Yesterday's New York Times, featured a news story raising the following question:
With five children, including an infant with Down syndrome and, as the country learned Monday, a pregnant 17-year-old, Ms. Palin has set off a fierce argument among women about whether there are enough hours in the day for her to take on the vice presidency, and whether she is right to try.
Funny how no one criticizes Joe Biden for taking his seat in the Senate despite being a single dad at the time.
I find it disgusting the way the liberal media has turned on working mothers to further their cause. They are all for a woman's equal rights until a woman has the guts to challenge the status quo.
Originally Posted By: The New Adventures of Old PJP
Jann Wenner the publisher also runs Men's Health another mag I get which is going to get canceled later.
Not to get off on a tangent but this is why Campaign finance Reform is bullshit.
It's supposed to keep "money out of politics," but you have millionaire assholes who openly use their media companies to give their preferred candidates free ad space.
In my mind campaign finance reform is unconstitutional. I think it's great if the candidates agree to spending limits(and stick to their word ) but to limit anyones freedom of speech is a bit disturbing to me.
SURPRISE MUTHERFUCKERS!!!!! AND A BIG WHOOPS TO PEGGY NOONAN AND MIKE MURPHY
Two top Republican pundits, Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy, were just on MSNBC with Chuck Todd, and after their segment was over kept talking about McCain VP pick Sarah Palin. But their mics were still on. Oh my God. Everything we've suspected is true. The GOP is flipped out over this pick. Maybe the evangelical base is happy - maybe - but core Republicans, core conservatives, appears to be apoplectic and demoralized. Noonan was Reagan's most famous speech writer. She's no lightweight in the party, and she's no sexist. Here's the video, and the transcript is below.
CHUCK TODD: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job Up next, one man who's already convinced and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman. (cut away)
PEGGY NOONAN: Yeah.
MIKE MURPHY: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys -- this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And --
PEGGY NOONAN: It's over.
MIKE MURPHY: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.
CHUCK TODD: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.
PEGGY NOONAN: Saw Kay this morning.
CHUCK TODD: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this --
MIKE MURPHY: They're all bummed out.
CHUCK TODD: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?
PEGGY NOONAN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives --
CHUCK TODD: Yeah they went to a narrative.
MIKE MURPHY: I totally agree.
PEGGY NOONAN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.
MIKE MURPHY: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.
CHUCK TODD: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.
MIKE MURPHY: Yeah.
Tlk about message discipline.
also.... (yes, it's never ending; the Palin vetting)
Sarah Palin claimed her son is deploying to Iraq on September 11 of this year. It turns out he's not deploying on that date. So Palin either lied, or she thought he was deploying on that date, and in that case, she divulged information that's a violation of Operational Security (OPSEC) and illegal, according to Jon Soltz, Iraq vet and a member of VoteVets. Funny that someone living so close to Russia doesn't know the rules about deploying our forces in the Middle East. Then again, perhaps they didn't cover that one yet in her "my first vice president" crash course the McCain campaign is reportedly giving her.
Just tought i'd take the time to laugh at the GOP's Presiential chances now.
I'll stop by again as time allows and provide you guys with updates that you might not catch on FOX News.
plus Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy could very well have that opinion......but the Party is energized not demoralized. I was not enthused until last Friday. Now I'm ready to start donating and doing whatever I can to get Right Wing Conspiracy back in office!
By passing over his friends Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge, and picking Palin, McCain has given himself a fighting chance of winning the White House that, before Friday morning, seemed to be slipping away. Indeed, the bristling reaction on the left testifies to Democratic fears that the choice of Palin could indeed be a game-changer in 2008.
Liberals howl that Palin has no experience, no qualifications to be president of the United States. But the lady has more executive experience than McCain, Joe Biden and Obama put together.
None of them has ever started or run a business as Palin did. None of them has run a giant state like Alaska, which is larger than California and Texas put together. And though Alaska is not populous, Gov. Palin has as many constituents as Nancy Pelosi or Biden.
She has no foreign policy experience, we are told. And though Alaska's neighbors are Canada and Russia, the point is valid. But from the day she takes office, Palin will get daily briefings and sit on the National Security Council with the president and secretaries of state, treasury and defense.
She will be up to speed in her first year.
And her experience as governor of Alaska, dealing with the oil industry and pipeline agreements with Canada, certainly compares favorably with that of Barack Obama, a community organizer who dealt in the mommy issues of food stamps and rent subsidies.
Where Obama has poodled along with the Daley Machine, Palin routed the Republican establishment, challenging and ousting a sitting GOP governor before defeating a former Democratic governor to become the first female and youngest governor in state history.
For his boldness in choosing Palin, McCain deserves enormous credit. He has made an extraordinary gesture to conservatives and the party base, offering his old antagonists a partner's share in his presidency. And his decision is likely to be rewarded with a massive and enthusiastic turnout for the McCain-Palin ticket. Rarely has this writer encountered such an outburst of enthusiasm on the right.
In choosing Palin, McCain may also have changed the course of history as much as Ike did with his choice of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan did with his choice of George H.W. Bush. For should this ticket win, Palin will eclipse every other Republican as heir apparent to the presidency and will have her own power base among Lifers, Evangelicals, gun folks and conservatives -- wholly independent of President McCain.
A traditional conservative on social issues, Palin has become, overnight, the most priceless political asset the movement has. Look for the neocons to move with all deliberate speed to take her into their camp by pressing upon her advisers and staff, and steering her into the AEI-Weekly Standard-War Party orbit.
Indeed, if McCain defeats Barack, 2012 could see women on both national tickets, and given McCain's age and the possibility he intends to serve a single term, women at the top of both -- Sarah vs. Hillary.
The arrival of Palin on the national scene, with her youth, charisma and vitality, probably also portends a changing of the guard in Washington.
With Republicans having zero chance of capturing either House, and but a slim chance of avoiding losses in both, a Vice President Palin, with her reputation as a rebel and reformer, would surely inspire similar revolts in the Republican caucuses.
As Thomas Jefferson said, from time to time, a little rebellion in the political world is as necessary as storms in the physical.
The Palin nomination could backfire, but it is hard to see how. She has passed her first test, her introduction to the nation, with wit and grace. And the Obama-Biden ticket, having already alienated millions of women with the disrespecting of Hillary, is unlikely to start attacking another woman whose sole offense is that she had just been given the chance to break the glass ceiling at the national level.
Her nomination, which will bring the Republican right home, also frees up McCain to appeal to moderates and liberals, which has long been his stock in trade.
With his selection of Sarah Palin, John McCain has not only shaken up this election, he may have helped shape the future of the United States -- and much for the better.
Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.
Hmm.... banning books is just one step removed from book burnings. So Palin thinks there are books people shouldn't be exposed to based on her own beleifs and values?
Nazi Book Burnings 1933 Burning the 'Satanic' Harry Potter books in New Mexico.
As recent and historical memory suggests, banning books sometimes just isn't good enough for these types of people.
Only last month, friends say, Mr. McCain wanted to reach beyond his base and ask Mr. Lieberman to be his running mate; in that instance, though, party influence proved too strong, with many Republican officials and delegates insisting they would reject Mr. Lieberman because of his support for abortion rights and some gay rights laws.
The word working its way through political circles in Connecticut is that John McCain actually called Joe Lieberman to ask him to be the GOP v.p. candidate. The "ask" was made. However, a revolt ensued, led by Mitt Romney and others, threatening a floor fight. That resulted in a second call a couple hours later to Lieberman from McCain pulling the offer.
There is so much in that little anecdote if these sources are accurate. First, it shows what a tool Lieberman is. Last night, Lieberman spoke at a convention where he's actually vilified, yet he went anyway and flat out lied about Obama. More importantly, it shows what a wimp McCain is. He's supposed to fight al Qaeda, but won't stand up to the religious fanatics in his own party. Instead, McCain made an impulsive choice, Sarah Palin, who wasn't vetted. McCain couldn't have the v.p. he wanted. So, he was forced to pick someone he didn't even know. Says a lot about John McCain's willingness to gamble with America's future.
We need more details.
Palin's church also pulled the section of their website that contains past sermons. I saw an evangelical minister on MSNBC about an hour ago vilify Obama for the Rev. Wright for his sermons even as he in the same breath vilified "the left" for looking into the sermons of Palin's minister. Talk about hypocrisy of the highest order!
These fuckers are only too happy to vilify someone on account of their pastors words but hey, do that to them and it's below the belt and uncalled for!! They wrote the rules, time to take what you dish out. Palin's church also sponsors the whole ex-gay movement BTW.
Y'now, if McCain had actually vetted her, this really wouldn't be nearly as fun. The hits just keep on coming. What's wierd is that it's almost the mirror image of what the right planned for Obama.
And all they had to do according to Plil and many other Alaska residents I've read about these past few days was merely ask anyone there who follows current events as to Palin's qualifications. According to Palin's pastor and spiritual guide:
Terrorist attacks in Israel are God's punishment to Jews who don't convert to Christ,
...just two weeks ago, when Palin’s church, the Wasilla Bible Church, gave its pulpit over to a figure viewed with deep hostility by many Jewish organizations: David Brickner, the founder of Jews for Jesus.
Palin’s pastor, Larry Kroon, introduced Brickner on Aug. 17, according to a transcript of the sermon on the church’s website.
“He’s a leader of Jews for Jesus, a ministry that is out on the leading edge in a pressing, demanding area of witnessing and evangelism,” Kroon said.
Brickner then explained that Jesus and his disciples were themselves Jewish.
“The Jewish community, in particular, has a difficult time understanding this reality,” he said. Brickner’s mission has drawn wide criticism from the organized Jewish community, and the Anti-Defamation League accused them in a report of “targeting Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception.”
[SIZE=6]Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.
"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."
Palin was in church that day[/SIZE], Kroon said, though he cautioned against attributing Brickner’s views to her.
Don't forget that McCain was more than happy to join in the fray over Rev. Wright's obnoxious comments. So let's not hear the McCain campaign cry foul over an examination of Sarah Palin's church.
But back to the Alaska Independence Party.. The founder of that group, which Palin courted professed "hatred for the American government"; cursed "damn flag"
The founder of the Alaska Independence Party -- a group that has been courted over the years by Sarah Palin, and one her husband was a member of for roughly seven years -- once professed his "hatred for the American government" and cursed the American flag as a "damn flag."
The AIP founder, Joe Vogler, made the comments in 1991, in an interview that's now housed at the Oral History Program in the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government," Vogler said in the interview, in which he talked extensively about his desire for Alaskan secession, the key goal of the AIP.
"And I won't be buried under their damn flag," Vogler continued in the interview, which also touched on his disappointment with the American judicial system. "I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."
It just keeps on getting better and better. Now word is that the Palin's were part of a 3rd party called the Alaska Independence Party, a political party would put Alaska first by seceding from the U.S. She addressed that group -- this year. This is a very serious issue. The Jed Report has the details and the video:
Okay, imagine, just imagine, a Democratic candidate being a member of a party where people say they're not Americans. It would be over. Over.
This also means another warped GOP attack off the table, too. While McCain should have been vetting his running mate, he was instead attacking Obama's patriotism. That's over. McCain can never again even raise that issue when his running mate wanted her state to be its own country.
John McCain did not vet Sarah Palin. His running mate belonged to a party that wanted to secede from the U.S. When was the last time anyone on a ticket wanted that? 1856? 1860?
How far the Republican Party has come from Lincoln who led The United States AGAINST secessionists to now where a secessionist is nominated for the Vice Presidency.
:ohboy:
# In October, 2007, Dexter Clark, the AIP's vice chairman, was recorded on video saying that Palin had been a registered member of the AIP before switching to the GOP to be viable.
# In the same video, Clark says "the Federal goverment is just plain a monster" and "we don't say we are Americans, we say we are Alaskans."
# Clark's comments were delivered at "The Second North American Secessionist Convention" in Chattanooga, Tennessee. # AIP's motto is "Alaska First. Alaska Always."
This stuff makes any Reverend Wright stuff the far right is planning on throwing out, look positively mainstream in comparison. Wright was just chastising America for it's inequality. These loons want to secede from it!
Both Jake Tapper at ABC News and Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic have covered the story now so it's growing past the blogosphere.. From what I hear there is also something on this up at the NYTimes.
The McCain camp today disputed rumors that presumptive vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was ever registered with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party by releasing years of voter registration history . . . but it looks like that doesn't apply to her husband.
This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.
Besides a short period of a few months in 2000 when he changed his registration to undeclared, Todd Palin remained a registered member of AIP until July 2002 when he registered again as an undeclared voter.
The GOP is denying Sarah Palin was ever a member and says they have proof of this in the form of voter registration cards of her's that all say she was a Republican. The AIP says otherwise as does the records of her husband, which don't implicate Sarah per se but do raise the question of what sort of influence does the extremist husband of her's play into her own philosophies.
BTW I just returned to work today after the labor day weekend and 3 women that were not going to vote after Hilary was left off the VP ticket were saying that they were now going to vote for McCain. This is anecdotal but with what I heard at the gas station(in an earlier post) I gotta believe this is carrying steem elsewhere as well.
Because of this video exchange regarding Palin's foreign policy experience (or lack therof) an angry McCain has cancelled his appearance on Larry King Live yesterday.
How DARE they? Clearly CNN hates America. I mean, what kind of moron cares what kind of national security experience our president has? Well, okay sure, John McCain has made national security experience the center piece of his entire campaign, so yeah, I mean, McCain thinks everything depends on the candidate's national security experience. But still, what kind of sick, depraved reporter would ask about something so personal, something so off-limits, so base as the foreign policy experience, national security experience, of a presidential candidate? Have you no shame, Campbell Brown?
All kidding aside, McCain is entering very dangerous territory here. He's already on the verge of losing his maverick brand - based in large part on his free-wheeling willingness to talk to the media whenever they wanted, and large part on his previous unwillingness to adopt the very Karl Rove-ian negative campaigning he's now adopted. And now McCain is throwing a temper tantrum, when one of McCain's biggest negatives is his over-the-top temper, that even numerous Republican Senators say is a big problem, and not very presidential (or safe).
The McCain camp has benefited from years of media-love. McCain even called the media "his base." It's only the last week, really, that the media, across the board, was willing to ask McCain the kind of hard questions that they never had a problem asking Barack Obama.
The fact remains that McCain screwed up, big time, in selecting Sarah Palin as commander in chief material. The McCain campaign can't admit that on the biggest decision McCain has made as a candidate, he didn't meet the presidential test, so they're attacking the messenger: first the blogs, and now the corporate media.
And as an aside, McCain knows he screwed up. He's now trying to shift the story over to the "big bad media" beating up his wonderful vice presidential pick. It's the only way they know how to save themselves, shift the blame, shift the story. That's what's going on with McCain canceling the interview. They're trying to scapegoat the media, and at the same time force networks like CNN to be nicer to McCain or he won't invite them to any more barbeques.
Watch the CNN interview that so upset the McCain campaign that they're now boycotting CNN. In it, McCain's spokesman makes the preposterous claim that Sarah Palin is ready to lead our armed forces because she's "the commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard." And let's not forget, as Mrs. McCain reminded us, Alaska is close to Russia, so that means, um, it's not clear what it means. Here's the video. See for yourself what a cry-baby John McCain is.
Why does Sarah Palin's duty-free-diplomacy matter? Because John McCain, who is 72 and has had 4 bouts of cancer, just picked Sarah Palin to replace him as commander in chief should he die or be incapacitated in office. Sarah Palin, in an effort to bolster her non-existent national security expertise, claimed she had visited 3 countries: Germany; Kuwait; and Ireland. Now we find out that one of those three, 33% of her experience, was pretty much a lie. Did the McCain campaign know that Palin basically lied to the media and the American people? Or did this Irish blogger do the vetting that the McCain campaign couldn't be bothered to do?
Oh, the McCain-Palin campaign now alleges that Palin visited Canada too. Sure, if you count buying a Celine Dion CD.
The New York Times on Palin's own shotgun wedding.
The Palins eloped on Aug. 29, 1988, and their first son, Track, was born eight months later, a fact that Maria Comella of the McCain campaign, declined to elaborate on. “They were high school sweethearts who got married and ended up having five beautiful children together,” Ms. Comella said.
Now it turns out Kalin's underage daughter is pregnant. This has been circulating all week now in the liberal blogosphere but tomorrow the H-Bomb drops in the New York Times. It erases any notion of McCain being this independent "Maverick" who played this one on his own "gut".
The comedy of errors that is John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin continues. Except, when the issue is picking a potential leader of our nation in a time of war, it shouldn't be a comedy and it shouldn't be filled with errors.
Read this blockbuster article in tomorrow's New York Times. There is so much in it. The article reveals that John McCain didn't get the vice president he wanted (Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge) because the religious right, which controls the GOP (and now controls John McCain), went ballistic on McCain last week because both Lieberman and Ridge are pro-choice. So McCain caved. Because of McCain's kowtowing to the theocrats, he hurriedly dumped Lieberman and Ridge and instead picked the very anti-abortion, but not much else, Palin without even fully vetting her.
Now, sure, the McCain campaign is claiming that Palin was "thoroughly vetted." But, that is clearly not true - the Times talked to all the key players in Alaska, and none of them were approached by the McCain campaign. In fact, McCain's vetter only just arrived in Alaska on Thursday, the day before McCain announced Palin as his VP choice.
This failure is actually quite stunning on many levels. It's just so fundamental to the process, the vetting of a vice presidential choice, that failing to do it properly is pretty much campaign malpractice. Clearly, Sarah Palin was not seriously vetted. An excerpt from the Times:
Quote:
In Alaska, several state leaders and local officials said they knew of no efforts by the McCain campaign to find out more information about Ms. Palin before the announcement of her selection, Although campaigns are typically discreet when they make inquiries into potential running mates, officials in Alaska said Monday they thought it was peculiar that no one in the state had the slightest hint that Ms. Palin might be under consideration.
“They didn’t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn’t speak to anyone in the business community,” said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor.
Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her.
“I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called,” Ms. Phillips said. “I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything.”
The current mayor of Wasilla, Dianne M. Keller, said she had not heard of any efforts to look into Ms. Palin’s background. And Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, said he knew nothing of any vetting that had been conducted.
State Senator Hollis French, a Democrat who is directing the ethics investigation, said that no one asked him about the allegations. “I heard not a word, not a single contact,” he said.
Mr. French, a former prosecutor, said that he was knowledgeable about background checks and that, he, too, was surprised that the campaign had not reached out to state legislative leaders.
The liberal blogosphere has been (correctly) saying for the past couple of days that this pick says more about John McCain than Sarah Palin. It really does. John McCain caved to the anti-abortion theocrats running the Republican party, made a hasty pick for his v.p., and is now suffering the consequences.
whomod, can you please increase the font size and boldness of all text in your posts? not necessarily, like, important parts, or sparingly. just everything. i masturbate a lot, so, y'know, i can't read too well.
whomod, can you please increase the font size and boldness of all text in your posts? not necessarily, like, important parts, or sparingly. just everything. i masturbate a lot, so, y'know, i can't read too well.
oh, also, welcome back!
rob so some decorum, the man just got kicked in the nuts by Palin he cant answer ever request till the swelling goes down.
Republican White House nominee John McCain on Wednesday attacked Barack Obama's achievements as "meager" and said his Democratic foe did not know how the world, or the US military, worked.
The Arizona Senator, who was set to be formally nominated as his party's White House champion later Wednesday, also defended his under-fire running mate Sarah Palin, saying she had been "vetted" by voters in her home state Alaska.
He said in an interview with "ABC World News" that Obama's achievements were "very meager" in comparison to those of Palin who was a smalltown mayor and is now Alaska Governor.
Obama has argued that though he is merely a first term senator and a former state lawmaker, he has more executive experience than Palin as he sits atop a multi-million dollar presidential campaign with thousands of employees.
"Senator Obama has a campaign to run, Governor Sarah Palin has 24,000 employees in the state government," McCain said.
"She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply.
"I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America."
McCain, who makes his keynote speech to the Republican National Convention on Thursday, said his resume was far more appropriate to the job of president than that of Obama.
"I understand and I have the knowledge and the background and the experience to make the right judgments," McCain said in the interview.
"Senator Obama does not. He was wrong on Iraq. He underestimated Iran. He has no knowledge or experience or judgment. He doesn't know how the world works nor how the military works. I do and I can lead and I'll secure the peace," McCain said.
Hours before Palin was due to give her primetime speech to the convention, McCain said that a stellar performance by his running mate would put to rest a personal and political storm raging around her.
"She is experienced, she's talented, she knows how to lead, and she has been vetted by the people of the state of Alaska," said McCain, who has been criticized for not looking deeply enough into her background.
"Americans are going to be very, very, very pleased. ... She's really going to have a remarkable impact on the American people. ... I'm very excited."
) but to limit anyones freedom of speech is a bit disturbing to me.
lol: 
