Sunday, the newspapers and cable networks were full of Palin and Gustav.
Barack and Joe were on 60 Minutes. (A nice, strong joint interview with two men who seem to really like and respect each other.)
John McCain was on NBC Nightly News and, when he was asked about the inexperience of His VP choice, McCain told Brian Williams that “Facts are funny things…..She’s had executive experience as a governor, as mayor, as a city council member and PTA.” (PTA???)
But as we wait for and worry about what will happen when Gustav makes landfall, my pick for the SUNDAY MUST READ is this Op Ed from Sunday’s LA Times.
It’s about the kind of innovative thinking that is necessary—and possible—-if the next president really wants to rescue America’s public education system, rather than just tinker around the edges.
The authors of the Op Ed are an unlikely combo: the Mayor of Newark New Jersey, Cory Booker, a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, John Doerr, and Ted Mitchell the chief executive of NewSchools Venture Fund and president of the California Board of Education.
I’ve pasted a few ‘graphs below, but be sure to read the whole thing.
Today, the shame of our cities isn’t bubonic plague; it’s ignorance. In our urban areas, only one child in five is proficient in reading. On international tests, we rank behind the Czech Republic and Latvia; our high school graduation rate barely makes the top 20 worldwide. As columnist David Brooks has noted, educational progress has been so slow that “America’s lead over its economic rivals has been entirely forfeited.” Under-education may not end lives the way infectious diseases do, but it just as surely wastes them. For all the hard work of our good teachers, our system is failing to keep pace with the demands of a new century.
[SNIP]
We need a new, results-driven mind-set at the Department of Education that will drive pure educational innovation and “scale up” proven experiments and novel ideas that work. The federal government stands in a unique position to meet these needs.
The evidence for making a national commitment to innovation in educationis compelling. Today, many of the most promising solutions are emerging from entrepreneurial organizations that embrace freedom and accountability. Indeed, such social entrepreneurs represent a growing force. They have started nimble, typically nonprofit organizations that work in partnership with creative mayors and school superintendents.
Entrepreneurial charter schools such as KIPP, Uncommon Schools, Aspire, the Inner-City Education Foundation, the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools and Green Dot demonstrate what a single-minded focus on excellence can achieve with low-income students. These public schools, open to all students, are dedicated to the idea that college success and wide career choices must be a reality regardless of the ZIP Code of a child’s birth. And they are proving what’s possible, sending students from the poorest neighborhoods to college at rates typical of far more affluent communities.
To call these solutions a drop in the bucket, as some critics do, is to miss the point. The federal government, through the NIH (and other programs such as the National Science Foundation, the Small Business Administration and the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency), has proved that it can multiply innovations in many fields and spread the most successful ones. Yet, historically, the federal government has constrained its investment in education entrepreneurship to comparatively small, isolated programs, limited efforts in a bureaucracy that resists change. To fix this, there are key steps the next president should take.
For the steps….read ON.
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PS: What the HELL is up the Inglwood PD? (Paging Jacqueline Seabrooks.)
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PPS: PALIN VETTING ALERT: You know how Sarah Palin said a big NO to the Bridge From Nowhere? Well, apparently she, uh, didn’t. (She said yes until way late in the game when the Feds declined to fund the extra money needed for the thing, at which point she pulled the plug. And, oh, yeah, she kept the money for it anyway, and used it for other stuff.) The New York Times , Reuters and others have this story too. But we like it from our NBBFs—new best blog friends—at Mudflats.
UPDATE: Mudflats is pushing the Bristol/pregnancy story in a way that is not kind to this teenage girl. So while I’ll continue to check them, for now they’re off the NBBF list.
(Not that I don’t get that it’s a reporting delimma. It is.)
We need a new, results-driven mind-set at the Department of Education….
What we need is Washington’s hands off of our education system. Restore funding and control to the states and local governments. Pres. Carter established the Department of Education and Pres. Reagan wanted to eliminate it, but you can’t get rid of bureaucratic monsters once entrenched. But, which President made more right decisions and was more successful than the other? Precisely. (Take off fifty points if you said Carter.)
Problems with education are not new, and what you see today has been played out many times within our school systems over the decades. People need history lessons on education before they start proposing changes and spending that have been tried before and failed. To make it simple, keep liberals and unions away from the process, but, unfortunately, the Democrats encourage rather than discourage that.
Concerning a “results-driven” Dept. of Education, Bill Bennett and Rod Paige, former Education Secretaries, allow a key role for the federal government to set standards, as stated within this article with selected paragraphs:
Then, the authors justify this approach to people like me.
Before you start to make any changes, check with me.
Palin’s unmarried daughter is pregnant. Besieged by blog rumors about her 17-year-old daughter, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin  named Friday as running mate of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)  released a statement Monday saying her daughter is pregnant and plans to marry the father. The governor and her husband, Todd, said their daughter, Bristol, plans to keep the baby.
If Obama had pandered to his base and picked someone like Dennis Kucinich, I’m sure you would have gotten a ton of email from the fringe of the Democratic party saying how energized they are and what brilliant pick it was too. Back here in the reality based community, only 39% of the American public thinks that Palin is qualified to be VP, so the lunatics who think that picking Palin (after minimal vetting and only meeting her once) was a good idea, can stamp their feet and scream how brilliant it was until they’re blue in the face, but it isn’t going to change the fact that McCan just threw away the election with his pandering and desperate pick.
Does Palin Pick Mean Bigger Role For Hillary?
Gallup:
8/27 O’bama 45 McCloone 44
8/28 O’bama 48 McCloone 42
8/29 O’bama 49 McCloone 41
8/30 O’bama 49 McCloone 41
8/31 O’bama 48 McCloone 42
Looks like a bounce to me, and this is even AFTER Palin was announced, which should have given McClone a bounce.
Why can’t McClone close the deal?
McCain’s selection of Palin is a huge opportunity for Obama if not squandered. I don’t believe that the Obama team should attack Palin. I think they should force the media’s hand for vetting her, but more importantly they should force a discussion about McCain’s vetting process and the fact that it appears Rove and others forced him into this selection. This is a question of judgement and serious evidence that again that the Roves and Limbaughs will be driving the bus in a McCain administration.
It has been widely reported that McCain wanted Lieberman or several others on the ticket, but was forced by Rove and Limbaugh to pick someone like Palin. This is the same cronyism that drove the Bush Administration and proof again that it is more of the same for the future if elected.
The media has been falsely positioning McCain as a Maverick for his selection if he was a Maverick he would have bucked Rove’s push for him to choose an inexperienced partisan instead of one of his initial choices.
We need to hit hard on this! There needs to be ads.
From the comments following mine above, it’s clear that liberals don’t care about improving education and never benefited from getting a good one.
For those who haven’t spent much time in schools…. Have you ever been to a PTA meeting?
Hey Bert here is how I know she wasn’t vetted. McCain had made up his mind to chose Lieberman. Remember Tuesday/Wednesday night there were reports that he made his selection?
Novak, came out of retirement, wrote a column begging McCain not to pick Lieberman. Rove probably snitched.
Then McCain/Politico wrote an article in which Rove admitted he asked Lieberman to withdraw his name for contention.
And then all of a sudden we get Palin. McCain doesn’t like Romney, who Rove was pushing, and it was out of rebellion that he picked Palin.
That’s my belief.
I have yet to see a positive story about Palin. Every story we read about her record is terrible — she likes to abuse power, she can’t seperate her personal life from her professional life; she makes poor decisions; her husband seems to be a hot-head. She was a champion of the Bridge to Nowhere, before she was against it. She is clueless on all things related to foreign policy. Where are the positive stories?
McCain is going to have to spend all of the $84 million (the limit under campaign finance–which he accepted) on ‘introducing’ her to the electorate (damage control).
Obama will have $250 million to spend on his message and organization.
But it gets worse for McCain. By picking someone who was the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, when he first launched his 2008 Presidential bid, he effectively takes the ‘experience’ argument off of the table. That leaves ‘judgement’ as the only thing he can run on. Not vetting your VP pick is clearly the greatest demonstration of poor judgement.
McCain needed this election to be a referendum on Obama, but instead – with this silly pick – he has made this a referendum on his judgement, and it ain’t looking good.
Nan: I have yet to see a positive story about Palin.
That says quite a bit about your reading list and media bias. You need to get around more.
Woody,
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin was for the so-called infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” before she was against it, a change of position the GOP vice presidential running mate conveniently ignored Saturday when she bragged about telling Congress “thanks but no thanks” to the pork barrel project.
Even Fox news was praising Sen. Obama’s speech and the convention overall. The party had to do something to steal the thunder. That’s the McCain strategy throughout this campaign. No sooner did Obama return from a wildly praised tour of Europe, we were treated to Britney/Paris ad. After Biden is revealed, he goes with the Hillary ad. McCain and his handlers are obsessed with winning the news cycle. All it does is leave Obama unchallenged. McCain should have picked O’s speech apart and tell what he would do different for the American people. Instead he makes a shocking pick of SarahPalin.
How do you vet someone whom McCain has only met once briefly? Spoke to on a cell phone chat while she was at the county fair? On Fox news yesterday, he said Sarah was tough because she stood up to the PTA. Someone else said she stared down the chef at the Gov’s mansion and said she didn’t need the chef, that she could make her own sandwiches.
As mothers we all know that once your water breaks the on set of labor is imminent, and anything can happen. What does Sarah Palin do? She continues to give a 30 minute speech and then flies 11 hours back to Alaska to give birth. You would think she would have taken better precautions since she was aware that her unborn has DS.
I cannot wait for this fraud to be returned to Alaska, near Russia!
Governor Palin: Welcome to national politics, where your universe of political enemies multiplies by a hundred-fold. Are you experienced?
Today’s Gallup Sep 1
Obama 49 McPreggers 43
Comparing Obama’s current 49% support with the 45% he received immediately before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver last week suggests he received a 4-point bounce out of the convention, fairly typical of past convention bounces. Aside from the past few days, Obama has only once previously attained 49% support from national voters, and that was in late July.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/109954/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Maintains-6Point-Lead-49-43.aspx
Let’s get back to hammering away on issues and let the circus resolve itself.
Can any of the GOP trolls tell me any of Sarah Palin’s foreign policy positions or her economic policies?
John McCain’s parents “eloped” and got married at Caesar’s Bar in Tijuana, Mexico; McCain’s grandfather accompanied them.
Not having President Bush or Vice President Cheney appear at the convention is certainly going to be good for the McCain campaign and the GOP. I would imagine that they would have preferred to not have Bush and Cheney appear at all, but the threat of upsetting the radical pro-Bush contingent of the Republican Party was far too much to risk by intentionally not inviting them. The storm is now being used as a convenient excuse to disinvite them, while at the same time providing President Bush and the GOP an opportunity to look presidential in responding to a crisis.
Furthermore, you can rest assured that we’re going to continue to hear about the “heroism” and “selflessness” of the McCain campaign because he is publicly recognizing the fact that there’s a hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast. But since when does doing an ethical thing that has no measurable, negative impact on yourself qualify you as a hero?
Oh God – Palin’s daughter is pregnant. This decision of Palin’s to accept McCain’s entreaty to run as VP was cruel. Putting an unmarried pregnant 17-year old girl in this inevitable spotlight is…I can’t think of a word other than unconscionable. And what the hell was John McCain thinking ? Did they do any vetting ? Did they still decide to run with her ? What kind of people are we dealing with here ?
And what’s up with a family that has one infant and will soon have to take on the responsibility of their unmarried teenage daughter’s child as well and decide to jump into a Presidential campaign and then, if they’re..uh…lucky (?)…end up one heartbeat – and a 72-year old cancer survivor’s heartbeat – from the most difficult, demanding job in the entire world. At best a neophyte pol from nowheresville has to prep for the most difficult demanding job in the world WHILE she cares for a developmentlly challenged infant AND helps her daughter raise an infant. This is totally nuts. And strange.
Rob Eshman of the Jewish Journal/LA has some good words for Palin in his article of yesterday — calls her smart, successful (where did she go to college, anyway? never saw it mentioned, she seems more street-smart), a “crusader for good government, and a fiscal conservative.” She has good relations with the small Alaskan Jewish community, the “frozen chosen.”
Uncertainties: her foreign policy positions on Israel (Obama’s perceived as soft by many, and was booed at a local fundraiser for the town of Sderot, which is regularly shelled by Palestinians) and foreign policy in general.
Negatives: anti-abortion stance, alleged support for Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson, which she and McCain deny. But overall, much more measured than one might expect — many Jews aren’t thrilled with Obama and are more fiscally conservative than the more visible Hollywood/LA contingent, more reflective of the undecideds as a whole.
He wrote this before the teenage daughter, Bristol, came to the public attention, but that wouldn’t materially change his comments. It certainly will be a litmus test for many women, though — whether a teen and her bf forced into a shotgun wedding is like Britney Spears’ family or the Clampetts moving to D.C., or just “real people” who can understand them. Liberal talk show hosts like Bill Maher must be very conflicted — with the Palins, they’ll have no shortage of material.
Police tried to subdue him with a nonlethal “beanbag” round but fired their guns when he reached toward his waistband. The gun turned out to be a replica silver handgun, Garcia said. Police also shot and killed a dog that was with the two men.
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Yes, yes – what the hell is up with the police, they should have known the gun was a just replica, I am sick and tired of cops killing crazy people with replicas of guns. The cops should have played some soothing music or read a book of poems to calm, relax and then question the victim.
This just in from the rightwing American Spectator:
‘Responsibilities of Adulthood’ – Monday, September 01, 2008 @ 1:34:58 PM
Since the McCain campaign has released a statement declaring that 17-year-old Bristol Palin now faces “the responsibilities of adulthood,” might I be so bold as to suggest that they arrange a press conference where Bristol can attempt to address the horrible embarrassment she’s caused her parents?
Excuse my paternal (and political) indignation but I am in no mood for pleas that the media respect anyone’s privacy at this point. I don’t think it an exaggeration to say that this girl (and her boyfriend) have caused a crisis of global significance, and if her parents are serious about “the responsibilities of adulthood,” Bristol ought to face the consequences, including about 45 minutes in front of the klieg lights while reporters shout stupid questions.
It’s not Bristol’s fault her mother was picked as the GOP running mate, but she certainly should have understood how her personal behavior would reflect on her family.
Posted By: Robert Stacy McCain (who is the “culture” editor of The Washington Times.
I want to also ask what the Woody’s – and worse – of this world would be saying about the a hypothetical black family running for highest office if they had a pregnant, unwed teenage daughter. And of course, if it were someone they’ve got such a weak case against as Obama and who’s kicking their guy’s ass, all stops would be out in the gutter network they feed on. Can you imagine the lengths Rush Limabaugh would go in sliming on a black teenage unwed mother on the Dem side ?
Incidentally, just so it’s clear, I posted that American Spectator piece not because I agree with it but because I find it appalling – although less hypocritical than most because of the point I made in the latter part of my comment.
“many Jews aren’t thrilled with Obama” – I can’t vouch for “thrilled” but for the record the recent J-Street poll Obama’s favorable-unfavorable rating among American Jews was 60-34. To put this incontext, Joe Lieberman’s favorable-unfavorable was 37-48. Obama’s ratings were both within one point of American Jews favorable-unfavorable rating of the Democratic party. John McCain’s favorable-unfavorable in this poll ws even worse than Lieberman’s – 34-57.
I didn’t go to college, but I do know enough to value empirical data over vague talking points or my own biases.
“Liberal talk show hosts like Bill Maher must be very conflicted” – if he’s got any class at all he’ll let this lie there without adding his jokes to the fire. I suspect he doesn’t. I’m very curious how Jon Stewart and Colbert deal with this. My bet is they’ll lay off. I could be wrong, but this is something that, as Obama has said, should be left in the personal sphere. To the degree that folks factor the news into their evaluation of McCain’s judgement in this pick and/or what family pressures might be on Palin at this point in her life that make her a less-than-ideal “heartbeat away” choice, let them do that in the confines of their own hearts and minds.
There’s something very weird about this whole thing.
The republican party has not shown a history of embracing the issues that will empower woman or people of color. It makes sense that pollers will question this selection. The republican party has a lot of work to do to change their image.C-SPAN just reported that 94% of the delegates attendting the RNC this week are white and 2% are African America.
Dan Abrams just reported that Sarah Palin has hired a lawyer regarding Troopergate. I wonder if it’s Scooter Libby.
Looks like Gustav has landed feet first on the miracle of McCan’t ’08. Trouble everywhere you look. The trust is coming down fast and hard. Poor Palin, and on top of that Cindy McCan’t in charge of her makeover. God, maybe we should all just sit quietly and sing the Alaskan State Song. Anyone know the tune? Something about mud and bears and oil slicks.
I wonder how long until Palin takes her name off the ticket, citing family interests…. After the widespread baffled-to-skeptical-to-negative reactions toward her selection, the range of negative info that have cropped up in the last couple of days alone, and the distractions they’re causing (despite Gustav), the idea must have occurred to the campaign by now.
Sarah Palin: Thomas Eagleton, the Sequel.
Nice to see all the cultural diversity at the GOP cenvention. I see white people and beige people and ivory people, off-white people…
I’d slurp up some of this Convention KoolAde but my face is pulled so tight that I don’t want to drool on my Chanel suit…
LR, it’s not the individual shooting, it’s four OISs in four months, two of them with the same cop shooting unarmed people. This one is a bit more understandable because of the presence of the toy gun.
All in all, it suggests questionable training.
CBSNews Poll Obama 48 – McCain 40, the bounce continues. This is the first CBS poll after the running mates have been announced. Before the convention and the Palin announcement Obama was up only 3 points in the same poll.
Obama is tied with men at 44% with McBush and now has a whopping 55% – 36% lead with women. Many of us have given proper respect to women saying that they would see through McBush’s cynical choice of Palin. Obama now has more support from Democrats 82% than McBush has with Rethuglicans 81%. Obama maintains his lead with Independents by a 6% margin. Obama has the support of 58% of Clinton voters while McCain’s support has dropped to 22% among this group obviously many Clinton voters are undecided.
Obama’s speech made a major improvement in voters thinking he is tough enough to lead. In the past poll only 48% thought Obama was tough enough but know 58% of voters think he is tough enough.
McCain has made a mistake picking Palin. Biden has a 15% point favorably advantage over Palin.
13% of voters are more likely to vote for Palin while 11% of voters are less likely and only 10% women voters are more likely to vote for Palin.
While 15% of voters are more likely to vote for Biden while only 4% of voters are less likely.
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/Aug08bPostDemConv.pdf
Hey, as long as the Democrats enjoy dragging the children of Republicans through the mud, don’t forget to mention that our current V.P.’s daughter is a lesbian. You folks have such decency.
Van Halen Mad As Hell At McCain Over Song Use… After John McCain used a Van Halen song during his big speech last Friday, the band wants to make to make one thing clear — they’re not running with McCain. Oops! But it’s familiar territory. Just two weeks ago, rocker Jackson Browne was similarly furious about McCain using one his songs.
Jeez what a mess, John McSame is reportedly a big time crap shooter in Vegas but I’d be willing to bet he takes advantage of the odds when placing his bets. Who’s in charge of his campaign and isn’t McSame involved at all in the process?
That hurricane that hit the gulf coast today should be renamed Hurricane Sarah, as Palin blew in from the Gulf (Gulf of Alaska that is), as a possible category 5 howler but was downgraded today to just an “ill wind” for the Repubs,
Will the Republicans in Minnesota, who postponed their convention supposedly because of the Hurricane, have some heads chopped off in the smokefilled backrooms where no doubt some purple faces are screaming “Palin! What next!”.
News and Rumors are flying all over the Internet and have the Republican Spinners in fits trying to hold thier dress’s down and decent in this gale force ill wind.
News, and rumors? All over the place, and unfortunately for the Corporate sponsered Major News outlets the internet is abuzz with more Palin canon fodder, (internet sources scooped the pregnant daughter story last Friday and it wasn’t until today that CBS announced the bombshell),
Rumors that Sarah Palin isn’t the mother but the grandmother of baby Track won’t go away no matter how hard everyone is trying to make nice.
She supposedly started leaking amniotic fluid in Dallas on a Friday, yet took the time to make a speech, drive to the airport, board a plane (Alaska Airlines where a stewardess said she saw and talked to the Governor and saw no evidence she was pregnant or in discomfort) fly for 11 hours with a stop in Seattle, get off the plane, and then drive to her hometown of Wasilla and deliver the baby in a Podunk hospital. Then miracle of miracle she shows up at work on Monday. All this from a 40 something woman.
Now her 16 or 17 year old daughter ends up pregnant (supposedly 5 months along), but will marry the boyfriend in a Daniel Boone ceremony,
(Preacher: now before we get started who’s the man behind the groom with the shotgun?
Daddy: Who the hell do you think I am preacher Daniel Boone!).
And Palin is a vociferous prayer in school, teaching creationism advocate, and a foe of sex education in schools and instead wants sexual abstinence taught.
McSame’s spokesman claim, “John was aware of the situation with the unmarried pregnant daughter all along”, Uh Huh!
Then we hear (on the Internet again) that Palins claim of fighting the famous “Bridge to Nowhere” was baloney and that she only changed her tune, when the publicity hit the fan, so to speak, but she kept the taxpayers money for the boondoggle and spent it on her own pet projects.
Her well known trouble with an internal investigation into her firing a public employee, for not firing a public employee, on her orders, and who happens to be her ex brother in law who was busted himself for illegal Moose hunting and tasering his step son is a soap opera in the works. And today (on the Internet again) news is that she has hired a private attorney to fight the investigation and charges.
And finally, Whew! Its all over the Internet that Palin was a member and supporter of the AIP or the Alaska Independence Party that advocates Alaska secession from the United States.
I’m just wondering what news tomorrow will bring? And I actually feel sorry for old John McSame now because he’s to damned old for all this drama!
My Internet prediction is that when the smoke clears and the GOP convention finally starts, Sarah “the barracuda” Palin will make an announcement that due to family consideration she is withdrawing her candidacy for VP even though Sen McCain was begging her to continue.
Then McSame will kick some ass’s take charge of the clown show and announce that Sen Joe Liebermann will be his VP like he wanted in the first place, and that the far right evangelicals can kiss him where the sun don’t shine.
After all he is a Maverick.
Responding to Internet rumors that Bristol Palin had given birth earlier this year, and that Sarah Palin had claimed the child was her son Trig, the McCain campaign released a statement saying that Bristol Palin is currently pregnant and plans to marry the father.
Conn. delegation attacked in St. Paul,
The Connecticut Republican delegation was assaulted by protestors in St. Paul today, according to the state party.
Over 100 delegates and others from the state were walking up to the security perimeter when they came upon a “a human chain” of protestors meant to block the Republicans, wrote Heath Fahle, executive director of the Connecticut GOP, on the party’s blog.
“Police officers in riot gear quickly converged on the protestors as the delegation attempted to walk through the blockade,” Fahle wrote. “Delegates were shoved and spat upon by the protestors.”
Former Rep. Rob Simmons and others from the delegation had a liquid substance thrown at him, according to Fahle.
The left-wingers in the media are really worried about Gov. Palin, just as the people are here, or they wouldn’t be frantically attacking her. Fair? Hardly, but expected.
Newsbusters
‘Trashing’ of Sarah Palin Moving up the News Food Chain?
Lib Media Meme: Woman’s Place Not in the Veep’s House
ABC: Palin Pregnancy a ‘Damaging Revelation’
MSNBC: ‘Fire-Breather’ Palin ‘Makes Obama Look Like John Adams’
Bloomberg.com: ‘Little-Known Palin May Be Benefit or Bust for McCain’s Campaign’
Laura Bush Worried About Media Sexism Towards Palin
How to Cover Pregnancy Contoversies, MSM-style
John Kerry: Rush Limbaugh Forced McCain to Pick Palin
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell: Only Hillary’s Uneducated Voters will Vote For Sarah Palin
Kroft Cues Up Obama to Agree Palin ‘Has Less Experience than You’
San Jose Mercury News Calls Palin ‘Clearly Unqualified’
Classless Alan Colmes: OMG, the Palins Eloped!
Clift Reveals: In ‘Many Newsrooms’ Palin Greeted by ‘Laughter’
Stooping to Lowest Level: Democratic Claim of Palin’s ‘Faked Pregnancy’ Gaining Steam
**Update: TV’s Alan Colmes Says Palin’s Neglect Caused Down Syndrome Birth Stress!**
**Update #2 Below the Fold- Pregnancy Confirmed**
**Update #3 Below the Fold- Michael Moore and Media Take Notice**
**Update #4- London Times Now Repeats Fake Pregnancy Claim**
**Update #5- CTV News Now Repeats Fake Pregnancy Claim**
Politico Pushes Palin Inexperience Criticism Citing Obama-backing Historians
Campbell Brown Suddenly Concerned Over ‘Lack of Experience’
WaPo’s Obvious Palin-Biden Contrasts on Page 1
No Labels for Liberal Joe Biden, But for Sarah Palin…
It’s 10 AM. A Phone Is Ringing. And Obama Has to Apologize for ‘Hair Trigger’ Response
O’Reilly on MSNBC Graphic: ‘One of the Most Outrageous Things I’ve Seen in My 35 Years of Journalism’ – During coverage of Sarah Palin accepting to be John McCain’s running mate, MSNBC ran a graphic. Under the banner of “BREAKING NEWS,” MSNBC put on the screen, “How many houses does Palin add to the Republican ticket?” Outrageous, indeed.
Cafferty Insults Alaska: ‘State That Has 13 People and Some Caribou’ – “Sarah Palin is in her first term as governor of Alaska, that’s a state that has 13 people and some caribou.”
Stay Classy Daily Kos: Accusations Palin ‘Faked Her Pregnancy’ of Down’s Syndrome baby
CBS & NBC Label Palin ‘Conservative,’ Didn’t Tag Biden as Liberal
MSNBC Introduces Palin As ‘Facing State Investigation’
HuffPost’s Rosen Brushes Off Palin on CNN as Unqualified, Not Like Hillary
Dem Boykin: Palin ‘Affirmative Action’ Pick
CNN’s Roberts Questions Palin’s Commitment to Alaska But Talked Up Hillary in 2003
CNN’s John Roberts: Palin Might Neglect Her Disabled Infant?
Obama’s Hometown Sun-Times on Palin: ‘Little-known’ Gov of ‘Less Than Two Years’
Stephanopoulos Ties Palin to Corrupt Alaska GOP Without Telling Whole Story
Matt Lauer Questions Experience of ‘Staunch Conservative’ Palin
CNN’s Roberts: Palin Too Young and Inexperienced
Hillary Clinton may have shattered 18 million pieced of the glass ceiling, but the media failed to take notice when applying their standards to a conservative.
And, never expect womens’ groups to take up for a woman unless she is certified liberal.
“Delegates were shoved and spat upon by the protestors.â€Â
Well, don’t forget that these “war protesters” were too young to spit on returning Viet Nam vets.
It’s the Woody Woodpecker Show…
He’s pecking it all day long
He pecks a few holes in a tree to see
If a redwood’s really red
And it’s nothing to him, on the tiniest whim
To peck a few holes in your head
That’s the Woody Woodpecker tune
Makes the other woodpeckers swoon
Though it doesn’t make sense to the dull and the dense
That’s the Woody Woodpecker Show
Celeste – you were warned about the multiple personality fool, Sr. Don Quackers from the other blogs. Wait until Don Quackers starts with his AnonyMousa comments.
I hope Don Quacker’s comment entertained him, because I’m sure no one else read it. That really IS why he’s here you know? To achieve some onanistic pleasure and suck up bandwidth like pasta. Ignore/ignore/ignore.
FYI: The multiple ID posts are coming from a different IP, internet provider and city of origin than that of Don Quixote.
reg @ 21, typical a-hole comment that turns off many from the Obots who are as equally hateful to anyone else, even and maybe especially the Hillary supporters. Such tolerance for others’ viewpoints, especially when this poster does nothing BUT speak from his own biases. Because he himself has none, he can’t condemn Palin for her own lack of foreign experience or travel or formal education — and his utter cultural and academic ignorance shows, not least in his insecurity he overcompensates for with polls, statistics, and diatribes.
I’m perfectly aware that most Jews vote Democratic by custom, but my point and Eshman’s is, many more are undecided than usual, many are turned off by Obama’s views on Israel (there’s an ongoing debate going on within the community, with of course, some being anti-Israel and seeing O’s partiality to the Palestinians as a plus) and I was at the Sderot fundraiser where only he was booed, and McCain got the biggest applause of the three. I think Palin’s anti-choice views will lose her more Jewish votes than she gains, but any spike for Obama won’t necessarily be for him personally.
I’m also put off by people who impose their anti- choice views on everyone else and would endeavor to overturn Roe v Wade to force girls back into backrooms or go abroad if they can afford it. (More likely, it would benefit clinics in Mexico and Canada.) Teaching creationism, even side by side with Darwinism, is a disservice to kids and the country by not preparing for careers in science and the real world.
BUT there is just as much bigotry on the other side, as we’re seeing from the blanket coverage of Palin’s granddaughter-to-be on every network — to Obama’s credit, he’s pointed out that he was born to an 18-year old mother who became single soon, and has used that as a positive by forcing them to become tougher. Some commentators, like Campbell Brown on CNN are downright combative arguing with Palin’s spokespeople about Palin’s qualifications, to where it may backfire on the Democrats. The kind of hostility and name-calling we’ve seen from reg, Marc Cooper and others of their ilk reflects so badly on those pretending to “inclusive” values (as long as its theirs) that I’m inclined to root for Palin despite my deep-seated reservations. Overall, a really bad choice: Fools to the left of me, Clowns to the Right, here they come.
Thanks Celeste, as I promised I will not respond to the multiple personality persona, but my sympathy goes out to the person,
donquixotephobia is obviously a serious affliction.
FYI: The multiple ID posts are coming from a different IP, internet provider and city of origin than that of Don Quixote.
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Funny how he has the same politcal views as D.Q. and has deveopled an affinity for Woody. Seems a little suspicious how all the “new” commentors arrived at the same time and had the same show on Mayor Sam’s blog. Of course we had the same “I am innocent plea and won’t respond to comment” at Mayor Sam’s blog before the melt-down of one said shape shifter.
I am not “It’s the Don Quixote Show” because it’s impossible for anyone to login to the Internet with different IP addresses or IP Internet Providers. Just look at my IP address 😉
WBC: “many more (Jews) are undecided than usual”
Provide some empirical evidence of this or shut your nasty little trap.
In fact, you can’t. Obama’s doing as well in polling among Jews as any Democrat. You’re pathological…and mired in some pretty pathetic projection when you characterize me with your hate screeds.
Evidence:
http://staging.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/2008050820080507obamajews.html
Yes, Obama is a couple of points behind where Clinton was in Jewish support versus McCain, but it’s slight – probably within statistical margin of error and not even close to evidence for WBC’s assertions.
But I’m an undeducated idiot who doesn’t go to LA fundraisers, so what the hell would I know. Listen to the insular airhead if you want to know what’s REALLY happening.
I have to admit I’m at a serious disadvantage in debating with someone who pulls shit out of their ass and thinks it’s golden.
ItDQS,
Thanks for the gentle tech lesson. (Arrrggghhhh. I clearly need to ask my son for a little more tutoring.)
I know the IPs can change (as you just showed), and then whatever you did masked the provider and city.
Oh, well.
Anyway, I believe we’ve solved it off line.
Carry on, everybody. There’ll be much rich material to fight about this week.
I’ll be in Montana, but will blog from there.
For what it is worth:
JOHN F. KENNEDY named two Jews to his cabinet – Abraham Ribicoff as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and Arthur Goldberg as Secretary of Labor. Kennedy was the only President for whom a national Jewish Award was named The annual peace award of the Synagogue Council of America was re-named the John F. Kennedy Peace Award after his assassination in 1963
JIMMY CARTER in a number of impassioned speeches, stated his concern for human rights and stressed the right of Russian Jews to emigrate. He is credited with being the person responsible for the Camp David Accords.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH in 1985 as Vice President had played a personal role in ‘Operation Joshua,’ the airlift which brought 10,000 Jews out of Ethiopia directly to resettlement in Israel. Then, again in 1991, when Bush was President, American help played a critical role in ‘Operation Solomon’, the escape of 14,000 more Ethiopian Jews. Most dramatically, Bush got to the U.N. to revoke its 1975 ‘Zionism is Racism’ resolution.
Consider the last two officeholders
BILL CLINTON appointed more Jews to his cabinet than all of the previous presidents combined and put Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, both 1st appointed to the federal bench by Jimmy Carter, on the Supreme Court.
GEORGE W. BUSH is the first president since Herbert Hoover who has no Jews in his cabinet at all and has appointed no Jews to the Federal bench.
Have a safe trip to Montana, Celeste.
I’m surprised that few people care enough to comment about the education issue raised by Celeste.
Woody, as for that article re: education, I stopped taking the three authors seriously soon as they expressed such indignation and shock that the Czech Republic and Latvia were ahead of us academically. Students from the Eastern bloc always have been, at least in the couple decades since I was a student — when they came to my university, or Berkeley/UCLA or anywhere, they expressed surprise that our university students were doing what they’d done in high school “gymnasium” for maths, sciences in particular. We’re also way surpassed by Singapore and many countries, where discipline, emphasis on schooling and a homogenous population/language are the norm. These authors seem to think that because we’re “the richest country in the world” (something that isn’t true any more if you consider standard of living) we should have the best-educated kids: just goes to show that more money alone doesn’t translate into quality.
One thing that the education issue doesn’t cover is the results of our “complete system” for the long-term success of students. I’ll give the chances for job success to one of our students in America over one of their students in their lands.
We allow choices and provide opportunities, and people learn best the things that interest them and will carry those teachings through life–standardized tests notwithstanding. We don’t focus entirely on one measure for success and turn our students into robotic or ant-like workers, as in many of the “successful” countries.
Our education could be better, but, WBC, you’re right that the comparisons in the article are not significant or new revelations. They are hand-picked and don’t mean a lot for life’s goals. But, I could agree to dropping more useless courses like feminist studies.