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Friday, September 19, 2008

Wall Street to handle our Social Security?

When will the Dems start screaming about McCain and the Republicans who want to privatize Social Security? They want the same crooks, creeps, and thieves that brought us the mess on Wall Street to save Social Security. All the Streeters will do is steal every cent the average person has -

So why haven't we gotten that attack? Its simple and sad - the Dems are just as owned by Wall Street as the Republicans so they won't attack the criminals on Wall Street. That's the Real Reason we won't get an attack on the Republicans about Social Security Privatization.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

love the ad - hate the ethanol policy

While I certainly wish Scott Kleeb well in his run for Senate, think his recent ad is great however his love for corn based ethanol leaves lots to be desired.


she should know ..........

Carly Fiorina, a women who knows and personally demonstrated how not to run a large Corporation, does the old foot and mouth routine about Sarah Palin and then goes on to extend the idiocy to McCain in the clip below.



I'm so glad McCain has friends like her - he certainly deserves them.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Clinton sycophants at it again-

I'm furious.

I always wondered how long it would take the Clinton sycophants to crawl out of this toilets and try to sabotage Obama's candidacy once the going got rough. Well obviously not long.

Over at Huff Po we are treated to the post "Why Replacing Biden With Hillary Makes Perfect Sense for Obama" by Andy Ostroy saying Obama should trash Joe Biden to replace him with the sainted one - Hillary Clinton - and all will be well. With friends like this Obama needs no enemies.

Over at Another White Female for Barack a newly minted web site that seems intent on doing what it can to support this "swap" and elect John McCain we find more of this nonsense. The blog's second post "Maybe this Hillary/Biden Swap Idea Isn't Crazy" focuses on this idea. My comment on that post is below:
This is amazing.

Obviously you want to destroy Obama's candidacy - I don't know if you are some crazed reverse sexist Clinton sycophant or a Republican operative.

Doesn't really matter - the damage you are doing is the same.

If you are another Clinton creep please understand that she lost - she couldn't even run a successful campaign against a young black guy. She had the money, she had the connections and she still lost. Now you want to do everything you can to make sure Obama looses so the perfect one, Saint Hillary, can try again.

Please leave!
Told you I am pissed.

By-the-by, need to add this to my list of reasons why its perfectly OK to hate the Clinton's. I expect Obama will win in November but if he does loose we all need to remember the treachery of the Clinton's and their supporters. They are not our friends - they care nothing about the issues and God knows the Clinton's have never cared about the Democratic Party. Its just a tool to use for their personal glory.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Power versus Governance

For quite a while now it seems to me that the campaign goals of the Dems and Repubs have differed. The Republicans run for power the Democrats run to govern. That difference explains much of what has happened and what will happen in the 50 or so days.

Why the Republican excitement -

Being essentially a snoop I couldn't help but overhear the following conversation between two heavily religious Republicans, lets call 'em he and she.

he to she - "Well, what do you think?"
she - "I haven't been this excited in a while, I think we really have a chance"
he - "I know I heard her speech."

After hearing this and reading that McCain is a flop on the stump without "her" its clear that the Republican religious base has adopted Palin as their own. I seriously doubt any of the negative news about her will diminish that. Remember their support is "faith based" so the more negative the reality the stronger their faith in her will be.

Let's all hope that the same won't be true for Independents and those white female Democrats that are toying with voting for the McCain ticket.

The parodies begin

They were inevitable -

More and better parodies are coming because Sara Palin is such a great target -

Monday, September 08, 2008

Sarah Palin and the Third Wave

As reporters continue to explore Sarah Palin's life and views its clear that her fundamentalist religion is at the base of what she says, thinks and does.

Below are excerpts from an article at Huff Po about the focus of Wasilla Assembly of God, the main Church were Sarah Palin chooses to worship. While its well know that followers of the "End Times" theology have long been "insiders" in the Republican Party if Palin and McCain are elected they will will move into the Vice President's Office and possibly the President's Office. They also show how heavily involved Palin is in the activities of her Churches and how they have supported her bids for public office.
"Sarah Palin's churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949. This is the same 'Spiritual Warfare' movement that was featured in the award winning movie, "Jesus Camp," which showed young children being trained to do battle for the Lord. At least three of four of Palin's churches are involved with major organizations and leaders of this movement, which is referred to as The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit or the New Apostolic Reformation. The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world."
...........
"Sarah Palin's extensive pattern of association with the Wasilla Assembly of God has continued nearly up to the day she was picked by Senator John McCain as a vice-presidential running mate. Palin's dedication to the Wasilla church is indicated by a Saturday, September 7, 2008, McClatchy news service story detailing possibly improper use of state travel funds by Palin for a trip she made to Wasilla, Alaska to attend, on June 8, 2008, both a Wasilla Assembly of God "Masters Commission" graduation ceremony and also a multi-church Wasilla area event known as "One Lord Sunday.""
...........
"The Wasilla Assembly of God church is deeply involved with both Third Wave activities and theology."
...........
"The Third Wave is a revival of the theology of the Latter Rain tent revivals of the 1950s and 1960s led by William Branham and others. It is based on the idea that in the end times there will be an outpouring of supernatural powers on a group of Christians that will take authority over the existing church and the world. The believing Christians of the world will be reorganized under the Fivefold Ministry and the church restructured under the authority of Prophets and Apostles and others anointed by God. The young generation will form "Joel's Army" to rise up and battle evil and retake the earth for God.

While segments of this belief system have been a part of Pentecostalism and charismatic beliefs for decades, the excesses of this movement were declared a heresy in 1949 by the General Council of the Assemblies of God, and again condemned through Resolution 16 in 2000. The beliefs and manifestations of the movement include the use of 'strategic level spiritual warfare' to expel territorial demons from American and world cities. Worship includes excessive charismatic manifestations such as hundreds of people falling, 'slain in the spirit,' and congregations laughing, jerking, and shrieking uncontrollably."
...........
"Mike Rose, senior pastor of Juneau Christian Center has a long relationship with Rodney Howard -Browne, credited with being the instigator of the outbreak of 'Holy Laughter' around the world, including the Toronto Airport Revival. Thomas Muthee visited Wasilla Assembly of God and gave 10 consecutive sermons at the church, from October 11-16 2005. As both Palin and Wasilla AoG Head Pastor Ed Kalnins have attested, Thomas Muthee 'prayed over' Sarah Palin and entreated God to "make a way" prior to Palin's successful bid for the Alaska governorship."
...........
"The Third Wave, also known as the New Apostolic Reformation, is a network of Apostles, many of them grouped around C. Peter Wagner, founder of the World Prayer Center. This center, which was built in coordination with Ted Haggard and his New Life Church in Colorado Springs, was featured in an article by Jeff Sharlet in Harpers, May 2005, "Soldiers of Christ." Sharlet was one of the first to write in the secular press about the World Prayer Center which is often referred to by those familiar with the Third Wave as the 'Pentagon for Spiritual Warfare.' It features computer systems that store the data of communities around the world, mapping out unsaved peoples' groups and spiritual mapping information for spiritual warfare."
...........
"Wagner's top leaders often conduct spiritual warfare campaigns against the demons that block the acceptance of their brand of Christian belief, such as 'Operation Ice Castle' in the Himalayas in 1997. Several of their top prophets and generals of intercession spent weeks in intensive prayer to "confront the Queen of Heaven." This queen is considered by them to be one of the most powerful demons over the earth and is the Great Harlot of Mystery Babylon in Revelation. (The "Great Harlot [or 'whore'] of Mystery Babylon" theme also figures prominently in the sermons of Texas megachurch pastor and Christians United For Israel founder John Hagee, former endorser of John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.) Wagner and his group also claim that the Queen of Heaven is Diana, the pagan god of the biblical book Ephesians and the god of Mary veneration in the Roman Catholic Church."

Sunday, September 07, 2008

I just started laughing when I read this -

Wandering by the Washington Monthly this AM I just started laughing. In the South "Upitty" was always part of the racial slur "Uppity Nigger" - just go look at the interviews CBS, NBC, ABC did in the South in the 60's or any of that period's history and you will see that the second word always traveled with the first one. Its there and pardon the pun, its there in spades.

A few days ago U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland from Georgia's 3rd Congressional District called the Obamas "Uppity". When questioned later by the Atlanta Journal his representative said he had no idea it was a racist slur.

Really?!? Westmorland was born April 2, 1950 in Atlanta, Georgia. How could he not know that "Uppity" is a loaded term? Wikipedia has an entry covering the life and times of Rep. Westmoreland. From this entry some of the wonderful things he has done while being a member of Congress are:
"In 2005, Westmoreland received criticism for spreading a memo to fellow House members that consisted of auto-industry talking points, verbatim, even using the same font as the auto-industry document. An aide defended him, saying, "such behavior is standard practice.""

"As a U.S. congressman, Westmoreland cosponsored a bill to place the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Westmoreland also sponsored a bill that the Ten Commandments could be displayed in courthouses in a historical setting."

"Westmoreland led a group of congressmen who opposed the 2006 renewal of certain provisions in the Voting Rights Act that require nine Southern states and a number of counties (mostly in the South) to obtain Federal permission for certain changes to election law or changes in venue."
Thankfully, Steven Colbert has Westmoreland's number and shows him to be the buffoon he really is (the interview starts about 1:40 into the clip) -

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Real reporting from the AP

Instead of the usual pro-McCain stuff we see from AP here's some number crunching that often gets overlooked in the polls - below are a few sections from an article by Julie Pace & Stephen Ohlemacher:
CLAIRTON, Pa. (AP) — Five days a week, Linda Graham trolls tattered neighborhoods of this once thriving steel city outside Pittsburgh for unregistered voters she can sign up as Democrats — one of thousands of unknown volunteers whose work outside the limelight has already altered the basic arithmetic of the November election.

The epic nomination battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton helped put millions more Democrats on the voter rolls while Republican registration declined. Now Graham, 45, has taken three months of unpaid leave from her job at Pittsburgh's Central Blood Bank in the hope of adding to those gains before the presidential vote.

She's encouraged by the response here. "They're all feeling the crunch" of lost jobs and a sagging economy, Graham said. "But people are feeling empowered. They're feeling like, you know what, I hold a little bit of power in this."

To counter this effort, the Republicans are counting on a formidable, high-tech get-out-the-vote operation that has helped them win the past two presidential elections.

Since the last federal election in 2006, volunteers like Graham combined with the enthusiasm generated by the Obama-Clinton struggle to add more than 2 million Democrats to voter rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation. The Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 thousand voters in the same states.

The Democrats hope their voter registration efforts can boost Obama to victory in competitive states like Pennsylvania, Nevada and Florida and perhaps even give him a shot at winning traditional Republican states like Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

Both Obama and his Republican rival, John McCain, are fighting for independent swing voters, and many of the new Democrats had been unaffiliated voters.

The number of unaffiliated voters dropped by nearly 900,000 since 2006. Many joined the Democratic Party to take part in the primaries and caucuses, and now they will now be targeted by an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign.

.....................

Nationwide, there are about 42 million registered Democrats and about 31 million Republicans, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.

The Democrats have posted big gains in many competitive states, including Nevada, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado and Florida. They have also been targeting historically Republican southern states.

Since 2006, the Democrats have added 167,000 voters in North Carolina, while the Republicans have added 36,000. The Democrats' biggest voter registration goal is in Georgia, where the Obama campaign hopes to register 500,000 voters before the election, said Dean, who has spent the past month traveling the country on a voter registration bus tour.

"The Obama folks are serious about Georgia," Dean said. Georgia has added 337,000 voters since 2006, but the state does not identify them by party affiliation.

In Pennsylvania, the Democrats have added 375,000 voters since 2006 while the Republicans have lost 117,000.

America Votes, an umbrella organization, coordinates voter registration efforts for more than 40 groups in Pennsylvania, including unions, the NAACP and the Sierra Club.

.....................

Graham finds a potential voter at the first house she stops at. Justin Webb, a father of two, is unregistered, but tells Graham he has serious concerns about the economy.

"We need more jobs," said Webb, 28. "If we had more jobs, we would have more opportunities to better ourselves."

It takes Graham less than five minutes to register Webb as a Democrat.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

What "Classic Republicans" think about Palin

We know the Republican Party's new owners, the religious right, love her but I've been wondering what old line Republicans think about Palin since McCain chose her as his wing-nut wing-woman last week. We know she was chosen to placate the religious waco's that form so much of the Party's base but what about the long suffering, old line Republicans? Well, here is what former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan and John McCain's former campaign chief Mike Murphy said when they thought the mikes were off during an interview with MSNBC:

Sad they won't say it publically - Peggy Noonan has already run for cover.

However, "Classic Republicans" may be dealing with the religious ownership issue in a more basic way - as a Aug. 5, 2008 NY Times article titled "G.O.P. Drops in Voting Rolls in Many States" shows they are taking Ronald R's advice and voting with their feet - either re-registering as a Democrat or as an Independent. Wondering if anybody at the RNC is actually watching?

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Sarah Palin is here to stay -

There seems to be rumblings on the web that McCain will toss Sarah now that the warts are starting to show. Well its to late for that - those two are tied at the hips and he's got her no matter what. Poor John he's owned now - both by the religious right that controls the Republican party and by a beehive wearing right winged waco that long ago violated the Peter Principle.

This could turn out to be one of the great political train wrecks of all time - stay tuned.

Steve Pearce is toast

Great news - even the Republicans know that the right wing wacko Steve Pearce will loose and now they are letting their dollars do the talking -

From TPM:
Republicans' Senate campaign arm called off television ads Tuesday that were to air in New Mexico in the run-up to Election Day, an indication that it's leaving the GOP candidate there to fend for himself as the party braces for losses.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee's decision to cancel the New Mexico spots reflects its priorities during a tough year for the GOP, with the party lagging badly in fundraising and resigned to losing seats in the Senate.

The committee wouldn't comment Tuesday on the change of plans, but TV station managers in the state confirmed they had gotten word of it last week.

"The actual cancellation came today," said Bill Anderson of KRQE, the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque.
For Steve P. it sounds like the fat lady is singing even now, early in September.