Fears, lies and video...

The news is so hard to watch these days. They keep telling us we are hammering too much trying to find out about the potential VP Sarah Palin. Isn't that what we're supposed to do. We've spent the last 19 months hammering Obama on things like his Rev. Wright, his wife, his policies, etc. Why wouldn't we want to find out about her and whether or not she is being honest about things. She's new... no one knows anything about her. Would they rather we all just elected someone whom we didn't even care what they've done or believe or where they come from (oh wait... they might).

I'm sick now, so I was up pretty late last night. Late enough to watch the amazing coverage about her "homecoming" to Alaska. Interestingly, since she's been in a vacuum since announced, she was finally going to be out on her own. It may be one of the only times, as they've announced that since she is bringing so many people to see McCain, they will likely just keep her with him. They also acknowledged that would mean she wouldn't be very available for other outside interviews. I think we have a good idea why that might be. I've suspected that if they put her in front of news media that are live and unscripted, she may not be able to do the same attacking of personal issues without having to answer a few policy questions about the things she's been saying about herself. I felt that even more last night when she did her "speech" at her homecoming. She asked for teleprompters for that. Seemed strange as she's given nearly the same speech on the stump for several weeks now. It was a bit different though as she didn't say a couple of things that she's been fond of saying elsewhere. She didn't mention that plane that sold on e-bay (for a profit claimed McCain). It actually sold for a loss and not on ebay. But more obvious is she never mentioned, for the first time since we were introduced to her, that bridge to nowhere that she stopped. Probably because the Alaskans know that line is completely false... and that they've been still using the money they got for it to build the access road for the bridge that won't be built (along with other things). As for the pipeline that she "'got done". There was a great article about it in the paper today... a good read... but basically says that the paper work needs to be done "by the end of 2011" and work won't start until then. There are also considerable "if's" as to whether it will even be built because the Oil Company she chose wants a $500 billion match of their funds, by the State of Alaska, and now some Alaskan government doesn't think that's a good idea (sarah agreed to it previously) This project that she "got done" isn't even in the beginning stages yet, and may never be.

Well, she is giving an interview today to the ABC news channel. I don't think it's live and I'm pretty sure it was set up with "conditions" as many taped interviews are (and with editing). We may also see the deployment of her son to Iraq today (even though we should leave her family out of everything). I watched Glen Beck last night. He used to be much more impartial before they announced her as running mate. Now it's kind of a love fest (they do share alot in common though). He asked his panelists last night why they would put her interview on a Thursday night, knowing that apparently in the media Thursdays and Fridays are typically for topics not so important as many people don't watch. He truely didn't get why it would be done today. Other people had to say that it was because it was 9/11 and her son was deploying, and that it was brilliant timing on the republicans part. (see note below about why I feel more sorry for the victims of 9/11)

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/us/politics/11pipeline.html?th&emc=th

But this is fun too: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/03d0f10a32

Having said all of this, I do have the right to know, and I make it my business to really pay attention to what all of the candidates are about. If I didn't, I have no business going into that voting booth in November to vote for anyone.

Sadly, it's 9/11 today and I fear that it will, yet again, only serve as a reminder to the current administration to be sure that we are out there being scared so that they can make us all vote for the "only ones that can save them from terrorists". When will the fear mongering stop! Let's all start being a bit more hopeful in years to come. It would make everyone so much happier than being constantly reminded of how we are going to be attacked again. I'm sure we'll hear that old message throughout this day of remembrance. I am beginning to feel even sorrier for the families that lost someone on that day. Not only did they loose someone, but they are being used because of it.

you decide...

Maybe one of the best articles about Palin. Facts and you get to decide them as you want, with no spin.

more fact checks... they just keep on coming...

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/gop_convention_spin_part_ii.html

keep the kids out of it

Here's a really sad notion... CBS was interviewing one of McCain's campaign officials to see how this was effecting his campaign and the woman said that even though Obama came out with the statement he did to tell people to stay away from Palin's family, that the democrats are going to have to answer to why they spread such vicious rumors and hate mongering on the democratic blogs. As if the democratic party itself was to blame for the stories that are out there. And just for kicks, I actually visited the FOX news article on this and read the posts. The great Republican Christian right people were using language on some of those posts that I wouldn't use to slam anyone who had any opinion at all about it... as if any voter had no right to have an opinion good or bad. This is going to get ugly real fast if they hammer Obama on this during the campaign after he told people to lay off the family.

I do have some other comment on the story as a whole though.

After the Bill Clinton affair, he himself was blamed for the teenagers in our country changing their attitudes about oral sex. Oral sex was somehow ok with all kids and the excuse that most adults gave for the change of those attitudes was "the President did it and made it acceptable for them". Will we now hear the argument that more teens will become pregnant because "well, the VPs daughter did it" if she should win. I'm guessing no, because that will be somehow different. Don't get me wrong, I feel really sad for Bristol and wish her all the best in trying to raise this child with her fathers help (mom will be kind of busy). But, she's young and her moms choice to accept this nomination knowing that this would come out, has put that girls every more into the spotlight. And for what... so an agenda can be furthered. As a mother, I would be very supportive of my daughter too, but I wouldn't put her in the world spotlight on top of it. I'm a working mom too, but my kids and their feelings and well being would always come first. I don't believe, like others are saying, that the fact that she is pregnant is her moms fault as kids will do what they want no matter what you bring them up to believe. But it was a poor decision to put the girl thru this at this level after the fact.

They also keep making the point that its so great that she's choosing to keep this baby. However, it is that same choice they want to take away from everyone else. I don't think they are even listening to what they are saying. I would never, nor would I want my kids to ever abort a baby, it isn't about that, it's about the choices they want to keep taking away from everyone. If that daughter had the choice to make, why shouldn't everyone get that same choice. Or better yet, if Palin wasn't so anti-sex education, their wouldn't have had to be a choice to begin with. We cannot stop kids from having sex simply because we or God tells them not to, that has been proven over and over again. I don't believe sex-education means "great now you can go and do it" and I don't think the majority of our teens are that stupid either. They obviously still do it and this whole "no sex-education, abstenence only policies" just keep getting proven ineffective over and over again.

I believe the daughter should be off-limits in all of this, but the policies will not be... especially during a campaign season. That in itself will keep this girl in particular in the spotlight... and her mom should have been smart enough to know that and taken it into consideration before running for office like this. As I said, I feel bad for Bristol...for many many reasons.

fact check

So here is some of the examples of the fact check... for those than only ever listen to speeches and believe what they hear is fact.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

GOP Performance

Today, I have a couple of firsts in my life. The first one is that I'm not going to "comment" on a blog, I'm actually going to write one.

The second is that, yes "for the first time in my life", I'm actually ashamed to be a woman that might get attached to last night's disgusting display at the Republican National Convention. I, like everyone else, started a path of trying to get to know who Sarah Palin was when she was the surprising pick by John McCain for the VP of the United States. Immediately, my reaction was, "He picked a women and it was a ploy to get Hillary voters." Having thought that, I was still willing to give her a chance to show why he picked her. Unfortunately, I still haven't figured that part out yet. I, like many others, am willing to leave everything personally about her pregnant teenage daughter out of my mind, as kids are off limits (and I'm not dumb enough to think it couldn't happen in my family). But the mother's policy making ideals and judgments, even about her raising her family, are not off the table. They will determine what policies she goes after if elected.

From what we've learned, she doesn't believe in birth control, sex-education, pro-choice, etc. If she had believed in the first two of those things, we wouldn't really have to discuss the third one or her views on it quite yet. But since we do have to discuss it in America far too often, isn't the Pro-Life movement about more than just abortion? Shouldn't it also be about the choices you make for ALL lives? If so, then why personally, did she choose to put her baby Trig's life in potential jeopardy while in labor with him and get on a plane, fly as long as she did, pass by very reputable hospitals, just to get home? This, after all, was a high risk pregnancy for a couple of reasons... first, she knew it was a challenged baby, and second, her age alone puts her in that category. That decision does speak to judgment in my point of view, and one that should be on the table for debate. And then, politically, pro-life should also be about the death penalty as well. After all, even President Bush said that he would always come out on the side of life (well, with that one exception of the death penalty law).

On top of that, we've learned that both her pregnant daughter and her soon-to-be husband have both dropped out of school. Now I know that Sarah being the mother of a 17 year old, can't tell her not to drop out (any more than she could tell her to not have sex). But, wouldn't she try to counsel her that it would be in the baby's best interest to have parents that are at least high school graduates.

All this could be left aside if it wasn't for the fact that John McCain brought her on to the national stage and introduced her as a great mother with great judgment and practically the second coming of Jesus (if you listen to the extreme Christian right of the party). And that brings me to why I am so ashamed and embarrassed at the thought of being lumped with a woman like I saw on TV last night. She spent much of her speech being that "pit bull in lipstick" that she referred to as the hockey moms. She was demeaning, sarcastic and downright nasty with so many personal attacks to the opposite side, that I almost had to turn it off. The hypocrisy of the Republican party based on good Christians values was repulsive. Isn't that the same group that is supposed to love everyone and treat people as they want to be treated? Aren't they supposed to be the party that is based on What Would Jesus Do? Well, I know as a Christian, that Jesus wouldn't have done what she or any of the other speakers did last night. It was personal for them last night. I wish everyone watching those speeches last night, would also watch the fact-check sessions today to hear the real facts about the very few discussion points about policy that came out. But not to worry.. there weren't many of those. The whole evening was devoted to slams. On the plus side for her... she wasn't the only one I was disappointed in. You see, I once thought Mitt Romney would be the best choice the Republicans had to win, but even his own party decided he wasn't good enough. I decided that last night for myself as well. Huckabee... another slamming Christian that got rousing applause each and every time he slammed. And as for Rudy... I can't even go there. He was just not even worth my typing ability.

At any rate, there is one thing I can say the Republicans did well last night... even masterfully. Their strategy in this speech made a pit bull out of Sarah, and it played perfectly to their notion that no matter what any Democrat says about her today... they can scream sexism. And yes... it's already happened. It happened immediately after when Harry Reid said her speech was "shrill and sarcastic". The women commentators even said as woman that was a bad word to use. However, as a woman who won't vote for someone simply because they are one too, he was spot on in that assessment. Of course you couldn't call a man's speech shrill, but that was what it sounded like to me too. I'm just not the kind of dumb woman that they were hoping would fall for this speech.

I happen to think that after last night, it's a sad day for women... not a good one. If any other woman, in any aspect of her life, acted as our potential VP did last night, she'd be called far worse than shrill and sarcastic... and has been many times. So if she can act like this, why can't we say the same about her?

When this campaign season started, I was actually saying that if McCain got in the race, I could almost see me voting for him. That was before he did a complete 180 so that he could play to the base. I was a bit lukewarm on Obama, but knew I would vote for him over McCain. Now, after having watched both party's conventions (and even before watching McCain tonight), I'm way more aligned with the Obama camp. He tried to inspire people, while the RNC just tried to tear him down. I've had enough of the hypocrisy.