I think everyone who loses elections by a wide percentage should receive vast amounts of media coverage for their rejected opinions.

Unfortunately, McCain is on television 100 times for every 1 time that Lugar is on.

Hey, don't forget how McCain solved the financial crisis in the U S of A by canceling his campaign, going to Washington and sitting at the end of a conference table, and never saying a word. Who can argue with that logic? He's a regular Einstein.

Would bombing Iran be an acceptable form of "acting" that would help the Iranians "prevail?" Because that's what McCain proposed oh so humorously on the campaign trail last year.

Well, Johnnie and the Rethugs always wanted the rest of world to be like us. Seems they've taken a lesson from Bush 2000 and Diebolded Iran into 60-something percent for their excellent guy. Mission accomplished.

"Bomb, bomb, bomb...bomb, bomb Iran..."

--John McCain (with apologies to the Beach Boys)

McCain wont pay any attention. he is a megalomaniac with shit for brains. Revelations about a person do leak out of the huge, long,exhausting campaigns for president of the united states -- McCain was revealed as a crack-pot nearly every goddam day on the campaign.

Sweet Jesu, any more like him and we're really screwed...

C'mon -- being a blowhard changed China, Cuba, etc. Also won 'Nam for us!

I admire the Iranian people. They smelled a rigged election and have gone to the streets to protest. Imagine what would have happened if the same degree of protesting had happened here after the Supreme Court Bush v Gore ruling. We are sheep compared to the Iranian people.

John McCain is and has always been a shameless self-promoter. He listens only to the little voice in his head who tells him HE is always right.

Governing does not good T.V. make. Its quite boring and requires attention to detail.

I was a bit confused this morning when NPR led off with a story on the Iranian elections, and then led out of box with a response from Lugar. I'm sorry but isn't the first response reserved for the administration and after that for the opposition. Still, it was nice to hear Lugar's thoughtful assessment.

Matt Yglesias wrote that McCain sees Iran as "a kind of phantasmagoric canvass onto which we should paint a tableau of American hubris and militarism."

That's a great description of the war in Vietnam, which defined McCain's view of what US foreign policy should be ... basically, Apocalypse Now forever.

Does McCain not know that Iran is a sovereign nation! Or is his understanding of sovereignty equal to Bush’s when Bush tried, and failed miserably, to explain sovereignty to his followers?

Like many others, he somehow thinks that nationalists in other countries are also in favor of whatever the U.S. feels like doing. It's an odd kind of projection.

He is a classic hothead, always wanting to act without thinking. On the plus side, that brought us the comedy stylings of Sarah Palin. On the negative side, he'd start deadly wars with Iran and Russia if he were ever in a position of power.

Ignore, totally and forever.

Ummm...excuse me, but there seems to be a tiny little understatement in your reasoning with this one, Steve. Your post reads:

McCain, in other words, understands developments in Iran about as well as Eric Cantor.

It should read:

McCain, in other words, understands developments in Iran about as well as the mummified remains of a long-dead pioneer cow in the middle of Death Valley.

There---it's all fixed now.

someone owes me an apology.

Oh, and of course McCain (per Maddow) apparently told Anna Marie Cox that had he been elected president, he'd have put DADT front and center on the table right away.

How convenient to stand back and criticize. He's still bitter he lost. And yes, good thing he did! What an arrogant ass--who even cares what he thinks anymore? You lost, buddy--by a really large, historic margin--in states that normally go red!

Yet the likes of Ana Marie Cox continue to justify and apologize for McCain quite readily--I think Cox really lost me back in January when she was justifying (with Maddow who disagreed)McCain's refusal to accept Obama's Superbowl event invite.

Her rationale? "Well, he's just crazy about football, and you know-- I understand that he said no, because he reminds me of my Dad-- my Dad is crazy about football too-- and he would also decline and choose to stay home to watch the game."

So if it's an invite her father would refuse, it therefore makes perfect sense McCain would too (?). End of story. Her dad would do it, so that makes it O.K. Great logic there. Uh, did you ever consider your Dad's judgment might also be a bit hard-headed and short-sighted, Ana Marie?

And what about the larger political implications here: Never mind the new President has invited you to the White House? And never mind he clearly was attempting to be mend bad feelings, be noble and put aside differences.

(O.K. end of Ana Marie Cox rant).

Yeah, good thing McCain didn't win. And now if others would just stop indulging him, that would be good too.

Once again, Wet-Start Johnny fails to engage brqain before opening mouth (this is the exact same process by which he got his Navy "nickname" - for lighting off his A-4 as a "joke" that eventually killed 137 of his fellow sailors aboard the Forrestal back in 1967). At least he isn't killing anyone with his latest blast of moron stupidity.

Remember: Wet-Start Johnny is a Republican; ipso-facto, he could also be called "Wet-Brain Johnny"

So are we to expect armchair twittering from the republican party for every world crisis ?

I am seriously getting tired of the one way communication the republicans get all the time. From interviews, to Twitter, to 'out-of-the Beltway' meetings, no one calls them on anything and it's getting irritating.

Guess McCain must have been back in the tiger cage in 2000.

Last year we were all Georgians and this year we are all Iranians. The axis of evil speech probably set Iranian advocates for greater democracy in their country back by a decade, which is now almost up -- let's not screw them over again. It is amazing how much discipline it takes to do nothing as a strategy.

dead pioneer cow,

Would you settle for an apology from David Letterman? He's getting quite good at it.

grabbed a quote but closed the window many windows ago leaving me unable to attribute this statement properly:

"America persistently complains that Iran seeks "regional dominance." This, as noted in the past, is pretty funny given the fact that America has the nations on either side of Iran under military occupation. Rather more hilarious is a country that has for two centuries invoked and enforced the Monroe Doctrine (and the Roosevelt Corollary and the Clark Memo) getting sniffy about regional dominance at all."

'nuff said!

Does anyone else remember the LOSER of a presidential campaign getting so much media attention? Was John Kerry regularly booked on TV to bitch about Bush's policies? Al Gore? Michael Dukakis?

McCain seems not to understand that the President is President only of the United States, not of the world.

It really is a damned good thing he wasn't elected, but then, he was the default Republican nominee when the Republican Party couldn't agree on anyone they both all liked and who was at the same time competent. He was a place-holder, to hold the slot of Republican Presidential nominee open until they could get their act together.

Here's an under-140-character message for John McCain: Sit down and shut the fuck up.

Great strategy Big MacLame. Because I know fersure that whenever the U.S. starts to sound threatening and, especially if they start taking hostile action, the nationalistic pride and strength of the established governments that are being threatened just goes away. They never dig in their heels, they never try to protect their homeland from foreign invaders, and they most certainly NEVER use our aggression as yet another example in their recruiting arsenal to get people to want to kill Americans.

McLame, pull-ease, go out to pasture where you belong.

It seems to me there was a time when McCain was often right about things. What happened? It's like the election rotted his brain. Has he got end-stage Republicanism?

Does anyone else remember the LOSER of a presidential campaign getting so much media attention? Was John Kerry regularly booked on TV to bitch about Bush's policies? Al Gore? Michael Dukakis?
Posted by: dave on June 16, 2009 at 11:59 AM | PERMALINK

Oh sure, I remember, cuz the "librul media" only puts Dems and progs on the teeveee.

And now, back to reality...Support independent and alternative media! It is our best hope. Of course, the cable and network owners/lobbies won't allow it....so let's do it anyway. Here's to a sharp stick in their collective eyes.

This is why, when the American people elected a new president last Fall, they were thinking, "Fool me once... won't get get fooled again".

Aren't we all glad we didn't elect McCain. Never has the electorate made such a wise decision. The man is an idiot. What I find interesting is that he is still being interviewed by "journalists" who aren't as observant or well informed as the average voter.

Does anyone else remember the LOSER of a presidential campaign getting so much media attention? Was John Kerry regularly booked on TV to bitch about Bush's policies? Al Gore? Michael Dukakis?

They had something called "class", something which McCain and Cheney have never had. George W. Bush, to his credit, has at least shown some of it since he left office. Although I'm thinking that Cheney is just doing the dirty work for him, as usual.

Jon, in the old days McCain was only one Senator with relatively little significance except to Arizona. The media probably only picked up his intelligent verbal spewings to report. They ignored the narcissistic and grandiose idiocies as not news.

Now he has the spotlight as the nominal head of the minority party and they report everything.

...with apologies to the Beach Boys... -JohnMcCain

Wait a second...that's not the real John McCain! The real McCain never apologizes!

[removes mask]

Ah ha, just as I suspected. It's old man Winters. And you would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for me...

(O.K. end of Ana Marie Cox rant). -Insanity

What else do you expect from someone who got their start blogging about the political intricacies of anal sex?

For the life of me, I will never understand why Maddow has her on so much.

I just don't understand why John McCain isn't put out to pasture already! Everybody makes such a fuss over him, and his old ideas. He would have made a terrible President, and his Vice-Presidential Choice Could have Been the Ruin of this Republic.
The Very Idea that Sarah Palin Could Become a Leader of this country sends Shivers down my back. She is an undeducated Backwoods uncooth unlearned woman of no redeeming qualities.

Wouldn't McCaine and his fellow Republickans have gone on a rampage/outrage/righteous patriotic snit if Iran had demanded another election after Florida in 2000? Or, in the same vein, Iran demanding a revue of McCaine's personal and political carpetbagging shenanigans in Arizona. Come on Tehran, we're waiting to hear from you.

We are witnessing, I firmly believe, an historic moment in world politics. What's happening in Iran is basically a challenge to extremist views versus basic human decency.

The world does need to pay careful attention to what's going on in Iran.

Think of the Taliban. Think of Al qaeda. They must be cringing in their boots to think that women deserve to be treated as equals.

McCain doesn't grasp misogyny, but the millions of repressed women in Iran do!

To blather about Obama should do this and that is to mask the very real history unfolding right before our eyes.

John McCain, astute foreign policy wonk. Who can forget his 2008 pronouncement that "We're all Georgians now."

The Very Idea that Sarah Palin Could Become a Leader of this country sends Shivers down my back. She is an undeducated Backwoods uncooth unlearned womanof no redeeming qualities.

Her kids seem to like her.

someone owes me an apology.
Posted by: dead pioneer cow on June 16, 2009 at 11:43 AM

As you are merely a dead pioneer cow, and not a "long dead" pioneer cow, your chances of obtaining an apology from me are approximately equal to my acknowledging that Sarah Palin is not a crack-addled howler monkey portraying a cheap Manila prostitute---or a cheap Manila prostitute portraying a crack-addled howler monkey.

dead pioneer cow . You have been seriously maligned by the people in this forum
"While they certainly have the right to 'joke' about whatever they want to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction," . "This is all thanks to our U.S. Military women and men putting their lives on the line for us to secure America's Right to Free Speech - in this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect." I think that all dead pioneer cows should immediately boycott this blog and request a formal apology in writing to all dead pionner cows everywhere.

PS Try and mention me somewhere to keep my name in the news.

Did he see this post from huffingtonpost and how they are using apperances like his on Fox in Iran?

From the Huffington Post:

:09 AM ET -- Iran state TV using Fox News footage. Earlier this evening, emailer Valentina sent along this Farsi-language video of a June 15 news report by Iranian national TV. She described it as such:
This video is about yesterday events when people gathered in front of one of candidates' (Mousavi but no name was mentioned in the report) HQ. In brief: The narrator says that a group of opportunistic people supporting a candidate (without bringing the name) are responsible for breaking and destroying the public/ private property. They are blaming the foreign media for supporting the riots and covering the story. They cited Fox News who has predicted the violence and wants to divide Iranian people. They are interviewing a group of people who are mad because their property has got destroyed.
In search of more detail of how the government is spinning Monday's events, I asked another reader (who has graciously been helping me translate Farsi) to give a more detailed description. He obliged:

What a propaganda masterpiece. So the gist of it is that there were some minor rallies that started peacefully but some people took advantage of the situation and began vandalizing. Meanwhile, the foreign press tried to make it sound worst and create disunity among the population. It cuts to a Fox News interview that US should take advantage of this situation and make contact with the people in the street. They then interview shop owners -- "victims" -- saying the government should stop such act of vandalism. 'It's unfair to us (shop owners) to come to work and see our properties and business is damaged.'
A fascinating look inside the state's message machine, and as he noted, "you see how well they monitor all news sources to put together that video montage."

I think everyone remembers how meddling in Iranian internal issues usually ends in disasters ie hostages in the 70's and Iran Contra in the 80's. Most do not remember that in the 50's that Iran had a democratically elected government that was overthrown with the help of the CIA and MI6. Is it any wonder there is distrust and fear on both sides.
Let this play out internally and offer only passive support for democratic reform. Somtimes less id more.

Yesterday, McCain told Fox News he expects to see the administration "act," because, "We are for human rights all over the world."

Oh really? He is just beyond senile at this point. He's either totally forgetten -- or is purposely choosing to forget -- his whole "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran!" stunt. Is that how he would "act"? I'm so sick of his bullshit and why is he all over the teevee anyway? Last I checked, he did lose the election.

we're for civil rights except fo Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, and Pakistan....

"We are all Iranians now"....oh shit

McCain doesnt care in the slightest what Obama does in regards to Iran. He obviously would love a war with Iran, so it's not wise to listen to his advice if we dont want war.

But it seems like what he mostly wants is to use this situation to attack Obama. Speaking out about Iran would hurt our interests in the region? Who cares, says McCain. If it can hurt Obama for me to get on his case about him doing the right thing, I'm going to get on his case.

The Very Idea that Sarah Palin Could Become a Leader of this country sends Shivers down my back. She is an undeducated Backwoods uncooth unlearned womanof no redeeming qualities. - weddingjewelry

Her kids seem to like her. - Mick

Well, the GOP was on a 8 year streak and were sure their finely tuned stupidity sells. In 40 years, they'll get it worked out.

McCain also made ridiculous and slanderous claims that ACORN was trying to stage massive vote fraud for 2008. I lost most respect for him after that.