Sarah Palin on sex-ed

I recently read an article by Lisa Demer from the Anchorage Daily News stating that John McCain’s mate had views on sex education that were rather “murky.” While Palin, according to the article, hasn't done anything to promote the “abstinence” message backed by social conservatives, her position on sex education isn’t clear. Back in 2006, in a series of questions from “Eagle Forum” an Alaskan conservative group she said that she didn’t support explicit sex-ed programs while she wasn’t a fan of “abstinence-only” plans.

So here we are, with a candidate who doesn’t really know how to tackle an important parental issue and whose own ambiguity on the matter did not prove to be too much help to her daughter Bristol…

Governor Palin and eBay

During her acceptance speech and other speeches ever since, Sarah Palin couldn’t resist boasting about her getting rid of the Alaska state jet by saying "that luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay" to show how thrifty she was, but the plane never sold on eBay.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, her state actually lost money on the deal, despite John McCain telling an audience last week, "she made a profit, too." Palin's predecessor paid $2.7 million for the jet. The state tried to sell it on eBay for $2.5 million, but ended up using a broker who sold it to a businessman for $2.1 million. Good job John for picking such a factual and transparent candidate for V.P.!

A dressed-up pig is still a pig…

Some Democrats have been concerned with the recent “surge” of the Palin-McCain ticket. They should not, because after a few days, electors will see through the republican veneer that has, among other things, usurped Obama’s “Change” the only theme that resonates with voters and that is a fitting alibi for the precipitous and desperate attempts to add Sarah to the GOP ticket.

Let’s keep in mind that the basic framework of that Grand Old Party remains the same: Another four-year extension of Bush-Cheney’s “adventures in government”, a denial of the current economic disaster and more of the same when it comes to the war in Iraq. So to me, in spite of Palin’s smile, lipstick on a pig, no matter how much, makes it still a genuine pig!

Old mavericks eventually fade away...

People who are set in their ways, clinging to the past, to old to embrace change and are too attached to repeating history’s mistakes should really vote McCain-Palin. That is a safe ticket for all those who believe word-to-word in the Bible and enjoy the downward spiral our country is whirling into ever since Bush-Cheney took office.

Death by intoxication in that manner is a sad but proven way to vanish...

How much energy is left at 72?

I have a neighbor and friend a bit set in his ways who’s a staunch Republican. Just like me, that friend wasn’t born yesterday and as a matter of fact is, I believe, close to his seventieth birthday. So a couple of evenings ago, as we were arguing about the upcoming presidential election, I just asked him “I realize that you’re much younger than McCain, but be frank, how would you feel if, at your age, you had to assume the burden of leading this country?” He smiled, thought for a while, felt a bit cornered and bashfully admitted: “I wouldn’t be looking forward to doing it.”

Different views of "change"

For his personal convenience; that is, if he needed to govern with a democratic house in the unlikely case he got elected, John McCain would be badly in need of changing “the way Washington operates”. In other words, his definition of change is to have a congress amenable enough to let him do as he wants, Bush-style.

In stark contrast with his opponent, Barack Obama advocates a totally different kind of change. One will affect us all and will respond to the country’s dire situation and involve positive transformations addressing head-on our current economic challenges, our healthcare crisis, our need for alternative energies and our bulging federal and trade deficits as well as an unaffordable debt that has kept on rising under a Republican Administration.

These two ideas of changes are fundamentally different in nature and should not be confused. If John McCain can pull the wool over his electors with his "token" notion of change and pretend he’s not like George Bush, it won’t be that easy for the republican congressmen and senators up for re-election to return to Capitol Hill following eight years of irresponsible governance. So the question we must now ask is which of these two visions of transformation we really need?

From maverick to reckless

The “maverick” moniker has been so much used during the republican convention to personify John McCain that it has lost some of its bite. Instead, when I think of McCain I see the rise of a new nickname which is probably more suitable for the republican nominee: Reckless. After hearing during the RNC enough warmongering rhetoric from him and his fellow republicans directed at Iran and Russia, if not at his fellow democrats, more than too much “drill baby drill,” and not counting the bizarre choice of Sarah “Pitbull” Palin, I’m now convinced that the next possible incarnation of McCain is likely to be that of “reckless” leader; someone without thought of danger, marked by a lack of concern about possible undesirable consequences. Besides, “reckless” will be easier to spell for the average Republican as I have seen a few “mavrick” signs at that same convention…