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.

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.

Oops! Someone forgot to turn the microphones off after Chuck Todd's interview with GOP media consultant Mike Murphy and GOP columnist Peggy Noonan. Transcript below:

No one in the Corporate Media knows Sarah Palin, so their "vetting" has been limited to a handful of issues like her introductory lie about opposing the "bridge to nowhere." Here is a thorough report from a Wasilla neighbor who has watched Palin's rise to power. I bolded information that was new to me.

The author, Anne Kilkenny, is a well-known Wasilla "stay-at-home mom, letter-to-the-editor writer and longtime watcher of Valley politics" who opposed Palin's efforts to ban books from the local library.

ABOUT SARAH PALIN 
by Anne Kilkenny
August 31, 2008

After all the Republican attacks on Michelle Obama for not loving America enough, this is beyond rich:

Todd Palin, currently registered as "undeclared," was indeed an official member of the Alaskan Independence Party from October 1995 through July 2002 (except for a few months in 2000).

The Alaskan Independence Party hates America so much it wants Alaska to secede.

And if you think Rev. Jeremiah Wright was angry at America, how's this?

Ben Smith reports,

An illustration of that gap came just two weeks ago, when Palin's church, the Wasilla Bible Church, gave its pulpit over to a figure viewed with deep hostility by many Jewish organizations: David Brickner, the founder of Jews for Jesus.

Palin's pastor, Larry Kroon, introduced Brickner on Aug. 17, according to a transcript of the sermon on the church's website.

"He's a leader of Jews for Jesus, a ministry that is out on the leading edge in a pressing, demanding area of witnessing and evangelism," Kroon said...

Brickner’s mission has drawn wide criticism from the organized Jewish community, and the Anti-Defamation League accused them in a report of “targeting Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception.”