JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published on Monday that Israel must withdraw from nearly all the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem to attain peace with the Palestinians and that any occupied land it held onto would have to be exchanged for the same quantity of Israeli territory.

New York Times
September 29, 2008

As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

Kathleen Parker
National Review Online
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDZiMDhjYTU1NmI5Y2MwZjg2MWNiMWMyYTUxZDkwNTE=

Apparently the $700bi Wall Street bailout is about healthcare.

From the CBS Early Show, September 25th 2008:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? … Instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions.

Mind boggling. Also interesting to hear that “reducing taxes … has got to accompany tax reductions”.

The draft for the proposed $700 Wall Street bail-out bill contains the following:

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.“

People have compared this to the Patriot Act. Give the administration power to make decisions that can’t be reviewed or challenged.
I understand the need for swift action, and to provide the treasury with the ability to make decisions quickly. But let’s not make the same mistake we made with the Patriot Act. We are still a democracy, with separation of powers and checks and balances. At least, that’s what I signed up for.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21draftcnd.html?ref=business
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/23sorkin.html

“She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials,” Hagel said Wednesday in an interview. “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”

The McCain campaign has cited the proximity of Alaska to Russia as evidence of her international experience.

Hagel scoffed at that notion.

“I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,’” he said. “That kind of thing is insulting to the American people.

Omaha World-Herald
September 18 2008

Karl Rove said this morning that John McCain’s attacks against Barack Obama have stretched the truth.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Rove said McCain had “gone one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent-truth test.”

In English, I think that means, lying.

Last week I bought the MacUpdate promo bundle which included, among others, MacJournal. I’ve tried some journal software before, but as never really satisfied. One of the really nice features of MacJournal is that you can easily send your journal entries to your blog.

So for now at least, I’m going to try to use MacJournal as my primary mechanism for posting here.

John McCain is lying. I’m calling him out. His campaign is running a series of ads which are at best misleading and at worst, lies.

For example, you keep seeing “Higher Taxes” attached to Obama in the McCain ads. The fact is (check me!) that Obama’s tax plans would actually cut taxes for at least 80% of American taxpayers. Only the top 5% would end up paying more due to the reversal of the Bush tax cuts and some other measures. You will pay more only if you make over $250,000. However, I’m afraid most of the viewing public (who I suspect make less than $250K) is too lazy to check the facts. Another lie in the form of a McCain ad accusing Obama of supporting legislation to offer “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners. The fact is (check me!) that when a state senator in Illinois, Obama voted for (but was not a sponsor of) legislation dealing with sex education for grades K-12; the legislation allowed local school boards to teach age-appropriate sex education, not comprehensive lessons to kindergartners, and it gave schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators. These are just two examples of ads. McCain and his people continue to lie bold-faced about Sarah Palin’s opposition to the “Bridge to Nowhere”, even though it’s well documented that she once supported it.

McCain is lying. I thought he was supposed to be so full of integrity? What kind of character is this? How can he get away with this? More importantly, haow can we let him get away with this? I find this deeply disturbing. However, more disturbing is the knowledge that most people will never bother to question these TV ads. They just believe everything they hear on TV and have no curiosity or desire to check the facts. Once again, my concern for democracy in America is giving me headaches.

Today I received my confirmation of voter registration.

“Republicans, very clearly, believe that real people are idiots. This disdain for their smarts shows up in the whole way they’ve cast this race now, turning a contest over economic and foreign policy into a culture war of the Real vs. the Elites. It’s a smoke and mirrors game aimed at diverting attention from the fact that the party’s tax policies have helped create an elite that’s more distant from “the people” than ever before. And from the fact that the party’s dogged allegiance to up-by-your-bootstraps individualism … is leading to a culture-wide crack-up.”

Quote from Judith Warner writing on nytimes.com
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/the-mirrored-ceiling/index.html

In fact, the Republicans’ recent success depends on this being the case. I’d like to think that most real people aren’t idiots. Naturally, there are some. But most people are not as well educated as they could be, and certainly not as informed as they should be. Worse, there’s very little critical thinking or evaluation of information. Something has happened here which causes people to believe every sound byte on TV or radio. There’s a disdain for intellectuals and scientists and distrust of the press. I’m very, very concerned about the future of democracy in America; in fact I believe the long term future of the country itself is in grave danger. Because eventually, perhaps not for another hundred years or so, the real people will wake up and realize that they’ve been hoodwinked by the party of the rich, and they’ll be angry. And they’ll have guns.