Sarah Palin's take on the Akin Drama - WATCH

Dick Cheney: Palin as VP Was A Mistake - WATCH

The Palins at Chick-Fil-A

Look who had to show their trashy asses at America's most hated fast food joint?

The Palins

Sarah Palin: "Nancy Pelosi Is A Dingbat"

What is the tramp wearing?

Are You Sitting Down? I Agree with Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin and I disagree on almost everything -- except I do think she is correct in her criticism of jokes David Letterman made recently. I think it is inappropriate to make "rape" jokes about young girls. I think it does feed a culture that thinks it's okay to demean women and girls. And I think we need to call it out when it happens.

I disagree with Sarah Palin on most social justice issues, but on this matter I think she is right.

'Pro-Choice' Palin Would Deny Choice to Others

Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking to an antiabortion group in Evansville, IN, revealed that for a moment she considered having an abortion.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told an antiabortion audience in Indiana on Thursday night that, "for a fleeting moment," she considered having an abortion after learning that her son Trig would have Down syndrome.

The experience, she added, "now lets me understand a woman's, a girl's temptation to maybe try to make it all go away."

Ultimately, Palin said, she decided she had to "walk the walk" concerning her long-standing antiabortion views. She avoided using the word "abortion" in her speech, preferring the phrase "change the circumstances." [...]

Palin revealed more Thursday night, saying she was traveling when she got the result of the amniocentesis that revealed the chromosomal abnormality.

"There, just for a fleeting moment, I thought, I knew, 'Nobody knows me here. Nobody would ever know.' "

Palin has long been a staunch supporter of abortion restrictions, and she pointed to her own "moment of doubt" to illustrate her support for carrying pregnancies to term, regardless of the circumstances.

In other words, Sarah Palin wants the right to decide whether or not to continue a pregnancy, but she doesn't think other women should be allowed that same consideration.

And the PUMA's wonder why NOW and other women's rights groups didn't support Sarah Palin. Good grief.

More Déjà Vu: Sarah Palin is The New George W. Bush

C-SPAN offers debate timeline

C-SPAN has created a cool tool called a "debate timeline" where you can splice together and edit video clips from the debate and then embed them on your blog. So let's say Sarah Palin or Joe Biden said an answer that you found interesting, you can go to the debate timeline, click on the blue (Biden) or red (Palin) block and that specific answer will pop up in the transcripts and you can embed just that tiny portion of video (pretty cool, right?).

It is pretty cool ... check it out!


h/t to Simon

Déjà vu

nu·cle·ar . . . Pronunciation [noo-klee-er]

1. pertaining to or involving atomic weapons: nuclear war.
2. operated or powered by atomic energy: a nuclear submarine.
3. (of a nation or group of nations) having atomic weapons.
4. of, pertaining to, or forming a nucleus.
5. of, pertaining to, or like the nuclear family: nuclear bonds. –noun Informal.
6. nuclear energy: switching to nuclear as a power source.

If you can't say it, you shouldn't be a heartbeat away from being able to launch it ... that's my 2 cents ...
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Biden-Palin VP Debate

CBS News Instant Poll of Uncommitted Voters: Biden 46% Palin 21%

A CBS News instant poll of uncommitted voters who watched the debate also showed Biden to be the winner by a margin of 46-21 percent. About one-third thought the debate to be a draw.

I agree with SilentPatriot at Crooks and Liars:

MY VERDICT: No huge gaffes, only the expected distortions. McCain needed a game-changer. He didn’t get it. Palin may have successfully distanced herself from the Tina Fey caricature (her primary goal), but Biden was simply too strong. Palin came off as folksy (another goal) but I just don’t see how this changes the underlying fundamentals. Biden spoke from his decades of experience. Palin delivered the lines, but they came off as rather unauthentic and boilerplate. CNN Meter gives a slight edge to Biden, who probably delivered his best debate perfomance to date. Palin held her own and defintiely pleased the GOP base, but I don’t see independents seeing it the same way.

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Top Ten "Things Overheard At Palin Debate Camp"

10. "Let's practice your bewildered silence."

9. "Can you try saying 'yes' instead of 'you betcha'?"

8. "Hey, I can see Mexico from here!"

7. "Maybe we'll get lucky and there won't be any questions about Iraq, taxes or healthcare."

6. "We're screwed!"

5. "Can I just use that lipstick-pit bull thing again?"

4. "We have to wrap it up for the day -- McCain eats dinner at 4:30."

3. "Can we get Congress to bail us out of this debate?"

2. "John Edwards wants to know if you'd like some private tutoring in his van."

1. "Any way can we just get Tina Fey to do it?"

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Sarah Palin: The Russia Question & The Bailout

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

You might not be familiar with Richard Land, but he could very well be the deciding factor in this year's presidential election.

Richard Land, a leader of the 18 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, recently explained why he and other social conservatives are willing to allow McCain to move to the center politically -- at least for now. McCain demonstrated his loyalty to the religious right by choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

"Actions speak louder than words and Sarah Palin speaks not just volumes, but a whole library," said Land.

McCain's anti-abortion position and his choice of Palin give "people reason to believe it will be a pro-life administration," he said.

Land had lobbied McCain to add Palin to the Republican ticket. Now that his wish has been granted, Land is willing to overlook things like McCain's outreach to Log Cabin Republicans, a gay political group.

Land said conservatives appreciate McCain's efforts and don't expect him to make their agenda a cornerstone of his campaign, at least publicly, in the closing two months of the election.

Being able to deliver 18 million votes could make a significant difference in the outcome of this election. Gee ... if only Obama could have aligned himself with a vice presidential nominee who could deliver 18 million votes. Of all the bad luck.

SNL ... Palin-Clinton

You had to know this was coming ...

Gov. Palin has an Extremist View on Abortion

Make no mistake about it, Gov. Sarah Palin has an extremist view on abortion -- particularly on the issue of whether or not abortion should be available to women who become pregnant as a result of rape.

I have never been raped, never even come close to being raped, but some of my good friends have. And if that violence had resulted in an unwanted pregnancy, I would gladly volunteer to drive them to a clinic.

The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization, offers the following statistics:

RAPE:

1 out of every 6 American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (14.8% completed rape; 2.8% attempted rape).

17.7 million American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape.

9 of every 10 rape victims were female in 2003.

While about 80% of all victims are white, minorities are somewhat more likely to be attacked.

Lifetime rate of rape /attempted rape for women by race:

• All women: 17.6%
• White women: 17.7%
• Black women: 18.8%
• Asian Pacific Islander women: 6.8%
• American Indian/Alaskan women: 34.1%
• Mixed race women: 24.4%

15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12.

29% are age 12-17.

44% are under age 18.

80% are under age 30.

12-34 are the highest risk years.

Girls ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.

Pregnancies Resulting from Rape

In 2004-2005, 64,080 women were raped. According to medical reports, the incidence of pregnancy for one-time unprotected sexual intercourse is 5%. By applying the pregnancy rate to 64,080 women, RAINN estimates that there were 3,204 pregnancies as a result of rape during that period.

This calculation does not account for the following factors which could lower the actual number of pregnancies:

• Rape, as defined by the NCVS, is forced sexual intercourse. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal, oral, or anal penetration by offender(s). This category includes incidents where the penetration is from a foreign object such as a bottle. Certain types of rape under this definition cannot cause pregnancy.
  
  
• Some victims of rape may be utilizing birth control methods, such as the pill, which will prevent pregnancy.
  
  
• Some rapists may wear condoms in an effort to avoid DNA detection.
  
  
• Vicims of rape may not be able to become pregnant for medical or age-related reasons.

This calculation does not account for the following factors which could raise the actual number of pregnancies:

• Medical estimates of a 5% pregnancy rate are for one-time, unprotected sexual intercourse. Some victimizations may include multiple incidents of intercourse.
  
  
• Because of methodology, NCVS does not measure the victimization of Americans age 12 or younger. Rapes of these young people could results in pregnancies not accounted for in RAINN's estimates.

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Which books would Palin ban, if Palin could ban books!

**Following is a list of books that John McCain's VP nominee, Sarah Palin, tried to have banned when she was mayor of Wasilla. This information is taken from the official minutes of the Wasilla Library Board. Most are novels, some poetry, but the list also includes "Our Bodies, Ourselves," "The New Teenage Body Book" and Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. What's she got against the dictionary? Yikes!

What a great testament to McCain's judgement ... an anti-education, anti-science, anti-choice, nominee just a heartbeat away from the presidency!

Sample of the books from Palin's list to ban from that Alaskan library:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O¹Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women¹s Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth


**Sent to me by a friend.

UPDATE: It appears the list above might be an urban legend, although that information wasn't listed on Snopes.com when I checked. But to be fair to Gov. Palin I did a little research this morning and Michelle Malkin insists the list is bogus. However, I did find another list that does appear to have some validity! Let me know what YOU think!

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Five Facts About Gov. Sarah Palin

~ click image to enlarge ~

From Emily's List

McCain-Palin No Real Surprise

When Republicans act like, well, Republicans why is anyone surprised? And let's further clarify that point, when religious right Republicans are hypocritical in how they act, why is anyone surprised?

Phyllis Schlafly and Beverly LaHaye have been traveling around the country for DECADES telling women to stay home and care for their families. These two women don't, but they certainly think YOU should. ha

Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell were constantly changing their positions on issues and candidates if they thought it would 1) raise more money for their work or 2) give them greater access to power. And on telling lies? Hell yes they have lied! Again I ask, why is anyone surprised???

Look at what's happened since the closing night of the Democratic Convention. Sen. Obama gave what was indisputably a great speech -- a historic speech. A speech that people should have been talking about for DAYS. But did they? NO, because politics is war, and McCain shot back immediately with his Gov. Sarah Palin assault rifle. And guess what has happened? For more than a week now all people are talking about is SARAH PALIN.

McCain had a full week of publicity for his campaign, while Sen. Obama pretty much fell off the radar screen.

And guess who is helping fuel the fire? The so-called progressive blogosphere.

Labor Day weekend is the traditional start of the political season. Voters who are just now tuning into the fact that a national election is coming up, who haven't been watching the past 18 months like the rest of us, are seeing basically one political party. The Republican Party. Yes, it was their convention week, but even so there has been almost no coverage of the Obama/Biden ticket.

And what many voters are seeing is an attractive women, with five children and a "first dude", who doesn't look at all threatening to them. I would bet that many of them are wondering what all the fuss is about, since I'm sure many of them have faced similar challenges with their own children.

My sister, who was older than Bristol at the time, had a baby out of wedlock. The difference between my family and the Palin family is that my dad (my mother was deceased when it happened) basically kicked my sister out of the house. I was furious with him, but could not get him to be reasonable.

Gov. Palin has a teenage daughter who is pregnant. Was she supposed to banish her from the stage? Or kick her out of the family completely? Is that a feminist message to be embraced? Would that represent the family values of the left? I hope not.

Should we make, as Bill Maher might say, a "New Rule" that women with children under 18 can't run for public office? Or any mother with a special needs child? Should we suggest that women who oppose abortion not be allowed to mention that they are walking the talk if they decide not to abort a fetus they know will be born with Downs Syndrome? We do have religious freedom in this country, and people are allowed to believe as they wish.

Why not instead focus on the FACT that Gov. Palin would oppose allowing OTHER women to exercise their freedom of choice, if that choice is to HAVE an abortion. Why not focus on the FACT that Gov. Palin thinks abstinence-only education works, when statistics and her life experience proves that it doesn't. And why not focus on the FACT that Gov. Palin believes that creationism should be taught in public school science classrooms -- and therefore possibly thinks "The Flintstones" is a documentary.

The list of reasons to oppose McCain/Palin is endless.

What I object to is holding Gov. Palin to a standard that is different from what men are held to. No one is suggesting that Sen. Obama can't be president because he has young children, or that Sen. McCain should be disqualified because he has seven children.

The clock is ticking, and voters need to assess each ticket on its ability to solve the mess being left behind by George W. Bush. There is plenty of evidence to suggest the McCain/Palin ticket cannot get the job done. So my suggestion is to make sure every voter is aware of THAT before they step into the voting booth.

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How RNC Delegates Celebrate

We actually haven't heard much about same-sex marriage during the Republican National Convention, but it's certainly an issue neocons like to use to rally their base. Proposed constitutional amendments are on the ballot in Arizona, California, and Florida.

There is some good news, however. Temenos, an LGBT site, reports:

While our past track-record on these ballot measures is cause for concern, there are many reasons to be hopeful about election day 2008, not the least of which is shifting public attitudes about Marriage Equality. The number of ballot measures has dwindled from 11 in 2004, to 9, in 2006, to just three in 2008. Arizona, California, and Florida face constitutional amendments prohibiting marriage equality for same sex couples (Arkansas faces a related ballot measure restricting unmarried couples from adopting children or serving as foster parents). All three states have strong LGBT organizations, and a chance to win their respective fights.

Looks like it's losing some of its punch. Maybe that's because marriage has been legal in Massachusetts for awhile now and the earth hasn't stopped spinning. Vermont passed Civil Union legislation years ago, and there has been no discernible increase in divorce among heterosexual couples. Hopefully by 2012 opposition to same-sex marriage will be off the ballot altogether. Now that's change I could believe in!

h/t to Kevin at 9in10.org
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Jon Stewart on The Gender Card