According to Palin's accusations, she alleges insubordination, rather than the obvious, which is that the official involved refused to help Palin run her government like a mob family compact. Or perhaps the Canadian Family Compact of old.

quote:

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Walt Monegan lost his job as public safety director because he resisted Gov. Sarah Palin’s budget policies and showed "outright insubordination," say papers the governor’s lawyer filed yesterday with the state Personnel Board.

It was Palin’s strongest effort yet to snuff allegations she sacked Monegan because he refused to fire a state trooper involved in an ugly divorce with the governor’s sister.

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Back to Palin - anyone see this article?

Sarah Palin’s links to the Christian Right

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Sarah Palin has spent more than two and a half decades of her life as a member of an Alaska church which is part of a fanatical Christian-named cult project that is sweeping across America. Palin comes out of the most radical stream of US Born-Again Evangelism known as ‘Joel’s Army,’ an offshoot of what is called Dominionism and sometimes also called the Latter Rain cult or Manifest Sons of God. The movement deliberately attempts to remain below the radar screen...

As one researcher familiar with the history of the Third Wave Movement or Dominionism describes, ‘The Third Wave is a revival of the theology of the Latter Rain tent revivals of the 1950s and 1960s led by William Branham and others. It is based on the idea that in the end times there will be an outpouring of supernatural powers on a group of Christians that will take authority over the existing church and the world. The believing Christians of the world will be reorganized under the Fivefold Ministry and the church restructured under the authority of Prophets and Apostles and others anointed by God. The young generation will form ‘Joel’s Army’ to rise up and battle evil and retake the earth for God.’4

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quote:

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Not sure about the website and author because there were some sloppy mistakes but interesting nonetheless.

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I find this even more interesting.

Sarah Palin Annointed

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That's what a charismatic evangelical I know told me in an e-mail yesterday. When he saw Sarah Palin speak on television two weeks ago in Dayton, he called his wife and said, "I do not know who this woman is, but she is anointed. She must go to a spirit-filled church."

"By anointing," he continued in his e-mail to me, "I mean more than just stage presence. I mean authority. Palin believes what she is saying. It comes through. She is confident because she believes she is right. I have yet to hear , 'uhhh,' or a 'ummm' from her when she speaks. There is no weighing, no political hesitation in her voice. She is gifted in that area."

When she looks cocky, willing to ignore or lie about inconvenient facts, and willing to exploit power to get what she wants -- for charismatics and Pentecostals, Palin, who was raised in the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination, is displaying that she is anointed by God. Prominent charismatics have begun talking publicly about her anointing, like Lee Grady, the editor of Charisma magazine, who wrote in a post titled "The Deborah Anointing":

Talk about a role model. Palin’s life is a prophecy to America. She doesn’t have to preach against abortion. She and her family, even with their flaws, are the embodiment of the compassionate pro-life values America desperately needs to adopt. When McCain announced that he had chosen Palin as his running mate, I was reminded of the biblical story of Deborah, the Old Testament prophet who rallied God’s people to victory at a time when ancient Israel was being terrorized by foreign invaders. Deborah’s gender didn’t stop her from amassing an army; she inspired the people in a way no man could. She and her defense minister, Barak, headed to the front lines and watched God do a miracle on the battlefield.

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Palin, the Pastor, Prayer and for added 'wow' add some 'witches' into it.

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In perhaps one of the strangest twists to date in the story of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a video now shows the governor crediting her electoral success to a preacher who claims to successfully hunt witches.

The speech, shown below, was filmed in June. Palin describes the visit of Pastor Thomas Muthee to the Wasilla Assembly of God in 2005.

"As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he's so bold. And he was praying 'Lord make a way, Lord make a way,'" Palin remarked.

.............

In 1988, Pastor Muthee and his wife traveled to Kenya after being "called by God." Setting up shop in the basement of a grocery store, they claim to have brought 200 people "to God" and away from the town's "spiritual oppression."

The source of the oppression? Witchcraft, Muthee says. When researching the community, they found that a woman named "Mama Jane" ran a divination clinic that drew a large following in the town.

“We prayed, we fasted, the Lord showed us a spirit of witchcraft resting over the place,” Pastor Muthee said.
...............

"According to accounts of the witchhunt circulated on evangelical websites such as Prayer Links Ministries, after Pastor Muthee declared Mama Jane a witch, the townspeople became suspicious and began to turn on her, demanding that she be stoned," the London Times noted Tuesday. "Public outrage eventually led the police to raid her home, where they fired gunshots, killing a pet python which they believed to be a demon."

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[ 17 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

quote:

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She and her defense minister, Barak, headed to the front lines and watched God do a miracle on the battlefield.

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quote:

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Alaska's investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power, a potentially damaging distraction for John McCain's presidential campaign, ran into intensified resistance Tuesday when the attorney general said state employees would refuse to honor subpoenas in the case.

Also Tuesday, five Republican state lawmakers filed a lawsuit against an investigation they called "unlawful, biased, partial and partisan." None serves on the bipartisan Legislative Council that unanimously approved the inquiry. They want it pushed past the election or top Democrats removed from the probe.

In a letter to state Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation, Republican Attorney General Talis Colberg asked that the subpoenas be withdrawn. He also said the employees would refuse to appear unless either the full state Senate or the entire Legislature votes to compel their testimony.

Colberg, who was appointed by Palin, said the employees are caught between their respect for the Legislature and their loyalty to the governor, who initially agreed to cooperate with the inquiry but has increasingly opposed it since McCain chose her as his running mate.

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Karl Rove in Alaska

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Politicians are good at spin. The McCain camp has brought a whole new level of it to our small state -- in what looks like an effort to show they can play the same Karl Rove-like political games that have haunted this country for the last 8 years. I like Governor Palin on a personal level. But I don't like what the McCain campaign is doing to our state. I don't like deception. And I don't like politics as usual.

Alaskans are starting to see evidence of a Karl Rove-like effort to stonewall what started as a non-controversial, bi-partisan "Troopergate" investigation. A little deception here, a few personal attacks there. And the kind of spin you see at an amusement park tilt-a-whirl station.

This investigation was started by a Republican-dominated Alaska Legislature to look into Governor Palin's conduct in seeking the termination of a State Trooper, once married to the Governor's sister, Trooper Michael Wooten. The McCain camp wants to stop it by saying it's a "democratic" investigation. Apart from facts, and the reputations the McCain folks don't mind destroying, there's not a lot standing in the way of this strategy.

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This one is pretty funny. The guy has a sense of humor.

Part Karl Rove and Part Laurel and Hardy

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Since Monday the McCain camp has stepped up its personal attacks against Alaskans. They’ve continued their D.C.-style tactics against neighbors in this small state. The game plan is to find an excuse to stop our Legislature’s Troopergate investigation, and hide evidence McCain’s folks really don’t want to surface before November’s election. It’s been a little Karl Rove, and parts Laurel and Hardy. How else can you explain the following?

Last week the Attorney general’s office promised state witnesses would comply with subpoenas the Legislature issued last week. Tuesday the Governor’s Attorney General flip flopped, and announced that state witnesses wouldn’t comply because, well, and I’m paraphrasing here - he’s changed his mind. And in what has to be an idea hatched after a 4th Martini at Chilkoot Charlie’s, Governor Palin’s attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the ethics claim she filed against herself two weeks ago. Yup. She really filed a complaint against herself. Tuesday she said she’s discovered, after a thorough investigation of herself, that she’s done nothing wrong. Does anyone know how to get a hold of Jon Stewart and Tina Fey?

It’s silly season up here in the far north, but this week’s moves are aimed at one thing: John McCain’s effort to find cover for being disingenuous.

...............

Every day this week McCain operatives have sung the same tune. Today a guy with an East Coast accent, who knows nothing about Alaska, stood in front of a McCain-Palin banner to lead the attacks against people he doesn’t know. At press conferences on Monday and Tuesday campaign staffer Megan Stapleton spit vitriol to repeat her argument that this investigation is really a “Democratic” attack on Governor Palin.

See, that’s easier than just saying their VP has reneged on her promise to testify. It’s easier than just saying they don’t want anyone testifying before the November election. It’s easier than admitting they are stonewalling a legislative investigation.

Here are a few things they failed to say. There are a few small facts that make it hard to style this as a Democratic investigation. One is that Alaska is a Republican State. We have a Republican Governor and a Legislature of 34 Republicans and 26 Democrats. This summer the Legislature’s Legislative Council voted 12-0 (8 Republicans and 4 Democrats) to hire an investigator, and appointed Democratic Senator Hollis French, a well-respected former prosecutor, to find an investigator. Governor Palin stated she and her employees would comply with the investigation. French then hired Steve Branchflower, a former DA who most recently was hired by legislative Republicans to run the state’s Office of Victims rights.
............

...and it goes on I could quote the whole thing

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So then we get these guys, 'Anonymous' who have been talked about before here in reference to their campaign against scientology.

Sarah Palins Yahoo account hijacked...

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On the heels of media reports that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was using a private Yahoo e-mail account ([email protected]) to conduct Alaska state business, hackers have broken into the account and posted evidence of the hijack on Wikileaks.

An activist group calling itself ‘anonymous’ claimed responsibility for the compromise and released screenshots, photographs and the e-mail addresses of several people close to Palin, including her husband Todd and assistant Ivy Frye.
................

Wikileaks said it may release additional e-mails should they prove be of political substance.

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So wonder what these folks DID manage to get before stuff started 'disappearing'? Wonder if there's some Rovian scrambling going on now.

edited to add: Of course this could just be one big fake. Who knows.
[ 17 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

[ 17 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

Seriously, the Repubs must be in serious damage control mode now, especially since it's clear that Gov. Palin chose to mix personal and government activities together on the same e-mail account.

P.A.N.T.H.E.R.S. for Palin

[ 17 September 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

quote:

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Originally posted by DrConway:
HA!

Seriously, the Repubs must be in serious damage control mode now, especially since it's clear that Gov. Palin chose to mix personal and government activities together on the same e-mail account.

While I agree that every once in a while someone's personal e-mail account might be needed to transact business, a regular pattern of doing this could be indicative of a desire to make such e-mails more easy to delete.

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It seems like they're in damage control all over the place right now.

McCain has been blundering through messages on the , 'ecomony' and I hate to use the word but'flip-flopping' daily. Starting with his pronouncment on Monday morning, as Wall Street was in the biggest crisis ever, saying 'The fundementals of the economy are strong" then back tracking by the end of the day. Then yesterday he said, 'He did not support the FEDS bailing out AIG" then when they did do exactly that, he's come out supporting that today. Now Palin is actually being interviewed by Sean Hannity on fox with her message, "Yes the economy is a mess but the workforce is strong" That's apparently what McCain was talking about on Monday. He just wasn't clear.
Palin on Fox

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Palin told FOX News’ Sean Hannity that it was “unfair” for Barack Obama to criticize McCain earlier in the week for saying “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” She said McCain was clearly talking about the workforce.

“It was an unfair attack on the verbiage that Senator McCain chose to use, because … he means our workforce, he means the ingenuity of the American people,” Palin said. “And of course that is strong and that is the foundation of our economy. So that was an unfair attack there.”

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Meanwhile Obama and Co. are just plodding along and ignoring a lot of this messy stuff and staying on message. I'd say that just in this last couple of days the Repubs are now on the defensive.

With all this interference with the Troopergate thing it could go crazy. The messing around with it, is becoming the story now and I think it really depends whether those involved in Alaska are going to stand up against what's happening or roll over along partisan lines and help with all the stall tactics going on right now. I guess that isn't a given, because I keep reading over and over, 'who do these people (lower 48 repubs) think they are coming around and messing with us like this? This is Alaska!'

Read some polls today and it appears that the numbers are moving back into the Dems favour.

Jeb Bush from a town meeting in florida...

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"Reform becomes contagious," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of the current president, said at a McCain town hall meeting this week in Orlando. "If you start to dream bigger dreams and you start challenging the basic assumptions, you can change how things work, and we've done it in Florida, and the Good Lord knows we need to do it in Washington, D.C., and John McCain is the right guy at the right time to make that happen."

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McCain campaign takes over shaping Palin image

GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is effectively turning over questions about her record as Alaska's governor to John McCain's political campaign, part of an ambitious Republican strategy to limit embarrassing disclosures and carefully shape her image for voters in the rest of the country. Republican efforts include dispatching a former top U.S. terrorism prosecutor from New York, Ed O'Callaghan, to assist Palin's personal lawyer working to derail or delay a pending ethics investigation in Alaska. The investigation, known as Troopergate, is examining whether the governor abused her power by trying to remove her former brother-in-law as a state trooper.

O'Callaghan is just part of a cadre of high-powered operatives patrolling Alaska as reporters and Democrats scrutinize every detail of Palin's tenure in government, plus her family and friends. One strategy: Carefully coordinate any information that's released. The McCain campaign is demanding that it becomes the de facto source for answers about the operations of Alaska's government during the past 20 months.

Palin's normal press secretary, for example, now turns away inquiries from any reporter who isn't permanently based in Alaska, referring questions to the presidential campaign. Trouble is, some of McCain operatives only recently have arrived in Alaska and struggle to explain Palin's positions on arcane state issues.

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[ 17 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

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Earlier at the town hall meeting, a woman rose to speak and said was a Democrat who previously supported Hillary Clinton but now backed the Republican ticket.

“Give us some details and examples of your strategies and plan for economic empowerment for women,” she said.

McCain signaled for Palin to answer the question.

“Well first let me take a shot at that, and I’ll tell ya, I’m a product of Title IX in our schools, where equal education and equal opportunities in sports really helped propel me into the—I guess into the position that I’m in today where,” Palin said.

McCain then interjected, “Could I mention she was a point guard on a state championship basketball team.”

After the crowd’s applause died down, Palin continued: “Sports were very, very important to me growing up, you know just learning about self discipline and healthy competition and about what it takes to win and even how to graciously lose sometimes. But how to win, that’s what it teaches ya. Now, I was a product of Title IX where legislation allowed that equal opportunity. Now if we have to still keep going down that road to create more legislation, to get with it in the 21st century, to make sure that women do have equality especially in the work place, then we’re there because we understand that in this age we have all got to be working together. I respect you so much that you are a Democrat recognizing that John McCain and me as a team of mavericks understand where you’re coming from, and we can work together on these issues. But yup, equality for women, for all, that’s going to be part of the agenda and I thank you for that question.”

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While Palin remains popular among McCain voters, the poll suggests that the McCain campaign may have cause for concern. More than half of registered voters do not think Palin is prepared for the job of Vice President, and even McCain supporters cite "inexperience" as what they like least about her.

Just 17 percent of registered voters say McCain chose Palin because she is well qualified for the job of Vice President. Seventy-five percent say McCain made the choice to help win the election. (Even voters backing the Republican ticket share this view: 53 percent say the Palin choice was to help McCain win in November.)

Contrast that with the perception of Obama's selection of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as running mate: 57 percent of registered voters say Obama chose Biden because he is well qualified. Thirty-one percent say the choice was to help with the election.

Palin’s favorable rating stands at 40 percent, down 4 points from last week. Her unfavorable rating, which stands at 30 percent, has risen eight points in the same time period. Her favorable rating among women has fallen 11 points in the past week.

Nearly 3 in 4 voters say Biden is prepared to be vice president; just 42 percent say Palin is prepared for the job, down 5 points from last week. But Palin is seen as the more relatable of the two: 55 percent of registered voters say she is someone they can relate to, while 43 percent say the same of Biden.

Voters who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries are not fully embracing the new woman in the race. Forty-eight percent of Clinton voters say they have an unfavorable view of Palin, while 20 percent view her positively.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Willowdale Wizard:
Forty-eight percent of Clinton voters say they have an unfavorable view of Palin, while 20 percent view her positively.

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quote:

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From WW's link above: Still, one in four registered voters who were Clinton supporters in the primary say they plan to support the McCain-Palin ticket in November.

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Note that this is not broken down in terms of male/female Clinton supporters.

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One parishioner ruled out voting for Mr. Obama explicitly because he is black. “Are they going to make it the Black House?” Ray McCormick asked, to embarrassed hushing from a half dozen others gathered around the rectory kitchen. (Five of the six, all lifelong Democrats who supported Mrs. Clinton in the primary, said they now lean toward Mr. McCain.)

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DREW JOINS THE ENOUGH CLUB.... It seemed unlikely that Elizabeth Drew, an accomplished journalist and author, would join the ever-growing "Enough" Club. She did, after all, write a glowing book about John McCain as recently as 2002, praising him as a principled, honorable man of conscience.

But now, Drew's done. After noting McCain's shift to the hard right, away from the 2000 persona that made him a hero to many, Drew explains that McCain "morph[ed] into just another panderer -- to Bush and the Republican Party's conservative base." ........................
McCain is certainly losing friends fast, isn't he? Drew's condemnation comes just a couple of days after Richard Cohen's. Which came a couple of days after Stephen Chapman's. Which followed Michael Kinsley, Thomas Friedman, Sebastian Mallaby, Joe Klein, E.J. Dionne, Jr., Ruth Marcus, Mark Halperin, and Bob Herbert. Even David Brooks is getting there.

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GOP Senator: Palin qualified a stretch

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WASHINGTON - Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said his party's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, lacks foreign policy experience and called it a "stretch" to say she's qualified to be president.
ADVERTISEMENT

"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview published Thursday by the Omaha World-Herald. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

Could Palin lead the country if GOP presidential nominee John McCain could not?

"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Hagel said.

McCain and other Republicans have defended Palin's qualifications, citing Alaska's proximity to Russia. Palin told ABC News, "They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."

Hagel took issue with that argument. "I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."

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[ 18 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

quote:

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Originally posted by bigcitygal:
Actually, it's one in four:

Note that this is not broken down in terms of male/female Clinton supporters.

What would be interesting to ponder is why. Because of anger over the Barack nomination win? Because of the "support any woman" kookiness? (Which I personally believe is a myth, btw) Because of "support the all-white ticket"? I'm not sure if it's possible to answer this with any real meaning.

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I agree that it is a myth that there is this significant portion of women that only see gender and are not intelligent enough to vote based on policy.

quote:

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Originally posted by Ghislaine:
I agree that it is a myth that there is this significant portion of women that only see gender and are not intelligent enough to vote based on policy.

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There is a significant portion of men in Amerika who would not vote for a woman for President, and are not intelligent enough to vote based on policy.

I believe the same would be true of women, mutatis mutandis.

ETA: Also, the idea that Clinton supporters are holding their noses and voting for McCain just to spite Barack Obama is ludicrous. The above figures show that 20% of Clinton supporters view Palin "positively", so if they support McCain/Palin in November, it won't be just out of negativity towards Obama.

[ 18 September 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

quote:

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Many parishes distributed a voter guide, produced by an outside conservative Catholic group called Catholic Answers, which identified five “nonnegotiable” issues for faithful voters: abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning, euthanasia and same-sex marriage.

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The environment, the economy, foreign affairs...meh, not nearly as important as reproduction. Amazing how incredibly stupid religion can be.

Edited to add...above from Josh's link.

[ 18 September 2008: Message edited by: Polly Brandybuck ]

- why he feels that she's proving to be a pathological liar

- how her "magical evangelical thinking" is not what the US needs right now

McCain and the Issue of Spain.
-----------------------------------------
This isn't getting a lot of MSN airtime yet but it's been simmering for a few days.

Not a Gaffe?

quote:

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In McCain's bizarre interview with Spain's Union Radio he refused to say whether he would meet with Spain's Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Listening to the interview repeatedly, it simply seemed that McCain had no idea who Zapatero actually was. McCain seemed to think he was a Latin American autocrat - despite the reporter repeatedly saying "I am talking about Spain." This gaffe would seem to have very significant implications. Not knowing who the leader of Spain was or thinking Spain was in Latin America would not really be shocking coming from his running mate, but McCain has run on his foreign policy expertise and such confusion completely undercuts his credibility. Furthermore this gaffe would bring up real questions about his age. Is McCain really prepared to deal with a crisis at 3AM, when he can't even remember who the leader of Spain is during a late evening interview?

But was it a gaffe? While it definitely seemed so, now Randy Sheunemann, McCain's foreign policy adviser is shockingly saying that this is not a gaffe but an intentional expression of policy toward Spain.

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McCain Meant to Reject Spain

Confusion in Spain

The Pain in Spain Falls Mainly on McCain

[ 22 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

The macro picture:

quote:

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This presidential contest has certainly been a roller-coaster ride. And as we suggested yesterday, something in the race turned this week. Two new national polls now show Obama with single-digit leads over McCain -- about where the race was before the conventions. The reason why Obama’s up: women. According to the latest New York Times/CBS survey, Obama is ahead overall by five points (48%-43%); a week ago after the GOP convention, CBS had McCain up two points overall (46%-44%) and five points among women (47%-42%). But in the latest poll, Obama once again has the advantage with female voters (54%-38%). The same holds true in a new national Quinnipiac survey, which finds Obama with a four-point lead over McCain (49%-45%) and a 14-point edge among women (54%-40%). Every poll out this week -- whether by a good pollster or a mediocre one -- has shown the same trend: movement towards Obama. It's hard to ignore and one can sense the conventional wisdom shifting again. We have literally lived the adage this week: seven days is a lifetime in politics.

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[ 18 September 2008: Message edited by: josh ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Willowdale Wizard:
Yes, I've seen a transcript, and McCain seemed very befuddled. Still, Republicans have hated Zapatero for years, mainly for withdrawing from Iraq. He's not been invited to the White House under Bush. He openly supported Kerry on the eve of the 2004 election. Rice has criticised him over Zapatero's Cuba policy.

It seems mutual. In 2003, as head of the Socialist Party then in opposition, Zapatero declined to join other Spanish officials in standing up when U.S. troops marched past a VIP stand during a parade to mark National Day. The next year, as prime minister, he did not even invite the Americans.

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I think what is significant about this beyond was it initial confusion and those implications is that since his advisor has now come out and said, 'No he really meant it" that it's indicating an even worse relationship. He pretty much called them enemies outright who want to harm the US. It also contradicts what he said back in April.

From the first 'gaffe?" link:

quote:

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Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, is ready to change the policy of estrangement with the Spanish government that was put in place for four years now by George Bush. He declared that he was ready to fully normalize bilateral relations and that Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was invited to the White House.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Willowdale Wizard:
I don't get why the accepted wisdom is that McCain's strong suit is international relations ... when he says things like this, or "Czechoslovakia" ... or that Iraq has a land-border with Pakistan.

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The Lying Game

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Politics has always been lousy with blather and chicanery. But there are rules and traditions too. In the early weeks of the general-election campaign, a consensus has grown in the political community — a consensus that ranges from practitioners like Karl Rove to commentators like, well, me — that John McCain has allowed his campaign to slip the normal bounds of political propriety. The situation has gotten so intense that we in the media have slipped our normal rules as well. Usually when a candidate tells something less than the truth, we mince words. We use euphemisms like mendacity and inaccuracy ... or, as the Associated Press put it, "McCain's claims skirt facts." But increasing numbers of otherwise sober observers, even such august institutions as the New York Times editorial board, are calling John McCain a liar. You might well ask, What has McCain done to deserve this? What unwritten rules did he break? Are his transgressions of degree or of kind? ..................................
Almost every politician stretches the truth. We journalists try to point out the exaggerations and criticize them, then let the voters decide.
......................
McCain's lies have ranged from the annoying to the sleazy, and the problem is in both degree and kind. His campaign has been a ceaseless assault on his opponent's character and policies, featuring a consistent—and witting—disdain for the truth. Even after 38 million Americans heard Obama say in his speech at the Democratic National Convention that he was open to offshore oil-drilling and building new nuclear-power plants, McCain flatly said in his acceptance speech that Obama opposed both. Normal political practice would be for McCain to say, "Obama says he's 'open to' offshore drilling, but he's always opposed it. How can we believe him?" This persistence in repeating demonstrably false charges is something new in presidential politics.
----------------------

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quote:

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Ideological differences aside, John McCain's campaign has been more dishonest, more unfair, more -- to use a word that resonates with McCain -- dishonorable than Barack Obama's.

. . . .

McCain's transgressions, though, are of a different magnitude. His whoppers are bigger; there are more of them. He -- the easy out would be to say "his campaign" -- has been misleading, and at times has outright lied, about his opponent. He has misrepresented -- that's the charitable verb -- his vice presidential nominee's record. Called on these fouls, he has denied and repeated them.

The most outrageous of McCain's distortions involve Obama on taxes. He asserts that Obama's new taxes could "break your family budget," and that an Obama presidency would inflict "painful tax increases on working American families." Hardly. Obama would lower taxes for most households, and lower them more than McCain would. The only "painful tax increases on working American families" would be on working families making more than $250,000.

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There have been some stories posted about the 'hacking' of Palin email account. Some screenshots were posted and that's about it.
Well it may not be over, there's a little storm brewing off the port bow. There's been some speculation on who it was. Was it just a dumb teenager? Some sort of rovian planned 'thingy'? The theory on that one goes, 'well isn't it convenient that at the very time that the whole email issue is under scruitiny because of Troopergate that something happens that not only could garner sympathy but could cover email deletion'.

So of course the secret service and FBI is on the case. Looks like the perpetrator isn't so smart:
Memo to US Secret Service

It looks like a flashing news story is breaking care of Michelle Makin and Ben Smith from politico.

quote:

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Michelle Malkin posts a reader's very plausible, if unconfirmed, account of exactly how a hacker got into Palin's account, a feat which seems to have required patience at guessing and deducing security questions, but no particular tech savvy.

From what appears to be the hacker's own recounting:

Earlier it was just some prank to me, I really wanted to get something incriminating which I was sure there would be, just like all of you anon out there that you think there was some missed opportunity of glory, well there WAS NOTHING, I read everything, every little blackberry confirmation… all the pictures, and there was nothing, and it finally set in, THIS internet was serious business, yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this sh**ever got to the FBI I was f***ed

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And now apparently readers from Malkin and Little Green Footballs are saying that the guy is the 20 year old son of a Democratic senator from Tennessee.
edited to add: Tenneesee News Story on State Reps comments

I think maybe we can see where this may be going.
The comments sections are already screaming, "Obama did it. He organized it. We demand a full inquiry! Emailgate emailgate! Only evil liberals would stoop this low.."

Fox and Drudge are already on the case.

This one is very smelly no matter how you look at it.

[ 18 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

[ 18 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

quote:

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Originally posted by ElizaQ:
And then if you want to get even stranger. This is beginning to make the rounds today.

Palin, the Pastor, Prayer and for added 'wow' add some 'witches' into it.

[ 17 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

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OK, now I'm looking forward to a McCain/Palin presidency. She consulted with someone who literally led a "witch hunt." This is great. I'm looking forward to their Supreme Court nominations.

My personal soothsayer told me the Supreme Court deliberations would sound like this:

And I could crossdress a moose

quote:

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And now apparently readers from Malkin and Little Green Footballs are saying that the guy is the 20 year old son of a Democratic senator from Tennessee.
edited to add: Tenneesee News Story on State Reps comments

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quote:

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Originally posted by josh:

Not a U.S. senator, but a state rep.

---

Cool thanks for the correction. I think though in the eyes of those that are glittering with scandal, it's the 'Democrat' part that has the sirens going off.
Meanwhile 'anonymous' has launched or is attempting to launch and internet attack against Fox. They're pissed off cause Bill O'Reilly called them 'leftists' in one of his diatribes last night.

Stonewalling witnesses may stall Palin probe until after U.S. election

quote:

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A key legislator says unco-operative witnesses are stalling the investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin - delays that could last until after the U.S. elections.

Senator Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat from Anchorage, says subpoenaed witnesses who are refusing to testify can continue to do so for months without penalty. Wielechowski, a member of the panel that summoned the witnesses, says court actions to force the witnesses to appear are unlikely.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by DrConway:
PS, re the investigation of Palin...

Stonewalling witnesses may stall Palin probe until after U.S. election

How conveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenient.

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Yeah this is starting to get big. It was headlining on CNN every 10 mins or so.

Palin's Husban Won't Testify

quote:

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband won't comply with a subpoena issued by state lawmakers who are investigating her firing of Alaska's public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin campaign said Thursday.

Gov. Sarah Palin has refused to cooperate with an inquiry into the firing of her public safety commissioner.

A state Senate committee is scheduled to meet Friday to take statements from the 12 people they subpoenaed last week, including Todd Palin.

But campaign operatives have spent a week assailing the investigation as "tainted" by partisan politics since the governor became the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella said Todd Palin would not face a "fair hearing" before the committee. The governor argues that the state Personnel Board is the proper forum to investigate her July firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

Sarah Palin's aides said she will not comply with subpoenas, either, because the governor has "declined to participate" in the inquiry, Alaska's attorney general said Wednesday.

---

Meanwhile the Spain issue seems to be getting bigger and Spains angry. It's also apparently causing some noise from Hispanics and Latinos in the south. Trying to find a good link to a story. It's just on blogs right now so maybe nothing has been written yet.

quote:

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Make a donation to Planned Parenthood IN HONOR of Sarah Palin. When you make a donation to PP (secure site) in her name, they’ll send her a card stating the donation was made in her honor. (Not that I’m into avian homicide, but this is like killing two birds w/ one stone: it financially supports beleaguered PP and protests the threat to female rights by one of our own.

Here’s the link to Planned Parenthood’s website:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org

Open ‘Donate’. Click ‘Honorary or Memorial Donations’. Fill in your info and donation, then scroll down to ‘I would like to give to’: fill
in ‘Sarah Palin’ and use the McCain campaign headquarters address:
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington, VA 22202

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quote:

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Palin's transparency proposal already exists in D.C.

Sarah Palin says she will bring the same kind of transparency she brought to Alaska to Washington, D.C..
Sarah Palin says she will bring the same kind of transparency she brought to Alaska to Washington, D.C..

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (CNN) – Sarah Palin likes to tell voters around the country about how she “put the government checkbook online” in Alaska. On Thursday, Palin suggested she would take that same proposal to Washington.

“We’re going to do a few new things also,” she said at a rally in Cedar Rapids. “For instance, as Alaska’s governor, I put the government’s checkbook online so that people can see where their money’s going. We’ll bring that kind of transparency, that responsibility, and accountability back. We’re going to bring that back to D.C.”

There’s just one problem with proposing to put the federal checkbook online – somebody’s already done it. His name is Barack Obama.

---

Link

I guess transparency and accountability only matter in Washington and not backwater places like Alaska where ethics inquiries are going on.

quote:

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As everyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I responded pretty enthusiastically to the Palin nomination in its first minutes. And, honestly, I didn’t know that much about her. But what I knew, I liked.

[...]

Pretty much everything she has said or done since her appearance on the national stage – beginning with her acceptance speech – has soured me on her. It’s decreasingly plausible to me that she’s who I thought she was when she was nominated. Based on her performance on the campaign trail so far, she’s a shallow and demagogic politician. And if, on the off chance, that’s not who she is, then it’s instructive that the McCain campaign seems to be eager to have her play this particular character.

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quote:

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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband won't comply with a subpoena issued by state lawmakers investigating her firing of Alaska's public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin campaign said Thursday.

A state Senate committee is scheduled to meet Friday to take statements from the 12 people they subpoenaed last week, including Todd Palin. But McCain-Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said Todd Palin would not face a "fair hearing" before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

. . . .

One Judiciary Committee member said lawmakers would have little recourse if witnesses refused to comply with the subpoenas. Only the full Senate, which does not reconvene until January, can vote to hold them in contempt, state Sen. Bill Wielechowski said.

"It appears that the McCain campaign is now very heavily involved in this, and they're attempting to stonewall the investigation," Wielechowski, a Democrat, said just before Thursday's announcement.

---

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/18/palin.investigation/index.html

[ 19 September 2008: Message edited by: josh ]

quote:

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Yesterday in his town hall meeting with Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) advocated offshore oil drilling by pushing three myths: 1) Hurricanes won’t damage oil rigs, 2) Fish love oil rigs, and 3) Cuba is allowing China to drill near the U.S. coast:

McCAIN: An oil rig off of the Louisiana coast. It survived hurricanes. It is safe, it is sound, and to somehow —

And by the way, on that oil rig — and I’m sure you’ve probably heard this story — you look down, and there’s fish everywhere! There’s fish everywhere! Yeah, the fish love to be around those rigs. So not only can it be helpful for energy, it can be helpful for some pretty good meals as well. […]

As far as China and Cuba are concerned, we continue to hear that there is negotiations or conversations or — I’m not exactly sure what the state of play is, but it’s not a healthy thing, obviously.

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WSJ

quote:

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John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. But on Thursday, he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial panic -- Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

To give readers a flavor of Mr. McCain untethered, we'll quote at length: "Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch. The primary regulator of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino. They allowed naked short selling -- which simply means that you can sell stock without ever owning it. They eliminated last year the uptick rule that has protected investors for 70 years. Speculators pounded the shares of even good companies into the ground.

"The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the President and has betrayed the public's trust. If I were President today, I would fire him."

Wow. "Betrayed the public's trust." Was Mr. Cox dishonest? No. He merely changed some minor rules, and didn't change others, on short-selling. String him up! Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on Mr. Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It's also un-Presidential.

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And now...

Undermining Campaign Attack

quote:

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Republicans Back Obama‘s Version of Meeting with Iraqi Leaders

September 19, 2008 1:06 PM

Earlier this week, the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., seized upon a column in the New York Post that described Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as having urged Iraqi leaders in a private meeting to delay coming to an agreement with the Bush administration on the status of U.S. troops.

"Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence," Post columnist Amir Tehari wrote, quoting Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari who told the Post that Obama during his meeting with Iraqi leaders in July "asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington."

The charge -- that Obama asked the Iraqis to delay signing off on a "Status of Forces Agreement," thus delaying US troop withdrawal and interfering in U.S. foreign policy -- has been picked up on the internet, talk radio and by Republicans including the McCain campaign, which seized on the story as possible evidence of duplicity.

The Obama campaign said that the Post report consisted of "outright distortions."
--------------------
Attendees of the meeting back Obama's account, including not just Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, but Hagel, Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffers from both parties. Officials of the Bush administration who were briefed on the meeting by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also support Obama's account and dispute the Post story and McCain attack.
---------------
Two officials of the Bush administration say that if Obama had done what the Post story asserted – which they believe to be untrue – U.S. Ambassador Crocker and embassy officials attending the meeting would have ensured that the Bush administration heard about it immediately. If such an incident occurred in front of officials of the Bush administration, it would have constituted a foreign policy breach and would have been front-page huge news; it would not have leaked out two months later in an op-ed column.

Nonetheless, based on nothing more than the Post report, McCain senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann issued a statement earlier this week expressing outrage.

---

And why is Karl Rove writing editorials and giving Obama 'advice'? What's he playing here?

"First Dude" or Shadow Governer

quote:

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- He's the man Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin affectionately calls her "first dude."

Todd Palin was introduced to the nation at the Republican National Convention as a blue-collar oil worker, a laid-back father of five and a world-record-holding snowmobile racer.
------------------------
He's worked in Alaska's oil industry and as a fisherman. But in recent times, he's had another role. Some call him the "Shadow Governor."

In government circles and among the family's acquaintances, Todd Palin is known as his wife's greatest adviser and most loyal protector. One family friend said, "Todd is incredibly supportive and is willing to do whatever it takes to help Sarah."

Todd may appear quiet, almost shy, but he's made quite an impression on his wife's running mate, Sen. John McCain. On the campaign trail this month in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, McCain said, "He's not afraid of Washington, D.C.! He can take them on!"

Alaskans interviewed by CNN say Todd Palin has plenty of influence.

He's not on the state payroll, but lawmakers say he is a central figure in his wife's policy agenda. -----------------
CNN has seen thousands of e-mails released this year from the governor's office that show that Todd Palin was copied on hundreds of them. The topics of the e-mails ranged from public criticism of Sarah Palin to her meetings with corporate leaders.

Andrew Halcro, who ran as an independent against Sarah Palin for governor in 2006 and is a critic of the Palins, wants to know why Todd Palin was being copied on state correspondence.

Halcro wrote a blog post about Todd Palin called "Shadow Governor" and says, "Todd plays the role as kind of the fixer."

Even Halcro found himself the subject of e-mails that Todd Palin was copied on. He wants to know why.

"This whole process, and the whole string of e-mails, to me really raise some red flags," Halcro said.

But campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton explained, "There is spousal privilege in that the governor is asking him to print them off or take care of business."

Alaska lawmakers say Todd Palin is a fixture at the state Legislature. So much so, some say they've joked about getting buttons that read, "What would Todd do?"

One of those lawmakers is Lyda Green, a Republican and state Senate president who is not friends with the Palins.

"I had a meeting I requested with the governor. ... I was particularly surprised that Todd was there. I had never seen a spouse stay in the room through the meeting."

The campaign said, "Todd's role has not been inappropriate."

The campaign also confirms that Todd Palin has taken two trips with state commissioners to survey Alaskan mines and one to survey part of the proposed route for a natural gas pipeline, his wife's top goal. The state paid for those trips, according to the campaign, because they were considered "state business" since Todd Palin is trying to expand Alaska's work force.

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quote:

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The Alaska lawmaker directing an abuse-of-power investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin promised Friday the probe will be finished before the election, despite refusals by key witnesses to testify, including the governor's husband.

After waiting 35 minutes for Todd Palin and two state administrative employees to appear under subpoena before the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Hollis French condemned their refusal to testify and the attorney general's broken promise that seven other witnesses would testify who were not subpoenaed.

French said the retired prosecutor hired by the Alaska Legislature to investigate Palin, Stephen Branchflower, will conclude his investigation by Oct. 10. Still, that report will not include testimony from the Republican vice presidential nominee, her husband or most of the top aides Branchflower hoped to interview.

Sarah Palin's allies hoped the investigation would be delayed past the election to spare her any troublesome revelations — or at least the distraction — before voters have made their choice.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Michelle:
How is it possible to refuse a subpoena? If you refuse, doesn't that mean contempt and jail?

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Yeah it does and can mean jail. I can't remember exactly but there is some reason that calling them all in contempt can't be done until the legislature sits in January. So basically it's a stall tactic, they all know, or in this case have been told by the Repub lawyers that they can not show up and won't be dinged legally for it for months. It's pretty slimy.

Never thought I'd be learning this much about Alaskan politics. I think the Repubs really failed from their perspective in keeping this under raps because they didn't take some of it's uniqueness into consideration. For one it's small and it's not as easy to cover-up with all sorts of distraction because people know everyone. One of the first thing they did was try to say that Obama sent a team of 30 people and lawyers to interfere. That was debunked almost immediately on the ground and through the internet because as people said, 'We know who the outsiders are and they ain't here, we'd know.' Two and this is the thing I keep reading over and over is that Alaskans, except for the most diehard of partisans don't like being interfered with by all those 'East Coasters'. So people are speaking out and are PO'd about that part. Some people feel like their government has been taken over, like an invasion. Not all of the Republican reps have fallen into line but as some people are saying at least we now know where people's loyalties lie and what their true colors are. The last big one is that the police commissioner in question is really well respected and loved across partisan lines and people have been appalled at the smearing of his character that's been going on.

quote:

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An internal government document obtained by ABC News appears to contradict Sarah Palin's most recent explanation for why she fired her public safety chief, the move which prompted the now-contested state probe into "Troopergate."
alaska travel

An internal government document obtained by ABC News appears to contradict Sarah Palin's most recent explanation for why she fired her public safety chief Walt Monegan, the move which prompted the now-contested state probe into "Troopergate."

Fighting back against allegations she may have fired her then-Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, for refusing to go along with a personal vendetta, Palin on Monday argued in a legal filing that she fired Monegan because he had a "rogue mentality" and was bucking her.
..................
The McCain-Palin campaign echoed the charge in a press release it distributed Monday, concurrent with Palin's legal filing. "Mr. Monegan persisted in planning to make the unauthorized lobbying trip to D.C.," the release stated.

But the governor's staff authorized the trip, according to an internal travel document from the Department of Public Safety, released Friday in response to an open records request.

The document, a state travel authorization form, shows that Palin's chief of staff, Mike Nizich, approved Monegan's trip to Washington, D.C., "to attend meeting with Senator Murkowski." The date next to Nizich's signature reads June 18.

In response to inquiries about the document Friday, the McCain-Palin campaign provided a statement from Randy Ruaro, another aide to Palin.

According to Ruaro, Monegan asked for -- and received -- approval for the travel without telling Palin's staff his reason for going. "As a matter of routine, the travel was approved by Mike Nizich ... weeks before the actual purpose was made clear by former Commissioner Monegan," Ruaro wrote.

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quote:

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How is it possible to refuse a subpoena? If you refuse, doesn't that mean contempt and jail?

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It goes on and on. The Democrats however, to my knowledge, have not charged anyone with contempt so why would these republicans comply? There is also a view that if anyone is charged, Bush will pardon them anyway.

[ 20 September 2008: Message edited by: Polunatic2 ]

quote:

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Abdication by Palin

When did the McCain campaign take over the governor's office?

Gov. Sarah Palin has surrendered important gubernatorial duties to the Republican presidential campaign. McCain staff are handling public and press questions about actions she has taken as governor. The governor who said, "Hold me accountable," is hiding behind the hired guns of the McCain campaign to avoid accountability

Is it too much to ask that Alaska's governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska's governor?
---------------------
s the McCain campaign telling Alaskans that Alaska's governor can't handle her own defense in front of her own Alaska constituents?

Way back when, before John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate, Palin promised to cooperate with the investigation.

Now she won't utter a peep about it to Alaskans. Nor will her husband, Todd, who definitely needs to explain his role in Troopergate.

Instead, Alaskans have to sit back and listen to John McCain's campaign operatives handling inquiries about what Alaska's governor did while governing Alaska. Residents of any state would be offended to see their governor cede such a fundamental, day-to-day governmental responsibility to a partisan politician from another state. It's especially offensive to Alaskans.

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quote:

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The Alaskan Governor is the quintessential dominatrix, the Queen of Cold with a warm smile and a wicked style. This is a key to her appeal.

Americans, who reelected (overlooking, for the moment, the possibility of voting machine fraud) the Bush Crime Family Torture Masters in 2004, apparently have a strong masochistic streak. An attractive, powerful, moralizing domme makes us weak in the knees.

Americans are bowing down before this woman like lovestruck submissives, giving up their rights to peace, pleasure, freedom, a clean environment and any sense of respect from the world. Like Austrian novelist Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch's 19th century classic Venus in Furs, Sarah Palin looks stunning in fur, wields a mean leather whip and has utter disdain for your pain. And this Venus also wields a cross as a sword.

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quote:

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A BBC reporter tooling through the state fair Thursday -- the same day that Democrat Barack Obama was in New Mexico -- was asking Hispanics their views on Barack Obama's presidential bid. Reporter Jon Kelly talked first to a young graduate student who said he was going to vote for Obama.

Then Kelly stumbled upon Fernando C de Baca, chairman of the Bernalillo County Republicans. According to Kelly, C de Baca said Hispanics were a naturally conservative group.

Then C de Baca offered Kelly a blunt assessment on why Hispanics wouldn't vote for Obama.

The reporter, John Kelly, quotes C de Baca as saying:

"The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors," he said. "African-Americans came here as slaves.

"Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president."

---

quote:

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ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) — CNN confirms that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai next week in New York during the opening meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

The meeting is part of a larger effort by the McCain campaign to bolster Palin's foreign policy credentials in the face of criticism from Democrats questioning her preparedness for the Vice Presidency. Though her running mate is considered a leading voice on military issues and foreign affairs, Palin herself has only traveled abroad to Kuwait, Germany, Canada and, briefly, to an Iraqi border crossing.

According to the Washington Post, which first reported the story, the Karzai meeting was initiated by McCain campaign officials.

At a town-hall meeting in Michigan on Wednesday, Palin expressed confidence in her foreign policy acumen.

"But as for foreign policy, you know, I think that I am prepared, and I know that on January 20th, if we are so blessed as to be sworn into office as your president and vice president, certainly we'll be ready," she told a questioner. "I'll be ready."

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quote:

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So far Gov. Palin's handling of Alaska's Troopergate has focused on why Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan was fired. An equally important question is why Chuck Kopp was hired to replace him.

On June 30, 2008, David Brody of CBS News reported John McCain met in North Carolina with Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, director of the multimillion- dollar Samaritan's Place faith-based charitable organization. McCain was courting the religious right who, at the time, were skeptical of his social conservatism and his Christian qualifications. After the meeting Graham issued a statement praising McCain's "personal faith" and added, "We had an opportunity to pray ... for God's will to be done in this upcoming election."

Subsequent events suggest that the price of support for McCain by the fundamentalist Christian leadership would be a vice presidential candidate of their liking. Gov. Palin was a logical choice for Franklin Graham, whose ties to Alaska include a palatial, by Bush Alaska standards, second home in Port Alsworth: a community that has often served as a retreat for Christian fundamentalist leaders.

But Gov. Palin did not promote a socially conservative agenda during her first two years as governor and some Alaska right-wing commentators called her an economic liberal. Send us a sign, national fundamentalist Christian leaders seemingly said, that proves your credentials. In firing Monegan and hiring Kopp, Palin would have gained a controversial measure of revenge in a family dispute and established her standing as a Christian conservative politician.
---------------------------------------

Palin's connection to what Jeff Sharlett has called "elite fundamentalism" is of interest now that she is an election and a heartbeat away from the presidency. Franklin Graham has been the keynote speaker for the Alaska Governor's Prayer Breakfast the past two years. According to their Web site, the organizers believe, "God directs the affairs of Man and is the ultimate authority over human events." The Alaska Governor's Prayer Breakfast is connected to the National Prayer Breakfast sponsored by The Fellowship Foundation, also known as "The Family," which espouses similar beliefs. The Family is headed by Doug Coe, one of the most influential evangelicals in Washington, D.C. Coe's group tends to operate behind the scenes organizing small cells attended by the power elite, mostly Republicans. George Bush was saved in such a cell while in Texas.

Elite fundamentalists believe, according to Sharlett, not only in religious determinism but that they are personally chosen by God to be in positions of power. By claiming divine legitimacy of their political power, elite fundamentalists relegate the opposition to being the devil's tool. They are making a frighteningly close return to the pre-enlightenment concept of rule by divine right, which our founding fathers rejected as anathema to democracy and established, instead, the separation of church and state lest decisions be made on the basis of good versus evil rather than wise versus unwise.

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[ 20 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

quote:

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Originally posted by bagkitty:
I really haven't been following these threads, but when I ran across the attached link about Palin's charging rape victims for the rape kits used in their examinations, I thought it might be of some interest. I have gone through the Palin threads from the 17th through today (the 20th) and only noticed one related link, this story from Daily Kos is much more extensive.

In depth explanation of Palin charging victims for cost or examination rape kits

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Yeah thats a good one. This is the full article that's quoted in that diary.

Life Begins at Rape...Just ask Mayor Palin

quote:

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The Obama and McCain campaigns have agreed to an unusual free-flowing format for the three televised presidential debates, which begin Friday, but the McCain camp fought for and won a much more structured approach for the questioning at the vice-presidential debate, advisers to both campaigns said Saturday.

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

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

---

But I guess when it's a rich white woman who wants for nothing except more power and visibility... eh, affirmative action all the way!

quote:

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Originally posted by Sven:
My money says that McCain-Palin loses in 2008. But, I suspect that Palin will not then return to Alaska never to be heard from again. Instead, she will, over the next four years, be preparing to be the standard-bearer of the Republicans in the 2012 election against Obama. She represents a danger to the Democrats: Of being a female reincarnation of Ronald Reagan (very conservative but with a lot of popular support).

---

I agree that she's possibly a future agent, but I think her status as a frontrunner will depend on how much she is perceived to have added to the ticket beyond the base and her ability to demonstate credibility on national issues. One point that some cons made when the pick was first announced was that McCain was forcing her into a national spotlight before she was ready and, ultimately, eroding her future capital.

I do think that she would return to Alaska - or would you see another more prominent role for her in the RNC? Of course, even in Alaska she could remain in the spotlight.

In any event, the beauty of politics is that today's frontrunners are tomorrow's "whatever happened to?"s. I think her lustre is already starting to fade a bit (ok, maybe a bit of wishful thinking.)

[ 22 September 2008: Message edited by: pookie ]

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1023408.html

[ 22 September 2008: Message edited by: Joel_Goldenberg ]

quote:

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Originally posted by pookie:
I do think that she would return to Alaska - or would you see another more prominent role for her in the RNC? Of course, even in Alaska she could remain in the spotlight.

---

Oh, I think she will definitely go back to Alaska to continue as governor. But, I suspect she will be spending a significant amount of time over the next four years building her new national stage presence. She’s going to spend a considerable amount of time immersed in learning about matters of foreign affairs (something that state governors have nothing to do with).

She drew a crowd of over 60,000 people in Florida this weekend (almost as many people as those who filled the stadium in Denver to listen to Obama’s DNC acceptance speech). No one in the Republican ranks can rival that.

With whats happening in congress right now if the Dems fight the bailout..then they're bad or if they managed to get the bill changed...they bad for holding up the process that will save the American main street and playing 'politics' with the crisis that they are at fault for. There's some pretty damning spin available no matter what happens.
Of course all based on the fact that most people don't know what in the heck is going on.

The Democrats of course will spin things their way. I'm just not so sure that they have as good spin (relevant to election) as the Republicans have right now. I think Obama has a pretty tough go here. If anyone could pull it off in the political sense he would be able to though. He's playing calm and steady, which people are noticing especially in comparison to McCain.

There's still a ways to go with this thing I think and it's pretty volatile atm.

edited to add: Just came across this which explains way better then I did of why all of this can play into the Republicans favour:

GOP' Bottomless Crack Pipe

[ 22 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by pookie:
[QB]Hmm - I dunno Eliza Q. - I think you may be underestimating the anger and skepticism among the general public about the need for and optics of the bail out. There has been enough bipartisan doubt sown over the last 24 hours that I'm not sure voters would punish Dems alone for balking at the administration's particular package.

---

The 'talking points' are already out there that the Dems are holding it up. I've read it at least a dozen times just on the comment sections of various news articles. The question is whether those stick or not. As well as the talking point that this whole mess is Fannie Maes fault and Obamas connections with Fannie Mae. It's BS but that one is everywhere right now.

What may change that though is that since I wrote that many Republicans are now coming out against the bill as well as McCain has yet again said something different then two days ago. He's now okay with it generally as long as there are oversights and almost mimicing the principles that Obama laid out yesterday for it.

I guess I'm just not ready to say nope they've lost it for sure because the politics and optics of how the negotiations for the bailout go this week are still up in the air. Right now it appears to be pretty soundly in Obamas favor as in poll after poll states that people favor him as being stronger with economic issues and CNN just did a poll that stated 2 to 1 people think the Republicans are responsible for this mess.

quote:

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....her willingness to put Creationism up against the teaching of evolutionary science in the classroom on a he-says-she-says basis, that's far more revealing of just who our new Republican vice presidential candidate is than we generally assume....

Whether we know it or not, we should now be duly warned: The Palin nomination is the equivalent of launching a "surge strategy" in the Republican war on the environment...

If you believe that a look-alike God made the world for you to dominate and use, that you are among God's chosen few, and that He will provide for you no matter what you do to your surroundings, then you are likely to see yourself as above the natural order. If you believe that the world will be ending soon anyway, that you will be "raptured" while non-believers are "left behind" (as fundamentalist Tim LeHay so vividly describes the process in his bestselling novels), then precaution and restraint are moot...

Evolutionary theory shapes and informs the ecological sciences that are the very basis for our environmental laws and policies...

We need environmental science in our schools more than ever. An ecologically illiterate generation of students will be ill-prepared to meet our real, less than rapturous future...

The Evolution vs. Creationism debate appears to be an argument over the distant past. But it's actually about the future. It's about, in fact, who will define the cultural mindset that will generate that future. Let us pray it is not defined by a pit bull with lipstick who thinks she is "tasked by God" to drill for oil.

---

quote:

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Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he would temporarily suspend his presidential campaign on Thursday to return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis and the $700 billion bailout package now before Congress.

Mr. McCain said he told Senator Barack Obama that he was asking the Commission on Presidential Debates to postpone the debate scheduled for Friday night.

---

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/us/politics/25mccain.html?hp

quote:

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Turmoil in the financial industry and growing pessimism about the economy have altered the shape of the presidential race, giving Democratic nominee Barack Obama the first clear lead of the general-election campaign over Republican John McCain, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News national poll.

Just 9 percent of those surveyed rated the economy as good or excellent, the first time that number has been in single digits since the days just before the 1992 election. Just 14 percent said the country is heading in the right direction, equaling the record low on that question in polls dating back to 1973.

More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support. The poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. Two weeks ago, in the days immediately following the Republican National Convention, the race was essentially even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent.

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http://tinyurl.com/3tfmlf

Hmmm.

[ 24 September 2008: Message edited by: josh ]

[ 24 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

quote:

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a statement that would be unlikely to go out without the Obama campaign's approval, dismisses McCain's suspension:

This is a critical time for our country. While I appreciate that both candidates have signaled their willingness to help, Congress and the Administration have a process in place to reach a solution to this unprecedented financial crisis.

I understand that the candidates are putting together a joint statement at Senator Obama’s suggestion. But it would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy. If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op.

If there were ever a time for both candidates to hold a debate before the American people about this serious challenge, it is now.

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Politco

Bunch of other posts in the link about this.
Looks like the Obama camp is saying no, they won't agree to a postponement.

quote:

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Originally posted by Polunatic2:
Geez, they might have to cancel the election altogether.

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I think McCain might be wishing that would happen.
Obama just totally PWNED him in a press conference and very nicely called him on everything.

The best line I think was: "Presidents need to be able to do more then one thing at a time."

Volley lobbed. McCains move...

Of course the pollsters went nuts and are coming in between 60-80% opinion that the debates should go on.
Repubs spinning that Obama doesn't care for the country, only himself...do your job.
Repubs on the hill lining up behind McCain.

And meanwhile Palin actually did an interview today and said that if the Bill doesn't pass there will be another Great Depression...

[ 24 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

[ 24 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

LOL

edited to add link

CNN

[ 24 September 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]

quote:

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ANCHORAGE — Today a State Representative called on the Alaska State Troopers to look into possible criminal witness tampering in the state’s bi-partisan legislative Troopergate investigation. Since Gov. Sarah Palin was named to the McCain ticket on Aug. 29, the McCain campaign has sent campaign workers to Alaska to obstruct this investigation.

“Until McCain campaign staffers flew to Alaska to stop this investigation, the Governor and her staff agreed to comply with what we all know is a bi-partisan investigation. After Aug. 29 the campaign started working to block this investigation, and witnesses began joining that effort by ignoring their subpoenas and risking jail time. Something obviously changed the minds of these witnesses after Aug. 29th,” said Rep., Les Gara (D-Anchorage), a State Representative and Former Alaska Assistant Attorney General.

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McCain operatives have spun this as a partisan investigation. The facts show otherwise. Both Committees voted for the subpoenas last week. Six Republicans and four Democrats voted in favor, and only two Senate members voted no. The investigation was started this summer before Palin was named to the McCain ticket, by a unanimous vote of eight Republicans and four Democrats.

The witness tampering statutes follow:

Alaska Statute 11.56.545 -

“(a)Tampering with a witness in the second degree: A person commits the crime of tampering with a witness in the second degree if the person knowingly induces or attempts to induce a witness to be absent from an official proceeding, other than a judicial proceeding, to which the witness has been summoned. (b) Tampering with a witness in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor. (Emphasis added).

AS 11.56.540 has similar elements, and is a felony.

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Mudflats

Sarah says, "he recused himself" twice. that's all i could bear to watch.

quote:

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WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin requested and received an extension of the deadline for revealing her personal finances, until the day after her only debate with Democrat Joe Biden.
ADVERTISEMENT

The Republican vice presidential candidate received a four-day extension Thursday from the Federal Election Commission.

The federal financial disclosure report was initially due next Monday. Now, Palin has until Oct. 3, the day after her debate in St. Louis with Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

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It goes on to say that like OMG the executive report is crazy complicated and like OMG they need more time to fill it out and so on.