Gov. Palin Requested Almost $1 BILLION in Earmarks: AP - No Kidding

Folks, the lies and tall tales told by Alaska Governor and GOP VP Candidate Sarah Palin have grown bigger and bigger.  But this one's huge.  And I mean to the tune of nearly one billion dollars.

According to the Associated Press, Palin has requested $750 million in earmarks during her short terms as Alaska's Governor.  For just 670,000 people in that state, that comes to $1,119 for each Alaska Resident.

Earlier, I looked at this from a "per-day" perspective and came to the number of $853,623 per day.  But that was with just $576 million in requests.  This AP-estimate brings that number to $1,875,000 per day.

That's almost $2 million per day.

 In addition to this news, the Washington Post charges that Palin used state money simply for nights spent at home.  I suspect that money went to the care and feeding of her four kids and I don't write that to be funny at all.  The question is, is a $125,000 salary enough for a family of that size?  Remember, her husband does not work, so Palin's money is the only one coming in to the house.  

That's crazy.  The only question is will Fox News report this fact?

Sarah Palin The Anti-Christ According To Deepak Chopra

From: Deepak Chopra | In The Elephant Journal

Posted: Friday, September 5th, 2008

 Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

 She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.)

 I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.

 Look at what she stands for:

 --Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.

 --Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.

 --Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.

 --Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.

 --Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.

 --"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.

 Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

 Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

Oakland Raiders Losing To Broncos 41 to 14; Officiating Terrible

I'm watching this debacle of a Monday Night Football game, which finds the host Oakland Raiders getting hammered by the visiting Denver Broncos 41 to 14 at this point in the game with about a minute left.

But even though the Raiders are losing, I've got to complain about how the officials just let the Broncos defensive backs plain manhandle the Raiders wide receivers -- there should have been at least three pass interference calls.

Tragic.

More terrible still is the overall game plan put together by head coach Lane Kiffin and his staff.  They tried to rely on their running game almost exclusively in the first half and even then Kiffin does not seem to know that his prize running back Darren McFadden is an outside speed specialist and not Deuce McAllister of the Saints.

It seems like it's going to be a long year for the Raiders. 

Open letter to John McCain: Bureaucrats and Health Care

What would you advise, my friend? You say you’re in favor of changing everything that’s wrong in Washington, you’re trying to reclaim your old label as a maverick, and distance yourself as far as you can from Bush after voting with him about 90% of the time - but leaving health care the way it is because Obama thought up changing it first? That's toadying up to the lobbyists from big insurance companies, that's politics as usual, and believe me, maverick, our health care system ISN'T working for everybody.

Here's a story of how insurance-based health care decisions worked against a woman who suffered nerve damage during the birth of her second child. Health Partners changed her medication/treatment without consulting her records, or her doctor... no medical professionals were involved, just a clerk delivering news that her treatment was no longer eligible for coverage because nobody at Health Partners took the time to even read her diagnosis, let alone get a proper medical evaluation of her symptoms and the treatment protocol. It was medical decision making based on profit.

I could retire on the money Senator McCain is paying the lobbyists on his campaign staff. How is this change? You can't just SAY you're for change because you're scared to be aligned with the President... especially when you support nearly every initiative or policy he's undertaken. Come on, Senator, tell us please: How do you cave on torture? How do you argue we should throw the bums out when you're one of the most senior legislators? How can you tell voters that Obama's wrong to try to improve health care and look yourself in the mirror?

While I'm at it: How can you pretend Palin's against earmarks?

Seriously, my friend: WTF?

read more | digg story

Maverick my ass

Once I learned just how much pork Sarah Palin got via earmarks I could barely believe the commerical media were glossing over it. But for McCain to try to reclaim the maverick personna after how he toadied up to Bush since 2000, and trying to paint his ticket as conservatives that can bring change? That's the epitome of unbelievable Rovian tactics.

We may not know much about Palin yet, but we do know votes for John McCain are votes for more of the same.

Black Voter Registration Purged by Florida Republicans

While the media focuses on the antics of McCain's chosen VP battleground states are purging their voter rolls.In Colorado, one fifth of all voter registrations were dropped. Florida is refusing to accept 85,000 new registrants -- overwhelmingly blacks. Ohio & Nevada are scrubbing tens of 1000s of voters who lost their homes.

read more | digg story

Headline News Robin Meade Used My Jesse Jackson Interview

I happened upon this cached page of the August 30th 2008 presentation of CNN Headline News Anchor Robin Meade's coverage of the DNC Convention, which featured my Jesse Jackson Interview.

Thanks Robin!

I also happened on CNN's presentation of my "Clinton argument" video, which is here, too.