A Canadian radio station recently crank called Sarah Palin and convinced her that she was speaking to French President Sarkozy. Here is the audio link:

http://www.tindeck.com/audio/filestore/w/wwdo-SarahPalin.mp3

Yeah, I'm like a younger, female Aaron Sorkin.

Yes it's a joke. A little Election Day in-joke for you. Like a sweet West Wing flavored confectionary treat.

/Early voted a week ago

//In both columns!

I'm a first-timer, so it took me a little while to figure out the process, but now that I've been educated, it's easy. If your candidate appears in multiple columns, you have to vote in all of them. However, if you fill in a bubble for one Democrat (or one Republican), it's counted as a straight-party vote and you only have to check that one bubble. That's little voting shortcut there for those of you who'd like to save some time. You can also rank the candidates in order of preference. So I might put Obama as #1 and Nader as #2.

My only question at this point is... do you have to be pre-registered or something?

My mother, truly one of the best people around, recently lost a large percentage of her retirement savings. She is still young and healthy, so it's not as serious for her as it is for an older generation of Americans, but it has still forced her to cut back. Since she works in the business world she was accustomed to going out to lunch every day, but in the last months has taken to bringing a bag lunch to work and taking a walk or visiting a library during her lunch hour. Recently, she and one of her friends were walking the local nursery and they both bought pepper plants for $4.99. She made an interesting observation: you could skip going out, buy a new plant every day during your lunch break, and still save money.

Spending your lunch break outside, among plants, instead of at a Friday's or McDonald's, hardly seems like a sacrifice. My parents have a huge victory garden that is bearing fresh organic lettuce, tomatoes, sweet and regular potatoes, peppers, figs, melons, lemons, nuts, beans, herbs, and sweet-smelling jasmine. They spend much of their time outside, working together on the garden or talking on the patio. The fact that our family will have an abundance of cheap, healthy food no matter what happens to the economy is comforting, and the simple rituals of planting and harvesting are also stress-killers. This is a great way to teach your kids about self-sufficiency, optimism and compassion (a healthy plant needs daily care, and how about feeding the neighbors?) while also carving out some quality time with them.

There are books that can get you started on vegetable gardening. If you have a good plan, you don't have to have a lot of land (or money) to plant a few veggies.

Alaska's rate of sexual assault almost 3 times the national average. I discovered this recently when considering a move to the Snow State. I'd like to know if Palin did anything as mayor or governor to help reduce rape and other sex crimes in AK.

..of the fact that the Wasilla PD charged rape victims for evidence collection while Palin was mayor? I'm not sure this actually reflects badly on Palin as a mayor or a person. She couldn't know everything and maybe there is some reason this makes sense. But I'd like to hear some thoughts:

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2000/05/23/news.txt

He's looking over her shoulder to make sure she reads her lines.

Republicans have been floating the idea that Obama's speech on Wednesday was very negative and personal. I watched that speech along with 40 million other people, and I saw it as presidential, bipartisan, and focused on the people. Are people seriously going to believe this?

If you don't like this web site you can always leave. If you have a problem with people who have differing views sharing your country... well, I'm afraid nobody can help you there, though that's not a very American perspective.

The people who made this country what is is were militant liberals, in the dictonary sense:

lib·er·al (lĭb'ər-əl, lĭb'rəl) adj. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded. (The American Heritage Dictionary)

The Founding Fathers didn't have any problem taking on the status quo and were pretty vocal about the separation of church and state. And they didn't just protest, they kicked ass. Plenty of Britis Loyaltists said, "If you don't like this country, leave." So they did. Be careful what you wish for, eh? Liberalism, especially on issues of civil rights and civil liberties, is a patriotic American tradition.

We've got a great culture of mixed capitalism here but not long ago that was also considered a liberal economic policy. Still is in some places. There's a happy medium where people can still get rich enough to buy and sell their own houses a hundred times over and let impoverished children get their check-ups and shots for free. Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, said taxes were the price we paid for living in a civilized society. Roosevelt said the essential human freedoms were freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, freedom from fear. As the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world, America is head and shoulders above any other country in its ability to provide those things to a majority of its citizens. Without putting our mixed powerhouse economy at risk.

I earn plenty of money. And Obama's going to be great for moderates like me.