To woo his cultural, religious base, McCain unleashed his light saber in the guise of a well coiffed, moose hunting pit bull named Sarah Palin. The Vice President candidate, governor of Alaska, came out with fisticuffs and blazing guns, playing the role of aggressive, go get ‘em “drill sergeant” as a foil to McCain’s persona as the wise, calm but forceful General.

Palin unveiled herself as a fascinating, political Frankenstein. Like the computer-designed woman in the movie Weird Science, she seems to be the perfect wet dream composite as imagined by lustful and passionate right wing, radical Republican teenage boys. She’s a salmon fishing, Bible thumping, pistol packing, hockey mom who can hunt a moose, skin it, make a burger out of it for lunch, catch the pastor’s Sunday sermon, and also find time to wear a sexy - but not butch - power suit the following day for a press conference. And, according to her drooling, Conservative acolytes, she thankfully doesn’t look “lesbian-y” and aggressively intimidating like that alleged man-hating ogre Hillary Clinton. [More] . . read more

Last month's Republican National Convention was a cesspool of thinly veiled racist invective aimed at Obama. Sarah Palin, the Republicans' vice presidential candidate, sneered about Obama's history as a community organizer. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani likewise derided Obama for his work "on the South Side of Chicago." A few hours before McCain gave his acceptance speech, Republican bigot Lynn Westmoreland, a member of Congress from the former slave state of Georgia, referred to Michelle and Barack Obama as "uppity"...

The hypocrisy of white Republicans - whose party openly represents the interests of the wealthy and the most conservative wing of American capitalism - calling Obama "uppity" and "elitist" would be funny if their actions weren't helping to legitimize cruder forms of racism that have emerged during the course of this never-ending election. [More] . . read more

Since the days of Alexander the Great, binge drinking has been a very popular past time - leading to him apparently killing a friend and burning down Persepolis while drunk.

Those are some Great shoes to fill.

Yet, governments, schools and the media have repeatedly tried to teach us of binge drinking's dangers. 

Dartmouth University has taken the lead, instigating a new nationwide policy to curb heavy drinking by their students.

Pour me another glass.

Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men — or four or more drinks in a row by women — at least once in the previous 2 weeks. Heavy binge drinking includes three or more such episodes in 2 weeks."

Seems I don't know anyone who isn't a heavy binge drinker.

Do you think this definition should be changed or should we change people's attitudes? Or should you follow HPD's no fools guide to drinking a lot but not dying?  . . read more

Is Palin remotely qualified to be president of the United States? No. But that's precisely what is so interesting. McCain not only has thrown all sensible concerns about good governance aside merely to pander to a sliver of female and masses of conservative Christian voters, he has turned this period of American history into an episode of high-stakes reality television: Don't look now, but our cousin Sarah just became leader of the free world! Tune in next week and watch her get sassy with Pakistan!

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves... This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism.

Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be U.S. president, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages - and loses - both necessary and unnecessary wars. McCain has so little respect for the presidency that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him. [More] . . read more

My criticism of Palin should not be construed as uncritical acceptance of Obama. Needless to say, I find Obama's religious pandering repulsive. The suspicion that he is pandering, out of obvious necessity, and not quite as religious as he makes out, is somewhat comforting, however. But even if Obama were precisely as religious as he appears, he is not a Creationist, Rapture-Ready blockhead. Palin, by all appearances, seems to be one. This is a difference worth noting. Whatever you may think of his politics, Obama is very intelligent and reasonably well educated. Palin thinks the universe is 6000 years old...

So, let me simply declare that I would be overjoyed to have a qualified woman in the White House. I would, likewise, be overjoyed to have a qualified African American in the White House. In fact, I would be overjoyed to have a qualified WASP man in the White House. I will be guardedly optimistic to have a very smart (and somewhat qualified) Barack Obama in the White House. And I would be frankly terrified to have a religious bumpkin like Sarah Palin in the White House. I think you should share this last conviction. . . read more

By my masochistic count, GOP nominee Sen. John McCain, mentioned his 25 years in Congress a mere eight times. He brought up his five years as a Prisoner of War in Vietnam 40 times. It may have been more, it was hard to keep up. "God" and "blessed" were mentioned too many times to count.

And the Republican, who seeks to pick up the neo-Con baton from the GOP criminals currently in the White House, even referred to that woeful prospect as "change is coming" a couple of times.

That's all, folks. . . read more

For John Warlover McCain to campaign for the highest office in the land while standing where Dr. King, the preeminent messenger for peace, was shot is hypocrisy of the vilest order and underlines the depths to which this psycho manipulator will travel for opportunity and power. After all, in 1983, McCain voted against creating a Martin Luther King federal holiday. To put it eloquently, John McChicanery sucks.

As the presidential hopeful told the booing crowd at the Lorraine Motel on Friday, "We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing," I wondered how often McCain has been anywhere near early or prompt in doing something other than the wrong thing. I think of the children of Vietnam who were melted beyond recognition by the flip of a switch, controlled by the bomber-pilot McCain.

Many who consider him a hero will say that this status is forever carved in history because when offered release from captivity, he allowed someone who'd been there longer to leave. I disagree vehemently. Certainly, it was decent of McCain to wait his turn, however this act doesn't grant him a lifetime "get outta jail free card". That was then and there have been plenty of occasions between that time and now for him to step up. McCain says he's evolved, but his evolution has an aroma of politics. [More] . . read more

The prospects of a Palin administration are far more frightening, in fact, than those of a Palin Institute for Pediatric Neurosurgery. Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth — in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated. [More] . . read more

But we all need a little hope in our lives especially when thinking about American politics so I thought I’d report that 9th of September CNN polls in the key “toss-up” states Ohio, Michigan and New Hampshire have all had 2% swings towards Obama/Biden, moving from a 2% gap to a 4+5% gap in Obama’s favour. This is despite the first Palin-era poll in Virginia going towards McCain. These 3 positive states are enough, with those states already solidly Democrat, to give the election to Obama, as long as the Supreme Court doesn’t intervene and stop the election again. Although Pennsylvania is narrowing Joe Biden comes from the next door state which should help. So there is some hope.

I’m not trying to say Obama will solve America’s problems and that this will solve the world’s problems – America is not the hope of the world it’s just that, if it keeps going the way it’s been going, it’ll go down and take the whole world down with it. Dave is right to lessen expectations. It will take many years just to avoid disaster. We only hope America can save itself.  . . read more