George W. Bush dredged as low as he could go these past couple of weeks, doing what he does best, shuffling the Fear Cards.
He pulled the College Loan Scare and stabbed Americans in their Queen of Hearts with the promise to end our love affair with the car.
It's not bad enough our vehicles are bleeding us dry at the pump, thanks to George. He now threatens that unless Congress bails out Wall Street, Main Street can plan on no new rides for one long time.
No Loans For You.
Interestingly enough, profits are up at auto supply stores.
Appears us regular folks are repairing their cars instead of buying new.
AutoZone, the largest U.S. auto-parts retailer, reported a 12.2 percent rise in quarterly profit Monday as it expanded stores despite a steep downturn in U.S. auto sales.
So George, that little scare tactic won't work. Guess the Joker is on you.
In fact, I'd rather live in an America full of classic cars than support a government that has all but killed the American dream.
My mother's second marriage took me along with her into a world far left of the land of my upbringing...the Deep Right South.
Brooklyn, New York.
This Dixie Chick became a Gentile grand-daughter at age three.
I grew up intermingled in a bipolar world of chicken soup and chicken and dumplings, chopped liver and fried chicken livers.
Democratic politics vs. Republican politics.
I wouldn't trade it for the world.
So, I get Sarah Silverman's You-Tube, The Great Schlep because I lived it.
Sarah invites all Jewish grandchildren to schlep down to Florida and encourage their grandparents to vote for Obama.
That would include us Jewish-by-proxy grandkids.
Although Sarah pokes fun at her heritage, the very important point she relays is the bulk of Florida's Jewish senior citizens comprise a very impressive voting block called South Florida.
Many seniors still sting over the thought of one less Clinton on the ticket. This Obama fellow---eck, wave of the hand--is still a reaction common among an age group whose disappointment could keep Florida red.
When's the last time you visited your Florida grandparents? How about your great-Aunt Charlotte and great-Uncle Billy? Or Francis the Landlord, who rented the Sea Gate apartment to Bubbe and Poppy?
Harry doesn't appear too wild about John McCain's latest bob and weave.
Does't his expression just say it all?
Why am I here screwing around with this McCain photo op when WaMu is failing?
As reported by Bloomberg:
JPMorgan Chase & Co. became the biggest U.S. bank by deposits, acquiring Washington Mutual Inc.'s branch network for $1.9 billion after the thrift was seized in the largest U.S. bank failure in history.
Customers of WaMu withdrew $16.7 billion from accounts since Sept. 16, leaving the Seattle-based bank ``unsound,'' the Office of Thrift Supervision said late yesterday. WaMu's branches will open today and depositors will have full access to all their accounts,Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said on a conference call.
WaMu is the latest casualty of a financial crisis that drove Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and IndyMac Bancorp out of business and led to the hastily arranged rescues of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Bear Stearns Cos., which was itself absorbed by JPMorgan. WaMu in March rejected a takeover offer from JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon that the savings and loan valued at $4 a share.
``This is a fabulous franchise,'' Dimon, 52, said in an interview. ``We think we got this at a price that protects us, where if we were wrong, it still protects us.''
WaMu collapsed as its credit rating was slashed to junk and its stock price tumbled. Facing $19 billion of losses on soured mortgage loans, the lender put itself up for sale last week. WaMu fired CEO Kerry Killinger on Sept. 8 and replaced him with Alan Fishman, who was awarded a $7.5 million signing bonus and $1 million salary.
The bank that fails today should thank McCain for holding up the works...if any plan works at all.
Thoughts that came to mind upon learning John McCain suspended his campaign to concentrate on the economic crisis.
McCain's operating in temper tantrum mode.
I'm down in the polls, so I'm taking my toys and going home.
John thinks we're stupid.
Delay is not just another Texan named Tom.
Cyndy must be losing a bundle in the market.
McCain's balloon mortgage popped wide open on three of his seven houses.
Is Mitt Romney still available?
Twitter bomb. #suspending Giuliani to the GOP. CALL ME.
Campaign strategy: Muzzle Sarah. Disappear until November 4.
John misses Joe.
McCain got the bad news. No teleprompters at the debate.
Mr. Sincere is just another Rove-bot.
Distract. Distract. Distract.
Talk Radio will spin McCain as courageous and a good American.
McCain's heading back to DC just to make certain a very relieved Mark Foley isn't squatting in his Senate office.
He's losing his mind.
McCain can't make the debate. He'll be busy stuffing money under his mattress.
McCain lost his crib sheet somewhere in Palin's up-do.
Pulling his campaign ads screams I'm running out of money.
He's unsteady. He's unprepared. And I bet he turns his phone off at 3 AM.
Message to 100 million Americans expected to watch Friday night's debate? I'd be here if you people would just swallow the $700 billion bail-out like good little sheep.
McCain's the Evil Knievel of Politics. One stunt after another.
The hand's quicker than the eye. What's he really up to?
"Obama leads McCain in the Tampa Bay area (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, and Polk counties) by a 49%-43% margin. Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker says the key to winning Florida statewide is usually through Tampa Bay, and Obama's six-point lead in the area explains why he's ahead in this poll. Moreover, outside of Nevada, there is probably not another state that has been hurt more by the housing and credit crunch, and that may be benefiting Obama right now.
Also potentially troublesome for McCain in this must-win GOP state, he leads by just six among Hispanics (49%-43%), which in Florida is made up of a majority of Cubans. (If Obama does pick off younger Cubans, he may close the overall gap thanks to his large lead among non-Cuban Hispanics in the I-4 corridor.) Also, McCain's four-point lead among seniors (48%-44%) is not as big as he needs it to be to offset the electorate-changing demographics among blacks and young voters."
Show your support for Obama! Wear blue this Friday!
In my many years as a die-hard Dolphin fan, I've witnessed Miami take down the Pats at home like wild dogs on a steak.
But to take the rivals of all rivals on their home field?
Just a reminder that nobody puts Florida in a preconceived corner, sports-wise or political.
What a way to end a winning streak. Miami went into Foxborough, where the Patriots hadn't lost since falling to the Jets there in 2006, and handed New England a Gillette Stadium-worst 25-point beat- down to end an NFL-record 21-game regular season run of victories on Sunday. The Dolphins, who have already matched their 2007 win total, ran it right at the Pats to the tune of 216 ground yards and four rushing touchdowns for Ronnie Brown. In giving head coach Tony Sparano and quarterback Chad Pennington their first wins with Miami, the Dolphins also single-handedly blew up suicide pools from coast to coast.
Mr. Freeny will discuss his views regarding the Jessica Lunsford Act and its resulting insidious effects on the lives of children forced to live with this law.
Comments can be shared by calling the broadcast (407-273-1190) or (888-300-3776) or via email.
Listeners outside the broadcast area are invited to listen live here.
A google here, a google there with no hits underscores an alarming stillness regarding the issue scheduled for trial early August, with Judge Edward Newman presiding, and Judges Sam Slom, Beth Bloom, Jose Fernandez, Mary Jo Francis, Maria Ortiz, Louis Krieger-Martin, Norma Lindsey, Antonio Arzola all attending.
Likely while we are all sitting at happy hour, thinking of the weekend.
The Republican, who represented Florida's 16th District in Congress, resigned in September 2006 after suggestive e-mails and instant messages he had written to teenage House pages surfaced in the media.
Florida agency spokeswoman Heather Smith said last month that investigators hoped to finish their work within two weeks and that results of the investigation would be turned over to State Attorney Bill Eddins in Pensacola, Florida, where Foley was at the time he is said to have communicated with a young man.
But the agency said the House of Representatives had blocked efforts to review files on computers Foley used in his congressional office. Smith said the agency was working with the FBI and Foley's lawyers to review the contents of those computers, which are federally owned.
Foley's attorneys had denied that he ever engaged in sexual activity with minors.
"I have no comment," Foley's attorney David Roth said Thursday when asked about the reported closure of the Florida investigation. "I cannot confirm or deny your report."
A federal investigation of Foley has been closed for some time, according to sources.
Foley's attorneys had denied that he ever engaged in sexual activity with minors.
I'll mention that to all those guys ambushed on To Catch a Predator.
My guess? Foley will attempt a run for office before too long.
Despite an intense effort to distance himself from the way his party has done business in Washington, Senator John McCain is seen by voters as far less likely to bring change to Washington than Senator Barack Obama. He is widely viewed as a “typical Republican” who would continue or expand President Bush’s policies, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.Although McCain clearly enjoyed a surge post-election, the Palin effect "...was, at least so far, a limited burst of interest. " In fact, "...there was no evidence of significantly increased support for him among women in general."
Seventy-five per cent of those polled, "...felt Mr. McCain had picked Ms. Palin more to help him win the election than because he thought that she was well qualified to be president;More than 6 in 10 said they would be concerned if Mr. McCain could not finish his term and Ms. Palin had to take over. In contrast, two-thirds of voters surveyed said Mr. Biden would be qualified to take over for Mr. Obama, a figure that cut across party lines."
The contest appeared to be roughly where it was before the two conventions and before the vice-presidential selections: Mr. Obama had the support of 48 percent of registered voters, compared with 43 percent for Mr. McCain, a difference within the poll’s margin of sampling error, and statistically unchanged from the tally in the last New York Times/CBS News poll, in mid-August.
(...)
When asked who they thought would win in November, 45 percent said Mr. Obama and 38 percent said Mr. McCain.
This Democrat needs a personal phone call from Barack Obama. And a political psychoanalyst.
Casie Chang is a registered Democrat who remains open to voting for Obama but who, for now, is on board with McCain precisely because of Palin. (????)
"She really pushed it over the top for me," said Chang, a 35-year-old full-time mother. Partly it's because Palin is "personable" and "down to earth," and partly because her tenure as mayor of the small Alaskan town of Wasilla constitutes valuable experience. "You know what people's wants and needs are; you're really part of the community," Chang said.
Watching her three young sons scamper around the playground at Urbana Park, she said she could not imagine taking on such a job while raising her boys. But she does not see that as a problem for Palin, who has five children, including an infant born in April with Down syndrome.
"She knows what she's in for," she said. "When you have a child, your multi-tasking skills just kick in."
Yet Chang supports abortion rights. "The pro-life thing does bother me a little bit. ... If I had a daughter, the last thing I would want is for someone to tell her what she could or could not do."
Let's see how much choice your daughter has should a Republican administration get four more years of chances to tilt SCOTUS to the right.
"It’s a good thing I wasn’t tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or I would have ended up in somebody’s trunk."
As reported by Mudflats, over 1400 Alaskans gathered to reject the VP nod of their governor, Sarah Palin.
(...)
Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here.
(...)
The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin’s rally that got all the national media coverage!
(...)
The above photo is one of several eye-opening glimpses into what the real people are thinking.
Check out the rest of the photo gallery of the event here.
Hello Across-the-Board readers. As you've noticed the past few weeks -- for the first time since this blog was started, there has been a long period in which I've been unable to update ACB every weekday. To you loyal reader who've kept ACB in your bookmarks and RSS feed readers -- thank you.
It's at this point that I'm at a crossroads. I've been busy, there is no hiding the truth. However, I do not want to shut down Across-the-Board. I've just not had the time as I did before to dedicate my time here. I've also been spending time at http://www.ramseymohsen.com/.
I've recieved suggestions in that allowing other contributers and authors to ACB would help sustain its life, since so many of you hate to see it go.
I like the idea.
If you would like to be considered a author and contributer to Across-the-Board, please write in the comments of this post or write an email to ramsey@ramseym.com describing;
1.) Why would you like to help Across-the-Board? 2.) What, if any experience do you have in blogging? (show me examples) 3.) If you have traveled 4.8 miles in 24 minutes, what was your average speed, in miles per hour?
My family is the Democratic offshoot of a staunch Republican family tree.
The staunchest. As in, most of the branches grow the big bucks and spend their leisure time fertilizing the growth of the green.
Whether the move away from the clutches of the Deep South to reside in what was once free-thinking Florida or my mother's marriage to a Damn Yankee, I don't know which is responsible for changing the trajectory of my immediate family's political leanings...but what I can tell you is the political conversation among those who share my same DNA is way beyond Carville-Matalin cool couple talk.
Sarah Palin is the poster child for my familial Republicans. I'm certain--most certain--that upon Palin's presentation to polite Political Society, my aunt immediately wrote out a check with lots of zeros and mailed it off pronto. Maybe two checks. One to McCain, the other to the RNC.
Knowing all that--ignoring the hot breath of Cujo blasting through the crack in the window, his body a battering ram against our Obama bumper sticker, my mom still had to ask her sister her impression of Sarah.
She loves her, said she liked the children, the little baby, and the daughter being pregnant..........................said she was like us. Also, the next time she visits Alaska, she will go and visit her. Can you believe this?
Yes. I do believe it. (And I hope my aunt gets her wish after this country recovers from the Palin Effect and kicks this babe all the way back to AK).
Then just for kicks, I'd ask what she thinks about the photographs circulating of wolves with their limbs hacked off?
The photos taken after the grand animal finally succumbed to exhaustion, running, running, running, with no place to hide, no place to turn because some asshole in a plane can fly above it all, sort of like my family with all their cash who--just like the aerial hunters--don''t expose themselves to the risk of reality because they refuse to enter the territory of heartbreak and hardship that the last eight years have had on the habitat of us regular folk, a target on our back as surely as a wolf fleeing shots fired because lawmakers said, sure go ahead.
They can't fight back.
Yeah. That's what I'd ask.
As Governor, Sarah Palin has championed aerial hunting of wildlife.
Despite strong scientific, ethical and public opposition to aerial hunting, Governor Palin has…
Proposed paying a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf.
Approved a $400,000 state-funded propaganda campaign to promote aerial hunting.
Introduced legislation to make it even easier to use aircraft to hunt wolves and bears.
Do we really want a VP who champions such savagery? Warning: This video is extremely disturbing. It contains graphic images of aerial hunting of wolves -- a brutal and needless practice that Governor Palin has fought hard to promote and expand.
"Ever occur to you why some of us can be this much concerned with animals suffering?
"And how are you going to be the vice president of the United States with five kids to take care of? She's got a four-month-old of her own, she's about to become a grandmother, and she's partnered with John McCain. How many diapers can one woman possibly change?" --Jimmy Kimmel
"She said at her church, Governor Palin, said she asked everyone to pray for a natural gas pipeline, which she said was God's will. And today, God said, 'Hey lady, I don't deal with oil companies. That's more Satan's area.'" --Jay Leno
"I guess there are some problems with Palin, though. Have you heard about this 'Troopergate' scandal? Palin allegedly…used her power as governor to pressure officials to fire her former brother-in-law from his state trooper job. Now, maybe I'm wrong, but wasn’t that an episode of 'Dukes of Hazzard?'" --Jay Leno
"Speaking of Sarah Palin, she said she's a life-long member of the National Rifle Association. Which may explain why she's in favor of shotgun weddings." --Conan O'Brien
"Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has many views. She says she's opposed to same-sex marriage. Did you know that? Yeah, Palin says everyone knows marriage isn't for gay people; it's for pregnant teenagers." --Conan O'Brien
"Oh, and all those Internet photos of Sarah Palin in a bikini holding a gun. But they are all photoshopped. Like those photos of Bill and Hillary dancing, all fake." --Jay Leno
"You know, Sarah Palin, John McCain selected her to be the vice presidential running mate on the Republican ticket, and she's also the governor of Alaska, and outdoors, like the outdoors, likes assault rifles, has a collection of rifles, likes to shoot assault rifles. I'll say this for her daughter's boyfriend: the kid's got guts." --David Letterman
"Governor Sarah Palin gave her speech tonight at the GOP Convention, and it gave people who didn't know anything about her the chance to finally meet her, you know, like John McCain." --Jay Leno
"We're learning more and more about Governor Palin. Apparently her daughter's name is Juno." --Jay Leno
"Let me ask you a question: is it just me, or does Sarah Palin look like a model for LensCrafters?" --David Letterman
"Earlier tonight, I don't know if you saw it, Sarah Palin gave a tremendous speech to the Republicans, though some are claiming it was actually her daughter's speech." --David Letterman
"Hey, the Republican Convention is still going wild in scenic St. Paul, Minnesota right now. Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was the star speaker tonight. A lot of excitement. She promised a walrus in every igloo and a whale tooth in every papoose." --Jimmy Kimmel
"By the way, here's good news, ladies and gentlemen: the Palin family crisis that we were talking about on Sunday and Monday, that has been solved now, and, today, the baby is being adopted by Angelina Jolie." --David Letterman
"And you've got to love this: Sarah Palin is an avid hunter. An avid hunter. A vice president who likes guns? Well, what could go wrong there?" --David Letterman
"It was an unplanned pregnancy, but the Palins say their daughter will marry the young man. He's a fellow high school student of hers. His name is Levi Johnston. They even found his MySpace page, which they pulled down immediately, but before they did we found out that he's a 'f***ing redneck,' is what he said, and another quote from him, 'I don't want kids.' Remember when the Republicans compared Barack Obama to Britney Spears? Now they've got their their own Jamie Lynn." --Jimmy Kimmel
"Some people are saying that McCain picked Sarah Palin to appeal to women who supported Hillary Clinton. This is crazy. You can't just replace Hillary Clinton with another woman. Bill tried that, it didn't work out." --Craig Ferguson
"John McCain's VP pick is the governor of Alaska, a unknown hockey mom named Sarah Palin that no one ever heard of. The only other job she had in politics was the mayor of a small town known as Wasilla, Alaska, and now she has the opportunity to be on a ticket opposite of Barack Obama, the first black man she's ever seen." –Bill Maher
"This isn't a presidential ticket, this is a sitcom. The maverick and the MILF." –Bill Maher
Upon Palin's return to Alaska after her two weeks abroad in the Lower 48, the AK blogger asks readers to consider what Palin did not say to the waiting Fairbanks Faithful.
So what didn’t she say? She didn’t use her famous, “commyuunity orrrganizer” line, and pulled back on the snarky comments about Obama. Obama won 75% of the caucus votes in Alaska, and turned the state (until recently) into an actual ’swing state’ for the first time in memory. Don’t underestimate Obama’s support in Alaska.
She also didn’t say, “And I said ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ on that Bridge to Nowhere.” It’s tough to lie to the home town crowd. Besides, it wasn’t on the teleprompter.
Is it just me or is the whole First Dude title just a bit too much to take?
Not only did Sarah Palin lie to the Republican faithful with her 'thanks but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere' applause line, there's one little detail she left out.
Last year, Palin announced she was stopping state work on the controversial project, earning her admirers from earmark critics and budget hawks from around the nation. The move also thrust her into the spotlight as a reform-minded newcomer.
The state, however, never gave back any of the money that was originally earmarked for the Gravina Island bridge, said Weinstein and Elerding.
In fact, the Palin administration has spent "tens of millions of dollars" in federal funds to start building a road on Gravina Island that is supposed to link up to the yet-to-be-built bridge, Weinstein said.
"She said 'thanks but no thanks,' but they kept the money," said Elerding about her applause line.
In the city Ketchikan, the planned site of the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere," political leaders of both parties said the claim was false and a betrayal of their community, because she had supported the bridge and the earmark for it secured by Alaska's Congressional delegation during her run for governor.
The bridge, a span from the city to Gravina Island, home to only a few dozen people, secured a $223 million earmark in 2005. The pricey designation raised a furor and critics, including McCain, used the bridge as an example of wasteful federal spending on politicians' pet projects.
When she was running for governor in 2006, Palin said she was insulted by the term "bridge to nowhere," according to Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein, a Democrat, and Mike Elerding, a Republican who was Palin's campaign coordinator in the southeast Alaska city.
"People are learning that she pandered to us by saying, I'm for this' ... and then when she found it was politically advantageous for her nationally, abruptly she starts using the very term that she said was insulting," Weinstein said.
Palin's spokeswoman in Alaska was not immediately available to comment.
National fury over the bridge caused Congress to remove the earmark designation, but Alaska was still granted an equivalent amount of transportation money to be used at its own discretion.
***
The Ketchikan Daily News asks those who in the know--Alaskans themselves--
"Do you believe Sen. John McCain made the correct choice for a presidential running mate when he selected Republican Gov. Sarah Palin?"
PALIN WAS FOR THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE BEFORE SHE WAS AGAINST IT.
October 2006: "Palin Supported Bridge To Nowhere"
In 2006, Palin was asked, "Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?" She responded, "Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."
[Anchorage, 10/22/06, republished 08/29/08]
***
2006: Palin: Don't Allow "Spinmeisters" To Turn Bridge To Nowhere Project "Into Something That's So Negative."
"Part of my agenda is making sure that Southeast is heard. That your projects are important. That we go to bat for Southeast when we're up against federal influences that aren't in the best interest of Southeast.' She cited the widespread negative attention focused on the Gravina Island crossing project. 'We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative,' Palin said."
Nancy Grace remains on CNN after her on-air involvement in the death of a young woman, yet Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews get "reassigned" for opinions expressed during the recently televised presidential conventions...which in my opinion, is exactly what both were hired to do.
MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign.
David Gregory, the NBC newsman and White House correspondent who also hosts a program on MSNBC, will take over during such events as this fall's presidential and vice presidential debates and election night.
The move, confirmed by spokesmen for both networks, follows increasingly loud complaints about Olbermann's anchor role at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Olbermann, who regularly assails President Bush and GOP nominee John McCain on his "Countdown" program, was effusive in praising the acceptance speech of Democratic nominee Barack Obama. He drew flak Thursday when the Republicans played a video that included a tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that if the networks had done that, "we would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that videotape the way I did, I apologize."
I absolutely love slapping a bit of freedom of speech on the back of my car during a Presidential election. But this time around--with 50-plus days left before the general election--I'm going all out.
To campaign for a larger than life candidate, one needs a larger than life bumper sticker.
The type that will jump out at McCain-Palin supporters when I pull ahead of them in traffic.
Five times larger that a traditional bumper sticker, Giant Obama Stickers are printed on a special one-way vision material, similar to what you see on the sides of buses.
So big, even a certain 72-year-old Presidential candidate will notice.
Stored somewhere in my collection of "Things I Will Never Get Rid Of" is my childhood copy of Little Black Sambo. It's pages are beyond well-worn.
Most would've trashed the Little Golden Book a long time ago.
Worth nothing as far as a collectible, I've held on to the book nonetheless. My brothers and I loved the book, especially the vivid illustrations of the tigers chasing one another round and round a tree, eventually melting into delicious butter.
Those of us who are old enough to remember Sambo standing up to the tigers are old enough to remember the "racially weighted past" that has dogged the book for decades. The association was enough to bring down a restaurant chain with the same name in the 1980's.
For many--and I'd venture to say most--the name Sambo brings up images of racism, not pancakes.
That being said, many (or most) would view the statement, "So Sambo beat the Bitch!" beyond poor form.
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.
(...)
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
Based on the sarcastic acceptance speech Palin gave last week, I can only bet that someone has a video somewhere of this woman pulling a George Allen.
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.
It's the latest twist in what has become the subject of global media scrutiny -- whether Palin, the newly minted Republican vice presidential candidate, abused her powers as governor to try to drive her former brother-in-law Mike Wooten out of the trooper ranks.
Palin and her family have accused Wooten, who was involved in a messy divorce with the governor's sister, of a variety of misdeeds such as threatening her family and drinking while driving his patrol car. Palin insists she didn't use the trooper's continued employment as an excuse to fire a member of her cabinet, Walt Monegan, who supervised the troopers as commissioner of public safety.
The union representing state Trooper Mike Wooten has filed an ethics complaint against Gov. Sarah Palin and members of her administration charging a possible unlawful breach of Wooten's confidential personnel and workers' compensation files.
With the Right all ga-ga over Sarah Palin, the spotlight wavered off the Alaskan babe just long enough to capture the sentencing of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Four years in prison for fraud and trying to corrupt public officials in a Washington scandal that also sent a Republican congressman to jail.
“I come before you as a broken man,” Abramoff said in court. “I’m not the same man who happily and arrogantly engaged in a lifestyle of political and business corruption.”
Keep playing with it and my guess is, Florida Rep Tom Feeney will eventually surface, a chip shot away from the ties leading to his golf buddy, big Jack.
Around 2:33 into the video below, 18-year-old hubby-to-be Levi Johnston lets out one heckuva my-life's-all-shot-to-hell sigh that could only mean one thing.
I should've worn a condom.
You've just become the new freecreditreport.com guy, Levi. Only difference being, your identity got hacked by social conservative control freak Sarah Palin.
But maybe instead of selling fish to tourists in tee shirts, your new father-in-law can give you a job on his commercial fishing boat.
At least Bristol was legal. You dodged the underage consensual sex bullet. After how I've heard your soon-to-be mother-in-law used her position as Governor to go afterher sister's state trooper ex-husband, you would've been the poster boy of the Alaskan sex offender registry.
It's too bad, kid. As we say in the South...
...you're fixin' to find out just how long forever really is.
Now that McCain's VP choice has hit the fan, will Florida governor Charlie Crist take a wait-and-see attitude before calling off his engagement to the lovely socialite or do you think he'll hang it all up pronto in time to attend Fantasy Fest?
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have all been released from police custody in St. Paul following their illegal arrest by Minneapolis Police on Monday afternoon.
All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Abdel Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the ground, leaving his arms scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his chest and back. Salazar's violent arrest by baton-wielding officers, during which she was slammed to the ground while yelling, "I'm Press! Press!," resulted in her nose bleeding, as well as causing facial pain. Goodman's arm was violently yanked by police as she was arrested.
(...)
Goodman has been charged with obstruction; felony riot charges are pending against producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.
