We old-line campaigners and politicos watched with great interest the news of Sen. John McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice president ticket-mate. McCain’s choice offers glimpses of what is going on inside McCain’s campaign, and McCain’s head.
Python's Michael Palin and friend
Here are the top 10 reasons McCain chose Sarah Palin, in count-down order:
10. Michael Palin is not a U.S. citizen, it turns out.
9. Those pesky science fans will shut up and stop clamoring for a science debate, just to avoid hearing one more fool claim that intelligent design deserves time in classes.
8. Thought she was Nana Mouskouri.
Nana Mouskouri
7. Hillary already pledged to support Obama.
Buy your mukluks at MuklukStore.com
6. Two words: Mukluk.
5. Didn’t want to risk getting a religious nut, so Mitt Romney was out.
4. Harriett Myers was unavailable.
3. Impressed by the education plank in her campaign for mayor of Wassila, Alaska.
"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition" - Michael Palin models the robe Sarah Palin will be asked to wear, with Terry Jones, Carol Cleveland and Terry Gilliam - Monty Python publicity image
2. She didn’t object to wearing Michael Palin’s gown during government investigations of non-fundamentalist Christians.
. . . and the number one reason . . .
1. Britney Spears turned him down.
Britney Spears in 2003. U.S. Navy photo (no kidding)
Your turn: Surely there are other, better reasons. Tell us what they are in comments.
________
Update: Serious commentary on Gov. Palin’s qualifications, here.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
To quote:
I think that if you compare tax rates among nations, you’ll find the U.S.A. among the lowest tax rates
And yet the United States economy was doing perfectly fine when tax rates on the rich and businesses were far higher.
So you might want to consider the real reason that you Republicans keep on preaching lower taxes….that is to make the rich as rich as possible and screw the rest of us over in the process.
Your party simply no longer gives a damn about average americans
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Actually, Den, Obama has a very impressive list of economists supporting his candidacy, a list which includes Robert Rubin, Laura Tyson, Gene Sperling, Paul Volcker, and Robert Reich, among others.
http://econ4obama.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-economic-advisors-and-economic.html
I think that if you compare tax rates among nations, you’ll find the U.S.A. among the lowest tax rates, especially among developed nations; here’s one such comparison:
http://www.worldwide-tax.com/index.asp#partthree
European taxes will have to come way down to equal the U.S.’s low rates. If there is a proposal to do that, I can’t find it (point the way if you know of such a proposal, please).
It’s nice that you’ve been able to save a year’s income. What will you do for the second year of unemployment? Many of us in your position never thought it would be possible to exhaust such vast resources. Live and learn.
What has either candidate promised anyone, that people don’t have to earn?
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What is truly sad here is no the mis-represented facts or the complete lies (told by both sides) but, that the real issues are not being addressed. Any real economist with out political ties will tell you that while neither candidates plans are great that Obama’s plans to increase taxes on those making over $250,000 will absolutely hurt the economy. Out of every major country in the world only Japan taxes it’s citizens at a higher rate than the U.S. And virtually every European Country is lowering taxes…for all of you who are so sure that the rest of the world does it better than us why haven’t you thrown this piece of information into play. The biggest problem with the U.S. today is the economy and the number one contributer to the economy is the inability of the average American citizen to save any money chossing instead to go into debt for houses, cares, clothes, etc. that are way nicer than they need followed closely by the U.S. governments inability to curb spending on useless stuff (and I am not talking about Iraq…5 times the daily expenditures in Iraq is being squandered on useless government programs every day.) People need to take responsibility for themselves. If you choose to live in a nicer house than you can afford then don’t llok to me to help you out or pay your insurance. I have never carried a balance on a credit card, my wife stays home with our son until he starts school. We live in a house that we can afford (one one income…not two) We drive nice moderately priced cars for many years that we pay off early. We borrow money for a house and one car at a time…nothing else. We live close too work we watch what we spend we save, we invest, we paid for our educations…everything on our own. WE live within our means and we expect nothing from anybody but, ourselves. If I lost my job tomorrow we could get by for nearly a year with no other source of income. We are in our mid-thirties and we have put ourselves in this position through careful budgeting since before we even knew each other let alone got married.
Vote for a President that will do what’s right not for the one who promises to give you everything so you don’t have to earn it. Who cares what his or her position is on abortion. It is a supreme court decision that the President can only influence by appointing justices…justices that must be approved by congress. I’m not even going to go into all the other issues. People need to do the work and find out the truth about issues and candidates. Blogs and media are not good sources of fair or unbiased facts. Do the work…find out for yourself. Just because somebody e-mails it to you or posts it on a website doesn’t make it fact.
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If you’ll notice, I said “more responsible”.
The Fed, of course, has exponentially more influence than any elected position, and it’s not even a government operated organization. I think you’ll agree with me that tax burden is a major player as well. (Congress, of course)
I admit to making an unreasonable assumption about you, though. Your curriculum could be a perfectly neutral for all I know. Kudos to you if it is. That’s quite a rarity today. The hasty personification was unfair.
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That’s like asking who is responsible for the designated hitter rule, the Pope or the King of Denmark?
You’ve never heard of the Federal Reserve Bank, the New York Stock Exchange, or Main Street? Did you ever take a class in economics?
Also, you demonstrate that you have no clue about what I teach. I hadn’t thought you did, but you’ve confirmed it now.
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Requesting left-wing political cartoons so you can show them to your class? Implicating the Clinton administration for the economic prosperity of the 90’s. I only hope they read their text books, and see through this fallacy.
Who is more responsible for the economy, Mr. Darrell? Congress or the President? Just curious…
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Ed…It’s how many days Obama went to work, not how many days he was a Senator.
I never said I was a fan of McCain, or his personal life. Are you a Ted Kennedy fan?
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What do you know about my curricula, Canis? Nothing, it appears.
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Ed, stop feeding your students your kool-aid induced stupidity. It’s not education when you’re feeding them contrived bull—-.
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Here’s the skinny, from the site you listed for us:
365 X 2 = 730; 730 + 7 = 737
737/143 = 5.15
So it’s a lie, understating Obama’s real service more than 5 times.
That’s the sort of chiseling that convinces me the entire Republican Party is too dishonest to run the government honestly starting with McCain. (Notice the figures come from Republican “strategist” Sherry Jacobus.)
It’s all politics. McCain, who darkens the doors of churches only when seeking votes from parishoners, is regarded as a good and godly man despite his record of marital infidelity, drinking and carousing, and loss of government property on screwing up. Obama’s fidelity, outstanding fatherhood, and constant work to actually help people doesn’t count, for some odd reason. Or more likely, for some foul reason.
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That’s like counting preacher hours. You know, “preachers only work a couple hours a week, on Sunday mornings.”
Senators typically put in 12 to 16 hour days. Those running for president probably come closer to 18 hour days. 7 days a week.
It’s fun to calculate only the hours in session, but that doesn’t count hours in committee, hours spent doing the real work of senators in constituent relations, hours spent meeting with executive branch officials, nor does it count any hours spent in the home state.
If you’re willing to confess that all preachers put in only about 100 hours a year, Joe, I’ll take those calculations about Obama at face value. Otherwise, I think it’s a chiseling, cheating calculation that counts on gullibility and unfamiliarity with the work of the office. I note, for example, that those sites that claim Obama has only 143 days universally claim McCain has 22 years. Why do we count all of McCain’s minutes, but only Obama’s minutes when the Senate is in session?
If we counted McCain’s service the same way, we’d note that he has only about 600 days of service, total, less than two years. What was he doing the other 20 years? Since we know McCain fooled around on his first wife, what should we think his idle hands were doing all those years?
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Another source, one lone web site, says that Obama’s experience before running for President was as high as 225, but that number is the number of times the Senate met. So, as near as I can figure, the 143 is the actual days he was there working, not the days that the Senate was in session. But to be fair, I thought I’d post it and try and be balanced here.
associatedcontent.com/article/832119/is_is_true_that_barack_obama_only_has.html?cat=9ys!
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Ed,
To clarify, the days are tallied as actual work days in those “going on four years”, that Obama has actually logged before running for president. Actually, it was only 143 days of work that he worked before announcing his campaign. If he actually worked 8 hours a day, that’s over 1,100 hours of experience in the Senate. That’s 27.5 weeks of 8 hour, 5 day work weeks (which congress doesn’t do of course). Wow…impressive.
The problem here is that you’re knocking the #2’s experience saying that she isn’t ready IF she has to step in, IF something happens to #1. Obama has to step in on day #1 as #1, with similar, if not weaker experience than the Republicans #2. You’re having to even count his campaigning experience to try and puff the guy’s resume up a little bit. Beating out other canidates (especially Hillary) is admirable, but it doesn’t make someone ready for a job.
If you’re hiring a football coach, one thing you are looking at is a canidate’s experience. You’re not looking at the assistant coach that he is grooming (who hypothetically may have to take over if something happens to the head coach), who has the same amount of experience as the other canidate for head coach. What sense does it make for Obama to criticize someone who is running for an assistant coach position, who has similiar quantities of experience as he does, while he is running for the head coach position? Shouldn’t he be attempting to show why he would make a better head coach than McCain, not why McCain’s assistant isn’t ready “just in case?” Shouldn’t he be giving the case why even though he doesn’t have the same amounts of experience as McCain, where he will take America, why he will take America there, and how it will help. He’s not doing that – he’s busy criticizing the nominee for assistant coach. Again, keep it up guys! You’re helping the Republicans, and I appreciate it. :-)
I’m all for giving a guy with little experience a chance. My church gave me a chance even though this is my first pastorate. But, I had a life-time of experience preparing for the position. If I had done virtually nothing for the Lord, didn’t know much on how to preach, teach, counsel, or lead, they never would have considered me ready for the position. Above that, they looked at my positions and stands and considered me based on my beliefs, which we should do with Obama. That’s really where he loses my vote, because he refuses to answer those hard questions. Frankly, it’s good for Obama that he doesn’t have a huge track record, because if he did, it would be a landslide victory for McCain. What track record he does have is scary.
Again to illustrate, he blocked BAIPA (barring doctors from throwing babies who survived abortion into soiled linen closets to die) from even getting a vote 3 times in Illinois. (Maybe it would have been a mistake if he did it once, but he did it 3x!) Right after he left for the Senate, it easily passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. His only defense was that he was protecting Roe v. Wade. This guy makes Hillary look like a great head coach! At least she had some experience under her belt and it would have been a race on policy, not experience.
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You’re probably no less qualified than she.
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Last time I checked a year had 365.25 days in it. Obama’s been a senator going into his fourth year. Surely you took that figure from someone else, and didn’t count the days yourself.
A community organizer in Chicago has executive authority over a greater group of people than Wasilla, Alaska — often with influence to a million or more people. That’s more than all of Alaska. Obama is the key leader in a $200 million campaign that knocked off the favored candidate. He’s collected 18 million votes, the most ever for a candidate for president prior to the general election. His leadership of the Harvard Law Review is one of the top three or four dozen executive positions coveted in the nation.
It’s true that Obama has never unduly influenced the highway patrol in a possibly illegal fashion, and it’s true that he’s never given a half-billion dollar contract away to foreign competitors of U.S. companies, moving thousands of jobs out of the country. Not doing those things may be more important than the doing of them.
Palin’s been governor of one of America’s tiniest states for barely two years. Nothing else on her resume suggests she’s even qualified for the job.
Which is why she should be allowed to hide on policy issues. Just because she’s got so little experience, why should she be shielded from the usual scrutiny a candidate gets? If she can’t answer the questions American citizens ask, she doesn’t deserve the job. If she won’t answer them, that’s no better than can’t.
The Annenberg Project is a foundation that provides millions of dollars to produce video that is useful for policy discussions, and for use in schools. It’s a top-notch foundation dedicated to improving the U.S. Here, read about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annenberg_Foundation
Those who are unable to figure out how to use computers are going to Palin in droves, I hear. Why?
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The book banning is an interesting comment. She did inquire about what would happen if books were banned. But I think it is funny about the list that is posted. She asked the question in 1996 when she took office. But we have at least four books that I can see right off the bat that were NOT even published in 1996. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in 1997, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was published in 1998, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was in 1999 and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published in 2000.
So if these are in correct I would have to discount the whole list as more propaganda. How about the politicians in this race start talking about the things that will effect us as citizens. Not whether the VP will attempt to ban books. I think that the VP might be a little busy for that. How about we talk about the fact that the national deficit is in the trillions of dollars and need someone to fix it. How about we need Osama Bin Laden brought to justice. How about we need to do something about $4.50 a gallon gas until we can find an alternate source of fuel, if that means we drill off of the coast or somewhere else O.K., pull the trigger already. How about we lower my freakin taxes so I can afford the gas so I can still go to work. Send the aliens back home and make some of the people suckin off of welfare go out and get jobs.
All this makes sense to me. But who am I, I am just a middle class American living in small town America. Sounds a little bit like Sarah Palin, the more I talk the more I like her. Maybe her and McCain need to switch places. She at least has had to make executive decisions. Barrack Hussein Obama has a total of 147 days of national political resume to speak of and most of it has been spent running for president. He has questionable at best associations, and what is this Annenburg Project thingy that is sealed up in the Public Library in Chicago? I think I’ll vote for Palin this year, too bad I have to take McCain with her. LOL
PEACE
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she not a socialist!!!!
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No wonder there are so many RUMORS. People make up stuff or don’t research – which makes them sound silly and ridiculous. Here is site that says that book RUMOR…is a RUMOR!
http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp
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Brendan, can you tell us where you got that list? I spent some time looking around for a list of books Palin asked to be taken off the shelves. I spoke with the American Library Association, for example, and they said they have no record of any formal request made in Wasilla in that time period. I understand from other sources that the librarian at the time did not offer such a list.
I also note that you list the Harry Potter books, but of course they had not been published by that time, so they clearly do not belong there.
In short, I think you’ve got a list that cannot be verified as being a list of books Palin asked to come off the shelves. Got a citation for where we can corroborate the list?
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RE: Governor’s habitation.
Money for Nothing in the Palin Administration. – http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/money-for-nothing-in-the-palin-administration/
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Palin pro-education? If pro-education is asking a librarian to ban all these books from its shelves:
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (most un-Christian ultra-violence not in the cause of Christian warriors)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (not sure why but I know a bannable book when I see it!)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (”N”-word and disrespectful to Confederacy)
The Bastard by John Jakes (its naughty title an attack on the idea of childbirth only after holy wedlock — did you hear that, Bristol???)
Blubber by Judy Blume (general naughtiness, faintly salacious title)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (utopianism and socialism)
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (unwholesome fantasy)
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer (classic smut, or smoote, if you will; un-Christian depiction of female sexual desire)
Carrie by Stephen King (Christian girls shouldn’t know about menstruation)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (mocks the military; disrespectful of God’s calling to kill enemies, both foreign & domestic)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (promotion of morbid individualism, lack of respect for caring, nurturing parents and teachers)
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (subversion of Christian fund-raising endeavors)
Christine by Stephen King (disrespectful of classic Detroit automobiles and sacred MADE IN USA in a Saipan Sweatshop” ethos)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (attack on fundamental values keeping a Christian home and society together by well-known socialist)
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Christian children shouldn’t be exposed to masturbating Utopians who are ur-Communists)
Cujo by Stephen King (disrespectful of dogs, a Christian man’s best friend)
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen (black magick!)
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite (promotion of faggotry)
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck (disrespectful of Christian values in denigrating “the other white meat”; promotion of un-Christian vegetarianism, which is particularly distasteful in gun ‘n huntin’ happy Alaska where Sarah Palin rules as Diana, Mistress of the Hunt)
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (mocking the American Dream and Protestant Work ethic; NOTE: Marilyn Monroe’s commie-symp non-Christian ex-husband defied the House Un-American Activities Committee which was doing God’s own work by attempting to clean out the Hollywood pig sty)
Decameron by Boccaccio (classic filth, or fylthe if you will)
The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth (provides comfort to Lucifer, the Son of the Morning Star, the Enemy of the One True God)
East of Eden by John Steinbeck (teenage rebellion, unauthorized interpretation of Book of Genesis, written by commie-symp)
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers (disrespectful of God’s chosen agents of change)
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland (Dirty Book, or “D.B.” if you will — Along with Lady Chatterly’s Lover and Tropic of Cancer, this is the granddaddy of all D.B.s!)
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs (”figure” is a word that can be used for naughty ends to promote naughty minds)
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes (debases belief in miracles)
Forever by Judy Blume (smut for teenagers)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (witches brew of socialism and smut; promotes cruelty to animals, specifically, our terrapin friends)
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
Grendel by John Gardner (bad language, disrespectful of classic Nordic literature no one has ever read)
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (attack on author’s Christian fundamentalist betters)
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam (pagan evil)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (see above)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (ditto)
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (ditto)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (ditto)
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman (lesbian crap responsible for rising popularity of Ellen on boob tube)
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell (promotion of unsanitary eating habits)
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens mocked Christianity as the one true religion)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (unacceptable indictment of white Christian paternalism towards our benighted dark brothers and sisters, one with us in Christ)
Impressions edited by Jack Booth (unknown, but author does share surname with authentic Confederate, er, American hero who fought tyranny!)
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (promotes un-Christian eating habits)
It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein (author is suspected to be non-Christian)
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (offended Georgia fruit lobby)
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence (D.B., see note Fanny Hill)
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (unwholesome gay propaganda wholly injurious to young, developing Christian minds)
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
The Living Bible by William C. Bower (undermines the literal Word of God!)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (see Note for It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me)
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein (ditto)
Lysistrata by Aristophanes (it’s a Greek thing and therefore unwholesome and un-Christian)
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (undermines the Christian ideal of the sanctity of a contract no matter who is party to the deal; on the other hand, it does feature a conversion to Christ)
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz (subversive)
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James L incoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara (Papist pagan horse-worship by author with allegiance to anti-Christ in Rome)
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman (kiddie porn!)
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (supports euthanasia for both man and beast)
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (not quite sure about this one but obviously, if the say it should be banned, I’m for banning it!)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (although its revelation of the Wall St.-money Easterners dominated “Combine” is appreciated, Kesey subverts American values by supporting euthanasia and offending the American Medical Association by an oblique attack on the medical profession via Big Nurse)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (commie-symp trash)
Ordinary People by Judith Guest (glamorizes suicide and teenage lust!
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Collective (pornography)
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy (any book “good enough” for Barbra Streisand is good enough to be banned!)
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl (filth)
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders (the “S” word)
Separate Peace by John Knowles (glamorization of Eastern Establishment that is in league with communist Russia)
The Shining by Stephen King (promotion of un-Christian spiritual values such as telepathy; promotion of unhealthy disrespect for paternal figures; historical revisionism — someone told me that the book was an indictment of Christian America’s treatment of the pagan red Indian)
Silas Marner by George Eliot (undermines notions of Christian thrift and industry)
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (mocks good Christian warriors and the Good War)
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (attack on Christian values)
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume (D.B. writer targeting teens)
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (undermines Christian values by questioning the “peculiar” order of things in the South, possibly ghost-written by notorious homosexual)
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (celebration of pagan values by cross-dressing English fairycake)
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff (motherload of dirty words)
The Witches by Roald Dahl (Roald Dahl has a naughty mind!)
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth (primer for pagans)
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… and the number one reason (drumroll, please) is that she’s a soccer mom- they’re like pitbulls with lipstick! oh, please. can you see me rolling my eyes in disgust? or how about, because one nut job deserves another. she makes mccain sound sane. i’d sleep a lot easier if michael palin were running for second in command. at least he’s logical.
we’ll all be wearing burqas and pledging our chastity to our daddies in a creepy wedding-like ceremony pretty soon if this chick gets into power. where’s copernicus when you need him? it only took the church 500 years to forgive this sick bastard for daring to come up with some scientific theories about astronomy. bad copernicus
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Wasilla is a suburb of Anchorage, approximately 6500 people, 1 major/manager, 6 council members, incorporated in 1974, just under 8,500 acres according to its official website
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The Governor doesn’t live in the state capitol. She lives several hundred miles away.
Where is… Wasilla (Gov. Sarah Palin’s residence)
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There is only one Fox News reason for choosing Sarah Palin: vivaciousness.
McCain’s reason: He chose not to take advantage of Barack’s youth and inexperience and believes he has now leveled the playing field between them by choosing Palin.
And note to others, in good weather Sarah Palin walks to work from the governor’s house she lives in. See Blip TV for walking interview complete with premium coffee in hand. No Jetta in sight.
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Good list — who should get credit for writing that one?
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Top 10 Reasons John McCain Picked Sarah Palin
10. Meets the ‘knows how to split wood’ criteria
9. Say’s she’s willing to attend the funerals of third world dictators if the Lord decides to create a second and third world
8. Shows that he understands global warming: Alaska will be the new Florida
7. Likes the idea of ‘Nurse’ Sarah checking on his health every day
6. One-ups Bush: she’s the governor of America’s largest state
5. Energizes often neglected ‘horny’ vote
4. Demonstrates his strong commitment to on-the-job training programs
3. Really is the most qualified candidate since the rest of the short list secretly joined Republicans for Obama after his rousing acceptance speech
2. Has 24 years experience in the #2 position: as runner-up Miss Alaska
1. One-ups Cheney: knows how to field dress a disaffected supporter after ‘accidentally’ shooting him.
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She looks like Tina Fey? Other than that I got nuthin’.
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Fireweed you are correct Gov Palin is no Sen. Clinton. She is also no Gov. Napolitano nor any of the existing Republican women governors.
A conversation with Governors Janet Napolitano & Sarah Palin
She is definitely no Lt Gov. Fran Ulmer
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She reduced her promised rural sub-cabinet to rural spokesperson who has seldom been seen or heard.
The so-called “emergency energy assistance” is a one-shot sop, a year late. $1200 will pay for about 150 gallons of heating oil or fewer than 5 months of unsubsidized electricity (70 cents per kilowatt hour), winter is Sept to May and the need for heating (at 65 degrees daytime, 55 at night) is 12 months.
The crushing economic situation outside of Wasilla/Anchorage was evident even to Juneau last year. There is no energy plan in Alaska (there is a high-performance engine snow machine race every winter that Mr Palin excels in). There are no assisted living facilities in all of western Alaska, a region larger than Kansas, the Dakotas, and Nebraska. The state’s plan for developing the workforce is to train high schoolers in the oilfield manual trades, located some 700 miles from home. More than 200 cities/towns need Katrina style relocation and re-building– there is a sub-cabinet to work on just 6. Equality for women means the state’s university hired a man with only a masters degree and no experience for a rural tenure-track faculty position over a woman with PhD and 10+ years experience, publications, etc.
She gets special treatment from state troopers when she drives; gets special treatment for in-laws issues; and gives special treatment for hometown dairies.
Her idea of public involvement and openness in government affairs is to hold hearings with 3 days notice, for Palm Sunday morning.
etc.
McCain chose Palin because he needs to salvage his “maverick” myth, shore up the Republican base, and return us to the 70s, where the Cheney-Bush-Rovers began.
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Pro education? Please explain. I understand she’s for gutting science classes — at best, that she doesn’t know a burro from a burrow in the science class.
Plus, when she ran for mayor, I understand part of her platform was to close the schools.
Fireweed, what are the facts?
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There are several great reasons,
1. She is not Hillary Clinton
2. She is a lot easier on the eyes than Joe Biden
3. She has kicked some serious butt on corruption up here
4. She is very pro-education
5. She genuinely cares about the people, so much so that she pushed through a an emergency energy assistance program in record time to help EVERY Alaskan meet the cost of heating their home this winter, as well as subsidies for upgrading ones’ home energy efficiency.
6. She doesn’t expect to be treated any different than any other citizen, she drives herself to work in a Jetta, and always flies commercial. I have seen her at the airport, waiting in line , just like every other Joe.
7. She is always fighting for middle class Americans, and makes them a priority.
8. She fights to make sure that the people profit by thier natural resources, and that big business pays their share of the bill. She recently kicked Exxon out of the Thompson Oil Leases because they had been sitting on the property for 20 years, and had done no development of the resources.
9. She truly believes and embodies the fact that women can accomplish any job as well as any man in the same position.
10. Any governor who can hide their pregnancy for about 7 months, give birth, and take no time off from running the government efficiently, with no interuption, is a hell of a lot tougher than Joe Biden is ever going to be.
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[…] I posted my top 10 reasons McCain chose Palis. Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub posts his. Mr. Fillmore (or is it Mr. Bathtub? ) believes that science ought to be taught in science […]
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