Sarah Palin sells war and lies on ABC
Wow. On the day Palin attends a deployment ceremony for her son, she advocates for war with Russia. This is just so wrong on so many levels…
GIBSON: Let’s start, because we are near Russia, let’s start with Russia and Georgia.
The administration has said we’ve got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia?
PALIN: First off, we’re going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain’s running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep… GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.
PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there.
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.
Sarah Palin on Russia:
We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We’ve learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.
We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.
Now, let’s unpack this just a little bit. Russia was not unprovoked. As much as McCain/Palin want to paint the conflict in Russia as the big bad wolf eating the innocent Georgia, it didn’t really happen like that. In fact, following her logic about protecting smaller democratic countries, she should pay due respect to South Ossetia and acknowledge that Georgia was annexing them even as they expressed desire to be independent of Georgia. There was plenty of provocation.
Of course, it’s much more convenient to dumb down the argument to RNC talking points and argue that Georgia was somehow being punished by Russia for joining Nato. It’s also more convenient to ignore the fact of the gas pipeline crossing Georgia that the neo-cons desperately want to control.
Oh, but then I forgot. John McCain says Palin knows more about energy than possibly anyone else in the US.
Those gosh-darn Republicans sure are given to knowing everything, aren’t they? Just ask Meghan McCain.
Sphere: Related ContentPumping Gas: Let’s tell McCain why it matters
John McCain doesn’t think it matters whether or not he pumps his own gas.
WICKSOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?
MCCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters.
Well, John McCain, here’s why it matters. I went to the gas station last week and put $25 in our Honda. That $25 used to be more than enough to fill up the Prius, but now it takes it to just over half a tank. That same $25 in the Honda got me 4.57 gallons of gas, which was just over 1/3 of a tank. I don’t drive the Honda unless I have to, because it gets such crappy gas mileage.
The Prius gets great gas mileage, especially when it’s driven on the freeway at 55mph or we’re in stop-and-go traffic. But here’s the thing: When I go to the gas station and pump my own gas, putting my debit card in the machine and watching the pump suck out $50 to fill a ten-gallon tank at Costco (where we go to save .10/gallon), something else gives. For us, that ’something else’ means not buying the roast at the market and opting for something else cheaper, but for other folks, that something else might be a meal for their kids, or for themselves. It might mean they don’t fill a prescription that they need, or that they don’t buy milk that week, or they have to let the electric bill slide and go without electricity until they can afford to reconnect it.
It might even mean they have to quit the job they commute to every day because it no longer makes sense for them to spend $5/gallon to earn $9/hour. And here in California, almost everyone commutes.
So, John McCain, when you arrogantly brush away the fact that you not only don’t pump your own gas but have no clue about what the rest of us do, and then have the utter NERVE to try to paint Obama as an elitist, it matters.
When you tell those of us who are pinching all sorts of pennies to keep our homes from foreclosure but won’t take a stand against the Enron loophole, it matters.
When your buddy George W. Bush doesn’t even have a clue that gas prices are going to cross $4/gallon and then steps on the California CAFE standards because we set them higher than his piddly-ass non-goal, it matters.
It matters to everyone who doesn’t have $100 million in the bank, a tax-free military pension and a fat government paycheck.
Every time I fill up, memories flood of those arrogant Enron assholes laughing at ‘grannies in California’ who were going to be screwed as they jacked around our electricity prices. I hear them laughing and remember my 92-year old grandma pinching pennies to keep her air conditioning going so her ailing husband could stay comfortable in the summer months. It might as well have been you laughing, Senator McCain.
You betcha it matters to me, John McCain.
Does it matter to you? If it does, speak up here in the comments or on your own blog with a link back. Let’s ALL tell John McCain why it matters.
Sphere: Related ContentSchwarzenegger Smackdown over Offshore Drilling
Arnie, I take back everything I said about you hijacking the governor’s office. At least for today, because you did an awesome smackdown of the McCain/Bush/Crist sudden and passionate love affair with offshore drilling.
“Politicians have been throwing around all kinds of ideas in response to the skyrocketing energy prices, from the rethinking of nuclear power to pushing biofuels and more renewables and ending the ban on offshore drilling, it goes on and on the list. But, anyone who tells you this will lower our gas prices anytime soon is blowing smoke.
* “Today we have visions of Congress patting itself on the back after mandating 35 miles a gallon by 2020 and thinking it has finished the job. That’s the same fuel efficiency Italy gets now. America can, and must, do better. For both our long-term economic security, and our national security.”
He also had some words of praise, and some advice:
“If everyone in the country took the simple step of making sure they had correct air pressure in their tires, their gasoline costs would go down 4 percent. America’s oil consumption would drop by 800,000 barrels a day. That is twice the amount some experts have said we would get if we pumped all of our known offshore reserves.”
* “As you research, create, support, and invest in renewable energy technologies think about the payoff. Not just the next year, but also the next decade. Your idea might not look reasonable or affordable now, but energy prices are not going back to the good old days. So consider long-term profitability, long-term return, and long-term benefit.”
Like I said, Republicans and Democrats oppose offshore drilling. Bush and McCain are just reaching for something — anything — to justify the absolute mess Bush has made of our national security and energy policy. Of course, his first mistake was handing the energy policy to Cheney.
Sphere: Related ContentEnergy as a Climate Changer?
The only climate change the GOP expects from the energy issue is a political climate change, which if I have any say in the matter, won’t happen. From SFGate.com:
“Energy is actually a huge opportunity for Republicans,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who chairs the Senate Republicans’ re-election campaign. “Energy has the opportunity to change the climate if it’s done right.”
A recent Gallup Poll found that 57 percent of Americans would support drilling in offshore or wilderness areas that are currently off-limits to drilling, while 41 percent oppose the idea. Frank Newport, the poll’s editor in chief, contends that Republicans’ push for more drilling is now “generally in sync with majority American public opinion.”
Hey, 57% supporting drilling, why not get a clue now about what you support. I have to believe you’re just ignorant and not stupid. You REALLY support increased domestic production, which can be accomplished RIGHT. NOW. You just think the protected areas have to be opened to increase production, but they don’t.
Here’s an area that would be forever marred by offshore drilling.
So to the 57% of you out there who think this is somehow something that will help, let me reiterate:
- Offshore drilling will not help you offset the gas prices you’re seeing right now.
- Offshore drilling will not change the need to shift to alternative forms of energy.
- Offshore drilling would require more refineries to be built. Are you willing to have a refinery in your backyard?
- Offshore drilling would cause many coastal areas to be hard-hit economically as a result of tourism loss, effectively destroying the coastal economy.
- We have a DUTY to preserve these areas and find alternative ways to supply and conserve energy./li>
Got it? Good. Now go spread the news to the other bunch of you who are not stupid, but must definitely be ignorant.
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