[Oe List ...] Fwd: veracity of McCain vacation account

[Ester Mae Cox]

Here is the response I got from Mary-Kay Gamel yesterday..... when I asked
her to verify the authorship before I started continuing the "forward" of
the McCain vacation Account e-mail.  Mary-Kay Gamel is NOT the author.
(I removed all the names to which she sent the e-mail to.... I sense her
e-mail box is full of similar requests to mine!)

Ester Mae Cox
Peru, IA 50222



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mary-Kay Gamel <mkgamel at ucsc.edu>
Date: Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 7:35 PM
Subject: veracity of McCain vacation account
To:


 Little did I think when I forwarded this account to four or five friends on
16 September that I would be identified as the author or receive so many
questions. Some of you have clearly received the email without the preface
attached, and with me listed as author. Most simply ask whether this really
happened, some praise "my" courage, some angrily accuse me of distortion and
lies.

I'm sorry that I did not check the story more carefully before forwarding
it. I am paying for my mistake by sending this clarification to every person
who contacts me. Here's as much of the truth as I know:

First of all, I did not write the account. Here is the preface as I received
and forwarded it:

To: Mary-Kay Gamel <mkgamel at ucsc.edu>
Subject: Fwd: MY HOLIDAY WITH JOHN McCAIN
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:13:22 -0400
 ----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Kate Marianchild <<mailto:katem at mcn.org>katem at mcn.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008
Subject: My Holiday with John McCain: a first-hand account
 (Note from Kate: This shocking account was written by Ana Dubey, a friend
of my cousin and her husband, who have known Ana for many years. Ana has a
PhD in psychology and has a private practice in San Francisco . My cousin's
husband went to business school with Ana's husband, who has since started
and sold a number of successful companies. Ana's husband is currently a
Managing Director of a private equity firm in the Bay Area. Ana and her
husband are not political activists and don't have any personal ax to grind.
In fact, in writing this account of her experience with John McCain, Ana is
acting outside of her own economic self-interest as she and her husband are
among the top 3-5% of our population who would benefit from the McCain
tax/economic policies. Please pass this on to anyone you know who might vote
for John McCain. Also please post it on blogs and send it to newspapers and
radio stations.)

I am not Ana Dubey (whose full name, I believe, is Anasuya Dubey, apparently
the daughter of a former Indian Consul in San Francisco). I gather that
Turtle Island costs $2000/day--I could never afford such a holiday. After
the email was further forwarded and people wrote with questions, I wrote to
Kate Marianchild. Here is our exchange:

Dear Ms. Marianchild: I got your email with the shocking story and forwarded
it. Some recipients are questioning it. I googled Ana Dubey and got a
husband/wife team who run a bakery in Honolulu. Can you assure me that Ana
Dubey really is a psychologist in San Francisco?

thanks
MKG

Yes, I can assure you of that. She is a private person and psychologist. And
perhaps you can send this on to your friends:

Dear Friends,

Everyone is asking to talk to Ana Dubey or receive a direct email from her
validating the "Holiday with John McCain" story. I emailed Ana and asked her
how to handle all the correspondence I was receiving. She didn't reply to
me, which is understandable as we have never met and I am sure she is
totally besieged with emails right now. I don't feel comfortable forwarding
lots of emails to her or giving out her email address.

However, I did forward one email - one I received from Frances Moore Lappe
(author of Diet for a Small Planet, Food First, Democracy's Edge, Hope's
Edge, Getting a Grip, and etc, and founder of the Small Planet Institute - <
http://www.smallplanet.org>www.smallplanet.org). Frances (aka Frankie), said
she would like to pursue the story by talking to Ana, and that she would
distribute it if she were convinced it was authentic.

Here's what I just received from Frankie (Frances) Lappe. If you still have
doubts perhaps you can contact Frankie, as she is a more public person than
I believe Ana to be.

Kate Marianchild

Kate,
I just spoke with Ana, who was wonderful.
Sounds like NBC is on it. Sure hope an interview gets aired.
Thank you so much for asking her to call me. I admire Ana very much.
Frankie

Frances Moore Lappé
Small Planet Institute
25 Mt Auburn St., Suite 203
Cambridge MA 02138
617.441.6300 x 115

I have not contacted Ms. Lappe, and the story is still quite uncertain. As a
reader of texts I think it has the ring of truth (especially given McCain's
well-documented temper). Some have questioned the idea of McCain shopping
and pushing his then no longer infant adopted daughter in a shopping cart,
but those could have been references to earlier times. Presumably the
holiday took place in December 1999, and some have pointed out that the US
was not at war with Iraq then, but bombing raids based on the sanctions were
being carried out. The NEW YORKER portrait of Cindy McCain attests that the
adoption of Bridget was indeed her idea. And so forth.

There are various sites where the story is being discussed. There is a lot
of corroborating information at
http://thebruceblog.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/my-holiday-with-mccain-o
h-lord-i-cant-wait-till-this-gets-verified/.

I sent an inquiry to Snopes.com; no response yet.

IF POSSIBLE, PLEASE PASS ON MY CLARIFICATION TO ALL WHO MAY HAVE SEEN THE
STORY. At some point I will have to stop responding to the flood of emails;
I've got work to do!

In sum, the story may be true, but we'll never know unless Ms. Dubey sees
fit to come forward at some point. I hope she will. I also hope that all of
you know the unquestionably true story of McCain's shameful abandonment of
his first wife, which is far more revealing than this anecdote.

MKG

-- 

Mary-Kay Gamel
Professor of Classics, Comparative Literature, and Theater Arts
Cowell College
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California 95064
831-459-2381 (office); 831-429-8803 (home)
mkgamel at ucsc.edu
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