Sam Stein produces even more damning evidence about how little John McCain's campaign vetted Sarah Palin. I pointed out earlier that his vetting team never spoke to Walt Monegan, the man fired by Palin who's at the center of the "Troopergate" scandal swirling around her. Reportedly, they decided to travel to Alaska to investigate the matter only the day after McCain introduced his running mate.

Increasingly, it looks like the McCain team didn't make even the most cursory tour of Palin's home state.

In addition, the former Republican House Speaker of Alaska, Gail Phillips, admitted to reporters that she was shocked by McCain's choice of Palin, as "his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out."

On tour with John McCain through swing states, Sarah Palin got right to work trying to produce what she was meant to do - deliver Hillary Clinton's supporters. Their honeymoon didn't last long however.

by gjohnsit crossposted from Daily Kos with permission of the author

On October 22, 1990, Senator Bob Dole came to the defense of his friend, John McCain, with what has become a very familiar refrain.

Referring to Mr. McCain's being a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years, Mr. Dole said: "He has been held hostage before under very difficult circumstances. So let us not keep him hostage here in the Senate."

You see, John McCain was being tortured by the Senate Ethics Committee just like the North Vietnamese did. Or something like that.

As if you needed further evidence that John McCain didn't bother to vet Sarah Palin carefully: McCain's vetters never even spoke to the man at the center of "Troopergate", the former commissioner of public safety whom Palin fired.

No one from the McCain campaign ever contacted him to vet Palin as a candidate, [Walt] Monegan said.

Who did they contact? "We don't talk about the vetting process," said Maria Comella, Palin's vice president campaign press secretary.

John McCain, a/k/a John McNasty, had us going for awhile. He suckered us all in by making us think he would actually choose as a running mate someone with zero experience in national politics, zero foreign experience (except for going to college in Idaho), a well-known political corruption scandal, no real budget experience, since Alaska has had the good luck to float on petrol bucks and huge (and corrupt) federal subsidies.

Good one, John! You almost fooled us. But now we’re on to you.

To put it mildly, John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate raises troubling questions about how far he'll stoop in his quest for the presidency. To begin with, she's virtually unknown outside Alaska. Indeed most Alaskans know little about her because she rose from obscurity to become Governor only 20 months ago. In other words, McCain expects us to embrace his vice presidential choice without our having access to much information about her. He's trying to sell us a pig in a poke.

Furthermore, why would a candidate who has bashed his rival for supposedly insufficient experience on the national stage, select a VP with none at all? Why would a man who praises himself (seemingly alone) for putting his country first, whose physical fitness is in doubt, choose a running mate so dangerously underprepared to take over the presidency? She's arguably the least qualified nominee of a major party, ever. Palin's comments on foreign and domestic policy reveal her to be the lightest of lightweights. Palin makes Dan Quayle look profound by comparison. And to think that in 1972 some people argued that Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm had too little experience to be running for president!

Palin's main political experience, a short tenure as Governor of a small oil-state with a part-time legislature, is quickly turning into a fiasco of scandal after scandal. She's already under investigation for abuse of power in firing a commissioner who refused to fire her brother in law, a police officer. And Palin's earlier career, though murky, doesn't exactly inspire confidence. I've already commented about how she left her small town's finances in terrible shape during her years as mayor of Wasilla, AK. It turns out that her tenure was tumultuous in other ways as well.

In 2006 the Anchorage Daily News published a two-part profile of the career of Sarah Palin, such as it was (h/t xgz). This is revealing in some disturbing ways, particularly the picture of her entry into politics. She comes across as extraordinarily aggressive and confrontational; corrupt; highly partisan (in a mayoral office that was non-partisan); and dismissive of complaints about her behavior. In other words, she appears to have a temperament similar to Dick Cheney's.

Republican mockery of the neo-classical backdrop built at Invesco Field in Denver has revealed one thing clearly: They're a dumb bunch.

Now that Michelle Obama has given a truly astounding and moving speech, I can hardly wait to hear her counterpart, Cindy McCain, tell us about the story of John and Cin and their families of origin, and how they met and courted, and the kids, and the love and values they have.

But why wait? Why don't we draft that speech here?

Shall we start with the warmth of her family of origin, her beloved half-sister, a half-sister she loved so much she did not want her to have to suffer from contact with the evils of money and how it can pervert you. So Cin - or is it Sin ? - decided to go ahead and keep her dad's filthy lucre to herself, condemning herself to a life of more houses than can be counted, being forced to fly in a private jet rather than in the company of her fellow Americans, and having to live with a guy whose response to: "Could you puh-leeeze remember to put the toilet seat down?" is "Well, when I was a POW . .. ."

You can take it from there, while I tag this "family values."

You've seen the "good" news headlines on Yahoo:
"Number of uninsured drops; poverty holds steady"
link

But there's a catch: the number of people covered by private plans actually dropped again in 2007, as it has in most recent years. The only reason the number of uninsured people declined was because government health insurance programs more than made up the difference.

I know, can you imagine the CIA - lying to the public? This lie, like so many others during the last 6 years, was promulgated to save the White House further embarrassment over its rush to war in Iraq. The lie concerns a high-ranking Iraqi defector whom the Bush administration prefers to pretend it knows little about.

You have probably signed one of them. They are everywhere, and your only choice is: Take it, or leave it. You may not even realize what you have lost. Yes, predispute arbitration agreements are everywhere these days. Fill out a job application, and it likely says that you have waived your right to a trial over any dispute that arises out of employment or your application. They may be buried somewhere in your employment manual. And whether you rent a movie or move, the price of getting service is signing an "agreement" that you waive your right to a trial.

In its place you get some form of alternate dispute resolution. Sounds nice and friendly, but, believe it or not, in some cases, the person who arbitrates your termination is the HR director or equally biased adjudicators.

Or to get to ADR, you must agree to pay thousands of dollars to pay an arbitrator. In a trial, you do not pay the judge and if you are poor, you fees are waived. Arbitrator fees are so high, you may decide to just walk away.

. . . or are they losers? It's hard to say when you get wonderful prizes because you had the boss from hell. At least, the annual contest by Working America certainly has some theme appropriate prizes:

The House Labor Committee has a map to "approximately 10% of deaths that have occurred in U.S. workplaces during 2007. It is not a comprehensive report, but it demonstrates the need to strengthen worker safety protections." link

If it seems to you that things have been very quiet around the Bush White House, keep in mind the horror movie adage: "It's quiet. Maybe just a little tooooooo quiet."

The sound of nothing you hear is not that the Bushies have all given up the ghost and decided to take an extended summer vacation through, say, January 20, 2009. No, they have gone underground and are busily producing stealth rules, including Occupational Safety and Health rules, that will make our workplaces much less safe.

And, the best part about this is that the reason they give for making these changes is? . . .

I must have missed the switch, but apparently the Secret Service is no longer part of Treasury. Instead, it was shifted to DHS.

Given that the traditional mission of the SS is to investigate crimes related to finances and to safeguard the country's financial stability, DHS seems an odd placement. And given that its other mission is to safeguard presidents, vice-presidents, and their families, DHS seems to be an odd placement if you want the job competently performed.

Way back in the Clinton Administration, Harry and Louise helped kill national health care coverage . . . and no doubt helped kill a lot of real people. They seem to be older and wiser now that they have a friend who has just been diagnosed with cancer and has no health care coverage.

Or a lesson on what a telecom industry shill should not do when ham-handedly reaching out to bloggers after doing everything in their power to kill net neutrality.

Please allow me to introduce myself..."

On a personal level, I have been blogging about pop culture for three years (and occasionally posting comments on blogs) under the name The Pop View . At my day job, I have been working for a few years to get the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the cable industry to engage with the blogosphere. I am pleased that such efforts have been fruitful lately, as our business slowly learns to listen to and talk with bloggers.

Oh, there's more ...

Good for Californians. They have decided to stick their thumbs in the Administration's Eye and refuse to go along with the Bush Administration's heartless demand that states deprive poor kids of health care coverage . . . in order to ensure that private insurance companies are protected. Link

The spree of lawlessness undertaken by the three conservative appointees to the NLRB - popularly referred to as the "Bush Board" - is regularly being shown up for what it was: a failure to apply the law and a willingness to violate the norms of legal analysis. Court after court has overturned these decisions, and not just overturned them. The courts have scolded and mocked the majority and all but called them renegades. Here is an overview of one of those cases, a case which has now been resolved, with the good guys winning.

A story this week on the media being stretched thin by back-to-back Olympic Games and national political conventions in Forbes has stirred up the ever-cantankerous press corps who live by the motto: If your mother says she loves you, check it out.

Know anyone who doesn't know their compound interest rate from the rate of inflation? Then you may benefit from an amazing economic literacy product.

Hey, here's a great idea: let's expose food crops to radiation in order to cause genetic mutations in the plants!

No, I am not making this up. This is a serious proposal from actual scientists!

Part two of an original investigative report crossposted from The Colorado Independent:

Colorado has played a prominent role in the abortion debate since 1967, when the state was the first in the nation to legalize abortion in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother's life.

While ugly confrontation between reproductive-rights advocates and abortion opponents is inevitable, an internecine fight has been brewing between warring camps of absolutists that oppose abortion under any circumstances versus those who advocate for incremental change or are willing to make exceptions in certain cases.

If it's late summer 2008, then Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels must be running for re-election.

For your morning blogging pleasure, spend a few minutes in Mouseland. And then ask: Are we [wo]men, or are we mice?

An original investigative report crossposted from The Colorado Independent:

A strange netherworld of extremes exists in today's anti-abortion movement. Nowhere is that more evident than its latest political salvo coming to a voting booth near you in November — Colorado's proposed Amendment 48, the so-called Human Life Amendment, a controversial mandate that seeks to confer constitutional rights on fertilized human eggs.

OMB Watch is a website that should be on your regular rotation. This week it features a story on orders from the Veterans Administration barring states from registering veterans at VA facilities.

Gosh, the puns are just there, softballs, really, when you learn that Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormones known as Posilac a/k/a rBST or rBGH- a product developed to boost milk production in cows - is now being marketed as a way to increase the yield of farmed tilapia.

Amazing and an interesting move, but Monsanto - in the industrial version of quitting to spend time with the family - has decided it is getting out of the business of making Frankenmilk.

Keep that Schwinn at home, bub.

From The Colorado Independent:

Organizers for the Democratic National Convention and party leaders have touted the official greenness of the upcoming convention in Denver, including everything from biodiesel buses and recyclable materials to carbon counting.

But in the rush to secure everything green—even setting up a “hybrid-only parking lot” at the Pepsi Center—it seems one simple and fairly obvious LEED-certified step was overlooked: Installing bike racks.

In the case of privatization at the USPS, the latest GAO report reads more like a big April Fool's joke than reality and contains such ludicrous excuses for privatization that any competent person would be embarrassed to make them.

You would think that amidst the GWOT we would be taking national security seriously and that seriousness would be demonstrated by a meaningful security clearance process. But not so.

Lurking somewhere in your body or in the mechanics of the universe is your death. You and your death are moving ever closer to your rendezvous. It may be sudden with no time to prepare. It may be long as you deteriorate. You may keep your faculties to the end. You may lose your mind.

And all that stands between you and the end is how you plan to get from Point A (where you are now) to Point B (where you are not).

They're just criminals - so why should we care about how they are treated in The Big House?

In fact, if we can get "Onshore outsourcing at offshore prices" by using prison labor, what's the problem?

Back in steerage the – so called – News Boys are whooping it up so's I can't nap. Hyenas. Could use a highball myself but Rug Rat says nix. Jerks will talk about me. As if that's not the problem.

Satan says to get a list of all the ones who have telephone cameras. Actually a good idea. Can't go near the hyenas – so called – as is. Had to lock 'em in steerage all week.

Rug rat did some good for once. Wall S.J. reporter has goods now on Boy Wonder. Fatties really hate him. I mean can't abide him. Living rebuke to their BBQ. She showed it to me on her transister when The Google wouldn't print. Going to bring the jerk on board, get some more angles from her. RR's idea – so called. Don't know why I'm paying Satan's helpers, their stuff's an embarrassment.

A few years ago, Frontline aired an investigative report into the use of private contractors, including private security contractors mercenaries. link

That report was devastating in its findings, primarily that the use of private security contractors mercenaries was contributing to unrest and was taking the military away from its mission in order to protect the private security contractors mercenaries.

It is not only former White House employees who are declining invitations to appear before Congress. Battles on similar fronts are occurring on the labor and employment fields. There are two primary battles. One involving a secret regulation issued by the Department of Labor

The second one reported here - concerns the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). After a very negative report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Rep. Miller demanded that the PBGC turn over documents related to that GAO report. So far PBGC has not provided the documents. PBGC says that it will comply but first it has to get a report from its consultant.

It is not only former White House employees who are declining invitations to appear before Congress. Battles on similar fronts are occurring on the labor and employment fields. There are two primary battles. One involving a secret regulation issued by the Department of Labor

The second - and the one reported on here - concerns the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). After a very negative report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Rep. Miller demanded that the PBGC turn over documents related to that GAO report. So far PBGC has not provided the documents. PBGC says that it will comply but first it has to get a report from its consultant.