The Frightened Generation

There's no small amount of speculation that the Bush administration will suddenly "find" Osama bin Laden a few weeks before the election. Maybe they've had him in custody for a few months now. After all, there have been some secret operations in Pakistan. Secret except for the fact that Pakistan seems to object to being invaded by American troops.

And there's been speculation that Sarah Palin (foreign policy expert because she can almost see a desolate, deserted part of Russia and because Alaska shares a border with Canada) will suddenly realize that she must spend more time with her family and resign from the ticket a week or two before the election. She will say, "The 'liberal media' have 'crucified' her family and she must blah blah blah blah blah." I don't know what the rest of the story will be, but "liberal media" and "crucified" will certainly be in the sound bites that the GOP sound machine will repeat and repeat and repeat.

So what if they find bin Laden? Doesn't that take away a big part of their platform?

No, it wouldn't. Capturing OBL wouldn't end the organization. Bush and Cheney have been the best recruiting agents the group could ever have hoped for and the leadership is distributed and cell-based. Taking out the top guy now would have virtually no effect. And even if it would, the scare mongers will have things to use in scaring us. When the Chinese or the Russians write the history of this period, I suspect we will be referred to as The Frightened Generation.

Example: A new group called "Stop Child Predators" wants to stop Google's Street View. The head of the organization is a former deputy director of the American Conservative Union, Stacie D. Rumenap. She says that Google Street View makes it easy for anyone to obtain detailed photographic information about you and your family. In a video on the organization's website, Rumenap (on the website StopInternetPredators.com) says a predator could use the service to map the most likely route your child walks to school and even figure out the location of your family's bedroom windows.

Something like four fifths of all abuse cases involving children are perpetrated by someone who is in the family or who is known to the family. Four fifths. Eighty percent. Those people already know where you live and where your bedroom windows are. The people we have to fear, then, is ourselves! If you think this sounds like an absurd plot line for The Simpsons, you're right. It once was.

Boo! Betcha I scared you. Vote for me so I can do it again! Instead of FDR's "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," today's GOP offers "The only thing we have is fear."

Bullshit!

Who's the "elitist"?

When you have seven homes, you have a lot of garages to fill. After the fuss over the number of residences owned by the two presidential nominees, Newsweek checked automobile registrations.

• John and Cindy McCain own 13 cars.
• Barack and Michelle Obama own 1 car.

We own 2 cars (or 4, depending on how you define cars owned by daughters): A 1993 Taurus, a 1995 Explorer, (Liz's) 2003 Saturn, and (Kaydee's) 2007 Honda.

Who's the "elitist" again? Which family is more like yours? Would it be the one where the papa bear owns 13 cars and thinks the division between "middle class" and "rich" is at $5,000,000? Do you expect to earn $5,000,000 in your entire life?

Want to see the McCain fleet?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/21/mccain-owns-13-cars-obama_n_128047.html

And the GOP sound machine calls Obama the "elitist"? Give me a break!

The Balad of John and Sarah

Just when you thought it might once again be safe to think in America, Janis Ian (well known free thinker, songwriter, and lesbian) has signed on to sing the GOP's election jingle.*

Janis Ian sings ...

The Balad of John and Sarah

You got Ma Rainey talkin’ ‘bout a jelly roll

Chuck Berry workin’ on a mojo

Bessie Smith singin’ Bull Dagger Blues

Elvis twitching on the evening news

Danger, danger, can’t you see

that sex should stay a mystery

so ban that music, yessirree

That’s what America means to me

We gonna ban Walt Whitman, and Jean Cocteau

All the queers will have to go

Mr. Tennessee Williams, Plato too

You got to give J. Edgar Hoover his due

Danger, danger, can’t you see

They’re in your local library

so ban those authors, yessirree

That’s what America means to me, yeah

We gonna ban all the dagos, the wops and the kikes

Gonna ban all the chinks and the towelhead types

Ban all the wetbacks, ban all the fags

Wrap it up tight in the American flag

Danger, danger, can’t you see

it’s dangerous when they are free

so ban those lazy refugees

That’s what America means to me

I watched the news last night at nine

Saw a head blown off somebody’s spine

The women moaned and the children screamed

Doesn’t anybody else think that’s obscene?

It ought to be a felony

to practice such stupidity

but it’s my right, as you can see

That’s what America means to me, yeah

*Yes, I am kidding, but I'm a little creeped out.

Nothing is Too Low for the McCain Campaign

Recently I heard a report by NPR. The overarching topic was "Is America Ready for a Black President?" and one of the people interviewed said that he didn't have a problem with a black president, but that Barack Obama wasn't "the right black man".

Why not? Is Obama too "uppity"? Too well spoken? Too well educated? I have to wonder why the GOP fears educated voters. Who would this guy have considered the "right" black man to be president? It seems to me that honkies (and I am one) haven't done particularly well when it comes to running this country. What's wrong with giving an educated black man who can easily think his way out of a paper bag a chance? We've tried stupidity for the past 8 years. Might it not be reasonable to give intelligence a try? Just this once? Instead of electing the guy you might be happy to have a beer with, might it not make sense to elect the guy who has the smarts to solve some of the nation's problems?

The GOP is actively spreading lies about Obama, but that's typical for the party of Nixon, the party of dirty tricks. What's both surprising and disheartening is that John McCain is now using the same tactics he decried in 2000 when George W. Bush used them against McCain. Lies. Whisper campaigns. Half truths.

Maybe you've heard about "Snopes", the urban legend people. I don't know whether the Snopes folks are Republicans or Democrats. Or maybe independents. I do know that I trust them to investigate claims and report the truth.

So I encourage you to consider ...

• "50 Lies by Barack Obama" (GOP LIE): http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/50lies.asp
• "Barack Obama is not a US citizen" (GOP LIE): http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/citizen.asp
• "Obama is a Muslim" (GOP LIE): http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
• "Hugo Chavez is funding Obama's campaign" (GOP LIE): http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/chavez.asp
  

If you visit Snopes and type "Obama" into the search box, you'll get at least 66 hits. At least 60 of those hits indicate that the scurrilous comments are FALSE. Lies. Untruths. If John McCain can't win fair and square, it seems that he's willing to use unethical (might one say "immoral"?) tactics.

Try the same thing with the word "McCain" and you'll get 37 hits. Surprisingly (Really? Does this surprise you?) most of them are TRUE.

• E-mail lists facts about Senator John McCain's wife, Cindy McCain. (true)
• Article recounts details of Senator John McCain's divorce from his first wife, Carol. (true)
• E-mail describes the military pedigrees of Senator John McCain's sons. (true)
• Article by Karl Rove describes Senator John McCain. (undetermined)
• Does John McCain not qualify as a natural-born citizen of the U.S. because he was born in Panama? (undetermined)
• Did John McCain once say that 'the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it.' (true)
• Did John McCain say he would define the income level that divides the middle class from the rich as $5 million? (true)
  

The difference is that most of the reports circulating about John McCain are true while most of the reports circulating about Barack Obama are false.

Does this tell you anything?

Pig Lips in Space - the new movie by Mel Stiller and Op-rah-rah Winfrey:....

Long ago, I worked with a guy who decided one day, as a favor, to clean my desk. Actually, we sorta shared the desk, except that my stuff covered about 99% of it. But I knew where everything was, at least to within a general depth within a specific stack. So when he cleaned my desk, I couldn't find anything. And I never forgave him. I even send him occasional threatening messages about the event, which happened in about 1970. This message is from him. I assume he wrote it; it sounds like him (such as electrons can sound like a human being.)

Long ago, I worked with a guy who decided one day, as a favor, to clean my desk. Actually, we sorta shared the desk, except that my stuff covered about 99% of it. But I knew where everything was, at least to within a general depth within a specific stack. So when he cleaned my desk, I couldn't find anything. And I never forgave him. I even send him occasional threatening messages about the event, which happened in about 1970. This message is from him. I assume he wrote it; it sounds like him (such as electrons can sound like a human being.)

Well, anyway, all is forgiven Dave!

So - this pig walks into a bar ... no wait.

Transcripts from the first presidential debate 08- panel interview portion:

Mr. Koppel:
Senator Borbammarammadonna, have you ever worn lipstick or ever lusted in your heart for a man wearing lipstick?

Sen. Obama:
Not while wearing lipstick, no.
However,
That depends on the definition of lip, which is above my pay grade.
And, the Republicans, just by the way, they just make stuff up.
Are we allowed to do that, actually?

Miss Crowley:
Senator McPhalin, have you ever dated a pig - either during your first marriage - during which time you were already actually dating your second wife - or, at any other time - while wearing lipstick?

Sen. McSame er, McCain:
No. Look - look it here I mean, you know - - I was a prisoner of war for a long time - maybe 20 years - nobody really knows - and my arms were broke - so that pig with lipstick - I mean look it - that pig with lipstick gave me one lousy blow job and that was it .. and I wasn't even President yet!
But, my dear friends, let me tell you, this guy Barramma is a Muslim, and he took his oath of office on the Koran - which may or may not be legal -
I don't know for sure - I don't really know a lot about the Constitution.
Most Muslims by the way are gay - not that that's bad or anything. Is it?
(LOUD VOICE COMING FROM BOX ON McCain's back:
("Yer da one dat's blowin' it, cowboy -- say, is this bein ' recorderated?
Heeee heee [wheeeze] heee, eh, heh?")

Mr. Russert (who is still dead): [voice from off stage] :
Senator O'Rammer, I know you are an Irish Catholic like me - but - let me read to you exactly what you said in 1987:
"Reagan can go kiss a pig's ass with lipstick as far I care."
Do you stand by that statement?

Sen. Obama:
Well, there you go again.
Where's the beef?
By the way, beef does not come from pigs - and Muslims don't eat something - pigs, cows, - maybe that's Hindus or Jews - whatever - not that I know - because as you know I am a Christian and my pastor is a flaming nutcase asshole. Speaking of which - I really have to pee now --
YOU SAID WE'D GET A BREAK!

Wolf Man Blitzered:
"That concludes this discussion - with the "Best Political Team on Television" - they make me say that part of course - and so now it's up to you to deciderate for yourselves. And I must say, you've always done ahelluvajob on that. How does THAT work anyway? Good night - and good fucking luck - I'm outta here."

Remembering 9/11/2001

Then, or maybe a few days later, someone on a discussion list that I administer tried to point out that the United States is not revered as a paragon of virtue throughout the world. That wasn't the time or the place for that discussion and I remember firmly asking for an end to it. But maybe now is the time.

"Patriotism is overrated." Joan Baez said words to that effect in an interview with Bob Edwards this week and I think she may be right. We are born wherever it is that we're born. Taking pride in that seems silly. Is patriotism the extreme extension of property over people? Is it nothing more than the old "Hurrah for our side because we're better than you are!" nonsense?

And then today I heard Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University and a retired Army colonel, on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. If you can find a recording of that program, it's well worth listening to. Bacevich opposed the war in Iraq from the start. His son died there, but note that I said he opposed it from the start.

He says that he is a conservative who cannot accept the actions of the Bush administration, that actions the United States has taken since the end of the Cold War (and particularly since 2000) have squandered our prestige and our power. As a professor of history, he also takes an honest look at this nation's policies and, in many cases, finds them severely wanting.

The question was and is "Why do they hate us so much?" It's not, as George W. Bush would suggest, because of our freedoms. It is because of what we have done, or not done, to alleviate suffering throughout the world.

It seems to me that we have a long way to go as a planet. As long as it's "us" versus "them", we're never going to get very far beyond the mud. When we ignore global warming, poverty, starvation, ethnic "cleansing", and such, we make enemies. When we support dictators, we make enemies. When we allow US corporations to run roughshod over emerging nations, we make enemies.

All that is not to say that the murderous bastards who planned and executed the attacks on 9/11/2001 were right or justified; but it might explain why some people around the world felt that we got exactly what we deserved on that ugly day.

Pigs with Lipstick

What do you think of Hillary Clinton's health care plan, Senator John McCain? "I think they put some lipstick on a pig." (October 2007)

What do you think of John McCain positioning himself as an agent of change, Senator Barack Obama? "You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." (September 2008)

And then all hell broke loose. The McSame campaign, using the same tactics he deplored in 2000, demanded that Senator Obama apologize to Sarah Palin. [Hello. Did anyone mention Sarah Palin?]

Clearly it's a case of "We can say it about you, but if you say it about us, the fecal matter is going to strike the oscillating air movement device."

The view from Mount Hypocrisy must be breathtaking!

Focus on the Fools

Hey! This is funny (or maybe it's sad--I report, you decide). It's by Hendrik Hertzberg (OK, so that's a suspicious name!) in the New Yorker (well, by God, he must be a commie-you-nist or one of them damn ay-rabs.) Oh, it's from the "Jew Yorker". Well, a-course he ain't a loyal Merkin*, then.

I quote:

A couple of weeks before August 28th—the night that Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for President, in a Denver football stadium—Stuart Shepard, the digital-media director of the lobbying arm of Focus on the Family, one of the most powerful organizations on the religious right, posed a question to his Internet viewers. "Would it be wrong," he asked, "to pray for rain?" Shepard's answer, apparently, was no, because he proceeded to do just that. He prayed for there to be rain—abundant rain, torrential rain, "rain of Biblical proportions"—in Denver on August 28th. "I'm praying for unexpected, unanticipated, unforecasted rain that starts two minutes before the speech is set to begin," he said, adding, "I know there will probably be people who will pray for seventy-two degrees and clear skies, but this isn't a contest."

In the event, Obama gave his speech under clear skies with the thermometer at seventy-two degrees. It's hard to draw definitive conclusions from this about the efficacy of prayer. Still, Shepard and others who assume that the Almighty faxes meteorological talking points as a matter of routine must now be puzzling over what He meant last week by arranging for a hurricane just severe enough to disrupt the opening of the Republican National Convention (and freshen the public's memories of the present Administration's Katrina incompetence) but, mercifully, not so severe as to do too much damage to the innocent.

--end quoted material--

I believe that this indicates that God has sent her everlasing and clear message that Obama is the candidate God favors. It's crystal clear.

*Merkin: A merkin (first use, according to the OED, 1617) is a pubic wig, originally worn by prostitutes after shaving their genitalia to eliminate lice or disguise the marks of syphilis. There are many different ways of wearing a merkin, although most involve placing the merkin on the vulva or the scrotum.

Palin + Bridge = Nowhere to Run

I guess she was for the bridge before she was against it. I understand that die-hard Republicans aren't the brightest folks in the basket, but it's hard to understand how even the blindest of the blind can accept Sarah Palin's lies about the Bridge to Nowhere. "If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves," Sarah Palin said, lying through her teeth to the cheering ("Drill, baby, drill!" Oh, wait, that's another story.) and half-crazed audience in Saint Paul.

Sounds cool. McCain and Palin say they don't want to waste taxpayers' money. Trouble is, at least in Palin's case, it's a sham. A lie. A canard. An untruth. Palin continues to make this claim and it's in a GOP TV ad. That doesn't make it any less true.

Let's turn the clock back to 2006 and allow me to quote Sarah Palin: "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." While running for governor, Palin repeatedly stated her support for the bridge that would have connected a town of 2400 to a town of 870.

"Palin was for the infamous bridge to nowhere before she was against it." (Associated Press)

In September of 2006, Palin (still for the bridge) was quoted by the Ketchikan Daily News: "The money that's been appropriated for the project, it should remain available for a link. I think we're going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project." And when people started referring to the bridge as the "Bridge to Nowhere", Palin was photographed in a pro-bridge shirt with the slogan "Nowhere, Alaska 99901". If this is opposition, I wonder what support is.

Eventually Congress was embarrassed into killing Alaska Pork Senator Ted Stevens' project, but even then Palin didn't return federal money that had been sent. She allocated it to building the approach to the bridge that wouldn't be build to nowhere. So that's the "conservative" approach to safeguarding taxpayers' money.

D'oh!

You may already know the rest of the story. In October 2005, Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, tried to move money for the Bridge to Nowhere to fund a bridge to somewhere — one damaged by Hurricane Katrina. That's the point at which Porky Ted Stevens, the indicted Alaska Republican senator (et, tu), threatened to resign and the Senate then rejected spending the money to fix a real bridge to a real location. Even the Heritage Foundation (about as conservative as you can get) called the Bridge to Nowhere "a national embarrassment", but Palin soldiered on.

In November, Congress killed the Bridge to Nowhere, but it was more than a year later that Palin finally decided she should be "against" the bridge.

Although I can understand how the 800 or so people living in the town the bridge would have connected to the nearby metropolis that's about 1/10th the size of the town I live in might have wanted the bridge, I also don't doubt that it would be nice for Congress to approve funding for a heliport near my home so that I could get to work faster. The difference is that I understand why this would be a stupid idea and know that I wouldn't support it even if some yahoo porky congressional critter managed to obtain funding for it.

Now Sarah Palin is against the bridge. According to her, she's always been against the bridge. Except that she was for the bridge before it became embarrassing to be for the bridge. All we have is more lies from the Party of Rove, who learned from the architects of the Third Reich that a big lie, told enough times, becomes the truth in the the feeble minds of the public.

Disinformation: What it Is; How it Works

Maybe a couple of quick definitions are in order first. A lot of people confuse "misinformation" and "disinformation", but there's a critical difference. "Misinformation" has been in the language for centuries and was formed from the verb "misinform". "Misinformation" is, quite simply, "incorrect information" and that's it. "Disinformation", on the other hand, entered the language in 1939 and Merriam Webster's 10th Edition defines it this way: "False information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth."

The difference is that disinformation (from the soviet term "disinformatsiya") is "covertly spread" and often started by planting rumors and the goal is to influence public opinion. The soviets became masters of this technique, using small newspapers or radio stations in third-world countries to start a rumor, which might then be picked up (with quite a bit of help from the soviet "news" bureau TASS) by larger news operations.

TASS would carry the initial reports but would fail to issue corrections when the originating newspaper or radio station later issued a correction. The rumors continue to spread to larger and more respected news organizations. Sometimes they managed to hit a home run and their disinformation would show up in major Western media.

Karl Rove and company watched and learned. (Is there an irony here? The "defenders of freedom and democracy", as they like to style themselves, taking to disinformation as a pig takes to mud.) They saw how easy it would be to start a whispering campaign. For example, the one in South Carolina, where the rumor mill spread an unfounded and false story about Senator John McCain so that George W. Bush could win the Republican nomination in 2000. These techniques were repeated four years later by the "Swift Boaters" and Jerome R. Corsi, a hack writer and conspiracy theory nut.

Today, we're seeing yet another tired replay of this hoary old script, this time against Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Will the public fall for this canard yet again?

A Disinformatsiya Case Study

The United States Information Agency (USIA) issued a lengthy report in 1996 describing how a disinformation campaign is waged. The full account is here: (The "Baby Parts" Myth: The Anatomy of a Rumor).

The account summarizes an unfounded, but horrifying, rumor that Americans (or, depending on the source, Europeans, Canadians, or Israelis) adopt infants or kidnap children, murder them, and use their body parts for organ transplants. You know it's false. I know it's false. But this story has been seen by millions of people and many of those who are already predisposed to dislike Americans (or, depending on the source, Europeans, Canadians, or Israelis) undoubtedly believed it.

These baby stealing rumors can be traced back at least as far as ancient Rome and were often used to pit one group against another, just as similar techniques are being used today by the GOP to demonize Democrats.

In January 1987, Leonardo Villeda Bermudez, a former Honduran government official mentioned the rumor in passing during an interview. The reporter felt that Villeda was saying the rumors were true. The official immediately issued a clarification and that clarification was repeated by all top Honduran officials, but the rumor had already been reported by one of the news wire services.

A few months later, in April, the disinformatsiya crew in the USSR began spreading and embellishing the rumor. The story appeared in Pravda (which means "Truth"), citing the Honduran account but ignoring all subsequent clarifications and retractions. The story continued to appear in TASS accounts until late 1988.

This event occurred near the end of the Soviet Union and lasted for less than two years, while some stories from the 1950s and 1960s were repeated for more than a decade. Joe McCarthy disgraced the Republican party in the 1950s and some of his lies continue to be handed down from one generation to the next, as if gospel, in the GOP.

The problem is that people believe what they want to believe. It's easy to vilify "the enemy" as Sarah Palin did at the recent Republican convention, and as she continues to do in her role of attack dog. Those Republicans who believe that only they are patriotic (and this appears not to be a small number) will easily believe that Democrats are enemies of the state.

Perhaps someday Republicans will understand that Democrats share with true Republicans a desire for peace, justice, and prosperity. Perhaps the majority of Republicans may even come to understand that their own party has lied to them about nearly everything it has done for the past eight years.

One can only hope.

The Conventions Have Ended

After the Democratic convention, I felt really good. And it was even better when Obama and Biden made Columbus one of their first post-convention stops. I created a couple of designs that I felt were forward looking and optimistic.

and

I really hoped that the campaign would involve a discussion of the issues, but then came the Republican convention. Lies, deceit, innuendo, and smears abounded. And that was just about their own vice presidential candidate. Of course they blamed "the liberal media" for it, even though it was a story planted by neocon bloggers. (This is essentially the same procedure that the soviets perfected using TASS in the 1950s and 1960s.)

So, for therapeutic value, I needed to create some edgier messages. By the way, if you like any of these, I've made them available via CafePress.

then

and

Well, the Republican convention is over, so the police in Minneapolis and Saint Paul can stop arresting terrorist nuns and beating demonstrators. They can go back to whatever it is they usually do for amusement. The Republicans are fanning out across the country with their message of fear.

And I needed more therapy. That led to ...

and

along with

and

and

and

and finally


This next election is the most important election in my lifetime. It will help determine the direction this country takes for decades and, possibly, whether this country continues to exist.

Incidentally, I've created some of these bumper stickers as wide-screen (1440x900) desktop wallpaper images. If you'd like to download them, you'll find them in a zip file here. Free.

http://www.blinn.com/desktop/ Just download "Obama.zip", extract the files, and use them.

Enjoy!

And please vote.

Aristotle supposedly said, "A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side."
(Smart guy, that Aristotle.)

Nasty?

Yeah, I guess you could say that some of these are nasty. Mean spirited. Personal attacks. In other words, they're exactly the kinds of things that Karl Rove and the rest of his politburo would use to blast the opposition. Hack writer Jerome Corsi's Obama Nation book, for example. Clever play on words, but lacking in factual references. Corsi, Rove, and their ilk are professionals when it comes to innuendo, rumor, and half truths.

So, yeah. Nasty. And without apology for being so. It's time to fight back.

I used to be a Republican

Maybe I'd like to be again someday, but it's not likely. Today the Republicans are the party of intransigence, not the progressives they once were.

It's not so much the Republicans, but the party as it is currently operating. The party has been taken over by what appear to most of the world to be crazy people. We have the neocons who have started one needless war and seem to be itching to start another. We have people who espouse Christian values and morality lying, stealing, and cheating. They pray loudly and publicly, but their actions do not reflect their words.

I once was a Republican. And this morning I heard a Florida GOP congressman on NPR. He made a lot of sense, talking about Congress working together to get things done. That was once the way things happened.

It's not just the GOP, either. Democrats have taken a harder stance, too, and are more confrontational than they were. I know why this is in my own case: As the GOP told me time and time again that I was the enemy, that I was not patriotic, and everything was the fault of people like me, the "big tent" got smaller and smaller. As the GOP hired more and more managers, all the while saying that they were making government smaller, as they outsourced $50,000 per year jobs to $200,000 per year private contractors who were accountable only to their corporations, as they routinely talked about solving problems and only made them worse -- I could see that the elephant was naked.

I just hope that some true conservatives manage to wrest back control of the party.

I really would like to respect the party again even if its values are no longer mine, or maybe the other way around.

Palin: Cheney with a smile

If you think it's been bad having the former president of Halliburton in charge of the government for the past 8 years, just wait until Sarah Palin (who's beholding to the entire state of Alaska) gets her hooks in the federal coffers. Corruption? You ain't seen nothin' like it befo. (I wrote that last part in a way that might be understandable to some "we hate intylektyualz" Republicans.)

You youins iz wundering whut the Reepub big wigz is thinkin' 'bout Palin? Fur yer edddyficakshun (ah, enlightenment) (ur, learnin'), here's a transcript (that means a listing of what words came out of their mouths) of what they said when they thought the microphones and cameras had been turned off:

Mike Murphy, former McCain advisor, and Peggy Noonan, a Reagan speech writer, said when they thought the microphones were OFF:

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor work. Engler, Whitman, Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. And these guys, this is all like how you want to (inaudible) this race. You know, just run it up. And it's not gonna work.

Peggy Noonan: It's over.

Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

NBC's Chuck Todd: Don't you think the Palin pick was insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too (inaudible)

Noonan: I saw Kay this morning.

Murphy: They're all bummed out.

Todd: I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political [B.S.] about narratives and (inaudible) the picture.

Murphy: I totally agree.

Noonan: Every time the Republicans do that because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at and they blow it.

Murphy: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism and this is cynical.

Todd: And as you called it, gimmicky.

Dis here all leads to de kwesthchun: Why dus Republicans hate dis country so much? Why duz dey want to 'lekt stoopid peeples 'sted of kumpashitate 'murikans what luvs de country?

Translation for Democrats and other thinking people: Why do Republicans hate the country so much? Why do they want to elect uneducated, inexperienced candidates instead of compassionate Americans who love the country?

Say NO to the party of McCarthyism.

Vote SMART.
Vote BLUE.

Intelligent Compassion

Why Palin is a BAD CHOICE (by Karl Rove)

I've been neglecting this area for a long time, thinking that people of good sense would prevail in 2008. Now I'm not so sure. Given how the rabid right took to Sarah Palin, I'm a bit worried. According to Karl Rove, Palin shouldn't be considered for the vice presidency, though.

Karl Rove, when there was a rumor that Barack Obama was considering Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as vice president: "With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he's been a governor for three years, he's been able but undistinguished. I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that he's done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, 'You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with -- is this person capable of being president of the United States?'"

^^ If you don't believe that Karl Rove actually spoke these words in this election cycle, let me know and I will provide a link to the video where you can watch and listen as he says these words.*

Please note that Wasilla, Alaska, would rank no higher than the 10,000th "city" in the nation, by population, and probably closer to 15,000. Also note that the population of Alaska is 47th among the 50 states. Only North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming have lower populations.

You already know that Karl Rove flip-flopped so badly on this one that he probably sprained his flip-flopper, which is quite a feat for someone as slippery as Rove.

Rove on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin: "She was mayor of the second largest city in Alaska before she became governor," as if that's some great qualification for being vice president. Except that Wasilla isn't the "second largest city" in Alaska.

Or third.

Or fourth.

For those who are factually challenged, such as Karl Rove, here is a list of the 5 largest cities in Alaska:

• Anchorage, 275,043 (largest, 32 times larger than Wasilla)
• Fairbanks, 31,324 (second largest, 3.7 times larger than Wasilla)
• Juneau, 30,978 (third largest, 3.6 times larger than Wasilla)
• Sitka, 8986 (fourth largest)
• Wasilla, 8431 (fifth largest)
  If you use the 2006 government estimates, Wasilla beats Sitka by about 300 people and becomes the fourth largest "city" in Alaska.

Tom Kaine's city of Richmond, Virginia, has a population of 200,123 (metro area about 1.1 million), so it's just slightly smaller than Anchorage, which (as you may recall) is 32 times the size of Wasilla.

Alaska isn't like states where "fifth largest" might actually be a city of some size. The fifth largest city in Ohio is Akron, with 207,000 people. Or Virginia. Richmond is the fifth largest city (200,000+ people), but that's not enough to impress Karl Rove.

West Virginia, a state with few large cities, has more than 5 cities with populations in excess of 30,000 (which would be about 4 times the size of Wasilla) and nearly 20 cities with more than 20,000 residents. (20,000 is more than double the size of Wasilla.) Anybody want to guess what Karl Rove and his minions would have said if Barack Obama had selected as his vice presidential candidate someone who, until two years ago, had been the mayor of Beckley, West Virginia (population 16,830 -- more than 3 times larger than Wasilla)?

So ...

• How do you spell "flip-flop"? Karl Rove.
• How do you spell "hypocrisy"? Karl Rove.
• How do you spell "lying son of a bitch"? Karl Rove.
  

How can people listen to this man without having their heads explode?

*This is the difference between Republicans and Democrats: The Democrats have proof, not rumor and innuendo.