I have more Foreign Policy Experience Than Sarah Palin

Sunday, October 12, 2008

I have more Foreign Policy Experience Than Sarah Palin

http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/10/11/good-grief-i-have-more-foreign-policy-experience-than-sarah-palin/ Go here to read the entire article from The Progressive Curmudgeon

Sarah Palin’s “Foreign Policy” Experience: 12 Hours Over 19 Months

Jan 19, 2007 – Palin meets with Fentie for 30 minutes, with Lloyd for 30 minutes, and with Bell for 30 minutes. She does not attend the PNWER dinner hosted that night by the Canadian government for Alaskan officials and business leaders.

Feb 24, 2007 – In Washington, DC, for a National Governors Assn. meeting, Palin attends a reception at the Italian embassy. She stays for 30 minutes before leaving for a dinner hosted by the Republican Governors Assn.

Mar 10, 2007 – Palin hosts the annual Fur & Ice reception in Fairbanks for about 30 diplomats and international tourism representatives. A Palin news release issued before the event noted, “Governor Sarah Palin will welcome members of Alaska’s diplomatic corps to Fairbanks to view the ice carvings of Ice Alaska’s 2007 World Ice Art Championship.” Following the afternoon reception, Palin attends the NCAA rifle championships.

Mar 19, 2007 – Palin meets with 10 foreign exchange students.

April, 3, 2007 – Palin spends 15 minutes filming a short video message for a trade show in China.

April 4, 2007 – In Juneau, Palin meets with British Columbia’s premier Gordon Campbell and several of his aides for about 90 minutes.

April 16, 2007 – Palin meets with Taiwanese officials for an hour.

May 15, 2007 – Palin holds a “brief courtesy” meeting with Martin Uden, then the head of the British consulate in San Francisco. The calendar notes, “He’ll be visiting Juneau today off of one of the Cruise Ships.”

July 23-26, 2007 – Palin visits Kuwait to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard. (After Palin was selected as McCain’s running mate, her aides, referring to this trip, said she travelled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait and Iraq. But on this visit, she did not go beyond the Kuwaiti-Iraq border and her “visit” to Ireland consisted of a refuelling stop.)

Aug 27, 2007 – David Akov, Israeli consul general for the Pacific Northwest, pays a 30-minute “courtesy call” on Palin.

Sept 12, 2007 – Palin holds a 15-minute-long “courtesy” meeting with Hideo Fujita, the new chief of Japan’s consulate in Anchorage.

Sept 13, 2007 – Palin holds a 15-minute long “courtesy” meeting with Peng Keyu, the head of the Chinese consulate in San Francisco.

Oct 15, 2007 – Palin meets Iceland’s president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, for 30 minutes. Grimsson is in Alaska to attend the Arctic Energy Summit Technology Conference. (After she became McCain’s running mate, she was asked if she had ever met with a world leader. She said, no — forgetting this meeting.)

Jan 4, 2008 – Palin holds a 10-minute-long phone conversation with Canadian Minister of Industry Jim Prentice. Her calendar also refers to “Canadian officials phone calls” that day.

Jan 21, 2008 – Palin is schedule for a brief “stop by” visit with Joe Balash, a Palin aide, and Brian Mason, a member of the legislative assembly of Alberta, Canada. The calendar says, “Balash Office would like a picture w/GOV.”

March 8, 2008 – Palin welcomes guests to the 2008 Fur & Ice reception for the diplomatic corps. Diplomats from the Philippines, South Korea, the Slovak Republic, South Africa, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Poland, Finland, Germany, and Egypt attend. Her calendar lists no separate meetings with any of them.

May 22, 2008 – At 7:15 am, Palin calls Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie; for ten minutes they discuss news that her administration will ask the state legislature to award a license for a 1,715-mile-long natural gas pipeline to TransCanada. (Her administration has turned down bids from other conglomerates, including ConocoPhillips.) Later, she has a five-minute-long phone call with Canadian Minister of Industry Jim Prentice.

Aug 11-12, 2008 – Palin attends a reception and delivers welcoming remarks for the 8th Conference of Arctic Parliamentarians which includes delegates from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. This year, it holds panels on human health in the Arctic region, Arctic marine policy, adaptation to climate change, and energy resources in the Arctic. After welcoming the delegates, Palin leaves to attend a “dedication and blessing ceremony” for a cultural and visitors center in Fairbanks.

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Reasons to Oppose Sarah Palin

*lied about her position on Bridge to Nowhere in her first public appearance as VP Nominee. She kept the money and used it on other projects.

*lied throughout her Nomination speech

*abused her power as Mayor to fire city librarian who would not ban books

*embarrassed her daughter internationally by failing to consider that her pregnancy might become a news item

*practices cronyism. "Heck of a job, Palin!" Hired high school chum to head the State Department of Agriculture. Her experience? She liked cows as a child. Responsible leaders appoint the most qualified people.

*increased city of Wasilla's debt from ZERO to $26 Million dollars. That's not "conservative", that's neo-conservative.

*slacker! Hired a city manager so she would not have so much to do. Made the city buy her a white Suburban, which people called the mayor-mobile.

*insider who claims to be an outsider and a reformer while doing exactly what Bush has done
*supports the indicted Senator Ted Stevens
*raised taxes on oil producers so she could perform a cheap political stunt by providing a one-time rebate to taxpayers. Alaska has the lowest rate of high-school graduation of any state. Should have made schools more effective.

*said that the City of Wasilla would not fund "rape kits" for victims of rape, and made the victim pay

*religious extremist whose Pastor told parishioners that a vote for John Kerry would send them to hell.

*Joel's Army is a group dedicated to taking over the US Government for religious reasons. Her church supports Joel's Army.

*defies the law by denying native Alaskans subsistence fishing rights

*opposes scientifically sound policies whenever possible, including fact-based sex education, and is a global-warming denier.

*cheats taxpayers. She charged the state of Alaska for over 300 nights that she spent in her own home, to the tune of $17,000.00.

*opposes women's autonomy. Wants women to carry pregnancies resulting from rape and incest.

*cut funding each year for support programs for new teen mothers

*fraudulently uses state money to support so-called crisis pregnancy centers that aim to force women to carry all pregnancies to term.

*political opportunist. Sees what public opinion is then takes that position rather leading.

Documentation for these claims is contained here in the Sarah Palin--Unfit blog.

On Sarah Palin's Judgment

On Sarah Palin’s Judgment

By: Deborah Lake
September 2, 2008

"I really hope McCain did his homework," said David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush. "I cannot stifle a growing sense of unease that he didn't."

I read a detailed article about the vetting process performed by the McCain campaign upon choosing Sarah Palin. I found myself, however, mesmerized by the photo that accompanied the article. Standing behind her jubilant mother was young Miss Palin, holding young Trig, and biting her lip. Young Miss Palin knew what was coming down the pike, but her mother was oblivious to the harm she might be causing her eldest daughter.

During a search today, I found an article about Palin and her children at the Jerusalem Post, which included comments about young Miss Palin’s pregnancy. I shudder to think of the shame that she must be enduring at this moment, with the impending birth of her child now an international incident.

This sorry mess illustrates why we should worry about Sarah Palin sitting a heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States. A sensible mother would have declined the nomination, knowing how it might hurt her daughter. In particular, a mother who has taken a public political stand against fact-based sex education should have known that accepting a place on the Presidential ticket endangered her family.

Every parent knows that kids get into trouble. The issue here is not young Miss Palin. Rather, it is Sarah Palin’s failure to anticipate the consequences of her actions that should give us pause.

Furthermore, Sarah Palin has turned her daughter into a poster child for ending “abstinence-only” sex education. People, even teenagers, are capable of absorbing and analyzing information that helps them make good decisions. Palin’s inability to analyze led to these errors. If you tell a young woman that she has no safe way to end a pregnancy, and then give her no tools to avoid an unintended pregnancy, the results are a foregone conclusion. It almost seems as though people like Sarah Palin want to make others miserable. Should someone with such poor judgment have the potential to command the largest military force ever known to humankind? This goes for Palin, and it goes double for McCain.

What kind of “family values” do the Republicans stand for, is what I wonder. Is it ok to destroy a young woman’s privacy and anonymity in the quest for power, within the Republican family values? If this were a Democratic VP pick, you’re darn tootin’ the Republicans would be having a Grand Old Predator attack, pointing out how those evil liberals said one thing, and did the other. In actuality, liberals generally stand by their principles, rather than saying one thing out loud for public consumption and then doing the exact opposite in their private lives.*

I have to chalk it up to inexperience, and perhaps incuriosity, and perhaps the lust for power: the very traits most prominent in Palin’s emotional makeup.
___________

An earlier version of the article was captured at www.truthout.org
http://www.truthout.org/article/with-palin-revelations-mccains-gamble-is-clearer
The photo I include here has since been removed from the article and another, less revealing photo has been substituted.

The revised article here.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-palinassess2-2008sep02,0,3826591.story

*Note that I said, generally. Liberal men still let other parts of their bodies do the thinking for them, I note, for example, Elliot Spitzer and John Edwards. But those are the exceptions to the rule, rather than the rule.

One of the most liberal states, Massachusetts, has the lowest rate of divorce in the USA. The South, the proclaimed Bible Belt, has the highest number of teen pregnancies. Therefore, I do not understand why conservatives think that they are more “moral” than liberals. I was raised by a libertarian Republican, and spent half of my life in rural America, so I have street cred. That makes it even more difficult for me to understand why conservatives think that they are more “moral” than liberals.

One website I dread to visit is http://www.armchairsubversive.com/. The webweaver lists the street crimes of members of the Republican Party and other right wing organizations.

The most prevalent crime is child molestation. When I ask a conservative Christian friend why they are not running a campaign against child molestation they give me a glassy stare. Otherwise, they claim that there is not much of a problem there.

I wonder about right-wing morals. They seem like a nice dress brought out for a special occasion. When the party's over, though, it's right back to the down-home values of molesting children, bullying people, practicing prejudice, and figuring out yet more ways to legally steal other people's money.

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Sarah Palin - Unfit to Serve

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Sunday, October 12, 2008