Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:00:02 -0400
Governments should provide "sufficient food", "sufficient weapons" and "sufficient confidence of the people" with the latter being the most important since "no state can exist without the confidence of the people." (12:7)
calling Palin pick "political bull**** and "gimmicry"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrG8w4bb3kg
They should have just come out and said it on the air, everyone with 1/2 a brain knows it's true.
McCain blew off his first (and thankfully last) presidential decision. He proved he just doesn't have what it takes to be Commander in Chief. Odds of Obama/Biden winning: 99%
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
but something for all the pet lovers...might bring I tear or two, but I just had to share:
A PET'S TEN COMMANDMENTS.........
1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.
2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.
3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.
4. Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work,your friends, your entertainment, but I have only you.
5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.
6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.
7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.
8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak.
9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.
10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.
~Take a moment today to thank God for your pets. Enjoy and take good care of them.
Life would be a much duller, less joyful experience without God's critters
We do not have to wait for Heaven, to be surrounded by hope, love, and joyfulness. It is here on earth and has four legs!
before I could cut and paste it.
I miss my Mr Dog and Lizbeth, and am so thankful that Jasper is still with me. He's 11, hope he hangs around a long time.
Too funny not to share. It seems that John McCain has included some of Palin's earmarks for Wasilla in his list of pork-barrel spending on 3 occasions in the past.
"WASILLA, ALASKA -- For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.
Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin."
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-earmarks3-2008sep03,0,2482434.story
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
Speaking of Confucius....
Inheriting Confucius
A new genealogy of Confucius widens its scope to women and minorities-but excludes genetic data.
In Jinan, china the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee is at the final stage of the fifth major revision of Confucius's family tree, which should be complete next summer. With more than 2 million registered descendants, the family tree of Confucius, the revered Chinese philosopher who lived over 2,500 years ago, is the longest in the world. Fearing that the genealogy of Confucius, last updated in 1931, could be lost forever as China marches into modernity, 77th-generation descendant Kong De-yong launched the present effort in 1998.
The current revision marks a major break from the past in several respects: Unlike previous attempts, women, ethnic minorities, and other previously excluded groups will be able contribute their genealogies. "The project is about promoting the legacy of the great man rather than the patriarchal clan system of the family," says Kong. But even as the project's directors strive to bring the memory of Confucius in line with the more progressive ideals of modern society, there is one potentially important — and doubtlessly the most modern — contribution to the project that the Chinese won't be allowed to make: their DNA. In doing so, the project hints at the limits of Chinese engagement with the age of genomics, and demonstrates how high cultural stakes can constrain science.
more at SeedMagazine
"Barack Obama has said that families are 'off-limits', and we thought that John McCain agreed," Obama adviser Anita Dunn said in a statement. "But tonight, John McCain's handpicked attack dog, Mitt Romney, exposed the fake outrage that the Republicans have been peddling all week as the blatant hypocrisy that it is."
"The McCain team's disgusting attack on Barack Obama's wife shows they would rather generate false outrage to distract from their own problems than talk about the issues facing the American people," Dunn also said. "Mitt Romney's attack on a candidate's wife is as pathetic as his failed presidential campaign.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
Convention planners have released the following excerpts of Mitt Romney's speech tonight...
[...] "Just like you, there has never been a day when I was not proud to be an American. We inherited the greatest nation in the history of the earth. It is our burden and privilege to preserve it, to renew its spirit so that its noble past is prologue to its glorious future. To this we are all dedicated and I firmly believe by the providence of the Almighty, that we will succeed. President McCain and Vice President Palin will keep America as it has always been -- the hope of the world."[...]
What I saw of mittens' speech, he was at his zaniest arm-waving best tonight. You couldn't miss the slam against Michelle tho...he was giddy. I was afraid he might burst into uncontrollable giggles, he was that pleased with himself.
that was enuf for me...
Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 12 minutes ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."
In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."
Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.
"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."
A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God's Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet.
Palin told graduating students of the church's School of Ministry, "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys." As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she'd work to implement God's will from the governor's office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets.
"God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said.
The rest of the story is here.,
She doesn't believe humans are contributing to climate change, either.
She's a moron.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
some of them I would consider good, some I would consider stupid, but I'm not them so what I think of their prayers is a moot point.
What I'm trying to say I guess, is that in my opinion there's nothing to get upset about here.
An old saying that I tend to believe...prayer doesn't change God, it changes us.
:)
from the article:
Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, lamented Palin's comments.
"I miss the days when pastors delivered sermons and politicians delivered political speeches."...
I think politicians start encroaching on Taliban-like territory when they push support for their favored political ideas, from war to the economy, by claiming to have insight into what God wants. You may see it as harmless, but I think too many people are susceptible to this sort of manipulation. It casts opponents as "ungodly" (whether they are or not doesn't matter)--it's creates the whole good vs evil dichotomy, where if you disagree you're evil.
UPDATE: Some religious wisdom from a former president:
During the Civil war, President Lincoln was once asked if God was on his side. His reply was, "It is not is God on my side, but am I on God's side?"
++++++++++++++++++++++
In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.
- Abraham Lincoln, memorandum dated September 30, 1862
By the way, I really like your pet commandments. It kind of saddened me as I read it since I had to drop my dog off at my parents the last time I moved. My parents fell in love with her and she was getting more attention from them than I can give, since they are retired and I'm constantly busy. My brother was mad at me when I first took her back because she provides safety and companionship. He guilted me about how much my dad loved her, but Dad would never tell me what a downer it was for me to take the dog back. So I kept her over the summer a couple of years ago before bringing her back over there. They're on the east coast, and I'm in Cali :-(
what pet commandments? I have a cat. commandments don't apply.
Somebody is missing a dog...that's very sad. But as long as the dog is happy, I suppose that's the main thing when it comes right down to it.
hmmm...actually, I see nothing wrong with shared custody of a dog, so long as the dog approves.
I'm in CA too. the 'northern sector'
midway, right over the Napa/Solano ridge, east
far enough away from the ridge fire to escape the flames but not the smoke...
edit: Ohio's post is very nice, I agree.
by SUSAN BROOKS THISTLETHWAIT
"Wives be subject to your husbands, as unto the Lord." So says the Christian scriptures in Ephesians, 5:22. What I would like to know, first of all, is who is going to have the final authority as Vice-President if Sarah Palin is elected, Palin or her husband? In fact, I think the first order of business with Palin is to ask her to give the same kind of speech that was demanded of John F. Kennedy re his Catholicism. Kennedy said he would obey the Constitution over the Pope. Will Palin obey the Constitution over her husband?
I probably wouldn't have put it in the terms used in that quote. If for no other reason, it affords Palin the opportunity for a JFK-esque moment: something along the lines of not letting her personal beliefs override her oath to the Constitution (or something like that).
But that fact is Christian fundamentalists do pretty much all believe that women are subordinate to their husbands, that we should never be in a leadership position over men, that we are not even allowed to speak or pray aloud in church.
I don't know what Palin's religious beliefs are on that score, yet I hear she is the darling of the James Dobson religious right crowd. So I think it raises some reasonable questions.
in her home state. So, er, um...has her husband actually been running things? I'm just confused by this.
I have more than a couple of run-ins with the super-fundamentalist crowd. I realize the anti-female venom that does run amok in certain groupings. But I find it an odd and misleading querie when put in those terms (as you stated.)
It's along the lines of the "O is a Muslim!" fear mongering used by the other side.
And it also raises, although somewhat subversively, the specter of sexism; I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this raised in an effort to vindicate all the 'can she be a good mom and a VP' discussion being touted by my favorite (not) chattering class in the MSM.
I would have thought this would have come up when she ran for governor, or even mayor. Maybe it did and Newsweek hasn't done their homework -- that wouldn't surprise me. Or maybe it's just that Alaska is such an overwhelmingly Republican state that her opponents didn't want to raise the issue and risk offending the relgious right. Otoh, I don't think Alaskan Repubs are particularly religious -- they are more likely to lean libertarian -- so maybe it wasn't a factor at all.
I don't know that it's on a par with the "Obama is a muslim" tactic. The fundamental (no pun intended) difference is that Palin is the one who claims to be a social conservative and welcomes the fundy endorsements. I do get that right wing nuts are using the Muslim rumors to scare people away from voting for Obama and energize their base, most of whom are not that thrilled with McCain, So if left wingers use the fundy Christians to scare people away from the Cheney/Palin ticket and get liberals not sold on Obama to vote for him, in that sense it's sort of the same.
Still, I do consider fundy Christians who want to turn this into a Christian nation a real threat. If she's one of those, or if she panders to them (and both she and McCain do that), it's a valid criticism.
as pandering does. Lots of pandering going round this silly season. I have no patience for wait and see, but there's no other choice. Sigh.
Is it 2012 yet? Cause I just can't wait for all this to start up again.
LOL! My EH used to say that when the rush hours get so long that they run into each other, its a sure sign of the impending apocalypse. Maybe it's the same with US campaign seasons - when they appear never ending, we should just ask the fates to chuck it all in, open up that alleged supervolcano under Yellowstone, and take some time to soul wander until we find a parallel universe thats more to our own particular comfort level. Like one that follows tavern rules:
1.) No Religion
2.) No Politics
3.) Don't spit on the floor
4.) No masse shots on the pool table, we just had it re-felted.
Or perhaps he is totally clueless? He's up there railing about promiscuity being the fault of Democrats...uh, Mitt...have you seen the headlines recently?
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
I noticed that too. Who does he think has been running the country for close to 8 years?
He also complained about those nasty people China buys oil from. The biggest recent oil deal the Chinese have signed is with Iraq. Don't the Repubs claim that we "liberated" that place?
It also seems like there's an anti-Europe undertone to the speeches tonight.
Barry
Are you safer today than you were seven years ago?©
in the latest Gallup daily tracking poll. It gets worse for McCain, a full 50% of female voters beleive that McCain chose Gov. Palin out of political expediency. Only 29% said he had picked her to run in the November 4 elections because he believed she was qualified to be vice president.
The poll also shows Obama's selection of Sen. Biden may pay huge dividends in November, The Democratic ticket is viewed as having more experience than the Republicans, experience being McCain's home turf that is not a bruise that will easily heal.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g10yMHTRWB1ghQ8OLKEKxdHvWiQQ
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13094.html
If things keep up at this rate McCain may end up with a negative convention bump, as Kerry did 4 years ago. We should know by early next week, Palin and McCain's speeches may turn things around, but whatever they do is going to pale in comparison to what happened last Thursday. It would seem as of now the selection of Gov. Palin was a game changer, though not in the way McCain had hoped...
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
I don't agree fully with any of 'em, and mostly, the whole thing over the last few months has become so vacuous and media driven that I'm mostly just amazed by how insane it's been.
Lord, if you're there, please give me one stinkin' local candidate I can believe in and vote for with joy. Cause I'm just not feelin' it for a single second these days.
Question: Do I need to feel something besides utter contempt for the whole process to be a good citizen?
tonight, sounds like the same old party. They want to drown the government in the bathtub.
and I am just like YOU. I am a right wing religious wacko. I am Mini Me bush.
Oh... and don't forget I ran up only a $22,000,000 deficit in my town of Wasilla, but please do forget that we had surpluses.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden 08
I'm sorry. But listening to Palin's speech has me convinced that Obama/Biden are on their way to victory.
Yes, AK is gorgeous, she's a devoted hockey mom, even a governor! blah blah blah. But she's not VP material.
but... my g/f has it on (CSPAN) and I heard part of rudy on the radio. I am still NOT watching it.
These speeches (rudy and palin) and the way the crowd is reacting is soooo high school. These speeches sound like they are coming from people running for class president.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden 08
She's not a joke and if the Obama/Biden campaign agrees with you they're in big trouble. I could go on all night about her distortions and even longer about where I disagree with her but that doesn't make it a bad speech. I suspect that there's a lot of people who live in small towns who were cheering tonight, even if they disagree with her.
She did have the advantage of following the three stooges. The BBC contrasted tonight with last week in Denver saying that this was a very divisive night.
Barry
Are you safer today than you were seven years ago?©
does with this one. :)
Though, I didn't think that she was a joke. I thought she came off as someone reading hit job lines written by someone else. Her timing sucked. The talking points were out of 2003, and my fingers remain crossed that people in this country have grown weary and vigilant of that kind of abusive talk from would-be leaders. A point hammered home by the fact that she followed the Cheshire cat of failure, Rudy Giuliani. How ridiculous was he? Whew!
All in all, a classic red meat GOP hate fest. I think there would have been voluminous boos if that half filled arena were a cross section of actual people, rather than hardcore righties.
Say that the Democratic convention of 2004 was full of hate, when it wasn't? Now they turn there convention into what they said they hate?
haha... sorry... this all sounds so absurd! :)
Barack Obama and Joe Biden 08
unable to evolve and come to understand that that sort of nonsense isn't going to play anymore.
They're not going to be peeling votes with a low class presentation like that. You think you can just be GW with a different hairstyle? It's not going to fly.
But, as expected, it's going to be drill drill drill, taxes taxes taxes, Meecaain gooood, Ohbahmah baaahd, from here until November.
her or the Repub base. They love her. I think you're right -- if O/B thinks this woman is a joke, they're in big trouble. I think they realize she's not.
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
I think it's possible to see her as a joke *and* prepare for the inevitable, drawn-out battle.
The whole damn GOP is a joke these days. Palin is just icing on the urinal cake.
She is really no different then gdub. She has been groomed by the rnc just like gdub was. Her ideas and her actions are the same as gdubs. She is a puppet of the rnc and rove, just like gdub.
She looks for Loyalty in the people she surrounds herself with, capability and competence does not matter as long as you are loyal. ... WHO does that remind you of?
Barack Obama and Joe Biden 08
"Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies." -- Joe Biden 9 3 08
The repubs will "win" by "any means necessary". Even if those means are not legal.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden 08
Obama needs a big win, not a marginal marginal one
"Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies." -- Joe Biden 9 3 08
Republican Women Turn to the Gender Card
By Juliet Eilperin ST. PAUL -- Female Republicans embraced identity politics with gusto today, touting the virtues of presumptive vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and suggesting that any attempts to question her qualifications amounted to blatant sexism.[...]
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/03/republican_women_turn_to_the_g.html
Does this mean Biden won't be allowed to debate her, yathink?
Are you trying to accuse me of something?
It's pretty obvious that they are. Question is, can you say that the Democrats are hypocrites too?
That speech was soooo much better then Barack Obama's speech! Yes!
HAHAHA!!!!!
ok... I am lieing. :)
Barack Obama and Joe Biden 08
Last night in the midst of the mayhem, John responded to a question with an update on what he's been doing on the ground for Dems in Texas and he suggested that those working to get Obama/Biden elected post accounts of what they're doing and how things are going. I'd love for people to update us with their experiences on the ground working for Obama/Biden.
Sybil, how's the voter registration going? Kevin, what's happening on the ground in your neck of the woods? Anyone else?
I must admit that I doubt I'll get actively involved in any campaigns this time around but when I was working to get Wes elected and then JK and then Hillary, I did find the posting accounts of the experiences helped. It helped me and it helped to get others energized.
Poor atdleft posted such a blog about his experiences calling Nevada and was, well, totally ignored even by those who are all jazzed up about Obama's nomination.
So, hopefully, some of you strong Obama supporters can tell us how things are going, yes?
Thanks!
"She hopes to open shadowed eyes on a different world...." Robert Smith, borrowed from Penelope Farmer
is a smirking, smug, hateful woman.
She needs to learn how to use birth control; five is too many, especially for a freak show like her.
Her mind is closed, and narrow. That much is clear. She is a member of the know-nothing party. Our world is at risk from environmental collapse due to overpopulation. She should have stopped at two...or even at one. The Clarks set a fine example in that regard.
She is the greatest threat, in my opinion, this country has faced since the cold war. A Palin presidency, much, much more so than even a McCain presidency would truly be a threat not only to U.S. National Security, but the entire planet.
Our nation, our planet is at risk from this moronic imbecile. Please, do all you can to secure our country and our world.
Obama/Biden 08!
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
It's obvious the GOP ticket is going to go on offense, and I wouldn't underestimate that tactic.
If the public decides Palin has been treated unfairly, they might side with her. If they decide she's an angrey snarkmeister, her attacks could backfire. She is a fresh face, so they may not get tired of her in 60 days. First impressions will win (or lose) the day for her.
The fact that McCain picked her in the first place, and she seems to be the prototypical fire-breathing conservative, tells me this team wants to go into November with guns blazing. But he wanted someone fresh, without too many partisan battle scars.
Let's put it this way--if Palin was a CCN contributor, she'd already be moderated by now.
[blockquote]"Our world is at risk from environmental collapse due to overpopulation. She should have stopped at two...or even at one."[/blockquote]
One could extrapolate that view to extremes...such as forced abortions, forced sterilization, etc. China ring a gong? ;)
Which is why the issue needs to be discussed more openly before the whole world has to make such choices as China has made.
The issue is real. In fact, it's the biggest crises humankind has ever faced. Every other problem...water shortages, food shortages, even global climate change has it's roots in overpopulation.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
We are hard-wired to reproduce, and the fact that people continue to reproduce even in the most grinding poverty, to the point where they put their lives at stake, tells me it would be nearly impossible to enforce any limit on child-bearing.
I read about a couple in India with 3 daughters, but they wanted a son. The woman took fertility drugs and had septuplets--3 more girls, and 4 boys. Then the couple complained about how much it was going to cost to raise them in their 2 bedroom shack. Babies are a multi-billion dollar industry. How do you reason with people like that? A few people will restrain themselves. Too many will not.
I'm convinced that mother nature will rectify things, when overpopulation reduces our quality of life back to the stone age, through disease or lack of resources.
to the extent you note that we are hard-wired to reproduce.
And nature will do SOMETHING about it, but that 'thing,' or one of those 'things,' may be 'man's' tendency to group into tribes, and kill others. And there's also 'western mans' inclination to use his 'brains' to produce ever more sophisticated weapons, as in, 'mass distruction.'
Can't beat mother nature, folks.
I hope that you're finished venting.
I agree that population is an issue but it still takes two to tango and slamming a woman for the number of children she has without even mentioning her husband is totally unfair in my opinion. Going after Palin the way you have is just going to rally people to her side.
Based on her limited experience I agree that she is a risk, but go after based on the facts behind that experience not a string of insulting adjectives.
Barry
Are you safer today than you were seven years ago?©
at your obvious stupidity about why people might have large families. You can slam Palin about many things but your opinion on her family size is just obnoxious.
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
I would have made Paul's cut, I guess...but I too am creeped out and disgusted by the remarks. Gotta love too how only the woman is responsible for the number of kids in a family....like she's plucking them out of thin air or something. Sheesh!
"She hopes to open shadowed eyes on a different world...." Robert Smith, borrowed from Penelope Farmer
I don't see why we shouldn't hold men to the same standard as women when it comes to birth control. I know my hubby had the old snip-snip when we had all the children (two) we wanted.
I suspect Palin's family is large because they both wanted a big family. Not a choice I would make, but one that MANY male politicians have made without criticism, to include a lot of liberal Democrats.
I have never seen why we don't hold them to the same standard
...if the old 'snip-snip' has no appeal?
then maybe abstinence does
edited to add: I'm being 100% facetious here, just to be clear.
"Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies." -- Joe Biden 9 3 08
Too far, Paul Cornett. Too far.
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
see my edit.
She a freak, and she's a threat to this nation and the world.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
but even a passport wouldn't be enough. I could easily see her God-fearing, militaristic moronic mind starting WWIII.
We are facing an election that could determine humanity's future. I'm NOT kidding.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
She didn't write anything in that speech. And the line about the kids and birth control in your comment kinda freaks me out too. But, your thing, so, uh.
anymore than I doubt she believes every word of it.
It's environmentally and therefore morally irresponsible for any woman to have more than two children, period.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
"Nothing is more American; nothing is more patriotic; than speaking out, questioning authority and holding your leaders accountable."
" I think that's the duty of people in democracies, to hold their leaders accountable. It's not unpatriotic, it's the patriotic thing to do."