AmericasBlood.com

palinizing:. The tactic is defined as a painfully transparent political
filibuster of sorts. When Sarah Palin is presented with a question she either
does not understand or that she does not want to answer truthfully, she
opens her mouth and out pours a waterfall of GOP buzzwords, cascading
haphazardly from her lips and leaving listeners drenched in the
horrific realization that this small-town mayor turned newbie governor
from Alaska is, quite simply, both an idiot and a liar.

Palinizing is above all the art of distraction, with the goal of
diverting attention away from a fault (in Palin’s case, ignorance) and
towards the glittering veneer of hollow talking points which dazzle but
do nothing in terms of answering the question presented. For Palin’s
most ardent fans, the evasiveness is perceived as a much-deserved slap
in the face to the “mainstream” media. For her detractors and even
those who are ambivalent towards her, Palin’s verbal hopscotch is
infuriating.

John McCain said Thursday that Barack Obama’s poll numbers are rising as the economy seems to sink “because life isn’t fair.”

“He certainly did nothing for the first few days,” McCain told Fox News Thursday. “I suspended my campaign, took our ads down, came back to Washington, met with the House folks and got on the phone, and also had face-to-face meetings.”

New CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation polls of several key battleground states released Wednesday found Obama has made gains across the board – either taking statistically significant leads, or erasing McCain advantages – over the past few weeks. Since the financial crisis began in mid-September, Obama has taken and held a lead over McCain in the national CNN poll of polls.

“I’m the underdog[ed. Huh?]. I love being the underdog…. We’re going to be up late on election night,” he said.

According to McCain, running mate Sarah Palin is also facing an unfair disadvantage as she heads into the debate tonight. “Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama. Let’s face it,” he said. “But I have to have to have confidence that Gwen Ifill will handle this as the professional journalist that she is… Life isn’t fair, as I mentioned earlier in the program.”

PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, the moderator of Thursday’s vice presidential debate, is writing a book about a new generation of black leaders that happens to include, of all things, Barack Obama. Perhaps she should stick to the revisionist type of history that Republicans so favor?

John McCain stunningly came out last week stating that he was halting his campaign to go back to Washington to help resolve our current financial crisis. He was in fact so dedicated to this cause that he suspended his campaign and initially said he would be too busy saving the country to join in the Presidential Debate last Friday. He, of course, managed to sneak away from the crisis long enough to join the debate, and then somehow must have solved the Problem because he was right back to campaigning Monday, criticizing Obama for his supposed inaction. Obama for his part, kept out of the kitchen, apparently having been taught by someone what too many cooks can do to a dinner, made phone calls, and worked his side of the aisle. And come Monday, when the measure came up for a vote, Democrats came through with their votes, while the Republicans chose any reason they could find to justify their voting against the measure. What does this mean? it means that Even though McCain was apparently boots-down in D.C., herding this bill to it’s adoption, his party members decided they preferred a different route, they preferred to make a point, stand their principled ground, defy Nancy Pelosi, irregardless of the effect of their actions on the economy, on Wall Street, and more importantly, on Main Street. If this is the type of statesmanship that McCain will bring to the Oval Office, grandstanding, theatrics, and rash actions, then maybe more people should think about what they want for themselves, for their children, for their future, and for their savings and investments. Maybe a serious and grave crisis requires introspection, requires measured thought, requires the counsel of expterts, and not the cessation (short as it was) of a campaign. Especially when that gambit not only didn’t work, but failed miserably. And now that the gambit did not work, McCain is managing to step back from his savior role, and pretending that he never had the intention of going to DC and fixing the world as he so bravely did just a few days ago.

Wow. Asking candidates to clarify their position is now “Gotcha Journalism” being asked what your position by one of those people who are sopposed to make up their mind about voting for you is not playing fair. Palin needs to be so protected that McCain has to answer her questions for her. When Palin very clearly says something that completely contradicts McCain’s positions, and does so with apparent thought and specific detail, it’s the fault of the media for hearing her correctly. I’m waiting for criminals to start using the McCain-Palin defence in court. It’s not fair to ask me what I did when it clearly not what I said I intended to do.

From Wikipedia.

The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement police or peace officer powers that maintain “law and order” on non-federal property (states, their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.

The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the United States National GuardConstitution or Congress.

under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the

From Army Times:

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the
day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of
Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or
manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
…

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control
or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive
poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological,
radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.

Training
for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes
specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to
extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a
CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how
to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.

The
1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal
package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger
Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and
nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals
without killing them.

“It’s a new modular package of nonlethal
capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in
Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated
and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking
we were the first to get it.”

The package includes equipment to
stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or
controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.

Anyone else a touch concerned??

From CNN:

Less than an hour after Barack Obama’s team told reporters that John McCain’s Wednesday announcement that he would be suspending his campaign came after the Democratic nominee suggested a joint statement from both candidates on the financial crisis, the McCain camp issued its own account of talks between the two men.

"Senator Obama phoned Senator McCain at 8:30 am this morning but did not reach him," the campaign said in a memo sent to reporters. "The topic of Senator Obama’s call to Senator McCain was never discussed.

"Senator McCain was meeting with economic advisers and talking to leaders in Congress throughout the day prior to calling Senator Obama. At 2:30 pm, Senator McCain phoned Senator Obama and expressed deep concern that the plan on the table would not pass as it currently stands. He asked Senator Obama to join him in returning to Washington to lead a bipartisan effort to solve this problem."

Minutes after McCain’s Wednesday statement, Obama’s campaign said that the Democratic nominee had called McCain earlier that morning to ask him if he would be willing to issue a joint statement on the economy and "urg[e] Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal." They also said that McCain returned the call at 2:30 Wednesday afternoon and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement, and that the two campaigns are currently "working together on the details." McCain’s announcement came shortly before 3 p.m. ET.

So..McCain got a call from Obama in the A.M., but even though it wasn’t the magic 3AM call, McCain still wasn’t around to acknowledge it. Supposedly. I’m more inclined to believe that they did talk, but McCain just got good and GOP-reedy for credit for the idea. Adding on that he wants to avoid the debates at any cost, and this clears the way to excuse  Sarah from having to debate Joe as well. After all, after Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan felt her up, she probably wants to take a calgon bath anyways.

Now, on to the big news. Here are my suggested modifications to the economic bailout bill.

1. Any company that accepts the bailout has to cap their executive salaries at 2.5 Mil (or 10x the President’s salary) for the duration before the amount is repaid.
2. All executive termination compensation agreements are changed to no greater than 6 months (at the 2.5 mil) in salary, 6 months medical,  and a no-compete in the same sector for 3 months.
3. Any company that allows their execs to bail before accepting the assistance, would have to divert the amount of the golden parachute package off the top of the bailout as a 100% repayable portion at %10 interest to be paid before any profit can be realized to shareholders.
4. All packages include the govt becoming a percentage partner commensurate with the percentage of the aid in proportion to the company’s net worth on the day of accepting the loan until such a time as the company repays the loan at a  interest rate twice the prime rate on the day of acceptance.
5. Shareholders cannot be paid at a percentage of net profits greater than the percentage amount of the aid initially provided as calculated in the previous point.

Give me those five points and I think I *might* go along with it.

from http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/palins-revelations-repent-the-end-is-near/

Rev. Howard Bess:

Palin now denies that she wanted to censor library books, but Bess insists that his book was on a “hit list” targeted by Palin. “I’m as certain of that as I am that I’m sitting here. This is a small town, we all know each other. People in city government have confirmed to me what Sarah was trying to do.”

[He] says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. “She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board,” said Munger, a music composer and teacher. “I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, ‘Sarah, how can you believe in creationism — your father’s a science teacher.’ And she said, ‘We don’t have to agree on everything.’

“I pushed her on the earth’s creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she’d seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them.”

Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. “She looked in my eyes and said, ‘Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.’”

Sarah Palin ABC Interview With Charlie Gibson Part 1

GIBSON: But this is not just reforming a government.
This is also running a government on the huge international stage in a
very dangerous world. When I asked John McCain about your national
security credentials, he cited the fact that you have commanded the
Alaskan National Guard and that Alaska is close to Russia. Are those
sufficient credentials?

PALIN: But it is about reform of government and it’s about putting
government back on the side of the people, and that has much to do with
foreign policy and national security issues Let me speak specifically
about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that’s
with the energy independence that I’ve been working on for these years
as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the
U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas
development in our state to produce more for the United States.

GIBSON: I know. I’m just saying that national security is a whole lot more than energy.

PALIN: It is, but I want you to not lose sight of the
fact that energy is a foundation of national security. It’s that
important. It’s that significant.

…

GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?

PALIN:  In what respect, Charlie? (no clue what the Bush Doctrine is)

GIBSON: The Bush — well, what do you — what do you interpret it to be?

PALIN: His world view. (Hopeful)

GIBSON: No, the Bush doctrine, enunciated September 2002, before the Iraq war.

I realize everyone is good and tired of hearing about her, but some of her recent comments have come to frighten me. In her interview with Charlie Gibson on 20/20, Sarah, when asked about the Bush Doctrine, first responded by asking what Charlie meant by tat phrase…. I may not be a Poly Sci major, but even little ole I know what the “Bush Doctrine” is. I know how it was first presented, in a speech, as official policy of the Bush presidency as it related to foreign policy, and how it was modified and expanded over the years. I am smart enough to realize that even if you don’t know the major policy points of every single presidency, you should at least be basically conversant with the current policy, especially if you are trying to be but a heartbeat away from having to either defend or modify that doctrine. To not know that, is excusable if you’re an average Joe, or a elementary school student, but is completely inexcusable if you’re running to be V.P. Furthermore, trying to bullshit your way through an answer that has absolutely nothing to do with the original question shows a pretty deep intellectual weakness. She also, when queried about her qualifications as an expert on Russia, stated that her state’s proximity to Russia, provides her that expertise, by this rationale, my proximity to Kansas makes me an expert on growing corn, and if I lived in texas I’d be a policy expert on South America.
Now, another small point I want to make tonight is that as a race, Blacks are probably a lot more socially conservative than most people would believe. What forms the way we end up voting is that we believe that personal morality should never be enforced as public policy. We have something of a memory of that being the case in America’s past in a way that affected us rather adversely. it’s okay to be ant-abortion, anti-immigration, anti-homosexuality from a personal point of view. Maybe YOU would never have an abortion, maybe YOU would never be homosexual, that’s fine, you don’t have to have an abortion, you don’t have to go out and have a homosexual experience. But what you do and believe should not and cannot be forced on others. Every person’s morals are personal and private, and should never spring from legislation, but from personal belief. After all, there are large segments of America that believe miscegenation is immoral, should those laws be reinstated as well?, should a official national religion be defined? and if so, which segment? Baptist, Southern Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Catholic, Lutheran, AME? It’s a slippery slope and our nation, and our children would be best served if we stayed on the even path, the center road, and stayed off the deges on EITHER side.

An Alaska judge warned Gov. Sarah Palin’s family against trying to
get her then-brother-in-law fired, according to court records.

That warning came long before the controversy over her dismissal of the
brother-in-law’s boss, the state’s public safety commissioner, records
show.

Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, is
battling allegations she and her advisers pressured Public Safety
Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire her sister’s husband, State Trooper
Mike Wooten.

Palin’s sister, Molly McCann, and Wooten were in
the process of getting a divorce when the judge hearing the couple’s
case said McCann’s family appeared to be putting Wooten’s job at risk
at a time when he would be required to pay child support.

“It
appears for the world that Ms. McCann and her family have decided to
take after the guy’s livelihood, that whatever who did what to whom has
overridden good judgment,” Superior Court Judge John Suddock said
during an October 2005 hearing. “Aesop told us not to slay the goose
that lays the golden egg. For whatever reason, people are trying to
slay the goose here, and it tends to diminish his earning capacity.”

At the time, Palin
was a private citizen and would not become governor until 2006. In
complaints filed with the state police, she and other relatives had
accused Wooten of threatening her family during the divorce.

Suddock was in the process of settling the couple’s property and
child-support arrangements in the 2005 hearing. The judge said his
decision might have been different had Wooten’s continued employment
with the state police been more certain.

“The plaintiff’s table has created a situation where that is a very fragile outcome,” he said.

Wooten’s union representative testified that the trooper was the
subject of a “constant stream” of complaints from his ex-wife’s family.
“If things don’t change, Mike’s career is in jeopardy,” the union rep
said.

“My advice to Mike was to find another job,” said John
Cyr, now executive director of the Public Safety Employees Association.
“I think he needs, career-wise, to look for work elsewhere.”

CNN
obtained audio recordings of the hearing from the court clerk’s office
in Anchorage, Alaska. Roberta Erwin, the attorney who represented
McCann, declined comment on the case Wednesday, and other
representatives of the governor did not immediately return phone calls.

Wooten was suspended for five days in March 2006, after state police
commanders determined he had used a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson
“in a training capacity,” drove his patrol car while drinking beer and
illegally shot a moose using his wife’s hunting permit.

In a
February 2008 hearing over new custody issues, Wooten briefly
complained that “disparagement” by his ex-wife’s family was continuing.

Complaints about Wooten from Palin and her family have been under
scrutiny since Gov. Palin’s July firing of Monegan, whose duties
included management of the state police force. After his dismissal,
Monegan said he was fired because he refused to succumb to pressure
from the governor’s office to fire Wooten, and his allegations have led
to an investigation by the state Legislature.

Palin has denied
any wrongdoing, saying the commissioner was removed because of
disagreements over budget issues. Her attorneys have called Wooten a
“rogue trooper” and said no one in the governor’s family knew of his
suspension until after Monegan’s dismissal.

Spokesmen for Sen.
John McCain’s presidential campaign have said the legislative probe has
become a “political circus” since McCain tapped Palin as his running
mate in August.

Palin originally pledged to cooperate with the
investigation and disclosed that members of her administration had
contacted state police officials nearly two dozen times to discuss
Wooten. But last week, she asked the state personnel board to conduct
its own probe, and a string of witnesses has failed to show up at
scheduled depositions with the investigator hired by the Legislature.

Last week, Cyr’s union filed its own complaint against Palin and top
aides, accusing them of improperly attempting to use confidential
information from Wooten’s personnel files against him. The McCain
campaign says Wooten agreed to release his files during the divorce
proceedings, and the information was in the public domain.