Not acceptable.

This is rediculous. How can someone not understand exactly what is meant by the Bush doctrine that intends to be the second in command of the most powerful empire in the globalized world?

Community Organizer

Laughable - From Talking Points Memo

The Union Movement

The Disingenuous Stunt

A current AOL poll asks the question: "Will Clinton Backers Defect?" Well let me give my answer:

Governor Palin is the anti-Hillary Clinton. She is Bizzaro Superwoman, to Clinton's Superwoman. Palin represents much of what HRC has spent her life fighting against. Anybody who was planning on voting for Clinton who actually thinks voting for Palin is a good alternative, is spitting in the face of Hillary Clinton's life's work. After all, fair or unfair, Palin herself called Clinton a whiner:



Frankly, if you are at that point of voting for a woman, just for the sake of voting for a woman and not for what that woman stands for, or what she can or should accomplish, or how she can or will represent all of us - God forbid something were to happen to McCain should this stunt actually work - then you should never have supported HRC in the first place and moreover, you should be ashamed of what you are, given what you claim to represent. That's not feminism, that doesn't help promote equality, it reinforces the traditional myths perpetuated about women and politics. Thanks, but no thanks.

Beyond that, Sarah Palin does not agree with Hillary Clinton on anything. Palin believes that Creationism is Science, and should be taught as such in publicly funded schools. Palin believes that the government has the right to commandeer a woman's body. Palin believes that profits for big oil take precedent over preserving endangered species. Palin is so far to the right of Hillary Clinton, she actually believes that Hillary's stance on universal, affordable health care for every American - perhaps HRC's greatest life long goal - is socialism. So Sarah Palin, in typical right wing fashion, promotes the same private system that currently fails so many middle class people and mom-and-pop businesses. Sarah Palin does not even believe that global warming is a man made threat!

Now, I have nothing against Sarah Palin personally. She seems like a pretty genuine person, a good person, despite lying about her being against that bridge to nowhere in her introductory speech:

"...I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress -- I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves."

As the Washington Monthly and the New Republic (among others) have pointed out, she was actually for it (before she was against it) and was disappointed when it didn't happen. It should also be noted that Palin's Alaska is ranked #1 in pork barrel spending. But whatever, right? That's just typical Washington flip-floppery. (I guess in that regard, geography has little to do with how close she actually is to Washington.)

Back to the point, it's pretty transparent to any person not predisposed along party lines, or to someone who simply assesses things rationally, that this VP choice was strictly for political purposes (kind of like Dan Quayle, but seemingly more attractive). Palin must have worked well in polling research groups and so McCain's crew went with her.

Palin's nomination, historic as it might be (bravo to more history!), is disrespectful to women (especially those who supported HRC and those who claim to be feminists) as it is nothing more than a political stunt established by a room of old white men who plan on playing the sympathy card at any chance they get. Just look at Bill Kristol's narrative in today's Weekly Standard. He is already disseminating how the "liberal elite in the Media and Democratic party" will attack this nice religious, woman from small town America - (remember, liberals hate small town America, in most of his standard, Republican, narratives).

That's googaghoo!

Folks, Sarah Palin is being used as a political stunt - she is a pawn that is being used to play into the minds of an ever the less informed electorate, for disingenuous, political gains. To quote Hillary Clinton, "Shame on you..." Shame on any of you that buy into this stunt. (Especially those of you who claimed to be HRC supporters.)

18 Million Cracks in McCain's Choice

My initial thought on the matter was that John McCain must think that those fence sitting Clinton supporters (the few that remain) are stupid. That the only reason Clinton ever appealed to those 18 million was not because of her expirience, her accomplishments, her ability, or her policy positions, but rather simply because she is a woman. After all, why would McCain chose a relatively unknown governor from a state whose population is smaller than the population of the South Side of Chicago and whose expertise does nothing to fill the gaping holes in his own resume, and moreover, everything to undercut his strongest argument against his opponent (lack of expirience)? There was no better way to underscore up my initial perception McCain's VP choice than by showing you, Samantha Bee's "interview" from last night's Daily Show:

OBAMA

History Made

Live Blogging History!

BarbinMD blogging live from the DNC.

Unified Live

Tonight the mainstream media narrative was shattered like a glass ceiling crashing to the ground. The alleged rift, if there ever was such a rift among democratic voters - more like a chasm if you listen to the echoes coming out of the cable-based, media punditry - has been bridged in a remarkable, Tapanzeeing fashion. And the first few riders across that chasm, reporting live, while Hillary delivered her historic unification, were the bloggers - the "live" bloggers.

If 2000 and 2002 were the "Internet" elections, and 2004 was the "blog" election, and 2006 the "video blog" election, then 2008 might very well be construed the "live blog" election.

Think about it, the Internet was weaned from the mother's milk of NSF funding in 1995, but it really wasn't until the 2000 presidential election that we, the consumer/voter, bore witness to Internet affecting campaigns (I remember receiving an email from Ralph Nader). By 2002, it was critical that those running in the interim elections had a website that provided information. By 2004, bloggers, who were already alive and well and posting several years prior, hit the Boston Democratic Convention scene with a few assorted press credentials, some mainstream media attention, and a plethora of commentary. By the 2006 interim elections, the gates had been crashed, and the technology was widespread and available for the so called "YouTube" era of political coverage to begin. (Can anyone forget how Senator Jim Webb secured his seat when his incumbent opponent - George Allen - made his ill-fated racial slur?)

Now we are here, in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign and programs like CoverItLive and Twitter have enabled citizen journalists, as well as the people who follow those journalist's to link up and share information as it happens.

While Hillary Clinton delivered that speech in front of a frenzied, Democratic National Convention crowd, bloggers like BarbinMD on the DailyKos and Matthew Baldwin from Defective Yeti, were disseminating the Junior Senator's words as she spoke them, providing play by play commentary. What is truly funny, in a post-modern sort of way, is that Barbin was seemingly at the convention (given the pictures posted from earlier in the day) all the while Baldwin was likely watching from somewhere on the West Coast, (as is illustrated by his PT time signatures and his bio that states he lives in Seattle).

With live blogging, we the consumer of media are given yet another outlet to procure real time information. Watching this evolution of media-technology in action, before our eyes, is fantastic. Admittedly however, reading real-time commentary does not provide as much of a visual punch that we the modern, multi-faceted, consumer requires. For now, the mainstream media, with all their fancy camera angles and their High Definition capabilities, still has an advantage.

Alas, that advantage exists for only a short time more. As the always cutting-edge, "godfather" of the medium, Steve Garfield illustrates the same technology that drives live blogging, is pushing forward live-action video blogging, (or live "vlogging" as some of the wonks might articulate).

Take for example the short amount of time it took for bloggers to go from simple posting to video posting, then consider the current status of live video capabilities. Add in tonight's presidential sounding speech and Obama's staggering poll numbers (if you buy into the polls), and it is not so far-fetched to envision hordes of independent journalists, cell phones raised, streaming live video blog-casts, from the back rows of Madison Square Garden, while Hillary Clinton, already 20 points ahead, is giving her Democratic nomination acceptance speech. It's the HRC fan's dream!

Ok, well, lets not get too ahead of ourselves. The reality is, after Hillary Clinton's speech last night, the Democratic Party is united, this media narrative that perpetuates this phony chasm is hopefully put to bed, and the only accurate prognostication here comes in the form of the real-time video blogs that will be abundant in 2012, wherever Barack Obama's convention might be...

VP Pick Breaks on Blog

Well, it looks like Joe Biden is going to be Barack Obama's VP pick. It seems as though while the rest of the traditional media waited for a text message, Marc Ambinder (The Atlantic) had the guts to call this one first, shortly before 12:00 midnight, ET and the rest of the "new media" outlets (Political Googahoo included) followed suit. By now, over an hour later, the AP and the majors have joined Ambinder and declared Biden the presumptive VP. I guess we will all know definitively shortly - before Obama's 12pm CT event in Springfield - when that much discussed text message is planned to be sent.

In the meantime, does anyone think its all telling that this is being reported as fact on the Cable news sites (MSNBC, CNN, & Fox) when it is still mere conjecture? Just for the record, that is Googahoo.

Well, here is the first commercial, courtesy of DelawareDem, on Daily Kos: