Bloody John McCain heard us that bright sunny day in Tempe, Arizona as did his elite Repbulican friends such as Arizona Sec. of State Jan Brewer,Congressman Flake etc. of the Republican party.  They had all come out to witness Johnny give his "Official Announcement speech for the presidency of the United States.  Not surprisingly they decided to pretend they couldn’t hear us but nevertheless, they did hear us as we marched around them to the tune of our bagpiper and drummer  and could see their horrified and even humiliated faces staring back at us from the metal bleachers where they were sitting. This told I and my fellow activist that they were being reigned in closer and closer to the blood and needless deaths of my fellow soldiers and innocent civilians in Iraq and that it was getting harder and harder for them to hide from the "bloody truth".

  We met Bloody John McCain from a distance eye to eye, as we caught him by surprise when we were marching behind the stands which held his elite friends and he laughed manically while taunting us.  I shouted in between the shouts of my fellow brother and sister activist in  strange long quiet pauses (that seemed to resemble a movie being played in slow motion):

 “John McCain you are causing the needless deaths of my fellow soldiers”! And, he responded by laughing in a strange crazy wide eyed way and by finishing his response with pointing his thumb down at me and my fellow activist and laughing even harder.

Strangely, as we marched the heat and humidity along with something else in the air seemed to sting not only my skin but my heart and at the same time I could tell there was a building sharpness caused by this humid heat which often for tells a storm in the desert. So throughout this whole protest, as the local elite dignitaries got up to speak with great praises for "Johnny" the heat seemingly continued to build in tandem with a growing desperate anger that could be heard in our voices as we shouted over them and their larger numbers.

More and more of my brother and sister activist grew thirsty, for it was as described a cutting and stinging humidity mixed with strong heat from the sun that day .  McCain and his wife’s company the Hensley Distributorship for Budweiser in the Phoenix Metro area had great plastic tubs of ice cold bottled water near the small low barrier fences set up to keep us away from his Arizona presidential announcment ceremony.  The reason  I knew these tubs were from McCain’s wife’s company was that they had “Hensley” written all over them.  Somebody assisted in helping an elderly person obtain a bottle of water before they collapsed from heat exhaustion by reaching over the fence.  When McCain’s people saw this they immediately rushed over and pulled the tubs away from the fence.  I resonded by yelling:  “What a great Arizonan, John McCain.  He won’t even give a bottle of water to a fellow Arizonan about ready to collapse from heat exhaustion.”  I kept this up for some time, when finally somebody from McCain’s camp must have figured that the P.R. from a senior Arizona Senator refusing water to elderly Arizonans about ready to collapse from heat exhaustion might not look good in the newspapers.  A few of them came over and scooted the tubs back by the fence but not before watching these elderly protesters nearly collapse from thirst.

To make the whole thing seem even more surreal ladies still dressed in their company's attire from Hooters showed up on both sides of the fence handing out water.  On our side of the fences a bunch of young skate boarders came and joined up with our group even volunteering to carry one of our banners.  All I can say is: Skaters Rock !

Then the desperation we had as Johnny's crowd of elite friends cheered him in Tempe, Arizona that day grew with the terrible knowledge that a very powerful and influential man (Bloody John McCain) stood so very near to us (and yet so very far away) and that he could with just a few words (and with his influence) greatly reduce the death sentences of my fellow soldiers who were going to die in Iraq not for freedom and democracy but for oil, pride and the arrogance of sold out corporate politicians.

 If only he could have uttered these words:  Our soldiers need to come home now! But Johnny believed more in improving his chances for the presidency than in regaining his soul or his conscience.

Finally, as Johnny finished his speech wherein he stated that my fellow brother and sister activist were helping the terrorist by protesting at his glorious gathering to announce that he was, yes in fact, officially running for the presidency of the United States, the heat in the air and the anger in our hearts broke at the same time as a whirl wind of a desert storm erupted above us and all around us carrying within it the grains of sand and other bits of earth that threatened to blind our eyes, yet  the vision we had and still have in our hearts was not blinded : To bring our soldiers home from Iraq and stop their needless deaths for  greedy corporate politicians and their ill begotten blood money and Crusade in Iraq.

 What kind of internal storm blinds the hearts of men like Bloody John McCain, and destroys the vision they once might have had for the good of the United States and of Mankind itself?  Why does Bloody John McCain’s vision for the presidency blind his vision for what is right?  Why does he seek the presidency like some corrupt Roman sought the robe of Jesus?  Does he really think that the Presidency will give him supernatural powers like the corrupt Roman official thought the robe of Jesus would bestow upon him?

 One can only guess and then pray that he (Bloody John McCain) will flip flop once again but this time in favor of bringing our poor soldiers home from the lie we call the Occupation of Iraq and therefore free the hearts of their families which are being held hostage by a madman named King George W. Bush who fiddles while American soldeirs die needlessly in Iraq and his flip flopping Senator buddy John McCain laughs manically in his quest for the presidency.

One small post script: Cindy McCain, Bloody John's wife, was over heard by a reporter from the Arizona Republic Newspaper who printed her statement the next day as she quipped :  I just love the sound of bagpipes don't you?  Almost, like the character in the movie Apocalpyse Now stating: I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.

 This truly seems to be a Marie Antoinesque kind of statement.  She has no idea about the common American soldiers who are dying in Iraq and their families who are suffering from their deaths but don't tell that to her she might just tell you to go eat cake.


Leonard Clark
Chair Recall Senator John McCain Committee
Persian Gulf/Iraq War Vet
5-11-07