Thursday - October 09, 2008

Barack Obama looks the part .  (I HATE to post this but, as it’s seen from here.)

This is the editorial that appeared in today’s paper over here.  I’m hearing this from American friends who are conservative, and frankly I am worried.
Not that there’s anything I can do about it.  Maybe I’ll go live in Lyndon’s house in Canada. Claim it as a human right.  Why am I joking about this?
Taint funny McGee!  Cause if I don’t laugh I might cry. 

Should O. carry it off and win, I guess the most consv. can do is try and block supreme nominations of the left.  What a mess.

Singapore’s lookin pretty good right now.

Barack Obama looks the part

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 09/10/2008

There will be many victims of the financial crisis, and one of the most prominent could be John McCain. However much he tries to distance himself from the Bush administration, the Republican candidate in America’s presidential election is finding it increasingly hard to make up ground on Barack Obama, his Democrat opponent.

But it was less their policies for dealing with economic calamity than their demeanour that provided the most noticeable difference between the two men during their second televised debate on Tuesday night. Mr Obama appeared calm and confident; Mr McCain seemed uncertain, tired and tetchy.

It felt, admittedly from afar, like the modern-day equivalent of the famous clash between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960, when those who listened to the debate on the radio believed Nixon had won while those watching on television felt that the more youthful and assured Kennedy triumphed.

With just 27 days to the election, Mr McCain must make his experience and more astute grasp of foreign policy tell, though even on this, his supposed strong suit, he found Mr Obama able to brush off the charge of being wet behind the ears. Polls taken after the debate in Tennessee handed a clear win to Mr Obama, who is now forging ahead in the so-called ‘’battleground” states that will determine who will occupy the White House.

This was supposed to resemble an old-fashioned town hall meeting, of the sort we used to have in this country; and while there was something almost comical about the exercise as the two men prowled around the stage, the cut and thrust of American politics is refreshing to those who lament the absence of similar clashes between party leaders during general elections here.

http://tinyurl.com/3l3vdu

   Monday - October 06, 2008

OK, EVEN IF YOU DON’T AGREE WITH EVERYTHING, THIS IS A MUST WATCH AND LISTEN VIDEO.

Just before getting ready to shut down for the night, I paid a visit to Vilmar’s site where I stole this.
I don’t think he’ll mind me doing that.

Now then, please, please stay with this fellow even if it is a mite hard to watch because he’s jumps a lot.
This really does have a large WOW factor.

One of the things I’ve always liked about Vilmar, is his take no prisoners attitude and kick the hell out of the left when ya have em down.

Well, while this young man might not be Vilmar he sure does score some points and doesn’t seem to worry much about prisoners either.

NOW THEN ... WANNA TALK ABOUT TAKE NO PRISONERS?

HE GOES ON AGAIN HERE.  THIS YOUNG FELLA IS ON A ROLL. 

Thanks Vilmar.  http://antzinpantz.com/kns/ and thanks as well to Sndrak, which is where V got it.  http://tinyurl.com/48qoj8

McCain resorts to attacks on Obama’s character as aids fear campain is over.  (what?)

This doesn’t look too good for our side folks. 

Your thoughts?

John McCain attacks Barack Obama’s character in bid to rescue campaign
John McCain will try to revive his flagging presidential prospects by launching an all-out character assassination on Barack Obama, branding his Democratic rival an untrustworthy political extremist who is “too risky for Americans”.

By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 2:10PM BST 04 Oct 2008

The move comes amid growing signs that Mr McCain’s closest aides do not believe he can win the race for the White House in a “fair fight”.

The Sunday Telegraph knows of at least three occasions in the last month where members of his inner circle have voiced fears that he is doomed to defeat.

Voters have flocked to Mr Obama during the current economic crisis, and Mr McCain has lost the lead in several key swing states he must win if he is to have any chance of victory in November.

A former McCain strategist familiar with the senator’s tactical discussions told The Sunday Telegraph that he would pursue the “nuclear option” targeting Mr Obama personally in the final month leading up to November’s vote.

Republicans have leapt on a New York Times story which accused Mr Obama of having played down his relationship with the former terrorist turned education professor William Ayres, whose Weather Underground group bombed the Pentagon in the 1960s and with whom Mr Obama worked on community projects in the mid-1990s.

(this terrorist creep bombs the Pentagon and he’s not only allowed to continue his pointless breathing, he becomes a professor.  and he teaches what exactly? bomb making 101?  why oh why has this bastard not been shot dead by some patriot by now? jeez. rcob,)

Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee urged Mr McCain to make it a campaign issue. It ought to matter to voters,” he said. “If you hang out with somebody who has never apologised for bombing the Pentagon and the United States Capitol and is proud of something he should have been ashamed of, then it calls into question your judgment.

“I think a person who wants to be president should be appalled that anyone would ever lead this level of anarchy against the government of the United States.

In the second presidential debate on Tuesday, Mr McCain will seek to brand Mr Obama as an old fashioned tax-and-spend liberal.

At the same time, his campaign will launch coded attacks on Mr Obama’s patriotism. On Friday Mr McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin accused the Democratic candidate of disparaging American troops, a toxic charge in US politics. “Some of his comments about Afghanistan and what we are doing there supposedly, just air raiding villages and killing civilians, that’s reckless,” she said.

Greg Strimple, a senior adviser to Mr McCain confirmed the change of direction. “We’re looking for a very aggressive last 30 days,” he said. “We’re turning the page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr Obama’s liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans.”

While the McCain campaign will not charge directly that Mr Obama’s views are un-American, that case is now being made by conservative pressure groups.

A group called the Judicial Confirmation Network has begun a $1m ad buy hinting that Mr Obama cannot be trusted to pick new justices for the Supreme Court. The basis for their charge is that he might select people like his incendiary pastor Jeremiah Wright, “who has blamed America for the 9/11 attacks”, or the aforementioned William Ayers. They also point out that he chose as one of his first financial backers Tony Rezko, a slumlord now convicted on 16 counts of corruption.

The former McCain strategist said: “We were doing well when this election was all about Obama. The last two weeks have been more about John and we need to shift the focus back.

“There are real questions for Obama to answer. Also, it’s the only way we win. It’s the nuclear option but votes are firming up. It’s now or never.” Mr Obama now enjoys a six point national poll lead and has moved ahead in states like Ohio , Virginia , Florida , Colorado , North Carolina and Missouri, all of which were won by George W. Bush in 2004.

Mr Strimple said: “We have just started advertising there heavily and I believe that every one of those states will snap back heavily in our favour.” But behind the scenes a mood of grim pessimism has gripped McCain staff. Even in the aftermath of Sarah Palin’s triumphant speech at the Republican convention, one of Mr McCain’s closest aides told The Sunday Telegraph that he expected Mrs Palin and her state of Alaska to disappear from public view within six weeks, a tacit admission that he expects to lose the election.

On Thursday, the campaign announced it was pulling out of Michigan , once a state Mr McCain hoped to steal from the Democrats, but where Mr Obama now enjoys a 13 point cushion.

Mrs Palin’s perky debate performance was the one bright spot of Mr McCain’s week but polls show her folksy charm did little to win over floating voters.

The strategist said: “Everyone’s saying she stopped the bleeding. She did, but you’ve got to do more than stop the bleeding when you’re leg’s already fallen off.”

McCain biographer Matt Welch told The Sunday Telegraph that McCain owes his current plight to his lifelong habit of fighting elections on his temperamental character rather than policy.

“In the last two weeks his responses to the financial crisis have been classic McCain,” he said. “He has no idea what he is talking about.

He has changed his mind on a daily basis.”

“When he said he was going to stop campaigning and solve the crisis in Washington, that was a moment when Americans said: ‘I don’t believe this guy any more.’

“What we see from McCain is anger and incoherence and publicity stunts and it’s not working.”

But he counselled against writing Mr McCain’s political obituary just yet. “Never count him out. If he’s five points down a week before the election, psychologically, that’s where he wants to be. He wants to feel like he’s fighting as the underdog. He will come up with something surprising.”

http://tinyurl.com/4bavr6

   Thursday - September 25, 2008

Barack Obama today rejected a call from rival John McCain to call off tomorrow’s televised debate.

okay folks, what’s this all about?  Yeah I can read alright.  But don’t understand this.  It looks like McC is looking for a way to avoid a debate.  ???
That can’t be right, can it?

Since neither of these guys have yet to be elected, I honestly do not see what good would come of McCain’s suggestion to hold off the debate in the national interest.  Or, is it in his own interest?

I would think the debate might be in a national interest as are not many ppl interested to see how they do and what topics are covered?

I should also mention to American friends that the reports here are that rama-lama ding-dong is now enjoying a nine point lead in polls (if they mean anything) due to the banking disaster.  So I’m at a loss to understand.

Also ... if McC doesn’t wanna debate or is frightened for some odd reason, why can’t he sic the Sarahcuda on what’s his name?

Obama and McCain face off over holding televised debate as Republicans suspend campaign to focus on economy

By David Gardner and Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:50 AM on 25th September 2008

Barack Obama today rejected a call from rival John McCain to call off tomorrow’s televised presidential debate so they can tackle America’s crippling financial problems.

Mr McCain has suspended his election campaign to return to the US capital until a proposed government bail-out plan has been approved. He asked Mr Obama to postpone the crucial TV debate - an offer that was flatly rejected.

Mr Obama said it was “more important than ever” that the country hear from its next president and continued with his preparations for the prime-time debate at the University of Mississippi.

It was unclear last night if the debate would go ahead or not. Mr McCain said he would attend only if Congress reaches accord on a financial bailout package before then, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Mr Obama said he plans to be at the debate Friday, declining to take up the challenge. “Sen. McCain is running his campaign, I’m running mine,” he said.

The Commission on Presidential Debates released a statement saying it was going ahead with the debate, which pundits believe will help propel the winner firmly towards the White House.

Speaking in Florida, Mr Obama explained why he wanted to go ahead with the highly anticipated confrontation. His handling of the economic problems have helped propel him into a nine-point lead over Mr McCain, according to the latest polls.

The Illinois senator said he had no plans to suspend his campaign, while Mr McCain said he would stop all advertising, fundraising and other campaign events to return to Washington and work for a bipartisan solution.

http://tinyurl.com/3wsje9

It is also my understanding as reported here, that President Bush has put the GOP in a bind of sorts because his package (or Paulson’s) that the pres. agreed to, is seen to put 700 billion in place to bail out banks with no thought to all the ppl that will lose their homes.
So the donks are saying they won’t pass any bill unless the “little folks” are seen to. So it make them look good.
It’s seen as bailing out Wall Street (their friends in Wall St.) while giving no protection to the average person who willlose homes through foreclosure.

btw ... these are not the ppl who gambled or invested that are being referred to as losing their homes.

So ,,,, that’s what the reportage here is saying.  It’ll be the ppl’s taxes that will do the bailing, without the same benefits that the fat cats will get.

Caution ... do not shoot messenger as he’s reporting what he is hearing and some of what’s read.

   Monday - September 15, 2008

ISTAKEN FROM A VERY GOOD PRO PALIN SITE. IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT.

This was taken from palinforvp blog site. Here’s the link. http://palinforvp.blogspot.com/
I like this fellow.  He’s quickly to the point and doesn’t waste words.  I like his site and you might too. There are some good links there as well. I’m not even certain how I found it, but I’m happy that I did.

Gibson and Fey

UPDATE: This should be essential reading. The Mark Levin Show has posted ABC’s UNEDITED trnascript of the Palin interview.  http://tinyurl.com/3od2nx All of the best quotes from Gov. Palin, especially on foreign policy, were edited out!

-----
Well, a lot has happened in the past few days, notably Gov. Palin’s interview with Charlie Gibson and the debut of the Saturday Night Live version of Sarah Palin (played by Tina Fey). Both of these are important developments that I want to talk about.

First, let’s talk about the Charlie Gibson interview. I’ve heard a lot of debate over whether Mr. Gibson’s line of questioning was fair, and I personally don’t think it was. It was definitely a good idea for him to ask tough questions on foreign policy (I specifically likes the questions about Georgia and NATO), but I do think that the question about the “Bush Doctrine” was out of line. Here’s why: there is no set definition of the “Bush Doctrine”, a term which has been applied to any number of different policies and which Charlie Gibson clearly has not studied. I would highly recommend Charles Krauthammer’s column on the subject, which clearly outlined a number of different definitions which have been applied to the term “Bush Doctrine”. Here’s what I thought to be the “money quote” from that article:  http://tinyurl.com/46l3xv

Yes, Palin didn’t know what it is. But neither does Gibson. And at least she didn’t pretend to know—while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain.”

Krauthammer also brings me to my second point, which is that Mr. Gibson spent the entire interview LITERALLY staring staring down his nose at the next Vice President of the United States. He seemed to have no interest in what she had to say, and premised all of his questions (on everything from the “bridge to nowhere” to “Troopergate") on the idea that she was lying to him. If he didn’t get the answer he wanted, he simply got angry rather than trying to understand what was being said. All in all, I think that Gov. Palin did a good job, especially considering the biased line of questioning.

Now, on to Tina Fey of Saturday Night Live.  While SNL may not be horribly relevant, it is widely watched and fun to discuss. Personally, I had been wondering for quite some time who would play Gov. Palin if we succeeded. Fey was certainly the natural choice, but I didn’t actually expect SNL to bring her back to the program just for the purpose of portraying Sarah Palin. I’m glad that I was wrong, and for my two cents, I thought that her Palin was fantastic. As someone who has had to watch every TV appearance by Gov. Palin for the last year and a half, I laughed my head off at all of the little quirks that Tina Fey managed to pick up (licking her teeth, the way she waved, facial expressions, everything). And on a side note, it creeped me out that I knew so much about the minutia of Gov. Palin’s facial gestures. Oh, well.

Next time, I’ll be taking on the experience issue by comparing the credentials of Sarah Palin with the pre-Presidency resumes of two heroes of the Democratic Party: Bill Clinton and Woodrow Wilson.

Posted by Adam Brickley, aka “ElephantMan” at 9/14/2008

http://palinforvp.blogspot.com/

   Thursday - September 11, 2008

‘I am a liberal, but I’m blown away by Sarah Palin’ , Rebecca Johnson.

My final post for today ... wanted to leave with this.
It’s been a hard day, didn’t get half done what I’d planned.  Oh well. Tomorrow’s another day.  I hope.

Or maybe it’s just the damn date.  I suppose this might be this generation’s Pearl Harbor except the enemy might really be just down the street and around the block.  Different time, different kind of war and different type of players. 

Cheers ..

Northern exposure: Many Americans like Sarah Palin’s work ethic and tough, can-do attitude

Rebecca Johnson: ‘I am a liberal, but I’m blown away by Sarah Palin’

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 11/09/2008

As American women are drawn to the Republican vice-presidential candidate, US writer Rebecca Johnson explains her appeal.

When my cell phone rang on vacation, I eyed the phone number wearily. It was my employer, Vogue, calling. My four-year-old, just out of the ocean and covered in sand, was whining for a shower. My three-year-old was thirsty. My hedge-fund husband was upstairs on his BlackBerry making plans to buy Dubai. I picked up the phone.

It was the publicist from the magazine calling to say that CNN wanted to interview me about Sarah Palin. My initial response was cool. “What do they want to talk about?”

“You’re one of the few people who has interviewed her for a national publication,” the publicist answered, referring to an article I had written earlier this year profiling the governor of Alaska for the magazine.

“Is she dead?” I asked worriedly. Alaska is notorious for small plane crashes - that’s how the politician father of the writer and journalist Cokie Roberts died - and I knew Palin owned a float plane.

It never really occurred to me that she might be the vice-presidential candidate. With so little time in office, even Alaskans hadn’t yet made up their mind about Sarah Palin’s job as governor of the state.
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After the publicist set me straight, I ran down to the beach to find my mother. A left-leaning Quaker who is president of the League of Women Voters in her Texas town, my mother is the least likely person to celebrate the election of a Republican to national office.

But as a young woman she had lived in Alaska, teaching English to natives and living on a houseboat. It was the place she had gone to escape her Southern Baptist country club-attending, bridge-playing parents and it loomed large in our family as a mythic paradise, a place where you could escape the chains of civilisation and reinvent yourself.

As soon as my mother retired from her job as a professor at a community college, we drove the Alaska-Canada highway together, revisiting the site of her early bliss. During that month-long trip, I glimpsed what she saw in the state.

A whole day could go by without us seeing another soul: a solitude that complete could scrub the worst personality clean. The people we met were prickly, opinionated and original. Gore Vidal once famously said that California was so full of oddballs it was as if somebody had picked up the country and shook it so that all the loose pieces landed in the west. These days, the pieces are landing in the north.

With so few people around, conventional wisdom seems irrelevant and laws have a way of seeming arbitrary. When we were ready to sleep, we’d pull off the road and pitch a tent. But the harsh calculus of wilderness also reveals what is essential.

You don’t plan well, you don’t make it through the winter. The wood pile outside Sarah Palin’s parents’ house is half a city block long for a reason. Forget New York City. If you can make it in Alaska, you can make it anywhere. When Sarah Palin says she doesn’t care what we east coast liberals think about her, she means it.

“Sarah Palin is the vice-presidential candidate,” I told my mother when I found her under a beach umbrella.

We hugged each other joyfully. Politics be damned, Palin was a woman and she was an Alaskan! Moreover, I had been impressed with her when I interviewed her - not for her politics (I’m one of those east coast liberals she doesn’t care about) but for the other things that people across the country are responding to right now:her warmth, her work ethic, her “can-do” attitude.

If life is simply a reprise of high school, Palin was the jock who attended church faithfully, ran the soup kitchen, and organised the bake sale. If her paper on the Lincoln-Douglas debate wasn’t the most nuanced, so be it. Something has to give.

In my article, I wrote about how hard it is for Palin not to smile. The American media has been dismissive of that beauty-queen smile, but Palin really did enter the Miss Wasilla contest for the scholarship money. (To make extra money, her retired parents currently shoo the birds off the runway at the Anchorage airport so the birds’ bodies don’t muck up the engines’ turbine.) Even then, Palin didn’t like the pageant and was appalled when they asked her to turn around and show the judges her behind.

Once upon a time, I also would have been contemptuous of Palin’s incurable optimism but, having been knocked around by life a bit, I now understand what a gift chronically happy people are given.

Life hands them difficulties -a Down’s syndrome baby, a 17-year-old daughter pregnant before her life as an adult has even begun, a much-needed job on the oil and gas commission that comes with too many strings - and she is not flummoxed or depressed or angry or self-pitying. She endures.

My liberal friends were outraged when rumours about Barack Obama attending a Madrassa or being a Muslim surfaced on the internet, but all week they have been gleefully trading emails of Sarah Palin distortions.

There was the doctored picture of her carrying a rifle, wearing a stars-and-stripes bikini while a man in the background drank Schlitz beer. Or dopey quotes about God, creationism and moose, all of which have been subsequently debunked.

There have also been snide remarks about Wal-Mart and K-Mart, as if there is something shameful about trying to save money. The week before Palin’s nomination was announced, people were talking about John McCain’s inability to remember precisely how many houses he and his gazillionaire wife own. A few weeks before that, the news was Cindy McCain’s $250,000 American Express bill (those lime-green shifts aren’t free).

Todd Palin earns an hourly wage at his job on the North Slope oil field; Sarah Palin makes $125,000 a year as governor of Alaska. They’re not poor, but Alaska, where most things have to be flown or shipped in, is an expensive state and they have five mouths to feed.

Palin isn’t shooting moose for sport; her family eats what she kills. If she shops at Wal-Mart for diapers, the vast majority of American women can relate.

It’s no wonder the latest Washington Post poll shows an unprecedented shift of 20 points among white women towards McCain since he announced Palin as his
running mate. Times are hard and getting harder.

In a perfect world, people would vote based on issues. Care about a woman’s right to choose her own biological destiny? Vote pro-choice. Unfortunately, life is still a lot like high school. We vote for people we like, people who make us feel comfortable and heard.

Having watched folksy George W trounce the patrician Al Gore and John Kerry, you’d think the Democrats would have learned this.

Deriding Palin’s modest background and lack of Ivy League credentials will only turn voters off. We should celebrate what is groundbreaking about Sarah Palin: a card-carrying member of Feminists for Life is a big step forward from Housewives for Life. And then we should talk about the issues.

http://tinyurl.com/6cl989

Obamania makes way for Palinmania - US Election 2008.

Is it being reported this way in the states as well?

This ticket is getting even more coverage it seems, then Obama did.  Lots of folks here say they’re afraid of her.  ??  Well, tough!  She’s ours, we’re keepin’ her, we love her and really believe in her. 
To give you folks at home an idea, even before Mrs. Palin was announced as a running mate, there were those here writing to papers wondering why TV was giving so much coverage to American election.  They wanted a break from our politics and I can’t say I blame them.  There is other news and it is a lot closer to home for these folks.  But ... suddenly there’s Sarah and it starts all over again.  I don’t see any TV here except what I can grab off the net and blog sites, but apparently our election this time around it getting even more coverage then usual (I am told), and they do cover us like a blanket even in normal times.

Obamania makes way for Palinmania - US Election 2008
We’ve been through Obamamania. Now a new phenomenon is sweeping America – Palinmania.

By Toby Harnden in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Last Updated: 12:58PM BST 11 Sep 2008

Vogue magazine Photo: JONATHAN BECKER/CONTACT FOR US VOGUE

(Isn’t she pretty?  That isn’t a question open to debate.  She’s awesome. I LOVE her!)

Even before Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska had appeared on the stage to introduce Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, the chant went up around the hall: “We want Sarah!”

A tear rolled down the cheek of a middle-aged woman volunteer who moments earlier had been barking orders to keep the exits clear.

A mother clutched the hand of her 11-year-old daughter, whose face was made up like a clown with stars and the letters P-A-L-I-N painted across her face.

Outside, queues which began six hours earlier snaked around the sports hall as more than 9,000 people filed in. Hundreds would be left outside.

They held home-made signs with slogans like “God, guns, lipstick” and “Read my lipstick - Palin.”

One beaming woman wearing a “USA” baseball cap had scrawled a on a piece of cardboard: “A Real Woman = Governor, mom, CEO, pro-Life, God fearing, happy. GO SARAH!”

A vendor had run out of badges with Mrs Palin’s picture and the legend: “Coldest State, Hottest Governor.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said G. Edward LeFevre, a local Republican committee member. “The crowd, the enthusiasm, the upbeat feel and the emotion is unprecedented. Sarah Palin is quite a lady.”

Then the 44-year-old mother of five appeared, with her husband Todd, also 44, and Mr McCain, 72, alongside her.

The crowd went wild, the screaming and cheering eventually subsiding into a steady cry in unison of: “Sarah, Sarah, Sarah!”

The Arizona senator, who just weeks ago was being greeted by crowds in the low hundreds, beamed like a father of the bride at the handsome young couple beside him, basking in the reflected glory of the woman he has brought into the world of presidential politics.

Mrs Palin spoke for 15 minutes, every sentence read from the teleprompter. The words were familiar because she gives the same similar speech at every stop.

She described how she “stood up to the special interests, the lobbyists, big oil companies and the good old boys network” as mayor of the small town of Wasilla and as Alaska governor.

She hailed Mr McCain as a selfless hero, someone who “would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war”.

“In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain who use their careers to promote change,” she said.

If Mr McCain was worried about being overshadowed by his number two, he did not show it. “Thank you,” he said five times. “Thank you to each and every one of you. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be introduced by Governor Palin today and I can’t wait to introduce her to Washington DC.

“We are the ones who will change Washington. She is the one who’s changed Alaska. She is the one that took on the old bulls in the Republican Party that cleaned up the state of Alaska and she’ll clean up Washington and we’ll restore trust and confidence in government and again on the part of the American people.”

Luke Hertzog, 53, said that McCain’s choice of Mrs Palin as his running mate was a “stroke of genius – she brings a new life, a vigour and energy and spine” to the campaign.

Mr LeFevre pronounced it a “clever chess move” that could upturn the conventional wisdom that a vice-presidential choice never really affects the outcome of the White House race.

Almost every woman asked about Mrs Palin used the word “real” to describe her.

“We can relate to her,” said Lori Ciarrocca, 40. “She’s like other moms out there. She’s a real person who speaks her mind and tells you how it is.”

Tom Bross, 62, a Vietnam veteran who was twice wounded in combat, said that it was not just women she appealed to.

“She’s going to get a lot of the women who went for Hillary Clinton,” he said.

“There are old rednecks who would have thrown me out of the local restaurant two weeks ago if I’d said they’d ever vote for a woman.

“Now Sarah Palin comes along and they’re like a bunch of school kids tripping over themselves to listen to her.”

http://tinyurl.com/66d5le

   Tuesday - September 09, 2008

A hoot From Newt

No political movement is truly mainstream in this country until it has at least one country song sung about it.

Newt Gingrich sends out an email today, pointing to Aaron Tippin, who has a song (for sale of course) called Drill Here Drill Now

You can hear a little sample over here. You can also buy the tune for 99¢. Of get the T-shirt!

I give it 2 1/2 stars. It’s a bit singable, but it doesn’t much sound like dance music to me.

Newt then goes on to point out that

In light of President Bush’s July announcement to eliminate the executive ban on offshore drilling, the U.S. Minerals Management Service has decided to initiate a new plan to increase energy production on the outer continental shelf (OCS). As part of the regulatory process, the agency is calling for public comments on offshore oil and gas development through September 15, 2008.

In the meantime, unfortunately, the Democratic Congress is planning votes on bills that would actually make all or part of the offshore drilling ban permanent. Now is the time to let the federal government know we need full and unfettered access to America’s offshore energy resources.

Seems like a good idea. Another few thousand emails couldn’t hurt.

   Sunday - September 07, 2008

Palin’s Alaska aides will be forced to reveal her office secrets in Troopergate inquiry .

OK, I know things like this are part of the game.  Doesn’t mean I have to like it or watch the play by play.
And yeah, I know our side does it too.  Doesn’t mean I have to like that either because what goes around comes around as they say here.

I want the election to be over sooner. Do we really have to wait if everyone already knows how they’re gonna vote?
Lets hold it tonight and inaugurate Mrs. Palin and her friend tomoro morning first thing.

Sarah Palin’s Alaska aides will be forced to reveal her office secrets in Troopergate inquiry
Senior aides to Alaska governor Sarah Palin are to be compelled to reveal the inner workings of her state office in an ethics probe that could be highly embarrassing for the new Republican vice-presidential candidate.

By Philip Sherwell in Wasilla, Alaska
Last Updated: 10:26PM BST 06 Sep 2008

Alaskan legislators have raised the stakes in their investigation of John McCain’s newly anointed running mate by declaring their intention to subpoena key members of her staff, obliging them to give evidence.

Mrs Palin, 44, who has electrified the race for the White House, denies claims that she abused her powers by dismissing an official who refused to fire her former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, as a state trooper.

The cross-party judiciary committee also said it was bringing forward the date for its report into the woman who has electrified the by three weeks, to October 10. That is seen as a rebuff to attempts by the governor’s newly-hired legal team to stall an inquiry which she had said she welcomed before her surprise nomination to the Republican ticket.

Separately, Mr Wooten’s police union has filed an ethics complaint against Mrs Palin and her administration, claiming that his personnel files were viewed unlawfully.

“Troopergate” has its roots in a long-standing and bitter feud between the Palin family and Mr Wooten, who underwent a messy divorce and custody battle with Mrs Palin’s sister. In his first public comments on Friday night, Mr Wooten denied allegations that he threatened to shoot his then father-in-law during the acrimonious split.

The controversy is among many elements of Mrs Palin’s life in Wasilla that is now under the political and media microscope after her stunning debut on the national stage.

In the last few days, video footage of her describing the Iraq war as “a task from God” and urging trainee pastors to pray for a new gas pipeline as “God’s will” has been unearthed and posted on YouTube. As a fundamentalist Christian who advocates the teaching of intelligent design (a form of biblical creationism) in schools and opposes abortion even when a mother was raped or her life is at risk, her beliefs certainly appeal to the hardline Religious Right but may deter more mainstream swing voters.

Although she enjoys an 80 per cent approval rating in Alaska for tackling corruption and taking on her own party hierarchy and “Big Oil” companies, Democrats are contesting her claims to be a fierce foe of fiscal excess and are highlighting an allegedly abrupt management style and “body count” of dismissed staff.

Left-wing blogs are meanwhile buzzing with further unsubstantiated personal claims about the Palin family following last week’s disclosure that the governor’s 17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant.

The welter of publicity may only bolster Mrs Palin’s support among conservatives and some independents if she seems the victim of a witch-hunt. But it also illustrates the merciless scrutiny that the once-obscure governor of America’s least densely populated state now faces.

Significantly, Mrs Palin has avoided taking reporters’ questions since her nomination and there are no plans for any press conferences as McCain aides leave her to rev up the conservative faithful on the stump.

The governor’s former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan claims that she fired him in July because he ignored pressure to sack Mr Wooten for prior misdemeanours and the alleged threat against her father.

The claims are denied by Mrs Palin who insists that she never pressured Mr Monegan to dismiss Mr Wooten or asked her staff to do. She counters that her husband and aides merely raised concerns about the trooper’s record with the commissioner, and says she dismissed him over budgetary and policy issues.

Mr Wooten was suspended in 2006 for five days for using a Taser on his stepson in a home trial and illicitly killing a moose under his wife’s permit. But he denies claims that he drank on duty or said that his father-in-law would “eat a f****** lead bullet” if he intervened in the divorce, as Mrs Palin says she heard.

“Trooper Wooten was punished for his infractions and that should be the end of the story,” John Cyr, the state police union chief, told The Sunday Telegraph. “But unfortunately for Mike, he married into a family that has since acquired vast political power.

“It is very sad that a family dispute is now receiving worldwide attention. I believe that this governor has used her bully pulpit to demonise Trooper Wooten. That is not only unfair; it is unconscionable.”

Mr Monegan said that he repeatedly told Mrs Palin’s staff that Mr Wooten had already been disciplined so the matter was closed. “I think there are some questions now coming to light about how transparent and how honest she wants to be,” he said.

It has emerged that he was contacted more than 20 times by phone or email by her office about the Wooten case. Hollis French, the Democratic senator who chairs the judiciary committee, stoked the furore when he predicted last week: “It’s likely to be damaging to the Governor’s administration.”

Steven Blanchflower, the independent prosecutor conducting the investigation, was originally due to deliver his report on Oct 31, just four days before the presidential election. But the judiciary committee brought the probe forward to change such a politically-loaded schedule.

Barack Obama’s campaign has been in touch with Mr Wooten, according to CNN which interviewed him on Friday night. The trooper acknowledged making mistakes but said he had been punished and learned from them. He said he did not wish his former in-laws “any ill-will” and described the governor’s nomination as “wonderful” for Alaska.

The Obama camp is expected to leave “Troopergate” to play out for now without comment. Instead, it will direct its fire at Mrs Palin’s previous pursuit of the federal grants known as “earmarks” that she and Mr McCain have fiercely decried on the campaign trail.

The intense focus on her roots in Wasilla will do nothing to undo her popularity in her home town where her jubilant parents, husband and children arrived back from the Republican convention on Friday evening.

“We’re very proud of our daughter and very honoured,” a beaming Chuck Heath told The Sunday Telegraph in his living room adorned with a moose’s head, furs and antlers. “I’m really sorry but that’s all I am allowed to say.”

http://tinyurl.com/5tq2u5

   Saturday - September 06, 2008

New Whittle!

Bill Whittle lives! Woo hoo!!  And he’s near a keyboard again, finally. It’s not a big post. Not one of his usual novellas. Just a few paragraphs. But this is Bill Whittle, so they’re good paragraphs.

Sarah Palin has done more than unify and electrify the base. She’s done something I would not have thought possible, were it not happening in front of my nose: Sarah Palin has stolen Barack Obama’s glamour. She’s stolen his excitement, robbed his electricity, burgled his charisma, purloined his star power, and taken his Hope and Change mantra, woven it into a cold-weather fashion accessory, and wrapped it around her neck.

A candidate who is young, funny, well-spoken, intelligent, charming, drop-dead gorgeous — and one of ours? Is this actually happening?

...
Sarah stole Obama’s glamour. McCain stole his message.
...
Sarah played to the base, who loved her. McCain played to the middle that we will need to win.
...
We in the opinion trade lose track of how little the American public actually knows about candidates, because they — very sensibly, in my view — have the much more important task of actually getting on with life until right . . . about . . . now. For many Americans, this was their introduction to John McCain.

[ certain BMEWS readers figured out that last part yesterday. Are we not a great group, or what? ]

Go read the whole thing. Enjoy.

   Friday - September 05, 2008

Sarah Palin’s conviction wowed Republicans.  From Simon Heffer in the USA reporting on our Sarah.

Simon Heffer, in the four years I’ve been reading him, is not someone easily impressed and never gushing.

It’s an early and rainy, windy day here outside Winchester (England) and our morning paper arrived quite early.  So did the start of a darn cold and scratchy throat. Just my luck.

So, opening the paper to Heffer’s page here was his review of our Sarah and I knew I had to boot early and share it with BMEWS first thing, cause I think I’m heading back to bed where I belong today. Ug. 

So without further ado .... Heeeeeeerzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Heffer!

Sarah Palin’s conviction wowed Republicans
By Simon Heffer
Last Updated: 4:01pm BST 04/09/2008

Perhaps it was the enormous will on the part of America’s liberal media that Sarah Palin should make a mess of her speech at the convention that willed her so much to succeed. She certainly did.

Sarah Palin demostrated the strength of her convictions.

Mrs Palin has been the target of sexist and class-based sneering since she was picked by John McCain to be his running-mate. This has obscured the fact that she didn’t reach her present public position - of Governor of Alaska - by being a shrinking violet. For a woman to succeed in such a masculine-dominated world as American politics requires her to be a fighter, to be articulate, to be clever and to have the courage of her convictions. All of these qualities were mobilised when she spoke.

Of course her audience was highly sympathetic, which helped: that was not least because there was almost unanimous disgust among them at the way some of America’s left-wing media has sought to make capital of the fact that her unmarried 17-year old daughter is pregnant. The cheer Mrs Palin received when she came on stage showed how far that ploy has backfired.

After that, all she had to do was string her words together competently and she was assured of success. But she did more, and that was what electrified the convention.

When she articulated her beliefs about small government, or about the righteousness of what America is doing in Iraq, there was no doubt she believed every word. It is rare with a politician to be able to conclude that what you see is what you get, but no-one who heard her will be in any doubt of that.

Her convictions helped her to succeed entirely in the other - perhaps most - important role of a vice-presidential nominee. When she attacked Mr Obama for his inexperience and lack of judgment she was not merely going through the motions. Because of the depth of her convictions she is an intensely partisan figure, and this connected her wirelessly with the souls of every Republican in the hall. It was not so much a speech as a blatant act of leadership.

It gave her audience instant confidence in her, and in her ability to attack the enemy. The purpose of the speech was to dispel doubts about her suitability: only a bigot could have had those at the end of her performance.

She does jokes too - her line about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull ("lipstick") was unscripted, and suggests this outsider is going to be a Reaganesque presence in high politics if she becomes vice-president.

But it was all part of a rhetorical tour de force that, unlike other examples of the genre, was not about just creating an atmosphere or perpetrating a confidence trick: it was about showing the world the true Sarah Palin.

She is an astounding politician. In nearly 25 years of being paid to sit through political speeches, I struggle to think of one I have heard that was more immediately successful and that will prove to have been such a moment in history.
http://tinyurl.com/6dtbcn

As mentioned at the top, I’ve been reading this guy for years and haven’t seen him this complimentary. He seems even enthused

PLEASE SEE THE VIDEO INTERVIEW BELOW WITH HEFFER AND BRIT JOURNALIST DISCUSS MRS. PALIN. YOU WILL BE PROUD!!!!!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1463233317/bclid1475274705/bctid1772821101

   Thursday - September 04, 2008

The Battle Is Joined

McCain Speech - Stand Up and Fight!





Interesting speech by John McCain tonight. Not the John McCain we’ve been used to, droning on and on and on, with nary a bit of emotion or energy. He started off a bit slow, and I really hope this is the last time we have to hear about his POW time. Yes, he’s tougher than dried chewing gum, and that horror was a large part of the forging of his soul, and what he survived is truly heroic. Now let’s move past it. It was looking like another typical McCain talk, complete with a botched intro (his wife Cindy spoke about him for a good half hour, and it seemed like she dropped about 5 segue lines where he could have come on stage, but he didn’t. When she was finally done talking, the lights went out and we got a FRED voiceover. Hurray, a rousing intro at last! But even FRED on tape petered out, his talk wound down, and ended on a soft an nearly inaudible note, completely unexcited. And then darkness. For several seconds. And in walks John McCain. It couldn’t have been more anti-climactic.) and after the initial applause the crowd was little more than tepid.

I know these are tough times for many of you. You’re worried about… (distraction in the hall, somebody yelling)

Please, please, please. My friends, my dear friends, please. Please don’t be diverted by the ground noise and the static. (crowd laughs, quick camera shot of security hauling away another protester)

You know, I’m going to talk about it some more. But Americans want us to stop yelling at each other, OK?

These are tough times for many of you. You’re worried about keeping your job or finding a new one, and you’re struggling to put food on the table and stay in your home.

All you’ve ever asked of your government is to stand on your side and not in your way. And that’s what I intend to do: stand on your side and fight for your future.

And I’ve found just the right partner to help me shake up Washington, Governor ...

And something happened. He barely started to mention Sarah Palin and the hall went nuts. Bonkers. Yelling, screaming, stamping. He must have drawn some energy from that, because he was off and running after that.

Governor Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska.

And the applause continued, on and on. For her. For him too? I think at that point McCain had to shift gears for a minute, to stop and say more nice things about Palin. But the crowd was eating it up with a spoon, and he didn’t let them go hungry. And then he skillfully got back on track, and not only stole Obama’s thunder, but his lightning and every drop of moisture that false rainmaker could ever wring out of a crocodile.

I’m very proud to have introduced our next vice president to the country, but I can’t wait until I introduce her to Washington. And let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big- spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second crowd: Change is coming.

And that’s the main theme of the speech. Change is coming. Government: clean it up, shrink it down, cut the cost, make it work. More freedom, more personal responsibility. More choices. America isn’t about the government making decisions (like health care) for you. Make the schools responsible to the parents and the students. Vouchers implied, but he never said the “V” word. He actually sounded like an honest to goodness Conservative. Un. Bee. Leave. Ible. Honor. Duty. Country. Service. Pride. Strength. Unity. Bipartisanship. It was stunning to hear what he was saying. Where has this McCain been hiding for the past year??

And then he really got going, begging for the fight, either with Obarry, or with the bloated pigs in DC, I’m not sure, but who cares, let’s fight them both. Damn, if he’d been half his age and had a sword it would have been Aragorn!

I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice, and goodness of its people.  I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again; I wasn’t my own man anymore; I was my country’s. I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need.

My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.

My friends, if you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist ... Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an—an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier, because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.

I’m going to fight for my cause every day as your president. I’m going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank him, that I’m an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on Earth. And with hard work—with hard word, strong faith, and a little courage, great things are always within our reach.

Fight with me. Fight with me! Fight for what’s right for our country. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people. Fight for our children’s future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all. Stand up to defend our country from its enemies. Stand up for each other, for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America. Stand up, stand up, stand up, and fight! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!

transcript as usual available at CNN

Palin and the Reaction: Out -friggin- Standing!

from Habitation of Justice




via Rachel’sand Fotki




and from Rancino of course

   Tuesday - September 02, 2008

FRED!!!

FRED!!!!

Fred Thompson just delivered the best political speech in his life. He spoke for half an hour about McCain. I’ll have more details in a while, but I don’t want to miss Leiberman when he comes on.

Fred ripped the daylights out of Obullshit and the current dem controlled congress. He praised McCain and Palin, and noted that (with the possible exception of Teddy Rosevelt) that’s she’s the only person in government who’s ever known how to field dress a moose. But when speaking of McCain/Palin’s platform of reform, he missed an opportunity: the way to clean up government is the same way you dress out a moose: first you grab the big asshole and cut it right off. Then rip the guts out and spread the ribs to let some of the hot air escape. Ok, that’s a bit gross, so maybe he didn’t miss it after all. You could see the speech tired him out, and he was on the edge of tears, along with a lot of the crowd, describing what McCain went through at the hands of the commie vietcong.

Find Fred’s talk on YouTube. Watch it. Link it. Memorize the zingers and use them as often as you can. Great job Fred.

“Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit,” Thompson said. “I say give me a tough Alaskan Governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state in the union — and won — over the beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week.
...
Spending at home that threatens to bankrupt future generations. For decades an expanding government ... increasingly wasteful and too often incompetent. To deal with these challenges the Democrats present a history making nominee for president.

History making in that he is the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee to ever run for president. Apparently they believe that he would match up well with the history making, Democrat controlled Congress. History making because it’s the least accomplished and most unpopular Congress in our nation’s history.

Together, they would take on these urgent challenges with protectionism, higher taxes and an even bigger bureaucracy. And a Supreme Court that could be lost to liberalism for a generation.
This is not reform. And it’s certainly not change. It is basically the same old stuff they’ve been peddling for years. America needs a president who understands the nature of the world we live in. A president who feels no need to apologize for the United States of America. We need a president who understands that you don’t make citizens prosperous by making Washington richer, and you don’t lift an economic downturn by imposing one of the largest tax increases in American history.
...
Now our opponents tell you not to worry about their tax increases. They tell you they are not going to tax your family. No, they’re just going to tax “businesses”! So unless you buy something from a “business”, like groceries or clothes or gasoline ... or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small “business”, don’t worry ... it’s not going to affect you. They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the “other” side of the bucket! That’s their idea of tax reform.
...
Let’s be clear ... the selection of Gov. Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. She is a courageous, successful, reformer, who is not afraid to take on the establishment.

Sound like anyone else we know? She has run a municipality and she has run a state. And I can say without fear of contradiction that she is the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose ... with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt. She and John McCain are not going to care how much the alligators get irritated when they get to Washington, they’re going to drain that swamp.

I haven’t found the video yet, but the transcript is here at CNN

****************************************
Joe Lieberman’s talk was pretty good too. Transcript here, also at CNN (Fox, you’re a let down!)

I don’t have to tell you that we were blessed in this country to have a great generation of founders. And they foresaw the danger of this kind of senseless partisanship. In fact, our first president, George Washington, in his farewell address, warned that the spirit of party could be the worst enemy of our democracy and enfeeble our government’s ability to do its job.

My friends, I think tonight we can say that President Washington was absolutely right. The truth is, today we are living through his worst nightmare in the capital city that bears his name. And that brings me directly to why I am here tonight. What, after all, is a Democrat like me doing at a Republican convention like this?

Well, I’ll tell you what: I’m here to support John McCain because country matters more than party.
...
If John McCain was another go-along partisan politician, he never would have led the fight to fix our broken immigration system or actually do something about global warming. But he did.

As a matter of fact, friends…

... if John McCain is just another partisan Republican, then I’m Michael Moore’s favorite Democrat.

And I’m not. And I think you know that I’m not.

Sen. Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who I think can do great things for our country in the years ahead, but, my friends, eloquence is no substitute for a record, not in these tough times for America.

In the Senate, during the three-and-a-half years that Senator Obama has been a member, he has not reached across party lines to get accomplish anything significant, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party to get something done.

And I’d just ask you to contrast that with John McCain’s record of independence and bipartisanship, but let me go one further. And this may make history here at this Republican convention.

Let me contrast Barack Obama’s record to the record of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who stood up to some of those same Democratic interest groups, worked with Republicans, and got some important things done, like welfare reform, free trade agreements, and a balanced budget.

Ooh, I just love how he twists the Clinton knife in the Dem’s backs. PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! You made the wrong choice LOSERS!! Mwaahahahaaa!!

VIDEO SNIPPETS HERE. Servers are a bit overwhelmed!

Posted by Drew458     on 09/02/2008 at 09:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Republicans •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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