On revolutions.me it says.

"The failure to evolve in response to change creates a growing impetus to evolve that cannot be long ignored until the choice is to evolve or perish."

Apocolypse, Richard?

"Then came the Tide of Time
Almighty shift upon our Shores....."

(Archives)

Apocalypse!

9/17 Daily Kos R2K Tracking Poll: Obama 48, McCain 44

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/17/7938/79553/719/601363

"Note Sarah Palin's fav/unfav today is 44/45, a negative spread. This data flies in the face of some of the cable narrative (the print journalists get it, and the bloggers get it)."

Have you seen these new hilarious videos? Here's the latest from the "personal video blog of Billy Mires, the driver of Senator McCain's Straight Talk Express." [ www.youtube.com/user/billymires ]

*****

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhCLO3lNP6A

*****

This guy really captures the essence of the self-deluded wingnut who will strain any fact to fit it into a pre-conceived notion of the world or, perhaps even more often, ignore facts altogether.

PS. Oh yeah, and become a fan of Billy Mires at his Facebook fan page.

http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Billy-Mires-bus-driver-of-the-Straight-Talk-Express/39552421150

Richard #1:

Why would one not want to evolve? Why do people choose to stay stuck in unhealthy patterns? How do we reach out and assist that change? It certainly won't happen by talking about the problems or about other people. It will happen when we take personal action.

What are we as individuals doing to reach out and create real CHANGE instead of more of the same?

Trish~~

Ok, here's the mandatory open-thread political bomb. Read the article (not too long) and comment away:

washingtonpost.com
New Studies Report Wide Disparity in Health Care Plans
http://tinyurl.com/6jf5pb

My take is this:

As a military brat, I grew up being taken care of by the military system, which is indisputably a totally socialized health-care system. It is totally funded by American taxpayers, and it is (or was when I was young in the 1960s) a 100% preventative-to-emergency coverage for all active military and their dependents. I got free operations, and lots of free corrective dental work done, not to mention free care whenever I got a flu or other temporary illness. And free inoculations which were required to attend the military school system.

Now I work in support services for a well-known technology company who is famous for their extremely generous approach to employee health benefits. What I see is this:

1. It is one the most motivational things they could do to attract top talent in the industry. Many people there have become employees even though they could have made more money as consultants to the corporation for the simple reason that they know the corporation will go the extra mile if any of their dependents become injured or seriously ill.

2. It keeps top talent for the same reason.

3. It frees up employees attention more to concentrate on their jobs.

4. It boosts morale

5. It saves employees time, headaches, and money having to sift through the unending vagaries and court-contestable details (and we know they ARE contested in court regularly by insurance companies) of a myriad of private-insurer plans.

I also saw that a primary motivator for people to make a career in the armed forces was that they knew the military would provide adequate housing, education, and health-care for their families.

So I am not quite understanding why people predict the end of the world as we know it if we have (big scary music goes here) "socialized" medicine. It's not going to turn us into a communist totalitarian state. I saw in the military that it certainly does not undermine patriotism.

From what I have seen it seems workable if implemented with reasonable intelligence. And it makes people happier and more loyal.

afternoon everyone,

I am with you yogi-one..all for socialized medicine.

It seems the government had to save AIG because to let it go bankrupt would have caused a major crash in the financial markets. How much sense does it make for one company to have so much financial power that if it goes.....then they all fall down?.....truly, mindboggling.

The problem for me is that all this non-sensical stuff is starting to become the norm....why, of course, Palin is a good pick, and, well, banks go through some rough spots, and, politicians, are not married to the truth, theirs is more a one-night stand relationship with truth....

I have a feeling that intentblog will soon be devoured by intent.com., if that happens I will be devoured too. Intent.com, from what I have seen of it, appears to be, very INTENT oriented, which I think is great....just not so much intent for me, though...and it sees like a very civilized blog....doesn't have the messiness of intentblog....I think...my messiness would stand out at intent.com as downright slobishiness. Oh, well.

everything changes...ruth

#8 I have that feeling, too, Ruth.
Care for a splinter group?

Re: #6 in response to #1

Our minds decipher what any given situation means by choosing from a limited number of facts, and inferring or assuming other details in our need to make sense of things. So maybe a reframing or reinterpretation would be in order. Reframing or recontextualization would leave the facts alone but challenge our assumptions we make about their meaning. In that way we find the opportunities and not the problems. But then, I am an optimist at heart.

We also get beyond our own stuck thoughts. Byron Katie's statement comes to mind.

"Believing our own untrue thoughts, is a good way to scare ourselves to death."

Bonnie

whose was president when wall street crashed?

who took us into a costly war that has made us more enemies and left us less secure?

and do u want four more years of the same?

and last...who does john macain really think he is anyway?

"I'm never upset for the reason I think."

ACIM

For the reason I think I'm never upset

For the reason I never think I'm upset.

Revolutions are related to Revelations.

Apocolypse is the Greek word for Revelation.

The lifting of the veil etc.

Revelations.me of course click my name.

We survived IKE! I live in Houston and we have no power since Friday night. The coastal area is devastated. George Bush breezed in and left. He didn't even talk to one resident or evacuee. The only benefit from all this is not having to listen to all the campaign spin.
I posted pictures on my blog:
http://e14studio.blogspot.com
(or click my sign in name)
~Sharon

Sharon

I was just going to make a post on how, with all the campaign spin and the negative financial news, that the devastation of Ike had been pushed to the bckground.

Glad to know you survived and am wishing the best for all affected by Ike.

Bonnie

oops! if you click my sign in name on the previous post you get my campaign parody pic....
I meant to link to the Ike pictures in my neighborhood.
I fixed it here on my sign in name (i hope)

~Sharon

John McCain invented the BlackBerry.

(Really)

Barry Ritholtz over at The Big Picture offers an explanation of Lehman Bros. vs. Bear Stearns vs. AIG. Here he is:

"• Lehman Brothers was like the little kid pulling the tail of a dog. You know the kid is going to get hurt eventually, and so no one is surprised when the dog turns around and bites the kid. But the kid only hurts himself, so no one really cares that much.

• Bear Stearns is the little pyro -- the kid who was always playing with matches. He could harm not only himself, but burns his own house down, and indeed, he could have burnt down the entire neighborhood. The Fed stepped in not to protect him, but the rest of the block.

• AIG is the kid who accidentally stumbled into a bio-tech warfare lab ... finds all these unlabeled vials, and heads out to the playground with a handful of them jammed into his pockets."

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/laymans-explana.html

What has fascinated me lately is how brilliant Republicans have been at feeding the stock market new capital.

The global markets have natural cycles because it simply runs out of ideas. But reft of ideas, it can still keep sputtering if you feed it more cash.

John McCain brilliantly deregulated banks so that he could feed them to this market, instantly transforming the institutions from investors into speculators.

I think this market would have continued barreling along were it not for two things:

1. he couldn't get Americans to agree to drill in ANWR.

2. he couldn't get Americans to agree to feed the markets their Social Security.

Had he been successful at both of these, he could've done the most brilliant dump-and-run in history, leaving the 2008 democrats with a spectacular crash in 2009.

Can you believe that John McCain wanted to throw your savings accounts and your retirement savings accounts into the stock market as fuel?

I think they'd be willing to toss in the Oval Office furniture if they thought it would get them one more mile down the tracks.

these republicans have been a disaster! and macain wants to give us four more yrs of the same! damn!

now they bring in scary palin in the mix and call them selves reformers...yeah right!

like they say...u can put lipstick on a pig...it's still a what?

9/18 Daily Kos R2K Tracking Poll: Obama 49, McCain 43

Today's Daily Kos Research 2000 tracking poll has Obama up by 6, 49-43 over McCain (MoE +/- 3). The trend matches yesterday's Gallup, with moved in Obama's favor yesterday (Obama 47-45 McCain) for the first time since the failed GOP convention. Yesterday's Diageo/Hotline is stable (Obama 45-42) as is yesterday's Rasmussen with McCain 48-47, the outlier of the trackers. look for that to change today, as there's nothing going McCain's way. Our (Moe +/- 5.1) single day sample from yesterday has Obama up by 8.

Failed Republican convention, you say? How can that be? We all know Palin was a brilliant move, and that McCain's bounce was bigger, right? Eh, that was last week. The Palin pick is not wearing well, as we saw from the CBS/NY Times poll:

"But the Times/CBS News poll suggested that Ms. Palin’s selection has, to date, helped Mr. McCain only among Republican base voters; there was no evidence of significantly increased support for him among female voters in general. White women are evenly divided between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama; before the conventions, Mr. McCain led Mr. Obama among white women by a margin of 44 percent to 37 percent.

By contrast, at this point in the 2004 campaign, President Bush was leading Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic challenger, by 56 percent to 37 percent among white women."

Our tracker shows the following:

Favorable/Unfavorable
CANDIDATE FAV UNFAV NO OPINION
MCCAIN 46 46 8
OBAMA 56 35 9
BIDEN 50 32 18
PALIN 42 46 12

Palin's -4 and McCain's neutral does not match up with Obama's +21 and Biden's +19. In our tracker, Obama's gone from +9 to +15 with women, from 9/11 to 9/18. Neither Wall Street nor Walmart is saying "Get Palin on the phone."

That means that you can like Palin and not want her anywhere near the WH, especially as McCain looks old and tired and on the wrong side of the regulation argument. In addition, Republican George Bush's lack of leadershipis reflecting on Republican John McCain and Republican Sarah Palin.

It will take a Dem win before people understand that what's good for the Republican base does not translate into what's good for the electorate as a whole. What really happened, as one of our astute commenters noted, is that McCain went for personality (POW and Palin) and missed the opportunity to emphasize mavericky-ness and leadership. And now that consumer confidence is plunging, the lifetime deregulator (McCain) is having trouble re-inventing himself overnight (see McCain: Change You Can Believe I Came Up With Yesterday.)

And remember, McCain and his old boy's network want to put Social Security in the hands of the people managing the Wall Street debacle. Joe Conason:

"This populist rhetoric sounds strange, especially when emitted by a politician whose circle of advisers include former Sen. Phil Gramm, vice president of the scandal-tainted Union Bank of Switzerland, and John Thain, chief executive of the firm formerly known as Merrill Lynch. But when facing the angry voters who have watched their savings evaporate, the conservative Republican more hopes to sound more like a liberal Democrat again.

He wants to blur the differences between himself and Barack Obama on fundamental economic philosophy. But there is one critical issue where the Arizonan has established a record that cannot be escaped so easily.

Sen. McCain wants to privatize Social Security. It is a stance he has repeatedly taken over the past 10 years in recorded votes, interviews, speeches and documents. It is also a position that he will deny in this campaign. In fact he tried to deny it at a June town hall meeting in New Hampshire, when he declared, "I'm not for, quote, privatizing Social Security. I never have been. I never will be." But the contrary evidence is overwhelming."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/18/73914/0896/586/602505

e14studio
I am glad you are okay.
My wife has family in Houston still. We are originally from there. One of her brothers lives just south of the airport, IAH. They are still without power but they are okay. They said the thunderstorms the next night were as terrifying as IKE. Her brother is disabled but standing in lines for hours to get a bag of ice or batteries. Her niece lives in Bridgeport and their house is destroyed. The rest of the family are in Magnolia, they still don't have power but they have a generator.

I grew up going to Galveston and to see all of the video on TV of the island is mind numbing. Whole subdivisions gone.
I was on the island when Alicia was coming and was evacuated. Ike looks like it did much more damage. But I know the people there will get it back up in no time. Galveston was my first connection to the ocean. Lots of memories there.

Years ago there was a slide
the tallest thing around
it had three humps
a burlap bag
and down I'd go
Back up the stairs
and take in the view
the water stretched out
to the limits of my sight
the water stretched out

I remember you could drive along the beach below the seawall when I was a kid. As I got older the beach got smaller and smaller until no cars were allowed below the wall. That's when we started driving down to West Beach. You could still drive on the beach there. I don't know if it will be possible anymore.
Galveston has gone through many changes.

power to the people on the coast

derek

I know who I am voting for so there is no reason for me to stay on this swirly twirly spinning political carnival ride.
I have my mail in ballot so off I go in my rowboat back out to sea.

To drift with the tide.

derek

I like what was said on Hard Ball yesterday: you republicans want to suddenly take off your uniforms...like they had no responsibility whatsoever for six of the past eight years, much less the past eight in total.

Duck-n-Cover Republicans, where there IS NO buck to stop here, there, or anywhere. And it's creepy how they all smile while they argue vociferously, perfect poses for still camera shots. Like Emotional Botox.

A very specific problem with the Republican conversation is that they are willing to concede nothing, even as they shuttle through problem after problem they've created.

At least Truman was willing to own SOMETHING.

These guys are like...unearthly.

~~~
now spin the bottles
trimming sails to ride the waves
stormy weather brewing
~~~

Republicans got the good ole USA in this financial Katrina...

now they come in the duo of McCain/Palin, pretend to be reformers, and want us to give them 4 more years....yeah right!

whoahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa.........

Some of it's magic, some of it's tragic

Hello Intent Bloggers. Here's what I posted on my blog just now:

I don't know if anyone reading this has a concern or not for the infrastructure of our American livelihood but now that Ike has passed and we have such devastation from yet another hurricane, there are some inevitable signs that can't be ignored. Issues with this presidential campaign need get beyond the name calling and mud slinging phase and get to to the issues about our economy and environment. I am in the 4rth largest city of this nation and it is now day 6 without power. I am hooked into a neighbor's network who is running a generator. We have extension chords going from house to house helping each other out. I heard Obama say in a speech many times when he was criticizing the current administration: "Your on your own!". I feel it right here, right now.

~Sharon

The Bankruptcy of Capitalism

That money would “trickle-down” from the rich to middle-class,
and even lesser fortunate others.
Defies the very meaning of capitalism.
Which of course is pure idiocy.

Somebody builds a computer, or search engine,
profits, spends to profit further,
certainly creates jobs,
and either makes it or not.

Middleman prospectors for people with money,
along with insurance salespersons and lawyers,
claiming to insure people from debt gone bad,
while they make money in market investments

go bankrupt and we pay them:
(purportedly for our own good even!)

Is that not the very definition of “bad business!”
The “for our own good even” spiting “ethics.”
Greed with a grin.
The Joker handsomely without makeup in a suit.

If the big guys through whom “local” big guys make money,
lose their money, then the “local” big guys go bad,
and “local” bad big guys means nobody has work,
therefore nobody, us that is, gives the big guys money,

money we don’t actually ever have, in order that we may live.

You gotta be kidding me!

Because somebody lost their money we pay them!!!

That is funny. Too bad we had to pay for the laugh.
Paying to live (or living to pay), paying in interacting,
and paying for enjoyment.
The cruel joke of an invisible hand.

Wow. Capitalism. I got it.

We are hopelessly self-interested people,
bring out the bread and circuses,
and voting booths with political talk shows,
as long as the zeitgeist of consumer intent ever simmers.

We are all Moabites now,
gambling our childrens’ future on Wall Street,
like a drunken man sleeping with conniving daughters:
because deep down we could not overcome our individual

intents.

Coupled with our greed writ large in board(war)-room governments.

Only disaster can occur!

Only one answer is the cure.

Eliminating the middle-persons in life
will rid ourselves of the bankruptcy of capitalism.

(To be continued)!

This suggestion made me smile, so I'm passing it on to y'all:

"Instead of (in addition to?) us all e-ing and blogging about her, let's make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin's name.
And here's the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here's the link to the PP website

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_in honor

You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. Suggest you use the address for McCain campaign headquarters, which is:
Mc Cain for President
1235 S. Clark St., 1st Floor
Arlington, VA 22202

(Use the link above, or choose the website's pulldown of
DONATE-- HONORARY OR MEMORIAL DONATIONS,
not the regular *Donate Online* "

...and, if PP is not a personal fave, or a cause you might not wish to support ... I'm sure there are many alternatives that could generate the same type of response card.

p.

dude is the dumbest ash-hole to be put in that office...and the dino...if he gets in...will the decond dumbest...yikes!

Freeing love eliminates the middleman

It is an interesting parallel that Jewish people
are seen as the “middle-persons” of life.
They have been and are powerful bankers,
scientists, statesmen, Hollywood directors and performers,
Abraham, Moses, Maimonides, Paul,

Many believe a Jew is the bridge to our salvation!

One cannot get more middleman than that! Amen!

A bridge we have collectively failed bearing to cross.

We do not need middlepersons in our lives, this separates,
this simply divides: we need to resolve with one intent — life.

We need to quit building bridges to nowhere
that ideally stimulate human industry,
and instead cross the bridge together
that leads to for all a better life. Divinity in humanity.

A house divided cannot stand.
Three against two, two against three,
thousand(s), million(s), billions(s),
it is time to mend the house of Abraham and Lot.

Since we have outgrew our hunting-gathering villiages,
we have outgrew face-to-face relations,
We now need lenders, contractors, insurance, and lawyers,
bridging gaps between production and the laborers.

Instead of working together, we work in groups or alone.
For a price, for a profit, our time together is spent.

Nowhere to call home except that which we bought with money.

Our interpersonal relations are as bankrupt,
as the money that guides them.
Helping for a fee, cosmetic surgery,
“smart” glasses, ten thousand dollar diamond wedding rings:

vanity.

Seven billion people divided,
divided by tribe, by nation, by social rank;
when we cross the bridge of life,
there will be neither Jew nor Gentile,
no rich nor poor, no us and no them:

there will only be humanity with one intent!

An intent that will take all the money in the world to buy:

Life.

The only middleman we ever needed we killed,
the gift he brought no amount of money could ever buy.
It is time we resurrected this man in our lives,
accepting Christ as Savior in action not simply in words.

I plant the wheat here in Washington, Keith helps me harvest,
Richard maps out transportation, Yogi-One ensures quality,
Ruth facilitates distribution, Char4 delivers goods to homes:
not one of us needs a dime, and your child’s tummy is full.

We wake up in the morning without a middleman amongst us,
because we have finally realized we are all in this together.
Eliminating the middle-persons ensures our collective survival:
this man against the other and a third person paid arbiter,
relics of a broken home — a divided house that did not long last.

In One house the children pay not the father and mother.
No middle-person is needed between mother and child,
nobody is labeled Gentile or Jew, Georgian or Russian,
Hindu or Mormon, conservative or liberal: we are One.

One big family. The profit is love. The rest is just details!

peace

#26

I have the bottle
The message sent me soaring
A-top a spiral

to be dumb is to vote republican!

dude, the dino from zona is senile!

This aint no national park:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26776283/

this election will be a test of the hearts and charactors of all americans...will racism cloud clear thinking when that x is marked in the privacy of that booth?

these republicans ought to be ashamed of themselves...do they really want to put us thru four more years of this nighmare?

Hey y'all,
Just wanted to pipe in and say hi. I'm an Ike survivee too (good for you, e14studio); currently still an evacuee but got off easier than probably 80% of the affected folks. Looks like I missed the beginning of the Intent.com takeover; not sure I like the looks of it, but that might just be inertia talking.

Anyway, glad to be alive and in great shape, and will certainly be giving thanks and passing on as much peace as I can this Sunday. Cheers!

9/19 Daily Kos Tracking Poll: Obama 49, McCain 42

Details of the poll and an analysis of all national polls:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/19/75025/6051/56/603035

"Interestingly, Obama did well in Pew, CBS/NY times and Q-poll, even though the bulk of those surveys were before Black Monday. There's no question the polls have turned in Obama's favor, but unless you've got a twice the MoE lead, assume it's too close to call."

Hi sWORDSman,
glad you're okay. You're carrying some of the crown jewels! Intent Blog is about to be crowned ;) Just needs someone to take care of the resulting splinter group.

Sarah Palin sucks!

9/11 happened on whose watch?

the Katrina mess-up and failures happened on whose watch?

Wall St. crash on Black Sunday happened on whose watch? damn!

and john macain wants us to give the bums 4 more yrs? yeah rignt?

"We must act now to protect our nation's health from serious risk," Bush says.

Funny, we will spend trillions bailing out profit speculators, but when it comes to universal health care, when it comes to the healthy lives of all Americans, the issue takes an unhurried philosophical debate nature, while our children continue to die.

Profits trump priorities every time apparently!

peace

This stuff is hilarious, Sandra Bernhard taking it Palin. I'm sure Obama will get a huge bump from this "comedian"...what a disgrace for the left and yet I'm sure her New York pals are cheering her on:

“Now you got Uncle Women, like Sarah Palin, who jumps on the s--t and points her fingers at other women. Turncoat b---h! Don’t you f--kin’ reference Old Testament, bitch! You stay with your new Goyish crappy shiksa funky bulls--t! Don’t you touch my Old Testament, you b---h! Because we have left it open for interpre-ta-tion! It is no longer taken literally! You whore in your f--kin' cheap New Vision cheap-ass plastic glasses and your [sneering voice] hair up. A Tina Fey-Megan Mullally brokedown bulls--t moment.”

And she warns Sarah Palin not to come into Manhattan lest she get gang-raped by some of Sandra’s big black brothers.

Rape jokes are hysterical Sandra

~
#44
Someone has issues!

:)

"We must act now to protect our nation's economic health from serious risk," Bush said at a White House press conference. "There will be ample opportunity to discuss the origins of this problems. Now is the time to solve it."

Too little, too late, idiot bush...

if u had eased ur hardon off iraq and focused on domestic matters just a little, we may not be in this shit today...say...have u booked a meeting with ur shrink?

many republicans are switching to the democrats...fed up with the BS in their party...but a few hardcore, fanatical supporters will stick their necks out to defend them..till the end of time...even if it means getting laughed at! eeeuuuhhh!

This might interest some here?

CERN says atom-smasher back in operation
14 hours ago

GENEVA (AFP) — The world's largest particle collider was running again Friday after an electrical fault forced it to stop just days after being launched to global fanfare, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said.

Palin is caught red handed this time:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=5844710

The gist of the story:

"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."

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 administration's directives.

"The last straw," her lawyer argued, came when he planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to seek federal funds for an aggressive anti-sexual-violence program. The project, expected to cost from $10 million to $20 million a year for five years, would have been the first of its kind in Alaska, which leads the nation in reported forcible rape...

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."

Let's talk about "rape jokes" coming out of the mouth of (not a comedian) but the candidate himself.

Apparently, America loves McCain for his rape jokes. That is, if you listen to McCain's campaign and his apologists in the msm, you would think Americans love a president who makes crude comments about presidents' daughters, who calls his wife a "c*nt," a "trollop" and, as reported a couple of months ago by John Arivosis on Americablog, tells rape jokes:

"McCain campaign refuses to deny that McCain used to like to tell rape jokes. In fact, they say rape jokes are the kind of thing that Americans love him for.

"He's long said that he's said and done things in the past that he regrets. You've just got to move on, and be yourself - that's what people want. They want somebody who's authentic, and this kind of a stuff is a good example of McCain being McCain." - McCain spokesman'

http://www.americablog.com/2008/07/rape-talk-express.html

PS: Wonder how big a bump he got all these years for over 20 years telling his sexist, rapist jokes in private and public. Apparently, the bump was so huge that whether or not All America loves him, the msm showered him the titles of "maverick" and "straight talk express" to the former prisoner of war who likes to tell rape jokes.

Here's a reputed conservative source Politico reporting on McCain's bad humor,"rape joke", sexism & idiot-ism:

"Ever hear that joke about waterboarding? How about the one about killing Iranians? And why "is" Chelsea Clinton so ugly?

If you aren't familiar with those witty japes, then you've missed out on John McCain's lighter side."

"McCain's humor, by contrast, makes him the political counterpart of the radio host Don Imus (whom he has defended): It's sharp, unrehearsed and, at times, way, way over the line. This cycle, he's drawn winces, and worse, for everything from a joking reference to domestic violence to a now-notorious little ditty about bombing Iran. Earlier in his political career, the Arizona press reported that he'd cracked a rape joke that would now probably end any politician's career..."

"Irreverence in the abstract is one thing. But McCain's specific jokes can be harder for some to stomach. [...]was reported in the Tucson Citizen, an Arizona paper, during his 1986 Senate campaign:

"Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, 'Where is that marvelous ape?'"

"The president of the National Organization for Women, Kim Gandy suggested that a series of McCain jokes about women, the rest uncontested by the campaign, suggest a serious lack of respect."

"Some people can't tell the difference between a joke that is really off color and one that is off-the-charts offensive, and clearly some of John McCain's 'jokes' fall into that category," she said.

Outside the rape joke, the most notorious of McCain's gags about women's looks came in 1998, when Chelsea Clinton was 18.

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?" he asked guests at a Senate Republican fundraiser. "Because her father is Janet Reno."

McCain's other jokes don't induce cringes quite as widespread...[but they are sexist to the core]

"The French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who is still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it," McCain told Fox News a few years ago.

And earlier this year, McCain responded to a question with the line, "And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago," provoking a round of tut-tutting for his reference to the old classic example of a leading question.

Women are far from his only target. Another favorite has been the elderly. He has recalled groveling for forgiveness when, during his 1986 campaign, he referred to a retirement community called "Leisure World" as "Seizure World."

In 1999, in the course of apologizing for his joke about Clinton — which he called "insensitive and stupid and cruel" — he recalled for reporters another bad joke: 'I said, 'The nice thing about Alzheimer's is you get to hide your own Easter eggs.'"

McCain recently suggested that increasing U.S. cigarette sales to Iran could be "a way of killing 'em."

"...But while voters say they want authenticity, McCain may test how much of his raw humor Americans can take."

9/20 Daily Kos R2K Tracking Poll: Obama 50, McCain 42

Today's Daily Kos Research 2000 tracking poll has Obama up by over McCain 50-42 (LV, MoE +/- 3).

Notable is Sarah Palin's - 7 fav/unfav, and McCain's - 1, suggesting furthererosion in that ticket's standing (see trendlines.)

McCain made two mistakes; one was calling the economy "fundamentally sound" on Black Monday, the other was picking Sarah Palin to be his VP (this week highlighted her weak points. Being able to see Russia from her house isn't going to help the markets any.)

Charles Blow of the NY Times has as good an explanation as any, based on the CBS/NY Times poll:

"When those Republicans were asked what they liked least about [Palin], they started to sound more like everyone else. Aside from those who said that there was nothing they didn’t like, next on the list were: her lack of experience, her record as governor and her lack of foreign-policy experience.

Also, most Republicans think you only picked her to help with the election, not because she is qualified, and a third said that they would be "concerned" if for some reason she actually had to serve as president.

And Palin is proving to be just as vacant as people suspected."

It's Charles Blow, so there's a cool graphic to go with it. What's important about the Blow opinion is that it is informed opinion, based on his paper's polling data and supported by our own tracker's 24 point fav/unfav drop in 9 days (which is also accompanied by a 12 point drop in McCain's.) This isn't just "Palin coming back to earth," as alleged by her media supporters. She started out the same as Obama and Biden but now there are significant differences between what's happened to Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin as one ticket stays steady and the other goes south.

If you check the pundit round-up, you'll see plenty of other opinion recognizing that Palin is, in fact, a drag on the ticket.

Weekend polling often favors McCain, so it'll be Tues or Wed before we see how this all shakes out. R2K is today, the other trackers are yesterday.

Obama McCain MoE +/- RV/LV
Research 2000: 50 42 3 LV
Diageo/Hotline: 45 44 3.2 RV
Rasmussen: 48 48 2 LV
Gallup: 49 44 2 RV

Other points of interest are the three day individual R2K topline numbers (Obama was +8, +8, +7.) Gallup, who has Obama up 49-44 yesterday, noted

"Obama enjoyed one of his widest advantages over McCain of recent weeks in Thursday night's interviewing."

Hotline's numbers tightened while Rasmussen's stayed flat. Meanwhile the markets (Intrade, Rasmussen) have flipped in Obama's favor by ~51-48.

The tight race remains tight.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/20/72946/2597/634/604491

The U.S. Economy Is Socialism for the Rich

In the United States, far-Right Republicans and Democratic liberals alike have sold many people on the notion that the market should be the main force to drive the economy and define social relationships. They maintain that government should stay off people's backs and out of our wallets. They promote rugged individualism and consumerism couched in terms like "personal responsibility," "freedom" and "independence." "Greed is good!" was the mantra of Michael Douglas' character, Gordon Gecko, in the 1980s movie "Wall Street," and those became the words to live by in the '80s and '90s. The philosophy and value of greed was taken to heart by many a corporate CEO, and, over the past three decades, this twisted logic -- underlined by the values of individualism and the culture of consumerism -- has turned back the clock on human development with devastating consequences.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:qbpVOSX9jcsJ:www.alternet.org/story/92426/the_u.s._economy_is_socialism_for_the_rich/+the+USA+has+become+biggest+socialist+nation+in+the+world&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=ca

Bush Wants $700 Billion to Save US Economy

Sep. 20th, 2008 | 11:20 am

Happy Saturday! Bush and TreasSec Paulson want Congess to agree to spend nearly three-quarters of a TRILLION dollars to save our economy.

http://thepetecom.livejournal.com/

Palin proposes to do what Obama already did.
by kos

Great going, Sarah.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/18/palins-transparency-proposal-already-exists-in-dc/

"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."

Oops.

"In 2006 and 2007, Obama teamed up with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to pass the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, also known as "Google for Government." The act created a free, searchable web site – USASpending.gov — that discloses to the public all federal grants, contracts, loans and insurance payments."

And here she's been claiming he hadn't done anything in Washington. Turns out her plan has already been enacted by Obama.

By the Way, McCain Lies About Being Green, Too
by Meteor Blades
Sat Sep 20, 2008
Daily Kos

Joseph Romm, the acting assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy in 1997 and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (where he oversees Climate Progress), writes in Salon:

"John McCain's hot air

He may claim to be green, but McCain's environmental record is every bit as dirty as that of Sen. James "global warming is a hoax" Inhofe.

The facts are clear. All you have to do is look at his voting record. It reveals that McCain has long been one of the strongest opponents of clean energy in Congress, with a record matching that of James Inhofe, the most hardcore global-warming denier in the Senate, who comes from the heart of the oil patch in Oklahoma. ...

"I have a long record of that support of alternate energy," McCain said. "I come from a state where we have sunshine 360 days a year ... I've always been for all of those and I have not missed any crucial vote."

In fact, on Dec. 13, 2007, the Senate was considering a bill to spend $13 billion on renewable power over five years. The cloture vote to allow the amendment to be brought to the Senate floor required 60 votes; it received 59 for, 40 against, and one senator absent. Yes, you guessed it: No McCain. A spokesman later said he would have voted to block the bill. ...

When you add in McCain's legislative efforts to cut funding for the most energy-efficient form of national travel -- passenger rail -- you find that McCain has voted against clean energy and the environment -- or said he would have done so -- more than 50 times since the early 1990s. And McCain has voted with the Oklahoma oilman and global-warming denier a remarkable 42 out of 44 times."

http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2008/09/20/john_mccain_environment/

When McCain did bother to show up and vote on renewable energy funding and the renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which would set the percentage of U.S. energy derived from renewables, here is how he cast his ballots:

Tax credits for clean energy R&D (2001) Nay (The green vote: Yea.)
Require a 20 percent RPS where utilities buy 20 percent clean energy ('02) Nay (The green vote: Yea.)
Reduce 20 percent RPS requirement ('02) Yea (The green vote: Nay)
Waive 20 percent RPS if utilities balk ('02) Yea (The green vote: Nay.)
Increase clean energy R&D funding ('05) Nay (The green vote: Yea.)
Clean energy incentives ('05) Nay (The green vote: Yea.)
An RPS to require utilities [to] buy some clean energy ('05) Nay (The green vote: Yea.)
Tax oil companies windfall profits to fund clean energy ('05) Nay (The green vote: Yea.)

Although it wasn't on the Senate floor, McCain cast another vote against the environment on his birthday three weeks ago. That's when he chose as his running mate Sarah Palin, a person who, like Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, doesn't believe global warming is being caused by human behavior.

which one of u...in ur right mind...will vote to give republicans four more yrs? the three screwed up amigos...maybe? eeeuuuhhh!

if these republicans had on ounce of integrity...they would abandon deception for once and expose this scary woman to scrunity...not shielding her from the media...

each time i see this corny "package" on TV in her big, ugly eye-glasses i feel like pukin'...

shame on those suicide bombers in islamabad...

afternoon all,

pondering the trillions bantered about in the news this week, is, well, a bit over me head in terms of it being handle-able to the mere mortals minds that we have at our use on any given day.

to ponder somemore it is awesome that this week we were a meeting away from our financial system being wiped out, sucked up, vacuumed away. And, the fact our federal government said.......NO,NO, here is a few billion, since, we haven't paid the monthly payment on our owed trillion, yet, and it can carry us over till next weekend....sigh,sigh......the market then soars 400 points in one big yippee...yippee....we are still alive!.......but are we, they, them, us?

I mean, we are in a mess of trouble and all the men and women who are now trying to shore up flood, are the same ones who simply sat back, ladeda, ladeda, ladeda, and watched the waters rise. So, frankly, I am feeling like who, what, these jokers are now going to know how to stuff a few billion into a two trillion dollar jar to make it look like we actually have a prayer of paying it off.....in this eternity.

somehow, I am thinking the little money I have in my bank accounts is somehow already spoken for, in fact, in all our itty, bitty bank accounts is alreday spoken for.....and they just can't bear to tell us because they know....the consequences of that news delivery.....to paint the picture is to paint ugly times a trillion.

Laura Bush said her and her hubby are going to have fun down on the ranch, once, his position is taken over by Mr. McSame and Ms Lame or Barak Obama and JOe Biden, I don't know bout you all, but I am thinking, "yeah, you two get fun, we millions get a two trillion dollar debt to pay, hahaha."

really, I think when you start talking trillions of dollars you have already left the planet earth in terms of being realistic about your money situation.

so, if there is a funny smell in your neighborhood, in the coming weeks, it is probably the corpse they hid, that day, when we were a meeting away from facing financial devastation, they can only hide it for so long.

Thank god for the FDIC and the magician they employ for an occasion such as this!

ponderings....

“Clinton announces record payment on national debt
By John King/CNN
May 1, 2000

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Bill Clinton said Monday that the United States would pay off $216 billion in debt this year, bringing to $355 billion the amount of the nation's debt paid down in the three years since the government balanced the budget and began running surpluses.”

Those were the days my friend we thought they’d never end….
But the Republicans took care of that in a hurry!

Some of us have been posting the US Debt clock for years. Take another look:
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:R-dlKz4oK38J:www.brillig.com/debt_clock/+US+debt+clock&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca
These, almost $10 Trillion (10000 Billion), do not reflect the current bailouts.

The US has been on the “Banana Republic Trail” since the Republicans convinced the country to go to war in Iraq! Yah, but we are winning, the neocons say, although we may lose our way of living.

There was at least one guy who did not want to have anything to do with the war in Iraq. His name, Barack Obama.

“Canadian columnist's diatribe against Palin stokes anger in the U.S.

Canadian journalist Heather Mallick is facing an ugly onslaught from the U.S. right-wing media and its fans for an online column she wrote maligning Sarah Palin as "white trash."

The Sept. 5 column on CBC.ca, entitled "A Mighty Wind Blows Through the Republican Convention," had already been on the receiving end of vitriol from some Canadian news organizations.

But Fox News picked up on it this week, and unleashed its full fury on Mallick for stating that Palin, the Republicans' vice-presidential nominee, appeals to "the white trash vote" with her "toned-down version of the porn actress look."

A bit of a low blow, is it?
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080920/world/us_cda_palin

"if these republicans had on ounce of integrity...they would abandon deception for once and expose this scary woman to scrunity...not shielding her from the media..." #55

Apparently, even the VP Debate rules are changed to compensate for Palin!

NY Times:

"The Obama and McCain campaigns have agreed to an unusual free-flowing format for the three televised presidential debates, which begin on 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."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/us/politics/21debate.html

I wish I was making this up. We have a 72 year old formerly tortured POW candidate with invasive melanoma with Caribou Barbie as his running mate who just did a really intensive hardball interview with Sean Hannity. So, to allay our fears that this dominionist nutjob may not be qualified to run the country, they have to make sure that Biden doesn't have a chance to openly debate her because it may make her look unqualified?

Unfuckingbelievable.

ref..#58...

this (what the deceptive republicans are doing) is a fucking outrage, Preity!

Well, Diablo, no doubt her pick is an outrageously deceptive joke on the intelligence of American voters. What we see here regarding the VP debate is that McCain's camp is managing expectations. The fact that their "explanation" was released to the media means they are trying to lower expectations for Palin -- that way, if she simply shows up, they can proclaim her performance a success.

Palin is weak but in the end, this debate format could help because now Biden won't be seen as pushing her onto the defensive...

Biden should start talking himself down, so he can rip this asshole Palin to shreds.

As such, their plan will be to give Palin a few good lines and some talking points, which she is to use regardless of whether it actually answers the questions or not. They are counting on those "zinger" lines being the sound bites on the evening news, giving the impression that she did well.

They know how to manipulate public opinion. Palin is a much, much less intelligent person than George W. Bush. Her debate performance will be terrible, her answers nonsense, and her composure nonexistent.

But because we're falling into their trap again, they're successfully lowering expectations for her. As long as she doesn't take a dump on the floor, they'll hail her as the greatest GOP debater since Reagan.

Just watch - that's exactly how it will happen.

Out of sight...out of mind ~~~~~~thank you.

What is best for you is what matters most to me.

Not really....just cause out of sight...not out of mind...but Whatever....hope you are well.

love

always

9/21 Daily Kos R2K Tracking Poll: Obama 49 , McCain 42

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/21/74627/6636/166/604951

"Palin and McCain's fav/unfav remain poor... Obama is at +20, Biden at +10, McCain at +1 and Palin at -7. However, cable TV will continue to insist that she's incredibly popular. She is a campaign draw... especially compared to McCain. It remains to be seen if people will vote for a novelty item by November."

Please guys; let’s unite in the face of a pending disaster!

I just received an email from one of the great American thinkers of our time:

“Friends:

I have a new essay on Sarah Palin in the current issue of Newsweek . You can read it here:

In Defense of Elitism

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080/page/1

Please forward this article as widely as you can. I ask this favor of you because I believe that the sudden proximity of Sarah Palin to the presidency is the most dangerous political development of my lifetime.

Also, please understand that I have not approached this from a partisan point of view. I recognize that there are legitimate arguments to be had between Republicans and Democrats with respect to foreign policy, homeland security, the economy, etc. Intelligent people can surely disagree about the relative merits of John McCain and Barack Obama. There is no legitimate perspective, however, from which the prospect of a Palin administration is anything but terrifying.

Many thanks for your help.

Best,

Sam”

hey, peace, bro...yes, sister, I say peace, peace is the way, the truth and the light...today and everyday...ain't that right, brothers and sisters, we are in this thing together, come, hell or high water, we will, either sink or swim our way into unity consciousness.....we will be pushing or dragging, running or walking, taking a leasurly stroll, flying high or falling low....it matters not...rich or poor..you can't take it wit ya....no matter how tight your grip....it is loosened for ya. So, relax, enjoy, the drama of the story, the nail biting excitement of the ride....throw your head back and laugh a good hearty belly laugh because the joke is......to be continued. Now quit hiding and come out to play in the garden of your eden.

ponderings....ruth

Whispers in the Wind ...

"The next President of the United States of America will be a young male."

Love, Char

#66 It has been writted "..........then will all Hell break loose."

ie the 'nasties' in all of us will raise their heads in the froth. Be ready for the great non-Judgement;)

It is not about World peace, it is about Peace in ones own world.

Let "The World" take care of itself. It is up to each of us to take care of our own world. If there is peace of mind, our world is at peace.

Peace,

Mieke

“Four months ago in the middle of the night, six men dressed in wide-brimmed black hats, black coats, white shirts and black trousers burst into the Jerusalem apartment of a young Jewish woman and taught her a lesson.
Mikhail, who is reluctant to give her full name, had scandalised members of her ultra-orthodox Jewish community by leaving her husband and embracing a secular lifestyle. The men, all members of the theologically conservative Haredi branch of Judaism, tackled her to the ground, slammed her head against the floor and tied a rag around her mouth. One assailant sat on her head as the others kicked her while demanding to know the names of the men she was seeing.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/21/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast1

Very concerned about any fundamentalism.

Kos: How we got into this mess

"If there was a Pulitzer for blog writing, this piece by Devilstower, explaining how we got into this financial mess, would be a shoo-in winner for 2008.

It's likely the single best piece of writing ever to grace this site."

==================================
Three Times is Enemy Action
by Devilstower
Sun Sep 21, 2008

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is Enemy Action."
-- Auric Goldfinger

James Bond's wealthy nemesis may have had an obsession with gold, but he judged, quite correctly, that if people keep putting your plans awry, that was likely their intent.

[...]

Read the rest...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/21/9322/74248/245/602838

==================================

9/22 Daily Kos Research 2000 Tracking Poll: Obama 49, McCain 43

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/22/7261/26187/146/605980

RISING CRUDE PRICES WILL LEAD TO GLOBAL RECESSION!

FOUR MORE YEARS OF REPUBLICAN RULE COULD LEAD US INTO A DEEP DEPRESSION...MAY GOD HELP US ALL!

i believe God will not let the republicans win this time...enuff is enuff...yo!

After the railroad job the Neocons did on the American people and the entire world about Iraq, the same bunch of “experts” is now telling congress they need a blank check to keep the money flowing, otherwise the world will end.

Please not again, America.

Ref # 71

More of Sam Harris’ essay on Sarah Palin in the current issue of Newsweek:

“Palin's most conspicuous gaffe in her interview with Gibson has been widely discussed. The truth is, I didn't much care that she did not know the meaning of the phrase "Bush doctrine." And I am quite sure that her supporters didn't care, either. Most people view such an ambush as a journalistic gimmick. What I do care about are all the other things Palin is guaranteed not to know—or will be glossing only under the frenzied tutelage of John McCain's advisers. What doesn't she know about financial markets, Islam, the history of the Middle East, the cold war, modern weapons systems, medical research, environmental science or emerging technology? Her relative ignorance is guaranteed on these fronts and most others, not because she was put on the spot, or got nervous, or just happened to miss the newspaper on any given morning. Sarah Palin's ignorance is guaranteed because of how she has spent the past 44 years on earth”.

9/23 Daily Kos Research 2000 Tracking Poll: Obama 49, McCain 43

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/23/73552/9324/388/606763

who is sam harris?

heather...where are u?

hi there D,
It's a sunny - just beginning to be Autumn - kind of day.
The sun is streaming through the window - and I plan to take a walk this afternoon at my favorite park.

Are you having a good day?

and I wonder,
where is Heather
and dear UT

~ Kate

I'm majorly outraged...

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/media-rebellion-over-palin-photo-ops

A full paste as the blog stands now (it's updated from time to time):

- - - - - - - - - - - -

From The Caucus (New York Times Political Blog)...

Palin and Karzai Bond Over Children
By MICHAEL COOPER

Meeting Karzai | 1 p.m. When Gov. Sarah Palin sat down with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Tuesday afternoon, the polite preliminaries to their conversation centered around children, as Mr. Karzai spoke of the birth of his first child last year.

“What is his name?” Ms. Palin was heard to ask, as she met with Mr. Karzai in the suite of a midtown hotel, according to a pool report.

“Mirwais,” Mr. Karzai replied. “Mirwais, which means, ‘The Light of the House.’”

“Oh nice,” Palin responded.

“He is the only one we have,” Mr. Karzai said.

Then the pool of journalists was escorted out, and the meeting began.

Accompanying Ms. Palin were Randy Scheunemann, a senior foreign policy adviser for the McCain campaign, and Steve Biegun, a former staff member of President Bush’s National Security Council who is advising Ms. Palin.

Update | 12:17 p.m.: Word now is that a print reporter will be allowed in at the next two meetings. Stayed tuned for updates on all the handshakes and pleasantries…

Update | 12:02 p.m.: The campaign is relenting and letting in the television producer, so the camera crew will be going as well. But print reporters are up in arms about being excluded.

Media Rebellion: Live from New York, it’s Gov. Sarah Palin’s top-secret foreign policy tutorial!

Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, is scheduled to meet Tuesday in New York with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, and former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.

But the McCain-Palin campaign’s sharp limitations on coverage of the meetings have sparked a mini-revolt – and a threatened boycott — among the press corps.

The campaign plans to bar print reporters from the meetings, and to limit coverage to brief photo-ops for a still photographer and a television camera. The television stations, though, are objecting, noting that they have a policy of not sending cameras to cover events without a producer, who provided editorial guidance.

A stand-off has ensued, with the networks threatening not to send cameras. The newspapers are trying to get back into the act as well.

It is not uncommon for meetings with world leaders to be pooled, but in the past the McCain campaign has at times allowed print reporters and televisions producers to look in and report any color – or exchange of pleasantries, usually banal – that occurs.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

ahhhhrrrghhhh!

If you want to throw up in a hurry, check out the pic of Palin and Karzai at the top of this post (click on my name to get to it fast).

Poor Karzai! Bein' used!!

This is so typical of Republicans -- this heavy-handed, selfish, limited view of the world, versus their own needs. Argghhhhh!!! How embarrassed I am for the US, that we have such people as McCain and Palin on the Presidential election slate, and that they've chosen to go with terribly horribly mean and stupid campaign managers and advisers, too!!!!

Hullo, Irish, Kate, and all.

love to you,
h

for neo-cons who might miss the point of outrage in #88, here it is:

"Live from New York, it’s Gov. Sarah Palin’s top-secret foreign policy tutorial!"

hi kate, heath...damn, girls!

yes kate...having a terrific day!

it's a gorgeous sunny day here today in north cal...about 75* currently...feeling fine, whoa!

Ms Palin ?
Can she sing?

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=lhc7MEYY-Ho

And for good measure....
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=6ItKn_hY1H8

where is lady north?

we miss u, dear!

Ref. 88

Fake Palin footage coming soon, to a TV near you!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/23/12339/0544/633/607543

Mark Nickolas at Political Base: Anyone want to bet five bucks that the "television crew" is really a film crew sent by McCain-Palin's media consultant for the sole purpose of future campaign ads?

Kagro X:

"I ain't takin' that bet!

"So when you see Palin/Other Guy campaign ads showing her "meeting with foreign leaders," remember that the pictures and video are from this staged event at which the actual press was not allowed.

For a few more bucks, or maybe even a sandwich platter, they probably could have gotten together a crowd of people to shout out, "You're actually quite smart!" in the background.

But guess what? The campaign went into panic mode and relented, letting the press in after all. But get this:

The media were escorted out after about 40 seconds.

Hoo-wee! Thanks for the 40 seconds, Sarah!

Now we can all point and laugh when those ads come out. Seeing the video in an ad will be like hearing a Wilhelm Scream at the movies. The ultimate insider's joke.

Thanks, Mark!"

Obama called for a payback plan for taxpayers if the bailout succeeds.

Also for a bipartisan board to oversee the bailout.

Limits on any federal money going to compensate Wall Street executives.

And aid to homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgages.

If any of these proposals are not in Paulson’s 700 billion bailout bill, Obama should vote against it!

What do you guys think? How about it Amba, Bonnie, Craig, Derek, Diablo, Ed, Heather, Irv, Keith, Ravi, Richard, Ron, Ruth, Trish, Scott, Simon, Skinny, Stan, Swordsman, and many others, why don’t you give us your spin?