A bit of news about the Beauty Queen who would be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

She calls her husband ( who works for British Petroleum) "Alaska's First Dude." She has served as Governor for 18 Months and prior to that she was a mayor of a town of 8500 people.

She is pro-life. She is anti corruption (but involved in ways that are not yet clear in an abuse of power allegation involving a family member and involved in the bribery scandal surrounding one of their senators).

She plays with guns, rides a motor cycle and eats mooseburgers. She is a mother of 5 and her eldest will soon be going to serve his country in Iraq. She is a creationist. She supported Pat Buchanan in 1992.

She is pandering to Hillary Clinton Supporters:

" Hillary Clinton is not who I would want to see in the White House but given the choices Obama had, and the fantastic Campaign she ran, Hillary Clinton was clearly the better choice." ( As an aside- shifting the focus from qualifications to what kind of campaign a candidate ran is a great move for someone who has been Governor of one of the least populated states in the union for fewer than two years.) So the question: Do she and McCain and all Repugnicans truly think so little of women that they think women will vote against their own interest simply to get a woman into a position? Aren't these the guys who oppose affirmative action and quotas? This smacks of pure tokenism.

This pick for a VP candidate embodies the height of political cynicism. Attract women by choosing a woman. Attract blue collar people by choosing a candidate who apparently acts the way Repugs think blue collar people act.

While participating in the Miss Alaska competition she wasvoted Miss Cogeniality. Yeah- she is nice. And the one thing I have heard from every person who is speaking on behalf of Repugnicans She is a woman and she is 'an attractive fit' for John McCain.

The two women who are currently the most important women in John McCain's life - his second wife (who he was involved with before he dumped his first- the one who stuck with him during his whole POW experience) and his VP pick were both contestants to represent their states in beauty pageants.

Yeah, These guys value women. Bring on the swimsuit competition!!

Here We Go!!!

This article from slate ends with an outstanding paragraph about the Republican nominee.

Talk about "Out of Touch"

You have got to see this link (above). A hurricane couldn't interupt a vacation but if it is going to diminish their political convention they consider changing a nations schedule. My question is: to what end? It is not as if any of the white men in the stadium can do anything about a hurricane anyway. That is what they proved with Katrina. I hope above all that everyone in the south stays safe and that Gustav blows right over them. But I hope also that this tactic by the Repugnicans is seen by the population as a whole for what it is- a media grab.

In case you Missed Obama's Speech

Here it is for your personal reading pleasure.

NO YOU CAN'T

gotta love it! Check out the people at barely political.com

Dems start convention- Gas hits $3.49 and continues to fall.

Locally gas prices were on a roller coaster this weekend. We saw 3.59 on Thursday afternoon- then up to 3.79 by Friday AM, only to fall to $3.63 by Friday PM and up to $3.82 by Saturday afetrnoon. Then, filling up this morning, I paid $3.49.

The word is that gas prices will continue now to drop throughout the fall. The flip side is that we are being told that heating oil and natural gas will increase in cost this year and most in this reigon ca expect to pay 25- 30 % more for heating their homes this winter.

Coverage in well underway for the Democratic National Convention. Fox News is delighting in covering a group of people who claim to be former Clinton supporters who are now backing McCain. Olbermann did an interview with the woman who founded this group and she voted for Bush twice and claims to be an independent. PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) is a wolf in wolf's clothing. These people are not to be trusted.

Gas today locally at $3.53- faster than I thought.

Daddy must be proud!

I always expected this headline, but it does not mean what I would have expected it to mean.
The main reason to look closer at this story is because it hints at a kind of nepotism- or at least a fraternal favoritism behind the scenes of American Idol. It also is a bit creepy to think about the logistics of this- in a Michael Jackson kind of way.

I suppose, however, congratulations are in order, just the same.

One year since bridge falls

iamerqI live in Minnesota so that story line filled the news this past weekend. As a result of that, there were several talking heads- mostly conservative- who criticized the 5 cents per gallon gas tax imposed by the state to pay for infrastructure repair. Tim Pawlenty- our governor who is tripping over himself to be McCain's VP pick- also used the opportunity to slap a round the Dems for that choice saying that the democrats in the state house and senate chose to burden families who are already overpaying at the pump.

The facts are these-

While the national average price per gallon remains at about $3.88 local pumps are flowing at $3.53 (including the higher state gas tax). So apparently, the higher gas tax doesn't really matter and is serving to provide some of the much needed infrastructure repair that is long overdue (without passing the burden on to our children).

$3.53 is still high. High enough to get us to continue to look for ways to reduce our usage- tune-up your car, properly inflate your tires, reduce use of the vehicles where possible, car pool, and thew like.

Then there is all this moise about off-shore drilling. Until these people who are spouting this as a great idea- the same ones who were saying as recently as a year ago (explaining why the cost was so high) that drilling isn't the problem, its the capacity of our refineries- can explain how exactly it will help (without development of those same refineries)- I think we all should just tell them to shut up.

But that is just me.