Harry's Place

Gene tolf me if I voted for McCain we would end up with a blithering idiot one heartbeat away from the presidency. And he was right!

It is of course nothing to to with her legal fee’s of half a million dollars to defend herself against the 15 ethics legal suits, which she has won 15-0; and the other three that are being launched against her at the moment.
Or nothing to do with the fact that she is attacked for pretending that Trig is her grandson, and not her own son.
Or the fact that her 14 year-old daughters presumed sex life was the butt of a late night comedians routine.
Or the fact that the press has been accusing her of child endangerment for fly to her own Town to have her son, rather than fly to Anchorage.
Or the fact she is accused of sending her son to fight in Afghanistan rather than face a drugs charge.
Or the fact that she sealed the biggest trans-national gas pipeline deal in North American history was ignored by the press.
Or the fact that ‘Eminm” depicts himself having sex with her in his latest music video.
Or the fact the MSM has launched a non-stop attack on her, her husband and her family since she announced she was running as V.P.

What we are seeing is part of the ongoing sexist campaign against a genuinely likable middle aged mother, and her family, her church and her ‘lower-middle class’ views.

Fuck you Gene, you liberal elitist sexist bastard.

Well if it wasn’t for Palin’s paster who went to Africa to wage “spiritual warfare” by literally lynching women accused of witchcraft then Obama’s own conspiracy mongering, America hating antisemitic preacher would have been a problem.

You owe Sarah a debt.

Doc, she’s hardly the only politician to be subjected to nasty, personal attacks on herself and her family. If you’re serious about politics, you suck it up. I assume you know what Harry Truman (the subject of some pretty nasty stuff himself) said about heat and kitchens?

Gene, you’re a liberal elitist as long as “elite” is defined as people who share your own views.

McCain repeatedly showed that he resented being pressed about the prospect of his dying in office, and I suspect that his choice of Palin was partly a show of defiance about it.

Gene is “disturbed” by Governor Palin, but not at all disturbed by a Chicago pol who spent his entire adult life in the congregation of an lunatic antisemitic pastor’s church.

Surpassingly strange.

Doc, you’ll note that the people on this site have not partaken in the mudslinging against Palin, and are merely talking about the unfortunate fact which is that she is not a good candidate for president of the United States.

“Gene tolf me if I voted for McCain we would end up with a blithering idiot one heartbeat away from the presidency. And he was right!”

I suppose you’re right but I never even hear Joe Biden mentioned these days.

“he’s hardly the only politician to be subjected to nasty, personal attacks on herself and her family”

She is however the first is is likely to be driven to bankruptcy by a coordinated campaign of law suits launched by her political opponents:-

“An ethics complaint filed Monday against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claims the legal defense fund formed last week to challenge such claims is an ethics violation itself.”

“It’s obvious the intent with this unprecedented action against the governor is to see her administration paralyzed and for her to declare personal bankruptcy,” Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.”

“Palin has said has said she’s accumulated more than $500,000 in legal fees from defending herself against ethics complaints and in Troopergate, the Legislature’s probe into the firing of Palin’s former public safety commissioner.”

http://www.newsminer.com/news/2009/apr/27/complaint-palins-legal-fund-ethics-violation/

Doc, you’ll note that the people on this site have not partaken in the mudslinging against Palin, and are merely talking about the unfortunate fact which is that she is not a good candidate for president of the United States.

Har! Rape kits! Buchananite! Burning witches!

mesquito, did you watch her whole statement in its 19-minute glory? If Obama ever made a statement like that, this atheist would be praying for the Republic.

I suppose you’re right but I never even hear Joe Biden mentioned these days.

No kidding?

“Omri
Doc, you’ll note that the people on this site have not partaken in the mudslinging against Palin”

YESTERDAY
“David All
Do you suppose the Republicans can get Sarah Palin and Nicolle Wallace to mud wrestle in order to raise funds for the GOP?”
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/07/02/those-bitchy-republicans/

mesquito, did you watch her whole statement in its 19-minute glory? If Obama ever made a statement like that, this atheist would be praying for the Republic.

No Gene, I did not. I’ll catch it later, I’m sure. I’m sure your reaction was 98% political/ideological, much like what I used to suffer when hearing the dulcet voice of Hillary Rodham. Oddly, I kind of like Hillary now. Such growth may be possible for you as well.

My PC doesn’t let me stream video for very long, but I watched a lot of part 1 of the above, and have yet to see anything to persuade me that this governor is bad for Alaska in particular, or the United States in general. She just strikes me as a dyed in the wool conservative. Especially with regard to not spending money she doesn’t have, and minimising her personal cost to the taxpayers.

How many of her supporters in Alaska are likely to show up here? None I reckon.

In retrospect, if you look at McCain and Palin, it is not clear who was toxic to who.

We can all say nasty scandalous things about politicians, with no supporting evidence.

Some of them never get married for years until it becomes politically necessary to have a wife.

I didn’t find the speech rampling or strange. Of course, following a somewhat complicated line of thought is not something Gene is good at. He would much rather polish his jack boots and parade his mysogynist credentials. The transcript of the speech is here. Judge for yourself. I think she is about to pursue politics on the national level, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as a champion of decent, clean, and efficient government for the people. That has always been her basic commitment.

Can’t say that I understand what Gene is trying to get at, but as far as criticism goes, it sure sounds to me that the very thing she detests most about government, aka. Special Interests™ and their financial and mental drain on taxpayers’ money, is exactly the business she (oh and her family) will be doing once she leaves office.

The Environmental Bill she glowed about, then quickly, as an afterthought tagging it: “predator control”, must have been quite the larff, for those workers and owners supporting the the hunting, fishing, trapping special interest lobbies at the expense of those who support environmentalist special interests.

We’ll have to wait to see whether “the biggest private sector energy project in history” brings “energy independence” over the long term, or conversely provides big larrffs for Palin’s opponents at the expense of her little government defenders

So, overall I think she stayed inside her message box very effectively for the small government, conservative constituency that she is talking to and wasn’t rambling at all. I also find ‘eerie sensation vibe’ testimonies when a political argument can’t anywhere be found like this one: “leaving aside the content of what she says, I find something disturbing about her– which has nothing to do with her as a woman or a conservative or “down to earth”“, fairly rambling prose, but it does comply with the ‘If you can’t be kind, be vague’ law. It may even comply with the ‘If you can’t find a political argument be vague’ law. But I’m sure Gene can expand on his ideas, in say, a more accessible and less “I don’t know man, I have like this vibe about the chick” manner in the thread than in the post.

“Call me a liberal elitist looking down my nose at Bible-believing, gun-owning Americans (which I don’t believe I am)”

No way are you a liberal elitist: You would never dream for one second of looking down your nose at any koran-believing, gun-owning. . . . (you insert nationality).

*looks up*

You people are all very funny.

There’s nothing unempirical or about gun ownership and plenty of them are not Christians.

She has been treated appallingly by the media, so has Hillary. Sure Palin rambles a tad, almost as badly as Biden.

As it happens I found GWB orders much less batshit and rather more straight forward and agreeable than the current incumbent, despite Obama’s about face on pretty much everything.

I love that she thinks that NOT resigning would be “the quitters way” out. What a loon.

It is a rambling speech, full of banalities and platitudes and giving ‘reasons’ that are not reasons at all for her resignation.

*looks up* You people are all very funny.

*looks up* @ Alvin Lucier.

And you’re quite the audience. Glad you were amused by our show. We all had you in mind when we were composing our comments.

“Gene tolf me if I voted for McCain we would end up with a blithering idiot one heartbeat away from the presidency. And he was right!”

I did not realize 1 vote would have gotten McCain elected.

I agree that Palin is down to Earth. I think she is a regular person. That being said she is in no way informed or intelligent enough to be president. She follows in the intellectual tradition of GWB.

Stan

Doc,

You can cuss like a salior all you want about Gene being some sort of liberal elitist but you fail to recognize that this is Palin’s tree and she is sitting in it. She could have easily have told the Mccain people last year, “thanks…..but no thanks” and turned down the VP choice. After all, it is no suprise that the media slams and goes after all candidates.

Likewise, it was Palin, not the press that said over the last year

1)Abortion clinic bombers are not terrorists

2) The world is only 6,000 years old and humans and dinosaurs walk on the earth at the same time

3)Had no clue what the Bush Doctrine meant

4)Could not name a single newspaper she read for current events

5)Said only people in rural America were “real” Americans

6)Gwen Alexander, president of the African-American Historical Society of Alaska was told by Palin that she would not hire “black people”.

7)Said that scientific research like fruit-fly research is invaild because it is done in “Paris, France…….I kid you not.”

8)”Well, let’s see. There’s ― of course in the great history of America there have been rulings that there’s never going to be absolute consensus by every American, and there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So, you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but ―” –Sarah Palin, unable to name a Supreme Court decision she disagreed with other than Roe vs. Wade, interview with Katie Couric

9)”They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan.” –Sarah Palin, speaking at a fundraiser in San Francisco, Oct. 5, 2008

10)”I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t.’” –Sarah Palin, as quoted by former City Council Member Nick Carney, after he raised objections about the $50,000 she spent renovating the mayor’s office without approval of the city council

Some are even more disturbed than Gene.

http://michellemalkin.cachefly.net/hotair.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/cap.jpg

Oh my non-existant god – she really does have something wrong with her. I actually feel sorry for the poor loon.

It is a rambling speech, full of banalities and platitudes and giving ‘reasons’ that are not reasons at all for her resignation.

Do you know of any politician – barring one who’s impeached – who discloses all their reasons, or even and especially the most pressing reason at the first announcement of their decision to step down?

She did emphasize her son with the first name in the speech and she spoke of a desire to pursue NGO activism. But apart from those, and maybe factors involved in her resignation she mentioned when I wasn’t paying attention, I certainly agree that by the time of her first announcement that at some mysterious time earlier in the speech she already had given her reasons for resigning, came straight on the heels of a rambling basketball analogy that had something to do with her staff and administration being the right people at the right time for a point guard like herself to get the ball to in order to win, which begs the question, why as a point guard it took her this long to pass the ball when she has such a great team?

And before the basketball analogy there was all that emphasis on the you’re a better staff and admin than I a governor Gunga Din tribute, which like you say are hard to construe as reasons for resigning.

Of course there was also an emphasis in her resignation speech on the tough skin politics that she and her family have experienced which may very well be a reason for her resignation. But it is bad form in politics, actually shameful to admit that the tough skin politics of your opponents defeated you, which isn’t to say Palin doesn’t partake in tough skin politics herself.

It is to say that in part she may have been psychologically defeated by strident criticism and criticism focussed on her family, which she all but listed as a reason for her resignation, keeping in mind that it would be far more embarrassing both for her and for her political team were she to have explicitly listed psychological stress as a result of strident criticism as a reason for her leaving office and government.

There is consolation for Palin as a politician: she isn’t expected in politics to explicitly divulge the exact, or most pressing reason or reasons for deciding to resign, that is given the politician hasn’t been impeached.

She’s great. I hope she gives the Presidential bid another shot. After 4 years of Barry wrecking things, she should stand a pretty good chance of winning, even with the MSM tearing her apart like they did last time.

Gene tolf me if I voted for McCain we would end up with a blithering idiot one heartbeat away from the presidency. And he was right!

Hilarious.

Likewise, it was Palin, not the press that said over the last year
1)Abortion clinic bombers are not terrorists
Quote “”Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to… I don’t know if you’re gonna use the word ‘terrorist’ there,””
The definition of ‘terrorism’ as opposed to violent criminals is tricky, I disagree with her, but see her point. There is no ‘organization’ with a military and political wing that is using terrorism to stop abortion in the US. There are violent individuals who murder and maim. None of the murderers of abortion clinics have been part of a greater political organization.

2) The world is only 6,000 years old and humans and dinosaurs walk on the earth at the same time
FALSE
“Palin is not a literal Creationist and according to her church does not believe that Dinosaurs literally roamed Earth with man.”
“She has said that students should be allowed to “debate both sides” of the evolution/creationism debate comes up in class, but has also said that creationism should not be part of the curriculum”
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_Sarah_Palin_believe_that_dinosaurs_were_alive_4000_years_ago

3)Had no clue what the Bush Doctrine meant
Which one? http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20041002.htm or something else. She asked the interviewer; what do YOU mean by the Bush Doctrine. She didn’t want to be entrapped.
4)Could not name a single newspaper she read for current events
That’s easy, there is no newspaper that you can read in the US to follow current events.
5)Said only people in rural America were “real” Americans
A politician trying to appeal to the Arcadian American dream? Say it an’t so Joe.
“I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I’d rather trust a countryman than a townman,
You can judge by his eyes, take a look if you can,
He’ll smile through his guard
Survival trains hard.
I’d rather trust a man who works with his hands,
He looks at you once, you know he understands,
Don’t need any shield
When you’re out in the field.”
The Chamber of 32 Doors. Lamb. Genesis.

6)Gwen Alexander, president of the African-American Historical Society of Alaska was told by Palin that she would not hire “black people”.
Yet she married an man who is ethnically classified as Inuit.
7)Said that scientific research like fruit-fly research is invalid because it is done in “Paris, France…….I kid you not.”
No. She could not understand why the NIH was funding, from Autism money, Drosophila research in a foreign country. The US is one of the few countries which will pay foreign researchers to do work aboard.
It is not as bad a Clinton who wanted to cut research into plant stress from the research budget as he thought that plants couldn’t be stressed.
“The State of the Union Address delivered by President Clinton on Jan. 23,1995 included the following:

For years, Congress has concealed in the budget scores of pet spending projects — and last year was no different: A million dollars to study STRESS IN PLANTS, $12 million for a tick-removal programs that didn’t even work. Give me the line item veto and I’ll save the taxpayers money.

8)”Well, let’s see. There’s ― of course in the great history of America there have been rulings that there’s never going to be absolute consensus by every American, and there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So, you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but ―” –Sarah Palin, unable to name a Supreme Court decision she disagreed with other than Roe vs. Wade, interview with Katie Couric
This was evasion, not stupidity.
9)”They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan.” –Sarah Palin, speaking at a fundraiser in San Francisco, Oct. 5, 2008
A slip of the tongue. Obama got the number of States wrong. Happens to everyone.
10)”I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t.’” –Sarah Palin, as quoted by former City Council Member Nick Carney, after he raised objections about the $50,000 she spent renovating the mayor’s office without approval of the city council
Local politics bullshit.

The simple explanation is that she can make mountains of money for herself making speeches.

Once she is yet again a private citizen the ‘ethics’ accusations against her will become moot.

She can claim that all the untoward attention has diminished her
ability to govern the State of Alaska. It is problematic as to
whether or not that will convince any Independents.

She will go around the country energizing the Republican ‘base’ while raising mountains of money for ‘conservative’ candidates.

For which she will collect mountains of political I.O.U’s.

Can she actually convert all that into a viable national campaign for
commander in chief in the coming years?

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
- Y. Berra

Andrew Murphy:

“You can cuss like a salior all you want about Gene being some sort of liberal elitist but you fail to recognize that this is Palin’s tree and she is sitting in it. She could have easily have told the Mccain people last year, “thanks…..but no thanks” and turned down the VP choice. After all, it is no suprise that the media slams and goes after all candidates.

Likewise, it was Palin, not the press that said over the last year….”

Cites and documentation please. It is my, perhaps poor, recollection that some, or many of your assertions were disputed at the time, and very well may have been the result of the campaign against this woman. Maybe I’m wrong, but I recall a whole lot of innuendo, misconstruction, out of context reporting, butcher block editing and outright lying regarding her statements. I DO NOT think that you are deliberately doing this, but rarely do truths (if there is a discrepancy, again I am not certain) catch up with misstatements once the latter are in circulation.

BTW, I’ve always thought that some of the vitriol directed against Ms. Palin (present commenters/company excepted) stemmed from jealousy (apart from miscogyny and political ruthlessness). She was a nobody, with no name recognition, with no connections, with no big dollar backing. Hell, I could do what she does; hell, I could be where she is; hell, I *should* be where she is. Who the hell does she think she is. F*ck her.

Utah Phillips used to tell a story, the gist of which I recall being that we’re all on a ladder. And instead of looking at who’s on the top of the ladder, we all spend too much time pulling on the ankle of the person one rung above, and stepping on the hand of the person one step below. Don’t know why this reminds me of that.

DocMartyn: I was slowly typing and attending to other matters when you posted. Did better than I could. Thanks.

Doc,

1) Ever hear of Operation Rescue? They might not actually in some cases do the bombing but their rhetoric by Randell Terry certainly if takin literally could lead to violence. When the abortion doctor in Arkansas was murdered last month, I can’t tell youy how many letters to the editor in my local paper were written by people saying bascially “he deserved it”

2)Ok. So should we have “both sides” or “equal time” for astrology in Astronomy class? Should we have “equal time” for alchemy in chemistry class?

3)Why did she not say that in her interview with ABC then when asked that question. All she did was give a deer in the headlights look.

7)No, she said in her speech that the main reason to oppose the research was because it was being done in France.

Nick,

I would be happy to but you can easily do a Google search on Palin and find them, very easy.

Also, ok the press was shitty with her. She should have known this before and if she could not handle it, she should have told Mccain she did not want to expose her family to all of this. Before she was the VP nomination, I dare say, 99.9% of the media did not even know who Sarah Palin was.

Is it even possible to turn on Fox News or a conservative website and not read or listen to how Obama is:

A socialist

A communist

A Mancherian Candidate for Radical Islam

I respect America and Americans and try to defend America when almost everyone I meet is busy accusing America of being an evil empire on a par with Nazi Germany but I have to say Sarah Palin could only be taken seriously in America.

Her truly awful winking folksy performance in her debate with Joe Biden would have been enough to bury her in any other Western nation.

The fact she can openly and proudly say that American wars are divinely sanctioned and Alaskan oil is a gift from god at a time when global warming and nuclear weapons threaten our very existence is truly terrifying to the rest of the world.

When idiots on the Left like Tariq Ali compared George Bush to the Taliban they were being sloppy and foolish beyond belief but to compare Palin to the unhinged Koranic fundamentalists in the Muslim world is not a bad comparison.

I’m looking with a deep unease at how the American right is reacting to the election of Obama.

From the idiotic Teabaggers and Fox News claiming that Obama is implementing communism/fascism to the rabid screaming protesters calling for David Letterman to be sacked for a few bad taste jokes.

They are so hysterical, unlike the British Conservatives, instead of becoming more centrist to appeal to more voters they seem to be lurching even further into the sick diseased ultra religious gun owning right.

If Obama doesn’t miraculously fix the economy and thwart every terrorist attack on his watch then I fear the Republicans will win the next election.

If Obama does the right things like regulating Wall Street, introducing an American national health service and forcing Israel to cease with it’s illegal settlements I fear that the American right will be so infuriated that the decidedly hysterical and paranoid reaction to Obama’s election will warp into something worse.

Either way Obama is fucked if he tries to do anything too radical or if there is a terrorist attack on mainland America…forget about it. It’s over.

If Obama doesn’t keep the American right sweet by being as conservative as possible, if he doesn’t wave a magic wand fixing the economy and making America invulnerable to attack then we are doomed to have a superstitious unhinged cracker in the White House who thinks that war and oil is the answer to the worlds problems.

Palin for President 2012

What is so shocking for my British ears is that she is so brazen in her belief that guns, war and oil are good things.

Other politicians (even Bush) might have tentatively said they are necessary evils but Palin seems to be openly saying that guns, oil and war are our destiny given to us by Yahweh.

She is a laughable buffoon but the fact that American political commentators seem to be taking her seriously as a presidential challenger is truly terrifying.

On a more important topic, the Iranians have tortured reformist leaders into confessing: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/world/middleeast/04confess.html?_r=1&hp

I find something disturbing about her

That’s because she is a thoroughly normal person. We are no longer accustomed to the idea of citizen legislators.

She follows in the intellectual tradition of GWB

What? One of the most highly educated Presidents the country has ever had? Finds time to read a non fiction book each and every week while also carrying out one of the most demanding jobs in the world? Able to discuss history, at their level, with university history professors?

That intellectual tradition. Don’t confuse a folksy style of speaking with stupidity.

All of you who are comparing Obama’s “religiosity” to Palin’s because of his connection with the loony Reverend Wright are being dishonest.

Wright might be a religious loon on a par with Palin but Obama is not.

Listen to the difference in what Palin and Obama say about religion. In there own words. You decide who is the religious nutter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7-1TGmwdK4&feature=related

Rambling incoherent religious nutter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Kh-xzerjE

A sober and intelligent secular statesman worthy of universal respect.

mrbp -

Her truly awful winking folksy performance in her debate with Joe Biden would have been enough to bury her in any other Western nation.

Joe Biden, during the VP debate, stated on national television:

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000. Unfortunately, McCain DID NOT vote that way.

2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say SPECIFICALLY, and Joe Biden attacked him for it, before becoming Obama’s VP.

3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has OPPOSED offshore drilling. He once compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”

4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden said that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. That was A LIE. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.

5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal. Not true, Biden has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.

6. ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCain’s record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.

7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on people’s health insurance coverage — they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false

8. OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska — she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it’s not a windfall profits tax.

9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.

10. REGULATION: Biden said McCain weakened regulation. McCain called for actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.

11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was “dead wrong on Iraq”, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.

12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”

14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won’t pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.

but you are concerned about Sarah’s folksy way of talking and not factual errors. Got it!

{hat tip: http://sharprightturn.wordpress.com}

I know it’s hard to imagine, but if Palin and her family were liberal, feminists would rightly be complaining about a troglodytic old boy’s political culture rearing its head whenever threatened by a woman with political ambition and conservatives would be all Harry Truman on her ass, hurling macho taunts and attacking her for her ‘if you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen’ frailty, inadvertently making the feminists’ points about a one-upmanship old boys’ political culture for them.

That isn’t the case here, because Palin isn’t a liberal.

I don’t like Palin’s politics because I believe that government, on behalf of all Alaskans, does belong in the energy sector overseeing energy industry practices and setting tough and enforceable standards- because I believe a public stake in the energy sector as full or equal owners of the resource can help to ensure standards are enforced that industries may find economically restrictive but that reduce risks to irreversible damage to health and habitat.

I also don’t like the sound of an Environmental bill whose only feature worth mentioning is predator control.

But I don’t oppose Palin because of a vibe, or because she isn’t man enough to take the heat.

RE: “Nick,

I would be happy to but you can easily do a Google search on Palin and find them, very easy.”

Andrew:

I’m glad that your would be happy to do so, because I am not. It was you who repeated the assertions. DocMartyn has already blasted some of them. Non-fiction books are annotated (or not) for a reason.

Please believe me when I say I am not looking to get into an argument with you. My concerns stem from having watched the treatment Ms. Palin was afforded from the minute that she climbed onto the stage at the republican convention. Not only by the press, whose motto “if it bleeds, it leads” merged very well with the orientation of very many of the writers and talkers, but also by political operatives (even in her own party) whose philosophy in the US has descended from reasoned debate and discourse to “take no prisoners” (Karl Rove being a prominent example, though not necessarily in this specific matter) and again, as I posited before, by a not insubstantial number of “regular” people, who were subconsciously jealous, and also more than eager to spread and expand the talking points of the first two groups, almost like a monstrous game of telephone. Watching the treatment, and hearing some of the far less trumpeted rebuttals.

BTW, I can almost feel my parents’ hands reaching from the grave to throttle me for defending a republican. I don’t need to accept all or any of her positions to believe that, from the first, she was constantly being dealt a really sh*tty and really crooked hand.

She did say dinos and people were on Earth at the same time

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/palin-claimed-dinosaurs-a_n_130012.html

“Call me a liberal elitist looking down my nose at Bible-believing, gun-owning Americans.”

I will call you all of the above but “liberal” Gene. You are not even remotely liberal. There is nothing liberal about you.

You have spent so much time around Stalinists without getting executed you just think you are liberal.

Liberals tolerate and consider all points of view that are not totalitarian, while fighting all exponents of totalitarianism.

You do neither.

Oh frevvinsakes, people, let Gene alone on this. Sarah Palin’s selection for veep was about as classic an illustration as you can get of “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” That’s low expectations of women, of beauty queens, and of rural people. All three categories have better candidates on offer.

If I responded to Biff Larkin the way he deserves my comment would be deleted for profanity.

I suspect Mark Steyn’s take may be close.

Obama would be far from eloquent without his ever present teleprompters.

“I find something disturbing about her.”

I wonder what that something would be?

I guess those who patronise Obama with their ‘he can do no wrong’ and general condescending fetishisation of him are going to be just as blind in reverse with Palin. Good luck to her, she’s better than any of those who snigger at her.

Well said, DocMartyn, by the way.

The thing is, I don’t regard Conservatives as some strange foreign breed. In the United Kingdom, there is not a huge gulf between the Tories and any other mainstream party.

But, really, when you see Palin in action… can’t you guys see how really deeply weird she is? Fox TV? Don’t you watch that and think “huh”?

Tories in Britain went off to campaign for Obama. I know a number of them who did that – including one guy who also worked on Boris’ campaign.

I disagree with much of Palin’s politics but too many people just can’t keep the sneer out of their criticisms, for all too obvious reasons that they fall over themselves to anticipate and excuse.

Nick F, Mesquito, DocM – well said. The treatment of Palin has stepped well beyond the bounds of legitimate criticism of her politics and abilities.

Disclosure: I like NASCAR, so maybe I’m just a closet redneck.

I suppose you’re right but I never even hear Joe Biden mentioned these days.

Which is a shame. He said that he’d always be sitting in the Oval Office so that Obama’s inexperience would be covered by his. Someone who said Hillary was better qualified as a VP as himself and someone who thought he was Jesus when he asked a wheel-chair bound senator to “stand up”.

To think this clown is a heartbeat from the Presidency eh?

He’s comedy that Litterman couldn’t match.

By the time the next election comes around Homer Simpson would beat Obama – so the Dems just have to figure out how they make it illegal to vote if you go to church, have private health-care or bear arms.

We can intellectualise here and find Palin wierd but its the American people who will judge, not us.

With all Barry’s baggage you’d think it impossible to vote for him. But a protest vote against the last lot and a novelty act as candidate has won the Presidency.

Obama will unravel soon and the protest vote will swing the other way. Palin will appeal to those who feel their American freedoms have been thrown under the bus.

Fuck!

What will the left do now that their most recent Emmanuel Goldstein figure has gone?

Move the infantile hate assault onto Bobby Jindal, I guess.

What was McCain thinking?

Indeed.

DavidT: But, really, when you see Palin in action… can’t you guys see how really deeply weird she is? Fox TV? Don’t you watch that and think “huh”?

Indeed to.

spectrum : We can intellectualise here and find Palin wierd but its the American people who will judge, not us.

Too true.

WE live in interesting times.

The horrible thing to remember is that Richard Nixon must have elicited similar reactions from ‘liberals like us’ back in the late 1960s.

Yet he was elected.

Chas N-B – ‘Good luck to her, she’s better than any of those who snigger at her.’

No she isn’t.

But she sure is prettier than I am

The horrible thing to remember is that Richard Nixon must have elicited similar reactions from ‘liberals like us’ back in the late 1960s.

Yet he was elected.

And what about Reagan? They said it was guaranteed nuclear war when he came in and yet he made peace with Russia. The difference is traength in Foreign Policy and not the weakness out-of-his depth Barry Hussein shows.

His outreach to the Muslim World sure worked with Iran!

“It’s got to be one of three things. Either there is something going on in the family that she’s got to deal with and doesn’t want to deal with it in the public position as governor, or number two is that she’s got a sweet gig she’s going to follow, whether it’s a TV show or travelling around the country spending her SarahPAC money on helping people get elected,” Halcro said. “Or three that there’s some kind of a brewing scandal out there and she wanted to get out of dodge before it hit.”

http://www.adn.com/palin/story/852419.html

The Palin cult eats itself

http://www.conservatives4palin.com/

Before Sarah Palin, my state was suffering under the term of the worst governor we’ve ever had. When Frank ran for reelection, the Republicans threw him out at the primary in favor of a woman who had actually stood up to him, and she had some ok rhetoric too – entirely substanceless, of course, but that was ok. With Alaska being the state it is, Sarah then became governor by being the candidate with the (R) next to her name. And so it began.

At first, she seemed quite likable. She even accomplished pushing for a modest oil royalty hike – likely what will be remembered as the only accomplishment of her administration. Very slowly, however, Alaska began to realize we were in for a whole new nightmare. Back came cronyism and nepotism and regional favoritism – all of it only with a prettier face as the perpetrator. Legislative and executive branches locked down into what bordered on a cold war. Reality was abandoned and we stood aghast at the absolute incompetence of it all. And this was before she was “elevated to the national stage.”

Whenever I heard Sarah mentioned as a “vice-presidential option” for John McCain, I always considered it a joke. I knew the media was stupid, but I thought they were crossing the line just a little too much. And then on that fateful morning I heard about the choice, not only did the collective jaw of all knowledgeable Alaskans drop as far as jaws have dropped in the history of jaws – but I also knew Obama had won the presidency.

I think it’s appropriate for Sarah to characterize herself as a lame duck, now that she has finally given the people of my state a chance at competence. That’s what she’s always been.

What was McCain thinking?

“Wow, she’s got a nice fresh ass, and my wife looks like she’s been dug up from the local graveyard.”

Gene –

Still not posting anything about Obama?

Here’s another video for you Gene, from Rachael Maddow, who’s doing what you seem reluctant to do or incapable of doing: discussing the policies being made now by the current President.

Rachael Maddow on Obama’s doctrine of indefinite detention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uuWVHT1WUY

Gene –

Still not posting anything about Obama?

Give Gene a break. We’re creeping up on the six-month anniversary of Our President’s triumphant announcement about closing Guantanamo. Gene will certainly give us a progress report.

Sarah Palin takes an axe to the English language yet again:

“Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me – sports… basketball. I use it because you’re naive if you don’t see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket… and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I’m doing that – keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities – smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it’s time to pass the ball – for victory.”

A warning for our children there, don’t ever study for a journalism degree!

Thank Christ Katie Couric exposed her for the vacuous fool she is.

“Andrew Murphy
She did say dinos and people were on Earth at the same time

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/palin-claimed-dinosaurs-a_n_130012.html”

The only person who states this is on Philip Munger; the same person who has been waging a campaign of vilification against Palin and the Republicans in Alaska for years. This man gloats that she has been bought to personal bankruptcy by ‘liberal’ law suits.
His Blog, ‘Progressive Alaska’.

http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/

Apart from being totally irritating and too “bouncy” (and that’s my British reserve talking, I admit it) the only aspect of her presentation I can criticise is a tendency towards narcissism (which all politicians of whatever political colour possess and exhibit) and more than a little manic. Note the rapid speech, she scarcely stops to draw breath, but she does not decompensate as someone would if she were at the extreme manic end of bipolar disorder.

The dots are there but they aren’t all joined up, but that’s a criticism of the speech. Why praise Alaska to the hilt then announce that she’s no longer going to represent it, unless it’s a transparently gauche attempt to defuse the shock/horror of the announcement or that she herself doesn’t want to go down with ship?

“No Pollyannas for President!”

This article at Vanity Fair is worth a read, it doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of Ms Palin at all.

Re the ‘Narcissism’ mentioned by MITNAGED, from that VF article….

More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—“a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy”—and thought it fit her perfectly. When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.”

So what sort of guy is Todd Purdum, the man who launched this character assassination on Palin?

I Quote:
“He’s a really dishonest reporter…and I haven’t read (the article). There’s just five or six blatant lies in there. But he’s a real slimy guy.”

“he’s still a scumbag”

“He’s just a dishonest guy – can’t help it.”

“It’s all politics. It’s all about the bias of the media for Obama. Don’t think anything about it. But I’m telling ya, all it’s doing is driving her supporters further and further away – because they know exactly what it is – this has been the most rigged coverage in modern history – and the guy ought to be ashamed of himself. But he has no shame. It isn’t the first dishonest piece he’s written about me or her.”

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Former President of the United States Bill Clinton on Tod Purdum.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/03/politics/main4148156.shtml

Doc Martyn, apparently seeking a change of pace after relentless muslim-bashing, becomes Sarah Palin’s unpaid defender on this board. Yet another reason to ignore his posts.

vildechaye

“relentless muslim-bashing”

I oppose Islamo-fascists, I do not indulge in ‘muslim-bashing’ as a rule. I opposed the IRA and did not indulge in ‘Paddy-bashing’.

I’ve never been impressed by Gene or what he thinks-I think he’s a weak link at Harry’s Place

Hey Gene,

Apparently Michelle Obama is bringing superstar glamour to Moscow:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090704/D997K7BO0.html

perhaps you could ease yourself gently into covering the real political news by starting with the light and fluffy end. More your style.

The women simply makes me nostalgic for Dan Quayle.

DocMartyn
“I oppose Islamo-fascists, I do not indulge in ‘muslim-bashing’ as a rule. I opposed the IRA and did not indulge in ‘Paddy-bashing’.”

And anti-zionists oppose Israel and its apartheid without indulging in “Jew-bashing”

Doc,

Using Bill Clinton as a character reference for Todd Purdum shows some desperation, don’t you think?

When was the last time Clinton told the truth about anything?

Since some commenters have been comparing Joe Biden unfavorably to Sarah Palin, here’s an account of what Biden did today in Iraq:

Vice President Joe Biden celebrated American patriotism and mocked the ghost of Saddam Hussein during a Fourth of July visit to Iraq on Saturday.

“We did it in Saddam’s palace and I can think of nothing better. That S.O.B. is rolling over in his grave right now,” Biden said of the former Iraqi dictator, who was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and executed by the Iraqi government in 2006.

Not bad.

Joe The Biden calms a Nation anxious about a flu outbreak:

“I would tell members of my family – and I have – I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now.”

Joe The Biden mocks his boss:

“What I am going to tell the president when I tell him his TelePrompTer is broken. What will he do then?”

Joe The Biden explains the failure of the $800 billion stimulus:

“We guessed wrong.”

The Office Of Joe The Biden brings a shovel:

“What the Vice President described in his comments was not — as some press reports have suggested — an underground facility, but rather, an upstairs workspace in the residence, which he understood was frequently used by Vice President Cheney and his aides.”

Joe The Biden astounds the world with his firm grasp of history:

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed.”

Let’s not forget that Joe Biden also came up with the genius idea that Iraq should be partitioned into three separate nations. Go on, Gene explain why that would have been a brilliant idea and not a recipe for even greater bloodshed.

I’m waiting.

It was very funny to see the lefties running round like demented (headless) chickens when the Republicans brought Sarah Palin out as McCain’s VP choice. Mind you, it is always funny to watch lefties getting into a lather about things they don’t understand, which is pretty much most of the time.

Hands off my family, roared Barry as he read from a teleprompter, and a docile, fawning media respected that. Same rules for Palin? No way. We’re really intelligent people so we can snipe at her family and make sniggering little jokes.

So can we conclude we, the intelligent ones, apparently dislike the woman? But then we intelligent ones hated ‘that woman’ Thatcher. Many of us intelligent ones apparently really quite like cultures where women are downtrodden, too.

Hmmm… makes you think, doesn’t it?

Gene wrote:

Doc, she’s hardly the only politician to be subjected to nasty, personal attacks on herself and her family.

No way Obama’s kids would ever be given the same treatment that Palin’s kids received from the media, Letterman etc.

The treatment of Palin’s kids is just another illustration of how at heart a large number of so-called liberals are just mean and unprincipled people.

I agree, Ohad. And the unquestioning fetishisation of Obama is an illustration of how at heart a large number of so-called liberals have a streak of condescending racism.

Well, Ohad, if Obama had a teenage daughter who got pregnant out of wedlock, I suspect the media would not exactly ignore that either. Nor would I expect them to.

As for the alleged mocking of her Down Syndrome baby– there’s a lot of smoke and very little fire on this.

Although I did think it was a little odd that Palin included the baby among the children voting for her to step down as governor.

The treatment of Palin, and her family, by the mainstream media and by some of the individuals who have posted on this thread is a reminder to me that we never finished the Soviet Union; we let the bastards who supported the savage, inhuman political madhouse remain without censure. It was self evident to us that the bastards would finally recognize the truth that left-wing authoritarian utopianistic societies are vile. Alas, the evil scum just changed their usage of English, become ‘progressives’ and ‘greens’, and carried on in the same old way.

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.

There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.

The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.

The goal of socialism is communism.

Lenin.

But the SWP types should not despair, you are murderous scum too.

“The decision [to kill the imperial family] was not only expedient but necessary. The severity of this punishment showed everyone that we would continue to fight on mercilessly, stopping at nothing. The execution of the Tsar’s family was needed not only in order to frighten, horrify, and instill a sense of hopelessness in the enemy (Russian people) but also to shake up our own ranks, to show that there was no turning back, that ahead lay either total victory or total doom.”

Leon Trotsky

The condescending attitude of people like Gene is one of the things that drove me out of the Democratic party. I never understood how people who claim to be on the side of ‘the little guy’, can, at the same time, look down on people who ‘cling to their guns and their religion’, to use a phrase coined by our president, and still see themselves as liberals.

In the previous elections I had a sticker of ‘DEMOCRATS FOR MACCAIN’ on my car. I think in the next election I will have on my car:
RED neck, WHITE trash and BLUE collar – AND I VOTE!

HAPPY 4TH!

Gene said:

Well, Ohad, if Obama had a teenage daughter who got pregnant out of wedlock, I suspect the media would not exactly ignore that either

Oh they absolutely would cover. Just like they covered for John Edwards, though certainly they would give more justification.

Since some commenters have been comparing Joe Biden unfavorably to Sarah Palin, here’s an account of what Biden did today in Iraq:

And if Palin went to Iraq it wouldn’t be possible for a sympathetic MSMer to write a few complimentary paragraphs describing the photo ops ???

But, really, when you see Palin in action… can’t you guys see how really deeply weird she is?

I used to think like that too, but then I spent a couple of years working in remote British Columbia ( not far from Alaska), a place just full of deeply wierd people.

Turns out they were quite normal.

I still find it astounding that a certain progressive feminist comedien suggested taking Palin to Harlem to have her gang-raped by blacks.

That and the fact the ‘progressives’ in the audience laughed and howled thinking the whole idea such a hoot.

What ever became of Joe Biden, anyways?

Is he in a cage or just a straight-jacket?

“Gene
As for the alleged mocking of her Down Syndrome baby– there’s a lot of smoke and very little fire on this.”
Quite

And The Story The MSM Still Won’t Touch
“no, she had to add an extra risk to her unborn child by ensuring her local hospital and family doctor could deliver the child – even if that extra 45 minutes (like the ten hours that preceded it) could have posed a deathly risk to a special needs infant, newborns who often need specialized care in delivery.”
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/and-the-story-the-msm-still-wont-touch.html

A Fourth Picture
“Since Palin refused throughout the campaign to provide any medical records, we only have three photographs of her pregnant and one doctor’s letter, released hours before the polls opened November 3.”
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/12/a-fourth-pictur.html

“Was Sarah Palin’s Resignation Speech Written By Trig Palin?”
http://wordsmoker.com/2009/07/03/was-sarah-palins-resignation-speech-written-by-trig-palin/

Questions Surrounding Sarah Palin’s Birth
http://www.palindeception.com/subpages/subpage4.html

“This is a wild and wacky plot – as uptight Bree (Sarah Palin) pretends to be pregnant so she can pass off her teenage daughter’s baby as her own when the time comes! Bree (Sarah Palin) and hubby Orson (The First Dud) are stunned that teenage daughter Danielle (Bristol) is pregnant. And they figure the only way to avoid shame and gossip (maintain viability for higher GOP office with those religious/values voters) is for Bree (Sarah Palin) to stick on a fake bump (square pillow)and pass herself off as pregnant. Danielle (Bristol) goes into labor and Adam Mayfair (Cathy Baldwin-Johnson), who promises to not tell anyone, delivers little Benjamin Van de Kamp-Hodge (Trig Paxon Van Palin).”
http://breepalin.blogspot.com/

Sarah Palin’s Retarded Platform: More Trigs!
“Palin is about to embark on a career of causing babies to be born retarded. Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, crack addiction, or a good old-fashioned kick to the pregnant tummy, it doesn’t matter to Palin. She wants the world to have more Trigs.”
http://www.palibandaily.com/2009/07/03/sarah-palin-s-retarded-platform/

http://theosmblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/sarah_palin_fake_pregnancy.jpg

http://media.photobucket.com/image/Trig%20Palin/DonaldDouglas/Americaneocon/20080908DU-EbayPalin.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_A24UZctD–E/SkVwjjmuxzI/AAAAAAAAAtA/4-GWGxAMrXk/s1600-h/Wonkette+Trig+Photoshop.jpg

That and the fact the ‘progressives’ in the audience laughed and howled thinking the whole idea such a hoot.

Progressives are so shallow that they can’t fathom how reasonable people might possibley not agree with them.

So they become bitter and convince themselves that their opponents are subhuman.

In all fairness to Biden, he has taken a lot more interest in Iraq since his son shipped out more than a year ago. His son is a brave man knowing he is a kidnap target and what will happen to him if snatched.

So, now that Palin is out, who is the leading contender for the Republican nomination in 2012?

ref: “Is it even possible to turn on Fox News or a conservative website and not read or listen to how Obama is:
A socialist
A communist
A Mancherian Candidate for Radical Islam

Wel,l what’s the problem with that? But where’s Mancheria, anyway?

ref: “Is it even possible to turn on Fox News or a conservative website and not read or listen to how Obama is:
A socialist
A communist
A Mancherian Candidate for Radical Islam

Wel,l what’s the problem with that? But where’s Mancheria, anyway?

Just commenting on her style, I actually think her tight and fluent speech contrasted brilliantly with the dull and monotonous Obama style. The more I see him read his carefully crafted lectures and sermons, nodding his head from left to right to switch screens, and pointing his finger like a school master, the more fascinated I am by those who speak with genuine passion and a totally different vocabulary and tone. Palin’s speech is lively, full of unpredictable examples, and less obviously stereotypical than most things Obama says. And for that, I find her a more engaging speaker sometimes.

I think David T has put his finger on the extreme polarization between True Believers in the GOP and the Democratic Party and some of the weird stories referred to in this thread.

My concern is for the lack of experience among public officials. Before coming to national prominence, Obama was a senator for the 13th District of the Illinois legislature (population: 210,496), while Palin was mayor of Wasilla (population: 5,469).

Once elected to high office, both Obama and Palin spent less than a single term in the US Senate and as Governor of Alaska respectively. Both Obama and Palin have been criticized for inexperience and overarching ambition. But Obama quit serving the people of Illinois to serve the people of all the United States. Palin quit serving the people of Alaska to serve herself.

But Obama quit serving the people of Illinois to serve the people of all the United States. Palin quit serving the people of Alaska to serve herself.

What nonsense. Obama and Palin are both ambitious power-seekers.

But which one of the two has actually shown some belief or committment to something external to his/her own ego?

>*Obama quit serving the people of Illinois to serve the people of all the United States. Palin quit serving the people of Alaska to serve herself.*

Gene? Is that you, Gene?

No, it was me. If she thinks that a half-term governor is going to stand any chance against the likes of Mike Huckabee, someone still serving the people of Arkansas, in the primaries for 2012, I think she has another thing coming.

hasan, Huckabee is no longer governor of Arkansas. But he did manage to serve two full terms.

Sorry, my mistake. One might also add that there are plenty of other Republicans around and it wasn’t and people voting in Republican primaries (and there are swing states like Wisconsin where voters aren’t registered to a party) would have to be a very different group of people in 2012 from those last year if Mrs Palin is going to eighty-six business- and military-based Republicans.

Ahem. Sorry about that; that should read:

One might also add that there are plenty of other Republicans around and people voting in Republican primaries (and there are swing states like Wisconsin where voters aren’t registered to a party) would have to be a very different group of people in 2012 from those last year if Mrs Palin is going to eighty-six business- and military-based Republicans.

Thank you.