I’m Loving the Contradictions I’ve Been Reading All Night

Sarah Palin is pretty universally tut tutted by Democrats for:

…Palin’s on the ticket because she’s a woman and she isn’t afraid to engage in the Republicans’ mean-spirited personal attacks.

Is it me or did Sarah Palin come off as a mean spirited bitch during her speech?

Just a few hours ago, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin delivered a mean-spirited speech …

Oh, my GOD, she was mean, MEAN, MEAN!
On and on and on. One woman’s softly chiding voice results in a sea of hurt feelings, leaving one to ask where were these gentle souls over the weekend while she was being viciously savaged by…well…none other than these very same gentle souls?
How DO they wrap their little pinheads around all those mutually exclusive outrages?

And Speaking Of Biden

Here’s a story that I hope gets more play

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.

This is their Party-Centric, frankly Stalinistic tendencies coming to the fore: If you differ from their line, you’re a criminal.
Show trials! Purges!
That’s their Hope! and Change! for you.

The Speeches

Well, my Bride and I stayed up last night to watch the speeches. I thought Romney was awful, just awful.
Huckabee was quite good.
Rudy was hot-and-cold, and went on a tad too long.
Palin was fantastic.

The Unhappiest Guy In The Union This Morning

Has got to be Joe Biden.
She will eat him alive and set off his pompous temper.

So…I Think She Did Real Well

Not bad for a rube from bumf*ck Wasilly, Alaska, huh?
I LOVE the smell of fear in the morning…

East Bound and Down

Loaded up for bear and truckin’, I hope.

“I’m Not? You Mean I’m Gonna STAY This Color?”

“Navin, I’d love you if you were the color of a baboon’s ass.”

MUST See TeeVee.

Much As I Despise Boeing

…I’m not sure (were I a machinist) what part of this I would have turned down…

…In a high-stakes struggle between the Chicago-based aerospace giant and the Machinists union, Boeing’s three-year “best and final” offer included $5,000 in signing bonuses, raises averaging 11 percent, pension increases and a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment — $34,000 in average pay and benefit gains per employee, according to the company

.
…considering the current climate.

Gary Oden has known for weeks that the plant where he has spent the last 19 years helping build Vise-Grips, one of Nebraska’s most famous products, would be shutting down.
But he still wasn’t completely prepared for the meeting at 5:30 Wednesday morning.
He and other employees were officially told the bad news, the kind that has stung workers in upper Midwestern states for years but is relatively uncommon in Nebraska:

The DeWitt plant is shutting down so operations can be moved to China.

The only reason Boeing has 8 years worth of backlogged orders is because Airbus couldn’t deliver planes anywhere near on time and Boeing promised to take up the slack. And IF the machinists vote to strike and Boeing holds the bidding process hostage to boot, that helps the Air Force get a new tanker how?

I’ve Always Wondered About the Poor Pizza Guy

And why he was killed in such a horrific manner. This doesn’t really answer anything.

From the Google Cache

My girl knows how to work the aisle.

Although she has been in office less than a year, Palin, too, earns high marks from lawmakers on the other side of the aisle. During a debate earlier this year over a natural-gas bill, State Senate Minority Leader Beth Kerttula was astounded when she and another Democrat went to see the new governor to lay out their objections. “Not only did we get right in to see her,” says Kerttula, “but she asked us back twice—we saw her three times in 10 hours, until we came up with a solution.” Next week in Juneau, Alaska lawmakers will meet to overhaul the state’s system for taxing oil companies—a task Palin says was tainted last year by an oil-industry lobbyist who pleaded guilty to bribing lawmakers. Kerttula doesn’t expect to agree with the freshman governor on every step of the complex undertaking. But the minority leader looks forward to exploiting one backroom advantage she’s long waited for. “I finally get to go to the restroom and talk business with the governor,” she says. “The guys have been doing this for centuries.” And who says that’s not progress?

Newsweek has to be gnashing their teeth. Not to worry. Chummy as Beth Kerttula was then, she’s all Democrat now!

State leaders question Palin’s qualifications
Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has less than two years of experience as governor, leading Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, to questions whether that’s enough to qualify Palin to be the second highest official in the nation.
“I’ve worked real well with the governor, but she’s not ready for this step,” Kerttula said.
“She’s not ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency,” said Kerttula, who serves as Democratic leader in the House of Representatives.

Awkward, isn’t it?
How delicious.

Palin Sure Is Catching Flak

…for doing things she had the right to do. Even when it’s ANCIENT history.

…After taking over as Mayor of the small town of Wasilla, Palin fired the longtime local police chief. The former police chief, Irl Stambaugh says he was fired because he stepped on the toes of Palin’s campaign contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association.
Stambaugh’s lawyer, William Jermain, says the chief tried to move up the closing hours of local bars from 5 a.m. to two a.m. after a spurt of drunk driving accidents and arrests.
“His crackdown on that practice by the bars was not appreciated by her and that was one reason she terminated Irl,” said Jermain.

SHUT down the bars early?!?! In the middle of freakin’ nowhere?
I’d jettison his ass, too.
So, anyway, he sues her for dumping him…in 1997. And wuh happened then…?

A federal judge later ruled the mayor, under city law, had the right to fire the police chief for any reason she wanted.

Just like the current brouhaha about the psychopathic trooper.
Keep workin’ it, boys.

Sarah Palin’s New Ad

Oh, To Be Young Again!

And have someone else paying the bills for the roadtrip, yo.

Young Republican Road Trip
…”People don’t realize the Republican Party is very appealing to young people,” says Donnelly. “The Republican Party is not just one demographic, it’s not old white men.”

When I was their age, the GOP WAS old white men who truly could give a rat’s ass about the ‘young’ party members, and they sure weren’t gonna fund an outreach trip for me. (Which, after decades of reflection, was probably a good thing. It would have been more of a Hunter Thompson than Liddy Dole trip.) But had they opened their campaign funds and broken out a shiny, new BancAmericard for my petrol and motor-inn bed, I am QUITE sure that I wouldn’t have found the opposition in the cities of my sojourn to be so…nasty. People had manners and seem to be sorely lacking them now.

…Privileged White Suburbanites?

The trio stopped briefly in Denver to try to woo swing voters. Most Denver Democrats were friendly, they said, though they did field a few insults for supporting McCain. Predictably, there were harsher words from commenters to the Web site, including some who couldn’t understand why young people would vote Republican. At the Democratic convention, one attendee accused the group of being privileged white suburban kids who were too racist to vote for a minority.
Harrell, who is Hispanic, felt personally offended.

Perhaps they just feel they’re entitled to say so, in as sneering and demeaning a tone as possible. Here’s more on that confrontation via the road tripper’s website:

…There was a group of about 30 McCain volunteers (including myself) walking throughout the city to show that there was a conservative presence here in Denver. We stopped at a corner to rest for a few minutes when two men approached us. They said that they didn’t want any trouble; they just wanted to ask us why we supported John McCain? A few of us expressed our views and ultimately the two men accused us of not supporting Senator Obama because he was black (despite explaining multiple of his policies we vastly disagreed with). We asserted that race was certainly not the reason we supported John McCain, and subsequently were mobbed by about 10 people around us screaming how we didn’t know any minorities, were racist etc…
Generally, I would let these kind of comments go, but I have really had it up with being accused of being racist, so I responded “Hi, my name is Jeremy, I am Hispanic, my mother and grandparents immigrated to the United States from Argentina. “ One of the CRNC field reps, Brandon, also stepped forward and told the group that he too was Hispanic, Puerto Rican. We were then pushed and yelled at, told that Hispanic is not a real minority, and that we were sellouts who made over $100,000.

What IS it with these Lefties and them agressively putting their hands on people? (I subscribe to the Francis* theory of space violation.) And funny how they can shove at everyone! The rich [supposedly these kids], the rubes [Gov. Palin] and judge the not-quite-authentic claims of minority entitlement…

…For a moment, the Ethiopian-born activist seemed to melt into the crowd, blending into the sea of black professors, health experts and community leaders considering how to educate blacks about the dangers of prostate cancer. But when he piped up to suggest focusing some attention on African immigrants, the dividing lines were promptly and pointedly drawn.
The focus of the campaign, the activist, Abdulaziz Kamus, was told, would be strictly on African-Americans.
”I said, ‘But I am African and I am an American citizen; am I not African-American?”’ said Mr. Kamus, who is an advocate for African immigrants here, recalling his sense of bewilderment.

”They said ‘No, no, no, not you.”

‘

…up to, and including…

“Black, in our political and social vocabulary, means those descended from West African slaves,”

…questions about their own Chosen One!

Is Obama Black Enough?

Now THAT’S the party of inclusiveness.

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Schmaybe There’s a Reason?

Obama’s Years at Columbia Are a Mystery
He Graduated Without Honors
Senator Obama’s life story, from his humble roots, to his rise to Harvard Law School, to his passion as a community organizer in Chicago, has been at the center of his presidential campaign. But one chapter of the tale remains a blank — his education at Columbia College, a place he rarely speaks about and where few people seem to remember him.

I read this yesterday and thought, “How weird“. Like Davids Brooks’ sardonic comment about the MSM being so far up the Palin’s orifices, they know and could report recycling violations, WHY doesn’t anyone know what NObama did at university? I mean, his “rising star” aura relies on luminous accomplishments at every level, right? That his college record should be a cypher seems strange…uncharacteristic… as if he were a wraith floating the halls vice a mesmerizing, anointed presence lighting them up.
Odd.
Last night, Fred Thompson’s folksy “bucket” analogy( in reference to NObama’s tax intentions) deftly illuminated the “Chosen One’s” general penchant for a socialist track. A big-government-in-your-bedroom ideology, where what you own is yours only until the greater good ~ as determined by him ~ demands that you give it up, or they skip that part and just take it. I wonder where he learned that…?

Columbia University
Has No Right to My Land
Columbia University, a private institution, officially announced its desire for a new campus five years ago. The university zeroed in on the Manhattanville area of Harlem — between 125th and 134th Streets, and between Broadway and the Hudson River. Since that time, while wielding the sledgehammer of the possible use of eminent domain, Columbia has purchased roughly 80% of Manhattanville.
…Earlier this summer the state released its study, which concluded that Manhattanville is indeed “blighted.” This gives the state the legal green light to condemn my four buildings and hand them over to the university.
The study’s conclusion was unsurprising. Since the commencement of acquisitions in Manhattanville by Columbia, the school has made a solid effort to create the appearance of “blight.” Once active buildings became vacant as Columbia either refused to renew leases, pressured small businesses to vacate, or made unreasonable demands that resulted in the businesses moving elsewhere. Columbia also let their holdings decay and left code violations unaddressed.
Only a few years ago, this area was undergoing a resurgence. Virtually all property was occupied, many by long-standing family operations such as my own. Now most of those businesses are gone — forced out by the university.
…There is also a conflict of interest in the condemnation process. The firm the state hired to perform the “impartial” blight study — the planning, engineering and environmental consultant Allee King Rosen & Fleming, Inc. (AKRF) — had been retained by Columbia two years earlier to advocate for governmental approval of the university’s expansion, including the possible use of eminent domain.

OMG!!! Quote of the Day

From a commenter on Megan McArdle’s site:

This is news because no one was allowed to print speculation on the contraception John Edwards used or failed to use.

BHUWAHwahahaha! Someone should work THAT talking point when the press comes a’ callin’.

Brilliant.

::sniff::

It can’t have been much of a party if we weren’t invited.

Great Line From David Brooks Just Now

“Her unmarried daughter is pregnant, her husband has a 22 year old DUI and they once put a tin can in the plastic recycling…”

Hahahaha.

Gwen Ifill Gets Schooled

…in the gold double-standard.

…GWEN IFILL: And there’s also a big difference between running a state or running as long as she has run a state and running for one of the biggest jobs in the country. What advice do you give her on how to balance this? She’s got five kids. She’s got one…
REP. HEATHER WILSON: You know something? Let me say something about that. That bothers me. No one ever asked John Kennedy whether he could be president and be a dad. Nobody asks Senator Obama whether he could be president and be a dad.
But because Governor Palin is a woman, they’re asking whether she can be vice president and a mom.
GWEN IFILL: But she describes herself…
REP. HEATHER WILSON: It’s time to end the double standard.
GWEN IFILL: I understand what you’re saying. She described herself as a hockey mom. That was her self-description.
REP. HEATHER WILSON: And one of the greatest things about Senator Obama is that he talks about the importance of being a father and a parent, but nobody asks whether he can do both at the same time. We need to end the double standard.

Rep.’s Wilson and Fallin did our sisterhood proud.

Damn

Singer-actor Jerry Reed dies at age 71
Country star gained widespread fame for ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ role

I always thought he was great.
In honor of Jerry, Gustav and Cajuns in general, one of my favorite songs concerning what happened about forty-five minutes south of Thibodeaux, Lousiana (aka: “Tippee Toe, Looosiana”)...The “City of New Orleans”.

Changed my mind. “Tippee Toe” in the extended section.

Read more »

How Vile

It’s really been amazing these past few days watching how deep in to the gutter some of the left blogs have gone; it shows just how deeply they fear Palin’s candidacy, it seems to me. Or that they are just really hateful, bitter people. Maybe both.
I mean, look how viciously they have attacked her 17 year old daughter, for god’s sake. Disgusting. Althouse has a good word for it: “Palinsanity.” Tim shows Sullivan is afflicted as are many others.
I can’t see how they expect this sort of spittle-laced misogyny will actually help Obama.

Howdy Hanna

We haven’t had a coast scooter in a while.
I haven’t minded.

We’re In One Piece, Thank You All

..for your good wishes! HUGELY appreciated, always.
Yippee!! Only a couple power burps in the latter part of the morning. And kudos to Gulf Power for that because along around 3 this morning, we starting rockin’ and rollin, with sustained winds up over 50 mph and 70+mph gusts. Bucketloads of water, but it was the emergency radio warbling about tornadoes all night that did us in. We. Are. Zombies.
Sir Rob of Crab Lane, Appleton survived in fine shape, thank goodness, and is already photo blogging. I’ll never forgive him for the cardinals. I’m sure we had our birdseed out before him and all we managed was a half-drowned field rat.
That’s just wrong

This One Line Should Terify EVERY American

…At least 12.5 percent of total U.S. refining capacity was shut down and other plants cut rates, while over 96 percent of U.S. Gulf oil production and 82 percent of natural gas production was offline.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only U.S. port capable of offloading the biggest oil tankers, halted all operations.

ONLY U.S. port?
How do you spell “vuLnerable”?