The Republican Question

Video just for a jumping off point in the discussion.



My question, is the Republican party going to have a major schism soon? I mean, it does seem to be tearing itself apart, blaming and generally looking bad. Any insight on this? Is it fiscal conservatives versus religious fundamentalists? Is it far right versus center right? Rich versus working class? Free marketeers versus value voters? McCain did seem like a last best hope for a united Republican front, but in my estimation, he has even pandered to the fundies, big time - Hagee/Palin. Question on the floor: What is going to become of the Republican party?

"Nailin' Paylin"

Sarah Palin is officially a legend! Hustler Video is shooting a porn with a look-alike titled "Nailin' Paylin." The spelling is sic and so is Hustler. You betcha!

The faux Sarah is Lisa Ann, who "will be nailing the Russians who come knocking on her back-door." In another scene -- a flashback -- "young Paylin's creationist college professor will explain a 'big bang' theory even she can't deny!"

There's also a threeway with Hillary and Condoleezza look-alikes.

The video is in pre-production, but is being fast tracked for release before the election.

(Never thought I would post an article from TMZ... click here for the original)

Sarah Palin Unleashed....or at least Unhinged

By Dana Milbank

Barack Obama, she told 8,000 fans at a rally here Monday afternoon, "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist!" This followed her earlier accusation that the Democrat pals around with terrorists. "This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America," she told the Clearwater crowd. "I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country." The crowd replied with boos.

McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more."

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

McCain's swoon is largely out of his control, the result of an economic collapse that ignited new fears Monday when the Dow Jones industrial average closed below 10,000 for the first time in four years. That's why his lead in Florida polls, which once reached as high as 15 points, has turned into a three-point deficit.

But the campaign has reacted with recriminations (the St. Petersburg Times reported that the Florida Republican Party chairman, after questioning Palin's aptitude, was told that he couldn't fly on her plane) and now Palin's rage.

The angry GOP vice presidential nominee even found a way to blame the market decline on the yet-to-be-enacted tax policies of the yet-to-be-elected Obama.

"If you turn on the news tonight when you get home, you're gonna see that, yah, this is another woeful day in the market, and the other side just doesn't understand -- no!" she said at an afternoon fundraiser at the home of mutual fund giant Jack Donahue. "Especially in a time like this, you don't propose to increase taxes. The phoniest claim in a campaign that's full of them is that Barack Obama is going to cut your taxes."

Of course, Obama never promised to cut taxes for people at $10,000-a-plate lunches in air-conditioned tents on waterfront compounds. And the crowd -- among them New York Jets owner Woody Johnson -- reacted without applause to Palin's Joe Six-Pack lines. After they didn't strike up the usual "Drill, baby, drill" or "USA" chants, Palin, rattled, read hurriedly through the rest of her speech.

The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of "Palin Power" and "Sarahcuda" T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. "One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," she said. ("Boooo!" said the crowd.) "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she continued. ("Boooo!" the crowd repeated.)

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Palin also told those gathered that Obama doesn't like American soldiers. "He said that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, 'air-raiding villages and killing civilians,' " she said, drawing boos from a crowd that had not been told Obama was actually appealing for more troops in Afghanistan.

Excerpted from the Washington Post (an elitist yet somehow mainstream news source)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/06/AR2008100602935.html?referrer=emailarticle

This sort of thing really concerns me. Palin is stoking hatred and demonizing not only her opponent but the media. Partly it's funny: Sound like an idiot on national television? Can't string a sentence together? Damn, it must be that gotcha journalism of the elitist mainstream media 'doncha know.' Your party can't put together a decent message to attract voters? Your opponent must be a terrorist. He must hate American troops. His pastor wants to kill whitey. For Christ's sake. This is repugnant. The Obama camp is not totally immune here. They have used their fair share of dirty politics. But so far they haven't stoked hatred, and their crowds have not called for violence or used racially epithets.

I would think that responsible candidates, ethical candidates would nip such behavior from their supporters fast. Say, for example, "no, no, supporters, we don't like our opponent or his policies, but this is America and we don't resort to that sort of thing, to violence, to hate speech." While I would not hold her responsible for the crowd's actions or comments, she is abetting their behavior. And if she isn't calling them out, that says something about her character. Sad.

Truth=Disqualification for Presidency?

PALIN SAYS:

(CNN) — Sarah Palin said Friday several of Barack Obama's comments about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been "reckless" and disqualify the Illinois senator for consideration as the next commander-in-chief.

The comments are among the Alaska governor's most pointed to date regarding the Democratic presidential candidate's readiness to serve and come one day after she aggressively jousted with Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden.

"Some of his comments that he has made about the war…I think, in my world, disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander-in-chief," Palin told Fox News Friday. "Some of the comments he's made about Afghanistan, what we are doing there, supposedly just air-raiding villages and killing civilians — that's reckless."

Palin was referring to an answer Barack Obama gave at a August 2007 town hall meeting with New Hampshire voters, during which the Illinois senator was asked whether he had plans to shift U.S. troops out of Iraq to other terrorist hotspots like Afghanistan.

"We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there," Obama said of the U.S.'s mission in Afghanistan.

Those comments were immediately seized by GOP critics. The Republican National Committee sent out a press release shortly after calling them "offensive," and demanding he apologize. The McCain campaign has also highlighted the comments several times this campaign season.

AP FACT CHECKER SAYS:

(AP) A check of the facts shows that Western forces have been killing civilians at a faster rate than the insurgents have been killing civilians.

The U.S. and NATO say they don't have civilian casualty figures, but The Associated Press has been keeping count based on figures from Afghan and international officials. Tracking civilian deaths is a difficult task because they often occur in remote and dangerous areas that are difficult to reach and verify.

As of Aug. 1, the AP count shows that while militants killed 231 civilians in attacks in 2007, Western forces killed 286. Another 20 were killed in crossfire that can't be attributed to one party.

No doubt Obama's comments do little to boost morale among the troops. And surely they paint the US in a rather negative light-but let's face, you invade two countries in two years and either directly or indirectly cause the deaths of dozens of thousands of civilians, you are going to get bad press.

No, the bigger issue I have is that according to Palin and some other GOP stalwarts and assinine commentators, telling the truth is a "disqualification" for the presidency. God forbid that a candidate would say: "We f*%&ed up and need to change strategy to fewer innocent people die." The facts are the US is killing more civilians in Afghanistan than Taliban insurgents. Is it somehow better to ignore that figure? Or to claim it just isn't true? Or is it better to admit error and try to change for the better? Man, the GOP sure likes to throw around that personal responsibility stuff when it comes to Wall Street and banking, but hates to apply the same standard to the US military.

Sources:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/03/palin-says-obama-comments-disqualify-him-for-the-presidency/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081400950.html

Palin on CBS...

...answers questions about...the economy...sort of...



I am not going to comment. Evaluate among yourselves.

Sorry about the commercial. That is the price you pay for CBS letting you embed their video clips.

Update: Ok, I said I wouldn't comment, and I will really try to keep this to a minimum, but if you have not watched the interviews in their entirety then I urge you to find them. Posted here is what I found quickly on CBS. Definitely watch the foreign policy interview that aired 9.25. It made me very, very uncomfortable. She sounds a lot like Bush: she knows very little about international relations, and what she does know she uses to saber rattle against perceived threats. Worrisome. She is also just wrong on lots of points, I mean factually wrong.

Palin's teenage daughter pregnant

The McCain campaign and Palins asked for respect for the family's privac

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, newly picked as Republican John McCain's running mate, has revealed that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.

Mrs Palin, a social conservative who is opposed to abortion, said in a statement her daughter Bristol would keep the child and marry its father.

The Alaska governor, a mother-of-five, was presented three days ago as her party's vice-presidential candidate.

The McCain campaign and Palins asked for respect for the family's privacy.

Mrs Palin and her husband Todd said in a statement: "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realise very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family."

Advisers to the McCain campaign said they had known about the pregnancy before offering Mrs Palin the vice-presidential nomination.

Yowza! I am not throwing stones (God knows I live in a glass house...or at least one with some huge windows), and I think that Palin's family's privacy should be respected. But this could be an anchor around the McCain ticket's neck. Her decision to keep the baby and marry the father (at 17) may play well for social conservatives and balance McCain's (comparatively) moderate position on abortion rights, but I would think this will wash out any support from the Hillary supporters that were giving Palin a second look.