I'm not convinced the Palin selection isn't part of something "darker".  She may not govern in during the first term, however, I wouldn't be surprised if McCain is a one-term wonder with Palin running for President in 4 years.  Or even worse, McCain's health may take him out of office before the end of his first term and Palin would run for President as the incumbent in 2012. 

Palin's selection seems to be an excellent choice because she's an extremist conservative with little experience who makes a perfect puppet.

and, BTW - Howard is first in these parts.

mccain's campaign has been touting his mother's age, 96, as 'living proof' that he will fulfill his full term, if elected. let's check the Y chromosome of mccain's inheritance--mccain's grandfather died at age 61 of a heart attack, and mccain's father died at age 70 of the same. mccain's systolic reading, as i recall from the dump of his med records, is 135, which is pre-hypertensive. BP is usually the initiator of a cascade of biomechanisms precipitating a heart attack. raise his BP--did we say ol' mac has a temper?--and we just might have a president palin.

gov palin has not been tested by the hard choices of balancing the budget that her fellow repub gov of calif has had to make.  [i have empathy for his situation, even though i disagree with his slashes.]  the oil companies fuel AK's budget, and that's who she negotiated with.   bfd! 

the slashes in her budget seem more along ideological lines--eg, program for unwed mothers--than cost considerations.  besides, young teens don't vote. 

the govt cuts a 'rebate check' for every alaskan, but many squander theirs on alcohol, a huge public health problem in AK, and there is no program for fetal alcohol syndrome prevention.  screening mammograms for rural women take 2 days [1 day to fly out, 1 to fly home] b/c AK lacks the health infrastructure.  did palin ever fund a program for special needs children before she 'chose' [what a crock!] to have hers?

AK is not constrained by money to develop creative solutions--only by a rigid gov.

obama, biden, and dems need to sock mccain on his choice of a running mate who pushes drilling for oil. 

has anyone noticed that the price of oil is responding to the commodities market--the destruction of demand [we've discovered we're bipeds] and the rise of the u.s. dollar?  industry experts speculate that the bubble has burst, and oil will settle to a $68-85 range--close to the price before everything went nuts. 

tie that in to the multi-tasker of de-regulation, PHIL GRAMM--enron, sub-prime mortgages, investment banking scandals.  he's still riding mac's bus.

from the washington spectator, july 15, 2008..........

"Young was already under investigation by the FBI regarding allegations that an Alaska company was funneling illegal money to him when the Senate voted by a 68-24 margin in April to refer his situation to the Justice Department.  At issue was the $10 million earmark Young had altered in a transportation appropriation--after the bill had been passed by both houses of Congress.

"It was Young who killed a 2000 bill, sponsored by then Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK), that would have required employers in the Northern Marianas to pay the federal minimum wage.  Murkowski's bill was at the top of Jack Abramoff's hit list, and Young's fingerprints were all over it."

we need to dig deeper to unearth palin's ties to young and all her talk about bucking her own party.

i voted for senator john mccain for president in 2000.  i will not vote for him again in 2008.

the iraq war brought change to john mccain.  he doffed his maverick garb, put on his virtual uniform of a good soldier, stepped behind his commander-in-chief and followed him to the big sandy.  when disagreements arose--like those concerning torture and rendition--he dutifully marched to the war council called by his commander-in-chief and emerged chastened.  it was unbelievable and so very disappointing.

but it was not until his choice of alaska gov sarah palin that revealed how wayward his campaign has become.  it is not 'country first,' john mccain.  it is all about you.

western michigan, hit by unemployment and the lack of job security, showed an uptick in depression, alcoholism, and chronic diseases when the largest refrig factory in the u.s. moved to juarez, mexico. when the same company shut down a plant in sweden--where national social policies based on shared responsibility protect workers from globalization's impact--hardly a ripple was felt.

As usual, Gloria Steinen hits all the right notes for me. See her statement at http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,1290251.story.

And isn't it amazing that we are looking to The National Enquirer to vett a VP candidate better than McCain did? I think someone will turn up yet more interesting information about Palin that will cast even more doubt on McCain's judgment and, I hope, will help to sink them both. I'm glad that Obama and Biden are staying above the fray and on message. I think there will be many voices that will call attention to what Palin stands for. For instance, if she ever had any of it, she lost the librarian vote with her proposed list of books to pull from her public library and, failing that, her effort to firing the librarian. Granted, not the largest voting block in the country, but WE HAVE FRIENDS AND WE KNOW HOW TO GET INFORMATION OUT!

I think that Sarah needs to stay home and pay a little more attention to her family.

Between her knocked up daughter and her handicapped baby, it seems that she's more interested in promoting her own career than taking care of her family.

Senators Obama and Biden keep to the issues. DO NOT GET SUCKED DOWN IN THE MUD WITH THE REPUBLICANS. Carl Rove, who in my opinion should be pressing license plates in a federal prison somewhere, is running the same kind of campaign he ran for Bush. They never deal with the issues just spread negative lies. There are plenty of people in and out of your campaign to deal with this crap.