Obama, Palin and the Special Olympics

When President Barack Obama appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, he made a verbal gaffe, which he has indicated he sincerely regrets and for which he has apologized.

About 3 minutes plus into the interview, Obama made a joke about his bowling skills referencing the Special Olympics.

The rightwingnuts have gone batshit crazy.

Oh well. They haven't a fresh idea in their brainfogged heads, so they have to create something to get airtime.

Arnold Schwarzenegger defended the president, saying that he knows Obama's heart is in the right place and that the president is a strong supporter and defender of the Special Olympics.

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, however, showing her desperate need to find the limelight and try to turn the conversation away from her ethical problems, pounced all over Obama claiming he was disparaging and insensitive, etc. I think Palin almost wept she was soooo upset.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the same Governor Palin who dragged her special needs child all over the country into all kinds of crazy situations while campaigning with John "the cane" McCain! Only Palin didn't even bother to take care of the child most of the time; that was the job of her pregnant, unwed daughter, Bristol!

Talk about hypocrisy!

Sarah Palin - mean as a pit bull...

Sarah Palin has shown that she is, indeed, as mean as a pit bull.. But it has also become obvious she's dumb as a sack of rocks!

Paul Krugman, the economist extraordinaire and Nobel prize winner, tells how Palin, in her closing remarks at her one debate with Joe Biden, "garbled" a quote "from Ronald Reagan about how, if we aren't vigilant, we'll end up 'telling our children and our children's children' about the days when America was free.'"

This is Palin, the pit bull, either trying to instill fear into the hoi polloi about "that one" who doesn't really care about "our" country and doesn't really "love" our country, and would enact laws which would make us less free, or perhaps she was trying to restart the Cold War.

Now, it's possible that Palin knew not whereof she spoke, as one of her "handlers" is Tucker Askew, the same bad guy who did Bush's dirty work against McCain in 2000 and who was then rewarded with a job in the Bush White House. Perhaps Eskew wrote her speech.

Someone must have written her speech, because Palin is dumb as a sack of rocks. As Krugman points out, "when Reagan said this [above quote] he wasn't warning about Soviet aggression. He was warning against legislation that would guarantee health care for older Americans--the program now known as Medicare."

Krugman notes, rightly, that "Conservative Republicans still hate Medicare, and would kill it if they could -- in fact, they tried to gut it during the Clinton years (that's what the 1995 shutdown of the government was all about). But so far they haven't been able to pull that off."


So, on the one hand, we have Palin, mean as a pit bull, raising the specter of a big, bad bogeyman -- either Senator Obama or the Russian Putin -- who will take away our freedoms.

On the other hand, we have Palin, dumb as a sack of rocks, quoting a statement from a failed former president which had absolutely nothing to do with our "freedom," but was a typical Republican attempt to destroy the program that provides health care to our senior citizens.


Krugman goes on to detail how McCain's health care proposal would, in fact, destroy health care for senior citizens. But that's another story.

Let's put Palin on a plane, any plane, back to wherever the hell it is she came from.

The Palin fantasy world

Bill McAllister, Palin's communications director claims that the "troopergate" report accusing the governor of abuse of power, "vindicated" Ms. Palin.

At the same time, McAllister and others are questioning "how Mr. Branchflower reached the conclusion that Governor Palin abused her power with respect to Trooper Mike Wooten."

Maybe somebody ought to read the damn report to Mr. McAllister "and others."


But this is the new Republicanism. In the fantasy world inhabited by these creatures of the right:

War is peace.
Death is life.
Dictatorship is democracy.
Law is license.
Defeat is victory.
Lies are truth.
Ceding one's rights is freedom.
God is hate.
Reason is irrational.
Trust is suspicion.
Dead civilians are collateral damage.
Laws are for other folks.
Health is sickness.
Poverty is wealth.
Truth is what George W. Bush and John McSame say it is.
Sarah Palin is qualified.
Tax breaks for the rich help the poor.
The White House is for white people.
Being a POW qualifies one to be president.
A small-town mayor is a major executive.
Obama is an elitist.
Owners of 13 houses are not elitists.
Infidelity is fine if you're a Republican.
Liberalism is bad.
Republican shit is really caviar.

And, oh yeah, guilty is vindication.

Palin guilty of abuse of power

In spite of the fact that McCain campaign staffers issued a 21-page report yesterday -- before the official report was released, and without the facts of the case, and whining that "the inquiry has been muddied by innuendo, rumour and partisan politics," and further determining for the whole world that Sarah Palin was not guilty of any malfeasance in office -- the Alaskan Legislative Council voted unanimously today to release the official report by investigator Steve Branchflower which contradicted the McCain campaign's protestations of innocence.

In fact, Sarah Palin is guilty as charged of abuse of power.

Branchflower's report contained four "findings."

Don Hunter, writing for the Anchorage Daily News, says, "The first [finding] concludes that Palin violated the state's executive branch ethics act, which says that 'each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.'"

In other words, Palin's attempts to get her former brother-in-law, state trooper Mike Wooten fired, was against the law. It was not only unethical, but illegal.

The second finding found that Monegan's refusal to fire Wooten was a "contributing factor" for his dismissal, although Palin did have the right to let him go.

The third finding says a workers compensation claim filed by Wooten was handled appropriately.

The fourth finding concluded that the attorney general's office failed to provide e-mails relative to the case.


None of this is surprising to those of us who have investigated Palin's background as mayor of Wasilla and her behavior on the campaign trail.

It will be interesting to see if the McCain campaign sticks to its story that all of this was politically motivated and Poor Sarah has done nothing wrong: She's merely the target of a bunch of disgruntled political hacks who have it in for her.

But being found guilty of abuse of power, while indicative of the kind of person she is, is really not the main concern. Sarah Palin is about as unqualified to be vice president as a polar bear. She is a religious extremist and theocrat and a member of an ultra-fundamentalist Christian cult; she holds views on many subjects (abortion, sex education, teaching creationism in public schools, separation of church and state, freedom of speech, etc.) which are not shared by the majority of the American people; and her ties to the Alaska Independence Party should immediately disqualify her from holding any public office in the land.

While campaigning on the Republican ticket, her attacks on Senator Obama have been riddled with lies, rife with subtle racism, shot through with attempts to assassinate his character by raising issues long ago laid to rest, and all the while she has failed to provide anything of substance relative to the major issues facing our country.

When required to speak without her "talking points, she dribbles into comic incoherence for which there is only derision heard around the world.

She has pandered to and incited the crazies and the fruitcakes which has resulted in her rallies being filled with strange loonies who "Boo" when she mentions Obama, call out "Kill him!" and "Terrorist!" and otherwise denigrate the senator.

If McCain has any moral integrity left, he will drop her from the ticket immediately and send her back to the mooses.

Sarah Palin reads Starbucks

When asked by Katie Couric which news publications she read, Sarah Palin hemmed and hawed and finally said she read "all of them," but wasn't able to be specific.

Just like Bush.

She evidently does read Starbucks coffee cups, though. Maybe. We're not sure. It could be that her handlers introduced her to the now infamous Starbucks coffee cup which contains a quote by former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright.

Palin, however, imagining herself to be in the same class as Albright and other bright women, referred to this quote at a rally where her beloved fans screamed high-school-like, in adoration. She claimed to have personally seen the quote on her cup of Starbucks mocha:

"Now she said it, I didn't," said Palin of Albright. "She said, 'There's a place in hell reserved for women who don't support other women.'"

Well, maybe Palin didn't really see the quote. Maybe it was her handlers who pointed it out to her. Because Sarah failed to get it right. Again.

The quote actually reads: "There's a place in hell reserved for women who don't help other women."

Not only so, but Palin knew not the context and thus came off looking like the insufferable fool she is.

Madeline Albright herself set Palin straight. Albright told the Huffington Post:

"Though I am flattered that Gov. Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics.

"This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women.

"The truth is, if you care about the status of women in our society and in our troubled economy, the best choice by far is Obama-Biden."


Three things:

1) The photo above comes from the Huffington Post.

2) This story, as reported by Thomas M. DeFrank, the Daily News Washington Bureau Chief, failed to include the last sentence, by far the most important sentence in Albright's response. Why would that be? Is this another example of how the media is biased in Obama's favor? Or could it be the MSM, owned mostly by huge corporate conglomerates, continues to favor Mr. McCain?

3) The MSM's corporate owners will receive a humungous, multi-billion dollar tax break under the McCain tax proposal.

Hmmm...

Palin is a religious nutcase!

Sarah Palin, pit bull, the sidechick of Senator John McCain on the Palin/McCain ticket, ordered up a dish of nasty, but she ain't gonna like what she's gonna get served.

At one of her recent rallies, surrounded by a rabid rightwing crowd, Sarah, in her usual snarling manner, attempted to tie Obama to the economic meltdown on Wall Street. "What's next," she cried, "claiming he didn't know that two of his biggest supporters were running Fannie Mae?"

It is true that James Johnson and Franklin Raines, both former Fannie Mae execs, are Obama supporters. That isn't what Palin cared about, however. Her goal was to make it appear that Obama had something to do with the economic mess wherein we now find ourselves. That, in spite of the fact, it was McCain who voted for deregulation and McCain's financial advisor, now in absentia, Foreclosure Phil, who is mainly the man responsible.

Not only so, but while Johnson was at one time an adviser to Obama, they have not had a conversation in more than a year. Raines has never been considered Obama's close friend.

In other words, Palin is casting for a way to smear Obama's character, just as she is doing by trying to link Obama to William Ayers.


Palin has also resurrected the old guilt by association tactic by dredging up Obama's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Not good - for Ms. Palin.

Palin's pastoral ties are much more suspect and much more dangerous than any ties Obama might have had with the Rev. Wright. As Buzzflash puts it, Palin "is a believer in a renegade theology called "The Third Wave," that believes God has chosen certain people (her) to lead America into preparation for Armageddon, indeed that her ascension to the presidency is a prerequisite for End Times."

Alex Koppelman writes at Salon.com about an e-mail now circulating on the Internet, the text of which was originally written by Jim Bramlett, "an author and former vice president with the Christian Broadcasting Network," The thrust of the e-mail is that Palin has been chosen by God to act as God's ambassador when the End Times arrive.

"Sarah is that standard God has raised up to stop the flood. She has the annointing ... Back in the 1980s, I sensed that Israel's little-known Benjamin Netanyahu was chosen by God for an important end-time role. I now have that same sense about Sarah Palin."

[You might note that Bramlett also claims to have "obtained recordings of angels singing."]

Koppelman, goes on to refer to an article by Sarah Posner, which said, in part: "Many evangelicals are talking about Palin being like the biblical Queen Esther, who saved the Jews from the genocidal Haman, and believe that Palin has come, like Esther did, 'for a time such as this.'"

The aforementioned e-mail also derides Obama's acceptance speech, claiming that Obama was portrayed as "god-like." It said "His voice thundered as a god's voice.

"God was not pleased.

"Enter Governor Sarah Palin. With incredible timing, the very next day, Sarah Palin also appeared out of nowhere...

"We quickly learned that Sarah is a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian, attends church, and has been a ministry worker. ...

"Only God knows the future and how she may be used by Him, but may this noble woman serve to bring renewal in the land, and inspiration."


Obama, as we know, as eschewed any relationship with the Rev. Wright and has resigned from Wright's church and has denounced Wright's racist ramblings.

Sarah Palin, however, remains very much a devoted follower of some of the most extreme elements in fundamentalist Christianity. Her pastor claims that his prayer helped her become governor of Alaska. Her church is part of the radical Christian fundamentalist Dominionist movement which looks forward to capturing the White House, the Congress and the Courts and turning the United States into a Christian nation, ruled, not by the Constitution, but by the Dominionist interpretation of the Bible.

Not only so, but Palin is also a believer in witchcraft. A Kenyan witch doctor by name of Thomas Muthee, who claims to have run off a witch in a Kenyan village, actually laid hands on Palin when he visited her church in 2005. Maybe he thought she was a witch. But Palin explained it this way in a video:

"As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he's so bold. And he was praying 'Lord make a way, Lord, make a way.'

"And I'm thinking, this guy's really bold, he doesn't even know what I'm going to do, he doesn't know what my plans are. And he's praying not 'Oh Lord, if it be your will may she become governor,' no, he just prayed for it. He said, 'Lord make a way and let her do this next step. And that's exactly what happened.

"So, again, very, very powerful, coming from this church."


Palin believes that God put her into the governor's office and God wants her in the White House. Back on June 8, she flew to Wasilla (charging the State of Alaska for her expenses) to attend a graduation ceremony of the Master's Commission program at the Wasilla Assembly of God.

Ms. Palin spoke for about eight minutes, quoting from the New Testament epistle to the Ephesians. Her brief speech was a plea for the students to bring God to the people of Alaska. "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys as you go out throughout Alaska -- I can do my part in doing things like working really, really hard to get a natural gas pipeline. Pray about that also."

She then referred to some other of her duties as governor saying she could do those things, but, she continued "...really, all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's hearts isn't right with God. And that's going to be your job."


So, in 2008, on a presidential ticket, we have this crazy person who believes that God made her the governor of Alaska and that God wants her to become president in order to prepare our country for Armageddon. She associates with and is a member of one of the most extreme fundamentalist Christian cults in the world. Pastors and laypeople in this cult have organized on-going prayer networks believing they can pray her into the White House. Palin sees it as part of her job to exhort these true believers to convert all people to her version of crazy Christianity. She ascribes to a truly fantastical non-rational end-times scenario based upon the rantings of a few insane biblical authors; a scenario that has no basis in reality.

No, Ms. Palin. You'd better leave Obama's connections to William Ayers and the Rev. Wright alone. Who knows, maybe the corporate media will suddenly discover some backbone hiding behind their yellow spines and begin reporting the truth about your whacko religious beliefs, your whacko pastors, your whacko churches.

That couldn't be good. For you.


Talk2Action has compiled a mountain of detailed information related to Palin's religious and pastoral associations. You can access that information here.

If it's not one jet, it's another!

[Photo of an Embraer 190 - not Palin's]


Sarah Palin, the lying governor of Alaska, who implied clearly that sold the state's jet on eBay to save the state of Alaska some money, but didn't, now has another jet on which to flit about the country trying to sell the hoi polloi on the notion that she's the "real deal."

The vice presidential candidate now has her own chartered jet. It's an Embraer 190, and boasts Palin's name in "big blue letters."

According to Nikki Waller at the Wall Street Journal Travel Blog, "The plane, chartered from JetBlue, seats about 100 and will be the traveling home for the 44-year old Alaska Republican governor, her staff and security and accompanying paying media through the Nov. election."


Whoopee!

Do you think Queen Palin will decide this jet is too costly an item for a "reformer" such as she is, and try to sell it on eBay?

Nah...

Palin - Alaska's Queen

Palin is Alaska's Queen. And in Alaska, her subjects bow and scrape and "respect" her. They also ignore the fact that she abuses her office. That's to be expected, I suppose, 'cause she's so "pretty" and so "nice."

Thus, in a very queen-like manner, Governor Palin traveled from her governorship in Juneau to the little, bitty town of Wasilla where she messaged a group of "evangelical students" by telling them they needed to wend their way around the state "to make sure God's will be done here."

It all happened on June 8, at the Wasilla Assembly of God. She addressed the graduates of the "Master's Commission" program.

Queen Palin spoke for about eight minutes, referencing the New Testament epistle of Ephesians.

"What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys as you go out throughout Alaska -- I can do my part in doing things like working really, really hard to get a natural gas pipeline. Pray about that also. I think God's will has to be done, in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that."

She continued to say she could do things like develop Alaska's natural resources and pave the roads and ensure that the state troopers are well-equipped.

"But," she continued, "really, all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's hearts isn't right with God. And that's going to be your job."


Queen Palin used state funds for this little excursion for God! Sharon Leighow, a Palin spokeswoman, said the state paid for the trip because she was invited to the event as the governor of Alaska, not a private citizen.

Doesn't Ms. Palin have anything else to do except attend a religious commencement and give a mini-sermon to fundamentalist Christian youth, urging them to bring Alaska to Jesus? Should Alaska fund this preaching mission with taxpayer dollars?

What would be said if perchance Ms. Palin was of the Unitarian faith and attended a graduation of Unitarian students and said it didn't really matter what they believed about God, they just needed to get out and work for Alaska?


There's more about Queen Palin. The Washington Post reports that Queen Palin "has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a 'per diem' allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business."

In other words, instead of being present in the state's capitol, Queen Palin was absent more than half the time -- she was AT HOME! And the taxpayers of Alaska were financing this!

Not only so, but she's taken the children "on official out-of-town missions," for which she charged the state travel expenses. "And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife."

Queen Palin received $16,951 for her travel. "The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away.

There's much more involving traveling about the state and country on the taxpayer's dime. All of which cost the state of Alaska thousands of dollars.

Maybe it's all "legal." But it stinks. One should not claim "per diem" when one is living in one's own house. Stay in the governor's mansion! One does not need to drag one's kids all over the country for sled races and snowmobile races and to attend Christian teen centers!

Come to think of it, maybe that's all she really is - a hockey mom! But wasn't it great that she "sold" that jet on eBay?

Sarah Palin - Christian theocrat (stealth candidate?)

[The photo's a fake. McCain is not very religious. He used to be an Episcopalian, but changed to Southern Baptist to get the "evangelical" vote. Evangelicals don't consider Episcopalians to be "real" Christians. That's why McCain had to pick Palin or someone like her. The fundys know he's religiously-challenged. And his wife's a brewess, for god's sake! How does that work? Southern Baptists can't drink!]


Let's start another conspiracy theory:

Sarah Palin is a "stealth" candidate put up by the Christian Domionists to take over the presidency and install a Christian theocratic government. Assuming McCain wins in November and survives his first term, Palin runs for and wins the presidency in 2012. If John McCain dies in office for any reason, the timetable is moved up.

"Ca-ching!"


Okay, I admit it's a bit far out, but...

1) She was the pick of the Christian Dominionists who foisted her on John McCain, in spite of the fact that he wanted Joe Lieberman to be his vice presidential running mate.

2) Palin is an extremist Christian fundamentalist with extremist views on everything from personal freedoms to global warming and evolution.

3) The churches with which Palin has been associated are connected to the Christian Dominionist or Reconstructionist movement which advocates a theocratic government ruled by Old Testament law.

4) Palin does not believe in separation of church and state as evidenced by her statements and practices.

5) In October of 2007, Governor Palin "signed a proclamation ... which emphasized the Christian Heritage of America."


David Brody, "senior national correspondent" for the Christian Broadcasting Network, says that Palin's signing of the Christian Heritage proclamation was a "'ca-ching' moment for Evangelicals."

"I'm telling you folks. The Evangelical base is revved up about this pick. A McCain campaign source told me that there is so much excitement from the Evangelical community about this pick that it's making their head spin. This source told me, 'The event at Saddleback was the baking of the cake. Sarah Palin is the frosting.'"


Here's a brief summary of the Christian Heritage proclamation, which is riddled with errors, statements out of context and deliberately ignores the fact that, while many of of so-called Founding Fathers were "religious" in a generic sense, they would most certainly soundly denounce this very proclamation. Jefferson, for example, thought the New Testament gospels were idiotic fables.

Ms. Palin, however, being a theocrat, signed this proclamation which set aside the week of October 21-27, 2007 as "Christian Heritage Week." [Sorry, if there are non-believers in Alaska, or Jews, or Unitarians, or main-stream Protestants, or Buddhists, or whatever, you're not included - you don't get your own week.]

Now the reason this Christian Heritage week is important is so we don't forget that lots of the people involved in "structuring" American history were "Christians of caliber and integrity who did not hesitate to express their faith."

According to the theocrats and Ms. Palin, one of these "Christians" was Benjamin Franklin. It's too silly. Old Ben would have tossed his cookies if you lumped him with these religious fruitcakes! Christian? Not likely!

George Washington is another. Well, I think ol' George went to some Anglican church on rare occasions to nod to God, but he, too, would laugh out loud at the attempt to portray him as a fundamentalist Christian. He was a deist, for Christ's sake!

And then, Thomas Jefferson is held up as a person of Christian heritage. Jefferson, as we've noted, would be even more harsh in his denunciation of Palin and friends. Jefferson thought religion was nothing but trouble even if, once in a while he mentioned a deity in order to be politic.

There's more, but all of it's tripe.


What's important though, comes through in the preamble of the proclamation: It is to remind "Alaskans of the role Christianity has played in our rich heritage."

What about the role of other religions? What about the role of all those Founding Fathers who had no use whatsoever for Christianity or fools who parade about like Palin and the Republican Party, pretending that they are the Party of God?

This is a secular country, ladies and gentlemen! To proclaim a "Christian Heritage Week" smacks too much of a violation of the no establishment of religion clause in the Constitution.

Finally, what does this accomplish? Why would a secular government proclaim a Christian Heritage Week? Are these extremist Christian loonies so afraid of their "loving" God that they try to please him by this kind of religious pandering? Will they go to hell if they quit wearing their religion on their sleeve for one minute?

A comparison of Palin and Muslim fundamentalism

Juan Cole, writing for salon.com, asks a pertinent question and then provides the proper answer:

"What's the difference between Palin and Muslim fundamentalists? Lipstick."


Cole argues that Palin, because of her religious beliefs and theocratic worldview, is closer to Muslim fundamentalists than she is to our nation's Founding Fathers.

"On censorship, the teaching of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God's will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts."

Cole then gets into specifics, detailing how Palin's views stack up in relation to fundamentalist Muslim views.

For example:

When mayor of Wasilla, Palin "inquired of the local librarian how to go about banning books that some of her constituents though contained inappropriate language. She tried to fire the librarian for defying her. Book banning is common to fundamentalisms around the world, and the mind-set Palin displayed did not differ from that of the Hamas minister of education in the Palestinian government who banned a book of Palestinian folk tales for its sexually explicit language."

When Ms. Palin was running for governor, she said that "creationism should be taught in public schools, at taxpayers' expense, alongside real science. Antipathy to Darwin for providing an alternative to the creastion stories of the Bible and the Quran has also become a feature of Muslim fundamentalism. Saudi Arabia prohibits the study, even in universities of evolution ... "

Cole also discusses, in detail, the issues of abortion, Palin's belief that her way is God's way, and global warming, comparing Palin's views with those of Muslim fundamentalists.


You can read the entire article here.

Republicans fail to "derail" Palin probe!

The Republican attempt to derail the probe as to whether Sarah Palin "abused her power when she dismissed the state's public safety commissioner" has failed!

You can read more on the "probe" here.

A capsule version: Alaska Republican Rep. John Coghill attempted last week to pressure the powers-that-be to turn over the probe to the Alaska Legislature's Legislative Council into possibly replacing Democratic Sen. Hollis French, who is in charge of the probe.

Coghill charged that French was politicizing the process to help the national Democratic ticket.


It didn't work.

Still, Palin and the Republicans are trying to do everything to block the investigation. Palin, who initially said she should be "held accountable," now says she will not cooperate.

Pit Bulls disguised as hockey moms are not accountable, I guess.


The Anchorage Daily News has more on the "troopergate" story here.

An Alaskan's take on Palin

You are likely to have seen this piece already. It's an email by one Anne Kilkenny, "a long-time resident of Wasilla, Alaska, who has known Sarah Palin for 16 years." Initially intended for a few friends and relatives, it got posted to the Internet and was soon read by millions of people.

While Kilkenny is no fan of Palin, she offers a rather moderate and balanced critique. More importantly, she fills in some details than dear Sarah "forgot" to mention in her acceptance speech and still forgets to note while on the campaign trail.

The email has been disseminated with the title, "The Sarah Palin I Know."

You can read it in its entirety here.

It's official - it's now the Christian Republican Party!

The Christian right dictates to the Republican Party the planks in their platform, and tells the Republican presidential nominee which person to choose as his vice presidential running mate. The Republican presidential nominee bows to their orders because he knows he cannot possibly win without the wingnuts on his side.

Thus, ever so gradually, but surely, over the past 25-30 years, the party known formerly as the Republican Party has become the Christian Republican Party.

And the Christian fundamentalists who control things are gloating.


The problem for the nation is this: The Christian Republican Party does not put "Country First," in spite of all the banners waving over the heads of the delegates at the RNC. In fact, the Christian Republican Party doesn't really care about much of anything except maintaining the status quo for the rich and powerful and ensuring that their very specific credos are front and center.

Front and center and the most important issue for the Christian Republican Party is abortion. Next comes homosexuality, especially same-sex marriage. Then there's abstinence education. Then creationism. Then maintaining the sanctity of the Pledge of Allegiance, i.e., keeping the words, "under God." Next is the extreme importance of posting copies of the Ten Commandments in courthouses and schools. Then there is the issue of vouchers so parents can use taxpayer dollars to send their kiddos to private (religious) schools where they won't be subjected to satanism and other perversions. Then there's the matter of public prayer--in schools, military institutions and government agencies...

I probably forgot a couple of things.

But the headliner, the banner issue is abortion. That is absolutely all that matters. And that's why the Christian Republican Party is crazy for Sarah Palin. They don't give a damn whether she's qualified or not to be vice president or president! They make that clear over and over again. What makes her "perfect" for the job is that she is "pro-life."


From the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a right-wing, pro-life group, dedicated to electing pro-life candidates all across the country.

"John McCain has cemented his role as the one true, authentically pro-life choice for President. ... His words, on the heels of his choice of pro-life heroine Sarah Palin for VP, are exactly what the pro-life voters needed to hear. The enthusiasm of values voters shown this week for the McCain-Palin ticket drives home the saliency of the abortion issue in this election."

Heroine?

Oh, and Ms. Marjorie Dannenfelser, the Susan B. Anthony prez, a damn liar, went on to say that Senator Obama "thinks babies that survive abortions should be left on the table to die." It's incredible that such a person would claim to have any "values" at all!


From the editor of Charisma magazine. This gentleman, a self-professed Christian, is also a damn liar! One reason Charisma won't support Obama, he says, is "his lack of experience. He does not have one major accomplishment to his name in his life as a public servant."

How does a so-called follower of Jesus justify such bullshit?

But then we come to the real problem - Obama's views on the "sanctity of life." Obama is pro-abortion, he says. Another lie!

Thirdly, and almost as important as abortion is Obama's "sympathy toward those who are attempting to legitimize homosexuality."

The final big lie is this: "McCain is for limited government, and Obama sees government as the solution to all major problems in society."

Simplistic and stupid.

There's much more. If you have a strong stomach, you can read it here.


From CBN News: The reaction of the evangelical community to John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate has been "EXTREMELY POSITIVE."

Tony Perkins of the right-wing Family Research Council says that "Sarah Palin clearly addresses the issues so many conservatives are concerned about."

Matt Staver, of the right-wing Liberty Counsel, says Palin was an "Absolutely brilliant choice. ... She [Palin] is attractive, articulate, conservative, pro-family, pro-life, and pro-marriage. John McCain hit this one out of the ballpark."

Dr. Richard Land, the Southern Baptist flake: "Governor Palin will delight the Republican base. She is pro-life. She is an avid hunter and member of The National Rifle Association ..."


The accolades continue in this same vein. Notice there is nothing about the great issues that we face as a nation. Nothing about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing about nuclear proliferation. Nothing about peace between Israel and Palestine. Nothing about a failing economy, stinking lousy health care, the growing number of poor among us, the lack of medical treatment for our returning wounded veterans, our decaying infrastructure, the tax burden that has been shifted from the wealthy to the middle class, the corporate ownership of the political process, the intense lobbying that so often negates legislation beneficial to the people of the country, the need to improve our educational system, the decaying inner cities, the flight of jobs overseas...well, we could go on and on.

Amazingly, these lovers of Jesus don't give a rat's ass about any of those critical issues. They've turned an entire political party into an ultra-right, Christian fundamentalist institution.


Maybe there really is a hell!

Palin's compassion for her military men & women

Another very interesting post by Jesus' General.

Ah, Palin's compassion is something to behold. Her commitment to her returned warriors is as vast as it is priceless!

"Faced with the prospect of so many Alaska Guardsmen and soldiers returning home after suffering traumatic brain injuries (TBI), Gov. Sarah Palin reached deep into Alaska's coffers to allocate one hundred dollars to teach health care professionals how to recognize TBI cases."

No wonder she's ready to be commander-in-chief of the United States! This must be one of those "decisions" that Tucker Bounds couldn't recall when questioned by Campbell Brown.

Ugh!

Jesus' General here.

The environment and Sarah Palin

Rick Steiner, an Alaskan "guest columnist" for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is disappointed with John McCain's pick for a running mate. By choosing Sarah Palin, says Steiner, McCain "has shown a spectacular, even dangerous lack of judgment."

Steiner explains: Not only is Ms. Palin utterly lacking any qualifications to be vice president, but she "is an evangelical, anti-choice, pro-gun, right-wing conservative who wants creationism taught in schools. She is currently under investigation by the Alaska Legislature for alleged abuse of office. Many of us in Alaska simply cannot imagine Palin having anything to do with U.S. foreign policy, domestic policy, national defense or the countless other affairs of federal governance."

But what is extremely "worrisome" about Palin "is her abysmal record on the environment during her two years as governor, and how that would translate into national environmental policy if she became vice president."

Mr. Steiner offers the following as evidence of Palin's perfidy:

1. Climate change. Palin has done nothing about this "except hold meetings and appoint a 'climate sub-cabinet' ... Lots of talk, no action. Although in the past two years the Arctic summer sea ice shrunk to the lowest levels every recorded, Palin apparently does not believe it is human-induced or cause for alarm..."

2. Polar bears. Palin sued the Bush administration this summer to try to remove polar bears from the threatened species list. She claimed "her opposition was based on a 'comprehensive scientific review.' But when asked to release the scientific review, she refused."

Now, for the "good" part: "The document, later obtained by the public (from the federal government), clearly shows that, contrary to Palin's assertions, the state of Alaska's marine mammal scientists agreed with the federal conclusions that the polar bears are in serious trouble because of global warming and loss of their sea ice habitat, and that they would be gone from Alaska by 2050."

In other words, once again Palin lies in order to protect her allies in the oil and gas business!

3. Endangered species. "Earlier this year, Palin approved a $2 million state appropriation for a conference on the 'economic impacts' of the Endangered Species Act, designed to persuade the public that ESA listings were too costly and unwarranted. Recently she agreed to use the money instead to fund the state's lawsuit against the Bush administration over the polar bear listing -- a likely violation of the state constitutional provisions on appropriation. ..."

4. Predator control. "Palin approved and expanded the state's aerial predator control progam, where wolves are shot from aircraft and bears hunted from aircraft and killed upon landing. ... Last year, her administration offered a $150 bounty for each wolf killed until the bounty was ruled illegal by the courts. Hundreds of wolves are killed each year by this antiquated state program that has no scientific justification whatsoever, but rather is designed to appease Palin's urban sport hunter supporters."

Hockey mom, my ass! Sorry, but there is something seriously wrong with someone who thinks shooting wolves from the air and hunting down bears from the air to kill them is "sport"!

5. Pebble mine. "Palin aggressively opposed the 'clean water initiative' on the August ballot in Alaska (which then failed), favoring instead foreign mining company desires for fewer government regulations controlling their toxic effluent into salmon streams. ..."

6. Oil and gas drilling. Palin enthusiastically approves drilling everywhere in Alaska, "including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the central Arctic, the entire Arctic Ocean, and in fish-rich Bristol Bay and Cook Inlet." To this end, she has been lax in terms of "regulation and government oversight of Alaska's oil facilities ... "

7. Exxon Valdez oil spill damages. "Palin refuses to push Exxon to pay the government for the unanticipated environmental injuries from the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. ... Meanwhile, Exxon reaps record profits from Alaska."

8. Trans Pacific shipping. Coastal residents and organization have asked Palin repeatedly "to enhance the safety of merchant shipping through Alaska's Aleutian Islands, a primary shipping route between Asia and North America, but she's done nothing ...


Vote for McCain and you will put this human environmental disaster in a position to do harm, not just to Alaska, but to all of America!

You can read the entire article by Mr. Steiner here. This is an article by Faux News about the polar bear situation. Additional information about Sarah Palin and the environment here.

A Palin biography?

Don't we already know more than we want to know about Sarah Palin?

Evidently not, for the publisher that represents many so-called "evangelicals" and fundy Christians, Zondervan, is in process of presenting the world with a biography of the Alaska governor.

Aren't biographies usually done when a person has accomplished something in life besides having five babies and sucking up to oil companies?

It will be interesting to see if this "Christian" publisher includes all the lies she has told along the way and continues to tell.

Probably not. Wouldn't want to tarnish the veneer of the "hockey mom" by telling the truth.

Palin in the papers

McCain's operatives obviously failed to properly vet the vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.

But less than two years ago, when Ms. Palin was running for governor, the Democrats did their own vetting. They put together a document of 62 pages "with countless summaries or direct quotes, largely from local newspapers, [which covered] all of the important issues you would expect to see, from her views on abortion and abstinence to tangled oil pipeline questions."

Editor & Publisher reveals that "Politico.com obtained a copy and printed merely a handful of the hundreds of findings on Tuesday. These included serious matters such as her use of the mayor's office in political campaigns. But it also posted a PDF of the entire document which few have probably examined. Here [are] some of the more outrageous, or surprising, revelations -- strictly from newspaper clips."

1. On the death penalty. When questioned about the death penalty, in extreme cases, e.g. the death of a child, Palin said, "My goodness, hang' em up, yeah." (Anchorage Daily News, 8/18/06)

2. On religion. "Palin wrote a Letter to the Editor saying only, 'San Francisco judges forbidding our Pledge of Allegiance? They will take the phrase 'under God' away from me when my cold, dead lips can no longer utter those words. God bless America.'" (Juneau Empire, 6/30/02)

3. On Walmart. "Palin presided over a wedding at a Walmart. ... 'It was so sweet,' said Palin, who fought back tears during the nuptials. 'It was so Wasilla.'" (Anchorage Daily News, 8/28/99)

On Walmart and health coverage. "Asked about expanding health care coverage and about Wal-Mart's corporate conduct, she delivered non-answers with a disarming smile." (Anchorage Daily News, 1/30/06)

4. Used public funds for political gain. "In her 2002 Lt. Governor bid, Mayor Palin used city employees, telephones, computers, fax machines for campaign fundraising and literature. On her candidate registration form, she used her City Hall fax number, and her mayoral e-mail address. Records show that Wasilla city property was used to contact supporters, donors, media contacts, and media purchasing. (Anchorage Daily News, 7/21/06)

5. Gender card. "After Palin fired Irl Stambaugh, the police chief, he sued the city in part based on gender discrimination. The [Wasilla] Frontiersman wrote, 'The gender discrimination issues stem from statements Palin allegedly made to others that she was intimidated by Stambaugh's size. He stands over 6-feet tall and weighs more than 200 pounds, which, the lawsuit said, is attributed to his gender.'" (Frontiersman, 2/26/97)

Palin goes to Costco to see Ivana Trump. "Sarah Palin, a commerical fisherman from Wasilla, told her husband Todd on Tuesday she was driving to Anchorage to shop at Costco. Instead, she headed straight for Ivana. And there, at J.C. Penney's cosmetic department, was Ivana, the former Mrs. Donald Trump, sitting at a table next to a photograph of herself. She wore a light-colored pantsuit and pink fingernail polish. Her blonde hair was coiffed in a bouffant French twist. 'We went to see Ivana,' said Palin, who admittedly smells like salmon for a large part of the summer, 'because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture.'"
(Anchorage Daily News, 4/3/96)

Palin couldn't run for Senate because she couldn't be the "team Mom." "A hockey mom and a former standout athlete herself, Palin said she understood her son's concerns. 'How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. Senator?' she said." (Anchorage Daily News, 4/24/04)

6. Lying. "Palin Exaggerated Work Experience for Mayoral Campaign. In 1997, Frontiersman columnist Paul Stuart wrote that after Palin had criticized her opponent for using City Hall resources for political gain, 'when Palin was asked back then (by me) why the lodge where she claimed, in her campaign, to have gained her management experience, had no record of a borough business license or of paying any bed tax, she paused and said it might have been because the place had no clients for a year or so.' In an article describing the possibility of recalling Palin, the Frontiersman wrote the 'reasons include Palin's alleged falsification of her credentials during the campaign last fall." (Frontiersman, 1/22/97, 2/5/97)

"Frontiersman Editorial Said Palin Made Statements That Were 'Patently Untrue,' Said She Had Shown 'Unrepentant Backpedaling and Incessant Whining.' A Frontiersman editorial wrote, 'Wasilla residents have been subjected to unlawfully appoint[ed] council members, statements that have been shown to be patently untrue, unrepentant backpedalling, and incessant whining that her only enemies are the press and a few disgruntled supporters of former Mayor John Stein." (Frontiersman editorial, 2/7/97)

Another Frontiersman editorial: "Mayor Palin fails to have a firm grasp of something very simple: the truth." (Frontiersman, 2/7/97)

7. Personal. "Palin's Brother-in-Law Appeared on Reality Dating Show. Lt. Gov. candidate Sarah Palin thought it might help her campaign when brother-in-law Jack McCann showed up as a desirable catch on the new 'reality' TV show, 'Looking for Love: Bachelorettes in Alaska.' That hope lasted until she actually saw an episode of the series, which turns out to be your basic meat market twitch and grin. 'Oh Lord,' she said, 'My sisters and I watched it in horror.' Jack, who is scheduled to appear again even though he crashed a mountain bike in the first episode, is pretty cute and has a sense of humor, Sarah reports. 'He described his occupation ... as an office environment consultant,' she said. 'He sells furniture.'" (Anchorage Daily News, 6/9/02)

"Palin told The Associated Press that she and her husband, Todd, made a bet on whether Murkowski would run. If the governor says he'll enter the race, Palin has to get the Big Dipper tattooed on her ankle. If Murkowski says no, todd gets a wedding ring inked on his finger." (Anchorage Daily News, 5/26/06.)


Doesn't a lot of this stuff sound familiar?

Read more from Editor & Publisher here. There's more here at the E & P Pub. And Politico is here.

The real Sarah Palin

[AP photo by Brian Wallace]

"According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat's primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would hear her, uttered the slur ['So Sambo beat the bitch!'] and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively. ...

"Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N-'Fetch-It, 'darkie musical' swipe, people who know her says she refers regularly to Alaska's Aboriginal people as 'Arctic Arabs' - efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description - as well as the more colourful 'mukluks' along with the totally unimaginative 'f**king Eskimos,' according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article."

"[A]n insurance agent in Anchorage who knows the Palin family, said 'The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here. It's corrupt and arrogant. They're all rich because they do sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they have to.'"

There's much more here.

Also, check out the blog, The Immoral Minority here for additional info about Alaska and Ms. Palin.

Palin is unprepared

In spite of her "vast" executive experience (except, of course, the failed car wash bizness), Sarah Palin is simply unprepared to serve as vice president of the United States.

We knew that! From news reports, however, it appears a lot of dumb-dumbs and hockey moms don't get it. Or, worse, they just don't care.

She's a CELEBRITY!

However, the GOP knows and that worries them some. The Jed Report carries a brief story about GOP strategist, Todd Harris, who says that Ms. Palin will not be available for about two weeks.

Why is that? Well, she might make "a mistake."

Harris put it this way: "If she goes out and makes a mistake, that is something that [voters will] care about, and that's something that will haunt [McCain] for awhile, so I think this is a smart move."


Let's put this in perspective: John McCain, who has met Ms. Palin one time and knows literally nothing about her except what she has chosen to mention, decides she is ready to be vice president, or, god forbid, president of the United States.

It soon becomes obvious to all that she forgot to mention several things to Mr. McCain which are lurking around in her history, not the least of which is a 17-year old daughter who is pregnant out of wedlock. But whatever she did tell McCain, the Senator, being the genius he is, felt none of it mattered as she would gain the support of the extremists on the Christian right, and he knew he couldn't win without the fruitcakes for Jesus.

Country first, my ass!

Now, because her lack of knowledge about anything (in spite of the fact Alaska is next door to Russia), the GOP minions are secreting her away in the North Country to give her a crash course in how she should run the country should she need to do so.

[You'll notice that, while the other major candidates are appearing on the talk shows today, Ms. Palin is noticably absent!]

Ah...this whole scenario reminds me of those stumble-bums of old -- the Three Stooges.

[The Jed Report is here.]