"I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live."
Yeah, I get it, John McCain was held captive and tortured by the Vietnamese for five years. Well, you know what, a lot of people have personal trauma in their lives doled out to them by bad guys of every stripe, be they white or black or gay or Jewish or female. But we don't give those people the right to use racist and bigoted terms to describe an entire class of human beings, or even the specific people who hurt us. This goes a long way towards showing just how messed up Vietnam left John McCain, and why John McCain seems so willing to use racist attacks to take down Barack Obama. To McCain and the Republicans, Obama is just another "gook."
Oh, and just to be clear, the Somalians who dragged the lifeless bodies of US service members behind their trucks in 1993 after their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, does McCain think it would be okay to call them "n-ggers" or "sand n-ggers"? (Or didn't those US service members suffer as much as John McCain?) Or how about the Israelis troops who blew up the USS Liberty, killing 34 American service members in 1967, does Senator McCain think it's appropriate to call them "k-kes"? Is attempted presidential assassin Squeaky Fromm a "c-nt"? I'm quite serious. Now, I'll bet John McCain would refuse to even answer the question because he'd say it's absurd, of course he wouldn't condone any of those words (at least that's what he'd say for public consumption). But when the victim of the slur is Asian, and the victim of the crime is John McCain, suddenly it's okay for John McCain to spout racism because John McCain would have you believe that he's the only American, the only soldier, to ever have suffered. He was tortured, you know. And he doesn't plan on ever letting you forget it.
Forget about the bad quality and don't worry about there not being any English in the video. This video is from a group of Spaniards traveling from the capital Vientienne up to Vang Vieng, Laos. I took this route in the opposite direction a few years ago and will never forget the 1950's leftover, Korean public bus that was missing seats. Most of us either stood (for hours) or sat in tiny little plastic stools. On my trip, the motorcycles and animals were strapped to the top of the bus and not inside though this group mentions the animals who are inside. Vang Vieng has some of the most beautiful countryside in the world and the people of Laos are so laid back and friendly.
On a side note, for anyone visiting Vang Vieng, you will notice the odd looking 'bus terminal' that resembles a gravel landing strip. It was a CIA airfield during the secret war. Today, it's a bustling town that caters to backpacking river rafters.
The US Cold War ally lost much of his support in Washington following the fall of the Soviet Union. At the time, his record on human rights was overlooked due to his harsh attacks against communists and trade unionists.
Jeffrey Winters, associate professor of political economy at Northwestern University, said the graft effectively robbed "Indonesia of some of the most golden decades, and its best opportunity to move from a poor to a middle class country."
"When Indonesia does finally go back and redo history, (its people) will realize that Suharto is responsible for some of the worst crimes against humanity in the 20th century," Winters added.
Those who profited from Suharto's rule made sure he was never portrayed in a harsh light at home, Winters said, so even though he was an "iron-fisted, brutal, cold-blooded dictator," he was able to stay in his native country.
