George Harris
Kansas City Star
Reader Advisory Panel 2008
For Obama supporters there should be no satisfaction in the report released today.
Investigator Stephen Branchflower concluded that Sarah Palin violated state ethics law prohibiting public officials from using their office for private gain.
Republicans dismiss the report as political, but a panel of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats agreed to release the report.
It's not surprising that a government official would use her power to advance a personal grudge.
And it's not surprising that Governor Palin would deny to Alaskans and to the nation that personal matters were a factor in her decision to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.
Nor is it surprising, really, that Palin would refuse to cooperate with an investigation after she had said she would.
And it's not really too shocking that Governor Palin would go around the country claiming that Senator Obama is the one who can't be trusted. Maybed I'm too jaded to care about any of this.
What is sad is that John McCain selected this woman to run as his vice-presidential candidate and he built a campaign around her as it became obvious that she was unfit for the office. Even as he breyed "Country First."
Give him the benefit of the doubt that when he selected her he didn't believe the Troopergate charges, as naive as that seems. Maybe his staff conducted an incompetent screeing, too.
But later he condoned her attempts at cover-up and sanctioned and repeated her intimations that Obama was somehow invidiously associated with a domestic terrorist.
Sure, McCain and Palin both said (one with a wink) that the issue was whether Obama was being truthful about his connection to William Ayers. But they both knew that they were stoking flames of hatred toward Obama and that they were trying to brand him as traitorous.
Today, finally, McCain attempted to restore some of his honor by rejecting a woman's statement at a rally accusing Obama of being an "Arab"...code for terrorist. This is the John McCain I used to admire.
It's the McCain who rejected hatred toward Mexican immigrants, even those illegally here.
It's the John McCain who made the mistake of lying for personal ambition in campaign 2000 but publicly admitted it and moved on.
John McCain could have engaged in an extended, thoughtful campaign against Democrat Obama by talking about national defense, the war in Iraq, and economic turmoil, with or without the many town hall meetings McCain wanted and Obama rejected.
But he didn't choose to do this.
The country will move on. The next president will fight terrorists somewhere. The economy will revive. But can John McCain, if miraculously elected, ever make a large segment of the populace believe that he has enough honor left to admire.
After a long and interesting life with much service and sacrifice, John McCain's legacy will be tainted by his willingness to allow an unworthy surrogate to suggest that an opponent is a traitor.
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McCain's defense of Obama was inadequate
McCain was pretty lame when he stood up for Obama after a woman from the audience said he was an Arab (probably believing the long-debunked rumor that Obama is a Muslim). McCain said, "No, ma'am. He's a decent family man [and] citizen..." "He's not [an Arab]."
McCain didn't flatly state that Obama is a Christian. And he insulted Arab-Americans by implying that they aren't "decent family" people and that they aren't citizens.
I guess McCain made a first step toward deintensifying the fear and hatred his campaign has been stirring up, but it's still inadequate.
Truthfairy:
Well said.
Neofascist in a dress
Is it any wonder that such a person takes pleasure in aerial hunting wolves from helicopters? Or that as mayor of Wasilla, Ms Palin charged rape victims for their own rape kits. She even cut funding for teen pregnancy prevention which may have served her own pregnant teenage daughter.
Governor. Palin by her own actions is a despicable human being, another neoconservative, religious fanatic and Time Magazine says her Administration in Alaska is "Shockingly Amateurish." Surprising?
Not really.
Compare and contrast...
Bob Dole, who in the course of gettting shellacked by Bill Clinton retained his honor and his dignity.
Memory is faulty and on a beautiful Saturday morning I'm too lazy to research it carefully, but I don't recall any stomach-churning behavior on the part of the Dole-Kemp campaign in 1996.
Sarah Palin is the Real Terrorist
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, TERRORISM IS DEFINED AS:
1. The use of terror, violence and intimidation to achieve an end.
2. Fear and subjugation produced by this
3. A system of government that uses terror to rule.
Already proven by an independent bi-partisan, but Republican dominated, Legislative Committee to be a vindictive individual of questionnable personal ethics who, together with her husband (neither elected or appointed government official), intimididated employees for two years in order to settle a personal score, Palin has now become a political terrorist.
I am listening to her speaking live, telling lie after knowing lie, inciting the crowd with fear and suspicion to rise up against Obama.
She just said Obama will bankrupt the US, but SHE runs a fiscally sound administration. Gee, records show that under her leadership Wasilla increased its expense budget by 63% up to $7,046,325 [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 1] Betcha she forgot; when she took over as Mayor, Wasilla had no debt, when she left, she also left a debt of almost $19,000,000! [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 10]
She just did her Obama-Ayers connection, to a roar of appreciative boos and jeers. Gee, guess SHE forgot that McCain's "terrorist" connections are far worse than Obama's flimsy link to Ayers. In the 80s, McCain personally funded a guerrilla group (the Contras) that engaged in terrorist acts and last year, expressed how "proud" he was of an ex-felon who urged shooting law enforcement agents in the head (G. Gordon Liddy).,,now THAT's lack of judgment.
www.opednews.com/articles/John-McCain-s-Terrorist-Co-by-John-Wilson-081009-877.html
Oh, doggone it, Palin must'a forgot her own dubious relationship. "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand" said Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American founder of the Alaska Independence Party who was partially funded by Iran (yes, you heard me, Iran. Todd Palin was an AIP member for 7 years, Sarah attended their meetings with him and this year sent a video shoutout to them to "Keep up the good work!"
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/10/07/palins_unamerican/print.html
While Obama has forcefully condemned the past actions of Ayers, John McCain and Sarah Palin have never denounced their unpatriotic, anti-American terrorist friends. Yet they blatently smear Obama's characte as a terrorist and incite fear and anger to achieve their own end - revive their flagging campaign.
Both political terrorists, dishonest and unethical, neither can be trusted to lead our beloved country and serve Americans.
a response to "DemNoMore"
It's hard to imagine a candidate that's been through the wringer more than Obama. He certainly hasn't been "treated with kid gloves."
Check out these articles:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=media-bias-presidential-election
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-onthemedia27-2008jul27,0,6802141.story
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200802280003
http://people-press.org/report/430/coverage-candidate-wives-michelle-obama-cindy-mccain
this guy has a good point, when he notes:
Much of what is perceived as media bias is simply bias toward what's newsworthy.
from:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/steve_chapman/2008/07/obama-and-media.html
As for NoMore's other silly claim:
No, that's not at all the case. I and others were pointing out the error in conflating "voter registration fraud" and actual vote fraud, and that one doesn't necessarily lead to the other at all. In fact, most of the former is either people faking names so they can make a buck off of groups like ACORN, or simply people filling out a registration form multiple times for whatever reason.
There's certainly no logical connection between that and attempts to circumvent the voting process. Indeed, if one wanted to change the votes, the way to do it these days would be to hack into electronic voting machines, not to turn in registration forms for "Mickey Mouse," which are going to be caught by the registration officials anyhow.
The left.
The left have chosen to behave and use tactics in this election that they always complained about. They complained when Bush was treated with kid gloves by the press, now its okay when its their candidate. The complained about voter fraud in Florida and Ohio, now its okay. All the things that were so outrageous are now perfectly fine and dandy.
The comments about Palin by the left (her daughter's pregnancy, her fifth child, her working while she has kids, etc) has been appalling. She's small town. She's education from a state college. She's scary, she's dangerous. Give me a break.
Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. The left went into the gutter and decided the view is fine as long as you win.
Listen to the giddiness and joy when they talk about the economy. The more people are hurting, the more people lose their jobs and homes, that just means we get more power. The Democrats turned their back on the people who supported them for 50 years.
To be fair
It doesn't look like he put much time or thought into choosing her. I think he wanted Lieberman up until the last moment, but was essentially told that the right-wing of his party wouldn't stand for it.
Sad thing, if he'd picked Lieberman instead of this scandal-ridden neophyte, his "maverick" narrative would likely still have some legitimate legs.
The Election
The American people only need to remember one thing when voting.
McCain will keep us safe so we will have an economy. It may be a mess but we will have one.
Obama will not keep us safe. There fore we will not have an economy to worry about!