Lavender's Backwaters

Hypocrisy Blotter of the Day

2010-05-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

#1 INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana Republican Rep. Mark Souder acknowledged an affair with a staffer Tuesday and unexpectedly announced his resignation, giving Democrats a chance at capturing what many had thought was a safe Republican seat.

The eight-term congressman apologized for his actions but provided no details.

"I am so ashamed to have hurt the ones I love," he said at a news conference in Fort Wayne. "I am sorry to have let so many friends down, people who have worked so hard for me."
His resignation is effective Friday.

UPDATE: Fox News has identified Souder's mistress as Tracy Jackson, an aide in his Indiana district office. Video has surfaced of Jackson conducting an "interview" with Souder about a hearing on abstinence education.

Story @ Huffpoo

#2 Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal has conceded he has "misspoken" in claiming he served in Vietnam but defended his military record and his commitment to veterans.

At a news conference backed by veterans, the popular Connecticut attorney general said he meant to say he served "during Vietnam" instead of "in Vietnam." He called it a matter of "a few misplaced words" that were "totally unintentional."

Story @ Huffpoo

#3 Bristol Palin has signed with a speakers bureau for a tidy sum of between $15,000 and $30,000 per speech, RadarOnline reports.

[UPDATE: Palin family attorney Thomas Van Flein confirmed with the AP that Bristol Palin has signed a deal with the bureau and that is indeed her fee range, but said the cost may be adjusted based on her target audience and the preparation required for a particular speaking engagement.]

story @ Huffpoo

Bristol Palin ought to go home and raise the baby she already had. She was unmarried and having sex. She's the last person who should be speaking on abstinence, as she didn't practice it and has profited hugely as a result of behavior that would send Republicans howling into the woods had it been a Democrat's daughter. No role model she!

!!!

& #4 Half-Governor Sarah Palin crashed twice-Governor Wally Hickel's funeral today. Trust me, if Sarah Palin was paying her respects, the check would bounce. The guest list was impressive with many Alaskan dignitaries. And then there was Palin with her daughter Piper, the 8-year-old human shield, in tow.

[Shannon Moore's friend], Geoffrey Dunn asked Hickel last year for a formal, on-the-record response to Palin's stunted career as governor. Dunn wrote, "He took a deep pause. "She fell in love with the national spotlight and lost her ethical compass," he said thoughtfully. "That was a sad day for Alaska and America."

story @ Huffpoo

Why the crap is Piper never in school? If Birthers want to see Obama's birth certificate, then I want to see Palin's teaching certificate for home-schooling her "human shield." Boy howdy, watch that kid rebel like crazy in about 8 years.

Oh, and Arizonans?

2010-05-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

Not you, Sarah Palin. Only real ones that get their mail here need apply.

VOTE.

I think we're all forgetting something here.

2010-05-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

The eleven men who died will receive no compensation, even though their claims are about as "legitimate" as they get. BP is going to use that adjective to screw the guys whose businesses they destroyed, whose environment they destroyed, and whose lives they killed.

It will be just like the Exxon Valdez.

And here's how the Supreme Court, who says that corporations are people too, decided to screw the little guy.

Some are dead, and died without compensation of any variety.

"They're going to be hurt. Those people are going to be suffering because their economy is going to be shot for a year or so," he said. "It took 20 years before the final round was played out with Exxon, in terms of lawsuits, and then they cut back the initial amount. Not many people got much. A lot of people in 20 years have died, lost their boats and permits. It just really screwed up a lot of people's lives."

At least Louisiana knows what's coming.

New Hits?

2010-05-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

Hey campers, all of a sudden I'm getting hits & I'm wondering if I should start up again? Gimme a shout if you mystery readers I'm getting stats for say aye...

Igor Panarin: U.S. Will Collapse By Next Year

2009-03-04T09:16:00.001-08:00

Sarah Palin must be laying low with her secessionist-helpmeet Todd teh First Dud, since this is the zaniness catching my eye today.

"Panarin argued that Americans are in moral decline, saying their great psychological stress is evident from school shootings, the size of the prison population and the number of gay men."

I kinda snarfed the coffee on that one, no lie. These things are all controversial, and it's a good list, till ... gay men??

There are several reasons why gay men are a boon to American society, and I shall lay out some reasons that the male gay population may be the salvation of the American Dream, and should be thus revered:

1) The gay man always seems to have a female friend during high school (whether either of them know he's gay, or closeted, or whatevs) which leads to sincere, emo-laden conversations when they should be doing their trig homework. This increases the emotional quotient of both, and trig causes a rash anyway.

2) Without the gay man, Broadway's lights would have dimmed years ago, and then what would housewives from Iowa do in New York, go to the Warsaw and rock? psh.

3) And let's not forget that every gay couple doesn't produce another human, thus working in their own buttsecksy way to trim the population before we hit 11 billion by the year 2100

So, just based on this alone, it's obvious someone's been spiking the Russky prof's vodka with Rush Limbaugh's Oxycodone.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

God Wants Your Knees Crossed? Really??

2009-02-17T15:51:00.000-08:00

Then where did all these adolescent/horny teenager feelings come from, Mommy? It's the Devil? you say? So if I am strong against Satan I can stay pure?

Maybe not so much. Bristol Palin came out and blasted abstinence-only sex education, the biggest waste of money since the D.A.R.E. program/ war on drugs, as "not realistic," which would explain both the size and timing of her family's birthday list.

This poor girl's face when she says she "doesn't want to get into it" screams of what she's seeing in her mind's eye at the time, which would be her getting into it. The problem is that no matter how much we tell teens that they should wait, they rarely do. There will be the religious, but they have another avenue to channel all that hormonal energy- they sublimate it into God. Or they don't and they play sports really hard. Or they play sports really hard and attract people who get all excited by a hero's attention that....

but let's not get into it.

However, were we to discuss human sexuality with as much embarrassment as we do human psychology (i.e. none at all) then children wouldn't be shamed. Kids would know what the consequences of their choices would be. There would be adequate and available protection for free. Honestly? A goldfishblowl full of condoms in the nurse's office by the door would cut down on the number of girls dropping out because they're knocked up. I haven't had any this year, but I had three or four the last two previous. They say they're psyched, but if they knew now what they knew then, would they have reached for the protection? Maybe the knowledge alone would have kept the pants zipped.

Or if they took the plunge, they might be less scared, and that child would have a parent's laser-focused attention on them to see that they did become a real human someday.

Maybe we wouldn't be heading towards eleven billion people on the planet in the next hundred years.

Maybe it would be quality, not quantity.

Obama's been in for less than three weeks: A review...

2009-02-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

So, Obama's gone from an 83% approval rating to a 63% approval rating. This is not surprising, considering that I still haven't gotten my magical unicorn delivered yet. *rolls eyes* However, he shall live in my mind as the most amazing politician for one reason and one reason only: he admitted a mistake. This in and of itself is enough of a miracle that it bears repeating. Agree with him or disagree with him, but a man who can admit a mistake is more of a man who durst not admit to such. George Bush, I am talking to YOU. Going around the media circuit and presenting a revisionist history does not make you a man who learned from his errors; it makes you a man who should have tried once or twice to change a policy that wasn't working. He's still a damned tool. At least he has the grace to stay the hell off the national radar, unlike his puppet master Vice President Dick.

And then there's THIS moron:

Former Chief of Staff to Obama: Put Your Jacket On
By Bernie Becker

At least one prominent former Bush official has the following message for President Obama: I don’t care if it’s warm enough to grow orchids in the Oval Office. Put your suit jacket on.

In an interview scheduled to run Wednesday night, Andrew H. Card Jr. told the syndicated news show Inside Edition that “there should be a dress code of respect” in the White House and that he wished Mr. Obama “would wear a suit coat and tie.”

Mr. Card, who was George W. Bush’s first chief of staff, becomes the first member of that famously buttoned-up administration to criticize the more relaxed Obama dress code.

According to Inside Edition’s Web site, Mr. Card also said:

“The Oval Office symbolizes…the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I’m going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it’s appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President.”

Mr. Card went on to add that, while he would not criticize Mr. Obama for his appearance, “I do expect him to send the message that people who are going to be in the Oval Office should treat the office with the respect that it has earned over history.”

As the Times’ Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported last week, Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush have, among other distinctions, drastically different views on White House dress codes.

Uh-huh. Had the Bush Administration been more concerned with running the country in a direction other than the ground, perhaps they'd not have had the time to whine about dress code. I'm glad he's more focussed on work. Respect for the Constitution doesn't stem from a suit coat; respect for the Constitution stems from following it and not using it as a birdcage liner to make war and money for political rich bastard cronies.

So, for the first three weeks I give ole Barry a B+

Psychology Today Says It's "Here to Help"

2009-01-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

SarahPAC has gotten started, and is the brainchild of a group of Republicans who think that this woman is actually a viable candidate for the national stage. I don't know how anyone can feel that way for anything other than purely ideological ideas. It can't be based on job performance, since the woman is so absent from the job she's got that the legislature famously wears these buttons:
I don't know about you, but her vacuity and ravening hunger for fame and time in the spotlight enrages me enough to keep pounding the drum to expose her for the willing tool she is.

Just because anyone CAN run for office doesn't mean that everyone SHOULD. She ought to go home and take care of her Down-syndrome baby.

or at least just go home!

Pulled from A Field Guide to Narcissism:

Deep desire to be at the center of things is served by extreme self-confidence, a combination that makes narcissists attractive and even charming. Buoyed by a coterie of admiring friends and associates—protected by the armor of positive self-regard—someone with a mild-to-moderate case of narcissism can float through life feeling pretty good about himself. Since they feel entitled to special treatment, they are easily offended, and readily harbor grudges. Yet narcissists are often very popular—at least in the short term.

The beauty of being a narcissist is that even when disaster stares you in the face, you feel neither doubt nor remorse. In a study, researchers asked a pair of participants to undertake a task that was rigged to fail. Most people tend to protect their partner, sharing either the credit or the blame. "But the narcissists would say, 'It's totally the other person's fault.' They're completely willing to step on someone," says narcissism researcher Keith Campbell, associate professor of social psychology at the University of Georgia.

Intensely narcissistic people often live tumultuous lives, as few people can tolerate them for long. But having a milder version of the personality type comes with many side benefits. Subclinical narcissists are happy. They are less likely to be depressed, sad or anxious, and rate their subjective well-being more highly. They're less reactive to stress, and recover more rapidly from it.

1. Buoyed by a coterie of admiring friends and associates—protected by the armor of positive self-regard—someone with a mild-to-moderate case of narcissism can float through life feeling pretty good about himself.

example:

Meghan Stapleton - Once a beloved and respected Channel 2 News anchorwoman (I’m sensing a theme here), and whose only dreadful performance before working for the McCain campaign was literally getting run over by a Christmas reindeer on television, her fall to the dark side can only be described as extraordinary. Known now as Meghan Stapletongue, because that’s kind of what it feels like when she talks, she was front and center with McCain’s “Truth Squad.” As Orwellian as it sounded, the function of the “Truth Squad” was to stand in front of the media with charts and graphs complete with circles and arrows, and connect anyone and everyone that spoke out for accountability in Palin’s ethics investigation, with…(ominous chord)..Barack Obama….(insert high pitched scream here). Another favorite activity was sullying the name and reputation of ex-Commissioner of Public safety Walt Monegan, a dedicated and competent public servant (who refused to illegally fire Palin’s ex-brother-in-law) by calling him a “rogue” and accusing him of “insubordination.” Nice.

2. The beauty of being a narcissist is that even when disaster stares you in the face, you feel neither doubt nor remorse.

Finding Number One

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah

Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive

Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

"The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a

public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest

through official action is a violation of that trust."

Palin's reaction:

"If you read the report, you will see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member," Palin said as boarded her campaign bus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "You got to read the report."

Palin violated state ethics law by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator's report for the bipartisan Legislative Council concluded Friday.

Sarah Palin Wants To Run in 2012- When the Mayan Calendar Ends. I'm Just Sayin'.

2009-01-28T11:58:00.000-08:00

Sarah Palin has a PAC now. I can only hope that the body politic of America will expel this infection from itself so that we can continue to undo the damage of the Neocons. However, in the meantime Sarah gets to run all over the country (read: NOT in Alaska) promoting whatever the hell her political agenda (read: self-aggrandizing horsesh*t) actually is.

From Alaska Daily News:

... it {also} allows Palin to more easily differentiate between her political activity and her gubernatorial duties, Pryor said. She can use the money raised by the political committee to donate to other like-minded candidates or to incur travel expenses on behalf of them. She also can use it to pay for her own political activities unrelated to her official job.

So Palin, for example, can use money raised by the committee to attend two upcoming political events outside Alaska, Pryor said.

Really, how much time has this woman actually spent in her state, running the people's business? Not so much, according to The Mudflats:

I think it’s time to dust off those “Where’s Sarah?” buttons. The legislature has worn them before to acknowledge Palin’s Juneau-phobia. And yes, both the Alfalfa/RNC trip and the CPAC trip will happen during the 90 day Legislative session.

So even if she's not tapping the Alaskans for her trip money, she's depriving them of the services of an active governor. And what about her damned kids not being high-school dropouts, really?

In the wee hours of 2008, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin wanted everyone to know that both daughter Bristol and her fiance, Levi Johnston, parents of Palin's new grandson, Tripp, are not high school dropouts. "You need to know that both Levi and Bristol are working their butts off to parent and going to school and working at the same time," the former Republican vice presidential nominee told People magazine in a phone message on New Year's Eve. "They are certainly not high school dropouts."

Palin was also in touch with the Associated Press and the Anchorage Daily News to complain about what she said were erroneous reports that Johnston had dropped out of school. The source of those reports? Possibly Levi himself. In October, the Associated Press interviewed Johnston and reported that he had left school to work as an apprentice electrician. Palin issued a statement Wednesday clarifying that Johnston is "continuing his online high school work" while he does the apprentice thing.

Pft!

Palin's $180,000 Campaign Clothes "Stuffed In Trash Bags" At RNC Headquarters: NewMajority (VIDEO, SLIDESHOW)

2009-01-26T11:19:00.001-08:00

Ahhh, Sarah. If only we DID see your borrowed feathers auctioned off and the money used to feed the rural villagers in Alaska! Unfortunately, she is far too self-absorbed as a media whore to pay attention to the job she was actually hired for- that of the stewardship of Alaska. This is why we won't need to worry about her in 2012- she'll lose her gubernatorial bid in 2010, and then maybe we'll by Christ be shut of her.

The more she's around, the better I like it- every time she opens her mouth she shows thinking people what a fool with a microphone looks like.
About Slideshows
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

It's Quality, Not Quantity, Dammit.

2009-01-22T06:25:00.000-08:00

I was poking around the Arizona Congress Watch blog, just trying to find new ways to keep up with the news and becoming a better-informed human being, when I came across the above-linked letter from some guy named Trent Franks, who I'm guessing is important in Arizona state politics. I actually hope he's not, because his comparison of abortion to slavery was one of the sappiest pieces of sophistry I've ever read. *sneering incredulously*

Just in case anyone out there is real unclear, I've made a conscious decision to decline the joys of reproduction, mostly because I don't want the job of raising a baby into a recognizably moral human being; instead, I have chosen to help improve the ones other people have already reproduced. This is extremely satisfying, and I wouldn't trade the choices I've made for anything.

However, again and again I find it necessary to put out there the idea that responsible species planning would go a long way towards solving a multitude of problems: unemployment, starvation, homelessness, disease. If people could just remember that before they got overexited on date night, then the nutrition and long life (that also contribute to overpopulation) which humans have scientifically gifted ourselves with would be of benefit to a greater percentage of the population of the world.

If you have children, love them, cherish them, and teach them responsible stewardship of the world.

If you don't, keep it that way by any means you see fit until you're consciously ready to take on the job, or give the baby human to someone who is.

Where's My Pony !? stamps foot

2009-01-21T15:23:00.000-08:00

He must be ordering as we speak.

Things I like that happened on his first day:
1. GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The Guantanamo Bay war crimes court came to an abrupt halt Wednesday as military judges granted President Barack Obama's request to suspend proceedings while he reviews his predecessor's strategy for prosecuting terrorists. (huffpoo)

update: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration intends to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within a year and halt military trials of terror suspects held there, according to a draft order obtained Wednesday. The executive order was one of three expected imminently on how to interrogate and prosecute al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters believed to threaten the United States.(huffpoo again)

2. Obama decides to stack the deck against torture, as opposed to for it:

Lederman, [another] former Clinton Office of Legal Counsel lawyer, is perhaps the most prominent of several high-profile opponents of the Bush Administration's executive power claims joining Obama, a mark that he intends not just to change but to aggressively reverse Bush's moves on subjects like torture. With hires like Barron, Johnen, and Lederman, Obama is not just going back to Democratic lawyers: These are anti-Bush lawyers.

Damn straight. Lederman has been a leading opponent of Bush's torture policies, and the legal reasoning behind them. He's even suggested that the former administration officials committed crimes in this area. Now, thankfully, Lederman is headed to the OLC. (the Washington Monthy)

Now, I spose I could keep to the high road, but it's too damned much fun to sink into the morass of spiteful mockery. We gots two to mock today:

1. Dick Cheney or Jeffrey Lebowski? Gentle Reader, YOU decide! *snicker guffaw*

2. Sarah Palin just won't go away, and at this point, the more she's around, the better I like her:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is going on the offensive against news organizations and bloggers she says are perpetuating malicious gossip about her and her children. But political observers say the former Republican vice presidential candidate can't have it both ways: trotting out the children to showcase her family values, then trying to shield them from scrutiny.

Palin's criticism also raises questions about her motivations because she has said she is open to a presidential run in 2012.

"I think she's positioning herself. She's attacking the media as a way to generate support among a base she hopes will support her," said Leonard Steinhorn, a professor of communications at American University in Washington and an expert on the presidency.

Palin shied away from interviews during the campaign, although her children often accompanied her on her travels, including her oldest daughter, Bristol, who was pregnant at the time.

But in recent weeks, she has personally reached out to media outlets such as People magazine and The Associated Press to complain about information she claimed is wrong. (God Bless the Huffpoo!!)

Just keep talking, sweetheart, just keep talking...

Can YOU tell which one is Fast Eddie?

2009-01-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

He is one of the kids who came to my free period to watch Barack Obama get sworn in as out 44th President. Yay!

Snicker I got banned from Redstate.com!

2009-01-20T15:46:00.000-08:00

AHHAHAHAHAHA
morons.

Check out the thread that I got excised from the site for (I'm posting as Darwinita)

In case you didn't know, Redstate.com is where the 23% flat-Earth Bushfans go to mourn and grouse. I went there today simply to see how sour the grapes were, but man oh man, the fact that Moe Lane actually kicked me off the site for expressing a dissenting opinion only makes me glad all over again that people like that aren't in charge any more.

Seriously, they booted me from the site because I disagree with them. It's their site, and they have every right to show just how cowardly and lame they are.

Can't stop laughing- for all of Huffpoo's flaws at least they don't ban people for DISAGREEING with each other. Interesting tactic to note: instead of my name, the Webmaster changed it to some load of sh*zer about FISA. Sure that was annoying, but if that's the only bit they can come up with then that's pretty sad.

OK, I give up. I'm obsessed.

2008-12-01T09:52:00.001-08:00

I've realized that the majority of this blog has contained articles about Sarah Palin. I can't even help myself- I find this woman to be a fascinating combination of the worst that politicians have to offer us, and the clearest portrait of how celebrity can suck a person's soul dry.

political- Sarah's in deeper trouble than she realizes, but only if the Alaskan legislature retains its collective scrotum when it reconvenes in January. This Troopergate thing is not really going away, and I wish it wouldn't. I can only hope that Alaska has more fiber in their system than does the American legislation- I fear Bush will never be held accountable for his war crimes. However, he may be punishing himself; it looks like he's started drinking again. Can't say as I blame him- if I were him I'd be drinking too.

celebrity- However, Sarah is shameless- and hasn't spent a single day in her state's capital since the election. "My prediction is that for at least the next two years Sarah is going to keep her show on the road because that will be a lot more fun than being Governor of a backwater state that spends most of its time as far out of the limelight in which Sarah has been basking as North and South Dakota do." -Donald Craig Mitchell

The above-referenced article is lengthy, but lays out a great analysis of Sarah Palin, Political Critter. I devoutly hope for her public shaming- it will renew my hope that America just doesn't put up with bullshit, no matter how pretty the bag it comes in.

Tucson's Gay Marriage Ban Protest

2008-11-16T07:18:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 15, Tucson AZ

Several dozen folk came out at marched through Downtown Tucson yesterday to protest the passing of Proposition 8 in California and Proposition 102 here in Arizona. Here are some pictures from the event.

Let's Hear It for Fast Eddie!

2008-11-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

So, about a week before the campaign ended, I stopped writing for a little while. I wanted to just absorb all the history swirling around me, and simply experience what we were all caught up in, our creation: the American Experiment.
Psh, I could have saved myself the pretension- the only result of my grand esoteric experiment is that I watched just as much news as ever, read blogs with the same voracity as before, and developed a nice little lazy avoidance habit with my writing. Bad dilettante, bad!
So, since I'm not one to mess with Fast Eddie, I shall recount my doings as may be of interest.

Since the tuxedo nazis, I have worked for Pima County as an Election Official. This was a long day, starting the night before, when I met Janet the Polling Station Inspector. She was in charge of the whole thing. She lives in my neighborhood a few streets away. At 7:30 on Monday night, we're all standing around the door (me and a few other workers for our precinct) waiting to get in and set up the voting place. Long story short, the key wasn't there and the chick who had it was just sitting down to dinner st Mimi's (and you know how slow that place is).
I went to Trader Joe's to pick up some lunchy snacktime fun, plus some coffee for the morning. I was talking to a friend working the register, and had told him about the next day. One of his colleagues totally overheard, and surprised me with a bouquet of little irises when I was paying the tab! "Thank you for working for Democracy," she actually said. I was a bit chuffed, no lie.

So I get there, and for the next 14 hours I participated in the machinery of American electoral government. I would detail what I did, but it was fairly dull; i had people fill out a lot of forms about it though, if their id wasn't on the money. People I knew from the neighborhood came in and voted all day, and those I didn't know Janet was quick to dial me in on. She's lived in the neighborhood a billion years, and was a great person to get to know. So, at the end of the day, when we're all running around like idiots to count this, seal that, and certify the other, I did get to know exactly how my precinct voted. I had to sign the tape to help make it official ( o the heady nectar of power. o be still my heart.) Without going into details and setting the werewolves on myself, I will say that Obama was the favored candidate in my precinct with a ratio of 5:1.
I was so exhausted when I got home at 8:30 PM that it was all I could do to stay awake through the returns and the speeches. McCain's concession speech was simply, I want to say sublime, but that's not the right word really. I will say that whoever cribbed Shakespeare's line from the Scottish play had the right of it: "Nothing became his campaign like the leaving of it." It was a gracious, noble speech, and I read a great blog explaining why (I just spent twenty minutes I'll never get back again trying to find it. Sorry). I even swiped it while I was chatting with my eyebrow waxer: I posited that McCain's speech was so smooth and elegant because he was no longer at war with himself. Assuming he was a truly noble person, this campaign had to taste like mud in his mouth. Once it was over, and he could step away from the swinish tactics of his staff and advisers, he was a much more relaxed human, and his demeanor showed it.
Obama's speech was less memorable, oddly; he was his smooth articulate suave self, and that's as it should be.

There's the most sublime line of the night: that's as it should be.

Article by AP, Picture by Lavender

2008-10-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Obama Assassination Plot Disrupted By ATF

Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday Oct. 27, 2008. In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond.

WASHINGTON — Two white supremacists allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal authorities said Monday.

In all, the two men whom officials described as neo-Nazi skinheads planned to kill 88 people _ 14 by beheading, according to documents unsealed in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The spree, which initially targeted an unidentified predominantly African-American school, was to end with the two men driving toward Obama, "shooting at him from the windows," the court documents show.

"Both individuals stated they would dress in all-white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt," the court complaint states. "Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt."

click through title for full article...

Might Mccain lose his own home state?

2008-10-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

you betcha! We should only be so lucky. Keep it up, clear thinkers! Don't let this old fool drag our country away from the light!

Please note in this handy- dandy map that Arizona is sliding further and further away from "strong Republican" to "barely Republican." Sorry I cut the key off, but you can click through and check the polls yourself on this great site.

I'm just ecstatic that Arizona, at this late date, is all of a sudden a swing state forcing defense on the part of the McCain Campaign.

When Will We Stop Scapegoating the Black Man?

2008-10-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

I know several black men. Some are goofy, some are smooth, some are uptight, some are chill. None of them are so illiterate that they would carve a backwards B in some girl's face, and none are so criminal (or political!) that they would do so because they were robbing a girl or because she was a McCain supporter.

Oh wait, this stupid hooker did this to herself.

From the AP story: A McCain campaign volunteer who reported that a tall black man robbed her and then cut a "B" onto her cheek after seeing a McCain bumper sticker on her car has been given a polygraph test because of "inconsistencies" in her story, police said.

Good job, Mayella Ewell.
Good job, Susan Smith.
Good job, Ashley Todd.

Guess what this is! This is Ashley Todd's myspace screenshot. If her tag line doesn't say it all, then there ain't no more to say.

OK, REALLY???

2008-10-22T10:03:00.001-07:00

Pointing Fingers Part II- a pictorial

2008-10-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

top: a shot of the garbage bags from the Democratic Convention
below: KSDK -- A NewsChannel 5 Photojournalist shot video of a crew taking down the American flag after Sen. McCain's campaign rally in New Town-St. Charles Monday.

In the video, you see the crane lower the flag to the ground and then a crewman cut rope connected to the flag.

Yet another example of right-wing hypocrisy.So the Democrats can't throw out the mini flags from the convention, but the Republicans can drag a house-sized flag on the ground for all to see? God, I can't stand John McCain's lousy campaign.

McCain Employing GOP Operative Accused Of Voter Registration Fraud

2008-10-21T11:01:00.001-07:00

So, the Rovian attack technique has been honed so sharp it's cutting itself. Every time the McCain campaign points a finger at Senator Obama, it ends up pointing itself right into trouble. First, there were the Reverend issues; Wright ended up looking mighty sane and stable after seeing Hagee and the witch doctor's separate antics with both halves of the Republican ticket. Then, when that didn't stick, they trotted Bill Ayers out. This didn't work, since McCain has G Gordon Liddy hanging around his neck, and Sarah pals around with (read: married to) a member of an organization whose sole purpose was to secede from the union! If that ain't anti- American, then there is no such thing. Finally, the voter fraud issue: Acorn, whose paid flunkies tried to weasel out of actually working to register voters, filled out a bunch of crap. They handed the crap in and got their eight bucks an hour, whatever. The difference is that Acorn handed all the forms in, whereas this asshole's organization actually threw registrations they didn't like (read: Democratic) into the trash.

If McCain were to shut up, maybe he could stop the precipitous slide into hell that his campaign has become; every time he tries to open his mouth he just punches himself in the face. Sad.
About John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I love her filthy mouth.

2008-10-21T10:18:00.001-07:00

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

The Posi and the Aggro

2008-10-15T21:10:00.001-07:00

posi: Barack Obama really clarified and specified his position on Rove V Wade, and explained the rationale by which he shall choose Supreme Court Justices.

aggro: John McCain used "quotey fingers" to make his points.

posi: Barack Obama finally was able to reply to the scurrilous Ayers horseshit, and put it to bed for everybody but the Republican Campain flacks.

aggro: John McCain actually brought up William Ayers, only to have the issue smoothly deflected by Senator Smooth. Obama is right. America doesn't give a shit about Bill Ayers, not when every penny that doesn't go in the tank ends up on the table.

posi: Every aggravation is the opportunity to cultivate patience, and I am so grateful to the McCain campaign for the opportunities they've given me this evening I. could. just. spit. The eyerolling, blinking grimacing, and spastic twitching complemented the shark-glazed eyes and the gnashing teeth. These displays of histrionics were unwelcome, unpleasant, and in the end, un-Presidential

aggro: John McCain interrupted Barack Obama at least three times, out of sheer petulance. Weak!

posi: Barack Obama handled himself better than I would have, and exactly how one would expect a President to behave.

aggro: My mother in law is a bit ill, so I came down to make fried chicken and hand out for a couple of days. This isn't the aggro. The aggro is that my in-laws, including my brother-in-law, are all dyed-in-the-wool Republicans, and my b.i.l. is actually a 28%er. I had to watch the debate here, on their turf. They couldn't find MSNBC on the cable listing. It wasn't there. I RAN for the Internet the second the debate was done.

Maxi-posi-blue ribbon-winner of the night: I kept my cool and didn't throw my shoes at anyone, not even the b.i.l. If Obama can maintain his composure in the face of that raging jackanape McCain, I can do no less with my own family that I pretty much love to death.

McCain Hires SPIES.

2008-10-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

OK, here's how it works:

When a candidate for the Presidency gets this close to the election, it's a 50/50 chance that he's going to win. That means he's got a team to help him transition from campaigning mode to administrative mode. You don't want the same tactics for a campaign as an administration; GB43 never really made that transition and look at the screaming success that the last eight years have been.

SO I come back from picking up groceries (egg noodles $1.79, eggs $1.81, Saltines $2.59) and punch up Huffpoo, and the headline screams,

EXCLUSIVE... MCCAIN'S TRANSITION CHIEF AIDED SADDAM HUSSEIN

Wha?! are you kidding? John McCain would NEVER hire someone who'd worked on behalf of America's enemies, would he? So I read the article:

William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government.

So, John McCain has someone who lobbied for Saddam Hussein heading his post-election transition team working to ease him into the White House. John McCain hired spies. Thank God his chances of winning the election recede further from the shore of reality every single day. Tomorrow's debate should put the final nail in the coffin.

If he has the balls to mention Ayers or Wright tomorrow, then he should be struck by lightning for being a hypocritical liar liar liar.

I couldn't ask for a better reality check

2008-10-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

Honestly, it's lame to just cut and paste, but this is the most concise and perspective restoring way to put it.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

A HISTORIC TICKET.... Now that Sarah Palin has been found to have abused her powers, violated state ethics, and lied about it, I did a little digging and found an interesting historical footnote.

The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election.

McCain, of course, was admonished by Senate Ethics Committee "for exercising 'poor judgment' for intervening" with federal regulators on behalf of Charles Keating, as part of the infamous Keating Five scandal.

And now McCain's running mate has also been found to have violated state ethics laws and abused the powers of her office, as part of the "Troopergate" scandal.

The nation has had 102 major-party tickets covering 51 presidential elections over more than two centuries. And we've never had a ticket in which both candidates on the same ticket were responsible for ethics violations before a national election. McCain/Palin is the first.

It makes the whole "reform" pitch a little more difficult, doesn't it?

From (via NYT) the Nutmeg State

2008-10-11T06:53:00.000-07:00

October 11, 2008

Gay Marriage Is Ruled Legal in Connecticut

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

A sharply divided Connecticut Supreme Court struck down the state’s civil union law on Friday and ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Connecticut thus joins Massachusetts and California as the only states to have legalized gay marriages.

The ruling, which cannot be appealed and is to take effect on Oct. 28, held that a state law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples, and a civil union law intended to provide all the rights and privileges of marriage to same-sex couples, violated the constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law.

Striking at the heart of discriminatory traditions in America, the court — in language that often rose above the legal landscape into realms of social justice for a new century — recalled that laws in the not-so-distant past barred interracial marriages, excluded women from occupations and official duties, and relegated blacks to separate but supposedly equal public facilities.

Huzzah! Connecticut finally steps the hell up! Remember, kids- states do each other the courtesy of recognizing the validity of others' state laws. As go these three, so go the other forty-seven- and in twenty more years, we'll shake our heads in amazement that we ever fought against a natural, legal, fair, American state of affairs.

Sarah Palin Broke the Public Trust!

2008-10-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, can we really stomach the idea of a Vice President who has been found to have abused her power in the Governor's Office of one of the United States of America? For all those who aren't taking this seriously enough to see beyond her "hotness," I hope this crosses the line.

Here's a passage from the Branchflower Report.

Ye gawds. I shudder to contemplate the remaining wingnuts who would actually cleave to such a candidate as this.

Memo To Media: The Palin Rape-Kit Story Has Not Been "Debunked"

2008-10-07T16:50:00.001-07:00

For the sake of mothers, daughters, sisters- this callousness is part and parcel of of the same callousness that led her during the debate to gloss over Biden's genuine moment at the mention of his family's tragedy with a load of maverick-ey.

She is not a woman's friend. The fact that her role in the policy is ambiguous is exactly why we need unfettered access to putting her little toes to the journalistic fire. She has no right to aspire to the pinnacle of the American Experiment without the American people knowing exactly where she stands, and how she emotes when she stands there. I want to watch her reaction to a true press conference such as will be the DUTY of an executive of this land.

She staggers me. Truly. I am facinated with the political creature she is, and the environment that formed and shaped her. Once she's no longer a clear and present danger, we as Americans and those fascinated with history will have the leisure to explore her and vet her entirely.
About Wash Post
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Empty Campaign of John McCain

2008-10-07T12:14:00.001-07:00

This is an excellent article to take into account pre-debate. Thanks to the author for an intelligent and insightful analysis of the McCain campaign mindset.
About John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

McCain's Own 60's Radical Pal

2008-10-06T12:26:00.001-07:00

See? You want to play the association game, go right ahead. This guy would be a traitor in McCain's book today; there's no way he'd associate with him now. If you did bring it up, it'd be the whole POW smokescreen machine gearing up in short order.

McCain eats his PWN face.
About John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

McCain's Tattered Remains (of his dignity)

2008-10-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

When you have to send your Vice Presidential pick out to declare that your opponent "pals around with domestic terrorists," you've hit a new low. When you can eat your own words for breakfast and they taste like crow sausage, you've hit a new low.

John McCain's goal in the first debate was to discredit Senator Obama as a credible Commander in Chief and elevate the issue of foreign policy and national security. He didn't come close. Absent a domestic terror attack the economy will remain the number one issue in the race, and there is little Senator McCain can do to make up his gap with Senator Obama on it. Oh, Senator McCain will try to make issues of Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko and Rev. Wright, and that might hurt Senator Obama around the margins -- but it will not prevent him from winning. The economy is simply bigger than the rogues gallery that John McCain is conjuring up.
from the New Republic

This is why he sends out the lipstick pitbull to smear Obama's "associations." However, for every association he smears, Obama can answer back. Wanna pull out Bill Ayers? Great. We've got the Alaskan Independence Party. Wanna dredge up Reverend Wright? Okeedokee, we've got Hagee and that witch-craft preacher from Africa if you want to go that route.

But here's the thing- we DON'T want to go that route; we'll win with honor and concern for the business of America if we don't. "It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice," a top McCain strategist told the Daily News. "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose.

Yes. The Republicans are going to lose, and every day this becomes a little more inevitable. If McCain is really so desperate as to go down the Negative Nancy primrose path, then all we can say to him is, "John, don't worry: It will all be over in a month."

Palin On Fox News: Couric Annoyed Me

2008-10-03T11:32:00.001-07:00

The questions that Katie Couric peppered her with were designed for one thing and one thing only- to present to the American people a deeper view of her intellectual capacity and education. The fact that she could not even reference the Supreme Court decision that lowered the damages that Exxon would pay for the Exxon-Valdez spill in her own state( in her own state!) only shows the paucity of substance that is, in the end, all she's got.

doggone it!

http://fortunelegalpad.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/07-219.pdf
About Sarah Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Post Debate Exhalation

2008-10-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

The most deeply scary thing was how Sarah Palin wants to expand post-Cheney Vice Presidential powers. This goes beyond the Constitutional scope and sweep of the office of the Vice Presidency.

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

This is a woman who tried to pass off her ignorance of the duties of the Vice Presidency as a "Lame Joke." The worst thing as VP that Cheney did was shoot his friend in the face. The last thing we need is a administration that follows along the primrose path to hell that Cheney has engineered America's destiny along lo this many years.

What about warrantless wiretapping? Isn't shredding the First Amendment damage enough to understand that the Vice President must be an ancillary figure working to support the President's policies until such unfortunate time that s/he must take on the duties of the President?

OK, so she didn't spin her head around and vomit pea soup. Ok so they coached her and schooled her and crammed her like a Christmas goose. But she didn't win. It only confirmed for me that the Republican ticket will continue to lead our country down the path it sinks today.

Hopes and Anticipation

2008-10-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

There are times when the political waters of America become so muddied and toxic that I cannot choose to wade through them; my soul gets sickened and my heart weighs down.

Tonight will not be one of those nights. I look forward to Sarah being Sarah, and I truly hope that she's got more to say than a bunch of generalities and quicksand-shifting answers that say nothing, deflecting from the original question.

I hope Joe Biden treats her courteously, since he'll know that she'll hang herself if he lets her. I also hope that he makes at least one or two witticisms that give the pundits something to giggle over.

I hope it's as dramatic as I want it to be!

Before the Thrilla in Manilla

2008-10-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

I bet Muhammed Ali was wound up too. The press have been warning of Palin's "glittering generalities," in which she blankets her response time with filler static that connects with the audience so that they feel that they "could have a beer with ole Sarah Six-pack. The bar of expectation has been set so low that if she shows up and actually speaks in coherent sentences the Republicans are going to claim a win for her.

Even if she shows up and "holds her own" she's going to lose, since McCain is killing his own campaign with his monkeyshines this week during the economic meltdown negotiations. If she Courics it up, then that will simply kill the Republican's hopes all the sooner. Is it wrong, after eight years of screaming incompetency, to hope that they eat their hearts out?

Stay tuned for tomorrows hijinks!

The First Presidential Debate

2008-09-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

6pm- Keith Olbermann confirms the presence of both candidates are in the building.

Moderated by Jim Lehrer

they're slipping some of the economy in, along with the theme of foreign affairs.

Obama takes the first go a tthe economic question right off the bat. MCain isn't laying down the principles to fix it like Obama did. (4 points) He's blathering about bipartisanship and brings it back (indirectly) to drilling oil.

Obama brings it to regulations. He's going to tee off on McCain's record, shortly.

what the hell does world war two have to do with whether or not he's going to vote for the plan?

McCain hasn't answered a question directly yet. (6:15)

6:18 now it's tit for tat on government spending.

6:31 McCain isn't answering how he would change his priorities, but Obama's dodging a bit too..

6:36 cucumber & ranch dip mmmmmm.... WHy isn't Obama going after McCain's record? Take the reins and go on the attack??

ahhh, there we go. 90% agreement with bush bush bush

mcCAIN's blathering about iraq and the success of the surge-
obama better come back with the fallacy of the iraq war all together...

6:42 ok he did. Home run!

6:48 still talking about Iraq, and the surge and whether or not the whole thing was necessary or not

6:52 moved on to afghanistan. THey're pretty much tit for tat still- this will be decided in the media... American voters need to decided between two totally different views.

THe Huffpoo liveblog is pretty good...

6:59 M Cain's distracting with the soldier/bracelet story... "I've got a bracelet too," says Obama.

7:08 McCain can't pronounce Ack madinijas (sp)

7:17 Steve from TVNewser: Scorecard from CNN HD analysts (two libs, two conserv. two independ): 34 positive for McCain, 52 positive for Obama THis is the merits versus rhetoric thing. Could it be that merit wins out?

7:20 Why won't Lerher shut McCain up? He's running all over this thing.

7:22 We've moved from Iraq to Afghanistan to Pakistan to Iran and now on to Russia- McCain's winning on sheer rudeness of debate rules. This moderator is LOUSY. Total empty chair.

7:24 Finally Obama brings up McCain's record 23 votes against alternative energy.

Barack Obama is on the defensive, performance-wise

7:31 we're now overtime. Obama's finishing by reminding us that Bin Laden is still out there, and brining up the trillion dollar debt we owe China, and they're helping those we deal with...

7:37 Holy shizer, JOHN MCCAIN ENDED WITH THE P.O.W THING!!

Asshat of the Week

2008-09-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

Delusional Arrogance in Action. This ad was pulled from a screenshot of the Wall Street Journal online.

Ye gawds. Here's the list of bone-headed moves that McCain pulled this week.

He suspends his campaign, but forgets to tell any of his field operatives, who keep operations running as usual. Senior moment or example of mendacity?

He bails out of the debate, declaring that the economic situation was far more important and that his presence was needed in Washington. Washington, who'd been working on it just fine all week without him, gets all derailed, and the deal they'd worked goes right down the pooper. Chris Dodd dismissed John McCain's arrival and participation as a "photo-op" and "political theater." I thought he was being generous.

Today he bails back into the debate, realizing that all he's done is paint himself into a corner- if he ditches the debate he gives Obama and hour and a half of free primetime television coverage, and showing up makes him insincere and waffly.

Stick a fork in this poor bastard- by the time he's done, only the dyed-in-the-wool koolaid drinkers are going to vote for him. This election is way too portentious to not choose the best man for the job, putting all kinds of ideologies, religions, and second-tier issues aside. Our country's infrastructure is collapsing around us, and this guy's worried about spending more money on the failed Iraq war.

(Screw the Iraqis. It's time for us to put America first, and let them stand up or not, as they're able. )

Wicca is one thing, State Witchcraft is another

2008-09-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Hooray! Sarah Palin has her own Pastor Problem. This is equal-opportunity stupidism, but let's be serious. It's one thing for a Reverend Wright to rail against America's policies, but when you throw Reverend Hagee's anti-Semitic rants and Rev. Thomas Muthee's cries for God in the Departments of Education and the Hollywood Establishment (read: Jews) then we have a more fundamental problem. While Reverend Wright had no business using his pulpit as a place to castigate his country from, I find it more disturbing that this snake-oil salesman wants to inject God into the running of government. Hollywood is more than capable of resisting religious dogma- "The Passion of the Christ" may have done landslide business, but I honestly went to see it to measure the splatter patterns. Is that wrong?.

Witchcraft? Really? The only witchery I see here is the determination by this lil updo-wearing Governor is to inject her close-minded world-view into the American political structure. That is unacceptable.

The following is pulled from Mudflats, and Alaskan blog that has been ballooning into national prominence as a result Palin's nomination.

Palin and the Witch Hunter - Chapter II.

25 09 2008

We have not seen the last of the witch hunter. We know Pastor Thomas Muthee was back in Wasilla this past weekend, and I posted a link previously of Sarah Palin recounting the time that Pastor Muthee had prayed over her, but now a video of the actual event has surfaced. Do not, I repeat do not watch this if you plan on sleeping any time soon. It’s a long clip, but here are the highlights:

2:57 - First mention of Sarah

5:00 - We need God to ‘take over the education system.’

5:27 - We need God to ‘take over the media’ and Hollywood itself.

6:08 - We need the government run by born-again Christians.

6:58 - Praying for Sarah to become governor (Doesn’t this impact their tax-exempt status? Anyone?)

7:12 - Sarah herself enters and is “prayed upon”.

8:38 - Another witchcraft reference.

Oh boy. The suspension of Mcain’s campaign, the beyond devastating Couric interview, Return of the Witch Hunter and the takeover of every facet of society by God, and the (strangely credible these days) National Enquirer releasing a story about an affair with Todd’s business partner…all in 24 hours. Not a good day for the McCain-Palin campaign.

It appears as if Pastor Muthee is working hard to fulfill the vision statement of his church, known as “The Prayer Cave”:

“Touching lives for total community transformation, thereby taking cities and nations.”

Resistance is futile, Wasilla. You have been assimilated. I wonder if Palin mentioned “taking cities and nations” for God during her chat yesterday with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai?

I’ll be sleeping with the lights on tonight.

What Else Would President McCain Postpone in a Crisis?

2008-09-24T13:33:00.001-07:00

McCain's choice to call for a suspension of Friday's debate is the stupidest thing on the planet. This is the point at which a true President would want the opportunity to present his viewpoint to the AMerican people without any delay and as clearly and concisely as possible. The idea that we should delay this debate is cowardly- one of the greatest things about this American experiment of a country of ours is that the turn of events isn't what determines the succession of our government- it's the will of the people.
About John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sarah Palin- Extremist at the Clinic

2008-09-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

Soon after the book controversy, Bess found himself again at odds with Palin and her fellow evangelicals. In 1996, evangelical churches mounted a vigorous campaign to take over the local hospital's community board and ban abortion from the valley. When they succeeded, Bess and Dr. Susan Lemagie, a Palmer OB-GYN, fought back, filing suit on behalf of a local woman who had been forced to travel to Seattle for an abortion. The case was finally decided by the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that the hospital must provide valley women with the abortion option.

At one point during the hospital battle, passions ran so hot that local antiabortion activists organized a boisterous picket line outside Dr. Lemagie's office, in an unassuming professional building across from Palmer's Little League field. According to Bess and another community activist, among the protesters trying to disrupt the physician's practice that day was Sarah Palin.

read the rest of the article here

Is this who you want representing you when it comes to reproductive health in America? I don't trust this woman with her own daughter's uterus, never mind my own.

2008-09-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

Richard Cizik is one of the country's most powerful and outspoken Christian evangelical leaders. He happens to be a Republican, and he has known the GOP's presidential nominee for many years. "I thought John McCain was a principled person," Cizik says. "But John McCain has backed off, not just on climate change but on torture and a sensible tax policy -- in other words, he's not the John McCain of 2000. ... He seems to be waffling on issue after issue.

It's not illogical for someone to conclude that John McCain is going to be more like George Bush than John McCain is going to be like John McCain in 2000."

rest of the article here

Wow, it really tells you something if the Evangelical Right is turning its nose up at John McCain. We can disagree on issues, we can disagree on policies, we can disagree on the direction we think this country ought to take; what seems to hold the center is the fact that good judgment, honorable ethical behavior and the undeniable sense of rightness that comes from working honestly for the public good never really goes out of style.

John McCain has become a joke, and a sad shell of the politician he used to be. Unfortunately, the politician he used to be was a member of the Keating Five.

We need to finish this stupid election and get to the business of the American People!

Don't Forget Joltin' Joe!

2008-09-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here's the first few paragraphs on today's New York Times article on Joe Biden. He's been shuffled aside for ole Caribou Barbie, and it's a shame. He's got a lot to say. Please feel free to click on the headline and read the rest of the article; it's pretty awesome.

Meanwhile, the Other No. 2 Keeps On Punching

By MARK LEIBOVICH

FLAT ROCK, Mich. — As the economy reels, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. — the Other Running Mate — has been absolutely butchering Senator John McCain across the Rust Belt this week. It is not clear who has noticed.

“John is so out of touch, he just has no idea,” charged Mr. Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, who called his “old, dear friend” someone who “just doesn’t think,” who is behaving in a repugnant manner and who is peddling “Republican garbage,” and malarkey.

The older woman who introduced him at a rally here called Mr. Biden’s Republican counterpart, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, a “bucket of fluff,” and he rewarded the woman as he took the microphone with an “I love you” and a gentle kiss on the head.

“If I sound angry, it’s because I am angry,” Mr. Biden told a few hundred people gathered at a high school football field. Yes, he sounds angry, yelling through his stump speeches, flailing his arms and telling a (supportive) member of the audience to “Shush up, will you?” (“I’m kidding,” he added, but did not sound it.)

But the reality for Mr. Biden is that while running mates are second-fiddlers by definition, the phenomenon of Ms. Palin has rendered him something of a fourth or fifth fiddle. It is not like last month, when reporters swarmed Mr. Biden’s Delaware home and delegates swooned at the Democratic convention. He is now trailed by just a few national reporters, and struggling to break through in a race marked by historic firsts, political celebrities and charismatic newcomers — none named Joe Biden.

Gender and God

2008-09-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

This morning, as is occasionally my wont, I called Stephanie's show so that I could respond to the two right-wing callers that she had on during the bottom of the 6am hour. After chatting with Becks for a few minutes (gawd I love that gal!), I held on 'till I had to hang up. Being on the Stephanie Miller show is fun, but as of yet it doesn't pay; teaching high school does. I had to drop the line to go to work.

The first caller I had wanted to respond to was a woman who rapidly became unhinged as she berated Stephanie for bashing first Hillary, and then Palin. The point I was going to make is that while we still work for gender parity in this country, while women still on average make .77 the dollars that men in equivalent positions to, that is not an excuse to scream "sexism!" every time someone takes issue with a female politician's stance. I respected Hillary enough to appreciate her achievements and disagree with her viewpoints. Gender has never had aught to do with it. I respected her enough as a woman to disregard her gender as a candidate.

Then we get to right wing tool caller #2: This guy comes on and declares that he's a pro-choice evangelical, and that's why he's voting for Sarah Palin. Now, it's his right as an American to vote under any premise he chooses, but to suggest that Sarah Palin is a woman's candidate because she is female merely continues the disparaging monolithic thinking that keeps women back. I get very nervous when people start talking about Jesus Christ and the government- there are lots of passages that our Founding Fathers wrote that discourage this kind of theocratic thinking.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Since there shall be no law respecting the establishment of a religion, I cast a weary eye at Americans who choose their candidate on the basis of shared faith. I find it tiresome, and short-sighted. I find it foolish, and against the interest of the American people's business of government.

So did, apparently, the Founding Fathers (from Article VI of the Constitution):
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States... no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States... no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Should we make Sarah Palin and her tribe of glazed-over freaks write this on the blackboard a thousand times?

From Daily Kos today

2008-09-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

This is a relief! This is the kind of ad we've been waiting for, and all of us gun-shy liberals thought that we would fight fair (be wusses) and not hit the Republicans hard on their screw ups. Tragically, we've found our voice because it's gotten to the point of the end of America as we know it if we don't stop them hijacking the Constitution. From Karl Rove refusing to appear before Congress to "Palin/McCain" running out the clock on Troopergate, it looks like the tone-deaf Republicans are going to finish this one up in fine Neocon style.Deny deny deny! Lie! Lie! Lie! How fabulous that we're starting, starting to evince an immunity to their wretched contempt for America and her Constitution.

The Mental Acuity Issue Looms

2008-09-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

OK, so on both Huffpoo & Daily Kos, we've got McCain's mental condition under question:

When asked about Spain and Zapatero, by a Spanish reporter for a Spanish newspaper, McCain responded about Mexico and Latin America. A reader suggested something that Josh had already considered, that perhaps McCain thought the reporter was talking about the Zapatistas in Mexico, the guerilla group. But that's not possible as the reporter clearly said she was talking about Spain and Spain's leader, Zapatero. She told McCain this twice. Let me tell you exactly what she asked McCain (per the translation):

"Senator, finally, let's talk about Spain. If you're elected president, would you invite President Zapatero to meet with you in the White House?"

McCain then gives this odd answer about America's friends and America's enemies. He also, oddly, talks about Mexico (why Mexico? The question was about Spain) and how he'd invite friendly leaders to the White House. She then asks him again, would that invitation include President Zapatero? He says again that he'd have to review relations first, blah blah. She then says again, "so you'd have to wait to see, so would you meet with him in the White House?" He again repeats his weird statement about friends and enemies. McCain also throws in, oddly, to the Spanish reporter, when she's asking him about meeting the Spanish president, a line about the importance of our relationship with Latin America (this is now the second time he answered a question about meeting the president of Spain with an answer about Latin America). She then says to McCain one last time:

"Okay, but I'm talking about Europe - the president of Spain, would you meet with him?"

This time, there was no room for confusion. McCain then gives this very bizarre answer:

"I will meet with any leader who has the same principles and philosophy as us in terms of human rights, democracy, and freedom and I will stand up to those who do not."

If this doesn't scare the living crap out of rationally minded thinking people, then we are doomed, and a generation of swine will truly take us over.

O Hunter, wherefore art thou when we have need of thee?

I wish I could embed this

2008-09-17T16:12:00.001-07:00

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185304443/bctid1799203760

please watch!

and a great big fat shout-out to "shock is all in your head" from the myspace for finding me the code button! Woot!

It's the Economy, Stoopid.

2008-09-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

"Just imagine if Bush and McCain had had their way and privatized Social Security," said Brown. "People would have seen their private social security accounts just disintegrate the last two days. And imagine what that would mean in rural America, urban America, suburban America and small town America?"
read the whole article here

Dear God, what a close shave we had with that one. Privatizing Social Security would have brought this economic meltdown home to a lot more kitchen tables than it's currently doing now, but at what cost? There'd be no damn food on the table; we would probably end up with breadlines just like we had during the Great Depression.

John McCain is a fraud. He's for responsible fiscal regulation and the "cleaning up of Wall Street and Washington" the same way the sea isn't very wet. Now that the Keating Five are coming up in conversation (and mark my words, we're less than 24 hours away from the national headlines reminding us of this piece of history) perhaps this "maverick" bullshit will finally be put to rest.
The Senator is too old, too sick, too bought and too paid for to be the President of the America I pray to see continue on into the future. His thinking is dead-ended and flawed; his approach is false and cynical.

Hell, he won't even tell us how sick he is; before ANYONE votes for this fossil, they should be aware of how close Palin is to seeing Russia nuked from her house.

George Bush Let Companies (plural!) Go Down the Pipe Too!

2008-09-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to George Bush's corporate failures.

Sarah Palin couldn't run a watch.

This would cut my meager income even further

2008-09-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

and my insurance blows wad as it is.

"...the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16herbert.html?th&emc=th

and 20 million more Americans would lose their health insurance as a result of this plan, bringing the total up to about 70 miliion, or

TWENTY PERCENT OF THE COUNTRY!!!

John McCain Believes The Key To Health Care Reform Is To Restore Control To The Patients Themselves. We want a system of health care in which everyone can afford and acquire the treatment and preventative care they need. Health care should be available to all and not limited by where you work or how much you make. Families should be in charge of their health care dollars and have more control over care.
-from John McCain .com

What this means is that not only will families have to work for a living, they'll have to do their own research and get their own insurance on their own time, without the benefit of bulk purchase that employer-based benefits bring.

I would love to see John McCain get medical care like the rest of us- he'd be decrepit in about six months.

Don't forget, he's rich, and married an heiress who will pay all his medical bills, depsite his Senatorual coverage. He knows regular Americans as those he can use and scrape off his shoe.

Responsible Media Management

2008-09-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hi kids, it's time to play "watch what you step in!" I'm your host, Lavender Pitt, and I'm here to tell you a little story about what happens when you express your opinion. First, a little background:

Anti-Palin rally organizers receive threats

by Lori Tipton
Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska-- Opponents of Gov. Sarah Palin's policies are being threatened.

Alaska Women Reject Palin, a local group that opposes the Republican vice presidential candidate, on Wednesday announced plans to host an anti-Palin rally this weekend.

Since that announcement organizers say they've received intimidating messages.

A press release for the Reject Palin rally went out to practically every media outlet in town Wednesday. And one talk radio host decided to share the names and phones numbers of the two contacts on-air.

That decision has left organizers feeling somewhat fearful of practicing their First Amendment rights.

KBYR talk radio host Eddie Burke admits he is a conservative and a "Palinista."

But on Wednesday Burke resorted to name calling when he found out Alaska Women Reject Palin planned to host a Saturday rally.

"They're a bunch of socialist maggots, that's what I'm going to call them -- socialist maggots, that's what they are, a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots," said Burke.

Please feel free to click on the title for a link to the full story; however, this is not the point of the story. I emailed the station casually with the following email:

From: Rai Goldin

To: myopinion@kbyr.com

Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 5:09 PM

Subject: Eddie Burke's right to swing his fist

end's at the tip of people's noses, ans he is responsible for every harrassing phonecall those women reveived. He had no right to give out those people's phone numbers and he should bloody well be fired for working against the public's safety.

Rachel Goldin
Tucson AZ

Please note that all embarrassing punctuation mistakes on my part have not been edited out of this edition; sometimes veracity trumps accuracy! I figured I'd get no reply, or at best a boilerplate generic acknowledgment. Instead, this is what I got:
From: "myopinion@kbyr.com"
To: Rai Goldin
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:55:53 PM
Subject: Re: Eddie Burke's right to swing his fist

weaaaaa....y dont you cry a little more....it is called free speech for a reason....go cry to your mom...not to us

I was floored by this response, as it confirmed my worst-nightmare fears about the kind of wing-nut loonies they let play with the transmitter when they get snowed in up there. Alaska's finally getting the kind of attention that one of the fifty United States ought to get; some journalists are blossoming under the light, but other media outlets seem to wither under the glare. I thought I'd have to write this one off, and sent a reply indicating as such:

From: Rai Goldin

To: myopinion@kbyr.com

Cc: senchirai@gmail.com

Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 4:45 AM

Subject: Re: Eddie Burke's right to swing his fist

Wow, are you representing a broadcast radio show? Or do you let staffers' middleschoolers answer the mail?! I thought I was reaching a media outlet; sorry, my mistake.

This was, as I figured, the end of the nonsense; but lo, another email just fluttered my way, from the general manager of the station:

Rai,

I do not know who sent that message, I will check our records and see who was here then. But it is station policy not to give out numbers and Eddie will be punished accordingly.

Again sorry for the previous email.

Justin McDonald-GM

I thanked him for his concern in the matter, and let him know I was very interested in the follow-up for the conclusion of the matter. If and when I receive any more correspondence, I shall let you know.

A few points:

Eddie Burke does not have the right to give out people's numbers on the air with an implicit go-ahead to call them up and give them a hard time
This is an abuse of the freedom of speech- any emotional wear and tear these anti-Palin organizers got as a result of Mr. Brke's actions are a responsibility that is at his feet.
The anit-Palin organization was bigger than her welcome -home rally, and is being under-reported as of this hour by the mainstream media.

*sigh*

Psh. It's just too easy.

2008-09-14T15:57:00.000-07:00

And the women of Alaska seem to agree with me. This is an amazing article covering the anti-Sarah-Palin demonstration that ' surely going to send a note along to ole Keefy to make sure he covers tomorrow. Like he's pay attention to ME. However, we need to make sure someone is paying attention to the women of Alaska:

"Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here."

It does when a horrorshow like Palin shows up on the scene.
Read the whole story here.

Is It Sexist To Want The Person Flying The Plane To Be A Pilot?

2008-09-13T14:11:00.001-07:00

Kathleen Reardon is one wise muppet. It's a shame that there are those who have turned it around and asked the same question with the word "racist" substituted for sexist; the truth of the matter is that with the treatment that Presidential candidates receive, America's best and brightest wouldn't touch politics with a ten-foot pole.
About Sarah Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Panic at the Disco

2008-09-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

In 2000, Al Gore was too polite to come back to the dirty tricks of the Right, and George Bush won (albeit by theft). In 2004 John Kerry was too weak to combat the lies of the swiftboat bullshit. I feel a sense of desperation building amongst the Democrats of my acquaintance; are we really going to be too nice to win? If John McCain wins this election, this country will deserve the resulting chaos that it will reap.

John McCain's ads are full of lies, and the lies are starting to stick. This puts the Democrats at a distinct disadvantage, since the base will discount it, the Republicans will buy it as gospel, and the Independents will be left to filter through the noise and static that results. Obama wants porn in the classroom? Sounds like a great ad. Obama's going to raise taxes everywhere? No problem, get it out there. For some reason, the lies are starting to stick, whereas the truth is dismissed as unimportant. It's enough to break your heart.

What kills me is Obama's lack of punch back. I want him so much to stand up and scream to the world that these are lies, lies, lies, and that theses people are simply selling a bill of goods to the American people yet again, and that we can't let fear blind us to the damage that the Republicans will do yet again. Why will the press not expose them for what it is?

ABC's softball interview is going to be a load of crap. Gibson isn't going to hold her toes to the fire, and this is a symptom of the spinelessness of the current media. The intelligentsia is all on the net, both on the left and the right, and the sheeple who rely on the mainstream media are being led around by the nose.

I wish relying on facts and records were enough for people to see through the spin and lies that is the Republicans' stock-in-trade; I wish national election were run like state elections in Arizona. Keep them clean, and give them free air-time on an equal basis, and no outside money at all!

This is the most astonishing thing.

2008-09-09T18:53:00.000-07:00

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2008/09/08/why-women-bash-sarah-palin-marc-h-rudov/

a sample:

Women bash Sarah Palin because she has shattered the farce of the glass ceiling, and now there’s no place for them to hide. Sarah Palin is living proof that women derive their power through guts, brains, raw talent, and achievement — as true equals to men — not through victimhood. Moreover, Sarah Palin has achieved success while expressing love and admiration for her husband, anathema to the misandrist underpinning of fascistic feminism.

Sarah Palin has exposed the truth about feminism, which has for decades kept women dysfunctionally addicted to victimhood and viciously cast men as their enemies.

Instead of disempoweringly “pursuing” equality through whining and lobbying, women, who already enjoy more rights and privileges than men, can emulate Sarah Palin to demonstrate it. Will they?

The scary thing about this article is that it is well researched and well-supported. It's the conclusions he draws, and the caliber of commentators he attracts that make for the real nightmare.

A Timely Reminder

2008-09-09T17:49:00.001-07:00

edwarvir See Profile I'm a Fan of edwarvir permalink

Bliggers stop talking about the Baracuda and let's beat up the Media
and Methuselah until she comes out and Meets the Press. As long as
we blog about her he gets what he wants to keep the spotlight off of HIM

He didn't vett her we don't know her and she must come out and answer
questions. Lets keep talking about him and him being unprepared to tell
us what he is going to do for us besides start a WAR. Leave her alone
Blog his old head off. Attack him for not telling us what he is going to do
to get this economy back on track. Him and his buddies destroyed our
economy and don't let him forget it. for mintute.

Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:03 PM on 09/09/2008

- Darwinita See Profile I'm a Fan of Darwinita permalink

Wow, this is a great reminder. Good post.

Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:48 PM on 09/09/2008

How Did the RNC Insult Troops and Veterans? Let Me Count the Ways...

2008-09-08T14:18:00.001-07:00

"I was deployed in the Persian Gulf when Clinton took office. The vast majority of the guys I was with did not like Clinton. They especially didn't like him after that "don't ask, don't tell" CRAP!

Then the SOB began butchering the military. A lot of good men had to hit the unemployment line after that."

So what about all the Arabic-speaking translators who were fired from the military 'cuz they're gay? THERE's and example of making sure we utilize America's resources best.

As for your questions, do your own damn homework. I'm not going to educate you under your guise of "debate."
About Republican Convention
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sarah Palin and the "Women's" Vote

2008-09-07T18:07:00.001-07:00

No one's arguing about Sarah Palin's view on her reproductive choices- obviously she practices what she believes. My sympathy for her ends at MY uterus. She would legislate my choice away, and after that, she's no woman's friend to me.

Good for NOW for seeing through McCain's cheap and cynical ploy. a) it gives them the opportunity to prove that just because a candidate is female they don't automatically get the gender vote- women do not vote monolithically. b) they're true to their mission statement, no matter what gender the threat is.

I signed up for their email today. Sarah Palin is no representative of me.
About Sarah Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

done with snark, but hey...

2008-09-07T12:45:00.001-07:00

Jam For Us Today, None For You Tomorrow

2008-09-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

I am very strongly against the slut-shaming spectacle to which Sarah and Bristol Palin have been subjected. This continues the disturbing virulent misogyny directed at Hillary Clinton. No woman should be a target for this kind of bigotry and hatred.
Posted by: Zrusilla | September 02, 2008 at 10:49 PM

This is in response to an article con the California NOW blogsite that really questions whether or not the newly-minted Republican acceptance of teenage pregnancy is political hypocrisy or merely dangerous to the reproductive rights of women everywhere (it's both).

Abstinence-only sex education has never worked as well as informed and sober discussion of sex and its consequences. If a girl making a big choice on the cusp of womanhood has been denied relevant, scientific information on human sexuality and disease-preventative measures, then using the sanctity of life to force her down a path she may not be ready for is a cruelty that the Republican Party wants to legislate and judiciate down our throats as a nation.

What hasn't been discussed as much is the unfairness to ole Levi, the boyfriend in these circumstances. Quite frankly, does anyone think that he is enjoying the consequences of that sweaty evening in the backseat? Based on his former myspace page comments, I seriously doubt it. I mean, honestly, sporting a new tattoo and canoodling with your infant to-be brother-in-law is never going to convince anyone that you're not feeling like a fly in amber, watching the world around you drip over your life and freeze you where you are.

If these two are the product of abstinese only sex-ed, then please Lord, educate them chidrens
quick!

PS: this is hilarious

Comments from a Feminist

2008-09-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

Froom Gloria Steinem's piece in the LA Times today:

Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

I don't know where I read the following idea, but I agree with it wholeheartedly: Palin is standing on the shoulders of the women who came before her to knock women back from where they came. She is not a woman's woman; she's a tool of the patriarchal Republican mainstream to appease women, who they obviously feel are stupid.

One thing is for sure, Sarah can totally rock the stripper heels.

Rachel Sklar, I love you!

2008-09-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

Please wait, your request is processed...

Buck Up, Media. If You're The Enemy, You're Finally Doing Something Right

September 3, 2008 10:59 PM

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Sarah Palin isn't even finished her speech and already the "blame the media" meme has been pushed explicitly to the forefront — this woman who has spent less than a week in the media spotlight, who has thus far made herself completely unavailable for interviews, has blasted the media with both barrels, deriding them for daring to cover her and the revelations that continue to emerge about this untested, unknown and unvetted candidate.

Here's how she characterized the media's coverage of her for these past few days, since it's been revealed that John McCain met her once and didn't investigate her political past:

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.

Really? Care to qualify that with any examples? Because I haven't seen you submit to any interviews, sit for a grilling on "Meet The Press" (oh, to have Russert here right now!), or open yourself up willingly to the scrutiny of the fourth estate, whose importance as a check on the political process is so critical that it was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution by the founders.

I don't think the press has any problem with mavericks — hell, John McCain has gotten by on that one with the help of his 'base' for eight years now. And I don't think that the press requires any candidate to be party of the "Washington elite" or the "permanent political establishment" — otherwise a certain former community organizer (new dirty word!) wouldn't have had a hope in hell of those glowing magazine covers. But it's not unreasonable to expect that a candidate for the second-highest office in the land make herself available to the media — the representative of the people, at least in terms of asking the hard questions that a governor might, say, hire a lawyer to consult with before answering. Just by way of example.

So the McCain campaign was so miffed by Campbell Brown's tough questioning of their surrogate — a trained, smooth, competent, TV-ready surrogate well-versed in talking points — who still couldn't muster up proof of Palin's leadership mettle in the Alaska National Guard — that they pulled McCain from an interview? So they're accusing the press of being "on a mission to destroy" Sarah Palin? That's crazy. No one has had time yet to form an opinion — let alone enough information. And a campaign with nothing to fear would have no problem throwing open the doors and saying, come on in, we've got nothing to hide...and we know that because we actually, you know, checked. You need a whole lot less bluster when the facts are on your side.

There's no reason for Sarah Palin — or the McCain campaign — to be so shocked that the media might want to actually know something about a VP nominee. My God, how many weeks of speculation and discussions about vetting did we endure between the end of the primaries and this point? Palin was a wild-card candidate, so far better known for her penchant for moose-burgers, aerial wolf hunting, and — yes — her pregnant and unmarried 17 year old daughter than she is for her actual qualifications that being a heartbeat away from the presidency. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the media's desire to even that score. That is its job, plain and simple — and if it doesn't always thrill the guy on the Straight Talk Express, well, so be it.

So — here's a little newsflash for Sarah Palin, to paraphrase her speech: The media isn't writing about you to seek your good opinion — they're writing about you to serve the people of this country. Americans expect the media to investigate their candidates for office for the right reasons, not just to get the right access. If you really want to serve the people — as opposed to just your party, or yourself — then you'll do well to remember that.

O God, I know It's Wrong But He's So Funny

2008-09-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

Doug Stanhope, he of the black comedy and blacker soul:

Bristol can thank Jamie

2008-09-02T05:51:00.000-07:00

Jamie Lynn Spears, that is, for putting her pregnancy right out there and not giving a crap what people think of her. The flagrant publicity Jamie received made Bristol, for good or ill, a target for attention. Precedent-setting is a bitch, ain't it?

Tough shit, there, Bristol (I actually like that name for a girl); both you and your baby have become political poker chips for your mom's campaign. Make sure you get her something nice for Christmas.

I really feel sorry for that poor girl- she's got to be an emotional trainwreck right about now. This morning Stephanie rightfully said that her mom totally threw her under the bus. How's that feel for your mom to do that to you? Damn.

Sarah Palin wouldn't make me nauseous if she stayed in Alaska dealing with things Alaskan- I'm sure she's a great Governor. She's certainly popular enough in her home state. However, she is so badly suited for national leadership it makes me ill. Not because of her daughter, or her daughter's pregnancy- but to know that she's a former recessionist? The stars & bars will fly high in bigots' hearts all over the country when that gets around.

BIzarre Weekend News Cycle

2008-09-02T05:27:00.000-07:00

Never mind the Down's Syndrome baby of now-questionable parentage, never mind that Bristol Palin is knocked up and 5 months gone with it (Here's what "pro-life" looks like kids! At leas-they're consistent), here's the thing that puts it over the top: Sarah Palin is anti- America:

Members of 'Fringe' Alaskan Independence Party Say Palin Was a Member in 90s

September 01, 2008 6:52 PM

The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., likes to herald the independence of its new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.

And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."

Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.

"We are a state's rights party," says Clark, a self-employed goldminer. The AIP has "a plank that challenges the legality of the Alaskan statehood vote as illegal and in violation of United Nations charter and international law."

She says it's not accurate to describe the party as secessionist -- they just want a vote, she says, adding that the members of the AIP hold different opinions on what Alaska should be.

"My own separate opinion as an individual is that we should be an independent nation," Clark says. Others in the AIP "believe that being a commonwealth would be a good avenue to follow." Some advocate statehood -- but a fuller statehood than exists now.

She doesn't know what Palin's position was.

"It never came up in conversation," Clark recalls. "But when she joined the party, our platform was right under her nose."

Clark says that Palin left the party and became a Republican in 1996, when she first ran for mayor of Wasilla.

The McCain-Palin campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ted Stevens, Future Convited Felon, Endorses Palin

2008-08-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

Who's surprised that this ad has been scrubbed off Palin's Website? Not this monkey.
A wee background on Ted Stevens here.

A Prayer for John McCain

2008-08-29T17:44:00.001-07:00

*sigh* Sarah Palin. Are you kidding? Really? The more I learn about her the more I question whether I should shake McCain or thank him. One way or another, I was seriously prepared to call in to Stephanie this morning with a prayer for the Republicans:

Please, Lord, O Gracious higher power of which I wont naught,
Let your humble servant John McCain choose as his standard bearer
the Righteous Warrior (and soul-so-far-above-mundane-matters-of-Earth-that
he-cares-more-for-your-children-of-Zion-than-constituents-in-Connecticut)*
Joseph Lieberman, elected Democratically, re-elected Independently, slices Republicanly.

O Gracious Lord, from whom all blessings come, give us this day our Sealed Fate
Ticket, for such as thus surely will give unto Obama the Keys to the Kingdom.
For Thy children's sake I ask of Thee, O King of the Universe,
Amen.

I was ready to go! But fate stepped in, and I never got through. Then, by nine a.m. Pacific time, I'd learned that Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, had been selected. At first, I giggled, but then, as I learned more about her, I realized that the universe works in powerful powerful ways. Then I guffawed, and bowed down to a Wise Deity. John McCain has exposed himself (ew) as the Penultimate Hypocrite of All Time.

He has chosen another beauty queen; good thing Cindy's rich or I'd be worried if I were her. But seriously, this is such a PLOY! Consider the video below. It's only a minute nine seconds long, you can do it. It's not that a woman refers to Hillary as a bitch, it's that he merely "translated" as opposed to CASTIGATED the pinch-faced human who asked. It's not that he didn't defend the Senator as a colleague and figure of state, it's that after looking nervous as hell, he actually answered the question!!!

John McCain hates women, and I pray for him.

Oh, and just in case you need more convincing, note in this video that not only should he have deplored the language, but denied the statement!

Q: This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I've been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a (expletive)?

McCain: Now, now. You don't want to... Um, you know that's the great thing about town hall meetings, sir, but we really don't, there's people here who don't respect that kind of language. So I'll move on to the next questioner in the back.

Schecter himself writes about the exchange at FireDogLake.

UPDATE: It turns out the man who asked the question is a Baptist minister worried about McCain's temper:

from huffpoo

*and I'm a Jew, folks

Obama's Speech

2008-08-29T10:28:00.001-07:00

I knew I'd hooked my seniors when, the day after they watched Joe Biden's speech, and I asked them if they wanted to watch Barack Obama's, they said yes.

What was even more awesome was McCain's VP pick, who's even younger than Barack, and actually under investigation!

THE GOP IS SO MORALLY BANKRUPTED THAT THEY CAN'T PICK A VEEP WITHOUT A SMEAR! HAHAHAHA!

Oh yeah, and she's down with Obama's energy plan, too

Not only that, but here's a good look at McCain's choice:

Sorry, but the headline at the DailyKos says it all:

Worse Than Quayle

by Trapper John

Fri Aug 29, 2008 at 08:36:03 AM PDT

So it's official - John McCain has thrown a Hail Mary and tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. The trad med types are ga-ga about what a game-changing choice Palin is. And they're right. It is a game-changer. The Palin pick takes a race already leaning toward Obama and pushes it further into his corner.

Why? Because Sarah Palin is the most unqualified VP nominee in modern history, with the possible exception of Admiral Stockdale.

She's worse than Quayle.

After his selection in 1988, Dan Quayle was rightly lambasted as a dim, inexperienced lightweight with no real pertinent experience who was named by George H. W. Bush as a gimmick - a case of an old, out-of touch candidate trying to appear relevant by teaming up with a much younger pol. Now, Palin's not Quayle - by all accounts, she's quite bright. But she's fantastically inexperienced, far more so than Quayle was when he was tapped. And she possesses an attribute far worse than Quayle's stupidity - she's a big corrupt wheel in Alaska's big corrupt Republican Party, arguably the most corrupt political apparatus in the United States.

We're told that McCain really wanted to pick his old friend Joe Lieberman to run with him, but that Karl Rove and the rest of the elite Republican politburo nixed the idea, and told McCain that he had to take a conservative. And as he has at every step of his campaign, the one-time "maverick" sold out to the venal, icy core of the Republican leadership, and acquiesced by selecting Palin. Palin is really a Republican after Rove's heart - she's a product of the party that produced the indicted Ted Stevens and ethically tarred Don Young, and she's embroiled in a Troopergate scandal of her own, with state investigators looking at serious allegations that Palin abused her office by pressuring the state Public Safety Commissioner to fire "an Alaska state trooper involved in a rough divorce from Palin's sister." Sounds like a woman after Karl Rove's heart.

In addition to further associating McCain with the Republican culture of corruption, the Palin pick undermines one of his main anti-Obama narratives. It's going to be laughable to hear McCain assail Obama's supposed lack of experience after naming the first-term governor -- only one-and-a-half years into her term -- of the 47th largest state to be his running mate. Palin lacks any foreign policy experience, and is bereft of even the two core areas of policy expertise that governors are supposed to bring to a ticket -- ag policy (Alaska doesn't have much in the way of traditional agriculture) and urban affairs (Anchorage is the 65th largest city in the US, behind giants such as Corpus Christi). She's easily the least experienced running mate in recent memory, which is pretty scary, given McCain's age and his history of cancer.

By picking Palin, McCain revealed his desperation to make a splash to rival the genuine excitement generated by the Obama campaign. But desperation leads to poor decisions -- and McCain's Hail Mary, like most last second desperation moves, is destined to fail miserably. He's smeared himself with the pungent mud of Alaska Republican corruption, while cutting the legs out from one of his most reliable attacks against Obama. And he's presented Americans with the prospect of electing a dangerous neophyte to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, behind a man whose life expectancy is less than two presidential terms.

We all expected McCain to pick someone underwhelming to run with him. But we never could have expected a pick worse than Quayle. Yet that's what we got. Thanks, John!

(And for those who are certain to point out that Bush-Quayle won in '88 -- do you really think that Barack Obama is remotely close to Michael Dukakis in political skill? No? Didn't think so.)

MSNBC going too far? C'est Possible...

2008-08-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

So, I've been tuning out ole Eyebrows during the Dem Convention coverage, since all I really want is to hear the speeches. Then I click on the media tab at huffpoo to see that I'm not the only one feeling that perhaps KO is getting too acerbic in his partisan chatter-when even hopeful wife-to-be Stephanie Miller starts fielding calls about finishing the convention on CSPAN- and it sounds like a good idea to me- then the MSNBC boys better shake it off, zip it up, and stop pissing in a circle facing in. When that happens, all we can see is ass.

Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough-especially joe Scarborough- are two more who could tone it the hell down.

I'm actually going to watch tonight on CSPAN so that the talking heads don't get in the way of America. Please review my earlier clip of Jon Stewart for emphasis.

Posi-emo Creamsicle

2008-08-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

Love love love the pantsuit, loved the speech just as much.

Now, we need to put the Clinton drama to rest and be done with them until it's time to fill Cabinet positions; now we need to go after the Republicans with as much fervor and more fair play than they've got.

C'mon, Joe!

A Response to the Feminists of Yore

2008-08-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

An Excerpt from
Second-Place Citizens
by SUSAN FALUDI
Published: August 25, 2008

"In one poll, 40 percent of Mrs. Clinton’s constituency expressed dissatisfaction; in another, more than a quarter favored the clear insanity of voicing their feminist protest by voting for John McCain. “This is not the usual reaction to an election loss,” said Diane Mantouvalos, the founder of JustSayNoDeal.com, a clearinghouse for the pro-Clinton organizations. “I know that is the way it is being spun, but it’s not prototypical. Anyone who doesn’t take time to analyze it will do so at their own peril.”

The reason this would be insanity is that John McCain is an enemy of women's reproductive and health issues. Faludi's article explains the Cintonistas' mindset beautifully, but the whole article does come off as whining. Laurel (who hadn't read the article at the time, and just went on my summary of 'Susan Faludi's whining in the op-eds about Hillary's loss," suggested that they hit something and move on, already.

All of the issues outlined in Faludi's article are unbelievably valid. Women's issues will suffer a setback as a result of Hillary's defeat, just as the did in the 20's as outlined in Faludi's meticulously researched article. Am I worried about this? not so much. After being oppressed for the last 6000 years as chattel, it would be disengenuous to pout that total equality had not been reached in under a century. We've made exponential strides, but setbacks are part of the process. We keep on keeping on, and our daughters' daughters' daughters will have no frame of reference for our struggles.

Do I find it that much of a struggle? Nah. There are, today, more women in college than men, and the shift will come, generationally. Me? have two college degrees and make the larger dollar amount in my house. Always have. In my house, there's no question of parity.

So why do I prefer Obama over Hillary? Simple. When she voted to support the Iraq war in 2002, she did it to prove that she had the biggest balls in the room. Hr gender means nothing to me. I respect her as an equal of a man by holding her to the same level of accountability that a man would face. Can't have it both ways, Senator! That is why I didn't support her.

Barack Obama earned my vote after Dennis Kucinish dropped out, and I was looking for the next Dem to support. After careful consideration, Obama fit the bill for me (funny note, the quiz I took suggested Hillary as the politician most likely to fit my tastes, but then there's that vote! I guess Rachel Maddow would call that "post-rational").

The little metal tag means it's kosher...

2008-08-25T16:02:00.000-07:00

I just caught this moment from John Stewart- reminder: Watch the Daily Show. DO yo know that if you soak chicken breasts in salt water, they cook up extra juicy! it's true.

Sam Cooke would SO approve

2008-08-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

Democratic National Convention: Anxious Energy Over Showing A Strong Obama

2008-08-25T09:17:00.001-07:00

Why Hillary PUMAs need to Suck It Up.

2008-08-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

So Hillary wasn't vetted for the job of Vice President. Boo-hoo. To me, she was never a legitimate contender for the spot, and I would have written in a vote had she won the nomination. She will never have my support until she does the one thing Joe Biden has already done: admit that his vote to authorize the Iraq was in 2002 was a mistake.

If she runs in 2012, I will not support her, even though I think she's a great Senator for the state of New York, and for America. If Barack gets two terms and she runs in 2016 I will not support her then either, unless she has learned the value of admitting mistakes. We've had eight years of an administration that has yet to admit that mistakes even exist, much less that they make them ("heckuva job, Brownie!") and I will not allow myself to support another righter-than-thou hack.

As for you bitter old women who feel that Hill was "robbed" out of her rightful place in history and are now going to vote for McCain, well, here's a little eyeful from ontheissues.org:

Voted NO on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives.

Vote to adopt an amendment to the Senate's 2006 Fiscal Year Budget that allocates $100 million for the prevention of unintended pregnancies. A YES vote would expand access to preventive health care services that reduce unintended pregnancy (including teen pregnancy), reduce the number of abortions, and improve access to women's health care. A YES vote would:

Increase funding and access to family planning services
Funds legislation that requires equitable prescription coverage for contraceptives under health plans
Funds legislation that would create and expand teen pregnancy prevention programs and education programs concerning emergency contraceptives

Reference: Appropriation to expand access to preventive health care services; Bill S.Amdt. 244 to S Con Res 18 ; vote number 2005-75 on Mar 17, 2005

Yeah, McCain's a great choice for those who are disappointed by Hillary's loss. Asses.

Things to Do in Denver...

2008-08-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

So the convention opens today with poop and circumstance, which is nice, and the Dems will get all the base on one page as much as they can, which is also nice, so in a little bit we'll play with some links & headlines which will also be nice, but right now I have to get ready for work (also very nice!)

Watching Morning Joe while cannibalizing the host.

Introducing Mr. Pitt

2008-08-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

The Musical World: a random reference to Mr Pitt, whom I did not realize was mentioned in this British publication from 1877. Huzzah Google Books for the referencia obscura!

Starting with the Fall Campaign

2008-08-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

Psh, I spent the first few hours of the fall campaign wondering where my text was, just like anybody else. I would love to know what the backstory on the Obama's leak -of-VP-pick is; it was kind of ham-handed and sloppy. Then, Joe woke up, had coffee and let slip from leash the dogs of war. This is what Democrats have been waiting for- it's stupid to see people refusing to play playground-dirty just because they have high ideals. That's as one-dimensional as only playing the schoolyard bully. If Democrats take shit from Republicans, you can't expect the ignorant to understand that global diplomacy isn't a schoolyard: it's politics. People's lives are at stake, and the rest of the planet doesn't respect us anymore because our President (hereinafter to be referred to as HAMSTER-BRAIN) went swaggering around like he had the balls to back it up. He could talk, but when it came down to it, the sack was kind of empty.

Wow, there was a stream of consciousness introduction. I'm Lavender Pitt, and I'm number 42 on the Copper Queens for Tucson Roller Derby. I call in to the Stephanie Miller Show under my "skate name," and have realized that someday (hard to believe but it's true) my Derby career may end, but Lavender will continue as a useful persona that I've come to enjoy. It's started to spread through my life beyond roller derby, and we'll see where it takes us from here.

Today? Gonna set up the links and whore this address out a bit. If you want to see the proto-Lavender blog, knock your socks off.