Sarah Palin Bites the Dust

Sarah Palin disagrees with those who say her campaign messages were negative.  She replies that she was just asking questions that were important—questions about Barack Obama's character and judgment.  How could he "pal around" with domestic terrorists, after all?  And for sure, Sarah said, her supporters really wanted to hear that Joe the (not) Plumber thought Obama's economic plans sounded like socialism to him.  And my goodness, this was the wrong time to experiment with socialism!  Terrorist!  Arab!  Muslim!  Socialist!  Marxist!  Kill him!  That's not negative, Sarah said.  That was just asking questions that people wanted answers to.

Sarah Palin denies she acted like a diva, and boy, she sure would like to know who would say such a thing.  She'd also like to know who told the world she didn't have a clue about Africa being a continent and all, and who spilled the beans about her greeting McCain aides wrapped in a bath towel.  She just won't even respond to the allegations of being a Wasilla hillbilly because hey, if you say that sort of thing anonymously, you can't expect her to address it at all.  And don't forget, she was completely exonerated of any wrong-doing whatsoever in Troopergate—the front page of the newspaper even said so, even though the front page of the same newspaper said exactly the opposite just a few weeks earlier.

Sarah Palin blames McCain aides for not noticing that she had this exclusive phone interview with French President Sarkozy all set up.  How could they be so incompetent?  And how was she to know it was a prank call?  He sounded French, and gosh darnit, what friendly world leader wouldn't want to have a little chat with her seeing as how she was almost the Vice President and all?  How was she supposed to know that she should've mentioned it?

There's a lot of chatter now about what happens to the Alaskan un-diva.  Can she be rehabilitated and show up again in 2012?  I don't think so, and here's why:

She is inherently lazy.  She participated in a beauty pageant in the hopes of winning prize money to pay her college tuition instead of getting a job and working her way through school.  She hired someone (for $50,000 a year) to handle the mayor-stuff in her village of 5-6000 people when she was the mayor.  She quit her job at  the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission because it involved travel and work away from home.  Even now, she would rather stay at home instead of travel to do her job as Governor of Alaska—witness the thousands of dollars of per diem she's charged.  The AK Legislature started wearing buttons saying, "Where is Sarah?" 

She thinks all it takes is prayer to be catapulted into office.  This is convenient because it means she doesn't have to prepare or learn more.  After all, she's been anointed as "the one" by the dominionists, and as long as Pastor Muthee and the rest keep praying, all she has to do is show up and file the paperwork on time.  She believes she already knows all she needs to know.  ("I know that I know that I know...") That's why she doesn't blink.

She is irredeemably provincial.  She's lived in Alaska and Idaho, two of the most red states in the union.  She is hopelessly unaware of the world as it exists outside those borders.  She only learns the names of those who can further her career directly, which explains why she didn't pause when the prankster referred to Canada's Prime Minister as Steph Carse.  Alaska is her whole world.

She is an unconscionable liar.  She denied being found in violation of Alaska ethics laws by her own state's Legislative Council.  She kept saying she refused the earmark funds for the "Bridge to Nowhere" which never got built, but she kept the funds.  She keeps denying she spent any money on a lavish wardrobe (including silk boxers and $20-40,000 more in men's wear for Todd) but the receipts keep coming in to RNC central.  She repeatedly implied that her biggest achievement as Governor was working to get a massive gas pipeline to deliver energy to the lower 48, yet the ground-breaking ceremony for this pipeline is 8-10 years away, if it even happens.

And finally, she fails to understand how woefully unprepared she still is for national office.  If she had acknowledged her shortcomings, she would have blinked in the first place... if she accepted that she needed serious schooling, she be talking about educating herself more now... if she admitted mistakes at all she wouldn't be playing the blame game.   Instead, she blames the media for raining on her parade.  She blames the Democrats for outing Joe the Plumber.  She blames the sexist people in the lower 48, saying they are not as advanced as Alaskans.  Sadly, for the GOP faithful who still see her as a viable competitor, they are doomed to be disappointed again.

Sarah, I wish we did not know ya
Like we do now, you bet'cha
I'll guarantee we'll keep an eye on ya
And we'll never ever let'cha
Hit the ballot on the national scene again.

Two Words - Two Days

The blue candle is lit and slowly effusing a sweet scent, next to a street-side window.  Armed with a new (and first for me) camcorder, I've signed up for duty on November 4, as needed, through Video The Vote.  Now that it's dark, I've lit the lights inside O'Pumpkin and placed it back on the rail of the front porch.  That's O'Pumpkin's place every night between October 29 and November 5.

 

Be sure to vote, and then help others vote.  Our voices must be heard this time, no matter how hard some try to suppress the sound.  Two days.  Hope is alive.

Fall Foliage, Voting and Chickens

By this time in October our deciduous trees are usually well done with shining golden, orange and red.  The chill autumn wind, brisk and cleansing, would have stripped the brightly colored leaf-confetti from the branches, blowing candy corn-tinted swirls across the yards and down the streets.  But on this day in late October, many leaves are still green and well-attached to their branches.  I'll call it anecdotal confirmation of global warming.

October 28, 2008 in Jefferson County, WV

But back to voting and chickens.  :)

I went to our local courthouse for early voting today — about 10:00 AM on a workday.  There was a steady stream of folks coming in the doors, with at least 30 people in line or voting at any one time.  First stop was at a table where two clerks helped sign us in, comparing our signatures with records they seemed to have on their computer screens. We then moved down the corridor to wait in line to enter a fairly small anteroom with six voting stands where we received a large two-sided ballot.  The process only slowed down when a few people finished voting at the same time and waited to return their completed optical scan ballot to the single clerk whose job it was to slip the paper ballot from its outer jacket into the reader and then pronounce, "Congratulations, you've just voted."

The fellow who was sitting by the entry, separating voters from other courthouse visitors and pointing them to the end of the early voting line, told me the turnout has been much larger than he's ever seen. I hope that is a good sign.

While there, I verified when and where the poll tapes would be posted, and plan to return (on November 5th) to take a photo of the results from the machines.  

But tell me if this isn't at least a little strange — at the top of the ballot we had the option to vote for a straight party ticket.  Here's what those ovals and descriptions looked like:

Image from 56th District, Jefferson Co., WV ballot

The Republican Party has a proud, wings-outstretched eagle, the icon of American patriotism.  The Mountain Party has an emblem depicting, well, mountains, as in 'purple mountain majesties,' and all that.  But the Democratic Party gets ... a chicken?  An indignant chicken even?  There's no pronounced comb or wattle befitting a rooster, so it must be a chicken.  Call me silly, but I have to wonder who is responsible for this imagery.  What's wrong with elephants and donkeys?

I don't understand how West Virginia became a red state.  It never used to be.  We have two Democratic Senators and a Democratic Governor.  Yes, well, my congressional district does have Republican S.M. Capito but I'm hopeful her Democratic opponent can unseat her.  Half the local races for positions like County Clerk, Sheriff, and Judge didn't even have Republican contenders.

On the way home I took comfort in noting that my neighborhood's Obama signs clearly outnumber the McCain ones.  I spotted two new Obama signs today, one at the house right across the street from me.  Now if the leaves would only turn color and drift down, we chickens would be able to rake up some fun piles to scratch in.

What If Sarah Fails a Background Check?

According to CBS and other sources, the McCain campaign added Sarah Pailin's name to the list at a late date and the FBI did not perform a background check before she was picked as the Vice Presidential nominee.

Now that she has officially accepted the nomination, what happens if further checks turn up something awkward, or illegal, or even questionable?  Can she be un-nominated?  Would the McCain campaign send her back to Alaska?  Would the campaign even let us know about it?

On another blog somewhere, I read a comment that went like this:

What does it say about our media when we have to go to the National Enquirer for facts about politicians?  They earned some 'street cred' by staying on and being right about the John Edwards affair story.

Hey, Sarah Palin...

If you haven't already, visit Mudflats blog for a straightforward peek into who Sarah Palin is.

McCain Picks Palin: Lots of Real Stories

Depending on who you read, you'll get a different angle on what "the real story" is around the Republican nominee's VP pick. Here are just a few, accompanied by an image of Sarah Palin in Feb. 2008, reportedly 6+ months pregnant:

1. Sarah Palin's family values
• Endangering her unborn child with Down Syndrome, about to be born prematurely, by flying cross-country instead of seeking qualified medical care once her water broke
• Revealing to the world that her 17 yr old unwed daughter was pregnant, in order to counter viral internet rumors suggesting she had faked her pregnancy to cover the 17 yr old's pregnancy (let that one sink in a bit)
  
• Accepting the McCain campaign's offer to become the vice presidential candidate, a stressful and demanding role, instead of personally taking care of her special needs infant, her 7 yr old daughter, her 14 yr old daughter, and her pregnant 17 yr old daughter
2. Sarah Palin's ethics
   
• Alleged abuse of power as Mayor, firing two city officials and pushing two other city officials out for supporting her opponent in the mayoral election
• Alleged abuse of power as Governor, firing the state's chief law enforcement official because he would not buckle under pressure to fire a state trooper who was involved in a bitter custody battle with her sister
• Alleged abuse of power as Governor, summarily firing her own legislative liaison at the request of her husband who was distressed because the man was dating the soon to be ex-wife of the husband's friend
• Allegedly hacked into fellow Alaskan Oil and Gas Commission member's computer, obtaining 'dirt' on the member who was later fined for doing party work on government computers
• Alleged use of Mayor's office computers to do political work in her unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2002
  
3. Sarah Palin's ability to govern well
   
• Hiring a deputy administrator to run the mayor's office for her, and leaving the town $20 million in debt when she left
  
• Disbanding the state's Agricultural Board because one of their subcommittees made recommendations she disagreed with, and hiring a new Board that ended up making the same recommendations, after costing the state an additional $900,000
• Replacing Alaska's public safety commissioner (whom she fired) with a man who had to resign two weeks later due when his sexual harassment history emerged, and then giving this man a $10,000 (or $15,000, I've heard both) separation paycheck
  
4. Sarah Palin's education and life experience
   
• Holding only a BS in journalism (1987), with no evidence of continuing education
  
• Obtaining a passport for the first time in 2007 for her only trip overseas to date
  
5. Sarah Palin's religious influence
   
• Exhorting members of her church to pray for a gas pipeline because it was God's will that the pipeline go through
• Supporting teaching creationism in public schools
  
• Attempting to get certain books (on evolution?) banned from her local library while she was Mayor
• Believing that the US Military is doing God's work in Iraq
  
6. Sarah Palin's job history
   
• 1988—briefly worked as a sports reporter
• 1992-1995—Wasilla city council member
• 1996-2001—Mayor of Wasilla (pop. 5469 in 2000)
  
• 2003—Chair of Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, but then resigned
  
• 2003-2005—one of 3 directors of a 527 PAC supporting Ted Stevens
• December 2006-present—Governor of Alaska
7. Sarah Palin's honesty
   
• Ran for Governor on a "build-the-bridge" platform, but after Congress rescinded the earmark, claimed that she was the one who told Congress no thanks on "the bridge to nowhere"
  
• Claimed that no one in the Governor's office had pressured anyone to fire the state trooper (her sister's ex-husband) but later admitted it when e-mails and recorded conversations were released
  
8. Sarah Palin and "Country First"
   
• Associating with the Alaska Independence Party for more than a decade, addressing their convention from her Governor's desk with words of support and encouragement
  
• Happy about her candidacy because it will be "great for Alaska"
  
9. John McCain's wisdom (or absence thereof)
   
• Campaign didn't go through routine vetting process
• McCain met her once
  
• FBI didn't vet her either
  

In other Alaska news, attorneys for embattled Senator Ted Stevens will try to keep certain audio tapes from the jury—saying the FBI illegally wiretapped an Alaska oil contractor and just happened to get Ted on tape 105 times. The irony is delicious.

P.S. Here's a truly terrific blog about Alaska, and Sarah Palin in particular!

Palin, Trig, and Baldwin-Johnson

A few days ago John McCain announced his surprise Vice Presidential candidate: first-term Governor from Alaska, Sarah Palin. While most of us were scratching our heads asking, "why?" others began busily taking a look at just who Sarah might be.

Lying About Abuse of Power
One of the first things that turned up was a potential debacle concerning an abuse of power charge resulting from what looks to be Sarah's unjustifiable firing of Alaska's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan. Governor Sarah, her husband Todd, and members of her gubernatorial staff tried to pressure the commissioner to fire her sister's ex-husband, an Alaska State Trooper named Mike Wooten. When Walt wouldn't get rid of the trooper, Sarah got rid of Walt. Audio tapes and e-mails now show that Walt was pressured to fire Mike, even though Sarah initially denied any interference. You can find detailed information about this ongoing investigation online, using keywords: Wooten, Monegan, Palin. TPM Muckraker has a detailed write-up on the scandal.

Pretending Motherhood?
The next thing that turned up is a rumor that has been floating around Alaska for a few months. It has to do with the Governor's surprise 5th pregnancy and the rather strange circumstances surrounding the birth of Trig Paxson Van Palin, now a 4-month old infant with Down syndrome. The rumor goes something like this: the Governor is not the mother as she claims, but the grandmother of the baby. The mother of the baby is the Governor's daughter, Bristol. Bristol, now 17, is seen in recent campaign videos holding Trig in a tender, motherly embrace.

I honestly don't know about this — whether Sarah or Bristol or someone else entirely gave birth to the baby. But I started looking up information about the birth story itself.


Risky Behavior
March 2008: Sarah publicly announces that she is 7 months pregnant. The announcement shocked everyone — reporters, friends, and people in the Governor's office that she worked with daily. To a person, everyone expressed disbelief, since the Governor didn't look at all pregnant.

April 2008: Sarah tells this story to the media. She was supposed to give a keynote address in Texas on Thursday, April 17, 2008, so she flew from Alaska down to Texas. At 4:00 AM on the 17th she notices she is leaking amniotic fluid. At this point, she is 8 months pregnant. Such a sign is never welcome, as it portends possible fetal distress and a premature birth. However, Sarah is adamant that she wants to deliver her keynote address so she stays in Texas and gives her luncheon speech. She says she called her doctor and the doctor said, okay.

After the speech is over, she reschedules her return flight and heads back to Alaska. Again, she says she called her doctor and the doctor said, okay. She takes off on a commercial jet that afternoon. The jet makes one stopover and she arrives back in Alaska around 10:30 PM that night. Then, she and her husband drive another 45 minutes to the Mat-Su Medical Center, a small, regional hospital near Wasilla, Alaska, where she checks in. Her doctor decides to induce labor and Trig is born around 6:00 AM on the 18th. The birth is announced in local news articles.

More Than Just a Doctor-Patient Relationship
Sarah's doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, is a family practice physician. Baldwin-Johnson was named the 2002 Family Physician of the Year by the American Academy of Family Physicians, after being recommended by Sarah Palin, then mayor of Wasilla. In 2007, as governor, Sarah created the Alaska Health Care Strategies Planning Council and appointed Baldwin-Johnson to this important planning council.

The doctor practices her specialty (which I find very interesting WRT the baby-gate rumors) in a clinic she founded, the Providence Matanuska Health Care center.

Today, Baldwin-Johnson spends most of her days at Providence Matanuska Health Care center, a 38-employee facility she founded, but which became affiliated with Providence three years ago. She also spends at least a half-day per week volunteering at The Children's Place, a nonprofit organization with six paid employees that opened in March of 1999 after two years of planning.

Much of her work there involves working with children coming from physical- or sexual-abuse backgrounds. Baldwin-Johnson has received special training in working with children of abuse. Her interest in working with abused children stemmed from what she was seeing in her medical practice.

"Family physicians not only see children that perhaps have been physically or sexually abused or neglected, but also they see the long-term effects (of that abuse). There are a lot of pregnant and parenting teen-agers with a history of maltreatment, especially sexual abuse." [my emphasis]

I've been unable to confirm if Baldwin-Johnson is affiliated with the Mat-Su Medical Center. For some reason their Physicians page won't load for me. [9-1-2008 Update: the whole site is down today.] What I find interesting is that Mat-Su does not show Trig's birth on their birth announcement page and the doctor doesn't seem to have expertise in premature Down syndrome babies, and the hospital was not equipped with a neonatal intensive care unit which one would hope to have available when a Down syndrome baby is born, especially when born prematurely.

No End to Questions
I'm not sure what all this might mean. But, why would 44-yr-old Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, risk serious complications by traveling so far, so late in her pregnancy? Why did her doctor give her the go-ahead? Why would she ask a family physician whose expertise seems to be with sexually-abused children to handle a risky birth of a Down syndrome baby, instead of seeing an OB-GYN with more specific experience? Why does Sarah go out of her way to travel to a rural hospital that doesn't have facilities to handle premature babies, when she knows there may be life-threatening birth complications? Surely she had the resources to go to the best facility Alaska (or Texas for that matter) had to offer! Why does the birth not show on the Mat-Su Medical Center's register? And why would she take this premature special needs infant to work with her 3 days after the birth?

One or two oddities does not a big deal make. But the story as told just does not add up. There are too many anomalies.

I'll leave aside for now my personal thoughts about a mother of 5 jumping in to a presidential campaign that, if successful, would transport her from Governor of a low-population state to Vice President of the United States.