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Gloria Steinem: Steinem was

Gino G — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:11:21 -0500

Gloria Steinem:
Steinem was a member of Democratic Socialists of America.

In the run-up to the 2004 election, Steinem voiced fierce criticism of the Bush administration, asserting, "There has never been an administration that has been more hostile to women’s equality, to reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right, and he has acted on that hostility." She went on to claim, "If he is elected in 2004, abortion will be criminalized in this country."[20] At a Planned Parenthood event in Boston, Steinem declared Bush "a danger to health and safety," citing his antagonism to Clean Water Act, reproductive freedom, sex education, and AIDS relief.

Steinem has been an active political participant in the 2008 election. She praised both the Democratic front-runners

Steinem again drew attention for, according to the New York Observer, seeming "to denigrate the importance of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam." Steinem's broader argument "was that the media and the political world are too admiring of militarism in all its guises."

And you wonder why she has negative feelings for Palin?
Ya think it has anything to do with her hatred for Republicans?
Ya think?

Palin: wrong woman, wrong

edenpprairiefactchecker — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:57:02 -0500

Palin: wrong woman, wrong message

Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

By Gloria Steinem
September 4, 2008

"Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president.

We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.

Palin has been honest about what she doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."

She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate's views on "God, guns and gays" ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.

So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.

So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.

Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.

Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.

And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.

This could be huge.

Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's Media Center. She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,...

Trooper-Gate Report Fast

edenpprairiefactchecker — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:41:40 -0500

Trooper-Gate Report Fast Tracked

Investigation into Palin Now on Fast Track
Sources Tell ABC News that Report Will Be Released Almost Three Weeks Early

" ABC News has exclusively learned that Alaska Senator Hollis French will announce today that he is moving up the release date of his investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired. The results of the investigation were originally scheduled for release Oct. 31 but will now come almost three weeks earlier, according to sources.

Alaska state senator Hollis French, who is running an investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin, says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31st.
(The Associated Press)The announcement is set for 9 a.m. AKDT time.

Related
'October Surprise' Over Palin Investigation?Palin Could Be Deposed in State Probe More From Brian Ross and the Investigative Team. The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin had accused the McCain campaign of using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.

"It's likely to be damaging to the Governor's administration," said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation.

Palin, who has denied any wrongdoing and has said she has nothing to hide, has hired private lawyers to represent her in the matter. "

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5734511&page=1

RNC Protestors cite

edenpprairiefactchecker — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:36:49 -0500

RNC Protestors cite insincere message

Nearly 400 arrested downtown as the show goes on inside the Xcel
Pioneer Press

" St. Paul's wild week of world-class protests ended Thursday with a flurry of demonstrations, mass arrests and traffic-stopping events.

But as the final protests of the week wound down Thursday night, St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington sighed with relief.

"I'm glad this is almost over," Harrington said during a mass arrest of about 300 people on the Marion Street bridge over Interstate 94.

"I would have loved to have people express their First Amendment rights. But there were people who came here to disrupt, not to protest."

He said demonstrators wanted to rattle the Republican National Convention. But even with the sit-down strikes, chanting and a few cases of vandalism and assaults, the show went on inside the Xcel Energy Center.

As of early this morning, the total number of people arrested in RNC-related incidents this week was 818, according to a preliminary tally from the Ramsey County sheriff's office. That figure includes 716 arrests in Ramsey County and 102 arrests in Minneapolis.

On Thursday, 396 people were arrested, with 90 percent of them misdemeanors, according to the Ramsey County sheriff's department. However, some of those arrested Thursday had guns or other weapons, Harrington said.

On Thursday, the anti-war demonstrators, facing their last chance at a national audience before the elections in November, finished with a flourish.

The day's events began with police closing the High Bridge at 9:45 a.m. because of the high

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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volume of traffic, police said.
Early in the afternoon, about 150 students from Youth Against the War and Racism marched to the Peace Island Picnic at Harriet Island.

The students conducted a mock trial for what they called war criminals: Vice President ****** Cheney; Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq; and "Big Oil Bob" — all papier-mache puppet heads worn by students.

Mike Baumhofer of St. Paul said he came to support some of his grandchildren who were part of the student protest. "I'm a strong Democrat," he said, "and I'm against this RNC being in town."

Heather Ilse of Minneapolis came to the event with her 7-year-old son because it had been advertised as peaceful and nonpartisan. "For me, peace is not political," she said.

Former FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley said she was dismayed by Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech Wednesday.

"I think the main focus is on fake and phony and on who can give this great speech and look the part," Rowley said.

"What are we doing? We're voting like you would for a prom queen. It's not just females, it's males, too. The issues are irrelevant," Rowley said.

By mid-afternoon, several businesses closed over concerns about evening protests.

Two Ramsey County buildings closed at 3 p.m., said county spokesman Art Coulson.

Dan Thomas, chief operating officer of Twin Cities Public Television, said staffers could leave at 3:30 p.m. with their managers' permission, citing "staff concerns" about the protests.

Matt Anfang, president of the Greater St. Paul Building Owners & Managers Association, advised members "there may be streets closed that may make it difficult to leave" downtown. He likened it to warning of an impending "tornado or severe weather."

The day's largest protest began at 4 p.m. with several hundred people at the State Capitol.

As the last speaker wrapped up her speech about 4:50 p.m., a police officer announced over the

(Alex Leary | Pioneer Press)loudspeaker: "Your permit will expire at 5 p.m. At that point, you don't have a right to march."
Some protesters sat down in the street, chanting "Whose war? Their war! Whose streets? Our streets!" Some drew slogans in chalk on the street: "Arrest Cheney," and "Another world is possible."

Then the group began marching.

The crowd first walked into police officers gathered near the Peace and Police Officers memorial at 12th and Cedar streets. Police in riot gear took the protesters' green banner and effigy of John McCain.

About 30 protesters sat in the intersection, making peace signs with their fingers. Police arrested more than a dozen of them. Movable steel barricades and dump trucks blocked the intersection.

Several hundred other protesters looked on from the perimeter. Police donned gas masks and appeared ready to spray the crowd with pepper spray. The crowd turned onto Rice Street.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher and a group of Guardian Angels were also on the scene. Some in the crowd called the Angels "sellouts" because they were with the police.

As McCain prepared to speak inside the Xcel, police arrested about 300 people on the Marion Street bridge over Interstate 94. About a dozen journalists were detained, including Pioneer Press photographer Ben Garvin, WCCO-TV cameraman Tom Aviles and Associated Press reporter Amy Forliti.

Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion told reporters near the bridge, "Frankly, I hope it's the end so everyone can go home. We all thought there would be activity, particularly the first night and last night."

On Thursday night, another group of about 25 protesters was detained at St. Anthony Avenue and Marion Street near the Sears parking lot, hands on their heads as police searched their bags with flashlights.

Matthew Hurt, a legal observer with the Minnesota Lawyers Guild, was among them. He yelled to reporters: "We were told to disperse west. This is west. We are being arrested."

Several protesters said police overreacted.

In one incident, eight cops in riot gear gathered outside Mayor Chris Coleman's office as lawyers for demonstrators asked to meet with officials. Mayoral spokesman Bob Hume escorted lawyers and activists from the building.

Chris Hermes of the National Lawyers Guild said he was shocked that riot police showed up.

On the Capitol grounds, Wylie Stecklow, a New York City attorney, said he witnessed police arresting a couple nearby without cause. About 70 police officers in riot gear arrived on the scene with another 16 on horses.

"This is just poor decision-making by the police," Stecklow said. "The rally was incredibly peaceful."

Compiled from reports by John Brewer, Emma Carew, Richard Chin, Mara H. Gottfried, Jason Hoppin, Michael Marchio, Elizabeth Mohr, Dave Orrick and Bob Shaw."

http://www.twincities.com/ci_10385049?source=most_viewed

Heart tells GOP to take

edenpprairiefactchecker — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:26:34 -0500

Heart tells GOP to take 'Barracuda' off play list

"Bruce Springsteen did it to Ronald Reagan. John Mellencamp and Jackson Browne did it to John McCain. And now Heart is doing it to Sarah Palin.

The musicians all asked the politicians to stop using their hits to sell their Republican messages.

Palin, the hockey mom who captured the nation's attention as McCain's VP pick, was greeted at the Republican National Convention this week to the sounds of Heart's "Barracuda," a nod to her nickname, her toughness — and her "soulless, corporate nature"?

Here's what Heart, the band that sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson made famous for hard rocking in the 1970s, had to say about Palin's use of the song:

"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there."

The sisters have asked the campaign to stop using the tune and their label has slapped the campaign with a cease-and-desist order."

http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_10389838?source=rncWidget

Apparently we were watching

Gino G — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:23:53 -0500

Apparently we were watching two different programs.

Clinton aides: Palin

Ponytail — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:31:56 -0500

Clinton aides: Palin treatment sexist

"Sarah Palin pumps her fist during her speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday.
Photo: AP

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Sarah Palin found some unlikely allies Wednesday as leading academics and even former top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the Republican charge that John McCain’s running mate has been subject to a sexist double standard by the news media and Democrats.

Georgetown University professor Deborah Tannen, who has written best-selling books on gender differences, said she agrees with complaints that Palin skeptics — including prominent voices in the news media — have crossed a line by speculating about whether the Alaska governor is neglecting her family in pursuit of national office.

“What we’re dealing with now, there’s nothing subtle about it,” said Tannen. “We’re dealing with the assumption that child-rearing is the job of women and not men. Is it sexist? Yes.”

“There’s no way those questions would be asked of a male candidate,” said Howard Wolfson a former top strategist for Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The sexism charge was hurled with new intensity Wednesday afternoon by McCain surrogates, all women, at a news conference just hours before made her acceptance speech here - a speech in which she said this about the media and Washington elite: "I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

The tense encounter with reporters showed how McCain’s team has abandoned all pretense that this convention is about anything but Palin, her résumé and her wildly unexpected ascension to the GOP ticket.

A choice that was intended to shake up the race did so with more ferocity than McCain ever intended. The mother of five — with one pregnant teenage daughter and an infant son with Down syndrome — has joined a parade of personalities from Anita Hill to O.J. Simpson to Monica Lewinsky to become a cultural flash point.

As the controversy over her qualifications and McCain’s vetting process overwhelmed events here, hypocritical rhetoric was flowing at full tide on all sides of the debate.

Many conservatives, who spent a generation ridiculing the politics of victimhood and group identity, are now zealously invoking both in the Twin Cities. A common GOP talking point here is that Palin’s gender and experiences as a mother should be counted as an asset among her qualifications. At the news conference, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift condemned “an outrageous smear campaign” against Palin, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said, “The Republican Party will not stand by while Gov. Palin is subjected to sexist attacks.”

Just last spring, Palin herself scoffed when Hillary Clinton’s campaign complained about a double standard in coverage.

“When I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism, or maybe a sharper microscope put on her, I think, 'Man, that doesn't do us any good, women in politics, or women in general, trying to progress this country,' ” Palin said.

See Also
Smile! You're in PoliWood
Why the media should apologize
Politico's guide to the conventions
Now, McCain’s team is urgently recruiting female surrogates and loudly crying sexism to deflect legitimate inquiries into Palin’s experience, her record, and the last-minute, improvisational process by which McCain chose a small-state governor who was elected in 2006 after serving of mayor of small-town Wasilla, a far suburb of Anchorage.

It was a process dominated by a small handful of male aides to McCain, consulting no woman other than the candidate’s wife, Cindy McCain.

Even so, many media and liberal voices have made the job easy for McCain’s spin squadrons. Among the eyebrow-raising comments in recent days:

• Democrat Joe Biden, in what he intended as self-deprecating remark, observed, “There's a gigantic difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and between me and I suspect my vice presidential opponent. ... She's good looking."

• A spokeswoman for the National Organization for Women, noting Palin’s opposition to abortion rights and support of other parts of the social conservative agenda, told Politico, “She's more a conservative man than she is a woman on women's issues. Very disappointing."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13129.html

Bill Lapadat Asked What we

Ponytail — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:29:45 -0500

Bill Lapadat Asked

What we thought about the DNC Convention. I wanted to wait till I could make a comparison before I responded. Despite what has been perceived as a divided party, the Dems pulled off a cohesive, positive affair. The most telling part was the audience, all seeming to be genuinely overjoyed/positive vibes.

Haven't seen this at the RNC Convention. Here's an article which conveys how I feel: Republicans continue to go negative.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-campaign-says-rnc-too-negative...

Obama campaign says RNC too negative
By Ian Swanson
Posted: 09/04/08 03:48 PM [ET]
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is criticizing Republicans for going too negative at their convention.

"A senior official for the Obama campaign said the attack-dog speech by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the stinging remarks by GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin could haunt Republicans in November.

“I think they come at a political cost,” Obama communications director Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday at a lunch sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.

Gibbs said that when a candidate emphasizes the contrasts between two politicians, as Palin did repeatedly in her address, “it’s not a zero sum game.” He said some viewers will end up seeing the Alaska governor more positively, but others will end up thinking of her more negatively.

Gibbs said he was struck by the tone of the attacks from Palin and Giuliani, who both mocked Obama’s background as a community organizer in Illinois.

“I think some of those lines are lines that largely will go over the heads of those who haven’t been focused on this election,” Gibbs said. He said he believed Giuliani, who energized the Xcel Energy Center crowd on Wednesday, used too much sarcasm in mocking Sen. Obama (D-Ill.), and said this could “turn off voters who will decide this election.”

Speaker after speaker has gone after Obama aggressively at the GOP convention.

Before Giuliani took the stage, former GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee both made comments directed at the Democratic presidential nominee. Romney even took a shot at Michelle Obama, highlighting her remark about being proud to be an American for the first time because of her husband’s political success. Romney said there had never been a day when he was not proud to be an American.

A day earlier, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) ripped Obama before a roaring partisan crowd, and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2000, offered a dim view of Obama’s Senate accomplishments.

Democrats went after McCain at their own convention last week, and Obama was particularly critical of McCain’s positions in his speech that closed the convention. But Democrats also praised McCain as a war hero who had sacrificed for his country. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) even drew applause for McCain from the crowd during his primetime speech.

Republican speakers have praised Obama’s patriotism and his eloquence, but so far there have been no applause lines.

Republican delegates on Thursday clearly loved both the speeches by Giuliani and Palin, who has become the star of the convention. But Gibbs said it remains to be seen how swing voters in America’s suburbs who are just getting to know Palin from television coverage will think.

He also said he did not think Republicans had done enough to introduce McCain to the country. While he has served four terms in the Senate and ran for president in 2000, Gibbs said much of the country still doesn’t know what he stands for."

Readers Write: What Palin

edenpprairiefactchecker — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:26:28 -0500

Readers Write: What Palin Pick Means for America

"AlterNet readers weigh in on McCain's pick of Gov. Sarah Palin, the many skeletons in her closet, and what it all means for the country.

"So far, Republicans have toed the party line on Sarah Palin, obediently parroting the McCain campaign's tenuous claims about her "experience" and "qualifications" to be vice president. At least publicly. A microphone mishap today during an MSNBC news segment revealed what some conservatives really think about the latest addition to the Republican ticket. At the end of the segment the cameras stopped running, but the pundits' microphones stayed on and caught former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and former McCain adviser Mike Murphy excoriating the McCain campaign for picking Palin. When asked if Palin is the most qualified for the job, Noonan stated in no uncertain terms "No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives." Murphy went on to label the pick "gimmicky" and "cynical."
"It's over," concluded Noonan.

Noonan's prognosis is not surprising considering the alarming information about Palin that has surfaced since her nomination -- not just the soap opera stuff about her family life, but serious issues that call into question her skills, judgment and preparedness for national office.

The past day has brought even more bad news for Palin. Consortium News reports that Palin ran her campaign for lieutenant governor from her mayoral office -- a clear violation of campaign ethics laws.

Over the past two days AlterNet has compiled two lists of revelations about Palin, and our readers, much like Noonan and Murphy, have some pretty strong opinions. Many readers have weighed in on our comment boards, touching on everything from sexism to religion. From those who questioned her preparedness to those who think her nomination is an impressive Rovian tactic, here's what our readers had to say about the GOP's VP pick.

Many point out that Palin makes sense on the Republican ticket, since she shares her party's penchant for inconsistency and hypocrisy on matters of morality and religion.

Taxi-driver points to the strange disconnect between Palin's religion and her policies:

How can anyone pray to God for a gas pipeline? How can Palin and others of her ilk call themselves Christian? How can so many Christians go along with this? What Obama needs to do is to talk about true Christian values -- charity, humility, service, even (I daresay) love, and expose Palin and her crowd for what they are: impostors and charlatans who think God should work for gas pipelines in Alaska.
Ydothehatus takes on the absurdity of Palin's abstinence-only stance, especially in light of her daughter's pregnancy. They also point out that for all of Palin's talk about the importance of family, she is exploiting her daughter for political gain:

Palin ... believes in "Abstinence only Education" -- now her daughter is a poster child for this discredited myth ... she is further exploiting her daughter by forcing her to get married at such a young age, and using this pregnancy to rally the anti-abortionist core of the Repuglicans.
Many readers point out that regardless of her beliefs, Palin is simply not prepared for the job.

Badkitty writes:

Has anyone here ever been to a small town city counsel meeting? I have, and being the mayor of a small town in the middle of no place can NOT prepare anyone to be president or vice president! It is ridiculous. Palin knows nothing whatsoever about foreign affairs. We are at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. ... Health care? Home mortgage banking crisis? The economy in general? How about constitutional law? No? They got nothing. Palin's got nothing.

Foreverhope also points out that so far we have not gotten a sense of what -- if anything -- Palin thinks about foreign policy, the environment, health care and other issues that should be at the forefront of the election:

I would like to see her opinions on the illegal wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, what's going on in Pakistan, trade policy (and is Alaskan oil really sent to Japan?), the mortgage meltdown, infrastructure collapse, the economy, taxation, the bloated and unnecessary military ... the environment, especially, if she doesn't believe in man-made climate change or global warming, just how does she propose to address the issues of weather change (drought in the West, melting permafrost, stronger hurricanes, more tornadoes, etc.)?"

Live Mike from St Paul The

edenpprairiefactchecker — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:18:12 -0500

Live Mike from St Paul

The Conversation

"Chuck Todd: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your BlackBerry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin, and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job. Up next, one man who's already convinced, and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.
(cut away)

Peggy Noonan: Yeah.

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys — this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And —

PN: It's over.

The following is an excerpt from a convo between Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan and Chuck Todd thanks be to a live mike, as reported by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo (here's a video):

MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.

PN: Saw Kay this morning.

CT: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this —

MM: They're all bummed out.

CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this — excuse me — political bullshit about narratives —

CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.

MM: I totally agree.

PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.

MM: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.

CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.

MM: Yeah.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/anneschroeder/

Coal Green Conventions Coal

edenpprairiefactchecker — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:10:06 -0500

Coal Green Conventions

Coal out in force at green convention

DENVER — They may be “green” conventions but the coal industry isn’t burying its head in the sand.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a group of mining companies and electric utilities, plans to spend $1.7 million on advertising and lobbying at the Democratic convention in Denver and the Republican one next week in St. Paul, Minn.

The mission: to promote massive federal subsidies to reduce coal’s carbon footprint.

“The audiences [at the conventions] are probably the highest concentration of opinion leaders that we could reach in one geographically defined area,” said Joe Lucas, a spokesman for ACCCE.

“From the moment folks walk off the plane in Denver or Minneapolis, we start a conversation about what does clean coal mean.”

Coal burning is responsible for around 20 percent of the greenhouse gases released globally each year into the atmosphere, so coal promoters might feel out of place at conventions where planners are using energy-efficient lighting and biodegradable utensils to reduce their carbon footprints.

What’s more, both presidential candidates have embraced a global warming plan that would cut carbon emissions. That could curb coal use unless the industry can find a way to burn coal more cleanly.

Right now, coal accounts for 50 percent of the electricity produced in the United States. So taking it out of the fuel mix would likely sting, and most energy experts think it is not a serious option given the economic ramifications.

Coal is found in several key electoral states, which translates into political power on Capitol Hill.

But the industry believes that, with the right technology, consumers don’t have to choose between the environment and affordable energy anymore.

The problem is that it is prohibitively expensive to keep carbon dioxide from releasing into the atmosphere. It’s not even a sure bet that it is technically feasible.

Sequestering carbon dioxide underground is one potential solution, but the industry says it needs the government’s support to build the technology to be able to do that on a scale needed to make a difference.

Lucas’s group wants the government to spend around $17 billion on clean coal. Coal groups have also lobbied against imposing a carbon cap until clean coal technology is available to users.

With gasoline rising to over $4 a gallon this summer, ACCCE is also promoting a controversial plan to turn coal into a transportation fuel. That needs another government subsidy and draws the ire of environmental groups. The coal-to-liquid carbon emissions are actually much higher than those produced by traditional petroleum extraction and refining.

ACCCE’s advocacy efforts this week and next include traditional advertising on billboards and in print. But the group also plans to have a big “experiential media” footprint.

There are coal “brand ambassadors” on the streets and working events that Lucas equated to the booths consumers often see promoting credit cards.

ACCCE is also distributing what Lucas called a “very collectable button.”

And a bus available to delegates in Denver is wrapped in a clean coal advertisement. Riders get more than transport to the convention hall. They will also get a lecture on clean coal as a price of the free ride.

Lastly, Lucas said, the group will have 30 or so people working Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) acceptance speech on Thursday at Invesco Field, handing out fans that say, “I’m a fan of clean coal.”

“This is a very unique opportunity to engage,” Lucas said.

http://thehill.com/business--lobby/coal-out-in-force-at-green-convention...

Noonan Murphy Dish on

edenpprairiefactchecker — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:01:22 -0500

Noonan Murphy Dish on Palin

"It's all Palin, all the time, on the Web."

"Just hours before Gov. Sarah Palin's speech tonight in St. Paul, Minn., the latest YouTube video making the rounds captures off-the-cuff comments from prominent conservative columnist Peggy Noonan and former John McCain campaign manager Michael Murphy following a segment that aired today on NBC with Chuck Todd. Thinking that the microphone had been turned off -- or, perhaps, that the video signal had stopped transmitting -- Noonan and Murphy ripped into Palin as a political choice who would weigh down the GOP ticket.

"It's over," said Noonan.

Asked if Palin was the most qualified woman for the Republican running mate slot, Noonan replied, "The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives and [inaudible] the picture."

Later, she continued, "Every time the Republicans do that because that's not where they
live and it's not what they're good at and they blow it."

Added Murphy, "You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of
McCain is no cynicism and this is cynical."

In her Wall Street Journal column today, Noonan was more circumspect in writing about Palin.

"The Sarah Palin choice is really going to work, or really not going to work," she wrote. "It's not going to be a little successful or a little not; it's not going to be a wash. She is either going to be magic or one of history's accidents. She is either going to be brilliant and groundbreaking, or will soon be the target of unattributed quotes by bitter staffers shifting blame in all the Making of the President 2008 books. Of which there should be plenty, as we've never had a year like this, with the fabulous freak of a campaign."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/03/noonan_and_murphy_...

"Clintonism Lives" "For

edenpprairiefactchecker — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:24:05 -0500

"Clintonism Lives"

"For eight years, President Bill Clinton prepared America for the 21st century, restoring optimism and activism to the presidency, redefining America’s role in the world, funneling more money to the poor and underserved while balancing the budget and creating the foundation for the one of the greatest economic expansions since the Industrial Age.

And yet as Barack Obama formally accepts the Democratic nomination, having defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton, people regularly ask whether is Clintonism dead.

No, not by a long shot.

It remains the most cohesive and successful Democratic governing philosophy the country has had since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s election 1932 and the advent of the New Deal.

Clintonism’s foundation was to “put people first” — to expand educational and economic opportunities across the board while seeking to open up the economy and compete globally and to support basic values like personal and community responsibility. It did all this while clearing away the tangled underbrush created by a dozen years of Republican rule that had left the country with severe budget deficits and deteriorating public services. And at the same time, it broke down the cultural, social, racial and religious barriers that the Republicans had erected. It charted new directions for Democrats just as Tony Blair defined New Labour for his party.

Interestingly, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain’s campaign is still in the grips of these outmoded and failed Republican ideas. Is he intolerant enough? Is he pro-life enough? McCain may have been a Republican rebel on global warming and campaign finance reform, but he has stressed his biography and toughness in this campaign so far, not what he would do as president.

And there is no evidence McCain has any idea how to govern, other than to let the rich get richer, reduce the size of government, cut taxes and be tough on foreign affairs. In the Senate he may have differed from President Bush, but he has taken on the president’s policy philosophy more and more in the presidential race.

That is likely to be McCain’s biggest problem in the fall. He is putting Bush back on the ballot.

It was only natural that, while running against a Clinton, Obama distanced himself from the '90s and Clintonism. But upon securing the nomination he immediately began taking on more and more Clinton policy advisers and cabinet secretaries, from former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin on down. He has moved back to the Clinton center, and, interestingly, at the Aug. 16 Saddleback forum he even endorsed Clinton’s welfare reform proposal as something he opposed at first but now supports as having been effective.

So Clinton and Bush are not on the ballot this fall, but their ideas increasingly are. What has so far been an election driven by personality and experience differences is very much a campaign about which direction to take the country and how best to govern. Once an election is over, these personality issues tend to recede and it’s the policy fights that loom large — starting with taxes, healthcare reform, trade and all the issues that President Clinton confronted in the first 100 days of both terms.

Where is the country on all this? If anything, the country shows every sign of yearning for Clintonism as a governing idea now as much as it ever has."

You can read more at this URL:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12792.html

Feeling No Pain? Krugman

edenpprairiefactchecker — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:19:44 -0500

Feeling No Pain?

Krugman wrote in the NYTimes, "My first reaction to Bill Clinton’s convention speech was sheer professional jealousy: nobody, but nobody, has his ability to translate economic wonkery into plain, forceful English. In effect, Mr. Clinton provided an executive summary of the new Census report on income, poverty and health insurance — but he did it so eloquently, so seamlessly, that there was no sense that he was giving his audience a lecture.

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My second reaction was that in Mr. Clinton’s speech — as in the speeches by Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden (this column was filed before Barack Obama spoke on Thursday night) — one heard the fundamental difference between the two parties. Democrats say and, as far as I can tell, really believe that working Americans are getting a raw deal; Republicans, despite occasional attempts to sound sympathetic, basically believe that people have nothing to complain about.

As it happens, the numbers support the Democrats.

That Census report gives a snapshot of the economic status of American families in 2007 — that is, before the financial crisis started dragging the economy down and the unemployment rate up. It’s a given that 2008 will look much worse, so last year was as good as it will get in the Bush years. Yet working-age Americans had significantly lower median income in 2007 than they did in 2000. (The elderly, whose income is supported by Social Security — the program the Bush administration tried to kill — saw modest gains.) Meanwhile, poverty was up, and health insurance — especially the employment-based insurance on which most middle-class Americans depend — was down.

But Republicans, very much including John McCain and his advisers, don’t believe there’s a problem.

Former Senator Phil Gramm made headlines, and stepped down as co-chairman of the McCain campaign, after he described America as a “nation of whiners.” But how different was that remark, really, from Mr. McCain’s own declaration that “there’s been great progress economically” — progress that’s mysteriously invisible in the actual data — during the Bush years? And Mr. Gramm, by all accounts, remains a key economic adviser to Mr. McCain.

Last week John Goodman, an influential figure in Republican health care circles, explained that we shouldn’t worry about the growing number of Americans without health insurance, because there’s no such thing as being uninsured. After all, you can always get treatment at an emergency room. And Mr. Goodman — he’s the president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, an important conservative think tank, and is often described as the “father of health savings accounts,” a central feature of the Bush administration’s health policy — wants the next president to issue an executive order prohibiting the Census Bureau from classifying anyone as uninsured. “Voilà!” he says. “Problem solved.”

The truth, of course, is that visiting the emergency room in a medical crisis is no substitute for regular care. Furthermore, while a hospital will treat you whether or not you can pay, it will also bill you — and the bill won’t be waived unless you’re destitute. As a result, uninsured working Americans avoid visiting emergency rooms if at all possible, because they’re terrified by the potential cost: medical expenses are one of the prime causes of personal bankruptcy.

Mr. Goodman has in the past, including in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, described himself as an adviser to the McCain campaign on health policy. The campaign now claims that he is not, in fact, an adviser. But it’s a good bet that Mr. McCain’s inner circle shares Mr. Goodman’s views.

You see, Mr. Goodman’s assertion that lack of health insurance is no problem precisely echoed what President Bush said a year ago: “I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.” That’s because both men — like Mr. Gramm — were just saying in public what modern Republicans say when they talk to each other. Despite attempts to feign sympathy, the leaders of today’s G.O.P. fundamentally feel that Americans complaining about their economic and health care difficulties are, well, just a bunch of whiners.

And that, ultimately, even more than their policy proposals, is what defines the difference between the parties.

It’s true that elected Democrats are often too cautious — and too beholden to major donors — to be as progressive as the party’s activists would like. But even in the face of a Republican Congress, Mr. Clinton succeeded in pushing forward policies, like the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, that did a lot to help working families.

And what one sees on the other side is a total lack of empathy for and understanding of the problems working Americans face. Mr. Clinton, famously, felt our pain. Republicans, manifestly, don’t. And it’s hard to fix a problem if you don’t even think it exists. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/opinion/29krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogi...

PALIN POLARIZING AS

edenpprairiefactchecker — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:54:27 -0500

PALIN POLARIZING AS MAYOR

"....... In the first major race of her career — the 1996 campaign for mayor of her hometown, Wasilla — Palin was a far more conventional politician. In fact, according to some who were involved in that fight, Palin was a highly polarizing political figure who brought partisan politics and hot-button social issues like abortion and gun control into a mayoral race that had traditionally been contested like a friendly intramural contest among neighbors.

In the early '90s, Wasilla was little more than half as big as it is today, and much more loosely confederated. The main issue then, says longtime resident Chas St. George, was public safety. "We needed a police department," he says. "So we set up a group to make it happen." That group — Watch on Wasilla — included a handful of the town's most influential figures: St. George; the town's mayor, John Stein; and Palin, who wasn't in elected office yet. Her father-in-law Jim Palin and his wife Faye were also in the group.

Eventually, they started a police department, led by chief Irl Stambaugh. Kaylene Johnson, author of Sarah, a Palin biography published earlier this year, says one place where the power group met was a step-aerobics class that Stambaugh and Stein took along with Palin. That class signed the original petition for Palin's first political race, for city council in 1992, which she won.

Four years later, she took on her former workout buddy in a race that quickly became contentious. In Stein's view, Palin's main transgression was injecting big-time politics into a small-town local race. "It was always a nonpartisan job," he says. "But with her, the state GOP came in and started affecting the race." While Palin often describes that race as having been a fight against the old boys' club, Stein says she made sure the campaign hinged on issues like gun owners' rights and her opposition to abortion (Stein is pro-choice). "It got to the extent that — I don't remember who it was now — but some national antiabortion outfit sent little pink cards to voters in Wasilla endorsing her," he says.

Vicki Naegele was the managing editor of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman at the time. "[Stein] figured he was just going to run your average, friendly small-town race," she recalls, "but it turned into something much different than that." Naegele held the same conservative Christian beliefs as Palin but didn't think they had any place in local politics.

"I just thought, That's ridiculous, she should concentrate on roads, not abortion," says Naegele.

St. George worked on Stein's campaign at the time, and while he says he has no reason to dispute Stein's recollection of events, he doesn't remember Palin's conduct being beyond the pale. "Our tax coffers were starting to grow," he says. "John was for expanding services, and Sarah wasn't. That's what the race was about."

One thing all sides agree on is that the valley was in flux. The old libertarian pioneer ethos was giving way to a rising Christian conservatism. By shrewdly invoking issues that mattered to the ascendant majority, Palin won the mayor's race. But while she may have been a new face, says Naegele, she was no maverick — not yet. "The state party gave her the mechanism to get into that office," says Naegele. "As soon as she was confident enough to brush them off, she did. But she wasn't an outsider to start with. She very much had to kowtow to them."

Governing was no less contentious than campaigning, at least to begin with. Palin ended up dismissing almost all the city department heads who had been loyal to Stein, including a few who had been instrumental in getting her into politics to begin with. Some saw it as a betrayal. Stambaugh, the police chief and a member of Palin's step-aerobics class, filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination, alleging that Palin terminated him in part at the behest of the National Rifle Association, because he had opposed a concealed-gun law that the NRA supported. He eventually lost the suit. The animosity spawned some talk of a recall attempt, but eventually Palin's opponents in the city council opted for a more conciliatory route.

At some point in those fractious first days, Palin told the department heads they needed her permission to talk to reporters. "She put a gag order on those people, something that you'd expect to find in the big city, not here," says Naegele. "She flew in there like a big-city gal, which she's not. It was a strange time, and [the Frontiersman] came out very harshly against her."

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

St. George, however, points out that Palin couldn't have seen everything through an Evangelical lens. She did, he says, notably resist calls to restrict operating hours for the bars in town. And even if faith did play an unusually large role in her decision-making as mayor, it may have only reflected the continued rise of Evangelicalism in the valley, a growth that continues to this day.

"We like to call this the Bible Belt of Alaska," says Cheryl Metiva, head of the local chamber of commerce. Churches proliferate in Wasilla today, and among the largest and most influential is the Wasilla Bible Church, where the Palins worship.

At the 11:15 a.m. Sunday service, hundreds sit in folding chairs, listening to a 20-minute sermon about the Book of Malachi and singing along to alt-rock praise songs. The only sign of culture warring in the whole production is an insert in the day's program advertising an upcoming Focus on the Family conference on homosexuality in Anchorage called Love Won Out. The group promises to teach attendees how to "respond to misinformation in our culture" and help them "overcome" homosexuality.

When Palin, who went on to win re-election by a landslide, was forced out of the Mayor's office by term limits in 2002, her husband Todd's stepmother Faye Palin ran for mayor. She did not, however, get Sarah Palin's endorsement. A couple of people told me that they thought abortion was the reason for Palin not supporting her family member — Faye, they say, is pro-choice, not to mention a Democrat. A former city council member recalls that it was a heated race, mainly because of right-to-life issues: "People were writing BABYKILLER on Faye's campaign signs just a few days before the election." Faye Palin lost the race to the candidate that Sarah backed, Dianne Keller, who is still mayor of Wasilla. (Over the weekend, Faye Palin told the New York Daily News that she liked listening to Barack Obama speak and that she wasn't sure who she would vote for in November.)

By the time Sarah Palin was entering state politics, the hottest issue in Alaska wasn't gay marriage or even abortion. It was corruption and cronyism. Andrew Halcro, a noted Palin critic who ran against her as an independent in the governor's race, says she knew instinctively that the issues were changing. Plus, he says, her opponents, such as incumbent governor Frank Murkowski, whom she defeated in the primary, were just as hard-right on abortion and guns as she was.

She needed a new political identity to make it to the next level, so ethics reform became her calling card. "She's a very savvy politician," says Halcro. "So wedge issues were not part of the portfolio."

"If anything," he says, "she got tired of answering questions about them." Halcro recalls one debate in October 2006 in which, after repeated questions about her opposition to abortion even in cases of rape or incest, she looked at the moderator with exasperation and asked if they were going to talk about anything besides abortion. It was detracting from her new message: cleaning up the capitol. "

Read the entire article at this URL:

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837918,00.html

The Fact-Checker: Truth in Politics

vamma — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:27:00 -0600

The Washington Post has the right idea.

They will put all the candidates for 2008 Presidential Election through their "Fact-Checker" system, Republican and Democrat alike.

It's something we might think of doing in Eden Prairie for the 2008 election.

They Washington Post created "The Fact-Checker" at
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/?hpid=topnews

The current candidate under scrutiny for legit/non-legit?? tax-cuts is the GOP Presidential contender Mike Huckabee.

Evidently out of 91 cuts from 1995 to 2005, there were 21 tax increases which off-set those cuts.