My PUMA is flummoxed by Palin.

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“MA!”

“WHAT!”

“Did you hear??”

“What? McCain?”

“YES! Aw, Man! It’s only 8 or so in California…I thought I’d get to tell you.”

“No. I am listening to the NPR. Family Radio has become annoying. That man thinks the world will end in three years.”

“SO???”

“So what?”

“What do YOU think? You were so curious about whom he’d pick…”

“I was really disappointed when I heard it…my heart just went down to the floor. What’s wrong with this old man, has he lost his brain or something? She is a young girl. No experience. She is Governor of state with 8000 population for only two years. What’s she know?”

“I think…Alaska has more people than—“

“Who cares! Don’t interrupt! Point is, I can manage things better than she can. This is guaranteed losing ticket.”

“You wanted Joe Lieberman, didn’t you?”

“I did!”

“And why is that, Mummy?”

“Because he is a Democrat. Was. I mean, he is independent. Also, he was so nice to you, when you met with him and his wife.”

“Awesome reasoning, Ma. Anyway, if not Sarah, then whom?”

“I would rather he gone for that…kid…the Indian…the governor…”“Bobby Jindal?”

“Yes. Him. He is better than this Sarah. Or the other one.”

“WHICH one, Ma?”

“Oh, start naming the names, I will tell you.”

“Um…Pawlenty…Romney…”

“THAT ONE! The Romney.”

“(facetiously) Eeeew. You’d vote for a Mormon?”

“What is wrong with the Mormon?

“Well, what is wrong with a Muslim?”

“You are a smart Alex. Mormons are people, too.”

“So are Muslims. By the way, I think Mormons secretly convert people, who are in no position to object to such tomfoolery, since, oh, I don’t know…they’re DEAD.”

“Nooooo. That can’t be true.”

“Mom. We’re Orthodox. Officially, they’re heretics.”

“We are Orthodox, and we are religious. They didn’t secretly do anything to you. That’s why we have nothing to fear from a Mormon.”

“Are you implying Muslims are full of harm and that we should fear them, then?”

“I DID NOT SAY THAT. Are you putting this on your website? DON’T PUT LIES ON THAT WEBSITE ABOUT YOUR MOTHER.”

“It’s totally off the record, Ma.”

“You are a terrible liar, Latha.”

“Yes, yes I am.”

“Who is the Muslim??”

“No one. I was just being obnoxious.”

“I thought Obama was a Christian? Now I am confused.”

“He is Christian, not that it should matter. Whatever, I just wanted to know what my own PUMA thought of it all?”

“PUMA? What insult are you shamelessly calling your mother now?”

“Oh, you don’t know? PUMA. It stands for “Party Unity My…ah…I’m at work, so let’s go with Kundi. Party Unity My Kundi.”

“HAHAHAHA. So I am a PUMA, then?”

“You’re in good company, so is Abhi’s mom.”

“Who is Abhi?”

“The boy who started the website I write for–”

“Is he single?”

“Mom, seriously, that would be like marrying my brother. Besides, hello, I’m neither single nor looking? Have you no shame?”

“Vatewer. It’s a reflex, now. I just don’t know what I am going to do in this election.”

“Awww. You sound upset. You really wanted Hillary, didn’t you, Ma?”

“I did. She seems…she knows what she’s doing. She knows how the office would work. She has pull. She is tough. I wish I could vote for her.”

“You could always vote for Obama. He’s a democrat.”

“I’m not democrat.”

“Are you finally coming out of the closet, and admitting you’re a republican? I CALLED IT. I so called it, when I was in high school.

“I am not democrat OR republican.”

“Then? You’re an independent?”

“If some other candidate could come and be independent, I’d be happy. Now I feel like I have no choices.”

“You can do one of three things. You can vote for Obama, vote for McCain, or not vote at all, in which case, I will love you a little bit less.”

“Are we running a fashion parade here? Miss congeniality? What the hell? I can’t vote for McCain now…I don’t want that woman in the white house. Maybe he likes having the young girls around, who knows.”

“Ha. Well, I think her gender is definitely why she was chosen.”

“I know! Does he think I am stupid or something? I was not for Hillary because of that. He can’t expect me to jump up and down just because he picked a woman. What an idiot.”

“So…you do realize that Hillary and even Slick Willy are supporting Obama, right? And that they want you to vote for him, too?”

“Aren’t you at work? What have I told you about behaving in a professional Manner? GET OFF THE PHONE. If I were your Manager, I’d fire you for personal phone calls.”

“All right, all right. I love you too, Ma.”

“See you later crocodile.”

“After a while, alligator.”

425 thoughts on “My PUMA is flummoxed by Palin.”

  1. 200 · cc said

    Tell me something I haven’t already read on a bumber sticker, thanks.

    Individuals are able to buy missle launchers, missles, bombs, grenades and even BAMS off the black market. Do you really think you can take guns of the street by making them illegal? Handarms are easy to maufacture, easy to transport and easy to buy.

  2. Valmiki, read carefully: Profit margins, not profits. I’ll give you that they are profitable

    OK fine, lets look at profit margins. You are still wrong to claim that their profit margins are “slim”. Your own link acknowledges that while not inordinately so, “yes, energy companies are more profitable than many others”.

    If you are such a champion of oil sector profits, Sarah Palin is not your gal. She raised taxes on the oil companies and gave that money to all Alaskans to help them cover the higher price of gas. She is no trickle down elitist country club republican. She is a populist of the Pat Buchanan mold. In fact according to Buchanan she was his supporter when he ran for President (that will lose the Republicans some jewish votes).

  3. 182 · NotADemocrat said

    Jyotsana, I know many people think they are being helpful with their “government must help” outlook… and in many cases, I agree that the government should be able to provide people with very basic help provided they cannot get it elsewhere. But does anyone else see how incredibly depressing this outlook can be? What if Obama doesn’t get elected? What if a democrat isn’t elected for another 4 to 8 years? What if a Dem is elected, but they can’t agree on a good government solution? What if they come up with a solution, but it’s a miserable failure that is hard to amend *coughnclbcough*? The idea that government is the only solution is scary for someone like me, because it means that the communities I feel closest to (black and latino) are pretty much screwed if the stars don’t line up for the democrats.

    NAD, it is not that the government must help or some such thing. The government is an essential part of the success story that is the USA from the founding. Though I hate hypothetical arguments, let’s say without the government, the US would not be commanding =/> 25% of the world’s GDP for the last 130 years. What if Obama does not get elected? Well the last eight years will seem like a picnic compared to the next 8 years to come as McSame hands over the keys of the state to assorted kleptocrats from lobbyists, and social blowhards. And what if a Dem is elected and can’t agree on good governance? Well we will repeat the mistakes we made decades ago. We laughed Jimmy Carter, man of learning out of office and appointed a senile half-wit joker in his place, who slept thtough the great opportunity to initiate a comprehensive renewable energy program. That is why we are in the mess we are in today. Worse still we have no leverage with resource glutton like China (partly because of our opwn greed for cheap trinkets and baubles) and budding gluttons like India and Brazil. 16 years back Hillary made a sensible proposal for universal health care, almost the sort that other developed nations have, that delivers outcomes superior to ours at a fraction of our per-capita costs – the State of Massachussetts spends about as much on health insurace backoffice costs as all of Canada. We all partied calling Hillary vile names – you bet Republicans have a deep seated “we may loose our jewels to this aggressive woman” fear – and helped sink an eminently thoughtful solution. The health insurance sector has grown like a gluttonus colossus and delivers piss-poor outcomes. So that’s what will happen. And these days things happen very quickly. Forget Carter, take the scene 8 years ago when a stolen election pitchforked the Dumbya-Duplicitous’ya duo to power. There was still time to commence our renewable energy effort. Nothing was done. Darn not even nuclear energy! How dumb can that be? And thanks for your solicitous concern for Latinos and African-Americans. The republicans are always on the lookout for Uncle Toms and Tio Joses and definitely manage to find a Clarence Thomas here and an Alberto Gonzalez there. But you should credit the objects of your close feelings with some intelligence. There will always be a Dr. King a Thurgood Marshall and a Cesar Chavez.

    Here is an excerpt from Marshall J. on the bicentennial celebration he stayed away from

    …cannot accept this invitation, for I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever “fixed” at the Philadelphia Convention. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight, and sense of justice exhibited by the Framers particularly profound. To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today. When contemporary Americans cite “The Constitution,” they invoke a concept that is vastly different from what the Framers barely began to construct two centuries ago.

    And Dr.King in Memphis hours before he was killed,

    Memphis Negroes are almost entirely a working people. Our needs are identical with labor’s needs — decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor’s demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth. and this too I would like to live a long life,” he said. “Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

    These are real issues and the next time ask Ramesh Ponnuru if he has even read these speeches before he launches on another poorly informed rant.

  4. 194 · the doctor said

    Railing against government assistance to individuals while allowing government assistance to corporations and special interest groups to go on unchecked… It beggars belief that repubs are considered the party of fiscal responsibility, in the face of such an abysmal track record.

    I think this is sort of misleading, as there are many conservatives and others on the right who absolutely believed that Bear Stearns should not have been bailed out. And many are annoyed at the tea leaves that point to similar bail outs for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Whether or not Republicans actually stick to their conservative, small government values is a toss up. It is also why a McCain/Palin ticket seems so perfect to many conservatives. You’re talking about two republicans who, though imperfect, have great track records holding everyone responsible, including corporations.

    Yes those evil corporations are trying to make as much money as possible!!! What an outrage!!! This isn’t the worst of it. I suspect that their tens of thousands of corporations spread all over America trying to make as much money as possible!!! When will this stop? When will our corporations stop trying to maximize profits?

    Hilarious.

  5. 201 · JGandhi said

    Individuals are able to buy missle launchers, missles, bombs, grenades and even BAMS off the black market.

    These should be made legal too. The point of the second amendment was to protect the citizenry from a malicious government, which certainly has access to all these weapons and much much more. Why leave our responsible shootizens in harm’s way like this?

  6. 199 · the doctor said

    Yes, and why doesn’t our government subsidize them even more than it does currently? After all, it might be taxpayer money, but what’s important is corporate bottomlines.

    I am against corporate subsidies. Remember that agriculture subsidies are kept in place by an unholy alliance of Republican AND Democratic politicians.

    Either tax or subsidize is a false dichotomy. We could choose to do neither.

    Also it is totally ridiculous to tax big oil in “revenge” for other corporations getting subsidies.

    I’m not how the picture of fat people is related to the issue of taxing oil corporations. Do you suspect of oil corporations of secretly making people fat so its harder for them to walk instead of drive? Please explain the latest theory, I haven’t been keeping up with The Nation. Thanks.

  7. 206 · JGandhi said

    Also it is totally ridiculous to tax big oil in “revenge” for other corporations getting subsidies.
    Remember that agriculture subsidies are kept in place by an unholy alliance of Republican AND Democratic politicians.

    Yes, big oil clearly isn’t getting any subsidies. (you do realize that pork isn’t funding only for the pig industry, right?) Do you read the comments that you respond to? Or just make asinine jabs?

    I am against corporate subsidies.

    Good, given that they are a clear and present reality and have been for a long time, I am sure you will complain about them as frequently as you do about taxes, if not more. I look forward to seeing your comments on subsidies.

  8. These should be made legal too. The point of the second amendment was to protect the citizenry from a malicious government, which certainly has access to all these weapons and much much more. Why leave our responsible shootizens in harm’s way like this?

    Absolutely… just as the First Amendment should allow you to yell “Fire !” in a crowded theater and sine pornography is also protected under the First Amendment, make child pornography legal too. After all free speech should be equal, no ?

  9. 204 · NotADemocrat said

    It is also why a McCain/Palin ticket seems so perfect to many conservatives. You’re talking about two republicans who, though imperfect, have great track records holding everyone responsible, including corporations.

    Palin couldn’t even manage the budget of her small town and left it $20M in deficit, and lobbied for pork with the federal govt, far from opposing it. and while running for governor, she was all for BTN

    As for McCain, he’s repudiated pretty much every honorable position he stood for, so yes, maybe he will stick to his position on earmarks/subsidies, but what’s the guarantee, especially when he hardly ever showed up for key votes on the BTN, despite talking a good game.

  10. 208 · Vikram said

    just as the First Amendment should allow you to yell “Fire !” in a crowded theater and sine pornography is also protected under the First Amendment, make child pornography legal too.

    So, pray tell, where is the line drawn for guns?

  11. 208 · Vikram said

    After all free speech should be equal, no ?

    Umm.. the point of those restrictions is to protect the helpless. I am just arguing that the helpless citizenry should be allowed to tote the same arms as our evil government.

  13. 203 · jyotsana said

    And thanks for your solicitous concern for Latinos and African-Americans. The republicans are always on the lookout for Uncle Toms and Tio Joses and definitely manage to find a Clarence Thomas here and an Alberto Gonzalez there. But you should credit the objects of your close feelings with some intelligence. There will always be a Dr. King a Thurgood Marshall and a Cesar Chavez.

    If only you’d put this at the beginning of your comment, that way I wouldn’t have had to force myself to read your long and incoherent rant so I could be polite and respond to it. Instead, you waited until the last minute to call any black or latino person a race-traitor for not towing the democratic party line. Newsflash: I am ethnically black and latina so these communities aren’t “objects” of my feelings, they are family and friends, and I’m sick of waiting around for the “right” people to get elected in order to help change these communities around.

    How utterly racist to think that a person’s race should completely determine his or her political beliefs. Jerk.

  14. 207 · the doctor said

    Yes, big oil clearly isn’t getting any subsidies. (you do realize that pork isn’t funding only for the pig industry, right?) Do you read the comments that you respond to? Or just make asinine jabs?

    How about fighting to eliminate subsidies instead of demonizing corporate profits and demanding corporations pay higher taxes for simply being successful? Its a corporation’s job to make profits. And lumping in all corporations into one group is counterproductive.

    “Good, given that they are a clear and present reality and have been for a long time, I am sure you will complain about them as frequently as you do about taxes, if not more. I look forward to seeing your comments on subsidies.”

    If someone starts make comments advocating for more corporate subsidies I’ll refute those comments. Intellectuals on the right and the left are against subsidies. Most subsidies are approved by politicians (Democratic and Republican)seeking political gain. However many people on the left seem to think that being successful is a crime and its fair game to raise tax rates on a corporation simply because it has increased profits.

  15. 154 · dilettante said

    That’s why the important point about Palin’s lack of experience isn’t about Palin. It’s about McCain. And the question is not how his choice of Palin might complicate his ability to use the “experience” issue, or whether he will have to drop experience as an issue. It’s not even about the proper role of experience as an issue. In fact, it’s not about experience at all
    If experience in government is so important then every President in this history of the USA would have been great
    And if this is about having a woman for veep, and a smart one at that, why not Condoleeza Rice?

    Every idea has a lifespan in terms of its utility as an ideological rhetoric. The experience issue falls into this category. Republicans know that they cannot stretch the experience issue too far without shooting themselves in the foot especially considering that in spite of inexperience, Obama has pedigree, talks very knowledgably and has a good grasping power. They also know that it can be well countered by talking about other inexperienced Presidents in the past ( Reagen) who have done well. The initial harping on the experience factor was to highlight the negatives in the short-term. People who analyze objectively and take decisions can find faults in Obama, McCain, Palin and Biden. There is a whole group of people who are attracted to Obama not by his pedigree by his whole aura and appeal. To counter this “appeal” and “media” factor which seems to play such a large role in elections today, Palin is not such a bad choice. She will attract a large group of people on the center and right “leaning” folks who sometimes have trouble identifying with Obama (apart from adding some energy and oophm to his base constituency ). Note when media plays an important role, controversial candidates can sway many independent minded people more than staid candidates like Romney. Rice cannot be chosen coz the campiagn will lean towards dissociating from Bush admin/past/. I think it Palin is probably a gamble/risk choice that has large potential for payoffs.

  16. So, pray tell, where is the line drawn for guns?

    Right next to where the line is drawn for the First Amendment. What you see in a Pg-13 film today would quite likely be considered “obscene” 50 years ago, despite the First Amendment and would have had the film maker tried in court on such a charge. Similarly you could buy a machine gun without a license till 1934. Neither of those two situations exist today as the lines have been redrawn. Ted Bundy said it was pornography that compelled him to attack women and kill them. Do you believe him ? Others also have claimed that pornography has been linked to crimes against women. Yet it is protected by the First Amendment and has the subject of numerous debates over the years. The Second Amendment is no different. There are always those who will blame society’s criminal problems on it.

  17. Lets face it, the fundamental causes of the current malaise are three fold: too much deregulation of the economy, too much aggressive unilateralism in foreign policy and too much reliance on oil (mostly foreign). Obama has a much clearer vision than McCain on how to bring about change on all three fronts. It is no surprise that better educated americans prefer him to McCain.

    The Republicans on the other hand are going to make this election a referendum on abortion, guns, biblical fundamentalism…..with the everpresent undercurrent of racism. Obama may well lose this election because too many americans see race as the most important issue.

  18. 214 · JGandhi said

    And lumping in all corporations into one group is counterproductive.

    umm, you used the term big oil. And here are clearly articulated subsidies for the oil industry. You can make the (very reasonable) argument that these widespread, huge, and systemic (meaning they are hard to remove – I don’t see a coalition of lawmakers eliminating the big contributors of these subsidies) subsidies that the oil companies get from the U.S. taxpayers means that they have a responsibility to the taxpayers to keep oil prices reasonable. In fact, this is one of the biggest cases made for subsidies in the first place. Since the government has no way to force oil companies to keep prices reasonable, the best they can do is recover money from them by taxes.

    Now, I am not a supporter of the subsidies in the first place, but in the current situation, taxes are a potential real solution that disincentivize oil companies from keeping their current high prices, whereas elimination of subsidies is a mere academic discussion.

    so, the reality is that under a republican admin, people bear the brunt of rising oil prices with no recourse, whereas a dem admin might have some chance of recovering some of these giant profits.

    What is needed though is a bigger policy solution that forces energy companies to invest in new sources (hint: offshore drilling is hardly a solution), cheaper extraction technologies, alternative energy sources, and so on, instead of just sitting back and counting the dollars, which is what they are doing now.

  19. Umm.. the point of those restrictions is to protect the helpless. I am just arguing that the helpless citizenry should be allowed to tote the same arms as our evil government.

    Actually that is an interesting point that I think has actually been argued for. But the case seems to be that the Second Amendment applies only same class of weapons that it covered when it was written, i.e small arms and small bore weapons. While the small arms of today are far more accurate and powerful than those in the 18th Century, they are still essentially the same class of “line-of-sight” weapons. Bombs and missiles are not in that class. Oddly enough, while the other amendments have been extended to cover vastly different situations (the protection of pornography under the First Amendment as I mentioned) than when the Constitution was written, the Second Amendment has in a way remained static.

  20. Newsflash: I am ethnically black and latina

    I didnt know there were non-desis on this blog.

  21. 219 · Vikram said

    the protection of pornography under the First Amendment as I mentioned

    porn isn’t constitutionally protected yet, vikram. better example is that the internet enjoys the same protection as newpapaers.

  22. I wonder who will benefit politically from Hurrican Gustav – McCain or Obama? If its another Katrina, then I think it will have significant impact on the presidential election.

  23. 211 · the doctor said

    Umm.. the point of those restrictions is to protect the helpless.

    child porn and (falsely) yelling fire in a crowded theatre are not afforded constitutional protection not b/c we need those laws to protect the helpless, but rather b/c all freedom (rights) are limited by the freedom of others.

    yelling fire is tantamount to initiating force against another individual since, by the “reasonable person” standard, it creates a clear a present danger to another individual. ditto for going up to someone and saying “i’m about to kill you” or telling a blind a man to “turn left” knowing he’ll fall off a cliff if he does. the fact that you used speech to kill or harm another does not entitle you to constitutional protection.

    likewise a reporter cannot break into a person’s home in order to get a story and claim “freedom of press” b/c he just violated the property rights of another. child porns esay, i don’t have to spell it out for you.

    i bring this up b/c its important to understand the general paradigm under which the bill of rights was written. within that paradigm, there is room for argument, but the constitution nevertheless institutionalizes classic liberalism. it not blank slate.

  24. Biden: Palin’s good-looking

    “She’s good-looking,” he quipped.

    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/31/biden-palins-good-looking/

    I just read that Palin is against interracial marriage (probably interracial dating as well). McCain just lost 1 vote. Most of the girls I dated have been non-desi; I’m not going to let this MILF get into the white house and stop me from trying out and tasting different flavors!!

    Can you imagine going to a club and being stuck with only brown girls?

  25. 201 · JGandhi said

    “Individuals are able to buy missle launchers, missles, bombs, grenades and even BAMS off the black market. Do you really think you can take guns of the street by making them illegal? Handarms are easy to maufacture, easy to transport and easy to buy.”

    Better.

    You don’t sound like a bumper sticker. Now you sound like a bullet-point memo.

  26. 225 · cc said

    You don’t sound like a bumper sticker. Now you sound like a bullet-point memo.

    how about: is that a starters pistol in your pocket, or are you a desi guy?

  29. 224 · TheBrownChamp said

    I just read that Palin is against interracial

    don’t believe the hype. the stuff being said about palin is quite shocking, almost panicky and quite unnecessary if you ask me. Obama has an opportunity to rise to his promise of transcending politics and come to her defence. would probably be a brillaint political move. unless of course the stuff is true…

  31. 228 · Manju said

    hey, ur not as dumb as u look, doc 😉

    didn’t realize i got that much under your skin, manju, that you’ve been reduced to recycling jv insults. kudos on the plausible deniability with the smiley, though.

  32. 231 · the doctor said

    . kudos on the plausible deniability with the smiley, though.

    ur a scholar and a gentleman, doc 😉

  33. 232 · Manju said

    ur a scholar and a gentleman, doc 😉

    It’s amateur night at casa manju, I see. Surely you can do better than this?

  34. It’s amateur night at casa manju
    that you’ve been reduced to recycling jv insults

    i picture a suburban white man (age 30-45) saying something like that. sepiamutiny has a racially diverse group of commenters, i realized that tonite.

  35. 233 · the doctor said

    It’s amateur night at casa manju, I see. Surely you can do better than this?

    hillary clinton goes to see the doctor.

    hrc: i’m a patholgical liar, doc. can u prescribe me something to help me stop?

    the doctor: don’t worry hill, it probably just a little post-traumatic stress from all the sniper fire you’ve dodged.

  36. Vic:

    Roe v. Wade is never going to be changed. I know the liberals keep bringing this issue whenever there is a ‘Pro-lifer’ on the ticket.

    You can keep BSing till you are blue in the face but you arent fooling anyone. Here’s what McCain says in his website:

    http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/issues/95b18512-d5b6-456e-90a2-12028d71df58.htm

    “Overturning Roe v. Wade

    John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench.”

  37. Vic:

    Roe v. Wade is never going to be changed. I know the liberals keep bringing this issue whenever there is a ‘Pro-lifer’ on the ticket.

    You can keep BSing till you are blue in the face but you arent fooling anyone. Here’s what McCain says in his website:

    http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/issues/95b18512-d5b6-456e-90a2-12028d71df58.htm

    “Overturning Roe v. Wade

    John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench.”

  38. 218 · the doctor said

    umm, you used the term big oil. And here are clearly articulated subsidies for the oil industry.

    The article you cited states 4 subsidies:

    “reduced corporate income taxes for the oil industry

    lower than average sales taxes on gasoline

    government funding of programs that primarily benefit the oil industry and motorists

    “hidden” environmental costs caused by motor vehicles, namely air, water, and noise pollution”

    Of these only the third counts as a subsidy in my opinion, and can you say for sure those particular government programs are a subsidy and does not benefit the public? Not having high taxes on corporations is not the equivalent of subsidizing corporations and every industry produces “hidden” environmental costs. On the whole its not a case of the government writing out huge checks to oil corporations is it?

  39. look at all these nerds arguing over roe vs. wade, government programs and other boring stuff on a sunday nite. y’all must be off tomorrow….too much free time….im bored as well….but im going to work out

  40. manju, that was much better. good job.

    the brown champ, maybe when you grow up, you will actually get some of your guesses right. hope school tests turn out better than your hit rate here on sepia.

  41. Of these only the third counts as a subsidy in my opinion

    ok. although, it would have made your argument easier if you had just said that none of them counts as a subsidy in your opinion. then, nothing needs to be justified at all.

  42. the brown champ, maybe when you grow up, you will actually get some of your guesses right. hope school tests turn out better than your hit rate here on sepia.

    oh ok

  43. 218 · the doctor said

    so, the reality is that under a republican admin, people bear the brunt of rising oil prices with no recourse, whereas a dem admin might have some chance of recovering some of these giant profits. What is needed though is a bigger policy solution that forces energy companies to invest in new sources (hint: offshore drilling is hardly a solution), cheaper extraction technologies, alternative energy sources, and so on, instead of just sitting back and counting the dollars, which is what they are doing now.

    Oil companies have a profit margin of about 10% per gallon of gas. This means even if oil companies became nonprofit and gas was provided at-cost, $4 gas would drop to $3.60. The amount oil companies make is really pennies on the dollar. Please explain what you think the appropriate profit margin for a oil company ought to be.

    The real reason gas prices are rising is rising demand from developing countries along with a reduction in oil output.

    Alternative energy sources are being explored by many venture companies

  44. Since i have a reputation for being disingenuous, and therefore Machiavellian, I would like to proffer my prescient advice to the candidates: A. Obama 1. Reserve Judgment on Palin, saying you don’t know too much about her and would like to review her record first. This make you look fair and considerate, while slyly advancing the meme that she’s radically off the radar and inexperienced. 2. Attack her attackers as misogynist, including your own party. There’s plenty out there: she’s a beauty queen, she’s anti-woman, her kid is not hers, how can she run for VP when she has a down syndrome kid to take care off. This makes you look generous, chivalrous even, helps you with genuine PUMA’s upset that you didn’t speak up for HIll, and bolsters your bipartisan change image.

    Your concern knows no bounds! And here I thought you really might be a closet Democrat since the party has moved so far to the right. Here is a much simpler way for Obama to win over feminists: point out that all the ways in which she’s a token without explicitly saying she’s a token – starting with “she opposes women’s rights” – for example, she wants to deny rape victims the right to decide for themselves whether to keep the baby of their rapists.

    However, I don’t think he’ll need to do that much except to win over low information voters.

  45. 244 · Dr AmNonymous said

    Your concern knows no bounds! And here I thought you really might be a closet Democrat since the party has moved so far to the right. Here is a much simpler way for Obama to win over feminists: point out that all the ways in which she’s a token without explicitly saying she’s a token – starting with “she opposes women’s rights” – for example, she wants to deny rape victims the right to decide for themselves whether to keep the baby of their rapists.

    The problem with slamming all the critics of Palin on the right is that there will eventually prove to be too many of them. Certainly one can’t put Brookhiser and Frum in the same tarring pot with Josh Marshall and other TPM folks and expect Heroic Heartlanders to be convinced that there is some VLWC against Palin.

    The ethics charge is much more serious than I thought before, especially since reading it through ongoing-divorce lenses.

  46. Do you actually read these dunces?

    Yes, I do. Some dunces’ opinion are to be respected given their audience (family members, Hot Air readers.)

  47. Valmiki

    John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench.”

    Its not going to be overturned because judges that give hint of revisiting the issue will never be confirmed. McCain knows this and this is why he also states that “returning the abortion question to the individual states.” That is the most they can hope for…in any case no judiciary will revisit a decision. Its creates a dangerous precedent. You set up stage for having every decision revisited and the law of the land being affected by the nomination process. Republican one cycle and liberal the next.

  48. 213 · NotADemocrat said

    If only you’d put this at the beginning of your comment, that way I wouldn’t have had to force myself to read your long and incoherent rant so I could be polite and respond to it. Instead, you waited until the last minute to call any black or latino person a race-traitor for not towing the democratic party line. Newsflash: I am ethnically black and latina so these communities aren’t “objects” of my feelings, they are family and friends, and I’m sick of waiting around for the “right” people to get elected in order to help change these communities around. How utterly racist to think that a person’s race should completely determine his or her political beliefs. Jerk.

    Since you have not responded to the words of Thurgood Marshall and Dr. King, it is very clear that years of hobnobbing with ignoramuses like Ponnuru and jerks like Jonah Goldberg have robbed you of your critical faculties. You brought the Uncle Tom/Tio Jose reference upon yourself, since it is you who made so much about your concern for Blacks and Latinos. The triumph of the vision of Dr. King and Justice Thurgood Marshall in the 20th century, who along with FDR, are the three most influential thinkers to have emerged from the US, is one of questioning the stasis, refuting platitudes masquerading as ideals, and ripping the mask off a false unity that is used to cover up a rigid structure of oppression, while at the same time holding out the promise of a future where progress and even a struggle of rights is not a zero-sum-game. That is what attracted people like Charlton Heston to the civil rights marches and Barry Goldwater to the Arizona NAACP – of which he was a founding member. Among the many critical functions of government is to act as a neutral arbiter and apportioner, preventing or at least keeping a check on those who have the power to buy anything, economic power, from exercising the power to make laws – wield political power. So a Clarence Thomas who routinely rubber stamps the decisions of an parchment odolator like Scalia is an insult to the ideals that inspired Thurgood Marshall. When Clarence Thomas ignores the country’s laws against cruel punishment he trashes the legacy of oppression endured by African-Americans until the 1960s – lynching wasn’t illegal until ~1948 or so, and before that it was routine for blacks to be convicted after torture by all-white juries – that Thurgood Marshall fought against all his life. To the extent that it can carry it off, today’s republican party exists to enforce a perverse vision of economic conservatism – sustain every structure that preserves the power of inheritance, influence, and luck – social conservatism – sustain every structure that keeps the races pure and the sexes in their respective public and private domains – and security conservatism – where the objective is not peace or security of life and liberty but endless conflict that can be used to drive an enormous machine that can dispense favours to economic conservatives. This perverse vision sees the pain and helplessness of a quadriplegic as a divine blessing and poverty as something noble to be endured as penitence. It is no coincidence that all the smears of Obama that have passed off as campaign advertising from the McSame camp have used all the right code words, innuendos, and subliminal elements. Elitist is but questioning, “How dare that uppity ****** run against us wealthy and influential folks?” As the repug smear machine did in Tennessee in 2006 against Harold Ford, viral videos this time have plenty of clips of Obama mixed with footage of fawning and swooning white women. Why that foul mouthed punk Joe Corsi spends a few pages of his Obama-Nation questioning the consequences of the inter-racial marriages of Obama’s mother. Obama’s community organising has been equated with black extremism and even an otherwise sane Chris Hitchens made an ass of himself (after a cursory read of Michelle Robinson’s Princeton paper) that Michelle is a black power advocate. My friend an extremely high proportion of the voting population of African-Americans and Hispanics have now endorsed Obama, so next time you trot out a smear handed out to you by your repub handlers remember that while you may be smearing at best about 50% of the white electorate, you are smearing over 80% of the black and latino electorate. And BTW that Karl Rovian gambit of playing blacks and latinos against each other is dangerous, both may turn their backsforever on the repug party.

    McSame at the Pearly Gates…lines up after HRC and Willie…sees them both walk away towards heaven protests,

    “But you see HRC may have lied about the sniper and Willie about Lewinsky. They did a great many good things. But you lied about voting for MLK Jr. Day.”

    “But I have always been in favour of racial amity and have been an admirer of MLK Jr. and yes I did vote for MLK Day!” thunders McSame

    But St.Peter, “How could you McSame. You were a POW for 5.5 years. You couldn’t raise your hand!

  49. Jyotsana…OT What do you think of lefty bloggers falsely attacking Palin’s daughter of having given birth to the Down’s Syndrome kid. That is perhaps one of the lowest of lows I have seen in politics. I don’t see anyone from the left dennouncing it….Heck they are celebrating because hurricane Gustav happens to come ashore during Republican Convention. Its all about power. The left chooses to get it by using class envy, and blaming the more successful.

  50. 249 · Vic said

    Heck they are celebrating because hurricane Gustav happens to come ashore during Republican Convention.

    Oh, just like Focus on the Family or some other rightie fundie nutjob group was praying for rain during Obama’s acceptance speech?