If You're As Sick Of Election Talk As Everyone Else, Just Mosey Right On By This Post

[redbrunja]

I got an email from move-on.org, which, while reading, made me go, "what the hell? I feel like I'm reading crazy liberal, leftist propaganda." I actually checked the sender's address before realizing that, horrifyingly, everything I was reading was true.

•  
• She was elected Alaska 's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.¹
• Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.²
• She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. ³
• Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.⁴
• She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.⁵
• She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.⁶
• How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.⁷
•  

 

1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-10363509-VB8nvzx&t=1

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-10363509-VB8nvzx&t=2

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-10363509-VB8nvzx&t=3

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-10363509-VB8nvzx&t=4

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-10363509-VB8nvzx&t=5

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-10363509-VB8nvzx&t=6

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-10363509-VB8nvzx&t=7

7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-10363509-VB8nvzx&t=8

I also heard from mzminola and fam that she's pro-banning books.  For that alone I want her the hell out of public office.

 

Comments

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

A woman from the town she was mayor of mentioned that she tried to fire a librarian after they fought her efforts to have several books removed from the shelves. Fortunately, the public was able to rally in defense of the librarian.

[Source] (http://my2bucks.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/a-letter-from-someone-who-has-known-sarah-palin-since-1992/)

Pallin also opposes abortion in cases of severe birth defects.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I just hate this woman more and more.

[pikabot]

Also, she may be a secessionist. No joke.

Seriously, such a horrible choice for VP.

[chomiji]

The Mr. summed it up pretty well: "Well, if they wanted to pick someone who would be really easy for the Republican handlers to manage in the event that something happens to McCain ... ."

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even thought of that one.

[strange_quark]

You know what bothers me about her? It's not that she's so crazily conservative she's clearly out of touch, or that her family itself proves the failures of her ideology, or even that she's clearly being used as a political ploy to win Hillary Clinton's strongest supporters.

It's that that last one might actually work.

Fuck that noise. If you really care about women, you'll look at the candidate's actual stances on women's issues and not what they do or don't have between their thighs. And, and! If your decision is based on what sex they are, isn't that a little sexist?

Just... ARGH. *Inarticulate with rage* *Is a woman who proudly voted for Obama in the primaries*

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

I read today that someone said the only two things that Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin had in common was their gender and that they both are attractive. And that was it.

I totally agree with you. And if Hillary supporters switch to Palin, then they're blind.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I will SO be voting Obama, and I'm registering voters this sunday.

That said, I'm almost afraid to hope that he'll get elected because he's SO exactly what this country NEEDS that part of me thinks it won't happen.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

There's more on her inquiry about banning books here (http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/515512.html) on the Anchorage Daily News. A few months after that incident, Palin left the librarian a letter asking for her resignation -- the resistance to book-banning wasn't cited, just vague talk of how she felt the woman "didn't support her". Palin claims the talk was merely a rhetorical policy discussion, and the firing threat was actually just a test of loyalty. *eyerolls*

Also, along with her polar-bears-aren't-endangered,-let's-drill! stance, she actively supports -- we're talking illegal cash bounties here -- the aerial hunting of wolves and bears (http://www.slate.com/id/2199140/). More documentation of her environmental positions, and some disturbing video, can be found here (http://www.defendersactionfund.org/newsroom/sarah_palin.html). Supporters like Palin claim this is necessary to maintain sufficient moose and caribou herds to support subsistence hunters, but Alaskans have twice voted against the aerial hunts and it seems that the "science" behind these supposed predator-control measures is shaky, and it's more about catering to the wishes of a small subset of sport hunters; more resources here (http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/pred_mythology_wolf_control_alaska.htm) and here (http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/pred_mythology_wolf_control_alaska.htm).

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

(Grr, mispasted one of those last links twice -- I meant to include this link (http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/policy_and_legislation/aerial_hunting.php) instead of duplicating things in the last sentence; that one's important IMO because it punctures the common dismissal that the aerial hunts are only opposed by tree-hugging outsiders who don't know what it's like to live on the frontier wringing their hands over the poor widdle woofies, when it's clear that there are many Alaskan hunters, Native communities and non-native rural residents alike (http://newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/10/opponents-state-wolf-control-are-alaskans/?opinion), who do not support the practice...and funnily enough, the folks griping about know-nothing outsider environmentalists meddling with Alaskan issues tend to be very silent about their financial support from deep-pocketed outsider sport/trophy hunting groups...pot, meet kettle!)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. And yeah, aerial hunting offends all my fair play sensibilities, is a waste, and apparently doesn't work as well.

[azure-rhymes.livejournal.com]

Just... ugh. I really can't comprehend why someone would really think like that. I don't get it at all.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Me neither.

[numara.livejournal.com]

All of this information just cements that, in my mind, McCain really did just pick her because she was a woman. And I'm not even really sure why, because if you had to pick a woman to get whatever Hilary supporters still won't vote for Obama, I don't see how or why you couldn't get someone more qualified.

My sister also informed me that before she became Governor, that town that she was mayor of was apparently left horribly in debt after she left. D:

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

The down went from not being in debt at all to being $22 million in debt. $15 million of that went to a new sports arena that they didn't need.

[cherryfruit.livejournal.com]

That's so hideous...

[lightprincess89.livejournal.com]

Pro-banning makes me want to bitch slap her something fierce. I hate her soooo much. It makes me shake with anger just thinking about her.

Apparently... My mother got into a shouting match with someone at the grocery store about her...

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I try not to think about her too hard, or I'll scream.

And go princess!mom! Can you give me some details?

[terenewen.livejournal.com]

I am of the frank opinion that she is nucking futs. Let's see how she's received when she speaks to an audience that isn't composed of her constituents...

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right.

[mistaria.livejournal.com]

She also cut funding from a place/program that shelters teenage mothers and provides education. I read a pretty long article about her today and I can't say I like the sound of her at all. My mom is really for the Republican party but almost all of what they think is right is not something I agree with. Especially their holding back on research of stem cells which could help with so many diseases including juvenile/type one diabetes which I have.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

*headdesk*

Oh, sweet jesus. The more I read about her, the more I think she'd too awful to be believed. I mean, seriously, people open your eyes!

(And I think as long as we're not creating embrios but using nonviable one, stem cell research should be both permitted and funded.)

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

D8

*utter horror* I mean, I'm very pro-life, but there's a point where you cross the line between trying to protect babies and being a bitch.

AND BANNING BOOKS????????

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! What is this, 1984?

[obsessive0514.livejournal.com]

She's also part of the Assembly of God church, which was what my dad grew up in and now despises organized religion as a whole because of it. Kind of personal there. (His side of the family is... kinda scary with religion. They've even rejected my lesbian and transgender cousin, like not waiting for him/her to get on the bus for his/her own sister's wedding. S/he recently moved to New York, and I still down now which pronouns s/he prefers.)

There's also speculation that McCain didn't really choose her. Higher-ups did. He REALLY wanted Lieberman for his VP pick. Though this is specualtion, no hard evidence. But McCain and Palin always look so uncomfortable with each other.

Ugh. What pisses me off the most is how much this will surely set back the women's movement. Dammit, last week I was feeling so optimistic about this election.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I have always been to afraid of another eight years of red to be optimistic about his election, ever.

[feilyn.livejournal.com]

...I love my country. We just have to worry about bitchy John Keys and Mama Helen duking it out. And neither of them are looking at banning books.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Or at the very least, keep your passport current.

[fani.livejournal.com]

Holy cow! Even backwater third country politicians are far more sophisticated than her.

CROSS THE BORDER you know you want to.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

My mother and I have been 'joking' about it for years.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Most everyone I know is worried about Palin. And banning books is just the icing on the cake.

fandom lurker

[(Anonymous)]

This is pretty useful and non-partisan. If something sounds too good/bad enough to be true, it may not be and reporters are people too.

http://www.factcheck.org/