Statement by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UN Environment Programme

In Response to Hurricane Gustav and the Devastating Indian Floods

2  September,  2008- The  evacuation  of  New  Orleans  in  advance of hurricane Gustav and the
displacement  of  two  million Indians to the worst flood in 50 years underline the increasing
vulnerability  of  humanity  to  natural disasters-vulnerability that is set to rise under the
scientific scenarios if climate change if left unchecked.

According  to  Munich  Re,  one of the world’s leading insurance companies and a member of the  UNEP Finance Initiative, 2008 is already shaping up to be a significant, disaster-prone year.

By  June,  an  estimated 400 natural disasters had occurred costing $82 billion. And while the  earthquake  in  Sichuan  Province, China cannot be laid at the climate change door many of the  others  are  in line with the scientific predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  Change (IPCC).


“The  year  is  following  the  long-term  trend  towards  more weather catastrophes, which is
influenced by climate change,” said the German-based re-insurer last month.

 There  is  now  less than 500 days before governments meet in Copenhagen in 2009 to agree on a
new climate deal to kick in post 2012.

Nothing  less  than firm, legally binding commitments to significantly reduce pollution linked
with  the  burning  of  fossil fuels will suffice alongside increased funding to climate-proof
vulnerable economies and communities.

Indeed  the  way  we  manage-or  fail  to  manage-our  cities and coastal infrastructure up to
transport networks; agricultural lands; forests; mangroves and wetlands will be as critical as
managing a big decline in carbon dioxide, methane and other key pollutants.

The  IPCC,  whose  20th  anniversary  we  mark  in Geneva this week, has provided the sobering
assessments and the clear direction that detours and delay and are not options.

 It is not just weather-related catastrophes that are of concern.

The current calamities facing the planet, from the serious threat of famine in Ethiopia to the
misery  and  loss of life in India and the disruptions to the people of New Orleans, underline
the kind of economic and human suffering the globe is facing within the coming years.

But  the  IPCC  assessments have shone an even brighter light on the costs of action-indeed it
clear  that  it  will  not  cost  the Earth to save it, perhaps as little as a few tenths of a
percent of global GDP a year over the next 30 years.

In  doing  so  the  globe  can  also  address other running sores from the loss of forests and
biodiversity to delivering clean energy to the rural poor and conserving water supplies.

So  the  IPCC  remind  us that we have challenges but we also have choices. It is time to make
those.                                                                                        

In Bali last year at the climate convention meeting, governments agreed to negotiate a package
of actions to be finalized by, or at, the Copenhagen climate convention meeting.

While some progress was made in August at a meeting in Accra, Ghana, the level of consensus is
failing  to  match  the  magnitude of the challenges nor the opportunities to Green the global
economy.

 The  start  of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season should serve as a reminder and catalyze that
urgent response.

The  IPCC said in its fourth assessment last year that there has been an increase in hurricane
intensity  in  the North Atlantic since the 1970s, and that increase correlates with increases
in sea surface temperature.

The  IPCC  also said it is likely that we will see increases in hurricane intensity during the
21st  century-it  is  not  too  late to act, first at the climate convention meeting in Poznan
later this year and decisively in Copenhagen a year later: we have some 500 days left.

Kinky Friedman and Little Jewford at BBKing September 1, 2008 Photo taken by Pincas Jawetz

Kinky Friedman, The Jewboys Band and guest - doing “I am only an ass—- from El Paso.”
This Photo and all previous photos taken September 1, 2008, by Pincas Jawetz at the BBKing in Times Square area, Manhattan Island.
Kinky told us he loves New York City, but does not like Philadelphia where he performed before reaching BBKing.

***

It turns out that we already wrote about Kinky back in 2006. See please:

The Independent of London Looks At Elections in Texas - Is It Possible Andrew Gumbel Recognized A Potential New US President?

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on October 23rd, 2006
by Pincas Jawetz ( PJ at SustainabiliTank.com)

***

Richard S. Friedman:

Born: November 1, 1944 (age 64) Chicago, Illinois

Residence Medina, Texas

Nationality American

Other names Kinky

Occupation Singer

Known for Music, Texas gubernatorial election

Political party - Independent

Religious beliefs - Judaism

Parents:
Thomas Friedman
Minnie Samet Friedman

Thomas (Tom) Friedman as a child worked for a pedlar who sold potatoes (”Kartoffel”) to the immigrants on West Chicago. Then, before Kinky was born, he was drafted and piloted a bomber in WWII. Eventually he took his family to Texas to live on a farm, and turned into a teacher of speech - eventually as Dr. S. Thomas Friedman he became Professor at the Austin University. That is what brought Kinky to Texas.

Kinky is a member of the Jewish Tau Delta Phi fraternity. After graduation from the University of Austin, Friedman served two years with the Peace Corps on the island of Borneo in Malaysia. He has been featured in the news including 60 Minutes on CBS and made an appearance as one of Jay Leno’s guests. Friedman lives at Echo Hill Ranch, the family’s summer camp near Kerrville, Texas that was built by his father Tom. He also founded “Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch,” the mission of which is to care for stray, abused and aging animals; more than 1,000 dogs have been saved there from animal euthanasia.
Above, ain’t trivia, in effect Kinky told the audience quite a bit of this at the Monday night performance at the BBKing Place in the New York City Times Square area.

***

Politics

See also: Texas gubernatorial election, 2006
In 1986, Friedman ran for Justice of the Peace in Kerrville, Texas, but lost the election.

Friedman speaking at Southern Methodist University in Dallas on October 5, 2006.

In 2004, Friedman began a serious, though colorful, campaign to become the Governor of Texas in 2006. One of his stated goals is the “dewussification” of Texas. Among his campaign slogans are “How Hard Could It Be?”, “Why The Hell Not?”, “My Governor is a Jewish Cowboy” and “He ain’t Kinky, he’s my Governor”.

Friedman had hoped to follow in the footsteps of other entertainers-turned-governors, including Jimmie Davis, Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Ronald Reagan. When the campaign finance reports came out after the second quarter had ended, Friedman had raised more funds than the Democratic nominee, former Congressman Chris Bell.

On election day, November 7, Friedman was defeated by a wide margin, having received less than 13% of the state’s votes in the five-candidate match-up.

***

Issues and positions:
On education, he supports higher pay for teachers and working to lower Texas’s dropout rate, which is the highest in the United States.

He supports more investment in harnessing Texas’s alternative fuel resources such as wind and biodiesel.

Friedman is opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor since it relies on toll road construction. He feels that the TTC is a land grab of the ugliest kind, with land being taken from hard-working ranchers and farmers in little towns and villages all over Texas.

On capital punishment, he previously summed up his position, “I am not anti-death penalty, but I’m damn sure anti-the-wrong-guy-getting-executed”. More recently, he has clarified his position: “The system is not perfect. Until it’s perfect, let’s do away with the death penalty”.

On illegal immigration, Kinky wants to increase the number of Texas National Guard troops on the border (from the current 1,500 to 10,000), impose $25,000 and $50,000 fines on companies that hire illegal immigrants and require foreign nationals seeking employment to purchase a foreign taxpayer ID card once they have passed a criminal background check. “Texas can no longer wait for our federal government to solve our illegal immigration problem,” Friedman said. “These are steps that Texas can immediately take to help stem the tide of illegal immigrants penetrating our border.” Had he been elected, he had promised to meet regularly with Governors Bill Richardson (New Mexico) and Janet Napolitano (Arizona) to develop a coordinated border state plan to supplement federal efforts to curb illegal immigration.

Previously, Kinky put forth the “Five Mexican Generals” Plan, to pay Mexican officials to halt immigration on their side of the border. Although he originally stated “When I talk about the five Mexican generals, people think I’m joking but I’m dead serious”, Friedman later told the Dallas Morning News that the plan, never meant to be carried out, was a joke with an element of seriousness.

According to his official Web site - http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/issues/faq…. - Friedman’s answer to the question “How does Kinky feel about abortion?” is “Kinky believes in a woman’s right to choose.” In person, he hedges his bet, saying “I’m not pro-life, and I’m not pro-choice. I’m pro-football”.

On social issues he has supported gay marriage, answering an Associated Press reporter’s question on the subject on Feb. 3, 2005, “I support gay marriage. I believe they have a right to be as miserable as the rest of us” (Friedman himself is not married).

According to Cigar Aficionado magazine, Friedman plans to roll back “any and all smoking bans” if elected. One of his favorite quotes comes from Mark Twain: “If smoking is not allowed in heaven, I shall not go”. Friedman supports the decriminalization of marijuana, though he doesn’t advocate making its sale legal. “I’m not talking about like Amsterdam,” he noted, “We’ve got to clear some of the room out of the prisons so we can put the bad guys in there, like the pedophiles and the politicians”.

Further, Kinky Friedman is in the cigar business - Hand Made KINKY FRIEDMAN CIGARS. It turns out that one of the members of his musical group, Little Jewford, is also CEO of the company.

Future political plans:
On August 9, 2007 the Austin American-Statesman reported that Friedman is considering another run for Governor of Texas in 2010. “I’m open to running,” Friedman said, adding that he won’t make a final decision until after the 2008 elections. (The Austin American-Statesman competes with the Austin Chronicle, an alternative weekly. The paper tends to print Associated Press, New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times international and national news, but has strong Central Texas coverage, especially in political reporting. However, it did endorse George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, and Republican governor Rick Perry along with every other Republican incumbent in 2006. The Statesman also tends to provide fair coverage of Libertarian Party and Green Party matters.)

In an August 23, 2007 interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Friedman stated that if he did run in 2010, he would run as a Democrat, citing that “God probably couldn’t have won as an independent”.

***

At the BBKing performance, “Kinky Friedman and The Jewboys” said and sung - some of the following:

Hear O Israel - yes indeed - I am glad God is a Texan - I am a Texan Jew.

Late one night in a labor town I got to chose - here’s to you my rambling boy.

I am 63 years old - too young for medicare, and too old for women care.

I wanted to be a politician - Governor of Texas. I was not even indicted yet. I had been given ideas by Molly Ivens - a slogan - “Why in Hell Not I?” - “Why the Hell Not I?”

Coming to politics he made a remark worthy of that day: “Gustav” was not a hit - a disappointment to most cable viewers in America.

About himself: “I would sign anything, but bad legislation.”

About Governor Perry’s election: “When nobody votes you get a ribbon-cutter Governor like Governor Perry - He has done nothing yet.” Then he told a story about someone remarking outdoors - “See - That is a beautiful statue of Governor Perry” - I looked at him and said -” But This Is Governor Perry.” The Southern Willie Nelson told Kinky - Criticize them as much as you want - but don’t circumcise them anymore.”

About the the Texas folks he had a nice story about a visit to a mission in San Antonio and a large crucifix where people come to pray. He saw there someone who seemed to be a very well to-do fellow. He addressed Jesus for help. “Jesus please, help me, the oil wells are running low, the cattle are thin, the grass does not grow, the IRS is after me.” Then a little Mexican comes by and says - Jesus help me - “I have eight children, my wife is pregnant and sick, I work hard and do not make ends meet.” The First fellow pulls out a $100 bill and gives it to the Mexican - “take this little fellow and don’t bother Jesus much.”

Texas is #50 in health coverage. He also said that a pastor told him - “if you don’t love Jesus go to hell.

In Glasgow and Scotland they know us better then we do. They see in us the Indians and cowboys. We live to close to the Pyramids to see ourselves right. The last time everything was ALL RIGHT was August 14, 1945 - that was the day Japan surrendered.

His band - “The Jewboys” included one Jew and one Lebanese and he said on his long cooperation with the Lebanese - “we are probably the only two who still speak in the Middle East.” There was also a guest performer who sang one single song about El Paso.

WIP - Starting Labor Day 2008 - Gustav - Just Three Years Later, On-the-Dot, and President Bush Overseas the Surge in KatRitaStan. Mr. McPathetic and the Queen-of-the-Fossil-Carbons, Will Get Anointed Without a Mention of Global Warming.

WIP on our website means WORK (WRITING) IN PROGRESS - or simply unfinished article. When finished the WIP will be taken off but the article will stay in place without the UPDATED designation. Nevertheless, theses introductory lines will remain as a reminder that the article had a long birth.

—————-

We are disgusted.

We happen, personally, to love Arizona, Alaska, Louisiana, Hawaii - those are to us the States of the Union that always were an inspiration to us. We took there on trips our young - real Americans - and imprinted lasting memories in their minds. We have been many times to those four States of the Union. I said inspiration because we regard those States as the remaining places were you can still find a Winetou - the figure Karl May wrote about, and who inflamed my imagination back then when I was a young boy in the Europe of the Nazis. Those were the days my own image of America was formed, and I still was not ready to cut lose from those dreams.

We do not shoot at caribous, We do not even smoke in the honky-tonk bar, we love the Amerindians, the Eskimos, and the native Hawaiians. We watched their love for the land and learned from it. We even visited the Vodoo lady of the spirits in New Orleans, and I was moved to look for her remaining sisters in many places of Latin America, Africa and Asia - even in Scandinavia.

We looked at the way nature was ruined because of oil and coal. Yes, we did not move to live there permanently. We still think that New York and California are the States we prefer to live in. But I can say that I did live for a year in Arizona, and spent the most memorable night of my life in Alaska.

The year in Arizona was with the American Graduate School for International Management (AGSIM or Thunderbird in short) when we developed personal relationship with Thomas Banyaka - the so called foreign minister of the Hopi Indians - the man who was let into Sweden on the basis of his home-made passport, that included an eagle feather, for the sake of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Environment.

But the that night I mentioned in Alaska (one night of many spent in that State) is even clearly of greater interest to me - really unforgettable.

Twenty years ago I made a wrong turn on the Matanuska Glacier (in between the towns of Wasila and Palmer). It was the young ladies of Wasila that spent the night with my wife who luckily was wiser, and did not descend from the parking lot when I went to take, very late afternoon, a picture of the glacier. I wanted also to finish the film, and asked another visitor to take a shot of me with the glacier - as the last shot on the film. An hour later that lady told my wife that “she took my last picture.” Those young Wasila ladies knew how to initiate my rescue and stayed with my wife while waiting for an army (or was it the National Guard?) helicopter to come with day break to search for me. I spent the night stuck behind an ice-rock throwing pieces at shadows to find out if those were not some animal. I literally owe my life to those ladies of Wasila. Was any of them a sister of Sarah Palin? I assume that by that time she was already out to college in Hawaii or Idaho, or was she back on summer vacation? Who knows by now? The Alaska newspapers wrote about my rescue the following day, and a month later I even got a letter from a local army official that wanted to make sure that I was OK and he can close the file on my rescue. I mention this just to say that there is nothing in my past to indicate anything but admiration to those energetic young ladies of Wasila that knew how to handle the situation and call for help from the right quarters, and to those that implemented that rescue. They saved my life, because, as they imagined I will do, I did indeed veer in the wrong direction believing I can reach a highway were I saw moving lights - but which was totally unreachable from where I was. 12 hours later I was rescued by being pulled up with ropes, by a helicopter crew that used body-heat sensors.

And those huge cauliflowers and cabbages, pumpkins of Wasila that grow there in the summer with all those extra light-hours the sun provides? Let me stop here please.

But then, we have a son that was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and who spent his first half year in a crib in Glendale, Arizona. He is now 34 years old and has done, and does, a lot for animals. He would never think of shooting at them. On the other hand, Sarah Palin went with her father to shoot caribou before breakfast.

—————-

We are disgusted because of all that talk of “YOU CANNOT CONTROL MOTHER NATURE.”

***

But we corrupted “Mother Nature.” This is not a nature catastrophe. WE DID IT.
We did it by putting all that CO2 into the atmosphere, and by destroying the barriers in front of the shores.

We caused global warming and Alaska ice is melting away. The Seas are rising.

We pulled oil out of the ground in the Gulf of Mexico and caused the land of Louisiana to sink further.

These misdeeds get their punishment while the GOP continues to march under the flag of enhancement of oil production and use.

Louisiana is just the first State to pay for these misdeeds. Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas are in line.

The Whole World will have to pay for US government’s insistence on avoiding to see the obvious realities.

————–

McCain orders convention curtailed for Gustav.
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent Sun Aug 31, 2008.
ST. PAUL, Minn. - John McCain tore up the script for his Republican National Convention on Sunday, canceling most opening-day activities and positioning himself as above mere politics as Hurricane Gustav churned toward New Orleans.

“This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics and we have to act as Americans,” he said as fellow Republicans converged on their convention city to nominate him for the White House.

On the eve of his convention, McCain took on the role of a concerned potential president determined to avoid the errors made by President Bush three years ago. “I have every expectation that we will not see the mistakes of Katrina repeated,” he said.

Bush and Vice President Cheney scrapped plans to address the convention on Monday, and McCain’s aides chartered a jet to fly delegates back to their hurricane-threatened states along the Gulf Coast. Campaign manager Rick Davis said the first-night program was being cut from seven hours to two and one half.

McCain said in an interview with NBC that it was possible he would make his acceptance speech not from the convention podium but via satellite from the Gulf Coast region.

The formal business of the convention includes nominating McCain for president and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate on Wednesday. McCain’s acceptance speech, set for prime time on Thursday evening, is among the most critical events of the campaign for his chances of winning the White House.

The hasty reordering of an event months in the planning was unprecedented, affecting not only the program on the podium but the accompanying fundraising, partying and other political activity that unfolds around the edges of a national political convention.

McCain said he was looking forward to being at the convention but did not say when he would arrive. He spoke from St. Louis after he and Palin received a briefing on hurricane preparations on a quick visit to Jackson, Miss.

***

Democratic rival Barack Obama got a briefing, too, by telephone from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Obama heard about the status of the storm, the evacuation effort and coordination between federal, state and local authorities, according to Democratic campaign adviser Robert Gibbs.

***

McCain campaign manager Davis told reporters inside the convention hall that the opening program on Monday would be “business only and will refrain from political rhetoric.”

To help those in need, he said, “We are working with the delegations, financial people, finance committees, many other concerned individuals to do what we can to raise money for various charities that operate in the Gulf Coast region.”

As for the convention schedule, he added that further adjustments would be made on a day-to-day basis.

McCain said of his briefing in Mississippi: “I’m happy to report to you that the coordination and the work that’s being done at all levels appears to be excellent.” He cited remaining challenges in communications and search and rescue operations, but emphasized that the response seemed to be going more smoothly than the one three years ago.

The Bush administration’s handling of that storm contributed to a plunge in the president’s approval ratings that helped the Democrats win control of Congress in 2006.

The uncertainty contrasted with a state of readiness inside the Xcel Center, a hockey arena transformed into a made-for-televison red-carpeted convention hall. Thousands of red, white and blue balloons nestled in netting high above the floor — to be released during final-night festivities if the Republicans decide to go ahead with them.

Outside, police took nine people into custody for crossing a security barrier in an anti-war march. The nine, including two women in their 70s, were charged with trespassing, according to Doug Holtz, a St. Paul police commander.

Emphasizing their concern about the hurricane, McCain and his newly named running mate traveled to Mississippi for a tour of the state’s emergency management center.

“I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary throughout our convention, we will act as Americans, not as Republicans,” McCain told reporters moments later.

The events temporarily overshadowed a more traditionally political pre-convention debate over McCain’s decision to name Palin to his ticket. She was mayor of small-town Wasilla, Alaska, for six years before she became governor in December 2006.

Responding to a question after his hurricane-related remarks, McCain made a ringing defense of Palin, who Democrats argue has less experience than their presidential candidate, Obama.

“I think Sen. Obama, if they want to do down that route, in all candor, she has far, far more experience than Sen. Obama does,” McCain said.

He cited Palin’s stint as governor of a “state that produces 20 percent of America’s energy” as well as her previous membership in the PTA and her time spent on the city council and in the mayor’s office in Wasilla, a town of fewer than 7,000 people outside Anchorage.

By contrast, he said Obama “was a community organizer when she was in elected office. He was in the state Senate and voted 130 times present. He never took on his party on anything. She took on a party and the old bulls and the old boy network and she succeeded.”

Palin has frequently clashed with fellow Republicans in her state, and won office after denying an incumbent GOP governor renomination to a new term in office.

***

But Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said McCain’s selection was merely designed to appease the hard-right conservatives in the Republican Party. “His knees buckled” when it came time to picking a running mate, Dodd said of McCain in an appearance on CNN.

Democrats, too, decided to tone down their convention-week efforts.

Party spokesman Brad Woodhouse said the Democrats had canceled a “More of the Same” rally that had been slated for Monday.

Obama said he was ready to encourage his supporters to assist any victims of the hurricane.

“I think we can activate an e-mail list of a couple of million people who want to give back,” he said.

With millions of Gulf Coast residents fleeing the approaching storm, Chadwick Melder, a delegate from Baton Rouge, said he was taking advantage of an offer from the campaign to fly his family out of harm’s way.

“I’m trying to get my family out of there and stay here for the week,” said Melder, although he added, “I have responsibilities here as well.”

___

Associated Press writers Liz Sidoti and Sara Kugler in St. Paul, Charles Babington in Lima, Ohio, and Beth Fouhy in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_o…

Cindy McCain defends Palin pick, husband
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press, Sunday, August 31, 2008

WASHINGTON - Cindy McCain said Sunday that Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin understands what’s at stake in national security issues in part because she is governor of Alaska, whose borders nearly touch Russia’s.

The wife of soon-to-be GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain also said she’s “offended” by Democrats calling her husband elitist because of the number of homes their family owns.

Asked about Palin’s credentials, Cindy McCain told ABC-TV’s “This Week:” “The experience that she comes from is with what she’s done in the government. And also, remember: Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia. So, it’s not as if she doesn’t understand what’s at stake here.”

***

Alaskan and Russian islands are fewer than 3 miles apart in the Bering Strait. The two mainlands are about 55 miles apart.

Reminded that Democrats are calling Palin too inexperienced to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, she responded by saying that Palin’s son is about be deployed to Iraq.

“I asked her, how do you feel about this? This is two things you have to do, is not only possibly be a vice presidential candidate, but also, you know, listen, to worry about your son,” Cindy McCain recounted of her conversation with Palin before the vice presidential announcement. “And she looked me square in the eye and she said, ‘You know something? I’m a mother. I can do it.’”

***

Democratic Sen. John Kerry, his party’s 2004 presidential nominee, disputed Palin’s credentials a few minutes later on the show, saying the Alaska governor has “zero, zero experience in foreign policy.”

It’s unusual for the spouse of a presidential candidate to go on a Sunday talk show, but Cindy McCain used her 10 minutes to defend her husband from charges of elitism.

She also signaled she’d want to focus on humanitarian crises as first lady, talking about her meetings in Georgia last week with refugees of the recent Russian invasion.

Georgia “is a wonderful, young democracy,” McCain said. “We can’t let it go. We can’t let a country come back in and take it back down to a Soviet-style government. This is democracy, and that’s what we’re all about.”

She added: “The United States is the best at what we do. We’re the ones that give the most and give the earliest, every time something happens. And I’d like to continue that, and also encourage others to get involved. You don’t have to cross an ocean to be of help.”

***

McCain bristled at charges by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama that her husband is out of touch with most Americans because of the eight homes their family owns.

“My husband was a Navy boy. His father and mother were in the Navy. I mean, there’s nothing elitist about that,” she said. “I’m offended by Barack Obama saying that about my husband.”

 http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/08/3…

—————

John McCain is Older Than Alaska:
The Senator from Arizona is 23 years older than America’s 49th state.
Posted by Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet, August 29, 2008.

The Wall Street Journal Says Senator McCain is a former fighter pilot - so he loves to take risks.

*****

Amazing Today’s Financial Times Print Edition (Saturday, August 30, 2008) - A clear Sign Of Having Been Caught in Complete Surprise.

The inside of the paper deals with the change from the Clinton party leadership to the Obamas. “Bedecked in Denver” and the Ingram Pinn cartoon showing “Turning The Page.”

Then The Editorial already scrambles to - “Battle of the Conventions: The Democrats did well, Next up, the Republicans.” … “Most appealingly, Obama wants to unite not just his party but his country.”… “No sooner had the Democrats wrapped up their convention - Mr. McCain congratulated Mr. Obama on a job well done - than Mr. McCain recaptured the headlines and stunned many in the party and the country at large with his choice of running mate…. Above all, young and inexperienced, is she a plausible president?”

A heroic effort was seemingly needed to put on the front page: “PALIN TO SHAKE UP ELECTION FIGHT IN US” and back this up on page 2 with “McCain Takes Big Gamble on Palin: Suburban Mom Who Took On Her Own Party.”

The obvious - Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in Denver the night before was relegated to a secondary story. The media chatter was about the 44-year-old governor of Alaska. Mr. McCain has managed to grab the media’s attention in his unexpected move.

“Political insiders were divided between those that saw a masterstroke that could transform the race in Mr. McCain’s favor, and others who thought it disatrous.”

David Gergen, who advised Republican and Democrat White house, said on CNN “you could have knocked me over with a feather.” “John McCain likes to take risks and this is one of the biggest gambles I’ve seen in a long, long time.”

{OK John, you can take gambles with your campaign - but do you think the voters will take gambles with their future? Will they agree to have as alternate commander in chief to a 72 year old gentleman a kid conservative social-warrior when the country may indeed face not the issue of birth but the issues of death? Climate change, poverty and diseases in developing countries, the competition with the new powers of China, India and Russia? Reorganizing Alaska’s oil money is no credible experience when it comes to this sort of issues.

What about the following news:

“In the wake of the apparent retreat of ice in the Arctic Circle, the U.S. Coast Guard called for the need for vessels capable of breaking through the arctic ice. The U.S. fleet currently has three ships capable of performing such duties; one is currently under repair. Meanwhile, in search of new resources in the frozen north, Russia is expanding the size of its icebreaking fleet to 14.” Does the young lady have any idea how to respond to this problem brewing in her backyard?

or - “A defense deal was signed by Russia and Syria, which may lead to Russian defense missiles on Syrian soil. Some observers fear this may lead to a Middle East “Cold War,” with the West supporting Israel and Russia, Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said, “We are ready to co-operate with Russia in any project that can strengthen its security,”

or - “The US turned down a request by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to purchase the Boeing 767 aircraft, which can be used for mid-air refueling, amid fears that the sale would appear to support an Israeli strike on Iran” }

—-

The Japan Times online has no word yet on Palin, their US article is still “Obama Takes The Party.”

***

After above introduction, let us see what US reporters, with more access to sources, and with the benefit of another 6 hours of time, could come up regarding the big McCain (McPathetic) willing gamble. If he is successful, and god forbids something happens to him, heshowed he is willing to gamble with the future of all of us. This might indeed be a sign he himself is already beyond the age of becoming a solid leader of his country.

One Last Word To The Conservative Social Bunch that Is Trying To Run Away With America;

GOD IS SPELLED WITH A “D” - CLEARLY NOT WITH A “P”

==============

ANALYSIS: With His VP Pick, McCain Reclaims His Maverick Image.

Advisers say John McCain had hoped to shake up the race. In choosing as his running mate Sarah Palin — a virtually unknown Washington outsider — he succeeded.

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 30, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 29 — John McCain’s advisers predicted weeks ago that the presumptive Republican nominee would use his national convention week to try to recapture his image as a maverick reformer and shake up the presidential race. He did just that Friday with his surprise choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

McCain’s selection of the nationally untested Palin is the most unlikely choice of a running mate since George H.W. Bush tapped then-Sen. Dan Quayle in 1988, a move as risky as it was bold. The decision brings the senator from Arizona immediate dividends with his base and eventually, perhaps, with swing voters. But it comes at potentially significant cost to his effort to discredit Democratic nominee Barack Obama as unprepared for the presidency.

The choice of Palin, the first woman named to a Republican presidential ticket, adds another chapter to a campaign that, mostly on the Democratic side, has been about breaking down racial and gender barriers in America. McCain’s hope is that, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) now on the sidelines, Palin can help close a sizable gap with Obama among female voters that threatens to block his path to the White House.

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Picking Palin also helps McCain consolidate his party’s conservative base, which has been at best lukewarm toward his candidacy. The governor’s conservative credentials are not in doubt, whether on {opposing even in cases of rape or incest} abortion or {promoting} gun rights or {standing up against} gay rights. The announcement of her elevation to the Republican ticket brought an outpouring of enthusiasm from the right flank of the GOP and will assure a more energized convention next week in St. Paul, Minn.


But what tipped the balance toward Palin was that she gives McCain a partner with a record of challenging the establishment in her own party and in Anchorage, reinforcing the case that he would be more fearless and effective than Obama in taking on special interests in Washington.

“I have found the right partner to help me stand up to those who value their privileges over their responsibilities, who put power over principle, and put their interests before your needs,” McCain said in introducing Palin on Friday. “I found someone with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests and entrenched bureaucracies; someone who has fought against corruption and the failed policies of the past.”

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But in turning to Palin, who is halfway through her first term as governor and who previously served as mayor of the small town of Wasilla, outside Anchorage, McCain risks ceding the most effective argument he and fellow Republicans have made against Obama. For months, Republicans have attacked the senator from Illinois as not ready to be president. Now McCain has put someone who Democrats argue has even less experience one election and a heartbeat away from the presidency.

He also has gambled that the governor of a geographically large but sparsely populated state can make the transition to the national stage, with no opportunity for an off-Broadway tryout. Unlike some of the established politicians who were believed to be under consideration, Palin is a total newcomer to the national spotlight and thus vulnerable to making the kind of mistakes that would raise questions about McCain’s judgment.

But Mark Salter, one of McCain’s closest confidants, said Friday that the campaign will argue that Palin’s experience actually exceeds Obama’s, both as an executive and as a hard-charging reformer willing to take on not just special interests but her own party as well. “Obama has no such record,” Salter said.

McCain’s campaign has exuded confidence of late after a month in which it pounded Obama as an elitist and a lightweight celebrity. But the choice of Palin hints at the underlying anxiety within its inner circle that the fundamentals of this election year still favor Obama and the Democrats. McCain was looking