All Palin, all the time

If you haven't guessed - like most conservatives - I'm thrilled with her.

We finally have a Republican who won't pull punches. Like Reagan, who famously made fun of Liberals (and made the word an insult that year), Palin has the gift of making a great point.
It was soooo good, that even the people doing commentary for CNN had to give her high scores. 4 out of 5 gave Sarah an "A" on her speech.

I had DVR'd her speech since I was working when she delivered it. I ended up watching it at 2am, punching my fist in the air throughout it, and marveling at the fact that she was calling the Dems out on their bullshit.

My favorite moments? Palin:

• Spoke about how she had been criticized by Obama for merely being a mayor of a small town, and 'conceding' that she had never been a community organizer.
• Young daughter Piper. A little girl who couldn't have been more perfectly cast to look like the ultimate little girl. She was holding the baby when the camera caught her licking her own palm, and then using it to straighten out the babies hair.
• Talking about Iraq, and how the Dems never use the word "Victory" when talking about Iraq.
• Calling out how the Dems avoided using the word "terrorist" for four days.
• Centering in on Obama's tax proposals, and how taxes aren't the fix for a bad economy.

Some things you might have missed about her speech.
From "Live Feed", a television summary blog:

Palin pulled in 37.2 million viewers across broadcast and cable networks, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That's 55% higher than Day 3 of the DNC, when her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, and President Clinton took the stage (24 million).

That's huge, and its why the Dems are scared shitless.

They did not see this coming. They tried to portray this as a desperate move on the part of the Republicans. They seriously underestimated Palin, and McCain himself.

How badly?

According to Brietbart, the Republican convention...

...marked the end of an astonishing run where more than 40 million people watched political speeches on three nights by Obama, McCain and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The Republican convention was the most-watched convention on television ever, beating a standard set by the Democrats a week earlier.

Read that again. The Republican convention was the most watched convention on television. Ever. In one fell swoop, Palin dropped a speech bomb on Obama.

She has a 58% approval rating, according to Rasmussen. How big is that?

Perhaps most stunning is the fact that Palin’s favorable ratings are now a point higher than either man at the top of the Presidential tickets this year. As of Friday morning, Obama and McCain are each viewed favorably by 57% of voters.

Its yet to be seen whether or not Palin has a positive effect on the McCain camp. (I can't imagine her not having some effect, but I'm horrible at these predictions.)

However, a poll by CBS has the two presidential candidates essentially, even:

The presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain is now even at 42 percent, according to a new CBS News poll conducted Monday-Wednesday of this week.

Yowsa!

Its no wonder that every Democratic lawyer/investigator in the Obama camp is running to Alaska to try to dig up some dirt on Palin.

Of course, that could be a problem in itself. You see, Sarah Palin is horribly popular in her home state. Ya know, that might just be why she was picked, rather then the media concluding that she was picked because she's a girl.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, from an article written in May of 2007:

With the latest poll showing her approval rating at 89 percent, Gov. Sarah Palin may now be the most popular governor in the nation.

Okay... so lets suppose you are a presidential candidate. Your obvious 'go-to' for a vice president is a governor. Who do you go with?

Maybe the most popular governor in your party? Ya think? Particularly one who delivers speeches like Palin does, with that spirit that she captures?

What If A Republican was caught saying this?

In the next anti-terror bill passed by Democrats, they will ban video cameras from airplanes. At least, they will after this incident.

The ex-chair of the DNC, Don Fowler, was on an airplane flying away from Denver. Some enterprising person started a video recorder on his conversation. They caught him laughing up a storm (pun intended) when talking about how God is on the side of Democrats... because a hurricane was about to fall on the coast of New Orleans taking the thunder (pun intended) from the RNC.

Fowler apoligized for the remarks. He's tried to pass them off as just an obscure reference to Fallwell's rather absurd comments. But that's not the point. When you watch him, he's genuinely glad that Gustav is making landfall. He's not just making a joke, like I did with the puns above. He's just darned glad that the RNC has to compete with a hurricane.

Remember a while back when some jags from Enron were caught on tape joking about how they were going to rip off people? This tape has the same feel to it. You realize how this guy really thinks.
The difference is that when the Enron tape came out, no one was worried that someone had broken into the private conversation between two executives.
In the case of Fowler, Democrats are actually quietly arguing that it was creepy to tape Don.

Again, if it were a Republican who was caught saying the same thing...

Arnold, in the previous RNC convention

There's a fun website called "American Rhetoric." Its basically a bank of speeches and quotes that its keeps on hand, taken from movies and politics.

Just recently, I ran across the speech that Arnold Schwarzenegger made for the 2004 Republican convention. Its beautiful. I hope that every speaker who takes the stage for the RNC convention this year listens to it before writing theirs. It would give them a hint to what their audience wants to hear.

I know that many people think that Arnold is the punchline to a joke. The thing is, Arnold knows that. He also knows that he wouldn't be famous or wealthy without the opportunities that this country gave him. Which is why he's a Republican.

Politico, and McCain being 'desperate'

Politico got slammed this week by its readers for printing "6 things Palin pick says about McCain".
The number one thing they wrote?

He’s desperate.

Apparently, I'm not the only Republicans that took offense to that. Politico was surprised to find their inbox filled with e-mails of protest.

I'd like to think that the reporters took this to heart. But judging from the e-mails that they picked (which seem to be a collection of the poorest e-mails ever written) I don't think that they're thinking was swayed.

Its annoying that they insinuate that those who e-mailed them were activists. (I almost did, but had to run at the time.) But its more annoying that they don't seem to get why people were angry with their presumptions.

Since I didn't write it there, I'll write it here.
McCain was only trailing by a few points, in the polls, behind Obama when he picked Palin. That's hardly the time to be desperate. This was despite the fact that Obama's been getting the vast majority of the press coverage.

If anyone should be in a desperate situation, it should be Obama.
He's lost ground over the past month, and can't seem to seal the deal. Seldom has a lovefest between a candidate and his press existed like that between Obama and the MSM. Yet, the poor guy can't top 50% in the polls.

And this poll from Zogby suggests that its a dead heat. 47% for Obama, 45% for McCain. Moreover, according to that poll, 52% of the electorate feels that Palin will help McCain's chances.

CNN puts Obama at 49%, and McCain at 48%.

This poll by Rassmussen says:

Palin Makes Good First Impression: Is Viewed More Favorably than Biden

They break the numbers down further.

Palin earns positive reviews from 78% of Republicans, 26% of Democrats and 63% of unaffiliated voters.

The unaffiliated numbers are the really great ones. Those are the ones that McCain would love to tie down.

So if this move by McCain was 'desperate', it worked desperately well.

Daily Kos thinks Palin faked her baby

I don't run a website where people maintain public diaries.

I say this, because if I did, I'd moderate the living fuck out of it. I wouldn't let any jag dork write something stupid that would make me look like an asshole later on.

For instance, oh.. I dunno... let's say that I insinuated that Palin isn't really the mother of Trig, her child who has Down's Syndrome.
Let's say that I accused her 16 year old daughter of having her.
You know? Like this jerk at DailyKos did:

Well, Sarah, I'm calling you a liar. And not even a good one. Trig Paxson Van Palin is not your son. He is your grandson. The sooner you come forward with this revelation to the public, the better.

Keep in mind, there is no proof of this. Its just a bunch of photos that the blogger found, and who apparently can't keep the dates correct on when they were taken.
He / she uses these photos to suggest that Sarah couldn't be pregnant at the time, because she doesn't look it. In the meantime, he/she points to a photo of the daughter and suggests that she looks like she might be pregnant in the photo.

This offends me on so many levels I don't know where to start. But I'll try.
1) If you're going to accuse a 16 year old girl of hiding the fact that she had a kid, you better have damn good evidence. At least something more then a burning desire to slander her mother. I think that whoever wrote that blog forgot that she is a 16 year old girl. Jackass, you just accused a 16 year old girl of getting pregnant and hiding her pregnancy. Dick move on your part.
2) An even more dickish move? To point to the photo of a 16 year old girl (a year ago) and go: "hey, she looks pregnant." Honestly, if this were my daughter, the originator of the post would find himself/herself on the receiving end of the first fist that I've ever thrown in anger.
3) Accusing someone of lying with no evidence. None. Unless you consider looking at misdated photographs, and writing out loud that she's not fat enough to be pregnant 'evidence'.

If it turns out that Trig really is her grandson, I will publicly apologize to the absolute jagoff who wrote that, print this post, and eat it. And I'll post photos of me eating it online.

In the meantime, its good to see that at least 5% of the population of The Daily Kos recognizes that posts like that only make them all look like assholes. Particularly when there are so many on that board that are saying things like, "Yeah! I'll bet the kid is her grandson!"

Fun at MSNBC with Olbermann

This makes me happier then the Easter Bunny!
Yay!
There is infighting at MSNBC.
I reported, earlier, how Joe Scarborough got into a tiff with Olbermann. Apparently, that's just the tip of it.
In this article at Politico, they describe the tensions that have been building behind the scenes. I guess you can't attack your fellow anchors on air without a little bit of fur flying.

I know that MSNBC won't fire Olbermann. You have to demean a person of another race for that to happen. But I predict its only a matter of time before Olbermann gets his lunch handed to him on air.
Heck, Joe pretty much bitch slapped him earlier when Olbermann said "get a shovel". Joe's response was priceless.
I think that the next time that Olbermann falls over the edge, someone's going to go to town on his behind. Personally, I can't wait to see it. Particularly after Olbermann's horrible distortions of the truth.

Rome and the DNC

Trying to blunt criticism of Obama as being 'elitist' and 'arrogant', the DNC built a roman collesium for Obama's Thursday speech.

Wait. What?
This is so far out there, that Republicans weren't sure how to address it. According to ABC's Political Radar:

"Is this from the Onion?" quipped a McCain adviser.

That would make sense, wouldn't it?
But this is real.
A Greek / Roman stage has been built for Obama's Thursday night appearance. After he talks, fireworks will go off. Oh, and I mentioned earlier that CNN paid for a blimp to cover all of this.

I think its safe to say that in 2008, the Democratic Party is embracing the empty photo op as something that they can get behind.

Various outlets are predicting that Obama will give his best speech yet.
Of course, they say that about every Obama speech. Obama speeches are like ER episodes.

The most moving ER episode... ever. This one, you have to see. Don't miss it. Why aren't you in front of your TV already?

We've all seen those commercials.
That's what Obama speeches are like. Except with more stedicams.

"No, he's not a Messiah. We just worship him."

The New Republic gets stupid, again, in an article dismissing the idea that they think of Obama as a messiah. They write:

The hysteria about Obama's alleged messianism is, in part, a calculated response to his wild popularity with the Democratic base.

Uh, no its not.
There is nothing calculated about watching a bunch of people chanting "O. Bam. Ah." at a rally and thinking, "Huh. That might be unhealthy."
There is a population of people out there who literally think that if Obama gets elected, their lives will suddenly get better. That Obama will take care of them.

Just so that we're all clear on this, I understand what Democrats believe.
Democrats don't think of Obama as actually being the return of Jesus Christ to our earth.
There is a big difference for Democrats. To start with, Democrats don't believe in believing in Christ. At least as a party. That's soooo 1974. Yes, the Dems are co-opting the idea of believing in God for this convention. They are allowing prayer meetings and that kind of thing. But that's just a big photo op.

-And I think its pretty funny to watch Democrats try to toe the line between offending the bitter gun-toting-Jesus-freaks, and offending their own bitter Pagan-ritual-astrology-vegitarians-against-Christ. Nothing entertains me more then the guy wearing pyramid earings talking about Fein Shei who questions those who read a bible.

On the other hand, there has to be a word for it when someone looks at a potential leader and actually believes that this Democrat (as opposed to Bill, the last one-who-will-set-us-free) is the real deal. No, that word isn't a Messiah. And its not hope.

I believe the word for those type of believers is... Naive.

What if Global Warming Wasn't?

I know. I know. All these scientists agree that we're in a warming trend. Right? Not according to this article by weatherman Tom Skilling:

Decade has had fewest 90-degree days since 1930

How did that happen? How can Chicago have one of the coldest decades on record (since 1930) and the rest of the world is warming?
This is just part of the story. Keep watching.

Rap Song advocates killing O'Reilly, Michelle Malkin

I won't mention the name of the band, because the only reason that they're doing this is because of the publicity.
If I print their name, then they get the pub they wanted.
But I honestly hope that if/when someone takes retribution on them, these morons get the definition of irony.

Olbermann once again proves that he's an idiot

Olbermann, in covering the elections, had a reporter named Joe who was commenting on the McCain campaign. If I understand the background, Joe was telling Olbermann that McCain was gaining serious ground.

Olbermann - being the asshat he is - asked Joe if he needed a shovel.

Joe - being an actual reporter, rather then someone who fellates Democrats - smacked down Olbermann with facts.

Watch it until the end. Its a great example of how a blowhard can be left speechless when challenged.

Governor Rendell calls pro-Obama coverage embarassing

In a panel discussion that included Tom Brokaw and George Stephenopolous, Governor Rendell called out the MSM.
According to the Politico:

"Ladies and gentleman, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing," said Rendell, in the ballroom at Denver's Brown Palace Hotel. "It was embarrassing."

Yes. Yes it was.
More embarrassing was the comments by Judy Woodruf at the event. She suggested that Rendell sit down.
So much for freedom to speak about the press.

Phil Spector votes against Capital Punishment

Guess who wants to vote Obama?
If you're a rock star accused of murder, you probably want to go with the guy who is lenient on crime.
According to Wired, Spector was recently wearing a "Barack Obama Rocks!" pin.
He's gotta be proud.

TV Networks are working overtime on Photo Op

McCain creates a photo op, and the networks complain that its a photo op.
Obama creates a photo op, and the networks try to make it a better photo op.

From the New York Times...

When Barack Obama accepts his party’s nomination on Thursday before a capacity audience of 70,000 at Invesco Field in Denver, an aerial camera will hover above the stadium turf, using a TV technique normally applied at football games.

The special camera angle — and CNN’s decision to spend close to $100,000 on it — shows the steps networks are willing to take to compete for viewers as the presidential campaigns move into the fall.

So CNN is spending $100,000 to get the best angle of Barack's big speech.
But I assure you... there is no liberal bias in the media.

Former POW back's McCain's "cross in dirt" story

From the National Review; Orson Swindle, another POW, remembers McCain telling him this story back in 1971.

"I recall John telling that story when we first got together in 1971, when were talking about every conceivable thing that had ever happened to us when we were in prison" Swindle told me a few minutes ago.

Kinda kills the whole idea that McCain has been cribbing this idea from someone else.
When it comes to using original material, its McCain - 1, Obama - 0.

John McCain's POW story

There is a great story on John McCain from US News and World Report. It was originally written in May of 1973. In it, McCain describes some of the propaganda that was used against them from the people who were protesting the war.

If you ever had any doubts about what McCain went through, this is a good place to start.
A short passage of what happened when McCain complained that he was being treated like an animal:

When I said that, the guards, who were all in the room—about 10 of them—really laid into me. They bounced me from pillar to post, kicking and laughing and scratching. After a few hours of that, ropes were put on me and I sat that night bound with ropes. Then I was taken to a small room. For punishment they would almost always take you to another room where you didn't have a mosquito net or a bed or any clothes. For the next four days, I was beaten every two to three hours by different guards. My left arm was broken again and my ribs were cracked.

McCain is not my ideal candidate. But its important to note what he's been through.

Milorad Cavic ; Olympic class

You don't know his name, but you should.
You see, Milorad was racing Michael Phelps in the 100 meter butterfly. Cavic was ahead by a stroke when Michael - defying the physics of water resistance - took one last stroke to win by 1/100th of a second.

To put that into context, its the smallest amount you can win by. Everyone in the stadium, including Michael's own mom, thought that Cavic had won until they looked at the scoreboard. NBCs commentator went apeshit when he realized what had happened.

But that's not what this post is about.

You see, Milorad Cavic swims for Serbia. -And Serbia decided to challenge the race results. Serbia did, but not Milorad. According to his website:

Filing a Protest: Yes, as you all saw, I almost won the Gold, and if you ask me, the clock does not lie. I had nothing to do with this filing, and neither did my coach Mike Bottom. This is just another attack on my coach who has done never wronged anyone in swimming, except coach foreign athletes (non-Americans) to Olympic medals. You all have to understand that any coach would have done this for their swimmer if there were any possibility of error, but I’m sorry to disappoint, it was my Olympic committee and swimming staff who did the filing. We’re not “sour grapes” and we’re not “pissed”… If you ask me, it should be accepted and we should move on. I’ve accepted defeat, and there’s nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer there has ever been.

Milorad, you are completely right... and one classy man. I honestly felt for you when Michael beat you, because you swam one hell of a race. Mike beat you by the smallest of margin's humanly possible while tearing apart pretty much every swimming record along the way.
If you have to lose a jump shot, lose it to Jordan. If you have to lose a putt, lose it to Tiger Woods.

You lost by 1/100th of a second to the greatest swimmer on the planet... someone that even Marc Spitz looks up to. You had an amazing day, and you handled it with class.

Thank you.

"Big Law" versus "Big Oil"

Its interesting to me how "Big Oil" - some dark conspiracy of unnamed oil executives - has become the latest bogeyman. Its even displaced "Big Insurance Companies."

The Democrats are using Big Oil to good effect with a MSM that's more then willing to oblige. Heck, we just had a film about evil oil men in the visage of "There Will Be Blood," and there's been a lot of drama made about the fact that John McCain has recieved more then a million dollars from the oil industry.
It made me wonder about the other industries that are contributing to the election campaigns.

What industry do you suppose is the number one contributor to Barack's campaign?
That's right; lawyers.
According to this page on Open Secrets, Obama has recieved over $20 million from lawyers and legal firms.
Now if I have to be worried about oil executives because they gave a million dollars to McCain... what should I think of the twenty million that lawyers have given Barack?

John Edwards, on 'personal lives'

In the past week, I've argued with a number of people over the relevance of a candidates personal life. Edwards made a great argument as to why its relevant.
He made these comments in an interview with 60 minutes. People were questioning his judgement about whether he should stay in the race while his wife had cancer. Edwards said that he didn't want people to vote for him just because his wife was sick. Then he said this:

But, I think every single candidate for president, Republican and Democratic have lives, personal lives, that indicate something about what kind of human being they are. And I think it is a fair evaluation for America to engage in to look at what kind of human beings each of us are, and what kind of president we'd make.

Let me expand on that.

If a man can't remain faithful to the one person in his life who he's claimed to love and cherish forever, then how should I trust him to have my best interests at heart, when he's never met me?

Let me go further.
People like to point out that 50% of men cheat on their wives. Yes, I understand that. That's the lower half of men. Why do I want to vote for the lower half of men? The one's who are clearly motivated by greed and desire, without any consideration for the feelings of the one person that they claim to love the most?

If you don't want to vote for a man who would take advantage of women and children that he's never met... why would you vote for a man who will take actions that will hurt those closest to him?

Anyway, thanks Mr. Edwards for making it clear that personal lives of the candidates are relevant. Now do yourself a favor and drop out of public life, and stand by your own words.

Vapid Edwards, Vapid Vanity Fair

Because of the National Enquirer report on John Edwards, I started to visit his website. I was curious about how much John Edwards talks about his family.
It turns out, he has a whole section of his "about me" for his wife and his daughter Cate.

You know what? If you want to run for president while cheating on your wife... great. I won't vote for you, but cool. Whatever. Its your life. You fuck it up.

Its her problem for getting involved with you. I know so many women who willingly block out such bullshit because they want to believe that they are different from the previous women that their husband has cheated on. They honestly think that they are the first woman that the man will faithful to.
They are naive, but its their problem.

But do me a fucking favor, and don't try to bullshit me into believing that I should vote for you because you are a family man.
Leave that shit off of your website.
If you don't have the integrity to divorce your wife before having an affair with a twenty-something, then don't even try to con me into believing you love her. -Or that you're faithful to her. -Or that you'll be more honest with me then you were to your wife.

John Edwards:
Assuming that you weren't at a hotel to provide emergency child care for a single mother... You are a dick. I hope she asks for the vice presidency as part of the divorce proceedings. If she does, I might actually vote Democratic just to see you whimper as she gets the title of VP.

One other thing I learned while dropping by the Edwards website, and its about John's daughter Cate:

Cate later lived in New York City, working as an editorial assistant for Vanity Fair magazine. She currently attends Harvard Law School.

Vanity Fair is a horrible mag. I'm not saying that because it leans so far left. (They actually have a "Bush Countdown" clock on their website.)
Its horrible because its one of the most vapid and shallow magazines I ever had the disdain to subscribe to. Yes, I actually subscribed to it... once. I thought it would be a good experiment to read something that I wouldn't ordinarily read, and the subscription was really cheap. Bad writing is usually very cheap.

So it made a lot of sense when I read that Cate Edwards, daughter of John Edwards, worked for Vanity Fair. This is the same magazine that trumpeted liar Joe Wilson (husband and wife of Valerie Plame/Wilson) as a whistleblower. Its the magazine that has a section on the "Sexiest Models" in this issue. It defends the NY Times.
Its so vapid that they actually have an article this month on The Unbearable Dullness Of Luxury Goods.
I'm not even going to touch their taste in music on their "Hot Tracks" page. Fuck... I gotta say something!
Apparently, you can't be a hot track unless you sound British.

I am a pacifist. I don't believe in violence. But if I could magically blink my eyes and improve the world with one nod of my head, I would use my mystical powers to make Vanity Fair disappear. It would improve the IQ of the US, and quite possibly make women love themselves again. It would definitely improve the political discourse of this country and there would be one less website with a George Bush Countdown Clock on its website, or a "Countdown to Obama" clock on their desktop workstation.
American music would start sounding less like Americans trying to sound British. And poor Cate, daughter of John Edwards, wouldn't have to sit on her hands as her boss at Vanity Fair explains away why her dad really isn't a dick... but just another wealthy Democratic presidential candidate who cheats on his wife.