Just read between the lines...

Red Text is the real story hiding between the lines.
Violet Text is a notable quote from a specific blogger.
Blue Text is my own personal commentary.
Gold Text is a link to the original sources.

One word of advice I would offer to everyone who reads this blog;

....Each and every day, take just a moment of your precious time to pray for Peace and Justice.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

McCain's thin veil of old lies and wealthy connections

A New Tag Category;
John McCain's broken vows...
One more proof of another long, big lie; the lie that tells us somewhere along the way, McCain stopped taking special-interest campaign money and benefits in exchange for wielding his powerful influence in the Senate, to expedite deals and otherwise give unfair advantage and aid to wealthy campaign contributors and personal cronies.

Lest we forget,
JOHN MCCAIN WAS ONE OF THE KEATING 5!!
He did not make his anti-sleaze vows as an act of honor, he made them out of CONTRITION, obviously for political salvation, because HE JUST GOT CAUGHT PEDDLING HIS SENATORIAL INFUENCE!
THIS LIE WAS HIS MEA CULPA!

More on the McCain's membership in the infamous Keating 5
From Wikipedia
In 1989, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed. Lincoln's chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., was faulted for the thrift's failure. Keating, however, told the House Banking Committee that the FHLBB and its former chief Edwin J. Gray were pursuing a vendetta against him. Gray testified that several U.S. senators had approached him and requested that he ease off on the Lincoln investigation. It came out that these senators had been beneficiaries of $300,000 (collective total) in campaign contributions from Keating. McCain received $112,000 by 1987 from Keating and Keating's relatives and employees to McCain's Senate campaign, more than any of the other Senators. (and yet, as the lone Republican among the 5, he was spared deeper scrutiny and public censure) [1] In October 1989 The Arizona Republic reported that in addition to campaign contributions, McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental Corporation (parent of Lincoln) jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain also did not pay Keating for some of the trips until years after they were taken, after he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. [2] Lincoln Savings and Loan's collapse is said to have cost taxpayers $3.4 billion [3]. This allegation set off a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The ethics committee's investigation focused on five senators: Alan Cranston (D-CA); Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ); John Glenn (D-OH); John McCain (R-AZ); and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D-MI), who became known as the "Keating Five".

A Developer, His Deals and His Ties to McCain
From the NYTimes
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: April 22, 2008

Donald R. Diamond, a wealthy Arizona real estate developer, was racing to snap up a stretch of virgin California coast freed by the closing of an Army base a decade ago when he turned to an old friend, Senator John McCain.

When Mr. Diamond wanted to buy land at the base, Fort Ord, Mr. McCain assigned an aide who set up a meeting at the Pentagon and later stepped in again to help speed up the sale, according to people involved and a deposition Mr. Diamond gave for a related lawsuit. When he appealed to a nearby city for the right to develop other property at the former base, Mr. Diamond submitted Mr. McCain’s endorsement as “a close personal friend.”

Writing to officials in the city, Seaside, Calif., the senator said, “You will find him as honorable and committed as I have.” (AND not only does he have a pad in the Islands, he's loose with his cash!)

Courting local officials and potential partners, Mr. Diamond’s team promised that he could “help get through some of the red tape in dealing with the Department of the Army” because Mr. Diamond “has been very active with Senator McCain,” (aboard his flotilla of yachts?) a partner said in a deposition.

A longtime political patron, Mr. Diamond is one of the elite fund-raisers Mr. McCain’s current presidential campaign calls Innovators, having raised more than $250,000 (how much of that was or is illegal, isn't McCain violating his public-financing contract with the F.E.C. when he raises more money?) so far. At home, Mr. Diamond is sometimes referred to as “The Donald,” Arizona’s answer to Donald Trump — an outsized personality who invites public officials aboard his flotilla of yachts (the Ace, King, Jack and Queen of Diamonds), specializes in deals with the government, and unabashedly solicits support for his business interests from the recipients of his campaign contributions. (Am I imagining something here, or is this just about as blatant an example of political opportunism as one can find in DC? McCain's not just "dirty," he's swimming laps in the hog manure. How can he expect to keep up the squeaky clean, straight talk image that sucks in the independents and libertarians, when he's standing there, dripping wet and emanating a familiar porkine odor?? Talk about "fool all of the people some of the time..." it is wearing thin with the public, please, would the Real Media step forward and talk about the Real McCain?)

Mr. McCain has occasionally rebuffed ("occasionally" doesn't cut it at the Round Table, just once is all it takes to constitute a violation of even his floating "vows"...) Mr. Diamond’s entreaties as inappropriate, but he has also taken steps that benefited his friend’s real estate empire. Their 26-year relationship (aboard his flotilla of yachts?) illuminates (exposes, uncovers, betrays?) how Mr. McCain weighs requests from a benefactor against his vows, adopted after a brush with scandal (Keating 5 was a "brush?") two decades ago, not to intercede with government authorities on behalf of a donor or take other official action that serves no clear public interest.

In California, the McCain aide’s assistance with the with the Army helped Mr. Diamond complete a purchase in 1999 that he soon turned over for a $20 million profit. And Mr. McCain’s letter of recommendation reinforced Mr. Diamond’s selling point about his McCain connections as he pursued — and won in 2005 — a potentially much more lucrative deal to develop a resort hotel and luxury housing. (and who knows what else McCain's done for his pal since then?)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/politics/22diamond.html