Day: August 29, 2008

Who Is Sarah Palin?

In two short years, Sarah Palin moved from small-town mayor with a taste for mooseburgers to the governor’s office and now — making history — to John McCain’s side as the first female running mate on a Republican presidential ticket

She brings a strong anti-abortion stance to the ticket and opposes gay marriage — constitutionally banned in Alaska before her time — but exercised a veto that essentially granted benefits to gay state employees and their partners.

Palin lives in Wasilla, a town of 6,500 about 30 miles north of Anchorage, with her husband, Todd, a blue-collar North Slope oil worker who competes in the Iron Dog, a 1,900-mile snowmobile race. He is part Yup’ik Eskimo

Palin’s clean-hands reputation has come into question with an investigation recently launched by a legislative panel into whether she dismissed Alaska’s public safety commissioner because he would not fire her former brother-in-law as a state trooper. Trooper Mike Wooten went through a messy divorce from Palin’s sister.

The governor denied orchestrating the dozens of telephone calls made by her husband and members of her administration to Wooten’s bosses. She says she welcomes the investigation: “Hold me accountable.”

During her first year in office, Palin moved away from the powerful old guard of the state Republican Party and has refused to kowtow to the powerful oil industry, instead presiding over a tax increase on oil company profits that now has the state’s treasury swelling.

Palin also asked Alaska’s congressional delegation to be more selective in seeking earmarks after what came to be known as the “Bridge to Nowhere” turned into a national embarrassment and a symbol of piggish pork-barrel spending — thanks to McCain’s relentless criticism of the now-abandoned project.

“Sarah Palin for her entire political career has been underestimated,” said Paulette Simpson of the Alaska Federation of Republican Women. “She’s tough, she’s tenacious. I believe that she does have what it takes to get out there. Again, her ability to connect with voters and make a case is very, very, very strong.”

McCain’s Vice

Nope not talking about his propensity for porn or his habit of betting on cockroach races; I am talking about the Veepstakes. The day after a ground breaking historical speech given by the democrat presidential nominee, McCain and his Boyz are trying to control the media’s conversation and attempting to put the Obama speech in the background.

The media is reporting at 0600 hrs that a charter plane flew from Fairbanks, Alaska to Dayton, Ohio, the location of where McCain will announce his running mate. Then it is reported that Romney will not be in Dayton, and then a bit later it Will Not be Romney. The Pawlenty, governor of MN, a one time fav, will be delivering pizza for Dominoes. And Lieberman is giving oil changes in Greenwich.

So at about 0735 hrs the list was down to Ridge and Palin, governor of Alaska. But then at 0800 hrs the media said that Palin will be in Alaska to be there to unveil the newest and last quarter. Now we are down to Ridge. The speculation continues and fires the media for the day.

Now we are reporting on the tube that Ridge is not being vetted, he was not asked for info to be checked. So now at 0815 hrs we are back to Lieberman. The Mccain camp is playing the media like a cheap drum—I Love It!

0915 hrs Gov. Palin is once again in the mix according to NBC News. Romney is reported to be flying to Boston. So far Ridge is the only one that has not been eliminated, at least once, anyway.

NBC has confirmed that Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska will be John McCain’s pick for VP.

Drama is over let the crap begin!

What Was The Georgian Invasion All About?

No Irene, not the state, I am still talking about the country. Surely most people have heard of the Russian invasion of the country of Georgia. If not, then drop your nuts and the game controller and get a flippin’ life. Yes, Irene there is more to this story than the media has told us about.

Please step into the Professor’s Way Back Machine and we will travel a few years into the past. It all began with the collapse of the old Soviet Union.

On a balmy day in 1992, Eduard Shevardnadze, becomes the leader of Georgia, after many months and years of civil turmoil and violence. Eventually Shevardnadze is elected president and the fun began. During his tenure there was widespread corruption and oppression. Georgia began negotiating a deal for a pipeline. The agreement he was expected to sign with the president of Azerbaijan would pave the way for a pipeline that would transport some 5 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey via Georgia. .

The consortium, led by BP Amoco, who commissioned the project, say the pipeline will be more effective than present routes running to ports in Russia and Georgia, because they cut out the congestion in the Black Sea.

This all started in 2001. In 2002, US Special Forces deployed in Georgia to help train and equipment the Georgian army in counterinsurgent techniques. In 2003, the Georgian president struck a deal with Gazprom, a Russian company for pipeline transport, and thus western companies were shut out of the deal completely. This same year, after the deal with Gazprom was inked, the so called “Rose Revolution” started. It was an uprising by the people and the army over Shevardnadze’s failure to deal with the widespread corruption of his administration.

Shevardnadze was toppled and later the present president of Georgia, Saakasvili, is elected president with a substantial pro-US position.

Now was it a coincidence that the participants of the “Rose Revolution” were receiving training by US Special Forces? Personally, I do not believe in coincidences in international politics. Now the last armed conflict—since Gaprom was now dealt out of the pipeline deal, was the action anything to do with that? Another coincidence, the new Russian president is a past chairman of Gazprom.

Now the stage is set. And you have read or heard the outcome. All the chest thumping by the US president and candidates over the invasion of Georgia. Was the action truly about separatists or the politics of oil?

Can Obama Become A Working Class Hero?

All the speeches are over and Obama is now gonna have to become all things to all people.  PLus he has got to offer the working class an alternative.

This is an article from Harold Myerson of the Washington Post:

Barack Obama has the problem from hell. The very voters he needs to win this election, the white working class that has been descending into post-industrial post-prosperity for a couple of decades and the past eight years in particular, are angry. American finance and corporations have abandoned them for cheaper climes, and they blame the elites of both parties for their woes. Obama’s challenge is to become a voice for that anger without looking like an angry black man.

With Barack Obama heading the Democratic ticket and plainly having trouble with working-class whites, Greenberg returned to Macomb in July for a new generation of polling and focus groups. Macomb’s memories of Detroit’s racial convulsions in the ’60s and ’70s have faded somewhat, he found, but race is still a key hurdle for many residents. Their economic anxiety has skyrocketed – understandably enough, with the auto industry in shambles and not much coming along to take its place. Indeed, their No. 1 concern in Greenberg’s survey (undertaken for the Democracy Corps) is the offshoring of jobs, with rising gas, food and health-care costs running a close second. Their ideal presidential candidate, Greenberg says, would be an “outsider, middle-class” senator who expresses their anger at their betrayal by America’s economic and political elites.

This is hardly Obama’s only challenge, but it’s a crucial one. He surely needs to talk about his work organizing on behalf of displaced steelworkers in Chicago. And in case the depth of Obama’s challenge isn’t clear yet, Greenberg has one more factoid to vex Democrats: The second choice of the Nader voters in his survey is John McCain. Something for Barack Obama to think about as he prepares to address the nation.

Unions Stress Their Importance In 2008

With the presidential race closer than many expected, labor leaders here at the Democratic convention asserted themselves anew this week and cast their unions as saviors for a candidate who they say needs them more than ever. Despite Obama’s initial success without labor backing, labor leaders said no one is better poised to address what has emerged as his biggest challenge: winning over white working-class voters in key Rust Belt states where unions still maintain a considerable presence. Polls show Obama faring about as well with these voters as Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) in 2004, but to win in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, Obama probably needs to improve on that.

Labor leaders point to recent elections for proof of their impact. Even in a time of declining membership, voters living in union households turn out at higher levels and are far more likely to vote Democratic. In 2004, members of union households made up 37 percent of the vote in Michigan, 30 percent in Pennsylvania and 34 percent in Ohio, well above levels of union membership in those states. Kerry performed about 30 percentage points better in those states among white members of union households than among other white working-class voters.

The union push could have ramifications beyond Election Day. Obama had good relations with organized labor as a state senator in Illinois, and won endorsements in the middle of the primaries from, among others, SEIU, the Teamsters and the influential casino workers’ union in Las Vegas. But he has also spoken about the need for Democrats to break from union orthodoxy at times, as in his advocacy for performance-based pay for teachers. Organized labor’s priorities this year are a reassessment of trade deals and the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier to organize work sites. The act would allow workers to form a union by signing authorization cards and end a company right to demand a secret-ballot election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board before a union could be certified.

Obama has in recent months softened his rhetoric on revisiting trade deals, to the consternation of some union leaders. But he continues to speak out strongly on behalf of passing the Employee Free Choice Act, and union leaders say they fully expect him to push for it if he gets elected.

China Wins Iraqi Oil Race

China crossed the line first in the race for big oil contracts in post-Saddam Iraq and has gained a head start over Western oil majors in the competition for future energy deals.

China’s biggest oil company, state-run CNPC, agreed a $3 billion service contract with Iraq on Wednesday.
The deal could set a precedent for terms that fall far short of the lucrative contracts the oil majors had hoped for as they jostled for access to the world’s third largest oil reserves.
Starved of investment since the Gulf War of 1990-1991 and the subsquent U.S.-led invasion of 2003 that removed former President Saddam Hussein, Iraq holds some of the world’s last large, cheap, untapped oil reservoirs.
Now CNPC and China’s other state-supported oil firms are likely to face off with Western oil companies in a bid round for other long-term contracts to enhance giant fields already in production. Iraq aims to sign those deals in mid-2009.
Baghdad needs billions of dollars of investment to overhaul and expand its energy sector after years of sanctions and war.
Energy-hungry China has already provided tough competition for Western oil majors in Africa. Chinese state oil companies can take on more risk than big oil firms as securing future energy supplies is a matter of strategy rather than profit.
CNPC faced no competition for Adhab, a renegotiated contract first signed under Saddam in 1997. Full details have yet to emerge, but it is know that the new service contract is for a set fee, a change from the initial production sharing agreement (PSA).
Production sharing contracts were common in the 1980s and 1990s in the days before oil prices shot up, when the oil majors held the whip hand over producer countries who competed with each other for investor capital by offering generous terms.

Dems In Denver–Day 4 and Last

It is official, Obama is nominated and has accepted the candidacy of president. Now his acceptance speech. A HELLUVA speech. The man was tough, ambitious and very presidential. Obama, as usual, delivered an excellent speech to the point that at times, IMO, he sounded like a State of the Union speech given by the president. He fired the open salvos at McCain and now it is on bitches!

But the media was the most disappoinmting part of the convention. Their coverage was solely for the ratings and at no time was it informative. I was expecting more out of Williams and Brokaw , et al. The viewer still does not have any idea the specifics of the platform, which by the way is 54 pages long. Nothing of the issues was important enough for them to cover, but what Romney, Guiliani and other Repubs was so important to the convention conversation that they got almost as much time as Dem surrogates.

Now on to St. Paul/Minneapolis and the Repub convention.