Re: McCain picks Palin I'm more scared of Lieberman, because he looks and sounds like Emperor Palpatine.
Re: McCain picks Palin To get back on topic,sorta, I think Palin did an amazing job last night. I sat and switched between CNN, MSNBC, and Fox when it was over for commentary. MSNBC pundits sat and largely bashed here as Pat Buchanan milked Maddow and Olbermann to finally say she did a good job. Harold Ford (he should be running for President to me) seems to actually have the fairest commentary. MSNBC seems to be the opposite of Fox these days, or maybe they just have Obama fever. Fox toes the party line,and largely spoke well of Palin. Oddly CNN won in my view for coverage, after Palin spoke, Wolf Blitzer held off their commentary on the show until the national anthem was over. They also had a lot of both sided interviews going including the Democratic panel response on Larry King which is the same thing they did for the Obama commentary.
Re: McCain picks Palin She put on a good show. Her deportment, energy, and confidence were impressive, and with those charms and her good looks she won the approval of many. However, it wasn't a very substantial speech, and having scrutinized what there is of her record, I'm pretty concerned. Anyway, as to the speech, I could have done without the low blows at Obama. Tired of low blows coming from both sides, so trust me, even though I'm a registered Democrat, I have issues with Obama being such a political suit, too. But the "Obama parting the waters" crap ... too much. I'm tired of the right's silly "your messiah" line. Nobody expects Obama to be perfect or to save the world. This is a cheap projection by GOP pundits, and it's just false and franky hypocritical, given the fact that Dubya thinks God wanted him to be president and Palin thinks God wants us in Iraq. Obama supporters just expect him to be more competent than Dubya, much better for international relations at a crucial time, and yes, something different from the W admin. If McCain still represented the same ideas that he did five years ago, I wouldn't object to a McCain presidency. However, he now appears to advocate a continuation of what I see as the very ruinous Bush administration policies.
Re: McCain picks Palin I like how the "Pubulicans" are waving the war hero thing in the face of everybody but when Kerry did it four years ago - they discredited him and wore band-aids on their faces during the convention........ And also - where is the talk of WHAT they are going to do to fix this country? Haven't heard any of that, just a lot of "Obama is inexperienced and McCain is ready for the job". AND - nice they let the sitting President talk for a whopping 8 minutes via satellite from the white house. Cheney is in Georgia....... wow talk about trying to distance yourself from the present administration - one McCain stuck his head up their asses four years ago! There's a Maverick for you!
Re: McCain picks Palin After attending an hour long mandatory staff meeting today, I was given a stark reminder of why our country is so royally fucked up - We allow idiots to vote!!!! 45 minutes of the time was spent by my wacked out Republican boss angrily telling us the only reason the Clinton presidency was a success was that he 'terrorized America with his threats of the Y2K bug destroying our infrastructure" thereby causing us to spend billions to beef up our computer systems. Yes, from God's mouth to my bosses ears, Bill Clinton CREATED the Y2K bug in order to aid his presidency, therefore how can we take a chance on what Barack Obama might resort to if he gets into office! In between were an array of compliments about Mrs. Palin's being so 'Smokin hot' during her speech. Such an astute analysis of the issues. Anyone care to guess what Cable News Channel he watches or which radio format he is tuned to 8 hours a day in his office? (in all fairness to him, he is at least consistent with his objectification of women. Not a day went by during the primaries when he didn't forward around a 'funny' email criticizing Hillary Clinton not for her policies, but for her fat ankles.)
Re: McCain picks Palin It is amazing how embedded special interest groups such as those from the religious right and big business have so shamelessly tainted our political system in such a relatively short time. In fact, it was the Republican Party that made issue with JFK being a Catholic whose family goes to church weekly and questioned whether or not he would be able to maintain the government's separation between church and state. Heck, now they're playing Christian music with a giant United States flag flowing in the background at their party's convention. One of my all time favorite books is The Closing of The American Mind by Allan Bloom, which discusses in detail America's shift from a world class educated populace to one much more insular. For example, in world literature while the French have their Pascal and Descarte, the Italians their Machiavelli, the Brits their Shakespeare, the Germans Nietzche and Goethe, America has always prided itself on its excellence in mastering all of them in post secondary education. Sadly, with the drastic cuts in the liberal arts in America's national curriculum in favor of specialization, our world class educated populace seems to be a thing of the past. We need to again broaden our horizons as a people. The strength of any democracy can be measured both by how educated its people are and the speed in which they react to social injustice. It is scary how easily americans are manipulated by baseless political meandering. I think this election will be very telling.
Re: McCain picks Palin if i was to break it would be for that scrumptious smelling sausage pizza thats in the kitchen right now.
Re: McCain picks Palin Couldn't agree more, yet the culture wars rage on. The saddest legacy of the repressive 'Greed is Good' Reagan era is that now these people's children are being taught that a liberal education will only make things more 'confusing' for them when they get out into the 'real world' and need to make money. A liberal education is now outwardly ridiculed by many. And so we get Extreme Cage Fighting, NASCAR, and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour to occupy our free time. All very cleverly designed 'entertainment' intended to keep the populace not only fat and stupid, but easily manipulated as well.
Re: McCain picks Palin Yeah, the speech was great. Palin raised $10 million in the last 24 hours... for Obama. The Republicans raised 1/10th of that. This woman is like the anti-Hillary. http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/obama_campaign_raises_8m_in_le.php
Re: McCain picks Palin Honestly I don't know who the hell thinks Sarah Palin is HOT?! She looks the a troll innkeeper you'd meet entering some dark forest in LOTR! I swear, I really have "0" faith in objectivity of your average American. People really do base their decisions on the dumbest , shouldn't even matter in the realm of the real world bullshit. It boils down to this: Your average dumb redneck American is scared and they really do believe The Nazi *ahem* I mean Republican party will save us so they don't want change. Which is really ironic because I bet they laugh all the way to the bank why your average redneck can't get a job. They use stupid church/moral issues to snag them when they really have no place in politics. BUT that's what your average dumbass thinks matters. Never mind that McCain wants to start WW3?! "Gosh shucks is God's will- a holy war" Then you have your liberals, thinking Obama is really going to change things but he's not. He's going to do whatever every president does. Give all the people that got him elected, jobs, money, power, push laws the benefit only them.....Every 4 years we go through the same bullshit. Until you overhaul the entire system everyone is going to have that "we're fucked" look the day after the election.
Re: McCain picks Palin And what's up with the comparisons to Tina Fey. Okay, the are both female and wear glasses...but so does Ugly Betty! Not seeing many similarities beyond that.
Re: McCain picks Palin I think she is attractive. Also she has a cute lil accent; it can melt and skin a polar bear in seconds...
Re: McCain picks Palin I like Extreme Cage fighting and I don't THINK I'm brain washed, or is that part of the process, I'm unaware of my brainwashed-self?
Re: McCain picks Palin I think you're safe. The statement 'Stupid People enjoy cage fighting' isn't the logical equivalent to the statement 'People who enjoy cage fighting are stupid.' I've got to assume that anyone that collects and appreciates vinyl toys has already sufficiently distinguished themselves from the unwashed masses.
Re: McCain picks Palin Happy to oblige, I've been following along ... I just got a bit lost when the "Anti-American' business began, I'm not even sure what that means! Michelle's comment was fairly innocuous, but besides, if Obama's gonna have to answer for every word of hers, does that mean that we should judge McCain and Caribou Barbie based on every damfool thing their spouses say or do? Anything/anyone in particular you want rebutted? Factoid re: Palin - Nine different VPs, or more than one of every five, have ended up having to finish out their President's term due to death or resignation. We've had five VPs since Ford finished Nixon's term, so arguably we're overdue. McCain does trot out that wizened Mama at the drop of a hat when age comes up, but genetically his male ancestors' lifespans may be more relevant, and that's scary. I wonder if we won't see a Harriet Myers routine here - Palin "decides that her family needs her," and McCain swaps in Lieberman. Listening to the RNC is just bizarro - Like watching a stage play of Orwell's 1984 - Black is White, Misery is Happiness, Change is More Of The Same. Essentially, the message seems to be "The only party you can trust to get us out of this mess is the one who got us into it."
Re: McCain picks Palin Actually that's a really good point, I hadn't thought of... They rant and rave about family values etc etc, but it does make one wonder when a mother of 5, one of which is a mere 4-5months old and another child with child due shortly, decides to jump on the campaign trail. Is now REALLY the right time for this great american mother to decide to take on the role of Vice President of the United States of America? Aside from all the other things I question about her, I am now forced to question how good a mother she is, as well as how good her judgment and decision making abilities are. Because at the moment, it seems pretty poor.
Re: McCain picks Palin What do you Mean Harriet Myers? I don't think she was the first nor last person in the governments present "Turd Squad" to use that excuse. There has been a virtual parade of outgoing members to use that little Republican Chestnut. Lets see: Tom Ridge, John Ashcroft, Scott McClelland, Ari Fleischer........I think even Old Rummy used it.
Re: McCain picks Palin She's had an incredibly rocky start but I believe they will keep her in unless Troopergate indicts her or National Enquirer comes through with sex photos from her romp with her husband's business partner. They will keep the media away from her, and probably use her for fundraising and issuing attacks on the Dems. Biden could also overstep and have a gaffe that would illicit sympathy for her and create further problems for the Dems. I think she's an absolute monster, but she is energizing the religious right base and is more exciting than McCain.
Re: McCain picks Palin kudos to Stealthtank for being the kind of (unfortunately endangered) republican we need more of! I'm a lefty who believes in social spending, but only based on a fair tax system and transparent, efficient administration. I believe a left-leaning government can improve people's lives, but I think the endangered school of small-government republicans can play a vital watchdog role in balancing and streamlining government. I'm happy to pay taxes when they are being spent responsibly, to strengthen our country. Republican Senator Norm Coleman let $23 BILLION in appropriations to Iraq slip through the cracks under his watch. Literally, pallates of newly-minted $100 bills in Baghdad that just disappeared. People like Coleman get up in arms over arts & education programs that cost a few million a year. Is this responsible government? I hope the republican party will come back to its senses, but for now it seems unlikely to escape from the Roves, the religious right, the borrow-and-spenders, the neocons & the straight-up thieves who've wasted hundreds of billions of tax dollars in the past 8 years.
Re: McCain picks Palin No, I don't offer Harriet as an obscure example of another incompetent fleeing the Titanic of W's White House for 'family matters,' (indeed that was not the excuse with Harriet).* I meant that she was someone deeply unqualified for the nomination in the first place, and when the reaction from the Senate (including plenty of appalled GOP Senators) was so bad and the media firestorm started to heat up, W yanked her and nominated Alito. (It was a little more tangled than that, with Rehnquist's death intervening, and Roberts' nomination being switched from the O'Connor seat to Chief Justice, but that was the story on Harriet. She was almost surely the least qualified Supreme Court nominee in the last 100 years ... pretty much in keeping with W's standard practice throughout his Presidency -- Those who adore and agree with him on everything are automatically qualified to hold any job, anywhere.) * - Incidentally, my folks in DC tell me that the upcoming transition from W to the next President, whoever it may be, is already looking fraught with dangers and problems. Between a) eight years of Bush appointing nincompoops and cronies and driving the career-competency officers out (think Wesley Clark ... and several nameless thousands like him), and b) even W's own idiots now being able to see that association with this administration is not gonna be the career boost they'd hoped for and bailing out early, many sub-Cabinet posts are and apparently will now remain empty until after November. And there's still a lot of time for a lot of trouble to occur, from national security to EPA to Justice. We have a fair scattering of Dems and independents here, I wanna ask - What's y'all's feeling on post-W prosecutions? (I'll assume the GOPers here would be against it - ) That is, assume Obama wins and it is clear (from the records W can no longer conceal) that W, Cheney, Gonzalez et al. committed more / more serious crimes than the many of which we are already aware. If you prosecute, you steal national attention/media/mindshare away from real problems on which you might be able to make progress. If you do not prosecute, you are essentially saying: "Can't be bothered with high crimes by the White House, just too busy." Neither seems appealing. If there were a way to prosecute without the media circus, that would be different ... But there just is not. (Absent simply tossing 'em into Gitmo, which does have the appeal of justice-as-symmetry at least!)
Re: McCain picks Palin They would be appropriate and probably legally justified, but only worthwhile in a different milieu. Such prosecutions would be so deeply divisive and bureaucratic as to rip this country apart even more than the idiotic Lewinsky affair and eight years of Dubya. On those principles, I'd be against it, as I believe we have more urgent priorities than punishing our traitors and war criminals, and would prefer to see a Democratic leadership focus on immediate and long-range priorities than get bogged down in punitive trials. I would rather see an un-doing of the damages done to checks and balances on the executive branch and the intelligence community. I'd rather see a dramatically scaled-back PATRIOT act, or a complete dismissal of it in favor of something more sensible. And so on. It would be more effective to un-do the damage done by Bush's neocon puppeteers than to punish them. Let's let history do that.
Re: McCain picks Palin depends on the severity of the crimes, and whether they can be irrefutably pinned on those responsible. I'm not sure where the scales tip.
Re: McCain picks Palin Don't you vegan bitches have all kinds of special substitute stuff like fake sausage crumble for pizza that's made of like...crushed fennel seeds and sawdust n' shit?
Re: McCain picks Palin Yes we do, I just had a vegan pizza with vegan sausage and jalapeños and my weight in beer. I will pay for that tomorrow. I will vote for whomever health coverage can cover the issues I will have tomorrow.
