Dear Diane Soper

While slogging my way through notes written more than a month ago to get back on track with my theories on Republican Scare Tactics versus President Obama’s Health Care Reform, I noticed a new comment and felt a need to post it here:

Dear Diane,

My husband, on the day of finally admitting he needed to see a doctor, was – in my opinion – perilously sick – and with mostly the same symptoms you’ve just described for your husband.

When the GP sent us home that first day with a script for antibiotics and instructions to return the following day I literally had to bite my tongue to keep still. I’d packed a bag ten minutes after I saw the wound, and did not understand the decision to send us home rather than to the hospital.

A week later this cautionary delay developed into emergency surgery with a team of four doctors. While spouse is doing well now, I should have made noise – a lot of it – back on day one.

There have been two other little ’spots’ which I did make noise about and both were treated immediately.  After the second eruption was found this weekend, our schedule has again changed, this time to allow a nurse with a trained eye to check him every other day. He can’t take any more antibiotics for a while as he’s taken so many in such a short time (this, of course, is the downside of antibiotic treatments) so it’s even more important now that any new potential carbuncles be caught as early as possible.  And I not only examine his skin daily, I also watch for any change in his mood, eating or sleeping habits, which might also be symptomatic of something being wrong.

I have actually gone through two full scripts of antibiotics myself, with the annoying consequence of having a thrush (yeast)  infection that just won’t go away. So please know that all the careful cleaning, hand-washing, wearing of protective gloves and eyewear while unpacking his wound and repacking it again is not a guarantee of immunity against his infection.

Diane - we’re all behind you.  Listen to your gut. Your instincts matter. Make noise. Don’t be afraid to share all your concerns about your husband with his doctors. And take care of yourself because you are one-half of a team, not a spectator. All those good people out there who kept telling me to take care of me – they were all spot on.  It’s absolutely the best advice of all.

You and your husband are in my prayers, and I’m sure in those of our readers, too. Please let us know how you’re gettting on
OzMud

To comment on this post, please scroll back to the title: Dear Diane Soper and click the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud

 

Oz Logic (and Spring Photos)

From my email bag this week, a quote from an (undated) article in the Australian Shooter Magazine:

If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington, DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period. That means you are about 25 per cent more likely to be shot and killed in the US capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: “The US should pull out of Washington.”

* * * * *

On a more personal note, spouse is doing well.  Again, thanks so much for all your prayers and gracious good wishes.

Our routine has morphed. A nurse now looks on while I repack the wound twice a week and the rest of the time I’m on my own. So far it’s all good. Standing on a stool alternating a moblie showerhead and torch in one hand while using cotton buds to dig out the crud with the other is not the most pleasant of jobs, but it’s infinitely preferable to spending every morning at the the hospital ER.

It’s actually allowed me a bit of time to spend in my garden this past week. I consider it a lovely reward. September marks the onset of Spring in Australia and the weather has been good enough to have morning tea on the patio. Here, see for yourself:

Back porch view of the Queen's Wreath

 

Queen's Wreath close-up

 

Flowering Begonia along the south fence

 

Shrimp Plant along the south fence

 

Purple Stasis, Pink Rose and nature's hero, the humble Ladybug

Tomorrow it’s back to the business of health care and my generation.

To comment on this post please scroll back to the title: Oz Logic (and Spring Photos) and click on the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud

 

Small Interruption – Update: Surgery (extremely graphic images)

Dear Commenters,

Thank you so much for your kind words and excellent, excellent advice. You have each been a positive influence on the energy surrounding me and reading your thoughts has been the uplifting part of my otherwise emotionally heavy week.

Fondly – OzMud
- – - – - – - – - – - – - - -

 Sunday 30 August 2009

My new morning routine is to wake up at 6am, down coffee and a quick breakfast, take my daily meds, check emails, scan blogs, then make sure my 85 year old father-in-law is settled for the day. I’m in the taxi by 7:45 am and at the hospital by 8 am. I take fresh coffees up to the room for myself and spouse from the hospital kiosk. We read the paper together while waiting for the doctors to make their rounds. We wait for the nurse to say he can get into the shower where the bandage is removed, the bedding changed and the cart set up for the packing change.

I’m learning how to change the packing as there may be a time when I’m the only one available to remove and repack the betadine-soaked packing gauze. Spouse is really against my ever having to do this and I’m not wild about the idea but – it’s important to know I can. You never know what life’s going to toss onto your plate next. So I watch, ask questions, participate and learn.

We won’t know until tomorrow at the earliest which staphylococcus strain we are dealing with, but regardless, the carbuncle will need to be repacked daily for a minimum of two weeks (and this, I’m told, is a very optimistic time-line). Smaller carbuncles, caught much earlier have been known to need daily packing for as long as eight weeks.

Carbuncles, whatever their size, consist of a pocket of pus on top of a layer of dead tissue. Rather like a toxic muffin. The surgeon makes an incision, drains the pocket and scrapes away the dead tissue. The conditions which create carbuncles are more common among diabetics, but they can happen to anyone. The really crap news is, once you have a carbuncle, you are predisposed to having another. For life.

Carbuncles in general, are the product of a combination of things going wrong. A weakened immune system coupled with a condition like diabetes or a virus, plus a skin irritation as simple as an ingrown hair follicle or as complex as a small wound never allowed to scab over enough to heal properly creates the recipe for this disaster.

I’d planned on giving a really serious lecture on the subject of personal habits and their consequences but I’ve decided to just post the photos.

This is a mere ten days out of our lives all because my husband has the nervous habit of picking at a scab, thinking it’s an innocent enough habit that should be his business and nobody else’s. Boy did he get that wrong.

Pay attention. This can happen to anyone. Even you.

First dressing change at home after initial visit to GP:

One week later it’s enlarged and GP sends us to  local emergency.

The incision after surgery.

3-5 rolls of betadine-soaked gauze pack the wound daily.

Spouse gave me permission to post these photos – as long as I promised he absolutely didn’t have to look at them himself until after he was fully recovered. He said it was bad enough hearing us all discussing it while he was face down on the bed and that he was quite happy to leave the actual graphic imagery to those of us with stronger stomachs.

Class dismissed

To comment on this post please scroll back to the title: Small Interruption – Update: Surgery (extremely graphic images) and click the word comments just beneath.  Thanks, OzMud

 

Small Interruption – Update: Surgery

Friday 28 August 2009

The morning team of hospital doctors agreed immediately upon examination – the mass on my husband’s back is a carbuncle. Carbuncle’s occur commonly among male diabetics who have other health problems. My husband’s heart operates only at 30% capacity. He eats all the wrong foods, doesn’t get enough exercise and… habitually picks at scabs on his skin. He was evidently a prime candidate for giving birth to this oddly named pocket of purulence.

Surgery was only an hour long and he’s doing quite well. considering. They made an incision aproximately 1.5 inches by 1 inch, extracted the pus and scraped away all the dead tissue. The hole was then packed with five lots of gauze pre-soaked in betadine solution. This will be changed daily. Swabs were sent to the lab and we will know in a few days how serious or not the staph infection is and which breed.

When I left the hospital he was resting comfortably. A friend from the Gold Coast drove up to help me with running errands and disinfecting the house. I’m so tired. Her offer was a Godsend and I accepted without hesitation. This is one of those times when I so miss not being geographically closer to my children. In times of need we’ve always been there for each other.

Today I’m homesick. Shopping for manchester and full-on spring cleaning with a good friend will be great therapy

To comment on this post please scroll up to the title: Small Interruption – Update: Surgery and click the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud

 

Small Interruption – Update: Hospital

Thursday 27 August 2009

Last evening the wound stopped draining. By morning it had increased in size enough to make me really nervous, so we called the nurse and arranged a visit. The result was a trip to the local ER. Spouse is currently in hospital, connected to an antibiotic IV drip, where he will remain until the doctors and anesthesiologists agree on a procedure. (Spouse has had two heart attacks in 10 years so while one doctor insists he should go under general anesthetics, another insists he should not. Results of an ultrasound will determine the coin toss, but the staff had left before the doctors finished their discussion.) 

However they decide to proceed, the wound ultimately needs to be opened (incized), drained, cleaned out, and the contents tested.

So far my husband has not been in any real pain.
That’s about to change.

Need sleep…

 

Small Interruption – Update: Lab Results

Monday 24 August 2009

The lab tests came back yesterday. My husband’s wound is the result of a staphylococci infection. It is not an insect bite. It is not from the thorn of a toxic plant. It’s a simple, straight-forward staph infection which, in the lab, responded well to a particular brand of antibiotics that spouse is now taking.

The origin of the staph infection is disturbing, however, and anyone with a weak stomach should not read further because the rest is a bit graphic.

I married into a family with many odd traditions, one of which apparently, is picking scabs. Both my husband’s parents, his siblings and several cousins all indulge. All of them. Some have brown marks where a scab has been so repeatedly picked at, there’s permanent discolouration. The marks are passed off as bruises. No one comments. Commenting would be rude.

The monumental effort necessary to break bad habits does not escape me. I quit smoking after forty years of practically living on cigarettes and coffee. My weight’s shot up since and now I deal with food and exercise issues I never had to even think about before. So I know it’s hard to confront a demon.

In my own house and never in earshot of another person, I have tried to educate my husband on the possible consequences of scab picking. I have explained how the skin is a living, breathing organ as important as his heart and that chipping away at it’s natural defenses can be dangerous. I’ve googled articles to show him how a person can actually sufficate, despite good lungs, when the skin pores become clogged with mediums like metallic paint or severe burns. I’ve shown him anatomical diagrams of the layers of skin and how scabs prevent diseases from invading the bloodstream via open wounds. He blows me off. He’s been so angry with me for even bringing this subject up he has, on occasion, stopped talking to me for days at a time. It’s just a scab. I’m overreacting.

But this seemingly innocuous habit of picking at scabs before nature decides the body is ready for it to stop protecting the layers of skin beneath can actually be fatal. With so many diseases at our fingertips, like Tetanus, E-Coli, Asian Flu and Swine Flu, something needs to be said.

Photos and lecture tomorrow.

To comment on this post please scroll back to the title: Small Interruption – Update: Lab Results and click the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud

 

Small interruption – Update: Waiting Rooms

Where to begin… first and most importantly, thank you all so much for your kind thoughts and generous words of encouragement. We’re out of the woods, though not fully recovered and I promise to write a running blow-by-blow as my energy returns. Then it’s back to S[C]arah Tactics, my generational insights and the nurse’s interview.

Waiting Rooms:

My spouse and I have spent so much time in our doctor’s waiting room these past few days we actually gave birth to a game we fondly named “my butt’s bigger than that butt”. Seated between the nurse’s station and the reception desk gave us an eye-level (rear) view of all the patients checking in, paying their fees, asking questions. It was more than my born-to-be-cheeky brain could endure. I had to say something. So periodically I would lean close to spouse and whisper a number between one and three, indicating I thought my bum was that many times larger than the one directly in front of us. He would look up from his magazine and either agree or disagree. If he disagreed I would guess again. Phase two of the game addressed the issue of what people wore to their doctor’s office. We agreed early on that some items of clothing should never, ever be worn in smallish public spaces like waiting rooms or elevators. The ratings went from omg (oh my God) to omdg (oh my dear God) to omfg (well you get the picture).

We were snarky yet dignified, keeping the game just between ourselves until that disasterous moment when the sound of keys dropping pulled me away from my magazine and I looked up to find an anorexic-looking old man clad in bikini briefs bending over right in front of me and I hollered “OMDFG! SIX!” in what one can only describe as a knee-jerk response to sudden absurdity. Everyone in the room turned. One of the receptionists actually stood up and peered at me over the top of the desk. A nurse poked her head around the corner and stared at me from the doorway.

Spouse came to my rescue, putting his arm around my shoulder and saying (just loud enough for all to hear) “Aww, having a lttle nightmare eh?” So I followed his lead and said “Yuh. And it scared me!” That would have been a good save because really, other than just being too loud in cramped quarters, babbling a couple of unconnected letters and the word ’six’ was innocent enough. But this was spouse. My spouse So of course he was compelled to add “That’s okay. But could you not point?” Which is when I realized my extended index finger was a scant few centimeters from the ill-fitting shorts.

We’ve been together for more than 12 years. I have tales. OMDG do I have tales

To comment on this post please scroll back to the title: Small Interruption – Update: Waiting Rooms and click the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud

 

Small Interruption

With S[C]arah Tactics – pt 2 nearly finished and my telephone interview with a California RN done and notes sorted, my husband (whom we have assumed has had the flu for a few days) says to me “I think you need to have a look at this and tell me what you think.”

Turning around and removing his tee revealed a dark, oozing red mark at least four inches in diameter sitting atop a lump (just below the shoulder) at least twice the size more.

Ignoring his macho, ever-so-male-I-don’t-need-a-doctor protests, I’ve arranged to get him to the hospital this morning. 

Fingers crossed.

 

S[C]arah Tactics – pt 1

During the mid 1950’s Leave It To Beaver wasn’t just a television show. It was a blueprint for middle America. Flanked by the Donna Reed Show, Father Knows Best and Ozzie & Harriet, the families Cleaver, Stone, Anderson and Nelson showed the public how to behave in a post-depression, post-war world. It was the American Dream you could see in your own living room.

Roles between men and women were clearly defined on the small monochrome screens. Children were dressed, educated and shown their place in the cycle of life. The blueprint replaced the chaos of war and uncertainty of depression with a solid economy where anyone who could hold a job had the opportunity to own a house, start a business, or move up the corporate ladder to success. And the architect of this great blueprint was the United States Government – recent superhero of democracy who led the rest of the civilized world in the defeat of nazism, communism and tyranny.

We were badass back then.

In middle America men retained their macho head of the house status which included creating the family income and having the last say in any and all familial disagreements. Women raised the children and kept the family nest in order. Dinner was a family affair no one missed unless they were too ill to make it to the table.

In our house everyone dressed for dinner. That meant changing from school or play clothes into clean clothing fresh from the closet, brushing one’s hair and washing one’s hands and face. My mother was the chief cook while my brother and I were in charge of all the clean-up and any prep work my mother felt we needed to learn. My mother always set a lovely table. There were always flowers from the garden in the center and on holidays she’d set out little individual boxes or baskets of goodies. There was always dessert. It was always wonderful.

Dinner conversation revolved around what everyone had done during the day and a discussion of plans for the rest of the week. It was not uncommon to have a last minute friend over for dinner during the week. Saturday was leftovers or going out with friends but Sunday – well, Sunday was full on.

Sunday was candles in silver holders, freshly polished that afternoon along with the good silverware from the wooden chest. The good China dishes were used as was the antique lace tablecloth from the cedar chest. No one missed Sunday dinner. It was Stroganoff so beautifully cooked the meat melted on your tongue in a blissful sauce of sour cream and beef gravy. It was roast leg of lamb with a crunchy layer of fat on the top you could smell all the way down the block and it made your tummy rumble in anticipation. Sunday was angelfood cake and chocolate sauce or a home-baked apple pie topped with sweet whipped cream.

Sunday was planned visitors and energetic conversations about politics or religion or recent news events which affected our lives. It was people with different opinions sharing their differences respectfully (though sometimes too loud) over a good meal.

I remember countless Sunday dinners that ended with the same scenario – my Uncle Bud, after disagreeing with my father over how the government should be run, leans back in his chair and says something like “Johnny you’re full of shit. But your wife is an excellent cook – and that’s the important thing!”

It’s occurred to me that what was missing from all the townhall meetings this past week or two was a good meal. If the Republican hecklers had needed to get between citizens and a good feed, I bet more folks would have been willing to stand up and chuck them out. And if those remaining had been given a good meal to chew on, I bet more of them would have  focused on the reform bill itself rather than the ridiculous rumours of Sarah’s death panels.

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: S[C]arah Tactics – pt 1 and click on the word comments just beneath. Thanks - OzMud

 

Sarah Palin and the 3-Minute Egg

I am a baby boomer. There. I said it out loud. You now know that I’m old and personally responsible for the downfall of social security. If it wasn’t for me you’d not only have more money with which to retire, you’d also have a seat on the bus. Well, except for the annoying fact that the system doesn’t actually work that way.

For a little over thirty years my paychecks contributed to the SSI fund and even though I am now entitled, I have not sought nor do I plan to seek my share of the benefits. Nor do I reap rewards from the Australian pension fund. And before you leap to the wrong conclusions, no, I do not have marijuana growing in my backyard.

My husband and I are both semi-retired. We get by. We will continue to get by sans government-generated entitlements from either Australian or American coffers for as long as our health is good and our minds are agile.

The decision to not claim entitlements is the result of watching so many of our peers and our parents generation take monies they don’t actually need. My father-in-law, for instance, who draws monthly from two pension funds is the best example. One fund is from the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force). Did he serve his country for twenty years? You bet he did. Then he retired at age 40 and has drawn a substantial pension ever since. At age 65 he qualified for the Australian Public Pension Fund. Today he’s 85 and could live on either of these pensions by themselves, but he’s entitled, you see, so he collects both.

If you ask my father-in-law why he draws from both pension funds while only needing one, he’ll tell you “…because I earned it. The money is mine.” It’s the same thinking he uses during water rationing when you ask him to please turn off the garden hose and let other people have some water. He’ll tell you he can afford to pay the bill so he’s entitled to use as much water as he pleases.

I tell him something cheeky like ‘it would be nice for your grandchildren to know what a tree looks like without having to google one’ but he just shakes his head and walks off to water the sidewalk.

This past week, while entertaining overseas visitors, I’ve had my eyes opened even wider on the whole entitlements issue and just what it is the people of my generation and our offspring feel they have earned. The experience has also given me a hands-on glimpse into the Palinista mindset and I am struggling to put it all into words.

I have arranged, on 17 August, to interview (by telephone) a young lady in California. She is not only a Registered Nurse, her specialty has been to work in nursing homes catering to the elderly and handicapped. She has a working knowledge of US health care from the inside, dealing daily with both insurance companies and patients with severe health issues and using her words is willing to “help make sure Sarah Palin is never ever the president!”

For about three minutes, before she quit, Sarah Palin was governor of one of the smallest populated states in the union. By virtue of a failed political career and an overly-productive uterus, she claims to know more about how a government serving close to 3 billion people should operate than all the educated, elected officials currently serving their terms without bailing to collect book deals or write notes in Facebook.

I am personally so offended at her use of Facebook to interject her uneducated, lame opinions into the public discussion of something as important as revamping the current healthcare system, I could spit. I am even more offended by her feeble attempts to goad President Obama into a personal dialogue on these important issues, as if she were his peer or colleague. I hope he never bites.

Colleague. Pfft. President Obama is like Eggs Benedict served with a light hollandaise sauce and fluffy breakfast rolls while Sarah Palin is a three-minute egg, plopped email-style in a ziplock bag into a pot of roiling water.

Looks cute but the truth is, that heated baggie contains hidden dioxins that act, over time, as a carcinogen.

And for those of you who may still be harboring the illusion that Sarah Palin represents you, the average Joe Sixpack, let me once again be the voice of sanity that shouts Sarah Palin IS NOT like you at all. She lives in a million-dollar house, enjoys free live-in child care and will be, by this time next year, a multi-millionairess having collected on her oh-so-lucrative-at-your-expense book deal.

A book, by the way, she will not have even written herself.

Discussion of entitlements and the Palinistas to begin tomorrow. Clear your desks of sharp objects, butter the popcorn and prepare to unleash your opinions.

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: Sarah Palin and the 3-minute Eggand click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

 

North To the future!

(oops – meant to post this mid-week – you know, I really can’t walk, talk and chew gun at the same time – OzMud:)

NORTH TO THE FUTURE!

It’s the beginning of the 22nd century. Organ transplants and body replacement surgeries are as common as jet-shoes and the 3-second latte. A young woman walks into her neighbourhood cryo lab and inquires about a new brain. The clerk is happy to help.

“Well missy you’re in luck today because we have three lovely brains, fresh from their holding tanks and all on sale! Have a look.”

The young man points to a jar filled with a bubbling saline solution. Three pinkish brains are bobbing about.

“Well they all have a nice colour but what can you tell me about them?” comments the lass.

The clerk clicks on the nearest lab-top, a portable computer hologram which looks to be sitting on the counter even though it doesn’t actually exist at all and says “Hmm, well, first we have the brain of a very healthy, very smart woman from the 1900’s. Her name was Gloria Steinem. She was a human rights activist and quite famous public speaker. Her brain is on sale this week for the paltry sum of $50,000.

The young lady doesn’t appear interested so the clerk clicks the lab-top again. “Well this is delightful! The next brain is that of one Hillary Clinton, wife of the infamous Bill Clinton, former Playboy & President of the United States and first female President of the United States (Hillary, not Bill – although there was talk…) The clerk realized he was rambling and moved on. Hil’s brain is a bit more – but still a bargain at only $85,000.”

She breathed a deep sigh. “That’s all quite impressive but… I just don’t know…” The clerk clicked again. “This last one might be a bit more to your liking” he said, “but it’s also a tad more expensive.$300,000.”

The clerk reads from the flashing display ” The woman was in several beauty pageants although she never actually won one. She had to attend six colleges to get one degree. Very pretty though. She was a small-town councilwoman but quit to run for mayor. Then she quit that to run for governor. Then she quit that to…”

“Wait!” interrupted the now animated young lady, “Why on earth is her brain so much more expensive than the others?”

“Why, missy, this is the brain of Sarah Palin!” The young lady was shaking her head as if trying desperately to understand. The clerk leaned close and said with a cocky grin “Sarah’s brain is the top of the line miss because -  it’s never been used!”

To comment on this post scroll back to the title: North To The Future! and click on the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud

 

Narnia – On The Fly

Am writing this on the fly – have had overseas company for a week and it’s been a whirlwind of activities, culminating in a rather unexpected life-altering experience which should be at least somewhat interesting to those following the Perils of Palin in these blogs.

It’s going to take a couple of days to put my thoughts together, so for now, please enjoy the absolute best photo taken all week – off the Gold Coast shores of Queensland Australia – the finishing touches being applied to the wharf set of the newest Narnia movie – being filmed practically in my own backyard

Taken from a friend’s boat on 7, Aug 09

 

If GOP Politics Were a Sporting Event:

 

Margaret Carlson on Countdown

“If she [Sarah Palin] goes on radio… would be a shame… she wouldn’t be able to wink…”

 

 

Sarah Palin 26 July 2009: “We Eat Therefore We Hunt”

“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

 

26 July 2009 – “The End of an Error”

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

 

Sarah Palin Is No Sunny Davies

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.

To use a beauty pageant analogy, Sarah was best-suited for that walk down the runway. She was was poised, beautiful, gracious, self-confident.

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.

But the people around her knew. The ones who purported to be her friends and advisors. They knew. And they all kept quiet because they each had their own agenda.

So it’s the educated people who have, this past year, plucked Sarah from the runway of obscurity to shove her headfirst into a national spotlight because a pretty face made them look good, who failed all of us. Because in cuccooning Sarah from real scrutiny, in teaching her how to hide her flaws rather than embracing and learning from them, they ultimately failed Sarah.

John McCain and his campaign staff should be ashamed of themselves. There are reasons candidates are carefully vetted and interviewed before adding them to a national ticket. Reasons, for which, Sarah Palin is now a glaring example.

 

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!

 

Governor Sarah Whines Bye-Bye!

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*

 

Let The Dancing Begin!

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

 

Today’s Headlines [are] Music To My Ears

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

 

Sarah Palin Makes Me Dizzy (and not in a good way)

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:

 

AKGov – Parting Shots

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

 

The Face Of Sarah Supporters pt-3

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

 

The Face Of Sarah Supporters pt-2

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

 

The Face of Sarah Supporters

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

 

Sarah: Trig’s Mother or The Greatest Porky Ever Told *UPDATE*

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

 

TYT Sums Up Sarah’s Resignation: “It’s about the money Lebowski!”

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

 

Yakky Doodle Dandy

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

 

Sarah: Before and After

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

 

Sarah’s Train to Nowhere Derails in Wasilla

 

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

 

The $2 Million Campaign Slogan: When the Going Gets Tuff – the Tuff Go Fishing!

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

 

Fox News Might Be Getting A Clue

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

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

 

SP: STFU

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

 

 

Remember Back When We Were All Running Around Looking For WMD’s?

I’m just sayin’…

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

 

Sarah Resigns. Something Smells.

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.

 

Alaska Trust Fund: The part I don’t get

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.

 

Australia Gets It right

There was a small news article the other day – well, more like a Yahoo blurb really – about how government surveys show more than two-thirds of all Australians either approve of or simply have no problem with the concept of gay marriage. Apparently it’s not just lip service because the above notice has, without fanfare, quietly appeared on the official gov.au.com website.

 For those unfamiliar with the workings of the Oz Government, Centrelink is the main clearing house for all services and benefits (ie employment, unemployment, assistance, welfare, pension), representing both state and federal programs under one roof.  It’s a very convenient system. 

I must confess ignorance at knowing how this decision came about – if it was voted on by the general public, parliament or mandated by the current administration. I don’t recall any recent public debate or discussion, and yet here it is: Acknowledgement on a federal level that whatever your sexual proclivity, two people living together will enjoy all the rights and benefits of any other couple. 

How good is that. 

Australia has, unfortunately, it’s share of gay-bashings, usually instigated by mixing narrow-minded bigots with large amounts of alcohol on a too-hot Friday night, but overall the general public is pretty tolerant of personal choices. The whole country reminds me of the cultural climate of San Francisco in the mid 1900’s. Friendly, tolerant, neighbourly. It was just a lovely place to live. 

So while it may not look like it amidst all the negative press we endure daily from sources like Fox News or the ignorant commentaries that spew forth from people like Sarah Palin, if you can just take a step back and look at the whole picture – really, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin are in a shrinking minority. 

The world is growing up in spite of them.

It’s a great time to be alive.

 

Cyclone Sarah Strikes Again

 Sarah Palin’s cyclonic behaviour this past week has made my head spin.

First and foremost, was I the only one WHO GOT David Letterman’s joke? It was almost cute, actually. Ok, I wouldn’t have used it – but neither would I have accused David Letterman of havng lecherous motives. This is late-night television. Adults talking with adults after the kids have gone to bed. I fail to see the inappropriateness. 

<Insert> For my Oz friends who missed it, the much-fuss-made-over joke can be viewed here.

Comics are wordsmiths. Especially comics as seasoned and successful as David Letterman. It was a play on words. That’s all. A play on words. ‘Knocked up’ is an American expression for falling pregnant. It’s also an English expression for ‘company called’, meaning someone’s either knocked on your door or called you on the telephone. Even in Australia you will overhear people make the remark “Ok, well I’ll knock you up in a day or two…” and I must confess, it makes me giggle every time. 

‘Knocking one out of the park’ is, of course, scoring a home-run in baseball. If there’s something sleazy about the ballplayer used in the joke, it went over my head. I never followed baseball when I lived in the US – so I certainly don’t keep up with it now. 

The Alaska-bred Palin’s attended a ballgame in NY. Their appearance made the news. David Letterman tied all the meanings together into a one-liner joke for his monologue. Just like he’s done with daily news headlines on his show every evening for over thirty years. Just like Joey Bishop and Johnny Carson did for thirty years before him. Just like Jay Leno. NOBODY BUT SARAH would have considered turning this into such an overdone, humongous, public kerfuffle. 

But alas, our Sarah just doesn’t seem to know when to stop. Her maternal instincts are proving oxymoronish, as she keeps engaging her children in public battles inappropriate to both their ages and genders while blasting others for engaging her children in public battles inappropriate to both their ages and genders. If the small hair on the back of your neck isn’t making your brain scream DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER! it should be.

As the mother of four myself, I can tell you with all certainty that had a public figure made light of one of my daughters in a public forum and I found the comment offensive, I would have called him directly – questioned him personally – grilled him privately until I was satisfied I had the facts straight, and that it would never happen again. And then he would apologize to my daughter, in person and in private. (Does Sarah not know the purpose of the catch-all phrase ’no comment’?) I would not – in a hundred million years – have thought to air my reactions on public radio or television in a dramatic diatribe of outrage which called upon the very forces of estrogen to ban together in an apocalyptic burst of energy to secure rights for all women, everywhere. Why? Well, besides the obvious fatigue caused just by summoning the forces of estrogen, it’s because: 

* when someone takes a swing at one of your kids – you don’t hold the child over your head like a war flag on a pole and charge – you tuck them safely behind you so the next shot hits you and not your child. 

* any mother worth her salt knows that a public embarrassment – especially with a teenager – is only made worse (for the child) by further publicity. 

Because that’s what maternal instinct IS. It is the deep-seated awareness of your child’s immediate needs. It jumps to the front of your brain in a rush of adrenalin so you have the physical and mental acumen to withstand whatever circumstances are endangering your offspring. It overrides every other instinct you possess, possessing you until you are certain your child is safe.

Unless of course, your name is Cyclone Sarah. In which case you muddy the issue by ignoring the obvious (that the joke was aimed at your 18 year old daughter whom you paraded on national television last year with full belly sans husband), and offer up a different child, claiming that the child to which Mr. Letterman referred in his off-colour joke is only 14 (when in fact she is 15 and a half), then dress her in inappropriate clothing and drag her out in public for all to leer erm I mean see.

These are Willow and Bristol Palin. In this picture, Willow is on stage with her mom at a planned event in front of cameras. Bristol is performing her duties as Ambassador for Abstinence. She, at least, is appropriately dressed for the event she’s attending. It does not surprise me at all that Mr. Letterman or any of his staff could have confused the two girls. Or their ages.

Had I shared Sarah’s opinion of what transpired on The David Letterman Show, Mr. Letterman would already be tied to one of my kitchen chairs, profusely apologizing to my daughter or I would be in his office, lambasting him into the next century. 

But I would not, WOULD NOT EVER consider dragging it into the open marketplace for the media and general public to make further speculation, and I would not, NOT use the insult as a stepping stone to launch yet another crusade to enhance my political career.

Really, it’s rather like brushing your hair, putting on fresh make-up then opening your front door where you know the paparazzi are camped and feign shock at finding them there. ”NO! NO! NO PHOTOGRAPHS PLEASE! LET ME AT LEAST COMB MY HAIR!!!”

And for the record, Sarah, you DO dress like a slutty flight attendant. Not the ones who graciously assist us in the air, but the ones in B movies and adult anime clips. Your clothes are too tight, your skirts are too short, and most of your bright red, too-tall, open-toed shoes are the epitome of the old ‘come fuck me pumps’ from the 1980’s. 

Here’s a thought… use some of the money from your book deal to hire an actual fashion consultant and stop letting 1990’s beauty pageant styles or sordid clothing companies dress you and your girls. Willow’s too young and you’re too old.

PLEASE NOTE: To comment on this post, scroll back to the title: Cyclone Sarah Strikes Again and click on the word comments just underneath – Thanks  OzMud

 

In The Real world

 

I’ve put off commenting on the Carrie Prejean / Single Sex Marriage Question marathon because well, I thought it was a pretty stupid question to ask a beauty contestant in a live pageant on national television, period. 

But today’s news of her firing adds a new twist to the worn-out topic and I just have one thing to say: 

In the real world, people actually get fired for not doing their jobs. Our personal opinions have not one iota to do with how well we perform in the work environment. We contract to perform an agreed upon set of functions for which we expect to be paid an agreed upon amount of money. 

Carrie Prejean was NOT relieved of her crown because of her narrow-minded, out-dated, homophobic opinion of marriage. She was relieved of her crown because she repeatedly refused to fulfill her duties as Miss California USA. 

It isn’t every day a Beauty Queen is asked to step down due to sheer incompetence, but today’s firing of Carrie Prejean is proof-positive that it does, in fact, happen. 

The only mystery for me:  Why is Sarah Palin still collecting a paycheck? Perhaps Alaska Legislators could entice Donald Trump to visit Juneau and show them how it’s done…

PLEASE NOTE: To comment on this post. scroll back to the title: In the Real World and click on the word comments just underneath – Thanks  OzMud

 

Sarah Palin T-Shirts – Rejected Campaign Slogans

If you had the chance to put a 2012 campaign slogan for Sarah on a T-shirt, what would you write…

Want in? Leave  me your slogan and favourite colour in a comment (scroll back to the above title: Sarah palin T-Shirts and click the word comments) and I’ll be happy to add it to the above post

Editor’s Note: I believe in sharing. The above images are individually posted so each can be snipped separately. Pick your fav’s and feel free to use as avatars, email signatures, refrigerator magnets… I was thinking…  maybe a letterhead with 5 or 6 on a clothesline for writing to government agencies…

 

Sarah Sets Progress Back 50 Years – Part One – Just Ask Robin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the people of the lower 48 rejoiced at their $30 million windfall and everyone lived happily ever after. Well, Sarah did. Without State taxes or Federal Stimulus money, the rest of Alaska struggled to stay warm in the ensuing harsh climate changes while their out-dated building codes and insufficient weatherization provided little, if any, protection to their homes.

 

 

 But as long as Sarah was happy…

 

* * * * * * *
To comment on this post please scroll back to the title: Sarah Sets Progress Back 50 Years – Part One – and click on the word comments. Thanks – OzMud

 

Sarah And The Two Aliens

 

 

Two aliens landed in downtown Juneau, Alaska near a gas station that was closed for the night. They approached one of the gas pumps which happened to still be sporting an old Sarah Palin for Governor sticker and the younger alien addressed it saying, ‘Greetings, Earthling. We come in peace. Take us to your leader.’

The gas pump, of course, didn’t respond.

The younger alien became angry at the lack of response.

The older alien said, ‘I’d calm down if I were you.’

The younger alien ignored the warning and repeated his greeting. Again, there was no response.

Annoyed by what he perceived to be the pump’s haughty attitude, he drew his ray gun and said impatiently, ‘Greetings, Earthling. We come in peace. Do not ignore us this way! Take us to your leader or I will fire!’

The older alien again warned his comrade saying, ‘You probably don’t want to do that. I really don’t think you should make her mad.’

‘Rubbish,’ replied the cocky, young alien. He aimed his weapon at the pump and opened fire. There was a huge explosion.

A massive fireball roared towards them and blew the younger alien off his feet, depositing him a burned, smoking mess about 200 yards away in a flowerbed.

Half an hour passed. When he finally regained consciousness, he
refocused his three eyes, straightened his bent antenna, and looked dazedly at the older, wiser alien who was standing over him shaking his big, green head.

‘What a ferocious creature!’ exclaimed the young, fried alien. ‘She damn near killed me! How did you know she was so dangerous?’

The older alien leaned over, placed a friendly feeler on his crispy friend and replied, ‘If there’s one thing I’ve learned during my intergalactic travels, you don’t want to mess with a woman who even has a penis, much less one who can loop it over her shoulder twice and then stick it in her ear.’

 

Top Ten Reasons…

…why boys need more parenting than girls:

 

C’mon Wassillans – Talk to Us *Comments*

Anyone who knows me, knows I am subject to sudden explosions of random thoughts, all masquerading as good ideas, causing my entire world to make mutiple giant u-turns without signalling.

Sans warning, one or more truly scathingly brilliant ideas will pop into my head and I find myself so eager to see what they would look like outside of my head, I can actually short-circuit trying to give birth to all of them at once. My children have told me this is an actual visual event, from which they derive great amusement, and had they ever been able to predict their occurances, they could have, as teenagers, made good money selling tickets to their friends.

My children have quite vivid imaginations and are not to be trusted :/

I bring this up because this past week has been one long chain reaction of non-stop scathingly brilliant ideas popping into my head, so permeating the rest of my life there are no more clean dishes in the kitchen, the benchtops appear to have been decorated by a recent cyclone and my toes are cold from putting off going out and buying new slippers because last winter ate my old ones, and this winter descended in the middle of my creative streak running amok. One can always find warm toes. But to midwife a new idea being hatched, well… I have my priorities, after all:)

So… before I get sidetracked one more time, I’ve meant to address the comments made a post or two back about – well here. Let’s just pull up a couple and have a sticky beak:

Post title: C’mon Wasillans – Talk To Us
Date: 13 May 2009
Subject: Photos used by the Palin camp as proof Bristol could not have been pregnant in December 2007

Readers Comments:

There are two overflowing folders on my IE toolbar chockers with links saved from as far back as Septmber ‘08. One is called comments, the other research. In them I have attempted to preserve links to newspaper articles, television and youtube video clips, assorted websites, chat threads and blogs all pertaining to or raising questions about the qualifications of Sarah Palin to assume the role of political world leader.

While most links to most of the places named above are either still active or politely redirect the reader to an archive, there are some that are just broken. Gone. Non-existant. Can you guess which ones? Stand clear, don’t let any sarcasm drip onto your good shoes…

In my haste to put together the post about these particular photos, two things prevented me from doing a more accurate job. First, I lost the connection to where each was originally posted. My notes show they had each, at separate times, been visible on the governor’s website photo album. The one on the outside deck had been dated December 2007 as what had attracted me to the photo initially was a thread discussion about how it could not have been taken in December or there would have been snow on the hills in the background.

The staircase photo had been amongst those displayed in the governor’s website photo album at least once, as, according to my notes, that’s where I first saw it. The outside deck photo reappeared on the governor’s website, this time dated September but that, too was short-lived. I do not recall if it was posted under the September date while the staircase photo was posted as December, but the trying to pass them off as having been taken four months apart is what initially piqued my interest enough to take notes so I could eventually refer to or write about them.

So two weeks ago when I saw both photos posted on Palin’s Deceptions, and read Audrey’s accounting, I siezed the opportunity to ‘finish my thoughts’ in my own post. By then, unfortunately, most of my research links had been disconnected and I was left with sketchy notes, and my second writing downfall, a tired memory coupled with the idea bug striking me in the wee hours of the morning – always a deadly time for me to share an opinion because there is almost always something askew.

ADN.com had pulled several articles from the previous spring, announcing only that they had been archived – maybe – and did not offer links to their archives (even though I am a subscriber to their paper). How odd that a reputable newspaper would actually say to it’s reader “the article you’re looking for might be achived…” What kind of publication doesn’t archive all of  it’s writings? It becomes even more odd to note that even this message is now gone, replaced by a blank page. Blank. [See above link] Do they not have the money to properly archive their articles? Or are they just doing their governor’s bidding again…

Gov. Sarah’s website, I’ve discovered, changes with the whim wind. It doesn’t resemble any other governor’s website. I’m guessing it’s been revamped by at least a half-dozen staffers, each with the assigned goal of damage control rather than the desire to put together an informative government website for their citizens. And because of the many glaring mishaps, I’m guessing none of them ever worked on an actual government website before – ever.

One example of the unfortunate presentation of the gov.ak website is this…

While other first dude, first lady bio pages list their personal and business accomplishments with links to their pet philanthropic projects, like, say, feeding the homeless or promoting autism awareness, Alaska’s first dude’s page is shallow in content and unnecessarily links it’s page to a private corporation who clearly benefits financially from the governmental endorsement and free publicity. (If that’s not another Ethics Violation, it should be.)

Diane Patrick, first lady of Massachusetts, a former school teacher and lawyer, on her bio page, endorses early-start education as her pet project.

Maria Shriver, first lady of California, on top of a huge list of accomplishments and active participation with women’s rights groups, etc. lists support of Special Olympics as a pet project.

Bob Eaves, first dude of North Carolina, lists having worked to create a memorial at UNC’s Chapel Hill, dedicated to alumni who died in war. He also lists his interests in sports, but there is no link to a sponsor’s page. It’s just a coment: Bob spends a lot of his time volunteering and following his North Carolina Tar Heels sports teams. He also enjoys reading, golf, hunting, fishing and skiing.And that’s how it should be.

But back to the photos. I have no problem with the fact that a Holiday photo-shoot for Gov. Sarah and her family was taken four months in advance. No problem at all.

I take full issue, however, with the fact these two photos have been portrayed – more than once – as proof positive Bristol could not have been pregnant in December of 2007, and at least once as having been taken on two separate occasions, four months apart, for the same purpose.

I greatly appreciate all your input – and aplogize for not having been clear in the original post. Sadly, my train of thought was derailed amidst all the broken links and it took your comments to see just how far I’d fallen off the track.

Fear not – it will happen again – and I’ll be counting on you to pull me back

On a different note altogether (See how quickly my mind bolts? Keep up!) this, is my next favourite comment:

I’m wondering, now, what it would take to get on the Governor’s Christmas Card list. Who is on this list? Anybody out there know? How much fun would it be to make getting on the Gov’s Christmas Card list a new goal?

Ok my feet are cold. I’m off to buy slippers and maybe set fire to the kitchen.

 

We The Sheeple…

If people keep buying the bill of goods Sarah Palin keeps selling, we’re all going to be taking this pledge.

 

Sarah Palin’s Tax-Free Book Deal

Hey, dont look at me. Listen to Sarah herself. It’s at 1:10 in her infamous right-to-life speech, given last April in Evansville Indiana.

So. To reiterate yesterday’s US headlines, in a state where the lead executives are not allowed to moonlight with a second job, Sarah Palin has been legally cleared by her hand-appointed legal hatchet team to enter into a contract with a publishing house, where an undisclosed amount of money will change hands in the form of a writer’s advance, this year, while she’s still the Governor of Alaska, to write a book about her life which will serve as a stepping-stone to the 2012 nomination for Presidency, a goal for which she heretofore has denied striving… and this circumvention of Alaska Law is OK because a) her legal team has declared a publisher’s advance is not ‘income’, and b) she’s promised (and of course we all know how reliable her word is) to only work on this project after hours, in her spare time.

Do all Alaska attorneys think the rest of us just fell off the cabbage truck or is it only Sarah’s attorneys? A writer’s advance is payment against future earnings. If Sarah gets one million dollars in the form of an advance, this means she will not be given any royalty payments until her book has earned her more than one million dollars.So no matter how you slice this pie, it’s I N C O M E.

The original purpose of a writer’s advance was to ensure the publisher, the one taking the financial risk, that the author would produce the promised copy in the time allotted. The advance was designed to give the struggling artist sustenance while creating his work, so he didn’t have to be distracted by working a normal job. In today’s market, the advance is more geared toward the publisher weighing how much money he stands to make against another publisher’s offer, but it still serves as a guarantee the author will produce the promised material by a specific date.

In Sarah’s case, its been announced her book deadline is set to coincide with Alaska legislature being in session. So when it comes down to the wire and there are only so many hours in a day, and she has to choose between finishing her book on time or attending legislative negotiations… can you guess which way she’ll tilt?

And… what spare time?

Sarah has two school-aged daughters, a son in Iraq, a teenage daughter living at home with her infant child and no income, a husband who promotes a major Alaskan sport requiring her to attend a certain number of events per season, a full-time job as Governor of the state of Alaska and an active, growing toddler with Downs Syndrome. Show me the way to her spare time. Please. The rest of us would like to go there too!

But let’s give Sarah-Superwoman the benefit of the doubt for a moment. Let’s say she has this mountain of old journals she’s diligently maintained thoroughout her life (even though no one has ever heard of these journals-which-gave-her-such-joy-to-write before) which provides so much background material, writing this book will be easy-peasy…

And let’s say that working on this book ends up not interfering with her dutiies as Governor (I can see the slash marks apearing on her calendar now of cancelled appointments) and let’s say her legal-schmegal team of experts actually have the expertise between them to redefine the term ‘income’ and re-write Alaska law long enough for her to get a book written and handed off to the publisher…

… I’m mentally stuck on the part where she says Alaska (because of it’s contribution to the oil industry) has no income tax for the state, no state sales tax, no state property tax. My mind has already fast-forwarded to that point in time where Sarah figures out how to get out of paying any federal income taxes on this book deal, either.

President Obama just promised the nation he’d close rank on upper echelon tax loopholes. But Sarah Palin has more experience at making egregious loopholes than Obama has at closing them:

As Mayor of Wasilla she authorized the start of construction on the building of a hockey rink-slash-community center, knowingly preempting the property title search, resulting in the city of Wasilla not only incurring $20 million of debt, but continuing, years later, to be embroiled in a costly legal battle over ownership of the land upon which the center is built. Which is sort of what a title search is supposed to prevent from happening . <insert eyeroll>

She immediatley selected a second piece of property aproximately one mile from the community center’s building site, eliminated all building code requirements in her town and had her husband put an unnamed construction crew together to build their now multi-million dollar house. After the house was built, the building codes were reinstated. There are local, ongoing investigations as to how much of her house is built from the same construction materials, (and by the same workers) as the community center – all paid for, of course, by the citizens of Wasilla.

As first-year Governor of Alaska she collected per diem money from fellow Alaskans for living in said house, falsely submitting day to day living expenses as routine travel expenses, and so far has not been made to pay any of it back.

Sorry Mr. President, but your federal taxation system doesn’t stand a chance against the new Governor-approved Alaska State Motto: Whatever Sarah Wants, Sarah Gets.

This isn’t the 1920’s. How does this happen?

First she positions herself in a role where she has immediate access to altering the law. Then she stacks the courts and upper legal state positions with hand-picked appointees who will exonerate her should anyone object to her alterations. Now shes free to do as she pleases. And she does.

If Sarah Palin were a man she’d be in jail right now.

C’mon Wasillans – speak up – before you have to start paying Sarah an import tax on heating oil only available from Senor Chavez because – one more time – your governor’s sole focus was on her own ambitions rather than your needs.

 

C’mon Wasillans – Talk To Us

Slap my hand – I’ve pinched two photos from the Palin Deception blog. It’s ok though, I’m not actually stealing them, just borrowing them for an umm scientific experiment – yeah, that’s it – it’s for science! And I promise to give them back when I’m done. Honest!

  The whole article is here  and I highly recommend you have a sticky beak. Now, on to the reason for my thievery.

The question of the dates (and therefore the physical condition of Bristol Palin) of these photos has been very much the topic of discussion, and on more than one website. However, I would like to point the viewer in a slightly different direction. The clothing.

In both photos, one purported to have been taken in Juneau, circa September 2007 and the other in December 2007, the clothing and hairstyles are identical. The only difference in any one of the 6 outfits is Sarah’s red jacket.

The girls are in identical dresses. They have identical hairstyles, down to Piper’s headband. The men are in identical suits, shirts and even Todd is sporting the same shiney red tie in both photos. The men’s haircuts don’t show a three month growth.

And really, ladies, what are the odds you can get 6 family members dressed in the same outfits, with the same hair-cuts and styles, three months apart? What are the odds Sarah could get her frosted bangs to brush the exact same way three months apart?

Sarah must be a far more organized mother than I ever was. To think I could have gotten any of my daughters to find a particular pink headband they’d worn three months earlier so they could wear it in another photo op, three monthslater, would have been a miracle. I was lucky when ribbons or barrets lasted a whole week!

My guess is they photo’d ahead, (if there is such a word) so to have a Governor’s family photo during the Holiday months, which could include Bristol, visibly still not obvious with child. Of course, this would mean the timing of Trig’s entire gestation period was a lie. and not just about the identity of his true mother, but the whole date of his birth.

Where’s the photographer? Surely he or she isn’t above being cajoled into tellng the truth?

C’mon Wasillans – talk to us

 

“Who do you think is Trig Palin’s real mother?” Yes, they actually made it a polling question!

There is a new poll on TOPIX asking it’s readers to not only vote for whom they believe to be Trig Palin’s actual biological mother, but also asks the reasoning behind the vote.

I voted for Sarah Bristol. But my reasoning didn’t fit into the comment box *grins* so I thought I’d post it here;

Please understand my knowledge of Alaska and it’s Governor was nihl to nothing prior to Sarah stepping on the natonal stage last year as the VP candidate on John McCain’s Presidential ticket. Originally, I was behind McCain for the simple reason I had been a Hilary supporter and was gutted when she lost to the Still-Wet-Behind-The-Ears Senator Obama. But Sarah’s campaign of hate and disrespect for her fellow citizens changed everything. I began to campaign for Obama from my perch in Australia, having been won over by his relentless calm and unbounding logic regarding world affairs and economics – and fearful of the consequences a woman like Sarah Palin would proffer holding an executive office.

From the beginning, my gut has steered me away from taking anything Sarah Palin had to say at face value. So far, it’s looking like a pretty accurate instinct. So this is the reasoning behind my vote of ‘Bristol Palin is Trig’s natural mother”

My gut says this is how it all happened:

Bristol and Levi, having only been educated in abstinence and not actual birth control or STD prevention, succumb to teenage hormones and Bristol falls pregnant.

But during the first trimester, before Bristol starts showing or a plan can be made, one of her routine ultrasounds shows an abnormality. An amniocentesis is ordered. The baby has Downs Syndrome.

“How can this be? Bristol is too young to have a Downs baby! Only older women have that!”

“Well, no, actually, there are a percentage of young women who give birth to Downs babies every year. Statistically, it’s around .6%. That’s six out of every thousand pregnancies. There are actual support groups for young mothers Bristol’s age with Downs babies. I can give you a few numbers…”

But Sarah’s not thinking about support groups. The light in her brain has switched to the [on] position and a plan is hatched. Mom Sarah, realizing how other people would also associate a Downs baby with a late-in-life pregnancy, figures if she steps up and claims the baby is hers, no one would question it. She could avoid a scandal (teenage unwed mother and all that) and this pregnancy would not interfere with her political agenda. She’d only been Governor for a couple of months. This was not the time to test the public waters.

As soon as Bristol’s bump could no longer be hidden under a bulky sweatshirt, she’s pulled out of school and whisked away under the guise of having a case of mononucleosis so severe she requires complete bedrest, sans visitors. Sarah will wait until the very last minute to divulge her secret pregnancy.

After all, it’s also possible that the pregnancy would terminate itself. The doctor said there was a small but not uncommon chance that nature could intervene causing Bristol to miscarry. So she wouldn’t rush to tell people right away. She’d wait until at least the end of the second trimester.

In early March, Sarah begins wearing loose-fitting clothing. It was, after all, just faking a pregnancy. Not rocket science.

But Sarah’s impatient nature doesn’t have her slowing down. She maintains a busy schedule and keeps her eye on the political prize which lies ahead. She makes and keeps all speaking engagements. She adjusts the size of her belly, first with a simple band, then with the same fake bellies used by actresses to show the progressive phases of natural pregnancies. Which was heaps better because the band kept slipping, and she kept needing to explain why she wore her big coats indoors.

She would attribute the lack of swollen ankles and no increase in body fat to a healthy diet and good exercise. She could be pregnant and still do whatever she wanted to do. She would be the epitome of the modern woman.

Bristol going into labour while Sarah was out of state giving a speech tossed a monkey wrench into the mix, but it was still doable. The doctor had also explained that Bristol, being a first time mom would probably have a long labour. Sarah would have plenty of time to give her speech, get on the first plane out of Texas and with Todd at her side, get back to Wasilla before anyone was the wiser. She would make it home in time to say she’d comfortably delivered her baby, in her own state, by her own doctor.

As it was, Bristol didn’t deliver for several hours after she and Todd checked into the hospital. It was all good. They’d get through this politically unscathed.

The rumours of her being on the short list for the VP nomination turned out to be true. Senator McCain sent his scouts to meet with her. She assured them she was up to the task. Everything was going well.

The thing about not properly educating your children about sex, pregnancies and venereal diseases, is they are left to fumble around on their own. The old joke about the Catholic woman thinking ‘the rhythm method’ meant only having sex every Thursday night, isn’t so funny when you realize how many young women are left in the dark about how pregnancies actually happen.

I know, personally, a young woman who, at the age of 15, succumbed to having sex with her 2-year long boyfriend. She contracted herpes on their first intimate encounter. She was horrified. She looked me straight in the eye and said “but I don’t understand! I took a bath right after!”

A very common misnomer is that a woman cannot conceive directly after delivery. That while you are nursing, or bleeding from the delivery, you are safe to have unprotected sex. How appealing that must sound to many young people. Unprotected sex without consequences. No cumbersome rubber! Cool..

Enter baby Trip. And this time, Sarah can’t cover for her child. “Oh well, since we can’t hide her, we’ll just trot her out on the national stage as the pinup girl for abstinence-is-best and make some money off her speaking engagements. Bristol! You now believe in abstinence! Put down that basket of laundry and start writing your speeches!”

Well, that’s my story, and until someone from Wasilla who actually knows the truth, takes some responsibility and drags it out of the shadows and into the light of day, I’m sticking by it.

Hattip to The Immoral Minority  (link is just over there >>) for the poll at Topix.

EDIT:  Fixed stats number above. Correct stat is .6% (6/1000) rather than 6% as first posted. Thank you,  ENOUGHwiththetrainwreck,  for catching this error. (I should never try to work with numbers after midnight!)

 

Sarah Palin Betrays Pro-Life / C-SPAN Shows Integrity

Thank you so very much all of you who worked to find the missing links in the previous post on this subject. It seems C-SPAN remembered it was a News Network rather than a personal friend of Governor Palin and re-posted the Indiana speech(s) in its (their) entirety.

I’m not clear this is the exact clip I was after, given at the S.M.I.L.E. Breakfast in Evansville on Friday morning, the day after the right-to-life dinner on the evening prior – but part 8 has, if not the same, an identical explanation of Sarah’s personal choice to forego an abortion, including her statements about where Todd was, why he wasn’t in on the decision-making process, etc.

So even if it’s not the S.M.I.L.E. breakfast speech per se, it’s perfect. I’ve included part 7 so you folks in Alaska can chew the fat over her comments about how the press treated her prior to falling pregnant with Trig.  It’s puzzling, at best, but fits right in with how she attempts to continually re-write history to suit her latest whim.

Putting the kick-in-the-teeth Sarah just gave the Pro-life movement aside, this by itself should make your head spin…  Sarah claims to have found out she was pregnant while out of town. She elaborates, saying, only she and her doctor knew she was pregnant so ‘no one would know’ implying she could have had an abortion and no one would find out.

Two things, above all others, are radically wrong with this portion of Sarah’s speech. First and foremost is the simple fact that if she were genuinely a Pro-Life Advocate, worrying about who would find out what would be irrelevant because there would be no thought of abortion, period. That would be murder.

Second, and perhaps the more troubling to me, is why on earth would she have had a pregnancy test taken by an out of town doctor in the first place? Does she not know about home pregnancy tests? Do they not have those in Alaska? Why would an out-of-town doctor know about her pregnancy unless she sought medical advice of some kind? What prompted her to visit a doctor while out of town?

She didn’t bother to see an out-of-town doctor when her water broke while carrying a pre-mature baby known to have Downs syndrome – in fact, she made a huge fuss over not wanting to see any doctor but her own. (Hence, the long trek back to Alaska rather than checking into the nearest hospital in Texas.) So - why go to an out-of-town doctor for a pregnancy test one can purchase from any chemist and take in the privacy of one’s own home, only to turn around a year later and claim the reason you had to travel thousands of miles with a leaking placenta was because you needed to get to your own doctor?

Yes, my head is cocked sideways and I’m squinting again… Pick a story Sarah, any story…

The New Republic quotes Sarah’s speech here, and does quite a clean job of defending her right to make these statements and still consider herself a Pro-Lifer. However, their readers didn’t buy it and the comments which ensue end up being the better read. I especially liked this one, which I am happily pinching without seeking permission. Just call me guilty and hit me over the head with a gavel

blackton says:
What aggravates me about Palin is her acting as though her having a down’s syndrome child is a mark of heroism on her part. My wife and I recently had a baby, I am Palin’s age and even having one older parent increases the risk, but we had no amnio done. It was just something we did not even consider since we were having the baby and amnio presents some risk. We would only have done it at the express wish of the doctor.

How is it that she knew she was having a down’s baby unless she had an amnio? Maybe it is SOP for women her age but she could simply have asked if there was any risk to her life. If she were truly pro life she would not have known, as my wife and I did not know. We did not even want to know the sex except when having the ultrasound his little unit displayed itself prominently. We had 2 sons, and wanted a daughter, but que sera sera.

I am not pro-life, except personally. I told my wife before we got married that if she became pregnant she would have the baby unless her health were at risk, or we would not get married. It was not as draconian as it sounds since she felt the same way. Our adhering to our own principles doesn’t make us heroic, it is far easier to live by ones own code than to go against it.

But Palin, hell she wants to live by her code, get applauded for doing so, and have the option to violate her own code secretly if it ever becomes inconvenient while acting as though she were against the option. She is a disgrace. It is a mark of how loathsome Republicans have become that if she did not have a downs syndrome baby, but just a normal Iq baby, she probably never would have gotten picked as VP.

So there you have it Sarah – when you decided to tout yourself as Pro-Life to get a few votes, you really should have done your homework first and figured out what being a Pro-Lifer actually entailed. Oh wait. You don’t do homework, do you…

Hattip to Dr. Patois for the C-SPAN links – and all the inbetween digging around in the mud.

 

Sarah Palin Betrays Pro-Life Movement **update updated – again!**

 

 The following is a quote from The Immoral Minority (post 09 May 2009) regarding dismissal of the Sondra Tompkins ethics complaint filed against Gov. Sarah Palin by Alaska Attorney Thomas Daniel. By now, we all know the background story of the dozen or so ethics violations complaints lodged against the governor, but if it has somehow missed your desktop, the links in Gryphen’s post will bring you up to date.

However, I’m not here to discuss the ethics complaints. For me, there’s a far more insipient train of flawed logic which warrants attention. I first heard it in one of the Governors 2008 campaign speeches. It was veiled inside carefully chosen words, but it was there. Then I heard it distinct and clear in the middle of her Pro-Life speech given last month in Indiana. And now, here it is again, in black and white for all to read:

Regarding the trip to Evansville, Indiana, near the end of the legislative session, Daniel concluded that Tompkins was wrong again about the governor using her official position for personal gain. “The governor was not invited to speak at the right-to-life dinner in Indiana because she is governor of Alaska. Rather she was invited because of her national standing, her outspoken opposition to abortion, and her recent personal decision to forego an abortion.”

 

Pro-Life philosophy is founded on the basic principle that neither doctor nor mother have a right to decide to end fetal life. Pro-Life philosophy maintains that life begins at conception and aborting a fetus at any stage, for any reason is tantamount to murder. Pro-life advocates blow up abortion clinics resulting in hundreds of deaths to show how strongly they believe in this preservation of life. They tell camera and reporter alike that they represent and speak for the unborn child who cannot speak for itself.

Pro-Life advocates don’t believe in choice. By sheer definition, an advocate of Pro-Life does not choose to keep her pregnancy because at the heart of her belief she is morally obligated from the point of conception to keep it. No doubts. No questions. No wavering. No choice.

So when the national poster girl for Pro-Life uses the excuse of needing to leave important legislative negotiations to travel across country to give a speech because she needed to speak out about her having made a “recent personal decision to forego an abortion” to counteract an ethics violations complaint, it seems to me that very statement should be raising eyebrows at Pro-Life headquarters across the globe.

Let me say this one more time: Pro-Life advocates do not make personal decisions to forego abortions. They assist other, non-pro-life believers in making that decision. For the advocate themselves, there is no choice to be made.

And before one of Sarah’s staffers can swoop down and alter Thomas Daniel’s above quote, why not hear it from Sarah herself?

This video clip is a middle section of her speech in Indiana, where she details how she made her decision to keep baby Trig to a roomful of adoring fans – none of whom actually listened or they would have been as appalled as I am.

Sarah describes the circumstances surrounding how she made her choice (including the fact she was out of town, no one knew her therefore no one would know, not even Todd) at 4:40

Pro- Choice isn’t about abortion. Pro-Choice advocates choose to maintain their pregnancies every day. Pro-Choice is about having the right to make that choice to begin with, based upon an individual’s life circumstances and personal beliefs. For Sarah Palin to say she’s undergone and understands the thought process of choosing to either abort or maintain her 13 week old fetus with DS is an admission she made a choice – which completely opposes the Pro-Life philosophy – more or less shooting it in the foot.

As a true Pro-Life advocate, Sarah would not have entertained the idea of fetal termination when she first discovered her late-in-life pregnancy, as claimed. Not for one second would the thought of killing her 13 week old unborn child later on,waft over her soul. And I’ve been absolutely God-smacked that no one in the Pro-Life movement has picked up on this and called her to task.

Either you truly believe in something Sarah, or you’re just an aging vaudville act complete with smoke and mirrors and a bottle of snake oil to sell.

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

HOW CONVENIENT THAT  ALL SEVEN OF THE SEVEN PART VIDEO OF SARAH’S SPEECH IN EVANSVILLE INDIANA HAVE SUDDENLY AND MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED FROM YOUTUBE.

MUST BE ALL THAT OPEN AND TRANSPARENT ALASKA AIR THE GOVERNOR KEEPS TELLING US ABOUT

If anyone has video footage of Sarah Palin’s speech commonly called the “Smile Breakfast” in Evansville Indiana, please contact me via this blog.

* * * * * * * * * * UPDATE  TWO * * * * * * * * * *

Many thanks to Dr. Patois for providing this link. All seven parts of the smile breakfast speech can be viewed here. While all the clips are interesting, it is the sixth clip in the series which reveals Sarah Palin’s thought process for choosing to maintain her pregnancy – clearly illustrating to a roomful of Pro-Life followers, that she actively made a choice.

* * * * * * * * * * UPDATE  THREE * * * * * * * * * *

And poof it was gone!  I did get to listen one more time, but by the time I posted the link the clip had been removed. The right-to-life speech given the night before was covered by C-SPAN. It’s likely they also covered the following morning’s breakfast speech in Evansville.

It occurs to me that if enough people requested it, if C-SPAN does control the footage, they might be coaxed into putting it back on public display.

Really Sarah, having copies of this speech removed from view only piques everyone’s curiosity, causing all of us to ask… what are you trying to hide missy?