Sunday, September 28, 2008
Haw haw...
This graphic, from the Christian Science Monitor's site, would be even funnier if she were not in reach of the vice presidency...
Saturday, September 27, 2008
McCain Craters with Letterman
In much the same way that SNL blew all the magic hockey dust off Sarah Palin with Tina Fey's brilliant... um, you know... I dunno... mockery of her, Letterman may be personally responsible for driving a stake through McCain's campaign suspension stunt.
From a campaign PR standpoint it was the worst yet. Letterman was so pissed off by John McCain's last-second cancellation in support of this proposterous stunt that he would proceed to lambaste McCain hilariously for an hour in front of something like 3.4 million amused Americans. Worse yet, halfway through the show it is revealed that McCain lied to Letterman about the fact that he was heading straight to the airport to fly back to Washington. (As it turned out, McCain didn't even leave New York until the next day!)
Whatever you think of McCain or Letterman, it was one-of-a-kind television moment at a pivotal point in this election. It will be interesting to see if the negative effects disappear in the media clutter or resonate further. A certain percentage of the millions who saw that show on teevee or have since watched the clips on YouTube came to the conclusion that I did:
John McCain is a man that will tell you a big fat lie right to your face to serve himself.
Remember when the Republicans were very concerned about the lies a Presidents might tell? "We don't care that Bill got a blowjob from Monica, its the fact that he lied about it," they said on their way to launching Clinton's impeachment on charges of perjury.
Well whether they care about it now or not, the rest of us had better beware. You'd better believe that if McCain will lie to an "important" guy like David Letterman he'll sure do it to the American People.
From a campaign PR standpoint it was the worst yet. Letterman was so pissed off by John McCain's last-second cancellation in support of this proposterous stunt that he would proceed to lambaste McCain hilariously for an hour in front of something like 3.4 million amused Americans. Worse yet, halfway through the show it is revealed that McCain lied to Letterman about the fact that he was heading straight to the airport to fly back to Washington. (As it turned out, McCain didn't even leave New York until the next day!)
Whatever you think of McCain or Letterman, it was one-of-a-kind television moment at a pivotal point in this election. It will be interesting to see if the negative effects disappear in the media clutter or resonate further. A certain percentage of the millions who saw that show on teevee or have since watched the clips on YouTube came to the conclusion that I did:
John McCain is a man that will tell you a big fat lie right to your face to serve himself.
Remember when the Republicans were very concerned about the lies a Presidents might tell? "We don't care that Bill got a blowjob from Monica, its the fact that he lied about it," they said on their way to launching Clinton's impeachment on charges of perjury.
Well whether they care about it now or not, the rest of us had better beware. You'd better believe that if McCain will lie to an "important" guy like David Letterman he'll sure do it to the American People.
McCain = Jimmy Carter?
Short but fascinating commentary by Thomas Defrank on McCain's latest Hail Mary pass against shifting polling numbers.
Biden was on Olbermann's show after the debate tonight and it was plain that he intended to stand back and let her hang herself with her own mouth.
Based on what we have seen of so far, I have to believe the theory that Keith Olbermann expressed on Letterman the other night - that it was a desperate attempt by McCain to screw up the debate schedule so that the Biden/Palin debate would end up being canceled.
OXFORD, Miss. - At a difficult moment in the Vietnam War, crusty Republican Sen. George Aiken of Vermont offered a novel solution - simply declare victory, and leave.
John McCain resurrected Aiken's playbook Friday - except he declared defeat, and left.
Biden was on Olbermann's show after the debate tonight and it was plain that he intended to stand back and let her hang herself with her own mouth.
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Palin Doctrine - CNN Reports (first 3 min)
I bet you didn't even know that God had a special plan for Alaska during the End of Days!
I can see Russia from my house!
The reality is worse than SNL. Put to the question once again, we find ourselves in the company of a woman who cannot complete a sentence.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Couric - Palin Interview!
Key moments:
0:00 A pre-interview statement by Katie Couric noting that John McCain's campaign manager has been receiving payments of $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac up until last month. Freddie Mac, of course, just received a $200 billion taxpayer bailout.
0:30 Sarah Palin's response, in which she not only refuses to address the question put to her, but then has the audacity to use the question as a rhetorical jumping off point for the need for a good clean Washington. Palin starts to sound less pained in trying to come up with an answer when she can click back into the "we're going to clean up Washington" section of that one speech she has been giving since the Republican convention.
Her claim is preposterous. A total of 115 lobbyists are working on the campaign of John McCain, including campaign manager Rick Davis, who - you might of heard - was being paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac right up to the completion of the bailout, when they took him off the payroll. Mission accomplished, thanks very much for a job well done!
No one in their right mind can possibly believe that John McCain is going to run the lobbyists out of Washington if lobbyists are literally managing his campaign and profiting - right now - from the crisis that we are in.
1:52 Don't miss this - its the first escalation of the price tag of the bailout in the public spotlight, when Palin notes that this is probably more likely to be a $1 trillion buy-out. Watch to see this new number eased into the conversation once people have swallowed the initial $700 billion price tag.
I don't think anyone has any idea what the real number will be, but before you believe even the brand new $1 trillion estimate I would remind everyone of what happened the last time the American People were asked to write a blank check. On October 1, 2002, the Congressional Budget Office told the nation that the War in Iraq would cost between $9 and $13 billion. Cost to date: $646 billion and no end in sight.
3:11 Lately the news has been filled with a lot of facts and figures where "since the Great Depression" was cited. Now the language has suddenly moved to a Depression all our own. Is this our financial 9/11, or is this Wall Street's version of the WMD's?
4:10 Palin has made it clear that this Wall Street bailout package must be passed or the world will end. Without a trace of irony she then goes on to make it clear that there is no reason to protect average Americans from losing their homes, noting "decisions that have been made poorly should not be rewarded". Unbelievable! Sarah Palin is ready to step up to bat for Wall Street, but not a dime for the one million Americans who have lost their homes in the last two years.
4:26 Another red flag shoots up when Palin notes that it needs to be a "comprehensive, long-term solution". Hide the checkbook! Its the rebranding of Iraq as the "Long War" all over again!
4:43 Couric asks Palin to cite an example of John McCain's leading the charge on reform over the course of his 26 years in Congress, aside from supporting the 2006 Fannie/Freddie regulations. Couric dismisses her "he's done a heckuva lot more than the other Senators" rebuttal by noting that his legislative record has been consistently in favor of less regulation. Like a doll that will recite random statements when you pull the string in its back, Palin announces "He's The Maverick!" Pressed again, she cannot come up with a single example.
Well I've got an example of John McCain's track record of success in the area of regulation of the financial industry! In the late 1980s and early 1990s McCain was one of five US Senators who received a total of $1.3 million in contributions from Charles Keating, chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan, with the express purpose of shielding them from regulation. Freedom from government oversight led directly to a debacle that included the failure of 747 Savings and Loans Associations and a taxpayer bailout of $124.6 billion. McCain would eventually be cleared of legal impropriety by the Senate Ethics Committee, but would be condemned for poor judgement.
Just as Palin promised, John McCain has a track record of experience that directly applies to the current situation!
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
I'm not that fond of heights
It is increasingly clear that we truly are poised at the brink of a monumental financial collapse.
The strength of the language being used by all parties tells us the truth is finally being revealed, that we are at the nexus of a perfect storm of negative economic forces:
At the center of this storm is the $700 billion proposal from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, which was a naked attempt to hang the entire bill for this massive bailout on the American people, with no restrictions of any kind. I was STUNNED, absolutely STUNNED to learn that the first proposal delivered by Paulson includes this language:
Hank Paulson, of course, had a 22 year career at banking giant Goldman Sachs that ended with his nomination to the current position of Treasury Secretary in 2006*. Interestingly, Goldman Sachs is one of the two giant investment banks that was left standing after the wave of collapses over the last two weeks, a fact that would be rewarded by investing giant Warren Buffet with a $5 billion influx of cash this week, perhaps to help them celebrate their transition into the world of deposit-accepting banks along with a much tattered Merill Lynch.
The whole experience would be a win-win for Paulson and his many friends in the investment banking industry, having made all that money while constructing that giant pyramid of subprime mortgages, and then again through an unregulated, unscrutinized taxpayer bailout after the balloon finally popped.
Undoubtedly he got the idea to bleed the taxpayers from Vice President Cheney, whose previous employer - Halliburton - has enjoyed record growth in the course of implementing the war plans first written when Cheney was Sec. Defense for George H. W. Bush. Or perhaps he was inspired by W. himself, an oilman whose friends back home have realized all time record high profits since W. took office.
Three cheers for the big brass balls of Hank Paulson! Its good to know his first thought was on protecting his personal net worth of between $500 and $700 million. Perhaps he will agree to fund a few soup kitchens if the rest of us go down the drain.
Senator Obama is demanding that any bailout include these four features:
1. The plan must include protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to further reward the bad behavior of irresponsible CEOs on Wall Street. This plan cannot be a welfare program for Wall Street executives.
2. Second, the power to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money cannot be left to the discretion of one man, no matter who he is or which party he is from.
3. If taxpayers are being asked to underwrite hundreds of billions of dollars to solve this crisis, they must be treated like investors. The American people should share in the upside as Wall Street recovers. And after the economy recovers, we should institute a financial stability fee on the entire financial services industry to repay any losses to the American people and make sure we are never asked again to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes. We can ask taxpayers to make an investment in the stability of our economy, but we cannot ask them to hand their money over to Wall Street without some expectation of being made whole.
4. The final plan must provide help to families who are struggling to stay in their homes.
For his part, McCain is seeking to flee the scheduled debate, incomprehensibly throwing away his opportunity to stand up and tell the nation what he plans to do to lead us from this catastrophe. Either McCain or Obama is going to be running the country in roughly three months. We, the American People, have a right to know what McCain plans to do about all this.
It is possible that has caught whatever ailment is afflicting Sarah Palin, whose exposure to real questions from the press or the public has still been limited to practically none at all. We have had eight years of continuous stonewalling from the Bush Administration. Can we expect anything else from a McCain/Palin administration that had already raised their force fields 39 days from the election?
* A little known piece of trivia - immediately prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1974, Paulson worked in the Nixon administration as John Ehrlichman's assistant. He lost this position when Ehrlichman was forced to resign by the Senate Watergate Committee, the first step toward a road that took Ehrlichman on to an 18 month stay at Safford Federal Correctional Institution for convictions in conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.
The strength of the language being used by all parties tells us the truth is finally being revealed, that we are at the nexus of a perfect storm of negative economic forces:
- The end of the era of easy, inexpensive petroleum due to massive oil field production collapses around the world, the impact of which on prices has been compounded by exploding growth in global demand and the uncertainty in the market generated by the Iraq war.
- The collapse of the pyramid scheme of subprime mortgages that began in 2006.
- The subsequent collapse of the home building industry with its tremendous demands for economy-fueling labor, raw materials and the vast collection of finished goods needed to fill them all up.
- The wave of collapsing investment banks that ended this week with the dissolution of the "investment banking concept", which was a 75 year experiment in dodging the scrutiny, oversight and regulation that is delivered to regular deposit-accepting banks.
- Most importantly of all, a trillion dollar debt that was raised to finance the Iraq war - the first time in history that an American war (let alone two) was not at least partially paid for with an increase in taxes. Now the value of the once mighty dollar has literally sunk to zero on the global market; today the value of a one month Treasury bond actually dipped below zero before returning to 0.5%.
At the center of this storm is the $700 billion proposal from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, which was a naked attempt to hang the entire bill for this massive bailout on the American people, with no restrictions of any kind. I was STUNNED, absolutely STUNNED to learn that the first proposal delivered by Paulson includes this language:
The incredible balls of the man to even put that forward! It sounds a lot like what Naomi Klein calls:“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
"the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters -- to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy.
Hank Paulson, of course, had a 22 year career at banking giant Goldman Sachs that ended with his nomination to the current position of Treasury Secretary in 2006*. Interestingly, Goldman Sachs is one of the two giant investment banks that was left standing after the wave of collapses over the last two weeks, a fact that would be rewarded by investing giant Warren Buffet with a $5 billion influx of cash this week, perhaps to help them celebrate their transition into the world of deposit-accepting banks along with a much tattered Merill Lynch.
The whole experience would be a win-win for Paulson and his many friends in the investment banking industry, having made all that money while constructing that giant pyramid of subprime mortgages, and then again through an unregulated, unscrutinized taxpayer bailout after the balloon finally popped.
Undoubtedly he got the idea to bleed the taxpayers from Vice President Cheney, whose previous employer - Halliburton - has enjoyed record growth in the course of implementing the war plans first written when Cheney was Sec. Defense for George H. W. Bush. Or perhaps he was inspired by W. himself, an oilman whose friends back home have realized all time record high profits since W. took office.
Three cheers for the big brass balls of Hank Paulson! Its good to know his first thought was on protecting his personal net worth of between $500 and $700 million. Perhaps he will agree to fund a few soup kitchens if the rest of us go down the drain.
Senator Obama is demanding that any bailout include these four features:
1. The plan must include protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to further reward the bad behavior of irresponsible CEOs on Wall Street. This plan cannot be a welfare program for Wall Street executives.
2. Second, the power to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money cannot be left to the discretion of one man, no matter who he is or which party he is from.
3. If taxpayers are being asked to underwrite hundreds of billions of dollars to solve this crisis, they must be treated like investors. The American people should share in the upside as Wall Street recovers. And after the economy recovers, we should institute a financial stability fee on the entire financial services industry to repay any losses to the American people and make sure we are never asked again to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes. We can ask taxpayers to make an investment in the stability of our economy, but we cannot ask them to hand their money over to Wall Street without some expectation of being made whole.
4. The final plan must provide help to families who are struggling to stay in their homes.
For his part, McCain is seeking to flee the scheduled debate, incomprehensibly throwing away his opportunity to stand up and tell the nation what he plans to do to lead us from this catastrophe. Either McCain or Obama is going to be running the country in roughly three months. We, the American People, have a right to know what McCain plans to do about all this.
It is possible that has caught whatever ailment is afflicting Sarah Palin, whose exposure to real questions from the press or the public has still been limited to practically none at all. We have had eight years of continuous stonewalling from the Bush Administration. Can we expect anything else from a McCain/Palin administration that had already raised their force fields 39 days from the election?
* A little known piece of trivia - immediately prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1974, Paulson worked in the Nixon administration as John Ehrlichman's assistant. He lost this position when Ehrlichman was forced to resign by the Senate Watergate Committee, the first step toward a road that took Ehrlichman on to an 18 month stay at Safford Federal Correctional Institution for convictions in conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Back to you, Larry!
Click to learn more about this amazing 7 acre corn maze tribute to the Voice of the Dogs, Mr. Larry Munson. Its located at Southern Belle Farm in Henry County, south of Atlanta.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The Palin Doctrine - Bring About the Rapture
Since 9/11 George W. Bush has been plain about the fact that he is driven by a higher power. Not only did he famously tell Bob Woodward that he consulted a "higher Father" before going to war in Iraq, but he also told the Prime Minister of Palestine that God himself told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.
The 28% of the nation responsible who still holds W. in high regard are undoubtedly the ones who believe that George W. Bush will be heralded by history as the man who fired the first shot in the Final Crusade against Islam that would be necessary for the return of the Messiah - Jesus Christ. Based on the apocalyptic nature of the faith she has followed her entire life, there is a very significant likelihood that this is the plan that Sarah Palin was talking about when she said, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God. There is a plan and it is God's plan."
That is to say, she was not talking about God's plan as a euphemism for destiny. She was talking about the plan that is spelled out in a literal interpretation of the Bible, which includes the many unfortunate things that has to happen before Jesus will return to deliver the Rapture.
Key among these is that the Jews must be allowed to build their Third Temple on the exact site of the original - King Solomon's Temple, which was built 1,000 years before the birth of Christ. Unfortunately, this particular bit of real estate is currently the home of both the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, which are Islam's third holiest site and oldest Islamic building in the world, respectively. Needless to say, the Muslim faith would have to be completely defeated once and for all before they would ever let these two important structures be razed in preparation of the construction of the Jewish Third Temple.
Of course, there are other chores to complete until the Palin Doctrine can be established atop the already broad foundation of unfettered aggression laid by the Bush Doctrine. For example, a Mississippi rancher named Clyde Lodt is currently working on breeding the perfect red heifers that will be required for sacrifice as dictated in the Old Testament (Numbers 19:2). A google search will reveal a great many enthusiastic supporters for the rebuilding of this temple and all that it implies, some even with such breathless promises as "The fruit of the Rapture is waiting for you" and "Utopia at last".
Sam Harris best describes the threat of the Palin presidency in the Sept 29 issue of Newsweek, (published online on September 20 and sent to me by the Lobot on September 21):
Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"
The 28% of the nation responsible who still holds W. in high regard are undoubtedly the ones who believe that George W. Bush will be heralded by history as the man who fired the first shot in the Final Crusade against Islam that would be necessary for the return of the Messiah - Jesus Christ. Based on the apocalyptic nature of the faith she has followed her entire life, there is a very significant likelihood that this is the plan that Sarah Palin was talking about when she said, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God. There is a plan and it is God's plan."
That is to say, she was not talking about God's plan as a euphemism for destiny. She was talking about the plan that is spelled out in a literal interpretation of the Bible, which includes the many unfortunate things that has to happen before Jesus will return to deliver the Rapture.
Key among these is that the Jews must be allowed to build their Third Temple on the exact site of the original - King Solomon's Temple, which was built 1,000 years before the birth of Christ. Unfortunately, this particular bit of real estate is currently the home of both the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, which are Islam's third holiest site and oldest Islamic building in the world, respectively. Needless to say, the Muslim faith would have to be completely defeated once and for all before they would ever let these two important structures be razed in preparation of the construction of the Jewish Third Temple.
Of course, there are other chores to complete until the Palin Doctrine can be established atop the already broad foundation of unfettered aggression laid by the Bush Doctrine. For example, a Mississippi rancher named Clyde Lodt is currently working on breeding the perfect red heifers that will be required for sacrifice as dictated in the Old Testament (Numbers 19:2). A google search will reveal a great many enthusiastic supporters for the rebuilding of this temple and all that it implies, some even with such breathless promises as "The fruit of the Rapture is waiting for you" and "Utopia at last".
Sam Harris best describes the threat of the Palin presidency in the Sept 29 issue of Newsweek, (published online on September 20 and sent to me by the Lobot on September 21):
In the churches where Palin has worshiped for decades, parishioners enjoy "baptism in the Holy Spirit," "miraculous healings" and "the gift of tongues." Invariably, they offer astonishingly irrational accounts of this behavior and of its significance for the entire cosmos. Palin's spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of "the final generation," engaged in "spiritual warfare" to purge the earth of "demonic strongholds." Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal? Do we actually want our leaders thinking about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say to the Iranians, or to the North Koreans, or to the Pakistanis, or to the Russians or to the Chinese: "All options remain on the table"?It would be lunacy to put this woman in the position where a single fundamentalist Christian zealot who is willing to be a martyr can "clear the path" for her to assume the presidency of the United States of America where she could either launch the predestined nuclear war or take who knows what other civilization-destroying actions in preparation for the times spelled out in the Book of Revelations.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
FDIC: Closed for Remodeling
Buried in today's New York Times story on the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch was this distressing bit of news:
After the reserves at the FDIC run dry I'm sure if our home town banks implode with our deposits we can expect to be issued vouchers for repayment in some later decade . Hopefully the middle class will not have any more pressing needs for their cash during the immediate future.
And Merrill Lynch is hardly the only troubled financial institution on the horizon. Administration officials acknowledged this week that more bank failures are inevitable, and the main protection for depositors — the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — is likely to exhaust the reserves it has built over the years from bank insurance premiums.
After the reserves at the FDIC run dry I'm sure if our home town banks implode with our deposits we can expect to be issued vouchers for repayment in some later decade . Hopefully the middle class will not have any more pressing needs for their cash during the immediate future.
SNL: Stunning Impersonation + Perfect Message
She needs to answer to the charges of abuse of power and cronyism that are being leveled as the press completes the vetting that McCain clearly skipped. Is this woman an example of the kind of decisions John McCain might make when he gets that 3:00 am phone call?
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Sarah Palin - Look but don't talk!
I am amused to see that the McCain campaign is afraid to let their beauty queen speak to either the press or the public! I can only chuckle with delight at the possibility that sooner or later she will begin to make asses of all of them once she starts getting hit with real questions.
A good place to start would be with the long list of accusations made by Wasilla resident Anne Kilkenny, who has known Mrs. Maverick since 1992 and has a few things to say about the Governor's claims in a letter that has been circulating like mad (reproduced below for your convenience). Read this thing and be amazed at how much she sounds like our sitting President.
And that really brings me to my greatest fear regarding Sarah Palin; like George W. Bush, she is merely a figurehead selected for her natural philosophical alignment and a malleability that will allow her to be steered to continue forward with the agenda of the neocon cabal that has delivered us two unwinnable wars and flushed the Bill of Rights down the drain. Lets not even get into whether or not the whole thing is actually cover for a holy war designed to crush Islam, secure the oil and rebuild the Temple so that Jesus will finally return.
ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992.
Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her
father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a
first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more
City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.
She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular
girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and
won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because
she is a “babe”.
It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She
kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.
She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby.
There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.
She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out
there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a
champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly
sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his
work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or
so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their
major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything
like that of native Alaskans.
Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
She’s smart.
Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000
(at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about
670,000 residents.
During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running
this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been
pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had
gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.
Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6
years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over
33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the
City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation
(1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she
promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they
benefited residents.
The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration
weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed
money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it
with indebtedness of over $22 million.
What did Mayor Palin encourage
the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said
she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a
new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a
multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece
of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was
still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers
involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the
community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it
would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that
could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.
While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office
redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus
in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will
make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she
proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she
recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while
she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s
surplus, borrow for needs.
She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas
or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by
her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the
basis of who proposed them.
While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected
City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from
the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents
rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s
attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew
her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the
Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for
Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin
fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as
Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people,
creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally
grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power
to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the
case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).
As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated”
her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top
cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure
and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that
an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t
fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation
for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen
contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she
later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to
replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded
for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew
her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in
help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town
introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council
became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She
abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t
like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything
publicly about her.
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got
the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one
of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no
background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great
job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the
high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the
structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this
Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party)
engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some
undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all
her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and
garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit,
exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).
As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from
Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel
politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to
nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget
guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing
projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative
action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply
because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant
she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party
leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated
them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a
fiscal conservative.
Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.
They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and
predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly
stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made
point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s
mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and
experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.
As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package
of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march
to the beat of her drum.
Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to
global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state
initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from
pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the
state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s
lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar
bears as threatened species.
McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a
heartbeat away from being President.
There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more
knowledgeable and experienced than she.
However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are
regretting it.
CLAIM VS FACT
•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years
•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary
school, not since
•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill
that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships
(said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to
promote it.
•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby
BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
legislation
•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has
residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.
No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on
supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city
administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all
•gutsy: absolutely!
•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at
explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores
and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city
without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built
streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on
residents
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city
government in Wasilla’s history.
•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union
doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim
that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed
voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting
programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny +
Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local
government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen
when good people stay silent”. Few people know as much as I do because
few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out
of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no
fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will
cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100
or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s
attempt at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to
say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in
spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor)
from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of
Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust
for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible
for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are
swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the
population of Wasilla, ranging from my “about 5,000″, up to 9,000. The
day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the
current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was
5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to
2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.
Anne Kilkenny
annekilkenny@hotmail.com
August 31, 2008
A good place to start would be with the long list of accusations made by Wasilla resident Anne Kilkenny, who has known Mrs. Maverick since 1992 and has a few things to say about the Governor's claims in a letter that has been circulating like mad (reproduced below for your convenience). Read this thing and be amazed at how much she sounds like our sitting President.
And that really brings me to my greatest fear regarding Sarah Palin; like George W. Bush, she is merely a figurehead selected for her natural philosophical alignment and a malleability that will allow her to be steered to continue forward with the agenda of the neocon cabal that has delivered us two unwinnable wars and flushed the Bill of Rights down the drain. Lets not even get into whether or not the whole thing is actually cover for a holy war designed to crush Islam, secure the oil and rebuild the Temple so that Jesus will finally return.
ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992.
Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her
father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a
first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more
City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.
She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular
girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and
won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because
she is a “babe”.
It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She
kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.
She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby.
There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.
She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out
there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a
champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly
sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his
work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or
so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their
major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything
like that of native Alaskans.
Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
She’s smart.
Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000
(at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about
670,000 residents.
During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running
this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been
pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had
gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.
Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6
years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over
33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the
City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation
(1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she
promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they
benefited residents.
The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration
weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed
money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it
with indebtedness of over $22 million.
What did Mayor Palin encourage
the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said
she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a
new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a
multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece
of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was
still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers
involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the
community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it
would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that
could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.
While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office
redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus
in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will
make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she
proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she
recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while
she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s
surplus, borrow for needs.
She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas
or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by
her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the
basis of who proposed them.
While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected
City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from
the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents
rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s
attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew
her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the
Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for
Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin
fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as
Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people,
creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally
grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power
to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the
case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).
As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated”
her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top
cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure
and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that
an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t
fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation
for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen
contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she
later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to
replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded
for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew
her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in
help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town
introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council
became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She
abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t
like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything
publicly about her.
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got
the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one
of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no
background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great
job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the
high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the
structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this
Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party)
engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some
undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all
her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and
garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit,
exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).
As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from
Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel
politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to
nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget
guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing
projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative
action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply
because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant
she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party
leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated
them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a
fiscal conservative.
Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.
They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and
predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly
stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made
point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s
mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and
experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.
As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package
of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march
to the beat of her drum.
Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to
global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state
initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from
pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the
state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s
lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar
bears as threatened species.
McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a
heartbeat away from being President.
There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more
knowledgeable and experienced than she.
However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are
regretting it.
CLAIM VS FACT
•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years
•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary
school, not since
•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill
that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships
(said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to
promote it.
•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby
BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
legislation
•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has
residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.
No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on
supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city
administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all
•gutsy: absolutely!
•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at
explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores
and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city
without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built
streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on
residents
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city
government in Wasilla’s history.
•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union
doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim
that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed
voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting
programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny +
Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local
government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen
when good people stay silent”. Few people know as much as I do because
few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out
of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no
fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will
cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100
or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s
attempt at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to
say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in
spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor)
from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of
Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust
for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible
for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are
swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the
population of Wasilla, ranging from my “about 5,000″, up to 9,000. The
day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the
current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was
5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to
2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.
Anne Kilkenny
annekilkenny@hotmail.com
August 31, 2008
Cable News Douchebags
Karl Rove, O'Reilly and other teevee jackasses are brilliantly skewered with their own words. Thank you Jon Stewart!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Long Live UGA VII - a Damn Good Dog!
Relive the coronation of UGA VII, the University of Georgia new mascot, through this nifty audio slideshow produced by UGA's Office of Public Affairs.
Monday, September 1, 2008
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