From Tha Anchorage Daily News, Alaska’s largest newspaper:

Alaska enters its 50th-anniversary year in the glow of an improbable and highly memorable event: the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate. For the first time ever, an Alaskan is making a serious bid for national office, and in doing so she brings broad attention and recognition not only to herself, but also to the state she leads.

Alaska’s founders were optimistic people, but even the most farsighted might have been stretched to imagine this scenario. No matter the outcome in November, this election will mark a signal moment in the history of the 49th state. Many Alaskans are proud to see their governor, and their state, so prominent on the national stage.

Gov. Palin’s nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency — but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.

Sen. Obama warned regulators and the nation 19 months ago that the subprime lending crisis was a disaster in the making. Sen. McCain backed tighter rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but didn’t do much to advance that legislation. Of the two candidates, Sen. Obama better understands the mortgage meltdown’s root causes and has the judgment and intelligence to shape a solution, as well as the leadership to rally the country behind it. It is easy to look at Sen. Obama and see a return to the smart, bipartisan economic policies of the last Democratic administration in Washington, which left the country with the momentum of growth and a budget surplus that President George Bush has squandered.

On the most important issue of the day, Sen. Obama is a clear choice.

Sen. McCain describes himself as a maverick, by which he seems to mean that he spent 25 years trying unsuccessfully to persuade his own party to follow his bipartisan, centrist lead. Sadly, maverick John McCain didn’t show up for the campaign. Instead we have candidate McCain, who embraces the extreme Republican orthodoxy he once resisted and cynically asks Americans to buy for another four years.

It is Sen. Obama who truly promises fundamental change in Washington. You need look no further than the guilt-by-association lies and sound-bite distortions of the degenerating McCain campaign to see how readily he embraces the divisive, fear-mongering tactics of Karl Rove. And while Sen. McCain points to the fragile success of the troop surge in stabilizing conditions in Iraq, it is also plain that he was fundamentally wrong about the more crucial early decisions. Contrary to his assurances, we were not greeted as liberators; it was not a short, easy war; and Americans — not Iraqi oil — have had to pay for it. It was Sen. Obama who more clearly saw the danger ahead.

The unqualified endorsement of Sen. Obama by a seasoned, respected soldier and diplomat like Gen. Colin Powell, a Republican icon, should reassure all Americans that the Democratic candidate will pass muster as commander in chief.

On a matter of parochial interest, Sen. Obama opposes the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but so does Sen. McCain. We think both are wrong, and hope a President Obama can be convinced to support environmentally responsible development of that resource.

Gov. Palin has shown the country why she has been so successful in her young political career. Passionate, charismatic and indefatigable, she draws huge crowds and sows excitement in her wake. She has made it clear she’s a force to be reckoned with, and you can be sure politicians and political professionals across the country have taken note. Her future, in Alaska and on the national stage, seems certain to be played out in the limelight.

Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.

The Republican machine has released it’s latest attack and this one is sneaky in a particularly dastardly way. The McCain camp is actively letting be thought in certain circles that they think this will be a Obama landslide. The reasonong is pretty simple, energize your own base to try and stop the flow, and lull the opposition voters into thinking it’s in the bag and they don’t have to show up. Don’t fall for the trickery. Vote! Early.

Please return your stimulus checks to the Bush Government that gave YOU taxpayer money for nothing.

Sen. Barack Obama’s foreign policy positions could encourage
America’s enemies to test it during the early days of an Obama
administration, Sen. John McCain said Wednesday.

Sen. John McCain says he will consider a second economic stimulus package if he is elected president.

“And the thing that probably may encourage them a little is that Sen.
Obama has been wrong,” McCain said in an interview to be aired on CNN’s
“The Situation Room” at 6 p.m. ET Wednesday.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Al-Qaida supporters suggested in a Web site message this week they
would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to
usher in a McCain presidency.

The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web
site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily
and economically, “impetuous” Republican presidential candidate Sen.
John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as
McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American
soldier,” the message said. “Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain
in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his
predecessor, Bush.”

SITE Intelligence Group, based in Bethesda, Md., monitors the Web site and translated the message.

“If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American
interests,” the message said, “this act will be support of McCain
because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so
that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will
succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it.”

Apparently Alaska is run by the Palin Children. Or at least this is the argument that Sarah Palin is putting forth to explain why her children accompanied her on a total of at least 88 flights since becoming Governor in December of ‘06. Normally politicians have to pay for their children to accompany them, but in Sarah Palin’s case, she simply stated on the various expense reports that the children were traveling on official business. In many cases apparently, the organizers of the various events were not even aware that the children would be coming until Palin showed up with the kids in tow. So, that means that the ‘Reformer’  who has spent $21,012 of Alaska’s money to ferry her children around with her is working to convince America that this is the type of ‘Reform’ she plans to bring to Washington, namely that it’s not wrong if it’s of a benefit to her.

Top state police officials urged Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s aides and husband to stop pushing for the firing of her ex-brother-in-law, with one warning it could cause “an extreme amount of discomfort and embarrassment.”

That warning from John Glass, Alaska’s deputy commissioner of public safety, is included in a state investigator’s report that found Palin unlawfully abused her authority to press for the dismissal of Mike Wooten, her sister’s ex-husband, from the state trooper force.

Glass said he warned Palin’s husband, Todd, that disciplinary action already had been taken against the trooper and that “we could not fire him,” according to the report, which was released Friday.

“And I also warned him that it was going to cause some extreme amount of discomfort and embarrassment for the governor if they pursued this and it should never have become public. That it would just be not good for the governor if it continued, and that they needed to cease and desist,” Glass told former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower, the report’s author.

The report was commissioned by a bipartisan Alaska Legislature committee panel investigating Palin’s July dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The report found Monegan’s refusal to fire Wooten was “likely a contributing factor” to Monegan’s dismissal, but Palin — now the running mate of GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain — had the authority as governor to fire him.

The report, however, also states Palin’s efforts to get Wooten fired broke a state ethics law that bars public officials from pursuing personal interest through official action.

KEATING ECONOMICS: John McCain & The Making of a Financial Crisis

Found this at Sarah Palin Truth Squad
“As for Governor Sarah Palin’s involvement in the African American community, the Governor’s office hasn’t participated in any of our Alaska Juneteenth Events. All previous Alaskan Governor’s have traditionally attended and participated in our annual Juneteenth Celebration. Gov. Palin was the first governor not to send out a congratulatory letter or assist us in any way with our Juneteenth activities.I didn’t have the courtesy of receiving a reply when I asked for a representative from the Governor’s office to come and speak at our Juneteenth Celebration if Governor Palin was unable to attend. I never even heard of Gov. Palin until she was elected Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, in Mat-Su Valley.

Governor Palin is a very energetic and spontaneous woman. With some of the things being said and going around this state right now, I’m surprised none of the national media have bothered to come here and get the words directly from the mouths of the people who have lived with her all of these years instead of ’surfing the net!’
My other opinion is why would an individual who, to my knowledge, has not hired any African Americans on her gubernatorial staff, insist so passionately on being on a television show owned and operated by an African American, Oprah Winfrey?

While meeting with Black leaders concerning the absence of any African Americans on her staff, Gov. Palin responded that she doesn’t have to hire any Blacks and was not intending to hire any. What kind of attitude is this toward African American for who may be the first Vice-President of the United States?
I understand Oprah did have Senator Obama on her show a few times and was the main person raising funds for him “before” the presidency race was in full swing. However, the key point here is that it is Oprah’s prerogative not be used as a pawn to tilt the vote one way or another. Oprah has stated repeatedly that she wasn’t going to have one side or the other on her show by choice. I thought that was what the Civil Rights Movement was all about, a persons right to make their own choices. I guess this isn’t a Democracy at all anymore.”

Gwendolyn Alexander, President
African American Historical Society of Alaska
Alaska Juneteenth Celebration
P. O. Box 143105
Anchorage AK 99514
(907) 884-6860

In an attempt to placate the markets, Geo. Bush has appeared on television for the umpteenth time early in the AM to try and stop the precipitous slide of the markets. Stop it already. Bush has cried wolf so many times over so many different things that there is no one left in the industrialized world who actually believes the words falling from his lips. Geo. Bush saying that the markets are fine, is a waste of precious usable oxygen in a closed and sealed bank vault. Let the markets work themselves out, eventually they will, but not by the prodding of an ineffectual lame duck president who is not believed.