An ocean away... she still grinds my gears

I have not written in my blog for more than eight months. With the election of Barack Obama, I no longer felt the intense anger that precipitated my need to blog. And yet, many months later, I find that Sarah Palin can, once again, drive me to the blogosphere.

It seems that Governor Palin is resigning her post, what many claim is a sure sign that she will seek the 2012 nomination. Less than one year after the election, Palin has already begun her campaign. As of last November, I thought she had run out of ways to disgust me. Her self-righteous attitude, affection for conflict, self-commodification, daughter-commodification, inability to think critically, etc etc etc were all impressively-negative qualities. But her desire to start a presidential campaign more than three years early, adds yet another deplorable quality. Who needs experience governing? After all, if you can't take the heat of running a campaign and the all-important state of Alaska, that's clear enough evidence for me of your ability to be the leader of the free world.

Sometimes when people write articles that become famous based on ideas that I've had for some time, I get irritated. Other times, I'm just glad the message is in print. The following article is in the category of the latter.

Thank you Maureen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/opinion/08dowd.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Palin fumbles

Not to belabor the point, but I do think this movie is mandatory watching for every American.

Please pay specific attention to minute 9, when Palin discusses her views of Israeli foreign policy.

Note Palin's understanding of "the good guys" and "the bad guys."

Sorry for no posts lately, I've been trying to direct my energy towards my work. Don't worry though, the debate Thursday night is sure to bring plenty to say.

Authoritarian Palin Politics

The Times published a damning article on Sarah Palin yesterday, and it quickly shot up to the top emailed story. It is a little lengthy, but it did a good job of not repeating the usual information that plagues articles critical of the governor. The overall sense that I walked away with from teh article was that Palin has more similarities to the current administration than I previously realized. My number one concern is that she has surrounded her administration with secrecy, even to the point of using private email addresses for state business (which removes information on governance from the public view). There are also repeated stories of administrators being released under suspicious circumstances. I am concerned that she is one who silences those with whom she disagrees and presents a totally different face to the public. Evidence of this is her insistance on using social issues to gain votes (even when running for mayor of a 9000 person town!) rather than discussing relevant issues to her constituents. I think she is a politician of the sickest order. Our country has suffered under bad foreign policy and diplomacy over the last eight years because of a leader unwilling to foster critical debate. This has been one of the central promises of the Obama campaign- open debate! He is made fun of for having a huge foreign policy team, but at least he is interested in including a number of people in his decision making process. Sarah Palin has sought to increase government action at the cost of representation of people. This is fundamentally opposed to the system of government put in place by our forefathers. Look for yourself!

I am distressed at her rise to fame, and concerned that the American people are not carefully enough combing her record. I encourage everyone to do some research from all sorts of sources! Contrast journalistic accounts of her with her public personae! It is truly alarming!

a border crossing, eh?

"Obama aides described the new revisions to Palin's account as part of a growing pattern of deception. "The McCain campaign said Governor Palin opposed the Bridge to Nowhere, but now we know she supported it. They said she didn't seek earmarks, but now we know she hired a lobbyist to get millions in pork for her town and her state. They said she visited Iraq, but today we learned that she only stopped at the border. Americans are starting to wonder, is there anything the McCain campaign isn't lying about?" Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor asked in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

"A short time later, the Obama campaign circulated a new Bloomberg story that questions whether the McCain campaign has been sending out false crowd estimates.

"On two occasions since Palin joined the ticket, McCain aides have cited law enforcement sources in claiming enormous crowds -- but law enforcement officials interviewed by Bloomberg denied having given such estimates."

see article from the Washington Post.

also may want to take a look at the Bloomberg info mentioned above.