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."

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Sarah Palin and Maggie Thatcher


We saw something special tonight. Palin drew an arrow, took aim at her detractors, and hit her target. Win or lose in November, Sarah Palin and John McCain have changed the dynamic of the Republican Party.  I firmly believe that they will revive the challenge for leadership in the cultural tug of war in America.

Palin made direct challenges to Obama and shifted the Republican Party into a populist mode. She eviscerated the train wreck of the MSM. She brought respectability to normality. An iron lady, maybe so. It was fun to watch.

________________________


Sarah Palin gets the spiteful Margaret Thatcher treatment

By Janet Daley Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 04/09/2008


There are few sights more bloodcurdling than the liberal pack in full cry. The viciousness of the attacks on Sarah Palin is a testimony to the degree of panic her appointment has generated in Leftist circles.

It would seem that it is only sexist to trash a woman candidate if she is a Woman Candidate, which is to say a liberal.

It took about 20 minutes after John McCain announced her as his running mate for the attack machine to mobilise: woman candidate (bleep, bleep), no previous warning (nee-naw, nee-naw), exterminate, exterminate.

At first, it was pretty tenuous stuff: her husband had once been caught on a drink-drive charge - when he was 22 years old. You don't say. In blue-collar America, having only one drink-drive offence pretty much qualifies you as a Grade A wimp.

Then the piranhas got hold of a real prize (or so they thought): the 17-year-old daughter of this Christian Evangelical family was pregnant.

Yes, these things happen - and this particular thing happens quite a lot among the working-class American families that Mrs Palin personifies. She and her daughter are being true to their convictions: the girl will have her baby and marry her boyfriend. There will be no abortion or adoption.

The Palin family will offer them love, compassion and support. What's your problem? Christianity (even of the Evangelical sort) does not expect human beings to be faultless: it demands only that they make amends for their transgressions and accept responsibility for them.

The Evangelical churches have made it their particular mission in recent years to support teenage mothers and urge their families to stand by them. So where is the shame in this situation?

Now those who are not of the Palins' religious persuasion may well feel that it is wrong to allow a 17-year-old to marry and start a family. If one of my daughters had become pregnant at the age of 17, would I have advised her to have the baby and marry the father? No, I would not.

Do I respect the decision of another mother and daughter to make that choice based on their own values? Yes, I do. And that - as far as I am concerned - is what it means to be a "liberal". Which brings us to the subject of those hokey old redneck values that the Guardian and the blogosphere find so amusing (or pernicious, depending on their degree of dedication).

I personally am, and always have been, fervently pro-choice on abortion. I do not consider this to be the only sanctified Woman's point of view because I am aware that huge numbers of women disagree with me.

Whenever I touch on the subject, they write in and tell me so, often in eloquent and passionate terms. But according to the official feminist sisterhood (which was taken over by the totalitarian Marxist tendency long ago) you can represent the views of Women only if you accept the tenets of their ideology. Ergo, Mrs Palin is not a Woman Candidate.

She is a renegade, the gender equivalent of an Uncle Tom. In the US, her position is particularly incendiary because it is part of the culture war between metropolitan liberals and provincial America: that vast fly-over country where people (or "folks", as they call themselves) still live by the standards the Palin family embodies. Life is about hard work and hard play.

They hunt with guns from childhood. They talk about sin (and redemption) in ways that embarrass the urban elite, and they regard patriotism as a fundamental part of their moral code. (It is the liberals' ambivalence about patriotism that they detest most.)

Like Margaret Thatcher before her, Mrs Palin is coming in for both barrels of Left-wing contempt: misogyny and snobbery. Where Lady Thatcher was dismissed as a "grocer's daughter" by people who called themselves egalitarian, Mrs Palin is regarded as a small-town nobody by those who claim to represent "ordinary people".

What the metropolitan sophisticates failed to understand in the 1980s when Thatcher won election after election is even more the case in the US: most (and I do mean most) ordinary people actually believe in the basic decencies, the "small-town values", of family, marital fidelity, and personal responsibility. They believe in and honour them - even if they do not manage to uphold them.

Middle America - of which Alaska is spiritually, if not geographically, a part - builds its life around those ideals and regards commonplace moral lapses as part of the eternal struggle to be good.

The life of small-town USA is based on the principles of those Protestant colonial settlers who founded the nation: hard work, self-improvement, personal faith and family devotion. Mrs Palin speaks to and for them in a way that patronising "liberal" elitists find infuriating.



266 comments:

  1. The Truth Hurts the Poor Babies:
    ---
    CNN) — Former Massachusetts Sen. Mitt Romney appears to take a veiled shot at Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, in prepared remarks released ahead of his address to the Republican National Convention Wednesday night — comments the Obama campaign is calling a "pathetic GOP attack."

    "Just like you, there has never been a day when I was not proud to be an American," Romney will tell Republican delegates according to advance excerpts released by the Republican National Committee.

    The comments appear to be a not-so-subtle reference to Mrs. Obama's comment in February on the campaign trail when she declared, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country." Those comments were immediately criticized by Republicans and Michelle Obama later said she misspoke.

    Barack Obama's campaign fired back at Romney's expected remarks Wednesday night, calling them, “as pathetic as [Romney's] failed presidential campaign.”

    “Barack Obama has said that families are ‘off-limits’, and we thought that John McCain agreed," Obama adviser Anita Dunn said in a statement. "But tonight, John McCain’s handpicked attack dog, Mitt Romney, exposed the fake outrage that the Republicans have been peddling all week as the blatant hypocrisy that it is."

    "The McCain team’s disgusting attack on Barack Obama's wife shows they would rather generate false outrage to distract from their own problems than talk about the issues facing the American people," Dunn also said. "Mitt Romney’s attack on a candidate’s wife is as pathetic as his failed presidential campaign."

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  2. Personalized license plate--

    O-MAMA!

    Alaska--Where the air is cold, and
    the Governor is hot!

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  3. Veiled mention of the Truth is a disgusting attack!
    ---
    AND PALIN REPEATED IT!

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  4. Palin showed Obama to be scripted and hollow.

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  5. Really a great speaker.
    No comparison with Barry's phoney fluff and fake Wright style oration.
    Not that anyone will admit it in the MSM.

    Zingers delivered with poise.

    Kevin James
    Exactly

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  6. The Iron Lady has Alzheimer's, like Reagan. (she is still alive isn't she?)

    When she goes, a state funeral is rumoured to be in the works.

    In December 2004, it was reported that Thatcher had told a private meeting of Conservative MPs that she was against the British Government's plan to introduce identity cards. She is said to have remarked that ID cards were a "Germanic concept and completely alien to this country".

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  7. The assholes at the New York times have an editorial about how awful it was for McCain to pick Palin.

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  8. And in a sense it was--in an older sense--


    awful
    (ôfl)

    2. Commanding awe: "this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath" Herman Melville.

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  9. How many 40 minute speeches have been delivered FLAWLESSLY?

    Much more impressive on video as her confidence is obviously constant.

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  10. The idea of them crying foul after the 3 day Personal Trashing of the Lady and her family!

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  11. You ought to hear Korel on KGO--(Korel doesn't like girls)--he is beside himself. Says she is a traitor to her country, wants to force a religious totalitarianism on everybody, lied all the way through, is a lousy mother, guilty of child abuse for forcing the preggers daughter to sit through the speech, on and on, and of course got on that experience gig--really hilarious, if it didn't tick me off so much.

    These lefties, right under the surface, many of them, are really hate filled folks.

    I wonder how she came by that self confident way of speaking? It's steady and measured, and confident. As time goes on it can only get better.

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  12. bobal:


    I’ll certainly take that Palin lady over that fellow pounding his shoe in the post below.

    Best part of the speech to me was when she blew that gracefull kiss to that fellow who had been in prison camp with McCain. Gracefully done, and it obviously meant a lot to him.

    Small gestures speak large words.


    Sep 3, 2008 - 10:16 pm

    Dave:


    bobal: The guy she blew a kiss to is from Lancaster, Ohio. Home of “Uncle Billy”
    Sherman.

    And with her eldest on his way across the pond to earn his CIB, she is a nervous wreck inside. The son himself is fighting the jitters too.

    What does the kiss mean? “Come back with your shield or upon it.” Like those who have gone before you have done. A sine qua non of Western Civilization.

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  13. Kevin James says his mom's less conservative than him and hadn't planned on voting Pub.
    As of now,
    she is.

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  14. Women for ya, won over by flashing teeth, bright eyes, shapely figure, and one speech!

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  15. Cutest thing there tho, is that 3 year old!

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  16. Byron York says it, too, but better:

    Byron York:

    "Perhaps I'm focusing on an irrelevant issue, but the presence, or non-presence, of Johnston on the stage tonight strikes me as important. It's one thing for delegates to be understanding and compassionate about the fix these two teenagers have gotten themselves into. It's another to actually celebrate it. And, given what we've learned in the last few days, if Johnston is up on stage with his girlfriend and the Palin family, and Republicans are wildly cheering, it will certainly look like they are celebrating this situation.

    I don't usually engage in these scenarios, but I'll do it here. If the Obamas had a 17 year-old daughter who was unmarried and pregnant by a tough-talking black kid, my guess is if that they all appeared onstage at a Democratic convention and the delegates were cheering wildly, a number of conservatives might be discussing the issue of dysfunctional black families."



    "It's another to actually celebrate it." My feeling exactly. Surely McCain anticipated this creepy, anything-but-conservative enthusiasm for a child's pregnancy. 'Ugh' does not begin to convey. But perhaps this is simply a demonstration of the extent to which contemporary religious fundamentalism (as opposed to mere religious sentimentalism) has transformed, is transforming, conservatism.


    I agree with Lang (er, Chris Matthews):

    I watched the Sarah speak tonight. She is formidable. Very calculating. An excellent speaker. She created a moment that had to be more than the McCain handlers had bargained for. [I seriously doubt it.] Her management of her family as props was impressive. The boy-girl hand holding, the manly man husband, not afraid to hold the infant. (Why was the infant there at all?) The truly lovely little girl, given the infant by the fisherman father. Anyone who watched this charming child smooth her brother's hair and was not moved..... Well, you know who you are.

    Chris Matthews has a certain basic instinct for politics. He said after the speech that this was a declaration of war against all the city stuff that the Obamas represent. That was correct. Sarah's banner will be carried in a war on behalf of small town America, its values, good and bad, and its people. Jeff Foxworthy says that "redneck" connotes "a glorious absence of sophistication." Sarah is not in any way unsophisticated but for the vast number who are, her speech tonigtht was a Princess Diana moment.

    [...]





    You could tell by the immediate reactions, which were gloomy and stammering. For Democrats, this was a sucking chest wound.

    The Sarah.

    The Sarah is about right.

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  17. Contemporary religious fundamentalism.




    Come to think of it, that's a hell of a funny phrase.

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  18. One other thing: That voice is a cross between Francis McDormand's Margie in Fargo, and the school secretary in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

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  19. One other thing: That voice is a cross between Francis McDormand's Margie in Fargo, and the school secretary in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

    hahaha:)

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  20. I think they should have shown that handsome young man tarred and feathered, and sentenced to work on the Dobson Empire.

    David Frum, sucks big time, repeating the phoney Dem Line that
    IT'S ALL ABOUT THE VETTING
    (so we can be high-minded about gossip)
    Amazing to agree with crystal when people like York and Frum make me gag.
    Chris Mathews is the scumy slimeball he's always been, with cum running down his leg first for Bubba, now for Barry.
    Different strokes for different folks, Trish.
    Hell, you saw nothing wrong with Powell and Armitage hanging the country, as well as his "friends" out to dry for two years.
    No big deal, it's only the country, ...and Libby's life.

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  21. Shameful to celebrate young people getting married, when the hip trend is single motherhood, paid for by the nanny state.

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  22. National Review, the boys that weren't man enough to take Coulter after her friend was tortured, then murdered, by Muslims on 9-11.

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  23. And the hippest thing, of course, is "choice."

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  24. "Jeff Foxworthy says that "redneck" connotes "a glorious absence of sophistication." Sarah is not in any way unsophisticated but for the vast number who are"
    ---
    Spoken like a genuine elitist snob.

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  25. I haven't seen Palin's speech yet but one thing is for certain, McCain reignited his campaign by choosing her! Right now, she's sucking all the oxygen out of Obama's room.
    *******************************
    There is a tremendous amount of hyping and sniping going on. Republicans are over-hyping the Governor with comparisons to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher while the left is in Defcon 1 and has dispatched its MSM on search and destroy missions.
    *******************************
    It's very interesting to see some of the (almost visceral) reactions against McCain due to his selection of Palin. They say they are "extremely disappointed" with the old man's (suddenly he's an old man) judgment. "After all, this is the most important job in the world...blah, blah."

    Is everybody on a hair trigger these days? People are so quick to go off half-cocked, it makes me want to move to Idaho...:)

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  26. "And when you forget you're a Bubblehead you get in trouble, you misjudge things. For one thing, you assume evangelical Christians will be appalled and left agitated by the circumstances of Mrs. Palin's daughter. But modern American evangelicals are among the last people who'd judge her harshly. It is the left that is about to go crazy with Puritan judgments; it is the right that is about to show what mellow looks like. Religious conservatives know something's wrong with us, that man's a mess. They are not left dazed by the latest applications of this fact. "This just in – there's a lot of sinning going on out there" is not a headline they'd understand to be news.

    So the media's going to wait for the Christian right to rise up and condemn Mrs. Palin, and they're not going to do it because it's not their way, and in any case her problems are their problems. Christians lived through the second half of the 20th century, and the first years of the 21st. They weren't immune from the culture, they just eventually broke from it, or came to hold themselves in some ways apart from it. I think the media will explain the lack of condemnation as "Republican loyalty" and "talking points." But that's not what it will be.
    "
    - Noonan

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  27. About the MSM on S&D missions. The other day Tom Brokaw claimed that Obama had been vetted by the MSM during the course of the campaign. I think we can see what kind of BS Brokaw was shooting us. With Palin, we'll see what a real media vetting looks like. They will turn Palin's life inside out and shake it til there's nothing left to fall out. The problem is, and this is the scary part for the nation, is that they're doing it as part of a lynching party.

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  28. The Horror, The Horror, Palin Without Teleprompter

    Left has been criticizing this, so thought I'd watch. Doesn't seem to be anything there to be upset about, see what you think.

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  29. Another thought before my work day begins:

    This election is highlighting some interesting paradoxes about human nature. The left, especially the secular, gleefully delight in every opportunity to point out the hypocritical failing of the religious. Well, isn't it interesting to see the left castigating the working mother from Wasilla? Can you believe they have the gall to ask whether Sara Palin should be at home raising her family?
    *******************************
    Hypocrisy is non-partison, non-denominational and universal.

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  30. "King said Palin could help U.S. Sen. John McCain with women and other voters in Hawai'i, where Lingle became the first Republican governor in 40 years in 2002 and won re-election in 2006, sweeping every state House District."
    ---
    I said 2000, al-Bob, but maybe it was '98, cause she didn't win that year.
    Time sure do fly when you're old, don't it?
    ...I'll have to look it up.

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  31. The point is, al-Bob, look how out of the mainstream she and her church are, esp when compared to The Messiah, and Rev. Wright's church.

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  32. Church #1--Goddamn America
    Church #2--God Bless America


    Tempus Fluit, or whatever it is.
    Sure is the truth.

    I can remember when 1984 seemed like a long way away.

    Now I'm up nearly up against 2012, and The Long Count Calendar of the Ancient Mayans, which ends on Dec 21, 2012.

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  33. And any manner of other end of the world scenarios, from Coast to Coast.

    Thankfully, I still retain my doots about such things, as well as some of my wits, and my rifle.

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  34. "Todd is a commercial fisherman, an oil field worker and a union member, as well as a world-champion snowmobile racer. After 20 years of marriage, Sarah and Todd have five beautiful children and a grandchild on the way.

    They face the same challenges that moms and dads do, every single day in our country. Difficult things happen to families, and just like yours, families pull together and get through it.

    More than just having a great personal story, Sarah Palin is a great person.

    She is genuine, and comfortable in her own skin ... truly authentic.

    She will not be trying to reinvent herself during this campaign!
    She is who she is."


    - Lingle
    ---
    I guess it might have been better for them to be inauthentic and pretend they had the reaction of Liberals or some Librarians to the "illegitimate" child.
    Instead, they were themselves, throwback Americans to the Days when men didn't mumble mumbo jumbo to please "pro-choice" feminists, wear manscara, and cry in public.
    Back when their kids were judged by THEIR family's values, not the values of journalists, mainstream, or niche.

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  35. I thought Palin gave a pretty good little impromptu speech there. Though not being a gushy guy by nature, enthusiasm doesn't offend me. I wished they'd had a shot of the congregation to see what they looked like. Average Alaskan folk, I imagine.

    I watched the convention speech on the computor. I hardly ever watch tv any more. Just to darned irritating.

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  36. I remember sitting in a friend's clubhouse in his parent's attic while he mused whether we would live to see the turn of the Century!
    ---
    My folks best friends, and dad our dentist, *Swedes* with lots of family in Kingsburg, CA, home of VDH.

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  37. "Just to darned irritating."
    ---
    Agreed
    ...but then I stopped watching TV in 1970, except for PBS for 5 years when the kid was growing up.
    Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Mr Rogers, and Captain Kangaroo.
    ...had to reprogram some of the PC stuff he learned on Sesame Street.
    ---
    Then watched 2 of the best years of SNL (92 - 93) when my job made that available on cable.

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  38. Which Century?

    :)

    Same here, used to know all those Sesame Street characters by name.

    Masterpiece Theater used to be good.

    "Anna Karanina"

    "I, Claudius"

    I'm goin' back to bed for awhile. Till later.

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  39. wretchard:
    Every candidate has strengths and weaknesses, but since the Democrats didn’t have a ready estimate of Palin because McCain played the list of his veep choices so close to his chest they didn’t know what to expect. In the brief period since McCain announced the identity of his running mate, the Democrats have naturally been trying to make up their intel deficit and understandably focused on Palin’s wearknesses, glomming in on the superficial ones, like her daughter’s pregnancy. But the real danger lay in the ignorance of her strengths. In the absence of a real intel estimate, many pundits naturally assumed she was stupid and laid their plans accordingly. Tonight’s speech demonstrated how politically expensive underestimating Palin could be.

    In retrospect, Obama may have miscalculated by selecting Biden. His advisers may have assumed that McCain was going to select another experienced white man and by choosing Biden, Obama was going to going to have an experienced white man of his own to set against his projected opponent. This would leave BHO the charismatic black man free to go one on one with the old war hero. Unfortunately McCain set up an asymmetric matchup with Biden; a woman candidate who was moreover free to fire over Biden on BHO himself. To use the metaphor of the Battle of the Denmark Straits, it was almost as if the British, expecting the Bismarck and Prince Eugen to emerge from the mists, found that the Bismarck and the Tirpitz had showed up instead.

    Doubtless the Democrats will fix their intel deficit as quickly as private investigators and political operatives can do it. But in the meantime they are dealing with an unknown quantity. However, no one should lose sight of the fact that John McCain is the real surprise package here. Palin is only the outcome. McCain has hidden reserves of nerve, cunning and calculation. His body may be old and broken, but evidently his mind hasn’t given up the ghost yet. And it should always be remembered that Ahmadinajad, Putin and Hugo Chavez have resources of secrecy, conspiracy and money far greater than the Republican Party. If McCain can run tactical circles around Obama, imagine what it will be like when BHO strides in for his summits with those deceiving men. BHO can expect some level of civility and decency from McCain. Putin will show Obama no mercy.

    Sep 4, 2008 - 12:31 am

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  40. Someone, likely Bobal, referred to the Henry IV plays on a previous post. He recalled Hotspur, and how Hotspur became Coldspur, but last night, it was the fat knight, Jack Falstaff, the metaphor for the bloated cynical MSM, that got cut to size.

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  41. Had to watch Rudy and Mrs Palin this morning, had a meeting last night I could not skip.

    They put on a hell of a show.

    Matthews, after the speech was funnny, telling US that Mrs Palin was no pale immitation of Hillary, but a torpedo aimed directly at Obama.

    Or something quite like that.

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  42. I would say that Palin is cruiser class, say , Ticonderosa?

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  43. Desert Rat: Matthews, after the speech was funnny, telling US that Mrs Palin was no pale immitation of Hillary, but a torpedo aimed directly at Obama.

    He should know, from his own account of thrills running up and down his leg, Chris Matthews' own torpedo always aims directly at Obama when the Messiah gives one of his speeches.

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  44. Matthews looked like someone had run over him, with a snowmachine.

    My wife tells me she is excited about voting for Mrs Palin, while previously she was in a funk.

    Palin in 2012, if all goes well.

    Could easily be the case.

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  45. Keep an eye out for the "Reverse" Bradley Effect. I expect there are going to be women from "liberal" households that tell the pollster that they're still voting for the Messiah, only vaguely aware that when they pull the curtain the instinct to vote for the "Woman, and Mother" will be unresistable.

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  46. Talk about your unforeseen consequences ...

    Poor Levi, or maybe it's lucky Levi.

    Running with the real big dogs, now.

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  47. The Omabaoids need a quick
    refresher course.
    Barracuda

    If the real thing dont do the trick
    No, you better make up something quick
    You gonna burn burn burn burn it to the wick
    Ooooooohhhh, barra barracuda.

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  48. LOL!
    Youz just got to luv Larry:
    ==

    Sarah Palin Has Cooties

    Poor Repuglikkkans think they have a dream ticket on their hands, but startling revelations are now coming to light that will put the final nail in the coffin of John McSame's illegal and immoral candidacy: Sarah Palin has cooties.

    Apparently, McSame didn't thoroughly vett his darling little bimbot before choosing her for his running mate. Then again, the senile old man doesn't know how many houses he owns...how can he be expected to know whether or not his own Veep has cooties? He'll probably deny she even has cooties or try to bury the truth. But the folks over at Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground have it on good authority that Sarah Palin does indeed have Cooties, and that her daughter is a slut (and not even the good kind of slut - she's keeping her baby). But more importantly, Sarah Palin has Cooties.

    Can working families who are facing mortgage foreclosures, unemployment, and skyrocketing gas prices thanks to Bush's failed economic policies really afford putting someone with Cooties a mere heartbeat away from the presidency? And how exactly can a Cootie-sufferer find the time to perform her duties as Vice President while raising five kids, one of whom is a slut? Perhaps Palin should just go back to Alaska and concentrate on being a Mom and finding a cure for those Cooties of hers.

    No one is really sure how Cooties are transmitted, but the general consensus is that you get them by being a pro-life, pro-drilling, Christian Conservative member of the NRA...and by kissing *YUCK!* boys. Any Hillary supporters or Evangelical Christians who do not want Cooties would be advised to refrain from voting for McSame/Palin this November.

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  49. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  50. Fighting Back
    A feisty John McCain tells his staff he's indignant over Palin treatment.

    by Stephen F. Hayes

    John McCain spoke to staff and advisers working in the campaign War Room at the Minneapolis Hilton this afternoon, and forcefully vowed to fight hard to defend his running mate Sarah Palin against attacks from the media and Democrats. "They're not doing right by our vice president, they're not doing right by the American people," McCain said, according to a source in the room. "We're gonna fight back, we're gonna get 'em." McCain pounded his fist into his hand as he spoke, the source said, and made clear that he would be aggressively challenging those who are attacking Palin.

    McCain advisers expect that he will address the issue in his speech to the convention tomorrow evening. McCain's campaign has increasingly turned its sights on the media in recent days as journalists continue to probe Palin's personal life and discuss her performance as a mother. McCain is personally offended by the controversy.

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  51. i can hear it all morning...

    the democrat party is shitting it'sself...

    good

    puma

    Dem's for McCain 2008

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  52. btw i LOVE the Israeli flag pin Sarah WORE last night

    For some reason I just can't picture Obama or his wife every to do that...

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  53. Just a PUBLIC note...

    I have a medical condition...

    it's called Suckustypistproofist

    Some day I plan on getting it fixed...

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  54. Ken at BC described McCain as a prick with brass balls. I think that it close. Shortens the distance between my view and that of some here.

    Palin may have "blowback" effect on McCain - which is to say, her effect on him has been confined to the demands of enhancing the campaign. But her impact - personal and professional - as VP has the potential to be not exactly Cheney-esque but something of her own definition.

    I was originally concerned that the political machine would turn Palin into a cartoon character. It is still possible - as per the last paragraph of Noonan's piece.

    I am not sure that Levi Johnston's presence was a statement of celebration so much as a statement that this family is not ashamed. Should they be? Well that's another question. But it is a different one from celebration.

    That little girl is a pistol. Somebody writing elsewhere about the unspoken signals [body language essentially but concentrated in the facial expressions and movements] that distinguish the important words from the noise, which Sarah had mastered during her speech. The little girl already has it.

    Do you think the patrons here can be polite during McCain's speech tonight. Won't be any fishnets around - nylon or heavy-duty.

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  55. I must say that the "First Dude" played the part well. Flanked by Bristol and Levi, "FD" held the newborne close to his chest. Handing him off to his younger daughter, just before his cue.

    A handsome fellow, an older version of Levi, appears to me.

    Mrs Palin's parents, a proud, proud mother and a father that did kind of have that Harry Truman look.

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  56. WiO,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDSlOU8HPRY

    Min: 2:55

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  57. Did all that typing just disappear?

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  58. whit wrote:

    "Hypocrisy is non-partison, non-denominational and universal."

    That is soooo true!

    The hypocrisy flowing currently is...

    ...I want to say "mortifying" "astounding" but...

    I guess, it just is what it is - hypocritical.

    Jon Stewart did a good send up on the hypocrisy in last nights Daily Show. The second segment had some piercing clips of Rove, O'Reilly, Dick Morris and others blatantly speaking on opposite sides of the same issues for example O'Reilly defending Palin's parenthood regarding her pregnant kid and lambasting Spears parents for their kids 16 year old pregnancy.

    It's worth checking out at comedy central. Stewart even interviewed Newt Gingrich in the last segment.

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  59. Bringing the Baby was Smart. Letting the little girl care for it, BRILLIANT. It said, "Look at us; We're a Family. We can take care of our Own." It spoke Volumes.

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  60. Did you notice the baby itself? Down's syndrome kids have a pretty distinct look to them.

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  61. Rufus: Keep an eye out for the "Reverse" Bradley Effect. I expect there are going to be women from "liberal" households that tell the pollster that they're still voting for the Messiah, only vaguely aware that when they pull the curtain the instinct to vote for the "Woman, and Mother" will be unresistable.

    Also keep an eye out for the endemically skewed polls which will screw Obama. He will go into the election pretty sure of himself, thinking he's up by eight, when he's really down by eight, because the pollsters ask questions like "Would you be willing to consider Obama/Biden rather than McCain/Palin if it meant thousands of teens contemplating suicide rather than being forced to give birth to their unwanted fetuses could be saved?"

    ReplyDelete
  62. speaking of hypocrisy I came across this at lunch:


    "John McCain as a maverick is so yesterday



    JEFFREY SIMPSON

    From Thursday's Globe and Mail


    September 4, 2008 at 1:07 AM EDT

    ST. PAUL, MINN. — “The American people believe Washington is broken, and with good reason.” The city is full of “short-term politics,” and the “public disgust with Washington is entirely warranted.”

    A Barack Obama punchline? Sentences culled from a Democratic Party advertisement? Try the opening paragraph in a chapter in the Republican Party platform. For six of the past eight years, Republicans controlled the White House and Congress. They were the country's dominant party. What, by the party's own words, was the result? “Public disgust.”


    Hypocrisy is no stranger to politics, and platforms in U.S. politics are written to be ignored. Still, the platform crafted for John McCain shows where he wants to take his party. With a few exceptions, he apparently wants to out-Bush George W. Bush.

    Mr. McCain has built part of his reputation on being a straight shooter, a man ready to buck his own party. No more. As candidate, he has bowed to every conservative instinct in the Republican Party, swallowed some of his own positions and, as such, will run on a platform way, way out to the political right.

    Take immigration. As senator, Mr. McCain tried to forge a compromise on that difficult issue. He made common cause with many Democrats and Mr. Bush. Now, his platform rejects any amnesty (which he once supported) and takes a hard line against illegal immigrants and the border fence with Mexico.

    Take tax cuts. As senator, he opposed the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, arguing they were too expensive and unfair. Now, his platform calls not just for making them permanent but for cutting a series of other taxes.

    Take deficits. As senator, he once urged a balanced budget. Now, his platform makes almost no reference to the federal government's half-a-trillion-dollar deficit, and claims it can be eliminated in eight years by reducing “wasteful spending and earmarks.” No independent economist believes this fairy tale, but Republicans apparently do because it suits their tax-cutting ideology.

    Take Iraq. As senator, Mr. McCain was among the first neo-conservative voices urging even more troops for Iraq, a policy subsequently adopted by Mr. Bush.

    Mr. McCain insists he's an internationalist, but that depends on the definition of the word. His platform, for example, takes up traditional Republican dogmas against U.S. participation in the International Criminal Court, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and conventions on women's rights and the rights of the child, and favours moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (a sop to Jewish voters).

    What he does believe in is more defence spending, another Republican dogma. How he intends to spend more on defence while cutting taxes and balancing the budget remains unclear - because it cannot be done by trimming “wasteful spending” in Washington.

    Whatever moderate social views he might once have expressed have been banished in the platform, as Mr. McCain feverishly courts social conservatives. His choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-president, a hero to the evangelicals and social conservatives, was part of this pandering to them.

    The platform provides more. No, to every conceivable kind of abortion. Yes, to appointing anti-abortion judges (while criticizing appointments of judges who have made up their minds on issues before their appointments). Yes, to a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. No, to any U.S. aid for any international programs that do not condemn abortion. Yes, the right to bear arms, just about anywhere, any time.

    It's as if Focus on the Family, the Council for National Policy, Citizens for Community Values and every other Christian and social conservative lobby group (and the National Rifle Association) had a hand in the platform.

    So forget the image of Mr. McCain as a maverick. He used to break with the party occasionally. But as he zeroed in on the nomination, he became more of a fundamentalist Republican - another way of saying that he now epitomizes orthodoxy rather than radicalism, sameness rather than novelty. And, sadly, a politician who's learned little from the fiscal, ethical, foreign policy and social policy failures that produced what his own party's platform calls “public disgust.”"



    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080903.wcosimp04/BNStory/specialComment/home

    ReplyDelete
  63. His choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-president, a hero to the evangelicals and social conservatives, was part of this pandering to them.
    ==
    Good. Who will Hussein be pandering to?

    ReplyDelete
  64. Market drop biggest since June 26.

    Reverberations caused by real estate coupled with weak equity markets will take 2-3 years to settle out of the system. Ten years wouldn't surprise me. About the right time frame for returns from alternative energy technologies to kick in.

    Market psychology could use some Prozac.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Reminds me of the video gamer who lives in the many worlds of his imaginary universe. Usually possessed by and of the emotional IQ of a cantalope.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Thanks for that Daily Show update, ash.

    Mr Rove discussing and discounting the qualifications of Tim Keane, Governor of Virginia, and what he said about Mrs Palin does provide an interesting contrast of talking point perspectives..

    ReplyDelete
  67. The last poll that had Obama up by 5 had a 26% GOP Sampling.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Yes, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has a lot on her plate: a pregnant teen daughter, a son on his way to Iraq, an infant with Down syndrome and a looming national election.

    But must her hair suffer? With her long, straight, often pinned-up locks, Palin looks one humid day away from fronting a Kiss cover band.

    “It’s about 20 years out of date,” said Boston stylist Mario Russo of the Alaska governor’s ’do. “Which goes to show how off she might be on current events.”
    - by a Fat Ugly Bitch,natch.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Now this is interesting, a h/t to a.g. over at westhawk, from the Washington Times

    Circles within cycles, conspiracies in every hallway,
    behind every column ...
    The world of the Byzantine.

    Georgia also had a special relationship with Israel that was mostly under the radar. Georgia's Defense Minister Davit Kezerashvili is a former Israeli who moved things along by facilitating Israeli arms sales with U.S. aid. "We are now in a fight against the great Russia," he was quoted as saying, "and our hope is to receive assistance from the White House because Georgia cannot survive on its own."

    The Jerusalem Post on Aug. 12 reported, "Georgian Prime Minister Vladimir Gurgenidze made a special call to Israel Tuesday morning to receive a blessing from one of the Haredi community's most important rabbis and spiritual leaders, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman. "I want him to pray for us and our state," he was quoted.

    Israel began selling arms to Georgia seven years ago. U.S. grants facilitated these purchases. From Israel came former minister and former mayor of Tel Aviv Roni Milo, representing Elbit Systems, and his brother Shlomo, former director-general of Military Industries. Israeli UAV spy drones, made by Elbit Maarahot Systems, conducted recon flights over southern Russia, as well as into nearby Iran.

    In a secret agreement between Israel and Georgia, two military airfields in southern Georgia had been earmarked for the use of Israeli fighter bombers in the event of preemptive attacks against Iranian nuclear installations.

    This would sharply reduce the distance Israeli fighter bombers would have to fly to hit targets in Iran. And to reach Georgian airstrips, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) would fly over Turkey.

    At a Moscow news conference, Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russia's deputy chief of staff, said the extent of Israeli aid to Georgia included, "eight types of military vehicles, explosives, landmines and special explosives for clearing minefields." Estimated numbers of Israeli trainers attached to the Georgian army range from 100 to 1,000. There were also 110 U.S. military personnel on training assignments in Georgia. Last July 2,000 U.S. troops were flown in for "Immediate Response 2008," a joint exercise with Georgian forces.
    ...
    Mr. Saakashvili was convinced that by sending 2,000 of his soldiers to serve in Iraq, ... he would be rewarded for his loyalty. He could not believe Mr. Bush, a personal friend, would leave him in the lurch. Georgia, as Mr. Saakashvili saw his country's role, was "Israel of the Caucasus."

    The Tel Aviv-Tbilisi military axis appears to have been cemented at the highest levels, according to YNet, the Israeli electronic daily.

    But whether the IAF can still count on those air bases to launch bombing missions against Iran's nuke facilities is now in doubt.

    ReplyDelete
  70. For readers who are rolling their eyes about this nonissue - get real. People talk about hair - from Mitt Romney’s perfectly sprayed coif, John Edward’s Breck do, McCain’s unfortunate combover and Barak’s No. 3 buzz cut.
    ---
    But NOBODY talks about Barry's hair that turned grey in a few days on a vacation to Hawaii.

    ReplyDelete
  71. "Shlomo," where have I heard that name before?

    ReplyDelete
  72. So there, amigos, may be another of the real reasons for the Russian incursion into Georgia.

    Protect their assets in Iran.

    ReplyDelete
  73. "Cindy McCain, unlike the other candidate's wife, did not come on the view with a list of topics we could not bring up."

    ReplyDelete
  74. "Take immigration. As senator, Mr. McCain tried to forge a compromise on that difficult issue. He made common cause with many Democrats and Mr. Bush. Now, his platform rejects any amnesty (which he once supported) and takes a hard line against illegal immigrants and the border fence with Mexico."
    ---
    Where can I see that in writing?
    (not posted by Ash)

    ReplyDelete
  75. I hope the right wing ho get's that tough
    "Number of States"
    Question right.

    ReplyDelete
  76. coutesy of Michelle Malkin, doug

    Immigration, National Security, and the Rule of Law

    Immigration policy is a national security issue, for which we have one test: Does it serve the national interest? By that standard, Republicans know America can have a strong immigration system without sacrificing the rule of law.

    Enforcing the Rule of Law at the Border and Throughout the Nation

    Border security is essential to national security. In an age of terrorism, drug cartels, and criminal gangs, allowing millions of unidentified persons to enter and remain in this country poses grave risks to the sovereignty of the United States and the security of its people. We simply must be able to rack who is entering and leaving our country.

    Our determination to uphold the rule of law begins with more effective enforcement, giving our agents the tools and resources they need to protect our sovereignty, completing the border fence quickly and securing the borders, and employing complementary strategies to secure our ports of entry.

    Experience shows that enforcement of existing laws is effective in reducing and reversing illegal immigration.

    Our commitment to the rule of law means smarter enforcement at the workplace, against illegal workers and lawbreaking employers alike, along with those who practice identity theft and traffic in fraudulent documents. As long as jobs are available in the United States, economic incentives to enter illegally will persist. But we must empower employers so they can know withire are permitted to work. That means that the E-Verify system—which is an internet-based system that verifies the employment authorization and identity of employees—must be reauthorized. A phased-in requirement that employers use the E-Verify system must be enacted.

    The rule of law means guaranteeing to law enforcement the tools and coordination to deport criminal aliens without delay — and correcting court decisions that have made deportation so difficult. It means enforcing the law against those who overstay their visas, rather than letting millions flout the generosity that gave them temporary entry. It means imposing maximum penalties on those who smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S., both for their lawbreaking and for their cruel exploitation. It means requiring cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement and real consequences, including the denial of federal funds, for self-described sanctuary cities, which stand in open defiance of the federal and state statutes that expressly prohibit such sanctuary policies, and which endanger the lives of U.S. citizens. It does not mean driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, nor does it mean that states should be allowed to flout the federal law barring them from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, nor does it mean that illegal aliens should receive social security benefits, or other public benefits, except as provided by federal law.

    We oppose amnesty. The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity. The American people’s rejection of en masse legalizations is especially appropriate given the federal government’s past failures to enforce the law.

    ReplyDelete
  77. "traditional Republican dogmas against U.S. participation in the International Criminal Court"
    ---
    GD Constitution!

    ReplyDelete
  78. (who needs it when international Criminals can fill the Bill?)

    ReplyDelete
  79. Some one mentioned flying to Iran, via Tbilisi, just the other day.
    I thought it an attempt at humor, when they could have been dead on serious.

    Silly me.

    ReplyDelete
  80. Wonder if Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter have cooties, too?

    What's your source say about that, mat?

    ReplyDelete
  81. Mr Murdock, operating out of his London Times offices reports

    The fresh political turmoil threatens to cast a shadow over Ukraine's bid to join Nato. Mr Cheney is due to meet President Yushchenko amid fears in Ukraine that the Kremlin will attempt to scupper its Nato ambitions by stirring separatist tensions in the pro-Russian Crimea region.

    Russia's Black Sea fleet is based at the Crimean port of Sevastopol. A member of Ukraine's pro-Russian opposition Party of Regions submitted a resolution to parliament today calling for the foreign minister to be sacked over the "illegal" presence of US warships in the Black Sea.

    Mr Yushchenko's party, Our Ukraine, walked out of the coalition government with the Tymoshenko Bloc yesterday in protest at new legislation restricting the powers of the presidency. The President has threatened to call a snap election if a new coalition is not formed within 30 days.

    The crisis in Georgia has contributed to the collapse of Ukraine's pro-Western government, which formed only nine months ago after Mrs Tymoshenko and her allies won a narrow victory in elections last September. Mr Yushchenko accused her of "high treason" in allegedly siding with Russia over the war, an allegation she denied. However, her party refused this week to back a motion from Our Ukraine that condemned Russia. Mr Yushchenko openly supported Georgia and told The Times last month that Nato membership was "the only way for our country to protect our national security and sovereignty".

    Mrs Tymoshenko is riding high in opinion polls, while the president's rating is in single figures. Her party blamed Mr Yushchenko for the crisis, saying it was a bid to damage her ahead of the presidential election in late 2009.

    ReplyDelete
  82. Wonder if Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter have cooties, too?
    ==
    They definitely have the Cuties.

    ReplyDelete
  83. I saw that about Georgia and the Israelis too. And assorted Jews in the Georgian defense groups. Kind of Israel/On the Black Sea.

    Meanwhile, in other news Nation's Artists Plan Big Expo Of "Mel's Hole" Artworks

    ReplyDelete
  84. coo·tie (kt)
    n. Slang
    A body louse.

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

    [Probably from Malay kutu.]

    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language.

    ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
    Noun 1. cootie - a parasitic louse that infests the body of human beings
    body louse, Pediculus corporis
    louse, sucking louse - wingless usually flattened bloodsucking insect parasitic on warm-blooded animals
    genus Pediculus, Pediculus - type genus of Pediculidae: true lice infecting humans

    ReplyDelete
  85. and in the world of doublespeak having cooties AND being a redneck is a good thing...

    ReplyDelete
  86. Is the teleprompter a good or bad thing for our society, overall?

    You decide.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Bobal: bobal said...
    coo·tie (kt)
    n. Slang
    A body louse.


    The typical drug store has only 1 or 2 feet of shelf space for treating cooties, and 35 feet of shelf space for treating cooters.

    ReplyDelete
  88. LOL. Rubeeee! You are shameless!

    ReplyDelete
  89. So there, amigos, may be another of the real reasons for the Russian incursion into Georgia.
    ==
    On the contrary. I see it as another operation planned and executed by the CIA, to put another hurdle in front of Israel.

    ReplyDelete
  90. I noticed this too, noticed one little glitch in her speech, and that she was sometimes using notes.

    Maybe this gal don't need no stinking telepromptter!

    Mark:


    Did you notice that Sarah had some glitches in her otherwise very polished performance? And did you notice that she was referring to her notes and not using the teleprompter? This puzzled me as I was watching. (And did you notice that every republican speaker was presented regularly via back cameras that clearly revealed teleprompters, while no democrats, that I saw anyway, were videoed this way?)

    Here is the astounding, assuming it’s true, answer to my observations, via Powerline via Red State:

    “UPDATE: RedState is reporting that the teleprompter broke half way through Palin’s speech. This explains why, as I noted last night, she started deviating from the prepared text. She apparently delivered the remainder of the speech from memory. She also had the text of the speech on paper at the podium–a useful backup any time you’re using a teleprompter!–and she might have consulted it a time or two during applause breaks, but she certainly didn’t read from it. So what could have been a disaster instead appears to be more evidence of Palin’s steady nerve.”

    That is . . . astounding!


    Sep 4, 2008 - 11:35 am

    ReplyDelete
  91. Mat, you've got more confidence in the CIA than most of us do.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Ash said...
    "Did you notice the baby itself?
    Down's syndrome kids have a pretty distinct look to them.
    "
    ---
    Yeah, Tammy Duckworth has that distinctive "legs blown off in her helicopter look" and John has that distinctive "arms busted by gook torturers look."

    ...and?

    ReplyDelete
  93. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  94. Mat, you've got more confidence in the CIA than most of us do.
    ==
    I don't see them helping.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Koreatown restaurant salutes Syngman Rhee
    Favorite dishes of South Korea's first president and comfort food are on the menu at E-Hwa Jang. Video
    ---
    Be just like the old days, 'Rat.

    ReplyDelete
  96. We had a great Korean bulgogi eatery, over in Glendale, for a while, but they sold it to some japanese, that ruined it, for me.

    The new owners just weren't the same class of cooks.
    They wern't Koreans.

    ReplyDelete
  97. "Shlomo," where have I heard that name before?

    That was the 4th Stooge. You never hear about him because he couldn't keep up.

    ReplyDelete
  98. RE: The Greying of Obama. Two words - George Clooney.

    RE: Palin's do. Kind of agree. Should be pinned up for formal occasions. Image isn't all but close to it. Just ask the bar patrons.

    ReplyDelete
  99. "Its menu includes some of Rhee's favorite dishes -- such as oxtail broth soup and soondubu stew, which his second wife, Francesca Donner from Austria, reportedly made from scratch for him."
    ---
    Didn't know he had a Nazi Wife!

    ReplyDelete
  100. That is . . . astounding!

    Also ... interesting.




    Somebody had to say it.

    ReplyDelete
  101. 37,244,000 WATCHED PALIN SPEECH ... [24,029,000 WATCHED BIDEN; 38,379,000 WATCHED OBAMA]...

    ReplyDelete
  102. Dialogue With The Dead Is Feasable, Vatican Spokesman Says

    One of the most authoitative spokesmen of the Roman Catholic Church has raised eyebrows among the faithful by declaring that the Church believes in the feasability of communication with the dead.

    The Rev. Gino Concetti, chief theological commentator for the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Rommano, denied he was signaling any change in approach. But he agreed that his remardks might come as a jolt for many believers.

    He said the Church remained oppoised to the raising of spirits, but added, "Communication is possible between those who live on this earth and those who live in a state of eternal repose, in heaven or purgatory. I may even be that God lets our loved ones send us messages to guide us at certain moments in life."

    His comments were first made in support of an American theologian, the Rev. John Neuhaus(our lapsed Lutheran, gone over to the Catholics), who had described how a friend had seen a spirit. Neuhaus said there were various explanations, but the "the important thing is not to deny such things a priority."

    Concetti said the key to the Church's attitude was the Roman Catholic belief in a 'Communion of Saints", which included Christians on earth as well as those in the after-life. "Where there is communion, there is communication," he said.

    Concetti suggested dead relatives could be responsible for prompting impulses and triggering inspiration--and even for "sensory manifestations", such as appearances in dreams.

    Concetti said the newly revised Catholic catechism specifically endorsed the view that the dead could intercede on earth and quotes the dying St. Dominic tellins his brothers: "Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death, and I shall helpt you then more effectively than during my life."

    London Observer Service

    from Vital Signs, monthly rag of IANDS

    Neuhaus had a near death experience not so long ago, and it seems to be a major topic in his mind now, not surprisingly, along with other paranormal phenomena.

    ReplyDelete
  103. Bobcats take over foreclosed home

    "We came here to get away from the city and get closer to nature," said Scott Brown, 36, who lives across the street from the foreclosed house. "They are great neighbors, and as long as they don't want to baby-sit my kids, it's not a problem."

    ReplyDelete
  104. I don't see them helping.

    Neither do I, alfter that last National Intelligence Estimate which surely was a crock.

    ReplyDelete
  105. Bobcats take over home.

    Well hell yes, suburban living is easier than in the forest, what with all those leftovers and garbage cans around. We had a coyote poking around here not so long ago.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Hell, you saw nothing wrong with Powell and Armitage hanging the country, as well as his "friends" out to dry for two years.

    - Doug

    Powell and Armitage got us to the front line in the war on terrorism - namely, Iraq. And for that deserve our undying gratitude. If smaller fish had to pay a political price for that signal achievement, well, that's how the cookie crumbles. Good people are lost along the way in the noblest of endeavors.



    Go ahead, embrace teen pregnancy and marriage. It's all good.



    Hopefully, whit, McCain will hit it out of the ballpark tonight. Cuz we're not voting for Vice President. I'm reasonably confident he will.

    ReplyDelete
  107. I'm guessing McCain will be emphasizing change, how we must break with the corrupt geriatric leadership of the past and move on to new fresh leadership( hoping we won't notice that he's been in power 26 years and voted 95% Bush way).

    ReplyDelete
  108. Mark said...

    Did you notice that Sarah had some glitches in her otherwise very polished performance? And did you notice that she was referring to her notes and not using the teleprompter? This puzzled me as I was watching. (And did you notice that every republican speaker was presented regularly via back cameras that clearly revealed teleprompters, while no democrats, that I saw anyway, were videoed this way?)

    Here is the astounding, assuming it’s true, answer to my observations, via Powerline via Red State:

    “UPDATE: RedState is reporting that the teleprompter broke half way through Palin’s speech. This explains why, as I noted last night, she started deviating from the prepared text. She apparently delivered the remainder of the speech from memory. She also had the text of the speech on paper at the podium–a useful backup any time you’re using a teleprompter!–and she might have consulted it a time or two during applause breaks, but she certainly didn’t read from it. So what could have been a disaster instead appears to be more evidence of Palin’s steady nerve.”

    That is . . . astounding!

    ReplyDelete
  109. You know, this says a heck of a lot.

    What's that phrase?

    Grace under pressure.

    Sarah Palin electrified the Republican convention Wednesday, all the while reading off a faulty teleprompter and an outdated draft, John McCain officials told FOX News on Thursday.

    The Alaska governor overcame several glitches and technical problems to deliver her speech without getting flustered, impressing McCain and his staff and allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.

    Foremost of the obstacles, Palin’s teleprompter was not working properly. When she took the podium, the machine rolled so quickly, it often skipped the first line or two of every paragraph on screen. The operator said he had new equipment and wasn’t sure how it would work.

    However, Palin also went on stage with a slightly outdated hard copy of her speech. For various unexplained reasons, she and her closest advisers had an old draft on hand, and even had a hard time furnishing one of those for her to use. Several of the drafts were scribbled on, so one aide gave Palin a wrinkled, folded copy out of his pocket.

    Officials said Palin responded in mom-like fashion, concluding, “Well, I suppose I could put a book on it and smooth it out a little. “

    During one part of her speech, she couldn’t see the teleprompter because signs were blocking it. That was when she ad-libbed a line about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull — “lipstick.”

    The line was a hit with the audience. It is something she had jokingly said to staff during the speech prep process.

    FOX

    ReplyDelete
  110. Doug, she keeps her cool, at the biggest most pressured time in her life!

    Can this get any better?

    Poor John McCain with an impossible act to follow!

    ReplyDelete
  111. Heck I'm not worried about that debate with Biden now.

    ReplyDelete
  112. She adlibbed the lipstick joke????? How come it was on the internet before she spoke?

    And your proud of the management structure headed by McCain which can't even provide up to date scripts and a working teleprompter? What is this, the GOP spin machine?

    My first run in to the lipstick joke was from our very own Doug yesterday:

    This post has been removed by the author.

    Wed Sep 03, 06:07:00 PM EDT
    Blogger Doug said...

    Palin on how will she be able to handle criticism:

    "Do you know the difference between a hockey mom and a Pitbull?"

    (one wears lipstick)

    Wed Sep 03, 06:09:00 PM EDT

    ReplyDelete
  113. Back during the 2000 campaign many Republicans were more excited about the prospect of a Cheney vice presidency than a Bush presidency. (I was one of them.) But in the end it was about Bush, and it was Bush that won Republicans over.

    McCain CAN do that, in his own right, and needs to. Starting tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  114. It's really satisfying to watch Ash grasp at straws.

    Pathetic Attmept To Wright Palin

    Here Ash, you can try to make something out of this too.

    ReplyDelete
  115. It's pathetic Ash, many of us here have granted Obama is a good speaker--least with a working teleprompter.

    Can't you grudginly give Palin the same?

    ReplyDelete
  116. PALIN RAISES MONEY -- FOR OBAMA! **Exclusive** Obama scores $8 million since Palin's speech from over 130,000 donors - on pace to hit $10 million by the time John McCain hits stage, campaign says... Developing
    ---
    Must have Soros et al worried.

    ReplyDelete
  117. PALIN: NEW KIND OF WOMAN POL

    ST. PAUL

    With sass and wit, sarcasm and sincerity, courage and strength, Sarah Palin last night showed us a new model of female politician.

    Her family stories were genuine and real. Her commitment to special-needs children was moving. Her contempt for special interests was obvious.

    And her putdowns of Barack Obama's rhetoric and her praise of John McCain's character and achievements were welcome and well delivered.

    Many women look bad when they attack their opponents, too often seeming strident and shrill. But Palin was funny and irreverant, with a biting wit and a joy of combat that was exhilarating to watch.

    Sometimes she reminded us of the hockey mom she is. Other times, she was an American Margaret Thatcher - mobilizing humor and biting satire to mock the opposition.

    Where Hillary Clinton has but two speeds - full forward and stop - Palin displayed a range of rhetoric, emotion and language that sometimes evoked moving patriotism, at other times hilarious irony - and, frequently, a strong dose of common sense.

    If her style in attacking and mocking her opponent was Thatcher-esque, her range of rhetorical style was Rooseveltian. She is, in fact, one of the best public speakers in our politics today.

    Now the Democrats are stuck in a trap. They've demeaned, patronized and smeared a woman who's well on her way to becoming very, very popular. Her speech will create legions of fans; the Democratic smears of the last few days will create, for Obama, legions of enemies.


    This man who dedicated two years to stopping a woman from being president now has to answer for spending two months stopping one from becoming vice president - a task he hopes to accomplish using women's votes.

    Remember: The swing vote in this election are single moms. Just as the soccer moms dominated in 1996 and security moms in 2004, now unmarried women, mostly with children, will determine the outcome of the 2008 race. And they're finding in Sarah Palin an advocate whose life isn't far different from their own and whose priorities mirror theirs'.

    As withering in her contempt for the country-club elites of the Republican establishment as for the pandering of the Democrats, Palin stands in stark contrast to the inherited elitism of the Bushes, the Romneys and the Kennedys. She's a woman of the people.

    Was this a Republican attacking big oil? Was it the nominee for vice president of a major party who laced into earmarks and lobbyists and PACs? Yes it was - and how refreshing!

    In her sincere embrace of her family and her nonjudgmental introduction of her pregnant daughter, Palin won the hearts of many single moms. By evoking life in a modest, middle-class town, she established an empathy with voters akin to what Bill Clinton built when he ate at McDonalds'.

    How are the Democrats to live down their assaults on Sarah? How not to seem the enemies of the very voters they have to get?

    Strategically, Palin achieved the convention's core goal - to show how McCain is not a clone of George Bush, but a man of the people eager for change and demanding of reforms.

    Now the gap between Obama and McCain is not so wide. Now it is clear that they both stand for change.

    So now the fear of a naive and untried Obama leading the nation through perilous times at home and abroad can work to drive voters over the narrower synapse and get them to vote for McCain.

    Mission accomplished, Sarah.

    Dick Morris

    ReplyDelete
  118. Day before, on Miller’s show, he [Roger Simon, Blogger] was orgamic over the prospect of McCain having to throw her overboard.-Doug@bc

    Did you mean organic or orgasmic. Gotta be careful there lil dude. These are volatile times. Lot of heavy breathing on the Green Side of the tracks.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Orgamic--the art of taking the orgasm as a game. Ovid "The Art of Orgamic Love"

    ReplyDelete
  120. She looked and sounded great bobal but what she said reeked of hypocrisy and was delivered with a heaping dose of scorn.




    Blogger Slade said...

    Market psychology could use some Prozac.


    hmmm, slade, all in the head is it? I know you don't believe that. I hope your parachute is strapped on tight, more rough weather ahead, but it is the dems fault, right?

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  121. Doug, I just heard your Governor Linda Lingle, who is Jewish, say that she knows Sarah Palin, and that she (Sarah Palin) doesn't have an anit-Jewish bone in her body.

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  122. Ash is our house Professor of Hypocrisy, for any uninformed reader.

    What I liked about her was that she was young, vibrant, and POSITIVE.

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  123. A POSITVIE pitbull with lipstick.

    ....errrr riiiight.

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  124. Thanks for that correlative acknowledgement, Bob.

    No it's not all the Dems fault, as I think I have said on several occasions to an thunderous applause of silence of slip-through contempt.

    What I never said explicitly is that the business community is in charge of the government. Which is to say profit is driver, driving Miss Daisy the unwitting and undiscerning consumer, as in Rat's Russell Co. Grand Strategy. I am not as far out there as Mat but I am not prepared to deny the possible reality of (some of) his stated positions.

    But me, subtle? Cold day in hell baby.

    Hypocritical? Try hypercritical.

    Scorn? The space being fully occupied by the last two stages of Kubler-Ross, as we all approach the fatality of a final resting point. Scorn has no home there.

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  125. I'm sorry, that would be Ash, not Bob. I have mental radar blips. I'll just let this one stand with a later followup post on markets.

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  126. You seem to have a good economic head on your shoulders Slade and I hope you stoop to spread your wisdom and insights here more often.

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  127. Slade,

    The market knows that which the western media is not telling. Not much to go. We'll see how my prediction holds up.

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  128. Go ahead, embrace teen pregnancy and marriage. It's all good.

    We're not embracing teen pregnancy and marriage but what would you propose? An abortion? Or should Governor Palin be sent packing back to Alaska?

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  129. What was your prediction Mats?

    ReplyDelete
  130. I'm reminded of Buddy Larsen's latest show stopper: "the human body is a support structure for the rectum" [in response to some commenter saying that Patton was the one who slapped that soldier.]

    sub-prime mess? yes

    credit mess? yes

    financial corrections? yes

    exposure to international markets? yes

    action on GES's? probably, eventually.

    action on enery? probably, eventually.


    End of world? Oh I don't think so.

    My *vision* is that the nest ten years will experience slower growth - on the order of 8% annual returns instead of the superheated 15%. I can live with that.

    My concern is that a combination of speculation and unpredictable behavior of these huge international capital streams will destabilize a slow recovery - for motivations that may well be political.

    I don't agree with people like Rufus that it's all good, until (1) the international equity markets get brought under some form of uniform regulatory control (the ICE commodity exchange in London not subject to CFTC regs for NYMEX) and (2) global trade inequities - subsidies for exports - have to remediated.

    Finessing the international economic competition has potentially more impact than anything the State or CIA can develop through their mechanisms of influence.

    It's not just psychology anymore than speculation or the pressures of supply & demand. The global markets - if I can encroach into hyperbole - are the new wild west.

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  131. Gloria Steinem: 'Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary'

    Even I'd agree with that.

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  132. Obama: Surge Succeeded Beyond 'Wildest Dreams'

    Not beyond McCain's wildest dreams.

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  133. (CBS) The presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain is now even at 42 percent, according to a new CBS News poll conducted Monday-Wednesday of this week. Twelve percent are undecided according to the poll, and one percent said they wouldn't vote.

    This is in contrast to a poll conducted last weekend, where the Obama-Biden ticket led McCain-Palin by eight points, 48 percent to 40 percent.

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  134. given the unlikely probability that 1) international folks will agree to uniform regulatory code (the US has a recent history of not liking any regulation) or 2.) nations of the world will not subsidize exports (examples abound) then are we to conclude you don't think things will get "all good"?

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  135. Gloria Steinem: 'Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary'

    Even I'd agree with that.-Bob



    I was waiting for the Old Guard to weigh in.

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  136. It's not a rectum Ash, it's a fully developed species.

    The shits come and go.

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  137. yeah, the shits come and go, booms and busts ect. The pendulum does swing but the worries over systemic failure raise the possibility of... systemic failure. The world would still exist if it occurred, sure, but what would it look like? What historical precedents are there? Are the worries justified? Is it different this time around?

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  138. French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Iran on Thursday that its determination to press on with its controversial nuclear drive risked an Israeli strike that would be a "catastrophe."

    "Iran is taking a major risk by continuing the process of seeking nuclear technology for military ends," Sarkozy said at a four-way summit in Damascus with the leaders of Syria, Qatar and Turkey.

    "Because one day, no matter which Israeli government is in power, one morning we will awake to find Israel has attacked," Sarkozy said on the second day of a landmark visit to Syria.

    News Item

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  139. "We're not embracing teen pregnancy and marriage but what would you propose? An abortion? Or should Governor Palin be sent packing back to Alaska?"

    Not embracing? How about rejoicing? More like rejoicing.

    No, she never should have been selected to begin with.

    But here we are. And like I said, in the end we aren't voting for Palin.

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  140. systemic failure

    I'm sorry but you sound like a combination of Bob having a bad Emerson Day and Peggy Noonan burying herself in the purple prose of Doomsday.

    It's one thing to argue for reform. It's quite another to go hyperbolic.

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  141. Would be a real shame to have a real person in the Whithouse again.

    ReplyDelete
  142. I guess the EB is the Whithouse.

    ReplyDelete
  143. Swedes With Sex On The Mind Blame The Voles

    Men's Fidelity Controlled By Cheating Genetics

    Swedish Researchers Say 40 Percent Of Men Possess Gene Linked To Infidelity Among Voles


    A new study has found similarities in the genetics of cheating rodents and those belonging to men who cheat on their mates.

    In the latest tale of mice and men, researchers compared men and voles, a mouse-like varmint. The study found a gene variant, or allele, present in cheating voles also was present in two of every five men.

    According to the study's conclusions, those men with the cheating allele were more prone to marital dysfunction and more likely to get divorced. Men with two copies of the allele were twice as likely as a man without the allele.

    The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, studied the genetics of cheating. Researchers there said the cheating allele regulates the activity of a hormone in the brain that can affect a man's attitudes toward fidelity and monogamy.

    If a man lacks the gene variant they're more likely to be a devoted mate, researchers said.

    Karolinska Institute scientists studied more than 1,000 heterosexual couples. The researchers only looked at men because the hormone produced by the gene is known to play a larger role in men's brains than in women's brains.

    The researchers also found that the gene seemed to predict whether women described their mates as close or distant, and whether the men are more likely to marry, or simply live with their mates.

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  144. A real person.

    Yeah, I look forward to conservatives opening up an era of giddy gushing over moral lapses. New tone, man. New tone.

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  145. Like Librarians cozying up to NeoNazis.

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  146. Can you explain how lying about Plame contributed to our National Security?

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  147. Who's gushing over a moral lapse? If any gushing is going on, it's over how Palin is trying to handle the moral lapse of her daughter and the young man. At the same time as giving birth to a Down's child.

    It takes some spunk to do this, and conviction. For $5000 bucks she could have made both situations go away.

    I admire her.

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  148. I think Trish either has some personal issues or she's a plant trying to drum up debate.

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  149. You know they secretly encouraged her to get pregnant so they'd have something to celebrate, al-Bob.

    ...and give the KOS Kiddies something to spawn rumors with.

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  150. Ash
    Benj
    Trish

    ...and sometimes Teresita, depending on whether she's a self-described center-lefty or center-righty.

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  151. Piper Palin, 7,
    I thought she was younger.
    Much more fun when we had them around.

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  152. More hilarity ensued when Piper Palin, 7, appeared to spit on her hand and use it to smooth down the hair of Trig, her baby brother. They cheered again for the appearance of Palin's husband, Todd, otherwise known as the 'First Dude'. With Palin's every line of argument, someone shouted "Good Point!", "Yeah!", or "Ser-rah! Ser-ah! Ser-rah!"

    Among those who couldn't make it to the Tailgaters bar was Lynette Clark, chair of the Alaskan Independence Party, who last night issued an apology for incorrectly claiming that Palin was once a member of the pro-separatist group. In fact, only Todd Palin was ever a member.

    Ms Clark lives just north of Fairbanks, a six hour drive from Wasilla. "My husband and I are both gold miners, and right now we have water flowing through our sluice box, and when that occurs we don't do a lot of socialisin'," she said.

    Speaking to The Times before the speech, Ms Clark said she believed that Alaska would one day be independent, and she criticised Mr McCain for having previously campaigned against new oil exploration in the north of the state. But she expressed support for Palin. "I'm very glad she's governor of the state of Alaska, you couldn't find a more apt individual," she said. "In this country, Alaska, they don't care if you're a man or a woman, they care about your word, your reputation. She'd make a fine vice president."

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  153. The crux of the issue, with regards Mrs Palin and Bristol is the fact that Mrs Palin, as Gov., opposed sex education in Alaska schools. The argument being that sex is better taught by parents than teachers.

    Mrs Palin's own family demonstrates the failure of that argument.

    The ongoing debate this issue highlights is the funding of public school's sex-education programs that go beyond saying "don't do it until you're married". Even though I believe it should be a parent's responsibility to teach their children about sex issues like pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, some parents do not - or they really try to teach them but can't get through to them. Maybe the parents are not comfortable with the subject, or not very close with their teens, or their teens are rebelling and don't listen to them anyway. For this reason I believe funding of sex-ed programs is very important! The issues of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease are very real! Professional, qualified sex-ed teachers can sometimes get through to teens in a more effective way than their parents can (duh!). The availability of sex-education outside the home is important, and exclusively teaching abstinence-only is as archaic as it is irresponsible.
    posted by ModerateMom

    It also seems that Ms Cindy does follow blindly, the Mavericks covering all the bases

    ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The wife of Republican presidential nominee John McCain doesn't agree with vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's opposition to abortion in cases of rape and incest.

    Cindy McCain also parts ways with her husband's running mate on sex education.

    Palin opposes abortion and rejects the view that pregnancies caused by rape and incest should be exceptions.

    Cindy McCain tells ABC's "Good Morning America" that "I don't agree with that aspect, but I do respect her for her views."

    Palin has opposed funding sex-education programs in Alaska.

    Cindy McCain tells ABC that she advocated abstinence as a part of sex education at her children's school. "I believe that it's twofold and I think all of it should be taught."

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  154. To heck with the CIA. Let's hire the guys that got to Sarah's teleprompter.

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  155. "Mrs Palin's own family demonstrates the failure of that argument."
    ---
    That graduates of Safe Sex Institutions get pregnant must demonstrate the failure of that argument, then, I suppose.
    ---
    Or maybe that shit does indeed happen.

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  156. "It also seems that Ms Cindy does follow blindly, the Mavericks covering all the bases"

    SHOULD HAVE READ

    "It also seems that Ms Cindy does NOT follow blindly, the Mavericks covering all the bases"

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  157. It's the rates of teen pregnency, doug, they are higher where in those locales where Sex Ed is not funded, or so I read yesterday, or the day before.

    If one is against abortion, as birth control, than other means must be employeed, other means than HOPE.

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  158. HOPE is not a strategy, not when it comes to limiting premarital pregnency.

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  159. ABC Newsreports

    other studies also suggest that comprehensive sex education -- which proponents note encourages both abstinence and safe sex if sex occurs -- is more effective than its more abstinence-heavy counterpart.

    "There is strong evidence that implementing comprehensive programs can achieve some of the goals of both those who strongly believe young people should abstain from sex and and those who believe young people should use contraception if they do have sex," said Doug Kirby, a research scientist who specializes in studying the effects of sex education on teens.

    "On the other hand, we must also recognize that comprehensive sex education programs are not a cure-all," he said. "They reduce sexual risk-taking by about one-third. This is much better than nothing."


    A lot like drilling off shore and in ANWR, sex education may not be the total or only answer, but a third reduction in premarital pregnency is a big step toward less premarital pregnencies, and fewer abortions.

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  160. I don't give a rat's vagina about sex education.

    The issue bores the crap out of me.

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  161. slade,

    are you saying any talk of systemic failure is hyperbole? Wasn't that the rationale behind bailing out Bears Stearn, to prevent systemic failure? They were party to so many trades that the cascading defaults could freeze up the system. You know, sorta like Auction Rate securities seized because no one would bid at auction? It seems to me the fed and treasury are definitely concerned with systemic failure, but not you is seems? Why the bailout of Bears in your view - corporate kleptocracy? How about Fannie and Freddie? If they should be let to fail will the cascading fallout be...ok? How will Social Security fail if their Fannie and Freddie paper is worthless? Some Social Security money sits somewhere does it not? Then there are all the private pension plans, all that money evaporating - the biggies go down (Fannie Freddie ect) the problems cascade, or so the Fed/Treasury seem to think...

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  162. How will Social Security fail if their Fannie and Freddie paper is worthless?

    sorry "fail" should read "fair"...fruedian slip maybe

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  163. Later, Ash. It's complicated and I have to organize my thoughts. But try not to hyperventilate.

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  164. But, slade, education of the young is one of those Responsibilities left to the Mayors and Governors.
    Local Leaders
    How they do it, their success or failure is a direct reflection on their governence.

    Whether important to you, personally, or not.

    Now, I do not think it a "deal breaker" but it is a real issue, as it relates to States. Not all Governors have followed Governor Palin's lead.

    "Since 1996, over $1.5 billion in U.S. tax dollars have been spent on abstinence-only until marriage programs and without having any impact," Conley said. "Governors are paying attention to this huge waste of public money. That's why 25 states, including Alaska -- prior to Gov. Palin's term -- have withdrawn from federal funding under the Title V abstinence-only program."

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  165. I'll try to breathe normally and you take a sober assessment of what stage you're in (making sure it isn't denial). I agree it is complicated and I'm more curious then convinced.

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  166. Then there is Palin's views on teaching Creationism in public schools...

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  167. Mrs Palin entered political life, to improve Education, that was her primary goal. By her own account

    I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better.

    When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too.

    Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

    And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

    I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.


    Did she succeed or fail, in that Goal?
    How do we rate her experience, in effecting Education of her State's children, when it comes to Sex?

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  168. A lot of parents think sex education leads to--more pre-marital sex, encouraging behaviors they'd rather not encourage. Showing 14 year olds how to put rubbers on bananas--I can understand how that is something lots of people feel uncomfortable with. And then, too, many libertarian types just feel it's none of the governments business. Also understandable. And these days of course, sex ed includes, I imagine, like in San Francisco, the idea of teaching acceptance of types of sex many find objectionable, especially for the young.

    It's a big country, and the condum that fits in government mandated LA, many in Alaska, home of hardy libertarians types, where 80% show approval of Palin, find objectionable.

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  169. Meanwhile, in Russia, the government might well oppose sex ed, thinking the demagraphics are killing us:)

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  170. Anadarko is still buying back its stock. Why is that? Rufus?

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  171. To champion Mrs Palin's position is to champion moral certainties in the face of pragmatic realities.

    The lack of effective sex education making abortion a pragmatic birth control option

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  172. Informing people does not imply acceptance. One can teach children about crime without implying crime is good similarly with sex. Having the knowledge of how one gets pregnant and how to prevent it does not imply one is in favor of getting pregnant. Similarly teaching children about the risks of venereal diseases and how to prevent them does not imply that they should get a venereal disease.

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  173. All that sex "education" does is, implant in kids thoughts relating to sex. Furthermore, this misguided program takes away time and money that should be spent on providing kids a real education.

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  174. Informing people does not imply acceptance.
    ==
    Kids being what they are, and human curiosity being what it is, that's exactly what it implies.

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  175. It is easy to find it objectionable, bob. It may even be right, to find it objectionable.

    But that is a matter of judgement and governence. What is popular in Alaska, may or may not be viable for the rest of the country. States being test beds of social experimentation, in our Federal system. We most evaluate the success, or failure, of the Alaskan way, and decide how those mores would or should effect the rest of US.

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  176. The general tone of the culture of the country has something to do with it too. We're up against the music industry, Hollywood, crappy movies. Sex, sex, sex everywhere.

    Damned libido.

    Just on the number of abortions one might argue sex ed is a failure.

    Personally, I'm not against it, but can understand why others might be.

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  177. We could bring back the medieval chastity belt as a stop gap measure, until we figure out how to properly handle the situation.

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  178. What Mat said.

    Let's not create platforms where none exist. Teach your children well

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  179. To prepare the EB for the next Palin non-scandal--

    About That Trooper

    By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

    | Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 4:20 PM PT

    Politics: You'll be hearing a lot in coming weeks about Sarah Palin's "abuse of power" in trying to get a state cop fired. Here's the back story you won't be hearing.


    Palin's political enemies have a stink bomb set to go off late in October, just before the election. That's when voters will see fruits of a legislative investigation into the charge that the governor fired Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan because he wouldn't get rid of Mike Wooten, a state trooper and Palin's ex-brother-in-law.

    We can see where this is headed. Palin will be found to have done nothing illegal in firing Monegan, since public safety commissioners serve at the governor's pleasure. But the media will frame this case in vague but sinister terms: Think "abuse of power." It will also bury the back story that explains why Palin was so concerned.

    So here are some key facts to keep on file (for a full report on Wooten, see adn.com/front/story/476430.html). You may not be seeing much of them from here on:

    • Mike Wooten, 35, has been a trooper since 2001. He has been married and divorced four times. One of his marriages was to Palin's sister, Molly McCann, with whom he had two children. That marriage ended in 2006. His behavior leading up to the divorce led Palin's and McCann's father, Chuck Heath, to file a formal complaint about him to the state police.

    • Heath and Sarah Palin, who was not yet governor, said that Wooten had threatened to kill Heath — telling McCann that Heath "would eat a f***ing lead bullet" if he hired a lawyer for her. They also charged that he had used a Taser on his own 11-year-old stepson, had drunk beer in his patrol car and had shot a cow moose without a license (the latter a crime in Alaska, where such licenses are not easy to come by).

    • The state police investigated these charges and substantiated all of them. Col. Julia Grimes, then head of the Alaska State Troopers, suspended Wooten for 10 days and wrote, "The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession." She warned him he would be fired if he didn't shape up. The troopers' union got the suspension cut to five days.

    Now ask yourself this: If you were Sarah Palin and had such a revealing look at Mike Wooten, would you have wanted him on the force? Palin was acting as any concerned citizen should after a close encounter with an unfit cop. If there's abuse of power in this story, it lies on the side of bureaucrats and unions protecting officers whose behavior makes them a danger to the public.

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  180. This is good, particularily some of the comments--

    Is Wooten A Good Trooper?

    If he is, he may be the only one, sounds like Alaska is a wild place.

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  181. Forgive me if I've missed this already.

    2164th,

    With what you know about about Biden, can Palin take him out?

    ReplyDelete
  182. O'Reilly airing portion of Obama interview on McCain's night. That really stinks. I suspect Obama must've set a pre-condition on the interview to have it end up that way. Which O'Reilly caved to. He should've just said, the hell with ya then.

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  183. Dang, it sounds like the entire police force of Alaska is totally out of control, everybody is screwing everybody, and everybody knows everything about everybody else.

    ReplyDelete
  184. Doug:
    Ash
    Benj
    Trish

    ...and sometimes Teresita, depending on whether she's a self-described center-lefty or center-righty.


    Fuck you, Doug. You see this bumper sticker? It's on my blog. I don't mind you comparing me to ash, but comparing me to Trish is over the top.

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  185. If you have some time on your hands T. you ought to read my link about Palin vs. The State Troopers :)

    I do believe I've been right all along. The human race is ungovernable.

    Especially in colder climates.

    And warmer ones.

    What a can of worms.

    Where the truth lies in all that only God knows.

    Sounds like everyone in Alaske has been married about twenty times.

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  186. Sam, Biden loves to be the center of attention. He likes to hear himself talk. I goaded him a little, asking him to clarify something he said. We both knew the host. It was not a political affair, but a wine tasting, cocktail party. Biden showed a flash of anger but put it away quickly and smiled, but I judged to have found his weakness and have noticed "that look" and flash in televised Senate hearings an interviews.

    Palin would be good to let him have the last word, which he will take anyway. Biden's last word will be apparent to most everyone but Biden.

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  187. Mətušélaḥ said...
    Informing people does not imply acceptance.
    ==
    Kids being what they are, and human curiosity being what it is, that's exactly what it implies.

    Thu Sep 04, 07:52:00 PM EDT





    That's absurd. Take, for example, street proofing your child. According to your logic you shouldn't mention that there are bad people out there in the streets that they shoud be careful of. If you mention it they too may adopt pedophilia as a past-time. Abusrd!

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  188. I have yet to see Palin in a one to one, but Biden is not formidable.

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  189. Tonight is very flat compared to yesterday.

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  190. rasmussenreports.com
    Thu Sep 4, 9:43 AM ET

    Over half of U.S. voters (51%) think reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin with their news coverage, and 24% say those stories make them more likely to vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in November.

    Thirty-nine percent (39%) also believe the GOP vice presidential nominee has better experience to be president of the United States than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

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  191. Bobal: If you have some time on your hands T. you ought to read my link about Palin vs. The State Troopers :)

    Doug let all the air out of my political enthusiasm balloon. I'll post again somewhat later.

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  192. Some cultures don't swear at all. The Japanese, Malayans and most Polynesian and
    American Indian do not have native swear words. The Finns, lacking the sort of words you need to describe you fellings when you stub your toe getting up to answer the phone at 2:am, rather oddly adopted the word ravintolassa-'in the restaurant.'

    English is unusual in including the impossible and the pleasurable in it litany of profanities. It is a strange and little-noted idiosyncracy of our tongue that when we wish to express extreme fury we entreat the object of our rage to undertake an anatomical impossibility, or, stranger still, to engage in the one activity that is bound to give him more pleasure than almost anything else. Can there be, when you think about it, a more improbable sentiment than "Get Fucked!" We might as well snarl, "Make a lot of money!" or "Have a nice day."

    Fuck, it has been suggested, may have sprung from the Latin futuo, the French foutre, or the German ficken, all of which have the same meaning. Although fuck has been around for centuries, possibly millenia, for a long period it fell out of general use. Before, 1503, the vulgar word for sex was to swive.

    After OK, fuck must be about the most versatile of all
    English words. It can be used to describe a multitude of conditions and phenomena, from making a mess of something--fuck up-- to being casual or provocative--fuck around--to inviting or announcing a departure--fuck off--to being estimable--Fucking-A--to being baffled--fuck if I know--to being disgusted--fuck this-- and so on and on.

    Fuck probaly reached its zenith during the Second World War. Most people are familiar with the army term snafu but there were many others then in currency, among them fubar(fucked up beyond all repair) and fubb(fucked up beyond belief).

    Today the worst swear words in English are probalby fuck, shit, and cunt. But until about 1780 it was much more offensive to be profane. Goddamn, Jesus and even Hell were worse than fuck and shit, in so far as these things are estimable.

    from "The Mother Tongue" Bill Bryson

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