Sarah Palin, notable luminary??? (UPDATE)

From the Associated Press:

Former U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, once questioned about her lack of foreign policy experience, will make her first trip to Asia in September.

The former Alaska governor will visit Hong Kong to address the CLSA Investors Forum, a well-known annual conference of global investment managers, the host announced Monday.

Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Alan Greenspan have spoken at the event, hosted by brokerage and investment group CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.

"Our keynote speakers are notable luminaries who often address topics that go beyond traditional finance such as geopolitics," company spokeswoman Simone Wheeler said in a statement.

"We just felt it would be a fabulous opportunity for CLSA clients to hear from Mrs. Palin," Wheeler said, adding that CLSA approached Palin with the offer.

The Sept. 23 address will mark Palin's first commercial speaking engagement, according to CLSA. Her speaking fees were not disclosed.

It will be closed to the media, and the topic has not yet been confirmed.

I love this bit:

"Our keynote speakers are notable luminaries..."

Since when is $arah Palin a notable luminary?

I visited the CLSA website and found this:

CLSA is an active proponent of environmental awareness and action. We believe that the era of unconstrained resource availability is over. Through research, events, investments, strategic engagement, corporate initiatives and community activities, we help to promote proactive conservation of our local and global environments.

Considering her stance on "safe and responsible" development of Alaska's natural resources, I don't think the topic will involve the environment.

Pebble and Kensington mines, drilling in ANWR, suing the federal government regarding the protection of polar bears and Beluga whales... Yep, $arah Palin has an impressive record on the environment, so, no, she won't be speaking about the environment.

Whatever the topic turns out to be, I can't get the bit about $arah Palin being a notable luminary out of my head...

UPDATE: I'm not alone in my skepticism:

The decision to bring in Palin as keynote speaker has been met with incredulity from many among the business community in Hong Kong, asking if it might not be a hoax.
(snip)
"Honestly? This isn't a hoax?" asked the managing director of a Hong Kong business chain. "It's entertaining perhaps, in a road accident sort of way! Now I've seen everything."

Ha ha ha!

Further links about Sarah Palin and public speaking engagements:
Politico
NBC Bay Area
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Sarah Palin: unreliable and unhinged

Our friend GinaM has provided us with some very good links to many articles, so I thought it would be good to have some highlights of what went on in Sarah Palin's gubernatorial campaign and compare it to her more recent behaviour in a single post.

There are a few interesting points: Sarah Palin's stupidity, vindictiveness, "transparency" and unreliability.

The article "Who's Your Daddy?", quoted in the post "Sarah Palin's dad", was written by Sarah Palin in response to a tongue-in-cheek remark on ADN in 2003, which pointed out a degree of nepotism in Lisa Murkowski's appointment to the US Senate by her own father. If anything, the remark was favourable to Palin.

The Columbia Journalism Review explained:

Given its tone, location, and context, the “Who’s your daddy?” line is clearly a joke. And not only that, it’s a joke at the expense of Palin’s potential opponent, pointing out the nepotism tainting the younger Murkowski’s appointment.

Sarah Palin's response:

"Who’s Your Daddy?" Great question! I see that I got a “thumbs down" on the Anchorage Daily News Sunday scoreboard with an accompanying insinuation that I may not have the appropriate dad to allow me a particular public service role.

In my original post I said her article was written during the gubernatorial campaign in 2006. I stand corrected. It was written much earlier, then posted on her campaign website.

...details make it clear that it was written long before the forum, probably shortly after the original item ran. For one, in a section where she describes her siblings and their spouses “all happily doing our thing serving Alaskans,” she mentions a brother in law who works as a state trooper. Palin’s sister would file for divorce from state trooper Mike Wooten in April 2005, and the rest, as they say, is history.

One of the comments on the ADN article focuses on her stupidity and the usual "transparency":

October 17, 2006 - 11:17pm | alaskastraightalker

New Energy for Alaska? Transparency too?

Sarah Palin claims to want transparency in government. Yet, if her campaign is any example, Alaska will be back to secret meetings and limited access to public documents as quickly as you could say...Fuhs.

Why do I say that? Palin handed out a document yesterday to the school principals' conference. Unlike Knowles, who distributed position papers on things like K-12 education, preschool education- issues one would expect from a candidate for Governor, Palin copied something posted on her website that was, especially in the context of a principals' conference, a little strange- and slapped it on her letterhead. When its distribution was reported on this blog, what do you think happened?

That's right. The Palin campaign took it off their website. Quickly.

I think it's great that Palin loves her parents. I'm sure the other candidates love theirs as well. The question is: Wasn't the candidate for Governor prepared to hand out her positions on critical issues facing our schools, instead of a document which indicates simmering anger over an event which occurred over 3 years ago? And why did the campaign attempt to cover up the existence of the document? Is the speed in which it was removed from the Palin website what they mean by new energy?

We know very well how things had a tendency to disappear from her governor's website later on...

Some comments on another ADN article:

October 16, 2006 - 9:41pm | opal

I heard

Knowles and Palin were guest speakers at the Shop Steward Leadership conference in Girdwood. Once Knowles began speaking Palin realized the event wasn't what she thought it was. Caught off guard and unprepared she was heard bawling out a staffer over the phone. Apparently when it was her time to speak, Palin composed herself and made it through her speech. Anyone else have more details??

October 16, 2006 - 11:17pm | justintime

Meltdown at IBEW

Reportedly Palin expected 15-20 people at a meeting and when she showed up and there were 200 she went into the restroom, screamed at her staff, and burst into tears. My friends in attendence were not impressed at all, and they were undecideds.

That's the first three items clarified. Sarah Palin has been stupid, vindictive and "transparent" for a long, long time. Which brings us to her unreliability (Not without a generous dose of stupidity as her main reason for avoiding public events).

Back in 2006, she had a different spokesperson, but please note the similarity between the following e-mail and the more recent statements by Meg Stapleton:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Sarah Palin's campaign told UAF on Thursday she would not be attending a debate on campus set for next week.

Palin spokesman Curtis Smith said Palin's sorry she can't attend.

"I'd like to state for the record that she never agreed to do so," Smith said in an e-mail. "As you can imagine, her schedule is extremely packed."

The real reason:

...her opponents say she's trying to avoid public forums that would reveal her lack of understanding on the issues.

This reminds me of the GOP dinner she finally decided to attend more recently:

This morning, the Knowles campaign announced a joint press conference with Halcro that was to follow a candidate forum in front of a group of school principals at the Sheraton. The topic was to be: Where's Sarah?

But Palin showed at the forum, spoiling the press conference, which never happened. Halcro says he and Knowles are frustrated by Palin's absence at events.

There are so many examples of Sarah Palin's unreliability... As we've seen, it's not a recent development, it's more of a matter of style.

During the 2008 legislative session she was absent for so long that the legislators started wearing "Where's Sarah?" buttons. In 2009, she dodged discussions with lawmakers regarding the stimulus package, didn't show up for a teleconference and then proceeded to blame the lawmakers, saying they were too busy holding a press conference of their own.

These things should be sufficient to write Sarah Palin off as a serious candidate for anything, but as the icing on the cake, she's also completely unhinged. Geoffrey Dunn makes a good analysis on HuffPo about Sarah Palin's obsession with president Obama, culminating with what can only be described as paranoia:

Palin's official spokesperson Meg Stapleton asserted that there is a White House conspiracy behind the anti-Palin groundswell led by none other than Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. "The trail is pretty direct and pretty obvious to us," Stapleton declared.

"[Palin] represents the biggest threat to Obama," Stapleton stated. "She's the only one who can get the base excited....I just hope to God Rahm Emanuel isn't using taxpayer money to come after Alaska."

When Sarah Palin's adoring fans accused the progressive bloggers of being paid by Axelrod or Emmanuel to write hateful stuff about their idol, we laughed. But seeing these accusations coming directly from her spokesperson is a bit scary.

We're not afraid of Sarah Palin because she has a monumental intellect or the ability to mount a real challenge to the president and his policies. What frightens me is the way her celebrity status is being used by cynical GOP elements and the big corporations to derail the debate about healthcare reform, for example. I get very worried when I remember how George W Bush was "elected" twice and the effect of his two terms in office on world stability plus the economic crisis we're still living.

The trolls say I don't have the right to criticize American polititians. I'm a British citizen living in France. Young British soldiers are still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. The homes of many British people are still being repossessed, our children can't obtain mortgages, many can't find jobs. The ripple effect of the disastrous policies of those eight years are still being felt all over the world.

We cannot risk having the likes of Sarah Palin anywhere near the White House. If she has a powerful machine behind her, the risk of a GW Bush in a skirt happening to all of us is very real.

Can we afford to sit back, ignore Sarah Palin and let it happen?

Perish the thought!
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Will Sarah Palin show up this time?

Economic Club announces 2009-10 speakers

The worlds of politics, sports and journalism will come to Lake Michigan College beginning next month as former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former First Lady Laura Bush, Michigan State University head basketball Coach Tom Izzo and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman address The Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan.

In announcing its 2009-10 speakers lineup Friday, the club offered the teaser that former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin might speak to the club.

Palin, who recently resigned as Alaska's governor, has not begun accepting speaking invitations. But when she does the club will invite her, said Club President Michael Cook. If she accepts, she would probably speak in May.

When the time comes (and it's a long way away), the day before Sarah Palin is due to speak, Meg Stapleton will say they never heard anything about any speech.

No?

(more about Sarah Palin's avoiding public appearances here)
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Sarah Palin's dad

Chuck Heath to the Spokesman:

“Sarah’s been out of town for almost a month now,” said Chuck Heath, “I don’t know exactly where she is, but she’s writing her book. She e-mails me quite frequently. She asks, ‘Oh, what happened on June 13, 1978?’ This is material for her book.”

Her e-mails to her dad, he said, have asked about “trivial things like maybe a basketball game, ‘How many points did I score here,’ ‘When did we go to the Boston Marathon?’ … Mainly sports.”

This is from an article Sarah Palin wrote about Chuck Heath during her gubernatorial campaign:

He was Wasilla High School's track, cross-country and freshman basketball coach. He never let me quit, no matter how badly it hurt or how the odds were stacked against his athletes. He taught "no pain, no gain... and, you reap what you sow... and there ain't no thing as a free lunch... and dig deep, push hard and fully rely on ROCK!"

(In our case, that ROCK would be God.)

"Mr. Heath is grandpa to 12 fortunate young Alaskans, having an especially unique bond with his autistic eight-year-old grandson. From the first born, Track, on down, to Bristol, Willow, Piper lndi, McKinley, Happy, Karcher, Lauden, Payton, Keir, Heath and Tico."

What happened there? "He never let me quit..."

What he said in an interview to the Idaho Statesman may explain it:

Q: Can you shed any light on Sarah Palin's decision to resign as governor?

Heath: "Whenever I'm with Sarah, we never talk politics. It's always family or sports, and it kind of caught me by surprise. All I really know is what I read in the newspaper, and you can't depend on a newspaper to get all the facts."

Hmmm...

Chuck and Sally Heath chose normal names for their children: Charles, Sarah, Heather and Molly. The new trend for weird names is not going to skip a generation, as Chuck Heath is now the proud great-grandfather of Trig and Tripp.

Maybe Sarah could include a chapter in her book explaining this interesting family quirk...
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Oh, Bristol...

Here are some photos and a video, courtesy of our friend Patrick. The links were posted on a previous thread, but I thought it would be a good idea to have the whole thing as a post so you could see everything from the comfort of your palingates armchair.


Bristol in December 2006, June 2007, September 2007, October 2007, April 2008 and May 2009
(click on photos to enlarge)



I don't think Bristol is naturally "tubby". In December 2006, June 2007 and May 2009 she looks quite slender. The same can't be said of her appearance in September and October 2007. Unfortunately, there are no photos of Bristol between from October 2007 until April 25, 2008. Coincidence?

There's one little coincidence I can point out: J-Lo was pregnant with her twins on the MTV video. She disguised it well, with her large zebra striped outfit, but she went down the steps very gingerly, unlike Sarah Palin and Bristol when they were respectively "pregnant" with Trig and Tripp...

There are loads more photos here.
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Looking into Sarah Palin's mirror

This landed on my comments box:

Lambie has left a new comment on your post "Sarah Palin's ineptitude":

"Franklin Graham's circus" ?? Look in the mirror, Regina. What did you or your crowd DO about the plight of people caught for six weeks in the energy crisis in western Alaska? You blog while people starve. Some people carp, and some people act. If Franklin Graham taking action to deliver food and supplies was a circus, then I say less blogging and more circuses.

Dear Lambie,

The bloggers collected thousands of dollars and organized food and supplies boxes to be sent to more than one village, the ones actually affected by the energy crisis, not the two villages where people were amused and very surprised to see Sarah Palin arriving with the Evangelical circus, bearing boxes of food, pamphlets and some cookies. They were grateful, but didn't need them. What Sarah Palin achieved with her photo-op trip was to insult a village elder from Emmonak, one of the villages facing hardship.

None of the bloggers involved in the appeal went to the villages for a photo-op, they just helped publicize the villagers plight and made sure they received the help they needed some 6 weeks before Sarah Palin and attending circus made any effort to help at all.

We forged lasting friendships with some Alaska Natives and have started another appeal on behalf of a dear friend who lost her husband recently. She has one little daughter and is due to have another baby in November, facing a very bleak winter without her beloved husband as she's unable to hunt or earn enough money to heat her house or feed her children.

We blog for a reason, a very good reason. We were the first ones to turn the attention of the rest of the world to the crisis in Western Alaska and we haven't stopped after a photo-op. Donations poured in during those 6 weeks from all over the world and we will continue to be vocal about the problems the villagers face each winter, about all the issues that affect their livelihoods, such as the salmon by-catch by industrial trawlers from out of state that ruined the villagers ability to fish and sustain the local fisheries.

Unlike Franklin Graham's circus, we didn't flood the villages with Evangelical propaganda, our help had no strings attached. We respect the villagers religion and traditions, they don't have to worship at our altar. We helped people out of human solidarity and don't need temples built or any recognition or grovelling gratitude.

The villagers don't know our faces or our names, we don't need the publicity, we have no hidden agenda. We preserved the dignity of a very proud people because we didn't demand any public show of gratitude, we accepted their friendship instead.

Yes, Lambie, I look in the mirror. What I see is a face that doesn't need to be photographed, a name that doesn't need broadcasting. I am but one of the thousands of people from all over the world who look in the mirror and like what they see and only wish they could do more. We sent what we could to people thousands of miles away from our heated, comfortable homes.

I don't know what Sarah Palin sees when she looks into her mirror... but I guess it's not pretty.

How about you, Lambie? Where did you send YOUR money? SarahPac? The Alaska Fund Trust? The Samaritan Purse?

If you did, go and have a look in the mirror. You will see the face of a sucker.
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Sarah Palin is unhinged

Sarah Palin's latest Facebook note:

An Invitation

FOX News' Glenn Beck is doing an extraordinary job this week walking America behind the scenes of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and outlining who is actually running the White House.

Monday night he asked us to invite one friend to watch; tonight I invite all my friends to watch.

-Sarah Palin

No comment, apart from the post title. Please click on Beck's name to take action and stop the nonsense.
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Sarah Palin's ineptitude

SarahPac has scored very low with the FEC, but it's not thought to involve any actual premeditated wrongdoing, according to TPM: "It appears that this is probably not a matter of corruption. Rather, it may simply involve a level of negligence and ineptitude beyond the norm."

Some things never change. I didn't go into any deep research to remember a few other instances of Sarah Palin's "exemplary efficiency":

Her appointed crony had some computer problems with the PFD applications, stuff had to be recovered manually at a vast cost, all shrouded in the ususal "transparency.

She "forgot" to proclaim the Juneteenth celebrations and is now being sued for refusing to make the proclamation retroactively.

Medicaid and Medicare were grossly mismanaged during her two and a half years in office, costing the lives of 254 people.

The energy crisis in Western Alaska went on for 6 weeks after being reported before she decided to show up with Franklin Graham's Evangelical circus and some cookies.

Her APOC disclosure forms are a work of art, written by several different people, including lachrimose whines about "frivilous" ethics complaints. Not to mention her inability to stick to clear deadlines.

Her staff finds it almost impossible to send an RSVP in a timely fashion, leaving events organizers in the wilderness until the last possible minute, causing great embarassement.

$650,000 for programs to assist the homeless were "lost" from her budget, then found after the end of the session. In Anchorage alone, 12 homeless people have died in the last 6 months.

Her "legal" slush fund trust document is a very shoddy copy & paste patchwork that failed to comply with Alaska's ethics legislation.

When appointing somebody to a vacant Democratic Senate seat, she couldn't tell the difference between a Democrat and a Republican.

And now her SarahPac shows the same penchant for "negligence and ineptitude".

Well, if you're stupid and surround yourself with old high school cronies and other sycophants at the expense of proper qualifications to do the job, this is the result....

Sarah wants to play with the big kids, but she will make a fool of herself until she throws her third grade playmates under the school bus.

If anybody remembers more examples, please let us know.
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Will Sarah Palin show up?

Will Sarah Palin make her first appearance in weeks at an event in Anchorage?

The Family Research Council (Defending Faith, Family and Freedom) say she will. (Click on text to enlarge)


Meg Stapleton hasn't denied it, so Sarah must be going to this event and will be the first to sign the petition to make sure that a young girl who's raped by a member of her family will have to ask her abuser for permission to undergo an abortion.

Isn't Sarah Palin a saint?

We'll have to wait and see if she shows up...
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Sarah Palin and the truth

First they went after Gryphen (The Immoral Minority), then they turned their attention to Audrey (Palin's Deceptions) and now their target is Patrick (palin_deceives).

Two right wing bloggers appear to have nothing better to do than scour the internet in search of some dirt on Trig Truthers. Let me play the devil's advocate for a moment. Suppose we're all secret perverts and our closets are full of skeletons. Would that alter the fact that Sarah Palin didn't give birth to Trig?

I really fail to see the connection between people's private lives and their ability to question and analize the facts relating to Sarah Palin's pregnancy and delivery of Trig.

They have found flimsy and highly questionable stuff on some of the Trig Truthers, often presented out of context or simply untrue. But they're shouting it from the rooftops, as if any of it proved that Trig emerged from Sarah Palin's own body.

The internet is a very strange place, full of dark alleys, detours and dead ends. I searched myself and came up with a number of people using the handle "palingate", "PalinGate" and other variations. Am I all of them? Some of them? Or none of the above?

Each person they target knows who they are and can easily refute any false information. If they can't, what difference does it make?

Do people need to have Mother Theresa credentials before they're allowed to challenge a public figure who uses her special needs "son" to further her own agenda?

If I were a transvestite, cigar smoker, fond of a bit of bondage and ate cats' brains for breakfast, would that disqualify me from doubting a very fishy account of Sarah Palin's wild ride, dodgy pregnancy and other strange tidbits?

The difference between Trig Truthers and Sarah Palin is that we never had any power to influence people's lives as she did as governor of Alaska. We didn't run for vice president and we don't spout blatant lies on Facebook in a attempt to disrupt public debate on healthcare reform. We are not public figures, we are not polititians and what we are or do has no bearing on the truth.

What these nutters dig up on us doesn't make any difference in the great scheme of things. We remain private citizens who are not accountable to the electorate. But the stuff we dig up on Sarah Palin can make a lot of difference on the political landscape.

The truth about Sarah Palin can change things. Truths or lies about Trig Truthers change nothing.

(I'm not going to link to the right wing blogs, but you can find them among the comments on the last thread)
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So, Sarah Palin?

Will this be a natural transition? Sarah Palin has been absent for a while now and I can only hope she stays that way until the second button becomes a reality.

Then I could blog about other stuff, widen my horizons a bit. That would be really nice...
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Death in Sarah Palin's Alaska

The ADN published a list of homeless people who died in the past few months in Anchorage.

Twelve people who were homeless or familiar with life on the streets have died outdoors in Anchorage this spring and summer, most of them in woods and parks. Only one death has been classified as a homicide. (Click here for the full list)

Another article asks: What's killing the homeless in Anchorage?

The city's homeless alcoholics are struggling with a complicated disease and can't see the consequences of their actions, said Melinda Freemon, director of the Homeward Bound residential program that helps them get off the streets. Many are in emotional tatters. They can't think beyond getting the next bottle of booze, the next meal, a place to camp.

Freemon says they are dying because of the "long-term health effects of chronic alcoholism ... the cumulative effect of years of living in unsafe conditions."

Anchorage, she said, is sorely lacking in help. People must wait months for a treatment bed. The number of detox spots in the area has dropped from 35 to 10.

This is the story in Anchorage. I would like to know about the rest of Alaska.

Another thing I would like to know is if the deaths of homeless people in Alaska, who clearly have mental health problems, are in any way related to the $650,000 "lost" and recently found in Sarah Palin's last budget.

Housing programs for the homeless received a $650,000 boost after it was discovered the money had been incorrectly deleted from then-Gov. Sarah Palin's budget proposal.

The board of directors for the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority approved the money and it was included in a budget forwarded to Palin's office.

There, the money was apparently compressed into a smaller sum with another pool.

David Teal of the Legislative Finance Division says the lapse escaped everyone's attention until after the session.

Most of the deaths in Anchorage ocurred before the quitter governor resigned.

A lot of deadly stuff goes on in Alaska. The figures for suicides and alcoholism are staggering.

The tally of deaths during Sarah Palin's short time in office is mounting. Some deaths (254) were the result of mismanagement of Medicaid and Medicare state programs (funded by bad, bad federal money). Now it seems that money destined for the homeless with mental health problems has been lost then found again. In the meantime, 12 people died in Anchorage alone.

How many more examples of mismanagement and inefficiency have yet to surface? How many more people have paid with their lives for Sarah Palin's inability to govern? She's no longer the governor, but the effects of her 31 months in office continue to be felt by the most vulnerable among Alaskans.

These things make any speculation about her teeth, facelifts, hair extensions and all the rest of it seem very trite indeed. But such speculation serves to highlight Sarah Palin's priorities in and out of office. How could such a shallow person cause so much damage in such a short time?

I will have to continue to write about her frivolous side together with the more serious issues or my head would explode.
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Sarah Palin's makeover

Nobody seems to know where Sarah Palin is at the moment. Some speculate that she's recovering from a facelift. One thing appears to be certain: she had some work done on her teeth. The picture on the left is from the vice presidemtial campaign, the one on the right was taken at the Anchorage quitter picnic.

Her teeth used to be straight and square, but in the new pic the incisors are more rounded and longer...

If she really had more stuff done, we're all waiting to see the results. Whatever happened, I hope she stayed clear of Jocelyn Wildenstein's plastic surgeon...

It's a pity there's no procedure to give Sarah Palin's heart and brains a makeover. She could then boast a prettier conscience and be able to write her own Facebook notes, but with compassion and understanding instead of the vitriolic bullshit her ghostwriters are spewing at the moment.

Alas, that's not going to happen...
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Open thread

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Sarah Palin on Facebook: then and now

On this slow, hot Saturday, I was lazily going through all Sarah Palin's notes on Facebook, counting how many portrayed her as a victim, how many showed that she doesn't understand the 1st amendment, how the military get mixed into the spiel and generally comparing her style to that of her ghostwriters. I came across a little gem. It was not written by Sarah Palin, but as it's not signed and there's no clue about the source, and as it appears among her notes, she must either claim authorship or enthusiatically endorse it.

So, Republicans, you're looking for people who can serve as faces of a party on the upswing. What qualities would we want to see in such people?

Maybe these:

• They've served in public office and have actually governed effectively. Rather than just talking about fiscal responsibility, they've made it happen under their watch.
• When possible, they've made sure the private sector would take the lead in crucial initiatives.
• They've taken on corrupt, entrenched interests to make government more responsive to the people it serves, even when those interests were fellow Republicans.
• They pull no punches in criticizing Democrats, but they do so with a positive outlook and a pleasant demeanor.
• They're not intimidated by the inevitable crap they will catch from the media, celebrities and whomever else.
• They have an enthusiastic following upon which to build.
• Finally, if you've got all of the above, it can't hurt if you also look fantastic.

Republicans, would you like people with some or most of these qualities to be the faces of a resurgent political party? Damn right you would. Guess what. There's one person who possesses all eight.

Sarah Palin.

Let me add to the fun by giving her Carrie Prejean and her acceptance of Letterman's apology notes another airing. They have everything: victimhood, 1st amendment and the military.

The liberal onslaught of malicious attacks against Carrie Prejean for expressing her opinion is despicable.

Carrie and I spoke soon after the attacks started; I can relate as a liberal target myself. What I find so remarkable is that these politically-motivated attacks fail to show that what Carrie and I believe is also what President Obama and Secretary Clinton believe - marriage is between a man and a woman.

I applaud Donald Trump for standing with Carrie during this time. And I respect Carrie for standing strong and staying true to herself, and for not letting those who disagree with her deny her protection under the nation's First Amendment Rights.

Our Constitution protects us all - not just those who agree with the far left.

Governor Sarah Palin

***

"Of course it's accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who 'joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve.

Letterman certainly has the right to 'joke' about whatever he wants to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction. And this is all thanks to our U.S. Military women and men putting their lives on the line for us to secure America's Right to Free Speech - in this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect."

Governor Sarah Palin

The Obama bashing started early on: stimulus package, "big and small" missiles from North Korea, etc.

She also loved to gloat everytime her Personal Board dismissed yet another "frivolous ethics complaint".

Many notes were signed by Meg Stapleton, who has been very silent lately... I wonder what happened to her?

The Letterman fracas and the desecration of the "iconic image of a mother's love for her special needs child" are there in full glory.

Do have a look for yourself. Go to Sarah Palin's page and be treated to 5 pages of a mixture of word salad, many "pressers" from Meghan and Van Flein, stuff about the legal slush fund and the inevitable Obama bashing.

Compare the old notes to the recent ones. Not only is she not writing the new notes, but I guess she must be getting big bucks from the health insurance companies to let them use her page. Now that Sarah Palin is a private citizen, she's free to pocket as much money as she pleases without having to pretend she's ethical.

(BTW, I desecrated her profile picture and changed it to a more suitable one...)

For a good take on Sarah Palin's tort reform, click here
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Sarah Palin's bad, bad investment

Sarah Palin criticized the "Obama White House" for lending money to Petrobras, a Brazilian state oil company. According to her 2008 financial disclosure, the Palins had some money invested in T.RowePrice Latin American Fund. Among the 10 largest holdings is... Petrobras.

So it's OK for the Palins to expect a return on an investment in Petrobras, but it's wrong for "Obama's White House" to lend money to the same company?

Sarah Palin's returns would have no strings attached, but the "bad" loan is made in a way that promotes the creation of jobs for Americans.

I think she should refuse to touch a single cent from this investment, it's horrible, horrible money.

Isn't it?

Further reading here.

(H/T to Helen and dragaonfly2x)
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Sarah Palin's evil notes

Sarah Palin never misses an opportunity to play the victim. In her latest Facebook note, she whines:

As Governor of Alaska, I learned a little bit about being a target for frivolous suits and complaints (Please, do I really need to footnote that?). I went my whole life without needing a lawyer on speed-dial, but all that changes when you become a target for opportunists and people with no scruples. Our nation’s health care providers have been the targets of similar opportunists for years, and they too have found themselves subjected to false, frivolous, and baseless claims.

Her ghostwriter is getting better at making her notes sound more personal.

As for her ideas on healthcare reform, I'm past trying to make sense of all the drivel. There seems to be a lot of jumping from one thing to the next. I'm not terribly familiar with healthcare insurance in the US, but looking from the outside, I get the impression the big insurance companies are feeding $arah's team some talking points and they run with them. Sarah Palin's notes may have a personal touch, but the message is still toxic.

I have lived most of my life in a country with national health insurance. When you're in work, a certain percentage of your pay is deducted each month and your employer also makes a contribution. The money goes into a big pot and EVERYBODY gets healthcare, whether they work or not. Children and seniors included. The children are still to make their contribution, the seniors have contributed all their lives.

Certain consultations and treatments have a small price tag, but children, seniors, pregnant women, the disabled and the unemployed are exempt from payment. Which means you NEVER have to remortgage your home in order to receive healthcare. And you never have to go without.

Rich people prefer to purchase private healthcare insurance or simply pay hospital bills. It's their prerogative. Rich people have choices. Some employers offer private insurance as a perk, but the employee is then taxed for it.

My husband had such a perk and it was the ONLY time we had to face rationing of healthcare. In the NHS we had to face some delay having exams performed, but urgent procedures are treated as urgent, so no worries there.

I should add that going into a private hospital will ensure luxury, but not necessarily the best healthcare. The protocols for nursing care in the NHS are much more stringent than in private hospitals. I read about a woman who chose to give birth in the lap of luxury but died because she wasn't checked as often as she would in a NHS hospital. It has happened. If the same woman had been sharing a ward with six other patients she would have survived.

The difference between the NHS and private healthcare is that one is focused on care, the other on profits.

The NHS is far from perfect and also needs some reform, but people don't get turned away because they can't pay or because they don't have insurance. The doctors and the nurses in this "evil" system will pull all stops to save the lives of anybody who comes to them.

Healthcare is a basic need, just as food and shelter, and it's very hard to believe that the largest economy in the Western world has a rationing system based on ability to pay.

It's the ugly face of capitalism. Capitalism without compassion, without humanity, THAT is evil.
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Transparent Sarah Palin

ADN, September 15, 2008:

Palin routinely uses a private Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state business. Others in the governor's office sometimes use personal e-mail accounts too.

ADN, August 18, 2009:

The Alaska Department of Administration this week announced the policy, which tells the employees of Gov. Sean Parnell's administration to use state e-mail "whenever feasible" for state business. It says that, if a private account is used, employees must then send copies of those e-mails to their state account where they can be archived and subject to public records requests.

People in Alaska have their doubts, as seen in these comments:

Does the "if possible" term come from when people are out doing business on their blackberries and what not? So they are not connected to a state server? I don't know , I definitly don't condone or agree with doing the people's business in secret though.

Somebody else commented on what Parnell should have said:

"There is NO reason to use private emails for state business. Bcc's are not to be used EVER. Those who are caught doing so will be immediately fired." See how simple that is?

From the ADN September 2008 article:

As far as McLeod can tell, all but one of the e-mails to the governor used her private e-mail address. The one time an aide e-mailed the governor's state account, he was reminded not to.

"Frank, This is not the Governor's personal e-mail account," an assistant to Palin wrote to Bailey in February.

"Whoops~!" Bailey responded in an e-mail.

In one e-mail string among the volumes turned over, Frye wanted to know if she would be audited or "dinged in any way" if her personal and state e-mails all routed to the same device.

"I would gladly buy my own blackberry if it and its contents were truely mine. Any thoughts here?" Frye wrote on March 17 at 10:56 a.m.

Administrators were waiting for guidance on confidentiality issues from the state Department of Law, Kim Garnero, state Division of Finance director, wrote back at 11:06 a.m. But using a personal device made an audit much less likely, she wrote.

Frye later forwarded strings about the personal e-mail issue to Palin and her husband, Todd.

In April, Frye asked the state's information technology office for help in getting her BlackBerry to default to her Yahoo account.

No one in the Palin administration could say if the governor is saving her Yahoo e-mails. If she's emptying her e-mail trash, they are zapped from Yahoo's storage system within days or at the longest, months, according to the company.

"If you are asking do we have those e-mails, then the answer is no," said Anand Dubey, director of the state's Enterprise Technology Services. "We don't control Yahoo or Gmail or Hotmail or anything like that."

It looks to me that those with things to hide will hide them. Even when the courts tell them otherwise.

ADN, October 16, 2008:

A state judge reaffirmed Wednesday that government-related e-mails Gov. Sarah Palin and her staff sent from private accounts must be preserved and ordered further arguments over whether to halt the use of such accounts for state business.

But this is what happened:

The outright deletion of the accounts can be verified by attempting to pull up the public profile on both addresses, which both existed during the incident.

SOURCE: http://profiles.yahoo.com/gov.palin
SOURCE: http://profiles.yahoo.com/gov.sarah

- Both accounts were deleted simultaneously, thus linking the publicly-known e-mail address "gov.sarah" and the private e-mail address "gov.palin".

- This outright deletion may have the potential to be viewed as destruction of evidence, considering that the e-mails in the now-deleted accounts are the subject of several legal controversies.

Sarah Palin's transparency sure looks opaque...
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Sarah Palin lying again

Sarah Palin's ghoswriter and the Wall Street Journal got the wrong end of the stick regarding a loan to Petrobras, a Brazilian state owned oil company. From her latest note on Facebook:

So why is it that during these tough times, when we have great needs at home, the Obama White House is prepared to send more than two billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to Brazil so that the nation's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, can drill off shore and create jobs developing its own resources? That's all Americans want; but such rational energy development has been continually thwarted by rabid environmentalists, faceless bureaucrats and a seemingly endless parade of lawsuits aimed at shutting down new energy projects.

Neither Palin's writer nor the WSJ bothered to do their homework, but Politico's Ben Smith did:

A spokesman for the bank, Phil Cogan, noted to POLITICO that the bank does not rely on tax money and that Palin's statement ignores the bank's central function: To lend money to foreign companies for the purchase of American goods and services.

"It has to be produced by U.S. workers," Cogan said. Palin's statement refers to "creating jobs and health benefits in the U.S."

"That's exactly what a purchase financed by the U.S. government would do," Cogan said.

In this case, Cogan said, the proposed loan would likely finance engineering services, sales of ships to service oil platforms, or drilling equipment.

"This is the government doing what it's supposed to do: Create jobs and make sure that Americans get a fair shot at selling goods and services — not the British or the French or anyone else — and to help American workers compete on a level playing field," Cogan said, noting that most developed countries have similar credit-export agencies.

Just as there are no "death panels", it should be noted that "the bank does not rely on tax money ", so this is another lie from the Palin camp.

Cogan also stressed that by lending the money, the bank promotes the creation of jobs for Americans.

Sarah, how about in honor of the American soldier, ya quit makin’ things up?
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Sherry Johnston was sentenced to 5 years in prison, 2 suspended. A bit harsh for a first time offender, wouldn't you say?

When I wrote the Prisongate posts, a person called Berry Jack came up. He was convicted and sentenced to seven years for theft. That was after he tried to sue Sarah Palin and the state of Alaska because he was repeatedly raped while awaiting trial, then denied counselling. They lost him in the system during the lawsuit, but conveniently found him to face charges and a disproportionate sentence.

Does anybody see a pattern?
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Let's make a difference

I have received an e-mail from ColourOfChange.org regarding a campaign to contact some companies that advertise on the Glenn Beck show:

Dear Regina,

Over 150,000 of you have called on Glenn Beck's advertisers to stop supporting his show, and more than 20 major companies have now said "NO" to Beck. It's an amazing response.

Some advertisers pulled their ads; others didn't realize they were on Beck but have now taken steps to make sure their ads don't run during his show. And the effort is making headlines.

I can't ring from France very easily, but those of you in the US can!

Here are some of the companies, CEO's names and phone numbers. If you click on the name of any of the companies, the link will take you to a page on the Color of Change website where there is a "script" to help when making the call.

Lowe's - CEO: Robert Niblock, telephone number: 704-758-2084

Clorox - CEO: Don Knauss, telephone number: 510-271-7000

Red Lobster - CEO: Clarence Otis, telephone number: 407-245-4000

Vonage - Contact: Jeffrey Citron, telephone number: 732-528-2600

Glenn Beck's lies and inflammatory racist rhetoric shouldn't remain unchallenged.

This video links Beck to Sarah Palin, who gave him an interview in January on his debut at Fox News. Both have been spewing lies and making inflammatory statements since then.


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Sarah Palin's blurred boundaries

Sarah and Todd Palin are a very close couple when it comes to mixing business with personal stuff. There are a few articles around that illustrate the blurring of ethical boundaries during Sarah Palin's short time in office.

Blow-Pop-Palin has a well sourced post about Todd as the shadow governor and his involvement in Troppergate. One of the links will take you to Syrin's blog and her posts from September last year, when Troopergate was a hot topic.

EyeOnYou did a lot of digging on the Arctic Cat deals, as shown in the comments which appeared in the last thread:

There are no previous indications (including previous disclosure forms) that Todd Palin was under a confidential contract with Arctic Cat, so that would only have happened last season/year. Last year, the day before the election, Scott Davis filed for a business license in the name of Davis/Palin Race Team with Scott Davis as the sole owner. This is a first as well since Scott and Todd have been partners for 7 years now, with no indications that Todd works for Scott.

These are good indicators that something changed dramatically this last year and I think that we all know what that was. Sarah Palin got nominated for the VP slot on the republican ticket and Todd Palin, being her husband, generated a TON of publicity for Arctic Cat due to that, which in turn would mean a much better sponsorship deal for Todd & Scott. In order to avoid disclosure showing that, Scott created the business, listing himself as sole owner of that business, implying that Todd was simply an employee and therefore not able to disclose the deal. When that failed to work with APOC, the Palin clan came up with this generalized statement without giving any specific numbers for the sponsorship. But they forget that Palin admitted to getting free snowmachines that Todd rejected the year before, and they also seem to forget that the Sports Illustrated article about Todd & the Iron Dog gave a lot of information about just how little $$ Todd & Scott pay out for the race, especially in comparison to other racers.

If you do a search on those licenses it will show previous and expired licenses as well as current ones and there is absolutely nothing showing a business license for Todd & Scott for years previous to 2008, so that tells us this was a new happenstance and not something done previously that was just renewed.

Here is a video showing Sarah admitting how she "inherits" the snowmachines from Todd's previous years rejects:



The telling info from the Sports Illustrated article:

Some Iron Doggers have spent upwards of $30,000 to finance a once-in-a-lifetime run into the wild heart of Alaska. Tapping their credit cards, they've shelled out $10,000 each for a 2009 snow machine, $10,000 more for an identical training sled, $2,500 for the race entry fee and a few thousand more for trailing airplane support. Palin and Davis, in contrast, have spent almost nothing. They are prodigiously sponsored, with their names monogrammed in script on their matching Arctic Cat jackets. (Palin even has the names of his five kids and his wife, SARAH, THE GOV, appliquéd on his snow machine hood.) They give inspirational speeches at trade shows. They are both adored and reviled. They are the New York Yankees of snow machining.

EyeOnYou also wrote a very good note on Facebook, demonstrating how Sarah Palin, "the Arctic Cat billboard", enhanced the benefits Todd received from AC, therefore enhancing the benefits to herself as family income.

We know that Palin can increase sales on anything she wears. Sales of the glasses that she wears went through the roof, and the shoes she opts to wear brought about an increase of sales, so it does make one wonder why you would not expect the same results when she wears Arctic Cat Gear. Or any other brand name of clothing. Her fans rush out and buy the same items to be like her. Why else do companies provide sponsorship deals with celebrities? To increase sales.

Considering that in previous disclosure forms, the Palins' had no problem issuing a dollar amount on their forms for the Arctic Cat sponsorship, it is reasonable to conclude that the sponsorship increased due to Sarah gaining the nomination for VP and wearing the Gear during the Iron Dog race this year. She and her daughter Piper were decked out head to toe in the Arctic Cat Gear, unlike previous years.

What's wrong with her doing this?

Well, she was there in her capacity as Governor and she is wearing clothing from the company that pays her husband. That is just a bit more than unethical. She is a walking billboard for this company and no doubt this helped her family out financially. Would any of the other team sponsors have liked to have the Governor wear their clothing? No doubt. Free publicity for them, but she wore the clothing of her husband's team, which, had she been a private citizen no one could or should complain about, but she wasn't a private citizen at the time, she was the Governor and that company was paying her husband (and by extension...her).

What we conclude from all of the above is that just as Todd Palin was a shadow governor, Sarah Palin was a shadow member of Arctic Cat, at least since the vice presidential campaign.

The Personnel Board decided that Sarah Palin didn't act unethically in the Troopergate scandal but that her husband crossed the line. As Todd was never a state official, it didn't matter. Very neat.

The same Personnel Board didn't see anything wrong with the free advertising for Arctic Cat. Sarah Palin had nothing to do with the company. She was cold and just being supportive of her husband.

I don't know how much truth there is in the divorce rumours, but theirs appears to be a match made in heaven. When it comes to crossing the lines of ethical conduct, they're very much together...
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