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DID YOU HEAR WHAT PEGGY NOONAN AND JOHN McCAIN CAMPAIGN AIDE MIKE MURPHY WERE SAYING ABOUT McCAIN'S PRESIDENTIAL PICK SARAH PALIN on NBC the other night, live and on camera?

If not, here's the actual unexpurgated segment, thanks to YouTube (and, ultimately, MoveOn.org):

Not to mention a transcript of the proceedings, With Necessary Omissions:

Mike Murphy, former McCain advisor: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor work. Engler, Whitman, Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. And these guys, this is all like how you want to (inaudible) this race. You know, just run it up. And it's not gonna work.

Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter: It's over.

Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

NBC's Chuck Todd: Don't you think the Palin pick was insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too (inaudible)

Noonan: I saw Kay this morning.

Murphy: They're all bummed out.

Todd: I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political [N4BSK] about narratives and (inaudible) the picture.

Murphy: I totally agree.

Noonan: Every time the Republicans do that because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at and they blow it.

Murphy: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism and this is cynical.

Todd: And as you called it, gimmicky.

And in light of Ms. Noonan's use of a Bad Word on air in these remarks (and without electronic delay, besides!), how will the so-called "Parents' Television Council" respond to the FCC?

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THIS PARTICULARLY EMBARRASSING GAFFE FOR THE CONSERVATIVE-DOMINATED MAINSTREAM MEDIA brings to mind a discredited Urban Legend involving the well-known childrens' radio host "Uncle Don" in New York (with similar versions involving kiddie show hosts on stations in Philadelphia, Cleveland and San Francisco) who, after signing off on his show one evening, remarked sotto voce (thinking all along that his microphone had been switched off) "Are we off? Good ... I guess that'll hold the little bastards."

Yet, for some reason or another, the remarks were heard live on air, prompting all manner of indignant phone calls and telegrams to the station as led to the show's immediate cancellation and the host in disgrace.

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THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT AND ITS DROOGS ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT VERY HAPPY ABOUT A RECENT FLORIDA SUPREME COURT RULING removing two Proposed Constitutional Amendments from the November ballot paper serving their misguided articles of faith and little else.

Let the following press release from the Anti-Defamation League elaborate further:

ADL Hails Court's Striking of Amendments 7 & 9 from Florida Ballot as a Victory for Religious Freedom

Boca Raton, FL, September 3, 2008 …. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today hailed a Florida Supreme Court decision which has "safeguarded the religious freedom of all Floridians."  The Court's ruling struck down two pernicious proposed amendments that would have substantially rewritten the Florida Constitution and its protection of religion. 

 

Andrew Rosenkranz, ADL Florida Regional Director, said:

 

The Florida Supreme Court has acted decisively to stop this onslaught on our religious freedom.  In rebuking the activist Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, the Court acted prudently and has safeguarded the religious freedom of all Floridians.

 

In this case, ADL acted as legal counsel in conjunction with the Florida Education Association and other like-minded organizations.

 

The proposed amendments that were struck down resulted from the 2007-08 term of the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission (TBRC).   The order underscores the Court's agreement with ADL's argument that the TBRC exceeded its constitutional authority in seeking to place Amendments 7 and 9 before Florida voters.  The TBRC has the limited authority to place on the ballot constitutional amendments addressing "taxation" and "state budgetary process." A formal opinion will be forthcoming from the Court.

 

Amendment 7 would have eliminated long-established religious freedom protections from the Florida Constitution. It would also have rewritten the Florida Constitution to require Florida taxpayers to support religious organizations, religious discrimination in hiring, and proselytizing.   Amendment 9 would have altered the Florida Constitution to authorize, if not mandate, the State to fund private schools through vouchers or other means.

 

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

Let this be lesson to such seeing "educational reform" as a coded euphemism for "targeted" voucher programmes designed, first and foremost, as a blackmailing weapon against "chronic and habitual welfare cases***lacking Healthy and Proper Moral Compass" who are all the more resigned to free public schools for their primary education.

And, second, to favour so-called "Christian Academies" placing Traditional Values above Core Skills to the point where scholastic performance is likely to suffer, reinforced by mandatory paramilitary instruction and nude swimming which is nothing more than a ruse for aquaphile child pornography whose proceeds go back to the school (and for which all manner of ruses are deployed to avoid suspicions that a "Christian Academy" would engage in such untoward acts, deeds and exploits).

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COULD IT BE THAT THE WHOLE IDEA OF OUTSOURCING JOBS OFFSHORE MAY HAVE BACKFIRED to the point where companies are now having second thoughts about the whole idea in the first place?

Witness what the World Business Review on the BBC World Service earlier today had to say about the subject, noting where the issue had become an Indecision 2008 such in and of itself ... that, and noting where companies are now actually returning these jobs stateside thanks to such factors as:

• Increased fuel and transportation costs;
• Any cost savings presumed to ensue by moving labour-intensive operations to low-wage economies like those of China and India actually being transient and/or illusory over time, thanks largely to currency fluctuations and even political considerations;
• Resentment on the part of "right-thinking Americans" (usually those hard-wired in their acceptance of Fox Prolefeed as their main source of news and information) to offshore call centres and helpdesks staffed by such speaking heavily-accented English; and
• China, curently the major producer of export cheapjack for the "morally superior" American market (especially so Wally World and the various dollar-store chains), already seeing serious problems on its part which could make outsourcing less than viable without warning, among them:
  • threats to its power structure from within, or so anecdotal reports have suggested;
  • potentially serious disruptions to supply chains following large-scale earthquakes or other major natural disasters, especially where factories were constructed with sub-standard materials as could prove fatal in earthquakes such as those which struck Sichwuan province earlier this year; and
  • the likelihood of Beijing diverting essential resources to assisting North Korean refugees as their economy and society deteriorate all the further into chaos and ruin, not to mention uncertainty.

Which makes you wonder whether this news would be of greater benefit to the McCain/Palin ticket, or that of Obama/Biden. Reader, what would you think?

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NOU DIT KAN VERTEL WORD, as they'd say in Bloemfontein:

This past summer, The Big Story in the Waterpark Capital of the World (as in Wisconsin Dells) was the sudden drainage of Lake Delton following flooding in the wake of heavy rains back in June, forcing the Tommy Bartlett Show to remain landlocked for the first time in its 56-year run and resort owners on its shores trying to keep things afloat in the process.

Which got all the attention.

One story which, somehow, didn't get noticed in its wake was where a number of ticket offers for Noah's Ark (America's Largest Waterpark) could be had on eBay from time to time throughout the just-concluded season, notwithstanding where the tickets contained on the back, among other caveats to buyers, "void if resold."

Which was enough to prompt Your Correspondent to send e-mails from time to time throughout alerting America's Largest Waterpark to such acts, deeds and exploits unauthorised, whereby they were able to obtain the serial numbers of the tickets on offer through online auctions (or, in some cases, through the Buy It Now facility) and, in effect, void them so such could not be used for admission into Noah's. (In other words, if someone managed to have one of the tickets as had serial numbers on their "hot list," and tried to use same for admission, such was to be intercepted and the situation explained.)

As season went on, investigations by Noah's Ark and outside auditors discovered where a substantial quantity of admission tickets had been stolen in what amounted to an "inside job," with the stolen tickets "fenced" to a select group of eBay auction sellers for them to resell online under such ruses as "family emergency prevents our using them this season,""vacation plans changed," that sort of thing, to conceal the swindle. And as season's close approached, the ring was busted, with numerous such auctions shut down and charges likely to ensue in the courts.

And all because of some clever vigilance on Your Correspondent's part, never mind where misguided psychiatrists and sheltered-workshop supervisors were forever advising him that such actions as above summarised:

• were nothing more than "narking and invasion of privacy" as was "selfish and unwarranted;"
• "showed reckless and utter disregard for the traditional rights, privileges and powers of others, especially such in positions of authority, power, confidence and trust," said rights being "recognised by unwritten tradition and habit" (as in common law); and
• could be sufficent grounds to prevent my being able to find work, or otherwise revoke eligibility for welfare and Social Security benefits (as if suggesting that continued eligibility therefor requires an ignorant stupidity being exercised constantly for the sake of those in positions of power and authority).

It's my understanding that a Suitable Reward is being prepared by Noah's Ark to acknowledge my honesty and vigilance throughout.

(Similar procedures were applied when it came to offers on eBay involving Riverview Park and Waterworld and the Tommy Bartlett Show, the latter having to give tickets out to companies to give away to employees and loyal customers just to keep the name before the public. And similar actions are expected to be taken, with response likely to be forthcoming as well.)

Now you know.