Friday, 27 November 2009

Pat and Palin (and more) - UPDATE: Andrew Halcro takes aim!



I just found this great article, which is also a nice Thanksgiving read.

You will find out at the end of the article who Pat is (it's not me, of course, nor our special friend Pat Dougherty).

The beginning of the article reads:

"Pat does not like Sarah Palin.

If Pat doesn't like Sarah Palin, than I would feel pretty confident stating Republicans need to stay away from giving Palin the go-ahead nomination for 2012.Pat is as Independent as they come. She's registered Independent and true to form, she has voted for Democrats and voted for Republicans. She does not vote based on party, but for the person who she feels will be a stronger leader.

Pat does not like Palin.

Pat did like Candidate Obama, and thought he would be a much better President than the one that was currently in office (Dick Cheney- her words, not mine) and she had no problem saying she would never vote for McCain for one reason: If McCain kicked the bucket, Palin would be her President.

And, Pat does not like Palin."

Continue with the article HERE.

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All this "Pat" stuff inspired me to take a look at the Anchorage Daily News, and what a surprise: The ADN published a good article called "Palin's anti-intellectualism dangerous", written by Alaska Professor Steve Haycox.

Although I really like what the ADN has done there, is still strikes me like kicking a dead corpse. When Sarah Palin was the Governor, you wouldn't find those articles in the ADN. Am I unfair? Probably - after all, I am just a non-commercial citizen blogger, and I have no boss asking me whether the urgently needed revenue from the State of Alaska will arrive this year as usual!

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Andrew Sullivan has published another very revealing article about the affairs of Sarah Palin, and about the non-existing fact-checking by Harper Collins in particular. He writes:


"You also wonder whether any fact-checking was done at HarperCollins. Well: you don't have to wonder. They had no fact-checkers at Harper Collins when they marketed my book (I had to hire two of my own). A random blog, I'd wager, has more factual reliability than a book published by Jonathan Burnham and edited by Adam Bellow. Yes: Adam Bellow. Editing Sarah Palin. What a stunning emblem that is of so much."

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UPDATE:

I almost had overlooked the most important article of the day, but an invaluable source in Alaska alerted me to it!

Andrew Halcro has taken off the kid gloves! In a must-read, long article on his blog, the former Republican AK State Representative, successful business-owner and challenger in the primaries against Republican Don Young for his congressional seat, blows Sarah Palin to smitterens.

He writes:

"(…) Those who line up to buy her book are disillusioned by the perceived East/West coast "elitist, smarty pants" mentality that they believe looks to the heartland with a disparaging eye. Talk about a red herring.

Do the parents in Port Washington, Pennsylvania really hope their kids grow up "not smart enough" to have a shot at getting into the best (dare I say elite) colleges in the country?

Ironically, the people in rural America are supported heavily by the federal income tax dollars that flow from East and West coast inhabitants, that pay their farm subsidies, auto industry bailouts and Ma and Pa Jones Medicare and Social security.

But they apparently want a return to the simple times when you could gather around the kitchen table and not worry about the complexities of a global economy and the real challenges of governing a country where our greatest strength is our diversity.

It's all noise, generated by the Sarah Palin's of the world who want to distract from their inability to articulate real solutions to real problems by repeating meaningless phrases. Last week in answering about a dozen questions from Rush Limbaugh, Palin said some combination of "solutions," "conservative" and "commonsense" twenty-five times.

Here's a tip: If you have to repeatedly qualify what you're saying is a commonsense solution, than it's not really a commonsense solution.

The beauty of commonsense solutions is that they are common without having to be labeled as such. In fact it's all common "nonsense." (…)

She writes harshly about John Bitney, but did she ever talk to him directly about his Blackberry or anything else she took issue with? No. In fact when Bitney was fired, he found out only after trying to use his state issued Blackberry to call his office and it was turned off.

Then to blame him for not communicating with lawmakers about her vetoes is another sign of her ability to lie. The fact is in June 2007, in the weeks leading up to Palin's vetoes, lawmakers knew she was considering cuts to the capital budget and tried desperately to meet with Palin but she refused. (…)

And then there are the things she conveniently left out about during her two hundred word assault on me. Oh the stories I could tell...and will in time.

Palin writes about how my gig as a radio host and blogger was a "step up from my previous job as a limo driver at Todd's cousin's wedding."

Why didn't she write that I owned the company and I was driving because the chauffeur originally scheduled for the run was sick? I guess in Palin's world a small business owner should take the same approach she did when faced with a challenge; give up and quit instead of taking care of your responsibilities.

And why did she leave out that when I was elected to the State House in November of 1998, she sent me a hand written note congratulating me and saying she hoped I'd bring my "small business" experience to Juneau?

Why?

Because in doing so Palin would reveal what many of us found out years ago; her inability to tell the truth is only second to her inability to accept the truth. (…)"

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A short note which has nothing to do with Sarah Palin:

While writing blogposts, I have listened very often to THIS ALBUM.

Just a general recommendation! It's very inspiring music.

:-)


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