parah salin?

[kagenaki koe]

On Fox News Sunday, McCain said Palin knows what it means to lead troops.

"She has been commander-in-chief of the Alaska Guard," McCain said.

Governors decide when and how to deploy the guard to help in natural disasters...They also can use the guard to control civil unrest.

it's obvious she knows how to lead troops since Alaska has been besieged with natural disasters and emergencies over the last 2 years. and those alaskans are a riotous bunch.

[cacophony]

plus, the ever-present threat of russkies.

[gambit]

Wait wait wait! Rudy Giuliani vouches for her!

In an interview Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Giuliani was asked, "If she were the president on 9/11, you would have been confident?"

Giuliani responded: "I'd be confident that she'd be able to handle it. She's been a governor of a state, she's been mayor of a city."

It is a defense of Palin that grew to a crescendo on Wednesday in the hours before the Alaska governor was set to give a speech at the Republican National Convention.

"Sorry, Sen. Obama, if the city's not big enough for you," Giuliani cracked later in the day during a luncheon with the New York delegation at a Minneapolis hotel. "She was mayor for eight years of a city - I'll tell you one thing, when I was mayor of New York, sometimes I felt like I was mayor of a small town."

LOL. I'm practically quoting the entire article here, but the comparison this article gave is just hilarious.

But the city known as the historic gateway to the New World has little in common with a town that grew up as the railroad gateway to a mining district.

Wasilla is 85 percent white, 5 percent American Indian, 4 percent Hispanic, 1 percent Asian and less than 1 percent black, according to 2000 Census figures. New York City is 43 percent white, 27 percent Hispanic, 25 percent black and 12 percent Asian.

The mayor of New York City oversees an emergency service force that includes 37,000 police officers and 11,000 firefighters, while the Wasilla mayor is responsible for 21 officers and doesn't have to worry about fire services.

The borough, which is like a county, handles that.

The borough also handles the school system, ambulance services and public transportation, mainly a fleet of 20 buses in the area.

But the Wasilla mayor does have to battle and negotiate with a City Council, just like Giuliani did for eight years.

A City Council of six, compared with New York City's 51.

But Palin balanced Wasilla's budget, Republicans say. Certainly New York City mayors know how hard that is - ever since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, they have been required by law to balance the budget.

This year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrestled to do just that, rolling over a surplus from last fiscal year and keeping spending flat. The city's total budget for this fiscal year? $59 billion.

Wasilla's budget is what New York City's eats for breakfast - $13 million in fiscal 2008.

As far as crime goes in Wasilla, there were no murders, 7 robberies and 4 rapes in 2005, the latest year for which state figures were available.

There were 7 murders, 460 robberies and 39 rapes in New York City. Last week.

Oh yeah, they're practically the same.

[gambit]

And her husband was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, which sought to, well, gain Alaskan Independence from the U.S. I guess the Republican's have to start questioning their patriotism now, huh?

[cured]

Spoiler for tonight: bits of Palin's speech have been leaked.

On her experience as a public servant:

"I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities."

On why she is going to Washington, D.C.:

"I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

On energy policies that the McCain-Palin administration will implement:

"Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems - as if we all didn’t know that already. But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines...build more nuclear plants...create jobs with clean coal...and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers."

On John McCain:

"Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

[cured]

I read that, too. I read Andrew Sullivan's blog and he's livid about how bad this pick was.

http://www.andrewsullivan.com

The weird part of this was, as mayor, she hired a Washington lobbyist to fight for earmarks for her city. A town of 6,000 needs a lobbyist??

[gambit]

Sadly, she sounds a lot like the Bush administration. So she'd fit right in on day one.

[Deckard]

On Romney's 'borderline insane' speech:

Mitt Romney seems to use the word "liberal" in a randomly pejorative fashion. I half expect him to say "I was eating breakfast this morning, and my hash browns were all liberal. I sent them back and told the waitress to bring me some good, conservative hash browns."

Hahahaha!

[IsiliRunite]

I was philosophically turned off from last night's speech.

[cacophony]

it's as though republicans forget that videotape exists.