The liberal media takes another shot at Palin…

by pointing out the truth.   Check out Brian Williams opening remark.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/04/brian-williams-on-the-lat_n_131858.html

Bill Maher figured out a new strategy for McCain….

At the next debate, after they shake hands, McCain is going to pretend like his wallet is missing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/04/the-good-news-is-palin-ca_n_131854.html

Obama = Hope, McCain = indignation

Check out this report from Dan Hill of Sensory Logic. Through analyzing people’s responses to Obama and McCain campaign ads, he concluded that while Obama is a credible messenger of Hope, McCain is only credible as a messenger of anger and indignation. Ouch!

The “Bailout” bill failed today

From the Politico:

Republican defections proved fatal to the massive government intervention, rejected 228-205. Despite bipartisan appeals from the leadership, anti-Wall Street sentiment and the huge scale of the proposed government intervention proved too much for Treasury to prevail.

Democrats more than delivered a majority of their caucus, and Pelosi held the vote open to bring her numbers up to 140 votes for the package. But Republicans never topped 70, and the final GOP split was 133 against the bill and only 65 for the measure.

Doesn’t this open the door for the Democrats to push through a bill they all like?  They sacrificed 95 votes in an attempt to attract Republicans.  In exchange, only 65 Republicans joined them.  If they don’t want a compromise, why don’t the Democrats just craft a plan they can pass, leaving it to President Bush to veto if he’d like?

Why This Election Really Matters To Me

The National Journal wrote a great piece on the Presidential election’s implications on the Supreme Court.  One can’t help but notice that the more moderate and liberal justices are also the oldest.  The next president will undoubtedly be given the opportunity to fill a seat or two.

From the National Journal:

The liberal nightmare (and conservative dream) is McCain replacing one or more aging liberals with conservatives who proceed to overrule or hollow out Roe v. Wade and other liberal precedents; throw gay rights into reverse; discard the constitutional right to privacy; outlaw all racial preferences and school integration programs; narrow the reach of civil-rights protections for women, minorities, and disabled people; bless virtually unrestricted government funding of religious schools and sponsorship of crosses and other religious symbols on public property; stop shrinking and start expanding the death penalty; mow down gun control laws; roll back the four decisions since 2004 that have checked Bush administration efforts to expand presidential power in the name of fighting terrorism; and make it ever harder for consumers and workers to sue businesses.

The conservative nightmare (and liberal dream) is an Obama Court requiring taxpayers to fund essentially unlimited abortion rights throughout pregnancy; ordering all 50 states to bless gay marriage; expanding and perpetuating the use of racial preferences far beyond the 25-year phaseout suggested by the justices five years ago; prohibiting tuition vouchers for religious schools; stripping “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance; banning the death penalty; striking down the new federal wiretap law; expanding judicial oversight of military detentions, CIA interrogations, and perhaps other operations worldwide; opening the floodgates to big-dollar lawsuits against business; eroding property rights; and perhaps creating new constitutional rights to physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, and massive government welfare and medical care programs.

Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less…. Say What?

Newt Gingrich is back! Under the guise of being non-partisan, he is campaigning to start domestic oil drilling with his 6-word bumper sticker slogan. Drill Here? Where? Wouldn’t we have to take the time to figure out where exactly we will have to drill? Drill Now?….or in 5-10 years, who knows? Pay Less? Says who? When confronted with the statement that no oil will actually reach our gas tanks for at least 10 years, he responds that maybe it will only be 5 years. When you get into details, the campaign seems to be, Drill Somewhere in America. Drill In 5 or 10 Years. Pay Whatever Oil Companies Charge.

The real part of their proposal that nobody talks about it that it advocated releasing oil from our strategic reserve to immediately increase supply. The idea is that our own domestic drilling to allow us to refill our strategic reserve later.

I’m not necessarily opposed to drilling, but there seem to be far too many false promises floating around.

Fighting against Equality….just doesn’t make sense.

What motivates one to fight so hard against basic equality? It’s difficult to comprehend, but sadly, it shouldn’t be. People fought against racial equality. People fought against gender equality. I guess, in a twisted sense, it should be expected that people fight against equality for LGBT people.

An interesting article by Joe Mathews appeared in the Washington Post today, which caused me to think more about this topic. He writes about the many possible outcomes of the recent California Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage. Because of California’s govern-by-ballot-measure style, groups can attempt to ban same sex marriage over and over again through ballot initiatives. What motivates these people to fight so hard against basic equalities?

I hope they would all sit down and take a few moments to ponder the lives of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. These two lesbians, both in their 80’s, are partners who have been fighting for equal rights since the 1950s! Could someone please explain to me how this couple could possibly ruin heterosexual marriages? I cannot think of one reason.

I gather that most opposing arguments will be rooted in religion. Not being a religious man, I may not be fully equipped to engage in a religious debate about equality, but I do have some sense of things. Religion should fill your heart with love, it should teach you empathy, it should teach you to treat others with respect and it should teach you to leave your judgments behind. Following these 4 basic principles, one might think the religious arguments were pro-gay…..how foolish one would be.

Moving back to the article, Smith made me wonder about one of his points. He argues that now that gay marriage is legal, and if the ballot initiative in November fails, religious institutions could file a lawsuit to prevent themselves from having to recognize the marriages of their homosexual employees. These religious institutions include schools, health centers, etc. The argument would be that marriage equality infringed on their religious freedoms. In my mind, if religious freedom allows you to deny benefits to employees who marry someone of the same sex, could religious freedom also allow a school or a health center to deny marriage benefits to a spouse who committed adultery? If the basis for denying benefits is that the religious institution simply disagrees with your actions, it would seem that there would be many people being denied their benefits.

Other than that, the article was insightful and well worth the read.

In honor of Tim, I have a simple message to the above mentioned lesbian couple. Go get ‘em P. L. and D. M.

Debate part 2

Another question has arisen that will allow the candidates to criticize themselves…..Will anyone take the bait and fess up?  Edwards uses the opportunity to again apologize for his vote on the war.  Clinton expresses regret for that war, given the misuse of power by Pres. Bush.  Dodd regrets not filibustering the Military Commissions Act last year.

Incentive pay for teachers:  This is a tough issue for me.  I agree that teachers are valuable and deserve a good salary.  How does a teacher earn that incentive pay?  Is it based on the testing the students?  If so, teachers changing the answers on their students’ bubble sheets would create a problem.  I am not bashing on teachers, but this activity does go on.

Richardson proposes a minimum wage for teachers.  Clinton talks about early education through more access to pre-kindergarten and Head Start.

Biden:  If you want to know what someone values, just look at the budget.  It’s time we start valuing our teachers

Decisive Moment in your life:

Kucinich:  Living with his family is their car

Obama: Transition from high school to college.  I didn’t have a relationship with my father.

Biden:  Involvement with Civil Rights movement.

Richardson:  Getting married…..35 years of marriage.  9-11 inspired me to get back into public life

Gravel:  Did not answer the question as best I can tell

Edwards:  Father worked in Mill, didn’t go to college.  He learned to fight for those less fortunate.

Dodd:  Joining the Peace Corps after inspiration of JFK

Clinton:  Womens Rights and Civil Rights movement made it possible for her to be on the stage.  Her mother instill her with a can-do attitude.

And that’s a wrap.

The top 3 went into the debate in a 3 way tie for first in Iowa, according to an ABC News poll.  I don’t see how this debate offers much separation.

Iowa’s still going to be tight.  Clinton maintains her national lead.

Sunday Morning Debate

The debate is underway……as is always noted, Sen. Clinton is wearing a camel colored suit instead of the usual bright colors……..on to the highlights…..

Dodd is taking on the comments of Obama regarding Pakistan once again, which roles nicely into  highlight of his experience on Capitol Hill.

Richardson:  Obama represents change.  Clinton has experience.  “With me, you have both!”  Nice line, it drew laughter instead of applause though!

The nuclear controversy is brought to Sen. Clinton:  She has led herself into a campaign against hypotheticals.

In a discussion about nuclear weapons and terrorism, Edwards jumps in and starts by saying, “How about a little hope and optimism?”   hmmmmmm…..I don’t think I like that one.

Sen Gravel:  Cheney “should be committed.”  Looks like he got his laugh against this morning.

Obama:  If Clinton wins the primary, she will win the general……..  I know he wanted to be careful in saying she can’t win, but this isn’t a good admission on his part.

Edwards:  If the Democrats are the party of status quo, we will lose in ‘08……..I think this is better worded than Obama’s response.  Any strategy against Clinton needs to conclude that she is unelectable.  If not, she cruises to victory.

Clinton:  I am a proven winner.  I have taken on the right wing machine before.  Of course my negatives are high as a result, but I’ve come out on top.

Richardson:  We must have all our troops out, all of them! Residual forces will not allow for peace talks…….It’s worth noting that Richardson dropped his 6 month, controversial timetable this morning.

Scratch that……..In his rebuttal, Richardson noted that an ABC News war expert says that 6 to 8 months is doable.  Biden says it would take 1 years.   Who do you believe?

Clinton:  We were attacked on the way in, we will be attacked on the way out.  Richardson’s timetable is too quick.  We must use severe care in leaving to minimize further American casualties.

Richardson:  If any troops are left, aren’t they even more susceptible to attack?  Thats why we must get them all out.

Biden:  We must separate the 3 groups, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds……..As usual, Biden demonstrates his vast knowledge of foreign relations.

Obama:  I am the one who didn’t vote to authorize this war.  We cannot give Pres. Bush a blank check to continue this war…………..Didn’t Obama vote for funding?

Obama always tries to say how he didn’t vote to authorize the war.  He has the luxury of not being in the Senate at the time.  However, once again, Kucinich one-ups him by saying that not only did he not vote for the war, he also has not voted to fund the war.

Obama comes to Iowa and criticizes farm subsidies!!  He is making the point that small family farms are hurt by them.

Fifty-five minutes in and we are to the first commercial…… I wonder which candidate’s tv ads are playing on the television sets of Iowa right now.

Enough is Enough for Obama

Through a campaign spokesman, Obama announced that he will not be participating in any more debates, outside of the 5 remaining officially sanctioned Democratic Party debates.  Five more debates seems like a reasonable amount.  Obama says the reason for him saying enough is enough is that he just does not have enough time to fit any more into his schedule.

Steven Stark of the Boston Phoenix offers a different perspective.  Each time Obama appears on stage with the other six or seven candidates, he loses more and more of his fresh, new appeal.  He becomes just another candidate fighting the overwhelming lead of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Why isn’t Obama doing better in the debates?  Of course there are some commentators who say Obama has won a debate or two, the the typical reaction is that Sen. Clinton went into the debate with the lead and left the debate with the lead.  Stark also notes that Obama is suffering from a gang of opposition, like when Biden and Dodd criticize him on foreign policy.  Stark suggests that the reason for this is that Biden and Dodd are campaigning for spots in the Clinton Administration.  Another reason, one I believe to be more accurate, is that Dodd and Biden share Clinton’s extensive experience in foreign relations and are unwilling to offer threats towards Pakistan, or lay down for other hostile leaders.

I know that the current climate favors the anti-Washington and the anti-Establishment, but lets not confuse the Bush Administration with the entire Washington Establishment.  Experience and competence matter.  If we haven’t learned that by now, I don’t know when we will.

The next debate is Sunday, Aug. 19th at 9 a.m. on ABC.  Will Sen. Clinton continue to lead the pack?  That is certainly my guess.