The more you know...

So, a lot of people have asked me where I go for political information. After just barely resisting the urge to tell them I get it all from email forwards, I usually point them in the direction of any number of the following sites, which I've divided into neat little buckets of bias for you.

And yes, I really do read FOX News every day.

That said, I leave you with this: my list of favorite political resources. Enjoy.

FOR ELITIST TREE-HUGGIN' ARUGULA-EATIN' PINKO COMMIE BASTARDS (LIBERALS)

Daily Kos: Blog.
Huffington Post: News and blog.
Slate: Current affairs, culture, blogs.

FOR CROOKED NAZI FASCIST SCIENCE-HATIN' CHICKENHAWKS (CONSERVATIVES)

FOX News Election 2008: Online version of the broadcast news channel.
Urban Conservative: Generally regarded as one of the best conservative blogs on the Internet; also has a very, very comprehensive list of other conservative sites/blogs.

FOR FACT CHECKIN'
PolitiFact: Investigates statements made by all candidates, email forwards, political ads and rumors, and determines their validity, presenting the facts.
FactCheck: Same as PolitiFact.
Snopes: Debunks political (and various other types) urban myths, rumors, and email forwards.

FOR LEARNIN'

On the Issues: Clearly lists candidates' stances on the issues.
Wikipedia: I'm sure you all know by now about "the Wikipedia." :)
Congresspedia: Like Wikipedia, but covering only Congressional topics/bills/etc.
Pew Forum on Religion and Politics: Impartial clearinghouse for information on politicians and journalists.
The Real News Network: Aggregates TV news and documentary videos.
BBC US Election 2008: For a foreign perspective.
NPR Election 2008
New York Times: I especially dig the Op-Ed section, and their 2008 Election Guide)

Black is white! Up is down!

I think I'm letting the election get to me a little too much.

I got so angry the other day at a political forward from my 73-year-old grandmother that in response I basically emailed her the equivalent of a flaming bag of poo covered in swastikas. MY GRANDMA. Fortunately, she forgave me, but also pretty much forbade me to talk to her about politics anymore.

So I'm working on being less unctuous and emotional about it all. But it's hard. It's so infuriating to sit and listen to people spewing blatant lies and hyperbole, and know that there are millions of people out there just taking it all at face value, not bothering to question anything they hear, let alone fact-check any of it.

But I'm trying to keep my vitriol in check, because all it really does is diminish the importance and truth of whatever point I'm trying to get across. I find myself having to just take a few deep breaths, gather myself, and say what needs to be said in the most respectful, mature way I can. Unless I'm alone with the radio. Then I let loose with the swears and the insults.

Like the other night as I took in Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the RNC the other night, when she talked about what a great guy McCain is, what a folksy chick she is, about her husband's snow machine racing skills (AGAIN), and what horrible people we Democrats (and those silly community organizers) are. No real substantive information there.

Well, okay. That's fine. I get it. Whatever takes the focus off of all of the hypocrisies, lies, exaggerations, and omissions, right?

And just look! I've rounded up a few of the hypocrisies, lies, exaggerations, and omissions...and I'M CALLING BULLSHIT.

         ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Palin: "Sen. McCain also promises to use the power of veto in defense of the public interest — and as a chief executive, I can assure you it works." "I came to office promising to control spending — by request if possible and by veto if necessary." "And I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending: nearly half a billion dollars in vetoes."

The spending bill.

Truth: Yes, she would be able to assure us that vetoes work...but in the defense of the public interest? In her April 2008 spending bill (seen below, obtained by the Washington Post), her line-item vetoes cut $1.1 million in funding for a teen pregnancy assistance program, 100% worth of requested library funding, and 50% of the funding allocated for a food bank.

Palin: "I suspended the state fuel tax and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress "thanks, but no thanks," for that Bridge to Nowhere."

Truth: Uh huh...after she supported it wholeheartedly.

Additionally, according to PolitiFact, "Long before Palin killed the project, Congress washed its hands of the bridge. In the transportation spending bill that included money for the Ketchikan bridge, Congress deleted the wording that would have directed money for the project, though it left the money in place so Alaska officials could decide which transportation projects to spend it on. As a result, Alaska diverted much of the $223-million from the federal government to other projects, leaving the Ketchikan-Gravina bridge project woefully underfunded, and with no prospect of additional federal funding. That was the point at which Palin formally killed the bridge project."

Palin: "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."

Truth: First, I have to counter this statement with one of Obama's, which has been fact-checked and ruled as true by PolitiFact (a project run jointly by the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly to analyze and fact-check politician's statements): "We could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups." Seems a little more immediate and sustainable than drilling in one of Alaska's most ecologically sensitive refuges.

But back to Palin's implication that just because Obama may not be gung-ho for drilling means he advocates doing nothing at all? Just read his New Energy for America plan. And then read about how only one month ago Palin praised said plan. Guess she forgot about that.

Palin: "But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state Senate."

Truth: Totally and utterly false. Obama has sponsored hundreds of bills. Daily Kos put together a list earlier this year you can peruse, or you can search the Library of Congress. The info's definitely out there...maybe the McCain-Palin camp just neglected to look (or had some trouble using "the Google" again)?

Anyway, here are just a few examples of Obama's law/reform successes...

• Obama was the Senate's point person on ethics reform, and in sponsored or co-sponsored numerous bills that coalesced in early 2007 to form the passed-into-law 2007 Government Ethics Bill, which the Washington Post called "the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet."
  
• He also co-sponsored the Coburn-Obama Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 ... WITH MCCAIN (among others). Huh. Funny that they'd forget that.  
• And how about the Lugar-Obama Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act of 2006 to secure, decommission, deactivate and destroy stockpiles of WMD abroad? Too much of a mouthful to count as a reform? 
• Or how about the various bills he penned in response to the Hurricane Katrina debacle, like the amendment to place strict limits on the use of no-bid contracts after disasters? Or the amendment requiring states to have disaster evacuation plans in place for the poor, disabled, and elderly? Or the National Emergency Family Locator Act, to help locate and reunite displaced families in the wake of a disaster?

So either the McCain-Palin camp totally didn't do their homework, or are flat-out lying. Either way, it doesn't bode well, does it?

Palin: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes ... raise payroll taxes ... raise investment income taxes ... raise the death tax ... raise business taxes ... and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

Truth: Sounds pretty bad...when you exclude critical context. According to CNN, the Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, Obama's tax plan would increase the after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5% by the year 2012 (nearly $2,200 annually). McCain's tax plan cuts taxes across all income levels, and would raise the after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by 3%.

Additionally, Obama's plan includes $80 billion in tax breaks, primarily for poor workers and the elderly, and includes tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and giving higher credits for larger families.

And yes, he's going to raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes...on the wealthiest. And yes, he's going to raise payroll taxes...on taxpayers with incomes OVER $250,000. Small businesses that make OVER $250,000 a year would also see a rise in taxes.

Read PolitiFacts info on Palin's statement.

Palin: "This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word "victory" except when he's talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot — what exactly is our opponent's plan?"

Truth: I challenge anyone to read the full transcript of Sarah Palin's speech and find one single indication of THEIR plans. Any plans. For anything.

Good luck with that. 

(And as a final note, I encourage everyone to fact-check ALL politicians' statements, not just those to whom you may oppose. PolitiFact.com is a great resource for vetting the legitimacy of what pols say, and I get a lot of good, valid information on Republicans AND Democrats there. Happy fact-checking!)

SHIPOOPI!

James and I cannot stop laughing at this ad, which I assure you IS REAL. The guy's name is Vern Fonk -- or was, as the case may be, since he died a couple years ago -- but his family has continued his legacy of creating the zaniest car insurance commercials ever. Zany, I tell you! They seem to only air late at night on obscure TV channels.

And that is a shame. A real damn shame. Somebody get this man a posthumous Clio.

It's getting really, really creepy out there, you guys

:: UPDATE: Thanks to my friend Kevin, I added and edited a couple of bullet points below (on gay rights, earmarks and the infamous Bridge to Nowhere). I'll continue to update this as I learn new things or get clarification on things, just to keep all the facts together in one post. That is all! Carry on. ::

I couldn't be more surprised than if I'd woken up with my head sewn to the carpet. 

Have you seen the papers and listened to the news today? Amazingly, there seems to be quite a number of people out there who are completely, irrationally smitten with the lovely Gov. Mrs. Palin, which is all fine and good...except that this isn't another of her beauty pageants: this is the race for the presidency of the United States, and she is not only wholly unqualified to be VP, but also apparently frighteningly good at politicking. 

So, lest any of you get all caught up in the hubbub of her historic woman-on-a-ticket status or her Stepford Wife good looks and forget to actually pay attention to, you know, THE ISSUES, allow me to share a little of her background and stances:

• She was elected Alaska's governor 18 months ago. Her previous office was as mayor of Wasilla, a small town about 9,000 strong outside Anchorage. She entered politics at the age of 37.
  
• She is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.
  
• She supports the death penalty.
  
• She opposes same-sex marriage, and despite vetoing a state bill that would have banned benefits to gay couples (she said it would've been found unconstitutional anyway), she has said that she opposes granting benefits to gay couples.
  
• She believes creationism should be taught in schools.
  
• She is a lifelong member of the NRA. (This and the previous 5 bullet points can be confirmed in her Wikipedia article.)
  
• She has no stated stance on the Iraq war, despite having been asked point blank what her stance is. Her most common answer is that she's been too busy with state politics to really think about Iraq. The most she has offered up is that her son is deploying in September, and she hopes there's a long-term strategy in place.
• She doesn't believe humans are the root cause of climate change.
  
• She sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species -- for fear that it would interfere with more drilling in Alaska.
  
• She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling (including in ANWR, which is insane) and says renewables won't be ready for years. 
  
• In July of 2008, Sarah Palin became the subject of a state ethics investigation looking into whether she fired a top law enforcement official in her administration because he had failed to dismiss a state trooper who was involved in a divorce with her sister.
  
• Sarah had to first obtain a passport in July 2007 before visiting Alaskan National Guard troops stationed in Kuwait. She also visited wounded troops in Germany at that time. This seems to be her only experience abroad, and she has no known or stated foreign policy experience.
  
• As mayor of Wasilla, Palin built, as her legacy, a $15 million dollar multi-use indoor ice arena on land that did not belong to the city. It will cost Wasilla at least an additional $1.67 million to acquire the land which the town is attempting to pay for now by cutting library services, postponing capital improvement projects, and raising fees.
• She says that she opposes federal earmarks, yet during her time as mayor of Wasilla, she secured some $27 million in earmarks. Furthermore, under her leadership, the state of Alaska has requested 31 earmarks worth $197.8 million in next year's federal budget.
• She says that she said "thanks, but no thanks" to the Bridge to Nowhere, but it seems she supported it initially in 2005 and 2006, when she expressed offense at the term "bridge to nowhere" being used to describe the project. (Some reformer.) Then when national politicians (including McCain) began railing against the insane earmark ($223 million), she hopped on that politically-advantageous bandwagon instead, suddenly opposing and canceling the project and calling it by the very term she was offended by just a short time before. Though the project was canceled, they kept the money to use at their own discretion.
  

A friend asked me today why I even care about this, since it all only makes the Obama/Biden ticket stronger...and the reason is this: people the nation over -- and look at any newspaper today to see what I mean -- are absolutely enamored of this woman. They love her. Pundits are reporting her selection as a brilliant move by McCain, and the blogosphere is full of people who believe that her executive experience (you know, as a small-town mayor and an 18-month governor) is qualification enough and blows Obama's out of the water, and what does she need foreign policy experience for when she's got McCain?

Let's not forget, people, that OVER 50 MILLION PEOPLE VOTED TO RE-ELECT BUSH IN 2004. As the UK's Daily Mirror put it so bluntly at the time, "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" This country has elected to devastating results before -- there's no saying we won't do it again. And electing McCain/Palin could be even more devastating, because if anything were to happen to McCain, this woman would be leading the country, and she is utterly, unabashedly unqualified. Even her own state's newspapers are saying so. And last month? Last month she answered the question as to whether she would ever accept a VP nomination with "What exactly does the VP do everyday?"

She is truly the worst vice-presidential nominee in U.S. history. TELL YOUR FRIENDS. I don't want to have to move out of the country this fall if those two are elected. I really don't.

McCain, playin' the chick card

WTF.

OH, MCCAIN.

How chauvinistic and exploitative could you possibly be? And how much more stereotypical old white guy?

Come on. I know you're angling for all the disabused female Hillary supporters still straddling the partisan fence, but choosing Sarah Palin as your veep just because she's a woman, in the hopes of getting them all to jump ship? Ugh. Way to broadcast to the world your blatant sexism -- not that we should be surprised, after your "women need more education and training", not equal pay and discrimination legislation comment, or your anti-abortion stance.

Then the GOP basically confirmed your HEY YOU GUYS I'M NOT SEXIST, I HAVE A FEMALE FRIEND agenda by, according to ABC news blogger Jake Tapper,  saying "it's note-worthy that on the week commemorating the 88th anniversary of women getting the right to vote -- with McCain, making a ground-breaking VP pick -- the Obama campaign's first response was to attack, not congratulate Gov. Palin or acknowledge the historic nature of her selection."

Yeah, like it was really an homage to women's rights. I should totally be swooning, I'm sure.

The sad thing is, a lot of women will miss the inherent sexist/chauvinist nature of your decision, and see only that it's their chance again to get a woman into the White House, despite the fact that she's only been governor for 2 years, and before that was the mayor of a very. small. town.

So I guess that whole argument about Barack's measly eight years in the Illinois state senate and four years in the U.S. Senate not being enough experience to lead the country is probably irrelevant now, huh? What the hell were you thinking? It's not like we aren't all painfully aware of how old and crusty you are (72!) and how if you were to be elected and croak while in office, this inexperienced cipher you've put on the ticket just to garner the female/minority vote would actually become our country's PRESIDENT. Kind of a big deal. I'm fairly certain that when that red phone rings in the middle of the night and Presiden Palin were to answer it, it wouldn't matter one lick that she gave all the hardcore Hillary supporters the warm fuzzies by being the first woman in the White House -- but it would matter that she probably wouldn't have any idea what the HELL was going on or how to deal with it, because SHE WAS JUST THE GOVERNOR OF A STATE WITH A TOTAL POPULATION 1/12 THAT OF *NEW YORK CITY* BEFORE SHE WAS VP.

From the sounds of it, she and McCain are of a mind (a greedy, misinformed, economics-and-environment-be-damned mind) regarding dry-humping the leg of the Big Oil industry...so I guess when that phone rings, she might reply, "What you say? Terrorists have bombed the Pentagon!? MY GOD, START THE OFFSHORE DRILLING BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE."

But hey, this move will likely work wonders for the Obama/Biden campaign, so thanks, McCain!

DOUCHEBAG.

How much is that doggy in the window...

Let me first preface this entry by saying that I KNOW most pet stores get their puppies from puppy mills, and I KNOW that puppy mills are horrid and inhumane and evil. I know all of this. I do. And more often than not I don't even let myself stop at the windows of pet stores to look at the adorable kittens and puppies inside because even that small, simple act of appreciation might somehow be construed as the sort of "demand" that encourages the "supply."

But. BUT.

This isn't her, but she looked like this.Last night, at the mall with my mom and sister, we walked past the pet store and a lone little black fuzzball CALLED TO ME. I'm serious. She was looking right at me. Helpless in her beady-eyed little tractor beam, I made a beeline for her window, where she then pawed quietly at the glass where my face was, rested her head level with mine, and begged me with her sad, glassy little orbs to PLEASE GET HER THE FUCK OUT OF THERE.

Had I had $549 (!!!!), I probably totally would have.

Instead, I went inside and asked if they let people hold puppies just because they find them adorable, not because they're interested in buying. The woman's initial answer was no, until I told her which dog I loved...at which point she melted, and said that because it was THAT puppy, the answer was yes.

Apparently, this puppy (a toy poodle -- I don't even LIKE poodles, wtf) kept getting passed over (probably because she wasn't yipping obnoxiously and frolicking like her Pomeranian neighbors) and had been in the store for TWO WEEKS (the average stay for most puppies is 72 hours). So they took her out every chance they got in an effort to keep her from feeling neglected.

They handed her to me, and the deal was sealed. She was a total lover. No wriggling, no fear, no pee, no yipping...just some sweet hand-licking and a quiet, desperate need to be loved. So I loved her. I loved her for about 20 minutes, until the store closed and I could love her no more without mall security needing to be summoned. Then we left.

And then my heart broke into a million little pieces of kibble. 

Maggie: Best Dog Ever.My family found our dog, Maggie, at the Humane Society years and years ago, much the same way. She wasn't the cutest or "coolest" dog in the joint, but she caught our attention because while the rest of the animals barked and jumped and vied for our attention, she just sat there, dignified, looking at us wisely, and then raised one paw and rested it on the wire fencing, beckoning us to GO TO HER. She totally won us over, and then turned out to be the greatest, smartest, funniest dog in the history of domesticated animals. Ever.

I can't help but wonder if this little toy poodle isn't my Maggie?

Whatever the answer, $549 is pretty much prohibitive for us right now (or ever, really), so all I can do is hope that someone kind adopts her soon, or that someone with $549 is touched beyond words, and buys her for me. (HINT HINT YOU GUYS)

"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

Thanks to Devious Rex, this little ode to idiocy has been brought to my attention. It's composed entirely of actual quotes spoken by our dear and fearless leader during his EIGHT. LONG. YEARS. IN. OFFICE. Arranged by Washington Post contributor Richard Thompson, who deserves a beer or nine for this brilliance.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
by George W. Bush

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It’s a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize Society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!