ralph stanley . . .
(via BoingBoing)
smile a while for me, sarah
Just when you thought she couldn't be any dumber, Sarah opens her mouth . . .
sarah palin . . .
Box of rocks! Katie Couric tears the snow queen a new asshole.
socialism for the rich; capitalism for the poor
John “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should" McCain knew enough to get in on the ground floor of screwing Americans out of their homes and their futures.
"Charles Keating was John McCain's pal. They met in 1981 and Keating dumped $112,000 in the McCain campaign bank accounts between '82 and '87. A year before McCain met with the FHLBB regulators, his wife Cindy and her father, according to newspaper reports at the time, invested about $360,000 in one of Keating's shopping centers. The Arizona Republic reported McCain and his wife and their babysitter took nine trips on Keating's private jet to the Bahamas to stay at the S&L liar's decadent Cat Cay resort. The senator didn't pay Keating back for the plane rides until years later when he was under investigation." Read more from James Moore here. (Thanks to Garry in Plantation)
white privilege
"White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America." More from Tim Wise here. (Thanks to John in Dania Beach)
special needs
An e-mail from a mom with a special needs child:
Sarah Palin, outlining her goals as VP said today:
Palin, who has a four-month-old son with Down Syndrome, said she would ensure government is on the side of families with special needs children.
She has not earned the right to speak for us...sorry. Her party has never been on our side, has fought to do away with special education entitlements, cut everything, every needed therapy, every hour of respite we needed.... fought ADA, the Civil Rights movement that bars discrimination against those with disabilities. Four months into the role, she is not only not vetted to speak for us, she is not even there for her baby now, participating in the early therapies, early start programs that so many of us fought for, gave up our lives, our careers to insure..We fought and won those rights, championed proven early intervention programs that Republicans fought and have tried to cut for as long as I've been a parent of special needs child....
and that would be 34 years last July, folks.
Pat
alaska women against palin
The largest political demonstrration in the state's history. Read all about it!
they know the truth; they just don't give a shit
Palin: Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that's with the energy independence that I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States.
McCain: Well, I think Americans are going to be very, very, very pleased. This is a very dynamic person. [Palin's] been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply.
The truth is more like 2.4 percent. Largest state? Population of Alaska: 683,478; population of Deleware: 864,764. Population of the nation's largest state: 36,553,215. Size isn't everything.
palin
"The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government." The New York Times looks into Palin's political history.
make the victims pay
Those "white women" who have decided they'll vote for the GOP now that one of their own is on the ticket might want to make note of the Wassila policy with regards to rape victims under Palin's watch. If you've been raped and you have the timerity to want to prove it, you're going to have to pay.
florida + voting = chaos
We still don't know how to vote. Palm Beach County is heavily Democratic, of course. This does not bode well for November.
miss congeniality
From Anne Kilkenny's open letter about Sarah Palin:
"During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.
"Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
"The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing." (emphasis added)
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