OK, so we enter the last 7 days of campaigning and Pants have started 'McCuster's Last Stand', each day we'll feature a couple of Colonel McCuster's choice attacks, and trust they are as hopeless as the original.
So, what’s first in the 7 day series?
- Well since yesterday’s news that the morally and ethically corrupt Ted ‘bridge to nowhere’ Stevens is now officially legally corrupt too, the Get Off (my lawn) Party has been running around telling anyone that’ll listen there's a distinct possibility Democrats could win enough new Senate seats to achieve a ‘filibuster proof’ Senate. Which is a Senate comprising sixty (of the one hundred) senators who belong to, or are prepared to vote for the same party, thus securing said party with a large enough majority to avoid a ‘filibuster’.
Personally, I’ve never thought of a filibuster as being very democratic. Just because a president can disenfranchise the majority of the popular vote, I don’t see why one senator should be able to s*%t on the wishes of 59 others, but for the GOP, that’s not the point. The GOP see the potential loss of this glitch in our democracy as something Americans should fear, they’re basically saying...
look, we know that when we had power we f^%$#d everything up, and we know that we’ve been totally useless at coming up with any new ideas to fix the problems we've created, but now we’ve become so disliked that there’s a real chance you’re going to elect enough Democrats that they’ll have the power to actually do the things they’ve said they’re going to do.....Please don't.
Call me old fashioned, but an appealling argument it is not. Isn’t this exactly what people are voting for? I mean they’re voting for Democrats because they want them to make changes, they want them to do all the stuff they said would.
If the Republicans think this is their best shot of holding onto power, they're even more deluded than we thought, bring on the filibuster proof senate!
BTW here's that picture of happy old Ted (Stevens) for anyone that missed it yesterday....enjoy!
- Colonel McCuster’s other ’last stand’ is based on his sudden discovery that BO is actually a communist, as according to McCuster he wants to ‘spread the wealth’ by taxing people. The votemaster crew have their take on it today...
It’s a good point, BO has all these communist/socialist ideas about taxing people, but McCuster hasn‘t come up with an alternative of his own. Perhaps McCuster sees all those previous presidents; George Bush, Reagan and Nixon as communists too, I mean they all taxed people, and as the votemaster folks explain…
You know, spreading the wealth into maintaining bridges and roads, and buying new fire engines and police cars, and paying their wages, and keeping our over-used volunteer army equipped with bullets and stuff.
Senator McCuster it’s all well and good to go about calling people names like communists and socialists, but I’d suggest next time you actually get yourself a plan together, which shows how you’re going to be different.
I mean if you are going to abolish tax that’s great, you may even gain a few thousand libertarian votes too, but people are bound to ask how you intend paying for everything without any tax income. However, if you intend keeping the tax system, then by your book, doesn’t that make you a communist wealth distributor too?
Now, I know BO is taking the easy option and sticking with the tax system, and just aiming to reduce the burden of tax on the middle class, only increasing it on the top 1% of earners, and major corporations, but that doesn‘t really make him a communist/socialist now does it McCuster?
- Finally, I was told that McCuster referred to his old middle-class buddy senator Joe Biden as Joe ‘the’ Biden yesterday, Freudian slip there Senator.
- Finally, the oldest crook on earth, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska has been found guilty of corruption, it had seemed for a while that Stevens was gonna avoid a verdict before the election, as one his jurors had been given leave to return home for a family problem. However, the judge drafted in a reserve juror, and had the final deliberations repeated, and then it was curtains for Ted.
In the weeks running up to the verdict, Stevens had managed to BS the good people of Alaska into believing that he may be innocent after all, and his performance in the opinion polls reflected that growing belief, that was until a couple of hours ago when the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on all charges. All of this means that Mark Begich Stevens' Democratic opponent in the race for his Senate seat will be sending him some flowers for his new deck, and a very thankful thank you card.
- There are growing reports of a split between the McGrumpy camp and Blunderwoman's handlers, with McGrumpy staffers referring to Blunderwoman as a ‘Diva’, and as having ‘gone rogue’. It's funny all this has happened within a couple of days of McGrumpy coming out and telling the world she’d be giving back all those clothes at the end of the election, maybe she was left wondering what she was gonna wear if they won!
Another great day for electoral votes, shame you can’t keep them as you go along and the candidate with the most electoral votes over the term of the campaign wins!
As a reminder of how cool it is to smoke, here's a pic of Cool Hand Barack!
I especially like Georgia, I mean it’s becoming a close fight, today BO trails by five points. This year happens to be the 40th anniversary of segregationist George Wallace’s run in that nasty three way Presidential election of ‘68. In that year Georgia along with a handful of southern neighbors voted for Wallace, and the continued segregation of races, you know, like black people at the back of the bus, different water fountains, different schools and a different justice system.
Anyway imagine, the historic synergy of a man called Barack Obama winning Georgia on his way to winning the general election. The USA would have their first African American president and Georgia would‘ve sent the loudest message possible that certain things were not just changing, but had changed.
- I ask, is there no end to the humanity of the wonderfully caring running mate of McRubbish? she’s already sacrificed so much for the sake of this great nation, we know she’s responsible for pulling so many people of opposing views together, selflessly working for us. But, today, Sarah Palin takes her nationwide campaign of inclusion to a new level.
We’re told that Sarah (I hope you don’t mind ma’am) is going to be given an auto-prompter to read that’s all about special needs children, and let’s face it Sarah should know best, because she has one all of her own.
We’ve heard from those people who just don’t want to be included in her campaign of inclusion, moaning about things like her past record of cutting funding from programs for little special ones in Alaska. But, these moaners don’t have special children of their own, so how would they know what’s best? Sarah does, which puts her in a unique position to talk about it.
- Meanwhile McNasty is continuing on his bus tour of PA looking to strike a book deal for Joe the plumber. We’ll let you know how he gets on.
- Of course as we know BO’s in Hawaii checking in on his gravely ill grandmother, doctor’s have told him there is a very strong possibility that she won’t make it to election day, and he wanted to spend as much time as he could afford with the woman who brought him up.
As it’s just a few days until the election, and as BO has a huge secret service detail, and needs to ensure he is in full contact, he decided to take his office plane with him. But, as McNasty is never one to miss an opportunity to badly misread a situation, in grand mavericky style he swam against the massive tide of sympathy for BO, and had Brad Blakeman (a surrogate) go on MSNBC and paint the trip as an indulgent holiday ‘to visit grandma’, and wasteful spending on a level of Sarah Palin‘s clothes budget.
Unfortunately for McGrumpy, most people understand that when you’re a week away from election day, and you are one of the two primary candidates, you’ll need to be in constant contact with your nationwide campaign, and to do so you’d probably not want to have to rely on the public library opening times for internet access.
Brad Blakeman epitomizes a lot of what is, and has been wrong with the modern Republican party. They're detatched from the real world, incapable of showing empathy, and right now, as everything seems to be going wrong for them, there's a lot of bitterness, and finger pointing. Perhaps Brad was pushing for a slot on the Palin 2012 campaign, but I wouldn't bank on it Brad, the Republican party's days are numbered and it'll take a long time for this country to forgive what they've done.
Looks like it's back to business as usual for the Plain/McRubbish campaign with more nasty lies and false accusations, the latest being that BO's a French socialist. Now, I'm not quite sure what's so bad about French socialists, except for being French of course ;) but, what does amaze me is that we're supposed to accept that they've only just realized. I mean they've been at this campaigning malarky for a year or so, yet McGrumpa's gang reckon they only just noticed that BO's a communist, and let's face it, that's where they're going with this. Perhaps they just caught him with a copy of Das Kapital, or getting the familly fitted out for Chairman Mao suits, but I doubt it, my money's on Johnny telling fibs again, you see he just can't help himself. Despite the latest revelations it seems events over the weekend cost McGrumpa a few more million votes. Secretary of State Colin Powell's considered endorsement of BO will have had an impact on some voters, but there's no doubt that the greatest damage suffered by McRubbish this weekend was caused by his little Alaskan helper's uncomfortable SNL appearance, how satirical did she look?
Johnny McBush and Sarah Plainey made a rare joint appearance at a rally in Virginia earlier today, as it's been at least 2 hours since they last campaigned together something must be afoot. But, I just can't think what.
I mean it can't be anything to do with her being found guilty of abusing the power of her elected office to pursue personal vendettas, can it? The mainstream media don't seem to think it's relevant at all, and who can blame them? what does it matter that the person sitting a heart beat away from becoming the leader of the free world is a cheap crook?
Here's the ambiguous language of the Alaskan ethics investigation findings (c/o Wonkette): Guilty, schmilty, her guilt doesn't bother the media, and why should it? She's a great gal, she goes to church and chases witches and their spells away, she hunts polar bears and cooks their little cubs.
What more could you ask of the leader of a complex global economy? Well, in my humble opinion a fuck of a lot more. The MSM's reaction to the ethics investigation's findings has been a fraud in itself, it's totally outrageous. This person is standing for election as Vice President of the United States to a seventy two year old President with a history of cancer, yet I have had CNN on all morning (Monday) and there has not been a single mention of the investigation's findings. Now, the news may well be kept quiet over here, but the rest of the world will be reading all about it, what a fucking embarrassment!
I am starting to loathe McCrap and his amatruerish campaign, and anyone who could still vote for the current Republican party. I have had it with their desperate struggle to hold onto power, for the sake of power, their election has nothing to do with the best interests of the American people, it's purely political, and purely about what is in their best interests.
If Sarah Palin was the single most qualified person in the Republican party to stand as Vice President then they are without doubt a spent political force. If she hadn't been so palpably under qualified the media wouldn't have had to spend so much time scrambling to paper over her many character flaws.
Perhaps the fact that she knowingly abused her powers and then assured the American people that she hadn't, did not surprise the media, but what does that tell you about the expectations we have of our leaders? Has the bar really fallen that low?
There's another issue in all of this, you hear people talking about Wooten being a nasty piece of work and deserving it, perhaps he did. But, whether you think she was justified or not, you have to remember that before he dared to divorce sister Palin, Michael Wooten was a respected member of the Palin household, he was plain old uncle Mike. Sarah Palin never complained about any of his abusive behaviour before, perhaps she was cool with all the drinking, and tasering, and moose worrying, or was it that she didn't feel that the public needed protecting from him as long as he was married to her sister? what does that tell you about her character?
However you look at this, it's an outrage and definitely not becoming of a potential Vice President. A diarist at the DailyKos over the weekend questioned what the media reaction would've been had Joe Biden been found guilty of the same abuse of power....just a thought.
After hearing all that post debate commentary telling me how great Governor Palin looked, and how wonderful it was that she could say her name correctly, I spent most my morning in my bathroom throwing up, and nearly missed my opportunity to point you to the incredible electoral-vote.com map below.
It shows BO taking a 338-185 lead over McShitty with 15 votes (North Carolina) tied. It is pure cream, but I don't think I should stop there, the folks at electoral-vote.com aren't the only people being overwhelmed with Barackaballots there were some incredible polls coming out of the swing states.
On Wednesday these numbers arrived from Quinnipiac University after they polled the key swing states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (MoE 3.5%):
Considering McLoser has to win Florida and Ohio, and now he's withdrawn from Michigan, if he’s to have a realistic chance of winning this thing he'll need PA too. However, you look at this, it’s a tough hill to climb, even for someone as great looking as Governor Wink.
Here's what Peter Brown from the university’s polling institute says:
"It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign...Sen. John McCain has his work cut out for him if he is to win the presidency and there does not appear to be a role model for such a comeback in the last half century."
Hear that John, no precedent in the last fifty years…..yes Governor we know there have been lots and lots of presidents, a precedent is something different dear.
To add to the McCrappy’s pain there’s this from the Rasmussen daily tracking…
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday again shows Barack Obama attracting 51% of the vote while John McCain earns 44%. For each of the past eight days, Obama has been at 50% or 51% and McCain has been at 44% or 45%.
To top it off here’s a few other polls worthy of note, all are from Fox/Rasmussen and all are must win states for McRubbish: New Mexico - Obama now by 5 Nevada - Obama takes the lead New Hampshire - You know the state that just loves that maverick, Obama now by 10 Rasmussen have moved Michigan from ‘leans’ Dem to ‘likely’ Dem Virginia - Obama leads for the second week running North Carolina - Obama up by 3%
Even West Virginia and Texas are down to single leads for McNasty, now wouldn’t one of those be the icing on the cake!
Finally, apparently it wasn’t all BO this week, there was one state where McCrap and Co. actually increased their lead --Nebraska, I’m saying nothing.
Mmmm….there’s just so much to get up to date with!
Well, first I guess I should give a brief synopsis of that thing they called a debate last night, I understand that the reason the Republican representative didn’t have a clue about what they were talking about was because Governor Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate was still in training yesterday and so was unavailable for the debate last night, that’s why we witnessed Senator Biden debating the manager of the Wassilla Dairy Queen, who had kindly offered to stand in for the Governor.
Anyway, it went like this...
Alaska, Alaska, Mavericky goodness, Alaska, wink, wink, team of mavericks, Alaska, six packs, Maverick, bi-partisan, Alaska, wink, heal click, wink, wink, it’s drill baby drill, Alaska, pipeline, wink, Hockey I mean soccer Mom, two heal clicks, nudge, wink, spending, Alaska, third grade class shout out, Mavericky Alaskan Soccer team, Thank you, thank you.
I mean I know this was supposed to be a political debate, but considering the circumstances and the last minute drop out I think she did really, really well. You have to remember that the stand in didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, and although it was pretty obvious at times, over all I think she handled herself well, she even mentioned one of John McNasty’s policies, which is incredible when you think about it, and she looked just great! I did feel that Gwen Iffle was a little tough on her, I know the questions had been prepared ages ago and were all on the subject of politics, but it wouldn’t have taken a brain wave person to think up at least one question about making an M&M Smudgy or something.
Sure for most of the time it was obvious she didn‘t have a clue, but who would eh? you can forgive her those repetitive nervous winks at camera, obviously there’s no way the real Governor Palin would wink at the United Nations when addressing them. Credit where credit is due I say, she did Dairy Queen proud last night, and I bet she gets a rousing reception when she gets back to the Wassilla branch, they’ll be throwing back swirls ‘til the early hours.
Well done the stand in.
I am hoping that I’ll suddenly wake from this horribly disturbing dream soon. It’s the only way I’m able to deal with what happened last night, this must be a dream. America has become an Idiocracy, our standards have slipped so far that there were pundits on television last night trying to convince anyone that would listen that she did great, that by definition she is qualified to become President!
The woman gave a ‘shout out’ to some 3rd graders, for God’s sake it was the vice presidential debate, not a fucking game show!
This country happens to be the world’s greatest super-power, and with a crashing economy and not one but two wars going on, it is in an extremely perilous state. The purpose of this debate was to reassure the people of this country and the world at large that both of these candidates, if called upon, were capable of handling the job of President, as one could become the most powerful person on the planet, and Palin is winking, clicking her heals and giving ‘shout outs’.
Frankly, it brought home to me just how dangerous McUnbelievablyShit’s choice was, she is so clearly out of her depth, I almost feel sorry for her, McBollocks is another story all together. It is ridiculous to think that the Republican party have no better candidate for Vice President, what a thoroughly political choice this was.
This choice wasn’t made with the best interests of the American public in mind. I don’t care how Fox News casters claim that she exploded expectations, if that was exploding expectations, WTF were they expecting?
Anyway, in other news McRubbish is continuing to be found out, it seems the people of Michigan have seen through it now and join us lot in California as a state McCrap doesn’t feel is worthy of his message, because we will see through it. He’s effectively shut down operations in Michigan, I am sure with the hope that Barack Obama is stupid enough to follow suit, which he obviously must not, cannot and will not do.
Wednesday brought in a new month and a new shape to the electoral college map, at last I’m feeling some reserved confidence in the US electorate, and beginning to believe that they’re not quite as stupid as the main stream media, and most politicians would like them to be. The last two weeks have been an absolute catastrophe for team McPlain, the economic meltdown has been one aspect and it’s clear with the shenanigans in the lower House and the confusion among the general public that no one really has a fucking clue what’s going on, but the one thing that has stuck is McCrap’s poor handling of the crisis, after all the fundamentals are strong, right?
McAngry read BO’s introspection as somehow being indecisive, but I guess BO feels it’s better being indecisive than being decisively wrong. BO was also accused by team McLosing of taking too long to respond, but then it turns out McCrap responded before he even read the bill, perhaps BO likes to know what he’s voting on. At least he actually bothered to read the fucking bill, Johnny!
It’s good to see all those caring Fiscal Republicans, you know the ones that voted against the bill last time around, because they were so concerned about the cost to the taxpayer, yeah that lot! Well now they’re agreeing to support it, but what changed you ask, did the bill get trimmed down so it was less of a cost to the taxpayer? No, the bill had an extra 100 Billion dollars of pork projects added to it.
Fiscal Republicans my ass, they held off until they got the 100 Billion in corporate tax breaks they needed for their paymasters. I hope there are conditions allowing this bill to be revisited as soon as the Dems are in power. It’s so obvious that these disgusting repugs are fucking the country up as much as they can, just so a Barack Obama presidency has a big pile of shit, but no money to deal with it when he takes office. These people should be in prison.
On Tuesday McShitty's little Alaskan helper told Katie Couric that if a financial aid package for Wall Street wasn't agreed by friday, then this coming Monday the nation would slip into a depression as bad as that of the late 1920s. Later that afternoon after lying to Dave Letterman and freeing up some time up to talk to Katie Couric's bigger audience, McLiar confirmed his little Alaskan helper's prophecy, saying that unless a bail-out plan was immediately agreed, then we'd all be eating grass by Monday.
Yet, today there's no agreement, apparently our representatives had been close at one point, that's until McCrap got involved. He fucked it all up by trying to hijack the event, and claim credit for something he hadn't been involved in, and what's more he wasn't even sure if he wanted the credit anyway. It became a big pickle and he was right smack in the middle of it.
So, per the prophecy of the brilliant economist Palin, and as we have no agreement in place and it is the weekend, I guess we'll all be eating grass on Monday. I've got some salt put away just in case. Btw what's with the stock market making triple digit gains during the two days since the collapse of the bailout talks?
Apart from the imminent collapse of the nation's economy, it was refreshing to see McLiar for once staying true to his word and remaining in Washington until a deal was....oh! he's not?....oh, ok then, well forget that...As it turns out McShittyLiar has stayed true to character and not his word, as I'm informed he's now planning on coming to the debate, which according to his campaign was what he had intended all along....yeah, right!
Did you notice during the mayhem that was this week, McCrapLiar admitting that he hadn't even read Secretary Paulson's three page proposal? But, somehow he was miraculously able to make suggestions as to what he felt was missing.
The whole thing, I mean the whole thing is a farce. This campaign continues to insult the American people‘s logic, this man and his crew of crooked cronies are playing politics with people's lives, we're living in dangerous times, yet McBombit seems to take it all as a joke. He says one thing today and a different thing tomorrow, it's almost impossible to keep up with the lies, turnarounds, and endless bullshit emanating from his campaign, on election day they must be hoping that American people forget which candidate is which.
It’s unbelievably insulting, no politician in history has lied so openly and so often as McCain has during this campaign, and we have four weeks to go.
The people of this country need to show that self-serving politicians like McRubbish cannot get away with it. The man possesses none of the character traits required by a president of this country, or any country for that matter! He is impetuous and erratic, he's a walking time bomb, and there's not a single American that can say they weren’t warned!
Finally, if you needed any more motivation to ensure that he does not become our President, take a look at the woman who as his VP would be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Btw hang on for Jack's barely disguised anger at the end.
I just can't believe this is happening again, as things stand today, greater numbers of the American electorate support the republican candidate than the democrat. A majority of Americans support reinstating the same republican bandits that have all but destroyed everything we held dear.
A religious highjacking of our government is taking place before our very eyes, this regime is virtually ran by Christian fundamentalists. We have a 'Creationist' VP candidate, one who refuses to believe in evolution. The constitution suffers ever greater smudging of the borders between church and state.
The once great United States of America is teetering on the edge, is becoming unrecognizable to those that founded it. The country is in serious peril, and in very real danger of becoming a religious police state. It is becoming a country of meek citizens afraid to question anything their government undertakes in their name. Happy for their privacy to be invaded, happy with a non-existent health service, happy with a crashing economy, happy with the loss of more jobs, happy to play their part in as many wars as our military can bear, this has to stop.
This is the candidate who referred to our country's constitution as 'just a piece of paper', no surprise really when he’s part of a regime that refuse to answer questions asked of them by the people's representatives in the executive branch of government. These thugs believe that executive privilege permits those that have it to break the law, but is that what the founding fathers really intended?
This administration cannot be allowed to continue they are shrouded in secrecy, there’s no sign of the ‘open’ government they speak of, where are the examples of that ‘openness’? Is stifling an investigation into alleged abuses of power by their VP candidate ‘open’ government? It was a bi-partisan investigation started long before Palin was foolishly selected as their VP candidate, surely they would want to clear this up quickly, fairly and openly, why then the cover up?
But the litany of allegations against both McCain and Palin should not matter, these people, this party, their awful regime, should not be allowed anywhere near the government of our country. They’ve done enough damage already, some of it irreparable, they have destroyed so much that had been built by greater men and women before them.
These thugs should not be anywhere close, yet, somehow they are.
The corporate controlled media are desperate to stop the democratic candidate from winning, but Americans have to stand up and be counted. America has to wake up, this cannot be the result on November 4th. You cannot allow these charlatans to distract you from the issues. You owe it to your children to ask them where the money will come from for their plans. Are we just to continue borrowing from China? are our children to inherit a worthless country indebted to foreign powers?
I have been stunned by these latest polls. How can a party and a candidate be leading when they have offered so little substance? There are no policy discussions, Americans can’t let this happen again. They cannot be allowed to lie so brazenly, and mislead the American public, if the media are not going to do anything about it, then the American people need to.
The media have gone missing on the issues in this election, and seem to only want to hold one side accountable, where is the republican accountability? Where are the real journalists? Do you have no shame?
This is a must view video, directed by Aaron Hodgins Davis it's enjoyed nearly 350,000 hits on youtube, and should be watched by anyone considering returning the republicans to power. The video is a tragic reminder of precisely what's at stake for us in this coming election.
I have long maintained that should the republican party be returned to power yet again, innocent people will lose their lives. Unfortunately, this video only reinforces my unpleasant assertion by reminding us of just how dangerous McBush is.
People need to be clear; McCain is going to be even worse than Bush, and Palin worse than Cheney. If we're lucky these two Christian warmongers will only take our country to the brink, and not actual total destruction.
There's long been talk of 'useable' nuclear missiles, as unpleasant as that concept is, I'd always taken some limited comfort from the fact that those weapons would still need to find a president that is prepared to actually use them. But, with McCain a few electoral college votes from the presidency, I feel we are careering towards a key inopportune moment in history. A moment when all the wrong cards are coming together at the same time ensuring some tragic destiny for all of us.
Listen carefully to Scott Ritter, Scott is an openly verbal critic of the Republican war machine. He worked at the IAEA in Vienna (incidentally with my ex-father-in-law), and was one of the weapons inspectors that cautioned this administration that there were no WMDs in Iraq.
This video captures Scott making an impassioned plea warning us of the dangers of 'useable' nuclear weapons, informing us that, should we use them in Iran (or worse Russia!), we will be hit back, and it will cost us one of our cities. It's an horrific thought, but sadly not one from the realms of fantasy, as the republican party and their mega-corp masters open up new markets to raid, it becomes one that's not only plausible, but a very, very real possibility.
Because I feel it is so important that people see this video I'm going to leave it posted in the top right hand corner of this page in the hope that people will visit. I will leave it there until election day or until something even harder hitting is produced. This message must get out.
OK, there's so much more to rant about today, but I'll save it for another time, after watching that video I’ve been left feeling a tad humorless. The one thing I will say is that for next year’s final the US Open need to employ linesmen and women that can actually see the ball. Though Fedex played supremely well, poor old Andy wasn't helped in the least by some dreadful line calls at key moments, one that would've ensured him a break and quite possibly the second set.
Still, not to worry, eh! We might have lost the battle, but not the war, the new guard are arriving in the form of Murray, Djocovic and Nadal.
The letter below has been circulating the internet these past few days. It was written by Anne Kilkenny a long time associate of Sarah Palin's, Anne is also a resident and one time council member of Wasilla, AK.
Anne blieves in voters being 'informed', and her letter is primarily aimed at giving the US electorate some insight into Ms Palin.
The letter is well balanced, and points out both Ms Palin's positives and negatives. It will help you form your own opinion of Ms Palin before the GOP or the media frame her for you.
So, without further ado here's Anne Kilkenny's letter...
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Gov. Sarah Palin since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first-name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99 percent of the residents of the city.
She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice for vice president and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe."
It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.
She is "pro-life." She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved here; Trig is her baby.
She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.
She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her lifestyle ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.
Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
She's smart.
Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time) and less than two years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.
During her mayoral administration, most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings, which had given rise to a recall campaign.
Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative." During her six years as mayor, she increased general government expenditures by more than 33 percent. During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38 percent. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax, which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefitted large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
The huge increases in tax revenue during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list, though — borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt but left it with indebtedness of more than $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? Or a new library? No. $1 million for a park. $15 million-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex, which she rushed through, on a piece of property that the city didn't even have clear title to. That was still in litigation seven years later — to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5 million for road projects that could have been done in five to seven years without any borrowing.
While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as governor Sarah proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenue: Spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.
She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits but on the basis of who proposed them.
While Sarah was mayor of Wasilla, she tried to fire our highly respected city librarian because the librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the city librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys." Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the city and as governor, she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal — loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the state's top cop.
As mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's police chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a state trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than two dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town, introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal city administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.
When then-Gov. Frank Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil and gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job, which paid $122,400 a year, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this commission (who was also the state chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club," when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).
As mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Sen. Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
As governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects — which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance — but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork."
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The state party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.
Around Wasilla, there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.
As governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.
Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiaitive that would have either protected salmon streams from pollution from mines or tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on whom you listen to). She has pushed the state's lawsuit against the Department of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as a threatened species.
McCain is the oldest person to ever run for president; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being president.
There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.
However, there are a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.
Claim vs. Fact "Hockey mom": True for a few years "PTA mom": True years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since "NRA supporter": Absolutely true Social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, but vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional). Pro-creationism: Mixed. Supports it, but did nothing as governor to promote it. "Pro-life": Mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby but declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation. "Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000. Political maverick: Not at all. Gutsy: Absolutely! Open and transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions. Has a developed philosophy of public policy: No. "A Greenie": No. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR. Fiscal conservative: Not by my definition! Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards. Pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents Pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history. Pro-labor/pro-union: No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union. Why am I writing this? First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name, you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "bad things happen when good people stay silent." Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that's life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the city librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
Caveats: I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending and taxation two years ago (when Palin was running for governor) from information supplied to me by the finance director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: Did I adjust for inflation? For population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall — they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000" up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced, a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-1990s.
Anne Kilkenny is a homemaker and education advocate in Wasilla, Alaska.
Sit back and enjoy conservative commentators Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy discussing their real thoughts on the Palin choice with Chuck Todd....oh yeah they of course thought the mic was not hot...
...we'll do it LIVE!
Tell me why it is that members of the US media have to wait until they believe a mic is off before they start spilling the truth?
Everything they say is obvious, we know Palin is an embarrassment, a joke selection, worse than Dan Quayle but what I find most obnoxious is that they won't tell us that with the mic on.
Here's a classic piece of video, dug up by Clarknt67 at The DailyKos, it features Joe Scarborough host of MSNBC's Morning Joe and famed republican commentator discussing Sarah Palin as a potential McBush VP pick with guest Pat Buchanan.
It's fascinating to see how both respond before either knew this was going to actually be their reality, and well before either had picked up talking points from their GOP masters.
Especially interesting is how they laugh off her lack of experience, saying it just doesn't compare with Barack Obama, who has been on the international stage for two years and earned his right to be there 18 Million times. Also, they touch on any comparison with Hillary as being 'condescending to women'!
Oh how blissfully unaware they were that two days later this girl would actually be senator McBush's official Vice Presidential pick....
I still can’t believe this election is going to be remotely close, there's way too much at stake to risk letting those crooked republicans getting their hands on power again.
Let's face it, they're entire campaign is focused purely on pleading with us not to vote for the scary black dude. Instead they want us to trust them again, we just have to hope the Republicans are telling us the truth this time. If we just let them have another 8 years (on top of all the years they've already spent fucking everything up) they promise to get it right next time. They promise to change everything, make it all hunk-dory again.....Man, it's fucking pathetic.
I firmly believe this election is a matter of life and death, there's no doubt in my mind that innocent people will lose their lives if the Republicans retain power in November.
John McCain's campaign has been crawling along the gutter, recently, disingenuously suggesting that Barack Obama would be happy to lose a war in order to win an election. It's all well and good for a dishonourable man to make a statement like this, but it actually doesn’t make any sense. The Republicans have never been able to tell us what victory in Iraq looks like, and without victory being defined, how the fuck can a war be ‘won or lost’? Of course, this nuance is lost on most of the US electorate, but the inference won't be. McCain claims that Obama will do anything in his power to win this election, but isn’t that exactly what McCain has been doing throughout this campaign?
After tying up his nomination in February it took bumbling McCain until last week to decide on a running mate. He's obviously not a decisive man, having to wait to see who his opponent selects before making a decision of his own. Still, when he does he insults the nation by selecting an anti-abortion, creationist, beauty pageant queen, and ex-mayor of a village in Alaska.
McCain is 72 years old and has suffered from cancer, if he were to win, his life expectancy doesn’t reach the end of his presidency. There’s a very genuine chance that shoul he win, his VP will become president during his term, and his choice? He's happy to put the nation’s security and stability into the hands of an unknown 'hockey mom'. Does he really believe that this woman, who they don't even trust to be interviewed by the media, will have the gravitas and, judgment to lead the most powerful nation on earth. Or, is it that the Republicans already understand that the nation will be ran by shadowy Rovian figures? Could the nation fall into the hands of the very same ultra-right wing Christian evangelicals who have all but destroyed everything our forefathers have worked for?
Either way this is a terrible decision, clearly one that has been made to have the maximum impact on the presidential race, and not with the best interests of the American people at heart. Obama is the antithesis, making a sensible decision, based on the key consideration that the VP has to be ready to be president on day 2.
Oh, what has McCain done?
McCain is risking everything in pursuit of the presidency, and a man that would risk all to become president is not who this country needs as president. I fear for all Americans.
In addition, if this was somehow aimed at attracting a few seriously misguided ex-Clinton supporters, they couldn't have got it more wrong. By anyone’s standard Hillary Clinton is a genuine political heavyweight, and to have the Republicans choose such a lightweight candidate to appeal to her base is nothing more than an insult. It smacks of Rovian vengeance at work to me.
The thing will ultimately back fire for Republicans. Where they may have previously hoped for a passive Hillary ultimately costing Obama the election, I can’t imagine they could’ve done more to galvanize the Clintons into action. If Hillary holds any ambition still to be president, she knows it's now an eight year wait, four years doesn’t work in the plan anymore, as that relies on a Republican presidency, and now there's a female on the ticket. So her best hope is to do all in her power to stop McCain and Plain (ooops) getting into office.
Though happy that this will act as a major motivation for the Clintons I still feel sorry for Hillary, that her great campaign has been upstaged in such a shallow manner.
Another ‘friend’ of McCain’s who has been effected by this decision is Joe Biden, who now has to face the humiliation of debating the Republican choice. Who now has the embarrassment of actually being compared to Palin, that their pictures and bios appear on opposite sides of the same page, is enough in itself to galvanize the Democratic base as much as it has galvanized the ultra-right wing evangelical base of the Republicans.
Finally, the Republicans driven by desperation have been irresponsible enough to try to make their own history, throwing in an unprepared, unqualified pageant queen into the mix believing that their lightweight can match Obama. That the man who has changed the face of American politics for ever, the man that has moved an entire generation to action, the intelligent, composed, honest, considered and unflappable Obama now has to stand at the crossroads of history with the Republican’s Alaskan maid standing just behind him, is a humiliation for all of America.
What Obama has achieved in these past three years is worthy of a place in history, he has defined the race, he has been defining it all the way along. His presence made the Republicans pick McCain and his pick of Joe Biden, brilliant as it was, left the Republicans staring defeat squarely in the face. So panicked were they, that they throw the kitchen sink and Palin, not at Obama, but at the American people.
I hope Americans see this for the political stunt it is, and as we stand at one of the most challenging times in our country’s history, understand just how irresponsible the Republican’s are being with this choice.
The Republicans pick is even under an ethics investigation. Although I have no doubt the investigation will fail to find a single piece of incriminating evidence, as Rove would’ve got into that long before any Washington Post journos. But ultimately, their attempts to reinvent her short history will catch up with them.
Her very first public/press announcement with John McCain included a bare-faced lie: She told us that she's a reformer, a Washington outsider, who was against the ‘bridge to nowhere’, and went on to tell us that she told Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’. Nice, but an absolute lie. Not only is she lightweight, but she's already showing extremely bad judgment by taking public speaking advice from McCain himself.
She’s obviously taken up his mantra of lie, lie, and lie, then keep lying some more. He must of told her that it doesn’t matter what you’ve done or said, the day or week before, it doesn’t matter if your 180 degree switch is on camera or tape or in print keep on lying, because the US media will never say a bad thing about us. Also, he must’ve taught her the one lesson republicans have learned in their eight long miserable years in power, that the American electorate are stupid.
The Republicans rely on this factor, even if the odd media man/woman highlights an about turn, or outright lie about something they did, or didn’t do. Even if it's printed and talked about, nothing will happen, they'll never have to suffer any consequences because they fundamentally believe the American electorate don‘t pay attention, unless you say 9/11, or terrorists loudly at the beginning of your sentence. Maybe they're right, after all the proof of the US electorate's stupidity is right before our eyes; they re-elected the worst president in the country’s history, and the majority are very close to giving the same Republican cronies another shot at it, unbelievable!
Both Joe Biden and Barack Obama are embodiments of the American dream, both their lives have been spent in service to their communities, and country. But, the republicans have a candidate born with a silver spoon in his mouth who holds up the fact that he got shot down and crashed loads of planes, and came bottom of a class of a thousand cadets, and consequently was a POW, as a reason why he should not be held accountable for any error of judgment he makes. And a VP who holds up her baby as evidence of how far she‘ll go to support her belief of anti-abortion, as if her baby had burdened her in some way! The very inference is disgusting.
In fact it’s almost as disgusting as the GOP using the hurricane to gain political advantage and clearing the most unpopular president and vice president in history off their convention stage. They have the gall to feign concern for the people of New Orleans, three years after they sat together eating cake as thousands perished, but of course there was no political advantage to be made then.
This week was an amazing week for the Democrats, speech after speech filled with substance. The Dems had a strong showing of unity, like never before, made all the more remarkable by the environment they entered the convention. With the irresponsible mainstream media desperate to focus on any slight sound of descent or disunity, where the media gave more time to a group that couldn’t fill a small restaurant in Denver, than they did to the 84,000 people that crammed into a massive arena to watch and listen to who they hoped would be their next president give one of the greatest political speeches of all time. Reminding all before him, that although both original candidates had been of the very highest quality the party had picked the right one.
Obama’s speech which will go down in history as one of the greatest convention/political speeches of all time, but it is a clear damming of the US media that his amazing speech could be embarrassingly upstaged by a beauty pageant queen from a village in Alaska, only in America would that be possible.
If this week had happened in Europe, the papers would’ve been filled with the substance not the celebrity of an ex-beauty pageant queen and TV sports presenter entering the race for president. They would’ve been filled with debate about the substance of Obama’s speech. Importantly they would’ve understood what happened the day after, and would’ve called it for what it was, a political stunt by a desperate republican party, but that’s Europe, not America.
Just thought I'd leave you with McCain making a sick joke about Katrina, what an unsuitable candidate this man is:-
Poll Worker Injured by Booby-Trapped Trump Sign
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“A poll worker in Texas was injured Tuesday when he tried to move a Donald
Trump campaign sign and cut his hand on box-cutter blades that had been
attached...
I’m an Englishman barely living in Downtown, Los Angeles and I’ve spent most of my life working in the music industry oblivious to the world around me. However, I recently woke up and I'm finding that just about everything pisses me off, except of course ‘the magician’, who's my amazing girlfriend.
Anyway, I thought I'd start a blog so I could rant about things that really get to me that way I can share my poorly formed political views, moan about how useless government and complain about the football team I support, actually that sounds like a lot, and I know that I'll never get around to it, so don't expect much.
I hope that all sounds ok so I’ll just start and see where we go, alright?
Which is a Senate comprising sixty (of the one hundred) senators who belong to, or are prepared to vote for the same party, thus securing said party with a large enough majority to avoid a ‘filibuster’.
continued segregation of races, you know, like black people at the back of the bus, different water fountains, different schools and a different justice system. 
Brad Blakeman (a surrogate) go on MSNBC and paint the trip as an indulgent holiday ‘to visit grandma’, and wasteful spending on a level of Sarah Palin‘s clothes budget. 
didn’t have a clue about what they were talking about was because Governor Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate was still in training yesterday and so was unavailable for the debate last night, that’s why we witnessed Senator Biden debating the manager of the Wassilla Dairy Queen, who had kindly offered to stand in for the Governor. 
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