I know I’m biased, but what’s up with Republicans?  I realize that all politicians bend or spin the truth to suit themselves, but I don’t see the same brazen hypocrisy from the left side of the aisle that was spewed forth last night.  Lets look at some of the serious lies/hypocrisy as well as some of the more humorous lines from Governor Palin’s speech:

“Long ago, a young farmer and a haberdasher from Missouri, he followed an unlikely path — he followed an unlikely path to the vice presidency. And a writer observed, “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity,” and I know just the kind of people that writer had in mind when he praised Harry Truman.  I grew up with those people. ”

Hold the phone!  Sarah Palin grew up with Harry Truman?  I demand an investigation immediately.  She masquerades as a 44-year old mother of 5, when in fact she’s closer to 120 years old (Truman was born in 1884).  Somebody call the Enquirer!

“No, we tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.”

Governor, have you ever been to Scranton? Do you know what state its in?

“Well, I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment.”

I’m aghast at this revelation!! Have the Republicans gone mad, nominating a woman who isn’t even a member of their party??  And I thought Lieberman was out because he was an Independent.

“No one expects us all to agree on everything, but we are expected to govern with integrity, and goodwill, and clear convictions, and a servant’s heart.”

Well, based on what we’ve learned about Governor Palin over the past week, I’d say… “clear convictions, check!”  The rest of the list… not so clear.

“This was the spirit that brought me to the governor’s office when I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau, when I stood up to the special interests, and the lobbyists, and the Big Oil companies, and the good-old boys.”

Is becoming a good-old boy the same as standing up to them? I know she did some things to clean up corruption in Alaska, but she and her husband have also made some good ka-ching off of Big Oil companies.  She hired a lobbyist to secure a LOT of money in earmarks from Congress.  And what special interests have any interest in Alaska??  Greenpeace and PETA?  She sure stood up to them…with an M16 in hand.  Finally, how do ANY of them keep a straight face when they discuss “politics as usual… in Juneau!?!?!”

“We suspended the state fuel tax and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks,” on that Bridge to Nowhere.”

Here’s the biggest piece of BS of the night (I think, until I think another might have been).  First, they suspended the gas tax 4 days ago (a move widely panned by experts as a gimick); Alaska had the lowest gas tax in the country.  Second, I’m not sure what her definition of “championed” might be, but Palin not only accepted earmarks while in office, she hired a lobbyist (tied to Alaska bad-boy Ted Stevens) to secure millions of dollars for her home state, including: $200,000 for the Kenai Peninsula 2006 Arctic Winter Games.  Have you ever looked through the earmarks we, the people, pay for?  If you have the time and spare sanity, you should check it out… OMG.

But really, you’re on record as campaigning for Governor in support of the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere” so I think you mis-spoke and meant you told Congress “thanks” before you told them “no thanks.”

“When oil and gas prices went up dramatically and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged: directly to the people of Alaska.”

I’m calling BS on this one kids.  Alaska has been sharing oil revenues with the people for 30+ years: “In the 1970’s, during the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the state realized that the new oil leases would produce an enormous windfall. Its citizens set up the Alaska Permanent Fund to manage this income, directing that the revenue be invested, the principal remain untouched and the gains be used for state infrastructure investments. A part of the proceeds was distributed as dividends to every Alaskan. By July 2002, the fund had grown to more than $23.5 billion. Dividend payments to Alaskan families averaged about $8,000 per year.”

If Al Gore can’t claim credit for inventing the Internet, then Sarah Palin can’t claim credit for Alaska’s oil revenue-sharing plan.

“I  fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.

That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are open, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.”

Read an interesting story about this pipeline here, but also realize that “it will still be at least another 10 years before any market sees Alaska’s gas. ”

“Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines, and build more nuclear plants, and create jobs with clean coal, and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. We need…

We need American sources of resources. We need American energy brought to you by American ingenuity and produced by American workers.”

Well, at least somebody on the right listened to Obama’s speech!  I didn’t really expect her to steal lines, though…

“what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet?

The answer — the answer is to make government bigger, and take more of your money, and give you more orders from Washington, and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world.

America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it. Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit. Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions.”

My favorite Republican ploy!  Boorish sarcasm followed by hypocritical fear-mongering!  Perhaps Governor Palin failed to notice while she was shooting moose, denying global warming, intimidating public officials (or having her husband do it), speaking in tongues, or clubbing baby seals (see? sarcasm is fun!) but government has never been bigger than under GWB and the Republican party.  And neither has our strength abroad been so precarious than right now, thanks to 8 years of idiocy.  What “victory” is in sight?  What the Hell IS victory in Iraq? 

And um, last I heard, terrorists don’t have “states.”  That’s what makes them so hard to fight, dear Sarah: they are adaptable organizations with no borders or boundries, other than their ideals.

“And let me be specific: The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, and raise payroll taxes, and raise investment income taxes, and raise the death tax, and raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Oh noes! Fear the taxman, he’s gonna GET YOU!!  Never mind the fact that neither Obama nor his surrogates have ever spoken about raising taxes, and very clearly outlined their plan to cut taxes for 95% of the country. FEAR HIM!!

We’re all better off just spending, spending spending, and then borrowing, borrowing, borrowing from China and others.  No wonder we have so many problems with personal debt, credit cards, a mortgage crisis, etc.  Too many people running their personal finances like Republicans run the country.  At home, you don’t buy stuff unless you have enough income to pay for it — now, or down the road.  And hmmm, what is “income” for a country?

And the beat goes on…

EDIT: Man, I did all this work and then found this link, an AP fact check, which speaks far more intelligently than i do on these issues!