September 10, 2008 archive

Palin Fatigue. A Rant.

Note from GH–this probably applies less to the DocuDharma crowd, who don’t get so easily distracted by bright, shining distractions

These are serious times, and they call for a serious debate about where we need to take the nation.

–Barack Obama

Now, I admit to having a few guilty pleasures in life. Watching back episodes of “What Not To Wear”. Buying earrings at the Kohl’s in the 80% off clearance section. Getting that chai tea latte at Panera. Doing that powerwalk through Ikea and promising myself that someday, somehow my house really will be this organized.

Sarah Palin, over these last fun-filled days since the announcement that she would be Old Man McCain’s Vice President, has been one of these guilty pleasures. But like all guilty pleasures, it doesn’t take a whole lot of exposure to just get, well, a little tired of seeing it day in and day out.

Look, Sarah Palin Is A Pig Wearing Lipstick

and that is not a sexist comment.

The phrase “lipstick on a pig” is not a sexist comment.  The metaphor is that no matter what you do to prettify and try to make something bad look good, it is still bad.  And Palin’s record and what she believe is in bad.  No matter how much she says she applies the pro change, anti-cronyism, anti big government spending lipstick, the facts show her record is one of a pig.

So let’s stop with the nonsense.  The fact that Palin herself said the difference between a pit bull and hockey mom was lipstick does not mean that Obama called her a pig.  Even if he did, calling someone a pig is not sexist.  The fact that lipstick is applied to it simply does not render it so.

Four at Four

“We can’t kill our way to victory.”

  1. The Washington Post reports the Top U.S. military officer calls for better strategy in Afghanistan. Adm. Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the House Armed Services Committee this morning. “I am not convinced that we’re winning it in Afghanistan,” he said, but added “I’m convinced we can.”

    Mullen described an intensifying insurgency and advocated a “comprehensive” strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. More U.S. troops are needed in border region according to Mullen. “Frankly, we are running out of time,” he said.

    “No amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek,” he said, adding later: “We can’t kill our way to victory.

    Mullen believes the Afghanistan’s problems lie across the border in Pakistan. “Until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens from which they operate, they enemy will only keep coming,” he said.

    Of course, Mullen didn’t mention that the Republicans did not mention Afghanistan once at McCain’s RNC.

  2. The Guardian reports General Ray Odierno to take US command in Iraq.

    General Ray Odierno, the former second-in-command of US troops in Iraq, is to return to Baghdad next week to take over from General David Petraeus as the top general.

    Odierno, who will be promoted to four-star general, was a relative latecomer to the hearts and minds counterinsurgency techniques of Petraeus.

    During his first stint in Iraq, when he commanded the 4th Infantry Division in 2003, Odierno was responsible for an area north of Baghdad known as the Sunni triangle, which included Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s home town.

    Few US military commanders or soldiers have much good to say about Odierno’s aggressive tactics. His division’s mistreatment of Iraqis and the heavy use of artillery appalled others within the country’s armed forces.

    Army reporters and commanders said Odierno’s unit – a heavy armoured division, despite its name – used an iron-fist strategy that may have appeared to pacify the area in the short term, but alienated large parts of the population. Some argue that the behaviour of the 4th Infantry Division helped create the insurgency.

    Here’s what George W. Bush said about Odierno in March: “I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq.” This general doesn’t seem to be right man for the job if we want, um, “victory”.

Four at Four continues with a intelligence forecast of America’s growing impotence, the presidential candidate’s unreadiness to deal with the deficit, the Democrat’s plan for Big Auto corporate welfare, and a bonus coverage about the Large Hadron Collider, which went live today.

Gustav – The Real Story

The Gulf Coast needs your help.  We were in a MANDATORY evacuation mode during the third anniversary of Katrina, no doubt because of the condition of the levees.  I physically checked, Gustav water did not touch the toe of the lake levees so this was not really a test, contrary to what the Corps indicates.  All the money spent has not done one thing to rebuild the barrier islands, restore wetlands or create incentives to raise buildings.  What has been spent?  What would it cost to do those three things?  Obama, what about you?  Has the good will and tax funds of the citizens of this country been squandered on crony private contractors?

It has been over a week and the commodities (local provides the POD and state provides the commodity) are only starting to arrive, although today it is reported they are out.  People could at least be using the commodities (if they existed) until the food stamp situation is worked out.  At least after Katrina, there were few problems with food stamps and unemployment, but Jindal, a typical republican cut funds and staff to social services.  People stood in line at 2AM and in the heat to be turned away at the food stamp Pod.  A thousand people a day at 35 locations to be handled in 7 days when 2 million people evacuated.  Governor Jindal, your numbers do not work. For the victim, it only works for the republicans (only1/8 of the people will be serviced).  Is this not a traditional corporate media story?   In fact, Jindals’s Social Services program director (Cheryl Michelet) is now on WWL radio (Tuesday @ 3PM).  She is a former media/PR model/stenographer and does not know how many people can be processed.  She has asked for those numbers, but all we get is PR.  She may ask for an extension from the federal government.  She also misstated the monthly income requirement ($3,000=incorrect vs $3,108=incorrect).  Hiring incompetent PR people is the mode of operation.  So if they can handle 1/8 in 7days, this should go on for 7 more weeks.   This is planned not to work,.  the locations and times keep changing (deliberate miscommunication).  http://www.nola.com/news/index…

A simple truth

The Framers of our Constitution, the fathers of our country held a simple, but profound truth. They believed in the people.

As put forth in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence:

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all …

Our very Declaration of Independence from the British Crown was based on Truths.

The Framers went further in our Constitution to set the imperatives for the Nation, for America:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, …

Presidents, the Congress, the Courts, our Military and our People have lived by these founding principles for more than 200 years. We the People… Will America continue to be for all or will the Constitution need to be changed to “We the privileged few of the people”. A test is coming the first Tuesday of November. Will we get it right?

A simple truth

The Framers of our Constitution, the fathers of our country held a simple, but profound truth. They believed in the people.

As put forth in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence:

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all …

Our very Declaration of Independence from the British Crown was based on Truths.

The Framers went further in our Constitution to set the imperatives for the Nation, for America:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, …

Presidents, the Congress, the Courts, our Military and our People have lived by these founding principles for more than 200 years. We the People… Will America continue to be for all or will the Constitution need to be changed to “We the privileged few of the people”. A test is coming the first Tuesday of November. Will we get it right?

Nader and Roberts look at Fannie and Freddie

Who Needs Regulations When You’ve Got a Golden Parachute? by Ralph Nader, and A Temporary Respite from Permanent Decline by Paul Craig Roberts: Both via counterpunch.com.

Moral Judgment

Judgment seems to be a big issue to the republicans this year.

Since of course they have NO legs to stand on when it comes to real issues like the Iraq Occupation, the tanking economy, health care,  $4 a gallon gas (though you can bet their buddies in the oil business will miraculously find a way to lower prices before the election) or stuff like ya know, torture and spying on your phone calls and e-mails. Or really, any solutions to any of the many problems that we face. They have no vision for the future except more of the same lame crap that has gotten us to the sorry point we are at now.

And yet the race is tied.

It is tied because the Republicans have managed once again to make this election about morality. The Culture Wars, they call it. But the culture war is really a morality war. The republicans define themselves as moral. Thus do they define Democrats as immoral. Church and state, gay rights, abortion, crime and punishment, and of course ‘activists judges,’ since they want to appoint their own activist  judges

The Republicans want to define morality for the nation.

While John McCain wants to kill more Iraqis. While he wants to continue the economic policies that are causing foreclosures, bankruptcy and high unemployment and inflation that hurt every American so that the rich can get richer. While he lives in his seven homes as veterans live under bridges. He panders to the Religious Wrong with his Palin pick, the folks who want to tell you what you can do in your own bedroom, and with who.

Is this moral? Does this show good judgment?

Where do these folks get off trying to portray themselves as the moral arbiters for all of America, and what can we do to keep them from continuing to impose their hypocritical morals on the rest of us? When did political power become the power to impose their morality on the rest of us? How do we make this shit….stop!?!?

finally, an email to forward from the left!

Greetings, Docudharma denizens!  This morning I got an email from an old friend, and it definitely got my juices flowing.  I’ve received so many right wing hit job emails making fun of liberals, casting dispersions on Democrats and liberals, and generally boasting about the greatness of conservatism that the wasted electrons could light Las Vegas for a month.  Today, I have received the antidote.  I included it below in all its glory.  Feel free to copy, paste, spam, and repeat (editing as you see fit)!

Update:  edger, in comment below, pointed me toward the origin of this text, John Ridley at the Huffington Post.  I include the link here.

If a black Democratic presidential candidate was an affirmative action selection (akin to the legacy selection for McCain) at the Naval Academy and graduated 894 out of 899, Fox News and the conservative right would push this story as the basis for his disqualification for the nation’s highest office.  The rest of the media would then be forced to report on it, giving the story wide exposure.

  If a white Republican presidential candidate graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, he would be celebrated as an intellectual giant ready to lead the country in bold new directions.   But since we are talking Obama here, his education fits into the  “uppity” and presumptuous narrative.

  If you’re a Harvard and Princeton-educated black woman married for years before having her first child Fox labels you a “Baby Mama”.

  If you are a white woman who eloped and had a baby eight months later you are Sarah Palin

  If you have studied international affairs for several decades, you’re “inexperienced at foreign affairs”

  If you live in a state that is geographically near a foreign country, you have “foreign policy expertise”

  If you both write and present your own words, you just “give good speeches.” If you read someone else’s words from the teleprompter-a “superstar is born.”

  If you are Obama, your greatness must be measured by what you’ve done and its NEVER enough, NOT by any of the profound speeches you wrote yourself, or the repeated grillings you’ve taken in the press.

  If you are Palin, your greatness is measured by…just one speech, written by Bush II’s speechwriter, and no you will not be taking any questions from the press.

  If you attend two of the top ivy leagues schools in the country, you are surprisingly “articulate.” If it takes you several colleges to graduate and you deliver a speech with the phonetic “new-clear” on the teleprompter, you’re a poised and eloquent speaker.

  If your staff is so dumb they mix up Walter Reed Middle School for Walter Reed Medical Center in your convention’s big night, it’s because you wanted to focus on education & it would have been political to use the soldiers in that format.

  If Obama had done that, he would be eviscerated for not knowing the difference between the two, hating the troops/America & would be dangerously unqualified to be CinC.

  If your a a liberal mayor and you ask for government financing, your a “fan of big, tax and spend, corrupt government.”

  If your a conservative mayor and wind up on John McCain’s “worst pork” list in 2001, you are “”disgusted” that small towns like yours are dependent on earmarks,” even if your town had no earmarks before you became mayor.

  A white woman talking tough is an advocate of women’s rights, a black woman is angry and bitter. A white man talking tough is a straight shooter and a conservative, a black man is a angry gangsta rapper.

  If you’re a GOP’er you naturally wouldn’t see what the problem with any of this was, even if you slept for 20 years on a dictionary opened to the word ‘hypocrisy’.

  If you’re a Republican and you talk to America’s enemies, it’s diplomacy.

  If you’re a Democrat and you talk to America’s enemies, it’s appeasement.

  If you’re a Republican, you swear Jesus is a registered member of your party.

  If you’re a Democrat, you appreciate that Jesus was a community organizer.

  If you’re a Republican and you wind up on the cover of People magazine, it’s because you’re a “regular American.”

  If you’re a Democrat and you wind up on the cover of People magazine, it’s because you’re a “celebrity.”

  If you’re a black Democratic man who can fill a stadium with 80,000 people (or worse, a German atrium with 200,000), you’re a vapid celebrity. If you’re a white Republican woman who can get a room full of fire breathing evangelical right wingers to holler, you’re a star

  If you are a Democrat, the days are counted down since the last time you have been to Iraq.

  If you are a Republican, you have all the foreign policy experience you need because your state is close to Russia.

  If you’re a black woman, with advanced academic degrees, and you have children while married, you’re a “baby mama”

  If you’re a white woman who barely graduated from college, and you get knocked up and then get married after you’re pregnant, you’re a “SuperMom”

  If you are black and your daughter is pregnant, unmarried and has an uninvolved baby daddy, you are a statistic…but if you’re a white and your daughter’s baby’s daddy has an explicit MY Space page where in between 4 letter words, he exclaims he “don’t want no kids,” you get to run for Veep.

  If you’re a Black presidential candidate that has wide appeal and the ability to motivate over two million Americans to re-engage in the political process you’re an egomaniac with a messiah complex seeking the spotlight.

  However, if you’re a right wing conservative – you’re applauded for your “likeability” and called a “unifier for the Republican base”

  If you’re white, win a beauty contest, attended 5-6 colleges before finally graduating, join the PTA, are voted to be mayor by 1000 people, govern a sparsely populated state for a almost two years now, and randomly get chosen at the last minute to be VP…you’ve lived the American dream, “she’s every American”.

  But if you’re black, raised by a single mother, lived on food stamps, help the community, get into Harvard, become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, build a great campaign organization from scratch, and are voted to be the presidential nominee by millions of people, you are just “uppity”.

  If you are a democratic candidate and people around you complain about the MSM vitriole toward you, you’re a whiner.

  If you are a republican candidate and you won’t answer the questions the MSM attempts to ask about your qualifications for the second highest office in the land, you’re being victimized.

  If you are a white republican mom with a special needs baby, you are suddenly the advocate of all special needs families in the US.

  If you are an Alaskan democrat mom with a special needs baby, you just saw state funding cut for programs like special-ed. You’re on your own.

  If you are a black democrat home-owner that was preyed upon by mortgage companies and your house is in foreclosure, you made bad choices and don’t deserve a house.

  If you an older white republican who can’t keep track of how many houses he has, then he deserves another one.

Sleeping with a Secessionist …



My beat around here is Global Warming and Energy.  And, the choice come November could not be starker in these arenas  (that is, at least in fact not media framing).  The contrast could not be starker … across a wide range of issues.

Among these, John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin has added a searing issue to the table:  

Do we want a separtist with easy access to the centers of power in the nation?

What would it mean to have a Vice President (likely President) sleeping with a separtist?

This question is essentially absent from the pages of traditional media.  

Imagine if Michelle Obama were a registered member of the Black Panthers until 2002?  Imagine the drumbeat of outrage that all Americans would hear.  About Todd “My Guy” Palin’s separtist credentials?  Crickets chirping in the night …  

The “Long War” Moves to Pakistan

The Long War, formerly known as The War on Terror, is moving on to Pakistan. The Bush Administration has been warned, apparently to little avail, as it appears Bush wants to ratchet up his war, perhaps for political reasons, as we move toward the presidential election.

Gareth Porter, writing in Asia Times Online, tells us that the Bush Administration has been warned by The National Intelligence Council (NIC), that the launching of commando raids by US troops into Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province region carries a high risk of further destabilizing the Pakistani military and government.

For those unfamiliar with the NIC, additional information is available on their website linked above:

The NIC is a center of strategic thinking within the US Government, reporting to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and providing the President and senior policymakers with analyses of foreign policy issues that have been reviewed and coordinated throughout the Intelligence Community.

Our work ranges from brief analyses of current issues to “over the horizon” estimates of broader trends at work in the world.

Sarah Palin and my Aunt Sherri

crossposted from Daily Kos

  The first thing I laid eyes on this morning was “Newsweek Bombshell: Palin & Family Warned of “Emotional Child Abuse” by Judge “ Steven R. I am still trying to get my jaw back in place.

     Wow what a coincidence. Not only does my aunt share the same initials with Sarah Palin,she acts like her too. I am going through the same thing with my daughter Ashley due to our Aunt Sherri’s ass act. That ass act being disparagement of my husband and myself resulting in my 14 year old mentally disabled daughter running away twice,trying to commit suicide,and placing herself in the company of two grown men that she doesn’t even know!

 

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