parent2noles

I don't believe this is a "Republican" dodge, its allowing those not involved to remain out of the contest. Were Mrs. Obama, for example, to have remained out of the political discussion, I doubt she'd be pulled in. Members of the media may try and draw her in perhaps for any number of reasons, but usually, I suspect, staffers would limit such baiting.

1of42

p2n: edvest1's criticism was not that Obama's wife is actively campaigning and thus should expect flak, but rather that because she is Obama's wife and one would therefore assume Obama holds her opinions in high regard, her ill-thought comment casts a shadow on him. That argument applies in absolutely the same way to McCain's embezzling wife, campaigning or not. I'm personally just waiting for edvest1 to admit he's just being blindly partisan.

parent2noles

McCain's wife is an embezzler? When was she convicted?

sunnymamere

"You don't need a car, it's a luxury. You don't need to heat your house, it is a luxury"Mr. Payne

Since when are you clairvoyant, Mr. Payne? Do you know the temperatures where I live and how far I need to travel to work, the availability of public transportation, etc.?

"FYI, simply buying gas means you are propping up prices for oil producing nations. It's inescapable (if you buy gas)"Mr. Payne

This may be true if there is a gas shortage, but all indications are there is not.
The Oil Cartels refuse to produce more to keep the prices high.

"You don't need a car, it's a luxury. You don't need to heat your house, it is a luxury." Mr. Payne.

I really like Mission Beach in San Diego, but I really don't want to live on it.

sunnymamere

"McCain's wife is an embezzler? When was she convicted?"

Cindy McCain stole drugs to which she was addicted, from her charities. This doesn't meet the exact definition of embezzle, however. When her drug addiction was about to be made public, she scheduled a confession on a morning new's show. Eventually, she repayed the charities from which she stole.

She became a drug addict from pain related to a back surgery, which is a very common thing.

But why would a rich, highly connected person need to steal (or embezzle drugs?)

Surely her family had a physician who would prescribe her anything.

The issue is she is a dishonest thief. More of what is now running our country. Do we want more?

Mr Payne

You can move. You can buy thicker clothes. You can change jobs. There is a lot of different options. People like to talk big talk about energy conservation and all that jazz, I see very little action though. The simple fact of the matter is that we don't want to reduce our standard of living and if that means guzzling gas at a rate twice as high as other countries, so be it. I don't have a problem with people doing this. I have a problem with the hypocrisy some people display about with their opinions of the oil & gas business and their own personal consumption of its products.

There might be a slight increase in price because OPEC refuses to produce the additional 1-2MM barrel capacity it has. If they were producing at full capacity i doubt the price would drop below $80/bbl. The fundamentals are there. We are reaching peak oil.

parent2noles

Would you please post links to your sources for such personal accusations?

Those are serious charges.

sunnymamere

"You can move. You can buy thicker clothes. You can change jobs. There is a lot of different options. People like to talk big talk about energy conservation and all that jazz, I see very little action though. The simple fact of the matter is that we don't want to reduce our standard of living and if that means guzzling gas at a rate twice as high as other countries, so be it. I don't have a problem with people doing this. I have a problem with the hypocrisy some people display about with their opinions of the oil & gas business and their own personal consumption of its products."

How do you know I can move? How do you know I'm not in the final stages of cancer? How do you know my age, education, job skills? How do you know how much gas I guzzle. You don't. You have no idea of any of these issues.

How do you know I don't want to change my standard of living? I do. I want to be much richer and much more secure. I also want to sleep more.

1of42

Are you deliberately sticking your head in the sand or are you actually ignorant of what Cindy McCain did at AVMT?

I already linked to the Wiki page for anyone interested to get a general outline of what she did. There are even further links on that page if you'd like to delve more deeply into the actual news stories and so forth surrounding the issue. It's not like these are unsubstantiated rumors - she outright admitted to being an opiate addict and to stealing the drugs from her own charity.

She wasn't convicted. Tom Gosinski, one of the directors at AVMT was fired (on budgetary grounds) after discovering her theft of drugs, and subsequently reported her theft to the DEA. Her lawyers managed, as happens often with rich people in positions of power, to negotiate with the U.S. Attorney's office a punishment involving financial repayment and rehab. This was all kept hush-hush until Gosinski sued her for wrongful termination and she was forced to publicly admit her misdeeds to avoid the greater public relations harm that would've come from having it exposed in the media (which was about to happen).

The real question in my mind is why you didn't know this.

parent2noles

This is the first I've heard of it. Consider me ignorant, its ok.

Please post a link to any credible online news source that supports these allegations. Wikipedia is not credible in this context.

Please ensure that the story corroborates your allegations of criminal behavior or alleged criminal behavior on the part of Mrs. McCain.

In addition to being ignorant, I'm also a bit skeptical.

RatedPG

I actually did read a biography of Cindy McCain online (not Wikipedia) and I believe most of what is posted below is true. There was some sort of formal investigation although nothing ever came out of it. Alot of it was he-said, she-said type of activity. However, I think it is all very sad.

1of42

See, this is called "I don't believe it's true so I'll ignore all the opportunities I've been given to find out for myself and hope that you can't find a good enough source that I won't be able to dismiss as invalid in spite of no clear grounds on which to do so." It's not a game I'm generally willing to play, but in this case the evidence is so unequivocal and clear that it doesn't require much work on my part.

For the record, by the way, unless you're willing to make a specific criticism against Wikipedia, saying it's "not credible" is insufficient - particularly since peer-reviewed studies have shown it to surpass the accuracy of other encyclopedic compilations. Nonetheless.

I'm not Hillary - Page 3 - Salon.com

That states the basic background about Cindy McCain's theft and addiction.

Overcoming scandal, moving on

Here's another.

Cindy McCain stays on even keel - November 22, 1999

And another.

Bottom line is, I'm not going to spend the time trolling around the Internet for information you should be entirely capable of finding out yourself. If you want to remain ignorant of the simple and clear facts of this matter, that is your personal decision, but know that this is not some matter of interpretation. The fact of the matter is that Cindy McCain is a reformed (it appears) addict and stole from her own charity.

parent2noles

Thanks for the links. That puts the matter into perspective - Cindy McCain was addicted to Percocet and Vicodin (same drug used by the fictional Dr. House) from 1989 to 1992. She admitted to her addiction and met whatever process the government demanded, which appears to have been addiction treatment.

That was 16 years ago. Are you suggesting she's still using these medicines unlawfully today or say, within the last 10 years?

You write about it like it was yesterday, not 16 years ago.

Got anything fresher?

*We have now learned that Cindy McCain was not an embezzler, but an addict - 16 years ago who has received treatment and presumably has had no further problems with addiction.

1of42

Uh uh uh, don't try to wiggle out of this by playing it down. My point was never that Cindy McCain was a current user, or that she was a current thief. I was responding to edvest1, who said that Obama's spouse being of questionable character reflected badly on Obama. My point being, obviously, that McCain's wife being an admitted former addict and thief should probably weigh on him a bit more than one out of context line from Obama's wife.

sunnymamere

The significance of the story, no matter what year, is that she STOLE medication from her charities.

After getting exposed, she did repay it.

How many people does everyone know who gets to repay a drug theft, with no consequences?

Consequences like prison?