The Haze Filter

The Instability Of John McCain ::

Anyone who purports to support McCain should watch this video:

Here's another one showcasing the temperment of McCain:

GOP Senator Hagel To Endorse Obama ::

Steve Clemons of The Washington Note reports that is what he is hearing. That should make some GOP heads explode!

High Speed Rail Transportation ::

I have long deplored the lack of a high speed rail system here in the good old U S of A. I regularly follow the world travels of Steve Clemons over at The Washington Note and he lately has been in China and has this to say:

But let me try again. I just rode the Shanghai Maglev train that runs between the airport and Pudong. The trip was 7 minutes and 20 seconds -- to go a long way. The top speed reached was 432 kilometers an hour -- or 270 mph. It was amazing.

I want one -- and am not sure what American technological leadership means when we don't have anything like that in the U.S. We could travel from DC to New York in under an hour. I know that this may be an old debate for some, but now that I have experienced what could be, I'm now even more dissatisfied with the sorry state of America's basic infrastructure.

And here's a photograph of the train:

While many countries have been investing in high speed rail the U.S. auto lobby has been successful in its attempts to block any sort of service such as this would would now be enormously beneficial. In 1970 I was in Japan for the worlds fair in Osaka and rode the Bullet Train which, at that time, topped out somewhere around 125mph and it was a great ride from Tokyo to Osaka. I can only imagine rail travel approaching 300mph.

For a nation with so much technical superiority we sure are backward in many ways!

David Hackworth On John McCain ::

The late Col. David Hackworth had some choice words to say about John McCain back in 2000. Here is an excerpt or two:

McCain's Silver Star narrative for the period 27 October 1967 the day after he was shot down to 8 December 1968 reads: "His captors… subjected him to extreme mental and physical cruelties in an attempt to obtain military information and false confessions for propaganda purposes. Through his resistance to those brutalities, he contributed significantly towards the eventual abandonment…" of such harsh treatment by the North Vietnamese.

Yet in McCain's own words just four days after being captured, he admits he violated the U.S. Code of Conduct by telling his captors "O.K, I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital."

[snip]

Based on these stalwart men's horrific experiences, the Code of Conduct has been changed. A POW says, "Now the training is to give them something… don't risk permanent damage to health, mind or body."
McCain refused an early release. An act of valor? Three former POWs told me he was ordered to turn it down by his U.S. POW commander and he "just followed orders."

McCain certainly doesn't appear to be a war hero by conventional standards, but rather a tough survivor whose handlers are overplaying the war hero card.

Having endured torture, McCain now supports our use of the technique. A sad commentary about a man who has no integrity and little grasp of world events!

Thanks to Avedon for the link!

Shootout In Istanbul ::

Actually, this post is about the blithering idiots CNN employs as newsreaders. Unfortunately I woke to the tail end of the xenophobic ranting of Lou Dobbs. Then the CNN talking head from London came on with the news of the shootout outside the American consulate in Istanbul complete with an on-the-ground talking head. They had little to say about what had happened about an hour earlier, but they certainly know how to re-iterate what they didn't know!

I'm sure that Ted Turner is eternally sad about what CNN has become!

Rove Refuses To Testify ::

So, his lawyer says that he is exercising executive privilege and will not appear before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday! Tomorrow I will be in contact with my state representative on the committee, Artur Davis. I will be letting him know that I sincerely hope that he will summarily support a citation for contempt of Congress. I have long been impressed with Davis' questioning tenacity and I hope that he will push for accountability from Rove as well as others in the Bush administration!