In an open letter to Senator McCain, Carl Gibson writes, "either resign now with some semblance of dignity, or prepare to be thrown out of office in 2016." It's time we see some fresh faces in Washington who will stop doing damage to veterans and working people.
What would you call a war veteran who answers a veteran's question about providing more jobs to veterans by saying it's his "highest priority," only to vote against more jobs for veterans when he's back in Washington? What would you call a veteran who was tortured, survived miraculously, got elected to the U.S. Senate, sent more young men to die in a foreign war, voted to deny them jobs and benefits, and yet demands the arrest and full prosecution of those who exercise the constitutional rights he supposedly fought for? To borrow phrasing from you, Senator, I would call you low-life scum.
The Code PINK protesters you called "low-life scum" during a Senate hearing this week are Americans exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of speech, which you swore an oath to defend both as a naval officer and as a member of Congress. These protesters were also within their right to make a citizens' arrest against someone who has committed a felony - in this case, war crimes. It's critical for you to understand why these protesters are patriotic Americans and not "low-life scum," as you called them.
When Henry Kissinger, whom you just vociferously defended from the dais, authorized the secret bombing of Laos and Cambodia in 1969 and 1970, his actions killed over 40,000 people, including civilians who had nothing to do with the Vietnam War. Kissinger has said he did so to stop North Vietnamese troops from using Cambodia as a staging ground. However, research has shown that all Kissinger's bombing campaign did was pave the way for the brutal Khmer Rouge to take over Cambodia, then use the B-52 bombings as propaganda to justify their cause, leading to more death and destruction. Kissinger illegally bombed a sovereign nation that we never officially declared war on, destabilized its government, and allowed a violent, autocratic regime to seize power. If that isn't a felony, I don't know what is.
Washington D.C. statute allows for citizens' arrests in the case of a felony. And in Code PINK's case, war crimes are certainly a felony offense. When you called on the capitol police, it should've been to arrest Kissinger, not Code PINK activists. But your classless outburst during that hearing is indicative of the allegiances you hold, and the longstanding hypocrisy of your entire Congressional career.
Despite going through a war firsthand, and going on record saying "war is wretched beyond description," you are one of the loudest voices consistently in favor of going to war with anyone at the drop of a hat. You bragged to a conservative radio host that nobody supported President Bush's war in Iraq more than you. You were the first member of the Senate to call for airstrikes on Syria. You've openly said you'd like to keep troops in Iraq for 100 years. You even made a joke about bombing Iran at a campaign rally. As a Vietnam veteran, haven't you had enough war for one lifetime?
Speaking of veterans, I would think that someone who has personally experienced the worst imaginable hell of war would be the first one to stand up for veterans when given the chance. But you, Senator McCain, have turned your back repeatedly on America's veterans when they asked for even the most concrete necessities.
When the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) urged you to pass the Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits & Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014, you voted against even bringing it to the floor for debate, despite the fact that several of your Republican colleagues supported it. You claim to support better healthcare for veterans, and that bill would've provided that care by, among other things, expanding the Comprehensive Caregiver Assistance Program, and advanced veterans' retirement payments even in the event of a government shutdown. As a fellow veteran who bears permanent scars of war, how could you deny your brothers and sisters at the PVA this vote?
After you came home from Vietnam, where you endured years of cruel imprisonment, solitary confinement, and torture, where would you be if you didn't have for a father a four-star admiral who commanded all U.S. forces in Vietnam? Unlike you, many of the veterans who are lucky enough to come back from the wars you eagerly sent them off to don't have wealthy, highly-connected families to support them when they return stateside. Almost 50,000 veterans today are struggling to survive on the streets despite serving their country. Yet when you were given multiple opportunities to show your commitment to homeless veterans, you did nothing.
When the House of Representatives passed the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, which would have funded the transition for veterans to go from wandering the streets to having a roof over their head, you allowed the bill to die, and said nothing. You even allowed your party to kill the Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans with Children Act of 2009, which would have provided homes for single mothers who served their countries with distinction in the military. But as bad as your inaction was on those bills, it still wasn't your biggest slight to America's veterans.
At the 2012 Republican National Convention, Meg Lanker-Simons, a veteran and journalist, asked you about providing more jobs to veterans, 14 percent of whom are unemployed. You responded, to her face, that you were going to "try to find more and better ways to hire veterans," that chronic unemployment of veterans was a "national disgrace," and that making more jobs available to veterans was your "highest priority." But just a month later, when the Senate was voting on the Veterans Job Corps Bill, which would've paired veterans up with job opportunities based on their skill sets, you mocked the idea before voting it down. While your reason was that the $1 billion cost was too high, the bill would have paid for itself by $1 billion of new revenue for the office of Veterans' Affairs. So, Mr. McCain, not only are you a hypocrite, but a liar as well. If you didn't run for elected office to serve your fellow veterans, why did you run in the first place?
With a net worth of over $10 million, you are one of the richest members of Congress. And as everyone learned in 2008, you own 8 properties, making you one of the wealthiest 0.01 percent of Americans. During your Congressional career, you voted 19 times against increasing the minimum wage, yet in 2010, you voted to extend George W. Bush's tax cut package. That was a complete 180 from your earlier position against it, in which you rightly called it "generous tax relief to the wealthiest individuals of our country at the expense of lower and middle-income taxpayers." You also voted for a $700 billion bailout of the big banks that crashed our economy in 2008. Those same banks gave you almost $2 million in campaign and leadership PAC donations between 2005 and 2010, including over $50,000 from bailout king Goldman Sachs. If someone who didn't know any better took a look at that data, they would think you're only in office to serve yourself.
You've been in Washington long enough, Senator McCain, and you've done enough damage to veterans and working people. Either resign now with some semblance of dignity, or prepare to be thrown out of office in 2016.
Carl Gibson
Reader Comments
John McCain is low-life scum?
He looks more like a motherfucker to me.
Is there a worse term(s)?
Fucking child molester and mad dog rapist killer?
Life-eater, destroyer of worlds, manufacturer of mayhem and progenitor of madness?
Let's not be kind to these modern political action figure psychos.
There is absolutely nothing to like or trust or believe about them.
Not one damned thing.
ned, out
Because this will never appear in the mainstream media. "Nation of Change" is mostly read by you and me, those that are beginning to awaken, not by those that are asleep, that have been sucked into lies and propaganda pumped out by the prevailing status quo newspapers, magazines and TV..........Can you just imagine this letter appearing in, say, something like, "Time" magazine, or "USA Today"?
ITS A STORY LI M E THIS THAT WE NEED TO HELP "GO VIRAL"! YOUNG AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF SCUMBAGS THESE GUYS REALLY ARE. LAMESTREAM MEDIA LIFTS THESE DOUCHEBAGS UP AND PUTS THEM ON A PEDESTAL, WE NEED TO KNOCK THEM OFF THAT PEDESTAL
SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, EMAIL IT, TEXT IT, TWEET IT, FACEBOOK IT, LINK PIN IT, ETC. ETC. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT WELL THOUGHT OUT LETTER TO A CROOK AND ENABLER OF CROOKS. SPREAD THE WORD
Those damn Diebold machines will no doubt hand him another victory. There is no getting rid of any of these scumsuckers because they never give us a true alternative who isn't already sold out - and if that ever DID happen, they would lose to Diebold anyway. The only escape from this mess is to pray for the comets to come...SOON.
G.W. Bush was called a 'fortunate son', but John McCain better deserves the tag. He only got into and barely graduated from the Naval Academy because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals, and his father's flag rank protected John McCain through all of his inept and corrupt military career.
John McCain couldn't fly well, kept breaking airplanes, and got shot down over North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese knew he was the son of a US admiral (McCain probably told them right away to ensure his own survival) and may have used psychological stress and/or hypnosis to influence and manipulate him. Other US prisoners of war suspected him of cooperating, making McCain a potential 'Manchurian candidate'.
John McCain 'hot-started' his fighter-bomber aboard the USS Forrestal in 1967, triggering a rocket launch from a plane behind his that started a chain of explosions and fire, which killed 134 sailors and injured 161 and caused over $500 billion in damage to the ship, not including all of aircraft lost. Any other US Navy aviator would have been cashiered for that, but McCain was quietly transferred from the ship the very next day.
Just as he began to seek political office, John McCain effectively joined the mafia by marrying the daughter of a mob connected beer distributor. There's nothing that indicates "low-life scum" like marrying into the mob.
I can't argue with the rest of what you write, except that I believe calling McCain "low-life scum" gives him way more credit than he deserves and is therefore horribly insulting to scum.
SORRY IF MY GLACOMA OFFENDS YOU, I DON'T SEE VERY WELL AND IT HELPS ME TO REVIEW MY WRITING WHEN THEY ARE IN CAPS. OF COURSE PERFECT PEOPLE LIKE YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND IGNORE IT.
Sorry about the glaucoma, but the problem is that many people use caps to make their messages more "noticeable", a lot of times ignorant people (not you though- you have a reason).
A solution:
You can use wordpad to type your message with a big font, review it. Then you can click at the top edit, select all- click again edit, copy. Here you can right click, paste.
And nedlud, whoa, I thought you were a poet or something- and now you're cussin worse than I do (I cuss a lot when mad lol)
Why don't you just make the font larger? (Usually Ctrl + mouse wheel does it.)
Looking like a spammer does not help your message.