Pile On!

The GOP convention still isn't talking about the issues. They are talking about how Barack Obama is the worst person ever, and the media are the worst people ever and it's a damn shame how we can't just get rid of them all.

I'm watching Sarah Palin take her shots and the crowd is eating it up. They're giving her ovation after ovation, but her delivery is terrible. I mean really, she does sound like she's addressing the Rotary Club at a Fourth of July picnic. She sounds bored. And there she mentioned coming to Washington with "a servant's heart." Ugh.

I mean really. Giuliani was more interesting. He at least had some new attack material and has charisma. This woman does not. But I'm jaded. And she's a good liar.

It's all drill and oil and terrah and pipeline and pep rally.

A Lieberman Too Far

The Dems have apparently had enough of Joe F'ckin Lieberman.

Sen. Joe Lieberman's speech before the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night could cost him the chairmanship of a key Senate committee, a top Senate Democratic aide told CNN.

During the speech, the Connecticut senator praised GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and criticized Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

"The Democratic Caucus will reassess the situation with Sen. Lieberman after the election," Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said Wednesday.

Lieberman, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000, now calls himself an "independent Democrat," but he remains a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus, which allows him to head the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Democrats have grumbled for months about Lieberman's outspoken support of McCain, and both Reid and Obama have warned Lieberman to curb his public criticism of Obama.

"What we saw last night was a culmination of provocative efforts in recent months," said a Democratic leadership aide.

All I have to say is YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS ABOUT SIX MONTHS AGO BOYS. Man. Just follow through on this, damn.

Teh WAR!1!!one! Continues

Wow. The AP's Ron Fournier has been pretty hard on Obama lately, but it's almost nice to see the guy smack McSame and Palin around for once with his "analysis". (h/t Mei-Chan The Wonder Pandafish(tm) in StupidiComments)

John McCain's campaign could be panicking or politicking with its claim that sexism lies beneath any questions about Sarah Palin's past.

They say they're not panicked — that the Alaska governor's spot on the GOP ticket is secure — so that leaves room for just one conclusion for now: McCain's political team is playing the gender card to appeal to women, and bashing the media to solidify support among conservatives.

Hours before Palin's high-stakes address to the nation, McCain was trying to inoculate his untested and embattled running mate against criticism.

"This is part of a very clever strategy to lead the Democrats into a trap that will end up with them dumping on Gov. Palin and paying a heavy price," said GOP consultant Rich Galen.

The chorus began at dawn Wednesday when senior adviser Steve Schmidt released a statement declaring that the campaign would no longer answer questions about its background check of Palin, a little-known governor whose every blemish is being paraded before Americans.

"The vetting controversy," Schmidt said, acknowledging that McCain has trouble on his hands, "is a faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee for the vice president of the United States who has never been a part of the old boys' network that has come to dominate the news establishment of this country."

It was a two-fer: Schmidt both tried to rally undecided female voters behind McCain's historic pick and prodded conservative Republicans to do what they do every election cycle — blame the media.

And so, Schmidt suggested, the campaign won't explain why Palin waited until last week to tell the McCain team that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant.

Or why Palin didn't submit to a face-to-face interview with the head of McCain's search team until a few days before her announcement.

Or why she's accused of improperly ordering the firing of the former public safety commissioner.

Or why she supported the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" and other pork-barrel projects before telling the nation on Saturday that she was against them.

"This nonsense," Schmidt said, "is over."

Not likely.

Course, then he turns into his regular Obama hating douchebag self in the second half of the article, but it's my blog, I don't have to quote that part.

Well, It's The Truth

And the Truth shall set you free.

In her speech, Palin wants to leave no question about which ticket has a better hold on the economy, aides say.

Something tells me there will in fact be no question about who's better on the economy after this...

Y'all Left The Mic On, Ya Know

This clip is blowin' up, yo. Conservative pundits Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan get caught off camera talking with MSNBC's Chuck Todd about Sarah Palin.


Transcript (fun part is about 50 seconds in)

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor work. Angler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. And I mean, these guys, this is all like how you want to catch this race. You know, just run it up. And it’s not gonna work.

Peggy Noonan: It’s over.

Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

Chuck Todd: Don’t you think the Palin pick was insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too? (inaudible)

Noonan: I saw Kay this morning.

Todd: Yeah, She's never looked comfortable about it.

Murphy: They’re all bummed out.

Todd: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives...

Murphy: Yeah, but what’s the narrative?

Todd: I totally agree.

Noonan: Every time the Republicans do that because that’s not where they live and it’s not what they’re good at and they blow it.

Todd: You know what’s really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism and...

Todd and Murphy: ...this is cynical.

Muprhy: And as you call it gimmicky.

The Media versus McSame war is on, baby.

Now Where Was Your Spine Back In 2003?

Because if reporters like Joe Kline had shown a fraction of the skeletal fortitude back in the run up to Iraq that he has in St. Paul this week...

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

...then maybe this country would be far, far better off now than it is currently.

Absolution

My theory:

Sarah Palin is absolution for voting against Barack Obama because he is black.

If you're voting against the black man because he is black, you're a racist. If you vote for Sarah Palin instead because you have convinced yourself to believe the notion that lefty bloggers, Democrats, and the "liberal media" all hate women and you're defending America instead, you're an open-minded and wonderful person.

She is the emotional justification for not voting for the black man. And you're kidding yourself if you still think people vote for President based on logic.

If that was true, Obama would be ahead by 40 points.

Ladies and gentlemen, Sarah Palin is your gun-totin' snow queen anti-feminist Jesus-loving banner of "change these people can believe in." The base is ready to go. It doesn't matter what she says or does, they believe. As I said the Politics of Against are very powerful. Having a reason to vote against Obama made people uncomfortable. Having a reason to vote for McSame? All that guilt vanishes.

Now it comes down to which side wants this more.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

If this election is about Bush, Obama wins big.

If this election is about Palin, McSame wins big.

It would be nice if this election were about, you know, the issues. Oh well.

The Dichotomy Of Reality

When you're a wingnut fundie like Malkinvania, your detachment from reality allows you to do things like simultaneously hold both the view that all Conservative women are unfairly persecuted, and that interment of Japanese-Americans in WW II in America was right and that using a similar method to protect us against Muslims in the country is vital and necessary to national security.

Just saying. The GOP operates very simply. When facts get in the way, move reality around them.

The Other Side: Top Ten Reasons Why McSame/Palin Will Win

Taylor Marsh takes an honest look at how McSame and Palin can win in November:

1. Sarah Palin is a gift to the Republican base, who has been energized by her presence, which could bring them out in droves. She's already inspired $10 million in fundraising, something McCain has never seen before.

2. Sarah Palin neutralizes Joe Biden, compliments of the latest media talking point, both on the stump and in debates through the "Rick Lazio" factor.

3. Hillary is not the vice presidential nominee. We wouldn't have Palin if she were.

4. Obama nixed the 527s, which can't get up and running this late and be as effective as they could have been.

5. Palin is now a heroine of wingnut radio because of cultural issues, their political manna, which will further fire up the base, utilizing Karl Rove's main tool to get out the vote: talk radio's outreach.

6. People don't vote on issues, they vote on emotion. McCain's war hero story is real and moves voters on many levels.

7. George W. Bush can manufacture national security opportunities that would give McCain an advantage.

8. People say they will, but actually won't vote for someone different from themselves.

9. Republicans are disciplined, fall in line and fight like hell to win no matter what's required, including play dirty. Democrats are not, do not and will not. See Joe Lieberman, who should have been neutered politically long ago.

10. IOKIYAR = It's OK If You're A Republican. If Palin was a Democrat her tawdry soap opera story, investigation that could result in a report being released right before November, and ridiculously weak resume would be used to beat the Democratic presidential nominee into submission by the right-wing, until she was pulled, ala Eagleton.

And so help me, she's right. This is still going to be a close, ugly race. Which side wants it more, which side will bring out the votes, which side will take this election, which side will do what it takes to win?

I can talk about how Obama is a new light and a new hope for politics, and I can talk about how bad McSame is on the issues and how he's another 4 years of Bush, but if McSame and his buddies steal this and win, it doesn't matter a good goddamn what Obama could have done, we'll be stuck with the Other Side for another 4 years.

We'll be asking "What if?" just like we did with Gore and Kerry, and Rome will burn. We've got to see this one through and vote, and make every vote count.

What The GOP Didn't Say Last Night

Joe Sudbay at AmericaBlog noticed what the GOP completely failed to mention last night in their efforts to fall all over themselves to honor John McSame, Prisoner Of War:

Notice how the Republicans, while managing to take swipe after swipe at Barack Obama, haven't told us a thing about McCain's plan for the fixing the failed economy. Nothing. The failing economy isn't just a political issue for American families, it's a harsh reality. The Republicans apparently don't want it to muck up their well-choreographed show. And, let's face it, if you don't know how many homes you own, you're not too worried about the economy.

Time Magazine's Joe Klein noticed:

But the most striking thing about the evening was what was missing: even the slightest wisp of substance. Not even a detailed tax cutting proposal, not even a paean to anti-missile defense or a rant against Iran. The strategy here seems crystal clear--indeed, it was stated today by McCain's campaign manager, "Issues don't matter." The Republicans are gambling that John McCain's inspiring biography will overcome the overwhelming--80%--feeling that the country has been moving in the wrong direction. They are gambling that people will turn to Republicans to clean up the mess that Republicans made. And they may be right, but I'd guess the euphoria over John McCain's story will last no longer than the next time most Americans have to pull out their checkbooks and pay the bills.

The Obama campaign noticed (via email):

At a time when millions of Americans are struggling like never before to pay their mortgage, their medical bills, and their gas bills, tonight’s speakers at John McCain’s Republican convention proved how out of touch their candidate is by saying not one word about his plans to put our economy back on track and provide real relief to middle-class families. Apparently, John McCain’s belief that we’ve made ‘great progress’ economically over the last eight years means he doesn’t have to offer any plans at all to fix our ailing economy,” said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

The GOP really doesn't believe the issues matter. You'll vote for them because he was a former POW and Sarah Palin has 5 kids. But then again, it's worked for them over the last two Presidential elections. Why stop now? Issues are for pansies. McSame and Palin are real Americans!

The GOP can't win on the issues, so they've simply created new ones and declared themselves to have already won.

Vetted My Ass

The Washington Post's front page story this morning puts a brutal and final end to the lie that McSame's folks checked out Palin thoroughly.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday.

Palin was one of two finalists in the vice presidential sweepstakes who were interviewed last week by former White House counsel Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., just days before McCain introduced her to the nation as his choice. The other finalist was Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. One of the officials said Culvahouse was chasing down last-minute information about Pawlenty at the request of the campaign as late as last Thursday, the day McCain offered the job to Palin and she accepted.

The new details of the selection process provide a fuller picture of how and when McCain made his decision. Despite the late interview of the little-known Palin, senior McCain advisers said Tuesday night that she was chosen only after a lengthy and deliberative process that included the same background investigation given to others on McCain's shortlist and considerable debate among the candidate's inner circle about all his choices.

McCain did not speak face to face with Palin until Thursday morning, at his retreat in Sedona, Ariz. He also talked to her by telephone the previous Sunday. McCain had spoken with all of the others on his shortlist over the course of a selection process that went on for several months, but he was least familiar personally with the person he finally chose.

No, this was a rash, go-for-broke decision that reveals two things: One, just how bad McSame's chances are to win, and Two, just how poor John McSame's judgment is. It's not a brilliant, inspired choice. It's a roll of the dice. He has shown that he doesn't have the temperament to do this job. Period. He's not fit for the job. It's time people started realizing we need somebody who knows what the hell they are doing, not a gambler and an impulsive war hawk with a temper.

McSame lacks the credibility for President based on this decision. Period.

Rudy On Sarah

You've got to be kidding me:

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani says if Sarah Palin had been president when the U.S. came under attack on Sept. 11, 2001, he's confident she would have been able to handle the crisis.

Palin's experience as the mayor of a tiny Alaska town and as Alaska's governor for less than two years have led critics to question her readiness to be vice president in a John McCain administration — and president should he be unable to continue serving.

In an interview Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Giuliani was asked, "If she were the president on 9/11, you would have been confident?"

Giuliani responded: "I'd be confident that she'd be able to handle it. She's been a governor of a state, she's been mayor of a city."

Yes, because she's been able to run Wasilla's 8,000 and Alaska's 630,000 people mean she's of course eminently qualified to handle a terrorist attack on a city of 8.2 million. Look folks, the basic gist of Palin is that the GOP believes everybody in America is really just like their fundie creationist base, and won't question anything our leaders tell them, even if it's patently ridiculous. Willful ignorance in the face of political expediency is the hallmark of the GOP over the last 8 years, and McSame is no different in this respect, especially when it comes to fostering willful ignorance among supporters. Ignore Palin's problems, she has 5 kids, this makes her qualified to do anything in the universe!

If you honestly believe being mayor of Wasilla, Alaska qualifies you for handling an attack on the size and scope of 9/11, or a much worse, much larger possible attack then vote for McSame/Palin...nothing I say or do on this blog is going to change your mind.

It Gets Worse For Palin 2: The Worsening

And you're saying "Zandar, this just can't get any worse for Sarah Palin."

And Zandar's saying "Oh ye of little faith."

As questions have been raised over how thoroughly Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign vetted Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the V.P. slot, it seems the McCain campaign was unaware of a video -- available online -- in which Palin talks about God's role in U.S. military action overseas, according to a political operative familiar with the situation.

The video, first reported by the liberal blog HuffingtonPost.com, is from a June Palin speech to the graduating class of commission students at Palin's former church in Wasilla, Alaska. While describing her family, Palin told students about her oldest son, 19-year-old Track, who is set to be deployed to Iraq this month with the U.S. Army. She urged students to pray “that our leaders -- that our national leaders -- are sending [soldiers] out on a task that is from God.”

She added, “That's what we have to make sure that we are praying for: that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan.”

“It's pretty uncomfortable stuff,” said the political operative, after watching the video online. “It's bad. It's really bad. … It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.”

In addition to talking about Iraq, Palin also referred to God's role in her work as governor.

“I can do my part in working really, really hard to get a natural gas pipeline, about a $30 billion project that's going to create a lot of jobs for Alaska. … [but] I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,” she said. “I can do my job there in developing our natural resources, in doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded. But really that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's hearts aren't right with God.”

It wasn't all serious, though. At one point during the address, Palin praised the graduating class as “a bunch of cool-looking Christians.” Then she picked out one student in the crowd and said with a smile, “Ben, I don't know you well enough yet, but looking at you, I'm thinking, people are going to interested in Jesus Christ through you because of the way you look - this red-headed Sasquatch for Jesus. You look good!” The students cheered. “Times are really changin'. And with the times that change, looks even change.”

Remember. One McSame heartbeat away from leader of the free world.

Green As A Bush

There are distinct differences between the two Presidential candidates, and one of the big ones is the fact that John McSame's commitment to the environment and fighting climate change (being a Republican, this meant he took the mavericky step of admitting there might be a problem) was thrown overboard when he decided to go "drill drill drill" in order to try to win, and then was encased in concrete and sunk forever with the selection of Sarah Palin, who is one of the most anti-environmental politicians in the GOP. NY Times columnist Tom Friedman "drills down":

With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil.

Given the fact that Senator McCain deliberately avoided voting on all eight attempts to pass a bill extending the vital tax credits and production subsidies to expand our wind and solar industries, and given his support for lowering the gasoline tax in a reckless giveaway that would only promote more gasoline consumption and intensify our addiction to oil, and given his desire to make more oil-drilling, not innovation around renewable energy, the centerpiece of his energy policy — in an effort to mislead voters that support for drilling today would translate into lower prices at the pump today — McCain has forfeited any claim to be a green candidate.

So please, students, when McCain comes to your campus and flashes a few posters of wind turbines and solar panels, ask him why he has been AWOL when it came to Congress supporting these new technologies.

“Back in June, the Republican Party had a round-up,” said Carl Pope, the executive director of the Sierra Club. “One of the unbranded cattle — a wizened old maverick name John McCain — finally got roped. Then they branded him with a big ‘Lazy O’ — George Bush’s brand, where the O stands for oil. No more maverick.

“One of McCain’s last independent policies putting him at odds with Bush was his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” added Pope, “yet he has now picked a running mate who has opposed holding big oil accountable and been dismissive of alternative energy while focusing her work on more oil drilling in a wildlife refuge and off of our coasts. While the northern edge of her state literally falls into the rising Arctic Ocean, Sarah Palin says, ‘The jury is still out on global warming.’ She’s the one hanging the jury — and John McCain is going to let her.”

Indeed, Palin’s much ballyhooed confrontations with the oil industry have all been about who should get more of the windfall profits, not how to end our addiction.

Let's get this out of the way now: McSame is not a maverick, he's a standard issue Oil-publican. He's changed his stances on all the issues he's differed with the party with in order to get the right wing vote, and when that didn't work, he took Sarah Palin. And Sarah Palin is even worse on the issue of the environment. The Republican party doesn't give a damn about saving the planet. They do give a damn about who gets the money for raping it.

McSame/Palin is as Green as George W Bush.

StupidiNews!

• Residents are starting to come back to Louisiana to tack stock of the damage and the fact they may be without power for weeks.
• Joe F'ckin Lieberman: Professional Bridge Burner.
• Sarah Palin will accept the nomination for VP tonight in her first national speech.
• The Indian Government's response to mass flooding there puts Gustav in perspective.
• Goldman Sachs is still sticking with its $150 oil prediction for the end of the year.