Monday, September 29, 2008

How God supports patent reform, or patents in general

From NBC's Michael Levine: As questions have been raised over how thoroughly Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign vetted Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the V.P. slot, it seems the McCain campaign was unaware of a video -- available online -- in which Palin talks about God's role in U.S. military action overseas, according to a political operative familiar with the situation. The video, first reported by the liberal blog HuffingtonPost.com, is from a June Palin speech to the graduating class of commission students at Palin's former church in Wasilla, Alaska. While describing her family, Palin told students about her oldest son, 19-year-old Track, who is set to be deployed to Iraq this month with the U.S. Army. She urged students to pray "that our leaders -- that our national leaders -- are sending [soldiers] out on a task that is from God." She added, "That's what we have to make sure that we are praying for: that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." (note: legitimate question then - is there patent reform in God's plan? And after Georgie Bush's hearing from God to invade Iraq, I am scared of this talk.) "It's pretty uncomfortable stuff," said the political operative, after watching the video online. "It's bad. It's really bad. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out." The seven-minute speech is posted on the Web site of Palin's former church, the Wasilla Assembly of God. But, the political operative said, the McCain campaign seems to have had no knowledge of it when Palin was announced as McCain's running mate on Friday. For fans of the Daily Show: The most recent Republican hypocrisies were best pointed out by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show last week, with clips of Karl Rove flip-flopping on whether someone who was once mayor of a city as small as Richmond and governor of a state the size of Virginia is qualified to be Vice President (on August 10, Rove said that a possible Democrat nominee, Tim Keane, was not qualified; last week Rove said Sarah Palin, former mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska and current governor of Alaska, was qualified); of Bill O.Reilly on whether a teenage girl's pregnancy is the fault of her parents (it is, when the parents are the parents of Britney Spears' sister Jamie Lynn, but it's not when the parents are Governor Sarah and 'First Dude' Todd Palin); of the prostitute-hiring Dick Morris on whether certain attacks on a female candidate are sexist (last year Morris said Hillary Clinton shouldn't complain about sexist attacks, because she needed to show she could play with 'the boys'; but last week Morris complained about sexist attacks on Sarah Palin); and a clip of Sarah Palin herself, from last March, saying that women candidates should not 'whine' about sexism