That's how it goes

Somehow, this seems appropriate right about now:

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
Thats how it goes

Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody knows

-- Leonard Cohen

Those "great minds on Wall Street"

Still want to privatize Social Security?

The crisis that could have been avoided

You know, I was no star student back in Economics 101, but even I knew this much:

While there is no simple path out of this crisis, it was a crisis that could have been easily avoided. If the Federal Reserve Board had acted to stem the growth of the housing bubble before it grew to such dangerous proportions, the country would not currently be facing a recession and the prospect of a financial collapse.

It's from an article entitled "The Financial Meltdown Continues" by Dean Baker.

My quotable friend

My old friend Walter Calahan sent me a great rant this morning about the economic situation. Here's part of what he said:

Since Reagan I've heard that the 'market place' is the best place to fix problems. It is if you like the brutal reality of the boom and bust cycles of unchecked capitalism. Raw capitalism is simply a utopian ideal. It is as raw as the Darwinian forces acting out in nature – eat or be eaten. A civil society can, and must say no to the pure, unchecked greed of Wall Street, so that the weakest of our society isn't steamrolled by the richest.

You know, I've never understood the Republican objection to regulation. Wouldn't that be like trying to play a sport without the game having any rules? Aren't they the "law and order" party? So why wouldn't they want "law and order" with regard to business like everything else??

Here's a photoshopper with OPTIMISM!

Support the Employee Free Choice Act

"Hit the streets, pray."

Regular commenter Magdalena sent in the following:

How to handle the fury brought on by this election? Register voters, hit the streets, pray. Stop talking about her. Talk about Obama.

-- Annie Lamott

You might like to check out her Salon article entitled "A call to arms". Worth your time. Really.

Something to ponder

Here's part of a comment I found on Common Dreams:

Jimmy Carter tried to tell us to be less greedy, more compassionate, learn to be happier by having less. We listened to the Great Communicator and verily, we have our reward.

That's right. We didn't listen. And now look.

Greed and exploitation

I want to call your attention to an article entitled Exploiting Poverty Caused the Financial Crisis
by Sally Kohn.

Here's how it gets started:

Sure, the CEOs and hedge fund managers were greedy. There's no question that wealth and the pursuit thereof led to the sub-prime fiasco and the decline of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch and more. But what's really at play here is persistent poverty and Wall Street seeking to make a dime off the poor, consequences be damned, while Washington looks the other way.

The sub-prime crisis is the result of good people getting bad loans. Loans that triple or quadruple in interest rates, riddled with small print, are unbearable by most homeowners. But they are particularly unsustainable for low-income families working two or three jobs to make ends meet. Still, lenders scammed hardworking families with the promise of owning homes they really couldn't afford. And then greedy Wall Street managers, looking for a new way to squeeze a buck from an already bursting-at-the-seams economy, bundled up these bad loans into worse securities, sold them off, and tried to gain a profit as our national economy lost its shirt.

We could have averted the current financial crisis by creating affordable housing and good jobs, strengthening public education and providing health care and child care for all families, to help hardworking Americans thrive in the middle class instead of being pushed into poverty. We could have averted this crisis if we really cared about all families owning their own homes and created nationwide programs including affordable loans. (Even subsidized loans in the first place would have cost taxpayers less than what we're now spending bailing out Wall Street.) We could have averted this crisis if we put the needs of the majority of American families ahead of the needs of a small minority of greedy investors.

Why is it so anathema to Republicans to help people in a sensible, honest way?

CNN Quickvote of the day

Okay. So tell me why the polls are so close????

Which of the U.S. presidential candidates would best tackle the economic crisis?

John McCain - 27%

Barack Obama - 73%

Yes, I know the CNN daily poll is not scientific --- but still....

Prediction

Joe Sudbay over on AMERICAblog says the following:

Given the current state of the McCain/Palin campaign (it's crashing) -- and the horrible state of the economy (it's crashing) -- you have to know some major distraction is in the pipeline from the GOP. McCain has to do something to change the subject. So, expect some vintage Rovian trick. But, this one will have to be extra ugly.

I think he's got a point. So I'm bracing myself.

Today is Constitution Day

September 17 is the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.

McCain and the economic mess

I want to show you a brief excerpt from an article called "Lipstick on Which Pig?" by Joyce Marcel:

So how fit is McCain to be president? This is a man who has admitted that he doesn't know much about economics. A man whose chief economic advisor (until he was forced to fire him) was former Senator Phil Gramm, Mr. Enron-Loophole, Mr. "Nation of Whiners," Mr. Reduce-Government-Oversight-on-Banking-Insurance-and-Brokerage-Activities or, in other words, the architect of what's happening right now.

On Monday, McCain said, "The fundamentals of the American economy are strong." On Tuesday, forced to backtrack, he said he meant that "American workers, the backbone of the economy, were productive and resilient." Still backtracking, he then called the economic situation "a total crisis" and decried the "greed" in Wall Street and Washington. He sounded like a babbling fool.

McCain's solution? A commission to study what went wrong.

This isn't 9/11. We know what went wrong. The moneychangers wrecked the temple. We don't need a commission. We need a new government.

I so agree. Now why don't the right wingers out there get it?

Racism and this election

My friend, Charlotte Alexandre sent me the following:

How racism works:

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said 'I do' to?

What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the 'Keating 5'?

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the poll numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes negative qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Why isn't anyone in the mainstream media pointing these things out?

Qualifications do matter; yes they do.

Normally, I wouldn't quote this man but the following observation is just too good not to pass on:

Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared.

-- David Brooks

Ouch!

Obama is on a roll here:

"But now suddenly, John McCain says he is about change, too. He even started using some of my lines. Suddenly he says he wants 'to turn the page.' He had an ad today that he started running that he and Gov. Palin would bring the change that we need. He had this in an advertisement. Sound familiar? Let me tell you something, instead of borrowing my lines he needs to borrow our ideas," Obama said.

He followed up with a dig at lobbyists, saying "if you think those lobbyists are working day and night for John McCain just to put themselves out of business, well, then, I've got a bridge to sell you up in Alaska."

I just hope these lines get the circulation they deserve!

Jon Stewart this time

My goodness. You don't get much better than this:

Stewart: “Now I know her detractors will say that Palin actually supported the bridge until it became a political albatross and ended up keeping a lot of the money for it anyway; That she claimed to have visited Iraq when she really didn’t; Or that she didn’t really sell that plane on eBay; Or that she left the town she was mayor of $20 million dollars in debt; And that she made sure that women who were raped were charged for their rape kits.”

[Audience boos]

Stewart: “Yea. Yea, it’s f*cking true.”
[…]
Stewart: She doesn’t need to know the Bush Doctrine — she is the Bush Doctrine. Her foreign policy experience consists of being able to see Russia from an island in Alaska. And a refueling layover in Ireland.

You know, I've had layovers in both Frankfurt and Amsterdam and it's never occurred to me to claim that I've visited either Germany or the Netherlands.

Just sayin'.

The last eight years in pictures

Want to see more like this? Go right here.

Good old Leno

You know, the fact that we have this kind of material for our late night jokes is really pathetic. But, of course, everybody gets this because it is so true:

At one point, Charlie Gibson asked Palin about the Bush doctrine, but she didn't know what it was. But, you know, to be fair, even Bush doesn't know what the Bush doctrine is.

--Jay Leno

Eliminating war

Ah. This quote is new to me. And it's so good:

The only way we eliminate war is to love our children more than we hate our enemies.

—Golda Meir

Melting Arctic sea ice

You know, the global warming deniers claim with a perfectly straight face that there is more ice this year than last. I don't know where they get that information. Take a look at this from CNN:

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Data showing Arctic sea ice may reach its lowest level on record this summer underscores the need for governments to speed up talks on a new climate pact, the Worldwide Fund for Nature said Monday.

The WWF said observations on ice coverage and thickness pointed toward a record low for the second year in a row, continuing a "catastrophic" trend that could threaten polar wildlife and accelerate global warming.

"If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is probably less ice overall in the Arctic this year than in any other year since monitoring began," said Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate adviser of the WWF's Arctic program.

"This is also the first year that the Northwest Passage over the top of North America, and the Northeast Passage over the top of Russia, are both free of ice," he said.
...
"There are already signs that species such as polar bears are experiencing negative effects as climate change erodes the ice platform on which they rely," Sommerkorn said. "These changes are also affecting the peoples of the Arctic whose traditional livelihoods depend on healthy ecosystems."

Arctic ice melts in summer and refreezes in winter. But over the years, more of the ice is lost to the sea with less of it recovered in winter. While ice reflects the sun's heat, the open ocean absorbs more heat and the melting accelerates warming in other parts of the world.

When the news is mainstream enough to be picked up by AP and CNN, you know it can no longer be denied.

I wish this were seen by our politicians in both parties as the emergency situation it is.

Drill, baby, drill?

Just watch it. It's really, really short:

Had enough?

Okay, you free-market capitalists out there. Have you been paying attention to the economy? Have you been paying attention to the collapse of these big financial giants?

So why don't we let that sacred "invisible hand" do its work? Why not, for example, just let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fizzle out and die?

What? You mean it really is the job of the government to "promote the general welfare"?

Well, I do declare!

Dangerous ideologies

Here's part of a comment I found over on Alternet:

Palin is to be criticized and feared for her dangerous ideologies, not admired for her hokey "hockey mom" persona. She is also no feminist by any means. She is a paradox - a woman taking advantage of the opportunities her feminist forbears fought for, yet she wants to turn back the clock and remove those same rights she enjoys so much.

She is corrupt, dogmatic, self-aggrandizing, petty and completely ridiculous, and yet she could very well become the next president of the US.

Needless to say, I agree.

Anchorage, Alaska

More on white privilege

Some friends sent me an article tonight called "White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election" by Tim Wise. It's got even more material on the problem than what I posted earlier today. Here's just a little bit:

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.

I really wish this issue - along with all the examples - would get wider circulation.

And I honestly think that if Obama loses it will be because of racism - pure and simple. What's so frustrating is that he's afraid to fight back for fear of being branded an "angry black man".

In case you didn't see this last night!

(Sorry about the commercial. It's worth the wait - really!)

Ha!

Here's a comment I just found. It's too good!

You can put lipstick on McCain, it will still be Bush.

That double standard much loved by Republicans

Frank Ford sent me the following email:

The Double Standard of American Politics

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 from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, 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 your 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 speech writer, and you will not take 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.

If you're a liberal mayor and you ask for government financing, you're a fan of big tax and spend, corrupt government.
If you're 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 talkin' tough is an advocate of women's rights, a black woman is angry and bitter.

A white man talkin' tough is a straight shooter and a conservative, a black man is a angry gangsta rapper.

If you're a GOPer 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, its diplomacy.
If you're a Democrat and you talk to America 's enemies, its 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, its because you're a celebrity.

If you're a black Democratic man who can fill a stadium with 18,000 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 "Super Mom".

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 four-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 4-5 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 get chosen at the last minute to be VP, you've lived the American dream.
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 vitriol 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 democratic 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 democratic homeowner 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 know an older white republican who can't keep track of how many houses he has, then he deserves another one. The White House!

The NYT weighs in on Palin

I really want to call your attention to the editorial simply entitled "Gov. Palin’s Worldview". Here's a small excerpt:

It was bad enough that Ms. Palin’s performance in the first televised interviews she has done since she joined the Republican ticket was so visibly scripted and lacking in awareness. What made it so much worse is the strategy for which the Republicans have made Ms. Palin the frontwoman: win the White House not on ideas, but by denigrating experience, judgment and qualifications. The idea that Americans want leaders who have none of those things — who are so blindly certain of what Ms. Palin calls “the mission” that they won’t even pause for reflection — shows a contempt for voters and raises frightening questions about how Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin plan to run this country....

And here's another:

This nation has suffered through eight years of an ill-prepared and unblinkingly obstinate president. One who didn’t pause to think before he started a disastrous war of choice in Iraq. One who blithely looked the other way as the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped in Afghanistan. One who obstinately cut taxes and undercut all efforts at regulation, unleashing today’s profound economic crisis.

I wonder where we're headed as a nation. I really do. It's hard for me even to believe that Sarah Palin is taken seriously at all. That she is also truly a threat to our finally electing someone who is thoughtful and intelligent simply boggles my mind.

Obama ad

Well, it's not bad. It's cute. It's even effective. But it's too damn nice. The McCain-Palin folks are out there simply lying and, giving the Obama people plenty of ammunition that's not (for some unfathomable reason) being used:

"Think about how profoundly dumb that is."

Okay. PLEASE watch this. And bear in mind that it was posted the day BEFORE the Palin-Gibson interview in which it was revealed that this woman did not even know what the "Bush Doctrine" is and is perfectly happy to talk about going to war with Russia.

Something important about the fundies

Oh my goodness. I think this is for real:

1) WORKING-CLASS FUNDAMENTALISTS (by working-class I mean fundie doctors, lawyers, graphic designers, cat therapists, shoemakers, cooks who run their own family restaurants, mechanics, TV actors, and even middle management) are folks who believe that humans are innately sinful. To them, we are all tempted by Satan into pedophilia, rape, theft, homosexuality and murder. Christians probably more so, because they're a bigger catch for Satan. This is why it is okay that Larry Craig had a 'homosexual moment of weakness' but it isn't okay that Barney Frank lives life proud to be who he is. What is important in the Fundamentalist Republican worldview is not the act (which is always forgiven) but the CREED. They literally care about what is SAID, not what is DONE. One is not expected to live up to one's ideals in this ideology. THUS THEY ARE NEVER HYPOCRITES.

Read the rest of it here. I mean it. Go read all of it. It's good. And very thought provoking.

Friday cat blogging!

It's too much cuteness, I tell you! Too much!



(Scottish fold adorableness!)

Words from an ex-pat

All right. Here's what's happening. Over on Huffington Post they're discussing the Palin-Gibson interview and here's part of a comment I just found:

I am all the way in Australia (14hrs ahead of EST), have been out all day without access to radio or TV. I had to call out the vet this morning to tend to an injured horse. I had never met this woman before. The FIRST THING she said to me when she got out of the car and I said hello was :

"You're American, right? I have been listening to Sarah Palin on the radio. [insert my *here it comes* sigh here] She is talking about invading Russia and starting wars. Who is this woman? How can the presidential race be so close? Why did McCain choose her? Everyone loves Obama here in Australia and we don't understand what is happening. Can you explain what is going on? How can this woman be a presidential candidate?"

I didn't know what to say. Again, another expat embarrassed American who could only offer an incredulous head shake. Then I showed her my absentee ballot application which I had faxed to City Hall and said, "I'll do my part. All else I can do is hope."

Now look at what Ilan Goldenberg has to say:

No sane American or European leader would ever ever ever give an answer like that. You do not get into hypotheticals about nuclear war. You just don't. Palin references the Cold War. The only reason the Cold War stayed cold is because our leaders understood the stakes of getting things wrong and saying things that could lead to catastrophic nuclear war. During the Cuban Missile Crisis every word, every public statement, and any message that the Kennedy administration sent to the Soviets was checked, double checked, and triple checked to make sure it was sending precisely the right signal. This is what you are forced to do when you have thousands of nuclear weapons and so does your opponent. The stakes are simply too high. And yet there is a nominee for the vice presidency of the United States who may one day have her hand on the button and she is casually talking about potential catastrophic nuclear war.

This woman is too scary for words.

It can be so embarrassing being from Oklahoma...

Do we really want war with Russia?

Oh. My. God.

Just look (it's only 34 seconds):

CNN Quickvote of the day

This is telling:

Do you believe the world is a safer place now than in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks?

Yes - 21%

No - 79%

So are we going to elect Republicans again anyway?

Interestingly, Bill Clinton is predicting a win for Obama. Let's hope he's right.

Now here's a line

Just look:

INSANITY: voting Republican three times in a row expecting different results.

- Grant Gerver

Palin and the librarian

On our way to theocracy

You might want to take a look at an article by Marjorie Cohn entitled "A Palin Theocracy". Here's its conclusion:

The Republicans know they will lose if they really focus on issues such as the economy, the war, healthcare, education, and the environment. They are hoping that pro-choice women who supported Hillary Clinton will gravitate to Palin because she's a feisty - albeit anti-choice - woman. They are also banking on support from people who cannot bring themselves to vote for a black man.

But those non-evangelicals who back the McCain-Palin ticket do so at their peril. Not only will they continue to suffer four more years of the disastrous Bush policies; they will also find themselves living in a Christian theocracy.

Sometimes I want to say to people who voted Republican the last two times around, "Are you satisfied now?" Clearly, they are not.

Quote of the week

This is from Sojourners. Please note that it is a military man saying this:

We cannot kill our way to victory.

- Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifying before a congressional committee about the U.S. war in Afghanistan. According to McClatchy news reports, "Mullen said he is examining 'a new, more comprehensive strategy for the region,' an acknowledgement that the current approach lacks coordinated reconstruction and humanitarian programs." And, "Experts inside and outside the U.S. government agreed that a key reason for the resurgence is a growing popular sympathy for the militants because an over-reliance on the use of force, especially airpower, by NATO has killed hundreds of civilians."

Something obvious post 9/11

I got an email today with the following message:

After 9/11, the National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a comprehensive report on what safety standerds need to be updated to protect our skyscrapers and the people who work in them. The report recommended common sense actions like adding more fireproofing and an extra emergency stairwell. Sounds like a no-brainer, right?

Not for the Bush administration. On September 8th, the New York Times reported that the General Services Administration - a federal agency that manages property for the government - is opposing the new safety standards. That's right. An agency of the Bush administration is using your tax dollars to fight against the very standards that could have saved lives on 9/11. Why? To help line the pockets of super-rich landlords and appease the real estate lobby.

I just the Board of Directors of the International Code Council to demand that they vote to enact these important safety standards. I hope you will too.

Please have a look and take action.

Take action here.

Thanks!

The Bush administration has cynically politicized 9/11 but has not taken the obvious steps that will help ensure future safety.

"It's a really terrifying possibility"

More on Palin

I want to call your attention to an article entitled "8 More Stories About Palin the Public Needs to Know". Here's one little excerpt:

ABC sent a reporter to Alaska for a hard-hitting interview with those "who know [Palin] best," a group of four women who met Palin in aerobics class. The interview revealed the earth-shattering news that Palin hates cats and likes white chocolate, but amid the fluff, something interesting and telling emerged: Palin's views on abortion are so right-wing that even some of her best friends are hesitant to vote for her.

Okay. That does it. Anyone who hates cats has some kind of serious interior problem. What I've noticed is that cat haters tend to be very narcissistic people who are utterly lacking in humility. They have to be both adored and obeyed. A dog will do that but not a cat.

Is CNN coddling Americans?

I find it interesting to note the difference between the CNN website's US Edition and its International Edition.

For example, Planet In Peril has been listed on the front page of the International Edition for some time now.

I can't find it on the front page of the US Editon.

Just sayin'.

It's called "gaming the system"

This is all over the internet today so you've probably already heard about it but I figure I would be remiss if I didn't tell you about this Washington Post report:

ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

It sounds as if she was somehow within the letter of the law in doing so but how can a person justify that, really, and call herself a "fiscal conservative"?

Hmm. Not bad.

McCain puts "Country first"? Don't you believe it.

Oh my, folks. Run, don't walk, over to Common Dreams and read the article entitled "Country Last" by David Michael Green. Read all of it. I'll start you off with this sample:

McCain began the week with an act that, in any healthy democracy, would have instantly disqualified him to be the city dogcatcher in Wasilla, Alaska, let alone leader of the free world. He has been telling us for years that the fight against Islamofascism is the transcendental struggle of our time. He has been telling us the most important job of the Vice President is be qualified to run the country at a moment's notice (not least because this particular dude is a seventy-two year-old four-time cancer survivor). He's been telling us over and over that Iraq is the central front in the war against terrorism. Then he chooses someone who has admitted that she doesn't really know anything about Iraq, ‘cause she's been focused on Alaska state government. Given that the war has been the premier foreign policy issue for America for half a decade now, we also can safely assume, I'm sure, that she knows even less about the rest of the world.

This definitely demonstrates two things about John McCain. First, that his judgement is deeply impaired. We know, for example, that he had hardly vetted Sarah Palin at all, other than within the last couple of days before the announcement. We know, from Alaskan Republicans no less, that no one from the McCain campaign was up there asking questions prior to the choice (but they are now!). We know that McCain had met her all of once before making the choice. Americans really need to ask themselves, do we truly want another four years of a president who goes on gut hunches and politicizes every decision?

Even more importantly, though, this choice tells us that McCain was more than willing to do something that would benefit his personal career ambitions, regardless of the consequences for the country and the world. Palin may help him have a shot at winning the presidency -- perhaps by attracting the votes of unsophisticated women, certainly by rallying the regressive freakoids in his party -- but it is ludicrous to believe that she is remotely qualified, let alone most qualified, to handle what McCain himself says is the most important project of our time. The man who sickeningly implies that his opponent is less patriotic than he is has exacerbated that base assault on decency and the fabric of American democracy by hypocritically doing exactly the opposite of what he claims as his campaign theme. The Palin pick was definitive proof that McCain puts country last -- even by the standards of his own formulation.

And while we're at it about McCain putting his country last, take a look at this comment to the above article:

Anyone who can read should know by now that McCain cracked in prison and was not a hero but a collaborator. "Songbird" was Radio Hanoi's go-to apologist. Broadcast this far and wide.

I will never forgive the scumbag Republicans for the way they ridiculed Kerry's Viet Nam service in 2004, and I'm no Kerry fan. But nothing is off limits to them, and I'm sick of the "hands-off McCain" attitude everyone else has. He is a womanizer still, was a failure at the USNA, he crashed three airplanes under suspicious circumstances before even being sent to Viet Nam (and would have washed out of flight status had his daddy been anybody but an Admiral), he started the fire on the USS Forrestal which killed 150 sailors, and he cracked in prison camp and became what the Republicans would eagerly call a traitor if he were not a member of the GOP.

But it seems American stupidity knows no bounds. I grieve for my country. I really, really do.

They are calling this a "gaffe"

But it's just plain old ignorance:

Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

The woman quite simply doesn't know what she's talking about.

And we want her a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency? What's wrong with this country? Some kind of collective death wish?

Our delicate Sarah

Can you believe this?

Rick Davis, campaign manager for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., just told Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace that McCain running mate Gov. Sarah Palin won't subject herself to any tough questions from reporters "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."

Davis assailed the way the media had discussed Palin and her family in the last week and said the campaign would wait until a less hostile media environment.

Can you imagine a Democrat getting away with this? Deference???? What is she anyway, the freakin' Queen?

Arguing

This is actually a very good idea:

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.

--Edward Gibbon

There are a lot of arguments going on in this country right now. If we value our blood pressure (as well as our sanity) we choose our argument companions carefully!

Palin, censorship and some censorship history

Okay. There's an email making the rounds out there that purports to offer the list of books Palin tried to get banned when she was mayor of Wasilla. The trouble is that the list of books apparently didn't orginate with Palin but is a generic “Books Banned at One Time or Another in the United States” that has been around for some time. Nevertheless, you need to know the sort of books that are considered objectionable by the sort of people who like to ban books:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth

Well, quite an exalted list there: Shakespeare, Chaucer, Walt Whitman, Faulkner, Steinbeck. What on earth do people have against Webster's Dictionary I wonder?

I'm not surprised that The Handmaid's Tale is on the list. After all, that's where we're headed.

I'm truly bewildered by A Wrinkle in Time. I well remember when it won the Newberry Award and I read it eagerly. I remember thinking of it as an anti-Communist book at the time. But I suppose it was really anti-totalitarian. And, of course, the rabid right-wing types do want a totalitarian society.

It is a matter of record that Palin asked the Wasilla librarian about removing books from the collection and then tried to get the librarian fired.

In point of fact, the librarian resigned.

WHAT "liberal' media?

Media Matters tells us about it:

Summary: On September 2 and September 3, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News each dedicated more on-air time -- significantly more in most cases -- to official Republican convention programming during the most-watched portions of their coverage than each channel dedicated to official convention programming during the same times on comparable nights of the Democratic National Convention.

Sickening. Just sickening.

Oh, those Republican small town values!

This is so, so rich:

Bumper sticker

Magdalena sent me several bumper stickers and this one is my favorite:

National Health Policy-don't get sick

Wake up, people! How long can we put up with this?

Give 'em hell, Joe!

Just thought you should know...

It's from an AP article:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Gov. Sarah Palin's church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.

"You'll be encouraged by the power of God's love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality," according to the insert in the bulletin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has prayed since she was a child.

Palin's conservative Christian views have energized that part of the GOP electorate, which was lukewarm to John McCain's candidacy before he named her as his vice presidential choice. She is staunchly anti-abortion, opposing exceptions for rape and incest, and opposes gay marriage and spousal rights for gay couples.

Yeah, and if I pray hard enough my blue eyes will turn brown and I'll add five inches to my height.

(Deep sigh.)

New rule

Ha. I really like this one:

New Rule: Republicans need to stop saying Barack Obama is an elitist, or looks down on rural people, and just admit you don't like him because of something he can't help, something that's a result of the way he was born. Admit it, you're not voting for him because he's smarter than you.

-- Bill Maher

Bristol Palin's choice

Friday cat blogging!

Image from Wikimedia Commons

CNN Quickvote of the day

Well, this is encouraging:

Which party's convention made the stronger case for why its candidate should be elected to the White House?

Democrats - 58%

Republicans - 33%

Neither - 9%

Today's Republicans are NOT conservative

Here's what a real conservative sounds like:

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.

- Barry Goldwater

The hypocrisy is simply beyond belief

Many thanks to Walter Calahan for sending this along!

Another late night good one

Take a look:

Here's the amazing part: back in 1984, Sarah Palin actually came second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant. Now she could be vice president. You know what that means? For the first time in history, a beauty pageant contestant might actually bring about world peace. They've talked about it for years; here's one that could do it!

--Jay Leno

Why people in power can be so cruel

The political situation right now is so discouraging. Here's something that helps me understand it all:

Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.

-- Simone Weil

It is very important to cultivate solidarity with those who are suffering. Otherwise, we have no idea what cruelty and unkindness we are perpetuating. Simone Weil also said this: "Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty."

Tonight

Okay. So I turned on the Republican Convention for about 10 seconds and had to turn it off because it made me quite ill. Guiliani was comparing himself to Palin because they were both mayors. Right. The mayor of New York City and the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska are, like, comparable. (Give me strength....)

Republicans criticize VP choice

This is making the rounds on the internet. If you haven't seen it yet, you really must. They didn't know they were being heard. The transcript is below if you can't make out what they're saying:




Mike Murphy, former McCain advisor: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor work. Engler, Whitman, Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. And these guys, this is all like how you want to (inaudible) this race. You know, just run it up. And it's not gonna work.

Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter: It's over.

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

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

Noonan: I saw Kay this morning.

Murphy: They're all bummed out.

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

Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political [B.S.] about narratives and (inaudible) the picture.

Murphy: I totally agree.

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

Murphy: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism and this is cynical.

Todd: And as you called it, gimmicky.

The Republicans' lack of conscience

Gosh, did you know this about the broken pumps? I sure didn't:

McCain voted repeatedly against a Senate investigation into what went wrong during Katrina. Evidently, he didn't think it was worth looking into the fact that for years before Katrina, Louisiana howled at the slashing of levee funding by 44 per cent to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Even the money they were given was being handed on to incompetent Bush cronies rather than the best people for the job.

The Army Corps of Engineers now admits, for example, that they knowingly installed broken pumps manufactured by a company headed by Jeb Bush's ex-business partner and campaign donor. The same people have been given a lackadaisical contract to rebuild the levees by 2011. McCain then voted against extending unemployment benefits and medical care to Katrina refugees, or even giving extra cash for new radio systems for the emergency services.

What on earth is WRONG with these people? I just don't get it. I really, really don't. Doesn't it ever occur to them that just maybe one day somone they love might happen to be in New Orleans when a hurricane hits? It's not really that far fetched.

I found the article here.

How to eliminate war

Now this really makes a person think:

I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed there would be no more war.

-- Abbie Hoffman

Exploiting tragedies that they themselves create

Here's a comment I found on Unknown News:

The Republican reaction to the hurricane is so disgusting on so many levels it is nearly impossible to name them all.

They are handing out cards with John McCain's campaign slogan on one side and a list of disaster relief phone numbers on the other ... because they can't provide even basic information unless they get something out of it. They have sent up a special website for people to contribute to the relief effort ... because government has removed itself from the business of helping Americans who are suffering.

They are using the storm as an excuse to keep George W. away from the Republican convention entirely, the first time a sitting president hasn't attended a convention in modern history. They're using it to make themselves look like they give a damn about the poor people on the Gulf Coast, even though a government that actually cared would have fixed the levies by now, or better yet, not allowed them to fail in the first place. And by leaving the convention schedule for the next few days uncertain, media is stuck talking about that uncertainty rather than talking about the people who are scheduled to speak or the policies they are proposing for a McCain presidency.

And they know they can get away with all of it because the mainstream media is never going to be bold enough to point out that the Republican Party has become nothing but a PR machine that specializes in exploiting tragedies that they themselves create, which in turn allows them to continue to make life worse and worse and worse for almost every single person on the planet.

--Madeline Zane

Pretty sickening, if you ask me.

Let's hear it for Leno

The jokes are just writing themselves these days:

Palin and McCain are a good pair. She’s pro-life and he’s clinging to life.

- Jay Leno

Oh the snark! Too much!

"More experienced than Obama"

You do know, don't you, that the Republicans are claiming that Sarah Palin has more executive experience than Obama - partly because she is the former mayor of Wasilla?

(Hat tip to Dennis on Of Coure I Could Be On Vacation)

Ten excellent reasons not to join the military

I got this today from Tulsa Peace Fellowship:

a. You May Be Killed
b. You May Kill Others Who Do Not Deserve to Die
c. You May Be Injured
d. You May Not Receive Proper Medical Care
e. You May Suffer Long-term Health Problems
f. You May Be Lied To
g. You May Face Discrimination
h. You May Be Asked to Do Things Against Your Beliefs
i. You May Find It Difficult to Leave the Military
j. You Have Other Choices

And, of course, what is not said in relationship to reason b is, "You may be so horribly and permanently injured that you will fervently wish you had died instead."

More on Sarah

Oh my. Turns out she wants to ban books. Look what I found on Daily Kos:

[Former Wasilla mayor John Stein] says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

And she also used to belong to an Alaska separatist group:

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which since the 1970s has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States. And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."

But all the religious right seems to care about is that she's a fundamentalist of their ilk.

You've probably already heard this by now

But still. This is so, so pathetic:

Q: Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

PALIN: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

The woman is ignorant, ignorant, ignorant.

For the record: The pledge was written in 1892, it was made official in 1942, and the "under God" bit was added in 1954 as an anti-Communist move. I was only five but I remember the hoopla over it.

"One heartbeat from a 72 year old heart"

Here's a comment I found on this video:

Sarah Palin will step down from the ticket, possibly as soon as next week. Her job was to distract America's short attention span from the Democratic convention. That's all. This is a strategy of distraction by the GOP. It worked brilliantly, the spotlight is now back on the McCain campaign going into their convention.

Sarah Palin was not vetted because she was never intended to be the Vice Presidential candidate in the first place. Period. She will be gone in two weeks.

I seriously hope this is true.

Labor Day

Remember that this day used to be observed by honoring organized labor? Let's bring back that focus. Here's part of an email I got today:

Today is Labor Day, a holiday that came out of the labor movement as a way to celebrate the contributions of American workers. But today also reminds me that another year has gone by as our government refuses to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would give back the rights that America's workers are too often denied.

Honor American workers on Labor Day by supporting the Employee Free Choice Act >>

Employers routinely harass, coerce, intimidate and even fire workers when they try to exercise their legal rights to form unions. As the law currently stands, union elections are prone to delay and often favor employers in their fights against workers' unions.

The Employee Free Choice Act is a bipartisan legislation that would hold anti-union employers accountable, guarantee workers a fair, simple, direct method for organizing and force employers to stop dragging out contract negotiations.

Workers deserve a free choice and a fair chance to form a union if they want to - without risking their livelihood to do so. It's time to give working families the freedoms and protections they deserve.

I've been a member of three unions during my life: The National Education Association, The American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Musicians. And I was subjected to union busting activities by management when I worked for the D.C. Youth Orchestra Program. Let me tell you, that kind of intimidation is not fun or pretty. The Bill of Rights included the right to free assembly. Workers have the right to organize and big business has been undermining that right with impunity ever since Reagan took office. Let's turn that around. Support working people!

Sarah Palin, you're no Hillary Clinton!

This is a good comment I found on Alternet:

Selecting Sarah Palin for VP as a replacement for Hillary Clinton and as a representative of women...

Is no different or less cynical and insulting, than selecting Clarence Thomas as a replacement for the great Thurgood Marshall, and as a representative for black Americans..!

Simple as that..

I so agree.

But I don't think she's just intended as a "replacement" for Clinton. I think she's a stealth candidate. She's a religious nutjob and we're well on our way to a theocracy with this one. Come on, do you really think if McCain is elected that he's going to live another four years?