distinction, when you're talking about any tactic in support of an illegal and immoral war. But the question had to do with McCain's courage.
Just because what he did back in Vietnam required some personal (as opposed to moral) courage then, it obviously doesn't give him a free pass for the despicable things he's done in his political career. But it works both ways: Just because McCain has become something to pity and despise now, it doesn't give anyone the right to misrepresent what he did then.
The comparison breaks down in that McCain apparently already *has* a ring of power...
http://eisengeiste.blogspot.com/...ement-
post.html
That was a fantastic article. Well-written, well-thought out, just a good piece of literature. I wish I could nominate it for a Pulitzer. Keep up the good work!
"In the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!," said Hillary Clinton, and after a long, silent pause before the stunned press corps, she lowered her arms and boarded the flight for Newark.
HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa
The article does a great job of capturing the slimy mess that is John McCain and that is US politics. Keep in mind that Hillary is not much higher up on the morality scale (a bit more coherent, I'll grant you) and we don't even know enough about Obama to make an informed judgement. Yep, they're all serioulsy compromised, so our job is to try to determine which is the least worst choice.
ahhh, yes.....President McGollum. For once, let's we the electors do something brilliant and elect this crazed, shameless, broken man to the White House.
Clinton and Obama are pathetic and perfect candidates for the Pathetic Party. Yet, in the face of the Great Collapse and Greater Depression coming soon regardless of president, why give the Republicans a scapegoat when McCain could preside over the collapse and destroy the Republican Party .... FOREVER! Let the bedwetters shit themselves over McCain. We can put him in the White HOuse and the Republicans can own the damage they've created for all of time. A shattered, disgraced, disowned party of selfish, racist, misogynists, mass murderers and self aggrandizing cowards turned out for all time, en masse, to endure permanent ridicule and disgust. Enshrined forever in history as criminals, as they, en masse, all go Gollum> Vote McCain!
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