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Sarah Palin's Feminist Flip-Flop
Tweet Share on Facebook October 24, 2008 Comment (133)You needn't be a Rhodes scholar to be able to keep your gender philosophy straight, particularly within the period of a month or so. Yet Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has flubbed even that, according to ABC's Political Radar:
In an interview on NBC Nightly News that aired yesterday, Brian Williams asked Palin: "Governor, are you a feminist?"
"I'm not gonna label myself anything, Brian," said Palin. "And I think that's what annoys a lot of Americans, especially in a political campaign, is to start trying to label different parts of America different, different backgrounds, different...I'm not going to put a label on myself."
But label herself is just what she did last month in an interview with CBS's Katie Couric, who asked her if she considered herself a feminist. Her answer was an unabashed, "I do."
These kinds of 180s are bad enough when they occur on major policy issues, such as federal bailouts, whether or not to cut taxes, etc. But when they occur within a short period of time and on a simpler question, it really calls into question the intelligence level of the interviewee.
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Alan Greenspan Speaks on the Financial Crisis
Tweet Share on Facebook October 23, 2008 Comment (13)Rep. Henry Waxman runs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a way it hadn't been run in decades before his takeover. The California Democrat really knows how to stick the knife in and twist it. He did so today with former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who retired as a beloved figure but who has since been found extremely culpable in the current credit crisis because he promoted less government oversight over derivatives.
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Sarah Palin, a Drag Around John McCain's Neck
Tweet Share on Facebook October 23, 2008 Comment (20)Headline in today's Washington Post: "McCain Tries to Push Past Palin Backlash"
Sarah Palin has clearly become a drag on the ticket of a magnitude that is already setting records in the "drag" category all on its own. I feel better when I hear media comments explaining that pundits (yours truly included) found her to be a brilliant selection at first because she did a great job of rallying the base. But since then, revelations of her abuse of office for family retribution and personal financial gain, pregnant teenage daughter, accepting a blessing against witchcraft, claiming that God will play a role in the November 4 election, $150,000 wardrobe, and so on and so on and so on have pushed her negatives higher than her positives. Brilliant choice? Not! Quelle surprise!!
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Barack Obama and John McCain Through the Looking Glass—Racism at Work?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 22, 2008 Comment (32)The following ditty has been floating around in the E-mail-sphere, attributed to one Roger Leisner of something called Radio Free Maine. Mr. Leisner does indeed have a Web presence, but scouring his Web postings, I could not find the following. I am not in political accord with Mr. Leisner or whoever wrote the following, but it does make some fascinating points that, a la Alice in Wonderland, make you stare into a mirror image of the world as it is and ponder the plausible opposite. I have edited out references to events I do not know to be factually accurate. Read away:
Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around? ...think about it.
Would the country's collective point of view be different?
Could racism be the culprit?Ponder the following:
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Sarah Palin's $150,000 Wardrobe—GOP Donors Should Ask for Their Money Back
Tweet Share on Facebook October 22, 2008 Comment (139)Are these people for real? Sen. John McCain is being outspent by Sen. Barack Obama by more than 2 to 1 on TV ads in swing states, and yet his campaign still is flush enough to spend $150,000 on Gov. Sarah Palin's clothes and accessories?
Clearly some hyperkinetic member of the McCain campaign team needs to be reined in, perhaps medicated. There is a DSM for this type of over-the-top behavior. It's called mania.
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The Right Message for John McCain and Barack Obama on Illegal Immigration: 'Go Home!'
Tweet Share on Facebook October 21, 2008 Comment (51)News stories such as this one make me spiral off into outer space. The premise is that the presidential candidates should "talk to" illegal immigrants—or, excuse me, undocumented workers. One is deemed politically incorrect, insensitive, and—dare I say it—"racist" for referring to people who either enter this country illegally or stay beyond their legal visa periods as lawbreakers. Yet "illegals" are exactly what and who they are. In politically correct circles, however, they are "undocumented workers." That despite the fact there are no data to prove that all of them are working.
Here's the story from Long Island's Newsday newspaper:
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Despite Sympathy for Barack Obama's Grandmother, He's Still Wrong on Wright
Tweet Share on Facebook October 21, 2008 Comment (167)I like some things about Barack Obama's grandmother, the one he's jumped off the campaign trail to visit because she is ailing. Madelyn Dunham, now 85, was a trailblazer for women's rights and a woman ahead of her time, according to the Honolulu Advertiser:
While Obama's views on race relations in America were being shaped, his maternal grandmother—Madelyn Dunham, now 85—received a series of promotions at Hawaii's top bank. And in December 1970, she was named one of the first two female vice presidents at the Bank of Hawaii.
Obama's grandparents were integrally involved in raising him. But Obama also used his grandmother to defend his too-long membership in the anti-American church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and that is wrong:
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Nude Border Control
Tweet Share on Facebook October 20, 2008 Comment (5)The right to privacy is an important issue, no doubt, but for me it does not rank at the top of the list. Right now, for example, I'm much more concerned about the economy, the environment, and ending the war in Iraq. But here's an item sent to me by a friend over the weekend that gives people such as myself great pause and serves to place privacy rights closer to the top. The image above is from a millimeter-wave scan machine used at airport security venues across the country. Columnist Robyn Blumner of the St. Petersburg Times describes that when "selected" by airport security personnel for one such scan, she agreed because she thought she was being "sniffed" for explosives by a machine. Instead:
The millimeter-wave scan machine took an image of my body under all my clothes and then gave it a tin-like patina. The picture makes one look avatar-like, with every hill and valley in full view. The image was then viewed by a security officer 'in a remote location and a windowless booth,' so the agent couldn't match a face to a body, according to Sari Koshetz, a spokeswoman for the [Transportation Security Administration].
You can see the image here.
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The Obama-McCain X Factor—Racism—Means a Long Election Night Awaits
Tweet Share on Facebook October 20, 2008 Comment (39)Obamatons should be beaming, no? He's way up in the polls. Gallup's daily presidential tracking poll on Sunday had Barack Obama double digits ahead of John McCain among registered voters and well beyond the margin of error ahead of McCain among likely voters:
Barack Obama again leads John McCain nationally by 10 percentage points among all registered voters, 52% to 42%. His advantage narrows to either 7 or 3 points among likely voters, depending on how that group is defined.
That said, one Democratic member of Congress on Friday and one major Obama fundraiser both told me they're worried. Why? The member of Congress referred to the so-called X factor, or code for racism.
The member also said Obama should be further ahead among likely voters at this point in the race (with some two weeks to go), and this person worries about GOTV, or getting out the vote, and efforts to get young voters and voters of color to the polls. There are further concerns: long lines at the polls, lost ballots, and broken voting machines.
"Do you really think McCain can beat him?" I asked. "No, I think we'll win," came the response, "but it's going to be a nail-biter, and it's going to be a long, long night."
So get your rest, political junkies, between now and November 4, because it could be an all-nighter that night. Or even longer....
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Sarah Palin's Endangered Whale Problem With the Bush Administration
Tweet Share on Facebook October 20, 2008 Comment (14)We truly are in never-neverland. First, the Bush administration did something to protect an animal species. Yes, that's what I said. The Bush administration did something pro-environment, for a change. That in and of itself is history-making.
But wait—it gets better. In protecting the beluga whale in Alaska, the Bush administration directly contravened the antienvironment administration of, you guessed it, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The Bush administration declared, according to the Los Angeles Times,
