Still Out of the Loop

In another embarrassing why didn’t anyone tell me we weren’t using this lie anymore moment Sarah Palin has proven she just isn’t in the loop. First it was Michigan, now it is another discredited story that actually was spoken by none other than President George W Bush.

Say It Ain’t So, Sarah: Palin Smears Obama With Year-Old Discredited Attack
During an appearance on Fox News this Friday, Sarah Palin claimed that Barack Obama should be disqualified from serving as president because he had once proclaimed that troops in Afghanistan were “air raiding villages and killing civilians.”

If the charge seemed oddly and painfully familiar it’s because it has been levied at Obama – and subsequently dismissed – several times before during this election season.

When will she get the picture that she is being set up as the scapegoat for why the Republicans lost this election.  I can see the November 5th headlines, Palin Cost Republicans The Country.  Every two bit misogynistic right winger will be ranting and raving about this.  If it isn’t the guys claiming women are weak and should keep their mouths closed and legs spread, it will be the racists blaming every single mistake she has made.  I can see it now Uncle Bubba and company are sure to say she is the reason a good white man like Johnny can’t beat one of them uppity darkies.

None of those raving lunatics will be right and I will even stand by her and say it wasn’t because she was a woman.  However the people who are cheering her for this because they won’t hear the truth now, won’t hear the truth then either.  In my mind no matter how big of a step forward it was to put a woman as a VP nominee for the good ol’ boy’s party, they have certainly done a disservice in the name of gender equality.

Once Again Bush Puts Self Above Country

In typical fashion we find President George W Bush trying to improve his popularity within his own party rather than doing what is right for the country or the world.  We were prepared to send in diplomats, something advocated by Barack Obama, but then Bush had to reconsider now that the GOP is down in the polls across the country.

AP Exclusive: US won’t put diplomats in Iran – Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration has shelved plans to set up a diplomatic outpost in Iran, in part over fears it could affect the U.S. presidential race or be interpreted as political meddling, The Associated Press has learned.

The proposal to send U.S. diplomats to Tehran for the first time in three decades attracted great attention when it was first floated seriously over the summer but has now been placed on indefinite hold as November’s election nears and Iran continues to defy demands to halt suspect nuclear activities, officials told the AP.

In the end this will be remembered as just one more failure of the Bush presidency. When we had the opportunity to directly influence a country through non lethal means something the opposition party has been recommending for a very long time, he turned his back on it in favor of Republican party unity.

In many ways I have to laugh at the Republican strategy when it comes to diplomacy with the likes of Iran, North Korea and Cuba. They are out there dick waving shouting mine is bigger than yours and don’t you dare piss us off. It strikes me as odd for several reasons. First, I know the GOP is mostly made up of good ol’ boys who think peeing for distance should be an Olympic sport, but for the most part they are so homophobic that even metaphorically whipping it out near others poses a challenge. Then shouting mine is bigger than yours, and I am prepared to prove, should never be done by a party so willing to compromise their publicly stated values for their personal gains, these are the type of people who will bet against themselves and then take a dive to win the bet. Nor should the party so willing to lose be shouting mine is bigger than yours considering their opponent.  He doesn’t back down when called out or forget how he answered a question the week before because it was convenient.

In the end even a plain simple hockey mom from Alaska ought to be able to understand that our diplomatic strategies for these countries has failed.  If she is half the mother she claims to be, which I doubt since all of her kids have been taken care of by nannies from birth, she would tell you that you just can’t ignore bad behavior and hope it goes away.  You have to treat your disobedient children (or countries) with a certain amount of respect and work to change the behavior anyway you can.  She would also know anytime you think you can treat them like a dog by ignoring them for bad behavior or kick them out of frustration, just like a dog it will come back to bite you in the ass.

Some One Is Not In The Loop

Palin questions McCain’s concession of Michigan – Yahoo! News

SAN ANTONIO – Sarah Palin questioned Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s decision to abandon efforts to win Michigan, a campaign move she only learned about Friday morning when she read it in the newspapers.

Excuse me if I don’t believe she actually read a newspaper, much multiples as the quote suggests.  Oh she might have seen the headline on her way to the funny pages, but I doubt she read it.  I wonder if she can read the writing on the walls that says John McCain knows he screwed up by picking Caribou Barbie as a running mate.

Palin acknowledged the GOP ticket’s lackluster poll ratings in the state, but said: “I want to get back to Michigan and I want to try.”

I wonder if beating a dead wolf or caribou work any better for her than beating a dead horse does for anyone else. If she wants to go back on a state that has been conceded more than a month before the election then she has yet to grasp the meaning of fruitless. Of course those cold seasons up in Alaska might mean their isn’t enough local fruit for the plain and simple hockey mom to know the difference between fruitless and sterile.

Fresh off an upbeat debate performance, Palin told a ballroom full of $1,000 donors in Dallas that McCain advisers warned her that Biden was “a skilled debater.”

Yes he was so skilled that she decided she didn’t have to play by the rules established for the debate beforehand. I mean come on the whole thing was dumbed down to fit her supposed skill level to start with then she starts of by saying she wouldn’t actually participate in the debate.

guardian.co.uk
Early on, she made the astonishing announcement that she had no intentions of actually answering the queries put to her. “I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I’m going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also,” she said.

All I can say is I am glad Canada isn’t that far away, if Caribou Barbie and Old Man Forgetful win.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

Yes those were the words I wanted to scream aloud when I read this next story.

Palin revises judges, newspaper answers – Yahoo! News

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin clarified two of her more memorable gaffes this week involving Supreme Court cases and her reading habits.

In an interview with CBS’s Katie Couric earlier this week, Palin was unable to list a decision other than Roe v. Wade that she disagrees with, but in an interview with Fox News on Friday, Palin listed the recent Kennedy v. Louisiana death penalty case as well as the court’s 2005 controversial eminent domain decision in Kelo v. City of New London.

Sorry, just not buying what she is selling today.  How hard was it for her with these cases that it took her research staff two days to come up with an answer and prep her to talk about it.  I am sorry  name a supreme court case other than Roe v. Wade simply wasn’t a tough question.  If she couldn’t name any of the other abortion cases that followed, much less touch on them by saying, “Oh you know the abortion case a few years back that did… Sorry I am blanking on the name at the moment, forgetful me not being a Washington elitist,” then I have a hard time believing she came up with these on her own.

Now she also claims she reads the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist, yet the day she was asked she couldn’t even say she reads her local paper online.  When it takes you four days to come up with the names of the biggest most prominent news sources in the country, I just don’t believe her.  I want to question her on those sources.  I want to check for reading comprehension.  This from a journalism Major.  I just don’t buy it.

Biden Palin Debate

I really had to share this when Katy sent it to me.
dakotawitch: One concern…

One concern…

…about tonight’s vice presidential debate.

The expectations of Sarah Palin are so low, especially based on her performance in the Couric interviews, that if she manages to get out one complete sentence and avoid pissing herself on the stage, her performance will likely be hailed a “great success” and a “homerun ball.”

Cuz come on, when Katie Couric the nicest woman in journalism makes you look like an idiot, that’s kind of like being eviscerated by a fluffy kitten.

On the flip side of these Katie Couric interviews one of the comments is truly great.

dakotawitch: One concern…

yonihamagid:
I kind of saw it from the opposite end, making Katie Couric seem like a real journalist means you’re a very, very bad politician.

However you see those interviews there is always something else to consider, drinking. yes, folks, there is a Biden – Palin debate drinking game.

A VP Debate Drinking Game – The Tech

A VP Debate Drinking Game
Brought to you by CL
September 30, 2008

This Thursday! A debate for the ages! Two contestants, one vice presidency! Who will earn the honor of succeeding Dick Cheney?

In the blue corner Joe “I take the train home” Biden. In the red corner Sarah “I can see Russia from my house” Palin.

Blue Team Rules

¶ For every mention of Scranton, Pennsylvania: Take a sip.

¶ When Biden begins the “I take the train home everyday story” being drinking. Don’t stop ’till he finishes.

¶ When Biden questions Palin’s inexperience: Drink something you’ve never had before

Palin v Realtiy

Just A Sarah Palin couldn’t tell you where she got her news from she also can’t even name a Supreme Court decision other than Roe v Wade. you would have thought that the McCain camp would have at the very least prepped her for this question. Let’s here the queen of the non answer in her own words. (Joe Biden responds firsts to the question)

Watch CBS Videos Online

To be perfectly fair, she actually can’t name any she disagrees with. That however does say a lot right there, since I can’t imagine how many times the Supreme Court has ruled against Bush recently on the the matter of presidential powers. Even if she couldn’t name them by name I would have thought she could have at the very least said that recent one that did this. Maybe a little honesty about blanking on the name was a little much to ask for from the GOP firecracker. Maybe if her energy was spent being being humble rather flashy she wouldn’t come off looking like such an idiot. Of course to be fair she might really be as dopey as she sounds.

How many of you can name more than Roe v Wade? if you graduated from high school you should at the very least know the following even if you don’t know the significance of the case.

Dred Scott v. Sandford
Brown v. Board of Education
Plessy v. Ferguson
Schenck v. United States
Miranda v. Arizona

Anyone who wants to be President of The United States or VP should at the very least know Korematsu vs. United States concerning the executive orders.

Last but not least you would have thought someone so strong in their pro-life stance would also be able to tell you about Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Stenberg v. Carhart, or Gonzales v. Carhart all of which deal with abortion. No, Sarah Palin couldn’t even tell you about these. She doesn’t have to be a legal scholar to be the vice president, but you most certainly should know about the cases important to any cause you claim to hold as dearly as she does pro-life. As it stands she doesn’t know enough to graduate from most high school government classes, and probably not even the eight grade or fifth grade levels of US history, yet she claims to be ready to be our Vice President.

Experience or Flash

Sarah Palin is once again on the flip side of the a John McCain argument. Ever since it became clear Barack Obama would be the Democratic candidate John McCain has taken great pride in citing inexperience in everything for the reasons Barack Obama shouldn’t be elected President. Someone has forgotten to mention this argument to Sarah Palin.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – Palin says she’s the ‘new energy’ « – Blogs from CNN.com

“He’s got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I’m the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he’s got the experience based on many, many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years,” she said.

If you buy the McCain argument that experience counts for everything, I can’t understand why you would want to vote for him. He is old and obviously suffering from senility based on how often he can’t remember his previous answers to questions. For me that is a scarier situation than down right lying. We expect that out of most politicians to stretch the truth, at least to some degree, simply because they are politicians. If we are going to look at experience then we must take into account we have with seventy two year old men who won’t reveal anything about their health, we just have to assume it is not very good or he would be bragging about it.

An angry old forgetful man becoming President with a dopey sounding sidekick with a religious bent as his VP isn’t something we should take lightly. We must assume John McCain is senile, or a liar, either way the chances of him finishing a term in office is pretty slim. America is sick of being lied to and the first time McCain does it as president there will no doubt be calls for impeachment. If he is just senile, we can’t simply say “Whatever Grandpa,” and look the other way either. John McCain isn’t likely to finish a single term in office, so we must assume that Sarah Palin based on her own experience is the sole candidate running against two experienced senators.

In the end, Sarah Palin might be the new energy of the republican party. Even if the first law of thermodynamics says you can’t create or destroy energy, any kid who has ever played with fireworks knows pretty soon energy unleashed becomes little more than a bang and flash that is soon forgotten, unless it costs you your fingers or eyesight in the process.

The Price of Democracy

What is the price of democracy when so called independent candidate support groups will pay protesters? What will they be willing to offer groups to earn more votes? Would they stoop so low as to suggest they will buy votes?  This makes me sick in more ways that I can even begin to talk which says a lot for guy on day of a bronchial infection.

Pro-War Group Offering Cash For Frats To Demonstrate At VP Debate
In hopes of organizing a robust demonstration for the vice presidential debate this Thursday in St. Louis, the pro-Iraq War (and ostensibly pro-McCain) organization, Vets for Freedom, is resorting to offering local college fraternities hundreds of dollars if their members come and hold signs.

In an email obtained by the Huffington Post, Vets for Freedom field staffer Laura Meyer offered a fraternity at St. Louis University a “sizable donation” – plus free lunch – if it could use their pledges to demonstrate outside the VP debate.

Personally I think any fraternity who participates for money should be suspended from the schools organizational list and quite possibly have the national organization dissolve the chapter. It would be a good sign that people should not be bought for the price of lunch. Selling your body whether it is for sex or to protest is still prostitution in my book.

Sarah Palin Pre Debate Update

Sarah Palin takes the day again with political blunder after political blunder.  Here are the best of those stories.

CNN: Sarah Palin Has Never Seen Russia From Alaska

Just when you thought the whole “I can see Russia from Alaska” thing couldn’t get any funnier…CNN’s Gary Tuchman delivers the goods: it turns out that Sarah Palin has never seen Russia from Alaska.

Tuchman went up to the part of Alaska from which you can actually see Russia, a remote island called Little Diomede located just 2.4 miles from it’s Russian twin, Big Diomede.

It turns out Gary Tuchman’s trip to Little Diomede sets him apart from Sarah Palin — because she’s never actually been there, nor has she set eyes on its neighbor in Russia.

So she has never seen Russia, not surprising we catch her in a lie, though I have no idea what her excuse is. When McCain lies to us we can chalk it up as elderly onset dementia and just, “Whatever, Grandpa.” Sarah Paling does not have that excuse, may be she thinks lying is okay because Jesus told her Washington is where he wanted her to go and any tactics are okay when the savior tells you to git0r done!

Next up is actually a well made comment on Politicususa.com
Palin’s Collapse, Economy Power Obama to Leads in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania | Politicususa

Would love to send a thank you card to whomever picked Palin
Submitted by Suzanne (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 – 17:07.

Sarah Palin is intellectually bereft of real ideas for leading all of this country out of the George Bush Sewage Dump. However, she is so obviously out of her league on this one. I think more people are going to be watching the VP debate tomorrow night. Policy vs. pageantry. Hmm. I wonder what the country needs more of right now?

Another not so surprising fact has come to light, Sarah Palin had another clandestine email account she used for state business. I keep asking why someone would create such an account if not for bypassing the law. Please Sarah Plain tell us why you went outside the system?

Palin Had Another Private E-Mail Account, Company Says – washingtonpost.com

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 1, 2008; Page A04

WASILLA, Alaska, Sept. 30 — Gov. Sarah Palin maintained a private e-mail account that she used to communicate with a small circle of staff members outside the state government’s secure official e-mail system, according to the Wasilla company that established the site.

The account was separate from the Yahoo e-mail address that was abruptly abandoned by the McCain campaign on Sept. 17, the day hackers penetrated the account and posted pages from it on the Internet. Palin had routinely used her Yahoo address for state business.

Quentin Algood, the owner of ITS Alaska, said a discreet e-mail system was created from an old campaign account, with access confined to “a group of people, her closest confidants and co-workers and advisers and the person she sleeps with.”

The journalism major Sarah Palin couldn’t name a single source of news she actually ready
Palin, A Journalism Major, Can’t Name A News Source She Reads

Sarah Palin said she does not support the morning after pill as a form of contraception, strongly implied that homosexuality was a choice, and could not name a single source of news that she turns to for information, in yet another installment of her interview series with Katie Couric.

Appearing on CBS Evening News, the Alaska Governor seemed calmer than she had been in previous sit downs. But while she only occasionally provided the type of befuddled responses that had even conservatives scratching their heads, her interview was nevertheless shaky.

Asked what newspapers and magazines she reads, Palin – a journalism major in college – could not name one publication.

“I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media,” she said at first. Couric responded, “What, specifically?”

Sarah Palin just gets pissed off when you mention any of her faux pas.
In runup to debate, Sarah Palin turns up anger

WASHINGTON – With John McCain running interference, Sarah Palin went back for a rematch with Katie Couric Monday while bemoaning the perils of “gotcha journalism.”

Palin is toughening up in the runup to her debate Thursday with Democratic veep hopeful Joe Biden. She headed to McCain’s Arizona hideaway for debate camp. Biden’s sparring partner for debate rehearsals is Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who, like Palin, is a former beauty queen.

Despite her claims Sarah Palin has nothing to do with the Air Force.
NORAD: Sarah Palin has no role in guarding U.S. airspace despite claims in Katie Couric interview

WASHINGTON – When Russian bombers approach American airspace and U.S. Air Force fighters are scrambled, Sarah Palin’s phone doesn’t ring.

The Alaska governor has no command authority over the guardians of U.S. airspace despite her recent suggestion otherwise.

“She doesn’t have any role in that process,” Air Force Maj. Allen Herritage, spokesman for the Alaska North American Aerospace Defense Command, told the Daily News.

The Coming of The Lord

Bill Maher promotes Religulous on The Daily Show with John Stewart. He makes a fine point that Scientology isn’t any crazier than Christianity, and that people accept Christianity only because they have been around it all their lives. As a true agnostic he asks questions that no one wants to answer. Even if you are religious this seems like a good film for you to watch. If you believe you should be able to answer these questions or at the very least ask them and say I don’t know but I want to find out. I doubt Sarah Palin can do that and it scares the hell out of me there is a chance she could be one seventy two year old’s heart beat away from being the president.