Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time... to BUILD UP.
And there is such a need to BUILD up and FIGHT for our state and our country.
Gosh, does she need to spend more time with her family!? Is she spending her time on her campaign to be president and ignoring her vows ... to be governor? Has she been hiking that 'Appalachian Trail.' Read the whole thing and decide for yourselves.
In the mean time, stay tuned for the next (psychotic) episode of Moose & Squirrel: Dahling, What Big Antlers You Have ... or ... Republican Hopes Are Riding On My Back!
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin says both her 18-year-old daughter Bristol, who gave birth to son Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston on Saturday, and fiance Levi Johnston are working hard to balance schoolwork with their new parental obligations, People Magazine reported.
"You need to know that both Levi and Bristol are working their butts off to parent and going to school and working at the same time," the Alaska governor told the magazine in a phone message. "They are certainly not high school dropouts."
Any suggestion to the contrary "harms Bristol's reputation and Levi's reputation and their chances for good work opportunities," Pail(sic) said.
. . . Sherry Johnston, Levi's mother, said in October that Bristol and her son were considering a summer wedding.
Levi Johnston told The Associated Press that month that he and Bristol loved each other and wanted to get married. Johnston, who dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician, said he was a little shocked to learn that Bristol was pregnant, but he quickly warmed to the idea of being a father.
He said the two had planned to get married even before Bristol became pregnant.
Emphasis mine. Someone might want to actually watch what spell-check says, before hitting "enter".
Fox News: We whatever, you have no idea.
And Palin as Republican Party standard bearer: That's some family values we can believe in.
McCain is supposed to be a specialist on national security issues. Why? Suppose that some Russian pilot was shot down bombing heavily populated areas in Kabul and tortured by Reagan's freedom fighters in the l980's. Well, we might feel sorry for him, but does that make him an expert on National Security? But McCain is an expert on national security because he was shot down bombing heavily populated urban areas in Hanoi and he was tortured by the Vietnamese. Well, we feel sorry for him, but he is no expert on National Security. But you can't say that. These elections are run by the public relations industry. The intellectual community goes along. Issues are marginalized. The focus is on personalities, on Jeremiah Wright's sermons, Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter, or whatever it may be. In that terrain, the Republicans have a big advantage. They also have a formidable slander and vilification machine which has yet to go into full operation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a McCain confidant, told The Post's David Broder that the campaign would "go down in history as stupid if they don't unleash" Palin. Well, the self-identified pit bull has been unleashed -- if not unhinged.
Barack Obama, she told 8,000 fans at a rally here Monday afternoon, "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist!" This followed her earlier accusation that the Democrat pals around with terrorists. "This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America," she told the Clearwater crowd. "I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country." The crowd replied with boos.
McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more."
Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."
Some years ago, a friend's wife was working on her Doctoral Thesis. The topic was based on the idea that junkies are the best liars; they would do/say anything convincingly for their fix.
In today's politics, lying seems to be reflex for some folks, especially on the Right side of the dial. Witness Sarah Palin:
Fighting back against allegations she may have fired her then-Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, for refusing to go along with a personal vendetta, Palin on Monday argued in a legal filing that she fired Monegan because he had a "rogue mentality" and was bucking her administration's directives.
"The last straw," her lawyer argued, came when he planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to seek federal funds for an aggressive anti-sexual-violence program. The project, expected to cost from $10 million to $20 million a year for five years, would have been the first of its kind in Alaska, which leads the nation in reported forcible rape.
The McCain-Palin campaign echoed the charge in a press release it distributed Monday, concurrent with Palin's legal filing. "Mr. Monegan persisted in planning to make the unauthorized lobbying trip to D.C.," the release stated.
Yeah, well. Except:
But the governor's staff authorized the trip, according to an internal travel document from the Department of Public Safety, released Friday in response to an open records request.
The document, a state travel authorization form, shows that Palin's chief of staff, Mike Nizich, approved Monegan's trip to Washington, D.C., "to attend meeting with Senator Murkowski." The date next to Nizich's signature reads June 18.
Kagro X at DKos thinks this may actually be a Palin ratf*ck:
Another backstab. Par for the course with Sarah Barracuda. Approve the trip, then claim you fired him for going.
How curious that she seems to have spent more energy bird-dogging and setting up Monegan than she ever did keeping Wooten away from her sister.
That's the real crime in the Palin family: getting in between Sarah and something she wants.
Someone better check the brake lines on the Straight Talk Express!
Maybe. There's other evidence that Palin knows how to administer the shiv:
In the middle of the primary, a conservative columnist in the state, Paul Jenkins, unearthed e-mail messages showing that Ms. Palin had conducted campaign business from the mayor’s office. Ms. Palin handled the crisis with a street fighter’s guile.
“I told her it looks like she did the same thing that Randy Ruedrich did,” Mr. Jenkins recalled. “And she said, ‘Yeah, what I did was wrong.’ ”
Mr. Jenkins hung up and decided to forgo writing about it. His phone rang soon after.
Mr. Jenkins said a reporter from Fairbanks, reading from a Palin news release, demanded to know why he was “smearing” her. “Now I look at her and think: ‘Man, you’re slick,’ ” he said.
Also troubling about this is that the Monegan backstab involved sexual issues. Alaska leads the nation in violent rapes, yet instead of this being a hot-button for Palin, it's a turn-off:
The governor did increase funding for victim assistance by 2% this year. But a larger and much more comprehensive anti-rape effort put together by the state's Department of Public Safety stalled when it reached the governor's office last summer.
Why? Because Palin famously didn't like the man who headed the department:
Days later, Palin fired [the proposal's] chief proponent, Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, after he declined to dismiss a state trooper Palin accused of threatening her own family members. Palin has said she fired Monegan because she wanted to move his department in a "new direction," and he was not being "a team player on budgeting issues." The dismissal is now at the center of a hotly-contested investigation by the state legislature.
The status of the plan, which would have "fast-tracked" sex crime cases via a dedicated group that included specially-trained investigators, judges and prosecutors, is unknown. "I'd ask the governor," said one official with knowledge of the plan. Numerous inquiries to Palin's campaign spokeswoman went unreturned.
Seems to me that moderate women voters may be interesting in knowing about this.
One in three Alaska Native and American Indian women will be raped during their lifetime and it's the federal government's fault, an Amnesty International study reported Tuesday.
. . . During the press conference, Larry Cox, Amnesty's executive director, recounted a brutal rape in a Western Alaska village in 2005, when a man beat his wife with a shotgun and barricaded himself in a house with four children. During the four hours it took troopers in Bethel to get to Nunam Iqua, 150 miles away, the man raped a 13-year-old girl on a bed with an infant crying beside her.
The slow responses, plus the lack of manpower, causes victims to underreport crimes. They have little hope attackers will be prosecuted, he said.
Walt Monegan, public safety commissioner, acknowledged there's not enough law enforcement in Alaska. He's drafting plans to create a system that will encourage villagers to become local officers and, eventually, state troopers. It will require legislative approval and should be introduced in Juneau next year, he said.
Gov. Sarah Palin hadn't seen the Amnesty report, said spokeswoman Sharon Leighow early Thursday afternoon.
Palin "has heard the message from the rural communities that they need more law enforcement" and is working with Monegan to increase law enforcement there, she said.
But that hasn't worked out so well for the women of Alaska. Again, the rape issue seems less important than it might. More from ABC News:
Evangelicals and social conservatives have embraced McCain's vice presidential pick for what they call her "pro-family," "pro-woman" values. But in Alaska, critics say Gov. Sarah Palin has not addressed the rampant sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence and murder that make her state one of the most dangerous places in the country for women and children.
Much can be learned about the Palin Administration’s family values from reviewing their spending priorities. Former Chief of Police Irl Stambaugh included forensic rape kits (up to $1,200 per kit) in his budget requests. He was fired by Palin in 1997.In her termination letter, Palin wrote, “…I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment. . . ” Staumbaugh headed the police department since it was created in 1993. Before that, he served 22 years with the Anchorage Police Department rising to the rank of captain. Sarah Palin hired Charlie Fannon as the new Wasilla Chief of Police and said it was one of her best decisions as mayor. Fannon eliminated the forensic rape kits from the budget. Though the number of rapes weren’t reported, Fannon claimed it would save Wasilla taxpayers $5,000 to $14,000 a year.
When Eric Croft, a Democrat Legislator from Anchorage, learned of Wasilla’s policy, he drafted HB 270, which Governor Tony Knowles signed into law. The new law made it illegal for any law enforcement agency to bill victims or victims’ insurance companies for the costs of examinations to collect evidence of a sexual assault or determine if a sexual assault actually occurred. Upon signing the law, Governor Knowles said, “We would never bill the victim of a burglary for the cost of gathering evidence, nor should we bill rape victims just because the crime scene happens to be their bodies.”
Wasilla Police Chief Fannon protested the new law stating it would require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams. Really? Are the true costs of sexual assault and forcible rape in a community only measured and reflected in the dollars spent on the forensic rape kit?
Alaska has the nation’s highest per-capita rate of forcible rape.A disproportionate number of rape and sexual assault victims are Native Alaskan women. Alaska Native people in Anchorage were 9.7 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than others living in the city between 2000 and 2003. Alaska crime statistics never seemed to make a “Northern Exposure” episode. But this isn’t about statistics-real lives were affected by Palin’s regressive policies. One thing Alaska can’t seem to export is the fundamental information around a woman’s rights. Alaska “liberalized” abortion laws before Roe v. Wade. Our dirty secret had to do with a woman’s right to be safe from rapists. This right to choose was not only threatened, but abolished with Sarah Palin’s archaic policy as Mayor of Wasilla. The rape kit included emergency contraception. To be sure, emergency contraception is not, nor does it cause an abortion. In fact, ec prevents pregnancy and therefore reduces abortions.
Under Palin’s Administration, “Life Begins at Rape” for women unable to pay for their forensic evidence gathering. Justice is served to women who can afford it and denied for those who can’t. I live in Alaska-the wealthiest of the 50 states! Forcing rape victims to pay for their own forensic rape kits is something one would expect to find in a fundamentalist country overseas. I have outrage fatigue. I can’t decide which facet of this policy is more upsetting. Is it the denial of justice for the poor? Is it the punishment of women who had been raped? Is it the political policies of a woman so entrenched in the “Pro-Life” movement she would deny justice to a victim? This is not a “Pro-Life” policy. This is a “Pro-Rapist” policy, and forced pregnancy policy.
Seems Monegan was cut with a two-edged sword. Not only didn't he act on Palin's personal grudge, but he was attempting to help the women of Alaska who are too often the victims of rape. Both reasons seem to bring out Palin's anger.
Palin supporters ought to be taking a much closer look at her record on these types of issues (charging rape victims for evidentiary examinations so their attackers can be brought to trial) than whether she can juggle five children and the vice presidency. This, more than anything, should push women, pro-life and pro-choice, away from the McCain-Palin ticket. It's one thing to oppose abortion on moral grounds. It's quite another to charge crime victims for their own forensic examinations. Such a policy is nothing short of outrageous.
[The] Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Home made signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to expect.
The rally was organized by a small group of women, talking over coffee. It made me wonder what other things have started with small groups of women talking over coffee. It's probably an impressive list. These women hatched the plan, printed up flyers, posted them around town, and sent notices to local media outlets. One of those media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time uber-conservative Anchorage talk show host. Turns out that Eddie Burke not only announced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the rally 'a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots,' and read the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they thought. The women, of course, received some nasty, harassing and threatening messages.
I felt a bit apprehensive. I'd been disappointed before by the turnout at other rallies. Basically, in Anchorage, if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, it's a success. So, I thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people there that aren't sent by Eddie Burke, we'll be doing good. A real statement will have been made. I confess, I still had a mental image of 15 demonstrators surrounded by hundreds of menacing 'socialist baby-killing maggot' haters.
It's a good thing I wasn't tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or I would have ended up in somebody's trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carrying signs.
Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here.
Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn't be heard. Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.
So, if you've been doing the math… Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin's rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy the photo gallery. Feel free to spread the pictures around to anyone who needs to know that Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska, who know her best, have things to say.
Some Palin supporters will dislike this commercial, others won't give a damn:
I find her actions horrid, hateful. But the ones who won't care are Palin's Christianist Dominionst end-times evangelical brethern and sistern(sic), who are firmly caught up in the Biblical idea that we (humans) are stewards of the earth.
But rather than what the word "steward" actually means, many of them believe that, since the end times are near, instead we can plunder, pillage, devastate the earth and most of its inhabitants for our own pleasure and needs.
Even when its manifestly stupid and short-sighted. Drill, Baby, Drill, indeed.
Normally I would say, let's not waste time on Sarah Palin. Her main claim to fame is as a skirt for McCain to hide behind, and to use dog-whistle language to excite the Rabid right in this country.
But then stuff like this happens during the Charlie Gibson interview:
"I would never presume to know God's will or use God's words".
Right. Because that's a sin. Except that people, pastors and congregants, in evangelical churches do it all the time.
I heard the leader of one of the largest evangelical churches, based in Costa Mesa, CA, say to his flock, in re: the Second Coming (paraphrasing):
Now, we're admonished to not try and predict when Jesus will return. And I won't. But my reading and study of the Bible leads me to conclude that I have a pretty good idea when it will happen.
Hubris, I guess, when you can listen to what the boss says and still try and spin it your way.
GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Are we fighting a holy war?
PALIN: You know, I don't know if that was my exact quote.
GIBSON: Exact words.
PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln's words when he said -- first, he suggested never presume to know what God's will is, and I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words.
But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that's a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God's side.
That's what that comment was all about, Charlie.
GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln's words, but you went on and said, "There is a plan and it is God's plan."
PALIN: I believe that there is a plan for this world and that plan for this world is for good. I believe that there is great hope and great potential for every country to be able to live and be protected with inalienable rights that I believe are God-given, Charlie, and I believe that those are the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That, in my world view, is a grand -- the grand plan.
GIBSON: But then are you sending your son on a task that is from God?
PALIN: I don't know if the task is from God, Charlie. What I know is that my son has made a decision. I am so proud of his independent and strong decision he has made, what he decided to do and serving for the right reasons and serving something greater than himself and not choosing a real easy path where he could be more comfortable and certainly safer.
Let me explain this in simple terms: SHE LIED!!!! She believes what she said in the church video.
I guaran-damn-tee someone got on Teh Google™ immediately after hearing the quote from the church video, probably typed every combination of "God", "war", "will", "plan" , to see what they could find. And they found the Lincoln quote:
Oops.
It appears that the Lincoln quote is apocryphal. In other words, while I can find the quote everywhere, I can find no solid scholarly reference to it anywhere. It appears to be either made-up, or unsubstantiated. Joe Garofoli at SFGate.com has this:
OK, so which Abe quote is it?
Abe, in his second Inaugural address said:"Neither [side] anticipated that the cause of the conflict [i.e., slavery] might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.
In any case, it seems to be a wonderful phrase that supports the Christian Right's world view, that everything they decide is God's Work is, indeed, God's Work.
I suppose we should bow down and worship even unto them, for they are Holy and know stuff that we don't.
Better yet, we should tell them to leave us the Hell alone.
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 versus 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.
Update: For those who want more information, here is an excellent run down at the Huffington Post.
Want to know everything about Sarah "Baked Alaska" Palin? It only takes knowing 2 things:
Rigidly anti-Choice,
pro-Creationism.
That's all. From those 2 things, all else follows.
Biblically, there are 2 parts to Salvation: Grace (being saved), and Works (doing Christian deeds). Most Catholics and old-school Protestants relied on both, Grace, of course, but with a healthy dose of Works because it was the right thing to do.
Modern Evangelicals put all their eggs in the Grace basket. And sadly, in my observation, many of them completely fail the Works test.
Palin is a prime example of this. Seeking self-aggrandizement and satisfaction, punishing and belittling others who don't do her wishes, lack of concern about real-world issues including her job duties, but it's all OK because she's Saved.
While some Evangelicals seem to truly exhibit the traits mentioned in the Sermon On The Mount, many I have known, and I have known many, don't. I don't mean the Epic Fails of Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, etc., I mean the failure to live in a way that reflects one's supposed belief:
Drive a gas-guzzler when you're admonished to be a good steward? But I'm saved.
Cheat on taxes when you're told to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's? But I'm saved.
While these are typical hypocrisies, they may or may not apply to Palin. But . . .
Evangelicals condemn Moral Relativism, yet Palin doesn't seem to be the "help-meet" to her husband that Evangelicals believe the Bible requires.
Evangelicals condemn Situational Ethics, yet Palin's callous increasing of Wasilla's debt doesn't seem to bother her sense of Stewardship.
Evangelicals tout the 10 Commandments, yet Palin's continuous lying doesn't seem to bother her conscience. She keeps telling the jet/ebay story, now thoroughly debunked.
