When parody becomes reality

Not even Tiny Fey from “Saturday Night Live” could make this up:
From the actual transcripts of the CBS Evening News interview with Sarah Palin:

COURIC: “Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?”
PALIN: “That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the – it’s got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.”

On her foreign-policy experience, Palin’s response with this:
“It’s very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where – where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to – to our state.”

And THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE should be a hoot…

Did Palin break her state's own law?

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah ... what did you do?
You know, once you get elected, you can NEVER be just a ordinary citizen.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/27/AR2008092702834.html?hpid=topnews
Once again, small time politician WAY out of her league.

"Everyone has a price"

Ah, so, it turns out Sarah Palin ain't NO different than any other Washington politician ... she loves her some gifts and donations - even from indicted scumbags in her own state.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080926/ap_on_el_pr/palin_tainted_donors
She got caught, like the rest of them, AFTER THE FACT.
And with her idiotic ramblings to simple policy questions heard over the past two days on CBS News with softball tossing Katie Couric, anyone who STILL thinks this MILF is qualified to be vice president needs a major IQ test.

What is the hell is she saying???

Somebody PLEASE explain what this woman is actually SAYING:
From the Associated Press story, Sept. 23, 2008, about Sarah Palin's interview to be aired on Fox News Channel tomorrow (Sept. 24) on that bastion of total objectivity, "Hannity and Colmes:"
Regarding John McCain's assertion earlier this month that the fundamentals of the nation's economy were strong: "It was an unfair attack on the verbiage that Sen. McCain chose to use because the fundamentals, as he was having to explain afterwards, he means our work force, he means the ingenuity of the American people. And of course, that is strong and that is the foundation of our economy."
Come again?
On the "Saturday Night Live" skit that skewered Palin, as done by lookalike Tina Fey:
"I thought it was hilarious. I thought she was spot on," Palin said. "Didn't hear a word she said, but the visual, spot on." She said people in Alaska have remarked on the similarities for years, and that she once dressed up as Fey for Halloween.
Uh, you watched but didn't listen .... isn't that an accurate description of her Alaska gubernatorial administration????
About Palin's disappointment with the government needing to bail out another financial institution (AIG):
"Disappointed that taxpayers are called upon to bail out another one," Palin told reporters during a morning visit to a downtown deli. "Certainly AIG though, with the construction bonds that they're holding and with the insurance that they are holding very, very impactful for Americans, so you know the shot that has been called by the Feds — it's understandable but very, very disappointing that taxpayers are called upon for another one," she said.
Palin shook hands with police officers and business people. She and her husband, Todd, sat down for a cup of coffee and chatted briefly with patrons.
??????????
Since when did this nation begin to discount intelligence in its leaders?????? More on that later.

After all, what's in a name?

Perhaps it would be wise for the EPA (Extra Political Agency, not the Environmental Proection Agency because it ain't protecting NO ONE right now under the Bushies), next time, to have someone ELSE prepare the statement in dismissing legitimate concerns about too much rocket fuel in some folks' water than the man currently serving as the assistant administrator for water.
Benjamin GRUMBLES.
It just doesn't ... sound right.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/09/22/rocket.fuel.epa.ap/index.html

From the Book of (Sarah Palin) Revleations

Today's Sarah Palin flip-flop revelations concerning Troopergate:
From Howard Kurtz' Media Notes, Washingtonpost.com, Sept. 18, 2008

"Sarah Palin's latest explanation for why she fired Walt Monegan is that he had gone over her head in seeking federal money for an initiative to combat sexual assault crimes, before she had approved the program," says TPM's Zachary Roth.
"But it now appears that the program in question is one that most elected officials would be wary of admitting they hadn't strongly backed. According to Peggy Brown, who heads the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Monegan wanted to use the federal money to hire retired troopers and law enforcement officials, and assign them to investigate the most egregious cases of sexual assault -- including those against children.
"In other words, if Palin's new story is true, she fired Monegan for being too aggressive in going after child molesters."
Prompting the New Republic's Christopher Orr to observe:
"If the Obama Campaign Were the McCain Campaign . . . how long do you think it would be before they cut an ad claiming that, as Alaska governor, Sarah Palin wanted to go easy on child molesters?"

Alaska, by the way, has one of the HGHEST rates of sexual assault and rape in the United States (all 50 of 'em)! And she fired the state police commissioner for seeking funds to help STOP that?!?!?!
The women is a kook! Please, someone defend THAT!!!!

The "drill, baby, drill" canard

All this bulshit about having to immediately drill our way out of the high price of gasoline is just that - bullshit!
The facts and the free market, the conservatives PRETEND to love but undercut at EVERY turn (when it doesn't benefit big business), state otherwise.
The price of a barrel of oil has dropped BELOW $100 - it was over $150 a few months ago. Why is that????
Uh, the public decided to conserve and use less??? Right.
Less demand forced down prices from over $4 to $3.30 (still NOT matching the drop in oil prices, running counter to gas increases when the oil price rose)??? Right.
And no one had to drill a single hole for a thing to make it happen...
Hey, all you drill-happy people, EXPLAIN THAT!
Conservation, changes in driving habits and better energy maintenance DOES make a difference. You can laugh NOW at keeping tires inflated, but if everyone did it, we'd save money energy than exists in the earth right now.
And the last few months proved it.

Elitist pot calling the candidate black

Now THIS is funny!
From CNN's Political Ticker, Sept. 17, 2008:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee, will endorse John McCain for president on Wednesday, her spokesman tells CNN.
The announcement will take place at a news conference on Capitol Hill, just blocks away from the DNC headquarters. Forester will “campaign and help him through the election,” the spokesman said of her plans to help the Republican presidential nominee.
Forester was a major donor for Clinton earning her the title as a Hillraiser for helping to raise at least $100,000 for the New York Democratic senator’s failed presidential bid.
In an interview with CNN this summer, Forester did not hide her distaste for eventual Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
“This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don't like him,” she said of Obama in an interview with CNN’s Joe Johns. “I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.”
Forester is the CEO of EL Rothschild, a holding company with businesses around the world. She is married to international banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. Forester is a member of the DNC’s Democrats Abroad chapter and splits her time living in London and New York.
Let me get this straight - you live in LONDON and NEW YORK; you're married to an INTERNATIONAL BANKER; the guys has a SIR by his name; and you are a CEO of some investment firm, and YOU think Barack Obama is an elitist?!?!?!?
Oh, I forgot ... Sazrah Palin is qualified to be vice president .... right...

More FEMA fuckups

From the Dallas Morning News, Sept. 17, 2008 edition:
The mayor of the nation's fourth-largest city complained the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasn't bringing in the supplies fast enough. Mayor Bill White also asked that a federal supervisor at a distribution center be fired for telling the drivers of two trucks - one filled with ice and other with food - to turn around. The supervisor thought the site was stocked, but it wasn't.
"That is not going to happen again," White said, adding that other distribution centers were also not getting supplies quickly enough and most were running out of ice.
FEMA spokesman Marty Bahamonde said he was not aware of the situation White described, but said Judge Ed Emmett - the top elected official in Harris County - was now personally coordinating the efforts to hand out relief supplies.
"As the requests come in, we're really starting to refine the system," Bahamonde said. "We've set up a distribution system to deliver millions of meals and water in literally a 24-hour period. There were glitches along the way. But by the end of the day, we had refined some of those glitches and we'll see that progress more."
Gee whiz, boys and girls; it's NOT like FEMA didn't have past experience to learn a goddamn thing about helping people.
One bureaucrats "glitch" is another, make that, thousands of people, suffering.
Assholes! The last crumb of the Bush-Cheney legacy.

Meet the marionette candidate - Sarah Palin

Rugged? Independent? Someone who can stand on HER OWN two feet?
I think not, at least not according to the John McCain campaign.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080917/ap_on_go_pr_wh/palin_mccain_operatives
Since when does a political campaign become the de facto spokesperson, and hence, information filter, for an entire state? I'm sorry but didn't Alaska join the UNITED States of America and not just the fucking Republican Party????
If you REALLY think this woman is ready to lead anything, let alone become Vice-President of the United States of America, you obviously are NOT part of the McCain campaign or the GOP.
They obviously do NOT!
So what does THAT say, folks?

Today's Palin lie: Don't "hold me accountable"

First you say you will and then you won't;
Then you say you do and then you don't...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/ap_on_el_pr/palin_troopergate
Oh, Sarah, you really don't want to answer ANYONE'S questions about anything despite past LIES when you should you wanted "transperency" in your government.
Now your lackey Republicans, trying to protect the poor, innocent, helpless female governor (that you claim NOT to be), are attempting to stop the investigation YOU yourself welcomed ... with open arms.
To quote Groucho Marx: "How late do you stay open?"
Another day, another lie, another try.
Don't worry; nothing is important except for the future leadership of this nation, in jeopardy so long as you hang around as someone sort of sainted, annointed by God candidate.
Except for the fake you ARE!

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

Uh ... this says it as well as I ever could:

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/viewCommentary/3618/1
Sept. 13, 2008
By Tim Wise
Tim Wise's ZSpace Page

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who areconstantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at 17, like Bristol Palin, and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is apersonal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office - since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s - while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband, who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do - like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college - you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflictin the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racismand its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008), and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull. For review copies or interview requests, please reply to publicity@softskull.com

Amen, brother!

Another FEMA fuckup

From the Associated Press, Sept. 14, 2008, 6:22 p.m.

"HOUSTON – Hundreds of first responders at two staging areas in Texas for Hurricane Ike have run out of food and water.
Congressman John Culberson (R-Houston) said Sunday that 300 National Guardsmen, state troopers and other emergency workers are going hungry at a high-school football stadium — and at another staging area on Houston’s west side.
Culberson blamed FEMA for the gaffe and says he tried to contact Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who is touring flood-stricken areas of Texas.
Culberson says several buses full of gas are sitting idle at the stadium while crews await instructions. He called on area residents to take food and water to the crews at the stadium — despite official warnings for people to stay off Houston roads."

Hey, no Michael Brown to blame THIS time. Only that arrogant son of a bitch Chertoff who should never hold another job about roach killer in this lifetime.
Oh yeah, neither the Red Cross nor Salvation Army has shown itself in Galveston to help those people.
The next president (hopefully Obama) should dismantle FEMA and get it the fuck out of Homeland Security and start from scratch as what it should be - a RELIEF agency to help - not part of the fight against terrorism. Mother Nature is NOT an Arab terrorist ... or a climatofacist!
Goddamn Bush Administration would fuck up a two-car funeral procession!

Today's Palin update: Cronyism Mom

Just what we need: More cronyism in Washington, D.C.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

And above is the MILF from 1998 wite the council of one of the major meth depositories in all of Alaska - Wasilla.

Oh don't take MY word for it - look it up.

Another day; another Sarah Palin lie

It's Saturday ... so there MUST be another lie as told by the campaign and the candidate herself.
Oops, here it is!

From The Trail, on WashingtonPost.com - Sept. 13, 2008

Report: Palin Did Not Visit Iraq
By Anne E. Kornblut
WASILLA, Alaska -- Aides to Gov. Sarah Palin are scrambling to explain details of her only trip outside North America -- which, according to a new report, did not include Iraq, as the McCain-Palin campaign had initially claimed.
Palin made an official visit to see Alaskan troops in Kuwait in July of 2007. There, she made a stop at a border crossing with Iraq, but did not actually visit the country, according to a new report in the Boston Globe.
Earlier, McCain aides had said that Palin visited Iraq, and expressed indignation at questions about her slim foreign travel.
The campaign also said she had been to Ireland; that turned out to have been a refueling stop.
In her ABC interview, Palin said she had also been to Canada and to Mexico, where her advisers said she went on vacation.
Obama aides described the new revisions to Palin's account as part of a growing pattern of deception. "The McCain campaign said Governor Palin opposed the Bridge to Nowhere, but now we know she supported it. They said she didn't seek earmarks, but now we know she hired a lobbyist to get millions in pork for her town and her state. They said she visited Iraq, but today we learned that she only stopped at the border. Americans are starting to wonder, is there anything the McCain campaign isn't lying about?" Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor asked in a statement e-mailed to reporters.
A short time later, the Obama campaign circulated a new Bloomberg story that questions whether the McCain campaign has been sending out false crowd estimates.
On two occasions since Palin joined the ticket, McCain aides have cited law enforcement sources in claiming enormous crowds -- but law enforcement officials interviewed by Bloomberg denied having given such estimates.
Posted at 1:11 PM ET on Sep 13, 2008 Category: Sarah Palin

One day, Americans will wake up and see what the Republicans are trying to do and have done - smear and lie! Constantly!
You know, if it's a fucking FACT, it ain't an attack. It's the goddman truth!

Should Galveston be saved if you say 'no' to New Orleans?

There have been many commentators, and quite a few newspeople, who have advocated that not one red cent be spent to rebuild and fortify New Orleans (for a variety of reason already well known and illuminated).
Question for ALL of them: If Galveston is devestated to the point of total disaster, a city of 250,000 (same as Plano and larger than Lubbock, Corpus Christi, Amarillo, etc.), should money be spent to rebuild IT? What about it??????
Galveston (oh Galveston, I can hear your sea winds calling ... - sorry, a Glen Campbell/Jimmy Webb moment overtook me) will always be in danger because of its location in the Gulf of Mexico. It is another 1900 disaster just waiting to happen.
But ... isn't it a special as any other American city? Since when do we, as a nation, abandon other Americans merely due to address? Well, we DON'T and WE SHOULD NEVER START!
Point to ponder, eh?

Palin on earmarks: "We did well!"

Oops, there she goes again!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/09/11/kaye.palin.honest.cnn

Seems as though the state of Alaska KEPT the Bridge to Nowhere money and put it into its general budget. The bridge was dead but the money was still spent as an earmark.
Exactly how does THAT work?
Is it a lie or has she misspoken?
OR ... is it just wrong to begin with? And how does McCain accept the same person, who as mayor, he railed against in the U.S. Senate for ... earmarks?
The more thinking people know, the more Sarah Palin simply becomes totally unacceptable to be VP. But the sheep in this land won't care what is said.
Which is why they get sheared...

Future baseball Hall of Famers

Now to my blog for today (NOT Sarah "Pigface" Palin, yes I said it):
Among the current MLB rosters, who will, and should make the Hall of Fame?
My choices are as follows:
SHOO-INS -Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Ivan Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, David Ortiz, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Manny Ramirez, Chipper Jones, Ichiro Suzuki, Trevor Hoffman, Randy Johnson.
MANAGERS - Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre, Lou Piniella.
FUTURE BETS - Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Justin Morneau, Felix Rodriguez, Brandon Webb, Matt Holliday, David Wright, Lance Berkman.
TOUGH CALLS - Curt Schilling, Jim Thome, Gary Sheffield, Frank Thomas, Vladimer Guerrero, Jeff Kent, Todd Helton, Mike Mussina.
Technically, Barry Bonds is not retired but he's not on any roster this season.
Thoughts?

Why won't Sarah Palin answer any questions??

From the Associated Press (certainly NO liberal outlet) after the ABC interview later this week:

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis has said that Palin will "agree to an interview when we think it's time and when she feels comfortable doing it."
"She's not scared to answer questions," Davis said on "Fox News Sunday."

Doesn't this BOTHER anyone out there???? If she's not scared, why is the McCain campaign scared????? Exactly WHEN will they think it is TIME?
Since when can't a mother of five with SO MUCH EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE answer some questions?
Sounds WAY too Stepford wife to me...

The danger to the nation that IS Sarah Palin

I received an e-mail that linked to a site containing a long post from a Wasilla, Alaska resident about Sarah Palin. Some of it is taken with a grain of salt but much of it is quite disturbing (I put it into Word format for easier reading).
The writer seems to be legit and the additional Washington Post article backs up at least many of the claims or incidents as factual (numerous personnel firings for less than good cause, possible pro-book banning and pro-censorship, lack of qualifications for the Oil Commission job, a certain mean spirit that reminds me of the Reese Witherspoon character in "Election").

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/06/AR2008090603024.html?hpid=topnews

I've heard other things about some statements made along the lines of her religious convictions that, as a Jew, I find unsettling, but let's leave that out of the equation.

Here is the post from Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla, Alaska.

About Sarah Palin: A Letter From Anne Kilkenny

www.thepresidentialcandidates.us/about-sarah-palin-a-letter-from-anne-kilkenny/741

on Sept. 3, 2008

What follows is an open letter written by a resident of Wasilla, Alaska named Anne Kilkenny:

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administrationthan about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because she is a “babe.”

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months. She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit. Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her lifestyle ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters. She’s smart. Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents. During her mayoral
administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by
party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over
precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative.” During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? Or a new library? No. $1 million for a park. $15 million-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 years later – to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5 million for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 years without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once. These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city. As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s surplus, borrow for needs.

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla, she tried to fire our highly-respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys.” Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal – loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her. When then-Governor (Frank) Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/year, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job.

In a gutsy move, which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects – which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance – but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork.”

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla, there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s mother-in-law, a highly-respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her. As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President. There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she. However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS. FACT:
•“Hockey mom:” true for a few years.
•“PTA mom:” true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since.
•“NRA supporter:” absolutely true.
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconstitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
•“Pro-life:” mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation.
•“Experienced:” Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all.
•gutsy: absolutely!
•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no.
•“a Greenie:” no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents.
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.
•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen when good people stay silent.” Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s attempt at
censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending &
taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information
supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall – they are swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my “about 5,000,” up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced, a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the
mid-90s.

2008 http://www.thepresidentialcandidates.us/tag/2008/, Sarah
Palin , Vice
President http://www.thepresidentialcandidates.us/tag/vice-president/

If HALF of what was written is actually the case, Mrs. Palin's possibility to be one step away from President of the USA is more than disturbing...it's down right dangerous IMHO.
Of course, the McCain people are NOT making her available for press conference or any kind of normal examination of positions or background that every single politician in this country subjects themselves to.
Unfortunately, too much has been focused on her daughter's impending pregnancy (although the issue of abstinence only education not working, and Palin's daughter, as a prime case of such ineffective education IS worthy of some discussion).
OR ... too many conservative Valentines are being written without all the facts.
I'm no wild-eyed radical - just a nomral American who wishes to see what's best for this nation. Bush has NOT been what's best; Cheney certainly has not been what's best; and from where I sit and what I see, Sarah Palin is definitely NOT what's best. Censorship, intimidation, failure to cooperate and unwillingness to answer questions is NOT qualifications I seek, or we need, as VP or president.
I invite you to read this with an open mind and do with it what you'd like.

Well said about the Palin pregnancy-family values issue

My old University of Michigan Daily colleague Eugene Robisnon, now seen all over the place as a columnist for the Washington Post and commentator on MSNBC, wrote the following words, entitled, "Would You Do That to Your Daughter?" for today's (Sept. 2, 2008) blog on washingtonpost.com.
"As I tried to make my way through St. Paul today – protesters managed to make driving, or even walking, anywhere pretty much impossible – people I ran into were asking one question: Is Sarah Palin doing what’s best for her daughter?
This isn’t a sexist question. It would also be asked of a male politician in her position. Is it fair for any parent to put his or her pregnant, unmarried, 17-year-old daughter through the klieg-light scrutiny of a presidential campaign? Actually, there’s a better way to put the question: Would you do that to your daughter?
There are lots of other issues involved with Bristol Palin’s pregnancy, chief among them her mother’s far-right views on sex education and abortion. But what’s truly awful is that the girl’s pregnancy would be reduced to “issues” at all. That unfair process became inevitable the moment Sarah Palin accepted John McCain’s invitation to be his running mate. Palin effectively guaranteed that Bristol would have her baby under the glare of unimaginable public scrutiny. The whole world would be watching.
It’s one thing to walk the walk of your political beliefs, as Palin did when she learned that her infant son would be born with Down syndrome. It’s another thing to bring your teenage daughter along for the hike – or even to allow her to follow you down such a path. As a parent, I hope Palin thought long and hard about Bristol before saying yes to McCain."

Well written and well said. Sadly, the responses on that blog range from mild to delirious and poisonous. It is a sorry state in America when debate on politics has become a matter of personal destruction of one's opponent. Call it "Swift Boating" or "Rovian" or any tagline, it is unbecoming of American principles and ideals.
Having said that, I must wonder two things: 1) Who names their daughter, Bristol? and 2) With a child suffering from Down Symdrome and a daughter who is knocked up, possibly before she turned 17, what kind of blind political amibiton drives a woman to expose her family to the white-hot media spotlight by runninig for vice president?