Best thing you’ve had on here in a coon’s age. The pig and bucket thing was superb.

Here is a better picture of Sarah Palin:

http://kunstler.com/

“Meet America’s first trailer-trash vice-presidential candidate: Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska (“the state closest to Russia!” )– soon-to-be grandmother of out-of-wedlock child carried by 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. Shown here relaxing, Alaska-style.”

USA will be soon 3rd world banana state….

Oh my, does BMW and a latte in styrofoam mug make you a snob in U.S.? I would have at least chosen some british sportscar and a tiny porcelain cup of black arabica. That is, if the DUI rules are not applied only to lower class people.

It’s incredible that an advanced western democracy in the 21st century has someone standing for such a high, prominent position who believes abortion should be illegal. Even more incredible that when her daughter is found to be pregnant she effectively forces her to not only have the baby but to marry its father. Sounds more like 1908 than 2008.

I wish Joad Cressbeckler was a true candidate. He would have my vote. Anyone with a wooden leg still alive from the Spanish American War has my vote.

man I love the Onion.

How the hell is a shotgun wedding any “better” than no wedding at all? Having a lame little ceremony at the courthouse and signing a couple papers does NOT give the child a better life.

I wish Joad Cressbeckler was a true candidate.

Look at the Constitution Party, that’s pretty much them.

On a serious note, do you think that Palin could help to tip the balance in favour to Obama. I know it’s rather calous and cold to write this, but McCain does look like an old man who may well kick the bucket before the 4 years are over. Now, wouldn’t this mean Palin would become president? Would Americans really want someone they know next to nothing about taking over? And someone who has had bigger jobs? I’m not sure I’d vote for the council leader of Utsjoki to become president here without him or her having some other known features. I’d imagine McCain’s main ‘selling’ point is that he is a steady pair of hands – but surely that is put into doubt when his vice president, and potential replacement should he succumb to old age, is a much less safe pair of hands than either Obama or Biden.

Still, I don’t claim to have any real understanding of your elections. They seem to be mainly showbiz and very low on actual content beyond rhetoric and throwing pies at the opponent. And then, I remember that you actually reelected Bush.

On a side note, you frequently hear people moaning about the USA breaking international law. Fair enough – but I think the more urgent thing for Americans to pay attention to is their politicians breaking their own American laws and constitution. The election of Bush in Florida in 2000 for example with its mass intimidation of voters etc. And now we see he has used his 8 years to pack the courts with his supporters, so any future cases of election dispute going to them will likely be favourable for the Republicans. Is this how the much-emphasised ‘separation of powers’ is put into practice? Sounds very dodgy to me.

I think Palin was just a pawn. She’ll seen “resign” from the VP position, as what was intended all along. McCain will get credit for choosing a female with a colorful background, then put some random millionaire Republican mormon in her place.

Palin does have a shitload of charisma though. She doesn’t look like the typical stiff, robotic female politician. That’s why everyone loved Bush back in 2000, he was “one of us”, Americans eat that shit up.

Goodness, your people must have a low self-esteem if they consider Bush one of them.

So, it’s possible to resign from being vice-president and then the president gets to appoint someone? There is no election?

@9: So, it’s possible to resign from being vice-president and then the president gets to appoint someone? There is no election?

She ain’t the VP yet, and McSame is not the P yet. So they can do whatever they want. They are just candidates, it’s make-believe.

Indeed, but I mean regardless of office-holder. If Cheney resigns tomorrow, can Bush appoint the managing director of Haliburton (or anyone else he so pleases) to position of vice-president? In other words, is there no election or other supervision of the appointment?

“While we’re waiting for Sarah Palin to resign from the VP candidacy (oh, she will!)”

You’re not serious are you? The damaged candidate in this election is the Democrat one.

The media is doing you all a disservice by covering for him. So when election times comes around your all going to be in shock wondering just how the messiah possibly could have lost. Take a break and get some air from outside the bubble. This pick has woken up the Republicans and brought out the worst in Democrats.

Anyway, Obama needs your money. He passed up the Government funding because he knows that you suckers are all willing to throw cash at him. Just keep in mind that one of every two dollars you give him he could have gotten from the Government instead.

Ohh, the Finnish opinion on U.S future. Thank GOD it NEVER counts or we would be a socialist(Putin ass kissers) nation as well. Dumb nuts.
U.S Rules! Finland ? well, uhmm. yeh, hmm. oh. oh ok, we will bend over Finnish style. OUCH, without lube? damn that hurt.

USA will be soon another 3rd world country. American industrial production cannot even cover yearly imports. That means it is mostly “shopping mall” economy. Selling stuff produced by others.

30 year debt orgy ever since Reagan years. Education system is a joke and infrastucture left to rotten. Debt on all levels sky high. Add to that imperial overreach and economy now collapsing.

Phil made a wise choice when he came to Finland. He doesn’t have to face that vicious Mad Max combined with Snake Plissken world there.

Japan’s biggest trading partner is now China and that is one of the most important ‘sea change’ events. Americans themselves and many others continue overestimating the importance of US economy.

I don’t agree with all this criticism of Sarah Palin. Republican moderates always (never heard of a moderate-moderate GOP ticket, at least not in modern times) nominate truly conservative running mates who then get nothing to do as VP (Dan Quayle the latest example of VP without a job description). So people don’t seem to realize at all how irrelevant a VP is if the president wants to make all the key decisions by himself. Even a president with zero interest in current affairs can always have a kitchen cabinet rather than a VP make the decisions. Dick Cheney has wielded great power only because George W. Bush has wanted him to. Usually it’s not the VP that the election is about.

Palin will not step down. That’s not going to happen. McCain both needs and wants her as his running mate. If McCain wins, she will have played her part to 100%, will be remembered as a huge success but most likely will get no job description as VP. Much of this criticism is unfair and is because Palin is a woman, the Republicans have WON with VP candidates like Spiro Agnew and Dan Quayle because most people saw the VP in those situations as a useful vehicle for the candidate to satisfy the conservative base but nothing more than that. Palin to me is smarter than Agnew and Quayle combined.

So Palin’s views are a little bit off the wall. Tim73 says that because she is against abortions her stance is more 1908 than 2008. But times like 1908 were the heyday of the progressive movement when people were busy passing democratic reforms and creating the first national parks and stuff like that. I know that women voted only in Wyoming back then but 1920 that happened and the GOP because conservative women (ideological foremothers of Sarah Palin) swung the balance in favor of Warren G. Harding. Anyway, no VP in recent memory has been known for equally fierce denouncing of abortions as Dick Cheney. If Palin succeeds Cheney, nothing will change there.

Yep, Palin is more conservative than Cheney on social issues. Her stance on gay marriage is more conservative and she supports creationism. But she is also a reformer who has taken on the Republican establishment in Alaska. Unlike many other religious conservatives who simply toe the line of their religious leaders, Palin is her own person.

I just think that the combination of abortions and the GOP ticket is a nonissue. You don’t get to be on that ticket without being prolife. Mitt Romney switched his position on that issue. John McCain who doesn’t care much at all for social issues, has a 100% prolife voting record in the Senate. If McCain nominates people to SCOTUS who overturn Roe vs. Wade, I got news for you, don’t blame Palin for cheerleading such a thing as VP, that would be the result of a long standing policy of the Republican Party and something that John McCain seems to be willing to do in any case. The women’s rights groups who denounce Palin as a ploy don’t understand that Palin simply represents many conservative women who happen to be against women’s rights when, yet often ONLY when, those clash with religious views.

The issue of experience is easy to understand. There is a very anti-Washington political culture in the US. A lot of people support Obama because he has less experience, wishing all the people who have held power for a long time away. That Palin is popular for the same reason is no surprise. Americans tend to like politicians with less experience and Palin is only a running mate. All the insults about Alaska being an irrelevant small state remind me of what people said of Bill Clinton whose main merit was having been Governor of Arkansas, another small state whose irrelevance was decried by all the anti-Clinton people.

US voters have two pretty good tickets to choose from. Yes, Palin’s views are sometimes but not always extremely conservative but those views should be a part of the equation, a part of the popular choice, as many of them have been actually represented by George W. Bush from the White House for the past eight years, so they can’t be simply whisked away as irrelevant and loony marginal positions held by Palin and no-one else. Bush won Ohio, the decisive state in 2004, thanks to some strong campaigning by very conservative pastors who could deliver big blocks of voters who would otherwise not have cared about politics at all. McCain nominated Palin to get the religious vote in Ohio that might have not happened at all as many of the values voters hate McCain, just as Joe Biden helps Obama with the working class vote in Ohio (interestingly some of the voters in Ohio are working class religious conservatives who will make a serious choice weighing economic and social issues against each other).

Is she spelling-challenged, or are there dots missing over the A?

http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/files/images/2008-04-alaska-governor-sarah-palin.jpg

I think the McSamers messed up and they really meant to ask this Palin.

http://thedeadguy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/flower.jpg

Somehow the Lindsay Lohan news stories and the presidential election news stories got mixed up. Truly weird.

http://thisrecording.tumblr.com/post/48042972/jon-stewart-on-sarah-palin

Sarah Palin has more experience than the King Obama. I think you liberals are now worried about the election? Right?

So Phil thinks that Gov. Palin will quit, huh? Oh, is he in for a rude awakening! http://www.onenewsnow.com/Headlines/Default.aspx?id=235834

Let’s not forget that a couple of her prized trophy hunt bags included now-former highly corrupt governor Frank Murkowski and former Democratic governor Tony Knowles.

Phil, this is one time that, if the McCain/Palin ticket wins in November, you’ll have to wipe that smashed ostrich egg off of your face.

Jason is right,

Palin is a classic “hockey mom” who went to a state university and worked her way up from the bottom of the political structure, while balancing family needs, who took on a corrupt Republican establishment in Alaska and forced CHANGE!

She ran a business, had 5 babies, is a NRA life member, will soon execute a shotgun wedding, and is the exact American dream everyone thinks about.

The next President in 4 years. Count on it liberals……

Winter:

Apparently you have not heard that Palin is the daughter of ultra-rich family who amassed their fortune in candy. Her maiden name is “Heath” as in Heath candy bars. She hardly “climbed her way up from the bottom”.

She is currently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power for firing the head of the Department of Public Safety a man who refused to fire her so-to-be-ex brother-in-law who was involved in a bitter custody fight with her sister. So, yes, I’m sure Republicans love her. Not to mention that she opposes abortion even for rape or incest, she is a Pentacostal, speak in tongues ideologue who believes in creationism.

Oh, and her “executive” experience is being a governor for 20 months and was mayor of a town of 6000 people in Alaska.

I love that Cindy McCain says she has foreign policy experience because she lives so close to Russia. By that measure, every person in Finland has foreign policy experience enough to be Vice President.

http://davidseaman.tumblr.com/post/46924007/john-mccain-nails-it-at-saddleback

Winter: Hope you’ll “enjoy” that American Economic Armageddon coming soon near YOU..

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” – H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, 26th of July 1920

The only thing that Mencken was wrong about: It turned out not be just ONE moron but MANY OF THEM! Soon you Americans will “reap the benefits”..

#19:

“Whether it’s a story about prayer in public schools, workplace restrictions on Christians or battles for biblical truth within our denominations, the American Family News Network (AFN) is here to tell you what the newsmakers are saying.
AFN is a Christian news service – with more than 1200 broadcast, print and online affiliates in 45 states and 11 foreign countries – that exists to present the day’s stories from a biblical perspective. We not only feature the latest breaking stories from across the United States and around the world, but also news of the challenges facing Christians in today’s society.
At OneNewsNow.com, you will get your news from reporters you can trust to give the latest news without the liberal bias that characterizes so much of the “mainstream” media.
For a refreshing and informative change in where you get your news, log on to OneNewsNow.com.”

So that’s alright then. No bias there.

Not like those shifty lefties at the Post. With their snide earmark innuendo.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090103148.html?nav=hcmodule&sub=AR&sid=ST2008090103340&s_pos=

Most of the comments here show the obvious truth – Democrats and Obama fans are small brained kiddies whose IQ is less than 80 and their mental development stopped somewhat around age 12 when they started using Photo Shop.

Oh no. More “liberals” and “conservatives.” *Sigh* I thought we were over this shit. I guess not.

Why does our national discourse always revert to game playing about who is “more American” than actually who can do the job better?

And have you seen it? The conservatives have woken up. They are now back on the Internets provoking very deep conversations about abortion and repeating word for word Rush Limbaugh’s talking points (see above).

Talk about mega distraction from the times. Russian invasion of Georgia? No, let’s talk about … premarital sex. Is it 1990 again? Where’s Maury Povich when you need him? I need to get my “Current Affair” on because, you know, we’re electing a president and it’s important.

Joe Biden and I have the same birthday. If being a “hockey mom” can win you votes, then being a “birthday brother” must be executive experience as well. And if you disagree with me, well, you must hate America.

So why do you hate America? Can you explain that to me?

PS. Sarah Palin/Geraldo Rivera in ’12. Change PLUS Experience.

Tim73 – “American industrial production cannot even cover yearly imports. That means it is mostly “shopping mall” economy. Selling stuff produced by others.”

I don’t think that really makes any difference whatsoever. An economy can be successful without utilizing its own workers to screw products together.

“Education system is a joke”

Yes, that’s true. America’s socialist education experiment clearly failed. Now the schools should be privatized to move forward.

“and infrastucture left to rotten. Debt on all levels sky high. Add to that imperial overreach and economy now collapsing.”

Imperial overreach is a main reason for the debt and rotten infrastructure. It’s a matter of reassigning priorities. Probably neither candidate, Republican or Democrat, will be successful in changing things for the better.

“If being a “hockey mom” can win you votes, then being a “birthday brother” must be executive experience as well.”
– Ha! I share George Washington’s birthday. That gets me free entry into his home Mount Vernon on his birthday. Then again, so do men named ‘George’.

giustino: Yet, isn’t all this funny considering all the venom some conservative poured over McCain’s nomination?

McCain was never really the candidate of the Republican establishment. He had pissed off too many people to get there even if he tried. Palin is one Republican who can relate to that. This is why it’s an all-maverick ticket, regardless of their positions on abortion.

Obama of course challenged the Democratic establishment with his campaign. In many ways I see both candidacies as indicators of change and as evidence that US democracy works this time better than before.

I think the whole premarital sex debate will go away pretty soon. I’d even say that Georgia already is a bigger issue than that, even if in a democracy you have to accept that some voters will always be more interested in talking about sex than about a war far away from home.

Palin’s candidacy can’t really be derailed by the proof of her daughter having had premarital sex. Consider that this isn’t 1954. That’s when Senator Lester Hunt (D-WY) shot himself after having been blackmailed to resign by his Republican colleagues. The reason: his son had been arrested by an undercover cop posing as a gay prostitute. Senator Hunt had been one of the most vocal critics of the Red Scare.

JibJab weighs in:

http://www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm

Time for some campaignin’

McCain will only be a 4 year president. You are looking at a real leader, who after she executes a stotgun wedding, no one will think about crossing. In 4 years she will lead the world because the Nanny State lead EU can’t.

Russian invasion of Georgia? She went to sniper school to take out pesky Russians.

McCain and Palen rule!…God bless their hearts!

It’ll be really interesting to see how McCain’s distancing himself from Bush works. He needed to get closer to Bush than he’d wished for to get nominated and now he needs to make sure people won’t confuse his agenda to that of Bush.

I think Palin was just a pawn. She’ll seen “resign” from the VP position, as what was intended all along. McCain will get credit for choosing a female with a colorful background, then put some random millionaire Republican mormon in her place.

Jesus, Phil. Have you ever been to America?

The Republicans are not very likely to nominate Mormons in national elections, because mainstream Christians are not fond of Mormons at all. A Muslim would be more acceptable to many. Mitt Romney would surely be the Republican candidate now if he weren’t a Mormon.

All this liberal dickwaddery is getting me convinced that Obama is finished. None of you have any idea how people outside your marginal bubble think and a lot of you demonstrate rather impressive ignorance of the countries you’ve grown up in. Not just Phil and his “mormons”, but also some Finns.

On most of the culture wars Finland is closer to being the Republican wonderland than America. The difference is that we don’t have huge debates on these issues, because Finns are more conservative and we don’t have the same number of extreme liberals raising debate on them, so the reality is just quietly accepted.

Abortion? Finland has much stricter limits on abortion than America. Sarah Palin would much rather have Finland’s abortion laws. America is way, way more “liberal”. I guarantee you that the similarily conservative folks in Finland will be mobilized into a vocal anti-abortion movement if we ever end up having our abortion laws overridden by pro-abortion judges as in America.

Religion at schools? Normal and unquestioned in Finland. America is fanatically secularist. Sarah Palin would much rather have Finland’s relgious education. America is way, way more “liberal”. Try to make Finland as secularist as America and you’ll see just how few conservatives Finland has.

Guns? Americans have this state by state, but most states have much, much stricter gun control and much, much fewer guns than Finland. I don’t know how the comparison with Alaska would work, though. America is more “liberal”. Me, I don’t give a crap about abortion or religion, but the moment the government tries to take away our guns is the moment the guns are needed.

Abortion is just one supreme court judge away from being handed back to the individual states, and guess which judge is going to retire next?

There is no way Finland is more conservative than USA. We may have state church and 80% of people are still members, but our born again numbers are very much smaller. Our very own theocratic party has only marginal support.

Health care? Public schools?

As an atheist, I’ll take my proportional representation any day before american style winner take all election system. Guess how many public atheists have been elected in federal office in the USA?

Health care?

The people who like privatization and the people who hate abortion are not the same and there isn’t any obvious correlation. Think of it: is there ANY overlap between people who voted for Nuorsuomalaiset and people who vote for Kristillisdemokraatit?

In the US it’s masked by two-party coalition building but in Finland it’s obvious. The only thing that unites Christian conservatives and those of us on the nationalist/classical liberal right is that we have a common enemy. Christians would be naturally close to moderate socialists (they actually believe in helping people and that nonsensical stuff) but that alliance is never going to happen as long as liberals think it’s more important to alienate voters with trivial culture war issues.

Sarah Palin is a great choice for drawing out the hatred of common folk from media Democrats. Once those pro-life voters (who are mostly not fundamentalist Christians) hear the kinds of comments seen here health care will be a non-issue.

If people were saying that a black president would make the country Third World (after all, the pattern is rather clear) or if they were mocking Obama as “trailer trash” for being the mixed race son of a teenage single mother and a father with children by lots of mothers (you can’t get trashier than that), people here would be horrified. No one would be surprised if black voters would be massively turned off by a party with such supporters. So why is everyone surprised that common white Joe is turned off by the liberal hatred for common white Joes?

Not everyone gets a graduate degree and starts having babies at 35. Not even most people. Not even most white people. The difference is that in Finland the left hasn’t similarily alienated the regular Matti… at least not yet. The multiparty system helps them a lot, of course, as the most hateful people will flock to the minor leftist parties and leave the main left parties free to distance themselves from the “intellectuals’” hatred of the working class. I wish we had a Sarah Palin to act as a hate-bait.

Public schools?

The US sinks a lot more money in its public school system. Finland may make it harder for private schools, but that’s of course because Finns understand the superiority of private schooling. The Americans are the ones with the delusion that public schools can be as good as private schools if you only throw enough money at them.

Guess how many public atheists have been elected in federal office in the USA?

That’s a symptom of the system, not the people. Finland does have a few elections where a single winner takes all and it works similarily. Guess how many open atheists have a chance of winning the Finnish presidency?

Just f. the planet, you morons. F. ecology!! Support your masters, f. the planet, no educations, get sex diseases!

Bill Maher put it well in Salon a few days ago:

“Republicans, stop calling Obama elitist, because the real reason you don’t like him is that he’s smarter than you.”

“calling Obama elitist”?? so an Ivy league schooled elit, is now not an elitist?

When did that happen? When he did community work? That is now compared to what a US president must do?

So what does a community Organizer do?

“The people who like privatization and the people who hate abortion are not the same and there isn’t any obvious correlation. Think of it: is there ANY overlap between people who voted for Nuorsuomalaiset and people who vote for Kristillisdemokraatit?”

I call bullshit. I was talking about the USA, and if you look up, there are not many pro-choice republicans at the federal level. There are no “Nuorsuomalaiset” in the USA. Or maybe Ron Paul.

“Christians would be naturally close to moderate socialists (they actually believe in helping people and that nonsensical stuff) but that alliance is never going to happen as long as liberals think it’s more important to alienate voters with trivial culture war issues.”

More bullshit. Republicans are the ones firing up their base with culture war stuff. I was once a christian and I agree with you what christianity should be, but that’s not what the religious right in the US is. And fuck you, helping people is not nonsensical stuff, even if you mean government welfare.

Liberals are not the ones who incite hate. As I said above, there are no (almost) pro-choice republican office holders, but there are many pro-choice republican voters. It’s only the republican base that needs to be fired up, and that is easy to do with hate. Hate against liberals who force everyone to be gay, liberals who force everyone to have abortions, liberals who force everyone to smoke dope. But the stupid thing is, liberals are not the ones forcing people to do things they don’t want to, it’s republicans.

“The US sinks a lot more money in its public school system.”

Or maybe they just pretend to sink money in it. My point is, finnish public schools work. Poor finnish kids have a chance in life. Poor american kids have to join a gang (if you’re male) or have babies (female).

“That’s a symptom of the system, not the people. Finland does have a few elections where a single winner takes all and it works similarily. Guess how many open atheists have a chance of winning the Finnish presidency”

Pretend not to understand all you want.

How bizarre that in the United States it seems that having an intellect constitutes a political liability!

Hypocrisy, meanwhile, seems to be a virtue for the Republicans:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card

#46: I get it. If you go to Ivy League schools but don’t learn a thing, you’re not a member of “the elites”. Makes sense.

mcCain went to a US Military school, the VP pick to public school, University. No eletism there. They both have kids in the Military and in Iraq.

So where did the Dem’s go? One to Ivey league? Any kids in Iraq?

#51: Kids in Iraq? Is that supposed to impress someone? It’s safer than Connecticut there, isn’t it?

#45 Bill Maher put it well in Salon a few days ago:

“Republicans, stop calling Obama elitist, because the real reason you don’t like him is that he’s smarter than you.”

Ah, yes. The vengeful Bill Maher, who only wishes he knew what in the world is really going on.

Obama isn’t necessarily smart. He’s just clever like his father the devil. He is nothing more than a skillful prevaricating orator.

The truth is here: http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/1-service.htm

And here: http://lightingtheway.blogspot.com/2008/09/bilderberg-group-and-american-deism.html

Now, what say you, Mr. Maher? I say you’re a marionette.

#53: I get my truth from the Landover Baptist Church.

And now Satan has launched a man in the middle attack on the damn database connection.

#53: I get my truth from the Landover Baptist Church.

And now Satan has launched a man in the middle attack on the damn database connection.

Let’s talk about elitism.

McCain doesn’t know how much gasoline costs and doesn’t remember how many houses he owns. He also pays more to his household staff in a year than an average american family earns in the same timeframe.

Obama has earned his own fortune (which isn’t very massive yet) while McCain got his by marrying a beer heiress. Obama’s two daughters are too young to be deployed in Iraq. What is wrong with having a president who can speak? Or think?

Joe Biden is the least wealthy of all the 100 senators. His son is going to Iraq in this fall.

Sarah Palin may not be an elitist. She’s just a religious nut.