The Maverick

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'
Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them doggies movin'
Rawhide! ...

Samuel A. Maverick (!803 - 1870) had a life filled with adventures too numerous to list, but in his later years as a rancher who refused to brand his cattle, his name entered the American vocabulary as a non-conformist; a person of independent thought and action. That's hardly descriptive of John McCain, a man who followed in the family tradition of military careers, used family connections to get into the Naval Academy (and nearly flunk out) and whose political career is and has been marked by the influence of lobbyists and special interest spokesmen of dubious allegiance. The cattle at this Maverick's ranch seem to have dubious markings on them and maybe it's time someone did brand John McCain's cattle.

Some of the old doggies in the McCain corral; two of his campaign staff that is, seem to have spend time grazing in Burma in the pastures of the criminal Junta currently letting huge numbers of people starve while stealing their food. What advice has John the Maverick been taking from them?

Charlie Black, McCain's campaign chairman, ran a lobbying firm that represented vicious dictators like Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire ; even terrorist rebel Jonas Savimbi in Angola. What advice has Cowboy John been taking? How well does he examine the backgrounds of his advisers, or is it that these are the kind of people he prefers to associate with and take advice from?

Black was also an adviser to Achmed Chalabi a man who may have been working as a double agent for Iran and whose mendacious advice to the Bush administration fed their lust to invade Iraq, has also been affiliated with Blackwater Worldwide, the firm that has made a colossal killing (pun intended) from the war.

And then there's campaign co-chair Tom Loeffler, who has represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - need I say more?

For a man who is supposed to be independent of the influence of others and disdainful of lobbyists, it's a bit strange how the others who influence him seem to be former lobbyists for repressive dictators and oil interests and others who see the US as a cash cow to be milked dry and then perhaps led to slaughter.

Maybe it's time to round them up and move them out; the whole damned lot of them.