Party Time!

Party Time!

Sarah Palin Scandals: The Complete List

From my friend at “How Insane Is John McCain?“:

- Troopergate: Fired Public Safety Officer who refused to fire her brother-in-law, then replaced him with man she knew to have been accused of sexual harrassment.
- Claimed she was against Bridge to Nowhere, was actually for it
- Claimed to have been an anti-corruption crusader, actually ran Ted Stevens’ political action committee.
- Laughed when radio host calls cancer survivor a “bitch” and a “cancer.”
- 17 Year old daughter pregnant
- Palin voted to reduce funding for teen pregnancy organization
- Palin attended convention for Alaskan Independence Party, which is devoted to ensuring that Alaska secedes from the union. Addressed the party convention this year. Founder of AIP said: “The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government.”
- Todd Palin was a registered member of the Alaska Independence Party from 1995-2002
- Sarah Palin’s pastor: “We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. … Jesus called us to die.”
- Palin was in church when Jews For Jesus founder David Brickner described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God’s “judgment of unbelief” of Jews who haven’t embraced Christianity.
- Palin left Wasilla $20 million in debt
- Todd Palin was arrested for a DUI in 1986.
- Palin pressured a librarian to ban unspecified books, threatened to fire her
- Palin failed to disclose interest in Anchorage car wash; car wash later was involuntarily dissolved by state because they failed to pay licensing fees.
- Palin claimed to have been to Ireland — it was merely a re-feuling stopover.
- Claimed to have received Miss Congeniality Award in Wasilla Beauty Contest — lied.

Will be updated when time allows. These scandals are coming fast and furious.

Come on– FOCUS — literally!

This video is of a Focus group being questioned re: Palin…   Good little Video!!!!

Another Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain

Finally, someone to bitch about other than Ralph Nader.

more about “Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate M…“, posted with vodpod

h/t The Onion

Lookin’ for my wallet and keys… geeeeece!

Well, wasn’t 1967 just yesterday??   What the hell happened? Anyway– I liked this little song. Warm smile of the familiar  crosses your face as you listen. That is if you do or do not  remember 1967. lol

The Miserable GOP

From the People Who Brought You Misery
————————————————–

Conservatives don’t want to admit that our economy is in miserable shape. Less than two weeks ago, John McCain said, “I still believe the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” But Americans think we’re in a recession. Whether or not the economy is technically in a recession, we can point to a different economic indicator of conservative failure: the misery index.

The misery index is worse than it’s been in 17 years. The misery index is an economic indicator that combines inflation and unemployment rates. In July 2008 the misery index climbed to 11.3, which is higher than any month since June 1991—more than 17 years.  For a history of the misery index, click here. [Sources]

Republicans have a miserable economic record. Over the last 46 years, income growth has been three times as strong under Democratic presidents as it was under Republican presidents. Job growth was nearly four times higher under Democrats. Republican presidents do score higher on one economic indicator: inflation. [Sources]

President Bush’s economic mismanagement has hurt American families. When Bush took office, inflation-adjusted income was at an historic high. After eight years of tax cuts for the rich and laissez-faire corporate regulation, Americans have seen their incomes fall. The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate has also worsened under Bush, and over 3.5 million families have fallen into poverty during his time in office. [Sources]

Progressive solutions:
We need to build an economy that works for working Americans. We need a long-term economic growth program that puts Americans to work, and a short-term stimulus to help families cope with the current economic downturn.

Making Sense Alerts and Fact Sheets:
For An Economy That Works for Working Americans, click here
For Americans Demand Action on the Economy, click here
For Invest in America Now, click here
For others on education, energy, health, taxation, trade, social security, and more, click here

Barack Obama: The New Republican

Daily Audio Ralph Nader

Iraq Approves Oil Deal With China

From the Iraq Oil Report:

Iraq has approved a $3 billion deal with China to develop the al-Ahdab oil field.

It’s the first Saddam-era oil deal to be honored by the new Iraqi government. It initially was canceled after the 2003 invasion.

A government statement says the Cabinet approved the deal on Tuesday. It was signed last week in China.

Under the contract, China National Petroleum Corp. will develop the field for 20 years, the AP reported. It’s expected to produce up to 25,000 barrels a day after three years, and eventually reach 125,000 bpd.

The field is in Wasit province, about 99 miles southeast of Baghdad.

U.S. policy makers and American consumers in the past few months have been immersed in concerns about soaring oil prices and how to lower them. Fuel prices are also expected to be a focal issue when American voters cast their ballots in the upcoming presidential elections.

But while I can understand Americans’ fears about fuel prices and availability, writes Sarmad Ali for The Wall Street Journal, I have a harder time understanding why Iraqis — with their oases of crude oil reserves and untapped oilfields in the south and the north — have had to put up with high oil prices and severe shortages of gasoline, diesel and cooking gas.

Iraqi security forces took control of Sunni Anbar province from the US military Monday, a milestone in moves to wind down the American presence in a key area that was an insurgent stronghold.

Iraqi troops paraded with flags flying at a formal handover ceremony in the provincial capital Ramadi, once a byword for vicious fighting, though underlying political tensions are yet to be resolved, reports Ian Black for The Guardian.

Security progress after the U.S. troop surge has not been matched by internal political reconciliation. The Iraqi parliament has yet to pass a controversial election law that has been delayed by a dispute over the oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk.

B’Man: So, rednecks, we invaded a sovereign country for various reasons that have been proved as lies. By most estimations, one can reasonably consider Iraq’s oil reserves as a key REAL reason we are there (world domination is another). But, a far as real potential adversaries are concerned, both militarily and economically, China is far critical to our defense. So, did those camel jockeys (said tongue-in-cheek) go too far by giving OUR oil contracts to the Chinese?

Can anyone still tout ‘genius’ as a motivation for this idiotic move into the ME? Does anyone else see this very act an act of defiance from the Iraqi government? Could it be a thumb in our eye or a bird in our face?

Let us face it. Bush and the neocon cabal have screwed America and are forcing us into a situation with China and Russia that will devastate our economy and could actually be the death of us all.

Think about it. How long do you think the rest of the world will keep quiet? Do you think that it is remotely possible that Russia and China (perhaps Iran and other ME countries) will become so frightened by our world-grab that they might team up and give us a real battle? Do you think that if they were indeed frightened that we are trying to take their shit, or worse, kill them all, that they would send hundreds of nukes this way?

Is it possible that as Americans, we should rethink our Imperialistic advances, vote out those who are threatening the rest of the world and set a new standard. Make amends, explain that we have retaken the governement from the fools who have hijacked us and are now backing out of their yards.

THEN, explain that we will still wipe their ass out if any move is made in rhetrobution.

My point is that there should be no reason that we GIVE them to hate us and want us dead. However, what we are doing is giving the world reason to hate us and suspect us of evil motives. If I were them, I would. It is obvious that America (as is represented by the neocon/Zionist rule) is not what the REAL America stands for and we need to take it back.

Wasting Resources

Priceless Resources

Talk about wasting resources– BRING THE TROOPS HOME!
Sadly, we all now know [or should know] that we have way overreacted to 9/11 by committing innocent lives to Iraq and destroying many civilians while spending billions of dollars, risking our entire economy, jeopardizing relations with allies around the world, and last but not least distracting our focus for 5 years from finding alternative forms of energy, saving our planet, reaching health care solutions and improving life for all? What if we had not been sidetracked by President Bush’s decision and just gone to Afghanistan and Pakistan to find to really criminals? Where would America be today? Let’s not ALLOW those 9/11 terrorists to hurt us with distractions anymore. WE, with votes and voice NEED TO End the war in Iraq now… not in 2011, 2012 or later. Let’s focus on domestic issues and world peace!

Soon son, soon.

Our Children and theirs too

Can You Answer his question?

The Essential problems with Palin

Think of an American president being inaugurated. What image comes to mind?

Almost certainly this one, eh?

“what does a Vice president do?”

This picture embodies what is perhaps the essential difference between the qualifications for the presidency and the qualifications for the vice presidency. In a perfect world, we would all like a president who is Ready on Day One (TM); it is not uncommon for a newly-elected president to face a major crisis almost immediately upon taking office. But more commonly, a president takes the Oath of Office under relatively calm waters, allowing them something of a learning curve.

On the other hand, when a vice president takes over for a president, the nation is necessarily undergoing a crisis, because the death (or resignation) of a president is perhaps as traumatic an event as can reasonably be imagined (in the “best” case resulting from a slowly-developing illness, and the worst, an attack by terrorists or foreign adversaries).

From Lincoln though Clinton, Americans have frequently been willing to gamble on a relatively inexperienced President, exchanging some assurances of near-term readiness for longer-term upside (what might be described as “vision”). But the optimal skill set for a vice president is somewhat different. “Vision” hardly matters; a vice president taking over for a president will not get to name his own cabinet, and will initially at least be left to execute upon somebody else’s agenda. Instead, the readiness component is rendered more important.

I suspect most Americans grasp this on a gut level, even if they aren’t quite able to articulate it. Which is why, to my gut instinct, I think Americans can feel sympathy for Sarah Palin, can believe she’s the sort of person they’d want to have a beer with — and still find her a detriment to McCain’s case for the White House.

Article Washington Post>
Palin’s Pregnancy Problem
My first reaction was shock. Then anger. John McCain chose a running mate simply because she is a woman and one who appealed to the Republican’s conservative evangelical base. Now, with news that Palin’s 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant, McCain’s pick may not even find support among “family values” voters.
It has happened before, of course. Geraldine Ferraro was chosen as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984 because she was a woman, but that was 24 years ago. I thought we were past this. Apparently not. McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical and calculated move. It is a choice made to try to win an election. It is a political gimmick. And it’s very high risk. I find it insulting to women, to the Republican party, and to the country.
This is nothing against Palin. From what little we know about her, she seems to be a bright, attractive, impressive person. She certainly has been successful in her 44 years. But is she ready to be president?
And now we learn the 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant. She and the father of the child plan to marry. This may be a hard one for the Republican conservative family-values crowd to swallow. Of course, this can happen in any family. But it must certainly raise the question among the evangelical base about whether Sarah Palin has been enough of a hands-on mother.
McCain claims he knew about the pregnancy, and was not at all concerned. Why not? Not only do we have a woman with five children, including an infant with special needs, but a woman whose 17-year-old child will need her even more in the coming months. Not to mention the grandchild. This would inevitably be an enormous distraction for a new vice president (or president) in a time of global turmoil. Not only in terms of her job, but from a media standpoint as well.
McCain’s cynical choice has created a dilemma for many women. For still-angry Hillary Clinton voters, they will have to decide if they want to vote against their concscience and political interests by voting to elect a Republican woman who’s even more conservative than McCain.
Evangelical women also will have to decide if they will vote against their conscience by voting to put the mother of young children in a job outside the home that will demand so much of her time and energy.
Southern Baptist leaders like Richard Land and Al Mohler have praised McCain’s choice. But these are the same men who support this statement from the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message:
“A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.”
Palin’s lack of experience and her family situation are both valid and vital considerations here, especially when she will be running with a 72-year-old presidential candidate who has suffered four bouts of a deadly cancer.
And by the way, how can McCain call Barack Obama unqualified, inexperienced, not ready from Day One, not able to be commander in chief, and then put someone like Palin in a position that is a heartbeat away from the pesidency?
I don’t blame Palin for accepting the position. How could she or anyone turn down such an opportunity? I was once in a similar position. After four years of reporting at the Washington Post, I was chosen by CBS to be the first network anchorwoman in America, to co-anchor their Morning News. I had never been on TV a day in my life. I was 32. There were women at CBS who were much more qualified than I was and certainly other men. They chose me because they wanted a woman. I didn’t even want the job, but I didn’t feel I could turn it down. Of course it was a disaster. I lasted four months. I wasn’t ready for Network TV. Palin isn’t ready to be leader of the free world.
The calculation on the part of the McCain people is clear. Palin’s candidacy could draw some of the 18-million Hillary Clinton voters who are not happy she lost and who want to vote for a woman on a national ticket. Palin is not of Washington and that will be appealing to some. Most importantly for McCain, Palin is decidedly anti-abortion and that will keep the Republican base under control and appeal to some evangelicals who might be considering Obama. She has a son who is headed to Iraq.
Those are positives for a McCain-Palin ticket, but what about the negatives?
She has no national political experience, especially in the area of foreign policy. That fact that she is not of Washington also will be difficult for her. Barbara Bush once told me that her husband had been a congressman, UN ambassador, ambassador to China, and head of the CIA and they thought they were prepared for the vice presidency (under President Reagan). But she said nothing can prepare you for the criticism and scrutiny of being in the White House. Sarah Palin is not prepared for that.
Is she prepared for the all-consuming nature of the job? She is the mother of five children, one of them a four-month-old with Down Syndrome. Her first priority has to be her children. When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick what choice will she make? I’m the mother of only one child, a special needs child who is grown now. I know how much of my time and energy I devoted to his care. He always had to be my first priority. Of course women can be good mothers and have careers at the same time. I’ve done both. Yes, other women in public office have children. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has five children, but she didn’t get heavily involved in politics until they were older. A mother’s role is different from a father’s.
These are dangerous and trying times for the entire world. This is no time to to play gender politics. The stakes are too high. And given McCain’s age and history of health issues, the stakes for choosing a qualified vice presidential candidate have never been higher.
Maybe this will work. Maybe McCain will win with Sarah Palin as his running mate. But if he does, it will be for all the wrong reasons.
Source:http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/sally_quinn/2008/08/sarah_polin.html

Stopping the ‘POW’ qualification [his VP qualies' are bad enough]

“To see McCain resort to playing the POW card when answering legitimate questions, in my mind, cheapens that experience. And by cheapening his own experience in war, he degrades all of our experiences in war. He turns the horrific incidents we’ve all seen, touched, smelled, and felt into a lame excuse to earn political points. And it dishonors us all.”–
Brandon Friedman, a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan

Dear Supporter,
John McCain has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country.
Dr. Phillip Butler knew McCain as a fellow POW. Watch and listen!

We are sure this video will draw an onslaught of right-wing attacks, but we bring it to you because it is our job to continue to convey the truth together and give these issues national attention. As Dr. Butler has said, McCain does not have the temperament to have his finger near the red button. Get this video to everyone you know: friends, family members, coworkers, and especially those who don’t share your political views. The video is designed to reach them. Get it on your social networking sites like Digg. And get it to every blog, newspaper, and TV station that has ever overplayed McCain’s POW story. It is time to fight back with truth!
The mainstream press has already begun to call out McCain for overusing his POW story. And it’s cut across all political persuasions.
“Whether he’s deflecting criticism over his health-care plan or mocking a tribute to the Woodstock music festival, Senator John McCain has a trump card: the Hanoi Hilton. – Edwin Chen, Bloomberg
“Noun, Verb, POW” – Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Monthly
“The McCain campaign’s constant invocation of the candidate’s POW past is weird bordering on irrational…” – Ana Marie Cox, TIME
“I think they are going to it way too many times.” – Howard Fineman, Newsweek
Remember how Joe Biden got the press to refer to Rudy Giuliani as “A noun, a verb, and 9/11″? Well, let’s actually take Andrew Sullivan’s lead here and get the media to boil McCain down to a similar phrase: “A noun, a verb, and POW.” Considering how often the McCain campaign invokes his POW story, isn’t that what they’re already doing?
Yours,
Robert Greenwald

CONT. Topic>

There’s no question John McCain is getting a free ride from the mainstream press. But with the power of YouTube and the blogosphere, we can provide an accurate portrayal of the so-called Maverick. We can put the brakes on his free ride!
Since we first released The Real McCain a year ago, our REAL McCain series has garnered close to 2 million views, with over 13,000 comments and tens of thousands more in petition signatures! Clearly, John McCain’s record is something the public wants to discuss, and yet the corporate media is doing NOTHING to present the truth. We feel obliged to continue countering the mainstream media’s love of McCain. And so we thought it was high time for a sequel: The Real McCain 2.
We’re doing everything to get the facts out there about McCain. Join us in making a concerted effort to tell the story that corporate media refuses to tell. E-mail this video to all of your friends and family members, news blogs and other local media outlets. And don’t forget to Digg it!
According to Cliff Schecter, author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn’t: “It is dangerous for a democracy when a presidential candidate can lie with impunity, change positions on a whim, and physically and verbally threaten others and virtually none of it is reported by a besotted media eagerly awaiting the next moment when he might slap their backs in friendship.”
The mainstream press may not do their job, but we can surely do ours. It is crucial that we alert the public to the REAL McCain, and it is crucial we act now, before it’s too late.

Yours in the movement, Robert