<p>Funny how Palin (or McCain for that matter) has said nothing about how “un-American” the Alaskan Independance Party is - you know (pug), the party that her husband belonged to and that Palin, herself, had given an address and attended meetings.</p>
<p>“I’m an Alaskan, NOT an American. I’ve got NO use for America or her DAMNED institutions.” - Joe Vogler, Founder of the Alaskan Independance Party</p>
<p>Obama, unlike McCain and Palin has too much class to go there (so much for McCain’s promise not to run a dirty campaign), but the “liberal” press, once again has no ■■■■■■■.</p>
<p>And maybe Gov. Palin should read up on her US history (as well as the US Constitution) - w/o “unAmerican” cities like Boston and Philly, there would be no United States as we know it.</p>
<p>The same demonizing and knee-jerk nationalism (which is totally different from true patriotism) that McCain and Palin are engaging in are not only the same tactics that
Bush/Cheney/Rove and McCarthy have used, but it’s the same tactic Putin uses in Russia, Chavez in Venezuela, Ahmadinejad in Iran, etc.</p>
<p>Note that the core constituency of all these groups is pretty much the same: (1) business interests w/ close ties to the govt. and (2) less educated/informed people, primarily those not living in urban areas, who take religious text literally and have no problem labeling those who disagree w/ them as being “unpatriotic” or “traitors”.</p>
<p>Grasping at straws, LOL. It’s also widely known that Texas, Oklahoma, heck, probably all 50 states have “efforts” to secede. They’re all silly, so Palin sent a holla to them, and her husband registered with them once. <em>yawn</em></p>
<p>The issue isn’t that Obama dealt with Ayers, it’s that Obama continued to deal with Ayers and his wife (top 10 FBI) after knowing about his radical past.</p>
<p>^ LOL - that was like over 150 years ago. (Besides, the American TAXPAYER paid for Alaska).</p>
<p>And nice downplaying of Palin’s husband’s membership in the API - he was a member for about a decade and Palin did not just give a “holler”, she also attended other meetings.</p>
<p>So why did Reagan’s buddy Annenberg fund the education board that Ayers and Obama served on (btw, there were a no. of Republicans on that board as well)?</p>
<p>And McCain continued to associate closely w/ Liddy (more so than Obama ever did w/ Ayers) even tho he knew of Liddy’s past terrorist activities.</p>
<p>Please - your stuff is as lame as Limbaugh’s.</p>
<p>And let’s not forget that a good no. of conservative writers, pundits and intellectuals have stated that Palin is unqualified to be President (heck, even Rove stated that the Palin pick was based on politics and not qualifications - so much for “Country First” - seems more like “McCain First”) - lol!</p>
<p>You’re entitled to your opinion that Sarah Palin is an America hater because she’s crossed paths with a silly group, I stand by the fact that Obama has strange friends, friends with strange views on America, friends that shape his strange worldview (heck, he had membership with the socialist New Party), and he hasn’t been forthright about them.</p>
<p>I mean, MSNBC can ask Joe about his silly Natural Law registration but can’t ask Obama about his registrations?</p>
<p>Attending several meetings/giving a pep talk before an API conference is hardly crossing paths, much less is being married to a guy who was a member for a decade.</p>
<p>And it’s highly amusing that you keep ignoring Liddy.</p>
<p>As for the (defunct) New Party, while I didn’t agree w/ a lot of what they espoused, the, unlike the API, didn’t express secession from the US or sedition as a central part of their platform.</p>
<p>Yeah, the NP espoused social democratic views, but gee, how scary is that?</p>
<p>I guess we should be deathly afraid of Canada, Sweden, Finland, etc. as well - lol!</p>
<p>Well, why would I validate you by arguing about stupid stuff? If you want me to nitpick every last bit of your argument (point 1, 2, 3) rather than focus on the big picture (yes there are strange parts of America like San Franciso, yes Barack has a record of strange friends, yes Barack has been less than forthright about himself)… I mean, if you really want to focus on the trees over the forest.</p>
<p>Like I said, there are secession efforts for many states. Who cares? They’re silly. You can keep spooking on that one, I don’t care, maybe some hippies do.</p>
<p>Has McCain ever been less than forthright about Liddy the way Obama has been about Ayers, ACORN, Rezko, etc.?</p>
<p>Jon Stewart had a rather brilliant segment last night about Palin’s “small town” values. His meathead-style reporter (don’t know his name) went to Wasilla and stood in the middle of a really busy highway with horns honking, extolled the virtues of the local “general store” in front of a Target, and interviewed residents. Oh my.</p>
<p>One talked about going to church, then described his tattoos of his naked wife and his mistress and his other mistress at the time…</p>
<p>Another resident even said 9/11 was a “small town thing”. Huh? I can assure you, having lived in the crosshairs of 9/11 at the time, people I knew in “small town” America had no visceral grasp of what actually happened.</p>
<p>Most interesting was he interviewed the mayor of Wasilla, and the woman couldn’t think of anything she actually does as mayor (they have no city services). She just sat there with a dumb look on her face and said, “Well, Monday morning at 10 we have a staff meeting… On Thursday I sign the checks…”</p>
<p>The segment closed with a bunch of NY firefighters and the reporter talking about how we big city elitists can all learn a lesson from small town values.</p>
<p>Brilliant satire. It’s as if Jon Stewart does more honest journalism than any of the real journalists who let Palin and McCain tell lie after lie after lie and attack other Americans. </p>
<p>It’s disgusting.</p>
<p>If anyone REALLY wants to know the beauty and potential of the U.S., read Jacob Needleman’s “The American Soul”. Liberal or conservative, it gets to the heart of where we need to go as a nation.</p>
<p>I didn’t say she’s a horrible woman. She seems like a really nice woman, actually. Just one who is in deep over her head professionally and intellectually. When people are in that situation, they have no recourse but to attack. I don’t blame her.</p>
<p>One always has to consider both sides, and just imagine if Barack was openly mocking people from small towns in the way Palin is doing to urban people (who are the majority of our population). </p>
<p>He would be called a bigot and elitist (even more than he is).</p>
<p>Applejack, I saw the segment and I am still thinking of it this morning! It was so brilliant!
It really shows how un attached she is from reality. I am really concerned that Mc Cain’s choice was one of a " Senior Moment" one, and I hope Americans ("real"or not) can realize what a mistake she would be for all of us, despite our personal views. If Obama would have brough someone like her, then he wouldn’t have gotten my vote. She is the dangerous one!</p>
<p>As much as I dislike Gov. Palin, I never really interpreted what she said as being anti-cosmopolitan. Can someone post a link to the stump speech in question?</p>
<p>Did she ever say anything denigrating about cities the way Obama has repeatedly done about all Americans, as well as small towns? Did she ever say anything but the fact that she likes small towns?</p>
<p>The One: The one thing that I want to insist on is that, as I travel around the country, the American people are a decent people. Now they get confused sometimes. You know, they listen to the wrong talk radio shows or watch the wrong TV networks, um, but they’re, they’re basically decent, they’re basically sound. </p>
<p>I’m rather insulted the way he looks down upon the American people like some strange creatures.</p>
<p>The One: And it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.</p>
<p>This title is a complete misconfiguration of Palin’s sentiment. These quotes show the true Obama. </p>
<p>Obama was JOKING about the listening to wrong radio and TV. It’s called humor.</p>
<p>I saw your “bitter guns” diatribe coming 8 miles away with this subject. Come on. Seriously. Turn the radio off. Think for yourself. </p>
<p>If you didn’t HAVE to defend Palin because she’s in your camp, do you really think you would? </p>
<p>Would you defend someone who taxed the windfall profits of oil companies and gave the money back to the residents? </p>
<p>Would you defend someone who was a small town mayor with no responsibilities and a governor of a state with a population the size of Brooklyn for 20 months? </p>
<p>You probably dismiss Obama’s top quality education, his position on the Harvard Law Review, his work helping the poor, and his role in state senate just to assert that they’re the same as Palin’s background - or worse.</p>
<p>I just don’t think you’d be so accommodating to her. I know I never liked John Edwards, even though I voted for Kerry. I never trusted Edwards and learned why. John Edwards is a bald-faced liar and so is Palin. It’s okay to dissent once in a while. </p>
<p>She calls herself a Christian, yet has no moral compass of honesty or integrity. That’s not very Christ-like to me.</p>
<p>See, I don’t consider that to be especially anti-city. Really… I interpreted it as her supporting the average citizen (perhaps more so blue-collar townsy folks than business people, but still…). <em>Shrugs</em> A support of the cliche American dream? I don’t know. Either way, I think the media has analyzed the issue a lot more than warrant. I’d rather hear about the ramifications of her power of abuse scandal (something directly reflecting her actions) than the nuances of something the GOP speechwriters probably handed over to her to keep the conservative base energized (I doubt many of her real views are actually being expressed, more what aspects of what people think she is to draw in the voters on election day).</p>