Reporter shield

"When reporters tried to leave the designated press area and head to where the crowd was seated, an escort would dart out, confront him or her and turn the person around, Times staff writer Eileen Schulte wrote on the paper's Web site. One escort, who would not give her name, told a reporter the press couldn't mingle because negative things had been written in the past, Schulte reported." - Yahoo! News

All this at a Sarah Palin rally? Say it ain't so! I'm actually astonished that the MSM would dare to write anything negative about a political candidate, question their beliefs and policies or generally act like a good reporter should.

But what is negative reporting? Asking questions a candidate can't answer? Pointing out that Barack Obama was 8 years old when the Weather Underground bombings occurred? Or is it negative to note that Obama is currently slapping McCain around at the polls?

The only problem I have with these awful reporters is that seemingly none of them slipped into the audience unnoticed and then asked Palin a question when she wasn't surrounded by handlers or protected by sycophantic supporters. At least Chelsea Clinton held her head high when she weaseled out of answering questions about her father's infidelities. Palin won't even take the tough questions without whining.

Just answer the question!

This has been ticking me off since last Thursday, when Sarah Palin just wouldn't answer certain questions during the debate. If she was trying to convince me that she's ready to step in should something happen to the president, I'm not impressed.

Call me old fashioned, but I thought the point of a debate was to answer questions posed to you by a moderator. You get a shot to speak directly to the American people during your closing statement and every day on the campaign trail, not when you either don't know the answer to a certain question or just want to go off on a tangent.

And to use an excuse that you're not going to do what the MSM or some moderator wants you to do in a debate, so you'll just talk from whatever script you're looking at is more than pathetic - it's insulting to voters. Sure, it would look bad if she were to state on live television that she doesn't have a command of certain issues and wasn't prepared, but at least it'd be the truth.

It seems that instead of the truth, Palin would prefer to discuss only the issues she's comfortable with and slander Barack Obama by trying to connect him with terrorists. If that's the best she can do, then Alaska can keep her.

Say it ain't so, Joe

Yeah, you knew there was going to be a post about the veep debate, and here it is. I caught a little over half of it from the comfort of my casa, and lemme tell ya - I'm not impressed. Thursday's debate was little more than a practice test and the results don't matter.

It'd be one thing if we learned something about the candidates; we didn't. The media made hay about Sarah Palin being in debate boot camp for the two days before the event, and what we got might as well have been straight from the book she studied from. She crammed for a test - both of them did, so why should I care what occurred in what's essentially a two-person play?

All we have to judge the candidates on from Thursday's debate is their characteristics, their speech, mannerisms, their "folksiness." Should we judge how to cast a ballot based on whether someone flubbed an answer? Is public speaking and oratory an essential trait in a good vice president? Come on. All the debate boiled down to was an opportunity for one or both of them to screw up so we could point fingers at them. They both did pretty well, so what do we do now?

Same thing we do every night, Brain - spout opinions online that we stole from talking heads and that we really don't even understand.

"I can see Russia from my house!"

I found what purports to be a web cam from Little Diomede - the Alaskan island from which you really can see Russia. Check it out here. Kind of cute, but not terribly exciting. I spent most of my time watching a building's roof, the cold water and a nearby land mass that very well may be under control by the Reds.

According to a recent CNN story, the island has about 150 people on it and most don't even know who Sarah Palin is. Zooming in from Google maps was a little frightening. Made me think of "The Thing."

Lesson learned: Stay where it's warm and vacation in Vegas.

High school debate musical

I can hardly wait for the veep debate Thursday night. Just think about it - Joe "Foreign policy smackdown" Biden goes head-to-head with Sarah "Clueless" Palin in the only debate they'll have.

Both, naturally, are behind cloistered doors preparing for the national spotlight. While Biden is no doubt thumbing through books he's written to bone up for the big event, Palin's handlers are force feeding her facts, numbers and probably neural implants to make sure she's ready.

Will she know kung fu by the time the curtain rises? We'll see. I, however, would like to use this time to posit a few questions I have of the vice presidential candidates:

1) As vice president, what purpose other than sitting around waiting for the president to die would you serve? Should the vice president do anything other than waiting to step up to the plate if needed? Why?

2) Why should I base who I vote for off of what some veep candidate believes? I mean, really, does the fact that my guy might die in office mean we should pay attention to you? Are your stances so frighteningly abhorrent that I should carefully study your policies? Whatever.

3) Do you know where I can score some pot? (to Palin only).

Will questions such as these be answered? Stay tuned.

Down doobie-do down down

I think it was last week in this space where I crawled up on my soapbox and essentially said taxpayers needed to lay off the lawmakers who had to make a decision about the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.

Hey, I understand why you guys wouldn't listen. I'm upset like everybody else, but I need to emphasize here - these people up in D.C. are dealing with sums most people can't comprehend. Voters get upset about something they can't understand, call their congressman and start griping.

And here's what ya get, heroes - what Yahoo! news is describing as a 777-point stock carnage. No deal happened Monday, and people are running scared. Bush's economic wizards portend doom if nothing happens, and folks like you and me are calling our representatives about taxpayer money being used to bail out the fat cats.

It sucks, I know. But this is really a case of cutting off your nose in spite of your face. Are we so self-loathing that we'd risk a recession, a depression, some sort of horrific economic debacle because we hate the idea of the ultra-rich becoming ultra-richer?

Debating and arguing over political issues such as abortion, same-sex marriages and prayer in school is one thing. What happened Monday is something completely different. Now we've got House members frightened of keeping their jobs through January, and that might mean even more of us don't get to keep ours past next year.

When dinosaurs attack

There's a certain amount of glee that arrogant, pouty 20-somethings get when it comes to the old media. Us dinosaurs, newspapers, just don't get it and never will. Thus delegated to the lichyard of history, newspapers are on the way out, replaced by such monoliths as (gasp) the Internet.

Yeah, cause random Web sites are such a great source of journalism. Laugh if you must (and some of you must), but newspapers are still it when it comes to providing the best news in the best format, whether it's online, on paper, or devilishly crafted into your dreams as you sleep.

Look at this winner, Daily Kos, current-day champion of everything loopy liberal. They sure caught Sarah Palin with their excerpt from an interview conducted by Katie Couric:

"Incidentally, we confirmed Henry Kissinger's position following our interview. He told us he supports talks, if not with Ahmadinejad, then with high level Iranian officials, without preconditions."

And here's Kissinger's remarks taken from a slightly better source, CNN:

"After Friday night's presidential debate, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger defended Sen. John McCain's attack against Sen. Barack Obama for Obama's willingness to meet with the Iranian president 'without precondition.'"

"Sen. McCain is right. I would not recommend the next president of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the presidential level," Kissinger said in the statement.
"My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Sen. John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality."

Sure, go to your Daily Kos' and your No Spin Zones and your Playboy magazines for news, 20-somethings. But if you want to get your news from reputable sources, maybe you should look at a newspaper - some of them are even familiar with this thing called the World Wide Web.