This Week.........

I think this will be a weekly link here at Crusher's Journal. Check out Daily Kos This Week in Conservatism.

Translator Wanted

Can someone help to translate this portion of the Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin so it makes even a little bit of sense? There is a transcript, but you must watch the video. Palin is scaring me more and more. What an irresponsible VP pick for McCain.

McCain To The Rescue

So, John McCain is suspending his campaign to help solve the economic crisis. Is this our knight in shining armour? Hmmmm, seems like NOT!! Check this out.

This Week.........

Nice feature from the Daily Kos website: This Week In Conservatism
Everyone should check this out! Be afraid, be very afraid.

Economic Trouble

More bad news after Lehman Brothers filed for the biggest bankruptcy in history, Bank of America said it would buy Merrill Lynch and AIG slumped on fears that it can't raise cash.

I know some of you may not be Howard Stern fans, but I do enjoy the show when I can hear it. He reminded us today that he predicted George W. Bush would bankrupt this country (and I remember him saying it years ago). He may be correct. The funny part was when he called GWB a "bankrupter". I laughed at that one even though the situation isn't humorous at all. Stocks slid a ton today as well. Hopefully it doesn't get too much worse, but I am worried.

Dirty Politics

It's unfortunately true that political campaigns can get real down and dirty. In my opinion, none more than John McCain's. If you want to know the truth amidst so many lies, I suggest visiting FactCheck.org. Both the McCain and Obama campaigns are "fact checked".

Here is their mission statement from the website:

About FactCheck.org
Our Mission

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

The APPC accepts NO funding from business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals. It is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation.

Brooks Jackson
Director, Annenberg Political Fact Check

I really like what was posted last night prior to McCain's speech here
on iReports (whatever that is?). Apparently it's some kind of blogging site connected with CNN. It doesn't really matter, the text hits home and I couldn't express my feelings any better.

Here's the quoted text:

"John McCain will take the stage tonight to accept the Republican nomination, but after listening to the sturm and drang the last couple of days, let me throw in my two cents about his VP pick, Sarah Palin.

Some would argue she was a dynamic choice. She was certainly unexpected- as unexpected as revelations about her 17 year old daughter's pregnancy, which has, due to scrutiny (heaven forbid), led to charges of sexism and allowed Republican males to jump on their noble steeds to protect her honor.

The odd thing is, it really didn't matter to John McCain that she was a woman, only insomuch as her sex was another check box on his parts list. Maybe tap disgruntled Hillary voters. Check. Conservative Evangelicals. Check. Creationists. Check. Right-to-Lifers. Check. NRA. Check. Oil Lobby. Check. As McCain ran out of time and the convention loomed, desperate to appease these special interest groups, seems like he fed the parameters into a search engine and out popped her name. 'Who?', said John.

So here we have a gun-toting, pit bull in lipstick (her words), who'd love to see Federal control over womens' reproductive organs, a potential heartbeat away from the Presidency. Nice call Johnny.

And here's my peeve regarding Bristol Palin's pregnancy. It's deserving of privacy absolutely, but not avoided, due to its policy ramifications. Sarah Palin, Governor, and now VP of USA candidate, believes strongly in abstinence-only teaching and not any form of comprehensive sex-ed dealing with, among other things, contraception (and she's worked to quash those type of programs). Guess what? Abstinence-only doesn't work. Proof? It didn't work with Palin's very own daughter, who became pregnant having unprotected, premarital sex. So if she'll stick by one failed policy, what other flawed policies might she adhere to ideologically that could be detrimental to the nation should she she attain a top spot?

Last, I find it shocking that supposedly Palin's daughter 'made the choice' to keep her unborn child (to the hallelujahs of the the radical Christian right), but in Palin's perfect world, even pregnancies that are the product of rape and incest would be illegal to terminate. No choice for other mothers' daughters there."

The Next VP?

CBS Report on Palin Vetting