Special thanks to former students Ryan Coleman and Clarice Chui for showing this to me via Facebook.
REBUILD THE ECONOMY.
YES WE CAN.
YES ON 1A.
GOP Senator: A 'stretch' to say Palin is qualified
Thu Sep 18, 10:47 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said his party's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, lacks foreign policy experience and called it a "stretch" to say she's qualified to be president.
"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview published Thursday by the Omaha World-Herald. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."
Could Palin lead the country if GOP presidential nominee John McCain could not?
"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Hagel said.
McCain and other Republicans have defended Palin's qualifications, citing Alaska's proximity to Russia. Palin told ABC News, "They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
Hagel took issue with that argument. "I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."
Hagel, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In July, Hagel traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Though he didn't expect to be asked, Hagel had said he would have considered serving as Obama's running mate.
Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 6,500, before becoming Alaska's governor in December 2006.
Palin visited soldiers in Kuwait and Germany last year and said in an interview with ABC News that her only other foreign travel had been to Mexico and Canada. She also said she had never met a foreign head of state.
Hagel told the newspaper that other governors have been elected to serve in the White House without experience in Washington. He said judgment and character were also important for the job.
"But I do think in a world that is so complicated, so interconnected and so combustible, you really got to have some people in charge that have some sense of the bigger scope of the world," Hagel said. "I think that's just a requirement."
WASHINGTON - Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said his party's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, lacks foreign policy experience and called it a "stretch" to say she's qualified to be president.
"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview published Thursday by the Omaha World-Herald. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."
Could Palin lead the country if GOP presidential nominee John McCain could not?"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Hagel said.
McCain and other Republicans have defended Palin's qualifications, citing Alaska's proximity to Russia. Palin told ABC News, "They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
Hagel took issue with that argument. "I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."
Hagel, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In July, Hagel traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Though he didn't expect to be asked, Hagel had said he would have considered serving as Obama's running mate.
Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 6,500, before becoming Alaska's governor in December 2006.
Palin visited soldiers in Kuwait and Germany last year and said in an interview with ABC News that her only other foreign travel had been to Mexico and Canada. She also said she had never met a foreign head of state.
Hagel told the newspaper that other governors have been elected to serve in the White House without experience in Washington. He said judgment and character were also important for the job.
"But I do think in a world that is so complicated, so interconnected and so combustible, you really got to have some people in charge that have some sense of the bigger scope of the world," Hagel said. "I think that's just a requirement."
David Plouffe's Strategy Update - September 17, 2008
Karl Rove: Senator Palpatine :: David Plouffe: Obi Won Kanobi
Bitter Fruit
From the SF Chronicle 9/17/08:
"When photographer Paul Fusco found out that the Bush administration had banned any photography of returning caskets of America's dead soldiers in Iraq, he set out for two years to photograph the funerals. The main thing you see is the solider handing over the flag to the wido and she's not sad. She's angry. It's palpable in this photgraph. In one picture you have a complete tableau of a girl crying, of a soldier doing his duty and saluting, of a widow who's angry to the pont of being shocked."
"When photographer Paul Fusco found out that the Bush administration had banned any photography of returning caskets of America's dead soldiers in Iraq, he set out for two years to photograph the funerals. The main thing you see is the solider handing over the flag to the wido and she's not sad. She's angry. It's palpable in this photgraph. In one picture you have a complete tableau of a girl crying, of a soldier doing his duty and saluting, of a widow who's angry to the pont of being shocked."
I did some research and found the entire photo essay. You can see the page for yourself at: http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/bitterfruit
However, I was able to imbed it into my webpage right here:
“A war without casualties? A war where only the evil get hurt? As much as we would like to believe this, such an idea does not exist.
War produces casualties and destroys lives. Since the beginning of the Iraqi war the government has consistently tried to divert media attention, an obvious example of that effort being the closing of Dover Air Force Base to the press so the rows of flag-draped coffins ready to be shipped to grieving families could not be seen by the public”
– Paul Fusco
Michael Palin for President
I couldn't resist - huge Monty Python fan.
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
"Lies, Half-Truths Outed" SF Chronicle
Another weapon here for the pro-sanity ticket.
From Saturday 9/13 and - updated -Saturday 9/20.
Gratuitous lie count:
Obama / Biden: 3
McCain / Palin: 16
"Each week until the election, The Chronicle will publish a compilation of “lies, half-truths and contradictions” uttered by the presidential campaigns and their supporters during the previous week. Many of the distortions were not seen in California or appeared only on cable networks. Here’s the rundown from the week:"
9/13/08
Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/13/MNKS12T3V8.DTL&type=politics
#1
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad called "Original Mavericks" showing on national cable and battleground states, the McCain campaign asserts that GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere."
The distortion:
She was for the bridge in 2006 until she was against it. Congress pulled funding for it two years before Palin adjusted her position. The nonpartisan Politifact.org said: "We rate Palin's position a Full Flop."
#2
The statement:
In a 30-second online ad called "Lipstick," the McCain campaign took Sen. Barack Obama's use of the phrase "lipstick on a pig" out of context as a sexist smear on Palin. Obama was using the phrase to describe how McCain's foreign, economic and health care policies are similar to President Bush's.
The distortion:
McCain used the exact same phrase to describe Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan on the campaign trail last fall. He should know better; his former press secretary Torie Clark wrote a book called "Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era By Someone Who Knows the Game."
#3
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad called "What Kind" running in key states, the Obama campaign said that McCain "voted to cut education funding." It also states that "McCain's economic plan gives $200 billion more to special interests while taking money away from public schools."
The distortion:
Three of those five votes the campaign cited were against increased spending - that's not a cut. Another was actually a funding increase. The $200 billion refers to McCain's plan to cut the tax rate for all business corporations over five years. But that's not taking money from the public schools, it is part of McCain's proposal to "freeze non-defense, non-veterans discretionary spending for a year."
#4
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad running in battleground states called "Education," McCain's campaign asserts that Obama's main education accomplishment was "Legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners."
The distortion:
As a state senator, Obama supported a bill - which never was passed out of the Illinois Legislature - which included teaching "age-appropriate sex education" - for younger children that could include topics like what is inappropriate touching. Parents could opt out of the unit if they were uncomfortable with their kids hearing this material.
#5
The statement:
When appearing on ABC's "The View" Friday, McCain said Palin never sought congressional money for projects as governor of Alaska. A 30-second advertisement released Friday talks about how Palin has cut earmark requests.
The distortion:
Palin's office asked for $256 million in earmarks last year and $197 million this year. As mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 7,000), the town sought $11.9 million in earmarks from 1999-2003, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan Washington D.C. budget watchdog group.
#6
The statement:
A chain e-mail circulating around the Internet that lists books Palin tried to have removed from the Wasilla, Alaska, public library after she became mayor in 1996. There is no evidence that the e-mail was created by the Obama campaign.
The distortion:
Politifact.org found that no books were banned: "Nor is there any record that Palin ever initiated a formal process to censor any books, as the e-mail suggests."
#7
The statement:
Palin told ABC's Charlie Gibson Thursday that she had never met a foreign head of state. Said Palin: "I think if you go back in history and you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer."
The distortion:
Every vice presidential candidate still alive to ask reported that they had met at least one head of state. That's in the last 32 years, according to ABC news research.
#8
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad playing in battleground states called "Fact Check," the McCain campaign cites the nonpartisan political advertising watchdog Factcheck.org as saying Obama's attacks on Palin were "completely false" and "misleading."
The distortion:
Factcheck.org didn't say that. Says who? Factcheck.org: "We have yet to dispute any claim from the Obama campaign about Palin," the Web site said.
#9
The statement:
On the stump and in interviews, McCain touts Palin's "executive experience" as governor for 21 months of a state with fewer people than San Francisco and as mayor of a city with fewer people than the Cow Palace can hold.
The distortion:
In an October 2007 debate against, among others, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, McCain said, "I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."
#10
The statement:
In her ABC interview Friday, Palin says that "I'm attributing some of man's activities to potentially causing some of the changes in the climate right now." When Gibson said that sounded like she has changed her position on the causes of climate change, Palin challenges Gibson to show her "where I've said there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on climate change."
The distortion:
In an August 2008 interview with NewsMax, Palin said: "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made."
9/20/08
link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/20/MNLIESCHART.DTL&hw=Lies+Half+truths+outed&sn=001&sc=1000
#11
The Statement:
On Monday, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch, McCain said the "fundamentals of the economy are strong." He and his campaign later tried to clarify that to say he meant that he was referring to the strength and resilience of the American worker were strong.
The Distortion:
McCain has used the same phrase 16 times in speeches between Jan. 1 and June 5th of this year, according to MSNBC's archive of speeches.
#12
The Statement:
The McCain campaign 30-second radio ad running in key states says that "McCain-Palin and Congressional allies" support stem cell research.
The Distortion:
GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin opposed stem cell research in her 2006 gubernatorial race. Check this.
#13
The Statement:
The Obama campaign is running a 30-second Spanish language television and radio ad in states with heavy Latino populations that says McCain and "his Republican friends" show "two faces" to Latinos. The ad shows a picture of Rush Limbaugh above the words "Mexicans -- stupid and unqualified."
The Distortion:
Tying McCain to Limbaugh's harsh rhetoric is misleading; Limbaugh opposed McCain's efforts at immigration reform and has referred to McCain as "McCrazy." McCain hasn't used that type of demeaning language -- even when giving in to the party's more conservative elements on immigration.
#14
The Statement:
The McCain campaign is running a 30-second Spanish-language television ad that says "Obama and his Congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they? The press reports that their efforts were 'poison pills' that made immigration reform fail."
The Distortion:
Not exactly. It was the lack of Republican support that killed immigration reform last time around. "I don't know that you can say 'poison pill' because things hadn't gotten far enough so that anything would actually rise to that level (of poisoning the bill's chances)," said Doris Meissner, senior fellow at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute. At a GOP debate in January, McCain said that he wouldn't vote for his own immigration bill. Check this out.
#15
The Statement:
On the campaign trail Monday, Democratic VP nominee Sen. Joe Biden said "When George Bush said we shouldn't investigate why the government's response to Hurricane Katrina was so incompetent, John McCain stood with him." And in the past, McCain has said he "supported every investigation" into Katrina.
The Distortion:
McCain voted twice vote against a nonpartisan commission to investigate who screwed up the response to the disaster. McCain, along with other GOP senators wanted a "bi-partisan" congressional committee to look into the federal response.
#16
The Statement:
Tuesday on the trail, McCain said "I have never asked for a single earmark, pork barrel project for my state of Arizona." It has become a standard line in his stump speech.
The Distortion:
Not true. In 2006, the nonpartisan Politifact notes that McCain co-sponsored legislation asking for $10 million for the University of Arizona; in 2003, McCain won authorization to buy property to create a buffer zone around Luke Air Force Base in Arizona; and in 1992, McCain asked the EPA to provide $5-million for wastewater project in Nogales, Ariz. Check this out.
#17
The Statement:
On the campaign trail or in interviews, McCain and VP-nominee Gov. Sarah Palin often say that Obama will raise taxes on the middle class. An 30-second TV ad released Thursday says he would tax electricity, heating oil and "life savings."
The Distortion:
None are accurate. "McCain ad misrepresents Obama's tax plan. Again," according to Factcheck.org. Obama's economic plan calls for cuts for middle-income taxpayers and would increase rates only for people with family incomes above $250,000 or for individuals making over $200,000. Check out this and this.
#18
The Statement:
In a Sept. 15 appearance, Biden said McCain opposed a GI- benefits bill, and said McCain called it "too generous."
The Distortion:
McCain did oppose Democratic Sen. Jim Webb's version of a GI-benefits bill, but never called it too generous. McCain supported a less-costly GOP version. A compromise version passed -- McCain didn't vote on the bill, but a spokesman said he would have supported it. Said FactCheck.org: "Biden proved once again that it doesn't take outright falsehoods to create a skewed impression of one's opponent."
#19
The Statement:
In response to this week's economic crisis on CNBC, McCain pointed to his experience as "chair of the Commerce Committee which oversights every part of our economy."
The Distortion:
Maybe he's thinking about the Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee -- that's what's responsible for the financial institutions that went south this week. Commerce isn't. Check this out. And here's what the Banking Committee oversees.
From Saturday 9/13 and - updated -Saturday 9/20.
Gratuitous lie count:
Obama / Biden: 3
McCain / Palin: 16
"Each week until the election, The Chronicle will publish a compilation of “lies, half-truths and contradictions” uttered by the presidential campaigns and their supporters during the previous week. Many of the distortions were not seen in California or appeared only on cable networks. Here’s the rundown from the week:"
9/13/08
Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/13/MNKS12T3V8.DTL&type=politics
#1
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad called "Original Mavericks" showing on national cable and battleground states, the McCain campaign asserts that GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere."
The distortion:
She was for the bridge in 2006 until she was against it. Congress pulled funding for it two years before Palin adjusted her position. The nonpartisan Politifact.org said: "We rate Palin's position a Full Flop."
#2
The statement:
In a 30-second online ad called "Lipstick," the McCain campaign took Sen. Barack Obama's use of the phrase "lipstick on a pig" out of context as a sexist smear on Palin. Obama was using the phrase to describe how McCain's foreign, economic and health care policies are similar to President Bush's.
The distortion:
McCain used the exact same phrase to describe Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan on the campaign trail last fall. He should know better; his former press secretary Torie Clark wrote a book called "Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era By Someone Who Knows the Game."
#3
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad called "What Kind" running in key states, the Obama campaign said that McCain "voted to cut education funding." It also states that "McCain's economic plan gives $200 billion more to special interests while taking money away from public schools."
The distortion:
Three of those five votes the campaign cited were against increased spending - that's not a cut. Another was actually a funding increase. The $200 billion refers to McCain's plan to cut the tax rate for all business corporations over five years. But that's not taking money from the public schools, it is part of McCain's proposal to "freeze non-defense, non-veterans discretionary spending for a year."
#4
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad running in battleground states called "Education," McCain's campaign asserts that Obama's main education accomplishment was "Legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners."
The distortion:
As a state senator, Obama supported a bill - which never was passed out of the Illinois Legislature - which included teaching "age-appropriate sex education" - for younger children that could include topics like what is inappropriate touching. Parents could opt out of the unit if they were uncomfortable with their kids hearing this material.
#5
The statement:
When appearing on ABC's "The View" Friday, McCain said Palin never sought congressional money for projects as governor of Alaska. A 30-second advertisement released Friday talks about how Palin has cut earmark requests.
The distortion:
Palin's office asked for $256 million in earmarks last year and $197 million this year. As mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 7,000), the town sought $11.9 million in earmarks from 1999-2003, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan Washington D.C. budget watchdog group.
#6
The statement:
A chain e-mail circulating around the Internet that lists books Palin tried to have removed from the Wasilla, Alaska, public library after she became mayor in 1996. There is no evidence that the e-mail was created by the Obama campaign.
The distortion:
Politifact.org found that no books were banned: "Nor is there any record that Palin ever initiated a formal process to censor any books, as the e-mail suggests."
#7
The statement:
Palin told ABC's Charlie Gibson Thursday that she had never met a foreign head of state. Said Palin: "I think if you go back in history and you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer."
The distortion:
Every vice presidential candidate still alive to ask reported that they had met at least one head of state. That's in the last 32 years, according to ABC news research.
#8
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad playing in battleground states called "Fact Check," the McCain campaign cites the nonpartisan political advertising watchdog Factcheck.org as saying Obama's attacks on Palin were "completely false" and "misleading."
The distortion:
Factcheck.org didn't say that. Says who? Factcheck.org: "We have yet to dispute any claim from the Obama campaign about Palin," the Web site said.
#9
The statement:
On the stump and in interviews, McCain touts Palin's "executive experience" as governor for 21 months of a state with fewer people than San Francisco and as mayor of a city with fewer people than the Cow Palace can hold.
The distortion:
In an October 2007 debate against, among others, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, McCain said, "I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."
#10
The statement:
In her ABC interview Friday, Palin says that "I'm attributing some of man's activities to potentially causing some of the changes in the climate right now." When Gibson said that sounded like she has changed her position on the causes of climate change, Palin challenges Gibson to show her "where I've said there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on climate change."
The distortion:
In an August 2008 interview with NewsMax, Palin said: "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made."
9/20/08
link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/20/MNLIESCHART.DTL&hw=Lies+Half+truths+outed&sn=001&sc=1000
#11
The Statement:
On Monday, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch, McCain said the "fundamentals of the economy are strong." He and his campaign later tried to clarify that to say he meant that he was referring to the strength and resilience of the American worker were strong.
The Distortion:
McCain has used the same phrase 16 times in speeches between Jan. 1 and June 5th of this year, according to MSNBC's archive of speeches.
#12
The Statement:
The McCain campaign 30-second radio ad running in key states says that "McCain-Palin and Congressional allies" support stem cell research.
The Distortion:
GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin opposed stem cell research in her 2006 gubernatorial race. Check this.
#13
The Statement:
The Obama campaign is running a 30-second Spanish language television and radio ad in states with heavy Latino populations that says McCain and "his Republican friends" show "two faces" to Latinos. The ad shows a picture of Rush Limbaugh above the words "Mexicans -- stupid and unqualified."
The Distortion:
Tying McCain to Limbaugh's harsh rhetoric is misleading; Limbaugh opposed McCain's efforts at immigration reform and has referred to McCain as "McCrazy." McCain hasn't used that type of demeaning language -- even when giving in to the party's more conservative elements on immigration.
#14
The Statement:
The McCain campaign is running a 30-second Spanish-language television ad that says "Obama and his Congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they? The press reports that their efforts were 'poison pills' that made immigration reform fail."
The Distortion:
Not exactly. It was the lack of Republican support that killed immigration reform last time around. "I don't know that you can say 'poison pill' because things hadn't gotten far enough so that anything would actually rise to that level (of poisoning the bill's chances)," said Doris Meissner, senior fellow at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute. At a GOP debate in January, McCain said that he wouldn't vote for his own immigration bill. Check this out.
#15
The Statement:
On the campaign trail Monday, Democratic VP nominee Sen. Joe Biden said "When George Bush said we shouldn't investigate why the government's response to Hurricane Katrina was so incompetent, John McCain stood with him." And in the past, McCain has said he "supported every investigation" into Katrina.
The Distortion:
McCain voted twice vote against a nonpartisan commission to investigate who screwed up the response to the disaster. McCain, along with other GOP senators wanted a "bi-partisan" congressional committee to look into the federal response.
#16
The Statement:
Tuesday on the trail, McCain said "I have never asked for a single earmark, pork barrel project for my state of Arizona." It has become a standard line in his stump speech.
The Distortion:
Not true. In 2006, the nonpartisan Politifact notes that McCain co-sponsored legislation asking for $10 million for the University of Arizona; in 2003, McCain won authorization to buy property to create a buffer zone around Luke Air Force Base in Arizona; and in 1992, McCain asked the EPA to provide $5-million for wastewater project in Nogales, Ariz. Check this out.
#17
The Statement:
On the campaign trail or in interviews, McCain and VP-nominee Gov. Sarah Palin often say that Obama will raise taxes on the middle class. An 30-second TV ad released Thursday says he would tax electricity, heating oil and "life savings."
The Distortion:
None are accurate. "McCain ad misrepresents Obama's tax plan. Again," according to Factcheck.org. Obama's economic plan calls for cuts for middle-income taxpayers and would increase rates only for people with family incomes above $250,000 or for individuals making over $200,000. Check out this and this.
#18
The Statement:
In a Sept. 15 appearance, Biden said McCain opposed a GI- benefits bill, and said McCain called it "too generous."
The Distortion:
McCain did oppose Democratic Sen. Jim Webb's version of a GI-benefits bill, but never called it too generous. McCain supported a less-costly GOP version. A compromise version passed -- McCain didn't vote on the bill, but a spokesman said he would have supported it. Said FactCheck.org: "Biden proved once again that it doesn't take outright falsehoods to create a skewed impression of one's opponent."
#19
The Statement:
In response to this week's economic crisis on CNBC, McCain pointed to his experience as "chair of the Commerce Committee which oversights every part of our economy."
The Distortion:
Maybe he's thinking about the Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee -- that's what's responsible for the financial institutions that went south this week. Commerce isn't. Check this out. And here's what the Banking Committee oversees.
BUTTONS! Good Guys v. Bad Guys
Facebook has a feature called "Flair". I couldn't help myself.
The Good Guys
The Bad Guys
I'm a little confused...
This email was sent to me today from four different people - more than the Tina Fey / Palin Saturday Night Live clip. I guess that means I should put it on my blog. One posting credited this to “Fran in PA” so I will thank her, too.
I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well-grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a vote r registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 2 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking ex ecutive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your broken and disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well-grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a vote r registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 2 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking ex ecutive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your broken and disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
"Cover Girl Update" By Don Mitchell
Don Mitchell is a Native American Rights Attorney in Alaska. He has testified Congress on the matter and has written two books. This “report” comes via email. There are some interesting/inflammatory speculations here from the northwestern front, but there is also a tremendous revelation: there are not one, but TWO “Bridges To Nowhere”
“Cover Girl Update”
By Don Mitchell
As I indicated last week, my work here in the subarctic keeping all of you
up to date vis-a-vis Sarah Palin’s arrival as a card-carrying member of
the mass media celebrity culture is over because, since the middle of last
week, every news organization of national reputation, from The National
Inquirer to the New York Times, now has reporters on the ground here.
When over the past day or two I’ve asked several of them how long they
expect to stay, to the man and woman they have replied that they have no
idea. So many of them may be in it until November.
As the days get darker and the weather more rotten, those who are soon
will find out how much fun their new “Who in the Name of God (pun
intended) Is Sarah Palin” beat isn’t. But they’re several weeks away from
having that thought fully dawn on them.
So at the moment they’re scrambling around elbowing each other on
deadline. Us locals have been having terrific fun helping them out as we
chew down on 15 to 20 seconds of our allotted 15 minutes of fame. So far,
sitting here pretty much (although not quite completely) minding my own
business, I have been consulted by (in no particular order of priority)
the Washington Post, US News & World Report, ABC News, the Seattle Times,
National Public Radio, the Anchorage Daily News, as well as by others who
I’ve already forgotten.
And I’m down the food chain. My friends Mike Carey and Mike Doogan (here
in Anchorage) and Greg Erickson (in Juneau) are falling into new careers
as professional pundits. If things keep going as they have been, McCain
(by selecting Sarah) may end up doing for them what the Juice (by carving
up Nicole and Ron) did for Greta van Susteren.
In any case, the press has 60 days and counting to vet Sarah in three
respects:
1. If McCain falls face first onto the Oval Office carpet and Sarah
inherits the presidency, what are the implications for the nation if the
executive branch of the federal government is taken over by a
Bible-thumping, snake-handing, tongue-speaking evangelical who opposes
abortion even in cases of rape or incest and thinks public high school
science classes should be teaching creationism? One new rumor relevant to
this query is that, when Sarah was mayor, the City of Wasilla started
making rape victims who called the Wasilla Police Department pay for their
own rape kits. My ex-pal Tony Knowles, who was governor at the time,
purportedly heard about that, was appropriately outraged, and made Sarah order her police to stop doing so. I have no idea whether that is true.
2. Is Sarah lying about her biography? I have expressed the view in prior
reports that, since time is of the essence, the most expeditious way to
figure that out is to forget the Washington Post and New York Times and
send to Wasilla reporters carrying briefcases stuffed with thousand dollar
bills. I am pleased to report that the National Inquirer has done so and I
much look forward to reading the results of its reporters’ research.
The word swirling here is that the Inquirer soon is breaking the story
that several years ago Sarah put the sanctity of her martial vows on the
shelf in order to spend some quality time recreationally boffing a guy who
was a business partner of husband Todd in a joint venture to open a car
wash in Wasilla (a perfect Mat-Su small business if ever there was one).
Todd supposedly put a stop to it. But the best part of this rumor is that,
when McCain selected Sarah, the ex-business partner sprinted to the Palmer
courthouse to try to convince the Superior Court to seal the records of
his divorce proceedings. So stay tuned on that.
Also, in a prior report I passed along that a friend of a friend (who I
assume, albeit without knowing, had access out in the Mat-Su to sealed
juvenile court records) had passed along to my friend that there is no
court record that Track Palin had been given the choice of being
prosecuted for participating in vandalizing the Wasilla school bus barn or
joining the army. I have since been told by another friend who has a
friend who has equally stellar Mat-Su credentials that that Track Palin
story in fact is true and that the reason there is no court record is that
Sarah/Todd cut the deal at the arresting officer level. There also is a
related buzz making the rounds that Track didn’t bother to graduate from
high school before setting about on his new career as terrorist Ghost
Buster.
As stated, I have every confidence that the National Inquirer soon will be
getting to the bottom of these and related matters.
3. How has Sarah governed the State for the past two years? That's the
only evidence America has that gives an indication of how she might govern
the nation should she inherit the presidency.
In that regard, you may be interested in my view of the recent Palin-Obama dust-up over the “Bridges to Nowhere.”
In her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention Sarah
bragged that when Congress tried to give her the “Bridge [in the singular]
to Nowhere” she told Congress “No thanks.”
Last night the Lehrer News Hour broadcast a sound bite in which Obama
criticized Palin for that by saying that she had supported the “Bridge
[again in the singular] to Nowhere” earmark before she opposed it.
What Obama does not seem to understand is that there were two earmarks for
two "Bridges [in the plural] to Nowhere". The first bridge would have
crossed the channel between Ketchikan and Gravina Island on which the
Ketchikan Airport is located. The second bridge still may cross the Knik
Arm of Cook Inlet between Anchorage and an expanse of almost completely
unadulterated wilderness in the Mat-Su Borough (Sarah's home geography).
(A year or so ago the Anchorage Daily News reported that a hunk of land
close to the Mat-Su Borough side of the bridge crossing had been purchased
by Art Nelson (Alaska Congressman Don Young's son-in-law), Trevor McCabe
(Alaska Senator Ted Stevens's former chief-of-staff), and Mike Hyde (an
executive at the American Seafoods Company in Seattle who Ted - and Trevor
- made a multi-millionaire by in 1998 tacking the American Fisheries Act
on as a rider to that year's Omnibus Appropriations Act - a play in which
I participated on the margin representing an Eskimo fishermen's
organization.)
I mention all that because for Obama to say only that "Sarah was for it
before she was against it" misses two important parts of the story.
After the "Bridges to Nowhere" became a big deal, Congress circled back
around and eliminated the designations for the earmarks, i.e., the legal
requirement that the State of Alaska had to spend the money on the
Ketchikan and Cook Inlet bridges. But Congress did not take the money back.
As a consequence, when (purportedly because the cost overruns had gotten
out of hand) Sarah pulled the plug on the Ketchikan bridge, she did not
return the money that Congress had appropriated to build it. She still has it.
Of equal importance, the last time I checked, Sarah still supports the
Anchorage "Bridge to Nowhere", which, should it ever be built (which, for
reasons not worth detailing here, I doubt), will be considerably more
expensive than the Ketchikan bridge. Given all that, the correct Obama
message should be:
There are, not one, but two Bridges to Nowhere that
Ted Stevens/Don Young bamboozled Congress into
having the American taxpayer fund.
With respect to the first (Ketchikan) bridge, Sarah
was for it. Then, when she decided that it would be
politically useful to be against it, she kept the
money that the earmark had appropriated.
With respect to the second (Anchorage) bridge, Sarah
still supports it. And she still has that money as
well.
All that is commonplace knowledge here. Which is why the Obama research
operation appears to be dropping the ball.
Maybe more later.
“Cover Girl Update”
By Don Mitchell
As I indicated last week, my work here in the subarctic keeping all of you
up to date vis-a-vis Sarah Palin’s arrival as a card-carrying member of
the mass media celebrity culture is over because, since the middle of last
week, every news organization of national reputation, from The National
Inquirer to the New York Times, now has reporters on the ground here.
When over the past day or two I’ve asked several of them how long they
expect to stay, to the man and woman they have replied that they have no
idea. So many of them may be in it until November.
As the days get darker and the weather more rotten, those who are soon
will find out how much fun their new “Who in the Name of God (pun
intended) Is Sarah Palin” beat isn’t. But they’re several weeks away from
having that thought fully dawn on them.
So at the moment they’re scrambling around elbowing each other on
deadline. Us locals have been having terrific fun helping them out as we
chew down on 15 to 20 seconds of our allotted 15 minutes of fame. So far,
sitting here pretty much (although not quite completely) minding my own
business, I have been consulted by (in no particular order of priority)
the Washington Post, US News & World Report, ABC News, the Seattle Times,
National Public Radio, the Anchorage Daily News, as well as by others who
I’ve already forgotten.
And I’m down the food chain. My friends Mike Carey and Mike Doogan (here
in Anchorage) and Greg Erickson (in Juneau) are falling into new careers
as professional pundits. If things keep going as they have been, McCain
(by selecting Sarah) may end up doing for them what the Juice (by carving
up Nicole and Ron) did for Greta van Susteren.
In any case, the press has 60 days and counting to vet Sarah in three
respects:
1. If McCain falls face first onto the Oval Office carpet and Sarah
inherits the presidency, what are the implications for the nation if the
executive branch of the federal government is taken over by a
Bible-thumping, snake-handing, tongue-speaking evangelical who opposes
abortion even in cases of rape or incest and thinks public high school
science classes should be teaching creationism? One new rumor relevant to
this query is that, when Sarah was mayor, the City of Wasilla started
making rape victims who called the Wasilla Police Department pay for their
own rape kits. My ex-pal Tony Knowles, who was governor at the time,
purportedly heard about that, was appropriately outraged, and made Sarah order her police to stop doing so. I have no idea whether that is true.
2. Is Sarah lying about her biography? I have expressed the view in prior
reports that, since time is of the essence, the most expeditious way to
figure that out is to forget the Washington Post and New York Times and
send to Wasilla reporters carrying briefcases stuffed with thousand dollar
bills. I am pleased to report that the National Inquirer has done so and I
much look forward to reading the results of its reporters’ research.
The word swirling here is that the Inquirer soon is breaking the story
that several years ago Sarah put the sanctity of her martial vows on the
shelf in order to spend some quality time recreationally boffing a guy who
was a business partner of husband Todd in a joint venture to open a car
wash in Wasilla (a perfect Mat-Su small business if ever there was one).
Todd supposedly put a stop to it. But the best part of this rumor is that,
when McCain selected Sarah, the ex-business partner sprinted to the Palmer
courthouse to try to convince the Superior Court to seal the records of
his divorce proceedings. So stay tuned on that.
Also, in a prior report I passed along that a friend of a friend (who I
assume, albeit without knowing, had access out in the Mat-Su to sealed
juvenile court records) had passed along to my friend that there is no
court record that Track Palin had been given the choice of being
prosecuted for participating in vandalizing the Wasilla school bus barn or
joining the army. I have since been told by another friend who has a
friend who has equally stellar Mat-Su credentials that that Track Palin
story in fact is true and that the reason there is no court record is that
Sarah/Todd cut the deal at the arresting officer level. There also is a
related buzz making the rounds that Track didn’t bother to graduate from
high school before setting about on his new career as terrorist Ghost
Buster.
As stated, I have every confidence that the National Inquirer soon will be
getting to the bottom of these and related matters.
3. How has Sarah governed the State for the past two years? That's the
only evidence America has that gives an indication of how she might govern
the nation should she inherit the presidency.
In that regard, you may be interested in my view of the recent Palin-Obama dust-up over the “Bridges to Nowhere.”
In her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention Sarah
bragged that when Congress tried to give her the “Bridge [in the singular]
to Nowhere” she told Congress “No thanks.”
Last night the Lehrer News Hour broadcast a sound bite in which Obama
criticized Palin for that by saying that she had supported the “Bridge
[again in the singular] to Nowhere” earmark before she opposed it.
What Obama does not seem to understand is that there were two earmarks for
two "Bridges [in the plural] to Nowhere". The first bridge would have
crossed the channel between Ketchikan and Gravina Island on which the
Ketchikan Airport is located. The second bridge still may cross the Knik
Arm of Cook Inlet between Anchorage and an expanse of almost completely
unadulterated wilderness in the Mat-Su Borough (Sarah's home geography).
(A year or so ago the Anchorage Daily News reported that a hunk of land
close to the Mat-Su Borough side of the bridge crossing had been purchased
by Art Nelson (Alaska Congressman Don Young's son-in-law), Trevor McCabe
(Alaska Senator Ted Stevens's former chief-of-staff), and Mike Hyde (an
executive at the American Seafoods Company in Seattle who Ted - and Trevor
- made a multi-millionaire by in 1998 tacking the American Fisheries Act
on as a rider to that year's Omnibus Appropriations Act - a play in which
I participated on the margin representing an Eskimo fishermen's
organization.)
I mention all that because for Obama to say only that "Sarah was for it
before she was against it" misses two important parts of the story.
After the "Bridges to Nowhere" became a big deal, Congress circled back
around and eliminated the designations for the earmarks, i.e., the legal
requirement that the State of Alaska had to spend the money on the
Ketchikan and Cook Inlet bridges. But Congress did not take the money back.
As a consequence, when (purportedly because the cost overruns had gotten
out of hand) Sarah pulled the plug on the Ketchikan bridge, she did not
return the money that Congress had appropriated to build it. She still has it.
Of equal importance, the last time I checked, Sarah still supports the
Anchorage "Bridge to Nowhere", which, should it ever be built (which, for
reasons not worth detailing here, I doubt), will be considerably more
expensive than the Ketchikan bridge. Given all that, the correct Obama
message should be:
There are, not one, but two Bridges to Nowhere that
Ted Stevens/Don Young bamboozled Congress into
having the American taxpayer fund.
With respect to the first (Ketchikan) bridge, Sarah
was for it. Then, when she decided that it would be
politically useful to be against it, she kept the
money that the earmark had appropriated.
With respect to the second (Anchorage) bridge, Sarah
still supports it. And she still has that money as
well.
All that is commonplace knowledge here. Which is why the Obama research
operation appears to be dropping the ball.
Maybe more later.
"Drill Baby Drill" by Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler is an American playwright, performer, feminist and activist, best known for her play “The Vagina Monologues”."Drill Baby Drill"
By Eve Ensler
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air. Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
SNL: Palin (Fey) and Clinton (Poehler)
If you haven't seen it yet, here it is.
And it is good.
Link:
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/
Or you can play and watch it right here:
And it is good.
Link:
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/
Or you can play and watch it right here:
Russian Chess Masters
Currently, the world doesn’t like us.
They will like us less if we elect John McCain President and Sarah Palin Vice President.
There are polls everywhere that show this if we actually take the time to look beyond our irrelevant national popular vote percentage polls and Sarah Palin's lipstick.
So, on the heels of Barack Obama being greeted by over 200,000 people in Berlin, Russia invades Georgia.
Why?
Why now?
Georgia - on a global game of chess - is an irrelevant pawn to the East (sorry Georgians). But the country is located nowhere near Europe and China could care less.
But what about us?
Nothing like an old threat to get America scared.
And when America get’s scared, moderates vote Republican.
When moderates vote Republican, Republicans win.
When Republicans win, the world hates us.
Meanwhile: George Bush goes to the Olympics in China and dusts sand off female volleyball players’ behinds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgbffE2o3Kg
... while Sarkozy (France) and the other European Nations sign a peace agreement with Russia. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/world/europe/14document.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
The United States wasn’t even invited to the table. I wonder why.
America has always be great because of what we can be... but what have we become?
They will like us less if we elect John McCain President and Sarah Palin Vice President.
There are polls everywhere that show this if we actually take the time to look beyond our irrelevant national popular vote percentage polls and Sarah Palin's lipstick.
So, on the heels of Barack Obama being greeted by over 200,000 people in Berlin, Russia invades Georgia.
Why?
Why now?
Georgia - on a global game of chess - is an irrelevant pawn to the East (sorry Georgians). But the country is located nowhere near Europe and China could care less.
But what about us?
Nothing like an old threat to get America scared.
And when America get’s scared, moderates vote Republican.
When moderates vote Republican, Republicans win.
When Republicans win, the world hates us.
Meanwhile: George Bush goes to the Olympics in China and dusts sand off female volleyball players’ behinds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgbffE2o3Kg
... while Sarkozy (France) and the other European Nations sign a peace agreement with Russia. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/world/europe/14document.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
The United States wasn’t even invited to the table. I wonder why.
America has always be great because of what we can be... but what have we become?
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