Oz Mudflats

“Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) … pushing a proposal to end the practice of hunting from airplanes. Co-sponsored by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the bill aims to close a loophole in the ban against aerial hunting that allows the practice to continue in the name of wildlife management.” (Whole story here.)

Oops. 

Hollywood – 1
xGovSarah – 0

So – it’s two days later and everything just feels so relaxed. Whatever damage the Palin family can continue to inflict on the rest of America has, at least for the moment, slowed to a snail’s crawl. It feels good to be back at my desk in my jammies instead of having to don armour before going out on the web. For the first time in a very, very long time, I don’t know what the Palins are up to and… I don’t especially care 🙂

 So this morning, basking in my newfound comfy mode, I’m leisurely browsing through my favourite Alaska blogs. Gryphen finds the best video treasures: William Shatner made me laugh. Carl Bernstein made me giggle out loud. Jon stewart makes me pee my chair. (The Immoral Minority link is over there –>)

Celtic Diva’s inspired people to write letters to the wimp editors at the ADN, letting them know how disappointed they (we all) are in the papers biased and erroneous coverage of the Palin Administration. (Blue Oasis link is over there –>)

Phillip Munger has put the final chapter on his coverage of Palin, a series he called Saradise Lost. It was one of the first writings I found a year ago when trying as an outsider to figure out what Sarah Palin was all about, and I became a faithful follower. (Progressive Alaska link is over there –>)

Finally, AKMuckraker & her mudpuppies have taken well, just the best photos of all the quitter-governor’s quitter-picnics. In fact, I realized, looking at a photo of Sean Parnell (newly-dubbed Governor of Alaska) that in this entire year of Palin’s Reign of Error, this was the first photo I’d seen of the man. Nice looking. Seems genuinely happy to be serving hot dogs to the public. (The Mudflats link is over there –>)

But there’s something familiar about Parnell’s face. I couldn’t put my finger on it at first – then I remembered Shannyn Moore had referred to him as Captain Zero (Shannyn Moore’s link is over there –>) and it hit me! I spit coffee on my monitor. I’VE SEEN THAT SMILE BEFORE!

So quite discretely and without permission I pinched the photo from The Mudflats, dug through some very old archives, fiddled with photoshop and voilla! Are these two related?? You decide 🙂

I’m sure the resemblance is pure coincidence – but – someone in Alaska really should present him with a gi-normous fishing hook, an old-fashioned alarm clock and a purply-plumed hat 🙂

To comment on this post, scroll back to the title:  26 July 2009 – The End of an Error and click the word comments just beneath. Thanks – OzMud

Just two hours before Sarah Palin gave her farewell speech in Fairbanks Alaska, I was writing a post. If the doorbell hadn’t rung, if my father-in-law hadn’t been looking for a misplaced spool of twisty ties, if the Heart Association hadn’t called seeking volunteers for their September doorknock appeal, I might’ve had time to finish my thoughts.

But then suddenly, Sarah was on television, live-streaming on Fox News so I clicked the [draft] button and sat down to watch. At the end all I could do was shake my head, holler what was I thinking!!! and shudder at the realization I almost wrote something sympathetic about this woman who no matter how many chances she’s given to fix things – always and only elects to make things worse.

I’d come this close (peering through a tiny space between scrunched fingers) to publishing the following:

Watching snips and pics of Sarah Palin’s final three days as Governor of Alaska on other blogs (The Mudflats, Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis, Progressive Alaska, The Immoral Minority to name a few) I was struck with an odd sense of nostalgia. So I went digging and sure enough, the single movie scene which most reminds me of the whole Sarah Palin phenomenom was right there on youtube:

I ‘m in no way suggesting that Sarah Palin embodies the same Sunny Davies values that made this scene in  Protocol so moving, but I do believe, in my heart, that somewhere along the way, people who knew better sold Sarah the idea that she could be a star in politics without ever having to do the work.

And I believe this because when you step back and look at the picture as a whole, you can clearly see that what Sarah was good at, from the very beginning, was running for office. Period. But sadly, once in office, she’s had to hire other people to actually perform her job duties from as far back as her first term as mayor of Wasilla.

But no one gets to see what beauty contestants are like in the dressing room, backstage, off-camera. And while this may be okay for pageant professionals, it’s not at all how ordinary citizens should have to select their government representatives. And in the case of Sarah Palin, VP candidate 2009, no one in the audience got to see she didn’t actually know anything about running her state, much less an entire country.

And that’s where my thoughts ended and Iran out of time. Then came the speech and I was sucked straight back to reality. Sarah Palin is a nasty piece of work.

Sarah’s farewell speech was nasty. It was filled with criticism to and of the media, the lower 48, fellow Alaskans, all politicians and mankind in general. She snapped at reporters, accusing them of not knowing how to do their jobs. She snapped at the lower 48 for not recognizing that Alaska is the only state in the union with natural resources which benefit with the rest of the country. She snapped at Alaskans for not recognizing that they are living on the only piece of real estate on the planet with natural resources and yelled at everyone. Alaskans andlower 48’ers alike to shun any help which might be offered to them from the federal government because only the private citizens of Alaska know what’s good for them, for their state, for the whole darn country!

Blah blah blah…

Sarah Palin’s nastiness is surpassed only by her overly-elevated sense of importance. I’m happy she’s no longer in office. I hope the good people of Alaska, especially the ones who have suffered hunger, sickness and great personal loss at her neglect in rallying to provide for them during times of crisis can one day forgive her incredibly uncaring decisions to refuse federal aid.

And most importantly, I hope people all across the country will one day soon figure out that government, in a democracy, is made up of ordinary citizens.  It’s made up of ‘us’. Some of us are assholes, sure, but most are not. This constant Republican Party battlecry which infers the federal government is a separate, foreign entity that needs to be stopped in it’s tracks – is worse than ignorance personified. It’s Madison Avenue hype deliberately injected into politics so you’ll buy their brand.  It’s just wrong.

 The federal gvernment is not your enemy. If you don’t like the way it’s being run – vote to change who’s running it. But for God’s sake, stop letting people like Sarah Palin point a gun at  Washington, screaming shoot!

Fairbanks Alaska, 26 July 2009

OMIGOSH! Is there any group of people Sarah Palin DIDN’T  criticize in her farewell speech? And  have you ever witnessed anyone as contradictory? My goodness! First she lambasts the press with her ‘stop making stuff up!’ spiel then turns right around AND MAKES STUFF UP!

Her whining comments regarding how no elected official gets anything done in their last year of lame duckness made me squint. Does she not realize that every term of office has a last year? What are we meant to do with a ‘last year’? Donate it to Goodwill? How does one NOT have a last year? Only ever work one?

*raises glass*

I will not miss this brand of political retardation. Here’s hoping Parnell has a better working knowledge of government. Alaska has more than earned a break from the educationally-challenged.

Let the music blare!!!

My Little Runaway – Del Shannon

Gypsies Tramps & thieves – Cher

Love On The Rocks – Neil Diamond

Hound dog – Elvis Presley

For The Good Times – RayPrice

Coming To America – Neil Diamond

*tiNk*

CONGRATULATIONS ALASKA!!!!!

I’m dancing with you on my side of the globe 🙂

Witchy Woman – The Eagles

The Beat Goes On – Sonny & Cher

Runaround Sue – Dion and The Belmonts

It’s Over – Jessie McCartney

You’re So Vain – Carly Simon

Lyin’ Eyes – Eagles

Oh Happy Day – Sister Act II

More Tomorrow! Keep Smiling! – OzMud

From the Huffington Post:

 From the Washington Post:Two of the four most viewed articles are about how Sarah gets it wrong.

New poll shows that while Sarah is still the most popular candidate amongst Republicans, she’s lost ground with Democrats and Independents and at the end of the day, the Republicans won’t put her up as their frontrunner if they think she can’t win votes outside their own base. ooOo Sarah, that’s gotta hurt.

Oh look! Real Politicians challenging Sarah to participate in Real Politics! That’s just, well... hawt!.

Ok play the tape: Sarah goes on national tour as the Downs Syndrome Mother of the Year. Trig’s birth certificate shows up on CNN. Actual moms of DS children rally throughout the Southern states to protest the fraud perpetated by… Ok, I’m just saying…

From the Anchorage Daily News:
Not even the loyal folks at the ADN can stop this avalanche from rolling down the hill.

And there it is. That elusive ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ we’ve all been searching for since August of last year.  It’s finally going to shine.  I, for one, have picked out more than a dozen youtube clips with which to celebrate Alaska’s New Independence Day. Sonny & Cher from the 70’s performing The Beat Goes On,  Eagles version of Witchy Woman, Del Shannon doing his famous My Little Runaway and finally – Neil Diamond belting out America.

I can taste the hot dogs and mustard now…

PS: Has it occurred to anyone else that Parnell might just be blowing smoke up the governor’s ass just to appease her until she actually – like – you know, leaves? And that maybe he’s just waiting for the right moment to step into the phone-booth and change into his super-hero clothes?  That would be way too perfect, eh?

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: Today’s Headlines [are] Music to My Ears and click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

Spent a good portion of my day reading a few dozen blogs and newspaper articles on Sarah’s latest ethics violation. It’s like sitting center front at a tennis match.

Sarah says the reports are false.
The papers say the reports are true.
Sarah says the frivolous complaint is still being investigated.
The investigator says he’s finished and the report he’s submitted is final. I’m quite literally dizzy.

One thing is clear.  There’s a report out there – the result of an investigator havng completed his work – which states Sarah Palin’s Alaska Fund Trust is not a legal fundraising vehicle and yet… it’s still running down Main St. picking up passengers. I mean donations. Donations which have now been classed as inapropriate and a violation of Alaska Ethics for the states’s Executive Administration. 

So here’s my new plan for a 2012 campaign strategy:

Over the next six days I’ll be celebrating Sarah Palin’s departure from the Juneau mansion by attaching your captions to a photo [rumoured by an anonymous blogger to have been provided by an anonymous paparazzi] of the Governor, still busily at work behind her desk.

Leave your name & caption in the comments section [click the word comments above not below] – Editor’s Note: will be posting latest additions on top:

As always, please feel free to copy & paste at will 🙂

Sarah the Reburn Governor:

Sarah Palin riles her followers much like a reburn flares up on a patch of charred land just after a big fire. You never know where a reburn is going to occur, you just know that when it does it’s going to be hot, strong and dangerous. The fear of reburn is [one of the reasons] why firemen won’t allow you access to your property too soon after a fire. They know it’s there, somewhere, just under the surface quietly lying in wait.

The firedavidletterman.com incident of last month is one such reburn. It temporarily encited otherwise normal citizens to gather in a public place, shout perverse obscenities at passersby and cameramen in an emotional frenzy descriptive of the Salem witch burnings of olde.

One well-placed temper tantrum by Sarah Palin and a few hundred people were mobilized and focused on ruining the life and career of one of America’s most gentle icons, comic David Letterman. They were so focused, actually, they seemed to miss entirely the fact that Mr. Letterman had already apologized to Sarah and her family, at least twice.

A Fox News presenter interviewing the authors of the movement was visibly uncomfortable as she posed the question but David has offered a sincere apology which Sarah has accepted so the point of this rally is… what again?  Well the point of the rally was that a fire had been lit and it wasn’t going to be easily put out. We would need to be patient while it ran it’s course. Thank goodness, at least, reburns are characteristically short-lived.

This is Sarah Palin’s brand of politics. It’s one little flare up after another, after another. Not a lot of substance and they generally don’t last very long, but still they’re chockers with dangerous, hot air. They’re caused by flash fuels smouldering beneath the surface. Sarah Palin has cartloads of flash fuels. Things like government is too big and abortions are murder. Stuff like President Obama doesn’t think like the rest of us or that real America is only found in small towns. And now that she’s not going to be shackled by conventional rules, regulations or even the need to be civil, I expect many more of these ‘reburns’ are going to flare up across the country in the coming year.

With any luck at all, her flash will spark more firefighters than fires.

I leave you today with a look back at last month’s Fire David Letterman Rally. It’s important because this rally not only illustrates the mob mentality Sarah instills in her followers, but it identifies these people as New Yorkers. The people at the rally didn’t just watch 9/11 happen on TV, they personally lived through it and it doesn’t take much to re-ignite their fear.

*Letterman said nothing about rape. Sarah added that later.
*Bristol bore the brunt of the joke and she is an adult.
*It was a baseball game.
*Speak for yourself:  Everyone in the country was clearly not upset.
*How about doing some old-fashioned fact-checking before facing a camera 🙂

Well this guy isn’t that worked up. It’s probable he’s only there because his wife made him take her to the rally. And anyway he’s a Jay Leno fan. Anybody out there want to tell this guy Leno hit Bristol with the pregnant jokes months before Letterman?

This nice Jewish lady explains to us the meaning of schmuck and lets us know that Letterman is too old to be on television in the first place. But I do wish she’d pick an arguement: Either Letterman’s son is a bastard – or – he has a wife [whether she’s a slut or not is Mr. Letterman’s choice and completely irrelevant to this issue].

One should note: We stopped referring to children born of unwed mothers as illegitimate or bastard sometime during the middle of the last century. I’m forgetting which court, but somewhere in the US it was ruled that children should cease to be burdened with this particular stigma, that it was unwarranted, unkind and led to unnecessary childhood trauma. It was explained ‘all children are the child of God…’ Albeit why it’s on me to explain this to a religious person is ludicrous.

Why was it not okay for a professional comic to make light of a politician’s adult daughter regarding her very public pregnancy – and yet it is okay for one of Sarah’s followers to publicly accuse David Letterman of being a child molester? That’s a pretty serious accusation. I mean she didn’t even couch it behind the word ‘rumour’. (Where’s Van Flein when you need him eh?)

It continues to amuse me how Sarah and her minions trip over themselves in their inept efforts to turn free speech into a one-way street.

Amen to that!

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: The Face Of Sarah Supporters pt-3 and click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

During the 2008 campaign for US Presidency, Sarah Palin planted seeds of hate. She called her opponent a domestic terrorist. She claimed he kept bad company. She called him anti-American and added “he doesn’t think the same way you and I do…” insinuating his roots didn’t qualify him to even be on the ticket.

The problem with planting seeds of hate is that some of them grow. Here’s a look at what Sarah’s personal ambition is cultivating in her political backyard:

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s a bit okay because, after all, this was a touch of orchestrated mass hysteria, rallied from an emotional campaign. Surely these nice folks have all gone home by now and regained their sanity.

Well – think again:

“As a silver bullet may be required to fell a werewolf or witch, so is Palin the person needed to defeat Obama in the next presidential election.”

I realize I’ve been out of the country for a while now but… when did losing an election become grounds for declaring war on the seated President? What happened to getting behind the winning team? When did a duly elected President become a symbol of evil? When did the Republican Party stray so far afield?

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: The Face Of Sarah Supporters pt-2 and click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

You can’t fix something without understanding how it works. Armed only with this psychological adage I’ve spent much of the past 48 hours with my head tucked into websites like Conservative New Media, Tammy Bruce and Michelle Malkin. (Google them if you want links.)

I’d rather not do it again.

It occurred to me, though, after publishing my last post, that it’s becoming increasingly important to put a face to the person who supports Sarah, believing every word she utters and willing to follow her down any road, even if that road leads to and over the edge of a cliff.

I realized youtube would probably provide the most diverse, if not the most accurate barometer by which we can measure Sarah’s public appeal. Typing Sarah Palin supporters in the youtube search engine netted hundreds of hits. A few clicks later and I can now offer you a glimpse into the mindset of those citizens who are working to put Sarah Palin in the White House.

Don’t dismiss them easily. Word on the CNM site has it that Sarah is laying the groundwork for the creation of a new political party, based on the belief that the White House is currently run by elitist terrorists.

And withhout the discipline of the Republican Party, Sarah Palin will be allowed to prey on the minds of men who believe she was sent to them by God himself to protect them and their families from the muslim terrorist whom they perceive currently sits in the Oval Office.

Ignorance with a shot of  charisma makes a lethal cocktail. 

For the sake of expedience and as I do not expect any of you to actually watch these clips in their entirety, I’ve noted the clip highlights by time so you can skip directly to the most pertinent data. If you can endure each clip in toto though, it’s quite an education.

Individually, we can forgive some of these people as folks emotionally caught up in the heat of campaigning for their candidate in a very animated Presidential campaign. The gentleman in the first clip strikes me as someone who doesn’t believe a word he’s saying, but has simply recognized a way to make a name for himself – much like the snake oil salesman who touted the bible to separate a believer from his money. Regardless, he is out there and according to his youtube hits people are listening to his lectures whether he’s talking from his heart or out of his ass.

More might be dismissed as a prime example of basic humanity which says that any group has a fringe. But note the hundreds of campaign videos which have been left on youtube for close to a year with thousands upon thousands of people exposed to the message Sarah Palin is the new messiah, President Obama is the anti-Christ and it’s up to YOU to clean up the mess – and you begin to get a much clearer picture of the danger that lies ahead.

Again, I do not expect any of you to sit through these lengthy diatribes of hatred and intolerance. Except for the last one. The last one is a must sit through in order to experience the full impact of the Sarah Palin for President phenomenon. Thankfully, though, it’s only two and a half minutes in length.

watch 5:30 – 7:30
CNM  has a  youtube library of 241 videos – most of which are just like this one.

 watch 1:50 – 2:30
RawVegasDotTV has a youtube library of 132 videos – most of which are just like this one

watch 1:00 – 3:35
AdoringPalin has a youtube library of 185 videos – mostly FoxNews clips

watch 0:00 – 2:29
drinkingwithbob has a youtube library of  576 videos – most of which praise Palin while slamming President Obama

Don’t be complacent. The number of these unhappy, angry-at-life people are growing with every new economic bombshell that drops – and the possibility of this mindset gaining control of the US government  is the real train wreck on the horizon.

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: The Face of Sarah Supporters and click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

Like almost everything Sarah, I’m left with mixed emotions after watching this particular youtube clip of our favourite ill-fated governor speaking on behalf of the 2009 Special Olympics. Part of me thinks if Sarah Palin can increase awareness and support of this worthy cause then you go girl! 

The other part of me is just plain angry. I still have trouble swallowing the story of her fifth pregnancy. I don’t understand why, if her story is true, she didn’t just go public with his birth certificate and put an end to the matter. But she never did. If her story is true, why was there never an inquiry into or a medical board hearing addressing the behaviour of Sarah’s ObGyn?

Because if Sarah’s account is true, it means:

A medical doctor licensed to practice in the USA, in a long-distance telephone conversation with her patient, a 44 year old woman in the eighth month of her pregnancy involving an unborn child with Downs Syndrome, upon hearing her patient’s water broke, advised her to travel several thousands of miles in (multiple) cars and airplanes to get home to rural Wasilla Alaska, rather than instruct her patient to immediately check into the nearest Texas hospital – all during an Alaskan blizzard !?!

To not believe the story is to believe Sarah has defrauded the public on a subject most sacred – the birthright of a child and his mother – so no matter which road your mind takes in this saga, whichever version you swallow, the bizarre pregnancy and Toad’s Wild Ride home or the unthinkable, sinkable  hoax – really either is just too much to ask a normal-thinking person to digest. 

 The following video is presented on youtube as an introduction to the 2009 Special Olympics. It’s posted on the Conservative Media Network account. If you believe the story that Trig is her son it’s almost lovely. But if you have any doubt…  if it turns out that Sarah is not Trig’s real mother and she’s spent the first year of Trig’s life giving  speeches like this – well that’s just wrong.

But wait! There’s more! 

Sarah’s gesture of promoting a worthy cause stops short of being ‘lovely’ as soon as you click open the video’s description and realize it may have been posted on youtube more to embarrass the sitting president than to promote the Special Olympics. 

This is the ‘info’ blurb attached to the video on the youtube site: 

Exact Date Unknown; 2009) — Alaskan governor Sarah Palin gives her remarks to those attending, and competing in, the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games held in Boise, Idaho.

Palin’s youngest child, Trig, suffers from Down Syndrome.

These comments by Palin stand in contrast with the insensitive joke made by Barack Obama on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On March 19, 2009, Obama mocked the Special Olympics while referencing his own poor bowling performance during the Democratic primaries.

Obama rolled a 37 while on a tour of the state of Pennsylvania.

Governor Palin — along with millions of other disabled Americans, their loved ones and their friends — is not likely to appreciate the callous remark made by Obama, a comment beneath any president, particularly a sitting one.

 These are the tags (directing search engines like Google) to the video:

Conservative New Media
ConservativeNewMedia
threat fear angst terror terrified
protect defend
slutty flight attendant
David Letterman joke backlash
Willow Bristol Track Todd Piper Trig

 So to find this video clip about the Special Olympics through youtube or  Google, we should use tag words like threat, fear, terror and slutty flight attendant????

 I’m speechless.

*** UPDATE ************************************************************

It occurred to me how swiftly some documents have disappeared from the web once attention was brought to them so as I finished publishing this article, I thought I’d wander back over to youtube and take a screenshot of the page itself as backup to my quotes.

I appear to have been wrong in my statement about the tags. I apologize for the error and am pleased to report the tags I quoted appear to have been associated with another blurb. I’m guessing the blurb about President Obama and his unfortunate bowling joke on the Jay Leno was posted on youtube and copy-pasted onto the bottom of the Special Olympics blurb (most probably in an effort to disqualify the President while promoting Sarah) but the person who merged the two blurbs into one didn’t think to remove the tags previously used. Well, with so many people out of work in the US, I imagine it’s hard to find qualified help these days. <insert eyeroll>

In scrolling down to locate the actual tags used to link this video to search lists I noticed the word sexism, and that it’s apparently been translated into a few other languages. Umm huh?

The tags associated with this video clip are at the very bottom in blue lettering. Fear and terror are not there. Thank Goodness! Wait – What’s with the sexism, misogyny, hate, statutory rape, tea and fishing????

And MILF (mother I love to fuck – an acronym embraced by pot smokers) – of all things – is in the tag list as well. A tag list associated with the Special Olympics. A tag list attached to a video clip of Sarah Palin and two of her youngest children. Way to shoot yourself in the foot Conservative New Media!

Someone should tell Letterman he’s off the hook now that Sarah’s own people have publicly linked her, Piper and Baby Trig to sexism, mysogyny, statutory rape and the love of a good root!

Maybe someone should let the nice folks who run the Special Olympics know how their promotional video is being -well, promoted 🙂

Here’s the youtube page – and here’s my screenshot of the blurb in it’s entirety:

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: Sarah: Trig’s Mother or The Greatest Porky Ever Told and click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks got his hands on the hard copy of Sarah’s resignation speech. Yes, the actual speech written in her own words and complete with handwritten notes on the pages themselves. Cenk discusses the copy and provides a very plausible reason for Sarah’s poor public speaking habits. One I’d not heard before.

My favourite observation is when he picks up on Sarah’s claim that she asked her kids if they wanted her to quit as governor and she got “four yeahs and one hell yeah”. He wants to know how Trig could possibly have had an opinion at all. Fair question eh?

My favourite quote comes in the discussion of Sarah’s latest photo-op in the running mag: “If you don’t want people talking about Trig – don’t put him in pictures with yourself like ‘Hey look at me! Aren’t I a great mom!?!’ And by the way – nobody but you is talking about Trig.”

The sound bite from this eighteen minute analysis of Sarah Palin’s resignation speech that I hope resonates loud and strong through the halls of the Republican Party is found at the very beginning when Cenk says he listened to the speech and immediately thought “Wow. It wasn’t her handlers. She’s really stupid!”

Cenk Uygar may not be the most polished news commentator, but I’ll take his word over Sarah’s any day.

The Young Turks evidently is competing for a spot on MSNBC. I wish them luck 🙂

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: TYT Sums Up Sarah’s Resignation: “It’s about the money Lebowski” and click the word comments just beneath. – Thanks, OzMud

In honour of the days when public opinion of governing bodies was cleverly masked in nursery rhyme (to prevent some mean-spirited ruler with no sense of humour from beheading them, no doubt) – and (also too) of a time when news was carried from town to town via singing minstrels, I give you the song in my head that woke me at 3am!

If someone out there wants to record this little dittyas a .wav or .mp3 I’ll be happy to add a play button so we can all sing along. In the meantime, Happy Humming 🙂

Sheet music and cliparts courtesy of:

musicedmagic.com
free-clipart-pictures.net
clipartheaven.com
michelespaintshop.com

Bouncing around youtube I came across this delightful little video, a melange of Sarah bites, all wonderfully strung together for our entertainment in October last. It reminded me * nervous shudder* how close we came to putting this woman in the White House:

It’s appropriately titled Sarah’s Greatest Hits – and I’m hoping it’s tpmtv creator has a post-resignation edition in the works:

And in scanning the papers I’ve run aross this piece in the Wall Street journal. I don’t always – okay that’s a lie, I seldom agree with Peggy Noonan. But I have great respect for her thoughts in this article and highly recommend, whatever your political orientation, you take a few minutes to click this link and read it in toto. 

Here’s an excerpt:

Peggy Noonan
Wall Street Journal
11 July 2009

“A Farewell to Harms” 

“Sarah Palin’s resignation gives Republicans a new opportunity to see her plain—to review the bidding, see her strengths, acknowledge her limits, and let go of her drama. It is an opportunity they should take. They mean to rebuild a great party. They need to do it on solid ground.

…The media did her in.” Her lack of any appropriate modesty did her in. Actually, it’s arguable that membership in the self-esteem generation harmed her. For 30 years the self-esteem movement told the young they’re perfect in every way. It’s yielding something new in history: an entire generation with no proper sense of inadequacy.

…The era we face, that is soon upon us, will require a great deal from our leaders. They had better be sturdy. They will have to be gifted. There will be many who cannot, and should not, make the cut. Now is the time to look for those who can. And so the Republican Party should get serious, as serious as the age, because that is what a grown-up, responsible party—a party that deserves to lead—would do.”

More youtubes tomorrow – shimmerings from the lower 48 that more people are finally coming to terms with the reality their rising star is more of a drama queen than a royal find. I’m feeling ever so much better 🙂

To comment on this post, scroll back to the title: Sarah: Before and After and click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

By making the false claim that her and husband Todd’s portion of the monetary costs of defending her governorship against the (now known as) frivilous ethics violations complaints filed against her by Alaska citizens, Sarah Palin has inadvertantly slapped the faces of those supporters who’ve rushed to her financial rescue.

Those people who volunteer their services to collect public money to help fund putting Gov Palin in the White House, and specifically those professionals who have donated their time and expertise to organize SarahPac and the Alaska Fund Trust had all their collective efforts derailed by one five-minute speech given on the third of July on the governor’s back lawn in Wasilla Alaska.

Five days later, amid the public’s chaotic quest to make sense of Sarah’s decision to relinquish her gubernatorial duties mid-term, little truths by reputable people were beginning to rise over the din. Take this quote from AKMuckraker over at The Mudflats for instance:

David Murrow, a spokesperson for the Governor, said in an interview that much of this money was budgeted to the lawyers in advance and would have gone to them anyway, even if state lawyers hadn’t been defending against these ethics complaints.

This completely negates Sarah’s claim that money spent on answering the ethics violations complaints could have been put to better use (roads, education, etc.) because the attorneys and staffers who actually worked on the complaints were already on payroll to do so and nothing extra was required. Answering these complaints was already in the Alaska Law Dept. job description.

Then comes this Alaska radio talk show clip posted by Phillip Munger at Progressive Alaska in which Michael Carey, columnist for Anchorage Daily News tells well-known Alaska journalist Terry Gross:

“…I spoke to a a legislator today (a former member of the Attorney General’s office) and he explained that many of the ethics complaints could have been answered simply by writing a letter back to those who handle ethics matters… and say… this is actually what I did and respond to the complaint in that fashion without requiring any high-price legal help.”

So now we hear from legal sources in the know that the entire manner in which Sarah responded to the ethics violations complaints, the infamous “waste of state time and resources” defense was her own doing and completely unnecessary.

Six days later, in an interview by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, it seems the very man who put the Alaska Fund Trust together for Gov Palin to protect her from financial ruin has commented on the truth of how much money the Palins have actually been responsible for and it’s not even close to the thousands upon thousands of dollars she claimed in her speeches and interviews between 03 July and 09 July. It’s actually closer to zero.

According to Margaret Carlson of The Week magazine and Bloomberg News and reported on by Gryphen at The Immoral Minority:
 
John Coale, who set up Sarah’s Legal Defense Fund (and apparently runs SarahPac), told Carlson that THEY (the Alaska Fund Trust) reimbursed the state for the children’s travel expenses and paid her legal bills for the other ethics charges. In other words Sarah Palin has paid NO out of pocket money due to these charges!

To further wear on Palin supporters, the media has tagged SarahPac – SarahPac of Lies.

A lot of people across the USA were smitten by Sarah’s seemingly down-to-earth, on-the-side-of-the-average-Joe’s personality. But looks can be deceiving and unfortunately, history has proven time and again that not all charismatic people are worthy of the loyalty they inspire.
 
Sarah’s Train to Nowhere isn’t just coming off the tracks. It’s headed for the edge of a steep cliff at subatomic speeds and – considering the people who climbed onboard – it’s taking the careers of some of her most loyal supporters with it.

To comment on this post please scroll back to the title: Sarah’s Train to Nowhere Derails in Wasilla and click the word comments  – Thanks, OzMud

Please let me preface my post with this humble acknowledgement: Math is not my strong suit. I struggled through the basics at every level. My high school geometry teacher, normally sweet and patient with her students was so addled by my energetically inept interpretation of her beloved subject she actually asked me to drop her class and promise to never put another unsuspecting maths teacher through her agony.

When asked by others why I dropped geometry, I would explain, “To me, geometry is like standing in front of an ancient column adorned with Greek inscriptions and attempting to use the Hebrew alphabet to translate them into Russian so an Arab could read them and my mind just isn’t agile enough to make that many leaps all at once.

I say this so you will have great pity for me and perhaps understand why I’m quite literally agonizing over the mathematical side of Sarah Palin’s quitting arguement regarding ethics violations complaints and how much they’ve cost Joe the Alaska Guy.

“These frivilous lawsuits and ethics complaints have cost Alaska thousands of hours and millions of dollars – and have so bogged down our system of government I have to quit in order to get anything done – blah blah blah…” Ok that’s probably not a direct quote but certainly it’s close enough for moose shoes.

It is my understanding, from asking folks in this previous post, (special hattip to EyeOnYou & not that sarah) that there are three members of the Alaska State Personnel Board. They are all volunteers and not on the state payroll. It is their job to review complaints against state employees and either dismiss or press forward. When they cannot decide amongst themselves if a complaint has merit or not, they turn the complaint over to a solicitor for advice. Said solicitor now makes the actual assessment of the complaint, determines if it has validity and either recommends to the board to dismiss the complaint flat out, or to proceed with a full investigation.

Please note that more than a dozen of these ethics violations complaints have been summarily dismissed, thereby not creating any cost other than the hours put in by the legal team (and since I am not privy to the actual name of the legal team I fondly refer to it as the legal team of Palin Hollers & I Jump). Granted legal costs can be substantial, but none of the complaints dismissed included court or litigation fees, and none played out in front of a jury. So reasonably, one would assume the actual review costs would have only reflected research and investigation.

Get comfy. the maths part is next. Try looking out of only one eye.

There are 52 weeks in a year with 40 hours in each full-time work week. Subtracting an average of five holidays per year, plus one week’s vacation, plus five sick days, the average full-time employee works approximately 1,952 hours a year. That’s not counting coffeebreaks, personal telephone calls, coming in late, leaving early, chatting with co-workers, daydreaming, family emergencies, inter-office parties for showers or birthdays, running errands or reading non-work-related emails, twitters and blogs. So let’s be fair and call it an even 1,900 hours of actual labour per full-time position per year.

To meet Sarah’s claim of she and her Personnel Board staffers spending ‘thousands of hours’ on frivilous ethics violations complaints, at least two of the members would have had to devote a minimum of twenty-five weeks – each – of full-time hours devoted solely and exclusively to reviewing ethics violations complaints. That’s non-stop, constant scrutiny of a complaint and doing nothing else five solid days a week for at least six months. How long does it take to read a few pages of text times 15-18 before realizing it’s over your head and you need a solicitor to make the decision? And once that step has been taken what’s left to do that takes up thousands of hours of state time?

For the $2,000,000 claim to be valid, the volunteer staffers would have had to bill the state for those hours worked.

But wait – can a person bill hours against a volunteer position? And if they turn the complaints over to a legal staff for review because ‘they’ are not comfortable making the calls themselves, where do the legal costs fall? Why are the Personnel Board members, whose job it is to review ethics violations complaints, not capable of making these decisions? Or to be more succinct: What the heck are they doing in positions (even volunteer posts) when they obviously can’t fulfill the job description? If all they did was take papers from one source (the complainant) and turn it over to another (the solicitor) they’re no more than a messenger service.

What is it, exactly, in their review which caused such a massive amount of work hours? How can this statement possibly be justified and why is no one in the media as perplexed as I am?

And why, pray tell, was the governor’s office involved? Why did these complaints cause the governor’s office to grind to a complete halt?

Maybe what Alaska legislators should review in their next session is how complaints are reviewed in the first place. My apologies if I’m speaking out of turn. It’s not my fault though, my brain is fried from having had to duel with a calculator tonight.

Other bloggers have put beauifully constructed graphs and charts together to show the lunacy of Sarah’s claim that her gathered complaints and lawsuits have cost Joe the Alaska Guy more than two million dollars. In fact, here’s a link (courtesy of Progressive Alaska) I highly recommend.

Now if someone would just address the fact that there’s no physical way 15-18 ethics violations complaints, issued over the course of one year, to a volunteer staff of three, with each complaint turned over to a solicitor for review and the majority dismissed outright, could have cost Alaska thousands of hours in wasted state time and/or resources, because my math is crap and even I can figure out that none of this adds up.

I am so tired of the press never holding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin accountable for the barrage of inaccuracies that fall out of her mouth, I could spit. They were all over President Clinton when he said he never smoked marajuana even though he almost sort of maybe tried it in college – but they give Sarah a free pass when she tells the world $300,000 is really $2,000,000.

I’m not even going near the fact that two-thirds of that 3k were the costs of a suit she filed against herself . I’ve already taken a hammer to the calculator.

The brick wall I keep banging into is that it feels like no journo with a brain in the lower 48 is taking her seriously. The danger with that, of course, is there are far too many brainless people in the lower 48 who do.

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: The $2 Million Campaign slogan: When the Going Gets Tuff, the Tuff Go Fishing and click on the word comments just beneath – thanks, OzMud

To the Law Firm: Palin Hollers & I Jump
From: United Bloggers Everywhere

The television station most biased in favour of Sarah Palin is finally catching on?!?!

Liz Trotta refers to a New York  Times piece written by Maureen Dowd and published the day after Sarah’s resignation speel. It’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant! Please take the time to read it in full – I promise you won’t be sorry.

Here’s a highlight:

Palin’s speech is classic casuistry.

After girlish burbling about how “progressing our state” and serving Alaska “is the greatest honor that I could imagine,” and raving about how much she loves her job, she abruptly announced that she was making the ultimate sacrifice: dumping the state on her lieutenant.

Why “milk it,” as she put it, when you can quit it? “Only dead fish go with the flow,” she said, while cold fish can blow out of town. Leaving Alaska in the lurch is best for Alaska. She can better “effect change” in government from outside government. She can fulfill her promise of “efficiencies and effectiveness” by deserting Juneau midway through her term — and taking her tanning bed with her.

To Mr. Van Something – Good luck with your venture to silence every one of the hundreds of thousands of people who are now reporting on and talking about your client’s bizarre, public behaviour.

And as you dance in the spotlight of your newfound fame, taking your act on the road with the rest of the Palin Travelling Circus, always remember the name Shannyn Moore. Because sir, it may have been the Palin camp who hired you but it was the unjustifiable attack on a girl from Homer that put you on the map 🙂

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: Fox News Might Be Getting A Clue and click on the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

From the desk of Palin Hollers & I Jump
Memo to all bloggers:

STOP PHOTO-SHOPPING!!!!!!!

Something Van Something

Ok Ok – but what do I do with this?

To comment on this post please scroll back to the above title (from the desk of) Palin Hollers & I Jump and click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

I don’t twitter. But if I did, the first thing I’d twit would be just that.  Future ex-Governor Sarah doesn’t seem to know when to just shut up. We’ve all touched on this before. Knowing when to keep quiet is an essential communication skill. It mark’s maturity. It’s smart.

Just under a year ago Sarah Palin was launched into all of our lives. John McCain proffered her as the Darling of the Republican Party. Smart. Witty. Progressive. Hard-working. Dedicated. A small part of the population embraced her straight away. It only took a bare few weeks for the rest of us to realize we were watching the birth of a train wreck.

When Sarah Palin, at a public rally, called for John Q. Public to get behind McCain and the Republican Party, claiming Barack Obama to be anti_American and that he palled around with terrorists, we have on video the ignorant response of ‘kill him’ coming from the crowd. A normal person would have taken a mental step back and reworded her next sentence to quell the building hostility.  Sarah Palin instead lowered her head, smirked, then raised her head and loudly repeated her unsubstantiated, racist cries, deliberately fuelling a dangerous fire.

When Katie Couric asked Sarah Palin questions she could not immediately answer, (hard questions like ‘what newspapers do you read?’) a mature person would have just named any paper, made a quick blonde joke out of not being able to recall a title off the top and let the subject naturally change. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, dismissed the question as unfair, then ridiculed, belittled and besmirched Ms. Couric for months after, accusing her of conducting unethical journalistic practices, and sabotaging her campaign. To this day, almost a year and a hundred other reporters later, Ms.Couric continues to be the lead target in Sarah Palin’s war on the media.

When Andre McCleod lodged the first ethics complaint against the Alaska governor, instead of just giving her the documents requested – documents which, according to statements made by the Governor herself would completely exonerate her office of any wrong-doing – and letting the complaint run it’s course, Sarah Palin hemmed and hawed, demanding one continuation after another making various public statements discrediting the former employee. Another politician would have bent over backwards to handle the affair as quickly and quietly as possible.

I could write twelve more pages of examples without stopping to think and still have stacks more in the bin, but for the moment I’ve had enough. Her Facebook letter explaining her actions on Friday last has made front page news here in Australia and it sickens me that the only version going to print is her own personal fairy-tale, not the actual events as they occurred or any version even close to the truth.

Shannyn Moore, an Alaskan blogger, radio talk-show host and frequent guest on television news shows like MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, is the governor’s newest stepping stone on her path to the White House using the strategy of who do I need to make wrong to make me look right. Through her top-gun solicitor, Mr. Something Van Flein, Sarah Palin made the erroneous claim that Ms. Moore, over the weekend, on a televised news program and in her personal blog presented local speculation  as to the reasons behind the Governor’s recent resignation as ‘fact’. She’s sicked her over-paid, under-informed legal team on Ms. Moore in an effort to silence the political journo. (Click on any blog link to the right for full details.)

Shannyn Moore, along with dozens of other citizens both in Alaska and the lower 48, spent much of the 24 hours following Sarah Palin’s resignation announcement talking with each other in a quest to make sense of what appears to be the weirdest move of Palin’s political career. Rumours flew in every direction. Alaskan bloggers email boxes were packed with inquiries. Servers crashed over at The Mudflats from the sudden and intense amount of traffic. Everyone outside Alaska assumed that anyone inside Alaska would have a better persepctive and a clue.

The problem the legal team of Palin Hollers & I Jump is going to have, though, is really rather fatal to rising star attorneys. Their call to cease and desist is based upon an erroneous claim that, well, to be blunt… is erroneous. And they’re making these preliminary accusations at the top of their lungs so there won’t be any wiggle room for do-overs or claims of misunderstanding.

Oops.

Shannyn Moore has written and video-taped proof positive (along with many thousands of eye-witnesses) that she never claimed her report of local rumours and conjecture was anything but – a report on local rumours and conjecture. Oh and she added her own personal opinion. Which, by the way, was clearly prefaced with “and this is my opinion…”

So it would seem the same First Amendment Right which has allowed Sarah Palin to entertain us all with her unique brand of truth-twisting nonsensical gibberish about her life and how the greatest nation on the planet should operate… is not extended by the Palin Party to Shannyn Moore because… why again? Oh yes I remember. Shannyn didn’t embrace her Governor’s latest public display of mega-amentia.

Were a twitterer, Sarah’d be getting this from me right about now –

Sarah Palin: Shut The Fuck Up

To comment on this post please scroll back to the above title SP: STFU and click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

I’m just sayin’…

Happy Fourth USA – Here’s to a whole bunch of better years *cliNk*

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

This is the link to Sarah Palin’s resignation speech. Trust me when I say that having graduated from high school in the mid 1960’s I was exposed to many people who imbibed and did my share of  listening to stoners ramble – stoners who now it appears – made more sense than this video clip.

My gut says our queen of misdirection is hiding something. Something so big she’s willing to sacrifice her tiara. I mean title.  (No, really, I mean tiara.) Perhaps there’s an ethics complaint that can’t be spirited away as easily as the first 13. Or perhaps the truth about her bizarre delivery last April is about to step into the light. Well whatever it is, I’m certain it has nothing to do with the gibberish in this video.

One thing bothers me above all else in the ludicrous diatribe above – when folks photo-shopped the shot of her holding a bub, replacing the bub’s face with photos of David Letterman or George Bush – I can’t think of a single person who was ridiculing baby Trig, can you? I didn’t think so. Her self-righteous claim of people disrespecting her child are as absurd as she.

Pretty much, everyone I know who played with that photo was ridiculing her.

This is just off the top of my head so please bear with me through the bits I’ve probably got wrong but…

In trying to keep current with all the many ethics complaints lodged against Gov. Sarah Palin, the investigations either reported on or instigated by The Immoral Minority and Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis (both ventures to which I have made modest donations ) and the online descriptions of the fund itself (both at the fund’s website and scanning the C4P blogs) I am hit this morning with the troubling thought that, perhaps, the fund itself is a sham.

The Alaska State Personnel Board purportedly responsible for deciding whether or not a complaint has merit enough to be investigated, has dismissed more than a dozen of the 18 known ethics complaints lodged. So, no investigation and therefore no need for defense, right?

My understanding of  ‘how it works’ is that a complaint is filed. The board reviews the complaint and decides whether or not to proceed with an investigation or dismiss the charge. If it is to proceed, the next step is an investigation. After that, if the investigation proves fruitful, allegations become charges and the Governor needs then to answer said charges in a court of law. The Governor would at this point need to hire an attorney to defend her actions.

Help me out here Alaskans – why, if so many ethics violations complaints were dismissed at the first step in this process, was there ever a need for this collection of funds from the public? Surely the part about the Alaska State Personnel Board deciding if a complaint has merit or not is in it’s very basic job description and therefore already paid for?

Would not the governor’s need for defense only become necessary if a charge was finally made by the state? Why should Sarah Palin need a ‘defense fund’  for ethics violations complaints which were truncated at the earliest point of the procedure?

From my perspective this is either fraud in itself – or I’m missing a big piece of the puzzle. I’m not understanding why any governor would need to reimburse their personnel board for an initial inquiry already mantled by payroll.

Sarah Palin herself has many times told the press that it is the responsibility of the Alaska State Personnel Board to ‘look into and make determinations’ of these complaints. This was her justification for having the Troopergate decision overturned, was it not?

For the sake of arguement: If a policeman in Alaska, through the normal course of his duties is accused of misconduct does he have to personally pay for the investigation ‘before’ it’s an actual charge? I can’t imagine this being the case. It would seem to me that only at the point in an inquiry where it is determined a complaint might have merit and the officer is asked to stand down while a full investigation is underway, that there is an attorney assigned to the officer for defense.

Are elected officials so different?

So here are my concerns:

1. If determining whether or not a complaint lodged against an elected official in the state of Alaska is one of the duties of the Alaska State Personnel Board, why would Sarah Palin need a privately collected defense fund to pay for that inquiry?

2. Why would Sarah Palin need to hire a defense team prior to being charged with any allegations of wrong-doing? Especially when these complaints have been summarily dismissed before charges were made as frivolous. If one hasn’t actually been charged with wrong-doing, where is the need for defense?

3. If determining whether a complaint against a public official warrants investigating or not is the job of the Personnel Board, and the Governor is collecting monies from citizens to also pay for these determinations, does this mean someone on the personnel board is being paid twice?

Your input is greatly appreciated – OzMud

To comment on this post please scroll back to the title: Alaska Trust Fund: The part I don’t understand – and click on the word comments.