"So Palin made a crack about "styrofoam columns"? Woohoo, she supports high quality architecture!! And I guarantee you NO Republicans live in fake styrofoam McMansions!!!!"
Yeah, talk about design... That's a real stuffed grizzley bear and crab she has decorating her office... Her grandfather shot that bear... And yes, that's a real hairdo on her head...
oh and by the by The National Enquirer is investigating a story that Palin had an affair. Now, given the fact that TNE was onto the John Edwards story before the mainstream press, this not only may have cred, but legs as well...
George was worried about New Orleans just last week but all but forgot about the needs of People in Iowa who faced amazing floods this past summer. Oh ya...and here is one of those places where SP
could make a difference with or without the title of VP.... being that here son will most likely end up as a client of an ARC organization of a sister organization.
East Central Chapter of Arc office building in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
The Republicans stand for cynicism, negativity, and attacks. Period.
They cannot claim the high ground on taxes, size of government, foreign policy, civil rights. They have ceded all of these things.
What they can do is to hit below the belt, lie, attack, and promote cynicism. That's all I heard in the speeches last night.
I don't think they'll win, but if they do, let's all remember that many awful regimes in world history won a majority of the vote—mainly through cynicism, mockery, and fear. Fear works. And this will be the only plank the Republicans have to stand on. They are intellectually bankrupt otherwise.
beta: after insulting my suggestion on the first page of this thread that posters might want to at least check out Ms. Palin's background in a vehicle like Wikipedia, I find it laughable that you now find the National Enquirer to be an authoritative source on her morals.
what's next -- Jerry Springer as the font of all political guidance?
well i tried to listen to Rudy's speech... in a valient attempt to try and see the other side of the coin.
but after the description of Obama as a 'Harvard Graduate' drew a snicker...
after his work as an organizer was mocked and openly laughed at...
after an unspeakably stupid 'Drill Baby Drill' chant broke out...
i had to turn it off... and it shocks me that chasm between democrat and republican seemingly gets wider every time a speech is given at the RNC. The prospect of people like Rudy Giuliani as a political spokesman for the US is too horribly depressing to even consider...
they are making it really hard for anyone not from the funamental right to trust them... shoot... id settle for listening to their speechs without feeling ashamed...
i guess rudy's wife(which one is it) is at home making some mac and cheese for that fat kid of his. cuz i am sure they have no domestic help. they are just average folks afterall.
flm the video is posted a couple pages back on this thread.
babs, you can read right, i mean is that insulting to ask? wikipedia, if my memory serves, is a tool that can be edited by anyone with access, correct? and if memory serves, the story from the National Enquirer on Edwards was in the air for nearly a year, and which until recently was ignored and again only recently proven true? oh, and yeah at least the Enquirer can be sued, and if the MC Same people want to sue, by all means do so. there is nothing, absolutely nothing holding wikipedia to account - given it is anonymous.
and one last thing, my comment above had enough caveats to at least suggest that the story, may be fabricated, given the source. so lets at least get that correct.
You know what bothers me ... both sides of this campaign are getting so worked up and angry at the other side (politicians and electorate alike) that no matter who wins in November, I'm worried the country will become damn near ungovernable.
I've witnessed a LOT of elections and I don't recall it being quite this polarizing since Nixon v. Kennedy or Johnson v. Goldwater. And we all know what the aftermath of those elections looked like.
And, don't start telling me "well, the other side started it".
Let's try to remember that we're all going to have to live here when it's all over.
But in all seriousness, the Democrats need to play hardball... We cannot afford to let them play soft. The key is to play hard but direct and on the issues, don't resort to personal attacks. If Pat Buchanan can gush over Obama's message, there's hope for America:
I know you guys mentioned it, but this segment from the Daily Show is one of the most brilliant things they've ever put together, and everyone needs to watch it:
WOW wonderK, i just watched that daily show clip, i don't even know what to say, actually i can't say anything because my jaw is on the floor. i can't believe these people can get away with these lies and hypocrisy!
But they aren't getting away with it....because it's right there. I think the saddest part is that it takes the FAKE news show to bring these things to the table.
well sure, it is right there but the only people who know about it are the people that show is aimed at...the choir so to speak. maybe im just getting impatient, but i hope some of these facts are revealed to the broader national audience, whether in the debates or on the campaign trail. the dems have never been good at being the attack dog, so right now my extreme anger is mixing with the hopelessness i felt when kerry got swiftboated. granted kerry is no obama...so i hope things will be different this time but history says otherwise
and biden is no edwards -- hopefully those tactical differences in the ticket this time around will yield better results...and hopefully telling the truth is not perceived to be attacks, though it just might be anyway...great clip!
that's true mfrech...although at first i thought biden would tear pailin to pieces in a debate, now all i hear is how it will be difficult for a man to debate a woman, especially with how the GOP has introduced, portrayed and set palin up. historically they say that men have had difficulties debating women, as men come across as authoritative and aggressive.
fair enough MArch, but i think after last night's speech, consisting of nothing more than parochial colloquialisms and baseless attacks and fearmongering, i think she's declared herself fair game. i really don't thinkshe can go out and say stuff like she said last night and expect to get away with it...i don't think joe biden or the obama campaign at large will let that happen, but i think you're totally right that it could go too far, if palin is off-script she could look like a victim, or more importantly, be portrayed as one by the campaign and traditional media.
and i just love how the mccain campaign has done nothing but complain about media coverage lately, even before the palin selection. it's hypocritical but hilarious, but unfortunately it seems to be working a bit. like they forgot about what the media was saying about obama six months ago.
sarah palin referred to herself as a "Pitbull with lipstick."
as a former caretaker of a pitbull for 13 wonderful years, i am offended that she would seek to gain personal value by association with a wonderful dog.
pitbulls are: loyal, friendly, good around kids, affectionate, loyal...did i mention loyal?
haha, i'll bet there's lots of dogs out there taking offense that this morning! of course, maybe there's an unintended admission in that statement: who's she friendly and loyal to...extreme conservative values? the westborough baptist church crowd? the alaska liberation party? creationist-academics? jesus Himself?
"awww shucks, i'm just a small town hockey mom -- but make no mistake, i want to run your country. and turn it into a Christian paradise. seeya at the rapture, y'all!"
not that i need to shed any light for most of you, but its still interesting to see these facts and lies in print....
The Associated Press closely watched Governor Sarah Palin, the GOP's VP pick, at last night's RNC convention and has outlined the many ways she exaggerated and lied.
Check out Pinocchio Palin's claims and the truth:
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
The AP report also showed how Palin's champions have exaggerated the Alaskan governor's 'acheivements':
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply … She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.
MArch, can you post the link? i've got a few group email lists i need to send that too. for living in massachusetts, one might say i have a lot of republican friends, heh...
unfortunately mfrech my wife sent me all of that in the body of an email, so im not sure where the original story/link came from.
i grew up in MA, just got an email from my father who asked me if i watched her speak last night. in his words, "she knocked it out of the park." i hope he was confusing her with dustin pedroia, but i think the long car rides listening to rush has changed him forever
The McCain of days past who attacked leaders of the Christian right as "agents of intolerance," who voted against "budget busting" Bush tax cuts, who broke ranks with his party on issues from gay rights to campaign finance reform, is now a faded memory.
Bush is said to be dismissive of McCain's pick of Palin, according to the sources. Ironically, he is said to believe that now he will bear no responsibility if McCain loses. The old rivalry, supposedly buried, has come back to life.
Also, Mr. Parry, regarding Trooper Wooten (who was married to Sarah Palin's sister), you should have pointed out, in the interest of more complete, more professional reporting, that Wooten had allegedly threatened to shoot their (Governor Palin and her sister's) father.
The family had alleged the threat in 2005, before Palin became governor. They said Wooten had told Palin's sister he would shoot their father if he got the sister a lawyer.
Wooten denied saying anything like that. But a trooper investigation concluded he did, although it wasn't a crime because he didn't threaten the father directly. Wooten's actions did violate trooper policy, the investigator found.
The facts will come out, so it would be prudent if you, in the interest of fair and unbiased reporting, ceased your vendetta against the Palin family in general, and the governor and John McCain in particular
left out a few salient points relating to the firing of Police Chief Irl Stambaug
Sarah Palin says she didn't fire Police Chief Irl Stambaugh three years ago because he supported her election opponent John Stein.
But even if it was the reason, she was within her rights to give the police chief the boot, a federal judge ruled. The police chief serves at the discretion of the mayor, and can be terminated for nearly any reason, even a political one, U.S. District Court Judge James K. Singleton ruled in dismissing most of Stambaugh's claims.
with National Public Radio just before the Republican primary in 2006 where she stated that the only mistake she made as mayor of Wasilla was when she didn't immediately fire a cabinet member who disagreed with her on something. She said she should have gotten rid of him right away. Sarah Palin may be pretty but she stinks like Bush.
This trooper not only tasered a 10 year old child, made death threats to members of her family, but has been seen getting on his patrol car while drunk. This has to stop! being a trooper is not mean being above the law.
Why was he protected? why was he not fired on the spot when he was her brother? The questions raised by Mrs. Palin staff areperfectly appropriate and my only regret is that the trooper is not in jail.
"Today, the McCain campaign released her voter registration records to prove Palin is a lifelong Republican with no connection to the [Alaskan] Independence Party." But Cordes did not note that Palin addressed the AIP's 2008 state convention in a video message in which she said the group "plays an important role in our state's politics," that she reportedly addressed the party's convention with a video message in 2006, that the McCain campaign has acknowledged that Palin "visited" the AIP's 2000 convention, or that her husband reportedly was a registered member of the party.
Gov. Sarah Palin "participated in Alaska's Independence Party [AIP], which has called in the past for the state to secede from the union,"
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s vendetta against the state trooper who divorced her sister may have spilled over into a broader retaliation against Alaska’s police with more than $2 million slashed from their budget as well as the elimination of temporary staff positions and the firing of the public safety commissioner, according to police representatives.
You have to admire the Republican chutzpah. Still confronting a national scandal about packing the Justice Department with “loyal Bushies,” they pick a vice presidential candidate who – in her two executive jobs in Alaska – ousted top law-enforcement officials because they were insufficiently loyal or not malleable enough.
Now John McCain learns, as we do, that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sent a 70-page memo to Sen. Ted Stevens, another Alaskan Republican, in February seeking $200 million for new Alaska earmarks. As mayor of the village of Wasilla, she lobbied hard for and won more than $26 million of earmarks
Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential pick, has been marked by conflicts, score-settling and her own claim that she faces “enemies – powerful enemies.”
a closer look at Palin's short political career reveals that she committed some of the same ethical lapses that she has attacked, especially during her unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2002. She also has shown herself to be a thin-skinned politician quick to see herself as the target of conspiracies.
obtained some of those documents from former Wasilla city officials this week.)
The documents show that Palin used city computers to manage her campaign and billed taxpayers for mailings, phone calls and literature. Palin also had her city secretary, Mary Bixby, print 75 thank-you notes to campaign donors and book a campaign related trip Ketchikan in May 2002 while on city time.
Former city officials said Palin and her campaign staff worked upwards of 10 hours a day using Wasilla City Hall as her campaign headquarters where campaign faxes were sent and received, and campaign staffers used city phones to solicit donations.
On Palin’s lieutenant governor candidate registration form with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, she used the e-mail the city gave her — sarah@ci.wasilla.ak.us
— for “campaign chairperson” contact information and the Wasilla City Hall fax telephone number for "candidate information.”
Palin’s mayoral schedule for June 12, 2002 showed that she met with Herold Advertising Products in her office at City Hall. Soon after, the company faxed the city’s deputy administrator, John Cramer, "Sarah Palin Lieutenant Governor" artwork and an invoice for the work.
Building the Myth
Working at her city computer, Palin also sent three e-mails to Randy Ruedrich, the state’s Republican Party chairman, complaining about several endorsements she did not receive.
Ironically, as chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Palin reported Ruedrich, a fellow commissioner, to Gov. Frank Murkowski’s administration, accusing him of an ethics breach for conducting work for the state GOP on government time.
To obtain evidence of Ruedrich’s alleged malfeasance, Palin hacked into his computer, an ethical lapse in its own right. In January 2004, she resigned from the commission in protest over what she billed as corrupt practices.
Palin’s ethics complaint against Ruedrich gave her a reputation as an anti-establishment reformer at a time when the Alaskan Republican hierarchy was coming under scrutiny for corruption. Reudrich paid a $12,000 fine after an investigation revealed he had violated state ethics rules.
But in July 2006, Paul Jenkins, an editor for the conservative Voice of the Times, confronted Palin about her own apparent ethical breaches four years earlier. Her response was to insist, without explanation, that her situation was different than Reudrich's.
“I asked how her using a city computer for her campaign business was any different than Ruedrich's use of a state computer at the AOGCC to do Republican Party business,” Jenkins wrote in a column on July 7, 2006. “Not the same, she said, simply not the same.
“Then, she shifted gears and asked, ‘Is this what they've got to destroy my campaign? E-mails from 4 1/2 years ago?’ We had barely hung up — and I was wondering if there was any story in all this — when her campaign fired off a ‘news’ release headlined: ‘Palin Campaign Sees First Signs of Rumored Smear Campaign.’ Good grief. Frankly...I've never seen a politician come unhinged so quickly as Palin when asked a few straightforward questions.”
Jenkins excoriated his Alaska media colleagues for lapping up Palin’s “reformer” talking points. He said her “campaign [was] rooted in one thing: the perception that Palin somehow wears a halo and is not your average, run-of-the-mill politician.”
This editor for Voice of the Times, which bills itself as “A Conservative Voice for Alaska,” concluded with a reality check that could very well apply to the GOP talking points being used today to sell Palin to the American electorate.
“When her goody-two-shoes act starts to crumble — and going nuts because of a few obvious questions seems a first crack — folks may see her for the rank politician she is, and not necessarily a good one at that,”
There is an overpowering element of hypocrisy in the whole affair. The Christian right seeks to impose fundamentalist precepts on the entire American population—by banning abortion, contraception, sex education, the teaching of evolution, stem cell research, etc. Yet they blithely defend Governor Palin on the grounds that Bristol’s pregnancy (as well as Todd Palin’s drunk-driving charge and similar incidents) are proof that the Palins are just regular folks. As McCain speechwriter Mark Salter declared, “These things happen. This has probably happened to millions of American families.”
neither Obama, nor his running mate Joseph Biden, nor any other Democratic Party representative dares to put the spotlight on the critical political fact demonstrated by the Palin nomination: the ability of extreme right-wing and fascistic elements to dictate the policies and even the candidates of the Republican Party.
there is little basis for extending sympathy to Governor Palin or the array of reactionary, moralizing preachers and pundits who have suddenly discovered the value of privacy (something they routinely deny to young pregnant women who make a different choice than Bristol Palin).
I live here in the USA, am a conservative Republican and live and work with other conservative Republicans. Sarah Palin has not won over anybody, least of all us.
The main problem as we see it, is that Palin claims to be a reformer yet is more corrupt than even the entrenched interests she claims to have "shaken up."
She tried to fire a librarian in Wasilla, Alaska (where she was mayor) because she wanted to ban some books there, and the librarian refused. Palin backed down only when the townspeople revolted against her. She is being actively investigated for misuse of power in the firing of a state trooper over a personal family feud. She supported tremendous wastes of money in Alaska including the Bridge to Nowhere, then tried to pretend that she'd opposed it. She insulted her fellow Republican Lyda Green like an immmature child. She ran Wasilla into the ground financially, deeply into debt.
In short, Sarah Palin is corrupt, dangerous and inexperienced, as well as being closed-minded and rather clueless. She does not belong anywhere near the White House, and we Republicans among the rank and file will be the first one to tell you this.
personally, i think the love needs to be spread. can anyone recommend an active conservative forum website? maybe that's where we need to be debating these issues.
oh no, i wish you hadn't done that. click on the global warming link and this is what you get [as they imagine a world without liberals]
No more Al Gore-worshipping-tree-hugging-animal-loving-global-warming-the-world-is-ending loonies refusing to drill for oil in Alaska because it would disturb the wildlife. ‘Nuff said about this.
No more Bush-bashing-Cheney-hating-troop-denigrating-cindy-sheehan-loving-ungroomed-facial-hair-having freakazoids that believe that it’s in our best interest to pull out of Iraq because war solves nothing. And these are the same people who have NEVER served a day in the US Armed Forces; yet they are suddenly experts in foreign policy.
No more money-wasting-perpetrating-wealthy-ass politicians who spend hundreds of dollars on a haircut yet claim that it’s in their best interest to help the poor.
these people can't be real, i espeically like the last one especially after vanity fair broke down the cost of cindy mcCain's tuesday outfit:
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000–$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100
so who wants the "A" list? I'm taking the "T's" so I can see what bonehead wrote this:
Tygrrr Express - The only political issue more important than killing taxes is killing terrorists. I do not sing Kumbaya with Islamofacists or leftists. Scorched Earth is my approach, with the grace and subtlety of a battering ram. 9/11 fuels my emotions every day
MArch06, with an outfit like that, how can you NOT think they are representing the people?!?
I honestly think that we have our panties up in a bunch about nothing. If you've even got the AP releasing statements about the lies in their speeches, then you know they are reaching out in desperation. The Repugs are all excited because, as I see it, they think McCain's hail mary pass suddenly gives them an outside chance of winning ... I think many of THEM thought it was a done deal for Obama before this all went down. And the reason they are so excited is because for one long, unfortunate week they actually get to be talked about again.
Think of it this way; don't you think all of the major news networks have a vested interest in at least pretending like the race is competitive? If not, how are they going to keep us watching for the next two months?
That said, I am still so scarred by my experiences in 2004 that I remain cautiously optimistic. And as someone on the Huffington Post said, that speech DID ignite the base ... the Democratic base. Make some calls people! Get out there! Go go go!
isn't that great wonderk - people are losing their homes and she's wearing the equivalent for a few hours one night.
i do agree with you, the GOP are having their time in the spotlight and it will undoubtedly come to an end once the convention wraps up. but honestly, this is what i worry about and i hate to think this or write this right now, but in those blue collar swing states im concerned that the polls can show support for obama but then when they get into the voting booth, with no one around and no one looking will subconscious prejudice take over?
Al Gore-worshipping-tree-hugging-animal-loving-global-warming-the-world-is-ending
Didn't this kind of stringing together of present progressive tense verbs start with Spike Lee? Would he approve of right wing nutjobs appropriating it?
Sarah Palin???
LB,
"So Palin made a crack about "styrofoam columns"? Woohoo, she supports high quality architecture!! And I guarantee you NO Republicans live in fake styrofoam McMansions!!!!"
Yeah, talk about design... That's a real stuffed grizzley bear and crab she has decorating her office... Her grandfather shot that bear... And yes, that's a real hairdo on her head...
oh and by the by The National Enquirer is investigating a story that Palin had an affair. Now, given the fact that TNE was onto the John Edwards story before the mainstream press, this not only may have cred, but legs as well...
George was worried about New Orleans just last week but all but forgot about the needs of People in Iowa who faced amazing floods this past summer. Oh ya...and here is one of those places where SP
could make a difference with or without the title of VP.... being that here son will most likely end up as a client of an ARC organization of a sister organization.
East Central Chapter of Arc office building in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
hey its her right to have an affair. back off liberal media!
But vado I'm with you... Screw the nicety... Lets see the gloves come off, Dems...
Godspeed National Enquirer! jk...
here ya go....funny as all hell.
It is the little white building....kinda like the white house.
The Republicans stand for cynicism, negativity, and attacks. Period.
They cannot claim the high ground on taxes, size of government, foreign policy, civil rights. They have ceded all of these things.
What they can do is to hit below the belt, lie, attack, and promote cynicism. That's all I heard in the speeches last night.
I don't think they'll win, but if they do, let's all remember that many awful regimes in world history won a majority of the vote—mainly through cynicism, mockery, and fear. Fear works. And this will be the only plank the Republicans have to stand on. They are intellectually bankrupt otherwise.
there is no need for rumor... just ask the question
do you believe in the first amendment and if so, sarah did you look for ways to ban books at your local library? it ain't that tough...
of course if she did seek to ban books it will just solifiy her reputation as a kick ass and take names nra toting hockey milf...
i must have missed this somehow, but what did noonan say? she irks me so much
the expectations were so low that it was impossible for palin not to exceed them.
the only clean coal is leaving it in the ground.
beta: after insulting my suggestion on the first page of this thread that posters might want to at least check out Ms. Palin's background in a vehicle like Wikipedia, I find it laughable that you now find the National Enquirer to be an authoritative source on her morals.
what's next -- Jerry Springer as the font of all political guidance?
well i tried to listen to Rudy's speech... in a valient attempt to try and see the other side of the coin.
but after the description of Obama as a 'Harvard Graduate' drew a snicker...
after his work as an organizer was mocked and openly laughed at...
after an unspeakably stupid 'Drill Baby Drill' chant broke out...
i had to turn it off... and it shocks me that chasm between democrat and republican seemingly gets wider every time a speech is given at the RNC. The prospect of people like Rudy Giuliani as a political spokesman for the US is too horribly depressing to even consider...
they are making it really hard for anyone not from the funamental right to trust them... shoot... id settle for listening to their speechs without feeling ashamed...
i guess rudy's wife(which one is it) is at home making some mac and cheese for that fat kid of his. cuz i am sure they have no domestic help. they are just average folks afterall.
flm the video is posted a couple pages back on this thread.
babs - he stated it in jest and noted the John Edwards (a Dem) was outed in the Enquirer.
funny. funny.
I just gave Obama another $50
babs, you can read right, i mean is that insulting to ask? wikipedia, if my memory serves, is a tool that can be edited by anyone with access, correct? and if memory serves, the story from the National Enquirer on Edwards was in the air for nearly a year, and which until recently was ignored and again only recently proven true? oh, and yeah at least the Enquirer can be sued, and if the MC Same people want to sue, by all means do so. there is nothing, absolutely nothing holding wikipedia to account - given it is anonymous.
and one last thing, my comment above had enough caveats to at least suggest that the story, may be fabricated, given the source. so lets at least get that correct.
chupa, thanks, i was hoping someone got that...and i gave 50 too.
Alright guys I'm giving another 50 too... In fact I might volunteer for the Obama campaign...
That convention is just way too scary beyond belief... Just imaging what those clowns will do to our country and the world if they win...
You know what bothers me ... both sides of this campaign are getting so worked up and angry at the other side (politicians and electorate alike) that no matter who wins in November, I'm worried the country will become damn near ungovernable.
I've witnessed a LOT of elections and I don't recall it being quite this polarizing since Nixon v. Kennedy or Johnson v. Goldwater. And we all know what the aftermath of those elections looked like.
And, don't start telling me "well, the other side started it".
Let's try to remember that we're all going to have to live here when it's all over.
True quizzical...
But in all seriousness, the Democrats need to play hardball... We cannot afford to let them play soft. The key is to play hard but direct and on the issues, don't resort to personal attacks. If Pat Buchanan can gush over Obama's message, there's hope for America:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Fru4dZLGA
Lets hope that whoever loses has enough sense and grace to understand that our country needs unity and helps to repair the thing...
I, for one, find it all very a-moose-ing...
polarization is good. if the dems would have not been brow beaten we wouldnt be in that mess that sarah calls...I-RAK!
Oh jeez I'm so far behind!
I know you guys mentioned it, but this segment from the Daily Show is one of the most brilliant things they've ever put together, and everyone needs to watch it:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card
I just gave $30 over the weekend, I'd like to give more but I'm just a grad student :o/
Oh and this makes a lot of sense:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oliver-willis/the-other-base_b_123808.html
(I'm lazy and don't feel like doing the link thing)
i-rak. haha
reminds me of the madtv parody
I still don't understand how she doesn't believe in evolution.. why doesn't she just ask John McCain about it, I mean he was there.
I cant believe you guys filled up 3 pages in less than 24 hours! That has to be a record.
WOW wonderK, i just watched that daily show clip, i don't even know what to say, actually i can't say anything because my jaw is on the floor. i can't believe these people can get away with these lies and hypocrisy!
But they aren't getting away with it....because it's right there. I think the saddest part is that it takes the FAKE news show to bring these things to the table.
well sure, it is right there but the only people who know about it are the people that show is aimed at...the choir so to speak. maybe im just getting impatient, but i hope some of these facts are revealed to the broader national audience, whether in the debates or on the campaign trail. the dems have never been good at being the attack dog, so right now my extreme anger is mixing with the hopelessness i felt when kerry got swiftboated. granted kerry is no obama...so i hope things will be different this time but history says otherwise
and biden is no edwards -- hopefully those tactical differences in the ticket this time around will yield better results...and hopefully telling the truth is not perceived to be attacks, though it just might be anyway...great clip!
that's true mfrech...although at first i thought biden would tear pailin to pieces in a debate, now all i hear is how it will be difficult for a man to debate a woman, especially with how the GOP has introduced, portrayed and set palin up. historically they say that men have had difficulties debating women, as men come across as authoritative and aggressive.
fair enough MArch, but i think after last night's speech, consisting of nothing more than parochial colloquialisms and baseless attacks and fearmongering, i think she's declared herself fair game. i really don't thinkshe can go out and say stuff like she said last night and expect to get away with it...i don't think joe biden or the obama campaign at large will let that happen, but i think you're totally right that it could go too far, if palin is off-script she could look like a victim, or more importantly, be portrayed as one by the campaign and traditional media.
and i just love how the mccain campaign has done nothing but complain about media coverage lately, even before the palin selection. it's hypocritical but hilarious, but unfortunately it seems to be working a bit. like they forgot about what the media was saying about obama six months ago.
sarah palin referred to herself as a "Pitbull with lipstick."
as a former caretaker of a pitbull for 13 wonderful years, i am offended that she would seek to gain personal value by association with a wonderful dog.
pitbulls are: loyal, friendly, good around kids, affectionate, loyal...did i mention loyal?
haha, i'll bet there's lots of dogs out there taking offense that this morning! of course, maybe there's an unintended admission in that statement: who's she friendly and loyal to...extreme conservative values? the westborough baptist church crowd? the alaska liberation party? creationist-academics? jesus Himself?
"awww shucks, i'm just a small town hockey mom -- but make no mistake, i want to run your country. and turn it into a Christian paradise. seeya at the rapture, y'all!"
not that i need to shed any light for most of you, but its still interesting to see these facts and lies in print....
The Associated Press closely watched Governor Sarah Palin, the GOP's VP pick, at last night's RNC convention and has outlined the many ways she exaggerated and lied.
Check out Pinocchio Palin's claims and the truth:
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
The AP report also showed how Palin's champions have exaggerated the Alaskan governor's 'acheivements':
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply … She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.
MArch, can you post the link? i've got a few group email lists i need to send that too. for living in massachusetts, one might say i have a lot of republican friends, heh...
unfortunately mfrech my wife sent me all of that in the body of an email, so im not sure where the original story/link came from.
i grew up in MA, just got an email from my father who asked me if i watched her speak last night. in his words, "she knocked it out of the park." i hope he was confusing her with dustin pedroia, but i think the long car rides listening to rush has changed him forever
i found it!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check
The McCain of days past who attacked leaders of the Christian right as "agents of intolerance," who voted against "budget busting" Bush tax cuts, who broke ranks with his party on issues from gay rights to campaign finance reform, is now a faded memory.
Bush is said to be dismissive of McCain's pick of Palin, according to the sources. Ironically, he is said to believe that now he will bear no responsibility if McCain loses. The old rivalry, supposedly buried, has come back to life.
Also, Mr. Parry, regarding Trooper Wooten (who was married to Sarah Palin's sister), you should have pointed out, in the interest of more complete, more professional reporting, that Wooten had allegedly threatened to shoot their (Governor Palin and her sister's) father.
The family had alleged the threat in 2005, before Palin became governor. They said Wooten had told Palin's sister he would shoot their father if he got the sister a lawyer.
Wooten denied saying anything like that. But a trooper investigation concluded he did, although it wasn't a crime because he didn't threaten the father directly. Wooten's actions did violate trooper policy, the investigator found.
The facts will come out, so it would be prudent if you, in the interest of fair and unbiased reporting, ceased your vendetta against the Palin family in general, and the governor and John McCain in particular
left out a few salient points relating to the firing of Police Chief Irl Stambaug
Sarah Palin says she didn't fire Police Chief Irl Stambaugh three years ago because he supported her election opponent John Stein.
But even if it was the reason, she was within her rights to give the police chief the boot, a federal judge ruled. The police chief serves at the discretion of the mayor, and can be terminated for nearly any reason, even a political one, U.S. District Court Judge James K. Singleton ruled in dismissing most of Stambaugh's claims.
with National Public Radio just before the Republican primary in 2006 where she stated that the only mistake she made as mayor of Wasilla was when she didn't immediately fire a cabinet member who disagreed with her on something. She said she should have gotten rid of him right away. Sarah Palin may be pretty but she stinks like Bush.
This trooper not only tasered a 10 year old child, made death threats to members of her family, but has been seen getting on his patrol car while drunk. This has to stop! being a trooper is not mean being above the law.
Why was he protected? why was he not fired on the spot when he was her brother? The questions raised by Mrs. Palin staff areperfectly appropriate and my only regret is that the trooper is not in jail.
"Today, the McCain campaign released her voter registration records to prove Palin is a lifelong Republican with no connection to the [Alaskan] Independence Party." But Cordes did not note that Palin addressed the AIP's 2008 state convention in a video message in which she said the group "plays an important role in our state's politics," that she reportedly addressed the party's convention with a video message in 2006, that the McCain campaign has acknowledged that Palin "visited" the AIP's 2000 convention, or that her husband reportedly was a registered member of the party.
Gov. Sarah Palin "participated in Alaska's Independence Party [AIP], which has called in the past for the state to secede from the union,"
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s vendetta against the state trooper who divorced her sister may have spilled over into a broader retaliation against Alaska’s police with more than $2 million slashed from their budget as well as the elimination of temporary staff positions and the firing of the public safety commissioner, according to police representatives.
You have to admire the Republican chutzpah. Still confronting a national scandal about packing the Justice Department with “loyal Bushies,” they pick a vice presidential candidate who – in her two executive jobs in Alaska – ousted top law-enforcement officials because they were insufficiently loyal or not malleable enough.
Now John McCain learns, as we do, that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sent a 70-page memo to Sen. Ted Stevens, another Alaskan Republican, in February seeking $200 million for new Alaska earmarks. As mayor of the village of Wasilla, she lobbied hard for and won more than $26 million of earmarks
Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential pick, has been marked by conflicts, score-settling and her own claim that she faces “enemies – powerful enemies.”
a closer look at Palin's short political career reveals that she committed some of the same ethical lapses that she has attacked, especially during her unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2002. She also has shown herself to be a thin-skinned politician quick to see herself as the target of conspiracies.
obtained some of those documents from former Wasilla city officials this week.)
The documents show that Palin used city computers to manage her campaign and billed taxpayers for mailings, phone calls and literature. Palin also had her city secretary, Mary Bixby, print 75 thank-you notes to campaign donors and book a campaign related trip Ketchikan in May 2002 while on city time.
Former city officials said Palin and her campaign staff worked upwards of 10 hours a day using Wasilla City Hall as her campaign headquarters where campaign faxes were sent and received, and campaign staffers used city phones to solicit donations.
On Palin’s lieutenant governor candidate registration form with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, she used the e-mail the city gave her — sarah@ci.wasilla.ak.us — for “campaign chairperson” contact information and the Wasilla City Hall fax telephone number for "candidate information.”
Palin’s mayoral schedule for June 12, 2002 showed that she met with Herold Advertising Products in her office at City Hall. Soon after, the company faxed the city’s deputy administrator, John Cramer, "Sarah Palin Lieutenant Governor" artwork and an invoice for the work.
Building the Myth
Working at her city computer, Palin also sent three e-mails to Randy Ruedrich, the state’s Republican Party chairman, complaining about several endorsements she did not receive.
Ironically, as chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Palin reported Ruedrich, a fellow commissioner, to Gov. Frank Murkowski’s administration, accusing him of an ethics breach for conducting work for the state GOP on government time.
To obtain evidence of Ruedrich’s alleged malfeasance, Palin hacked into his computer, an ethical lapse in its own right. In January 2004, she resigned from the commission in protest over what she billed as corrupt practices.
Palin’s ethics complaint against Ruedrich gave her a reputation as an anti-establishment reformer at a time when the Alaskan Republican hierarchy was coming under scrutiny for corruption. Reudrich paid a $12,000 fine after an investigation revealed he had violated state ethics rules.
But in July 2006, Paul Jenkins, an editor for the conservative Voice of the Times, confronted Palin about her own apparent ethical breaches four years earlier. Her response was to insist, without explanation, that her situation was different than Reudrich's.
“I asked how her using a city computer for her campaign business was any different than Ruedrich's use of a state computer at the AOGCC to do Republican Party business,” Jenkins wrote in a column on July 7, 2006. “Not the same, she said, simply not the same.
“Then, she shifted gears and asked, ‘Is this what they've got to destroy my campaign? E-mails from 4 1/2 years ago?’ We had barely hung up — and I was wondering if there was any story in all this — when her campaign fired off a ‘news’ release headlined: ‘Palin Campaign Sees First Signs of Rumored Smear Campaign.’ Good grief. Frankly...I've never seen a politician come unhinged so quickly as Palin when asked a few straightforward questions.”
Jenkins excoriated his Alaska media colleagues for lapping up Palin’s “reformer” talking points. He said her “campaign [was] rooted in one thing: the perception that Palin somehow wears a halo and is not your average, run-of-the-mill politician.”
This editor for Voice of the Times, which bills itself as “A Conservative Voice for Alaska,” concluded with a reality check that could very well apply to the GOP talking points being used today to sell Palin to the American electorate.
“When her goody-two-shoes act starts to crumble — and going nuts because of a few obvious questions seems a first crack — folks may see her for the rank politician she is, and not necessarily a good one at that,”
There is an overpowering element of hypocrisy in the whole affair. The Christian right seeks to impose fundamentalist precepts on the entire American population—by banning abortion, contraception, sex education, the teaching of evolution, stem cell research, etc. Yet they blithely defend Governor Palin on the grounds that Bristol’s pregnancy (as well as Todd Palin’s drunk-driving charge and similar incidents) are proof that the Palins are just regular folks. As McCain speechwriter Mark Salter declared, “These things happen. This has probably happened to millions of American families.”
neither Obama, nor his running mate Joseph Biden, nor any other Democratic Party representative dares to put the spotlight on the critical political fact demonstrated by the Palin nomination: the ability of extreme right-wing and fascistic elements to dictate the policies and even the candidates of the Republican Party.
there is little basis for extending sympathy to Governor Palin or the array of reactionary, moralizing preachers and pundits who have suddenly discovered the value of privacy (something they routinely deny to young pregnant women who make a different choice than Bristol Palin).
I live here in the USA, am a conservative Republican and live and work with other conservative Republicans. Sarah Palin has not won over anybody, least of all us.
The main problem as we see it, is that Palin claims to be a reformer yet is more corrupt than even the entrenched interests she claims to have "shaken up."
She tried to fire a librarian in Wasilla, Alaska (where she was mayor) because she wanted to ban some books there, and the librarian refused. Palin backed down only when the townspeople revolted against her. She is being actively investigated for misuse of power in the firing of a state trooper over a personal family feud. She supported tremendous wastes of money in Alaska including the Bridge to Nowhere, then tried to pretend that she'd opposed it. She insulted her fellow Republican Lyda Green like an immmature child. She ran Wasilla into the ground financially, deeply into debt.
In short, Sarah Palin is corrupt, dangerous and inexperienced, as well as being closed-minded and rather clueless. She does not belong anywhere near the White House, and we Republicans among the rank and file will be the first one to tell you this.
personally, i think the love needs to be spread. can anyone recommend an active conservative forum website? maybe that's where we need to be debating these issues.
the free republic, of course!
oh no, i wish you hadn't done that. click on the global warming link and this is what you get [as they imagine a world without liberals]
No more Al Gore-worshipping-tree-hugging-animal-loving-global-warming-the-world-is-ending loonies refusing to drill for oil in Alaska because it would disturb the wildlife. ‘Nuff said about this.
No more Bush-bashing-Cheney-hating-troop-denigrating-cindy-sheehan-loving-ungroomed-facial-hair-having freakazoids that believe that it’s in our best interest to pull out of Iraq because war solves nothing. And these are the same people who have NEVER served a day in the US Armed Forces; yet they are suddenly experts in foreign policy.
No more money-wasting-perpetrating-wealthy-ass politicians who spend hundreds of dollars on a haircut yet claim that it’s in their best interest to help the poor.
these people can't be real, i espeically like the last one especially after vanity fair broke down the cost of cindy mcCain's tuesday outfit:
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000–$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100
so who wants the "A" list? I'm taking the "T's" so I can see what bonehead wrote this:
Tygrrr Express - The only political issue more important than killing taxes is killing terrorists. I do not sing Kumbaya with Islamofacists or leftists. Scorched Earth is my approach, with the grace and subtlety of a battering ram. 9/11 fuels my emotions every day
MArch06, with an outfit like that, how can you NOT think they are representing the people?!?
I honestly think that we have our panties up in a bunch about nothing. If you've even got the AP releasing statements about the lies in their speeches, then you know they are reaching out in desperation. The Repugs are all excited because, as I see it, they think McCain's hail mary pass suddenly gives them an outside chance of winning ... I think many of THEM thought it was a done deal for Obama before this all went down. And the reason they are so excited is because for one long, unfortunate week they actually get to be talked about again.
Think of it this way; don't you think all of the major news networks have a vested interest in at least pretending like the race is competitive? If not, how are they going to keep us watching for the next two months?
That said, I am still so scarred by my experiences in 2004 that I remain cautiously optimistic. And as someone on the Huffington Post said, that speech DID ignite the base ... the Democratic base. Make some calls people! Get out there! Go go go!
oh my
isn't that great wonderk - people are losing their homes and she's wearing the equivalent for a few hours one night.
i do agree with you, the GOP are having their time in the spotlight and it will undoubtedly come to an end once the convention wraps up. but honestly, this is what i worry about and i hate to think this or write this right now, but in those blue collar swing states im concerned that the polls can show support for obama but then when they get into the voting booth, with no one around and no one looking will subconscious prejudice take over?
Didn't this kind of stringing together of present progressive tense verbs start with Spike Lee? Would he approve of right wing nutjobs appropriating it?
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