I don’t know what the L.A. Times readership profile is, but their feedback on this issue was amazing – 95% spitting and snarling about how the US should never bow down to anyone. Maybe the nutjob network put out an APB to fan the flames on this one.
Why hasn’t the Gosinski story got much traction yet? The facilitation and covering up of money-bank wife’s addiction and crimes is a real insight into McCain’s character. And the way he bullied the whistleblower into silence was just despicable.
Prescription pain-killers and Cindy McCain
Evidently the Straight Talk Express has managed to flatten like a road-kill possum the ugly details surrounding Cindy McCain’s addiction to pain-killers from 1989 to 1992. Drug addiction can happen to the nicest people… and hooray for those who manage to shake it. But the McCains threw several innocent people and a charity under the bus in the process, and – with the power of their influence (the nastiest attorneys money can buy) – got off scot free, Cindy smelling like a recovered rose.
While McCain’s accounts have captured the pain of her addiction, her journey through this personal crisis is a more complicated story than she has described, and it had more consequences for her and those around her than she has acknowledged.
Her misuse of painkillers prompted an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and local prosecutors that put her in legal jeopardy. A doctor with McCain’s medical charity who supplied her with prescriptions for the drugs lost his license and never practiced again. The charity, the American Voluntary Medical Team, eventually had to be closed in the wake of the controversy. Her husband was forced to admit publicly that he was absent much of the time she was having problems and was not aware of them.
“So many lives were damaged by this,” said Jeanette Johnson, whose husband, John Max Johnson, surrendered his medical license. “A lot of good people. Doctors who volunteered their time. My husband. I cannot begin to tell you how painful it was. We moved far away to start over.”
McCain’s addiction also embroiled her with one of her charity’s former employees, Tom Gosinski, who reported her drug use to the DEA and provided prosecutors with a contemporaneous journal that detailed the effects of her drug problems. He was later accused by a lawyer for McCain of trying to extort money from the McCain family.
“It’s not just about her addiction, it’s what she did to cover up her addiction and the lives of other people that she ruined, or put at jeopardy at least,” Gosinski said in an interview this week.
McCain’s lawyers pulled every possible string to make Cindy’s case disappear, when if she had been a regular citizen like the rest of us, she’d have spent 20 years in the slammer for “obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresenting, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge.”
Meanwhile they made Gosinski and Johnson’s life a misery, and took the charity down with them.
That Sue that just orgasmed over the magnificent Sarah for no apparent reason… is she the same one that burst into song about seeing Mother Teresa and the face of God through Cindy’s sainted eyes yesterday?
Jesus Christ, I worry about some of you people.
(In the event you are simply taking the piss and I missed it, Sue, my apologies)
United States 8.40
Canada 5.45
Denmark 5.17
France 4.60
Portugal 4.50
Australia 4.48
Germany 4.20
Belgium 2.80
Spain 2.28
Switzerland 2.25
Italy 2.18
Norway 1.99
United Kingdom 1.97
Austria 1.80
Greece 1.76
Sweden 1.73
Japan 1.20
Ireland 0.96
Finland 0.70
Nasty, pesky little fact things. Gosh, how they get in the way of a good wingbat argument. Please T, do call us back when the US has earned any kind of right to lecture the rest of us on gun control…
Absolute bollocks T. Here in the civilised world we have maybe 5% of the gun crime that you do, and our ‘other weapons’ murders are a fraction of yours as well.
What the hell do you think you’ll achieve by lying through your teeth? Become VP or something?
Stand by for a wild week, Alan. I think you can look forward to major meltdown from Hannity and his soft-brained pals as they flail around trying to blame Barack for the finance stuff, but not knowing whether they should call the bail-out good or bad will do their heads in.
I get most of my US tv news from Fox, so all the time I am trying to peak past the spin at work out what the facts are. Imagine my surprise just now when I turned to MSNBC and see an apparently well regarded expert answer a question like this:
MSNBC Guy: “So which of these two candidates gives the most confidence as to how he’ll handle the financial situation?”
EXPERT: “I am biased in this matter – I support one of the candidates, so I can’t help having my personal feelings coloured by that. What I can tell you is that both are taking it very seriously, both have surrounded themselves with experts to get the best advice they can. One or the other will actually have to take over a recovery that is already underway and they don’t want to make things even more difficult.”
That’s it – the situation as he sees it with absolutely no editorialising. Talk about a refreshing change!
What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. Watching her deny to Gibson that she had ever harbored the slightest doubt about her readiness to take command of the world’s only superpower, one got the feeling that Palin would gladly assume any responsibility on earth:
“Governor Palin, are you ready at this moment to perform surgery on this child’s brain?”
“Of course, Charlie. I have several boys of my own, and I’m an avid hunter.”
“But governor, this is neurosurgery, and you have no training as a surgeon of any kind.”
“That’s just the point, Charlie. The American people want change in how we make medical decisions in this country. And when faced with a challenge, you cannot blink.”
Like the bumper sticker says, ‘Fundamentalism Stops A Thinking Brain’. Such a pity to waste the only major advantage you have over the animal kingdom, but if you are so determined to maintain your pig ignorance, what can we do?
Through the wonders of science, you know, observation, thought, reason, all that heathen stuff, we can now analyse mitachondrial DNA (not he usual one, the special DNA that is only passed down through the maternal line). With pretty high accuracy, it is now possible to determine how long ago you and any monkey shared a common ancestor. Belive it or not they can even work out how far back it was that you and that banana you’re fixated upon were part of the same plantation.
Life is full of wonder and discovery. But what does that matter? You have your fantasy-based beliefs to sustain you.
Too stupid to bother with. Goodbye THE CONSERVATIVE.
Poor little kid. Considered adoption Gail? Growing up with a mother so full of hatred is a terrible prospect.
Seriously, you are never going to outlaw abortion until you get rid of democracy – it’s a simple fact that not enough people agree with you and that number is shrinking all the time. If you are determined to save those black babies, you would be way better off working to control drugs, to improve education levels for black girls and to make poverty history.
Electing your first black President, an honorable, caring and brilliant man, would be a wonderful step along the way to true equality – and thousands of those little babies would not only be saved but have way better lives to live ahead of them.
Hell, another palpable hit from the rapier-like intellect of THE. Nobody gives two figs what you or your dopey pastors think about evolution, fool, no more than we’d buy tickets to the moon on a faith-based rocketship.
Every single culture on Earth developed its own creation story just as soon as their brains were big enough to wonder what it was all about. Our curiosity is what separates us from lower life forms – we look for clues, we build up knowledge, we come up with theories that gel with observed evidence, we adapt or discard those theories as new knowledge is uncovered.
Except when it comes to what we were brainwashed with as children or talked into when we were down between boyfriends or ran out of money for drugs. Then all reason and logic goes out the window and we believe whatever some stupid, primitive, self-contradicting book says. Well, the more dense of us do. There are an awful lot of religious types only in it for the career advancement, social acceptance and power they can get.
Personally, I really enjoyed The Monkees in their time – they had a terrific song for you. ‘Daydream Believer’.
Oh gosh, Gail, once would have been plenty. Another brainwashed and brainwashing troll. I saw this sad woman on Fox spewing the hate she’d been programmed to say and blaming poor old Barack like the rest of you. Alan obviously felt too sorry for her to put the boot in to her lame arguments.
The Illinois anti-abortionists tried a back door legislative manouevre to make it harder for women to make their own choices and control their own bodies. Barack argued that the current legal set-up provided perfectly adequately for the rare circumstances they were pretending to be concerned about. They lost with their little charade, end of story.
Then one-issue fools like you lap up the hatred from the likes of that appalling Coulter thing, accusing Obama of trying to chase fetuses down and slaughter if not eat them. Get a frigging life.
Oh, I see… so the 10 commandments only apply within the biblical bounds of Israel… and Jesus didn’t say he had not come to replace the old teachings, but to add to them…
Careful now THE… there are souls to be saved, remember, this is your big chance and the magic messiah will be really cross if you stuff it up…
Oh you pathetic fool. All those years of evolution giving you the greatest gift we have, to reason, and you can’t be bothered putting your brain into gear.
Claims to have the answer to life, the universe and everything and he or she can’t even answer a simple question. What a dunce.
If we are to believe your divine magic message about abortion, why are we not seeing you slaying your cheeky children and stoning your rape victims? Are some bits of God’s Inspired and Infallible Word more inspired and infallible than others?
Come on THE… immortal souls, others as well as mine, are at risk here. It’s your opportunity to catch us with just the right message at just the right time and deliver us to Jaysus!!!
Nice light-hearted look at the Half-Baked Alaskan from Katie Halper at Alternet:
Sarah Palin was ambushed by Charlie Gibson with a gotcha question about the Bush Doctrine. Well, maybe Palin isn’t an expert on the current president’s doctrine, but she has a doctrine of her own, the Palin Doctrine, which strikes a balance between governmental largess and governmental neglect.
Under said doctrine, for example, the government will pay for basic necessities such as installing a tanning bed in the Governor’s mansion. We all know a depressed Governor makes a depressed state, and nothing gets rid of Seasonal Anxiety Disorder better than a fake tan. So Palin was acting with the economic and emotional well-being of Alaska in mind, when she had a tanning bed installed in her house.
As the women of Wasilla know, however, the Palin doctrine rejects wasteful hand-outs such as rape kits. During Palin’s mayoralty, women were stuck with the tab for their forensic exams, which range from $300 to $1,200. Brave, forward lokking Mrs Palin refuses to perpetuate the endless cycle of rape-victim welfare.
By paying for rape kits, the government would be rewarding people who break their abstinence-only pledges, which, as we all know, are sacred to the entire Palin family, especially Bristol. But by charging rape victims, the government encourages women to keep their purity pledges to their fathers. Plus the expense, makes women think twice about crying wolf, thus helping to reduce Alaska’s (official) per capita rape rate, which stands among the highest in our great nation.
Someone will do a study on it all at some stage – my guess is that they are just so scared of everything in life, the truth doesn’t get a look-in.
I cannot get my head around their ability to pick out teensy little problems (real or imagined) with their opponents and harp on them forever – ‘clinging to guns and religion’, ‘proud of country’ etc – and at the same time totally discount the huge, glaring elephants stomping around in their own room.
We wince at our side’s stumbles – course we do, they are not perfect – but these wingnuts seem to be so driven on their mission to get or retain power they don’t give two tosses how much lying, manipulation and nastiness it takes. Kinda defeats the purpose in my way of looking at the world.
Jesus Christ – the mumbo jumbo hocus pocus follower is condescending to the reality based correspondent. Stop acting like a sanctimonious prat and tell me why your magic has any more credibility than bin Laden’s nutjob ‘martyrs’ and their 72 virgins.
Fred Thompson Declares Afghan War Lost; Attacked Reid When Reid Said Iraq Was Lost
November 19th, 2009 at 6:22 pmWaiting nine years for brain surgery? That’s terrible.
Fred Thompson Declares Afghan War Lost; Attacked Reid When Reid Said Iraq Was Lost
November 19th, 2009 at 6:20 pmNow that would be a pretty exclusive club!
Fred Thompson Declares Afghan War Lost; Attacked Reid When Reid Said Iraq Was Lost
November 19th, 2009 at 4:55 pmGosh, how self-aware you are, Mr (or Ms) Piffle…
Bama Bashers Upset That He Observes Foreign Customs
November 15th, 2009 at 2:36 pmI don’t know what the L.A. Times readership profile is, but their feedback on this issue was amazing – 95% spitting and snarling about how the US should never bow down to anyone. Maybe the nutjob network put out an APB to fan the flames on this one.
McCain Opposes Golden Parachutes (Unless They're For His Friends)
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:52 pmWhy hasn’t the Gosinski story got much traction yet? The facilitation and covering up of money-bank wife’s addiction and crimes is a real insight into McCain’s character. And the way he bullied the whistleblower into silence was just despicable.
Prescription pain-killers and Cindy McCain
Evidently the Straight Talk Express has managed to flatten like a road-kill possum the ugly details surrounding Cindy McCain’s addiction to pain-killers from 1989 to 1992. Drug addiction can happen to the nicest people… and hooray for those who manage to shake it. But the McCains threw several innocent people and a charity under the bus in the process, and – with the power of their influence (the nastiest attorneys money can buy) – got off scot free, Cindy smelling like a recovered rose.
While McCain’s accounts have captured the pain of her addiction, her journey through this personal crisis is a more complicated story than she has described, and it had more consequences for her and those around her than she has acknowledged.
Her misuse of painkillers prompted an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and local prosecutors that put her in legal jeopardy. A doctor with McCain’s medical charity who supplied her with prescriptions for the drugs lost his license and never practiced again. The charity, the American Voluntary Medical Team, eventually had to be closed in the wake of the controversy. Her husband was forced to admit publicly that he was absent much of the time she was having problems and was not aware of them.
“So many lives were damaged by this,” said Jeanette Johnson, whose husband, John Max Johnson, surrendered his medical license. “A lot of good people. Doctors who volunteered their time. My husband. I cannot begin to tell you how painful it was. We moved far away to start over.”
McCain’s addiction also embroiled her with one of her charity’s former employees, Tom Gosinski, who reported her drug use to the DEA and provided prosecutors with a contemporaneous journal that detailed the effects of her drug problems. He was later accused by a lawyer for McCain of trying to extort money from the McCain family.
“It’s not just about her addiction, it’s what she did to cover up her addiction and the lives of other people that she ruined, or put at jeopardy at least,” Gosinski said in an interview this week.
McCain’s lawyers pulled every possible string to make Cindy’s case disappear, when if she had been a regular citizen like the rest of us, she’d have spent 20 years in the slammer for “obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresenting, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge.”
Meanwhile they made Gosinski and Johnson’s life a misery, and took the charity down with them.
Nice people.
Palin May Also Have A Pipeline To Nowhere
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:42 pmThat Sue that just orgasmed over the magnificent Sarah for no apparent reason… is she the same one that burst into song about seeing Mother Teresa and the face of God through Cindy’s sainted eyes yesterday?
Jesus Christ, I worry about some of you people.
(In the event you are simply taking the piss and I missed it, Sue, my apologies)
McCain Opposes Golden Parachutes (Unless They're For His Friends)
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:30 pmHe has lost it, poor old soul.
Why does McCain remind me more and more of King Lear, confused and naked on the moor, railing impotently against the storm breaking all round him…
McCain: We Can Do For Health Care What We Did For The Economy
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:20 pmMurder rate (per 100,000 people)
United States 8.40
Canada 5.45
Denmark 5.17
France 4.60
Portugal 4.50
Australia 4.48
Germany 4.20
Belgium 2.80
Spain 2.28
Switzerland 2.25
Italy 2.18
Norway 1.99
United Kingdom 1.97
Austria 1.80
Greece 1.76
Sweden 1.73
Japan 1.20
Ireland 0.96
Finland 0.70
Nasty, pesky little fact things. Gosh, how they get in the way of a good wingbat argument. Please T, do call us back when the US has earned any kind of right to lecture the rest of us on gun control…
McCain: We Can Do For Health Care What We Did For The Economy
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:53 amAbsolute bollocks T. Here in the civilised world we have maybe 5% of the gun crime that you do, and our ‘other weapons’ murders are a fraction of yours as well.
What the hell do you think you’ll achieve by lying through your teeth? Become VP or something?
So Much In Love
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 amExcuse the sloppy typing – it’s damned late here.
Meant to say ‘I am trying to peek past the spin and work out what the facts are.’
So Much In Love
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:43 amStand by for a wild week, Alan. I think you can look forward to major meltdown from Hannity and his soft-brained pals as they flail around trying to blame Barack for the finance stuff, but not knowing whether they should call the bail-out good or bad will do their heads in.
I get most of my US tv news from Fox, so all the time I am trying to peak past the spin at work out what the facts are. Imagine my surprise just now when I turned to MSNBC and see an apparently well regarded expert answer a question like this:
MSNBC Guy: “So which of these two candidates gives the most confidence as to how he’ll handle the financial situation?”
EXPERT: “I am biased in this matter – I support one of the candidates, so I can’t help having my personal feelings coloured by that. What I can tell you is that both are taking it very seriously, both have surrounded themselves with experts to get the best advice they can. One or the other will actually have to take over a recovery that is already underway and they don’t want to make things even more difficult.”
That’s it – the situation as he sees it with absolutely no editorialising. Talk about a refreshing change!
This Week's SNL Open, My Friends
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:23 amFrom Newsweek…
What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. Watching her deny to Gibson that she had ever harbored the slightest doubt about her readiness to take command of the world’s only superpower, one got the feeling that Palin would gladly assume any responsibility on earth:
“Governor Palin, are you ready at this moment to perform surgery on this child’s brain?”
“Of course, Charlie. I have several boys of my own, and I’m an avid hunter.”
“But governor, this is neurosurgery, and you have no training as a surgeon of any kind.”
“That’s just the point, Charlie. The American people want change in how we make medical decisions in this country. And when faced with a challenge, you cannot blink.”
May I Please Have $700 Billion? Please?
September 21st, 2008 at 12:16 pmJesus, another serial boremonger. What makes you think we’re all lining up to read your dirtboy’s longwinded bull once, Percy, let alone twice??
FNFFA
September 21st, 2008 at 12:11 pmLike the bumper sticker says, ‘Fundamentalism Stops A Thinking Brain’. Such a pity to waste the only major advantage you have over the animal kingdom, but if you are so determined to maintain your pig ignorance, what can we do?
Through the wonders of science, you know, observation, thought, reason, all that heathen stuff, we can now analyse mitachondrial DNA (not he usual one, the special DNA that is only passed down through the maternal line). With pretty high accuracy, it is now possible to determine how long ago you and any monkey shared a common ancestor. Belive it or not they can even work out how far back it was that you and that banana you’re fixated upon were part of the same plantation.
Life is full of wonder and discovery. But what does that matter? You have your fantasy-based beliefs to sustain you.
Too stupid to bother with. Goodbye THE CONSERVATIVE.
Palin May Also Have A Pipeline To Nowhere
September 21st, 2008 at 11:29 amAnd he got a special hair-do for the big date! How poor Alan puts up with the appalling man I have no idea – I guess the money helps :)
Your Favorite Posts
September 21st, 2008 at 11:27 amI’m still pretty keen on the Palin Rape Kit story. What kind of woman is this???
"First Dude" Refuses To Testify In Abuse-Of-Power Investigation
September 21st, 2008 at 11:22 amPoor little kid. Considered adoption Gail? Growing up with a mother so full of hatred is a terrible prospect.
Seriously, you are never going to outlaw abortion until you get rid of democracy – it’s a simple fact that not enough people agree with you and that number is shrinking all the time. If you are determined to save those black babies, you would be way better off working to control drugs, to improve education levels for black girls and to make poverty history.
Electing your first black President, an honorable, caring and brilliant man, would be a wonderful step along the way to true equality – and thousands of those little babies would not only be saved but have way better lives to live ahead of them.
FNFFA
September 21st, 2008 at 11:08 amOh dear, that other drongo has joined the conversation. Why don’t you cloud cuckoo people just chat amongst yourselves…
FNFFA
September 21st, 2008 at 11:06 amHell, another palpable hit from the rapier-like intellect of THE. Nobody gives two figs what you or your dopey pastors think about evolution, fool, no more than we’d buy tickets to the moon on a faith-based rocketship.
Every single culture on Earth developed its own creation story just as soon as their brains were big enough to wonder what it was all about. Our curiosity is what separates us from lower life forms – we look for clues, we build up knowledge, we come up with theories that gel with observed evidence, we adapt or discard those theories as new knowledge is uncovered.
Except when it comes to what we were brainwashed with as children or talked into when we were down between boyfriends or ran out of money for drugs. Then all reason and logic goes out the window and we believe whatever some stupid, primitive, self-contradicting book says. Well, the more dense of us do. There are an awful lot of religious types only in it for the career advancement, social acceptance and power they can get.
Personally, I really enjoyed The Monkees in their time – they had a terrific song for you. ‘Daydream Believer’.
"First Dude" Refuses To Testify In Abuse-Of-Power Investigation
September 21st, 2008 at 10:46 amOh gosh, Gail, once would have been plenty. Another brainwashed and brainwashing troll. I saw this sad woman on Fox spewing the hate she’d been programmed to say and blaming poor old Barack like the rest of you. Alan obviously felt too sorry for her to put the boot in to her lame arguments.
The Illinois anti-abortionists tried a back door legislative manouevre to make it harder for women to make their own choices and control their own bodies. Barack argued that the current legal set-up provided perfectly adequately for the rare circumstances they were pretending to be concerned about. They lost with their little charade, end of story.
Then one-issue fools like you lap up the hatred from the likes of that appalling Coulter thing, accusing Obama of trying to chase fetuses down and slaughter if not eat them. Get a frigging life.
FNFFA
September 21st, 2008 at 10:23 amOh, I see… so the 10 commandments only apply within the biblical bounds of Israel… and Jesus didn’t say he had not come to replace the old teachings, but to add to them…
Careful now THE… there are souls to be saved, remember, this is your big chance and the magic messiah will be really cross if you stuff it up…
FNFFA
September 21st, 2008 at 10:18 amOh you pathetic fool. All those years of evolution giving you the greatest gift we have, to reason, and you can’t be bothered putting your brain into gear.
Claims to have the answer to life, the universe and everything and he or she can’t even answer a simple question. What a dunce.
If we are to believe your divine magic message about abortion, why are we not seeing you slaying your cheeky children and stoning your rape victims? Are some bits of God’s Inspired and Infallible Word more inspired and infallible than others?
Come on THE… immortal souls, others as well as mine, are at risk here. It’s your opportunity to catch us with just the right message at just the right time and deliver us to Jaysus!!!
Your Turn
September 21st, 2008 at 10:04 amNice light-hearted look at the Half-Baked Alaskan from Katie Halper at Alternet:
Sarah Palin was ambushed by Charlie Gibson with a gotcha question about the Bush Doctrine. Well, maybe Palin isn’t an expert on the current president’s doctrine, but she has a doctrine of her own, the Palin Doctrine, which strikes a balance between governmental largess and governmental neglect.
Under said doctrine, for example, the government will pay for basic necessities such as installing a tanning bed in the Governor’s mansion. We all know a depressed Governor makes a depressed state, and nothing gets rid of Seasonal Anxiety Disorder better than a fake tan. So Palin was acting with the economic and emotional well-being of Alaska in mind, when she had a tanning bed installed in her house.
As the women of Wasilla know, however, the Palin doctrine rejects wasteful hand-outs such as rape kits. During Palin’s mayoralty, women were stuck with the tab for their forensic exams, which range from $300 to $1,200. Brave, forward lokking Mrs Palin refuses to perpetuate the endless cycle of rape-victim welfare.
By paying for rape kits, the government would be rewarding people who break their abstinence-only pledges, which, as we all know, are sacred to the entire Palin family, especially Bristol. But by charging rape victims, the government encourages women to keep their purity pledges to their fathers. Plus the expense, makes women think twice about crying wolf, thus helping to reduce Alaska’s (official) per capita rape rate, which stands among the highest in our great nation.
"First Dude" Refuses To Testify In Abuse-Of-Power Investigation
September 21st, 2008 at 9:53 amSomeone will do a study on it all at some stage – my guess is that they are just so scared of everything in life, the truth doesn’t get a look-in.
I cannot get my head around their ability to pick out teensy little problems (real or imagined) with their opponents and harp on them forever – ‘clinging to guns and religion’, ‘proud of country’ etc – and at the same time totally discount the huge, glaring elephants stomping around in their own room.
We wince at our side’s stumbles – course we do, they are not perfect – but these wingnuts seem to be so driven on their mission to get or retain power they don’t give two tosses how much lying, manipulation and nastiness it takes. Kinda defeats the purpose in my way of looking at the world.
FNFFA
September 21st, 2008 at 9:41 amJesus Christ – the mumbo jumbo hocus pocus follower is condescending to the reality based correspondent. Stop acting like a sanctimonious prat and tell me why your magic has any more credibility than bin Laden’s nutjob ‘martyrs’ and their 72 virgins.