jamie's blog

Of all people, it looks like McCain may have just lost David Frum. They key point from his post:

Here's I fear the worst harm that may be done by this selection. The McCain campaign's slogan is "country first." It's a good slogan, and it aptly describes John McCain, one of the most self-sacrificing, gallant, and honorable men ever to seek the presidency.

But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?

I am saying, and I can't believe the words are coming out of my fingers, I agree with David Frum. Partisan politics aside, John McCain has picked someone who's resume is Mayor of a town of 6,000 and 2 years as Governor of a state of 600,000 - 1/5 the size of Chicago. This person is put into place to be the second most powerful person in the free world.

And how does this play into the American dream? Joe Biden has worked his ass off to get where he is at. Sarah Palin is there because she is a woman who shoots a gun and is pro-life. Face it - that's the only reason McCain picked her. How can I say that? See her resume above. Just the constantly developing news coming out tonight about the scandals she is involved in is all the proof we need that she was not vetted.

That is the part of our Constitution that lays out the only real job of the vice-President. That job is to be the President of the Senate. We were reminded of this about a year ago by another vice-President - Dick Cheney.

What legislative experience does Sarah Palin have? I have read a lot of Dan Quayle comparisons today, but that really isn't fair to Quayle. He at least had 12 years of legislative experience before becoming vice-President. Does Palin even know how the Senate really works? These are serious questions requiring serious answers.

Actually all Democrats running for Congress received an endorsement from John McCain today, as well as all Democrats running for Governor. Why? It's simple if you think about it. He has chosen a person with less than 2 years experience in anything that counts to be the number two of this country.

Now I know people will jump on the "but Obama doesn't have much more experience". Well even if Obama only had the same amount of experience as Palin, there is a big difference. McCain picked Palin. The people picked Obama.

So what did McCain say about this pick? Well he basically said that there was not a single Republican in Congress that had more experience than Palin. He also said that there are no other Republicans/Conservatives out there that amount to more than two years of actual experience. That's a pretty stunning slam against his colleagues.

Howie gives us the details of the love Sarah Palin has with pork:

In fact, Palin has always been a pork-crazed maniac, the kind of straw man McCain loves to bash on the stump. This year Alaska received nearly $100 million more In pork than any other state ($379,669,715). According to the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Database, Palin employs the lobbying firm Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates to seek earmarks for the state of Alaska. You think the vetters missed that when they were looking into her past? If so they also missed this: According to that same Senate Lobbying Disclosure Database, Palin paid the lobbying firm of Hoffman Silver Gilman & Blasco to lobby on behalf of the City of Wasilla while she was mayor and according to Citizens Against Government Waste, in 2000 the City of Wasilla received a $1 million transportation earmark for the Wasilla Intermodal Facility for bus and bus related facilities while Wasilla's Life Quest Community Mental Health Center gobbled up a $500,000 earmark, same amount as the town's emergency shelter, although less than the $600,000 earmark for the Wasilla city bus facility. Meanwhile Wasilla received a $1 million earmark for the Wasilla Regional Dispatch Center, a $1.5 million earmark for water and sewer improvements, and a $2.6 million transportation earmark for an alternative route project. And back then only 5,000 people lived there. Now that's pork. So, as inexperienced as she is about everything else, she sure knows how to rook the federal government out of boucoup taxpayer dollars. I wonder if McCain will still be screamin' and hollerin' about earmarks and Bridges to Nowhere now that she's on his ticket.

The more I find out about Palin, the more it sounds like another Harriet Miers (to quote Joe Scarborough). I really got a feeling the McCain team was looking at someone else, but ended up with Palin out of desperation. Al the other names they were floating had serious problems - mostly coming from the base. I think classifying this decisions as a gamble is being rather generous.

Part of the McCain statement on Palin had me scratching my head:

In Alaska, Governor Palin challenged a corrupt system and passed a landmark ethics reform bill. She has actually used her veto and cut budgetary spending. She put a stop to the "bridge to nowhere" that would have cost taxpayers $400 million dollars.

(emphasis added)

What kind of "stop" did she put to it? Let's look:

Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer. Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. Much of the public’s attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened

She didn't stop it to save the U.S. taxpayers. She stopped it to save her own taxpayers. I read that as she wanted Congress to give about double the money to the project, but since they wouldn't she decided against it.

(h/t Paddy for the graphic)

Here is some of the news about Palin popping up:

• McCain’s VP Choice Is Under Ethics Investigation For Abuse Of Power In Alaska
• Alaska Gov. And Longshot McCain VP Praises Obama's Energy Plan

As people get digging, I am sure we will have much more in the way of fun links about McCain's VP pick.

UPDATE:

Markos has a great post up, which includes this nice little gem:

In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn’t seem “productive.”

In fact, she said she doesn’t know what the vice president does.

Larry Kudlow of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co.” asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain ticket mate.
Palin replied: “[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that V.P .slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.”

So McCain wants her to have a job that she doesn't even understand? This could be framed as an "anti-Cheney" type thing, but I don't think that will play very well.

McCain is introducing his VP pick today at the Nutter Center in Dayton. The Nutter Center holds about 12,000 people, but look at this:

Tickets are still available for Sen. John McCain's Friday, Aug. 29, rally at Wright State University's Nutter Center in Fairborn.

McCain and his wife Cindy will appear at the event, dubbed the "Road to the Convention Rally." Doors open at 9 a.m. and the event begins at 11 a.m.

Tickets are being given away at county GOP offices in southwest Ohio and in Indiana and Kentucky.

This event is being held in the heart of a red state tri-fecta, yet McCain hasn't been able to sell out (or give out actually). But red state isn't the only thing the Nutter Center is situated in. Dayton is also home to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which has about 6,000 military and 9,000 civilian personnel. You would think such close proximity to a military base would give McCain's speech a boost, and it may very well have, but he still has tickets available.

John McCain has no enthusiasm there.

NBC just did a breaking news cut in to report they have learned that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be McCain's VP pick. It looks very probable as there are reports that she flew into Hook Field last night:

A Gulfstream IV jet owned by a firm in Kirkland, Wash., landed at Hook Field Municipal Airport late Thursday night is believed to have had Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on board as a passenger.

National media outlets have identified the first-term Alaska governor, the first woman elected to the position, as a possible vice presidential candidate for Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

Chuck Todd has just referred to this pick as a big gamble. I would have to agree. McCain has gone with someone really not known and the debate between her and Biden will be interesting.

Something else important on this is the experience issue. Palin would be a heartbeat away from becoming Commander in Chief. Her political career is very short, so that puts a damper on the experience argument against Obama.

UPDATE:

All news outlets are now confirming it.

The Washington Post is reporting this morning that the Republicans are considering delaying the start of their convention because of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is expected to become a hurricane before making landfall on Tuesday. The White House is also debating whether Bush should cancel his speech or not.

Gustav is not the only problem Mother Nature is throwing at our country. Tropical Storm Hannah is out there strengthening also, and expected to become a hurricane in the next couple of days and could hit the U.S. towards the end of next week.

As if that isn't enough, there are two more potential storms growing.

(image from the National Hurricane Center)

The yellow area is a tropical wave that has less than a 20% chance of becoming a storm. It has been pretty unstable over the past 24 hours, but has reached a higher potential at times as it does try to organize.

The orange area is a little more serious. That contains a 20-50% chance of becoming a tropical storm. It just developed last night and has become more organized over the past 12 hours.

So we are looking at a very bumpy ride over the next couple of weeks. If the Republicans do delay their convention, I don't know when they will have a clear shot to hold it.

That's what this cop yells at a Code Pink protester after slamming her to the ground with his PR-24.

I am sure this cop feels like a big man after beating a woman to the ground. I agree with what the Nation says on this:

This cop should be fired and charged with assault

Yes he should. There is video evidence this asshole doesn't have the temperament to be a cop.

That's not what I am saying, but rather what Putin is saying:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.

In a perfect world we would write this off as the ramblings of a mad man. Sadly this isn't a perfect war and we have an administration who wouldn't think twice about doing something like this. Hopefully it will send enough of a message to Congress so that they start asking some questions. If there is any merit to these allegations at all, then the U.N. needs to start investigating also.

Average wait for a patient in an ER suffering a heart attack:

1997: 8 minutes
2004: 20 minutes

Pretty amazing - isn't it? Well how about this:

-- In 1994 there were 93.4 million ER visits (adults)
-- In 2004 there were 110.2 million ER visits (adults)
-- In 2004 there were 12.4% fewer hospitals offering ERs round-the-clock (24 hours a day) compared to 1997

Still not scared? Ok then let's try this:

Each year, from 1997 to 2004 wait times increased 4.1% (from 22 minutes in 1997 to 30 minutes in 2004).

And John McCain's answer? Let more people have to rely on emergency rooms.

Just remember - the next person who is stuck waiting to see a doctor while suffering a heart attack could be your spouse, parent or child. John McCain doesn't see that as a problem, he sees that as good policy.

Just say no to genocide John!

That is the nicest way I can describe John McCain and his campaign. This is a prime example of this:

But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

So the guy who helped McCain come up with his health care policy obviously has no idea about preventive care, prescriptions, testing, or just what the a trip to the emergency room costs. Costs can run into the $10,000 very easily. Just basic blood work generally runs about $500. That doesn't include the doctor!

Now listen up Obama campaign. This is a gift coming at you. You need a new ad out right now asking why John McCain wants to commit genocide against American citizens. That is exactly what his adviser is suggesting. Let them die through lack of health care.

Oh and if you think that sounds extreme, consider this. It might not be the uninsured who are dying because of this lack of understanding by McCain's professionals, it could be YOU with the insurance. They are busy helping out some uninsured people who's ailment could have been preventive by regular medical care. Instead that was missing and now they are having to be saved in the emergency room. Now Mr. Insured can't get the help right away simply because John McCain's health care policy has placed a larger burden on our emergency rooms, and trust me - they are all ready pushed beyond the limits.

Great going John - you and your ilk just killed Americans WITH insurance. How does it feel?

The talk on Morning Joe is about what a great speech John Kerry delivered last night, in which I must agree. It was one of the best speeches of the convention and one he should have done four years ago. The problem is that none of the networks covered this great speech.

So who is the Morning Joe crew blaming for that?

They are blaming the DNC. They are saying how the DNC should have forced the cameras to carry that speech. Well they did on CSPAN! But since when are the news makers supposed to force the media to carry the news? The media dropped the ball by not carrying this speech, but they come from the George W. Bush school of accountability and end up blaming everyone else for their failings.

Oh and if Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan watched the network that employs them, they would have noticed the cameras were on. MSNBC showed about 30 seconds of the speech while it was going on, but were to interested in hearing their own voices.