John McCain has declared war on "earmarks." The bombing will start in five minutes. Following that, there will be a surge of enormous proportions. General Petraeus will lead the charge. It will be bloody and there will no doubt be plenty of collateral damage, but John McCain will wield his "terrible swift sword" on his righteous crusade to save the American taxpayer millions of dollars of wasteful spending.
But what about "The Biggest Earmarks of Them All?" Where was John McCain when his BFFs Bush and Cheney were handing out billion-dollar, no-bid contracts to Texas-based Halliburton and its subsidiaries? Where was McCain when KBR was selling tainted drinking water to our beloved troops and charging more per gallon than we presently pay for gasoline? Where was McCain when it was revealed that companies like Bechtel were double-billing the Federal Government and doing shoddy work in the process?
Where was McCain when the Bush Administration hired Blackwater to do it's dirty work in Baghdad, and paid its mercenaries from $100000 to $200000 annually? Where was McCain when the Pentagon purchased sub-standard body armor for our troops from the well-connected Point Blank Body Armor, Inc. without adequately testing it? Ironically, McCain didn't wear the Point Blank product during his many vaunted tours of Baghdad. He wore "Dragon Skin" manufactured by Pinnacle Armor; a company that was mysteriously denied Army contracts.
Where was John McCain when a forty-billion-dollar contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman and its European partners for Air Force refueling tankers, potentially resulting in the loss of thousands of U.S. jobs? He couldn't have been too far away because his fingerprints were all over the deal.
This man's bluster knows no bounds. He may have his so-called "base" bamboozled, but lets hope the majority of Americans can see right through his inglorious smoke screen. It's looking more and more like McCain is simply the shoe-horn to ease the way for ultra-conservative Sarah Palin into the Oval Office. Behind McCain's goofy smile is the mind of a schemer and an errand boy for the far-right. Let the buyer beware!