The Gay Agenda video blog: Palin comparison

Thanks, Jennifer, for sharing details about your DNC expereince -- and mentioning Iowa, my adopted home state. After living in Iowa for 8 years, I'm not surprised that Iowa's DNC supporters were so positive about Obama's pro-GLBT comments.

My Iowa experience has been surprisingly good. I've lived in other midwestern states, and I gotta say that Iowa is pretty darn good for GLBT folks (and getting better) compared to many other seeminly more cosmopolitan and diverse midwestern states.

Iowans are pleasantly open-minded (including conservative and rural citizens) -- as well as well-educated and respectful of different opinions. I've met a lot of rural people here, but so few rednecks! One thing that I really admire about Iowans is that so many seem to really care about politics and believe that polictical give-and-take is the best way to achieve worthwhile change. They understand compromise and that politics is an evolutionary, refining process. For them, it's ongoing, important work that everyone can (and should) be involved in.

So thanks for another good vlog -- and the Iowa good vibes!

While McCain has sacrificed a lot of his priniciples to appeal to the base of his party, I think he is generally a reasonable person when it comes down it.

Palin on the other hand reminds me so much of Bush its scary. They're the kind of people who operate on a "faith-based" worldview. Everything is black and white, no gray areas. New evidence that conflicts with their worldview is simply dismissed or ignored.

And of course there's their evangelical "Jesus is coming soon so it doesn't matter if we destroy the earth and run up the national debt" brand of irresponsibility. Can we agree that people who think the end of the world is a good thing should be disqualified from national public office?

Hillary needs to put a stop to this for women everywhere. (hey how about Joe Biden, the night before the debate, you get really sick or something and Hillary can step in and rip Sarah to shreds?)

There's a very simple solution to the Palin problem - you just have to get her on a plane to the UK - we have a law over here called 'The Dangerous Dogs Act'.  It is illegal to own a pitbull (that's what she claimed she was, right? A pitbull in lipstick?  I hope her Avon lady's on danger money) - if you are found to have one it is impounded and destroyed.  And the owner is prosecuted.

If the owner claims the animal is not purebred it is still required to be neutered and muzzled whenever it is in a public place.  A win-win situation, no?

Only one problem I can see - you have to get her to stop humping McCain's leg long enough to get her on the flight...

Palin scares me too. I always felt that McCain was more of a centrist. He was running for president as a republican and had to say a lot of things to get their suppot. For one, he wanted Joe Lieberman to be his vice president, but the party would have eaten him alive so he chose someone more favorable for them. I liked the former McCain who really seemed to be a reformer. He called Bush out on a few things that caught my eye. So if he beat Obama in November I knew we would be in trouble, but not too much. Now with Palin on the ticket I am terrified. If anything happens to McCain we are left with someone who is so far off from my values and many quailties of this nation that our country would be worst off than during the Bush Presidency. Bush always seemed to say that people against the war were against the troops and Democrats were not true Americans. He divided the country so much that he didn't even care about poll numbers. I honestly think Palin would do the exact same thing. McCain might step back and take a look, but Palin would talk about "God's plan" and rally her troops to an irresponsible war. She would ignore environmental concerns, reverse Roe vs. Wade, continue the war in Iraq, give more gun rights, discriminate against liberals (aka. anyone who disagreed with her), and lose our respect around the world. I never thought about this for McCain. He might end up doing it, but, I have more hope for him. I feel certain that this will happen if Palin has to lead this country.

Obama may not have been governor of a state or fully support gay marriage, but I feel he respects our concerns. I think that mentioning "gays and lesbians" as brothers and sisters is lightyears ahead of any inclusionary actions Palin would take. I can't see him repeating the same horrors of the Bush Administration. I think things will get better with Obama.

PS. Obama's mention of the LGBT community made me cheer the loudest during his speech. I was shocked he said it. He has to get conservatives to vote for him too. As a straight African American woman, I felt that it was a sign of breaking down discrimination. We, as a people, are not going to stand for discrimination in our homes, in our communities, or in our public office. I think if the president of the United States is honestly concerned about it then things can move forward to national laws and policies. Bush doesn't believe affirmative action is needed. Thats like saying racism doesn't exist. BS. I want a president who is for all people, not just the people he likes. 

According to this AP article Palin really stretched the truth (some would say "lied") about her opposition to the Bridge To Nowhere project.

http://news.yahoo.com/story//ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check_7

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

And from the Anchorage Daily News:

Palin flip-flopped on 'Bridge to Nowhere' funds

The bridge was intended to provide access to Ketchikan's airport on lightly populated Gravina Island, opening up new territory for expansion at the same time. Alaska's congressional delegation endured withering criticism for earmarking $223 million for Ketchikan and a similar amount for a crossing of Knik Arm at Anchorage.

Congress eventually removed the earmark language but the money still went to Alaska, leaving it up to the administration of then-Gov. Frank Murkowski to decide whether to go ahead with the bridges or spend the money on something else.

In September, 2006, Palin showed up in Ketchikan on her gubernatorial campaign and said the bridge was essential for the town's prosperity.

She said she could feel the town's pain at being derided as a "nowhere" by prominent politicians, noting that her home town, Wasilla, had recently been insulted by the state Senate president, Ben Stevens.

"OK, you've got Valley trash standing here in the middle of nowhere," Palin said, according to an account in the Ketchikan Daily News. "I think we're going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project."

One year later, Ketchikan's Republican leaders said they were blindsided by Palin's decision to pull the plug.

Palin is a fanatic, a cruel deluded woman with ambitions far exceeding her qualifications for them.  If she ever steps foot in the White House it should only be because she is wearing a "Visitor" pass and for no other reason than that.

McCain knows she's a risky gamble at diverting from the issues he's NOT addressing and that is why they are forbidding her to interact with the media outside of scripted settings.  Even other republicans are alarmed at her reckless selection for the VP slot.

The only ones pleased are the "religious" nut bags who see a gun toting, envirnment bashing, dragon lady who hypocritically wears the facade of "Christian values."

I sure hope that we don't get side tracked by her delusional display of character vomit and lose sight of the fact that the GOP, including McCain, have no real plan for helping this country recover from Bush/Cheney and move beyond the vicious wingnut culture of the right wring cultists falsly claiming to be the moral majority.

Being an oddity amongst liberals since I am pro life in general not necessarily anti abortion at all costs, I see little in the GOP that offers anything other volatile cultural devision and genocide and expense of true wisdom and compassion.  They are truly a frightening group of power brokers who will over time see their blind fanaticism layed out for all its truly worth: a terrible historical footnote, valuable only as a lesson at how to better educate our species against using religion to excuse violence, hatred and greed.

It's kind of insulting that McCain seems to think that just because Palin has a vagina and breasts women will vote for her, as though women aren't smart enough to care about actual issues. As though Clinton got so many votes just because she's a woman, not because she had actual merit. Because obviously, women will vote for any woman. It's not like we actually think when we vote.

I honestly can't help but think McCain picked her because she's pretty. So what a woman actual thinks or does doesn't matter, just looks. Because on meri, Palin is nothing, she wouldn't have been picked if she was old, or male. Good to know the Republican party thinks looks are what really counts for a woman.