Tomorrow.

http://tammyr2.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/enough/

Know thyself.

Wasn’t it Pee Wee Herman that  said “I know you are but what am I?”

Maybe someone should let Governor Palin know what she is, so she’ll know. 

Okay okay- everybody flip-flops.
But some flopping is more interesting than others.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/23/palin-changes-tune-on-feminist-label/

The Emperor Has no Clothes?

Andrew continues to track the lies, fabrications, mis-statements of Governor Palin.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies–6.html

And still more.

More from Andrew Sullivan on the Lies of Sarah Palin.

Then again, a liar in the White House wouldn’t be new, not after the Bush-Cheney years.

15. That flag

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-23.html

16. The Sudan

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies–2.html

17. The Surge

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies–3.html

18. Power

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies–4.html

19. Wooten

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies–5.html

The art of deceit

I haven’t written in a while, I’m tired, and frankly overwhelmed- by the deceptions, the insinuations, the outright lies. The smears, the smugness, the two-faced commentaries, the refusal to be held accountable and all that is Sarah Palin. I am tired, of trying to imagine life on the planet should that brain be one cancer cell away from the Oval Office.

 

 So I haven’t written-and now I don’t need too!

 

I’m not one for reinventing the wheel, as the saying goes. And I’m the first to admit that countless others say things better than I could ever hope to.  So, with that in mind…

I give you Andrew Sullivan, who has been doing a wonderful job of chronicling all things Sarah, and specifically the lies of Sarah Palin. Why give you my pithy commentaries when he’s so much better at it?

Sort of like the Cliff Notes for Palin. (Do they still have Cliff Notes. Not that I ever used them.)

 

Lie 1: Monegan

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies–7.html

#2 That Bridge

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies–8.html

#3 More firings

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies–9.html

#4 The Polar Bears

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-10.html

#5 Oil!

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-11.html

#6 Homosexuality

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-12.html

#7 Climate Change

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-13.html

#8 You have the right

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-14.html

#9 Alaska and Energy

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-15.html

#10. Making the speech

http://www.andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-17.html

#11 The girls

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-18.html

#12 The paycheck

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-20.html

#13 Doctor doctor give me the news

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-21.html

#14 Russia

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies–1.html

Whoa! Well that’s all for now!

Shame on all of us.

McCain campaign strategist to Daily News:

It’s a dangerous road, but we have no choice,” a top McCain strategist told the Daily News of their new strategy to attack Obama. “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.”

http://www.blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/as-dow-plummets.html

Forget losing. If she keeps talking like this and McCain keeps ignoring his supporters who shout “kill him”-losing will be the least of what might happen. More fearmongering…just what we need.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/crossing-the-li.html

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/07/sot.palin.ayers.cnn

This is just the beginning . We should be ashamed of ourselves if we allow them to represent our great nation to the world.

Tit-for tat (forgiving the tit reference)

Usually I don’t watch Keith Olberman, his bias is just too unnerving for me. I want journalists to deliver my news, not partisan talking heads. However, this time he put it well-despite being a bit frenetic.

The McCain camp has decided to go nasty, really, really, nasty, so if you ask me that means it can  cut both ways. Those who live in glass houses, isn’t that the expression?

 If the mudslinging is going to commence, and damn I think it is, then for once and for all the Democrats need to fight back.And there is plenty to fight back with regarding both McCain and Palin.

 Or, better yet STICK TO THE ISSUES. OFFER UP SPECIFICS. TALK ABOUT WHAT WE NEED TO AND  WANT TO HEAR!! Please,

pretty please.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27057346#27057346

Keating Kapers

A little history of the man Gov. Palin calls honorable and decent.

 

http://tammyr2.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/keating-kapers/

Clear as mud.

I agree.
I want her records, I want Biden’s records, and I want McCain’s records.

What’s everyone hiding?

http://lycanthropia.whistleandfish.com/2008/10/06/palins-transparency/

In search of a no whine zone

So Sarah Palin says she didn’t answer Katie Couric’s questions because she was “annoyed”.

This excuse will require us to ignore the deer-in-the-headlight look and the fumbling and reaching but, okay let’s say we buy it.

Is that what we want in a President? I was annoyed so I just didn’t answer-a member of the press-the American people? I was annoyed so I took my ball and went home?

That excuse sounds a lot like something that comes out of the mouth of  my 12 year old  when she does poorly on a test-the teacher is hard, he doesn’t teach, it’s not my fault.

It doesn’t fly at my house, and I would hate to think it would at the White House.

Answer the questions Governor, everyone else managed to irritated or not. Although, it does sound a lot like your running mate’s excuse for why he is behind in the polls- “life’s not fair”. Perhaps you two really are soulmates.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/03/palin-on-fox-news-couric_n_131655.html

Calendar check.

Five weeks! Has it been that long?
Well I feel so much better now.
Five weeks,  now I know I needn’t lose another moment’s sleep imagining you one stage 2/3 (we don’t know he won’t release his records) carcinoma away from the presidency.

Whew!

No more war.

“We will end this war”

Thank you Joe.

Life List: Be like George

 

Ambition unmasked. Not that we had any doubt.

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/emailtoafriend/videoplayer_share.html?id=4496824n&title=Biden,%20Palin%20On%20Past%20VPs&section=Presidential%20Questions

I see the lips moving but nothing’s coming out.

More of the same.
This time listen to the side-by-side and compare with Joe Biden–
then tell me who needs to be one stage 2/3 (who knows he won’t tell) carcinoma away from the presidency.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/01/eveningnews/main4493062.shtml

 

Now Fred Thompson rose to Governor Palin’s defense-saying it wasn’t a fair question since she hadn’t been given a list…

“You know, I think you got the answer there of probably almost 100 percent of non-lawyer candidates if they have not been given a list of cases to see;”

Not to brag here, but I’m no lawyer, historian, politician, or extraordinary intellect and I could name four or five at least.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/02/thompson-defends-palin-sh_n_131217.html

Time for more tylenol. Is it November 4 yet?

Reading is fundamental

Oh for the love of god, just name a newspaper, a magazine, something. ANSWER THE QUESTION.

 Unless of course you don’t actually read…

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/30/eveningnews/main4490618.shtml

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

Amen to that.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/09/30/not_a_hockey_mom/index.html

Does she confuse herself?

 

More confusion on my part.

So it’s bad that Biden’s been around and has the experience, but not bad that McCain is older and has been around even longer?

It’s good that she’s new and a refreshing energetic change, but not good that Obama is the same?

Exactly what is her point?

My head hurts?

I think therefore I’m not a hockey mom?

FromCNN:

In defense, Republicans say the complaints are coming from “intellectual” conservatives — not Main Street Republicans, who they insist love the “hockey mom,” from Alaska, as Palin describes herself.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/29/conservatives.palin/index.html

Okay so “intellectual” is bad?
“Hockey mom” and “intellectual” are mutally exclusive?
Are they saying she’s not intelligent? Mom’s aren’t intelligent”  People living on Main Street aren’t intelligent?                                                               

Dumb is good?

I’M SO CONFUSED, and irritated too.

I need a vacation.

Sad but true

Pouting for Palin

Rebecca Traister over at Salon expressed my opinion on the new poor poor Sarah party that is sweeping the nation. It seems that it is now okay to lower the bar, and lower expectations, or give her a pass-because she’s a girl.  Big bad boys (and Katie Couric) just won’t give her a break, so let her be charming and folksy, let her be herself, let her be show us all that she’s regular folk-just like the rest of us.

Well this regular folk doesn’t care about charming, this regular folk wants someone prepared for the job. This morning on NPR I heard Nina Totenberg say it again- women are turning out in droves at Palin rally because “Many people, particularly women, are thrilled to see someone like themselves on stage, and Palin is a spunky speaker, as she demonstrated during a Pennsylvania rally last week.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95196691

Someone like themselves?

Not like me. Not like the women I know. Granted we are all the same gender, some of us have reproduced , and many are juggling jobs and children, spouses, and families. But, that’s where it ends. The women I know are managing very successful careers-true success brought on by years of education, hard work, and individual accomplishment. The women I know can talk about their work, their ideas, and what they bring to the table in an articulate manner. The women I know know what they know-and they know that just because they can see the moon from the office window doesn’t mean they are prepared to be astronauts. The women I know read the papers, listen to the news, and ponder the world outside their household. And none of them think its cute to come up lacking-and all of them are desperately trying to make sure that their daughters know the same thing.

(From Salon, emphasis is mine.)

Sarah Palin is no wilting flower. She is a politician who took the national stage and sneered at the work of community activists. She boldly tries to pass off incuriosity and lassitude as regular-people qualities, thereby doing a disservice to all those Americans who also work two jobs and do not come from families that hand out passports and backpacking trips, yet still manage to pick up a paper and read about their government and seek out experience and knowledge.

When you don’t take your own career and reputation seriously enough to pause before striding onto a national stage and lying about your record of opposing a Bridge to Nowhere or using your special-needs child to garner the support of Americans in need of healthcare reform you don’t support, I don’t feel bad for you.

When you don’t have enough regard for your country or its politics to cram effectively for the test — a test that helps determine whether or not you get to run that country and participate in its politics — I don’t feel bad for you.

When your project is reliant on gaining the support of women whose reproductive rights you would limit, whose access to birth control and sex education you would curtail, whose healthcare options you would decrease, whose civil liberties you would take away and whose children and husbands and brothers (and sisters and daughters and friends) you would send to war in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and wherever else you saw fit without actually understanding international relations, I don’t feel bad for you.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/30/palin_pity/index.html

This is not the time for coddling. This is not the time for pity. This is the time for…well let’s let another cutie do the talking from one of the best feel good political movies ever:

We have serious problems to solve and we need serious people to solve them.

Oh for Sarah’s 15 minutes to be “up”.

Snoopy and Sarah

The more I  listen to Governor Palin the more I think about Charlie Brown’s teacher.

Wawawawawawawawah

This, a heartbeat away from the presidency. God help us all.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4476721n?source=mostpop_video

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4479049n?source=mostpop_video

To alleviate my Palin induced stress, here’s a little happiness for our listening pleasure. It’s impossible to be stressed out after this.

This will hurt to watch.

Oh lord. You won’t believe it when you hear it.

I feel for her. Does she know she knows absolutely nothing?

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4478156n

Getting to the real issue

 

I smell a rat. Or rather, a chicken.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/24/mccain-camp-to-propose-postponing-vp-debate/

George’s better half.

I always knew Mrs.  Bush was the smart one in that marriage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/24/laura-bush-palin-lacks-fo_n_128965.html

What’s fair for the gander is fair for the goose…

Bravo Campbell Brown.

Free Sarah Palin. (Although if you ask me, Palin doesn’t want to talk. She knows what she has going on between the ears…)

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/24/campbell.brown.palin/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Hit me with your best shot-if you’re wearing kid gloves.

They don’t want her to have to talk about herself or her experience? (why…)

She’s a relatively inexperienced debater (so you knew that when you picked her)

More protecting of Governor Palin from the McCain camp.

So here’s my question:

When McCain drops dead in office, who will protect Palin then? Will someone call all the foreign heads of state and say be nice-she’s relatively inexperienced? Treat her with deference. Tread lightly or else we’ll cry sexism. Don’t “trip her up” okay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/us/politics/21debate.html

From NYT (emphasis added is mine):

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

McCain advisers said they were only somewhat concerned about Ms. Palin’s debating skills compared with those of Mr. Biden, who has served six terms in the Senate, or about his chances of tripping her up. Instead, they say, they wanted Ms. Palin to have opportunities to present Mr. McCain’s positions, rather than spending time talking about her experience or playing defense.

Katie wears lipstick.

In eleven days Sarah will talk again (maybe). She’ll be on the bus, hopefully they’ll actually let her speak-on her own-without advisors and McCain at her elbow. We’ll see. Eleven days…what candidate in history has gotten away with that level of withdrawal from the press?

Odd, very odd.

Time to e-mail Katie. couricandco@cbs.com

Send questions!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26757045/

Hiding in plain sight behind her friends

She’s on the record as saying “I welcome the investigation”.

Well? Now this?

Again my mantra-IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/16/palin.trooper.probe/index.html

Ok then, could she run a foot race?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/16/fiorina-palin-couldnt-do_n_126827.html

Carly Fiorina, a key surrogate for John McCain on economic issues, said on Tuesday that Sarah Palin does not have the experience needed to run a major company like the one that Fiorina formerly headed.

“Do you think [Sarah Palin] has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett Packard?” asked the host.

“No, I don’t,” responded Fiorina. “But you know what? That’s not what she’s running for.”

No, she’s running to RUN THE ENTIRE NATION.  I’ve always thought Fiorina has a healthy ego, so maybe she thinks she should be the Veep. Then again, I think she’s more qualified than Palin (and clearly so do Fiorina).

Hiding in Plain Sight

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin will not cooperate with a “tainted” legislative investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin campaign announced Monday, accusing supporters of Democratic rival Barack Obama of manipulating the probe for political motivations.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/16/palin.investigation/index.html

 

First she said she welcomed the investigation and had nothing to hide.

Now she “won’t cooperate” claiming politics.

IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE THEN WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

Political or not?

Do we really need another eight years of this?

I say subpeona her ass, no one should be above the law, not even Republican politicians.

Of secrets and suntans

The serious

So again we ask-what’cha hiding?
Remember the Republican UPROAR over e-mails and documents of Hillary’s during the White House years. (Clinton investigation # who-knows-what)

This smacks of more Bush-Cheney. That’s all we need.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/palin-asked-to-release-hu_n_126420.html

 

And the absurd:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/palin-installed-tanning-b_n_126625.html

Great, now we could have two of them with skin cancer!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/carly-fiorina-criticizes_n_126533.html

And more whining. Does anyone in that camp have a sense of humor about anything Palin?

They’re probably a bunch of sexists

http://www.mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/alaska-women-reject-palin-rally-is-huge/

Socialist, baby-killing maggots. You have got to be kidding me.

It’s nice to see the conservative media mouths have decided to keep the discourse polite, intelligent, and thoughtful.

One of those media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time uber-conservative Anchorage talk show host.  Turns out that Eddie Burke not only announced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the rally “a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots”, and read the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they thought.  The women, of course, received many nasty,  harassing and threatening messages.

The bridge to every stump speech

I am the mother of young children. Children who, when confronted with the question who did this? will reply without hesitation-not me!  In the face of evidence they will hold steadfastly to that line

Not me

I didn’t

I swear I didn’t

I DID NOT DO IT. WHY DON’T YOU BELIEVE ME?

That last line is often accompanied by tears and indignant rage-implying how  dare I suggest such. That’s when I know the guilty party has spoken.

Teaching children to tell the truth is one of the most important tasks of parenting. So many times I hear myself saying, you won’t get in trouble for (offense of the moment), but you will get in trouble for lying. You must always be honest with me, I must be able to trust you.

Maybe Governor  Palin’s mom forgot to review that with her daughter.

We know it’s not true, she’s even had to admit it’s not true, and yet….

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/14/palin-lies-32/

…Speak no evil-or anything else for that matter.

Why the hush-hush factor still oozing out of the McCain camp?

Maybe so we won’t learn that she isn’t so different from the “good old boys” and they want us to think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html

As Ms. Palin’s star ascends, the McCain campaign, as often happens in national races, is controlling the words of those who know her well. Her mother-in-law, Faye Palin, has been asked not to speak to reporters, and aides sit in on interviews with old friends.

At a recent lunch gathering, an official with the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce asked its members to refer all calls from reporters to the governor’s office. Dianne Woodruff, a city councilwoman, shook her head.

“I was thinking, I don’t remember giving up my First Amendment rights,” Ms. Woodruff said. “Just because you’re not going gaga over Sarah doesn’t mean you can’t speak your mind.”

Forget Palin

and the glass ceiling, and pigs with lipstick, and cries of SEXISM.

It is all really rather stupid when you stop and think about the lives of girls all over the world.

www.thegirleffect.org

Answer me this Gov.

Not that I think she’s going to sit down anytime soon, but I like these questions.

This is my favorite:

You say you don’t believe global warming is man-made. Could you tell us what scientists you’ve spoken with or read who have led you to that conclusion? What do you think the 2,500 scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are getting wrong?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/12/opinion/main4446064.shtml

Maybe she hasn’t actually spoken to any scientists, maybe she just lives near some.

Clueless or pathological?

Which is better? Falsifying history or stupidity?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/opinion/13herbert.html

From the NYT:

 I feel for Ms. Palin’s son who has been shipped off to the war in Iraq. But at his deployment ceremony, which was on the same day as the Charlie Gibson interview, Sept. 11, she told the audience of soldiers that they would be fighting “the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”

Was she deliberately falsifying history, or does she still not know that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?

Good question. Neither answer makes me feel better.

To burnish the foreign policy credentials of a vice presidential candidate who never even had a passport until last year, the Republicans have been touting Alaska’s proximity to Russia. (Imagine the derisive laughter in conservative circles if the Democrats had tried such nonsense.) So Mr. Gibson asked Ms. Palin, “What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?”

She said, “They’re our next-door neighbors. And you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska. From an island in Alaska.”

I think we’re going to have to go with stupidity on this one.

Unconscionable.

It speaks for itself-and of her.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-alperinsheriff/sarah-palin-instituted-ra_b_125833.html

The view from under the microscope

On occasion my oldest will turn to me with that old familiar refrain but you should see what everyone else made on the test or my grade was better than anyone else’s– to which I retort I’m not worried about what other children are doing, or I’m not anyone else’s mother.

The whine doesn’t work. But it’s not fair what about everyone else?

So Palin and the McCain camp have been whining  about the unfair treatment she has received at the hands of the press-or so they perceive.  They’ve even taken to calling it “sexism”.

But, when it was Hillary Clinton crying foul, Palin was ready to criticize.

And last night in her interview with Charles Gibson Palin was quick to employ my daughter’s excuse but but but what about everyone else?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5782924&page=1

Now back at the Newsweek Forum earlier in the year she had a lot to say about Hillary Clinton and the media. She said that Hillary’s complaining “didn’t bode well for her.” That  “fair or unfair, it’s there that’s the reality.” “Accept it, that you are under a sharper microscope, so be it.” “Work harder, prove yourself to an even greater degree.”

To an even greater degree? So….

maybe the greater degree would mean

regardless of what other veeps have done she should do better?

What happened to “so be it” “accept it”?

Oh, you didn’t mean YOU, you meant everyone else. 

http://video.newsweek.com/#?c=40211&l=1759767670&t=1760440838

That excuse doesn’t work with seventh graders, it shouldn’t work with vice presidential candidates.

The check has been deposited.

The McCain-Palin ticket is (now) running on the idea that they represent “change”. That Sarah Palin is a “maverick” who fought big government, spending, etc blah blah.

However, before Palin became the poster-girl for Just Say No to Earmarks, she was getting while the getting  was good-as the saying goes.

Lots and lots of money for Wasilla and then for Alaska.

And about that bridge to nowhere-even after Sarah said no, after having said yes,

she kept the money. Yep, putting it right into her state budget-without so much as a thank you.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/09/11/kaye.palin.honest.cnn

I have nothing to hide-maybe.

If there’s nothing to it-then why won’t she talk? If she has nothing to hide-then why is she hiding?

It would be really nice to have this whole sordid mess straightened out before the election.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158140/page/2

I liked this thought expressed over at mudflats http://www.mudflats.wordpress.com

In July, Palin said she did nothing wrong and that she welcomed an investigation.  Now, after becoming McCain’s running-mate, and with the outcome of the investigation set to come on October 31, just 5 days before election day, any roadblock will do.  No more welcome wagon.

Sticks and stones

It’s the hypocrisy of it all that galls me most.

Like they say on the playground “dish it out but can’t take it.”

Or  “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

John McCain laughs when someone at a campaign stop calls Hillary Clinton a bitch.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22762770-23109,00.html

John McCain calls his wife a c**t. (I can’t even type the word it is so vile)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/07/report-mccains-profane-ti_n_95429.html

Sarah Palin laughs while being interviewed and radio jocks call her opponent a bitch and a cancer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/31/palin-laughs-as-opponent_n_122776.html

And his own little girl, Megan McCain admits that her dad has used the “pig” comment before.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/10/meghan-mccain-my-dad-says_n_125323.html

In fact, he repeated the lipstick on a pig joke at several stump speeches.

But anyone even looks bug eyed at Palin and the whining begins. Cries of dirty politics, sexism, blahblahblah. Leave her alone they cry! That’s not fair! They screech.

Give me a break.

Greenwald says it very well.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/10/pigs/#postid-updateC6

This little piggie has O-R-E-Os

Finally, economics that I understand. And my favorite cookies too!

http://lycanthropia.whistleandfish.com/2008/09/10/of-cookies-pigs-and-lipstick/

Sex and the White House. (No, this isn’t about Bill)

I’m thinking Bristol Palin could have used some “age appropriate” sex education.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/09/mccain-ad-obamas-lone-edu_n_125205.html

And if McCain-Palin object to that then what do they have to offer.

Oh that’s right-abstinence only sex education.

Hmmmm….

Pomp and Circumstance-eventually

Here’s an article on the Sarah Palin college years.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hjGaAjQoUCE3VQ4N3M852LEdOVtwD9307GG00

And here I shall quote an e-mail I received from my friend Marge. I don’t know if these are her words or not, but she’s one of the brightest and most insightful women  I know-so I’ll let her talk. She’s right too. Very recently I reapplied for a professional license and I had to cough up my educational information. The last job I applied for-same thing-all the way back to undergrad. 20 years later and they wanted my transcript. (And let me tell you that college biology grade is still a source of shame!)

Changing schools once, or even twice is relatively common.  Sometimes people
make changes to get into a better school, or into a different geographic
location (family, finances, etc) or to make a major change in their career
objective.

However, the vast majority of people who went to college would be quick to
tell you that it’s quite unusual to have changed schools even 3 times, let
alone 5.

Certainly not the ordinary college experience.

Most employers, (which we all are when we consider “hiring” our leaders),
confronted with a job candidate handing them a resume showing that sort of
“school jumping”, would, in their interview, be asking some very in-depth,
probing questions to try and find out what in the world was going on.

i.e. Substance abuse? Emotional instability? Inability to analyze a
situation and make a competent decision? Inability to apply oneself to a
difficult task?  Was the person asked to leave an institution?

Sarah should be given the opportunity to explain her unique college
experience to America and she should release her college transcripts so that
we can all better appreciate her intellectual capacity.

 

Cut from the same cloth

I liked this so much I posted it twice.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/09/09/palin_fundamentalist

Salon…

Palin has a right to her religious beliefs, as do fundamentalist Muslims who agree with her on so many issues of social policy. None of them has a right, however, to impose their beliefs on others by capturing and deploying the executive power of the state. The most noxious belief that Palin shares with Muslim fundamentalists is her conviction that faith is not a private affair of individuals but rather a moral imperative that believers should import into statecraft wherever they have the opportunity to do so. That is the point of her pledge to shape the judiciary. Such a theocratic impulse is incompatible with the Founding Fathers’ commitment to tolerance and democracy, which is why they forbade the government to “establish” or officially support any particular religion or denomination.

McCain once excoriated the Rev. Jerry Falwell and his ilk as “agents of intolerance.” That he took such a position gave his opposition to similar intolerance in Islam credibility. In light of his more recent disgraceful kowtowing to the Christian right, McCain’s animus against fundamentalist Muslims no longer looks consistent. It looks bigoted and invidious. You can’t say you are waging a war on religious extremism if you are trying to put a religious extremist a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Charlie and the Pitbull

Let’s hope so. Although I’m skeptical.

Remember to send Charlie questions and suggestions at at http://www.abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3068843

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/09/charlie-gibsons-producer_n_125016.html

Sarah and the pursestrings

A quick look at the economics of Alaska.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1839724,00.html

Team Dick.

Oh I feel so much better now.

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/08/sarah-palin-ready-for-vic_n_124744.html

Do they serve peanuts onboard the flights?

Subsistence hunting is one thing. I get it, I’m just glad I don’t have to do it. I might starve.

But this?

As if the “hunting” (if you can call shooting out of your airplane hunting) isn’t bad enough,  the refusal to  consider any science or data  behind arguments that run counter to her agenda is to reminiscent of George W.

And I’m curious-exactly what did Palin do with all those wolf feet?

From Salon:

In early 2007, Palin’s administration approved an initiative to pay a $150 bounty to hunters who killed a wolf from an airplane in certain areas, hacked off the left foreleg, and brought in the appendage. Ruling that the Palin administration didn’t have the authority to offer payments, a state judge quickly put a halt to them but not to the shooting of wolves from aircraft.

 

 

http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2008/09/08/sarah_palin_wolves/

What’s Next? Kisses and Curtsies?

Deference? Respect?
This from the Republicans?

Sarah-STOP WHINING AND SPEAK!

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/palin-media-a-2.html

Don’t drop the ball Charlie

Rumor is that Governor Sarah Palin will sit down with ABC’s Charlie Gibson next week. While this news is on the Time magazine website along with others, it has not been confirmed (as of this moment) by ABC News.

If it is true it’s time we all get busy sending Mr. Gibson suggestions for questioning. Given the McCain campaigns continued efforts to keep Governor Palin away from the media, this may be our only chance to really hear where she stands on the issues.

We really don’t want Gibson to softball this one with lots of hockey mom questions. I don’t care how she manages to-in the words of an old commercials-bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan. I want to know how she’s going to be the Veep-and ultimately given the likelihood-the president.

There may be a better way to reach Mr. Gibson- but here’s what I know for now:   http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3068843

I want one!

Now if I could just get the widget to install.

I hate being a tech idiot.

http://pol.moveon.org/palinclocks.html

Wearing flip-flops in Alaska

 

Maybe not so different from all the rest after all.
She likes the earmarks, and she flip-flops on issues.

Maybe she really is John McCain’s “Soulmate”. (His words not mine.)

From Newsweek:

From early in her career, Palin got ahead by working the system as well if not better than others. She hired a Washington lobbyist and won $27 million in earmarks for tiny Wasilla. Then she worked to get big federal money for the state. Though she now says she stood up to those who wanted to build the $223 million “Bridge to Nowhere” (which actually involved two bridges), she was once a strong supporter. Responding to a questionnaire in 2006, Palin said she wanted the projects done “sooner rather than later … while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.” At the time, another prominent politician had called people living in the area of one of the proposed projects “valley trash.” That gave Palin an opening. Campaigning in the area, she used some of her trademark humor to make her pitch: “OK, you’ve got valley trash standing here in the middle of nowhere,” she declared to residents of Ketchikan. “I think we’re going to make a good team as we progress [with] that bridge.”

As Alaskan corruption scandals grew, and the Bridge to Nowhere became synonymous with out-of-control federal spending, Palin switched positions. In an astonishing pivot, she began using the rhetoric of the projects’ opponents. Now she talks as if she always opposed the funding. She used one of her stock lines in her nomination acceptance speech: “I told the Congress, ‘Thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/157696/page/1

And elsewhere…

I like her logic, and frankly her ranting manner. I know how that feels to goonandonandon and stop to think why am I so worked up over this?

Reason #3-she’s nailed it.

(SarahSarahSarah on  9/7/08)  http://www.cryoverspilledmilk.wordpress.com

And here’s a link she provides to the Washington Post article that reveals in full glory one of the multitude of reasons Sarah Palin can’t be my Veep.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_help.html?hpid=artslot

With a side of fries?

 

 According to the just re-released biography of Governor Sarah Palin the VP-wannabe’s favorite dish: Moose Stew.

What would poor Rocky think?

  

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=94352756&m=94352712

Sunday morning blues

 

“We’re going to do what’s best to win the election…”

So much for America first.

Guess what one major player from the two tickets will be absent from the Sunday morning shows-

Governor Sarah Palin it is!

I just want to know WHY? Why are they hiding Governor Palin? Do they think she’s not ready to face the press? And if she’s not, then how can she be ready to be the Veep. Do they think we don’t deserve to hear her speak about the issues? 

If she was truly the right choice then show her off! Let us hear how smart, and capable, and qualified she really is.

What are you guys hiding up there in Alaska?

Today, top McCain aide Rick Davis indicated the campaign isn’t in any hurry to slot Palin for a Sunday show appearance — and will do so only if he and other strategists determine it serves the ticket’s purposes, not because some may view it as a required initiation for a major political player.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, Davis said, “I’d never commit to anything in the future. … Our strategy is in our hands, not the media’s. We’re going to do what’s in our best interests to try to win the election. If we think going on TV news shows are [sic] in our best interests, we’ll do it. If we don’t, we won’t.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/09/sarah-palin-w-1.html

Other Voices on Palin/McCain

On what it says about McCain.

http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ex/090408.html

Yes, anyone can grow up to be the President.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/albert-brooks/anyone-can-become-preside_b_123017.html
Where’s Sarah?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/?last_story=/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/09/07/palin_watch/

Mums the word from the hockey mom

From MSNBC. Italics added are mine for emphasis.

*** Waiting for the interview: There are now about 60 days until Election Day and just three weeks until the debates. And who knows whether we’ll get the first Sarah Palin serious issue interview before then. This morning on JOE, McCain manager Rick Davis wouldn’t commit to putting her out to media interviews unless they saw it as helping their campaign. This Sunday is interesting in that three of the four principles are doing sunday shows, the lone holdout: Palin.

My question is this: Why wouldn’t she be a help to your campaign? If she’s ready to go on day one, ready to be the veep, ready to be the pres, then why isn’t she ready to face the press? If you don’t see it as “being a help” does that mean you think she’ll be a problem? Mistake? Hindrance?

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09.aspx

Apply lipstick then kiss my bumper sticker.

Over the course of my life I have volunteered for campaigns at the  local, state, and federal level. I have dialed the phone, stuffed envelopes, put up signs, and written letters. I have cared passionately about who won what races, and back in my younger days when I believed in a micro-managing god I even prayed. (Please God let Newt Gingrich beat Herman Talmadge. That was a long time ago)

But there are two things I have never done-until today.

1. Contributed to a political campaign

2.  Put a bumper sticker on my car.

There it is. Ready for my car (I really have to clean a spot on the window).

My youngest and I stopped by the Obama 08 office here in town. We volunteered to work, and then we bought stickers and buttons and then I cut a check.

On my budget I can assure you it wasn’t much, but it was my first monetary contribution ever.

Why?

Well I became an Obama supporter when John Edwards dropped out, but was not passionately, violently, bumper sticker-esque  enthusiastic in my support. Then

Sarah Palin.

That’s all.

Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency when her resume is weaker than most of the “working women” and “hockey moms” that I know.
Sarah Palin who wanted to ban books.

Sarah Palin who is opposed to sex education that is not abstinence based.

Sarah Palin who doesn’t believe global warming is man made and wants creationism taught in schools.

Sarah Palin who has no foreign policy experience (but hey, she lives next to Russia).

Sarah Palin who said she “hadn’t given much thought” to the Iraq war.

Sarah Palin who said she didn’t really know what the Vice President’s job entails.

Sarah Palin who sneered at community organizers in her speech. (Jane Addams the mother of social work-my profession- is rolling over in her grave. )

 Sarah Palin who does not ” resonate” with all women just because she’s a woman, a mom, a working mom, or whatever label you want to use.

And just so you know Sarah-LIPSTICK is not what differentiates a hockey mom from a pit bull  -it’s a thinking rational brain. 

 I’ve got one, millions of women around this nation have one, and we are going to put it to use on election day.

Shhhh be quiet no more!

Forget putting these links on my other voices page. This is important, front and center.

Here are just a few voices on the subject, mostly from librarians. I love librarians, people who dedicate themselves to introducing children (and all of us to books and information-how great is that?)  Most of them start their writings by saying that they are reluctant to “get political” on their blogs. I understand that-but now is the time to do just that. This is serious.  If Governor Palin would attempt to ban books and pressure a librarian while a small town mayor, what would she do with the power of the presidency? 

One post lists the books that Governor Palin (as Mayor) sought to ban. I haven’t seen the list verified yet-but if any portion of it is true my heart aches.

Get the word out.

http://bookdweeb.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/sarah-palin-banning-books-and-the-impact-on-public-libraries/

http://genneaux.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/i-have-some-rhetoric-for-you/ 

http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/

http://www.librarian.net/stax/2366/sarah-palin-vp-nominee/

The Censor -in- Chief

I’ve written on this subject before( http://tammyr2.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/164/ )and my love of books and reading, and intellectual freedom is no secret. And libraries! I can still close my eyes and smell the library of my youth. One of life’s true joys is finding the next great read sitting on the shelf just waiting for me me me to check it out.

 When I heard about this from Harry I swear I felt my heart stop beating in my chest. 

There is nothing I could say to improve on this post from http://lycanthropia.whistleandfish.com/. It is appropriately titled “The Horror…the horror.”

Because I said so, that’s why. A mother’s mantra.

STOP SAYING THAT!

The talking point now out of the RNC, James Dobson, et al is how proud they are of young Ms. Palin’s “choice”. That she “chose life”. Chose it? Rather than what?

Her mother is on the record as being anti-abortion NO MATTER WHAT. The only exception — if the life of the mother is in jeopardy. She is on the record as saying even if HER OWN DAUGHTER were raped she would not approve of abortion.

Given that, knowing that, did her daughter really have any choice?

I’m 43 years old and I’m still scared of my parents! Come on, remember being 17? 17 and having to tell your mother your pregnant out of wedlock is one thing. Having to tell her when she is a Governor is another, and a Governor on the record of expecting you to keep your child if you were raped? HELP!

The poor girl had no choice. Her parents made the choice. So applaud Governor Palin all you want for choosing life, but stop saying it’s the daughter’s choice. And for the love of all that is holy-stop applauding the fact that she has “chosen” to marry the baby’s father.

The boy and he is a  BOY doesn’t want to be married, or having babies, or be in the national spotlight. The Palin family are a smart bunch of cookies-so Mr. McCain wants us to think-certainly they can come up with a solution that will choose life for the baby, the daughter, and the boyfriend that does not involve making two young people take a sacred vow under the scrutiny of the entire world. Talk about a shotgun wedding!

Fifth Runner Up

Again-pandering to a one-issue voting block?
Or, maybe he  agrees with Sarah Palin and the Alaskan Independence Party (Palin was a member)-Alaska should secede from the US and become an independent nation (or at least allow them to vote on it they say!)

http://www.akip.org

(Country first, no wait, Alaska first, no Sarah first. Oh hell, I can’t keep up.)

 
If he wanted one of the guys, he should have gone with one of the guys.

Does he not trust his own instincts? Does he only listen to the conservative base that he is trying to “win over”?

Is he prone to making hasty, poorly analyzed or thoughtless decisions?

I hope note. That’s not what we need in a President.

At the least, Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain’s running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described.

Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.

But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.

Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory.

With time running out — and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable — he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later. Advisers to Mr. Pawlenty and another of the finalists on Mr. McCain’s list described an intensive vetting process for those candidates that lasted one to two months.

“They didn’t seriously consider her until four or five days from the time she was picked, before she was asked, maybe the Thursday or Friday before,” said a Republican close to the campaign. “This was really kind of rushed at the end, because John didn’t get what he wanted. He wanted to do Joe or Ridge.”

It’s Time to Stop Just Saying No

I have written here at length on how I feel about abstinence only sex education. I believe deeply and passionately in the importance of educating young men and women about birth control and the absolute need to insure that  we do everything we can to reduce the number of unplanned/unwanted pregnancies in this country.  Objective studies have over and over again proven that abstinence only sex education has not been effective in reducing teen sexual activity or unplanned/unwanted teen pregnancies.

Governor Sarah Palin has been a lifelong advocate of abstinence only sex education. Clearly it has not worked in her own home. My heart goes out to  her seventeen year old daughter. Dare I say that perhaps had she felt she could have turned to her parents for open, honest communication about sexual activity that she might not be faced with motherhood at the age of seventeen, and marriage on top of that. 

Ms. Palin and many of her “conservative” supporters rally around the “pro-life” cause to the extent that they may well be considered a one-cause voting base. It is time that everyone realize that arguing about Roe V Wade and abortion is for naught. Not a single republican president or House/Senate lead by republicans has done one thing to overturn Roe V. Wade or to reduce the number of abortions in this country. They haven’t and they won’t. Neither will the democrats. Maybe it’s time to listen to voices like that of  Senator Obama who say that, while we may disagree about abortion policy , we can all agree that we need to work toward reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.

Too late for the Palin family, but not for countless other young people who need to know that if they cannot abstain from sexual activity (the best choice for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases) there are choices other than parenthood and marriage. The answer is in educating our young people and talking talking talking and then listening listening listening.

And this makes me wonder- can we truly believe that the McCain camp sufficiently vetted Governor Palin? I find it impossible to believe that Senator McCain, his advisors, and specifically his far right conservative party members, would have allowed Governor Palin’s selection in light of this recent news.  This speaks of Senator McCain’s decision making skills at the very least, and to Governor Palin’s honesty and willingness to put “Country First.” Had she truly had the best interests of the nation and the office of the VP and that of the Presidency in her mind (and not that of her own rising star), then she would have made this information clear from day one.

And, speaking as a mother, if she were the uber-mom she portrays herself to be, she would not be  running for Veep. She’d say family first, country second, and right now my family needs me.   And YES, I would expect the same of a man in the same position.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/palins-17-year-old-daughter-is-pregnant/?hp

Any brassiere in a storm (I mean election)

I’m still stunned and virtually speechless, drooling on the couch trying to figure out how someone with less experience than many of the women I ‘ve worked with in my life has ended up one cancer cell away from the presidency.  I almost want to send an apology note to Condoleeza Rice, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Elizabeth Dole, Christine Todd  Whitman, and all the rest of intelligent, talented, competent and experienced Republican women passed by,  even though I had nothing to do with Governor Palin’s selection.

So here’s a read from Salon that I liked. It articulates things rolling around in my mind better than I could. I especially like the point-those of us who were Hillary supporters were admirerers of her knowledge, her experience, her political ideaology, not her vagina. It is insulting at best to think any woman would do, and especially a conservative, right-wing, anti-choice, doesn’t believe in global warming, wants to teach creationism in schools, gun toting, former mayor of a town smaller than my backyard woman. We may have wished Sen. Obama had picked Senator Clinton as veep, but we are not stupid. It’s about the brain not the bustline Senator McCain.

Not a big Reagan fan myself, but since he seems to be the voice everyone in the Republican party likes to turn to for wisdom and insight- let’s look back in history.

From Salon

Looking back on the Ferraro nomination, another well-known conservative wrote: “I believe that someday we are going to have a woman president, possibly during my life, and I’ve often thought the best way to pave the way for this was to first nominate and elect a woman as vice-president. But I think Mondale made a serious mistake when he picked Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. In my view, he guessed wrong in deciding to take a congresswoman that almost nobody had ever heard of and try to put her in line for the presidency … I don’t know who among the Democrats might have been a better choice, but it was obvious Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro simply because he believed there was a ‘gender gap’ where I was concerned and she was a woman.”

Those are the words of Ronald Reagan in his 1991 memoir, “An American Life,” pouring scorn on the nomination of a woman who had served six years in Congress working on foreign policy issues. In retrospect, he had a point. Only this Palin gambit could make the Ferraro mistake look responsible and wise.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/08/30/palin/

Perhaps the Gipper was right.

Ovaries that Have Gone Before

Well I just heard from a girlfriend weeping and asking me Isn’t this wonderful? Isn’t this historic?

Then I heard John McCain talk about his historic choice.

Now for a history lesson:

 

1872 Victoria Woodhull the first of MANY women to run for president.

1980 Geraldine Ferraro the first woman on a “major party” ticket.

And of course, Senator Clinton.

I couldn’t be more thrilled to have a woman on a ticket, potentially the first woman president given the realities of Sen. McCain’s health. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have the first African-American at the top of the ticket for president. I can’t wait to talk to my daughters about this. It’s a very exciting time, with a lot at stake- but historical?

Not for those who know their history.

The road was paved long before Ms. Palin.

She’s Hot Hot Hot

All I can say is I can’t wait for the debates. Have at her Senator Biden.

Now I didn’t call her Hot-that’s Alaska magazine’s idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I wonder, how will all the self-identified conservative “christians” who screeched that Hillary couldn’t be president because we couldn’t dare trust a woman to hold the office of the presidency going to feel now?44, no experience, a mother of young children (and wasn’t it uber-conservative Republican  Phyllis Schlafly  who said women need to be home raising their babies?) a heart-beat away from the Presidency-and a weak heartbeat at that. Suddenly it will become well, we meant a democrat woman, or a pro-choice woman…uh uh…

Oh, and for everyone that  went after Senator Clinton for her brief cleavage moment-check out Gov. Palin on the cover of Vogue. I believe that’s cleavage and nipple.

 

And experience-well Ms. Palin graduated in 87 with a bachelor’s degree in communication-and then…no that’s all. No graduate school, no law school, a communication’s major. (And I started out as one myself, so that’s not a slam on communications major.)

This is going to be very interesting.

I like what Steve Chapman had to say…

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/steve_chapman/2008/08/mccains-inexcus.html