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American Presidency: Still nice
Elki
get busyModerator, ClubPA Mod Emeritus
get busyModerator, ClubPA Mod Emeritus
The Economist.com wrote:UNLIKE a swing state, a red state or a blue state, a refuge state is not part of the political map. It is a bit of the eschatological one. A senior pastor at Sarah Palin's old church had this to say about Alaska, as she stood by his side:
But there was some things, about the natural resources, about the state, there are some things that god wants to tap into to be a refuge for the lower 48. And I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states. Come on you guys, in the last days. And hundreds and thousands of people are gonna come to the state to seek refuge...
This has been reported before, but I only saw the video just today, and so this is the first time that I realised Sarah Palin was standing right next to the pastor who said this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8twqZpUT2NQ
Why has this not gotten a tenth of the attention of Jeremiah Wright's paranoid rantings at Barack Obama's church? Why am I just seeing this now? Besides the fact that Mr Obama heads his ticket and Ms Palin is a vice-presidential nominee, I think there are many things that make this worse. One is the loopy theology: God, in the revelation to St John, designated Alaska as a refuge state after the Rapture? Before there were even states? Thanks to its abundant natural resources? I'll have to go back to my Bible; I think I missed that part. Does Sarah Palin believe this?
I'd have a hard time having anything nice to say about Mr Obama if he thought that September 11th was America's "chickens coming home to roost", as Jeremiah Wright believes. But I don't think Mr Obama believes that. It seems Mr Obama chose a feisty black church as an entry point into a black community in which he was an outsider, and looked the other way at the questionable politics of its pastor. Mr Obama has a thin layer of deniability; he was not there the days of Rev Wright's various greatest anti-American hits. But more importantly, he has clearly denounced Rev Wright's ugly statements and distanced himself. Saying he admired the man while disowning the beliefs was awkward; I still don't feel comfortable with Mr Obama's years in Mr Wright's church. But nothing else Mr Obama has said makes me think he shares Mr Wright's views or style. A very bad judgment call, to stay in that church, but nothing more.
I'm rather more concerned about Ms Palin's pastors. (There are a few, with a variety of colourful beliefs.) The belief in an imminent End Times seems to be fundamental to the Wasilla Assembly of God's beliefs. Other excerpts of this video show a tissue-thin line between God's will and earthly politics in Ms Palin's worldview (cf. her call for voters to pray for a pipeline). We know Ms Palin imbibed this stuff.
I'm generally against the mixing of religion and politics—John McCain doesn't like to talk about his church, so I'm not inclined to ask him about transubstantiation or the Monophysite heresy. But Ms Palin's faith is obviously central to her life and her political views. That makes it fair game. Can someone, when she finally takes questions, ask her about the End Times? Does God have plans for Alaska? The Alaska Daily News article linked above also says that all of the churches Ms Palin has attended think the Bible is inerrant. Does she? Because for me, that would trash the credibility of virtually every pronouncement she has to make on science. (That oil in her state would be just 6,000 years old.) A belief that the Bible is inerrant, along with a belief that God takes an active role in political affairs like pipelines, would worry me a great deal, in fact. Israel-Palestine? Relations with Islam? Is she going to be checking her decisions against Leviticus?
Some will say that this is rude to ask, that there is no religious test, that you can just look at the woman: she's obviously not a wacko. But when I hear code phrases like "refuge state" and "servant's heart" I get nervous. Mr Obama and Mr McCain have done countless interviews on their faith. We need to know a little more exactly what Ms Palin believes, since she too stands a decent chance of being not just vice-president, but president.
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So, having read a few stories about some fools that hacked Gov Palin's email I'm now pretty much convinced the lady is a crook of the kind we have here in OK. And we have some good ol' boys who can really get themselves into some trouble.
However, I am having trouble understanding how people really can support this lady much more. It's becoming quite clear she's just as dictatorial as can be. Not to mention she's not really the brightest bulb they've ever picked for a running mate.
However, having said all that, I cannot believe some idiot went and broke into the lady's email account. If they assign USSS to protect candidates, you have to KNOW that's just a bad idea. This isn't suzie from high school. Man.
Um.
I wasn't there, but I hear it was a bad time.
Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Heh, sorry. You just made me think of it.
Republicans are supposed to have wacko pastors. Republicans are allowed to be wacko pastors and still get elected. Palin is fine in that regard.
I can't agree with this when we're talking about someone in charge of thousands of nuclear weapons and the most powerful military in the world believing in a literal interpretation of "Revelations."
Fuck that.
In case you haven't seen it already
Personally, I cannot WAIT for a real debate between these two. They are such polar opposites from devising an actual plan that I cannot WAIT to hear it. I read This today and just cannot wait for debate. Choice quote:
"...Obama's proposal would eventually cover more than 34 million of the roughly 47 million Americans currently without insurance, while McCain's would cover at best 5 million uninsured. "
Particularly the part about the pregnant teenage daughter.
I think Obama would be polling at about 5% and we wouldn't hear news about issues for about 30 years.
I don't even know how to
a witchhunter
Sadly, you are right. But that's just part of the hypocrisy that is found in the Republican party. Not that the left doesn't have it, too, but the right just seems to be blatant about it.
dude. please stfu.
Well, it's all about white privilege:
Let the man stare blankly into the void or he'll debate you until your ass hairs crinkle.
Frankly, I'm not sure if that makes it worse or better whether that is truly the motivation. It's pretty sickening either way.
Can someone please explain this to me? Does she just hope that if she "declines to participate" the whole thing will go away? How can this possibly do anything other than make her look worse if something more does come of it?
I like this Cranky Matthews.
witch hunters
The goal is to either kill the investigation or tar it as being politically motivated. The problem is that they're so inept at both that they're failing miserably at their goals.
Proper answer for Cantor:
"Bill Clinton and the '98 Republican congress are responsible for the repeal of the Glass-Steagal act that started this mess, it's been a decade, both parties had a role to play in this mess."
Of course, that would be arguing against deregulation, which the Republicans can't do lest their funding base turn against them.
Alaska's AG is also on her side
Apprently they're tryi to push it off till after the election
But that doesn't really work, because it just makes people think there's something to the charges, and just delays the inevitable. They either have to kill it, or make it look like a partisan hatchet job. And that's just not happening.
Because it's distracting and hurts my ears and makes everyone involved sound like a jabbering ignoramus.
I know it's just a bullshit hypothetical, but I have to reject this question.
If Barack Obama was dumb enough to pick a VP candidate as shockingly corrupt, incompetent, and altogether bizarre as Sarah Palin he wouldn't be Barack Obama. We didn't choose our nominee because of his powerful rhetoric or stage charisma, we chose him because he has demonstrated uncommonly sound judgment and foresight during his short time as a legislator. Many of his fellow Democrats recognized something special in him, too. The day I knew we were going to win this was the day he earned Ted Kennedy's endorsement.
Sarah Palin's selection wasn't just shocking because of who she is, but because of who it revealed John McCain to be: a cynical, opportunistic, short-sighted politician who put self ahead of country.
Matthews makes a good point. Where the fuck is Bush? Why is he not on TV talking to the public?
Anyway, with 2 days of a -5% DOW we're pretty much firmly in "it's the economy stupid" land, especially because WaMu is apparently next on the list, going on fire sale right now to the highest bidder. Tomorrow will be grim as well.....
I'm guessing their main goal is to try to delay the investigation so that any damning evidence comes out after the election.
It is somewhat comforting to see the laws of cause and effect running up against the Republican rhetoric that denied them for so long and bulldozing them (and, yeah, a goodish part of the economy) into the dirt.
Makes you feel like you're living in the physical world instead of a Heller-esque fever dream.
I would guess 5th amendment. But, then again, in my view, if you're pleading the 5th, you're pretty much guilty of something, even if not exactly what they're looking into. Soooo, yea...
He didn't say it was a good idea.
Honestly if McCain's campaign had any idea what they were doing they would have actually bothered to do more than a Google search to check up on Palin's credentials.
Well, to be honest, McCain didn't really pick Palin so much as he was told that she would be his running mate.
I told my co-worker it wouldn't be Bank of America! I just wish I had remembered what I saw about WaMu here the last two days at the time.
I thought I heard this morning that McCain had an ad out complaining about Obama "politicizing" the economic crisis, but haven't seen that mentioned here.
I lol'd.
You did. It's by far the juciest anti-Palin bit to come up lately. It contains lurid details of sex, violence, corruption, and blatant stupidity. I mean, she fired the guy for asking for earmarks that Ted Stevens didn't like even though they would help women not be raped. Why wouldn't Olbermann and Maddow pound on it?
They are also trying to delay it until after the election. The argument about why it shouldn't be concluded before the election is hilarious.