Maybe if we had a candidate who wasn't terrified of taking a principled anti-war position this wouldn't be a problem. I have more respect for McCain than I do for Democrats who have sold out those of us who are against the current war, the war to come and still as opposed as we ever were to the Vietnam War. If it were up to me, Senator McCain, you wouldn't have ever been tied up because there never would have been a war.

Why are you playing into this "Woodstock Museum for Hippies" crap?

It's the Bethel Woods Center for The Performing Arts and it's a complex of stages, a museum, outdoor performance areas and educational facilities. Clinton and Schumer put this earmark in the educational bill for the development of the complex, something that two New York senators are supposed to do- get federal funds for their state. It was struck from the bill and the funds were not received by the center.

You're very optimistic, Mr. Gitlin, if you think the next century will see the return of the presidential campaign.

In the eonic meantime, I'm pushing the disclaimer. Big Pharma has to, why not Big Politics. Afterall, the Political Consultant Industry invents, packages and pushes its candidates endlessly and relentlessly on the tube - just like Big Pharma does its drugs - and we have a right to know just how harmful, even lethal should we get another Bush, the products that we're being asked to buy may be.

Just like a drug can end up killing me, a president can end up 'killing' my country.

I'll think of John McCain and all hawks, along with doves and war victims, every time I hear Jimi Hendrix's priceless Woodstock performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

He crashes his trainer into the bay at Corpus. Then, he nearly burns to death after setting fire to the Forrestal. Three months later he busts himself up punching out over Hanoi and almost drowns in a lake. And then, he loses the presidential nomination to a nitwit when the South Carolina crackers find out he's fathered a black child out of wedlock.

If John McCain didn't have bad luck, he wouldn't have no luck at all.

What if it were a Woodstock museum for hippies, anyway? How much public money do we spend on military memorials? Is there anything wrong with memorializing civilian heroes who opposed a war, rather than only people who fight?

thosethingswesay.blogspot.com

Excellent observations. I'm by no means against honoring those who fight in wars. But many of our own have died trying to end those wars, or to stop them from happening, during protests and demonstrations. They're heroes too.

And, as you point out... writers, scientists, inventors, philosophers... they're all also worthy of praise. Here they only get to be on stamps, if they're lucky.

thosethingswesay.blogspot.com

Ellen, be careful whose lies you perpetuate.

You and I may not like McCain's politics, but he did hard time in the 'Hanoi Hilton' and no one deserves that. In fact, he came out far saner than I would have.

This is from Richard Davis, McCain's campaign manager to the the Boston Globe, March 21, 2004. He's talking about South Carolina primary after the Straight Talk Express' surprising victory in the New Hampshire primary. Why he didn't say, "George W. Bush" instead of "anonymous opponents" I can't say.

"It didn't take much research to turn up a seemingly innocuous fact about the McCains: John and his wife, Cindy, have an adopted daughter named Bridget. Cindy found Bridget at Mother Theresa's orphanage in Bangladesh, brought her to the United States for medical treatment, and the family ultimately adopted her. Bridget has dark skin.

Anonymous opponents used "push polling" to suggest that McCain's Bangladeshi born daughter was his own, illegitimate black child."

This "I was tied up" thing is getting stale. He will never get over his being shot down, captured, and asked to stay over in Viet Nam; part of which we understand was at his request.

Our experience in WWII taught us that the bombing of civilians and cities did not shorten the war, and was inhumane. Why he prides himself in this I cannot say.