COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Video: Biden sees unborn people
ReplyDeleteBiden Drunk On The Campaign Trail
And what about this odd story about moving from Scranton? Biden left Scranton when he was 10 years old. Perhaps he is clairvoyant and foresaw “Bobby” Casey at the age of -2. I’d love to hear him make that argument.
ht - al-Bob
Not for the faintedhearted.
ReplyDelete...a PARTIAL list of Bear Links.
(24 hour bike race along river stocked w/Salmon!)
Grizzly attacks woman in tent
Terror on the trail: Bear attacks teen bike racer
Victim's family pleads for privacy
Park-attack bear manages to avoid city hunters
Bears among us: Too close for comfort?
Is 'rogue' grizzly on loose? Not likely
Trail closed; attack sparks debates
Anchorage Daily News Anchorage, Mat-Su Valley, Kenai Peninsula
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Sarah Palin draws both praise and derision in Alaska
Sarah Palin made her way into local politics on the city council in 1992 and then ran for mayor as an agent of change. Though she established a reputation as a tax-fighter, she actually increased infrastructure spending on roads and sewers for the town, helped by the increase in sales tax revenues coming to the booming commercial hub. She's had the same luck as governor - a fiscal conservative in charge of a wealthy government, this time because of high oil prices.
Palin finished a strong second in the 2002 primary for lieutenant govenor and was being groomed by the party for higher office when she ran afoul of state Republican Party chairman Randy Ruedrich. They both had seats on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission - appointed by Gov. Frank Murkowski, the Republican she would later depose. She accused Ruedrich of political chicanery and eventually resigned in frustration. Ruedrich was forced to resign the job as well, though he remains head of the state party.
She later took on Murkowski's attorney general in a conflict of interest scandal that forced his resignation. And when state Sen. Ben Stevens, the son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was caught making a dismissive remark about the Wasilla area, Palin appeared in a rebuttal ad wearing a "Valley Trash" t-shirt.
In 2006, she knocked off Murkowski and then Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles in a campaign that drew on grass-roots support, relying on neighbors and friends for staff rather than veterans of big-time campaigns.
The Uglies, Courtesy of al-Bob
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ReplyDeleteAs Barry would say, they were "punished" with a child.
He wants to ensure his daughters have access to post natal abortions to avoid such a fate.
Well, this, in part, is what they are saying at the NYTimes
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Concerned that Americans do not know enough about Mr. Obama, who spent part of his childhood overseas and went to private school in Hawaii? Ms. Palin is a total unknown who also hails from a noncontiguous state, one most people know only from watching Animal Planet. And that state is steeped in corruption and oil money. Its senior senator is under indictment. They try to build bridges to nowhere there. What on earth was Mr. McCain thinking?
Here’s what: The only way for him to win this election is to break with the national Republican Party. Mr. McCain needs to recast the party in his own image: anticorruption, pro-reform and fiscally and socially conservative.
In recent weeks, Republican strategists have urged Mr. McCain to run against the Democrats who control Congress. But that isn’t enough for Mr. McCain. By picking Ms. Palin, he has signaled that he will campaign against the Republicans in Congress, too.
In recent years, the Alaska Republican Party has become a metaphor for the national Republican Party. There are probably more caribou than pigs in Alaska, but its Congressional delegation is nonetheless addicted to pork. Flush with oil money, Alaska’s Republicans have built a welfare state that Washington’s “big government conservatives” must surely envy. Corruption is rampant. The party is out of touch. Senator Ted Stevens, who championed the infamous $400 million bridge, faces prison. On Tuesday, Alaska Republicans nominated him for another term.
This is where Ms. Palin comes in. She campaigned for governor on an anti-corruption platform and has spent the past two years in combat with oil executives, lobbyists and politicians comfortable with the status quo. She helped prevent Senator Stevens’s bridge to nowhere. In Alaska, as in the country at large, Republicans have done everything they can to get thrown out of office. Ms. Palin was elected to save the party — and the state — from itself.
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See if the NY Times is indignant over the next post.
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