Tag: Sarah Palin

A Heartbeat Away Is Not a Distraction

Many people say that talking about Sarah Palin is a waste of time, a distraction.  I strongly deisagree.  The Republicans have used Palin, successfully I might add, to distract the public from 1) the lack of excitement of candidate McCain, 2) the paucity of any new ideas or issues from the Republicans, and 3) the wholesale boiler-plate duplication of Bush-NeoCon failed policies.  

But Palin aspires to be one heartbeat away from becoming the most powerful person on the planet.  A full examination of who she is, what she thinks, believes and does is in no way a distraction.  It is imperative to study, research, discuss and ask hard questions about her qualifications for the position.  We must not be sidetracked from fully vetting Palin in a manner the McCain camp did not.   And we must not be turned away from this pursuit by attacks that our examinations are sexist.  

Custer’s Pipeline & Genocide Denial (Edited)

A Canadian company has the legal right to condemn land for a crude-oil pipeline through the eastern part of the state (South Dakota in this case) –

Custer’s method of attack was a four front attack at dawn on sleeping villages. It seems an extreme comparison to make, even irresponsible. Is it however, since George W. Bush and the Neoconservative forces in the U.S. and in Canada who de-affirmed the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples are going to finish what Custer started in the sacred Black Hills? Custer discovered gold there and that brought the railroad along with cultural destruction in the very least. Today, uranium has been being drilled for, and more cultural destruction will probably tragically come about as the result of the TransCanada Keystone Project. But wait, that’s not the only problem.

Obama, stop trying to replay the Kerry campaign.

You’re blowing it, you corporate-conservative jerk.  On the one hand, you’ve wised up a little in the wake of polls showing your opponents ahead; your attack on Palin’s hypocrisy and dishonesty over earmarks was good, though it could have been a little stronger — call her a liar, Barack.

“Don’t be fooled,” Obama told the crowd surrounding him in a large barn. “John McCain’s party, with the help of John McCain, has been in charge” for nearly eight years.

“I know the governor of Alaska has been saying she’s change, and that’s great,” Obama said. “She’s a skillful politician. But, you know, when you’ve been taking all these earmarks when it’s convenient, and then suddenly you’re the champion anti-earmark person, that’s not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can’t just make stuff up.”

This is some of the kind of campaigning we want to see from you, and on a consistent basis (maybe you read Steve Almond’s Huffington Post piece).  Then, almost as though you suddenly remember you’re supposed to be the ringer candidate, you turn around and do something insipidly stupid — like saying you won’t push to repeal the shrub’s tax giveaways to the super-wealthy if you become president.

WASHINGTON – Democrat Barack Obama says he would delay rescinding President Bush’s tax cuts on wealthy Americans if he becomes the next president and the economy is in a recession, suggesting such an increase would further hurt the economy.

Those tax cuts for the super-wealthy are a large part of what’s caused the economic recession we’re suffering (the foreign press called it a full-blown depression this Spring) in the first place, and Americans know it.

What about increasing taxes on the wealthy?

“I think we’ve got to take a look and see where the economy is. I mean, the economy is weak right now,” Obama said on “This Week” on ABC. “The news with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, I think, along with the unemployment numbers, indicates that we’re fragile.”

Raising taxes on the wealthy won’t cause things to become worse; there isn’t much else worse that can happen, except perhaps publicly acknowledging what has been common knowledge to many people for years now, and that’s not likely to make a huge impact on the already-failed economy.  Are you so afraid of spooking your corporate masters this close to an election you’ve already decided you don’t want to win that you won’t even allow for even the possibility of making them pay taxes?

You can’t make such flip-flops.  Case in point: what you are quoted saying above, compared to this.

“John McCain likes to talk about fiscal responsibility, but there is no doubt that his proposals blow a hole through the budget,” Obama said.

This is another cause of the recession-depression: the fiscal irresponsibility of the GOP.  Lay blame where it belongs, Barack.  Don’t make taxes out to be the bogeyman; they’re not.  They’re the only way we’re going to begin salvaging this economy.

You’re running a granny campaign just like John Kerry did, and you KNOW how that turned out.  Stop doing it.  This election isn’t about you; it’s about every American whose suffering under the shrub and his gargoyle has to end, and you are not allowed to let us all down.

Republicans gleefully push the political nuclear button …

Are the Democrats willing to bet it all on preemptively striking McCain-Palin?

There is a major difference between the Democratic leadership and the Republican leadership. Democrats fight the political campaign as if it were an intellectual, academic exercise. The Republicans fight like it is an all out war, a brawl for control of the neighborhood. While the Republicans are willing to risk it all to save their hallowed ground, Democrats prefer to fight in a clean war mode. Republicans fight as if their futures depended on the win. Democrats fight as if they are right and, consequently, for the sake of fairness, deserve to win.

On any disagreement, the Republicans grab their guns and start shooting …it’s war. The Democrats pause to think. What is the problem? What are the facts? Can we negotiate with the potential aggressor? How can we avoid conflict? Should we wait until we are sure that the other party means us harm …wait until the other party throws the punch?

McCain, Obama, and the politics of desperation

A strange thing is happening in the Presidential race. The increasing economic pressures on American voters are not resulting in a resurgence of rationality and pragmatism. Instead, we seem to be witnessing a desperate grasping for magical solutions. McCain and Palin are dispensing Republican magic, and Obama is offering Democratic magic. Poor old Biden is just peddling the same old, same old.

What can one say to a population that refuses to face facts and believes that a ferocious old Vietnam ghost or a perky hockey mom can be a “game changer?” What can one say to people who believe that sports and gambling metaphors are the best way to describe American Presidential politics? America is like a broken down gambler at a craps table in Las Vegas risking his last few dollars on one more high-stakes roll.

Unfortunately, even if the gambler wins another throw of the dice, the odds remain against him, and that is his doom. Maybe we dodge a flu pandemic, and maybe we luck out of the next warming-related cycle of droughts and weather disruptions, and maybe we slink out of the Mideast without igniting a global war, and maybe the Chinese decide to keep lending us money for another few years, but how long can all this “good luck” continue. Not much longer. We appear to be past the point of no return in a politics of national self-delusion that features instant messiahs of varying degrees of credibility and durability. Each one promises that magic will solve our problems. But there is no such magic. You can’t get something for nothing, and you can’t lie your way to the truth.

Prudent people should be making plans to move their dollar-denominated savings into stable assets likely to survive the repudiation of America’s foreign debt and the resultant hyper-inflation. Those with the option to relocate should consider moving to nations with sound economies and responsible leaders. Americans are spending their last night in the casino praying for magic, but they will face the dawn with empty pockets and broken dreams.  

Manufacturing Monday: Strike at Boeing, Dell to sell plants, and Solar Arabia,

Greetings everyone, I hope your weekend was fantastic.  Welcome to another edition of Manufacturing Monday!  Some exciting and interesting stuff to cover this week.  First the big time strike happening at Boeing. Then theres computer maker Dell looking to sell of ALL of it’s factories, and finally could Saudi Arabia claim to be Mecca of solar energy beside crude oil??  

Palin Pays Off Sexual Harasser

Like a ripple in a pond, the troopergate scandal gave birth to the sexual harassment scandal, which is more of a blip on the megamedia radar screen.  Troopergate focuses on whether Palin fired a state commissioner for not firing a state trooper, who just happened to be divorcing her sister. Within days of firing the state commissioner, Palin replaced him with a fellow fundie who had been officially reprimanded for sexual harassment a few years earlier when he was a city police chief. While the national media went on vacation, Alaska media wanted to know why she appointed a known sexual harasser. A local “media firestorm” culminated in his resignation two weeks later — and a $10,000 exit “bonus.”  The local media coverage also revealed how Palin was a quick study of the Bush/Cheney school of executive spin and illustrated how Palin is the right-wing’s new “feminist” darling by gender only.  

“Mother is the word for God on the lips of children everywhere”

The charge of SEXISM really doesn’t help women’s causes to lead, not to say there isn’t sexism out there, but it is too loosely thrown around and is being used as an excuse and a roadblock to any real dialog. SEXIST is the charge directed at anyone who questions Sarah Palin about ANYTHING, but particularly when it is directed at Palin’s ability to take care of her children and the nation at the same time. It is what her supporters are first to point out in their sexism charges.  Never mind those same concerns were voiced about Michelle Obama, the difference is the Obama’s didn’t whine about it and charge sexism. They met it like everything else, head on, acknowledged our concerns and assured us in real ways the girls weren’t weren’t going to be sacrificed for ambition or even the greater good of the country. Follow me below the fold for my take on the mother issue.  

The Sarah Palin Watch Widget: How Long Will She Stonewall The Press?



The Palin Watch Widget

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin burst on the scene from nowhere – Nowhere, Alaska, that is. You know, the place where they wanted to build that bridge to. And despite the fact that nobody in at least 49 states knew the slightest bit about her, she rocketed to stardom as the leading light of American conservatism.

Consequently, some Americans wanted to know more about the person who may become a 72 year old heartbeat from the presidency of the United States. They will be disappointed. The McCain campaign has sequestered Palin and will not permit reporters to interview her. They will allow no questions on the vetting process, or the abuse of power investigation that is currently underway. They refuse to clarify her positions on foreign policy or Congressional earmarking. There will be no direct examination of her record as governor or her fitness for national office.

Brought to you by…

News Corpse, The Internet’s Chronicle Of Media Decay.

Baseless in Obamaland

Original article by Eric Patton, sub-headed From Chad Ocho Cinco to Sarah Palin, via counterpunch.com:

It’s official.  Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson is now Chad Ocho Cinco.  What in God’s name does this have to do with the left?

Palin: “F**king Eskimo’s” & “Arctic Arabs” (Update)

Take a real good look at her face –  not at her fake smile, but look into her eyes.

Photobucket

What do you see?


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

“It was kind of disgusting,” Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the “lower 48” about life near the North Pole.

I see the eyes of a racist and a global warming denier. Sad indeed; and, her racism helps to clarify how climate disintegration is a human rights issue. (This is a MUST READ from the update below)

Mental Health Parity and the 2008 Campaign

Since no one over at the main Kos site seems to care about anything other than Palin, here’s a cross post…

For those interested in the Native Americans of Southern LA, I’ll post on that tomorrow…however, this is another issue that burns me up, so here’s the rant on this…

It’s a complex issue, but I’ll try to make it short and bittersweet.  Mental health issues are not treated like physical health issues by insurance companies.  Despite the fact that neuroscience has now clearly linked many mental health disorders like depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, ADHD, etc. to genetic issues or chemical imbalances, these are still considered conditions that do not merit the same level of coverage as physical health issues like cancer.  Why?  Because it would cost more money…the helath insurers generally treat these as they did in the 1970’s, offering limited..if any…coverage.

You can go to the National Institute of Mental Health website for the stats..I won’t bore anyone with them here.    However, they indicate that 13 million Americans have some form of debilitating mental health issue and nearly 60 million have a mental health issue of any form.  As with other forms of health care, minorities and the poor suffer more fro m these issues–often due to a lack of care–than other population groups.

Further, this should not be a Red or Blue issue, as anyone, from any background can develop a disorder.  For example, I have a good friend who developed schizophrenia while in college.  He was from a well-off family, had attended a very good private college prep school and was enrolled in one of the top universities.  He started developing symptoms in his sophomore year.  He dropped out, and fell into a spiral that eventually found him homeless or in jail.  He was eventually able to get help, and now lives a precarious, though stable, life on disability.  He is one of the lucky ones, as he had family and friends who gave a shit.  Others aren’t so lucky in their support.  

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