Hot politic

At last nights Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin took the stage and proceeded to take her place in American History.  The question here is, how will American History eventually perceive her?  Will she be a large part of history or merely a footnight, as a mistake that was made in 2008 by an old and desperate John McCain.  The fact that she most likely had no input into a speech, that was written for her by the McCain Campaign, only makes the points that were made that more ominous.  She is merely being used as an attack dog by this campaign which is leaving her out there to be pulled apart and attacked even more.

Here is a small excerpt from that speech, where she defends her experience against the onslaught of both blog and mainstream media attacks.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.

Here is a rebuttal to her attack from a "Community Organizer"

Here is the link to this you tube video.  Please leave a thank you for this young lady for her strength to stand up an take a stance.

www.youtube.com

Bambang Nurdiansyah (Banur) akhirnya resmi menukangi PSIS Semarang dengan durasi kontrak hingga akhir musim ini. Mantan pelatih Timnas Indonesia U-21 itu diberi target pengurus agar PSIS tak degradasi. Banur resmi menggantikan posisi Edy Paryono yang didepak saat Liga Super Indonesia baru bergulir dua pertandingan.

Penandatangan kontrak digelar di kantor PSIS, namun tak diketahui berapa besar jumlahnya. Yang pasti, seperti dikabarkan sebelumnya, sebidang tanah di Ungaran dan mobil merk Kijang Innova 2007 berwarna hitam, menjadi milik Bambang sebagai bayarannya.

“Saya ditargetkan manajemen agar PSIS tak degradasi. Dengan materi pemain muda dan kompetisi yang panjang, saya yakin bisa mewujudkannya,” ujar pelatih yang juga pernah membesut Arema Malang itu.

“Saya suka dengan atmosfer di Stadion Jatidiri. Bagi saya, PSIS tetap tim besar. Merupakan kebanggaan bisa menangani tim tersebut,” tutup Bambang. [ ... ]

From Randy Turner of The Turner Report

The Yes for Schools First Committee is a thing of the past.

Missouri Ethics Commission documents filed Aug. 21 show the committee pushing for the removal of loss limits and the elimination of competition for casinos has changed its name to Yes on A Coalition.

The committee is pushing the passage of Proposition A, the so-called Schools First Initiative in November.

Though the casino interests are trying to sell Missourians on this proposition by linking it with schools, I described the effort this way in the May 3 Turner Report:

One of the biggest fictions that continues to be foisted upon the public is the idea that gambling money can solve all of the problems with school funding.

According to the advertising when Missourians approved a state lottery, that money was going to save the schools. Of course, the money was never designated for the schools, but was placed in general revenue. If the money had been targeted to schools, undoubtedly legislators would have cut the amount going into education from general revenue.

Every few years, those who want to increase gambling in this state, use education as a way to overcome resistance to the idea...and it is happening again.

The gambling interests never use names like "More Gambling in Missouri" or "A Sucker Born Every Minute" for their "grass roots" groups. The latest one, registered with the Missouri Ethics Commission on Dec. 21, 2007, is the Yes for Schools First Coalition.

The Coalition, which has been operating under the radar since that time (except for Arch City Chronicle and some in the blogosphere) appears to have landed enough signatures to allow Missourians to vote on removing loss limits from casinos, purportedly to pour those extra dollars into education.

Since this is a coalition designed to bring funding to education, you might expect to see those with a stake in education- parents, teachers, administrators, education interest groups lining up to back this initiative.

Missouri Ethics Commission documents paint a different picture.

The coalition's most recent disclosure report, filed April 15, shows $1,427,700 in contributions. Not one cent came from anyone associated with education. In fact, the funding came from only two sources- $835,700 from Ameristar Casinos and $592,00 from Pinnacle Entertainment.

This was the news release issued by the coalition Friday:

The YES for Schools First Coalition today submitted to the Missouri Secretary of State more than 160,000 voter signatures on petitions for the Schools First Initiative – far more than the approximately 92,000 signatures required to place the initiative on the November 2008 statewide ballot.

“We’re pleased that Missouri voters have shown strong support for our measure,” said the group’s spokesperson, Anne Marie Moy. “The Schools First Initiative provides vitally needed new funds to Missouri schools by increasing the state taxes paid by casinos. It prohibits the legislature from using the casino taxes dedicated to education for any other purpose. It also protects thousands of local jobs and our state economy, by ensuring that Missouri casinos can compete for visitors on an equal basis with casinos in neighboring states.”

The Schools First Initiative will provide more than $100 million per year in new funds for elementary and secondary schools statewide by increasing the state tax paid by riverboat casinos to 21% and by eliminating Missouri’s $500 loss limit. The measure requires annual audits by the State Auditor to ensure that all casino tax revenues dedicated to education are used only for school funding and are not used to replace or supplant other education funds.

By eliminating Missouri’s outdated loss limit, which no other state imposes, the initiative will ensure that Missouri can compete for casino visitors on a level playing field. The initiative also prevents oversaturation of the in-state casino market by limiting the number of Missouri casinos to those already built or under construction.

The Schools First Initiative is supported by the YES for Schools First Coalition, which includes Missouri teachers and parents, and community and business leaders. The initiative also is endorsed by the Missouri Gaming Association, the organization which represents all casino companies operating in Missouri.

Reading the news release reminded me of the infamous Lamar con artist James R. Montgomery, who attempted to run a canned food drive, allegedly to benefit the needy, and advertised that he would have a particular church and the Boy Scouts helping him. The Lamar Police Department checked and found the school had nothing to do with the drive and neither did the Scouts. When I questioned him about the drive, he said it was all a misunderstanding. He never said the church was involved with the drive, just some church members, and he had never mentioned the Boy Scouts participating, just some members of the Boy Scouts. The canned food drive was canceled.

In this case, the coalition claims to consist of Missouri teachers and parents, but the coalition's website does not contain any evidence of that.

From its name, the Schools First initiative sounds like an answer to all of our problems of education funding, but when you pull the curtain aside, this is a welfare proposal for the gambling industry.

I'm sorry to bring her up again, but Sarah Palin has managed to make headlinesstill with hurricane Gustav being the number one story. The latest news on her is that her 17  year old teenage daughter is 5 months pregnant. I don't pass judgement or condemn the daughter much less Sarah Palin for this. It's a very personal and non-political issue. That's my opinion on it.

But you can bet your boots it will become a factor in the election, as 527 groups (publicly run groups that have no affiliation proper with campaigns, but are supporters who run ads and events) will hammer it to death. The only good thing about to story coming out at all, politically, is that it came out this early, rather than later. I suspect that McCain and Palin both had rumours that it was going to come out without Palin having anything to do with it, so she might as well admit it before that.

But why she didn't say anything about this before she accepted the VP spot is amazing. Either she was never vetted at all, and simply asked to accept, or she is a greedy, grabbing politician who will grasp any opportunity that comes up and to hell with the consequences. I honestly suspect it was the first one, after reading this article. It says that Republican lawyers are going over her legal past and taxes, while Republican operatives are headed up to Alaska to dig up whatever else they can - if she hasn't already brought enough to the table herself.

In any normal VP selection, this is the stuff that happens beforethe selection is made. I can assure you that Biden was vetted and scrutinised beyond what was probably necessary weeks before the DNC. Tim Kaine and Evan Bayh both talked about it well before the DNC too. Palin should have been vetted long ago, because it would have shown all her problems. But now that they are doing it, surely they won't find anything else?

Well, actually, all they have to do is tune into ABC news and they will see a report that Palin is a member and speaker for Alaskan Independence Party since 1994 - a group that advocates Alaska seceding from the union! Their slogan: Alaska first - Alaska always. McCain's slogan: Country first. There's another ad already made for the Democrats. Palin reportedly only became a Republican in name to run for mayor of Wasilla. But that didn't stop Palin from addressing the AIP convention this year. At best, it's pandering for votes. At worst, she's still a believer in the AIP.

Most observers might find all this trivial. What has it got to do with national politics and policy. Nothing, really. But it's not that which all this is having an effect on. It's John McCain and his ability to delegate and make decisions. John McCain chose this woman to be his running mate after a 5 minute meeting with no vetting. Was that a responsible choice to make? John McCain chose not to delegate any responsibility over the VP selection process to someone responsible. Is that the act of a president? And John McCain has put Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency with no thought and no responsibility.

As much as people might have had varying thoughts about Huckabee or Romney, they had already been vetted in detail by Republican staff and by the media. None of this would have happen. So we ask ourselves the question - with these many scandals already coming out, is Palin still a smart pick? A smarter pick than Romney or Huckabee? McCain needs 90%+ of the Republican vote to even look like winning the election (but it doesn't guarentee it). How will these two latest scandals - pregnant teenage daughter and wanting to secede; two big no-nos in the Republican party who fought for the Union in the Civil War and are about family values - go down well with those voters?

Palin has to, this week, give an Obama speech. I'm talking like the 'A More Perfect Union'speech Obama gave when he had one scandal in the papers. It was the best speech he had given up until the last night of the DNC. It was hit out the park, and the scandal was over the very next day. Palin will absolutely have to do something like that. And it's accepted that Obama is no ordinary speaker, that he has something special. So do we think Palin will be able to do it? I have my doubts.

Thomas.

Few articles now, but will add stuff throughout the day so come back for more later.

How Russia clobbered Georgia - and lost the war - Brilliant article. "Some critics have pointed to the conflict in Georgia as another example of botched Bush administration foreign policy. But, in fact, America's real strategy was brilliantly executed, and it achieved exactly the intended outcome. Unfortunately, it's not an outcome that makes the world a safer place.

First, it's important to note that this dispute is not about Georgia or South Ossetia, both victims of collateral damage in geopolitical manoeuvring. It is not about Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili miscalculating the Russian response to his attack or overestimating the amount of support he would get from the West - Mr. Saakashvili is really just a colourful bit player. Nor is this entirely a case of an emboldened Russia striking back at the West for its support of Kosovo independence, or the Orange Revolution, or the Eastern European missile-defence shield, though all of these things are factors."

---- Related reading: ----

$60 Toronto city car tax starts Monday - Funny that they say it's a budget deficit all the time. If I spent a little bit over my own $100 budget when I made $100,000 a year and I cried budget deficit you'd tell me to buck up and shut up. This is what government does all the time with their deficit scam. City, state, and federal all, even the poorest ones, have hundreds of billions worth of your money stored up and invested and reinvested through the pension fund system which generates obscene amounts of money for the government. Remember when that story broke about trillions missing from the Pentagon? That was all from the investments. Alex Jones, in his classic, Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports Exposed, documents this all with the government's own report which you yourself can actually order and see for yourself. Watch it here on Google Video.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5823209513192072459]

Armed Police To Roam Toronto High Schools this fall - And the countdown continues to full police state.

The Pixar Blog: Michael Keaton cast in Toy Story 3

It has been revealed that Jodi Benson will be returning to voice the part of Tour Guide Barbie in Toy Story 3. In slightly more interesting news, Michael Keaton will be the voice of a Ken doll in this third installment of Toy Story. I'm sure he'll do a good job as he was great as Chick Hicks in Cars. Unfortunately, we have to wait until 2010 to see how it all comes out...

Unfortunately, Cars 2 has lost the talent of George Carlin and Joe Ranft due to their passing. It is also believed that Paul Newman will be unable to reprise his voice work due to lung cancer. This sad news was discussed previously. This one is scheduled to come out in mid-2012.

On a side note, Ben and I began watching for the first time