Sarah Palin: The view from Alaska

(Salon.com) - Oct. 11, 2008 | JUNEAU, Alaska — I sat on the bank of the Kobuk River in northwest arctic Alaska on a mid-September morning. Upstream somewhere, wolves were howling — their chorus filling the silence, close enough that I could hear the aspiration at the end of each wavering call. Behind me, the slate-gray heave of the Brooks Range spilled off toward the north, the shapes of some peaks so familiar I’ve seen them in my sleep. The nearest highway lay 250 miles away. This is the Alaska where I spent half my life, and the only place that’s ever felt like home — the land of Eskimo villages, waves of migrating caribou and seemingly limitless space.

Though I was beyond the reach of the Internet and cellphones, and life was filled with rutting bull moose, incandescent autumn light and fresh grizzly tracks, I knew that thousands of miles to the south, the rest of the country was getting a crash course on our governor, Sarah Palin — someone who believes that climate change isn’t our fault; is dead set against a woman’s right to choose; has supported creationism in the schools; and was prayed over by a visiting minister at her church to shield her against witchcraft.

READ MORE HERE

Angry anti-Obama taunts grip McCain, Palin events

(Associated Press) - LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Some of the anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is mostly letting it flare. A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events as McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Barack Obama. They’re making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of “traitor,” “terrorist,” “treason,” “liar,” and even “off with his head” have rung from the crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Associated Press, Philip Elliott and Beth Fouhy, Oct. 11, 2008 ]

Alaska probe finds Palin abused power

(Taiwan News, Reuters) - An Alaska ethics inquiry found that Gov. Sarah Palin, the U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate, abused the power of her office by pressuring subordinates to fire a state trooper involved in a feud with her family, a report released on Friday said.

The investigation also found that the removal of Walt Monegan, the state’s public safety commissioner whose firing triggered the probe, was likely due in part to his refusal to fire Michael Wooten, the trooper involved in a contentious divorce and custody battle with the governor’s sister.

The inquiry found that while it was within the governor’s authority to dismiss Monegan, Palin violated the public trust by pressuring those who worked for her in a way that advanced her personal wishes.

READ MORE HERE

Wary of Public Outcry, Revised $800B Wall St. Bailout Stuffed with Earmarks to Sway Election-Year Incumbents

(DemocracyNow.org) - On Capitol Hill, the House is preparing to vote again on the revised $800 billion Wall Street bailout plan after rejecting a similar bill on Monday. All 432 seats in the House are up for election next month, and many “no” votes on Monday reflected lawmakers’ fears of a voter backlash for the unpopular bill. An array of “pork barrel” projects have been inserted into the legislation to win support from nervous incumbents.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: DemocracyNow.org, Oct. 3, 2008 ]

Sarah Palin Wins Debate by Darn

(dissidentvoice.org) - The vice-presidential debates proved one thing. At the very least, Sarah Palin can be trained.

For several days, she had camped out in one of John McCain’s Arizona houses, where she underwent Debate Boot camp conducted by drill instructors who make Marine DIs appear to be slaggers.

With a few “darns,” “betchas,” and “ya”s, Palin managed to get all her talking points into the debate, even if she constantly changed the question to suit her note cards.

During the 90-minute debate, Palin six times referred to her experience as the mayor of a 6,000 resident village. Seven times, she specifically mentioned Ahmadinejad. Iran’s president, proud she knew the name, proud that she could pronounce it. No one asked if she knew his first name or anything else about him. Shades of George W. Bush in his first term trying to prove he knew something about foreign affairs by enunciating the names of a few world leaders?after several gaffes early in the campaign. Of course, twice Palin was wrong about the name of the U.S. commander in Iraq. Several times she noted she and John McCain are mavericks. About the sixth time she mentioned it, Joe Biden finally unleashed his debating skills. John McCain is no maverick he said in measured response. The Republican nominee voted with President Bush four times to extend the budget deficit, said Biden, who also pointed out that McCain went along with Bush on numerous health care and education issues, most of which were regressive rather than progressive, was one of the strongest backers of going to war with Iraq, and opposed tax cuts.

READ MORE HERE

Are You Ready for President Palin?

(dissidentvoice.org) - Despite setting extremely low expectations, Republicans showed relief that Sarah Palin didn’t blow the vice presidential debate.

The difference between the two candidates was glaring. Senator Biden has participated in many momentous decisions since entering Congress in 1972. Being mayor of a town of 6300 at the remote edge of the U.S. and the governor of Alaska for 20 months pales in comparison.

“My experience as mayor will be of great use to the country,” Sarah said, before she gushed excitedly over meeting Biden at the end of the debate. Agree or disagree with his positions, Biden was elegant in his arguments. Sarah was a Lulu.

Hearing the debate on the radio missed Sarah’s winks and frozen smiles, but focused on what was said. Sarah sounded like a bright, if immature, 19-year-old on the college debate team. She avoided questions, changed or evaded the subject, delivered well-rehearsed statements, and went off on totally unrelated subjects. She avoided details and gave vast platitudes about “victory,” “mavericks,” “greed,” “U.S. exceptionalism,” and “energy independence.”

READ MORE HERE

We Can’t Afford McCain and Palin’s Anti-Science Beliefs

(AlterNet.org: Environment) - Their combined anti-science positions may be devastating for the economy, the environment and our health.

One of the peculiar oversights of the Sarah Palin media blitz is her strong anti-science views. In keeping with her Pentecostal faith and alignment with the far right of the Republican Party, Palin is opposed to stem cell research, declaims evolution, and believes global warming to be a hoax. Of her many controversial qualities, this anti-science ideology may be the most troubling — in fact, devastating — for the economy, ecology, and health.

If the McCain-Palin ticket is elected, we would have the prospect of an administration constantly at odds with scientific advance. As vice-president, Palin would not only be the proverbial “heartbeat away” from the presidency, but the leading contender for the top spot eight years hence.

McCain himself shows some worrisome tendencies as well, supporting the teaching of “intelligent design”– the beard for anti-evolution propaganda — in schools, for example. Overall, the prospect of 8-16 years of this kind of bias sends a chill through the science community, even after years of dealing with the Bush anti-science agenda.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, an independent watchdog group, has documented dozens of cases where the U.S. government has interfered with, undermined, or falsified science in public policy over the last seven years. It is a shocking record, revolving mainly around environmental issues but ranging from abstinence-only AIDS prevention (shown repeatedly to be ineffective) to phony information about breast cancer. Bush cut funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Center for Disease Control, among other science agencies, in his final budget. Overall, he has starved non-defense R&D at a time when China, the EU and other rivals are investing vigorously.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: AlterNet.org: Environment, John Tirman, Sep. 23, 2008 ]

Sarah Palin’s Creationism Will Rape the Environment

(AlterNet.org: Environment) - The Bush admin has been a nightmare for the environment — and the nomination of Palin is an insurance policy taken out on its continuation.

Despite the media feeding frenzy, we still may be asking ourselves, “Just who exactly is Sarah Palin?” Mixed in with the Davy-Crockett-meets-SuperMom vignettes — all those moose hunting, ice fishing, snowmobiling, baby-juggling, and hockey-momming moments — we’ve also learned that she doesn’t care much for her former brother-in-law and wasn’t afraid to use her office to go after his job as a state trooper; that she was for the “bridge to nowhere” before she was against it; that she’s against earmarks unless they benefit her constituents; that she can deliver a snappy wisecracking speech, thinks banning books in libraries is okay, considers herself a pit bull with lipstick, and above all else, wants to drill the ever-lovin’ daylights out of every corner of her home state (which John McCain’s handlers have somehow translated into being against Big Oil, since she insisted on a marginally bigger cut of the profits for Alaskans).

 

Oh, and — not that this is very important to Americans or the planet — she now thinks that global warming might possibly be human-made sorta though she didn’t before, despite the fact that the state she governs is on the frontline of climate change. And, of course, she’s a classic right-wing, fundamentalist Christian: against abortion — check; against same-sex marriage — check; against stem-cell research — check; favors teaching Creationism in public schools — check.

 

It’s that last item, her willingness to put Creationism up against the teaching of evolutionary science in the classroom on a he-says-she-says basis, that’s far more revealing of just who our new Republican vice presidential candidate is than we generally assume. It deserves the long, hard look that it hasn’t yet gotten. Most Democrats and progressives tend to think of the teaching of Creationism as a mere sidebar item on their agenda of political don’t-likes, but it’s not. Sarah Palin’s bias towards Creationism is a window into her political soul and a measure of John McCain’s hypocrisy.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: AlterNet.org: Environment, Chip Ward, Tomdispatch.com, Sep. 22, 2008 ]

A Telling Palin Scandal: Her Environmental Record

(AlterNet.org: Environment) - Sarah Palin has an environmental policy so toxic it would make George W. Bush blush.

Seen from the air, Sarah Palin’s state is an environmental wonderland. From Anchorage to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, there is a vast landscape of snow-capped peaks, fjords, crystal glaciers, coastal lagoons, wide river deltas and tundra.

The guardian of this wilderness — and Governor of Alaska — has, this week, become one of the most recognisable faces in the world. But behind her beaming smile and wholesome family values is a woman aligned with the big oil and coal firms that are racing to exploit Alaska’s vast energy reserves. In the short term, that has bought her popularity at home.

“I love the woman,” the pilot on our flight shouts over the noise of the engine, “especially what she wants to do with oil, we just have to drill more, there is no alternative. What’s the point of leaving it all in the ground?”

It is a stance that guaranteed John McCain’s new running mate a rapturous reception at the Republican convention this week where the response to the coming energy crisis was a chant of “drill, baby, drill.”

But the woman who could soon be a 72-year-old’s heartbeat away from the United States presidency has an environmental policy so toxic it would make the incumbent, George Bush, blush.

Mr McCain has stressed he is concerned about global warming and has come out against drilling in the Arctic reserve. But, in recent weeks, he has wobbled on the issue. And environmentalists are describing Mrs Palin, who denies climate change is man-made, as “either grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading.”

READ MORE HERE [ Source:  AlterNet.org: Environment,  Leonard Doyle, Independent UK, Sep. 10, 2008 ]

Weird Theology in Wasilla: A Look Inside Sarah Palin’s Pentecostal Church

(Alternet.org) - On June 8, 2008 Palin was publicly blessed, with the "laying on of hands" before six thousand Wasilla area church members, by Head Wasilla Assembly of God Pastor Ed Kalnins and on the same day both Kalnins and Palin described, at a "Masters Commission" ceremony at the Wasilla Assembly of God church, how she had been blessed prior to winning the Alaska governorship by an African cleric known for driving the "spirit of witchcraft" out of a town in Kenya, after which town supposedly crime rates dropped "almost to zero."

Sarah Palin's churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949. This is the same 'Spiritual Warfare' movement that was featured in the award winning movie, "Jesus Camp," which showed young children being trained to do battle for the Lord. At least three of four of Palin's churches are involved with major organizations and leaders of this movement, which is referred to as The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit or the New Apostolic Reformation. The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world.

Along with her entire family, Sarah Palin was re-baptized at twelve at the Wasilla Assembly of God in Wasilla, Alaska and she attended the church from the time she was ten until 2002: over two and 1/2 decades. Sarah Palin's extensive pattern of association with the Wasilla Assembly of God has continued nearly up to the day she was picked by Senator John McCain as a vice-presidential running mate.

Palin's dedication to the Wasilla church is indicated by a Saturday, September 7, 2008, McClatchy news service story detailing possibly improper use of state travel funds by Palin for a trip she made to Wasilla, Alaska to attend, on June 8, 2008, both a Wasilla Assembly of God "Masters Commission" graduation ceremony and also a multi-church Wasilla area event known as "One Lord Sunday."

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Alternet.org, Bruce Wilson, September 8, 2008 ]

Sarah Palin’s Big, Sleazy Safari

(Alternet.org) - Most people had never heard of Sarah Palin when she was named the Republican VP nominee. But I'd been hearing her name all too often, because I belong to a group called Defenders of Wildlife -- and in her time as governor of Alaska, Palin has used her position as governor of Alaska to ruin the Alaskan wilderness in every way she could.

Her most recent "victory" came on Aug. 26, when Alaska's voters defeated Measure 2, an initiative that would have banned hunting wolves from airplanes for sport.

Palin organized a campaign against Measure 2 and funded it with $400,000 of state money. For most of us, the idea of zooming around in a private airplane over snowbound wilderness just for the chance to spot a terrified wild dog and blow it apart with a high-powered rifle is insane. But there's a whole culture out there in love with the idea. Palin did her part by playing the tired old Alaskan pioneer card, saying that lower-48 naysayers who dared to object to the idea of dive-bombing wildlife didn't "understand rural Alaska."

Alaska isn't really very hard to understand. It consists of a minority that loves the wilderness and an overwhelmingly Republican majority that wants to squeeze all the cash it can get out of the state before the oil dries up, the fish die out and the wildlife disappears. Nowhere else does the Republican formula of manipulating the suckers by playing on their silly hatreds and even sillier vanities play out more clearly than in Alaska.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Alternet.org, John Dolan, September 2, 2008 ]

What is the Carbon Footprint of McCain’s Countless Homes?

(Alternet.org) - If McCain can't even keep count of the number of homes he has, you can bet he has no idea on their environmental impact.

I'd estimate it's about 150 tons of carbon dioxide, some 10 times that of the average American. But someone should ask Senator McCain. After all, he says he wants to require all Americans to cut greenhouse gas emissions 60 percent to 70 percent by 2050.

As probably the whole country knows by now, John McCain does not know how many homes he owns. But the number seems to be between seven and 12, depending on whether you count his Sedona ranch as one house or six.

Given how conservatives beat up Vice President Gore for the supposed energy excesses of his one Nashville home, I can't wait until they start running TV ads attacking McCain's climate hypocrisy. [Note to self: Don't hold your breath.] After all, McCain fashions himself as a leader on global warming, just like Gore, but his combined homes have a considerably larger square footage than Gore's -- and thus presumably a much larger energy use. That said, the energy use of McCain's homes is infinitely less relevant than their greenhouse gas emissions (see "GOP Attack on Gore Makes No Sense At All").

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Alternet.org, Joseph Romm, August 22, 2008 ]

Richard Viguerie: Bush White House Hides True Scope of Federal Deficit

22 McCain Lies About Obama More than Just “Going Negative”

(BuzzFlash.net) - The news toady seems to be concentrating on the question of whether McCain’s "going negative" could have the effect of working against him. They pundits hem and haw, discuss the pros and cons and in the end determine it might hurt him some, but not near as much as it hurts Obama. They may be right, but only because the question is framed wrong. The question they should be asking is whether "lying" is helping McCain, because, whether out of his own mouth, through messages he’s approved, or through people speaking on behalf of his campaign, the "Straight Talk Express" is lying through his teeth. Here are 22 lies about Obama...

» original news

Forgetting His Vote To Allow Waterboarding, McCain (R-Idiot) Says ‘We Could Never Torture Anyone’

(BuzzFlash.net) - In February, Sen. John McCain (R-Idiot) voted against a bill banning the CIA from waterboarding and using other torture tactics in their interrogations. When the bill passed, McCain urged Bush to veto it, which he did. In an interview with Newsweek published this week, McCain defended his position, insisting that the CIA plays “a special role” in defending the U.S. and thus should be allowed to use harsh interrogation tactics such as waterboarding, but also said "We could never torture anyone". McCain’s vote against the waterboarding ban did make one thing clear: that he condones torture.

» original news

FactCheck.Org Gets It Right: McCain’s (R-Idiot) Troop Visit Attack Ad Is False

(BuzzFlash.net) - FactCheck.org comes through with a bracing takedown of the McCain (R-Idiot) ad falsely attacking Obama over the canceled troop visit, concluding the same thing we've been yelling all day: McCain's (R-Idiot) facts are literally true, but his insinuation -- that the visit was canceled because of the press ban or the desire for gym time -- is false. In fact, Obama visited wounded troops earlier -- without cameras or press -- both in the U.S. and Iraq. And his gym workouts are a daily routine...

» original news

US politicians find ways to play on racial fears

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Republican congressional candidate in a majority-white Mississippi district runs ads trying to tie his Democratic rival with Barack Obama’s former pastor, seen by some as an anti-white firebrand. Democrats distribute fliers accusing the Republican of wanting a statue to honor the founder of the Ku Klux Klan….

READ MORE HERE [ Source: The Associated Press ]

Poll: Terrorism fears are fading

CNN) — As Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama battle over who has the best approach to national security, a new CNN poll finds Americans’ concerns about terrorism have hit an all-time low for the post-September 11 era.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CNN.com ]

Poll: Majority against free trade

(CNN) — As Sen. John McCain prepares to promote free trade during a high-profile trip to Colombia and Mexico, a poll out Tuesday suggests the issue may be a political hurdle as the general election campaign heats up.

Sen. John McCain’s free trade stance could pose a problem in November, according to a new poll.

According to the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 51 percent of Americans view foreign trade as a threat to the economy — the first time in a CNN poll that a majority of Americans report holding negative views on free trade.

That compares with only 35 percent of Americans who felt free trade posed a threat to the economy in 2000, and 48 percent who felt it was a threat in 2006.

Now, only four in 10 Americans say free trade presents an opportunity for economic growth, a sentiment that clearly makes the issue a challenge for McCain, especially in the crucial Rust Belt states most affected by the loss of manufacturing jobs over the last decade.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CNN.com ]

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Iran, Fearmongering & Election ‘08

The essential and not surprising reality of 2008: The Republicans are desperate for a national security threat to rally their base. How else to explain McCain's uber-adviser/ lobbyist/ Charlie Black's "slip" about how a terrorist attack will help his candidate's failing fortunes. Congress must reassert its role: Review the 1982 Boland Amendment. Shut down any preemptive military act --covert or overt-- without the consent of Congress. Consider that we are already bogged down in two wars, stretched thin militarily, and spending $12 billion a month in Iraq. Isn't it time to talk about relying on non-military means to resolve political problems? READ MORE HERE

“Attacking” McCain’s Military Record

"The McCain camp, sensing an opportunity, complained that Clark had 'attacked John McCain’s military service record.' Of course, Clark had done nothing of the kind. He had questioned the relevance of McCain’s combat experience as a qualification to be president of the United States. This is a distinction that you’d expect any reasonably intelligent nine-year old to be able to grasp. But many in the press have been unable to. ... Why should it be out of bounds for Democrats to argue that McCain’s particular military experience has done little to prepare him for the decisions he’ll have to make as president?"

READ MORE HERE

The Ultimate Bush Bluff / Elect McCain or We Bomb Iran

Facing a growing domestic economic disaster and a failed Iraq war and occupation, a defiant George W Bush will issue his final face saving bluff to his ignorant base ~ elect McCain or we will bomb Iran. Bush see's himself as a patriot and is not about to let the growing Obama wave dismantle his Middle East neocon castle in the sand.

READ MORE HERE

Lack of funds hobbling the ‘Republican attack machine’

As they did in 2004, the Republican groups trail the pro-Democratic groups in cash raised. Yet pro-Democratic groups also are seeing some reluctance this year to jump into the campaign, perhaps thinking they're not needed given Obama's prodigious fundraising or perhaps bowing to his preference that they send money to him instead.

READ MORE HERE

The Mendacity of Hope

For hundreds of millions of people, the slogans of the Obama campaign are not the focus-group tested products of marketing gurus and professional campaign strategists. They’re not empty words printed on cheap plastic yard signs, on banners, or on the podium from which Obama speaks.

To them, these slogans and Obama’s candidacy are what the 2008 elections are all about. Somewhere around 85 percent of the country thinks things are going in the wrong direction. It’s gotten so bad that even Black Republicans are thinking of voting for Obama.

The question is: will Obama deliver?

READ MORE HERE

Mentally Ill Republicans

It’s not difficult to make the case that conservative republicans suffer from a form of mental illness. Americans have watched them embrace family values and discover ethics, while stealing an election and contriving the circumstances for starting wars. They have worked tirelessly to undermine the American Constitution while frantically waving the flag. They firmly believe in the privatization of government and consistently ignore the inconvenient history of the American taxpayer bailout of one failed/scandalized corporation after the next. These things, by and of themselves, don’t make republicans soft in their heads, but as Einstein said of insanity, it’s “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

READ MORE HERE

McCain Campaign Continues GOP Tactic of Scaring Americans into Voting Republican

Supporters of Sen. John McCain's presidential bid hint that if we don't vote Republican, terrorists will kill innocent Americans. Not that we haven't seen similar campaign techniques elsewhere. How and why it works...

READ MORE HERE

McCain Is Way Behind Online-trails Obama in Web fundraising and vote-getting

The polls aren't the only place John McCain is trailing Barack Obama [by 12 to 15 points]. Republicans also lag Democrats when it comes to using social media, such as blogs and social networks. While the Republicans have focused on more traditional avenues, such as TV ads, to reach voters, the Democrats have aggressively used social networks and other audience-participation sites to build support among younger voters and small donors. Obama has grabbed almost 1.5 million "friends" on leading social networks Facebook and MySpace (NWS), and 850,000 on his own social network MyBarackObama.com. In a widely publicized interview with politics blog Politico, McCain revealed that he doesn't use a Mac or PC. "I am an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance that I can get," McCain said, referring to his lack of computing knowledge.

READ MORE HERE

Kucinich won’t rally for Obama until he gets answers

"Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has yet to officially endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president and indicated he will not rally his liberal supporters this fall until he knows 'what the party stands for.' ... He is not shy in criticizing his party, having consistently lambasted Democratic leaders in Congress for continuing to fund the Iraq war. More recently, he publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the compromise bill on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Kucinich refused to comment on Obama’s stance toward the FISA bill. Obama recently announced he would be supporting the measure but would try to remove its controversial provisions that offer immunity to telecommunications companies who had assisted in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program."

READ MORE HERE

Telecom Immunity Flip-Floppers Got More Telecom Money

ya really notes a nice analysis by Maplight.org indicating that those Democratic representatives who changed their vote on telecom immunity between March and June received on average 40% more in contributions from telecom interests than those Democrats who held firm. Maplight asks, "Why did these ninety-four House members have a change of heart? Their constituents deserve answers." Across both parties, representatives who voted for immunity in June had received almost twice as much telecom money as those who voted against. Wired's coverage includes a quote from Larry Lessig, who is on the Maplight board: "Money corrupts the process of reasoning. [Lawmakers] get a sixth sense of how what they do might affect how they raise money."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Supreme Court Holds Right to Bear Arms Applies to Individuals

Now.Imperfect writes "In its last day of session, the Supreme Court has definitively clarified the meaning of the Second Amendment. The confusion is whether the Second Amendment allows merely for the existence of a state militia, or the private ownership of guns. This ruling is in response to a case regarding the 32-year-old Washington DC ban on guns." This is one of the most-watched Supreme Court cases in a long time, and Wikipedia's page on the case gives a good overview; the actual text of the decision (PDF) runs to 157 pages, but the holding is summarized in the first three. There are certainly other aspects of the Second Amendment left unaddressed, however, so you can't go straight to the store for a recently made automatic rifle.

Read more of this story at Slashdot

McCain Campaign: “Another terrorist attack on the U.S. would be a ‘big advantage’ for the Republican presidential candidate”

McCain aide explains how America could benefit from a Second 9/11. a terrorist attack would benefit the McCain campaign. 

McCain disavows aide’s comment about terrorism

By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

FRESNO, Calif. - A top adviser to John McCain said another terrorist attack on U.S. soil would be a “big advantage” for the Republican presidential candidate, drawing a sharp rebuke Monday from both the presumed GOP nominee and Democrat Barack Obama.

READ MORE HERE

The Coming Catastrophe?

We are fast approaching the final six months of the Bush administration. The quagmire in Iraq is in its sixth painful year with no real end in sight and the forgotten war in Afghanistan is well into its seventh year. The “dead enders” and other armed factions are still alive and well in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan again controls most of that country. Gas prices have now reached an average of $4.00 a gallon nationally and several analysts predict the price will rise to $5.00-$6.00 dollars per gallon at the pump by Labor Day. This, despite assurances by some major supporters of the decision to invade Iraq that the Iraq war “will pay for itself” (Paul Wolfowitz) or that we will see “$20.00 per barrel” oil prices if we invade Iraq (Rupert Murdoch).

One thing the Pentagon routinely does (and does very well) is conduct war games. Top brass there are constantly developing strategies for conducting any number of theoretical missions based on real or perceived threats to our national security or vital interests. This was also done prior to the invasion of Iraq, but the Bush administration chose not to listen to the dire warnings about that mission given to him by Pentagon leaders, or for that matter, by his own senior intelligence officials. Nevertheless, war gaming is in full swing again right now with the bullseye just to the right of our current mess -Iran.

It’s no secret that the U.S. is currently putting the finishing touches on several contingency plans for attacking Iranian nuclear and military facilities. With our ground forces stretched to the breaking point in Iraq and Afghanistan, none of the most likely scenarios involve a ground invasion. Not that this administration wouldn’t prefer to march into the seat of Shiite Islam behind a solid, moving line of M1 Abrams tanks and proclaim the country for democracy. The fact is that even the President knows we can’t pull that off any more so he and the neo-cons will have to settle for Shock and Awe Lite.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: GlobalResearch.ca ]

Democrats Have Legalized Bush’s Crimes

The Democratic leadership cleared the way for the president and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.

Editor's note: You can read more about Obama backing a FISA "compromise" here.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that a key positive feature of the new wiretap "compromise" is that the bill reaffirms that the President must follow the law, even though the same bill virtually assures that no one will be held accountable for George W. Bush's violation of the earlier spying law. Share this article

In other words, in the guise of rejecting Bush's theories of an all-powerful presidency that is above the law, the Democratic leadership cleared the way for the President and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.

READ MORE HERE

McCain Backs Nuclear Power

bagsc writes "Senator John McCain set out another branch of his energy policy agenda today, with a key point: 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030." So it finally appears that this discussion is back on the table. I'm curious how Nevada feels about this, as well as the Obama campaign. All it took was $4/gallon gas I guess. When it hits $5, I figure one of the campaigns will start to promote Perpetual Motion.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Will There Be an Obama/Gore Ticket?

With Gore's hearty endorsement of Obama last night the speculation has begun.

"Take it from me: Elections matter!" Al Gore shouted to the knowing cheers of the crowd that had gathered to hear the former Vice President endorse Barack Obama. "Elections matter!"

Painting the November presidential contest between Republican John McCain and Democrat Obama as one offering a stark choice between continuation of the failed policies of the past eight years and the renewal of the promise denied when the Supreme Court intervened to make George Bush President, the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee detailed the differences that divide this year's candidates on issues of war and peace, economic justice, civil liberties and even food safety.

Recalling the tainted pet foods that entered the US because of unwise trade policies, stymied regulations and lax inspections during the Bush years, the former Vice President joked, "Even our dogs and cats have learned that elections matter."

White House Wins Ruling On E-mail Records

An anonymous reader writes "The White House Office of Administration is not required to turn over records about a trove of possibly missing e-mails, a federal judge ruled Monday. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found the agency does not have 'substantial independent authority,' so it is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Will Evangelicals Ditch the GOP over the Environment This Election?

(Alternet.org) - Video: Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals estimates that perhaps 40% of evangelicals will be “up for grabs” in November.

How solidly Republican will Christian evangelicals be in 2008? As the country enters the next phase in this historic election season, concern about the state of God’s earth may be the issue that draws many believers into the Democratic camp. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals estimates that perhaps 40% of evangelicals will be “up for grabs” in November.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Alternet.org, Tala Dowlatshahi, American News Project, June 11, 2008 ]