The Democrat Thread

[BigSqwert]

Straight Talk Express my ass:

 

Sarah Palin's visit to Iraq in 2007 consisted of a brief stop at a border crossing between Iraq and Kuwait, the vice presidential candidate's campaign said yesterday, in the second official revision of her only trip outside North America.

 

Following her selection last month as John McCain's running mate, aides said Palin had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard. During that trip she was said to have visited a "military outpost" inside Iraq. The campaign has since repeated that Palin's foreign travel included an excursion into the Iraq battle zone.

 

But in response to queries about the details of her trip, campaign aides and National Guard officials in Alaska said by telephone yesterday that she did not venture beyond the Kuwait-Iraq border when she visited Khabari Alawazem Crossing, also known as "K-Crossing," on July 25, 2007.

 

Asked to clarify where she traveled in Iraq, Palin's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, confirmed that "She visited a military outpost on the other side of the Kuwait-Iraq border."

 

It was the second such clarification in as many weeks of the itinerary of what Palin has called "the trip of a lifetime." Earlier, the campaign acknowledged that Palin made only a refueling stop in Ireland.

 

In her interview with ABC News Thursday night, Palin did not mention Iraq in describing the visit, saying only that she went to Kuwait and Germany to meet with US forces.

 

According to an itinerary obtained from the Alaska National Guard, the Republican governor visited troops and airmen at a series of bases in Kuwait, including Camp Buehring, Camp Virginia, and Ali Al Salem Air Base.

 

Her visit to Iraq itself was during a short stop at Khabari Alawazem Crossing on the second day of her two-day trip to the region.

 

Palin arrived at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, where she held a town meeting with soldiers and reviewed various training programs designed to prepare troops to deploy into Iraq, said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Osborn, commander of the 3d Battalion, 207th Infantry of the Alaska National Guard, who was in charge of the 570 local troops serving in Kuwait and Iraq.

 

"The whole intent was to check on the Alaskans," Osborn said in a telephone interview yesterday.

 

On the second day of the trip, he said, Palin was flown to the border crossing, about 100 miles north of Camp Buehring, where she spent the morning meeting with troops and presiding over a ceremony in which an Alaska National Guard soldier extended his enlistment.

 

But she did not venture into Iraq, Osborn said. "You have to have permission to go into a lot of areas, and [the crossing] is where her permissions were," he said.

 

also...

 

Senator John McCain has drawn some of the biggest crowds of his presidential campaign since adding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to his ticket on Aug. 29. Now officials say they can't substantiate the figures McCain's aides are claiming.

 

McCain aide Kimmie Lipscomb told reporters on Sept. 10 that an outdoor rally in Fairfax City, Virginia, drew 23,000 people, attributing the crowd estimate to a fire marshal.

 

Fairfax City Fire Marshal Andrew Wilson said his office did not supply that number to the campaign and could not confirm it. Wilson, in an interview, said the fire department does not monitor attendance at outdoor events.

 

In recent days, journalists attending the rallies have been raising questions about the crowd estimates with the campaign. In a story on Sept. 11 about Palin's attraction for some Virginia women voters, Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher estimated the crowd to be 8,000, not the 23,000 cited by the campaign.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Sensing, perhaps, a turn in the media against McCain's stunts, Obama spokesman Bill Burton puts out a scorching statement:

 

“We will take no lectures from John McCain who is cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern Presidential campaign history. His discredited ads with disgusting lies are running all over the country today. He runs a campaign not worthy of the office he is seeking,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

[HuskyCaucasian]

You are of course assuming that SHE started the practice of charging for them.

Actually, if I can find the link, there is a document that shows she actually signed off on continuing it.

 

Link

Under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test...To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice," Palin, as mayor, fired police chief Irl Stambaugh and replaced him with Charlie Fannon, who with Palin's knowledge, slashed the budget for the exams and began charging the city's victims of sexual assault. The city budget documents demonstrate Palin read and signed off on the new budget. A year later, alarmed Alaska lawmakers passed legislation outlawing the practice.

Edited September 13, 2008 by Athomeboy_2000

[HuskyCaucasian]

McCain-Palin Rally Numbers Deliberately Overestimated

 

Senator John McCain has drawn some of the biggest crowds of his presidential campaign since adding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to his ticket on Aug. 29. Now officials say they can't substantiate the figures McCain's aides are claiming.

 

McCain aide Kimmie Lipscomb told reporters on Sept. 10 that an outdoor rally in Fairfax City, Virginia, drew 23,000 people, attributing the crowd estimate to a fire marshal.

 

In recent days, journalists attending the rallies have been raising questions about the crowd estimates with the campaign. In a story on Sept. 11 about Palin's attraction for some Virginia women voters, Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher estimated the crowd to be 8,000, not the 23,000 cited by the campaign.

 

"The 23,000 figure was substantiated on the ground,'' McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. "The campaign is willing to stand by the fact that it was our biggest crowd to date.''

 

"Since day one, this campaign has been consistent that we're not going to win or lose based on crowd size but the substance of John McCain's record,'' Bounds said.

 

Until Palin, 44, joined him on the campaign trail, McCain, 72, had limited his political events to smaller town hall meetings and rallies of a few hundred people. His Democratic rival, Barack Obama, an Illinois senator, routinely draws thousands of people to his speeches, a phenomenon McCain has tried to use to his advantage by labeling Obama, 47, a celebrity.

 

That changed on Aug. 30, at Palin's first big public appearance after her nomination. The McCain campaign said 10,000 people showed up at the Consol Energy Arena in Washington, Pennsylvania, home of the Washington Wild Things baseball team.

 

The campaign attributed that estimate, and several that followed, to U.S. Secret Service figures, based on the number of people who passed through magnetometers.

 

"We didn't provide any numbers to the campaign,'' said Malcolm Wiley, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service. Wiley said he would not "confirm or dispute'' the numbers the McCain campaign has given to reporters.

[kapkomet]

If the media would spend as much time on the issues instead of digging up s*** about Sarah Palin just to play "GOTCHA!!!" on every f***ing word she says, we might have a decent election. But no. We have to be stupid about this whole thing. Oh, I know I know, you have to discredit everything because they're all LIARS!!! Please. So's RSO. It's beyond ridiculous.

 

[BigSqwert]

If the media would spend as much time on the issues instead of digging up s*** about Sarah Palin just to play "GOTCHA!!!" on every f***ing word she says, we might have a decent election. But no. We have to be stupid about this whole thing. Oh, I know I know, you have to discredit everything because they're all LIARS!!! Please. So's RSO. It's beyond ridiculous.

What do you expect to happen when one candidate selects someone who nobody knows diddly squat about?

[FlaSoxxJim]

What do you expect to happen when one candidate selects someone who nobody knows diddly squat about?

 

Like the McCain Campaign, maybe he expects Governor Palin to be treated with deference, because anything else is obviously just blatant sexism.

 

[HuskyCaucasian]

Like the McCain Campaign, maybe he expects Governor Palin to be treated with deference, because anything else is obviously just blatant sexism.

It's the POW/Sexism Defense Shield. Seems to be weakening a bit, but still holding strong.

[kapkomet]

What do you expect to happen when one candidate selects someone who nobody knows diddly squat about?

 

 

Like the McCain Campaign, maybe he expects Governor Palin to be treated with deference, because anything else is obviously just blatant sexism.

 

 

It's the POW/Sexism Defense Shield. Seems to be weakening a bit, but still holding strong.

Ok, whatever. Your thoughts here are a joke. Seriously.

 

None of you know what I think of Sarah Palin, yet you want to label me. I think it's ridiculous that all I see from the left is this "gotcha" crap - and yes, you see it from the blowhards like Hannity, etc. but I think they are just as ridiculous. That's all you want to do is tear down and mock everything. Have a day. Carry on, because it's what makes everything so great about this election. Not.

Edited September 13, 2008 by kapkomet

[FlaSoxxJim]

Ok, whatever. Your thoughts here are a joke. Seriously.

 

None of you know what I think of Sarah Palin, yet you want to label me. I think it's ridiculous that all I see from the left is this "gotcha" crap - and yes, you see it from the blowhards like Hannity, etc. but I think they are just as ridiculous. That's all you want to do is tear down and mock everything. Have a day. Carry on, because it's what makes everything so great about this election. Not.

 

What the heck, why don't you tell us what you think of Governor Palin then so nobody has to guess.

 

The fact that adding this unknown but seemingly unqualified person to the GOP ticket has much of the nation so unquestioning and revved up for McCainCo. confirms many of my worst fears about the critical thinking skills of many of my fellow Americans. The fact that honest, earnest examination and reporting of her record in elected office to contrast against the McCainCo version of her record is chalked up entirely as "Gotcha politics" is similarly disheartening.

 

I don't really assume you are much of a Governor Palin fan. But she set the tone for the last 8 weeks of the campaign with the Lipstick-Pitbull acceptance speech, and for the most part ObamaCo has been less gloves-off than they could have been since then. I agree with everybody that it would be a critical mistake for ObamaCo to allow this election become about Governor Palin. But I think all current press inquiries into her past public record are entirely legitimate. reasonable and necessary in order to determine if the real Sarah Palin even remotely resembles the newly-minted mythological Sarah Palin the country has gone gaga over.

[Texsox]

People find things sometimes that make me laugh.

 

 

 

-John McCain, Fox News Presidential Debate, Oct 21, 2007

 

I've stopped even worrying about these sorts of things.

Clinton v. Bush: GOP No Military service = bad. Dems No military service = no problem

Bush v. Kerry: Dems No Military service = bad. GOP Questionable military service = no problem

 

McCain He's got no experience

Obama Who needs experience

McCain picks Palin = almost no experience

Obama picks Biden for ta da experience

 

[kapkomet]

What the heck, why don't you tell us what you think of Governor Palin then so nobody has to guess.

 

The fact that adding this unknown but seemingly unqualified person to the GOP ticket has much of the nation so unquestioning and revved up for McCainCo. confirms many of my worst fears about the critical thinking skills of many of my fellow Americans. The fact that honest, earnest examination and reporting of her record in elected office to contrast against the McCainCo version of her record is chalked up entirely as "Gotcha politics" is similarly disheartening.

 

I don't really assume you are much of a Governor Palin fan. But she set the tone for the last 8 weeks of the campaign with the Lipstick-Pitbull acceptance speech, and for the most part ObamaCo has been less gloves-off than they could have been since then. I agree with everybody that it would be a critical mistake for ObamaCo to allow this election become about Governor Palin. But I think all current press inquiries into her past public record are entirely legitimate. reasonable and necessary in order to determine if the real Sarah Palin even remotely resembles the newly-minted mythological Sarah Palin the country has gone gaga over.

 

Ok... your last paragraph, bingo. But yet, it's sort of a witch hunt - I liken it much to RSO's first year or so. The problem is, Sarah Palin can make it 8 weeks on coattails of nothingness. That's part of the brilliancy of the pick, yet, honestly, I'm very troubled by it. John McCain KNEW that it was going to take all the spotlight off of RSO, and rightly or wrongly, it's working.

 

Honestly, I'm VERY troubled by Sarah Palin. I don't like her style, I don't like her attitude, I was very put off by her speech, unlike every GOP'er so it seems...

 

But I am getting nauseated at the media coverage and the Huffington Post references 5 times a day about what a hypocrite Sarah Palin is. GMAFB, so is RSO, but since he's old news, it all gets swept under the rug.

 

I have no idea what to think about all of this. If I was going to vote for McCain, now it's turned me off even more with this pick becase much like you're all saying, it was a circus spotlight pick. But I still personally think RSO is much worse then McCain and even Palin, if only for policy. But that's just me saying I don't want the government in all my business like RSO wants to do.

 

Can you see that I'm quite conflicted, and probably even more so now?

 

 

[HuskyCaucasian]

This is a bit of projection, isnt it?

John McCain’s campaign is running a Spanish language ad in battleground states that blames Barack Obama and Senate Democrats for the failure of attempts to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws — even though the Republican nominee and his Democratic counterpart cast identical votes in the key Senate showdowns on that issue last year

 

Obama and McCain cast identical votes in the major congressional showdowns on the issue last year. Both men cast votes in favor of an unsuccessful early June effort to end a filibuster. Later that month, they voted again to end debate on the issue – but again failed to shut down the filibuster effort, led for the most part by Republican senators.

 

Remember, McCain championed immigration reform..... until he was against it after his party told him to get in line.

[HuskyCaucasian]

McCain Campaign On The Lies in their Ads: We are in it to win, facts get int he way-

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said this to the Politico about the increased media scrutiny of the campaign's factual claims: "We're running a campaign to win. And we're not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it."

[HuskyCaucasian]

And people thought Obama wouldnt fight back:

[Steve9347]

McCain Campaign On The Lies in their Ads: We are in it to win, facts get int he way-

I'm going to vomit.

 

F*** the truth, we want to win, and America is so stupid they'll believe anything they see on tv.

[BigSqwert]

I'm going to vomit.

 

F*** the truth, we want to win, and America is so stupid they'll believe anything they see on tv.

It's pretty sad when Karl Rove even thinks you've gone too far.

[Steve9347]

Seriously, there should be someone policing these things, an independent fact-checking group should have to approve any ad released from both parties.

[Harry Chappas]

This election falls right into line with the economy of this country and to me it feels like the entire ability of America to think for themself is non-existant.

 

Sarah Palin blind following. She may be worth the VP role but let me see it other than to blindly follow John McCain.

Obama blind following. While I like him he really has not had to work really hard to get where he is comparativley speaking.

The mortgage crunch with homebuyers not really understanding what they are getting into with the biggest investment they will make in most cases.

Text messaging while driving, that's a great idea.

The blind following of the chicago cubs.

hollywood "news" being treated as real and noteworthy.

 

It just seems to me that America is becoming dumber and dumber as the media becomes more and more inept at communicating true unbiased information.

 

 

 

[HuskyCaucasian]

Seriously, there should be someone policing these things, an independent fact-checking group should have to approve any ad released from both parties.

ohhh I like that a LOT!

I've actually been thinking that news organizations should fact chck every ad then and ONLY then will they play the ad as "news" and then follow it up with a fact check. Too often these ads are played and then they move on to "oh wow. look at that. that's a rough ad" and they never fact chck it/ Or if they do, it's several hours later.

[Steve9347]

ohhh I like that a LOT!

I've actually been thinking that news organizations should fact chck every ad then and ONLY then will they play the ad as "news" and then follow it up with a fact check. Too often these ads are played and then they move on to "oh wow. look at that. that's a rough ad" and they never fact chck it/ Or if they do, it's several hours later.

Yeah, I'm just talking strict fact-checking. Not purpose, not content, just "is this statement a true statement." These ads have too much influence on WHO RUNS OUR F***ING COUNTRY FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS for us to allow them to be completely false. You can't blame McCain too much (though I'd want my President to finally be someone I respect after it not being so the last 7+ years), because this s*** works. It's the system that is flawed.

[lostfan]

This election falls right into line with the economy of this country and to me it feels like the entire ability of America to think for themself is non-existant.

 

Sarah Palin blind following. She may be worth the VP role but let me see it other than to blindly follow John McCain.

Obama blind following. While I like him he really has not had to work really hard to get where he is comparativley speaking.

The mortgage crunch with homebuyers not really understanding what they are getting into with the biggest investment they will make in most cases.

Text messaging while driving, that's a great idea.

The blind following of the chicago cubs.

hollywood "news" being treated as real and noteworthy.

 

It just seems to me that America is becoming dumber and dumber as the media becomes more and more inept at communicating true unbiased information.

Why is it that people have to be automatically stupid/ignorant if they like something that's popular?

[DABearSoX]

If you haven't seen the SNL Skit from this weekend with Tina Fey doing a spot on Sarah Palin - check it out!

[Harry Chappas]

Why is it that people have to be automatically stupid/ignorant if they like something that's popular?

 

I said dumber not stupid or ignorant.

 

Texting while driving is dumb see the thread talking about dead people.

Liking Sarah Palin simply because she is cool/different is dumb she could be running the country.

Liking Obama for the same reason is dumb for the same rest.

Signing a mortgage without understanding the full parameters/long term affect is dumb.

 

 

[lostfan]

I said dumber not stupid or ignorant.

 

Texting while driving is dumb see the thread talking about dead people.

Liking Sarah Palin simply because she is cool/different is dumb she could be running the country.

Liking Obama for the same reason is dumb for the same rest.

Signing a mortgage without understanding the full parameters/long term affect is dumb.

Texting while driving and making financial mistakes, I'm not sure what that has to do with anything here, but I wasn't referring to that. You're making a pretty broad assertion here (although you clarified it in this post, and you're not saying that anymore) that anybody that likes Obama or Palin is dumb, and that they do so because the media tells them to think that way. I don't see how this election is any different than any other recent election. Why don't people get credit for coming to their own conclusions anymore just because we factor in popularity?

Edited September 15, 2008 by lostfan