Campaign handlers need to campaign against her, and I suspect the moderate GOPs who gave us McCain do to.
(My initial interpretation of what happened was completely bogus. See Chris’ correction below).
Under the bus
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Category Archives: News
Tasergate
I’ve got a book coming out (I think) that goes into the details, so I won’t talk here about the so-called “TrooperGate” and the bizarre political theatre being acted out in Juneau.
I do wonder though if Alaska will be worse off for Palin’s absence. It looks as if there was yet another “good old boy” network that needed to be cleaned out–the state troopers and their union who think ten days suspension of one of their own for a series of offenses including illegalities is too severe and get it cut in half. It would be interesting to try to research what sort of behavior the Alaskans have been trained to expect from their state troopers.
Ike is worrying me
Here‘s some video news with footage. Galveston Island is already being hit hard.
If GOP wins, is there any chance that Palin can resist being Quayled?
Hope so. If not:
Palin will be to McCain what Spiro Agnew was to Richard Nixon and Dan Quayle was to George H. W. Bush — conservative vice presidents who had virtually no impact on the moderate presidents they served. In a McCain administration, it is more likely that we would see Lieberman appointed Secretary of State than Palin being given any responsibilities more significant than office secretary. And if there is one thing this election, this party, and their convention made clear, it’s that Palin’s entire purpose is to pacify traditional conservatives on the multiple issues they still care about, so that in Republican victory, McCain and the neoconservatives can finally get to work on their only issue.
Terrorism in the Middle East
Here’s the story from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Safety pins and screws are still lodged in 15-year-old Ami Ortiz’s body three months after he opened a booby-trapped gift basket sent to his family. The explosion severed two toes, damaged his hearing and harmed a promising basketball career.
Police say they are still searching for the assailants. But to the Ortiz family the motive is clear: The Ortizes are Jews who believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
Israel’s tiny community of Messianic Jews, a mixed group of 10,000 people who include the California-based Jews for Jesus, complains of threats, harassment and police indifference.
The March 20 bombing was the worst incident so far. In October, a mysterious fire damaged a Jerusalem church used by Messianic Jews, and last month ultra-Orthodox Jews torched a stack of Christian holy books distributed by missionaries.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry and two chief rabbis were quick to condemn the burning, but the Ortiz family says vigorous police action is needed.
“I believe that it will happen again, if not to us, then to other Messianic believers,” said Ami’s mother, Leah Ortiz, a 54-year-old native of South Orange, N.J.
Proselytizing is strongly discouraged in Israel, a state that was established for a people that suffered centuries of persecution for not accepting Jesus and has little tolerance for missionary work.
View Larger ImageI was proud of my eldest son for pointing this out to me. He hears from other Christians how Israel is God’s special nation. I tell him that such statements are not true: the Church is God’s special nation whether comprised of Israelis, Arabs, subsaharan Africans, or even WASPS in North America. But he feels pressured sometimes, I think, to express some sort of theological loyalty to the modern nation of Israel. While a story above is horrible, and I pray for the day when that no longer happens, it does help teach him the difference.
Of course, compared to Sharia Law, Israel may be worth an alliance. I don’t have a strong opinion one way or another. But it saddens me to hear that heretical theology has such a stranglehold on Evangelicals that even in the twenty-first century prominant leaders attribute some sort of special divine identity to Israel.
And yes, I am regretful about some things I hear about Palin, if they are true.
One other thing: I hear people get incredulous or outraged when they learn that the Puritans and other settlers persecuted in England came to the New World to impose their own beliefs on others. Well, it is fine to disapprove of that practice, but to act like it is completely unthinkable is rather strange. Even the SF Chronicle seems to want to sympathize with Israel for exactly that kind of society.
McBama on war
In short: if you love GWB, you’ll love President Saakashvili. Therefore it’s no surprise John McCain is portraying the Georgians as the good guys and demanding that Russian troops leave “sovereign Georgian territory” without preconditions or delay. After all, when your chief foreign policy adviser has up until very recently been a paid shill for the Georgian government, what else could we expect? As I’ve pointed out on a few occasions in this space, Mad John has been spoiling for a fight with the Russians – in the Caucasus and elsewhere – for years, going so far as to travel to Georgia to proclaim his sympathy for Saakashvili’s cause.
What’s really interesting, however, is how Barack Obama has taken up this same cause, albeit with less vehemence than the GOP nominee. As Politico.com reported:
“When violence broke out in the Caucasus on Friday morning, John McCain quickly issued a statement that was far more strident toward the Russians than that of President Bush, Barack Obama, and much of the West. But, as Russian warplanes pounded Georgian targets far beyond South Ossetia this weekend, Bush, Obama, and others have moved closer to McCain’s initial position.”
While calling for mediation and international peacekeepers, Obama went with the War Party’s line that Russia, not Georgia, is the aggressor, as the Times of London reports: “Obama accused Russia of escalating the crisis ‘through it’s clear and continued violation of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.'” While his first statement on the outbreak of hostilities was more along the lines of “Can’t we all get along?”, the New York Times notes:
“Mr. Obama did harden his rhetoric later on Friday, shortly before getting on a plane for a vacation in Hawaii. His initial statement, an adviser said, was released before there were confirmed reports of the Russian invasion. In his later statement, Mr. Obama said, ‘What is clear is that Russia has invaded Georgia’s sovereign – has encroached on Georgia’s sovereignty, and it is very important for us to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.'”
The quick obligatory recession post
I found enough coins to treat myself to some coffee across the intersection at Panera Bread Company. When I reached the counter I saw a nice sign standing there with the Panera Bread company logo, colors, and 2008 copyright notice. I tried to take a picture, but my phone’s camera isn’t good and I don’t know how to get the pictures to my computer anyway. It basically said that they wanted to serve quality food at reasonable prices but that they wouldn’t buy inferior ingredients in order to keep prices down. As a result, prices will be rising. The price of wheat, the sign said, has increased 100% in the last few months (six, I think, but I’m not remembering clearly).
I tried to find some discussion of the sign in the blogosphere or on the company website, but no such luck. However I did find a couple of stories that were related:
Not sure what to say about this. Recently, I’ve found myself unable to buy a whole tank of gas. It is not because I don’t have the money in my account (for now at least). It is simply because some psychological point has been reaced and I just can’t stand to fill up the tank.
This might not do anything except force me to stop for gas more often. But I suspect it will also make me think twice about unnecessary driving.
If McCain wasn’t so hawkish, this would persuade me
I also think that McCain was entirely correct on the immigration issue. Sometimes I don’t understand my fellow conservatives. Aside from immigration laws being government regulations that prevent people from seeking economic prosperity — and when did support for regulations like that become a “conservative” issue? — American is about immigrating to seek a better life. I say we should welcome everyone, provided that they are willing to join in the American project as well. Besides, I can’t help but think that the conservative anti-immigration position will do for the GOP nationally what it did for the California Republican party — move it into a permanent-minority party. McCain is absolutely right on on the immigration issue, for both principled and tactical reasons.
Finally, there’s McCain’s mixup with the religious right in the 2000 election. Whatever. The Bush campaign was playing hardball, and some Christian groups got on board with Bush. McCain got mad, and slapped them on the nose. So don’t come crying to me when you’re trying to beat up on someone and he happens to punch back. Truth be told, I find most religious-right organizations (as opposed to individual Christians who are conservative) mostly to be embarassments to Christianity.
Also, I have to say I’m wondering if I’m being unrealistic about Fred Thompson’s virtues.
Congratulations to Dr. R. C. Sproul
From what I hear he is now both the new chairman of the board and the Chancellor of Knox Theological Seminary.
May God be with him as he takes on his new responsibilities.
The business model and dealing with the deviant customer
- Promise unlimited service.
- Expect users to operate within undisclosed limits
- Feel free to call those customers who violate your limits bad names and terminate the promised service.
I remember hearing rumors that Netflix was “holding” the movies of users who were returning them too fast. They were expecting the average user to hang on to them longer.
But at least Netflix didn’t call them “hogs” and discontinue their service.
I can’t believe the story actually used the animal reference in the subtitle as if it was an objective claim.
Some AT&T customers use disproportionately high amounts of Internet capacity, “but we figure that’s why they buy the service,” said Michael Coe, a spokesman for the company.
I’m glad my provider talks sense.
The Silicon Valley Insider made a great point:
Comcast’s long-term problem: Internet usage is only going to grow. Media companies are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in streaming video projects like Hulu and Joost, which use a ton of bandwidth. An update to Adobe’s ubiquitous Flash software means that companies like ABC will be able to stream shows like Lost in hi-def to Internet users — which can eat up 4 gigs of bandwidth in a matter of hours. A lot of that video will be distributed over Comcast’s pipes. And the only way for Comcast to differentiate between legitimate file transfers like watching The Office on NBC.com and illegitimate transfers like downloading The Office from BitTorrent would be to monitor the content its subscribers are downloading — a scary concept. This could get nasty.
Hopefully, instead of nastiness, we’ll get objective allowances and the means to know how close we are to our limits. Businesses need to stop putting the word “unlimited” in their advertisements.