Daily Nonsense

I just found this comic and squirted milk out of my nose.  Dodged that shoe, yes he did!

A YouTube video that was pulled for “inappropriate content”. That’s right, there is no questioning the legitimacy of organized religion in America. As you all remember, Bush effectively negated your rights. It was all in your best interests (as defined by the radical republican christian right), so don’t worry too much about it. OK? OK! (I guess this is slightly older news, but it’s new to me.)

Religion – watch more funny videos

The most recent controversy to surround disgraced ex Attorney General stems from a lawsuit filed against him by 8 individuals who applied for, but were refused, positions with DOJ’s Honor Program and Summer Law Intern Program. 

A June internal investigation has revealed that certain candidates were excluded because of their liberal-leaning resumes.  Whoops!  Violating department policies and civil service law to exclude Democrats again.  That brings the total individuals wronged by Alberto due to political party collateral damage to 17.

I wonder if there is any single thing that Alberto accomplished during his brief tenure that can overshadow all of these political fuck-ups?  Probably not.  Yet another stunning legacy from the still president Bush administration.

Leahy, Conyers Want Info On DOJ Paying Gonzales’ Legal Bills

By John Bresnahan

Nov 24, 2008

(The Politico) Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) want Attorney General Michael Mukasey to give them the details on how much the Justice Department is spending to defend former AG Alberto Gonzales.

Gonzales has been sued by eight individuals who applied for, but were turned down, positions with DOJ’s Honor Program and Summer Law Intern Program. An internal investigation found that several former high-ranking DOJ officials may have improperly sought to block the hiring of liberal applicants for these prestigious entry-level positions inside Justice.

As with previous cases where former officials are sued over job-related actions, the Justice Department is paying up to $24,000 per month for Gonzales’ private attorneys, according to media reports. The two Democrats want information on the agreement between DOJ and Gonzales over the legal fees.

"Following the publication of the Inspector General [Glenn Fine's] report, several individuals whose applications for employment through these programs were turned down during the period that the hiring process was improperly politicized have filed suit against Mr. Gonzales and others who held senior positions at the Department at the time,’" Leahy and Conyers wrote. "Recent press accounts indicated that the Department of Justice has decided to pay up to $24,000 a month for a private attorney to represent Mr. Gonzales in connection with this lawsuit. As far as we can tell, the Department has thus far failed to confirm or publicly account for any aspect of this arrangement."

The two chairmen want to know who at DOJ approved the agreement with Gonzales, and why, if IG Fine found that the alleged politiicization of the hiring process may have violated DOJ policy, "did the Department determine that the conduct at issue in this lawsuit was within the scope of Mr. Gonzales’s employment and that his representation is in the interest of the United States? "

Copyright 2008 POLITICO

[Thanks, CBS News]

I’m so overjoyed I’m incapable of commenting!

Cheney, Gonzales indicted for alleged prisoner abuse

(CNN) – Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on separate charges related to alleged prisoner abuse in federal detention centers, Willacy County, Texas, District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra told CNN Tuesday.

The indictment stems from Cheney’s investment in the Vanguard Group — an investment management company that reportedly has interests in the prison companies in charge of the detention centers, according to The Associated Press. It also charges Gonzales halted an investigation into abuse at the detention centers while he was attorney general.

Democratic state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. also is charged in the indictment.

Michael R. Cowen, an attorney for Lucio, issued a statement calling Guerra a "one man circus."

"In the March 2008 Democratic Primary, 70 percent of the Willacy County voters elected to remove Juan Guerra as Willacy County District Attorney," Cowen said. "Now, with only a few weeks left in his term, Mr. Guerra has again chosen to misuse his position in an attempt to seek revenge on those who he sees as political enemies."

Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said, "The vice president has not received an indictment."

Willacy is near the United States-Mexico border.

[Thanks, CNN]

God slammed another door shut in Sarah Palin’s face today when incumbent Republican Senator Ted Stevens conceded the race to Democratic contender Mark Begich, thus bringing an end to 40 years of unethical behavior and malfeasance.

Good riddance to another piece of Republican garbage and good riddance to the fragile hopes of EX vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  No Washington for you.  You might want to try sucking up to Bill O’Reilly or some other NeoCon Radical Right jackhole.  Someone’s got to want you aside from the Alaskans, don’t cha’ think?

Stevens: ‘It is apparent the election has been decided’
Posted by Alaska_Politics
Posted: November 19, 2008 – 11:48 am

E-mail from Sen. Ted Stevens office:

Senator Stevens’ Statement on Recent Vote Tallies

ANCHORAGE, AK – Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) today released the following statement regarding his campaign and the most recent vote tallies in Alaska:

“Given the number of ballots that remain to be counted, it is apparent the election has been decided and Mayor Begich has been elected.

“My family and I wish to thank the thousands of Alaskans who stood by us and who supported my re-election. It was a tough fight that would not have been possible without the help of so many Alaskans – people who I am honored to call my friends. I will always remember their thoughts, prayers, and encouragement.

“I am proud of the campaign we ran and regret that the outcome was not what we had hoped for. I am deeply grateful to Alaskans for allowing me to serve them for 40 years in the U.S. Senate. It has been the greatest honor of my life to work with Alaskans of all political persuasions to make this state that we all love a better place.

“I wish Mayor Begich and his family well. My staff and I stand willing to help him prepare for his new position.”

[Thanks, Anchorage Daily News]

CNN is reporting that the controversial Senate race between convicted Republican incumbent Ted Stevens and Democratic challenger Mark Begich is still up for grabs.  At last count, Begich was leading Stevens by a margin of 1,022 votes.

But will that be enough to ensure victory?  Apparently, in Alaska there is a 15 day grace period, the longest in the nation, for the arrival of absentee ballots mailed outside of the US.  Could there be enough votes to straggle in to let the ethically challenged Stevens gain victory over Begich?

Remember just how far reaching these results are.  If Stevens wins, Palin could demand his resignation and hold a special election on which she would figure prominently on the ballot.  the book-buring witch could end up in Washington after all, rather than in Hollywood where she belongs.

Alaska, Minnesota set for key steps in unresolved Senate races

• Story Highlights
• U.S. Senate races in Alaska, Minnesota still too close to call
• Wednesday is deadline for Alaska officials to receive absentee ballots
• Minnesota officials mull status of rejected ballots for recount
• Georgia will have runoff election on December 2

(CNN) — Officials in Alaska, one of three states yet to certify winners in the November 4 U.S. Senate races, say they hope to have nearly all ballots counted on Tuesday.

And officials in Minnesota, home of one of the other unresolved races, intend to rule Tuesday whether certain rejected absentee ballots should be considered in a recount scheduled to start Wednesday.

In the Alaska race between embattled Republican Sen. Ted Stevens and Democratic challenger Mark Begich, about 24,000 ballots remained to be counted on Tuesday, said the state’s elections director, Gail Fenumiai.

However, it’s possible a few straggling absentee votes might come in Wednesday in time to be added to the tallies.

The race drew national attention, especially after Stevens was convicted in October of filing false statements on Senate financial disclosure forms. In early returns in the days after the election, Stevens — the Senate’s longest serving Republican — held a narrow lead over Begich, who is mayor of Anchorage.

But Begich took a slim lead last week as officials sorted some 90,000 additional votes — nearly a third of all ballots cast in the state. Those votes included about 60,000 absentee ballots, 9,500 early votes and another 20,000 "questioned" or provisional ballots being checking for validity.

By Friday, when vote counting was stopped for the weekend, Begich had 47.37 percent of votes counted; Stevens had 47.02 percent. The two were separated by 1,022 votes out of more than 290,000 cast, according to the Alaska Division of Elections Web site.

Alaska allows up to 15 days, longer than any other state, after Election Day for absentee ballots to arrive and be counted if they were postmarked by Election Day and mailed from outside the United States. Absentee ballots mailed inside the United States are accepted up to 10 days after the election.

Election officials said that schedule was adopted in consideration of Alaska’s sprawling geography, sparse population and sometimes spotty mail service in remote areas.

"Wednesday is the last day we will accept absentee ballots, but we really don’t expect many to come in," Fenumiai said Monday.

In Minnesota, vote totals last week showed Republican Sen. Norm Coleman 206 votes ahead of his Democratic challenger, Al Franken.

On Tuesday, the secretary of state’s canvassing board is scheduled to hear a request by Franken’s campaign that certain already-rejected absentee ballots be counted during a statewide hand recount scheduled to start Wednesday.

Asked what the campaign plans to do if the board decides it will not count rejected ballots, Franken spokeswoman Colleen Murray said the campaign hasn’t ruled out anything, including asking for a postponement of the recount.

Georgia is the other state with a Senate race yet to be resolved. Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss will face Democrat Jim Martin in a December 2 runoff.

[Thanks, CNN]

The length of my comments are commensurate with the length of the article which is oddly enough, commensurate with the length of the ‘Press Conference’.

7.5 minutes, 3 questions, and 3 run on sentence answers.  That’s my girl, keep opening your mouth.

Sarah Palin’s first press conference
9:05 AM Thu, Nov 13, 2008
Christy Hoppe

In Miami at the Republican Governor’s Association, Sarah Palin held her first national press conference. About 100 reporters gathered. The bank of TV camera were two-deep on the risers. And — drumroll please — it lasted three questions and about seven and a half minutes.

Palin when asked what message and motivation she might have for the press conference, as well as interviews in the past two days to Matt Lauer of the Today Show as well as Fox’s Greta Van Susteren and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Larry King, she intimated that she would have liked more freedom during the presidential campaign. “I don’t want to talk about the strategy of a campaign that is over,” Palin said.

She said she stood with the other red state governors because she thinks states will offer the solutions of balanced budgets, nonpartisanship and the ideas that will lead the GOP out of the wilderness.

[Thanks, Dallas Morning News]

Well, Alaska has certainly been in the news quite a bit recently.  First we’ve got the ethics challenged, book-burning, anti-abortion creationist clogging up the media with her stupid and inane comments as she single-handedly tanks the Republican run for the White House. 

And now we’ve got yet another Republican from Alaska in the news.  Senator Ted Stevens was just found guilty Monday on seven counts of failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and free work on his home in Alaska.  Another corrupt Republican government official.

I’ve heard that party leaders are actually relieved that Sen. Stevens ’stance’ was not an issue in this most recent Republican foible.

Top Republicans call for Sen. Stevens to resign

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has joined other top Republicans in calling for convicted Sen. Ted Stevens to resign.

Earlier on Tuesday both members of the Republican presidential ticket — Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — as well as other Republican senators called on Stevens, R-Alaska, to step down.

While campaigning for re-election on Tuesday, McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, told reporters that Stevens should step down immediately, according to McConnell’s spokesman Dom Stewart.

McConnell is in a tight race with his Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford.

Earlier in the day, McConnell said in a statement that Stevens "will be held accountable so the public trust can be restored."

Sen. John Ensign, the Nevada Republican who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, also issued a strongly worded statement Tuesday.

"I am disappointed to see his career end in disgrace," Ensign said. "Sen. Stevens had his day in court and the jury found he violated the public’s trust — as a result he is properly being held accountable."

[Thanks, CNN]

We all know that George W. Bush isn’t the man we elected as president.  But with the manipulation of the results from overseas voters and the residents of Ohio, Bush was determined to be the winner yet again in 2004.

One of the cornerstones of his theft of the office of the president was in Ohio.  Using voting machines which have now proven to be inaccurate, George W. and his puppet-master Dick Cheney were able to prevent more than 350,000 individuals from having their votes count.

350,000 votes was just enough to manipulate the results of the Electoral Congress and assure the continued reign of the true ‘Axis of Evil’.

Hey, guess what?  The Bush-Cheney administration has their eyes set on Ohio voters once again.  Choosing an influential battleground state and manipulating the votes might just be enough to get McCain and the warthog elected.

Bush Undermines Democracy with Attack on 200,000 New Ohio Voters

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted October 27, 2008.

How far will an already politicized Justice Department go to assist Republicans win on November 4?

As the 2008 presidential election heads into its final week, the current president threw a political wild card on table late Friday, when he asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the status of 200,000 Ohio voters.

George W. Bush’s request, if honored, could be politically explosive. It would remind voters of the Department of Justice’s partisan abuses of power in the scandal surrounding the firing of seven U.S. attorneys in 2006 who did not deliver ‘voter fraud’ convictions.

It could be a big distraction, drawing attention away from issues that call for legitimate DOJ intervention, such as shortages of voting machines in minority precincts in Virginia and Pennsylvania, compared to nearby white precincts. That disparity would violate existing civil rights law.

Or it could interject a complicating dynamic into the already heavily litigated Ohio general election, by adding the Department’s weight to GOP legal claims that pre-emptively question the legitimacy of a close vote count in a key battleground state.

Either way, the Department must choose if it will remain silent or get involved in an action that would go well beyond its historic role of quietly monitoring elections and avoiding messages to voters.

"This is taking the politicization of this to a new level, and the last thing we need is for the elections officials and voters of Ohio to be put in a chaotic situation in the last days before the election," Jon Greenbaum of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told the Washington Post, reacting to the White House request.

The White House, according to the same Post report, described its actions as a routine referral to a federal agency as requested by a member of Congress, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). Boehner had written to Mukasey early last week but received no response.

The Obama campaign reaction was to send the fourth letter this month to Mukasey urging he ensure the Department does not interfere "to satisfy desperate partisan political demands."

"For the Department now, in response to the intense politics of the moment, to abruptly intercede in the current work of state and local officials would inflict incalculable damage — further and irreparable damage — to your office and to the reputation of senior federal law enforcement," said Robert Bauer, Obama campaign counsel.

Bauer’s "further" damage was a reference to media leaks by FBI officials confirming it was investigating ACORN, a low-income advocacy group, for voter registration issues. That disclosure violated Department rules and Bauer asked Mukasey to instruct a special prosecutor in the U.S. attorney firing scandal to investigate the leak. Like Beohner’s request, Mukasey also did not respond to Bauer’s request.

The Real Issue

At issue in the White House pressure tactics is how the GOP may be able to contest the vote count if the results are close.

Republicans in several battleground states have sought to challenge the validity of hundreds of thousands of voter registrations using a gray area of federal election law and error-prone databases.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) instructs states to use Social Security and driver’s license databases to verify voter registrations, but leaves it up to states how to specifically do that. In Ohio, for example, the Secretary of State, Democrat Jennifer Brunner, has issued for local officials to follow.

The absence of specific federal guidelines on using the Social Security and state motor vehicle databases to verify registrations is compounded by another factor: the fact that these records, especially Social Security data, have error rates as high as 28.5 percent when used for verifying voter registrations.

These factors are behind the GOP’s assertions that key battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania are facing major ballot security crises that threaten the legitimacy of the vote.

In various lawsuits, the GOP has argued that registrations that did not match these databases be segregated and treated as a separate class of voters. The GOP said these voters should receive provisional ballots, which would have to be verified before being counted.

But, so far, most state and federal courts have rejected the GOP’s legal arguments. Late last week, a Wisconsin court told that state’s attorney general, a McCain campaign co-chair, that he did not have the authority to sue on this issue. Moreover, in Ohio, the GOP’s lawsuit went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it sided with Brunner. The Ohio secretary of state, a former judge, said her office had met HAVA’s requirements by promulgating its own procedures to verify voter registrations.

Soon after the Supreme Court ruling, several Republican House members started lobbying the Justice Department to intervene. At the same time, Brunner issued new directives — which have the force of law — telling Ohio’s 88 county election boards they count not bar anyone from voting because of ‘no-match’ voter registration issues.

The White House then asked the Justice Department to intervene after Brunner’s latest directives.

[Thanks, AlterNet]

Wow!  150,000 dollars!

$150,000.00 of Republican donations going to clothe the pit bull.  Wow………  I’ll say it again, WOW!

Albert Einstein once said “If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies… It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.” .  And in this case I would say that the wrapper around Palin is much, much better than the ‘meat’.

Or, to put it another way, there is a proverb that says “A pretty face and fine clothes do not make character” and as we race toward the November 4 finish line we see that Sarah Palin is characterless indeed.

As to the last statement in the article below, that the clothes will go to charity after the campaign, I don’t believe that for an instant.  For someone who has lied and stolen in the past to give up all the swanky clothes would be unbearable for her.

Ethics campaigners cry foul over Palin shopping spree

17 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Political ethics campaigners lodged a formal complaint Thursday over the 150,000 dollars the Republican Party spent to dress vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin in fashionable new clothes.

In a submission to the Federal Election Commission, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleged that the shopping spree was a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act by Palin, the Republican National Committee and RNC "operatives".

"It is ridiculous that the RNC would spend 150,000 dollars to outfit a vice presidential nominee and her family at any time," said the group’s executive director Melanie Sloan on its website (www.citizensforethics.org).

"But it is more outrageous given the dire financial straights of so many Americans and the state of our economy."

With the November 4 election less than a fortnight away, it emerged Wednesday that the Republicans splashed out for Palin — the moose-hunting governor of Alaska and self-described "hockey mom" — after John McCain picked her as his running mate.

The Politico website said chic designer outfits from such top-end retailers as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, plus hair care and make-up, cropped up as "campaign accessories" in a monthly RNC financial disclosure statement.

McCain’s campaign said the clothes will go to charity after the November 4 election.

[Thanks, Google News]

The RIAA has been targeting a vast assortment of individuals for copyright infringement.  From handicapped single Moms to 15 year-old girls through what seems like half the college students in the U.S. the RIAA has tried to leave no stone unturned in its pitiful attempts to extort money from those least able to defend themselves.

Apparently John McCain and the McCain campaign are guilty of breaking some of the same laws as those people as well as breaking the laws that got Muxtape shut down!  Playing songs at their hate-fests rallies which they have no legal right or license to play.

There is a growing list of artists who have stood up and complained about McCain’s copyright infringement that include Heart, Van Halen, John Cougar Mellencamp, and Jackson Browne.  Jackson Browne has gone so far as to file suit against both John McCain himself and his campaign organization.

I’ve been scanning the headlines and listening to the news radio, but I haven’t heard anything about the RIAA filing suit against McCain & company, but it’s only a matter of time, right?  Right??

McCain’s Musical Copyright Infringement Continues

Posted on October 10th, 2008 by ZP Heller

It’s getting to the point where the only songs the McCain campaign will be able to use at rallies are the ones written specifically for them, like John Rich’s pseudo-country trifle “Raisin’ McCain.”  A couple of days ago, the Foo Fighters issued a statement telling McCain to stop using their song, “My Hero.”

The band said in a statement:

“The saddest thing about this is that `My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential.  To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song.”

The Foo Fighters join a slew of artists who have complained of McCain’s copyright infringement.  Others who have told McCain to quit usurping their music for political gains include Van Halen, John Mellencamp, Heart (sorry Sarah “Barracuda”), Frankie Valli, the owners of the theme song from “Rocky,” and Jackson Browne, who even filed a suit against the campaign.

Clearly, fewer and fewer artists want to be associated in any way with McCain.  But what’s particularly ironic in the case of the Foo Fighters is that McCain couldn’t be further from the ordinary hero mentioned in the song.  He continues to put himself before the country, which we saw most recently with his closing remarks at the second debate (as compared to Barack Obama’s) and his theatrics with the economic crisis.  He’s desperate to prove himself as the common man who rises to the occasion, but the reality is that he has NEVER been the common man and he has RARELY IF EVER risen to the occasion.

If you want to know what I mean, read Tim Dickinson’s scathing Rolling Stone piece on McCain, “Make-Believe Maverick.” Use that evidence, race it around.  There goes my hero, he’s ordinary.

[Thanks, The REAL McCain]

We either have a faux Fox News story that it trying to diminish the impact of any "Incite to Riot" litigation against Palin or we have a cover-up.  What’s your guess??

Report: Secret Service Says ‘Kill Him’ Allegations at Palin Rally Unfounded

A Secret Service agent called charges that a man yelled "kill him" in reference to Barack Obama during a Sarah Palin rally "unfounded," .  

FOXNews.com

A senior Secret Service agent said allegations that a man yelled ‘kill him" when Barack Obama’s name was referenced Tuesday during a Sarah Palin rally are "unfounded," reports the Timesleader.com, a Northeastern Pennsylvania news agency.

Agent Bill Slavoski — who was standing in the audience along with other Secret Service agents during the rally in Scranton, Pa. — said neither he nor the other officers heard the comment, according to the report published Thursday.

The charges — first reported Tuesday on the Scranton Times-Tribune’s Web site — claimed that a male audience member shouted "kill him" after congressional candidate Chris Hackett mentioned Barack Obama’s name at the rally. 

Slavoski reportedly said he was "baffled" after first reading the report on Wednesday. 

Slavoski — who is charge of the Secret Service’s field office in Scranton — launched an official investigation into the charge and said he could not find anyone other than the Scranton Times-Tribune’s reporter to corroborate the story.

A Secret Service spokesman told FOXNews.com that the investigation is not closed and asks for anyone with information on the allegations to contact the agency.

[Thanks, FauxFoxNews]

Yikes, I seem have been a little quick off the mark yesterday when I mentioned that the only real critical reports on the Republican VP candidate were from outside of our borders.  I’ll assume that Alaska is still part of the US for the purposes of this discussion, much to the chagrin of Todd, Alaska’s otherwise unemployed First Dude, member in good standing of the separationist movement in Alaska.

Here are a flurry of stories responding to the official reaction by Sarah to the Alaska Legislature’s Troopergate report.  They range from editorials in her local daily paper, which since she can’t name as a news source I can only guess she has never read, and include a scathing analysis on MSNBCs ‘First Read’ site.

But let us start with an article from Editor & Publisher:

Anchorage Paper Calls Palin Response to Troopergate ‘An Embarrassment’
By E&P Staff
Published: October 14, 2008 10:10 AM ET

NEW YORK Since its release late last Friday, the Alaska legislatures "Troopergate" has drawn much attention, and Gov. Sarah Palin has claimed numerous times that it actually found no ethical misdeeds on her part — even as it charged her with a serious "abuse of power." The main paper in her home state is not buying it.

The Anchorage Daily News’ angry editorial today was topped with the headline: "Palin vindicated? Governor offers Orwellian spin." It opens: "Sarah Palin’s reaction to the Legislature’s Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.

"She claims the report ‘vindicates’ her. She said that the investigation found ‘no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.’

"Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian."

An excerpt follows.
*
In plain English, she did something "unlawful." She broke the state ethics law.

Perhaps Gov. Palin has been too busy to actually read the Troopergate report. Perhaps she is relying on briefings from McCain campaign spinmeisters.

That’s the charitable interpretation.

Because if she had actually read it, she couldn’t claim "vindication" with a straight face.

Palin asserted that the report found "there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired."

In fact, the report concluded that "impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired."

Palin’s response is the kind of political "big lie" that George Orwell warned against. War is peace. Black is white. Up is down.

Gov. Palin and her camp trumpeted the report’s second finding: that she was within her legal authority to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. But the report also said it’s likely one of the reasons she fired him was his failure to get rid of her ex-brother-in-law trooper.

That’s not "vindication," and surely Gov. Palin knows it.

[Thanks, Editor & Publisher]

And let’s quickly segue into that original article from the Anchorage Daily News:

Palin vindicated?

Governor offers Orwellian spin

Published: October 13th, 2008 10:02 PM
Last Modified: October 13th, 2008 10:17 PM

Sarah Palin’s reaction to the Legislature’s Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.

She claims the report "vindicates" her. She said that the investigation found "no unlawful or unethical activity on my part."

Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.

Page 8, Finding Number One of the report says: "I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act."

In plain English, she did something "unlawful." She broke the state ethics law.

Perhaps Gov. Palin has been too busy to actually read the Troopergate report. Perhaps she is relying on briefings from McCain campaign spinmeisters.

That’s the charitable interpretation.

Because if she had actually read it, she couldn’t claim "vindication" with a straight face.

Palin asserted that the report found "there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired."

In fact, the report concluded that "impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired."

Palin’s response is the kind of political "big lie" that George Orwell warned against. War is peace. Black is white. Up is down.

Gov. Palin and her camp trumpeted the report’s second finding: that she was within her legal authority to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. But the report also said it’s likely one of the reasons she fired him was his failure to get rid of her ex-brother-in-law trooper.

That’s not "vindication," and surely Gov. Palin knows it.

Gov. Palin does have a defense. She could have said:

"I’m gratified that the report confirmed what I said all along, that I had the authority to terminate Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner.

"I absolutely disagree that I violated state ethics law. In repeatedly complaining about trooper Mike Wooten, Todd and I were not pursuing a personal vendetta. We were trying to protect the integrity of the Alaska State Troopers from having an arrogant, almost-out-of-control law-breaker in their ranks. Because the action we were seeking was in the public interest, not purely our personal interest, there is no ethics law violation."

Gov. Palin and her husband felt so passionately about Wooten because the case was so personal to them. Their passion blinded them to any other considerations.

They had no sense that the power of the governor’s office carries a special responsibility not to use it to settle family scores. They had no sense that legal restrictions might prevent the troopers from firing Wooten. They had no sense that persistent queries from the governor’s office might be perceived as pressure to bend state personnel laws.

Gov. Palin and her husband were obsessed with Wooten the way Capt. Ahab was obsessed with the Great White Whale. No Wooten, no peace.

Has Gov. Palin committed an impeachable offense? Hardly.

Is what she did indictable? No.

But it wasn’t appropriate, especially for someone elected as an ethical reformer. And her Orwellian claims of "vindication" make this blemish on her record look even worse.

You asked us to hold you accountable, Gov. Palin. Did you mean it?

Bottom line: Gov. Palin, read the report. It says you violated the ethics law.

[Thanks, Anchorage Daily News]

And let’s flesh out this round of condemnation with MSNBC’s First Read:

Palin: Anchorage paper not happy

Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:16 AM by Mark Murray

It’s not good when your home-state paper’s editorial page puts your name and "embarrassment" to the state in the same sentence. "Sarah Palin’s reaction to the Legislature’s Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation. She claims the report ‘vindicates’ her. She said that the investigation found ‘no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.’ Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian." 

But wait, there’s more. Another independent investigator is looking into more ethics complaints against the guv.

The New York Times writes, “Here is the thing about Gov. Sarah Palin: She loves America. Really loves it. She loves the smell of cut grass and hay, as she told Ohio voters Sunday. She loves Navy bases, she said in Virginia Beach on Monday morning. She loves America’s ‘most beautiful national anthem,’ she told a crowd here a few hours later.”

“Apparently there are people who do not feel the same way about America as Ms. Palin does, she said at campaign rallies over the last two days. Those people just do not get it.”

The AP: “Gov. Sarah Palin’s rural adviser resigned Monday amid criticism of the governor’s record on hiring Alaska Natives.” 

"Palin mistook some of her own fans for hecklers Monday at a rally that drew thousands" in Virginia, the AP writes. " ‘Louder! Louder!’ they began chanting, and the cry spread across the crowd to Palin’s left. Some pointed skyward, urging that the volume be increased. Palin stopped her remarks briefly and looked toward the commotion. ‘I hope those protesters have the courage and honor to give veterans thanks for their right to protest,’ she said. Some in the crowd tried to shout toward her what was really being said, but she couldn’t hear them."

[Thanks, MSNBC]

Staunch Republicans waited hours in the sun for the opportunity to glimpse their Vice Presidential Pit Bull at the Richmond International Raceway yesterday.  Once Palin did show up, she mistook groups of chanting supporters for hecklers and stopped her prepared speech to try and humiliate them with some of her ’scathing’ remarks.

To be fair, the supporters who caught the lashing from Palin were more than 100 yards away and we can only assume that Sarah has eyestrain from staring towards Russia watching for the invading Red Menace.

The AP reports:

Palin mistakes fans for protesters at Va. rally
By BOB LEWIS – 12 hours ago

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin mistook some of her own fans for hecklers Monday at a rally that drew thousands.

A massive crowd of at least 20,000 spread across the parking lot of Richmond International Raceway, and scores of people on the outer periphery more than 100 yards from the stage could not hear.

"Louder! Louder!" they began chanting, and the cry spread across the crowd to Palin’s left. Some pointed skyward, urging that the volume be increased.

Palin stopped her remarks briefly and looked toward the commotion.

"I hope those protesters have the courage and honor to give veterans thanks for their right to protest," she said.

Some in the crowd tried to shout toward her what was really being said, but she couldn’t hear them.

[Thanks, Google & AP]

Here are two articles which describe the fear that I have regarding an Alaskan family that has a rather lengthy history of excessive abuse of power and ethics violations (hey, Todd’s in on this too!).  They both illustrate how Palin could very well be an un-worthy but capable successor to the evil that is Cheney.

These kinds of commentary should bring pause to any rational American.  Obviously McCain and the majority of the Republican election/political machine could care less.

But I care – We must resist, not as a last act of defiant desperation, but as the first act of change and creation.  Incite Hope!

Editorial: Palin’s Troopergate actions disturbing

04:12 PM CDT on Monday, October 13, 2008

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claims the Troopergate investigation clears her of wrongdoing in the firing of her public safety commissioner, which it does not.

The state ethics panel investigation – a bipartisan effort started by a Legislature controlled by her own Republican party – found that though she was technically within her rights to fire the man, she violated state ethics law and abused her power in doing so.

Specifically, the report found, the governor allowed her husband, Todd, to strong-arm government employees in an effort to get someone to fire a state trooper, Michael Wooten, who was going through an ugly divorce with the governor’s sister. The state investigator rejected the Palin family’s claims that Trooper Wooten was a personal threat, concluding that the governor misused her authority "to advance a personal agenda."

Ms. Palin would be wise to quit trying to spin her way out of this mess. It would be far more plausible if she admitted error but said she and her husband acted out of fear – perhaps misplaced – for the family’s safety. But to claim vindication when the report is actually fairly damning should give even McCain-Palin supporters pause.

The temptation to use public power to settle private accounts bedevils all politicians. This Troopergate imbroglio is eerily reminiscent of the 1993 Travelgate scandal involving first lady Hillary Clinton. Her behind-the-scenes machinations against the White House Travel Office – engineering the dismissal of career employees, apparently for the benefit of the Clintons’ Arkansas cronies – were legal but unethical.

Just because something is legal on paper, of course, doesn’t make it right.

This story would be confined to local newspapers in the moose belt if the Alaska governor weren’t running to become vice president. Since she is, Americans have a right to expect that politicians asking for their votes will be good stewards of their trust.

Ms. Palin’s best move would be to assure voters that she and her husband take to heart a line from the Alaska report: "Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional."

[Thanks, Dallas Morning News]

And:

Palin Too Close for Comfort

It’s time to start taking Sarah Palin seriously.

Though the latest polls show the Obama-Biden ticket ahead, the Alaska governor is still uncomfortably close to becoming vice president of the United States. The thought should concentrate the mind of every American who remembers the abuse of executive power by the administration of Richard Nixon. Just look at what Palin has done, in a short time, with the authority delegated to her by Alaskans.

The "Troopergate" report, conducted by an independent investigator and released Friday by a bipartisan legislative committee, tells the tale. It documents the campaign that Palin and her husband Todd waged to get her former brother-in-law fired from the Alaska state troopers.

Palin did, indeed, have the authority to dismiss the state’s public safety commissioner, the report says. But she violated a state law, the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which prohibits state officials from taking actions that benefit personal interest. According to the report: Palin abused her power as governor when she "knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired."

I shudder to think of the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon at her beck and call.

The role played by Todd in carrying out his wife’s vendetta was highly unusual. He had no official duties in government. He acknowledged, however, that he made numerous calls to state officials to press his case against the governor’s ex-brother-in-law.

It’s been well reported that Todd Palin’s involvement in his wife’s official business unsettled some Alaskans. He has been known to sit in on the governor’s meetings, use her office for his own meetings and intervene in state business using his status as "First Gentleman." Clearly, he’s a man with a lot of time on his hands.

What if he assumed the same role in Washington? Imagine Todd in a town that has no use for snow machines (which he loves to ride) or work for commercial fishermen (of which he is one, during the summer months). What would he do? Would he follow the vice president to her White House office? Join her meetings in the Situation Room? Sit in on her daily national security briefings?

Where does Todd Palin stand on America anyway? Neither he nor Sarah Palin ever explained his seven-year membership in the Alaska Independence Party, a group that seeks a vote on secession from America. "I’m an Alaskan, not an American" was the slogan of the party’s founder, Joe Vogler, who also said "I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions" and "I won’t be buried under their damned flag." What made Todd Palin hitch his wagon to that anti-American train when Alaska offered the Democratic and Republican parties?

Troopergate shows the Palins to be small-bore people unable to distinguish selfish personal interests from official responsibilities. Imagine the power of the U.S. government at their disposal.

The prospect of Vice President Sarah Palin is no laughing matter.

By Colbert King |  October 13, 2008; 12:58 PM ET

[Thanks, Washington Post]

Wow, if you want to read critical reviews of the Republican Vice Presidential candidate you apparently have to cross outside of our national borders.  Foreign media outlets could care less about protecting Palin’s fragile ego and are reporting the news and not the spin.

Last week I was lucky enough to have found an article in the Irish Times that discussed Palin’s deserved lack of respect and her ‘performance’ in the debate against Joe Biden.  Today I found this gem on the Ottawa Citizen web-site which again points out Palin’s utter lack of skills which could enable her to be ready to lead this country on her day one.

And that’s something I haven’t seen any reference to in the mass media, there has been no discussion of Palin’s ‘Day One’ ability to lead.  Why have Barack and Hillary been subjected to intense scrutiny regarding this and Palin ignored?  Is it because everyone KNOWS she’s been brought on for something less than her political acumen?  Is Sarah Palin just all legs and a tawdry wink with so substance? 

Palin is pitifully unprepared

Lorne Gunter, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Monday, October 13, 2008

An American friend with a long history of involvement in presidential races once told me (and there is nothing new about this), "The only thing you want from a vice-presidential nominee is someone who doesn’t scare voters when they ask ‘Could I imagine X as president?’"

Regional balance doesn’t matter as much as American voters’ comfort level with the idea of the VP nominee perhaps someday becoming president.

Regional balance was once crucial. John Kennedy likely wouldn’t have won in 1960 without Lyndon Johnson as his No. 2. But the shift of manufacturing from the northeast and Midwest to the Sun Belt and West Coast has helped hammer the sharp edges off the regional differences that used to define America. Now the big geographic difference is the infamous red state-blue state divide. Starbucks nation versus Budweiser nation.

It is less important now that a southern presidential candidate, for instance, pick a northeastern, Midwestern or western running mate to "balance" the ticket than it is for him to pick someone who can help carry a large swing state — such as Florida, Ohio, Illinois or Pennsylvania — or energize the party’s base.

No candidate since Kennedy has won the White House without carrying Ohio, for instance. And few have won without Florida. So it’s a wonder Americans don’t see Veep nominees from one or the other of these two states every election.

Vice-presidential candidates are also often selected because they reassure essential groups of voters who are somewhat dubious of the person at the head of the ticket. George Bush, Sr. was made Ronald Reagan’s running mate because the worry was that the Western conservative Reagan would not appeal to what used to be known as the Rockefeller wing of the Republican party — northeastern, patrician, socially liberal.

But all of these considerations are secondary to voters’ willingness to accept the vice-presidential candidate as a possible stand-in president. In the postwar era, three vice-presidents — Truman, Johnson and Ford — have become president because the presidents they served were unable to complete their terms in office. So a vice-president’s credibility for the higher job is critical.

Presidential candidates so seldom pick running mates who don’t possess at least the basic skills to be commander-in-chief that the secondary factors — geography, demographic, ideology — are now mistakenly assumed to be the most important considerations. But Americans are only too aware that their president may not finish his term, so even if only in the back of their minds, they must satisfy the nagging concern about every VP candidate’s fitness for the Oval Office.

This is why Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor who is the Republican nominee for vice-president, is such a puzzling choice. There is no question she energizes the Republican base. She is a red-state shoo-in. Without her presence on the ticket, John McCain would have been an also-ran a month ago.

Having played legislative footsie with Democrats all his political life, McCain never energized his party’s bedrock supporters — the kind of people Republicans need to spend long, volunteer hours with to get their candidate elected.

McCain is not reliably pro-family. He co-sponsored a campaign spending law that most conservatives view as anti-democratic. He is a global warming true believer and he thwarted efforts to appoint more conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But from the moment Gov. Palin opened her mouth at the Republican convention in early September, the party’s base has rushed to help the ticket. Her performance in the vice-presidential debate gave the base a booster shot.

Still, that is about the extent of her positive contributions, mostly because a lot of swing voters — independents and conservative Democrats — simply can’t see her as president.

When she is before the media and not scripted, she is dreadful. This is not a real slam on her. Until two years ago she had never aspired to be anything more than the mayor of a town of 10,000. Until a month ago, she was the governor of a state with a population just two-thirds that of Edmonton.

She simply has no preparation for national office. Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, about a naive, but pure neophyte going to D.C. and setting the whole system on its head is only a movie.

It was once joked that if an aide came in to tell Dick Cheney that George W. Bush had died and he was now president, Cheney would have replied, "But I thought I already was the president."

As much as I understand Palin’s appeal, I can imagine an aide telling her President McCain was dead and her replying, "Oh, who’s president now?"

If you want to know why McCain is now trailing in all the key swing states, it’s because voters are answering "No" to the silent question, "Could Sarah Palin take over as president?"

Lorne Gunter is a columnist with the Edmonton Journal.

Thanks, OttawaCitizen.com]

Or at least there will be an attempt at bringing the criminal mastermind behind ‘Troopergate’ to justice.  The Alaska Supreme Court has heard the evidence and decided that the ethics investigation against the Republican Vice Presidential candidate can continue.

Palin is being investigated by an independent investigator, hired by a unanimous vote of a bipartisan committee of the Legislature, to investigate the circumstances surrounding Walt Monegan’s termination as the Public Safety Commissioner for the State of Alaska. Also under investigation, potential abuses of power and/or improper actions by members of the executive branch. The results of a probe conducted by independent investigator Steve Branchwater will be presented to a legislative hearing later today.

It’s interesting reading about all of the allegations.  You can get a pretty good summary over at Wikipedia.

Court allows Sarah Palin Troopergate inquiry

October 11, 2008

ANCHORAGE: The Alaska Supreme Court has refused to halt an ethics investigation into US vice-presidential contender Sarah Palin.

The ruling clears the way for legislators to release a report on their probe into whether Ms Palin abused her power as Alaska Governor by firing her public safety commissioner.

Legislators are investigating whether the Republican candidate used her position to settle a family dispute. The former commissioner says he was sacked after resisting pressure to fire a state trooper who had gone through a divorce from Ms Palin’s sister.

Republicans had sued to block the report. Ms Palin refused to join that lawsuit. Her husband, Todd, and some of her top aides are co-operating in the inquiry.

In affidavits submitted on Wednesday, Mr Palin and two top aides for his wife’s administration portrayed the firing as the result of wrangling between the Governor and her public safety commissioner over control of the agency.

The affidavits portray Ms Palin as uninvolved while her husband repeatedly tried to spread the word that their former brother-in-law was unfit to be a state trooper.

In yesterday’s ruling, the Supreme Court refused to block the legislative investigation.

For years – before his wife became governor – Mr Palin told state officials and the couple’s advisers stories about Mike Wooten, their former brother-in-law, allegedly threatening and emotionally abusing his family.

Walter Monegan says he was fired as commissioner for not dismissing Mr Wooten, a claim that led to the probe just before Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose Ms Palin as his running mate in late August.

Ms Palin said she fired Mr Monegan over a budget dispute.

Mr Palin said he had not pressured anyone. He says that after repeatedly talking with her about the matter, she finally told him to "drop it".

"Anyone who knows Sarah knows she is the Governor and she calls the shots," Mr Palin wrote. "I make no apologies for wanting to protect my family andwanting to publicise the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge."

[Thanks, The Australian]

As if she deserved any respect.  But that’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m actually talking about the pseudo-respect that the Republican party insists upon.  As Rick Davis put it to none other than FOX news (!), that until the press is going to treat Palin with ”some level of respect and deference”.  Yeah, right.  Respect is earned buddy.

So, while the American media is handling the whole issue with kid gloves the foreign press has taken the gloves off and started a bare-knuckle brawl then does my heart good.  It’s important that someone asks the tough questions to a candidate the is one melanoma cell away from the presidency, don’t ya’ think?

What follows is a brilliant little article published in the Irish Times.

Away from her friends on Fox, Palin folds like a cheap suit
KEVIN CULLEN

MEDIAWATCH: MIDWAY THROUGH her debate with Joe Biden, Sarah Palin began dropping her Gs and channelling Marge Gunderson, the plain-speakin’, pistol-packin’ pregnant police chief in Fargo.

Palin declared, in no uncertain terms, that she needn’t answer questions put to her by the moderator, that Obama-lovin’ Gwen Ifill, who works for the ultraliberal Public Broadcasting Service, or anybody else in the mainstream media. She was gonna talk straight to the American people.

It was great theatre, but in a Beckett-like absurdist way. It is a tried and true tactic of the American right to blame any and all their problems on the "mainstream media". They even have an acronym for it: MSM, as if it’s some malevolent Chinese food additive. According to the right, the only place the American people can get fair and balanced news is from the likes of Fox, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the right-wing ideologues who clutter the airwaves on talk radio.

The truth is, Sarah Palin and John McCain should thank their lucky stars for the dreaded MSM because, aside from the aforementioned ideologues, it is only those members of the MSM who uphold minimal journalistic standards of fairness and relative objectivity who are looking at Palin these days for anything but a punchline.

Even some right-wing pundits have had the temerity to point out that the nice lady from Alaska is an empty suit. Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter, got into trouble with her fellow Republicans when, while commenting on McCain’s cynical sop to the religious right, she described Palin’s selection as "political bulls**t" into a TV microphone she didn’t know was on. Noonan’s dismissal of Palin as a serious politician in a Wall Street Journal column after the debate was even more devastating, because it came with time for reflection, and after Noonan had withstood withering attacks from Republicans who accused her of aiding and abetting the enemy.

The McCain campaign is blaming the MSM for Palin’s steadily sinking poll numbers. An interesting tactic, given that Palin’s handlers have steadfastly refused to let journalists from that mainstream media question her. They are especially wary of letting newspaper reporters have a go at her. She has done only a few sit-down interviews with handpicked TV presenters.

One of the interviews, with Sean Hannity, a right-wing pundit on Fox, was cringe-inducingly obsequious, like watching Ryan Tubridy interview Jesus Christ.

The interview with Katie Couric, an avowed liberal who gets paid $15 million a year to read the news on CBS, shouldn’t have been much harder for Palin, but Couric asked a couple of questions that required speaking beyond rehearsed talking points, and Palin folded like a cheap suit. Palin fumbled around like a child caught stealing biscuits. At one point, she rambled on for more than a minute in a stream of consciousness that sounded like a cross between a paragraph in Finnegans Wake and Robert De Niro’s last, apocalyptic words as he sank beneath the water’s surface at the conclusion to Cape Fear .

So worried were Palin’s handlers about how she’d perform in the debate that, just days before it, they launched a pre-emptive strike on Ifill, a widely-respected journalist who just happens to be black.

You know, like Barack Hussein Osama. Wink, wink.

The conservatives had a point: Ifill is writing a book called The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama , so she has a personal and financial stake in Obama getting elected.

But when Ifill was selected as moderator two months ago, she disclosed that she was writing the book, and no one complained then. Of course, McCain had not yet selected Tina Fey as his running mate. As it turned out, no one beyond the loony right-wing blogosphere suggested Ifill was anything but impartial during the debate.

It’s sad but true that the mainstream media will carry on with the charade, all the way to November 4th, that Sarah Palin is a serious candidate, that she resonates with ordinary voters because she’s just so gosh darn ordinary, even if the Republicans have no intention of letting said ordinary voters hear what she has to say in anything but a stage-managed interview. Objectivity is a beautiful thing.

It was beyond ironic, then, when Palin said she was taking the gloves off the other day and accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists".

As her indisputable source for this specious accusation, she cited none other than the New York Times , America’s greatest newspaper, which she and the rest of the right constantly deride as a biased, bigoted mouthpiece of the liberal left.

Apparently, Governor Palin didn’t read the article in its entirety, because the exhaustive piece concluded that Obama and William Ayers, who was a member of a violent radical group opposed to the Vietnam War, are acquaintances at best, and that Ayers became a respected professor of education after his radical youth.

In a media week when, aside from the more mundane news that the American economy is collapsing, it was all Palin, all the time, the best description of Sarah Palin’s utter cluelessness about anything outside her own small, provincial Northern Exposure existence came from a caller to a talk radio show, albeit a show not typical of the usual American talk radio fare.

National Public Radio’s " On Point " is one of the more thoughtful call-in shows in America, and one caller told host Tom Ashbrook that after listening to the debate she had come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin is George Bush in a skirt.

No doubt, Governor Palin would find comfort in her belief that anyone who listens to NPR is a God-hatin’, Obama-lovin’ commie.

Kevin Cullen, who will be writing a weekly media column through the elections, is a columnist for the Boston Globe.

cullen@globe.com

[Thanks, Irish Times]

Very interesting discussion at AlterNet about the drivel that Sarah Palin was spewing during a speech in Colorado after her ‘debate’ with Joe Biden.  The big question to me is just how much of the ‘information’ that is being force fed to her does she understand?

The arrogance of America on the world stage is ignored by many countries yet feared by many as well.  For America to get away with the violent overthrow of foreign governments without censure has been amazing to me.  A short list of US insurrections include Iraq, Panama, and Grenada.  And these are just the ones YOU know about.

But when Sarah, a community college graduate, starts dropping phrases like "We see an America of exceptionalism." in speeches and you should be asking yourself if she understands the ramifications of that idea?  She doesn’t seem like much of a critical thinker to me. 

Sarah Palin spends a lot of time attacking the Democratic campaign and using smoke and mirrors to conceal the role that her party has had in bringing Americans to their economic knees.  She would be better served to start thinking about what her tutors are cramming into her head.

How Low Will Palin Go in Her Mudslinging?

By Robert Parry, Consortium News. Posted October 8, 2008.

Palin may not even understand the significance of her baseless attacks on Obama that are straight out of the neocon playbook.

Sarah Palin’s charge that Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" may mark the descent of Campaign 2008 into the sewer that has marked so many other recent U.S. elections. But her comments operate on another level, too, continuing to brand anyone who criticizes George W. Bush’s neoconservative foreign policy as un-American.

The Alaska governor’s larger point — made in her Oct. 2 debate and on the campaign stump since then — is that Obama is a person who dares to find fault with U.S. policies overseas and thus deserves to have his patriotism questioned.

"Our opponent," Palin told Republican supporters during a post-debate speech in Colorado, "is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

Palin added about Obama, "This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America. We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism."

It’s unclear if Palin understood the full significance of her reference to American "exceptionalism," the theory preached by the neoconservatives who led her debate prep. They argue that the United States has the exceptional right to operate outside international law. But Palin does grasp the political usefulness of smearing an opponent in the style of Jeane Kirkpatrick, who in 1984 famously defined critics of Ronald Reagan’s aggressive foreign policy as people who would "blame America first."

Palin is, in effect, labeling Obama a blame-America-firster. In the vice presidential debate, Palin twisted Obama’s 2007 analysis of U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan — which called for more troops on the ground to reduce reliance on air strikes that had killed civilians — into him condemning everything the U.S. military has done in Afghanistan.

[Thanks, AlterNet.com]

Ripped in it’s entirety from the Ace Online Schools web site.  Ace Online schools is a guide to useful online resources for students and professionals.  And boy don’t they wield a sharp pen!

Sarah Palin Would Be a Disaster for Education

We all know Sarah Palin isn’t running on brains, but just for fun I decided to research her academic background:

• In 1982, she enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College but left after her first semester.
• Next she transferred to North Idaho community college, where she spent two semesters as a general studies major.
• Transferred to the University of Idaho for two semesters. During this time Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant beauty contest, then finished third in the Miss Alaska pageant, at which she won a college scholarship and the “Miss Congeniality” award.
• She then left the University of Idaho and attended Matanuska-Susitna community college in Alaska for one term.
• Returned to the University of Idaho where she spent three semesters completing her Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism, graduating in 1987.

For those of you not keeping score, that’s 4 different schools in 5 years, two of which were community colleges. Her greatest “academic” achievement was 3rd place in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant.

Call me an elitist, but I’d feel safer if the person a John-McCain-stroke away from the presidency had more education than the average waiter at Denny’s.

Next I did some research into the educational policies she hopes to impose on America. This where it gets scary. A few of her favorite educational ideals:

• Teach creationism alongside evolution in schools. (Aug 2008)
• Supports teaching intelligent design in public schools. (Aug 2008)
• Committed to providing strong education, including morals. (Jan 2008)
• Faith-based materials ok in homeschooling. (Nov 2006)
• I believe we have a creator; and many theories of evolution. (Oct 2006)
• Let parents opt out of schoolbooks they find offensive. (Jul 2006)

In summary, Palin believes that Creationsim, a religious ideology, should be given equal weight with a theory based on scientific observation and analysis, that schools should impose their own morals on children, and that parents should be able to censor books that don’t align with their world view.

If you care about the future of America and our role as innovators and intellectual leaders, register to vote and make sure we aren’t sent back to the dark ages.