AHHHH.

[apocalypsos]

Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as VP of the US?

It's at 52% yes, 47% no. Apparently there's an email campaign to tilt the poll towards yes. So, you know, take a sec and go vote.

Comments

[newredshoes]

Good lord.

Also, every time you use that icon I think it's Jensen. Is that wrong of me?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

HEE. Did you ever see Garth Marenghi's Darkplace? 'Cause if you haven't, it's totally worth watching and freaking hilarious. And there's whole episodes on Google Video. I keep meaning to rewatch it since there's only six episodes and there's AWESOME.

[newredshoes]

Ooo, no I have not, but now I think I've got to. Victory arms for time-killers!

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

It's like a riff on '80s sitcoms and sci-fi shows, with all of the bad dialogue and awful costumes and terrible special effects. I wish there'd been more of it. :)

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

there arent enough options. Where is the "HELL NO, NOT EVEN IF SHE'S BEEN TOUCHED BY GOD. INAPPROPRIATELY.

so, i went with 'no.'

[batgurl10.livejournal.com]

I MAY be in the minority on ths one...
But, Im impressed by the fact that this is NOT another career politician!!!
Shes a working mom, with a wacky family (like most of us)
and you may not agree with a lot of her positions, but she has held herself in such a manner as to come across as smart, confident and strong!
I like that ... I think shell make a GREAT VP!
Go SARAH!

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

you may not agree with a lot of her positions, but she has held herself in such a manner as to come across as smart, confident and strong!

Please tell you are being sarcastic.

PLEASE?

Because I don't agree with ANY of her positions and I don't care how smart, confident and strong she is coming across (though I would argue that the fact that they changed the rules for the VP debate because of her lack of debating experience indicates that she's really NOT that smart).

She is anti-woman. She's a liar. And plenty of Republicans have concerns about her.

[batgurl10.livejournal.com]

well, guess we will have to agree to disagree....

One can argue that Obama has VERY little experience in everything except making himself sound more important...

Not sure how you quantify anti-woman? Is it because she is anti abortion? That makes her anti woman? Like I said, I was simply responding to your post---not wanting to start an argument on your LJ.

We will just have to wait until Nov4th and see what happens...

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

One can argue that Obama has VERY little experience in everything except making himself sound more important...

Except three years as a senator and seven years as a state senator, which means he's been in politics a year longer than Sarah Palin, once you do the math. And if you want to argue that being a senator doesn't count, you might want to take a look at what your presidential nominee has been doing for the last twenty years.

Like I said, I was simply responding to your post---not wanting to start an argument on your LJ.

No offense, but what did you think was going to happen when you supported Palin in an LJ written by someone who clearly thinks she's detrimental to the future of the country?

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

She is anti-woman because when she was the Mayor of Wasilla, women were charged for their rape kits.

And she is against abortion even in the case of rape/incest. How would you feel if you were brutally attacked, raped and then forced to carry your attacker's child for nine months as a daily reminder of the trauma you suffered?

And this isn't my journal, it's my friend's but I felt the need to comment because saying that you're going to vote for McCain/Palin because she's spunky is ridiculous.

Obama may not have a lot of executive experience, but he certainly knows how to handle himself, better than McCain, according to some conservative Republicans.

I strongly implore you to educate yourself before the election.

[lunardreamed.livejournal.com]

The problem with arguing politics, religion, and morals is that no one cares about reason and factual responses. You and I can both spout facts till we are blue in the face, but neither of us will change our minds.

Obama may not have "much" experience, as far as your concerned, but at least he was "spunky" enough to take on debate without "special" rules. And Palin has absolutely no understanding of her own party's platform. There's spunky and there's clueless.

You know, the more I hear, the more I resent how she is being set up. She's nothing more than a trophy wife. "Oooh look, we have a woman. And she's a working mom. And a beauty queen. Oh don't listen to her talk, she's an inexperienced and young girl, but doesn't she look pretty up there. Don't worry, the mens have given her the answers to the test." And I resent Palin for either not understanding how she looks or going along with it.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Coming across as smart, confident, and strong and actually BEING all of those things are two entirely different situations. I don't agree with any of her positions, but I wouldn't have agreed with, say, Condoleezza Rice's positions and I think she would have made an excellent VP choice. She's intelligent, knows the press well, obviously has political experience, and can express her opinions on positions without insulting those on the other side of the argument.

And seriously, supporting her because she's a mom is ridiculous. We're not voting her into Mom of the Year, we're voting for her for vice-president. That's like saying I should be mayor of my town because I can write really well. It has nothing to do with my ability to work well in a political arena. The VP candidate SHOULD be a career politician, damn it, because that's the job she's signing up for. "Her kids are cute" is NOT a viable argument for her to run the country.

[batgurl10.livejournal.com]

And seriously, supporting her because she's a mom is ridiculous.

I NEVER said that I was supporting her because of that--I was simply stating a fact. She is a working mom--fact!

some of the best presidents have NOT been career politicians!

I know all Obama supporters have been given their marching orders over the weekend to be as loud and obnoxious as possible, but I say, we shall see on election day. As long as everyone votes, ultimately, thats what matters.

I wont keep responding as I dont want to be accused of trolling or whatever ---I just hope you can live with the fact that there are opposing viewpoints out there.
:-)

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

I would like to know why you support McCain/Palin. What parts of their platform do you agree with? Give me some hard data and links and facts, not just "But she's a mom and that's cool".

And I'll repeat what I said in my above response to you. Please educate yourself on the issues before you vote in November.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I NEVER said that I was supporting her because of that--I was simply stating a fact. She is a working mom--fact!

But why is it important that she's a working mom any more than McCain and Obama being working dads? Why does it have anything to do with her qualifications to be vice president?

some of the best presidents have NOT been career politicians!

Yes, that's true. But saying it as if it's a badge of honor that she's not is detrimental to her, especially considering that you can't say she's not a career politician and then expound on her vast experience in the next breath. And how exactly is she NOT a career politician when THAT'S her career? (Granted, I think she's terrible at her career. But I still think it's her career.)

know all Obama supporters have been given their marching orders over the weekend to be as loud and obnoxious as possible,

That's insulting and rude.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I think that you need to see this (http://syndicated.livejournal.com/makinglight/482665.html).

Frankly, I don't care how she "holds herself." I care about what she DOES. First she fired Monagan and then:

1) Initially refused to say why she fired him;
2) Then later came up with reasons that didn't make sense:

a) Claimed she wanted to take the department in a new direction. (It took her a week to state what the direction WAS. So I'd say that this reason was invalid.)
b) Claimed Monagan was not adequately filling state trooper vacancies. (She dropped this one. Alaska's police academy is about to graduate its largest class ever. Reason--invalid.)
c) Claimed Monagan was not doing enough to fight alcohol abuse problems. (This raises the question--why did she then offer him a state job as Executive Director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board? If he wasn't fighting alcohol abuse in one position, why would he fight it in another?)
d) Claimed he "did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues." (Vague. No way to tell what that means. And not agreeing with your boss on the budget isn't an issue to get fired over.)

And Monagan should have heard about any issues his boss had with him BEFORE he was fired. They shouldn't have come as a shock to him AFTER he was fired.

Oh, and Palin has said repeatedly that she didn't fire Monagan because he wouldn't respond to her pressure to fire her former brother-in-law. Yeah. Suuuuuuuuuuure.

Now, to me, this says a lot about what we can expect from Palin.

First, her behavior. She didn't fire him because he wasn't doing his job; she lashed out and fired him because she was mad and she wasn't getting her own way. It was the political equivalent of a temper tantrum.

Call me crazy, but I don't trust her because of this. I want a person in the executive branch who believes in the law and who follows procedure, even in firing people. I don't want ANYONE in the boss's chair who thinks that they have the right to fire people because they're angry and not getting their own way. A world leader with a sense of entitlement, especially such a strong sense of entitlement, could be extremely dangerous.

Second, she hasn't even bothered to keep her story straight. She came up with a bunch of scattershot reasons for the firing AFTER the firing. The fact that at least two are contradicted by Monagan's and her actions didn't seem to occur to her. She came up with a reason, and she expected people to just believe it without question.

The fact that she told stories that were illogical in the extreme makes me wonder if she isn't a pathological liar, incapable of telling the truth from a lie.

Also, I keep noticing in the stories about her that she keeps blaming others. The media misreported something. A librarian misunderstood what she said. Over and over again. Not once has she taken responsibility for even the smallest mistake.

I don't trust her. I don't trust her to do a good job, to be a responsible Vice-President (or President), to tell the truth at any time, to follow the law or to support the Constitution. And I consider all these things to be deal-breaking flaws. I would not vote for George Washington if I felt as uneasy about him as I do about Palin.

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

That link was fascinating. And terrifying. Thanks.

[spyderqueen.livejournal.com]

I have many coworkers who are 'working moms'. I wouldn't vote for most of them as VP either. Not really a qualifying trait.

[kajivar]

The poll has been hacked -- people on both sides are using scripts to up the votes into the millions, so unfortunately at this point individual votes mean nothing. :-/

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. It doesn't hurt, though.

[thexpuzzler.livejournal.com]

In stats, there's this theory that if some poll with two options turns out roughly 50/50, the majority of all people who've voted have no idea what they're voting for and doing it randomly.

I always thought, personally, that a small over 50% lead makes you in no way the better leader or better person for the job. It's pure chance. But then again, I look at all the Americans not voting for Democrats and I think what are those people thinking? I mean, at least here in Germany, it's a 50/50 voting result because our two main parties basically have the same program and the differences are slim to none. Right now, they're just saying 'screw it' and leading the country together in a coalition. Not that things are much better in Germany but at least, we've got the basics like tolerance, health care and social system somewhat right. Looking at America these days, I just want to bash my head against the wall.
/rant
I'm sorry. I just get so frustrated every time a vote like the one above pops up. I just... I can't understand it. People here, even polls here turn out roughly 15% pro-McCain (and you can already guess the demographic stats for them - almost all those are well over 50 and rich white guys), while a good 80% is behind Obama so hard, you can hear the knuckles cracking. Acquaintances and friends of mine, hell, my professors are laughing (with desperation) at what's going on in the American state. It's... nobody here understands what's going on. We're just all shaking our heads begging for a miracle to happen that some people will find their common sense and change their vote to Obama. *sighs*

[sylveraven.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, most of us over here in the US are shaking our heads and wondering, too. I've got family that's voting Republican, and several of them are voting Republican solely because they like the idea of having a vajayjay in office. It's got nothing to do with her issues, or her experience, and everything to do with what's between her legs. Even supposedly liberal people are voting for her, because they're just so upset that the Democrats went with the black cock over the vajayjay. Which is just mind-boggling because if you were such a huge supporter of Hillary as most of these people claim to be, then shouldn't you have some idea of what Hillary's platform was? And how it compares to Obama vs McCain?

Don't get me wrong, there's people who are voting because they believe in her stance, as well. Mainly because we're a nation founded by religious nutcases. But from my informal polling of my (admittedly conservative Southern) family the majority don't even know her stance. My sister, for example, is an adamant and vocal Palin supporter. But she didn't know she was a creationist. She didn't know she was pro-life. She didn't know about the library censorship. Not that any of that would matter to her as my sister is a pro-life creationist who is home-schooling her children to keep them from being exposed to "inappropriate" material... but the point still stands that even before she knew that Palin was her long-lost older twin she was going to vote for her. And it's got nothing to do with the fact that she's a conservative Republican and everything to do with the fact that she's a chick.

Sad but true.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

And it's got nothing to do with the fact that she's a conservative Republican and everything to do with the fact that she's a chick.

Okay, that's nice and freaky. Any "well, she's female, therefore she must be an ally of mine!" ended when I was ten or so and learned about Phylis Schafly. And come to think of it, Palin strongly reminds me of her. Creepycreepycreepy.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

Not that things are much better in Germany but at least, we've got the basics like tolerance, health care and social system somewhat right.

Yes, we have. Living in the States for a while has actually taught me exactly how many things we do get right, and there are many.

The American Democrats are pretty much where the moderates of both major parties in Germany tend to be, while the American Republicans are, basically, somewhere between CSU and NPD.

Emotionally and rationally it's hard for me to understand how, when looking at the issues, people are not voting Democrat all the way. I mean, they are about as left as my right hand. They are moderate. I find it hilarious and scary as fuck that they are actually called "The Left" by some pundits and that half of the US might be voting for something to the right of Edmund Stoiber because Sarah Palin is a working Mom.

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

Hell, the mildest leftists here are called communists and socialist by right-wing pundits and people listening to the shows in their cars on TV nod along, not understanding what communism and socialism are except that they are, of course, Bad.