I'm coming out from my self-imposed TL Timeout to let all you Hillary supporters know that her DNC speech is now available FREE as a podcast on iTunes.

Also available is Bill Clinton's DNC speech.

They are both available in video and audio-only.

On her experience as a public servant:
"I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a `community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

On why she is going to Washington, D.C.:
"I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

On John McCain:
"Here's how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

My thoughts are that all of the evil that we are enduring these days are a product of the corruption of both political parties working in concert. The Iraq war could have have happened and continue to be perpetuated without the active support of both democrats and republicans.

We are supposed to hate republicans.
I have nothing but contempt for Bush, but people like him are only possible because he is basically unopposed.
I am totally unconvinced that the democratic nominees are passionate about our best interests.
We have been divided from each other and the ones who benefit from it are in control and will continue to be in control.

Josh Marshall, I think, hits the nail on the head:

Let's be clear about what's happening here. Overwhelmingly, reporters are pressing eminently reasonable questions -- her role in troopergate, her lack of experience, her connections to the AIP, her history of earmarking and lobbyists, etc. Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is going absolutely non-stop about Palin's daughter. It is unmistakable.

Not anticipating that McCain would choose a woman as his running mate, the speech that was prepared in advance was "very masculine," according to campaign manager Rick Davis, and "we had to start from scratch."

Here's McCain's own campaign manager confirming that Palin was a last minute choice, and that the original speech was written for someone else. Right now, they're sitting at that table with the diced up remains of a speech that was originally written for Romney or Pawlenty and putting a dress on it.

It would be interesting to see what the before and after versions of the speech look like. What will be missing from the revised speech? What parts of the speech did the Republicans find so "masculine" that they just couldn't let their VP pick deliver them? Just the fact that they're busily putting pink paint on a speech designed before McCain threw his Hail Hard Right pass shows what they really think about Palin, and about women in general. Unless the speech was full of references to jock straps, just what was in it that Palin couldn't say? Really, how sexist is it to describe a political speech as "very masculine?"

My brother, who passed away way too young, was a defense attorney, so my sympathies are with the defense most of the time. Will this disqualify me?

I'm not looking for away to get out of this...my brother's biggest problem with our justice system was the lousy choices he had for juries.

Can they do this??? Serious question.

Via ShakespearesSister linked to Starhawk and to GodlikeProductions.

The Permibus was relocating from the Bedlam Theatre in Minneapolis, where they had spent the day teaching Urban Permaculture, to a friend's house in Saint Paul for a well deserved break. The Permibus has been in the Minneapolis area since August 2nd when the crew appeared at the Midtown Farmers Market for a morning of Permaculture education including Permaculture 101, chicken care, seed ball making for kids, and the Permi-puppet show.

During the past month the Permibus has parked at several local businesses and, as a neighborly gesture of respect for local police, Mr. Wilson contacted the appropriate precincts just to let them know the Permibus was in the area and had permission from the business owners to be parked on their lot. Through this, as well as other casual discussions with Minneapolis and Saint Paul police officers, the Permibus crew found the local police to be interested and respectful.

However on August 30th all that changed when, for no apparent valid reason the police pulled over and seized the Permibus. After the incident Stan Wilson said, "If the combined law enforcement of Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Ramsey County, and the State of Minnesota can pull over and impound a vehicle and home used to teach organic gardening and sustainability, one has to wonder what it is our government really fears. After all, we seek to teach people that the real meaning of homeland security is local food, fuel and energy production. For that we have had our lives stolen by government men with guns."(My emphasis)

Left- eh;
Right - love kisses yummy home run grand slam;
MSM - time to make up for all the rough coverage so far.

First off, regarding ethnicity, people who've followed this story know that's verbatim how young Levi described himself on his MySpace page.

Second, you might want to look into / being the international symbol for snark.

Most damming Kissinger QUOTE: "Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy". (Cited from Woodward and Bernstein, The Final Days.)