McCain Myth Buster Day 3: John McCain and Veterans' Health Care

After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.

Today's McCain Myth: John McCain can be trusted to stand up for veterans and military families.

Throughout this campaign, John McCain has relied on the support of fellow veterans and promised to make veterans' health care his "top domestic priority." [Associated Press, 12/12/07] In reality, John McCain has consistently put his campaign ahead of veterans and military families by pandering to the right wing of his Party on tax cuts.

Faced with a choice between joining Democrats in trying to increase funding for veterans and military families by eliminating some of President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, John McCain chose to cozy up to conservatives by preserving the tax cuts he once opposed. Putting his campaign ahead of our veterans, McCain voted against Democratic efforts to improve care at veterans' hospitals, provide mental health services to soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse problems, and prevent veterans and military families from paying higher fees and co-payments for medical services.

With the one-year anniversary of the revelations of the shameful conditions at military hospitals like Walter Reed coming on Monday, can America's veterans and military families really afford another four years of a Republican President who puts politics and his party ahead of our nation's veterans and wounded warriors?

McCain & Veterans' Health Care

McCain Has Repeatedly Voted Against Increasing Funding for Veterans Healthcare to Keep Tax Cuts for the Rich. John McCain has repeatedly voted to keep intact tax cuts for the rich, rather than provide American veterans with adequate healthcare funding. McCain has repeatedly voted against amendments in the Senate that would have added funding for healthcare services, but eliminated tax cuts for the wealthy. Funding would have covered such important services as improving care at veterans' hospitals, providing mental health services to soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse problems. [2006 Senate Vote #7, 2/2/06; 2005 Senate Vote #343, 11/17/05; 2003 Senate Vote #74, 3/21/03]

2006: McCain Voted Against Eliminating Increased Fees And Co-Payments For Veterans Health Care Program By Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes. In 2006, McCain voted against the Kerry amendment that would eliminate increased fees and co-payments for veterans in the TRICARE health care program by raising the discretionary spending limit by approximately $10 billion. The provisions would have been fully offset by eliminating creating corporate tax breaks. [2006 Senate Vote #67, 3/16/2006]

McCain Stood Out in Opposing Veterans' Healthcare Funding. McCain was one of only 13 Republicans to vote against an amendment that added over $400 million for inpatient and outpatient care for veterans. [2006 Senate Vote #98, 4/26/06]

McCain Puts Politics Over Vets; Would Rather Be Out Campaigning Than Supporting Our Troops. McCain missed an important vote this year that supported the funding of the troops inIraq and guaranteed them adequate medical care upon returning home. [2007 Senate Vote #76, 3/15/07]

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, http://www.democrats.org.

This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

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Happy Valentine's Day from Uncle Sam?

ust in time for the Valentine's Day festivities, President Bush has signed legislation to "stimulate" the economy by returning money to its rightful owners, i.e., those who earned the money in the first place!

All told, the bill could cost the federal government in excess of $160 billion dollars.

And since the government does not happen to have an extra $160 billion laying about, just where in the hell did W and the gang get the dough for this latest canard?

The way Americans always fund things they cannot afford--by charging it!

So add another $160 billion to the federal debt and to W's tarnished legacy as a "true conservative."

In order to get all that money back into the hands of those who earned it, W and the gang will have to spend billions more (of our money) to process the rebate checks.

Add another $10 billion or so to the federal debt and to W's "worst president in history" legacy.

Counting the interest that will have to be paid on the money borrowed to send us back our own money, the net effect of all these shenanigans will ultimately be an increase in taxes, especially if the Democrats conquer Washington, D.C. in November.

The only good news is that the rebate checks will not arrive until around April 1--just in time for April Fool's Day!

Digg This Up Please !

The 5 Most Successful People-Powered News Sites - and 30 Failures

Last week, a review of the top five people-powered or community news websites generated a lot of interest and questions about other players in that space. We review some of the players and find the top sites are well ahead of the pack while many others have already failed. Here is an updated analysis after undertaking extra research.

Digg inspired a lot of competition. But are any of these sites successful?

There are literally hundreds of digg-like sites that have jumped on the people-powered news bandwagon. Yet, my analysis shows almost all have failed to achieve critical mass, and many have already closed up shop. That said, a few do appear to be on their way to success.

Which are the most successful people-powered news sites?

#1 Digg
#2 Reddit
#3 Care2 News Network
#4 Shoutwire
#5 Netscape

This analysis is based on the average number of votes the stories have on the front page, along with the number of votes for the most popular stories for the past month. Digg is the clear leader, with Reddit showing some impressive numbers as well. The one that will probably surprise a lot of people is Care2. They launched their version of Digg for progressive / green news back in January.

Time to market seems to be one of the keys to success here - particularly for Digg and Reddit. Care2 wasn't the third to launch (maybe the fourth?), but they had the advantage of being an existing community of six million activists. They also have a clear niche (progressive news) which Shoutwire lacks.

There's been a lot of talk that it only takes a relatively small number of super users to get one of these sites going, but clearly that's not enough to be successful. It's not clear yet what a site needs to achieve critical mass in this space, but based on my observations over the past several months the top 5 all appear to be growing (with the exception perhaps of Shoutwire) while the rest of the competition appear to be steady or declining.

I'm sure Netscape will do well given their existing traffic, but so far they seem to be running a distant fifth place in the race. They appear to get a relatively high number of comments though, which is an indication of a successful news community (and perhaps a result of their Anchors-as-facilitators strategy?)

I suspect there will be a few other successful niche news sites that will make it, but the general take away seems to be that the game is over - you either need to be one of the first to market and/or have a lot of traffic to make it sustainable. This part of the Web 2.0 bubble has already popped.

Pligg / Meneame. The list below contains another 50+ sites that are dead or nearly so - and most appear to be using Pligg / Meneame or something similar. These are open source systems, based on Digg. Memeame was first, in Spanish and Pligg used their code base and then split off on its own path. I have contributed a small amount of code to Pligg and experimented with it myself. It's interesting to see that all of the top 5 rolled their own app. I'm not sure whether that indicates sites need to use a more custom solution to be successful, or if it's just another reflection that time to market was key (Netscape excepted).

Here's some data to back up my analysis (data from: Tue, PM, Aug 22, 2006)

Average number of front page votes (for top 20 stories) of the day:
#1 Digg 447
#2 Reddit 157
#3 Care2 51
#4 Shoutwire 40
#5 Netscape 21

Median number of homepage votes (for top 20 stories):
#1 Digg 392
#2 Reddit 139
#3 Care2 44
#4 Shoutwire 36
#5 Netscape 18

---

Additional sites among the top 25 and average number of votes for top 20 Front Page stories:
#6 Videosift 14
#7 Fantacular 14
#8 Videobomb 11
#9 QoolSqool 10
#10 InboxNews 9
#11 Crankk 8
#12 Hugg 8
#13 Dzone 7
#14 EatMyHamster 6
#15 Blog Memes 5
#16 PopCurrent 5
#17 Nooz 5
#18 DissectMedicine 4
#19 meme-stream 4
#20 Livelocker 3
#21 topkix 3
#22 Humdigg 3
#23 ByteMyCode 2
#24 autospies 2
#25 iTalkNews 2

Other people powered news sites that appear to be dead or nearly so:
APBNews
Binarylaw
Bitchabouttech
Bringr
Business-planet.net
CC Hits
Diggers
Diggnews
Funnydigg
GoogleKicks
Hitsmit
HR Salad
kablogs
Marketpicks
Meedio
motorplus
Newsbump.net
NewsCloud
NewsGarbage
Oks
ParrotAddict
Phetchit
Quadriot
Scoop.net
Scoopity
Sperocite
Sportsblink
Tribalwar
VCNewsCentral
Web-Feeds
Wizag
YouPickNews
Zapptor

There are a number of other sites that no longer even exist, which would have made the "dead list" even longer, but the above is grim enough to demonstrate the perils of trying to be a me-too site. Many of these sites have some activity, but it seems to be mostly from the owner of the website. To make it in any meaningful way, they need a compelling story to tell and some fanatical belivers to participate and spread the word.

Note that I didn't rely on Alexa because of the webmaster bias (which would penalize a non-techie site like Care2) and for certain sites it's hard to determine where the traffic is actually going (such as Netscape).

Velocity of stories hitting the front page matters too, but based on my observations there doesn't appear to be a huge difference between the top five sites, though stories appear to stay on Shoutwire the longest, and Digg the shortest time. My analysis therefore probably somewhat under-represents the lead that Digg has over the other services. Note that some of the sites listed above as "dead" actually show some high vote counts on their front pages, but the stories appear to have been sitting there for weeks or longer.

The other compounding challenge in analyzing the numbers is that it's possible to down-vote on Reddit and some others, but it's highly unlikely that would push it past Digg for the top slot or make much of a difference in the other rankings.

I didn't include other models in this analysis, such as newsvine or machine-powered-aggregators given the obvious differences in approach and the higher costs of entry versus a fully community powered model.

I also didn't include the grand-daddy of them all, Slashdot, because moderators select the stories, not members. Although Slashdot doesn't have votes, it has comments. An average of 133 comments per story, against Digg's average of 80 comments and 447 diggs per story, at the time of writing.

I couldn't draw any conclusions from this because it is easier to digg a story than to comment on it, there is no easy way to tell the number of unique commenters and digg has many more stories per day than slashdot. All I can say is they are both popular sites, each with their own niche audience and a different enough model and vibe, fans and foes - that they will likely continue along their separate paths, unaffected by each other. Digg definitely has the capacity for much more growth because it appeals to a much wider audience, while slashdot is almost exclusively for nerds.

This space definitely needs to be watched. It will be interesting to see how the top five fare over the next few months and to see activity in the the 5 to 25 space. Care2, with its green niche and a large membership, and Netscape with its big name and big following could be contenders. It will be especially instructive to see what Netscape can do, because they had a very late start. I know of one big audience player considering an entry to the market early next year, so if they learn the right lessons, there could be more shake-ups coming.

No matter what brands enter the people-powered news arena, Digg is by far the clear leader and it will take much more than a "me too" application to even get close to them. Paticipation is the key.

Digg This Up Please !

European Union plans biometrics database

The International Herald Tribune reports ‘EU plans to require biometrics of all non-European visitors‘

The plans - arguably the biggest shake-up of border management in Europe since the creation of an internal travel zone - would apply to citizens of the United States and all other countries that now enjoy visa-free status.

We in Ireland know the debacle created by the electronic voting system. This current trend of consuming every last bit of private information about a person, whether it comes from governments or social networking websites, which extend so far as to their very biological nature, is a disturbing one to say the least. Just imagine if the database holding the biometrics of all europeans, and non-european visitors, was operated as successfully as the electronic voting system in Ireland.

Anonymous respond to IrishGeeks

As mentioned previously, we endeavour to cover the Anonymous vs Church of Scientology events with a balanced but informed position. To this end, we contacted the Anonymous group to get their side of the story. Here we present Anonymous’ side of the debate…

The content of the email is presented here in its entirety:

Hello

We’re sorry that’s it’s taken us almost three days to get back to you.
It wasn’t our intention to avoid an interview with IrishGeeks.com,
we’re afraid your email simply got lost in the shuffle - a combination
of our assumption that it had been dealt with previously along with
the other press queries, and the fact our more PR-focused members were
occupied dealing with established mainstream media. We do, however,
welcome your blog’s coverage! We’ll try to answer your questions now.
While an attempt has been made tonight to write this collaboratively,
reflecting the disparate views of Anonymous, due to the late hour the
email itself was compiled by an individual, who is, at present, rather
tired.

On 2/7/08, press@irishgeeks.com <press@irishgeeks.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Im contacting you as editor of IrishGeeks.com regarding the protest
> against Scientology that is schedueled for this sunday, 10th Feb.
>
> We’re planning on covering the event, blogger style, with two cameras
> (video and still), in addition to an article on our website, and would
> like to get in touch to find get your side of the story.
>
> Of particular interest:
>
> * your motives for this protest.

Anonymous’ original motives were the Church of Scientology’s attempts
to restrict information and freedom of expression. The most infamous
example of this recently was Scientology’s intimidation of video
websites to remove some embarrassing footage of Tom Crusie taken from
an indoctrination video of theirs. From here, our campaign grew
exponentially, due to Anonymous’ research into the organisation’s
crimes and human rights abuses.

The Church has been convicted in Greece, Italy, France, Spain,
Germany, USA and other countries for kidnapping, fraud, criminal
association, interfering with witnesses, establishing an illegal
organization and numerous other criminal acts. It has been implicated
in several deaths due to neglect or malice, such as Lisa McPherson’s
reported death in the custody of the Church, whose anniversary this
protest commemorates. Controversial policies it espouses include
forced abortions and brainwashing. It has historically attempted to
silence and harass its opponents, as in Operation Freakout, a church
campaign targeting Paulette Cooper, author of The Scandal of
Scientology.

At its core, the organisation exists to exploit the vulnerability of
innocent people by changing exorbitant fees for services and
counselling, as it costs nearly $100,000 to learn its basic beliefs.
They have a front group operating here in Ireland called the Citizens
Commission on Human Rights which campaigns against psychiatry and
psychology, saying that “psychiatrists ruin lives and undermine
society at huge cost” and that each of “ADHD, bipolar disorder,
depression or schizoprenia” is an “invented psychiatric disorder”.
There have been many controversial episodes here, including
psychological abuse and intimidation (Mary Johnson) and the
disappearance of members (e.g. Odhran Fortune, Tony Phelan)

> * whether this protest was endorsed by anyone, particularly what the
> gardí response has been thus far.

No, not as such. Anonymous is at its heart a grassroots movement.
Globally, the only endorsement we have sought and found has been from
innocents harmed by the organisation, and from some prominent
anti-Scientology campaigners.

The Gardaí have been informed and will be present today. They are
happy with our arrangements for a peaceful protest.

> * what outcome is expected from the demonstration.

As a collective of individuals, we each have our own personal
expectations and aspirations, which, when combined with the fact that
our campaign is in a state of constant flux, makes it difficult to
come to a consensus as to an expected outcome. One basic aspiration is
that the public will be informed of the Church of Scientology’s
transgressions, and warned of its dangers.

> * preliminary research shows only one mention of the Dublin protest -
> on pressreleaseireland.com, what if any other websites or forms of
> media have been use to ’spread the word’.

Yes, we have also posted press releases to Indymedia Ireland,
NowPublic and PRLog. Our initial campaign made use YouTube videos,
collaborative wikis, and sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon. Much
of our message was spread informally, from the simple use of emails
and posts on on-line discussion boards, to physical posters and
flyers. One member’s attempt to email prominent Irish bloggers was
felt to be spam and abandoned. Our first newspaper report was in
Wednesday’s edition of Metro Ireland, but this was drawn exclusively
from our press release. Tomorrow (today’s) Sunday Tribune may feature
the article into which we’ve had the most input.

In terms of radio, we’ve had live interviews on The Spin on SPIN 1038,
and The Last Word on Today FM. We were due to have a debate live on
air on Newstalk, but this was cancelled due to the director of the
Church of Scientology pulling out. Their spokesperson also pulled out
of the Today FM interview. (At one stage there was also an East Coast
FM interview proposed) We have also made provisional arrangements for
at least one post-protest radio interview tomorrow.

> * what your expectations, or projections for attendance will be. and
> the response you expect from the Churche of Scientology.

We’re afraid to say that, again, we honestly don’t know, as there are
simply too many unknown quantities to take into account. We estimate
over 100.

We are also unsure as to the response to expect from the Church. From
checking Indymedia this morning, we can see that fake news reports of
violence at the Australian protests have been posted and subsequently
removed. Regardless of their response here, at this juncture, our
intention is primarily to enlighten the Irish public as a whole.

Anonymous
10/02/2008

Digg This Up Please !

Top Hezbollah operative is killed in Syria

BEIRUT: A senior Hezbollah military commander, one of the world's most wanted men for his alleged links to a string of bombings, hijackings and kidnappings during the 1980s and 1990s, has been killed, Hezbollah said Wednesday. The Shiite group accused Israel of orchestrating the killing.

Security officials in Lebanon said the man, Imad Mughniyeh, who was believed to be behind attacks in 1983 on the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut and the terrorist hijacking of a TWA jetliner in 1985, died in a car bomb in Damascus on Tuesday night. His organization may have also been involved in the bombing of the Khobar Towers military residence in Saudi Arabia in 1996, in which 17 Americans were killed.

"With pride and honor we announce that a great Jihadi leader has joined the procession of martyrs in the Islamic resistance," said a statement read on Hezbollah's Al Manar television station. "The martyr was killed at the hands of the Israeli Zionists."

Israel officially distanced itself from the killing and, without specifically naming Mughniyeh, said it was looking into the attack in Syria. But some former Israeli security officials did not hide their satisfaction at Mughniyeh's assassination.

Dani Yatom, a Labor lawmaker and former chief of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, called Mughniyeh's death "a great achievement for the free world in its fight on terror." At one point, Mughniyeh had a U.S. price tag on his head of $25 million.

U.S. officials assert that Mughniyeh was behind the bombings in Beirut in 1983. A car bomb at the U.S. Embassy in April that year killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, while a truck bomb in October at a Marine compound killed 241 American troops.

The United States have also asserted Mughniyeh was behind the torture and murder of William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, in 1984; the kidnapping and murder of Lieutenant Colonel William Richard Higgins of the Marines, who was on peacekeeping duty in Lebanon in 1988; and, through the Islamic Jihad Organization, the seizure of Western hostages in Beirut during the 1980s.

Mughniyeh is also wanted for the hijacking in June 1985 of a TWA flight. During the hijacking, an American was killed and 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days. It is the only terrorist action for which he has been indicted in the United States.

In a statement, the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said: "Israel rejects the attempt by terrorist elements to ascribe to it any involvement whatsoever in this incident." Gideon Ezra, a minister from the governing Kadima party and former deputy chief of the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that many countries had an interest in killing Mughniyeh but that "Israel, too, was hurt by him, more than other countries in recent years."

Ezra said, "Of course I don't know who killed him, but whoever did should be congratulated." According to witnesses, the bombing of the car took place just after 10:30 p.m. Monday in Tantheem Kafer Souseh, an upscale neighborhood of Damascus, close to an Iranian school and a police station.

The car, believed to be a black sport-utility vehicle, was badly damaged in the attack, "like a shredded metal can," according to Housham Nasaiseh, who works in a candy shop nearby and arrived at the scene a few minutes after the explosion. At least nine other cars were damaged.

By Wednesday morning, the destroyed car had been towed away, the scene had been cleared and the only signs of the attack were a black mark on the ground and damage to nearby buildings.

As well as being described as an archterrorist with strong links to Iran, Mughniyeh was believed in Israel to be a master of disguises who may have undergone several rounds of plastic surgery in order to evade capture.