Politics as Usual

Plenty of questions remain about McCain’s decisions last Wednesday. According to Obama, he called McCain to discuss issuing a joint statement regarding the financial meltdown, but McCain did not take his call. Probably too busy yelling at Palin. However, when McCain did call him back, later in the day, he agreed –according to Obama- to issue that joint statement, and meet to discuss the contents; imagine Obama’s surprise when McCain announced on the evening news this “was not the time for statements”, and he wanted to suspend the Friday night debate. That was something Obama had not agreed to, and I can see why. What, McCain is going to solve the crisis all by himself? Why suspend the debate? But oh, wait; he wants to move it to October 2^nd, which means something else that’s scheduled for that night will have to be moved. What was that again…oh yeah, the VP candidates were supposed to face off on foreign policy issues. The McCain camp must have come to the realization that in spite of that crash course, Palin is absolutely not ready to stand up to Joe Biden. Complicated way to go about it, though, but if McCain gets his way, Palin will get another week to bone up on everything she doesn’t know. Kind of like trying to cram a semester’s worth of material the night before the final exam: it’s just not going to work. Bipartisanship my ass; for McCain, it’s all politics as usual.

 

I just have one more question: We can afford a $700 billion bail out, but we can’t afford a comprehensive health care plan? What?!

Sarah Palin’s Church

 

I knew there was something familiar

 

 

Should it matter to the American public what a Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate believes in the privacy of his/her own church, synagogue, or tent meeting? Perhaps. If it didn’t, we would have had our first truly agnostic president decades ago.

I admit, I was pretty irritated at the mileage the Republican spin machine got out of Rev. Wright’s shenanigans.  Not because I thought his sermons were nice, but because I don’t like to hear negative blabber about Obama. I want him to be the next President. I imagine most Republicans feel the same way about their candidate: they don’t want the truth, they want McCain in office.

That’s fine, but since we all had to listen to that Goddamn America speech one time too many, it’s only fair we pay some attention to the church Palin belonged to, as well as the one she attends now. Rev. Ed Kalnins is the senior pastor at the Wasilla Assembly of God, and has some mighty interesting things to say. What’s better, he says them on tape, which recently caused a friend of mine to comment that McCain must be sorry for not picking Lieberman after all; there’s no taping in Orthodox Synagogues during Shabbos.

 

Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war “contending for your faith;” and said that Jesus “operated from that position of war mode.”

 

Oops. I guess G-d has nothing better to do that sit around and take names like Santa Claus. If criticizing Bush gets you a one way ticket to the hot zone, it’s going to be mighty busy down there.

 

He preaches repeatedly about the “end times” or “last days,” an apocalyptic prophesy held by a small but vocal group of Christian leaders. During his appearance with Palin in June, he declared, “I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them.” (Source: Daimnation)

 

That’s right, Alaska is a “refuge state’. Who knew? Add to that Palin’s urging of congregants to pray to Jesus for that pipeline, and the fact that she was present when the lovely David Brickner visited the Wasilla Bible Church recently (which Palin currently attends), and you’ve got a potential time bomb. David Brickner is the Exec. Director of “Jews for Jesus”, and called the terrorist attacks in Israel “God’s Judgment”. Palin should have walked out, but didn’t. If Rev. Wright’s sermons shed a negative light on Obama, then so should what is being said in Palin’s church tell us something about her character.

 

You can read about Brickner’s visit to Palin’s church at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13098.html

 

If you still think Palin represents change and true reform, I recommend you take a long hard look. The woman is crazy and dangerous.

 

Fun with Politics (151)

“He’s young, and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”

So went the speech of Obama at a Jacksonville fundraiser. Okay, yes; he was a little flippant, but the real reason Republicans are shitting their panties is the truth of Obama’s words. Who are all those angry campaign advisors kidding with that fake righteous indignation? Of course they will come after Obama with everything they have, they’re just pissed he called them on it. First the denial of public funding, now this; Obama has thrown down the gauntlet, and the McCain campaign will need to come up with a better response. Or maybe not; maybe they can just sit back and slowly bleed to death; that would be nice. All the Republican commentators on television ever do is get pissy, and then deny, deny, deny. Although, of course they’d deny that too.

It’s quire a creepy story about those teenage pregnancies in Gloucester, Massachusetts. A Pregnancy Pact? Among sixteen-year-olds? Funny, how the school authorities admitted that over 100 pregnancy tests were handed out about 9 months ago, yet nobody thought that was a bit odd. Now, they say, they will discuss maybe adding some sex Ed; currently, it’s only taught to freshmen. Because, you know, sophomores, juniors, and seniors will behave without having to be reminded. Contraceptives aren’t popular anyway; the counselor who tried teaching the students about that option was fired. He must be rolling his eyes a lot these days. Meantime, the rest of us wonder: what do you tell these girls? How on earth do you explain to girls this stupid why they should not have done what they did? Where do you even start? I swear; sometimes all you can do is shake your head, sigh, and change the channel.