McCain taps Palin for VP!

[MorbidKate]

Seems to me, MK, that you are not separating your judgment from your perception of the motives of others. You just don't seem to get the "Republican" mindset at all, which means you are not going to understand the virtues of the choice. I don't think she's particularly qualified or a good choice for someone a heartbeat away from the presidency, but then again I am not the kind of person she is meant to appeal to.

LOL. Oh I get it alright. I understand the choice for the wag the dog tactics used to shift attention away from the real issues. I'm just looking at it from what'll happen when McCain drops and Palin is dealing with Putin as he's about to roll into Ukraine. It's just bizarre to see 300+ million Americans so easily distracted by non-issues and willing to buy back into the same BS that wrecked their economy and foreign relations all over again.

Kate

[Lusipher]

well, thank god we have canadians to let us know how stupid we are

Nice to see you again, Cipher. I missed having someone with common sense around here. Welcome back to Liberal Central ALFA.

[MorbidKate]

well, thank god we have canadians to let us know how stupid we are

Not to worry Dan, there's still time to do the right thing

And it's not just Canadians who are shocked to see the US get sidetracked soo easily to keep the same Bush agenda on the rails.

Abortion, Family Values and a Vag trumps the economy and a war on 2 fronts. Booyah!

Kate

[Mulu]

I love all the close-up shots of her high heels on the net. She should start wearing ruby-red shoes.

[ç i p h é r]

It's a stupid choice if something happens to McCain and that's the base of it.

By that measure, Obama, who is equally inexperienced relative to the requirements of the job, is an even stupider choice. He'll be President on DAY ONE. You don't have to wait for anyone to drop dead.

Again, I like Obama, but he hasn't shown me any evidence that he's actually ready for the top job. While he is certainly capable of giving great speeches, he struggles terrifically in debates. In these instances, his inexperience really shines through. By contrast, McCain performs exceptionally well in debates.

Also, policy wise, with a Democratic controlled congress, McCain will have to serve as a centrist, and to me, that's critical for bringing "blue" and "red" together to move the country forward. Not so with Obama, which is frankly not a comforting thought given his inexperience. He (or voices within his administration) will wield a great deal of power should he get elected.

As a side note, there have been 3 Vice Presidents in recent years who were younger than Palin that served in the White House: Nixon, Quayle, and Gore.

And hello to you too, Indio! Yes, things are very well (apart from this rotten cold) and I'm admittedly in the grips of the election season here in the US.

[Mikayla]

fluff:

And Mik, I agree that "vagina vote" is insulting, but as voting for someone solely for their anatomical properties is thoroughly contemptible, the insult is rather fitting.

Then lets call it the "Genital Vote" shall we, and leave the implied one-way sexism out of it - there may be a "vagina vote" as you say, but our history is certainly rife with "cock votes" as well. Political action driven by irrational sexism is not a problem soley possessed by women, now is it?

[Mulu]

Palin's rail to nowhere

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 1 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.

There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project -- all intended to benefit Palin's town, Wasilla, located about 45 miles north of Anchorage.

In introducing Palin as his running mate on Friday, Sen. John McCain cast her as a compatriot in his battle against wasteful federal spending.

Okay, I take it back, she was a disastrous pick for VP for the election....

BTW that's over $4000.00 per resident in earmarks.

Well, Alaska in general is a federal welfare state. It receives far more federal funds than it adds to the Fed. In fact, I seem to recall that alaskans get something like a $5000.00 tax credit per year just to live there.

[MorbidKate]

Palin was a member of the American Independence Party for years who's agenda is to split from the US before she switched to go Republican. Full unedited versions of her intro speech and the rant by Grizzly Adams are on YouTube as well. Traitor to the Whitehouse... living the Alaskan dream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Re0vmbt ... re=related

[ç i p h é r]

The main reason Alaska was admitted into the Union was because of its oil resources. However, they haven't been tapping all of those resources because of federal restrictions on drilling. So, to suggest now that Alaskans aren't pulling their own weight and at the same time supporting legislation to prevent them from drilling for oil is talking out of both sides of your mouth.

Which Alaska do you want? Palin wants to drill and so do I. Besides the cost of oil, it's absurd that we're funding Madrasses overseas with our own money when we have oil within US territories.

[Rusty]

And it's even more absurd to provide the motivation for the occupants of said facilities by the promulgation of idiotic crusades, no?

[Mulu]

Besides the cost of oil, it's absurd that we're funding Madrasses overseas with our own money when we have oil within US territories.

The oil we have here is a very small fraction of the oil available overseas. Also, it's called a "domestic reserve" for a reason, you know. In the event of global war, we may have to rely on it exclusively. Talk about a national security issue. Plus it's far less economical to extract than the sweet crude under the sand, *and* the money would go into the pockets of international oil companies anyway. Since *they* are not taxed, there would be very little extra income to the Fed from drilling, just whatever would accrue from payroll taxes. Oil is a commodity, so putting a little more oil into the system may not reduce the cost at all if other producers cut back as a result of our increased production, or other consumers, like India and China, increase their consumption.

I know the Republicans are pretending that Alaskan oil drilling would reduce gas prices back to $1.00/gallon or whatever, but that's just a Fox News Fantasy. The reality is Alaskan oil drilling would have no discernible effect on prices, which are still largely controlled by OPEC (they control the most oil) and now driven up a bit by speculators.

The best solution national security wise is of course to solarize the sunbelt, but we've already had that discussion.

[NickD]

Eh, I strongly suspect a great many American women aren't really going to look into Palin more than that she is a woman. In the same way that a great many American people didn't look into the war on Iraq more than that it is a country full of a-rabs (so, obviously responsible for 9-11). They'd probably discover her unmarried daughter is pregnant and see that as something "that happens in the real world". I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of women vote for her (Yes, I know they'd have to vote for McCain, but it would really be a vote for Palin in their minds), not even realising her rather conservative views, thinking that she would be representing womankind.

Ignorance is bliss, after all.

[Mikayla]

Nick D

Eh, I strongly suspect a great many American women aren't really going to look into Palin more than that she is a woman. In the same way that a great many American people didn't look into the war on Iraq more than that it is a country full of a-rabs (so, obviously responsible for 9-11). They'd probably discover her unmarried daughter is pregnant and see that as something "that happens in the real world". I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of women vote for her (Yes, I know they'd have to vote for McCain, but it would really be a vote for Palin in their minds), not even realising her rather conservative views, thinking that she would be representing womankind.

Ignorance is bliss, after all.

Hmm, what an amazingly sexist, nationalist and patronizing sentiment. As an American woman, I can assure you that I am looking far deeper into Palin than just her gender (indeed, I am not going to vote for her at all, based upon the policies she supports and opposes, such as her opposition to teaching sex ed). And the women I know will also look beyond her gender - indeed, the most ardent, feminist, "put a woman in the white-house" women I know are not going to support Palin, and her gender is irrelevant - what is relevant to them is her stand on abortion, women's rights in general, sex ed, etc.

[NickD]

Hmm, what an amazingly sexist, nationalist and patronizing sentiment. As an American woman, I can assure you that I am looking far deeper into Palin than just her gender (indeed, I am not going to vote for her at all, based upon the policies she supports and opposes, such as her opposition to teaching sex ed). And the women I know will also look beyond her gender - indeed, the most ardent, feminist, "put a woman in the white-house" women I know are not going to support Palin, and her gender is irrelevant - what is relevant to them is her stand on abortion, women's rights in general, sex ed, etc.

I disagree, although I can see how you would see it that way. I said American women in my post because that is the demographic. In reality what I said is true for all people everywhere. A lot of people simply don't research things that don't affect them directly or even things that do affect them directly.

To use a local example, we have a politician here who is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. To cut a long story short, if he is found innocent of fraud then he is guilty of failing to declare all his donations. Which brings up all sorts of hypocracy issues due to his previous "crusades against corruption" (parallels to Palin there).

His popularity has taken a hit, but he's still very popular with the demographic he pitches himself to: the elderly (and people who hate asians). He's now portraying himself as a martyr and they're eating it up.

[Mulu]

An awful lot of women's activists are already coming to her defense, and the fact that the Hillarites had already claimed they were going to vote for McCain before he even chose Palin makes me think Nick may just be right for far too many women. Maybe not in San Francisco where the demographic is more urbane and politically savvy, but certainly elsewhere.