Muse’s Monday Menagerie

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Monday morning greetings all! I’m going to start out with a few more opinion pieces..

To start with, these first two articles are from this last weekend, and are MUST-READS:

The New York Times: Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes

The Washington Post: As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin Cut Own Duties, Left Trail of Bad Blood

Then, from The New York Times and Maureen Dowd – Bering Straight Talk:

I’ve been in Alaska only a week, but I’m already feeling ever so much smarter about Russia.

[..] I can’t quite see it from my hotel window, but, hey, I know it’s out there somewhere, beyond all the stuffed bears and cruise ships and glaciers and oil derricks.[..]

[..] An Arctic blast of action has swept into the 2008 race, making thinking passé. We don’t really need to hurt our brains studying the world; we just need the world to know we’re capable of bringing a world of hurt to the world if the world continues to be hell-bent on misbehaving.[..]

[..] Sarah has single-handedly ushered out the “Sex and the City” era, and made the sexy new model for America a retro one — the glamorous Pioneer Woman, packing a gun, a baby and a Bible.[..] More..

Ouch..

Also from The New York Times and Frank Rich – The Palin-Whatshisname Ticket:

WITH all due deference to lipstick, let’s advance the story. A week ago the question was: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? The question today: What kind of president would Sarah Palin be?

It’s an urgent matter, because if we’ve learned anything from the G.O.P. convention and its aftermath, it’s that the 2008 edition of John McCain is too weak to serve as America’s chief executive. This unmentionable truth, more than race, is now the real elephant in the room of this election.

No longer able to remember his principles any better than he can distinguish between Sunnis and Shia, McCain stands revealed as a guy who can be easily rolled by anyone who sells him a plan for “victory,” whether in Iraq or in Michigan. A McCain victory on Election Day will usher in a Palin presidency, with McCain serving as a transitional front man, an even weaker Bush to her Cheney. More..

Yikes…

From Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish (The Atlantic) via Truthout: McCain’s Integrity

For me, this surreal moment – like the entire surrealism of the past ten days – is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It’s about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil. When he knew that George W. Bush’s war in Iraq was a fiasco and catastrophe, and before Donald Rumsfeld quit, McCain endorsed George W. Bush against his fellow Vietnam vet, John Kerry in 2004. By that decision, McCain lost any credibility that he can ever put country first. He put party first and his own career first ahead of what he knew was best for the country. Read on..

The McCain has made the battle against earmarks and wasteful spending a centerpiece of his campaign. The McCain campaign said Sunday that Gov. Palin’s overall record is one of fiscal discipline. He originally said that Palin as governor had never sought earmarks.. Well, lets look at the facts:

From the WSJ: Palin’s Project List Totals $453 Million

Last week, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, hadn’t sought earmarks or special-interest spending from Congress, presenting her as a fiscal conservative. But state records show Gov. Palin has asked U.S. taxpayers to fund $453 million in specific Alaska projects over the past two years.

These projects include more than $130 million in federal funds that would benefit Alaska’s fishing industry and an additional $9 million to help Alaska oil companies. She also has sought $4.5 million to upgrade an airport on a Bering Sea island that has a year-round population of less than 100. [..]

[..] In fact, in the current fiscal year, she is seeking $197 million for 31 projects, the records show. In the prior year, her first year in office, she sought $256 million for dozens more projects ranging from research on rockfish and harbor-seal genetics to rural sanitation and obesity prevention.[..]

Here’s a MUST-READ (and pretty thorough list) from BuzzFlash and guest contributor Tim Wise: White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election

From AlterNet: Why Soldiers Rape

And on the US Economic front – which looks like it is speeding towards the crapper – preparations are being made for Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank in the US, to file for bankruptcy. At the same time, Bank of America Corp. said it is snapping up Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in an $50 billion all-stock transaction. More from the New York Times.

The markets around the world this morning are going nuts.

But the business of war is BOOMING! With White House Push, U.S. Arms Sales Jump Sharply

On that war front, a couple articles from AntiWar.Com: Shipping Sanctions Against Iran, Arms Sales to Israel: Another Step Closer to War? and “The Gloves Have Come Off” – US Attack in Pakistan No Isolated Incident

More on War with Pakistan from Juan Cole of Informed Comment.

More on the economy from TheNation: McCain and the Mortgage Meltdown by Robert Scheer of Truthdig, and finally, Economic Free Fall by William Greider.

Glenn Greenwald of Salon asks the question: Where is the debate over the Bush Doctrine?

John McCain and the Bush Doctrine: