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Updated Policy On Comments

In the past I have complained about those who I perceive as spineless wimps who want to leave comments on various posts but only do so anonymously. Typically, the anonymous poster takes pot shots at my opinions and/or comments of others - who have the guts and fortitude to identify themselves - while being so lacking in their own convictions as to be afraid to allow themselves to be identified. Due to past experience with anonymous and/or Christianist nutcase comments, I moderate all comments on this blog. Nonetheless, the problem of such anonymous comments has persisted and, therefore, henceforth ALL anonymous posts will be rejected unless I see some merit in the comment which causes me to overlook the otherwise spinelessness of the commenter.

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If your comments are not worthy enough for a poster to identify themselves, then they are not worth of being approved for the general readership.

Religious Extremism in Political Office Holders

First, I must warn that this is a long post. However, the subject addressed is most crucial and looks at a prospect that I personally find somewhat terrifying. While the U. S. Constitution bars any religious test for a person to hold political office, one would hope that elected office holders would be individuals in touch with and having a grasp of reality - particularly since, if they hold high office, their actions can and will impact on the lives of millions of citizens and may involve life and death decisions that affect countless citizens. Applying this standard, based on Sarah Palin's church affiliations it would seem that she fails the test of rational judgment and beliefs. As an apparent believer in the End Times and one who welcomes Armageddon, is it really prudent to have someone like Palin potentially a heart beat away from the ability to launch a nuclear weapons strike? I do not believe so nor does Sam Harris in his latest Newsweek column. Should McCain?Palin win in November, be afraid - BE VERY AFRAID. Here are some column highlights:

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[T]he problem she [Palin] poses to our political process is now much bigger than she is. Her fans seem inclined to forgive her any indiscretion short of cannibalism. However badly she may stumble during the remaining weeks of this campaign, her supporters will focus their outrage upon the journalist who caused her to break stride, upon the camera operator who happened to capture her fall, upon the television network that broadcast the good lady's misfortune—and, above all, upon the "liberal elites" with their highfalutin assumption that, in the 21st century, only a reasonably well-educated person should be given command of our nuclear arsenal.

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The point is that she comes to us, seeking the second most important job in the world, without any intellectual training relevant to the challenges and responsibilities that await her. There is nothing to suggest that she even sees a role for careful analysis or a deep understanding of world events when it comes to deciding the fate of a nation. . . . . Palin may be a perfectly wonderful person, a loving mother and a great American success story—but she is a beauty queen/sports reporter who stumbled into small-town politics, and who is now on the verge of stumbling into, or upon, world history.

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The problem, as far as our political process is concerned, is that half the electorate revels in Palin's lack of intellectual qualifications. When it comes to politics, there is a mad love of mediocrity in this country. "They think they're better than you!" is the refrain that (highly competent and cynical) Republican strategists have set loose among the crowd, and the crowd has grown drunk on it once again. "Sarah Palin is an ordinary person!" Yes, all too ordinary.

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Her relative ignorance is guaranteed on these fronts and most others, not because she was put on the spot, or got nervous, or just happened to miss the newspaper on any given morning. Sarah Palin's ignorance is guaranteed because of how she has spent the past 44 years on earth.. . . . I care even more about the many things Palin thinks she knows but doesn't: like her conviction that the Biblical God consciously directs world events. Needless to say, she shares this belief with millions of Americans—but we shouldn't be eager to give these people our nuclear codes, either.

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Palin seems perfectly willing to stake the welfare of our country—even the welfare of our species—as collateral in her own personal journey of faith. Of course, McCain has made the same unconscionable wager on his personal journey to the White House.

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When asked about these remarks in her interview with Gibson, Palin successfully dodged the issue of her religious beliefs by claiming that she had been merely echoing the words of Abraham Lincoln. The New York Times later dubbed her response "absurd." It was worse than absurd; it was a lie calculated to conceal the true character of her religious infatuations. Every detail that has emerged about Palin's life in Alaska suggests that she is as devout and literal-minded in her Christian dogmatism as any man or woman in the land. Given her long affiliation with the Assemblies of God church, Palin very likely believes that Biblical prophecy is an infallible guide to future events and that we are living in the "end times." Which is to say she very likely thinks that human history will soon unravel in a foreordained cataclysm of war and bad weather. Undoubtedly Palin believes that this will be a good thing. . . .

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You can learn something about a person by the company she keeps. . . . Palin's spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of "the final generation," engaged in "spiritual warfare" to purge the earth of "demonic strongholds." Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal? Do we actually want our leaders thinking about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say to the Iranians, or to the North Koreans, or to the Pakistanis, or to the Russians or to the Chinese: "All options remain on the table"?

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We have endured eight years of an administration that seemed touched by religious ideology. . . . For all my concern about Bush's religious beliefs, and about his merely average grasp of terrestrial reality, I have never once thought that he was an over-the-brink, Rapture-ready extremist. Palin seems as though she might be the real McCoy.

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What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. . . . Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence.

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I believe that with the nomination of Sarah Palin for the vice presidency, the silliness of our politics has finally put our nation at risk. The world is growing more complex—and dangerous—with each passing hour, and our position within it growing more precarious. Should she become president, Palin seems capable of enacting policies so detached from the common interests of humanity, and from empirical reality, as to unite the entire world against us.

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And McCain Dares Call Obama an Elitist? Tell Me Another Lie

This poster from Pam's House Blend pretty much says it all about John McCain who has shown himself to be a lying, senile windbag.

What Are Palin and McCain Hiding?

Between the tight control of access to Sarah Palin - Christianist fruitcake extraordinaire as I will discuss in a future post - and the attempts to interfere with the Alaskan government's investigation of Ms. Palin in "Troopergate," the old adage "if you don't have anything to hide, you don't act as if you do" comes to mind. Obviously, there are two reasons why the McCain/Palin ticket is acting like it is: (1) without controlled and scripted appearances, Palin will demonstrate just what a ridiculous choice she was for the VP slot, and (2) there is substance to the Troopergate allegations. Hence, McCain is desperately trying to keep Palin under wraps so that he can foist a pig in a poke (and a down right crazy one at that) on the American public.

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The media needs to stop facilitating McCain and Palin and do a complete shut down of ANY coverage on their campaign or their stateents unless and until McCain and Palin allow normal, unscripted interviews and press conferences. This shut down should include a total cessation of parroting bullshit dished out by McCain's campaign. Why not force him to spend money to disseminate the lies and deceptions which have become his stock in trade? Perhaps CNN is waking up to how the media is being cynically played as a patsy. Today, rather than be controlled by the campaign and provide photo ops for Palin, CNN walked away as reported by Yahoo News. Here are some highlights:

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At first, campaign aides told the TV producer, print and news agency reporters in the press pool that followed the Alaska governor that they would not be admitted along with still photographers and a video camera crew taken in to photograph her meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who are here for the United Nations General Assembly this week.
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At least two news organizations, including The Associated Press, objected to the exclusion of reporters and were told that the decision was not subject to discussion. Presidents and members of Congress routinely allow reporters to attend photo opportunities along with photographers and the reporters sometimes are able to ask questions during the brief photo sessions, usually held at the beginning of private meetings.

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CNN, which was providing the television coverage for news organizations, decided to pull its TV crew from the first meeting, with Karzai, effectively denying Palin the high visibility she had sought. But after the campaign agreed to let CNN's producer in as well, the CNN camera crew joined the session. . . . The media were escorted out after about 40 seconds. . . Palin has been criticized for avoiding taking questions from reporters or submitting to one-on-one interviews.

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Meanwhile, in Alaska, here are highlights from what the Juneau Empire is reporting on the "hijacking" of the state investigation (again, if Palin has nothing to hide, why is all of this happening?):

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The presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin has taken effective charge of the Alaska state government's response to the legislative investigation into abuse of power allegations against Palin. An investigation that began on a bipartisan basis with several pledges from Palin to participate, is now being manipulated to protect Palin by campaign attorneys who appear to be directing the Palin administration's response, top legislators say.

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"The state of Alaska and the Alaska Attorney General's Office don't need any help from a national campaign," said Sen. President Lyda Green, R-Wasilla. Green said the Palin administration's response seems more geared to help the McCain campaign by shutting down the investigation that's become known as "Troopergate" than informing the Alaska public. "National politics have absolutely hijacked the state government, it's really disturbing to see from the governor," said Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau.

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Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, disagreed. "Clearly the Legislature has the inherent authority to investigate acts by the executive branch," he said at a committee meeting. Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg has said that state employees he represents and who work for Palin risk displeasing her if they comply with legislative subpoenas. That's despite having taken an oath to uphold the Alaska Constitution.

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It is not clear whether Palin ordered state employees to not comply with subpoenas, and Colberg and other top Department of Law officials were unavailable Friday.

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It increasingly looks like Palin is a typical Christianist: wears religion on her sleeve, holds incredibly crazy beliefs that ought to terrify any sane and rational person, and lies incessantly.

George Will Trashes McCain

Wow, it's always fun when the so-called conservatives turn on each other and engage in a bit of feeding frenzy. Thus, it was fun to read George Will's column in today's Washington Post taking McCain to task for his lack of knowledge on the economy and Wall Street debacle. Hopefully more in the public will catch on to the fact that John McCain is a warmed over version of the Chimperator who has voted with Bush 95% of the time according to Factcheck.org. No wonder McSenile/Palin are so busy lying in the hope that the voting public can be distracted from the real facts just as the Chimperator has done for the last eight years. Here are some highlights from Will's column:

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Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama. Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential" and demonstrated that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street. . . .

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To read the Journal's details about the depths of McCain's shallowness on the subject of Cox's chairmanship, see "McCain's Scapegoat" (Sept. 19, Page A22). Then consider McCain's characteristic accusation that Cox "has betrayed the public's trust."

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In any case, McCain's smear -- that Cox "betrayed the public's trust" -- is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are "corrupt" or "betray the public's trust," two categories that seem to be exhaustive -- there are no other people.

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The political left always aims to expand the permeation of economic life by politics. Today, the efficient means to that end is government control of capital. So, is not McCain's party now conducting the most leftist administration in American history? The New Deal never acted so precipitously on such a scale. . . remember that government control of capital is government control of capitalism. Does McCain have qualms about this, or only quarrels?

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Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

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It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Tuesday Male Beauty

GOP Takes Brunt of Blame for Economy

I am still holding my breath, but it looks like just maybe the members of the American public are not as stupid as McCain/Palin hopes for them to be. The current economic/financial melt down has the fingers of the "regulation is bad" GOP all over it, yet McCain goes on pretending that he's for change and responsible regulation of the financial markets. If such is the case, why has he been either invisible or fighting against this concept for years? The mere fact that the Bush administration proposal would provide that the bailout decisions of the Secretary of the Treasury would NOT be reviewable by any court of law shows that the Chimperator/GOP still have not learned that lack of accountability only leads to disaster. If McCain/Palin win in November somehow, the USA will deserve whatever misfortunes and horrors that it may suffer since the voters will have chosen the path to the past, corruption and ignorance. Here are some highlights from CNN:

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll suggests that by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis that has swept across the country the past few weeks — one factor that may have contributed to an apparent increase in Barack Obama’s edge over John McCain in the race for the White House.

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In the new survey, released Monday afternoon, 47 percent of registered voters questioned say Republicans are more responsible for the problems currently facing financial institutions and the stock market, with 24 percent saying Democrats are more responsible.

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The poll also indicates that more Americans think Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, would do a better job handling an economic crisis than McCain, the Republican presidential nominee. Forty-nine percent of those questioned say Obama would display good judgment in an economic crisis, 6 points higher than the number who said the same about McCain. And Obama has a 10 point lead over McCain on the question of who would better handle the economy overall.

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These numbers appear to be affecting the battle for the presidency. Fifty-one percent of registered voters are backing Obama, who now holds a 5 point edge over McCain, at 46 percent. McCain and Obama were tied at 48 percent apiece in the previous CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey. Obama's advantage, while growing, is still within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Where did Obama make his gains?

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A couple of other factors in the survey appear to be contributing to Obama's slight rise and McCain's slight drop in the polls. Fifty-three percent of those questioned say McCain, if elected, will mostly carry out the policies of President George W. Bush, who remains extremely unpopular with most Americans. That's up 3 points from our previous poll. The survey also indicates Obama's recaptured the advantage on "change." . . . . Another factor could be McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Thirty-five percent of those questioned have an unfavorable opinion of her, up 8 points from our previous survey.

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