JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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tigermoth
Guilt by association isn't pretty. I too have read the articles that present the 9/11 attackers as not exactly devout Muslims since they were participating in activities that are strictly forbidden in the Muslim world (drinking, cavorting with strippers, etc.). Maybe they were, maybe they weren't - the so-called devout of any religion cheat all the time, it's human nature. Certainly they based their attacks on some sort of a built up hatred that had to come from an ideology, and a faith in Islam was most certainly the root in this ideology.
Right/wrong, Constitutionality, your perception of small-mindedness and hatred/derision of your fellow Americans aside, there is a fundamental solution here. Real estate in NYC is plentiful, and all of it expensive. Given the nature of events and the strong stance presented against them - even if it is without grounds (I'm not saying I agree that it is without grounds, just even if it is) - they could quite simply locate the mosque a further distance away. The flock could be inconvenienced to walk or take a cab the extra distance. Churches/religious centers shut down or relocate more often these days, it's not a big deal. If this mosque was in Iraq and the followers had to walk miles to get to it, they would do so without issue or complaint.
I guess I just don't see the point in forcing the issue. If you belong to a gay rights group and you force your way into a neighborhood that doesn't want you, it is an issue because the implication is that the neighborhood doesn't agree with your lifestyle. In that case I can see pushing forward. In this case, I don't think most (some certainly, but not most) that are opposed to the mosque think that Islam does not have a right to exist in America, or that Muslims don't have the right to practice their religion, but just that the symbolism of this location is simply to fresh in public memory to build a mosque which, like it or not, caters to the religious faith that at least was the ideological background of the men who committed mass murder on the site.
Posted in: Obama says Muslims have right to build mosque near ground zero
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tigermoth
It's not just intellectually lazy, it's an incorrect assumption to make from the get go and is a key factor why there has been so much disagreement on this thread.
Apportion blame where it is due.
Blame is not due for the Americans Muslims who want to use this mosque.
And therein lies one of the fundamental problems. Proponents of said mosque see this as simply a matter of Constitutional rights and an unfair grouping of guilt by association. But it's not so cut and dry. Here I have to admit that I have read very little of the qur'an, nor have I read much of the bible - fiction is not really my bag. But one only need look at the global map and see that a lack of human rights and draconian violence (stonings, be headings, etc) seems far more prevalent in those countries following Islam. Perhaps a bit of an over-generalization, but not too much.
The problem is that these extremists are present - or at least moderates leaning towards a more extremist point of view - more often than those espousing the peaceful nature of Islam care to admit. It's no secret that there were several well-known mosques preaching an intolerant hatred of the west in many cities across the US (many in downtown NYC)well before 9/11. Our ill-thought out wars where we have have - inadvertently or not - killed a great number of militants and civilians in these Muslim countries has very likely had the effect of at the very least creating scores of additional moderates that are a step away from becoming extremist. Yabits - the king of defending Muslims/Islam - himself on another thread stated that the young Muslims he knew growing up in Michigan were very impressionable.
When radical Christians 'go bad' they can of course be deadly. But more often they group themselves in armed compounds or join the Klan or something equally moronic. When the followers of Islam go radical, they train at terrorist camps then infiltrate normal communities in the US and elsewhere to await a chance to strike. People that met and knew the 9/11 attackers said they were nice, quiet guys. Normal Muslims.
Blind, misplaced fear? Perhaps - but just perhaps there is a bit of truth to the fear.
In the sake of showing that the followers of Islam can co-exist with the rest of the world, wouldn't it make more sense for the builders of this mosque to simply say 'you know what? if this makes so many so uncomfortable, we can build this a few miles away - no big deal'. I think the shear fact that they are insisting on building this fully knowing of the emotion and opposition it raises is more a harbinger of motive.
Posted in: Obama says Muslims have right to build mosque near ground zero
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tigermoth
When will the rest of the world wise up and realize there is no dealing with these people; they've been killing each other for thousands of years over a belief system that is no less silly than Zeus turning himself into a bull or people handling snakes.
Massive nuclear strikes; turn the sands of the ME into glass. Make one giant skateboard park out of it; Tony Hawk as president/manager. With prime development of beach front property of course.
Silly of course, but no less silly than the reality. It will never end; we will never 'win'; there will never be peace in that part of the world. Find an energy alternative, get out and leave them to it.
Posted in: Al-Qaida plants flag, burns bodies in Iraq attack
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tigermoth
And ./sigh - sometimes I wonder whether posters on here actually believe themselves to be so much brighter than the rest of us that our comments elicit smug sighs of disgust.
US consumers might be impaired. Any more than they already are by the whims of oil producing nations/those that set the price per barrel and price per gallon at the pump? I'm not so sure. It would hurt the Venezuelan economy far, far more than it would affect ours.
In your quite obvious omniscience, do you know as fact that Canada, the Saudis, Mexico, Nigeria or even Columbia, Brazil and some of the lessor providers could not make up the difference?
Likely you don't harken to the old days of gunboat diplomacy, but neither do most of us care to be pushed around by a third rate dictator in a third world country.
Posted in: Chavez warns of U.S. oil cutoff in Colombia dispute
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tigermoth
I think we could quite easily make up the supply of oil bought from Venezuela someplace else. Is it any more daft to let some jack-ass Castro-wanna-be tell us what we should/shouldn't do? Is is any more daft that we have an economic system that is so flawed that we're tragically reliant upon a fuel source that we must outsource (and on top of that is it any more daft that the holier-than-thou weirdo pseudo hippy environmentalists in this country vehemently oppose the idea of our extricating said oil from sources within our control because God help us we must save the spotted leaping horned toad from extinction - but conversely they don't give a rat turd that the countries such as Venezuela that we instead get our oil from don't give a damn about their version of the spotted leaping horned toad and its possible demise). Can the world get any more daft that it currently is? Certainly. So in the scheme of things, no I don't think my ideas is so daft. Thanks for asking though.
Posted in: Chavez warns of U.S. oil cutoff in Colombia dispute
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tigermoth
Ummm....what? I'm no lawman, but I think the word 'fraud' just might be applicable here.
Yes, they should be. Both sides stop wasting my money on stupid sh@t.
Posted in: Audit: US cannot account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds
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tigermoth
Wonder if they'll do as well as they did in 1914 or 1940? Perhaps they could parachute in mimes to bore al-Qaida to death. It is odd how a country with such a crappy record of fighting could produce some of the toughest troops in the world (French Foreign Legion) - but then I don't think very many of them are French.
Posted in: France declares war against al-Qaida
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tigermoth
Ha - my youngest son saw a woman in the supermarket wearing a full burqa - black in color - and said 'look dad, a ninja!'
I think it's a horrible tradition that is perpetrated upon women by the misogynist males in Islamic cultures. How would they like to wear this hot crap in sweltering weather? Witness a recent scene at a local lake here in NY. The Muslim man in swim trunks and no shirt frolicking in the water while his poor wife is nearly passing out wrapped up from head to toe in this nonsensical garment. BUT - passing legislation to tell people what they cannot wear, particularly when it is based upon their culture or personal beliefs, is bad business.
But anther problem is that they (Muslims) can only see it from one side. Typically for most of us we are taught that when we go to a foreign country we must comply with traditions there. Yes, there is the 'ugly American' syndrome. But for folks that would move to different parts of the world, they typically assimilate with the society they are entering rather than trying to change laws and social acceptances by expecting their new host nation to cater to their wants. For example, if I move to France, I don't expect them to conduct business with me in English just because I don't speak French; I should learn the language.
The problem is with the huge influx of Muslims to western nations like Britain, France and the US is that the assumption has become that we should adjust to the cultural differences promulgated by this influx, rather than them adjusting to a more western lifestyle, which has typically been the norm. And there is no reversal of this, i.e. Westerners moving into primarily Muslim regions and insinuating their cultures because no westerners want to live in these third world hovels (unless we're unfortunately invading them).
So then the unfortunate question of a 'cultural tainting' if you will is raised. Go to London these days and rather than Britons in banker suits and bowler hats it looks more like downtown Pakistan. You can't blame the indigenous inhabitants for being angered by this. No more so than you can blame a different culture for being force-fed a more western way of life. When they pass laws against things, or don't accept our ways in other countries, they are protecting their cultures. When we try to do the same we are horrible racists.
Posted in: French parliament debates ban on burqa-style veils
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tigermoth
This says it better than I could:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304287.html
Posted in: Israeli commandos storm aid flotilla; 10 killed
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tigermoth
I'm usually not one for blaming the cops, particularly based on a story as poorly written as this one:
He was gunned down by a liquor store? I didn't know they had appendages to do such a thing.
The story is sans a lot of crucial facts I think. But I can tell you as a parent (grandparent, doesn't matter) that if someone burst into my house at 12:30 a.m. by throwing in a flash-bang grenade and brandishing weapons, I would very hopefully instinctively throw myself at the nearest one to try and protect my children. Flash-bangs are designed to disorient and confuse - that is their purpose. To fault this woman for reacting as she did is wrong. What would have been wrong with surrounding the place with a SWAT team and using a bullhorn? Hostage situation? Possibly. But I should think far less dangerous than running in with safety catches off ready to blast whomever moves. I'm no cop but I should think that assessing the situation first would be SOP before charging in like Joe Commando. It doesn't take a tactical genius to know that good intelligence on what your heading into can save lives. By the story they didn't even seem to have a clue who else lived in the house nor where the suspect exactly was.
SuperLib I'm more often on your side in arguments, and too often I think the police are blamed by the 'innocent' populace who in fact are not. But in this case - even though I'm not a law enforcement officer nor in any way trained - I can think of far better options.
Posted in: Detroit police say 7-year-old girl shot dead in home search
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tigermoth
You can't really blame the people of Arizona here, and likely more states will follow in kind. It's like when you see that sign in the elevator that says maximum occupancy ___. There's a set limit for a reason. States like Arizona see an influx of illegals that far outreaches their ability to cope. The drain on fiscal and physical resources becomes too much and something has to give. It isn't fair to the legal citizens - both those who are natural born and those who went through the correct channels. No, it isn't fair that those who did come here in the proper way will be profiled - but what's the alternative? No one seems to know that. You can pass legislation now to increase border protection (actually as LFRAgain rightly stated, it would be allocating the appropriate tax dollars) but that doesn't address the problem that's already here.
LFRAgain, your comment:
That's sort of a loaded summation that is not exactly true. The problem is that when liberals raise taxes, increasing border security usually isn't on their list - instead health care for all, including these illegals, tends to be the port of call. Oh they may talk loud about the issue to accuse conservatives of doing nothing, but then they shout about human rights and quietly forget about it. In true fact, more tax money is available for such things if we drop some of the truly stupid things that we spend money on in this country (even to the detriment of our children's education). No, I would say that if a true bill would come along that wasn't tacked onto with a lot of nonsense that simply said the allocated funds were to be used solely for the purpose of shutting down our borders, most Americans would give a sound hurrah.
Posted in: LA approves Arizona boycott over immigration law
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tigermoth
Sushi - what's a government agent stationed on an oil rig going to do? Get blown up with the rest perhaps? If the owners were BP and the workers BP, some government stooge, even though on site - still could and would be kept in the dark.
But the other relevant point to that is - even if said agent had been there and called in the Feds immediately - what exactly would they have done differently to stop this? If the U.S. Government had some magical technology to stop this type of oil disaster, they would be implementing it now and the Prez would be a hero. They've got nothing. It will get capped in weeks or months and be a huge environmental disaster. A fed on board might have brought the 'swat teams' in earlier so they could have all gotten together to admit they have no clue.
And now we can blame it all on the President - which makes no sense at all. But I never thought it made sense to blame Katrina on Bush, but all of you had a go at it. 'An oil rig blew up and now unrefined oil is spewing into the ocean and we can't stop it - it's your fault Mr. President'. 'A Hurricane has flooded New Orleans which scientists predicted for many years (far longer than Bush's administration) due to the crappy levy, and a bunch of people who were too stupid to follow evac orders were dying in their own filth in New Orleans - it's your fault Mr. President'.
Our blame culture must have a scapegoat, so afraid your man is it as it's his watch.
Posted in: Obama to do everything 'humanly possible' on oil spill
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tigermoth
Your 'certain other religion' - which you've long expressed your open hostility on here - is Judaism. I find that comment amusing, and obviously you don't live in the States. A large number of comedians and entertainers in this country are Jewish (okay, that sounds stereotypical, but none-the-less true) and I've rarely ever heard a group make fun of themselves and their religion as much as they do.
The problem with the arguments by MistWizard and others regarding the tendency to falsely vilify moderate Muslims because of the actions of a 'few' radical Muslims - while of course fundamentally true - is that these arguments are made less effective by several factors. One is the level of sheer violence by those extremists. While yes, Christians can get violent, they don't tend to have the AK-47's, explosives and know-how to do much other than blow up the occasional clinic somewhere. They don't usually try to kill as many 'infidels' in aircraft or blow the legs of women and children in market squares. The scope of violence, sophistication in training and planning, and willingness to die and kill others is a bit more daunting and dangerous. Another consideration is that usually these 'extremists' start out being the 'peaceful' Muslims living in our communities that no one ever expected anything so horrible from. Add to that the fact that too many 'extremists' seem to be in positions of power and/or influence in the Islamic community and suddenly the 'religion of peace' doesn't seem to live up to its self-description.
It's certainly not fair to condemn the lot for the actions of a dis-proportionate few, but even these few are far too many, and far too violent and mercurial for us to ignore a simply atypical.
Posted in: Muslim group warns 'South Park' creators of death
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tigermoth
Rat your arguments are so one-sided I'm surprised you can walk in a straight line. Whenever the 'Rich' in this country are mentioned by you lefties (I could say 'democraps' or some other such childish implementation such as your 'repigs', bu t name calling is such a childish vestige of the ignorant that I will not stoop to your level) you immediately jump on the 'Exxon exec, Banking heads, etc'. You're talking about the corporations, and I'm talking about the normal U.S.Citizen that consists of a spectrum between desperately poor and the rich. Looked at as a percentage, the corporations are a very small percentage of that tax pie (and while yes, I'm not stupid enough to not realize that corporate wealth and taxes can be a very substantial number) when considering it from the basis of the U.S. population. Contrary to what you apparently erroneously believe (because your type loves to grasp onto a generalization to make your erroneous points and assumptions to prove how bright you are) the 'rich' do pay taxes, and lots of them. Case in point; a good friend of mine's father is a millionaire. He worked his tale off and built a good fortune on some type of industrial machinery. He's not on any 'world's richest' lists, but he has several million in the bank, his own jet, boat - you get the picture. By our standards - rich. By the time he was done paying taxes on property and all else, it was in the five figure range. How's that not paying any taxes? How much did you pay this year? Yes, the corporations and financial giants have many ingenious ways of not paying taxes - but the lower strata of what we would call rich do. For some odd reason many of you seem to be under the false impression that they do not, because like Rat, you over-generalize and don't know WTF you're talking about.
Again, the top 30. You seem to think that the 'rich' that you so demonize make up a few hundred of the elite. Here's a converse question - why are those on the left so against the idea of someone becoming successful and making money? Is it because you cannot or won't? It's funny how someone who was so left-leaning suddenly becomes a bit more conservative when they get money. Is it because they 'sell out'? Or is it because they suddenly realize that they worked for it and don't really want to share it with the masses who did not? You don't see all the rich liberals in Hollywood giving away their mansions and money do you? Oh yeah, they 'support' causes that are a tax write-off and talk about how righteous they are while living in a five million dollar mansion in gated and locked communities far away from the races, mixes, cultures and masses that they claim to be so in tune with. Give me a break.
Most of us work pretty damned hard and seem to get nowhere; welcome to life. At least the opportunity is there. Again, you generalize and assume that all of those without health care are hard working unfortunates who just lost their job. What about all of those scamming the public assistance system for years? What about the unwed mother who has five children despite having no means to support even one? Hey, my wife and I didn't have another child because we decided after two that no way could we afford it. What about all these folks that claim they can't find work, but yet I still see jobs available. Yes, in industries most don't want. Sometimes you have to flip burgers - that's life. Cruel? Inhuman? I didn't make the world, I just live in it. No matter how much we gripe, bitch, moan and otherwise say the opposite, the U.S. still has the best thing going. I like capitalism. I like the fact that I can make it here. I don't want to give my hard-earned dollars to someone else who didn't earn them. I do realize Rat that I'm doing that anyway through paying taxes into our system. I don't like what some of that money goes for, but there it is. To tell me now that you're going to take more for poorly thought out legislation that supporters like you didn't even read before jumping on the 'I love Obama - yeah, isn't it great' bandwagon seems more moronic to me than any tea party of opposition.
Posted in: Tea Party crashers plan to exaggerate 'racists' and 'morons'
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tigermoth
Too bad with the current administration's planned cuts and 're-prioritization' of NASA's mission that there will be fewer of these great shots to come.
Posted in: Return to Earth
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tigermoth
I get tired of this 'the rich' never pay their taxes - wah! This was posted locally but I think it says it rather well:
If you caught the profile of singer Vic Damone on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” recently, you heard him talk about growing up in a big family with little money. He owned but two pair of pants – one for church, another for school. The school pants were corduroys. So to this day, he refuses to wear corduroy.
I have a friend and colleague named Lee Miltee. She’s a highly successful and wealthy entrepreneur, author and peak performance trainer and coach, with corporate clients like Disney and Federal Express. She recalls growing up wearing the same pair of slacks to school everyday – unfortunately, plaid – and having schoolmates take critical notice. As a teen, one year, I wore a donated winter coat and even briefly time-shared it with my father. Only one of us could go outdoors at a time.
This is a commonality in the lives of many – maybe even most – of the much-demonized rich, and successful, and famous: they were once poor. And they did, to use tired cliché, pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. They sacrificed much, they worked longer hours and harder and more persistently than others.
This, a fact rarely remarked upon by political demagogues or liberal media pundits. To them, we are now rich, much richer than most, so we should have much forcibly taken from us and distributed to the non-rich.
Could there be any more criminal an idea?
As was recently shown on ABC’s 20/20, when teens break into Hollywood celebrities’ homes and steal clothes, jewelry and other possessions just because the rich celebs have those things and they do not, the police put them in jail. When politicians and liberal pundits champion the exact same behavior, they posit it as if it was rational and just, and fools fall for it. Co-conspirators in evil.
This past week, most media reported the fact that a stunning 47 percent of Americans pay no net income taxes. Zero. Of course, many of them do pay into the government run Ponzi schemes, Social Security and Medicare; pay property taxes; all pay sales taxes; and all will now pay the myriad of new taxes concealed within the scam called Health Care Reform, as well as the coming, inevitable super-inflation. But they pay no net income taxes. And that is offensive – no, vile and repugnant – to those of us who now give an astronomical portion of our incomes astronomical taxes to pay the major share of taxes in this country. That’s what we get for years of struggle and sacrifice.
These people paying zero in but taking out much are thieves. They steal from me. And I resent the thievery and its sanction.
The other day, I had a debate with an acquaintance about the health care tax, tax, tax ‘n power grab scheme. He ended it by asserting, with some rage and resentment, that I did not understand, and had no right to object. Why? Because, he said, as though to a leper dripping toxic goo on his shoes, I am rich.
His indictment of me ignores the reality of my journey. I understand and very much remember going without needed health care, and watching my parents go without needed health care, because of lack of insurance and money. I am all for a strong safety net for those who genuinely, legitimately need help with basic needs and are unable (not unwilling) either temporarily or permanently to provide for themselves or their families. But that’s not what Obamacare is about. In fact, it makes the situation of those in the bad circumstances worse, not better. The poor will be made poorer, the middle-class made poorer, health care quality and safety damaged.
But my acquaintance couldn’t know these things because, by his own admission, he has not read the health reform bill or even read much about it, read any objective in-depth analysis about it, or otherwise acquired information on which to base an intelligent opinion. Call me crazy, but I believe knowledge should be pre-requisite for opinion. But it is this willful, slothful, irresponsible ignorance that scammers like Obama rely on. It’s essential to his projects of transforming 1/6th of the American economy, of installing socialism, and of demonizing the rich.
Because, like my acquaintance, so many are ignorant of the real reasons money moves about from one person, place or thing to another; ignorant of how ordinary people choose to create extraordinary success and wealth, and how much of life’s outcomes in wealth, health and otherwise are choice; ignorant of how evil and consistently unsuccessful forced re-distribution of wealth schemes are; ignorant of what Obamacare and Obama really represent … the destruction of all that has made America great is possible.
Dan Kennedy
Posted in: Tea Party crashers plan to exaggerate 'racists' and 'morons'
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tigermoth
Rat:
You deal in assumptions. I pay $100 per pay period for my health insurance, and so far everything has been covered just fine. Don't plan on donating a kidney anytime soon and don't know if I'll ever need to; hope not.
I love the way you guys try to bring up basic services and say 'you pay taxes for these so you're already paying into a Socialist system'. I've heard the 'you pay taxes for the military, fire departments, water, blah, blah.' Yes, and I use and benefit from these services. It's apples and oranges to try and say that paying tax dollars to have an established military to protect our national concerns is the same as paying for Joe Slackbottom to have health care because 'can't find work'. McDonalds is hiring - get to it.
No, the left has this tendency to think that they are brighter than the rest. I'm not buying into it, particularly since some of the brightest people I know who were staunch dems are now leaning much further to the right.
Posted in: Tea Party crashers plan to exaggerate 'racists' and 'morons'
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tigermoth
I think it's telling and amusing that the left feels need to send 'infiltrators' into the Tea Party meetings. If you think them nothing but a bunch of fringe, racist loonies, they why bother? If they are no threat, or at best are a means of further dividing the Republican party and thus making subsequent candidacy attempts diluted and ineffective - why would anyone go to the trouble? And why would such a group be the subject of so much vitriol and press coverage? Lunacy and racism aside, I think it makes dems rather nervous that folks aren't falling into line with the President's policies and accepting them as what's best for our nation. There is dissension, and it must be childishly ridiculed, its participants devalued ('ignorant racists') and their cause naturally evil (to keep all the money in the evil 'ole white folk's hands, of course!). Children usually start name-calling when something threatens, hurts or frightens them.
The Rat, you make several comments:
No, the problem is that many who lean to the right, or are in the middle, do not wish to pay for EVERYTHING - or at least those things for others. If I were to ask you to send me the money for a new laptop, you'd quite rightly tell me to p*ss off, and go buy it myself. While naturally having health care is a bit more important than having a computer, I think that you would find the number of people not contributing into the system (i.e. having a job and paying taxes) far outweighs the number of people who genuinely cannot work to afford to pay into the system. The idea that those that do should pay for those that will not is an affront to those who believe in Capitalism and the idea that a welfare state is not the right direction for the U.S. Again, you live in the liberal LaLa land where any tax increases will only affect the 'rich' who deserve to be taxed (why that is, I'm still unclear).
I work a stone's throw from the Capital building in Albany, NY and the Tea Party just had a rally there on tax day. I went over - while some woman did sing that 'God Bless the USA' song that makes me want to jab my eardrums out with an icepick (I'm as patriotic as the next, but give me a friggin' break) I saw no racist signs with caricatures of the President, didn't hear the 'N' word or any other racist slang. I can't conclude that is typical as I've only witnessed the one - but other than the rhetoric of everyone saying their a bunch of racist hillbillies, I wonder how many on here have actually witnessed a rally to see what went on? I'm betting few. Could part of it be a case of believing everything that you read?
Posted in: Tea Party crashers plan to exaggerate 'racists' and 'morons'
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tigermoth
The thing that sucks is that he won't get his military benefits now. He served one tour - braver than most who post here for doing his bit, and damned-well deserves to have said benefits. Stop-loss is a stupid idea. If a soldier is due for discharge during a deployment they should be discharged on time - and if two moths after discharge, find a replacement.
Posted in: U.S. soldier dismissed for threats in Iraq protest
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tigermoth
Cities
1 Washington, DC, USA 2 Seattle, WA, USA 3 San Francisco, CA, USA 4 Chicago, IL, USA 5 New York, NY, USA 6 Los Angeles, CA, USA 7 Toronto, Canada
In this instance, I wonder if it just happens to be because they are large cities (i.e. the greater the population, the more supporters there are likely to be).
I would particularly question Washington, DC. It's been ten years since I lived there, but in the city that elected Marion Barry as mayor again, even after convicted of buying cocaine from a prostitute and through years of corruption, not because he was a good candidate, but because he was black and his opponents most often white, I can't believe they would go for a white 'hockey mom' from Alaska. And I don't mean that in a racist way, but rather demographically they couldn't see her as a good representative of their needs in Washington.
Given the current administration, I'm as conservative as the rest (although I still strongly maintain that anyone who follows party lines on every issue is probably an idiot) but I'm unclear how so many can apparently see Palin as any sort of a viable candidate for anything other than a good PTO president in a local school district. While I certainly don't think she would have gotten where she is by being the total dolt many on the left would paint her to be - she's not Presidential material in any way. The republican party needs intelligent leadership and a sustainable candidate, which she is not. While I can understand the tendency by conservatives to see her as a more 'down-to-earth' candidate than some of the other choices, one has to look past the corn-ball catch phrases and pretty face (relative to the normal fare) to determine if there is enough substance there to lead the free world. I don't see it.
Posted in: Palin rallies tea partiers with anti-tax message