1. What did Richard Kimball, John McCain’s opponent in his 1986 Senate race, do during a debate that got McCain so upset that, according to his aide Jay Smith, he “wanted to kill” Kimball?
(a) He pointed out that McCain had referred to the retirement community Leisure World as “Seizure World.”
(b) He revealed that McCain was standing on a riser behind his podium.
(c) He said, “I’m not the one who left his disabled first wife so he could marry a rich young beer heiress.”
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2. Who is Harry Jaffe?
(a) The writer who first called McCain “Senator Hothead.”
(b) The journalist who helped break the 1994 story of Cindy McCain’s addiction to Percocet and Vicodin, which led her to steal pills from a relief organization she’d founded.
(c) The reporter whose question prompted McCain to respond that he was “fine” with a hundred-year U.S. military presence in Iraq.
(d) The politician who said of McCain, “His volatility borders in the area of being unstable. Before I let this guy put his finger on the button, I would have to give considerable pause.”
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3. What prompted Jon Stewart, on “The Daily Show,” to ask, “Has John McCain’s Straight Talk Express been rerouted through Bullshit Town?”?
(a) McCain decided to speak at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University six years after calling Falwell and Pat Robertson “agents of intolerance.”
(b) McCain claimed that the Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina capitol symbolized “heritage,” although he was on record as having called it “a symbol of racism and slavery.”
(c) McCain said of George W. Bush, “I support him. I am grateful to him. And I am proud of him.”
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4. Which of these statements about McCain is true?
(a) He used to be against Bush’s tax cuts and for overturning Roe v. Wade, but now he’s for extending the tax cuts and against overturning Roe v. Wade.
(b) He used to be against allowing illegal immigrants to earn citizenship, but now he’s for it.
(c) He used to be against Bush’s tax cuts and overturning Roe v. Wade and for allowing illegal immigrants to earn citizenship, but now he’s for extending the tax cuts and overturning Roe v. Wade and avoids talking about illegal immigrants earning citizenship.
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5. McCain told workers at a gun factory, “I will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell and I will shoot him with one of your products.” How did he later clarify this declaration?
(a) “Of course, I didn’t mean the literal gates of Hell. I don’t even know where they are.”
(b) “I shouldn’t limit myself to your products, because, when I find him, I may not be carrying a gun made by you.”
(c) “I certainly didn’t mean I would actually shoot him. I am certainly angry at him, but...I would not shoot him myself.”
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6. Two of these statements refer to Bush. Which refers to McCain?
(a) At thirteen, he yelled “Fuck this” when he played golf poorly, prompting his mother to make him go sit in the car.
(b) As a toddler, if he didn’t get his way he’d hold his breath until he fainted.
(c) When he was a boy, he liked to blow up frogs with firecrackers.
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7. True or false: When Chelsea Clinton was eighteen, McCain told this joke: “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.”
True
False
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8. What did McCain say to Edward Kennedy?
(a) “Shut up.”
(b) “Fucking jerk.”
(c) “Fuck you.”
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9. What did McCain say to John Cornyn?
(a) “Shut up.”
(b) “Fucking jerk.”
(c) “Fuck you.”
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10. What did McCain say to Charles Grassley?
(a) “Shut up.”
(b) “Fucking jerk.”
(c) “Fuck you.”
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11. What was McCain referring to when he told reporters, “It’s up to you to find that out, kids”?
(a) The extent of the Bush campaign’s involvement in rumors that McCain had fathered a half-black child.
(b) The financial connections between Cindy McCain and Charles Keating, the man behind the nation’s biggest savings-and-loan collapse.
(c) Why he condemned the 2004 Swift Boat Veterans ads smearing John Kerry, then hired the agency behind them.
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12. Who said, “I like McCain a lot...There’s something about matching the character with the script”?
(a) Pat Buchanan.
(b) Sylvester Stallone.
(c) Senator Thad Cochran.
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13. Who said that McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi”?
(a) Pat Buchanan.
(b) Sylvester Stallone.
(c) Senator Thad Cochran.
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14. Who said of McCain, “The thought of his being President sends a cold chill down my spine”?
(a) Pat Buchanan.
(b) Sylvester Stallone.
(c) Senator Thad Cochran.
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15. Last year, McCain said, “When I voted to support this war, I knew it was probably going to be long and hard and tough, and those that voted for it and thought that somehow it was going to be some kind of an easy task, then I’m sorry they were mistaken.” What did McCain say before the war started?
(a) He told Larry King that “success will be fairly easy.”
(b) He told Wolf Blitzer, “I believe that we can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time.”
(c) “It’s a safe assumption that Iraqis will be grateful to whoever is responsible for securing their freedom.”
"Then again, some of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century were caused by brave, honourable men with a passionate sense of national mission."
just goes to see .. there is unmitigated arrogance, greed and thirst for power; there is insular 'nationalism', 'patriotism', there is racism; there is ideology, there are suckholes, some nonsense of religion and then there is something which might pass for wisdom ..
oh, my lovely Elsa, was put down yesterday .. the vet said she had kidney failure and was a bit 'who are you, daddy, doozie' .. loony, so was the best thing for her .. when i think of how sad it's made me and i think of those in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places who suffer so terribly each day, it just makes me want to sit down and cry .. how could the sadness ever dissipate, for them ..
Iraqi army forces defect to Moqtada al-Sadr
By Aqeel Hussein in Basra and Colin Freeman 31/03/2008
With gunfire and explosions echoing round him, Lt Hamid Abbas of the Iraqi Army was letting no car pass unchallenged at his makeshift roadblock on the outskirts of a Basra slum.
His closest scrutiny, however, was reserved not for the few civilian motorists daring to venture on to the streets, but for other Iraqi army vehicles.
Mehdi Army leader Moqtada al-Sadr has told his followers to respect the ceasefire
"Some of our soldiers have refused to fight the Mehdi Army and have instead handed their vehicles and weapons to them," he said, looking disgusted. "Now we are having to check every Iraqi army patrol that passes through to ensure they are genuine soldiers."
The scene on the other side of the battlefield proved his suspicions right. Dug in behind a wall was a squad of Mehdi Army fighters, the Shia militiamen Lt Abbas and 15,000 other Iraqi soldiers have been sent to quell.
Sure enough, one was driving an American-issue Iraqi army Humvee - one of seven, said the squad's leader, Haji Ali, handed to them by sympathisers within the Iraqi army.
"We shall fight them until the last drop of our blood," he snarled, clutching a Glock pistol of the kind issued to Iraqi police. "We will force them to respect the Mehdi Army."
Six days into the battle to purge Basra of militia influence, the fighting has engulfed other parts of Iraq and the death count has passed 250. Among the casualties may also be Britain's contention that it was right to hand the city over to Iraqi control in the first place. advertisement
Not only has the local Iraqi army failed to instil real order since taking over in December, but some of its ranks have crumbled now they have been ordered to confront the militias decisively.
A number of soldiers have simply deserted, others have handed their weapons to the opposition or even changed sides.
The backbone of the force squaring up against the militants has been the three brigades sent from Baghdad, and local men such as Lt Abbas - whose motivation is not entirely selfless. He was a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a rival Basra militia that will be only too happy to see its Mehdi Army rivals vanquished.
So are the British to blame? Their commanders say the defections have been exaggerated and insist that whatever the shortcomings of the present operation, the Iraqi army will never improve as long as the British hold its hand.
A senior military adviser to the Iraqi government described the security set-up bequeathed by the British as "insufficient", but pointed out that the handover had the backing of the Americans and the Iraqi government. "It's unfair to put it in the lap of the British alone, as it had the agreement of all parties," he said.
Yesterday, the city looked as much of a battleground as it did when British forces invaded five years ago, with smoke drifting across the skyline and most of the population cowering indoors. American jets and British artillery also took a more direct role, pounding entrenched Mehdi positions.
The trouble has spread to Mehdi Army strongholds in other southern cities and to parts of Baghdad itself, threatening to unravel much of the security gain made by the American troop "surge".
At least 133 people have been killed in the capital, while about 120 have died in Basra, although Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, vowed yesterday to continue the battle "until the end", describing his foes as "worse than al-Qa'eda".
The confrontation is a long-awaited reckoning between Mr Maliki and the Mehdi Army, whose military and political strength has made it an effective state within the state.
Most of the militia is observing the ceasefire declared last year by its spiritual leader, the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which has been helpful to the success of the US surge.
However, a significant minority has ignored it - and it is they, says Mr Maliki, who are now in the sights of the Iraqi army.
In Basra, he accuses them of being linked to the port city's mafias and their oil-smuggling activities. But the problem, in Basra's murky and fissiparous power structure, is telling who is who. Many local players are politicians and security commanders by day, mafiosi and militiamen by night.
"I don't think it's the Mehdi Army per se that's being targeted, more just individuals and groups that won't put down their weapons," said the military adviser.
Mehdi Army men in Basra say Mr Maliki is simply trying to wipe them out before local elections this autumn. "The government wants to take away our power, but we will make it clear they should respect us more than any other side," said Mr Ali, ordering around a squad of heavily armed fighters.
Was he not ignoring the wishes of his leader? Sadr issued a decree Saturday night urging followers not to hand over their weapons, but he stopped short of explicitly instructing them to fight back.
Mr Ali shook his head. "I have just finished a phone call with the head office of our sacred leader. They made no mention of any orders to stop fighting."
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