I sent the following suggestion to MSNBC. Perhaps others here at TPM will join me .....

Sarah Paling is stonewalling the press. There are many questions demanding her response including her misrepresentations about the bridge to nowhere, trooper-gate and allegations of abuse of her gubernatorial powers in pursuit of a vendetta, and her malfeasance while mayor of Wasilla that resulted in (1) her being forced to hire a city manager or face a recall, (2) her record of managing the city finances and taking it from zero to $22 Million of debt during her two terms, despite hiring a lobbyist and bagging $27 Million in Federal earmarks for her town of 5470 people, and (3) her firing of the police chief and attempted firing of the librarian - the librarian story being particularly interesting as it involved Palin's attempt to ban books that she found offensive.

And what about Palin and her husband's close association with the radical and anti-American Alaska Independence Party (AIP). That organization was founded by Joe Volger who told his followers, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government ... and I won't be buried under their damn flag." I have not heard of Gov. Palin renouncing or even rejecting Volger. Quite the contrary. She videotaped a message for the AIP convention this year. The McCain campaign has denied the association, but little effort is necessary to find solid evidence that the denial is false.

Now it appears that the McCain/Palin team is embarking on a blatant cover up regarding the trooper-gate scandal, with Republican operatives and lawyers descending upon Alaska. They are attempting to quash the ongoing investigation or at least delay it until after the election. They may be within legal bounds as they do that, but ethically and morally it is beyond the pale.

Perhaps MSNBC should take a cue from FOX and start a PALIN CLOCK - count the hours since she was foisted on the American public as an unknown candidate who refuses to answer questions about her record. It's already been eight and a half days.

204 hours and counting.
America is waiting!
When will Sarah come clean?

I sent the following suggestion to MSNBC. Perhaps others here at TPM will join me .....

Sarah Paling is stonewalling the press. There are many questions demanding her response including her misrepresentations about the bridge to nowhere, trooper-gate and allegations of abuse of her gubernatorial powers in pursuit of a vendetta, and her malfeasance while mayor of Wasilla that resulted in (1) her being forced to hire a city manager or face a recall, (2) her record of managing the city finances and taking it from zero to $22 Million of debt during her two terms, despite hiring a lobbyist and bagging $27 Million in Federal earmarks for her town of 5470 people, and (3) her firing of the police chief and attempted firing of the librarian - the librarian story being particularly interesting as it involved Palin's attempt to ban books that she found offensive.

And what about Palin and her husband's close association with the radical and anti-American Alaska Independence Party (AIP). That organization was founded by Joe Volger who told his followers, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government ... and I won't be buried under their damn flag." I have not heard of Gov. Palin renouncing or even rejecting Volger. Quite the contrary. She videotaped a message for the AIP convention this year. The McCain campaign has denied the association, but little effort is necessary to find solid evidence that the denial is false.

Now it appears that the McCain/Palin team is embarking on a blatant cover up regarding the trooper-gate scandal, with Republican operatives and lawyers descending upon Alaska. They are attempting to quash the ongoing investigation or at least delay it until after the election. They may be within legal bounds as they do that, but ethically and morally it is beyond the pale.

Perhaps MSNBC should take a cue from FOX and start a PALIN CLOCK - count the hours since she was foisted on the American public as an unknown candidate who refuses to answer questions about her record. It's already been eight and a half days.

204 hours and counting.
America is waiting!
When will Sarah come clean?

I believe this election is on the cusp of becoming a landslide for Obama, and I believe that's why the McCain campaign panicked and chose Palin at the last minute without vetting her.

We keep seeing diaries with the latest Gallup, Rasmussen, CBS, etc polling showing a tightening or expanding race. But one thing I have not seen anyone do yet is put this in historical perspective.

Once you do that, you see just how strong Obama is in this election cycle, and why the republicans are so dispirited and downtrodden.

This, more than any other election in my 31 years, is ours to lose. We MUST keep fighting, not only to win, but to utterly decimate the republican party nationwide.

The one thing I take away from all of these polls is that an additional 2 million democrats were registered between 2006 and January of this year. The republicans lost almost half a million from their rolls.

Add on top of that the millions of new registrations of blacks, hispanics, and young people during the protracted democratic primaries, as well as the further reduction of republicans during the same time, and you have a lot of new voters in the pool that aren't typically captured in this polling.

Now as far as polling goes, I like Gallup and Rasmussen for national numbers because they do rolling averages and poll over a thousand people per night. I look at Real Clear Politics, Five Thirty Eight, Electoral Vote, and Pollster to look at the state-by-state numbers, since those are far more important than national numbers anyway.

With Obama ahead nationally by anywhere from 2-7pts depending on the poll, and ahead by a substantial margin in the electoral vote count on a state by state basis, it would take a gaffe of catastrophic proportions, or some other enormous game changer, to see McCain win. Taking into consideration all of those newly registered voters and the sheer ground game the Obama campaign has built up over the past couple of years, and I think there's a hidden cushion there that isn't necessarily shown in the polling.

I'm not saying it's a done deal and that people can sit back and relax, but the numbers are just not in McCain's favor by any stretch of the imagination.

Pollster, Five Thirty Eight, and Electoral Vote are all pointing to a 300+ EV victory for Obama going by the state polling. That is thus far translating to roughly a 3-5% popular vote win.

At this stage of the election season, it's actually comparable to what happened in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was the insurgent candidate and Carter was the incumbent. John McCain isn't the incumbent President, but he is the incumbent party. At this point Reagan was actually tracking weaker #s than Obama. Once the debates happened, however, it turned from a relatively close election into a landslide.

That's why I think the debates are going to be so crucial. Obama needs to show the american people that he can not only stand toe to toe with McCain in the debates, but that he is in fact in charge of all of the knowledge McCain and the republicans accuse him of having no knowledge of.

Given responses such as this, I have complete and utter faith that this will happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L31go6-LAs0

As we get closer and closer to election day, I believe that this will turn away from a 300+ EV victory with a 3-5% popular vote victory to something closer to 6-10% and possibly even 320-350+ EV.

The precedent for this kind of election (right track/wrong track, sour economy, sour mood of the country) does exist in history. The only precedent that I believe could keep this from being a real laugher is, unfortunately, the color of Obama's skin.

But in the end, I don't think that will be anywhere near enough to cause Obama to lose.

Now that said, let's look at some other historical information. WAPO article found, courtesy of dansac's recced diary, shows that the Obama campaign registered 49,000 new voters in Virginia, in August, alone.

Almost 260,000 new voters have registered there courtesy of the Obama campaign GOTV ground game since the primaries began. 142,000 during the primaries and another 114,000 since June. If they hold pace that will be another 90-110k registrations in September and October. They're saying that could add another 1-2% to his popular vote totals in VA and be enough, along with the general indicators that are pointing toward movement in that state, to put the state in Obama's column.

When you look at the fact that Bush won VA by 9pts in 2004, that's an enormous turnaround for Obama to even be ahead right now by 2-3pts in VA.

Here are some others. #s courtesy of Pollster, Electoral Vote, and Five Thirty Eight.

North Dakota: Bush won by 27pts. Obama tied to ahead by 3.
South Dakota: Bush won by 22pts. Obama's within 4-6.
Indiana: Bush won by 21pts. Obama's within 2-4.
Montana: Bush won by 20pts. Obama's tied to ahead by 3.
Georgia: Bush won by 17pts. Obama's within 6-7pts.
North Carolina: Bush won by 12pts. Obama's within 3.
Virginia: Bush won by 9pts. Obama's ahead by 1-2 or tied.

The story continues in every other republican stronghold.

Additionally, look at the election simulations from Five Thirty Eight:

What do you see? The highest proportion of simulations ends with McCain receiving roughly 260 electoral votes. The highest proportion of simulations ends with Obama receiving 310-330 votes.

But beyond that, you notice that the standard deviation from the magic 270 EV count EXCLUSIVELY favors Obama. You see no blue below 270 and no red above 270.

As I said at the beginning, I believe this election is on the cusp of becoming a landslide for Obama, and I believe that's why the McCain campaign panicked and chose Palin at the last minute without vetting her.

Again folks, in short this is our election to lose.

So please join with me in phone banking if you can. Join with your fellow Obama supporters in canvassing if you can. Donate to the Obama campaign if you can.

I'm phone banking and I've setup a fundraising drive just a few days ago. In that time I've been able to raise $855, so please click this link to go to my personal fundraising page and help me reach my goal of $5000.  We are on the cusp folks. Let's keep this rolling.

What I want to know is while she was mayor how did Palin both bring in $26.9 million of Ted Stevens-approved earmarks AND leave office with $19 million of debt??

Thats impressive and makes her sound even more like Bush.

Does the fact they are running a secessionist candidate mean that is Phase 2 of the Republican's Operation Destroy America?

Just thinking today about the bailout of Frannie and Freddie today and reminded back to Savings and Loan crisis.

Why is it each time a Bush leaves office our Banks fail?

Flick/Palin is the Reese Witherspoon character in the movie Election

Good for you, Rachael!  Finally someone says the dreaded "L" word.

Watch it here.

I notice that Joe Biden is running for Senate, simultaneously with running for VP.   He's just hedging his bets.  If the VP thing doesn't work out, he'll just take his senate seat.   If he wins, he'll resign the Senate and potentially hand it over the the Republicans.

Kind of chickensh*t if you ask me.  Guess he's got no faith in Obama.

No, seriously now.

There are a bit too many overlaps between Joe Biden, 2008, and Joe Lieberman, 2000.

Look, I know that there's this whole 'Party loyalty' thing where even if our side rolls out a Turd, we've all got to put the best face on it.  And there's the whole 'Obama-mania' thing where the great man can do no wrong and we have to put the best face on it.

But Biden?

The highlights of Biden's accomplishments:   38 years in the Senate without any substantive leadership accomplishments?   Two failed Presidential bids that imploded spectacularly in record times?  A relentlessly tin ear bespeaking a genteel racism?  Favouring Clarence Thomas over Anita Hill?   Passing Scalia?  Endorsing Alito?

What real constituency did he represent?   What ethnic group, what social group, what region, what community looks to him for their leadership, or even a voice?  Seriously, could anyone choose a better poster boy for the Washingtion Insiders?   Two Senators, one a lifer, on the Dem ticket - how well did that turn out last time?  No Governors, no regional politicians, no outside real leaders, no brilliants, no following.

And this in an era when Congress is openly vilified, when the Senate's favourability ratings are even lower than Dick Cheney's?  What was Obama thinking?

That the white, male, protestant, elderly, windbag, beltway constituency needed representation...  that not the least bit of shaking to the senior citizen wasp power structure can happen without some reassurance that they'll always be in control?

Ah, bugger it.

But here's the thing.   Did you know that Joe Biden is running for the Senate the same time he's running for Vice President?

Just like Joe Lieberman.

Did you know what that means?  It means that if Joe Biden wins the Vice Presidency (possible), and wins the Senate seat (likely), he'll have to resign his seat and potentially hand the Senate over to the Republicans.

Well, ain't that a kick in the head.

Do you know what it really means?   It means that Biden's chickenshit as they come.  He's hedging his bets.  He's got no faith in Obama.  If he did, maybe he'd make a goddammed commitment.

Now, maybe you're thinking, "What's poor Biden to do?  He's gotta look after himself?  Gotta do what's best for Biden?"  "Shame on Obama for putting him in that position."

True enough.  But frankly I'm not going to sit here and applaud relentless self interest and putting his own interests before his ticket as virtues.   I can't imagine if Biden won the nomination that he'd still also run for the Senate.  The fact that he's hedging his bets now, is craven and contemptible... 

And it's just what Lieberman did, back in 2000.  And we all saw what a big frakking contribution Lieberman was to the ticket.

Sadly, the similarities don't end there.   They begin.

Biden 2008, shares Lieberman 2000's, history of unctious moral posturing.   "The last virtuous man in Washington."   Hell, these guys would strip naked and wrestle in an oil pit for that title.

Well, here's what it is:   Having no constituency to speak of,  speaking to or for no one in particular, having no actual ideas, having no particular Senate profile or accomplishments, and having been part of a Congressional Democrat caucus whose performance swerves wildly from sub-mediocre to plunging abyssal...  what else did they have to run on?   Their character.  

Their elevated and pristine character as 'very good and serious men of high moral calibre and proprietry.'  For both Lieberman and Biden, that's all they had.

And for both Lieberman and Biden, it's a trap for the Democrats.   All that 'character' is a straightjacket.  You can't be mean.  You can't be an attack dog.  You got to stand 'above the fray.'   This means hectoring your own side, slamming your own supporters to show people you're impartial.  And it means praising or kissing ass for the enemy, to show you're utterly evenhanded and fair.  What it means is that they get to be utterly ineffective.

And of course, there's that whole Beltway Insiders vibe that Lieberman 2000 and Biden 2008 share.   Both of these guys were long time permanent pols, Washington boys from way back.  What does that mean in real terms.   It means that they both go to a lot of cocktail parties, that they both shared a lot of restaurants, and committees and social occasions.  The truth is that the Republicans are a lot more a part of their social world, their life, their milieu than you and me.

Remember Lieberman 2000's revoltingly testicle slurping exhibition when allegedly debating 'Dick Cheney.'

Lieberman knew Cheney.  They knew each other socially, they went to the same parties, they both worked in the same town.   Dick Cheney was a part of Joe Lieberman's world in a way that you or I never will be.  So of course Joe's going to be friendly and ineffectual.

Fast forward:   Biden knows McCain.  They know each other socially.  They go to the same parties.  They work in the same town.  John McCain is a part of Joe Biden's world in a way that you or I never will be.   The result:

<blockquote>"John McCain is my friend," said Joe Biden. "I admire John McCain. I know of no man or woman I have ever met that has more personal courage than John McCain. We have been friends for over 33 years. We have traveled together. When John was Navy liaison he staffed me for three or four years everywhere I traveled in the world.

"Jill and John are good friends," Biden said, referring to his wife Dr. Jill Biden, who had just introduced him. "Matter of fact there’s a best-selling book written about us called The Nightingale's Song about John and some of his graduating class from Annapolis that references Jill and John in the book as good buddies.

"She doesn’t like the reference,'" Biden added, "but John, John’s a great guy. John was staffing me in Greece. I was meeting with the Prime Minister Papandreou and we were supposed to go to this fancy dinner and Jill said 'Do we have to go to this dinner?' And John said, 'No, no, no I know this great place for dinner.'

"And there was a place literally down on the docks, where Zorba lived I think, and so I had to go to the fancy thing and I come back down and I find it, and we’re wandering through these alleys on the dock -- you’re gonna get very angry at this Jill -- but I walk around the corner and there’s these cement tables like down at the shore you know, the cement base ,the cement table, and I walk in and Jill and John are standing up on the table drinking ouzo dancing with one another, and I’m thinking, 'I’ve never trusted John since then, Jillie.'

"But he’s a great guy," Biden said, "and if John called me today and said 'Joe -,' like when they went after John McCain, when Bush went after him in South Carolina with the scurrilous comments they made about his character, I called him and said, 'John, where do you want me? I’m an Al Gore man but where do you want me? I will show up anywhere in America to testify to the kind of man you are.' And he is a good man, he is a good man."  (thanks to Digby)</blockquote>

Jesus H. Christ on a Crutch!   Feel free to vomit.  And don't give me any yak about taking it out of context.  It was Biden, he said it, and if the Republicans have a brain, they'll run it on TV a million times as the Democrat VP's endorsement of the Republican ticket.   And if that ain't a kiss of death, I don't know what is.

Biden and McCain have all sorts of happy, friendly, reacharound, touchy, feely history together.   Hell, back in 2004, Biden lead a major but quixotic effort to recruit John McCain to the Democratic ticket, because you know... not enough maniac to go with the bore.

So, I think we can all go into this election expecting less than nothing from Biden.   The most we can hope for is that he'll be a genial bobblehead, avoiding gaffe's, offending no one, a smiling, empty suit occasionally saying the right things at the right times.  That's the most we can hope for.  That's it.  It won't get better than that.

Because the other side is that he's going to be a huge cast iron and concrete anchor, dragging the whole campaign down, killing momentum, making the ship list badly to one side, turning the campaign in ineffectual circles.

Biden don't care.   He doesn't lose either way.   Obama/Biden goes down, he still gets his Senate seat and the prestige of being a heavy duty mojoman.  

Hell, it might even be to his advantage if Obama/Biden goes down.  After all, if he wins, he goes into VP hell.  Sometimes not a good place - ask Dan Quayle or Spiro Agnew.   

The best he can hope for is a lame duck shot at the big ticket in 2004 if Obama flops hugely, or a senior citizen's discount shot at the big ticket in 2008, if Obama carries a couple of terms.  Neither of those seem attractive.

On the other hand, if the ticket loses, well.... guess who gets to be the frontrunner:    The Last Virtuous Man in Washington, Honest Joe Biden!

Well, ladies and ghentlemin, let me lay out Honest Joe's future career for you:

1)   After the Obamaflop of 2008, Biden tries again in 2012, just like Lieberman, 2004.   And just like Lieberman, 2004, Joementum 2012 will stink on ice.

2)  But suddenly, being a mediocre New England Senator and unctious busybody won't be enough.   Joe wants the limelight.  He's crafted his Honest Joe persona.  He wants to be important and influential.   So he's going to work Honest Joe for all he's worth.

3)  Honest Joe is going to stand above the political frey, calling it as he sees it, telling the truth, fair and impartial to one and all, the bipartisan's bipartisan, the man with no enemies and friends on both sides of the aisle.  That's the path he's going to take.

4)  Honest Joe is going to find that there's a lot more advantage to criticizing his fellow Democrats than there is to criticizing Republicans.   After all, a Democrat tilting at Republicans... that's the bridge that don't collapse, it's not news, no one cares.   But when a Democrat savages their own side, well, that's man bites dog, that's altruism and integrity and standing tall and above the fray.  That gets the television coverage, it gets the pundits warmed up, it gets the invitations to the TV shows, the interviews, the journalists, the cocktail parties.

5)   So Honest Joe finds himself attacking Democrats a lot.  Maybe he rationalizes that he's not really singling out Dems.  He goes after Republicans too.  Only that doesn't get as much notice, and it doesn't get as much reward.  So, by incremental steps, he becomes the Democrats scold.

6)   Of course, a lot of Democrats outside the beltway, and some inside, start to get tired of Honest Joe's perpetual scolding.  His reputation starts to suck ass, he gets a lot of 'not-love.'   He feels hurt and betrayed.   To him, it seems like all his (negligible) good work is forgotten, and he's being attacked by lefty radicals as cheap theatrics.  Can't they see that he's only pointing out the high road for them?  It starts to get nasty.   After a while, the only people saying nice things about Honest Joe are Republicans.   They're becoming his people.  But Honest Joe is Honest Joe, a Democrat he was, and a Democrat he'll stay.

7)  But still, irrelevance hurts.  And hostility can get out of hand.  Can we rule out a primary challenge, or some other traumatic insult to that endless ingrained entitlement?   And of course, his career is winding down.  He's old.  No more shots at the Presidency.  He's surely not going to rise high in the Democrat caucus.  But that limelight is hard to give up.

8)  It's 2016 and Joe Biden is giving the Keynote Address for the Republican National Convention, telling everyone how great the Republican ticket is, ignoring the Democrat ticket, and whining how he never changed, it was the Democrat party that moved away from him, whipped by negroes or feminists or latinos or pakistani's or progressives or whoever.

They say history repeats:   First time tragedy, second time farce.   Well, the first time wasn't tragedy, the first time was inflamed haemorhoids of the political body.   The second time won't be farce, it's going to be rectal bleeding, but mostly it's going to be tiresome and tedious, like all of Biden's speeches.

Good for you, Rachael!  Finally someone says the dreaded "L" word.

Watch it here.

Its good to see that now the RNC convention is over, Sarah McCain continue to congratulate themsleves with their recycled acceptance speeches.  To paraphrase Mr. Biden, this kids isn't your daddy's Buick anymore.

Why are all polls national when the electoral vote is what counts?  The repubs are happy to report national polls because they look close, but I believe Obama is showing much stronger electorally than McCain. 

Also, why is there limited to no coverage of the protesters arrested at the RNC.  Press were arrested and war protesters outnumbered delegates...

If , as it appears, the McCain camp is obstructing justice by interfering with an ongoing investigation, this issue needs to be raised:

McCain and Palin may have disqualified themselves from seeking office with this obstruction.

The Obama camp has to be willing to entertain this possibility and take appropriate action.

I do not believe, pending what transpires in the next few days, that this will be a legitimate election.

And the rule of law must be returned to our country.

Obama and camp cannot take this matter lightly.

Because frankly I am FUCKING SICK of PASSIVE DEM WIMPS allowing Republicans to get away with IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES.

And trust me our beloved Dems will not have the spine to stand up to McCain/Palin if these right-wing puppets get into the White House.

 I don't trust Obama to do anything..

But he damn well start thinking about it.

Because there is every sign that this will not be a legitimate election..

Back in 2004 I wrote a sort of Ten Commandments Report Card for George Bush. He didn't score very well.

Right now, I'm just thinking about one commandment - the one about "bearing false witness." See, with education going down the tubes in this country, I think the religious right has forgotten what it means to "bear false witness." In other words, they don't know that lying is considered a sin.

How else could we explain the Republican penchant for lying, and lying, and lying some more. Blatantly and bald faced, they lie. Do they not realize the mortal peril they are putting their sorry souls in? Do they not realize that Satan is egging them on?

I feel sorry for them, for when they reach the Pearly Gates, they will, no doubt, be denied admission. They will have to suffer in the district of Hell reserved for liars, though some will take up residence in the Killer Zone, and others perhaps in zones of various other sinful infractions.

If only they were serious about their so-called faith. If only they really were committed to telling the truth. But such is not the case, and they will pay for it with their everlasting souls.

If you believe in all that. I don't. I just want them out of office, and I want some of them in jail.

Barack is right when he says this election is not about him nor his opponent. It is really about the people. I think all of America believes this and there are some interest groups in the US that really need a wake up call.

The Christian Right really does need someone to sit them down and lecture them on values, the tolerant lifestyle of Jesus and their need to honor truth and integrity.

How does the Christian Right justify support the McCain ticket? This gang openly pushes and preaches lies and distortions. They are blatantly dishonest and yet people purporting to be stalwartly christian can support them this way. Somehow this scenario does not reconcile very well with my perceptions on what Jesus would expect of anyone who professes to follow him.

In all of this I do not blame the McCain camp. They are politicians and hence there is some unwritten rule hidden somewhere in the Bible that allows them to be anything they want to be, say anything they want to say and Christ would be pleased about it. That's the way it seems to me.

I think we in bloggersphere need to make a concerted effort to call out these right winged Christians for their blatant hypocrisy and show-case them as the liars and deceivers that they really are.

It seems to me that many in this right winged christian world do not think for themselves. So they rely on the Dobson's, Hagees and the likes to make the calls and they simply follow. If some of these leaders can be shown-up for their decietfulness and lies I am sure lots of their followers would take a second look and amend their beliefs.

We need to callout the Christian Right and hold them accountable to the standards that they set for all other groups. I think they are hypocrits, mostly.

Cheers

Barack is right when he says this election is not about him nor his opponent. It is really about the people. I think all of America believes this and there are some interest groups in the US that really need a wake up call.

The Christian Right really does need someone to sit them down and lecture them on values, the tolerant lifestyle of Jesus and their need to honor truth and integrity.

How does the Christian Right justify support the McCain ticket? This gang openly pushes and preaches lies and distortions. They are blatantly dishonest and yet people purporting to be stalwartly christian can support them this way. Somehow this scenario does not reconcile very well with my perceptions on what Jesus would expect of anyone who professes to follow him.

In all of this I do not blame the McCain camp. They are politicians and hence there is some unwritten rule hidden somewhere in the Bible that allows them to be anything they want to be, say anything they want to say and Christ would be pleased about it. That's the way it seems to me.

I think we in bloggersphere need to make a concerted effort to call out these right winged Christians for their blatant hypocrisy and show-case them as the liars and deceivers that they really are.

It seems to me that many in this right winged christian world do not think for themselves. So they rely on the Dobson's, Hagees and the likes to make the calls and they simply follow. If some of these leaders can be shown-up for their decietfulness and lies I am sure lots of their followers would take a second look and amend their beliefs.

We need to callout the Christian Right and hold them accountable to the standards that they set for all other groups. I think they are hypocrits, mostly.

Cheers

Barack is right when he says this election is not about him nor his opponent. It is really about the people. I think all of America believes this and there are some interest groups in the US that really need a wake up call.

The Christian Right really does need someone to sit them down and lecture them on values, the tolerant lifestyle of Jesus and their need to honor truth and integrity.

How does the Christian Right justify support the McCain ticket? This gang openly pushes and preaches lies and distortions. They are blatantly dishonest and yet people purporting to be stalwartly christian can support them this way. Somehow this scenario does not reconcile very well with my perceptions on what Jesus would expect of anyone who professes to follow him.

In all of this I do not blame the McCain camp. They are politicians and hence there is some unwritten rule hidden somewhere in the Bible that allows them to be anything they want to be, say anything they want to say and Christ would be pleased about it. That's the way it seems to me.

I think we in bloggersphere need to make a concerted effort to call out these right winged Christians for their blatant hypocrisy and show-case them as the liars and deceivers that they really are.

It seems to me that many in this right winged christian world do not think for themselves. So they rely on the Dobson's, Hagees and the likes to make the calls and they simply follow. If some of these leaders can be shown-up for their decietfulness and lies I am sure lots of their followers would take a second look and amend their beliefs.

We need to callout the Christian Right and hold them accountable to the standards that they set for all other groups. I think they are hypocrits, mostly.

Cheers

Barack is right when he says this election is not about him nor his opponent. It is really about the people. I think all of America believes this and there are some interest groups in the US that really need a wake up call.

The Christian Right really does need someone to sit them down and lecture them on values, the tolerant lifestyle of Jesus and their need to honor truth and integrity.

How does the Christian Right justify support the McCain ticket? This gang openly pushes and preaches lies and distortions. They are blatantly dishonest and yet people purporting to be stalwartly christian can support them this way. Somehow this scenario does not reconcile very well with my perceptions on what Jesus would expect of anyone who professes to follow him.

In all of this I do not blame the McCain camp. They are politicians and hence there is some unwritten rule hidden somewhere in the Bible that allows them to be anything they want to be, say anything they want to say and Christ would be pleased about it. That's the way it seems to me.

I think we in bloggersphere need to make a concerted effort to call out these right winged Christians for their blatant hypocrisy and show-case them as the liars and deceivers that they really are.

It seems to me that many in this right winged christian world do not think for themselves. So they rely on the Dobson's, Hagees and the likes to make the calls and they simply follow. If some of these leaders can be shown-up for their decietfulness and lies I am sure lots of their followers would take a second look and amend their beliefs.

We need to callout the Christian Right and hold them accountable to the standards that they set for all other groups. I think they are hypocrits, mostly.

Cheers

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0905/1220544890619_pf.html

Excellent article.

Read it please.


Excerpt:

Sarah Palin is not a famous reformer. She did oust Governor Frank
Murkowski, and Alaska is better because of that. But it's the Federal
Bureau of Investigation who took on and jailed corrupt politicians -
all Republicans bar one - who accepted bribes from oil company types.
She is far from being the Mother Teresa of anti-corruption.

Sarah
Palin is a tremendously ambitious woman. She has been in the right
place at the right time; her fairy-tale timing is remarkable. As mayor
of Wasilla she ruled in a time when the sales taxes from all the ugly
strip-malls in the commercial town gave her a big budget. She cut
spending for the museum - God knows why - perhaps just to keep her
socially conservative reputation intact.

Then she became governor
of Alaska in more fairy-tale times - when a barrel of oil soared to a
ridiculously high price, filling the state coffers with plenty. She
could have replenished weakened social services programs, but she
didn't. She has promoted no social agenda in Alaska.

This weekend may be the beginning of the end of the false sense of security in the stock market. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080906/ap_on_bi_ge/mortgage_giants_crisis

So far the FED, the investment bankers and the billionaires have managed to keep the market artificially inflated by pumping huge sums into it each time it faltered.

Monday will be the greatest test yet of the resolve of those entities to hold the last remaining indicator of our economy's health at these inflated levels.

With 7,000 homes per day being foreclosed, over 9% of homeowners either in default or behind on their payments, 6.1% unemployment and $10 billion dollars a month going to Iraq, we may be near critical mass of incompetence for the Bush administration.

But, keep your chins up!  I'm sure Sarah Palin is praying for us!

Via The Daily Show, it is an excellent composite of Bush and McCain's acceptance speech...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxGcn7lmTWY

"MCCAIN ALLIES MOVE TO DERAIL TROOPERGATE INVESTIGATION"

This stuff is textbook GOP operational tactics. If the truth is going
to hurt, cover it up. Manipulate it. Distort it. And above all, deny
any of it has merit. But there is another, bigger and more devastating
problem here. The public at large is not being adequately informed of
this investigation or the attempted cover up by the McCain/Palin
machine. The completely disgraceful and un-American Main Stream Media
is being irresponsible and almost criminal in not following this story
with the same tenacity as, say....an Obama (non)issue they are so fond
of frothing at the mouth over, and over, and over.



McCain/Palin was able to lie, distort and manipulate the truth of most
of their statements contained in their acceptance speeches. And
continue on a daily basis with virtually no rebuttal from the "Joe
Six-Pack" press. The press, let us not forget, that too many voters
actually get their (mis)information from. Americans,in general, have to
be the most misled and dumbed down people on earth. This is one of most
horrendous, tragic and dangerous results of the Cheney/Bush
administration.

Palin, a scandal-ridden Republican, is doing what these types always do: Shutting down investigations and making a mockery of the opposition. She, not McCain, is the person people will remember when they go to vote.

And scandals, ethics violation, crimes and cover-ups all dissolve like the Greenland ice cap, as we've seen continuously for eight years of unfettered criminality emanating from the Republicans- and to be fair, from not a few Dems, including O himself (conspiring with the Admin to immunize the telecoms).

And this always works in the Republicans' favor. I have never seen such a display of spinelessness from anyone in my life as Dems meekly refused to stop the torture-mongering, war-profiteering, DOJ-corrupting thugs in the WH from committing crimes in plain sight, robbing the nation blind and leaving us with a wrecked economy, a wrecked military, no trust in our public officials, and no credibility in the world.

Now Palin is going to get away with her abuses of power, just like Rove has. And where is Rove? On Fox making millions. That is because Dems have refused to prosecute, refused to impeach (they should have started with Gonzales over a year ago, he was the Admin's only weak link), and earned the disgust of not a few.

Obama/Biden now need to ask Palin what she is so afraid of. they need to discredit her. I am sorry... all those who say the tone should not be negative. They need to direct the public's attention to what is being covered up, and not count on the media, or, please God, Hillary, to do it for them.

Bush/Cheney have gotten away with everything because they understand how to grab and hold on to power. Palin strikes me as someone who can do the same.

Obama/Biden need to show they can stop her.

Here's a compelling and informative open letter found at Mudflats written by a resident of Wasilla.

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/a-letter-about-sarah-palin-from-anne-kilkenny/

Worth reading for some perspective:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0906/1220629527916.html

Oh, if I could only post pics!

Join me for some fun with Sarah and John.

Yes, it's photoshopped.  Yes, it's silly hysterical.  But, man, I think it's too funny!

I cannot WAIT to see your comments!

Every election cycle it seems as though the quality and pedigree of American politics get lower and lower and lower. Here is Obama working steadfastly to raise the bar and then here is McCain doing everything possible to drag it further into the mud.

I am not sure that the elections were ever about electing the best candidate but at least those seeking the position made it look that way. All the trash that the McCain camp is spewing and being swallowed up by the aptly called Christian right is simply amazing.

How can any serious political camp at this time of the cycle withhold its VP nominee from the press? Are they really serious? How can they entertain and even voice the thought that the American people do not need to hear the views of the persons they are sending to lead the country? Are they really expecting the people to buy a pig in a bag?

This is how low the McCain camp has dragged the politics this year and its worse than the last eight years. How can you be campaigning for the votes of the people who you openly declare are too stupid to demand to know something about the people they are supposed to vote for? This is all very silly and childish on the part of the MCain camp.

Personally, I wont ask the McCain people to get serious, I would ask the voters of the US to get serious and simply run over them in the voting booths in November. Not only for the sake of electing Obama but to send a distinct message to future political fools, like McCain and company, that the people deserve a serious season of politics and not the crap of the last eight years.

I am really hoping that the press sits on the McCain camp like a bad patch of weather and simply stay there until they snuff them out and drag their drama queen to the interview process. We the people demand to know.

The bloggers on the left in particular must keep the pressure on these people to run a better campaign, win or lose. The right wingers will not do this because they are fueling this nonsense but the left leaners can put up some resistance.

Let's hope that you lefties will rachet up the pressure and yank these weasels out of their holes.

Keep trucking.

For some reason, this does not surprise me.  The Chicago Tribune reports that:

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to have switched colleges at least six times in six years, including two stints at the University of Idaho before graduating from there in 1987.

Federal privacy laws prohibit the schools from disclosing her grades, and none of the schools contacted by The Associated Press could say why she transferred. There was no indication any were contacted as part of the background investigation of Palin by presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign.

 Let’s look at her combined eduction and experience?

    * University of Hawaii - for two weeks
    * Hawaii Pacific University - Freshman year
    * North Idaho College, a two-year school - General studies
    * University of Idaho - Journalism
    * Matanuska-Susitna College
    * University of Idaho - Bachelor’s degree in Journalism
    * Wasilla, AK, City Council - four years
    * Wasilla, AK, mayor - six years
    * Governor of Alaska - 20 months

Hmmm, what about that other Veep candidate, Joe Biden?

    * University of Delaware - double major, History and Political Science
    * Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctorate
    * St. Joseph’s University - Honorary degree
    * Widener University School of Law - Teaches Constitutional Law
    * United States Senator - 28 years

What the hey, how about our Presidential candidates?

John McCain:

    * Graduate United States Naval Academy
    * Unites States Congressman - Four years
    * Unites States Senator - 22 years

And Barack Obama?

    * Occidental College - two years
    * Columbia University - Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations
    * Harvard University - Juris Doctorate, first year Harvard Law Review, second year, President Harvard Law Review.  Graduated Magna Cum Laude.
    * University of Chicago - taught Constitutional Law for 12 years
    * University of Chicago - Lecturer for four years, Senior Lecturer for eight years
    * Illinois Senate - Eight years
    * United States Senator - Four years

We all know that Sarah Palin is no money manager, as she left the town of Wasilla in debt to the tune of $20,000,000 dollars (in a town of less than 6000 people, at the time).  This is even after receiving more than $27 million dollars in federal funds (can you say Ear Marks?  Yeah, I thought you could.)

Vice President Palin does not comfort me.  President Palin scares the crap out of me.

Join us at TheZoo for your daily dose of political and social news and commentary.

Who's running McCain's campaign?Karl Rove, the man who put George Bush in office.
Who's handling McCain's communications?Steve Schmidt, Karl Rove's protege.
Who's McCain's campaign manager?Terry Nelson, former director of the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign. .

Who wrote Sarah Palin's speech?
The man who wrote George Bush's speeches.  
John McCain.  
Some maverick, huh? 

By: Redwoodman @ Mudflats...really made me laugh so I thought I should share.

What’s the difference between Palin and Obama?

Well, one is a well turned down, good looking, and let’s be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye candy!

The other one kills her own food.

What’s the difference between Sarah Palin & Dick Cheney?

Lipstick!

There's a post at Crooks and Liars that I found very interesting and disturbing, and very personal. It's about earmarks - money from the Feds given to fund specific projects in various localities.

The fact that she secured $27 million for her town of (then) about 6,700 people is absurd on the face of it. But the fact that, despite that, she managed to leave the town $20 million in debt is astounding.

Why is it personal? It's because I was a city councilor for a town about the same size as Palin's was for two and a half years. We were a very poor town in rural Oregon - in fact one of the poorest in the state, I believe. Our county couldn't afford to keep the libraries open, and we had to cut off funding for the community swimming pool and many other less glamorous services. We couldn't afford to repair the water treatment facilities or fix roads or... you name it.

Yes, we applied for funding from both the state and the feds, and we got some. Not a lot, but some. We didn't hire K Street lobbyists. We weren't friends with Ted Stevens.

We struggled over budgets, line items and how to protect our citizens. Did I mention that we couldn't afford a police department and our whole county only had four sheriffs to cover a huge district? Crime was rarely dealt with speedily, and sometimes never, and meth houses began to spring up. Crime increased and in many ways, the vagrants and tweakers began to rule the streets, night and day. People were attacked and beaten on occasion, and a lot of property was stolen or vandalized.

What we wouldn't have done for a tiny portion of that $27 million. But I can guarantee you that our town would never have been greedy enough to seek that kind of money. We were real people in a rural town, and we had reasonable expectations of protecting our citizens and giving them a working infrastructure. But we weren't greedy and manipulative, and I can guarantee you that everyone on our city council, the mayor and the city administration would have hung their heads in shame if we had demanded such outrageous sums of money from the government. Never. Ever. We just wanted a decent life.

Now that the Alaska courts have announced that it would be "disrespectful" for Sarah Palin to honor her subpoena, I think she is in the same category as Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, a State- sanctioned criminal.

For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/palin-vetting-documents-from-2006-for-hard-core-palin-addicts-only/

In 2006, when Sarah Palin ran for Governor of Alaska, the Democrats
(unlike the Republicans of 2008) vetted her. The documentation is
extensive, and was published online.

http://mudflats.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/palin-2006-vetting.pdf

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/palin-vetting-documents-from-2006-for-hard-core-palin-addicts-only/

In 2006, when Sarah Palin ran for Governor of Alaska, the Democrats
(unlike the Republicans of 2008) vetted her. The documentation is
extensive, and was published online.

http://mudflats.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/palin-2006-vetting.pdf

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13190.html

Excerpt:

Palin’s abrupt and often unexplained — or not fully explained —

dismissals, though, leave former colleagues and political observers

speculating about the “real reasons,” Bitney said, adding that her

style “is more dramatic than the way most executives do it. They bring

you in, tell you they’re going to go in another direction and get

everyone in the office to sign a card and cut a cake. But that’s just

not her style.”

It freaks me out - completely freaks me out - what happened in
Minneapolis during the Republican Convention. No, I'm not talking about
the absurd and ugly kabuki theater of the angry liars. I'm talking
about the police state that emerged and absolutely trampled on the
First Amendment rights of Americans to protest and to assemble
peaceably. And what freaks me out the most is that the media has
ignored it.

There isn't enough real information about what
happened - about the sweeps and the arrests, including 200 arrests for
a (presumably peaceful) protest during McCain's speech. Where is the
outrage? Where, for that matter, is the coverage. And, moreover, where
is the investigation.

Who put them up to this strong-arm, Gestapo impersonation?

What
does this say for our rights as Americans that not only can the
"authorities" violate our rights of assembly and speech, but do so with
utter impunity, under the radar of our fourth estate and outside the
realm of legal oversight (since nobody is paying any attention?

I'm freaked out, and I think you should be too.

The LA Progressive quoting Alaskans sharing stories about racial comments attributed to Sarah Palin.  If any of it is true, we have got to get the word out.  Here is the link.
http://www.laprogressive.com/

Just ran across article in the LA Progressive about Sarah Palin's accepted references to non-whites in Alaska.  http://www.laprogressive.com/

A lot of people have been talking about the lack of aggression in Obama's attacks against McCain.

There are those who think that Obama has to define himself better. I disagree.

I think Obama has defined himself already. But he hasn't succeeded in defining McCain.

I think the advertising is a problem but it can be fixed.

The "Yes we Can" message resonates so much better than the "More of the same" message.

You can say '"McCain is more of the same" until you're blue in the face. You can scream it and chant it but it just isn't making the impact it should.

The "More of the Same" commercials are all fact-based and respectable individually but they don't build to anything grander as a whole. They fail to elevate the brand message of "More of the Same".

Certainly not compared to the pervasive "Yes we can" message.

So why is that?

"Yes we can" is emotional and genuine and undeniably moving.

But the "More of the Same" commercials are faux-emotional--they don't connect with people (some have that problem with Obama himself.) And there's so much emotion to tap into with "More of the Same".

There's a tremendous amount of unrealized potential in this message.

It's like bread. It has to be leavened.

But it has to be done intelligently. The attacks coming from the McCain campaign are like blunt instruments. They hit you over the head.

You want to win an election?

Aim at the heart. The gut. Be genuine. You want people to see a commercial and say "Wow. The Republicans raped this country. Enough".

It is ironic that small towners like Sarah Palin constantly say that they are the victims of urban snobbery. However I find that it is the reverse, those of us who live in urban areas, are constantly being called unAmerican or elitist by small towners. Small towners are constanlty judgemental towards those that seem to be different than them. I personally believe that the Democrats have been to easy on small town America. The Democrats need to say the it is the urban ares that attract the young people, immigrants, and have and have thriving economies. While in small town America, young people are constantly leaving these areas of economic decline and bigotry. Urban America represents the very best of this nation while the small towners symbolized the very worst of this country.

It is ironic that small towners like Sarah Palin constantly say that they are the victims of urban snobbery. However I find that it is the reverse, those of us who live in urban areas, are constantly being called unAmerican or elitist by small towners. Small towners are constanlty judgemental towards those that seem to be different than them. I personally believe that the Democrats have been to easy on small town America. The Democrats need to say the it is the urban ares that attract the young people, immigrants, and have and have thriving economies. While in small town America, young people are constantly leaving these areas of economic decline and bigotry. Urban America represents the very best of this nation while the small towners symbolized the very worst of this country.

John McCain and his running mate have since the Conventions been whining about everything and everybody, from the media to their opponents, Barack Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden,  for no other reason than to innoculate as well as undercut well in advance the prospects of the ultimate exposure of the scandal-drenched Sarah Palin. There is no question that her scandals will sooner or later erupt like a volcano, ofcourse provided that the media is not too intimidated to do their job. But the McCain camp have no shame. They live in a glass house but will not stop throwing stones. And what does  Obama? He complains about about his opponent's attacks. They should stop complaining like the McCains and the Palins and start hitting back. There is so much about Palin that she does not want people to know that could be used by the Obama camp to highlight McCain's aborted vetting of Palin, which is at the heart of McCain's judgement or lack thereof. There is so much material the Dems could utilize as opposition research to impeach not only McCain's  character, but above all his credibility as well as his judgment. 

Last night, during John McCain’s Not-Too-Subtle Call to Arms acceptance speech, a speech that lasted less than 50 minutes, John McCain used the word Fight or Fighting or Fought a whopping 32 times. Honestly, John I have had enough fighting over the last five plus years.

Freedom Rebel has a scathing review on the enormously scornful GOP comments about Community Organizers in America.  Honestly, WTF were the Republican's thinking attacking millions of good American's that way?

What about what the overseas papers are saying about the possibility of an American president - John McCain?  I think this isn't going to make the Republican's terribly happy.

And seriously, Palin is a "hot chick" but can she handle a Man-Sized safe?  Considering the new Executive Orders which have been written to give the Vice President a massive increase in authority, do we REALLY want those authorities placed into the hands of a Hoosiers for the Hot Chick?  (Yes, that was a sign seen at the RNC!)

Republican Nicolle Wallace says no one really cares what Palin says on the issues.  You're shitting me, right Nicolle?  And Nicolle's never seen the media do anything like what they have done to Palin done to anyone before?  Hello, Nicolle!  Have you ever heard of MONICA LEWINSKY!  Oh, for an eye-rolling emoticon!

And if you need a laugh:

The single funniest political video EVER!  Family Guy rules!

And if satire is your thing, how about a little Melanoma fun?

If you liked any of these stories, give this post a Rec so other's can enjoy them, too.

Happy weekend!

Spread this around!!!!

THE LINK that will make McCain's Head Explode!!!

It's funny what Republican pundits say when they think nobody's watching. Today, John McCain's former campaign chief Mike Murphy and former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan were caught on tape after an NBC interview. They shared their real thoughts on McCain's judgment in selecting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Noonan asked, "The most qualified? No." She called the selection of Palin "political [B.S.]." Murphy called McCain's selection gimmicky and cynical. The video and transcript are below. This is a breaking story!


TRANSCRIPT:

Mike Murphy, former McCain advisor: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor work. Engler, Whitman, Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. And these guys, this is all like how you want to (inaudible) this race. You know, just run it up. And it's not gonna work.
Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter: It's over.
Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.
NBC's Chuck Todd: Don't you think the Palin pick was insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too (inaudible)
Noonan: I saw Kay this morning.
Murphy: They're all bummed out.

Todd: I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?
Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political [B.S.] about narratives and (inaudible) the picture.
Murphy: I totally agree.
Noonan: Every time the Republicans do that because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at and they blow it.
Murphy: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism and this is cynical.
Todd: And as you called it, gimmicky.

Steve Schmidt a few days ago said something objecting to paternity testing. He
may have been anticipating that reports of Palin having an affair were likely
to come out. Otherwise it made no sense. They may have figured that if the
Enquirer found out about her daughter's pregnancy and the family disputes about it that they were going to hear about the rumors of her having an affair. So it may have been an odd, preemptive effort to object to suggestions of paternity testing before they occurred. If it's true that Todd Palin's former business partner has made an emergency request to seal his divorce records, that would add a lot of credibility to the charges, since he's Sarah Palin's alleged partner in passion....

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/5/123217/9370/955/587898


I also think she conned and snookered McCain completely. Maybe seduced him
somewhat. How else to explain his unbelievably inept choice and process.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13190.html

Excerpt:

Palin’s abrupt and often unexplained — or not fully explained —
dismissals, though, leave former colleagues and political observers
speculating about the “real reasons,” Bitney said, adding that her
style “is more dramatic than the way most executives do it. They bring
you in, tell you they’re going to go in another direction and get
everyone in the office to sign a card and cut a cake. But that’s just
not her style.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc0XgadF2OQ

Unintelligence in Federal Intelligence Agencies

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Bob Woodward's newest book, The War Within, will be released on Monday.  In it, he attempts to demonstrate that the surge is only one component -- one of four -- which has caused a decrease in violence in Iraq. 

Woodward concludes that,

[Bush] rarely was the voice of realism on the Iraq war.

I wonder if that line of thinking, turned into messaging about McCain, can intersect the new McCain push.  McCain has no touch with foreign or domestic realities.  McCain's recklessness is rooted in poor perception.

This from The American Conservative,

To hear McCain tell it, there is apparently no crisis anywhere in the world that cannot be resolved by the presence of U.S. armed forces.

Realism means force, force, force plus force?

This from The Weekly Standard,

In fact, McCain seems intent on either shaking up existing international organizations -- making sure the G-8 remains a club of market democracies by keeping Russia out, for example -- or creating new ones.

Realism hopes hostile nations will go along with exclusion?

This from Newsweek,

McCain is a pessimist about the world, seeing it as a dark, dangerous place where, without the constant and vigorous application of American force, evil will triumph.

Realism holds that evil can defeat all force except American force?  What about a mixture of international forces?  Or does realism contend that pure unfiltered American force is the only real force?

John McCain does not understand what realism means.  As he attempts to separate himself from Bush, no words will unbond the McCain/Bush worldview.  Fundamentally, they still, and always will, perceive the world under the same lens. 

Please recommend should you agree to the messaging, and help build onto it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDfjlG3hQLM

Then Tom Ridge went to dig up his old Terror Alert Color Swatches kit, in order to start scaring the shit out of the voters, once more.

Thanks to Tom Ridge, I still have a big stockpile of  sheets of Visquine, and rolls of Duct tape. so we are all feeling very safe and secure, here at Camp Paranoia.

During his acceptance speech last night, John McCain talked a lot about fighting for regular Americans. Remember this:

“I fight for Americans. I fight for you. I fight
for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost their real
estate investments in the bad housing market. Bill got a temporary job after he
was out of work for seven months. Sue works three jobs to help pay the bills.”

Wait a second: "real estate investments"? Like, plural? Like, more people who own multiple homes? 

McCain got me so emotional talking about Bill and Sue Nebe I looked them up on <whitepages.com>, and I am relieved to let you know they're still probably doing alright in their remaining home. The neighborhood is going to hell, though...

So you have no time to vet either your VP, your enormous backdrop, or your token ordinary Americans. How maverick...

It freaks me out - completely freaks me out - what happened in Minneapolis during the Republican Convention. No, I'm not talking about the absurd and ugly kabuki theater of the angry liars. I'm talking about the police state that emerged and absolutely trampled on the First Amendment rights of Americans to protest and to assemble peaceably. And what freaks me out the most is that the media has ignored it.

There isn't enough real information about what happened - about the sweeps and the arrests, including 200 arrests for a (presumably peaceful) protest during McCain's speech. Where is the outrage? Where, for that matter, is the coverage. And, moreover, where is the investigation.

Who put them up to this strong-arm, Gestapo impersonation?

What does this say for our rights as Americans that not only can the "authorities" violate our rights of assembly and speech, but do so with utter impunity, under the radar of our fourth estate and outside the realm of legal oversight (since nobody is paying any attention?

I'm freaked out, and I think you should be too.

This is cross-blogged from www.greenpieceblog.com. I have the links to the information there.
-----------

Last night in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Senator McCain vowed to put America ahead of party. 
This statement struck me as odd considering that since becoming the GOP's presumptive nominee, McCain has abandoned his past moderate environmental views and adopted the much less environmentally friendly platform of his party.
On Fuel Efficiency --- 
- Old McCain: In 2002 he sponsored a bill in the Senate with John Kerry raising fuel efficiency standards to 36 miles per gallon by 2016. - New McCain: In 2007 he failed to even vote on a law, which passed the Senate 86-8, that raised fuel efficiency standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. 
On Global Warming ---
- Old McCain: In 2003, McCain and Joe Lieberman sponsored the Senate's first law that restricted carbon emissions. - New McCain: In 2007 the Senate failed by one vote to pass a tax credit that would help expand clean energy sources, McCain was the only Senator who didn't vote on the law.- Old McCain: In 2003 & 2004, McCain held hearings on climate change as Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. - New McCain: In 2008, McCain flip-flopped on the bi-partisan Warner-Lieberman Climate Change Act, an aggressive piece of legislation written by Senior Republican Virginia Senator John Warner and Senior Independent Connecticut Senator Lieberman that was praised as a great step in fighting global warming.  During his campaign's "Green Tour" McCain said he would support the bill but later said he wouldn't support it. In the end, he just didn't vote at all. 
On the Oil Industry ---
- Old McCain: In 2005, McCain voted against the 2005 Energy Bill which was written by Dick Cheney and old industry lobbyists behind closed doors. It gave billions in tax incentives to oil companies during their most profitable years. - New McCain: In 2008, McCain's presidential platform includes $3.8 billion in tax breaks for the top 5 largest American oil companies. Shockingly, McCain's current "Renewable Energy" platform says he support tax subsidies until..."the market transforms sufficiently to the point where renewable energy no longer merits the taxpayers' dollars. "  In February,  Exxon-Mobile alone set the record for the highest annual and quarterly profits in American history, do profits like that "merit taxpayers' dollars?" 
On the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ---
- Old McCain: In January of this year, McCain said drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was akin to drilling for oil in the Grand Canyon and the Everglades. - New McCain: In June, he said he was willing to go back and reconsider drilling in ANWR. See the video HERE. In August he reiterated his plan to reconsider his opposition to drilling in ANWR.  \Just two weeks ago, McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, she fully supports drilling for oil in ANWR immediately. 
On Offshore Oil Drilling ---
- Old McCain: In 1999, as a presidential candidate, McCain scolded the Clinton administration for extending 36 offshore oil leaves along the California coast. He also scolded the special interests in Washington that sought offshore drilling leases. - New McCain: In June of this year, McCain called for the moratorium on offshore oil drilling to be lifted so oil companies could drill for oil in America's oceans. Immediately, McCain's oil industry executive campaign contributions raised from just over $200,000 in May to over $1.1 million in June.  
On the League of Conservation Votes ---
- Old McCain: In 2004, McCain was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters in his Senate Campaign. - New McCain: In 2007, McCain received a 0% rating by the League of Conservation Voters because of his failure to vote on a single piece of environmental legislation. Now the League has endorsed his opponent, Barack Obama in the presidential election. 
On Keeping Your Tires Inflated --- 
- Current McCain: On August 4th, the McCain campaign handed out tire gauges to mock Obama's call to Americans to conserve gasoline by doing things like keeping tires inflated. McCain laughed at Obama's idea even though McCain supporters California Gov. Schwarzenegger and Florida Gov. Crist have recommended, along with Nascar, tire inflation for conservation. - Current McCain: Two days later, McCain said at a town hall meeting, "Obama said a couple of days ago says we should all inflate our tires. I don't disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it." 
The sad truth is that McCain has been debating McCain on environmental issues this entire campaign. He could participate in a lively and lengthy debate with himself on environmental policy for hours. It seems that when McCain is interested in exciting his base, he doesn't put "Country First."

Palin has 60 days to learn what the VP does every day but will she have four years to learn what the President does every day?

We are not talking about candidates for a job interview, we are talking about employee performance reviews.  

This is a race between taking your medicine vs. learning to cough less.

We all trust John McCain, we just trust that he will implement Bush policy.

Palin Personality is new, empty attack politics is not.

Sexism & POW are the new excuses not to answer questions.

Palin is more W than W.

I feel like I am being sold my own car with a new hood ornament.

With Palin, He-who-will-not-be-named is finally the compassionate conservative he always wanted to be.

Small government is only good if it is effective.  

What no gay marriage?

Assuming McCain is a reformer, doesn’t he have to reform his Party before he can reform Washington and isn’t change going to be tough enough without the extra burden?

Isn’t everyone sick of this?

The change we promise is not limited to changing Washington players, it is a shift in opportunity.

IF Palin had an affair with her husband's former business partner? Shocked! The McCain campaign has run out of convention days to use as a reason to avoid all of the media's questions.

If Palin had not defended herself as she did, the onlookers would not have respected her.

The personal attacks against her were set-up in such a way as to cut her either way she responded -- if she shrinks from them she's not strong enough -- if she fights back, she must be a fascist.

Now, after she forcefully answers her attackers, she is called too dangerous, whereas just a day or so ago she didn't have what it took to defend the nation -- i.e. couldn't be a CINC.

When you tangle your webs around someone who doesn't deserve it, eventually the webs all lead back to you.

This being my first-ever blog post, I hope that my thoughts here are clear, and I welcome any differing or supporting response from those reading this post.

I believe there is a far more greater issue being disguised from the the positions of the Republican Convention. John McCain would have been "hung out to 'drip/dry' in the breeze" had he chosen his favored running mate, Joe Leiberman. He had no choice in his efforts to win over his constituents but to pick someone unknown, and one who is of an ULTRA CONSERVATIVE background. The real issue (one the Republicans have long sought to achieve and the end to their means) is a long term strategy to set up a new generational "Great-White Hope" (so to speak) for the 2008 through 2020 presidential elections. Sarah Palin and the Republican Party would attempt to fill the Supreme Court with like ultra-conservatives and pull this country so far to the right for generations to come- by stripping away any women's rights to control their own bodies and subverting our costitutional birthrights. They profess that any unborn fetus is a 'person'. (remember, any child born in this country IS, by first amendment declaration, a natural born citizen and that citizenship begins at birth, not conception. But ONLY in the event that the mother's life is in immediate and dire risk of death, would an exception be considered. I am a man, but I strongly feel a woman is the only person to make such a solemn judgement, based on her circumstances. not someone else's ideology. She has to live with the deep personal decision that she would have to make. Have you ever heard the Republican Party stating that they would, without exception, take the fetus, when it is born, and love and support it for the rest of it's life up to it's legal age?- to bear all costs for a good education, whatever race that child happens to be of? Would the party of Pro-life put all their names into a pool of prospective parents who would take these children into their lifes?

When the Republican party, as a WHOLE, swears to that position and full support, I will then consider them sincere and commited to the life of those newborns. Until that time, I consider it to be empty talk, with no desire to help that child (all those children).

The Republican Party, the party of "moral family values and conservative values" has much to account for these last eight years. The Bush/Cheney/McCain government has shredded our constitution and promoted 100 years more of the Iraq war, and John McCain, a 'shoot from the hip tempermental hothead' is a most dangerous man to be in the the position to have his hand on the trigger. A party of fear- their only message-until just recently-finally jumping on the bandwagon Barack Obama has driven to bring a level-headed sense of insight, justice, equality and (remember) the original author of the 'Change' movement this countrty so desperately needs and desires.

Barack Obama should commend John McCain for finally getting "on board", even if McCain tries (and he is trying) to grab the reins from and take credit for Obama's initiative, foresight and uncommon judgement. John McCain must own up to his parties last eight years of failure- he was with them and George Bush 90% of the time. and John McCain OWNS these last eight years. He cannot be allowed to duck out of that responsibility. The only change he will deliver is to "change his spots"- that is not the change this country needs. I have just listened to him attempt to disown both his and his Presidents eight years of utter failure- it will take the right person and temperant to attempt to bring our world together and work to find common ground and peace. As the song goes... We won't be fooled again

   Yes, I'M MAD and so should every individual in the United States of America. I am mad to think that someone, anyone, who would say they love this country and want to serve it's people would present such an example for everyone to see to base their opinion of us on. Have we gotten so immoral and dishonest that we would even accept the thought of such. I am Mad!.

   Am I the only one that sees that the example being set here is one of questionable integrity and ethics, has to be, or why would there be an investigation. Am I the only one that sees that our daughters and sons will think, it is okay to have sex out of wedlock and then marry when they are ill prepared. That may work in Alaska because he can go out and get a job on the pipeline, that's not true of all those in the metropolitan areas, the majority. Am I the only one that sees, a person who has a baby that will require extra care,  a mother's care,  not a nanny or sibling. Let's not forget a man who is well spent in years and the toll that such an office will take, to leave us with such a poor example.

   I am mad. I served my country for 20 years and have been overseas where it was an honor to say I am an American but not anymore. We are looked at as the cesspool of the world with all our immoral acts and attitudes, and we have a 200 crediting rating.  Now a public official wants to present that as the example of an American, I AM MAD.

  Would one really think so low of the people of this country to think we would accept anything to represent us. I am not saying, Governor Palin, is not qualified, however, it is about more than qualifications.  It is also about presentation, and she presents with drama, what most psychologist would term "dysfunctional." The drama this country does not need, and the people shouldn't accept.

  I found myself saying I would move overseas if McCain/Palin got elected, but why should I have to relocate to get away from that which is obvious. I commend Governor Palin for her service, but she is not ready to lead this country when her life and her family is out of order. That is what has happened to most of our children right now. Parents  are so busy doing other things then raising they're children. Motherhood is just that, a time you chose to be a mother. That is the difference between, a man and a woman, and that fact can't be argued. It's a God given assignment.

  I am asking everyone to just think about what the people for the most part have invested their time and efforts to protect our children from, sex on TV, illicit lyrics in music, favoritism and poor work ethics; in this election the republican party, wants us to accept that as a standard for our future. God forbid.

  On another note, who wants bullies. People who have to attack another, their fellow countrymen, to make themselves look good, all the while telling lies and confusing the people with twisted retoric. This is not a game they are playing, this is real, and our country is at stake here. Think people, think.

  If you watched the Republican Convention, many of their own people were not happy with the tearing down and the lies presented. Have we stooped so low that we need to belittle and tear each down to build ourselves up. This is no game, again our country is at stake here. On another note, I commend Senator McCain for his gracious and sportsman like conduct during his speech, but it is really time for change and with his decisions, if is obvious it is more of the same.

 

Cynthia A. Williams

"One of Those Women"

2007 Woman of The Year (Globally)

2007 Ambassador of Poetry

NEW FACE Model for Model Productions

www.myspace.com/oneofthosewomen

 

 

 

   Yes, I'M MAD and so should every individual in the United States of America. I am mad to think that someone, anyone, who would say they love this country and want to serve it's people would present such an example for everyone to see to base their opinion of us on. Have we gotten so immoral and dishonest that we would even accept the thought of such. I am Mad!.

   Am I the only one that sees that the example being set here is one of questionable integrity and ethics, has to be, or why would there be an investigation. Am I the only one that sees that our daughters and sons will think, it is okay to have sex out of wedlock and then marry when they are ill prepared. That may work in Alaska because he can go out and get a job on the pipeline, that's not true of all those in the metropolitan areas, the majority. Am I the only one that sees, a person who has a baby that will require extra care,  a mother's care,  not a nanny or sibling. Let's not forget a man who is well spent in years and the toll that such an office will take, to leave us with such a poor example.

   I am mad. I served my country for 20 years and have been overseas where it was an honor to say I am an American but not anymore. We are looked at as the cesspool of the world with all our immoral acts and attitudes, and we have a 200 crediting rating.  Now a public official wants to present that as the example of an American, I AM MAD.

  Would one really think so low of the people of this country to think we would accept anything to represent us. I am not saying, Governor Palin, is not qualified, however, it is about more than qualifications.  It is also about presentation, and she presents with drama, what most psychologist would term "dysfunctional." The drama this country does not need, and the people shouldn't accept.

  I found myself saying I would move overseas if McCain/Palin got elected, but why should I have to relocate to get away from that which is obvious. I commend Governor Palin for her service, but she is not ready to lead this country when her life and her family is out of order. That is what has happened to most of our children right now. Parents  are so busy doing other things then raising they're children. Motherhood is just that, a time you chose to be a mother. That is the difference between, a man and a woman, and that fact can't be argued. It's a God given assignment.

  I am asking everyone to just think about what the people for the most part have invested their time and efforts to protect our children from, sex on TV, illicit lyrics in music, favoritism and poor work ethics; in this election the republican party, wants us to accept that as a standard for our future. God forbid.

  On another note, who wants bullies. People who have to attack another, their fellow countrymen, to make themselves look good, all the while telling lies and confusing the people with twisted retoric. This is not a game they are playing, this is real, and our country is at stake here. Think people, think.

  If you watched the Republican Convention, many of their own people were not happy with the tearing down and the lies presented. Have we stooped so low that we need to belittle and tear each down to build ourselves up. This is no game, again our country is at stake here. On another note, I commend Senator McCain for his gracious and sportsman like conduct during his speech, but it is really time for change and with his decisions, if is obvious it is more of the same.

 

Cynthia A. Williams

"One of Those Women"

2007 Woman of The Year (Globally)

2007 Ambassador of Poetry

NEW FACE Model for Model Productions

www.myspace.com/oneofthosewomen

 

 

 

Here's the link to ASGA report.

If Alaska seafood is involved, can Ted Stevens be far behind?

Please pardon me if this topic has been covered elsewhere. I've been out of the media loop for the last few days.

I first read about James Palin on the Alaska state electoral site. I think Palin's mother-in-law ran for city council and James was mentioned in one of the three campaign docs. I assume he is the father-in-law.

Might be worth looking into if no one has already. I'd do it but I'm pressed for time for now although the situation could change tomorrow.

BTW, Newsday had a two-page photo of McCain up close and personal with Haley Barbour on Sunday. Anyone have any idea as to how much money Bush is pouring into Misssissippi these days in the name of Katrina?  

(Crossposted at the Daily Kos)

This is the local (Wasilla) joke, I've been waiting for someone to pick it up nationally... oh well, took me at least 5 years of living here to get it.

The favorite bumper sticker is "Lord, Please Help Me Get Through Wasilla" - due to the constant road construction and general driving stupidity that is Wasilla.

I was inspired to start something funny - I've given up MSM to watch only The Daily Show from now until the election.

alaskashellfish.com/media/documents/littleneck_clam_growth_survival_rates.pdf

alaskashellfish.com/media/documents/littleneck_clam_growth_survival_rates.com

I first found James Palin's name on Alaska's electoral data website.  I think James was mentioned in the mother-in-law's city council campaign records.

The clam report was addressed to James Palin and someone else. It was not clear as to the relationship between the author and James Palin.

Might be worth looking into.

alaskashellfish.com/media/documents/littleneck_clam_growth_survival_rates.com

I first found James Palin's name on Alaska's electoral data website.  I think James was mentioned in the mother-in-law's city council campaign records.

The clam report was addressed to James Palin and someone else. It was not clear as to the relationship between the author and James Palin.

Might be worth looking into.

alaskashellfish.com/media/documents/littleneck_clam_growth_survival_rates.com

I first found James Palin's name on Alaska's electoral data website.  I think James was mentioned in the mother-in-law's city council campaign records.

The clam report was addressed to James Palin and someone else. It was not clear as to the relationship between the author and James Palin.

Might be worth looking into.

The faux patriotism of the Bush administration is responsible for each and every death in Iraq.  Multiple deployments and stop-loss disappointments continue to take their toll on active duty, reserve and guard troops.

<A HREF="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_suicides">2008 suicides likely to top record number from 2007</A>

Ten years from now the facts about the reality of the Bush/Cheney years will be known.  The most shameful years of our country's existence will be behind us. 

Unfortunately the veterans of Iraq will still be dealing with PTSD and psychological damage which will compound the physical injuries they have survived.

What "they" have done to our country is unforgivable!  "We The People" MUST fight the monsters who have stolen our government for these past eight years.

EVERYONE PLEASE VOTE!

I understand that once your union votes to go on strike you must comply or you're screwed.
But Boeing workers - you have really pissed me, a LIBERAL TO THE CORE off.  I am someone who is almost always supportive of unions.  But you guys are appearing greedy to the core.
There are so many people out there who don't have 1 10th of the wages, job security and benefits you get.  They work hard too.  And their jobs are dependent on Boeing being a strong presence in the region.
So go ahead - go on strike to get even more ahead of the average hard working joe.   Piss off the company even more.  Make them want to move the company to Kansas or Missouri or somewhere they don't bitch and whine and strike when they don't get bigger raises than anyone else in the area.  Guess what - we support you when you don't get what's fair.  But when you get greedy -- you're on your own.

The unimaginable power of the presidency nags at my attention.  Personally, I am frightened by the possibility of Ms. Palin inheriting high office.  Very frightened.

Look at what she did to Director of Public Safety, Walt Monegan!

A hearing had been held concerning charges made by Ms. Palin’s family against her sister’s ex-husband, State Trooper Mike Wooten.  He had been given a suspension. 

Is it enough to label her a "Political Animal" or a "Purely Political Attack Dog" and NOT a statesman/woman? Should Obama's crew be doing more to make that label stick?

I think she should be labeled now to neutralize her in the future. Otherwise, I fear she may get some good punches in. People have to have the mental image that she's a loose canon so they can dismiss her attacks that hit their target in the future VP debate.

Just wanted to throw that out there, and see if you had other ideas to neutralize this ticking time bomb that's been set to blow up this campaign.

It's simple.

Fear of retribution.

Even the unions are scared to really talk about the hypocrisy of Todd's membership and McCain's push to pass Federal Right to Work laws, (doublespeak for union dismantling).

If McCain/Palin wins, Palin will note the names of the people who publicly came out against her.

If McCain/Palin loses - Palin has 4 more years as governor - she will note the names of the people who publicly came out against her.

Most of the people who really don't like her are small business owners, she ultimately controls State spending which many of these small business owners depend upon.

Palin completely failed to understand and respond to Alaska's unique
business cycle and held the capital budget too long for any meaningful
work to start in 2008.

You won't hear anyone criticize her publicly - the only people praising her locally are the super-duper-born-again's she's helped win office or work.

No one from Wasilla will come out publicly against her - even the Republicans (who hate her most) will sit down, shut up and take their medicine, (or retire like Senate President Lyda Green).

Anne Kilkenny seems like the only Valley resident (of the Matanuska Susitna Valley that Wasilla is the center of) willing to speak out, but like her letter said - she doesn't have a job for Palin to take away from her.

Imagine if every journalist interviewing a politician said to themselves, "what do you take me for, a complete idiot?"

Campbell Brown recently did during her interview with McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds.

Here's the link.

Have a look because it's the future of news.
The rest of the MSM is entirely unnecessary.

One night in 1967, I was awakened by the sound of gunfire. I was really, really, really drunk and found myself in the bed of a local ville boom-boom girl. I was laying flat on my back and opened my eyes to the sight of tracer rounds flying across the top of the room. The streaking bullets were both entering and exiting the thatched hut from two different sides. Then came the horror....the horror.

Although the pretty tracer light show was free, I had just paid my last ten pastre, under protest, to the ugliest girl that I had ever seen in my young life, drunk or sober. The horror wasn't that I was about to die, but rather, the thought of the headline on the newspaper back home, "Local Marine Found Dead With The Ugliest Girl On The Planet". And worst, the accompananying picture. This was my Colonel Kilgore moment.

As if they were blaring Wagner's Ride Of The Valkries, I instinctively reached in the dark for my forty-five, but found nothing but a gun-less hairy-legged holster. It turned out that the sober boom-boom girl had hidden the gun under the bed, and now, apparently sensing my front page shyness, produced said weapon post haste.

I locked and loaded, and laid the gun across my chest as I myself laid there motionless, on my back, watching the fireworks display above. The shooting eventually tapered off and I, like any good drunk, fell back asleep.

The purpose of telling this little story is that since I made it out of there with my front-page-less life, and did so without bringing great embarrassment to my country, and, since the other whores, George & Dick, never showed up, I want my ten pastre back.

If Saakashvili gets $1 billion for spending the night with Putin, who they're now calling a whore, then how come I don't get paid? Where's my ten pastre?

Five Dererment Dick & Missing In Action George always did seem to have Kilgore's Wagner confused with the Chantey's Pipeline. But, with them, everything always seems to have a dual purpose, dual meaning, and most assuredly a dual cost.

Then again, the original name for Pipeline was Liberty's Whip. And as usual, another whipping boy, Saakashvili, does a Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Wipeout. And again, two absent whores.

Saakashvili basically ends up pinned down in a hooch with boom-boom girl Putin, with nothing to do but helplessly look up at the tracers whizzing through. He dreadfully
ends up making the headlines on the hometown newspaper, and to them, Putin is the ugliest bitch on the planet.

He thinks he hears Wagner's Ride Of The Valkyries, but it's only Putin, as he whispers in his ear with a Robert Duval voice, "Cheney Don't Surf".

Oh, ....the horror....the horror. 

Georgia Congressman Westmoreland goes there:

Why stop at elitist when "uppity" is so much more descriptive.  

Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term "uppity" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.
 
Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.

[Emphasis mine]
 

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

So much to discuss.  Last night's performance by Sarah Palin was an abomination.  She showed us that she is definitely the next Bush in the White House in the making.  She lied like a cheap rug, and did so with aplomb.  It was frightening!

So, let's look at Palin by Comparison.

First, she lies.  Can't keep track of all the lies.  How about this.  Ms. Palin, you are full of shit.

Here is a comparison between what Palin and Biden said on the issues.  As a bonus, there is a comparison between how they view their political opponents. 

This is what women voter's think about Governor Palin.  Sorry for you, Sarah...they don't love you.

If you're not aware of Ms. Palin's own pastor problems, watch these videos.  If you're not scared to death, you should be.  Reverand Wright has nothing on these folks!  Note to media:  Where's the 24/7 coverage of this?

Think Palin is a pig with lipstick?  Listen to Nicole Wallace.  Is there any Republican who doesn't lie and attack?  Just wonderin'.

This is the single funniest video ever.  The Family Guy's take on Sarah Palin.  I literally laughed so hard I cried. (And I watched it more than 10 times.  I could barely breathe!)

If you missed this bit of satire the other day, check it out.  It's freaking hysterical!

And just in case you forget just what Senator Obama has accomplished, let's take another look at Obama's Senate Accomplishments.

Feel free to spread these accomplishments far and wide.  If I hear one more Empty Suit comment, I am going to pull a Family Guy!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin_national_guard


Excerpt:

WASHINGTON - The Alaska National Guard, which Republicans are pointing to as an important national-security credential for vice presidential choice Sarah Palin, has personnel shortages that make its aviation units the most poorly staffed in the nation.

Its beyond me why TPM, Sullivan, and
the usual suspects aren't posting about this/embedding this video
into a post.

The video linked to below is a
promotion put out by Sarah Palin's longtime church Wasilla Assemby of
God for a one week workshop entitled Master's Commision. The
narrator with the goatee and the leather jacket is Ed Kalnins, the
senior pastor at the church.

Sarah Palin attended Wassila Assembly
of God from the age of 12 when she was rebaptised at the chuch, till
2002 when she left for another church because she preferred their
youth ministries. She continues to maintain close ties to the church
and continues to be involved with workshops there.

Pastor Kalins started at the church in
1999. This means from 1999 till 2002 this was her pastor.

When you watch this creepy video keep in mind...

THIS WAS SARAH PALINS' CHURCH FOR ALMOST HER ENTIRE LIFE.

THE MAN IN THE LEATHER JACKET WAS SARAH PALIN'S PASTOR FOR THREE YEARS.

Here it is...

Promotion for a Master's Commission Workshop at the Wasilla Assembly of God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJnhRhJW35o

The videos still up on the church's website as well.

.

Editor and Publisher reports that Palin relied heavily on city resources in her failed run as Lieutenant Governor in 2002:

...Palin used city employees, telephones, computers, fax machines for campaign fundraising and literature. On her candidate registration form, she used her City Hall fax number, and her mayoral e-mail address. Records show that Wasilla city property was used to contact supporters, donors, media contacts, and media purchasing. [

We noticed last week that it was awfully peculiar that Colorado’s U.S. Attorney, Troy Eid, had so airily dismissed conspiracy charges against the three white-supremacist tweakers who were caught planning to assassinate Barack Obama at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.

..............................

Even more significant, beyond the details of the plot, was the fact that, as the Colorado Independent notes, the FBI asked for more serious charges to be filed and were turned down.

....................

Another funny thing: When a black man in prison sent a threatening letter containing baby powder to John McCain, Troy Eid brought down the full force of the law, complete with press conferences and public declarations that "We won't stand for threats of this kind in Colorado."

But when it’s a claque of white men with rifles, disguises, and all the accoutrement of a conspiracy – as well as open admissions to it – Troy Eid isn’t worried. After all, they just a bunch of harmless, tweakers, right? … Just like little Timmy McVeigh.

..............................

Based on the evidence, FBI special agent Robert Sawyer believed there was probable cause to charge the men with conspiracy to kill Senator Obama. However, US Attorney Troy Eid last week said there is insufficient evidence to indicate a true threat, plot or conspiracy against the senator.

Fire Dog Lake has the story.

Both popular governors of states that are "close" to foreign countries.

That did not prove to be much good, did it?

I tried desperately to avoid watching any of the RNC spectacle last night. The same way I avoided other Hollywood produced blockbusters like Star Wars or Lord of Rings or Mission Impossible. For the most part, over the years, I've succeeded. Sure, there are the inevitable, inescapable clips, reviews and bits that become part of the cultural landscape. I suspect there will be parts of Sarah Palin's performance last night that will find their way into political folklore.

But the repetition of the "E! True Hollywood Story: Sarah Palin: Pit Bull in Pumps" leaves me with one conclusion: I've seen this movie before. Last time it was "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde." Bring on the peroxide!

Just a few script changes and we get spunky Sarah Palin, beauty queen, hockey mom, baby factory, self-described "pit bull with lipstick," who, with no visible means of experience, no sustainable line of logic for her being chosen, gathers up her ever-expanding brood, straps on her moose-hunting gear and snowshoes, and heads to Washington to take on the Washington establishment by joining the Washington establishment.

Was that not Elle Woods on stage last night? Where was Bruiser? (Oh, yes... safe in the arms of little "Pillow" Palin busy licking his hair into place.) Wasn't that the same climatic scene where Elle takes on the other guys with snappy one-liners delivered in that perky Miss America "I'm so earnest it hurts" delivery?

Spoiler Alert: This isn't a brain-numbing comedy but a disturbing horror flick that will have you checking under your bed every night for the sex police, the mind control managers and radical Islamic-jihadi neo-terrorists hellbent on scaring the shit out you with some crazy-ass Clockwork Orange style therapy amp'ed up with a dose of waterboarding. This time Elle's not the heroine, but the villain. Near the end of the flick, she rips off her latex mask to reveal she's James Dobson in drag.

Will Americans be fooled and robotically vote for Elle and Dr. Demento, sending the world into the latest incarnation of the Dark Ages with 100-years wars and Soylent Green breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Or will they, in the secrecy of the voting booth defy their mind-control chips to vote for "the Ones" and save the world and themselves? I'm hoping they do, because I can't stand the smell of Soylent Green in the morning.

(Apologies if this becomes one of the dreaded "multiple posts".)

Let's take another look at what happened since last Friday and ask ourselves a question:

What did TPM and DailyKos do to help Obama and advance the cause of his campaign?

The answer is simple: NOTHING

No, strike that.

TPM, DailyKos and other media channels, formerly known as "progressive", spent all this time helping John McCain, by "vetting" of Sarah Palin.

The speed, brutality, partisanship and bitterness of this "vetting" was breathtaking.

But that wouldn't be so bad, if Josh and his "progressive" friends didn't actively stoke the press and TV to pick up on these stories.

Mike Huckabee said a lot of stupid things in his convention speech. But he was dead on when he said that the Republicans owe the news media a debt of gratitude for uniting their party behind their candidates.

And the American voters will owe Josh Marshall a debt of gratitude for sending Sarah Palin on the path of becoming America's newest Erin Brockovich.

What a disservice to Obama and his message. With friends like this...

Well, folks...  Apparently we've been to hard on "Georgie", Dick "The Monster" Cheney, "Rummy", Condi, et.al., they're not neo-con chicken hawks, they, like the Blues Brothers, are on a mission from GOD!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080903/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin_iraq_war

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin thinks GOD wanted our brave American troops dead and horribly wounded.  Oh, and by the way, GOD also wants a natural gas pipeline in Alaska.

This is the final confirmation that GOD is a Republican.  Give up all you communist cowards who call yourself Democrats!  What's the use of fighting the far right when GOD is on their side?

Here are statistics from Iraq as of today:

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

The ultra-right-wing of the Republican party want us to believe these losses were justified in order to please GOD.

Good luck selling that to the parents who've lost their child in this ridiculous neo-con endeavor.

If this stuff doesn't make you dizzy, you're probably a member of that 29% who still think there is ANYTHING this administration has done correctly.   ( I started to write "right" but thought better of it)

It's sad and disgusting when religion is used to justify war.  History indicated many times that has been the case and it never ended well.

I'm old enough to remember Jerry Falwell ran in the Republican primary and carried a couple of states.  GOD help us if these religious nuts keep control of our government.

She spoke for nearly an hour.  
So what issues did Governor Sarah Palin, Republican nominee for VP, talk about championing in her first speech to families struggling to survive all across America last night?

Health Care?  No. 
Education?  No. Poverty?   No. 
Senior citizens?  No.Civil rights?  No. Science?  No.Immigration? No.  Global warming?  No. Women's Rights?   No.Gay and Lesbians? No.Minorities?  Zero. 
Intolerance?  Zero. Unemployment?  Zero. Economy?  Zero. Job creation?  Zero. 
War?  Yes.Oil?  Yes.

So I guess Sarah Palin really needed no introduction.  Because she sounded like every other Republican.  

Can someone please please please ask Palin to put her money where her mouth is and call her on (for one of MANY issues she's whacked on) her stand toward choice.  If the life of her daughter were threatened by carrying this baby to term, would she sacrifice her daughter to hold to her ideology???  I would love to hear her spin out of that one.  This is insanity.

It's getting a bit tiresome listening to both presidential campaigns and their surrogates in the media tout experience as the paramount issue in this election.  Yes, one's experience in politics, in governing, in life shapes who a person is and how (s)he reacts to an array of situations.  Yes, there is no doubt that experience or the lack thereof can be the catalyst of a successful or failed presidency. 

But there is a greater truth: Experience alone does not a good leader and president make. 

To understand this fact all one needs to do is look at American history and our past presidents.  Many have been quite experienced in politics and international affairs upon running for office, while others left much to be desired in that arena.  For instance,

Experienced

Dwight Eisenhower
Richard Nixon
Martin Van Buren
Andrew Johnson
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt
Warren G. Harding
Herbert Hoover
George H.W. Bush

Inexperienced

Bill Clinton (foreign affairs, anyway)
George W. Bush
Ulysses S. Grant
George Washington (as far as public office)
John F. Kennedy (in many ways)
Ronald Reagan (in many other ways)
Andrew Jackson
Woodrow Wilson

Say what you want about any of the above names.  Some were good presidents, some were bad.  Experience has brought us some of the worst policies in American history while inexperience has led to some of the best times the country has seen.  And of course, there can be arguments made about the above listed presidents to be placed in a different category depending on what issue we're talking about. 

So let's take the most recent, most glaring example.  The George W. Bush Administration is a fine representation of both experience and inexperience.  W himself had zero foreign policy experience and his tenure as governor of Texas, if you know anything about Texas politics and the role of the office of governor there, did little to prepare him for running the country.  So chalk this one up to inexperience.  But yet, Bush surrounded himself with some of the most experienced, seasoned political veterans with roots dating back to the Nixon and Ford Administrations.  The collective experience of those who counseled the president and no doubt crafted American domestic and foreign policy over the last 8 years can be considered unrivaled by any recent administration.  Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Armitage, Powell, Rice - all of them were active in the Ford Administration and many were part of both the Reagan and Bush I White House.

But if experience equals sound policy, then why have the last 8 years been such an abysmal failure?  Simple: The experience Cheney, Rumsfeld, and company have amassed over the last three decades has enabled them to create policies driven by economic and corporate greed, ideological madness, and attention to American aggrandizement regardless of the international and human consequences.  Is that the experience we want?

In the end, experience is but a small piece of the larger puzzle.  It's to what end that experience is used that is most important.  And frankly, if the last 8 years are any measure and experience is all that counts, please give me the least experienced candidate available.

He's a Maverick and a Reformer alright. I can't believe i actually admired him back then (while supporting Gore, of course.) Turns out that the "McCain of 2000" wasn't much different than the current one after all. He just didn't have Charlie Black lobbying for the telecoms regarding pending legislation that McCain would be voting on from his cel on the "Straight Talk Express."
Read it and weep:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1999-11-25/news/an-endowed-chair/

The repubican spinners are really hard at work here. Palin only proved she could read a speech that someone else prepared. She is so light on experience and has been living in Alaska for most of her life. Her experience is being a mayor of 6000 people and a governer of a remote state for less than 2 years with a population of 600,000 which is smaller than many counties in the lower 48 states.  Does she really grasp the day to day issues faced by people in the rest of the country? I doubt it. The opinion below accurately depicts the real message of Palin's speech last night.I do not want her a heartbeat away from the presidency. McCain is 72..Get real people..This is scary.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Sad.html

The tone of partisanship and personal attack started among other places, here, on TPMCafe:

Attacking Sarah Palin for the timing of her first pregnancy.

For the decisions, with her doctor, to have her youngest child close to home, near her home hospital and trusted physician.

For her daughter's pregnancy...

And folks have the hubris to suggest that Governor Palin's attacks on the experience of her and McCain's opposing ticket while defending her own as "too strong." Some say she was too sarcastic, or "mocking." Give me a break. You all dished it out, and she beat you with a stick and you deserved it. You still deserve it.

She didn't attack anyone personally. Not once. She attacked their message, experience, policy and comparative record.

You can complain if you set the tone. Now if you would only confine your debate to substantive issues and qualifications and get off of the nasty, cowardly and irrelevant personal attacks.

You besmirch Obama's efforts when you do this. If you emulated him, then Palin's speech would have been in kind because Obama's base would have set that tone. If you emulated Obama here, and in other venues whose personal invective trickled up into some mainstream press outlets, then if Palin had made this same speech, it would not have been a woman fighting with courage, but the very unbelievable false caricature some of you are trying to make of her now -- shrill or sarcastic or whatever.

Some of us here wrote about how the wrong approach was taking place here.

As an independent belonging to no party, I continue to watch the enormous waste of time spent, and money, on irrelevant personal invective while Obama's message goes unheard because of some of his party's squeaky wheels.

In the end, as an independent, my vote goes to the people who stay on point with the issues, offer specific policy ideas with explanations of why they'll work, and who don't stoop to nasty personal attacks. I sure hope I see more of this approach on both sides in the coming months.

If these two idiot lying pieces of human garbage win, I quit.  If Sarah Palin can support seceding from the union, I can too. 
I can't take four more years of this shit.  And it looks like they are trying to rile up Dobson's crowd and we all know it will work.  
SSDD.  Fuck you McCain and Palin et. al.  

If these two idiot lying pieces of human garbage win, I quit.  If Sarah Palin can support seceding from the union, I can too. 
I can't take four more years of this shit.  And it looks like they are trying to rile up Dobson's crowd and we all know it will work.  
SSDD.  Fuck you McCain and Palin et. al.  

She'd totally rock out with the Bush twins...and so would her mom.

http://www.kiss957.com/pages/jox/munchie.html

Anyone who has been in the US Navy knows the term Hold Fast.  It's when you are in a desperate situation and don't want to lose the last remaining grasp forward progress that you can muster.  It's a cry of resolve and of acknowledgment.

"We're in a  tight spot."

It's exactly where the neoconservative movement that begun under Richard Nixon and  has dominated our politics, both left and right, for the last forty years finds itself.  Hold Fast to our base - Wall Street and the Rapture Right.  That is why they picked Sarah Palin.  That was a pick to shore up the lackluster Social Issues crowd.  Palin's "record" and "resume" as a "reformer" is well documented.  No need to delve into her personal life when her professional one is the gift that keeps on giving for Barack.

Until she "withdraws" for "family" reasons in October in the noecon's last ditch gamble to avoid a 50-State blowout in November.  McCain-Whomever (my bet is Leiberman) still loses by 15 points, but they Hold Fast.

So what does that mean for the democratic party?  It means they have an opportunity to live up their marketing and be the Party of the People for the first time in a long time.  This is an FDR moment when the country is ready for (and desperately needs) drastic change and will embrace a leader who can deliver on it.  We are Holding Fast too. 

This is the moment when a democratic Ronald Reagan can caputer a huge slice of the republican vote and point us a new, more progressive direction. 

Barack embodies the best of both parties.  He understands that the best way to achieve our common goals is evolution instead of revolution.  We don't have enough time to build this again from the gorund up.  We have to work within the existing system.  Lockheed Martin make solar panels and develop technology for a more responsive health care system under a Barack Obama administration. 

Common sense solutions for a country on the brink of catastrophe.

The neoconservatives understand that they have pushed this country as far as it will go.  They  will keep the 23% Rapture Right vote and the 12% Rich Motherfucker vote, but the rest is going to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  Every republican I know is voting for him.  My buddy from the Navy.  My MBA best friend.  My middle class sister and brother in law.  Barack will govern with a majority of democrats, republicans and independents.   

They 50-State victory arrives in 2012 after we actually turn this country into the America every real American knows it can be.

Hold Fast.

How are things working for you:

Do you like the service and options?

Have you ever had a response to any private letter you've sent?

The DOJ IG report reveals a disturbing piece of information about the United States government's NSA legal compliance program: Congress and the President for at least two years were not in agreement, as they should have been, that the NSA was or was not fully meeting all FISA wartime requirements.

The record suggests rather than gather information to make a decision about whether NSA surveillance did or didn't comply, it was only the NYT reporting which prompted (some of ) the needed oversight, discussion, and legal compliance review.

Despite many unanswered questions, Congress granted immunity. The DOJ IG report helps us understand what Members of Congress most likely knew: There was an Executive-Legislative agreement, long before the NYT reporting, to do nothing about FISA violations during wartime.

DOJ IG Shows Congress Knew About FISA Surveillance Before 2004



The DOJ IG
disclosed some important timing information related to Congressional
notifications, the timing of FISA briefings, and what Gonzalez did.



This means Gonzalez briefed Members of Congress before 2004:

3 of 32:
The classified materials that are the subject of this investigation
consist of notes that Gonzales drafted to memorialize a classified briefing of congressional leaderswhen Gonzales was the White House Counsel;

This means Congress was briefed before Gonzalez became attorney General:

White House: Alberto R. Gonzales was sworn in as the nation's 80th Attorney General on February 3, 2005

Relying only on the DOJ IG report, the DOJ IG knows that some members of Congress were been briefed as late as Feb 2005; and
could have been briefed more than one (1)  year before the Attorney
General publicly commented after the NYT reporting.

Wait for what the DOJ IG should have done, but Congress did not force the DOJ IG to do.

Recall, Senator Roberts documented in a handwritten not to Vice President Cheney July 23, 2003. His note shows Members of Congress agreed to hear this information on condition that they not discuss these legal issues with counsel.



Surely, once the legal issues became self-evident after 2005, this
review should have occurred. Yet, the Senate complained in 2006 they
were still waiting for information. FISA requirements impose on the AG:

FISA: "a summary of significant legal interpretations of this chapter"

DOJ OPR shows us they are involved with the legal interpretations, yet the AG says he won't enforce investigate FISA or Geneva violations. We need to see the memos, and when individual Members of Congress before 2004 were provided with classified copies of these convoluted legal arguments.

Nobody needs information when the legal requirement is for a full
briefing to Congress; and a certification that the activity complies
with FISA. The lack of information is a subsequent offense. which Congress also refused to investigate before approving amnesty.

By openly asserting they still did not have information,
Congress was implicitly admitting it knew Gonzalez had not complied --
as attorney General -- with the reporting requirement. . . but Congress
did nothing to close that loop before granting immunity.

Now that we know Gonzalez was the one who gave (one of) the briefings to Members
of Congress, let's revisit his parsing in his White House briefing from
Dec 19, 2005:

Q Gentlemen, can you say when Congress was first briefed, who was
included in that, and will there be a leaks investigation?

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Well of course, we're not going to -- we don't
talk about -- we try not to talk about investigations. As to whether or
not there will be a leak investigation, as the President indicated, this is
really hurting national security, this has really hurt our country, and we
are concerned that a very valuable tool has been compromised. As to
whether or not there will be a leak investigation, we'll just have to wait
and see.

And your first question was?

Q When was Congress first briefed --

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: I'm not going to -- I'm not going to talk about
-- I'll let others talk about when Congress was first briefed. What I can
say is, as the President indicated on Saturday, there have been numerous
briefings with certain key members of Congress. 

Obviously, some members
have come out since the revelations on Saturday, saying that they hadn't
been briefed.

This is a very classified program. It is probably the most
classified program that exists in the United States government, because the
tools are so valuable, and therefore, decisions were made to brief only key
members of Congress. We have begun the process now of reaching out to
other members of Congress. I met last night, for example, with Chairman
Specter and other members of Congress to talk about the legal aspects of
this program.

And so we are engaged in a dialogue now to talk with Congress, but also --
but we're still mindful of the fact that still -- this is still a very
highly classified program, and there are still limits about what we can say
today, even to certain members of Congress.

Again, Congress, still (supposedly) not getting the legal details, passed immunity for those who
violated FISA, which Members of Congress knew or should have
known was applicable during wartime.



During the 2005 White House press conference Gonzalez mentioned Senator Specter.

Does this mean Gonzalez had still not yet
briefed Specter; if not, who in Congress did Gonzalez specifically brief in the DOJ
IG-referenced briefing on the NSA surveillance?

One of the ruses has been the excuse of "we didn't know the details of
the program" and "didn't know the activity violated FISA."

What
questions did Members of Congress raise to Gonzalez at this DOJ IG
referenced briefing; and did Members of Congress full review the
FISA-compliance requirements?

Senator Leahy addressed these issues:

Leahy: "For
example, the Attorney General's letter suggests that the Administration
is operating other secret programs that invade the rights and liberties
of Americans. But it refuses to answer our questions regarding the
scope and the purported legal basis of those programs."

Leheay is pointing to the "answers" but not addressing what classified memos he was provided. In theory, if Congress and Gonzalez were fully complying with
FISA during wartime, Leahy would not have to wait for these answers in 2006.
Gonzalez would have either provided or not provided that information in
his original briefing to Congress before 2004. There should be no question in 2006
about information which Gonzalez and Congress should have addressed two
(2) years earlier.



This strongly suggests Congress and the Executive for more than
two (2) years, 2004-6 knew or should have known there was insufficient
information about the NSA surveillance to make any independent review
of the legality of that activity; or that the legal compliance program
was adequate; or that the FISA wartime requirements were fully met. This defies reason.

More likely, Congress has been given (another) classified briefing which they (still) have not expressly discussed, and have agreed to keep secret.

Congress should have been able to conduct a review of the program
before 2004 when Gonzalez originally briefed the material to Congress:
They would know or not know before 2003 whether the program complied
with FISA. They never challenged the legality.

The DOJ IG report confirms Members of Congress have been in collusion with FISA violations.

Did Members of Congress agree, in secret, with the President to block the DOJ IG/OPR from reviewing the details?

It appears so, otherwise they would have demanded an explanation why they were "blindsided" and not passed immunity "for the telecoms."  The DOJ IG report opens the questions:

Congress Complicit With Election-Related Prosecution Decisions

Individual members of Congress and Executive Branch officials gain by granting immunity, blocking a review of what Congress really knew, and why Congress did not fully enforce the FISA violations during wartime?

They have delayed a legal resolution until after the 2008 election.

Other questions:

A. DOJ IG Reporting To Congress

The inspector Generals have  a reporting requirement to Congress.  Congress cast the leverage of investigations aside when it granted immunity.

(1) When did the DOJ IG report, beyond what Members of Congress may have revealed, know there was a legal compliance problem; or an unanswered question?

(2) What is the plan of Congress to enact legislation to ensure this abuse does not happen again?

B. Presidential Decision

The President has classified memos, arguing they were deliberative. However, the DOJ IG information changes the equation. These memos after 2004 are no longer deliberative, but part of a post-decision-narrative. These are subject to the crime-fraud exception to privilege.

(3) When did the President really work with Gonzalez to shut down any DOJ IG/OPR investigation into this illegal activity?

(4) Why has Congress not asked for these specific Presidential decision  memoranda related to the pre-2004 decisions, as the DOJ IG report (implicitly) confirms?

C. Attorney Reporting of Peer Misconduct

There are some mandatory reporting requirements for legal counsel when they have evidence their peers in the legal community have not fully complied with the statutes.

(5) How many DOJ, Congressional, or Executive Branch staff counsel have known about the illegal activity, but did not documented their knowledge of this illegal activity?

Regardless of what information Congress did or didn't get, there are other questions about Congressional oversight:

D. Funding Despite Unanswered Questions

The mandate for change called for Congress to change. Yet, we still have rubber stamping of GOP war crimes and FISA violations.

(6) Why did Congress during this two year window from 2004-6, when the legal compliance was unclear, continue agreeing to provide funds?

E. Emails through Intel Link, Sipr Net

The DoD emails show DoD does use the SIPR net.

(7) What information and notes did Members of Congress send to the President about their concerns;

(8) How were these questions addressed and archived within the DoD classified email systems, outside the White House control?

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/09/03/politics/fromtheroad/entry4413030.shtml

Excerpt:

CBS)From CBS News' John Bentley:

(ST. PAUL, MINN.) – John McCain’s campaign threatened legal action
against the National Enquirer today for running a story about McCain’s
running mate, Sarah Palin, allegedly having an affair with her
husband’s business partner

.

A few months ago, it was Sarah Palin who suggested the Hillary Clinton was whining about the media scrutiny.  Now the McCain campaign is whining for Palin.  Since when does a VP nominee need to be protected from the media?  Now, that's sexism! If she can't withstand media scrunity about her decisions and behaviors in office, then she should have just said no to John McCain.  With 60 days til the election, McCain cannot expect America to just bend over and look the other way while he visits chaos on the election process.

Apparently Sarah Palin fired the "Top Cop" in Alaska because he wouldn't play politics with Alaska's equivalence of the US Dept of Justice.

Doesn't this sound really familiar?

Governor Palin: She was for Drunk Driving before she was against it  As per ABC news:

After taking over as Mayor of the small town of Wasilla, Palin fired
the longtime local police chief. The former police chief, Irl Stambaugh
says he was fired because he stepped on the toes of Palin's campaign
contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association.

Stambaugh's lawyer, William Jermain, says the chief tried to move up
the closing hours of local bars from 5 a.m. to two a.m. after a spurt
of drunk driving accidents and arrests.

"His crackdown on that practice by the bars was not appreciated by
her and that was one reason she terminated Irl," said Jermain. 

What does anybody know about Palin's involvement in past efforts in Alaska to move the Alaska state capital from Juneau to Wasilla?  

Palin was on the city council in 1994 when it was a statewide referendum  when Palin was on the city council (click line to NY times article)? Here's another story about it from the Juneau Empire. 

She also campaigned on that issue when she ran for Lt. Gov in 2002, but flip flopped on it when she ran for Gov in 2006.  In that same article, it seems like she campaigned on going along with any legislative wishes of the state representatives.

Last night at the Republican National Convention, President Bush spoke for barely eight minutes. (Funny how the president's name was not mentioned once during any of the other speeches that evening!)

During the President's speech, he said several things that outraged me, yet there is nothing, NOTHING in the media or anywhere on the blogosphere that I could see.

While most of the speaker's last night either exaggerated the truth or out-and-out lied, that is to be expected. But as President of the United States, I am appalled by the blatant partisanship displayed by OUR president.

While there were several things that I found offensive, this is the most egregious:

Fellow citizens: If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain’s resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will.

Excuse me? Angry left or right, we are all America's citizens and as President of the United States of America you should represent all of us. I understand that this is a political convention, but that type of discourse has no place even there.

I would remind you, Mr. President, what Senator Barack Obama said just the other night: We are not from red states or blue states, we are from the United States, and as such, you are supposed to represent us as well. After all, it is US who pays YOU. Which leads to my next outrage.

Read the rest of this outrage at TheZoo.

Listening to the events of how Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and her colleagues were arrested in St. Paul during the GOP convention while credentialed, and looking at videos of Glenn Greenwald who spoke to St. Paul residents whose home was stormed-trooped clearly shows that America has whole heartedly accepted the “terror regime” at home that has been the hallmark of the Bush Administration.

Not only has the country accepted the more security is more freedom paradigm, but one virtually sees no and reads no reporting of it in the media. The prime motive of the police seems to be to intimidate the media from reporting on police actions and to prevent the press from reporting on the march in St. Paul before the Republican Party convention.

When the Chinese government, however, arrested six Americans in during Beijing the Olympics that was covered and editorialized. However, the police intimidation tactic in St. Paul is hardly a blip in the media, except for photo in the Washington Post GOP convention coverage section, they was virtually mentioning.

However, there was an article in the Post about a Chinese protestor whose mother was being harassed by Chinese officials because his family are pursuing financial claims against the government, and did so during the Beijing games.

But any corresponding reporting by the major organs of the established media on questionable police actions aimed at intimidating freedom of the press and the right of the people to peacefully assemble? Not much...

With warrant less spying, torture, Guantanamo, never ending encroachment on the Constitution, the land of the free and the home of the brave is becoming high-tech, consumer police state with the shell of a democratic republic.

Before turning to the local Pacifica affiliate station, NPR was cheerily babbling about how to watch the fall line-up of the television shows.

Which begs the questions, is NPR really a news-oriented station anymore or merely an audio brand of smugly packaged life-style shows?

http://www.drudgereport.com/
Earlier this year it was reported that the famously conservative drudge report had taken to dishing out any news it could find rather than taking sides, even going so far as to seem rather nice to Obama at times. 
Go there now, however, and instead of the dozen or so crazy things that will one day cause us to look at a horrible choice for V.P., cabinet position, or supreme court position and say "That's Palinesque," you'll find link after link to people slamming the media and claiming that poor Palin is being picked upon - in spite of the fact that people are way past judging her by how much time she needs to spend with her kids/grandkid and have largely moved on to whether she's experienced enough to be the vice president of a local gas station chain or whether she's only "very corrupt" or "extremly corrupt."

http://www.drudgereport.com/
Earlier this year it was reported that the famously conservative drudge report had taken to dishing out any news it could find rather than taking sides, even going so far as to seem rather nice to Obama at times. 
Go there now, however, and instead of the dozen or so crazy things that will one day cause us to look at a horrible choice for V.P., cabinet position, or supreme court position and say "That's Palinesque," you'll find link after link to people slamming the media and claiming that poor Palin is being picked upon - in spite of the fact that people are way past judging her by how much time she needs to spend with her kids/grandkid and have largely moved on to whether she's experienced enough to be the vice president of a local gas station chain or whether she's only "very corrupt" or "extremly corrupt."

I have the ONE question that will SINK Palin as V.P.

Gov. Palin:

How many hours a day do you think it takes to be an effective Vice President?????

How can you raise 5 kids if you are working  ____ hours a day?

One GOP theme has been putting country first,
before party.  Putting aside the false dichotomy, the claim contradicts the  email evidence.

The DoD emails show the United States government supported an unlawful,
disproportionate use of force in violation of the laws of war.

The President has been linked with the DoD emails. His staff is mentioned as having met to discuss the military analysts.

What the GOP neglected to mention was that they're using the
idea of country to justify something not lawfully permitted: A wider
crusade to impose American values regardless the legality of that
Agenda.

Just War Theory

There are legal standards regulating how much force may be lawfully used. This is the principle of proportionality. The use of lawful force must be proportionate to the threat. When a country uses disproportionate force, they have under the laws of war committed a war crime.

The Administration knew or should have known there ewas no imminent threat from Iraq. To distract from the lack of imminent threat -- a clear war crime -- one discussion in the DoD emails shows a nuanced argument: To find a method to justify a disproportionate use of force.

The Administration has distracted attention from the legal standards related to an imminent threat,
and focused on the ethics of warfare: When is a disproportionate use of force morally
-- not legally -- justified.

Subordinating Laws of War To Just War Exceptions

Under a Just War theory (Jus ad bellum) , the religious leadership said the rules related to a just war can be waived during a crusade. In the view of the clergy, diisproportionate force can be used to achieve success:

disproportionate measures are required to achieve success

America's leadership has sought, in the wake of 9-11, jus in bello justice in war, regardless the legality of the war itself. 9-11 was the excuse to wage warfare. The DoD emails show the planned expansion of this warfare from Iraq was into Syria and Iran.

The DoD emails show the Administration and military analysts exchanged ideas on justifying a disproportionate, and illegal use of force. A reasonable conclusion is the United States, after 9-11, viewed itself as being in a crusade against all others who did not embrace the American agenda.

This explains why the Administration supported using nuclear weapons against Iran:

7535:
Advocating disproportionate force:

"First, that we couldn't allow ourselves to
be weakened by empty rhetoric urging a 'proportional response.' Our
response to the 9-11 attacks had to be decisive, and to be so our
counterattack had to be in proportion to our strength and not the enemy's relative size or weakness."

The irony is the Administration was arguing to use nuclear weapons against Iran for their possible use of nuclear weapons. Certain warfare today by the United States to thwart a possible, speculative future war by someone else. That fails to meet the "imminent threat" standard required under the laws of war.

The GOP with DNC collusion have jointly embraced an illegal justification for an unlawful use of force: The American leadership have implicitly embraced the excuse of a crusade as an illegal exception to the laws of war permitting only proportionate use of force.

The Americans changed the debate from whether the use of force was lawful or linked with an imminent threat; to whether the amount of force could be justified.

Do we wage illegal war using big bombs or nuclear bombs?

The issue isn't whether the party or country should be first; but for the American civilian leadership to be held accountable for putting the rule of law second to both their party and unlawful national military objectives.

Senators Obama and McCain have -- now -- the power to lead investigations in the Senate. What both refuse to do as Senators is a signal of what they have no plan to do as Commander in Chief or President:

Lead an effort to ensure America's civilian leadership remain accountable to the rule of law when the Federal Government and States refuse to put the law before party.

We need something more than empty rhetoric. We need leadership in the Senate.

Discussion Questions

Food for thought:

A. GOP Agenda of War Crimes Justification

To what extent is the the "country first"-theme intended to justify a false choice between the party and the country?

B. Distraction from Geneva

Why is there a distraction from the lack of imminent threat in the DoD emails, with the false claim that disproportionate power may be used?

C. Prosecuting GOP Civilian Leadership

What is to be said of civilians who distract attention from legal standards, and make excuses to use disproportionate force against non-military targets which are not imminent threats?

D. GOP Reckless Geneva Compliance Program

What can we say about civilians who distract attention from legal compliance programs under the laws of war to whether or not they can hide or destroy evidence of those war crimes?

E. Loyalty to Party and Deception

Why should there be a truth a reconciliation process where witnesses are granted immunity when the witnesses before Congress have lied under oath despite a promise of immunity from prosecution?

Disingenuous Truth and Reconciliation

It is absurd to seriously discuss a "truth a reconciliation" process on the issues of American war crimes. The Americans have not shown an interest in complying with disclosure or any truth. Even when promised immunity from prosecution, the American witnesses (Goodling, Libby) before Congress and the Grand Jury have lied.

The Americans are not interested in disclosing the truth. They're interested in putting their party agenda before the national security interests of the United States.

America's security interests depend on legal compliance program. The Americans have not shown a respect for the rule of law, but for the excuses to justify disproportionate force.

Senators McCain and Obama have jointly not provided the expected leadership in the Senate on the issues of war crimes. To show they are serious about change, the Senators must outline their plan -- now, as Senators -- to lead in the Senate their plan to conduct fact finding.

The American approach to post 9-11 events has been a reckless disregard for civilized rules. The American political leadership has made excuses for barbarity. The FISA requirements were applicable during wartime. The DoD emails show there was an arrogant discussion to distract attention from the laws of war and lawful use of force; and focus on creating excuses for the disproportionate, illegal use of force.

These are not moral questions. These are issues of international criminal law. The civilian leadership in the United States -- at the Federal, State, and local levels -- has been complicity with this illegal activity. They've embraced the war crimes as a policy; continued to refuse to challenge that illegal activity; and have not timely led prosecution efforts or investigations at the local, state, or federal level.

America's Leadership Problem

This is a reckless collapse of law and order. The Constitution does not expressly prevent the military from arresting civilian leaders who refuse to enforce the Geneva Conventions; and timely ensuring this is a peaceful transfer of power to the next in line to the leadership positions.

The American political parties have recklessly wasted time pretending they are for a legislative agenda, and failed to ensure the American Constitution and Geneva Conventions were fully enforced, as required by oath. The American leadership cannot be trusted.

GOP Rallying Americans For War Crimes

The worst thing is for the GOP to argue for "America first" when America under GOP has been an outlaw nation. "America first" is a code word meaning, "Ignore all legal constraints on the myth of 9-11." 

The GOP leadership, not American citizens in combat gear, should be first in line to the war crimes tribunals. Until America confronts this reckless disregard for the rule of law at
home, foreign powers might conclude American can only be subdued using
military force.

The GOP leadership is actively mobilizing Americans to ignore the laws of war, and rally around the flag.

We must rally around the rule of law, not the criminals leading the GOP and DNC -- the domestic enemies of American citizens and the Constitution. There is no statute of limitations for war crimes, especially for those at the local, state, and federal level who have been complicit with this illegal activity, and decision not to enforce the law.

Poll                             as of                   Obama Margin

Gallup Tracking            8/31                    +6
                                    8/03                    +3

Rasmussen Tracking     9/02                     +5
                                     8/03                    -1

CNN                            8/31                     +1
                                     8/24                     tie

CBS News                    8/31                   +8
                                      8/05                   +6

USA Today/Gallup        8/31                   +7
                                     8/23                   +3

Well, you know the old guy has always had an appetite for younger women. Afterall, he ditched his first wife Carol for a newer model, Cindy. Now we know the REAL reason McCain chose Sarah Palin! You can also entitle this Booty Watch.

What explains the Democrats' penchant for self-destruction?

I have my theories, but its disregard for the Constitution and pathological fear of Republican disapproval speak for themselves.

For example: MoveOn.org posts an ad in the NYT, childish, but not slanderous, asking if he will be "Petraeus or Betrayus?" Now I think that is extremely poorly written: The American Conservative's terming of Gen. Petraeus as a "Sychophantic Savior" was far more successful, aesthetically. But what happens? THIS happens:

<blockquote>The GOP-introduced resolution condemning MoveOn just passed by a huge margin, 72-25. Roughly half the Democrats in the Senate supported it.</blockquote> (Italics mine.)

Now the First Amendment protects freedom of expression, and the Senate should not be the self-proclaimed arbiters of speech. This resoution was "symbolic" of a cruel  standard condemning Democratic free speech.
And, as the vote tally shows, it was "bipartisan." (So talk of a media "double standard" is off the mark, when the Democrats hold it themselves.)

Now, the American Conservative (which, by the way, I highly recommend), shortly afterward, ran an issue with the far more clever words "Sychophantic Savior" describing Petraeus. (See it here.) No resolution was ever introduced, let alone passed.

Why? Because the AC is not perceived as "liberal" or even "Democratic."

And let me be clear: This is, perversely, a bipartisan prejudice. Which makes me wonder if the term "bipartisan" retains any meaning in the post-Lieberman era.

OK, last night Fred Thompson said something truly slanderous and despicable about Barack Obama:

<blockquote>We need a President, and Vice President, who will take the federal bureaucracy by the scruff of the neck and give it a good shaking. And my friends we need a President who doesn't think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade.</blockquote> (Italics in the original TPM citation.)

Will Thompson's outright slander (the likes of which reveal a bigotry and hatred which bypass that of the McCarthy era and go straight for that of the incipient Civil War) receive censure from the Senate?

And if not, why not?

Steve Schmidt claims the press are asking him about paternity tests and apparently believe he can simply cry "smear, smear, smear," and let Sarah do her teleprompter magic with a speech crafted by the Republican's best wordsmiths.  What he doesn't seem to get is that Sarah Palin is getting defined as a pathological liar by the press because she's already been caught in so many other fibs, such as her support the bridge to nowhere, that the hunger for some kind of compelling evidence to prove paternity will only grow until she does offer up something concrete and convincing.  The belief may be that responding to the rumors is in itself belittling, but given that these folks perfected the Swift boat strategy I find that hard to swallow. 
What's really fascinating about this whole process is the role of the Web in stoking the rumors; this shows how "Old Media" the McCain campaign is.

Well, you know the old guy has always had an appetite for younger women. Afterall, he ditched his first wife Carol for a newer model, Cindy. Now we know the REAL reason McCain chose Sarah Palin! You can also entitle this Booty Watch.

Add this to the list of stupid media. A reporter for ABC stated that Obama had a black father from Kenya and a white father from Kansas. There's nothing like keep the public duly informed.

From a Democratic or independent perspective Sarah Palin looks like a weak pick for Vice President. It appears on the surface that McCain's team didn't properly examine her background. I would argue that she has been vetted for what they were looking at: a pro-gun, anti-global warming, pro-abortion, anti-government, evanglical female. You may have noticed that Christian community is very excited about this candidate. One of McCain's weaknesses was with the Christian right wing part of the party. Now he has James Dobson raving about Palin. The Republican strategy is to appeal to the base with Sarah Palin, appeal to independents with McCain's phony Maverick image and suppress votes in swing states by reducing the voter registration list. Watch Obama win states in the exit polls but lose in the final tally for proof. Obama and Biden will be portrayed as elite Liberals running against the Maverick and the Conservative Christian mother with populist leanings. In November, when you are analyzing the results remember the Republican strategy it has been used before successfully.  

From a Democratic or independent perspective Sarah Palin looks like a weak pick for Vice President. It appears on the surface that McCain's team didn't properly examine her background. I would argue that she has been vetted for what they were looking at: a pro-gun, anti-global warming, pro-abortion, anti-government, evanglical female. You may have noticed that Christian community is very excited about this candidate. One of McCain's weaknesses was with the Christian right wing part of the party. Now he has James Dobson raving about Palin. The Republican strategy is to appeal to the base with Sarah Palin, appeal to independents with McCain's phony Maverick image and suppress votes in swing states by reducing the voter registration list. Watch Obama win states in the exit polls but lose in the final tally for proof. Obama and Biden will be portrayed as elite Liberals running against the Maverick and the Conservative Christian mother with populist leanings. In November, when you are analyzing the results remember the Republican strategy it has been used before successfully.  

From a Democratic or independent perspective Sarah Palin looks like a weak pick for Vice President. It appears on the surface that McCain's team didn't properly examine her background. I would argue that she has been vetted for what they were looking at: a pro-gun, anti-global warming, pro-abortion, anti-government, evanglical female. You may have noticed that Christian community is very excited about this candidate. One of McCain's weaknesses was with the Christian right wing part of the party. Now he has James Dobson raving about Palin. The Republican strategy is to appeal to the base with Sarah Palin, appeal to independents with McCain's phony Maverick image and suppress votes in swing states by reducing the voter registration list. Watch Obama win states in the exit polls but lose in the final tally for proof. Obama and Biden will be portrayed as elite Liberals running against the Maverick and the Conservative Christian mother with populist leanings. In November, when you are analyzing the results remember the Republican strategy it has been used before successfully.  

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokerncschedule.htm

Excerpt: Use link to read the entire schedule.

Convention Schedule

Minneapolis, MN

4:00 PM - Opening Prayers and Massages Administered by
Rev. Ted Haggard

4:05 PM - Presentation of Confederate Colors

4:10 PM - Pledge of Allegiance to 9/11

4:15 PM - Invocation of John McCain's POW Experience

4:30 PM - George W. Bush Speech on Legacy of Peace and Prosperity, Canceled

4:45 PM - Dick Cheney Instructional Seminar on Waterboarding, Canceled

5:00 PM - Karl Rove Speech on Government Accountability, Canceled

5:15 PM - Tribute to the U.S. Constitution, Canceled

5:30 PM - VP Beauty Contest and Swimsuit Competition, featuring Sarah Palin,
Condoleezza Rice, and Rudy Giuliani

5:45 PM - Tribute Film to John McCain's Houses

Senator John McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is indicative of the hair- trigger judgment he would use as commander-in-chief.  Additionally, how the McCain campaign and other Republicans have framed Governor Palin’s dirty laundry, highlights the ridiculous hypocrisy that is the Republican party.  Let’s look at the charges leveled against Barack Obama's values and patriotism and compare them to Governor Palin’s record of values and patriotism.

Senator John McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is indicative of the hair- trigger judgment he would use as commander-in-chief.  Additionally, how the McCain campaign and other Republicans have framed Governor Palin’s dirty laundry, highlights the ridiculous hypocrisy that is the Republican party.  Let’s look at the charges leveled against Barack Obama's values and patriotism and compare them to Governor Palin’s record of values and patriotism.

TPM reader DS:

Why is everyone letting the McCain camp get away with saying Palin's
selection somehow breaks the "glass ceiling" as Kay Hutchison just did
on MSNBC. There has already been a female nominee for VP. The Democrats
broke that one nearly 25 years ago.

Of course the Democrats are the ones to have long ago broken the glass ceiling: but if that fact were more widely broadcast, Palin, et al, wouldn't be able to co-opt Hillary's message, now would they...? And isn't it their point to peel votes away from Obama by appealing to women? So, that's why...

McCain, who canceled an appearance on CNN with the genial Larry King because one of his staff members was asked hard questions?

Or Obama, who has the guts to appear on the O'Reilly Factor tomorrow?

I know it isn't going to happen - but I can't stop hoping that George W. Bush shares the fate of Sadaam Hussein and ends up hanging by a rope in the gallows.

After listening to him say we HAD to elect John McCain to "protect America" (insinuating that Barack Obama won't) only intensifies my hope that someday he will pay for his crimes.  And I can only hope after the death and destruction he's caused, along with the rape and murder of our most treasured rights that a court finds him guilty and he's executed for his crimes.

NOW - I'm not threatening the "President" - nor am I encouraging anyone else to take the law into their own hands.  you see - our side still values the rule of law.  And although we know it's highly unlikely - we can always dream.  Dream of his lifeless corpse dangling from the end of a rope while the World heals.

What will the good Reverend James Dobson say now to make excuses for the parenting skills of the Palins? 

Pictures of her drinking, tongue kissing other girls and hanging out with her boyfriend toting guns.  It's a white trash dream come true!!!

THIS NEEDS TO BE BROUGHT OUT!!

http://www.stupidsheeple.com/index.php/2008090140/latest/bristol-palin-gone-wild.html

http://perezhilton.com/2008-09-02-what-did-her-mom-do-wrong

"Although it is widely thought to be a secessionist movement, the Party
makes great effort to emphasize that its primary goal is merely a vote
on secession, something that Party advocates say Alaskans were denied
during the founding of the state."
----University of California's Political Science Encyclopedia.

quoted from akip.org, the AIP's official website

"Goals:

The Alaskan Independence Party's goal is the vote we
were entitled to in 1958, one choice from among the following four
alternatives:

1) Remain a Territory.

2) Become a separate and Independent Nation.

3) Accept Commonwealth status.

4) Become a State."

"Platform

We pledge to exert our best efforts to accomplish the following:

 

1. To effect full compliance with the constitutions of the United States of America and the State of Alaska. ..."

The Lost Chance of 1989
Part I - Video

NOTE: This is part I of a two part movie.

http://larouchepac.com/media/2008/08/26/1989-video-low.html

On September 3, the second conference of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, whose fundamental purpose is to create the conditions for legalizing illegal drugs worldwide, will be held in Bogota, Colombia. This Commission has been financed by George Soros, mega-speculator and economic hit-man for the British Empire.

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/09/02/stop-soros-and-british-project-legalize-drugs.html

Seashell et al:

Whether there was an affirmative state action to increase danger to a person per section 1983 depends on all the facts, which we don't have, because the investigation's not done.

That said, with the allegation that the governor's family was threatened by a state trooper in the context of an ugly divorce, there ought to at least have been an internal inquiry. If it came down to a he-said-she-said deal, we know why the commissioner didn't fire Wooten. We don't know if the commissioner did anything else, i.e. time off, anger mgt., counseling or whatever; or if there were notes collected to give him more to go on in that process.

It would have been an affirmative action by the commissioner to have investigated, but negligently investigated the trooper. Not that this happened, but if so, and credible witnesses say Wooten threatened the Palins, clearing the fellow could be the affirmative act to increase the danger to the threatened parties since no further intervention can be had if an negligent investigation clears a troubled officer.

Another issue would be trends. Were other officers covered for scary domestic behaviors? LAPD has had cases of officers threatening / killing estranged spouses and their paramours. Some have alleged that the danger signs were negligently or fraudulently investigated as a favor to the blue brothers.

OTOH, Wooten may be good as gold and may have endured much injustice. That ought to come out in the wash too.

As has been my mantra about these things, without a full, unbiased outside agency investigative result on the quality of any commissioner inquiry and surrounding circumstances, we just don't know. To call it a "scandal" without that information is "prejudicial." And because this is a pro-Dem website and she's a GOP'er, some folks too easily line up behind the prejudice.

What is missing from the analysis is the reality that what we are witnessing is not the selection of a Vice President,  we are witnessing the CASTING of a Vice President for the new fall TV Drama "The McCains."
Think about it for a minute.  The show goes something like this, cue the 70's night time serial drama music.
First, see this photo from People Magazine:
http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2008/news/080908/sarah_palin4400.jpg

Grampa John McCain war hero and patriarch of the family.Cindy McCain the perfect 60's TV wife, complete with pearl necklace.
Sarah Palin the woman who can do it and her adorable family with enough dramatic subplots to keep the first season of the show full. 
It is marketing, and it just might work.  I'd like to know which Hollywood casting agency came up with this.  Because it is a potential 8 season run.  With the optional spin off show about the first woman president "Sarah's Way"
America has grown tired of watching J.R. and Dallas, so now it is time to try Dynasty.

Just wondering: was George Bush's address to the RNC from the White House illegal?



A fact page by the Office of Special Council says:



"The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of executive branch
employees of the federal government...These federal and D.C. employees
may not...engage in political activity while...in a government office."



Is Bush an executive branch employee?

Just wondering: was George Bush's address to the RNC from the White House illegal?

A fact page by the Office of Special Council says:

"The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of executive branch employees of the federal government...These federal and D.C. employees may not...engage in political activity while...in a government office."

Is Bush an executive branch employee?

If not, is there some other law that enjoins him from using the White House as a prop in a speech at a party convention?

Just wondering: was George Bush's address to the RNC from the White House illegal?

A fact page by the Office of Special Council says:

"The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of executive branch employees of the federal government...These federal and D.C. employees may not...engage in political activity while...in a government office."

Is Bush an executive branch employee?

If not, is there some other law that enjoins him from using the White House as a prop in a speech at a party convention?

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_help.html


Excerpt:

ST. PAUL -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican
vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old
daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to
slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a
place to live.

After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she opposed. Inking her initials on the legislation -- "SP" -- Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers.

Today, the Log Cabin Republicans endorsed McCain with this statement:

 “On
the most important issue (sic) that LGBT Americans faced in the last
decade—the federal marriage amendment—Sen. John McCain stood with us.  Now we stand with him,” said Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Sammon.  “Sen. McCain is an inclusive Republican who is focusing the GOP on unifying core principles that appeal to independent voters.”

http://online.logcabin.org/news_views/reading-room-back-up/log-cabin-endorses-sen-john.html

And here's what McCain actually said (according to CNN):

"The constitutional amendment
we're debating today strikes me as antithetical in every way to the
core philosophy of Republicans," McCain said. "It usurps from the
states a fundamental authority they have always possessed and imposes a
federal remedy for a problem that most states do not believe confronts
them."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/14/mccain.marriage/

Delusional?

McCain camp seems unable to defend Palin and are now resorting to shooting the messenger.  They just cancelled the interview with McCain on Larry King tonight.  They didn't like the questionsCampbell Brown asked last night.Palin exploited her daughter and are now trying to turn the tables..this is the smallest of their problems for this unqualfied unvetted candidate.

Sarah Palin’s adoption of the mantel of reformer has come at convenient turning points in her career.

Folks:

Aren't the Far Right Fundies, such as Sarah Palin, always telling us that life is sacred, and that each child is created by God.

That being the case; then why are they now saying: Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter just made a mistake!

Think about that a moment. Those that are always claiming that the words and actions of God are supreme, are now telling us that when Bristol Palin became pregnant, she just made a mistake.

Which is it; God created this baby, or was it just the mistake of a teenager.

Do you see the doublespeak that those sanctimonious lunatics try to pass off as divinely inspired wisdom!

Is there anyone out there who is posting anything about Obama lately?  I think we've fallen into the GOP trap of talking about nothing but McCain's idiotic pick for Veep.

Here's Obama speaking on the need for rebuilding cities.  He understands what it will take to rebuild our flailing economy. This man oozes leadership, knowledge and understanding in every syllable.

Here's Obama speaking in Milwaukee.  Some is a repeat from his acceptance speech, but listen to what he has to say about unions and America.  It is something we need to never forget.

Americablog questions the GOP determination to not just overturn Roe v. Wade, but Griswold v. Connecticut.  Women, how would you like to go back to the day when you could not get contraceptives?  We never hear of the Griswald decision.  Wake up, ladies!

It seems the media is finally waking up.  Check out the assortment of media outlets who are finally asking questions of McCain and his surrogates.

As to the polls:  It looks like Obama is up nationwide.

And if you want to read the funniest bit of satire I have seen of late, check this out.

And in case you need reminding of how terrifying it could be should McCain get elected, watch this!

How about we start spreading some Obama love again?  I have had enough of Palin to last me until she drops out.  This election is too important to let someone who is clearly unable to not just lead but make any kind of important decisions surrounding US take this election.

GoBama/Biden 08!
Sweet Home AlObama!
BaRack the Vote!

Who has the Bush administration hired to make sure our voting rights aren't violated on Election Day?

Meet Hans Von Spakovsky, a key player in the right-wing vote-suppression agenda.

When
he was supposed to be ensuring the voting rights of minorities as a
member of the voting rights section at the Justice Department,
Spakovsky instead used his position to promote voter ID laws. When Republican officials were accused of discriminating against Native American voters, he allegedly hindered the investigation. When it came time to interpret the Help America Vote Act, he opted for a policy that would "keep eligible citizens off the voting rolls for typos and other mistakes by election officials."

Oh
yeah, and he's also a key figure in the congressional investigation of
hiring and firing government attorneys on the basis of political
affiliation.

President Bush and Spakovsky recently gave up their
fight to win a seat for him on the Federal Election Commission. Now the
administration's Commission on Civil Rights has found a spot for him.
His job duties: Determining if election "irregularities" violate our
civil rights.

When it comes to finding a fox to guard the
henhouse, nobody does it quite like the Bush administration. And with
the conventions and candidates stealing most of the spotlight these
days, things could get worse.

Can we get this guy fired before
he does any more harm? I honestly don't know. But we can sure as hell
try, and at least let them know we're watching. Click here.

Is there anyone out there who is posting anything about Obama lately?  I think we've fallen into the GOP trap of talking about McCain's idiotic pick for Veep.

Here's Obama speaking on the need for rebuilding cities.  He understands what it will take to rebuild our flailing economy. This man oozes leadership, knowledge and understanding in every syllable.

Here's Obama speaking in Milwaukee.  Some is a repeat from his acceptance speech, but listen to what he has to say about unions and America.  It is something we need to never forget.

Americablog questions the GOP determination to not just overturn Roe v. Wade, but Griswald v. Connecticut.  Women, how would you like to go back to the day when you could not get contraceptives?  We never hear of the Griswald decision.  Wake up, ladies!

It seems the media is finally waking up.  Check out the assortment of media outlets who are finally asking questions of McCain and his surrogates. 

As to the polls:  It looks like Obama is up nationwide.

And if you want to read the funniest bit of satire I have seen of late, check this out. 

How about we start spreading some Obama love again?  I have had enough of Palin to last me until she drops out.  This election is too important to let someone who is clearly unable to not just lead but make any kind of important decisions surrounding US take this election. 

GoBama/Biden 08!
Sweet Home AlObama!
BaRack the Vote!

Mc cain thought he had a ace up his sleeves, but it turned out he was asleep at the switch. Now he has an albatross around his neck and every day she adds fuel to the fire. Now mc cain is between the devil and the deep blue sea, between a rock and a hard place so now he has to bite the bullet and go back to square one.

 

mc cain you bought a pig in a poke, and you are hanging on by the skin of your teeth, the handwriting is on the wall, you tried to make a silk purse of of a sow's ear.

 

when you play with fire mr mc cain you will get burned. this is just the tip of the iceberg. so we are waiting for the other shoes to drop

In the eyes of some, the public function of black intellectuals has changed from speaking truth to power to turning away from the kind of social justice activism that was the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Houston A. Baker, Jr., Distinguished University Professor at Vanderbilt University, has turned his critical eyes on this transformation in his book Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era (Columbia University Press, 2008).

Baker looks across the spectrum of black intellectualism—left, right, and center. One of the founders of Black Studies, forty years ago, we talked about the role of black intellectuals, the good, bad and the ugly. We spoke days before Barack Obama accepted the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s heralded speech at the 1963 March on Washington. Below is an edited version of our conversation.


Norman Kelley: Your book echoes Julian Benda’s “The Treason of the Intellectuals” (Les Trahison des Clercs). Benda argued that intellectuals of his era­–the modern era–were increasingly responsible for inflaming the passions of nationalism, racism, and war. He wrote: “Now, at the end of the nineteenth century a fundamental change had occurred: the “clerks” [his word for intellectuals] began to play the game of political passions. The men who had acted as a check on the realism of the people began to act as it stimulators.”

If I understand you correctly, your book pivots off his central thesis but in a different direction. You see a betrayal in black intellectuals not fulfilling their public intellectual role.

Houston Baker: That’s right. I had a section in an earlier draft of the manuscript that addressed the treatment of the “clercs” directly, and I remember saying that at least a direct reversal, a mirror image. I remember saying that the situation would find the intellectual outside the grand salon, the dining table that uses them in a public way. While in the present economy black intellectuals are invited to the grand salon and are asked to sit down at the table, and discuss the next issue of neoconservative declaration of bad black behavior. It’s kind of astonishing from a perspective of intellectual history.

Kelley: Now, you cited Martin Luther King as the model of an engaged black public intellectual while most people would see him as a moralistic preacher rather than as a public intellectual, although he did write books.

Baker: Historically, one of the chief institutions of the black public sphere has been the church. I would use an example of an engaging analysis of the public sphere Du Bois’s essay in The Souls of Black Folk, “The Faith of the Fathers.” Du Bois’s claim—well, he doesn’t say it directly but it’s true—because black folks are excluded from politics, from the social policy of the country that suppose to be their native land, he kind of sees that they have had to develop a microcosm within the church and the development of spirituals. So, King’s legacy, heritage, geneology, through generations of black preachers is the start of his unconscious and conscious engagement; made to go to youth groups and prayer meetings during the week; being the preacher’s son.

That would be the beginning of the engagement, and then the other institution, which has fallen upon hard times in many instances but was glorious at the time that King was coming along, would be historically black colleges and universities; his Morehouse years in Atlanta; his father the preacher of the church. I would say his formative years found him in a black public sphere because of segregation through housing. The move into Montgomery, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church would not have been, I think, at all disconcerting to King. This is all speculation, but it would have been seen as a destination church, a destination city, a destination region in the South.

What was unknown to him when he moved in Montgomery was the long history of building a counter public sphere, a black resistance movement, a black liberation impulse that was there and that was rolling through a middle age generation, and I use the middle age advisedly, of Rosa Parks. Bourgeois, wonderfully situated in Montgomery, and as they would say, “You are the chosen one. You are chosen to lead us: you got the look, you got the education, you got the eloquence to do it.”

And I think what was astonishing the kind of background, formative work in the public sphere, the kind of coming together of the public sphere, the ideology, the population, the demographics, the social interconnections of Montgomery; it was an almost natural, organic connection that took place between King and “the people,” although King considered himself one of the people. He was empathetic; he had compassion to go with it.

I have to say people have said this to me, and quite rightly, how can you use King as a model? Those are shoes no one can fill and we have moved temporally to a different plane completely unlike what was going on at the time when he assumed a leadership role. That is true, but as you have pointed out in your book the fact that Leo Strauss as quirky and dead has not stopped Harvey Mansfield from trying to be Strauss. The model is there. You are required to do your own kind of spatial-temporal adjustment. What is critical is that King was so engaged through his entire life that he realized that the stake was his life. “This is really dangerous work, my house has been bombed. I’ve been thrown into jail. I’ve been hit with bricks and so forth.” He’s engagement was full tilt. He lived his life in the midst of American violence, contrarianism. And as you have said, he wrote books.

Kelley: I’ve often mused to myself how things might have been different if he had taken some time off after 1965 or 1968, to think things through. He kept doing the same things he had been doing for the last thirteen years.

Baker: …Even had King delivered on bringing people into the purview of the community, with an effective strategy, it still would have been comprador, brokerage kind of politics. People also have to keep in mind the John Henry syndrome….King was clinically depressed; he was a sick, ill man. People said that he was muttering to himself; all the sexual activity going on; now he’s coming out with all these radical statements… I guess this is particularly true with men in general and specifically with black men. How many of us would admit that we are in therapy and medication?

Kelley: With King as that model—as an engaged black public intellectual-- what is the role of today’s black intelligentsia?

Baker: I think a person like Angela Davis is amazing. The fact that she is not on television all the time is understandable. The fact that she doesn’t get op-ed New York Times pieces is understandable. I think it was Z magazine some fifteen years ago, in an article by Ed Hermann, had counted up—and I’m going to be broad here—the neoconservative spokespersons’ op-ed as seventy, and then he looked over specifically at Cornel West and Manning Marable and they were, like, five [articles] in the same period of time. So we know we have a closed media, but never the less when Angela shows up it’s always SRO; it’s always a mixed audience of people. For example, sons, daughters, uncles, aunts in the prison-industrial complex. It’s scholars; it’s community organizers. I think she’s an example of somebody who has decided “This is what my life is going to be dedicated to.”

I think of Lani Guinier working out of Harvard Law School, and with her father working out of Harvard; it was a generational thing. He was the first director of Afro-American studies there. So, here’s Lani in combination with Charles Ogletree and Henry Louis Gates situated at the pyramid of the academy saying, “I’m sorry, How are you guys counting the black population here? Shouldn’t we think whether or not that the people who you are calling black or Afro American here were slaves or whose grandfathers had been slaves?” Let’s break the statistics down. I’m sorry, but shouldn’t we be talking of insurance companies and their complicity in slavery and see if we can find a way to do a class action suit, which replicated what [President] Ruth Simmons of Brown [University] did. I think the eradication and identification of social amnesia, which America takes great pleasure in, is a function of the contemporary, productive, dedicated and committed black intelligentsia.

[If interested in reading the full interview, go to http://www.devilsadvocatedivision.blogspot.com/]

McCain selected a far right wing VP  to appeal to and excite his base,  knowing that Palin is a member of a far right group with a goal to put Alaska first and possibly exit our great Union of States and that she had a teenage daughter who is pregnant.

I agree with Senator Obama that the daughter issue is out of bounds and her prIvacy should be respected--- but I only ask the question : what if it was Obama's daughter who was a teenager and was having a child out of wedlock. Would the right wing zealots and Mr. Dobson support Obama or would the discourse be different.

Likewise, what if Obama was a member of a fringe political party  that wanted to separate from the United States before he was a Democrat. Would the Republican Zealots give him credit for being independent minded or would they consider his past affiliation as UN AMERICAN .

I think we all know the answer to the above questions.

Clearly , Senator McCains selection of Governor Palin was a rash and unwise decision based on Politics not governance. We have had that same decision making criteria for 8 years. ENOUGH !

John McCain selected his running mate based, he told us, on the notion that he wanted someone by his side who shared his staunchly conservative views about abortion, the "family values" of sex education, contraception, gay marriage. He believes that Roe v. Wade should be repealed. He believes that "activist" judges should not be legislating from the bench and that there should be a litmus test for new Supreme Court justices applied. That test: "Where do you stand on Roe v. Wade? Will you repeal it? All of it?"

McCain tells us he picked Sarah Palin because she hews closely to his views -- on some even surpassing McCain (preferring to force women or girls who are the victims of rape or incest to bear any child that might be conceived as a result of that vile union, and disallowing all abortions unless a doctor determines that the mother's life is in danger) -- and we see that firing up his conservative base is more important than the quality of leadership his running mate would bring to the Oval office.

Much brow-furrowing and breast-beating has occured over the last few days because of the revelation that Palin's unmarried 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant. What the Palin and Johnston families decide to do with their soon-to-be teenage parents is a private decision.

However, Sarah Palin is not just any parent. She is the sitting Governor of Alaska and pending vice-presidential nominee of the Republican party. She would have a pivotal role (if elected) in drafting policy and legislation, selecting federal judges and Justices and impacting the debate on the so-called "family values" issues.

That Sarah Palin has a Down's Syndrome baby and chose to continue the pregnancy after she found out is only relevant to the point that she was able to exercise one of many options available to her.
That her teenager has chosen to keep the baby is only relevant in that she, too, was able to exercise one of the many options available to her, with the support of her parents.

But where a private family matter because part of the public discourse is at the same point where Sarah Palin's private views as a mother cross the line into her public policy and political positions.

Sarah Palin, the politician, does not support comprehensive or "explicit" sex education in public schools. That decision affects not just Sarah Palin's children, but the children of all of her constituents -- Alaskan and possibly federal. She holds this view in spite of empirical evidence from studies done across the country that demonstrates abstinence-only education is a failure.
 
Sarah Palin, the politician, does not believe that contraceptives (including condoms) and education about contraception should be available to teenagers in their schools. Those programs help to reduce the transmission of sexually-transmitted diseases and reduce unwanted teen pregnancies.

Sarah Palin, the politician, is fiercely anti-abortion. She does not believe that women or girls who are raped or who are the victims of incest should have access to emergency contraceptives like the morning after pill, Plan B (Levonorgestrel), or first  trimester abortifacients like RU-486 (Mifepristone), or standard "surgical" abortion.

Here is where the matter of "choice" comes into play: Sarah Palin, the politician, would deny to persons who do not agree with her views, the options to resolve an unwanted pregnancy dilemma for themselves or their daughters, that she, Sarah Palin, the mother, has been able to select for herself and her daughter.

Sarah Palin says she and her daughter "chose" life. Fine. When each of them made that "choice," they had the opportunity to choose other legal means to terminate their pregnancies had that been what they desired.

But Palin seeks to remove all of those legal means, and restrict access to information to teens -- even with their parents' consent. In Palin's ideal conservative world, you and I would not be allowed the opportunity to "choose" from among the same options. That is imposition, that is mandate, that is force. If you or I decided we did not want to bear a child, in Palin's world we would have no choice. Grin and bear it? I think not.

The issue -- and there is a political issue here -- is providing women -- and teens -- in or vulnerable to "crisis pregnancies" (to use Gary Bauer's words) options other than having her baby.

It is amazing how in the story of Palin being investigated for abuse of power in firing the state public safety commisioner for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper, CNN confirmed slipped through the cracks and the big news seems to be that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant. 
What is the real issue that voters should be concerned about in the election?  Another abuse of power or another teenage pregnancy?

Alaska is reputed to be the most tax friendly state in the nation.

The Town of Wasilla reports a town budget for both FY07 and FY08 in the range of 13M. The town was also the recipient of 26M in earmarks from Congress.

This would lead one to conclude that perhaps all the remaining states are essentially paying for Alaska. Supposedly local sales tax and property tax makes up for the difference in the way Alaska levies taxes. However I suspect there is something fishy about the overall strategy of taxation. If what we see here is typical there is little doubt that a disproportionate number of taxpayer dollars goes to the state of Alaska while state and local taxes are notably less than many states in the lower 48.

We all know there is no free lunch and in the end somebody pays. In the case of Alaska it would appear that maybe residents in the lower 48 are the payees.
 
And what would happen to all the revenue generated if drilling were opened up in those areas that are currently under dispute. If Alaska is such an attractive economic climate for energy production (drilling) then there better be a comensurate modification of distribution of federal dollars were that to occur. Or is this just another scam like so many others when it comes to the production of petro products. 

Bailey said he'd heard at a security briefing right after Palin was elected that Wooten had made a threat against Palin's family. He said he also had casual conversations with Todd

Palin about the trooper. Bailey said Todd had expressed "general frustration with the situation" but never asked him to do anything about it.

"My fear was (Wooten) could fly off the handle and do something that was irreversible," Bailey said. "That concern, that fear, has always been in the back of my mind."

--Anchorage Daily News quoting Palin's Chief of Staff.

Some illustrative links on Danger Creation:

http://ca10.washburnlaw.edu/cases/2002/10/01-1053.htm

http://federalism.typepad.com/crime_federalism/affirmative_duty_danger_creation_and_custodial_settings/index.html

TPTB have told us to back off Palin.  Now I see the office is betting how long she has.  So I guess it's time to behave.  I keep thinking of Jack Nicholson smacking Faye Dunnaway, "My sister! My daughter! My sister! My daughter!"  I am getting dizzy.

I didn't realize we had the power to wish her into the cornfield.  I am not ready to see her go!

First, I want to see the ad...

"It's 3 am.  The phone rings.  "Ms. Vice President the president is dead...."

or

"It's 3 am.  Do you know where your children are?"

On the other hand, it will make room for the McCain is a flip flopper ads.   Afterall, if he can flip flop on his soulmate (he did say, "soulmate,"  right?  Republicans get away with everything) what we can we trust him to stand behind?

Since we're averaging one disclosure every three hours, who knows what tommorrow brings.  I can't wait.  Let's not blow this one, people.

Oh, sorry, I almost forgot.  We're better than that.

Lots of questions and bewilderment about why John McCain would pick such an inexperienced running mate.

 Keep in mind what you already have learned about Sarah Palin. McCain says he knew about her pregnant daughter.

There is the ongoing investigation of Troopergate.

She recently said that she did not have any idea what the Vice President actually does.

She has no foreign policy experience.

She has never been interviewed on Meet the Press.

She has never been in a national primary debate.

All sounds like a very high risk pick, so why would McCain do it?

It just might be because of John McCain's temperament. He is known to be a man who angers easily,  and holds a grudge.

Now, think back to who savaged him during the primary season of 2000. That is correct; it was The Republican Ayatollahs!

Now
we leap forward to 2008. John McCain won the nomination of his party
despite the best efforts of the Republican Ayatollahs to defeat him.
They rallied around Huckabee, and even a Mormon, all in an effort to
stop McCain, but he bested them.

Now we come to the first huge decision he has to make, as the potential future president; the picking of a running mate.

In recent days it has become known, even McCain aides have leaked, that he wanted to pick Joe Lieberman.

Then all hell was raised against Lieberman by those self same Republican Ayatollahs, and they forced McCain to drop Lieberman.

You
know that this had to be the last straw for McCain. He had to be
furious at those Ayatollahs; so how does he get his revenge.

How; by sabotaging their entire Christo-Fascist surge,  by selecting the
most incompetent, an unqualified ninny  from the Ayatollah's list of
approved candidates.

Think about it. Sarah Palin is McCain's
revenge on The Ayatollahs. They would not allow him to pick his own
running mate, so he decided that he was going to pick Sarah,  knowing
full well that she had skeletons in her log cabin, that were going to
come out.

McCain may have realized that he could not win with or
without The Ayatollahs, but since they were never with him, he might as
well pick poison pill Sarah, and deal a massive blow to the future
influnce of  The Ayatollahs on the Republican party.

Food
for thought. It is the only thing that makes sense to me, since McCain
had actually picked someone else, and was prevented from keeping that
person by The Ayatollahs.

McCain may have said to himself; all
right you sanctimonious clueless bastards,  since you are taking me
down,  I am going to to take you under with me.

Opening: Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain embracing at the announcement of her as his running-mate with the quote: "She's a partner and a soulmate," playing over the picture.

Romantic haze transition to 2000 McCain campaign picture. Narrator says, "a true believer, she's always been there for him." Then que the scratched record sound and cut to a picture of Pat Buchanan in 2000 and the quote from a 1999 AP report in the middle of the screen reading: "Among those sporting Buchanan buttons [was] Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin."

Narrarator says, "but then Governor Palin came to her senses in 2008, during -" and que the second playing of the scratched record and cut to a photo of Mitt Romney with the text: "Palin had yet to endorse McCain - She liked Mitt Romey." at the bottom.

Then cut to a picture of Gov. Palin sporting an "I guess" kind of look on her face while Narrator says, "then again, they say that the third time's the charm!"

July 15, 2008 (LPAC)--LaRouchePAC has completed production of "George Soros: The British Agent Destroying the Democratic Party"

http://www.larouchepac.com/george-soros

Journalist Amy Goodman has been arrested in St. Paul, Minnesota. Watch the video at my Huffington Post article. (I normally wouldn't redirect away from TPM, but I could not post the You-Tube video here.)

Her arrest comes amid accusations of police brutality in St. Paul. I-Witness founder Eileen Clancy was arrested and detained last Saturday by the police in an apparent preemptive arrest. Clancy states she and her team were surrounded in the house they were staying at in St. Paul before they had the chance to video tape any protests.

The police handcuffed Clancy and her team and claimed they were waiting for their search warrant. The officers were armed and at least one police offer was carrying an M-16, Clancy wrote in her blog.

In addition to preemptive arrests, the police are responding aggressively to the presence of protesters. New video is appearing on YouTube of protesters being tear-gassed by the police (video available at the Huffington Post link.)

Mayor Chris Coleman can be contacted at: 651-266-8510 or email him instead:
https://mn-stpaul.civicplus.com/forms.asp?FID=69

Governor Tim Pawlenty can be reached at: (651) 296-3391 or e-mailed at tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us

 

 

Released August 30, 2008 -- We apologize for the tardy release of this report. A much more up-to-date release will be coming soon.

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/08/30/jeff-steinbergs-weekly-political-overview.html

An open suggestion for a TV spot:
Opening: Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain embracing at the announcement of her as his running-mate with the quote: "She's a partner and a soulmate," playing over the picture.
Romantic haze transition to 2000 McCain campaign picture. Narrator says, "a true believer, she's always been there for him." Then que the scratched record sound and cut to a picture of Pat Buchanan in 2000 and the quote from a 1999 AP report in the middle of the screen reading: "Among those sporting Buchanan buttons [was] Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin."
Narrarator says, "but then Governor Palin came to her senses in 2008, during -" and que the second playing of the scratched record and cut to a photo of Mitt Romney with the text: "Palin had yet to endorse McCain - She liked Mitt Romey." at the bottom.
Then cut to a picture of Gov. Palin sporting an "I guess" kind of look on her face while Narrator says, "then again, they say that the third time's the charm!"
The Captainhttp://www.MissionExposition.com

How sad it is that the once esteemed Associated Press had to release a set of talking points concerning their Washington Bureau Chief, Ron Fournier and his transparent bias towards John McCain.

MoveOn and ,Media Matters, along with many blogs, have been outraged by the AP branch of the McCain campaign for months.  Emails and letters have been sent to various AP higher-ups, and apparently it is sinking in that their reading public are sick of the tactics they have taken.

In response, Ellen Hale, from the AP Corporate Communication department, issued the following:

Chiefs, RVPs, APME:


As many of you know, some political groups and left-leaning blogs have
aligned to organize a newspaper letter-writing campaign against AP
Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier. The campaign started this weekend
with an email writing push aimed at Kathleen Carroll and Mike Oreskes,
but has now moved on to urge newspaper readers to write their local
editors. Below you will find some talking points to help guide you as
this issue plays out. Please feel free to use them in talking with
editors and readers and forward to other AP staff you think might find
them useful. In addition, later this week, Corporate Communications
will go live with a robust new Elections page on ap.org that will
provide some real estate to deal with these issues. It will highlight
our Elections Team, include an archive of Ron's political analyses as
well as those of other AP journalists and also have a FAQ that expands
on the talking points below. This will be in addition to the elections
and vote count background we normally post on the site.


Ellen Hale

Corporate Communications


AP Elections Coverage Talking Points


For Internal use only by Bureau Chiefs, RVPs, APMC By way of
background, the campaign started after Ron wrote an analysis piece
about Barack Obama's choice of Joe Biden for a running mate. The
original headline on the piece, which was labeled an analysis, read:


Biden pick shows lack of confidence. The analysis was similar in
perspective, tone and content to what other journalists for major news
organizations were writing or saying. Some of the same blogs now are
also picking up the drumbeat of dissatisfaction with AP that some
members have been voicing with the roll-out of Member choice,
encouraging readers to write letters against AP in general. In doing so
they grossly misrepresent AP in many areas, including how much AP
content is contributed by members. For the record, member content
comprises less than two percent of AP national and international
content -- the slice that is found on Yahoo, Google and other portals.


This small fraction usually involved a scoop which is credited to the
member paper. On the AP State Wire, which is not distributed beyond
members, about 45 percent of stories come from members.


AP has what arguably are the strict ethics and news values policies in
the industry. They are closely monitored and adhered to. These
guidelines lay out in great detail that AP reporters and editors must
avoid any political activity, whether they cover politics or not. AP
journalists may not perform any kind of work for politicians and may
not donate money to political organizations or campaigns, or any other
organizations that take political positions. They must avoid any
activity or behavior that constitutes a conflict of interest. You can
refer anyone to The Associated Press Statement of New Values and
Principles at http://www.ap.org/newsvalues/index.html.


In addition, it may be important to remind members that The Associated
Press has a long and continuing legacy of aggressively but fairly
reporting on how government and politicians serve the people who elect
them, regardless of political affiliation. AP fought to win the
identities of those held at Guantanamo Bay detention center, for
example, and Ron Fournier's own coverage in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina was extremely critical of the GOP Bush Administration.


To help you deal with questions that may arise as a result of the
ongoing issues, here is some background and also what we've publicly
said. You can use these in public responses to queries --Ron Fournier
started in political reporting in Little Rock, Ark., covering Bill
Clinton, who was governor at the time. He covered Clinton's
presidential campaign and moved to Washington in 1993, where he spent
13 years covering politics and the White House. He has a strong
reputation among his peers for honesty and even-handedness. In 2000,
Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz described Fournier as one of
the "most dogged shoe-leather scribes around," but one who "avoids the
spotlight himself." Fournier was AP's chief political writer when he
left in 2006 to edit Hotsoup.com, a site that was founded by a
bipartisan group of prominent political strategists. He returned to AP
the following year as online political editor, charged with developing
new approaches to AP's online political and election coverage and to
lead new coverage on accountability and governing. He was named acting
bureau chief in May and bureau chief on Aug. 1.


--The dual rule of AP Washington Bureau Chief and political writer has
long roots in AP history, as well as that of other Washington bureaus.
Walter Mears, who won a Pulitzer for his 1976 presidential coverage,
served in both capacities from 1977 to 1984. As bureau chief he
continued to write news copy, usually analytical pieces. Likewise,
other leading news organizations have often had their bureau chiefs
serve in both capacities.


--The blogs and political organizations have made much of an email from
Ron to Karl Rove that surfaced soon after Ron was named acting bureau
chief, and which involved the death of Pat Tillman. The email exchange
between Ron and Rove occurred in 2004, while Ron was a correspondent
for AP -- long before he was named bureau chief. Ron has widely
publicly said that the tone of the email was unfortunate, but that the
contact with Rove was in the pursuit of a story. Ron has written both
columns and articles that are critical of Rove. Here's what Ron said
publicly about the email: "I was an AP political reporter at the time
of the 2004 e-mail exchange, and was interacting with a source, a top
aide to the president, in the course of following an important and
compelling story. I regret the breezy nature of the correspondence."


--Blogs also have made much of Ron's discussions with the McCain
campaign regarding a position in it. These discussions occurred before
Ron returned to AP. he also was considered for employment by
Politico.com, the blog. Here's what AP said about it, and what we
continue to say in response to queries: "It is not uncommon for
journalists to be approached by political campaigns, elected officials
and government agencies about possible job opportunities. Ron Fournier
was approached by the McCain campaign and turned them down, months
before he rejoined AP in March of 2007." (Paul Colford, Corporate
Communications) The McCain campaign has made it clear that Ron was not
interested in the position and that they never had any idea of his
political leanings.


--It also has been claimed that Ron has a conflict of interest because
he is listed as a possible speaker for a speakers' agency. When Ron
left AP, in 2006 to edit a Web site, he was briefly listed with an
agency as part of a speaker's tour to publicize a book he had written.
This is routine practice for anyone who has written a book. He has not
been involved with any speaking agency since before he returned to
AP.The listings are outdated, and were to have been taken down by the
agency but were not.

Is it just me, or are these seriously weak talking points? 

What do you think?

Visit TheZoo for your daily  dose of politics and social commentary.

I totally disagree with people who want to give Sarah Palin a pass on daughter Bristol's pregnancy.

 

First, to reverse Clauswitz and trump Kumbaya, in modern America, politics is war by other means. After you win an election you can think about changing that. And, it has been that way to some degree with both parties. The Slickster had the War Room, after all.

 

Second, Palin brought up her preggers daughter on her own, indicating she’s gun-shy on this issue.

 

Third, the GOP has made disrespect for privacy a cornerstone for decades.

 

A smart Democratic presidential candidate, or whomever, would say something like this:

We will agree that Bristol Palin’s pregnancy should be a matter of Palin family privacy as soon as Sarah Palin individually and the Republican Party collectively agree that one’s personal sexual choices, personal reproductive choices, and personal video viewing choices for 300 million Americans should be a matter of their privacy.

Don’t hold your breath, though.

That said, if MoveOn hadn't agreed with Obama's request to stand down on 527 activities in the campaign, we'd already have this being tackled.

In any case, read my blog post for more on this
line of reasoning.

Lots of questions and bewilderment about why John McCain would pick such an inexperienced running mate.

 Keep in mind what you already have learned about Sarah Palin. McCain says he knew about her pregnant daughter.

There is the ongoing investigation of Troopergate.
She recently said that she did not have any idea what the Vice President actually does.
She has no foreign policy experience.
She has never been interviewed on Meet the Press.
She has never been in a national primary debate.

All sounds like a very high risk pick, so why would McCain do it?

It just might be because of John McCain's temperament. He is known to be a man who angers easily,  and holds a grudge.

Now, think back to who savaged him during the primary season of 2000. That is correct; it was The Republican Ayatollahs!

Now
we leap forward to 2008. John McCain won the nomination of his party
despite the best efforts of the Republican Ayatollahs to defeat him.
They rallied around Huckabee, and even a Mormon, all in an effort to
stop McCain, but he bested them.

Now we come to the first huge decision he has to make, as the potential future president; the picking of a running mate.

In recent days it has become known, even McCain aides have leaked, that he wanted to pick Joe Lieberman.
Then all hell was raised against Lieberman by those self same Republican Ayatollahs, and they forced McCain to drop Lieberman.

You
know that this had to be the last straw for McCain. He had to be
furious at those Ayatollahs; so how does he get his revenge.

Why
by sabotaging their entire Christo-Fascist surge,  by selecting the
most incompetent, and unqualified ninny  from the Ayatollah's list of
approved candidates.

Think about it. Sarah Palin is McCain's
revenge on The Ayatollahs. They would not allow him to pick his own
running mate, so he decided that he was going to pick Sarah,  knowing
full well that she had skeletons in her log cabin, that were going to
come out.

McCain may have realized that he could not win with or
without The Ayatollahs, but since they were never with him, he might as
well pick poison pill Sarah, and deal a massive blow to the future influence of the The Ayatollahs over the Republican party.

Food
for thought. It is the only thing that makes sense to me, since McCain
had actually picked someone else, and was prevented from keeping that
person by The Ayatollahs.

McCain may have said to himself; all
right you sanctimonious clueless bastards,  since you are taking me
down,  I am going to take you under with me.

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Palin: Hypocrite, Liar, Both?

By Marianne Ferris
- September 1, 2008, 7:53PM

Wouldn't a person preaching abstinance only in school have a moral obligation to rethink her position when she can't make it work in her own home?  This is where abstinance only leaves you.

Here's what really disturbs me.  The "internet rumors" about the baby Trig being Bristol's were not about Bristol, but about Sara Palin's honesty.  So Friday, she decides to accept the Veep nomination, and decides that Bristol's pregnancy is a private matter.  It's Monday, and all that changed over the weelend is the internet rumor. 

So apparently it's okay to air your daughter's condition, as long as it furthers your political career.

And it's way too convenient.  They did the math, and saying Bristol is 5 months preganant works out perfectly.  It makes it impossible for her to be Trig's mother, AND if this is a lie, and she isn't pregnant, or is very recently pregnant (pregnant again, and Trig's mother), none of this will play out until after the election.  

Remember, this is the party who brought us swiftboating and Iraq.  You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe there is no end to their lies.

And either way, it's a horrible thing to do to her daughter.  And perhaps, at the very least, if you want abstinance taught in school, and you have an unplanned pregnancy in your family, and you want your daughter's privacy respected, maybe you should just say no to being V.P. 

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Bristol's News

By Michael J. Drew
- September 1, 2008, 7:23PM

We are all happy for Miss Palin and congratulate her on her engagement.  Senator Obama's statement that candidates' families are not to be part of the political debate is a laudable position as well.  I believe no one intends to make Bristol Palin's situation a political issue, myself certainly included.
What must happen, however, is that serious questions be asked about Ms. Palin' readiness for the office she is a candidate for, and about how his selection of the Governor reflect on John McCain's judgment and readiness to lead.
Bristol Palin's pregnancy seriously undermines the notion that Gov. Palin is ready to take over as the first in line to the presidency. The Governor is the mother of an infant who will have special needs throughout childhood, and now we find out that another one of Bristol -- who is seventeen years old --is pregnant as well. Gov. Palin has a poor record of keeping personal and family matters separate from official duty, by which I refer to the firing of the AK public saftety commissioner. This record does not assure the public of Gov. Palin's ability to attend to the obligations she will face in the next four years in being a parent to both a child with special needs as well as to a teenager with an infant child of her own, AS WELL AS manage the rigors of the continuous preparation necessary to be ready at any moment to become the Commander in Chief of the U.S. military as well as the chief executive of the entire U.S. government.

If it is true that John McCain did know of the Bristol Palin pregnancy when he made his decision, this shows a stunning lack of seriousness about the real-world, post-election importance of the vice presidential selection. Conversely, if he was not aware, this only serves a further evidence of the minimal vetting Gov. Palin received before her selection. Either circumstance raises significant questions, despite his experience, about Sen. McCain's judgment and therefore to his claim to be 'ready to lead.'

These are legitimate questions about Senator McCain's judgement as well as Governor Palin's ability to serve in the office for which she will be nominated in two days.  Asking them does not turn the pregnancy into a political issue.  Rather, it raises necessary questions about John McCain's judgment and readiness to lead, as well as serious concern about leadership at the top of the U.S. government in the unlikely but possible event of Sen. McCain's election and quick incapacitation as President.
The press must not be intimidated by the Bill Bennetts among them into credulously neglecting these real questions, and should they be, the Obama campaign must not be afraid to raise them directly.  False charges of sexism or fear of undue politicization of candidates' family circumstances cannot be allowed to prevent a full examination of voters' legitimate concerns.

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President Sarah Palin?

By smcleod420
- September 1, 2008, 7:18PM

Thought you’d seen it all? In an evident attempt to steal the spotlight from the Democrats the day after their convention, and to engage that supposed crowd of disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters, John McCain announced his choice of Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his running mate, and  in so doing brought into spectacular doubt his allegiance to the national interests and demonstrated his evident contempt for the office to which he aspires, and for the country he so hypocritically purports to put “first.”  John McCain ought to be run out of town of a rail.  

It is not as a Democrat with partisan heat in my blood; it is as a citizen of this once proud republic that I say this choice is outrageous and it shows so many terrible and reckless things about John McCain and his judgment, his desperation,it would be fair to hope that the RNC might re-consider its options and refuse to nominate him this week. 

Sarah Palin has served as governor of Alaska, whose entire population (683,000) would fit nearly twice into the city of Dallas (1,213,825), for about 18 months.  Before that she was the mayor of a town whose population is less than 7,000 souls, and before that a sports reporter, a local - not even state-wide - beauty pageant winner, and reportedly a member of the PTA.  

Oh, and also, Governor Palin describes herself as a hockey mom.  

That’s it.  Such are the credentials of the person who John I’m-a-former-POW-how-dare-you-criticize-me McCain has proposed to be his running mate, proposed to be his next-in-line to the presidency.  

This is the person John McCain says would be capable of steering the ship of state, and of standing in as as commander in chief of the mighty and terrible armor of the United States!  John McCain turned 72 the same day he announced Palin’s nomination.  He said he forgot that it was his birthday.  Think about that.

Lest you put McCain to his own standard by protesting that Palin is inexperienced, hold the phone: She’s not inexperienced they say.  Her experience is “different” and, after all, unlike the Obama family, she’s a proper pro-life christian. Unlike Joe Biden’s decades in the Senate - Joe Biden! - Sara Palin’s bona fides, as described above, are sufficient to place her a heart-beat away from the presidency, because...?  And of course there’s that important PTA post.  Think of what lengths the McCain campaign will go to to twist this ridiculous woman into some kind of asset. Cindy McCain defended her lack of foreign policy experience by reminding us that Alaska is near Russia! 

Picture this: The President of the United States, John McCain  somehow becomes unable to govern.  Say he succumbs to one of his many health problems.  What happens to the football? For those who don’t know, the football is the Red Button.  The football is a device that, activated, immediately and irrevocably sends all of the U.S.’s strategic missiles, the ones carrying hydrogen bombs as payload, toward targets throughout the globe, wherever enemies of the United States reside and do not reside.  This device is carried wherever the President of the United States goes to insure a speedy response to nuclear peril.  

So now it’s President Sarah Palin who gets to make that decision.  This is perhaps the most insulting thing that has come out of this haughty and vicious crowd running John McCain these days, who are asking you to take a chance on the no matter how remote possibility that, in a national emergency, Sarah Palin might transform into, I don’t know, Hillary Clinton, should the moment arise.  Or Margaret Thatcher, Indira Ghandi, even Angela Merckel.  This woman’s name ought not even be mentioned  in the same sentence as these.  And yet John McCain wants you to place her next in line to the presidency.  Think about that.  

Apparently, to use his own fateful words, John McCain would rather win an election than act in his country’s interests.  Who’s the patriot now? Apparently John McCain has been listening to the psycho wing of the Republican party who want you to believe all kind of shocking fictions about Barack Obama, but most especially that unlike John McCain, Barack Obama has not shown himself to be a “man of honor.”  Apparently John McCain is living in bizarro-world, if not only in his mind.  This choice is so cynical, it should be universally condemned.  

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Leave Her Alone. Period.

By pickabone
- September 1, 2008, 7:13PM

When I first came across the Babygate diary post at DKos last night, I thought there was a legit story, but that the diarist should never have posted photos of the daughter (the pregnant one, I refuse to repeat her name).  It is the nightmare of all self-image nightmares to have the entire nation analyze the roundness of a sixteen year-old girl's mid-section.  Just icky and awful, in so many ways.

Now, we have the news that she couldn't have been pregnant then, because she's pregnant now.  Which completely ends the story.  The problematic behavior indicated by the original speculation was that the family made the daughter lie to cover up the "shame" of teenage sexual activity.  It would have indicated an archaic moral mindset whereby "fallen" girls were shipped off to convents to protect the family "honor."  Now that the family has revealed publicly that this same teenager, still unmarried, is pregnant, they have shown they do not follow this outmoded code of conduct. 

The argument that this story somehow reveals important information about the judgment of the VP candidate is akin to similar arguments about John Edwards and, yes, the big dog himself, Bill Clinton.  The GOP spent years arguing that Clinton's sexual behavior as President revealed a failure of character that spoke to his fitness to assess matters of public import.  It was a back-door argument that was easily refuted by Clinton's public record of sound judgment which gave us eight years of peace and prosperity.  Arguing that Babygate reveals shortcomings in McCain's and Palin's judgment is precisely the same back-door argument.  If Palin has formed reasonable positions on matters of foreign and domestic policy, then her decisions regarding the management of her own pregnancy or those of her daughter are completely irrelevant.  Just as Clinton's sexual dalliances were irrelevant to the performance of his public duties and obligations.

As to the politics behind the argument, there's nothing to be gained in the long run by stooping to their level.  It won't quash the conservative enthusiasm for her selection.  Evangelicals love nothing more than to forgive a repentant "sinner."  It allows them to combine feelings of superiority with offerings of purported charity.  I think the furthest this point can be taken is in Jake Tapper's question, "what would the right have done if Obama had a child in similar situation?"  But there isn't much to be gained there.  And I agree with Andrew Sullivan that the quickest way for this to be resolved is by releasing the candidate's medical records (which I thought was standard operating procedure), but that doesn't change my mind about the sancity of privacy in deciding matters of child-bearing. 

We'll have ample opportunity to examine Palin's quality as a potential VP.  She's a pork-loving pretender to the role of reformer.  She's a political ally of the uber-corrupt Ted Stevens.  She's a neophyte on foreign and national affairs.  She believes in Creationism, abstinence-only sex-education (which I detest regardless of her child's experience), and that the founders were still around when "under god" was added to the pledge of allegiance in the 1950s.  Her elevation comes out of a twin desire to poach Clinton supporters and stoke the ditto-head crowd (politics, strange bed-fellows, etc).  It shouldn't be that difficult to question her judgment, and the judgment of her benefactor at the top of the ticket.  Leave the children out of it.  Period.

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Todd Palin's DUI

By ReidBlog
- September 1, 2008, 7:10PM

It seems the evangelicals are doing their own, preemptive opposition research on the Palins:

.. the Palin family travails don’t stop at Bristo Palin’s pregnancy. Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella confirmed Monday that Todd Palin was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in 1986 when he was 22. Sarah and Todd Palin, who had been high school sweethearts, were dating at the time.

Sources close to Sarah Palin  told the Christian Broadcasting Network that Todd Palin has been “forthcoming about the situation and has indicated that it was a lesson learned from when he was younger.”

While Todd Palin's arrest has no bearing on the campaign, and he seems to be a perfectly lovely guy, one wonders whether any of the information pouring into the media came up during ... I don't know ... a proper vetting of the woman John McCain chose to place a skin cancer outbreak away from the presidency...

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Palin: America's Worst Elected Official?

By cowbellguy
- September 1, 2008, 7:03PM

Forget about whether or not Palin is qualified to be the VP.  One question comes to mind as her reputation seems to sink by the hour...

Is Sarah Palin the worst elected official currently in office at any level of government, anywhere in the US? 

How does she compare to any other candidates for that title?

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repubican values

By desh7
- September 1, 2008, 6:55PM

I don't care that Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant and I fully agree its a family matter.

But please be consistent. This republican says this matter is consistent with republican values. I think he should have clarified that its keeping the baby and not having the baby.

Check the video at http://community.adn.com/adn/blog/92203

I wonder about how harshly other people's private matter have been judged by the republican party in the past.

But Bristol Palin should be left alone. I feel sorry for her for being thrown into the spotlight by her mom.

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What is appropriate

By Sweet Buttery Jeebus
- September 1, 2008, 6:50PM

While everyone in the media is rightly saying that Bristol Palin's situa