Saturday 13 June 2009

Sarah Palin's double standards


Sarah Palin intensified her war of words with comedian David Letterman, claiming his controversial joke about one of her daughters had contributed to the "acceptance of abuse of young women".

In the same interview with Matt Lauer, Sarah Palin pointed out the “double standard” between Obama’s family and her own, saying that the media heeded Obama’s warning during the campaign not to attack his family. She called him “the candidate who must be obeyed.”

When then Senator Obama warned the media , he was referring to Sarah Palin's own daughter. The same daughter who's an ambassador for Candie's. Don't they contribute to the acceptance of abuse of young women? Exploiting young women's sexuality to sell goods sounds like abuse to me.






(Click on images to enlarge)

The way I see it, if anybody is contributing to any abuse, it's Sarah Palin herself, who mercilessly exploits her daughters for the sake of a soundbite or some misguided, hollow crusade.

Bristol will be forever associated with the image of a "knocked-up" teenager and now Willow will be forever associated with statutory rape. A late night TV joke is not responsible for these tawdry, lurid, cheap images. Neither is the President.

The only person responsible for their tabloid image is their own mother, the hot governor.
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30 comments:

KW said...

Good post as usual, Regina.

You make your points very clear by the use of images!

Thank you.

Virginia Voter said...

Only Sarah Plain herself dragged Willow's name into this as well as statutory rape and pedophilia. Not Dave, not the left wing media, but Sarah and Todd Palin, themselves. How Sarah Palin could go on TV and talk about abuse toward women is beyond hypocritical.

This is a woman who charged rape victims for their OWN RAPE KITS WHILE MAYOR OF WASILLA. She governs a state with one of the highest rape,teenage pregnancy,high school dropout, and child & domestic abuse rates per capita in the nation!! What has she done about that except to cut funding? She was to rob women of their freedom of choice over their own bodies! What has she done about that in her own state? What women's issue has she EVER fought for?

Regina...I think an investigation into Palin's track record in Alaska on women's issues is in order.

midnightcajun said...

Sarah is all about double standards. Remember her "screw political correctness" statement last week that all the conservatives were cheering? That's what we're dealing with here. Suddenly they want to be all correct again?

A coven of conservative commentators was on Hannity yesterday tut-tutting about this. They began by imagining the "liberal outrage" that would have greeted any joke about Michele or Hilary dressing slutty, which made me laugh. No one would ever make such a joke because they DON'T dress slutty; Sarah does. Is Letterman the first to call her on it? He shouldn't have been.

Then they went into a rant about how it was all Obama's fault and he should have come out and condemned the joke. WTF? Because Sarah Palin once ran on a failed Republican ticket against him (8 months ago!) he must forever set himself up as the defender of her daughters' virtue? When Sarah herself got Bristol a job making money from an outfit like Candies as the poster child for getting yourself knocked up? I think our president has more important issues to deal with at the moment.

Buffalogal said...

Not sure if this has been posted yet but , if not, here's another over-the-top reaction from the Palinbots:

http://www.firedavidletterman.com

A rally is being held on Monday to support firing Dave.

I have no words left. Only gurgling noises and the sound of the floor creaking as I rock.

Anonymous said...

Thank the lawd she had 5 kids and most likley some creepy boobies or we'd be seeing cleavage all over the place as well
All she has are those runner calves
Ive never seen her show her arms either (cept in T-shirts but not really in public settings..
Im sure they waddle and she doesn't want to be upstaged by First Lady Michelle

Anonymous said...

If you google Late Night Jokes Bristol Palin, you'll come up with websites galore that show many of the jokes told about BP by alot of the late night comedians.

Example: Saturday night, Sarah Palin is going to drop the first puck at the Philadelphia Flyers' Hockey game. Then, Palin will spend the rest of the game trying to keep the hockey players out of her daughter's penalty box. Told by Conan O'Brien

The image that first comes to mind is Sarah on the ice, using little Piper as a shield against the booing audience. The joke uses the word "daughter," and we don't know if the other girls were at the game or not. But that's one ugly image, the hockey team and Piper. We know that the joke refers to Bristol, but no one attacked Conan.

I have been busy this morning copying the jokes (control a, control c) and sending them (control v) to the people who are so outraged that they want CBS to fire Letterman.
CBS couldn't be happier with the ratings, and I've already sent my letter of support to CBS. If you're feeling a little devilish, send the late night jokes to Sarah and others in Alaska. Frankly, there are plenty of jokes that are (1) not funny (2) not appropriate (3) in really bad taste told by Leno, O'Brien, Kimmel, Maher as well as Dave.

Let's face it, this is the distraction after a disastrous week that included lifting lines from Newt (no I didn't), all of the tacky clothing, make up, hair pictures (did you see the strict "makeover") and her on-again off-again antics with the GOP dinner. And, as someone over at Mudflats pointed out, they originally used the word "rape" before switching to "statutory rape." What's the difference? Statutory rape has to do with the differences of ages between the two people, even if the sex if is consentual. If one party does not consent, it's rape.

b-p-p said...

More over the top
Ham Sandwich files complaint over Letterman joke
http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/tvblog/entries/2009/06/12/jeweler_korman_files_complaint_over_letterman_joke.html

Why isn't Palin returning to Alaska?

Anonymous said...

The guy who is organizing the Fire David Letterman march on Monday is Michael Patrick Leahy. He is a super conservative-evangelical. If you feel like contacting him his email:
michaelpatrickleahy@gmail.com

(My word verification is aersts, which looks like a scrambled versioin of arests, all right arrest. I hope that Mr. Leahy has taken out all of the necessary parade/demonstration permits for the use of NYC public streets and sidewalks).

lisabeth said...

How do we file complaints against Sarah Palin for the disgusting media frenzy full of lies that she has created. If I were David Letterman, I would sue Sarah Palin.Enough is enough. What he said is on tape, and it is NOTHING that Sarah Palin says it is! It was a joke that he then apologized for! She makes me sick to my stomach!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found this very good op-ed piece I thought Regina and everyone would like. It says that Sarah Palin owes David Letterman, her children AND the world an apology for what she has created. The article also talks about how this type of thing creates far right extremism... THAT is what the MSM should be focusing on.

The media is also really to blame. I am going to stop watching CNN.... I plan on writing a few letters there today, telling them I am disappointed in their coverage around this. The one who covered it the best was Keith Olbermann who spoke the truth about this.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Letterman-Joke-decepti-by-Stephen-Crockett-090612-453.html

lynnrockets said...

Terrific post. How right you are. Palin's hypocricy or plain lack of intelligence becomes more apparent every day.

basheert said...

If people would address her complete lack of intellect, the "problem" would simply go away.

She will go away. When she gets her flaming a** kicked in 2012 (since she obviously didn't consider the 2008 election pertinent to her).

Oh please let her run.....if the Dems want to raise gazillions of dollars for the 2012 races, let the Pigs put her up to a vote. Just the female vote alone will doom her to one more big fat PalinFailure.

basheert said...

Here you go guys, here's the email for the Letterman Show for your emails of support:

cbsmailbag@aol.com

Let CBS know you support Dave. I chose to NOT trash Palin - just let them know he has our full support.

Anonymous said...

All I can say is: Palin sure is helping Dave's ratings!!!
Poor Conan doesn't have a chance next week.

onejrkitty said...

Valley Trash.

Pure and simple.

Anything else is like asking a pig to fly. I just can't.

Unfortunately, the Mat Su has become a "hang out" for radical extreme fundamentalist like Sand Point, Idaho has for skin heads, white supremacists, and KKK wannabe's.

Except that the valley is also the meth capital of Alaska. GREAT COMBINATION.

Palin is dangerous because we have too long been "politically correct" and culturally given more respect to our lower classes than we should.

I respect all people just by virtue of existing, but to not differentiate ( NOT the same as "discrimination") between people of differing levels of intelligence, education (self education or formal education), common sense, awareness, sophistication etc has resulted in a "one size fits all" that has brought Palin to think she could be VP as well as her "base" base to think as well.

Sorry, but beer drinkin, pot smokin, pissin in the yard rednecks are NOT worthy of the respest we give to individuals of more class and character.

I do NOT advocate discrimination against anyone or any group but I do advocate that we use discrimination ( in the dictionary sense of the word) to choose to raise our bar when we look to leaders.

Anonymous said...

She's definitely showing every characteristic of "doing something" like speed. Doubtful she's progressed to meth yet, but there probably is hope.

What she has done to her children, the embarrassment factor alone, should get her about 20 years. What a major PITA she is and can you even imagine how her kids really feel about her and her antics.

Too bad no one has had a shot at getting a blood test and a tox screen. I'd love to know what she's got in her system.

Elena said...

I'm really glad you put these images up here to make your point - it really does drive home the hypocrisy. Thanks.

KaJo said...

onejrkitty said..."Valley Trash. [...] Unfortunately, the Mat Su has become a "hang out" for radical extreme fundamentalist like Sand Point, Idaho has for skin heads, white supremacists, and KKK wannabe's."

I'd lived in northwestern Washington state for years, and often visited friends in Spokane; both sides of the mountains we heard a lot about what Idaho was famous for besides potatoes.

When I first read Sarah Palin's family background; that Chuck and Sally Heath moved up to Alaska from Sand Point Idaho when SP was a baby, and that Chuck Heath had been a teacher in both Idaho and Alaska, I thought of 2 things immediately.

One was, they hail originally from one of the hotbeds of survivalist/anarchist/separatist sentiments in the lower 48, and

Two was, my gawd, if Chuck Heath had absorbed any of that kind of thinking into his social persona, he's NOT the kind of teacher I'd want for MY kids.

But a bee is drawn to honey, I guess, and whacko separatists and others of the stripe you describe, onejrkitty, will find each other even in The Last Frontier.

Anonymous said...

I was talking to someone yesterday about the whole Letterman "spat" and they (not following anything about her since the election) was like
"She is defending her kid? She should be doing that"
My response .. I do not like debates..was
If she wasn't a mega mouthpiece for all the creepy racial/bible thumpers (that don't walk the talk) hate filled people I might actually give her a little credit or raise an eyebrow like "hmm"

But her track record is horrendous..her credibility stinks

Elena said...

Anonymous above you are right, those that don't follow the news just hear "Letterman made a late night joke about raping Palin's daughter" - that is the meme. And then of course everyone thinks that he shouldn't have done that, owes her an apology, is cause cultural harm to women, etc... However, I had a friend yesterday in exactly that position, except they had seen Palin's "outrage" Lauer interview and not the original joke. Inclined to agree overall that maybe Palin had a point, he took a moment to view the original joke on his own later. He called me laughing and said, "I can't believe she got so upset about THAT. It was nothing. He didn't even mention rape!"

So as with all things Palin, we will run into people who have heard about her latest drama, and if they don't look very far into to it, or inclined to like her, they swallow it whole. Only when you look closer at Palin and pin her down does all her shapeshifting and obfuscation become evident. That is the reason I named my blog NailinPalinNow - she's got to be continually nailed down and held to point, or she'll be off on some other lie and the older ones don't get examined.

But she'll do herself in - she is physically and mentally incapable of restraint. If she managed to show restraint for even a couple of months, she would explode into some diatribe or weird complaint sooner or later at an even worse moment.

Palin is a laughingstock, and worse for the GOP a real loose cannon. "Loose lips sink ships"

Anonymous said...

I've always thought Sarah was high on a combination of caffein and diet pills. She dropped A LOT of weight during the campaign--her staffers said she lived on Diet Dr. Pepper and Slim Fast. She's kept losing weight since. I had an anorexic roommate once in college. She was flat out scary crazy. But it's possible Sarah is on something else. I watched her at the autism event--that manic energy is very appealing, but it does hint at something that's not quite right.

KaJo said...

OK, listen up everybody! I've got the final be-all, end-all proof that Sarah Palin was lying about Willow being the subject of the "joke" by David Letterman.

In addition to what we've already realized, that so far there's no visual proof that Willow Palin was ever at that Sunday June 7th Yankee game....

According to this phrase in The New York Daily News -- which'd I'd read before, I just didn't realize the significance of it -- "the Palins left sometime in the sixth inning for the [Independent Group Home Living Foundation] award ceremony honoring Palin."

The Yankee game started at 1:10 PM EDT on Sunday June 7th. It wasn't a nighttime game.

The 6th inning was around 3:00 PM in the afternoon, which would have given the Palins lots of time to get to the awards ceremony.

Therefore, even if a photo of Willow being at that game ever does surface -- if the Palins left in the 6th inning, they wouldn't have been there for the 7th inning, which is when a Palin daughter was supposedly being "knocked up" by Alex Rodriguez!

David Letterman's "apology under duress" is a valid apology.

Sarah Palin, you are SUCH a liar.

Nana of the Chesapeake said...

I am as impressed with BabbleOn Barbie's faux outrage about Letterman's joke as I was with her faux pregnancy.

Anonymous said...

@KaJo, 6:27 I agree completely. It's false outrage, and it's done to keep Palin's name in the news. She needs to counteract all of the bad publicity from last week.

What is the ultimate hypocrisy? In addition to NOT being there for the 7th inning stretch as described in Letterman's joke-- late night comedians have been making just as bad jokes about Brisol's status as an unwed teen mother. Leno made a similar joke, but instead of using the womanizer ARod, he used the unfaithful John Edwards. The joke is also about the bad boys: ARod, Edwards, Spitzer.

All you have to do is google Bristol Palin late night jokes and dozens pop up. Where was the outrage then? Leno, O'Brien, Kimmel, Maher have taken repeated shots at Bristol, sometimes she is named and sometimes she is referred to as Sarah Palin's daughter. It's pretty well understood by now that all of the jokes were directed at Bristol, and none were told about any of the other Palin children.

The other outrage is that when the apology is offered, people usually graciously accept (even if they don't mean it). Sometimes, in the effort to make peace, they actually grit their teeth and go on the Letterman show. Oprah, Madonna, Cher, Dr.Phil all had awful jokes told at their expense, and they all showed up. Dave is pretty good about handing the person a huge bouquet of roses (or a virtual bouquet; he knows when to give a little, too). And, the Palin's don't have to go to NY to boost Dave's ratings. After all of Sarah's interviews, his ratings are going to be huge on Monday, even if he doesn't say anything about Sarah Palin.

And, we still haven't seen one photo of Willow at the baseball game, no matter how briefly. They have had plenty of time to try to photoshop her in there by now.

Some of the serious articles written about this episode ask whether or not the GOP really want to have a Tabloid Star as their candidate. She solidifies the base, chases away the moderates and independents, but she's great for fund raising. Sarah may not realize it, but isn't it just as degrading the way they are using her?

Helen said...

No because that is just politics.

Anonymous said...

Anonoymous above
I agree with the comparison of how the GOP is "using her" ..

I always thought, if she did become Pres. one day (Stick a Needle in my EYE!)
I can see it...
Big meeting scheduled and she has all her papers and word salad ready
All the head honchos at the table
She goes to take the seat at the head of the table
when someone whisks her away and tells her there is a photo op we need you at!
She tells everyone, we will meet up about this later
While she is gone they sit and chuckle and go on to make all the real decisions

She would never be able to do anything as Pres.
The Politicians do not take her seriously.. Her brain is fried if she thinks these right wing old men would ever take a woman seriously like her
They may like seeing a little leg action for a change at the morning round up
Stare at those lips flapping
But taken seriously?

Anonymous said...

Great post, as usual! I find the picture of her tawdry, and posed to portray her being a "hottie" and stir up the cretins in her whackjob base. I think I need a shower!

espresso4me said...

Good luck kids, but I’ve got lots more really important stuff to do and just don’t have the time to actually help you guys out. I am a very,very busy and a really,really important person, ya know! Oh yeah, I am governor too. Oops, I almost forgot.

Besides, you’ve been figuring stuff out for yourselves without my being around. If I can use you, I will because I’m your mother and that’s what I do. You understand don’t you ? Of course you do. Gotta run now. Watch my Tweets!

wv: sonedie

onejrkitty said...

"People running the Michael Reagan appearance here were a little nonplussed when Our Sarah showed up, prepared to speak, trailing her own "introducer," right-wing radiomouth Eddie Burke. Apparently the right-wing radiomouth already on the program, Rick Rydell, wasn't acceptable. Rick's fans say it's because he's been known to utter a disparaging word about our governess..." ( From Alaska Ear 6/14/09

Remember Burke and Palin lauging on the radio bout Lydia Green and calling her a bitch and a cancer ( Palin knowing she had cancer)

Remember Michael Regan's remark about putting grenades in babies butts and blowing them up ?

AND PALIN HAS THE GALL TO SAY LETTERMAN'S JOKES WERE OVER THE TOP?

SARAH PALIN IS NOT JUST SICK, SHE IS EVIL INCARNATE. SHE IS DEMONIC.

Anonymous said...

Frankly, this is a case where both parties are in the wrong. Letterman shouldn't have tied the firecracker to the puppy's tail, and Sarah and Todd shouldn't have lit the match. But of the two actions, lighting the match was worse.

Letterman's "apology" gave me the image of a little boy with his head down and his foot swinging back and forth as he grudgingly spouts off "sorry" after being told to by his teacher.

Anonymous said...

Anon at 21:49 here. The little boy gave a heartfelt apology tonight. I guess we know which is the mature party in this feud.