Obama wins the election

The Electoral College voted today and Obama won! But even that isn't official until January 6 when Congress finally tallies the votes. How's that for dragging out the suspense?

What do they want?

My friend David Neiwert has a nice little summary of the Obama birth certificate conspiracy crowd up at Crooks and Liars. Naturally, this conspiracy theory has been embraced by the white supremacist/nationalist crowd. Several groups treated the election as a big recruiting telethon, but, now that the black guy actually has been elected, the fun is over and they're scared. The citizenship silliness is their last hope of keeping him from becoming the most powerful person in the United States after Warren Buffet, Oprah, and the judges on "American Idol". There is a strong overlap between the anti-immigrant, white supremacist, militia, and anti-tax crowds. Bob Schultz, one of the primary promoters of this conspiracy theory, is, in fact, an anti-tax nut whose main business has been selling his schemes to gullible white supremacists and militia members. By championing this cause he increases his visibility among his client base.

It's easy to understand Schultz's possible mercenary motives and to understand the fear of the out-and-out racists, but what about the others? This wacky theory has been picked up by others who are not especially racist. What do they expect to happen if they're right and some court goes along with them? Declaring Obama ineligible to become president won't make McCain the next president. We don't vote for presidential candidates; we vote for the electors who choose the president. If Obama is ineligible the Democratic electors will simply choose another Democrat to be president--probably Biden, but there is nothing that would prevent them from picking Hillary Clinton or me for that matter (though I admit I'd be something a dark horse candidate). It strikes me that this is just a tantrum on the part of some wingnuts. They're going to kick and scream and hold their breaths until they turn blue to stop the country from turning blue. They need to grow up.

A couple of great guys

I just checked my phone messages from yesterday. It seems that Barack Obama and Joe Biden both called to remind me that there was an election and that I should be sure to vote. It was awfully nice of them to think of me. I'm sure their schedules were pretty busy yesterday. It will be nice to have someone that considerate running the country.

Your liberal media

I'm at Mom's tonight. She lives in the country in Eastern Washington, but due to a fluke of geography the only local news she gets is from Portland, Oregon. It's weird, several Washington towns are closer, but that's how it works. For me, the advantage is that I get to keep track of Oregon politics along with Washington politics. Tonight, we're hearing the pre-election round-up for Oregon on KATU, channel 2. It's pretty boring.

The big race in Ortegon is the Senate race between the Republican incumbant Gordon Smith and Democrat Jeff Merkley. Smith / Merkley has become one of the most expensive races in the country. Since last summer, when I visit Mom, Smith, Merkley, anti-Smith, and anti-Merkley ads are almost the only ads I see on Portland teevee. The news is showing them voting. That's the extent of their coverage.

Next, the news makes a quick mention of the Washington gubinatorial race. This is the big race in Washington. Democratic governor Christine Gregoire is being challenged by Dino Rossi, who refuses to admit he's a Republican. This is a rematch from 2004, a race which was decided by a little over one hundred votes after several re-counts. The Republicans claimed there were too many absentee votes for Gregiore from Seattle. This was clear evidence of voting fraud, they said. The Bush Justice Department wanted the fereral prosecutor to bring charges against the Democratic Party. The prosecutor, a man with the clearly honest name of John McKay looked at the evidence and said there was no case. AG Gonzalez fired him. It was a bad year for John McKays in Seattle. When I drive over to Mom's, I pass a large campaign sign in Toppenish for Rossi. Printed across the bottom it says "Don't Let Seattle Steal This Election!" That's classy Dino. I can see you plan to be the governor for all the people of Washington.

Now the news is covering local elections in Oregon. The anchor, a well groomed guy named Steve Dunn, is showing the division between the parties in Salem. It's a good year for the Democrats, he says. They're expected to pick up some seats. If the Democrats can win only half of the seats they've targeted, they"ll have a big enough majority that they can raise taxes on anything they want without restraint.

What?

I don't know if Dunn has a history of that kind of biased crack, but it really made me sit up and pay attention. After that.... nothing. They went back to pretty boring and formulaic coverage. They gave more time to the snow on Mt Hood than on anything of substance (Northwestern news is the most weather obsessed that I've ever seen). A qick Google doesn't reveal anything major about Dunn's biases, but I'm going to keep an eye on him during future visits to Mom's.

What's wrong with Palin?

Sarah Palin is the only one of the four people at the top of the ballot who has not released any part of her medical records. The subject has come up a few times during the campaign. Because of McCain's age and obvious declining health, there is a very good chance that she might have to take over during his first term if they are elected. This makes her records more relevant than most vice presidential candidates'. At first she flatly refused to release the records or to talk about her health. However, last week, in her interview with Brian Williams, she appeared to reverse herself and offer to fill that gap:

If that will allow some curiosity seekers perhaps to have one more thing that they either check the box off that they can find something to criticize or to rest them assured over. I'm healthy, happy, I've had five kids, that's going to be in the medical records, never seriously ill or hurt, you'll see that in the medical records if they're released.

Notice the "if" at the end of her run-on sentence. It wasn't exactly a promise, but her staff behaved as if she did mean it as one. Last Sunday, a Palin spokeswoman told ABC News that they planned to release her medical history early this week. Everyday, ABC called the campaign and was ignored. Off the record, some aides said it was just taking some time to round up the records. That sounds to me like they are the frontier card and taking cover behind peoples' misconceptions of Alaska as a primitive and distant place. As someone who lived there for twenty years, I can assure you that the healthcare facilities and communication in southcentral Alaska are as modern as anywhere in the Lower 48, and better than many. This is not a case of needing to send dogsleds out to find rustic country doctors. If she told her doctors to release the records, there is no reason them not to have been available in two or three days. But, since today is the Friday before the election, it looks like she has managed to run out the clock. She bluffed and won.

If she's so goll-darned healthy, why has she been acting like she has something to hide? Steve Benen suspects she's just being secretive for its own sake; she's really just another Cheney at heart and refuses to give out information as a matter of kneejerk orneryness. I wonder if maybe she does have something to hide. To quote a punditing giant: "Is it irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to." I think it's unlikely that she has a life-threatening illness like McCains's cancer or Biden's brain aneurysm. She has lived a very active and vigorous life and hasn't slowed down over the years. Two possibilities leap to my mind (admittedly a dark and cluttered place, unfit for visiting by women, children, and those of weak stomach. But, today is Halloween, so what the heck).

On possibility is something related to her fertility and the birth of her children. Many have suggested that she took some unnecessary risks when she was pregnant with her youngest child, Trig. Proof of that would certainly be embarrassing. So too would be a confirmation that she was already pregnant with Track when she got married to Todd. Both of these have already been widely discussed, so confirmation would be a rather minor embarrassment. More damning with her constituency would be a record of something like an abortion, though I've never heard even rumors of such a thing.

The more likely possibility, in my view, is mental health, specifically depression. The only evidence that this might be the case, is the tanning bed Palin bought soon after moving into the governor's mansion. A tanning bed can be nothing more than a vanity tool, but in Alaska many people use them to treat seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a form of depression brought on by the long dark winter nights in northern latitudes. SAD is epidemic in Alaska. A long time has passed since Thomas Eagleton had to drop out of the vice presidential race because it was revealed he had sought treatment for depression and public attitudes about mental health have since changed for the better, but there is still enough stigma attached to mental health that it's a career killer in politics. A 2002 poll showed about half of voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate who admitted to experiencing mood disorders. The percentage is probably higher among Palin's constituency, religious conservatives who are more likely to judge mood disorders as signs of weak character rather as legitimate illnesses. If true, most of her constituency would probably rally around her and make her an exception to their usual harsh judgment, just as they did with Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction. But, a revelation of mental health problems would also provide those who are less enthusiastic about her with a good excuse to reject her.

Lastly, she might be hiding something trivial, but embarrassing, like cosmetic surgery. The best hope for the McCain/Palin ticket is a narrow win and they can't afford even a small erosion of support. This gives them plenty of reasons to hide her medical history if it is anything but perfect.

In the unlikely event that they win, this issue should stay on the table. But even if they lose, Palin has said she plans to remain a figure in national politics, so we shouldn't let her off the hook. Most liberals and Democrats can be forgiven if they forget about Palin over the next few months, but, in this environment, it's never too soon to prepare for the next cycle. I hope the Alaskan bloggers stay on this, along with all her other scandals and legal problems, and make sure we won't have Sarah to kick around any more after this election.

I'm glad she made that clear

In her interview with NBC's Brian Williams, Sarah Palin explained who the elite are, the people that she and her lynch mob friends are always so incensed at.

WILLIAMS: Who is a member of the elite?

PALIN: Oh, I guess just people who think that they're better'n anyone else, and John McCain an' I are so committed to servin' every American, hard-workin', middle-class Americans who are so desirin' of this economy gettin' put back on the right track, an' winnin' these wars, an' America's starting to reach her potential, an' that is opportunity and hope provided everyone equally. So anyone who thinks that they are--I guess--better'n anyone else, that's-- that's my definition of elitism.

The elite is anyone who thinks they are better than anyone else--like those who think other parts of the country are less authentically American than theirs is, or who believe that people who don't go to their church are less moral than they are, or who disparage certain occupations, such as community organizers, as not really doing work. I'm glad you cleared that up for us, governor.

More Wildmon ranting

Donald Wildmon, who I mentioned in the last post whining about this year's Global War on Christmas (GWOC), may not be as well known as Pat Robertson or James Dobson, but he can do fundamentalist crazy talk with the very best. Ed Brayton received an e-mail from him warning about the stakes in this election.

If the liberals win the upcoming election, America as we have known it will no longer exist. This country that we love, founded on Judeo-Christian values, will cease to exist and will be replaced by a secular state hostile to Christianity. This "city set on a hill" which our forefathers founded, will go dark. The damage will be deep and long lasting. It cannot be turned around in the next election, or the one after that, or by any election in the future. The damage will be permanent.

And he says that like it would be a bad thing.

Baby animal killers for McCain/Palin

I suppose tomorrow the McCain campaign will be explaining why this is the fault of Obama and his elitist disdain for the values of "real" Americans.

A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.

Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.

“It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head,” Johnson said.

[...]

"This is certainly unacceptable," Johnson said. "Someone was wanting to draw attention to the election. If we find out who they are, we’ll make sure they’ll get some attention themselves."

It's not completely clear what message they thought this would carry. Is there a racial subtext? I don't know. Does it imply some kind of solidarity with hunter woman Sarah Palin. Again, I don't know. Whatever the message is, we can be sure it's violent, sick, and unacceptable.

I'd like to know where they got the bear. The article mentions that it is bear season in that part of North Carolina, but in many states it's illegal to kill juvenile animals. Even if it is legal there, most hunters I know would consider it cowardly and unsportsmanlike. I just find it contemptible.

When they catch the guys who did this, I hope they turn them over to a room full of eight-year-olds armed with sharp sicks to administer a suitable justice.

My old home

Last night Keith Olbermann had Wayne Barrett, the senior editor for The Village Voice, on to discuss the latest Sarah Palin scandal. Barrett has been looking into the big new home that Palin's husband Todd says he and a few "buddies" built on Lake Lucille near Wasilla. Barrett has uncovered evidence that the "buddies" who helped Todd may have included the same contractors who got the contract for the expensive sports arena she committed the town to building and which left Wasilla $25 million in debt when she moved on to greener pastures.

This is the kind of mutual back-scratching corruption that destroys political careers everywhere and, in this case, includes many names familiar to those following the Ted Stevens corruption trial. But one name made me sit up and shout at the teevee.

And it turns out that, at least I was able to clearly establish one contractor, the big, building supply contractor who supplied the building materials for the complex is the same guy-Spenard is the name.

"Arrrgh! Not 'some guy' Spenard." I shouted.

Clever Wife and the little cat, Marlowe, stared at me and scooted away on the couch.

The "guy" Spenard died in 1934 and had nothing to do with new homes for Stevens and the Palins. The Spenard involved in the Palin story is not a guy, it's a company, Spenard Builders Supply. But it was not the mere incorrect historical identification that bothered me, Spenard strikes at the core of my Alaskan identity.

First some history. Joe Spenard arrived in Alaska in 1916, a year after the Alaska Railroad created a supply depot called Anchorage on the Cook Inlet. Spenard was that type of combination frontier entrepreneur and civic booster that is an important and familiar character in the founding stories of most western towns. He had one of the first trucks and first cars in the town. He put the latter to work as the first taxi in Anchorage. In order to have some place to drive people, he built a road to a small lake five miles south of town and built a dance hall and bathing beach there. The lake, which till then had been called Jeter Lake after a homesteader with a farm on one side of the lake was forever after known as Spenard's Lake, or Lake Spenard. It is currently part of the busiest float plane airport in the world. His road became Spenard Road. Despite attempts by generations of city planers to level and straighten it out, it stands out as the most crooked road in the town, sprawling diagonally across the otherwise neat rectilinear grid of Anchorage. The neighborhood around his road naturally became known simply as Spenard. Joe's lodge thrived for a few years, then burned down. He hung on in Anchorage taking care of his other businesses, but left at the beginning of the Depression and died at the home of one of his kids in Sacramento in 1934.

Spenard the community lived on. When Anchorage incorporated in 1920, Spenard was far outside its limits, separated by the small, muddy canyon of Chester Creek and a couple miles of scraggly forest. Spenard developed a separate identity which was recognized by the federal government in 1937 when they assigned the community its own postmaster and post office. Like many across-the-line communities, Spenard developed a thriving trade in whatever pleasures the authorities in the city were trying to suppress. At any given time, Spenard might not have had more bars and strip joints that its main competitor, Fourth Avenue, or more massage parlors than Mountain View, but its unique combination of treats gave it a reputation as a one stop shopping place for fun. The fun wasn't limited to conventional vices. Spenard had bookstores, its own shopping district, Cap Lathrop built a movie theater there, and it was home to one of the all-time, great hobby shops--Spenard Hobby, among whose cluttered shelves any kid could find the ingredients for the school project of his dreams.

My family moved to Spenard in 1969, a time that I refer to, in the age-old tradition of bookending local history epochs by disasters, as after the earthquake and before the pipeline. Local politics at the time perennially revolved around the question of annexation. The Anchorage urban area, by then, had spread across Chester Creek and beyond Spenard, but the city limits only extended to the edge of Spenard. Most Spenardians wanted no part of the Anchorage government, preferring to either remain under the borough (as counties are called in Alaska) or to incorporate as a real city. Each election produced a three-way tie stalemate. The issue came to a head after a fatal hotel fire on the city limits that might have been controlled except for the turf fighting between the city and borough fire departments. The solution was essentially to abolish the city in 1975 and reincorporate the entire borough as a single municipality. Sadly, they chose to call it Anchorage instead of Greater Spenard. For most of the twenty years I lived in Alaska, I lived in or around Spenard. I was a died-in-the-wool Spenard patriot. I insisted in using Spenard in my mailing address instead of Anchorage.*

During my last five years there, I lived a block away from Spenard Builders Supply. SBS has nothing to do with Joe Spenard except for the fact that it's located in his town. It was established seventeen years after he died on a convenient railroad siding a few blocks off Spenard Road. When I was a kid, it had just the one location and supported my high school drama club with gifts of lumber and paint for our sets. Since then, it's become a construction giant. They have thirty-some locations around Alaska, a truss factory, and supply most of the home building industry in the state. It's sad that they got caught up in politics, but not surprising. Since the economy of Alaska is a boom and bust economy based on resource extraction and construction, their business is implicitly political and every development decision in the state potentially affects them.

So now Palin has not only made he state of Alaska a national laughing stock, she's brought shame on the good name of Spenard, my sleazy, old neighborhood. That's it; the woman has to go. Fortunately, there are intrepid Alaskans working on that. A group called Alaskans for Truth is looking into the technical requirements to start a recall (that is, if the legislature doesn't impeach her first). I hate to get my hopes up, but it's beginning to look like there is just enough justice in the universe to make sure Palin's career is toast.

* It's a little known secret that it doesn't matter what you write as your town and state on a letter; as long as the zip code and street address are correct, the mail will find its destination. When I was living in Spokane, WA, I received a package addressed to me in Tacoma, Oregon. But it had the right zip code and street address.

It can't happen here

Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money (but no serial commas) has a silly fantasy about what might happen if Obama really is the Muslim Manchurian candidate that the Corner gang seem to think he is. The scenario he portrays is so beyond the bounds of plausible that it should be read only to reassure ourselves that we are safe from such things.

Looking forward

Has anyone heard any authoritative rumors about who's likely to get Obama's seat if we really pull this out and he goes to the White House?

I can see Afghanistan from my porch

Everyone say something stupid now and then, but some people abuse the privilege.

Three days after a mostly gaffe-free debate performance, the Alaska governor fumbled during a speech in which she praised U.S. soldiers for “fighting terrorism and protecting us and our democratic values”.

“They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,” she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.

First impressions of the veep debate

Well, by golly, I also think that if I hear any more self-conscious folksiness and cuteness and also run-on sentences and pointless digressions about how, also in this great land of ours, the United States of America, where we have freedoms that also they hate along with sudden changes of tense and our children, who play hockey and also go to school where soccer moms--bless 'em--are concerned about their dining room tables that a maverick is reachin' across aisles and walking over in a bipartisan manner with none of this finger pointin' at a nucyuler armed Iran and also my unwaverin' support for Israel, which Obama's wantin' also to vote against ninety-four times while Joe Sixpack back in Wasilla is tired gettin' of this darn blame game, I might also hafta puke. Also.

That's mavirckiness we can believe in, my friends

I hate to say it, but Sarah Palin has a point.

He's got a lot of experience and just stating the fact there, that we've been hearing his speeches for all these years. So he's got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I'm the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he's got the experience based on many many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years.

Got that? Don't vote for the old guy who's been in the Senate--like--forever. Vote for the new kid with energy and ideas. This must be why McCain has started chaperoning her to her interviews.

Speaking of mavirckiness we can believe in, those clever kids over at FireDogLake found a Mother Jones interview with McCain from 1998 when he was opposed to Clinton going after bin Laden.

Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted? Most of us have never heard of him before. And where there is a parallel with Vietnam is: What's plan B? What do we do next? We sent our troops into Vietnam to protect the bases. Lyndon Johnson said, Only to protect the bases. Next thing you know.... Well, we've declared to the terrorists that we're going to strike them wherever they live. That's fine. But what's next? That's where there might be some comparison.

We shouldn't let that Laden guy lure us into a global war on terror, because you never know what kind of unforeseen consequences that might have.

(Both quotes via AmericaBlog.)

Bailout fallout

The bailout bill just failed and the stock market dropped 600 almost 800 points. Boehner and the Republicans are saying they voted against the bill because Pelosi hurt their feelings. I'm not sure whether the bill was good or bad, but I do know a stock market crash is not good.

Update: The final count on the Dow Jones is possible the biggest single day drop in history.

Earlier today, the McCain team was pushing the narrative that he personally saved the deal by pararchuting in last week. Now he's he's stamping his well-shod feet and shouting that Obama personally ruined the deal.

The House Republicans are sticking by their statement that they threw the deal because Pelosi hurt their iddle widdle feelings. Presumably, that means they were ready to vote for the bill on its merits until Pelosi said something mean. That's quite an amazing thing to admit. We always suspected that they were a bunch of drama queens who cared more about having their egos massaged than about doing what they think is best for America. But it's something else to hear it from their own mouths. Mind you, these are the same manly men who claim they are the only thing standing between us and total victory by the terrorists, immigrants, homosexuals, rap musicians, and Putin.

While it's true that they more likely changed their minds and scuttled the deal that John McCain personally negotiated because they thought running against the deal might be a way to save their pathetic jobs in November, it doesn't change the fact that claiming to be a bunch thin-skinned crybabies is really an amazing thing to announce in public. An not something that inspires confidence.

McCain can't do two things at once

John McCain has been taking a drubbing in the campaign lately and now he wants to call time out.

John McCain said he and Democratic rival Barack Obama should suspend their presidential campaigns and delay Friday's scheduled debate to work with lawmakers on a plan for addressing the financial-markets crisis.

McCain said the Bush administration's proposal to rescue struggling financial companies and unlock credit markets won't pass Congress in its current form.

He said he will return to Washington tomorrow to join congressional deliberations, and won't participate in the debate unless there is a resolution by then.

I'm sure some in McCain's campaign think a time out is a good idea as it can be used to slow the momentum of his decline. The economic crisis provides perfect cover for this maneuver. The McCain campaigners want their guy to be seen rushing back to take charge of this important issue. They want him to be seen as caring more about what's good for America than about campaigning for president. I'm sure many will take his actions at face value and be impressed by them. Not me. I don't believe a word of it.

First, McCain is largely responsible for this mess. During his twenty-six years in congress he has been a tireless voice for deregulation, doing a way with the structure of laws and oversight that pulled us out of the depression in the thirties and prevented a repeat of those horrible events for over seventy years. That structure has been good for American workers, consumers, and retirees, but opposed by speculators who make huge profits by exploiting short-sighted gains and running away before they have to pay the consequences. Led by his advisor Phil "Whiners" Gramm, the Republicans finally succeeded in undoing the work of the New Deal Under Reagan and the Gingrich-DeLay congresses. After that, it was just a matter of time before things collapsed. Many economists and responsible, civic minded businessmen like Warren Buffett warned that this was coming, but people like McCain mocked them as "nay-sayers" and encouraged the builders of our economic house of cards. As one of the architects of this mess, McCain is one of the last people we should look to as a leader in fixing the problem.

Secondly, despite his sneering dismissal of Obama's patriotism, it is McCain who cares more about getting elected than anything else. It is McCain who has racked up a higher absentee rate over the last two years than anyone in the Senate. While Obama warned of the coming crisis and offered solutions, McCain travelled the election circuit proudly bragging about his record of fighting regulation, confessing his ignorance on economic matters, and promising more and longer wars for the next generation to fight.

Finally, why should he be allowed to opt out of the election process now? What better time for the American people to hear what he has to offer, to make him explain why we should trust him?

This call for a time out should fill us with doubt and fear. When the president is called on to deal with one crisis, America's other problems and enemies don't patiently wait until he finishes, has a nap, and is ready for them. Today, Kim Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the next hurricane aren't going to wait until we're done with this problem before causing trouble. Their manners won't get any better during a McCain administration. If McCain doesn't have the energy, attention span, or ability to do more than one thing at once, McCain doesn't have what it takes to be president. Period.

Palin's excellent dinosaur adventure

Uh oh. Those relentless investigative reporters of the right think they have caught lefty celebrities and mainstream media stars getting hoaxed by a humor site and spreading lies about Sarah Palin. Warner Todd Huston has a column up on a dozen or so right-wing sites with the poop on our latest perfidy.

As if we needed another reason to think that the excitable Maureen Dowd and the empty headed Matt Damon are... well, excitable and empty headed… we get the newest raindrop in their river of blather as proof that their "research" into a subject seems to consist of hearing an unsupported claim and deciding it represent gospel truth. Our latest proof is that they both seem to have been taken in by a nutrooter lie, a fake quote that claims Sarah Palin said, "dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago."

Both seem to have fallen for a parody of Governor Palin invented by a blogger whose post seems to have been taken literally. The following self-identified "fake Governor Sarah Palin Quote" was posted on August 30: "God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as ultimately flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats."

[...]

[H]ow do these two darlings of the far left explain away their use against Palin of a known nutrooter lie? I suppose, like most leftists, truth doesn’t matter to them if the end result is a win for their side. After all, for the left, the ends truly do justify the means.

Huston shouldn't be so quick to declare victory on that one. Many creationists do believe that the men of Genesis and dinosaurs lived together, that Noah carried dinosaurs on his ark, that dinosaurs are the dragons and monsters of ancient and medieval lore, and that they have only gone extinct in historical times. Google the word dinosaur along with Behemoth and Leviathan. Take Ken Ham (please! Ba-dump), the owner of the fancy new creation science museum in Kentucky.

In the Bible, in Job 40:15-24, God describes to Job (who lived after the Flood) a great beast with which Job was familiar. This great animal, called 'behemoth,' is described as 'the chief of the ways of God,' perhaps the biggest land animal God had created. Impressively, he moved his tail like a cedar tree! Although some Bible commentaries say this may have been an elephant or hippopotamus, the description actually fits that of a dinosaur like Brachiosaurus. Elephants and hippos certainly do not have tails like cedar trees!

[...]

Interestingly, the word 'dragon' is used a number of times in the Old Testament. In most instances, the word dinosaur could substitute for dragon and it would fit very nicely. Creation scientists believe that dinosaurs were called dragons before the word dinosaur was invented in the 1800s. We would not expect to find the word dinosaur in Bibles like the Authorized Version (1611), as it was translated well before the word dinosaur was ever used.

Also, there are many very old history books in various libraries around the world that have detailed records of dragons and their encounters with people. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly for creationists), many of these descriptions of dragons fit with how modern scientists would describe dinosaurs, even Tyrannosaurus. Unfortunately, this evidence is not considered valid by evolutionists. Why? Only because their belief is that man and dinosaurs did not live at the same time!

At least one Alaskan claims Palin went along with this theory up until a few years ago. From Philip Munger's Progressive Alaska. "[In June 1997] I bumped into her in a hall away from other people. I congratulated her on her victory, and took her aside to ask about her faith. Among other things, she declared that she was a young earth creationist, accepting both that the world was about 6,000-plus years old, and that humans and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time." In another version of the story, Munger told an interviewer "I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them." About eight years later he ran into her again. "At this time, people were beginning to encourage her to run for Governor. Once again, we found ourselves being able to talk privately. I reminded her of the earlier conversation, asking her if her views had changed. She was no longer 'necessarily' a young earth creationist, she told me. But she strongly reiterated her belief that 'The Lord is coming soon.' I was trying to get her to tell me what she felt the signs were, when she had to move on." Unless Huston can discredit Munger as a witness, the truth on this one is, at best, that she used to believe that people and dinosaurs once lived together, but now she isn't sure.

By the way, the Matt Damon clip that is circulating does not "propagate [that] as fact." He question it. He says it is important to find out if that is something she believes. But lets not let facts get in the way. If there is one thing the right loves as much as a good press bashing, it's a good Hollywood bashing. By linking Dowd and Damon on this one it's a twofer Huston and his readers. Huston can be as snide and sarcastic as he wants, but he's wrong on this one. So, how will they explain away the use against Dowd and Damon of known wingnut misinformation when this gets out? Will they just ignore it? "I suppose, like most leftists rightists, truth doesn’t matter to them if the end result is a win for their side. After all, for the left right, the ends truly do justify the means." Yeah, my enemy is just plain evil, that must be the explanation.

Palin Rumors: Part 2

Charlie Martin has moved his Palin Rumors debunking to a new home and begun updating and adding to the list. I'll continue my practice of fisking his debunking as long as he keeps adding to the collection. Here are the next few on the list:

72. No, she didn’t try to charge rape victimsd personally for rape kits. This is one of those complicated ones with a tiny hint of truth behind it. First, the Cheif of Police in Wasilla did apparently have a policy of asking a victim’s health insurnace to pay for the rape kit as part of the ER visit. This, it turns out, is policy in a number of states, including Missouri and North Carolina. Second, the way this became an issue was after the then-governor of Alaska signed a bill forbidding it; this law was signed before Palin was Governor and no one tried to reverse it while she was Governor. Third, what the CoP in Wasilla wanted to do was charge the perpetrator as part of restitution.

I wrote extensively on this one already, here. Again Charlie hamstrings my attempt to do a thorough follow up by not citing his sources. Did someone really say she tried to reverse the Croft bill outlawing the practice or is he just being sarcastic? I'll probably never know. In any case, his attempt to justify her practice is bogus. First, who care if other states bill the victims? If they jumped off a cliff.... It's still wrong. Second, Chief Fannon's claim about wanting to bill the criminals is a weak effort at damage control at best. The rape kit is an investigative tool. Does Fannon bill the victims of shootings for ballistic work? Does he bill the victims of burglary for fingerprint work (if any is done)? In no other crime is the victim charged for the investigation. If the courts want to charge the criminal restitution for the costs to the police, nothing is stopping them. Fallon's action singles out the victims of this one crime for special--and cruel--treatment.

Two things about the crime of rape make the victims stand apart from the victims of other crimes. They are almost entirely women and they can become pregnant as a result of the crime. The rape examination can, but doesn't necessarily, include a morning after pill to stop a potential pregnancy. And, like any medical procedure during pregnancy, the exam has a slight risk of causing a miscarriage. Palin is an anti-abortion extremist; she opposes abortion even for rape and/or incest. Early in her political career she was active in picketing and driving away the only abortion provider in the Susitna valley. Many anti-abortion zealots oppose morning after contraception and encourage pharmacists not to carry it. Finally, the practice of billing the victims was introduced into Wasilla by Palin's hand chosen police chief and was not practiced by the chief she fired.

73. Yes, she did say that she figured if "under God" was good enough for the Founding Fathers, it was good enough for her. No, in context I don’t think that means she thinks the Founding Fathers wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.

In context, I don't see how it can mean anything else. Since Charlie doesn't actually link to the context, I will. You can make up your own mind whether Charlie or I are correct. Note: Eagle Forum, the Phylis Schafly group that originally polled her on this has taken the poll results offline. This copy is from the Anchorage Daily News. There are dozens of other copies of the poll out there. Eagle Forum isn't very internet savvy.

Part 1 of my fisking is here.

Alaska is right next to Russia

When others have mentioned this fact as something that qualifies Sarah Palin for vice president, most people have laughed. Therefore, I was surprised to hear her bring it up herself.

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

In her defense, maybe she thought Gibson said "What sight do you have..." in which case her geography factoid might have been a correct answer. She was referring to the Diomede Islands which straddle the International Date Line in the Bering Straits. Big Diomede is on the Russian side of the line and Little Domede is on the Alaskan side. There is a village of about 150 Eskimos on Little Domede who live mostly by fishing and walrus hunting. The islands are only two and a half miles apart, so it's easy to see one from the other on a clear day. In the winter when the ice is frozen you can walk across in about an hour.

This point was a laugh line a week ago but, since they don't have anything better to offer with Palin, the McCain campaign is trying to repackage it as a serious argument. If they repeat it enough, reporters might start to take it seriously (or, at least, report it seriously in their he-said-she-said narrative). Supporters, who will repeat anything their side says, will have no problem swallowing the koolaid that this is a serious argument. By the old propaganda principle called the "big lie," if you repeat something enough times it becomes conventional wisdom, regardless of how silly, false, or unbelievable it may have been at the beginning.

I see a big flaw in this big lie. Even if it is true that a person can become a foreign policy expert just by seeing the shoreline of Russia, I can find no evidence that Sarah Palin has done so. I can locate no news articles or any other evidence that she has ever been to Little Diomede or that she has seen Russia. Even she said, you can see Russia from Alaska, not that she has seen Russia from Alaska.

I lived in Alaska for nineteen years and I've been to Russia. I guess that makes me a thousand times the foreign policy expert she is. Former Python Michael Palin has been to Little Diomede, so I guess he's qualified to Prime Minister.

About those rape kits

Earlier this week, reporters and bloggers looking into Sarah Palin's record as mayor came up with a horrifying story from the local Wasilla paper The Frontiersman. The story was that under Palin, the police department of Wasilla had a policy of billing the victims of rape for the medical tests used by the police in their investigation. The reason for the original news article was that the Alaska state legislature had passed a law forbidding police departments from continuing that practice. Most cop show fans will be familiar with the term "rape kit" used for these exams. What the television dramas don't mention is that these exams and related lab work cost between $300 and $1200 apiece. That's a big burden to drop on someone who is already traumatized by being the victim of a violent crime. The new law required police departments to pay the costs themselves.

The governor signed House Bill 270, sponsored by Rep. Eric Croft, D-Anchorage, outside the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) exam room at Alaska Regional Hospital. In attendance at the signing were members of victims advocate groups, law enforcement agencies and legislators.

The new law makes it illegal for any law enforcement agency to bill victims or victims insurance companies for the costs of examinations that take place to collect evidence of a sexual assault or determine if a sexual assault did occur.

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests. Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams. "In the past we've charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just don't want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer," Fannon said. According to Fannon, the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases.

The response to the article has been incredulous and loud. Obviously, outrage has been the primary response on one side of the aisle. On the other side three primary responses have emerged. First, simple dismissal. Any criticism of Palin is a smear, negative campaigning, and motivated by sexism.

The second response is an argument from ignorance. The respondent refuses to believe it could be that bad.

The only conceivable possibility is that there may have been cases for which insurance didn't pay (the article provides no evidence of this), in which case the most likely scenario would be the department paying as in the city of Palmer. ... There is no evidence in the slightest than any[one] ever had to pay a cent, and this would be obvious and easy for the newspaper to have checked - and I'm sure the DNC's team of operatives would have turned up something better than this hit job if there were any such thing to find.

The author here has no facts beyond those in The Frontiersman piece but makes assumptions about what must have happened and denigrates the article as a "hit job." Note: the DNC "team of operatives" he refers to is a Republican urban legend. There is no DNC team of operatives as described in his link.

The third defense is the bad underling defense. The respondent says that if it did happen, it wasn't Palin's fault, she couldn't have known about it, and that it was the police chief's fault. This response also depends on making assumptions without presenting any new facts. This ignores the fact that she hired the police chief and that in politics responsibility flows upward, not down.

No one seems to know if anyone was ever actually charged for their rape kit. Charlie Fannon, the police chief Palin hired after firing Irl Stambaugh, said, "In the past we've charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible." Does that imply it wasn't always possible? If so, what who paid? Tony Knowles, the governor at the time, and Eric Croft, the primary sponsor of the bill, both say the bill was specifically aimed at Wasilla. The reporter who wrote the original Frontiersman article that started this whole brou-ha-ha made a rather clear statement that "the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests." Is the certainty of this statement based on it having happened or on her understanding of Fannon's policy? Again, no one really knows.

The one truth in this is that during Palin's term as mayor, the police chief she hired had a policy of placing the responsibility for paying for a vital investigative tool on the victims rather than paying for it out of police funds. Did he also require the victims of shootings to pay for ballistic testing of guns and bullets? Singling out rape for this kind of treatment certainly indicates a gross insensitivity toward the victims and probably that he placed a lower value on solving these crimes than on others.

This is an issue where Palin and McCain are in perfect agreement. In 1994, John McCain voted in the minority against legislation -- pushed by Joe Biden -- that helped put an end to charging rape victims for sexual assault exams. That bill, H.R.3355: the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, provided funding for a variety of law enforcement programs, but would have denied funds to any police department that billed victims for their rape kits. As recently as 2007 McCain voted against reauthorizing that program. There is far more reason to absolve McCain than Palin. In his defense, the 1994 bill was a large bill with many provisions; the rape kit section was one among many. Palin has no such defense.

Much, if not most, of the bump that McCain received from adding Palin to his ticket has come from white women. If there was any strategy at all involved in picking her, and she wasn't just the lucky result of a tantrum McCain threw when they told him he couldn't have Lieberman, this was it. The Palin bump is the last hurrah of the disgruntled PUMAs. Unfortunately for McCain, Palin's position on the issues that the press usually identifies as "women's issues" is not good. When the novelty of her wears off, many of the women who moved to the R column last week will move back to the D column. But they won't move without help. The Obama campaign needs to move agressively to reestablish the Democratic brand superiority on those women's issues