F.ully D.um P.arty † Sept. 18, 2011

Without sorrow and with much relief I am pleased to announce the death yesterday of the F.ully D.um P.arty in Berlin. With election results at a level between the "animal protection party" and the neo-nazi proto-party (which also fortunately sank since the last election here), these neo-liberal worshippers of deregulated markets and lower taxes for the wealthy have disappeared from ALL parliaments in Berlin, i.e. from the city-state parliament (Abgeordnetenhaus) and from ALL twelve of the district assemblies (Bezirksverordnetenversammlungen). They garnered a mere 1.8% of the votes in the state and district elections here yesterday.
An added benefit to the city and its districts is that all of those self-serving free-marketeers will now have to find a job on the free market themselves. Until now they have been able to play well-to-do yuppies with party jobs, parliamentarian assistants, party work-groups etc. And jobs in the party organization will also be greatly reduced, as the F.ull D.ummies P.rotectorate will have very little money in the coming years; party financing here depends largely on the number of votes in the last election, so they will be nearly bankrupt. I look forward to those yuppies veering into Arbeitslosengeld II (unemployment welfare), being tossed from one unpaid trial job to another, and having to accept wages far below anything reasonable because THEY so long opposed any minimum wage in this country. Yes, the organization's and the individuals' bankrupcies are looming near. And, to borrow one of their latest populist slogans and apply it to them:

KEIN RETTUNGSSCHIRM FÜR DIE FDP!

NO EMERGENCY PARACHUTE FOR THE FDP!

Now, with one of the two components of the Tigerente rotting, Angie Buttons should finally call for a mercy killing of her ill-fated and embarrassing coalition and have the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) vote no confidence and call for new elections.

I hope soon here to be able to write the obituary of the Tigerentenkoalition.

Taxation WITH Representation - Caring for the People!

30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died MichaelMoore.com

Perhaps the anarchist tea-party henchman of the wealthy few who duck taxes and all social responsibility should think about this rather than spending all their time attempting to destroy government of the people, by the people, and FOR the people!

Pale, Paler, Palin - Poetically Speaking

Sarah Palin's Midnight Ride, by Ben Greenman, from The New Yorker online.

Palin Makes Me Pale !

Should I be surprised to find out that the Paling paleface of party teabags is THIS stupid? Probably not. And later, she even insisted that the nonsense she spouted about Paul Revere was correct! Nothing I abhor more than self-satisfied ignorance, proud of itself and labeling intelligence arrogant. Even though her "followers" have tried to change the Wikipedia entry on Revere to make her FALSE version sound right, the foreign language versions will remain unaltered, as they are also too dum even to try to read, much less change, them! And print encyclopedias and history books will continue to have the correct version, whatever that Paling paleface burps out!

Here, the text of her hopelessly long explanation of the ride of Paul Revere:

He who warned, uh, the … the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringin’ those bells and, um, by makin’ sure that as he’s ridin’ his horse through town to send those warnin’ shots and bells that, uh, we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free … and we were gonna be armed.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (an essential poet of American literature, by way of explanation for paling paleface fans) got it right in his poem "The Ride of Paul Revere":

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

News, Some Good, Some Bad, Some Absurd

Let's give the good news first. The House has voted to REPEAL the DADT regulation for the US military. Now it is time for the Senate also to acknowledge that you can defend your country whoever you may happen to prefer as a sex partner!

House votes again to end 'don't ask, don't tell'
By Ed O'Keefe Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 15, 2010; 11:16 PM
House lawmakers on Wednesday again approved a bill to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" law, delivering renewed momentum to the years-long campaign to end the ban on gays in the military ahead of a possible Senate vote next week.

Next, there is indeed some very bad news, the continuing effort of the US government to block WikiLeaks. This is no terrorist organization; quite the contrary, it is dedicated to making available to all any information that is left in the open by any organization anywhere. That there is so much from the US and so little from other countries indicates no bias, but rather that the US is perhaps much laxer about how many people get to read all those things they don't want anyone to read.
I continue to maintain that the information I have attained via the research that Le Monde, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel have done on those leaked documents is all news that I find important to know and wish I had had access to sooner. Perhaps the bushbaby wouldn't have been able to start an illegal war in Iraq if such had flooded the media back then! Even more alarming is the news that Pentagon computers and military branch computers are now blocking access to sites reporting from those files, such as The New York Times. I wonder if they include The Guardian (British after all) or recognize what's in El Pais. These efforts remind me very disturbingly of what China does to censor the internet and to block its citizens access to information and their right to express their opinions. Protecting freedoms against the encroachment of exaggerated security concerns is one of the reasons I voted for you, Mr. Obama, so do something NOW to stop this encroachment on freedom of speech!

U.S. Tries to Build Case for Conspiracy by WikiLeaks

by Charles Savage, The New York Times, Dec. 15,2010

Since WikiLeaks began making public large caches of classified United States government documents this year, Justice Department officials have been struggling to come up with a way to charge Mr. Assange with a crime. Among other things, they have studied several statutes that criminalize the dissemination of restricted information under certain circumstances, including the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.

But while prosecutors have used such laws to go after leakers and hackers, they have never successfully prosecuted recipients of leaked information for passing it on to others — an activity that can fall under the First Amendment’s strong protections of speech and press freedoms.

And the last bit is a ridiculous item about fundamentalists again banning art. What is alarming this time is that the fundamentalists are Catholics and that they are banning art in Washington, DC, while skipping out on the discussion about that art in New York City. No religion has the right to determine what is art, nor do they have the right to block anyone's access to any form of expression. Let them preach from their own pulpits, pound on their own altars, raise their voices from their own minarets, but leave me free to look at whatever I want to, even a picture of a man from Nazareth or one from Medina/Mecca covered with anything they may find objectionable.

At N.Y. event, 'Hide/Seek' curators try to keep art on agenda, but can't avoid culture war

The Washington Post
Local arts activists led a protest march from the Transformer art space at 14th and P streets NW to the National Portrait Gallery, where officials recently removed a work of video art depicting Christ with ants crawling over him after complaints from a Catholic organization and members of Congress.

Justice for All - July 4th

Evidence must be considered and those not guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt released. That is the American Way, justice under the Enlightenment, the tradition of democracy shared by so many free countries. And it is what Obama promised - to end the injustice of the bushbaby playpen!

Appeals Court Sides With Detainee - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has sided with a Guantánamo prisoner whose case prompted a major internal argument among Obama administration legal advisers last year over how broadly to define terrorism suspects who may be detained without trial.
...
“The government presented no direct evidence of actual communication between Bensayah and any Al Qaeda member, much less evidence suggesting Bensayah communicated with” anyone else to facilitate travel by an Al Qaeda member, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg wrote in a 17-page opinion that was declassified late last week. Parts of the ruling were censored by the government.
...
The uncertainty about his travel history, the judge wrote, “at most undermines Bensayah’s own credibility; no account of his whereabouts ties him to Al Qaeda or suggests he facilitated anyone’s travel during that time. These ‘questions’ in no way demonstrate that Bensayah had ties to and facilitated travel for Al Qaeda in 2001.”

A Reason to LIKE the World Cup

I'd've never thought anyone could give me a good reason to praise the mania surrounding the World Soccer Cup, but The Nation has done so. So now I'm a fan from the farthest sidelines who'll watch as few games as possible but praise it to every conservative I encounter anywhere!

Glenn Beck's Blues: Why the Far Right Hates the World Cup The Nation

“It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us,” yipped the Prom King of new right, Glenn Beck. “It doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn’t matter how many bars open early, it doesn’t matter how many beer commercials they run, we don’t want the World Cup, we don’t like the World Cup, we don’t like soccer, we want nothing to do with it.”

Repeating Yourself Gets Boring, SO ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT !

I am truly so tired of feeling the need to appeal for reason in the struggle to uphold democracy, justice, and freedom against the attacks - military, guerilla, and ideological - of terrorists and the attacks - misguided, dangerous, and unconscionable - of the so-called defenders.

Afghans Detail a Secret Prison Still Operating on a U.S. Base - NYTimes.com
By ALISSA J. RUBIN, Published: November 28, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — An American military detention camp in Afghanistan is still holding inmates for sometimes weeks at a time and without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to human rights researchers and former detainees held at the site on the Bagram Air Base.
...
The jail’s operation highlights a tension between President Obama’s goal to improve detention conditions that had drawn condemnation under the Bush administration and his stated desire to give military commanders leeway to operate. While Mr. Obama signed an order to eliminate so-called black sites run by the Central Intelligence Agency in January, that order did not apply to this jail, which is run by military Special Operations forces.
...
“Holding people in what appears to be incommunicado detention runs against the grain of the administration’s commitment to greater transparency, accountability, and respect for the dignity of Afghans,” said Jonathan Horowitz, a human rights researcher with the Open Society Institute.
Mr. Horowitz said he understood that “the necessities of war requires the U.S. to detain people, but there are limits to how to detain.”
...
Human rights researchers worry that the jail remains in the shadows and largely inaccessible both to the Red Cross and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, which has responsibility for ensuring humane treatment of detainees under the Afghan Constitution. Manfred Nowak, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, said the site fell into a legal limbo and was not clearly governed by the Geneva Conventions.

So close it down! In a system of justice worthy of defending, the accused are brought to trial and punished only after they are found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. So, Mr. Obama, do NOT try to keep some smelly corner of the playpen in operation! Maturity and deliberacy are the only sure means for thought to overcome militancy, fundamentalism, and radical religionism!

What for?

For all those asking this question with regard to Obama's designation as Nobel Peace Prize recipient in this year, I would first like simply to quote in its entirety the statement by the Norwegian Nobel Commitee that made the decision.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."
Oslo, October 9, 2009

And if that doesn't satisfy you, try adding these reasons as well:
Obama is set on closing Guantánamo, an infringement of justice and great jeopardization of world peace as its mere existence feeds the flames of fanaticism and terrorism.
He has bridged the violent chasm of racial antagonism in the United States to attain by peaceful means the highest office of the land.
He is pulling down the troops in Iraq, from a war which never should have been started and now must be ended cautiously.
He refuses simply to throw masses of troops and weapons into Afghanistan, insisting on the necessity of nation-building, security measures, infrastructure, and rights and education in that country as a means of countering the threat of terrorism.
He recognizes the essentiality of multilateral discourse and international institutions to solve the problems facing the world today, from the United Nations to the World Bank to the G20, and participates as an equal partner rather than "master".
He has begun dialogue with North Korea and with Iran, without relinquishing any means of pressure the U.S. may have.
He has cancelled the starwars project that had so riled Russia as to provoke military tensions where none need any longer be. This is in itself a move for world peace.
And he has put an end to torture by governmental agencies, which was not only a threat in itself to any efforts for world peace but was a most violent attack on any principles of democracy and justice able to uphold peace.
Indeed, he is aware and a promoter of the correct idea that THINKING is the way humans should proceed in dealing with all questions and differences that may arise among them and that SPEAKING with each other is the wisest way to attempt to preserve and protect the world we all share.
Finally, he has put an end to one of the most dangerous organizations that threatened world peace, simply by becoming president: he has closed down the playpen!

Chaingang's Historical Contribution...

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project - NYTimes.com:

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday. [...]
The law requires the president to make sure the intelligence committees “are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity.” But the language of the statute, the amended National Security Act of 1947, leaves some leeway for judgment, saying such briefings should be done “to the extent consistent with due regard for the protection from unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to sensitive intelligence sources and methods or other exceptionally sensitive matters.”
In addition, for covert action programs, a particularly secret category in which the role of the United States is hidden, the law says that briefings can be limited to the so-called Gang of Eight, consisting of the Republican and Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress and of their intelligence committees. [...]
In the eight years of his vice presidency, Mr. Cheney was the Bush administration’s most vehement defender of the secrecy of government activities, particularly in the intelligence arena. He went to the Supreme Court to keep secret the advisers to his task force on energy, and won.

Sadly I must say that I am not in the least suprised. It would better serve the interests of the US in particular and of democracy and justice in general if all these matters were finally handled in court for assessment of responsibility, wrong-doing, guilt, and necessary punishment. Substantial action must be taken to ensure that such is never again possible in a "free and democratic" country with "justice for all".

Fundamental Values Against Fundamentalist Terror

Tomorrow the German consitution, and the Federal Republic itself, celebrate their 60th birthday. The postwar German constitution, substantially modeled on American principles, opens with a list of human and civil rights, the first: Human dignity is inviolable. All others derive from that simple right and guarantee. They form the unalterable section of the German constitution.

The US Constitution, 220 years old, concludes, in the first ten amendments, with the list of rights constitutive of the republic, already includes in the text itself, however, the principles and institutions of justice, essential to the division and balance of powers with the legislative and executive branches. Yes, this is all to protect the people.

Barack Obama's speech on these principles and the danger, the insecurity for the American people and the entire world resultant from the violation of those principles, is an essential lesson on the rule of law and due process.

There is no protection against terrorism possible that contradicts the very freedoms, principles, justice, and democratic institutions that the terrorists themselves seek to overturn!

Security through elimination of principles of justice and human rights is the greatest insecurity imaginable!

Therefore, I must applaud Mr. Obama's speech and, once more, again point out what misguided dangerous ideas Cheney is fomenting in the mere attempt to avoid being prosecuted for illegal actions himself!

CLOSE GUANTÁNAMO!

Here the link to the text of Mr. Obama's speech on May 21 and below the video of that speech, held in the presence of the original copy of the Constitution in the National Archives.

The Washington Post video, link here, of the two speeches cut into "replies" to each other makes amply clear how determined Mr. Cheney is to torture some and endanger many out of a distaste for liberty and justice and a love of "security" cost it what it may, while Mr. Obama is determined to combat the enemies of democratic principles of justice and liberties while upholding those very same values. The first is more populist, perhaps easier at first, more dangerous for the world in the end; the latter is the more difficult and the more honorable method of securing the nation and the world.

Clearly, the world is a safer place today than it was a year ago, simply because the playpen has been closed down. With the closure of each aspect of its legacy, the world will become safer yet and the light of freedom and justice may indeed again be able to attract others to the cause.

Historical Evil from the Playpen

Consortiumnews.com

Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, said, "the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002 -- well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion -- its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida." [Washington Note, May 13, 2009]
Journalist Paul Krugman said of the mounting evidence: "Let's say this slowly: the Bush administration wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So it tortured people to make them confess to the nonexistent link.
"There's a word for this: it's evil." [Paul Krugman Blog, May 14, 2009]

Powell aide says torture helped build Iraq war case

(CNN) -- Finding a "smoking gun" linking Iraq and al Qaeda became the main purpose of the abusive interrogation program the Bush administration authorized in 2002, a former State Department official told CNN on Thursday.
The allegation was included in an online broadside aimed at former Vice President Dick Cheney by Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff for then-Secretary of State Colin Powell. In it, Wilkerson wrote that the interrogation program began in April and May of 2002, and then-Vice President Cheney's office kept close tabs on the questioning.
"Its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at preempting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al Qaeda," Wilkerson wrote in The Washington Note, an online political journal.

Why am I not in the least surprised? How did I somehow always know this was what they were doing all along? Why was I the only one to see and smell all that sour milk splattered all over the bushbaby and all his playmates? Does anyone any longer doubt that the bushbaby and chainy were national security risks for eight years? Do you realize how lucky the world was to survive those maniacs?

Thank You, Mr. President !

For so long I have been demanding that Guantánamo be closed, that those in favor of water-boarding be labeled no-brainers and forbidden to continue their torture of suspects, that the United States adhere to its own and international principles of the rule of law and maintenance of justice in all necessary efforts to stop terrorists, who, as I have also long maintained, seek to destroy precisely that system of justice and freedom we must defend and which the bushbaby was all to ready to abandon.
Therefore I must here state how enormously grateful I am to President Obama for signing these executive orders to close Guantánamo, to cease the operation of secret CIA prisons in other countries, and to forbid the use of torture.
It will be difficult, because of the illegal torturing of many of those suspects, to bring them to trial; this is the legacy of the bushbaby playpen. Therefore it is all the more important to adhere to the rules of the legal system in future so as to be able to bring suspects to trial, determine guilt or innocence, and properly punish the guilty.
It is a delight to see the playpen dismantled and the rattlers of power removed from the hands of its denizens! Mr. Obama is fulfilling his promises!

Obama Reverses Key Bush Security Policies
The New York Times, Washington, January 22, 2009

President Obama reversed the most disputed counterterrorism policies of the Bush administration on Thursday, declaring that “our ideals give us the strength and moral high ground” in the fight against Al Qaeda. [ ... ]

Mr. Obama signed executive orders closing the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year; ending the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prisons; and requiring all interrogations to follow the noncoercive methods of the Army Field Manual.
“We intend to win this fight,” he said. “We are going to win it on our own terms.”

Barack Obama décrète la fermeture du centre de détention de Guantanamo d'ici un an
LE MONDE 22.01.09

Le président américain a décrété, jeudi 22 janvier, la fermeture du centre de détention de Guantanamo d'ici un an. Le camp, qui compte actuellement 245 détenus, avait été ouvert sur la base militaire de Cuba après les attentats du 11 septembre 2001 pour détenir ce que l'administration Bush classait comme des "combattants illégaux". Dès mercredi, au lendemain de l'investiture de M. Obama, deux juges militaires ont suspendu, à sa demande et pour 120 jours, les procédures judiciaires en cours à Guantanamo.

Dans un autre décret, Barack Obama a également imposé que les Etats-Unis se conforment aux conventions de Genève sur les prisonniers de guerre. "Le message que nous envoyons au monde, c'est que les Etats-Unis ont l'intention de poursuivre le combat engagé contre la violence et le terrorisme, que nous le ferons avec vigilance, que nous le ferons avec efficacité, et que nous le ferons dans le respect de nos valeurs et de nos idéaux", a-t-il dit. Les Américains savent, "comme je l'ai dit lors de mon investiture, que nous ne perpétuerons pas le mauvais choix entre notre sécurité et nos idéaux", a-t-il ajouté.

Bush's 'War' On Terror Comes to a Sudden End

The Washington Post, January 23, 2009; Page A01

President Obama yesterday eliminated the most controversial tools employed by his predecessor against terrorism suspects. With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the "war on terror," as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the U.S. government in battling its enemies will not be limitless.

BushBabyShoes

"These shoes are made for walking ...

... and that's just what they'll do. One of these days these shoes are gonna walk all over you."

It will be REALLY nice when the playpen is finally closed and the world can get serious again!

Palin(g)

Though she should be Palin(g) with shame, she's probably only Palin(g) with fright that her so very dirty tricks were revealed quickly enough before the election to show the world how long her "moral" and "ethical" "values" have already been Palin(g)! Those who carry their moral virtues around like a banner into battle are always the ones demanding police actions against everyone else and license to abuse for themselves. If you are patriotic, you needn't wrap yourself in the flag; cloth only hides dirt. Shame on you, you ever more Palin(g) mirage of a veep candidate!

The New York Times / U.S. / Politics
Alaska Inquiry Concludes Palin Abused Powers
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI, Published: October 11, 2008
"Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired, an investigation has concluded."

Play Money

Playpenal bushbaby and playmates are going wild with the play money they forbade anyone to regulate or watch over. So now they want to buy up from each other the paper from bad investment decisions they all made themselves and use YOUR money, not their play money, to do it. Rather, let's provide regulation and penalties on play money games and take the bonus money away from those playmates at bankrupt playpenal banks. Lehman playmate chief, for example, got 22 million only a few months ago for the success of his business. Now the playpen is pumping in 700 billion to cover all their losses. Way to go playpen!
(And McPain was always a supporter of these machinations: The economy is fundamentally strong, he claims, and his own playmate the bushbaby pretty much said yesterday that the whole things going to hell in a handbasket if Congress doesn't get scared enough to shower it with cash, though of course giving everyone health care would be socialist.)
Oh well, when I grew up I learned it was bad to try to live on borrowed money. Anyone ever heard of a savings account?

By Popular Demand

News Flash:

Koko, a famous resident of Weißensee, whence he can see Poland on a clear day with his telescoping eyes, has turned down a request by the McPAIN team to assist them in achieving a bird's eye view of the world, because, as he chirped it, "They have never shown interest in anything green before and I am not available as a token intellectual to a gang of populist rabble-rousers. I hope the other side wins."

If you can't grow a pair, I'll lend you mine

The veep debate we didn't get to hear.
(Thanks to DarthR for putting me on to this!)

Thinking Unnecessary in a Playpen

It's also all about whether Americans can finally admit thinking is something good, rather than something to be afraid of, especially when others think. The ability to think is by far more important in our world today precisely because there are so many out there who believe they are on a mission and therefore sneer at and, depending on their audience, attempt to hinder or eliminate, those who do think. You have nothing to fear but your belief that thought is bad!

Gov. Palin’s Worldview

"It was bad enough that Ms. Palin’s performance in the first televised interviews she has done since she joined the Republican ticket was so visibly scripted and lacking in awareness.
What made it so much worse is the strategy for which the Republicans have made Ms. Palin the frontwoman: win the White House not on ideas, but by denigrating experience, judgment and qualifications.

The idea that Americans want leaders who have none of those things — who are so blindly certain of what Ms. Palin calls “the mission” that they won’t even pause for reflection — shows a contempt for voters and raises frightening questions about how Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin plan to run this country."

The New York Times - Editorial - September 13, 2008

Playpen Doubly Redux

I'm sorry, but this all sounds far too playpenal to me. How do you spell her name? Sarah Palin? or is it actually Sarah Playpen? None too canny of Johnny mcCanny, I must say. But oh well, who's expecting miracles here? What would the President of Georgia think about this governor of a US state who wanted it to secede from the country? Remind anyone of South Ossetia? HO HUM! That's why she's down on untraditional relationships, I suppose. Let's redraw some nerve-endings here and let the playpen get nervous for a change.

The New York Times
U.S. / Politics
Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process
By ELISABETH BUMILLER, Published: September 2, 2008
The disclosure that Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter was pregnant was one of several revelations that called into question how well John McCain had screened her.

The Washington Post
No Surprises From Palin, McCain Team Says

The Boston Globe
Palin's daughter, 17, is pregnant
ST. PAUL - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin revealed yesterday that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant - a disclosure made by John McCain's campaign in an effort to stop what it called "out of control" Internet rumors that Palin's youngest child actually was conceived by her daughter and that the Alaska governor faked her pregnancy to ...
Michael Kranish, September 2, 2008

The Christian Science Monitor
Palin daughter’s pregnancy shocks GOP convention
But delegates say situation humanizes the nominee for vice president.