Former McCain Team Members Lobbied for Terrorist Junta

Are good, honest Republicans getting increasingly harder to find?

Recent images of cars burning in the streets of Rangoon were missed by few, but two key members of McCain's team were people who formerly lobbied for the military junta in Myanmar that kills so many innocent people, how could that have been missed?

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - There appear to be serious character flaws among the people Senator John McCain surrounds himself with. The rate they turn over in his office that has made the news several times, but now it is revealed that members of McCain's staff were lobbyists of the terrorist government of Myanmar.

Last week news sources reported that John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, sent a memo to the McCain campaign staff about a brand new "conflicts policy." Democrat Howard Dean says what sounds like a good approach toward cleaning shop in McCain country is becoming a joke.

"This policy was designed to identify staffers with 'conflicts' working within McCain's organization after three advisers resigned from the campaign," Dean said.

"One was found to be working for an anti-Democrat '527' organization, and the other two -- a regional campaign manager and the convention CEO -- were found to have lobbied for the Myanmar junta in 2003."

They have the integrity of the UnoCal officials that were, along with the Texas millionaires, working with and funding the Taliban in Afghanistan in the late 1990's while they got rolling with their spineless terrorism campaign against Afghanistan's women. Oil, once again.

Aung San Suu Kyi and Than Shwe

It seems that every human rights violation in an oil country like Iran is a big stinking deal, but the places that really have major and serious human rights violations like Myanmar are always conveniently left off the military map.

If anyone does not know; the Myanmar junta is the rogue government of Burma, whose rightful Democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is kept under constant house arrest. The military forces there recruit the youngest children in the world used for military purposes and they constantly rape and murder the population of this historically peaceful, Buddhist country.

But we don't go to war there, that apparently isn't important enough to the Bush Administration, which McCain believes is a great Administration, and Myanmar is one place if anywhere, that our military could have justly enforced world democracy and stomped out a military dictatorship that lives and thrives by compounding human suffering and violating the rights of the poor -all practices in defiance of international law.

Threats Toward Iran Over Terrorism While Myanmar Junta Rapes and Kills

People constantly go on tirades over Iran's "human rights violations" and many of the accusations are true, but Iran's are a drop in the bucket compared to the murder and violence taking place in Myanmar; the former Burma.

In fact, I just had a MySpace friend in Tehran tell me this week that while things in Iran are different, they aren't like some countries that are considered "friends" of the American people by the current President. She refers to Hejab or Hijaab, the term for Islamic dress "codes" for a lack of better terms, as something that is different in their culture, she is 30 years old.

"Yes Hejab is not as tough as Saudi Arabia but it's not optional anyway and people must wear scarfs."

Saudi Arabia, the country that didn't want to allow the United States to fly its flag on their soil in 1991 during Desert Storm.

So there it is; women have to wear scarves in Iran now, and they have capitol punishment, probably unfair and unjust in many cases.

One of Myanmar's boy soldiers who should be in school, not packing a rifle

But don't we have capitol punishment? Hasn't DNA exonerated a lot of people on Murder Row in recent years? That means we wrongfully convict people too. Wasn't it the state government of Texas under Governor George W. Bush that refused to remove mentally retarded people from Death Row? Yes, it was.

Either way, it seems the warring Myanmar, where security forces killed thousands of demonstrators in the "8888 Uprising" in 1988, where everyone lives in fear, where young boys are constantly snatched away and drafted into the military, is a country that presents a problem of a large magnitude.

How can any government that really cares about "freedom" and "Democracy", the words constantly used by Bush and other Republicans, allow it to go on and on?

Bur moreover, how on earth could it be that John McCain's radar misses these points in the background of his own team. Not one, but two Myanmar junta connections?

Is that the kind of person that could really be responsible for our country's security? The question almost seems unnecessary.

In the end, the terrorist Myanmar government McCain's team helped sponsor keeps Burma embroiled in unrest over economic mismanagement and constant political oppression.

The junta's policies have led to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country, by people who for the most part know the odds of a skull crushing blow is a likely result of standing up for Democracy.

McCain's Transparent Campaign Reveals Skeletons

Dean says another eye opener was discovering that Rick Davis, author of the memo and the person in charge of finding these "conflicts" within the campaign, "founded his own lobbying firm, and, according to the Politico, 'has made at least $2.8 million lobbying Congress since 1998.'"

Dean says it gets worse. "Charlie Black is McCain's chief political adviser. Over the past seven years, lobbying filings show he's used his connections with George Bush and Dick Cheney to lobby administration officials for dozens of wealthy clients."

In fact The Washington Post reported that "Black said he does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain's Straight Talk Express bus."

Dean says John McCain's commitment to keeping Washington lobbyists out of his campaign is a joke -- "but it's not funny. It's shocking."

Since the "conflicts" memo was sent out by Davis, two more people have been shamed out of the McCain campaign.

"But why not Davis and Black?" Dean asked. "Of all the possible conflicts revealed, isn't lobbying from the campaign bus the worst? And does McCain care that his campaign manager made millions after starting his own lobbying shop? If those are acceptable, what exactly did McCain find about the people they let go?"

Dean says the only reasonable thing is for John McCain to fire Rick Davis and Charlie Black today. "If he's really committed to keeping 'conflicts' out of his campaign, he should have no trouble cleaning house the way he needs to."

On Sunday John McCain defended the situation, telling reporters that his lobbyist advisers are "not in the lobbying business; they've been out of that business."

McCain said he wants to have "the most comprehensive and transparent of any presidential campaign in history" when it comes to lobbyists.

"How can that be true when people like Charlie Black admit he's conducting his lobbying business on the back of the bus?" Dean asked.

It looks like it is going to be a tough race for John McCain when it comes to the subject of ethics. I think he is an ethical and honorable person in many ways, but it appears at minimum that John McCain is reckless and careless and overly trusting. Since Republicans are all supposed to follow Reagan's 11th Commandment, would it even be fair to expect they would enforce laws when it comes to one another?