Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[Diomedes]

from the current NYTimes article, on a different legal tack

In another setback for Ms. Palin, a judge on Friday ordered the state of Alaska to preserve any government-related e-mail messages that Gov. Sarah Palin sent from private accounts.

The ruling, by Craig Stowers of Anchorage superior court, came as the result of a lawsuit brought by a resident, Andree McLeod, against Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

Ms. Palin has occasionally used private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, and her Yahoo accounts were hacked last month.

The judge ordered the attorney general to contact Yahoo and other private carriers to preserve any e-mail messages sent and received on those accounts. An assistant attorney general told the court that the governor was no longer using here private e-mail accounts to conduct state business.

So the governor of a State is using Yahoo to conduct state business.  That is some awesome judgement.

[Diomedes]

What Was the Question?
Elizabeth Holmes reports from Lacrosse, Wis., on the presidential race.

John McCain and Sarah Palin perfected their question-answering act Thursday at a town-hall meeting in Waukesha, Wis. Nearly every inquiry was responded to first by the Republican presidential nominee, citing a long-held campaign policy. After McCain finished, Palin would chime in with an attack on Democratic rival Barack Obama or praise for McCain.

While voters always expect a little twisting to incorporate talking points, Palin took the cake Thursday with her creativity on some answers.

About halfway through the town hall, a woman in the audience asked about hate-crime legislation. (The Matthew Shepard Act, which would expand the definition of hate crimes to include gender and sexuality, is pending in Congress.) McCain answered the question, advocating "swift and sure justice" but said he couldn't "divine the intentions of a perpetrator of a crime."

He then ceded the floor to Palin, whose answer included praise for the Wisconsin National Guard.

"Oh yeah, and the first thought that pops into my head also when you're talking about rights and you're talking about freedoms, is we're talking about Sen. John McCain and what he has done for our country and putting his country first his entire life to fight for freedoms," she said to applause.

But wait, that's not all. She continued: "And Wisconsin, here again, kudos to you, your great Wisconsin guard. About a third of your troops will be over in a war zone in a number of months, in '09, you guys are going to be over there, helping to defend freedom and defend liberty and the Democratic values that we all cherish so much, again something that Sen. John McCain has dedicated his entire life to. Thank you to Wisconsin for sending your guard over there to protect all the rest of the nation, thank you."

What a dumb bitch.

SNL can lay off a writer or two if she ends up being VP, that's for sure.

[Magical_Retard]

so mccain finally answered back today to some of the crazies at his rally today. some lady called obama a arab and mccain took the mic from her and said "no ma'am hes not. hes a decent family man who i happen to disagree with".

he also called for a "Respectful campaign and respect from his followers towards Obama"

sounded like the reasonable mccain i came to know during the 2000 campaign. but the cynic in me, esp after how this behavior was tolerated all week up until today, wonders if this was done on purpose now.

[Magical_Retard]

link to what i mentioned above:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6YKOkfFsE

[PhillyGirl]

so mccain finally answered back today to some of the crazies at his rally today. some lady called obama a arab and mccain took the mic from her and said "no ma'am hes not. hes a decent family man who i happen to disagree with".

he also called for a "Respectful campaign and respect from his followers towards Obama"

sounded like the reasonable mccain i came to know during the 2000 campaign. but the cynic in me, esp after how this behavior was tolerated all week up until today, wonders if this was done on purpose now.

I think it was more the polls and the fact that some of the biggest conservatives are blasting his tactics are getting to him.

If it was honestly genuine, he would have put a stop to it earlier this week. Not now when he's being blasted from every possible angle.

[Wingspan]

That opinion took me totally by surprise and never expected to read that.

[PhillyGirl]

What the hell was so wrong with what I posted?

Jesus already, get over it. 

Had he come out earlier this week and said something, I'd 100% have said that I respected him doing so.

[Magical_Retard]

That opinion took me totally by surprise and never expected to read that.

oh please. thats what was expected from mccan from the beginning. the shock was how he allowed the republican strategists to take over his campaign and turn it into a bush/rove esque hate filled campaign.

it just seems weird now considering the rallies made such headlines and some within the republican party even disagreed with it.

for his sake i hope it is genuine. part of me believes he knows, and always knew, it was wrong but is so desperate to win he allowed this to take place. i hope so but the timing off it seems political.

[Diomedes]

link to what i mentioned above:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6YKOkfFsE

Bush would never do this.  That alone should prove that, regardless how you may dislike McCain, and regardless his dumb policies, and regardless his travesty of a VP, he would be a better president than Bush.  Political or genuine, what he says here is well done and should be applauded or at least respected.  Savvy or real, it was well done.

Now, mind you, almost anyone would be a better President of the U.S. than Bush, and I think Obama would be far far better than McCain.

But come on, that is a pretty good McCain moment.

[Phanatic]

I think he beleives it when he says that but he has let the GOP attack dogs run things and now he's having 2nd thoughts because he finds the folks coming to his rallys dispicable and he just can't deal with that. So he lashed out against it. Real life is not so cut and dry and black and white as we like to think.

[hunt]

link to what i mentioned above:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6YKOkfFsE

old white folks are so ignant. 

[SD_Eagle5]

Palin violated ethics act

Palin Violated Ethics Act, `Troopergate' Probe Finds (Update2)

By Tony Hopfinger

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin abused her authority and violated state ethics rules by letting her husband use her office to press for the firing of a state trooper, a state legislative investigator reported.

``Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda,'' according to the report that was issued today in Anchorage.

Even so, the report said Palin's dismissal of former state Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, who had refused to fire Trooper Michael Wooten, was a ``proper and lawful exercise'' of her authority to fire department heads for any reason. Monegan contends the governor dismissed him for refusing to fire Wooten, who was involved in a divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister.

The report on Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, was released less than a month before the Nov. 4 election as she is trying to help the party's presidential candidate, John McCain, overcome Democrat Barack Obama's lead in national polls.

`Deeply Troubled'

`It's one more blow to a deeply troubled campaign,'' said Julian Zelizer, a history and public affairs professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. ``The report on Palin raises more questions about why McCain made this choice and how much he really cares about fighting corruption.''

The report said Palin had been asked to cooperate with the investigation by giving a sworn statement, and that she hadn't done so.

Investigator Stephen Branchflower wrote in the report that, ``I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating'' a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which bars any official action to benefit a personal interest.

Violation of the ethics act could result in sanctions, including up to $5,000 in civil fines by a state ethics board, according to the law.

McCain's campaign has criticized the probe as partisan because the lawmaker leading it is a Democrat.

`Partisan Inquiry'

Meg Stapleton, a spokeswoman for McCain's campaign, said the report ``shows that the governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan. The report also illustrates what we've known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters.''

Members of the Legislative Council voted 12-0 to release the report even though there wasn't agreement on the findings, lawmakers said.

``I don't think there is a consensus on the conclusions,'' said Representative Bill Stoltze.

Palin, 44, maintains she didn't abuse her power and that she fired Monegan July 11 over budget disagreements. Yesterday, McCain's campaign released a statement that accused Monegan of ``multiple acts of insubordination'' and called his firing a ``straightforward personnel decision.''

Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to comment on the report.

Branchflower's report said that while Monegan's refusal to fire Wooten wasn't the sole reason for his dismissal by Palin, ``it was likely a contributing factor.''

`Provide Cover'

While Palin has said that she and her family feared Wooten, the investigator said he concluded that ``such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins' real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons.''

The probe was conducted for the Legislative Council, a bipartisan committee of 14 lawmakers that conducts business when the Legislature isn't in session. The council voted unanimously to start the probe on July 31. The lawmaker directing the probe, Hollis French, is a Democrat.

At the heart of the dispute is a years-long feud between the Palin family and Wooten. She and her family accused Wooten of using a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson, shooting a moose without a permit, drinking on the job and other acts of misconduct, all of which allegedly occurred before she was elected governor in November 2006.

His Wife

Branchflower listed instances in which Palin's husband, Todd, contacted state officials after his wife became governor in an effort to get Wooten fired. There also was evidence of her ``active participation,'' he wrote.

``Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional,'' Branchflower wrote.

Democratic State Senator Kim Elton, chairman of the Legislative Council, said he is reserving judgment until another investigation -- this one being conducted by the State Personnel Board -- is completed.

Palin has agreed to cooperate in that probe, saying she believes the body, which is comprised of three political appointees, is a less partisan venue to investigate Monegan's firing.

``It's probably not fair to draw any conclusions before seeing the other report'' by the Personnel Board, Elton said. The board, which has hired an Anchorage attorney to conduct the investigation, has not set a deadline.

Republican State Representative John Coghill said some of the efforts to fire Wooten were understandable. ``Who's going to blame Todd Palin for looking out for his family?'' he said.

An investigation by the Alaska state police before Palin became governor sustained some of the claims against Wooten and dismissed the rest. He was put on unpaid leave for five days in 2006. Palin was elected governor later that year.

Todd Palin gave a sworn written statement to the investigator this week in which he denied pressuring Monegan to fire Wooten.

``I had hundreds of conversations and communications about Trooper Wooten over the last several years with my family, with friends, with colleagues and with just about everyone I could, including government officials,'' Todd Palin's statement said

[Cerevant]

Looks like McCain is losing his stomach for his own hate mongering...

http://www.youtube.com/v/Kf6YKOkfFsE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1

[SD_Eagle5]

"I can't trust Obama, he's an Arab"

Jesus was an Arab

[Seabiscuit36]

Looks like McCain is losing his stomach for his own hate mongering...

http://www.youtube.com/v/Kf6YKOkfFsE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1

that does look genuine, i think he's realizing what side has picked him and it scares him