Well, mostly yesterday's, actually, as there were some good tidbits I couldn't get around to. And today, my former team is serving up pizza during my lunch hour, to which I am invited.
Hmm. Free pizza... or politics and a previously frozen sandwich... tough choice. Well, actually, it is, but any fresh fuckery can be served up as a hangover meal later tonight, so what the hell.
Palin's popularity seems to be wearing a bit thin with the media:
That's an impressive list of news and faux news outlets that have reached deep inside their trousers, had a good rummage, and discovered that oh, hey, there's some balls in there after all. Don't tell me there's hope for this nation's political discourse - I don't think my heart can take it.We've now had a week of blaring headlines and one-liners about Sarah Palin as the mavericky, pork-busting reformer from Alaska. But we seem to be witnessing the first stirrings of a backlash and a dawning realization that the 'Sarah Palin' we've heard so much about over the last few days is a fraud of truly comical dimensions.
The McCain camp has made her signature issue shutting down the Bridge to Nowhere. But as The New Republic put it today that's just "a naked lie." And pretty much the same thing has been written today in Newsweek, the Washington Post, the AP, the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday even Fox's Chris Wallace called out Rick Davis on it.
Now that the MSM has discovered the joys of calling shameless liars the L word, I wonder what they'll find to say about this bit of utter outrage:
On Palin's watch, it was perfectly okay to stick rape victims with the bill for their own rape kit. Add this to the fact she thinks it's moral and right to force rape victims to carry their attackers' babies to term, and you have one sick fuck running for VP.Have to begin this post by offering a hat-tip to GregB in comments for the pointer to this disgusting article. Apparently the tax-cutting, deficit-running administration of the (dis)honorable ex-mayor of Wasilla, Alaska decided to charge women who were sexually assaulted for the rape kits used in the investigation of the crime. Yes. You read that correctly.
ANCHORAGE - Gov. Tony Knowles recently signed legislation protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for tests to collect evidence of the crime, but one local police chief said the new law will further burden taxpayers.
While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests. [emphasis added]
I hope she comes to Washington State. I'll be delighted to take her aside and explain to her exactly what it would have done for my mental state to be told, "You'll have to pay for my own rape kit, and, incidentally, we won't be giving you any medication to prevent pregnancy from this attack or allow you an abortion if your rapist got you pregnant."
Remember: this beast is supposed to lure female voters like myself. Not with that record, she's not.
But apparently, the McCain campaign thinks they can get away with fielding such a disaster. It could have something to do with who's advising them:
Though former Bush political guru Karl Rove insistently denies that he has a working relationship with Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign, the evidence that he is an informal adviser continues to mount. Last week, Time magazine described how “Rove speaks regularly with the McCain campaign.” Today, the Hill quotes a GOP operative who says “Rove has had a consistent, ‘medium’-sized role with the McCain campaign”:
A GOP operative said Rove has had a consistent, “medium”-sized role with the McCain campaign.
Another senior Republican official said Rove has good relationships with several of McCain’s senior advisers, and it’s not unusual for him to reach out to them.
Do click on the link. You'll absolutely adore the punchline.
Doesn't that just make your heart sing?
Here's something else that should tickle you (h/t Steve Benen):
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) cautioned Republicans Monday against forcing a government shutdown over expanded oil drilling while noting increased support for bipartisan energy legislation.Heh. Indeed, it was. If I remember rightly, that little stunt cost the Cons dearly. Please, oh please, try it again!
[snip]
Republicans are mulling whether to press the offshore oil drilling fight by blocking the funding resolution, which contains the congressional moratorium on such drilling.
Reid reminded the GOP that its government shutdown led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) during the Clinton administration was met with widespread public disapproval.
Or they can just take a page from McCain's platform, and learn to agree to disagree:
Appearing on MSNBC today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker cited McCain’s position on “climate change” as evidence that he had broken with his party. Andrea Mitchell then questioned Hazelbaker, “How do Sarah Palin and Sen. McCain agree on climate change?” Hazelbaker touted Palin’s efforts to build a “forty-billion-dollar natural gas pipeline.” Mitchell persisted, asking, “But doesn’t she have a completely different position on climate change and its origins than John McCain?” Hazelbaker retorted:
Andrea, Andrea. You don’t expect the running mates to agree on every single issue.
No, just the important ones. Like, oh, say, making sure the planet doesn't descend into climate chaos. Not that John "Drilling is the Answer!" McCain disagrees with her all that much, mind you - he's learned that going green doesn't make the corporate sponsors happy. And there's plenty of them to keep happy:
I don't know about you, but I think it's about time to wrestle our government away from the selfish corporate fucktards.Today, the Wall Street Journal notes that “corporate executives, who once discounted John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign, have been key to the Republican presidential nominee’s rebound on the fund-raising circuit.” In June and July, McCain “raised $22.3 million from the top 25 industries,” particularly “executives at oil and gas, real-estate, securities and investment and insurance companies.”
Earlier in the year, McCain “struggled to secure donations from executives,” but that has turned around now that he’s elucidated his economic platform, which would benefit corporations and the wealthiest Americans, while doing nothing for the middle class.
However, there are two facets of McCain’s plan in particular that can explain his new-found favor with the executive class: his proposed corporate tax cut and his ticket’s embrace of the conservative call to “drill, baby, drill.”
I'm sure, though, that the McCain campaign and their best buddy Bush wouldn't understand why we're so upset. After all, Bush is having a hard time with that whole Iraqis-might-have-seen-the-invasion-differently thing:
Last night on 60 Minutes, host Scott Pelley interviewed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward to discuss his new book “The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008.” Pelley noted that one part of the story Woodward tells is President Bush’s “frustration with the attitude of the Iraqi people”:
WOODWARD: He has a meeting at the Pentagon with a bunch of experts and he just said, ‘I don’t understand that the Iraqis are not appreciative of what we’ve done for them,’ namely liberated them.
PELLEY: But tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed in the invasion and through the occupation. He didn’t understand why they might be a little ungrateful about what had occurred to them?
WOODWARD: His beacon is liberation. He thinks we’ve done this magnificent thing for them. I think he still holds to that position.
Yup. Magnificent. Just ask all of the people dying of bombs (U.S. and extremist), bullets (U.S., extremist, out-of-control Blackwater fuckheads), cholera, and so forth. Sooo much better than what they had before.
Puts me in mind of a cartoon my friend Hank once gave me: Pocohantas accepting a stack of blankets from John Smith with the caption, "Smallpox-infested blankets! Thank you, John Smith!"
That's the attitude the Cons expect from those they rape, maim and murder. Let's give 'em a harsh dose of reality.
Don't tell me you still have that cartoon!
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