The Cult of Palin-ality

video details and more

Apparently Sarah Palin is a big hit among the wingnuts.  Footage on ABC News showed the Evangelicals in thrall as she delivered her "pit bull in lipstick" attack speech Wednesday night. The women were practically wetting themselves, and I don't even want to know what the men were doing, as they watched her attacks on Barack Obama and the Democrats.  

Of course, when Hillary was on the campaign trail and went on the attack, she was described as harsh, shrill or angry, but Palin, whose speech was a litany of bitter attacks against Obama and the Democrats is seen as a hero among the angry right.  Now Barack Obama's response to her smears is being dissected and the right is trying to hang the angry label around his neck.

The Republicans have been quite successful in disseminating their "angry Democrats" meme.  The revered psychoanalyst journalistic hack, Nedra Pickler, used it to describe John Edwards last year: saying "his voice rose" while he was speaking at an AFL/CIO forum.  

Oh Noes!  His voice rose?  Watch out!  He's gonna EXPLODE! Ultimately it wasn't this bullshit that torpedoed the Edwards candidacy, but they used it quite successfully to stop Howard Dean in 2004.
The Republican strategy to paint the left as "angry" is one they have pursued in a methodical and calculating manner. Over two years ago, they began smearing Hillary with the label, and disseminating the message that she was too angry to be President.  The RNC chairman at the time, Ken Mehlman, referring to her, said:

"I don't think the American people, if you look historically, elect angry candidates," Mehlman said.

I couldn't agree more, Kenny.

These people look way too angry to be put in charge of our country.  In a time of international conflicts and challenges, I'll choose diplomacy over bellicosity every time.

Apparently, not only is it ok to be an angry Republican, bad to be an angry Democrat, it's also good to be popular if you're on the right side of the aisle, but a fatal flaw for people to like you if you have the misfortune to be on the left.

The right wing's mocking dismissiveness of Obama's appeal has even made its way into their television commercials, where the not so subtle message is that his popularity in Europe is somehow suspect, and that his appeal is a priori evidence that he's more style than substance.

Of course, they don't see the hypocrisy in their worship of a VP nominee described by Presidential scholars as: "the least qualified in modern history."

A trip into the sewer of LGF yields a slew of comments like this one in response to Palin's speech:

As brilliant as she is beautiful. A rare combination in the modern world, and a surefire way to piss off femi-nazis everywhere.
A real keeper.

Barack Obama's speech, unsurprisingly, was mocked at the site, with the posters focusing less on the substance of the speech, and more on ridiculing Obama's popularity.

All hail the messiah!
Obama, Obama!
The path to the new Socialist Motherland!
Our savior, our savior!
Obama, Obama!
The leader more famous than Lindsay Lohan!
Bow down and praise The One?!
Give him your money and your guns!
Give us a country
That makes your wife proud!
Lord Barry heal the bitter ones!
White and clinging to faith and to guns!
Hope for the change of the hope of the change!

The Republicans want it both ways.  When the "barracuda" (and kudos to Heart for their Cease and Desist order) is on their side, she's "smart" and "articulate."  When Obama responds to the smears, he's "angry."

Well, I'm angry, too.  I'm sick and damn tired of the Republicans defining the Democrats.  Sick of them taking the high road while using the lowest of low road political tactics.  Sick of the smears by their myriad of media surrogates.  And sick of a Democratic Party that sat on its hands throughout the 2004 election's smears, virtually handing the Presidency to George Bush on a silver Diebold voting machine.

I'm glad the Obama campaign has been proactive, and hope they continue to fight back.  They need to clearly show the American people that the party which wants to define birth control as abortion, which cuts health insurance to poor children, which ignores its infrastructure, resulting in the death of a more Americans from a hurricane than in the terrorist attacks of 9/11, is the true party of hate.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=22842

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Palin Won't Be Subpoenaed on Trooper-Gate

Even if she refuses to testify voluntarily, Sarah Palin will definitely not be subpoenaed as part of the Trooper-Gate investigation, Rep. Jay Ramras, a Republican on the committee overseeing the probe, just confirmed to TPMmuckraker.

Ramras said that issuing a subpoena for a vice-presidential candidate "would be disrespectful." He called it "inappropriate conduct, given the unique political circumstances," and "bad form."

Ramras said that Hollis French, the Anchorage Democrat who heads the committee, was in agreement with the decision to rule out issuing a subpoena for Palin. But French may be feeling the heat from committee Republicans. Rep. John Coghill, a Republican from the North Pole, put out a press release this morning calling on French to stand down from his role overseeing the investigation, accusing him of making comments about the investigation "that were political in nature."

French announced this morning that the committee, made up of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats, will vote September 12 on whether to issue subpoenas to other witnesses.

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REFORMING THE REFORMER.

I'm increasingly confused by what conservatives mean when they talk about reforming the Republican Party. For awhile, I figured they wanted a transformation in what the Republican Party believed. But increasingly I'm starting to believe that they want a[...]

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http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=09&year=2008&base_name
=reforming_the_reformer

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A Choice For Me, But Not For Thee Or Any Other
Woman In America

Well, that gets the point across quite well, doesn't it? Samantha Bee, gotta love her.[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/05/a-choice-for-thee-but-not-for-me-or-any-other-w
oman-in-america/

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Colbert Annihilates Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin

  In the most biting of satire, Stephen laughs along with Rudy Giuliani as he disparages Barack Obama’s historic campaign, and agrees with Sarah Plain that Barack Obama is a nobody who’s only popular for giving great speeches (or in her case, a single speech.) Download | Play   Download | Play Palin: What exactly is our opponent’s plan?Colbert: Exactly! We know [...]

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/05/colbert-annihilates-rudy-giuliani-and-sa
rah-palin/

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eBay Jet Sale Didn't Happen

Once embedded in the popular consciousness, certain themes are hard to dislodge. Somebody starts a rumor or recounts a fable or embellishes an anecdote, and the next thing you know it's a fact: 'gators in the sewers or how a guy named Esteban (or maybe it was Bob) found a treasure map and buried it at the turn of the century somewhere in those hills up behind the high school. Debunk these tales 'til you're blue in the face, but often they simply cannot be uprooted.

During the campaign season, scores of such stories come to light. Some stick, some don't. Many are, of course, pure fabrications. Others are only half lies. And still others merely fudge the truth around the edges in the interests of creating a solid applause line.

The latter seems to be the case in regards to the eBay jet.

That would be the used Westwind II 10-seat jet bought by the state of Alaska in late 2005. The jet that played a prominent role as object and symbol of what Sarah S. Palin called the state's culture of corruption in her successful 2006 primary campaign against Governor Frank Murkowski.

As she said in her speech to the Republican National Committee Wednesday night to a roar of cheers: "That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay."

But as Adam Raymond at Radar's Fresh Intelligence pointed out Thursday, Palin failed to mention that the plane didn't sell on eBay.

After going unsold for months, the jet was put into the hands of Turbo North Aviation, an Anchorage aircraft broker, which put an asking price of $2.45 million on the nearly $2.7 million jet. It quickly sold to Alaska businessman Larry Reynolds for $2.1 million ($31,000 of which went to Turbo Aviation). Today the Westwind II jet spends its days ushering wealthy hunters around Alaska and Russia.

A small matter? No doubt. But as Jason George and Andrew Zajac of the Chicago Tribune write today:

Palin's statement implied the plane was sold through the online auction site revered for empowering millions of small entrepreneurs, and Palin's spokeswoman insisted Thursday that the transaction occurred. But the plane failed to sell on eBay. ...

Also, while Palin characterized the plane as an extravagance of former Gov. Frank Murkowski, who arranged for its purchase in November 2005, the plane saw heavy use transporting Alaskan convicts.

Alaska does not have adequate prison capacity and contracts for space with a private facility near Phoenix. On Thursday, 24 percent of the 4,546 Alaskans in jail or in prison were serving their time at Arizona's Red Rock Correctional Center, said a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Corrections.

When the state first began using the plane in November 2005, prisoner transport accounted for 58 percent of the jet's use, and Murkowski's office used it 23 percent of the time. Over time, Murkowski's usage increased.

In a crucial campaign at a time we're in crisis over the economy, the environment, energy, foreign and military policy, globalization, health care, education, human rights, civil rights and the Constitution itself, harping over such a small matter may be seen as petty, partisan carping. Indeed, Palin didn't lie - she did try to auction the plane on-line. And there are plenty of actual lies to follow up on.

But the eBay jet does matter. Part of John McCain's whole effort to remaverick himself despite being Mister Bush's 90% man is to attach himself firmly to his running mate's supposed maverickness. Thus, whether it's stances on earmarks, or reversals on bridges to nowhere, or fudged tales of executive derring-do, they ought to be disembedded from the national consciousness before they become unshakable truths.

[Update]: While Palin only fudged the truth by omission, John McCain is working heartily on embedding a falsehood derived from that omission: "You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay -- made a profit," he said, introducing Palin.

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In text-message poll on McCain's speech, MSNBC
offered only four positive responses

The day after Sen. JohnMcCain's September 4 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, MSNBC conducted atext-message poll asking, "What do you feel McCain's speechaccomplished the most?" But MSNBC gave viewers only positive responses tochoose from; it did not give them the option of responding that the speech wasin any way negative.Specifically, the options given torespond to the September 5 MSNBC text-message poll were:A. Inspired the nationB. Explained what motivated his[...]

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http://feeds.mediamatters.org/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/384381752/200809050010

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An Open Letter from Someone Who Knows Gov. Sarah
Palin

This letter from Wasilla, AK resident Anne Kilkenny is making the rounds, and I thought I would post it here as well for your reading pleasure. I found it on the blog Mudflats: Tiptoeing through the Muck of Alaskan Politics, but its also been posted on The Nation and other sites. The validity of the Kilkenny letter was also confirmed by the blog Fairly Conservative, which had at first claimed it was a fake. The letter is a compelling read, for anyone who wants to know about the woman who could be president.


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 administration than 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 life-style 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. $1m for a park. $15m-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 yrs 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 $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs 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 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/yr, 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-90?s.

Anne Kilkenny

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheZaftigRedhead/~3/384414472/open-letter-from-som
eone-who-knows-gov.html

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DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL, DON'T REST.

This Onion article does as good a job demonstrating the absurdity of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, as anything I've read:Gay War Hero Awarded Posthumous Dishonorable Discharge At White House CeremonyWASHINGTON?In a solemn ceremony held in the White House Rose[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=09&year=2008&base_name
=dont_ask_dont_tell_dont_rest

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A Statement About National Defense

Here is the full clip from what Thom Hartmann played on the air today, Frank Zappa on Crossfire, 1986. 21:17 in length and worth every second. The portion Thom played regarding our burgeoning fascist theocracy is at about 10:10. John Lofton resorts to Reductio ad Hitlerum at 15:56. (The Prince song they are discussing is [...]

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http://www.kiav.net/?p=665

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