MucheDumbre

Hypocrisy

1. a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.

If there is one party who can really step into a mess, it’s the Democratic party.

If there is one party who can exploit that mess, it’s the Republican party. The republicans have a viciousness to them, a ‘pit bull’ streak that finds an opening and goes in for the kill. And like any wild animal when cornered, the attack is bloody and savage. Just look at the attacks on Nancy Pelosi over the last couple of weeks.

“I think this is the most despicable, dishonest and vicious political effort I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

“She is a trivial politician, viciously using partisanship for the narrowist of purposes, and she dishonors the Congress by her behavior.” -Newt Gingrich

Accusations of ‘viciously using partisanship’ from Newt Gingrich are not only comical but over the top,unabated, pure hypocrisy. Newt is the poster child for being the loudest one to complain, condemn and prosecute  someone else for doing exactly the same thing he was secretly doing.  As if his infidelity while his mission to attack Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky affair wasn’t proof enough of his hypocrisy, his problem of using tax-exempt funding to advance his political goals should have limited his ‘Pelosi dishonors Congress’ rhetoric. But, it didn’t.

Newt is old news though, an unimportant politically partisan pitbull hoping his hypocrisy has been forgiven. It hasn’t.  But what about newer more relevant GOP members?

“Lying to the Congress of the United States is a crime,” Boehner said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And if the speaker is accusing the CIA and other intelligence officials of lying or misleading the Congress, then she should come forward with evidence and turn that over to the Justice Department so they can be prosecuted.”

He added: “And if that’s not the case, I think she ought to apologize to our intelligence professionals around the world.”

That’s right, Nancy Pelosi should apologize to the CIA from claiming that they have misinformed congress. It is a disparaging remark and like Boehner says, she needs to ‘put up or shut up’.

It doesn’t matter that Pelosi’s accusations that the CIA memo’s are misleading seem to be panning out or that even some Republicans agree that the briefing notes contain many errors, such as briefings that listed former Chairman Porter Goss as the head of committee when Rep. Pete Hoekstra had already taken over. Because Hoekstra says, those errors are meaningless

Of Course those errors are meaningless. It doesn’t matter that 2 separate briefings have a low-level staffer as  being in on the top-secret,code-word clearance briefings. It’s meaningless that this staffer says he was actually asked to leave, which would be expected since he  only  two walked members to the room. It doesn’t matter that this staffer,Paul Juola, has asked the CIA to “immediately correct this record.”

It doesn’t matter that former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham came out and said not only did the CIA hide details from him during his briefings, but that 3 of the 4 dates the CIA said they briefed Graham were in error

…he(Graham) asked agency officials to confirm how many times they briefed him on torture. They gave him four dates, but after Graham went through his personal records and disproved three of those dates, he said the agency admitted their mistake and confirmed that he had, in fact, received only one briefing.

When our intelligence agency says they briefed someone 4 times and they really only briefed them once, when they say the person who headed  the committee was someone who had already been replaced, when they say that they allowed a staffer in on a code-word clearance briefing, none of it is relevant, in fact it’s ‘meaningless’. But when you go out in public and say that the CIA is misleading congress, that disqualifies you as from continuing as speaker. Or so Newt Gingrich says.

“To have the person third in line to be president say that the CIA misleads us all the time is so utterly irresponsible and such an attack on the men and women who are risking their lives … that she disqualifies herself for being speaker of the House,”

Now, this has nothing to do with partisan attacks, Newt,Boehner and Hoekstra wouldn’t do that. No, they are truly outraged that someone would smear the CIA by claiming they have mislead congress on some issue…

Well, except when it’s Hoekstra, and the CIA has just destroyed torture video tapes that they were warned not to destroy. When that happens

…it’s important for Congress to hold this community accountable. This community did not tell — the CIA did not tell us about the existence of these tapes. They did not tell us that they were going to be destroyed. They need — there’s a Constitutional responsibility for them to keep Congress informed and they have not and we need to hold them accountable

Or so Mr. Hoekstra says.

It’s OK for Mr. Hoekstra to say the CIA  mislead Congress. Even better, when you are on Fox News being interviewed by Chris Wallace, it’s ok to get down right nasty on the CIA.

WALLACE: Congress man Hoekstra, Hayden appeared this week before your committee. Are you satisfied that over the years the CIA acted in good faith?

HOEKSTRA: No, I’m not. There are certain statements that might have been misleading to Congress as to exactly what existed. I think you’ve got a systemic problem here. I think the community is incomPetent. It is arrogant. And it has developed — it’s become political. This — you know, you take a look at wmd in iraq. They were wrong.

Hoekstra went even farther than just calling them arrogant,incompetant and saying that they have mislead congress , he also said

…you’ve got a community that’s incomPetent. They are arrogant and they are political, and they don’t believe that they are accountable to anybody. They don’t believe that they’re accountable to the president. They’ve clearly demonstrated through the tapes case that they don’t believe they are accountable to Congress. And when we are at war, that is a terrible position for the intelligence community to be. If they had done what they are supposed to do on the tapes, keep us informed, listen to the kind of recommendations that my colleague Jane Harman made to them, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion today. But because of their arrogance and their willingness to move independent, that’s it.

The CIA? they’re political? They don’t believe they are accountable the President much less Congress? They’re incompetent?  These are just a few of the things that are OK to say about the CIA, unless of course you’re Nancy Pelosi.

Quick question, if the CIA mislead Congress, destroyed evidence… are arrogant,political,incompetent and admittedly prone to briefing errors.. why exactly are we or the GOP taking anything the CIA says over Nancy Pelosi?

It wouldn’t be to get the stink of another political land-mine off of them would it?

“..when you say that the community is incompetent, I’m telling you I don’t have confidence in the community. You know, I have high confidence that the community continues to be broken and is not giving us as policymakers the information that we need to make good decisions.-HOEKSTRA

Hypocrisy

“She is a trivial politician, viciously using partisanship for the narrowist of purposes, and she dishonors the Congress by her behavior.” -Newt Gingrich

1. a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.

UPDATE

Yes, the CIA has lied to Congress and covered it up. I think Newt might be the one who should step down and go back into hiding, after apologizing to Pelosi of course…

Related articles by Zemanta

• Gingrich: ‘Absolute obligation’ to investigate Pelosi (cnn.com)
• Did the CIA lie about torture? (guardian.co.uk)
• Newt Gingrich: CIA Bully-Boy Since 1995 (firedoglake.com)

Last year around this time I wrote a story called “Not so ho-ho-ho”. It wasn’t the beginning of the financial troubles for the country, but I felt that it was going to be a growing problem with many more Americans and I wanted to put what I felt at the time into words that everyone could understand in the hopes that somehow just that small thing could make it better somehow. I know that’s naive of me, but some times you just never know what will strike the right cord in the right person. Besides, it was the dawn of a new year, could you really blame me for hoping?

That story resonated with a few people because they were feeling the same way. But it wasn’t enough, it didn’t find the right person who could change the way our world was going.

Almost a year later I wrote on this subject again and called it, “A Poor Story” . This emphasized the worsening of life in the country from the previous Christmas to the present Thanksgiving. I have written many blogs in between. Some about the nomination and subsequent election of our new president. Not all of those were in favor of him either. I was..am a Hillary girl. I love her and think she could be an amazing President. Barack was not my 1st choice, but I have come to believe that right here, right now, he is the right choice.

I have written about bailouts and greed,hacks who steal other bloggers stories and does not give them

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credit. Cars, mortgages, and the spiraling destruction of our civil rights in this country. I’ve written a three part saga about things that might have been better off left unsaid, but I wouldn’t be me if I left something ‘unsaid’.

When I dedicated a story to a very special couple who experienced one of the greatest blessings two people in love can experience, my wish was to just give everyone a moment to share in their happiness. We don’t have enough of that kind of ’special’ in our lives.

This year has been a crazy time for everyone who has not lived under a rock the entire time, even my

partner in print had an awakening and found out that things aren’t always what they seem, and his party is in desperate need of change.

It’s been a great trip and I thank everyone who has taken it with me, with us. There will be more fighting, more comedy, more anger and more sadness in the year to come. I hope you will stick with us through it all.

…and like it’s said and proven on the MucheDumbre forum again and again, hang on tight… it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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• Holiday thoughts

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Well that didn’t work out very well. 

At least if you are a Republican.  McCain took a lickin’ and Republicans took a lickin’ across the country.  How soiled is your brand when John Murtha, who called his own constituents rednecks and racists, gets re-elected?

Doubtless there will be millions of words expended on what McCain did wrong and what the Republicans did wrong, but I think the Indecision 08 coverage summed it up for me.  Former Presidential Candidate and flat tax fanatic Steve Forbes, who for some reason was wedged between Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, broke down what he saw as the collapse of the McCain campaign:

 McCain was doing fine, up in the polls, until the financial crisis struck in mid-September.  McCain made a few key mistakes after that.  He declared the economy as essentially sound for one. Instead of taking charge of the congressional Republicans who were opposed to the bailout and trying to offer a less “give away the store” alternative, he glumly signed on to the Bush-Paulson proposal.  Of course, Obama did the same thing, but he was positioned to run against the administration, whereas McCain just looked like he was joining the Democrats and Bush.

McCain still potentially had a few good advantages for all of that.  He could have linked Obama to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae based on being the number two recipient of campaign funds from those failed mortgage buyers.  McCain could also have touted his own attempted reform of Freddie and Fannie in 2005.  Instead, he decided to condemn “Wall Street greed”, which was part of Obama’s and the Democrat’s position on the financial crisis.  Hearing him saying that during the debate, I figured the election was pretty much lost. If, as a Republican, you are just going to “me too” whatever the Democrat position is, why would the voters bother to vote for the “me too” Republican?  Why not vote for the Democrat and get the real thing?

McCain also ignored his own proposals.  His health care plan was far superior to Obama’s, particularly if you are self employed or have a small business, but McCain seldom talked about it,  even when he was given the perfect opportunity by “Joe the Plumber.”

Beyond the financial crisis McCain had several other disadvantages.

            A media that was in love with Obama, and did nothing but fall down in worship of him, tingly legs and all.  How many points in the polls is that worth?

Bush’s popularity, or lack thereof, and a Republican Party that had decided that power was better than principle.

But McCain blew it.  In his concession speech, he accepted responsibility for his campaign and in the final analysis, that’s where the blame has to lie.

So now what?

Well if you’re a Democrat, you expect to attain a higher state of consciousness when President-elect Obama descends from heaven to be sworn in at the capital in January.  And if every Republican Congressman would get caught having sex in a public restroom; well that would be icing on the cake.

If you are Republican though, it’s a bit tougher.

Still, I’m fairly sanguine about the future.  In spite of a Republican drubbing at the polls, and all of the previously mentioned forces that were allied against the GOP this year, I still think this is basically a center right country.  Actually, I should say because of all those forces, the media, Hollywood, and a major financial crisis, this country came very close to putting another Republican back in office, after following eight years of one of the most unpopular Presidents in modern times.  That’s quite a trick.

Obama mania won’t last forever.  True, it could last for a while though.  Obama will have a subservient press corps that George Bush could never dream of.  Chris Matthews has defined his job, “To make the Obama Presidency a success.”  Can you imagine Matthews, or any mainstream journalist saying something similar about the Bush Presidency?

Still, facts are facts.  When Republicans say that tax hikes damage the economy and slow growth, they are not just stating an opinion or conservative talking points, it’s an objective fact which has been demonstrated multiple times in “the real world.”  President Obama will discover that liberal orthodoxy and redistributionist policies have consequences that can only be spun so far, even with the MSM at his beck and call.

So what is my recommendation to the few remaining Republicans in Congress dealing with Democratic bills to raise taxes and squeeze “big business” with more regulations?

Let ‘em.

If President Obama thinks the path to economic recovery is covered in high taxes and regulations, he deserves the opportunity to demonstrate it.  It shouldn’t be the Republicans standing in his way.  Let him get the credit, or the blame for the consequences of his own policies.  The tax revolt of the 1970’s, beginning with California’s Proposition 13, set the stage for national Republican domination for nearly two decades.  If Obama wants to recast the Democratic Party once again as the party of choking taxes and stifling regulations, why expend effort and energy to try to stop him?

Who knows, maybe Obama is actually right, and raising tax rates on the productive classes and increasing capital gains rates will set off an economic boom.  I say let’s find out.  The people have spoken after all.  And we will let the people speak again in 2010 and 2012.

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Who, may you ask, is my favorite Vice Presidential Candidate?

No it’s not Sarah Palin.  Palin is exciting the Republican Party base, and although she has made a few gaffes to the press, they have not been particularly hilarious ones, nor have they been particularly numerous, but let me tell you about this guy, he’s just a regular Joe:  Joe Biden.

How much of a regular Joe is he?  Well unlike most politicians, he’s not afraid of ethnic humor.  Or racism as it’s usually called by the politically correct class.  Jewish jokes?  He’s got a million of them! 

The Yeshiva crew team, he said, sent a spy to Cambridge to find out why the Harvard rowers always beat them. The informant called his coach from alongside the river. “He said, ‘They’ve got eight guys rowing and only one yelling!’ “

Oy that’s funny!

Indians?  He’s got that market covered too!

“You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

“I’m not joking!”

Come on, give yourself some credit!

Black jokes?  Decide for yourself.  When speaking about Senator Obama, he said:

“The first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

Well take that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.  Better start bathing more often.

OK that’s not the funniest line I’ve ever heard, but it did dish out a lot of cringing.  Still, amazingly, Biden emerged from these brushes relatively unscathed.  Of course some of his gaffes are just misstatements and slips of the tongue.  No one seriously worries that he referred to Barack Obama as Barack America, or constantly confusing Battalions and Brigades.

But some are just bizarre, such as when he seemed to be threatening his running mate if Obama tried to take his guns.

“…he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem.”

“I guarantee you Barack Obama ain’t taking my shotguns, so don’t buy that malarkey,”

Although Beretta does make shotguns, something tells me that Biden doesn’t have a Beretta made shotgun.  I’m unsure that he even has shotguns; at least not now.  I suspect the Secret Service probably went into his home and confiscated them.

But really there are so many gaffes, I couldn’t even begin to cover them all:  attacking his own attack ads, his helicopter forced down in Afghanistan, Roosevelt’s 1929 TV appearance to the country, claiming Bush sent the Undersecretary of State to Tehran to meet with Iranian officials, claiming the Joint Chief said that we were losing in Iraq… whew!  It just goes on and on!

Biden had one debate with Gov. Palin.  Oh to have had a few more of those!  Be still my heart!  Now the McCain campaign counts 14 lies; as they call them.  But I’m only interested in a few.

“When we kicked — along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, ‘Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know — if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it.’ Now what’s happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.”

Huh?

You could almost swear Biden was on drugs when he said that.  It made no sense, and even Biden fans had to stretch the bounds of credulity to try to make Biden’s statement sound not insane.

Or how about this on the role of the Vice President:

Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there’s a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.

The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he’s part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive, and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

Article One does mention the Vice President in section two:

Clause 4: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

Clause 5: The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

But article one describes the role of the legislative branch, not the executive branch.  In fact, the only specific duties of the Vice President are those mentioned in Article One.   I guess the constitution was not explicit enough for Biden, since he got so much wrong.  This would have been an OK answer coming from Palin, but Palin was actually more correct on the duties of the Vice President than Biden was.  The Vice President can preside over the Senate at any time, not just to break a tie vote.  The question is more, what Vice President would want to?

Biden’s extraordinarily dumb answer is made all the more amazing by the fact that he is an attorney by training, and has sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee for over 16 years.  If there has ever been a Vice Presidential candidate more prepared to elaborate on the duties of the Vice President, it should have been Biden.

Naturally the media declared Biden the winner of the debate.

But his biggest boner (to date) was his promise that Obama would be tested within 6 months of being in office:

“Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate and he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

“Gird your loins.”

Once again: Huh?

Trying to figure out what Biden was trying to say has been great sport over the weekend, but the Obama Biden campaign has decided to dismiss it as “rhetorical flourish.”

If Biden were a Republican the talking heads would still be chattering about his crazy statements.  The word erratic would be used towards him rather than John McCain.  There would probably be a few other words used to: crazy. madman, nuts, damaged… I could go on but you get the point.

These words won’t be used about Biden though, and in fact, the media hasn’t paid much attention to him at all.  Palin has been the far more interesting Vice Presidential candidate.  Given Biden’s ego, that must be driving him nuts.  Of course, that could be the reason for all of Biden’s crazy statements.  Maybe they are not gaffes after all.  Maybe he is trying to say … LOOK AT MEEEEEEEE!

Image by davefishernc via Flickr

Do you ever wonder if they understand what it is exactly that this guy is doing?

Wouldn’t you think that somewhere along the way, someone would have taken them aside and said “Hey, you see that guy with the funny looking doo-hickey on his shoulder? Yeah, him. Well, he’s not playing a mutated trombone, he’s actually recording you..you know, on tape.” Someone along the way should have clued these guys in.

In 2000, John McCain was running for president. He lost the nomination but while he was running he made some great comments, such as this one.

Girl asking question…”Isn’t it like socialism and stuff….that’s their money not the governments, How is that fair?”

John McCain’s answer…”When you reach a certain level of comfort, there is nothing wrong with paying somewhat more”

huh…

Well, I guess he can just claim ‘mad cow’ and keep calling Barack a socialist for following his general tax plan from 2000,2003,2004. The plan that called for getting rid of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and letting the people who are a little more comfortable, pay a little more.

Or, someone could explain to him how a video camera works.

I would think it would be embarrassing to have your running mate promise to support and if elected, enact these polar opposite policies. But then again….She told congress “Thanks, but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere” when she really didn’t tell them that.

Of course neither McCain nor Palin want to spend excessive amounts of money for fruu-fruu things, stuff they like to call ‘pork’. They don’t want to waste tax-payers money. But she isn’t above wasting tax-payers donations.

It’s funny, because when John Edwards billed his campaign for 2 $400 haircuts, the entire atmosphere went insane. When Palin does it..ehh not so much. Maybe it’s because she really needed the swag she bought, being a hockey mom from a small town ain’t cheap ya know.

• $75,000 at Neiman Marcus
• $50,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue.
• $789.72 at Barneys New York

It’s takes alot of money to dress,shoe, and coif a family of 7 plus one boyfriend.

It’s really telling of a persons

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character and judgment, that while Joe the plummer was watching his retirement shrink every day during the economic meltdown, the Governor was out shopping in the Big city. Those small towns might be where the “real” America lives, but New York City is where the “real” Governor of Alaska shops. It’s a shame she couldn’t find a “mom and pop” store, or a start-up clothes bouitque in some of those small towns she’s been visiting lately. Because I’m sure that with the way this ecomony has been lately, they could have used the $150,000 more than Neiman Marcus. Not saying that Neiman didn’t need the money, I’m sure they are suffering also. It’s just that I find it a bit hypocritical to run a campaign on the backs of small towns,small businesses,UN-elitistism, and Anti-excessiveness and then go on a shopping spree with donation from tax-payers in the biggest city on earth.

Speaking of wasteful pork, and extreme excess.

In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin’s daughters’ expenses and $19,000 for her husband’s.

Flights topped the list for the most expensive items, and the daughter whose bill was the highest was Piper, 7, whose flights cost nearly $11,000, while Willow, 14, claimed about $6,000 and Bristol, 17, accounted for about $3,400.

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek’s third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room. Garnero said the governor’s office has the authority to approve hotel stays above $300.

Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children’s travel expenses, Garnero said: “We cover the expenses of anyone who’s conducting state business. I can’t imagine kids could be doing that.”

I guess $11,000 for airplane tickets for a 7 year old is fiscally responsible and I also guess that when Joe the plumber visits the Big Apple he stays in a $700 a day hotel. … I really guess I should have been a plumber.

OH and if you think people are only talking about this because the MSM is so slanted and so biased against Sarah Palin? I have a haircut for you.

so please, spare me the ‘woe is me’.

Let’s break this $150,000 down and see if maybe it’s explainable. The average American spent about $1800 on clothes in 2006, that means it would take Joe the plumbers 83 years to spend what Palin did in a matter of hours. It’s not just the amount that was spent, but the timing of it also. The down-to-earth, mother of 5, small-town Governor was out having her day of shopping and coiffing in the early weeks of September. Also going on in early September, John McCain was saying that “The economy is fundamentally sound”, and I guess if I was watching my running mate spend that kind of dough, I would think everything was rainbows and unicorns also. But those of us in ‘real’ America, the America that doesn’t have $5,000 for make-up, we were watching the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, the bankrupty of Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan and the sale of Merrill Lynch. The 1st weeks of September, while Governor Palin was out shopping for extreme high end clothes, our financial world was collapsing.

But Joe, is “scared for America” if Barack gets elected?

No, it’s not explainable. Not even the explanation from the McCain camp of “They’ll be donated to charity,” is good enough. I can understand her need for clothes, I cannot understand her need of $150,000 worth of clothes for her, her husband,her daughters, her daughters boy friend, and her baby. I cannot understand that at all. I further cannot comprehend how this is proof of ‘fiscal responsibility’ or how anyone can keep campaigning that they will change Washington, they will make famous anyone who tries to spend too much,and they are the conservative party that doesn’t want to spread your wealth around. My only thought is that maybe this is what the members of the Republican party meant for their donation to go to. Maybe while they were sitting the kitchen of their home that was about to be foreclosed on, hoping they could get a few more miles on the balding tires, hoping that gas would go down just a few more cents so that they could start buying just a little more food for their children,believing that John McCain and Sarah Palin were the mavericks who were going to shake up the Government and stop all the wasteful spending,maybe while they were shorting their power bill by $25 so they could send in any kind of donation to help McCain and Palin get into the White House, maybe they knew that their money would go to her shoe fund. I’m sure they are proud that their children didn’t have new shoes to start school with this September, because they understand that Sarah Palin, her family, and her daughters boy friend needed new clothes from Sak’s Fifth Ave instead of, Target,Ross, or even the substandard white trashy stores like Belks or Dillards. Little Joe can be proud of his faded out tee-shirts and last year’s school back-pack he had to re-use, because really, they do look like a million dollars in front of the cameras…

and that is what’s important and what matters today. Because in today’s world, Michelle Obama’s off-the-rack $148 dress is the ‘real’ definition of elitism.

Wake up people! Wake up and look at your fiscally irresponsible ticket! They aren’t taking your money and giving to seniors who have lost everything in the meltdown, they aren’t taking your money to give healthcare to all the children in the United States. They aren’t spreading the wealth to the other 95% of the population,they are taking your money while your retirement portfolio is losing 50% of it’s value and they are shopping with it.

Let them eat cake?…you betcha!

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It’s like this see.  I’ve had an interest in politics all of my adult life.  I’ve been interested in the public policy aspects, the economic effects, and the horserace of the various elections.  I’ve voted in every election, even those annoying small races and primaries that seem to happen at the oddest times and barely get news coverage.  “What?  There is an opening on the Hospital Board in the Western zone?  I’d better research these guys!”  I’ve attended teleconferences with my Congressman, But I have never ever actual bothered to go to an actual political rally.

So this is how it happened…

I was out of town in the great State of North Carolina last week when I received a call from wife.

“Guess what?  Sarah Palin is going to be at The Villages on Sunday.”

“Hmmm that’s nice.”

“Your son wants you take him. He thinks he can get extra credit in three different classes if he goes to a political event.”

“Hmmm we’ll see.”

And I thought that would be the end of it.  It wouldn’t be followed up on and once again I could skirt fatherly responsibilities.  But the next day I got another phone call from my wife.

“Guess what?  We’re going to see Sarah Palin next Sunday at The Villages.”

“Hmmm we are?”

“Yes, my mom has tickets for us so it’s a done deal.”

“Hmmm OK.”

My in-laws live at The Villages, so I guess they had the inside track for getting tickets.  Twenty years ago the vast area that The Villages sits in was pasture land and trailer parks.  Now, it is an affluent super retirement community with a population of over 75,000, straddling Lake and Sumter counties; the center of the State.  It is largely Republican and is a big enough bloc, both for votes and money, to make it a Mecca for aspiring Republican candidates.  All of the Republican primary candidates came to The Villages seeking both funds and votes over the course of the primary season.  Now that Governor Palin was on the ticket, there was no way that she could not have come.

So back in Florida, we were driving to see Mrs. Sarah.  It took forever to find a parking space there.  Most of the parking was reserved for golf carts, The Villages preferred method of transportation.  There were only 2 designated areas for car parking and one of them was apparently designated for the handicapped.  So my mother-in-law skirted the parking lots and the law by finding us parking in a rec center, one of several that dot The Villages landscape.  Unfortunately this left us a trek for a mile and a half to the town center, where the rally was taking place, dodging golf carts all the while.

By the time we finally trudged to the square, Aaron Tippin was playing.  I knew the name and knew he was some sort of country star, but I didn’t know how big a star he is in the country pantheon.  Down on the lower levels I suspected.

I wandered around trying to find some place to get something to drink that didn’t have an outrageous line.  No such luck.  But by the time I figured that out, they started to allow people into the ultra secured area.  This is where the tickets and my Villages connection paid off.  The secured area was a barrier enclosed area around the stage where Palin was to speak.  We had to go through a metal detector and empty our pockets, just like getting through the gate at an airport.  The checkpoints were even manned by TSA officials.

The stage area had Jumbo Tron screens on each side of the screen so that people who couldn’t see the stage could still see the action. I was really craving a beer at this point and I was looking around to see if I could actually get something to drink inside the ultra secured area.  A woman walked by holding a margarita and that changed my mind; it was a margarita that I wanted!

One nice thing about The Villages is that drinking is A OK on city streets.  I guess if you have a whole city of 70 year olds, they can make their own rules, and one of the rules allowed for booze to be consumed out in the open.  It was like a geriatric Key West.  I back tracked the woman whom I had first spied with the margarita and found the drinks stand.  Ah heaven!  Reasonable prices too. 

1^st Margarita

I was heading back to where my party was in the crowd and observed paramedics hauling away an elderly woman on a stretcher.  I was surprised there were not more elderly being hauled away.

Looking around at the crowd, I was admiring the diversity… ha!  Just kidding!  The majority of the crowd matched the majority of The Villages; old and white.  Of course there were other folks as well.  There was plenty of younger, redneck looking types.  Probably local people who wanted a peek at the star of the Republican Party.  There were some Hispanics, I could hear the chatter of Spanish here and there.  And there were many Hispanic families there.  They were easy to spot, since they were the ones dressed in their Sunday best.  That must be a Spanish thing.  I noticed the same thing when I lived in California a few years ago.  You could sit at the mall on a Sunday afternoon and see the Hispanics dressed in a combination of church/prom attire.

I saw quite a few Asians as well, but as for blacks… not too many.  By this time I had seen maybe two black women in the crowd.  I wanted to ask them, “Hey, what’s the deal?” but I didn’t have the guts.  Maybe after a few more margaritas.

2^nd Margarita

I was getting my second drink when I heard someone giving a speech.  After I headed back towards the stage, I saw it was Bill McCollum, the Florida Attorney General.  He was waving his arms and was giving quite an animated speech.  I couldn’t really be bothered with paying attention to the content, but it sounded good.  I admit I was surprised.  McCollum is someone who has been in the Florida public eye for years, and I would have expected a dull monotone type of speech.  I have to give it to him though, he sounded as if he was giving a good speech.  I’m not sure about what though.

3^rd Margarita

The Jumbo Tron was showing the Palin convoy pulling into The Villages.  The crowd went wild, watching the security vehicles and the campaign bus lead by every motorcycle cop in Sumter, Lake, and Marion counties.  It wasn’t so wild that an elderly woman couldn’t find the time to tap me on the shoulder.

“It looks like someone dropped their cup.”  She didn’t even need to point downwards.  Her nose did the trick for her. 

“True, but of course, it’s not mine.”  I said, lifting my own margarita cup.

“I see.”  She said, making it clear that she was unconvinced that the abandoned cup wasn’t mine.  We eyeballed for a while until I made clear that I was not picking the cup up.  I assume she scooped it up into a baggie for forensic analysis later.

I was heading for the drink stand again when the announcer said, “Ladies and Gentleman, the next Vice President of the United States…” the rest was drowned out by the roar of the crowd.  I admit, it was a little exciting.  The whole family piled onto the stage.  Shoot, I better stay.  Palin gave a good speech, I assume it was her standard stump speech, updated a bit to reflect last week’s financial crisis.  She went on about 25 minutes and that was it. 

Time to get another drink.

4^th Margarita

These were really good, and considering how much I had been sweating, I really needed the salt.  It was a health thing.  I went back to the stage area, which had thinned out a bit.  The Palin’s were still there.  There was a barricaded walkway that led from The Villages sales office to the stage, and the family was moving along the walkway, autographing and greeting the crowd.  I half expected Trig to be passed among the crowd.  I lined up along the walkway, but the crowd there was a bit thick so I had a hard time seeing where exactly the Palins were in relation to where I was.  There was a woman next to me, redneck type, waving her hat.  “ Dude!  First Dude!”  She turned to me, “Hey can you see him?”  I looked around, and saw Todd, a couple yards away on the other side of the walkway.  Sarah wasn’t in sight though. “Sorry, but it looks like he’s on the other side.”  I said.

“Shoot.  I need to talk to him!”  I didn’t see how that was going to happen though, but she wasn’t giving up.  She shouted at one of the Secret Service agents lined up in front of us. “Hey can you get Todd over to this side?”  The Secret Service agent wasn’t playing though; he nodded no and continued scanning the crowds.

“Dang!”

I wandered pass Redneck woman and tried to get a better view of Sarah.  That’s who I wanted to see.  I leaned up against the barricade and finished my drink.  Suddenly, there she was, on the other side of the barricade, signing campaign signs and, some wag had brought a giant mock lipstick holder for her to sign.  She was about 8 feet away, but she was on the other side of the walkway facing the crowd on the other side.

Nice Ass.

Suddenly there were Secret Service agents in front of me, scanning the crowd.  I looked to my left to see Todd Palin, about 4 feet away on my side of the barricade.  He was signing autographs.  I hope Redneck woman had gotten her chance to tell him whatever she felt was so important.  I didn’t exactly have the boobs to carry off getting an autograph there, so when he got to me I held up my ticket stub.

“Uh, thanks for coming down.”

“No problem.”

So I got Todd Palin’s autograph.  I couldn’t have felt dorkier if I had gotten Dr. Who’s.

I needed another drink.

5^th Margarita

We finally headed out.  I had my drink to fortify me, and the day had gotten slightly cooler.  As were walking through the little faux city streets, I saw one of the vendors closing up his stand filled with McCain/Palin hats and T shirts.

He was a black guy.

“I’m going in.”  I said.

“Don’t you dare…” said my wife as she tried to grab my sleeve.  But I slipped away.  I had a journalistic responsibility to report the news.  Now I knew why reporters drank so much.  It made being an ass so much easier.

“Hey, excuse, me, I’m a blogger for muchedumbre.com.  Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“Sure go ahead.”

“This is a McCain/Palin event, and I just happened to notice that there are like four black guys here, and that’s counting the Deputy working the event.”

He laughed at that.  I guess it wasn’t the first time he had heard that.

“Yeah I have noticed.”

“So uh… what’s the deal?”

“Well this is really only my second event.  I haven’t been doing this too long.”

“Yeah, but, are you really a McCain supporter?”

“Yes, I mean, I don’t have the internet so I don’t really keep up with the news that much, but the way I see it, Obama will probably screw things up even worse than they already are.”

McCain could hardly have asked for a more stirring endorsement. But there one more thing I was curious about.

“What about your family?  Are they cool with this McCain thing?”

“Well I don’t really get along with my family.  We don’t have a lot of contact.”

I nodded and thought about that.  It made sense.  It’s hard to be a black Republican and maintain good family relations.

The wife would have to drive now.

Sara Palin? Why is she lying?

What’s your religion?
Christian.
Any particular…?
No. Bible-believing Christian.
What church do you attend?
A non-denominational Bible church. I was baptized Catholic as a newborn and then my family started going to non-denominational churches throughout our life.

Does she subscribe to the Bush theory you can say whatever you want and no matter how many cameras record you saying or doing the opposite, no one will care or question you?

Why do we allow this from our leaders.

Today, I brought up all the lies from Palin’s speech and someone replied “Well, they all lie”… And What!?! That makes it ok?

Palin was baptized as a teenager in Alaska at the Wasilla Assembly of God, which she and her family attended until 2002.
“The fact is she has grown up and has associated with one of our Assemblies of God churches, which is a Pentecostal church, for years,” said the Rev. Bill Welch, superintendent of the denomination’s Alaska District. “Pentecostalism is bound to have some kind of impact and influence on her.”

This is not made up, make believe, fairy tales. Just like the AIP membership there are records,witnesses and videos of her support and of her speaking at the church.

Why is she lying and why are we letting her? There are videos of her own words, videos** of active members applauding her as a member. Why are we letting her lie?

The Rev. Ed Kalnins, senior pastor at Wasilla Assembly of God since 1999, once questioned in a sermon whether people who voted for Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election would get into heaven.

Unlike most other Christians — including most evangelicals — Pentecostals believe in “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” That can manifest itself through speaking in tongues, modern-day prophesy and faith healing.

Is this why she is lying? Is she ashamed of her church and their practices ? Obviously she is not ashamed of her pastor

Her pastor for most of her time at Wasilla Assembly of God, Paul Riley, said he gave the invocation at Palin’s inauguration. As governor, she renamed the church’s street “Riley Avenue” for him

Look, if she wants to disassociate herself from the Assembly of God, OK. We still have our choice of religion in this country but, don’t lie about it damnit. Don’t tell us that you have been going to “non-denominational churches throughout our life.” It makes you like you are trying to hide something.

But maybe that’s the goal.

Really? Pray for it because it is God’s will?

The war in Iraq is God’s plan?

When did God tell you this? Does he speak to you like he speaks to George Bush?

Come on! This is not fair! Why does God only speak to the Republicans?

Why does she lie?

“I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere ,” Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan’s Gravina Island bridge in Alaska.

The truth is, she wasn’t even in office to be able to congress ‘no thanks’ and besides that…she supported it and when she got into office, kept the money congress gave Alaska to build it!

But Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.
The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them “nowhere.

No thanks indeed.

Ironically enough, McCain used the bridge as he example of ‘pork-spending’

While running for governor in 2006, though, Palin backed federal funding for the infamous bridge, which McCain helped make a symbol of pork barrel excess.

not only that, but after the Minnesota bridge collapsed, McCain said

“Maybe the 200,000 people who cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending $233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it.”

Why are we letting her lie?

“I can do my part in working really, really hard to get a natural gas pipeline, about a $30 billion project that’s going to create a lot of jobs for Alaska. … [but] I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,” she said. “I can do my job there in developing our natural resources, in doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded. But really that stuff doesn’t do any good if the people of Alaska’s hearts aren’t right with God.”

Why is God a part of her energy policy? If Alaskans hearts aren’t right with God, then he won’t help the energy crisis? What?

I love God, but I love God my way. My God doesn’t say that if my heart isn’t right, then my Florida Power and light bill will be too high.

Why is God part of her foreign policy?

“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”

Yes! Pray for our soldiers that McCain wants to leave in a war for the next 100 years. Pray for them that they will be safe. But pray for our leaders and that they are following God’s plan? Pray that our leaders are sending our soldiers out to war on a task from God?

Is it time for another crusade already?

Come on people, I know she’s a pitbull with lipstick but she’s also a liar.. And she’s the worst kind of liar. She uses her God when it benefits her, throws him away when it doesn’t and then evokes his name to sell her idea of war and energy.

People? Do you need the Republicans to win so bad that you will just say “so what?“ to this? Are you that partisan? Are you that faithful? Are you that hypocritical? What are you doing? What are you doing?

PUMA? You love this woman? This is who you choose to get into office if you can’t have Hillary? A woman so anti-Hillary that it’s almost like God planned it that way. Are you not ashamed? How can you say “I’m a Clinton supporter and Palin is my girl” Do you think Hillary would slap you on the back and agree with you? I too was a Hillary supporter, I too believe she is still the best candidate for the job, but she is not in the running anymore and I have to deal with that grief. But I will not vote for the ‘anti-Clinton’ candidate as part of that process because to me it was never about the vagina. To me it was about the person and who could do the better job. Yes I know it was stolen from her, you only have to read my past blogs to see that I totally agree with you on that front. But I was never in it just because of the vagina and anyone of you that are supporting Palin, just admit that that’s all you cared about to begin with. It had nothing to do with Clinton, it had to do with electing a woman and any woman would do. Admit the truth and stop lying to yourselves because you can’t sit there and be for both of them when they are polar opposites of each other.

Then again, Palin has pretty much come on the scene with nothing but lies…so maybe you guys have found your kindred spirit.

————————————————————————————-

** two days ago I linked a video of an AIP meeting where the Vice Chair spoke of Sara Palin and of her membership to the AIP. In it he said

“Our current governor, we mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected. There’s a joke, she’s a pretty good looking gal, there’s a joke goes around we’re the coldest state with the hottest governor. And there was a lot of talk about her moving up. [b]She was an AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town — that was a non-partisan job. But you get along to go along — she eventually joined the Republican Party,[/b] [b]where she had all kinds of problems with their ethics, and well, I won’t go into that. She also had about an 80% approval rating, and is pretty well sympathetic to her former membership

Interestingly enough….. that video has since been removed from Youtube. What is she hiding, why is she lying and why for the love of God, are we letting her?

*********UPDATE*********

This comes from the Huffington Post…and is probably one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen…