Transfixed

I've been watching all day. I turned it on as soon as i woke, got up and hurried to make coffee. I watched the ceremony and was moved to tears by Teddy Jr's. eloquent speech and by Patrick's too- wearing his heart on his sleeve. And President Obama's speech was wonderful of course, as well. But I especially loved whe the grandkids got up to speak (quoting him) and continuing his cause for healthcare reform.

I did not know that the funeral would be televised too. And here i sit again.

So, so very sad. an end of an era.


It was almost hard listening to his letter to the pope as the sky grew dark with just the occasional lightening flash lighting up the sky - as if orchestrated. It was so dark all you could see were shadowy figures. And at the end when the grandchildren went to the casket to say they're goodbyes, someone had set up lights. I would have preferred for it to just end in the dark they way it was; it seemed unnecessary to illuminate those final moments.

Edward Kennedy

I found it sad today when i saw that
Ted Kennedy had died. Hopefully this will not be bad news for the upcoming Health Care Reform vote. I'm hoping that Gov. Duval will be able to appoint an interim Democrat at this most crucial time in history and that with a little bit of luck and maybe even a miracle we can get this thing done.

Unbelievable!!

(How come no one is reporting this? I think it is time the Obama campaign got the facts out on Palin and her secessionist hubby!)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Posted October 9, 2008 | 11:28 AM (EST) Alaskan Independence Party: The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

Read More: 2008 Election, Aip, Alaska Independence Party, Bill Ayers, First Dude, Joe Vogler, John Kerry, Media Coverage Of 2008 Election, Obama Ayers, Palin Alaska Independence Party, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Todd Palin Aip, Todd Palin Sarah Palin, William Ayers, Politics News

In 2004, America's malleable mainstream media allowed itself to be manipulated by artful Republican operatives into devoting weeks of broadcast attention and drums of ink to unfairly desecrating John Kerry's genuine Vietnam heroics while obligingly muzzling serious discussion of George W. Bush's shameful wartime record of evasion and cowardice.

Last week found the American media once again boarding Republican swift boats against this season's Democratic candidate armed with unfair and hypocritical attacks artfully designed by GOP strategists to distract attention from the cataclysmic outcomes of Republican governance. Vice Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin has taken to faulting Senator Barack Obama for his casual acquaintance with a respected Illinois educator Bill Ayers, who forty years ago was a member of the Weathermen, a movement active when Obama was eight and which he has denounced as "detestable." Palin argues that the relationship proves that Obama sees "America as being so imperfect that he is palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

The Times dedicated a page one article to Obama's relations with Ayers and CNN's Anderson Cooper obliged Palin by rewarding her reckless accusations about Obama's patriotism with a major investigative report. Fox, meanwhile, is still riveting its audience with wall to wall coverage of this pressing irrelevancy.

But if McCarthy-era guilt-by-association is once again a valid political consideration, Palin, it would seem, has more to lose than Obama. Palin, it could be argued, following her own logic, thinks so little of America's perfection that she continues to "pal around" with a man--her husband, actually--who only recently terminated his seven-year membership in the Alaskan Independence Party. Putting plunder above patriotism, the members of this treasonous cabal aim to break our country into pieces and walk away with Alaska's rich federal oil fields and one-fifth of America's land base--an area three-fourths the size of the Civil War Confederacy.

AIP's charter commits the party "to the ultimate independence of Alaska," from the United States which it refers to as "the colonial bureaucracy in Washington." It proclaims Alaska's 1959 induction as a state "as illegal and in violation of the United Nations charter and international law."

AIP's creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism of its founding father Joe Vogler, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American," reads a favorite Vogler quote on AIP's current website, "I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." According to Vogler AIP's central purpose was to drive Alaska's secession from the United States. Alaska, says current Chairwoman Lynette Clark, "should be an independent nation."

Vogler was murdered in 1993 during an illegal sale of plastic explosives that went bad. The prior year, he had renounced his allegiance to the United States explaining that, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." He cursed the stars and stripes, promising, "I won't be buried under their damned flag...when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Palin has never denounced Vogler or his detestable anti-Americanism.

Palin's husband Todd remained an AIP party member from 1995 to 2002. Sarah can be described in McCarthy-era palaver as a "fellow traveler." While retaining her Republican registration, she attended the AIP's 1994 convention where the party called for a draft constitution to secede from the United States and create an independent nation of Alaska. The McCain Campaign has reluctantly acknowledged that she also attended AIP's 2000 Convention. She apparently found the experience so inspiring that she agreed to give a keynote address at the AIP's 2006 convention and she recorded a video greeting for this year's 2008 convention. In other words, this is not something that happened when she was eight!

So when Palin accuses Barack of "not seeing the same America as you and me," maybe she is referring to an America without Alaska. In any case, isn't it time the media start giving equal time to Palin's buddy list of anti-American bombers and other radical associates?

Not a Joke Friday

Joke Friday

I stole this clip from over at Crockheads - who is so much better than me at explaining politics- seriously - i mean it really- go read his blog. I am so glad he put this up since i fell asleep before it came on last night. Perfect for Joke Friday I think, tho Anonymous won't think so I'm sure.

Joke Friday

I THINK I UNDERSTAND THIS ELECTION A LITTLE BETTER NOW
I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, it's a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
* Graduate from Harvard Law School and you are unstable.* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Se nate r epresenting a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on t he city council, and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people (the same population as the city of San Francisco), then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.
* If you teach responsible, age-appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25, and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, it's all much clearer now.....