I hope he wiped all the splooge off of his face before he came out of that meeting.

Hey---Does anyone know? Is Ike headed toward Crawford???

Maybe it was that dead fish in the package he received that changed his mind. In any case, it looks like the Soviets Repubs definitely got to this moral weakling.

Ruh Oh, I think we all need to start contacting the major media with the time line on this. We'll see if someone actually does some investigated journalism. Maybe we can see Sarah in another investigation before November.

Oh Billy @ 7:

Ruh Oh, I think we all need to start contacting the major media with the time line on this. We'll see if someone actually does some investigated journalism. Maybe we can see Sarah in another investigation before November.

Don't count on it. Why should they change how they protect McPalin?

The Wanderer @ 10:

I nominate him for Knob Polisher, since that's what he apparently did.

Don't be so sexist.

Cronyism, abuse of power, in spades ...

So, um, weekends are notoriously slow news cycles . . .

Doesn't anyone who reads C & L know an investigative reporter who'd be interested?

If I did, I'd be spreading this little tidbit -- especially with the link to VetVoice and its subsequent link to Andrew Halcro's blog that had really good info -- to every respectable media hound I could.

He probably believes the Earth is 5,000 years old.

“In the last few days, I’ve been watching the press, and I’ve not been very pleased with what I’ve been seeing about the chastising of the National Guard by having it diminished by the insinuation that a commander-in-chief of the National Guard doesn’t really control the military."

It's being insinuated because you supplied that information the first place - it didn't just come out of a vacuum you idiot!

Proving once again, "It's not whom you blow, but whom you blow well.

Winning hearts, minds and votes, one suck at a time...

I've been at the beach for the last few days and divorced from almost all politics. I seriously recommend that sort of divorce if you can manage it. So with Ike and all his ugliness I did tune back in to the tv again. One thing I heard on Fox today was a release from McCain He said he had been briefed by Chertof regarding what was going on with the hurricane and the preparedness. I guess soon McCain will dispatch Cindy to the Gulf Coast to see if the humanitarian work is going as it should. Sarah can't go because she's busy cramming for the next final.

I'm guessing Obama was briefed too, but no one mentioned that.

Sarah Palin (almost typed, Sarah McCain) scares the hell out of me. It is so obvious even to a child that the woman is not qualified, and probably never could be, to hold the office of veep, let alone president. Now we hear stories like this one and we realize the dirty business is already beginning.

isn't there some kind of 'governors association' that can make a statement about this?

or two? ... and so, we already know what it would say, party-wise, probably...

never mind...

The Wanderer @ 10:

I nominate him for Knob Polisher, since that's what he apparently did.

sarah has a knob TOO?

oh, well, apparently she does... what a gal!

-
Is it time for McBush to play president again for his mind-midget supporters?
Has he dispatched himself and the first hag to the gulf coast?
He'd probably get washed out to sea in a flood and use Cindy as a makeshift raft...because he's a maverick.
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Republicans have become the mafia in our political system. If you don't play the game they will come after you, come after your family and your friends.

Further proof that Sarah Palin is simply George Bush in a skirt.

the entire gop reminds me a a gallery game
at a carnival--the shooting gallery, except in this
case it's just easier to shoot them down because
they are so top heavy with crimes and lies,
they just fall over on their own.

The National Guard thing is similar to the "Alaska is next door thing"; all antler, no moose!
Of course, he recanted and got the promotion; the way this Governor works, if he didn't, he'd be busted and on patrol well above the Arctic Circle.
Here's what I was thinking about the "Russia is our neighbor" crack - how many of the neighbors has she spoken to and if any, what was the conversation like? That's the key, I mean if foreign policy is a matter of "the 'hood", what was negotiated?

A new chapter of cowardly generals in American history.

A good soldier would have spoken the second about the political pressure to change his words, not change his words.

Clearly, this "general" is not willing to die - or give up his career - for the sake of his country and is no patriot.

I've actually been chatting about this with Brandon Friedman at VetVoice, and I completely agree that the timing of the announcement is very fishy and probably is a reward. And I hate sounding like I'm defending Palin, who I'm beating like a rented mule on my class blog, but...

But the fact is that this promotion has been in the works since April. Without getting into all the painful bureaucratic details, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 08 raised the authorized grade for the Chief of the National Guard Bureau in the Pentagon from 3 stars to 4 stars. Another section of the FY 08 Act required that the Deputy Commander of NORTHCOM be a National Guard general officer. Those sections were added to the enabling legislation by Pat Leahy in the Senate and Gene Taylor in the House, with the support of all the members of the National Governors Association.

When the Chief of the NGB was a 3-star, all of the state adjutants general (TAGs) like Campbell had to be 2-stars, to preserve the chain of authority. Now that the CNGB is a 4-star, the TAGs are eligible for 3 star promotions. For a National Guard general officer to be the Deputy Commander of NORTHCOM, moreover, s/he has to be a 3-star, because the DCG billet is a 3-star billet.

A number of other states have 3-star TAGs, including Indiana (since 2001), Delaware (2008), and Nevada (2001), and you'll very likely see all the rest follow suit. Among the reasons for that was the discontent a lot of TAGs and their governors had at the way Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen (a 3-star) took over the Louisiana National Guard during the Katrina cleanup, since he outranked LA's TAG, Major-General Landreneau.

So while I agree that this is almost certainly a political reward, it bears keeping in mind that TAGs are political appointees anyway -- they're not "independent" in the way that generals in the active duty force are supposed to be. When a new gubernatorial administration comes in, so too does a new TAG.

It's another example of how craven Palin is, but it's not the stuff of investigatory journalism.

One of the many sad consequences of Palin being chosen by McCain to be his running mate is what it has done to the political environment here in Alaska. There is a sheep-like popular support for Palin that's based not on her qualifications for the position, or her connect with people she was elected to govern. Instead the support she has is based on people wanting to elevate Alaska in front of the rest of the nation, and be noticed. Here is Alaska there is a general feeling of being ignored, and not accepted as a equal member within the United States. At the same time there is also a feeling of wanting to maintaining Alaska's uniqueness, and individuality from the rest of the nation. Some Alaskans even go as far as thinking of our fellow Americans from the contiguous 48 states as outsiders. It's like being in a confusing relationship where you can't decide if you love or hate your partner.

In my opinion as a Alaskan resident it's actually really sad to see it all happen. The genie is out of the bottle, the harm to Alaska by Palin and McCain has been done, and they continue to do more. My personal feeling is that both Alaska, and Palin were better off before she ever agreed to be McCain's running mate. Palin's ambition is doing the exact opposite of what she wants to accomplish. What she is doing to herself would cause me to pity her if she wasn't such a corrupt , zealot, and religious extremist who is also bringing harm to Alaska by how the rest of the nation will perceive Alaskans. My hope is that other Americans will understand that we are not all like Frank Murkowski, Sarah Palin, or Ted Stevens.

McCain/Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS.

Someone is trying to figure out who I am and where I come from. Please keep me anonymous. These Generals will fry me. They hate it when someone has their number. Their cronies are sniffing everywhere.