Velvet Gloves

The ladies of the View seem to be better journalists than the majority of scribblers and talking heads at the major three networks and the cable stations.

Their interview with McCain may have started out with hugs and kisses, but they quickly brought out the bondage gear and showed him who was truly in power. Barbara called him on Palin's comments about reform, Joy went after him about kowtowing to the right to win. 

And then the lies. Teehee! Joy discussed the erroneous ads that McCain has run and his own use of the "lipstick on a pig" comment. Mac blamed the tenor of the campaign partly on Obama's unwillingness to do town hall meetings with him. I think that is weak.

In the second part, Whoopi asks him if he believes in a separation between church and state. He only threw out "In God we trust" twice. She emphasized the diversity of religions in our country and how do they fall into the governing of this nation for the greater good of its inhabitants. And oh goodie, he prays everyday. That comforts me.

Then Elizabeth actually asked him about Roe v. Wade and would he overturn it. Sorry I don't believe him when he says he wouldn't impose a litmus test, and when the man says that Roe v. Wade was a bad decision my head starts to explode. Listen carefully to this section because Whoopi nails him with whether she should be worried about being a slave again. And he says he respects others views on abortion, but I don't see how you can say that and want to make the choice of whether to carry a fetus to term unavailable.

I could have done without the POW suck up talk at the end.

The third part of the interview brought Cindy McCain out to join the whole gang and was a bit more touchy feely and lovey dovey. So whatever.

But the fact that Joy and Whoopi and Barbara actually had the brass ones to confront him on some questions that other "journalists" haven't so I have to applaud them for that.

Keystone Comments

"You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate." Ed Rendell, Pennsylvania Governor, April 15, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Isn't it interesting that the press is still trying to make a big deal out of Obama's "bitter" remark, but the Pennsylvania Governor makes the following statement (which is just as sadly true as what Obama said in my humble opinion) and little is heard about it?

In fact when I googled Rendell and Obama, it came up at the very bottom of the first page.

IN OTHER NEWS: The McCain Edition

• If you have heard about McCain's "gas-tax holiday" idea your initial reaction may be YIPPEE. Well, sorry, but you might want to curb that enthusiasm just a wee bit. It is a bad, bad, bad idea. It would actually end up costing us $11 billion a year and cause gas prices to increase even more. Don't believe me? Read more here. 
• Despite his recent comments on The View, McCain is not going to be lending his support to the bipartisan renewal and expansion of the GI bill I discussed previously. Salon has more.
• And in case you had planned to prepare a McCain family favorite for dinner tonight, per the recipes offered up on the GOP candidates Web site (courtesy of his gracious wife, Cindy) you might want to call up Paula Deen or Rachel Ray and offer them your thanks instead. Apparently the recipes were lifted WORD FOR WORD from Foodtv.com. Really? Come on guys, you couldn't take the five minutes it would have required to get Mrs. McCain to share her secret Mac n' cheese recipe (stir in one injured war veteran and add lots of velvetta!)? This is just sad.

The Old College Try

I have been meaning to jump into the ongoing hullabaloo about the GI bill, but McCain's recent appearance on The View has finally compelled me to get down to it. (Yes it has come to this, even the GOP will go play suck up with Babawawa and her minions to get the daytime TV viewer to vote for them. I wonder if Elisabeth Hasselbeck offered to stir his coffee for him or anything?)

If you have the time and nothing else to do you can catch the whole thing here. What really interests me is McCain's comments on the GI bill. A little background first:

James Webb, the Virginia senator, a democrat and also a veteran of Vietnam has authored some legislation (along with fellow senator and vet and Republican, Chuck Hagel) that would revamp the GI bill. You may remember that a generation of Americans used the bill to pay for college after WWII, resulting in a strong middle class and a great period of prosperity for the United States. While, times they have changed. Today, the benefits for vets have shrunk and what used to pay for four years at any school, now won't cover three years at a public university. (Side note: members of the National Guard receive even less help.)

So in steps Webb. He estimates that it would cost about $2 billion (according to Newsweek's Anna Quindlen, this is about half what we spend a year on recruitment, and what we are spending in a couple of days in Iraq). The Department of Defense has been balking over the bill—saying that giving the soldiers more educational opportunities would hurt retention. We wouldn't want you to be short on warm bodies to send off to die, now would we!

Here is where McCain enters the picture. He hasn't endorsed or supported the bill, despite the fact that he, of course, received his college education at the Naval Academy, courtesy of the American tax-payer. Think he forgot? However, on The View he makes the statement that "[O]ne of the things we ought to do is provide them [the vets] significant educational benefits in return for serving."

WTF????? Does Walters and Whoopi have some magic power or is McCain simply pandering yet again. Maybe he needs a definition of significant. He has in the last couple of days flip flopped on his plan on how to fix the current mortgage crisis so maybe this is just his week to change his mind.

Back to the vets, Quindlen cites statistics from the Bureau of Labor that unemployment among young vets is THREE TIMES the national average. Apparently there are already some Iraqi vets who are homeless and/or suffering from substance abuse problems. So definitely giving these young people the option of higher education would be a good thing. Maybe if they felt they had a hope for the future and a chance for a good job after they are cast aside by this administration they wouldn't be in such straits.

Quindlen concludes by quoting Harry Colmery, the man who created the original GI bill:

"If we can spend 200 to 300 billion dollars to teach our men and women to kill, why quibble over a billion or so to help them to have the opportunity to earn economic independence and to enjoy the fruits of freedom?"

I don't think there is much else to say.