Greg, when will TPM say something re: server problems?

When is the lesbian meth addict going to smash a chair over the head of the midget neo-Nazi?

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

Where is the "Palin as director of Ted Stevens 527 group" blog? It could have major political ramifications.

I'm confused. . .does this mean letting our seventeen year old daughter get pregnant is what family values is all about? Has this reached "Dukes of Hazard" territory yet? Enquiring minds want to know.

Ok. This got lost when the double post was deleted.

So, McCain campaign plan to keep the pregnancy of the teenager private was this: Bring her on stage, covered in a huge blanket - holding a baby.

As McCain oggled his VP pick:

http://tpzoo.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/john-mccain-took-a-close-look-at-palin-after-all/

Gives new meaning to Family Values. America First.

If McCain knew about the daughter’s pregnancy, why wasn’t Palin becoming a grandmother in a few months not part of the initial story on Friday when she was rolled out? Her son’s military service military was part of the story. If having a Down Syndrome baby speaks to Palin’s life position, why didn’t her pregnant teenage daughter carry the same message?

By Palin announcing that her teenage daughter is pregnant is supposed to deflect from the flake baby rumor, but instead it suggest that this is her daughters second pregnancy. Her daughter's pregnancy makes it clear that the abstinence-only doesn’t work for preventing teen pregnancies. Palin wants to keep other teenagers in America from getting birth control information and devices. Palin is anti-birth-control, and anti-sex-education for teens aside from abstinence-only.

A rather important point that the media has thus far missed:

It is impossible that the McCain vetting team knew about this in advance.

a) McCain originally wanted to choose Lieberman, Pawlenty or Ridge. He was forced to reject these choices because the *evangelical* faction would not accept someone who did not meet their criteria for their set of values.

b) Do you therefore mean to say that, in attempting to select someone who would satisfy these values voters, the McCain team would *knowingly* select someone who has a teenage daughter who is illegitimately pregnant? Utterly contradictory and, if known, would have defeated the purpose of the choice.

c) Therefore, we also now have the issue of the McCain camp covering up its incomplete vetting by stating that they knew what they obviously did not know in the first place.

It's always the cover-up.

Front page, in my opinion.

Toast. Toast. Toast. Toast. Toast. Toast.

This is a very basic fact about Sarah Palin -- she's a grandma. They have to be able to say that they knew about it before they picked her. If they didn't know *this*, how much can they really claim to know about her as a VP?

In which case, McCain is playing dice with the future of the nation. And the media has *got* to go there. They can't not go there. It's a huge open gate with a blinking neon sign that says "This Way to the Big Story."

I'm really saddened. We were already winning on the issues; this is a sucky way to win. But I guess the fact that McCain is a wild-eyed gambler does count as an "issue."

So far, much of the MSM seems to be protecting McCain, by swallowing this stuff whole.

I just tried to post the following message on the ABC website blog and I was denied access, because they "detected spam".

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/obama-to-media.html

.....

>blockquote>I disagree that this story doesn't matter. It goes to the heart of John McCain's ability to make sound decisions.

As president he will have to make scores of appointments and tough calls. His first big task, the one that would set the tone for his campaign, has turned out to be a total debacle.

Check out the video up on YouTube titled: Reckless Judgment Puts Nation at Risk.

Maybe we can convince this teenager that she and her child will be better off if Obama is elected.

Something tells me that wouldn't be hard to do.

Man what a mess. And no it's not irrelevant.

It's rained concern trolls around here ever since this story broke.

lol!

So much for Bush's abstinence programs reducing out of wedlock pregnancy.

TPaw is home laughing his ass off.

Maybe there is a reason McCain has been collecting disability payments all these years - he really can not function. The vetting process, really the lack of it, is the issue here, rather than teenage pregnancy. I thought Palin would fall on her face in debates - had no idea big bomshells existed up front.

Poll: Obama/Biden Take Eight-Point Lead

Democratic Ticket Gets Boost After Convention, CBS News Poll Finds

Sept. 1, 2008

Read more here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/01/opinion/polls/main4405106.shtml

So why isn't Palin's daughter already married?


I am middle-aged and I grew up Catholic, so I know a few things about unwanted pregnancy. Two of my cousins went through this and both married the father -- and both marriages are still going strong more than twenty years later.


If the young man agrees to marry the girl, the goal is usually to have the marriage as soon as possible. For one thing, the girl can still wear white. For another, you don't want to give the guy time to change his mind.


If they are really going to get married, you certainly don't wait until after the baby is born. Excuse the ugly term, but then the baby is technically a bastard and nobody wants that. And you certainly don't have them wait and get married when the girl is already showing her pregnancy. Why would you? Has anyone asked when the wedding is to take place? Why aren't they already married?


The bottom line is this: McCain did not know. He rushed into the decision and that makes him a dangerous choice for president.

I don't think Palin's children are really a legitimate topic for the campaign, but there is a broader question that has become an issue with each new disclosure or discovery - is it better for McCain to step back now, and choose a different VP candidate while he still can, before Palin's name is put in nomination, or face the possibility of a post-convention resignation? Obviously, if all there is on Palin is trooper-gate, he's decided to tough it out through November. But if McCain wasn't counting on the AIP issue, some of her funky social positions, the Ted Stevens links, the personal news, and all the rests, and thinks there might be more down the pike, it may be better for him to reverse course sooner rather than later.

Somewhere, Mitt Romney's head is about to explode. McCain's desire to be "mavericky" resulted in an un-vetted, Spears-Family-On-Steroids pick of a woman he met for fifteen minutes. The GOP ditched Romney and his "Competence" meme for McCain/Palin and the "Soap Opera" meme.

Cue Green Backdrop -- McCain appears looking as if he's been patted down in baby powder (or embalmed) -- McCain: "THAT'S not vetting we can believe in ... hehehehehe." [Follow with weirdo, sickly smile and bizarro giggle - look cryptkeeper-esque.]

Sarah Palin just lawyered up for troopergate, according to MSNBC.

John Sidney McCain III obviously wants Obama to win. All the baggage that is being revealed about the Right wingnut VP pick, is putting the final nails in the coffin. The John McCain of 2000 would fall on the GOP sword in order to ensure that the U.S. is in the right hands. Thank you John.

Never forget the double standard:

1) Repubs attack Obama as elite fatcat.

2) Dems respond with fact that McCain doesn't
answer "how many houses? " question (7? 8?)

3) Cindy McCain "offended" that Dems dare address
an issue her party began the attack with...
and argues that--Amendment XVIII notwithstanding--
nothing is more noble and unassailable than alcohol money.

I agree, I think he WANTS to lose at this point.

Love that the Repubs compared Obama to Britney Spears and now that have their very own Jamie-Lynn Spears on their side!

Gustav is a 'below the fold story' by late Tuesday and then watch what happens.

Everyone just shut up and sit back, because the tabloids are going to be ALL OVER this no matter what. Of course the McLame campaign will dismiss it as tabloid trash, but it won't go away, it'll just make the tabloids more agressive. Ask John Edwards.

Andrew Sullivan has been asking legitimate questions about Palin's fifth child--if it's all just vicious rumors, why doesn't Palin produce legitimate hospital records and put this to rest? The fact that her daughter is now supposedly pregnant is going to be bad enough for them.

I repeat--nothing that any liberal blogger does will compare to the tabloid media frenzy, which will quickly spill over to the MSM.

A concern troll, my friends!

Okay, I am a first time poster here, but NOT a concerned troll.

First, I think Obama's "Back Off" message is exactly right....for his campaign and his close surrogates. But for the rest of us, I think the McCain camp has it coming. Obama has faced down and campaigned through rumors about his religion, doubt about his nativity, tenuous allegations of associations with nefarious characters, and even crackhead fantasies of queer limo trysts.

Palin was welcomed onto the ticket by an old white guy who was taking advantage of her gender and relative anonymity (a.k.a. "outsider status"). McCain should have vetted her more thoroughly as a demonstration of HIS decision making abilities. She is surely now going to be vetted rigorously by the press, pundits, and bloggers.

Let me be clear -- it matters not one wit to me that Bristol is pregnant. It does matter to me that Sarah Palin, who has no problem legislating the private decisions of other women, wants to play the privacy card now. It matters that she seems to have kept hidden if not exactly lied about her daughters pregnancy in order to be more appealing to a voter block McCain is (or was) weak with. And it matters to me that there is a growing pattern of her abuse of the power of her office to do family business.

But it saddens me that Bristol Palin must go through this. Hard enough to be an unwed pregnant teenager without feeling that you've compromised let alone brought down your mother's poitical career.

People are spewing such hate-filled venom merely because some were attempting to find the truth in a story that just didn't add up. It wasn't about attacking "their" candidate - especially since some of the information concerning Trig's paternity was posted by Republicans. But I say... the Rumor mill...a path worth taking. The admission of Bristol's pregnancy is irrelevant. Whether it would have been made public knowledge prior to the election had it not been for bloggers is paramount.

People are spewing such hate-filled venom merely because some were attempting to find the truth in a story that just didn't add up. It wasn't about attacking "their" candidate - especially since some of the information concerning Trig's paternity was posted by Republicans. But I say... the Rumor mill...a path worth taking. The admission of Bristol's pregnancy is irrelevant. Whether it would have been made public knowledge prior to the election had it not been for bloggers is paramount.

Please stop pretending this is about McCain's "judgement." Saying the daughter's pregnancy shows that Palin wasn't vetted properly implies that the pregnancy is a disqualifier. Is this really the message "progressives" want to send? Face it, this looks bad for Palin, so evereyone is gleefully jumping all over it. If McCain did know and still picked Palin, is the argument that he made a mistake? How is that not saying having an unmarried pregnant teenager disqualifies one from holding office? And do people really think Palin would be a better mother if she revealed all of the personal details of her daughter's pregnancy when she was nominated?

I don't think anyone who has a teenager will buy the idea that Palin should have been able to "control" her daughter, so her daughter doesn't do anything that wouldn't fit with Palin's politics. I'm no fan of McCain or Palin, but it does seem possible that Palin dealt with this as a family issue, rather than a political one. I realize she's now evil incarnate because she's a Republican candidate, but people are making a lot of huge assumptions here.

As for showing birth certificates and the like, it would be stupid for candidates to start responding to every Internet rumor by protesting their innocence. So far,the whole "Trig isn't her baby" thing appears to have been generated strictly from someone's imagination. The logical hoops people are jumping through to support that story are pretty thin gruel.

If some right wing bloggers started saying that Obama will not be able to give the Presidency his full attention because one of his kids has sickle cell, would you expect Obama to immediately release his daughter's medical records? Would you think more highly of him if he did that?

If the daughter's pregnancy is somehow shown to be connected to Palin, there's more reason to look inot it. But right now it seems all we have is a poor teenage girl who was unlucky enough to have her mother get picked to run for VP.

Thanks lefties for taking an unsubstantiated rumor and blasting it out there. Thanks to your groundless innuendo, Sarah will become known as the mother defending her daughter's privacy. So, just for s and g, do you think it more likely for a 17 year-old or a 43 year-old to have a Downs Syndrome child? Its a life, not a choice. Those of you who believe in infanticide should not be casting stones at Sarah's values. Hmm casting stones sounds vaguely Middle Eastern, maybe even Islamic sorta like Barack Hussein Obama's father. Hahahahah.

This page has audio of Schmidt saying at 13:18 today in St. Paul that McCain "was aware of this situation before he chose Palin."

The situation being, of course, that Bristol was pregnant.

But answer me this, Billy: was Palin against teen pregnancy before she was for it?

don't think the issue is that a pregnant daughter should disqualify Palin. It's certainly not my point. The point is that according to the campaign the reason for revealing the daughter's pregnancy was to quash political rumors. It just doesn't pass the smell test. If they wanted to protect Bristol's privacy, and keep it out of the political dialogue, the context of this disclosure seems a bit strange. Since there is no way the pregnancy would go unnoticed it seems more logical to simply admit this last Friday and ask for privacy at that point. For Governor Palin to trot out her pregnant daughter to diffuse a rumor about HER own behavior is what seems strange about this. No ill will to Governor Palin or her daughter, but no one was suggesting that Bristol was pregnant, they were suggesting that Governor Palin may have been involved in misleading the public. Governor Palin and the McCain campaign offered up the daughter as a defense.

TALK ABOUT A CONSPIRACY THEORY!!!! Consider this: Sarah Palin "delivered" Trig 4/18/08. She was back at work on 4/21/08 (UNHEARD OF - USUALLY). Now according to the McCain camp it was decided to share with the world that Bristol is pregnant now...Ok...here's what's going to happen.....Bristol is going to suffer a "pseudo-miscarriage" because of all the negative publicity and gain the sympathy of everyone in America....this was the only way to end the rumor about her being Trig's mother....Just a THEORY....

From:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/intrusive-personal-questions-from-palin.html

Monday, September 01, 2008

"Intrusive Personal Questions" from the Palin Vetting Questionnaire

"Mr. McCain’s advisers said repeatedly on Monday that Ms. Palin was 'thoroughly vetted'"- The New York Times

Palin "responded to a 70-question form that included 'intrusive personal questions' a senior campaign aide said today."- The Washington Post

"Intrusive Personal Questions" from the Palin Vetting Questionnaire:

1) Did we forget anything?

2)Why are we choosing you if we discovered all of this?

3) Secession from your own country is

a) Patriotic

b) A qualification to be the potential leader of that country

c) Maverick-y!

d) None of the above

4) Did we forget anything?

5) Moose Burger : Abstinence as Moose Hunting :

a) Brother-in-law

b) 50 state flag

c) Bridge to Nowhere (after it was made impossible)

d) All of the above

6) Three Vice Presidential candidates are moving from three equidistant fixed points towards a podium. One, in his slightly glazed stare and awkwardly quasi-combative speech bears a faint resemblance to Dan Quayle; the next can only assist the ticket as we near closer to Rapture; the third seems to have stumbled out of one of Christopher Buckley's sharper efforts. Which one arrives at the podium first?

7) "Nothing that has come out did not come out in the vet." This sentence actually means:

a) Everything has come out and everything has been vetted

b) Everything that was vetted has come out

c) Everything that has come out was vetted

d) The vet came out and vetted the vets vetter than anything has ever been vetted. Really.

8) You are a right-wing, red-state conservative. During the Clinton Administration, you believed that President Clinton's behavior with Monica Lewinsky disqualified him from the Presidency on moral grounds; you fervently raised the terms "Lincoln Bedroom" and "Johnny Chung" to invoke notions of utter corruption, and regarded the "Travelgate" firings as an abuse of power. In the face of the recent revelations regarding Palin's directorship of Ted Stevens' 527, support of the Bridge to Nowhere, "Troopergate" imbroglio, and illegitimate pregnancy of her 16 year old daughter, you:

a) Blame George Soros

b) Talk about Bill Clinton instead of Palin

c) Hold your hands over your ears and loudly shout "La la la"

d) Try to change the subject

9) "Foreign policy experience" includes:

a) Being near another large nation

b) Seceding from your own country and then taking up residence in the new nation

c) Being close to "Nowhere" in your support for the Bridge to Nowhere, which is different than being "Somewhere"

d) Blame George Soros

10) If you were seeking to choose as your running mate someone who would please Evangelical Conservatives with very traditional values, who would be without taint of corruption or misuse of government power, and someone who, in line with your campaign's own slogan, would put "Country First", after thorough vetting and "intrusive personal questions", you would choose someone who:

a) Supported the Bridge to Nowhere

b) Supported the secession of Alaska from the U.S. (Slogan: "Alaska First!")

c) Was the subject of a state ethics investigation due to allegations that she had tried to have her brother-in-law fired and that she fired the state public safety commissioner due to his unwillingness to fire the brother-in-law

d) Would suffer from allegations that her 16 year old child had become pregnant illegitimately, despite her fervent support for abstinence only sex education

e) None of the above



Cite:

Head of State:

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/intrusive-personal-questions-from-palin.html

This whole thing stinks of being a last-minute B-list pick.

What went wrong on McCain's A list?

When Sarah Palin was pressured to explain the circumstances of her baby, why she outed her daughter instead of providing a birth certificate of Trig? It is said that the baby was born at Mat-Su Regional yet there is no proof of the birth happening there see the link:http://www.matsuregional.com/nursery/nursery_name.php?start=60&step=30&count=503
Why the long flight to this small ill equipped hospital when Texas or Seattle where she had a layover were better equipped to handle a premature, special needs baby? After landing in Anchorage, Alaska, she took a 45 minutes drive to the small hospital bypassing TWO large hospitals better equipped to handle preemies.
There is something fishy here and I think she outed her daughter to cover something else. She should be pressured to explain these circumstances and leave her daughter out of this mess.