As the GOP convention braces itself for Hurricane Sarah tonight, more and more revelations are coming out about how poorly vetted she was and whether she is fit to be on the ticket at all. The vetting question is essential because it speaks to the judgment of John McBush… err, I mean McCain. If he thinks the decision of who is second in line to the presidency is so cavalier, it does not bode well for his other appointments he would have to make as President of the United States.

While we are at it; let’s drop all of the silly defending of Sarah Palin. She has chosen a public life and has made her reputation as an evangelical-family values candidate. Whether or not her daughter chose to engage in pre-marital sex is completely germane to who she claims to be; the supermom who pushes abstinence only philosophies. While it is germane, it is so far down the list of problems with her candidacy that I think it is actually detracting from the more important questions. Questions, like Campbell Brown was trying to have McCain flack Tucker Bounds answer last night regarding the apparent double standard Team McBush employs when slamming Obama for lack of experience and then naming Palin as Veep. It was refreshing to watch a journalist actually not accept the ridiculous talking points and actually pose a follow up question of substance; even if Tucker had no answer for the double standard. Team McBush however did have an answer. They took their ball and went home; punishing CNN for asking such…journalistic questions? Team McBush actually cancelled a scheduled appearance by McCain on Larry King Live, blaming it on the Brown interview, which they claimed, “Crossed the line.” Here is that interview spot where Brown should be applauded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYYiw_y2qDI

Crossing the line? How? Because Brown is one of the few journalists who dare to question Team McBush and their inane talking points? This should be the lead story tonight heading into day two of the convention, that a candidate for president, who prides himself on “straight talk”, spitefully cancelled a scheduled television appearance because fair and balanced questions were being asked by a journalist. The fact is that Sarah Palin has no experience in foreign affairs at all. She barely has any experience in government. She has been Governor less than two years and prior to that was a Mayor of a city smaller than Nantucket, with only 6,700 residents. But Sarah Palin has bigger problems than that.

 Sarah Palin also took advantage of the earmark process that John McCain pretends to deride so much. Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for that small town of 6,700 people. Hardly the courageous reformer the GOP has been pimping the past few days. But it gets worse. There is a little ethics investigation underway that could have doomed her Governorship, let alone candidacy for vice president. It seems that Governor Palin is being investigated by Alaska’s legislature over allegations arising from the firing of the state’s public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, who was fired earlier this year. It’s alleged that Monegan was removed because he refused to fire a state trooper who was the governor’s ex-brother-in-law. A sign of how troubling this is for Palin is that just today her lawyer is demanding that the case be removed from the assigned special counsel and assigned to a state personnel board. The little problem with that is all three members of this board were appointed by Palin herself! That doesn’t sound very ethical to me! The Special counsel, Steve Branchflower, has revealed that there are more than 20 documented calls, emails and other communications from Palin’s office to employees at Monegan’s Department of Public Safety that implicates Palin and her staff of putting pressure on Monegan to fire her brother-in-law. Given the ethical violations of the GOP over the past eight years, it is not wonder Palin has impressed them so much.  

Even beyond the Troopergate and earmark problems, it seems that Sarah Palin has her very own Jeremiah Wright. Wright of course was Barack Obama’s pastor for many years and caused great distress for candidate Obama after someone combed through his sermons over a 20 year period and finally found one that was offensive. The linking of Obama to Wright’s sermons was ridiculously unfair not to mention greatly distorted but since that is the bar the GOP set; some have decided to take a look at the preaching of Ed Kalnins, Senior Pastor at Wasilla Assembly of God since 1999, Palin’s former church. The sermons reviewed should give Christians pause as much as those of Reverend Wright. During the Kerry-Bush 2004 presidential election Kalnins said: 

"I'm not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I'm sorry." 

You should be sorry Pastor Kalnins. This is an obvious abuse of authority and scripture. To question the salvation of people you have been entrusted to leading spiritually because of their political beliefs is heresy; plain and simple. Several months later however Kalnins bristled at criticism of President Bush in the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: 

"I hate criticisms towards the President," he said, "because it's like criticisms towards the pastor -- it's almost like, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That's what it'll get you." 

Excuse me? Criticism of the president or even a Pastor is enough to send you to hell? What about belief in Jesus Christ? So according to Pastor Kalnins fair criticism of a pastor is enough to undo Christ’s work on the cross? It would get worse however in another sermon: 

What you see in a terrorist -- that's called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say "war mode." Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he's like the good shepherd, he's loving all the time and he's kind all the time. Oh yes he is -- but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war. 

Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, not war. He taught love for our enemies, not bombs. Jesus never operated from “war mode.” I challenge anyone to find one verse in the New Testament that advocates war, just one. There are none. The closest people can come up with is in Revelation, which is a prophetic book; speaking about what is to come. When Christ spoke about people trying to keep their lives as losing them, He was speaking about people trying to stay in the world and follow Him at the same time. He was certainly not advocating war or the sacrifice of our lives in war. The war in Iraq is not a spiritual war. It is a war over greed and money. Pastor Kalnins should be ashamed of himself for even implying that Christ would have somehow supported the deaths of over 100,000 people for oil. 

Since these revelations were made public yesterday, the website for Wasilla Assembly of God has shut down and closed the portions of the website that contained these sermons; claiming they were not prepared for the traffic they have seen. Nonsense. Once again this does not sound like straight talk to me. It sounds like someone is covering the tracks for Sarah Palin. I don’t blame them because there are nothing but more and more questions coming out about her. Her GOP fans are crying crocodile tears, pretending that she is being “attacked.” Bunk.  

Tonight we will hear from Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee before Mrs. Palin takes the stage. Rudy of course is a diehard pro-choice and pro-gay marriage guy, Romney is a Mormon who has flipped flopped on nearly every substantial issue and Huckabee has already stated that he has not heard anything to give him pause about Sarah Palin. Quite the evangelical lineup for tonight. The disappointing one is Huckabee, a former pastor himself, who apparently doesn’t think that ethics violations, and teachings contrary to the bible are enough to give him pause; let alone the troubling aspect of the 17 year old unwed daughter who is five months pregnant.  

But that is what we will see tonight; day two of the McBush Convention. You will hear more distortion and distraction as the big three will slam Obama as much as possible and try their best to not talk about the last eight years. They will wave the flag and talk up abortion; something they only seriously discuss during presidential elections. Then Hurricane Sarah will roll in to town. She will talk about reform, something she knows very little about. But she has to pretend because that is the talking point the GOP has come up with. They will try and turn her stint of being a Mayor of a town of 6,700 people into some vast “executive” experience. They will try and turn her brief run as Governor, despite the ongoing ethics investigation, as somehow trumping the resume of Barack Obama. They will sell you Palin as someone who took on the ole boys club in Alaska, even if it is not really true. They will portray her as supermom, despite her pregnant 17 year old daughter. They will avoid the problems with a Pastor who apparently uses the word of God for political reasons. They will avoid Troopergate and earmarks. In the end, the endless GOP minions will be positively GUSHING over the job she did and what a “fresh breath of air” Sarah Palin was tonight. They have to of course because they rolled the dice on her without properly vetting her. Now she is being properly vetted by the media and all they can do is cry crocodile tears and try to add “victim” to the bogus resume of Sarah Palin.  

 1  |  2