Can I call you “Joe”

In two debates, last night’s and last Friday’s, I think I’ve heard the word “maverick” at least a million times.  You know the old line, repeat a lie long enough and it will become the truth.  Well, this PolitiPornster is not buying it.  Everytime that word crosses the lips of McCain or Palin, it sounds forced and empty.  Oddly enough, that would also properly describe Palin’s performance last night, forced and empty.

If George W. Bush was “all hat and no cattle”, well Ms. Palin is “all snow and no igloo!”

As for the debate, I did the same thing as last week.  I watched the debate and afterwards discussed it with Mrs. PolitiPornster.  During this post debate recap we didn’t listen to any of the media led or spin room led discussions regarding who won.  Our conclusion, it was a wash, a tie, basically the sister got kissed.  If there was a slight edge, I’d have to hand that to Biden.

Why?  Well, whether you liked his answers or not, or even if you hated his style, he still answered the questions!  I counted three separate occasions where Palin ignored the question completely and instead rattled off Rovian Republican talking points that had nothing to do with the subject matter of the question introduced.

If you’re wondering which three instances I’m talking about here goes, 1) when asked about what would be her Achilles heel: NO ANSWER; 2) when asked about what would trigger US use of nuclear weapons: NO COMPREHENDABLE ANSWER; and 3) when asked about bankruptcy and taxes: NO ANSWER – instead said she wanted to talk about Energy. 

You’d probably be curious as to why she didn’t answer those questions; my best guess is that those questions were not in her script.  The one time she got off script as she was trying to answer the question about nuclear weapons, I started having flashbacks of her now infamous Katie Couric interview. 

Now the positives for Palin, she was charming and she came across as folksy.  She tried her best to get under Biden’s skin and her jabs will likely get replayed ad nausiem on conservative radio.  She certainly connected with the rightwing base last night.  Most importantly, she went a long way to help repair the damage done by the Gibson and Couric interviews that led people to wonder just how many retards are in the Palin family.

The McCain camp knows it dodged a bullet the size of Rush Limbaugh’s fat ass last night.  Here’s some advice, keep that woman on FOX News and/or conservative talk radio.  If she speaks to anyone who is either in the tank for Obama or surprisingly unbiased, she will be eaten alive.  You would think that after Katie Couric paddled that ass, McCain would learn. 

For the party’s sake, the McCain camp should seriously consider keeping this lady in Dick Cheney’s bunker until after the election.  Just a thought.

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Pakistan-Freaking-Tastic

 

International Update… Developing…

Duke, PolitiPorn Int’l Bureau Chief 

PakistanIn one 32 hour period this week, Pakistan averaged about 1 killed and six wounded per hour, as suicide bombings brought the post-election death toll to 132.  The deadliest of (by some counts) eight post-election bombings happened Tuesday when suicide bombers struck the relatively quiet city of Lahore, killing 27 and wounding 200. Located in the prosperous province of Punjab, Lahore is the second largest city in Pakistan (about twice the size of San Francisco). Despite its extremely diverse population the targets for Tuesday’s bombings turned out not to be a religious (although the attack did occur on the eve of Muhharam, the venerated first month of the Islamic calendar), but rather law enforcement and a business. Today’s bombings occurred in the troubled SWAT region of NWFP, leaving four soldiers and militants dead.If this wave of violence keeps up we are going to have a real situation in Pakistan. Islamic militant violence was the official justification of Musharraf’s previous imposition (and believe me it was an imposition) of ‘emergency rule’ (read martial law.)

The of course was the very same emergency rule that fought back against Islamic militants by eliminating the freedom of the Judiciary (which the militants didn’t exactly rely on) and the hard-won freedom of the press (militants don’t have televisions).Just to recap for those keeping score at home… last time militant violence reached a fever pitch it was used by Musharraf to dismiss the only branch of the government that disagreed with the legitimacy of his presidency. The judiciary, by the way, was about to rule on whether Musharraf’s candidacy was valid in these previous elections as the head of the Pakistani military, a position Musharraf has since abandoned.I’m not sure if Musharraf has the domestic or international legitimacy to re-impose martial law, but the implications of this week’s violence run deep. For instance, the bombings were carried out by Islamic extremists; during last month’s elections most of the hardline Islamic parties either boycotted or got trounced.

Failure to include the Islamic parties in the parliamentary elections tends to result in a more violent political campaign. Their participation should have been courted so that they could take a more legitimate beating. Another implication of the recent uptick in violence involves the political posture that the new powers (PML-N and PPP) will be forced to embrace in order to keep the peace. The campaign against terrorism was expected to be scaled back, but Islamic militants rarely put up with this type of tactic. Every time someone decides to stop killing Muslims at random, the extremists evidentially become furious (see Gaza).At this point the PML-N and PPP (formerly headed by Bhutto) have to address a dilemma that has become much more complicated than it was before the elections… what to do with the child killing Islamic militants. Just to clarify, the term child-killing Islamic militant is actually an oxymoron; the Qur’an explicitly forbids the killing of children, women and noncombatants.

Nawaz Sharif, head of the PML-N party, has been (fairly) accused of supporting Islamic extremists in the past, and is even rumored to have personally met with Osama Bin Laden. The PPP on the other hand was in power during the emergence of the Taliban, though Bhutto would later publically state regret for the nurturing of extremism. The crystal ball for Pakistan is very cloudy right now.

developing…

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Mac, Iraq, Turks Attack then go Back

 

By Duke, PolitiPorn Int’l. Bureau Chief 

Iraq

Starting last week’s foreign policy abortion in Iraq, McCain was quoted last Tuesday by CNN (Here) as saying:

“My friends, the war will be over soon … for all intents and purposes, although the insurgency will go on for years and years and years, but it will be handled by the Iraqis, not by us.”  In watching John “Walnuts” McCain we’ve noticed that he starts a lot of sentences with the “My friends” device.

First off, the “intents and purposes” relating our occupation of Iraq are still a bit of a mystery to anyone not selling weapons systems or eating baby food.Unfortunately the Middle East has flicked the lights on and off and a furry bartender is saying “You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.” We should consider the circumstances and regional politics.

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