Balin's Blog

11/1/08: Palin Pranked big time! You HAVE to hear this!!

Balin from Sunnyvale, CA — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:35:48 EDT

Seriously, I'm telling you - you've GOTTA hear this! If you ever needed more proof what a moron Sarah Palin is - listen to her talking for nearly 6 minutes with a Canadian radio prankster pretending to be French President Nicholas Sarkozy! And here is the transcript - in case you missed some great lines! Seriously, how can a potential VP be so dumb??? You don't think "I'd love to go hunting with you. We could go try hunting by helicopter, like you did, I never did that.I just love killing those animals. Mm, mm. Take away a life, that is so fun!" would make you a little suspicious? Or how about "You know we have a lot in common also except that from my house I can see Belgium." Or "You know my wife is a popular singer and a former top model and she's so hot in bed. She even wrote a song for you.[sings] It's his life, Joe the Plumber..." Or dear God - EVEN THIS: "I must say, Governor Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life, you know, Hustler's "Nailin Palin." SP: Oh, good, thank you. Yes. FNS: That was really edgy." My forehead hurts - from slapping it so often! I mean, I'm a loss for words! They only ended it because they ran out of material!! I'm sure they never in a million years imagined they would get this far with her!!! How dumb is this woman? And she says she'll run for President "maybe in eight years?" I don't think so! Let's see, between being found guilty of power abuse, being blessed by a witch doctor in her own church, being associated with a secessionist party, not to mention the hilarious interviews with Gibson and Couric, and now this, she's buried on the national scene. All I can say is: O Canada! Thank you for the final "nail" in her coffin!
http://iloveusafirst.blogspot.com/

Daily Drumroll: Politics & People, particularly Palin

10/15/08: Millions of Americans Receive Bad News for McCain

Balin from Sunnyvale, CA — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:21:18 EDT

from my blog at http://iloveusafirst.blogspot.com/:

I received my quarterly retirement savings account statement yesterday, and the news is dismal. I've lost 44% of my savings in the past year, at least on paper. That wiped out not just the gains it had made in the last decade or so, but it's a lot less than the hard cash I put into it. Yes, it's no surprise, but it hits you you pretty hard when you're holding it in your hands and thinking, boy, that just added another 5 years of work before I'm able to hit that tropical beach home retirement I've been fantasizing about. And that's assuming I HAVE a job - with my company looking pretty rocky and my wife out of a job, it's not a pleasant prospect.

I'm sure I'm not alone. Millions of Americans are probably looking at their statements this week and thinking the same thoughts. And it doesn't bode well for the party in power that has brought us to this state -the Republicans who have been in the White House for the last 8 years and controlled Congress for 10 of the last 12. So McCain is fighting an uphill battle at the start. So what does he offer us? After weeks of dilly-dallying about the economy, seesawing from one extreme to the other ("The economy is sound. The economy is in crisis. I'm for a bailout. I am against a bailout. I am against regulation. I am for regulation"), McCain finally issued his long-awaited plan to help us through this economic crisis yesterday, let's take a look at it:

10/14/08: The Right Wing Turns its Guns on - Itself!

Balin from Sunnyvale, CA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:41:38 EDT

Poor Christopher Buckley. The son of the famed hero of conservatives and founder of the National Review, Willam F. Buckley, was fired from the magazine his father founded.
What was his egregious crime?
Why, last week in his column at the Daily Beast, he said, reluctantly, that he could not see voting for the McCain/Palin ticket, and would be voting for Obama/Biden. That did it - the righteous fires were unleashed on his head.

Hell hath no fury like a wingnut scorned.

I wrote previously that Kathleen Parker of the National Review was one of many who felt Sarah Palin was an embarrassment. Buckely says "This brought 12,000 livid emails, among them a real charmer suggesting that Kathleen's mother ought to have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a dumpster."
As for him, National Review Online mail has "been running about, oh, 700-to-1 against. In fact, the only thing the Right can't quite decide is whether I should be boiled in oil or just put up against the wall and shot. Lethal injection would be too painless."

Well, C. Buckley is not sorry. Not about his voting preference, that is. But he IS sorry that it's come to this for the modern conservative movement. He says in his column today sorry-dad-i-was-fired:

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it's a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of "conservative" government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

So, to paraphrase a real conservative, Ronald Reagan: I haven't left the Republican Party. It left me.

But other people ARE leaving the Republican Party. At the polls, in big numbers. Pollster.com this morning released several surveys that showed Obama increased his lead in 4 battleground states: Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. But here's the kicker: today on the Pollster map, Florida turned SOLID BLUE!!

10/9/08: McCain’s Hero Gen. Petraeus Agrees with Obama

Balin from Sunnyvale, CA — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:29:30 EDT

http://iloveusafirst.blogspot.com/
Petraeus Talk Seems to Bolster Obama
In an interview with the BBC about Iraq, http://www.fsmitha.com/time/2008sep.htm
General Petraeus was asked, "Do you think you will ever use the word "victory?" Petraeus answers: "I don't know that I will." He adds, "This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade...it's not war with a simple slogan." Listening, McCain? Your hero says "Quit the Victory talk"...

http://washingtonindependent.com/11381/petraeus
During a talk Wednesday about Iraq at the Heritage Foundation
</a> ,a conservative Washington policy organization, Petraeus repeatedly made statements that bolstered the foreign-policy proposals of Sen. Barack Obama, McCain’s Democratic rival, or cut against McCain’s own lines.
Petraeus agreed with Obama about opening communications with America’s adversaries, a position McCain is attacking Obama for endorsing. Citing his Iraq experience, Petraeus said, “You have to talk to enemies.” He added that it was necessary to have a particular goal for discussion and to perform advance work to understand the motivations of his interlocutors.
That is virtually identical to Obama’s position, when he said he was willing to negotiate without preconditions but only after sufficient diplomatic preparation. And that’s not all - Petraeus pointed to efforts by Hamid Karzai’s government to negotiate a deal with the Taliban that would potentially bring some Taliban members back to power, saying that if they are “willing to reconcile,” it would be “a positive step.”
Petraeus also said a surge identical to what he used in Iraq would not work in Afghanistan, as McCain had claimed in the Sep 26 debate. He essentially agreed with Gen. McKiernan, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who Obama quoted at the debate: “The word that I don’t use in Afghanistan is the word ’surge.’ There are countless other differences between Iraq and Afghanistan”. By the way, McCain now says “The same “strategy” (not “surge” anymore, mind you, but “strategy”) - very, very different, because of the conditions and the situation — but the same fundamental strategy that succeeded in Iraq.” Very, very different, and yet the same?? Just shows why he’s McSame, he thinks “different” really means “same”.

Truth is, whether he's talking about his endless war in Iraq, trying to incite rednecks with Barack's middle name, or dredging up Ayers or Wright for the billionth time, even the hard-core Republicans are tuning him out these days!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/mccain-medias-collective-yawn-mccains

10/9/08: Blame Palin for Palin’s freefall, NOT the economy

Balin from Sunnyvale, CA — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:25:06 EDT

I’m just plain tired of hearing Pat Buchanan and some other Repubs defend McCain’s disastrous pick of Palin for VP, and even more sick of them claiming the reason for her (and McCain’s) freefall in the eyes of the American people is due to the Wall Street crash that cut off their rise!!! Give me a break. Jack and Jill are tumbling down the hill because Americans got just a couple of close looks at this vapid VP pick, and THEY DIDN’T LIKE WHAT THEY SAW!!!!

To put their stupid denials to bed once and for all, I have taken http://www.dailykos.com/trendlines the daily tracking poll of their ratings (conducted for The Daily Kos by a non-partisan pollster) and drawn lines corresponding to the major dates in Palin’s brief national political career. You can see it at : http://iloveusafirst.blogspot.com/2008/10/10908-blame-palin-for-palins-freefall.html

The top graph shows the Presidential poll and the lower one the favorable/unfavorable ratings for each candidate (Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin). The first obvious takehome is that Palin’s slide (which dragged McCain down too) started on 9/13, the day after Charlie Gibson’s interview with Palin was aired on ABC. The Dow crashes occurred on 9/15 and 9/17 and did absolutely nothing to hasten the slide (nor did the bailout failures). In fact, both their ratings recovered slightly after 9/21, but then came Couric’s interview and McCain’s ridiculous “(non)suspension” of his campaign on 9/24, and well, nothing has been able to save them since. The VP debate on 10/2 gave Palin a very tiny fillip only to continue falling the next day, and it’s only getting steeper with their sleaze-slinging of the last few days. On the other hand, people got a great look at Obama in the first debate, and said "He could and should be the Next President of the USA!" and they haven't stopped voting for him since.

So let me say once more, in this case at least: It’s NOT the economy, stupid! In fact, it’s the stupid, stupid. The more people see of this pouffed-up, lipsticked pitbull, the less they like. Which is why the Repubs are too afraid to ever let her talk with a real reporter again, trotting her out twice a day in front of carefully preselected, commited wingnuts (with the Old Man of the Sea hovering protectively over her). Well, that’s just fine with me, in just over 3 weeks, they will both be relegated to the scrap heap of history, bearing the unenviable label of having run the dirtiest and least successful campaign in our lifetime.

Since I know that the selfsame wingnuts will deride this analysis since it was sponsored by (gasp!) an Obama-leaning website, I also took http://www.pollster.com/blogs/omero_the_palin_effectits_rise.php

a recent graph from pollster.com, showing the average of 56 national polls and breaking it down by gender. You can see that the swing towards Obama among both men and women started right about the time of the Gibson interview, and the crashes of the Dow or the vacillations of the bailout had no effect whatsoever, supporting the detailed analysis above. You can see this also on my blog at

http://iloveusafirst.blogspot.com/2008/10/10908-blame-palin-for-palins-freefall.html

and while you’re there, check out lots of other interesting articles too!

From my blog at http://iloveusafirst.blogspot.com/

Daily Drumroll: Politics & People, particularly Palin

10/9/08: FOXnews upset - over Palin's mustache!!

Balin from Sunnyvale, CA — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:00:23 EDT

Times are tough, the economy is crumbling, Sarah Palin's popularity is freefalling, even in her own state of Alaska (and I'm sure it'll fall more tomorrow when the Troopergate report is released). McClatchy: Palin's Approval Ratings Tumble -- In Alaska Published: October 01, 2008 Palin’s approval ratings in Alaska tumble to 68% Nationwide, 51% say Palin is unqualified to be VP. Her lack of knowledge, ability or decency have all been exposed. Now, FIX News is outraged that the Mainstream Media is going after her last "qualification" for the VP spot - her beauty!!! Unbelievable! These people are almost rabid with outrage that Newsweek did not airbrush out Palin’s mustache before putting her picture on the cover!! You HAVE to see this - this apparently riles them more than showing her stumbling responses to Couric! FOX Freakout Over Unretouched Palin Photo On Newsweek Cover

Sarah Palin WAS herself a member of the AIP

Balin from Sunnyvale, CA — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:44:50 EDT

I wonder why this hasn't received more press.
Sarah Palin WAS herself a member of the AIP before she became a mayor, according to the AIP’s Vice Chairman Dexter Clark - speaking at a secessionist conference, no less – see the video for yourself and listen carefully between 5:00 and 6:00. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIi4rbIXbkw
Palin was member of AIP
She has clearly lied about this! No surprise from her anymore, but still, this needs to get out there more so that someone can ask her about it and watch her lie again.

By the way, you'll see in the video that Clark and the AIP also consider the US troops in Alaska to be an "occupying force". Now, what exactly was Palin going to do when Putin "reared his head" and "came over from Alaska"? Wave her pom-pom and wink at him?

Clearly, this is an ongoing association even if Sarah Palin isn’t an official member. We already know Sarah Palin’s husband Todd Palin was a card-carrying member of the Alaskan Independence Party until 2002 - "guilt-by-association" comes back to bite them in the ass! Plus, in March 2008 (yes, THIS year!) Sarah Palin delivered a welcoming address to the AIP convention – see it at Palin speaks to the AIP

The Alaska Independence Party has advocated secession from the United States. Joe Vogler, the founder of the AIP, was murdered in 1993 while attempting to buy plastic explosives on the black market – wonder what for? - you can hear him on youtube too.
Joe Vogler, AIP & Palin
Scary. Also scary is how she whips up the people at her rallies with her lies about Obama over the past few days - they were screaming "terrorist" and "treason" and "kill him". Darn right she scares me. You betcha.

from my blog at http://iloveusafirst.blogspot.com/

10/7/08: McCain's radical connection: G. Gordon Liddy

Balin from Sunnyvale, CA — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:29:47 EDT

“McCain has his own Ayers” due to his close association with G. Gordon Liddy, according to a Chicago Tribune column, which has not received much press coverage to date, and frankly, I’m wondering why. Obama should definitely bring up Liddy if McCain brings up Ayers in the debate today.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped0504chapmanmay04,0,6061828.column
With friends like these ...
McCain finds his own radical friend

This article examines McCain's close connections to G. Gordon Liddy, who in addition to serving more than four years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in and the Daniel Ellsberg case, has also admitted that he plotted to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotted to murder fellow Republican operative E. Howard Hunt; and plotted to firebomb the Brookings Institution. Liddy also reportedly gave advice on how to shoot agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and reportedly admitted to naming shooting targets after the Clintons.

McCain’s association to Liddy has been far closer than Obama’s to Ayers. Liddy hosted a fundraiser for McCain's 1998 Senate re-election campaign and contributed to many of McCain’s Senate and Presidential campaigns. McCain has praised and repeatedly associated with Liddy in public and in campaign settings, even appearing on Liddy’s conservative radio talk show, most recently in May of this year!

An online video labeled "John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07" includes a discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as an "old friend." During the segment, McCain praised Liddy's "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great," said he was "proud" of Liddy, and said that "it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program."

Despite attacks on media by McCain campaign, case studies show disparate coverage in McCain's favor including in the case of Liddy vs Ayers.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200809190012
I would like equal opportunity for McCain’s questionable associations.
Why is the NY Times continuing to ignore McCain's "own Bill Ayers"?

http://mediamatters.org/items/200810040004

By the way, this is a post from my own blog at

http://iloveusafirst.blogspot.com/

It's called Daily Doodles: Politics, Palin and Pure Entertainment

Please check it out.