Maureen Dowd is demented. Today's column "Babies for War!" is so squawky and scattered that when I had finished it, I still couldn't tell you what she said.

Maureen Dowd is demented. Today's "Barbies for War!" column is so squawky and scattered that when I had finished it, I felt like I had been assaulted by a random snark generator.

Investors weren't impressed -- the market fell 450 points today.

Two more days of that and the Dow will be below 10,000. Heckuva job, Georgie.

Maureen Dowd is demented.

And in other news, water is wet.

Dan Quayle thinks liberals are afraid of "effective conservatives" like Sarah Palin -- and Dan Quayle.

I have a thought to share in light of the vote to authorize "coastal drilling opportunities." Often referred to offshore drilling, I thought that might mean the extraction of taxes on Oily Profits from Offshore Banks which have historically become the havens for profits derived from U.S. & transnational corporations with an Offshore identity. So, in the words of Palin/McCain, Drill, Baby, Drill.

peace,
st john

As a rule, McCain's rhetoric shouldn't sound like Herbert Hoover's

As a rule, Republican economic policy shouldn't turn out like Herber Hoover's, but there you go.

The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus notices that John McCain has been lying an awful lot

She also notes that the press tends to give an advantage to Republican lies by seeking false equivalences, and in doing so decieves news consumers: "...it is a phony evenhandedness, comfortable for journalists but ultimately misleading, that equates these failures without measuring the grossness of their deviation from the standard of decency." (emphasis added)

The House passed a new energy bill last night, which includes expanded coastal drilling opportunities.

I think this statement is wrong. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) said on Rachel Maddow's show last night that the Congressional moratorium on off shore drilling was due to expire Sept. 30 anyway. This bill, if nothing else requires individual states to approve of any drilling. I would expect the NIMBY factor to kick in.

Says Don Young (R-AK): “You can get more energy out of this bill if you took all of the copies of the bill and put it in a bonfire.�

The Reps are furious, and now the issue is whether states would get to share revenue from the drilling. So much for their argument that this would lower prices for end users.

http://www.tnr.com/toc/story.html?id=685a4524-9702-49c0-b062-7d9ecd21a854&p=5

I really liked this article in The New Republic about Biden and VAWA.

I started this election season knowing next to nothing about this man, but the more I read the more impressed I am by him.

(and the fact that he has this whole "professor who used to be hip in the 60s" vibe certainly doesn't hurt :)

McSame's still going to drop out, and it will be cancer related. Palin might be to b____y to follow suit, but the Troopergate story does have legs, and the fact the GOP sent the lawyer team to AK means they are scared. The polls are discovering that she's energizing both bases, and there are more D's than R's. She might be forced out or become the useful idiot.

Jeb is out after Lehman Brothers' collapse. So, who is going to cover the cabal's tails in all of this? The fact that even Perino (who lies like a rug as part of her job description) won't back the "fundamentals are sound" theme floated by McSame means that the economy is really in deep doo-doo as 41 put it.

The MSM is just now starting to push back on the McSame lying, even Faux jumped in. One wonders why the WH and Rove (who also chimed in about going too far, of all people) are undercutting McSame unless there is a plan B. Because, we know Cohen and the rest of the cocktail weenie crowd wouldn't want to threaten access by bucking the WH.

Dan Qu - HaHaHaHaHaHa - Dan Quayle - HaHaHaHaHaHa - Dan Quayle, effect... - HaHaHaHaHaHa -Dan Quayle, effective conser - HaHaHaHaHaHa - Dan Quayle, effective conservative - HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa - Only took me 5 times to get that out. Now I have to clean up the coffee that shot out of the nose. Darn!

The House passed a new energy bill last night, which includes expanded coastal drilling opportunities.

The North Pole is melting, cities are sinking, our food chain is dying, and my city of Atlanta is running out of drinking water, but whatever.

* The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus notices that John McCain has been lying an awful lot.

While Marcus says McCain is lying a lot, she still says Obama is exaggerating a lot, too. She can't quite stop herself from equivocating. I sent her e-mail giving three examples of things she said Obama is being petty about that were actually true about McCain and that she'd find proof of them in her own paper.

The WaPo has really become a piece of crap. It's not much better than the Washington Times anymore.

So John McCain wants a commission to sort out the facts of our financial sector's crash, but he objects to a panel sorting out the facts of Sarah Palin's (increasingly likely-looking) abuse of power in Alaska.

And now McCain's campaign staff is taking over the public communication functions of the Alaska state government. It's almost as if McCain doesn't think much of the executive office of the governor in Alaska, eh? Following that logic, the "executive" experience of Sarah Palin may not be all that vice-president-worthy.

Absolutely must-read Troopergate blog post by Les Gara, Democratic member of the Alaska House of Representatives, as well as a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alaska.

and Rove (who also chimed in about going too far, of all people)

Can I say it louder? Rove is not the political genius or the political machine that so many people want to give him credit for. He's a hack. He got incredibly lucky in 2000 - lucky that Clinton had a Clenis problem, lucky that Gore decided to run without taking advantage of the good 8 years that had come before, lucky that a number of younger liberals decided to sit out the election because they were fed up with Clintonomics and had a Nader to vote for, and damn lucky that Florida screwed up their ballot and threw the whole thing up to the Supreme Court.

Rove's talents have been blown way out of proportion because of his one success in 2000 (Bush's win in 2004 was almost predestined - we don't throw out sitting Presidents in the middle of a war as a rule, and the fact that Kerry almost won in 2004 is a testament to Bush's lousiness as a President AND to Rove's lack of political acumen). If Rove were the genius that everyone wants to make him out to be, 2004 would have been a blow-out and 2006 might not have damaged the Republicans as bad as it did. It was Rove's counsel to make everything about electoral politics that destroyed "brand W" by 2006 and threatens to take the whole damn Republican Party with it.

Rove got off message on Fox because he's a political hack who isn't used to the press throwing a "gotcha" question AT HIM. He got caught with his pants down and made an offhand comment that I guarantee he regrets now. His big talent is that he's willing to go as dirty as he needs to to win an election - that's it. He's not a genius, he's just the biggest scumbag in town.

Rush Limbaugh was downright jittery today.

First he lambasted Obama for not giving enough speeches.

Then he blamed liberals and liberalism for deregulating the Financial Industry.

? Did Google honor Constitution Day via their logo?

If so, I missed it.

But then again, we have a president who thinks it's just a goddam# piece of paper!

Palin defended McCain's "verbiage" on Fox News.

Palin is looking more like a Dubya clone every day.

Palin defended McCain's "verbiage" on Fox News.

Palin is looking more like a Dubya clone every day.

The hack of Palin's email account appears to be legit.

This ought to be a new sport.

Every elected official who attempts to circumvent the public record and public accountability by offing their email to an outside source ought to be fair game.

Kudos to the hackers.
Well-played.

Now how about doing First Dud's email?

Every elected official who attempts to circumvent the public record and public accountability by offing their email to an outside source ought to be fair game. Posted by: koreyel

I don't even understand how this is legal. Oh! I forgot - IOKIYAR.

Speaking of people we are missing.... Where is Hilzoy?

You are a daytime staple for me, Steve, but since it does appear that you occasionally sleep, I need Hilzoy for the late nights!

Now that the campaigns (or do I mean camp pains?) have diminished their focus on all things Palin, I am reminded of what Sarah's meteoric rise reminds me of, just that, a meteor, a shooting star, a bright flash of light that catches one's attention but then fades as quickly as it appeared in the night sky.

I know that was a long sentence. But then again, it's been a long detour these past few weeks.

Now we have to look down the barrel at, probably the single issue that will define the rest of the camp pain (oops I mean campaign) season.

Yes, we will pontificate about the endless war.

Yes, we will gnash our teeth over the need to drill for oil closer to home.

Yes, we will wheeze about the lack of affordable healthcare.

Yes, we will impregnate the debate with the moral versus immoral aspects of abortion.

Yes, we will wax and wane over the definition of marriage and love for another being and families.

But with the financial house of cards fluttering in the hot winds of a virtual meltdown, all of us have to ask ourselves is lipschtick really what our leaders should be about?

I did a head shake when I heard Palin say "verbage." So I visited dictionary.com, and found this:

"Jargon File - Cite This Source - Share This
verbage

/ver'b*j/ n. A deliberate misspelling and mispronunciation of verbiage that assimilates it to the word `garbage'. Compare content-free. More pejorative than `verbiage'."

Yup, McCain speaks "verbage." Palin speaks "Bushism."

These are pitiful observations, on Sully's always interesting blog (must-reading for Palinologists):

For real! The candidate for vice-president of the United States actually responded to a question from the press! Amazing:

Though she has been on the campaign trail for nearly three weeks, Palin has yet to hold a press conference, and this morning’s stop marked the first time she answered a question from the press on the fly, prompting concerned looks from staffers.

What twilight zone are we in?

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/she-answered-a.html

Then this:

Here's Palin's first actual answer to an uncontrolled actual press question:

“Disappointed that taxpayers are called upon to bailout another one. Certainly AIG though with the construction bonds that they’re holding and with the insurance that they are holding very, very impactful to Americans so you know the shot that has been called by the Feds it's understandable but very, very disappointing that taxpayers are called upon for another one.�

Got that? A reader notes:

You might as well point out that she got her first answer wrong. Construction bonds have nothing to do with it; AIG got in a mess selling Credit Default Swaps. They both start with C, so I guess that's what threw her.

Another counters:

She was not saying construction bonds are what got AIG in trouble, but that those bonds, and their normal insurance lines, are what make AIG’s demise “impactfulâ€� enough to justify a bailout.  Don’t think she’s right substantively, but it’s an unfair shot to say she was confusing cause and impact.

I cannot make out what she was trying to say. But deference, please. And no laughing in the back!

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/palins-one-answ.html

OMG!!!! The NBC Nightly News--the MSM!!--is calling Palin out on her lies in their regular broadcast. Sarah Guthrie's calling her out on oil production, foreign travel, the bridge--the "Thanks but no thanks remark was shown five times back to back--and by extension the McCain campaign. Yea!!!

Yeah, "verbage". It's the new plural of verbs.

"That's quite an attack:"

Dude. People died. You're not supposed to make me laugh.

I wonder if Steve will be sorting the McCain flip flops according to turnaround speed. He flipped on the AIG bailout in 48 hours.

Open thread:

The *numbers* still stink (though I think we've reached the dead-of-the-winter point and that next week will bring sunshine and, with it, a thaw) but the Votemaster @:
http://electoral-vote.com/
is having one of his better days. He starts with:

"After several days of saying it would not bail out the nation's largest insurance company, A.I.G., the government bailed out A.I.G. risking $85 billion of the taxpayers' money. In return, the government got 80% of the now near-worthless stock. In other countries, when the government effectively buys (nearly) all of a company's stock, it is called nationalization. Who would have thought that the Bush-Cheney administration would go Marxist-Leninist in its waning hours?"

His commentary gets better (even more acid) from there on, while explaining the whole mess in simple words and short sentences that even the trolls might be able to "digest".

Do visit and enjoy.

For NonyNony: I agree Rove is the ultimate sleazeball hack, who should be in a cell under the Capitol right now. The reason I brought him up above was because for him to chime in as he did, as adept as he is on staying on message (however sleazy or lousy for everyone), tells me that the WH has apparently decided to throw McSame and Caribou Barbie under the bus (Stephanie Miller's description, and too true). Otherwise Rove wouldn't say anything remotely involving ethics in reference to the GOP standard bearer. This isn't the primary any more, and TBlossom knows that stuff like this makes Obama look good.

So, why did he do it, really? There has to be a Plan B since an Obama administration is quite likely to clean house on these guys. Whether or not the Gang of 8 was complicit, not all D's were, and the corruption was so pervasive that the Act Blue D's in particular will not allow the bygones-be-bygones excuse. So, what rabbits could be pulled out of the hat to cover W's, Darth's, etc., tushies?

My 2 cents says the election will not be allowed to happen. I hope I am wrong.

* The House passed a new energy bill last night, which includes expanded coastal drilling opportunities.

2 points:
1) It was a safe vote, ie, meaningless because it will NEVER get 60 votes in the Senate.

2) It never matters when only one House passes a bill. It only matters when any House kills a measure.

So, what rabbits could be pulled out of the hat to cover W's, Darth's, etc., tushies?

Preemptive pardons. Lots of 'em. Pardons that make the Marc Rich pardon look squeaky clean.

Don't forget, the Republicans have had 8 years to staff every agency in Washington with graduates of Bob Jones University. They may be planning to destroy from the inside once they don't have control anymore. Because at this point, that's all they know how to do.

Does Sarah Palin have a connection to Scientology?
See thread comment below and note that "Anonymous" loose group of hackers is also waging info war against Scientology.

From discussion at http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/group-posts-e-m.html:

Group Posts E-Mail Hacked From Palin Account -- Update
By Kim Zetter EmailSeptember 17, 2008 | 12:50:57 PMCategories: Election '08, Hacks and Cracks

Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's private Yahoo e-mail account was hacked, and some of its contents posted on the internet Wednesday.

The internet griefers known as Anonymous took credit for the intrusion, and screenshots of e-mail messages and photos belonging to the Alaska governor have been published by WikiLeaks. Threat Level has confirmed the authenticity of at least one of the e-mails.

...
[end quoted]

Note this comment:

"Sarah Palin is connected to Scientology. Here's how:

She has been, and still continues to be, deeply involved with the ultra-right-wing "Dominionist" church movement. READ THIS:

http: slash slash markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-palin-and-cnp.html

The main nexus for the Dominionists is the "Committee on National Policy", which strangely includes non-Christian organizations such as, yes, The Church of Scientology.

The leading "Dominionist" church is MorningStar ministries, which despite being a Christian church, leans heavily on "supernatural" themes and blatantly uses the Scientology Cross in their logo:

www dot morningstarministries.org/

http: slash slash en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_cross"

Posted by: Anonymumpsy | Sep 17, 2008 11:22:52 AM

Just saw this on the Economist online on the religious environment of Ms. Palin. Here's a quote from her pastor:

"But there was some things, about the natural resources, about the state, there are some things that god wants to tap into to be a refuge for the lower 48. And I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states. Come on you guys, in the last days. And hundreds and thousands of people are gonna come to the state to seek refuge..."

I 'm rather more concerned about Ms Palin's pastors. (There are a few, with a variety of colourful beliefs.) The belief in an imminent End Times seems to be fundamental to the Wasilla Assembly of God's beliefs. Other excerpts of this video show a tissue-thin line between God's will and earthly politics in Ms Palin's worldview (cf. her call for voters to pray for a pipeline). We know Ms Palin imbibed this stuff.

The page contains a link to the YouTube video where all this comes from.

Here's the Economist URL: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2008/09/refuge_statedont_publish_yet.cfm

Ruth Marcus' article on McCain's lies is a sad commentary on a man who has slowly but certainly sold out for the sake of being elected to the presidency. It says a great deal about McCain, to be sure, but I fear it says a lot about U.S. citizens as well. Many of us look for the "easy" sound-bite, the story with emotional resonance, or the candidate who appeals to us as a potential guest at our backyard barbeque. As I overheard in a coffee shop recently, "We'll get what we deserve" for our next president and vice president.

I can only hope we get better than we deserve.

This, about the Palin email deletion, may be the most relevant reason for the "hacking incident" happening - it gave her cover to delete emails she didn't want to release. Of course she could easily have taken advantage of a real attack, it doesn't have to imply a deliberate self-strike:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erik-ose/sarah-palins-yahoo-e-mail_b_127177.html

Did you see the clip of Paul Begala with Bill Maher?
It was quite good.
In it Begala claims that Barack's Campaign Manager David Plouffe is the "best in the business."

Along those lines:
Has there ever been a Presidential Campaign Manager who has emailed out a video to grass root supporters explaining campaign strategy?

I doubt it.
Truly fascinating.

Neil...

Interesting. But I assure you, Yahoo still has the emails on all her accounts. Just wait until the smart computer people get their brains into this one. We will know the truth eventually...

Into every life a little sunshine must fall. High point of my day was the clip on Olberman of McLame in a car factory. He finishes his standard stump speech and the line workers start yelling OBAMA 08 ! OBAMA 08! Priceless - what happens when you don't screen the crowds.

Fun ad with fundamentals:

http://reasonsnottovoteformccain.blogspot.com/2008/09/fundamentals.html

or

http://snipurl.com/3racm

Gotta keep hitting this symbolic stuff over and over again.

dk

I promise to shut up after this. But the new posting on the
http://womenforjohnmccain
is excellent, especially this little film (and I take pride in the fact that the name of th film's director is Polish ):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE96K01YO24

The Bushylvanians have come up short---again. The only way to resolve the AIG fiasco is to fully nationalize the institution, because the full power of the federal government is the only entity that can both forgive all of the bad loans, and then prosecute the idiots who managed to conceal the insanity of loaning 125% of asset-value to someone with no conceivable hope of repaying the loan. What they've effectively done is to take a basically-sound company, underwrite it into a conservatorship, allow it to be broken up with the juicy parts being auctioned off at fire-sale prices, and then the taxpayers get held up for covering the bad debts, with no benefit from the parts of AIG that still work well. For example, a "Bush friend" will get to buy maybe $5 million worth of good debt for a few hundred thousand. In the end, that $85 million (part of which, I think, was supposed to go into the FDIC fund) will give us a whopping 6-to-7 cents on the dollar---maybe as high as 8 cents---against billions of worthless hedged swaps.

And what's worse is that they'll keep right on doing it, up to the very last moments of the administration's lifespan, in order to line the pockets of their friends one more time---before the empire falls....

Michagoose (and others ) Here is the link to the NBC Nightly news trashing Ms Moosburger - Lie after Lie after Lie It looks like the usual MSM 2 week lag behind the blogs is settling in (it seems to kind of reach them by osmosis)anyway check it out
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#26759502 or the root and click on the Palin one http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/

Yet another example that Palin's lying is not just calculated, but tending towards what appears to be pathological.

In her first two tv interviews, she was asked, essentially, the same question: "When you were asked to be VP, did you hesitate?"

To Charlie Gibson she replied with the 'never blinked' response.

To Sean Hannity she said that she 'talked it over with her family, and specifically with the girls, and whether they were okay with her campaigning -- since her son was going off to Iraq, he wouldn't be as affected. It was only after the family council that she agreed to take it.'

Either answer would be a perfectly reasonable one, but both cannot be true, and there was no reason to tell whichever one was the lie.

By the time November comes, whatever the other factors, Palin will be one of the strongest reasons why people who might ordinarily vote Republican will not this year.

Alaskan bubble gum, blows a big bubble at first, but leaves a big, sticky mess when it pops.

I really don't understand the Palin witch hunt. Isn't this classic Rove? It makes the Democrats look so weak, having to resort to such tactics when they have everything going for them and a really solid candidate in Obama.

Palin is a small time nobody politician whose scanty, pathetic record speaks for itself. She's totally unqualified for the office of VP, let alone president. Any nincompoop knows that.

Sure, she needs to be vetted, since McCain was irresponsible and politically stupid not to do that. And sure, if we discover she's a serial axe murderer out on parole or something, she needs to be brought down.

But in the meantime, I think this stuff should be done in the background, unless something comes up.
Does anybody seriously think troopergate is a big deal? Come on, nobody could touch Bush in eight years, and he committed crimes of unprecedented number and degree in that period. How can you compare an exaggeration on the bridge to nowhere to lying the country into a disastrous war? Firing a trooper for some obscure reason to the firing and hiring practices of GWB? And nobody came close to getting the bastard.

It just seems so petty and desperate to me, and nothing will come of it. I just can't get worked up over troopergate. Who the hell cares? Who the hell cares that she bragged about the bridge to nowhere? Who the hell cares about her tanning machine? Why shouldn't she have one if she wants one?

I just don't get it. There's nothing there, so far. Let the investigators do their job, and run the campaign of Obama on legitimate issues, and if some shocking revelation comes to light, well, save it for the October surprise so the McCain campaign hasn't time to recover by replacing her with Lieberman or Romney.

But I'm betting that the vetting will come up empty, and that Sarah Palin is just an ordinary, every day small potatoes politician with no skeletons in her closet of any substance.

From Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pressure is building on the pristine "AAA" rating of the United States after a federal bailout of American International Group Inc, the chairman of Standard & Poor's sovereign ratings committee said on Wednesday.

The $85 billion bailout of AIG on Tuesday by the U.S. Federal Reserve "has weakened the fiscal profile of the United States," S&P's John Chambers told Reuters in an interview.

Couldn't be the $5 trillion liability that the US assumed when it nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Or the $85 billion it just pledged to AIG. And of course Detroit has its hand out for $50 billion.

The long and short of it is that no, Obama will not provide universal health care, and no, McCain will not be able to cut taxes. We can't afford it. Nor can we afford to repair our infrastructure, or make a timely switch to clean energy. The money that would have done that is being borrowed to pay for two wars and relieve the financial industry of the consequences of its greed and folly.
Our great-grandchildren will still be paying this one off.

Don't be bad mouthing Herbert Hoover. He inherited the economy of Calvin Coolidge. The Great Depression wasn't Herbert's fault. He started many of the programs people attribute to FDR. Hoover was merely president when everything went to shit and, sadly, he was as inspiring as any competent engineer.

To tell you the truth I am scared to death that Barack Obama might turn out to be the next Herbert Hoover, not because there is anything wrong with Obama, but because the next president just might confront similar intractable problems.

Hey Che Che, be sure to check back in on Nov 5.

And also be sure to read the comments over at Jake Tapper's blog. Talk about keeping it classy. Hundreds and hundreds of the move vile, racist shit I've ever read, and all from fans of Grandpa Simpson.

Gee, Hark. Maybe because Palin is so ill-prepared, mendacious, and vapid she is a real danger to the country. McCain is looking less and less healthy. His Vice Presidential selection is a sociopath.

Emasculated much ...?

Palin takes questions at Michigan town-hall meeting

... "Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin took questions with her running mate ..."

He's become her bitch. That's one pig you can't put lipstick on.

Has anyone been connecting the dots with the systems kenron lay used and the systems (or lack of) all the major money handlers have used?
Seems they all use the same bushcon plan: drain all the wealth, inflate figures with hot air, give themselves huge cuts of the take, fade away and......we have this kenron math over and over.
The bushcon business plan and accounting was learned at the degree palaces to be used by all bushcon members.The kenron lay plan is the highest level of perfection in bushcon practices.
Drain it all then leave and leave nothing.
Anyone ever look for all the loot?
Don't get distracted.
Watch out. The old pardon man is the get out/stay out of jail key.
There is giant money riding on old pardon man.
And don't forget roveroolala said this will not be decided by issues but by events.

Hark on Palin:

I really don't understand the Palin witch hunt. Isn't this classic Rove? It makes the Democrats look so weak ... It just seems so petty and desperate to me, and nothing will come of it.

Kleiman on Palin:

For the past two weeks, all the concern trolls have been warning the Obama campaign not to be mean to poor Sarah Palin, because the voters like her and identify with her and you shouldn't pick on a gurrrrrl. But "I killed the Bridge to Nowhere" was an obvious crock, and so was "I'm a national security expert because Alaska is close to Russia," and so was "I didn't ask for earmarks." And the Obama folks had the guts to keep saying — reasonably politely, but insistently and loudly — "bullsh!t." (At the same time, they scrupulously kept away from all the crap about her children and her religion.)
And guess what? Palin's favorables have been dropping like a stone (and Troopergate hasn't even really broken yet). She now has the worst favorables/unfavorables among the four candidates. She's great for rallying the theocon-and-gun-nut part of the base, but it turns out that independents (and, I'd bet, better-educated suburban women) like her less and less the more they know about her. Clinton voters don't like her.
By election day, Palin is going to be a millstone around McCain's neck.

Me on Palin:

This is the most dangerous candidate for national office in my lifetime. If the thought of this petty charlatan being Veep to a wobbly septuagenarian doesn't send shivers down your spine, your either a fundamentalist or a mental quadriplegic with a triple-bypass lobotomy. Pay attention Hark! You are witnessing one of the most damning display in the history of Presidential politics: Palin's surrogates are actually going around talk tv and trying to dumb down the office of VP to fit her candidacy! Yes your Country! Yes its second highest office! Yes dumbing down! Those are their talking points! The mind reels...
[Insert shivers here]

A lot of people watched the Charlie Gibson interview. Palin has had her 15 minutes of fame.

My only concern is that McCain wins somehow. Palin will be President before 2012. That is scary.

Why is Sarah Palin rebelling against God over Troopergate? Why won’t she read Romans 13 and submit to the governing authorities within the Alaska Legislature?

I think a great attack idea would be to compare McCain to Herbert Hoover. If you can get that equivalence into people's head, Obama would waltz to victory.

that's for you to know and us to find out.....

a rather dimwitted post of yours, isn't it?

Most of the responses to Hark are right on, but there's another point. Were McCain elected, he would have a lot of important offices to fill, so Palin goes straight to the point of how he would govern, as well as his temprament.

"...but who can forever resist the very Devil himself, when he comes in the guise of a gentleman; free, fine, and frank?"

from, "White-Jacket; the World in a Man-of-War", by Herman Melville

The Grand Old Man of Conservative shillery, George F. Will, advances (cautiously, as if running it up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes) the novel concept that maybe Americans should elect John McCain president, so he can balance the power of government - since Democrats look very likely to significantly increase their Senate majority.

Got that? John McCain should lead America, so DEMOCRATS won't get out of hand and wreck the country, passing laws willy-nilly while Republicans cower in an untidy pile in the corner like frogs stuck in a cage with a big snake, and Obama laughs fiendishly atop a pile of burning bibles and American flags, and rubber-stamps everything they send him.

Wow. Tell you what, Gramps; you're walking into a sucker-punch that will pop you out of your $500.00 shoes like a Patriot missile. The day after you win the presidency (in the unlikely event that you do), Palin is going to fire you and appoint somebody she likes. World-Champion snowmobile racer, anyone?

[Subject] StateDemocracy.org Equips You for the 2008 Elections

Dear Citizen:
Are you ready yet for the November 4th Elections? How about your friends, family, and neighbors?
More Americans are expected to vote this year than ever before in history, so don’t be left out! Be sure to ask everyone you know the following questions:
� Are you registered to vote? If you moved recently, have you updated your voter registration?
� Did you apply for an Absentee Ballot? Do you know your state may not require any reason?
� Can you find your local Polling Place? Do you know it may have changed from last time?
The answers to these questions -- and all your voting needs -- can be found at www.StateDemocracy.org -- the FREE 1-Stop citizen empowerment portal that Delivers Democracy to your Desktop! StateDemocracy is among the Internet’s first (since 2001) and most encompassing civic empowerment tools.
In order to boost voter participation this year, StateDemocracy.org is offering FREE widgets for all 50 states. You can simply download and embed these widgets into your own website so your visitors can register to vote, get an absentee ballot or find their local polling place.
Lobby Congress Via StateDemocracy
StateDemocracy.org also equips you to maintain an active dialog with your state and federal lawmakers once they are elected. And RIGHT NOW is an especially opportune time to contact your U.S. Senators and House Member, as Congress takes up major legislation on such issues as offshore oil drilling, another economic stimulus package and all federal appropriations bills over the next few weeks.
As you lobby your elected officials, remember that lawmakers view your constituent input as reflective of scores of other citizens who felt similarly, but didn’t have (or take) the time to share their opinions.
LobbyDelegates.com Further Empowered Grassroots Voices
Over the past 5 months, you may have visited www.LobbyDelegates.com, along with 26,000 other visitors. This latest public interest portal by the StateDemocracy Foundation remained the only online tool enabling rank-and-file Democrats to lobby all 800+ Super Delegates on which candidate to back for the party’s Presidential nomination.
StateDemocracy Foundation Website Users Unite!
Many of you have used our StateDemocracy.org and LobbyDelegates.com tools in recent times, and have hopefully found your experience uplifting and empowering. I encourage all of you to help spread the news about StateDemocracy.org to enable more of our fellow citizens to Connect! Engage! And Empower!
Sincerely,
Ken Laureys, Executive Director
StateDemocracy Foundation
Ken.Laureys@StateDemocracy.org

P.S. If you are interested in becoming more involved in our StateDemocracy Foundation -- including volunteering as an Advisory Board Member -- please contact me.

Look Obama lies in Spanish too.

I really don't understand the Palin witch hunt. Isn't this classic Rove? It makes the Democrats look so weak ... It just seems so petty and desperate to me, and nothing will come of it.

--hark

So let me get this straight ...

Someone unknown to about 99% of America comes onto the scene, one statistically-soon heartbeat away from being leader of the free world. She's trotted out in scripted events, with no open questions, and says nothing of any substance whatsoever.

What the hell are people supposed to do -- not look into her background to see what her policies are? What she sees as America's role in the world? What she's done in leadership/elected positions in the past? And end it all by just accepting everything she says as gospel truth?

Really? You seriously think all that should be abandoned because a few wingnuts and concern trolls call legit questions into her background a "witch hunt?"

You've lost your marbles, dude.

The fact is, she's proven herself totally, ridiculously, almost comically unprepared. Hell, I guarandamntee a majority of us here could provide more coherent answers than she does. I know for a fact I could do a press conference and not crap on myself. Yet she can't.

To top it off, she's also proven herself to be a compulsive and willing liar. When my wife and I discussed her lying, my four-year-old said, "Lying is naughty! I will find Sarah Palin and put her in timeout!"

My four-year-old knows lying is wrong. How the hell does the potential GOP ticket not get it?

Sorry, but your concern is misplaced.

Her favorability numbers are dropping like a meteor once people see she's nothing more than a political stunt orchestrated by people with a great interest in winning elections, but zero interest in actually governing.

Oh, I had to note one other thing:

I've been reading your posts for a long time, hark, and I don't consider you a concern troll at all -- just a very honest and open person who likes things to be done the right way. Or at least that's how you've come across in the past.

Just wanted to make that clear, and to reiterate that, while I understand your concern, I don't think it's well placed.

Thanks.

:-)