John Sidney McCain III aka “McNasty”

I’ll admit, I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time researching the Reich Wing presidential candidate, but I wanted to know more about him, just out of curiosity.

John Sidney McCain III, born August 29, 1936 is a Panamanian-born (US Military base), senior United States Senator from Arizona, and the candidate for the Republican Party in the 2008 presidential election.

For the first ten years of his life, “Johnny” McCain (as he was often known) was frequently uprooted as his family (including older sister Sandy and younger brother Joe) followed his father to New London, Connecticut, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and various other stations in the Pacific Ocean; McCain attended whatever naval base school was available, often to the detriment of his education.

As a child, John was known for a quick temper and an aggressive drive to compete and prevail.

After World War II was over, his father stayed in the Navy, sometimes working political liaison posts, the family settled in Northern Virginia, and McCain attended the educationally stronger St. Stephen’s School in Alexandria, Virginia from 1946 to 1949, where he began to develop an unruly, defiant streak. Another two years were then spent following his father to naval stations, altogether he attended about twenty different schools during his youth.

Gaining the nicknames “Punk” and “McNasty” due to his combative and fiery disposition, he enjoyed and cultivated that tough guy image; he also made a few friends, and graduated from high school in 1954.

McCain entered the United States Naval Academy. McCain was a rebellious midshipman, and his career at the Naval Academy was ambivalent and lackluster. He had his share of run-ins with the faculty and leadership; each year he was given over 100 demerits (for unshined shoes, formation faults, talking out of place, and the like), earning him membership in the “Century Club”. He did not take well to those of higher rank arbitrarily wielding power over him – “It was bullshit, and I resented the hell out of it”.

By then a Lieutenant Commander, McCain was almost killed in action on July 29, 1967 while serving on Forrestal, operating at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. The crew was preparing to launch attacks, when a Zuni rocket from an F-4 Phantom was accidentally fired across the carrier’s deck. The rocket struck either McCain’s A-4E Skyhawk or one near it as the jet was preparing for launch. The impact ruptured the Skyhawk’s fuel tank, which ignited the fuel and knocked two bombs loose. McCain later said, “I thought my aircraft exploded. Flames were everywhere.” McCain escaped from his jet by climbing out of the cockpit, working himself to the nose of the jet, and jumping off its refueling probe onto the burning deck of the aircraft carrier. His flight suit caught on fire as he rolled through the flames but he was able to put it out. He went to help another pilot trying to escape the fire when the first bomb exploded; McCain was thrown backwards ten feet and struck in the legs and chest by shrapnel. The ensuing fire killed 134 sailors, injured scores of others, destroyed at least 20 aircraft, and took 24 hours to control. A day or two after the conflagration, McCain told New York Times reporter R. W. Apple, Jr. in Saigon that, “It’s a difficult thing to say. But now that I’ve seen what the bombs and the napalm did to the people on our ship, I’m not so sure that I want to drop any more of that stuff on North Vietnam.”

John McCain’s capture and imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a Soviet-made SA-2 anti-aircraft missile over Hanoi. McCain fractured both arms and a leg, and then nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi. After he regained consciousness, a mob gathered around, spat on him, kicked him, and stripped him of his clothes. Others crushed his shoulder with the butt of a rifle and bayoneted him in his left foot and abdominal area; he was then transported to Hanoi’s main Hoa Loa Prison, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton” by American POWs.
Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to give him medical care unless he gave them military information, beating and interrogating him. In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.

Altogether, McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, ending direct U.S. involvement in the war, but the Operation Homecoming arrangements for POWs took longer; McCain was finally released from captivity on March 15, 1973.

McCains’ marriage began to falter, he would later say he was to blame. In 1979, McCain met and began an affair with Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona whose father was a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor.
Living in Phoenix, McCain went to work for his new father-in-law Jim Hensley’s large Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship as Vice President of Public Relations, where he gained political support among the local business community, meeting powerful figures such as banker Charles Keating, Jr.

McCain’s upward political trajectory was jolted when he became enmeshed in the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s. In the context of the Savings and Loan crisis of that decade, Charles Keating Jr.’s Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, a subsidiary of his American Continental Corporation, was insolvent as a result of some bad loans. In order to regain solvency, Lincoln sold investment in a real estate venture as an FDIC-insured savings account. This caught the eye of federal regulators who were looking to shut it down. It is alleged that Keating contacted five senators to whom he made contributions. McCain was one of those senators and he met at least twice in 1987 with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, seeking to prevent the government’s seizure of Lincoln.
Between 1982 and 1987, McCain received approximately $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain’s wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family and baby-sitter made at least nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. After learning Keating was in trouble over Lincoln, McCain paid for the air trips totaling $13,433.

Eventually the real estate venture failed, leaving many broke. Federal regulators ultimately filed a $1.1 billion civil racketeering and fraud suit against Keating, accusing him of siphoning Lincoln’s deposits to his family and into political campaigns. The five senators came under investigation for attempting to influence the regulators. In the end, none of the senators were convicted of any crime, although McCain was rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for exercising “poor judgment” in intervening with the federal regulators on Keating’s behalf.

The battle between Bush and McCain for South Carolina has entered American political lore as one of the nastiest, dirtiest, and most brutal ever. A variety of business and interest groups that McCain had challenged in the past now pounded McCain with negative ads.The day that a new poll showed McCain five points ahead in the state, Bush allied himself on stage with a marginal and controversial veterans activist named J. Thomas Burch, who accused McCain of having “abandoned the veterans” on POW/MIA and Agent Orange issues: “He came home from Vietnam and forgot us.”
Incensed, McCain ran ads accusing Bush of lying and comparing Bush to Bill Clinton, which Bush complained was “about as low a blow as you can give in a Republican primary.” An unidentified party began a semi-underground smear campaign against McCain, including saying he was mentally unstable from his North Vietnam POW days. The Bush campaign strongly denied any involvement with these attacks.

After advocating an overwhelming, not incremental, approach against the Taliban in Afghanistan, including the use of ground forces, he concluded, “War is a miserable business. Let’s get on with it.” He and Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman wrote the legislation that created the 9/11 Commission, while he and Democratic Senator Fritz Hollings co-sponsored the Aviation and Transportation Security Act that federalized airport security under what became the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Should McCain win in 2008, he would be the oldest person to assume the Presidency in history at initial ascension to office, being 72 years old and surpassing Ronald Reagan, who was 69 years old at his inauguration following the 1980 election. (Unless 74 year old Ralph Nader were to win, he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning, in my opinion). He has dismissed concerns about his age and past health concerns (malignant melanoma in 2000), stating in 2005 that his health was “excellent.” In the event of his victory in 2008, he would also become the first President of the United States to be born in a U.S. territory outside of the current 50 states.

McCain has been an opponent of the Bush administration’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the War on Terror, and has specifically referred to waterboarding as torture, though he later voted against banning the procedure and others. He has also said that he intends to “immediately close” the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp. *McCain recently reversed his position on torture, and voted in favor.

McCain’s war wounds leave him unable to attend to his own hair and he sometimes requires assistance in dressing, tasks performed by nearby aides. McCain has been treated for recurrent skin cancer, including melanoma, in 1993, 2000, and 2002.

Gender: Male
Family: Wife: Cindy Lou Hensley
7 Children: Doug, Sidney, Andy, Meghan, Jack, Jimmy, Bridget.
Birth Date: 08/29/1936
Birthplace: Panama Canal Zone, Panama
Home City: Phoenix, AZ
Religion: Episcopalian

Education:
National War College, 1973-1974
BS, United States Naval Academy, 1958.

Professional Experience:
Senate Navy Liaison, 1977-1981
Captain, United States Navy, Vietnam, 1958-1981
Beer Distributor.

Political Experience:
Senator, United States Senate, Arizona, 1987-present
Primary Candidate, United States President, 2000
National Security Adviser, Dole/Kemp Presidential Campaign, 1996
Representative, United States House of Representatives, 1982-1986.

McCain served 21 years in the Senate & 4 years in the House of Reps.. Add his military service time, and he has certainly served his country.

So, it would seem John Sydney McCain III has lived his life like a Cat with 9 lives.
I find it intersting that once, having seen the bomb & napalm ignite on their own carrier ship, killing 134 sailors, and destroyed 20 aircraft- McCain felt like he should not use bombs and napalm on people. But yet, his latest speech says we can expect a 100 year war in Iraq.
Personally, after reading about all John Sydney McCain III has endured, it is time for him to retire, and enjoy his golden years. He’s earned his time to rest, and taking on the huge responsibility of president at such a critical period in history, McNasty is not the correct choice. McCain has had quite the lifetime of experiences, but has now embraced a war hawk stance, that includes approval of torture. I suspect a McCain presidency would be more of the same, or worse (hard to imagine), than the Bush Regime. Why did I even bother to post this… kind of an *know thy enemy* perspective. I realize I’m preaching to the choir… doubt there are many McCain fans lurking in these realms.McCain always uses the term “my friends” in his political speeches ~ so this song seems to fit my sentiments.

* Sources: Vote Smart, Wicki

 

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