Sarah Palin, Katie Couric Interview & Russia

I'd been hearing comments regarding the 3 interviews Sarah Palin has given. I'd only seen a bit of one of them, that being the one with Charlie Gibson.

The Charlie Gibson bit, I saw, was the part of the interview where he asks Ms. Palin about the Bush Doctrine. She got a deer in the headlights look and stumbled for an answer.

Well, this did not bother me too much, because I could not have answered that question til a few weeks ago when I read Bob Woodward's State of Denial. I'm guessing the vast majority of Americans did not know there was something called the Bush Doctrine. It's not like there are an awful lot of us who would take any Doctrine of Bush as a serious thing.

And then this morning, I read a columnist who had gone from hoping Sarah Palin was up to the challenge to being totally sure she was in way over her head. The columnist said she'd lost count of the cringe-inducing moments and suggested Sarah Palin bow out now, before it gets worse.

I have now seen the cringe-inducing Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric. It was way way way more cringe-inducing than I thought it could be.

I think Sarah Palin is a nice lady, very smart, but, she is not ready to be president. I like the lady. I felt sorry for her watching her make a fool of herself with no awareness she was doing so. She just is not ready for this.

The debate on Thursday should likely be the end of it. Already her polls numbers are dropping.

I think there may be some sort of twisted reverse sexism going on here. If a man picked for VP had sounded this stupid there would be an uproar. Remember Dan Quayle? He never came close to this level of ineptness. Remember the grief he got? I think come Thursday night the majority of us are going to be on the this ain't right bandwagon.

Below are two videos. When I read the print version of how Sarah Palin explained that Alaska's proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience, I thought it was just artful editing to make her sound stupid. But no, what actually came out of Ms. Palin's mouth might be the most astonishingly dumb thing I've ever heard a politician say. And that covers a lot of ground.

The second video covers more of the interview and displays woeful ignorance in other areas. Watching Ms. Palin try to come up with examples of John McCain taking the lead on economic issues was very cringe-worthy.....

Abusing Human Rights

Yesterday the United States State Department released its annual report on the state of human rights around the world.

China was chastised for repressing freedom of speech, religion and the press, along with prison torture and forced confessions. Cuba was criticized for prisoner abuse, life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrests and denial of fair trials. Russia was cited for, among a few other things, problematic elections. (See Texas Caucus Debacle)

Was it not Jesus who is reported to have said "let you among me who is without sin cast the first stone."? Did Jesus also not say something like, "don't worry about the sand in your neighbor's eye, worry about the sand in your own eye."?

I don't bring up Jesus and his supposed words due to me being some sort of proselytizer living in the buckle of the bible belt. Rather I bring up the supposed words of Jesus because many in the United States like to think of this nation as being a Christian nation. A Christian nation which somehow tends to sort of ignore basic Christian values. As practiced by the original Christian. That being Jesus.

And so how do we Americans have the gall to go about pointing out other nation's human rights violations? Are we without sin? Have we not as a nation cast the first stone a time or two?

America has more people in jail than any other nation on earth. America has a higher percentage of its people behind bars than any other nation on earth. We execute people. Who are sometimes later proved to be innocent.

In America you can get handcuffed, strip searched and thrown in jail due to a 6 year old $20 bounced check that you had no knowledge of. I really can't imagine Jesus handcuffing and strip searching someone over a 6 year old bounced $20 check. The same thing can happen to you for annoying a prosecutor by calling him an idiotic baboon. Currently, here in Texas, there are thousands of arrest warrants out for citizens who have committed no crime, but instead got in to the system for the most innocent of reasons. Innocent reasons, I say, not crimes. I wrote about this in a posting I called The Soviet State of Texas. It shocked me that such things could occur here in America, where we are the supposed champions of human rights world wide.

Did the State Department cite the United States for violating the human rights of young Americans who were sent to invade a sovereign nation for bogus reasons, where no weapons of mass destruction have been found and where, yesterday, the U.S. admitted there was no tie to Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda?

Was the United States cited by the State Department for the human rights abuses that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad?

Did the State Department cite the United States for the practice of waterboarding?

How about for holding prisoners without charge at a base on an island the State Department did cite as a human rights abuser, the base being Guantanamo Bay and the island being Cuba?

Okay, one thing I'll admit, if I were in China, Cuba or Russia I would be afraid to mouth off about my government's hypocrisy like I'm doing here. That is a good thing. But a better thing would be if my government did not give me so much material with which to point out the absurd hypocrisy of the United State's overbearing and self-righteous chastising of other nations for their supposed human rights abuses.

Let's get ourselves a totally clean American record and then start preaching to the rest of the world. Until then the United States should shut up.

In my humble opinion.