October 3, 2008

Her reward is in Heaven, God bless 'er! The VP Debate


OOO! This makes twice this week! I'm slowly racking up my 15 minutes of "fame"..~ SNORT! Huz and I and our 2 friends are sitting there about 1:25 minutes in. Would ya look at that sweet baby!
Enjoying the comedy at the Bear Tooth Theater. I LOVE you People!!!


Well. Doggone it, that Sarah Palin did surprise in the Vice Presidential Debate Question/Answer Session last night. (Anyone else feel that Iffil totally softballed? What about holding the feet to fire?) Despite the snarky demeaning behavior , the spokes-womanly regurgitation of Cliffs Notes populist talking points, despite the vacuous platitudes, and the Buzz Words ad nauseum-(MAVERICK, My Energy Rich Alaska!, 'merica, main street), she done good. Which doesn’t say much when our expectations were not at all high in the first place! Where else did she have to go but up? The spinners and weavers and “electrified” base are rallying hard for ya now, Sarah! There are many proclaiming that she won the debate!
“I’m gonna puke, really.” And “eeeewww!!!” were my first gut responses to much of what she said last night. My Beartooth pizza quickly turned to acid in my stomach but sipping my IPA every time I heard a Palin buzz-word didn’t quench the ire. There was comfort in sitting in this theater pub with the Huz, our friends, M&M and their baby E, and so many diverse yet like-minded folk. ‘Twas a good time, actually.
As we stood in line waiting to get into the theater, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty about my ,”WEEEEEEEE!!!! We’re going to a hangin’!!! BURN her!!!!” attitude. The pity didn’t last long though. I felt hoodwinked as I soon realized there would be no breakdown, no crash and burn, as my Dark Side had desired. She came across as quite well studied and rehearsed, she opportunistically jumped to the McCain Camp’s script whenever possible, allowing her an air of confidence . She cravenly stuck to the topics that she was obviously most comfortable with and was brazen in her assertion of disregarding questions in favor of pontificating on something off topic, but of her own safe and secure realm.
And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.”

Screw rules and diplomacy! Hey, Bush got away with it, the stubborn ass! And that is frightening.
When faced with a question she couldn’t answer, she turned the spotlight on herself-the Outsider, the Maverick, Miss Middle America with those asinine “folksy” quips:

“In the middle class of America which is where Taaaadd-n- I have been all of our lives…”
“Oh man, it is so obvious I am a Washington outsider and not used to the way you guys operate.",
“I want to talk about, again, my record on energy...”,
“I've had that track record of reform. And I've joined this team that is a team of mavericks..”,
“You know what I had to do in the state of Alaska? I had to take on those oil companies….”,
“what I had to do up there in Alaska was…”,
“I think we need a little bit of reality from Wasilla Main Street there, brought to Washington, DC.”.
EEEEEEEEEcccccchhhhhhh! It was like someone was putting worms down the back of my shirt.

And how about SUBSTANCE? Aptitude? Experience? Humility? My 13 year old has more humility than Sarah Palin. A couple weeks ago, for one of her electives at school she interviewed for a job position. I discussed how most employers(from MCDonalds to Haliburton) will ask prospective employees, in one form or another, that very basic question, “ What is your greatest weakness?”.

“And Dea” I said, ”Everyone has one.”

“So I just tell the truth and talk about how I’m going to improve on it, right?”

Riiiiiiight.

Does Sarah Palin even know what an “Achilles Heel” is?!?!? She didn’t bother to answer that archetypal question . She just blathered on and on about her vast executive experience and how it would benefit the sparky team-o-Mavericks! She worked her Sarah magic with the winks, the snarks, the slick sidestepping, the contrived performance, the usual canned rhetoric that we’ve all heard before-But I’m not buyin’ it, Babe. And I expect the rest of the thinking, grounded in reality, fact seeking public to not buy it either. We’re not that stupid. It’s too bad that the girl next door who has experienced the same struggles as the rest of us, who knows first hand what it’s like to struggle with Health insurance , college tuition, special needs children… really has no intention of supporting those things http://www.afscmeblog.org/.

And I wanted to smack that perma-grin off her face when she dissed my man, Biden.
"I do respect your years in the Senate but I do think Americans are craving something new and something different."
New and different. MCCAIN?!!! Insulting. To you, me, and the Barak Obama campaign.

You can call me DISGUSTED, Winky. May I call you “Winky”?

*A couple of my favorite Biden moments. Besides that fabulous ear to ear grin in response to Palin’s absurdity:
“Look, the maverick -- let's talk about the maverick John McCain is. And, again, I love him. He's been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people's lives.
He voted four out of five times for George Bush's budget, which put us a half a trillion dollars in debt this year and over $3 trillion in debt since he's got there.
He has not been a maverick in providing health care for people. He has voted against -- he voted including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan, when he voted in the United States Senate.
He's not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college.
He's not been a maverick on the war. He's not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.
Can we send -- can we get Mom's MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can't -- we can't make it. How are we going to heat the -- heat the house this winter?
He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.
So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.”


And,

"Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous VP we have had in history."

Just a sprinkling of Palin's lies/f@#*-ups:

1. FANNIE MAE/FREDDIE MAC: Palin said “it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures,” but fact checkers say that’s “Quite A Stretch” And “Barely True,” and that McCain was a “latecomer” to the discussion.

2. FUNDAMENTALS ARE STRONG: Palin tried to say “John McCain saying our economy was strong” but McCain has used the phrase “The Fundamentals Of The Economy Are Strong” At Least 16 Times This Year.

3. PARTISAN POLITICS: Palin said McCain is “known for putting partisan politics aside to just get the job done,” but he has voted with Bush 90% of the time in the Senate and bragged about his support for Bush on important issues.

4. TAXES ATTACK: Palin repeated the attack that Obama voted for higher taxes 94 times, which the New York Times says is “false,” CNN says is “Misleading,” and FactCheck.org says is “inflated.”

5. TOBACCO REGULATION: Palin said to “look at the tobacco industry” as an example of McCain pushing for even harder and tougher regulations. But McCain opposed expanding the SCHIP children’s health insurance program for 5.8 million children because it would increase tobacco taxes.

6. SPENDING INCREASES: Palin said Obama is is proposing “nearly a trillion dollars in new spending,” but didn’t mention that he has also proposed cuts to balance it out, an attack CNN has already debunked as “misleading” and that ignores the far larger cost of McCain’s tax cuts and spending hikes.

7. HEALTH CARE: Palin claimed Obama’s health plan is “government run” which has been widely debunked as a “canard.”

8. HEALTH CARE. Palin says taxes wouldn’t go up under the McCain health care plan, a fact even his own campaign has acknowledged isn’t true.

9. TROOPS: Palin repeated what the AP called the “highly misleading” attack that Obama opposed funding for the troops, and Factcheck.org notes that the same methodology would lead to the same conclusion for McCain.

10. GLOBAL WARMING: Palin said “I don’t want to argue about the causes” for global warming, when she has clearly taken the position that she doesn’t not believe it is man-made.

11. MCCAIN IS CONSISTENT: Palin said McCain” doesn't tell one thing to one group and then turns around and tells something else to another group,” when that is exactly what he has done on immigration, telling Hispanic leaders he was for comprehensive reform instead of the enforcement focused approach he has taken with conservatives.

12. MCCLELLAN NOT MCKIERNAN: Palin referred to the US commander in Afghanistan, David McKiernan as “McClellan.”

13. MCKIERNAN ON “SURGE:” Palin said that [McKiernan] did not say a surge wouldn’t work in Afghanistan, when just yesterday he said “The word I don’t use for Afghanistan is ’surge,’ ” McKiernan stressed, saying that what is required is a “sustained commitment” to a counterinsurgency effort that could last many years and would ultimately require a political, not military, solution

14. KILLING CIVILIANS. Palin said “Obama had said that all we're doing in Afghanistan is air raiding villages and killing civilians and such a reckless, reckless comment and untrue comment again hurts our cause. That's not what we are doing there.” Unfortunately, the Associated Press says that Obama was right in discussing a critically important point about avoiding civilian casualties.

15. TEACHING: Palin said we need to make sure “that education in either one of our agendas, I think, absolute top of the line,” when McCain has repeatedly favored tax cuts for the wealthy over funds for more teachers and class size reduction.

16. PARTISAN APPOINTMENTS: Palin said “You do what I did as governor. And you appoint people regardless of party affiliation. Democrats, independents, Republicans, you walk the walk, don't just talk the talk” when she repeatedly appointed friends and supporters to positions for which they weren’t qualified.

17. FOCUS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: Palin falsely claimed that she was the first governor to form a climate change subcabinet, when at least 28 states had already taken action.

And this one is close to RunninL8's heart:

18. DARFUR DIVESTMENT: Palin claimed that “when I and others” found out that the state had money invested in Sudan that “we called for divestment,” when the reality is that Palin’s appointees worked to kill a Darfur divestment plan.

Liar! Li-aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr!

Check this out! It’s hilarious!



Oh, P.S. I am SO SURE your What does the VP DO? comment was a little "joke"that no one "got"!

12 comments:

Tammy said...

Well, it wasn't the train wreck I expected, but I do wish I could say three words to her:

NU-CLE-AR not NU-CU-LAR

RunninL8 said...

Oh, yeah!! I totally forgot to point that one out!!!!
Holy moses.

Loring Wirbel said...

Ruth said the comment that won the biggest praise from independents, according to a CNN poll, was her "I believe in American exceptionalism. I believe in the City on a Hill" rant. That shit is crazy Dominionist Christianity, America as the nation chosen by God for the New Jerusalem - and you know what? People LOVED it. Dish out those magical incantations. Who needs facts? We have the myth of the unilateralist, exceptionalist nation that can drill baby drill.

I gotta say, though, "my man, Biden"? I'm voting for the O/B team while holding my nose. Opponsed to gay marriage, loves missile defense, loves nuclear power, loves "clean coal", wants to invade Pakistan. Let's elect Obama and Biden, and WATCH THEM EVERY SECOND.

dawn klinge said...

I've been looking forward to reading what you had to say about the VP debates and you didn't disappoint. ;) I loved your commentary on it. I was so annoyed by her refusal to answer the questions she was asked last night! And the "maverick" thing...I loved Biden's response to that.

Loring Wirbel said...

Have you seen THIS one yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7IUgJKNgw

Loring Wirbel said...

The old URL is no good, they switched it to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-QevraCQUc

RunninL8 said...

Thanks for the vids Loring!!!

RunninL8 said...

Loring-yes, I'm disappointed on the gay marriage stance. Doesn't anyone have the balls to admit they are ok with it?!?! ...i guess if it would cost them the election...
Nukes and clean coal-don't know enough about it yet. I'll need to put time aside to look into the info.

another alaskan said...

Palin's Down syndrome child and the right to abortion

:: Posted by Nicholas Provenzo at 6:45 AM


Like many, I am troubled by the implications of Alaska governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's decision to knowingly give birth to a child disabled with Down syndrome. Given that Palin's decision is being celebrated in some quarters, it is crucial to reaffirm the morality of aborting a fetus diagnosed with Down syndrome (or by extension, any unborn fetus)—a freedom that anti-abortion advocates seek to deny.

A parent has a moral obligation to provide for his or her children until these children are equipped to provide for themselves. Because a person afflicted with Down syndrome is only capable of being marginally productive (if at all) and requires constant care and supervision, unless a parent enjoys the wealth to provide for the lifetime of assistance that their child will require, they are essentially stranding the cost of their child's life upon others.

So while anti-abortion commentators such as Michael Franc of the National Review sees Down syndrome's victims as "ambassadors of God" who "offer us the opportunity to rise to that greatest of all challenges," for many, that opportunity for challenge is little more than a lifetime of endless burden. In this light, it is completely legitimate for a woman to look at the circumstances of her life and decide that having a child with Down syndrome (or any child for that matter) is not an obligation that she can accept. After all, the choice to have a child is a profoundly selfish choice; that is, a choice that is an expression of the parent's personal desire to create new life.

And most parents seek to create healthy life; in the case of the unborn fetuses shown to have severe developmental disabilities, one study reports that over 90% of these fetuses are aborted prior to birth. But if you notice, the anti-abortion zealots try to attach a dirty little slur to these abortions, labeling them a form of eugenics. For example, in 2005, as he condemned those who opposed federal legislation that would have attempted to dissuade women carrying fetuses diagnosed with severe disabilities from having abortions, conservative pundit George Will wrote:


If it is not unobjectionable, let's identify the objectors, who probably favor the pernicious quest -- today's "respectable" eugenics -- for a disability-free society.
So in the anti-abortion advocate's eyes, a parent's desire to raise healthy children by squelching unhealthy fetuses while the are still in the womb is little more than a pernicious quest, but it is not considered a pernicious quest to knowingly bring severely disabled children into this world. On the contrary, such a choice is held out as an great example of upstanding morality. For example, consider this recent press release from a conservative anti-abortion advocacy group which celebrated Plain's birth announcement:


The Palin family is a wonderful example of a family who made the right choice to embrace their child and his future. Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), commends Governor Palin, saying, "She is even more beautiful inside than out. Her proud and warm announcement of the birth of their special child revealed the depth of love and faith of this extraordinary woman. May God give America more women and statesmen like her.

"Special needs children can bring out the best in people. They draw out compassion, patience, a joy for the simple things in life in people around them," says Wright. "In some ways, we need special needs people more than they need us."
That is, we need the mentally retarded to teach us how to better sacrifice our lives and divest ourselves of our self-interested ways more than they need us to care for them. At Noodlefood, Diana Hsieh condemns such a stand as "the worship of retardation." Given that Palin had complete foreknowledge of her child's severe disability yet nevertheless chose to have it, it is hard not to see her choice as anything less.

RunninL8 said...

Another Alaskan- WTF!?!?!?!?!
Are you for REAL?!?!?!?!?!?!

Loring Wirbel said...

It gets worse. At the company I work for, the main site with several consolidated blogs is hit by people, even after a "captcha" verification to weed out bots, who spend their time posting responses to blog comments that have to do with selling acai berry products, online degrees, etc. Soon, spammers will be taking over social networks.

Stephanie said...

The Sarah stuff on the right of your blog was coming up slow, and I wasn't sure if you were Friend (sorry) or not.
After reading [grin] I"m glad that I can visit again!
Stephanie
(via Growing Naturally)