Despite the fact that the Democratic primaries are still going on, and John McCain appears to find himself embroiled in a bit of controversy these days, McCain can rest assured that he will, in fact, become the 44th President of the United States.
Although it is a bit premature, John McCain can rest assured that all of the hard work is behind him.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
America's Next President Announced Early: John McCain!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Sex Scandal for John McCain!
Is this woman the next Monica Lewinsky?
According to the NY Times, John McCain may have been involved in a romantic relationship with female lobbyist, Vicki Iseman. The extent of their romantic relationship is still unknown but at the very least this poses serious questions as to the influence of lobbyists over McCain. The article goes so far as saying that McCain's advisors had to intervene themselves to "protect the candidate from himself."
Could this be another Lewinsky?
We'll find out more as this develops.
Read the NY Times article below.
A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, in his offices and aboard a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.
When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s clients, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.
Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.
It had been just a decade since an official favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended Mr. McCain’s political career by ensnaring him in the Keating Five scandal. In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame.
But the concerns about Mr. McCain’s relationship with Ms. Iseman underscored an enduring paradox of his post-Keating career. Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards, his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest.
Mr. McCain promised, for example, never to fly directly from
Mr. McCain helped found a nonprofit group to promote his personal battle for tighter campaign finance rules. But he later resigned as its chairman after news reports disclosed that the group was tapping the same kinds of unlimited corporate contributions he opposed, including those from companies seeking his favor. He has criticized the cozy ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, but is relying on corporate lobbyists to donate their time running his presidential race and recently hired a lobbyist to run his Senate office.
“He is essentially an honorable person,” said William P. Cheshire, a friend of Mr. McCain who as editorial page editor of The Arizona Republic defended him during the Keating Five scandal. “But he can be imprudent.”
Mr. Cheshire added, “That imprudence or recklessness may be part of why he was not more astute about the risks he was running with this shady operator,” Charles Keating, whose ties to Mr. McCain and four other lawmakers tainted them in the savings and loan debacle.
During his current campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. McCain has played down his attacks on the corrupting power of money in politics, aware that the stricter regulations he championed are unpopular in his party. When the Senate overhauled lobbying and ethics rules last year, Mr. McCain was not among the leaders in the debate.
With his nomination this year all but certain, though, he is reminding voters again of his record of reform. His campaign has already begun comparing his credentials with those of Senator Barack Obama, a Democratic contender who has made lobbying and ethics rules a centerpiece of his own pitch to voters.
“I would very much like to think that I have never been a man whose favor can be bought,” Mr. McCain wrote about his Keating experience in his 2002 memoir, “Worth the Fighting For.” “From my earliest youth, I would have considered such a reputation to be the most shameful ignominy imaginable. Yet that is exactly how millions of Americans viewed me for a time, a time that I will forever consider one of the worst experiences of my life.”
A drive to expunge the stain on his reputation in time turned into a zeal to cleanse
To read the rest of the article click here.
UPDATE: U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today issued the following statement by Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker:
"It is a shame that the New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.
"Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career."
A response but not exactly a flat denial.
Tags:
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The Best of the NBA Dunk Contest
In honor of All-Star Saturday night, here's an old-school video featuring some of the greatest dunks of all time:
Even though Michael Jordan is my favorite athlete ever, I have to concede that Vince Carter is the greatest dunker I've ever seen. Jason Richardson is by far the most underrated. Here's a much-watch video featuring a comparison of their best dunks:
Finally, here are the highlights of tonight's dunk contest; I never thought somebody as tall as Dwight Howard could put on a performance like this:
Tags:
Monday, February 11, 2008
Grammy Wrap Up 2008
With all of the early concern that the Writer's Strike might ruin this year's Grammy's it seemed as strong as ever last night. The big winners of the night were Kanye West and Amy Winehouse picking up four and five awards respectively. Those two also may have shared the "moments of the night" with Amy Winehouse's utterly stunned response to winning Record of the Year for her ironic, "Rehab."
The other moment came from Kanye to-tha after receiving the Best Rap Album award. During his acceptance speech, the orchestra started playing that "wrap it up" music while he was talking about his mother but he was not having it. Check it out.
I also thought it was great that Barack Obama's audio verson of Audacity of Hope managed to beat Bill Clinton's Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World. Not exactly a delegate, but every little bit matters.
Here is a list of the important winners.
Album of the Year: "River: The Joni Letters," Herbie Hancock.
Record of the Year: "Rehab," Amy Winehouse.
Song of the Year: "Rehab," Amy Winehouse (Amy Winehouse).
New Artist: Amy Winehouse.
Producer of the Year, Non-Classical: Mark Ronson.
Rap Album: "Graduation," Kanye West.
Rap Solo Performance: "Stronger," Kanye West.
Rap Performance by a Duo or Group: "Southside," Common, featuring Kanye West.
Rap/Sung Collaboration: "Umbrella," Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z.
Rap Song: "Good Life," Kanye West Featuring T-Pain.
R&B Album: "Funk This," Chaka Khan.
R&B Song: "No One," Dirty Harry, Kerry Brothers & Alicia Keys, songwriters (Alicia Keys).
Contemporary R&B Album: "Because of You," Ne-Yo.
Female R&B Vocal Performance: "No One," Alicia Keys.
Male R&B Vocal Performance: "Future Baby Mama," Prince.
R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals: "Disrespectful," Chaka Khan, featuring Mary J. Blige.t.
Urban/Alternative Performance: "Daydreamin'," Lupe Fiasco, featuring Jill Scott.
Dance Recording: "LoveStoned/I Think She Knows," Justin Timberlake, Nate (Danja) Hills, Timbaland & Justin Timberlake, producers; Jimmy Douglass & Timbaland, mixers.
Reggae: "Mind Control," Stephen Marley.
Pop Vocal Album: "Back to Black," Amy Winehouse.
Female Pop Vocal Performance: "Rehab," Amy Winehouse.
Male Pop Vocal Performance: "What Goes Around...Comes Around," Justin Timberlake.
Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals: "Makes Me Wonder," Maroon 5.
Spoken Word: "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream," Barack Obama
Comedy Album: "The Distant Future," Flight of the Conchords.
Tags:
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
On Voting Today, For the First Time, and Maybe the Last..?
Today for the first time in my natural life, I voted.
Despite the ridiculously anticlimactic nature of voting (much like terrible sex..ten minutes to figure out where everything is, another five to figure out how to operate the machinery, followed by thirty wondering what the hell just happened) I am euphoric. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who never voted out of sloth, apathy, or time constraints. No, I was a conscious non-voter, a subscriber to a Ghandi-like philosophy of nonviolence and nonparticipation. I refused to participate in the political process as my own little 150 pounds of protest.
People have in the past asked me how I can so easily forsake my 'civic duty'. But I believe that concepts like duty, respect, honor, and truth are, for lack of a better cliche, two way streets. Duty must be reciprocated, not blindly poured into some system that has no regard for me like unrequited love. This sense of jadedness comes from chronically having watched politicians partake in politics as usual. All across the world I've had the pleasure of seeing world leaders be, well... just like one another.
I've sat and listened to Ion Iliescu of Romania be charming and witty as he pretended to not be a criminal. I've witnessed Berlusconi brazenly and unabashedly exert his control over a majority of Italy's national media. And I have even lived in a Namibia in which being black and not poor and not uneducated made myself and my family paradoxical to say the least, but problematic to put it bluntly.
And all of these situations and people and nations have one thing in common-- they were lead by individuals who, having little regard for those whom they are sworn to serve, carried out their own agendas with a bravado and absolutism reminiscent of the Divine Right of Kings.
In these set of circumstances, what foolishly optimistic human being could cast a vote with any genuine sense of hope?
But enough of that. That was the past, my formerly pessimistic self! Now I'm reveling in my post-vote euphoria! I am celebrating democracy and all of its glories! I'm getting misty eyed at the reading of the Declaration of Independence during the Superbowl! No longer am I a political atheist, I have been reformed and baptized anew!
And you know WHY?
Because, and god help me for it, I have the audacity to hope.
When I try to explain to my significant other exactly what it is about Barack that instills me with foolish hope, I fall short. I can't explain it. It is truly a strange sensation... faith in a politician, the belief that he generally wants to do good things, and given the chance, will do them. It is a belief that he deserves to be in office precisely becase he doesn't inherently want to be president, but rather desires a set of circumstances that can only be engineered with him leading the nation.
And people will invariably ask me if part of the reason I like him so much is because he's black. To which I honestly respond, no. If he was a white politician and exactly the same, I'd still be writing this. But, lest we forget, 1968 was not very long ago, and I don't believe you can fault a group of people for measuring their progress, on this day, in one man.
~Eri
Tags:
Monday, February 4, 2008
Perfection Denied - The Patriots Suffer the Toughest Loss in Recent Sports History
One loss has never loomed so large. It turns out, The New England Patriots are not The Greatest Team of All Time, as they were being hailed. And even though they are going down in history, they'll be there for all the wrong reasons. They will forever be considered one of sports' greatest disappointments, grouped with the likes of the 1991 UNLV men's basketball team, another group that didn't lose until it mattered most. It's possible for one loss to overshadow eighteen victories, and we saw it last night. And while I hate to look at a game from the loser's perspective, the historical aspect of this loss is too hard to ignore.
Lost in all of the talk about perfection is the fact that New England has looked very mortal since late November. Since week 12, when The Pats defeated The Eagles by three, the previously perfect team has only been dominant in one and a half games - on December 9th, when they decimated Pittsburgh, and in the first half of their week 16 game against the hapless Dolphins. The warning signs were there, and we chose to ignore them, likely because their story was so compelling. Or maybe because Mercury Morris and the '72 Dolphins are so annoying. Whatever the reason, we dismissed the fact that this was a different Pats team than the one that ran roughshod over their opponents in the first half of the season. We ignored the impact of the loss of Roosevelt Colvin, which caused them to rely too heavily on the aging Junior Seau and Tedy Bruschi. We also passed over the loss of Sammy Morris, who was the team's best running back when he went down with injury. This team made so many adjustments that they didn't skip a beat in the middle of the season, even with these losses. But something changed along the way. Whether it was fatigue, the impact of injury, or the weight of expectations, New England was no longer invincible in the latter stages of the season. In the playoffs it was more of the same, as they comfortably beat Jacksonville, but slithered by an injury-depleted San Diego team that shockingly outplayed them through three quarters. Despite all that, they made the Super Bowl. They reminded me of the '95-96 Bulls, who were so dominant in getting off to a 41-3 start to the season, and kept winning, but less decisively, after Scottie Pippen aggravated a back injury and the pressure of winning 70 games became more intense. Those Bulls managed to pull through, and even though they stumbled twice in the finals, their championship was never in doubt. There are no best-of-seven series in football, however, and the Pats stumbled at the worst possible time. And, unfortunately for them, this loss becomes as much a part of their legacy as their three wins in four seasons. All year long, they were primed to do the unthinkable, and then yesterday, they did just that, just not in the way that we were expecting.
One game can change so much. Bill Belichick was considered by some to be the greatest coach ever, based on his remarkable success during the salary cap era. Now, after getting outcoached on the grandest stage (going for it on fourth and 13 instead of kicking a long field goal?!), and suffering through a new round of Spygate allegations, he'll be sure to face more scrutiny than ever before. Tom Brady got outplayed by Eli Manning, and his historic season now carries the same baggage that Peyton Manning's did in 2004 - remarkable, but incomplete. Randy Moss disappeared throughout the playoffs, and the most prolific offense ever was overwhelmed by the Giants' pass rush. In our haste to coronate these three, and their team, we missed the obvious - they were the second best team in the league during the playoffs, when true greatness is defined.
Tags:
Saturday, February 2, 2008
I'm F**king Matt Damon
If you haven't already seen this hilarious clip from the Jimmy Kimmel Show enjoy and thank me later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
