Reason 1,896,267 why we need News Media, not EnterTAINT-media

I have lost NOTHING by not watching television since 1991. If anything, it leaves my mind more free of external influence. The only advertising I see is billboards and in magazines or small bits on internet. No motion picture advertising.

Oh yes I know alot of America will be watching and that alot of people chose to "monitor" what they are seeing. Every second spent doing so is a second not spent trying to find out what is going on OUTSIDE this country or in our own backyards.

On the internet (which is probably a reaction to the above-referenced media) it is all about Palin and McCain, in that order. Running errands just now, on the ground it was still all about Obama, Chris Gregoire and a unified front (at least in this part of my county) against McW & certainly that anti-environmentalist witch & creepy Dino Rossi here.

Also, to a sane, intelligent person, the photos above show an interesting multicultural young man with at least some "roots" against a pasty old has-been. I know they are aiming for a White Power Pentacostalist Base Capture coupled with a Neocon Oil Grab and that not everyone perceives that or even thinks it is BAD (many would probably be overjoyed!) Not everyone reads it that way though.

It really is propaganda in the worst sense and I now have no qualms about calling it the fascism it is. All this railing against Muslims and rumors about Obama being Muslim because he lived in a Muslim country and so on - well it's ridiculous.

I just read the Seattle Times and eight local mosques have joined together at this Ramadan season to not eat between dusk and dawn and then they FEED THE POOR AND THE HOMELESS!! Meanwhile our "friends in Alaska" like to kill animals from airplanes. Who is the more Godly?

Here is someone who hasn't forgotten his own value system:

Kerry Calls on Humanitarian Aid for Hurricane-Ravaged Haiti

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kerry released the following statement today in response to the increasingly devastating situation in Haiti. Heavy rains from Hurricane Ike have added to the damage left from Hurricanes Hanna, Gustav, and Fay.

“In the wake of four destructive hurricanes, Haiti is facing another crippling humanitarian crisis, and America must stand with the people of Haiti in their time of need. The damage and suffering from these storms has devastated the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are in need of immediate assistance, including water, food, clothing and shelter, and innumerable displaced persons are at risk of water-borne diseases and malaria given the severe flooding.

“The city of Gonaives,” Kerry went on to say, “which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Jeanne in 2004, is again under water, and roads to the capital of Port-au-Prince have been washed out, hampering aid and assistance from reaching the flooded areas. This has only compounded the problems Haiti was already facing due to worldwide increases in food prices, which has left some 4 million Haitians struggling to provide for themselves and their families.

“In this tragic time for Haiti’s people, the United States has a clear responsibility to help ensure the free and rapid delivery of humanitarian aid to the people who need it most. We must act now, before this crisis gets even worse.”

Reports claim that at least 319 people have died from the tropical storms that have hit Haiti in the recent weeks.

I'm watching this instead - live streaming Obama at AARP.

http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org_/TopicAreas/Events/life-at-50/webstream/obama.html

McCain/Palin would privatize social security - we know it.

I give Markos some credit for being analytical and thinking outside the box sometimes. That's why I've gone to three Kos conventions even though I'm not really a Kossack per se.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/8/02758/97279/261/590618

Look at these state by state analyses and keep them in mind if you listen to the "regular" pundits.

Palin will need alot of briefing and a good memory because she thinks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government because they were COSTING TAXPAYERS TOO MUCH MONEY!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/8/122451/7947/855/591041

It's the BAILOUT that will cost taxpayers too much money!! We are taking over what foreign interests won't have to pay!

More background from earlier:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/8/8743/84775/96/590775
which has the correct title for this Banana Republic - OUR FOREIGN MASTERS HAVE SPOKEN

The government had to do this or our system would collapse and we are paying for it - the middle class - not the poor (who are too poor to pay much tax) or the rich (who have had the tax cuts while we have had tax increases.)

If you can't buy a car or a house or send kids to college or even afford to have them - this is why.

Cheney thinks she's ready though. That stands to reason - what is Alaska but a northern version of Wyoming - backward, sparsely populated, vast, oil-rich and over-represented in the Senate (equal weight with California or New York.)

I never it conceivable someone could be WORSE than Cheney!

One person has joined my Crusade. Please join & photograph yourself - send it to me!

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=146717871&blogID=430834482&indicate=1

(This is a friend of my son)

Markos mentions TSP's town in ND!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/8/125045/1895/823/591073

Yes We Can - Obama - but also down ticket! The whole US needs it. We can never just knuckle under. There is political struggle for peace and justice all over this planet.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem!

Picture taken last Bumbershoot. "We got 285 new voter registration in 3 days ! (only in my booth, there are 2 other booth inside the event)," wrote Ben!

Ben Doko of WA state is an immigrant from Indonesia who cannot vote yet (not a citizen) but has registered personally hundreds of voters in the last two elections, by far more than a couple of the elections were won by. He is tireless and also volunteers on his days off to defeat Dino Rossi & help Chris Gregoire win the gubernatorial race. Our Democratic leaders and much of the populace are horrified at the plans for offshore drilling and Calgary-Alaska pipeline, drilling in ANWR, stacking Supreme Court with Pentecostal Taleban, aerial wolf gunning, double standard morality etc.

Corporate America is again squeezing America's most vulnerable legal workers - the temps. The hours for people like me at Investment Banks in NY are completely drying up. I'll probably put in for unemployment in the next week or so.

This behavior is predictable, but utterly short-sided - given the exposure that so many of these banks have on the mortgage front. They are bringing on an even deeper recession, and potentially a depression, by their behavior - the kind of economic downturn that will not only destroy their shareholders' value - but given these banks extended mortgage exposure, may also put many of them out of business.

Penny wise and pound foolish.

Matthew
Yes..I know someone who has been temping for Washington Mutual, my son has been temping, & I know quite a few more who did it for Microsoft. It is a ripoff.

God help us. She Who Shall Not Be Named is headed this way later this month (it's not Hillary - she has a "beehive") and now Dino Rossi is copying McCain and trying to attract a conservative base while simultaneously playing to the middle. (He claims to represent the "GOP" not the Republic Party - and has said "We do our own thing" and tried desperately to distance himself from Bush & even McCain.) Now he is going so far as to bring in Bobby Jindal.

http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/2008/09/rossi-bringing.html

I have no doubt that had Obama picked Clinton, McCain would have picked Jindal. I'm sure it was his contingency plan, like a game of chess.

slugbug

Gayle Brandeis of CODEPINK tells me McCain is ahead in the polls.

Both she and I are refusing to believe it.

Moon has truly fuqued up America beyond repair. Maybe I need to smuggle a nuke on my way to Seoul, and lob it in the direction of Lee Myung-bak. DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES.

I will repeat: funding Moon and the Unification Church is an act of war, and I shall respond accordingly.

Temping is a SCAM! I know it based on my own experience.

Blatant discrimination behind the scenes.

Ally,

Don't poll watch. Instead state watch! The national polls are meaningless.

Also, we just need to triple our efforts to GOTV and register voters.

If they can rig a national election for US President...twice...Rigging opinion polls would be patty cake.

I have not trusted the polls since early 2004. I highly recommend none of you trust them either.

They lie about everything else, but NOT polling data? Well,.. that is just laughable.

Except. No one is laughing.

Un****speakable!

Palin charges RAPE VICTIMS FOR RAPE KITS

he Frontiersman / May 23, 2000

ANCHORAGE - Gov. Tony Knowles recently signed legislation protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for tests to collect evidence of the crime, but one local police chief said the new law will further burden taxpayers.

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.

Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

According to Fannon, the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases.

diary at kos too

As a matter of a fact, they have to rig the opinion polls to rig the election.

Make it look THISCLOSE. 50/49. 47/48. 42/44.

Because they can not rig it by swapping or inserting huge numbers of votes.

They can not YET rig it with, say, a 30 million vote split. They can't give themselves a landslide without everyone seeing it.

But they could flip, say 3 million votes... and in a thisclose election, that is all it takes to win.

The opinion polls being rigged is a way of making the cheat look 'credible'. It is the only true indicator we have that the count is credible, but if you know the count will not be credible, then you have to adjust them so it will remain flexible cover the election theft.

Rigging the opinion polls is laying an alibi for a future election highjacking.

I agree, Christy. THey're rigging the opinion polls.

In my new job, I work with handicapped folks. So I am waiting to get my fingerprints taken today in a room of about a dozen or so people. The wait is almost two hours so this big-mouth bozo starts talking about how no one should vote for Obama because he's going to raise your taxes. So I immediately spoke up saying that Obama would only raise taxes on folks who make over $116k a year. "So", I asked the crowd "... who in this room makes over $116k a year?" Needless to say, no one spoke up - not even the big mouth.
I get sooo frustrated when big mouth blowhards spout the gd talking points and no one counters them. Well - I did because I am not going to let these bastards steal America away for me again: screw them.

Another Palin Lie:

Sale of Alaska's state jet on eBay revealed as a lie

Sarah Palin bolstered her reputation as a reformer – and got one of her biggest cheers in her Republican convention speech last week – when she said she had sold the governor's official jet on eBay as her first act on taking office in Alaska.

What she didn't say was that the aircraft had failed to sell over the internet and was eventually sold off at a loss.

Link to UK Independent article here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sale-of-alaskas-state-jet-on-ebay-revealed-as-a-lie-922493.html

Good for you John!

That is exactly how to back them down!

American media has been looking really stupid for a long time now all around the world. It is not just being well and truly beaten to actual American news by the newspapers of the world (particularly in the UK), but it is also being out-blogged by ordinary folks on the internet and an interest in the truth. By the time this election rolls around, none but the brain-dead will be absorbing their rubbish.

Scary as it is though, I agree with Christy about rigging the polls to make the race seem to be anybody's game. It can't possibly be as close as they are pretending. How on earth did America become so admired by all the countries on the planet if more than half its population are automatons, more conditioned than Pavlov's dogs drooling at the sound of a bell.

And well done, John. A lot of people went home that day thinking about what you said. And what's more they will tell others. And they will tell others.

Woz,

If I could tell the world anything right now it would be "Don't trust what you are being told about US by 'Us'."

As much as they have crippled us with propaganda, they are also inserting it into your information stream to give the appearence that everything is A OK over here.

That We all are just Ok with torture, or my favorite, that there is actually 30% support for georgie.

My arse. More like 2%, 5% is possible but not bloody likely.

Something incredibly strange has happened here, and you all know something just ain't right. But you accept little things.. things that seem 'official'. Like the opinion polls.

How did we become so admired? I will tell you how. Our people were envied by kings and slaves alike for The US Constitution, which contained the seeds for what has become what we call 'The American Dream'. A place where there is Liberty, and Justice for ALL.

Bring Us your poor, your weary, and we will give them freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom from religion, freedom of movement, security to dream, and the legal right to challenge those who would oppress them.

A place where all men are created equal, and all women too. A place where it was atleast possible.

We are admired because we told a king that believed he OWNED US to go Shag Himself, and then we proceeded to muster a tiny army to repeatedly kick the bastard in his teeth until he left our shores never to think of trying it again.

And a new kind of People was created, E Pluribus Unum.

And in every World War, we were there, saving the world with some of the bravest, boldest, toughest, and most disclplined fighters not seen since the Spartans took to a battlefield.

Want War? Revolution is our father.

And all along the way, we did put our money where our mouths were, and we did help many all around the world.

It has been corrupted now, but there was many reasons We were admired. There is many reasons you should not count us out yet.

There was a diary passage I heard recited once, written by a British officer who had been captured by American Rebels once they overran his fort and were frog marching him back to the coast to be forcefully deported back to England.

He talked about how on that march, in chains, they brought him out into the open in a dry gourge type of path. And he described how as they walked, for the first time he got a glimpse of the 'enemy' that had just beat the crap out of his forces.

The fighters lined up to watch him be marched out, they too wanted to look at him. And he talks about what he saw with amazement.

He saw women, and old men. Young women and children, and natives, and free black men and women, and only some young white men. All standing armed to the teeth on these slopes silently watching this invader pulled out of his fort in chains.

It was how he described them though, that made the story cement in my mind. The words he said is the only direct quote I can remember.

He looked at them, in disbelief and astonishment and he said "It was as if I were looking at a new race of man."

That is what we were, a new race of man. Pavlovs dogs, we ain't.

Don't believe what you see here for now. They are lying to us and they are lying to you too.

Christy, woz

I can tell you this, despite what the polls (and official election results) said.

2004 was a landslide for W in California. Kerry signs/stickers were very few and far in between.

2008 is set to be a landslide for OBAMA in California. Even in my R+11 district, McCain is nowhere to be found.

"My father is obviously a famous war hero. No one knows what war is like other than my family. Period."

Megan McCain

Watch it here..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x185069

That is right little McPOW!

No one else could possibly understand war EXCEPT your family! Because you are the only brave smart ones there are. Anywhere. Right? Right? Right.

Ummmhmmm. Just keep talking little McPOW.

Christy

Thanks for putting into words what once made America great - and why I continue to hold on to hope and fight against the corrupting Moonie influence.

After all, I wouldn't be fighting the Moonies, if America had nothing left to fight for.

I will also say this: the "American Dream" will live on forever. Even if the United States of America itself doesn't.

Some other enlightened society will pick up its mantle, and keep running with it.

Here's the full context of a CNN interview on December 11, 1994 (via Nexis):

FRANK SESNO: Senator McCain, would you favor doing away with the Department of Housing and Urban Development or the Department of Energy?

Sen. JOHN McCAIN: I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education, I would favor doing away with it as well.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/flashback_mccain_called_for_do.php

My old boss from 30 years ago tracked me down via this blog - it's cool!

Speaking of enlightened Ally. Sometimes there's a government and a leader who just gets it.

Happy wanderer brings the good news
Nick Miller
September 10, 2008

ARE you happy? That's the simple question the Government of Bhutan asked its people in a nationwide census. An incredible 97% said they were.

The Himalayan nation, a fifth the size of Victoria, prizes happiness above all else, in public policy as well as personal lives.

And Karma Tshiteem is the man from Bhutan with the plan to keep it that way. As secretary of the country's new Gross National Happiness Commission, he is developing indicators that will give a precise picture of the country's happiness, mental health and wellbeing.

Once presented to the Government and approved by the people, they will become the measuring sticks for future legislation and policy.

Mr Tshiteem is in Melbourne this week to pass on a few tips to the Victorian Government.

"I always say that being happy is one person's responsibility," he said "We are just trying to create the right conditions for people to be happy."

The commission started with a survey asking 300 questions about the lives of the Bhutanese. From the results, it is developing more than 30 indicators measuring health, education, government performance and corruption, compassion, cultural vibrancy and the environment.

"Happiness is too individual to try to measure to guide policymaking, but these indicators capture aspects of happiness which are important for people to lead a fulfilling life," Mr Tshiteem said. "Trust in government is important, leisure time is important. For psychological wellbeing to flourish, all the other domains are important."

Bhutan is no Shangri-La, with a third of the population earning less than a dollar a day, but Mr Tshiteem said his country was committed to halving the poverty rate.

However, happiness does not equate simply to income. Bhutan's capital, Thimpu, is increasingly influenced by foreign ideas that money governs lives, and that is causing depression and alienation.

"Once you cross a certain threshold, money doesn't get you more happiness," Mr Tshiteem said. "Our main concern is that if you have growth which is just blind, fed by people's growing consumption, it's not really sustainable.

"What we are trying to do in our own little context is see what pattern of growth will be sustainable and desirable."

"The pressure from outside, globalisation, TV, it is always 'buy, buy, buy'. They always want to sell you something."

Mr Tshiteem is in Melbourne for an international conference on mental health, beginning today.

More than 700 experts are looking not just at direct treatment of mental health, but the economic and social factors that affect our mental wellbeing.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/happy-wanderer-brings-the-good-news-20080909-4d0r.html

Megan McCain disses other military families on TODAY SHOW

SURGE IS WORKING, RIGHT?

Janelle F. King
Wednesday, August 20 2008
The Modesto Bee -- MERCED -- The county recorded its fifth death from the war in Iraq as the Army reported that Pvt. Janelle F. King, 23, of Merced, died Aug. 14 in Baghdad "from a noncombat-related cause."

King was a health care specialist with the 115th Combat Support Hospital from Fort Polk, La. In previous Iraq deployments, the military hospital helped treat Iraqi detainees as well as U.S. troops.

In a news release, the Army said that "circumstances surrounding the soldier's death are under investigation." Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, 4,143 U.S. troops have died there.

Jamecia Jackson, 45, King's mother, declined to comment on her daughter's death beyond saying, "We're really close-knit as a family and we haven't decided what to do yet."

Jackson said she spent 10 years in the Air Force and that King's father, from whom she is divorced, is in the Air Force.

Resilient Sunni stronghold tests Iraqi army
Monday, August 18 2008
SOUTH BUHRIZ, Iraq - Two Iraqi soldiers stumbled out of the thick, black smoke, their faces bathed in blood that glistened in the sun. They clutched their heads, mumbling "Hamdullah" -- "Thanks to God." They had survived the explosion. A third Iraqi soldier was being carried on an olive-green stretcher. He was unconscious, curled like a baby.

Photo: Maj. Adil Muhammed gives orders on how to detonate the bombs he found hidden in a school in southern Diyala province.

From the haze, Capt. Adil Muhammed also appeared, holding his long yellow bomb detector. He had just swept this section of road. But then an American armored bulldozer had rolled over the patch, detonating the deeply buried bomb. As the smell of explosives wafted across the scene on a recent Saturday, American and Iraqi soldiers shouted to others to fall back, fearing a second blast. Muhammed stared, struggling for an explanation.

Daniel A. C. McGuire
Friday, August 15 2008
MASHPEE, Mass. — A 19-year-old Marine based in North Carolina has died while fighting in Iraq.

The Department of Defense said Friday that Pfc. Daniel A. C. McGuire of Mashpee died Thursday while supporting combat operations in Anbar province.

Details about his death weren't immediately released. However, the military reported that a Marine was killed Thursday during a small-arms fire attack during security operations about a half of mile east of Fallujah, a former insurgent stronghold in Anbar province that has seen a sharp decline in violence after local Sunnis turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.

James M. Hale
Friday, August 15 2008
The Beacon News -- Hale was assigned to the 978th Military Police Company, 93rd Military Police Battalion, based at Fort Bliss, Texas.

He was a military policeman who entered the Army in June 2003 in Chicago. He was previously stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and in Germany, the Department of Defense said. He was serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.

Michael H. Ferschke Jr.
Thursday, August 14 2008
WBIR News -- A Maryville Marine killed in action in Iraq has now returned home to be lain to rest.

The body of Sgt. Michael H. Ferschke, 22, arrived at McGhee Tyson Airbase at 9 Friday morning.

Some 400 members of the military lined the streets to salute Ferschke and show final respects.

Stewart S. Trejo
Tuesday, August 12 2008
Arizona Daily Star -- Just weeks before his tour of duty in Iraq was to end, a Marine with Tucson ties has died.

Cpl. Stewart S. Trejo, 25, died Aug. 7, one of two Marines killed in a vehicle accident.

Trejo was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and throughout his childhood he traveled with his family between Southern Arizona, California and Mexico. Trejo's parents, several siblings and his grandmother live in Tucson.

Trejo, a father of two who most recently called Whitefish, Mont., home, enlisted in the Marine Corps in November 2005 and was finishing his first tour of duty in Iraq when he was killed, said his sister, Sherry Valenzuela of Tucson.

Trejo, who arrived in Iraq in February, was scheduled to return to Camp Pendleton in California next month.

Kenneth B. Gibson
Tuesday, August 12 2008
Honolulu Advertiser -- A Schofield Barracks soldier was killed in an explosion Sunday in Iraq, the Pentagon said yesterday.

Sgt. Kenneth B. Gibson, 25, of Christiansburg, Va., died of wounds suffered in Tarmiyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his position during a foot patrol, the Pentagon said.

He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.

Jose E. Ulloa
Monday, August 11 2008
Dominican Today -- Santo Domingo.- The Dominican-born U.S. Army sergeant Jose Enrique Ulloa, who died in Iraq, was buried Thursday in his native province La Vega (central), where some mourners called him “our hero."

Ulloa, 23, died August 8 in Baghdad when a bomb exploded near his military patrol vehicle.

The soldier was buried in the cemetery at his hometown Jima Arriba, 120 kilometers north of the capital.

Adam McKiski
Monday, August 11 2008
ROCKFORD — For the second time in a week, a Rockford serviceman has died in a war zone.

Cpl. Adam McKiski, 21, a 2005 Jefferson High School graduate and a three-year Marine, died Thursday in a military vehicle accident outside Fallujah, Iraq.

His death came less than a week after the death of Pfc. David John Badie, a 23-year-old member of the Army’s Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. Badie was among four NATO soldiers and a civilian interpreter killed early Aug. 1 when their Humvee drove over an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

Iraqi Army Is Willing, but Not Ready, to Fight
Sunday, August 10 2008
New York Times -- Ahmed Mahmoud, a lieutenant in the Iraqi Army, lost one leg fighting the insurgency and says he would not quit his job even if he lost the other. He believes in his army.

(“Believe me,” said Col. Ali Mahmoud, center, checking a map with his troops in Diyala Province. “There will be a big disaster” when American forces leave.)

But asked whether that army is ready as a national defense force, capable of protecting Iraq’s borders without American support, Lieutenant Mahmoud gestures toward his battalion’s parking lot. A fifth of the vehicles are rotting trucks and bomb-demolished Humvees that, for some complicated bureaucratic reason, are still considered operational.

Danny E. Maybin
Saturday, August 09 2008
DoD News -- Master Sgt. Danny E. Maybin, 47, of Columbia, S.C, died Aug. 7 at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, as the result of a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to Headquarters, U.S. Forces Command, Fort McPherson, Ga. The incident is under investigation.

Gary M. Henry
Friday, August 08 2008
Indianapolis - Hoosiers are mourning the deaths of three Indiana soldiers.

Gary Henry was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. He served as an Indianapolis firefighter. The same bomb also killed 22-year-old Specialist Jonathan Menke from Madison. A third soldier died after getting hurt in a crash in Iraq. Sergeant Brian Miller from Pendleton was 37 years old.

Those who knew Gary Henry best - his family, friends and colleagues - gathered to remember his life and his contributions Wednesday.

Jonathan D. Menke
Friday, August 08 2008
Indy Star -- In Madison, flags flew at half-staff in honor of Spc. Jonathan Menke, 22, who died Monday when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee in Baghdad.

Sgt. Gary Henry, Indianapolis, who was riding in the same gun truck, also was killed. Both were members of the Danville-based 38th Military Police Company.

In civilian life, Henry was a firefighter, a 12-year veteran of the Indianapolis Fire Department. His funeral will combine Fire Department and military rituals. Family members met with city officials Wednesday to discuss it.

The remains of the deceased soldiers still are in Iraq, and Indiana National Guard officials decline to speculate when they'll be returned home. No dates have been set for any of the funerals.

Timothy J. Hutton
Friday, August 08 2008
DILLON, Mont. — A soldier from this southwestern Montana town has died in Iraq, from injuries not related to combat, the Defense Department said Wednesday.

Army Pvt. Timothy J. Hutton, 21, died Monday in Baghdad. Information about the circumstances of his death was not released by the military, which said an investigation was under way.

Hutton’s grandmother, Karin Malesich of Dillon, said he joined the Army in January and had been in Iraq only a couple of weeks.

Ronald A. Schmidt
Friday, August 08 2008
Newton Kansas – The city of Newton is mourning the loss of the latest casualty in Iraq. Eighteen-year-old Specialist Ronald Andrew Schmidt was killed early Sunday when his patrol vehicle overturned.

Barely out of high school, Specialist Schmidt was doing exactly what he planned; serving his country in Iraq. He enlisted with the Kansas Army National Guard when he was a senior at Newton High School.

"I would characterize Ronnie as very resilient, strong willed,” said Asst. Principal Roger Erickson.

Brian K. Miller
Friday, August 08 2008
Indystar -- A memorial service will be Tuesday for an Indiana National guardsman from Pendleton who died in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Brian K. Miller, 37, died Aug. 2 near Abd Allah in southern Iraq. The wrecker Miller was riding in rolled over after it swerved sharply. He was with the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. Miller deployed as a member of Company D, 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry Regiment, headquartered in Huntington.

Jennifer L. Cole
Friday, August 08 2008
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The mother of a California soldier who died while serving in Iraq said the Fort Campbell soldier loved the country and the people.

The military said 34-year-old Army Pfc. Jennifer L. Cole of American Canyon died Saturday in Bayji, Iraq, from injuries in a non-combat incident. Officials said the cause is under investigation.

Cole was a motor transport operator assigned to E Company, 426th Forward Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.

Kevin R. Dickson
Friday, August 08 2008
USASOC -- FORT CARSON, Colo. (USASOC News Service, August 4, 2008) – A Special Forces support Soldier died from a non-combat related injury Aug. 2 in Balad, Iraq.

Spc. Kevin R. Dickson, 21, a construction equipment repair specialist, assigned to the Group Support Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Carson, Colo., was pronounced dead from wounds Aug. 2 at the Joint Balad Hospital.

Dickson joined the Army January 2006 and attended basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. After completion, he attended Basic Airborne and Parachute Rigger Schools at Fort Benning, Ga., before attending his Advanced Individual Training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

Shortly after arriving to the unit in January 2007, Dickson deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom V. Dickson was on his second tour to Iraq in support of OIF VI at the time of his death.

Andre Darnell Mitchell
Sunday, August 03 2008
Newsday -- From the time he was a teenager, Andre Darnell Mitchell wanted to be a soldier.



He told his mother, Yasmin Patterson, of Elmont, that he was bored working in audiovisual services at the Marriott Hotel in Uniondale and for a caterer in Queens Village on weekends.

So on Valentine's Day 2006, he joined the Army.

"At 15, 16, that's what he wanted to do," Patterson said Saturday night.

On Thursday, Mitchell, 25, was killed when the Humvee he was riding in overturned in Mosul, Iraq.

Patterson said the Army told her the Humvee overturned on a sharp curve.

Mitchell's body was scheduled to be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Saturday night.

James A. McHale
Thursday, July 31 2008
Great Falls Tribune -- Family and friends flew to a Maryland military hospital Tuesday to say goodbye to a Fairfield man who was critically injured in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded beside his Humvee.

Sgt. Jimmy McHale, 31, has been on life support for a week as the bombing burned both legs, his arm and hand and face. His most serious injury, however, was head trauma, and he has been in a coma since the July 22 attack.

The vehicle driver suffered a broken leg.

After seeing a CT scan Tuesday, the family decided to remove McHale from life support today, giving family and friends time to say goodbye.

"He was just an awesome guy," his aunt Trudy Hamann said Tuesday. "He had the biggest heart, the biggest smile. He was willing to do everything for everyone."

Faoa L. Apineru
Thursday, July 31 2008
Deseret News -- There's been one barbecue after another since Marine Staff Sgt. Faoa L. Apineru's family learned of his death July 2.

Apineru, 31, loved to cook and eat and so does his extended family from Western Samoa. This week, before he is buried Friday, his siblings and others have been celebrating Apineru's life, remembering him in a way they say he would have wanted.

"He challenged me to a barbecue," his brother Selemaea Apineru said Wednesday about a recent culinary salvo.

That's not to say the 10-year Marine veteran's family is taking the news of his passing lightly. There have been plenty of tears shed since Apineru was seriously wounded in Iraq back in May 2005.

Apineru was patrolling the northern border of Iraq during his second tour there when a roadside bomb exploded near him. Wounds he received to his head left him with what relatives say were traumatic brain injuries, which included severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), extreme memory loss, frequent nightmares and a lot of emotional distress.

John Battersby
Tuesday, July 29 2008
The Sun -- AS heroes fought to pull two doomed comrades from a burning helicopter — THEN went on to raid a rebel hideout.

The special forces soldiers showed “awesome” courage and determination as they battled in vain to save their mates from the flames.

Within minutes of seeing their friends die the Who Dares Wins men got on with their mission, assaulting a compound and capturing two insurgent leaders.

The extraordinary events in Iraq, until now shrouded in secrecy, can be described by The Sun for the first time after we fought a seven-month legal battle to overturn an MoD ban.

The dead were Sergeant John Battersby, 31, formerly of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, and Trooper Lee Fitzsimmons, 26, an ex-Royal Marine.

Lee Fitzsimmons
Monday, July 28 2008
The Press Association -- The mother of an SAS soldier who died in a Puma helicopter crash in Iraq has spoken of her "aching loss".

Lee Fitzsimmons, 26, from Peterborough was one of two SAS soldiers killed when the aircraft crashed in Baghdad last year.

He can be named for the first time after a court order was lifted.

The Puma came down near Salman Pak on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital on November 20 killing two and injuring 12.

His mother Jacqui Auty said she had been in "absolute hell" since his death.

In a statement released through solicitors McKay Law, she said: "The last few months have been absolute hell. Inside, I still can't believe that it has happened and that I'll never see or hold Lee again.

Daniel P. Dupre
Sunday, July 20 2008
Daily Comet -- THIBODAUX -- A Marine Corps sergeant killed in Iraq came home Saturday to Lockport, where the grandparents who raised him along with other family members will lay him to rest.

Staff Sgt. Danny Dupre, 28, was on a classified mission Tuesday in Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad, a Marine Corps official said, when he was struck behind the ear by a sniper’s bullet.

"He was the glue that kept his squad together," said Gunnery Sgt. Damien Martin, a Marine deployed in New Orleans who knew Dupre during his 10-year career and who was in charge of escorting the fallen fighter’s remains in Louisiana. "Gaining intel to provide to his Marines was what got him killed."

Dupre grew up in Lockport, raised by his grandmother, Hilda Triche Dupre. While a student at Central Lafourche High School, he knew early on that he was headed for a military career. He was an active member of the school’s Junior ROTC and joined up immediately after graduation.

"He was a perfectionist," said Kenneth Dupre, the Marine’s "parrain," or godfather.

In drill competitions while performing the manual of arms, if there was a potential of a tied score, he would perform the drill routine blindfolded, Kenneth Dupre said.

Daniel R. Verbeke
Friday, July 18 2008
Philadelphia Enquirer -- Daniel R. Verbeke, 25, of Exton, a Navy petty officer, died Monday at Paoli Hospital of complications from injuries suffered in December 2005 during combat operations in Iraq.

Mr. Verbeke was part of the landing crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. Planes from the ship were supporting combat troops in Iraq.

Mr. Verbeke was left a quadriplegic after being injured when he was hit by a piece of equipment while trying to repair a cable on the flight deck. He suffered traumatic brain injury, a collapsed lung, fractured vertebrae and fractured ribs. He was initially comatose, said his father, Robert, but after months of intensive therapy he was able to go home in early June.

He learned to vocalize basic words and make his feelings known, his father said. He recently said, "I love you," on the phone to his mother and sister.

Jackie L. Larsen
Friday, July 18 2008
Air Force Times -- An airman deployed to Balad Air Base, Iraq, died Thursday of natural causes, the Defense Department announced Friday.

Tech. Sgt. Jackie L. Larsen, 37, of Tacoma, Wash., was assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.

Larsen died of non-combat-related medical causes, a Beale spokesman said, but the exact cause of death is not being released.

A paralegal by trade, Larsen was serving as the superintendent of the Beale legal office.

She had been assigned to Beale since April 2006, and she joined the Air Force in 1990.

Jeffery S. Stevenson
Friday, July 18 2008
The Star-Ledger -- As he prepared to bury his best friend and brother, Senior Airman Robert L. Stevenson said today the investigation was continuing into the non-combat-related death of Lance Cpl. Jeffery S. Stevenson.

Jeffery Stevenson, 20, a Marine from Stillwater, Sussex County, died Sunday in Iraq.

Robert Stevenson, 23, back home from Fort Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., said military officials had no new information today on the death of the little brother he described as "really mature for his age."

Meanwhile, funeral arrangements were finalized by Smith-McCracken Funeral Home of Newton. The funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church, 54 High St., Newton, with interment to follow in Stillwater Cemetery.

Visiting is scheduled for 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the funeral home, 63 High St., Newton. Memorial donations may be made to Wounded Warriors, 10730 Pacific St., Suite 10, Omaha, Neb. 68114.

David W. Textor
Friday, July 18 2008
USASOC -- Staff Sgt. David W. Textor, 27, died in a vehicle accident in Mosul, Iraq July 15, in support of combat operations while serving with Company A, 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne).

He deployed in support of Operation Iraq Freedom in May 2008 as a member of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula. This was his first deployment in support of the War on Terror.

Textor, a native of Jamestown, N.Y., attended Randolph Central High School where he competed in football, wrestling and track. He volunteered for military service in May 2002 as an infantryman. Upon completion of his initial entry training at Fort Benning, Ga., he was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Textor began the Special Forces Qualification Course in May 2005, and he earned the coveted “Green Beret” in November 2006. He was then assigned to 3rd Bn., 1st SFG (A) at Fort Lewis, Wash., as a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha weapons sergeant.

Go look at HuffPos big headline. Very timely.

"Are the polls wrong again?"

Why yes, yes they are. They have been for a long time. Nice to see a media outlet finally questioning it aloud.

Maybe now they will... you know,... actually investigate why that keeps happening, but that requires thinking. Not sure the media can handle thinking. It is just such hard work.

Christy, I have just scrolled up and read your response to an earlier question I asked and observations I made.

I never have, nor ever will, write the people of the US off. I know the bigoted, sexist, racist cretins are there in your country as they are in mine. Sadly, in your country, they are the ones getting the greatest worldwide media exposure right now. People like Palin for example.

I know the majority of Americans are beautiful people. I've been there for 4 months over 2 visits. This last 8 years has taken its toll though. It is frightening to think an election could slip the US into deeper trouble. I trust that the passion I've seen amongst the general population will keep swelling to a force impossible to defeat. To believe in the faintest possibility of a McCain/Palin presidency is unthinkable.

When I read yesterday about some states disenfranchising student voters because the college where they registered is not the address of their parents, I thought surely you have things like "Absentee" voting. Or "Postal" voting for voters currently living at a place other than their actual place of residence.

For every hurdle the evil side puts up, I'm trusting the masses will never give up this time. They will jump higher and further than ever before. They will break all records in the polling booths. There will not be the wearing down of voters resolve this time, I believe. Every attempt at wearing them down and into submission will be met with stronger and more determined opposition.

A great deal of my love is in America every day. My sister, brother inlaw and three nephews and a niece-inlaw are American.

All three of the listed dead female soldiers in Slugbugs post, ALL three died of 'non combat related' causes?

Two of three are 'under investigation'. WTF?

Janelle F. King
Jennifer L. Cole
Jackie L. Larsen

MSNBC and CNN have both flat out said mcPOW and mcperky are lying.

And now the WSJ, the NYTs, Time, Rueters, NewsWeek, and the AP are all saying it is a lie while doing everything they can not to call it a lie. The Anchorage Daily also is calling her a liar too.

Anyone else think this may really be a breaking point? The story itself is only getting bigger and the lies are being repeated every day. BTW, she is still building the ROAD that was suppossed to connect to the bridge to Nowhere.

I think McPOW really does believe he can lie at will and NO ONE will dare call him on it. And now that they are calling him on it, I swear it is starting to look like an angry mob is forming.

I really believe he totally and completely believes he will not be called on it, but it is too late, the taboo is breaking.

Alaska has the highest rate of incest in the nation (according to Olbermann's guest at the top of the show).

That makes Alaska #1 in family values.

The Courtship of Eddie's Father

Time goes balls out...

Sarah Palin's Alaskonomics

Sarah Palin thinks she is a better American than you because she comes from a small town, and a superior human being because she isn't a journalist and has never lived in Washington and likes to watch her kids play hockey. Although Palin praised John McCain in her acceptance speech as a man who puts the good of his country ahead of partisan politics, McCain pretty much proved the opposite with his selection of a running mate whose main asset is her ability to reignite the culture wars. So maybe Governor Palin does represent everything that is good and fine about America, as she herself maintains. But spare us, please, any talk about how she is a tough fiscal conservative.

Palin has continued to repeat the already exposed lie that she said "No, thanks" to the famous "bridge to nowhere" (McCain's favorite example of wasteful federal spending). In fact, she said "Yes, please" until the project became a symbol and political albatross.

Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 2 1/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.

Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state's unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can't afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.

As if it couldn't support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.

View photos of Sarah Palin here.

Under the state constitution, the governor of Alaska has unusually strong powers to shape the state budget. At the Republican National Convention, Palin bragged that she had vetoed "nearly $500 million" in state spending during her two years as governor. This amounts to less than 2% of the proposed budget. That's how much this warrior for you (the people) against it (the government) could find in wasteful spending under her control.

One thing Barack Obama and McCain disagree on is an oil windfall–profits tax. McCain is against it, on the theory that it is a tax and therefore bad, and also that it would discourage domestic production. Obama is for it, on the theory that if oil companies can make a nice profit when oil sells for $50 per bbl., they can still make a nice profit when it sells for more than $100, even if the government takes a bit and spreads the money around to those who are hurting from higher oil prices.

Although Palin's words side with McCain in this dispute, her actions side with Obama. Her major legislative accomplishment has been to revamp Alaska's windfall-profits tax in order to increase the state's take. Alaska calls it a "clear and equitable share" tax. The state assumes that extracting oil from the tundra costs about $25 per bbl. and takes as much as 75% of the difference between that and the sale price.

Why is a windfall-profits tax good for Alaska but not for the U.S.? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? People in Alaska are better than people in the rest of the U.S. They're more American. Although there are small towns and farms and high school hockey teams in the lower 48, there are fewer down here, per capita, than in Alaska. And there are many more journalists and pollsters and city dwellers and other undesirables who might benefit if every American had the same right to leech off the government as do the good citizens of Sarah Palin's Alaska.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1839724,00.html

And Matthew, per the incest rate... EWWWWW!

long but from a friend of a friend of a friend

>
> Hi
>
> Thanks for thinking of me when the Alaska news came up. I was shocked
> last Friday when I heard the announcement, although I can understand
> McCain's strategy to shake things up and to attempt to appeal to his
> maverick label. I've been cautiously optimistic that this would play well
> to at least get some Alaska news in the national consiousness, but I fear
> coverage of the big issues: how to develop natural resources with an eye
> to the future economy and environment, how to encourage business but not
> be slave to it, and how political party lines could be blurred... but I
> digress! I'm less optimistic now, as all the same national wedge issues
> are being aired, and I don't think Sarah Palin is an accurate
> representation of Alaska on that front- but we're an opinionated enough
> state that I suppose no one really could reflect that.
>
> Sad to not talk all this out over a cup of tea, but I just got back from a
> road trip to Skagway, AK, in the Klondike Relay Run! I was very happy to
> come to Alaska for all the political, running, family (esp. new member,
> Una the great northern beagle), and fall excitement. It is good to be
> home, but my email box looks pretty neglected today! But this is one of
> my favorite topics, so I'll read through the letter and reply a bit-
>
>
> > Subject: PalinDear All............ As an Alaskan, I am writing to give
> > all of you some information onSarah Palin, Senator McCain's choice for
> > VP. As an Alaska voter, Iknow more than most of you about her and,
> > frankly, I am horrified thathe picked her. The most accurate description
> > of her is red neck.
> I'm not sure the most accurate description of anyone is to invoke an
> insulting stereotype, so I'm skeptical of the author...
>
> Her husband works inthe oil fields of Prudhoe Bay
> > and races snow mobiles. She is a lifetime member of the NRA and has
> > worked tirelessly to allowindiscriminate hunting of wildlife in Alaska,
> > particularly wolves andbears.
>
> I'm more trusting on someone who works in the oil fields than someone who
> runs them, at first blush, and I wouldn't say that Palin's primary issue
> is gun control. If anything, its been pushing for a natural gas pipeline
> built on the state's timeline rather than the oil companies, but I don't
> know how much she's done on aerial hunting. It is not done on a regular
> basis at all, because it makes little sense from an ecological or
> logistical perspective- and is highly controversial, even within AK.
>
> She has spent millions of Alaska state
> > dollars on aerialhunting of these predators from helicopters and
> > airplanes, dollarsthat should have been spent, for example, on Alaska's
> > failing schoolsystem.We have the lowest rate of high school graduation
> > in thecountry.
> The biggest challenge in AK state ed funding is to forward fund local
> school districts so they can plan their budgets proactively, rather than
> react to yearly volatile oil prices. Bush Alaska has huge challenges and
> very high HS drop-out rates. Urban schools do fairly well, but we're
> leaving behind a big part of the state.
>
> Not all of you may think aerial
> predator hunting is
> so > bad,but how anyone (other than Alaska wolf-haters, of which there
> > aremany, most without teeth), could think this use of funds
> > isappropriate is beyond me. If you want to know more about the
> > aerialhunting travesty, let me know and I will send some links
> > toinformative web sites. She has been a strong supporter of increased
> > use of fossil fuels, yetthe McCain campaign has the nerve to say she has
> > 'green' policies.
> I was disappointed to hear Sarah Palin say at the convention, in reference
> to opening ANWR, that the Obama campaign has no plan to develop energy-
> ignoring alternative energy. The phrase 'clean coal' bothers me.
>
> Theonly thing green about Sarah Palin is her lack of
> > experience.
> Again, name-calling from any poltical persuasion leaves a bad taste in my
> mouth, unless its a little more satirical. ;-)
>
> She hasconsistently supported drilling in ANWR, use of
> > coal-burning powerplants (as I write this, a new coal plant is being
> > built in her hometown of Wasilla), strip mining, and almost anything
> > else that will unnecessarily exploit the diminishing resources of Alaska
> > and destroyits environment.
> True on ANWR at least, but so does every prominent politician in the
> state, including the last Dem. gov and the Dem. candidate for US Senate
> (running against Stevens)
>
> Prior to her one year as governor of Alaska,
> > she was mayor of Wasilla,a small red neck town outside Anchorage.The
> > average maximum educationlevel of parents of junior high school kids in
> > Wasilla is 10th grade.
> Wasilla is an exurb of Anchorage, and is a small, conservative town that
> is rapidly growing. I still don't understand what 'red neck' is supposed
> to mean in this context, but apparently here it means uneducated. I'd be
> curious if the author could supply a source for the assertion about the
> average educational level.
>
> Unfortunately, I have to go to Wasilla every
> week
> > to get groceries andother supplies, so I have continual contact with the
> > people who putPalin in office in the first place. I know what I'm
> > talking about.These people don't have a concept of the world around them
> > or of theserious issues facing the US. Furthermore, they don't care. So
> > long asthey can go out and hunt their moose every fall, kill wolves and
> > bearsand drive their snow mobiles and ATVs through every corner of
> > thewilderness, they're happy. I wish I were exaggerating.
> I think the writer is exagerating. I have friends from Wasilla who are in
> PhD programs, environmental activists, and global thinkers and aspiring
> global actors. This author is disappointing me very much because the
> social aspect I value most about Alaska is that we are still a small
> enough state that everyone talks to each other, even when we disagree.
> Hunters and hippies DO live side-by-side (even in Wasilla!- although there
> are fewer % hippies there than in, say, Homer, I'd guess). Even though
> Alaska lacks the diversity of urban areas in the US, I've noticed I
> interact with more people from different walks of life in Alaska.
> Conversations with neighbors happen more easily, and we do talk about
> politics and the future just as we also talk about moose
> hunting, four-wheelers, and the weather. I am sorry the author feels so
> removed from her community.
>
> Sarah Palin is
> > currently involved in a political corruption scandal.She fired an
> > individual in law enforcement here because she didn'tlike how he treated
> > one of her relatives during a divorce. The man'sperformance and ability
> > weren't considered; it was a totally personalfiring and is currently
> > under investigation.
> No, she's not squeaky clean and firing Walt Monegan should be
> investigated- and at least both sides agree in principle that the
> investigation should go forward.
>
> While the issue isn'tclose to the scandal of Ted
> > Steven's corruption, it shows that Palinisn't 'squeaky clean' and causes
> > me to think there ay be more issuesthat could come to light. Clearly
> > McCain doesn't care. When you line Palin up with Biden, the comparison
> > would be laughableif it weren't so serious. Sarah Palin knows nothing of
> > economics(admittedly a weak area for McCain), or of international
> > affairs,knows nothing of national government, Social Security,
> > unemployment,health care systems - you name it.
> Although I voted for Palin's opponent in the gubenatorial election, I
> think she's a decent gov. for AK. She understands AK politics, esp.
> resource development and oil royalty taxes, pretty well. I do worry she
> was plucked for the VP
> ticket and hasn't done any homework on national/international issues. My
> only hope is that she has made some effort in the city of Wasilla and
> state of AK of talking to
> people about issues she is inexperienced on and seeking out advice from at
> least multiple sources, so she does do homework. However, her time is too
> short and learning curve to steep to prepare for the executive branch of
> the US.
>
> The idea of her meeting
> > with headsof foreign governments around the world truly frightens me.
> Frankly, I'm more frightened of Dick Cheney than of Sarah Palin meeting
> with the heads of foreign governments. She doesn't have a neocon agenda,
> so really it comes down to who will be advising her in the first stages
> because she's been just plucked-
> and for that you have to look at the entire McCain campaign and agenda.
>
> In
> > an increasingly dangerous world, with the economy in shambles inthe US,
> > Sarah Palin is uniquely UNqualified to be vice president. JohnMcCain is
> > not a young man. Should something happen to him such thatthe vice
> > president had to step in, it would destroy our country andpossibly the
> > world to have someone as inexperienced and inappropriateas Sarah Palin.
> Destroy the world? Somehow we've eked out survival under 8 years of
> Cheney/Bush.
>
> > The choice of Palin is a cheap shot by McCain to tryto get Hillary
> > supporters to vote for him. when McCain introduced hertoday, Palin had
> > the nerve to compare herself with Hillary andGeraldine Ferraro. Sarah
> > Palin, you are no Hillary Clinton. To those of you who, like me,
> > supported Hilary and were upset that shedid not get the nomination,
> > please don't think that Sarah Palin is aworthy substitute. If you
> > supported Hillary, regardless of what youthink the media and the
> > democratic party may have done to undermineher campaign, the person to
> > support now is Obama, not Sarah Palin.
> I don't think any consistent Clinton supporters would just fall into
> supporting Sarah Palin. the ardent 10% of the voting populace that
> believes in liberal social values and policy is not going to flip like
> that. I think this is more an appeal to catch the attention of the middle
> that ends up deciding elections.
>
> Tothose of you who are
> > independent or undecided, don't let the choice ofPalin sway you in favor
> > of McCain. Choosing her shows how unqualifiedMcCain is to be president.
> Talking to undecided voters is really key- but I don't think that such a
> strident and negative message is the best way to do so. If we can talk to
> individuals about important, daily life issues such as accessible health
> care, creating future energy infrastructure, building the middle class,
> personal privacy, creating vocational options besides the military for
> low-income Americans, international responsibility, and a host of other
> positive issues, that will win the election.
>
> > To those of you who are conservative, Iguess you have no choice for
> > president. But please try to see how thepoor choice of Palin tells us a
> > great deal about McCain's judgment.While the political posturing
> > inherent in the choice of Palin isobvious, the more serious issue is the
> > fact that the VP is, literally,a heartbeat away from the presidency.
> > Sarah Palin is totally andunequivocally unqualified to be vice
> > president, let alone president. I know this is a lengthy and emotional
> > email, but the stakes are high.I thought it might help for all of you,
> > regardless of politicalaffiliation, to know something about Palin from
> > someone who has tolive with her administration in Alaska on a daily
> > basis. Jackie S.
>
> This email was depressing, but more so for the author's style and
> substance. I'll have to sign off with a message I'd much more like to see
> emenating from AK:
> http://www.adn.com/life/lende/story/515475.html
>
> Time to go find some blueberries before I get home............

eptember 9, 2008 7:55 PM
Christy said:

MSNBC and CNN have both flat out said mcPOW and mcperky are lying.

~~~~~

Huh? Catch me up, please?!

Ok...so I was at work when one of my younger co-workers asked me if I was going to vote for Obama. At first, I hesitated to discuss this or any politics due to being at work and I know people who may have been fired for having "Bush the Mafia Family" type stickers on their vehicle.

So finally, when he kept trying to get me to compliment John McBush or Sara Palin, I told him about how corrupt the two were. (Particularly because he tried to claim that she was anti-corruption.)

Hair started curling...

Eyes bulging!

So...I discussed HER and HIS corruption! And I mentioned the rape kit, which I had to explain to him, then I mentioned how she charged the Alaskan tax payers for her to live in her own home. His response, "But...the person who had her job before set precident by doing this."

So..I came back with the response, "So...if your friend jumps off a cliff, is that an excuse for you to do it?!"

And then it ended up on him saying that Sarah Palin has as much experience as Obama. At that point, you can picture my head exploding! So I said, "Um..yeh, in fantasyland, but not in reality." I said, "She's got less than 2 years of governorship and less than two years as a mayor and she's already exibited corrupt actions just in that short of time. Obama has been in the Illinois Senate for what...20 years? And he's been in the US Senate for 4 years. So... ummm...her years equal 4 and his equals 24. Since when is 24 and 4 equal or as much as...?"

Needless to say, he had to back down on that tp!

Then he started asking me about Fox news....

Well...it went downhill from there.

I'm really tired and angry of these things and I pretty much told him so. They're a pack of mean vicious liars and they've demonized liberals. (As he said, "He was taught that you remember Democrat because the first for letters are the same as demo n. I can't even type the word out without getting pissed off all over again!)

They're a pack of mean vicious liars and they've demonized liberals.

Courtesy of Reverend Moon, who will get all liberals exterminated in Samsung gas chambers.

I WILL kick Lee Myung-bak's ass for his continued funding of Moon. Or get arrested/deported for trying.

"So I said, "Um..yeh, in fantasyland, but not in reality."

You go girlfriend! Screw polite, let's take our damn country back!

Next time he says Foe News, just laugh at him and point out two of every three of their viewers fail miserably in knowing simple current events, and that the Daily Show, a fake news show, actually has more real content than anything on foe news.

Then... just laugh at him. Let him see you do it. Let him know you think it is funny.

Really, until he leaves fantasyland, that is all you can do. You can not have a good faith debate with someone who is lying and equates you with DEMONS.

BTW, on everybody calling her a liar, it is all over the place now. Even the WaPo is saying she is not being honest.

It is going to take a lot of interesting word play to get through the next 50 or so days without having to outright call her a 'liar'. They can't dance around it too much longer because she continues to lie openly and repeatedly.

And every time she repeats the lie, and him too, they are JUST DARING everyone to call them on it. It is obvious they are just DARING anyone to stop them because they don't believe anyone will. It is not 'polite'.

As I said, the press is starting to resemble the beginnings of an angry mob forming. I figured this would happen when he cut off all their access to himself, but they have her backed into a corner now, she is being called dishonest all the way across the MSM.

Hell hath no fury like a bunch of scorned journalists with no barbeque to attend.

"Sen. Obama owes Gov. Palin an apology," she said.

Asked why she was so confident Obama was "comparing" Palin to a pig, she said Palin was the only one of the four candidates on both parties' tickets who wears lipstick.

"She is the only one of the four candidates for president, or the only vice presidential candidate who wears lipstick," Swift said. "I mean, it seemed to me a very gendered comment."

But, Swift added, if "as part of his apology Sen. Obama wants to say, no, he was calling Sen. McCain -- who is a true hero in our country -- a pig, then I suppose we could wait en masse for an apology to that, as well."

It was pointed out to Swift that, after the line about the pig, Obama had said, "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called 'change,' it's still gonna stink after eight years."

Swift then suggested that Obama was calling McCain a fish.

http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/mccain-obama-called-me-fish-im-not.html

The choice of Palin was smart becuase the Left never goes after the Right with the same intensity as vice versa.

We need to stop being such wimps in politics, The future of the Nation is at stake. We dont need to lie, cheat, or embellish. We just need to tell the truth and do it forcefully.

Any research into Gov. Palins background will turn issues regarding her religious beliefs and how they apply to the political world. WHO CARES if we piss off the religious right wing, they were NEVER going to vote Democrat.

Does the Public truly believe Iraq and Petroleum pipelines are Gods Will..? Does the general public believe invading the Middle East is part of God's Plan for the world?

Gov Palin talks a great game, but her actions are actually in line with Senator Obama's policies. Gov Palin has created a petroleum windfall profits tax for the state of Alaska, which is what Senator Obama has proposed as part of his budget and energy program
Her policy is good for alaska, but bad for the Nation? there is serious hypocrisy and conflict here.

Gov Palin was gung ho for the infamous bridge until funding was yanked as result of pork barrel politics. Then she positioned herself as being against it....the bridges of flip flop county.

there are dozens of examples, but the Left is too afraid to hurt anyones feelings and leave a bad impression to take on the right head on...they need to get over themselves and understand the reality of the situation;
The RIGHT DOESNT CARE WHO GETS HURT.

We need to stop being wimps and run the damn race as if the future of the Nation depended on it, because it surely does.

I am going to get active in my neighborhood - meeting Thursday night - probably canvassing & stuff.

Hat tip t0 VP Mooseberger! You can find her on MySpace and also pick up these cool shirts at Cafe Press! Best of all, she is out of Wasilla, Alaska! (for She Who Shall Not Be Named)

Time for my beauty sleep. I will be sure to wrap toilet paper around so as not to mess up the 'do - will spray it first with Aqua Net.

Suz
I finally get a little more credibility at work because I don't need to talk politics much - they know I use my money and vacation time to go to YearlyKos, Netroots Nation, Boston DNC, Denver DNC and that I phone bank, blog, canvas, photograph, etc. They have picked it up by osmosis and I think the fact that I don't talk about it much lends it more credibility and makes them curious. I have had people approach me with questions or to confide things, in the decade I've been there, more and more and more.

It's also pretty easy to say "That's not true" but then you have to be able to rattle off things they probably won't check up on anyway, but can't be hesitant. I try not to say "I think that" and all that personal stuff and let them have the facts. But, as Bill Clinton said, conservatives don't care about facts. He said they make facts fit their ideology whereas liberals are reality based. He makes alot of sense sometimes - & Thursday he and Obama will have lunch & hopefully mend fences. Bill did a good job at the convention, as did Hillary - and they have her in the right place right now - Florida.

Huffpo had a piece on the rigged polls - it's at our blog too - basically they overstated the number of Republicans - not comparable to how they did it in July so unfair to compare, yet they're doing it.

I see things on Comcast front page about "white women" going for McCain. It's so racist to do it that way & now McCain running an ad suggesting Obama supported explicit sex ed for Kindergarteners when it was only helping them avoid sex predators.

McCain has called people pigs many times and so has Bush (they have made lipstick on pig comment) - they are so full of shit. Someone sent me pictures of Bush drunk at the Olympics - ones I had not seen before. He is being helped from the stands.

slugbug that wasn't at the Beijing Olympics was it? I remember seeing those pictures quite a while ago - months I think.

Here's the opening of a broadcast email that I and millions of other Americans received on September 4, 2008, from Nancy Keenan, President, NARAL, Pro Choice America:

"Gov. Palin had a good applause line last night about hockey moms and lipstick on pitbulls. Well, we have an expression here, too: Dress it up any way you like, but the McCain-Palin rhetoric about women’s freedom and privacy is nothing more than lipstick on a pig!"

I guess Ms. Keenan is also a sexist.

The Conservative's mantra: Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Woz
I guess it's a "viral email" - anything can be juxtaposed

You know what seems to me sexist AND racist? All these articles about the "white women" vote.

Reading some articles on politics this morning - I can see that some of the worst attackers of my personal values in this country are women. There is no unified "women's movement" - there are liberal feminists and then there are aggregates of conservative women. Some seek to "redefine feminism according to conservative values." That is a big contradiction in terms. Female Taleban we don't need.

Slugbug, exactly. I can understand a conservative woman arguing that abortion is morally wrong, and we need to educate women and men on the need to use contraception. What I can't understand is a woman arguing that women shouldn't have a choice - and that everyone must live in the same sexual straight-jacket that they have voluntarily chosen to live within.

That is why the feminist movement died.Because only the extreminsts get heard.

The thought that working women and stay at home women are somehow in conflict is a made up controversy, probably started and egged on by men. Divide and conquor and all that.

I don't think most women see a 'conflict' at all, but we are constantly told we must chose sides in a fake war.

But I agree with Matthew, the women who would take away other womens rights, there is something wrong with those women. I think they do it to try to impress men. They get off on being subjugated, dominated.

An anti-female female just is not normal. McPalin is McIcky.

Go look at Huffpos headliner. Oh My Lord!

Yup. Definately an angry mob forming! Good googly goo.

MCPOPCORN TIME!

Thank you toolmaker!

No more playing "Mr. Nice Guy" - that's a sure way to lose.

Some liberals will still claim that it's better to lose fair than cheat their way to victory. I strongly disagree; the stakes are too high. I completely agree with Karl Rove in that winning is the only thing that counts. The ends justify the means.

I'll remember, and remind everyone, that the Right can accuse the Left of being surrender monkeys, French puppets, pro-UN globalists, or worse, but it's the Right themselves who are busy selling America out to the primitive Moonies. The Koreans that I will meet over the next month or two will strongly be reminded that the billions of won in taxes they cough up every year are funneled by their evil neoliberal Confucio-Christian government into the Moonies, and into the American Far Right in turn.

Obama needs to show no mercy in dealing with Palin. Sure, there is a chance it'll backfire and he'll lose. But if he plays "Mr. Nice Guy" in response to Palin, he is GUARANTEED to lose.

But I agree with Matthew, the women who would take away other womens rights, there is something wrong with those women. I think they do it to try to impress men. They get off on being subjugated, dominated.

Christy, don't forget Mann Coulter, who looks like a woman but believes that women should lose their right to vote.

Maybe the Mann has a point - the likes of Sarah Palin don't deserve suffrage, much less a shot at Vice Presidency.

Another blatant example: the Confucian women, who lecture us on the evilness of abortion, but are more than happy to abort their own female fetuses. They do it to ensure the birth of a son, and the continuation of the prevailing Confucian patriarchy.

Matthew

The Far Right doesn't believe in contraceptions either. All they believe in is outbreeding the liberals.

I had the most uncomfortable phone conversation of my life this morning.

When I found out they had my kids praying up to 10 times a week at school, I wrote the teacher to ask why, please clarify the reasons for it. She wrote me back confirming what I obviously already knew was happening then made it seem like I just had a problem with her blessing her food. No answer to why.

Anyways, I wrote back telling her yes I was uncomfortable with it and stated 6 reasons why starting with #1. It is a violation of the US Constitution. I asked her to pass them along to the principle because I was even more so uncomfortable with him blasting The Lords Prayer over the loud speaker every morning.

He called me this morning, and sounded like a man who really did not want to get sued. But then he started trying to tell me how innocent it all was and how it wasn't hurting them.

I have been thinking about it all day, and reflecting on it, he said some wayyy kooky things. At one point he even tried to assure me 'no children were involved'.

Say huh?

Oh, and as soon as I mentioned how I would not let a Muslim take my child to prayer twice a day anymore than I would another christian, he showed he was very freaked out by the idea of Muslims. It was wierd though, because he just kept saying 'Well your a christian too so...' and then he would say kooky crap just assuming I would agree. Like 'For some kids this is their only chance to be exposed to it'. Like he has to personally save their souls or else no one will.

And telling him his christian prayers were bugging me was one of the most uncomfortable things I ever had to do. But thinking of the crazy things he was saying I am so glad I did confront them on it.

Once he realized I was saying 'Yes. You must stop this, this is not what I send my kids to school for and it is a violation of the Constitution'. He got angry, but he did agree to stop it.

Like I said, he really sounded eager to avoid a confrontation over it.

So...Anyways, I think I won that one.

slugbug said

You know what seems to me sexist AND racist? All these articles about the "white women" vote.

That has gotten much, much worse since the announcement of Palin. The undecideds who've solidified now behind McCain are the ones who are buying the Palin wonderwoman dolls for their children. And of course the school-girl Palin has been bought by many of the sexually-repressed-closet-predators-of-the-republican party. I am so glad Hillary didn't give the impression that she was a *plaything*. God it's awful. Whatever way you look at it. And I'm afraid that Obama can't fight these attacks with ordinary money. There may not be enough of it.

This survey gives heart - but not one of the people surveyed can vote in your election. However, considering the US relationships with nations around the world right now, it's a very important survey nonetheless. Perhaps 22,500 individuals sampled from a range of countries is too small a sample. I believe that it's an accurate representation of attitudes everywhere I go.

Obama favoured by world citizens
London
September 11, 2008
LONDON. Most people around the world would prefer Barack Obama to win the US presidential election over John McCain, a poll spanning 22 countries — including Australia — shows.

The BBC World Service survey found the most common view in nations polled was that Senator Obama — who staged a euphoric European and Middle Eastern tour in July — should win in November.

An average of 46% of those questioned thought US relations with the rest of the world would improve if Senator Obama took office, compared to just 20% for Senator McCain, the survey of 22,500 people found.

Some 46% said having a black US president would fundamentally change their perception of the US, and 27% said it would not.

AFP

http://www.theage.com.au/world/obama-favoured-by-world-citizens-20080910-4dry.html

Just catching up here.

AND slugbug said

I can see that some of the worst attackers of my personal values in this country are women. There is no unified "women's movement" - there are liberal feminists and then there are aggregates of conservative women. Some seek to "redefine feminism according to conservative values." That is a big contradiction in terms. Female Taleban we don't need.

Oh, thank you slugbug! EXACTLY! And they scare me! "Female Taleban" led now by Palin, is a sick and horrifying prospect. Release of the dolls should be picked up and run with by the Democratic Party - The Top Job In The World Is NOT A GAME.

Christy said

But I agree with Matthew, the women who would take away other womens rights, there is something wrong with those women. I think they do it to try to impress men. They get off on being subjugated, dominated.

I agree with both of you - well, if they want to go back to that place and time, they need to shut up, stay home and NOT VOTE!!

Christy said

Go look at Huffpos headliner. Oh My Lord!

Yup. Definately an angry mob forming!

Good googly goo.MCPOPCORN TIME!

ROFLMAO. And I haven't even read it yet!

Statement of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer on the McCain Acceptance Speech

For Immediate Release
September 5, 2008

Last night at the Republican National Convention, John McCain used the word "fight" more than 40 times in his speech.

In the 16 years that we have served together in the Senate, I have seen John McCain fight.

I have seen him fight against raising the federal minimum wage 14 times.

I have seen him fight against making sure that women earn equal pay for equal work.

I have seen him fight against a women's right to choose so consistently that he received a zero percent vote rating from pro-choice organizations.

I have seen him fight against helping families gain access to birth control.

I have seen him fight against Social Security, even going so far as to call its current funding system "an absolute disgrace."

And I saw him fight against the new GI Bill of Rights until it became politically untenable for him to do so.

John McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007 and 100 percent of the time in 2008 -- that's no maverick.

We do have two real fighters for change in this election -- their names are Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

http://www.barbaraboxer.com/news/bulletins?id=0048

Statement of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer on the Palin Acceptance Speech

For Immediate Release
September 4, 2008

Last night, Sarah Palin proved that she can throw a punch -- one packed with sarcasm to divert attention from her lack of experience.

Palin didn't even attempt to make the case to the American people that she is ready to be Vice President or President, should that become necessary.

Sarah Palin is a great candidate for the far right, but after examining her slim record in office, I cannot imagine mainstream Americans would support a Vice Presidential nominee with such extreme views.

Palin would criminalize abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, and does not believe insurance companies should cover birth control.

Palin remains unconvinced that human activity is the cause of global warming, even though the world’s leading scientists unequivocally agree that it is.

Palin has a one-dimensional answer to our energy crisis - the Exxon policy of giving more leases to Big Oil. She has no concern about our thriving coastal, tourism-based economy and no requirement that they drill in the millions of acres where they already hold undeveloped leases.

Sarah Palin is a candidate who is extreme, not mainstream.

In addition, Palin is under investigation by her state legislature for abusing her executive power and when she was mayor, she left the people of Wasilla in debt.

The choice of Sarah Palin by John McCain shows a real lack of judgment.

http://www.barbaraboxer.com/news/bulletins?id=0046

Ahhhhhh slugbug I had to flog your pic of lipstick on the pig and post it, it is just to good.

Hope you don't mind.

So...Anyways, I think I won that one.

Thank you Christy!

The only ones we need to be "saved" from are from the evangelicals themselves.

Cindy McPOW was not only stealing drugs for herself, but she was doping her kids to sedate them.

"Gosinski details a conversation with Jeri Johnson, Cindy McCain's aunt, regarding Cindy's nanny, Diane, in a July 28, 1992 entry.

Diane voice concerns regarding Cindy's use of drugs and the effect it is having on the kids. Diane told Jeri that Meghan recently told her to "fuck off" after trying to discipline her. She also told Jeri that she is concerned that Cindy is giving the kids drugs which unnecessarily sedate them. I hope that is not happening.

Concerns that Cindy McCain is unnecessarily drugging her children appear again in a July 31 entry -- "Cari (Cindy's adopted daughter) told the three that she fears Cindy gives the kids prescription drugs they do not need," Gosinski wrote.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whistleblower_breaks_15year_silence_to_allege_0911.html

In the Seventh Year
By ROGER COHEN

And in the seventh year after the fall, the dust and debris of the towers cleared. And it became plain at last what had been wrought.

For the wreckage begat greed; and it came to pass that while America’s young men and women fought, other Americans enriched themselves. Beguiling the innocent, they did backdate options, and they did package toxic mortgage securities and they did reprice risk on the basis that it no more existed than famine in a fertile land.

Thereby did the masters of the universe prosper, with gold, with silver shekels, with land rich in cattle and fowl, with illegal manservants and maids, with jewels and silk, and with Gulfstream V business jets; yet the whole land did not prosper with them. And it came to pass, when the housing bubble burst, that Main Street had to pay for the Wall Street party.

For Bush ruled over the whole nation and so sure was he of his righteousness that he did neglect husbandry.

And he took his nation into desert wars and mountain wars, but, lo, he thought not to impose taxation, not one heifer nor sheep nor ox did Bush demand of the rich. And it came to pass that the nation fell into debt as boundless as the wickedness of Sodom. For everyone, Lehman not least, was maxed out.

So heavy was the burden of war, and of bailing out Fannie and Freddie, and of financing debt with China, that not one silver shekel remained to build bridges, nor airports, nor high-speed trains, nor even to take care of wounded vets; and the warriors returning unto their homes from distant combat thought a blight had fallen on the land.

So it was in the seventh year after the fall of the towers. And still Bush did raise his hands to the Lord and proclaim: “I will be proved right in the end!”

And around the whole earth, which had stood with America, there arose a great trouble, for it seemed to peoples abroad that a great nation, rich in flocks and herds and land and water, had been cast among thorns and Philistines; its promise betrayed, its light dimmed, its armies stretched, its budget broken, its principles compromised, its dollar diminished.

And it came to pass that this profligate nation, drinking oil with insatiable thirst, could not cure itself of this addiction, and so its wealth was transferred to other nations that did not always wish it well.

Wherefore the balance of power in the world was altered in grievous ways, and new centers of authority arose, and they were no more persuaded by democracy than was the Pharaoh.

For Bush ruled over the whole nation, and so sure was he of his righteousness that he did neglect the costs of wanton consumption. And he believed that if the Lord created fossil fuel, fossil fuel must flow without end, as surely as the grape will yield wine.

Therefore, in the seventh year after the fall, with 1,126 of the slain still unidentified, their very beings rendered unto dust, their souls inhabiting the air of New York, it seemed that one nation had become two; and loss, far from unifying the people, had sundered the nation.

For the rich, granted tax breaks more generous than any blessing, grew richer, and incomes in the middle ceased to rise, and workers saw jobs leaving the land for that region called Asia. And some fought wars while others shopped; and some got foreclosed while others got clothes. And still Bush spake but few listened.

Behold, so it was in the seventh year, and it seemed that America was doubly smitten, from without and within.

And, lo, a strange thing did come to pass. For as surely as the seasons do alternate, so the ruler and party that have brought woe to a nation must give way to others who can lead their people to plenty. How can the weary, flogged ass bear honey and balm and almonds and myrrh?

Yet many Americans believed the exhausted beast could still provide bounty. They did hold that a people called the French was to blame. They did accuse a creation called the United Nations. They did curse the ungodly sophisticates of Gotham and Hollywood and sinful Chicago; and, lo, they proclaimed God was on their side, and carried a gun, and Darwin was bunk, and truth resided in Alaska.

For Bush ruled over the whole nation and so sure was he of his righteousness that he did foster division until it raged like a plague. Each tribe sent pestilence on the other.

And in the seventh year after the fall, the dust and debris of the towers cleared. And it became plain at last what had been wrought — but not how the damage would be undone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/opinion/11Cohen.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Christy
Speaking of kids and drugs, I did reference She Who Shall Not Be Named's son's Oxycontin addiction, as alleged by the more-accurately-viewed-since-Edwards_scandal National Enquirer, and also the ridiculous claim of Chuck Norris that he has "done two tours in Iraq." (So has Jessica Simpson, if he has!)

Click on my name.

Not sure what to make of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7UzxXv8p4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsx0rWGVkRY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgSwMoCESF0&feature=related

Chuck in Bangkok

new thread

Chuck

Maybe it is a rightwing attempt at an erotic video?!?%*$()

SB:

It's a weird vibe and I can't quite figure it out! I'm sure it was just some soldier videoing for posterity so I don't think there is anything overtly salacious about it, but the overall effect is a sort of strange juxtaposition (or maybe it's just me). Do you think we will see a Sarah Palin/Ted Nugent special issue of Hunting and Fishing Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania???? This race sure is mixing up some stange social or psychological dynamics in our culture, which is probably a good thing to help us get out of the ruts we've fallen into.

Chuck in Bangkok

Hey, and I am actually kind of on-topic (the interpenetration of entertainment and politics). And in that spirit, I am trying to figure out if Susan Sarandon (if she's still around -- Sarandon, that is) or Sandra Bullock would be better for the role of Sarah Palin....

For McCain I am thinking either Dennis Hopper (tightly directed) or Jack Nicholson. Gene Hackman for Biden (if he's still around -- Hackman that is), but for Obama I can't come up with anything. Denzel Washington has a lot of range so maybe he could pull it off. I'd actually prefer a Johnny Deppe or MAtthew Broderick, but the melanin is an issue.

Ted Nugent could, of course, play himself.