Moral Fiber

John McCain spoke before the NAACP convention this past week, an opportunity which he declined in 2007. His speech was fairly uneventful, but he did manage to speak about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. So, what did he have to say, you ask? Well, I guess what anyone would expect... some pretty darn good things:

"Perhaps with more clarity and charity than was always deserved, it was Dr. King who often reminded us there was no moral badness, and there was moral blindness... It was this spirit that turned hatred into forgiveness, anger into conviction, and a bitter life into a great one" (Washington Post, July 16, 2008).

Now, I'm not sure what he meant by Dr. King leading a "bitter" life -- it's worth noting, and may reveal his underlying opinion of our late, and great, leader -- but my primary focus here is on McCain's previous history with the treatment of Dr. King's memory.

As it turns out, in 1983 McCain voted against the creation of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, apparently because he simply didn't want yet another federal (paid) holiday on the books. In fact, he was part of the small minority of congressmen who opposed the legislation. According to an ABC News blog by correspondent Jake Tapper, "Most Republicans in the House voted for the holiday (89 voted for the holiday, 77 opposed), though all three Arizona House Republicans were opposed. Reps. Dick Cheney, R-Wyoming, and Newt Gingrich, R-Georgia, voted for the holiday. (Cheney had voted against it in 1978.)" (April 3, 2008).

Now, I know we've all heard about the time McCain spent as a P.O.W. You'd never guess it, but part of his experience is actually relevant to this topic. This is also reported in the same ABC News blog: "'They never gave us any meaningful news,' McCain said. 'They told us the day that Martin Luther King was shot, they told us the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot, but they never bothered to tell us about the moon shot. So it was certainly selected news'" (emphasis added). How the heck is MLK getting shot not meaningful? Perhaps it wasn't meaningful to him because he didn't, and doesn't, give a crap about Dr. King's message or the Civil Rights Movement. It is pure deceit for anyone who opposed such legislation to call themselves a patriot of this country. Dr. King represented everything that the American public forum should be -- and his call for change was absolutely essential to the growth of this nation. Evidently Dr. King's life didn't really have too much of an effect on John McCain. I wasn't even alive, but when I watch video footage of Dr. King speaking, I sure as hell get inspired.

Hopefully it's only a matter of time before the "Straight Talk Express" is derailed. Unfortunately for Mr. McCain, the more one digs, the worse he looks.

That's right, I just called out McCain's patriotism.

What does THIS Texas Oilman say we should do with our energy policy?

T. Boone Pickens suggests less foreign oil, more domestic natural gas put in the transportation sector, and increasing our wind output to 22% of the national power grid. It seems rather simple, and he makes a convincing argument.

Here's the video.

Here's the report from the Associated Press.

What do people think of this?