Freedom of Speech: Get It Right

It continues to amaze me how poorly and consistently Americans misunderstand the constitutional right known as "freedom of speech".  In politically inclined forums, sometimes someone will accuse their detractors of infringing on their freedom of speech, when it is suggested their opinion is not welcomed, considered inappropriate, or unpopular.

The thing is the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, with regards to free speech, protects people in the U.S. from government suppression of expression. It provides little protection from responses, criticisms, or consequences from any and all non-governmental entities.

We Dodged a Bullet

The election is completely over and the vice presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin is now completely nonviable.

What's interesting is that the news media is diving head first into previously embargoed information from campaign sources about how badly Palin got along with the McCain campaign, and how much of a dummy she really was.  Those early weeks when Palin was held back from the media was clearly the best decision, because she would have caused immense damage to the McCain campaign.

Word is leaking out now that Palin did not know what countries are covered by NAFTA (that would be Canada, the U.S., and Mexico), and she didn't know that Africa was a continent as opposed to a single country.  

Other reports indicate her fundamental misunderstanding of the First Amendment's rights to free speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association, wrongly assuming the First Amendment is degraded when a public official, such as herself, is criticized by the media, when they attacked her for questioning Obama's associations with questionable individuals.

It has now leaked that Palin was prepped for her first media interview with Charlie Gibson, but refused to be prepped for the interview with Katie Couric.  Her lack of preparation totally showed. Palin's non-answer to Couric's question about what newspapers and magazines she reads to shape her world view now makes a lot of sense.  She obviously didn't read any.

Also leaking now is Palin going on shopping sprees for herself and her husband using funds from a major donor, as well as credit cards from campaign underlings, who now want to be reimbursed.  All this spending was far beyond the already reported $150,000 spent by the RNC.

McCain made a huge  gamble in picking Palin without properly vetting her, and he simply lost. Most Americans sensed this already, but the truth is coming out now.

We certainly dodged a bullet, that of a Sarah Palin vice presidency.

She is being treated as a scapegoat now.  And, in my opinion, she has little chance of re-emerging as a national candidate in future.

The Growing Irrelevance of the Culture Wars

Peter Beinart of the Washington Post focuses on how Sarah Palin is "Last of the Culture Warriors" as a beacon of how the culture wars are growing in irrelevance.  A really good read and a striking perspective of how times really are changing.  The brief history lesson of the parallels to the 1920s and 1960s are fascinating.

Sarah Palin: A Gift to Democrats, More Than Realized

Earlier this evening, I was reading in TIME magazine Joe Klein's interview and analysis of Barack Obama and his campaign: Why Barack Obama is Winning. Klein emphasized how Obama has run a "no-drama" campaign, reflecting both the candidate's personal temperament, as well as an underlying campaign strategy and ability to stay on message which the electorate seems to have found appealing throughout this lengthy campaign.

A day or two ago, Jack Cafferty on the CNN website posed a simple question to the audience: Was Palin as VP pick a mistake? An onslaught of online respondents basically said yes. Some went further to say that Palin was a "gift" to the Democrats. The moment McCain erratically* chose an inexperienced, unknowledgeable governor from a far flung rural state, he not only handed the election gift to the Democrats, he also gave himself a scapegoat for his likely loss to the surging Obama campaign.

Olbermann: Terrorists? It's Palin doing the pallin'

Olbermann responds with gusto to Sarah Palin's accusation of Obama's link to Ayers. Check it out. Here's the transcript.

Palin and Biden on separation of church and state

Katie Couric asks Sarah Palin and Joe Biden each about the separation of church and state, giving a glimpse of how each may perform in tomorrow night's vice presidential debate.  To me, it's quite clear, Biden delivers his answer in a more coherent manner than Palin.

"I like all kinds of music!"

When asked by Katie Couric what newspapers and publications does she read, Sarah Palin refuses to specify, repeatedly stating, "all of them". She blatantly dodges the question. It reminds me of high school and college, when a guy would ask a girl, "what kind of music do you like?" and she would answer, "all kinds!" Oh, really?!?

Dancing with the DOW

After cooking up some tasty dinner for my wife and myself, we end up watching Dancing with the Stars.  Frankly, I don't have much interest in the show.  But, after watching Brooke Burke dance, the show had my attention.  Unfortunately, after watching Kim Kardashian dance, the show utterly lost my attention.

It's been quite a day with the big bailout bill going down in defeat in the House of Representatives, dragging the stock market down the toilet with it.  Like many people, I took a significant hit in my portfolio today, but I believe I'm still young enough to just ride it out, so I didn't sell anything.  In fact, I picked up some stocks, including one component of the Dow, hoping today's startling bad news and the abrupt reaction in the stock market represented a buying opportunity, with hopes that the market will climb back up at some point in the coming weeks or months.

Sarah Palin is most certainly taking some heat in the media and I think it will drive more Americans to watch this Thursday evening's vice presidential debate than last Friday evening's first presidential debate.  I doubt either Palin or Biden will let slip any devastating gaffes, but I think people do want to see how Palin handles the gargantuan pressure that will be on her shoulders.  Biden has the lower bar to jump as he is known for gaffes.  Palin has the much higher bar to get over, given her awful interview with Katie Couric last week and now a new bewildering interview with Couric, with McCain himself sitting next to Palin, like her chaperoning father.

I suspect the financial market will get much worse before it gets better, but ultimately, I am optimistic that Americans will find a way to survive and even thrive in a down economy.  I tend to agree with how interdependent the economy is between banks and the various supply chains and jobs and such, and I do think there is risk for a fast moving domino effect.  However, Americans won't just sit still and take the hit without a response.  Corporations and vertical markets and regional markets will innovate and adjust.

The supposedly ancient Chinese proverb and curse (Wikipedia indicates it may be an early 20th century British invention or misinterpretation), "May you live in interesting times" comes to mind.  

I think we are so fatigued from hurricanes, political campaigns, stock market crashes, suicide bombings, superhero movies, prematurely melting glaciers, reality TV, tiger/bear/shark attacks, forest fires, and Howie Mandel, that a gigantic asteroid could knock the moon out of orbit in a spectacular sky shimmering explosion and no one would blink an eye.

Let's hope for the bet.

Sarah Palin's Witch Hunting Pastor

Really weird, wacko stuff! Palin recently expressed admiration for a witch hunting pastor. No wonder McCain's campaign won't let Palin take questions from reporters.