Welcome to the elite, Sarah Palin! - UPDATE! California State Senator Leland Yee strongly condemns the actions of CSU Stanislaus: "Reprehensible"!

If you google "Sarah Palin" and "elite", you come up with some interesting results.

For example:

A book on Amazon: "The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star"

A report on MSNBC: "Palin fires back at media, ‘Washington elite’"

And then we also have a short clip on youtube in which Sarah Palin gives her own interpretation of what it is that defines the elite:

In Sarah Palin's world, "everyone who thinks that they are, I guess, better than anyone else, that’s my definition of elitism".

Well, let's make a reality check then.

Somebody once said that Sarah Palin doesn't approve of reality and also doesn't approve of satire, so a reality check already feels like a revolutionary act, as far as Sarah Palin is concerned. ;-)

According to a report by ABC News which was published today, Sarah Palin earned about $ 12 million since she resigned as Alaska's Governor in July 2009.

Does this make her part of the "elite"? Well, not necessarily, according to Sarah's own interpretation. So, we have to keep looking.

Coincidentally, there was more fascinating news today. Some clever students at the California State Stanislaus University today discovered in a dumpster parts of Sarah Palin's highly controversial contract with the "Stanislaus Foundation".

Fortunately, it didn't take long for the document to appear on the internet. We just love original documents! :-)

The recovered pages 4-9 of the contract can be downloaded HERE (alternative: HERE and HERE).

Let's have a look at some highlights from the contract:

1) First-Class flight or private plane: Sarah likes it very comfy!

2. Hotel: Make it "deluxe", baby!

3. A wooden lectern and bendable straws for the lady, please!

4. All Press & Media coverage needs to be pre-approved by Sarah Palin!

5. All questions have to be pre-screened and have ONLY be asked by a moderator! Sarah doesn't like nasty surprises!

6. Any liability? No, thank you!

7. Confidentiality: The lady likes her secrecy, and in case there are some pesky disclosure laws around - can we redact the contract, please, before you give it to the authorities? That's awfully nice, thank you very much!

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Ok, Sarah, I will make it short - listen:

If you...

a) Demand to fly first-class or alternatively per private plane

b) Demand a deluxe hotel

c) Demand an Obama-like wooden lectern and bendable straws that reportedly also Maria Carey loves

d) Demand that all press and media coverage has to be pre-approved by you

e) Demand that all questions have to be pre-screened and have ONLY be asked by a moderator

f) Demand that you will take no liability for nothing whatsoever

g) Demand that your confidentiality ranks higher than state dislosure laws

...then...

...you belong to the "elite", because you think you are better than anyone else!

Congratulations, Sarah Palin!

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UPDATE:

A brand-new video has just gone up, and it's truly chilling: California State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) has given a press conference on the issue Sarah Palin's contract. He finds very, very harsh words for what has happened. Amongst many other things, he calls the shredding of the contract by the Stanislaus Foundation "unconscionable and reprehensible". He says that some people have been "deceiving the state of California and obfuscating" and through their actions bring "the democracy into trouble".

State Senator Yee says that CSU Stanislaus has "thrown their principles out of the window and shredded them".

The University "was shredding the documents that they said they didn't have".

The University first claimed, according to Senator Yee, that "no records are available", and then afterwards the Stanislaus Foundation tried to destroy the contracts.

In the clip, the two female students who found the contract also tell their version of events - very interesting indeed!

This is turning into a major political scandal. Not surprising - when Sarah Palin is involved, bad things are bound to happen. Many people had to learn it the hard way in the past already.

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From Senator Yee's press release from today:

"CSU Stanislaus Office of the President last week denied public records requests made by Yee and Californians Aware to disclose how much Palin is getting paid for an upcoming speaking engagement as well as documents and correspondence regarding the university’s 50th Anniversary Gala.

The responses from Campus Compliance Officer Gina Leguria state, “The University has no documents that are responsive to your request.”

CSU officials have often declared foundations as separate private entities even though the CSU Stanislaus Foundation is entirely located within the public university:

• the foundation chair is campus president Hamid Shirvani, a state employee who makes upwards of $300,000/year;
• the executive officer, the treasurer, and the secretary of the board are all employees of CSU Stanislaus;
• every staff member listed on the foundation website are CSU Stanislaus employees, with the exception of one;
• the foundation’s website and the Palin Gala website are located at the taxpayer-funded www.csustan.edu;
• the Palin fundraiser solicitation and information line is a university telephone number at the university advancement office;
• the foundation’s offices are housed within the campus administration’s building and fully staffed by university employees;
• the work of the foundation is conducted using CSU Stanislaus email accounts, telephones, computers and other taxpayer-funded resources.

“There is not a fine line or even a blurry line between the foundation and the public university; there is absolutely no line,” said Yee.

Prior to denying the CPRA request by Yee and Californians Aware, CSU Stanislaus officials stated that they could not release Palin’s compensation due to a confidentiality term in her contract. State law, however, specifically prohibits a state or local agency from allowing an outside entity to control the disclosure of information that is otherwise subject to the CPRA. In addition, a 2001 case involving Fresno State required the university to disclose documents they held regarding the operations of their foundation."
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Sarah Palin, the elites, the media...

Sarah Palin is very contradictory regarding what she calls the "elite". Her definition of elite is simplistic, as expected.



She says she's fighting for the little man, for the struggling middle class and her fight is against those who believe they are better than everybody else. As usual, she didn't really address the question, her answer was trite and childish.

Ironically, taking into account Sarah Palin's own definition of elite, in "Going Rogue" she blows her own trumpet from beginning to end. She was a fantastic basketball player, a gifted fisherwoman, moose hunter extraordinaire, an insightful, ethical politician who took on the establishment and single handedly put them in their place. She had the courage to ruffle the feathers of the big oil corporations. (This is a no-brainer, what are they going to do? Take their oil and go somewhere else?) She speaks of God as if she was chosen as his pet project.

How are all these self-descriptions not indicative of Sarah Palin's belief that she's better than everybody else? Oh well, she paints herself as little old me from Wasilla, the outsider, the underdog, so she's really humble, you see?

Sarah Palin has a servant's heart. She's concerned about the have-nots.

But she chooses which elites she despises very carefully. Some elites are perfectly acceptable.

Fat cats in the health insurance industry? They rented Sarah Palin's Facebook page at the height of the healthcare reform debate. They are a "good" elite. (I wonder if their "contribution" to their mouthpice will show up in her tax returns or the SarahPac accounts...)

She's all for giving the rest of the fat cats in any industry tax breaks, Reagan style, so their wealth trickles down, blah blah.

The economic elite is ok with her. Now she's one of their members, but as she would say, she worked her butt off to get there.

Sarah Palin's main beef is with the intellectual elite. She has no hope of entering it, and in order to distance herself from them even further, she maintains a tabloid image. Mother and daughter bringing up their babies together, bathing babies in the kitchen sink, party guests wearing hoodies and track suits were all part of the In Touch magazine spread. The Palins no doubt set up the domestic scene themselves or went along with whoever came up with it and approved the content of the article as it appeared in the magazine.

The message seems to be that although she's now very rich, her family is still the same as other "real" American families. Her supporters are definitely not part of any elite. So that they don't feel threatened by her new found wealth, she gives them the opportunity to identify with her on a personal level. She's still valley trash and proud of it.

The "Going Rogue" book tour counted on her mom and dad, her younger kids and an aunt, in a most convincing tour-de-force to reinforce the "I'm one of you" image. Her supporters couldn't get enough of it and were thrilled to bits to shake Chuck Heath's hand or have a moment with her mom. They're so normal, so real!



One branch of the intellectual elite is the liberal media. They make Sarah Palin foam at the mouth.

The McCain/Palin campaign had a big problem with them.

Matthew Continetti wrote a book, "The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star", which came out long before "Game Change". The editorial review on Amazon states:

As the second woman ever nominated as a candidate for vice president, Alaska governor Sarah Palin became an instant phenomenon. Americans were enthralled by a woman with charm, ambition, natural political talent, and a passion for conservative values.

But the fascination of ordinary people quickly drew an unprecedented attack from the media elite and liberal activists. Far beyond the normal bounds of tough questions and challenges, Palin's enemies decided that nothing was too personal to attack-including her marriage, her children, her faith, and her ward­robe. The media distorted Palin's positions and beliefs beyond recognition. And almost every word out of her mouth was spun as a "flub."

Weekly Standard writer Matthew Continetti reveals the true story of the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and her persecution by the elites who tried to hide their bias with solemn declarations of objectivity. Continetti offers fresh examples of malicious spin and deceit and shows how liberal snobbery has become a driving force in American politics.

Palin's ordeal has become a rallying cry for the GOP in the Obama era. This perceptive book is a must-read for conservatives who want to understand what really happened-and how to avoid a repeat.

The media was actually very kind to Sarah Palin and continues to give her a pass to this day. She is their cash cow. It's not in their interest to bring her down for good. If they really reported the truth, after the initial spike in interest, she would become a non-person, a hasbeen, not the best subject to attract readers and juicy revenue for media outlets. So they report her Facebook and Twitter rantings as if she should be taken seriously. They report her family scandals without going deep enough, always relegating them to the tabloid, sensationalist media. Why kill the goose that lays golden eggs?

Sarah Palin appears to have survived the revelations that emerged with the publication of "Game Change" and is now a political comentator on Fox News, a million miles away from the liberal media, where she's going to give a "fair and balanced" view of everything.

Tabloids, Fox News, teabagging... she's not part of the elite, that's for sure. Sarah Palin is just a filthy rich opportunist, without an ounce of class and monumentally ignorant.

Dictionary definition of elite:

"A group or class of persons or a member of such a group or class, enjoying superior intellectual, social, or economic status."
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