To quote one of your presumed heroes, "There you go again."

See, it's a neat rhetorical trick, but it's a trick nonetheless. When confronted with a lie from the mouth of your own candidate, which has been confirmed and established and acknowledged by all, you pull out some tired b.s. about gore and the internet and cambodia and little green men on your front lawn. (See the entry in snopes.com to find exactly what gore said:

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp)

We all know that politicians lie -- it's in their blood. They lie to put themselves and their policies in the best light, they perform semantic tricks to avoid the truth ("I did not have sex with that woman") -- I'm not denying that. The innovation introduced by this administration is to seize the facts about their own blunders and make an opposite claim -- see my previous note about Iraq and WMD etc. -- then shout "traitor!" when anyone calls them on it.

Palin is doing the same thing, the Mccain campaign is just substituting "sexist!" in response to criticism. Just to slow things down for you: She lobbied for the money for the Bridge to Nowhere. She gave speeches, which are on record. Only when it became obvious that the BTN was political dynamite did she drop the request. You with me so far?

Good. In her debut speech at the RNC, in classic bush fashion, she seizes this apparent weakness in her resume by claiming to have "stopped" it. The clear implication was that brave sarah palin stood up to the wastrels in government and said "no thanks" to this boondoggle project. Can we agree on that? It's a LIE.

We need to keep hammering away at this not because lying is unique to sarah palin, the republicans, or politicians in general, but because this kind of mind-bending, fact-inverting perversion of truth is exactly what I and so many others are tired of in our government. Now. If you have something specific and germane to refute the obvious fact of ms. palin's lies, please, i'm all ears. but don't throw a bunch of tired crap onscreen and expect that to suffice.

I'm actually glad shootergolightly brought up Gore and Kerry, because it raises a very important point. In both cases, the repub's did a good job defining each candidate as, respectively, an arrogant exaggerator and an arrogant coward/liar. They did so by themselves exaggerating or outright distorting the words of the candidates. Gore became a laughingstock, Kerry became a frenchified wimp.

The effort to hang palin on the petard of her bald-faced lie should be no less energetic, and with similar aims. After all, it is in fact her own words being used for ammo, not a distortion or deliberate misinterpretation of them. She is being presented as a strong feminist no-nonsense voice, a "celebrity" in her own right who is stealing the spotlight from obama (and mccain). But she is also a liar. Keep at it, folks -- hopefully it will catch on.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN3125537020080901

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/bookman/entries/2008/09/13/palin_cops_on_the_bridge_quest.html

"We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge," Gov. Palin said in August 2006, according to the local newspaper, "and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative." The bridge would have linked Ketchikan to the airport on Gravina Island. Travelers from Ketchikan (pop. 7,500) now rely on ferries.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122090791901411709.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

I don't need to pass a test. you need to get a clue. Oh! and you forgot to post the next several graphs of the reuters piece. let me help you:

"The state, however, never gave back any of the money that was originally earmarked for the Gravina Island bridge, said Weinstein and Elerding.

In fact, the Palin administration has spent "tens of millions of dollars" in federal funds to start building a road on Gravina Island that is supposed to link up to the yet-to-be-built bridge, Weinstein said.

"She said 'thanks but no thanks,' but they kept the money," said Elerding about her applause line.

Former state House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican who represented the Kenai Peninsula city of Homer, is also critical about Palin's reversal on the bridge issue.

"You don't tell a group of Alaskans you support something and then go to someplace else and say you oppose it," said Phillips, who supported Palin's opponent, Democrat Tony Knowles, in the 2006 gubernatorial race."

i realize this "works for you," because you're unwilling or unable to do the critical thinking necessary to grasp the concept. here's hoping millions of americans aren't as myopic as you (a test: look it up). heh

shooter, shitter, whatever the hell your handle is: go back and read the article very, very slowly, mouthing the words out loud if need be -- hell, you may even be able to rustle up someone who can explain it to you. you will then discover that the subject of this article is the "bridge to nowhere." likewise, that is the subject of this war room post, and the letters thread thereon. as in, sarah palin, liar.

the article is relevant because it shows how and why she lied. it includes comments from those in her own party who explain how and why and about what she lied. go ahead and continue to pull parts of the article out that support what you want to believe, but that is the gist and thrust of the reuters piece. also, keep trying to desperately shift the focus of this letters thread by bringing up decade-old distortions about al gore, etc. -- i'm sorry, who's moving the goal posts?

that's what i thought.

adios, amigo, and don't go accidentally shoo/itting yourself in the dark.