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Wednesday, June 30, 2010
A Late Post about Pridefest and a Personal Story About the Cost of Advocacy.
Last weekend was the end of Pridefest.
Sadly I was a little busy and missed out on most of the activities. However I did manage to get out to the Delaney Park Strip downtown on Saturday in time to see our brave Democrats come out in support of diversity in our great city.
I saw gubernatorial candidates Ethan Berkowitz and Hollis French, as well as candidate for Lt. Governor Diane Benson. And I watched as Anchorage Assembly member (and personal hero of mine) Harriet Drummond read out loud a Resolution welcoming Pridefest to Anchorage that was just passed by the Assembly earlier that week.
There were a few speeches of support given by the candidates and then Mark Begich's (super cute)spokesperson Susanne Fleek read President Obama's proclamation from 2009 declaring the month of June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.
I walked around and visited some booths, bought a little food, watched a couple of dance exhibitions put on by some of our local transexuals, and then wandered back to my car and headed home. All in all it was pretty tame as far as I was concerned. There wasn't even anything as controversial as the "Drill, Baby Drill...Just don't Spill" condoms that were offered by the Log Cabin Republicans in Minneapolis, except for possibly a booth displaying t-shirts with naughty words on them that was sponsored by a local sex shop called the Castle Megastore.
To be honest, though it was enjoyable, I did not exactly find the experience blog worthy. That is until recently.
You see apparently my visit to the Pridefest caught the attention of one of my clients. This person started to ask me questions about my involvement with the gay community and wanted to know why I advocated for "that sort of thing" especially since I am not gay. I gladly explained that I supported a lot of groups in the city including the NAACP even though I am not black, STAR even though am not a woman who has been raped, The Brother Francis Shelter even though I am not homeless, and the gay community in Alaska, even though I am a raging heterosexual.
I further explained my experiences with the "Summer of Hate" last year and how I helped to get the word out and organize the people who argued FOR the protection of the LGBT community. Wrong thing to say.
As it turns out this person is NOT comfortable with the homosexual community having equal rights and is very unhappy to learn about my advocacy. And based on that has told me that my services are no longer required. Just like that.
You could have knocked me over with a feathered boa.
Now don't worry about me I have other job prospects, but damn I have NEVER personally experienced that kind of prejudice in my city before. And the amazing thing is I AM NOT EVEN GAY! This is what can happen just for supporting gay rights, imagine how much worse it must be for those in the LGBT community who are confronted with this kind of hate on a constant basis.
Now this is just one person, and certainly not indicative of how the vast majority of citizens view our LGBT friends, but still it certainly does go to prove that we have a long way to go in this town before people will completely accept those who may look, love, or live in manner that is different from their own.
But know this, all that this little experience of mine has done is make me more determined than ever to support our LGBT community moving forward. And hopefully some day we will see a day when finally EVERYBODY will be accepted for who they are without having to hide it from those around them or feel shame because of who they love.
Sadly I was a little busy and missed out on most of the activities. However I did manage to get out to the Delaney Park Strip downtown on Saturday in time to see our brave Democrats come out in support of diversity in our great city.
I saw gubernatorial candidates Ethan Berkowitz and Hollis French, as well as candidate for Lt. Governor Diane Benson. And I watched as Anchorage Assembly member (and personal hero of mine) Harriet Drummond read out loud a Resolution welcoming Pridefest to Anchorage that was just passed by the Assembly earlier that week.
There were a few speeches of support given by the candidates and then Mark Begich's (super cute)spokesperson Susanne Fleek read President Obama's proclamation from 2009 declaring the month of June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.
I walked around and visited some booths, bought a little food, watched a couple of dance exhibitions put on by some of our local transexuals, and then wandered back to my car and headed home. All in all it was pretty tame as far as I was concerned. There wasn't even anything as controversial as the "Drill, Baby Drill...Just don't Spill" condoms that were offered by the Log Cabin Republicans in Minneapolis, except for possibly a booth displaying t-shirts with naughty words on them that was sponsored by a local sex shop called the Castle Megastore.
To be honest, though it was enjoyable, I did not exactly find the experience blog worthy. That is until recently.
You see apparently my visit to the Pridefest caught the attention of one of my clients. This person started to ask me questions about my involvement with the gay community and wanted to know why I advocated for "that sort of thing" especially since I am not gay. I gladly explained that I supported a lot of groups in the city including the NAACP even though I am not black, STAR even though am not a woman who has been raped, The Brother Francis Shelter even though I am not homeless, and the gay community in Alaska, even though I am a raging heterosexual.
I further explained my experiences with the "Summer of Hate" last year and how I helped to get the word out and organize the people who argued FOR the protection of the LGBT community. Wrong thing to say.
As it turns out this person is NOT comfortable with the homosexual community having equal rights and is very unhappy to learn about my advocacy. And based on that has told me that my services are no longer required. Just like that.
You could have knocked me over with a feathered boa.
Now don't worry about me I have other job prospects, but damn I have NEVER personally experienced that kind of prejudice in my city before. And the amazing thing is I AM NOT EVEN GAY! This is what can happen just for supporting gay rights, imagine how much worse it must be for those in the LGBT community who are confronted with this kind of hate on a constant basis.
Now this is just one person, and certainly not indicative of how the vast majority of citizens view our LGBT friends, but still it certainly does go to prove that we have a long way to go in this town before people will completely accept those who may look, love, or live in manner that is different from their own.
But know this, all that this little experience of mine has done is make me more determined than ever to support our LGBT community moving forward. And hopefully some day we will see a day when finally EVERYBODY will be accepted for who they are without having to hide it from those around them or feel shame because of who they love.
God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then God said "Let there be guns!" and there were....wait, what?
From TPM:
During his questioning of Kagan, Grassley asked her not just about her opinion of Heller, McDonald or stare decisis, but about whether the right to bear arms predates the constitution Kagan is seeking to interpret on the court. He wasn't talking about the Magna Carta, or the Hammurabic Code, however: he wanted to know whether the right to carry man-made weapons actually came from a higher power. Kagan, for her part, didn't want to get into litigating whether a higher power gave us rights before we enshrined them in the document she'll be asked to interpret.
Somehow, and I admit that I am completely lost in my attempt to understand just how this conclusion has been reached, Senator Grassley seems to believe that the right to bear arms in America is a right that was given to us, not by the mere mortals who crafted the Second Amendment, but instead by the Almighty God.
No, I have NOT been drinking! Here watch it for yourself.
I am going to have to re-read the Bible, because I must have missed the chapter where He handed out the weapons and ammunition.
You would think that David would have had access to, at the very least, an Uzi when he went up against Goliath. I mean that would have made things a hell of a lot easier for the guy, dontcha think?
During his questioning of Kagan, Grassley asked her not just about her opinion of Heller, McDonald or stare decisis, but about whether the right to bear arms predates the constitution Kagan is seeking to interpret on the court. He wasn't talking about the Magna Carta, or the Hammurabic Code, however: he wanted to know whether the right to carry man-made weapons actually came from a higher power. Kagan, for her part, didn't want to get into litigating whether a higher power gave us rights before we enshrined them in the document she'll be asked to interpret.
Somehow, and I admit that I am completely lost in my attempt to understand just how this conclusion has been reached, Senator Grassley seems to believe that the right to bear arms in America is a right that was given to us, not by the mere mortals who crafted the Second Amendment, but instead by the Almighty God.
No, I have NOT been drinking! Here watch it for yourself.
I am going to have to re-read the Bible, because I must have missed the chapter where He handed out the weapons and ammunition.
You would think that David would have had access to, at the very least, an Uzi when he went up against Goliath. I mean that would have made things a hell of a lot easier for the guy, dontcha think?
Forget Sarah Palin. The real challenge to President Obama's popularity is Lady Gaga!
Move aside, John McCain: Lady Gaga is now positioned to be the next big challenger to President Obama. It’s not exactly a race either necessarily chose to enter, but the Facebook pages of the president and the sequined pop phenomenon are deadlocked in a competition to become the first living person to hit the record-busting 10-million fan mark on Facebook.
Wow! I cannot imagine having 10 million Facebook fans! That is an unbelievable number of people who are fascinated by these two talented people.
But then who can blame them? I mean after all one is the leader of the free world and the other is taking the entertainment industry by storm. (By the way as of this post President Obama has 9,342,840 fans and Lady Gaga is slightly ahead with 9,614,641.)
But this got me thinking. Lady Gaga and President Obama are the two most popular people on Facebook? But what about Sarah Palin? After all almost all of Lady Gaga's updates are about concert appearances with a sprinkling of posts about which city she is in and which media event she is doing, and President Obama's page mostly consists of updates about what is going on politically (Boring!), but Sarah Palin spends more time on her Facebook page than an insecure fourteen year old girl!
Palin has probably done more to make Facebook famous than any other celebrity. She uses it as her main method of communicating to the outside world, and has undoubtedly had more people quote the Facebook rants that her ghostwriter posts than Lady Gaga and Obama combined. So surely she must be pretty darn close to that ten million mark as well wouldn't you think?
Nope not even close. As of this posting the supposed "Queen of Facebook" has a comparatively dismal 1,717,781 fans. The most popular Republican in the country has not even broken the 2 million mark.
I don't know about you but learning that made me feel much, much better. If this is the best hope the Republicans have of defeating President Obama in 2012, than we can all relax.
That is of course unless the GOP somehow recruits Lady Gaga. Then we are fucked!
Kathy Griffin and Levi visit the Palin compound and do a little ice fishing.
Well I have to say one thing. At least Kathy Griffin has some personality.
Compared to her Bristol is a cardboard cutout. Only stiffer.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Oh my God! Now they are cloning Sarah Palin!
Once again this is NOT a parody!
I am confused, is she running for Congress or for Sheriff?
NOBODY should be taking advice about teen pregnncy from Bristol Palin!
And just like the bullshit that her mother spews Bristol is giving teens the worst possible information.
In this Fox News interview Bristol says a lot of ignorant things but I want to focus on just this one amazing quote:
“It’s possible to raise a baby, and continue on with your education and work full-time.”
No! No it is not! Well not unless you have a rich mother willing to put you up in an apartment and hire a full time babysitter at least!
MOST teen mothers have to work a crappy job, put their child in childcare the majority of the day, AND more likely than not are still living with a family member, like their mother or grandmother, in order to adequately provide for their child.
There is NOTHING about Bristol's life as a teen mother that relates to the reality which faces the vast majority of teen mothers.
And by the way I am not just talking out of my ass. When I was a boy my mom was a divorced woman with three young children, no high school diploma, and virtually no job prospects. She ended up working two jobs and paying a family to keep us in their house and watch us for up to two weeks at a time before she could get time off to be with us for a day or two.
I rarely saw my mother from the age of six until I was ten years old and she believed I could stay by myself alone at night and watch out for my younger brother and sister. And I gladly took on that responsibility so that she could work nights and be with us during the days, and we would not have to wait two weeks before we could be a family again.
We had relatives that helped some, but they had their own lives and families to care for, and besides my mother was fiercely independent.
What Bristol Palin is shoveling out to the teens who are watching that program and reading her interviews is extremely harmful to them.
I am sure that many of you read what Mercede had to say about the number of Wasilla teens who are anxious to get pregnant and follow Bristol's example. Imagine that same message going out all across this country!
I tried to leave Bristol alone but I simply cannot ignore the fact that she is completely misrepresenting how she is able to care for Tripp, and still support herself, and even how she became pregnant in the first place.
As we all now know Bristol became pregnant on purpose! She CHOSE to get knocked up knowing full well it would embarrass her family and hopefully force her mother to stop treating her like a live in babysitter. Bristol was tasked with taking care of her sisters, as well as keeping the house clean and preparing the meals, and she resented it! By getting pregnant she obviously hoped to make her mother treat her as an equal.
Of course it did not work because Sarah Palin is a megalomaniac and does not believe she HAS an equal, but at least it allowed Bristol to get out of that house.
Sarah Palin completely screwed her children up, and that is very unfortunate. But providing a platform for Bristol to promote careless promiscuity, while promising that everything will work out just fine when a young woman becomes pregnant, is absolutely criminal.
Countdown's "Worst Person in the World" winner Sarah Palin has no idea where her idol Ronald Reagan went to school. Of course lack of knowledge did not stop her from just "making stuff up".
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Just another day, and another retarded statement by Sarah Palin.
Remember, according to Rush Limbaugh, it is perfectly okay to use the word "retarded" if you are not actually talking about somebody with a diminished mental capac......oh.....whoops!
I see Dead Presidents.
These advertisements for Rick Barber, who is a Teabagger campaigning to represent Alabama in Congress, look like something made up by the Onion or a skit on Saturday Night Live.
But amazingly they are not!
Go ahead and take a look and then I dare you to take this guy seriously.
But amazingly they are not!
Go ahead and take a look and then I dare you to take this guy seriously.
Palin's paranoia continues to grow out of control as pro-Palin bloggers get kicked out of conservative rally because of Sarah's demands for limited media access.
From Mediaite:
Here are the key moments from their live blog:
8:28: J.R. Hoeft: Sekulow introducing Palin – applauding her discipline and decisiveness.
8:29: Brian K: Sarah Palin hits the stage to a standing o
8:31: Brian K: Sarah cheers the Lady Monarchs. Good choice
8:34:J.R. Hoeft: We’re being kicked out. So much for transparency.
The comments on the blog quickly turned into a fight between conservatives who like Palin and assumed that the bloggers broke some rules and those that defended the writers. Eventually, Bearing Drift’s J.R. Hoeft gave his version of the events.
Rude? We were at the event at the request of the event’s organizers.
Then, with no warning, as soon as the speech began, it was “lights out” for us and all I was doing was taking a couple photos and live-blogging the event.
Other media were present taking notes and there were cameras all over the Convocation Center.
We were told at the beginning we could live-blog and take photos, just not stream or record the speech in its entirety – and I had no problem with that policy.
However, I will say this, if she plans on running for president, she ought not to be concerned about a couple of former pro-Palin bloggers!
See? Dennis and I are not the ONLY bloggers who get kicked out of Palin events!
What a perfect follow up to my post from yesterday. And some people thought I was exaggerating Sarah Palin's thin skin and rampant paranoia! Hah!
I do believe this story will have me smiling all day long.
Here are the key moments from their live blog:
8:28: J.R. Hoeft: Sekulow introducing Palin – applauding her discipline and decisiveness.
8:29: Brian K: Sarah Palin hits the stage to a standing o
8:31: Brian K: Sarah cheers the Lady Monarchs. Good choice
8:34:J.R. Hoeft: We’re being kicked out. So much for transparency.
The comments on the blog quickly turned into a fight between conservatives who like Palin and assumed that the bloggers broke some rules and those that defended the writers. Eventually, Bearing Drift’s J.R. Hoeft gave his version of the events.
Rude? We were at the event at the request of the event’s organizers.
Then, with no warning, as soon as the speech began, it was “lights out” for us and all I was doing was taking a couple photos and live-blogging the event.
Other media were present taking notes and there were cameras all over the Convocation Center.
We were told at the beginning we could live-blog and take photos, just not stream or record the speech in its entirety – and I had no problem with that policy.
However, I will say this, if she plans on running for president, she ought not to be concerned about a couple of former pro-Palin bloggers!
See? Dennis and I are not the ONLY bloggers who get kicked out of Palin events!
What a perfect follow up to my post from yesterday. And some people thought I was exaggerating Sarah Palin's thin skin and rampant paranoia! Hah!
I do believe this story will have me smiling all day long.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Bristol Palin talks about her "acting" debut. Update!
Here are some highlights.
So Bristol, I wanted to ask, are you playing yourself, or a fictionalized version of yourself?
Palin: Yeah, a fictionalized version of myself is probably the best description.
What did you do to prepare? Did you talk to any acting coaches?
Palin: [Laughs] No, no acting coaches. I went over the lines that was on the drive over here a few months ago, so it was kind of thrown out there, but it was an awesome experience.
No acting coaches? You know I may have picked up on that.
Do you have any longer term plans for acting? And is this something you'd want to do more of in the future?
Palin: I don't know if I want to do more of it. I guess I'll leave it up to the experts but I had a great time shooting this and hopefully I don't look like too much of an idiot.
.....uh....hmm....never mind.
I read in Harper's Bazaar that you said your parents just assumed you weren't doing anything rather than talk to you about the realities of pre-marital sex, and it was pretty similar with the main character on 'Secret Life.' Have you given any thought to what you might say to your son about it when the time comes?
Palin: Well, I definitely hope Tripp will wait to have sex until either he's married or what not but I just hope that he doesn't have to go through what I went through with my teen pregnancy. Hopefully, I'll do a good job explaining that to him.
And hopefully he will not make the mistake of impregnating somebody who belongs to a family who uses their children as props. I'm just saying.
Bristol, do you have any plans to watch it with your family, to throw a little party or something?
Palin: No, definitely not a party or anything. I'll definitely be too embarrassed to see myself on TV, so I'll probably just watch it by myself with my baby.
Poor Tripp. I wonder if this will be used as a disciplinary tool. "If you don't eat your mashed carrots you will have to watch Mommy act again!"
In case you missed it the first time, here is your chance to watch this future Emmy winner in action.
Update: Here is a little video of part of this interview. Watch the BS answer she gives when asked about how she and Levi are doing.
New post up on the Daily Dish about the Trig Palin birth story.
From Andrew Sullivan:
Trig's political salience is obvious, and critical to Palin's brand - in fact, the only thing, apart from her amazingly good looks, that keeps her in the game. For generations, pro-lifers have voted Republicans into office on a strong anti-abortion platform. For forty years, they have been largely let down. They understandably feel as if the leadership condescends to them, exploits them and does not really believe in the cause. This was true of Reagan, Bush, and the second Bush. So how does a Republican politician truly convince the base that he or she is a true believer on the life issue? Nothing does that like walking the walk of carrying a special needs child to term. (And indeed, if that is the case, it speaks enormously highly of Palin, in my view, as I have said from the very very beginning.) The way in which Palin has not let this speak for itself but has relentlessly exploited her story and child makes this an even more salient political issue - and one which deserves appropriate press scrutiny, as with any other core campaign platform.
But there has been no press scrutiny. In fact, there has been enormous pressure from the press not to investigate the story and to mock anyone who does so. No MSM interviewer of Palin has ever asked a single question about the bizarre stories that Palin has told about her political prop - not Oprah, not Couric, not Gibson, not anyone. Newsweek has reprinted minute details of Palin's story as fact with no independent confirmation but Palin's own words. No MSM newspaper has asked for or demanded easily available proof of the pregnancy and birth - except the Anchorage Daily News, after the election, which prompted Palin not to quietly offer proof to an editor keen to put the entire controversy to rest, but to explode in rage.
Excellent post! And I encourage all of you to click the link provided at the top and read the entire thing for yourself.
I really appreciate that Andrew Sullivan still has the balls to pursue this story. Sometimes it feels as if one by one, those of us who had doggedly pursued the real facts behind this story, simply dropped by the wayside from exhaustion leaving just a few hardy souls left to carry on the fight to reveal the truth behind Sarah Palin's mythological fifth "pregnancy".
The Bloggers and the Barracuda or A funny thing happened on my way to Wasilla.
Okay gang story time!
Come with me for a trip in the wayback machine. Back to the days when the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were still a beautiful turquoise blue, when Barack Obama still retained that new President smell, and when Sarah Palin was still just an angry ex-Vice Presidential nominee hating her life, hating her job, and especially, hating the media.
This incident took place during the time between the great Turkey Massacre of November 2008 and the shocking and bizarre resignation speech of July 2009. In fact the exact date was January 10, 2009, and the place was the AT&T Sports Center in Wasilla Alaska.
My friends and I had formulated an idea for a video that could be embedded on my blog, and possibly other places as well. The idea was simply to drive out to Wasilla and interview a few of the locals about their feelings concerning Sarah Palin, sort of like the Daily Show had once done.
So I, Dennis Zaki, and few other people, loaded up in my car and started the 60 mile drive from Anchorage to Wasilla. At one point during the ride I jokingly asked what we would do if we actually ran into Sarah Palin. Everybody had a good laugh at that unrealistic possibility.
If only we had known then how the day would turn out.
After arriving in Wasilla we went out onto the frozen Lake Lucille to get some still shots of the Palin house (for use in the video), visited the now iconic Mugshot Saloon (we decided it was too smoky for any good interviews), and ended up interviewing people outside of the Wasilla Wal-Mart.
We got a few interesting responses, and met a few real characters, but the weather was working against us.
Now the temperature outside was in the low twenties, but there was a fierce wind blowing that brought the temperature down several degrees whenever it kicked up, and it easily penetrated our layers of clothing and snatched away our body heat with every gust. After about an hour or so in front of the Wal-Mart we were frozen solid, and we desperately needed someplace to warm up.
It was decided that we would go to a local sports center and hopefully get permission to interview some people in a much warmer location. So off we went.
When we arrived at the AT&T Sports Center we found the parking lot jam packed with cars (Apparently there was a basketball tournament scheduled for that day), but fortunately just as we were about to give up hope and drive away a space opened up fairly close to the entrance.
After parking the vehicle some of our group went directly inside while Dennis and I unloaded the film equipment from the car.
Now unlike blogging, which requires relatively few accessories, making a film involves quite a few bulky items which must be hauled from place to place. Besides asking the actual questions and holding the microphone during interviews I also carried the tripod, and a bag or two of equipment when we moved from one destination to another. And this was how I was encumbered as Dennis held the door open for me at the sports center.
As I passed into the relative warmth inside the first set of double doors, I heard Dennis say “Oh hi, I did not expect to see YOU here!”
(Now I know some of you are WAY ahead in determining who Dennis was talking to, but bear with me as the Gryphen of 2009 catches up to you.)
I turned back to see who Dennis was talking to and watched Sarah Palin, with Willow and Piper close behind, and a handful of other people (one of who was carrying Trig) walking in through the doors behind me. Sarah warmly greeted Dennis (who had interviewed her numerous times in the past), and then walked through the second set of doors that I was holding open, and into the foyer of the sports center.
Dennis and I shot each other an incredulous look and right then I knew that our little trip to Wasilla had now gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.
We found a spot to put the equipment down and Dennis told me that he wanted to ask Sarah for an interview. I believe my response was something along the lines of “Hell, no!” After all I was still an anonymous blogger and had no intention of walking up to the Governor of our state, who I had been giving the hardest time imaginable on my blog, and saying “Hi, my name is Gryphen. Do you want to do a taped interview with me?”
I might be wrong, but my best guess is that not only would I NOT get an interview, but that I would have been chased out of town by the authorities.
“Don’t worry she knows me. I have interviewed her plenty of times. And if you don’t want to give your real name we can just make up any old name for you.” Dennis replied.
I was not thrilled, but I agreed that getting an interview with Sarah, especially since she had avoiding the press lately, was not something I could expect Dennis to pass up.
So we located the basketball court that Willow’s team was playing on, and Dennis set up the equipment as I went to find the rest of our group who we had lost sight of in all of the excitement.
After I located my friends and told them what was up (which they wanted no part of) I went back to where Dennis and the camera were. By that time Dennis had already spoken to Sarah and she had agreed to be interviewed, but only after the game had reached the halftime mark.
So Dennis and I patiently stood around and discussed which questions to ask the Governor when we interviewed her. I told him I was not really interested in asking any so-called “gotcha questions” or asking her anything to make her feel uncomfortable since essentially we were invading her private time with her family.
So we agreed that I would ask something simple about people's perceptions of Wasilla after it had received so much attention during her candidacy. I also came up with a few other fairly innocuous questions, but there was one that I simply could not resist asking.
At that time the internet was abuzz with excerpts from an interview where Palin had discussed with John Ziegler her frustration over the “conspiracy” surrounding the birth of Trig, and had blamed anonymous bloggers for convincing news sources to take the story seriously. I felt that I simply could not pass up the opportunity to ask her about anonymous bloggers, especially since I was in fact an anonymous blogger. The gods of irony simply demanded that I put that in with my list of questions.
Ah, but what to call myself. Since I was still not sure about using my real name I struggled to come up with another one instead. I suggested that we use “Joey” since I have a family member named Joey and it would be easy to remember.
While we waited we watched Willow's basketball game, which seemed to go on forever. The whole time I made sure not to stare at the governor and her family so as not to make them uncomfortable.
I decided to use the restroom before the interview and went to find one. Afterward I went to assure my friends that we would be done soon and then we could head back to town.
When I arrived back at the court, where Dennis and the camera were, I saw that Dennis was engaged in a conversation with Sarah who apparently was now ready for her interview somewhat earlier than I had anticipated.
I quite literally was handed the microphone the minute I walked up, heard Dennis introduce me as “Joey”, and we were off. Here is the interview from that day.
And here is a picture taken by a friend of Dennis and myself conducting that interview.
Now I thought that the interview went pretty well and I was really glad to have it over with. (I apologize for the poor sound quality, but there was a lot of noise and since this was one of my very first interviews I kept forgetting to get the microphone near my mouth when I was the one doing talking.) However as we started to pack up our things Palin continued to hang around and began to ask questions, such as “where was I from”, and “did I have a kid on one of the teams”, and a bunch of other questions while becoming more and more agitated. I answered a few but sort of ignored the more probing ones, while gathering up the tripod and the rest of the equipment.
We finished packing things up, thanked her for the interview, and exited the building to load up the car. After we finished I left Dennis outside with the equipment and went inside to get my friends and tell them that we were ready to hit the road.
When I located them in the sports center one of my friends asked “Did you see her?”
“See who?” I asked warily.
“Sarah Palin! When you left she handed Trig to Piper and charged across the middle of the basketball court in hot pursuit of you guys!”
Uh oh!
As we walked toward the exit we kept our eyes peeled, but did not see any sign of the Governor, so I figured that maybe it was no big deal and that she had given up and decided to rejoin her kids on the basketball court.
However when I climbed into the car I asked Dennis if HE had seen Palin.
“Oh yeah” he said. “She came out with a notebook and wrote down your license plate number.”
Uh oh!
I started the engine and we left the parking lot. As we drove I kept looking to see if the Wasilla police were suddenly going to appear in my rear view mirror. However we kept assuring each other that we had really done nothing wrong and that we certainly could not be arrested for interviewing the Governor. (Though to be honest I kept hearing the dueling banjoes from Deliverance playing in my head.)
Just a few minutes after leaving the sports center Dennis’s phone rang and we all jumped.
He looked at the number and said “Frank Bailey.”
Uh oh, again!
I listened as Dennis talked to Bailey who was calling on behalf of a clearly angry and suspicious Governor Palin. When asked who I was Dennis started off saying “Joey”, but as the conversation continued he slipped a few time and used my real name, “Jesse”. Joey, Jesse, Joey, Jesse, it went back and forth several times. I kept looking over at Dennis trying to get his attention to let him know he was not sticking to the story, but he never once looked in my direction until the call was already over. (By the way we never volunteered my last name.)
(Later I would be teased mercilessly by my fellow bloggers who until today were among the very few to hear this story and who, for several months, always referred to me as “Joey-Jesse”.)
When Dennis got off the phone he said that Palin was not happy and that he probably would not be getting any more interviews with her. (He never did.)
We stopped at a little Mexican restaurant in Wasilla to get some lunch and discussed what had just happened. Because the incident had clearly upset the Governor, and we did not want to give her cause to believe she had been set up, we decided to keep this story to ourselves until some undetermined time in the future.
After what happened to Joe McGinniss I decided it was time to tell the story. So I checked with Dennis and my other friends, who had been part of the decision to wait, and got their okay to tell all of you this bizarre tale.
Now let me just say that I have always regretted the fact that I was dishonest with Sarah Palin. Essentially it was only a small lie, and not even in the same category as the whoppers that she has been caught telling, but it was a lie nonetheless and I usually pride myself on being scrupulously honest.
However, looking back, even if I had given her my real name, it would have changed absolutely nothing. Clearly Sarah Palin was highly paranoid and whether I called myself “Joey” or “Jesse” she was still going to chase us out into that parking lot.
Now fast forward to August of 2009.
As many of you already know that was the month that I wrote the Splitsville story. After that my anonymity came to an end, resulting in death threats against me and the harassment of the people working in the elementary school where I had been employed.
The website that “outed” me has always claimed to have discovered my name on their own with their “super internet sleuthing powers”. But the fact remains that Sarah Palin wrote down my license plate number on January 10th. She certainly did not write it down just for fun, so it stands to reason that she made a call shortly afterward and discovered the name assigned to that license plate number, which would mean that from that day forward she was well aware of “Gryphen’s” true identity.
Now when Van Flein sent an e-mail threatening to sue me he used my real name and threatened to serve it “at the kindergarten where you assist or at your residence,” which means somebody gave him my name well before those idiot bloggers were unleashed.
There is of course no way to prove it, but I think the circumstantial evidence suggests that Sarah Palin herself was the one responsible for the revelation of my real name, and that the right wing blogger, who bragged about having direct contact with Sarah Palin's attorney, indirectly got it from her.
You know the funny thing is that the interview was only mildly interesting. It showed up on a few news programs, but only because she mentioned anonymous bloggers. Compared to the vast majority of interviews Sarah gave this one was pretty harmless.
So essentially she overreacted to something that ended up not being that big of a deal, just like she did when Joe McGinniss moved in next door. And isn't that a pattern we have observed over and over again with Sarah Palin?
P.S. I have made reference in the past to the fact that I suspected Trig Palin may have been, at least partially, deaf well before it was public knowledge. This was the day that those suspicions first arose. Go back and watch the interview again. At the 1:23 mark there is a VERY loud buzzer which sounds. It literally made me jump, but notice that Trig, who is kind of nodding off in Sarah's arms, does not even budge.
Come with me for a trip in the wayback machine. Back to the days when the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were still a beautiful turquoise blue, when Barack Obama still retained that new President smell, and when Sarah Palin was still just an angry ex-Vice Presidential nominee hating her life, hating her job, and especially, hating the media.
This incident took place during the time between the great Turkey Massacre of November 2008 and the shocking and bizarre resignation speech of July 2009. In fact the exact date was January 10, 2009, and the place was the AT&T Sports Center in Wasilla Alaska.
My friends and I had formulated an idea for a video that could be embedded on my blog, and possibly other places as well. The idea was simply to drive out to Wasilla and interview a few of the locals about their feelings concerning Sarah Palin, sort of like the Daily Show had once done.
So I, Dennis Zaki, and few other people, loaded up in my car and started the 60 mile drive from Anchorage to Wasilla. At one point during the ride I jokingly asked what we would do if we actually ran into Sarah Palin. Everybody had a good laugh at that unrealistic possibility.
If only we had known then how the day would turn out.
After arriving in Wasilla we went out onto the frozen Lake Lucille to get some still shots of the Palin house (for use in the video), visited the now iconic Mugshot Saloon (we decided it was too smoky for any good interviews), and ended up interviewing people outside of the Wasilla Wal-Mart.
We got a few interesting responses, and met a few real characters, but the weather was working against us.
Now the temperature outside was in the low twenties, but there was a fierce wind blowing that brought the temperature down several degrees whenever it kicked up, and it easily penetrated our layers of clothing and snatched away our body heat with every gust. After about an hour or so in front of the Wal-Mart we were frozen solid, and we desperately needed someplace to warm up.
It was decided that we would go to a local sports center and hopefully get permission to interview some people in a much warmer location. So off we went.
When we arrived at the AT&T Sports Center we found the parking lot jam packed with cars (Apparently there was a basketball tournament scheduled for that day), but fortunately just as we were about to give up hope and drive away a space opened up fairly close to the entrance.
After parking the vehicle some of our group went directly inside while Dennis and I unloaded the film equipment from the car.
Now unlike blogging, which requires relatively few accessories, making a film involves quite a few bulky items which must be hauled from place to place. Besides asking the actual questions and holding the microphone during interviews I also carried the tripod, and a bag or two of equipment when we moved from one destination to another. And this was how I was encumbered as Dennis held the door open for me at the sports center.
As I passed into the relative warmth inside the first set of double doors, I heard Dennis say “Oh hi, I did not expect to see YOU here!”
(Now I know some of you are WAY ahead in determining who Dennis was talking to, but bear with me as the Gryphen of 2009 catches up to you.)
I turned back to see who Dennis was talking to and watched Sarah Palin, with Willow and Piper close behind, and a handful of other people (one of who was carrying Trig) walking in through the doors behind me. Sarah warmly greeted Dennis (who had interviewed her numerous times in the past), and then walked through the second set of doors that I was holding open, and into the foyer of the sports center.
Dennis and I shot each other an incredulous look and right then I knew that our little trip to Wasilla had now gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.
We found a spot to put the equipment down and Dennis told me that he wanted to ask Sarah for an interview. I believe my response was something along the lines of “Hell, no!” After all I was still an anonymous blogger and had no intention of walking up to the Governor of our state, who I had been giving the hardest time imaginable on my blog, and saying “Hi, my name is Gryphen. Do you want to do a taped interview with me?”
I might be wrong, but my best guess is that not only would I NOT get an interview, but that I would have been chased out of town by the authorities.
“Don’t worry she knows me. I have interviewed her plenty of times. And if you don’t want to give your real name we can just make up any old name for you.” Dennis replied.
I was not thrilled, but I agreed that getting an interview with Sarah, especially since she had avoiding the press lately, was not something I could expect Dennis to pass up.
So we located the basketball court that Willow’s team was playing on, and Dennis set up the equipment as I went to find the rest of our group who we had lost sight of in all of the excitement.
After I located my friends and told them what was up (which they wanted no part of) I went back to where Dennis and the camera were. By that time Dennis had already spoken to Sarah and she had agreed to be interviewed, but only after the game had reached the halftime mark.
So Dennis and I patiently stood around and discussed which questions to ask the Governor when we interviewed her. I told him I was not really interested in asking any so-called “gotcha questions” or asking her anything to make her feel uncomfortable since essentially we were invading her private time with her family.
So we agreed that I would ask something simple about people's perceptions of Wasilla after it had received so much attention during her candidacy. I also came up with a few other fairly innocuous questions, but there was one that I simply could not resist asking.
At that time the internet was abuzz with excerpts from an interview where Palin had discussed with John Ziegler her frustration over the “conspiracy” surrounding the birth of Trig, and had blamed anonymous bloggers for convincing news sources to take the story seriously. I felt that I simply could not pass up the opportunity to ask her about anonymous bloggers, especially since I was in fact an anonymous blogger. The gods of irony simply demanded that I put that in with my list of questions.
Ah, but what to call myself. Since I was still not sure about using my real name I struggled to come up with another one instead. I suggested that we use “Joey” since I have a family member named Joey and it would be easy to remember.
While we waited we watched Willow's basketball game, which seemed to go on forever. The whole time I made sure not to stare at the governor and her family so as not to make them uncomfortable.
I decided to use the restroom before the interview and went to find one. Afterward I went to assure my friends that we would be done soon and then we could head back to town.
When I arrived back at the court, where Dennis and the camera were, I saw that Dennis was engaged in a conversation with Sarah who apparently was now ready for her interview somewhat earlier than I had anticipated.
I quite literally was handed the microphone the minute I walked up, heard Dennis introduce me as “Joey”, and we were off. Here is the interview from that day.
And here is a picture taken by a friend of Dennis and myself conducting that interview.
Now I thought that the interview went pretty well and I was really glad to have it over with. (I apologize for the poor sound quality, but there was a lot of noise and since this was one of my very first interviews I kept forgetting to get the microphone near my mouth when I was the one doing talking.) However as we started to pack up our things Palin continued to hang around and began to ask questions, such as “where was I from”, and “did I have a kid on one of the teams”, and a bunch of other questions while becoming more and more agitated. I answered a few but sort of ignored the more probing ones, while gathering up the tripod and the rest of the equipment.
We finished packing things up, thanked her for the interview, and exited the building to load up the car. After we finished I left Dennis outside with the equipment and went inside to get my friends and tell them that we were ready to hit the road.
When I located them in the sports center one of my friends asked “Did you see her?”
“See who?” I asked warily.
“Sarah Palin! When you left she handed Trig to Piper and charged across the middle of the basketball court in hot pursuit of you guys!”
Uh oh!
As we walked toward the exit we kept our eyes peeled, but did not see any sign of the Governor, so I figured that maybe it was no big deal and that she had given up and decided to rejoin her kids on the basketball court.
However when I climbed into the car I asked Dennis if HE had seen Palin.
“Oh yeah” he said. “She came out with a notebook and wrote down your license plate number.”
Uh oh!
I started the engine and we left the parking lot. As we drove I kept looking to see if the Wasilla police were suddenly going to appear in my rear view mirror. However we kept assuring each other that we had really done nothing wrong and that we certainly could not be arrested for interviewing the Governor. (Though to be honest I kept hearing the dueling banjoes from Deliverance playing in my head.)
Just a few minutes after leaving the sports center Dennis’s phone rang and we all jumped.
He looked at the number and said “Frank Bailey.”
Uh oh, again!
I listened as Dennis talked to Bailey who was calling on behalf of a clearly angry and suspicious Governor Palin. When asked who I was Dennis started off saying “Joey”, but as the conversation continued he slipped a few time and used my real name, “Jesse”. Joey, Jesse, Joey, Jesse, it went back and forth several times. I kept looking over at Dennis trying to get his attention to let him know he was not sticking to the story, but he never once looked in my direction until the call was already over. (By the way we never volunteered my last name.)
(Later I would be teased mercilessly by my fellow bloggers who until today were among the very few to hear this story and who, for several months, always referred to me as “Joey-Jesse”.)
When Dennis got off the phone he said that Palin was not happy and that he probably would not be getting any more interviews with her. (He never did.)
We stopped at a little Mexican restaurant in Wasilla to get some lunch and discussed what had just happened. Because the incident had clearly upset the Governor, and we did not want to give her cause to believe she had been set up, we decided to keep this story to ourselves until some undetermined time in the future.
After what happened to Joe McGinniss I decided it was time to tell the story. So I checked with Dennis and my other friends, who had been part of the decision to wait, and got their okay to tell all of you this bizarre tale.
Now let me just say that I have always regretted the fact that I was dishonest with Sarah Palin. Essentially it was only a small lie, and not even in the same category as the whoppers that she has been caught telling, but it was a lie nonetheless and I usually pride myself on being scrupulously honest.
However, looking back, even if I had given her my real name, it would have changed absolutely nothing. Clearly Sarah Palin was highly paranoid and whether I called myself “Joey” or “Jesse” she was still going to chase us out into that parking lot.
Now fast forward to August of 2009.
As many of you already know that was the month that I wrote the Splitsville story. After that my anonymity came to an end, resulting in death threats against me and the harassment of the people working in the elementary school where I had been employed.
The website that “outed” me has always claimed to have discovered my name on their own with their “super internet sleuthing powers”. But the fact remains that Sarah Palin wrote down my license plate number on January 10th. She certainly did not write it down just for fun, so it stands to reason that she made a call shortly afterward and discovered the name assigned to that license plate number, which would mean that from that day forward she was well aware of “Gryphen’s” true identity.
Now when Van Flein sent an e-mail threatening to sue me he used my real name and threatened to serve it “at the kindergarten where you assist or at your residence,” which means somebody gave him my name well before those idiot bloggers were unleashed.
There is of course no way to prove it, but I think the circumstantial evidence suggests that Sarah Palin herself was the one responsible for the revelation of my real name, and that the right wing blogger, who bragged about having direct contact with Sarah Palin's attorney, indirectly got it from her.
You know the funny thing is that the interview was only mildly interesting. It showed up on a few news programs, but only because she mentioned anonymous bloggers. Compared to the vast majority of interviews Sarah gave this one was pretty harmless.
So essentially she overreacted to something that ended up not being that big of a deal, just like she did when Joe McGinniss moved in next door. And isn't that a pattern we have observed over and over again with Sarah Palin?
P.S. I have made reference in the past to the fact that I suspected Trig Palin may have been, at least partially, deaf well before it was public knowledge. This was the day that those suspicions first arose. Go back and watch the interview again. At the 1:23 mark there is a VERY loud buzzer which sounds. It literally made me jump, but notice that Trig, who is kind of nodding off in Sarah's arms, does not even budge.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Chris Matthews asks "Is Sarah Palin the most important Republican in the country?"
This was on the Chris Matthews show this morning.
What do you think?
Part One
Part two
Personally I kind of hope that Matthews is right. If Palin is the best that the Republicans come up with, then the party is essentially in it's death throes.
What do you think?
Part One
Part two
Personally I kind of hope that Matthews is right. If Palin is the best that the Republicans come up with, then the party is essentially in it's death throes.
It looks like somebody interviewed an audience member after one of Sarah Palin's speeches.
By the way I am working on a post for tomorrow that I believe many of you are going to find very interesting. Here is a hint, have you ever wondered just WHEN Sarah Palin started to hate me and my blog so much?
And before you Palin-bots start leaving comments saying that I am exaggerating my importance and that Sarah Palin probably does not even know who I am, you might want to wait until tomorrow, because you will look a little less foolish if you do.
The woman who could not even stand up to the local bloggers in her state, and ran away from her elected position, dares to give our President advice.
The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate told thousands of people at a convention center in Tyler that the president should have been more aggressive in going after BP executives after the spill. The British company was leasing a rig that exploded April 20, causing the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
"You asked for the job, Mr. President, so buck up," Palin said to voracious applause inside the nearly packed Oil Palace. Organizers said the event drew about 5,000 people.
He does not need to "buck up" you "fuck up"!
He is doing the best job he can in the face of constant push back from Republicans and their blatant attempts to protect BP from the financial liability for this disaster. Some Republicans are even going so far as to apologize to BP for what the President has already done to hold them accountable, and yet he continues to stand firm and demand that BP take responsibility for this disaster. In other words he did NOT run away when the job got too difficult.
She also said the U.S. must become independent of foreign oil by using its own resources, but that it must be done responsibly and under government oversight.
"I chant, 'drill baby drill,' because it will help make the country energy independent," she said.
You know lady if you were not a total moron who NEVER understands what she is talking about you might come to realize just how stupid that claim is, and stop saying it in front of intelligent people.
Here let the always factual Rachel Maddow explain it to you once again.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Sarah Palin is a person who found that her job was too much work, and that people were going to demand accountability for the unethical and illegal things that she did, and she quit! And that is who is she is until the end of her life. The woman who quit!
I don't care how many books she sells, or how many stupid people pay to watch her circus act on the speaker's circuit, she is now, and forever will be, the half term Governor who quit!
And that is not somebody who should be offering advice to ANYONE!
Read this! Republicans sabotage the country on purpose and then blame it on the Democrats, and the American people are simply too ignorant to see it!
From TPM:
The same old story happens again and again. Dems in the House pass reasonable legislation, and Senate Dems dicker with centrists and Republicans over "compromises," weakening the legislation step by step over many weeks, only to find zero Republican support in the end.
The public has no idea what is going on, and just blames Democrats, who appear to be in charge in DC. Now it is happening gain with vital public spending for national economy recovery -- state aid, unemployment relief, and adjustments in taxes and Medicare payments. This legislation is not just important to this or that group. It matters for keeping any semblance of national economic growth going, for creating and saving hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The President, Congressional leaders, and Democrats of all stripes should be yelling day in, day out, that REPUBLICANS ARE SABOTAGING NATIONAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY. AND PREVENTING JOB GROWTH, JUST FOR POLITICAL ADVANTAGE. That should be the message all the time, led by the President. Stop the murky compromises and the whining about "helping the unemployed." Stop pretending this is about the deficit -- nothing will hurt the deficit more than delayed economic growth. Say what it happening in terms of the national interest.
Republicans have figured out that if they undercut economic recovery and increase unemployment rates, they will gain in the 2010 elections -- and probably have a much better shot in 2012. They want to repeat the old cycle: Republicans undercut the economy and run up debt to pay for reckless wars and upper class tax cuts, then hand the mess to Democrats just long enough for them to take a few small steps and get the blame, then Republicans get back in office as the economy recovers. Repeat same recipe after that. It works! So why should they stop doing it?
This is nothing new to those of us who have been paying attention to politics for the last twenty years or so, which makes it all the more frustrating to watch it playing out again right in front of us as we stand by helplessly.
The same old story happens again and again. Dems in the House pass reasonable legislation, and Senate Dems dicker with centrists and Republicans over "compromises," weakening the legislation step by step over many weeks, only to find zero Republican support in the end.
The public has no idea what is going on, and just blames Democrats, who appear to be in charge in DC. Now it is happening gain with vital public spending for national economy recovery -- state aid, unemployment relief, and adjustments in taxes and Medicare payments. This legislation is not just important to this or that group. It matters for keeping any semblance of national economic growth going, for creating and saving hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The President, Congressional leaders, and Democrats of all stripes should be yelling day in, day out, that REPUBLICANS ARE SABOTAGING NATIONAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY. AND PREVENTING JOB GROWTH, JUST FOR POLITICAL ADVANTAGE. That should be the message all the time, led by the President. Stop the murky compromises and the whining about "helping the unemployed." Stop pretending this is about the deficit -- nothing will hurt the deficit more than delayed economic growth. Say what it happening in terms of the national interest.
Republicans have figured out that if they undercut economic recovery and increase unemployment rates, they will gain in the 2010 elections -- and probably have a much better shot in 2012. They want to repeat the old cycle: Republicans undercut the economy and run up debt to pay for reckless wars and upper class tax cuts, then hand the mess to Democrats just long enough for them to take a few small steps and get the blame, then Republicans get back in office as the economy recovers. Repeat same recipe after that. It works! So why should they stop doing it?
This is nothing new to those of us who have been paying attention to politics for the last twenty years or so, which makes it all the more frustrating to watch it playing out again right in front of us as we stand by helplessly.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Oil getting on children playing at beach in Florida.
Look how much oil landed on that beach in just one day.
It can only get much worse from here on out.
BP is going to need a hell of a lot more than 20 billion dollars set aside to cover for the lost income that will result from the closing of all of the beaches along the Gulf coast. When people start seeing these images there will be a mass exodus of tourists from beaches along the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.
A reminder of just how much our President has accomplished in his short time in office thus far, courtesy of Rachel Maddow.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Thanks to the commenter who reminded me of this segment.Remembering the summer of hate in Anchorage.
Jesus I can't believe it has already been a year since that all happened.
My daughter was here and she and I made this video of what it was like to be among the protesters outside the Loussac Library during the Assembly meetings. (Sorry that some of the words are hard to read, my daughter was not used to putting things on YouTube and did not realize how it impacted the quality. But overall she made an EXCELLENT video!)
Well I guess I know where I am going this weekend.
Hopefully someday soon our city will put aside its hateful prejudicial ways and embrace ALL of the people who live and work among us.
Sarah Palin's entire CSU speech. Remember to take you antacids before watching kids, it's a doozy.
Isn't that just about the cutest little protester you ever saw?
(You can view the entire speech right here courtesy of the Modesto Bee)
Palin starts of the speech by attempting to make a clunky joke about bendable straws and what she says are made up reports about her contract at CSU. It is truly painful to watch.
In this speech while referring to the students who came to protest her visit Palin uses an old Reagan joke in which he said "They look like Tarzan, walk like Jane, and the smell like Cheetah."
Of course since this is Sarah Palin she gets the quote completely wrong and fails to recognize that Reagan was actually insulting a entire generation that he absolutely despised by saying "A hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane and smells like Cheetah."
What Palin said was mean spirited and non-sensical, but what Reagan said was dismissive and hateful.
Since Palin hopes to soon have her picture taken with the barely coherent dementia riddled Margaret Thatcher she also made a point to invoke her in the speech as well.
She also cannot resist insulting the students who found parts of her contract outside of the school in the dumpster by calling them "political operatives" and "dumpster divers". She tries to make it sound like a joke but the expression on her face reveals her anger and frustration at the revelations the students provided.
Later in the speech Palin resurrects the "joke that will not die" by once again looking at notes on her hand and referring to them as the "poor man's teleprompter", even though she is clearly reading off notes on the lectern in front of her. I have to ask who exactly this joke works with since Palin was paid in excess of $75,000 to make this speech, has made over 12 million in the last year, and lives in a bizarre compound in Alaska? In what way does that qualify her to call herself a "poor" anything. Well besides "poor speaker" of course.
Right around he 23:00 mark Palin attempts to use big words, that she clearly does not understand, to argue against entertaining differing points of view in our country, and seems to blame the intellectualism of America for the continued existence of communism in other nations. Of course this leads her to making a reference to Ronald Reagan's less educated worldview and giving it credit for the collapse of the Soviet Union. (I wonder how Mikhail Gorbachev feels when credit for all of his hard work and sacrifice is handed to the man who during that time sat in the safety of America denying the AIDS epidemic?)
This is followed by another lame joke and nasty remark aimed at college professors and the intellectuals on campus. Damn she just hates the smart people doesn't she?
Believe it or not, and I had to watch this part twice to really digest it, Palin suggests the a University education could be replaced with "good old common sense".(Go to the 29:40 mark on the video to see this for yourself) WTF? She actually said that in a speech on a university campus!
This was a ridiculous speech, and for those who believed that with the media allowed to film it she would do a better job, I hate to disappoint you but NOPE!
If what Politicususa.com said is correct that "the more Palin tries to raise her profile, the less popular she becomes", than THIS speech might very well knock her down to single digits. (By the way if you are having trouble accessing the Politicsusa website it is because they are under DDoS assault by conservatives angry at their reporting. THAT is how the followers of Sarah Palin celebrate free speech!)
Update: I just received an e-mail form Politicsususa. They said that the rumors of a DD0S assault were greatly exaggerated. They were just suffering from too much attention and the traffic slowed them down to a crawl. Sorry for the misinformation.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Keith Olbermann calls Palin out for recommending an article comparing President Obama to Hitler. And now Sarah has again picked up her Blackberry to deny that she did what she did.
That must have really pissed Palin off because in the middle of that segment she posted the following on her Twitter page:
Lamestream media: I never compared Obama to Hitler. Quit making things up.
Okay well at least we know that she actually wrote THAT! You know I almost feel sorry for her Blackberry, it must take a horrible pounding on some days.
There she goes again! Sarah Palin uses Twitter to link President Obama to Nazism.
Un-fucking-believable!
Here are her two back to back tweets from late last night:
GOP: Don't let the lamestream media suck you into "they're defending BP over Gulf spill victims" bs…
…This is about the rule of law vs. an unconstitutional power grab. Read Thomas Sowell's article: http://u.nu/6e4ec
That link takes you to an article which says the following:
When Franklin D. Roosevelt arbitrarily took the United States off the gold standard, he cited a law passed during the First World War to prevent trading with the country's wartime enemies. But there was no war when FDR ended the gold standard's restrictions on the printing of money.
At about the same time, during the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law "for the relief of the German people."
That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people — indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others.
If the agreement with BP was an isolated event, perhaps we might hope that it would not be a precedent. But there is nothing isolated about it.
The man appointed by President Obama to dispense BP's money as the administration sees fit, to whomever it sees fit, is only the latest in a long line of presidentially appointed "czars" controlling different parts of the economy, without even having to be confirmed by the Senate, as Cabinet members are.
Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power — vs. the rule of law and the preservation of freedom — are the "useful idiots" of our time. But useful to whom?
Okay THAT is just a huge load of bullshit! Having BP put 20 billion away to pay for damages and loss of income caused by that gusher in the Gulf is not even remotely the same as the Nazi's using the Reichstag fire to usurp power, exterminate the German Communists, and declare themselves the ONLY viable political party in Germany. To be honest that sounds far more like Karl Rove, than Presidnet Obama. to me.
Projecting much Republicans?
It is important to remember that Sarah Palin is the person who first lit the fuse on the "Obama is a fascist" powder keg with her declarations that he "pals around with terrorists" and her fanning of racial hatred at her KKK-lite political rallies.
Sarah Palin launches NEW defense fund with uber aggressive e-mail. Do NOT let the venom get in your eyes!
From Politico (who is apparently on some e-mail list that I am being completely ignored by):
Here is how the e-mail starts.
Sarah Palin’s enemies have scored another victory in their vicious campaign to smear, bankrupt, and force this dedicated public servant and conservative leader out of politics!
Okay first off as one of the people often identified as "Sarah Palin's enemies" I have to say "Yay, for our side!"
However, I kind of take offense at the whole "vicious campaign to smear or bankrupt" Sarah Palin.
Here let me carefully articulate my response. "Nuh uh, did not!" In fact, speaking just for myself, I am trying to reveal her many lies and abuses of power and hold her accountable for them. Is that NOT the American way?
And who is this "dedicated public servant" they speak of? I have never even met that person.
More from the e-mail:
Alaska is perhaps the only state in the U.S. where the Attorney General does not routinely represent the governor when accusations and complaints are filed against the governor under the operative ethics statutes. This means that the governor has to personally pay for her or his own defense.
That means not only was Sarah Palin required by law to respond to each and every frivolous lawsuit filed against her by left-wing activists, but she also had to personally foot millions of dollars in legal bills to defend herself from this massive witch hunt.
Okay I am sorry I have been hearing about these mythological "millions of dollars in legal bills" for over a year now. Yet we have NEVER seen any proof of that kind of money having been spent.
What we DO know is that as of March of this year the defense fund only paid $87,680 on legal and other expenses. And by the way these "other expenses" could have accounted for $87,600 of this amount for all we know.
We also know that, according to the Alaska Dispatch, the "state had a contract with Van Flein's firm to pay $100,000 for the legal services for the governor, but Palin's lawyer never collected. Palin and her lawyers argued that her official and personal lives were so intertwined that to accept public money to defend the governor would risk accusations she was taking state money to pay for private issues."
However do you know what I think? I think that they never took advantage of that contract because then they would have had to produce bills and invoices to justify the money spent, and accountability is simply NOT a Sarah Palin strong point. After all, when have you EVER seen her turn down free money?
Do you want to see a few more moose nuggets from this e-mail? here you go.
* The National Democratic Committee used its Alaska chapter, the Alaska Democratic Party (ADP), to create a web site with one stated goal: “Keep Sarah Palin Out of Public Office.” To this day, the Democrats are using this web site to publicly seek donations for funding bogus “legal challenges involving issues related to Sarah Palin.”
Now THIS is interesting because that last portion inspired a response from a person connected to the above mentioned website who sent me this statement just this morning:
The Truth: Our website was entirely our idea, and prepared by us. No national group, including the DNC (or some non-existent group called the National Democratic Committee) used us or had anything to do with this site.
Another nugget:
* The ADP’s “Keep Sarah Palin Out of Public Office” campaign has used our own legal system to sponsor over two dozen ethics complaints against Governor Palin. Yet out of 27 complaints, 26 have already been dismissed!
And another response:
The Truth: Nope. The Alaska Democratic Party has not sponsored any ethics complaints. Not one. We did file a public records request to get to the truth out. A large number of the ethics complaints were filed by an Alaskan Republican, Andree McLeod.
Where did they get this stuff? We challenge the Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund to defend their statements. They simply won’t be able to. Ironically, the e-mail accuses us of ignoring the truth.
Okay well you get the idea. The Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund e-mail message is chock full of lies and deceptive statements that are designed to make people feel terribly sorry for poor, poor multi-millionaire Sarah Palin and to get them to dig into their savings or raid their children's college funds to send even MORE money to a defense fund that Palin needs to fight...um.....well I am not sure exactly WHAT she is supposed to be fighting against these days, except perhaps the facts.
However to be fair, there is ONE nugget of truth in there e-mail.
My friend, this is a witch hunt, pure and simple.
Now usually I don't like to call women such names, but lady if the shoe fits.......
Here is how the e-mail starts.
Sarah Palin’s enemies have scored another victory in their vicious campaign to smear, bankrupt, and force this dedicated public servant and conservative leader out of politics!
Okay first off as one of the people often identified as "Sarah Palin's enemies" I have to say "Yay, for our side!"
However, I kind of take offense at the whole "vicious campaign to smear or bankrupt" Sarah Palin.
Here let me carefully articulate my response. "Nuh uh, did not!" In fact, speaking just for myself, I am trying to reveal her many lies and abuses of power and hold her accountable for them. Is that NOT the American way?
And who is this "dedicated public servant" they speak of? I have never even met that person.
More from the e-mail:
Alaska is perhaps the only state in the U.S. where the Attorney General does not routinely represent the governor when accusations and complaints are filed against the governor under the operative ethics statutes. This means that the governor has to personally pay for her or his own defense.
That means not only was Sarah Palin required by law to respond to each and every frivolous lawsuit filed against her by left-wing activists, but she also had to personally foot millions of dollars in legal bills to defend herself from this massive witch hunt.
Okay I am sorry I have been hearing about these mythological "millions of dollars in legal bills" for over a year now. Yet we have NEVER seen any proof of that kind of money having been spent.
What we DO know is that as of March of this year the defense fund only paid $87,680 on legal and other expenses. And by the way these "other expenses" could have accounted for $87,600 of this amount for all we know.
We also know that, according to the Alaska Dispatch, the "state had a contract with Van Flein's firm to pay $100,000 for the legal services for the governor, but Palin's lawyer never collected. Palin and her lawyers argued that her official and personal lives were so intertwined that to accept public money to defend the governor would risk accusations she was taking state money to pay for private issues."
However do you know what I think? I think that they never took advantage of that contract because then they would have had to produce bills and invoices to justify the money spent, and accountability is simply NOT a Sarah Palin strong point. After all, when have you EVER seen her turn down free money?
Do you want to see a few more moose nuggets from this e-mail? here you go.
* The National Democratic Committee used its Alaska chapter, the Alaska Democratic Party (ADP), to create a web site with one stated goal: “Keep Sarah Palin Out of Public Office.” To this day, the Democrats are using this web site to publicly seek donations for funding bogus “legal challenges involving issues related to Sarah Palin.”
Now THIS is interesting because that last portion inspired a response from a person connected to the above mentioned website who sent me this statement just this morning:
The Truth: Our website was entirely our idea, and prepared by us. No national group, including the DNC (or some non-existent group called the National Democratic Committee) used us or had anything to do with this site.
Another nugget:
* The ADP’s “Keep Sarah Palin Out of Public Office” campaign has used our own legal system to sponsor over two dozen ethics complaints against Governor Palin. Yet out of 27 complaints, 26 have already been dismissed!
And another response:
The Truth: Nope. The Alaska Democratic Party has not sponsored any ethics complaints. Not one. We did file a public records request to get to the truth out. A large number of the ethics complaints were filed by an Alaskan Republican, Andree McLeod.
Where did they get this stuff? We challenge the Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund to defend their statements. They simply won’t be able to. Ironically, the e-mail accuses us of ignoring the truth.
Okay well you get the idea. The Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund e-mail message is chock full of lies and deceptive statements that are designed to make people feel terribly sorry for poor, poor multi-millionaire Sarah Palin and to get them to dig into their savings or raid their children's college funds to send even MORE money to a defense fund that Palin needs to fight...um.....well I am not sure exactly WHAT she is supposed to be fighting against these days, except perhaps the facts.
However to be fair, there is ONE nugget of truth in there e-mail.
My friend, this is a witch hunt, pure and simple.
Now usually I don't like to call women such names, but lady if the shoe fits.......
Stephen Colbert wonders just what is behind all of the bad news coming out of the Gulf of Mexico.
I thought that both the Daily Show and Colbert Report were great last night. But as I watched the segment below it made my ears perk up.
You see parts of it kind of reminded me of one of my posts from Wednesday. Only, you know, much better.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Put the Cursed Monkey Paw Down | ||||
| ||||
You see parts of it kind of reminded me of one of my posts from Wednesday. Only, you know, much better.
Could BP declare bankruptcy to avoid paying for the damage done to the Gulf of Mexico?
From the Atlantic:
There is a reasonably high chance that BP could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the next few years, or even months, and the result would be an "absolute horror" for the government, according to a bankruptcy expert.
Peter S. Kaufman, the President of investment bank Gordian Group and head of the firm's Restructuring and Distressed M&A practice, told me that if he had BP's ear, "I'd advise them to explore the option of bankruptcy." If he had the government's ear, he'd tell them to stop berating the company to the point where BP would find it appealing to use bankruptcy to limit its liabilities.
The specter of Chapter 11 bankruptcy terrifies Gulf residents because it could allow BP to delay, or even avoid, paying billions of dollars to businesses and individuals affected by the Gulf spill. The chapter is specifically for companies in temporary financial trouble who can reemerge as viable if they receive new funding, cancel burdensome contracts and delay, restructure, or wall off repayment obligations.
What would a BP bankruptcy look like?
It could work a lot of different ways. They could cut loose BP America and it could be BP America that files for bankruptcy. My presumption is that it's BP America that's responsible for the spill. They can wall off the non-BP America assets from the Gulf -- which is about 50% of the company's net value --and try to reorganize BP America. That's likely to take a very long time, and BP would not make good on its promise for the 20 billion [in the escrow fund].
Or they could file all of BP, and do so in London. Wonder how well-received our government and legitimate Gulf claimants would fare in a British insolvency court?
I would hope that making a decision this radical would be completely off of the table for BP, but considering how much the Gulf clean up may eventually end up costing the company it is naive to believe that this will not at least cross their collective minds. And if they DO make that choice, simply put, we are screwed.
And while we are on this subject here are 15 Gulf Oil Spill Myths that you can digest as well.
There is a lot of very interesting and frightening information on that list. Here is just one part that really caught my eye:
Myth. Republicans may scream "drill, baby, drill" louder, but when it comes to political money being spent to influence government, it's more or less a tie. Key Democrats are among the top recipients of political money from oil companies, as are Republicans. The money flows to those in oil-rich states, to high-profile candidates and those with the most power in Congress (ie, the chairs of key committees). Here's a look at the Friends of Earth tally of opensecrets.org data, showing the biggest recipients of money from BP and other oil companies since 2006:
Senate
* John McCain (R-AZ) - $36,649 from BP; $2.43 million total
* Mary Landrieu (D-LA) - $16,200 from BP; $329,100 total
* Mark Begich (D-AK) - $8,550 from BP; $85,958 total
* Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) - $8,500 from BP; 223,326 total
* Mitch McConnell (R-KY) - $8,500 from BP; 408,400 total
I believe that may go along way toward explaining why Alaska is still pushing hard to open new deep water drilling projects while the Gulf is currently hemorrhaging oil.
There is a reasonably high chance that BP could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the next few years, or even months, and the result would be an "absolute horror" for the government, according to a bankruptcy expert.
Peter S. Kaufman, the President of investment bank Gordian Group and head of the firm's Restructuring and Distressed M&A practice, told me that if he had BP's ear, "I'd advise them to explore the option of bankruptcy." If he had the government's ear, he'd tell them to stop berating the company to the point where BP would find it appealing to use bankruptcy to limit its liabilities.
The specter of Chapter 11 bankruptcy terrifies Gulf residents because it could allow BP to delay, or even avoid, paying billions of dollars to businesses and individuals affected by the Gulf spill. The chapter is specifically for companies in temporary financial trouble who can reemerge as viable if they receive new funding, cancel burdensome contracts and delay, restructure, or wall off repayment obligations.
What would a BP bankruptcy look like?
It could work a lot of different ways. They could cut loose BP America and it could be BP America that files for bankruptcy. My presumption is that it's BP America that's responsible for the spill. They can wall off the non-BP America assets from the Gulf -- which is about 50% of the company's net value --and try to reorganize BP America. That's likely to take a very long time, and BP would not make good on its promise for the 20 billion [in the escrow fund].
Or they could file all of BP, and do so in London. Wonder how well-received our government and legitimate Gulf claimants would fare in a British insolvency court?
I would hope that making a decision this radical would be completely off of the table for BP, but considering how much the Gulf clean up may eventually end up costing the company it is naive to believe that this will not at least cross their collective minds. And if they DO make that choice, simply put, we are screwed.
And while we are on this subject here are 15 Gulf Oil Spill Myths that you can digest as well.
There is a lot of very interesting and frightening information on that list. Here is just one part that really caught my eye:
Myth. Republicans may scream "drill, baby, drill" louder, but when it comes to political money being spent to influence government, it's more or less a tie. Key Democrats are among the top recipients of political money from oil companies, as are Republicans. The money flows to those in oil-rich states, to high-profile candidates and those with the most power in Congress (ie, the chairs of key committees). Here's a look at the Friends of Earth tally of opensecrets.org data, showing the biggest recipients of money from BP and other oil companies since 2006:
Senate
* John McCain (R-AZ) - $36,649 from BP; $2.43 million total
* Mary Landrieu (D-LA) - $16,200 from BP; $329,100 total
* Mark Begich (D-AK) - $8,550 from BP; $85,958 total
* Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) - $8,500 from BP; 223,326 total
* Mitch McConnell (R-KY) - $8,500 from BP; 408,400 total
I believe that may go along way toward explaining why Alaska is still pushing hard to open new deep water drilling projects while the Gulf is currently hemorrhaging oil.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Palin must return $386,000 in donations received before she resigned as Governor of Alaska! Update: The Return of Meg Stapletongue! And another update! And yet another update!
From ADN:
Former Gov. Sarah Palin is settling an ethics complaint by agreeing to return more than $386,000 collected in a legal defense fund before she resigned last summer.
The settlement, between Palin and the Alaska Personnel Board, was announced this afternoon.
An investigator for the board, Timothy Petumenos, said today that the fund was illegal because it inappropriately used the word "official" on its website, wrongly implying Palin's endorsement as governor.
Palin's attorney says she will return the funds.
The settlement says the fund collected $386,856 before she resigned, and $33,546 after, according to a report released today with the settlement. As of March, the fund had spent $87,680 on legal and other expenses, the report says.
Just when you think that there is no justice in the world.
This is awesome news!
Unless of course you are Sarah Palin who is having yet another unbelievably bad week. Boy that karma is a bitch isn't it?
Update: WTF? Meg Stapleton has risen from the dead and written a post on Palin's Facebook page to pimp for a NEW defense fund?
As you know, we love a good fight, but we must pick our battles carefully. As a chief executive, Governor Palin makes the calls, and she knows that this battle, though important to her personally, does nothing for the country. She has bigger battles to fight, battles to restore our strength internationally and stand by our allies, battles to stop the downward slide of our economy, and battles to take back control of Congress.
However, I know and you know that no public official should ever have to bear the financial brunt of these attacks. And Governor Palin can lawfully raise money now through a brand new – not official but let’s call it “real” – legal defense fund without any risk of offending an investigator or state law. And such a fund now exists at http://www.sarahpalinlegaldefensefund.org/donate.php.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Alaska Fund Trust. Your heart was in the right place. And Governor Palin and her family have been overwhelmed by your generosity. If you want to, you can contribute to the new fund. In the meantime, we will try to contact you to get your donation returned from the old trust.
Now – back to motherhood for me! And common sense.
P.S. One last thought as we approach the anniversary of Governor Palin’s “reloading,” thank God she had the fortitude and wisdom to look down the road and see what she did – the state’s bills would have amounted to millions upon millions more and her personal legal bills would be personally insurmountable. I don’t know who would want to hold office under these circumstances and with loopholes our Alaska legislators refuse to close.
Something does not smell right here. Stapleton could not get away from Sarah fast enough when she resigned back in February. I wonder how much Palin had to pay her to get her to come forward now and assume her old role of Palin spokesperson? If in fact that really IS Meg who wrote that Facebook post that of course.
Update 2: Gee in all of the excitement I almost missed it. The Defense fund only paid out $87,680 in legal AND other expenses? Didn't Sarah complain to anybody that would listen that she and Todd owed over $500,000 in legal fees? And isn't THAT one of the main reasons that she gave for quitting her job?
Simply put every single thing this woman says is a lie. Period. And anybody dumb enough to donate to this new LEGAL defense fund should not be allowed out of the house without a caretaker.
Update 3: This from the Alaska Dispatch.
Palin solicited the money claiming she needed help paying legal fees to fight ethics complaints filed against her as governor. But the findings of the independent counsel note "a contract for legal services was issued by the state of Alaska to Clapp, Peterson, VanFlein, Tiemesson & Thorsness to represent Gov. Palin in connection with these matters for up to $100,000 at public expense."
No invoices were ever submitted to the state by the law firm.
There you go Palin-bots. There it is in easy to comprehend black and white. Your precious Sarah is a complete and total fraud!
Former Gov. Sarah Palin is settling an ethics complaint by agreeing to return more than $386,000 collected in a legal defense fund before she resigned last summer.
The settlement, between Palin and the Alaska Personnel Board, was announced this afternoon.
An investigator for the board, Timothy Petumenos, said today that the fund was illegal because it inappropriately used the word "official" on its website, wrongly implying Palin's endorsement as governor.
Palin's attorney says she will return the funds.
The settlement says the fund collected $386,856 before she resigned, and $33,546 after, according to a report released today with the settlement. As of March, the fund had spent $87,680 on legal and other expenses, the report says.
Just when you think that there is no justice in the world.
This is awesome news!
Unless of course you are Sarah Palin who is having yet another unbelievably bad week. Boy that karma is a bitch isn't it?
Update: WTF? Meg Stapleton has risen from the dead and written a post on Palin's Facebook page to pimp for a NEW defense fund?
As you know, we love a good fight, but we must pick our battles carefully. As a chief executive, Governor Palin makes the calls, and she knows that this battle, though important to her personally, does nothing for the country. She has bigger battles to fight, battles to restore our strength internationally and stand by our allies, battles to stop the downward slide of our economy, and battles to take back control of Congress.
However, I know and you know that no public official should ever have to bear the financial brunt of these attacks. And Governor Palin can lawfully raise money now through a brand new – not official but let’s call it “real” – legal defense fund without any risk of offending an investigator or state law. And such a fund now exists at http://www.sarahpalinlegaldefensefund.org/donate.php.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Alaska Fund Trust. Your heart was in the right place. And Governor Palin and her family have been overwhelmed by your generosity. If you want to, you can contribute to the new fund. In the meantime, we will try to contact you to get your donation returned from the old trust.
Now – back to motherhood for me! And common sense.
P.S. One last thought as we approach the anniversary of Governor Palin’s “reloading,” thank God she had the fortitude and wisdom to look down the road and see what she did – the state’s bills would have amounted to millions upon millions more and her personal legal bills would be personally insurmountable. I don’t know who would want to hold office under these circumstances and with loopholes our Alaska legislators refuse to close.
Something does not smell right here. Stapleton could not get away from Sarah fast enough when she resigned back in February. I wonder how much Palin had to pay her to get her to come forward now and assume her old role of Palin spokesperson? If in fact that really IS Meg who wrote that Facebook post that of course.
Update 2: Gee in all of the excitement I almost missed it. The Defense fund only paid out $87,680 in legal AND other expenses? Didn't Sarah complain to anybody that would listen that she and Todd owed over $500,000 in legal fees? And isn't THAT one of the main reasons that she gave for quitting her job?
Simply put every single thing this woman says is a lie. Period. And anybody dumb enough to donate to this new LEGAL defense fund should not be allowed out of the house without a caretaker.
Update 3: This from the Alaska Dispatch.
Palin solicited the money claiming she needed help paying legal fees to fight ethics complaints filed against her as governor. But the findings of the independent counsel note "a contract for legal services was issued by the state of Alaska to Clapp, Peterson, VanFlein, Tiemesson & Thorsness to represent Gov. Palin in connection with these matters for up to $100,000 at public expense."
No invoices were ever submitted to the state by the law firm.
There you go Palin-bots. There it is in easy to comprehend black and white. Your precious Sarah is a complete and total fraud!
Sarah Palin is toxic. Best headline ever!
But the more interesting point to be made about Palin is how toxic she's become among the broader electorate. In fact, buried in the internals of the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is an amusing number: A majority see a Palin endorsement as a clear negative.
The poll asked people how they'd respond if a Congressional candidate had various hypothetical attributes. Asked how they'd feel if a candidate were "endorsed by Sarah Palin," the response was....
Enthusiastic about this attribute 8
Comfortable with this attribute 17
Have some reservations about this attribute 15
Very uncomfortable with this attribute 37
So a majority, 52%, reacted negatively. And an astonishing 37 percent would be "very uncomfortable" about a Palin endorsement, more than four times the eight percent who would be "enthusiastic" about it.
Now my favorite part of this article is when Greg Sargent identifies the ONLY TWO ATTRIBUTES a candidate might have that is worse than a Sarah Palin endorsement.
And those are supporting Bush's economic policies and supporting the elimination of various Federal agencies and/or Social Security.
Hmmm that kind of sounds likes a certain group of Teabaggers we have come to know and loathe.
Porky Pig is a Communist? Who knew?
From the Religious Tolerance website:
Between 1924 and 1954, the Pledge of Allegiance was worded:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
In 1954, during the McCarthy era and communism scare, Congress passed a bill, which was signed into law, to add the words "under God." The current Pledge reads:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
The Pledge is recited, on average, tens of millions of times a day -- largely by students in schools across America.
As many of you know I worked in the Anchorage School District for a number of years.
Personally I was always very uncomfortable leading the children through the Pledge of Allegiance in the mornings. In fact when I was not in front of the class I would simply place my hand over my heart and move my lips silently because I find the whole thing a little fascist for my tastes. After all simply demanding that children recite a pledge of allegiance to a flag every morning does NOT instill a respect and love of their country. What makes this country great is the freedom to disagree with it's policies and the leaders who implement them.
Of course that is simply my opinion, and I kept my mouth shut and went through the motions for the benefit of the schoolchildren who are not yet ready to deal with such complex issues.
However I think the one part of the Pledge that seems like a no brainer to remove is the "under God" portion. In this day and age with SO many diverse religious beliefs mingling in the public school setting it is very disrespectful to demand that children pledge allegiance to a God that their religious tradition does not accept.
I had Hindu children, Muslim children, and even on a Jehovah's Witness come through my classrooms. And every single one of them were instructed to stand up, place their hand over their heart, and pledge their allegiance to a piece of cloth on the wall and a Christian god. I don't think I will ever forget the confused look on that little Hindu girl's face the first time she was asked to do that.
(By the way the one child who had the most difficult time assimilating into the public school system, was not the Muslim boy or Hindu girl, it was the pupil whose family were practicing Jehovah's Witnesses. They do not believe in ANY holidays (even the watered down "holiday celebration" that replaced Christmas in the public schools) or birthdays. I remember watching this little girl sitting by herself in a corner while the rest of the children enjoyed cupcakes brought in by a mother to celebrate her child's birthday. The little girl was simply not allowed to participate. All I could think at the time was what a shame that after we have achieved so much success in teaching children that we are not identified by the color of our skin that religion can still separate us so dramatically.)
Well I have told you my feelings on the Pledge of Allegiance and the "under God" portion, and since I know that many of you are bright opinionated people I have no doubt that there are those who will not agree with my opinion, so I invite you to tell me what YOU think of the Pledge, and of the portion added in 1954 to frighten away the Commies.
My only request is that we NOT insult people based on their religious, or lack or religious, beliefs. I am all about openly expressing our opinions but let us remember that some people have very strong beliefs that are very important to them. No need to make anybody feel unnecessarily defensive.
Sarah Palin wins another legal victory in Alaska courts, but there is very little celebrating in Palin-ville as the much anticipated and mythologized iceberg slowly drifts into view.
Sarah Palin's erstwhile attorney Thomas Van Flein issued another of his bizarre missives on Palin's Facebook page yesterday in what appeared to be a strange portent of a forthcoming legal ruling ready to crash down on Palin.
In a commentary posted on a judge's recent ruling in Alaska dismissing a suit filed by Alaska political watchdog Andree McLeod regarding Todd Palin's emails, Van Flein--who has the expository grace of an Arctic muskrat--noted that "some claims and suits are pending and are getting resolved in time." It hardly has the sound of justice triumphant, does it?
Van Flein concluded:
"There are, of course, some remaining issues to address....There will be times when Sarah Palin will have to take one for the team in order to continue on with her message to the country and simply resolve matters without having to incur crushing personal debt. That is the cost, unfortunately, of public life today. When that happens, read the details closely--like the details in this court opinion.
Every time you do you will see that Sarah Palin has always acted with honest intent. You will see that again soon."
It doesn't sound like good news for the Thrilla from Wasilla to me. Van Flein and Palin have obviously been warned that another legal storm is on the horizon.
And what might that be? Sources of mine in both Anchorage and Juneau involved with Alaska's Department of Law and the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) are speculating that an ethics act complaint filed last year against Palin and the establishment of her Alaska Fund Trust is about to be settled--against Palin.
(Please click the link provided at the top to read the rest of Dunn's article which provides some very interesting details.)
To say that the wheels of justice move slowly, especially in Alaska, is the understatement of the century. It has literally been so long since all of us first became aware of a potentially explosive legal finding against Sarah Palin that I almost forgot about it!
Personally I have kind of moved my focus away from the legal side of the Palin melodrama simply because I have always felt that the real damaging scandals have to do with her family and her faked pregnancy.
However that does NOT mean I do not have my antennae up for the huge legal finding that will finally reveal what all of the rumors were about back in July of 2009.
By the way speaking of legal findings, take a look at Judge McKay's ruling on this last case. Have you ever seen such a snarky and unprofessional ruling? It looks like we have a long way to go before we have cleared out the infestation of Palin-bots still hiding in the cracks and crevices of our political and legal system up here in the Last Frontier.
Ticket sales to events featuring Sarah Palin continue their death spiral. Thank God her daughter now has that fledgling acting career to help make ends meet.
From AJC:
David Glover figured the hard part was over.
He landed one of the biggest names in the country to headline the first fund-raiser for his Gwinnett County ministry, Zachariah's Way. Tuesday's event at the Gwinnett Arena will benefit the ministry's main program, which helps churches learn how to better serve special-needs parishioners.
But apparently not even Sarah Palin can make ticket sales sing.
"It's going better, [but] we're just trying to sell tickets," said Glover. "To be honest, it's something we didn't anticipate at all. It speaks more to the economy and all that, but we thought Sarah Palin and Atlanta and throw it out there and people would come."
This is a religious event, for the special needs community, held in GEORGIA, a state so deeply red that by comparison it makes Alaska look positively periwinkle.
This is an appearance that encompasses not one, not two, but THREE of the demographics that Sarah Palin is supposedly the most popular with, and STILL she cannot put asses in the seats. NOW does she realize that she is irrelevant?
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Bristol Palin's acting debut. Try not to be mean.
My mom always told me if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all...uh...let's see...$30,000 per speech huh? Wow!
H/T to Walter Neff
Wow!
Update: I forgot that I had this cartoon. But I am still not saying anything.
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