Ouch.  Talk about getting knocked off-message.  McCain needs to clearly and honestly explain what this bundler has been doing.

Straight-talk now more than ever.

http://thepajamapundit.com/

Well, well, well, we have a little actual news and vetting going on.  Nice work.

What few walls McCain had are tumbling down.  The snarky little pest will be running for cover to Arizona full time before he knows it.

I knew Moron Joe hadn't actually read the piece when he opined on the Post's article this morning.

McCheese is connecting with the "little people" - yeah right.

I lived in California most of my life I can tell you something sounds crooked On The Straight Smack Express. With gas prices in the Inland Empire being as high as they are ( one of the original reasons I moved back east) I can tell you that thos folks are not giving away that kind of money. Maureen Dowd is so correct. Just like the McBush camp couldn't take the Paris Hilton smack down with class they had to throw another nasty remark towards Obama. McBush is really showing a lack of honor. You know the funny thing is Paris Hilton made more sense than McBush for sure. I like the comparison of him to Abe Simpson . Homer Simpson's dad.  Doooooooh

Umm, excuse me Ms. Dowd...writing a book doesn't mean you're smart.  Boy, you journalist/authors, sure think alot of yourselves.  A few examples of people who wrote their own books:  Britney Spears, Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, Tyra Banks, Pamela Anderson.  What great company you are in!

I'm just dying for the old days when TV anchors, journalist, and the like would just report the issues, and stop injecting their "opinion" into everything.  We need to be able to rely on TV/newspapers to report the issues/candidates objectively.

What a great description for McCain. He sure isn't the "origianl maverick" anymore......he's the PUPPET! Couldn't have decribed it better myself. He puppets the GOP, Bush, Rove, Rick Davis, and Steve Schmidt. That's why he looks so confused and is afraid to talk these days....he doesn't know WHO he is anymore than we do. This has got to be killing him, but, like my mother always said...."You choose your bed......." Guess he's under the WRONG covers this year, huh? Obama '08

Obama had Rezko raise 10 percent for his senate run and he was convicted for illegally raising money for Rezko.  Obama got his from rezko 300 grand lower than the price while rezko was under investigation.

This bundler is saying his foreign friends are contributing to McCain? And these people living in California, they're what... fronts for Arab business partners who are really forking over the cash?

Somehow I don't think that is within the spirit of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

Why is it everytime you scratch a Republican, you reveal a trail of corruption leading to the Arabian Peninsula?

"Obama didn’t even tell Harvard Law School that he was black on his application."

Now thats an interesting statistic. Shows that he really did pull himself up by his own bootstraps.

He got in soloely on his merits, not on his nepotic name recognition, like McCain did in Annapolis (which at 5th from the bottom of the class, was clearly not worth much)

This fundraising story is potentially a HUGE scandal - check it out:

http://strategy08.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/mccain-bundler-raises-questionable-contributions-from-mechanic-unregistered-voters/

There's the cake but you can't eat it Johnny Boy..
Rebate time but out of your pocket....

FR--

Keep following the money.  Speaking of which, what kind of month was July for these campaigns?

Karen (Sent Wednesday, August 06, 2008 9:35 AM)

First off, Dowd is a COLUMNIST, which means she is paid for her views (or OPINIONS) on current events or other topics.  She isn't supposed to be objective.

Second, writing a book might not make you smart, but I'll bet that most of the celebrities that you named off had "ghost writers".  Writing a book YOURSELF means that you have the talent to do so.  If you couldn't write a coherent sentence, the book wouldn't get published without a heavy re-write, which in essence, means that it was written by SOMEONE else.

You may hate Obama but maybe you should get your facts in order before you spew.  Thanks.

Sargeant is an idiot.  He takes money from people who has already admitted not caring about their vote.  
Another idiot America can do without.  And the big oil donations taken in by Sargeant for the McCain camp.  Stupidity at its finest.

Keep followiing the mone ad McCain's former votes. It'll no doubt lead somewhere VERY interesting!
If Cindy Lou Who has to give up her beer fortune, what'll happen to McRich's  7 (oris it 8?) houses, the private jet, all the rest?  She may have to strip at the next bikers' rally in Sturgis just to make some money!

karen are you sure those individuals wrote there own books because I think your wrong most if not all of whom you say had there books written for them by a co-author, I may be wrong but not so much!

Cant imagine anyone being surprised reading this story.  Just a shout out to a couple of people who are
intrested and thinking people.  
 Paul Miller- for sure everytime.  Iowan- do you think they will actually follow the money, no but heres hoping.
 Karen- we are all longing for the good old days when
you really expected the media to tell the truth and report the facts, looks like that is all over. I think if you got the real truth you would either feel like a fool or close your little mind and think, GOP, GOP, GOP.

Obama/Biden
marty

Umm, excuse me Ms. Dowd...writing a book doesn't mean you're smart.  Boy, you journalist/authors, sure think alot of yourselves.  A few examples of people who wrote their own books:  Britney Spears, Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, Tyra Banks, Pamela Anderson.  What great company you are in!

------------------------------------------------------
Karen,

You missed Ms Dowd's point. McCain had to get the help of a professional (shadow) writer. Basically what that boils down to is that McCain told someone his story and someone organized it, asked questions, and put it all together on paper. All those other girls you mentioned also used shadow writers. Barack Obama did all the work himself and put together 2 prize winning best sellers. That makes him a smart guy, a lot smarter than John McCain. That's a fact!

I don't know about other US citizens feelings but I have become so sick and tired of all of the improprieties of the GOP! It seems every election year they become more and more obsessed with playing us for complete idiots and we let them get away with it. It is time that we turn the tide and let their arrogance and "ignorance" become their downfall. I know that we are not the puppets that they think we are and let's come together to put them in their place and that is out of our government.

BO 08

A Clear Indication of a Left Wing Smear Campaign - Trashing Military Contractors

I was recently at a dinner party in Palm Beach and an interesting question was posed to a recently retired Army General who had spent a fair share of his last remaining years at Central Command, or CENTCOM as it’s commonly referred to. The question was “Are civilian contractors a good idea in Iraq?”

“Without question,” was the reply from the retired two-star. And he went on to explain the essential role that civilian contractors have played in this war and in many past wars going back to World War Two.

CENTCOM, currently commander-less with the recent retirement of Admiral Fallon, is comprised of the U.S. Army Forces Central Command (ARCENT), U.S. Air Forces Central (CENTAF), U.S. Marine Forces Central Command (USMARCENT), U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (USNAVCENT), and the United States Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT). In addition to the above there are some major subordinate multi-service commands that also report to CENTCOM that are participating on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan and include Multi-National Force – Iraq and Combined Forces Command Afghanistan.

CENTCOM’s geographic scope of responsibility is vast and covers east Africa from Kenya to Egypt, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Djibouti, all of the Arabian Peninsula, across the Persian Gulf covering Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and north covering all of the “stans,” Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. That’s quite a bit of territory and a weighted responsibility. Getting the most attention is the Iraq effort, both in terms of boots on the ground and expenditure. The Iraq War order of battle is under the command of General David Petraeus, who will report to CENTCOM once that post is again filled. Now for General Petraeus.

As the Commander of Multi-National Force Iraq, General Petraeus commands essentially everything in Iraq, which amounts to 15 combat brigades and in excess of 140,000 troops. Fueling this extraordinary effort is the fuel itself, which in Iraq amounts to 50 million gallons of fuel each month. That works out to be about 12 gallons per soldier each and every day. That more than six times the amount of fuel per soldier that was used per day in World War Two, but we are a much more mechanized military today. Where does the military get all this fuel? The answer is multiple sources.

The military purchases the majority of its fuel from its oil-producing friends such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, and then ships the fuel to where it’s needed in Iraq. Under a current agreement with Kuwait, the troops operating in Iraq receives approximately 860,000 gallons of jet fuel from Kuwait each day at less than half the market price. The Defense Energy Support Center – Middle East (DESC-ME) is responsible for the procurement of the fuel being used in Iraq, as well as the contracting of the suppliers. One such supplier is International Oil Trading Company USA (IOTC USA).

Under the current DESC contract IOTC USA supplies aviation turbine fuel, diesel fuel, and motor gasoline to locations in Iraq that include Al Asad, Al Taqqadem, Trebil, and Korean Village. The Defense Energy Support had specified that the fuel needed to transit Jordan prior to entering Iraq, which required cooperation of that Kingdom. IOTC was successful in securing the necessary authorizations, the only company bidding to do so, and was awarded the contract and has successfully performed for the DESC since 2004. Now why use contractor to perform this mission? Because it’s cheaper in the long run and for the very same reason that the Department of Defense contracts out for most everything that supports the Warfighter other than the actual conduct of the war. Imagine for a minute a military that drilled for its own oil, refined it themselves, and then shipped it in tankers and fuel trucks that would have been built by the military. That’s just preposterous and doesn’t warrant further discussion. The military is elated with the performance of IOTC and so was the General that I spoke with. So why are there those who are critical of IOTC’s performance, such as Aram Roston of NBC?

That’s a real good question and I wondered myself and asked the General that very same question. He was equally perplexed and surmised that politics and special interests may have had something to do with it. Again though, why would a reporter, Emmy winning no less, allow him self to be swayed by politics and special interests? Using a double-barreled Latin phrase, I began an earnest search for a bona fide answer to that question. Making his report all the more least interesting is Mr. Roston’s concerted effort to turn a non-story into a story by use of innuendo and misstatements.

In the report Mr. Roston referred to a legal dispute between a former business associate of IOTC and wrote the following: “According to minutes of a company meeting in Amman attached to the lawsuit, (Mr.) Sargeant …pushed for “maximizing profits by getting all the contracts and not leaving hope for the competitors.” Am I missing something here? I would hope that Mr. Sargeant, who heads up IOTC, would not push for the just the opposite and insist on maximizing losses and leaving the door open for all competitors. Maybe Mr. Roston would hope for the most inefficient and least competitive bidders get all the government contracts – that would really save the taxpayer – not. Moving fuel across a desert requires the utmost in efficiency and I would pray that be the primary directive of any contractor the United States Military gives a job to.

The classic twist from Mr. Roston came in the form of the following “The 2007 contract is potentially extremely profitable. For each gallon of jet fuel that is delivered to the U.S. military in Iraq, IOTC charges the Pentagon $1.08 over the market price.” The Department of Defense pays market price for its fuel for the most part, and IOTC is being contracted to get that fuel to the military based upon the contract. IOTC must take that fuel across Jordan from Al ‘Aqaba to Trebil, and then through the Anbar province of Iraq to the various bases. That is a job that can’t be accomplished at market price of fuel. It actually costs money to drive fuel, believe it or not, and sometimes those trucks breakdown, or get attacked, or even blown up. I’m certain that upon more careful examination of the mission, Mr. Roston would discover that. I would hope that the sharp elected officials on Mr. Waxman’s committee investigating the $1.08 should figure that one out. “The $1.08 ‘differential” includes costs, such as transportation and security and profit.’”

My next question is who would gain by Mr. Roston’s slanted reporting? He did imply that the contracts IOTC had might have something to do with the fact that the owner is politically active and supports McCain. Who does Mr. Roston support? Who does NBC or MSNBC support? Now this is the same network that employs Keith Olberman. Does Mr. Roston have something against oil transport companies, or people of Islam, perhaps he dislikes Republicans, or perhaps it may be all the above?

The general and I continued on with our conversation and I asked him just how difficult it was to get the fuel to the troops. He responded that unequivocally it was a difficult task. There is significant advance planning that goes into the bulk transport of fuel anywhere, let alone through a war zone. Convoys are subject to sneak attacks by insurgents; therefore if a truck breaks down and a delay is expected, the Army escorts have no other choice but to destroy the vehicle. IOTC earns every bit of their $1.08. The general could not have stressed the hazards of the job more. Mr. Roston and Congressman Waxman should be applauding rather than assailing IOTC.

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