The GOP Meltdown Continues

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The GOP Meltdown Continues

It seems everybody is jumping aboard the Obama express. The latest: Ken Duberstein, Ronald Reagan's former chief of staff, offered his endorsement this morning.

After endorsing Obama, Duberstein appeared on MSNBC, where he launched into a full-fledged assault on John McCain's judgment for selecting Sarah Palin. It was a sight to behold, not just for the denunciation of John McCain, but also for the sheer joy of watching the collapse of the GOP coalition before our very eyes:

[YouTube Video]

Ginny

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Photography in the Winter Season

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Photography in the Winter Season

This post on Winter Photography has been submitted by Andre Gunther. Find more articles and photographs on Andre's Website or tweet him.

Learn why winter is the best season for photography!

As the days get shorter, we like to curl up and enjoy the comforts of home. We contemplate, consummate and commemorate.

However, now is the best time to get out and create. Winter presents some unique shooting opportunities and qualities for photographers like no other season can.

Quality of Winter Light

The angle of the sun on the horizon is smaller during wintertime, creating numerous pleasing effects for photographers, such as a prolonged period of the magic hour.

We refer to the magic hour as the time around sunrise or sunset, when most of the light is reflected and the direct light of the sun passes through a lot more atmosphere, thus filtering out the harsh neutral or blue cast.

Throughout the entire day, the sun will never reach a high zenith, always illuminating our subjects at a much more pleasing angle. Summer sun often causes extreme shadows and contrast and the lighting shifts more towards blue tones.

Due to the low angle of the sun, textures will look three-dimensional and become alive and shadows will be long and deep. We can use shadows to support our main subject, to hint at the presence of a subject by only showing its shadow or to create a sense of scale by comparing shadows. Shadows are copies of our subjects with different qualities that can greatly enhance our composition.

Weather

I live in California and most of the summer all I get is a flat blue sky. Come winter, things change. Suddenly the sky gets interesting. Finally, the setting sun has the reflector it needs to create sunsets we only see get during the winter months. The clouds reflect the sunlight and because it now travels thousands of miles through the atmosphere, its deep red light will illuminate the clouds and the landscape creating unique "scapes" that only photographers know exist and many attribute to the wonders of digital image manipulation.

Winter has many other beneficial weather patterns to offer. Nothing is as exciting as photographing a virgin snowscape in the first light of the day. When a white veil of beauty covers all the unsightly spots and the frost glistens from the trees reflecting the first rays, you know that only winter can provide such beauty.

Ginny

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Tim O'Reilly's endorsement of Barack Obama

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Tim O'Reilly's endorsement of Barack Obama

...is one of the more extensive and thoughtful analyses of what this presidential candidate's policies mean for those of us who make our living in technology. Snip from the introduction:

[W]e need a president who can harness the best and brightest our country has to offer, a president who is conversant with, and comfortable with, the power of technology to assist in solving these problems, a president who is good at listening, studying, and devising solutions based on the best insight available, rather than on narrow ideology. We need a president who can forge consensus, not just among the partisans in our own fractured democracy but around the world. We need a president who can inspire our citizens and our global partners to forgo narrow self interest and embrace the possibilities that we can achieve if we work together to build a better future.

I believe Barack Obama is that president. He is a man of intelligence, but also a man whose character and temperament seem suited to the problems of our age: unflappable, optimistic even in the face of adversity, willing to speak the truth about subjects that have long been taboo (I'm thinking of his speech on race, and his speech on fatherhood) and with unscripted reactions that show his fundamental decency (I'm thinking of his reaction to those who wanted to make a campaign issue of Sarah Palin's daughter's unplanned pregnancy.)

Because this is a tech blog, not a political blog, though, I primarily want to address the subject of why members of the technical community should join me in supporting Barack Obama. (The New York Times has made a compelling case based on the broader issues, as has Colin Powell.) I outline four principal reasons:

1. Connected, Transparent Government

2. The Financial Crisis

3.

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Urgent Alert: Melamine Tainted Chocolate From China Still on Shelves

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Urgent Alert: Melamine Tainted Chocolate From China Still on Shelves

Breaking Now! Reuters 3 hours ago!

h/t Brasschck TV

You have probably heard of the deliberate adulteration of infant formula with melamine in China. See CNN

It killed and injured thousands of children there.

What you don't know - because the FDA and others don't want you to know - is that as much as 20 million TONS of Chinese manufactured milk powder and products containing milk powder were imported into the US from China this year.

Now please read the next part very carefully:

The US…is the ONLY country…including China…that has NOT pulled food products containing milk powder manufactured in China off its shelves.

[YouTube Video]

See it on YouTube.

The person blowing the whistle on this is an expert in toy manufacturing who stumbled on this while researching this season's Halloween candy offerings.

He has found candy manufactured in China with milk powder widely being sold in US stores.

Obviously, I have not had time to check all the facts, but knowing the parties involved - China, the FDA, the Bush administration, and corporate America - I have no doubt that this is not only highly plausible, it's highly likely.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/460.html

- Brasscheck

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The Political Scene: The Insiders: Reporting

How Palin was chosen: a fanboy blogger who's a "former" Evangelical,
now worshiping in a "Messianic Jewish" synagogue touted her because
she was the only prominent Republican female who was also hot, a babe,
a honey.

Oh, and lunch with some guys on a pundit cruise, who also thought she
was hot, a babe, and a honey.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/27/081027fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all

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YODA GRAMMAR « Pundit Kitchen: Lol News and Lol Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden and more

http://punditkitchen.com/2008/10/14/political-pictures-barack-obama-yoda-grammar-doing-right/

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They’re Pinky and the Brain… « Pundit Kitchen: Lol News and Lol Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden and more

http://punditkitchen.com/2008/10/21/political-pictures-barack-obama-john-mccain-pinky-and-the-brain-genius-insane-copy/

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Palin: throwing Bush under the Straight Talk Express

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27364991/

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Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks: Relationship Politics: Body Language Of The McCain Marriage

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Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks: Relationship Politics: Body Language Of The McCain Marriage

A Cautionary Tale For Conscious Couples, A Learning Opportunity For Us All

Ever since we wrote our piece on the Obama marriage, people have been asking us to discuss the marriage of John and Cindy McCain. We found ourselves hesitating, because while their marriage has elements that could teach valuable lessons to us all, it is also a marriage between a recovering drug addict and a deeply traumatized veteran. Such a relationship is difficult to comment on. Even the most straightforward, non-judgmental comment could be perceived by some people as critical of two sub-groups considered off-limits from close observation. Doing some background research changed our mind, however, because Mrs. McCain has discussed her drug addiction in considerable detail out in public. In addition, John McCain claims to have no emotional residue from his time as a prisoner of war, and he also claims to have been unaware of his wife's drug addiction. We don't know whether these claims are an epic act of denial or just another whopper lie from a politician. Either way, they wave a red flag at all of us who hope to enjoy conscious loving in our relationships at home and authentic communication from our political leaders.



The Hug Moment: Body-Talk Of A Devitalized Relationship

After the last presidential debate we had many requests to give our interpretation of the awkward "hug moment" at the end. From a body language perspective, the moment revealed a great deal about the McCain marriage. If you have time, go back and look frame-by-frame at the end of the debate, when the presidential candidates hugged their spouses. Here is a sequence of still shots that capture to a degree some of the points we want to discuss.

Take note of the perfunctory hug, stiffness and lack of contact between the McCains, and compare those bits of body-talk with the way Michelle and Barack Obama greeted each other with smiles and a long hug. They were still hugging when John McCain tried awkwardly to connect with Mrs. Obama. The McCain hug looked as stiff as a puppet show, while the Obama hug looked as natural and graceful as a ballet.

A Heroic Lack Of Awareness

John McCain has managed to keep his mental health records concealed, so it's not possible to know whether he is telling the truth about having no mental or emotional scars from his time behind bars. As always, though, his body-talk tells the real story. The array of body language we've commented on in other posts is a sad tale of poorly concealed anger and deeply hidden fear.

John McCain claims not to have known of his wife's drug addiction, even at a time when she was supporting her habit by stealing drugs from a charity organization. If that...

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John Dinges: McCain's Private Visit With Chilean Dictator Pinochet Revealed For First Time

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John Dinges: McCain's Private Visit With Chilean Dictator Pinochet Revealed For First Time

John McCain, who has harshly criticized the idea of sitting down with dictators without pre-conditions, appears to have done just that. In 1985, McCain traveled to Chile for a friendly meeting with Chile's military ruler, General Augusto Pinochet, one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights credited with killing more than 3,000 civilians and jailing tens of thousands of others.

The private meeting between McCain and dictator Pinochet has gone previously un-reported anywhere.

According to a declassified U.S. Embassy cable about the meeting secured by The Huffington Post, McCain described the meeting with Pinochet "as friendly and at times warm, but noted that Pinochet does seem obsessed with the threat of communism." McCain, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the time, made no public or private statements critical of the dictatorship, nor did he meet with members of the democratic opposition, as far as could be determined from a thorough check of U.S. and Chilean newspaper records and interviews with top opposition leaders.

At the time of the meeting, in the late afternoon of December 30, the U.S. Justice Department was seeking the extradition of two close Pinochet associates for an act of terrorism in Washington DC, the 1976 assassination of former ambassador to the US and former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier. The car bombing on Sheridan Circle in the U.S. capital was widely described at the time as the most egregious act of international terrorism perpetrated on U.S. soil by a foreign power.

At the time of McCain's meeting with Pinochet, Chile's democratic opposition was desperately seeking support from democratic leaders around the world in an attempt to pressure Pinochet to allow a return to democracy and force a peaceful end to the dictatorship, already in its 12th year. Other U.S. congressional leaders who visited Chile made public statements against the dictatorship and in support of a return to democracy, at times becoming the target of violent pro-Pinochet demonstrations.

Senator Edward Kennedy arrived only 12 days after McCain in a highly public show of support for democracy. Demonstrators pelted his entourage with eggs and blocked the road from the airport, so that the Senator had to be transported by helicopter to the city, where he met with Catholic church and human rights leaders and large groups of opposition activists.

Mark Schneider, a foreign policy aide and former State Department human rights official who organized Kennedy's trip, said he had no idea McCain had been there only days before. "It would be very surprising and disappointing if Senator McCain went to Chile to meet with a dictator and did not forcefully demand a return to democracy and then to publicly call for a return...

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Palin: 'If people only knew how frugal we are'

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Palin: 'If people only knew how frugal we are'

The Tribune's Jill Zuckman talks with the GOP vice presidential nominee about the $150,000 wardrobe flap and Friday's speech on special-needs kids.

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HOWTO win the nerd vote

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HOWTO win the nerd vote

Matt "Metafilter" Haughey's laid out a 10-point plan for winning the nerd vote that I heartily endorse -- this is a platform I'd stand up and salute if any politician had the guts to endorse it. The points are: Broadband everywhere, universal healthcare, no federal tax on Internet purchases, renewed commitment to education, renewed commitment to science, real changes to transportation, early voting by mail, revamping copyright, a better job from the patent office, and open government.

1. Broadband Everywhere. I want crazy South Korea/Japan style broadband I've heard about for years: 100Mbps (upload and download) fiber connections for less than $50/month with unlimited bandwidth and the ability to run your own servers. I know the US is a big spread out country and it makes this stuff somewhat difficult/costly, but it's an ambitious goal with a ton of payoff. We don't have manufacturing jobs in the US anymore: we don't make things, we don't build things, we don't sew things here, but we do have lots of ideas and inventions.

The economy of the future in the US is going to be intertwined with the internet and if every man, woman, and child in America has all the internet access they could ever need and could quickly program, build, and deploy their own stuff on their own mega-fast lines, we'd have a million and one programmers and designers and crafters and more contributing to a new vibrant future economy. If fiber everywhere is too much, at least get 3G coverage in more places.

How to get my nerd vote

Ginny

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Deep Thought: Because I am an AMERICAN

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Deep Thought: Rightist rhetoric makes a disturbing turn into their conscious thinking.

It's a funny way that those on the right define 'American.'

Last week, Sarah Palin made the comment that she thinks that some parts of the country are 'more American' than others. The exact quote, made in North Carolina last week is that she praised areas where she was as the, "pro-America areas of this great nation"

That sentiment is not confined to Palin however.

On MSNBC's hardball, Chris Matthews asked Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann about Palin's comments and about Senator Obama in particular. Not only did Bachmann agree and say that Obama may have 'anti-American views,' but she went farther, calling on the media to look at members of Congress to "find out, are they pro-America or anti-America."

Then Republican congressman Robin Hayes of North Carolina last week said that liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God. Hayes originally denied saying that until he was confronted by an audiotape of the speech.

It's even gone to the state level. McCain advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer said that Northern Virginia is 'not the real Virginia.' She said that "I can tell you that the Democrats have just come in from the District of Columbia and moved into northern Virginia....But the rest of the state, 'real Virginia,' if you will, I think will be very responsive to Senator McCain's message "

This view shows the elitism of the right. After years of listening to cranks on the radio scream that anyone who disagrees with their narrow view of America is actually anti-American and trying to destroy, not change, America-- this view has permeated the minds of otherwise rational people. They actually believe (or why would this attitude come out four times within a week) that liberals or anyone else who has a view of America that doesn't agree with their doctrinaire conservative view is actually anti-American, or at least not sufficiently pro-American.

To some degree this is nothing new. The GOP has regularly been questioning the patriotism of people who don't happen to agree with their plans for the country since at least the days of McCarthy and Nixon. But the offhanded and casual ways in which these comments have rolled off the tongue recently makes me think that this whole way of thinking (i.e., 'traitor out to destroy the country' replacing 'American with whom I have a disagreement') has reached the point of being taken for granted by people in positions of responsibility on the right, that they sound like Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage without even thinking about it.

Well, I have to tell you something, jerkfusses on the right.

Because I'm an AMERICAN, I want to see people in AMERICA be able to go to a doctor without being afraid of going broke if they get sick.

Ginny

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Senator Risch, R-ID, mean to high school kid

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Senate Race Roundup

AK-Sen: US v. Stevens went to jury today. A decision is expected tomorrow. The New York Times rounds up the trial:

As the fate of Sen. Ted Stevens is placed in the hands of a jury today, the government's once-powerful corruption case against the long-serving Republican suddenly looks too close to call.

Because of a finding of prosecutorial misconduct by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, one of the signature allegations in the indictment -- that Stevens got a sweetheart car deal from an Alaskan oil tycoon -- will not be considered by the jury.

Too close to call, like the race itself. If Stevens is acquitted, he will likely win reelection, although that is not guaranteed. If convicted, he will lose.

KY-Sen: With the race apparently tied, the DSCC has a stinging new ad against Mitch McConnell:

[YouTube Video]

NH-Sen: The New York Times thinks John Sununu is in deep trouble:

If there was a swing state in America where a ticket headed by Mr. McCain was supposed to have long coattails it was New Hampshire, where he defied the odds to win presidential primaries in 2000 and 2008. But with Mr. McCain skidding in the polls amid a rising tide of Democrats here, Mr. Sununu, who is battling to keep his job in one of this year's most bitterly contested Senate races, is hardly hitching a ride to easy re-election.

Instead, Mr. Sununu finds himself in a jam, forced to engage in raw politicking to help prop up the Republican ticket and energize the party's apathetic base. But even as he is scheduled to appear at a rally with Mr. McCain on Wednesday in Goffstown, he also desperately needs to appeal to independents and Democrats at a time when persuading supporters of Mr. Obama to split the ticket may be his only hope of winning his own race.

Mr. Sununu is in a grueling rematch against former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in a state that is emblematic of a national climate in which Republicans are in danger of ceding Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate majority for the first time in 30 years.

ID-Sen: Man, Republican Jim Risch is a horrible person.

At a senior American government class at Capital High School on Oct. 15, he paced across the front of the classroom. He s...

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Famous people try to get clean in 'Celebrity Rehab 2'

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Famous people try to get clean in 'Celebrity Rehab 2'

It's hard to watch "Celebrity Rehab" (9 p.m. Thursday, VH1) without feeling a little guilty.

Sure, this show, which follows famous folks who try to kick devastating addictions, has a much nobler mission than most of MTV and VH1's programming, much of which depends on deluded if not inebriated participants.

But there's a slightly icky element of voyeurism that accompanies watching "Celebrity Rehab"; it's as if you're witnessing a slow-motion car crash from the comfort of your couch, week after week. However responsible these people are for their own problems—and most of them had fame or money or both—that doesn't really mitigate the pain on display.

Yet that is the point, I guess. Haven't we all, at some point, wanted to believe that the lives of the rich and famous aren't all they're cracked up to be? Well, this show offers proof.

• VH1 TV Shows
• Music Videos
• Celebrity Photos
• News & Gossip

This season, the addictions appear to be more hard-core than they were in Season 1. Model Amber Smith arrives unable to function without a bewildering array of pills. Steven Adler, the original Guns N' Roses drummer, says he once tried to kill himself by washing multiple Valium pills down with a bottle of Jagermeister—and all he got was a good night's rest.

Actor Jeff Conaway and his scary Goth girlfriend, Vicki, both of whom were featured heavily in Season 1, are back for another go-rou...

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Dot Earth: Segway Inventor Turns Focuses on Poor

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Dot Earth: Segway Inventor Turns Focuses on Poor

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, turns his attention to decontaminating water and other challenges in poor places.

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Untitled

http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R

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Training for zero-gravity adventure

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Training for zero-gravity adventure

For some 60 school teachers, and a gaggle of media types, Tuesday ended up being a total zero. Oh, we got plenty of work done. It's just we "zeronauts" did it at zero G force, looping over Lake Superior in a special jet that created a gravity-free-like environment. Organizers of the trip promised a "Zen like experience.'' Ohm. My. God. They were right.

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Snap!

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Snap!

"7 Spectacularly Skilled High-Speed Photographers". (Via DRB.)

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Inspectors track Legionnaires' disease outbreak

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Inspectors track Legionnaires' disease outbreak

The Cook County and state health departments continue to investigate how five people from Tinley Park and one Orland Park resident caught Legionnaires' disease.

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FranIam: **Updated** Blogfriend Down - Take Back the Night... Take Back the Day... Take Back the Country Edition

http://festinalente-franiam.blogspot.com/2008/10/blogfriend-down-take-back-night-take.html

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Service: Online Only: The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/09/29/slideshow_080929_platon?slide=16#showHeader

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Michelle Bachmann gives voice to the right's darkest impulses | Crooks and Liars

http://tinyurl.com/6fwt3x

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VoteForJudges.org: study before voting

http://www.voteforjudges.org/

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TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Obama Speech: There's One Word On Everyone's Mind, And It's Spelled J-O-B-S

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com%2F2008%2F10%2Fobama_speech_theres_one_word_o.php

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TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Obama Speech: There's One Word On Everyone's Mind, And It's Spelled J-O-B-S

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com%2F2008%2F10%2Fobama_speech_theres_one_word_o.php

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Consumer Reports Home Blog

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/flooring_countertops_surfaces/

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26096. Help with bamboo floors with aluminum oxide urethane finish [Maryland]

http://www.finishing.com/260/96.shtml

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Window sign!

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This one is voting for "That One"

More fun graphics.  Here's the full sized PNG.  Here's a PDF with two on an 8.5" x 11".  Perfect for taping to the inside of a window.  Enjoy!

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For Laters: watch this!

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Hard questions for Palin on billboard opposite LA rally site

Live video chat by Ustream


This giant billboard, posing hard questions for Sarah Palin, was lit up across the road from her LA rally site on Saturday: you could send your own Palin questions to it via SMS. Nice technology use from the California Dems.

Your Questions for Palin

(Thanks, Bill!)

Ginny

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Maverick IS her name

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Charles Karel Bouley: McCain/Palin No Mavericks, Say Real Mavericks

"I'm Fontaine Maverick, And John McCain, You Are No Maverick..."

John McCain I know a Maverick, and you, sir, are no Maverick. Truly. I now know Fontaine Maverick, great-great-grand daughter of Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-1870), and it was he and his sons for which the word was coined. And as she told me in my interview with her Monday night, October 6, 2008 on KGO AM 810, "I'm Fontaine Maverick, and John McCain, you sir are no Maverick."

Samuel Maverick was a Texas cattleman, land baron and politician, so influential that he was one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Fiercely independent and equally liberal. Sam became well known for what he didn't do, however. It seems, according to Fontaine, that he had taken some cattle in lieu of a debt he was owed. He let them roam on an island off of Texas, and for whatever reason, didn't brand them. So, any unbranded cattle became known as Maverick's. Now, this more than likely wasn't an act of revolt. No one knows for sure, but Maverick really wasn't much of a cattleman. He was also shrewd, later on in life if cattle weren't branded, he would often claim them.

Sam was also very spirited and free minded. It was because of this that in 1867 the term Maverick was first cited as being used to describe someone with an independent streak, someone not branded.

Sam was very prolific, and his grandson Fontaine Maury Maverick (1895-1954), Fontaine Maverick's grand father, followed in the spirit of his grandfather. Not satisfied with the family putting one word in the American lexicon, Maury is credited with creating the word "gobblygook." He served in the 74th and 75th Congress from Texas and was a huge champion of the Roosevelt's New Deal.

In fact, according to Fontaine, Maury wanted it even more to the "left." He served in congress with a group of other free wheelers and they became known in the Texas media as "The Mavericks." Maury had a colorful and passionate time in public life. According to Wikepedia's entry on him, "He was elected to the Seventy-fourth Congress in 1934 with support from the Hispanic population of his district, and re-elected to the Seventy-fifth. In the House, he was an ardent champion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. He angered the conservative Democrats running the party back in Texas, including John Nance Garner. He was defeated in the primary for a third term in 1938. He returned to Texas where he was elected Mayor of San Antonio, again with support from minority voters, serving from 1939 to 1941, when the conservatives labelled him a Communist and defeated him. During World War II, he worked for the Office of Price Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and served on the War Production Board and the Smaller War Plants Corporation. After the war, he practiced law i...

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Inciting Violent Behavior

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Baratunde Thurston: Silence In The Face Of Hate Makes McCain-Palin Unfit To Lead

The Washington Post has reported on a Palin rally in which the crowd turned on the media and hurled racial epithets at a sound man:

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

Huffington Post has reported on screams of "treason" launched in reference to Obama.

I've written about the ugliness of McCain and Palin in painting Obama as a mysterious, scary terrorist and ignoring calls to "kill him."

Everything we need to know about John McCain and Sarah Palin is summed up by their reaction to these incidents. Their positions on health care no longer matter. Their tax policies are irrelevant. Their talking points have been made moot. Not only do they bring out the worst in people, but they feed the worst in people. They are basing their campaign on painting Obama as a terrorist and monster. They are cultivating prejudice, racism, fear and ugliness.

America has been down this path before, and it is the exact opposite of what this country needs right now.

History awaits moments like these. We are on the brink. When a society's pent up frustration and anger searches for an outlet, it is a leader's job to step up and focus those wild emotions away from destruction and toward something productive. At least that is what a good leader would do.

A true leader would stop their politicking for a moment to remind the crowd that we are all Americans, that a sitting U.S. Senator is not a terrorist, that calls for murder have no place in a democracy because we work out our differences through debate and argument and law.

A true leader would recognize the pain ripping through his or her people and would seek to comfort them and then inspire them. A true leader would empathize with his or her people and then ask the nation to rise above our base...

Ginny

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Clearwater 1933?

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Clearwater 1933?

From Dana Milbank in the Washington Post:

Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater [FL], arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

(emphasis mine). Why is this not on national news? Why aren't people reacting with outrage? This isn't democracy in action. This is cynical demagoguery. The article continues:

Palin, speaking to a sea of "Palin Power" and "Sarahcuda" T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. "One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," she said. ("Boooo!" said the crowd.) "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she continued. ("Boooo!" the crowd repeated.)

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Palin did not reprimand the man. When an audience member for a McCain appearance called Obama a terrorist, McCain did not correct him either. They are inciting assassination.

By the way, the New York Times, far from supporting Palin's accusations, pointed out that there is little evidence for any meaningful association between Ayers and Obama, just casual interactions. Indeed Ayers' ties with domestic terrorism are in the distant past. Obama and I are almost the same age. We were children in the 1960s when Ayers was a radical; Obama met him 26 years after the fact. The McCain camp is lying, knowingly and deliberately.

The deliberate lies, the veiled slanders, the incitement to violence against "the other", the touting of "Country first": this is not conservatism. This it not Repbulicanism. This is certainly not American. It is deeply disturbing and cynical pursuit of power. I am sure I am not the only one with an interest in history who looks back at the utter economic collapse of Germany in the 1930s, and sees disturbing parallels with the ...

Ginny

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Why I'm Not a Biblical Literalist

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/magazine/7651105.stm

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Palin was against Darfur ddivestment

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannyn-moore/palins-darfur-lie-alaskan_b_132125.html

Ginny
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On Main Street Wasilla, The Bars Are Open Til 5AM

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Sarah Palin's opposition to bar crackdown surprised some

As mayor, opposed earlier closings





Sarah Palin may be the heroine of the religious right, but Rev. Gene Straatmeyer vividly recalls a public run-in he once had with the now Republican vice presidential candidate over clergy support for a crackdown on bars.

Ginny

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And bingo is their name-o

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And bingo is their name-o

Looking for a way to veep score on environmental issues in tonight's VP debate? Grist has got your back with a sure-fire method for determining who really wins these things: Talking Points Bingo.

Download printable bingo cards [PDF] [ZIP].

The Rules:

1. Download and print off the Palin and Biden boards (there are 10 different boards in total), and pass them out to all your friends.
2. Mark on your board whenever Palin or Biden says one of the listed words during tonight's debate. (Doesn't matter who says what.)
3. If you get five words in a row, stand up on a chair and shout "Biden!" or "Palin!" (depending on which board you have).
4. Sit down.
5. Pour yourself a drink either to celebrate or commiserate with the veep candidate who just won the debate.

Ginny

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Help this dear lady get her birthday greeting

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It's Never too Late for Change

Earlier today, Pam posted a diary about McCain and how he is losing favor with the senior population.

Yesterday I had lunch with a new colleague. We are both in digital media marketing, and he is an amazing grassroots marketer. He is also an Obama supporter. 

He recently interviewed Lillian, his 99-year-old grandmother, about her political views. First of all, she is still sharp as a tack. She was so smart as a child she skipped two grades...then at age 13 she had to drop out of school to earn money for her family. 

At 87, she suffered a heart attack and nearly died. But after surviving against the odds, she enrolled in university. While she was earning her bachelors degree, she began writing books, publishing her first one at age 90. She has written four in total, about one every two years.

She is an Obama supporter. In the video below, she tells you why. My friend has set up a site called It's Never Too Late for Change. His goal is to use grassroots efforts to get Obama elected...and his personal goal is for his grandmother to get a "Happy 100th Birthday" message from PRESIDENT Obama in early spring, 2009.

Please pass this along. It's inspiring.

Ginny

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IL Ballot: Con-Con Controversy

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Judge: 'Con-Con' question 'downright misleading'

A referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot asking whether Illinois should hold a constitutional convention is "downright misleading and false," a Cook County judge said today.

Ginny

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adn.com | Experience a question in election

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adn.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Felections%2F2006%2Fgovernor%2Fv-printer%2Fstory%2F217752.html

Ginny
I can has iPhone?