From CNN’s Political Ticker:

Palin slams ‘bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie’

Bored… sometimes.
Anonymous… yep.
Pathetic… That’s a little mean-spirited.
Liar… Who, me?

Actually, her complaints are about the conspiracy theories surrounding the birth of her fifth child, which I never wrote about. I don’t think it’s appropriate or necessary to write about her personal life when there’s such a wealth of material based on the vacuous statements that come out of her mouth.

Sarah Palin represents the future of (part of) the Republican party. A lot of people wonder why she won’t just go away, like John McCain did. She’s got a future. In 2010, she’ll start showing up in Senate races and putting her name back out there to represent her segment of the GOP. They’ll be back in full force at her rallies to hear her read off teleprompters and to shout bigoted, close-minded comments. She’s a young woman and we’ll be hearing from her for a long time.

Just a few months ago, we were told that John McCain had selected an excellent candidate to stand by his side and take his place, if necessary. Yet now he doesn’t speak very enthusiastically about her. What does this tell us about the strength of the Republican party when their top candidates aren’t the best people for the job? Shouldn’t we feel lied to and insulted that Senator McCain wanted us to believe, despite everything that we could see and hear with out senses, that Sarah Palin would have been a good national leader?

From CNN.com:

Sen. John McCain said Sunday he would not necessarily support his former running mate if she chose to run for president.

Speaking to ABC’s “This Week,” McCain was asked whether Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could count on his support.

“I can’t say something like that. We’ve got some great other young governors. I think you’re going to see the governors assume a greater leadership role in our Republican Party,” he said.

He then mentioned governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Jon Huntsman of Utah.

From Time.com’s article “The Temperament Factor: Who’s Best Suited to the Job?“

When Barack Obama was 6 years old, he was the only foreign child in his neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia. He didn’t know the kids, didn’t speak the language. At first the locals were a little freaked out, says Zulfin Adi, 47, who as a kid lived a block from Obama. “He was so much bigger than the rest of us.” So they decided to haze him. One day a group of children ambushed him, carried him to the local watering hole and threw him in. They had no idea if he could swim. But when Obama came to the surface, he was laughing. He could have broken free and crushed them anytime he wanted, but it was much better to play it cool, ride it out and make friends with his adversaries.

John McCain was not quite 2 years old when his parents despaired of managing his tantrums; he would go into a “mad frenzy,” he says, holding his breath until he passed out and fell to the floor. A Navy doctor offered a prescription: whenever McCain erupted, his mother would shout to his father, “Get the water!” Then his parents would fill a bathtub with cold water and drop their fully clothed son in. “Eventually,” McCain recalls in his memoirs, “I achieved a satisfactory (if only temporary) control over my emotions.”

I’ve heard of CNN being referred to as the Communist News Network, mainly only by people who prefer the Fox News Channel.  So, I’m sure that people will question their use of direct quotes and Senate documents here, but I really like their Fact Check page.

Whenever you hear the Presidential or VP candidates make a statement about an opponent’s record, you can usually go this page or FactCheck.org.

To summarize, if you don’t feel like checking, most of what McCain and Palin say is either false or misleading. Obama and Biden’s statements are mostly either true or misleading.  That seems to be the consensus.  Really.

I don’t know why I’m so entertained by the debates.  I feel like breaking out some wings and chips and dip and kicking back to be entertained.

Only one thing stood out in the second debate between Senators McCain and Obama – their wives.

Michelle Obama worked the crowd, talked to people, and shook hands, while Barack talked to people in a separate section.

Cindy McCain followed her husband around, staying just a few feet from him, mostly staying behind him, and didn’t shake a single person’s hand.

I realize that the wives are not running for office, but this is 2008.  We should recognize the strength of women and the importance that they can play in supporting these men through difficult times, not to mention the possibility that one could be Commander in Chief.  The first lady should be an example of what American women can be.  The first lady shouldn’t be a woman who only speaks when her husband allows her and obediently stays a few feet behind him at all time.  Michelle Obama gave her own speech at the convention – all Cindy did was introduce her husband.

What century are they living in?

These are people from Wasilla, Alaska.  The current Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, was previously the mayor of this town and frequently refers to bringing Wasilla’s Main Street values to Washington, DC, and the rest of the country.

I should probably write more about music, but I’m a little bored with most of the music I’ve heard lately.

But politics isn’t boring these days.  After charges of sexism from the McCain/Palin campaign about the way people are reacting to Governor Palin, comes this gem.  The summary seems to be “Just because she said it, that doesn’t mean that’s what she thinks.  She thinks what I think.”  That’s not sexist at all.

I’m really looking forward to the Biden/Palin debate.  I wonder how many things she says McCain will have to retract and correct.

From the transcript of John McCain’s RNC acceptance speech:

“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s.”

I guess McCain hasn’t always loved or been proud of his country.

For a couple of months now, I’ve been playing music inspired by Senator Barack Obama.  Cocoa Tea and Mavado released reggae songs.  Ludacris put out a short song called Politics (Obama is Here) which garnered a little controversy due to a less-than-polite mention of Hillary Clinton.  I’ve either been closing or opening my set with one of those songs for quite a while and in the process, I’ve gotten a bit of negative feedback.  One young lady in the bar booed me.  Another approached me and told me that I needed to change the song because she doesn’t like Obama.  I asked why not and she said, “I don’t know.  He just scares me.”  I asked for further explanation and realized that she’s one of the people that has fallen for the false stories about his religion, patriotism, etc. – all the things that can be refuted with a simple online search.  So, I told her that I would be fair and I would play a John McCain song anytime I play an Obama song.

I told people the same thing for weeks and they typically would laugh because they didn’t think there were any McCain songs out there.  I personally didn’t think that anyone would be inspired enough by the man to put pen to paper.  It seems like the Republican party has party faithful and followers, but Obama seemed to be inspiring people to take action and to voice their opinions in the hope that a positive change would take effect.  The small groups of people that McCain spoke to never seemed to get too fired up about him or his words.

I watched McCain’s RNC acceptance speech tonight, and heard a country song playing afterwards.  As I listened closer, I realized that the singer’s lyrics were “We’re raising McCain” as in “raising cain.”  I looked up the video to listen to the full song.  It’s a simple song, titled “Raisin’ McCain” by John Rich.  It’s a country song, which is no surprise after looking at the congregation at the Republican Convention.  The song only has one real verse, with a chorus that’s repeated five times.  It seems to only celebrate McCain as a POW, rather than expound on his cultural effect, as you find in Cocoa Tea’s song.  Again, this is no surprise after listening to basically every speaker at the convention mention McCain’s captivity.  Something that would lead to PTSD somehow also qualifies him to be President, apparently.

But, true to my word, I plugged into the mixer and started the night off with the McCain song, fed straight from the video website.  It garnered some odd looks, which may have been because of its repetitious nature, or possibly because I was playing a country song on hip-hop night.  It’s not a very good song in general.  Cocoa Tea’s song has a catchy chorus and interesting, humorous lyrics, but the McCain song falls short of that.

I’m still waiting for a good McCain song.