Hard News: Go Us
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Still, it got the delegates up and boogying. Which was a spectacle of its own...
On the subject of the crowd, what a diverse bunch. I don't think I had ever seen so many people, so white all in the same room.
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I'll have to get back to that speech, I'm afraid. I lasted about 10 minutes ...
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Having listened but not seen it, the GoP will be at least relieved - she's got a common touch and it'll be interesting contrast her with Biden who, I've read, has it too plus that little bit more experience.
But because they'd released key content in advance, the trailer was better than the movie though I liked the lines about not seeking the good opinion of the media and ebaying the private jet.
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Looks like Nicky Hager obtained some of Palin's emails about Troopergate.
(All true, apart from the bit about Nicky Hager.)
And this from Joe Klein on MSNBC:
There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.
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National supported Labour deploying troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
I'm thinking that Simon Powers meant something more than a few engineers in Iraq for a brief moment when he said that (and I paraphrase because I'm too busy too google at the mo') "Where Britain and America go, so do we without question" or words to that general effect.
And the GOP has a far wider experience of actually invading nations and taking out swathes of civilians in recent decades although Clinton was happy to loose the cruise missiles and B-2s I agree.
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Rudy Giulani is on message today, or is he?
Tough times require strong leadership, and this is no time for on the job training.
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technology gap with the west. When the Mig25 defected to Japan in the mid 1980s there was shock at the fact it's avionics were largely valve driven.
Sorry, pedantic and somewhat off-topic, but here goes...
The differing design philsophies of the USA and USSR are summed up by a famous conversation between Andrei Tupelov and and Clarence "Kelly" Johnson (head of the famous Skunk Works). Quothe Tupelov:
You make planes like fine ladies' watch: drop watch, watch break. We make watch like alarm clock - knock it off the table and it still wakes you up.
The point is that rather than being crude, agricultural dunderheads, the Soviets - and the Russians still - understand that technology needs to be resilient. Valve technology actually makes damned good sense in an environment of nuclear war - the sheer power and resilience and easy maintainability of valve-based avionics makes perfect sense - the EMP (electromagnetic pulse) of nuclear explosions would knock out chip and diode-based radars but leave valve-based systems relatively unharmed.
Sorry, but one of my bugbears is the assumption that "technology" and "magic" are synonymous. They aren't (sorry, Sir Arthur). The Soviets, for all their (enormous) faults deserve more credit - they simply adopted a different and arguably more pragmatic technological philosophy.
The later history of obscene cost overruns and functional failures of various much-touted hi-tech weapons systems from the US bears this out.
The Cold War was even more of a damned closest run thing than most imagined. I think that politically as well as technologically, this was the case (and for the usual trolls, politically my sympathies do NOT lie with communism).
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Looks like Nicky Hager obtained some of Palin's emails about Troopergate. (All true, apart from the bit about Nicky Hager.)
Meh. I doubt that Nicky would have bothered with those. What's more interesting is that
Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week moved to change the jurisdiction of the case to the state personnel board, which Palin appoints. Her attorney, Thomas V. Van Flein, who was hired last month, challenged the jurisdiction of Stephen Branchflower, the retired prosecutor hired to investigate and report back to the legislature by the last week of October.
Transparancy? I don't think so.
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Sorry, but one of my bugbears is the assumption that "technology" and "magic" are synonymous.
No apologies required...that wasn't what I meant to imply at all and I'm well aware of the shock the USAF (and McCain's service mates) found when their F-4s met 1950s era MiG-17s over Hanoi and Haiphong and lost over and over again.
It was a lesson forgotten 40 years later in Iraq when messengers on bikes were able to defeat AWACs.
For all that, the Soviets did go into a mad panic circa 79 to upgrade their avionics systems in the wake of the MiG-25 into Japan, and of course a few years later discovered that all the avionics upgrades in the world can't defeat a man on a donkey with a hand-held SAM.
The later history of obscene cost overruns and functional failures of various much-touted hi-tech weapons systems from the US bears this out.
Yep, and it's a reason Asia has become so wary in recent years of the half trillion dollar a year US umbrella...it has holes and the size of that spend is one of the things that contributes to those holes when you rely on that.
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Simon, Kracklite... if you need any encouragement, I'd certainly appreciate it if you carry on with this topic while I step sideways to watch; sometimes PAS is like the Discovery Channel ;-)
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__You make planes like fine ladies' watch: drop watch, watch break. We make watch like alarm clock - knock it off the table and it still wakes you up__
heh....The difference between solving a problem and creating an industry around it....
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Ok, I know this goes against my comments up thread, but this is stranger than fiction...
From the guys that broke the Edwards tryst comes Palin says love affair story 'a vicious lie'.
At least this one can't be pinned on "liberal bloggers", can it?
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81C, Ha!, yes. SG, no worries. I'm always reminded in such cases of Colin Chapman: "Simplificate, then add lightness." Technology is sometimes the antithesis of complexity. Anyway, on to the nominal topic, which is something of which I am quite ignorant...
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Footnote,
<geek>The pilot in question with the MiG-25 was Victor Belenko and the incident was the inspiration for a mid-80s novel and a Clint Eastwood film</geek>
I have to say, they're dumb but fun.
Now that's really off-topic.
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yep, it was dull and wooden but the faithful lapped it up.
I can live with 'dull and wooden' -- the psychotic hubris (you're more experienced than Obama - bitch, please!) and the victim-mongering that made me think what Tony Veitch or Winston Peters would be like on a very special episode of Oprah. Yes, "the base" are going to be washing their undies tomorrow, but Palin had to bring it on. And she (or more precisely, whoever wrote her teleprompter script) left it at home.
And after that speech, I don't think she gets to start up a chorus of 'Poor Poor Pitiful Me' if Biden takes her to school on policy, facts and simple reality.
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From the guys that broke the Edwards tryst comes Palin says love affair story 'a vicious lie'.
This is not a person. She's an automatic scandal generator.
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Maybe she was having that affair with Elvis?
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The National Enquirer's response to the McCain camp's threat of legal action:
ENQURIER RESPONDS TO MCCAIN/PALIN
Wed Sep 03 2008 18:19:21 ET"The National Enquirer's coverage of a vicious war within Sarah Palin's extended family includes several newsworthy revelations, including the resulting incredible charge of an affair plus details of family strife when the Governor's daughter revealed her pregnancy. Following our John Edwards' exclusives, our political reporting has obviously proven to be more detail-oriented than the McCain campaign's vetting process. Despite the McCain camp's attempts to control press coverage they find unfavorable, The Enquirer will continue to pursue news on both sides of the political spectrum."
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The Enquirer will continue to pursue news on both sides of the political spectrum
We sniff panties in a non-partisan way. Priceless!
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On a more serious note, the "base" Palin is supposed to be appealing to love talking about "preachy liberals" whose slovenly values are leading us all straight to hell.
Some of this stuff about Palin and in particular her children is shitty and horrible. But, if you are going to talk about certain values (a la Don Brash) and foisting these on all and sundry then the blow back when your own weaknesses are exposed, is going to be less forgiving.
Slightly related, I saw a lady at the RNC talking about why she loved Palin. Had to do with the latter being "pro-life and pro-guns". That was a WTF moment for sure.
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Since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer -- except that you have actual responsibilities."
if thats wood - its smokun!!! :)
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if thats wood - its smokun
She already got ripped into for that line dissing community organisers by a very angry pundit on CNN, and I think there will be more to come. One of the very few genuine blunders in the speech - which BTW conveniently ignores the fact that Obama went on to become a state senator after working in his community; for true symmetry, she ought to have pointed out that after finishing her studies, she went on to become a sports newscaster.
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From the "I-watched-it-so-I-could-comment" dept. comes semi-live notes:
"...the next president of the United States John S. McCain"
I've never heard them use a middle initial before. Is this how they're planning to counter the Kennedy effect, by evoking JFK?"Those troops in Iraq who have now brought victory within sight"
would that be al Qaeda's sight?Soooo, Track hasn't been deployed yet? (He looked the most uncomfortable)
Yeah, the repugs didn't really want to clap the "Todds a union man" reference
So that's >10 mins spent introducing the family that the media aren't supposed to comment on.
Anyone know what the chick at 14:00 was being escorted out for?
Did she actually put the jet on ebay? Yes, she did
20:34 Cindy could not keep a smirk off her face at the Bridge to nowhere line
Pretty lack-lustre audience, apart from the orchestrated screamers
23:00 I like that she sub-vocally rehearses what she's going to say next
The cheering is not even well stage-managed - the audience is so focussed on the overhead screen to see if they're on it.
27:43 the al Qaeda /read 'em their rights quip/
The woman in the red hat does not look impressed. Maybe she's remembering that America has a constitution and a pledge that promises justice for all. There's a few others that look less than impressed as well.Interesting that there was much less god than I was expecting.
I see the kids have got the air kiss down pat. But I'm glad they didn't show McCain kissing the littlest one - that would have been too creepy.
In summary, I agree with the comments that she needed to bring her A game - It's a shame they weren't playing basket ball, cos she was out of her league.
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Maybe McCain would be better off with Michael Palin?
Just sayin'.
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a very angry pundit on CNN
OMFG what a faux surprise
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