Enough?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife The President reauthorized the warrantless wire tapping program after Cheney's lawyer forged Gonzales's signature.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091401974_5.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008091302818&s_pos=

"It has been widely reported that Bush executed the March 11 order with a blank space over the attorney general's signature line. That is not correct [15]. For reasons both symbolic and practical, the vice president's lawyer could not tolerate an empty spot where a mutinous subordinate should have signed. Addington typed a substitute signature line: "Alberto R. Gonzales."

"What Addington wrote for Bush that day was more transcendent than that. He drew up new language in which the president relied on his own authority to certify the program as lawful. Bush expressly overrode the Justice Department and any act of Congress or judicial decision that purported to constrain his power as commander in chief. Only Richard M. Nixon, in an interview after leaving the White House in disgrace, claimed authority so nearly unlimited"

The story starts here. It is shocking.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091401974.html?hpid=topnewshttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091401974.html?hpid=topnews

Marking Ears

Image via Wikipedia http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/29/palin-setting-earmarks-opinion-straight/

"My role at the federal level is simply to submit the most well-conceived earmark requests we can.

...

"For better or worse, earmarks, which represent only about 1 percent of the federal budget, have become a symbol for budgetary discussions in general."

-- Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, August 29, 2008

To Sum Up

Image via WikipeWhy bother?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099087568542.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

"You resisted the siren call of plastic teaser APRs, dutifully living within your means to store money for a rainy day. You never took out an interest-only mortgage. Never had to pawn the copper pipes from your exurban McMansion to pay the reset on your liar loan. Your credit score would have gotten you into Harvard at age 12.

"Good for you! Your reward: injurious savings yields, inflationary rot, and election-season neglect, all served up with a dollop of institutional insecurity."

...

"A one-year CD that earned 3.75% at this point in 2007 was offered for as little as 1.92% in April, before inching up to its present 2.38%. It's hardly a secret that banks are only able to pay out such pittances thanks to depositors' knee-jerk desire for security: "Hey, I might be earning crumbs on my cash, but at least I'm not losing money.

"Sure you are. Wholesale inflation has soared 9.8% in the past 12 months, the highest clip since 1981. The more widely cited consumer price index jumped to 5.6%. In other words, while your saved buck was adding 2 cents or so on one end (and even less after taxes), three times as much was getting singed off the other end of that dollar bill."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/mccain-fundamentals-of-th_n_126445.html

"On the campaign trail in Jacksonville, Florida, the Senator [McCain] declared this morning that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong"

There, feel better?
Still worried? How about this then:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202415.html

"It's a virus -- and it's spreading. Do a Google News search for "since the Great Depression," and you come up with more than 4,500 examples of the phrase's use in just the past month.

"But that doesn't make any of it true. Things today just aren't that bad. Sure, there are trouble spots in the economy, as the government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and jitters about Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers, amply demonstrate. And unemployment figures are up a bit, too. None of this, however, is cause for depression -- or exaggerated Depression comparisons."

-- Donald Luskin, John McCain advisor

Barack The Bomb Thrower

Image via Wikipedia http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/09/08/politics/fromtheroad/entry4428646.shtml

"While speaking about the importance of habeas corpus, Obama said, 'We don't always catch the right person. We may think this is Mohammed the terrorist, it might be Mohammed the cab driver. You may think it's Barack the bomb thrower, but it might be Barack the guy running for president.'

Learn About Pentecostalism

Image via Wikipedia http://pewresearch.org/pubs/949/palin-nomination-pentecostalism

"From the time she was a teenager until 2002, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin attended a church affiliated with the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal Christian denomination in the U.S. Pentecostalism emphasizes such practices as speaking in tongues, prophesying, divine healing and other miraculous signs of the Holy Spirit, which it believes are as valid today as they were in the early Christian church."

Does It Matter?

Image via Wikipedia http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/10/judge-warned-palin-stop-h_n_125288.html

"An Anchorage judge three years ago warned Sarah Palin and members of her family to stop "disparaging" the reputation of Alaska State Trooper Michael Wooten, who at the time was undergoing a bitter separation and divorce from Palin's sister Molly."

Who are we kidding, Sarah Palin is the perfect Republican candidate.

Facts

Image via Wikipedia http://www.newsweek.com/id/158265/output/print

"A McCain-Palin ad has FactCheck.org calling Obama's attacks on Palin "absolutely false" and "misleading." That's what we said, but it wasn't about Obama.

"Our article criticized anonymous e-mail falsehoods and bogus claims about Palin posted around the Internet. We have no evidence that any of the claims we found to be false came from the Obama campaign.

"The McCain-Palin ad also twists a quote from a Wall Street Journal columnist. He said the Obama camp had sent a team to Alaska to "dig into her record and background." The ad quotes the WSJ as saying the team was sent to "dig dirt."

I am personally surprised at the disregard for truthfulness that John McCain has demonstrated lately. While I have disagreements with many of John McCain's views, I have, until now, thought of him as a man of some integrity.

It's disappointing, and a little disturbing, if this is an indication of what a McCain administration would be like. What happened to the old John McCain?

It Matters, What The World Thinks

Image by Getty Images via Daylife http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/10/uselections2008.barackobama

"Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for."

Nope, Still a Pig

Image via Wikipedia The Wonkette thinks Sarah Palin's lipstick might be a tattoo! Shocking!

http://wonkette.com/402676/sarah-palin-even-lies-about-lipstick-maybe

Well, you can tattoo a pig, but it's still a pig.

http://www.wackyarchives.com/offbeat/tattooed-oinkers.html

Sexy Pig

Image via Wikipedia http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-radosh/when-life-gives-you-pigs_b_125321.html

"Think about it. All Obama needs to say is, "Recently I compared John McCain's ideas about changing Washington to putting lipstick on a pig. John got all upset by this. Apparently he thinks putting lipstick on a pig is enough. I've tried to look at it from his perspective, but I'm sorry, all I'm still seeing is a pig. Now, if he wants to argue that you can put lipstick on a pig and make it not a pig, that's a debate I'm happy to have."

Meanwhile...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/10/meghan-mccain-my-dad-says_n_125323.html

"John McCain's daughter Meghan is not taking offense to Barack Obama's "lipstick on a pig" line like the rest of her father's campaign, pointing out Wednesday morning that GOP presidential nominee has been known to use the phrase."

But wait, it gets even better! There turns out to be video of McCain using this phrase during the primary in referring to Hilary Clinton's health care reform plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMPYkNQlJMM

Funny

Image via Wikipedia http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/09/2049224

"I have been considering the purchase of an electric or hybrid vehicle for some time. The biggest problem I have currently is that both technologies make use of rechargable batteries. The same tree-huggers telling me gasoline is bad are telling me that batteries are bad too"

I think it's funny when people that concider themselves "green" suddenly wake up one day and realize that it's harder to be "green" than just buying the product that comes in the brown package at the supermarket.

"Green" - the best thing to happen to marketing since "instant"!

Palin

Image via Wikipedia http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1839724,00.html

"Palin has continued to repeat the already exposed lie that she said "No, thanks" to the famous "bridge to nowhere" (McCain's favorite example of wasteful federal spending). In fact, she said "Yes, please" until the project became a symbol and political albatross.

"Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 2 1/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it."

There reality, the sort regular people have to deal with every day, and then there's Republican reality, which is something completely different.