Christianity as a Lifestyle Choice. That is what it is. You always hear them talking about personal choices and lifestyle choices of others.

For over seven minutes last night, Jon Stewart grilled former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on his opposition to gay marriage. Huckabee is touring the country to promote his new book, "Do The Right Thing." When Stewart compared gay marriage bans to interracial marriage bans, Huckabee restated his view that homosexuality is simply a behavior choice:

STEWART: Segregation used to be the law until the courts intervened.

HUCK: There's a big difference between a person being black and a person practicing a lifestyle and engaging in a marital relationship.

STEWART: Okay, actually this is helpful because it gets to the crux of it. ... And I'll tell you this: Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. And the protections that we have for religion -- we protect religion. And talk about a lifestyle choice -- that is absolutely a choice. Gay people don't choose to be gay. At what age did you choose to not be gay?

Huckabee tried to insist that "60 percent of the American population" opposes gay marriage. Stewart interrupted him, calling it a "travesty" that gay Americans have to plead for their civil rights... (READ ON)

The truth is that being gay or lesbian is not likely a lifestyle choice. The facts would seem to suggest that it is the way you were when you born - in pretty much the exact same way that you are born black, white, whatever, etc. - and environment may only be a factor in how it can effect the genetic code that people are born with. And not just no, but HELL NO! I am not going down that Nazi like road of eugenics to "eliminate or treat" what some of you crazies want to call a disease... That is just sick.

And even if it were a choice?

Who cares... Exercising free will, to make your own choice, is as much a right as it is a personal responsibility. Even according to the Bible, Free Will is a Divine Institution:

1.Free will, 2.Marriage, 3.Family, 4.Government etc.

Yeah... You hear a lot from the religious wing nuts about the "Divine Institution of Marriage" - the second divine institution...

But they conveniently choose to skip the First Divine Institution in their bankrupt arguments.

Free Will - The one God supposedly gave everyone to choose their own destiny.

Religion is quite simply and for certain nothing more than a lifestyle choice...

You aren't born that way. Even if you are a believer - God gave you the free will to choose to believe. In fact some of these religions make a big deal out of converting people into believers. Because. People. Were. Not. Born. That. Way.

They made a choice.

People choose their religions all the time. Often they change their choice of religion on a whim.

Often that religion of choice has clearly bigoted views that they would like to force upon the rest of the world. Anti-Marriage Equality views would be included there. It is no different than other bigoted religious views that have been argued for in the past:

The term "miscegenation" has been used since the nineteenth century to refer to interracial marriage and interracial sex, and more generally to the global process of racial admixture that has taken place since the Age of Discoveries, particularly through the European colonization of the Americas and the Atlantic slave trade. Historically the term has been used in the context of laws banning interracial marriage and sex, so-called anti-miscegenation laws. It is therefore a loaded word and is considered offensive by many.

Today, the word miscegenation is avoided by many scholars, because the term suggests a distinct biological phenomenon, rather than a categorization imposed on certain relationships. The word is considered offensive by many and other terms such as "interracial," "interethnic" or "cross-cultural" are more common in contemporary usage. However, the term is still used by scholars when referring to past practices concerning multiraciality, such as anti-miscegenation laws that banned interracial marriages.

Christians and their ever changing views on traditional marriage...

I am pretty sure most of them have given up the bigoted views against interracial marriages.

Huckabee talks about "5000 years of traditional marriage" based on his own personal lifestyle choice's rulebook - the Bible - but will, no doubt, refuse to accept what that loaded definition actually includes if implemented as law:

Added to that list of new laws would be the many forms of rape marriage that are traditionally acceptable according to Huckabee's God and Bible...

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT
If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.

Just remember that these are precisely the views and lessons that have formed people like Mike Huckabee's "family values and morals" in the religious lifestyle choice they have made.

History will not be kind to you and yours, Huckster...

Time and time again these family values types have had to be forced to re-define their idea of traditional marriage because of what societies morals have defined as abhorrent practices. This time is no different than any of the other times. It truly sickens me that in a nation where all men are supposedly created equal... That we constantly have to sink down to these morally corrupt and repugnant people's level to argue for the most basic civil rights of other men and women. Their right to choose.

Those of you on the other side of these arguments - and I assure you, they are all the same arguments repeated over and over again - will be viewed in the history books as the bigots and haters that you are. But let's be clear on this...

That was your choice to be viewed as a homophobic bigot.

Not mine. My choice and belief would be that other people have no right to stick their noses in to the love lives, bedrooms and marriages of other adults. And I never had to ask for Mike Huckabee's or any one else, Gay, Lesbian, heterosexual, religious, atheist or other, for permission to get married - other than my wife-to-be at the time. All of you on the wrong side of this argument have been left with the freedom to choose your religion, your morals, your values and even your spouse.

The LGBT community deserves the same rights, the same freedoms guaranteed to them under the Constitution, to make all of these same choices without your 5000 years of traditionally misguided, immoral and bigoted input.

Single Payer Health Care Would Help Auto Industry

While I originally wrote this in January of 2007, concerning the cost of health care to consumers and service provided, it is equally applicable to the savings for the auto industry and every other industry, as well. And that is not my opinion, that is the opinion of the successful auto industry management. The ones that aren't asking for a bailout. At the time I wrote this in 2007, each vehicle assembled in the United States cost GM $1,525 for health care; those made in Canada cost GM $197. Probably more savings now since this was written nearly two years ago:

In U.S., it's pay more, get less - Universal Health Care

In U.S., it's pay more, get less:

"A RELATIVE BARGAIN: George Mercieca, a worker at a GM assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, shows off his Canadian health care card. GM spends an average of $1,385 a year on medical bills for hourly workers in Canada. An American autoworker costs the company about $5,000, but studies show Americans are no healthier than their foreign counterparts."

He is smiling because he has a great job with better medical benefits than most Americans could ever hope for under our failed healthcare for profit system. The kind of job that Connecticut , and the USA as a whole, can never hope to attract under our current system. If you do not believe me than ask youself "what does the manufacturing industry have to say about this?"

While training issues are less of a problem here in Connecticut, because we have a decent educational system, healthcare is cited as a major issue for Toyota's decision to chose Ontario as the location of a new factory for their Rav-4s slated to open in 2008:

"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant.

Acknowledging it was the "worst-kept secret" throughout Ontario's automotive industry, Toyota confirmed months of speculation Thursday by announcing plans to build a 1,300-worker factory in the southwestern Ontario city.

"Welcome to Woodstock - that's something I've been waiting a long time to say," Ray Tanguay, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, told hundreds gathered at a high school gymnasium.

The plant will produce the RAV-4, dubbed by some as a "mini sport-utility vehicle" that Toyota currently makes only in Japan. It plans to build 100,000 vehicles annually.

The factory will cost $800 million to build, with the federal and provincial governments kicking in $125 million of that to help cover research, training and infrastructure costs.

Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double that amount of subsidy. But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson.

"Most people don't think of our health-care system as being a competitive advantage," he said.

It is clearly an advantage for any company that wants to open up a business in any industry... A 4 to 5 dollar per hour advantage. An advantage so great that any state that passes true-single-payer Universal Healthcare first will be positioned to become a mecca for any company considering opening any kind of business.

We already have an educatinal advantage over the most of the USA, having a highly rated school system and a high rate of college graduates. Why the hold up on giving these businesses the real money savings that Universal Healthcare would provide and the other best reason to set up shop in Connecticut?

Because of lobbying from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. We need to take them out of the loop in the decision making process for this issue since we know they will fight it tooth-and-nail. We need to look at what is best for the people of Connecticut and for all industries, not just those two lobbying behemoths.

And just how much more is health care costing us?

Medical bills soar

Divide the nation's medical bill evenly across the population, and each of us paid $6,102 in 2004, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That's 50 percent more than the residents of the country with the next-highest health care bill, Switzerland ($4,077), and more than double the average for industrialized nations ($2,546).

...snip...

Those countries provide health care for all their residents for less money than the United State spends while it leaves an estimated 46 million without insurance.

That's contradicted by studies conducted by Gerard Anderson, director of the Center for Hospital Finance and Management at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. "We have about the same number of MRIs and CT scanners as Canada, the U.K. and France, and far fewer than Japan," Anderson said. "We have the same number of doctors, doctor visits, hospitals and inpatient days at hospitals.

"The difference is we pay two to 2 1/2 times more for virtually identical services."

The average U.S. physician earned $180,000 in 2004, Anderson said; in Canada, it was $100,000 (in U.S. dollars).

Even after adjusting for the higher income of U.S. residents, Americans pay on average $2,000 more per year for health care than the residents of the next-highest paying country, Anderson said.

One out of every seven dollars spent today in the United States goes for health care -- a record 15.3 percent of the gross domestic product in 2004, the latest year for which statistics are available. By comparison, Canada spends 9.9 percent of its GDP; Japan spends 8.0 percent.

By 2015, one out of every five dollars spent in the United States will go for health care, according to projections by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. If those projections hold, the average American's share for medical needs alone will be a staggering $12,320.

For all that money, you would expect Americans to be healthier than their foreign friends. The opposite is true.

Whoa! They are healthier than us, and they pay less? It is not just a monetary cost:

# If you're born in the United States, chances are that you'll die younger than people born in other industrialized nations. The United States has the lowest life expectancy of 14 nations measured by the World Health Organization. U.S. life expectancy in 2001 was 77.1; Canada, 79.7; Italy, 79.8; Japan, 81.5

# The infant mortality rate is higher in the United States than in other industrialized nations. In 2003, seven infants died for every 1,000 live births in the United States -- the worst rate of 19 countries measured by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

I am thinking that anyone that is really PRO-LIFE, and not just talking about it for political reasons, would have to be shocked by those infant mortality rates. Why aren't they screaming about this issue? If they are really honest about being pro-life than they should be our allies on true Universal Heathcare.

A s for manufacurers, just how much profit margin can healthcare open up for them?

Those vehicles, often parked on the same dealer lot as identical vehicles produced in U.S. plants, have one notable difference: Each vehicle assembled in the United States cost GM $1,525 for health care; those made in Canada cost GM $197.

The higher salaries of Canadian autoworkers offset much of the health care savings for the company, said Jim Cameron, labor relations director for GM Canada. But at the cash-strapped automaker, such a huge health care cost differential is hard to ignore. The difference is primarily a result of Canada's national health care system, in which most medical bills are paid by the government. Most countries have similar systems.

WHAT THE FUCK!!! The GM employees get higher wages up there too? And GM still racks up more profits from production up north in Canada then they can down here? How much more of this are you Nutmeggers willing to take?

Can you imagine the shockwave across the nation if a car manufacturer or some other large industry chose to locate in Connecticut over other states or countries... And it could happen.

Do you want to continue to pay more just to get less? Less healthy workers, less money, less jobs, less profit for industry as a whole.

Why not get more? More people that actually have coverage? More healthy workers that are more productive? More savings in healthcare for us and for industry? More manufacturers picking Connecticut as their destination of choice? More smiles on Nutmeggers' faces.

Universal Health Care is the answer to everyone getting more.

_________________

It might be the answer to save US industry.

There is an off the shelf answer sitting there getting dusty. Ask Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and the other cosigners about H.R. 676. It would be a huge step towards helping every industry in this nation become competitive.

If you need to know about a health care plan that can fix many of the problems with our privatized ripoff:

The United States National Health Insurance Act

H.R. 676

"Expanded & Improved Medicare For All"

*introduced by Reps. John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Jim McDermott and Donna Christensen

"National health insurance is not only the best answer,

it is the only answer to eliminating health disparities."

If you live in CT-05 you may want to know that Rep. Chris Murphy has yet to sign up as a co-sponsor to this bill. Ya think it is time to remind him how important H.R. 676 is to all Americans?

Rep. Chris Murphy's contact info

Chris Murphy
(202) 225-4476,
1 Grove Street, New Britain CT 06053

If you live elsewhere... Please consider contacting your Congress critters, as well.

Not just morally bankrupt, but having lost all reigns of power...

Staring down the likelihood of losing my last well placed chickenhawk, Liebercon, at a point in time when all of my pitiful warmongering ideals were being shunned by anyone that wanted to be viewed as respectable...

Desperate to keep the fear alive for the sake of power...

What if Syria never had any nuclear program? What if my bestest warmongering friends forever gave me an ace in the hole to pull out at just the right time?

If I were a bankrupt Neoconservative I would never let the fear end. Because that would be the end of my reign of terror. I want you to think about this:

Lynching is sometimes justified by its supporters as the administration of justice (in a social-moral sense, not in law) without the delays and inefficiencies inherent to the legal system; in this way it echoes the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, which was justified by the claim:

"Terror is nothing other than
prompt, severe, inflexible justice."

Hey! It's not like anyone in our government would ever encourage this kind of terrorizing behavior with its own actions. Especially during an election... Right? And it is not like anyone in our government would find ways to demonize impotent pawns in order to create their own wars of choice... Right?

Fear has always been their tool. Lies and deception are their only game. These modern day Jacobins, the Neoconservatives, know no other way.

The "traditional" conservative Claes G. Ryn has argued that neoconservatives are "a variety of neo-Jacobins." Ryn maintains that true conservatives deny the existence of a universal political and economic philosophy and model that is suitable for all societies and cultures, and believe that a society's institutions should be adjusted to suit its culture, while Neo-Jacobins

are attached in the end to ahistorical, supranational principles that they believe should supplant the traditions of particular societies. The new Jacobins see themselves as on the side of right and fighting evil and are not prone to respecting or looking for common ground with countries that do not share their democratic preferences. (Ryn 2003: 387)

Further examining the relationship between Neoconservatism and moral rhetoric, Ryn argues that

Neo-Jacobinism regards America as founded on universal principles and assigns to the United States the role of supervising the remaking of the world. Its adherents have the intense dogmatic commitment of true believers and are highly prone to moralistic rhetoric. They demand, among other things, "moral clarity" in dealing with regimes that stand in the way of America's universal purpose. They see themselves as champions of "virtue." (p. 384).

Thus, according to Ryn, neoconservatism is analogous to Bolshevism: in the same way that the Bolsheviks wanted to destroy established ways of life throughout the world to replace them with communism, the neoconservatives want to do the same, only imposing free-market capitalism and American-style liberal democracy instead of socialism.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, had the following to say in a December, 2005 interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel:

"They are not new conservatives. They're Jacobins. Their predecessor is French Revolution leader Maximilien Robespierre."

I, for one, do not trust the media to be a fair arbiter of this kind of information. They have been prone to do the bidding of these Neoconservatives time and time again. The Neoconservatives have known this day was coming. The day when they would be cornered with nothing left to do but lash out at anyone and everyone.

So... If I were a bankrupt Neoconservative, would I ask my Likudnik brothers in everlasting wars to deliver a dirty bomb, one that would leave uranium traces on a target of my choice, to an impotent enemy in order to keep the fear alive?

Deep down you already know my answer!

And I would be laughing at you as you coward in fear, yet again, and were lead like lambs to the slaughter in my newest, greatest war for freedumb.

"McCain is moving on to bigger and better things than the presidency."

Frank Luntz: "I cannot foresee a scenario that John McCain is elected the President of the United States."

(ed.note: You can find the quote in this BBC interview at approximately 3:24, courtesy of TPM Reader AG.)

--Josh Marshall

Nothing but blue skies legislating and trickle down economics in his Grand Ol' Pasture...
< /election >

Will These Citizens Have Marriage Equality?

We will find out today, according to Undercurrents:

Same Sex Marriage Decision Today!

Today at 11:30 the CT Supreme Court will
release their decision on same-sex marriage.

Or will they be relegated to the status of second class human beings and citizens deprived of their rights to pursue their life, their liberty and their happiness?

Update [2008-10-10 11:47:4 by Connecticut Man1]: According to mattw at MLN, there is a party in Hartford tonight celebrating Equal Rights:

Thanks, Supreme Court:

Like these once prevalent views, our conventional understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection. Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice. To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others. The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry.

Rally at 5:30, party at 7pm (tba).

Instead of fireworks activists and Bloggers supporting equal rights will be entertained by far right wingnut heads exploding all day long… heh

I know you just got whiplash saying "WTF???" when you read that title BUT...

You do realize we are talking about bailing out the OIL and ENERGY MARKETS too?

Did they mention the hand outs to these criminal bankers would have you paying for it at the pump? Or for the food you eat? Your electric bill? Oh... They didn't mention that part to you, did they? As the Fed prints more money from their magical money tree and bails out these banks there is a legitimate concern with people's investment portfolios... BUT there is a huge flip side to this Bush league manufactured crisis that comes in higher prices for real things you need everyday (not scraps of paper with zero value designed to make bankers rich on commissions) coupled with a devalued dollar.

TPM had nailed down the true extent of Todd Palin's membership in the anti-American secessionist group known as AKIP. Previously, I had referred to them as AIP - the Alasakan Independence Party- but they seem to have a preference for AKIP. And this is more than just the membership in the '90s and attending an AKIP convention in '94 as was previously reported on, concerning both Todd and Sarah Palin, by the media when her 2006 video address to the group surfaced.

This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.

Besides a short period of a few months in 2000 when he changed his registration to undeclared, Todd Palin remained a registered member of AIP until July 2002 when he registered again as an undeclared voter.

There appears to be some conflicting reports on the Sarah Palin's membership which we hope to clear up soon. But there is no doubt that they both attended a 1994 convention, as well as Sarah Palin's video address to the group in 2006.

But make no mistake about the significance of this when you consider that as the "First Dude/Dunce" of Alaska, Todd Palin, has been seen having a significant hand in Alaskan politics not typically allowed for a person with the status of citizen, given his access to what is claimed as supposedly confidential information, information that Sarah Palin refuses to release to the media or any other citizen based on obviously and demostrably false claims of "executive privilege" Sounds like the corrupt bush admin. all over again, eh? Now wonder McCain likes her.

Alaskan Republican Andrew Halcro (disclosure here: Halcro ran against Sarah Palin in the primaries for the Republican Governor ticket) has attempted to document what seems to be some pretty compelling evidence for an Alaskan "Shadow Government." Some of this information may already be known to you if are following all of the developments in Sarah Palin's Troopergate scandal.

Considering just how well the McCain campaign vetted Sarah Palin before picking her as his running mate for the upcoming campaign, I wonder how Palin's "Patriotic" credibility will be viewed by his rabidly faux patriotic supporters when they find out that her idea of foreign policy experience may be in dealing with the government of the USA?

According to the AIP (Alaskan Independence Party), Sarah Palin was a member of their party and they mention this fact in videos where they outline their plans to infiltrate other organizations in order to push their platform...

Now this proves that she was once a member of the AIP, IMHO... Why would the AIP lie in that video and why else would Palin be willing to address the secessionists after being elected? Anyone outside of Alaska would consider that political suicide with those faux patriots on the right wingnut side of the aisle in the rest of the nation.

I think I may be getting closer to nailing down Sarah Palin's connections to the AKIP. But considering trying to keep up on all of the other Palin scandals breaking so fast it is hard to dig on. Added to the multiple scandal factor is the fact that the AKIP connections are very computer savvy, if I am even on the right track?

A phone number search for a number I got out of AKIP archives sent me to this dKos Diary by Ash Meerstrand... It appears he had the same lead I was on. The phone number:

The claim that the AIP held meetings in the town where Palin was mayor while her husband was a member can easily be confirmed using Internet Archive. Meeting information from that time (the first set is from 1998, the other 2000):

Wasilla ,Alaska

Country Kitchen Restaraunt,

411 W. Parks Highway, Wasilla

Tuesdays at 7:00 PM

Wasilla, Alaska

Nobody's Inn Restaraunt,

W. Parks Highway, Wasilla

Tuesdays at 7:00 PM

Call 376-8285

It's only 8pm in Wasilla, Alaska. Is it too late to investigate? Wasilla has only about 9,000 people, and about 5,500 people lived there in the year 2000, so maybe there could be someone there that would know if Todd or Sarah ever showed up.

Check out the other place I found the phone number:

Web Alaska
Wasilla
376-8285
mailto:web-ak@ak.net

I edited out the "image source" and formatting crap so you could see the plain email addy for the "same phone" number contact. I was unable to find another reference on a quick Google of that eMail BUT I did on a search of "web-ak". Info on website addy for this site

Excerpted from the website description:

Alaskan owned and operated, Web Alaska offers web services for Alaskans and outsiders alike. Compu Doc offers computer repair and services thoughout South Central Alaska.

edit Languages

English
edit Address

2140 Wolverine Cir
Wasilla AK 95654 US

edit Contact

Mark Chryson
+1 907 376 8285

Forget the phone number now... We have a name! This from a Google search for "Chryson" and "Palin":

The following is a first hand account of a gentleman who has a story to tell about his experiences with Sarah Palin. I am granting him this venue to say what he has to say because firstly, it gives us another non-press view of a soon-to-be mainstream name, and secondly, the person giving this account is a Geek with Guns (and used to host this website for me when I needed his help).

"I just wanted to let you know ... Sarah Palin who McCain just picked as the next vice president is one of the most honest people I have known. I have known her for over 15 years, been in her house and have had numerous conversations with her, in person, on the phone both for personal issues as well as political issues.

"She is an excellent choice and this might have even saved McCain from going down in history as a loser in the presidential race. Sarah is one elected official that I can’t say anything negative about. And after 15 years of knowing her if there was something that was bad I would have known it.

"This lady has contacted me personally to get help discovering how one of her co workers was abusing his state office because she didn’t believe she could trust the states department of law. The guy later copped a plea, paid a hefty fine and lost his state job but this was after she quit her 2000 / week job and was forced to go public to expose his corruption. By the way he was/is the chairman of the state republican party
"She is VERY approachable which is going to make the insiders and secret service crazy."Wanted to let you know."

Mark Chryson
Wasilla, Alaska

If you would like to know more about the personal experiences of Mark in regards to Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, Mark has given us permission to present the following contact information for that purpose, and offered his phone number up for that purpose as well (which I will decline to provide here do to the GwG haters).

mark [at] web-ak.com - Email Mark Chryson by removing the [at]

I have not verified the credibility of "Geeks with Guns," BUT remember how she hacked computers to out the Alaska Republican chairman...

Now from Jack Tapper's update at Political Punch:

But Fenumiai adds that Palin's husband Todd was a member of the AIP from October 1995 through July 2002, except for a few months in 2000. He is currently undeclared.

As part of their pushback against the charges of Lynette and Dexter Clark of the AIP, the McCain campaign says that Palin did not even attend the AIP convention in Wasilla in 1994.

But another former AIP official -- Mark Chryson, chairman of the AIP from 1995 to 2002 -- tells ABC News that "Palin was at the convention in 1994. She was there."

Was she a member?

Chryson can’t say. "She may have been, I do not know," he says. Their records don't go back that far.

"Ask Sarah," he suggests.

I'd love to. But she hasn't exactly been making herself available to the press.

Former AKIP chairman Chryson, friend and neighbor of the Palins for over 15 years. Chryson ran the Seccession meetings in Wasilla. And Todd Palin was a member almost the entire time Chryson was in charge.

Chryson can't say if she was a member of AKIP? Or he won't say it knowing it would doom her politically.

Chryson's computer expertise coupled with Palin's inside access to computers brought down the Alaskan Republican Party Chairman leaving a power vacuum. I wonder how many AKIP connected people have since been elevated in the Alaskan GOP?

Palin sounds like a woman on a super-duper-double-secret mission to me. An AKIP mission, IMHO.

This may turn into the missing link if we dig enough... heh

Previously Brewed in New Milford:
Palin's Troopergate Troubles Start To Spin Out of Control

IF Palin had an affair with her husband's former business partner? Shocked! The McCain campaign has run out of convention days to use as a reason to avoid all of the media's questions.

As we get close to labor day you need to know that while Obama says "Yes you can!" McCain says "No you can't!" to American workers, telling them that they can't do the job.

See the video

In McCain's fragile mind the real problem isn't about paying a man or woman fair wages for an honest day's work... McCain thinks the problem is that Americans just aren't good enough - hard working enough - to do these jobs.

I guess McCain thinks that you need to work harder at finding a pill-popping sugar momma beer heiress 2nd wife, like Cindy McCain, to pay your bills for you if you want to be able to succeed like he did?

I know that the work he is talking about is hard as hell. And it is only made worse by companies that hire undocumented immigrants and put the workers through hellish conditions that are often nothing more than modern day slave labor. Those are the issues real that McCain would rather ignore.

Rather than forcing the companies to hire by honest free market rules McCain and the GOP would rather let these companies continue exploit fellow human beings and claim that Americans can't or won't do the work.

Originally posted at drinking liberally in new milford:
"McCain Thinks American Workers Aren't Good Enough"

We have firmly established that John McCain lied over and over again at the Forum on Faith, But now news comes out that The McCain campaign has been caught lying concerning meeting with Mother Theresa:

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Cindy McCain was caught lying about meeting Mother Teresa:

The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.

The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.

Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)

...snip...

The media picked up the theme. A story earlier this year on ABC’s “Good Morning America” stated, “With Mother Teresa’s encouragement she brought her fourth child, Bridget, home.” An April 2008 Wall Street Journal profile states that Mother Teresa “implored” Cindy to bring the girls to the United States. Other articles say Cindy did it “at the behest” of Mother Teresa.

But a source who was with McCain on that 1991 trip, and who asked that his name not be used because of prior legal dealings with the McCain family, says that Mother Teresa was not at the orphanage when Cindy decided to bring the two girls home.

A McCain source acknowledged that Cindy McCain did not meet Mother Teresa during the 1991 trip to Bangladesh but said McCain did meet her later on, although the source could not say when or where. The campaign has since reworded the reference to the adoption on its website.

GOP campaign messages are always worded very carefully with specific messaging intents. This was not simply a mistake that is just wiped away with rewording... It is another lie that the McCain campaign tested and floated in the media because McCain wants to win more than he wants to be honest.

The truth is that elite, filthy-rich snobs like the McCains don't mind lying to you if it gets them the power they want.

And, clearly, both John and Cindy McCain don't mind trampling on the grave of a modern day hero of biblical proportions to attain that money and power.

I'll refer you to a large excerpt from a May entry to the TPM Cafe Reader Posts by Mrs Panstreppon to explain tha to elitists like John and Cindy McCain, the only things that are truly sacred are money and power:

The media never, ever put the adoption in the same time frame as Cindy's drug addiction, the Keating Five scandal and John McCain's upcoming 1992 senate campaign but I did.

Let's take a look at the facts.

Sometime in 1991 after the devastating April 29th cyclone in Bangladesh, Cindy McCain spent a month there with her charity, the American Voluntary Medical Team (AVMT). Impulsively, she decided to take two sick infant girls she found in Mother Teresa's orphanage back to the United States with her for medical treatment. One baby had a cleft palate and the other had a heart condition.

The McCains adopted the baby with the cleft palate and named her Bridget. The other baby was adopted by Wes Gullett, Senator McCain's administrative assistant, who named the baby "Nikki". Gullett, after managing McCain's 1992 campaign, went on to become Arizona governor Fife Symington's chief of staff, a spot he wouldn't have gotten without help from a grateful John McCain.

By 1991, Cindy had been addicted to narcotics for at least two years. She stole drugs from her charity and forged prescriptions for four to five hundred pills at a time. Cindy has blamed her drug addiction on two back surgeries and stress from Keating Five scandal. (She was the bookkeeper who "lost" the cancelled checks for thousands of dollars in Keating-related expenses.)

Cindy was also the mother of three young children whose father, the senator, was seldom at home. Neither was she.

...snip...

Insight into Cindy McCain's penchant for self-promotion comes from entries in Tom Gosinski's private journal published in the Phoenix News in 1994. From September 1991 to January 1993 when he was fired, Tom Gosinski was the AMVT's director of government and international affair. He was the one who alerted the DEA about Cindy forging [prescriptions] and he filed a wrongful termination lawsuit which caused Cindy's drug addiction to become public knowledge.

From Gosinki's journal:

August 14, 1992: Work started off at a relatively normal pace this morning. And then--Kathy received a call from Royal Norman at Ch 3 regarding a possible AVMT trip to Somalia. Before Kathy informed me of her conversation with Royal she told Cindy and Cindy jumped all over the issue. Now Cindy wants to airlift a load of supplies to Somalia and use Ch 3 to get the coverage she so desperately goes after. I think the whole idea is crazy as we have so much to do with the Navajos but Cindy seems intent on making it happen.

August 28, 1992: Work has been crazy--Cindy decided we should take a load of supplies to the Miami area to assist in the Hurricane Andrew relief efforts. It would be simple to complete the task if Cindy would not interfere with the rest of us doing our jobs, however, she is constantly stirring things up.

We are also contemplating a trip to Somalia--Mark Salter in John McCain's Washington office has stated that the State Department and the Department of Defense believe it is not safe to travel to Somalia or the northern regions of Kenya. Cindy insists that we are going to go on the trip and that it may be wise for us to pack guns.

She is absolutely crazy--I don't know how to load a gun let alone shoot one. . . .

September 2, 1992: This past week at AVMT has certainly been a challenge. All of us that work for Cindy have been asked to put in extended hours at night and on the weekend and have not even received a thank you. Cindy is the most demanding and thankless person I have ever met.

September 3, 1992: Work is crazy as usual. The trip to Florida on Monday is on schedule--we are now traveling as a cleanup crew in blue hospital scrubs. I questioned wearing scrubs but Cindy insisted that the 'visual' is important, so--we are going to rummage through the rubble of Hurricane Andrew in scrubs. [Cindy wear blue scrubs in the campaign photo I linked to above. - Mrs P.]

Whatever . . . Per Mrs. McCain the AVMT schedule for the next couple of weeks is as follows: Miami cleanup from September 7 through September 11; Navajo Nation parade September 12; and depart for Somalia on September 13. Cindy must think that we have a staff of 20 as she has certainly not sat down, looked at a calendar and rationally thought about what she is suggesting we accomplish. . . .

September 29, 1992: Regardless of what happens with Cindy McCain, it is time for me to get out of AVMT. I have so little respect for Cindy and her objectives--she has made AVMT a media event--that even under the best of circumstances I do not think this organization merits existence. . . .

January 11, 1993: . . . It is evident to me that AVMT is in serious need of an organizational change. . . . Our shot gun approach to providing medical care has minimal impact when a focused approach on a specific area or type of care could significantly impact the target constituency. . . .

Reading Gosinski's journal, I am becoming more convinced that the AMVT was a vanity operation set up to promote the McCains' image. Really, what could a tiny little operation do in a couple of weeks in Miami? Or Somalia, for that matter? The AVMT's 990s filed with the IRS, if available, could give us an idea about the size of the operation and how money was spent.

In his journal, Gosinski also gives us a glimpse into the backstory of Cindy's drug addiction:

October 2, 1992: Well, it is done. Last night Jim and Smitty [Cindy's parents]confronted Cindy regarding her dependency to prescription drugs and she admitted to her addiction. I understand that she told the Hensleys her addiction was rooted in her unhappiness--her marriage--and that she took the pills to mask her depression. The Hensleys told Cindy they knew she had a problem because of her severe mood swings and her change in character. They also said her meanness towards others was not excusable and must stop. . . .

To this day, Cindy claims that her husband had no idea about her drug addiction until she fessed up.

As far as I know, one question about Cindy's drug addiction has never been satisfactorily answered. Was she treated for addiction in 1991 and 1992 or did she lie to the DEA investigators?

From the Phoenix News:

Although she told reporters she went into a residential drug treatment program earlier this year, she told investigators she had treatment during 1991 and 1992. Whom did she lie to--investigators or reporters?

Cindy McCain probably lied to both the reporters and the investigators... Lying is the McCain way. And doesn't this sound like a seriously bad case of megalomania?

standingup at ePluribus Media brought this interesting story to everyone's attention yesterday:

In news that could eclipse the announcement of either party's Vice Presidential running mate, McClatchy reports:

Now come at least three men — coincidentally all in the Bigfoot business — promising evidence at a Friday news conference in Palo Alto, Calif., that the elusive creature has been found at long last.

"A body that may very well be the body of the creature commonly known as 'Bigfoot' has been found in the woods in northern Georgia," says a news release. It describes the carcass as that of an animal 7 feet 7 inches tall, weighing more than 500 pounds that "looks like it is part human and part apelike."

Stay tuned as we follow up on this historical event tomorrow. And if there really is a Bigfoot, he (or she) will undoubtedly be more exciting than any of the names I have seen leaked as potential running mates for the 2008 election.

Well? With Barack Obama on vacation there really isn't much worth watching in the race to the White House. Unless you enjoy watching the John McCain campaign crawl out from under the rocks only to misfire daily?

Note to the right wing Blog News Busters:
Face the facts you right wing nut busters... With the pitiful performance of the McCain campaign in the media you are lucky that Bigfoot isn't winning the media cycle, right now against your recycled reject of a second best to bush candidate from 2000. Even an Obama on vacation story is cleaning your cuckoo clocks and making you look silly in the process.

For the many of you that are honestly and truly more interested in the Bigfoot story than anything John McCain has had to say in this campaign... And we know there are a lot of you! CNN has photos of the alleged Bigfoot body and reports of ongoing DNA tests.

(Previously brewed in New Milford)

Boehner's communist leader, the ever incompetent Beijing George Bush, and his heir wannabe Beijing John McCain are cut from the same communist cloth as John McCain sets out to copy China and their internet astroturfing:

People who sign up for McCain's program receive reward points each time they place a favorable comment on one of the listed Web sites (subject to verification by McCain's webmasters). The points can be traded for prizes, such as books autographed by McCain, preferred seating at campaign events, even a ride with the candidate on his bus, known as the Straight Talk Express, according to campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

...snip...

More chillingly, dissidents alleged earlier this year that the Chinese government has paid Chinese citizens token sums for each favorable comment about government policies they post in chat rooms and on blogs.

That John Beijing McCain is just a red republican chip off of the old communist block...
(xposted at my brewery)

<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/05/house-gop-attacks-beijing-george-bush-for-rebuffing-their-political-stunt-on-drilling/">Boehner's communist leader</a>, the ever incompetent <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080603589.html">Beijing George Bush, and his heir wannabe Beijing John McCain</a> are cut from the same communist cloth as John McCain sets out to copy China and their internet astroturfing:<blockquote><i>People who sign up for McCain's program receive reward points each time they place a favorable comment on one of the listed Web sites (subject to verification by McCain's webmasters). The points can be traded for prizes, such as books autographed by McCain, preferred seating at campaign events, even a ride with the candidate on his bus, known as the Straight Talk Express, according to campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

...snip...

More chillingly, dissidents alleged earlier this year that the Chinese government has paid Chinese citizens token sums for each favorable comment about government policies they post in chat rooms and on blogs.</i></blockquote><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/05/house-gop-attacks-beijing-george-bush-for-rebuffing-their-political-stunt-on-drilling/">That John <span style="font-style: italic;">Beijing</span> McCain is just a red republican chip off of the old communist block...</a>
<a href="http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping"></a>
xposted at <a href="http://drinkliberal.blogspot.com/2008/08/like-beijing-bush-like-beijing-mccain.html">drinking liberally in new milford</a>

The jolly gent, Santa Clause, has already hit Australia, Indonesia and parts of Russia and China. You can follow him all day long and late into the night at the Norad tracking site, which is updated every five minutes! Just be sure the kids are in bed before he hits your town.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

From Connecticut Man1
Drinking Liberally in new Milford

Well? Do you even know what kind of support these soldiers need?

And, a CBS News analysis reveals they lose that battle, and take their own lives, at a clip described by various experts as "stunning" and "alarming," according to Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian. One called it a "hidden epidemic."

He says no one had ever counted just how many suicides there are nationwide among those who had served in the military -- until now.

The five-month CBS News probe, based upon a detailed analysis of data obtained from death records from 2004 and 2005, found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 as non-vets.

From an August ePluribus Media diary on military suicides:

So now every year they send another team of experts to Iraq, and every year they file another report (MHAT I, II, III, IV and counting), and every year some poor spokesgoat has to stand up and tell a bunch of grownups that it's these kids and their personal problems, not the war, that motivates these young people with their whole lives ahead of them to end it.

Well, every year except for 2004, when the rate dropped a lot, and everyone started crowing about how all the new suicide prevention measures were working, and they looked real good until the numbers for 2005 came in, and someone noticed that in 2004 they had used a different definition of a suicide. Tricky. That year they only counted the deaths involving guns.

Last year's goat was a Col. Joseph Curtin, who assured the gathered journalists, "We're not alarmed." He went on to say that the Army was not aware of any single reason for the rise, but he dismissed the notion that the increase was somehow tied to combat exposure. Instead, he blamed (are you ready?) financial difficulties, failed relationships.

Some stats from March via ePluribus Media:

OEF/OIF Suicides

• Portion of veterans making up total U.S. suicide population: 25%
• Army soldier suicides in Iraq and Kuwait, 2005: 22
• ...above rate compared to national average: nearly 2X
• Rate of OIF Army combat zone suicide increase,2004 to 2005: 2X
• MN active-duty/discharged servicemember suicides, Jan. 2003-Oct. 2006: 13
• ...extrapolation of above rate to 50 states: 650

Do YOU really support the troops? A little clue to some of you... Parades, flag waving and  magnets on your car mean squat.

Originally brewed in New Milford.