Leave it to Jon Stewart to demonstrate the absolute absurdity of a Republican party talking about experience, sexism and women candidates.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
The Courant's Creepy Joe™ commemorative issue
If you had just returned from a trip to the unconnected wilderness, you might think that Senator Creepy Joe™ Lieberman had departed this life from the treatment he got in the Hartford Courant this morning.
A front page eulogy from his former Democratic colleagues.
An editorial board rebuke.
An editorial cartoon by Englehart.
And dueling op-eds from Ned Lamont, and from Lieberman's former chief-of-staff, Bill Andresen, and current lobbyist for Dutko Worldwide (something the Courant fails to mention in its author credits).
BTW, the Washington Post also notes that Lieberman's days of majority influence may be coming to a close.
The Courant's front page piece reveals a resignation, by Washington insiders, that Lieberman's lycanthropy is complete.
The editorial piece is a late realization that Lieberman is not the man of honor the editorial board painted him as in their endorsement of him in the last Senate election, but a sore loser with an ax to grind.
Lamont's essay, is, as expected, an "I-told-you-so,' but his revelation that the Senator who once called Obama's presence a "blessing," seems to have abandoned that thought for no good reason but revenge on a Democratic party which doesn't care for the way Lieberman pisses on their pant leg.
Andresen, who, as a lobbyist, can't afford to criticize the "decent man" he used to work for, appears surprised that anyone could be angry with his former boss. He blames Lieberman's disaffection on (surprise!) "left-wing bloggers and a liberal, novice opponent," who just happened to point out that Sanctimonious Joe was a bundle of illogical contradictions.
Andresen dismisses internet journalism by saying "the anger and vitriol that too often characterize the politics of the online community have had much to do with the decline in civil political rhetoric. Because elected officials feel compelled to cater to one side, and its online echo chamber, they all too often say only what their online world wants to hear."
And I thought the alleged "decline in civil political rhetoric" began with the rise of conservatism, Newt Gingrich's divisive "contract with America" and the polarization of citizens by right-wing talk radio (Rush Limbaug). How naieve of me.
Andresen also says that the internet has been an ineffective political force, "Not only is this brand of politics shrill, it's also ineffective. As is almost always the case, the bloggers' candidate lost the general election in 2006, and Lieberman was re-elected by a substantial majority."
I don't know how Andresen can make such a sweeping statement, and I'd love to see his research to support his conclusion, but Bill, I've got one word for you, "macaca."
Sorry Bill that politicians don't like being called on their lies, indiscretions and predjudices by bloggers, but since journalists have abdicated that role, someone's got to do it.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
An insider's view of Sarah Palin
Dear friends,
So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the
last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .
Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in
common: their gender and their good looks. :)
You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts
with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on
any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .
Thanks,
Anne
ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992.
Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a
first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her
father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a
first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more
City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the
residents of the city.
She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular
girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and
won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because
she is a "babe".
It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She
kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents
for seven months.
She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby.
There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.
She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out
there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a
champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly
sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his
work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or
so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their
major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything
like that of native Alaskans.
Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
She's smart.
Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000
(at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about
670,000 residents.
During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running
this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been
pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had
gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had
given rise to a recall campaign.
Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6
years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over
33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the
City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation
(1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she
promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they
benefited residents.
The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration
weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed
money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it
with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage
the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said
she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a
new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a
multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece
of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was
still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers
involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the
community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it
would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that
could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.
While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office
redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus
in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will
make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she
proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she
recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while
she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's
surplus, borrow for needs.
She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas
or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by
her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the
basis of who proposed them.
While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected
City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from
the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents
rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's
attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew
her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the
Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for
Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin
fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as
Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people,
creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally
grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power
to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the
case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).
As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated”
her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top
cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure
and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that
an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't
fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation
for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen
contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she
later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to
replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded
for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew
her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in
help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town
introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council
became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She
abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t
like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything
publicly about her.
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got
the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one
of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no
background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great
job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the
high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the
structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this
Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party)
engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some
undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all
her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and
garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit,
exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).
As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from
Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel
politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to
nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget
guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing
projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative
action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply
because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant
she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party
leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated
them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a
fiscal conservative.
Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.
They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and
predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly
stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made
point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's
mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and
experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.
As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package
of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march
to the beat of her drum.
Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to
global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state
initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from
pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the
state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s
lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar
bears as threatened species.
McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a
heartbeat away from being President.
There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more
knowledgeable and experienced than she.
However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are
regretting it.
CLAIM VS FACT
•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years
•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary
school, not since
•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill
that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships
(said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to
promote it.
•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby
BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
legislation
•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has
residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.
No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on
supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city
administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all
•gutsy: absolutely!
•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at
explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores
and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city
without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built
streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on
residents
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city
government in Wasilla’s history.
•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union
doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim
that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed
voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting
programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny +
Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local
government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen
when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because
few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out
of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no
fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will
cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100
or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's
attempt at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to
say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in
spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor)
from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of
Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust
for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible
for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are
swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the
population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The
day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the
current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was
5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to
2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.
Anne Kilkenny
annekilkenny@hotmail.com
August 31, 2008
More executive experience, more executive decisions
It's clear, from any reasonable point-of-view, that the Republican choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate, is at once ridiculous and brilliant.
Palin is a shallow, bullying Jesus freak who doesn't believe in evolution, global warming or conservation. She ran as a fiscal conservative, then ran up the tax bills in the town where she was mayor. She declared herself a maverick, and hired a lobbyist to capture a feast of earmarks for her little town. She preached abstinence, but couldn't convince her daughter. She ran as a corruption buster then harrangued her public safety director, eventually firing him when he refused to execute a family vendetta against Palin's former brother-in-law. And she supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she didn't.
But none of that matters. Because as Paul Lakoff has pointed out, the choice of Palin is a metaphorical coup. Palin is the strong, authoritative, but loving mother in the Republican dream of an orderly family. She is the protectoress, who will work tirelessly to provide for that family. She shoots guns, and eats red meat. And she is a border crosser, a maverick, moving from the wilderness, to the nation's capitol, to unleash her wrath on big government. She loves her Jesus, and she prays for all of us.
She is a right-wing wet dream. She's stacked and she's packing (as a good friend described her to me).
Those of us who don't buy into the metaphor, must do our best to dispel the fairy tale, through the kind of framing. Obama as nurturer, and healer. Obama as outsider, and agent of change. At the same time Palin, and McCain, must be called for what they are - extremists, and a divisive force which will continue to divide this country in a method more destructive than even George Bush could muster.
As I watch the convention, I can hear the Republicans already repeating the hastily written Rovian script about Palin - "She has more executive experience than Barack Obama. She has more executive experience."
Laughable as that statement is, Republicans have learned the power of repetition. She was only the mayor of a tiny Alaskan town of 7,000, and governor for a year and a half. She's an intellectual lightweight, a Bizarro-world anti-feminist, a vessel for a God for who the war in Iraq is a sacred mission.
So, of course, the response has to be: "If she has more executive experience than Barack Obama, then she also has more executive experience than John McCain."
By the way, don't those Country First signs remind you of the in-store supermarket brand of cheap canned corn and slightly weird-tasting catsup?
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
A judas moment
Creepy Joe™ Lieberman stood on the stage of the Republican National Convention and betrayed his former party, and the people of Connecticut he claims to represent.
Lieberman, who vowed not to attack Barack Obama, did, claiming he showed no evidence of bipartisanship, and that Obama voted against "supporting the troops." Never mind that neither of the claims bears any resemblance to the truth, Lieberman, by hitting the Republican boards, is twisting the knife in Chris Dodd's back.
Lieberman also took the opportunity to bolster the Palin fairy tale as an outsider who will help McCain fight the good fight in Washington.
One word Joe. Earmarks.
Bleach won't wash the bloodstains from your hands
While the Republicans feigned respect for New Orleans (too little, too late), thinks were getting rough on the banks of the Mississippi up in St. Paul.
According to reports, the Connecticut delegation was splashed with some kind of bleach mixture by roving political protestors.
Amy Goodman, a well-known alternative (meaning accurate, and aggressively in pursuit of the truth) news reporter, and anchor of Democracy Now, was hauled off in a paddy wagon after being caught up in a scuffle between riot police and protestors. (Though her show is carried on Central Connecticut radio stations, this story, a journalist being arrested, failed to make the Hartford Courant). And it seems as if the thought police were trying out their Soviet techniques as they raided a series of homes where protestors were gathering. Glenn Greenwald covers many of these stories with his usual sense of well-placed outrage.
At the same time, Creepy Joe™ Lieberman, who was scratched last night because of Gustav, was in his hotel room practicing his looks of magnanimity and sincerity as he prepared for the final step in his conversion from liberal democrat to bloodthirsty Republican. The Courant's Mark Pazniokas profiles Lieberman today and concludes, as many others have, that the turning point in Lieberman's career was his loss to Ned Lamont, and his subsequent "abandonment" by the Democratic party in Connecticut (Who abandoned whom?) He also notes that after the election Lieberman was as reluctant to relinquish his seniority as was the Democratic Senate to have him do so.
I guess being "independent" isn't reason enough to sacrifice your power for the sake of your ideals.
(AP photo/Rex Arbogast - caption: Which sucks more?)
Monday, September 1, 2008
Out of touch in little old Rhode Island
I know it's a dangerous assumption, but I assume that when I rent a summer cottage at the shore for hundreds of dollars, that along with TV/DVD/cable, one might expect an internet connect.
Wrong.
The Rhode Island shore is perversely behind-the-times. There are plenty of grown-up-like-topsy cottages, some on stilts, as if awaiting a glimpse of the hurricane which will eventually carry them into the waves, some pushing skyward for a glimpse of the ocean, or the great salt pond of Charlestown, past the bramble and saltmarshes, some hunkered-down, shingles sodden in the humid ocean air, for the long haul. Most of them filled with well-worn, second-hand sofas and appliances stalwartly braving the careless hands of vactioneers and wintering URI students. Folks smoke as if they've never heard the surgeon general's warning. They swill Bud Light, though Narragansett is making a brave comeback. And greeting each other in that loud, made-to-be-heard-above-a-foghorn, South County honk. "Grab me anuther bee-uh, would ya? And the hot sahwce too."
But try to find a wifi zone (outside of bohemian Wakefield), is like trying to find even a cheap knock-off of the Holy Grail.
And yet the triumphant natural beauty, and the man-made, joie de vivre, all make it exotic and seductive. Maybe even addictive.
And so, I submit my absence on these internets to you. Awash in Rhode Island clam chowder, thick frappes, and loud, loud music from Louisiana (if you've been to Louisiana, you'll understand the affinity for that music here), I was happily disconnected for a few days.
This year's Rhythm and Roots Festival featured a number of familiar acts, and a few newcomers. The music was totally satisfying, often danceable, and frequently referencing the menacing Gustav, which was then heading for a dance on Poydras Street.
(Me and Kev Russell from the Gourds)The festival site, which had been threatened by some civil action by the town of Charlestown, suddenly seems nearly out of jeopardy. The Pine Leaf boys have a new line-up, minus Cedric Watson (who is off "to do his own thing"). The Gourds were the highlight for me (though many others mentioned the Marcia Ball revue). And Saturday (gloomy) was less fun than Sunday (sunny and breezy), but by that time many of us didn't have the energy we began the weekend with.
NOTE: I forgot to mention in the earlier post that several of the Louisiana musicians left the festival early to try to beat Gustav to landfall. The Pine Leaf Boys, and the rhythm section of the Mamou Playboys left early to secure home and family against the impending hurricane. Thank God its impact was less than anticipated.
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