It's up to her. She has the right to have whomever she wants on her show. We shouldn't look to her as a political columnist or a tastemaker. She's not trying to fulfill that kind of role. Her show is about her own personal expression, helping people and making money.

Dear Mallika

Why is Intentblog getting involved with gossip and trash-talking?

Are McCain and Palin (and the strategists who came up with that combo) going to be allowed to set the flavor for the next 60 days?

Do we have to follow lead of the opposition?

love, h

As posted in "McBush" thread, this Drudge driven gossip/nonsense has been put to rest by Oprah herself.

Ophrah's statement:

"The item in today's Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this Presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over."

Oprah finds herself accused of being the latest "media elite" to persecute Sarah Palin, as supporters accuse the talk show host of bias for not booking a Palin appearance.

This began as one of Drudge's many teapot tempests, when he reported that there was conflict among Oprah's staff as to whether an interview with the vice presidential candidate should be scheduled.

The story has now been picked up by traditional media (via Drudge noise), and a Newsday column presents a list of five reasons why Oprah should invite Palin to appear on her show.

http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/2008/09/oprah_five_reasons_why_palin_s.html

The reasons are less than substantive, politically speaking: a conversation about motherhood, a ratings gain for Oprah and a demonstration of non-partisan balance, etc.

Already, a petition-based website has appeared to counter this gross injustice.

http://www.getsarahpalinonoprah.com/

This is obviously another diversionary allegation of right wing martyrdom at the hands of the liberal media establishment, but given the McCain campaign's *stated refusal to allow Palin to talk to the media*, what does the fixation on Oprah's alleged bias say about the uses to which Palin is going to be put in the coming months?

It seems obvious that the McCain campaign is going to use Palin as an attack dog during meticulously scripted appearances in friendly, tightly controlled environments. Apparently, they would also like her to make some fluff media appearances to promote her everywoman persona (remember, 'this campaign is not about the issues' as McCain's own campaign officially said.).

I have a better idea: How about a petition demanding that Palin appear on Meet the Press, where she'll presumably be asked about things that are actually relevant to the lives of American voters?

"She has the right to have whomever she wants on her show. "

--Heath.

Agreed, but try explaining that to the wingnuts.

There's a name for people who appease wingnuts.

11 letters, starts with a R.

Hey, maybe she could go on "Merv Griffin's Crosswords"!

Oprah has said in an interview today she has no issues with Palin coming on her show, but she has been accused of using her show for political purposes and doesn't want to repeat that scenario.
This was the written statement given to abcnews.com.

"There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show.

"At the beginning of the presidential campaign, when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates." So I guess whether she should or not be on the show is not worth discussing at this point.

Mallika Chopra wrote:
"I think, she has had Obama on it."

She 'might'have had Obama, but that was before the campaign. And as she said, she will have Palin after the campaign is done. She didn't have Hillary during the primaries. She didn't have Obama. Why would she have Palin? The wingnuts know she won't, so they create this fake outrage.

If Oprah did cave in to rethug bullying, they need not accept her invitation give their policy not to expose Palin to unscripted media settings. And if Oprah asks 'tough' questions, they can cry bias given Oprah's endorsement of Obama.

:::

Preity wrote in "McBush" thread:

"The last time Oprah had a VP[/Presdential] candidate on her show was in 2000 during the Al Gore....George Bush election. [She had Bush, and her show helped him.]

From that point on she vowed never to have another candidate on her show again.

She passed on having John Kerry and George Bush on her show in 2004, instead they both spoke with Dr. Phil.

John McCain and the right wing republicans are trying to have this election be about Sarah Palin and not about John McCain.

Why in the world would Oprah want to have her on her show?"

For some reason this part didn't show up on my previous post. Oprah also added

I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over."

Winfrey, who publicly endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in May 2008, is being widely criticized by some fans of the show who say she's being unfair and biased." You can read the rest of the comments on abcnews.com

Mallika Chopra: She's had Obama on it, hasn't she?

I know a lot of people who don't watch the show...just assume that Obama was on Oprah.

She endorsed Obama during the primaries but did not have any politicians on her show. (Clinton and Obama appeared on Ellen though.)

She publicly decide to not have pols on her show at all during this election cycle.

Seems reasonable to me. Oprah isnt having any political candidates on her show. No Obama, McCain, Biden or Palin. Dont really see what the issue is.

Here's an idea. Oprah can invite her and take her to the South Side of Chicago and then show her what community organizers do for a day.

And then drive her to Jerry Springer's studio downtown and she can confront Bristol and Levi.

Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”
September 5, 2008

by Charley James –

http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/05/alaskans-speak-in-a-frightened-whisper-palin-is-“racist-sexist-vindictive-and-mean”/

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

[...]

Read on...

REPUBLICAN RACIST DIRTY TRICK...straight out of Rove's playbook.

Oprah should call her bluff and invite her on the show. Oprah should not be afraid to ask tough questions (it's not like there's no precedent for it - there are cases where she took people to task). ... ask a number of pointed question to square the discrepancies in some of SP's statements and also to beard her for some of the other foul things that our hockey mom seems accountable for...e.g. the "Sambo" quote as posted by Vanessa.

That would put the issue mostly to rest - since the only criticism left would be if people whined that Oprah was too tough on her.

Which would IMMEDIATELY backfire because then we could say: if she can't handle Oprah, what CAN she handle?

Besides, she is biased because she endorsed Obama a loooong time ago (& the reason the Drudge is going after her, imo).

Which is why Oprah should not interview her until after the election, and that's what she said.

I respect Oprah more for not wanting any other politicians on her show prior to the election. Otherwise, no matter what she asks, she gets accused of bias.

I'm no fan. I don't watch her show, haven't since I was skipping classes in college back in the 90s. But damn, I'm sick of this crap. Here someone is trying to be responsible because, you know, she has a pretty large audience and people attack her.

There are plenty of other shows for Palin to go on. Springer maybe?

How about a list of questions for Oprah to ask this fraud palin when and if she actually shows up?

This must be one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Joe Biden haven`t been on Oprah after he was picked, why should Palin? Why should Palin be given free pass to daytime talkshows with easy question so "everybody" can fall in love with her. People should know about her issues. There should be a petition to get her on Meet the Press or Face the Nation.

Oh, so NO media EXCEPT Oprah? These people are morons. Oprah should bring Jill Biden on instead. I'd like to hear from her (although I don't actually watch Oprah).

Even the Mark Penn led Hillary campaign didn't go this far to make a hue and cry about Oprah.
Too bad, even ordinary people who dislike Rovian tactics tend to fall easily for these Rovian tactics; that's why they are so effective.

It's Oprah's show. She can invite on whom she wants. She can not invite whom she wants. If the Republicans truly believe in market forces, then they should let Oprah make the product she feels is best, and market it freely without coercion.

Btw, Sarah should call Jerry Springer. I'm sure she'd feel right at home on his show.

► Biden will appear for the full hour this Sunday on Meet The Press.

► Obama will appear on ABC's This Week.

► Palin will be in secure, undisclosed location, cramming for the debate.
(Apparently she's left to Alaska, and is being 'educated' on Domestic and Foreign policy.]

Joe Biden on the farce of 'speeches' at RNC on the campaign trial today:

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

Transcript

Biden: They announced the unemployment figures nationwide. For the eighth month in a row, Americans have lost jobs. We have lost 604,000 jobs in a America, just this calendar year. We're in a position where we had 84,000 lost jobs, shattered dreams, broken homes that occurred as a consequence of this loss of work just in the month of August. We now have 6.1 percent of the American work force idle. And you know what that means.

When a man or woman loses their job, they not only lose their income, they lose their sense of dignity, they lose who their identity, who they are. That's how we identify ourselves. That's how we're brought up. That's how in my neighborhood and yours, you're identified. You're identified by your willingness to work hard, your willingness to do the right thing, your willingness to show up every day and provide for your family. And so it's not merely a lost job. It's a lost sense of identity that occurs.

This ain't your father's Republican Party, by the way. This is a different Republican Party.

But, I'll tell you, it's not so much of what I heard in the Republican convention. When you heard John speak last night. It's not so much what I heard, when I heard part of what the Governor had to say, the vice presidential candidate. It's what I didn't hear.

(Applause)

THE SILENCE - THE SILENCE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WAS DEAFENING. IT WAS DEAFENING. ON JOBS, ON HEALTH CARE, ON ENVIRONMENT, ON ALL THE THINGS THAT MATTER TO THE PEOPLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS I GREW UP IN. DEAFENING!

(Standing Ovation)

Ladies and gentlemen, THEIR AMERICA IS NOT THE AMERICA I LIVE IN. THEY SEE SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN I SEE.

Ladies and gentlemen, literally, those of you, I can't swear to this because I didn't see every bit of every speech. But I asked my staff to check. Do any of you recall either candidate on the Republican ticket utter the phrase, middle class?

Biden: No!

Biden: Did any of you hear them utter the phrase, health care and how we're going to help?

Biden: No!

Biden: Did you hear them talk about aid to get kids to college?

Crowd: No!

Biden: Did you hear them talk about aid to education?

Crowd: No!

Biden: Did you hear them putting more cops on the street to make us safer?

Crowd: No!

Biden: I didn’t hear a thing, a thing, about any of the things that matter to the lives of the people of my hometown of Scranton....

Rick Davis, John’s campaign manager, said two days into the convention, he said "this election is not about issues." That's what he said. And everything I saw at the convention demonstrated that.

It was about how well placed -- and boy she is good -- how a left jab can be stuck pretty nice. It’s about how Barack Obama is such a bad guy.

It’s about how in fact, how in fact, they got great quips. Man, they’re like the kids you know when you went to school and you were very proud of the new belt or the shoes you had, and there was always one kid in the class who said, "oh, are they your brother’s?"

Crowd: Yeah.

Remember that kid? That’s what this is reminding me of. "Oh, I love your dress, was that your mother’s?"

You know what I’m talking about.

What do you talk about, when you have nothing to say?!

What do you talk about when you CANNOT EXPLAIN THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OF FAILURE?!

(Standing Ovation)

What do you talk about?! What do you talk about?!

You talk about the other guy.

Crowd: Giv’em Hell, Joe!

Biden: Remember what Harry Truman used to say. The crowd would yell, "giv’em hell, Harry." And he’d say, "I’m not gonna to giv’em hell, I’m gonna tell them the truth, and they’re gonna think it’s HELL."

(Standing Ovation)

I think Oprah's only responsibility is to be true to herself. She seems to be inspired to promote a new world, she works with Eckhart Tolle and probably with other evolutionaries... that is what she believes in and what she stands for. The power of attention is huge, and she is a natural tool of focusing the attention of the masses (of women). If she follows her internal guidance, then she will play the exact role she is meant to play in the larger scheme of things.

Mystery Solved!
Josh Marshall at TPM

A lot of people were asking tonight: what the hell was that mansion up behind John McCain tonight during the first part of the speech? As I noted below, the TV close-ups only showed McCain's head against the grass in the picture, which made it look like he was reprising his famed green screen performance. And when they panned out, it looked like McCain was showing off one of his mansions....

[...]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/213806.php

Green Screen Mystery Solved
Scout Finch at dkos

A lot of RNCC viewers were perplexed last night when McCain appeared from the light of the Obama logo, strolled to the podium, and began his lackluster speech before an enormous green screen. We'd seen that lime green screen before and thought McGrinch had learned his lesson -- it was not a good look for McCain and was widely panned by pundits and the public alike. So, why would he choose that hideous background for the biggest speech of his very long political career?

It turns out the green screen was only part of the story. The close-up at the podium made it appear to be a giant green screen, but the arena audience was treated to a much different image....

[...]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/5/111829/9917/18/587802

McCain's Walter Reed Debacle Blowing Up

Todd Beeton at MyDD:

Talking Points Memo has been on this story from the start. It began with an inquiry into just what the McCain campaign was thinking when they had him stand in front of a giant lime green backdrop for his speech last night...again. Turned out the green was actually from the grass in front of what appeared to be a huge mansion, which, again, seemed an odd choice, optics-wise. But TPM kept digging and figured out that the image was of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, CA.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/213806.php

An odd choice, no? Why ever would they use that as the backdrop for McCain's nomination acceptance speech I wonder? Hmm. Could it be...

>>>>>>>"...several readers have suggested that perhaps one of the tech geeks charged with setting up the audio/visual bells and whistles for the evening was tasked with getting pictures of Walter Reed Army Medical Center but goofed and got this instead.">>>

Pretty much says it all, doesn't it? To their credit The California Democratic Party is on it and the message is clear (from a CDP press release):

>>>>>>>"Today, John Heaner, [Region 13 Director, and Walter Reed Middle School PTA Board member], will be in front of Walter Reed Middle School to underscore how out of touch John McCain is. Thursday night's convention photo op disaster illustrates that McCain and Bush have ignored the wounded troops at Walter Reed Hospital for so long they can't even tell the difference between the hospital and the school in North Hollywood.">>>

I just got off the phone with John who told me the this was about the hypocrisy of John McCain and Republicans who

>>>>>>>"...claim to care about wounded soldiers but no one in his campaign could spot the difference between the hospital where we send our wounded soldiers and the middle school where I send my little girls.">>>

He said that John McCain "took ownership" of that image the second he walked out on that stage

>>>>>>>"...during the biggest night of his life, for the biggest speech of his life.">>>

So far, the McCain campaign is refusing comment, for obvious reasons, but they may not be able to for long. John told me the media interest in this is out of control. He'd already spoken to NBC, ABC, NPR among others and had to go because The New York Times was calling on the other line.

As if it couldn't get better, the school's principal, Donna Tobin, has released this statement:

>>>>>>>>"It has been brought to the school's attention that a picture of the front of our school, Walter Reed Middle School, was used as a backdrop at the Republican National Convention. Permission to use the front of our school for the Republican National Convention was not given by our school nor is the use of our school's picture an endorsement of any political party or view.">>>

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/school_raps_mccain_for_using_i.php

TPM deserves a lot of credit for staying on this story and props to CDP for its rapid response today.

MyDD
http://mydd.com/story/2008/9/5/192328/7608#commenttop

Dear Mallika

That was what I inferred from your post -- that Palin is somehow the equivalent of Obama.

Palin's not running against Obama. She's running with McCain against Obama & Biden. If Oprah has her on the show, and not McCain and Biden, she'd be stretching the real political construct out of shape, by giving undue weight to Palin's influence through a talk show platform.

I'm sure she's been warned against doing this, and I'm sure one of the first to warn her was her own common sense. By throwing her social power -- unelected and unasked for -- into the political arena to back Obama, she lost the trust of at least some long-time loyal viewers. I doubt she wants to risk enduring a lot of criticism on the same point, a second time. The public makes personalities like Oprah seem unassailable, but once the public turns against such people, it takes them down, too. I'd guess she's pretty aware of that.

love, h

Palin should have been ready for the media a year ago. Why would McCain choose somebody that was not ready to face questions from day one!!!!!!!!!!!

This shows he made a very very uninformed choice. No matter what the spin.

There is no way Palin can compare to Biden or Obama. To say she is qualified is a complete stretch of reality and no spin will calm this storm.

McCain can not rally enough support so he went American Idol on us, shameful.

Typically I am not political but i do have to decide and vote.
We only have two choices.

McCain has nothing that makes me want to vote for him. All he has is an inexperienced cheerleader. It doesn't fly with me.

I will be working for the Obama campaign here in Colorado Springs. That's how important this is to a first time voter. A white middle aged voter.

McCain and Palin will be speaking here today.

THE RNC WAS A FARCE AND A JOKE!!!!!!!!!! If you did not see the whole thing you still can on C-SAPN, no commentaries. If you are going to vote I would suggest you watch them both. McCain's speech was unbelievably bad. There is no way I'm going to have another bad speaker in the White House representing me to the WORLD!!!!!!!!

Most of the speakers at the RNC were Bush Admin people. McCain's speech writer was the writer for Bush. Carl Rove is one of his campaign strategists, yo.

derek

Forget Oprah, I want to see her face the media!!!!!

derek

doodleman,

As we learn something new (no, I'm not talking about personal life and family rumors) about Sarah the Scandal Queen seemingly every hour, it's not surprising that John McCain has warned the press to back off asking questions.

Indeed, as McCain's spokesman himself has admitted, Palin is being hidden away from the press because she is destined to "make a mistake" that will affect the election (video here):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AV_54517R8

[Quote]"If she goes out and makes a mistake, that is something that [voters will] care about, and that's something that will haunt [McCain] for awhile, so I think this is a smart move."

A "smart move" for the McCain campaign? How long can they keep Palin at an undisclosed location, cramming for her VP debates, before McCain begins to feel backlash from voters who are tired of more of the same Cheney-style politics? Because while McCain believes it's a "smart move" to hide Palin from the press, the American people aren't that stupid.

........

"I make [decisions] as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can," Mr. McCain wrote, with his top adviser Mark Salter, in his 2002 book, Worth the Fighting For. "Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint."-- John McCain

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/us/politics/31reconstruct.html

Amen Salina, the American people are smarter than this. We will no longer suspend our common sense and reality to let the politicians and the media lie to us any more.

We have had enough.

The people are becoming empowered!!!!!!!!!!!!

derek

Yo, I'm not usually one for exclamation marks.

derek

Indeed Salina, we are learning something 'new' with each passing hour. As the true vetting of Sarah Palin continued over the last two days, we learned more about John McCain's pick for vice-president. Unfortunately for us, if John McCain is elected, it's the American people that will face the consequences of his rash decision to chose a complete unknown for his ticket. Here's a recap of some of the things we have learned over the last couple of days about the person John McCain thinks should be a 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency:

*

Palin's ties to the lobbying system she is purportedly going to "reform" keep piling up:

"Steven W. Silver, a Washington lobbyist who began representing the small town of Wasilla during Palin’s tenure as mayor, is also lobbying for construction of a controversial bridge linking Anchorage to the borough housing Wasilla, according to lobbying disclosure records."

Wasilla’s All-Purpose Lobbyist
Town Lobbyist Is 'Bridge to Nowhere' Lobbyist
http://www.washingtonindependent.com/4579/wasilla-lobbyist-is-also-%e2%80%98bridge-to-nowhere%e2%80%99-lobbyist

Palin's administration isn't shying away from that earmark, which may cost taxpayers between $450 million to $1.5 billion.

*

Speaking of earmarks, McCain can't be too happy that his choice for VP was so earmark-eager that, in reaction to getting federal money for a earmarks that McCain 'himself' opposed, she wrote: "We did well!"

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/4328/more-on-palins-true-stand-on-earmarks

*

Wasilla is the "meth capital of Alaska."

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/030805/sta_20050308002.shtml

*

Does "executive experience" as the mayor of Wasilla include royally screwing up a building project at the taxpayer's expense?:

"WASILLA, Alaska -- The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters.

The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122065537792905483.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

*

On Troopergate, the fired offical is speaking out and calling Palin a liar:

'"I believe I was fired because of, primarily the reason of her former brother-in-law," Monegan said. "I think that my unwillingness to take special action against her former brother-in-law was not well received."

Monegan says he believes that the Governor has not told the truth about what happened.'

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5724378&page=1

Courtesy of ABC News, here is a scathing investigative reportwhich leaves little doubt that Palin lied to cover up the scandal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOBWZ7Jocc8

And courtesy of Newsweek, we learn that McCain's circle is trying to stonewall the investigation:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/157439/page/1

*

As an executive, she has exhibited the same disdain for science as George W. Bush:

'In her 20 months as governor, Palin has questioned the conclusions of federal marine scientists who say the Cook Inlet beluga whale needs protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. [...]

"Her philosophy from our perspective is cut, kill, dig and drill," said John Toppenberg, director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, maintaining she is "in the Stone Age of wildlife management and is very opposed to utilizing accepted science."'

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3EH5jd_uyWAFtvLAUaky_bDGBhgD93011S81

She also rejects the idea that polar bears should be an endangered species.

*

In light of this New York Times article revealing the central role religion plays in Palin's life, details about her church are becoming more relevant--and more disturbing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/us/politics/06church.html

Palin's church claims that it has been "prophesied" that Alaska is a "refuge state" (along with Wisconsin) for the rapture (Alaska First!). Watch Palin on stage as her pastor proclaims that Alaska will be a refuge for hundreds of thousands of people in "the last days." Video here (around the 1:37 mark).:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k84m2orSOaM

Oh, and her church also embraces the "pray away the gay" movement.

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/2008/09/05/D930SNQ01_palin_gays/index.html

All this in last 'two days', after the first 24 hrs of too many scandals to count.

Hello Mallika and Everyone,

It seems as though even if Oprah did want an interview it would be a no go...the McCain campaign has stated...."A senior McCain campaign official advises that, despite the gaggle of requests and pressure from the media, Gov. Sarah Palin won't submit to a formal interview anytime soon. She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she's ready -- and until she's comfortable -- which might not be for a long while -- the media will have to wait. The campaign believes it can effectively deal with the media's complaints, and their on-the-record response to all this will be: "Sarah Palin needs to spend time with the voters."

THIS WOMAN:)....has been tossed to the American public like a bloody piece of meat is thrown to sharks in an ocean by the republican strategists as food for their voters empty stomachs..
And, she comes not empty handed her scripts are written by the pros and she delivers them to her fellow republicans and the rest of the Nation like a well trained "pit bull." I do wonder if her handlers throw her a "cracker" after each good performance.

It is a joke that now that Palin has performed to the Nation under professionally choreographed and well-protected circumstances that they can get away without her facing what every political vice-presidential and presidential candidate is obligated to do which is make themselves available to public scrutiny by facing the press and media.

McCain wants her placed in the second highest office in the Nation but doesn't want her to face a media and press until "she is ready?" What kind of manzy-panzy crap is this.....she can only speak in Alaska....and she can only deliver scripts written by her handlers to the rest of the "lower 48,".....

Listen, let's get real.....either deliver the "hockey mom/pit bull"( and really I wouln't be calling her that except she wore it like a badge of honor when she delivered that line, written by her handlers," to the American public in her acceptance speech the other night) to the media and press for interviews and questions like any other candidate for 'god's sake! she isn't ready to face the American press or media but she is ready to hold the second most powerful position in our Government.....

really this is absurd.

ruth

I just listened to Palin at church talk about her nanny, a nanny.

How many working Mom's have a nanny!!!!!!!!!

Listening to Palin at church, wow. She is a religious extremist.
LIKE BUSH!

This is not real is it.

derek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Y8FKAsxmk

!!!!!!!!

Sorry I'm just vetting, oops I mean venting.

derek

Hi Gang,

This will brighten up your day. Watch what Mc Cain really thinks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qUVQDmLf7s&feature=related

Cheers,
Stan

Thanks for the giggle Stan, I was looking for something fun to start the day with. My son watched it with me, and he said... that these videos are funny, but this is not really the right way to go about things. I kind of agree with him :)
We remembered a clip we watched after the last election and found it again - maybe you'll like it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUdpj3gJofQ

Dear Mallika

From Frank Rich's column today:

"...“This election is not about issues” so much as the candidates’ images, said the McCain campaign manager, Davis, in one of the season’s most notable pronouncements. Going into the Republican convention, we thought we knew what he meant: the McCain strategy is about tearing down Obama. But last week made clear that the McCain campaign will be equally ruthless about deflecting attention from its own candidate’s deterioration..."

"...the Palin choice was brilliant politics — not because it rallied the G.O.P.’s shrinking religious-right base. America loves nothing more than a new celebrity face, and the talking heads marched in lock step last week to proclaim her a star. Palin is a high-energy distraction from the top of the ticket, even if the provenance of her stardom is in itself a reflection of exactly what’s frightening about the top of the ticket.

"By hurling charges of sexism and elitism at any easily cowed journalist who raises a question about Palin, McCain operatives are hoping to ensure that whatever happened in Alaska with Sarah Palin stays in Alaska. Given how little vetting McCain himself has received this year — and that only 58 days remain until Nov. 4 — they just might pull it off."

The full piece is here, or click my name:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/opinion/07rich.html

For anyone not wanting to read the full column, at least read this additional excerpt:

"...We still don’t know a lot about Palin except that she’s better at delivering a speech than McCain and that she defends her own pregnant daughter’s right to privacy even as she would have the government intrude to police the reproductive choices of all other women. Most of the rest of the biography supplied by her and the McCain camp is fiction.

"She didn’t say “no thanks” to the “Bridge to Nowhere” until after Congress had already abandoned it but given Alaska a blank check for $223 million in taxpayers’ money anyway. Far from rejecting federal pork, she hired lobbyists to secure her town a disproportionate share of earmarks ($1,000 per resident in 2002, 20 times the per capita average in other states). Though McCain claimed “she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” she has never issued a single command as head of the Alaska National Guard. As for her “executive experience” as mayor, she told her hometown paper in Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996, the year of her election: “It’s not rocket science. It’s $6 million and 53 employees.” Her much-advertised crusade against officials abusing their office is now compromised by a bipartisan ethics investigation into charges that she did the same. ..."

love, h

#38

This Frank Rich's column is one column that should be read in its entirety. More taste:

"McCain is now the man of James Dobson and Tony Perkins. The "no surrender" warrior surrendered to the agents of intolerance not just by dumping his pal for Palin but by moving so far to the right on abortion that even Cindy McCain seemed unaware of his radical shift when being interviewed by Katie Couric last week.

That ideological sellout, unfortunately, was not the worst leadership trait the last-minute vice presidential pick revealed about McCain. His speed-dating of Palin reaffirmed a more dangerous personality tic that has dogged his entire career. His decision-making process is impetuous and, in its Bush-like preference for gut instinct over facts, potentially reckless."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/opinion/07rich.html

Jessica Reaves:

"Sarah Palin is a woman. Hillary Clinton is a woman. Women just love voting for other women. Women candidates are interchangeable. Therefore, women who would have voted for Clinton are obviously going to vote for Palin.

If this syllogism strikes you as stupid, that's because it is. Not to mention cynical and not a little bit sexist. Yet it also appears to be one of the reasons behind John McCain's choice of a running mate."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-palin-clinton-thinksep07,0,1436498.story

***

John S. Baick (Professor of History, Western New England College):

"As the shock of her pick wears off, I wonder how this ticket can work when it sends conflicting messages. How can McCain talk about fighting government pork when his running mate comes from the state that is a symbol of lobbying and earmarks of which she seems to have played a part? Revelations about her record as a mayor and a governor badly undermine one of McCain’s central crusades. How can McCain talk about experience when he chose as his running mate perhaps the least experienced candidate of the 20th century? Putting aside the question of how much experience matters in terms of presidential success, the entire theme of experience has been badly undercut. The McCain campaign clearly hoped that the pick of Governor Palin would bring in new enthusiasm and new voters, creating a ticket whose appeal to different groups—veterans, libertarian conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and hawks for McCain; social conservatives, rural voters, and perhaps some disaffected Clinton supporters for Palin— but I think it is quite possible that the whole will not be equal to the sum of its parts in the long run."

http://news.google.com/news?btcid=c71dfb87f412fc75

To the sport junkies:

Sarah Palin Is Not a Hockey Mom
by Sean Quinn
FiveThirtyEight

She's a hockey player. She’s a fourth-line hockey agitator, beloved by the home crowd, loathed by the opponents, injecting passion into both fan bases, the kind of home-team hero that no Stanley Cup winner goes without.

Once upon a time, I applied an NFL-replay mentality to hockey playoffs, holding on to outrages over missed calls, blatantly unfair officiating, double standards, and outright getting-away-with-stuff (which always led to an early spring exit for my beloved Blues). I wanted – and unreasonably expected – bad behavior to be proportionally punished.

And several years ago I had an epiphany about the hockey playoffs – *nobody is coming to save you*. Initiators win, reactors lose. Expect adversity, because it's built in. The fourth-line, no-scoring-talent, pest agitators (or as we now call them, “energy guys”) have a specific job. Skate in, take a cheap shot, make it after the whistle. Make it against the rules. Stir something up. Put a wet glove in the other guy's face and rub it. Get the outrage flowing. Get the opponent not thinking about the game, get them thinking about your shenanigans. And what happens? The “victimized” team loses its composure, hitting back. *The guy who hits second is always the guy who goes to the penalty box*.

Watching Sarah Palin this week, and the reaction to her by both sides, and all the talk of hockey mommery, I realized that this is who she is. She skates into the corner, throws up an elbow, and the Democrats cry: “Foul!” Hey! She said Obama has never passed a major bill – this is an objective lie! Hey! She ridiculed community organizing the day after Service was the theme! Technically people should punish her by not voting for her over this infraction!

It’s whining, and whiners hit back second and go to the penalty box on top of it.

Sarah Palin is a person who by her own admission found out about the Iraq surge – the centerpiece of the McCain judgment argument – from television. Apologies to conservatives, but technically, objectively, inarguably, this alone makes her unqualified to be President. *But we don’t live in that technical or objective world*. Political campaigns – as distinct from policy and governance – are the NHL playoffs. It’s only about who survives the war of attrition to the finish line first. Is Brett Hull’s skate still in Dominik Hasek’s crease and was that same situation disallowed in every previous instance throughout that season? Yes, but so what? *Dallas had a parade.*

In the hockey analogy, Palin wouldn’t get within a thousand miles of an NHL All-Star Game because she’s not a scoring talent. She’s a role player, an emotion-rouser. Emotion messes with the chalkboard-drawn game plan and thus achieves a specific strategic objective. She can make game-changing agitation plays that rouse her home team and provoke the other side into counterattacks that – 100% of the time – end up punishing the team who hits back. Democrats would be smart to understand her as such, and I see a lot of reaction that doesn't seem to grasp what Palin is doing and the value she's providing. I see a lot of Democrats taking a lot of bait.

This applies more to Democratic surrogates than it does to the top-ticket duo. Joe Biden had the smart response yesterday – naming the behavior – expecting it, and then riding through without taking the bait:

“It was about how well placed -- and boy she is good -- how a left jab can be stuck pretty nice. It’s about how Barack Obama is such a bad guy.”

And that’s all he says of Palin’s antics. Name the behavior, even praising the skill with which the agitation was attempted, and then back to focus. It's "the economy, stupid."

Finally – is the analogy complete? In the end a great hockey agitator who rouses both sides emotionally (and successfully gets the other team to lose focus) still needs the home team scoring talent to come through. Successful agitator Kris Draper of the Detroit Red Wings had the clutch Steve Yzerman for a lot of years. That worked. Detroit won Cups. They had parades.

Successful agitator Tyson Nash, when he was on my Blues, was stuck with the antithesis of playoff clutch, the easily thrown-off-his-game Keith Tkachuk. That didn’t work. No Cup. Even if Palin is successful in her task of agitation and distraction, which one is John McCain?

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/sarah-palin-is-not-hockey-mom.html

Author (Three Kings!), journalist, and social commentator John Ridley has a couple of must-read diaries up at Huffington Post, "Your Pocket Guide to Speaking Palin-guage"--(Vol. 1) and Vol.2 -- the People's Edition.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ridley/your-pocket-guide-to-spea_b_123606.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ridley/the-guide-to-the-conserva_b_124368.html

Here's a sample:

"Up in the Twin Cities area folks are speaking a new language. Or, should I say Palinguage. It sounds sorta familiar because it's Latin based. But different from the plain English we're used to speaking, in Palinguage recognizable words take on new meanings. Won't you take a moment to learn some Plainguage so you can talk like a hypocritical conservative?

REPEAT THE FOLLOWING:

If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "token hire." If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "game changer."

....

Black teen pregnancies? A "crisis" in black America. White teen pregnancies? A "blessed event."

If you grow up in Hawaii you're "exotic." Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential "American story."

....

If you get 18 million people to vote for you in a national presidential primary, you're a "phoney." Get 100,000+ people to vote you governor of the 47th most populous state in the Union, you're "well loved."

SoyAA says: If you are biracial and born in a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs darn near 2 years and 3 major speeches to "get to know you." If you're white and from a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs 36 minutes and 38 seconds worth of an acceptance speech to know you're "one of us."

....

If you spend 18 months building a campaign around the theme of "Change," it's just "empty rhetoric." If one week before your party's national convention you SUDDENLY make your candidacy about "Change," that's "red meat."

....

Got some Palinguage? They're keeping tabs here:
http://www.thatminoritything.com/?p=53193

PS: This one's for Ruth:

'And your last lesson for the day:

If you are a Democrat, an Independent, or even a moderate Republican, if you’re female, male, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, bi-racial, multi-ethnic, or GLBT, if you’re a Jew, Gentile, Muslim, agnostic or atheist - “Yes, we can!”

If you’re a pitbull with lipstick from Alaska, “Yup, yup!”'

Someone here so full of idiocy was recently surprised and absolutely falbbergasted when Deepak Chopra mentioned the fact that Obama's opponents are trying smear him and paint him as a muslim machurian candidate and other bullshit.

Here's Jonathan Martin of the widely read *CONSERVATIVE* OUTLET "The Politico", who notes with some amusement that the McCain campaign, of all people, are accusing others playing the victim:

"...the underground campaign to frame Obama as a closet Muslim...

...Republicans would suggest he had "Muslim connections.

Broadly speaking, this is true. Such smears have not, however, come from McCain's campaign but rather fringe characters.[Like Corsi]

The GOP campaign sought to make this clear and then stretched the truth.

"Barack Obama’s suggestion that the McCain campaign is somehow trying to paint him with ‘Muslim connections’ is false, and a cynical attempt to play the victim," said McCain campaign chief Rick Davis in a statement.

...Obama didn't say the McCain campaign had done any such thing. He used the safer, and accurate, word "Republicans."

But this aside, does the McCain campaign really want to accuse anybody else of an "attempt to play the victim" after their efforts to gain sympathy and rouse their base by crying out over the coverage of Palin?

Recall: McCain's campaign sent out a fundraising appeal claiming the "Obama-Biden Democrats" had gone after the Palin family and then were able to list zero examples of any such efforts by the Democratic ticket. "

Thanks John. Sean Quinn nails it (#41).

All Democrats Would Do Well to Read This (Or, "How 538 Nails It")
by AndrewMC
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/7/75712/01778/66/589788

"Let's keep our eyes on the puck, and the goal. We got thrown an elbow. Americans will read that play based on how we react."

From Wiki:

Nathaniel Read Silver (b. 1978, East Lansing, Michigan; now residing in Chicago, Illinois) is Managing Partner of Baseball Prospectus. He is best known for inventing PECOTA, a system for forecasting the performance and career development of Major League Baseball players. In 2007 he began to publish analyses and predictions of U.S. presidential primaries and the general election, initially under the pseudonym "Poblano"[at Daily Kos] and later under his own name.[1] In March 2008 he created a blog, FiveThirtyEight.com.

Early years

According to journalist William Hageman, "Silver caught the baseball bug when he was 6, growing up in East Lansing, Mich. It was 1984, the year the Detroit Tigers won the World Series. The Tigers became his team and baseball his sport. And if there's anything that goes hand in glove with baseball, it's numbers, another of Silver's childhood interests. ("It's always more interesting to apply it to batting averages than algebra class.")"[2]

As a student at East Lansing High School, in 1996 Silver won first place in the State of Michigan in the 49th annual John S. Knight Scholarship Contest for senior high school debaters.[3]

Silver earned his journalism chops writing and editing The Portrait, East Lansing High School's student newspaper from 1993-1996.

In 2000, Silver graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago, where he studied economics. He also wrote for the Chicago Weekly News and the Chicago Maroon. He spent his junior year at the London School of Economics.

Political analysis

Beginning in October 2007, Silver began to publish a diary under the pseudonym "Poblano" on the progressive political blog Daily Kos. Silver set out to analyze quantitative aspects of the political game in a manner that would enlighten a broader audience. His forecasts of the primary elections drew a lot of attention...

FiveThirtyEight.com

In March 2008, Silver established his own blog FiveThirtyEight.com, in which he developed a system for tracking and forecasting the outcome of the 2008 U.S. presidential election. At the same time, he continued making forecasts of the 2008 Democratic primary elections. That several of his forecasts based on demographic analysis proved to be substantially more accurate than those of the professional pollsters gained visibility and professional credibility for "Poblano."[13] As a result, his blog generated a growing following among political junkies, increasing numbers of whom contributed constructive and critical comments on his columns. In addition, he posted the results there[14] of some pro bono work that he provided to Progress Illinois estimating the possible impact of increased voting by African Americans, Latinos, and young people in the November election on Obama's chances of success – something that was dubbed "The Poblano Effect."

Mainstream media exposure

On May 30, 2008, Poblano revealed his identity to his FiveThirtyEight.com readers with the following statement:

"There are certain pleasures in writing anonymously. Particularly in the political world, where there is a whole mythology associated with anonymity -- think Deep Throat or Primary Colors or Atrios. But I'm fortunate enough to have been granted the opportunity to develop some relationships with larger outlets (you should see these coming to fruition very soon). And it just ain't very professional to keep referring to yourself as a chili pepper.

My real name is Nate Silver and my principal occupation has been as a writer, analyst and partner at a sports media company called Baseball Prospectus. What we do over there and what I'm doing over here are really quite similar. Both baseball and politics are data-driven industries. But a lot of the time, that data might be used badly. In baseball, that may mean looking at a statistic like batting average when things like on-base percentage and slugging percentage are far more correlated with winning ballgames. In politics, that might mean cherry-picking a certain polling result or weaving together a narrative that isn't supported by the demographic evidence."

On June 1, Silver published a two-page Op-Ed article in the New York Post outlining the rationale underlying his focus on the statistical aspects of politics.

"My fulltime occupation has been as a writer and analyst for a sports media company called Baseball Prospectus. In baseball, statistics are meaningless without context; hitting 30 home runs in the 1930s is a lot different than hitting 30 today. There is a whole industry in baseball dedicated to the proper understanding and interpretation of statistics. In polling and politics, there is nearly as much data as there is for first basemen. In this year's Democratic primaries, there were statistics for every gender, race, age, occupation and geography - reasons why Clinton won older women, or Obama took college students. But the understanding has lagged behind. Polls are cherry-picked based on their brand name or shock value rather than their track record of accuracy. Demographic variables are misrepresented or misunderstood. (Barack Obama, for instance, is reputed to have problems with white working-class voters, when in fact these issues appear to be more dictated by geography - he has major problems among these voters in Kentucky and West Virginia, but did just fine with them in Wisconsin and Oregon)".

Silver's self-unmasking brought him a lot of publicity, including articles about him in the Wall Street Journal,[18] Newsweek,[19] and Science News.[20] In early June he began to cross-post his daily "Today's Polls" updates on "The Plank" in The New Republic.[21] Also, Rasmussen Reports began to use the FiveThirtyEight.com poll averages for its own tracking of the 2008 state-by-state races.

This added exposure provided him with opportunities to appear on CNN's "American Morning" and MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann as well as to contribute essays and op ed columns to The New Republic,[23] the New York Post,[24] and the Los Angeles Times.[25]

Hi, Scott,

re# 42....Ridley hits it perfectly. And, "yes we can"".....oh, Palin is over yonder..listen closely.......yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup....oh, her handlers just threw her a cracker....thank god, some peace a quite for a moment.....

gee, thanks Palin for the pit bull stuff, with lipstick, no less, it is going to give me such fun for the rest of the campaign......that is the purpose for that priceless line, right?

:))ruth

Sean Quinn, who also blogs at Daily Kos, is a contributor to FiveThirtyEight.com

About Sean in his own words:

The Next Laura Ingraham?

After Nate announced that he was not, in fact, Chuck Todd, I’ve been thinking of dropping the semi-anonymity of just “Sean.” My full name is Sean Quinn, and I’m a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. Two classes behind Jake Tapper at Dartmouth, I walked across America for the meatier part of two years with a backpack and a journal, was a lead writer on several of the You Don’t Know Jack editions while living in Chicago (paid smartassery produces a reinforcing Pavlovian response). I’ve taught LSAT prep in Charlottesville, hold a JD from Virginia Law (FBI director Robert Mueller gave the commencement address on “integrity,” I kiddeth you not). I’m a certified Enneagram teacher in the Helen Palmer school, have played poker professionally for several years and have worked in Democratic campaign/party circles doing both field and research work, with most of that experience in beautiful Montana.

As a longtime amateur political observer/analyst and eventual activist, my blogging career was serendipitously launched by the unique delegate math circumstances of the Democratic primary, when posting at DailyKos under the pseudonym PocketNines. That’s where I encountered “Poblano.”

I’ll try to balance Nate’s baseball references with football and hockey ones, particularly when they involve my beloved St. Louis Blues or Dartmouth/Blue Lee Stempniak. Finally, I just want to say hello to any fellow members of Mr. Walker’s 1981 and 1982 Khoury League Bantam I/II U. City (MO) Warriors baseball team who might be reading this. Go Warriors! Down with the Cobras!

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/08/next-laura-ingraham.html

Hurricane Ike Update
by millwx @Daily Kos

[political rant/ Begin]

Before we get to Ike, here's my Sarah Palin diary (doesn't everyone have one?): Can we stop the obsession? 90% of Americans don't vote based on the VP. Maybe a few do, and maybe a handful of Republican are now fired up. Big deal. If we spend half as much time fighting for Obama as we've done handwringing over and railing against the irrelelvant Sarah Palin, we'd be making a real difference and walking away with this thing.

I agree with nyceve's diary that this election isn't a game. For some (people lacking health care or reasonable wages, in harm's way due to poor environmental regulation, in potential need of FEMA assistance in the event of a storm like that discussed herein, or any other number of issues), this election is critical... possibly life or death. Never mind the very real fight for "the soul of America". We need to stop with the trite, silly, ridiculousness and focus on the real issues and get our fellow Americans to understand what's at stake, so they'll make the correct choice and pull that lever for Obama.

[End/ political rant]

...okay, now on to Ike...

[...]

Story:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/7/95752/89458/307/589547

"Do we have to follow lead of the opposition?"

Interesting choice of words Heath, are you (we)speaking on behalf of the IB community?

So much for all those(I mean we at IB?) who will and are piling on the Fairness Doctrine bandwagon.

This place becoming more closed by the minute.

Steve

Steve, I was speaking to Mallika with my "we".

That you see this place as closed is strange to me, given the months -- years -- of openness you've experienced first-hand here. Your comments have been enthusiastic in stating your beliefs and opinions. While people have debated you, no one has ever closed down your voice, or the voices of others who've shown their beliefs to be similar to yours.

In the past, those who've thought more or less as I do have been pretty quiet and gentle in expressing their beliefs. Now we've had enough of the failures brought to the US internally and externally by the W administration. We don't want a repeat. If we are speaking more strongly now about what we believe, that's our right, just as it's been your right to speak strongly in the past and it's still your right now.

If you feel this place is becoming more closed, maybe, on some unconscious level, you're finally seeing the failure of this and past Republican administrations to make the best of US capabilities, inside the country, and outside, in the ever-less US-centric world.

Ambasteve, you little piece of shit accused someone here for "hating" half the country. And you cherry pick examples to make generalizations. And you have the gall to project the "we" in heath's comment to "everyone" 'including' Obama and McCain supporters in order to make a straw man argument as if she refers to wingnuts like you as Obama supporters.

Mallika Chopra is a Obama supporters and so is Heath, and her comment is adress to MC. Chopra. "we" refers to "obama supporters" if you have half a functioning brain.

Stop whining about "Intentblog" -- you are a part of it too-- and no one's considering you a Democrat, or a Obama supporter.

#51

Typos

... *of* "hating"

...is a Obama *supporter*(singular)

...*Ms.* Chopra

Update: "We" in her comment refers to Heath and Mallika...and 'possibly' any Obama supporter who share 'their' views.

By the way, what does "Fairness Doctrine bandwagon" mean to you?

To me, it's just another anti-Dem buzz phrase meant to imply the Dems are banding together to bully the Reps. Oh, poor little Reps, the Dems are feeling a little strong today. Here's my shoulder and a tissue.

If you look back through the archives of IB, except for the fighting between HC and BO camps during the primaries, virtually all the political noise and, shall I term it thus -- yes, I shall -- jeering taking place here came from your camp. The style of Rep political dialogue can be pretty aggressive and rude. Many say it's unwarrantedly so. If the Fairness Doctrine, or something similar, were put into place, would it quell that style? Perhaps. If so, it would do it by requiring that all be fairly discussed. If your party's points have value, they should be able to survive that stylistic (or some would say ethical) limitation, don't you think?

Please forgive my irritable sarcasm. It's mostly meant for the downside of life, not for you personally.

Ambasteve's projections, insecurities and his intolerance are perhaps justified.

You know, like Ambasteve, many of us don't have a relative in Israel killed by a Palestinian terrorist. Of Course, Democrat leadership and their policies, and whoever supports them can be blamed as a defense mechanism you see?

That perhaps also explains his true belief in the Bush party.

Speaking of 'true belief', how about...

Insanity
[by DarkSyde]

Can someone tell me what it is conservatives are so afraid will happen if Obama wins? They sure sound angry and terrified about the prospect, but why?

It can't be that they're afraid women will be suddenly awarded the right of reproductive choice; women already have it and the GOP did nothing to change that when given the chance of a lifetime. Fuel prices have tripled under the Republican reign, they seem fine with it, and so we have to assume that that worry is not a factor in the conservative calculus. Nor can they be legitimately concerned that democrats will vastly increase federal spending, or enact horrendously expensive new entitlement programs supported by taxes socializing healthcare costs and bar the government from benefiting from the cost saving magic of the free market. Nope, those horses have all fled the barn, no use closing the door now.

Maybe they're worried democrats will be vacationing, sound asleep at the switch, while the intel community frantically tries to warn them of a vast, pending terrorist attack that could kill thousands of innocent Americans. Some might even be concerned that democrats will exploit such a tragedy for personal political gain and still fail to capture or kill the criminal masterminds that planned it. Others might speculate Obama will respond by foolishly attacking the wrong nation on a false premise and get us embroiled in a trillion dollar bloody boondoggle that wrecks out military readiness, destroys our international credibility, and gets thousands of US soldiers and untold hundreds of thousands of innocent bystanders killed or maimed for life. Worst case scenario: after all that misery and money, weak willed democrats will roll over and hand a date for US failure to the insurgents in Iraq.

Then again, maybe conservatives are thinking closer to home. What if progressive economic policies wrecked the economy, rocked Wall Street, caused hundreds of thousands of people to lose their homes and jobs, and turned over our national economic future to the tender mercies of fundamentalist Sunni Monarchs and the communist Chinese? Or expand government intrusiveness making toilet paper out of the US Constitution? Maybe, in their darkest fears, they're afraid democrats would foolishly go on vacation and ignore their responsibilities while a massive hurricane lumbers into the US coast at a slow jog and sinks a major American city.

At least one source of conservative anxiety is imminently plausible: Democrats might rescind tax breaks for companies that ship American jobs overseas, divert corporate welfare from insanely profitable corporations to uninsured or sick children, raise taxes on billionaires and oil companies, and create a more equitable healthcare system. That such possibilities strike fear into the corrupt soul of conservatism says a lot more about their decedent priorities than the middle class values of their opponents.

I guess that's what confuses a lot of voters: Conservatives are worried that Democrats might do the same astonishingly lousy job Republicans have done for the last eight years. To avoid even the possibility that that might happen, conservatives prescribe electing more members from the same crew who wrecked the country, in what is clearly to any lucid external observer the ridiculous and desperate hope that the same party will fix it all by continuing, uninterrupted, the same policies that produced the damage in the first place. In the alternate reality fabricated by the seamlessly integrated conservative PR apparatus, this extension of the failed status quo is called change, in the rest of the world it's one of the better known definitions of insanity.

Forget Oprah... too bad Will&Grace went off the air. I'd like to see John & Sarah as guests on that show doing a tummy slam the way Jack & Karen did when they fist met. Oh wait, I don't have to watch it on tv, I had a little photoshop fun with this idea.

http://e14studio.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-photoshop-fun.html

Dowd is still holding on to her venom against HC. In the world of female pitbulls, Dowd's teeth are sharper, her jaw is stronger, and her thirst for vengeance lasts longer than either HC's or Palin's.

Yet to give her her due, she envisions a future fight between HC and Palin with HC winning. I always kinda thought she had a hidden admiration for HC.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/opinion/07dowd.html

Dowd's political commentary is more often than not a complete waste of intellectual space.

Here's a nice one:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/7/214639/9219/406/590473

As usual, Jon Stewart is spot-on:

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=184086

A Must Watch, I must say!

Youtube version, if you don't have Flash installed on your computer, for the link above:

Jon Stewart - Sarah Palin and how the Republicans see her
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=NYNfJ9SabFU

Youtube version, if you don't have Flash installed on your computer, for the link above:

Jon Stewart - Sarah Palin and how the Republicans see her
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NYNfJ9SabFU

Thanks Scott

Thank you Jon Stewart

I stand correct Heather, thank you always you give a decent response.

Irvine becomes a even smaller man by choosing to to call me a piece of shit and Venessa makes a comment about losing a relative to a terrorist in Israel which is not true, only to psycho babble. I won't even try to correct Venessa/Irvine on what happened to my neice in Israel, perhaps they can look up my post and go from there.

Thanks again Heather,

Steve

Dear Steve

Miss your comments, often -- wish you stopped by more frequently. Diversity of thought is oxygen.

love, h