Brains in the Morning!

[elfs]

Sweet Irony: The man who forced Alaska to spank Sarah Palin's rape kit policy? Joe Biden

Hilzoy shows us that Alaska was spurred to outlaw Wasilla's practice of charging rape victims for their forensic kits because they wanted funding from the Violence Against Women Act. Joe Biden was the principle sponsor of that law.

Fox News: McCain follows Palin's lead, refuses to talk to the press anymore

I had not known this: McCain has not spoken to a press conference in over a month. He has gone to the completely staged event, abandoning so-called "town hall" showings, taking questions from unvetted citizens. Off-the-cuff moments with the press are rare and getting rarer.

NRO: It's "condescending and inappropriate" to ask Sarah Palin... anything!

Lisa Schiffrin at National Review writes:

For the record, it just looks condescending and inappropriate for one of the great minds of the national media to sit, notebook in hand, quizzing this younger woman, as someone said, as if she were a grad student. Just physically, in those chairs, him leaning back and her leaning in, costs her the appearance of power. This is not how we usually get to know Governors. Did anyone do this to Bill Clinton when he came from the hinterland? Jimmy Carter?

Um, yes, that did happen to Clinton. And in this case, especially, how she handles the interview, how well she answers these questions, will help ease our minds about how well she'd govern this country since we know absolutely nothing about her except salicious personal details and a paltry and distressing professional record.

Why does General David Petraeus hate America?

General Petraeus has now said in an interview with the BBC that conditions in Iraq will never qualify as a "victory," and that at best what we can achieve is a dignified withdrawl leaving a potentionally functional country in place.

The right wing would call that kind of talk treasonous. But it's what Barack Obama has said we should do.

McCain says his deceptive and dishonorable turn is Obama's fault

Steve Bennet calls bullshit on McCain's assertion last night that "I think the tone of this whole campaign would've been very different if Sen. Obama had accepted my request for us to appear at town hall meetings all over America." It's just an excuse; the man has control of his campaign, or should, and is apparently just too cowardly or to shallow to know that he's lying.

An honest man in the McCain campaign?

Anyone else got a problem with that?

McCain camp demand "deference" for Sarah Palin

The McCain camp has put out the word that Sarah Palin will not subject herself to news interviews until reporters agree to treat her with "respect and deference."

Yeah, that's the ticket. Just how much "deference" is Sarah Palin going to get from Putin, Hu Jintau, or Manmohan Singh? Any? You think?

Comments

[erisiansaint]

I've already seen a fair amount of these news bits, and quite a few others.

I feel rather shrill, myself, especially since I work with some people who are determined to vote Republican anyway, they don't care. I don't get that, and never will. It makes me nuts when people say that all politicians lie, as if they weren't voting for and condoning the worst of the liars, as complacent as if the people they were voting for were honest.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Lately, I've come to the belief that if Satan were the Republican presidential candidate - in full regalia and generally looking just like a heavy metal album cover - these people would still vote Republican.

I guess here in Canada, we're not so beholden to a particular party, and our minds can actually change. Maybe it's because we're more used to change or something. We don't even have the same *parties* running in every election.

[bikerwalla.livejournal.com]

It's sad to hear that the only defense the Tigh/Roslin McCain/Palin campaign has for lying so much is, "Everyone else does it, so it's expected."

That's not change we can believe in.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Frikkin' Cylons...

[shunra.livejournal.com]

DEFERENCE?

DEFERENCE???

And just what is the reason for which journalists should defer to her? And what form would that deference take?

I thought they wanted to make a difference; maybe that's just the Alaska pronunciation of her expectations of the press.

[erisiansaint]

I'm still trying to figure out why people should be deferring to candidates. They haven't been elected, yet. Even after election, they're not The King and The Heir, they're President/Vice-President, and deserve respect, not deference. I'm not a frakking serf.

[danceswithlife]

Deference...should generally be earned. The implication I draw is that she deserves respect as a WOMAN, respect as a MAYOR, respect as a GOVERNOR. WTF? No such deference was granted by the Republicans to Hillary Clinton, or to other Democratic women running for office. Her gender is not her choice--do Republicans mean that women, by virtue of genetics, are more worthy of deference then men? That takes us back about 40 years in feminist culture. I give some deference to our elected offices, but the people sitting in the chairs in those offices better earn my respect and deference, and Sarah Palin has not. She would not have it if she was MALE and had done the things she's done.

She has a good stage presence, memorizes her lines well, and recovers from gaffs. She does not know U.S. history, or have much familiarity with any issues outside her local church, town and state. The closes I want her to come to the presidency of the U.S. is the post she has right now.

Thanks, Elf for some good posts the past few days.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Re: taxes

That's kind of stating the bloody obvious, isn't it? I think GW's hope was that a Democrat government would be next, so that *they* could be blamed for raising the taxes that needed to be raised during his administration. Perhaps this strategy is supposed to ensure Republican control of the government forever.