GOP Disinvites Palin from Dinner

Guess who’s not coming to dinner? The National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee abruptly told Sarah Palin on Saturday night that she would no longer be allowed to address the dinner. It was the second time that the committees snubbed Palin—they originally invited her to headline the event, but after she issued a press release announcing her appearance, they invited Newt Gingrich instead. Then, last week, she was invited again to speak—apparently “out of respect” for Gingrich. Now, Palin may skip the event altogether.

Palin writing a book!?

The very ignorant determined Republican governor of Alaska has signed the deal with HarperCollins publishing and the book is slated for Spring 2010, ironically around the same time as her re-election.

We hope the book addresses how she was elected in the first place!

The book is set to follow her Alaskan upbringing, her politcial career, and her most important roles: wife, mother, and grandmother of a baby out of wedlock. Lovely.

Palin shared her thoughts about the project with the Associated Press, stating:

“There’s been so much written about and spoken about in the mainstream media and in the anonymous blogosphere world, that this will be a wonderful, refreshing chance for me to get to tell my story, that a lot of people have asked about, unfiltered.”

Publisher Jonathan Burnham promises that “every word will be hers”, which at least means one person invovled understands the real purpose of this book: to show the world exactly how dumb she truly is.

Sarah Palin Doin’ What She Does Best…Associating With Losers

Sarah Palin’s choice for attorney general once wrote a column defending the statue of a KKK figure as an expression of free speech and mocked the psychology of a college student who protested the display.

Wayne Anthony Ross has come under intense scrutiny since the Alaska Governor and former vice presidential candidate announced his nomination. His resume includes derogatory remarks about homosexuals, accusations of sexism, and bizarre comments downplaying the fallout of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. But his most controversial incident may have come in December 1991, when he penned an op-ed for the Anchorage Times, a copy of which was obtained by the Huffington Post (see below), entitled “KKK ‘art’ project gets ‘A’ for courage.”

Weird

Levi Johnston’s Sister Tattoos His Name on her Wrist…Sweet or Strange?

What recession?

The husband of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says the Republican Party’s lavish spending on her wardrobe during the presidential campaign was “out of our control.”

In the May issue of Men’s Journal, Todd Palin was asked about the more than $150,000 that the Republican National Committee spent on clothes, accessories and beauty services for the GOP vice presidential nominee. He defended his wife, saying she was focused on preparation for her debate with Joe Biden.

“She never went to Saks, or any of that stuff,” he said. “You come into a campaign late, you put all your trust into the team, you got people who are working on VP ops for a long time, and we’re just focused on debate prep. I couldn’t give a rat’s (expletive) about clothes. Please. I mean these are my Sunday go-to-meeting jeans!”

Sarah Palin and Republican presidential nominee John McCain faced a storm of criticism over the tens of thousands of dollars spent at high-end stores to dress the Alaska governor and her family. Some of the purchases included a $75,062 shopping spree at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, one for $49,425 from Saks Fifth Avenue and $4,902 at Atelier, a stylish men’s store.

The buys were a stark contrast to Sarah Palin’s image as a “hockey mom” who calls herself part of an average, middle-class American family.

Sarah Palin has said she neither wanted nor asked for the wardrobe.

Some of the clothing was returned immediately because it was the wrong size, or for other reasons, the McCain-Palin campaign said at the time. The Republican National Committee has said the remaining items would be donated to charity.

Todd Palin told the magazine that his wife had been through tough campaigns before becoming McCain’s running mate.

“You got to remember, it’s not like they just plucked us off the fishing boat with scales still under our nails, you know?” he said.

Todd Palin, a champion snowmobiler racer, also told the magazine about his temporary Secret Service protection during the campaign.

“They liked cruising around with me,” he said, “because we went to the Arctic Cat snowmachine factory and then drove up to North Dakota, went to a Penn State-Michigan football game, went to a NASCAR race. Rough duty, hanging out with me.”

The Men’s Journal issue reaches newsstands April 10.

Source

John McCain does have a brain!!!!!

Former Republican presidential candidate John McCain said recently that votes he garnered last year were “mostly” votes for Sarah Palin. But he still is not ready to unequivocally back his former running mate for a 2012 White House bid should she choose to pursue one.
“I’d like to see her compete,” McCain said Sunday when asked by NBC’s David Gregory whether he would like to see the Alaska governor become president.

“I think we’ve got some very good candidates,” McCain said noting Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty – all Republicans. “There’s a lot of good, fresh talent out there.”

McCain hedged a direct question on whether he would support Palin.

“I’d have to see who the candidates are and what the situation is at the time,” he said. “But have no doubt of my respect, admiration and love for Sarah and her family.”

Bristol Palin

Star Magazine is reporting that Bristol has called off the engagement with her baby daddy, Levi… for being white trash

1. Star Magazine is reporting this. Really believable

2. Isn’t this the pot calling the kettle black… Hey, I’m just sayin’!

If you’re not going to be a virgin, learn what birth control is!

Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin whose pregnancy during the presidential campaign made headlines, taped an interview for Greta Van Susteren’s “On The Record” on Monday night.

Both Bristol, appearing with her 2-month old baby Tripp for the first time, and her mother expressed skepticism about abstinence-only programs which her mother backed when running for governor in 2006.

When Van Susteren mentions abstinence in discussing Bristol’s surprise pregnancy, Sarah Palin responded: “It sounds naive. Life happens.”

Bristol also said that “everyone should be abstinent but it’s not realistic… [sex] is more and more accepted among kids my age.”

Bristol also warned about the dangers of teen pregnancy and said that she should have waited 10 years before having children.

“Of course I wish it would happen in like 10 years so I could have a job and education and my own house… But he brings so much joy. i don’t regret it at all.”

At the end of the interview, Sarah Palin gave a passionate speech against the fairness doctrine, which has been painted by conservatives as a prerogative of Democrats. She lauded a few members of the media whom she admires for asking tough questions – and all of whom happen to work for Fox News: Van Susteren, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck.

“Any attempt to squash these voices… that’s a threat to our democracy.”

Source

TWITTER US!!!!

TheBlockFM on Twitter!!! LOOK IT UP!

Young and voting?

There has been almost no discussion in the press about the broader implications of John McCain’s military policies.

McCain wants to keep a large military contingent in Iraq for some years to come.

He agrees that more US troops should be sent to Afghanistan. (Obama wants more troops for Afghanistan but will draw down the ones in Iraq so that is a wash).

McCain has joked about bombing Iran, accuses Iran of sending insurgents into Iraq, and pledges to stop Iran’s nuclear research program. McCain has said, “There is only one thing worse than a military solution, and that, my friends, is a nuclear-armed Iran.”

McCain has all but pledged a war on Iran. (In contrast, Obama says he will conduct direct tough diplomacy with Tehran).

McCain is also a hawk on Georgia in the Caucasus and if he is to remain credible he’d have to increase US troop presence in the Greater Middle East.

Although US military re-enlistments in the ten combat divisions have not fallen in the way some observers had feared, that statistic only speaks to the ability of the US military to maintain the status quo. Even that ability is in long-term question, as African-American enlistments, traditionally a significant proportion, slip.

But McCain is not about the military status quo. He is ambitious for further conflicts. The current US military is too small to handle yet another front, and to maintain, as McCain insists they must, the current ones.

My friends, there is only one way for McCain to make good on his hawkish foreign policy and his virtual pledge of more wars.

McCain will need to institute a draft for young American men (and, given the times, maybe for women as well).

If you are in your late teens and early twenties, or if you are a parent of a person that age, and you have strong views on a renewed draft, it should come into your decision about whether to vote on Tuesday and for whom.

Source

Don’t Vote???

Sarah Palin is a “Whack Job?”…Well her Campaign Thinks So

One of John McCain’s advisers recently called his running mate Sarah Palin a “diva” after she went off-script at a rally, and suggested she was looking after her own political future over the current campaign. Now another adviser ups the ante in a conversation with the Politico’s Playbook, labeling Palin a “whack job.”

Palin Thinks VP “Controls” the Senate…(sigh)

Yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sat for an interview with KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Colorado. In response to a question sent to the network by a third grader at a local elementary school about what the Vice President does, Palin erroneously argued that the Vice President is “in charge of the United States Senate“:

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me! … [T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

Watch it:

Indeed, while Palin suggests that questions about what the Vice President does is something only her daughter Piper would ask, Palin herself asked this very question on national television in July. Apparently, she still hasn’t learned the correct answer.

Article I of the Constitution establishes an exceptionally limited role for the Vice President — giving the office holder a vote only when the Senate is “equally divided”:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

Moreover, the U.S. Senate website explains that the modern role of Vice Presidents has been to preside over the Senate “only on ceremonial occasions.” ThinkProgress contacted Senior Assistant Paliamentarian Peter Robinson, who also disputed Palin’s characterization of the Vice President’s role:

In modern practice the Vice President doesn’t really control the Senate. … If anyone has a responsibility to try to govern the Senate, it’s the responsibility of the two leaders.=

The following statement is from Jim Manley, spokesman to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV):

This comment is all the more puzzling because this is at least the 2nd time she has said this. Gov Palin needs to re-read or perhaps read for the first time the Constitution. While the Vice President presides over the Senate, he or she is not in charge of it. Article 1 says The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate is part of a co-equal branch of the federal government.

Sarah Palin Needs a Map

This video is self-explanatory…

New Hampshire….NorthWEST? hmmm…

Sarah Palin Doesn’t Know JACK: Part 1,694

The campaign of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said the Alaska governor was unaware of a visit by Russian energy officials to Anchorage on Monday.

Eight high-level officials from Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled energy conglomerate, traveled to Anchorage earlier this week to meet with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the chief executive of ConocoPhillips to discuss energy projects and the possibility of expanding into new markets.

The meeting on Alaskan soil comes at a time of chilly relations between Russia and the United States following Russia’s invasion of Georgia in August. Both Palin and John McCain have been critical of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on the campaign trail, and Palin raised eyebrows last month in an interview by saying that Putin “rears his head” by dispatching Russian jets into Alaska’s airspace.

Palin has argued that her state’s proximity to Russia, as well as trade missions between Alaska and Russia, have helped give her the foreign policy experience necessary to be Vice President. But the campaign said the governor did not know that the Gazprom delegation was meeting with the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, who is a Palin appointee.

Todd Palin Disqualified from Obtaining Security Clearance

Although Sarah Palin smack talks Barack Obama for “palling around with terrorists,” it turns out that the Palin family has its own history of palling around with Alaska’s own unique brand of America-haters. Palin’s husband Todd was once an actual member of the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party (AIP). Palin herself was not a member of AIP — but many AIP luminaries claim her as a kindred spirit and “one of their own.”

A charitable characterization of AIP might be “quirky down-home Alaska politics.” However, the security processes that govern access to our defense and national security institutions might not look so kindly on Todd Palin’s past political associations. Indeed, if Todd Palin were applying for a job in the US government or at a contractor that required access to sensitive classified information — a security clearance — he would very likely be ineligible.

What’s so bad about the AIP? The party officially renounces violence and disloyalty to the United States, even though its members often do not. The AIP has long been aligned closely with paramilitary militia groups — the kind that fear black helicopters and a United Nations takeover of the US. Indeed, under the leadership of AIP’s tough-talking founder, Joe Vogler, AIP allied itself with the Islamic dictatorship in Iran in 1993 so that Vogler could appear at the United Nations to appeal for Alaska’s freedom from US “tyranny.” A fellow AIP member murdered Vogler before he could take the UN stage. The current AIP chairwoman, Lynnette Clark, believes that Vogler’s killer was framed and all but blames the Federal government for Vogler’s “execution.”

Security clearances are a defining fact of life for the national security drones who quietly toil away in secret vaults and mean foreign streets to help protect America. Entry-level defense and intelligence employees often wait months — even years — for the results of an exhaustive background investigation and maybe even a polygraph interrogation before they are allowed to start work with a government agency or contractor. Seasoned intelligence and defense workers routinely re-submit to the security investigation process every few years, or if their work requires them to gain access to a specialized or “compartmented” program.

The criteria for security clearances have changed with the times, but some bedrock principles always apply. When I was in the Army in the ’80s for example, tattoos were actually a disqualifying factor for a clearance, as was any past drug use. Fashion and social changes forced a change to those kinds of exclusions. In the early ’90s, homosexuality was still a disqualifier — but that was overturned with Clinton-era adjustments to the clearance process. The rise of computer culture has brought new concern over illegal computer activity, which has found its way into security investigations.

However, security investigators will always be interested in particularly serious issues — criminal activity, for example, or major financial problems like a history of debt collections and bankruptcy. And of course, loyalty to the US and foreign connections are a major focus of personal security investigations. “Is the subject a foreign spy?” the investigators ask. “Would the subject ever participate in activities intended to harm the United States?”

The security clearance investigation is based on the Standard Form 86, a 21-plus page government form that gathers information on an individual’s family, friends, education, employment, residences, finances, law enforcement history, drug and computer use, foreign contacts, and associations with violent or subversive political groups. I have filled out the SF 86 dozens of times. When I was the security officer for an intelligence contractor, I routinely reviewed our employees’ SF 86 forms before asking the government to process them for security clearances, looking for obvious disqualifications. The idea here was to avoid the costs of investigating employees who were obviously not eligible for a clearance, like the guy who “experimented” with marijuana at least 100 times in the previous year.

Above all, honesty is the rule for anyone filling out an SF 86 — do you think CIA or DoD will want to hire or retain someone who lied on a security form?

Which gets us back to Todd Palin. From the security officer’s perspective, Todd Palin the hypothetical applicant should be truthful and disclose his former association with AIP on the SF 86 in Section 29, Association Record. And because AIP has been associated with the Revolutionary Government of Iran, he probably should also disclose his AIP membership on Section 20, Foreign Activities.

How would government security officials who administer the security clearance process view the facts of Todd Palin’s association with AIP? The answer is not clear cut, but his involvement in a secessionist party with foreign and violent connections would inject serious doubts about his security suitability. At best, the AIP association would raise questions that might be resolved favorably with further investigative work. However, many security officials would likely view the AIP association negatively — especially the Iranian connection — and deny Todd Palin a clearance.

Managers of the most sensitive special security programs are allowed wide latitude in denying clearances. These programs, called Special Access Programs, or SAPs, are scattered across government and are focused on specific tasks, such as weapons development or special operations or presidential transportation. A SAP program can exclude individuals based on connections to a foreign country, such as immigrant parents (often excluding vitally needed foreign language speakers), or very stringent financial criteria, such as $10,000 in unsecured debt (often excluding many recent college graduates). Many SAP managers would very likely deny Palin a clearance based on association with or membership in a secessionist party with known ties to a hostile foreign government.

So the Palin family is associated with a political party hostile to America in word and deed. That’s a matter of record that has real impact on established norms in the national security community. According to the laws and processes that help protect national security, actually joining a fringe, gun-toting, anti-government party indicates a potential risk of disloyalty, or worse.

Meanwhile, acquaintance with an aging ex-hippy who once belonged to a terrorist group famous for accidentally blowing itself up — I’m not sure if that’s relevant to presidential qualifications. Or national security.

Even Wonder Woman Hates Sarah Palin

Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman on television in the 1970s, slammed Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as the “anti-Wonder Woman.”

Carter made her remarks in response to a question from Philadelphia Magazine about comparisons between Wonder Woman and Gov. Palin (Alaska), the GOP’s first veep nominee.

“She’s judgmental and dictatorial, telling people how they’ve got to live their lives,” Carter added. “And a superior religious self-righteousness … that’s just not what Wonder Woman is about. Hillary Clinton is a lot more like Wonder Woman than Mrs. Palin. She did it all, didn’t she?”

Carter said that it was “anti-American” to try to force religious views on others.

“I like John McCain,” Carter said. “But this woman — it’s anathema to me what she stands for. I think America should be very afraid. Very afraid. Separation of church and state is the one thing the creators of the Constitution did agree on — that it wasn’t to be a religious government. People should feel free to speak their minds about religion but not dictate it or put it into law.”

Colin Powell to Announce Presidential Endorsement Tomorrow…This Should Be Fun

When Colin Powell turns off his TV after the final presidential debate, he will have learned everything he is going to learn about the candidates vying to succeed his former boss, George W. Bush. Powell has made it clear that he has been thinking about an endorsement for a long time but wanted to hear more from the candidates before making his choice. It now seems beyond doubt that Colin Powell will endorse Barack Obama and thereby hammer the final nail in the coffin of the Republican campaign to hold onto the White House.

The recent ugliness of the McCain-Palin rally audiences cannot be lost on Colin Powell. And Powell is not one to ignore a 14 point lead in a New York Times poll. But most important for Powell and the press will be his explicit rejection of the Bush-McCain approach to Iraq, Iran and the rest of the world.

Powell’s endorsement will be perfectly timed to dominate a news cycle or two. It will give Obama the one thing he still needs more of–credibility as Commander-In-Chief. And Sarah Palin’s speechwriters will be hard pressed to come up with a condescending quip about it.

Levi Drops Out of High School

The news was buried in an AP story yesterday. Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin’s fiancé and soon-to-be baby daddy has dropped out of high school. He informed a reporter in what sounded like a casual interview that took place on his driveway. The news is surprising only insomuch as how closely it follows the national statistics on teen sex and pregnancy. Levi now falls into his predestined spot alongside all other teens dropping out of high school to prematurely become adults because of unplanned parenthood.

An Open Letter to John McCain and Sarah Palin

Dear Senator McCain and Governor Palin,

Time and again in America, people of all races and backgrounds have overcome division and fear, and come together to uplift the country and create a more equal and just society. It’s part of what makes this country great.

With an African-American nominee running on a major party ticket and a woman on the Republican ticket for the first time in history, this campaign has seen Americans–men and women of all races–inspired to continue that great tradition, coming together to bridge the gaps that history has set between us in service of our national progress.

But let us be clear: while we have made great strides in this country when it comes to racial equality, we are not finished. Now, more than ever, we need leadership that understands that we live in complex times where too many are quick to judge another by the complexion of their skin or the sound of their name.

In the last few weeks, Senator McCain and Governor Palin, rhetoric at your campaign events has taken an increasingly dangerous tone that seems to ignore the precarious state of our progress when it comes to race and ethnicity.

Supporters at your rallies and other events have used hateful language and called for violence against Sen. Obama yelling “kill him!” “off with his head!” and “bomb Obama.”

For the most part, you have stood by in silence. In addition, you have also repeatedly made statements that somehow connect Senator Obama with terrorism. Your surrogates have emphasized his middle name. This is problematic and dangerous, and we believe helps create the conditions that have given rise to these incidents of violent rhetoric from some of your supporters.

Today, we’re standing together as Americans of all political persuasions to express our deep concern that the decisions of your campaign are contributing to a dangerous atmosphere of paranoia, division, and hate that, as we have already seen, has the potential to seriously harm our country and its progress.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

In these trying times, candidates seeking the highest offices in the land must call on the best in each of us, and call off the worst.

We urge you to join people of conscience from all races and backgrounds to reject the politics of division and fear, and come together to uplift the country and create a more equal and just society.