Tiger Hill

You would think Austin, 180 miles from the coast, would be safe from any hurricane.  Not true as I’m finding out this week.  Hurricane Ike is barrelling down on the Texas Gulf Coast and moving at such a speed as to possibly be a Category 2 when it arrives into Central Texas.  Luckily for me, the path has slided over to the east a few hundred miles–not so lucky for Houston.  Austin should only get Tropical Storm force winds, but there could be Hurricane winds if it comes ashore southwest of the projection.

Because people, deep down in their heart, have absolutely no care for the truth.  None. Zip. Zero.  They don’t care about the truth or reality, but being “right”. Being right is not tied to the truth but rather winning an argument…a debate.  And as someone who has spent way too much time at a podium in proper, sanctioned debates, I could be right in an argument for the concept of a Flat-Earth.  Obviously, the reality and the truth point in a different direction, however, the evidence as isn’t important as how you use it and the other side’s ability to disprove your horse shit.  The Republicans agree:

John Feehery, a Republican strategist, said the campaign is entering a stage in which skirmishes over the facts are less important than the dominant themes that are forming voters’ opinions of the candidates.

“The more the New York Times and The Washington Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is, because there’s a bigger truth out there and the bigger truths are she’s new, she’s popular in Alaska and she is an insurgent,” Feehery said. “As long as those are out there, these little facts don’t really matter.”

These little facts?  The fact she has lied about the “Bridge to Nowhere”, the fact she has lied about being a fiscal conservative, the fact she has lied about selling her state’s private jet on eBay for a profit?  These are just “little facts”?  Lying no longer matters to anyone.  Matter of fact, lies are more believable than the truth for most.

For example, from the same article:

A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken Sept. 5 to Sept. 7 found that 51 percent of voters think Obama would raise their taxes, even though his plan would actually cut taxes for the overwhelming majority of Americans. Obama has proposed eliminating income taxes on seniors making less than $50,000 a year, but 41 percent of those seniors say their income taxes would go up in an Obama administration.

For those of you not familiar with the “Daisy” ad, here you go:

So this guy has decided that because Andrew Sullivan supports civil liberties, low taxes, smaller government, a reality-based foreign policy, and transparency in government, that he can no longer be a conservative?  Does that mean Barry Goldwater could no longer be conservative?

So good ole Bryan pulls out the old “If you disagree AIPAC or Israel or Joe Lieberman, you are an anti-Semite” card by going after this quote of Andrew Sullivan’s:

All he writes about in this piece of propaganda is electoral strategy and the people he hates in the media. In a week, he hasn’t said a word about Sarah Palin’s foreign policy views. I know she’s being safely indoctrinated by Joe Lieberman and AIPAC as we speak, but the fact that Kristol, like the rest of us, has not yet been able to point to a single view of hers on foreign policy in her entire life, is eloquent enough. Aren’t we at war? Isn’t he supposed to care about national security? Is everything about pursuing power by any means to him?

Bryan’s response:

You liberals and your Jewish conspiracy theories crack me up. As I’ve pointed out before, any time liberals blame some nefarious plot (or preemptive war on Iraq) on evil neo-cons that is codeword for Jewish conspiracy. I swear they take this stuff right out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The idea that Palin (who I thought was a neo-Nazi because she wore a Buchanan button one time) is some how conspiring with Bill Kristol, Joe Liebermann and AIPAC is beyond hilarity.

I hate to break it to you, Bryan, but Andrew Sullivan is right.  Sarah Palin is being indoctrinated coached on foriegn policy by Joe Lieberman and AIPAC.

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman is among several national security experts helping brief Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on foreign policy issues as she prepares to hit the campaign trail while cramming for a debate with her Democratic opponent, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), in less than a month, according to officials from Sen. John McCain’s campaign.

Lieberman, who was the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee but is now an independent, has helped introduce Palin to officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby. In a meeting Tuesday, the day before she delivered her prime-time address at the Republican National Convention here, Palin assured the group of her strong support for Israel, of her desire to see the United States move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and of her opposition to Iran’s aspirations to become a nuclear power, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

It seems that Andrew was correct and the Right is still reality challenged.  Why should we expect anything else?

You can’t just say you are a reformer and different from the rest of your party if it isn’t actually true.  Mrs. Palin, charging your state for per diems you didn’t own isn’t putting country first.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

Mrs. Palin, having the highest per capita taxes and the highest per capita spending isn’t putting country first.

Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 21/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska’s government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.

Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state’s unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can’t afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.

Everyday, more news comes out about her that just doesn’t mesh with what she says.  To me, that seems a lot like the Bush Administration continued.  Of course, she is associated with a Domionist church so the truth to her probably comes nowhere close to reality for the rest of us.

I need to rename this the P.Z. Myers Hate Mail of the Day.  He brings out the crazies like no other.  Today, I would like to tell you about a fine man named Gustaf.  Gustaf thinks that if you have a problem with someone then the best line of action is to verbally attack and harass that person’s teenage daughter.  I don’t remember reading the passage of the Bible where that is clearly defined as appropriate although I am assuredly not a Biblical scholar.  Something tells me Gustaf isn’t either.  My favorite parts in bold:

He has an entire page dedicated to it. Well, you will soon grow up little girl, and then you will look back at your childish youth. Worst case would be that you end up like your father, completely void of knowledge refusing to accept God in his life, living a sad empty life thinking his[sic] a monkey.

You will hopefully grow up, or lets[sic] pray your mother or grandparents or friends will help you get away from your sick parents. It should be illegal for people like them to have children.

Question A:  Does God not believe in spell check?

Question B:  If your mother is praying for you to get away from your parents, then is your mother not your parent?  Is she a denying self-loather?  I did grow up in Tennessee, and this has the obvious signs of East Tennessee sexual tomfoolery that is stereotyped repeatedly.  Maybe there still is some truth in it.

Congratulations of Richard Riley of Oregon you win the inaugural Christianist Kook of the Day for this quote lacking any sense of scale or reality-based common sense at all:

Professor Myers: Your intentional desecration of the Eucharist is the most dispicable act that i have ever witnessed or learned of in my 70 years. You act is far more deplorable than Hitlers’ Holocaust or the terriorists on 9-11 .

Yes sir….the impalling of a cracker is equal to the death of millions of human beings.  I bet he loves Sarah Palin.

If you aren’t aware of P.Z. Myers or the story behind the Holy Cracker, here you are.

This is what our country has become.  A nation where someone doesn’t like what you say, they can detain you for nothing more than exercising your rights of assembly and press.  The fact that the arrest of Amy Goodman and Nicole Salazar isn’t on top of Page One of every major newspaper in the US is just another example that our political discourse as gone horribly awry.  Below are the videos of their arrests.

But doesn’t Sarah Palin sound a lot like MadTV’s Doreen–aka the mother of the character Stuart.

I’ve been quiet this week due to changes in my job, and frankly, I didn’t know how to write about the biggest news of the past week–the nomination of Sarah Palin.  Don’t get me wrong, I knew how I felt about her the moment I heard the news; however, I just didn’t know how to react to news that someone in charge of an state that has less people than my hometown(Memphis, TN) and my place of residence(Austin, TX) might be thought of as someone ready for an office just “a heartbeat away from the Presidency”. [sorry for the cliche]  With that said, do I think that Will Wynn or W.W. Herenton would be prepared to be Vice President?  Of course not.

I do like John McCain.  Although his stances on civil liberties and the Iraq War make me voting for him impossible, I thought that he would at least make a serviceable President and as his campaign slogan states—Put America First.  However, his choice of Sarah Palin has convinced me that he is nothing more than a normal politician that will do anything to be elected.  If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t pick a Vice President that is not nearly as qualified as hundreds of others in his own party.  I almost understand his wish to pick a woman.  However, there are numerous women who are immensely more qualified than her—my own Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, former NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Senator Susan Collins, Senator Olympia Snowe, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, etc.  Why would he choose a woman who has only been a governor for less time than he has been running for President?  Why?  What would possess him to do something so short sided when our nation is at risk at home(civil liberties) and abroad(Global War on Terrorism, Iraq, Russian Resurgence, etc.)?  Do you really want her across the table from Vladimir Putin?  Hu Jintao?  Really?  I know I don’t.