Has Sarah Palin Ever Watched Schoolhouse Rock?

What is it about Republicans and the office of Vice President? Vice President Cheney has attempted to circumvent the law by claiming he was a member of the legislative and not the executive branch. And now we have this from Sarah Palin.



For the record, under Article Three of of the the United States Constitution:

"If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified."

And article Article One of the Constitution stipulates the following:

"The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided."

Sarah Palin and myself have one thing in common: we're both members of Generation X. Hence, I have to ask, didn't this woman ever watch Schoolhouse Rock?

Sarah Palin Is A Brezhnev Republican

Remember when conservatives delightfully blistered John Edwards for hypocritically paying $400 for a haircut from his campaign treasury? Well, as many of you know by now, Politico reports that Governor Sarah Palin used donations to the Republican National Committee to spend $150,000 on clothes. All this while accusing Barack Obama for the sin of socialism.

A couple years I ago I started referring to politicians such as Palin as "Brezhnev Republicans." Under Lenoid Brezhnev the Soviet Union stagnated while the nomenklatura enriched themselves at the expense of regular people.

Sarah Palin epitomizes the mentality of Communist elites under the rule of Lenoid Brezhnev. It is the same mentality that allows them to loot while criticizing Barack Obama for daring to value work over wealth. Under Republican leadership the wealthiest have paid the least and horded their capital like lard. Nothing has trickled down to wage earners. This past month Brezhnev Republican George W. Bush nationalized the banking industry.

Yet, whenever Democrats such as Obama dare to address the sort of economic injustice faciliated by George W. Bush, John McCain and fashionista Sarah Palin, they're accussed of "socialism," "class warfare" and wanting to "redistribute" wealth. Well, John McCain who sold out to Charles Keating in the 1980s and Sarah Palin and her shopping spree are examples of Brezhnev Republicans.

Oh Yeah, Health Care

Remember when our callous and reality challenged President noted everyone has access to healthcare through the emergency room last year? The same president whom John McCain supports 90% of the time with a healthcare plan designed to warm the cockles of the Ayn Rand Brezhnev Republicans who regard healthcare as a priviledge and not a right?

Today, the Associated Press reports that Amber Joy Milbrodt claims a hospital without insurance billed her $162 when she didn't even see a doctor! According to the article, Ms. Milbrodt broke her leg and waited nineteen hours before a nurse assessed her injuries at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas.

The same article noted that prior to Ms. Milbrodt's visit, a 58-year-old man who went to the emergency room of the same hospital with stomach pains also waited 19 hours — and then suffered cardiac arrest and died.

Our market based healthcare has resulted in the rationing of medial treatment in America. And anyone who believes John McCain and the Republican nomenklatura will make it better is a fool.

I want my country back!

Is A Day Of Reckoning For the Bush/GOP Crime Syndicate Coming

A provocative blogger named Gottlieb recently posted a diary entitled "The Reckoning" over at The Wild Wild Left. Among the questions he asks are:

"Will Bush/Cheney get a pass so 'we can all move forward together' or will Obama demand his predecessors face a reckoning for the horror they've perpetrated?

Will Barack Obama prove to be the man he claims or in the tank for the money power?

Does he have the character worthy of the trust of a nation or will he prove just another in a long line of disappointments?"

There were numerous thoughtful responses to Gottlieb's thread. I posted the following comment:

"I don't believe there will be any reckoning. I hope I'm wrong. Rather, I believe upon taking office the system that inhabits the body politic will advise Obama: you can promote your progressive agenda or you can hold people accountable for the past but you won't be able to do both. And since the so-called new order doesn't have clean hands either, most of the Bush-Cheney cabal that have been looting right to the end (Halliburton, the bailout and so on) won't pay a harsh price in proportion to their crimes.

I know both Obama and Biden have suggested otherwise in their public comments. And I very much hope that a reckoning of justice takes place with convictions and jail time. But it won't. The law catches up to OJ but it won't really catch up to Bush, Cheney, or most of their cabal. Some collateral damage perhaps such as Abramoff or Scooter Libby but a wholesale reckoning won't happen.

Remember Ollie North? He ultimately got rich over Iran-Contra."

So what do readers here think about a so-called day of reckoning for the Bush crime syndicate? Are you expecting one? Do you believe the body politic can support the pursuit of justice against the criminal perpertrators of the Bush years as well as health care?

Personally, I'm inclined to demand both and believe it's a matter of will and leverage. Actvists and truth tellers such as the progressive blogosphere must insist on accountability should Obama prevail in November. However, as I wrote on Gottlieb's thread, I don't believe a true reckoning will take place just as Bush and Cheney were never impeached while in office.

Instead, we will be given a choice between promoting progressive policy such as health care reform and infrastructure development or justice. If forced to choose then I pick the economy over frog marching Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. But damn it we shouldn't have to choose. Our country needs accountability for redemption.

Al-Quaida Prefers McCain

The Associated Press is reporting that an Al-Quaida linked website suggests in a message to their supporters they prefer John McCain over Barack Obama.

Here is a quote from the Associated Press's report:

"The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, 'impetuous' Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier,' the message said. 'Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush.'

SITE Intelligence Group, based in Bethesda, Md., monitors the Web site and translated the message.

'If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American interests,' the message said, 'this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it.'"

Of course none of this is news to those of us who protested the post 9/11 policies of President George W. Bush and his merry band of corporatist theocratic neocons. Electing John McCain will only continue polices that profit plutocratcs and help facilitate Armageddon as those who subscribe to endtimes are praying for. That is the real John McCain coalition: people who exploit war to fleece America and religious nuts hoping Armageddon will bring about the Kingdom of God. And Al-Quaida knows it.

About That Colin Powell Endorsement

Personally, I have little use for former Secretary of State Colin Powell. He didn't put his country first five years ago and prevent our calamity in Iraq. Powell was the only person in the world who could have prevented it, knew Bush's course was wrong and remained silent. Powell's endorsement yesterday is the act of an old Washington elitist seizing an opportunity to salvage his tainted legacy and ensure access to the next administration.

And yet Powell retains considerable prestige as a symbolic representative of America's "vital center." Powell does not deserve this prestige. After his despicable presenation to the United Nations five years ago Powell secured his dishonorable place in history as a man with the blood of both Americans and Iraqis on his hands. Nevertheless, most Americans regard Powell as statesman.

Ironically, the "vital center" that Powell supposedly represents also endorsed George W. Bush's horrofic post 9/11 foreign policy. And like Powell, they're eager to turn the page. Hence, if Powell's endorsement is the reassurring pat on the head that remaining undecided voters need to pull the lever for Barack Obama, I'll take it.

WAPO Endorses Obama

Today's Washington Post endorsement of Barack Obama is worth reading. Here is the money quote:

"Any presidential vote is a gamble, and Mr. Obama's résumé is undoubtedly thin. We had hoped, throughout this long campaign, to see more evidence that Mr. Obama might stand up to Democratic orthodoxy and end, as he said in his announcement speech, 'our chronic avoidance of tough decisions.'

But Mr. Obama's temperament is unlike anything we've seen on the national stage in many years. He is deliberate but not indecisive; eloquent but a master of substance and detail; preternaturally confident but eager to hear opposing points of view. He has inspired millions of voters of diverse ages and races, no small thing in our often divided and cynical country. We think he is the right man for a perilous moment."

Impressions From Obama/McCain Three

When it comes to tax policy, health care and the economy we already know what both candidates will say before they say it. On that front we didn't learn anything new about either one. Grading on a curve last night was easily McCain's best performance yet he was still off putting. Ultimately, I am left with the following impressions:

• Obama is as cool as the flip side of a pillow. He was never rattled no matter what outrageous incoming fire McCain sent his way. Obama smiled quite a bit while McCain spoke which may be his way of maintaining composure. Some might find that arrogant.

• Increasingly, McCain reminds me of a typical villain from the old Scoobie-Doo cartoons. Last night I could almost feel McCain thinking, "I would've have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids.!"

• McCain was rather flippant about the health of the mother when it comes to exemptions for late term abortions. To me he seemed callous.
  

• Obama remains evasive about what specific programs our current economic crisis may force him to cut.

• Joe the Plumber worked initially but McCain's obsessive references to him as a crutch was off putting.

• McCain's has a serial habit of interrupting which is quite off putting. It bothered me when Al Gore did it too and he's someone I admire. Interrupting people is insecurity disguised as arrogance.
  

• McCain's line about not being President Bush was good but a day late and a dollar short.
  

• One way or another I've seen nearly every presidential debate since primary season for both parties this year. Even though I'm a political junkie I'm glad they're over.