Obama doesn't remember name of soldier on his wrist

After McCain talked about the bracelet from the mother of a slain soldier, Obama mentioned that he had one, too.

Obama: Jim, let me just make a point. I've got a bracelet, too.

(Looks up, adjusts wrist, looks down at wrist)

Obama: From sergeant... uh.. (adjusts wrist) uh, from the mother of sergeant Ryan David Jopek (phonetic). Given to me in Green Bay. And she asked me, can you please make sure another mother isn't going through what I'm going through?



Gaffe, or not? Comparable to him not bothering to visit the wounded soldiers in Germany?

Who is Running Alaska While Sarah Palin Is Campaigning?

That's one of the headlines at YahooNews today. I'm not even gonna bother to read the article, but the intent to smear is obvious.

I'm thinking someone called the Lieutenant Governor might possibly be doing it... and perhaps getting phone calls from Palin from time to time, or even participating in that technological marvel called a conference call...

*I'm* wondering...who runs the states when the various Senators go off on *their* campaigning. In particular ones like Obama and Clinton who have been in their seats for one term, or less than one term, and yet have no compunction but to go gallivanting off to try for the Presidency.

Another interesting news article yesterday based on polling information.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/rasmussen/20080924/pl_rasmussen/homeowners20080924
Most Americans Still Say Home-Buying Is Best Investment

and note the categorical statements about all Americans in the article.

1) Two-thirds of Americans (66%) think buying a home is the best investment most families can make, despite the recent meltdown of the U.S. housing market. Just 19% disagree.

2) Forty-four percent (44%) also say it's a good idea for most Americans to invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Thirty-one percent (31%) don't think it's a good idea, and 24% are undecided (see crosstabs).

3) Just 18% expect the stock market to go up between now and Election Day in early November. Thirty-four percent (34%) think it will go down, and a similar number (32%) expect it to remain about the same


The entire article eis like this. 44% of Americans, 34% of Americans, etc.

And then, at the very bottom of the page, it tells you exactly home many of the 300 MILLION inhabitants of the US took part in this survey. 1,000 people.

1,000 peope, that's it. And from 1,000 people they can extrapolate that 2/3rds of Americans think that buying a home is still a good idea?

This was a phone survey. And as I have stated time and time again when I rant about polls, who answers phone these days? Not a very high percentage of people...not a representative percentage of people.

And I don't care how representative they are, you can not gauge what 300 MILLION people will do in answer to a complex question, based on what 1,000 people will do.

Did they talk to blacks? Latinos? Hispanics? Illegal immigrants (who are allowed to vote in various Democratic states, coff, coff).

For the last week or so the news, based on a poll, that Obama is going to have a hard time winning because of the racism of white Democrats, has been making the rounds. And I have yet to see any of the people who comment sorrowfully on this shameful state of affairs, point out that it's based on poll data of just 2,227 people!

"God has a plan for our lives."

In an article about the devastation in Galveston, there's a paragraph about people there whose belief in God is unshaken, and they're together in prayer.

Texans look to the heavens as they rebuild, heal from Ike

"I know it's hard. Looking around, it's tough," the Rev. Eddie Shauberger told the congregants. "But there is a God, and he has a plan for our lives."

What's easier to believe, I wonder. That there is no god and nature is a bitch...or a bastard, whatever... or that there is a God, and he just loves sending this kind of devastation, taking away everything people have ever worked for, ya da ya, to "test them", to see if they'll stay strong in their faith despite tremendous temptation to say, Gee, God. If this is the kind of stuff you pull on people who love you, I guess I can't love you any more, because you're obviously a bit psychotic."

No one asked me...

Yahoo news reported today:
Poll: Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama
http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-obama-race

Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent," responsible for their own troubles.

Mark the sentence, please. One-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks.

Well...that's a lie.

One third of 2,227 adults --- 2,227 adults who participated in poll, --- harbored negative views towards blacks.

Now - who were these adults? How were they selected?

Here's a bit of the article: The AP-Yahoo News poll used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, a Menlo Park, Calif., firm that interviews people online after randomly selecting and screening them over telephone.

Okay - there ya go. Who these days answers their telephone? I don't. I've got call screening, and if its someone I don't know, I don't answer the phone.

Were these 2,227 people scattered all over the country? Or were they in one state? Etc. etc.

We don't know how the pollsters were chosen, we know nothing about their background. All we know is that based on the example of 2,227 adults (did that include 18 year olds, 80 year olds?) this Yahoo article states categorically that an entire percentage of people think this or believe that.

So if black folks (and whites) read that they'll say, Gee, we are a racist country. (Will I be generalizing too much if I say that 75% of people who read that article won't bother to go down to the very bottom sentence to see exactly how many people took part in the poll?)

Obama's Inflame-the-Latinos Ad About Rush

Obama put out a Spanish language ad in four states, in which, according to Limbaugh, he's inflaming Latinos and Hispanics by calling Rush racist, etc., and lying about things he's said.



Limbaugh is against illegal immigration...and being against illegal immigration does not make someone racist. But, of course, illegal immigration will win out, because as soon as someone says they are against illegal immigration, they are accused of being racist, and that's it, end of discussion.

Limbaugh getting desperate...

I'm no fan of Barack Obama, but I am a fan of the truth and of non-distortion, and Limbaugh today on his radio show was all gleeful about an Obama gaffe that wasn't really a gaffe. And the fact that he is trying to portray it as one is rather pathetic...

We've got another Obama gaffe, and this was a great one if ABC has left it up on their website. It was on Good Morning America today, an exclusive interview with Good Morning America, and the subject of this particular interview was campaign low blows versus standard attack ads. And Mark Mooney, ABC reports, quotes Obama as having said on Good Morning America today, "If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily."

Obviously, obviously, what he means is that he wins the contest as the victim of those attacks, not as the promulgator of them.

It is interesting to listen to Limbaugh talk. He's been commenting regularly that the Democrats are going to try to destroy Sarah Palin as a person, just as they tried to destroy Clarence Thomas, ya da ya da... "That's what Democrats do."

But at the same time is he and Hannity not doing the same thing to Obama by dragging up all his dirty laundry? I'm sure the Republicans would do it too, if only Obama weren't black... but like illegal aliens, it's impossible to criticize Obama without being hit with the cry of "racism." But when you consider that 99% of the blacks in the US are going to vote for Obama... simply because he's black, is that not racist?

It's just so hypocrticical that they criticize the Democrats for the same things that they themselves do. That's the problems with politicians, frankly. They can't criticize each other because they'd all turn out to be hypocrites if they did.

As an aside...obviously the time for a black President is very close at hand. Hopefully it won't be Obama...but who should it be? Colin Powell? I'd vote for him...

And now it's Texas...

I've been reading some of the stories talking about Hurricane Ike and what it did to Tezas. All the stories mention that despite a mandatory evacuation order, over 140,000 people remained in the region...and now of course they all have to be rescued from their flooded houses.

Each person they've interviewed so far (that's only a handful though), has said essentially the same thing. "I didn't think it would be this bad."

Well, the people who remained are stupid, for the most part, and they should just be left where they are. After all, that's where they wanted to be.

Okay, that sounds a little unsympathetic, and in one way that's not fair because I'm sure one reason quite a few people stayed in their homes was because of the fear that the instant they left, looters would descend in droves and make off with their stuff. And ya know, I'm sure that happened in places. Humans don't pass up a chance to get free stuff.

And since it's Sunday, I'm sure every church across the country has got priests saying, "Let's pray for the victims of Hurricane Ike." And the stupidity of that just boggles the mind. I bet Texas is a home of fundamentalists...weren't they praying and praying that the hurricane wouldn't hurt them.... (and, if you incline that way, I suppose you can be thanking your god right now that the hurricane actually wasn't as bad as forecasters had feared... 11 foot high water instead of 25 foot high water... quite kind of God to not send the full whack, wasn't it? Those prayers must have gotten through!)

Sharon Stone famously said a few months ago that the earthquake that happened in China was "karma"... I wonder what she thinks of the hurricane that hit Texas...what had Texas done to deserve it, but to open their arms to Katrina victims a few years ago?

One hopes that the cleanup and reconstruction of Houston and Galveston will go faster and more efficiently than that of New Orleans, and one also hopes that the thousands of non-Houston residents who are pouring there now in hopes of scamming off some free welfare will be deported out to the middle of the ocean or something...

But since people and governments never, ever learn from their mistakes, I think we're going to see the same incompetence and idiocies as before.

But, a shout out to the rescue services who are putting their lives on the line every minute of the day to rescue victims of Hurricane Ike. May they all return home safe...and may the idiots who stayed behind, also be safe.

God helps those that help themselves

I'm not a religous person... and I don't understand how anybody can be.... but if you are a religious person... that still doesn't explain why you wouldn't evacuate your Galveston or Houston home in the face of Hurricane Ike.

Some bright guy, 75 years old,explained why he was staying in his home. "God will look after me."

Well, gee. Where's God each time some innocent soul is killed in a drive-by shooting? Or in a crane collapse. Where was God when all those people died during the New Orleans disaster? Where was God when that commuter and passenger train collided in California and over 10 people died?

I think God's a little too busy watching people starve to death in the Sudan or Somalia or wherever the heck it is.... or to busy watching the genocide in the Sudan...to pay attention to one little old man who decides to remain in his house despite the fact that a hurricane is heading straight for him.

The Politics of Pregnancy

Barack Obama is under fire today by the media pundits Limbaugh and Hannity (well..at least Hannity) because he is in favor of age-appropriate sex education in schools, starting in kindergarten.

Well...I don't know if "sex education" is necessary in schools, but "gender education" is definitely needed. Something to teach girls that they are important people just as people, and not only if they're existence is validated by having a boyfriend or worse, a baby, which is what most teenagers seem to think. (And that's the all-pervasive sex media at work).

Illegitimate pregnancy is dragging the US down. It's a real problem in the African-American community, where 2/3rd of all children are born out of wedlock. Forget about the fact that there's no father influence for all these kids, and just think of the fact that these are girls who probably can't read or write, will never be able to get jobs, and will thus be on welfare for the rest of their lives, as will their children. (And since they have nothing better to do with their lives, and no reason not to, they'll just keep popping out those kids...)

It's not just a black problem, of course, Chicanas and Latinas and whites have the same problem. Will sex education in schools stop it? Who knows? But perhaps if Sarah Palin's 17-year old daughter had known about condoms, she wouldn't now be pregnant and unmarried. And yeah, apparently there is going to be a wedding...so at least she knows who the father is...

(Although the thing is, as I referenced earlier, I think girls do know about condoms. But they want to get pregnant, because they see having a little baby as proof to all their friends that a boy finds them attractive enough to have sex with! Not attractive enough to get married, of course, but attractive enough to have a one-night stand with... Or they want the welfare payments, or they want the unconditional love a baby is supposed to give and don't think about all the hard work its gonna take to raise the little nipper.)

Sarah Palin's speech

I didn't watch it myself...if she imploded I didn't want to see it...supposedly she did well...

for myself...I'm not too happy with her stance on abortion rights or creationism.. fundamentalists of any stripe are bad news...

But here she is at Youtube:




Speech pt 1


Speech pt 2


Speech pt 3


Oh...and here's a video of the gaffe where Noonan and Murphy think they're talking off-mike about Palin...and criticize the choice big time.