Sarah Palin: Earmark queen ...and would-be library censor

Wow. At first Sarah Palin just struck me as rather shy on experience. But she said some good things about fighting against federal earmarks in the US budget. Then we learn that when mayor of a town of 6,700 people, she arranged nearly $27 MILLION dollars in federal money for local projects. It looks like she was FOR earmarks ...before she was against them.

Dang!

And it appears that she may have also been a proponent of banning library books that contained 'inappropriate' language. From the Time Magazine article:

"She asked the library how she could go about banning books"

Doesn't sound like individuals' rights to me!

Republican Convention: thoughts so far...

I only had an hour or so available this evening to watch the Republican National Convention. As with the Democratic National Convention, we watch it on CSPAN. Rather than have the "experts" from a TV network tell us what we saw (and skip some of the coverage), we prefer to see it for ourselves and to make up our own minds.

Observations from tonight:

1. Apparently John McCain was a P.O.W.
2. One speaker actually stated of John McCain: "He believes in the sanctity of marriage". Wow. Well it is possible that he believes in the sanctity of marriage now, but he sure didn't when he was cheating on his first wife.
3. Recurrent theme (at least this evening): "Country before self". That's a good value. Yes, we all need to think of others and help our fellow humans - in this country AND elsewhere. It's not so good to cut taxes for the wealthy and ignore the 'middle' class and the poverty-stricken. 'Country before self' should NOT mean that it is OK for the government to imprison you without charge, or to invade your home and take your possessions and threaten you with 5 years of prison if you tell ANYone about it. There have been many heroes in our country, both in the Armed Forces and in civilian service, and that is a very good thing. I hope that we can again see a defending of our Constitution instead of a systematic dismantling and ignoring of domestic and international law.
4. George W Bush referred to "the angry left". You BET we're angry!
5. This was the WHITEST crowd I've seen pretty much anywhere in a long, long time. As the camera would pan the audience, I kept looking for people of color. I counted 3 black gentlemen ...among thousands of white or light-skinned people. Not exactly a diverse gathering.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Easy way to bring CLEAN water to many people

This morning I washed, I brushed my teeth, I made some coffee. With each of these tasks, I turned a tap, and clean water was mine to be had. Please watch this video about an incredibly easy way for us to help bring this luxury to many others.

Donate by clicking here.


The September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo

I was made aware of this by Mr Paul Mooney, a geek buddy from Ireland, who is celebrating his birthday today by sharing this opportunity with others.

Dennis Kucinich ROCKS the Democratic Convention!

McCain is SO out of touch!

John McCain has at least seven homes. He says you're not wealthy unless you have at least 5 MILLION dollars (holy crap!), and he has no idea how many houses he owns. Dang! The vast majority of Americans (and of people worldwide) feel quite fortunate if we have ONE home, and John McCain is so well-off that he doesn't even know how many homes he has.

This brief video (4 minutes) shows McCain's homes and their values:



Especially insane is Cindy McCain's statement that "in Arizona the only way to get around the state is in a small private plane".