This is an extraordinary step: McCain is not just breaking one glass ceiling, but three at once. No longer will gender, education or experience be significant factors determining whether a person can attain even the highest political offices of our land.

Just a slight revision for you--her husband is actually only one-eighth Eskimo (Yup'ik).

Also, Biden has been the ranking minority leader (and is currently chairman) of the foreign relations committee since 1997. Saying that he has "several years of foreign policy experience" is somewhat misleading, implying far less experience in this field.

Overall great article though, please keep the blogs coming! Maybe just check your facts a bit more closely first, but otherwise awesome! Great choice by McCain I think! Cheers m8.

she is a pro lifer nut bag. mccain just lost this election. haha.

Hey all you family values folks,
How is Sarah going to be a good mom to five children, one a newborn with Downs Syndrome when she has a country at war to run. Explain again how this is good for us or good for her family. I thought the Republican party was all about "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen" and now you want to proclaim yourselves the champions of womens rights. This is the most disingenuous attempt to win votes since Bush claimed himself to be a Christian. Breaking the glass ceiling my ass, good luck liars.

I thought republicans were opposed to Affirmative Action.

Sarah Palin is the perfect running mate for Obama - yes, she is McCain's, but she will help Obama by taking attention away from him while endeavoring in her antics as a woman with little foresight and no historical or political perspective. By default, McCain has just elected Obama.

Gracie...I mean Sarah, could not have been a better choice to insure Obama's election.

"Put your heads between your legs and kiss..."

ML Smith

Y'all are shocked!  What a great day to be a conservative.  Say what you will about Governor Palin, in the end it will not matter.  We derailed the ascension of the chosen one, and put our nation back on track in one motion!  I am once again humbled and strengthened by the glory and grace of our almighty.  America is the greatest nation on Earth...not for what we profess to the media, but for what we practice in life.  McCain/Palin 2008!

hey all ... just did a database migration and lost about 40 comments. sorry about that. most of them were from liberals anyway!  haha.

God has confirmed his blessing on McCain's wise choice with a mighty outpouring.

http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2008/09/nice...
From the Link:
About half way through the speech(at 6:00), the Vice Chairman of the AIP, Dexter Clark, says this of Palin: "Our current governor who I mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected . . . .and there was a lot of talk about her moving up. She was an AIP member before she got the job as mayor . . . "

So I'll re-post this since it was lost.....

http://www.alternet.org/election08/97198/

"They don't like his choice of Sarah Palin for vice president. Only one person said Palin made him more likely to vote for McCain; about half the 25-member group raised their hands when asked if Palin made them less likely to vote for McCain. They had a negative impression of Palin by a 2-1 margin ... a fact that was reinforced when they were given hand-dials and asked to react to Palin's speech at her first appearance with McCain on Friday -- the dials remained totally neutral as Palin went through her heart-warming(?) biography, and only blipped upward when she said she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere -- which wasn't quite the truth, as we now know."
-From Alternet, i know.....but do you expect Fox to report this?

By Paul Kane

updated 1:47 a.m. MT, Tues., Sept. 2, 2008



ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.

<just another "do-as-i-say-not-as-i-do" candidate.>

And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09...

So can we ask if Sarah P loves her country/is patriotic?

On Fox News Sunday, Sen. John McCain said that regarding the bridge to nowhere" project, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin "stood up and said, 'We don't need it. And if we need it, we'll pay for it ourselves.' " Chris Wallace did not note in response that during her 2006 gubernatorial campaign, Palin reportedly supported the proposal to build a bridge between Ketchikan, Alaska, and Gravina Island and suggested that Alaska's congressional delegation should continue to try to procure funding for the project.

Contrary to McCain's claim that Palin said of the bridge, "We don't need it. And if we need it, we'll pay for it ourselves," in a questionnaire published in the October 22, 2006, Anchorage Daily News (accessed from the Nexis database), then-gubernatorial candidate Palin answered the question, "Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?" by writing: "Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now -- while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."

she campaigned for it in her 2006 race and turned against it in 2007 only after it became a national joke.

Ive been watching the attacks on Palin. There are a lot of them. May work, may not, but I think it demonstrates that most folks on the left are 100% aware that conservatism wins elections, period, and if only they can get some trumped up scandal to stick can to overcome the natural appeal of conservatism.

I'm thinking that many Obamaniacs saw Palin--gorgeous--hunting, fishing, handling guns and giving the world what-for and shat themselves. They knew they had to handle this, and they--and the MSM--got to work on taking her now.

It can succeed. It has before. But I'm pretty stoked for Palin. Right now, I like her better than McCain, and most of the things the left are trying to turn into scandals strike me as (a) remarkably hypocritical, (b) trying to spin typical political manuevering that means "experience" when it's a progressive as somehow uniquely bad or unusual, (c) sexist, (d) way, way, way overly concerned about the "damage" that Palin might do to the McCain ticket and (e) smacking of desperation.

Which is not to say it might not work. It may well. It might serve Obama, too, as his campaign has been very classy in their handling of Palin (although some mouth-pieces may be off that script, but lots of folks on the left--and I assume in Obama's own campaign--don't like his restraint, and really want to see him go full-scale whacko on the evil Nazi Republicans).

It's up to McCain and Palin how they handle it, but I do know that if the left's masturbatory fantasies come true and Palin is removed from the ticket, it's going to torpedo McCain. So, of course, that's the advice the liberals and the MSM are essentially giving him. I've seen a dozen different liberals post pools for how long it will be until Palin drops out.

All I know is, baggage and all, dropping Palin would be a mistake. You can't compromise with these folks. All it means is that they'll do it all again, while at the same time howling that their children, their personal lives, their past records, their experience--all that is off limits. For them. Because their liberals, and their intentions are good. And, anyway, that don't say anything is moral except recycling and universal health care, so they aren't hypocrites when they do bad things. So it's okay.

And so on.

Nationl Joke huh?  She made this statement while running for Governor, she didnt have all the details about "the bridge to nowhere" and was just making a general comment about Alaskan infrastructure.  Careful editing of the question by left wing kooks has made it sound like she was addressing just the issue of the bridge.  She was addressing Alaskan infrastructure.  Why dont they actually print the question she was asked?  - Because they prefer their current wording of the question rather than the real one.   As a political ousider at the time, she would not be privvy to all the details about one single state construction project.   I hate the blatent dishonesty of the press.  Using tricks like changing the question, They can twist anyone they want to into a monster.  Anything to get the Messiah elected.  Whats even more insulting is they think people wont notice.  I am not really voting for McCain, but I am Voting Against Obama.  If he gets in we will have a soviet style press core, where internet and anti Obama speech will be labeled as "Hate speech" and not be tolerated.  Thats not the future I want to see for me and my family.  We just won the cold war and the KGB is back and has brought it right back to our shores.  Obama is all for free speech, so long as it doesnt criticise him.

PS I wish the press would shut up about the 17 year old daughter.  We used to protect minors from this kind of scrutiny, but because its associated with a republican, they will splash her face all over the world, and try to hunt down the boyfriend and get him to turn against her...  These are soulless, caloused fanatics who have no ability to balance their fanhood with reality.  They will destroy anyone in their way.

http://www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfoPage.htm

Kevin,
"......Because their liberals, and their intentions are good. And, anyway, that don't say anything is moral except recycling and universal health care, so they aren't hypocrites when they do bad things. So it's okay."

OK post except you forgot to mention liberals don't like our country to be dropping bombs and invading nations for the profit of republican's favorite corporations.

Jim,
Not all the details, huh?

"In the city Ketchikan, the planned site of the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere," political leaders of both parties said the claim was false and a betrayal of their community, because she had supported the bridge and the earmark for it secured by Alaska's Congressional delegation during her run for governor."
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7...

But then it's bullshit 'cause it's msm, right?

DEFEND McCAIN ALL THE LIBERAL ARE OVER THIS NEW POLL THAT CLOSES AT 5PM EST.

VOTE McCAIN BARACKOBAMA.com is voting big time help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.readpoll.mfbiz.com/#/index/4530695993

"This bold move might also prove to appease a high percentage of the potentially millions of irritated Hillary Clinton supporters who yearn to vote for a woman candidate in the November election."

Are you crazy?! I pro-life, anti environment, uber conservative is not going to appeal to any potential Clinton backer. That's like saying that if Clarence Thomas were running as the alternative to Obama, he would pick-up the irritated African American vote? Smacks of desperation and how sweet it is :)

Go back and look at the first appearance of Gov. Palin and McCain't in Dayton.  She has her pregnant daughter in a black dress holding her Down Syndrome baby with a blanket covering her.  Not the baby, her!  You can draw your own conclusions but it looks like she is using one baby to hide another.  Of course republicans love her.  McCain's team did not interview anyone in Alaska.  Not one person prior to her selection.  Why?  To keep her consideration secret.  So in other words, they would rather keep secrets to increase her shock value than properly vet Palin.  Now, after the fact, they have sent a team up there.  McCain wanted Lieberman for VP and his handlers told him no.  Some maverick.

It's concerning to me that Governor Palin didn't come forward with the information about the investigation and the pregnancy before the news got onto it. Frankly, i only see this getting worse. At a minimum, the value of the surprise appointment on Friday has already been lost in the aftermath.

I think Senator McCain should give serious consideration to making a quick change in the interest of damage control and to get control of the message back. There is still plenty of time to recover from this before the election.

Who said something about Mitt Romney? I musta' done got some info wrong or something because I got a notice...ah, forget it. Thing is, Romney would have been a far better choice than Palin, but why do you think he's not where he should be now?

The guy did something and whatever it was, it disappeared him from everything. I am sure I am not the only one that noticed. Here one day, gone the next. Mitt had a lot of good qualities and I liked him for President; forget about VP. He might have been too good somewhere...I have a funny feeling he was mixed up in that trouser dropping contest with Elliot Spitzer. If that is the case, we will probably never hear his name mentioned again...assuming he lad out the bucks to put a hush on things. He could afford it. But the party never would have taken a chance with him. Too bad. He was a good man for the job...the BIG ONE. As far as VP, I don't think he would have worked under McCain unless he knew that the old boy was getting ready to kick the bucket...soon. Can you imagine Romney taking orders from McCain? It would have been like Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkeys.

RE: Jim #18

It could be a lot worse than that, but I am afraid I agree...Obama is a dangerous man and it looks like he is going to be our next President, unless the Republicans pull a rabbit or two out of a hat...no, it will take more than that.

Don't forget Barrack's middle name. Osama (kind of rhymes with Obama, doesn't it?) said they were going to bring us down from within.

I am absolutely apalled every time I see Palin's 4 month baby being taken care of by the 17 year old sister. In every picture the newborn doesn't have shoes or socks on.  I haven't seen Sarah holding her glorified child once.  How in the world is she going to be the leader of the free world and properly take care of her 5 children?  What kind of a mother takes on this kind of responsibility with a brand new special needs child at home.  They lost my vote big time.  Family values? where are they? Family first period.

We created the "Messiah" Obama, now we have "Saint" Palin.
It's becoming a religious election after all.

Aaron,

If he had to sink that low to begin with, things must be awfully messed up. Who is he going to fall back on? There is nobody left that is clean.

This website defines a change agent as "an individual recruited prior to implementation of a change; must be representative of the user population, understand the reasoning behind the change, and help to communicate the excitement, possibilities, and details of the change to others within the organization. "
http://www.teambuilders.com/change-agent-defined.asp

Conversely, Merriam-Webster Online defines "the same" as being one without addition, change, or discontinuance."

Hussein has declared himself the change agent that this country needs.  Let us examine this absurd claim, shall we? 

1. Issues insults and outright attacks even though he said he was above this.  His motus operandi is to use his sycophants as the attackers while he denounces the claims.  Sarah Palin's daughter?  McCain being old and forgettful?  McCain's war record?  Americans are angry, clinging to guns and religion?  Countless others.  No change.

2.  His choice of VP.  A Washington insider since 1972.  Don't get fooled by the libs that say his commutes via Amtrak make him anything other than a 36+ year Washington, DC insider.  No change.

3. His wealth redistribution startegies.  How many dems in the last 70 years have embraced the "Rich are evil" mantra.  No change.

4. Using his status as a politician to acquire land from a now convicted felon, Tony Rezko.  No change, especially for a democrat.

5. No oil.  Dems have long stategized to penalize Americans by having high priced gas.  Remember Hussein said that having $4 dollar a gallon gas was not a bad thing; it was the sudden increase that was the bugaboo.  No change.

Now, class, let  us examine Sarah Palin.

1. No Washington, DC insider.  Alaska governor and mayor.  Change.

2.  Selling her executive jet to lower expenses.  Change.

3. She is a female nominated for the 2nd highest office in the country.  BIG TIME change.

4. She is HOT!!!!!  Change.

5. She embraces life, not death.  Change

6. She is 44 years of age with a fresh, young perspective.  Change.
 
If libs want to be taken serious as those who want change, then, by God, act like you want change.

Hey Shawnap

Grab your club and go back into your cave.  Women hear what this nitwit is saying: "How in the world is she going to be the leader of the free world and properly take care of her 5 children?"

I guess this shows once and for all that conservatives embrace equality in both race and gender.  If you don't belive me (and if you don't who cares) the 1964 republican congress issued forth the Civil Rights admendment (without the GOP this would have been filibustered to death by the dems).  And in 2008, we will have the first female Vice President.  Go figure.  The GOP is the best.  LOL!

I am stoked!!! I think Gov. Palin is just what the country needs.

To misquote Michelle Obama, "I am finally proud to be a Republican."

Refreshing to have someone in the running with a clear stance on the issues, instead of simply pandering.

The immediate personal attacks by the socialist state liberal media just makes it all the sweeter. "Smacks of desperation."

Right is Right(yet incorrect),
The changes you cited in 31 are cosmetic, not the REAL change this once great nation needs.

wow ... did you shave David?

finger,
No, i cut my ponytail off.....it was too hot for NC summers!
But though my freak flag doesn't fly, i'm still a hippy

David Walters: Incorrect.

Express to me the precise change that all you Husseinophiles keep yaking incoherently about.  All I know is that Hussein's change is deeply rooted within the confines of the Communist Manifesto.  Redistribution of wealth?  Nationalized healthcare?  FREE education to all?  Death tax?  Bourgoisie (entrepreneurs) versus the proliteriat (society).  Mamby-pamby views on the military?  Give me a break.  If that is the change you want than invest in a pair of scissors so that you can trim that communist beard that you surely want to grow.

CONSERVATIVES OF THE WORLD ... UNITE!

McCain?Palin '08 AND '12

Right is Fading,
The changes necessary to make this a GREAT Nation again?  First, let's dispense with all the "commie" rhetoric and the "Hussein" crap.....nothing is gain'd from sophomoric devices like that.
We have had 30 yrs for "trickle down" to begin it's work, yet I don't see it's positive effects. 
"In the last 25 years, what is good for America and what is good for much of corporate America have gotten way out of sync."
http://www.truthout.org/article/renewing-americ...
"Mamby-pamby views on the military?"  -What the hell is that suppose to mean?  Is it bad to understand what an immense CLUSTER-F**K George Bush's war in Iraq has been(fully supported by John McCain).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KjsEs46C70
Is Dr. Butler Mamby-pamby too?

So, David,

After all that rant, what is it, exactly, that you are attempting to say?

-That more tax breaks for the rich ISN'T change, in spite of how the RNC is trying,
yet again, to spin it.  That questioning the wisdom of the Iraq war ISN'T mamby-pamby.  Clear enough ML SMITH?
Any other questions?

Mr. Walters,

That was it?

.....i guess,
watchin' "Hamburger Hill"......American Paratroopers doin' their best in another Cluster-F**K.....

Husein is his name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This proves that you have nothing meaniful or intelligent to say if your 1st grade mentality gets offended by calling him by his name.  If you knew anything you would have known that only male Muslim children get the name Hussein.  Grow up!  Second, YOU ARE A SOCIALIST IF YOU BELEIVE IN HUSSEIN's PHILOSOPHY.  Go read the Communist Manifesto, David, because it is obvious you are ignorant in this aspect.  No matter what you say can change this fact:  Hussein's philosophy is based, in part, in the Communist Manifesto.  Please do some reading before opening your trap.  Okay?  Lastly, you write all that nonsense and still have not given a clear and consise interpretation on Hussein's change.  You CAN'T.  This Change b.s. is lib-speak for "Since we can't win on issues we baffle them with bulsh*t"

P.S. your mamby-pamby military worldview means that you are a spineless pussy.  America was atacked, Al-Qaeda did exist before the invasion when they atacked the WTC, and they deserved this (no matter what your koolaid drinking friends say). The US is still reeling from Clinton's wholesale stripping of the U.S. military.  Jeez, do you carry a purse?  Wear a tampon?

And yes, Dr. Butler is a mamby-pamby lolipop pansy. LOL

McCain/Palin '08 AND '12 and then Palin/Whoever '12 AND '16

Why is it Democrats always want to be hypocritical and talk about morals when they don't exist in their political party? Apparently Sarah Palin has just as many morals as Hillary Clinton considering, Mrs. Clinton has a lot of trouble keeping up with the sexual whereabouts of her own husband.

David

If you are so comfy in your little change-blanket, why is it the dems have only 2 two term presidents since the FDR?  Republicans have four.  Is it because America routinely rejects the silly, moronic policies of the Left.  You betcha!

David,

Do you have such a limited vocabulary that you can't even substitute "gang b**g" for cluster "f**k?"

I think you are running low on petrol, my man. Time to chill out...get some rest, because you are starting to sound like a broken record. Your points are well taken, but any moron knows that...well...almost.

Right(up your ass)&Smith
"P.S. your mamby-pamby military worldview means that you are a spineless pussy."
So.......i may be a pussy, but never-the-less.....this pussy made Sgt/E-5 in 26 months, this pussy has a CIB, but i guess i'm a pussy 'cause i flunk'd outta ranger school when i broke my pelvis on a jump.   Big man with a big mouth........i've seen lots of 'em.  I doubt you'd have the balls to say that to my face
Neither Smith, nor Right have explained how the country's economy has improved with conservative "leadership".......but then it hasn't exactly been what i'd call leadership.
So go ahead, explain to everyone how great "conservatism" has been for America.  You can't do it, so you call me names instead......neither of you have anything to offer intellectually.

I wonder if Fox will call good ole boy and sperm donor Levi Bristol's "baby daddy"

This whole thing is playing out like a novel.  One side obsesses about experience and questions the other candidate's history and associations relentlessly.  Then as a plot twist, that same side introduces a new character who is absolutely unknown, has zero experience and questionable associations.  It's almost like candidate envy.  What this woman has subjected her own daughter to is borderline child abuse.  Family should be out of bounds unless, of course, they are shipping off to Iraq.  Then they should be paraded out there for all to see.  If we don't put family first, there will be no country left for "country first."

If we are unfortunate enough to suffer through a McCain't presidency it will be one term only (if not less).  Then Wasilla's finest takes the reins.  I'm sorry, but if you ever questioned Barack's, well, let's see...Barack's anything, then you are terrified by Palin.  She's "Palin" by comparison.  If Barack served up some small town mayor for VP you cons would be having a feeding frenzy.  The landslide just became a slaughter.

Palin at her church:
 
Speaking before the Pentecostal church, Palin painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord.
"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,"
 
Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode."  
Months after hinting at possible damnation for Kerry supporters, Kalnins bristled at the treatment President Bush was receiving over the federal government's handling of Hurricane Katrina. "I hate criticisms towards the President," he said, "because it's like criticisms towards the pastor -- it's almost like, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That's what it'll get you."
 
Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say "war mode." Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he's like the good shepherd, he's loving all the time and he's kind all the time. Oh yes he is -- but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.
 
Just we need- another bible-thumper to involve us in more wars in the name of their god.

oh...and "sarah"...final totals:
Obama 93%
McCain  7%
too bad- so sad.

I always wonder why political pundits and diehards so rarely put the shoe on the other foot and check themselves. Everyone just gets hysterical and looks through smokin mirrors. If Barack "served up some small town mayor for VP" cons would be having a "feeding frenzy." (Right on simonesdad2008).  If Republicans picked a senator who had opposed the deplorable war-it would be all the rage of "maverickism."  If Dems had picked a VP whose teenage daughter was pregnant we'd hear nothing but endless critism that probably goes something like this,"Hey, if she can't even keep her own daughter in check how is she going to handle potential nuclear arms in Iran?'  Everyone races to their side with blinders on clammering on in relative undue adoration.  Let's take the blinders off and see what we'd say if the shoe was on the other foot.  If we really would pledge our support then maybe, just maybe we'd all have it about half right.

"Dont't get the idea that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword!" -Matthew 10:34
Maybe Jesus was a pro-communist

David, first, do you kiss your boyfriend with that mouth?  Second, let me thank you for your service to this country.  However, you are still a pussy (heroic, maybe), if you do not get the fact that Islam is the enemy and they need to be destroyed before they kill us.  How many Christian schools do you know that espouse the anhilation of Israel or any other people?   This war was justified and the US needs to win.  If you say anything else then you are wrong!

YOU STILL HAVE NOT LAID OUT CHANGE, DAVID!  You babble incoherently, say you are called names.  Boo-hoo, David, grow a pair and lay out Hussein's chang agenda.  By the way the VA can help you with your mental problems.

Jesus did have a beard!  LOL!!!

Right-
"the VA can help you with your mental problems."  Can they?  Hardly, after Larry Craig (your BoyFriend, right?) helped gut the VA.....

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), Ranking Minority Member on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, is at it again.Craig continues to argue AGAINST mandatory funding for VA healthcare.His arguments are ridiculous and show contempt for veterans and their service.
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfJUL07/nf072507-8.htm
But I wonder Right.......why are you so concerned over my sexuality?   Do I excite you?  Sorry, but i'm straight, so go look else where.
Part of the change could begin with funding for the VA.......and ending the EXPENSIVE occupation of Iraq, investing this money on AMERICA. And the conservative plan is to continue to pour more money into this black hole, while letting my fellow vets sleep under bridges?  We could give a tax break for the people who really work for a living instead of more tax breaks for Exxon/Mobile......Yes, that's change i can believe in!

toe -

and if she was Muslim, would you be saying this? Haha, you have probably never stepped foot outside of the US, have you? You have no idea of what a government run by religious fanatics is really like.

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 1 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
Yeah, another real "maverick" huh, conservatives?

of course i know,  we have religious fanatics in ours.  oh- you didn't notice this ...since they are YOUR fanatics.

We have now all witnessed just who is the "risky candidate" in this presidential race.
Obama, one who measures his actions and words. 
McCain who makes snap decisions based upon faulty material and bad judgment.
 
@ (not so) "right is right"...As for the "change"
 
McCain= zero.  The same economic, political,  and foreign policy advisors Bush used, 
            right down to and including Karl Rove. 
Again, I say,  whether making a chicken dish or a candidate- when you use the same
ingredients, you get the same result. 
 
Biden was an excellent choice for VP.  A man ready to step into presidential shoes immediately should this ever be necessary.  He, like Ted Kennedy, has been a voice for "the little people"  for over 30 years. He has championed workers, women's rights, diplomacy, and is very well versed on foreign policy, heads of state, and the "hot" regions of the world. 
 
Palin?  Well...hmmm she has NO national experience, NO knowledge or experience on foreign policy.  What little experience in government of any sort has not had good results.  She was nearly recalled as mayor -a position which is not elected, but gained by obtaining signatures.  Palin is currently under investigation in Alaska for ethics violations since she has been governor.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/08/mccains_vp_pick_palin_facing_e.html
 
Obama's purchase of their home in Chicago was entirely above board and a matter of public record.
You need to get your facts straight:
A few months after Obama became a U.S. senator, he and Rezko's wife, Rita, bought adjacent pieces of property from a doctor in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood . The doctor sold the mansion to Obama for $1.65 million . Rezko's wife paid $625,000 for the adjacent vacant lot. The deals closed in June 2005. Six months later, Obama paid Rezko's wife $104,500 for a strip of her land, so he could have a bigger yard. At the time, it had been widely reported that Tony Rezko was under federal investigation. Questioned later about the timing of the Rezko deal, Obama called it "boneheaded" because people might think the Rezkos had done him a favor.

Michael Savage got it exactly wrong on the Palin pick.  Brief analysis here.

-The smartest thing i've ever heard Savage say.

I can't help but think that all of these republicans defending Palin will be shown in some ironic loop after the final straw on her candidacy breaks.  I looked at some pictures of a younger and unpregnant (we assume) Bristol Palin boozing it up with her teenage friends on at least 4 seperate occasions.  Now there is news that the so called vetting of her started last Wednesday.  She was named on Friday as we all know.  NOBODY was interviewed in Alaska.  Again, if this was Barack you cons would be screaming bloody murder.  Even scarier, if this is a glimpse at Father Time's decision making process we are in serious trouble.  On a lighter note, I love the pained look of every one of these republican faces when asked if she is qualified.  You have to have an ego to be in politics and every one of them has in the back of their minds that they could run circles around Palin if they were up against her.  Palin also offers a counterpoint to the teflon candidate that has so far confounded the cons.  Say what you want about Barack, the man is an outstanding politician who only has minor scrapes and bruises from the ruthless republican smear machine.  That's all while he put Clinton away at the same time which you cons have been trying to do since 1992.  You could argue he should be president for that alone. 

If you want to see the Bristol boozing pix they are on bossip.com but they are probably everywhere by now.  Nice vetting team....

"and will be challenged when she goes head to head in debate with Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden, a veteran Washington insider with several years of foreign policy experience."
Since when does being wrong about EVERYTHING count as "experience"?

With that argument I guess you could say Bush has no "experience" either for that matter.  McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time so I guess we're in for it all over again.

Simonesdad2008 your last entry is poetic and on point.  Loved the last line about Obama putting Hilary away at the same time. Never thought about that one.

God, I am so sick of trying to be "right!" For once, can't I just let the s**t fly and worry about what I said later?

The truth is, I think, that we are all fools who have been suckered into believing this two party system really exists. When you get right to the core of things, what difference has our system made to the real people of this country? And let's not confuse ourselves with the real people, because we are nothing more than words on a screen. I don't know what David deals with in his real life any more then he does of mine. I could be a junkie, writing on my temporary euphoric magic carpet, collecting empty bottles and cans for a living. We are not real people, experiencing life and struggling everyday. We just write about it, as if we knew.

If anything, we are cartoon characters...entertaining ourselves with all of our bulls**t pseudo knowledge, while the real people deal with the system every day. They make mistakes, they have small successes, they have children and bills to pay; and they think that their elected representatives will help us to have better lives. Why? Because we need to believe in something, and the people that operate us like puppets on a string know that. So they feed us morsels, and we grab them desperately.

What fools we are to think that we "know" anything. If we did, we be out there doing something instead of trying to impress each other with the vast knowledge we have of...nothing.

Maybe its time for us to smell the gasoline, because that is what gets us up in the morning, takes us to our jobs, if we have them, and brings us home. Enslaved to the refined byproduct of crude, we exist...right?

Please help me understand social conservatives.

If a woman smokes during her pregnancy and causes mental damage to her unborn child, do we praise her as long as she keeps that child?  Or do we question why she would endanger an unborn child in the process?

The risk of having a child with Down Syndrome is 1 in 100 in women over 40.  1 in 30 in women over 45.  It would seem to me the responsible thing someone who loves all human beings would do is ensure she does not put a child at risk like this.

I'm not saying that it's wrong to have a child after 40; I'm saying that showing love for the unborn goes beyond mandating what options a mother has and does not have when placed in a difficult situation.  Let's not use this as any kind of indicator for a woman who is supposed to make up for a lack of experience with her keen judgement.

nilla - I can't explain this to someone with the brain the size of a pea. Why don't you get off her nuts and come to the table with a real issue.  Or, take your silly a$$ back to dailykos.com. 

Lack of experience, yes; just like Obama.

From a true socially conservative viewpoint, Nilla, all women over the age of 45 should be required to submit to legally mandated sterilization. Those that don't should be shot and thrown into a ditch, with all of the other lawless women of this country. But if you want "real" answers, go to David Walters, a certified military hero who likes to scratch his chin while writing about "pussies," "cluster f***s" and considers himself the next coming of the liberal Messiah. Yes, there is one...his name is Adolf Hitler, and he will come dressed in a blue shirt, scratching his chin and looking for all the world like your last sociology professor, without the "communist" beard. How stupid of me to forget that beards are the first sign of communism. My God, even Abraham Lincoln was a commie?

The odd thing is, I agree with Walters fundamentally, but I depise his condescending, "I am the Messiah" attitude. David, you are a real, honest to goodness bag of wind. God help us if you suddenly develop a leak. You'll be flying around like some wild pimped out balloon with no direction at all. Tie that knot tighter, David. We don't want to get hit by a rubber projectile spewing undigested spam.

I was asking a serious question that's been bothering me since all of this has come out.  I thought this might be a place a could get an intelligent answer.  Apparently personal insults are all I get.

Thanks.

I see that the Libs have Gotten even worse here, since I last posted.

   Let me just say Toe that Palin is more of a woman then you will ever be, and on the flip side David she is more of a man then you will ever be. Insults aside.

  Barack has young children, maybe he should stay home and take care of them. O wait that right he is the man that's not his job. Is that honestly what you libs are trying to say with that argument? There are plenty of executives that have found ways to balance family life with work life, obviously she has found a way, else she would not be where she is in life.

  Librals got so offended when Conservatives even thought bad about Michelle Obama, yes ripping apart Palin's daughter is just fine with them. Her daughter made a bad choice, no one not even her mother his suger coating that. But it is possible to be disapointed in your childs action, and still be a proud parent in how they handle the situation. Rather then being a little librel and running to the abortion clinic, she decided to think past her self and with the loving support of her family take care of this gift from God. No one is saying that it is the best situation, but at least she choose life over her own self.

  As far as he cradentials, they are just as good as Baracks, if not better. At least she has been in positions of decision maker. All barack has had to do is propose legislation on both the state and national leve, and vote yah or na. He has not had to make any hard decisions. I'm not about to say that Palin, is the best choice out of all the people in this country to run this country, but she is just as experianced as Barack if not better, and she is only the VP choice.

Toe & I must be hitting a nerve......when the name-calling begins, that is usually a sure sign!

A mother who goes back to work three days after her baby is born and obviously has to pawn off the baby to other family members to take care of is morally bankrupt.  No wonder her 17 year old decided to have a baby of her own, probably tired of taking care of Moms.  Thank God I am not so blind at my age to not see what politicians will do to win elections and it often is not in the best interest of the country.

And when libs cannot come up with the defntion of change that Hussein espouses, that is a sure sign of intellectual defeat of the left!

LOL at David,

   You have not hit any nerves David, I have just resolved my self to the fact that librals like you and Toe, and now this Terri, are just not worth discussing politics with. Palin daughter is not fit for political discussion, what should be are Palin's views on abortion, drill for oil, you know the type of things that matter to this country. Funny not a single one of you librals have brought up any of her political policies, except for the bridge to no where, and funny you all got that one wrong also.

   She is a strong fiscal conservative, she has stopped many earmarks heading to her state. She has an approval rating over 80% as the Governor of Alaska. Frankly I think that you are all just scared because like I said, she is much more of a woman then most of you could ever handle.

   Look it is not my place nor yours to tell her how to raise her family. Because you know what if we want to start getting into that, then we can talk about how the liberal policies of welfare does nothing more then to promote out of wedlock babies in the low income communities so that they can get a bigger chunck of the table scraps you tards keep tossing there way to make sure that you continully get their votes. 

   This is a lady that stands up for her family, and to great sacrafice to the time that she could be sitting at home with her family she is trying to make a difference in this world. It seems to me that you Liberals would much rather take her shoes away from her so that she can be bear foot and at home taking care of the children. I thought liberals where all for the working woman, and her rights, what happen to the minor class of woman that you have been fighting for all your life, can't handle it when one of the succedes with out you?

   She is not hte first politican to be in office and have kids, many have done, the only difference this time arounds is she is a woman, not a man. Last time I checked a child needs their dad just as much as thier mom.

   And Terri, your comments are just stupied. Maybe she should of had some forigner immegrent nanny holding the baby. So what if her 17 year old is holding the baby why mommy is up addressing the state, or the nation. They are family, you never held a sibbling while they where a baby? Hello.. Or better yet, maybe her kids should be in a boarding school, that would be much better then them acting like a family and helping each other and taking care of each other. That's right Liberals don't get the concept of family, and how they take care of each other instead of turning to the Government and asking them to take care of us.
Again we can debate the morals of Palin, and she will win over you all hands down, or we can talk about her policies, about what she might be able to do for this country that would be good bad or indiffernet. Or we can start going down that dark road and bring up the personnel inprofections of all the current canidates for office. Any one up for some crack I heard it's in style again, at least Bill claimed he did not inhale.

Right......see #54 about change(and your sexuality).....
jarrod......I could care less about Palin's family, just her tired old right wing politics that has taken our country down this path we are now on.
Are we better off now than we were in 2000?  Hell no!

Turnabout is fair play.  First it was experience which is legitimate.  Then it got personal.  Then it got nasty and finally absurd.  I'm talking about attacking Barack here.  Mrs. Palin, right or wrong, brought herself and her family into the fray.  She made her family fair game when she mentioned her son in the first two minutes that anyone had ever heard her speak ever.  You can't have it both ways.  These are the big kids playing here.  Either she knew what would happen and didn't care or had no idea when she signed on.  Either way, we are not in Wasilla anymore.  Mrs. Palin brought 26 or 27 million in federal dollars to her small town.  That's around 4K per resident courtesy of our tax dollars.  That's whats called earmarks, people.  She was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it and people are entitled to change their minds.  Just don't tell me you are a "reformer."  And by the way, it's the federal government that takes  down corupt politicians, not governors.  That goes for commanding the National Guard too.  But hey, Old Man River took about a day to vet and select her so she should be ok, right?  The Maverick and his mare will ride off into the sunset of history together come November.  Happy trails...

Poor poor David. mmm Let's see we are the richest country in the world. We do more for our citzens, and the citzens of other countries then any other country could imagin.

  OK you claim that the "tries right wing politics" have ruined this nation, tell me how. Because the last time I checked, contrary to what the left wing media is trying to convince everyone of, our economy is doing pretty good.

   I just had a thought David, you have blasted the Government over and over about not cfunding enough for the VA and so on and so forth. Funny, the way I see it, Barack get's Universal Health care, we all will be servents to the government ran VA. 

   Let me just say this, this Utopia that you all are dreaming of does not exist and never will. No matter how hard you try the Government is never going to be able to provide it for you. Look russia tried it, it failed. We are never going to be able to live in a worked where ever little thing that a person wishes for will be provided. In a free market society, and this is what the Conservatives are after, people can work to build their own little utopia. People can choose of free will, to share some of that Utopia with others when and where they see fit. The more and more the Government hands out the more and more people are going to get fat and lazy, and expect more and more from the Government. We are not entitled anything from the Government, except protection from other nations, fair labor and business law, and our freedoms protected. Every thing else that hte Government is providing is overhead, and a wast. I know there are plenty of Americans that are feeding off the teet of Government that are appauled by that notion, but the bottome line is that the Government is not a Gravy train. You want help, you want a little extra to help you get by for the night then go to your local charity. See charity, not Government are the organizations that are best fit to help take care of the needy, the poor, and hungry, and trust me when the Government stops being so greedy and taking everyones hard earned money, and less people are sucking from this cash cow, there will be more charity.

   Sorry got on a rant there. David you seem like a nice enough fellow, and I respect your military service, and I know that you are the butt of many of my cheap shoots, but I just don't understand what you want. It seems to me that what you want is an organization that has the ability to take from hard working Americans to hand out as they please to the non hard working Americans. I have no problem helping the poor, the people who just have not had any luck in this life, but I would much rather give it to an organization of my choosing, and not have it taken from me.

  As far as our Economy I like many American's find it to be good for the most part. Like all things in life it is going to have it's ups and downs, and I hate to tell you the most Damage is done when Government gets more and more involved. The true Conservative idea on the Economy is for the Government to stay hands off. To allow the foundation of compatition, and inovation to drive the train. 

  I don't know her politics, and frankly unless you are from Alaska, I would say that it is way to early to be making judgments about her politics. All I know is that she is from a state that seems to be doing good economically, and 80 percent approval rating for any politician at any leavel is outstanding.

Simonesdad

The right has intelligently and thoroughly described how McCain/Palin are the real reformers and mavericks.  The left has said, "change, change, change, blah, blah, blah."  And then they nominate Joe Biden.  If you discredit Palin's assertions of reforming than I demand that you say the same for Hussein and Biden because they are bigger frauds than those on the right.

Jarrod:  "but I just don't understand what you want."
I want corporate america to quit whining about the potential end to their tax cuts.  Average hard-working Americans are suffering through a recession, taking a cut to their bottom line, so why is corporate america so damn'd special?  Is it the bottom line 1st or USA 1st?

Wow simon maybe you should start a liberal talking point services. You could just post them here for us all... o wait never mind you just did. Not an original thought there.

You know you liberals like to have it both ways. Michelle Obama get's on National TV her self, and says that she is proud of her country for the first time, and Conservatives are the bad ones for making points about it. The liberal media expoused how she was off limits because she is not a politician. OK fair enough. Palin, brought up her daughter, not because she was trying to make a political point, but because she knew that it was going to be brought up, and that it was best to get it out there and not hide it. That does not mean that it should be made into a political spectical.
  As far as the vetting process, you all act as if you where right there when it happend. Non of this is news to McCain, which means that he knew all of this, and that it was all brought up in the vetting process. It means that after vetting her, and many others, he chose her.
  Talk about change, at least as you liberals like to say it was not just another old white dude. Common could Obaham have been any more less of a change when it came to his VP choice?

It doesn't matter what I think or what you think.  EVERYTHING is in bounds in this day and age of political life.  Michelle Obama is fair game.  Not because I say it or don't but because as I said before, this is the big leagues.  McCain NEEDED a splashy choice and he got it but he has to take all of the baggage too.  It's sort of like a baseball team deciding if they want Barry Bonds.  Yeah, he is going to hit some home runs and put fannies in the seats but he's going to tear your team apart in the process.  The gamble is if you can get what you want out of it before it turns on you.  We haven't heard a peep out of Mrs. Palin since Dayton.  Why?  She's not ready.  As skilled a politician as Barack is, he's made errors.  He's also had time to recover and he has beautifully.  Mrs. Palin WILL make mistakes and it will play out in a way she is not prepared for.  I wasn't there for the vetting but no one is denying that they met in person just once before he selected her.  It's about judgment.  And seriously, does anyone think that the McCain camp would admit the things they didn't know about her before now?  No chance in hell.  I say let's just sit back and watch the train wreck and have a good a laugh.

Oh I'm laughing at your ineptitupe alright.  You act as if Barack has solutions to the worlds problems and I hate to tell you the only thing that he has come out and admited to is how he is going to raise taxes on everyone so that he can provide Universal Health care that we all know is going to fail, because in every country that has it, it sucks, and the government has already proven with almost every other program they can't run these things.

  Reading between the lines of your comments I get the feeling that you believe that McCain has only chossen Falin because she is a woman, and nothing else. I mean let's forget the fact that she is a Govoner for the largest state in our nation. Last time I checked Barack has the same ammount of time as a US Senator, as she does a Govonor. So if she is just up there to win votes, then that must be all Barack is up there for also.

David,

    Last time I checked I have not seen any major demonstrations where coporations are asking for tax cuts, if you have some evidence that Coporations are organizing for this I would like to see it.

   The current economic situation has nothing to do with 99% of all American corporations. Me personaly I have no issue with the Government making sure that Corporations play the game fairly. This includes not letting them move offices over seas to get out of taxes, or allowing them to higher fleets of illegal aliens to lower there payroll. What I am against is asking corporations that provide Jobs, to also pay for those that choose not to work. Look if you want jobs, then you have to setup a situation where companies can flurish to provide these jobs. You also have to safe guard these jobs by making sure that Foriegn workers are not working jobs, that Americans can work. Third you have to make sure that the incentive is there for people to work, that means stop giving them handouts to not work.

  I don't believe that the Government should be in the business of giving incentives for inovations. For example Barack wants to fund research on alternative fuels. MM we did that already with etholan, and that is part of the cause of the current economic situations.

  Look Companies are out to make money, and as long as laws are in place to make sure that they are doing it safly and fairly, then Government should get the hell out of the way. Because if there are inovations to be made, and they are economically sustanable, then they will be made. The Government tossing money at a problem is not going to solve the problem. The will has to be there, and untill we can find something better, the driving force is going to be profits. Like it or love it, it is just a fact.

I'm on record as saying that this is a contest to win votes.  Let me ask you, would you entrust the care of your children to someone you met only once?  I don't think McCain't chose her solely because she was a woman but given everything that is true about her, if she were a man, she would have NEVER been chosen.  Everyone knows that (except maybe JarrodM).  There is a part of me that respects the choice, honestly.  As much as it is being spun as the maverick choice, however, he was painted into a corner by his handlers and a small but vocal minority of overall republicans.

Look, if you don't want universal health care then go get your own on your own dime.  You can go dig a well in your back yard for water too.  Who needs the government's pipes, right?

Jarrod...." Last time I checked I have not seen any major demonstrations where coporations are asking for tax cuts,"
Common jarrod, don't be silly.  Lobbyist handle that.....and by all accounts, they are successful. 
But corporate citizens have a responsibility just as average citizens do to support this government that protects their assets and their ability to do business.......which includes policing, infrastructure, etc.  To a corporate citizen, these are necessary for most companies to operate and profit.  It's their right, just as it's my right to afford medical care and to have an opportunity for a living wage.  It works both ways

No David you have no RIGHT to affordable medical care. When will you liberals get that through your thick noggins. You have a right to freedom. You have the right to persue life, but you do not have a RIGHT to health care, to a job, a big screen tv, to anything.

Man you liberals missed the boat on the point JFK was making. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

 STOP ASKING THE GOVERNMENT TO DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU. GO OUT AND WORK FOR IT IF YOU WANT IT. If you are working a job that does not provide health insurance, or the health insurance cost to much, then go out and find a new job. There is nothing stopping you from doing that, that is called freedom. But what about my bills, or this or that. Well you know what you should have thought about that before you racked up all these bills.

  No one says that you have to go in debt, so it is no one else fault except your own if you are in debt. Stop making excuses, and start doing. Maybe a little personal responsibility once in a while.

  You want to bring up Falin daughter then let's do that. What makes he good in the eyes of true Christian Conservatives is this.

 1. She owned up to her mistake.
 2. She is taken on this burden rathern then finding a sinfull simple solution.
 3. Her family is steping up to the plate to be supportive rather then casting her out for her transgretions and sins.
 4. THEY ARE NOT ASKING THE GOVERNMENT TO HELP, THEY ARE HELPING THEMSELVES.

  Look in this day in age, out side of some sort of tragic situation, people are in the situations they are in because of themselves, or there familes. THEY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXPECT EVERYONE ELSE TO BAIL THEM OUT. And the same goes for coporations.

   This whole housing crises was caused by people making bad decisions. The Government should have let the houses be forclosed on, since when you normaly get a loan and stop paying it that is what happens, read the contract it is in there. And the Banks and Corporations should have to suffer the consequences as well rather then being bailed out.

   It is simple, you purchase a house, if you choose to get a loan, you are asking someone else for money. If you decided then that you won't or can not pay them back, then the bank forcloses on the house and get's the house.

   You know it is the same thing with the Farms back in the 20's. If things don't work out, the bank that paid for te farm, by loaning you the money get's the farm. Most likley at a lost to them.

  IT IS CALLED THE PURSUIT OF HAPINESS, NOT THE RIGHT TO HAPINESS.

Jarrodm,
By what account is Alaska the biggest state?  That argument is absurd. Alaska ranks 47th in population.  47th!  Can both sides please take the blinders off please.  No on puts that shoe on the other foot-attack, attack, attack is just getting old.  If Barrack picked Palin -cons would be having a field day-they'd be saying"Hey if she can't even keep her own daughter in check how she going to deal with nuclear proliferation in Iran."  If Barack was miraculously chosen by cons, "Dems would be giving the same inexperience line."
A well known politician said of Kain when he was being considered for the dems V.P., "He has barely 3years experience as governor and before that was the mayor of a town of 9,000 people!" 
Any know it alls, have the name of the author of that quote?  

Carl Rove.  Amazing isn't it?

John McCain is crazy and Sarah Palin is a hypocrit who if elected we will have an increase in underage drinking by pregnant teenagers who don't finish high school. A bunch of people who want to succeed from America and become their own state while driving drunk and killing moose.

A country where people want power so that can get into office and fire their brother in law who they hate. It's the Alaska hillbilly's goes to Washington. Couldn't you just see it now.

It's over.

'The founder of the Alaska Independence Party -- a group that has been courted over the years by Sarah Palin, and one her husband was a member of for roughly seven years -- once professed his "hatred for the American government" and cursed the American flag as a "damn flag." '

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/aip_founder_professed_hatred_f.php#comment-3072237

Thank God he won't get the chance to appoint Supreme Court judges on the spur of the moment with no vetting beforehand.

Now who's going to accept the VP nod just to sink beneath the waves with this loose cannon, McCain?

JarodM-
Healthcare costs more in the U.S. than anywhere else in the Western world-price has become all about profits-big profits-windfall profits for Medical and Pharm. companies.  I agree with most accounts of your argument but how can anyone have any freedom if you have to rely solely on a job or income to pay for basic medical care?  Really, the greed has to be regulated by some measure.
My husband and I went to Canada recently and my husband ruptured his eardrum.  In the E.R. we were of course treated quickly and easily and told we'd be sent a bill at a later date.  We of course waited and were nervous what all this was going to cost us once back in the states.
To our surprise, the bill for x-rays, doctor's visit and emergency room attention was a whopping $227! -which our insurance of course was all too happy to pay for an emergency room visit. they hit the jackpot. 
By the way, My husband's meds without insurance in Canada cost him $10.  Now this is not because it was compensated by Canada at all-THIS IS BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT IT ACTUALLY COSTS when your not being ripped off. 
My brother in law was set to go on tour to Germany and broke his front tooth right hours before he got on the plane-he needed a completely new crown.  -cosmetic dentistry is really expensive right? 
Guess how much he paid-it was an after hours emergency visit with 5 hours notice for the dentist mind you? 

$225.00!  This is because this is what it actually costs when you're not being ripped off for a basic need.  I don't think the federal govn't on our end should compensate everyone because the Med. and Pharm. companies profits/prices have ballooned so out of control that U.S. would be tragically sunk in an abyss of debt.  But how come those very people, those doctors and scientists who are supposed to be serving the American people with a cure for Cancer, a cast for my 5-year-olds broken arm, medicine for my ailing grandmother, aren't kept in check by asking themselves "what they can do for their country?" 
Do we ever get to cry out and call foul or do we just get told to take it in the *ss and find a job that has better health care? I guess it's just better when our employer gets to take it in the *ss....

JarrodM-
Healthcare costs more in the U.S. than anywhere else in the Western world-price has become all about profits-big profits-windfall profits for Medical and Pharm. companies.  I agree with most accounts of your argument but how can anyone have any freedom if you have to rely solely on an employer or high income to pay for basic medical care?  Really, the greed has to be regulated by some measure.
My husband and I went to Canada recently and my husband ruptured his eardrum.  In the E.R. we were of course treated quickly and easily and told we'd be sent a bill at a later date.  We waited and were nervous what all this was going to cost us once back in the states.
To our surprise, the bill for x-rays, doctor's visit and emergency room attention was a whopping $227! -which our insurance of course was all too happy to pay for an emergency room visit- they hit the jackpot! 
By the way, My husband's meds without insurance in Canada cost him $10.  Now this is not because it was compensated by Canada at all-THIS IS BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT IT ACTUALLY COSTS when you’re not being ripped off. 
My brother-in-law was set to go on tour to Germany and broke his front tooth hours before he got on the plane-he needed a completely new crown.  -cosmetic dentistry is really expensive right? 
Guess how much he paid-it was an after-hours emergency visit with 5 hours notice for the dentist mind you? 

$225.00! 
       This is because this is what it actually costs when you're not being ripped off for a basic need.  I don't think the federal govn't on our end should compensate everyone because the Med. and Pharm. companies profits/prices have ballooned so out of control that U.S. would be tragically sunk in an abyss of debt.  But how come those very people, those doctors and scientists who are supposed to be serving the American people with a cure for cancer, a cast for my 5-year-olds broken arm, medicine for my ailing grandmother, aren't kept in check by asking themselves "what they can do for their country?" 
Do we ever get to cry out and call foul or do we just get told to take it in the *ss and find a job that has better health care?  The sad thing is, there is no winner because our employers just get to take it in the *ss.  But as long as it’s not us who were smart enough to get the “good” job, who cares right?
Really, you know as well as I do that there aren’t even enough jobs that offer healthcare to go around for each American citizen. If most lost their jobs tomorrow-even with a savings account-the cost of healthcare is not equivalent to the cost of living or wages.

JarodM-
Healthcare costs more in the U.S. than anywhere else in the Western world-price has become all about profits-big profits-windfall profits for Medical and Pharm. companies.  I agree with most accounts of your argument but how can anyone have any freedom if you have to rely solely on an employer or high income to pay for basic medical care?  Really, the greed has to be regulated by some measure.
My husband and I went to Canada recently and my husband ruptured his eardrum.  In the E.R. we were of course treated quickly and easily and told we'd be sent a bill at a later date.  We waited and were nervous what all this was going to cost us once back in the states.
To our surprise, the bill for x-rays, doctor's visit and emergency room attention was a whopping $227! -which our insurance of course was all too happy to pay for an emergency room visit- they hit the jackpot! 
By the way, My husband's meds without insurance in Canada cost him $10.  Now this is not because it was compensated by Canada at all-THIS IS BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT IT ACTUALLY COSTS when you’re not being ripped off. 
My brother-in-law was set to go on tour to Germany and broke his front tooth hours before he got on the plane-he needed a completely new crown.  -cosmetic dentistry is really expensive right? 
Guess how much he paid-it was an after-hours emergency visit with 5 hours notice for the dentist mind you? 

$225.00! 
       This is because this is what it actually costs when you're not being ripped off for a basic need.  I don't think the federal govn't on our end should compensate everyone because the Med. and Pharm. companies profits/prices have ballooned so out of control that U.S. would be tragically sunk in an abyss of debt.  But how come those very people, those doctors and scientists who are supposed to be serving the American people with a cure for cancer, a cast for my 5-year-olds broken arm, medicine for my ailing grandmother, aren't kept in check by asking themselves "what they can do for their country?" 
Do we ever get to cry out and call foul or do we just get told to take it in the *ss and find a job that has better health care?  The sad thing is, there is no winner because our employers just get to take it in the *ss.  But as long as it’s not us who were smart enough to get the “good” job who cares right?
Really, you know as well as I do that there aren’t even enough jobs that offer healthcare to go around for each American citizen.

David

The left demands that employers pay for their employee's health care.  Correct?  Basic Business 101 would say that if employers make a profit than they are in a position to employ and provide coverage.  Correct?  If corporations fail to make a profit, than employees are laid off, benefits are ended and no new hires are on the horizon.  Correct?  The left should be on their knees praying that corporations make huge "obsene" profits so that they can use that to hire more people and provide benefits.  Why is it that corporations are an evil entity to those on the Left yet you demand they pay for healthcare and employ more people.  The Left can't have it both ways.

I just can't believe he did this to us. Why couldn't he just pick someone else. This is just crazy., Did he know all this stuff about her. Also, would you trust someone one that you have only know a few months and met once or twice. I DON'T think so. I do like what she stands for but all this stuff going on is just crazy. I hope she drops out that we can get someone else now before some thing else comes out. I am so disappointed in John.. I just don't know what he was thinking!!!!

I don't know about any of my other fellow conservatives but the more that I find out about her the more I like her. She seems to be a big proponent of conservative values, not to mention that she is also very against corruption on all levels.

Tamara, McCain is known for his rash decisions, and is CLEARLY not Cmd.-in-Chief material.

"WASHINGTON (AP) — GOP vice presidential pick Sarah Palin accepted at least $4,500 in campaign contributions in the same fundraising scheme at the center of a public corruption scandal that led to the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens.
The contributions, made during Palin's failed 2002 bid to become Alaska's lieutenant governor, were not illegal for her to accept. But they show how Palin, a self-proclaimed reformer who has bucked Stevens and his allies, is nonetheless a product of a political system in Alaska now under the cloud of an ongoing FBI investigation."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jrhFOsVwX9jt...

David please,

  That is a hack job artical and you know it.

http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/851orcjq.asp?pg=1

Unlike the last "Bush Loyalist", Fred Barnes?  Fair and Balanced.....i doubt it.  Anything Barnes writes is slanted and devoid of fact.

Obama betrayal on campaign finanace.


<cite>www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11609.html</cite>

David,

You sure are one angry lib. LOL.  Why are you here at a conservative website?  Trim your beard, comrade!  LOL

LOL David,
 
   It is not about being fair and balanced it's about putting all of the facts out there, and that artical you cited was far from that. look that fact of the matter is that Sara is even more of an Mavrick then McCain. I think both Liberals, and the RINO Conservatives better watch out. I think that this lady is going to take washington by storm. You think cry my eyes out Hillary was a tough cookie, she's got nothing comparied to Sara, she is my new favorite politician.

I don't get it.  Palin has more experience than obama because she's Governor of one of the smallest states in the Union?  If that's the case, then she has more experience than McCain.  Since when was he Governor of anything?

Also, if she believes in no sex education in schools, doesn't it bother her that her daughter didn't know how to use birth control?  I don't have a problem with her daughter being pregnant, but Mom should have more common sense about it.  As a woman, I've been through it all and one thing I know for sure, it's that children need to understand how to NOT get pregnant.

Donna D,

  The facts are facts that Teaching Birth Control and sex education does not effect the choices that children are making. Providing condoms in schools, has only increased the ammount of sex our children are having. The only message that the schools should be sending is that abstanance is the only way to 100% be safe when it comes to sex. It is the parents job to talk with kids about all the other stuff.

  In the end kids will make choice right, wrong or indifferent. I think what makes this story so good, if good can come out of it, is that she admits her daughter made a mistake, but rather then take the easy way out with an abortion, her daughter is going to be responsible. not only that but as a family rather then turning their backs on her they are standing by her, and they are doing it with their heads held high.

  Everyone thinks that being Christian is all about doing the right thing 100% of the time. The fact of the matter is that Jesus tells us that we have to accept that we are siners, and it is what we do in the face of our sins that redeams us.

  Sara Palin is a very strong woman, and I believe that she is going to great things for this nation.

What's with the assumption that whenever a child is conceived with problems or to a young mother, liberals immediately think, "kill it"?  I think there might be some liberals out there who keep their unplanned pregnancies, too, which is why I don't understand the Nobel Prize nomination Palin and her daughter are being groomed for.

Jarrod,  get yourself a clue:

What Noonan and Murphy really think about Palin when they thought they were off-mic:
 
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Noonan+and+Murphy+on+Palin&search_type=&aq=f
 
Solid Connections to Sen. Ted Stevens:
 
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/01/palin_was_a_director_of_embatt.html
 
Palin was avidly pro-earmarks:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html?from=nwsnb
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/09/02/2008154104.pdf
 
Archives of Alaska Papers Reveal Disturbing -- And Goofy -- Details from Palin's Past
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003845449
 
and I didn't even get into the fact that,  as mayor, she inherited a town debt free...upon leaving the office 6 years later,  she left it $22 MILLION in DEBT....I didn't even get to the fact that she cannot even run a car wash- let alone a state!  her car was biz is under investigation for failure to pay taxes. 
 
facts are facts folks.  Palin is toast along with McCain.

Toe.....you forgot to mention that Palin is in favor of banning books also, like Hitler did in the 30's.
Palin is a beauty queen nut job, just what this country needs after eight yrs. of Bush.  It remains to be sen if Leaky ass'd McCain & This nut job get a shot of further ruining this country

yes, she wanted loyalty oath's from her underlings- and the "right" kind of books in the library- looking to ban those not of this type. 

McCain's claims that she was fully vetted is a lie- and has been acknowledge by McCain officials. 
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/president/27792629.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUec7PaP3E77K_
0c::D3aDhUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

McCain's spokesperson could not come up with any answers- so McCain
cancelled his Larry King gig to "payback" CNN for asking tough questions for which they had no answers.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/CA6592163.html

Ms Palin has opted to play with the big boys, and now wants to blame the media for vetting her- a job that should have been done by McCain-
Just another example of his bad judgment... and a dangerous one.

Nobody needs to bring in her personal family life- her public life is a matter of record...and a bad one.

OK post except you forgot to mention liberals don't like our country to be dropping bombs and invading nations for the profit of republican's favorite corporations.


Fair enough, liberals prefer diplomacy and a sort of Neville Chamberlain "peace in our time" to the projection of military power. Keeping in mind that many conservatives (me included) don't care for pre-emptive wars. In that, I was all for dropping bombs on Afghanistan after 9/11 (and Saudi Arabia, come to think of it), and not so much Iraq.

I swear, I had italics in the quote up above. Don't know what happened. 


David says:


We have had 30 yrs for "trickle down" to begin it's work, yet I don't see it's positive effects. 



Then you aren't looking very hard. Thanks for the truthout article, but income inequality is not a meaningful statistic. A growing economy, with a rising tide lifting all boats (ala JFK) will end up with an increasing larger gap between the superwealthy and the middle-class. Class envy--the root of the objection to the superwealthy, when, in fact, everybody is doing better--makes a strong emotional connection with folks, but it's not a sound basis for fiscal policy. 


For further information, I'd refer you to the works of Adam Smith and Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics.


Attempts to micro-manage pay scales and redistribute wealth to make things more fair will negatively impact the economy. Income inequality is a symptom of a growing, prosperous economy. Trying to get rid of it is focusing on the wrong thing, period.


Watching the convention right now. Underwhelmed. Hope Palin does better. Like the guy dressed up like Abraham Lincoln.

McCain didn't make a rash decision about Palin. He didn't make any decision at all. The party vetted everyone. Apparently, Romney, who I thought would have been a good gun for Pres, didn't even get a twiddle for VP. Who knows, maybe he was smart and refused to work for Rumplestiltskin.

McCain wouldn't know how to vett a team of scrabble players any better than Jarrod would...oh, I know, he just types too fast.

Palin is what happens when single issue voters (and a certain arizona senator) run amuck without a clue as to the importance of other issues at stake.
This is neither a beauty contest nor a pander party- we have serious problems and need serious people to address them.  McCain has placed himself between a rock and a hard place- whether he keeps her on the ticket or not- his lack of conviction, leadership, and judgment is already in question.  His mental and physical abilities have already been questioned.  His temper and knee-jerk reactions are legend. 
Don't blame "the media" - he cooked his own goose.

The Facts
Based on all of the blogs I read today, it appears that we know the following:
[1] Obama is either a commie or a towel head...either way, out to destroy America.
[2] Palin is an irresponsible mother, has a lot of cellulite on her upper thighs and is either politically tough or just another moron, reflecting the state of affairs in the Republican party.
[3] McCain carries two six shooters and is itching for a gunfight at the Jihad Corral.
[4] David Walters shaved...what?
[5] Jarrod finally spelled liberal correctly, you moronic librels.
[6] David does not deserve affordable health care. Nobody does, except the ones that can afford it. However, he does have the right to breathe for free...at least for the time being.
I am definitely in favor of an "Air Tax." Too many people take this natural resource for granted. Hell, nothing else is free. Why should air be "no charge?" Just think, if the government charged an "Air Tax" the national debt would be wiped out in about 400 years.

Hey, you fundamentalist Christians--you've been holding back on us all these years.  I thought with all your moral pronouncements, you were keeping to the straight and narrow.  Turns out you have more sex than the happy hooker.  Premarital sex, extramarital sex, teen pregnancies, shotgun weddings.  Who'da thunk it?

Republinazis:
I guess this country's purpose is to allow the super-wealthy 1% of America to flourish, and to hell with the rest of us.......I don't think so!

I don't think so either. Since when have we become a country that caters only to the wealthy? Oh, I guess that's what the Republican thing is really all about, huh? Hell, it's been that way for years and now it's going to get worse. While Palin poses for photos by the pool, McCain will be signing a new health program into law. If you can't afford top dollar, you don't get anything, not even a lollipop. 

It sounds just like the America our founders envisioned, but what the hell, let McCain use the Constitution to wipe his asp.

So what DO republinazis do for the bottom half of America's income level?
Provide us with decent jobs, or give us tax breaks? 

"what the hell, let McCain use the Constitution to wipe his asp(ass?)"
George Bush has already soil'd it that way Smith....
Hey, did you watch the 'Daily Show"?
Gitmo isn't a torture camp........it's a LEADERSHIP academy!
(if you consider the leadership ability McCain got while @ Hanoi Hilton....)

"Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less"
-yeah right!

And what a fine leadership academy it is. Look at what we have now.

David, you are so manly...so unafraid to tell it like it really is and use the word "ass." Do you know what an asp is? If you weren't such a moron, I'd hate you, but there is something special about your liberal brand of stupidity that I find as irresistable as people with irritable bowel syndrome. Oops...I might have offended one of them.

"Well, IBS sufferer, next year it will cost you ten times as much for the treatment."

a snake......as in bites Cleopatra.......
Yes, I am stupid.......forgive me for not supporting the asshole who is part of the Washington Establishment that has brought us this war, and this marvelous economy!  Thank you for setting me straight genius!

Lighten up, hothead. I was just kidding with you...for God's sake, can't you communicate anything but the line all the time. I know it is serious, but c'mon, guy...I didn't deserve that?

I'll tell you what. From now on, I'll never say anything that might possibly offend you. Okay.

sorry 'bout that.......i can't see your face so how am i to know if you're kidding-MY BAD, K?

Mine too. Sorry. Bad night spent battling with Cablevision...probably a die-hard Republican outfit...must be because they are committed to ripping you off and sending it straight up your recroom. I know, I'm afraid to use nasty words.

NO I DID NOT ALREADY SAY THAT! I DON"T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT, BUT IT AINT WHAT I WROTE...LOOK AGAIN. IF YOU THINK THAT WAS A DUPLICATE COMMENT, I CAN GIVE YOU A TRIPLICATE COMMENT YOU WONT WANT TO HEAR.


THIS IS A DUPLICATE COMMENT: STOP MAILING TO ME. JERK

"Divide and conquer," the catch phrase that wins! America once had a true democracy and a party system that reflected it. That is no longer the case, and I pity those who are caught up in petty arguments, like the ones about Sarah Palin, that only reinforce the industrial dictatorship that runs this country.

Democrats? Republicans? Conservatives? Liberals? Take a good hard look, all of you. What are you fighting about? Do you all want your fair share of the pie? Do you all see incompetence and corruption on all sides? Of course you do. But like millions of Americans, you play right into the hands of the puppet masters, the so-called two-party system that is nothing more than an illusion to keep you all divided. And they have you so well trained that you will only come together to attack a threat to their domination of the political and economic system...someone who says things like "industrial dictatorship" is automatically branded a communist, and then suddenly you are all like a pack of pit bulls.
"That filthy Marxist."
"Commie pincko jew bastard."
"Send him back to Russia with his copy of Das Kapital."
When do you all wise up and realize that you are playing the suckers for the wealthy, that it doesn't matter whether you are liberal or conservative, as long as you are divided. As long as you fight among yourselves, you won't attack the system that keeps you all down. The same holds true for the racial war in this country. Have you seen a candidate that has not at one time or another tried to stoke the flame? Obama did, more than once. McCain doesn't have to say a word for us to know where he is coming from. Sarah Palin is the poster girl for white America - Alaskan husband notwithstanding. Joe Biden is a lobbyist for the men with the cash...he is sharp, he is smooth, and he will make Democrats wish that they had nominated him, not that black man. Division and class war is everywhere. 

In the end, I am the commie, despite the fact that I love this country and will always love it for what it once stood for. We all know the words - they are in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence...words written by people who saw something here that has never existed anywhere else and they tried...they tried so damned hard to get the message across.
It worked for a while. Capitalism flourished, but we don't have capitalism anymore. We sit and watch, in our collective stupor, as all of the money rises to the top like cream, and we scratch our heads and go about our business of serving the master, because we are all slaves to the same 'massa..' Yes 'massa', no 'massa', whatever you say, 'massa.' 

We fight among ourselves; just what the 'massa' wants, because he knows that we are so focused on our own war that we will never notice that he is bleeding us to death.
Urbanconservative is the 'massa's boxing ring...no more and no less. The editors may fancy themselves as something more, but they are deluded as well.
When, I ask, are you going to stop your inane fighting and demand real change...and if it means that nobody votes at all, so be it. At least a message will be sent.

I would much rather die knowing I said something other than the pap fed to me each day by the bosses.
Yes 'massa.'

"Capitalism flourished, but we don't have capitalism anymore. We sit and watch, in our collective stupor, as all of the money rises to the top like cream, and we scratch our heads and go about our business of serving the master, because we are all slaves to the same 'massa.."

- i like this paragraph......., very good!


I watch'd Sarah last night for a few minutes.........she looks good, speaks well in spite of "technical difficulties",

http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/09/04/the-d...

-But the "Daily Show" was much better!

David,

I got so pissed off at this site last night that I blew my stack, told the editors to stop sending me updates, etc, etc. all of this coming because they said I was repeating myself when I tried to acknowledge your rather thoughtful come back to me.

What the are you doing up at this hopr?

Yes, I liked what I saw of Palin, despitye the fact that I don't like her...but maybe i"ll learn to like her. I can't like McCain, though...he is a monster...good thing he is long in the tooth.

Oh, I missed Daily show because I was watching all of Dr. Fager's major races. What an animal. Could carry weight - up to 139 and set track records carrying it. When was the last Pres we had could carry weight?

JFK.

Imagine one of these characters trying to handle CMCrisis?

See ya' tonight.

Smith....
i'm smokin' a joint and drinkin' coffee......as usual, getting ready to wile my time away with some paint on a canvass....
Though we may not always see eye to eye, i too share your frustration with the so-call'd "two-party system".  But who are these men, that REALLY run this land?

Rumplestiltskin and a black Howdy Doody are looking for the pupett jobs. The real "massas" don't show their faces much, I guess. 

Good way to start the day...smokem dopem. If I did that, I would wind up writing for Mad Magazine. Still you got me temted...there's a box around here somewhere...maybe in my sock drawer. Dammit!

David,

You paint? Do a painting of Osama Been Loungin.' He might be one of them. You know, the New World Order? Seriously, try that painting. I have a feeling about it. I also have a feeling that if I don't gat my ass away from this computer, the thing is going to devour me. Just call me Neo.

Absent the truth...there can be no lie. It sounds like something Socrates may have said, but he didn't. I did. The thought came to me following a brief conversation with a lady friend of mine. She asked me what happened to my nose. I hate questions like that. Lots of things happen to my nose. It is too big for this small world we inhabit. In this particular case, I had acquired a nasty gash on the bridge of my nose. I told her what happened.
 
“I walked into the glass door at the bank. It was pretty dumb - I thought it would slide open.”
“I don’t believe you. That’s a lie,” she said, handing me the peanut butter jar she couldn’t open.
“Okay. You got me.” I couldn’t get the jar opened either.
How could she accuse me of lying when she had no idea what the truth was?
“I’ll tell you but you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone else.”
“I promise,” she said, grabbing the jar from my hands, obviously irritated by my unmanly display of physical inadequacy.
“Well, I’ll give it to you straight up. I was attacked by an Israeli assassin. He tried to cut off my nose with a box cutter, but I overpowered him and killed him - snapped his neck like a twig and stashed him in the freezer downstairs.”
I’m quite sure she knew I didn’t have a freezer downstairs. There is no “downstairs” in my apartment. I have not heard from her since that conversation two weeks ago. And I still cannot unscrew the lid on that peanut butter jar. But the confrontation she initiated opened up another subject related to the age old “truth vs. lie” question, which seems to surface in almost everything we do.
 
I have always been skeptical about the reasons for the war in Iraq, but virtually all of my doubts are based on emotion and personal beliefs. Have we been told lies? I cannot say that with any certainty, because I don’t know what the truth is. Sure, you don’t always need to know the truth in order to expose a lie. If your 14 year old son tells you he was two hours late for school because a runaway kangaroo from the zoo stole his backpack, you can be 99.9 percent sure he’s lying.
 
We may not believe the Bush administration’s rationale for the war in Iraq, but how do we know they are lying. The media downplays the issue with bland statements like “Only 29 percent of Americans polled support the war in Iraq.” Now, suddenly, they are telling us that everything we think we know about the war is a lie. Instinctively, I believe that. If the media is right however, what is it that they know that we don’t?
 
"I'll tell you what it's all about," Zeldis said.
"Please do," I replied.
"Well, a high school buddy of mine writes for a newspaper, and he told me that-"
"C'mon, Zeldis," Bielsky said, "this isn't another one of your crackpot friends, is it?"
"They're not crackpots, Bielsky, and this guy is legit. Anyway, he asked the paper to send him to Iraq and they told him it was a terrific idea...if he could pay his expenses."
"You mean he actually thought they would pay?"
"I don't know, but I guess he wanted it badly enough, because his last letter had a Baghdad postmark on it."
"He's definitely one of your crackpot friends," Bielsky said. "Do you have any idea how much that's gonna' cost him?"
"For Chrissakes, Bielsky, let him talk, will you!" Timmy was pissing me off with his constant interruptions and sarcasm. "Go on, Rich, I wanna' hear this."
"Okay. Well, Scott is genuine, and very persuasive, so I wasn't surprised when he told me that he had already made numerous connections in Iraq. He says it all started to come together when he plied an American businessman with enough booze to get some rambling story about “global crop rotation” that began in Cambodia in 1972 and made its way to northern Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003. I didn’t get it at first, but then Scott quoted a clip from an article he discovered in some old microfiche, written by a journalist for a small paper in Iowa. He sent me a copy - here, look at this, Smith."
 
Zeldis pulled a tattered piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to me. I wanted to read the damned thing, but the usual chaos was too distracting. We had two completely different conversations going simultaneously.
“I’m telling you, it sounded like they were saying stringapolponies.”
“Gordon, did you ever see the original King Kong?” Getzlaff asked.
“Sure I did. Great movie.”
“Well, the chief of that native tribe said Fallamapattato,” Getzlaff said. “Do you get it?”
“No.”
“Dammit,” Bielsky said, “are you gonna’ tell us about your trip again? Please, Gordon, don’t.”
“I only told it once, and nobody paid attention.”
“That’s because nobody cared.”
“You know what your problem is?” Bielsky asked, “You read that stupid magazine.”
“National Geographic? That’s a stupid magazine?”
Gordon was really into it now. He didn't notice his tie soaking up beer from his mug. We did. I knew how it would play out, because it happened often. I felt bad for Gordon. Maybe he was slightly retarded.
I forced myself to block out the insanity for a moment, and I read the clip.


 
The battle for control of the billion dollar southeast Asian poppy industry has become a predominant catalyst for war. Projecting to the year 2000 and including fertile middle eastern territories that have not yet been exploited, gains will be measured in trillions, and private industry will adapt. The Exxon Corporation has inexplicably curtailed its drilling operations in Alaska and presently has a team of agricultural and chemical engineers in Cambodia. American military intervention there is no longer perplexing.

 
I am still trying to process that first paragraph, but I couldn't. Gordon finally noticed where his tie was, and the bedlam began.

ML Smith,  your statement:
When do you all wise up and realize that you are playing the suckers for the wealthy, that it doesn't matter whether you are liberal or conservative, as long as you are divided. As long as you fight among yourselves, you won't attack the system that keeps you all down.
Well said.
Regarding the GOP
As I have watched the GOP's gathering in St. Paul,  the items not noted in their speaker's presentations were deafening by their omission.  By and large, focus was on the past- as always.  They have no message, vision, ideas, or a plan- only negativity for anything different or new.
McCain's POW years - over and over again.  Not a single mention of any ACTUAL accomplishments by McCain.  Being captured is not an accomplishment. 
Economy?  (While some here are in utter and complete denial that the US economy is in serious trouble-) and that the MIDDLE Class - those that actually make this country viable- is shrinking to levels never before seen. 
No inspiration for addressing today's problems- only backwards vision and self-congratulatory back slapping that they have a brother-in-law who has an aunt whose neighbor heard that her sister's elementary school teacher actually loved jelly beans just like Reagan!!  OOOooooo! 
Reagan, the conservatives version of "the Messiah" was probably a nice guy.  Conservatives invoke his name at the drop of a hat and pass the plate in his name.  He ran on a platform of returning to the gold standard, less taxes, and less government spending. 
 President Reagan appointed an allegedly impartial gold commission to study the problem—a commission overwhelmingly packed with lifelong opponents of gold. The commission presented its predictable report, and gold was quickly interred.
How well did Reagan succeed in cutting government spending, surely a critical ingredient in any plan to reduce the role of government in everyone's life? In 1980, the last year of free-spending Jimmy Carter the federal government spent $591 billion. In 1986, the last recorded year of the Reagan administration, the federal government spent $990 billion, an increase of 68%. Whatever this is, it is emphatically not reducing government expenditures.
Jimmy Carter habitually ran deficits of $40-50 billion and, by the end, up to $74 billion; but by 1984, when Reagan had promised to achieve a balanced budget, the deficit had settled down comfortably to about $200 billion, a level that seems to be permanent, despite desperate attempts to cook the figures in one-shot reductions.  This is by far the largest budget deficit in American history.
He pushed for tax cuts, especially for the rich, on the grounds that giving them greater incentives would stimulate risk-taking and entrepreneurship.
His advisers believed that the additional economic activity would actually boost tax revenues.
However, his parallel commitment to fight communism led him to propose a vast increase in military spending, draining the public purse.
The tax cuts for the rich boosted their income, especially from stocks. Unskilled workers, meanwhile, saw their jobs disappear, reinforcing the widening of inequality which was so evident in the Reagan era. Average hourly earnings for manual workers actually fell, while average household income was only maintained because more women went out to work. Reagan was a nice guy- but his economic ideas were a total failure and we are still paying for it.  "Trickle down" does not work.  It only allowed big businesses to further line their own pockets with advantages in tax breaks.
The fact that conservatives embrace this a wonderful is less than amusing.  The fact that Reagan had clear signs of altzheimers disease during his second term is sobering considering the republican's choice in this current race. McCain has already demonstrated "senior moments" over and over again.  His selection of Palin, utterly unqualified for the job,  is so wrong and downright scary stuff.

"In 1986, the last recorded year of the Reagan administration, the federal government spent $990 billion, an increase of 68%. Whatever this is, it is emphatically not reducing government expenditures."

The Reagan administration always turned in balanced budgets. Reagan ended up signing larger budgets, loaded with pork (mostly by Democrats) because that was the price the congressional leadership demanded in order for the budgeting process to move forward.

In all fairness, Reagan was the last Republican to do this. I don't believe HW did, and we all know George Bush has never really come close. Bush, alas, is a big government conservative. I think McCain would really try to trim the fat off the budget, but I'm not sure how successful he would actually be. Not much, I imagine.

"His advisers believed that the additional economic activity would actually boost tax revenues."

This did happen, although it took several years under Reagan, in no small part thanks to a capital gains tax hike that Reagan, inexplicably, agreed to in order to get income tax reductions.

It happened in 1 year with the Bush tax cuts. Huzzah, tax cuts for the wealthy!

Unfortunately, spending increased out the wazoo with Bush, so . . . the deficit increased.

The tax cuts for the rich boosted their income, especially from stocks.

This is incorrect. Reagan raised taxes on capital gains, the most common for of taxation of the realization of stock profits. As such, profits on stocks went down. Indeed, the ability of publically held companies to turn capital assets into cash and book profits went down, so folks beholden to the stockholders started laying off employees rapidly in order to show profits, keep the stock price from tanking, and hold on to their own fat paychecks. The result of Reagan's capital gains tax hike was all the "downsizing" that happened during the eighties, and the slashing of corporate payrolls. And while it started at the top with publically held companies which had the greatest need to show good numbers, it trickled down to smaller companies who serviced those larger companies.

Reagan raised taxes on capital gains transactions, he didn't lower them, thus in many ways mitigating the economic stimulus of his income tax cuts.  The Bush admin lowered the capital gains tax, and the first year of the lowered tax, revenues on the reduced capital gains tax were the highest ever. Yay, tax cuts!

"Reagan was a nice guy- but his economic ideas were a total failure and we are still paying for it.  "Trickle down" does not work.  It only allowed big businesses to further line their own pockets with advantages in tax breaks."

Trickle down does work. The economy overall grew under Reagan, as did our GDP. Tax revenues went up within 3 years of the Reagan tax cuts, Reagan turned in balanced budgets that got porked-up by congress. He also raised the capital gains tax, which trickled down into massive corporate layoffs to offset the additional taxation and reduction in capital transactions from the investment community, which had a depressive effect on wages across the board as the job market was glutted. But, to be fair, the capital gains tax increase was a Democrat demand to get enough of them to go along with his income tax cuts. Yet, revenues were down for the first years after the tax cut/tax hike, and when revenues finally increased and, at the end of the Reagan admin they had doubled from previous levels, the greatest increases in revenue, percentage wise and real-income wise, were not coming from the increased capital gains tax, but the reduced income tax!
Trickle-down, supply side, Reaganomics, whatever you wanna call it: it works. As the Clinton administration found when it jacked up luxury taxes, killed the industries that supplied luxury products and were employed to service those evil rich. The luxury tax revenues went down, and lots of folks lost their jobs, and results were so clear, and so severe, the Clinton admin repealed that tax increase.

"The fact that conservatives embrace this a wonderful is less than amusing. "

The fact that liberals let their class envy and fantasies about egalitarian get in the way of economic policies that benefit the greatest amount of people because they don't want "those mean rich people having all that money" is not particularly amusing, either.

I just checked the most updated version of Webster's dictionary.  I looked up evangelical and the definition was:  single issue voter; most unlikely to be christ-like in everyday life; gun-totting; young boy touching; fundamentalist; hate-loving ignoramuses.
For those of you who don't belive this definition is dead on, look at what they have done to a perfectly good god loving nation.  They got Bush elected...again!!!  
By the way, how come Bush and Cheney have not been impeached, even the man who got the ball rolling on the impeachment of Bill Clinton believes that what he did pales in comparison to what Mr. Pres and Mr. VP have done.
Anyways, this, to me, is not the definition of someone who sould be VP.  I'm not a liberal, I'm not a conservative,  I am a moderate, who doesnt believe the moderate republican candiate for Pres has made the right choice.  I respected him until the second he announced that this woman might have a say in our countries direction for the next four years.

"Reagan has always turned in balanced budgets."

What exactly does that mean? Balanced for who? Balanced so that the wealthy can be assured of remaining wealthy, while the rest of us wait for that always promised "chicken in every pot?" Balanced budgets mean nothing in a society that is economically unbalanced...a society where war provides the huge profits for those who don't even need the money...wars that we send send our children off to die in for a cause that doesn't exist.

Over the past 50 years, both parties and thier presidents have used the Constitution, Bill Of Rights and Declaration of Independence as their own toilet paper.

Wake up America. You are being royally screwed.

I think you better check your little calculator, because as far as I know, 2+ 2 still equals 4, unless you have changed to quantum math. I KNOW I ENTERED 4, BUT IF YOU INSIST THAT I DIDN'T, YOU MUST BE RIGHT BECAUSE YOU ARE THE CHALLENGE MASTER OF ALL TIME. DUMB MACHINE. LETS TRY AGAIN. LET ME SEE NOW, 2...PLUS...2...IS....UHM...

What kind of moronic deal is this anyway? You toss a meaningful statement because you can't add, or you didn't have your glasses on, but you print nonsense because you have deemed the challenge passed.

There is a serious brain problem going on here at UC.

HEY, DAVID WALTERS, WHERE ARE YOU? i AM LEAVING THIS SITE, BUT IF YOU TAKE MY ACTUAL NAME. MORT SMITH, LOWER CASE IT ALL, START WITH SMITH WITHOUT THE i, hook it directy into mort and add g(postal)
dot communism...you can reach me.

When you fail the challenge two or three times, it's no accident. Hey, are Comcast and Cablevision connected? That would explain everything.

Now, as I was saying just before I threw the Cablevision converter n the Dumpster...oh geez, I forgot, but it was something relative to large corporations and how they can bully the little guy. Of course, this doen't happen in America...does it?

Which books do conservatives want to ban? Somebody ask Sarah Palin:



http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/poli...

STOP SENDING YOUR UPDATES. I AM NOT INTELLECTUALLY EQUIPPED TO SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATE THE INTRICACIES OF YOUR CHALLENGES, AS I AM CHALLENGED SUFFICIENTLY ALREADY. 

IF I MADE MY LIVING PLAYING MIND F**K GAMES WITH PEOPLE, I WOULD LOVE TO HANG OUT, BUT ALAS, I MUST MAKE A HARD EARNED LIVING BY THE WRITTEN WORD, AND DEADLINES BECKON. 

PLEASE CONSIDER ME A FORMER PARTICIPANT.

“Palin” is the poster child of what a poor parent is!!!!
There is absolutely no way “MY” daughter would be pregnant @ 17 if I was doing my job as a parent let alone the President of the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She can’t keep tabs on her 17 year old daughter & you think she could run a country?????
Give me a break…I mean “Change”…
Barack Obama – True “F R E S H - C H A N G E”….

Senator John McCain is a war “Hero”… That is where it all ends!!!!!!!!!!!! Just because he is a war hero…It does not make him a person who is in touch with the problems of “Today”… Let the record show he has voted in-line with Mr. Bush 91% of the time… Mr. McCain will give us more of the same crapp!!!!!! Tax breaks for the rich – nothing for the middle class & poor… We need true change – Barack Obama 2008 !!!!!!!!!

In a Thursday morning conference call for reporters organized by the Democratic National Committee, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius pushed back against the idea that Republicans have cornered the market on small-town American values.
"I live in the American heartland, and have been a governor [here] for six years," she said. "I don't know any mayor in any small town in Kansas -- and we have a lot of mayors of small towns -- who hires a lobbyist and goes after earmarks the way Sarah Palin did." On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that, as mayor of Wasilla, Palin secured more than $27 million in federal earmarks for a town with only 6,700 residents.

There are a few things I have always wanted to say to these people:

Sarah: You palin comparison to any decent VP candidate I can thnk of, and I don't like you.

Barrack: I don't like you; I never liked you and I never will like you. I have no intention of riding a camel to work if you get into office...I know that is your plan as an alternative to internal combustion.

Mr. McCain: I really don't like you. You are a "Bushman" without the spear and the war paint. Can you say "nookular too?

Joe B: How much longer are you going to be biden your time before you do something...ie, make a statement? I think you are hidin', Biden.

"Reagan always turned in balanced budgets."

"What exactly does that mean? Balanced for who?"

It has a specific definition: balanced in that expenditures did not exceed income. Surely, folks who depended on the government to fund their pet projects or redistribute wealth wouldn't consider them politically balanced.

"Which books do conservatives want to ban? Somebody ask Sarah Palin:"

Apparently none because, according to the article, she didn't actually ask them to ban anything. Maybe she was testing the water to see if they could ban Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh books, like the left has tried to do.

Kevin...Kevin...Kevin.
Good Grief, man.  Do you ever actually try to inform yourself??
I mean, really.

"Maybe she was testing the water to see if they could ban Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh books, like the left has tried to do."

what an ignorant statement.  take a look at books that were "challenged" just recently... who "challenged" them...and why.  progressives happen to believe in freedom of the press and  freedom of speech...and fight for it every single day. 
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.cfm
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/425-Challenged-Books-and-the-Banned-Books-Week.html

The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2007” reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:
1) “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2) The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

3) “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language
4) “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
Reasons:  Religious Viewpoint
5) “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
Reasons:  Racism
6) “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,
7) "TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
8) "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou
Reasons:  Sexually Explicit
9) “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris
Reasons:  Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
10) "The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons:  Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Not to troll... but you people are nuts. Palin is inexperienced, naive and, well, a puppet. Give me a break!

McSame picked her out of desperation. What other choice did he have? Any other old white man with white hair would have sent a strong message that the GOP is not willing to change at all...

God helps us if McCain-Palin wins Nov 4. And that's coming from an athiest.

Oprah Winfrey refuses to interview Sarah Palin on her daytime talk show, pfffft.

Why I am qualified to be Vice President:
1)  I was a den leader for 11 cub scouts - later elevated to Cub master over 80 boys. The first woman Cub master in the Hawaiian Islands.  I wore the uniform of respect and honor.  It even had a flag on it.  I didn't tell them I was a lesbian.  I got there on my own merit.  Not because I was a woman.
2)  I was elected to public office to represent a district with a population  of nearly 30,000 people living in mid- to high-priced single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums. I won by 1 vote. A mandate indeed. 

3)  While I never participated in earmarks I do have pierced ears. 
4)  I did participate in Pork spending for the pig (Pu'a'a) at the Luau. 
5)  I shot someone in the face once.  With a sling shot- in 3rd grade.  It wasn't an accident- he dared me.  Said I could not "hit the broad side of a barn".  
6)  I won the halloween poster contest for my age group three years in a row.  The winners were allowed to reproduce their winning posters on the store windows in town.  We made a mess on the sidewalk though.
7)  I disected a frog, an african beetle, and a worm and stuffed a shrew (the mammal, not one of my aunts) in biology class.
8)  I have been in charge of my own little world for many many years.  I hear the voices. 
9)  I attended both my junior and senior proms, both homecoming dances, the winter formals, and the sadie hawkins dance.  I even had a date.  He was gay.  I believe in diversity. Some of my best friends are gay.
10)  I was a carhop.  (and if you have never hopped over cars, let me say, it's not easy, especially carrying a tray filled with hamburgers, onion rings, and 2 dozen drinks!)

Toe,

That is, bar none, the funniest thing I have seen on this site...evah!
Thanks for making me laugh; I needed it.

Awesome choice.  She is so much more qualified than those more experienced governors of little states like New York, Massachusetts, and Arkansas.  And she has a VAGINA like Hillary's!  Go Sara!

@ ML Smith: You are welcome, I hope that I can count on your support.
 
And, in closing, may the Gods bless you, may the Gods bless America!

Toe.

In your list of books, you forgot the "Angina Monologues." 

Winston,

That was a very politically insightful and thought provoking comment. I shall have to give some serious thought to the implications, but clearly, your intellect is on a much higher plane than mine...much higher.

ML

Mahalo for reminding me, ML... I kept meaning to thank you for that post!
Cracked me up!!

Bravo Toe, great write up. You gave me an idea for a future post, thanks. Looks like you and ML are forming an alliance here.

Salamat = means thank you in Tagolog.

ML Smith - looks like you don't like anyone. If the choice was yours, who'd you pick for President / Vice President.

I guess we no longer have the right to decline and say "No, this will not do...we expect better." Thank you, UC, for confirming my worst fears.

ML Smith
The Man Who Said "No."

Behind Closed Doors

"John, they are waiting for you to say something really inflammatory to the liberals."
"I'm not a liberal, am I? Oh, I forgot...yes, yes, let me think, Sally."
"It's Sarah, John."
"Right, that's what I said, wasn't it?"
"No, but while you're thinking, Barrack and I have an idea."
"Barrack? You mean Barrack Osama?"
"Forget it, John, we'll work it out. Get some rest."
"No! I've got it!  Sarah, I'll tell them we are going to nuke Israel."
"What do you think, Sarah?"
"I don't know, Barrack, but it sounds good. By the way, have you seen Joe?"
"Yes. He's in Cuba, buying cigars. Remember, you said you wanted a good Cuban cigar?"
"Cuban Missiles? Even better, Sadie...I'll tell them we found missiles in Cuba, and we have to nuke them right away."
"Shut up, John. When the hell is Joe coming back with my cigars?"
"Excuse me, Sarah, but I have to get my prayer carpet. Oh, is it okay if we sell those arms to Bin Laden now? We promised him."
"I guess so, B. Hey, do you think he can get them?"
"What?"
"My cigars, dammit!"  ****

Sarah Palin has really ignited the party, but I'm kinda concerned about her family life.  I keep hearing stories about how she raced back to work days after giving birth with the babies.  As a mother, I know that those first few days are so special.  I can't help but think that if she wasn't the governor, maybe she could have stopped Bristol from getting pregnant.  I know that maybe that's wishful thinking, but I know if I had a pregnant daughter and a 5 month old son, I would not try to take a job that would make me spend more time away from them.  Have we abandoned our Christian beliefs that women are an important fixture in the home and are essential to strong families?

Lucy....when did Mrs. Palin become a single Mom? The last I checked her husband had 50% of the responsibility. Most politicians have families at home, conservative and liberal alike. Mrs. Palin's role the next 58 days will be very hectic, but come on....her schedule as a VP would not equal the responsibilities of a President. Also, she had the opportunity to turn it down, and I think she can be the judge of her own capacity.

Karl,  I'm not saying that she's the only one to blame.  Just think if it were you.  If what you were doing in your family yielded some bad results, you would probably do something different.  I know I would.  The first thing I would do is devote more time and more attention to my family.  I think that's a decision that both men and women should make.  I wouldn't make this argument about a liberal because we know they might not have the same beliefs about family, but I know what I've been taught about being a Christian wife and mother.  


Also, being VP may not be all that taxing, although I'm not exactly sure what the VP is responsible for, being a President is and we know that's always a possibility.  


Last thing, to be fair, we've never had a man as president who had an infant with Down's Syndrome and a pregnant teenage daughter have we?  So we don't really know if we would ask this of a man.

Lucy, what I am saying is that these individuals have the same option we all have in this country (some to different degrees than others)....job choice. You weigh a job choice by pay, circumstance and return on investment. Clearly the pay will be higher and return on investment for being in the national spotlight are advantages....the circumstance is what you and I are questioning.

The Palin's most likely did the same thing you or I may do with our families....have a sit down. If they are like me, get out the ol' Ben Franklin balance sheet. The pregnant daughter is 17 and getting married. I am guessing this is not only a Palin's issue but the parents of the young man as well. In less than a year the daughter will be an 18 year old adult, so the responsibility of her child falls more and more on the parents, not Sarah Palin.

Mrs. Palin's newest child, to me, is the biggest concern. Again, even in an average American household, at least one adult in the household still has to work to make ends meet. I cannot speak for Todd Palin, but something tells me his career would be on hold if McCain and Palin close the deal in November. It's an average American family decision....sacrifices are sometimes made by one spouse or another, but I would also say they will have plenty of family and monetary support to give their down syndrome child every advantage and opportunity. In fact, I believe Mrs. Palin and her child being in the spotlight will fuel more charity earnings for research into Down Syndrome.

...even more reasons why I should be Vice President:
11)  I collected stamps as a child.  Obviously I have foreign policy experience. 
12)  I have known that Alaska is close to Russa since the 1st Grade.
13)  My pet's names are:  Amigo, Kirby, Einstein, Apollo, and Fanny Brice.  Clearly I believe in diversity.
14)  I wear "earthtones" - a clear indication of my love of the planet and environmental issues.
15)  I can shoot a gun with accuracy and the breeze with profundity.
16)  I play air hockey with minimal blood and very little gutting.

During this US election cycle we are hearing a lot from the pundits and candidates about "heartland voters," and "white working class voters."
 
What they are talking about are rednecks. But in their political correctness, media types cannot bring themselves to utter the word "redneck." So I'll say it for them: redneck-redneck-redneck-redneck.

The fact is that we American rednecks embrace the term in a sort of proud defiance. To us, the term redneck indicates a culture we were born in and enjoy. So I find it very interesting that politically correct people have taken it upon themselves to protect us from what has come to be one of our own warm and light hearted terms for one another.
On the other hand, I can quite imagine their concern, given what's at stake in the upcoming election. We represent at least a third of all voters and no US president has ever been elected without our support.
Consequently, rednecks have never had so many friends or so much attention as in 2008. Contrary to the stereotype, we are not all tobacco chewing, guffawing Southerners, but are scattered from coast to coast. Over 50% of us live in the "cultural south", which is to say places with white Southern Scots-Irish values - redneck values.

They include western Pennsylvania, central Missouri and southern Illinois, upstate Michigan and Minnesota, eastern Connecticut, northern New Hampshire…
So when you look at what pundits call the red state heartland, you are looking at the Republic of Redneckia.
As to having our delicate beer-sodden feelings protected from the term redneck; well, I appreciate the effort, though I highly suspect that the best way to hide snobbishness is to pose as protector of any class of folks you cannot bear. Thus we are being protected by the very people who look down on us - educated urban progressives.
And let's face it, there's plenty to look down on. By any tasteful standard, we ain't a pretty people.
Uppity and slick? Not us...
We come in one size: extra large. We are sometimes insolent and often quick to fight. We love competitive spectacle such as NASCAR and paintball, and believe gun ownership is the eleventh commandment.
We fry things nobody ever considered friable - things like cupcakes, banana sandwiches and batter dipped artificial cheese…even pickles.

And most of all we are defiant and suspicious of authority, and people who are "uppity" (sophisticated) and "slick" (people who use words with more than three syllables). Two should be enough for anybody.
And that is one of the reasons that, mystifying as it is to the outside world, John McCain's choice of the moose-shooting Alaskan woman with the pregnant unmarried teen daughter appeals to many redneck and working class Americans.
We all understand that there is a political class which dominates in America, and that Sarah Palin for damned sure is not one of them. And the more she is attacked by liberal Democratic elements (translation: elite highly-educated big city people) the more America's working mooks will come to her defence. Her daughter had a baby out of wedlock? Big deal. What family has not? She is a Christian fundamentalist who believes God spat on his beefy paws and made the world in seven days? So do at least 150 million other Americans. She snowmobiles and fishes and she is a looker to boot. She's a redneck. <!-- S IIMA -->
<!-- E IIMA -->
American ethos
The term redneck indicates a lifestyle and culture that can be found in every state in our union. The essentials of redneck culture were brought to America by what we call the Scots Irish, after first being shipped to the Ulster Plantation, where our, uh, remarkable cultural legacy can still be seen every 12 July in Ireland.
Ultimately, the Scots Irish have had more of an effect on the American ethos than any other immigrant group. Here are a few you will recognize:

Belief that no law is above God's law, not even the US Constitution.


Hyper patriotism. A fighting defence of native land, home and heart, even when it is not actually threatened: ie, Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Somalia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Haiti and dozens more with righteous operations titles such as Enduring Freedom, Restore Hope, and Just Cause.


A love of guns and tremendous respect for the warrior ideal. Along with this comes a strong sense of fealty and loyalty. Fealty to wartime leaders, whether it be FDR or George Bush.


Self effacement, humility. We are usually the butt of our own jokes, in an effort not to appear aloof among one another.


Belief that most things outside our own community and nation are inferior and threatening, that the world is jealous of the American lifestyle.


Personal pride in equality. No man, however rich or powerful, is better than me.


Perseverance and belief in hard work. If a man or a family is poor, it is because they did not work hard enough. God rewards those who work hard enough. So does the American system.


The only free country in the world is the United States, and the only reason we ever go to war is to protect that freedom.

All this has become so deeply instilled as to now be reflexive. It represents many of the worst traits in American culture and a few of the best.
And that has every thinking person here in the US, except perhaps John McCain and Sarah Palin, worried.
Very worried.

not worried.  the fact that you have remained in your little world and resist change of any sort is your choice.  the fact that you take pride in ignorance is your choice.  maybe you like it that way.  that's fine.  i am not looking to change you.  i don't care what you do in your kitchen or your bedroom.  maybe you can tell me why you are so concerned about what i elect to eat,  or do in my bedroom?  to you if i do not conform to your way, i am either an elitist or a pervert.   who made you the king of my life?  why should i be ruled by your religion?  how can you claim to love america but stand against what america stands for?

Nothing wrong with Rednecks.......i am one my own self.
The roots of the term has a rich history in working-class America....
"The West Virginia Coal Miners March or the Battle of Blair Mountain when coal miners wore red bandanas around their necks to identify themselves as seeking the opportunity to unionize."-(from Wikipedia, but i've heard this from other sources as well)........
The problem with us Rednecks is that our culture has been co-opted by the republican party.

By JO BECKER, PETER S. GOODMAN AND MICHAEL POWELL
Published: September 13, 2023

This article is by Jo Becker, Peter S. Goodman and
Michael Powell.

WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.
So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.
Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.
When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.
And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor’s career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.
“You should be ashamed!” Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. “Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!”
Ms. Palin walks the national stage as a small-town foe of “good old boy” politics and a champion of ethics reform. The charismatic 44-year-old governor draws enthusiastic audiences and high approval ratings. And as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, she points to her management experience while deriding her Democratic rivals, Senators Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., as speechmakers who never have run anything.
But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.
Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.
 
much, much more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1221343324-tGxa66AkDRYq1tsNYpjoIw&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Palin: 

Secrecy,....check.

Cronyism,....check.

Demean enemies.....,check.

Absent from the job,.....check.

Lie,Repeat,Lie,Repeat,....check.

Construct a false persona,......check.

Suppress scientific information,.....check.

Devise ways to circumvent the law,.....check.

Demand loyalty or else you're fired,.....check.

Promote religious fundamentalism,......check.

Leave office and the citizens deeply in debt,.....check.
we've seen this movie before folks, and we know how it ends.

Yes, a real Horror Flick!
This isn't what I fought for.......it is kinda depressing to see this once great nation fall so low....

Right on, Toe!

Palin is equally handy with the lie and the AK-47.

Political "box cutter"

Ruthless (capable of sabotaging McCain to get what she wants, and she always gets what she wants.

A weapon of mass destruction (George Bush didn't even know where she was)

ML Smith

Back to the pregnancy issue.  The point is that Palin's daughter had a "choice"  I admire her for keeping her baby.  When I got pregnant back in the 60's, abortion was illegal, but I too had a choice.  I could choose to go to a back-alley Dr. and take the chance that I would die, or I could have the baby and give it up for adoption.  Bringing a baby home back then was not socially acceptable.  I wouldn't have been able to afford to bring up the baby and would have had to go on welfare.  I had to give my son up for adoption.  Palin's daughter is lucky in her situation as are most women these days (except those that have to go on welfare) because she'll be able to be supported by her Mom and Dad.  She may be lucky if her high school drop-out husband-to-be can get a decent job.  Jobs are hard to come by in Alaska.  The key word here is "choice"  Not everyone is lucky.

It's also interesting that Palin doesn't believe in abortion in the case of incest or rape.  Rape in Alaska is the number one crime against women.  When I was in Alaska 10 and 11 years ago, the ratio of men to women was 7 to 1.  I don't know what the current ratio is.  My son lived in Anchorage for several years doing search and rescue with the Air National Guard and my grandson was born there, as was my current part wolf dog.

Donna D

Does your part "wolf dog" have anything to do with Sarah Palin? Hey, I had a South American Cayman once. Sharp teeth.

The libs are trolling on Palin. While there are legitimate answers to all the specious questions I've seen raised about Palin here, I don't think that's the point . . .  I think the point is how crazy the over-reaction to Palin has been on the left. It's been crazy, to the point I think it will likely backfire.

Thank goodness for the nutroots left. On the whole, Obama has been running a great campaign and he's young and dynamic and yada, yada, yada. If it wasn't for all these lefties and the huge microphones that modern media (the blogosphere, cable netlets, etc) give them, and give conservative who want to widely circulate their insanity, I think Obama would be a given. A fate acompli. We'd just be sitting around waiting for the coronation.

As it is, it's hard to distinguish the reasonable (if traditional) campaign of Obama, who is better generally that Kerry or Gore were at campaigning, and the nutroots, conspiracy-minded, do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do lefties out there. The Trig Trutherism, the books Palin supposedly wanted to ban, Palin's alleged affair, and all the judgemental garbage about Palin having a baby with Down's syndrome . . . as if that's somehow disqualifying! My God, are you people nuts? I don't think I've seen anything here about McCain being pro-child molester, but it's out in the nutroots big time. "McCain is for child molestation!"

While Obama's campaign has a lot more sense, the play such stuff gets on the Web and then on cable nets--Fox being one example--must hurt Obama. He may still take it at the end of the day, but, Good lord. With friends like that, who needs enemas?

Kevin......
The woman (Sarah P) is simply none too bright, and somewhat clueless.... and Charlie Gibson fleshed this out a bit.  That's what scares libs.

I don't get the media is left wing stuff.  I can't find any radio station that isn't totally republican...Limbaugh, Miller, Hannity, Levin, Drudge, Marlsburgh (or however it's spelled) to name a few.  Wall Street Journal is now owned by Murdock as well as Fox News and many, many other news medias, and he now wants to take over the NY Times.  He's got a monopoly on the news media, but everyone says the media is leftist.

By-the-way, you don't have to be "leftist" to not want to vote for McPalin, you just have to want someone who is intelligent, thoughtful and has a lot of common sense.  We haven't seen anything close to that for the last eight years.

And, my lovely, sweet dog has nothing to do with Palin, however she does look like a wolf and I'm afraid Palin would have her shot from a plane since she does agree with that policy.

Wuff!

I am a Republican writing to express my dismay over Senator McCain’s rash choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, as well as to protest the capitulation of the Republican Party to the extreme right.
As a US Army veteran who labored at New York’s Ground Zero and served in Afghanistan, I deeply esteem and honor McCain’s far more substantial service to this country. I worked on Senator McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign in New York and have cheered his principled bipartisanship over the years. Since 2007, though, I have watched with concern as McCain has compromised with this country’s extreme right to pursue the presidency.
I withheld judgment on McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin until I could learn more. I admire her family cohesion, her ethical stand at the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, her tenacity and her athleticism. I would grade her performance as mayor and governor as good, but there are troubling allegations about her and her staff’s use of personal email for state business to circumvent legal disclosures, her deliberate suppression of scientific consensus regarding the adverse effects of global warming in the Arctic, her questions on how to ban books from public libraries, her acceptance of travel per diem for 320 days spent at home and her excessively high exercise of the cronyism that accompanies any politician.
Nonetheless, I waited for the ABC interview (and read the unedited script) because this focus on national and international issues is where her suitability for the vice presidency and potentially the presidency must be answered. Unfortunately, my fears were realized; Palin’s responses were canned. Arguments that she can prepare by January for the range of complex issues that she must master for this office are insanely delusional.
Her first disturbing interview moment came when she could not articulate a substantive view on any aspect of what one can call the evolving Bush Doctrine. One can criticize Gibson’s phrasing, but what Palin offered after prompting was fluff.
The second disturbing moment came when discussing Russia and Georgia. She clearly knows nothing of Georgia, Russia or NATO. Palin advocates the inclusion of Georgia and Ukraine into a NATO suffering severe strains as it digests the Baltic and Central European states during an active military conflict; forget integrating the larger, more complex Georgia and Ukraine in the near future. Peeling off Russia’s most sensitive former satellites into a US-dominated military partnership would inflame a country already feeling dangerously isolated. Her saber-rattling reference to NATO’s Article 5 goes even further than McCain’s ill-judged threats to exclude Russia from the G8. Palin’s calls for economic sanctions against Russia would have no impact on a Russia cash-rich from energy and commodity prices but would inflame further both Russian political and popular opinion against the US.
The third disturbing issue with Palin is her insistent advocacy of drilling in the ANWR to “achieve energy independence,” which also exceeds McCain’s own position. On this issue, however, both Palin and McCain have been disastrously off the mark. Throughout his Senate tenure, McCain has voted consistently against increased funding for alternative energies.  Drilling in ANWR or other offshore repositories will at best have a very nominal impact on the price of oil.
I had hoped we would find in Palin a politician who, like Reagan before her, studies widely and reflects deeply on the larger issues of our time, but Palin displays only preternatural confidence in her own invincibility. The scale of the financial sector meltdown alone, which occupies another universe of complexity from the budget decisions facing a small town mayor of 6,300 citizens and governor of the 48th smallest state population, should make voters pause.
The selection of Palin highlights two troubling trends within our Republican Party: the elevation of a culture of willful mediocrity and an uncompromising allegiance to the complete prohibition of abortion.
In the first case, it is expressed as cynical disdain for intellectual curiosity, educational and work-force achievement and the experience that comes from study and travel to understand others both within our own country and throughout the world. Wholesale, it mocks our top universities and derides the expertise of seasoned professionals. In the second case, it manifests through unforgiving exile for any Republican who advocates anything less than the most extreme rejection of a woman’s right to choose. Our Republican Party has become a party of inquisitional religious zealotry, fear-mongering, xenophobia and jingoism.
Republicans may howl that I overlook the faults of the Democratic party – this is not my concern. I am addressing the problems I have with my own party. Religion is an important and valuable part of the lives of most of this nation’s citizens, but the Constitution enshrines the separation of church and state. I am a Christian personally opposed to abortion but a respecter of Roe vs Wade; I admire some aspects of Palin’s religious devotion, but she intrudes her private faith too invasively into her public service.
This is not a popularity contest to vote which candidate would be the best Sunday dinner guest. People suffer untimely deaths, life savings and opportunities evaporate, and our children and grandchildren bear the consequences of bad decisions by our presidents and vice presidents.
I have voted consistently for the Republican Party and donated large sums to it over the years. Much as I would like to see a fellow woman in the White House, I cannot in conscience support the Republican Party any further in its ruinous course. I urge my fellow citizens to consider carefully the consequences of electing a very elderly senator and a very ignorant short-tenured governor to the hardest jobs in the world.

"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession.
I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."
-- Ronald Reagan
(1911-2004) 40th US President
178......Excellent post!

A letter written to Sara Palans church in Wasilla Alaska on 9/11/O8..............................................
I am a published christian author who has a plan to help your assembly of God church and Sara thwart this
media storm now coming at you.
As you know the liberal news media is planning an even greater attack on your
church because of Sara Palen. They are contacting every willing enemy who wants national publicity they can
find in your area.
 
This political effort will unfairly focus on the false premise that your church
has long practiced extreme doctrines in spite of any evidence you may testify to the
contrary.
They obviously consider such an attack on your church to be their best chance of
discouraging other christians and non christians to view Sara as a serious contender for the whitehouse but a religious nut.  
These critics well know that most American christians follow specific Bible doctrines
over political interests.
 
The plan is to cast both your church and Sara Palan as being outsiders from traditional
biblical christianity. They hope to create the appearance of an agenda driven theology seeking power.
The vulnerabilities they are targeting are to be created to widely exploit the idea
that ...
 
1. The Iraq war was Gods plan making it appear that Sara has a prophetic call by direct revelation from God to support Iraq.
 
2. Spread the notion that Sara is motivated by a revelation from God to fulfill
a prophecy that Alaska has a mission from God to save America and the world.
 
3. To make a direct connection to your church as being the source of this political
 
doctrine which cannot be supported by the Bible and therefore becomes something
 
which offends biblical christianity and American voters.
 
4. Playing up the idea and expectation that Americans do not yet know Sara Palan
and something hidden is going to soon be revealed about her that is sinister.
 
I have already published a plan to fight back at these charges by sound interpret
ation of the Bible. Suppose these teachings could be deflected away from your church
and entirely separated from Sara Palan?  My publication biblically supports Alaska
having a prophetic mission and you can read the prophet Jacobs words from the Bible.. My Book also demonstrates Iraq prophetically being freed by
the great eagle in the end times. Surely America is the simbol of freedom today.
 
How would this deflect the liberals who plan to exploit these issues?
 
Why must we derail this? Christians by the thousands are already accepting these ideas from me.  They are
buying my book and watching the youtube video on this page which explains these teachings directly
from their own Bible as they follow it along.
Lets turn this issue into a Bible study which will unite christians against the liberals and their secret
plan.
 
Facts count...Sara Palan was asking the people of Alaska to pray for the troops in Iraq to become
part of Gods plan. Sara was asking the people to pray that Alaska would become part
of Gods plan. She never associated this prayer request with any revelation from God nor church teaching.
 
Suppose some one else not connected to Sara nor her former church was the
one who actually stated that Alaska and Iraq were Gods plan. This would change
 
the focus away from your church and Sara and point people to their own Bible for verification.. Here are the facts now published and
 
available for all christians to examine on youtube.
 
The Bible designates the state of Alaska in this Bible prophecy. Gods greatest blessing must reach the "utmost bound of the everlasting hills." This prophecy can be seen in Genesis chapter 49:22-26. The Rocky mountains represent the only chain of mountains on the earth which are continuous and endless. Early explorers could never find the end of these prophetic everlasting hills discovered in America. The Bible’s “utmost bounds” of the rockies would not describe south America nor central America, only the western United States can pinpoint North America where the the Rockies clearly lead upwards toward the utmost bounds of the Rockies which pinpoint the Alaska uttermost bounds exactly. The prophet Jacob promised the tribe of Joseph the greatest blessings for the end of days as located exactly at this spot."Gen.49:1" These Biblical Blessings were promises promised above all the other tribes of Israel. See Genesis 49:1 and Genesis 49:22. Joseph recieved the birthright. These are real prophecies in the Bible about Alaska. Sara recognizes the Alaska promises and makes it very clear why her people in the west must prepare their hearts for the blessings God has promised them! Jacob describes the "blessings of the deep that lieth under" or the oil wealth. Gen."49:25. "Both 9/11 and the Iraq war are biblical events which confirm to us why Sara feels so strongly about our troops in Iraq. This is an overview of my book dedicated to Sara Palins mission titled “Bible prophecies of 9-11″ This is not just another good theory, but an actual Bible prophecy which clearly reveals the Iraq war and also 9/11. This prophecy is plainly written into the Bible. You will literally see the specific details of 9/11 within your own Bible! You will learn why Sara prays for Alaska to bless our nation! This election represents a biliclal moment in time. Critics are now working hard to prove that this discovery is false and have failed to uncover it as another hoax. We invite you to investigate this matter and follow along with your Bible and witness it for yourself. I am currently requesting the help of a small group of christians to assist me on a national news story. A publishing organization affiliated with Salem communications has recently published their official press release which openly declares my biblical discovery to the public. http://www.eternaltruth.net This web sight can provide enough evidence for you to investigate the validity of my claim. I recently published this discovery which opens up a chain of clues dealing with King Nebuchadnezzar’s repentance process as recorded in Daniel chapter four. This recorded event resulted in God blessing Nebuchadnezzar and his ancient land located today in Iraq. That particular blessing involved future promises of freedom in the end times through great eagle’s wings. The eagle today is certainly the symbol of the United states currently bringing this freedom to Iraq as predicted in the Bible. I am contacting people who represent different denominations who can understand and explain type and shadow prophecies.. I am confident that a common continuity of opinion by such persons can validate my discovery to media sources as a worthy news story. This requires a non denominational approach to succeed. The interest factor for the media would be common agreement upon a specific biblical interpretation coming from differing faiths who agree upon a sound interpretation concerning one of the most important issues for this coming election about Iraq. As you know religion has become a central issue for presidential candidates opening up a rare opportunity to promote the importance of God and moral issues. Sara Palan is an example to christians for the following reasons. She has learned how to distinguish good from evil on a level where she no longer fears challenging evil. She sees deeply into the hearts of the people who are hiding an evil agenda. This book teaches you how to see the world the way Sara sees it. The wicked became afraid from the very first moment Sara came upon the national scene. These people instinctively knew that Sara could see them for who they were and could not be controled by their fear. Once christians become enlightened by this book they can gain the same understanding Sara has learned through both experience and wisdom. Christ warns us about people he described as evil vipers. Few can see the depth of exactly why such persons are so dangerous as they work in darkness to destroy everything good. Sara actually fought and removed such people from power in Alaska because she fully understands the depth such evil by knowing how to unmask their vulnerabilities. Simply by having your eyes opened to see good from evil as taught within this book one can likewise be enlightened like Sara Palan. The book “Bible prophecies of 9/11″ teaches you how to see the monster which is hidden from public view freeing your mind and spirit from the destructive blindness most people cannot fully see. Through this wisdom you gain power over such influences and free your soul from being trapped by their cunning snares. Some of the top conservative sights in America currently have my video presentation posted and available for public view. You may view my video on the Rush Limbaugh’s official myspace page. You may view it on Laura Ingrams page as well as numerous other conservative sights and blogs. The Iraq war will be of major political interest during the election. This is rather timely and important. This may be a way for you and others to gain national recognition by helping us unite christian denominations during a critical election year. This is also a chance for people of faith to show our troops a united support for their mission as one christian voice. If you are interested please feel free to view our video and test my biblical claims. Please call concerning any and all questions. Looking forward to hearing from you soon. I need your help. I am not a famous author who can reach the masses of christians who the media is trying to influence against Sara and your church. If there is a way I can help you or you can assist me to change the media focus please contact me. Fox news would surely be willing to change the focus away from Sara and your assembly of God church.www.eternaltruth.net

Ben Paul,

Even if every word of your absurdity were true, you spell Sarah Palin's name wrong throughout and actually her last name wrong in TWO different ways.  It erodes your credibility which is non existent anyway.  But thank you for being a front and center republican poster child.  You represent the best of your party.....

The Republican Party selected Palin as McCain's running mate to dilute the "more of the same" label, but that decision has not panned out as planned. It should have, if she had been instructed to "low key" her approach and persona. However, that has not been the case and Palin has emerged with more of a "good old boy" image than McCain himself. It raises interesting, if not slightly bizarre questions. Did the Republican Party have a better "hitter" on deck? Did they consult Joe Torre on this thing? It smacks of his strategy to pull his best hitter in response to left handed pitching (Hillary Clinton) only to be left flat footed by an unexpected pitching change. (Joe Biden)
In any event, Palin has not diluted the "more of the same" image; she has reinforced it. Snapshots of her toting an AK-47 have not helped, nor has her profile as a ruthless politician who will do just about anything to get what she wants. Her speeches have portrayed her as vitriolic, reactionary and cutting - a "hard-liner" carved from the mold of the past eight years. Palin's political history in Alaska is checkered with "good old boy" tactics; from her appointment of a high school buddy, Franci Havemeister to direct the State Division of Agriculture, (Ms. Havemeister worked as a realtor and cited her "love of cows" as a qualification for the $95,000 per annum job) to her use of personal e-mail to communicate sensitive issues with her staff. Dozens of e-mail messages obtained by the New York Times showed that her staff members put a lot of effort into finding out whether that could allow them to avoid subpoenas for public records.

According to the Times, University of Alaska professor Rick Steiner sought the e-mail messages of state scientists on global warming and its endangerment of polar bears. Palin informed him that results of the study showed no correlation between endangerment of polar bears and global warming. When Steiner obtained the e-mail messages through a federal records request, it turned out that scientists had concluded just the opposite; that polar bears were in fact endangered by global warming. So she lies, too, completing the package Americans have said quite loudly and clearly they want no part of anymore. 
ML Smith

Sad GOP voter: 

Your statement was very thoughtful.  I too liked McCain in 2000 and thought he was a credible candidate for President and I have also been dissappointed in his change since that time.  I have only voted once for a Republican, I admit I lean towards the Democratic values for women, but I'd take a good Republican any day over a bad Democrat.  I listen very carefully to what they say and what they do and work hard at gleaning the truth from the hype.  I can not vote for McCain. 

Palin to me is all fluff, no substance and the way the office of the presidency ages every President, I worry that she may be President much sooner than would be good for this country.  You know that even if she loses, she's got many years ahead of her to run for office and those years will be very necessary for her to learn what it means to be President.

If Obama becomes President and something happens to him, I'd have complete faith that Biden would be very qualified to take his place.

Donna D

Even if you did vote for McCain, he wouldn't last long. Palin is the one to worry about. McCain better watch his back because she is one ruthless, cunning box-cutter of a politician...ALL WOLF.

ML Smith......
Good point, i never thought of it in that sense, but it could turn out like that.

Yeah, I don't like to think about it but the woman is nasty, she's a liar and she gets what she wants. Boy, did I ever underestimate her!

Hi, Dave...good to se ya.'

I musta really piss'd off some one here at UC's blog.........they had god send me a plague of MUMPS on me!  i'm so dam'd sick!

David,

I figured that there must have been something wrong...you're not supposed to agree with me. The mumps must have gotten into your brain. Or, worse even...


Given the apparent chaos and confusion marked by America's "two-party" system, I am beginning to question its existence altogether. Each party seems bent on playing into the hands of the other; so much so that it hardly matters which party you happen to be affiliated with. Important issues like the economy, foreign affairs and the infrastructure have taken a back seat to questions about McCain's age and suspected compromised mental status, Obama's middle name and Sarah Palin's bikini size. All in all, McCain is being painted as an aging fool; Obama as a self-serving proponent of Communism, or worse even, as a closet Muslim radical, and Palin as a potential VP with a mouth like a political box-cutter.
I have been giving this some thought, which is, admittedly, dangerous since anything I think about seems to turn into a circus trapeze act with comic overtones. Now is the time, I think, to set the record straight by taking an objective look at the situation. I did, and this is what I came up with.
Suppose they are all in it together?
Suppose that the two-party system is an illusion, created to manipulate the public and maintain the status quo? I can almost hear the conversation now.
"John, you have got to keep your speeches short and to the point. You are beginning to rant incoherently."
"Maybe you're right, Sadie, but Osama here is running on like it's his show. I won't stand for it."
"John, my name is Sarah and Barrack's last name is Obama."
"I knew it. Obama Bin Laden. We'll get him, I promise you that."
"Alright John, why don't you get some rest and we'll work things out. Now, down to business...where is Joe?"
"In Cuba, Sarah. Don't you remember, you wanted a good Cuban cigar."
"Oh, yes Barrack, but when will he return? I'm dying for that Cuban cigar."
"Cuban Missiles! We must strike now...seize the moment, nuke them before they have a-"
"John, we're talking about cigars, not missiles."
"Oh. Well why didn't you say that? I love Cuban cigars."
"Mort, Mort, wake up...Mort!"
I could hear voices, but they were coming from far away. Finally, I came to, with my friend Billy shaking me by the shoulders. I had fallen asleep at my computer.
"Mort, the polls will be closed in an hour. You better hurry."
"What happened?"
"I don't know. Your door was open and I came in to find you sound asleep."
"Yeah, I was having this crazy dream...about Cuban cigars."
On the way to the polls, Billy filled me in.
"You must have been asleep for days, man. I don't know about cigars, but Cuba has missiles again, aimed at us. Looks like the Russians are at it again."
"What have the candidates been saying?"
"Well, Obama says we should just ignore the whole thing, that he can handle it diplomatically."
"And McCain?"
"My God, man, where have you been? McCain dropped out last month. Palin is the candidate for President now."
"What? Are you serious?"
"Yes, and she is proposing that we nuke them immediately."
"Sounds like Bush."
"You mean...you don't even know?"
"Know what?"
"Palin and Bush got Mexican divorces...they are married. If she gets elected, he will become the First Man."
I was in a state of shock, unable to focus on anything. How could I possibly vote?
"Billy, does Palin look like Presidential material to you?"
"She sure did last night on TV."
"Why do you say that."
"She was smoking a cigar while Obama was giving his final speech to his delegates.
Somebody, please, wake me up. This can't be real. I know, the campaign has been a bit tilted from the start...but this? I will never sit at this computer again to write a political article. Clearly, my brain cannot handle the current complexities of American politics. § .

ML,

Sounds like a good skit for the stage...pretty funny.  I loved the Saturday Night Live skit.  I missed it on Saturday, but caught it on Utube.

To Ben Paul,

You say you want to unite Christians against liberals? You want to run a Bible Study class here? Fine. Question: How are you going to unite Christians against Christians who are liberals? Or, are all liberals heathens? 

Have you read the Constitution...ever? This is not a religious war. Do you want to create one?

And Mr. Paul, I hope you have a good editor for your book. 

May the force be with you in your attempt to wipe out liberals and their "secret" plan. Let them all be smitten from the face of the earth.
ML Smith

In tonight's interview with Hanity, Palin really showed what she is all about.  She did not waver when she said that she would not bend on her views for a particular party and that this is not about a particular gender.  That is a great leader!!!!  I will not judge her based on hearsay and hope that others are smart enough to do the same.  HA!  However, from what i've seen on these blogs and others, i know some people believe everything they hear, i.e, she tried to have books removed from the library, and numerous other stupid comments.  GIVE ME A BREAK!  i'm smarter than that and hope others learn to be too!  Palin has proven she stands for change and unlike others, i don't compare her to Bush any more than i would compare Obama to Carter.  I don't want eight more years of Bush, and I don't want one second of Obama and the democatic views!!!!!

jack  - well said my friend.

Palin is a "great leader?" May I ask, who are you comparing her to, JFK, Lincoln, FDR? She doesn't even have a rookie card yet. You might as well compare Big Brown to Secretariat while you're at it.

So far, what I have seen in Palin is:

[1] Dishonesty
[2] Ruthlessness
[3] Cunning
[4] Much, much more of the same

What I have not seen is:

[1] Economic expertise - not that this is any big deal right now, but it might come in handy considering the present state of our economy, or lack of one for all practical purposes. 
[2] An essential understanding of foreign affairs
[3] A sense of fair play and real concern for the "little guy"

I think a debate with Joe Biden will go a long way to exposing her for the fraud that she is. Great leader? NO WAY!
 
ML Smith

Jack....
I don't need to depend on any one telling me about who this woman is.
I've listened to her.........she's a F**KING IDIOT!  A potential leader for our nation needs a modicum of intelligence.  By her own account, she only scored D+ in Macro Economics.  Just what we need!  Wow!  are you serious?  Tell me your kidding?
I would be ashamed to have her lead this nation.  Bush is stupid.......this woman is dumb.
Leadership?  By what definition......Army FM 22-100 defines leadership, and one of the traits of a leader is integrity.  Yet she is a habitual liar.
Change?  Exactly what kind of change are we talking about here?  How has she proven she's for change other than just saying the words?

Strong words, David, and every one true.  I just can't imagine that McCain and his 'advisors' who forced Palin upon him are anything but intensely embarrassed right now.  If not, what are they on?  Seriously...it's soooo clear that this pick was a political ploy that gave them a bit of a bump, but it's also clear now that they didn't really know much about her.  And if they did, it's even more of a laugh.


1.  Bridge to nowhere (lying)
2.  Cut funding for Special Olympics (lied yesterday saying she has continually sought more funding for special needs children)
3.  Did bring religion into her office in Wasilla
4.  Book banning
5.  Tanning bed
6.  Per diem for staying at her own home
7.  Hires friends who are unqualified for post
8.  Hubby would like Alaska to leave the union
9. Oh, she's under investigation for 'abuse of power' - hmmm, seem familiar?
10.  Ignores subpoenas, like Rove
11.  Bush doctrine
12.  Can't even sound smart when Hannity's interviewing her
13.  etc.


Anyway, keep up the good work.

#12 was the Best!( Can't even sound smart when Hannity's interviewing her)
keep up the good work as well
In her mind, she's ready to lead!  Good chance for that too.......which will lead to some seriously funny Daily Show episodes, huh?

Would any of you morons like to get rick-roll'd?


http://smouch.nt/lol/

Would any of you idiots like to get rick-roll'd?


http://smouch.nt/lol/

Some of the reports about Palin are incorrect, I agree.  She didn't ban books in the library, but she did ask how she could go about getting rid of books in the library (paraphrased.)  When the librarian told her NO WAY, she backed off and didn't ask to have books removed......However!  There's no excuse for even asking!  Just wanting to ban books is totally out of line.   This is America and no one should be deciding for us what books we can or can't read.  If the librarian hadn't stood up to her, banning books is exactly what she would have done.

As for Hannity, he was his usual sweetheart with people he interviews or talks to who agree with his very right wing, conservative views.  He didn't give her a hard time like O'Reill gave Obama.  She and he had no credibility.  Talking points, that's all they are about.

I just cringe when I think about Palin possibly being President if something happened to McCain and having McCain as President is scary enough. 

And, McCain graduated the bottom 5 of his class...real winners we have running here.  So let's see, we have a D-in Macro-Economics with a degree in Journalism for Palin (although she hates journalists...hmmm...) and an under acheiver in McCain (along with his womanizing, cheating and temper) running for office.  If they win, this country gets what it deserves.  Some morality we're looking at here.

Duh, why do somebody has to be intelligent as long as they can purvent a nookaler war?

ML

I know what you guys are up to...and I'm not paranoid, am I? Sending me that update on "rick-roll'd?" You think I'm going to chomp on that like a hungry fish, don't you?

Well I have news for you. I may be a moron but I'm not stupid. I can see the "You failed the challenge" handwriting on the wall. Trying to bait me into a string of obscenities again? By the way, thanks for erasing that. 

No, no boys, I'm not going for it. I think "50%, losers" is a brilliant mind in disguise. 

And another thing. That string of obscenities was not my fault - it was a curse thrown on me by Mr. whatsisname. I didn't get the Mumps like David did...I got a brain infection. That's waht happens when you have unprotected Internetcourse with strangers.

Go ahead...do your thing.

Who says you don't get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression ?


On or about October 5th, Biden will excuse himself from the ticket, citing health problems, and he will be replaced by Hillary. This is
timed to occur after the VP debate on 10/2. 


Well...Barack Obama says he's all about "change"... this proves it
Joe Biden under the bus...Hillary comes aboard...            "CLINTON
POWER"

Who says you don't get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression ?


On or about October 5th, Biden will excuse himself from the ticket, 
citing health problems, and he will be replaced by Hillary. This is timed to occur after the VP debate on 10/2. 


Well...Barack Obama says he's all about "change"... this proves it
Joe Biden under the bus...Hillary comes aboard...            "CLINTON POWER"

Who says you don't get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression?



On or about October 5th, Biden will excuse himself from the ticket, 
citing health problems, and he will be replaced by Hillary. This is timed to occur after the VP debate on 10/2. 


Well...Barack Obama says he's all about "change"... this proves it
Joe Biden under the bus...Hillary comes aboard...            "CLINTON POWER"

Palin vindicated?
Governor offers Orwellian spin
Published: October 13th, 2008 10:02 PM
Last Modified: October 13th, 2008 10:17 PM

Sarah Palin's reaction to the Legislature's Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.
She claims the report "vindicates" her. She said that the investigation found "no unlawful or unethical activity on my part."

for complete article in Anchorage Daily News:
http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/555236.html

Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.
Page 8, Finding Number One of the report says: "I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act."
In plain English, she did something "unlawful." She broke the state ethics law.

Governor somehow drew a connection between Barack Obama's tax policy and an encroaching, nightmarish, communist government. The Illinois Democrat, she hysterically suggested, would, through his proposals, create a country "where the people are not free."
 
Obama's tax plans are less progressive than those in place during the Clinton years. In fact, the rates that people making over $250,000 would have to pay would be the same as during the 1990s -- a time definitely not marked by the absence of freedoms yet, the ever uninformed ,fear monger noise from Palin and McCain have decided that we apparently lived under communism at this time according to Palin in Iowa tonight.
Gosh-

hmmm...let's see....

At an October 2000 town hall on MSNBC’s Hardball, an audience member asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) about why the rich pay higher taxes than the middle class. McCain defended progressive taxation, stating, “I think it’s to some degree because we feel, obviously, that wealthy people can afford more”:
McCain:
"So, look, here’s what I really believe, that when you are — reach a certain level of comfort, there’s nothing wrong with paying somewhat more. … And frankly, I think the first people who deserve a tax cut are working Americans with children that need to educate their children, and they’re the ones that I would support tax cuts for first."
 
now, I wonder who he sounds like...hmmmmmmm.??  could it be that McCain is a sleeper cell communist?   wonder what he will believe in next week?

Still on the Palin kick? Amazing!

Rich, my esteemed friend and President of the Society to Protect People from Sarah Palin says he doesn't like her politics but she is entirely fuckable...and he believes that she can indeed help the nation simply by spreading her legs.

I agree. She is truly a piece of ass, though it is getting larger these days.