Everyone should see this:

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

Excellent anti-mccain ad from a private citizen.

Also my enthusiasm for VP debate just deflated a little.

Latest Gallup Obama 49 to 45 for McFOS...weekend shift perhaps?

Why would the Obama campaign agree to such a re-formatting?!

From:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-palin-meets-with-afghani.html

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Sarah Palin Meets with Afghan President Karzai (Transcript)

"Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin will meet next week with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in New York, on the sidelines of the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, according to Afghan officials in Washington."--Washington Post

TRANSCRIPT:

Palin: Oh, Mr. President, it is such a pleasure to meet you, you're the first head of state that I have had the opportunity to meet--which is more than many Vice Presidents--and I'm so glad that my first one is an Afghani.

You know, in Trig's class there was a little Afghani? He was the child of one of the oil executives, and he was so cute, with his little turban runnin' around, everyone just loved him, and felt for him...

Karzai: Yes.

Palin: And everyone knew that we just had to defend him and keep him free and that's why I think that with a Palin/McCain...

Palin Aide: (looking up from clipboard) McCain/Palin.

Palin: ...McCain/Palin ticket, we can make sure of that, if we have to attack Russia, even, I mean, to keep people free at home, just like we want to keep our people free. We have so much in common! I know you have the problem with the poppies, and I understand so well, Mr. Karzai, because we have the same problem with the crystal meth in Wasilla? And I said "Look, we've got to shake this up!" and then that's just what I said, I said 'Look, let's just see what we have in common with these guys!" And that's just what you could do with the Taliban, Mr. Karzai. They've already so moral, and they want people to live by the straight and narrow, and they've got the newspapers sayin' and the schools doin' lots of the right things. They just need to get some of the right ideas, and pray to the right Lord. And, if they don't understand, we still have the weapons left over from Iraq, and then we can't blink, we can't blink, can we, Mr. Karzai?

Karzai: (Looks at Palin silently without moving his head. Pauses.). Blink?

Palin: Right. The thing is, we just have to hit the ground runnin', Mr. Karzai. That's what I do. A few weeks ago I didn't even know what a Vice President doesclock so you know just how much time you have left until you finish it. I tell you, Mr. Karzai, it's such a motivating influence on my staff, the good ones, anyway, they know what they're supposed to finish and when, they hear me sayin' "Look at the clock, people, look at the clock, and know what you have left to finish..."

Karzai: Yes.

Palin: And so I said to my husband, Todd--I call him the "First Dude"--Do you have that word 'Dude' here in Afghanistan?--maybe it's like "Khan" or "Emir" or somethin'?--I said to him, 'Todd, we have to take a look at what's happenin' in Afghanistan--before McCain called or any other thing happened--' cause I saw that Russia was right across from us, and then right next to that you have all the 'Stans--(counts cross fingers) Kyrgyzstan, oh, what's the others?--well, you are aware of them, of course, Mr. Karzai (laughs)...

Karzai: (Nods)

Palin: And if we don't let other people know of what I'm aware of then the world won't change, Mr. Karzai. I know we have the same goals even if we don't have the same God yet...(aide touches Palin on shoulder, whispers). 'Even', not 'yet', I meant 'same God even, Mr. Karzai, and my point is, we can't let others stop our choice, which is freedom for those who deserve it, and that's why I know a Palin/McCain...

Palin Aide: (reaching over to touch shoulder)

Palin: Stop! (brushing aide's hand off)...McCain/Palin ticket will do just what you want, Mr. Karzai...

Second Palin Aide Approaches: It's time for your next appointment, Gov. Palin.

Palin: It was so good meeting you, President Karzai, and all of your other people, it was so good meeting you too! Shalom! (waves, exits).

Karzai: (to his aide, in Pashto): She makes the last one look like the Grand Mufti.

Cite:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-palin-meets-with-afghani.html

The media is loving this VP debate and getting ready for their narrative (i.e., They said she couldn't do it, but she did it! Wow! Everyone doubted her! She sure held her own against an experienced statesman like Biden! How sassy was she?!). It won't matter how she does, the media and McCain are setting expectations so low, that she automatically gets at least a B+ just for showing up. It's going to be just like her convention speech.

In response to someone above I found this transcript of Ifill's VP debate in 2004

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004b.html

But for those who wonder how it was that Repubs were able to squeak out a victory in 2004, all one has to do is read Cheney's closing statement. They played the fear card, and they played it well. It won't work this election.

CHENEY: Gwen, I want to thank you.

It's been a privilege to serve as your vice president these last four years and to work alongside President Bush to put our economy on an upward path.

We've cut taxes, added 1.7 million new jobs in the last year, and we'll continue to provide opportunities for business and for workers.

We won't be happy until every American who wants to work can find a job.

We believe that all Americans ought to have access to available -- to medical care and that they ought to have access to the finest schools in the world.

We'll do everything we can to preserve Social Security and to make certain that it's there for future generations.

I've worked for four presidents and watched two others up close, and I know that there's no such thing as a routine day in the Oval Office.

We saw on 9/11 that the next president -- next decision a president has to make can affect the lives of all of us.

Now we find ourselves in the midst of a conflict unlike any we've ever known, faced with the possibility that terrorists could smuggle a deadly biological agent or a nuclear weapon into the middle of one of our own cities.

That threat -- and the presidential leadership needed to deal with it -- is placing a special responsibility on all of you who will decide on November 2nd who will be our commander in chief.

The only viable option for winning the war on terrorism is the one the president has chosen, to use the power of the United States to aggressively go after the terrorists wherever we find them and also to hold to account states that sponsor terror.

Now that we've captured or killed thousands of Al Qaida and taken down the regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, it's important that we stand up democratically elected governments as the only guarantee that they'll never again revert to terrorism or the production of deadly weapons.

This is the task of our generation. And I know firsthand the strength the president brings to it.

The overall outcome will depend upon the ability of the American people and the strong leadership of the president to meet all the challenges that we'll face in the days and years ahead.

I'm confident we can do it.

With a little cyber snooping I found some info regarding the real reason Palin fired Monegan. Surely this woman couldn't have been vetted properly.

It will still work for the die hard 28% who still think W is doing a heckuva job...

Fear? Come one guys despite the MSM Palin is not going to decide this election and in fact if she performs brilliantly against Biden and Mccain has a so so debate that wont help republicans at all it will only highlight how lame Mccain is.

Good God Check Out ABC's "This Week"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzc0re_3hQw

Obama can put the old man away this Friday...Biden can deliver the first shovel of dirt on the coffin 10/2

"John McCain showed us something of his personality this week and it made some of us fearful" George Will

Out of curiosity, did anyone see that CNN special last night with all of the living former Secretary's of State? If you didnt you missed a good program.

Albright, Kissinger and Powell sounded very pro-Obama, while Jim Baker was playing it safe. After watching that Powell only fanned the flames of him being pro Obama.

Good God Check Out ABC's "This Week"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzc0re_3hQw

Obama can put the old man away this Fri

Out of curiosity, did anyone see that CNN special last night with all of the living former Secretary's of State? If you didnt you missed a good program.

Albright, Kissinger and Powell sounded very pro-Obama, while Jim Baker was playing it safe. After watching that Powell only fanned the flames of him being pro Obama.

It is REALLY worth watching six times

Please, please, please, take this out of passive voice!

"some comments by John McCain, in which he said health insurance should be deregulated in the same way as banking was, "

McCain did not say insurance should be deregulated 'the way banking was', he said it should be deregulated 'the way WE deregulated banking'. He said WE, he took credit for banking deregulation, and that's where the focus ought to be.

Now that the meltdown is obvious, he's trying to say that "Washington" and the "old boy's networks" did it, but before the meltdown became so obvious, he was personally and proudly taking credit for banking deregulation.

Well, this is another interesting piece from TPM, the real heroes of the election.

There are issues including, life, death, sex, prostitution, and drugs. What we have is another yawn piece from you Erik.

Just shut down the site because we all know George Bush should just resign. Scared of getting nuked?

Obama has never gotten above 50% in Gallup's tracker (in a year when a Democrat should be ahead by 15 points at some point). That is ominous in light of the bradley effect that will probably occur in PA, OH, MI, FL, and VA.

Thursday night was Obama's best night in the trackers since July. Tomorrow the Thursday night results will fall out of all the 3-day trackers. So at least for one day, McCain will see movement in his direction in the Gallup, Rasmussen, and Hotline polls.

Fivethirtyeight.com is reporting intimations from Rasmussen that tomorrow's battleground polls in FL, OH, VA, CO, and PA will be favorable to McCain. We shall see. In 2004, Rasmussen's final polls got 49 states right (missing only NH).

I hear that Barack is worried sick that Sarah Palin is gonna mistake Michelle for a moose.

so a little more on that Rass bs. Mr Rass himself was just on Fox. After having said all week long that voters saw McCain just as commanding on the economy as Obama and given that wa sno longer believable his new line is that only 14% of voters think either candidate can do anything about it. So His talking point is that the economy will not determine the election. Want to bet this is the new thing we will see the trolls bring out?

Does anybody recall this much polling done during a presidential election? This is starting to be too much.

Look on the bright side folks - the bailout will cost hundreds of billions MORE than we've already spent on Iraq - 2000+ per person. Now if they pass that Wall St. Welfare bill - we won't be able to afford McBush wars any more cause we won't be able to borrow the money for their wars...same if they don't pass it cause we'll be in a Depression

One family, having had 2 Obama signs stolen is out to catch a thief:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/obama-sign-cctv-1

Streaming video of their Obama sign!

At the risk of sounding pedantic, I read a little Thorsten Veblen (cool name) about 20 years ago, but that's about the extent of my economics education. I thought the idea of "conspicuous consumption" was great and certainly as insightful and revelatory as anything I've read about capitalism since.

Therein: don't just consume but prove to everyone who cares that you can afford to consume more than they can.

We're all in there somewhere: the consumer, the uber consumer and those who are impressed by consumption. I don't claim not to be in the mix.

I wish I knew more economics. I wish I knew more history. I wish I could live forever - (just at a different time!)

What I do know is that this election is more and more about one man: GW Bush. It's easy and even fun to bash Bush. But that's not the point. It's about GW because he is the logical end product of our unregulated "conspicuous consumption".

I fear we have no more to consume. Our time is over. We've had our fill. We need more than change. We need revolution.

Report from VA: A group of Maryland Dems went to Northern VA today for a voter registration drive, organized by the Obama campaign. At a local mall, between 12 and 5 pm we registered 375 new voters. That's in one place (and during a Redkins game). We had drives all over Northern VA. We didn't ask, but my sense was that 95% of these folks were registering to vote for Obama. I think he's going to take VA. I really do.

Its amazing how people like Bush and now Palin who are so ill equipped for the jobs they have and seek seem to always get a pass. The debate gets dumb down to an idiots level when now more then ever we need a real hard thrashing out of the issues not lowering of expectations

Just another perfect example of how Palin is so grossly unqualified to be VP or President. Why let this empty vessel off the hook. Shouldn’t we be raising the standards instead of lowering bar?

Anymore can memorize an answer but an open debate proves who actually has a real grasp and intimate knowledge of what’s happening around the world. Its now about personalities when it needs to be about substance.

She always brags how tough and ready she is to lead now prove it.