"I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"To be quite inspiring.
I don't know Dan Quayle. But I hope that whatever golf course he's on, he's duly offended by the day's frequent comparisons between John McCain's frantic selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate and his own selection in 1988. Let's look at the record:posted by XQUZYPHYR at 9:45 AM on August 29, 2008 [12 favorites]
* Quayle: Two terms in the U.S. House, eight years in the U.S. Senate, representing a state of 6.5 million people.
* Palin: City council member and mayor of a town of 8,500 people, 20 months as governor of a state of 650,000 people.
No, Governor Palin, you're no Dan Quayle. Maybe in a few years.
Though McCain's a seasoned politician, when he strays from prepared speech, he can really stick his foot in his mouth.Heck, Biden can't give a prepared speech.
Yeah, at least Biden doesn't do that.
Palin has more executive governmental experience than Obama and Biden combined.
If I'm not mistaken McCain, Obama and Biden all profess to believe in the Zombie Carpenter From Galilee so what does that say about them?
Jesus tap-dancing Christ. If McCain wanted a former beauty queen with no experience and a criminal investigation on her record I don’t know why he didn’t just pick his own wife.Tell us how you really feel . . .
Is there a source that shows Palin is a young-Earth creationist (Earth is only 6000 years old), or is she just a creationist (God got things going 4.5B years ago)? The two are pretty different.
Wait, so as far as her creationism goes, wanting it to be part of the state educational curriculum isn't damning enough?
Palin made the decision to travel to Texas to a Governor's conference while 36 weeks pregnant, a time during which obstetricians would tell you it’s foolish to travel via plane. Air travel is a known risk for pregnancy complications, which is indeed what happened. The governor, while on a self-promoting trip to deliver a speech, had premature rupture of fetal membranes: her water broke.I don't know much about obstetrics, so I can't really judge whether JakeW's accusations have any merit. But it's an interesting take on a story that's going to be coming up a lot.
Call your local OB department and ask what to do if you think that your water has broken. You’ll be advised to seek an immediate hands-on examination by an obstetrician. The baby will be placed on a monitor to make sure it’s OK. Premature rupture of membranes can lead to life-threatening infection and premature delivery.
What did Sarah Palin do? She did NOT go to a local hospital and did NOT have her baby checked on a fetal monitor to make sure it was OK. She called her family practice doctor in Alaska for advice. What advice was given isn’t clear, but it’s clearly quoted that she "did not ask for a medical OK to fly". Whether it was OK to fly should be the FIRST question anyone considering traveling by air should have, if they were at all interested in protecting the life of the unborn. Regardless, she decided to give her speech at the conference without having any evaluation other than the long-distance advice of a family practitioner. Her speech was more important to her than making any effort to make sure her unborn child was OK. Then, she decided to fly back to Alaska, an 11-hour trip. In addition, she failed to inform flight personnel that her water had broken.
[Todd] Palin's advocacy dovetails neatly with his wife's No. 1 priority: forging a construction contract with private companies to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48. The export of natural gas would presumably replace revenue from the state's dwindling oil reserves, which funded 80 percent of the state budget last year.
I agree that most mainline Christians don't take the Bible literally, but if you don't why bother calling yourself a Christian? I would think Unitarian might be a better choice. Is it just me?
Only recently have McCain's aides urged him to pull back from the pastime. In the heat of the G.O.P. primary fight last spring, he announced on a visit to the Vegas Strip that he was going to the casino floor. When his aides stopped him, fearing a public relations disaster, McCain suggested that they ask the casino to take a craps table to a private room, a high-roller privilege McCain had indulged in before. His aides, with alarm bells ringing, refused again, according to two accounts of the discussion.Did McCain roll the dice with the vice presidency?
"He clearly knows that this is on the borderline of what is acceptable for him to be doing," says a Republican who has watched McCain play. "And he just sort of revels in it."
How would the stresses of such a job combine with a pregnancy? She's had babies while in office in Alaska, but how does that translate to the far bigger job of VP or POTUS?
Either way, the past two elections and their practical results have taught me that whatever the outcome, as a whole we pretty much get the president we earn and deserve.If the vote hadn't been oursourced to private, for profit, Republican organizations, who view tallying MY VOTE as a "trade secret", I'd agree with you.
Kaiser, Dannote: web.me.com and mac.com are apple services that host user content. So dnksr@mac.com and web.me.com/dnksr/ are likely the same person.
6111 97th Ave Ct W
Tacoma, WA
98467
US
Phone: +1 253 565 XXXX
dnksr [at] mac.com
The stories behind the customized vanity license platesCongrats, Dan Kaiser, you're a dick.
IAN DEMSKY; ian.demsky@thenewstribune.com; 235-597-8872
Published: February 27th, 2008 01:00 AM
[...]
Dan Kaiser of University Place didn’t fare as well. State officials revoked his plate joking about President Bush. It read “F DUBYA.”
The big downside is that she completely eviscerates McCain's 'experience is important' message,
I'm not objective here, but that one big downside seems to me to outweigh all the positives combined,
“Before her meteoric rise to political success as governor, just two short years ago Sarah Palin was the mayor of Wasilla. I had a good chuckle at MSN.com’s claim that she had been the mayor of ‘Wasilla City’. It is not a city. Just Wasilla. Wasilla is the heart of the Alaska ‘Bible belt’ and Sarah was raised amongst the tribe that believes creationism should be taught in our public schools, homosexuality is a sin, and life begins at conception. She’s a gun-toting, hang ‘em high conservative. Remember…this is where her approval ratings come from. There is no doubt that McCain again is making a strategic choice to appeal to a particular demographic - fundamentalist right-wing gun-owning Christians. And Republican bloggers are already gushing about how she has ‘more executive experience’ than Obama does! Above is a picture of lovely downtown Wasilla, for those of you unfamiliar with the area. Behind the Mug-Shot Saloon (the first bar I visited when I moved to Alaska long ago) is a little strip mall. There are street signs in Wasilla with bullet holes in them. Wasilla has a population of about 5500 people, and 1979 occupied housing units. This is where your potential Vice President was two short years ago. Can you imagine her negotiating a nuclear non-proliferation treaty? Discussing foreign policy? Understanding non-Alaskan issues? Frankly, I don’t even know if she’s ever been out of the country. She may ‘get’ Alaska, but there are only a half a million people here. Don’t get me wrong….I love Alaska with all my heart. I’m just saying.”posted by ericb at 2:26 PM on August 29, 2008 [3 favorites]
"We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin’s historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain. While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate."Not exactly what DaShiv was predicting, I think.
"I'm going to be very blunt, here. I wish Senator McCain a very long and happy life. But, at age 72 with a history of cancer, John McCain may not live through his first term, if elected. That would make Sarah Palin our Commander in Chief. I, and other vets and troops, have about 60 days to determine if she'll grow to be ready.posted by ericb at 4:28 PM on August 29, 2008 [9 favorites]
She's not ready now -- not based on the complete blank resume on global strategic issues and veterans issues. To be fair, Barack Obama wasn't ready to be Commander in Chief when he became Senator in 2005.
But, over the course of the last few years, and the last year-and-a-half in particular, I've been able to soundly judge Senator Obama, and watch him grow into a readied potential Commander in Chief. In the Senate, serving on the Foreign Affairs committee, he's tackled some of the major issues of our time, asking probing and highly informed questions of military leaders and diplomatic leaders.
I've been able to watch his thought process in action, and have seen him been proven right on Iraq, right on Afghanistan, right on talking to Iran, and right on the war on terror. He's shown an incredible ability to think in much larger strategic terms than this president, to the point that I'm supremely confident he is ready to lead our Armed Forces.
Sarah Palin? God only knows."
-- Jon Soltz, Co-Founder and Chair of VoteVets.org
“As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.”Excuse me?
"In an August 14 interview with Time Magazine, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), now Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) running mate, suggested that McCain had not shared his plan for Iraq with her. Palin, who has not been to Iraq, said she does not know 'what the plan is to ever end the war.' She later said its 'tough' to 'talk about the plan for the war' because her son will be deployed to Iraq this September. 'Let’s make sure we have a plan here,' she said. Palin then added, 'respecting McCain’s position on that too though.'posted by ericb at 4:40 PM on August 29, 2008 [1 favorite]
Matt Duss notes that by trying to 'make news with an unknown, stunt VP pick, McCain has shortchanged the issue which he himself insists is the most important — national security.'"
It's not the team sitting on a safe lead that calls for a Hail Mary -- but then again, the play's been known to win many a game. It's not exactly a smart play, but not quite as desperate as an onside kick or faked punt, either. It's a risky, usually unsuccessful maneuver that occasionally reaps massive dividends. Palin means McCain is a gambling man.Well that's certainly a fantastic characteristic for a President.
so, dearest barack: you may have a funny name, you may be black, you may be against abortion, you may have a real problem with the hillary crowd but the republicans seem to have acquired a taste for that old dance the democrats have very nearly perfected since the days of good old hapless george mc govern. you may be hopeful.Barack Obama is a consistent and strong supporter of the right to choose.
“MSNBC Pat Buchanan – ‘It was a genuinely outstanding speech. It was magnificent. It is the finest – and I saw Cuomo’s speech, I saw Kennedy in ‘80, I even saw Douglas MacArthur, I saw Martin Luther King – this is the greatest convention speech, and probably the most important because unlike Cuomo and the others this is an acceptance speech. This came out of the heart of America and he went right at the heart of America…’posted by ericb at 5:45 PM on August 29, 2008 [12 favorites]
FOX Bill Kristol – ‘Barack Obama faced very high expectations tonight and honestly I think he met them and I honestly think he exceeded them…He eloquently explained America’s promise. He explained why the Bush Cheney administration had fallen short of that…I thought it was an awfully impressive performance.
CNN David Gergen – ‘In many ways it was less a speech than a symphony…It was a masterpiece’
MSNBC Tom Brokaw – ‘It was a wonderfully crafted political speech and the Republicans I’m sure were looking in and wondering what they’re going to be able to do next week to match it’
CNN Paul Begala – ‘He went fearlessly at John McCain’s greatest strength, national security. He went proudly into the social issue terrain that Democrats are usually so afraid of. He went boldly attacking the status quo of George Bush, Dick Cheney and John McCain, and then he went very comfortably in your living room…This is my ninth convention, it was as very nearly a perfect convention speech as I can imagine…’
MSNBC Chris Matthews – ‘I thought it was amazing – I’ve written speeches all my life, of course nothing like this…It was a great way of throwing back the other side’s best shot and saying it’s full of crap’
CNN Campbell Brown – ‘If anybody ever thought that Barack Obama was not tough enough to run against John McCain this speech should really put an end to that…’
FOX Chris Wallace – ‘I thought it was an exceedingly smart speech in which Barack Obama played offense and defense very effectively.’
CNN – Sen. Clinton delegates on Obama’s speech:Jessica Yellin: ‘I have three people who as you say have been following this for a long time. Two of these women are Hillary Clinton supporters and I wanted to ask you first…
Woman: ‘Were.’
Yellin: ‘Were Hillary Clinton supporters. What turned you tonight?
Woman: ‘His speech, and I like her enjoyed it all but the end is what got me. You know, it’s a dream and it’s going to come true we gotta’ work for it. That’s what I got out of it.’”
Just chiming in here with those who said that abortion will be one of the central themes of this election -- except that it will probably be embedded into a broader theme. Something like 'family values' or 'American values'.Are you kidding? Did you actually watch the democratic convention? Democrats talk constantly about the need to protect Roe, about how the republicans are going to take it away, etc. Meanwhile the republicans tiptoe around it, talking about 'judicial appointments' and 'strict constructionists' when what they mean is they'll nominate judges who will overturn Roe v. Wade
This is bad news for Obama: He will try to tip-toe around the issue, giving non-committal statements, whereas the other camp will just state their opinion straightforwardly. Straight-talk indeed. -- sour cream
"Party Unity, My Ass!" It refers to Hillary supporters who don't want to support Obama because they hold a grudge about how Hillary was treated.No. It refers to a Republican-funded disinformation campaign.
what he saw when he looked at her, according to the people I spoke to, is someone who fights the same fights I fight. The first gateway sort of fight that he thought they have in common was the bridge to nowhere. He's been talking about that for years. She's the one who killed it...a minimum of executive experience
The second thing he liked was she took on the Republican Party. She had a corrupt Republican Party. It was her own party. She took it on in a very risky way. McCain sort of sometimes sees himself in that role, Jack Abramoff.
And the third thing was the fight she had with the oil companies over the pipeline, which was a big fight. And he saw her -- he goes after Boeing, she goes after the oil companies.
So he said, "This is someone who's like me." I mean, I'm sure he appreciated that she's a woman and all the differences. But the essential thing was a reformer like me, even though he doesn't know her that well.
"The other thing you have to remember is Alaska is in a period of affluence now. The state treasury is filled with money. The high oil prices the rest of the country are paying has made the rest of us up here -- given us a full treasury, and now we don't have to worry about taxing.in part because of her windfall profits tax on oil companies & support for drilling :P altho...
"We can spend money on people and just -- we don't have to make the tough choices that you have to make where you live." -- Michael Carey, host of a weekly political program for Alaska Public Television and a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, how does she get along with state legislators?cheers!
[Alaska State Representative (D)] LINDSEY HOLMES: Well, I think it depends on the state legislator. There's been a bit of a hands-off approach, I would have to say. It's not...
JUDY WOODRUFF: A hands-off approach on whose...
LINDSEY HOLMES: To the legislature, from the governor's office to the legislature. There are definitely people in the legislature she just doesn't get along with at all.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Are they all Democrats?
LINDSEY HOLMES: No, actually, they're mostly Republicans, a lot of Republicans, some Democrats. It kind of depends on the issue. There have been some arguments over handling of things like budget vetoes without communicating them ahead of time to the legislature, just a lack of communication, I think, on a lot of things that we've been working on.
she is an under-45 Republican. That means she's unwedded to Reaganism. She's Evangelical, but she's pretty progressive on gay and lesbian issues. She's for drilling in ANWR, but she talks about global warming quite a lot.that's the hope anyway!
She's got different categories in her head than, I think, the older conservatives who are pretty much down the line ideologically.
She's for drilling in ANWR, but she talks about global warming quite a lot.This is like implying that Strom Thurmond was a stalwart civil rights activist because he spoke about black people a lot.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain's surprise vice-presidential pick, is the subject of a legislative probe into claims that she abused her office by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper.Well, middleclasstool, I don't know anything about the government of Arkansas, but I can guess that it's no more corrupt than the Alaskan government! (See that! I diverted the derail!) Louisiana comes to mind, though. and florida, but it's arguable that they aren't 'really' Southern.
Palin is likely to be deposed soon in the case, according to State Sen. Hollis French, who leads the state Senate's Legislative Counsel Committee.
Alaska State Senate President Lyda Green (R): “She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?” (Green is from Palin’s home town of Wasilla.)posted by XQUZYPHYR at 5:37 AM on August 30, 2008 [8 favorites]
Alaska House Speaker John Harris (R): “She’s old enough. She’s a U.S. citizen.”
Alaska Democratic Party Chair Patti Higgins: “In this very competitive election for them to go pick somebody who is … under a cloud of suspicion, who is under investigation for abuse of power. It just sounds like a pretty slow start to me. We need a vice president who can step in if, God forbid, something happened to John McCain. I don’t think she’s someone who is ready for that 3 a.m. phone call.”
Randy Ruedrich, Alaska Republican Party Chair: Not giving interviews.
Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg: “a mixed set of emotions, kind of an odd sense of Alaska nationalism or pride. This is like watching a moon landing or something. It’s just something you don’t expect to see very often. It’s wonderful. It was an emotional thing to see the governor walk out with her family and I say, wow, I work for her.”
McHugh Pierre, Alaska Republican Party Spokesman: “She brings her voice of new energy and change. And she knows Alaska.”
Indicted Alaska Sr. Senator Ted Stevens (R): “it’s a great day for the nation and Alaskans.”
Putting aside the creepiness of a top McCain adviser having to reassure the nation that McCain, at 72 years of age with four bouts of cancer, won't die in office, what Charlie Black said today was particularly damning of McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin:While Palin crams for the "Commander-in-Chief" test, Bill Frist reviews McCain's medical records and guarantees him immortality!Mr. McCain’s advisers said Friday that Mr. McCain was well aware that Ms. Palin would be criticized for her lack of foreign policy experience, but that he viewed her as exceptionally talented and intelligent and that he felt she would be able to be educated quickly.So Black, the guy who said another 9/11-style attack on America would help McCain's campaign, is saying that McCain's VP doesn't know a thing about national security, but she can learn on the job over the next four years, you know, like night school. We're at war. And they're admitting that Palin may be our next commander in chief on day one, if McCain were to die or fall ill in office, yet she knows nothing about national security, and has never met a world leader.”
‘She’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long,’ said Charlie Black, one of Mr. McCain’s top advisers, making light of concerns about Mr. McCain’s health, which Mr. McCain’s doctors reported as excellent in May.
“Earlier this month, Karl Rove repeatedly argued that Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) would not be ‘capable’ of being Vice President. He complained that ‘he’s been a governor for three years’ and said Kaine was mayor of only the ‘the 105th largest city in America,’ referring to Kaine’s tenure as mayor of Richmond, VA. ‘It’s not a big town,’ he quipped.posted by ericb at 7:29 AM on August 30, 2008 [9 favorites]
Yesterday, however, Rove argued just the opposite with regard to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R). He explained on Fox News that Palin was a good choice as McCain’s vice presidential nominee because she was ‘mayor of the second largest city in Alaska’:ROVE: She’s a populist, she’s an economic and a social conservative, she’s a reformer, she took on the incumbent governor of the state Frank Murkowski — Republican — beat him in the primary, won an upset in the general election. She’s a former mayor. She’s the mayor of, I think, the second largest city in Alaska before she ran for governor.Kaine was indeed mayor of the ‘the 105th largest city in America.’ While there, he governed nearly 200,000 people and managed a bureaucracy of over 8,000 employees. By contrast, Palin was mayor of Wasilla, AK, a town of just over 8,000 people that currently employs just over 100 individuals and — contrary to Rove’s claim — didn’t even make it into the 10 largest cities in AK while she was mayor.”
"Ms. Palin appears to have traveled very little outside the United States. In July 2007, she had to get a passport before she visited members of the Alaska National Guard stationed in Kuwait, according to her deputy communications director, Sharon Leighow. She also visited wounded troops in Germany during that trip."posted by ericb at 7:32 AM on August 30, 2008
“The case for Palin.posted by ericb at 1:36 PM on August 30, 2008 [1 favorite]For McCain, the biggest thing Sarah Palin brings is buzz. It's something the campaign has been seeking for some time. In fact, it has bothered Team McCain that it doesn’t get the same ‘gee whiz’ kind of coverage that Obama gets. Palin changes that discrepancy -- for now. She also helps McCain re-introduce himself as a change-reform candidate. Palin's whole shtick in Alaska is reformer; it's what got her into the governors mansion. Indeed, the Palin pick may signal that the McCain folks have concluded that ‘experience’ as a message isn't a winning one, even though they spent the entire summer developing that argument. So they are hoping Palin helps redefine GOP ticket as change. What's more, she brings a historical first to the McCain campaign. And finally, there's Palin's gender, which the McCain folks hope reopens some of the Clinton-Obama wounds that the Dem convention seemed to heal.The case against Palin.The biggest negative about the pick is that on its face, it looks like a political gimmick, a political calculation. And McCain's supposed to be anything but a calculating or gimmicky pol. Indeed, as the Los Angeles Times wonders, isn’t McCain supposed to be the guy putting ‘country first’ and not playing politics? The fact that McCain doesn't know Palin and spent all but a couple of hours getting to know her before making his pick is going to invite A LOT of judgment criticism. The perception is going to be that McCain panicked and wanted to do something radical to shake up the race. Well, he may have shaken up the race, but at the cost of undermining his best asset: that he was ready to lead. This decision doesn't look like it was well thought out, even as Palin has made a tremendous first impression.The vetting question.Just how well was she vetted? There's going to be a race to define Palin, and while the McCain has bought time by shocking the world with the pick, there's going to be a lot of interest by the press to dig around in Alaska. And this ‘Troopergate’ story is perhaps just the beginning. What's more, since she isn't well known, any little thing could get blown up pretty quickly.”
What other country in the developed world produces beauty queens who hunt caribou and serve up a terrific moose stew? As an immigrant, I'm not saying I came to the United States purely to meet chicks like that, but it was certainly high on my list of priorities. And for the gun-totin' Miss Wasilla then to go on to become Governor while having five kids makes it an even more uniquely American story. Next to her resume, a guy who's done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of "community organizer" and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracyThe always amusing Mark Steyn. NB: Link goes to NRO, so if you have some principle about not going there, as I do about Daily Kos, don't click link.
What child is this, who, laid to rest
On Sarah's lap, is sleeping?
Whom Repubs greet with anthems sweet,
While pollsters watch are keeping?
This, this is McCain’s one hope,
Whom operatives guard and Fox News sings:
Haste, haste to bring him forth,
The Babe, to slay Obama!
So bring him incest, gold, and beer,
Come NASCAR things to own just him,
The one from one (?), freedom rings,
Let loving hearts think he’s of her.
Raise, raise the song on high,
But isn’t he from Bristol’s thigh?
Joy, joy, for Trig is born,
The Babe, the Grandson of sweet Sarah!
"In her speech in Dayton today, Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she and her husband are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary, which means they were married on August 29, 1988.posted by ericb at 3:06 PM on August 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
On April 20, 1989 – less than eight months after they eloped – their first son, Track, was born.
I think I can guess the real reason why they eloped, and it wasn’t to save money on an expensive wedding."
"A reader has found some evidence that [Palin] has thought about foreign policy at some point in her 44 years. Drum roll, please:posted by ericb at 3:23 PM on August 30, 2008'Alaska Business Monthly: We've lost a lot of Alaska's military members to the war in Iraq. How do you feel about sending more troops into battle, as President Bush is suggesting?She heard about the surge, McCain's campaign centerpiece, on the news. Does she still favor an exit plan?
Palin: I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe. Every life lost is such a tragedy. I am very, very proud of the troops we have in Alaska, those fighting overseas for our freedoms, and the families here who are making so many sacrifices.'
here's the distinction between Senator Obama and Senator McCain. Senator Obama believes abortion is a grave moral issue, that we can do things to reduce unwanted pregnancy and abortion but that we shouldn't criminalize the health care decisions of doctors and women to fight abortion.cf. cheers!
Senator McCain, on the other hand, says he wants Roe vs. Wade to be overturned and that will be a step toward criminalizing the decisions of women and doctors with respect to abortion. We can reduce abortion and unwanted pregnancy in this country. We've shown it during the Clinton years. We can do it by--without making women and doctors criminals if they engage in abortion, in that procedure. And we shouldn't use the criminal laws of one instrument against women and doctors in this way. We can reduce abortion through access to education, access to contraception, abstinence-focused education, all those things can help us reduce abortion.
MR. GREGORY: When do you believe...
GOV. KAINE: But the criminal, the criminal law is not the way we should do it.
MR. GREGORY: When do you believe human rights begin?
GOV. KAINE: Well, human, human rights, broadly, my church teaches and I do believe that human rights begin early in life, at conception or shortly thereafter, and that is my personal belief. But I do not believe the force of the criminal law should compel others to necessarily follow that to the greatest degree. And that's why the strategy of Senator Obama is reduce abortion through education, health care access, point out the grave issue, support reasonable, common-sense restrictions on abortion, I think that's important. But you shouldn't be talking about overturning Roe vs. Wade or criminalizing women and their doctors.
In fact, as Palin's cultural views become better known -- she oppose (sic) abortion in all cases and opposes the use of birth control pills and condoms even among married couples -- she will undoubtedly scare the hell out of the soccer moms and 98% of Hillary voters.-- from "Worst Pick Ever?" by pollster Del Ali, the president of Research 2000.
Feminists for Life's mission is to address the unmet needs of women who are pregnant or parenting. Preconception issues including abstinence and contraception are outside of our mission. Some FFL members and supporters support the use of non-abortifacient contraception while others oppose contraception for a variety of reasons. FFL is concerned that certain forms of contraception have had adverse health effects on women.This article indicates FFL like most other pro-life groups is against contraception
Our membership enjoys a broad spectrum of opinion that reflects the diversity of opinions among the American public.
Today, pro-life groups in the U.S. are reclassifying the most common contraception methods, including the birth control pill, the patch, the IUD and the depo-shot, as “abortifacients,” claiming, with no scientific backing, that they cause abortions. On their website, Feminists for Life classifies emergency contraception as an abortion method. If this were true, Feminists for Life should also classify 40 percent of all birth control methods as abortion methods because they all have the same mode of action as emergency contraception.Now Gov. Palin may be "pro-contraception" as she indicated in the interview torticat linked to, but that doesn't mean it is policy of FFL. This post on DailyKOS has some interesting notes on FFL's position or non-position on birth control.
but there are lots of below average Americans who are too stupid to know what's going on, and are therefore easily manipulated by bullshit.And lots of them are also left-wingers. Trust me- the right doesn't have a monopoly on uninformed idiots.
"More of the views that apparently attracted McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, to Pat Buchanan:posted by ericb at 12:16 AM on August 31, 2008 [1 favorite]2007: 'The rise of women to power in a civilization is very often the mark of its decline.'
-- Pat Buchanan, On The McLaughlin Group, July 6, 2007
1983: 'Rail as they will against "discrimination," women are simply not endowed by nature with the same measures of single-minded ambition and the will to succeed in the fiercely competitive world of Western capitalism…The momma bird builds the nest. So it was, so it ever shall be. Ronald Reagan is not responsible for this; God is."'
-- Pat Buchanan, Washington Times. November 18, 1983"
DEMOCRATS TAKE WARNING: McCain just closed the evangelical voteOh please. Evangelicals are extremists, and will show up to vote for Republicans no matter who is on the ticket. Does anyone seriously believe otherwise? Is there any data suggesting right-wing extremists were going to stay home on election day until Palin was announced? Color me extremely skeptical. Yes, they may now be making ringing endorsements of her, but that is not the same as them changing their vote. These people are thoroughly invested in the Republican party and will vote for them no matter who is VP.
I assume that you have never met or been a teenager.So can we please stop humiliating a teenage girl yet?It's only humiliating if it's true
The Republican party grokked this over a decade ago and have had so much success that they've transformed every aspect of this country to be in line with their beliefs, but somehow the supposedly smarter Liberals still have no fucking clue.
"Some, particularly women leaning toward a Republican ticket or who share Palin's staunch anti-abortion views, see it as a winning choice that they can happily embrace. But others, particularly the undecided women McCain is trying to reach, say this is the wrong woman, lacking experience and on the wrong side of the issues, like abortion, the Iraq war and the environment, that matter most to them.posted by ericb at 10:41 AM on August 31, 2008 [1 favorite]
Some Clinton stalwarts took offense, saying they felt as if McCain had decided that, for women disappointed that they could not vote for Clinton, any woman would do. 'It's an insult,' said Jan Roller, a Clinton delegate from Cleveland, as she arrived home from the convention. 'You have to be qualified for the job.'"
"This surely is the kind of decision-maker McCain turns out to be: ignore your true instincts (Lieberman), throw the dice and hope you don't shoot craps. It's how the Palin decision seems to have been made, and the lack of input and communication has upset Republicans from Romney to Pawlenty, stuck on the Sunday shows to gamely bear witness to the 'good first impression' unknown who nonetheless is a weak VP pick based on qualifications. Hockey mom that she is, she herself should understand that she is an up-and-comer, a future draft choice, not a current first line player. That has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with her resume. No one can 'make up for that' by being charming, and, by the way, a mom. Those are not the only qualifications for being President, something we'll (alas) see on Monday and Tuesday when Gustav hits (a warning to Republicans: politicizing a storm of this potential is a career ender.)posted by ericb at 10:47 AM on August 31, 2008 [3 favorites]
The one thing it does is excite the creationist base. And the one thing that an Obama win will do is to drive home the point that they are not the majority in this country, merely the decision-makers in the Republican party.
If you read the pundits and the news stories, the longer the Palin choice is out there, the worse it looks. And it highlights the essential element of the Republican party, the social conservatives, who simply are not a majority in this country. Presumably the people who think we are moving in the right direction as a country and think Brownie did a heckuva job will love it." *
"The main reason McCain knuckled under to the religious right by picking Palin is that he actually believes there’s a large army of embittered Hillary loyalists who will vote for a hard-line conservative simply because she’s a woman. That’s what happens when you listen to the TV news echo chamber. Not only is the whole premise ludicrous, but it is every bit as sexist as the crude joke McCain notoriously told about Janet Reno, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.posted by ericb at 10:49 AM on August 31, 2008 [1 favorite]
Given the press’s track record so far, there’s no reason to believe that the bogus scenarios will stop now."
"The choice also says a lot about McCain. First, that he is a bit desparate. McCain likely thought it would be difficult to make a splash with a conventional Republican sidekick. Changing the subject from Thursday's Obama-thon would be difficult with Mit Romney or Kay Bailey Hutchinson (who would have been an awful choice anyway) by his side. The choice of Palin certainly gives us all something new to talk about. And she is fresh, smart (as far as I can tell from a brief time studying her), enthusiastic and energetic. But it is a bit of a political Hail Mary pass. Second, that he is one arrogant SOB. McCain is essentially telling the world that he doesn't really need a Vice President. It is hard to imagine Palin playing the same sort of role that modern Vice Presidents like Gore, Bush, Cheney, or Mondale played. Rather, the Office would seem poised to return to the 'proverbial warm bucket of p***' category. McCain has thus made a purely political play without regard for the governance concerns. And how could he really have a good idea of how she would govern? My understanding is that he only met with her once before choosing her."posted by ericb at 10:52 AM on August 31, 2008 [2 favorites]
"There could be calls...that this type of information [investigating the Bristol Palin preganancy rumor] is muckraking and 'below us'. The truth is not below any progressive, nor any citizen of the world that is one heartbeat away from having Palin as leader of the free world. We simply ask that she be forthright, honest, and not waste our time with such juvenile games that anyone with eyes can see as fabrication.posted by ericb at 11:00 AM on August 31, 2008
Bristol Palin rightfully should be able to embrace her child in public as her own, with no shame, and no quarter. And a mother should be just as accepting." *
"80% of the cases of Down's Syndrome are in mother's under the age of 35."ericb, that's one of the most disingenuous uses of statistics that I've seen in a long, long time.
Cindy McCain: Palin knows foreign policy because 'Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia.'
the 'is-she or isn't-she Trig's mom?' story is a non-starter
"On Friday, April 18th, 2008, Sarah and her husband Todd were in Dallas, Texas for a Republican Governor's Convention. They had been in town for three days already, but Sarah had yet to give her keynote speaker address on energy policy. Then early Friday morning at 4:00am, Sarah began leaking amniotic fluid. Instead of checking into a hospital, she instead made a call to her doctor, and delivered the keynote speech.posted by ericb at 1:13 PM on August 31, 2008 [3 favorites]'I was not going to miss that speech,' she says.The oddities only grow from here on, as instead of rushing to a Dallas medical facility that could treat a mother who's amniotic fluid has been draining for hours on end (made even more crucial due to the fact that this is occurring a full month prematurely), Sarah & Todd instead opted to... fly all the way back from Texas to Alaska. A dangerous choice, as with each pregnancy (once again, in this case after four previous), a mother's window of labor to delivery grows shorter and shorter.
She rushed so quickly from the podium afterwards that Texas Gov. Rick Perry nervously asked if she was about to deliver the baby then.
Aboard Alaska Airlines, the flight lasted for eight hours, with an additional landing in Seattle. The majority of commercial airlines require mothers seven months pregnant to provide a doctor's letter to fly, but Sarah did not inform the airline of her condition. Alaska Airlines is one of the few airlines that do not require such a notice, despite the possibility of an emergency landings being required in such scenarios. That said, no one on board noticed that Sarah was going into labor:'"We leave the decision to fly up to our customers and their medical advisers," according to Alaska Airlines representative Caroline Boren.Eight months pregnant. A 6.2 pound fetus. No one notices a visible trace. By the third trimester, a perfectly fit woman not wearing anything less than a space suit should be easily spotted as pregnant. Not in Sarah's case.
...'Governor Palin was extremely pleasant to flight attendants and her stage of pregnancy was not apparent by observation as she didn’t show any signs of distress,' Boren said."
The plane then made a landing in Anchorage, Alaska. Does Sarah then visit a medical facility that can accommodate a premature birth in Alaska's most equipped city? No. She drives 45 minutes away, to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, right outside the small village she used to govern as Mayor, Wasilla. Trig Palin is then delivered one month premature, Friday night. Sarah returned to work after three days.
The inherent need to absolutely have Trig delivered in a remote and possibly ill-equipped facility for premature deliveries, where Sarah would likely have numerous contacts and pull, does not sit well. The doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, approving of all of these actions borders on malpractice. Not treating leaking amniotic fluid causes infections, and time is of the essence after water breaks. Husband Todd Palin simply delivers this winner of a line:'You can't have a fish picker from Texas,' said Todd."*
I bet Cheneys gotta be shitting himself that such a naive piker is going to be trying to fill his steel-toed loafers.Joe Biden is not a naive piker.
Anchorage Daily News:posted by ericb at 1:33 PM on August 31, 2008"When John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, her reputation as a tough-minded budget-cutter was front and center.
'I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere,' Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan's Gravina Island bridge.
But Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.
The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them 'nowhere.' They're still feeling pain today in Ketchikan, over Palin's subsequent decision to use the bridge funds for other projects -- and over the timing of her announcement, which they say came in a pre-dawn press release that seemed aimed at national news deadlines."
Palin kept in close contact with Baldwin-Johnson. The contractions slowed to one or two an hour, "which is not active labor," the doctor said.So Palin made a judgement call in consultation with her doctor, confident that she was the best placed to determine what was going on with her body, and if the above is accurate, turned out to be right. She had a slow leak. She wasn't in labour, and in fact had to have an induction that resulted in a live birth 22 hours later - well within the 24 hour advisory window for antibiotics if labour doesn't kick off.
"I am not a glutton for pain and punishment. I would have never wanted to travel had I been fully engaged in labor," Palin said. After four kids, the governor said, she knew what labor felt like, and she wasn't in labor.They landed in Anchorage around 10:30 p.m. Thursday and an hour later were at the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Wasilla.
Baldwin-Johnson said she had to induce labor, and the baby didn't come until 6:30 a.m. Friday.
...someone mentioned up thread that Down Syndrom is very rare in babies born to teen mothers, and it's much more common in women who have children later in life."80% of the cases of Down's Syndrome are in mother's under the age of 35."
odds of Sara Palin having a child with downs syndrom at her age:Frankly, this "Teen daughter conspiracy" is as bullshit as the "Obama is a muslim" slurs, with the added bonus of being completely scientifically illiterate.1/41The odds of a 16 year old having a child with Down's Syndrome:less then 1/1,300
In fact, were I on a hiring committee, I would strongly advise against hiring a person who had done something such as what she is alleged to have done --lord_wolfUgh, you're kidding right? It's illegal to take pregnancy and reproductive choices into consideration when hiring!! My guess is you've never been anywhere near a hiring committee. If you did that, the woman could sue your company into the ground.
But konolia, it isn't stupid at all, and the available evidence strongly supports it. --docpropsNo, all the real scientific evidence, taken over decades, shows that teenagers hardly ever give birth to kids with Downs Syndrome, and that women in their 40s often do. Anyone who could believe this rumor would be a complete scientific illiterate, and that includes you, if you seriously believe it's possible.
"Enthusiastic Republicans don’t see the choice of Palin as affirmative action, despite her thin résumé and gaping absence of foreign policy knowledge, because they expect Republicans to put an underqualified 'babe,' as Rush Limbaugh calls her, on the ticket. They have a tradition of nominating fun, bantamweight cheerleaders from the West, like the previous Miss Congeniality types Dan Quayle and W., and then letting them learn on the job. So they crash into the globe a few times while they’re learning to drive, what’s the big deal?posted by ericb at 3:36 PM on August 31, 2008
....The legacy of Geraldine Ferraro was supposed to be that no one would ever go on a blind date with history again. But that crazy maverick and gambler McCain does it, and conservatives and evangelicals rally around him in admiration of his refreshingly cynical choice of Sarah, an evangelical Protestant and anti-abortion crusader who became a hero when she decided to have her baby, who has Down syndrome, and when she urged schools to debate creationism as well as that stuffy old evolution thing.
Palinistas, as they are called, love Sarah’s spunky, relentlessly quirky 'Northern Exposure' story from being a Miss Alaska runner-up, and winning Miss Congeniality, to being mayor and hockey mom in Wasilla, a rural Alaskan town of 6,715, to being governor for two years to being the first woman ever to run on a national Republican ticket. (Why do men only pick women as running mates when they need a Hail Mary pass? It’s a little insulting.)"
And in this case we know Sarah Palin was having unprotected sexwhat the FUCK? You have a cite?
"'She's not qualified, she doesn't have the judgment, to be next in line to the president of the United States,'' Larry Persily, who until June worked in the governor's Washington office as a congressional liaison, said in a phone interview yesterday.posted by ericb at 3:42 PM on August 31, 2008
A supporter of Palin's campaign for governor, Jim Whitaker, the Republican mayor of Fairbanks, also questioned Palin's readiness to serve as vice president in a phone interview yesterday.
Whitaker said that while he is 'still an avid supporter'' of Palin as governor, he will continue to back Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama." *
"Well, I don't know Governor Palin, I have not met her before. I had a brief conversation with her after she was selected to congratulate her and wish her luck - but, not too much luck! - on the campaign trail. And she seems to have a compelling life story. Obviously, she's a fine mother and a up-and-coming public servant. So, it's too early for me to gauge what kind of running mate she'll be. My sense is that she subscribes to John McCain's agenda. And ultimately, this [election] is going to be about where I want to take the country and where Joe Biden wants to take the country, and where John McCain and his running mate want to take the country."posted by ericb at 3:50 PM on August 31, 2008
"[Former Republican Sen. Fred] Thompson [of Tennessee]: 'She's a mother of five children. ... And she has more experience than Barack Obama.'posted by ericb at 4:39 PM on August 31, 2008
Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina: 'Governor Palin took on Ted Stevens. If she can take him on, she can take on the Russians.' Stevens, a Republican senator, is facing corruption charges and running for re-election.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty: 'Palin is commander-in-chief of the Alaskan National Guard.' The state's Guard has about 4,000 members."
There is a small subset of Christianity that right now is having a hissy fit that a woman has been nominated, but they just need to get over it.Why? 1 Timothy 2 seems pretty clear - women shouldn't be in positions of authority. They should be silent.
It's just that in the world of conservatives, human frailty as it pertains to sexuality or is in direct conflict with the teachings of Jesus, has to be suppressed
I want to vote for people who are interested in doing the right thing, not the popular thing.
Governor Palin took on Ted Stevens. If she can take him on, she can take on the Russians
[Question on a candidate questionnaire by the Eagle Forum Alaska:] you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?Forget the babby. This woman's a blockhead. Whatever you want to say about Hillary, Palin is no Hillary replacement.
Sarah Palin: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance
Flunkie, go google Deborah in the Bible.Deborah was Old Testament. Timothy is New. A new and everlasting covenant.
Today, while I watched her hop out of the “Straight Talk Express” bus, and give the second reading of her acceptance speech, one of my fellow viewers said, “You know, I don’t remember her opposing the Bridge.” And it hit me. I don’t remember that either. A quick double-check with the third member of our watch party confirmed our confusion. We all live here. We all watch the news, read the paper, and pay attention to the local political circus, but none of us connected Sarah with her claims of rebuffing the controversial earmark.
...
Today, Palin called in to a local radio program, and bubbled, “This is so amazeen!” Then she said that her children and she had only learned of her selection the day before the announcement was made. I think of the extensive vetting process that the Democratic VP candidates went through. Evan Bayh said that he was grilled extensively about skeletons in the closet, and even whether any of his kids had a Facebook or MySpace page that might come back to haunt him.
...
But many Alaskans are just giddy over the whole thing. The local sportscaster, after reporting on the high school basketball scores, said, “You know Sarah Palin used to be a sportscaster….and she’s the Vice Presidential candidate. So, I think I wanna do that…yeah.” (eyeroll) And one woman who was interviewed said she was totally in support of Palin because, “This is really going to put Alaska on the map. Now people are going to find out what we’re really all about.”
Because this is what we’re looking for in the next Vice President. We want Alaska to be on the map. And not in that little box in the South Pacific you guys always stuff us in. This election is about Alaska’s road to legitimacy! Sar-ah Sar-ah Sar-ah! (banging head on desk and going to bed)
11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?The Pledge of Allegiance did not originally contain the words "under God."
SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
-Eagle Forum Alaska questionnaire for GOP candidates
"There are reports that the McCain campaign came up with the idea to pick Palin a week ago, and then only vetted her for four days. That would explain the plethora of bad news the blogs and the corporate media have been able to find on her in such a short period of time. And now we have even more evidence that John McCain simply wung it in picking a neophyte with no national security experience as the person who may replace him as president in as little as six months. McCain didn't even check her hometown paper to see what it had to say about her. At some point, McCain's actions become reckless. You don't choose a vice presidential candidate who isn't qualified simply because she might help you pick up a few votes here and there. It's Dan Quayle, and Harriet Miers, and Brownie all over again. And it speaks very poorly of John McCain's first significant decision as our potentially future commander in chief."posted by ericb at 8:14 PM on August 31, 2008 [2 favorites]
“Meanwhile, Palin’s mother-in-law, Faye Palin, told a New York Daily News reporter that she didn’t agree with Sarah on everything and hadn’t yet decided how she would vote. She added: “I’m not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she’s a woman and a conservative.posted by drezdn at 9:36 PM on August 31, 2008
"Alaska is the first line of defense in our missile interceptor defense system. The 49th Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard is the unit that protects the entire nation from ballistic missile attacks. It’s on permanent active duty, unlike other Guard units. As governor of Alaska, Palin is briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counterterrorism. Her exposure to classified material may rival even Biden's.
She's also the commander in chief of the Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF), a federally recognized militia incorporated into Homeland Security's counterterrorism plans.
Palin is privy to military and intelligence secrets that are vital to the entire country's defense. Given Alaska's proximity to Russia, she may have security clearances we don't even know about."
One person said: I forgot to mention-when one of my fitness instructors told me she was voting for McCain, she also said-and her exact words were something like this: "she wasn't voting for that Communist" meaning Obama.Or we can describe her as an effective "Republican by Faith" who proselytizes her single-issue insanity to very great effect. "Republican" has come to mean "Christian Fundamentals" in the USA. It means effective theocracy: the law will be guided by the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
....
Then another one responded: Seriously, what are we supposed to do about someone that stupid? That's like me saying, hey, McCain fans, watch out, a kid at the record store today told me he wasn't voting for "that Nazi McCain".
Lastly, jb chimed in with: You can't just dismiss a voter like this as stupid - she probably isn't.
Sure we can dismiss this person as stupid.
I still like George [Bush]. My son just graduated from USAFA, and Bush was there, saluting and shaking hands with every grad. My son said to him, "Sir, your approval rating is high with me!" You can see on the DVD (yes, I have one) where Bush pulls him back and says something to him. What he said was this: "Approval ratings are not important. What is important is doing the right thing."They are single-issue morons. Regardless the economic harm to the country as the result of incompetence or malice, regardless the security risks as the result of incompetence, regardless the rights reductions as the result of malic and power-seeking, regardless the wholesale theft of public services and public interests, she will vote for only those candidates who oppose abortion to the point of banning it entirely. Fuck the rest of you, your best interests, your health and welfare, abortion must be banned.
I want to vote for people who are interested in doing the right thing, not the popular thing.
There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerfull ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus, God, or Allah, or whatever one calls the supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A,B,C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism.posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:23 PM on August 31, 2008 [4 favorites]
But here's the thing: you want her to have to "answer questions" about it, but don't you see that - given the extreme unlikelihood of anybody being able to find a smoking afterbirth, even if the rumours somehow were true - it won't mean probing questions about her integrity and judgment from seasoned political reporters? It'll mean heart-to-hearts on the morning talk shows, on which she'll be able to talk about how important her faith is to her, and how these vicious attacks have been deeply hurtful, but ultimately have brought her family even closer together. -- flashboyExactly! The people pushing this are crazy. Crazy to think it could ever happen in the real world, crazy to think 'asking questions' about it could do any good, crazy to think they could ever be proven right, and most of all, crazy to think this could possibly convince people to vote for Obama.
I forgot to mention-when one of my fitness instructors told me she was voting for McCain, she also said-and her exact words were something like this: "she wasn't voting for that Communist" meaning Obama....
“I guess that puts me in a box of being hard-core Republican ... the Democrats also preach individual freedoms and individual rights, capitalism, free market, let-it-do-its-thing-best, let people keep as much of their money that they earn as possible. And when it comes to, like, the Party machine, no one will accuse me of being partisan.” -- Sarah Palin
How about for filing a false birth certificate? I don't know about Alaska specifically but it is illegal in many states because they want to chase down deadbeat dads instead of providing welfare.-- Birth Certificates are sealed for 100 years in Alaska (It's sad that I even know this). No one has accused her of faking his birth certificate. Jesus.
Sometimes, I read things and I feel as if I am going crazy.The republican party is about to have convention halfway canceled due to a hurricane, and McCain is going to deliver his acceptance speech from Louisiana via satellite. Republicans are seriously trying to argue that this half a term governor has national security experience because Alaska is close to Russia, and they apparently didn't do a background check at all.
Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?All that proves is that she thinks the Founding Fathers used the phrase "Under God."
SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
I don't want a political label, but Obama bears traits that resemble the anti- Christ and I'm scared to death that un- educated people will ignorantly vote him into office. My mom likes him because his children are well dressed!--Saturday Night Live alum best known for playing the role of a ditzy blonde, Victoria Jackson.
You see, what bothers me most, besides being a Communist, and a racist ...
It has come out in the past couple of days that she and her high school boyfriend had a quickie wedding and that she is home schooling her senior year. The Anchorage Daily News has known about this for months - and haven’t touched the story.The rabid desire for someone in Palin's family - anyone! - to have failed to meet the standards of the conservative chastity brigade is pretty phenomenal.
ST. PAUL, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.Has me laughing my ass off. It's like some bizarre parody.
So that explains the wedding ring I spotted. From the Palin family ... Now all we need is confirmation from the obstetrician who delivered Sarah's baby, Trig.And from another post
Now they've cleared the air on this - and good for them - what harm would it do to release the medical records showing that Sarah Palin delivered Trig on April 18 in Wasilla? This is not hard: there must be an obstetrician, medical records, and data that can easily refute this rumor. It is not out of the ordinary either: candidates routinely issue medical records. So let's have them. And then we can move on.He can't give this crazy rumor up. What the hell would be the point in her faking a pregnancy at this point?
When it comes specifically to HIV/AIDS, the most important prevention is education, which should include -- which should include abstinence education and teaching the children -- teaching children, you know, that sex is not something casual. But it should also include -- it should also include other, you know, information about contraception because, look, I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. I don't want them punished with an STD at the age of 16. You know, so it doesn't make sense to not give them information.Although the wording is clumsy, what he's saying here is that it's important that people make informed decisions. This should be clear to anyone. Pulling part of a sentence out of context to make it seem as though Obama believes children are a punishment is crass and ludicrous.
Is the often cited "most liberal" ranking (http://nj.nationaljournal.com/voteratings/?loc=interstitialskip) wrong/skewed/misleading in some way?Yes, very much so.
(intended as a serious non-snarky question)
It ain't that in their hearts they're bad~Nick Cave
They can comfort you, some even try
They nurse you when you're ill of health
They bury you when you go and die
It ain't that in their hearts they're bad
They'd stick by you if they could
But that's just bullshit
People just ain't no good
People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good at all
As a conservative-leaning independent, I've been giving serious consideration to voting for Obama. But if it puts me on the same side as some of people posting here, I think I'd rather stay home. -- Fuzzy SkinnerLook, it's certainly embarrassing for me as a liberal, but keep in mind there are just as many lunatics on the Right, people who have been spreading "Obama is a Muslim" rumors and stuff like that. There's no "Side" in a two-party nation that's totally free of crazies. Besides, there are plenty of people here who have been arguing against the rumors (Including me)
I must be an evil fuck too but, I am incredibly happy that Palin's daughter is pregnant. This completely neutralizes any blow back to Obama from people speculating about her faking the pregnancy. -- afu
And, hey, since you all brought it up, sometimes unmarried teen daughters get pregnant. And just like my daughter, this girl is planning to marry the father. Imagine that. Taking responsibility for your actions. Taking responsibility for a new life.-- konoliaAnd if Sarah Palin had taken responsibility to teach her daughter about birth control, she wouldn't be pregnant in the first place. That to me is the huge irony about pro-lifers. They claim to be opposed to abortion, and at the same time they're also opposed to sex-ed unless it's abstinence only and contraceptives, which leads to some teens giving into human weakness and getting pregnant.
I don't know him personally, but has he said anything like this? As far as I know, he's been off giving speeches on trade policy, employment and hurricanes. Babies weren't mentioned. -- jbInterestingly, Obama did stress the need to reduce unplanned pregnancies in his big speech just last Thursday.
Do you not realize that the Republican party wants abortion to be legal? And do you not know why? The Republican party wants - needs - legal abortion so every four years they can get you to come out and vote for their candidate.This is an incredibly stupid and dangerious idea. The GOP has been hitting the Abortion issue for Decades, and now you've got people, like Sarah Palin in power who genuinely want to stop abortion. And they'll be able to do it too, if they can stack the court. Furthermore, If they do succeed, they can still use it as a campaign platform but claiming that if they don't keep power, or get back in, Abortion will be re-legalized.
Because if it weren't for that single issue, you would vote for the party that fights for prenatal care for mothers, for better healthcare for children, and for tax cuts for the poor and middle-class.-- Optimus Chyme
Is the often cited "most liberal" ranking (http://nj.nationaljournal.com/voteratings/?loc=interstitialskip) wrong/skewed/misleading in some way? -- PerplexityOf course it is. In 2004, Kerry and Edwards were the first and second most liberal senators, in 2008, it was Obama and Clinton, and now they're claiming that Biden is the 3rd most liberal. Notice a pattern? The "most liberal" rankings are designed specifically around the most likely presidential candidates. It's all bullshit.
Reposted for Konolia, so that she won't miss it, and she can make her statement of approval clear. -- cashmanUm, Konolia already responded to that, and she said the statement was fine.
Derek, who was thrown from the vehicle, was not wearing a seat belt, Lefler said. He said Havermann and Uphoff were wearing seat belts at the time.posted by troy at 2:21 PM on September 1, 2008 [1 favorite]
In a column written for the Daily Nebraskan in September, Derek attacked seat belt laws as intrusions on individual liberties and expensive to enforce.
Mr. Obama said the pregnancy “has no relevance to Governor Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president.” He added that, “my mother had me when she was 18. How a family deals with issues and teen-age children — that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics.”Absolute class and too damn right. I love this man so much, I'd vote for him twice if only I could. Or, you know, lived in Florida.
“So,” he added, “I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories.”
I live in this Valley. I know the Heath/Palin families. I am a proud Republican. And I’m a conservative.
…
We all - every single one of us - even Sarah’s closest friends in the Valley (I know, I’ve been speaking to them) know she is in no way qualified for this position. At all.[*]
…
[H]er mayoral races were like a stroll through the park on a hot summer day. Her dad has basically taught everyone out here when they were in middle school science. She won her last mayoral race with less than 1,000 votes. It takes more than that to win a seat on the Valley’s school board.
What hasn’t been reported, at least not much, is that she was unemployed for almost three years before becoming gov. So, people talk about how she was gov for two years - make that 20 months. And before that? Unemployed for almost three years. She ran for mayor on a line of Positively Palin. Everyone knew her and her family. It wasn’t a nasty race.
The race for gov wasn’t exactly “nasty” either. She played the sympathy card constantly. It’s weird how people who aren’t paying attention will fall for it.
She ran for gov against the LEAST LIKED GOV IN THE UNION. His positive numbers were single digits. The local dog catcher could have run and won. Come on, people. This IS Alaska. She won b/c she got in the race so early and I think it kept more qualified people out. Also, the former gov took forever to decide if he’d run for reelection. If he hadn’t, the other guy on the Rep. side would have walked away with the win easily. But, the old gov and the other guy - John Binkley, who was the favorite in the business/thinking community - didn’t count on Sarah being served up no scrutiny in the press. The local press just ran pictures of her and whatdoyaknow? She won. And now she’ll apparently be VP and possilbly president.
Faye Palin said the entire family was shocked by the news on Friday.
"I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative.”
Apparently that’s what blind ambition does for you, folks. It blinds you to the hearts and needs and lives and emotions and futures of everyone around you - incl. your own daughter who, God only knows how she’ll bear up under the shock and shame when this story finally comes out.I disagree with the "social reasons" thing and I'd like to talk about the "single page" idea instead of the stuff about her daughter. But it's an inside look into the inner workings of the town, the government and the potential VP's decisions that seems like rare and unique information.
No thank you. I would like a VP candidate who puts the lives of the people she’s supposed to be caring for first, above her own. Since, for social reasons (abortion and gay issues) I can’t in my conscience vote for Obama, I’ll show up in the booth this Nov and vote for congressional races then slip out before casting a vote for people who have no business being given the responsibility and honor of running our nation.
This whole thing is sick. Sick.
Advisers to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Sunday that Senator John McCain’s selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate would lead to a greater role for Mrs. Clinton as she campaigned this fall on behalf of her former rival, Senator Barack Obama.Oh yes, it's on.
Mrs. Clinton’s friends said she was galled that Ms. Palin might try to capitalize on a movement that Mrs. Clinton, of New York, built among women in the primaries.
My without-a-particualr-axe-to-grind friend Fred put together some fairly interesting assemblages of some MySpace pages that muddle this whole baby-marriage-family thing. -- jessamynOh my god no, that person is seriously out to lunch:
came across a link to the Myspace page, and was shocked at what I discovered. In a series of photographic captions, Sadie, brother of Levi, describes Sarah Palin as the mother-in-law of Trig. Furthermore, she cites Bristol Palin as her sister-in-law.The caption of the photos call Sarah the "Mother in law" but who's mother in law? Well think abou it. Sadie is Levi's sister, and Levi is Bristol's fiance. that means Sarah will be Sadie's mother in law! and it means that Bristol will be her Sister in Law Exactly like the captions say!
do you think the "white trash" comments would have started up on this thread,
Kerry and Edwards both mentioned it, but only Kerry caught flack for it, for whatever reason.
“Weird new talking point from the McCain campaign. They're now saying that Sarah Palin, or perhaps we should now be calling her General Palin, is ‘Commander in Chief’ of the Alaska National Guard that is fighting in Iraq. I'm sure the governor is the de jure chief of the state's national guard, but to imply that she's somehow the equivalent of the Commander in Chief of the US military, direct Alaska's forces in the fight against Al Qaeda, running through war plans and launching rocket attacks, is just laughable. Don't take it from me. Take it from the general who runs the Alaska National Guard:posted by ericb at 7:10 PM on September 1, 2008 [7 favorites]’Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard... said he and Palin play no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. The entire operation is under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations.’Oops.
Th[e] interview…is simply astounding. CNN's Campbell Brown just obliterates McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds who simply refuses to answer, is unable to answer, the simple question as to what foreign policy experience Palin has. He couldn't name one decision she made as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard.”*
Ron Paul?McCain will pick up the Romney with the power sliding doors and the DVD players in the headrests.then at midnight everything will go *poof* and he'll find out that he's stuck with a lousy amc gremlin
Abstinence from vaginal intercourse being (no one will deny) the only foolproof method of avoiding pregnancy or STDs.I deny that abstinence from vaginal intercourse is a foolproof method of avoiding STDs.
Oh, hey! Looks like she may be lying about having been named Miss Congeniality.Lying about even trivial things which there's no reason to lie about? I'm surprised she doesn't already have a position in the Bush administration.
“The comedy of errors that is John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin continues. Except, when the issue is picking a potential leader of our nation in a time of war, it shouldn't be a comedy and it shouldn't be filled with errors.posted by ericb at 9:17 PM on September 1, 2008 [9 favorites]
Read this blockbuster article in tomorrow's New York Times. There is so much in it. The article reveals that John McCain didn't get the vice president he wanted (Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge) because the religious right, which controls the GOP (and now controls John McCain), went ballistic on McCain last week because both Lieberman and Ridge are pro-choice. So McCain caved. Because of McCain's kowtowing to the theocrats, he hurriedly dumped Lieberman and Ridge and instead picked the very anti-abortion, but not much else, Palin without even fully vetting her.
Now, sure, the McCain campaign is claiming that Palin was ‘thoroughly vetted.’ But, that is clearly not true - the Times talked to all the key players in Alaska, and none of them were approached by the McCain campaign. In fact, McCain's vetter only just arrived in Alaska on Thursday, the day before McCain announced Palin as his VP choice.
This failure is actually quite stunning on many levels. It's just so fundamental to the process, the vetting of a vice presidential choice, that failing to do it properly is pretty much campaign malpractice. Clearly, Sarah Palin was not seriously vetted. An excerpt from the Times:‘In Alaska, several state leaders and local officials said they knew of no efforts by the McCain campaign to find out more information about Ms. Palin before the announcement of her selection, Although campaigns are typically discreet when they make inquiries into potential running mates, officials in Alaska said Monday they thought it was peculiar that no one in the state had the slightest hint that Ms. Palin might be under consideration.We've been saying for the past couple of days that this pick says more about John McCain than Sarah Palin. It really does. John McCain caved to the anti-abortion theocrats running the Republican Party, made a hasty pick for his v.p., and is now suffering the consequences.”
‘They didn’t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn’t speak to anyone in the business community,’ said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor.
Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her.
‘I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called,’ Ms. Phillips said. ‘I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything.’
The current mayor of Wasilla, Dianne M. Keller, said she had not heard of any efforts to look into Ms. Palin’s background. And Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, said he knew nothing of any vetting that had been conducted.
State Senator Hollis French, a Democrat who is directing the ethics investigation, said that no one asked him about the allegations. ‘I heard not a word, not a single contact,’ he said.
Mr. French, a former prosecutor, said that he was knowledgeable about background checks and that, he, too, was surprised that the campaign had not reached out to state legislative leaders.’
“Palin and her husband, Todd, said their daughter plans to marry the child's father - who sources said is Levi Johnston - and that both ‘are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family.’posted by ericb at 9:26 PM on September 1, 2008 [2 favorites]
Johnston, 17, who is entering his senior year at Wasilla HS, plays on the school hockey team and was once teammates on a youth squad with Palin's older brother, Track, 19, who is now in the Army.
Despite suffering a cracked bone in his shin last season, Johnston scored 24 goals in 24 games.
‘We don't want to talk about this,’ said a woman who answered the phone at the Johnston home.
On his MySpace page, Johnston boasts, ‘I'm a f - - -in' redneck’ who likes to snowboard and ride dirt bikes.
‘But I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing, shoot some s- - - and just f - - -in' chillin' I guess.’
‘Ya f - - - with me I'll kick [your] ass,’ he added.
He also claims to be ‘in a relationship,’ but states, ‘I don't want kids.’’’
On his MySpace page, Johnston (...) claims to be "in a relationship," but states, "I don't want kids."That's still (or at least very recently) on his MySpace page?
"Sarah Palin Nude Pictures, Bristol Daughter’s Second Child and more trouble."posted by ericb at 10:31 PM on September 1, 2008
So, with THAT NOTE, we OFFICIAL LAUNCH THE SARAH PALIN NAKED PHOTOSHOP CONTENT! Create, inspire, share! Send us your hottest pics of Sarah Palin — email to hollywoodnewsroom@gmail.com. So what’s the top prize? Um, we actually do have an unopened review copy of Tina Fey’s Baby Mama — ON BLU-RAY!Somehow I don't think that picture is legitimate.
he Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register.Today, The Times just wrote an article about wikidrama potentially involving a U.S. major party vice presidential candidate.
The Times is the original "Times" newspaper, lending its name to many other papers around the world, such as The New York Times, The Times of India, and The Irish Times. For specificity it is sometimes referred to outside of (though never within) the UK as the London Times. The paper is the originator of the ubiquitous Times New Roman typeface, originally developed by Stanley Morison of The Times in collaboration with the Monotype Corporation for its legibility in low-tech printing.
The newspaper was printed in broadsheet format for 200 years, but switched to compact size in 2004 in an attempt to appeal to younger readers.
PAPPYposted by chuckdarwin at 3:13 AM on September 2, 2008 [4 favorites]
I signed that bill! I signed a dozen
a those aggi-culture bills! Everyone
knows I'm a friend a the fahmuh!
What do I gotta do, start diddlin'
livestock?!
JUNIOR
We cain't do that, Daddy, we might
offend our constichency.
PAPPY
We ain't got a constichency! Stokes
got a constichency!
ECKARD
Them straw polls is ugly.
SPIVEY
Stokes is pullin' ah pants down.
ECKARD
Gonna pluck us off the tit.
SPIVEY
Pappy gonna be sittin' there pants
down and Stokes at the table soppin'
up the gravy.
ECKARD
Latch right on to that tit.
SPIVEY
Wipin' little circles with his bread.
ECKARD
Suckin' away.
SPIVEY
Well, it's a well-run campaign,
midget'n broom'n whatnot.
ECKARD
Devil his due.
SPIVEY
Helluva awgazation.
JUNIOR
Say, I gotten idee.
ECKARD
What sat, Junior?
JUNIOR
We could hire us a little fella even
smaller'n Stokes's.
Pappy whips at him with his hat.
PAPPY
Y'ignorant slope-shouldered sack a
guts! Why we'd look like a buncha
satchel-ass Johnnie-Come-Latelies
braggin' on our own midget! Don't
matter how stumpy! And that's the
goddamn problem right there - people
think this Stokes got fresh ideas,
he's oh coorant and we the past.
ECKARD
Problem a p'seption.
SPIVEY
Ass right.
ECKARD
Reason why he's pullin' ah pants
down.
SPIVEY
Gonna paddle ah little bee-hind.
ECKARD
Ain't gonna paddle it; he's gonna
kick it real hard.
With his mouth forming an O around his dropping cigar, Pappy
looks sadly from one to the other, like a spectator at a
particularly boring tennis match.
SPIVEY
No, I believe he's a-gonna paddle
it.
ECKARD
Well now, I don't believe assa
property scription.
SPIVEY
Well, that's how I characterize it.
ECKARD
Well, I believe it's mawva kickin'
sichation.
SPIVEY
Pullin' ah pants down...
ECKARD
Wipin' little circles with his
bread...
The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing an interview with campaign manager Rick Davis, that the vetting process "included reviews of financial and other personal data, an FBI background check and considerable discussion among the handful of McCain advisers nvolved in the deliberations.Forget who you want answering that 3am phone call. McCain's doesn't even have a phone, apparently.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not participate in the vetting of Gov. Sarah Palin and did not conduct a background check as part of the process, an FBI spokesman said today.
City librarian Mary Ellen Emmons will stay, but Police Chief Irl Stambaugh is on his own, Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin announced Friday. The decision came one day after letters signed by Palin were dropped on Stambaugh's and Emmon's desks, telling them their jobs were over as of Feb. 13.So she governs by heart. That's good to know, and reminds me of George Bush who "goes by his gut."
The mayor told them she appreciated their service but felt it was time for a change. ''I donot feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment ...'' the letter said.
Palin said Friday she now feels Emmons supports her but does not feel the same about Stambaugh. As to what prompted the change, Palin said she now has Emmons' assurance that she is behind her. She refused to give details about how Stambaugh has not supported her, saying only that ''You know in your heart when someone is supportive of you.''
The actions have caused a stir in Wasilla, a town of about 4,600.When I first started reading about Palin...3 days ago...if was "the city of Wasilla, pop. 8000." Man, that place just keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Emmons, who has been the city's library director for seven years, would not comment about the affair.I hope Mary Ellen Baker nee Emmons changes her mind.
The GOP couldn't send a worse signal if their delegates lit their hair on fire and ran around the convention floor screaming "We're all gonna die! We're all gonna die!"Huh? That worked very well for them in their 2004 convention.
And when liberals and progressives pounce on rumors like this one about Trig's "true" parentage — whether or not it is true, which I'm pretty sure it's not — or rumors about Republican politicians' sexuality (in the absence of crimes committed) we are conceding that conservatives are right, and personal choices do qualify or disqualify one for certain aspects of participation in public life and this democracy.Of course, many of the people supporting Obama really are social conservatives, who really do think that personal issues should matter. Andrew Sullivan is an economic conservative, I'm not sure what his stance is on personal stuff like this.
And the Washington Post's op-ed page is comparing Palin to Caligula's horse.Oh, well that's classy.
What kind of self-respecting Paulite would be swayed by putting a book banner on the ticket?McCain already had that vote locked upUh, no, he didn't.
Ever hear of Ron Paul? -- konolia
City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter.Well, that's encouraging. Maybe they should build a campaign slogan off of this:
"In March, 2008, Sarah Palin recorded a video welcoming the convention of the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party (AIP), saying 'we have a great promise to be a self-sufficient state, made up of the hardest working, most grateful Americans in our nation.'"John McCain has a problem with patriotism -- he keeps talking about putting America first, but his running mate, Sarah Palin, was a member of the Alaska Independence Party, a political party that would put Alaska first by seceding from the U.S. She addressed that group -- this year...
In October, 2007, Dexter Clark, the AIP's vice chairman, was recorded on video saying that Palin had been a registered member of the AIP before switching to the GOP to be viable.
In the same video, Clark says 'the Federal goverment is just plain a monster' and 'we don't say we are Americans, we say we are Alaskans.'
Clark's comments were delivered at 'The Second North American Secessionist Convention' in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
AIP's motto is 'Alaska First. Alaska Always'
[video | 01:23]
"Is the McCain campaign afraid of an 'October surprise' involving vice-presidential pick Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska?An Anchorage Daily News story suggests that Palin's lawyer is helping stall the investigation. He's trying to get the probe into the hands of a governor-appointed board:
The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.
'It's likely to be damaging to the Governor,' said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation of claims that Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired."
"The state has hired a private lawyer to represent Gov. Sarah Palin's office in the Legislature's investigation into the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The lawyer already has challenged whether lawmakers even have authority to oversee the inquiry.And he's making it difficult for Special Counsel Steve Branchflower to interview Palin:
...Van Flein said the investigation should be handled by the state Personnel Board, not the Legislature, because it's 'statutorily mandated' to handle ethics cases. The three-member Personnel Board is appointed by the governor."
"Branchflower hasn't been able to set up an interview with Palin. French said the state will fly Branchflower to wherever Palin is on the campaign trail if needed.posted by ericb at 9:54 AM on September 2, 2008 [1 favorite]
'Clearly the governor's new political role will make it more challenging for her to make time for this investigation,' French wrote. But Palin needs to be interviewed sometime in September, he said.
Van Flein said the investigation is 'bad timing' in the middle of a presidential campaign. He said he couldn't guarantee her availability this month."*
"News continues to break regarding vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin that could, in the long term, pose serious problems to one of the main thrusts of the McCain campaign: the message of conservative reform.posted by ericb at 10:02 AM on September 2, 2008 [3 favorites]
The presentation of Palin as an anti-earmark, fiscally conscious pol is challenged by a review of recent political records. As mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she hired the firm of Hoffman Silver Gilman & Blasco to help secure spending projects for her town. The expenditure apparently paid off. From 2000 through 2002, Wasilla received more than $5.5 million in federal cash for transportation and social service projects.
According to the group Citizens Against Government Waste, the city received $1 million for a bus facility in 2000. In 2001, the Wasilla Health Center was granted a half million dollars for a community mental health center. That same year the city's emergency shelter also was granted $500,000 for a transitional living program for homeless youth. A year later, the Wasilla regional dispatch center received $1 million in pork, the city was granted $1.5 million for water and sewer improvements, and received an additional $600,000 for a bus facility.
The use of the earmark system that -- as a vice presidential candidate -- Palin now criticizes continued into her tenure as governor. As the Los Angeles Times reported, the state of Alaska requested 31 earmarks worth $197.8 million for next year's federal budget. And according to Citizens Against Government Waste, Alaska received $379,669,715 in pork during fiscal year 2008, nearly $100 million more than any other state.
...John McCain has made earmark bashing a cornerstone of his campaign, calling the spending projects a 'gateway to corruption.' And since taking on the responsibility of running mate, Palin too has presented herself as a thorn in the side of the earmark culture."
Rudy Giuliani's been bumped tonight in favor of Fred Thompson. There's a part of me that wonders if it's because he's replacing Palin on the ticket tomorrow.
But, how many of you would have considered voting for John Edwards in the primary if it came out he was having an Affair?
"A real test of a presidential candidate’s judgment is his choice of a running mate — the person who is next in line to become the commander in chief. As we face serious global challenges and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, John McCain has chosen someone with virtually no national security or foreign policy experience. This choice calls into question both Sen. McCain’s judgment and a McCain administration’s ability to lead a nation in crisis. To the extent that this choice represents an effort to court supporters of Hillary Clinton’s historic candidacy, McCain misjudges the reasons so many voters rallied around her candidacy. It was Sen. Clinton’s experience, skill and commitment to change, especially in the areas of health care and energy policy, that drew such strong support. Sarah Palin’s opposition to Roe v. Wade and her support of Big Oil will not draw Democrats from the Obama-Biden ticket."posted by ericb at 10:12 AM on September 2, 2008
"My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month...Our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the past couple of years and certainly in terms of the legislation I’ve passed in the past couple of years, post-Katrina."posted by ericb at 10:17 AM on September 2, 2008 [2 favorites]
I have been following this story since it broke via this thread. I have followed it rabidly over the past 72 hours. I am now very happy to see the mainstream media run with the story. That Carville piece on Larry King was priceless. All of the helpless tittering in the background is, I think, how most people serious about politics view this nomination.I think you mean "most people serious about governance.
"She didn't visit Ireland, which is what the McCain-Palin campaign claimed to Politico's Ben Smith on Saturday. She had a short refueling stopover, which means at best her extensive Irish diplomacy amounted to buying a sweater and a beer mug in the Shannon airport."posted by ericb at 11:56 AM on September 2, 2008 [6 favorites]
As to the predictions that Palin will withdraw--how?? in the middle of the RNC? How can they possibly get another person on the ticket (you know, they have to make the little introductory video for this person and all) in the next two days?I don't think she's going to withdraw. But I think that, if she is, yes, it's going to be in the middle of the RNC. They'll nominate her, and she'll give her I-Didn't-Have-An-Abortion spiel, there will be thunderous applause, and she will say "But the liberals are forcing me from this race with their dastardly attacks on my family, so I must decline the nomination".
"My first reaction was shock. Then anger. John McCain chose a running mate simply because she is a woman and one who appealed to the Republican's conservative evangelical base. Now, with news that Palin's 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant, McCain's pick may not even find support among 'family values' voters.posted by ericb at 12:20 PM on September 2, 2008 [1 favorite]
...McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical and calculated move. It is a choice made to try to win an election. It is a political gimmick. And it's very high risk. I find it insulting to women, to the Republican party, and to the country.
This is nothing against Palin. From what little we know about her, she seems to be a bright, attractive, impressive person. She certainly has been successful in her 44 years. But is she ready to be president?
And now we learn the 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant. She and the father of the child plan to marry. This may be a hard one for the Republican conservative family-values crowd to swallow. Of course, this can happen in any family. But it must certainly raise the question among the evangelical base about whether Sarah Palin has been enough of a hands-on mother.
McCain claims he knew about the pregnancy, and was not at all concerned. Why not? Not only do we have a woman with five children, including an infant with special needs, but a woman whose 17-year-old child will need her even more in the coming months. Not to mention the grandchild. This would inevitably be an enormous distraction for a new vice president (or president) in a time of global turmoil. Not only in terms of her job, but from a media standpoint as well.
McCain's cynical choice has created a dilemma for many women. For still-angry Hillary Clinton voters, they will have to decide if they want to vote against their concscience and political interests by voting to elect a Republican woman who's even more conservative than McCain.
Evangelical women also will have to decide if they will vote against their conscience by voting to put the mother of young children in a job outside the home that will demand so much of her time and energy.
Southern Baptist leaders like Richard Land and Al Mohler have praised McCain's choice. But these are the same men who support this statement from the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message:
'A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.'
Palin's lack of experience and her family situation are both valid and vital considerations here, especially when she will be running with a 72-year-old presidential candidate who has suffered four bouts of a deadly cancer." [more]
John McCain has picked an unknown to run with him, a 44-year old mother of five with Alaskan sensibilities of the drill more for Alaska bent, and the women don't own our bodies, god owns our own bodies bent, which probably tells us all we'll ever find out about her.posted by designbot at 12:22 PM on September 2, 2008
There isn't much time before the election, but, one thing we can be fairly sure of is that she doesn't need to be vetted. It's highly unlikely that Sarah Palin is anything other than exactly what she says she is.
She's unlikely to have criminal connections, or have some lover stowed in the back room, caring for her love child. I'd venture to guess she owes no one financial favors, and so she won't have to pledge that she won't make good on any.
I doubt any rich guys have compromised her by seducing her with their connections and wealth. She can't have been planning all along to run for national office, but even so she probably didn't have to think much about keeping her background squeaky clean, or secret. She probably well knows that there is no such thing as a secret anyway.
Why? She's a girl.
It's a guy thing to lust for power and think they can keep secrets and get away with anything. It's a guy thing to keep some other woman on a string while staying married. Guys are good at compartmentalizing, and letting their ambitions blind them to their human shortcomings. Guys often think they can do anything, and get away with it. Girls often think they can't get away with anything, and anyway it'd be too much trouble.
Girls lives are often open books, cause someone knows where they are 24/7. This is double if you're a mom. This is triple if you're a wife too. Men may go out and not let anyone know where they are, wives and moms have to leave numbers and instructions for the babysitter so as to find them in emergencies. Girls rarely go out alone anyway. Girls share with their friends their innermost thoughts and feelings. Girls also know their friends share their secrets with everyone else they know.
Sarah's only possible weak spot would be her husband, and only if he refuses to show his sources of income might that harm her. Gerry's downfall was her Italian businessman husband, she was herself squeaky clean. If Sarah's husband has a love child somewhere, it won't hurt Sarah.
Even when Hillary was running as vetted, the only smeary thing pundits had the nerve to speculate on was Bill, no one thought she had any secrets that could derail her campaign.
So, why aren't all public figures girls? We're sooo vetted, sooo transparent, sooo uncompromised, and some, like Hillary, are sooo much smarter, and work sooo much harder and are just all in all sooo much better? (hint: the sexists want to keep us quiet, barefoot and knocked up)
Sarah may be a smarty too, but we already know about her desire to make us all carry all our fetuses to term and then be solely responsible for them. It's not a secret, she's a know-it-all born-again jerk.
How does such a facile observation that is made of nothing but sweeping generalizations contribute to the conversation?Don't you worry your pretty little head about that.
I'm not sure how we survive this as a party. The one thing I do know is this doesn't help us beat Obama in the fall, and all joking aside, though Alaskan Trailer Trash living in the VPs house in Washington isn't a good thing, it's MUCH MUCH better than Obama being elected.(Obviously Perez Hilton (the first link) isn't a republican, but still -- not everyone talking about this is doing so because they want to sink her chances, but because they're genuinely curious about what's going on. it's hardly surprising that people would be curious, given how popular tabloid style journalism is in this country)
I mean, this is so counter-productive. All we’re doing is showing the American people — who are to a one a nation of “fuckin’ redneck” hockey playing snowmobile racers given to leaping headlong into unprotected sex at the earliest age possible so that they might spend their government checks shooting wolves from airplanes and building wonderful bridges hither and yon with their enormous families in tow — that we’re out of touch with their concerns.(that's kind of an edgy site, those of you complaining about civility won't like the rest of what's written there, but I found that paragraph pretty funny)
"Bristol Palin's boyfriend plans to join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the convention in Minnesota.posted by ericb at 2:54 PM on September 2, 2008
Levi Johnston's mother said her 18-year-old son left Alaska on Tuesday morning to join the Palin family in St. Paul.
Sherry Johnston also said there has been no pressure put on her son to marry Bristol Palin, the pregnant daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin."
Yeah -- right. "Country First."To be fair, they never specified "America". They might be talking about Alaska.
Sarah Palin is Your New Segway
And in an ongoing report here on the ground, McCain signs are going like crazy -people call my house looking for them-and people still are excited-incredibly excited-about Palin.
“As questions have been raised over how thoroughly Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign vetted Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the V.P. slot, it seems the McCain campaign was unaware of a video -- available online -- in which Palin talks about God's role in U.S. military action overseas, according to a political operative familiar with the situation.posted by ericb at 4:08 PM on September 2, 2008 [2 favorites]
The video, first reported by the liberal blog HuffingtonPost.com, is from a June Palin speech to the graduating class of commission students at Palin's former church in Wasilla, Alaska. While describing her family, Palin told students about her oldest son, 19-year-old Track, who is set to be deployed to Iraq this month with the U.S. Army. She urged students to pray ‘that our leaders -- that our national leaders -- are sending [soldiers] out on a task that is from God.’
She added, ‘That's what we have to make sure that we are praying for: that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan.’
‘It's pretty uncomfortable stuff,’ said the political operative, after watching the video online. ‘It's bad. It's really bad. … It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.’
In addition to talking about Iraq, Palin also referred to God's role in her work as governor.
‘I can do my part in working really, really hard to get a natural gas pipeline, about a $30 billion project that's going to create a lot of jobs for Alaska. … [but] I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,’ she said. ‘I can do my job there in developing our natural resources, in doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded. But really that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's hearts aren't right with God.’
It wasn't all serious, though. At one point during the address, Palin praised the graduating class as ‘a bunch of cool-looking Christians.’ Then she picked out one student in the crowd and said with a smile, ‘Ben, I don't know you well enough yet, but looking at you, I'm thinking, people are going to interested in Jesus Christ through you because of the way you look - this red-headed Sasquatch for Jesus. You look good!’ The students cheered. ‘Times are really changin'. And with the times that change, looks even change.’
The seven-minute speech is posted on the Web site of Palin's former church, the Wasilla Assembly of God. But, the political operative said, the McCain campaign seems to have had no knowledge of it when Palin was announced as McCain's running mate on Friday.”
We now have a person running for office, who is potentially a heartbeat away from becoming President of the United States, who could potentially send us straight back to medieval times. She stated in a televised debate that she supports the teaching of creationism in schools... Regardless of one's political views, I find it hard to believe the majority of this country support the candidacy of a person with such narrow-minded, backward-looking beliefs. Divisiveness is not what we need at this critical point in the evolution of our society and of the world, especially when challenges to the status quo haven't been higher in generations. Do you think China, India and Russia are moving light-years backwards in their science programs to teach creationism? Do you really think we can continue to be competitive on an increasingly challenging global stage when science is something you learn from the Bible, and not from scholarly texts in biology, anthropology, chemistry and physics? I shudder to think what will happen to our knowledge economy in such a scenario.i think brooks (kinda) gets it:
I have been reading a fascinating book about Intel's Andy Grove by Richard Tedlow. It traces Mr. Grove's childhood and eventual escape from Hungary in 1956, and the remarkable life he has built since his move to the U.S. Mr. Grove is a man of science, of determination, of massive intellect and is a lifelong learner. He has used his powers to fight both prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease, and was employee #3 and the architect of growth at arguably the most important company to bring us into the PC generation and out towards the Internet generation. I wonder what Governor Palin would think of Mr. Grove's life story and the role of science in his personal and professional development? It is hard to imagine this self-proclaimed "hockey mom" being impressed. Rest assured, I am.
When I see the U.S. through my prism - being whatever you want to be if you work hard enough, inclusive, edgy, aggressive about ensuing our personal freedoms, innovative, caring, focused and fierce under duress, willing to change but without compromising the spirit of our Constitution - it saddens me to see where we find ourselves. Eight years of a fractious, troubled Administration, with the possibility of not more of the same, but perhaps much, much worse...
If McCain is elected, he will... be leading a divided and philosophically exhausted party. There simply aren’t enough Republican experts left to staff an administration, so he will have to throw together a hodgepodge with independents and Democrats...the logically-challenged need not apply!
meta question: This thread currently has about 185k words. How big a book would that be?About the size of the New Testament. Nowhere near the size of the Old Testament.
Oh, I'm sorry-was I supposed to take her out back and stone her?No, you were (well, your husband was) supposed to charge him fifty shekels.
Seems like a certain Someone has been quoted as saying, " Go-and sin no more."The "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" story is present in none of the known original Greek copies of the Gospel of John. None. Zero.
Republican National Committee co-chair JoAnne Davidson mistakenly referred to the party's presumptive vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, as "Sarah Pawlenty" at the Republican National Convention Tuesday.From CNN.
"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.posted by ericb at 5:55 PM on September 2, 2008 [8 favorites]
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.
According to Passage House's web site, its purpose is to provide 'young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives' and help teen moms 'become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families.'"
"[McCain campaign chair Rick] Davis demurred when asked when Palin will sit for interviews with major news organizations, pointing out that now would not be the right time given the 'combative' attitude the media has seemingly adopted toward Palin." *posted by ericb at 5:59 PM on September 2, 2008 [1 favorite]
Well, we see that tweety is reading & quoting the republican talking points - the Teddy Roosevelt thing is one of the consistent lines.Yeah, I was (but I guess shouldn't have been) surprised when, after Matthews was gushing over himself to proclaim McCain and Palin "Teddy Roosevelt types", they cut to the actual convention, wherein Republicans were praising Teddy Roosevelt.
All of the children received the family life services available in their community, in addition, slightly more than half of them also received abstinence-only education.But I may have misunderstood.
"A new study has showed that the falling teenage pregnancy rate in the United States is not due to young people abstaining from sex, but as a result of a wider and better uptake of contraceptives and condoms. The Bush administration has been claiming for years that abstinence is the answer to dealing with unwanted teenage pregnancies.Teen Births Up for First Time in 15 Years
You can read about this new study in the American Journal of Public Health.
The study found that abstinence accounted for only 14% of the fall in teenage pregnancies over the last decade, while 86% was due to better use of contraceptives and condoms. There was a 27% drop in the teenage pregnancy rate during the decade up to 2002. The study found that in 2002 sexually active teenagers had better use of contraceptive methods, including condoms and birth control pills than in 1995.
Many publicly funded programs in the USA promote abstinence-only-until-marriage at the cost of education on contraception - these programs prohibit information about the advantages/benefits of condoms and contraception."
"After years of decline, the teen birth rate rose in 2006 for the first time since 1991, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in December.posted by ericb at 6:33 PM on September 2, 2008 [2 favorites]
...Several individuals, including a teacher and a doctor, expressed concern with the misinformation about sex among teens during the online chat. Some pointed to their local abstinence-only programs, saying that teens under these programs that chose to be sexually active were left with very little information about contraception.
Albert said that at present, there is no evidence to suggest that abstinence-only interventions are effective, but that programs that encourage both abstinence and contraception have been shown to be effective.
'We have a growing amount of evidence suggesting that sex education that discusses both abstinence and contraception are effective at delaying sex and improving contraceptive use among sexually active teens,' Albert said. 'The teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. has declined an extraordinary 36 percent since 1990 due to less sex and more contraception. We need more of both.'"
Sure, as long as you throw the abortion rates in there as well. –konoliaYou're not seriously suggesting that abstinence only education would lower abortion rates, are you? I mean, it seems obvious that fewer unplanned pregnancies would result in fewer abortions, and we do know that abstinence only education increases unplanned pregnancies. There is nothing in abstinence only education that would reduce the chance for a pregnancy -- once it occurs could end in abortion. After all, if they do get pregnant, they obviously weren’t following their instructions.
"[McCain campaign chair Rick] Davis demurred when asked when Palin will sit for interviews with major news organizations, pointing out that now would not be the right time given the 'combative' attitude the media has seemingly adopted toward Palin."Is he fucking kidding? What does he think the media's job is?
Unfortunately, I think the similarity is probably more along the lines of Roosevelt's quote, "I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one".Chris Matthews just referred to McCain and Palin as "two Teddy Roosevelt types"They're going to call for National Health Insurance?
8:47 CDT [Sean] The Washington Post reports that Sarah Palin was a part-owner of an Anchorage car wash, that she failed to report her stake in the company, and that the company was eventually shut down by the state for not paying state licensing fees.posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:58 PM on September 2, 2008 [1 favorite]
8:47 CDT [Sean] The Washington Post reports that Sarah Palin was a part-owner of an Anchorage car wash, that she failed to report her stake in the company, and that the company was eventually shut down by the state for not paying state licensing fees."The warning letter was written on state letterhead, which carried Palin's name at the top, next to the state seal." Heh.
Weird framing from lieberman.The part that strikes me as particularly weird (for the convention so far, not just Lieberman) is the cognitive dissonance of two separate themes that are both being pushed strongly:
"'Levi Johnston, the boyfriend of the pregnant 17-year-old Bristol Palin, plans to join the family at the Republican Party's nomination here of mom and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for vice president....The McCain campaign just spent the entire day yelling at everyone to leave these kids alone. Now they're going to put them on stage before millions of Americans. Is John McCain in charge any more? Is anyone?"
So much for family privacy: Imagine the attention this couple will confront in the media-filled Xcel Energy Center where the hurricane-truncated convention is playing out....
The Palin family already has captured the attention of this hall, after Sarah Palin and husband Todd announced Monday that their daughter planned to have the baby and marry the father. They also asked the media to respect the young couple's privacy.
Good luck with that this week, as the small-town hockey player makes his national TV debut.'*
What did Andrea Mitchell do?Nothing. Just interviewed him.
There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project -- all intended to benefit Palin's town, Wasilla, located about 45 miles north of Anchorage.Is this usual for a town of 6,700 residents? I'm thinking that instead of hiring a city manager, maybe my town of Garner (pop 20,000) should hire a lobbyist. Going by Sarah Palin standards, I figure we should get about $80,000,000 to spend on our town. Mayor Ronnie is going to be so excited! But he needs to jump on this because McCain might get elected and McCain is "against wasteful federal spending."
I was commander-in-chief of the Vermont National Guard...So much for that argument.
[snip]
I had zero authority over the troops. I even tested my power during my term of office when I objected to the Vermont National Guard being sent to Honduras for training. I was responding to many of my constituents who objected to the guard being deployed there because they feared it would heighten U.S. participation in the strife in Nicaragua.
I was promptly told, "No way." To make certain that no Governor tried to be "commander-in-chief" of the national guard the Congress passed a law in 1987, called, the Montgomery amendment which states "that a governor cannot withhold consent with regard to active duty outside of the United States." In 2007, governors' powers were whittled down further by the John Warner Defense Administration Act: "the Governor of a state is no longer the sole commander-in-chief of the National Guard during emergencies within the state. The President of the United States will now be able to take control of a state's National Guard units without the governor's consent."
“It looks like Sarah Palin's claim to represent a cleaner brand of politics could be about to take a bruising.posted by ericb at 8:50 PM on September 2, 2008
The Washington Post reports today that, while Mayor of Wasilla, Palin oversaw the hiring of a lobbyist, Steven Silver -- a former chief of staff to now-indicted GOP senator Ted Stevens -- to help win federal earmarks for the city.
But Silver appears to have additional ties that could further undercut Palin's image as a squeaky-clean reformer. According to Senate lobbying disclosure reports examined by TPMmuckraker, from 2002 to 2004 Silver listed as a client Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. On Greenberg's behalf, Silver lobbied the federal government on ‘issues relating to Indian/Native American policy,’ ‘exploration for oil and gas’ and ‘legislation relating to gaming issues’ -- the very issues that Abramoff headed up for Greenberg at the time. In other words, Silver appears to have been a part of ‘Team Abramoff.’”
the leaders of the abortion criminalization movement have consistently put their political weight behind policies which make little or no sense if they genuinely think that abortion is identical to child murder. And those same leaders routinely endorse policies that make a lot of sense if their goal is to penalize women who have sex - to, as I’ve heard many of them put it, make sure women "face the consequences" of having sex.posted by kirkaracha at 8:50 PM on September 2, 2008 [4 favorites]
"As you might expect from an Alaskan politician, you don’t have to look far for a connection to Big Oil. Her husband, Todd Palin, works as a production operator for BP Alaska in Prudhoe Bay, according to Palin’s 2007 financial disclosure form [PDF] (which we’ve obtained from the Alaska Public Offices Commission and scanned so everyone can see). Mr. Palin is not totally reliant on BP for his income, however. He’s also a champion 'Iron Dog snowmobile racer with sponsorships, and he owns a fishery that sells to PeterPan Seafoods.posted by ericb at 9:21 PM on September 2, 2008
“The founder of the Alaska Independence Party -- a group that has been courted over the years by Sarah Palin, and one her husband was a member of for roughly seven years -- once professed his ‘hatred for the American government’ and cursed the American flag as a ‘damn flag.’Dawson -- coincidence?
The AIP founder, Joe Vogler, made the comments in 1991, in an interview that's now housed at the Oral History Program in the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
‘The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government,’ Vogler said in the interview, in which he talked extensively about his desire for Alaskan secession, the key goal of the AIP.
‘And I won't be buried under their damn flag,’ Vogler continued in the interview, which also touched on his disappointment with the American judicial system. ‘I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.’”
I’m reading an article from October 1996, in which a reporter named Laura Mitchell Harris asks Palin about her intentions for a shake up. How would she effectively run a city without experienced leaders? "it's not rocket science," Palin said, “It’s $6 million and 53 employees.”posted by delmoi at 10:00 PM on September 2, 2008
As Palin campaigned unsuccessfully in 2002 to become lieutenant governor, she received contributions from executives at VECO Corp., a powerful Alaska oil field services company. Company founder Bill Allen has admitted the company steers its donations through a "special bonus program" in which executives received money and the company instructed them to donate it to favored politicians.My favorite part:
Allen pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges. He admitted the program violated federal tax laws and said it was used to keep his political allies flush with cash.
"If they're working with the oil industry, I'd like to help with their campaigns," Allen testified last year in the corruption trial of a former state lawmaker.
Defending his choice and the team that helped pick her, McCain said Tuesday that "the vetting process was completely thorough." Campaign advisers at the convention in St. Paul, Minn., said Palin filled out a survey with 70 questions, including: Have you ever paid for sex? Have you been faithful in your marriage? Have you ever used or purchased drugs? Have you ever downloaded pornography?
"GOP vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin touts her record as a reformer who worked to end the 'abuses of earmark spending in Congress.' But Palin has embraced earmarks from early on in her career as a mayor of Wasilla to the governor's mansion in Juneau. Just this year she sent to Sen. Ted. Stevens a proposal for 31 earmarks totaling $197 million — more, per person, than other state."posted by ericb at 10:09 PM on September 2, 2008 [1 favorite]
"A wealth of new details regarding Palin's record and personal life - her past association with an Alaska secessionist party, her Troopergate troubles, her record of raising sales taxes, flip-flops on the famous 'Bridge to Nowhere' - surfaced overnight, raising questions from political observers about her suitability and qualifications for the office that is a heartbeat away from the presidency.posted by ericb at 10:36 PM on September 2, 2008
Scrutiny about the life of the Alaska governor and former small-town mayor became a nonstop media feeding frenzy as the new reports raised questions regarding whether McCain properly did his homework and used solid judgment in picking a largely unknown and untested candidate.
...Republican National Committee talking points distributed to the Alaska delegation and obtained by The Chronicle instructed the delegates of the 49th to 'STAY POSITIVE' when talking with the press regarding Palin. The talking points also stressed that the Alaska delegates note Palin's role as a maverick and chief executive schooled in an issue of deep concern to Americans - energy - and that she 'knows how to provide energy independence to this country.'
Political pundits said the most intense scrutiny of Palin has only just begun.
'It is already obvious that (McCain) barely knows her,' said University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato.
'I sense a few media investigations in the works, as the press and public try to assess Palin's fitness to be a heartbeat away from the presidency in a potential administration headed by a 72-year-old man with a history of dangerous melanoma,' he said."
'Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday... McCain had spoken with all of the others on his shortlist over the course of a selection process that went on for several months, but he was least familiar personally with the person he finally chose.'How confident does that make you in McCain's executive skills? And one wonders whether the vetters had read this Anchorage Daily News story or this one. Or whether they were aware that she had been at a Jews For Jesus sermon only a week or so previously, on August 17, where the speaker said that anti-Israeli terrorism was 'God's Judgment' for the Jews not converting to Christianity.
"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."posted by delmoi at 10:57 PM on September 2, 2008
Palin was in church that day, Kroon said, though he cautioned against attributing Brickner’s views to her.
Palin said she's not aiming to take any time off from her job as governor, assuming all goes well with the pregnancy. She said when she had Piper -- Palin was mayor of Wasilla at the time -- the baby was born on a Monday and she returned to the office on Tuesday.What does this say about women who don't go back to work the day after giving birth?
"I've always been a believer that God's not going to give us anything that we cannot handle," Palin said.
In a letter she e-mailed to relatives and close friends Friday after giving birth, Palin wrote, "Many people will express sympathy, but you don't want or need that, because Trig will be a joy. You will have to trust me on this." She wrote it in the voice of and signed it as "Trig's Creator, Your Heavenly Father."Sarah is so tuned into God's thoughts, she can actually take dictation from him.
Palin’s pastor, Larry Kroon, introduced Brickner on Aug. 17, according to a transcript of the sermon on the church’s website.posted by XQUZYPHYR at 5:43 AM on September 3, 2008
“He’s a leader of Jews for Jesus, a ministry that is out on the leading edge in a pressing, demanding area of witnessing and evangelism,” Kroon said.
Brickner then explained that Jesus and his disciples were themselves Jewish.
“The Jewish community, in particular, has a difficult time understanding this reality,” he said.
Brickner’s mission has drawn wide criticism from the organized Jewish community, and the Anti-Defamation League accused them in a report of “targeting Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception.”
Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.
"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."
Palin was in church that day, Kroon said, though he cautioned against attributing Brickner’s views to her.
From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred. Someone who believes every one of those fetus terminations is equivalent to murder will make supporting the party that at least pays lip service to the issue their number one priority.Someone who believes every one of those fetus terminations is equivalent to murder would advocate charging the murderers with murder.
"Let's assume nothing will happen."That's a good one, but my favorite so far was from some (Republican) member of the Alaska state legislature (from memory, probably not an exact quote, but at least close):
-Joe Lieberman, on Sarah Palin's qualifications to take over for John McCain
Right, she's trying to be VP. So I realize digging through her personal stuff might be interesting, but not all of it has something to do with her campaign. As people were saying up above, it be nice to make the campaign about the big things, not the small stuff. This is small stuff. What her associates opinions are is small stuff. How she has governed is bigger, but only in respect to trying to judge McCain's decision to pick her as a running mate.How she'll govern if something happens to McCain isn't relevant to the election? (other then a reflection on McCain)? Her Opinions are small stuff
I was listening to NPR coverage of the convention on my way home last night and one reporter noted that he had talked to many, many delegates and not a single one of them had anything negative to say about Palin.You mean people at the republican convention had nice things to say about their candidate? That's not really all that surprising.
Steve Branchflower, the lead investigator, began trying to arrange a deposition of the governor days before her veep selection. And despite claiming executive privilege to shield requested emails, up until that point Palin had promised full cooperation with the probe.posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:42 AM on September 3, 2008 [4 favorites]
Now, however, she is refusing to submit to questioning by Branchflower unless he and the legislative committee that appointed him agree to relinquish control of the investigation and turn it over to a state review board made up of three Palin appointees.
do people really want Webster's banned?Sure, why the hell not. It's a book, ain't it?
Yesterday, Palin took the unusual step of having her lawyer, Thomas van Flein, file an ethics complaint against her with the state's Attorney General. This, she hopes, will lead the AG to give the investigation to the aforementioned state personnel board. Unless that happens, and Branchflower agrees to close down his investigation, she will refuse to testify.Weird.
“Either McCain's vetting process was a complete sham. Or his press operation is the worst in modern presidential politics history. Or some unholy blend of both.posted by ericb at 9:08 AM on September 3, 2008 [5 favorites]
Campbell Brown isn't the story - people are underestimating her, as they always have. No, the story is that Tucker Bounds went on national television without material to answer what is maybe the simplest, most straightforward follow-up question any reporter can ask: ‘What's your evidence for that assertion?’ And I suspect that the reason they canceled Larry King is not to punish CNN (it doesn't work that way) it's that they still couldn't come up with an answer to the question by the time his show aired.
Now look at this comment from McCain honcho Steve Schmidt to Katie Couric last night: ‘Members of this campaign went to off-the-record lunches with reporters today, and they were asked if she would do paternity tests to prove paternity for her last child. Smear after smear after smear, and it's disgraceful and it's wrong. And the American people are going to reject it overwhelmingly when they see her.’
First of all, that's the first time I've heard anyone in the campaign/political press throw out the notion of paternity tests. So Schmidt is to blame for bringing that issue into the mainstream. If anyone is smearing the candidate, it's Schmidt. This is as cynical a tactic as I've ever seen in politics.
Secondly, how can it be a ‘smear’ if it was during an off the record lunch with McCain campaign aides?
Thirdly, hey, colleagues, you're on notice: Steve Schmidt does not respect ‘off the record.’ Watch your backs, my friends.”
“John McCain's campaign Wednesday angrily called for an end to questions about its review of Sarah Palin's background, deriding a ‘faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee’ for vice-president.posted by ericb at 9:41 AM on September 3, 2008
‘This nonsense is over,’ declared senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt in a written statement.
The statement stood out for its admission that Palin is under siege - it condemns ‘this vetting controversy’ - and for its attempt to blunt questions about how rigorously McCain and his campaign explored the background of a candidate who may get the country's second most powerful job. It also suggested that Palin is a victim of gender bias in the media.
‘The McCain campaign will have no further comment about our long and thorough process,’ Schmidt said, lashing out at ‘the old boys' network’ that he says runs media organizations.
Top McCain advisers said they welcome and expect a review of Palin's mayoral and gubernatorial record but that the media has crossed that line with its inquiries.
‘Certainly, her record deserves scrutiny, but I think we ought to look at her record,’ campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters on a conference call. He condemned ‘the salacious nature’ of some news stories designed to ‘throw dirt at our candidate.’ He also lamented a ‘frenzied’ mentality on Palin and urged the media to ‘dial it back.’”
Perhaps I'm focusing on an irrelevant issue, but the presence, or non-presence, of Johnston on the stage tonight strikes me as important. It's one thing for delegates to be understanding and compassionate about the fix these two teenagers have gotten themselves into. It's another to actually celebrate it. And, given what we've learned in the last few days, if Johnston is up on stage with his girlfriend and the Palin family, and Republicans are wildly cheering, it will certainly look like they are celebrating this situation.Hmm...
I don't usually engage in these scenarios, but I'll do it here. If the Obamas had a 17 year-old daughter who was unmarried and pregnant by a tough-talking black kid, my guess is if that they all appeared onstage at a Democratic convention and the delegates were cheering wildly, a number of conservatives might be discussing the issue of dysfunctional black families.
“Most US women are unimpressed by Republican John McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, and have thrown their weight behind the Democratic ticket in the race for the White House, a national poll showed today.posted by ericb at 9:55 AM on September 3, 2008
Six in 10 women voters see Senator McCain's choice of a female running mate as a calculated political decision rather than one based on Governor Palin's experience and qualities, the poll conducted by the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group showed.
‘Women voters see the choice of Governor Palin as being driven by politics rather than by any sense of conviction on Senator McCain's part that she has the experience and qualities to make a good vice president,’ the research group said.
A majority of the 800 women polled - 56 per cent - said they were put off by Governor Palin's legislative record and her position on moral issues, such as abortion.
‘When women voters learn that Palin opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, opposes stem cell research and, as governor, opposed funding for state pre-kindergarten programs... a majority say... (they) feel less favourable toward her,’ the poll showed.
…Fifty-two per cent of women voters polled said they would vote for the all-male Democratic ticket of Senator Obama and Joe Biden, while just 41 per cent said they would back Senator McCain and Governor Palin in the November election.”
"Barack needs to jump in and define this as McCain is reckless, rash and risky. The press will define this in terms of Palin, and some percentage of people will feel for her and like her. But if Barack were to step up and say it's reckless to choose a VP - no matter how compelling - after one meeting and a fifteen minute phone call, I don't think anyone could disagree.posted by ericb at 10:07 AM on September 3, 2008 [10 favorites]
Barack needs to go out in public and say, 'Each of us have made our first presidential decision. I chose someone who, God forbid, could be a strong and successful president from day one. I based that decision on thousands of hours I have spent with Joe Biden in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on the Senate floor, on international trips and traveling the country debating him in the primaries. John McCain has made his choice - and he based it on one meeting two years ago and a fifteen minute phone call. That's the kind of rash, reckless and risky decision-making that has typified the last eight years under George W. Bush. If that's how little thought John McCain gives to picking a running mate, how much thought will he give to other decisions of life and death? We cannot afford four more years of impetuous, impulsive, shoot-from-the-hip presidential decisions; it's time for a change.'"
If you're going to oppose abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, and oppose sex-ed programs that promote contraception, then for God's sake, the least--the absolute least--you can do is support programs that make it easier for unmarried teenage girls to keep their babies.Sure, if you're sane. But if you're sane, you wouldn't subscribe to the preconditions that you list.
“Nobody can quite believe that John McCain picked her...I think the question right now is whether or not the choice is going to be withdrawn....before it gets very complicated with the rules of the RNC...And I think that that’s actually what people are thinking about, rather than what will Sarah Palin mean for the country. I don’t get the sense that anybody is totally committed to the idea that she is going to be vice president, or even the vice presidential nominee...This has been greeted with such shock — and with every salacious detail about stuff that wasn’t vetted coming to the floor seemingly with each hour of the news cycle — it is becoming less likely by the hour that Palin will still be John McCain’s nominee even by the end of the week." [video]posted by ericb at 11:12 AM on September 3, 2008
Before the 2006 congressional elections, “the left and the Democrats had spent seven years putting together one of the most powerful political coalitions that had ever been built,” DeLay said Wednesday. ... Santorum, who lost his Senate seat in the 2006 elections, agreed that Democrats had been successful at building their party’s political infrastructure.posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:21 PM on September 3, 2008
“Liberals invest their money in government,” Santorum said, arguing that third-party advertising, “driven, unfortunately ... by our campaign finance laws,” helped Democrats erase Republicans’ historic advantage in fundraising.
He also claimed that liberals’ influence in Hollywood and other cultural arenas helped Democrats take power in Washington.
“The left controls ... those mechanisms of power in our country,” Santorum said. “All we have is the family. All we have is the churches.”
I think Palin was more interested in making sure that she had her baby in Alaska than outside her home state. This is consistent with her husband Todd's statement You can't have a fish picker from Texas. Perhaps Palin thought it was bad public relations for a governor to have a baby outside her home state. Perhaps Palin is so Alaska-centric that she sincerely believed that only an Alaska hospital would do for her baby.Perhaps she is a secessionist, and wants her baby born in her own country, not in the United States.
"Since there is widespread agreement that the children of candidates should not become topics of campaign debate, it behooves us to note that the McCain campaign has almost singlehandedly made Sarah Palin's daughter a central figure in the Republican convention.posted by ericb at 12:46 PM on September 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
It was the McCain campaign that announced Palin's daughter's pregnancy. That alone might be understandable since it appears a supermarket tabloid was about to print the story. But it was the McCain campaign, entirely on its own, that dished up unsubstantiated claims about maternity tests and all sorts of other lurid nonsense that had never been seen in print anywhere. And now the McCain campaign has staged a ceremonial laying-on-of-hands on the tarmac in St. Paul in which Sen. McCain has given his official blessing to the young couple and embrace of Bristol's boyfriend Levi.
Let's be clear about what's happening here. Overwhelmingly, reporters are pressing eminently reasonable questions -- her role in troopergate, her lack of experience, her connections to the AIP, her history of earmarking and lobbyists, etc. Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is going absolutely non-stop about Palin's daughter. It is unmistakable."
"...it's now clear that the McCain campaign WANTS all of America talking about this story. The McCain campaign leaked the story to Reuters. The McCain campaign clearly must have approved, if not cajoled, the 18 year old father to come to the convention. And the McCain campaign staged today's photo op with John McCain touching the boy's shoulder. They want the media to talk about Sarah Palin's unwed daughter's pregnancy. Why? Because it's clearly hurting them with their base, and they're in damage control. And what's a few teenage kids and a baby when the Republicans have an election to win. McCain now feels that he needs to show religious right Republicans (are there any other nowadays?) that the two kids are 'nice' kids, and that they shouldn't blame McCain or Palin for the unwed pregnancy. Talk about hypocritical. Dragging the young man in front of millions of Americans in order to serve John McCain's political ambitions. Talk about reckless. I'm hoping the media is going to ask why the McCain campaign spent the past 24 hours berating the media for covering this story (a story the McCain campaign leaked in the first place), and now the McCain campaign is further the 'private' story with public photo ops."posted by ericb at 12:49 PM on September 3, 2008
“Sarah comes in with all this ideological stuff, and I was like, ‘Whoa,’ ” said Mr. Stein, who lost the election. “But that got her elected: abortion, gun rights, term limits and the religious born-again thing. I’m not a churchgoing guy, and that was another issue: ‘We will have our first Christian mayor.’ ”posted by yarrow at 1:22 PM on September 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
“I thought: ‘Holy cow, what’s happening here? Does that mean she thinks I’m Jewish or Islamic?’ ” recalled Mr. Stein, who was raised Lutheran, and later went to work as the administrator for the city of Sitka in southeast Alaska. “The point was that she was a born-again Christian.”
"Todd: Mike Murphy, Peggy Noonan. Lots of free advice.We'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. Lots of free advice.posted by ericb at 1:45 PM on September 3, 2008 [4 favorites]
blather, cross talk over CT
Noonan: Um, yeah.
Murphy: Um, you know, because, I come out of the blue swing state governor world. Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, I mean, and these guys, this is all how you win a Texas race, just run it up, and it's not gonna work.
Noonan: It's Over.
Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech and do himself some good.
Todd: [can't really tell what he says, but he mentions something about "insulting to Kay Baily Hutchinson]
Noonan: [says something I can't understand]
Todd: She's never looked comfortable up there.
Murphy: Oh, fuck that.
Todd: I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they can obtain?
Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives...[couldn't hear the end of it]
Todd: Yeah, but what's a narrative?
Murphy: I totally agree.
Noonan: Every time Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.
Murphy: You know what's the worst thing about it, the greatest of McCain is no cynicism, and..
Murphy and Todd together: This is cynical.
Todd: And as you called it, gimmicky."
I was also going to link Josh Marshal's point about how McCain is actually hyping the teen pregnancy story, in order to get all the other stuff off the airwaves, but ericb beat me to it.
(republican strategist) Mike Murphy: I come out of the blue-state govern work ... this is all how you win a race in texas, just run it up. And it's not going to work...
Peggy Noonan: It's Over...
Peggy Noonan: They went for this narrative, excuse me, bullshit.
The first time her name ever appears in any news accounts, at least according to Nexis, was an April 3, 1996 article in The Anchorage Daily News that reported this:posted by delmoi at 2:36 PM on September 3, 2008 [2 favorites]
Alaskans Line Up For a Whiff of Ivana
Sarah Palin, a commercial fisherman from Wasilla, told her husband on Tuesday she was driving to Anchorage to shop at Costco. Instead, she headed straight for Ivana.
And there, at J.C. Penney's cosmetic department, was Ivana, the former Mrs. Donald Trump, sitting at a table next to a photograph of herself. She wore a light-colored pantsuit and pink fingernail polish. Her blonde hair was coiffed in a bouffant French twist.
"We want to see Ivana," said Palin, who admittedly smells like salmon for a large part of the summer, "because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture."
Ivana Trump, the former Czechoslovakian Olympic skier who found fame and wealth as the wife of the New York tycoon, came to Anchorage Tuesday to push her line of perfume.
"CHUCK TODD: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job Up next, one man who's already convinced and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.posted by ericb at 3:06 PM on September 3, 2008 [6 favorites]
(cut away)
PEGGY NOONAN: Yeah.
MIKE MURPHY: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys -- this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And --
PEGGY NOONAN: It's over.
MIKE MURPHY: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.
CHUCK TODD: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.
PEGGY NOONAN: Saw Kay this morning.
CHUCK TODD: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this --
MIKE MURPHY: They're all bummed out.
CHUCK TODD: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?
PEGGY NOONAN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives --
CHUCK TODD: Yeah they went to a narrative.
MIKE MURPHY: I totally agree.
PEGGY NOONAN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.
MIKE MURPHY: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.
CHUCK TODD: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.
MIKE MURPHY: Yeah."
Is it over for McCain? The Republicans can pretend that the media has turned against them. They can pretend that they used the hurricane as an excuse to avoid coverage of the convention. They can pretend that only evil, sexist, misogynists are against Sarah Palin. But the truth is that McCain’s cronies have made a fatal choice. They ran this gal up the flagpole and the pole broke from shock.Well-known media liberal Michael Savage.
On this Palin story, I would just say that it seems unlikely the Enquirer was on it before mid-day on Friday, when McCain announced his pick. I believe the paper closes on Monday night, so I think it's safe to say that its brief piece is not the result of a months-long investigation.I wonder which of the Enquirer story or the VP pick will turn out to have been more thoroughly vetted.
I'm afraid the sheer overload of Palinyakk has officially clogged the Intertubes. Please come back in a few days; we need to call a plumber.Maybe Sarah Palin could get in touch with her buddy Ted Stevens to see if there's a plumber he could round up for $60,000,000 of federal funds or so.
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.I realize we only have Stambaugh's word that this is why he was fired, however I remember something about her not changing the bar hours from another link. I'm trying to track it down, but it stuck out in my mind as unusual at the time. Sex-no, drinking-yes. If she got lots of compaign money from local bars that would explain it.
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.
Oh dear. MSNBC's reporting that Palin is flying to Alaska tomorrow.She probably just wants to spend as little time in the foreign nation as possible.
within three hours I was receiving it from friends far and wide, asking me why I thought the McCain campaign is "over", as it says in the transcript of the conversation. Here I must plead some confusion. ... I got on the subject of the leaders of the Republican party assuming, now, that whatever the base of the Republican party thinks is what America thinks. "The first lesson they learned is the one they remember," I said to Todd -- and I'm pretty certain that is a direct quote. But, I argued, that's over, those assumptions are yesterday, the party can no longer assume that its base is utterly in line with the thinking of the American people. And when I said, "It's over!" -- and I said it more than once -- that is what I was referring to. In the truncated version of the conversation, on the Web, it appears I am saying the McCain campaign is over. ... bottom line, I am certainly sorry I blurted my barnyard ephithet, I am certainly sorry that someone abused my meaning in the use of the words, "It's over", and I'm sorry I didn't have the Kay Baily Hutchison thought before this morning, because I could have written of it. There.There! You vultures totally don't get the fact that Noonan speaks in non-sequitor all the time. She's like Reverend Jim from Taxi - you could pinch her earlobe with a pair of plyers, and it won't be until more than halfway into the episode that she clutches her ear and yells, "Ouch!" And then that hot redhead will flirt unconvincingly with turnip-ugly Judd Hirsch, and Tony Danza will mumble some Italian sterotype, that guy with the feathered hair and the scarf will ... wait, what did that guy do, anyway?
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities.
So, is Carly Fiona as disappointing to the rest of you as she is to me?I cannot genuinely say that I am "disappointed". But jeez, this speech is going over like a lead balloon.
“People: Make up your minds.posted by ericb at 6:01 PM on September 3, 2008 [5 favorites]
For two days, the chorus from Republicans on TV news and in the halls of the convention has been resounding: Back off and let the Palin family be. ‘That's out of bounds,’ said Minnesota's Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty. ‘There's no need to be intrusive and pry into that.’
Yet Wednesday found the following scenes unfolding:* Sarah Palin's pregnant, unmarried 17-year-old daughter and probable future son-in-law stood in a nationally televised, politically packaged airport receiving line to meet and greet the Republican candidate for president.Huh? The Republican message about the Palin offspring comes across as contradictory: Hey, media, leave those kids alone — so we can use them as we see fit.
* The extremely cute and bubbly Piper Palin, 7, made her debut on her mother's behalf, appearing in a video on John McCain's daughter's blog. ‘Vote for my mommy and John McCain,’ she said, giggling as Meghan McCain grinned.
* Bristol Palin and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Levi Johnston, were expected to appear together as part of the GOP political narrative at the convention Wednesday night, according to the young man's mother.
If you doubt this scenario, consider this: On Wednesday morning, a teenage boy from Alaska stood in a receiving line on an airport tarmac, being glad-handed by the potential next president of the United States — because he got his girlfriend pregnant. TV cameras were lined up in advance. The mind boggles.
‘Either the children are out of bounds, and you don't put them in the photo ops, or you don't complain when somebody wants to talk about them. You can't have it both ways,’ said John Matviko, a professor at West Liberty State College in West Virginia and editor of ‘The American President in Popular Culture.’
‘Right now, it looks like they're being used by the campaign more than the media are using them,’ he said.
Though candidates for national office, and those close to them, are under more intense scrutiny than ever before in the American information culture, there is more to this situation than simple celebrity chasing.
These are two young people figuring out how to get through a difficult personal situation. Under normal circumstances, they would be allowed to do so unbothered by global scrutiny. Talk about a teenager's worst nightmare.
But one big obstacle stands in their way: Sarah Palin.
Yes, she has asked the media to ‘respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition.’ Yet Palin has packaged herself as a PTA member and ‘hockey mom’ — culturally loaded terms calibrated to evoke appealing images of middle America, the middle class, exurbia and strong 21st-century family values.
Using one's relatives as accessories in the political arena, however, can have its pitfalls, despite John McCain's remark to ABC News on Wednesday that Palin has ‘got an incredible resume, including a beautiful family.’ Candidates open themselves to charges of hypocrisy if they demand the ability to boast but reject the attention that can ensue when the road gets rougher.
Barack Obama said flatly that the Palin kids should be ‘off limits,’ but he has engaged in the same thing — though to a much lesser extent.
In July, he and wife Michelle appeared on a four-part ‘Access Hollywood’ interview with daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. Obama later expressed regret about his decision to put them forward, saying, ‘I don't think it's healthy, and it's something that we'll be avoiding in the future.’
Nevertheless, the Obama girls appeared on stage twice at the Democratic National Convention last week — once to talk to their father via video hookup after their mother's speech, and again after Obama accepted the nomination during the convention's climactic moment.
Let's remember one thing, though: Behind all the political machines and maneuverings, these contenders for the country's highest office are human beings and parents. And a parent is no more infallible than a candidate.
On her blog Monday, Meghan McCain expressed solidarity with the Palin kids, saying she understood the things they were grappling with. ‘It's a rough go being the son or daughter of a politician,’ she wrote. ‘You can't fully understand it unless you have lived it.’
The road is bumpy for sure, and the media probably aren't helping. Sadly, though, the candidates themselves aren't doing much to make things better, either.”
Just a reminder: C-SPAN is a great option for watching the convention. They show all the speeches with no commercial breaks, and the best part is that there are no talking heads trying to tell you what to think about what you've just heard. It's on most cable networks, and there's also a live internet stream on their website.I actually think that the non-CSPAN version, as absurd as it may be, is better. The speeches themselves are just scripted pap. Interviewing delegates speaking from the cuff is both more interesting and more enlightening, regardless of the facts that Chris Matthews is credulous and Pat Buchanan is from Mars.
WTF Romney? The elites looking to the East? I guess Cheney isn't from Wyoming and Bush from Texas after all.Nor is Romney an Eastern elite. Uh, I guess.
“The story of the day out here in Minneapolis is the McCain campaign's war against the press....posted by ericb at 6:30 PM on September 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
So what's going on here? Two things. McCain is just plain angry at us. By the evidence presented in the utterly revealing Time interview, he's ballistic. This is a politician who needs to see himself as the man on the white horse, boldly traversing a muddy field...any intimations that he's gotten muddied in the process, or has decided to throw mud, are intolerable.
The second thing is more insidious: Steve Schmidt has decided, for tactical reasons, to slime the press. He wants the public to believe that there is an unfair--sexist (you gotta love it)--personal assault going on against Palin and her family. This is a smokescreen, intended to divert attention from the very real and responsible vetting that is taking place in the media--about the substance of Palin's record as mayor and governor....
There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is ‘a task from God.’ The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.”
In 1997, Frontiersman columnist Paul Stuart wrote that after Palin had criticized her opponent for using City Hall resources for political gain, "when Palin was asked back then (by me) why the lodge where she claimed, in her campaign, to have gained her management experience, had no record of a borough business license or of paying any bed tax, she paused and said it might have been because the place had no clients for a year or so." In an article describing the possibility of recalling Palin, the Frontiersman wrote the "reasons include Palin's alleged falsification of her credentials during the campaign last fall." [Frontiersman, 1/22/97, 2/5/97]which confirms that Palin lies. She lies a lot. Up until now it hasn't seemed to hurt her career.
Frontiersman Editorial Said Palin Made Statements That Were "Patently Untrue," Said She Had Shown "Unrepentant Backpedaling and Incessant Whining." A Frontiersman editorial wrote, "Wasilla residents have been subjected to attempts to unlawfully appoint council members, statements that have been shown to be patently untrue, unrepentant backpedaling, and incessant whining that her only enemies are the press and a few disgruntled supporters of former Mayor John Stein." [Frontiersman editorial, 2/7/97]
Frontiersman Editorial: Palin Doesn't Grasp the Truth. A Frontiersman editorial wrote, "Mayor Palin fails to have a firm grasp of something very simple: the truth." [Frontiersman editorial, 2/7/97]
Did anyone else notice Romney make a biblical sounding reference that was recieved with complete silence? Just wondering if it was a Mormon reference, because every other time he mentioned something remotely godish everyone was cheering.Do you remember what it was?
With all the lies to choose from, I wasn't even going to bother to blog that Sarah Palin apparently lied about being named Miss Congeniality in the Miss Wasilla beauty contest. However, out of curiousity, I went to the source work just to read the piece and it didn't mention the contest at all. So I checked the cached version and sure enough, there it was. No mention in the current version of the edit. Here's the screen shots.posted by delmoi at 7:07 PM on September 3, 2008
Why is "community organizer" a punchline?Because it has to be.
What's the pin on Palin's collar?It looks like an israeli flag to me.
Oh, and earlier with the nude picture, people were asking why the bars were there, and suggested it was to hide the pageant bikini. Here's the actual picture. (NSFW) I leave it to the forensics people to decide if the picture itself is real.Uh, if you linked to the actual page it was hosted on, rather then the image, you'd see it was from a photoshop contest.
Oh my God. She has been talking for what? 10 minutes? And she has said absolutely nothing of substance. -- gaspodeWhat do you mean? She wants to drill the fuck out of Alaska!
What's the pin on Palin's collar?It looks like an israeli flag to me.
"Don't you think we made the right choice for the vice president of the United States?"No John McCain, I do not.
“John McCain's presidential campaign is threatening a lawsuit against the National Enquirer over a print edition story the tabloid ran today alleging that Gov. Sarah Palin has had an extramarital affair with her husband's business partner.posted by ericb at 8:27 PM on September 3, 2008
The allegation would normally be dismissed by political observers as the random musings of a supermarket tabloid -- indeed, the McCain campaign said as much in its statements on Wednesday -- except that the paper has built up a reservoir of legitimacy following its earlier reporting on the John Edwards affair.
In a statement to the Huffington Post, a spokesman for the paper, who promised a larger report next week, tapped into that pool of quasi-respect.
‘The National Enquirer's coverage of a vicious war within Sarah Palin's extended family includes several newsworthy revelations, including the resulting incredible charge of an affair plus details of family strife when the Governor's daughter revealed her pregnancy. Following our John Edwards' exclusives, our political reporting has obviously proven to be more detail-oriented than the McCain campaign's vetting process. Despite the McCain camp's attempts to control press coverage they find unfavorable, The Enquirer will continue to pursue news on both sides of the political spectrum.’
Clearly, this is a touchy matter. Already, rumors that Palin's youngest son was actually the son of her daughter were batted down. And the McCain campaign has strenuously insisted that the current crop of insinuations is not only false but also potentially libelous.
‘The smearing of the Palin family must end. The allegations contained on the cover of the National Enquirer insinuating that Gov. Palin had an extramarital affair are categorically false. It is a vicious lie,’ said McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt. ‘The efforts of the media and tabloids to destroy this fine and accomplished public servant are a disgrace. The American people will reject it.’
But the Edwards reporting complicates matters. Just one month ago, conservatives were bemoaning the fact that no major media outlets had the temerity to follow the politically and personally sensitive rumors about the former North Carolina senator's infidelities. Jonah Goldberg, for example, wrote on the National Review's the Corner in later July that:
‘Whatever the merits of the whole Edwards love child story, are we really supposed to believe that one of America's most famous trial lawyers wouldn't sue a publication that printed defamatory and slanderous lies about him? Also, it's worth pointing out that while the Enquirer may or may not be scrupulous in its choice of stories -- that's in the eye of the beholder -- it is pretty scrupulous about its facts. They win lawsuits. They've broken a host of stories the MSM guys couldn't.’
Does the MSM now have an obligation to pursue this rumor, however touchy, or at least ask questions?
‘The ‘success’ with Edwards no doubt will give them some more credibility, although we should remember that some of the allegations in their ‘lovechild’ stories have been far from proven (although also far from disproven),’ wrote Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor and Publisher Magazine.
‘Some of their Palin revelations may be quickly firmed up, prove bogus or more likely rest somewhere in-between for awhile. But what will be interesting is whether the Republicans and conservatives and MSM critics who jumped on the MSM and liberals for not quickly embracing the Enquirer's Edwards work will now pooh-pooh the Enquirer when it comes to THIS candidate....:’
And yet, at the same time, the Enquirer's story may be something of a break for the McCain campaign, which has come under siege for the Palin pick. If the Arizona Senator and his aides are able to effectively portray attacks on the Palin as the product of smear, sleaze and innuendo, it clouds those that are more legitimate. And with new attack lines opening up against Palin seemingly every hour, Democrats may be even more hesitant about straying into the tawdry.”
A few other thoughts. You'll notice that Rudy Giuliani apparently ran too long and they had to drop the Palin mini-movie that was supposed to introduce her speech. Normally people get fired for goofs like that. They didn't want Rudy's blood and iron speech the day after Gustav so they bumped it until tonight. Big mistake. He positively dripped with a kind of curdled anger, the origin of which is difficult to grasp. But he actually seemed to get angrier and angrier as the speech progressed -- off chopping his hands around, baring his teeth. I know the people in the hall loved it. But I think a lot of people will see it as whacked. Rancid. Curdled. Palin's speech ended up being much more partisan than I expected. But that was added to by the fact that she had to start her speech while the auditorium was still awash in the teeth-gnashing froth ginned up by Rudy's speech. I've seen political events that I totally got and others that I thought I got but was totally wrong about. So who knows? But take this as a sign that the McCain campaign has abandoned an effort to compete for swing voters and go back to the base energizing strategy that worked for President Bush in 2004. The numbers make that look like a tough proposition. But I think a few months from now, everyone will agree this was a mistake.posted by jayder at 8:36 PM on September 3, 2008 [2 favorites]
Well how would you know? Isn't it possible that you're the one out of touch? Or are you talking about the "AMERICA" which Sarah Palin "IS" which apparently means people like you and no one else.Either I'm completely out of touch with America or the GOP won't get a bump out of this.Out of touch.-- Konolia
I have NEVER EVER seen this level of excitement in a political race. EVER. -- KonoliaObviously you don't know too many Obama supporters.
For those of you who felt the evening was creepy? Yeah, that's how we feel when your people are having their convention. It's okay, we understand.I don't feel it was (merely) "creepy". I feel that it was fundamentally based on hatred.
I am interested on how you all are calling it hate filled. I'd call it being emphatic.What was that line about Obama being a pussy because he was interesting that making sure terrorists were "read their rights"?
February 15, 2008 - 9:09pm | Skeptical1posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:54 PM on September 3, 2008
Why is this minor injury crash (among many in the Irondog this year) newsworthy when you failed to even mention in ADN coverage of the race last year that Palin/Davis were caught cheating in Nome, working off the clock on their machines, and given a controversial slap-on-the-wrist 10 minute penalty for the cheating when many Irondog fans thought the penalty should have been 1-10 hours. That incident was newsworthy-- race followers are still talking about it this year.
February 17, 2008 - 12:10pm | cjdraveling
Oh, Plllleeeezzzz....his wifey is the governor and at that time high up with the politicians. They wouldn't want the governor's skeletons to be let out of the closet....she was quite the snowmachine drunk on their weekends at the Forks Roadhouse in Peters Creek too. Guess that makes a good choice for election of officer of some sort in the political realm! There is sooooo much publicity and advertisements on the name Palin, it makes me want to barf!!! There are others in this world too besides Sara and Todd!!!
Re the "community organizer" digs-my take on that is they were kicking back at Obama's camp for saying she had little experience. The Party was making the point tonight that they felt that Obama's community organizer experience was in no way equivalent to an executive position such as mayor or governor.No one is saying that. Obama's qualifications for president is his time in the state senate (representing more people the Palin as the mayor of Wasilia, by the way) and his time in U.S, senate, as well as the fact (and this is important) that he won the Democratic Nomination.
Huh, the representative from Arizona just called McCain a "native son." In fact, McCain was born in Panama.And in fact only moved to Arizona when he was about 45 years old.
No one during the DNC mocked McCain's POW history
For those of you who felt the evening was creepy? Yeah, that's how we feel when your people are having their convention. It's okay, we understand.
None of which is EXECUTIVE experience. He wasn't planning budgets, etc when he was in the Senate.Neither was John McCain. I'm not really sure why "executive" experience has suddenly become the be-all and end-all.
None of which is EXECUTIVE experience. He wasn't planning budgets, etc when he was in the Senate.McCain doesn't have any of that of that kind of experience either. And by the way, the Obama campaign's monthly budget is larger then Wasilla's annual budget. AND Sarah had a city manager.
(BTW, it is obvious you didn't listen to the speech tonight given by the governor of Hawaii who explained the differences in great detail.)Of course not, it wasn't even broadcast on MSNBC. Who listens to that and why would I care what the governor of Hawaii thinks?
Governing a state awash in oil money isn't really the same as being beholden to a much more populous and complex and less well-funded constituency.Quoted for truth. There are 16 cities alone in the U.S. that are bigger than the state of Alaska, and none of them can fall back on oil money to balance their budgets.
Apples and oranges. The executive branch and the legislative branch of a governing body are two different types of jobs.This is obviously very, very important to you, and to the people in that convention hall.
Throughout his life John McCain has held himself to the highest standards and he will continue to run a respectful campaign based on the issues.posted by kirkaracha at 9:22 PM on September 3, 2008
True, but is an executive as governor of Alaska with a population a fraction the size of, say, Obama's Illinois state senate seat really comparable?Alaska has 600,000 people, and Illinois has 12 million people and 59 senate seats, so I'm assuming that state senate districts have about 200,000 people each. 1/3rd the size of Alaska, and 25 times the size of Wasilla.
Palin's elected office:Quoted from a slashdot comment. I still trust that crowd with basic addition.
* 4 years in city council
* 3 years as mayor
* a little under 2 years as governor
Obama's elected office:
* 7 years state senate
* a little under 4 years in US senate
Rounding down, that gives Palin 8 years, most of which was at the city level, and Obama 11 years, all of which is at state level or above.
And it's not me saying Obama wouldn't know how to be president. I am saying that it is wrong for the Democrats to claim Palin is less qualified than he. It is a ridiculous argument and it's time to drop it.That's absurd. Obama is far more qualified to be president. It's not just the quantity of experiance, it's the quality. Obama was elected in statewide office, in a massive, ethnically diverse state. He was president of the Harvard law review. He's run an unbelievable and historic primary and beat the Clintons, and he clearly does a great job of getting gathering great people and getting them to execute. that is the key job of a president, whereas a small town mayor is nothing, nothing comparable. And she has only been governor for 20 scandal plagued months.
Speaking as a native New Yorker, may I say there’s perhaps nothing more absurd than watching a former mayor of New York City sneer at people who like cosmopolitan towns. -- Matt YglesiasHeh.
....so, tell me again, why didn't the Democrats nominate Hillary? She had more experience than anybody... -- konoliaWell, the Iraq war vote, and the fact that Hillary refused to appologize or admit it was a mistake played a big part. All the experiance in the world dosn't matter if you have the wrong policies.
Sarah Palin's speech tonight said, "I found a few things in the governor's office that I didn't think that the tax payers should have to pay for...I've protected the tax payers..."posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 10:05 PM on September 3, 2008 [6 favorites]
But here's the thing. There are no tax payers in Alaska. Alaska has no state sales tax and no state income tax. 87% of the non-earmarked revenue in the Alaskan budget comes from taxes on oil companies. Another $2 Billion comes from federal earmarks and subsidies.
For a governor of Alaska to brag about balancing the state budget and "protecting" tax payers is obscene! All they have to do is collect money from big oil and sign checks to the citizens of Alaskans who wait for their free handouts from the state like hungry little birds.
America is a republic, not a democracy.The two words are not mutually exclusive. America is both.
But here's the thing. There are no tax payers in Alaska. Alaska has no state sales tax and no state income tax. 87% of the non-earmarked revenue in the Alaskan budget comes from taxes on oil companies. Another $2 Billion comes from federal earmarks and subsidies.And of course, she raised taxes on Oil companies. (not that there's anything wrong with that)
I'm just one of many moms who will say an extra prayer each night for our sons and daughters going into harm's way. Our son Track is 19, and one week from tomorrow, September 11th, he'll deploy to Iraq with the Army infantry in the service of his country.Is he actually deploying on 9/11? If so, are we supposed to believe that's a coincidence? And isn't identifying him and putting his picture up there for the world to see putting him at increased risk?
I grew up gay in an extremely right-wing Georgia town. Don't presume to tell me what hate looks like. It wears the same 700 Club smile that I saw echoed tonight in thousands of faces cheering every mean and demeaning remark Palin made.
Some examples:And the list goes on and on. This is on the front page of Yahoo.
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
WWJD? He sure as hell wouldn't support the Republican agenda.Are you sure about that?
I used to be a community organizer and my old profession came in for some open derision and scorn tonight from both Rudy Guiliani and Sarah Palin. That's okay. I don't mind. I actually kind of welcome being singled out for special abuse. It validates everything I do, and have done, in politics and in poor urban communities. These people hate me and they hate the poor people I helped. I understand. I already knew that. I've spent a good part of my life trying to argue that case to people that were not convinced. "They hate you", I said. Many couldn't quite believe it. During the primaries I looked at Team Clinton and I told the denizens of the blogosphere, "They hate you." Many were not so certain.The Republican Party hates people who help people. And last night they admitted it. Don't ever, ever forget that.
Guiliani and Palin did me a favor tonight. They came right out and told us that they hate community organizers and the people that they serve. Good. Now I'll have a much easier time making my arguments about that point in the future.
Something that should be understood about community organizers, though, is that most of them don't work on elections, which only come along every so often. Most of them work with people that have fallen behind on their bills and are trying to avoid losing their home. They teach people how to budget. They fight against pay-day lending and advance income-tax rebates and check cashing joints, and other forms of legalized usury. They rally people against crime and drug trafficking and gun violence in their neighborhoods. They fight to keep local parks open and to open local health clinics for the uninsured. They teach people how to speak English and how to use computers. They do job placement and drug and alcohol counseling. They take care of abused woman and children. They organize to clean up garbage and vacant lots.
And, yes, they register people to vote. I know the Republicans think it is a crime to register black people to vote and that is why they demonize and legally harass ACORN. They think I'm a criminal. I knew that. Now you know it, too.
The Republicans hate a lot of things. They hate niggers and spics and faggots and Muslims and European ideas (according to Mitt Romney). They tell us these things everyday in large and small ways. It is uncomfortable to watch but it is going to be very satisfying to see all those community organizers elect one of their own in two short months. And, you know what? You'll all find out that community organizers aren't out to screw anybody over. An Obama administration isn't going to return the hate. They will look to use the government to help all the people that were previously dependent on lowly community organizers for what little help they got.
Um, are you serious? Remember when Clinton mentioned Bobby Kennedy? Can you imagine the shitstorm if the Obama camp began making insinuations that McCain would die? That's pretty much the ultimate political no-no.There is a huge difference between pointing out that a 72 year old man might die of natural causes (which is certainly true) and that Obama might get assassinated in the next few weeks. And frankly MSM reporters have been talking about this as well, it's already being discussed.
I strongly disagree and think regular people don't care about this sort of inside politics charge. You will lose their interest and get them thinking you're some sort of nutty conspiracy theorist.First of all, I said "insinuate", not say. The Obama campaign at making subtle references to the candidates age -- talking about how McCain "lost his barings" how McCain "couldn't remember" (as opposed to not knowing in the first place) how many houses he owned. You wouldn't do an add where you just come out and say you think Palin is in charge, you'd find some pithy way to insinuate it.
“I was completely underwhelmed. She was a Republican novelty act with a sophomoric script. It was not even a speech I would expect for a someone running for the local PTA, much less for vice president.”posted by ericb at 9:04 AM on September 4, 2008 [6 favorites]
-- George Lentz, 66, Southfield independent
“Who is Sarah Palin? I'm sorry but I still don't know anymore about this young lady tonight than I did last night ... The way it looks to me, she's the Republican vice presidential nominee for one reason: because Hillary wasn't selected.”
-- Mike Kosh, 38, West Bloomfield independent
"Sarah Palin is a self-described ‘pitbull with lipstick.’ She spent little time helping Americans learn who she is. She is a cool, poised speaker, but her speech contained few statements about policy or the party platform. … I am not convinced that Palin's experience as a mayor or governor in Alaska meet the qualifications to be vice president much less one stroke or heart attack away from being commander in chief.”
-- Ilene Beninson, 52, Berkley independent
“Nothing worked for me. I found her barrage of snide remarks and distortions to be a major turn off. She is not a class act. The most important point she made is that she will be an effective attack dog.”
-- Jan Wheelock, 58, Royal Oak independent
“Sarah got as much applause as Hillary did, and had a friendly, appealing appearance. Her delivery style reminded me of a high school valedictorian who also might have been a cheerleader. I thought she would appear more professional, more stateswomanly. She's no match for Joe Biden.”
-- Joellen Gilchrist, 64, Beverly Hills independent
In the "married" group, when one attendee kicked off the discussion by saying "she's a good speaker, and a crowd pleaser," the rest of the room articulated their agreement. "I didn't expect to be as impressed as I was," said another respondent. But then another woman added: "Once she started mudslinging, I thought, it's the same old crap as other politicians. McCain used her to get the women's vote. And she's using McCain."posted by delmoi at 9:33 AM on September 4, 2008
“On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry.posted by ericb at 9:47 AM on September 4, 2008 [10 favorites]
On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.
We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.
We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?
We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?
Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.
It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn’t be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.
Sarah Palin hit the nail on the head Wednesday night (and several in the audience wish she had hit some reporters on the head instead) when she said: ‘I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.’
But where did we go wrong with Sarah Palin? Let me count the ways:
First, we should have stuck to the warm, human interest stuff like how she likes mooseburgers and hit an important free throw at her high school basketball tournament even though she had a stress fracture.
Second, we should have stuck to the press release stuff like how she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (after she supported it).
Third, we should never have strayed into the other stuff. Like when The Washington Post recently wrote: ‘Palin is under investigation by a bipartisan state legislative body. … Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week she hired a lawyer to fight to move the case to the jurisdiction of the state personnel board, which Palin appoints.’
Why go there? What trees does that plant?
Fourth, we should stop making with all the questions already. She gave a really good speech. And why go beyond that? As we all know, speeches cannot be written by others and rehearsed for days. They are true windows to the soul.
Unless they are delivered by Barack Obama, that is. In which case, as Palin said Wednesday, speeches are just a ‘cloud of rhetoric.’
Fifth, we should stop reporting on the families of the candidates. Unless the candidates want us to.
Sarah Palin wanted the media to report on her teenage son, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and soon will deploy to Iraq.
Sarah Palin did not want the media to report on her teenage daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unmarried.
Sarah Palin thinks that one is good for her campaign and one is not, and that the media should report only on what is good for her campaign. That is our job, and that is our duty. If that is not actually in the Constitution, it should be. (And someday may be.)
The official theme of the convention’s third day was ‘prosperity,’ but the unofficial theme was ‘the media are really, really awful.’
Even Mike Huckabee, who campaigned for president this year by saying ‘I am a conservative, but I am not mad at anybody,’ discovered Wednesday night that he is mad at somebody.
‘I’d like to thank the elite media for doing something,’ Huckabee said, ‘that, quite frankly, I didn’t think could be done: unify the Republican party and all of America in support of John McCain and Sarah Palin.’
And could that be the real point of the attacks on the media? To unify the Republican Party?
No, that is simply the cynical, media view.
Though as Lily Tomlin says, ‘No matter how cynical I get, it’s just never enough to keep up.’
I couldn’t resist that. For which I am sorry.”
ericb, I fail to see what you are bringing to the table.He's bringing information about the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States of America.
Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated on the convention floor are black, the lowest number since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago. Each night, the overwhelmingly white audience watches a series of white politicians step to the lectern -- a visual reminder that no black Republican has served as a governor, U.S. senator or U.S. House member in the past six years.posted by kirkaracha at 10:47 AM on September 4, 2008 [4 favorites]
It really looks like the Republicans think that the Presidency, and election to it, is some kind of a joke. That it's a game which anyone can play at, so it doesn't matter if they grab a governor who is a political neophyte already embroiled in controversy on every front. It's a joke, so it's fine to ridicule and bully your opponent, fib, stall investigations, etc.posted by delmoi at 11:28 AM on September 4, 2008
The "seriousness" (or "seriously?") narrative is the kind that could sway swing voters: independents don't want drama in their ticket -- they want people who can get down to business. They want a ticket that treats voters like sober adults, that treats an election to the Presidency seriously. McCain spokespeople say it's "Not about the issues?" What, so it's a high school popularity contest, then?
Now, see, here's the thing. If you are prochoice, BE prochoice. If you are prolife, BE prolife.So, I assume that you advocate charging these women who murder their unborn babies with murder. Or, at the very least, conspiracy to murder, since they didn't actually pull the trigger - they merely hired a hitman.
But don't tell me you are personally opposed to abortion and yet prochoice. Because what that tells me is you are either A. not really opposed to abortion or B. a coward without the guts to act on your beliefs.
So to me that makes Obama either a liar or a coward. I don't think he's a liar.
I think deep down in his soul he knows that abortion is murdering an unborn baby.
can someone find the box that chart was linked someone way upthread
I was actually most struck by the 'ZERO' chant
Nihilism has not proven to be an effective governance strategy. I tend to doubt that it has legs as a campaign strategy, either.
Flunkie?Yes what?
Yes.
That's not true. You could also make a Constitutional Amendment outlawing abortion. Why haven't any of the politicians you support tried that?Sp why hasn't the Republican party moved dramatically to ban abortion?It's all about the Supreme Court, and which party will be choosing to fill the next vacancies.
After successfully defeating the Joker, the Dark Knight helps to keep Gotham City a safe place. Beneath the city in the sewers, another villain emerges. Known as the Penguin, he targets the position of new mayor. Whilst Batman tries to uncover the truth behind the Penguin, the Catwoman also emerges with her own agenda in mind, but not without mixed feelings.posted by team lowkey at 12:18 PM on September 4, 2008
Gotham City faces two monstrous criminal menaces: the bizarre, sinister Penguin and the slinky, mysterious Catwoman. Can Batman battle two formidable foes at once?
-- IMDB
Some of us feel that abortion was made legal ONLY BECAUSE it was LEGISLATED from the bench.So you're not willing to answer this question (either)? Why hasn't the Republican Party pushed for a Constitutional Amendment to outlaw abortion?
You know what, I freely confess I don't know all there is to know about why we went to war only that we have been told it was to keep us from having terrorist strikes here at home.I assume you're planning on becoming better informed before hitting the polling place in November.
I just don't understand why thinking, decent people would believe that abortion should be legal.Because they've thought, and they're decent.
Weren't Gandhi and MLK community organizers?Yeah, but they were also negroes. Or whatever the hell Gandhi was.
Noun - verb - negro"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.Would someone be so kind as to diagram that sentence for me? I can't make heads or tails of it.
"Truth to tell, though I would rather be bombed than grow up under the Taliban. But better to grow up, and to grow up free."When i was a kid, around middle school or so we had a neighbor who was a single mother of a toddler. At night, often she would scream at the toddler, call her a whore. It was very disturbing. I remember one time me and my sister and mom were going out for a family bike ride, and that little toddler walked up to my mom and asked "Will you be my mommy?" it was tragic.
Um, what? I took 5 years and one summer to graduate. What's wrong with that?I'll tell you exactly what's wrong with that:
At any rate...I can't imagine this thread has long to live - I beg someone to attempt a new post with enough substance to continue the discussion.Heretic! Long live The Thread!
You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.posted by kirkaracha at 4:52 PM on September 4, 2008 [1 favorite]
Kind of guessed that would be the case. Don't want to game the system or anything, but is there some type of merchandise I can purchase where the profits go to support the Obama 08 comapaign? Or something?I'm pretty sure that when you buy a knickknack from a campaign, that's officially a donation, and counts towards your limit. So, if you're not allowed to donate (I gather you're not a citizen of the USA), I would think that you're not allowed to buy a knickknack either.
just to keep it interesting, a few friends (I'm a poor teacher who has given a few hundred to Obama already, like months ago, when he needed it) here (more conservative than I) are vowing to double any amount posted here in this thread as given to Obama, and donate to Palin (not McCain, one insists)OK, I didn't want to ask, because I didn't want Republicans to get any ideas from me, but since it's now out there anyway:
No Questions, Please. We'll Tell You What You Need To Know. "According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don't care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy...the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin's scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads."What was disgusting about that video was the way she was laughing about it, as if the idea that a VP candidate should have to answer questions from the press was absurd or something.
"Jesus was a Community Organizer, and Pontias Pilate was a Governor. 'Can we cram that all on to a bumper sticker, or will we only be able to make t-shirts…"Make the T-shirts!!!
No Questions, Please. We'll Tell You What You Need To Know. "According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don't care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy...the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin's scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads."What was disgusting about that video was the way she was laughing about it, as if the idea that a VP candidate should have to answer questions from the press was absurd or something
Just an FYI for when you come across the phrase in a conversation, odds are pretty good you're talking to a happy ignoramus.I'm pretty confident that konolia was riffing on the fact that Barack Obama recently said this, actually.
"Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday she was cutting nearly a quarter billion dollars from the state's budget with the use of her line-item veto, including more than $3.2 million in Juneau projects."posted by cashman at 8:03 PM on September 4, 2008 [6 favorites]
"(Rep. Andrea) Doll said she was particularly disappointed that REACH's Canvas Art Studio electrical upgrades were eliminated. That project has "inestimable value for our people with special needs," she said."
"(Sen. Kim) Elton questioned Palin's criteria in making cuts, eliminating projects in Juneau while approving similar projects in her hometown of Wasilla.
"I'm upset," he said. "I don't understand it."
You know how Sarah Palin claims she will be a voice for Special needs children? Eh, not so much. Surprise surprise, she cut funding for a special needs program that was said to have "inestimable value for people with special needs."Oh come on, that's not fair. You're completely ignoring the fact that that was before she had to lie to you.
UPDATE: CodePink spokesman Jean Stevens confirmed that the group was responsible. She said the two women forced out of the hall by security were Elizabeth Hourican, 38 years old, of Phoenix and Nancy Mancias, 38, of San Francisco. Both women are fulltime activists, Stevens said, adding that they had obtained passes to the convention from disaffected Republicans and wore pink slips saying “McCain Equals More War.”(via)
"John McCain and Sarah Palin are tapping into the angry, conservative, anti-government populist tradition represented in recent years by politicians ranging from George Wallace to Richard Nixon to Spiro Agnew to Pat Buchanan....This venerable GOP game plan - practiced by such Republican luminaries as Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Roger Stone and Charlie Black -- seeks to turn the election into a choice between two fundamental visions. On one side are -- as described by Palin on Wednesday night -- good people, with clear implications about the 'other' people:posted by ericb at 8:44 PM on September 4, 2008'I grew up with those people. They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America, who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars. They love their country, in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America. I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town.... And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves....I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.'"
"The Republicans are well aware that they can't possibly win the election if it is even partially decided based on issues. They need and intend to win despite the fact that Americans hate their positions on the issues, and to do that, they want to ensure that a majority of Americans love and respect the strong, honorable, principled, culturally familiar all-American mavericks John McCain and Sarah Palin (even if they don't agree with them on everything) while strongly disliking that wishy-washy, snooty, foreign, exotic, self-absorbed Eastern elitist Barack Obama (even if he says the right things on issues)."posted by ericb at 8:55 PM on September 4, 2008
... the U.S. troop "surge" of 2007, in which President Bush sent nearly 30,000 additional U.S. combat forces and support troops to Iraq, was not the primary factor behind the steep drop in violence there during the past 16 months.
...
Overall, Woodward writes, four factors combined to reduce the violence: ["groundbreaking"] covert operations; the influx of troops; the decision by militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to rein in his powerful Mahdi Army; and the so-called Anbar Awakening, in which tens of thousands of Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and allied with U.S. forces.
I would think that you're not allowed to buy a knickknack either.
I grew up with those people. They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America, who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars.
I've always been amazed that the very people forced to live in the worst parts of town, go to the worst schools, and who have it the hardest are always the first to step up, to defend us. They serve so that we don't have to. They offer to give up their lives so that we can be free. It is remarkably their gift to us. And all they ask for in return is that we never send them into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary. Will they ever trust us again?posted by kirkaracha at 9:09 PM on September 4, 2008 [1 favorite]
“I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I’ve heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980. I thought it was disorganized, I thought it was it was theme-less, I thought it was very, very boring…I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad.”posted by ericb at 9:12 PM on September 4, 2008
Is the O'Reilly interview online anywhere?
When Dwight Eisenhower succeeded Truman as president, he accepted the basic framework of government responsibility established by the New Deal, but sought to hold the line on programs and expenditures. He termed his approach "dynamic conservatism" or "modern Republicanism," which meant, he explained, "conservative when it comes to money, liberal when it comes to human beings."Ooh, interesting, that. How did it all go so wrong? I must read on...
Just explain how you sell the unintended pregnancy of a 17-yr old as "family values" in the same breath that you admit your opposition to sex education (except for abstinence only -- do you see the irony here?) and birth control. Despite the fact that the young father's MySpace page proclaims "no kids in my future," they will be getting married. No pressure there. So, this makes it a wholesome, family values moment because the premarital, pre-adult parents are going to make the baby "legal."]Posted by: Jeanne on Sep 3, 2008 6:11 PM: My 7 Yr Old Learned About Pre-Marital Sex From John McCain.
When did he say $600k? When rick warren asked him he said anyone making less then Five million. Seriously. This guy has no idea what people make. He said Americans were too lazy to pick lettuce for $50 an hour.Yes, but to be fair, after the crowd started booing him and shouting that of course they'd pick lettuce for $50 an hour, he clarified his position:
So, konolia: If it turns out she had an affair with her husband's business partner and destroyed his marriage, will you guys still be excited about her?I think it's pretty clear that cognitive dissonance is completely irrelevant to many Republicans.
I'm sure conservatism will one day recover - because it is right about the main issues: government needs to be kept in its place, taxes should be low and budgets balanced, individuals should be able to pursue their dreams as free of government control as possible, families do matter and need to be free from government interference, free markets and enterprise are the only guarantees of prosperity, moral choices - and their consequences - should be faced by the individual responsibly, and we have to be strong in our defense and prudent in foreign policy. This is the conservatism I still believe in. Deep down, I'm sure McCain does too. But it will only come from the ashes of this fundamentalist, mean-spirited, parochial, arrogant, big-spending, irresponsible shambles of a party.posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 5:59 AM on September 5, 2008 [7 favorites]
I'm sure conservatism will one day recover - because it is right about the main issues: government needs to be kept in its place, taxes should be low (...)I'm sick of this shit. Our taxes are low, relative to historical rates. For rich people, they're extremely low, relative to historical rates.
Moreover, it's bizarre because eBay founder Meg Whitman works for the McCain campaign! She's right there! In the building! And surely she can explain to Palin that she is getting that weird bit of biography wrong.Also, watching Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman play bad cop/good cop on Palin creeps me out a little. Fiorina says ooooh, the coverage is sexist. Whitman says nah, not so much. Meanwhile they're both trying to launch political careers themselves, according to their Silicon Valley "hometown" paper.
Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there.That's after Heart had asked the McCain campaign not to use their music.
Is there anything she says that is *not* a lie?
Ooh, interesting, that. How did it all go so wrong?
Former Gov. Frank Murkowski bought the jet, which cost the state about $2.6 million, over the protests of the Legislature and used it to fly around the state, sometimes mixing campaign errands with government business.She made a campaign promise to sell it off but it took 4 attempts to unload it. This is a pretty funny quote: The state's definitely not going to give this plane away. If that was the case, then they would have sold it on eBay Heckmann said. [...] Meanwhile, the state is stuck making quarterly payments of about $62,000 on the Westwind II.
Legal Compliance:posted by ocha-no-mizu at 10:31 AM on September 5, 2008
* I am a United States citizen or a lawfully-admitted permanent resident.
* I am at least 16 years old.
* This contribution is not made from the general treasury funds of a corporation, labor organization or national bank.
* This contribution is not made from the funds of a political action committee.
* This contribution is not made from the treasury of an entity or person who is a federal contractor.
* This contribution is not made from the funds of an individual registered as a federal lobbyist or a foreign agent, or an entity that is a federally registered lobbying firm or foreign agent.
* The funds I am donating are not being provided to me by another person or entity for the purpose of making this contribution.
Two polls were released in May of 2007 asking Americans "With respect to the abortion issue, would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life?" May 4th through 6th, a CNN poll found 45% said pro-choice and 50% said pro-life. Within the following week, a Gallup poll found 49% responding pro-choice and 45% pro-life.There are undoubtedly many socially conservative voters who are backing the Democrats. Do not insult them.
I am going to pledge here and now to give $5 more (*above my regular contributions) to Obama for every post konolia makes in this thread from here on out -- I want her to feel like she's having some kind of impact!I believe we're at 20. I've paid up 'til now; I'll check back after a few days and see if I owe any more.
"Yesterday, McCain adviser Nicole Wallace dismissed the fact that Gov. Sarah Palin has yet to take any questions from the press. 'So what?' she scoffed. Today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, campaign strategist Rick Davis suggested Palin might never sit down for an interview if, he said, it’s “in our best interest” to keep her away from the media. [more...]posted by ericb at 11:17 AM on September 5, 2008 [3 favorites]
IF it turned out to be true she had an affair, I would want her to step down. For the very same reason Edwards should have not run.....and especially since she accepted this after the Edwards scandal broke. That would be the height of stupidity. -- konoliaAre you saying she should step down because affairs are morally wrong, or because it would be bad politics? Edwards had an affair while he was running. It was a long time before the primaries, but still (of course, Edwards was practically running non-stop since '04, but I digress)
Having said that, however....I have pretty good inside knowledge of just how dirty politics can get. For example, a NC politician I know (who shall remain nameless-not that most of you would be familiar with him) is well known for having his opponents literally destroyed by lies and innuendo -- konoliaDoesn't the fact that Palin seems much more like the kind of person who tries to destroy other people (pretty much anyone who doesn't support her 100%) then the kind who gets destroyed seem problematic to you?
I think she'll ultimately be a polarizer. After last night's smash, Republicans are in deep love. Nothing thrills ‘em like a good "us vs. them" speech. But I'd guess that most Democrats had the opposite reaction. In a year where the Democrat generic numbers are 10+ points better than the Republican, I don't like the math of a strategy that just polarized the election along party base lines. Among the vital sliver of voters in the middle, I think Palin's rock solid social conservatism will be a turn off. And while voters may value vision over experience, Palin's inexperience is a weakness, denying McCain an argument that has been helping him against Obama.posted by kirkaracha at 1:02 PM on September 5, 2008 [3 favorites]
It’s a time-honored marketing ploy and, every time they bash the media, it means they’re not talking about a vision or a plan,” CNN president Jon Klein said. “But the best antidote to cynical marketing is solid reporting.”posted by ericb at 1:27 PM on September 5, 2008
CNN had a dustup with the McCain campaign earlier this week after Campbell Brown’s persistent questioning of McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds on Palin’s foreign-policy experience as governor of Alaska prompted the campaign to cancel McCain’s scheduled appearance on Larry King Live. (Bounds and CNN have since patched thing up.)
“America has been presented with a total unknown who might be a heartbeat away from the presidency,” Klein said of Palin, “and Americans have every right to expect as much information as possible about this person so that they can make an informed choice. Certainly our critics are in favor of Americans making an informed choice, aren’t they?”
Obama: I absolutely think we can find common ground. And it requires a couple of things. It requires us to acknowledge that..posted by designbot at 1:52 PM on September 5, 2008 [4 favorites]And if we can acknowledge that much, then we can certainly agree on the fact that we should be doing everything we can to avoid unwanted pregnancies that might even lead somebody to consider having an abortion.
- There is a moral dimension to abortion, which I think that all too often those of us who are pro-choice have not talked about or tried to tamp down. I think that's a mistake because I think all of us understand that it is a wrenching choice for anybody to think about.
- People of good will can exist on both sides. That nobody wishes to be placed in a circumstance where they are even confronted with the choice of abortion. How we determine what's right at that moment, I think, people of good will can differ.
Virginia Andersen, an elderly widow, has come to roughly similar conclusions after talking to a gentleman friend. "I've always been a Republican but this time, I don't know," she said. "I think that Bush—so handsome as he is, so clean-appearing as he is, and as charming as he is—I think he's for the rich. There are so many angles but the whole story may just be oil." That leads to a further unthinkable conclusion, about Iraq, one that she says will certainly annoy her Republican brother from Nashville. "But it's so obvious," Mrs. Anderson said. "They don't want us there, do they?"everichon: Palin is gonna win this shit for McCain, you watch.
Such interior monologues can be thought of as the petri dishes in which campaign attacks germinate or die.
Not before 2015 could the oil extracted from the [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] affect energy supplies, and even then it would represent an inconsequential fraction of our gluttonous US consumption. (A Department of Energy report of September 2005 predicted that ANWR oil production, peaking in 2025, would slash the gas price at the pump by no more than one penny per gallon.) As most of our legislators know well, to flog this questionable source as a solution to our wasteful habits is not only dishonest but a long-term disservice to the nation.And:
Ted Stevens, the Republican senator from Alaska who with Murkowski has battled for decades to allow drilling in the 1002, still dismisses the Wildlife Refuge as "a wasteland." But unfortunately for his argument, his Republican colleague Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island has traveled there and seen it for himself.Also see this May 2008 report from the Energy Information Administration. In 2030, ANWR production would reduce oil imports from 54% to 51% of oil consumption.
"I will have to say, Senator Stevens," Chafee protested a few years ago during a debate, "[that] I have been to forty-nine of the fifty states [and] this is the most beautiful place I have ever been."
someone mentioned what a shame it was that the publicity over John Edwards' affair did not simply hurt his career, but it also likely took away one of the strongest and most genuine advocates for causes of the poor
Edwards is a man and he made a mistake. And, you know, a baby. And because of that there are some things he did not get to say at the convention. Like, the top one percent of people in American have more money than the bottom 150 million, and the gap between rich and poor is wider than it's been since the Great Depression. But the Democrats are so afraid of being the Adultery Party they missed yet another opportunity to be the Adult Party, the one that says loudly and proudly, "We don't care whose wee-wee goes into whose hoo-hoo." Our society is quick to chastise men who think with their dicks, but sacrificing a major voice on a big issue on the alter of puritanism, isn't that just as stupid as thinking with your dick? You know some presidents who had extra-marital affairs? Kennedy. Eisenhower. Roosevelt. Jefferson. You wanna know a president who ever had an affair? George W. Bush.posted by kirkaracha at 3:24 PM on September 5, 2008 [4 favorites]
I guess what I'm saying is veep picks in themselves don't sway me much. If they did Obama would have lost my vote with Uncle Joe.That's a poor analogy at best.
First time donor to a US election campaign here, too (although not surprising as I'm not a US citizen and have never lived there)I'm sure your heart is in the right place, and I appreciate that you want to help.
Welcome to the People's Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state's Republican governor. That's $22,400 for a family of seven, like Palin's.This is what I keep coming back to--Alaska has so much money coming in from the oil business they don't tax their citizens at a state level yet it receives more federal money than almost all other states, usually coming in at 1st or 2nd in the ratio of dollars paid to dollars returned. I get that it is hard to live there and expensive but hey! it's hard to live in New York city and expensive but no one is handing out federal funds for that!
[...]a state whose residents pay no income or sales taxes but are blessed with state coffers rolling in cash at a time when all other states are suffering. Indeed, when the oil companies pay more taxes to the state of Alaska, they get to write that off against their federal tax obligation, leaving the rest of us to make up the shortfall.
[...]the governor sent Stevens a request for $200 million to support various state projects. With representatives like that, it's no wonder that Alaska, despite its oil boom, is still at the top of states subsidized by federal dollars, receiving $1.84 back from Washington for every $1 that Alaskans pay in federal taxes. (California receives 78 cents for every $1.)
"Oprah Winfrey, who made the first political endorsement of her life this year in supporting Barack Obama, said in a statement Friday that she would be happy to have Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin on her show — but not until after the election is over. The statement was meant to clarify a report on the Drudge Report, which claimed Oprah's staff was divided over having Palin and that Oprah refused due to her support of Obama:posted by ericb at 4:36 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite]'The item in today's Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this Presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.'"
When a Lord is to be deposed, his War Chief shall addressThe Iroquois are proudly democratic, and so value their system of governance that it defines them just as much as their language. The structure and the principles of the Iroquois constitution persists with them to this day. It is a truly and uniquely American system of governance. And in a perfect world, on the day that Bush leaves office, he would have to endure the ceremony of the fallen Lord. To me, it's not enough to say, "Whew, those two terms are over, finally!" The Bush presidency has so blighted America's legacy that, in my opinion, we require a symbolic if not spiritual cleansing of the office of the presidency before we can begin to repair the damage done. The Iroquois had the right idea. And even though nothing is written in stone, it's starting to look like the rest of America wants the White House cleansed as well.
him as follows:
"So you, __________, disregard and set at naught the
warnings of your women relatives. So you fling the warnings
over your shoulder to cast them behind you.
"Behold the brightness of the Sun and in the brightness of
the Sun's light I depose you of your title and remove the
sacred emblem of your Lordship title. I remove from your brow
the deer's antlers, which was the emblem of your position and
token of your nobility. I now depose you and return the
antlers to the women whose heritage they are."
The War Chief shall now address the women of the deposed
Lord and say:
"Mothers, as I have now deposed your Lord, I now return to
you the emblem and the title of Lordship, therefore repossess
them."
Again addressing himself to the deposed Lord he shall say:
"As I have now deposed and discharged you so you are now
no longer Lord. You shall now go your way alone, the rest of
the people of the Confederacy will not go with you, for we know
not the kind of mind that possesses you. As the Creator has
nothing to do with wrong so he will not come to rescue you from
the precipice of destruction in which you have cast yourself.
You shall never be restored to the position which you once
occupied."
Maybe they're the delegation from Puerto Rico, and were making a statement?51 star flag at the RNC.Oh my god. How? Where would you even get one of those things? That's like a whole new cosmic plane of fail.
This thread has no exit strategy.Any talk of an exit strategy is Defeatocrat propaganda. Why do you hate The Thread?
"Cuntry First! Condoms Second!posted by ericb at 8:49 PM on September 5, 2008
"Todd Harris, a GOP strategist who is close to the McCain campaign, says Palin won't be available to the press for about two weeks. His defense? She might make 'a mistake.'posted by ericb at 9:15 PM on September 5, 2008
If she goes out and makes a mistake, that is something that [voters will] care about, and that's something that will haunt [McCain] for awhile, so I think this is a smart move.
This has got to be one of the craziest messaging decisions ever: Harris is conceding that Palin's not even ready to be a vice presidential candidate, let alone be president.
I just don't see how they can sustain two weeks of keeping Palin in hiding. Every day the McCain campaign keeps her away from reporters just highlights the fact that they don't think she's ready.
This strikes me as a pretty impressive strategic blunder."
This has got to be one of the craziest messaging decisions ever: Harris is conceding that Palin's not even ready to be a vice presidential candidate, let alone be president.No no no, this is mostly about building Drama. Palin is a talented politician, she's probably not that stupid, and by hiding her away, making people speculate they're building a huge amount of drama. Just look at how the Obama campaign "leaked" reports about how bill Clinton was "miffed". It became a huge story -- would Clinton deliver for Obama, or sabotage him? Of course Clinton comes out and does a great speech, with lots more people watching.
I just don't see how they can sustain two weeks of keeping Palin in hiding. Every day the McCain campaign keeps her away from reporters just highlights the fact that they don't think she's ready.
This strikes me as a pretty impressive strategic blunder."
Alaska does not have adequate prison capacity and contracts for space with a private facility near Phoenix. On Thursday, 24 percent of the 4,546 Alaskans in jail or in prison were serving their time at Arizona's Red Rock Correctional Center, said a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Corrections.Geez you would think with all that federal money they've got floating around and all that space they would be importing prisoners, not exporting.
When the state first began using the plane in November 2005, prisoner transport accounted for 58 percent of the jet's use, and Murkowski's office used it 23 percent of the time. Over time, Murkowski's usage increased.
Today, the U.S. Marshals Service transports 90 percent of Alaska prisoners to Arizona.
The last U.S. Marshal flights to and from Arizona transported 145 prisoners at a cost of $127,000, or about $875 per prisoner. That's cheaper than the jet, whose per-prisoner cost averaged $1,674.
Gov. Sarah Palin’s church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayerTaking a cue from the konolia / fourcheesemac /dawson / dawson's tattooed murderer friends imbroglio, I hereby pledge that for every gay they convert into a heterosexual through the power of prayer, I will convert two straights into homosexuals through the power of prayer!
So it looks like McCain's election strategy is:Uppity. The word is uppity. Get it straight.
- McCain was a POW.
- Obama is black.
- Look! Over there! Shiny shiny Sarah Palin! (Pay no attention to any of that "issues" stuff.)
"A smear campaign of the ugliest sort is now coursing through the contest for the presidency in 2000. Using the code word 'temper,' a group of Senate Republicans, and at least some outriders of the George W. Bush campaign, are spreading the word that John McCain is unstable." [Washington Post, Elizabeth Drew, "Those Whispers About McCain," 11/19/99]now that's how you smear a candidate and win. "Palin wanted to censor books"? "Palin had a lover"? not really.
"Checking with the Anchorage High School that Bristol Palin attended, reporters were given word that her family had taken Bristol out of school due to contracting infectious mononucleosis. The amount of time Bristol was absent shifts from five to eight months."Regarding homeschooling, I wonder if she was/is being "tutored" (a fancy-schmancy elitist term that is best described as "homeschooling").
His problem is reaching out to swing voters at a time when the number of self-identified Republicans is up to ten points lower than the number of self-identified Democrats. Mr McCain needs to attract roughly 55% of independents and 15% of Democrats to win the election. But it is hard to see how a woman who supports the teaching of creationism rather than contraception, and who is soon to become a 44-year-old grandmother, helps him with soccer moms in the Philadelphia suburbs.posted by kirkaracha at 1:44 PM on September 6, 2008
...
Inexperienced and Bush-level incurious. She has no record of interest in foreign policy, let alone expertise. She once told an Alaskan magazine: “I’ve been so focused on state government; I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq.” She obtained an American passport only last summer to visit Alaskan troops in Germany and Kuwait. This not only blunts Mr McCain’s most powerful criticism of Mr Obama. It also raises serious questions about the way he makes decisions.
...the pro-life movement has come to terms with the sexual revolution. So long as unwed parenthood is considered disgraceful, many unwed mothers will choose abortion to escape disgrace. And so, step by step, the pro-life movement has evolved to an accepting -- even welcoming -- attitude toward pregnancy outside marriage...posted by dgaicun at 2:44 PM on September 6, 2008 [6 favorites]
As the stigma attached to unwed motherhood has diminished, the United States has seen both a huge increase in the proportion of babies born out of wedlock -- now reaching almost 37% --and a striking decline in the incidence of abortions.
If you do not allow teenage girls who accidentally become pregnant to have abortions, you are demanding either that they raise their children as single mothers or that they marry in shotgun weddings. By the numbers, neither choice is promising. Unmarried teenage moms seldom get much financial or emotional support from the fathers of their babies. They tend to drop out of high school and go on the dole, and they are prone to lives of poverty, frustration, and disorder. Only 2 percent of them make it through college by the age of 30. The Bristol Palin option doesn't promote family happiness, stability, or traditional structure, either. Of women under 18 who marry, whether because of pregnancy or not, nearly half divorce within 10 years—double the rate for those who wait until they're 25....Whatever Happened to Family Values? - Jacob Weisberg
[T]he Republican right is prepared to overcome its objection to... [a] pregnant teenager as role model... and more as the price of an uncompromising pro-life agenda...
In today's GOP, Quayle wouldn't condemn Murphy Brown. He'd call her up to the stage and salute her for choosing life.
I guess you COULD frame it that way... OR you could realize that for years and years and years people who got pregnant out of wedlock got married, and we realized it was better to encourage people to do the right thing instead of point fingers and be judgemental jerks. –konoliaI'm not a judgmental guy and I don't see a problem with supporting teen women who want to have their kids. But I'm not really sure forcing teens into marriage just because their both related to a baby is really a good thing. I mean, what if they're just incompatible people? What if the guy is a huge jerk or abusive? (Or the woman). Obviously it's better for kids two have two loving parents, but if they hate each other, is that really what they're going to get?
So who's up for some polar bear hunting? -- sour creamOnly if it's from an airplane!
George Bush Jr. (who even lies about being a Jr.)I'm curious as to what is meant by this.
1. Can McCain win Michigan? If so, McCain is very likely to win the election.(Note that out of these, Iowa is doing best, and seems relatively safe for now, knock on wood.) More importantly, note the conspicuous absence of Florida, where Obama will definitely make an effort, but which the campaign is carefully planning around. Trust numbers geek (and Iowa caucus adept, lest we forget) David Plouffe with this, who is chronically underreported and underappreciated, I find (this is the first mention of his name in The Thread).
2. If McCain loses Michigan, can Obama win Ohio? If so, Obama is very likely to win the election.
3. If Ohio and Michigan are split, can Obama win Colorado or Virginia? If so, Obama is very likely to win the election, having essentially to pick off just one or two smaller states West of the Mississippi (Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana) while perhaps also having to defend New Hampshire.
Rick Davis, campaign manager for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., just told Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace that McCain running mate Gov. Sarah Palin won't subject herself to any tough questions from reporters "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."So, I guess if we need to have negotiations with Iran we have to send an e-mail to Ahmeninajad letting him know that Sarah's feeling a little vulnerable today and he should be extra nice to her JESUS MOTHER OF FUCK HOW IN GOD'S NAME CAN YOU THINK THIS PERSON SHOULD RUN THE FUCKING COUNTRYHEADEXPLODESMrglsfelkfjdlkjlmsdflkjl.kljk
Davis assailed the way the media had discussed Palin and her family in the last week and said the campaign would wait until a less hostile media environment.
"...McCain campaign spokesperson Tucker Bounds touted the fact that Todd Palin is a 'stay-at-home-dad.' Interestingly, radical cleric and erstwhile McCain endorser Rev. John Hagee insists that, in the Lord’s eyes, a stay-at-home-dad is 'a bum' who is 'worse than an infidel.' 'Hell is your future home,' Hagee says. Watch it."posted by ericb at 11:17 AM on September 7, 2008
Motherhood continues to be a hotly debated topic. Why is the media so obsessed with what mothers do and don't do?I see a connection between Richards' thoughts on motherhood and Palin + the media. If we're insecure, afraid of big bad terrorists, bullied into thinking that ANY woman would be right for the job, etc, women are more apt to fall for the McCain/Palin "narrative."
I think the media sadly is invested in keeping women insecure about themselves. If they're insecure then they're more likely to read the media and be invested in the media's telling them right from wrong. I'm not a terribly cynical person, but the media is sustained by the advertisers, so there is somewhat of a correlation between the products being sold and the stories being told.
And his grandfather, John McCain, Sr., died at 61.Look at his 96 year old mom-spry and healthy and in attendance at the convention....If that is relevant, then you should also consider that his father, John S. McCain Jr., died at 70.
I don't imagne Hagee matters to many folks.He mattered enough to John McCain that McCain actively sought out Hagee's endorsement.
I think that says more about an unfortunate ignorance on the part of John "I loathe the Religious Right as of Campaign 2000" McCain's handlers than it does about who the majority of Evangelicals might respect and admire in actuality.I think it says more about the judgment of a man who is asking us to make him the most powerful person on earth.
There are two things to look at when looking at a candidate-does he or she share my core values?
"In the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, the Barna Group released a report measuring Republicans and Democrats on Christian commitment.posted by ericb at 2:02 PM on September 7, 2008
The new survey, based on interviews with 1,003 adults in January 2007, found that the gap between the two political parties in terms of Christian commitment is not large, as many might assume. The most significant differences were found in the area of beliefs rather than behavior.
According to survey results, 57 percent of Republicans assert that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches compared to 40 percent of Democrats. Republicans are also twice as likely to believe Satan is a real spiritual entity (33 percent versus 17 percent); more likely to reject the idea that good works can earn salvation (35 percent versus 23 percent); more commonly describe themselves as absolutely committed to Christianity (61 percent versus 48 percent); more likely to deem their religious faith to be important in their life (77 percent versus 67 percent); and more likely to believe that God is the all-knowing, perfect Creator and Ruler of the universe (75 percent to 65 percent).
Overall, 51 percent of Republicans qualify as born-again Christians, according to the Barna Group, compared to 38 percent of Democrats.
...Broken down to denominational affiliation, the survey found that 23 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of Democrats are Catholic; 36 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of Democrats are non-mainline Protestants; and 21 percent of Republicans and 13 percent of Democrats are mainline Protestants."
after the bipartisan, independent 9/11 Commission reported that Saddam Hussein had had nothing to do with al-Qaeda's assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 50 percent of Americans still insisted that he did.So while neroli's linked blogger Steve Almond is calling out for Obama to be more direct, I figure Obama and Biden will do so when the time is right. Doing this now invites the voters already programmed *against* him to follow their leaders' example with derisive accusations ("Calling her a Liar? How unfair/disrespectful/unprofessional!") etc. Playing it cool gives the opposition much less bait to fling about, and taking the higher ground reinforces among Obama's base what they've already come to admire about him.
The problem is that calling Palin or McCain a liar is ineffective. Lying is not considered misbehavior by their ilk. The republicans are masters of distraction. Lying, distortion, and other fallacious tactics are regarded as honorable because they are saving America from evil liberal values.So. I ask the MeFi hivemind, and in particular its conservatives -- since from my worldview, I find that quote pretty accurate -- do you believe that's true? Is it ok to lie, misdirect or otherwise mislead the public if you are "protecting" them from values, choices or actions you find abhorrent? Is anything-goes ok in an election, in that case?
The family still lives in Wasilla most of the time, in an airy wood-frame house on the shore of Lake Lucille, upscale by Alaskan standards. The governor's mansion in Juneau, the state capital, is home only when the legislature is in session, and even then to only some of the family. The Palins enrolled the two youngest girls in Juneau schools, but Bristol went mid-school-year to live with her aunt in Anchorage, finishing at the city's West High School.On the subject of Lying
All of this complicated the Palins' child care matrix. In Wasilla the couple relied heavily on Sarah's parents, retired teachers whose two-story log home is a few miles away, a mound of moose antlers in the yard. Chuck and Sally Heath, who moved to Alaska when Sarah was 2 months old, routinely took the kids when Todd was on the Slope and Sarah politicking. Sarah's sisters Molly and Heather pitched in as well.
"Sarah Palin, a commercial fisherman from Wasilla, told her husband on Tuesday she was driving to Anchorage to shop at Costco. Instead, she headed straight for Ivana. And there, at J.C. Penney's cosmetic department, was Ivana, the former Mrs. Donald TrumpI'm telling you, "The Frontiersman" back issues need to be on-line. Hopefully somebody in the media is up there now going through all the back issues with a fine-toothed comb looking for more background, but what they leave out as "unimportant" may make for some very interesting reading. Anybody want to volunteer to fly up to Wasilla and start scanning?
...........................................................................................
Frontiersman columnist Paul Stuart wrote that after Palin had criticized her opponent for using City Hall resources for political gain, "when Palin was asked back then (by me) why the lodge where she claimed, in her campaign, to have gained her management experience, had no record of a borough business license or of paying any bed tax, she paused and said it might have been because the place had no clients for a year or so." In an article describing the possibility of recalling Palin, the Frontiersman wrote the "reasons include Palin's alleged falsification of her credentials during the campaign last fall."
...........................................................................................
A Frontiersman editorial wrote, "Wasilla residents have been subjected to attempts to unlawfully appoint council members, statements that have been shown to be patently untrue, unrepentant backpedaling, and incessant whining that her only enemies are the press and a few disgruntled supporters of former Mayor John Stein." [Frontiersman editorial, 2/7/97]
All I Saw (11:33:53) :when I found this story: State paid for trip when Palin told students to pray for pipeline
The Anchorage Daily News just reported that someone is proposing a lakeside trail around the lake Palin lives on, (unprecedented in Wasilla) both of which are within walking distance of the sport’s facility which was built to serve youth hockey.
Anyone that is familiar with Wasilla knows that nothing is within walking distance of anywhere, AND there are virtually NO sidewalks which forces pedestrians to walk in the street in the winter months when the snow piles up.
Unbelievable, so much for “reformer” - she’s chosen infrastructure projects that benefit her PERSONALLY.
Gov. Sarah Palin used state funds in June when she traveled from Juneau to Wasilla to speak to graduating evangelical students and urge them to fan out through Alaska "to make sure God's will be done here."[...]The plane tickets cost the state $519.50, and she claimed an additional $120 for meals and other expenses.[...]So you heard it from Sarah, it is God's will that the gas pipeline gets built. I'm so glad that Sarah has a direct pipeline to God because that way we can all be sure that Sarah knows what is best for America AND Alaska.
"What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys as you go out throughout Alaska -- I can do my part in doing things like working really, really hard to get a natural gas pipeline." Palin said. "Pray about that also. I think God's will has to be done, in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that.
Of course, I missed the memo where all Muslims were declared evil sub-humans.I'm pretty sure that was part of Giuliani's speech. Maybe it was Fred Thompson, though.
“We still don’t know a lot about Palin except that she’s better at delivering a speech than McCain and that she defends her own pregnant daughter’s right to privacy even as she would have the government intrude to police the reproductive choices of all other women. Most of the rest of the biography supplied by her and the McCain camp is fiction.posted by ericb at 11:38 PM on September 7, 2008 [7 favorites]
She didn’t say ‘no thanks’ to the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ until after Congress had already abandoned it but given Alaska a blank check for $223 million in taxpayers’ money anyway. Far from rejecting federal pork, she hired lobbyists to secure her town a disproportionate share of earmarks ($1,000 per resident in 2002, 20 times the per capita average in other states). Though McCain claimed ‘she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,’ she has never issued a single command as head of the Alaska National Guard. As for her ‘executive experience’ as mayor, she told her hometown paper in Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996, the year of her election: ‘It’s not rocket science. It’s $6 million and 53 employees.’ Her much-advertised crusade against officials abusing their office is now compromised by a bipartisan ethics investigation into charges that she did the same.
How long before we learn she never shot a moose?”
And..
“This is a roll of the dice beyond even Bill Clinton’s imagination. ‘Often my haste is a mistake,’ McCain conceded in his 2002 memoir, ‘but I live with the consequences without complaint.’ Well, maybe it’s fine if he wants to live with the consequences, but what about his country? Should the unexamined Palin prove unfit to serve at the pinnacle of American power, it will be too late for the rest of us to complain.
We’ve already seen where such visceral decision-making by McCain can lead. In October 2001, he speculated that Saddam Hussein might have been behind the anthrax attacks in America. That same month he out-Cheneyed Cheney in his repeated public insistence that Iraq had a role in 9/11 — even after both American and foreign intelligence services found that unlikely. He was similarly rash in his reading of the supposed evidence of Saddam’s W.M.D. and in his estimate of the number of troops needed to occupy Iraq. (McCain told MSNBC in late 2001 that we could do with fewer than 100,000.) It wasn’t until months after ‘Mission Accomplished’ that he called for more American forces to be tossed into the bloodbath. The whole fiasco might have been prevented had he listened to those like Gen. Eric Shinseki who faulted the Rumsfeld war plan from the start.
In other words, McCain’s hasty vetting of Palin was all too reminiscent of his grave dereliction of due diligence on the war. He has been no less hasty in implying that we might somehow ride to the military rescue of Georgia (‘Today, we are all Georgians’) or in reaffirming as late as December 2007 that the crumbling anti-democratic regime of Pervez Musharraf deserved ‘the benefit of the doubt’ even as it was enabling the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. McCain’s blanket endorsement of Bush administration policy in Pakistan could have consequences for years to come.”
Clinton turns down hatchet jobposted by =^^= at 2:15 AM on September 8, 2008
HILLARY Clinton may be the most obvious choice to throw into the ring against the new darling of American politics, Sarah Palin, but the failed Democratic presidential candidate is refusing the job.
"We're not going to be anybody's attack dog against Sarah Palin," a Clinton insider said yesterday.
It's an extraordinary act of hubris from a woman whose success in exposing Barack Obama's weakness in working-class Democratic states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana may have been the reason that John McCain chose a gun-toting, God-loving mother of five as his running mate.
(...)
"Attacking Palin is checkers; attacking McCain on the economy is chess," a Clinton aide commented.
(...)
Her refusal to roll up her sleeves against Palin, who describes herself as "a pit bull with lipstick", has already come under questioning by Democratic apparatchiks. "The strategic imperative right now is to do something about Palin and prevent her cutting through the race," said Democratic strategist Tad Devine. "She is practising the same slash-and-burn politics of division of the Bush years. Hillary Clinton can make the charge that Governor Palin represents the far Right."
(...)
Clinton has been asked to concentrate on the working-class districts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, where Palin will be competing fiercely for votes, and Florida, where women and Jewish voters may reject the Alaska Governor's Christian, conservative, anti-abortion message.
Clinton, who has lived through the women's movement, intends to frame the race in terms of a double-barrelled McCain-Palin threat to issues that women care about, such as the right to an abortion, equal pay and universal healthcare, according to Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
As such, she will be joining the roster of prominent women deployed by Obama to such good effect against Clinton herself during the primary campaign. Politicians such as Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Missouri senator Claire McCaskill have made the case that women could in good conscience vote for Obama rather than Clinton.
Examines Ohio where Bush stole the 2004 election (with a little help from matched thievery in New Mexico). 153,237 votes in Ohio were literally discarded and not counted, more than Bush's margin of victory there. In Ohio, 14.4% of black votes were not counted, only 1.5% of white votes.So am I scared my vote won't get counted here in Ohio? Not so much. The caging techniques used in '04 won't affect us, we haven't moved, and we've voted in every local election between then and now. I'll be closely watching the mail for this.
Provides a superb discussion of Republican "caging lists" which could be used to challenge predominantly black voters and move their votes into an alternative voting system. Notes that of the 3,107,400 "provisional" votes that the Republicans were able to force, 1,090,739 were discarded--not counted. Also notes that the Republicans sent expensive lawyers everywhere to focus on this, and the Democrats, with $51M in the bank, chose not to confront the Republicans.
In animated debates in blogs, chat rooms and classrooms across America, others wondered what such advocacy would entail. But the governor offered no details, and Maria Comella, her spokeswoman, would not elaborate on what Ms. Palin would seek to accomplish for disabled children as vice presidentI read this as: "Get me elected and then I will divulge my superspecial, top secret plan for helping your children."
“I never heard Governor Palin say as governor, ‘You have an advocate in Juneau,’ ” said Sonja Kerr, a lawyer specializing in disability law in Anchorage.
The last time a candidate explicitly appealed to families of the disabled at a national convention, advocates said, was 20 years ago, when the presidential nominee, George H. W. Bush, endorsed the Americans with Disabilities Act — and got a 10 percentage point bump among voters who identified themselves as having disabilities,
she and Todd owned 26 cars between 1996 and 2006Yes but aren't several of those ATVs, and a couple are likely snowmobiles, plus one trailer? (link, then scroll down to 2nd-to-last page)
Thanks so much for writing. The response has been immense! We've heard from women of all ages from all over the US and internationally. Here's our blog: http://womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.comThe last line in particular. That about sums it up for me -- there's this feeling that we have to do something, have to make ourselves heard somehow. The media's been all over the salacious stuff and concentrating less on Palin refusing to give interviews (til now), less on McCain's policies, less on his bad behavior (I'm sorry, but I just can't imagine having someone one finger away from the bomb whose judgment declares it A-OK to call his wife a "cunt" in public. Or private, for that matter), less on what a McCain/Palin presidency would do to our already-eroded civil rights... ARGH. Sometimes I just want to scream, I am so frustrated. I hope Biden eviscerates Palin in the VP debate. I hope Obama manages to get McCain pissed off enough to look like the hothead he is. I pray that the "I like her! She's sassy...who cares about McCain?" people will WAKE UP.
It's incredibly inspiring to read so many intelligent, wise, and impassioned opinions. Thank you.
Yours truly,
Lyra and Quinn
p.s. Don't worry- we won't add your name to any kind of mailing list.
We're just two young women who had to do something.
Get me elected and then I will divulge my superspecial, top secret plan for helping your children.
of course. and: pay the debts for someone else's campaign? no way. -- matteoObama can't contribute more then $2,100 to retire Hillary's debt, which he did (as did his wife). Campaign finance laws have changed, and while Obama could raise money for Hillary, he couldn't just cut a check.
I agree, but Obama had his convention, too, and for the Democrats standards it was an impressively disciplined affair, with Hillary eating crow in an extremely graceful manner -- where's Obama's steamroller, then?--matteoHe got a 4-5 point bump in the polls, but the republican convention happened right afterward.
"Did Sarah Palin wrongfully push to have her ex-brother-in law fired? Was she really against the 'Bridge to Nowhere?' Did she really sell Alaska's plane on eBay, or just list it on eBay? Did she actually have any substantial duties commanding the Alaska National Guard?posted by ericb at 6:54 PM on September 8, 2008 [4 favorites]
The correct answer to all these questions is: who cares? Which isn't to say these aren't valid questions, or that Palin and the McCain camp aren't playing it fast, loose, and coy with each of them. The point is that Palin, and the circus she's brought to town, are simply a bountiful collection of small lies deliberately designed to distract the country from one big truth: the havoc that George Bush and the Republican Party have wrought, and that John McCain is committed to continuing.
Every second of this campaign not spent talking about the Republican Party's record, and John McCain's role in that record, is a victory for John McCain.
Her critics like to say that Palin hasn't accomplished anything. I disagree: in the space of ten days she's succeeded in distracting the entire country from the horrific Bush record -- and McCain's complicity in it. My friends, that's accomplishment we can believe in.
Just look at the problem John McCain faced. George Bush has a disastrous record, and the country knows it. John McCain -- the current one, not the one who vanished eight years ago -- has no major disagreements with George Bush (and I'm sorry, wanting to fire Donald Rumsfeld a bit sooner doesn't qualify) and wants to continue his incredibly unpopular policies for another four years. The solution? Enter Sarah Palin, a Trojan Moose carrying four more years of disaster.
And the plan has worked beautifully. Just look at what's being discussed just 57 days before the election. Is it the highest unemployment rate in five years? The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The suicide bombing yesterday in Iraq that killed six people and wounded 54 -- in the same market where last month a bomb killed 28 people and wounded 72? That the political reconciliation that was supposedly the point of 'the surge' is nowhere near happening? That Iraq's Shiite government is now rounding up the American-backed Sunni leaders of the Awakening? That the reason 8,000 soldiers may be leaving Iraq soon is so more can be deployed to Afghanistan where the Taliban is steadily retaking the country?
No. We're talking about whether Sarah Palin was or was not a good mayor, whether she was or was not a good mother, whether her skirts are too short and her zingers too sarcastic.
Contrary to what we're hearing 24/7 in the media, the next few weeks are not a test of Sarah Palin. The next few weeks are a test of Barack Obama.
He needs to dramatically redirect this election back to a discussion over the issues that really matter -- the issues that will impact the future of this country. A presidential campaign is a battle and this is the time for Obama to show some commander-in-chief skills. I'm not talking about calling Palin out for lying about his record and demeaning community organizing. I'm talking about grabbing the political debate by the throat. The country is already angry about what's happened over the last seven-plus years -- he shouldn't be afraid to give voice to that anger. Obama has spent years adopting a non-threatening persona; but he can't let his fear that appearing like an 'angry Black man' (a stereotype not-too-subtly fueled by Fox News) will turn off swing voters keep him from channeling the disgust and outrage felt by so many voters --swing and otherwise.
McCain's team, in an effort to distract, is going to keep doing what they're doing -- diverting voters and the media with a tantalizing combination of personal trivia and small lies. It doesn't matter if they're caught in them -- in fact, all the better. Because they know there is no way in hell they can win if this election is about the big truth of the Bush years.
McCain's real running mate is George Bush and the failed policies of the Republican Party. Even if they are dressed up in a skirt, lipstick, and Tina Fey glasses."
Please, it's already started on Metafilter.com. Go on, Democrats, go right ahead. But don't get pissy in November when women feel more comfortable voting against you and with her.posted by matteo at 7:05 PM on September 8, 2008
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 29 August | 14:13
Olbermann: I really dig what you're doing, tell me about McCain... Obama: Talk talk talk slow talk, um, talk talk slow talk, um, slow talk, um, talk talk. Memorized talking points in rapid fire, um, slow talk, talk, um, talk. More talking points, um, slow talk talk period.It was weak, There was a lot of "umm" and not much to grab onto. Obama is better off ignoring those clowns and talking about something else. I think he's at his best when he talks about his experience, his expectations, and his hopes for the United States. I want hear what he wants to do as president, not play political analyst for McCain/Palin speeches and commercials. I'd like to see him leave the analysis to someone else and get on with promoting your platform and your strengths.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.posted by XQUZYPHYR at 5:19 AM on September 9, 2008 [5 favorites]
The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.
Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.
The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.
"One event was in New York City in October 2007, when [daughter] Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room."posted by ericb at 7:22 AM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
"We cover the expenses of anyone who's conducting state business. I can't imagine kids could be doing that."
"... it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home..."
"Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, who supported Bush in 2004, is endorsing Obama today.Koch's public statement:
Politico's Ben Smith asked Koch what prompted the Obama endorsement: 'The designation of Palin to be vice president. She's scary...Any time someone goes to the library and says, "I want to ban books," and the librarian says "no," and she threatens to fire them -- that's scary.'"
"I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.posted by ericb at 8:16 AM on September 9, 2008 [10 favorites]
If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency."
Because the press won't do its job, John. I criticized Barack Obama when he hasn't been tough enough. Barack's job is to run against John McCain, right. Don't shoot the monkey when you can shoot for the organ grinder. His job is not to focus on number two but number one. But it is the media's job when a politician flat out lies like she's doing on this bridge to nowhere so call her on it. Or this matter of earmarks where she's attacking Barack Obama for having earmarks, when she was the mayor of little Wasilla, Alaska, 6,000 people, she hired a lobbyist who was connected to Jack Abramoff, who is a criminal and they brought home $27 million in earmarks. She carried so much pork home she got trichinosis. But we in the media are letting her tell lies about her record."How many ways can reporters say McCain is lying without using the word "lying"?
“During her first speech after being named as McCain's surprise pick as a running mate, Palin said she had told Congress ‘'thanks but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere.’posted by ericb at 1:04 PM on September 9, 2008 [4 favorites]
In the city Ketchikan, the planned site of the so-called ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ political leaders of both parties said the claim was false and a betrayal of their community, because she had supported the bridge and the earmark for it secured by Alaska's Congressional delegation during her run for governor.
The bridge, a span from the city to Gravina Island, home to only a few dozen people, secured a $223 million earmark in 2005. The pricey designation raised a furor and critics, including McCain, used the bridge as an example of wasteful federal spending on politicians' pet projects.
When she was running for governor in 2006, Palin said she was insulted by the term ‘bridge to nowhere,’ according to Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein, a Democrat, and Mike Elerding, a Republican who was Palin's campaign coordinator in the southeast Alaska city.
‘People are learning that she pandered to us by saying, I'm for this' ... and then when she found it was politically advantageous for her nationally, abruptly she starts using the very term that she said was insulting,’ Weinstein said.
Palin's spokeswoman in Alaska was not immediately available to comment.”
“I'd heard about the ‘Road to Nowhere’ but hadn't made the connection. Palin, who supported the Bridge to Nowhere just two years ago, is still building a road that is meant to connect to the bridge - the bridge she now claims is unnecessary pork.Oh yeah, and Palin kept every dime of the federal money that was appropriated for the Bridge to Nowhere. Every single freaking dime. So she's not only for pork, she's for 100% welfare hand-outs, no strings attached. At least pork is earmarked for specific wasteful projects. Palin prefers when you just hand her your federal tax dollars, in wheelbarrows, and let her decide how to waste it.”posted by ericb at 1:09 PM on September 9, 2008 [2 favorites]'The state, however, never gave back any of the money that was originally earmarked for the Gravina Island bridge, said Weinstein and Elerding.She said 'thanks but no thanks,' but they kept the money,’ said Elerding about her applause line.
In fact, the Palin administration has spent ‘tens of millions of dollars’ in federal funds to start building a road on Gravina Island that is supposed to link up to the yet-to-be-built bridge, Weinstein said.'
“Here are some of the questions Palin should be answering, for Alaskans and the rest of the country:posted by ericb at 1:52 PM on September 9, 2008 [15 favorites]• You present yourself as a Republican maverick who took on your own party's corrupt political establishment. In November's election, your party is running an indicted U.S. Senator, Ted Stevens, who is awaiting trial on charges he accepted more than $250,000 of unreported gifts from the state's most powerful lobbyist. Will you vote for his opponent? Will you urge Alaskans to help you change Washington and vote him out of office? If not, why not?BOTTOM LINE: The nation deserves to hear Palin's unfiltered answers to serious questions.”
• Sen. Ted Stevens' trial is still pending; he has declined to say whether he would accept a pardon from President Bush before Bush leaves office in January. Do Alaska voters deserve an answer to that question before they cast their vote for or against Stevens in November? What is your position on a president pardoning a public official before a jury has ruled on guilt or innocence?
• Alaska Congressman Don Young appears to have won his Republican primary, even though you endorsed his opponent. Will you vote for your fellow Republican Don Young, who has spent over $1 million on legal fees without telling his constituents what sort of legal trouble he is in?
• Why have you reneged on your earlier pledge to cooperate with the Alaska Legislature's investigation into Troopergate?
• In spring of 2004, the Daily News reported that you cited family considerations in deciding not to try for the U.S. Senate: ‘How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. senator?’ What was different this time as you decided to run for vice president?
• As governor of Alaska, you have not pushed for laws or regulations that put your personal views on abortion, same-sex marriage and creationism into public policy. As vice president, will you push to outlaw abortion, restrict same-sex marriage and require the teaching of creationism?
• If you were a fully qualified vice-presidential candidate from the get-go, why did you wait more than 10 days to face reporters?
• McCain spokesman Rick Davis told Fox News the media didn't show you enough ‘deference.’ How much deference do you expect to get from Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chavez?
• You have said victory is in sight in Iraq. In July 2007, when you visited Kuwait, you said, ‘I'm not going to judge the surge.’ In the March 2007 issue of Alaska Business Monthly, you were asked about the surge and quoted saying:‘I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq…While I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place.’Define ‘victory’ in Iraq? What is the exit plan?
...by riling up and nailing down the base, Palin performs an even more valuable function for McCain: She allows him to ignore the wingnuts and sprint hard toward the center. To focus on issues where McCain’s positions appeal to moderate and independent voters. [...] These calculations undergirded almost every element of McCain’s own speech to the convention...its central political thrust was an appeal to bi-partisanship. “Again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed,” McCain said. “That’s how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. … Instead of rejecting good ideas because we didn’t think of them first, let’s use the best ideas from both sides. Instead of fighting over who gets the credit, let’s try sharing it. This amazing country can do anything we put our minds to. I will ask Democrats and independents to serve with me.”The Sixty-Day War: The New Realities of the 2008 Presidential Election [via]
The speech, in other words, was an attempt to revive the McCain brand of old: the reformer, the change agent, the maverick. This task is essential for McCain to have a chance to win in November; he needs to pick off sufficient numbers of independent voters to turn back the Democratic tide. A pure-base strategy will not do...
"You can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called 'change,' it's still gonna stink. We've had enough of the same old thing. It’s time to bring about real change to Washington and that’s the choice you’ve got in this election."McCain's people are already attacking this as Obama calling Palin a pig. This despite the fact that McCain himself has used the same idiom in describing Hillary Clinton's healthcare plan:
McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health care proposals that require too much government regulation. While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's health-care plan, he said it was "eerily reminiscent" of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the early 1990s.The cognitive dissonance. It burns.
"I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of her proposal.
From TPM Reader NH ...What alien invaded Mark Halperin's body? On AC360, he trashed McCain/Palin for being phony and dishonest. Then he went after the press for talking about lipstick on the pig, for not calling Palin out on the Bridge to Nowhere, and for letting her get away with such tight press restrictions.And TPM Reader BS too ...
Hardball also went hard on the bridge to nowhere.Shocked, absolutely shocked.
Watching AC360 on CNN, the last segment ~10 minutes in, Mark Halperin actually made intelligent points regarding the coverage of Palin. In essence, the other 3 candidates have been on the scene for months if not years. Sarah Palin is new to the scene and instead of wasting time on silly stories (putting lipstick on a pig), the real record of Palin has to be discussed.
Please understand that for every one of you who is liberal, or prochoice, or thinks that government is the solution to many social problems or--konoliaWhile not many people self-identify as liberal, do keep in mind that most Americans are pro choice. So it's more like for every 5 pro-choicers, there are 4.3 or so pro-lifers. At least when it comes to women.
So maybe Sarah Palin doesn't have all that much "experience." Maybe she doesn't pay much attention to your fancy-pants "foreign policy" or "domestic policy" or "policy." Maybe she's "crazy" and "corrupt" and was picked by a "vetting process" that consisted of "tossing darts at a phone book in the middle of an all-night Ambien-and-Ketamine binge." But maybe that's just because Sarah Palin's just too busy being a real American to hang around with your namby-pamby liberal candidates with their arugula lattes and their east coast Ivy League universities and their "qualifications" while they tax the Jesus Fetus to pay for gay Muslim healthcare! Well Sarah Palin understands that being vice-president takes more than just book-smarts or regular-smarts or knowing what a vice president does! It takes gumption and spunk and other made-up words that hearken back to another time - a realer time - a whiter time - back when men were men and women were men and great big hairy-chested frontiersmen of the plains wrestled oxen and caribou and the savage Injun Man in their mighty conquest of the West before succumbing to explosive amoebic dysentery! And with the help of God and millions of dollars in energy industry donations, Sarah Palin will give us that dysentery again!There's more where that came from, oh yes, there's more.
An Anchorage judge three years ago warned Sarah Palin and members of her family to stop "disparaging" the reputation of Alaska State Trooper Michael Wooten, who at the time was undergoing a bitter separation and divorce from Palin's sister Molly.The article goes on the note that at one point the judge considered giving custody of the children to Wooten because of the environment the Palin family was creating.
Court records obtained by NEWSWEEK show that during the course of divorce hearings three years ago, Judge John Suddock heard testimony from an official of the Alaska State Troopers' union about how Sarah Palin—then a private citizen—and members of her family, including her father and daughter, lodged up to a dozen complaints against Wooten with the state police. The union official told the judge that he had never before been asked to appear as a divorce-case witness, that the union believed family complaints against Wooten were "not job-related," and that Wooten was being "harassed" by Palin and other family members.
Court documents show that Judge Suddock was disturbed by the alleged attacks by Palin and her family members on Wooten's behavior and character. "Disparaging will not be tolerated—it is a form of child abuse," the judge told a settlement hearing in October 2005, according to typed notes of the proceedings. The judge added: "Relatives cannot disparage either. If occurs [sic] the parent needs to set boundaries for their relatives."
One of the interesting aspects of this campaign is watching the scales fall from the eyes of many of John McCain's closest admirers among the veteran DC press corps. I'm not talking about the freaks on Fox News or any of the sycophants at the AP. I'm talking about, let's say, the better sort of reporters and commentators in the 45 to 65 age bracket. To the extent that the press was McCain's base (and in many though now sillier respects it still is) this was the base of the base. And talking to a number of them I can understand why that was, at least in the sense of the person he was then presenting himself as.posted by delmoi at 7:19 AM on September 10, 2008 [2 favorites]
...
I want to return to a point I made a few years ago during the Social Security battle with President Bush. Winning and losing is never fully in one's control -- not in politics or in life. What is always within our control is how we fight and bear up under pressure. It's easy to get twisted up in your head about strategy and message and optics. But what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes. So let's stopped being shocked and awed by every new example of it. It is undignified. What can we do? We've got a dangerously reckless contender for the presidency and a vice presidential candidate who distinguished her self by abuse of office even on the comparatively small political stage of Alaska. They've both embraced a level of dishonesty that disqualifies them for high office. Democrats owe it to the country to make clear who these people are. No apologies or excuses. If Democrats can say at the end of this campaign that they made clear exactly how and why these two are unfit for high office they can be satisfied they served their country.
"McCain has used the phrase before as well, in reference to Hillary Clinton and her health plan:posted by ericb at 7:30 AM on September 10, 2008 [2 favorites]'McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health care proposals that require too much government regulation. While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's health-care plan, he said it was "eerily reminiscent" of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the early 1990s. "I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of her proposal.'The Obama camp has responded:'Enough is enough. The McCain campaign’s attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy – the same analogy that Senator McCain himself used about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan just last year. This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run.'"
‘‘Years from now presidential historians will look back on Sept. 9 as the day the 2008 campaign got completely and utterly stupid.posted by ericb at 11:33 AM on September 10, 2008 [11 favorites]
…Meanwhile, Team McCain slapped together another ad, ‘Lipstick,’ told reporters that it would ‘air’ on the ‘web’ and watched with delight as Chris Matthews and Co. broadcast it for free (predictably enough) on their evening gabfests.
The point, of course, was get everyone speculating about whether or not Obama had committed a heinous act ‘sexism’ and change the day's debate from education to gender insensitivity. Never mind that ‘you can put lipstick on a pig’ is an old idiomatic expression. Never mind that Obama was talking about McCain--not Palin--when he used it. Never mind that Obama also said that ‘you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called 'change,' [but] it's still gonna stink after eight years.’ Never mind that McCain's former press secretary, Torie Clarke, wrote a book called ‘Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era.’ Never mind that Elizabeth Edwards once compared McCain's health care plan to ‘painting lipstick on a pig.’ Never mind that Obama has used the phrase before, claiming last September that Gen. David Petraeus ‘has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig’ in Iraq. And never mind that McCain said the same thing of Hillary Clinton's health care plan the following month, characterizing it as ‘eerily’ similar to her failed 1993 proposal. ‘I think they put some lipstick on a pig,’ McCain said, ‘but it’s still a pig.’
Never mind all that. According to McCain, Obama wasn't doing what he, Clarke, Edwards and Obama himself had done before--you know, just using a colorful American metaphor. No. In McCain's view, Obama was actually dumb enough to mount the stage, face the cameras and boldly announce that Sarah Palin is a porker. Or at least that's what McCain--a man whose party has long decried the routine accusations of ‘sexism’ and ‘racism’ associated with identity politics, and whose VP said earlier this year that playing the gender card ‘doesn't do us any good, women in politics’--is hoping that the rest of us are dumb enough to believe. Next thing you know, he'll accuse his opponent of calling Palin a fish.
…Earlier this summer, McCain called for a campaign based on the ‘politics of civility.’ Try the politics of stupidity instead. Yesterday represented presidential campaigning at its condescending worst. And the worst part isn't that McCain was acting stupid. It's that he seems to think we're all stupid, too.”
Dearest neighbor,What the hell is the deal with some Americans absolutely freaking out when people from other countries express opinions about U.S. politics. You'd think, given the overwhelming influence the U.S. has on the rest of the world and the fact that we like to consider ourselves to be a beneficial influence on the world, a shining beacon of light and democracy we might actually want to care what other countries think.
Kindly the shut the fuck up. Just as much as you don't like us meddling in your affairs, neither do we appreciate it in return.
Sincerely,You sure as hell don't speak for me, asshole.
(a few) Progressive voters
"Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) new web ad entitled 'Lipstick' was pulled from YouTube earlier today due to a 'copyright claim by CBS Interactive Inc.'posted by ericb at 12:54 PM on September 10, 2008 [4 favorites]
...This is at least the sixth time the McCain campaign has been the subject of a copyright complaint."
I hate this site. Is there one run by a Republican?Electoral-vote.com had Kerry ahead until the very last day I believe.
Yes. Take a look at electionprojection.com. It is run by someone who has devoted his life to Jesus and is strongly biased in favor of Republicans in his commentary (but his numbers seem to be OK).
The power of the betting markets in assimilating the collective knowledge and wisdom of those willing to back their judgment with money has only increased in recent years as the volume of money wagered has risen dramatically. Indeed, by 2004 the Intrade market model went stratospheric in predictive accuracy as the market favorite won the electoral votes of every single state in that year’s U.S. presidential election. Meanwhile more than one respected pollster and analyst called the race for John Kerry as late as election day itself.Unfortunately, I don't know of anywhere that distills Intrade's numbers in graphical form.
The betting markets saw their best triumph of 2004 in Florida. Even though a number of polls put Kerry ahead in that state, or said the race was too close to call, the betting markets consistently showed Bush would win Florida comfortably.
At the tech-savvy Personal Democracy Forum conference in June, Mark Soohoo, McCain's deputy e-campaign director, drew snickers when he desperately insisted, "You don't necessarily have to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country ... John McCain is aware of the Internet."This is how dangerous, dangerous legislation like the House and Senate bills currently threatening my industry and livelihood (plus, I would hazard to say, many other MeFites') get started and fast-tracked.
"As we say in Wyoming -- (laughter) -- you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig, but at the end of the day, it's still a pig. (Applause.)"Lynne Cheney (October 13, 2004)
"And in Wyoming, we've got a saying for what it is when you keep trying to make something that's not so good look good, we call it putting lipstick on a pig. (Laughter.) Yes. (Applause.) And it doesn't work.""One great resource: the White House website...read on for some of the three dozen examples used by Cheney et al."
“It's hard to imagine a sillier ‘controversy’ than the kerfuffle over whether Barack Obama dissed Sarah ‘Pit Bull With Lipstick’ Palin by commenting, in relation to John McCain's economic policies, that ‘you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.’ But the fact that even a manufactured controversy could be generated by a porcine analogy is a reminder of the prominent position of pig put-downs in everything from political discourse to Holy Scripture.posted by ericb at 2:53 PM on September 10, 2008 [2 favorites]
Obama's (unoriginal) comment about red-lipped pigs is in the tradition of referring to wasteful government spending as ‘pork’ (from ‘pork barrel; see also ‘bringing home the bacon’). The term ‘earmarks,’ of course derives from the practice of clipping an identification tag to the ear of a pig or other farm animal. But pigs are the objects of defamation way outside the Beltway. Gluttons ‘pig out.’ My mother used to upbraid her messy sons for turning our bedrooms into pigsties. Even Charles Schulz, the gentle progenitor of ‘Peanuts,’ called one of his characters ‘Pigpen’ because the kid was a dirt magnet.
Even Jesus disparaged pigs, and not just because they were unclean. He also suggested that they were uncouth. According to the Gospel of Matthew, he warned his disciples not to ‘cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.’ (To be fair, Jesus also took a dig, however metaphorical, at man's best friend, saying: ‘Give not that which is holy unto the dogs.’)
Occasionally one will come across a revisionist view of pigs citing their intelligence and loyalty. But the Obama-Palin tiff is a reminder that when politicians jab at each other, there may be a pig in the poke.”
"YouTube has removed a webad that casts Sarah Palin as the victim of sexism on the request of CBS, whose anchor Katie Couric was featured in the ad.posted by ericb at 2:59 PM on September 10, 2008 [1 favorite]
'One of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of sexism in American life,' Couric is quoted in the ad.
In the original clip, which aired months before Palin entered the race, Couric was talking about Hillary Clinton. The ad applies her words to Palin.
Asked about the ad, CBS spokeswoman Leigh Farris said, 'CBS News does not endorse any candidate in the Presidential race. Any use of CBS personnel in political advertising that suggests the contrary is misleading.'
YouTube's page displaying the ad now tells visitors, 'This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by CBS Interactive Inc.'
Couric's original commentary can be seen here. McCain still has the ad, 'Lipstick,' on his website."
…if sexism is a debate McCain wants to have, then Obama may be well suited for it. That's because the Arizona Republican's resume contains several inflammatory remarks about women. Just this election cycle, for example, McCain did not protest as a questioner at a town hall meeting referred to Hillary Clinton as a bitch. McCain went on to say he respected Clinton, but he laughed when the question itself -- ‘how do we beat the bitch?’ -- was asked.posted by ericb at 3:07 PM on September 10, 2008
In 1998, McCain famously made his tasteless joke about Chelsea Clinton's looks, claiming the then first daughter was ‘so ugly’ because ‘her father is Janet Reno.’ He later apologized.
Then there are the unconfirmed reports. From Cliff Schechter's book, The Real McCain, there is the report that McCain publicly insulted his wife, Cindy, during the 1992 Senate campaign, including referring to her as a ‘trollop’ and ‘cunt.’ In the 1986 campaign, the Tucson Citizen reported on allegations that McCain had told a Republican audience a disturbing joke about a woman enjoying being raped by a gorilla. Both of these accounts have been denied by McCain and his campaign.
What Democrats will do with these mostly little-known stories remains to be seen. Certainly, a campaign ad highlighting these instances would be met with harsh resistance from the McCain campaign and be proclaimed an example of Democratic desperation or deteriorating morals. Indeed, how willing Obama is to roll up his sleeves on this front could end up signifying one of the major differences between him and McCain.
As it stands now, the Illinois Democrat seems more content to take the high ground to the McCain attack and, in the process, point out the more substantive issues on which they say the Republican ticket would be bad for women, such as abortion rights, equal pay, and health care policy.”
Frank notes that he talked hopefully of the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt.reminds me of a story an oncologist friend of mine told me regarding konolia's and dawson's home state. He was a medical student at Duke University in 1963 and working in the hospital. Although at the time NC was a beacon of enlightenment among southern states regarding race relations, things were still going slowly, so there were two public wards, one, named for Ostler, for whites and another for blacks. He was in the Ostler ward, named for the eminent physician, when the news of JFK's assassination came over the television. The ward broke out in cheering. As he told me this story, my friend began to weep. I had never seen him do this before.
“We’re not going to spend $3 million of your tax dollars to study the DNA of bears in Montana,” McCain has said during this year’s campaign, referring to a study he’s mocked for years of whether grizzlies need to keep their status as an endangered species.There's a form of hilarity in there that's just so... pure. I'm not sure if there's a word for it.
Palin, meanwhile, has requested $3.2 million to be spent in part researching the “genetics of harbor seals,” in one of the state’s many requests for federal funding of research into Alaska’s fauna.
instead of canceling her dumb conflict, because who cares — she tried to get her running mate to debate for her. Her two challengers wouldn’t agree to this because… just… just NO. What the hell? NO LADY NO.Somehow Wonkette is managing to directly quote the things I would've said if I wrote the article. It's like they have a direct line into my skull or something.
I too am an American, liberal, white, east coast,posted by cashman at 9:15 AM on September 11, 2008 [1 favorite]
middle class woman. And Sarah Palin horrifies
me.
Her gender is far less important to me than the
idea that once again the U.S. might vote into
office someone based on some television-
inspired "likability" factor, rather than on brains
and judgment.
George W. Bush was likable. My son, as a
teenager, met the President and was shocked to
find that the man behind the execrable policies
was personable, charming, warm, and funny. But
as we now know, GWB couldn't govern his way
out of a paper bag and did our country
inestimable harm.
"If her paper on the Lincoln-Douglas debate
wasn't the most nuanced, so be it. Something
has to give." Really??? This is foolishness. The
last thing that should "give" in selecting a
country's leader is intellectual ability and capacity
for nuance.
I don't hunt but as a small farmer I raise and
butcher all my family's meat -- I can field dress
a bull calf probably as rapidly as Mrs. Palin can
field dress a moose. I, too, live in an unforgiving
northern climate, and have an enormous wood
pile for heat. I don't delude myself that this has
any bearing on any potential ability to govern.
As a teacher of American history I find Sarah
Palin an absolutely terrifying prospect, and have
sent in my first-ever political contribution to the
Obama campaign.
Posted by Tess Harding on September 11, 2008 2:36 PM
"You're one of the few people who has interviewed her for a national publication," the publicist answered, referring to an article I had written earlier this year profiling the governor of Alaska for the magazine.A candidate for Vice President of the United States that counts Vogue as national press scares the shit out of me, but it makes her more "real" to her fans. She's an outsider! She's a maverick!
Jesus fucking Christ, I can't believe that people are AGAIN trying to decide a major race based on the likeability of candidatesI don't think this is exactly right.
Under Palin, Wasilla charged rape victims for exam.Not yet. McCain/Palin '08!
Is this common in the US?
"Watch McCain about a minute and a half into the tape, when he's asked what National Security credentials Sarah Palin has. He replies 'energy.' The reporter goes, no, I asked you about national security. McCain then says that Alaska is close to Russia. They're amazing.posted by ericb at 10:57 AM on September 11, 2008 [6 favorites]
Watch this interview of John McCain on WCSH in Portland, Maine. McCain is clueless. Clueless about his v.p. No wonder the McCain campaign doesn't want McCain answering questions. He can't.
Nice work by Rob Caldwell. The McCain campaign thinks the local reporters will only throw softballs. Actually, it's the national reporters, like ABC's Charlie Gibson, who throw the softballs."
Honestly, I went through debate, interview and inquisition getting a lateral promotion 10 years ago for a job that didn't even require a college degree.Of course, the job that she is asking us to give her also does not require a college degree.
Time: Sarah Palin's Myth of America (more)For those playing along at home, that's five "Palin"s, three "Obama"s, "Biden" and "Clinton" one each, and one conspicuous absence.
MSNBC: Obama's woes have nothing to do with 'lipstick' (more)
Top of the Ticket: Canadian doctor warns Sarah Palin's decision to have Down baby ... (more)
Politico: Biden bows to Clinton (more)
WSJ: Obama Readjusts to Defuse Palin Phenomenon (more)
WSJ: Obama Can't Win Against Palin (more)
Yahoo! News: GOP foreign policy experts cool on Palin (more)
Also in that WCSH McCain interview, at 4:20 John McCain speaking about Sarah Palin states, "She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America."Well, you see, she lives in Alaska. So obviously she knows more than anyone else about this. Why do you hate America?
What!?!?! I must have overlooked her articles in the various energy resource engineering journals, her work at the DOE on energy policy, or perhaps there was a Nobel Prize in physics that I am not aware of.
"Former Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee has called vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin a 'cocky wacko' and said her selection as John McCain's running mate has energized supporters of Democrat Barack Obama.posted by ericb at 1:54 PM on September 11, 2008 [4 favorites]
...'They've just thrown this firestorm, this tornado, into the whole presidential election,' Chafee said in response to an audience member's question about whether the Obama campaign should worry about Palin's presence in the race.
He said her speech at the Republican National Convention had the unintended effect of energizing Democrats and Obama supporters.
'People were coming into my office, phone calls were flooding in, e-mails were coming in, "I just sent money to Obama, I couldn't sleep last night" — from the left. To see this cocky wacko up there,' Chafee said to laughter.
Chafee said in an interview Thursday that he found much of Palin's convention speech objectionable, particularly her 'mocking' assertion that Obama was overly concerned with al-Qaida terrorists getting read their rights.
That comment 'got to the core of everything wrong with the last eight years,' he said."
"A pollster whose mathematical model has correctly predicted every winner of the White House popular vote since 1988 is banking on a decisive victory for Democrat Barack Obama in November.posted by ericb at 1:57 PM on September 11, 2008 [2 favorites]
Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz said Wednesday that according to his 'time for change' model, Obama would secure 54.3 percent of the popular vote against 45.7 percent for Republican John McCain.
That margin would virtually guarantee a crushing victory for the Democrat in the state-by-state electoral college that actually selects the next president, Abramowitz said."
“I'm afraid this is just embarrassingly incoherent. First, the notion that Palin's proximity to Russia counts as national security experience continues to be unusually stupid, even for McCain.posted by ericb at 2:04 PM on September 11, 2008 [2 favorites]
Second, ‘Energy’ is not a response to the question, ‘What experience does she have in the field of national security?’
And third, to insist, publicly and on the record, that Sarah Palin ‘knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America’ is, quite literally, laughable. We are, after all, talking about a politician who isn't sure about the human impact on global warming, and hasn't demonstrated any real expertise on the issue. Ever.
As Yglesias recently noted, ‘Give Sarah Palin this much -- her understanding of the geopolitics of energy is every bit as daft as that of much more seasoned conservative pseudo-experts. She can spin out outlandish and ultimately nonsensical scenarios about Iran (or Venezuela) deploying the mythical 'oil weapon' and she, too, can ignore the fundamentally global nature of hydrocarbon markets by prattling about 'energy independence.'‘
Stepping back, it's striking that McCain still, even now, can't answer obvious questions about his own running mate. Caldwell's question was direct, but hardly an unexpected curveball. Indeed, the obvious answer for McCain is that Palin doesn't have a background in national security, but neither do most governors who seek national office, but he's confident in her judgment, her ability to learn quickly, etc.
But, no. Asked an obvious question, McCain offers a confused response that doesn't make any sense.
Maybe the next time the Republican handlers prep Palin on how to answer questions; McCain should sit in and take a few notes.”
A McCain-Palin ad has FactCheck.org calling Obama's attacks on Palin "completely false" and "misleading." That's what we said, but it wasn't about Obama.posted by designbot at 2:24 PM on September 11, 2008 [3 favorites]
Our article criticized anonymous e-mail falsehoods and bogus claims about Palin posted around the Internet. We have no evidence that any of the claims we found to be false came from the Obama campaign.
The McCain-Palin ad also twists a quote from a Wall Street Journal columnist. He said the Obama camp had sent a team to Alaska to "dig into her record and background." The ad quotes the WSJ as saying the team was sent to "dig dirt."
Update, Sept. 10: Furthermore, the Obama campaign insists that no researchers have been sent to Alaska and that the Journal owes them a correction.
GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Are we fighting a holy war?Now, someone who supports Palin explain to me how this non sequitur explains anything?
PALIN: You know, I don't know if that was my exact quote.
GIBSON: Exact words.
PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln's words when he said -- first, he suggested never presume to know what God's will is, and I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words.
But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that's a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God's side.
That's what that comment was all about, Charlie.
"Wow, going to war with Russia might be necessary if Russia invades another one of the former states of the Soviet Union. So says Sarah Palin. War with Russia over Armenia? If Russia and Georgia go at it again? War between the US and Russia sure would be a positive development for the US. And sort of shows the consequences of taking a freshman governor with no experience in foreign policy and giving her a ten day crash course with Randy Scheunemann and the rest of John McCain's neocon brain trust that got booted from the Bush inner circle for being too nutty."Let's not forget. Russia is Palin's strong suit. She lives in a state closest to that country. And she got a passport in 2007 and visited Alaskan National Guard members in Kuwait and Germany ... with a fueling stop in Ireland! Ultimately qualified!
I hate to get all Godwin, but have you noticed how much the Republicans have in common with the Nazis? They keep repeating lies until the lies are accepted as truth.Interesting historical note: Goebbels coined the term "the big lie" to refer to what he claimed the jews were doing, making a lie so huge that you'd have to believe it.
For those of you on this thread who say insulting and demeaning things regarding those who do not share your political views...I feel duty bound to point out to you that when I am among those people (say, at a Republican meeting) they feel that you are all equally out of touch, illogical, etc. etc. -- konoliaIt all depends on the premises. If you take as a premise that abortion is wrong, then of course liberals seem crazy. On the other hand if you think torture is wrong, conservatives seem crazy. Of course, abortion isn't wrong and torture is. On the other hand, when people hold contradictory views, it's really difficult to argue with them, because
Palin agreed in principle to the "Bush doctrine," the idea that the United States has the right to preemptively strike those another country the U.S. think will attack first.My comment about this? There is none.
So she Has no idea what the bush doctrine is
People who shoot other adults don't always get a lifetime in prison or executed. I am more interested in saving babies than punishing women. Yes, I suppose they would deserve a penalty -but I think they have already paid a pretty high price. A dead child. If that is inconsistent, fine. I can live with that.Well, it's good that you can live with it, because yes, it's inconsistent.
Hang on: didn't she make it a point to tell everyone at the RNC that her son was leaving for Iraq on September 11th?
GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?posted by kirkaracha at 7:49 PM on September 11, 2008 [1 favorite]
PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.
GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they’re doing in Georgia?
PALIN: Well, I’m giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.
I am interested in stopping the murder.But not quite interested in it enough to think that the murderer should be charged with murder. The murderer has suffered enough, of course.
State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”Oh, boo hoo, Mr. Hebert. When the economy is doing so great that the middle class are making up to $5 million a year, there's just no excuse for missing a payment, and failing to achieve this should strip you of your right to representation. Let the poor vote? Whatever, comrade.
The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.”
“You can’t challenge people without a factual basis for doing so,” said J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm. “I don’t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.”
As for the practice of challenging the right to vote of foreclosed property owners, Hebert called it, “mean-spirited.” ... McCain’s regional headquarters are housed in the office building of foreclosure specialists Trott & Trott. The firm’s founder, David A. Trott, has raised between $100,000 and $250,000 for the Republican nominee.
I believe in personal responsibility. If I were pregnant, and I stuck a coathanger up myself to try to self abort, is that not my own responsibility? Shouldn't I KNOW that I was endangering my life? If I went to a backalley butcher for an illegal abortion, wouldn't I KNOW I was breaking a law? That what I was doing had real personal risk?That "situation" being seeking to terminate her pregnancy. Should she find herself in that "situation", legislation that would in many cases ensure that two lives are lost (by your definition of life) is more acceptable than preserving legislation that in most cases ensure that she lives, because should she die, that is her "personal responsiblity". She brought it on herself, in other words. So let's be clear: It has nothing to do with preserving life. It is a retributory belief. What's "sad, tragic and stupid" is the belief that death from attempted abortion is her problem. That's some milk of human kindness, right there.
I do not see women as helpless brainless creatures. I think it is sad and tragic that a woman would die from a botched abortion, but I think it is sad, tragic and stupid that she would put herself into that situation which at best would still be fatal to the unborn infant.
"Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would 'defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.'posted by ericb at 9:28 PM on September 11, 2008 [3 favorites]
The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself."
"[McCain campaign spokeswoman Maria] Comella said yesterday that the 2007 trip was her only foreign travel apart from visits to Canada. Comella said Palin first received a passport in 2006.posted by ericb at 9:48 PM on September 11, 2008 [1 favorite]
...According to business leaders and academics familiar with foreign-policy issues and Palin's administration, she has demonstrated little interest in expanding the state's trade ties with Canada or Russia compared with some of her predecessors.
Mention a name or theme -- Brett Favre, the Patriots under Belichick, Lance Armstrong's comeback, Venus and Serena -- and anyone who cares about sports can have a very sophisticated discussion about the ins and outs and myth and realities and arguments and rebuttals.posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 8:59 AM on September 12, 2008 [11 favorites]
People who don't like sports can't do that. It's not so much that they can't identify the names -- they've heard of Armstrong -- but they've never bothered to follow the flow of debate. I like sports -- and politics and tech and other topics -- so I like joining these debates. On a wide range of other topics -- fashion, antique furniture, the world of restaurants and fine dining, or (blush) opera -- I have not been interested enough to learn anything I can add to the discussion. So I embarrass myself if I have to express a view.
What Sarah Palin revealed is that she has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues. Many people in our great land might have difficulty defining the "Bush Doctrine" exactly. But not to recognize the name, as obviously was the case for Palin, indicates not a failure of last-minute cramming but a lack of attention to any foreign-policy discussion whatsoever in the last seven years.
"I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I've been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism," ...Senator [McCain] declared. "I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."posted by ericb at 9:51 AM on September 12, 2008 [3 favorites]
I can see the moon from my terrace, but I'm not trying to get the job of second of command at NASA. </blockquote?posted by Mental Wimp at 1:32 PM on September 12, 2008 [1 favorite]
"Despite denials by the Palin campaign, new evidence proves that as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had a direct hand in imposing fees to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams conducted by the city to gather evidence.posted by ericb at 3:19 PM on September 12, 2008 [8 favorites]
Palin's role is now confirmed by Wasilla City budget documents available online."
"Our current governor, we mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected. ...... She was an AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town -- that was a non-partisan job. But you get along to go along -- she eventually joined the Republican Party......" Clark goes on to talk about the need for AIP members to infiltrate the major political parties (around 8:45).
"Harsh advertisements and negative attacks are a staple of presidential campaigns, but Senator John McCain has drawn an avalanche of criticism this week from Democrats, independent groups and even some Republicans for regularly stretching the truth in attacking Senator Barack Obama’s record and positions."Campaign of Lies Disgraces McCain
"This nation is facing real challenges on the economy, health care, jobs and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are significant differences between how Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain would address them. But McCain's recent campaign ads suggest the most vital issues are whether Obama wanted to teach sex education to kindergarten children and whether he derided the Republican's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, by talking about lipstick on a pig.posted by ericb at 6:49 AM on September 13, 2008 [2 favorites]
McCain's straight talk has become a toxic mix of lies and double-speak. It is leaving a permanent stain on his reputation for integrity, and it is a short-term strategy that eventually will backfire with the very types of independent-thinking voters that were so attracted to him.
...The leader who says he would rather lose an election than lose a war now risks losing his reputation in an attempt to win the White House."
Sarah Palin's visit to Iraq in 2007 consisted of a brief stop at a border crossing between Iraq and Kuwait, the vice presidential candidate's campaign said yesterday, in the second official revision of her only trip outside North America.posted by Mick at 11:54 AM on September 13, 2008 [1 favorite]
Following her selection last month as John McCain's running mate, aides said Palin had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard. During that trip she was said to have visited a "military outpost" inside Iraq. The campaign has since repeated that Palin's foreign travel included an excursion into the Iraq battle zone.
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."posted by caddis at 2:57 PM on September 13, 2008 [32 favorites]
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
* If you teach teach children about sexual predators, you are irresponsible and eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that hates America and advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
“Aides to Gov. Sarah Palin are scrambling to explain details of her only trip outside North America -- which, according to a new report, did not include Iraq, as the McCain-Palin campaign had initially claimed.posted by ericb at 3:29 PM on September 13, 2008 [1 favorite]
Palin made an official visit to see Alaskan troops in Kuwait in July of 2007. There, she made a stop at a border crossing with Iraq, but did not actually visit the country, according to a new report in the Boston Globe.
Earlier, McCain aides had said that Palin visited Iraq, and expressed indignation at questions about her slim foreign travel.
The campaign also said she had been to Ireland; that turned out to have been a refueling stop.
In her ABC interview, Palin said she had also been to Canada and to Mexico, where her advisers said she went on vacation.
Obama aides described the new revisions to Palin's account as part of a growing pattern of deception. ‘The McCain campaign said Governor Palin opposed the Bridge to Nowhere, but now we know she supported it. They said she didn't seek earmarks, but now we know she hired a lobbyist to get millions in pork for her town and her state. They said she visited Iraq, but today we learned that she only stopped at the border. Americans are starting to wonder, is there anything the McCain campaign isn't lying about?’ Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor asked in a statement e-mailed to reporters.
A short time later, the Obama campaign circulated a new Bloomberg story that questions whether the McCain campaign has been sending out false crowd estimates.
On two occasions since Palin joined the ticket, McCain aides have cited law enforcement sources in claiming enormous crowds -- but law enforcement officials interviewed by Bloomberg denied having given such estimates.”
So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency.I like cows, too! And I speak foreign languages. Dude, someone hire me to run the USDA or the State Department or something.
Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.
Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy.Well then, based on the current administration, she is obviously qualified!
Laura Chase, the campaign manager during Ms. Palin’s first run for mayor in 1996, recalled the night the two women chatted about her ambitions.posted by Rhaomi at 7:06 PM on September 13, 2008
"I said, 'You know, Sarah, within 10 years you could be governor,' Ms. Chase recalled. She replied, 'I want to be president.'"
Pusser, at his wife Pauline's behest, retires from the professional wrestling ring and moves back to Tennessee to become deputy under his father, Carl Pusser and then the police chief of Adamsville, Tennessee. But when he wins election as sheriff of McNairy County, Pusser becomes aware of the rampant corruption and decides to clean up the county. Buford Pusser becomes famous for being incorruptible, intolerant of crime, and his array of four foot hickory clubs which he uses to great effect in destroying clandestine gambling dens and illegal distilleries, and even against criminals.
Some residents praise Buford Pusser as an honest cop in a crooked town; others denounce him as a bully willing to break some laws to uphold others.
He and Pauline are ambushed. Pauline was killed, and Pusser is seriously injured, admitted to the hospital with over 200 stitches. When he recovers he avenges himself with a wooden club.
"The Drudge Report and several conservative blogs are working themselves into a lather over the new Obama ad noting that John McCain doesn't know how to use a computer.posted by ericb at 8:37 PM on September 13, 2008
Their claim is that McCain is simply unable to use a computer because of his POW injuries, citing a March 2000 article in the Boston Globe that states, with no supporting evidence...'McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.'Of course, this directly contradicts what McCain and his campaign manager have said. McCain told the New York Times in July:'I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don't expect to be a great communicator, I don't expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.'Campaign manager Rick Davis said in June that McCain would grab Blackberrys from reporters and tool around on the internet:'He actually is, he always is grabbing people's Blackberrys on the bus. In fact, no reporter's Blackberry is safe from his prying eyes. He loves to tool around on the internet, he especially loves the videos that get produced that usually poke fun at him. I think that's his most entertaining part of the internet.'And in a Politico interview, McCain said again that he uses a Blackberry and plans to go online:'I use the Blackberry, but I don't e-mail, I've never felt the particular need to e-mail. I read e-mails all the time, but the communications that I have with my friends and staff are oral and done with my cell phone. I have the luxury of being in contact with them literally all the time.'And if you don't believe their words, try these photos.
Remind me why we're not supposed to believe Republicans are retarded?In all honesty, that just shifts the question from the individual level to the national level.
They win, sometimes.
For some reason this movie is coming to mind....
A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales.A $600 million bridge for 7000 residents. Yep. It's Son of The Bridge To Nowhere. Nowhere, except of course for the Governor's home.
[...]''This is basically an incredibly expensive project that doesn't help commuters, doesn't help create jobs and may drive whales to extinction,'' said Justin Massey, an attorney advising environmentalists opposed to the proposal. ''It is also a project that serves the area where the governor is from, which is near and dear to her heart.
[...]The bridge is popular with property developers -- including a group comprised of Young's son-in-law, the former legislative director for indicted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens and three others -- who own land across from Anchorage on the inlet's western side.
Look at this fucking blackberry. John McCain invented the shit out this blackberry. This beautiful son of a bitch invented the mother fucking blackberry. Can you imagine what sort of crazy shit his ass is going to invent when he's the mother fucking president of the U.S. of mother fucking A. My bitch ass can't either, that's why i'm not John McCain.posted by chunking express at 12:47 PM on September 16, 2008 [5 favorites]
The record is very clear that the decision to accept the veep nomination was kept from the Palin children until they arrived in Ohio on what they were told was a surprise trip for their parents' wedding anniversary . Here's a Fox-approved Kremlin interview with Todd Palin that re-confirms the official tick-tock provided by the McCain campaign. It's clear from this that the girls did not vote after McCain had offered Palin the job."
What could be more beautiful than a viking funeral?
"The one thing that frightens me more than anything else are the ideologues. We've seen too many," said 80-year-old Air Force veteran Donn Spegal, a lifelong Republican from St. Petersburg (...)posted by =^^= at 8:17 PM on September 19, 2008
Obama is not making inroads because of anything he has done or said. It's more that McCain has repelled these swing voters in the biggest battleground region of the biggest battleground state.
So who wouldn't fall all over themselves for a top politician who actually seemed to talk to you like you were a person, an intelligent adult worthy of respect? A politician who all of a sudden out of nowhere comes on TV as this total long-shot candidate and says that Washington is paralyzed, that everybody there's been bought off, and that the only way to really "return government to the people" the way all the other candidates claim they want to do is to outlaw huge unreported political contributions from corporations and lobbies and PACs ... all of which are obvious truths that everybody knows but no recent politician's had the stones to say.posted by =^^= at 2:38 AM on September 23, 2008
....
[He] cannot afford to have voters get turned off, since his whole strategy is based on exciting the people and inspiring them and pulling more voters in, especially those who'd stopped voting because they'd gotten so disgusted and bored with all the Negativity and bullshit of politics.
....
Obviously, a real leader isn't just somebody who has ideas you agree with, nor is it just somebody you happen to think is a good guy. A real leader is somebody who, because of his own particular power and charisma and example, is able to inspire people, with "inspire" being used here in a serious and non-cliché way. A real leader can somehow get us to do certain things that deep down we think are good and want to be able to do but usually can't get ourselves to do on our own. It's a mysterious quality, hard to define, but we always know it when we see it, even as kids.
....
A leader's real "authority" is a power you voluntarily give him, and you grant him this authority not with resentment or resignation but happily; it feels right. Deep down, you almost always like how a real leader makes you feel, the way you find yourself working harder and pushing yourself and thinking in ways you couldn't ever get to on your own.
Mrs Palin, who was then preparing for her gubernatorial run, was anointed by Pastor Muthee. His intercession, she says, was “awesome”.posted by ahughey at 4:42 PM on September 23, 2008 [1 favorite]
Dear future readers,
You have come to this thread to witness a part of Metafilter history; by and far the longest single conversation that we, as a group, have participated in. It is an amazing piece of collaborative work, where many of us, in keeping abreast of the shocking revelation of this Republican presidential running-mate, posted up to the minute stories as, and often before, they broke in the main stream media.
In many cases, our words, often nearly verbatim, were used by pundits and anchors alike, suggesting that our beloved blue community is actually quite closely watched by many different media sources. A fact which should both thrill and, perhaps, frighten us a bit.
But to you, gentle reader, I say this; you have worked your way through this epic tome. You have seen us at our best, and our worst, you have endured many, many thousands of words, and some of you will have read every single one of them. An effort which has undoubtedly cost you more than a few hours..."She's scary. I tell you, everytime I see her I go home and open my wallet and write another cheque for Obama."Scary indeed.
(...)
"I can't speak about how she feels entirely about political views and all of that. But when it comes to children that's a completely different thing and I think the fact that she has 5 and now that she has a challenged one on top of it, she's got to have some strong values in there where kids are concerned."
(...)
"I think we need somebody new in the office. But, and I hate to sound racist, but I'm not sure this country is ready for a black president. So, I don't know, I just don't know, I don't have a good feeling about it. Having a woman on the ballot, being a woman, is huge. I think it means a lot. Because a lot of times mums just are not recognised for what they do."
________ __ __ __ __ __ ________
/\_____ \/\ \\ \ /\ \\ \ /'_ `\ /\_____ \
\/___//'/'\ \ \\ \ \ \ \\ \ /\ \L\ \\/___//'/'
/' /' \ \ \\ \_\ \ \\ \_\/_> _ <>
posted by ColdChef at 7:57 AM on August 29, 2008 [9 favorites]