With McCain's advanced age, never has a VP choice been so important. Let’s see if the Republican voters will wage their persistent question at their own VP nominee. Is Sarah Palin, the self-proclaimed “hockey mom” ready to lead after being Alaska’s governor for two years? What do you think his decision says about his judgment? Will voters risk more pocket breaking policies, in a Republican attempt to create their own groundbreaking candidate to pander to Hillary‘s stanch supports?
We understand that change is contagious and that the Republican choice for VP was in response to the inspirational narratives of several of the candidates our party produced. We are pleased that we have motivated inclusiveness; something that doesn’t come naturally to the party of the status quo. While the Republicans are artful at painting a scene, it doesn’t make the picture of value or substantive.
"As a woman, I'm offended that John McCain thinks he can get my vote just by diversifying the genital line-up on the presidential ticket. Yes, more women need to be represented in our local and federal governments. But they shouldn't be elected on the basis of what does or doesn't fill out their britches. We should strictly elect those who are qualified. And Sarah Palin is, simply, not.
She's no Hillary.
Jennifer Walker, Denver, Colorado (USA)"
If John Mc Cain thinks putting an Anti-Womens Rights (v****a) on his ticket is gonna somehow gain support among us women , he is more old and out dated than I once thought and is in for a rude awakening.
This is the most offensive expression of patronizing and pandering that I have ever seen in my 33 (34in 4 days) years. But, if this is what they want to play with , so be it. Barack Obama is sure to be our next President of the United States and Mc Cain just made out job easier.
Dee Anna
It is patronizing to think that we are so dim as to vote for a woman because of hormones....
BTW... is the word off limits... I used it in another comment?
peace,
marsha
I guess he may not have had many takers after our inspirational convention.
peace,
marsha
She is one of those kinds women who are women's worst enemies--that's the kind of woman Ms Palin is.
Now if McCain had chosen someone like Kay Baily Hutchison, I would have some mild concerns.
Mark my words. Palin will turn out to be one of many in a long list of continuing embarrassments to the Republican Party.
Conservative Republicans are going to look at her and stay home.
and speaking of Kay B. Hutchison--she said she didn't know/hadn't met Palin only a few days ago. Senator Hutchison has been in Congress for almost 20 years.
I agree! I can disagree with you on policies, yet respect you.
ICK
Triple ICK
I am writing this as a concerned citizen of the united states of America. This years election is one of the most important of our time. The next administration needs to move this country in a new direction. The decision that John McCain made yesterday to chose Sarah Palin shows how out of touch he is with the country. she is under investigation for the misuse of the power of her office. This is the same thing that vice president Chaney has been doing for the last eight years. Are we the people going to take the chance that this could continue with McCain's administration? It is bad enough she does not have any national security experiences. She has never meet with one world leader. We do not even know if she knows there names. To put some one on the ticket that is under investigation for the same things that Chaney's office has done is just pathetic. Does McCain and his staff really think the American people are this stupid?? I also think there is a few personal issues with this pick but I will keep those comments to myself. I am voting for senator Obama but I think this decision by senator McCain call's in question his incompetence and sanity. She also lied yesterday about the bridge to nowhere she was for it until she found out they would have to fund some of it and she keep the money given for the bridge. I am going to include a few statements I found while investigating this pick and web sites where I found this information and a lot more issues in question.
In 2006, before Palin was governor, Alaska State Trooper Wooten was suspended for ten days after being accused by his ex-wife Molly McCann (Sarah Palin's sister) of threatening to kill McCann's and Palin's father, tasering his 11-year-old stepson, drinking beer in his squad car, and violating game laws.[4] Following an investigation, Wooten was suspended for illegally shooting a moose and using a Taser on his stepson, while most of the charges were dismissed.[5] After a union protest, the suspension was reduced to five days, and Wooten was warned by Col. Julia Grimes, head of the Alaska State Troopers, that he would be fired if he messed up again.[4]
On July 11, 2008, Palin dismissed Monegan and offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he turned down.[6][7] Her power to fire him is not in dispute, however Monegan alleged that his dismissal may have been tied to his reluctance to fire Wooten, who had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with McCann..[8]
Palin said that her dismissal of Monegan was unrelated to the fact that he had not fired Wooten, and said that Monegan was instead dismissed for not adequately filling state trooper vacancies, and because he "did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues."[9] Monegan claims that the two most recent trooper graduating classes had the most recruits in years, and that Palin stated the audit Monegan provided made the administration look like it did not support the troopers.[10] Palin acknowledged that there were a number of calls from her office regarding Wooten, and that a member of her administration, Frank Bailey, mentioned "a family tie with the Governor there" and said "we don't know why this guy is still working." Monegan told the Anchorage Daily News that Todd Palin had "showed him some of the findings of a private detective the family had hired to investigate Mr. Wooten and accused him of a variety of transgressions, including drunken driving and child abuse."[11]
Ms. Palin acknowledged that there were more than two dozen inquiries to the public safety department from members of her staff about Wooten, but she said she had played no role in the inquiries.[12] Both Palin and Bailey say that happened without her knowledge and was unrelated to her dismissal of Monegan,[9] and Bailey was put on leave for two months for acting outside the scope of his authority as the Director of Boards and Commissions. Commissioner Monegan received no severance pay, though at the same time another dismissed Commissioner, Charles Kopp (who served only 11 days) received $10,000.[13]
Palin replaced Monegan with Chuck Kopp. Kopp had been previously suspended and investigated for sexual harassment of an employee. At the time, Palin said she believed that the investigation had cleared him, but a letter of reprimand later emerged.[14][15]
[edit] Recent developments
In late July 2008, a bipartisan committee of the Alaska Legislature voted 12-0 to hire an independent investigator to investigate Palin and her staff for possible abuse of power surrounding the dismissal. [1] A retired state prosecutor, Steve Branchflower, was chosen. [16] Democratic State Senator Hollis French, who is overseeing the investigation, says that the Palin administration has been cooperating and that subpoenas are unnecessary.[17]
The Alaskan Attorney General and the Department of Law are conducting their own inquiry, at the request of the Governor. [18] The Palin administration itself was the first to release an audiotape from February of inquiries being made by Bailey about the status of the Wooten investigation.[9][19] Palin later admitted that members of her staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about the trooper, including at least one conversation that could appear to be an attempt to pressure the commissioner. She said that her staff's contacts with the commission were not directed by her and she had little knowledge of them.[20] The aide who made the call, Frank Bailey, was placed on paid leave by Palin pending the outcome of the investigation.[21]
Palin has another problem. After Alaska's public-safety commissioner Walt Monegan was fired (Monegan has said he felt pressure to dropkick the trooper) Palin replaced him with the former police chief of the city of Kenai. But he quit after it became known that he received a reprimand after sexual harassment allegations were filed against him in his former post.
At the very least, that incident raises some questions about Palin as a chief executive and might take some of the thrill away for some women who might otherwise be excited about seeing her on the ticket.
TASING THE STEPSON
One day -- maybe a year or two before the investigation -- Wooten showed his stepson his Taser. He had just been to Taser instructor school. Wooten told Sgt. Wall that the boy was fascinated and pleaded to be tased.
"So we went in our living room and I had him get down on his knees so he wouldn't fall. And I taped the probes to him and turned the Taser on for like a second, turned it off. He thought that was the greatest thing in the world, wanted to do it again," Wooten told the investigator. The boy flinched but nothing more, he said. The boy was about 11 at the time.
In his interview with troopers, the stepson said it hurt for about a second, according to Wall's report. The boy said he wanted to be tased to show his cousin, Palin's daughter Bristol, that he wasn't a mama's boy. The probe left a welt on his arm, he said. His mother was upstairs yelling at them not to do it, the boy said.
As Bristol remembered it, the jolt knocked the boy backward, the trooper report says. She said she was afraid.
The probes are attached by thin wires to the Taser cartridge. In the field, an officer fires the probes into a suspect's skin or clothing and the suspect receives a jolt of electricity for five seconds, said Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International, which makes the devices. They are only incapacitated during that time. In demos, the probes might be taped to a person so that they don't accidentally strike an eye or injure the volunteer, he said. If the Taser is fired for just a second, it would feel like your funny bone was hit but the quick jolt wouldn't knock you over, Tuttle said.
Palin staff pushed to have trooper fired
Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday revealed an audio recording that shows an aide pressuring the Public Safety Department to fire a state trooper embroiled in a custody battle with her sister.
Audio: Phone call from Palin aide to troopers
Web sites to confirm statements and other damming info
Link Anchorage daily news aidio interview audio of phone calls from palin aid to troopers
Link monegan says he was pressured to fire cop
Link Monegan says Palin administration and first gentleman used governor's office to pressure firing first family's former brother-in-law
Link palin staff pushed to have trooper fired
Link Investigators Are Looking at Governor About Firing
Link Bombshell in commissioner controversy
Link Complainant details Kopp's harassing behavior
Link --- Palin named Kopp head of the state Department Public Safety on July 11 after her controversial firing of Walt Monegan. the governor's office said today.
kopp received a letter of reprimand from a sexual harassment complaint when he was chief of the Kenai police,
Link ---Branchflower will investigate Monegan case
Link -- Palin launches Monegan inquiry ahead of special investigation
Governor wants to know what Branchflower will find
Link -- Alaska's governor admits her staff tried to have trooper fired
Link ----Alaska's Gov. Palin apologizes as state's top cop resigns
Link ---Alaska Public Safety Commissioner dismissal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Link --Palin questioned whether global warming is melting Arctic ice
May I suggest again...that you just post it. Up on top, the option to "Write a post", and also please remember the extended post option.
One more thing, we have discussed this issues through out the day, and yes it is a very vindictive move that shows a clear lack of integrity.
It amuses me that you consider it pandering if Republicans do this, but never if Democrats do it. Besides that hypocrisy, it would sure be a welcome surprise if you guys on the left would actually allow equality. Who cares if she's a woman? Who cares if Obama is black. I know you derive a lot of your power by continuing to point out these differences and dividing people, but how about you try to debate issues and ideas a little more often? Division on issues is valid and worthy of debate. Gender and color mean nothing and should be ignored...if you will just let it.
Conservatives are charged by Palin because she is CONSERVATIVE. THAT is what we like. She believes it, she lives it, she demonstrates it, and she is not ashamed to proudly admit it. That is the kind of leadership we are longing for.
-snakelips
See Snake, if you read some of my earlier bogs, you will see that I never believed this election was about experience. Obama knows the election is about change and the judgment to lead the country in a better direction. Ask Hillary, Donald Rumsfeld and George W how well that experience worked for them. Palin's nomination demonstrates McCain's realization of the same conclusion of the election being about CHANGE, not experience!
The REAL hypocrisy is that the Republicans have weakened their strongest criticism of Obama's, experience, by appointing Palin. The problem is that unlike Palin, Obama will have spent about 2 years introducing himself and comforting the American people.
You are fortunately able to pretend that discrimination isn't deep-rooted in our country's legacy. As an African American woman, no one will be more pleased than me, when we no longer have to have conversation about race and gender. All Americans must continue fighting and discussing the difficult realities of discrimination!
Of course I wouldn't expect you to think she's a good choice. And because of that, I don't think, nor would I expect, Hillary voters to switch to the Republican ticket. And if they did switch based solely on the fact that Palin is female, then I don't WANT their votes. Gender is not a reason to cast or withhold a vote.
I certainly can't speak for the Republican party, nor even other conservatives, but I DO NOT CARE about the candidates' color or gender. I have chosen to move beyond that and see a person for who they are, for the things that they can affect, for the abilities and accomplishments that they can master. Perhaps discrimination does exist in America, but I would ask that just as you recognize it and rail against it, you also see that there are some who understand and DON't discriminate. Also know that we are raising our children to be color and gender blind. Actually, blind is not the right word. We, of course, can see color and gender, but we teach, through example, that those are not things to judge a person by. They are nothing more than a descriptor.
I don't feel that any position about Obama's lack of experience is weakened by bringing Palin onto the ticket. She has more experience than Obama, and she is in the number two slot. Obama is your candidate for president. As I said, Palin excites us because she is unabashedly conservative. Obama has been massaging his positions for the last two years in an attempt to appeal to a great number of people. And that's fine to gain votes. But sometimes the goal should not only be to gain votes, but to do what is right, good, and constitutional. I feel that the conservative ideology trends closer to that line than liberalism.
Obama's change, I believe, will take the country more toward its demise, and if that's what you want, than it makes sense that you support it. The root of it all, to me, is this idea of transferring wealth, not based on a free market balancing payment for services or goods, but rather by some small group of entrenched politicians who make arbitrary decisions about who is more worthy of earned wealth. I fear that this will "kill the golden goose" and then where will your money come from to give to the poor?
Anyway...
-snakelips
Have you got any feral hogs left in Texas? Gustav might float some of your coastal pigs a little further inland.
Mark in LA
I'm not really much of a hunter, but I know several people who do hunt them and they are plentiful around these parts. And that is some GOOD eatin' to roast up one of them and drink a few beers! Otherwise, they'll keep your freezer full of meat for the winter.
I read your profile and it says you are a former Republican. I'm wondering, were you a conservative who decided that liberalism is a better way, or were you a Republican who switch to Democrat? I could understand the latter, but the former seems like it would have been a very difficult transition. The two ideologies are quite different.
-snakelips