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How can you believe any of them Donna?  Spin is everywhere.  There's always going to be long explanations and no one wants to listen to them in an instant gratification country. ::)  

Anyway, I'm trying to spend my time on the main candidates views on issues.  

Donna,
I'd already heard about that one.  This is going to be one nasty election before it's all said and done with.  I've started looking at the independents (and I'm not finding too much there).

Carolyn

Mel, this is an issue.  Palin claimes she's not for pork barrel legislation, and she is.  She claimes to be a candidate of change, not a good-old-boy, not a Washington insider, but she wanted to build a bridge, that would have cost us all, out to 50 residents.  And now, she's lying about it.  In my opinion, honesty is the biggest issue.

Since I can't find anyone worthy of my vote, I will need Charlie's and Jonny's full legal names for the write in.   :D

wrote on Sep 13^th, 2008 at 11:02am:

In my opinion, honesty is the biggest issue.

Good Luck Donna!! ;D

;)

You're right, Mel.  We'll just watch whose nose grows the most by election time.   :-/

wrote on Sep 13^th, 2008 at 11:08am:

You're right, Mel.  We'll just watch whose nose grows the most by election time.   :-/

Should we take bets on who crosses the finish line first?

I'm in.  You set the rules.  8-)

Rules?  What are those??  lol

Wait, how's this:  

"You have to be 18 years and older to play.  Players must be residents of the United States.  Game is valid from now until November 4th, 2008.  Everyone has to give your money to Melissa for safe keeping.  Any empolyees of the guberment are not eligible to play.  Winner will receive a round trip nature walk across 8 states.  Food and medication not provided."

Sounds pretty fair to me, except for the age requirement.  Shouldn't it be 14-1/2 to practice and 16 to vote?

But, then again, Florida would probably screw up what goes where.  ::)

I said it in another thread but it bears repeating.

If the candidate is not honest, whatever they say regarding other issues is 100% irrelevant.

Let's say I tell you all here that I have CH and I post here to tell you all I tried, lets say, peppermint oil, and it cured my headaches. THEN you find out that I actually don't have Ch and I just happn to SELL peppermint oil.

I get labled a troll, people bash me, my avitar changes to a "don't feed the troll sign" and my username turns green.

Seriously, I don't see the logic is listening to ANYTHING a proven liar says. Not a single word.

And while there is some decpetion with all parties (it is a given in politics that there will be spin to make one's self look better) outright proven lying is completely different.

Add the proven hypocracy involved with Palin and I can't see who would listen to her unless they are either very biased or have fallen for her scare tactics of using 9-11 as a political op.

Add to the fact that she is another leader who God talks directly to and who purports to know what God's plan is (and then later changed her tune on that as well) and I am VERY afraid for the WORLD if she is in any US office come next year.

superhawk, obviously you are not voting for McCain/Palin.  Good for you!!  Many of us are fence sitters.  Hell, I won't know who to vote for probably until the day I am standing in that booth looking at the paper!!  

Guess it's cause I'm cursed with being able to see all sides point of view, I dunno. :-/

Yeah, Melly, I know who I am NOT voting for but that doesn't tell me who to vote for.............lol

And I have lowered my expectation to very few criteria and still I am in a quandry.

Sigh

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Good stuff jonny! ;D

I'm not sold to either side, I want to watch some good old fashioned debates with real and not staged questions for all of them. I'm kind of with Jamey on this one about the lying. Not good!

She strikes me as the kind of person who would do anything including lying to get what SHE wanted. The naughty librarian good looks don't fool me for one minute. Shall I say, "troopergate"

Jimmers

She also wanted to ban books, did you hear about that?.....Unthinkable!

Im sure theres something on wikipedia about it.

Check it out, im busy right now.  ;)

i don't know. palin scares the shit out of me.

I feel sorry for McCain. His choosing Palin was incredibly cynical from the start. It gets worse daily. My guess is that he let the Karl Rovers take over his campaign who look at getting elected as a process in which rules are not as well defined as in paintball.

Charlie

Are you shitting me?

The fuckin media lied to us?

Man, how many times have they lied to us?

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She encouraged it. Any form of sympathy for banning  is all it should take someone as bright as McCain to try again.

Ever since her nomination......shame on the press for doing their job.

Charlie

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You choose!  ;D

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what we need is a "no confidence" vote.   We can't pick from what we have, so we vote "no confidence" in the choices. Make 'em scrap the candidates and start over again.  JMHO

Charlie wrote on Sep 13^th, 2008 at 4:30pm:

She encouraged it. Any form of sympathy for banning  is all it should take someone as bright as McCain to try again. Ever since her nomination......shame on the press for doing their job. Charlie

I agree Charlie.  The fact that she even inquired is enough to make my skin crawl.  

I still say that I'm going to change my name to *none of the above*, get put on teh ballot as a last ditch effort and win by a landslide  ;)

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“When you look at this Palin cover and contrast it with the super-friendly story on Obama, it’s hard not to see that they’re clearly biased,” said Jane Hall, associate professor at the American University School of Communication. “It’s not fair and it’s also offensive. I think that they are going to be offensive to many people regardless of whether you’re for Sarah Palin or not.”

Got to love that left wing media, eh?

This is looking bad and her interview scared us.

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 looks the other way at the Taliban and let Al Qaeda regroup in that funny little country of Afghanistan that apparantley is off White House maps...... and one who obstinately cut taxes and undercut all efforts at regulation, unleashing today’s historic economic crisis.

In a dangerous world, Americans need a president who knows that real strength requires serious thought and preparation. With his choice of Palin with the thinnest resume among the four runners, I have to question McCain's judgment.  It scares me too that he chose someone who said in her interview that she has insight into Russia because she can see it from her state.

Yikes

Charlie

Ron Paul has posted on his website blog, the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.  I think it's best for me to read through those and go from there.

Do you have a source for what you post, Charlie?

You know, a link from where you get your text?

Jennifer wrote on Sep 13^th, 2008 at 5:03pm:

what we need is a "no confidence" vote.   We can't pick from what we have, so we vote "no confidence" in the choices. Make 'em scrap the candidates and start over again.  JMHO

I am with you Jenn! I was thinking about a "none of the above" choice too.  I also totally agree with Charlie. I sure lost faith in McCain over his VP choice. What was he thinking??? Or was he??? I don't like that the country is so excited because she can relate to their families. I would actually care more that I can take are of my own family and they deal with the world issues. I just haven't heard enough about healthcare and education to feel good with anyone. Just my opinions, rambling on!

Charlotte

I like your idea Jen.

I also like this idea:

If you vote at all you must vote a certain number of times based on the number of candidates.

So then all the fear based dems and repubs can still vote for the party ticket they unthinkingly always vote for but then to make that vote calid they need to also vote for X number of other candidates. Since those people wouldn't be caught dead voting for the "other" party, some third parties will get some play.

and actaully have a shot at winning. Once people are forced to look at all the candidates and have to vote for some of them we might get a decent moderate who actaully gives a shit.

worse case scenario the 2 big parties might actaully quit lying and do some of the stuff they say they are going to do.

See if Palin is that hot she can always go work at Heartbreakers doing poll work.

And for the first time in recorded history there are a whole bunch of white people trying to keep a black man from landing a job.......... :o

ABC Promotes Fradulent Interview to Serve the Obama Campaign

Millions of TV viewers who watched ABC News’ interview with Sarah Palin Thursday night never saw her take issue with a key question in which she was asked if she believes that the U.S. military effort in Iraq is “a task that is from God.”

The exchange between Palin and ABC’s Charlie Gibson, in which she questioned the accuracy of the quote attributed to her, was edited out of the television broadcast but included in official, unedited transcripts posted on ABC’s Web site, as well as in video posted on the Internet.

But in the version shown on television, a video clip of her original statement was inserted in place of her objection, giving a different impression of how Palin views the Iraq war.

In the interview, Gibson asked Palin: “You said recently in your old church, ‘Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.’ Are we fighting a Holy War?”

Palin’s response, which appears in the transcript but was edited out of the televised version, was:

“You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote.”

“It’s exact words,” Gibson said.

But Gibson’s quote left out what Palin said before that:

“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”

The edited televised version included a partial clip of that quote, but not the whole thing.

Gibson’s characterization of Palin’s words prompted a sharp rebuke from the McCain campaign on Thursday.

“Governor Palin’s full statement was VERY different” from the way Gibson characterized it,” read a statement circulated by McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

“Gibson cut the quote — where she was clearly asking for the church TO PRAY THAT IT IS a task from God, not asserting that it is a task from God.

“Palin’s statement is an incredibly humble statement, a statement that this campaign stands by 100 percent, and a sentiment that any religious American will share,” Bounds wrote.

In the rest of the segment that aired, Palin told Gibson that she was referencing Abraham’s Lincoln’s words on how one should never presume to know God’s will. She said she does not presume to know God’s will and that she was only asking the audience to “pray that we are on God’s side.”

A promo posted on Yahoo! News Friday continued to misrepresent the exchange. It displays Palin’s image next to the words, “Iraq war a ‘holy war?’” implying that Palin — not Gibson — had called the War on Terror a holy war.

ABC News did not respond to requests for comment from FOXNews.com.

ABC’s mischaracterization of Palin’s words was not the only one in the media. The Washington Post also did some last-minute clean-up in one of its articles on Palin — a front-page story Friday with the headline “Palin Links Iraq to Sept. 11 in Talk to Troops in Alaska.”

As pointed out by The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, the original version posted online used harsher language than the one that hit Beltway newsstands early Friday morning.

The original passage, written by staff writer Anne E. Kornblut, read:

“Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would ‘defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.’

“The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped Al Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. On any other day, Palin’s statement would almost certainly have drawn a sharp rebuke from Democrats, but both parties had declared a halt to partisan activities to mark Thursday’s anniversary.”

But in the print version, and the version now appearing on the newspaper’s Web site, the article softened its claim a bit by swapping in the last line with this: “But it is widely agreed that militants allied with Al Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.”

Got to love the left wing media!

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Jonny:

It's my editing of several Times Oped pieces from the last few days from Bob Herbet, Gail Collins, and I think Bob Rich from the NY Times and some of my own stuff.

Charlie

I saw the interview. She stumbled badly.

Of course you read your right wing bloggers, I read mine. The thing about left wingers though is that they say the right wingers are wrong, while the right wingers call the left everything from traitors to agents of Satan.

It's one reason I'm on the left.

Charlie

Charlie wrote on Sep 13^th, 2008 at 7:08pm:

Jonny: It's my editing of several Times Oped pieces from the last few days from Bob Herbet, Gail Collins, and I think Bob Rich from the NY Times and some of my own stuff. Charlie

Thats crap, Charlie and everyone can see it!

Show us what else this left wing blog is saying. Your quoteing some good stuff.....Share!  ;)

Ive never seen anyone that has trouble working a puter edit that good.....LMMFAO  ;D

What can I say Jonny? I got this and other stuff from the Oped pages of the New York Times. I read them every week. Bob Rich, Gail Collins, David Brooks, Paul Krugman, Maureen Doud and a couple others.  I put stuff I want to use in word pad, add my own stuff and fool around with it. It's fun.

It's been weeks since I looked at a political blog...other than links from you lunatics.  8-)

So the New York Times is liberal? Good!

Charlie

Charlie wrote on Sep 13^th, 2008 at 7:31pm:

What can I say Jonny? I got this and other stuff from the Oped pages of the New York Times. I read them every week. Charlie

It would be nice if you included a link to everything you post like we all do, Charlie.

Is that asking too much?  ;)

Wouldn't it be funny if no one showed up to vote... Politics suck... They both have lied, and continue to go for the jugular of their opponent, I find that very unattractive... Politics causes fights between friends, family...

I just know hockey mom or not... I don't ever want her as my President.  I work with kids with Special needs every day and her baby needs her.  I also wish they would elaborate on Sen McCains MELANOMA...  that is a terminal cancer folks... it metastisizes and eventually kills ya.   I know we all have to die from something but that cancer goes to your brain and other major organs.  He already sounds more confused to me than Regan. My friends Dad has it now and they just keep chipping away at him.  I also know a younger man in Army where Scott is stationed that just died from it.  If he dies... you get the hockey mom who has abandoned her special needs child, her pregnant daughter and her town of 5,000 (Wasilla).  
Good luck deciding I wish he had picked Colin Powell...
Ree

Charlie wrote on Sep 13^th, 2008 at 7:14pm:

I saw the interview. She stumbled badly. Of course you read your right wing bloggers, I read mine. The thing about left wingers though is that they say the right wingers are wrong, while the right wingers call the left everything from traitors to agents of Satan. It's one reason I'm on the left. Charlie

I love Charlie Gibson... it must be the name huh Charlie...

all Charlies are cool...
love ree

i just found  out that sara is from sandpoint idaho. i have a cousin that lives up there and i have been up there and spent a couple of weekends there. it's hard to describe how friendly people are up there. it's also extremely remote. people up there do love there guns and love to hunt. in fact up in sandpoint there is a company called buffalo arms which specializes in obsolete firearms and ammunition. if you ever call up there you'll talk to a guy named chris sanders. he's my cousin and he answers the phone and answers allot of hard questions. people there were very friendly and hospitable when i was there. it seemed that allot of California tree hugger types had migrated to that area. sandpoint is very small but has allot of history. after leaving sandpoint i came down us 95 south to new meadows were i picked up rt 55 into boise. i've often thought that before you die you should make it out that way. the pics of the lake and the bridge were taken in northwestern montana near bonner springs.

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Fantastic pictures, Johnny!! [smiley=headbanger.gif]

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That is classic!  8-) ....Does it get any better than your number two saying you aint qualified?.......does it?......LOL  ;D

wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 2:35am:

Fantastic pictures, Johnny!! [smiley=headbanger.gif] START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE That is classic!  8-) ....Does it get any better than your number two saying you aint qualified?.......does it?......LOL  ;D

yeah i have thousands of them. another thing about those nice people up in that neck of the woods is they are extremely anti government. several of them own those terrible automatic weapons that the liberals want to outlaw.
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the 2nd amendment goes beyond hunting.

wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 2:35am:

Does it get any better than your number two saying you aint qualified?.......does it?......LOL  ;D

i dunno man, if these 2 parties don't start working together were gonna be fucked no matter who gets elected. i sincerely hope that if McCain does get elected that he does try to reach across the middle in the interest of the people. if he doesn't it's going to be another stalemate like it is with bush.

jonny,
I was easliy able to find tons of websites about Sarah Palin's remark regarding here *insight* about Russia, ie, being able to *see* Russia.
It's in the transcript of her interview with Gibson.  Here's the written version,

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Ok, I can see this is a "pick apart Palin" thread, but is anyone checking voting records??

Just wondering...

Melissa wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 11:23am:

Ok, I can see this is a "pick apart Palin" thread

Its not just this thread, Melly........its all the media also. Did ya hear she banned books?......LOL  ;D

Melissa wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 11:23am:

Ok, I can see this is a "pick apart Palin" thread, but is anyone checking voting records?? Just wondering...

It's exactly why I've made the decision to stay as far away from these threads as possible from now on.

I've learned what happens when one pisses into the wind.

wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 11:57am:

Melissa wrote on Sep 14th, 2008 at 11:23am: Ok, I can see this is a "pick apart Palin" thread, but is anyone checking voting records?? Just wondering... I've learned what happens when one pisses into the wind.

A warm shower, bro.....LMAO  [smiley=crackup.gif]

Ok, I'm going to lay it all out here on what I am seeing happening.  I'm sure I'll be challenged, flamed or whatnot, but remember, I am not a left brainer, so be nice!  lol

Here goes:

Obama is being strangely quiet on McCain's pick of VP.  Meanwhile, it seems the left leaning media (and yes, they are, and I swear it has something to do with the abuse of the 1st amendment) is being "fed" information to which it picks apart snippets and plays the ones that seems to have the most impact as "shocking".  Meanwhile, McCain's people are saying that the Democrats are smearing their VP choice, but the Dems say, Barack Obama never said anything of the sort!  See what I'm getting at here?  Not to say McCain's camp hasn't been wrong also.  But if you dig and do your own research, listen and read to the ACTUAL TRANSCRIPTS, you see how pretty much everything is taken out of context on BOTH SIDES.

Also, I think that McCain is a smart man, doing what he did picking Palin.  It was a ballsy move and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.  He needed a huge base in order to confirm his candidacy, I don't think he would have gotten it had he not made the choice he did.  Many, including myself, are wondering what the hell was he thinking?  But then I begin to wonder, perhaps he is just playing the GOP??  I have this odd feeling that once he gets into office, he's going to be his old self again, but has to conform to his supporters for the time being in order to get to the white house.

Conspriacy theory?  Maybe...

Anyway, the whole thing is strange as all get out.  Which is why I will not decide wholeheartedly until I am in that voting booth.  I am also trying to stay away from media reports and study as much as I can on voting records.

There, it's the most I've ever posted in a political thread, but I swear if I didn't I would explode.


edited for grammer & replace 2nd with 1st amendment, duh!!

Melissa wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 12:02pm:

Which is why I will not decide wholeheartedly until I am in that voting booth. edited for grammer

Heres something to think about!  ;)

-You couldn't get a job at McDonalds and become district manager after 143 days of experience.

-You couldn't  become chief of surgery after 143 days of experience of being a surgeon.

-You couldn't get a job as a teacher and be the superintendent after 143 days of experience.

-You couldn't join the military and become a colonel after a 143 days of experience.

-You couldn't get a job as a reporter and become the nightly news anchor after 143 days of experience.  
BUT....

'From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate.
That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working.  
After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln,FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan. 143 days?
We all have to start somewhere. The senate is a good start, but after 143 days, that's all it is - a start.



AND, sadly, a large sector of the American public seems to feel comfortable with this and campaigning for him.



We wouldn't accept this in our own line of work, yet some are OK with this for the President of the  United States of America ?



Come on folks, we are not voting for the next American Idol.


 

 

wrote on Sep 13^th, 2008 at 7:58pm:

Charlie wrote on Sep 13th, 2008 at 7:31pm: What can I say Jonny? I got this and other stuff from the Oped pages of the New York Times. I read them every week. Charlie It would be nice if you included a link to everything you post like we all do, Charlie. Is that asking too much?  ;)

No it isn't but you can't directly link to these guys without a password. I can probably copy it. I have to fart around to do it though. Today, I found Tom Freidman pretty good. He writes a lot about how far behind the country is getting in many areas. You can find him at CSPAN now and then too.

This is the whole column today:  

Imagine for a minute that attending the Republican convention in St. Paul, sitting in a skybox overlooking the convention floor, were observers from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. And imagine for a minute what these observers would have been doing when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of “drill, baby, drill!

I’ll tell you what they would have been doing: the Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan observers would have been up out of their seats, exchanging high-fives and joining in the chant louder than anyone in the hall — “Yes! Yes! Drill, America, drill!” — because an America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it.

Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. “Typewriters, baby, typewriters.”

Of course, we’re going to need oil for many years, but instead of exalting that — with “drill, baby, drill” — why not throw all our energy into innovating a whole new industry of clean power with the mantra “invent, baby, invent?” That is what a party committed to “change” would really be doing. As they say in Texas: “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.”

I dwell on this issue because it is symbolic of the campaign that John McCain has decided to run. It’s a campaign now built on turning everything possible into a cultural wedge issue — including even energy policy, no matter how stupid it makes the voters and no matter how much it might weaken America.

I respected McCain’s willingness to support the troop surge in Iraq, even if it was going to cost him the Republican nomination. Now the same guy, who would not sell his soul to win his party’s nomination, is ready to sell every piece of his soul to win the presidency.
In order to disguise the fact that the core of his campaign is to continue the same Bush policies that have led 80 percent of the country to conclude we’re on the wrong track, McCain has decided to play the culture-war card. Obama may be a bit professorial, but at least he is trying to unite the country to face the real issues rather than divide us over cultural differences.

A Washington Post editorial on Thursday put it well: “On a day when the Congressional Budget Office warned of looming deficits and a grim economic outlook, when the stock market faltered even in the wake of the government’s rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, when President Bush discussed the road ahead in Iraq and Afghanistan, on what did the campaign of Senator John McCain spend its energy? A conference call to denounce Senator Barack Obama for using the phrase ‘lipstick on a pig’ and a new television ad accusing the Democrat of wanting to teach kindergartners about sex before they learn to read.”

Some McCain supporters criticize Obama for not having the steel in his belly to use force in the dangerous world we live in today. Well I know this: In order to use force, you have to have force. In order to exercise leverage, you have to have leverage.

I don’t know how much steel is in Obama’s belly, but I do know that the issues he is focusing on in this campaign — improving education and health care, dealing with the deficit and forging a real energy policy based on building a whole new energy infrastructure — are the only way we can put steel back into America’s spine. McCain, alas, has abandoned those issues for the culture-war strategy.

Who cares how much steel John McCain has in his gut when the steel that today holds up our bridges, railroads, nuclear reactors and other infrastructure is rusting? McCain talks about how he would build dozens of nuclear power plants. Oh, really? They go for $10 billion a pop. Where is the money going to come from? From lowering taxes? From banning abortions? From borrowing more from China? From having Sarah Palin “reform” Washington — as if she has any more clue how to do that than the first 100 names in the D.C. phonebook?

Sorry, but there is no sustainable political/military power without economic power, and talking about one without the other is nonsense. Unless we make America the country most able to innovate, compete and win in the age of globalization, our leverage in the world will continue to slowly erode. Those are the issues this election needs to be about, because that is what the next four years need to be about.
There is no strong leader without a strong country. And posing as one, to use the current vernacular, is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.

I don't agree with everything but a lot of it. Hope it works.

Charlie

Charlie wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 12:38pm:

...when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of “drill, baby, drill!

The guy lost me right away with this.  I watched the RNC, and the people on the floor were chanting it before Rudy said "What?  Drill baby drill?"  He did not lead them into it.

BTW, at that same convention, Palin said that drilling is only a temporary solution (to get off of our dependency of foreign oil), that alternative energy will be persued in the meantime.

Or was I watching something totally different from what this guy was?? :-/

Here's another one Mel. Maureen Dowd makes me smile. She was a favorite of Don Imus if I remember:

Maureen Doud. 9/14/ 2008

Anchorage:

I’ve been in Alaska only a week, but I’m already feeling ever so much smarter about Russia.

I can’t quite see it from my hotel window, but, hey, I know it’s out there somewhere, beyond all the stuffed bears and cruise ships and glaciers and oil derricks.

The proximity of the country from which William Seward bartered to buy Alaska for $7 million — Seward’s icebox — is so illuminating that I suddenly realize that we would commit a grave error by overestimating Russia’s economic strength. After all, it represents only 2.8 percent of the world’s G.D.P., even though its gross domestic product has ballooned from $200 billion in 1999 to $1.7 trillion this year.

But I overanalyze.

An Arctic blast of action has swept into the 2008 race, making thinking passé. We don’t really need to hurt our brains studying the world; we just need the world to know we’re capable of bringing a world of hurt to the world if the world continues to be hell-bent on misbehaving.

Two weeks after being thrown onto a national ticket, and moments after being speed-briefed by McCain foreign-policy advisers, our new Napoleon in bunny boots (not the Pamela Anderson kind, but the knock-offs of the U.S. Army Extreme Cold Weather Vapor Barrier Boots) is ready to face down the Russkies and start a land war over Georgia, and, holy cow, what business is it of ours if Israel attacks Iran?

The trigger-happy John McCain has indeed found a soul mate. Trigger squared. In Fairbanks on Thursday, at a deployment ceremony for her son who is going to Iraq, Governor Palin followed the lead of McCain and W. in fusing Osama bin Laden’s diabolical work on 9/11 and the mission in Iraq. She told the departing troops, “You’ll be there to defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of Americans.”

Asked by Charlie Gibson what insight into Russian actions her Alaskan proximity gave her, Sarah blithely replied: “They’re our next-door neighbors. And you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.”
Being a next-door neighbor is not quite enough, though. If Sarah had been reading about the world she feels so confident about leading rather than just parroting by rote what Randy Scheunemann and the neocons around McCain drilled into her last week — Drill, baby, drill! — she might have realized that as heinous as Russia’s behavior toward Georgia was, it was not completely unprovoked. The State Department has let it be known that it warned McCain’s friend, Misha, the hotheaded president of Georgia, not to send troops in to crush the rebellion in two breakaway states.

And she might not have had to clench her jaw and play for time when Gibson raised the Bush doctrine, the wacko preemption philosophy that so utterly changed the world.

The really scary part of the Palin interview was how much she seemed like W. in 2000, and not just the way she pronounced nu-cue-lar. She had the same flimsy but tenacious adeptness at saying nothing, the same generalities and platitudes, the same restrained resentment at being pressed to be specific, as though specific is the province of silly eggheads, not people who clear brush at the ranch or shoot moose on the tundra.

Just as W. once could not name the General-General running Pakistan, so Palin took a position on Pakistan that McCain had derided as naïve when Obama took it.

“We must not, Charlie, blink, Charlie, because, Charlie, as I’ve said, Charlie, before, John McCain has said, Charlie, that — and remember here, Charlie, we’re talking about John McCain, Charlie, who, Charlie, is John McCain and I won’t be blinking, Charlie.”

She tried to finesse her previous church comments about Iraq, asking worshipers to pray “that there is a plan, and that plan is God’s plan.” Earnestly repeating after her tutors, she said she had meant to echo Abraham Lincoln, that in war we must pray that we are on God’s side rather than that he is on ours. But her original comments sounded more W. than Abe — taking your policy and ideology and giving it the hallowed mantle of a mission from God.

Sarah has single-handedly ushered out the “Sex and the City” era, and made the sexy new model for America a retro one — the glamorous Pioneer Woman, packing a gun, a baby and a Bible.
Her explosion onto the scene made Obama seem even more like a windy, wispy egghead. Like W., Sarah has the power of positive unthinking. But now we may want to think about where ignorance and pride and no self-doubt has gotten us. Being quick on the trigger might be good in moose hunting, but in dealing with Putin, a little knowledge might come in handy.

Your Charlie

Charlie wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 1:34pm:

the glamorous Pioneer Woman, packing a gun, a baby and a Bible. Her explosion onto the scene made Obama seem even more like a windy, wispy egghead.

I love it!!!!....LMAO  [smiley=bigguns.gif] [smiley=headbanger.gif] [smiley=bigguns.gif]

Is it Nov. 5th yet??

The Democrats seem to be in a no-win situation, thankfully, vis-a-vis Sarah Palin. From the tight circles I travel in to the apparent sentiment of women nationally, we're witnessing a dynamic new trend: Glampol.

Not only are women generally biased toward women in politics (yes, same holds true for men) but in the case of Palin they're going overboard whereas they're not only supportive, but defensive as well. I can't imagine a rosier picture for politician than this.  

While being used to having a broad negativity paint brush sweeping their (ahem) profession this is more like trained artisans constructing national billboards of support. Likening Bereft Obama to Jesus isn't going to sway the Godfearing vote his way but picking on and attacking Palin serves only to strengthen her support which, I might remind you, has at least core sympathies of 1/2 the entire voting population who have never seen 'one of their own' so close to steering the good ship USA.

All this matters none to true patriots however. Bob Barr, of the Libertarian ticket (who is courting Ron Paul...maybe more for his ability to bank than his legislatively Constitutional persona) is the only representative of government OFF YOUR BACK. I urge those unfamiliar with the principles of our country as embodied in the Libertarian party/philosophy  to investigate  here: START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

nots

nots- what about the "Barr Amendment"??

I'm still thinking of writing in Ron Paul...

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Bill, your killing me....LMMFAO!!!!! ;D :D ;D

Great find!  [smiley=headbanger.gif]

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That parity rocks Brew. When I run for office (like that would ever happen) You sir will be the first call I make! :D ;D ;)

Sorry if this is unrelated to the video but I'm not interested in the 90 minutes it can take for it download.

The race is far from over but..... Not my words, but from "Inside Washington" pundits: The elephant in the room is the Bubba vote. Everybody pretends that race won't be a factor but it will be for a lot of this bloc. The question is of course, if it can counter the youth and Afro vote. No one knows.

Charlie

You are right Charlie.  Not only that, I wouldn't count all the womens' votes going to Palin, just yet.  I think that there are far more women who aren't going to be swayed just because she is a woman (gender ain't got jackschit to do with my vote).  BUT, the evangelical vote is going to have a big effect here too, it just depends how many are swayed by Palin.

deltadarlin wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 7:44pm:

You are right Charlie.  Not only that, I wouldn't count all the womens' votes going to Palin

Wanna bet?......LOL ;D

The other elephant in the room, Jonny, is abortion. This thing has made politics a bloodbath for the last 30 years. About 35% or so the electorate favor repeal of Roe v. Wade. No matter the demorgraphics or statistics, it's made any form of civil debate an artifact of the past. There is no common ground on it and doctors have been murdered....right here in western, NY over this poisonous thing.

What I'm getting at is that at the end of the day, I seriously doubt.....despite the current bump for Palin, that many Hillary voters will vote for her because of her position on this single issue that has made politics a matter of who is the worst candidate as reason for support.

No matter you position: Bleagh.

Charlie

I do not understand how the republicans tactics can work in a country with mandatory schooling for its children. The tactics of ignoring facts and hard questions and just repeating the same drivel seems to work wonders on the population.

Bush's own Dept of Energy states any oil drilled TODAY (and we ar far away from drilling "today") would not have any effect until 2023. A little math here.....carry the one.....seems my 3 year old Taylor will be able to vote right around when that oil becomes usable.

And the way the system works is this folks - any oil gotten from drilling in US grounds dosn't belong to the American people or even the US government. For all intents and purposes it belongs to the company that buys it and refines it to make gas. And the price of oil is deermined GLOBALLY.  So lets say even if all US oil companies are capable of buying oil obtained from US soil, the amount pumped and sold in other countries still affects the price that is paid for that oil. The amount of oil needed to be "foriegn oil free" is not even close to a reality.

In essence all oil brought to the surface in the world go into a big pot, suply and demand is measured and prices are set. It matter not one single iota where the oil originates.

If Exxon or BP or Citgo choose to boycot foreign oil, the available oil to them will immediatly go down to nothing and where to do get it from will jack the price so high even Rockerfeller couldn't offord to mow his lawn.

That being said I am all for drilling everywhere, but as an afterthought to any other ideas. first lets get a law on the books that would make it illegal for oil companies to to buy patents for fuel efficant technologies so they can bury them to never see the light of day, and find a way to unbury some of the 1000's that they did bury.

wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 7:52pm:

deltadarlin wrote on Sep 14th, 2008 at 7:44pm: You are right Charlie.  Not only that, I wouldn't count all the womens' votes going to Palin Wanna bet?......LOL ;D

And do you have anything to back this up?  damn, jonny, women on here are not so sure they want to vote for her!  Do you think that women will just fall over and vote for her because she's female?  Or perhaps do you think her stance on no abortion for any reason (except to save the life of the mother), is oign to endear her to the ex-Hillary supporters?

Me Lissa do tell: What is the Barr Amendment? (A drop embarrassed here since he was a rep in my district for years)

Also, I think Ron Paul is the only statesman this country has left and am proud of you for that consideration. In the language of our youth, "you go girl!".

Renewable Energy - get off foreign oil dependancy.

What a joke!  Only 2% of our oil consumption goes to producing electricty.  Most of it goes to transportation.  Get off oil dependancy - switch to natural gas or electric vehicles, plain & simple.  With electric vehicles renewable and nuclear make sense.

notseinfeld wrote on Sep 15^th, 2008 at 2:13am:

Me Lissa do tell: What is the Barr Amendment? (A drop embarrassed here since he was a rep in my district for years) Also, I think Ron Paul is the only statesman this country has left and am proud of you for that consideration. In the language of our youth, "you go girl!".

Barr has flip flopped more than I feel comfortable with on issues in the past.  Anyway, here's from Wikipedia on the Barr Amendment:


Quote:

In 1998, He successfully blocked implementation of Initiative 59[35] — the "Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1998" — which would have legalized medical marijuana in Washington, D.C.[36] The "Barr Amendment" to the 1999 Omnibus spending bill not only blocked implementation of Initiative 59 but prohibited the vote tally from even being released.[36][37] Nearly a year passed before a lawsuit[38] filed by the American Civil Liberties Union eventually revealed the initiative had received 69 percent of the vote.[39] In response to the judge's ruling,[40] Barr simply attached another "Barr Amendment" to the 2000 Omnibus spending bill that overturned Initiative 59 outright.[41] The Barr Amendment also prohibited future laws that would "decrease the penalties for marijuana or other Schedule I drugs" in Washington, D.C.[42] This preemptively blocked future attempts by Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) to reform marijuana laws in DC via the initiative process.[42] In March 2002, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan struck down this portion of the Barr Amendment as being an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.[42][43] Barr's response to the ruling was defiant: Clearly, the court today has ignored the constitutional right and responsibility of Congress to pass laws protecting citizens from dangerous and addictive narcotics, and the right of Congress to exert legislative control over the District of Columbia as the nation's capital. —Bob Barr, March 28 2002[44]

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I have now been reading up on the Chuck Baldwin/Darrell Castle ticket of the Constitution Party (hence my other thread, "Some random quesitons), START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE . :)

I'd like to acknowledge you Mel for being so deligent on researching your options!

If everyone who vote did this I think elections wouldn't be so much of a forgone conclusion

Nice going Mel!

Some years ago, I placed Bob Barr in the Tom Delay camp. He has an odd record to say the least. He's different today with some kind libertarian thing, I guess.  I'd never trust him though.

How I would love to have a national referendum on marijuana and the DEA! For all intents and purposes, I have never used drugs anyway.

Charlie

Voting for any major party "candidate" is a vote against the Constitution and the welfare of our once great nation.