John McCain

2020hindsight said:

Riots at the Republican Convention. - how serious? - we'll find out in due course no doubt.

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allegedly / apparently 7000 peaceful anti-war demonstrators,
and 200 anarchists neither Democrat nor Republican (confirmed by Gingrich)

Comments about handloing of the Gustav situation, and of the expectant grandmother matter.

Number Of Violent Protesters At the RNC

Sean Hannity falsely announced on last night's (9/1/08) Hannity & Colmes that "thousands of violent anti-war protesters descended on the site of the Republican National Convention earlier today assaulting police officers, breaking windows and throwing bottles at convention goers." But moments later, even Newt Gingrich noted that the number was much lower and that the vast majority of the protesters were not violent. What was never discussed, unfortunately, was the appropriateness of the reactions of the police. Also not discussed was the wrongful arrest of journalist Amy Goodman and two of her producers who were there covering the protests. .... etc.

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After Hannity made that announcement, which was a FOX News alert, Gingrich (part of an all Republican line up of guests), noted, "I think there are two different groups out here, in all fairness... There are probably 7,000, 7500 people who are anti-war protesters -- peaceful, you know, walking around -- no mask, no problem. There's about 200 people who are nuts, who call themselves anarchists, who put masks on."

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Doris said:

Incredible gossip surrounds the Alaskan Tall Poppy!

This would not have happened had McCain chosen a male VP!

* Palin's 4 month old baby is not hers... it's her daughter's...
("she was too skinny when she was pregnant to really be pregnant...
... her daughter had a lot of time off school"...)

* "Palin's baby must be hers... now her 17yo daughter is 5 months pregnant."

Palin supports the ban on sex education in schools in Alaska.
"This belongs in the home."
Hmm...

At least it takes bad press from Obama I guess.
I do like his sincerity in demanding her family life be kept out of politics.

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Doris, my instinctive response to this post was exactly as Calliope has replied.

But then I have to say that you are possibly justified in calling attention to the result of Ms Palin's philosophy about no contraception to teenagers. (I don't know what she determines as the upper age limit here, e.g. can a girl get a prescription for the pill or can a boy buy condoms at age 18, perhaps?)

How utterly unrealistic is this philosophy which is essentially one of denial about the sexual behaviour of young people in the 21st century. Ditto her stand against abortion.

For starters, "Stop Loss" will cost McCain a heap of votes amongst the serving military.

Telling people their contract with the Army has been extended (against their will)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop-loss_policy

Stop-loss, in the United States military, is the involuntary extension of a service member's active duty service under the enlistment contract in order to retain them beyond their initial end of term of service (ETS) date. It also applies to the cessation of a permanent change of station (PCS) move for a member still in military service. Stop-loss was used immediately before and during the first Persian Gulf War. Since then, it has been used during American military deployments to Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo and during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the subsequent military actions against Afghanistan and Iraq (see War on Terror).

The policy has been legally challenged several times, however federal courts have consistently found that military service members contractually agree that their term of service may be involuntarily extended.

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Julia said:

But then I have to say that you are possibly justified in calling attention to the result of Ms Palin's philosophy about no contraception to teenagers. (I don't know what she determines as the upper age limit here, e.g. can a girl get a prescription for the pill or can a boy buy condoms at age 18, perhaps?)

How utterly unrealistic is this philosophy which is essentially one of denial about the sexual behaviour of young people in the 21st century. Ditto her stand against abortion.

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No pills, no condoms, no sex - until marriage.

I feel so sorry for Bristol... having to carry her brother on stage to hide her bulge! Poor kid!

(CNN) – Sarah Palin, who announced on Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, indicated during her run for Alaska governor that she was a firm supporter of abstinence-only education in schools.

In a 2006 Eagle Forum questionnaire, Palin indicated that she supported funding abstinence-until-marriage education programs instead of teaching sex-education programs.

"Explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," Palin wrote in the conservative group’s questionnaire.

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Well... McCain chose someone with his values:

In Senate votes, McCain has opposed some proposals to pay for teen-pregnancy prevention programs. In 2006, McCain joined fellow Republicans in voting against a Senate Democratic proposal to send $100 million to communities for teen-pregnancy prevention programs that would have included sex education about contraceptives.

In 2005, McCain opposed a Senate Democratic proposal that would have spent tens of millions of dollars to pay for pregnancy prevention programs other than abstinence-only education, including education on emergency contraception such as the morning-after pill.

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I read today that the US spends $187 million a year on abstinence sex-education!

The United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates of the industrialized world, despite the legalization and availability of various forms of contraception. Actually, teen birth rates are on the rise for the first time in 15 years, as 3 in 10 girls in the US become pregnant by age 20.

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Doris,
You have proven that you are no better than the Daily Kos nutcases. Obama is no better, denying his people were involved in this stuff, yet not condemning them by name - Daily Kos, Moveon, Democraticunderground, etc.

You have shown yourself.

This is the nastiness of the extreme left in the Democratic party, and their blogger contingent.

The Palin family will take this baby of Bristol's and love it. They won't be killing it, it will grow up and lead a life just as meaningful as our own.

Doris said:

Incredible gossip surrounds the Alaskan Tall Poppy!

This would not have happened had McCain chosen a male VP!

* Palin's 4 month old baby is not hers... it's her daughter's...
("she was too skinny when she was pregnant to really be pregnant...
... her daughter had a lot of time off school"...)

* "Palin's baby must be hers... now her 17yo daughter is 5 months pregnant."

Palin supports the ban on sex education in schools in Alaska.
"This belongs in the home."
Hmm...

At least it takes bad press from Obama I guess.
I do like his sincerity in demanding her family life be kept out of politics.

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Supposedly, Obama wants this stuff stopped, but his people, especially his biggest admirer on this forum keeps it going.

Nasty stuff - congratulations on it - that is what the left is nowadays.

Our side on this thread have not stooped to the crazy stuff some have posted on Obama - the Muslim falsehoods, that he hates America, etc. That stuff is totally wrong. We have stayed with the policy issues, and his associations.

Not so the Obama worshippers

well I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that anyone who poses for an election (not meant to be punny in the chinese sense) in the process of taking off her pants to reveal a luminescent gold G string - is hardly likely to be the mother of a nun. (post #274 refers)

Zimmerman on sex education :-
"the other thing they want to teach these days is abstinence only sex education etc ....

"Abstain With Me" by Roy Zimmerman

Heck, I'll go even further out on a limb and say she's hardly likely to get the respect that, say, Condoleezza Rice currently enjoys on the world stage. (to say nothing of how she's viewed in "the other" fanatical religious countries (i.e. apart from USA).

(or even amongst eastern countries, China, Japan etc - they'll have trouble keeping a straight face when they bow to each other etc)

Hey ZZD - here's the ultimate in electability..
A team with experience and good looks ..

2020, are you too dumb to know that MAXIM cover that is floating over the internet is photo shopped?

Not the brightest guy in the world obviously.

Interesting that chances of a Palin withdrawal increases from 3% to 18% (oops settled back to 12%)
not that I'd bet on it .

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/02/technology/kimes_intrade.fortune/index.htm

I've got a fantastic idea!

Let's all behave like adults in these politics threads.

Particularly as none of us (with the exception of Webs and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) can vote.

wayneL said:

I've got a fantastic idea!

Let's all behave like adults in these politics threads.

Particularly as none of us (with the exception of Webs and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) can vote.

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Amen to that...c'mon people, respect for others and less of the name-calling.

wayneL said:

I've got a fantastic idea!

Let's all behave like adults in these politics threads.

Particularly as none of us (with the exception of Webs and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) can vote.

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I'm voting for McCain.

well , pretend my post #309 was a cartoon I saw in the Times

One's pretty
the other's ugly
together they're pretty ugly

Seems that a sense of excitement is developing / building

http://www.gallup.com/poll/109966/Republicans-Still-Face-Enthusiasm-Gap-Democrats.aspx

from Aug 30-31

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll finds a slight uptick in voter enthusiasm compared with a week ago, prior to the Democrats' holding their convention and John McCain's choosing his vice-presidential running mate.

Both Democrats and Republicans show slight increases in their enthusiasm about this year's election, though Democrats continue to hold a significant advantage over Republicans, 61% to 42%.

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Nice Palin video:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quvBbcFDPI0


Very Alaska - different way of life that you just wouldn't understand unless you live there.

Sarah is going to knock it out of the park tomorrow night.

(Thanks Wayne for the embedding tip for the video in a previous post)

My best friend on this planet lives in Orange County. We are soul mates.

... don't mention the war - or talk about politics and religion!

G'Day Dori,

I think Sarah Palin is fantastic! She is a woman with enormous integrity and strength who will help the GOP give Obama a run for his money. She LIVES the Conservative right's value system and has proven it under the harshest of circumstances. To elect to raise a Down syndrome baby and then to announce her position on her 17 yr old daughter's pregnancy has won over everyone. This was a credibility gap for McCain. Furthermore, she is actively working to wipe out corruption in the most macho of states - Alaska. I think the woman has a huge future and I now think that McCain has a solid chance at the Presidency.

What do YOU think?

Love,
Debbie

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Read this rather long article to see one of the reasons John McCain picked Sarah Palin:


A Negotiator Without Preconditions
By James P. Lucier
Published 9/3/2008 12:08:20 AM
Would you trust Sarah Palin to negotiate with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions?

Well, why not?

Palin came into the governor's office and found a mess on her desk. The oil deal struck by defeated Republican governor Frank Murkowski wasn't working. Through creative accounting by big oil and ambiguous reporting standards, the Murkowski plan just wasn't giving the State of Alaska the pay-off that was expected. So the former mayor of Wasilla (population 9,000, as the MSM always points out) demanded that the agreement be renegotiated and the terms be nailed down. They laughed when she sat down to negotiate, but in the end she had a new deal that delivered 50 percent of the oil revenues to the Alaska Permanent Fund, and enabled Palin to send a check for $1,200 to every qualified Alaskan citizen.

Now one of the major companies involved was BP, a.k.a. British Petroleum, before that, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. It was Anglo-Iranian, at that time a British parastatal (70 percent owned by the British government and the Bank of England) that started the Middle East conflict in 1958. Anglo-Iranian was using creative accounting and payments to dummy corporations to pretend to the Iranian government that there was virtually no profit. They demanded that the Iranian government uphold the original contract made decades before. Prime Minister Mohammed Mossedegh threatened to nationalize Anglo-Iranian. The British responded with a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The Americans stepped in to help. U.S. Ambassador George McGehee, an experienced former petroleum engineer, and Gen. Richard Walters, the linguistic wizard, huddled with Mossedegh in sessions in Washington and New York. They got him to agree to accept a 50-50 split, a reasonable proposal by the then international standard, similar to the contract that U.S.-owned Aramco had renegotiated with Saudi Arabia. But the British refused. Instead they plotted a coup against the Iranian government, and then prevailed upon on the incoming Eisenhower administration to implement it with the assistance of British agents on the ground. Iranian production was taken over by an international coalition that agreed to the 50-50 split. There was plenty enough blame to go around on all sides, but one of the first acts of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 was to toss out all foreign oil companies and confiscate their assets.

Today BP, the former Anglo-Iranian, is the third largest global energy corporation. It now claims to be privatized, and it is estimated that 70 percent of the shares are owned by British investors. At one time the Kuwait Investment Office held over 21 percent of the shares. It tried, and failed, to merge the two companies, but was blocked by a British government inquiry. Under Prime Minister Thatcher, the company went private and on a spending spree. BP bought up Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio), Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco) and Atlantic Richfield (Arco). BP became a major player in the U.S. petroleum industry, including Prudhoe Bay and the Alaska Pipeline. And despite its advertising campaign trying to suggest that BP means "Beyond Petroleum," the company has one of the worst environmental records in the United States with its refineries blowing up and its pipelines bursting, the result -- as testimony showed -- of parsimonious budgets for maintenance. It is a formidable corporation.

So enter the PTA community organizer from Wasilla. Without preconditions she took on a company that has a market cap of $205 billion and annual revenues of $291 billion in worldwide operations. Its budget is larger than that those of most sovereign countries, yet she won on her terms. If she can outsmart BP, the company that started the Middle East conflict, she can easily outsmart Ahmadinejad, if need be.

Then to follow up that act, she got the Alaskan Legislature to approve development of the TransCanada gas pipeline, a $40 billion deal that will go 1,715 miles from the treatment plant at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to the Alberta hub in Canada, from which it will be transferred to the United States. This project had been sitting around for 30 years on hold because the big energy companies didn't think it would be profitable, and their corrupt cronies in the legislature obediently kept it on the shelf. Crusading against corruption and negotiating across the aisle, Palin not only got it passed in record time, but opened up the bidding when the U.S. companies were reluctant to jump in. So she went ahead and awarded the contract to low-bidder TransCanada Alaska, a firm that has already built 36,000 miles of pipelines in North America. As a final fillip, the Governor signed the bill at the Alaska AFL-CIO biennial convention. While Barack Obama's solution to the energy problem is to urge us to check the air in our tires, Palin's solution is to start building a $40 billion gas pipeline, without Federal government assistance.


SO HOW DOES the experience of Sarah Palin stack up against the experience of Joe Biden? There are some people who confuse experience in the Senate with seniority. In the Senate you get to be Chairman of something or other if you sit around long enough until all those with higher seniority pass out of the picture. Merit has nothing to do with it. That's how Biden got to be chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Most people don't realize that the SFRC is one of the dustier corners of the Senate, largely populated with snoozing Rhodes Scholars, UN-firsters, and people who intuitively know how to pronounce the name of Kyrgyzstan and how to use it in a sentence. Occasionally someone gets on the committee who is more interested in American relations with other countries, rather than their foreign relations with us, and that wakes up the committee. Usually, ambitious politicians go elsewhere. The committee's main business is to pass the Foreign Relations act, which authorizes money for the State Department and its overseas operations. Occasionally, a treaty wanders by. Sometimes the SFRC doesn't have the clout to get its bills to the Senate Floor, so it gets ignored while all of its functions are packaged into the appropriations bills, without new authorization.

No Senator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has authority under the U.S. Constitution to conduct foreign relations or to negotiate treaties. That's why Biden has no experience in foreign relations, and Palin does. He just talks about foreign policy, and talks...and talks. Biden's long tenure on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is not necessarily a red badge of courage. He thinks he has experience, but most of his experience is wrong. We can look at a few examples of the results of his experience, and ask What Would Sara Palin Do?

If Sara Palin were campaigning for President, she probably would not have made the centerpiece of that campaign a cockamamie plan to divide Iraq into three autonomous regions.

Sarah Palin probably would not have told General Petraeus that he was "dead flat wrong" on the surge.

Sarah Palin probably would not have voted against the first Gulf War.

Sarah Palin probably would not have opposed the United States designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.

Sara Palin probably would not have told top Israeli officials, as reported in the Israeli press, that Israel would just have to learn to live with a nuclear-armed Iran.

Sara Palin probably would not have assumed that the answer to failed diplomatic negotiations with Iran was more diplomatic negotiations with Iran.

The word "probably" must be used because we can only speculate on the basis of her barracuda-like instincts.

But there is one thing of which we can be sure: If Sarah Palin had been in the Senate in 1973, she would not have been one of the five Senators opposing the Alaska Pipeline Bill.


James P. Lucier, Sr. is a former Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.


The Dems are really underestiming our Sarah

ZzzzDad said:

2020, are you too dumb to know that MAXIM cover that is floating over the internet is photo shopped?

Not the brightest guy in the world obviously.

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Certainly the cover is fake
and certainly the "Pro-Life" / "Bomb Iraq" placard cartoon is photo shopped ( I did it

but is the photo a con? - complete with GOP elephant. ?

btw here's the proof that the cover is a con. (the date has changed on that website.)