Arkansas Blog

"Can you say or imagine the words 'President Palin?'" You betcha.

As for "President Obama," those words send cold shivers down my spine.

Regarding Maureen Dowd writing about someone being "devoid of intellect"--at least she's finally tackling a subject she's an expert on.

They're dumber than dogshit, and they vote.

Jay Leno

● Congress now has a 10 percent approval rating. That seems way too high.

● The Senate voted on the bailout again tonight. Sen. Larry Craig missed the vote. He was in the men's room introducing his own package.

If you or anybody you know is REMOTELY thinking about voting for McCain, here's the truth. From the Rolling Stone. Great article.

It is true that calling yourself a maverick is probably the best evidence that you aren't one.

I like that the term "maverick" is becoming a punchline.

Yup...dumber than dogshit...like lemmings following the town idiot over the cliff. And, it's not like 'they' can say they didn't know what a Dubya Presidency would be like...we now have proof. (But I guess proof/facts/reality only count if you ain't dumber than dogshit.)

Oooh child. I'm plumb worrit to death, y'all, about that pretty little Mrs. Sarah Lou Palin. After seeing her on t.v. the other night and all.

The way she winked up them eyes? I'm scared some heathern going to take the Holy Bible out of contrast and try to use it against her. Like the old Father of Lies his ownself.

When she was a blinking and a winking, all in the world I could think of was them verses about eyes. You know, like about how if thine eye offend then, then pluck it out. Or the one about there's a bean in your eye don't pay no mind to the moat in somebody else's.

If a good Bible believing womarn like me remembers them verses when that pretty little Mrs. Sarah Lou Palin a blinks and a winks, then don't you know, child, that some smart heathern going to do so, too? You betcha.

What heatherns don't know is some verses is meant to be taken liberally and others meteorically. Like them about giving everthing to the poor and forgiving seventy times seventy and such as that. Them are as meteoric as the day is long.

Them uns we supposed to believe liberally are where Jesus says all through the whole Word that preverts are headed for the fires of hell. And we need to help them along if we can.

If us Bible believing Christains with good family values don't get together no telling how the Father of Lies going to twist Mrs. Sarah Lou Palin's words and get us off on the wrong path following them meteoric Bible verses when we need to be following the liberal ones. I'm going to get on my knees right now and pray hard that she read the right verses next time from those sword drill cards she keeps with her, and not go a blinking and a winking when the old Father of Lies try to trick her and trip her up.

I read Dowd's column. Huh?

I've read better personal columns in the Dumas Clarion; there at least I got facts about Ms so and so having lunch with Ms not so and so.

I'm somewhat surprised that no one picked up on the fact that Ronald Reagon was not the originator of the "city upon a hill" quote that Pain used.

"Alex, let's try John Winthrop, in ye olde English in 1630 for $1,000, shall we?" [You know Palin plays Jeopardy!]

"...for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us.."

>>One minute she promises to get "greater oversight" by government; the next, she lectures: "Government, you know, you're not always a solution. In fact, too often you're the problem."<<

If one listens then only the 'Y'betcha" crowd could put the lipstick on both ends of that pig.

Reagan could do that. But Reagan had a sense of irony and he knew there were three suckers for each discerning person if he were glib enough. Moose-woman is not glib.
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Historian, check out www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-bacevich/sarah-palin-and-john-wint_b_131700.html. Good commentary on Palin's "lapse" re: the source of the city on a hill quote, and on American exceptionalism.

"With a month to go, the 2008 election is now an Obama-Palin race - "
F. Rich

From her own words......."Sambo will beat the bitch."

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Oh Great Norma Bates. From the Rolling Stones article we could expect a higher octane game of

WHO'S YOUR DADDY NOW...were the Wreckless One to be elected.

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I posted the Frank Rich link over on the open thread last night. Definitely worth reading.

Mareen Dowd makes an interesting point with "Can likable still trump knowledgeable at such a vulnerable crossroads for the country?"

Thanks Norma for the link to the Rolling Stone article. It looks interesting -- I read a couple of pages--I'll find time to finish it later.

The problem is, the people who need to read columns and articles like these are the one's like Palin who don't really read anything of importance. They might read a few news headline and then read in detail about Britney, or Paris, or football scores etc.

Let's hope the polls are right that Obama has a lead and will win on election day so that we don't have to deal with these self-titled "mavericks" any more.

Just 4 U NeverVoteRepublican.

The free market lives on, except this one, like the pretend one, is run by a government entity.
Univ of Iowa. But it's a market wherein the common man can plop down $500 bucks and "invest" in the outcome of Presidential politics.

Here's the post-Palin debate graph on my name.

Blue line represents Sambo
Red line represents the Bitch.
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Historian...I've given up caring about whether McSame/Palin utter lies. Given their track record I assume EVERYTHING (values, integrity, motherhood, fatherhood, TRUTH...) is OK to be trashed in order to ensure a win. Now whether they believe their own blarney or not...I don't give a damn. (It's astounding what many humans can rationalize away...astounding.) I do, however, check out any any accusations of wrongdoing by Obama/Biden.

And, sure, I know most politicians lie in varying degrees, but I'd EASILY argue that the Republicans set a bar so low in the 2000 presidential race that in comparison...Obama is a straight shooter. Heck, Mcsame/Palin don't even pretend to tell the truth anymore...it's ignore, blame the media and regurgitate old Ronald Reagan lines as much as possible. Even the most mediocre high school debate teacher would have faulted Palin for a lack of substance, a failure to answer the given questions...even if they gave her a better grade for 'style.'

It is true that calling yourself a maverick is probably the best evidence that you aren't one. so correct GUMM. same can be said for christians. I never met one that wouldn't screw you up the *** first chance they got. saying it's the lord's will as they stick it further.

I understand that's not even a real Alaskan accent. Nothing irritates me more than a fake Southern accent, and to hear a fake Alaskan accent is grating, indeed.

It's like Bush renting cattle for his ranch.

Republicans can't be satisfied with reality. They've always got to take it over the top. There's not a truth around they don't feel couldn't be improved with a little falsehood on top, like a cherry.

eLwood--what's with the constant posting of the graph? I think this is about the 5th time I've seen you reference it and post the link on various threads.

Watch the SNL debate parody of Biden and Palin at blue name. Queen Latifah was great as Gwen Ifill!

30 second tv ad

The country's largest union of Registered Nurses with 85,000 members released this ad today in six battleground states -- Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri.

The ad focuses on the possibility of a Sarah Palin presidency due to John McCain's health issues. From the Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee:

Fostered by the growing concern among healthcare professionals over the health status of Sen. John McCain, the ad also provides a reminder of some of the controversial moments of Palin's record as governor of Alaska and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

The timing of the ad coincides with a report Tuesday from Bragg Associates, an actuary firm, that John McCain would have a 1 in 4 chance of dying in office from natural causes, which would lead to Palin completing his term.

Concurrently, NNOC/CNA leaders called on Sen. McCain, who has a history of skin cancer, to release his full medical records.

Click on Cato

And finally, for those who want the REAL story of Sarah Palin's VEEP selection and mission, I'm all clicky.

If THIS doesn't scare you for Halloween, nothing will.

>>eLwood--what's with the constant posting of the graph?<<

There's one time on this page.

There's the Success Unlimited Opportunity for Pines, Citizen Journal, strange to jump in and make big profits by betting on the the conservative ticket.
just didn't want the Rwing boz to miss out on the money-god.

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Not one of those trolls would dare to put their money on the line for McCain, even at 3 to 1, eLwood.

For one reason, there's no government package to bail them out.

Maybe because it's Sunday, so many heartwarming articles about Sarah Palin's and John McCain's religious handlers are popping up all over the internets.

Journalists are trying to get the word out about what's really going on here. Cut and paste this link for another of today's quick but informative articles.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1796

Of course, thanks to sources worldwide, the actual picture was emailed to me -- and I have it for you at clicky. Suitable for framing.

The spirit of Sharing has o'ertaken me this sabbath.

Holy merdre! (That's French for "shit" for those less privileged than I to have studied a year at La Sorbonne.)

Anybody who claims to be seriously interested in the economy, the recent bailout, and the effects on politics and the upcoming election . . . and what lies just down the road for Americans' economic future . . . MUST read today's Dave Lindorff piece at clicky.

Yes, it's lengthy. No rational adult expects insights in soundbites.

It's YOUR money.

Thanks NormaB...that Statue of Lib didn't have enough lipstick, or none at all. What gives?

Here's noted atheist Sam Harris weighing in , from Newsweek:

Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved by Sarah Palin's performance at the Republican convention. Given her audience and the needs of the moment, I believe Governor Palin's speech was the most effective political communication I have ever witnessed. ..
[She]-could stride past the frontal cortex of every American and plant a three-inch heel directly on that limbic circuit that ceaselessly intones "God and country." If anyone could make Christian theocracy smell like apple pie, Sarah Palin could. ....

The problem, as far as our political process is concerned, is that half the electorate revels in Palin's lack of intellectual qualifications. When it comes to politics, there is a mad love of mediocrity in this country.

Sam Harris is clicky

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HELLO, America!

Thanks, eLwood. Essential.

So good it bears repeating. Go eLwood!

The best illustration I can give as to trickle down economics (Republican) and percolating economics (Democrats) differences and doctrines. Do the clicky

Obama is up by 7% nationally and is leading in enough states to get to 270. McCain has one chance to get back in the race. Tuesday night. That will be a doozy.

Observations on minor matters:

"A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." Matthew 5:14

Sarah Palin's accent, or Alaskan accent: I'm not an expert in regional dialects, but I've had some exposure to their study, as well as to phoenetics. Also, I've traveled to Alaska a number of times over a couple of decades. And I know a little bit about Alaska's history. So that's how much "an authority" I am.

It wasn't until the gold-rush days that Alaska had a really significant population of American whites (read people of Western European descent).

The people who came to Alaska during that period were from "all over." They didn't simply migrate west generation by generation as had been done in the Lower Forty-eight in previous years nor did they move in cultural or ethnic groups, perhaps with the exception of the Chinese and Russians.

There were no significant pools or communities of similar-speaking people in Alaska as there were on the East Coast when the Germans settled in Pennsylvania or the Irish, Poles, and Italians in New York, or the Germans in Kansas.

So Alaska (in my more-or-less layman's opinion) has NEVER had its own distinctive regional dialect.

It's true that I met more people there who had roots in the North than in the South, but their dialects tended to be Iowan, or Ohian, or Minnesotan, not "Alaskan."

So I think you're chasing a phantom rabbit when you try to pin down Palin's dialect as being "fake" Alaskan or psuedo-Alaskan.

Where did her parents move from? That's probably the root of their accent, as is mine, whose parents moved to where I now live from other states in this country. My accent is not the same as this state's "typical" accent, although it bears some regional marks, as I grew up here, so it was not influenced SOLELY by my parents.

Cato,

I think this one is illustrative too. Click.

Norma,

I think it's "merde" not "merdre."

Of course, I learned mine from two years in Junior High, two semesters with a thick German-accented teacher at UofA, and two semesters with a second generation French emigrant at Southern State College, plus two years of hanging out in Nice, Beaulieu-Sur-Mer, and Monte Carlo whenever I could get weekend liberty or leave. So I may have picked up only "l'argot de l'homme du peuple" instead of the more literary, intelligent speech and tenses of "La Sorbonne." Although, I did spend a week on La Rive Gauche to get back on my budget as I toured after my discharge, before coming home to finish my degrees.

I've been watching that vampire show on HBO. Man...it's all FK'ed up and damn near as good as the Sopranos too. It's just a TV show....I know that. But I'll be damned if the real world isn't every bit as FK'ed up.

We got McCain...clearly stumbling to the grave, not the White House. We got one of the scariest humans since Dick Cheney running as his VP. Our Justice Department couldn't find justice with both hands. We got a war, 2 wars we're losing, but since everyone's worried about money...no time to think about wars.

Our financial systems is tanking and pulling down the financial systems all over the world. This Paulson guy comes out of the blue and gets Congress to hand him a blank check filled out for 850 billion dollars. No one even knows if we got 850 billion left in the US checking account. All the talking heads say that's just a down payment on what we're really going to owe.

You know for as far back as I can remember each and every day of life has been filled with people saying..huh uh.....you think it's bad now...you just wait. You're gonna get it sucker! And I say....what what....I've been working my ass off, being a good guy.....I'm not guilty of nothing....why am I gonna get it? What did I do wrong? How come I'm in trouble...and my friends...and my neighbors....what on earth did we do?

Hell..since I quit trying to cheat on my wife....I'm almost approaching sainthood. So why is my Justice Department FK'ed up? Why do I now owe thousands of dollars cause big dogs on Wall Street FK'ed the United States of AT&T?

If everyone in America had good sense John McCain and Sarah Palin wouldn't even get Homecoming King & Queen. There is no contest here! McCain has been that guy in your class you hate since he was a little kid. If Palin hadn't found politics she'd be sitting on top of a Amway pyramid. If there had been more houses in Wasila, she'd be a top real estate agent. She's not even Tri-Delt material......

Just watch an see....she'll be the Katerine Harris of Alaska in a few years and all we'll do is laugh at her then...wait...we're laughing at her now. I tell ya....we're one FK'ed up country and I don't know a damn thing to do about it. One thing for sure.....I'm real glad vampires aren't real. I don't wanna get bit....but most of all I don't want to be turned into a vampire and have to live forever!

About 60 years of this horse hockey will be enough for me. And I never thought I'd see the day when a political party made me ambivalent about death.....but while they were sucking up all the money they've also about sucked up all the joy in life.

Watch that crazy vampire show....it'll make next week seem sorta normal. Please please....the election......bring it!

Doc -

I know my shit. It's "merdre."