If, as McCain keeps saying, cutting taxes on the "job creators" * creates more jobs ...

.. then why, since the Bush admin made incredible tax cuts for the "job creators," why did we lose so many millions of jobs during their 8 year plunder party?

It's the kind of statement that used to make people are: "wottinhell are you smoking?"

****************************************************

*"Job creators" is the "eloquent" phrase for the people we used to call "plutocrats," or "Robber barons" or "Greedheads" or the people who "grind their boots into the faces of the poor."

Kawakami: Singletary might just wake up the Yorks

Kawakami: Singletary might just wake up the Yorks

By Tim Kawakami
Mercury News Columnist


Denise DeBartolo York should talk to Mike Singletary, person to owner, and she should be braced for an epiphany.

She might not like what she hears. I'm almost sure that she won't. But if anybody can force a revelation out of the 49ers' ultimate owner, it's Singletary. It almost has to be Singletary...

What can Singletary do? ... he can show DeBartolo York that everything her family has tried has failed and everything it has sold to the public is false.

Just by his presence, Singletary might finally convince her that the York shell game has failed utterly.

Just by standing near Denise's son Jed, the team's new front man, Singletary might be the credible tipping point: Does Denise want Jed to be compared to this strong, decent man?

Should anybody — even his mother — believe that a man like Jed York can succeed when a man like Singletary almost certainly will fail?

That's not something the Yorks want to believe, I know. That's the Big Lie they've told themselves — that none of this is their fault and that Jed will ride in and return the franchise to greatness...

Too bad Singletary can't bench the Yorks, because I'm pretty sure eventually he'll want to... But this isn't Singletary's team ... this is the Yorks' team. They have no quarterback. They have no vision. They had no plan other than belief in Nolan, and now he has been exposed and burned.

The whole pathetic York legacy is a virus, and it has infected the locker room for years.

They have no new stadium. They have a fan base eroding faster than the polar ice caps. They have no practical front-office structure. They have Jed York in place, and he's a figment of a specter of an imaginary true executive front man.
And I wonder: When does Denise DeBartolo York realize that this is never going to work for them and that it's only going to get worse? ...

When they start blaming Singletary, maybe even Denise DeBartolo York will finally survey the ruins of the past decade and wonder: Hasn't this family done enough to this franchise?

**********************************

Since they set up Eddie D for a bust, stole the team from him, and spent the past decade pretending to be NFL team owners, why should they act like decent conscientious people now?

Link

Senator McCain says that Obama's tax plan will throw the country FURTHER in debt.

Made me think about how we got that far in debt --- and the difference between the government economics of the two parties?

The Democrats (it's often been true)
TAX AND SPEND.

...Which is necessary because the Republicans
BORROW AND SPEND.

So what's the moral?

They got down to THIS point a while ago --- threw up their hands and said "Ahhh, fuck it --- we'll just make stuff up" (but don't use the L-word, NO-NO-NO --- not the one that rhymes with "pants on fire.")

Oct 26th, 2008 | TAMPA, Fla. -- Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has a pointed message for Barack Obama: This thing isn't over yet.

Speaking in Tampa, Fla., on Sunday, Palin sharply criticized Obama for acting as if he's already won the election.

Palin mentioned reports that the Democratic presidential nominee, who is leading in the polls, has already written his inaugural speech. That drew boos from the crowd of more than 5,000 gathered for a rally at the Tampa convention center.

Palin said Obama's campaign "thinks this whole election thing is just a formality."

With just nine days to go before the Nov. 4 election, Palin was making another push in the swing state of Florida, where most polls show Obama leading Republican candidate John McCain.

**************************************

I don't think she knows there's a difference between an inauguration speech and a nomination acceptance statement.

But then she really doesn't seem to care about any differences -- not as long as she can throw shit at someone.

(That's why they call her a GREAT campaigner -- -- if you can't make a logical argument, at least be entertaining -- and fecal flings are ALWAYS popular entertainment

Hey, Mr Schmidt -- is that a white flag in your pocket? Or are you just glad to see me?

Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008 13:21 EDT

Quote of the day

John McCain's top strategist, Steve Schmidt, trying to keep young campaign aides from losing hope, according to the Washington Post's Michael Shear: "Being part of an effort that fails does not make you a loser; it makes you a competitor. What makes you a loser is curling up into the fetal position at a time of adversity. The only thing that would ever define anyone as a loser is to quit before it is over."

Amazing, Schmidt doesn't even realize what he said --
in essence, to say that IS curling up.

But what he's really doing is what they're ALL doing on that side, fix the blame because they can't fix the campaign, point a finger at someone (ANYONE) for the loss (Sarah Palin, Keith Olbermann, the Liberal Press in general, a great Left-Wing Conspiracy, even former boss Karl Roverer) -- but whoever gets the blame, the message is simple (in playground terms):

"NOT MY FAULT!! HIS (or HER) FAULT!!"

And why am I so pissed off about John McCain?

Because he was one of a very Republicans who was not a flag-waver for a theocratic dictatorship (you know, the one in which white Christians whine and moan about how they are so picked on in society -- right, tell it to Jews and African-Americans... and Hispanics and Women and Asians and Mediterraneans -- Greek, Italian, Turkish, Arab)

... he actually believed in the traditional American pre-Great Depression Republican way -- live and let live, don't mess with people's lives, don't overtax them (especially don't make us pay for the government to stick its nose in where it didn't belong in the first place...)

I tend far more to the Libertarian Left (yes there is one) than that, but have always respected if not agreed with their premise -- the way to keep a society healthy economically is through letting big businesses (and small ones) go at their own pace (as contrasted with keeping the society economically healthy by being sure the people can have homes and medical care and buy the goods those companies make)

He was one of the few in the Senate who had those ideals -- until he wanted to become president so much he was willing to make a deal with the devils -- Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson: he knew just who to go to for soul-selling -- and become a public asshole.

I hope he can someday recover what he lost, that he only rented his soul, but it pisses me off so much that a good man was taken up the mountain and came down a sonofabitch

(oh, I've been told -- as have most of us -- that he was always a sonofabitch -- so what. I'm pissed he became a corrupt sonofabitch, a tool for men so much his inferior he shouldn't even talk to them, let alone bend over for them).

At a certain point -- and we've been past it for some time now -- McCain's mining of his POW past is just boring...

It's like -- in the 60's and 70's (and 80's and 90's) -- middle-aged assholes whining about "My parents really fucked me up -- wouldn't let me play with my teddy bear, never told me they loved me..." (These are real things and things to be discussed with people you love and care about, but not claims to fame to make strangers go "ooh" and "ahhh.")

Sorry, John -- I know I could never have stood the sort of abuse you did, but, you know -- I never would have been there raining death on rice farmers, either.

GET OVER IT -- OR at least just shut up about it. The people in Southeast Asia who watch you via satellite aren't really interested, and neither are any of us, not anymore.

The whole point of telling it to us -- again and again -- is to align our minds to your kampf and enough is enough -- as Lord Buckley said about Jonah calling on the lord to save him: "Boy, you keep ringing that bell, you're gonna BEND that bell."

It's bent, Old John, and been bent from in front.

Maybe the VC brutalized him, or whatever --

John McCain brought up the name-- JOE THE PLUMBER --- repeated it over and over, a man as sloppily vetted as Sarah Palin... and then the press found out the day after that

1 -- his name wasn't Joe

2 -- he wasn't a plumber

and

3 -- he was a plant


So NOW McCain goes out and rallies the crowds by telling them how Joe is being attacked by Obama and his people.

Jeezus -- how fucking stupid are the people who yell and scream in support?

Because -- John McCain -- whatever his virtues in the past -- and I don't care what they did to him, the people whose friends and neighbors and families he'd been busy killing before he got caught -- I don't think they were nice guys, but they let him live, which is more than he did for their people -- but whatever the past held and however nice and sparkly he was -- he has made a deal to willingly turn himself into nothing more than a lying sack of talking shit in a desperate attempt to get POWER.

And when he doesn't get it, and when the devil comes for his due, what then?

Feds say NY parole board member sought child sex

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN Associated Press Writer

Oct 14th, 2008 | ALBANY, N.Y. -- A state parole board member who served 20 years in the Legislature appeared in court Tuesday on a federal charge that he used the Internet to solicit sex with minors.

Chris Ortloff repeatedly e-mailed what he believed to be 11- and 12-year-old sisters and tried to arrange a meeting to have sex with them at a motel in suburban Albany, federal prosecutor Thomas Spina said. He had actually been in contact with investigators in a state police sting operation since June and was arrested at the motel Monday, Spina said.

According to a state police criminal complaint, Ortloff used a webcam to discuss the rendezvous and brought condoms, lubricants, vibrators and a camera to the motel where he was arrested.

"This was an undercover operation. There were no real minors," Spina said.

Ortloff, 61, wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit and handcuffs in court, heard the criminal complaint against him but didn't enter a plea.

He declined to comment as he left court. His lawyer, Andrew Safranco, said Ortloff presented no danger to the community and should be freed on bail.

Ortloff was returned to Albany County jail and scheduled to return to court Wednesday for a bail hearing. He could face 10 years to life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

A Republican from Plattsburgh, Ortloff was a legislator from 1986 until 2006, when then-Gov. George Pataki appointed him to a six-year term on the parole board. The board's members, who decide whether state prisoners are released on parole, are paid $101,600 a year.

"The matter is presently under investigation," said Heather Groll, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Parole. "Effective immediately, Commissioner Ortloff has been temporarily relieved of his parole board duties. His status as a parole board member is currently under review," she said.

Groll said the board was also reviewing whether Ortloff will continue to be paid.

--------------------------

-Well, at least he knows the drill --

BUT ELEVEN AND TWELVE YEAR OLDS???

Probably knows the deep affection most hard-time cons have for child molesters, too.

A Few Mixed Metaphors for John McCain as Poor Old Marat...

MY NAME IS JOHN McCAIN AND I APPROVED THIS INSANITY (but now I don't like it): Poor Old Marat McCain, he stirred up the hornet's nest of mixed metaphors, he rode the tiger but the old saying goes like this:

"The hardest part of riding on the back of a tiger has always been that of getting off."

Whether it's trying to get down off the beast he created or, like Poor Old Marat, finding himself drowning, being swept away in the wave of anger he stirred up... (The Persecution and Assasination of John Sidney McCain as Performed by the Inmates of the Presidential Rallies under the Direction of Karl Rove's former towel-boy, Steve Schmidt ?)

Ralph Ellison, in his novel Invisible Man limns the progressive disintegration by which Ras the Exhorter becomes Ras the Destroyer (not intentionally and not desired).

John McCain looked into the eyes of that (drunk? mentally challenged?) woman (we only saw the back of her hair) who incoherently finished her sentence against Barack Obama jumping to "He's an Arab,"and, unlike Bush gazing lovingly into Putin's eyes, I think maybe McCain saw his own lost soul in there -- lost to mob mentality, lost in the fires of insane anger -- and saw it was now out of control, as his mob booed him for suggesting that Barack Obama was a decent man, because by God, they were salivating and yelling:

"WE DON'T CARE!! WE WANT TO SEE A FIGHT. WE WANT BLOOD!"

If McCain had ever dabbled in ritual magick, had ever read anything by Aleister Crowley, or any other Occult Practitioner, he would know the first rule of invocation:

NEVER CALL UP ANYTHING YOU CAN'T SEND BACK DOWN

The stories of those who did usually end with the creature tearing them to pieces -- as does the story of Marat* in Peter Weiss's Marat-Sade.**

------------------------------


*Poor old marat they hunt you down
The bloodhounds are sniffing all over the town
Just yesterday your printing press was smashed
Now their asking your home address

Poor old Marat in you we trust
You work till your eyes turn as red a rust
But while you write they're on your track
The boots mount the staircase
The doors thrown back

-----------------------------

* *Full title:
The Persecution and Assasination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of Monsieur de Sade

-------------------------------------------

Sarah Palin -- talks tough when she's killing through a scope...

... even tougher when she sends others out to do her killing for her.

This, about killing wolf pups, from Defenders of Wildlife:

"In June, after gunning down 14 adult wolves from a helicopter, officials from Governor Palin’s Department of Fish and Game rounded up 14 orphaned wolf pups and methodically shot each one in the head in clear violation of a state law.[1]

State law prohibits the targeting of pups -- a practice known as denning. Maybe that’s why Palin’s officials tried to cover it up, making no mention of the brutal pup executions in the state’s June 30th press release on the killings.[2] To date, none of the officials involved in the incident has been held accountable.
------
[1] http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/jul/19/biologists-kill-wolf-pups-help-caribou-herd-popula/

[2] http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/pubs/news/2008/06-27-2008.pdf

****************************

But the thing is, since she claims hunting is an important thing to her, she's not only a vicious, morally handicapped sociopath -- she's also stupid as week-old roadkill.
------------------
Eco-lesson in brief:

When wolves hunt caribou or elk -- animals a lot larger than any one of them -- their success rate is approximately one kill out of every dozen hunts. And the ones they can get are almost always ONLY the sick, the weak, the old, and the crippled*.

What this does is strengthen the herd since it leaves the strong, the healthy, and the powerful alive to breed -- the very game animals that hunters value most highly.

When hunters are given their free-for-all under the guise of "game management" and there are not enough wolves to remove the sick from the herds, what they LEAVE is the sick, the weak, the old, and the crippled, and the herd deteriorates, ultimately fails to survive.

So if -- as is so often the case in Alaska -- if a person hunts for food, the only intelligent thing to do is what the Inuit have done for centuries, live harmoniously with the wolves and let them keep the herd healthy and edible.

Conversely, the most incredibly stupid, blood-crazed thing to do is hunt down the wolves from planes and helicopters, especially when -- as Governor Palin has done -- there is a BOUNTY for wolves killed.
---------------------
Oh -- full disclosure -- around 20+ years ago, watching Nightline with various people arguing in favor of aerial hunting of wolves, I turned to my wife and said: "Something you should know about me. If I were in the same room as those people and had a gun, I'd have absolutely no compunction about shooting every one of them." (Except Ted Koppel.)

And my wife said: "Why would you think I don't know that about you?"**

Hallelujah, I just love her so.

---------------------------

* The Wolves of Isle Royale by L. David Mech
Wolves of Minong: Isle Royale's Wild Community by Durward R. Allen
The Wolves of Isle Royale: A BrokenBalance by Rolf Peterson
Of Wolves and Men by Barry Holstun Lopez
----------------
** Not a threat, just disclosure about how I felt (and still feel). That's why I scrupulously avoid EVER getting into the same room with any of them, and scrupulously avoid owning or holding a weapon.

To be clear -- many people hunt for food.
Sociopaths hunt for sport.
Chickenshit sociopaths hunt from planes and helicopters.

And it's not illegal to pray their planes crash.

*******************************************

Two points ---

1. Obama isn't ready to be president because he's only been in the Senate a short time and HASN'T DONE ANYTHING...

2. ... except he was so incredibly powerful in his few moments there, he actually caused the collapse of the entire American economy

--- WTF?!?

Hooray for John McCain

He called a halt to the viciousness ...

I guess he figured he'd spread enough poison to paint and taint Senator Obama

Didn't feel like mentioning that HE was the person spewing the poison.

Actually, he seemed to actually "get it," -- that the only people who thought he was cool by poisoning the world were neo-Nazi's, Klansmen, and the like, and that actual Conservative people were backing away in shock from him and the little Hitler from Wasilla.

Here's a ghastly thought

A few days ago, a friend sent me an email asking:

"If McCain loses the election, does Levi Johnston still have to marry Bristol Palin?"

Before I could think it through, the spectre of even that sleazoid having Sarah Palin as his mother-in-law loomed large and was so horrifying as to drive out any thought of answering the question.

I'd like to believe that John McCain still has a shred of decency left...

... but at long last, Senator --- what you're doing now, in a desperate attempt to smear your opponent as a "terrorist," projecting an image of 9-11 on to him is this:

You're digging up the dead from September 11, 2001, and rubbing yourself on their blood and bones and ashen remnants, seeking votes by becoming a ghoul -- a grave-robbing version of a subway frotteur.

If you'd have objected to the asshole who shouted "KILL HIM!"and told security to have him charged with making a death threat against a presidential candidate a person could consider you a man who still has some principles left.

If you answered the person who shouted "TRAITOR" by pointing a finger and telling him to get the fuck out of your face, telling security to run him outside, you'd get some admiration from me -- maybe not my vote, but I would think that perhaps, at long last, sir, you still have some decency.

If you answered the people who shout "SOCIALIST!" and "TERRORIST!"with AT LEAST a gentle, "No, he's not," then some of us might consider you hadn't completely sold your soul to get power and position (thrones and dominions).

But as it is, we can only look at you as a man who was willing to sell his soul for power, and who made a deal to do that -- sell your soul -- with someone who PRETENDED to be the Devil, but in fact was just someone flogging an adjustable rate damnation.

So here's my question about the McCain Rally the other day ---

When McCain was dissing Barack Obama and his supporter yelled out: "KILL HIM!"

Why didn't McCain direct his Secret Service people to arrest the man for making a death threat against a presidential candidate?

So -- is McCain too senile to react quickly and with ethical standards?

or

Does McCain have NO ethical standards at all?

or

Does he thinks it might be a good idea, i.e., the only way to win the election (in which case, there's the legal issue of incitement.)

But wottehell Charlie -- McCain supporters making death threats against the other presidential candidate isn't nearly as important as whether or not Newsweek should have airbrushed Sarah Palin's pores and mustache out of the cover photo.

OK, the observation of McCain below is not exactly accurate.

Because he has one other trick aside from blaming everything from the collapse of the world economy to the last Ice Age on Barack Obama -- and that is, on any subject, after rephrasing what Obama just said as if he was saying something never heard before, let alone heard just a moment ago:

"We can fix it, my Friends. I know how to do that. But my opponent doesn't know how to do anything but raise taxes."

He never explains HOW he will fix it -- I know how to get Osama Ben Ladn ...I know how to fix Social Security ... saving the economy -- I know how to do that... MY FRIENDS...

Or as was pointed out long ago, when McCain cynically named Sarah Palin as his running mate as if to have an actual woman on the ticket:

"You ladies happy? Alright? I got one with a cunt."

Right -- she HAS one, and he IS one.

John McCain --the Cranky Old Fart Version of Rudy Giuliani

As Joe Biden once pointed out, Rudy Giuliani's entire platform was:

"Subject, verb, and 9-11."

McCain's entire platform is:

"Change the subject, point a finger and snidely say that EVERYTHING is Barack Obama's fault, even the stuff that happened when the Republicans were riding untrammeled and roughshod over Congress, the White House and the Constitution."

Or as Alan Rickman said at the conclusion of the The January Man:

"Some people are just so finished.

All McCain is proving is that his reputation as a man of integrity, a man who tells the truth, was nothing but a carefully fabricated illusion. Or maybe he was, which makes it tragic that he's become such a slime-throwing shit bird.

But when he gets some psycho bimbo from Alaska to scream "TRAITOR!" and she just LAUGHS when someone in her audience responds to her charges by yelling (about Obama) "KILL HIM!" -- it's gone way beyond even the sleazy Rovie-ian lies.

Atheist group sues Bush over national prayer day

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press Writer

Oct 3rd, 2008 | MADISON, Wis. -- The nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics is suing President Bush, the governor of Wisconsin and other officials over the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued Friday in U.S. district court, arguing that the president's mandated proclamations calling on Americans to pray violates a constitutional ban on government officials endorsing religion.

The day of prayer, held each year on the first Thursday of May, creates a "hostile environment for nonbelievers, who are made to feel as if they are political outsiders," the lawsuit said.

The national proclamation issued this year asked God's blessings on our country and called for Americans to observe the day with appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle is named in the suit because he is one of 50 governors who issued proclamations calling for the prayer day. The foundation is based in Madison.

Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, and White House press secretary Dana Perino also are named.

The foundation has filed numerous lawsuits in recent years, including one rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court last year that attacked President Bush's faith-based initiative.

Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner had no comment on the lawsuit. Messages seeking comment from the task force and the White House were not returned Friday.

***********************

Thank God for the Atheists

Here's a double standard I would like to figure out

Remember how all the Repugnicans slammed Bill Clinton for succumbing to the advances of that zaftig little pizza-bearing knee-pad packing succubus, screaming "Well if he can't even honor his promise to his wife, how can we believe him about the country?"

Well, I thought that was a load of crap at the time, and I still do (I told each man who ranted foam-flecked vituperation on him religious folks, y'know? That if he would put his hand on a bible and SWEAR that he would NEVER-- IF OFFERED -- NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER accept a blow job, then I would be willing to listen to his opinion.

BUT ---

Since it's been documented that Sara Palin was fucking her husband's partner while hubby was away north, what are we to conclude what that says about her?

(She might be cute in her dominatrix suit, but I really don't care to find out.)

A personal encounter with John McCain

I received this via email this morning from a long-time friend.
It's self explanatory:

Mary Kay Gamel is a literature and classics professor at UCSC. She is asking people to send the letter she wrote far and wide.

It was just before John McCain's last run at the presidential nomination in 2000 that my husband and I vacationed in Turtle Island in Fiji with John McCain, Cindy, and their children, including Bridget (their adopted Bangladeshi child).

It was not our intention, but it was our misfortune to be in close quarters with John McCain for almost a week, since Turtle Island has a small number of bungalows and their focus on communal meals force all vacationers who are there at the same time to get to know each other intimately. He arrived at our first group meal and started reading quotes from a pile of William Faulkner books with a forest of Post-Its sticking out of them. As an English Literature major myself, my first thought was "if he likes this so much, why hasn't he memorized any of this yet?"

I soon realized that McCain actually thought we had come on vacation to be a volunteer audience for his "readings" which then became a regular part of each meal. Out of politeness, none of the vacationers initially protested at this intrusion into their blissful holiday, but people's buttons definitely got pushed as the readings continued day after day.

Unfortunately this was not his only contribution to our mealtime entertainment. He waxed on during one meal about how Indo-Chine women had the best figures and that our American corn-fed women just couldn't meet up to this standard. He also made it a point that all of us should stop Cindy from having dessert as her weight was too high and made a few comments to Amy, the 25 year old wife of the honeymooning couple from Nebraska that she should eat less as she needed to lose weight.

McCain's appreciation of the beauty of Asian women was so great that David the American economist had to move his Thai wife to the other side of the table from McCain as McCain kept aggressively flirting with and touching her. Needless to say I was irritated at his large ego and his rude behavior towards his wife and other women, but decided he must have some redeeming qualities as he had adopted a handicapped child from Bangladesh. I asked him about this one day, and his response was shocking: "Oh, that was Cindy's idea - I didn't have anything to do with it. She just went and adopted this thing without even asking me. You can't imagine how people stare when I wheel this ugly, black thing around in a shopping cart in Arizona . No, it wasn't my idea at all."

I actively avoided McCain after that, but unfortunately one day he engaged me in a political discussion which soon got us on the topic of the active US bombing of Iraq at that time. I was shocked when he said, "If I was in charge, I would nuke Iraq to teach them a lesson". Given McCain's personal experience with the horrors of war, I had expected a more balanced point of view. I commented on the tragic consequences of the nuclear attacks on Japan during WWII -- but no, he was not to be dissuaded. He went on to say that if it was up to him he would have dropped many more nuclear bombs on Japan. I rapidly extricated myself from this conversation as I could tell that his experience being tortured as a POW didn't seem to have mellowed out his perspective, but rather had made him more aggressive and vengeful towards the world.

My final encounter with McCain was on the morning that he was leaving Turtle Island. Amy and I were happily eating pancakes when McCain arrived and told Amy that she shouldn't be having pancakes because she needed to lose weight. Amy burst into tears at this abusive comment. I felt fiercely protective of Amy and immediately turned to McCain and told him to leave her alone. He became very angry and abusive towards me,and said, "Don't you know who I am."

I looked him in the face and said, "Yes, you are the biggest asshole I have ever met" and headed back to my cabin. I am happy to say that later that day when I arrived at lunch I was given a standing ovation by all the guests for having stood up to McCain's bullying.

Although I have shared my McCain story informally with friends, this is the first time I am making this public. I almost did so in 2000, when McCain first announced his bid for the Republican nomination, but it soon became apparent that George Bush was the shoo-in candidate and so I did not act then. However, now that there is a very real possibility that McCain could be elected as our next president, I feel it is my duty as an American citizen to share this story.

I can't imagine a more scary outcome for America than that this abusive, aggressive man should lead our nation. I have observed him in intimate surroundings as he really is, not how the media portrays him to be. If his attitudes toward women and his treatment of his own family are even a small indicator of his real personality, then I shudder to think what will happen to America were he to be elected as our President.

Mary-Kay Gamel

Professor of Classics, Comparative Literature, and Theater Arts

Cowell College

University of California, Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, California 95064

mkgamel@ucsc.edu

There's nothing to add except what I think is an appropriate quote for this story:

"...they were appalled by Strongbow's assertion that any military expedition was merely a disguised sexual sickness, more specifically a profound fear of impotence... thus armies were raised, he said, because it was likely their raisers could raise nothing else."

Edward Whittemore in Sinai Tapestry

NB: ----later revision -- I have found out this is currently being investigated on Snopes but it doesn't matter there are facts and there's the truth and the two are rarely the same. This rings true in context of what we know of the man.

SARAH PALIN = LONESOME RHODES

Morning after the Veep debate --

Watching and listening to her was a terrifying event because of her artificiality and mean-spiritedness, all of which seemed OBVIOUSLY drilled into her by the operatives of the campaign (Karl Rove's former henchmen) to memorize and use.

Even more unsettling was the resonance -- her carefully assembled phony folksy phrases reminding of nothing other than "Lonesome Rhodes," Andy Griffith's character in Face in the crowd -- a vicious, petty, vengeful, unscrupulous shark who talks like a good ole boy and rises to power that way, with eveyone saying "Aww, ain't he cute?" (modeled, so they say, on Arthur Godfrey -- who managed to cover up the monster below the surface until the day he fired Julius LaRosa on the air and the TV audience got to see what the smile was hiding.)

Let's see:
Tina Fey impersonates Sarah Palin
And Sarah Palin impersonates Andy Griffith's Lonesome Rhodes/ Arthur Godfrey

It was appalling with the worst, phoniest, most psychotic line being:

"Say it ain't so, Joe. There you go again, looking backward..."
("OK, honey, be sure to work this in there somewhere.")

But there was another line even more insane:

"Your plan for Iraq is raising the white flag of surrender."

My immediate reaction was:

Hey, Sarah -- the only one around here who's ever raised the white flag of surrender is John McCain who got shot down while in the act of killing Vietnamese from the air (sort of like killing wolves from airplanes, except the wolves don't have Surface to Air Missiles), a man who SAYS he only turn-coated America because they threatened to kill "his men," but others who were in the POW camp say McCain was not their leader at all and no one thought he was and none of them were "his men"... regardless, whether his story is true or not is not the point

-- maybe it's true, but for the son and grandson or admirals, there had to be SOME cover story because he couldn't accept the fact that he surrendered, even less that, like anyone in that situation, he finally cracked -- and it still seems to haunt him and motivate everything he does -- just consider how many times he uses the word "SURRENDER."

Back to Ms Palin -- Those words and phrases bear the mark of coaching by the Karl Rove acolytes running the campaign (remember these were the same people who turned a spoiled brat Connecticut Prep School and Yale frat boy into a good old mushmouth "Howdy Y'all" Texican fellow -- Rove even had him buy a ranch the year he announced for president, a move that had two benefits: (1) It made him look like a rancher (even if looking like a schoolboy on a bicycle.) and (2) It kept the press away from him.

But enough of Bush -- we all know what he is.

But Sarah Palin -- there's something very very scary about a poorly programmed animatronic discipline babe getting so close to having power over all our lives.

With any luck she won't.