9.30.2008

i know how you feel, girlfriend: i need an intervention, too

Salon.com:

Dear Cary,

Sarah Palin is ruining my life! I rant about her; I can't stop thinking about her; I cannot stand to look at her; I'm possessed by her! ...

I have crossed every line I believed should never be crossed in public discourse -- I have criticized not only her policies and her record, but her hair, her personal style, her accent, her abilities as a mother, etc. I've also begun to suffer personally and professionally. I bore my friends with my constant tirades against her, and am constantly distracted from my work by my need to continually update myself on the latest criticism, and indeed, ridicule, of her. In my hatred for her, I have begun to hate myself.

I don't want this woman ruining my life before she even gets a chance to ruin our country. How do I stop? Is there a self-help group for this?

--A "Hater"*

*As Sarah Palin calls all those who disagree with her (New York Times, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008)

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9.29.2008

hell ya! it's time for an elite presidency

Lord, thank you Thom Hartman [author].

Can people start shouting this from rooftops, please? I mean, come on. At what point, exactly, did we decide it best to have the guy/girl most drunk or most irrational in college be our leaders? When did the virtues of the WWE become the litmus test?

Huffington Post:
"America loves its elites -- we love our sports stars, our movie stars, our rock stars and even our political stars.

John Kennedy was an elite. He came from an elite family, had an elite education, and he had the calm demeanor and the good fashion of a man who knew he was part of the intellectual and political elite. Americans didn't just love him they lionized him calling his administration Camelot -- the story of an elite king in an elite time.

If George W Bush has taught us one lesson, it's that the god-awful consequences of having the guy you want to have beer with running the most complex, powerful, and massive institution in the world, the US Government, is a terrible mistake.

John McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in June 1958; he was fifth from the bottom, 894th out of 899. He has no training at law. Sarah Palin attended 5 schools before getting a degree from North Idaho College that qualified her to be a TV sportscaster. North Idaho College takes pride in its "open-door" admissions policy. She also has no training at law.

Most of our great presidents have been trained in law from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to Lincoln to FDR and Clinton. Bush and Cheney have no legal training and we were told how great the MBA presidency would be.

It's been a disaster.

Barack Obama got his BA from Columbia University in New York and his JD from Harvard. While at Harvard he was president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. He was a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Joe Biden similarly has a JD degree.

It's time for an Elite presidency. It's time for the best and the brightest to once again lead this nation."

fascinating: newt and george will chat

just what i've been sayin: sarah palin has the world view of a 7 yr old

Huffington Post: op-ed, by bonnie fuller

9.28.2008

mccain's healthcare plan: $3.6 trillion tax increase and a shove into the open market---w/out a paddle

Huffington Post: "not every voter wants to hear about "insurance exchanges" and "risk pooling" at this stage of the game. But they should know that McCain's plan threatens a very large change in the treatment of heretofore untaxed benefits, a large decline in employer coverage, and a subsidy that starts out too low and grows at about a third the rate it needs to in order to keep up with the costs families face today."

more

palin answers

btw, this is fun:

Help Sarah Palin w/ her interview questions: a satirical take on the hopelessly un-gifted politician

http://www.palinanwers.com/

9.27.2008

what does $700 billion look like?

Not being a finance guru, this whole bailout bickering has me bewildered. What the hell? Are the House Republicans onto something better for the American taxpayer?

Beats the hell outa me. I've read theories and proposals from Ron Paul and economists here, there and everywhere. Seems whatever I read last sounds reasonable.

But just what does $700 billion look like? [graphic from NPR]

the princess who became the toad

you know, i think i had a moment where i felt a little sorry for her. not that sorry, though.

maybe something more like spitefully giddy, gleeful ... and grateful.

9.26.2008

"palin should step down"

(CNN) – Prominent conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, an early supporter of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, said Friday recent interviews have shown the Alaska governor is "out of her league" and should leave the GOP presidential ticket for the good of the party.

The criticism in Parker's Friday column is the latest in a recent string of negative assessments toward the McCain-Palin candidacy from prominent conservatives.

It was fun while it lasted," Parker writes. "Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who is clearly out of her league."

Palin's interview with Couric drew criticism when the Alaska governor was unable to provide an example of when John McCain had pushed for more regulation of Wall Street during his Senate career. Palin also took heat for defending her foreign policy credentials by suggesting Russian leaders enter Alaska airspace when they come to America. Palin was also criticized last week for appearing not to know what the Bush Doctrine is during an interview with Charlie Gibson.

“If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself," Parker also writes. "If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true."

Parker, who praised McCain's "keen judgment" for picking Palin earlier this month and wrote the Alaska governor is a "perfect storm of God, Mom and apple pie," now says Palin should step down from the ticket.

“Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves," Parker writes. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first. Do it for your country."

Parker's comments follow those by prominent conservatives David Brooks, George Will, and David Frum who have all publicly questioned Palin's readiness to be vice president.

"Sarah Palin has many virtues," Brooks wrote in a recent column. "If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she'd be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness."

omg! i heart sarah ... um ... silverman

only watch if you're hard to offend. when i say "hard" i mean "difficult" as in incredibly-hugely-massively!

remember, it's comedy [reference: if "borat" offended you, just say "no" and move on]

so wrong-so wrong-so wrong; yet genius ... sarah silverman has the biggest balls in the universe!

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

9.25.2008

i have no words ...

ok, so i have a few ... we now know someone who needs to stay home and change diapers.



a little black comedy amidst our economic reality.

but really, girlfriend? you were surprised by the ... um ... mocking? really?

i mean, the amount of ego, hubris, ignorance and brazen opportunism this woman must possess to think she didn't need to blink before introducing herself on the world stage ... well, like i've said before, it must rival or surpass george shrub.

9.14.2008

my long, breathless case against sarah palin

The following are just a FEW of my objections to Sarah Palin as nominee for VP:

  • Knowing where to drill for oil and gas and being able to view Russia are not the baseline requirements for foreign policy competence and diplomacy.

But, a brain is.

Seriously ... is that all you got, girlfriend [obviously, not the brain part]? But hey, your "knowledge"--such that it is--might be good enough for a cushy cabinet post!

  • However, thinking one should never blink before going to war--with Russia, no less--IS a foreign policy ANTI-requisite. Come on lady, war is not one of your son's hockey games! In the words of Therese Heinz-Kerry [2004], perhaps this little lady may be a bit “fazed by complexity.”

And she seems to have more than a little of George Bush's hyper-charged certainty. I don’t know about you, but THAT doesn’t make me feel safer. And sure, let’s just add a few more conflicts to our federal deficit! Let's prop up China's economy even more [cause that's where we're borrowing to pay for the war in Iraq], watch the dollar burst into flames and really break the backs of our children and our children’s children! Or let's watch what's happened to 3 of 5 of our most venerable financial institutions happen to our gov't!!! I'm sure those white supremist groups holed up in Montana would say, Yayyy!

Achem ...

Sorry.

Kinda went off the rails there ... mixing flames, broken back metaphors w/ white supremists. I'm a little worked up over this stuff in case you couldn't tell.

Whew, so, moving on ...

  • Building a tax surplus in a state with low populations and large oil and gas revenues does not require the intellect of a brain surgeon. 85% of the state's budget comes from those oil/gas revenues. And what has the price of oil been doing lately? Right! Going up! In fact, Exxon-Mobil, BP et al. have been at record highs during the Palin administration, right? So guess what, Alaska's coffers have increased 66% from the prior administration. Did that have anything to do with Palin? No. Alaska's unique in that their budget has less to do w/ the state govt than the price of oil. But in Palin's meager defense, she did give taxpayers quite a chunk of change--$1200/every man woman and child in the state. You can do that when you're oil rich.

So maybe she has high approval ratings in her state, but how hard was that to accomplish in a mostly white, "conservative" [whatever that means anymore], evangelical population that got an extra $1200+ in their pockets? What's not to like?

But does anyone really think she has anything to contribute to reducing a $10 Trillion [now, possibly $11 trillion] debt in a $14 Trillion economy [or dealing w/ the worst Financial crisis in our economy since the Great Depression]? You think she can fix that by working to cut taxes? Of course, I’m speaking in the ghastly case of a Palin-McCain administration. Or worse, a Palin administration. Not only that, she has a history of secretiveness and NOT reaching across the aisle. But we'll get back to that later.

And trust me, if I can get this, that means it's not rocket science.

  • Views the war in Iraq as a “task” sent from God. And don’t give me that horse sh*t about Lincoln. I saw the video! She was not up on the pulpit giving a civics lesson on the Gettysberg address! Nor was she suddenly struck by the spirit of Lincoln.

Her handlers forsaw that question hurtling toward them like a meteor. She was clearly rehearsed, and only the far right could convince themselves that part of Gibson's interview was anything but ridiculous. Also, tells you what the campaign thinks about what the American people will swallow.

  • And note this comment from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.:

    "Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in pubic premises before the snow flies."

It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list."

  • Comes from a fire and brimstone brand of belief that, not infrequently, likes to flirt a little with anti-Semitism.

And I've been to Assembly of God churches on a half-dozen occasions. That was quite enough, thank you. I know very well what they're about. I had two women fall on the floor speaking in tongues right next to me.

Not only that, Palin is seen on video from this past June giving praise to Pastor Muthee. The guy who laid hands on her and "made" her "a way" to become Alaska's Governor. Ok. So, that's a little freaky for me, but it gets a lot freakier. Seems this pastor Muthee is a confirmed witch hunter [as in, actual witches] and was praised by other senior members of Palin's church for abolishing crime and closing down bars one day because he deposed said witches and demons during a revival in a Kenyan town. Could the non-existent crime rate that day have something to do with--oh, say--everyone in the village being at the revival/exorcism---just maybe?

[UPDATE 9/27: careful what you pray for ... seems "making a way" can mean becoming a nail in the wheels of the "No Talk Express."]

Oh, and apparently, she and her congregation think Alaska's gonna be the place to go at the end of days.

Just imagine if all this stuff had been connected to Obama. He'd never survive till morning.

So ... um ... what century are we in? Are you effing kidding me? And yup, I did it. I criticized her religion and her pastor. Her's makes his look like freakin' Troy Donohue.

  • Has disdain for ideas that don’t serve her unscientific, supernatural worldview; which is fine [not really, but that's just my opinion]. But she seems inclined to inject religious belief into her policy. [i.e. teaching intelligent design/creationism as a legitimate science, desire to ban books in her public library] so I'm doubtful about her capacity to honor the separation of church and state.

Who was it today that called her the equivalent of a flat earth society member?

  • And while we're on the topic of the book-banning, let's be clear. She did not fervently pursue such efforts.

But note:

"While the purported list [of banned books circulating the internet] is bogus, we do know that something happened with regards to Palin and at least a question about book banning.

Time reported last week, for example, that Palin asked the Wasilla librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, about the process for banning books. Baker was reportedly "aghast" at the question. Soon after taking office, Palin, according to a New York Times report, fired Baker, and news reports from the time indicate that Palin thought Baker hadn't done enough to give her "full support" to the mayor.

Palin reversed course on Baker's dismissal after a local outcry, and later said the discussions about banning books were "rhetorical." [CBS News]

  • Moving on. About that bridge. Personally, I don’t care that she was for that bridge before she was against it. I think it’s legitimate for a politician to change their mind about public policy if, once in office, they come across perspective-altering information [we don't think that's quite what happened here, tho.].

However, I DO think it’s LYING if you get up in front of the American people and claim you said “Thanks, but no thanks” when you actually said “THANKS for the cash! NO, we won’t build that bridge with money you've already given us. BUT THANKS, we'll keep the change [$223 M].” Seems to me she doesn’t have a problem misrepresenting herself. Interesting, given her supposed religious values.

  • Claimed that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got too large off of the backs of taxpayers. Hmmmm. Well, now they are! So she didn’t even have a basic understanding of how two of the most important institutions in the American economy function.
  • So I don’t even NEED to argue about right-wing trigger issues like Choice [which I concede, over which reasonable people might differ ], humanity's influence on climate change, gun control, drilling, shooting wolves from helicoptors/airplanes or Troopergate and the abuse of power to consider her a looming catastrophe for our country.
  • Oh, and did she really have the nerve to claim that Barack Obama was more concerned about terrorist’s rights than the safety of our country? Well, I guess she did. But, I thought ... hmmmm, Alaska's close to Russia ... maybe she thinks it's still the 80's [proof: big poofy hair] and that Alaska's part of the Soviet Union! Anyway, more fodder for my “complexity,” or lack thereof, argument.

So lets follow this a little more. First, off---dirty, dirty, dirty. Lie, lie and lie! Spin, spin and spin. Does she really think just because we state what a prisoner's been charged with they won’t be convicted at trial? Or that everyone rounded up in Guantanamo is guilty of whatever it is they’ve been blamed for? Forgive me, but the current administration has been caught in so many blunders and lies it’s hard to believe maybe they haven’t screwed a few things up here, too. Stating charges is really just a way of protecting anyone who’s innocent.

But great, just what we need. Another hardline, non-thinking, fascist member of the executive branch who has complete disdain for the Constitution. Either that, or they didn't get a copy in Alaska.

  • And what is this bit about being against earmarks? Let's see, oh for instance, here:

So I think it's safe to say, first she was for it before she was against it. So, the b.s. about how she’s such a "we'll do it ourselves" kinda gal ... well, it’s self-serving horse poopy.

  • She gave one good speech [over and over again on the stump] and truly, that’s it.
  • And what is she so afraid of that she can’t take random questioning from the media? That is, if she’s ready for prime time, now.
  • And my number one objection to Palin as the Republican VP pick—she could become President!

If there’s anyone who coalesces EVERY character flaw [maybe more] of the current administration, it’s absolutely Sarah Palin! And her running mate is a grumpy, 72-year old man in questionable health!

But don't fret, I don't only have bad things to say about her. After all she's a great cheerleader and does phenomenal introductions! The snarky Vanna White of politics, if you will. But being perky, cute and exciting on stage does not make one truthful or equipped to be a "grabber"--as my brother-in-law says--away from the most important position in the world.

And it's not lost on me that Obama's loudest detratctors would claim the same about him, but he's been vetted for the last 19 mos. and at least 1/2 the country is satisfied w/ his answers. Sarah, not so much.

Sorry, but I don’t think she deserves our faith in her judgment. And now I have absolutely no faith in John McCain choosing Country first before losing an election. Come on America, don’t we want to make a different choice this time? Don’t we want to choose intellect over bluster ... or idiocy? Don’t we want to hire a team who at least understands the concept of nuance? Important when considering getting out of Iraq properly and reigniting a wacked out economy? Don’t we want the good ol’ USA back in the black [ha! or at least no ballooning deficit--which McCain's plan would do] and leading the world economically, intellectually again? Don’t we? Because peeling away the layers and solving 8 years of screw ups and out-of-control SPENDING is gonna take at least a couple of minds capable of complex thought.

And that sure ain't the fading mind of McCain [who's clearly off kilter talking about the economy] or the simple mind of Sarah Palin [who we're not allowed to even hear from on the economy and the financial crisis. Where the hell is she?] So, lord knows those two won’t be pulling off any of those aforementioned minor miracles.

Not only that, she's the most appalling candidate to ever run for the executive branch in my life time ... only surpassed [by a hair] by David Duke. To quote my new favorite senator, Chris Dodd from our new home state of CT, "[Palin] is the choice of [James] Dobson, [Pat] Robertson and [Rush] Limbaugh. This is a real sop to the extreme conservative elements of the Republican Party."

Man, I love blue states!

Oh, and did I happen to mention, I can't stand Sarah Palin?