Signorile visits Oklahoma delegation at RNC
There’s ALL kind of riots going on in St. Paul. This is the big effing LOL variety:
Check out gay activist/journalist/radio host Mike Signorile with our very own lovely right-wing nutjob Sally Kern!
He interviewed her, but hasn’t got it up yet. I can’t WAIT to hear her demented thoughts about Sarah Palin! Will update here when it’s available.
He’s also got some other great shit from the convention:
- McCain’s 94-year old mother complaining that “they won’t let me talk.”
- Mike sticking a mic up to Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum’s ugly mouth. Yuck, I don’t know if I can stomach listening to it after that visual!
Gmail adds ‘Suggested Contacts’ feature
This happened back in July and I didn’t even realize it.
Gmail adds ‘My Contacts’ and ‘Suggested Contacts’
Released on 7/16/2008
Gmail now adds people you email with to your contact list after several correspondences, rather than after you email someone for the first time. Contacts you add manually or through an import are also saved in ‘My Contacts’. People you haven’t had many email exchanges with are auto-added to ‘Suggested Contacts’, and you can move those people to ‘My Contacts’ at any time.
I’ve been griping for a long time about the way Contacts are managed in Gmail, which I otherwise love and recommend (especially over Yahoo Mail). This is not the perfect solution to having every address you email get added to your address book, but it’s an improvement in the right direction.
I just don’t understand why they can’t give users an option at the point of sending the email on whether to add the address or not. I still want to see that option, and will again complete the Gmail feature request form.
If you are a Gmail user, that’s where you can suggest features. If you would like to join my crusade for a better Gmail Contacts, look for “More functional Contacts list” on the form and click on everything in that section.
Not my America
Update below
There are major violations of the Constitution and other laws going down in the Twin Cities this week, while the Republicans freak out over Sarah Palin and try to work around various hurricanes.
Law enforcement agencies include not just local police, but sheriffs, FBI, and Homeland Security. Many are decked out in full riot gear, patrolling the streets to intimidate citizens from using their right to assembly and speech.
Obviously, actual criminal behavior, including property damage, should be stopped and punished. Understandably, authorities want to also prevent any type of terrorist activity. But what’s happening is so over the top, that if we are still a democratic nation, it must be decried and prevented. This creeping police state is past the creeping stage and is in full out deployment mode. Wake up, people!
Preemptive raids and warrantless detentions for just planning a legal demonstration. Arrests of peaceful protesters, and of journalists trying to cover the events. Is this America?
Thanks to cell phones, cameras and the internet, a lot of this shit is being documented and posted on blogs and alternative news sites. Most is being ignored by the corporate media, too wrapped up in the Palin trainwreck and whether the levees in NOLA will hold this time.
Amy Goodman’s arrest today, recorded by several witnesses, actually got picked up by the Washington Post, which is heartening; we’ll see if further attention comes of it. At any rate, she’s been released, and tomorrow’s 2-hour Democracy Now! program should be pretty damn interesting.
Here are some sites that are providing good coverage of what’s going down:
- Glenn Greenwald
- Twin Cities Indymedia
- Firedoglake (especially bloggers Jane Hamsher and Lindsay Beyerstein)
- Election 411 (Pacifica Radio)
- The Uptake
- I-Witness Video
- Feministing
Finally, if you have the stomach, here is a video of a young woman standing on the sidewalk holding out a flower as a squad of riot police march by. She is willfully and cruelly peppersprayed from no more than five feet distance — and a second time for good measure as she turns away in pain –for simply standing there, making her childlike, innocent gesture.
Update: Amy Goodman interviewed by San Francisco Chronicle about the arrests of her DN! staff and herself:
Also, Jane Hamsher posts about the new media involvement at the RNC, saying “the revolution will be twittered.”
(h/t to Glenn Greenwald)
Republican Party Time
2005:
2008:
Music by Hookers and Blow. So wish I was kidding. Nice family values you got there, Johnny and Sarah.
Republican reactions to Palin
Saturday was the day that newspaper editorial boards across the country had a chance to make their first assessment of Republican Presidential nominee John McCain’s choice of vice presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
Besides being stunned at the announcement, many express serious concerns about her qualifications — and that includes many newspapers that are staunchly conservative. The two largest papers in Alaska, who know Palin that most of us (including John McCain, reportedly) the Anchorage Daily News and Fairbanks News-Miner, are in this group.
She has never publicly demonstrated the kind of interest, much less expertise, in federal issues and foreign affairs that should mark a candidate for the second-highest office in the land. Republicans rightfully have criticized the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, for his lack of experience, but Palin is a neophyte in comparison; how will Republicans reconcile the criticism of Obama with the obligatory cheering for Palin?…Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation’s when he created the possibility that she might fill it. It’s clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not substance. – Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
And it’s stunning that someone with so little national and international experience might be heartbeat away from the presidency. – Anchorage Daily News
But of course, here in Oklahoma, we have a paper run by that other kind of conservative Republican: so hardcore partisan, they can’t tell reality from spin. And, most important, not the least bit interested in actual governance. So their editorial, while actually hedging their reaction a bit (you just know they had columns already written with full-throated praise for McCain for selecting Romney or Pawlenty), was just another opportunity to slam the Democrats with thoughtless abandon and childish wit — their specialty.
Surprise!
McCain throws a curve with PalinTHE wisdom of Sen. John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as running mate — dousing the afterglow of Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s blockbuster speech in Denver — certainly has short-term benefits. The long-term verdict is still out.
No question, the McCain campaign played a tactical ace in presenting Palin to America so soon after Democrats broke camp at their convention. As expected, Obama gave a great speech, but Palin’s debut quickly dominated news coverage.
Her resume is thin, just two years into her first term. But Obama is hardly the one to criticize someone else’s experience. Palin is the only member of either ticket to be in charge of actually running something.
Palin’s value is in potential ties to so many critical constituencies, starting with women. She signals McCain believes women of middle-class, bluecollar and suburban households, many of whom voted for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, might be attracted by someone so much like them.
Palin is the mother of five and started in politics at the local PTA. Her husband is a member of the steelworkers’ union. It’s easy to see Republicans sending the hockey mom anywhere hockey is played but especially Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, all key to the election.
The risk in Palin basically is one evening this fall, when she meets Sen. Joe Biden in the lone vice presidential debate. If Biden makes her look small, her value to McCain will be small as well.
With high risk comes high reward — clearly the calculus McCain used in choosing his running mate.
The claim that “Palin is the only member of either ticket to be in charge of actually running something[,]” is laughable, seeing as how Obama has organized a historic campaign and movement that toppled the Democratic Party’s presumed candidate, who was supported by almost all the Party operatives and apparatus. If that doesn’t show executive skill, I don’t know what does.
But I think we could learn a lot about the rabid Right’s thought process (if you want to call it that) by seeing the Oklahoman editorial board’s pre-written and now unpublishable sceeds about the McCain-Romney and McCain-Romney tickets and all the wonders they would do for America. Ah, what might have been…
[apparently the link to the editorial at NewsOk.com is not available as of this writing. I guess the webmaster has Saturday off -- although every other major daily paper in the nation seems to have managed to get their text online. ]
Who the heck is Sarah Palin? Updated
Update below.
Well just about the whole world started asking that question this morning (followed swiftly by “What the heck was he thinking???”). And, thanks to the netroots, we didn’t have long to wait for the answer.
As is often the case, Down With Tyranny! was on the ball with the nuts and bolts.
At least he’ll win Alaska (unless they give reindeer the vote).
Palin will be a more difficult target. It’s funny that for all McCain’s carping about Obama’s supposed lack of experience, Palin really has none whatsoever. I mean, talk about a “readiness gap!” Of course, she had more judgment than McCain himself– having praised Obama’s energy plan. (She has now tried to scrub her praise for Obama’s energy plan from her website, very 1984 creepy.) CNBC, which had been all gung ho on Willard was in shock. “This is utter madness, absolutely insane,” said political analyst Greg Valliere, who then ran down McCain’s age and all of his health problems. “This woman makes Dan Quayle look reasonable.” When asked about Valliere’s assessment, John Harwood responded, “[it's] basically a nightmare scenario for the Republican ticket.” On the other hand, this will sure up McCain’s recent slide in Alaska.
Palin, proud daughter of Alaska’s pork machine:
Although the McCain campaign is busily re-writing history to make Palin sound like she opposed the corrupt earmarks that have landed Ted Stevens and Don Young in hot water– particularly their “Bridge to Nowhere” that McCain is always railing against– Palin was always a big supporter of the Bridges to Nowhere and all the criminal pork Young and Stevens were bringing back to Alaska. In 2006, when she was trying to make the leap from runner up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant and mayor of Wasilla (population 8,471) to gubernatorial contender, she was asked how she felt about the Bridges to Nowhere. According to the October 5th, 2006 Anchorage Daily News she replied. “I do support the infrastructure projects that are on tap here in the state of Alaska that our congressional delegations worked hard for.” In fact, she then started complaining that the federal money for the two horrible projects weren’t coming in fast enough!
In fact, Palin has always been a pork-crazed maniac, the kind of straw man McCain loves to bash on the stump. This year Alaska received nearly $100 million more In pork than any other state ($379,669,715). According to the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Database, Palin employs the lobbying firm Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates to seek earmarks for the state of Alaska. You think the vetters missed that when they were looking into her past? If so they also missed this: According to that same Senate Lobbying Disclosure Database, Palin paid the lobbying firm of Hoffman Silver Gilman & Blasco to lobby on behalf of the City of Wasilla while she was mayor and according to Citizens Against Government Waste, in 2000 the City of Wasilla received a $1 million transportation earmark for the Wasilla Intermodal Facility for bus and bus related facilities while Wasilla’s Life Quest Community Mental Health Center gobbled up a $500,000 earmark, same amount as the town’s emergency shelter, although less than the $600,000 earmark for the Wasilla city bus facility. Meanwhile Wasilla received a $1 million earmark for the Wasilla Regional Dispatch Center, a $1.5 million earmark for water and sewer improvements, and a $2.6 million transportation earmark for an alternative route project. And back then only 5,000 people lived there. Now that’s pork. So, as inexperienced as she is about everything else, she sure knows how to rook the federal government out of boucoup taxpayer dollars. I wonder if McCain will still be screamin’ and hollerin’ about earmarks and Bridges to Nowhere now that she’s on his ticket.
Update: An Alaskan blogger provides quit the primer on Sarah Palin‘s political “experience” as a “reformer.”
Wasilla has a population of about 5500 people, and 1979 occupied housing units. This is where your potential Vice President was two short years ago. Can you imagine her negotiating a nuclear non-proliferation treaty? Discussing foreign policy? Understanding non-Alaskan issues? Frankly, I don’t even know if she’s ever been out of the country. She may ‘get’ Alaska, but there are only a half a million people here. Don’t get me wrong….I love Alaska with all my heart. I’m just saying.
This blogger also a provides a digest version of “Troopergate,” the pending ethics investigation of Sarah Palin for abuse of office.
So, if McCain had made his selection six months ago, the squeaky-clean governor meme would have made a little more sense. But, Sarah Palin is currently under an ethics investigation by the Alaska state legislature. The details of this investigation read like a trashy novel, and I suspect that the players will soon have newfound celebrity on the national stage. I’ll try to explain for all you non-Alaskans who suddenly have good reason to want to know more about Sarah Palin.
The American Promise
Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, “America’s Promise,” given on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Full text follows.
Jim Inhofe eats crow for McCain
Our own ultra-conservative stalwart is one of the few GOP members in high office willing to show their face at RNC, though doing so means swallowing his pride .
Sen. Jim Inhofe says he has made peace with John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, whom Inhofe has sparred with in the past over global warming and other issues.
Inhofe, R-Okla., once predicted that McCain could not win the GOP nomination, reasoning that his background on some issues would not sit well with activist conservatives.
And here’s a fine example of delusional thinking:
“And later on, I ran into John in the cloak room and he said: ‘Look, Jimmy, we’ve had our differences of opinion…but I’m going to be president and you’re going to be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and we’re going to need each other.”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Dream on, you old fogies!
Tammy Duckworth speaks for veterans
Tammy Duckworth’s speech to the DNC was awesome. I so wish every American could hear her indictment of the Bush Admin. on what “supporting the troops” really means. As a disabled vet, her voice is so powerful and authentic. I’m against war and the mission of the military (solving conflict with violence) on principle, but our treatment of veterans is unforgivable; if we send our young people out to fight, the least we can do is take care of them when they return, as we promise them to get them to go in the first place.
And now, John McCain wants to ration care. Under his plan, the VA will serve combat injuries, but everyone else gets an insurance card. Barack Obama and the Democrats have a different idea. Barack Obama will live up to their tradition of honor and sacrifice. Barack Obama will use war not as a first choice, but a last resort. Barack Obama understands that for a commander-in-chief to support the military, he needs more than a
“Mission Accomplished” banner, more than wearing a borrowed flight suit, and
definitely more than four more years of the same failed foreign policy. President Obama will restore the might of the military, invest in our troops and only send our sons and daughters to war if they have a clearly defined mission and the tools they need to succeed.And now, John McCain wants to ration care. Under his plan, the VA will serve combat injuries, but everyone else gets an insurance card. Barack Obama and the Democrats have a different idea. Barack Obama will live up to their tradition of honor and sacrifice. Barack Obama will use war not as a first choice, but a last resort. Barack Obama understands that for a commander-in-chief to support the military, he needs more than a
“Mission Accomplished” banner, more than wearing a borrowed flight suit, and
definitely more than four more years of the same failed foreign policy. President Obama will restore the might of the military, invest in our troops and only send our sons and daughters to war if they have a clearly defined mission and the tools they need to succeed.
