Mccain's VP Pick

[atlq]

From a new Associated Press poll:

Sarah Palin ranked higher, at 42 percent, than either McCain or Obama when white women were asked which candidate shares their values and principles “a lot.” 


Looks like our Democratic PUMA's just haven't "healed" yet.....

[Miss Philicia]

From a new Associated Press poll:

Sarah Palin ranked higher, at 42 percent, than either McCain or Obama when white women were asked which candidate shares their values and principles “a lot.” 


Looks like our Democratic PUMA's just haven't "healed" yet.....

It also shows that probably half of Hillary's supporters were only token Democrats, many of which were newly registered (or switched party registration).  If they are this flexible, then it really deflates the argument that Democrats have a built in advantage with all of these huge numbers in new party registration, which is disconcerting.

It's not like Sarah Palin has the values of someone like Olympia Snowe -- I could understand these numbers somewhat if that was the case, but it's not.  Sarah Palin is John Ashcroft with a vagina.

By the way atlq, do you have a link for that?

[atlq]

  Sorry Philly...my bad:


http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/view.bg?articleid=1118790&srvc=home&position=rated

[Miss Philicia]

Seems the press has uncovered yet another huge Sarah Palin lie.  This all reminds of the Bush administration where they'd overload the press with so many lies, that by the time they were corrected there were already 3 more lies in the press so nothing ever gained a bit of traction until it was all too late.  Totally what the lead up to the Iraq War was like.  It's most distressing.

[ANGEL42]

Don`t worry fellow Dems...The Tides are turning...Obama only trailing by two points now, which is a statistical dead heat. And more important is the fact that he leads in projected Electoral votes with only 50 more to become President.

Positive Attitude for Our New Leader Obama...Hes getting tough and he will do what he has to.The Lies are being uncovered one by one. Palins Charlie Gibson Interview was Joke. McSame on the View was a pure joy to watch him fumble.

[BlueMoon]

Seems the press has uncovered yet another huge Sarah Palin lie. 

Ah well, at least she didn't claim to be under sniper fire.   

[Assurbanipal]

Seems the press has uncovered yet another huge Sarah Palin lie.  This all reminds of the Bush administration where they'd overload the press with so many lies, that by the time they were corrected there were already 3 more lies in the press so nothing ever gained a bit of traction until it was all too late.  Totally what the lead up to the Iraq War was like.  It's most distressing.

I'm more concerned that this trip to Kuwait (and mythically to Iraq) is being used to tout her foreign policy expertise and yet she appears to have spent her time overseas speaking almost exclusively to Alaskans.  How does that add to her foreign policy expertise in the slightest?

[Bucko]

From a new Associated Press poll:

Sarah Palin ranked higher, at 42 percent, than either McCain or Obama when white women were asked which candidate shares their values and principles “a lot.” 


Looks like our Democratic PUMA's just haven't "healed" yet.....

I have a friend who, with no misogyny, has coined the term "Vagino-Americans" to explain this disconnect with common sense.

And, FWIW, the Boston Herald is a Murdoch-owned tabloid that's meant to be a splinter in the eye of the overwhelmingly progressive population there. I really wouldn't believe 3/4 of what they print.

[Miss Philicia]

I'm more concerned that this trip to Kuwait (and mythically to Iraq) is being used to tout her foreign policy expertise and yet she appears to have spent her time overseas speaking almost exclusively to Alaskans.  How does that add to her foreign policy expertise in the slightest?

Oh, I agree -- but as a larger narrative it's important to establish her as untrustworthy.  Voters (meaning the ones that don't pay as much attention as the rest of us) respond better to more generalized things like that.  If you can have enough stories to feed into the larger narrative, they'll carry that into the voting box.

This article in today's New York Times is yet another example of how she's basically a liar -- she claims to be a "reformer" and "fellow maverick" while when you dig into her (recent even) past she's done stuff like hire a handful of high school buddies as governor -- at salaries above their pay grade and with little experience.  She rails about "The Good Ole Boys Club" on the stump when in fact she's nothing but one of those same good ole boys but with a skirt and heels.  But hey, who cares right?  I mean the fundies will cheer on anyone as long as you scream "Praise!"

I'm also sensing things developing about her husband -- not just his role in Troopergate, but how we're starting to see his "private citizen" fingers everywhere in government business.  Which also feeds into the inability of Sarah Palin to separate private from public -- and as we saw earlier this week her charging a per diem expense for spending nights at home is at best disturbing.

[edfu]

 From p. 1 of today's New York Times.  Unfuckingbelievable. 
 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

September 14, 2008
In Office, Palin Hired Friends and Hit Critics
By JO BECKER, PETER S. GOODMAN AND MICHAEL POWELL
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 one of her qualifications 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.

Still, Ms. Palin has many supporters. As a two-term mayor she paved roads and built an ice rink, and as governor she has pushed through higher taxes on the oil companies that dominate one-third of the state’s economy. She stirs deep emotions. In Wasilla, many residents display unflagging affection, cheering “our Sarah” and hissing at her critics.

“She is bright and has unfailing political instincts,” said Steve Haycox, a history professor at the University of Alaska. “She taps very directly into anxieties about the economic future.”

“But,” he added, “her governing style raises a lot of hard questions.”

Ms. Palin declined to grant an interview for this article. The McCain-Palin campaign responded to some questions on her behalf and that of her husband, while referring others to the governor’s spokespeople, who did not respond.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell said Ms. Palin had conducted an accessible and effective administration in the public’s interest. “Everything she does is for the ordinary working people of Alaska,” Mr. Parnell said.

In Wasilla, a builder said he complained to Mayor Palin when the city attorney put a stop-work order on his housing project. She responded, he said, by engineering the attorney’s firing.

Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.

Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that it would cost $468,784 to process his request.

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.

“Their secrecy is off the charts,” Mr. Steiner said.

State legislators are investigating accusations that Ms. Palin and her husband pressured officials to fire a state trooper who had gone through a messy divorce with her sister, charges that she denies. But interviews make clear that the Palins draw few distinctions between the personal and the political.

Last summer State Representative John Harris, the Republican speaker of the House, picked up his phone and heard Mr. Palin’s voice. The governor’s husband sounded edgy. He said he was unhappy that Mr. Harris had hired John Bitney as his chief of staff, the speaker recalled. Mr. Bitney was a high school classmate of the Palins and had worked for Ms. Palin. But she fired Mr. Bitney after learning that he had fallen in love with another longtime friend.

“I understood from the call that Todd wasn’t happy with me hiring John and he’d like to see him not there,” Mr. Harris said.

“The Palin family gets upset at personal issues,” he added. “And at our level, they want to strike back.”

Hometown Mayor

Laura Chase, the campaign manager during Ms. Palin’s first run for mayor in 1996, recalled the night the two women chatted about her ambitions.

“I said, ‘You know, Sarah, within 10 years you could be governor,’ ” Ms. Chase recalled. “She replied, ‘I want to be president.’ ”

Ms. Palin grew up in Wasilla, an old fur trader’s outpost and now a fast-growing exurb of Anchorage. The town sits in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, edged by jagged mountains and birch forests. In the 1930s, the Roosevelt administration took farmers from the Dust Bowl area and resettled them here; their Democratic allegiances defined the valley for half a century.

In the past three decades, socially conservative Oklahomans and Texans have flocked north to the oil fields of Alaska. They filled evangelical churches around Wasilla and revived the Republican Party. Many of these working-class residents formed the electoral backbone for Ms. Palin, who ran for mayor on a platform of gun rights, opposition to abortion and the ouster of the “complacent” old guard.

After winning the mayoral election in 1996, Ms. Palin presided over a city rapidly outgrowing itself. Septic tanks had begun to pollute lakes, and residential lots were carved willy-nilly out of the woods. She passed road and sewer bonds, cut property taxes but raised the sales tax.

And, her supporters say, she cleaned out the municipal closet, firing veteran officials to make way for her own team. “She had an agenda for change and for doing things differently,” said Judy Patrick, a City Council member at the time.

But careers were turned upside down. The mayor quickly fired the town’s museum director, John Cooper. Later, she sent an aide to the museum to talk to the three remaining employees. “He told us they only wanted two,” recalled Esther West, one of the three, “and we had to pick who was going to be laid off.” The three quit as one.

Ms. Palin cited budget difficulties for the museum cuts. Mr. Cooper thought differently, saying the museum had become a microcosm of class and cultural conflicts in town. “It represented that the town was becoming more progressive, and they didn’t want that,” he said.

Days later, Mr. Cooper recalled, a vocal conservative, Steve Stoll, sidled up to him. Mr. Stoll had supported Ms. Palin and had a long-running feud with Mr. Cooper. “He said: ‘Gotcha, Cooper,’ ” Mr. Cooper said.

Mr. Stoll did not recall that conversation, although he said he supported Ms. Palin’s campaign and was pleased when she fired Mr. Cooper.

In 1997, Ms. Palin fired the longtime city attorney, Richard Deuser, after he issued the stop-work order on a home being built by Don Showers, another of her campaign supporters.

Your attorney, Mr. Showers told Ms. Palin, is costing me lots of money.

“She told me she’d like to see him fired,” Mr. Showers recalled. “But she couldn’t do it herself because the City Council hires the city attorney.” Ms. Palin told him to write the council members to complain.

Meanwhile, Ms. Palin pushed the issue from the inside. “She started the ball rolling,” said Ms. Patrick, who also favored the firing. Mr. Deuser was soon replaced by Ken Jacobus — then the State Republican Party’s general counsel.

“Professionals were either forced out or fired,” Mr. Deuser said.

Ms. Palin ordered city employees not to talk to the press. And she used city money to buy a white Suburban for the mayor’s use — employees sarcastically called it the mayor-mobile.

The new mayor also tended carefully to her evangelical base. She appointed a pastor to the town planning board. And she began to eye the library. For years, social conservatives had pressed the library director to remove books they considered immoral.

“People would bring books back censored,” recalled former Mayor John Stein, Ms. Palin’s predecessor. “Pages would get marked up or torn out.”

Witnesses and contemporary news accounts say Ms. Palin asked the librarian about removing books from the shelves. The McCain-Palin presidential campaign says Ms. Palin never advocated censorship.

But in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book “Daddy’s Roommate” on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to Ms. Chase and Mr. Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it.

“Sarah said she didn’t need to read that stuff,” Ms. Chase said. “It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn’t even read it.”

“I’m still proud of Sarah,” she added, “but she scares the bejeebers out of me.”

Reform Crucible

Restless ambition defined Ms. Palin in the early years of this decade. She raised money for Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican from the state; finished second in the 2002 Republican primary for lieutenant governor; and sought to fill the seat of Senator Frank H. Murkowski when he ran for governor.

Mr. Murkowski appointed his daughter to the seat, but as a consolation prize, he gave Ms. Palin the $125,000-a-year chairmanship of a state commission overseeing oil and gas drilling.

Ms. Palin discovered that the state Republican leader, Randy Ruedrich, a commission member, was conducting party business on state time and favoring regulated companies. When Mr. Murkowski failed to act on her complaints, she quit and went public.

The Republican establishment shunned her. But her break with the gentlemen’s club of oil producers and political power catapulted her into the public eye.

“She was honest and forthright,” said Jay Kerttula, a former Democratic state senator from Palmer.

Ms. Palin entered the 2006 primary for governor as a formidable candidate.

In the middle of the primary, a conservative columnist in the state, Paul Jenkins, unearthed e-mail messages showing that Ms. Palin had conducted campaign business from the mayor’s office. Ms. Palin handled the crisis with a street fighter’s guile.

“I told her it looks like she did the same thing that Randy Ruedrich did,” Mr. Jenkins recalled. “And she said, ‘Yeah, what I did was wrong.’ ”

Mr. Jenkins hung up and decided to forgo writing about it. His phone rang soon after.

Mr. Jenkins said a reporter from Fairbanks, reading from a Palin news release, demanded to know why he was “smearing” her. “Now I look at her and think: ‘Man, you’re slick,’ ” he said.

Ms. Palin won the primary, and in the general election she faced Tony Knowles, the former two-term Democratic governor, and Andrew Halcro, an independent.

Not deeply versed in policy, Ms. Palin skipped some candidate forums; at others, she flipped through hand-written, color-coded index cards strategically placed behind her nameplate.

Before one forum, Mr. Halcro said he saw aides shovel reports at Ms. Palin as she crammed. Her showman’s instincts rarely failed. She put the pile of reports on the lectern. Asked what she would do about health care policy, she patted the stack and said she would find an answer in the pile of solutions.

“She was fresh, and she was tomorrow,” said Michael Carey, a former editorial page editor for The Anchorage Daily News. “She just floated along like Mary Poppins.”

Government

Half a century after Alaska became a state, Ms. Palin was inaugurated as governor in Fairbanks and took up the reformer’s sword.

As she assembled her cabinet and made other state appointments, those with insider credentials were now on the outs. But a new pattern became clear. She surrounded herself with people she has known since grade school and members of her church.

Mr. Parnell, the lieutenant governor, praised Ms. Palin’s appointments. “The people she hires are competent, qualified, top-notch people,” he said.

Ms. Palin chose Talis Colberg, a borough assemblyman from the Matanuska valley, as her attorney general, provoking a bewildered question from the legal community: “Who?” Mr. Colberg, who did not return calls, moved from a one-room building in the valley to one of the most powerful offices in the state, supervising some 500 people.

“I called him and asked, ‘Do you know how to supervise people?’ ” said a family friend, Kathy Wells. “He said, ‘No, but I think I’ll get some help.’ ”

The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government. Ms. Palin appointed Mr. Bitney, her former junior high school band-mate, as her legislative director and chose another classmate, Joe Austerman, to manage the economic development office for $82,908 a year. Mr. Austerman had established an Alaska franchise for Mailboxes Etc.

To her supporters — and with an 80 percent approval rating, she has plenty — Ms. Palin has lifted Alaska out of a mire of corruption. She gained the passage of a bill that tightens the rules covering lobbyists. And she rewrote the tax code to capture a greater share of oil and gas sale proceeds.

“Does anybody doubt that she’s a tough negotiator?” said State Representative Carl Gatto, Republican of Palmer.

Yet recent controversy has marred Ms. Palin’s reform credentials. In addition to the trooper investigation, lawmakers in April accused her of improperly culling thousands of e-mail addresses from a state database for a mass mailing to rally support for a policy initiative.

While Ms. Palin took office promising a more open government, her administration has battled to keep information secret. Her inner circle discussed the benefit of using private e-mail addresses. An assistant told her it appeared that such e-mail messages sent to a private address on a “personal device” like a Blackberry “would be confidential and not subject to subpoena.”

The governor’s office did not respond to questions on the topic.

Ms. Palin and aides use their private e-mail addresses for state business. On Feb. 7, Frank Bailey, a high-level aide, wrote to Ms. Palin’s state e-mail address to discuss appointments. Another aide fired back: “Frank, this is not the governor’s personal account.”

Mr. Bailey responded: “Whoops~!”

Mr. Bailey, a former mid-level manager at Alaska Airlines who worked on Ms. Palin’s campaign, has been placed on paid leave; he has emerged as a central figure in the trooper investigation.

Another confidante of Ms. Palin’s is Ms. Frye, 27. She worked as a receptionist for State Senator Lyda Green before she joined Ms. Palin’s campaign for governor. Now Ms. Frye earns $68,664 as a special assistant to the governor. Her frequent interactions with Ms. Palin’s children have prompted some lawmakers to refer to her as “the babysitter,” a title that Ms. Frye disavows.

Like Mr. Bailey, she is an effusive cheerleader for her boss.

“YOU ARE SO AWESOME!” Ms. Frye typed in an e-mail message to Ms. Palin in March.

Many lawmakers contend that Ms. Palin is overly reliant on a small inner circle that leaves her isolated. Democrats and Republicans alike describe her as often missing in action. Since taking office in 2007, Ms. Palin has spent 312 nights at her Wasilla home, some 600 miles to the north of the governor’s mansion in Juneau, records show.

During the last legislative session, some lawmakers became so frustrated with her absences that they took to wearing “Where’s Sarah?” pins.

Many politicians say they typically learn of her initiatives — and vetoes — from news releases.

Mayors across the state, from the larger cities to tiny municipalities along the southeastern fiords, are even more frustrated. Often, their letters go unanswered and their pleas ignored, records and interviews show.

Last summer, Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, a Democrat, pressed Ms. Palin to meet with him because the state had failed to deliver money needed to operate city traffic lights. At one point, records show, state officials told him to just turn off a dozen of them. Ms. Palin agreed to meet with Mr. Begich when he threatened to go public with his anger, according to city officials.

At an Alaska Municipal League gathering in Juneau in January, mayors across the political spectrum swapped stories of the governor’s remoteness. How many of you, someone asked, have tried to meet with her? Every hand went up, recalled Mayor Fred Shields of Haines Borough. And how many met with her? Just a few hands rose. Ms. Palin soon walked in, delivered a few remarks and left for an anti-abortion rally.

The administration’s e-mail correspondence reveals a siege-like atmosphere. Top aides keep score, demean enemies and gloat over successes. Even some who helped engineer her rise have felt her wrath.

Dan Fagan, a prominent conservative radio host and longtime friend of Ms. Palin, urged his listeners to vote for her in 2006. But when he took her to task for raising taxes on oil companies, he said, he found himself branded a “hater.”

It is part of a pattern, Mr. Fagan said, in which Ms. Palin characterizes critics as “bad people who are anti-Alaska.”

As Ms. Palin’s star ascends, the McCain campaign, as often happens in national races, is controlling the words of those who know her well. Her mother-in-law, Faye Palin, has been asked not to speak to reporters, and aides sit in on interviews with old friends.

At a recent lunch gathering, an official with the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce asked its members to refer all calls from reporters to the governor’s office. Diane Woodruff, a city councilwoman, shook her head.

“I was thinking, I don’t remember giving up my First Amendment rights,” Ms. Woodruff said. “Just because you’re not going gaga over Sarah doesn’t mean you can’t speak your mind.”




 

[atlq]

And, FWIW, the Boston Herald is a Murdoch-owned tabloid that's meant to be a splinter in the eye of the overwhelmingly progressive population there. I really wouldn't believe 3/4 of what they print.

Bucko,

The point about Murdoch is well taken, but the poll was by the Associated Press. Believe me, I would never use any source generated by Fox News or its print siblings!...

[ademas]

Tina Fey nails it 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/13/tina-fey-as-sarah-palin-o_n_126249.html

[GSOgymrat]

That was great!

[Miss Philicia]

Karl Rove: McCain's Ads Have Gone Too Far (VIDEO)

o teh irony

[Miss Philicia]

Neoconservatives plan Project Sarah Palin... disturbing.

[emeraldize]

Between the NYT article and the Neoconservatives piece...very disturbing. Has she said the word HIV or AIDS yet anywhere ?

edited to add: Went hunting for any evidence of her addressing HIV/AIDS and found this excerpt from a GMHC article and no direct quotes or position statements anywhere...yet.

"Senator Biden has shown leadership by supporting civil rights for people living with HIV and evidence-based prevention to fight the epidemic globally," said Robert Bank, Chief Operating Officer of GMHC. "We know little about Governor Palin's positions on HIV/AIDS, except that she supports abstinence-only programming, which is full of anti-gay and sexist content, as well as dangerous misinformation about contraception and AIDS."

[Florida69]

Just thought I would share this...

http://blogs.therandirhodesshow.com/index.php

[Miss Philicia]

Ha ha... check out these pictures of McCain's rally this morning -- nobody showed up:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/mccains-crowd-numbers-plu_n_126490.html

[Miss Philicia]

What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?

Is this a damaging as a $400 haircut?

[GSOgymrat]

She doesn't believe in global warming so why should she believe that ultraviolet radiation causes skin cancer?

[HopeandCope]

Sorry my links are not working on this site you can get them at my other blog  http://judesbloglog.blogspot.com/2008/09/maybelline-or-loreal-choices-are.html


I have heard that the "Lower 48" does not understand Alaska and its culture at all. Well, with all due respect I think that some of the issues below do deserve at the very least a few raised eyebrows.

For those of the other Lower 48 frenzied, starry eyed "we got ourselves a really hottie" supporters that feel we don't know about Sarah Palin because we don't live there and we are just being "mean", take a gander at Anchorage Daily New's comments to the editor regarding our "heartbeat away" VP candidate.

Now get out of the liptick jungle and on to some thoughts:

She offered a bounty of $150 for each right front leg of freshly killed wolves

She is presently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power

She strongly supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

She promotes aerial hunting of wolves and bears even though Alaskans voted twice to ban the practice

She supports the Alaskan Independence Party which seeks independence from the United States

She is a champion for big oil and her campaign slogan has become "Drill, baby, drill!"

She believes creationism should be taught in public schools

She believes man-made global warming is a farce

She is opposed to listing the polar bear as an endangered species because it might limit oil exploitation

While mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire the city librarian because the librarian refused to censor books

She used $400,000 of state money to fund a propaganda campaign in support of aerial hunting

As mayor of Wasilla, she made rape victims pay for their own forensic evidence kits

She obtained her first passport just last year (2007)

She touts her "experience" as Mayor of a city no larger than some of the minor Chicago suburbs as qualifying for VP even though Wasilla is known as the Meth Capital of Alaska . Seems her own backyard needs a bit of cleaning up!

[Florida69]

OMG...

I can not believe this, but then again I can.  So silly.....

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/16/palin-allies-sue-to-halt-trooper-probe/

[libvet]

OMG...

I can not believe this, but then again I can.  So silly.....

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/16/palin-allies-sue-to-halt-trooper-probe/

That's the "transparency" she promised the people of Alaska.  Apparently, she meant her transparent attempts at derailing an investigation she agreed to.

[CaptCarl]

   Considering how many right-wing fundie christian men have been busted for gay sex over the last year or so, maybe one of us could get caught fucking Todd. He is kinda hot actually. I'd volunteer, but Norm would never allow it.....

[Bucko]

   Considering how many right-wing fundie christian men have been busted for gay sex over the last year or so, maybe one of us could get caught fucking Todd. He is kinda hot actually. I'd volunteer, but Norm would never allow it.....

<Bucko raises hand to volunteer for the challenge, tub of Elbow Grease in one hand, remote control for required porn viewing in the other>

 

Has anyone seen Hockey Moms Against Sarah Palin?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URIypadX3n0&eurl=http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/09/15/hockey_moms/index.html

 

[GSOgymrat]

<Bucko raises hand to volunteer for the challenge, tub of Elbow Grease in one hand, remote control for required porn viewing in the other>

"Lie back and think of England"

[edfu]

Some amusement in the midst of our dismay:

A song, "The Ballad of Sarah Palin," has been written.  Too funny.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/83e3b0b258

[Miss Philicia]

Not just your average Hockey Mom:  Sarah seems to have her own army of Rachel Zoes.  And if you're not watching The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo you're REALLY missing out!

[atlq]

This year it looks like Virginia, Virginia, Virginia.......

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/battleground.poll/index.html

[Alain]

"Lie back and think of England"

I thought it was "spread your legs and think of England!

[CaptCarl]

   Another point: Lately, it seems that our lovely (Thanx to God and a series of painful operations) Ms. Palin has been saying that Obama is nothing more than a "community organizer" Methinks it would be well of her to avoid using this description. If the stupid bitch has ever bothered to read the New Testament, she would notice a fundamental truth on display: Jesus was also a "community organizer" Pontius Pilate was a Governor. There is a lesson to be learned here. Too bad it is lost on so may morons that think she's so great...

CaptCarl

[J.R.E.]

   Another point: Lately, it seems that our lovely (Thanx to God and a series of painful operations) Ms. Palin has been saying that Obama is nothing more than a "community organizer" Methinks it would be well of her to avoid using this description. CaptCarl

Jesus Christ was a community organizer, and he was sentenced to death by a governor. I don't know where I read that at this past week !! 

Ray

[edfu]

"God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as ultimately flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats."

-- Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News in 2006.

[GSOgymrat]

"God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as ultimately flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats."

-- Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News in 2006.

Please tell me that is a joke and she didn't actually say that. I'm serious.

[David_CA]

Please tell me that is a joke and she didn't actually say that. I'm serious.

I read the same thing.  Here's my take on her, but I notice she's let her hair down and ditched the glasses.

(edited to add: it's kind of hard to see the horns in the small pic unless it's enlarged.  Believe me, though; they're there.)

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Miss Philicia]

"God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as ultimately flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats."

-- Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News in 2006.

Uh, sweetheart edfu -- I'm surprised at you.  That was debunked a bit ago on the internet:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/newsquotes.asp

By the way though, Gov. Palin does believe in creationism, but then again so do many Americans (unfortunately).  The key here is whether or not she's one of those fringe "young earth" types.  There is a deep suspicion that this is the case due to what is taught in her church, as well as some first hand account conversations with her, I believe, but Gov. Palin hasn't been asked this directly by the press.

I do, however, believe it's within the voters' rights to know if a VP candidate believes that dinosaurs and man walked the earth at the same time.

[randym431]

I GOT IT!!!
I remember who Sarah Palin reminds me of.
TRACY FLICK!
From the movie ELECTION (1999) with Reese Witherspoon
That’s it! Sarah Palin = Tracy Flick!

[edfu]

Ha!  You're good, Philly-- very good.  I'm taking the position of the McCain-Palin campaign and will not withdraw any statement proven to be incorrect.  To quote Ms. Palin:  Thanks, but no thanks.

[Curtis]

Every once in awhile SNL is right on target!

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

[pozattitude]

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares!

     I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks.
     I have a particular thing for Polar Bears , maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one.  Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
     I don't like raging at women. I consider myself a "pro-feminist" and I do my part  to help build a better community that will empower women and stop violence against them.  This is why Sarah Palin is all the more insidious and cynical! 
    The people who chose her for the McCain ticket did to satisfy the Republican Evangelical base (Duh!) but also to count on the goodness and solidarity of women,  but everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices goes against feminism, which for me is part of one big picture (save the earth, end racism, empower women, open our minds, deepen tolerance, and end violence and war).       
   I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world.
 Unfortunately, this is not a joke.  In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

* Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution
          I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe that global warming, the melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan, not man made.  She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list arguing that the designation slows development in the state of Alaska. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered because it is her god given right... " And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let him rule over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth"....Sarah Palin believes wolves and bears are here to be shot and plundered, the planet Earth is here to be plundered.
* Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion
           She is a member of the anti-choice group Feminists for Life, and said during her campaign for governor that she is opposed to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. 
She does not believe in sex education or birth control, just take a look at her daughter...and before anyone gets all pissed off and make a big deal out of it, they tried to impeach Clinton for getting a blow job and then lying about it . So, we can all laugh at Sarah Palin's abstinence-only educated daughter who got knocked up because she didn't know how to use a condom.
* Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking
           From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently.  She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be  the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
* Sarah Palin believes in guns
           She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
* Sarah Palin believes in God
           That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and  the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

   I write this because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we invest in off shore drilling, strip mining, coal burning or in alternatives that will free us from dependency on oil.  It will determine whether America will remain a free, tolerant and open society or if the future of America is one of fear, intolerance, fundamentalism and aggression.




 
 

[atlq]

It will determine whether America will remain a free, tolerant and open society or if the future of America is one of fear, intolerance, fundamentalism and aggression.

I don't know poz....I'm thinking that the boat may have already sailed on that one.....

[Miss Philicia]

Palin want a cracker?

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/19/1424780.aspx

[edfu]

I do, however, believe it's within the voters' rights to know if a VP candidate believes that dinosaurs and man walked the earth at the same time.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/15/bess/index1.html

Here's a quote from the above Salon link:

Another valley activist, Philip Munger, says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. "She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board," said Munger, a music composer and teacher. "I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, 'Sarah, how can you believe in creationism -- your father's a science teacher.' And she said, 'We don't have to agree on everything.'

"I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them."

[atlq]

The good folks at Landover Baptist invite us all:

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/2008/october/sarahpalinweek.html

[Miss Philicia]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/15/bess/index1.html

Here's a quote from the above Salon link:

Another valley activist, Philip Munger, says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. "She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board," said Munger, a music composer and teacher. "I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, 'Sarah, how can you believe in creationism -- your father's a science teacher.' And she said, 'We don't have to agree on everything.'

"I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them."

Yeah, I'd read that already.  And trust edfu -- I totally believe she's a "young earth" creationist, which of course is the most extremist position for a creationist assuredly.  However, in fairness it's just one anecdote.  I'm sure if you asked Sarah on camera she'd deny it.

Of course, the McCain campaign has intimidated the press somewhat so it won't ever be asked, sadly.

[Assurbanipal]

Maureen Dowd sums it all up:

"McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html

[atlq]

Oh my.....

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/politics-thanks-to-sarah-palin-rises.html

[woodshere]

I said when everyone was up in arms about Bill & Monica that what a politican did with his dick really didn't matter to me and I stand by it today with one exception, what a politician does with her vagina really doesn't matter to me.  Whether it is a republican or democrat my belief is the same.  Hyporcisy aside, what matters is how they govern or will govern.  I think we know enough that no matter what Palin does and with who either in her bedroom or local rent by the hour motel to know that on the issues she is not qualified and her views are way to extreme.  As an example I present this:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=5881256

[atlq]

I said when everyone was up in arms about Bill & Monica that what a politican did with his dick really didn't matter to me and I stand by it today with one exception, what a politician does with her vagina really doesn't matter to me.  Whether it is a republican or democrat my belief is the same.  Hyporcisy aside, what matters is how they govern or will govern.  I think we know enough that no matter what Palin does and with who either in her bedroom or local rent by the hour motel to know that on the issues she is not qualified and her views are way to extreme.  As an example I present this:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=5881256

It don't matter to me either Woods...too bad our fundamentalist Republican friends don't play by those rules though......Witchcraft! , again I'll say it....Oh My......

[woodshere]

I think that the most frightening thing in all this and what is not getting enough play is WHAT THE FUCK was McCain thinking in picking Palin.  Well actually I know, it was about everything other than who would be the best or even the 100th best oh hell she's not even in the top 500 best to lead this country should he die.  She is in my lowly opinion the most terrifying person in my lifetime  with a legit chance of becoming vice-president.  I mean Ross Perot's running mate the first time was completely lost, but they didn't have a chance, however this quack of a Governor does.  Picking Palin should disqualify McCain from getting anyone's vote. 

I am very passionate about how Palin should never become Vice-president or even worse President. Let me say that I am a person of faith, however every American should be concerned about elected officials who say that the Iraq war is part of God's plan or this little gem referring to her election as Governor: "And he was praying 'Lord make a way, Lord make a way' ... He said, 'Lord make a way and let her do this next step.' And that's exactly what happened." I have no problem, actually I want my elected officials to pray and seek guidance.  I DO NOT want them however to say that "God told me to do this" or "This is what God wants us to do".  Because the God I worship doesn't have a plan in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people are killed in their homeland and soldiers are needlessly killed and traumatized in a war that is being fought for all the wrong reasons nor do things happen in my life because I ask God to make them happen. And if truly offends me when someone such as Palin stands in front of "blind" followers and says something different.  I will say the one thing she has done at least for me is turn me from a luke warm Obama supporter to an all out Obama supporter, so much so I am even wearing an Obama button.