Bloodstar

yep, I am amused at this:

Katie Couric, in a segment to air tonight, asks Palin about her joke that she’s been listening to Joe Biden’s speeches since second grade, and whether that isn’t an odd thing to say given her own running mate’s age:

“Oh no, it’s nothing negative at all. He’s got a lot of experience and just stating the fact there, that we’ve been hearing his speeches for all these years. So he’s got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I’m the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he’s got the experience based on many many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years.”

Tags: Election, Political, Sometimes these things write themselves, bloodstar by bloodstar
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I saw this yesterday but didn’t get a chance to post it with the rampant mania and craze of yesterday.

Top Justice Department officials named a longtime public corruption prosecutor yesterday to explore the basis for firing a U.S. attorney in New Mexico two years ago, escalating the uproar over political infusion in the process and raising the specter of a criminal investigation of lawmakers, White House aides and former department officials.

I’m not sure where this could lead, but while the US Attorneys serve at the will of the President, they are supposed to be apolitical in nature. Firing them because they refused to help you win an election by launching spurious criminal charges is never going to fly well.

As a related note, Bush was warned not to issue pardons for the various people under investigation, of course, I’m not sure what Congress could do to a Lame Duck President. Tell him he’s a very bad man?

Tags: Criminal, Political, bloodstar by bloodstar
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For people writing in the blog, I’ve added an Author’s category. It’s a bit of a kludge, but I figure we have enough people writing that people may be interested in reading a specific person’s posts. So when you post, try to remember to click on the right category for yourself.

Also, I’ve not gone back and tagged every post yet, so if you want to go back and edit your previous posts, feel free.

Tags: Administrative, bloodstar by bloodstar
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Here’s a link to Neilson’s focus group and their minute by minute reaction to the debate (there will be a link to the powerpoint presentation in the article Some highlights:

Obama’s discussion of oil independence and health, at roughly 26 minutes into the debate, drew the overall most positive response from the CBS/Nielsen panel.

In contrast, John McCain’s closing comments (92:21 – 95:37) summarizing his qualifications for the presidency and his plans for keeping the U.S. safe drew some of the least positive responses from the respondents. McCain’s high point came just minutes earlier when discussing the importance of success in Iraq. Obama’s lowest response came during his discussion of investing in the American dream.

The 22 men and 22 women on the panel had largely similar responses to the debate. In several instances, McCain’s comments drew markedly less positive reactions from female panelists (13:13, 27:53, and 62:57).

When parsed by age, the data indicates that respondents of all ages also showed largely similar responses to the candidates’ comments. However, panelists aged 35-54 occasionally deviated from the norm, registering less positive responses than panelists between the ages of 18-34 and 55-99 when Obama discussed his plan for the financial crisis (approximately 3:30), dealing with Pakistan (53:29 – 54:57), and holding diplomatic talks with countries hostile to the U.S. (68:49 – 70:17).

Tags: Debate, Election, Political, bloodstar by bloodstar
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but this is pretty damn funny too. Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan.

Tags: Election, Humor, Political, klossy by klossy
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And here’s a good explanation as to why…

Tags: Economics, Financial, klossy by klossy
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We will find out tomorrow if people are in a panic sell mode or not. and we will find out very quickly if the Republicans gambled well or just destroyed the economy.

May you live in interesting times?

If I’m not in an exhausted stupor, I’ll write more about this later.

Tags: Economics, Financial, bloodstar by bloodstar
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And that may not be a good thing. With the Bailout defeated, the Dow has entered into something of a near freefall. I’d initially felt the bailout was a bad idea, but once banks start to crumble, there’s too much at stake.

Yes the system needs to be fixed, and the old system is nearly unworkable at this point. but there is a real danger of a collapse in the US economy, which would be… unpleasant.

Tags: Economics, Financial, bloodstar by bloodstar
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Okay, I’ve heard the hype about Tina Fey’s impersonation of Palin, but until I saw this, I didn’t realize how spot-on she really is. It’s a little lengthy, but totally worth watching to the end.

Tags: Humor, Political, klossy by klossy
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On behalf of your son…

more animals

Tags: Humor, klossy by klossy
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Maybe McCain pulled his gambit to keep the spotlight off Palin?

Couric: “Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?”

Palin: “That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and getting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.”

What?

At this point I’ve given up on posting every Palin gaff. There’s just so much low hanging fruit, I want to pick the juiciest pieces.

Tags: Election, Political, Sometimes these things write themselves, bloodstar by bloodstar
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Because the Republicans and Democrats were in Violation of TX law?

Well it was thrown out by the Supreme Court

Their Reason?

Yep, no effort to explain why the law of the land was being ignored.

This certainly reaffirms my belief in the Republicans and Democrats…

My Belief that really, they’re the same party, and too willing to flaunt and break the law to maintain it. Why follow the law when you can break it without fear of repercussions?

Tags: Election, Political, bloodstar, rant by bloodstar
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The good news, with Ron Paul, Obama, and a few others, there has been something of an awakening in the younger group. Unfortunately Ron Pauls crowd tends to be more of Cult of Personality. And with his recent endorsement of the Constitution Party Candidate (WTF?!?), he’s ensured that his group will lose what remains of it’s cohesive force. However the group has been energized, which means that they’ll stay interested in politics for a long time. (even those who get disenchanted will tend to remain more interested than those who weren’t involved in the first place)

Obama has done a fantastic job of expressing relatively moderate positions which has enabled him to cobble together a group that includes a number of centrists and libertarians. Then Obama has set out and managed to mobilize the younger generation that has been outraged (rightly or wrongly) over the last 8 years.

I know the perception is that people grow conservative as they grow older, but I would suggest an alternative school of thought. People generally don’t change their views, but the perception of what is progressive/liberal and what is conservative changes. Racial Equality was one such event, LGBT rights is another area that we’re seeing that very same change over time occur.

I’d remind the younger generation, either Republican or Democrat, Libertarian or Green, to not simply give up because you’re seeing just how sausage is made. The worst thing you can do is walk away because you think it’s dirty or disheartening. Because when you do, you give other people who don’t walk away more power. One person rarely changes the world. One million people can change the world.

Tags: Musings, Political, bloodstar by bloodstar
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So, maybe this isn’t a big issue but it disappoints me thoroughly in my “generation”, “age group” or peers. Pick whatever you want to say there. I’ll say that I’m in the 18 to 25 year old range of things. I’ve got a facebook and a myspace. Sure, I text a lot. But, I’m aware of what’s going on in our country. At my job, I’m not allowed to discuss politics and the people that I work with are of different political and religious opinions.

Recently, the almighty website of Facebook made some changes. I mean, we all knew it was coming simply because it is trying to compete with the O’ Blessed MegaGod of Myspace. You have to expect change sometime. It’s not that big of a deal. Adjust to it and move on. My issue isn’t with the changes that were made, it’s simply the fact that so many people got upset about it. They started petitions to get the old facebook back. Statuses were changed and reflected how much they loathed it.

I’m disappointed because if we can get so upset over something as trivial as facebook.. why can’t we stand up for the bigger issues at hand? I mean, half the people I know, don’t pay attention to the election news or national news .. let alone international issues. They’re happy to be blissfully ignorant. Then when there’s a major change, they cry out not knowing where it came from even though it’s been coming all along. They just needed to open their eyes to see it.

During my day, I constantly hear how the world is changing and how the older generations are concerned about the future and how we’re going to handle it. I’m afraid too. If we’re so blind to not see what’s going on and to not actually let our voices be heard, then we’re in major trouble. We might as well just hand over our rights and comply to whatever the current adminstration wants. Don’t get me wrong. Many of my peers are active in the world, and they let their voices ring out with opinions on many subjects. But, the majority of my generation just sit there like mindless cattle focusing on who’s dating who and what they updated on their profile page. I just want to scream Wake up! to everyone. This is OUR future and we can have control over it. We can make the decisions now that change the course of this country but I feel as if we are going to stand by the wayside and let it go to ruin.

I’m hoping in the next two months that there’s some kind of awakening and that we actually start thinking. But I doubt it. All I can hope is that the people who aren’t so blind, have enough power to let our voices me heard whether they’re voting for Obama or McCain. Everyone needs to get out there and be more aware of what’s going on.

That’s enough of the blah blah.

Have a good day everyone! <3 [Read more →]

Tags: Musings, lineinasong by lineinasong
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I understand that talking and expressing yourself can be problematic, but trust me, when there is nothing to support a stand and you try to make shit up, it’s all going to end in tears.

(Via CBS)

COURIC: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it’s funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don’t know, you know? Reporters–

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our– our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia–

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We– we do– it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is– from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to– to our state.

(HT: Ambinder)

Tags: Election, Political, Sometimes these things write themselves, bloodstar by bloodstar
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