Vladimir Putin

I’ve heard several stories about John McCain’s "tough stance" over the Russian-Georgian conflict on NPR, how it helps burnish his "national security credentials." Similar stories appear elsewhere in the supposedly liberal media. Rarely in the same story do we hear or read that McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann is also a well-paid lobbyist for the nation of Georgia. The "liberal" New York Times snuck this fact into an inside story under the innocuous ("don’t bother to read me") headline: "In Split Role, McCain Adviser is Sometimes a Lobbyist."

Were the situations reversed, this would be a scandal of the first magnitude for Barack Obama. But, as I have noted before, the corporate media and corporate rulers of America have to take him out. So here is one more way to do it. Forgive me for being cynical — after two stolen presidential elections, the serial scandals of the Bush years, secret energy task force, etc. — but are we seeing a new cold war ginned up to benefit McCain?

Where is our ‘liberal’ mainstream media on reports of Karl Rove meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, soon after the Georgian leader met with Condoleezza Rice in July. Hello?…Any curiosity? The White House has denied that Rice gave a green light to the impulsive Georgian president. Ah, but I remember all those color-coded "threat" warnings being raised and "high profile" terror arrests that went nowhere during the 2004 campaign. They succeeded in scaring enough people to make it a close enough election to steal.

McCain could win just because enough voters won’t cast a ballot for a black man, but the oligarchy apparently isn’t taking any chances. As usual, the national interests of the United States are cast aside.