Sarah Palin sure likes to brag about cutting wasteful spending, but the biggest project she undertook as Mayor of Wasilla was a disaster for city taxpayers, according to Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal:

The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters.

The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla.

Oops!

Article VI. of the U.S. Constitution says that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

The writers of the Constitution knew the recent history of wars of religion and religious persecution in Europe. Many of the thinkers who influenced them associated political freedom very closely with freedom of religion, with the dismantling of state religion, and -- in some cases -- with the abandonment of religion entirely. "Man shall not be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest," said Jean Meslier, or Denis Diderot, or perhaps Voltaire, depending whom you ask. Voltaire's bust was, and still is, prominently displayed in Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Jefferson and George Mason led the establishment of religious freedom, first in Virginia, and then in the new United States.

tnknoxrealtor is outraged that Sarah Palin won't answer a single question from reporters, and she wants the Corporate Media to boycott the McCain-Palin campaign until she does. What do you think?

In her convention speech, Sarah Palin bragged about putting the state airplane up for sale on eBay. "It was over the top," she smirked.

Of course the plane didn't actually sell on eBay because she couldn't get a good enough price. So instead she hired a broker.

In fact, the jet did not sell on eBay. It was sold to a businessman from Valdez named Larry Reynolds, who paid $2.1 million for the plane -- shy of the $2.7 million purchase price -- according to news reports at the time. Reynolds contributed to Palin's campaign in 2006.

On Friday the FDIC closed Silver State Bank of Henderson, Nevada

the FDIC estimates that the cost to its Deposit Insurance Fund is between $450 and $550 million

Guess who was a director of the bank? John McCain's son Andy.

Kinda reminds you of John McCain's role in the Keating S&L, and Neil Bush's role in Silverado.

Why are Republicans so mixed up with massive bank failures that cost taxpayers a fortune? And why do we let them anywhere near public office?

Biden channels Democratic outrage for 3 lovely minutes:

By David Swanson

Next weekend in Andover, Mass., a group of attorneys, academics, and activists will gather to plan the prosecution of Dick Cheney, George Bush, and the lawyers and advisors who, together with them, are responsible for war crimes. The conference is open to the public and expected to be well attended: http://war-crimes.info

Remember how rightwingers and their media whores spent days snickering about the "elitist" Greek columns at Mile High Stadium for Obama's big speech? (Those columns were even featured as laugh lines in GOP hate speeches.) 

So McCain's speechwriters chose a different backdrop for his big speech: Walter Reed.

Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, you say?  Nope. Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California. WTF???

John McCain's entire campaign is based on his biography as a POW who survived torture, returned home, and overcame his injuries. That's been the mission of Walter Reed Army Medical Center since May 1, 1909. A photo is on the right. What does it tell you when John McCain's campaign doesn't know the difference?

1. They hate our injured soldiers who are recovering at WRAMC.
2. They are too stupid to run America because they don't even know how to Google.

Of course it's possible they did know the difference, but deliberately decided against using WRAMC when they discovered it had ... Greek columns!!

Vanity Fair (h/t Nicole Belle):

Cindy McCain(’s first night of Republican National Convention outfit)

Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000-$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100

By Dave Lindorff

The introduction to John McCain at the Republican National
Convention last night was all about family values. There was the paean
to his mother and father, the touching story of his and Cindy’s
adoption of a baby girl from India, and then there was Cindy herself,
who was the focus of much of a gauzy introductory film on McCain, and
who also did the introductory speech, and who brought all the kids up
on stage with her at the end.

By Dave Lindorff

Now that we’ve had a chance to see Sarah Palin and to hear her speak—or at least read the big rolling white block letters on the teleprompter in front of her—we can see that she’s prone to telling whoppers.

Now we know politicians as a group have a propensity to embellish the truth—particularly when describing their opponents or themselves—and even to lie outright, but Palin does it so well, she’s like a George Bush with reading and pronunciation skills.

In her acceptance speech last night, Palin told a whole string of lies. My favorite was talking about little Trig, her latest offspring, who was born with Down syndrome. Looking right out into the camera, she told the parents of America with special needs children that if she and John McCain win in November, “You’ll have an advocate in Washington.”

Why is Sarah Palin popular in Alaska? Easy: as Governor, she gets to play Santa Claus with Alaska's gushing oil revenues.

Over the opposition of oil companies, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and Alaska's Legislature last year approved a major increase in taxes on the oil industry — a step that has generated stunning new wealth for the state as oil prices soared...

Alaska collected an estimated $6 billion from the new tax during the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. That helped push the state's total oil revenue — from new and existing taxes, as well as royalties — to more than $10 billion, double the amount received last year...

Sarah Palin introduced herself to America and the world last night with the nastiest primetime convention speech since Zell Miller.

"They say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick."

If Sarah Palin wants to call herself a pitbull with lipstick, so be it. 

John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis declared "This election is not about issues." Nope - for McCain-Palin and their Republican Party, it's exclusively about arrogant, sneering, vicious contempt.

Why? Because after 8 years of destroying America and the planet, contempt is all they've got. the last thing they want to talk about is issues, as Glenzilla explains:

The Republicans are well aware that they can't possibly win the election if it is even partially decided based on issues. They need and intend to win despite the fact that Americans hate their positions on the issues, and to do that, they want to ensure that a majority of Americans love and respect the strong, honorable, principled, culturally familiar all-American mavericks John McCain and Sarah Palin (even if they don't agree with them on everything) while strongly disliking that wishy-washy, snooty, foreign, exotic, self-absorbed Eastern elitist Barack Obama (even if he says the right things on issues).

Obviously the Republican campaign is not about reaching swing voters in the middle, which is where elections are won. Instead they're offering voters the simplest possible choice: you're either with them or you're against them. Too bad the overwhelming majority of Americans are against them.

Since that's the Republican campaign plan, all I can say is three words: Bring. It. On.

Team McCain utterly failed to "vet" Sarah Palin, so the blogosphere did the job instead. And we obviously drew blood because Team McCain cannot rebut any of the facts, so they are crying "sexism" instead. 

Give me a break.

It was John McCain - not progressive bloggers - who laughed and said "that's an excellent question" when asked "how do we beat the bitch," referring to Hillary Clinton. It was John McCain - not progressive bloggers - who called Cindy McCain a c**t. It was John McCain - not progressive bloggers - who famously joked "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

Before John McCain or anyone around him accuses anyone else of sexism, McCain needs to apologize publicly and sincerely to Hillary Clinton, Cindy McCain, Chelsea Clinton, and Janet Reno.