Massive Palin Scandal Brewing

Whoa! It's the Alaska right-wing criminal conspiracy! How cute. They are all in bed together.

Not that Democrats are immune from charges of helpin' out their buddies...it's just not INSTITUTIONALIZED as it is for the Republicans.


http://plaidlemur.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/massive-palin-scandal-brewing/

The Branchflower Report: Reports of Palin's Innocence are Exaggerated

Branchflower Report, Page 12.

Todd Palin's call to John D. Glass about Trooper Wooten

Veteran Alaska law enforcement officer John D. Glass received a call from Todd Palin on November 8, 2006, four days after Sarah Palin was elected Governor of Alaska.

Mr. Palin wanted to talk about Mike Wooten. At the time Glass was the Chief of Police for the Wasilla Police Department. He was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety by Walt Monegan a short while later. At the time he received the call from Palin, Chief Glass had two vacant police officer positions on his police force.

Chief Glass testified:

MR. GLASS: Todd had basically told me that he did not want Wooten
hired as a City police officer, that Wooten was a very bad trooper and
needed to be fired from his job as a trooper, and that Wooten should not be
considered at all as a City police officer.

Palin Calling for an End to Investigation She Requested

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5827023&page=1

The outrageousness of this new twist surpasses my wildest imaginings. She called for an investigation, the Republican-dominated Alaska Senate Committee voted for it. Now she wants to end it because it might be getting close to information that she does not want revealed?

And the reason that she now gives for Monaghan's firing is that he sought money to help victims of sexual crime? Why would anyone find THAT reason more legitimate than the ostensible and logical reason for his firing: that he defied pressure from the governor's office into an internal matter having to do with intra-family feuding?

Someone give me a drug that will help this situation make sense, ok? If she has nothing to hide, then she should allow the investigation to continue. If she has something to hide, well...she is doing a good job of making that perfectly clear...she has something to hide.

Update: A suit has now been filed to stop the investigation. http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5816914&page=1

~Deb


Palin Calling for an End to Investigation She Requested
Alaska AG Also Has New Objections to Probe
By EMMA SCHWARTZ and JUSTIN ROOD
Sept. 17, 2008—

GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin shifted her tactics for the second time in three weeks on the "Troopergate" investigation, this time calling to end the very investigation that she herself called for and the one the McCain campaign had said was the only proper venue for a probe.

Palin's Attorney General, who initially launched an internal probe into Palin, even before the legislature began theirs, is now asking the legislators to withdraw their subpoenas of Palin aides and Palin's husband.

When the Alaska Legislature's Legislative Council, a Republican-dominated panel of 14 legislators which conducts business when the Legislature is out session, voted to investigate the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan in July, Palin pledged her full support.

But almost immediately after joining the GOP ticket, Palin's Troopergate strategy veered sharply. Despite her earlier vows of full cooperation with the probe, she declared it unlawful. The legislature lacked the authority to investigate the matter, she said. Instead, it should be handled by the state personnel board, Palin asserted -- a panel which is under her authority.

Palin promptly filed an ethics complaint against herself, prompting the panel to begin its own probe. "GOVERNOR PALIN CALLS FOR FORMAL REVIEW OF REPLACEMENT OF COMMISSIONER MONEGAN," headlined the Sept. 2 press statement released by her lawyer's office announcing the move. "I. . . look forward to the Personnel Board's investigation," Palin's statement read.

But on Monday, Palin shifted tactics again: Her attorney, Thomas V. Van Flein moved to stop that panel's efforts, saying the governor's lawyers had reviewed all the evidence and saw no grounds for any investigation. In his filing, Van Flein argued there was "no probable cause" for such an investigation.

McCain-Palin campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said the move was not a flip-flop. "The filing on the 15th was the mechanism to provide evidence to the personnel board investigation, which they will now have to consider. The governor is cooperating fully with the unbiased, nonpartisan investigation by the personnel board," said Griffin. He said he expected they will gather evidence themselves.

Now, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg has sent a letter asking legislators to withdraw the subpoenas they had approved for 10 state employees. In his letter, Colberg wrote that the employees would only testify unless the full state Senate or Legislature voted to compel their testimony.

Colberg launched his own internal administration probe before the legislature began its own -- and before Palin moved onto the Republican ticket. Critics reportedly criticized Colberg's probe saying it was an effort to tamper with witnesses before the state's investigator reached out to them.

Colberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Colberg owes his position to Palin, who handpicked him to the position in 2006 and appointed him successor to the lieutenant governor last year. Before his nomination as state attorney general, Colberg was unknown on the state level, having no experience in criminal or oil and gas law. He was a former member of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly who was considering a job as director of the Alaska State Fair Board at the time of his appointment, according to press reports at the time.



Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Running on a Lie

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091502471.html?nav=hcmoduletmv

In Sarah Palin's view of Christianity, apparently, once you say you are saved, any sort of immoral behavior is JUST FINE with The Lord.

Running on a Lie

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, September 16, 2008; A21



What kind of person tells a self-aggrandizing lie, gets called on it, admits publicly that the truth is not at all what she originally claimed -- and then goes out and starts telling the original lie again without changing a word?

Sarah Palin is beginning to seem like quite an unusual woman, and I'm not talking about her love of guns and "snow machines," her faith, her family or any of the presumably non-elite attributes that we in the "elite media" are accused of savaging. Wrongly accused, I should add; reporters are doing nothing more sinister than trying to find out who she is, how she thinks and what she has done in office.

One deeply troubling thing we're learning about Palin is that, as far as she's concerned, unambiguous fact doesn't appear to rise even to the level of inconvenience.

I'm sorry, but to explain my point I have to make another visit -- my last, I hope -- to the never-built, $398 million "Bridge to Nowhere" that was to join the town of Ketchikan, Alaska, with its airport on the other side of the Tongass Narrows.

You'll recall that in her Republican convention speech, Palin burnished her budget-hawk credentials by claiming she had said "thanks but no thanks" to a congressional earmark that would have paid most of the cost. A quick check of the public record showed that Palin supported the bridge when she was running for governor, continued to support it once she took office and dropped her backing only after the project -- by then widely ridiculed as an example of pork-barrel spending -- was effectively dead on Capitol Hill.

In her interview with ABC's Charles Gibson, Palin 'fessed up. It was "not inappropriate" for a mayor or a governor to work with members of Congress to obtain federal money for infrastructure projects, she argued. "What I supported," she said, "was the link between a community and its airport."

Case closed. Except that on Saturday, days after the interview, Palin said this to a crowd in Nevada: "I told Congress thanks but no thanks to that Bridge to Nowhere -- that if our state wanted to build that bridge, we would build it ourselves."

That's not just a lie, but an acknowledged lie. What she actually told Congress was more like, "Gimme the money for the bridge" -- and then later, after the whole thing had become an embarrassment, she didn't object to using the money for other projects.

I'm not shocked to learn that politicians sometimes lie. To cite an example that comes immediately to mind, John McCain's campaign ads attacking Barack Obama have taken such liberties that even Karl Rove says he wonders if they've gone too far. But it's weird for a politician -- or anyone else, really -- to maintain that an assertion is true after admitting that it isn't true.

Maybe Palin cynically believes she can keep using the "no thanks" line and manage to stay one step ahead of the truth police. Maybe she calculates that audiences would rather believe her than their lying eyes. Or maybe she really believes her own fantasy-based version of events. Maybe the Legend of Sarah Palin has become, on some level, more real to her than actual history.

And quite a legend it's turning out to be. The Post reported Sunday that as mayor of tiny Wasilla, Palin pressured the town librarian to remove controversial books from the shelves, cut funds for the town museum but somehow found the money for a new deputy administrator slot and told city employees not to talk to reporters.

And the New York Times reported Sunday that as governor, Palin appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to a $95,000-a-year job as head of the State Division of Agriculture. Havemeister "cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency," the Times reported, noting her as one of at least five schoolmates to whom Palin has given high-paying jobs in state government.

Nothing against cows. Nothing against high-school BFFs and being true to your school. But a different picture of Sarah Palin is beginning to emerge. The McCain campaign would like us to see a straight-talking, gun-toting, moose-eviscerating, lipstick-wearing frontierswoman. Instead, we're beginning to discern an ambitious, opportunistic politician who makes no bones about rewarding friends and punishing those who stand in her way -- and who believes that truth is nothing more, and nothing less, than what she says it is.

The writer will answer questions at 1 p.m. today at http://www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.

Read more from Eugene Robinson at washingtonpost.com's new opinion blog, PostPartisan.

As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin Cut Own Duties, Left Trail of Bad Blood

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302596.html?wpisrc=newsletter

As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin Cut Own Duties, Left Trail of Bad Blood

By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 14, 2008; A01

"Palin limited her duties further by hiring a deputy administrator to handle much of the town's day-to-day management. Her top achievement as mayor was the construction of an ice rink, a project that landed in the courts and cost the city more than expected.

Arriving in office, Palin herself played down the demands of the job in response to residents who worried that her move to oust veteran officials would leave the town in the lurch. "It's not rocket science," Palin said, according to the town newspaper, the Frontiersman. "It's $6 million and 53 employees."



WASILLA, Alaska -- On Sept. 24, 2001, Mayor Sarah Palin and the City Council held their first meeting after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The council condemned the attacks and approved a $5,000 gift to a disaster relief fund. Palin said she would try to obtain materials from both attack sites to include in the town's "Honor Garden."

And then the council and mayor returned to their normal business: approving funds to upgrade the public well, issuing a restaurant permit and taking up a measure forbidding residents from operating bed-and-breakfasts in their homes. After a lively debate, the bed-and-breakfast measure lost, 4 to 1.

Since joining the Republican ticket, Palin has faced questions about whether she is qualified to be vice president or, if necessary, president. In response, the first-term Alaska governor and Sen. John McCain point to the executive qualifications she acquired as Wasilla mayor, a six-year stint from 1996 to 2002 that represents the bulk of her political experience.

Palin says her time as mayor taught her how to be a leader and grounded her in the real needs of voters, and her tenure revealed some of the qualities she would later display as governor: a striving ambition, a willingness to cut loose those perceived as disloyal and a populist brand of social and pro-growth conservatism.

But a visit to this former mining supply post 40 miles north of Anchorage shows the extent to which Palin's mayoralty was also defined by what it did not include. The universe of the mayor of Wasilla is sharply circumscribed even by the standards of small towns, which limited Palin's exposure to issues such as health care, social services, the environment and education.

Firefighting and schools, two of the main elements of local governance, are handled by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the regional government for a huge swath of central Alaska. The state has jurisdiction over social services and environmental regulations such as stormwater management for building projects.

With so many government services in the state subsidized by oil revenue, and with no need to provide for local schools, Wasilla has also made do with a very low property tax rate -- cut altogether by Palin's successor -- sparing it from the tax battles that localities elsewhere must deal with. Instead, the city collects a 2 percent sales tax, the bulk of which is paid by people who live outside town and shop at its big-box stores.

The mayor oversees a police department created three years before Palin took office; the public works department; the parks and recreation department; a planning office; a library; and a small history museum. Council meetings are in the low-ceilinged basement of the town hall, a former school, and often the only residents who show up to testify are two gadflies. When Palin was mayor, the population was just 5,500.

Palin limited her duties further by hiring a deputy administrator to handle much of the town's day-to-day management. Her top achievement as mayor was the construction of an ice rink, a project that landed in the courts and cost the city more than expected.

Arriving in office, Palin herself played down the demands of the job in response to residents who worried that her move to oust veteran officials would leave the town in the lurch. "It's not rocket science," Palin said, according to the town newspaper, the Frontiersman. "It's $6 million and 53 employees."

Further constraining City Hall's role is the frontier philosophy that has prevailed in Wasilla, a town that was founded in 1917 as a stop along the new railroad from Anchorage to the gold mines further north. The light hand of government is evident in the town's commercial core, essentially a haphazard succession of big-box stores, fast-food restaurants and shopping plazas.

The only semblance of an original downtown is a small collection of historic cabins that have been gathered for display in a grassy area beside a shopping center. Most residents live in ranch houses scattered through the woods. Churches, offices, stores and most other buildings are made of corrugated metal or composite materials. Standing in contrast to the utilitarian architecture are the lakes and majestic peaks.

Many of those in town were astonished to learn that Palin had been named McCain's running mate six years after leaving City Hall.

"I was happy in a way, because it is a new beginning for the country, but also I am very worried due to her lack of experience," said Darlene Langill, a self-described arch-conservative who served on the City Council during Palin's first year in office.

Duane Dvorak, the city planner when Palin took office, said the mayor's ambition had been plain to see, but added: "My sense is that this opportunity maybe came along before she was ready for it or thought it would come along."

The McCain campaign declined to respond to questions about Palin's tenure as mayor, but the current mayor, Dianne Keller, said Palin's tenure has prepared her to be vice president.

"Executive experience is executive experience. Whether you are a mayor or a governor or an executive at a company, the duties and responsibilities are the same," said Keller, who served on the City Council under Palin.

* * *

As constrained as Palin's duties as mayor were, her rise to power in Wasilla allowed her to hone the sharp political instinct that has guided her since. When she ran for City Council in 1992, it was as a young PTA mother and daughter of a well-liked local family.

But in her four years on the council, she picked up on sentiment that was building against the three-term incumbent, John Stein, who pushed for the 2 percent sales tax to pay for road, sewer and water upgrades. These investments laid the way for the city's growth, but they also unnerved some residents.

"People said, 'What are you doing to my city? I liked it better when we didn't have government,' '' said Richard Deuser, the city attorney at the time. "And Sarah really pandered to that resentment, that resistance to change. Sarah became their person."

Running against Stein, Palin called for an end to his "tax-and-spend mentality" -- and introduced Wasilla to the kind of socially conservative campaigning that was taking hold across the nation. A national antiabortion-rights group sent cards to voters praising Palin, and her brochures said she was "endorsed by the NRA." After she won with 616 votes -- 58 percent of the total -- a local TV station referred to her as Wasilla's "first Christian mayor," even though Stein and his predecessors were also Christian.

Palin took office as mayor in October 1996 with a show of force. She fired the museum director and demanded that the other department heads submit resignation letters, saying she would decide whether to accept them based on their loyalty, according to news reports at the time. She clashed with Police Chief Irl Stambaugh over his push for moving bar closing time from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. and for his opposition to state legislation to allow people to carry guns in banks and bars.

In notes that he took during a meeting in Palin's first week on the job, Stambaugh wrote that the new mayor told him "that the NRA didn't like me and that they wanted change," according to the Seattle Times, which reviewed the notes at a federal archive in Seattle. Stambaugh was fired on Jan. 30, 1997, partly, the mayor said, because he had not taken seriously her request for a weekly progress report "on at least two positive examples of work that was started, how we helped the public, how we saved the City money, how we helped the state, how we helped Uncle Sam." Stambaugh filed a wrongful-termination suit, which he lost.

Palin also differed with the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons. The Frontiersman reported at the time that Palin asked Emmons three times in her first weeks in office whether she would agree to remove controversial books. The librarian said she would not. The McCain campaign has confirmed Palin's questions but said that she never demanded removal of any specific books. Palin also fired Emmons on Jan. 30 but reinstated her after an uproar.

Although the town had a $4 million surplus, Palin cut the museum budget by $32,000, and the three older women who worked there quit instead of deciding which would have to go. But Palin dipped into the budget to create the deputy administrator slot, which some council members complained was at odds with her small-government stance. She told city officials not to talk to reporters.

A recall effort in early 1997 fizzled out, but hard feelings lingered. "Working in small towns, I had never seen someone come in and clean house like that in such a precipitous manner. It was pretty scary and emotional," said Dvorak, the city planner, who left after eight months.

Deuser, the former city attorney, said it was upsetting to hear the McCain campaign refer to Palin's takeover as a matter of getting rid of the "good ol' boy network."

"They were just good public servants who did a really admirable job and deserved better," said Deuser, who was replaced in 1997.

Jeff Carney, another local attorney, said Palin was just trying to assert herself against skeptics. Members of the town's old guard "thought they could run over her and were bothered that she could think for herself and make up her own mind up and not do what someone older and wiser told her to do," he said.

In 2006, Palin told the Anchorage Daily News she learned from it all. "At the time, it seemed perplexing that people would object. I was very bold about what needed to be done," she said. "It was rough with a staff who didn't want to be there working with a new boss. I learned you've got to be very discerning early on and decide if you can win them over or not. If you can't, you replace them early on."

Palin's replacements included a public works director who lacked engineering experience but was married to a top aide to a former Republican governor, and she made a former state GOP lawyer city attorney, according to the Daily News. Langill, the former councilwoman, said the new hires fit Palin's management style.

"Sarah always did and still does surround herself with people she gets along well with," she said. "They protect her, and that's what she needs. She has surrounded herself with people who would not allow others to disagree with Sarah. Either you were in favor of everything Sarah was doing or had a black mark by your name."

But things did run more smoothly from then on, and department directors whom Palin hired said she was good at delegating authority and letting them do their job. "She's a quick study," said Don Shiesl, who took over public works in 1998. "She's a heck of a public speaker and she works her magic on people. Give her four years, with some training, and she'll be up to snuff. She's not dumb, she'll be able to catch on to stuff real quick."

* * *

The town's coffers swelled as more stores moved in, letting Palin reap the political benefits of Stein's sales tax and infrastructure upgrades. With her natural charisma putting voters at ease after the initial turbulence, she was reelected in 1999 to the $68,000-a-year job. The budget expanded by nearly half during Palin's tenure as she increased spending on police and public works but kept a lid on city planning and the library, and further reduced the property tax.

Further buttressing the budget were the earmarks Palin sought for the town after hiring a Washington lobbyist for $38,000 a year. The town secured $27 million in all, including $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs and $15 million for a rail project.

Despite the city's flush accounts, the police department under the chief Palin hired to replace Stambaugh required women who said they had been raped to pay for examination kits themselves, a policy Palin now says she rejects. State legislation passed a year later required the town to pay for the kits.

The social-issues platform of Palin's first campaign found little outlet in town, beyond some symbolic moves such as declaring Wasilla a "City of Good Character" and a resolution opposing the legalization of marijuana. Instead, she focused on continuing the city's growth and development. Her second city planner, Tim Krug, said last week that the city would sometimes "lighten" regulations, to "make things more welcoming."

Some in town had for years pressed the city for a new space for the cramped library. Palin, who calls herself a "typical hockey mom," instead focused on building a sports complex with an NHL-size rink. In 2002, by a 20-vote margin, voters approved a $14.7 million bond to be financed by a half-cent sales tax hike.

Palin had forged ahead with the project despite a lingering legal dispute over whether the city had ownership of the land. A judge had initially ruled in the city's favor, but it later lost on appeal and had to pay $1.3 million more for the land.

"The only accomplishment of note was the building of the sports complex . . . and it was bungled," said Deuser, the former city attorney. Keller, the new mayor, defended Palin, saying she had relied on legal advice in proceeding with the project.

Bound by term limits, Palin ran for lieutenant governor in 2002, came in a strong second and was later rewarded with a high-paying spot on the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

In September 2002, she presided over her last City Council meeting. The council took up an ordinance to ban sex shops. The police chief announced that Raymond Chiemlowski was promoted to sergeant. Keller "reported that traffic lights on Knik-Goosebay Road will be turned on soon and encouraged everyone to use caution while adjusting to the new traffic pattern."

And with that, at 9:48 p.m., Sarah Palin's final meeting as mayor of Wasilla was adjourned.

A Gidget for God's "Truth"

http://www.truthout.org/article/sarah-palin-a-gidget-gods-truth

SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2008


Truthout Original

Sarah Palin: A Gidget for God's Truth
Tuesday 09 September 2008

by: Steve Weissman, t r u t h o u t | Perspective (reader comments follow)

"The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation," declared John McCain back in September 2007. With his vice-presidential pick of Governor Sarah Palin, he has found a winsome soul mate who is even more of a Christian nationalist, eager to use government to impose her religious views on the rest of us.

Palin's stance on abortion illustrates her approach. As she proudly declares, she sees the Bible as literally true, which leads her to believe that aborting a fetus is murder. That position contradicts our long history of common and statutory law. She then goes on to conclude that government should severely punish anyone who has an abortion or performs one, even in the case of rape or incest. She also opposes stem cell research.

Also see:
Steve Weissman |
America's Religious Right: Saints or Subversives? •

McCain hears God less extremely, but the Republican platform echoes Palin, and if she ever became president, she would feel completely justified in making her religious belief a litmus test for appointees to the Supreme Court.

Her attitude toward gays and lesbians is similar, though observers in both the gay press and corporate media have misrepresented the firmness of her convictions. The confusion stems from a legal suit that some same-sex couples filed in 1999, arguing that Alaska had no right to deny domestic partners of state employees the same health and pension benefits that the state gave to married spouses. The case made its way to Alaska's Supreme Court, which ruled in 2005 that the state could not discriminate against the domestic partners.

In the political firestorm that followed, the Alaska legislature passed a bill forbidding state officials to pay the benefits. Alaska's attorney general then declared the bill unconstitutional, and the newly inaugurated Governor Palin felt legally obliged to veto it. But, she loudly proclaimed her opposition to spousal benefits for domestic partners and signed a separate bill calling for a state referendum, which she said would lay the groundwork for overturning the state Supreme Court ruling.

She also declared her long-time opposition to same-sex marriage, a position she had displayed as early as 1998 when she enthusiastically backed a constitutional amendment to ban the practice in Alaska.

"I believe that honoring the family structure is that important," she told the Anchorage Daily News in 2006. She was "not out to judge anyone and has good friends who are gay." But, she explained, her opposition grew out of her strong religious views.

Palin's religious convictions, and her willingness to use the power of government to force them on others, has won strong backing from far-right groups, such as James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, and the Council for National Policy, the normally secretive network of right-wing preachers, political operatives, and fat cats who have been a major force in the Republican Party ever since they backed Ronald Reagan for president.

These overlapping groups view homosexual acts as "an abomination" and have led the fight against what Dr. Dobson calls "the radical Homosexual agenda." Focus on the Family will soon bring to Anchorage a conference on "curing homosexuality" through the power of prayer, an event that Palin's hometown church in Wasilla is actively promoting.

In the same vein, Palin has opposed extending hate crime laws to protect gays and lesbians, called for teaching creationism in public schools, and - as mayor of Wasilla - looked into banning books from the public library because they contained inappropriate language.

She described the building of a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in Alaska as "God's will," which she would work to carry out as governor.

She supports the presence of US troops in Iraq as a "task that is from God."

And she has told colleagues that Christ will return within her lifetime, which raises questions about what sort of Armageddon she has in mind.

However absurd one finds all this, Palin's religious convictions should normally remain her own private concern. But her eagerness to use public office to enforce and implement what she believes makes her beliefs a matter of enormous public importance.

If you don't believe me, just listen to the enormous support Palin is receiving from Dr. Dobson, "End Time" author Tim La Haye, and others on the Christian right. Dobson once swore he would never vote for John McCain. He now calls McCain's choice of Palin "outstanding" and is promising his enthusiastic support.

Sarah Palin is their gal, and if she is elected vice president, these warriors of God could find themselves only a heartbeat away from their long-held goal of turning America into an ultra-rightwing Christian nation.
»

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the New Left monthly Ramparts, Steve Weissman lived for many years in London, working as a magazine writer and television producer. He now lives and works in France.


Comments
This is a moderated forum. It may take a little while for comments to go live.

This piece contains
Sat, 09/13/2008 - 10:44 — QueerAlaskan (not verified)
This piece contains inaccurate information on the issue of same-sex domestic partner benefits in Alaska. See the articles posted to http://www.bentalaska.com/search/label/Sarah%20Palin for more accurate information on this history and Palin's involvement in it.
Let's see: Thou shalt not
Sat, 09/13/2008 - 00:38 — Anonymous (not verified)
Let's see: Thou shalt not kill... fetuses. Thou shall kill Muslims... and anyone else who gets in my way.
""She supports the presence
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 22:01 — Verbatim (not verified)
""She supports the presence of US troops in Iraq as a "task that is from God." "" It is particularly useless to presume that we may act as instruments of God or that we are implementing His will. To dare presume is to try to justify not the higher calling but the inconceivable--and the misdeeds some of us would rather attribute to God. For it is mostly when we act out what we believe to be God’s wrath that we fool ourselves into believing that we are implementing his will. Only very seldom do we act out His justice, kindness and patience, to really implement His will.
I am sick to death of the
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 13:50 — C.J.Gelfand (not verified)
I am sick to death of the constant insertion of religion into politics and government, to the point where I will start tearing out my hair if I hear one more person start proselytizing! Our constitution gives us the right to practice, or not practice religion, whatever the case. Our country was never meant to have a state religion, and religion must remain a private matter if we are to be a nation at peace with ourselves. Why isn't it enough for all you religionists to practice what you believe without hitting all the rest of us on the head constantly to make us live your way? What are you so insecure about? Stop the paranoia--people of different beliefs are not out to get you. All religions and philosophies (except those based on hatred) are at our disposal to help us lead a good life. There is not only one way to go. And try thinking for yourselves for a change. I know of no other way to encourage rampant fascism than to let others do your thinking for you without asking your own questions.
Because this column is about
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 10:43 — elizabeth (not verified)
Because this column is about the reactionary religion of a key political candidate, I am sharing comments below providing an alternative perspective regarding that religion. It is not my usual practice, but in this case, it is on topic and appropriate. My comments also come full circle as they are applied to my observations of the candidate. We progressive Christians like to think that we are actually attempting to live according to the Gospels. For example, even if the framers hadn't made the separation of church and state clear, Jesus mostly certainly did. It's also crucial that we take back the word "evangelical" from the fundamentalists, literalists and millienials. Paul charged all Jesus-followers to be evangelical (from the Greek, same root as "heaven" and "angel"). It means we live by the Gospels and use our lives as examples to share the Good News. This is relevant because it is so misunderstood and misused, now by a major candidate for VP (and the media just absorbs it as if she were a theologian). It is not our job to aggressively convert or judge people, unlike the message of the fundamentalists who have hijacked this basic concept and twisted it every way to Sunday, as Sarah Palin does. We also live by the Gospels (and the New Testament), not by the Hebrew Scriptures. The Hebrew Scriptures are in the Christian bible for context, not for instruction, but fundamentalists mistakenly give the Hebrew scriptures more weight than our own. Jesus gave us all the instruction needed for Christians, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. That is not the message I hear repeated by Sarah Palin, nor does she live a life of example according to the Gospels (at least not in public). Publicly, she appears to be a true believer in the worst possible ways. And this concerns me at least as much if not more than the secular concerns I noted in my first post, which was edited by someone other than me, leaving out these concerns, and also leaving other progressive Christians wondering where the progressives were among those commenting. Elizabeth Rose, O.C.P.
I live in Wyoming and attend
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 03:25 — The sHiZ NiCk!!!! MaSTer MMM!!!!! (not verified)
I live in Wyoming and attend a private charter school. Can't tell you the name of the school or the names of the people (I promised my G.F. that I wouldn't). I remember my high school's history teacher last year, he asked my freshmen class this question: What's more important, the Bible or the U.S. Constitution? A few timidly raised their hands up for the Constitution, but the majority quickly raised up their hands in support of the Bible. The teacher asked why they voted that way. One said: "Because Jesus is supreme over anything written by men and that why the Bible is more important because its words comes from God." Another student said, "Because I learned that if it wasn't for the Constitution, you may not have the freedom to believe in the Bible." That student was beaten up after school was out. Some guys in the football team beat him up so bad he was put into the hospital, and he was in traction and partial body casts for 14 months. He transferred to another school. The history teacher that taught the course, he was fired, cut. Seems that a lot of religious parents complained to the local school board about what he was teaching. The science teacher for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th periods was fired too, a week later. I guess they didn't like him teaching the concept of evolution in biology, or geology, as to the age of the Earth. They said our school's better off, now that science, history and biology are now taught by these new Christian teachers that mince no words about convincing the class to vote Republican when they enter into their senior year. Now, almost all the students in our school go to school with a small Bible in our pockets. I don't carry a Bible in my back pocket. FIGHT THE POWER, FIGHT THE CORPORATE BEYOTCHES OF AMERICA, YEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many Religious Right
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 02:57 — Anonymous; I live in a neighborhood full of Evangelists (not verified)
Many Religious Right activists have attempted to rewrite history by asserting that the United States government derived from Christian foundations, that our Founding Fathers originally aimed for a Christian nation. This idea simply does not hold to the historical evidence. Of course many Americans did practice Christianity, but so also did many believe in deistic philosophy. Indeed, most of our influential Founding Fathers, although they respected the rights of other religionists, held to deism and Freemasonry tenets rather than to Christianity. 1799, Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11: "...the United States is in no way a Christian nation..." Unanimously by both chambers of Congress and signed by John Adams, the "father" of the Declaration of Independence. The United States Constitution serves as the law of the land for America and indicates the intent of our Founding Fathers. The Constitution forms a secular document, and nowhere does it appeal to God, Christianity, Jesus, or any supreme being. (For those who think the date of the Constitution contradicts the last sentence, see note 1 at the end.) The U.S. government derives from people (not God), as it clearly states in the preamble: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union...." The omission of God in the Constitution did not come out of forgetfulness, but rather out of the Founding Fathers purposeful intentions to keep government separate from religion. From the 1rst Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” [capital letters, mine] Moreover, the mentioning of God in the Declaration does not describe the personal God of Christianity. Thomas Jefferson who held deist beliefs, wrote the majority of the Declaration. The Declaration describes "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." This nature's view of God agrees with deist philosophy and might even appeal to those of pantheistical beliefs, but any attempt to use the Declaration as a support for Christianity will fail for this reason alone. Note 1: The end of the Constitution records the year of its ratification, "the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven." Although, indeed, it uses the word "Lord", it does not refer to Jesus but rather to the dating method. Incredibly, some Christians attempt to use this as justification for a Christian derived Constitution. The term simply conveys a written English form of the Latin, Anno Domini (AD), which means the year of our Lord (no, it does not mean After Death). This scripted form served as a common way of dating in the 1700s. The Constitution also uses many pagan words such as January (from the two-headed Roman god, Janus), and Sunday (from the word Sunne, which refers to the Saxon Sun god). Can you imagine the ludicrous position of someone trying to argue for the justification of a pagan god based Constitution? The same goes to any Christian who attempts to use a dating convention as an argument against the Constitution's secular nature, and can only paint himself as naive, or worse, as dishonest and deceiving. (For a satire on using calendar words to support pagan Gods, see The United States: A Country founded on paganism. http://www.nobeliefs.com/pagan.htm
I must say it is refreshing
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 00:15 — Anonymous (not verified)
I must say it is refreshing to hear someone takes the bible literally these days. The bible having been scorned as a book giving testament only to the corruption of human nature. May Palin be president if for me to be given the pleasure of me knowing what someone like her could do behind the reins.
I am so tired of the
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 22:59 — Anonymous (not verified)
I am so tired of the hypocrisy. The Republican machine has questioned the patriotism of both Barack and Michelle Obama. They have gone so far as to accuse Michelle Obama's fist bump as a terrorist action! Then we are told that Palin's family is hands off! So do we just ignore the information that Sarah Palin's husband is affiliated with a secessionist group and she is supportive of his involvement? This is a man who wants the state of Alaska to secede from the US! The last time this occurred, we ended up engaging in a Civil War! Is this not treasonous behavior. This smells of militia mentality. My grandfather used to say, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck!
Palin is indeed scary. She
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 22:53 — V. Selanik (not verified)
Palin is indeed scary. She is a glib know it all and that tells you right away she is not qualified. Compare Palin with Nancy Pelosi...another mother of five who waited until her children were mature before she went into politics. Her education is sketchy and shows her lack of connecting with the modern educated women of America.
Read Katha Pollit's
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 21:44 — altovuelo (not verified)
Read Katha Pollit's excellent column about Palin in the current issue of The Nation: "Lipstick on a Wing Nut": http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/pollitt
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 14:00 — Dana (not verified)
Palin is really Cheney with lipstick (not Bush)
To Mr. Anderson, I am so
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 04:55 — Anonymous (not verified)
To Mr. Anderson, I am so sick of the Christians' hypocrisy:I love how Christians interpret "Creator" to mean a Caucasian-looking deity floating in the heavens as opposed to "Nature." I love how Christians seem to embrace any reference to GOD as a reference to something "above" or "different" from "Nature." Perhaps that is what eases their minds when they vote for people whose policies destroy the very "Nature"that GOD (whatever he/she/it is to an individual) obviously intended for humans to live in balance with. And if you truly believe all people are "created equal," whether by Nature, or the floating white head you envision, you should believe that "he" would not condone prejudices against those who are "different" than how you perceive yourself to be. I'm sickened by the fact that most Christians I know vote for people that are obviously immoral because of rhetoric about abortion and gay rights. Do abortion and gay rights really weigh on your day-to-day life MORE than all the other injustices we impose as a nation on ourselves, our children and other nations. Wake up! -S
It is obvious that the GOP
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:58 — truth! not deceit or spin (not verified)
It is obvious that the GOP is DESPERATE at this point, and it is sickly comical to watch the republicans and christian extremists wave their flags so fervently that they have blinded themselves to the truth. Palin Scares me, and so does McCain. Neither are fit for the White House, McCain is a hothead selling just more of the same (and cannot stick to his own stories), and Palin... a mother of a newborn Down Syndrome child - shouldn't that be her first priority? And she also can't keep her facts straight! But then again we are at war, and the truth is always the first casualty in war. I just hope that Obama wins the election and that he isn't just a wolf in sheep's clothing and will make the changes so desperately needed in were not only this country is headed, but the entire world. wake up people across the land! Unplug FOX news and go out into your community and talk about what really matters, right here, right now. Register to VOTE! Follow your heart, not what corpmedia is spinning into your heads! (OK, I'm talking sugar in the candy shop... but still...)
John McCain is not only a
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:45 — Jeanot (not verified)
John McCain is not only a war hero, but is actually a "war lover." He has supported every military move by this nation, and looks first for a power or military response to every conflict that pops up. His instant reaction to the situation in Georgia ("We are all Georgians") shows he has no appreciation for the complexity of the situation. Where thoughtful analysis is called for we get quick gut reactions...helped along by close advisors were recently paid agents for one of the participants. We see in this case that it wasn't a simple matter of the Big Bad Bear running roughshod over its neighbor...all sorts of religious, ethnic, nationalistic divisions were in the mix. There usually are two or more sides to most issues, and unless our leaders can see this we are in for endless conflict. John McCain doesn't seem to get this.
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! I am
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:36 — Anonymous (not verified)
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! I am begging some of the posters here! STOP refering to right-wing evangelicals as "Christians", as if all Christians agree with them. I don't care what religioun you espouse, or if you're an atheist. That's your business, but when you refer to the evangelical right-wing as "Christians", some honest Christians get offended and actually think your attacking them. Liberalism IS NOT LESS CHRISTIAN. It is just MORE HONESTLY Christian. Please don't give these sleazebags more fuel to add to their burning cross. The ONLY thing they believe in is the sanctity of Holy Oil Industry.
I am convinced that she
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:21 — Anonymous (not verified)
I am convinced that she TRIED TO CAUSE A MISCARRIAGE with her latest baby. Why else did she go out of her way to avoid medical treatment and schedule a trip to Dallas while she was leaking amniotic fluid and was obviously going into labor a month early?
Palin is Bush with lipstick.
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 01:31 — Anonymous (not verified)
Palin is Bush with lipstick.
Along with books being
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 21:42 — Anonymous (not verified)
Along with books being banished, women's right set back 2000 years, faux-Christianity forced down our gullets, gay rights abolished, education bankrupted, all intellectuals, artists and dissenters best beware. They are next to be eliminated. We've seen it all before. Remember?
1799, Treaty of Tripoli,
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 20:08 — bob sauerbrey (not verified)
1799, Treaty of Tripoli, acticle 11: "...the United States is in no way a Christian nation..." Unanimously by both chambers of Congress and signed by John Adams, the "father" of the Declaration of Independence. McCain, Palin, and their supports may know their bible, but they a certainly ignorant of history.
Saint Francis of Assisi,
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 18:24 — Fulvia (not verified)
Saint Francis of Assisi, Italy, the Saint who was talking to the the wolf, and teach love to all creature, to the sun to the star to the moon, because all were beautiful and all of them creation of God. I really don't see any link with the appalling misbelieve of Palin and the true Christianity.
Good piece and some
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 17:18 — elizabeth (not verified)
Good piece and some excellent comments. So glad to see the prescient Margaret Atwood novel "The Handmaid's Tale" mentioned. That book has haunted me since 2002 because it was clear even then that we are on the same path. (I read it when it came out in the 80s and saw the excellent film adaptation when it came out in the early 90s.) I would change only one thing. Somehow, growing up in Alaska made Sarah Palin talk not like Gidget, but like a Valley Girl. A Valley Girl spewing invective and inhuman filth. Maybe the campaign is hoping that we'll be like dogs, responding more to the tone of voice than to what is said. And it is sad but true that there are voters who would vote for an ignorant Valley Girl. (Ironically, REAL Valley Girls grew up and many of them have gone on to fine lives and careers.) I've followed Sarah Palin for years, ever since I saw "the moose hunter" hunting wolves from a helicopter. I come from a long line of hunters, and that is NOT hunting. It's vicious and lacks any sense of sport or fair play. That told me everything I needed to know about Sarah Palin, although having her on my radar, I've learned a lot since, enough to almost faint when McCain announced her for the ticket, because I have not found one politically redeeming quality about this woman. And I'm a woman who would really like a woman president. But she has to be the best possible candidate, because if we have a woman in the WH who is as stupid and ignorant as the current crop, it will set women's rights back decades.
has anyone thought this
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 14:16 — Anonymous (not verified)
has anyone thought this woman could be the anti christ?
ditto!! Stop
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 14:02 — Anonymous (not verified)
ditto!! Stop whining! Let's use this time well, to be the best, and win this election. Lets get active, now. Nothing could be more important. What else? What else can we do?
Our Declaration of
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:40 — Anonymous (not verified)
Our Declaration of Independence does not come from Christian origins. Most of the founding Fathers were Freemasons,and Huminists, or claimed no religious belief at all. If you want to argue this passage "The laws of Nature and Natures God" is clear they are talking about "mother nature" or science "natures God" It's PAGAN all over!!
hey sarah? the bible is what
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:08 — Anonymous (not verified)
hey sarah? the bible is what you follow?so i would guess Psalm 137 would be the policy for iraq and such?after all we are doing gods work there arnt we? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_137
Christian Republican males
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:24 — Jesus wept (not verified)
Christian Republican males will vote for McCain because, among other things, they think on some semiconscious or unconscious level that it will improve their chances of getting into the panties of women that look and think like Palin. So what if McCain's policies, combined with Palin's relgious extremism turns this country into a fascist, militant theocracy that goes bankrupt. These chickenhawks voted for the tits and boobs, and Jesus, and Bush-Mccain's machismo war machines that make them obscenely rich... so what do they care what would Jesus do if he was here again, because they believe that Jesus will forgive them of all their selfishness, greed and arrogance; as a result, they believe that when the time comes and they've ruined the Earth, they can take their wealth and power with them to heaven after they become immortal by the way of the Rapture. So in that way, the unchristian neocons that claim they are Christians, can have their cake and eat it, too... at the expense of our rights, drained us of all of our money and our very lives of course, but what do they care? Thanks to Bush in power, they got theirs.
We fought a Civil War and
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:21 — Anonymous (not verified)
We fought a Civil War and killed 1,000,000 of our fellow citizens a hundred and fifty years ago, in what was at base a conflict within the culture of this country. We didn't learn the lesson then, and we probably won't learn it this time, only this time there will be no use to learning it, cos there won't be anything to put back together again. The Lincoln of our time - Barack Obama - is villified for appealing to the better angels of our nature. I remember when America had ideals and hope and faith, and I have watched these past 60 years as they have all turned to dust and facsimile.
"Thou shalt not take the
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:00 — Anonymous (not verified)
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain." A pipeline? "God's will"?!? Why are the fundamentalist Christians not coming out of the woodwork to burn this blasphemous bitch at the stake, politically speaking?
What can all of us do at
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 05:25 — Joan (not verified)
What can all of us do at this stage of the game? Palin Palin is on the scene, alive and well. Now let's get out the vote and challenge the Republicans.Lets go to swing states and talk to people. Get on the phone lines. Make sure all our friends are registered and voting. Make sure the election is not stolen. Support, speak, protest, flood the media when they lie and let the candidates lie. Let's use this time well, to be the best, and win this election. Lets get active, now. Nothing could be more important. What else? What else can we do?
I am so damned sick of all
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 04:09 — Anonymous (not verified)
I am so damned sick of all the religious crap in our politics I could puke! This is what happens people when you don't get involved! The religious right has been working this path for decades! Wake up or you'll get what you deserve with Bush II and the sociopath.
she's beautiful no
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 03:30 — Anonymous (not verified)
she's beautiful no doubt! he loves it! but maybe he chose her because the both have the letter 'in' in their name. how sane!
to j. andersen,(see
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 03:24 — kl (not verified)
to j. andersen,(see above) unalienable rights are human rights. this republican party supports taking unalienable human rights and listing them under crimes and criminal behaviors. back to the drawing board. thanks for the history lesson. pro-life and pro-choice.
Choice is the whole point,
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 01:48 — kcjones (not verified)
Choice is the whole point, M. If America "chooses" the progressive/liberal way for her to go, over the traditional values/conservative way, either way the other half will be screaming they don't want to be forced to do what their opponents have chosen democratically! I don't want to see young children "forced" to be indoctrinated in public schools about the normalicy of homosexuality when I believe with all my heart they've been emotionally twisted somehow, somewhere in their lives, even if they are wonderful, productive, loving people in every other aspect. I don't believe abortion is about "choice" when the fetus is a viable, separate human being who just so happens to be inside their mother's womb. (abortion scripture, btw: Proverb 6:17....which should also convict some Republican warmongers) In fact, if you want something to talk to Christians about, try scripture. Try Proverbs 6:16-19 and apply them to President Bush, for example...And for all you people who think we actually evolved from nothing (ie: spontaneously generated), try watching Michael Behe's movie "Unfolding the Mysteries of Life". I challenge anyone to watch that and deny intelligent design. Or, "The Privileged Planet". Same deal. I'm not red or blue. I'm purple. Both platforms have awesome and horrible attributes. But "Hypocracy Now" (spelled that way on purpose) was the mantra for the last elections. PRO-WAR!! PRO-LIFE!! vs FREE LUV!! PRO-CHOICE!! Let's have some intelligent input on how we can actually live democratically. You know, extremists on both sides actually pull people to the middle, which is good. And for the record, I believe God's will will be done whoever is elected President, and that's what gives me peace. Jesus was no dullard. There are powers that be way beyond most of our understanding.
It is extremely embarrassing
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 01:10 — The embarrassed pastor (not verified)
It is extremely embarrassing and difficult to be a liberal Christian minister in this day and age. There are so many Christians (like those everyone is writing about) who have bastardized the religion and made it into something it is not. I wish people would understand that Jesus was an iconoclast, speaking out against the hypocrites of his day. If we would really pay attention to what he was saying and if we endeavored to follow his suggestions for living a good life, we would understand that what the Christian right and fundamentalists are expounding are man made rules that have nothing to do with Jesus' message. I asked my husband the other day where he would like to move to if the Republicans win. So far, Canada is the favorite. I don't know if they'll take us, but we can try. Pray for the highest good for our country.
As a Canadian, all I can say
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 00:04 — Peg Young (not verified)
As a Canadian, all I can say is, "God (assuming It exists) help America."
The ball is in Joe Biden's
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 00:00 — Carole Auger-Richard (not verified)
The ball is in Joe Biden's camp. Here's an exceptional occasion to kill the Palin myth! Go Joe go!
Sarah Palin is scary . Very
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 23:39 — Anonymous (not verified)
Sarah Palin is scary. Very scary indeed. She as well as John McSame are obviously just puppets of the right wing good 'ol boys that want to stay in power and turn back the clock . Where will it end, in armageddon? I can't believe a person with such an old brain who believes the word of the bible is true) could potentially be the comander in chief. If they steal the election for a third time, it will be time to get the hell out. God bless us all.
These are not Christians,
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 23:22 — Anonymous (not verified)
These are not Christians, but ANTI-Christians. Very very insightful, since in Greek anti can mean "instead of" or a replacement-counterfeit (cf: Liddell and Scott's unabridged Lexicon of Classical Greek). These wingnut Christians are indeed anti-Christians in every sense of the Greek word. Ironically, they may represent the very Anti-Christ they claim is presented in the Apocalypsis of St. John. Just a thought, but how wonderfully ironic.
Any one who says the United
The big dichotomy... I
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 22:47 — mapsguy1955 (not verified)
The big dichotomy... I don't get how the party of the neocons gets the votes of the Christian right. Were those all Christians at the ENRON parties? Didn't jesus say something about turning the other cheek? The Republican mantra is not "Drill Baby Drill", but "The world is REALLY scary, you should be terrified of anyone who doesn't think like us, it might make you GAY or you might be forced to have an ABORTION". The right couldn't possible be more wrong.
I think the diversity of
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 22:32 — Mike (not verified)
I think the diversity of religions is yet another positive dynamic at this unique time. Catholicism, United Church of Christ, Latterday Saints, United Methodist, Baptist, and Assembly of God. I think that if Tim Russert was still with us he would say, "What a country!"
Have the republicans noticed
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 22:28 — Anonymous (not verified)
Have the republicans noticed that they have completely lost control of their party? The sponsorship of McCain and Palin for America's highest office is an irresponsible, possibly criminal act, for which this country will pay dearly if they are elected. Listen to Obama please: America is better than this. Note to McCain: Constantly blowing your own horn about your POW experience does not convince anyone that you are better qualified. Lying about your opponent makes you look dishonorable. What a shame. Picking Sarah Palin makes you look like an idiot and a pawn, not a statesman. Sorry, old man.
So, dean men and women of
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 21:47 — granny (not verified)
So, dean men and women of the "professional" media, when are you going to visit her church, record the rolling and dancing and tongues-talking and armeggadon-expecting, and put it out there for all to see? If you would attack Barack Obama through attacks on his paastor, the same treatment should be accorded to Palin and her pastor. And has anyone vetted McCain's pastor, if he goes to chruch for other than press-op moments?
Christ taught us to love
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 21:22 — Anonymous (not verified)
Christ taught us to love God; to love your neighbor as yourself and to love your enemy. The"new and everlasting covenant" is about promoting the common good, not the chosen few of the old covenant. These people are not Christians-they're Anti-Christians
I'd like Palin to tell us
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 20:57 — M (not verified)
I'd like Palin to tell us what verse of her precious Bilble forbids abortion. Oh, KCJONES. There is a qualitative difference between gays (why you mention them as a voting bloc is mind boggling) and liberals. It's the democratic concept of "choice" which Republicans don't believe in. We won't MAKE you live a life you don't want. You, however, will force everyone to live the life YOU decide for us. That's just a tiny difference, don't you think? It's called Democracy. Ever hear of it?
You can't believe the Bible
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 20:43 — Anonymous (not verified)
You can't believe the Bible is literally true and believe that aborting a fetus is murder. Genesis 2:7 says that Adam wasn't a living soul until God gave him the breath of life. Exodus 21:22 says that if two men are fighting and cause a woman to abort her child, they must pay the father for the loss of his property, the fetus. Ecclesiastes 6:3 says that unless a man has a good life and a proper burial it is better that he be stillborn. People who say they believe the Bible is literally true should read it some time, Especially those scriptures where God commands the Israelites to commit genocide, killing men, women, children and that would include pregnant women and their fetuses. I don't believe God commits murder or commands others to do so.
I think calling Sarah Palin
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 20:42 — Oakjoan (not verified)
I think calling Sarah Palin "Gidget" is a VERRRY big mistake. Gidget was a cute, bouncy, sweet thing. There is NOTHING sweet about Palin. I can easily picture her using a German accent and saying "Vee vill conquer Poland!" A person who holds such ugly and wrong-headed beliefs is anything but cute. She is out to force her beliefs on all of us. This is doubly dangerous since she has proved during her political career that she has few moral scruples. I'm not afraid of her Armageddon and other fundamentalist beliefs, I am terrified of her history of unscrupulous and self-serving behavior in politics (getting back at enemies by having them fired, attempting to bring Fahrenheit 451 to the local library, changing her stance on issues when it became politically expedient). Of course this is not exactly far from the usual politicians' changeable stances, but they usually at least have the smarts to realize they'll be found out eventually. Most of them are not the subjects of governmental investigation as Palin is now. End of rant.

Palin Flouts Law Regarding Native Rights

1. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Fishing

Perhaps no issue is of greater importance to Alaska Native peoples as the right to hunt and fish according to ancient customary and traditional practices, and to carry on the subsistence way of life for future generations.

Governor Sarah Palin has consistently opposed those rights. Once in office, Governor Palin decided to continue litigation thatseeks to overturn every subsistence fishing determination the federal government has ever made in Alaska.
(State of Alaska v. Norton, 3:05-cv-0158-HRH (D. Ak).)

In pressing this case, Palin decided against using the Attorney General (which usually handles State litigation) and instead continued contracting with Senator Ted Stevens' brother-in-law's law firm (Birch, Horton, Bittner & Cherot).

The goal of Palin's law suit is to invalidate all the subsistence fishing regulations the federal government has issued to date to protect Native fishing, and to force the courts instead to take over the roll of setting subsistence regulations. Palin's law suit seeks to diminish subsistence fishing rights in order to expand sport and commercial fishing.

In May 2007, the federal court rejected the State's main challenge, holding that Congress in 1980 had expressly granted the U.S. Interior and Agriculture Departments the authority to regulate and protect Native and rural subsistence fishing activitiesin Alaska.
(Decision entered May 15, 2007 (Dkt. No. 110).)

Notwithstanding this ruling, Palin continues to argue in the litigation that the federal subsistence protections are too broad, and should be narrowed to exclude vast areas from subsistence fishing, in favor of sport and commercial fishing. Palin opposes subsistence protections in marine waters, on many of the lands that Natives selected under their 1971 land claims settlement with the state and federal governments, and in many of the rivers where Alaska Natives customarily fish.
(Alaska Complaint at 15-18.)

Palin also opposes subsistence fishing protections on Alaska Native federal allotments that were deeded to individuals purposely to foster Native subsistence activities. All these issues are now pending before the federal district court.
2. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Hunting
Palin has also sought to invalidate critical determinations the Federal Subsistence Board has made regarding customary and traditional uses of game, specifically to take hunting opportunities away from Native subsistence villagers and thereby enhance sport hunting.

Palin's attack here on subsistence has focused on the Ahtna Indian people in Chistochina. Although the federal district court has rejected Palin's challenge, she has carried on an appeal that was argued in August 2008.
(State of Alaska v. Fleagle, No. 07-35723 (9th Cir.).)

In both hunting and fishing matters, Palin has continued uninterrupted the policies initiated by the former Governor Frank Murkowski Administration, challenging hunting and fishing protections that Native people depend upon for their subsistence way of life in order to enhance sport fishing and hunting opportunities. Palin's lawsuits are a direct attack on the core way of life of Native Tribes in rural Alaska.

3. Palin has attacked Alaska Tribal Sovereignty

Given past court rulings affirming the federally recognized tribal status of Alaska Native villages, Palin does not technically challenge that status. But Palin argues that Alaska Tribes have no authority to act as sovereigns, despite their recognition.
So extreme is Palin on tribal sovereignty issues that she has sought to block tribes from exercising any authority whatsoever, even over the welfare of Native children, adhering to a 2004 legal opinion issued by the former Murkowski Administration that no such jurisdiction exists (except when a state court transfers a matter to a tribal court).
Both the state courts and the federal courts have struck down Palin's policy of refusing to recognize the sovereign authority of Alaska Tribes to address issues involving Alaska Native children.
Native Village of Tanana v. State of Alaska, 3AN-04-12194 CI (judgment entered Aug. 26, 2008) (Ak. Super. Ct.); Native Kaltag Tribal Council v. DHHS, No. 3:06-cv-00211-TMB (D. Ak.), pending on appeal No 08-35343 (9th Cir.)).

Nonetheless, Palin's policy of refusing to recognize Alaska tribal sovereignty remains unchanged.

4. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Languages

Palin has refused to accord proper respect to Alaska Native languages and voters by refusing to provide language assistance to Yup'ik speaking Alaska Native voters. As a result, Palin was just ordered by a special three-judge panel of federal judges to provide various forms of voter assistance to Yup'ik voters residing in southwest Alaska.
Nick v. Bethel, No. 3:07-cv-0098-TMB (D. Ak.) (Order entered July 30, 2008).

Citing years of State neglect, Palin was ordered to provide trained poll workers who are bilingual in English and Yup'ik; sample ballots in written Yup'ik; a written Yup'ik glossary of election terms; consultation with local Tribes to ensure the accuracy of Yup'ik translations; a Yup'ik language coordinator; and pre-election and post-election reports to the court to track the State's efforts.

In sum, measured against some the rights that are most fundamental to Alaska Native Tribes – the subsistence way of life, tribal sovereignty and voting rights – Palin's record is a failure.

Lloyd B. Miller
Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse,
Miller & Munson, LLP
900 West Fifth Avenue, Suite 700
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
Telephone: (907)258-6377
Facsimile: (907)272-8332
E-Mail: lloyd@sonosky.net
Temporary New York City phone: (212) 204-6394

E-mail on Sarah Palin grabs spotlight

By Robert Farley, Times Staff Writer
In print: Saturday, September 6, 2008


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Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla set out to tell out-of-town friends about Sarah Palin, but she has been quoted worldwide.

Campaign 2008

The first draft of Anne Kilkenny's e-mail went to her mother in California. Then she sent it out to a few dozen friends and family members, many "in the lower 48." That was Sunday.

[ERIK HILL | Anchorage Daily News]

Today, Kilkenny's words, the observations of a Wasilla, Alaska, homemaker who remembers Gov. Sarah Palin when she was mayor, have circled the globe. The letter is posted on a thousand Web sites. It's being cited in countless blogs and e-mails.

Kilkenny, 57, has been quoted on the front page of the New York Times. She has been interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, four British papers, L'Express from France and Der Spiegel from Germany, to name just a few. She has gone on TV with ABC and NBC and CNN, which spent four hours at her house yesterday. She has spoken with National Public Radio.

Kilkenny is now a significant voice in the national discussion of the presidential election, but she began with a modest goal. She merely wanted to answer out-of-town friends who asked: "You're from Wasilla, what's Sarah Palin like?"

Kilkenny was more than a casual observer. She says she attended virtually every City Council meeting in Palin's first year as Wasilla mayor in 1996. She is not a fan.

Kilkenny put her thoughts in a 6-page e-mail in which she praised Palin as smart, energetic and hardworking but also labeled her intolerant, ambitious and ruthless. Kilkenny was perhaps the first to spread the story, now being widely reported, of how Palin once tried to fire the town librarian after the librarian made it clear that she would oppose efforts to remove books from the local collection. Palin was the freshly elected mayor then, and although she didn't have any particular books in mind, she posed what she later called "rhetorical" questions about how objectionable books could best be removed.

Kilkenny was part of the insurgency that saved the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, from dismissal by Palin, who had asked for Emmons' resignation, according to news accounts at the time. Palin relented after a public uprising.

Kilkenny, whose husband is retired, says Palin left the city in debt over pet projects. And she concludes "there has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she" who would be better suited to be vice president.

At the top of the e-mail, Kilkenny told friends they should feel free to distribute the e-mail to friends. But, she asked, "please do not post it on any websites as there are too many kooks out there."

Ha ha ha.

Within hours, she was getting e-mails referencing her "blog."

"What blog? Did I blog?" she wondered. She had never blogged before.

Google "Anne Kilkenny and Palin" and you'll get more than 17,000 page hits now. Her letter has become a popular chain e-mail. "Intellectually, you realize there is this pyramid effect," Kilkenny said. "But it's still mind-boggling."

A couple of factors conspired to propel Kilkenny's letter to Web fame. First, few Americans outside Alaska had ever heard of Palin before she was announced as Sen. John McCain's running mate. Since that day just a week ago, the public has had a voracious appetite for information about her.

Second, Kilkenny provides a critical voice. Palin is wildly popular in Alaska, and even more so in Wasilla, a town beaming with pride at having one of their own nominated to become vice president of the United States.

Kilkenny's critical voice has appealed to journalists, who have called by the dozens, eager for a perspective that differs from the hometown boosters. More than one reporter has called with just two questions: "Are you a real person? Did you write this?"

She's not sure how all this may be playing with her neighbors. She's been so inundated with calls and interviews, she hasn't had time to leave the house. Her mother worries about the attention. She suggested her daughter change her phone number and move in with her until the firestorm passes.

But so far the e-mail response has been overwhelmingly positive, Kilkenny said. Many have praised her courage. Others have written in defense of Palin. That's okay with Kilkenny too.

Kilkenny, a Democrat, said she does not share Palin's political point of view. But for those who are socially conservative, she said, her e-mail should be in some ways reassuring. "I want people to know," she said. "If they are social conservatives, they can trust that's who she is."

Overall, she's been pleased with the tone of responses.

"The American public is not a vicious, vindictive, ugly group of people," she concluded. "They care deeply about their country. They take their responsibility as citizens very seriously. My faith in the American people was really pumped up."

Another thing she has learned: The public is very distrustful of the media. "But they are very trustful of me," she said.

Which she finds a little alarming. Because, she said, they really don't know who she is. She could be anyone.

"I have known Sarah since 1992..."

Letter to the editor of the Anchorage Daily News:

"I have known Sarah since 1992..."
Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: September 4, 2008 - 12:11 pm

From David Hulen in Anchorage --

The e-mail below has been bouncing around the Internet since Sunday. It was written by Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla - stay-at-home mom, letter-to-the-editor writer and longtime watcher of Valley politics. She's a registered Democrat. She was one of the delegates to the Conference of Alaskans in Fairbanks back in 2004. Her bio from the conference is here.

She e-mailed this letter over the weekend to family and friends Outside, and (despite her request not to post it) it went viral on the Internet very quickly, showing up on blogs and Web sites all over. Since then, Kilkenny has been inundated with phone calls and e-mails. She said she stayed up until 3 a.m. last night answering e-mails, and found nearly 400 new ones waiting when she logged on this morning.

It's posted here with her permission.

***

Dear friends,

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

Thanks,
Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT
*"Hockey mom": true for a few years.

*"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since.

*"NRA supporter": absolutely true

*social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconstitutional).

*pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.

*"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation

*"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

*political maverick: not at all

*gutsy: absolutely!

*open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

*has a developed philosophy of public policy: no

*"a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

*fiscal conservative: not by my definition!

*pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.

*pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents

*pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history.

*pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that's life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.

Anne Kilkenny
August 31, 2008

The Anti-Abortion Mommy: Five Questions for Sarah Palin

Okay, I think we all agree that even though she's probably a very nice human being, the Sarah Palin VP pick is deeply problematic.

From the looks of how she's being positioned in the GOP, she's the foil for a host of horrifying scenarios they've got planned, from the continued erosion of first amendment rights to the exponential growth of the prison-industrial complex.


Anyway.

If I ran into her at a hunting-themed bar at the Anchorage airport, I'd walk right up and ask some questions--because she's so accessible, you know?

1. I really, truly respect your privacy, but I read on the net that your fifth baby may be your daughter's. Even if that is just a vicious lefty-commie smear, your seventeen year-old is really pregnant, right? Listen, I love babies, and I get you're anti-abortion and pro-abstinence, but don't you think you should be pro-birth control, too? And teen moms who aren't your daughter?

2. What on earth does the bear on your office sofa symbolize? Bear market? Bear Stearns? Father Bear, Black Bear, Childbearing, Bearing down? Your victory against environmentalists who want to protect polar bears from extinction? I know I'm not alone when I wonder what you feel when you rest your back against all that dark fur. Dominance, protection, hunger, compassion? It would tell us a lot about who you are and what you would do with the living organism we call earth.

3. Your mother-in-law says you don't bring anything to the table other than your gender and political affiliation. What did you do to her last Thanksgiving? Is she responsible for the Eskimo-Yupiik part of your husband and if so, is she upset he married a woman who wants to drill on native lands? Or is your husband's mom pro-sovereignty, and still coming to terms with the whole Alaskan statehoood thing?

4. The way you congratulated and undermined Hillary at the same time was clever. That part about 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, and the American people being ready to break all the way through. But Hillary has faced down some of the most dangerous forces on the planet, and won eighteen million votes, too. What experience do you have surviving physical, psychological, cultural or any other kind of warfare?

What's your position on Darfur? Tibet? North Korea? I think you and Sarkozy might get on, but what about Putin? Are you ready to go over the fine points with Vladimir? Are you up for challenging Hu Jintao on the age of the gymnasts on the Chinese Olympic team, or on the oil pipeline China is running from Somalia?

And finally:

5. Have you sat down and had a long talk with your husband about this whole thing? I'm not saying it's an issue, but we're talking five kids, in Washington, DC. We're talking state dinners, applications to Sidwell Friends, and a landmine of completely uncharted masculinity issues. Can your marriage hold up? Just how secure is your husband?

And maybe more important, would your husband's role in your life encourage you to support a broader Family Leave Act? Like the one in Sweden, where parents are entitled to eighteen months paid Parental Leave?


But seriously. I hope you're making the right choice. Because should you manage to pull off a miracle and end up VP, it's going to get very hot in your kitchen. And if you don't, you're going to have to live knowing your nomination may have unified and cemented the victory of the democratic party in 2008 and beyond.

Either way, I wish you and your family the best. Like it or not, we really are all in this together.

State Probing Palin's Troopergate

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/03/cbsnews_investigates/main4413750.shtml

State Probing Palin's Troopergate

WASILLA, Alaska, Sept. 3, 2008
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(CBS) CBS News Investigative Producer Laura Strickler and Intern Kim Lengle wrote this story for CBSNews.com.

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Alaskans refer to it as “troopergate” but the McCain campaign is convinced the investigation into Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s attempts to fire her ex-brother-in-law, state Trooper Mike Wooten, will show no wrongdoing. Palin allegedly demanded that Wooten be fired from his job while Wooten was in the midst of a bitter divorce with her sister. The results of the investigation will be released a few days before the November election.

The focus of the investigation will surround whether Palin abused her power as governor by pressuring Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, to fire Wooten. After Monegan declined to fire Wooten, Palin asked him to step down. Investigators will try and figure out if the two incidents are related, Palin says they are not.

A senior official from the McCain campaign close to the vetting process says they were "convinced there was no impropriety" after thoroughly researching the firing. The source also said they "spent a lot of time" looking into it.

John Cyr runs the Public Safety Employees Association that represents Wooten. Cyr’s organization is planning to file a new round of ethics complaints against the Palin administration related to the fring of Monegan. He says the national spotlight on the four-year-old issue is quite a change, "I don’t have a strategy, I am the executive of a little union at the fringe of the earth," Cyr told CBS News.

And Cyr notes that according to his records, Wooten has not had a formal complaint filed against him in his eight years as a trooper with the exception of the raft of complaints from the Palin family. He says his office handles about 40 serious trooper complaints each year.

According to The Associated Press, the Palin family accused Wooten of drinking a beer while in his patrol car, illegal hunting and taser-ing his 11-year-old stepson. They also claimed Wooten threatened to kill Sarah Palin's father.

“He is 6 foot 5 and goes 285 - which is not bad if you are an Alaska state trooper, but it doesn’t make you exactly sympathetic in the eyes of the public,” Cyr told CBS News.

But while Wooten has support of the union, one Alaska trooper who did not want to be named tells CBS News in his opinion the accusations against Wooten reflect negatively on all troopers, "Wooten had been making extremely poor decisions and I would never want to work with the guy.”

Wooten is currently on the job as a trooper in the Mat-Su Valley region of Alaska which includes the town of Wasilla, Palin's hometown. The region he patrols is the size of the state of West Virginia, Cyr says.


By Laura Strickler
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