HAHAHA

Always ready for a smart-alec remark...

Palin mistakes fans for protesters at Va. rally

By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 13 minutes ago

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin mistook some of her own fans for hecklers Monday at a rally that drew thousands.

A massive crowd of at least 20,000 spread across the parking lot of Richmond International Raceway, and scores of people on the outer periphery more than 100 yards from the stage could not hear.

"Louder! Louder!" they began chanting, and the cry spread across the crowd to Palin's left. Some pointed skyward, urging that the volume be increased.

Palin stopped her remarks briefly and looked toward the commotion.

"I hope those protesters have the courage and honor to give veterans thanks for their right to protest," she said.

Some in the crowd tried to shout toward her what was really being said, but she couldn't hear them.

I'm sure it was only an accident...

NY election mix-up: 'Osama' on the ballot

By RICHARD RICHTMYER, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 49 minutes ago

Who is running for president? In an upstate New York county, hundreds of voters have been sent absentee ballots in which they could vote for "Barack Osama."

The absentee ballots sent to voters in Rensselaer County identified the two presidential candidates as "Barack Osama" and "John McCain." In the United States, the best-known individual named Osama is Osama bin Laden, leader of the al Qaida terrorist group behind the 2001 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City.

The typographical terror error was first reported by the Times Union of Albany.

The elections office faxed a statement in which the two commissioners, Democrat Edward McDonough and Republican Larry Bugbee, said they regret the error but never acknowledge what the error was.

"It's human error, it's very unfortunate, it's an embarrassment to our office, obviously," McDonough said in a later phone interview. "We wish we could turn back the clock, but we can't."

When they discovered the mistake, officials shredded the remaining "Osama" ballots and mailed correct versions to the roughly 300 people who had already received them. McDonough said the "Osama" mistake was made in only one of the 13 ballot versions mailed throughout the county, located east of the state capital of Albany.

Voters who received both versions will be allowed to send in either one and have it counted, McDonough said.

Obama spokesman Blake Zeff said the campaign is "glad officials are working to correct this error and we assume it won't happen again."

YEAH, RIGHT. IT WAS AN ACCIDENT TO HIT A LETTER ON THE KEYBOARD THAT ISN'T ANYWHERE NEAR THE CORRECT LETTER. RIIIIGHT...

Oh, and then there's this insanity:

McCain booed after trying to calm anti-Obama crowd

By PHILIP ELLIOTT and BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writers 43 minutes ago

The anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is acting to tamp it down. McCain was booed by his own supporters Friday when, in an abrupt switch from raising questions about Barack Obama's character, he described the Democrat as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events this week as McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Obama. Some in the audience are making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of "traitor," "terrorist," "treason," "liar," and even "off with his head" have rung from the crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them.

McCain changed his tone Friday when supporters at a town hall pressed him to be rougher on Obama. A voter said, "The people here in Minnesota want to see a real fight." Another said Obama would lead the U.S. into socialism. Another said he did not want his unborn child raised in a country led by Obama.

"If you want a fight, we will fight," McCain said. "But we will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments." When people booed, he cut them off.

"I don't mean that has to reduce your ferocity," he said. "I just mean to say you have to be respectful."

Presidential candidates are accustomed to raucous rallies this close to Election Day and welcome the enthusiasm. But they are also traditionally monitors of sorts from the stage. Part of their job is to leaven proceedings if tempers run ragged and to rein in an out-of-bounds comment from the crowd.

Not so much this week, at GOP rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and other states.

When a visibly angry McCain supporter in Waukesha, Wis., on Thursday told the candidate "I'm really mad" because of "socialists taking over the country," McCain stoked the sentiment. "I think I got the message," he said. "The gentleman is right." He went on to talk about Democrats in control of Congress.

On Friday, McCain rejected the bait.

"I don't trust Obama," a woman said. "I have read about him. He's an Arab."

McCain shook his head in disagreement, and said:

"No, ma'am. He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with (him) on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about."

He had drawn boos with his comment: "I have to tell you, he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

The anti-Obama taunts and jeers are noticeably louder when McCain appears with Palin, a big draw for GOP social conservatives. She accused Obama this week of "palling around with terrorists" because of his past, loose association with a 1960s radical. If less directly, McCain, too, has sought to exploit Obama's Chicago neighborhood ties to William Ayers, while trying simultaneously to steer voters' attention to his plans for the financial crisis.

The Alaska governor did not campaign with McCain on Friday, and his rally in La Crosse, Wis., earlier Friday was much more subdued than those when the two campaigned together. Still, one woman shouted "traitor" when McCain told voters Obama would raise their taxes.

Volunteers worked up chants from the crowd of "U.S.A." and "John McCain, John McCain," in an apparent attempt to drown out boos and other displays of negative energy.

The Secret Service confirmed Friday that it had investigated an episode reported in The Washington Post in which someone in Palin's crowd in Clearwater, Fla., shouted "kill him," on Monday, meaning Obama. There was "no indication that there was anything directed at Obama," Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren told AP. "We looked into it because we always operate in an atmosphere of an abundance of caution."

Palin, at a fundraiser in Ohio on Friday, told supporters "it's not negative and it's not mean-spirited" to scrutinize Obama's iffy associations.

But Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania an author of 15 books on politics, says the vitriol has been encouraged by inflammatory words from the stage.

"Red-meat rhetoric elicits emotional responses in those already disposed by ads using words such as 'dangerous' 'dishonorable' and 'risky' to believe that the country would be endangered by election of the opposing candidate," she said.

What is this country coming to? We're trying to unite, and McCain-Palin seek to divide. THIS is why we have to continue what we're doing, but harder, better, faster, stronger. Lol.

I just don't get it

I just don't understand why someone would WANT to vote for McCain. I don't understand. I don't get how someone could listen to Senator Obama speak and NOT be inspired. Not want the best for your country and its people. Not want better for this generation, MY GENERATION, and those to come after me. I don't get how someone can call Senator Obama "naive and unexperienced" and NOT laugh when they talk about Gov. Palin's experience. I don't get how someone can believe that every single person in this country really does have an opportunity without actually offering them an opportunity.

I don't understand how anyone wouldn't want to vote for Senator Obama.



We have a month of work to do.

Palin vs. Clinton: Hypocrisy

I think this clip from the Daily Show sums it up well. There are a couple of moments of off-color humor, but the 1 cuss word is bleeped out.

Sexism is still there

One of the news channels was talking about how sexist the media is concerning Sarah Palin, and how Hillary supporters are coming to her defense in that aspect. I'm with them. The media said some really sexist things about Senator Clinton, and they're saying the same things about Gov. Palin, and I'm against that. I'm also against everything she stands for, but I agree that the way the media has said some things about her is uncalled for.

LIVE: Palin's speech & McCain's nomination

9:36pm - Talks about being an advocate for parents of children with special needs. The Republican party has and continues to cut funding for special education programs and job training programs for people with special needs. Huh?

9:42pm - Speaking about PTA and city council experience. The youngest daughter just licked her hand and tried to change the direction of the baby's hair. Someone was escorted out!!! Haha, exciting.

9:44pm - Guns, religion, bitter, again. "...wherever he goes and whoever is listening, John McCain is the same man." Wrong? Yeah, I think so. "If you're not a member of Washington's elite, then some of the media consider you to be unqualified." NO, really? What has "conservative" media been spouting for the last 19 months about Senator Obama?

9:46pm - "The point of going to Washington is...to challenge the status quo and leave the nation better than we found it." Isn't that directly quoted from someone's speech LAST week?

Hahaha, there is some trouble with chanting the same phrase in unison...and the vertical signs don't have poles to hold them! Maybe bc someone that worked their way inside would start beating people with it.

9:53pm - Talking about energy independence. She's pushing for offshore drilling, and saying that not pushing for it is "doing nothing at all." I spoke to a guy that works for a company that builds oil rigs for drilling, and it'll take at least 5 years before a new one can even be put offshore to start drilling. We could be soooo much closer to another energy technology by then.

9:55pm - Claims that Senator Obama never authored or created any type of reform in the state or national senate. What? Not the reforms on questioning capital crime suspects? Or government transparency and spending? "He won't use the word 'victory' unless it's about his campaign." "Victory in Iraq is in sight and he wants to forfeit." What victory?!?! "Al-Qaida terrorists want to inflict harm and destroy America, and he's afraid someone won't read them their rights." For all of those who were racially profiled and singled out and are "supposed" terrorists...ok, they don't deserve rights, even if they are citizens.

9:58pm - Claims that Senator Obama will raise taxes on everyone...no, just those who are past the "middle class" threshhold.

10:01pm - "Our nominee doesn't run with the Washington herd." Really? Voting w/ Bush 90% of the time isn't "part of the herd?" "A leader who's not looking for a fight, but sure isn't afraid of one either." Hahaha, ask his wife about when she joked with him about his hair!

10:03pm - "Although Senator Obama and Senator Biden say that they quote, 'fight for you,' there is only one man in this election that has ever truly fought for you." I applaud the man's service to this country, and I appreciate it, but I don't see that as an absolute reason to vote for the man as President!

Lol, new game! spot how many token black ppl you can find in the crowd! And then, count how many times each of them is shown on tv. They will get SO much face time, it's ridiculous.

10:08pm - "If hope is the theme of this election, and change our shared goal, then I ask you to join our cause..." Yeah, she HOPES we'll CHANGE our minds and join their cause...of the same failed policies, poor decisions, and "good ol' boy" deals that have plagued us and caused problems for the past 8 years.

10:10pm - Finally Senator McCain comes out. Not much of a surprise now, is it, lol. Haha, the littlest daughter is scared of Senator McCain! He leaned over to talked to her, and she def just backed away. And he definitely didn't say anything other than, "Didn't we do a great job choosing the next VP of the United States?" and "What a beautiful family!" and he told Palin, "Great job!"


Final comments: The crowd is DEFINITELY not as diverse as the DNC was. Almost every single person is in a suit and tie, and the crowd is overwhelmingly white. Way to "represent the people." The closing music was some staid bugle music...military sounding, but idk about crowd-energizing. I guess that's what they assume all white ppl want to hear. The program format is unusual - the choice of background pictures during the Palin's speech kept rotating through pretty typical "national photos" - soaring eagle, Lincoln Memorial, Mt. Rushmore, rolling plains, but def no beaches! (Haha, we don't want to conjure up images of "exotic" Hawaii, even though it IS a state.) After Palin's speech, everyone is trying to leave, and they decide to have Gretchen Wilson, John Rich, and Cowboy Troy (3 country singers, one of them a token Black person) come on to sing THE NATIONAL ANTHEM. Really? That's the "entertainment?" I thought that was supposed to make you proud of your country and get a political event started. Now the song is something about "Raising McCain." They spoke between every couple of lines of the National Anthem with bits and pieces of the preamble to the Constititution and MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech. Also now, they're having the roll call of the states now, AFTER the main speaker of the evening and the entertainment. It is 10:24pm in Minneapolis...say what? Aren't these delegates and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee 2 seconds away from sleep? (j/k, j/k that wasn't nice.)

I think it's hard to "represent the people" when your delegates definitely aren't anywhere near proportionate to the demographic makeup of the US. I think it's hard to "represent the people" when the majority of the delegates seem to be 65+. I mean, how can you represent everyone's interests when the people sent to represent those interests are all seemingly the same? I know everyone has different backgrounds and experiences, but I'm pretty sure there are few people who represent the people who are in poverty and urban decay. I just think your delegate makeup should look like the country they're representing.

Hey, 2 more token black people and they're from TX! Hahaha, AND TX is right up front, it seems. The chairman asked for any more nominations for president besides John McCain, and someone yelled, "RON PAUL!!!" and he was just like, "hearing none..." lol and that guy was DEFINITELY loud. I'm surprised TX is up front too...I mean yes, current home of the president, but also current home of Ron Paul. I wanna see how many people vote for people other than McCain.

Alaska just had 5 votes for Ron Paul, and the counter ignored them! What about the rules? She didn't even acknowledge them, even though C-SPAN has the tally up.

The chairman of the D.C. delegation is so proud to be a Republican, but they have consistently voted against allowing D.C. full representation in Congress and the Senate. HAHA, the FL chairman is saying that they're putting Floridians first...by messing up ballots, asking for multiple forms of ID, disposing of people's names on the voter rolls? Riiiiiight...