As Barack Obama rolled through Afghanistan and Iraq, John McCain was left alone in the U.S. to display any new plans or ideas he has for the future of the country if he should be elected the next President of the United States.  Although many of the major network anchors are shadowing Obama’s trip either on the press bus following him or through long distance communications, McCain has been left behind with enough of the top news broadcasters and journalists to have captured some of spotlight, without Obama’s presence to reply immediately.

Obama has undoubtedly been treated with political flare while on the trip, although he is traveling as a senator, not a Presidential candidate.  But, it is hard to separate the two.  For all the reporters trailing Obama on this trip, remarkably little of substance has been reported on the journey.  The trip has been under wraps as far as itinerary for the most part.  Perhaps, once out of the war zones, we will see more on the ground coverage.

One would have thought that John McCain would have used the absence of Obama from American soil to get his campaign rolling, trying to pick up some steam for the straight talk express.  Instead, McCain seems to have fallen off the map this week.  I’m sure he is making some local news somewhere, but he has received no more ground coverage than Obama.

We could accept the idea that the press has ignored the McCain campaign, but I am more inclined to believe that McCain has offered nothing new that deserves coverage.  How many times can we listen to the same old rhetoric?

McCain offered a response to Obama’s Op-Ed piece in the New York Times.  It was rejected by the paper, although we may yet see it if McCain can come up with something to say.  According to CNN

The New York Times has rejected an essay that Sen. John McCain wrote defending his Iraq war policy.

The piece was in response to an op-ed from Sen. Barack Obama that was published in the paper last week.

In an e-mail to the McCain campaign, Opinion Page Editor David Shipley said he could not accept the piece as written, but would be “pleased, though, to look at another draft.”

“Let me suggest an approach,” he wrote Friday. “The Obama piece worked for me because it offered new information (it appeared before his speech); while Senator Obama discussed Senator McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans. It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece.”

McCain’s campaign is claiming bias.  That may be true… or not.  But, none of us want to read the same old same old from the candidate and apparently the New York Times is in the business of news, not history. 

For those who are interested in reading McCain’s essay, click HERE for the full essay.  Having read it, I am only reminded of Phil Gramm’s statement about “whiners.”  But, that is my opinion.

Let’s dismiss the essay for a the time.  What has McCain been doing since Obama left the country?

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “Iraq” on Monday when he apparently meant “Afghanistan”, adding to a string of mixed-up word choices that is giving ammunition to the opposition. 

Just in the past three weeks, McCain has also mistaken “Somalia” for ”Sudan,” and even football’s Green Bay Packers for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise: foreign affairs.

The Huffington Post claimed that the first foreign policy gaffe of Barack Obama’s tour abroad came from John McCain.  That had to be a major disappointment for the McCain camp.  But, I suppose you have to work with what you have.

More and more questions are arising about McCain’s gaffes.  Whether there is any truth to the notion that McCain is too old to become President, or whether he just confuses names while in the midst of a speech, we need to consider the consequences of electing a President who has mixed up the names of just about everything that relates to foreign policy.

A few months ago, while McCain, Lieberman, and Graham were traveling through the mid-East, the press made little of the fact that John McCain confused the Iranian extremists with Al Qaeda, or the Sunni’s with the Shi’as.  In fact the incident was not reported in major press stories until the videos surfaced all across the Internet.  There was no way to avoid it after that.  Yet, little was made of it.

However, as McCain continues, and seemingly with increasing frequency, to confuse names and places, the press has no choice but to take note.  Both candidates have misspoken at one point in time or another.  We have all said one word while thinking another and meaning to say another.  But it seems more and more that McCain is skewing the chart.

According to reports, Obama should be returning to the U.S. in a week or so.  Perhaps, McCain can then regain his focus.  It is just a shame that John McCain and his campaign have not been able to capitalize on Obama’s absence… with the exception of a single negative ad.  Tsk!  Tsk!  Tsk!

Yep, Phil Gramm still thinks we are a nation of whiners.  He tried a little spin to soften the original blow to American citizens by saying that he was talking about Washington insiders, not citizens.  But, as we like to say in the south, that dog wouldn’t hunt.

On Friday, to save the cause Phil Gramm stepped down from the McCain campaign.  According to CNN

Former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm said Friday that he is stepping down as co-chairman of Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign amid criticism for saying last week that “we have sort of become a nation of whiners.”

Gramm on Friday said he would “join the growing number of rank-and-file McCain supporters.”

Oh, not so fast there, Phil.  There is no way McCain can afford to let Phil Gramm become “rank-and-file” among his supporters.  Gramm’s name is and has always been included in the litany of names that McCain recites when asked about the economy.  It’s McCain’s way of saying that he doesn’t know “jack” about the economy, but he does know Jack Kemp and Phil Gramm.  Anyway, Gramm resigned saying he had become a distraction.

Obama’s campaign responded to the resignation saying that it would make little difference.  In fact, it makes little difference at all.  We all know that Gramm will be lurking in the shadows.

Had Gramm not stuck his right wing tip up McCain’s butt by accident, sooner or later the press would have (or should have) taken up the relationship between Gramm and Enron or more currently Gramm’s position at UBS and the current problems the bank is facing, and indictments some of its employees are facing for helping wealthy Americans avoid paying taxes by sending their funds offshore.  Now, that’s something that should make Gramm whine.

The FDA prosecution of the tomato proved once again that criminal indictments are often tunnel visioned and have a malicious effect on the indicted.

How many criminal cases in this country focus on one suspect to the exclusion of all others?  Well, that was the case with the tomato.  The investigators, eager to nab a suspect… in this case the tomato… narrowed their vision and investigation to what seemed most obvious, allowing the real culprit to have time to escape the scene.  The tomato, in the instant case, was indicted on circumstantial evidence and hearsay.  That has happened more than once in the criminal justice system, too. 

“Tomato” was the name that cropped up consistently in the recent salmonella outbreak.  It seemed the obvious culprit.  The FDA jumped to the conclusion based on hearsay that it was obvious that the red round tomato was the only suspect.  Instead of looking at other complementary foods, it was easier to prosecute the tomato than to follow up on other less prominent leads.  It happens all the time.

Why?  Well, that’s a simple answer.  The general public wants to put “closure” to any event or incident that seems dangerous.  As we have seen in too many cases, eyewitness accounts are faulty.  The questioning of investigators have a tendency to lead the witnesses to a pre-supposed conclusion, to the exclusion of any other suspects.  Recently, based on such compelling testimony, the tomato was indicted.

Once the word was out… the tomato is the prime suspect… we all forgot the basic tenents of our judicial system.  The tomato should have been innocent until proven guilty.  However, the FDA spread the word that the tomato was the most likely culprit and the investigation that followed was focused on gathering information that would prove the tomato guilty.  As with so many criminal cases, the truth is not the objective.  Instead, a conviction… a notch on the belt for the FDA and “closure” for those affected… became the objective.

Regulators have struggled to pinpoint the source of the outbreak, which has raised questions about U.S. food safety and prompted lawmakers to demand new systems to trace fresh produce from farm to table.

FDA said it removed the tomato warning because there are no longer any tomatoes coming into the market from producers that were being looked at as possible sources of contamination.

As with so many who are indicted and tried in the press, it is doubtful that the tomato will regain its standing in the salad bowl.  Oh, eventually, it may work its way back onto the daily menu, but for now the tomato is still a danger in the minds of those who wish to believe it.  The removal of the warning concerning tomatoes comes too late to restore the tomatoes standing for this season.  The damage has been done.

And, as with hearsay and eyewitness testimony, regulators from the FDA were unable to link a single incident of salmonella saintpaul to the plump red tomato. 

Regulators never found Salmonella Saintpaul at any tomato farms or packing plants, even though early indicators pointed to tomatoes as the source of illness. 

The nation’s tomato farmers have paid the price for malicious prosecution.  The FDA is sorry for that.  But, the cost of defending the innocent is no less than defending the guilty.  In this case, the prosecution of the tomato has cost close to a hundred million dollars, more than a death penalty case.  And, like so many who have been exonerated, the tomato and those who grow them receive only an apology.  Then, they are forgotten for all intents and purposes, left to pick up the pieces of broken lives as the FDA moves on to the next suspect.

Reverend, practice what you preach!  That’s our advice to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, following the FOX disclosure that during the castration comment Jackson made about Barack Obama he used the “N-word.”  It seems that Jackson, having been removed from the spotlight some years ago, has turned to shock tactics to get his name back in the news, all perhaps subconsciously.  However, Jackson who has held himself out as a representative of black Americans for years has demonstrated that it is his own language and representation of his ethnicity that condemns the people he claims to represent.

According to FOX news, Jackson used the “N-word” during his comments about cutting Barack Obama’s nuts out because he talks down to black people.   Jackson is totally irrelevant in today’s racial conversation.  It is not that we have forgotten the injustices in our American history.  We have not forgotten our mistakes.  There is still much dialogue left on that subject.  But, Jackson is among those who wants to not only keep the debate alive, but wants to keep the divide deep and wide.  It’s too late for that.  Just as with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jackson is stuck in the 1960’s, unwilling to acknowledge that change has taken place.  The world isn’t perfect.  African Americans are still feeling the discrimination.  We have still have a long road to travel.  But, look around.  We have made some progress.

Times have changed.  No one has forgotten the fight or the discrimination.  But, the dialogue has changed.  It’s a shame that Jesse Jackson is fighting the progress we have made as a nation.  Instead, we find that it is Jackson, not Obama, who talks down about his community.  And, that makes Jackson irrelevant in today’s discussions.

“Evecutive privilege” and “signing statement”, closely followed by “veto” have fast become words or phrases that come from the administration on a daily basis for one reason or another.  We have heard about signing statements almost every time Bush has signed into law anything that he didn’t 100% agree with.  Veto has been his stamp for the past year.  Now, we are back to executive privilege.

Back to the Valerie Plame leak.  A House committe has subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to supply material concerning the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.  Once again, Bush is singing the executive privilege song.

Representative Henry Waxman, House Oversight Chairman, has asked to be provided with interviews of Dick Cheney by the FBI concerning the Plame outing.

They also include notes about the 2003 State of the Union address, during which President Bush made the case for invading Iraq in part by saying Saddam Hussein was pursuing uranium ore to make a nuclear weapon. That information turned out to be wrong.

So, what’s to hide?

The assertion of the privilege is not about hiding anything but rather protecting the separation of powers as well as the integrity of future Justice Department investigations of the White House, Mukasey wrote to Bush in a letter dated Tuesday. Several of the subpoenaed reports, he wrote, summarize conversations between Bush and advisers — are direct presidential communications protected by the privilege.

Yeah… right… There is just too much secret squirrel stuff going on in the White House.  And, every time anyone requests a document or testimony from anyone who has worked in the Presidential palace, it seems that the Dick and the Decider get squirrely. 

The point of the investigation:

Congressional Democrats want to shed light on the precise roles, if any, that Bush, Cheney and their aides may have played in the leak.

Who was really behind the outing of covert agent Plame?  We all know that “Scooter” Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction, and lying to the FBI.  We all know that he received a two and a half year sentence.  We all know that Bush commuted the sentence.

That’s about all we know… except that there is something rotten in the White House.  This one is going to be a cat and dog issue, apparently… a dog fight to get the information and not enough cats in Washington to cover the pile of litter.