A friend’s husband subscribes to an organization called “Act for America”. (P.S. She now tells me he is not a subscriber but their E mails just started showing up as if he were.) She forwarded to me an E mail from this outfit and asked my opinion. The E mail “chronicled” how Obama is receiving the bulk of his campaign financing from foreign contributors (Middle Eastern). The article also claimed he refused to divulge the sources of his campaign contributions.

I skimmed the piece and came to the conclusion that it was a well-planned smear. I so informed her. Then I looked it up on Snopes and they confirmed my suspicion. I printed out the Snopes articles for my friend (when I tried to E mail them I kept getting the Windows E mail template and I do not subscribe to Windows E mail – snarl).

Then I tried to get information about Act for America. Snopes dealt with the rumor of the contributions, not the organization, and I could find nothing in Wikipedia. I am curious to see how this outfit is described in an objective analysis. I asked Snopes in a separate E mail if they could point me in the right direction. If you google Act for America, you just get their stuff, not a critique of who they are.

Meanwhile, I have commented (on Jeri’s post) on the Biden/Palin debate and here are my further thoughts. Palin was charming (if you like her kind of charm -- I don’t -- if I hear “you betcha” once more, I will strangle something). She was given a crash course on how to conduct herself in the debate. She focused and learned, by rote, a great many of the things she said and when the question did not fit into her set pieces, she ignored it and said (sic), “I’m not going to answer that, because this (another topic) is more important and then she recited what she had memorized in her crash course. Biden didn’t call her on it but I would have hoped Gwen Ifyll (sp?) would have. She didn’t. I kept waiting for one of them to say, “You didn’t answer THE QUESTION.” Or, you are changing the topic and we’d rather hear you answer the question.

Biden, as you may have learned from watching the news analysts, had been cautioned not to be condescending. He wasn’t. Not to beat up on her. He didn’t. To let her talk. He did. So her supporters are claiming that she has redeemed herself. Not to me. Remember that 4 a.m. phone call Hillary spoke of? What’s Palin going to do if she is in the no. one spot? Call her handlers?

Now all you mothers out there, forgive me, but I do not want to see Palin’s special needs child on camera any more. Daddy holding her, Mommy holding her, Mommy's other child holding her. This is not a nursery story. I don’t care if she is a terrific mother (and the jury, anyway, is still out on that). On no account am I voting for Mother of the Year. Nor for Soccer Mom. Nor for a killer of wolves from a low-flying helicopter with a high-powered rifle. (For those of you who have not heard, she bragged about killing 40 wolves in one afternoon in this fashion. She is proud of her skills as a hunter – or, in my view, a slaughterer of animals in an unfair fight.)

So this love fest ended amicably with the debaters all but hugging. At least no one can say that Biden was unfair (Heavens, no!) And you can bet conservative observers were waiting in the wings to label him a chauvinist. Now they can’t. I am thankful there was only this one debate because I find it difficult to watch her without getting ill. I would have loved to hear Hillary debating her. The fact that Hillary is not running for the VP spot is precisely why McCain chose Palin, so this wouldn’t have happened anyway.

Finally, after (mercifully) months without such a discussion, my b.i.l. chose to talk politics with me. He is a foam-at-the-mouth Republican and thinks the Democrats are responsible for the financial crisis and that Ed and I are in our lovely house because of Republican decisions. “Who do you think made it possible for you to have that house?” he chirped. I said I am not having this discussion but he wouldn’t shut up and insisted I hear him out. I said we will never agree and he kept on. And finally I called him an a.. h… and left. Now I can’t see my sis for a few days. So it goes. I wish I had just walked out with him mouthing off at my back.

xx, Teal