While we’re out here making calls to congress about the energy bill, and insisting members support real health care reform, another shiny object has diverted the GOP, or what was once the GOP. This time it is a trumpeted article in Vanity Fair about the failed McCain/Palin Presidential Campaign. Apparently, there is much bitterness now that they have finally discovered what we knew to be true all along. Rather than waste fresh words, let me once again simply paste in a tid-bit from our fair and balanced source about the sources discussing sources.

From the ‘article’ titled:

Palin Vanity Fair Article Reignites Feud Among Former Campaign Aides

…The article also claims that top aides worried about Palin’s “mental state” during the campaign — with some suggesting Palin was suffering from postpartum depression following the recent birth of her son, Trig.

On Tuesday, editor of The Weekly Standard Bill Kristol — who once served as an informal adviser to McCain — accused former campaign manager Steve Schmidt of spreading the idea to other campaign aides.

“In fact, one aide who raised this possibility in the course of trashing Palin’s mental state to others in the McCain-Palin campaign was Steve Schmidt,” Kristol wrote in his magazine blog posted Tuesday.

But Schmidt vehemently denied the charge Tuesday and lambasted Kristol for his work as chief of staff to former Vice President Dan Quayle.

“I’m sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign,” Schmit reportedly wrote in an e-mail to Politico.

“After all, his management of [former Vice President] Dan Quayle’s public image as his chief of staff is still something that takes your breath away,” Schmidt continued.

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Enjoy. This can’t last forever, can it?

Historical Quote of The Day

“I’d never seen anything like that ad. Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield — it’s worse than disgraceful. It’s reprehensible.”

• Sen. John McCain, quoted by CNN, on the campaign ad used by Saxby Chambliss (R) against Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) in the 2002 U.S. Senate race.

McCain is now scheduled to campaign for Chambliss in his Georgia run off against Jim Martin (D).

ΔΔΔ

Where’s the valor, the integrity, the Band-of-Brothers, John?

Not even recyclable?

-Leon Trotsky          

r

Requested Zeiss Starmaster; unfunded by Congress

An Incitement to Riot on Behalf of the Human Imagination

If we find an answer to that [why it is that we and the universe exist], it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we would know the mind of God.

Steven J. Hawking, A Brief History of Time, 1988

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There is not now, nor has there ever been, a greater source of imaginative space than the idea of the universe, the heavens, the galaxies, the cosmos, the Biblical “world without end”, our outer space. International efforts to explore space involve unprecedented levels of capital investment, an unselfish exchange of intelligence in anticipation of conditions and goals that, literally beyond us, cannot be defined. Manifestly these explorations affirm that we are one planet, Shakespeare’s “pendent world”, with a unique set of natural laws and a unique place in the universe. Symbolically, without any standard measure of return value, space exploration is an investment in hope, innovation, cooperation and curiosity.

Man Ray’s 1938 Tube Poster

I call on fellow educators, the intellectually curious, the believers in ingenuity, those dwellers in the unknown and purveyors of creativity to protest the suffocation of the American imagination as promoted by John McCain and Sarah Palin. Their dismissive ignorance of poetic and scientific curiosity is an affront to progress and a promise to further erode America’s once unchallenged leadership in technological and creative innovation. In repudiation of McCain’s embarrassing and disdainful rant against the “3 million dollar ‘overhead projector’” for the Adler Planetarium that Barack Obama supported (with a bipartisan group of Congressional representatives from Illinois), we must declare, “Enough! Enough of your embodied support of arrogant stupidity, your fear of research, your vow to manifest a lack of education.”

Just as McCain/Palin have a right to adhere to their own narrative of the creation of the universe, with no further exploration desired, we have a right to expand our knowledge of the natural world and explore uncharted territories both literal and poetic. I dare them, in their myopic world-view, to reject as non-existent what they simply have no ability to imagine. I riot on behalf of those who hold that ability sacred.

Our inner cities with occluded night skies and insular pockets of poverty hold extant venerable institutions built to share the kind of knowledge that metaphorically transports, and we should take pride in upgrading them to standards that dignify the information they present. None are more iconic than Chicago’s Museum Campus, and the Adler Planetarium, the oldest planetarium in the western hemisphere with its 40 year-old projector. Planetariums alone, as convincing simulacra, powerfully showcase the achievements of space exploration and feed the imaginations of curious visitors including millions of school children from whom the next American visionaries will likely emerge.

The planetarium experience is unlike any other, a world view made possible by the insistent commitment of centuries of visionaries, and actualized through the initiative of a few leaders willing to gamble on potential. The return on the gamble is a sure bet - that by acknowledging that all courageous advances are first conceived of in the limitlessness space of the human imagination - future innovators are encouraged to reach for the stars.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081004/pl_nm/us_usa_politics_6

Palin says Obama Friendly with Terrorists

Reuters Sat Oct 4, 2008 10:56pm EDT
With polls showing McCain trailing Obama in many battleground states, including several won by Republicans in the 2004 election, Palin said “There is a time when it’s necessary to take the gloves off and that time is right now.”… Later, at a rally in Carson, California, Palin again said the Republican campaign would become more negative.

“As one of my campaign staffers reminded me as I was walking out, ‘Ok now the heels are on, the gloves come off’,” she told thousands of people at a rally in a sports stadium.

A marquee in valley where Wasilla is located. Intent unknown.

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During Thursday night’s performance for the incongruous GOP base and whomever she was winking at (you third-graders know who ya are), Sarah Palin either didn’t hear, didn’t care or didn’t want to waste her time trying to feign compassion when Joe Biden, unexpectedly, and ever-so-gently reminded us that his long career in national service and as a statesman has been forever tempered by an epic tragedy he suffered as a father and husband. What Joe lost, and almost lost, just 40 days after first winning his US Senate seat, should have been requisite knowlege for Palin, as family values is one of the emblems that Governor Palin, at least photogenically, claims to embody and care about. Biden’s emotional moment at the podium came in reaction to the sharp-shootin’ Governor’s sexist claim to her exclusive insider status with American parents who have it tough. Joe’s anguish surfaced for a second or two, I took longer to recover than he did, but Miss Igloo, gosh darn it, showed the rest of us what tough means in tundra country. Take that ol’ Joe – how ya gonna face down Russia if ya melt down over your own past?

Governor Palin apparently takes to ‘inhumane’ just as well as Dick Cheney, and opened her equally empty chest cavity for all to see this weekend as she took a busman’s holiday through gated communities across this great land. She made Karl Rove blush as she made threats involving leather goods and high-heels on Saturday; barely able to disguise the dominatrix role her inner-Pentecostal hungers for. We caught a glimpse of the ‘real’ Sarah during Thursday night’s performance; the Sarah heard at the RNC in St. Paul, the Sarah who knows the only good bleeding heart is one ripped from the warm body of a bear cub. Pundits gleefully yelp this is once again the true Sarah, and are relieved that she got her bitch back on! Whew! Brazen ignorance is nothing that a quick look-see at The USA Today [sic] won’t fix, and is absolutely charming when paired with a wink, a low-blow, and a sneer that causes the timorous liberals to question whether their definition of ‘ignorance’, once again, might be just a tad different than the one that Sarah goes by. Sarah had a new, but not extreme, look for her evening show and was sheathed in a black satin, form-fitting suit. All smiles, she confidently strode toward the podium in those slightly higher heels, assertively yet gracefully pausing to disarm Joe by letting him know that titles and last names are for wine-sippers.

She has been rolled-out as a new messiah for the GOP, a hybrid vehicle of Bush and Cheney ideologies, not only more guided by an all-seeing master with plans of his own, but also displaying a now fashionably translucent lust for world domination. What seemed diabolical coming from Dick Cheney is a fantasy that men are willing to pay for from a woman - the whip costs extra.

The antidote to the Poison Palin is an Obama blog tradition. We challenge each other to determine a symbolically appropriate dollar amount to donate to the campaign, depending on the situation. It has worked splendidly - $10 million the night Sarah denigrated “Community Organizers”. So, for the next few days, the dollar amount is a combination of the numbers 1 and 7, adjacent in that order ( i.e., $1.70, 11.70, 17.00, 117.00, and so on, according to your means) in honor of the 17 electoral votes that are now Straight Talk Express roadkill. The driver deliberately backed over those ‘sound fundamentals’ of Michigan on Friday. McFalin are on their way to place with fewer labor unions and fewer Universities I suspect, to stir up some good old American racism and xenophobia.

You are welcome to donate through my Obama fundraising page linked below or anywhere on barackobama.com.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/BMcCtheEdgeDweller

McPuppet Show: The Rapture We’ve Been Waiting For

S.S. McCain

9/11 never mattered so much as when I pondered Sarah Palin’s ABC interview with Charles Gibson. As David Brooks said, her political talent is real. But this is not ‘Idol’. I remind myself that Palin did not select herself, but ask, “Who did?” It is still our tradition, at least in the Democratic Party, to assume the potential POTUS selected her/his own VPOTUS.

The choice of Palin for next in line in 2008 is evidence that Rover smelled defeat. A blatant jettisoning of the GOP’s bedrock claim to be the party that “keeps us safe”, it’s more credible as a suicide pact, readying for a kind of Rapture, if only as political purge.

Alas, McProp is revealed. Gathering up the flocky evangelical vote, the GOP has set about showing the happily uncomfortable McCain the door, be it in 2 months or 4+ years.

I have a few suggestions for the Democrats:

Calling Senator Clinton - The next time Palin is used as an auto-indignification response™, Hillary, you should jump right in. Whether the cynics are right, that you want Obama to lose, or not, you may not have another near-term opportunity to showcase your strengths and effect a solution. Direct your famous ‘Fight’ full-throttle from the position you are being simultaneously lauded and used for by the GOP.

Calling Joe Biden - McCain’s National Security Card, and any pretense that National Security matters, apparently expired at almost exactly 7 years. But National Security does matter. It’s not everything, as they have been saying, pointing at the sky for 7 years, but lack of it is. Showtime, Joe. Your debate with Palin is the near-term defining event of your long career. Numb us with salient facts. No theatrics, hemming, hawing, “with all due respect, I’m gonna hit a girl” wincing, no fawning, no condescension, just show us your awareness and command of the protean complexities of world politics. Then, move on to the fallacy of drilling in ANWR, how OPEC really works, and the plan for job creation in green energy industries.

Finally, calling Barack Obama - You gotta keep getting up, rookie. 52 days left. Remind us of what you enumerated in that speech you made in Denver. Something about health care, education, sensible troop rotations and deployments…that our economic security, national security and stewardship of the environment are connected to each other, right? You had plans for us, we were asked to do our part, no one walks alone, and then BOOM! Upstaged by the audacity of nope by two dopes.  So, please repeat the promise. No one had time to consider it. The sequence was like savoring a delicate lobster mousse, whisked away in favor of an urgent, steaming bowl of Velveeta and corn-flake casserole; I don’t remember what the first course was.

I’ve got news for you Barack Obama. Lots of us out here are holding you to the hope we confess. So say it again.