Qualifications – Up Close September 14, 2008
Posted by voolavex in Vice Presidents.Tags: Alaska, Anchorage, bengeance, Chugach, Fort Richardson, glacier, Inuit, kill, Lies, Matanuska, Mendehall, Quonset huts, Sarah Palin, subterfuge moose, Wasilla
1 comment so far
I said I wouldn’t address Sarah Palin again – but if the New York Times can do it – well why not I. This time will be a tad different.
When I was little girl – back at the start of Korean War and the subsequent Cold War, my dear Daddy re-upped and went back into the Army. He was an officer and gentleman and a lush but he saw the Army as damn good way to get paid for drinking in the Officer’s Club and shuffling papers. He envisioned us doing this in Belgium at NATO. Imagine his surprise when his orders came and we were sent – in a state of shock – straight to Fort Richardson, Anchorage, Alaska. Right about this time of year – I know that because the neighbors baked me a birthday cake before we had even unpacked. Such was the camaraderie of army life back then. That and no war.
Thinking back on that year – which broke my parent’s marriage, my father’s military career and some furniture from all the parties we threw, my Daddy found time to make Alaska a learning project for me. And though young, I sucked it all up like a little sponge. My father informed me in adult terms that the Bering Strait was probably a landmass at one time and that now we were neighbors – by a two short miles – with Russia – our ideological enemy. This is because The Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait number two spots on the map. Big Diomede is Russian and Little Diomede is Alaskan. He painted a scenario where the military sat and glared at each other through spyglasses day and night – hoping for a false move. I was impressed. I was further impressed by the Midnight Sun (which was actually the 2:30 a.m. sun) and the Aurora Borealis both of which he explained to me with a globe. We had a large volcanic eruption in the Chugach Mountains that year so I learned about volcanic ash and lava and the earth’s thin crust. I woke up to those beautiful peaks every morning. We had a moose hang his big old head over the railing of our quarters and it nearly gave my father a heart attack- combined with a hangover, it is indeed a sight far worse than a pink elephant. And quickly cured by Four Roses. I learned to love Quonset huts (school for a while) and still do. We got our produce from the beautiful Matanuska Valley where everything was enormous (and pricey). The Matanuska Milkman came and dropped off our milk. I loved Anchorage which was like no place I had ever seen except on TV in Boston (which BTW, we did not have in Alaska; TV not Boston – actually we didn’t have either one). I saw the massive Mendenhall glacier and it was very big then. Sadly it’s getting smaller and at top speed. Then it will be gone. I took a train from Anchorage to Seward and I saw the Russian created cities of Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka. I marveled bout the wooden streets in Ketchikan and the gold mine on the side of a mountain above Juneau. I learned from my father the word Inuit and about the people who lived there first before we took over their snow and ice and primacy. He spoke about whales and igloos and dog sleds. We did not kill a single animal in that year. Living in a territory and not a state made me feel special. The natural beauty made me feel honored. I was not yet 6 years old.
Why do I tell you this – from memory, BTW – because I think, by these long past memories, I am as qualified to be on the GOP ticket as Governor Palin with one huge difference – Alaska is a land that cries out for care and love. Not the kind you get in church or the Governor’s mansion, but the real kind that preserves Alaska’s dignity and its incomparable beauty and abundant natural resources Ms. Palin has systematically made decisions that do not support those aims. Wasilla is butt ugly. She helped. If she will do it to Alaska – with lies, greed, vengeance and subterfuge – then imagine what she will do with 49 more states to pillage. I’m not suggesting you write me in – I am simply suggesting that a grass roots groundswell needs to be created that will write her off. Fast.
The Sarah Palin Chronicles – Judgement Day? September 3, 2008
Posted by voolavex in Uncategorized.Tags: Alaska, beauty pageant, born again, Bristol, candidate, Cheney, earmarks, Far Right Cgristian show runners, Jesus, John McCain, Lies, line vetoes, Media, Miss Congeniality, pregnancy, Quayle, Sarah Palin, Shame, vice president, Wasilla, What would Jesus do?
add a comment
Without bringing little Trig into this debate – as he is worthy of his own; let’s take a peek at what Gov. Sarah Palin has done to her family and in particular her eldest daughter Bristol in the last week by her bad decisions that include, lying, covering up and bad judgement. Factor in the fact that the Far Right Christian show runners are lapping it up like lemonade at a church picnic and you have a troublesome situation that focuses not on family and politics but Sarah’s ability to make thought-out, appropriate decisions.
Now, I suspect Sarah Palin was indeed embarrassed, ashamed and probably very upset when she first learned her daughter was knocked up at 17. Long before McCain came a-calling. But she also knew what she had was a small local dilemma that wouldn’t make too much of deal in Alaska – a couple of lines of omigods in the news and then Bristol and John could get hitched and sink back into Wasilla in relative anonymity. Trig’s birth in April hardly merited a mention even in the Alaskan news. Sarah didn’t really have to concoct too many lies and smokescreens – things happen, not enough church, not much to do for teenagers in Alaska…blah..blah..blah. End of problem. And then came John.
Yes, here comes the GOP presidential candidate and drops the run of a lifetime in your lap and you say, Yes indeedy and then you:
A. Ask yourself What would Jesus Do? and do it
B. Make full and verifiable disclosures
C You bite the bullet, swallow your shame and fess’ up
D. Make up a big fat lie and grab a baby blanket
Rather than spill the whole story about the baby, the next baby, the trooper, the earmarks, the line vetoes, the wholesale firing of government employees and her desire to secede from the Union, she started spinning stories forgetting that she also needed plausible deniability. Big, pregnant bumps are undeniable.
This is not a beauty pageant Miss Congeniality. I don’t think McCain knew Bristol was pregnant.
Let’s take a short peek, here at an aspect of The Religious Right. I think most religious families who flaunt their values and superiority flip out when it backfires on them. Due to the hypocrisy involved in many fundamentalist sects of organized religions – the folks do not usually practice what they preach and what they shove down the throat of others. We should expect daughters and sons of those families to save it for marriage and then do it like rabbits. Unwed motherhood is a huge sin in most fundamentalist faiths (except the FLDS). Even in 2008.
I don’t imagine Sarah is a very warm and fuzzy mother. Her behavior with Trig is very telling. But it seems to me trotting your family out on a national stage and in front of the world with a pregnant teenager hiding her bump with some baby in her arms must have been excruciating for Bristol. How could a mother do that to her child? Asking a pregnant girl to hide herself is just plain cruel and wrong. I don’t know what Jesus would have done – but I would have smote her on the spot. I presume Bristol was wrapped in a burqua until someone told Sarah she’s better come clean because it wouldn’t be a secret much longer. Most of what she has gotten in the media is what she created by being duplicitous, a liar and an opportunist with very questionable political values. Shame on you Sarah. I’ll bet John McCain would like to throw up.
Yet so many right wing women suddenly sympathize. Sarah’s family situation should have nothing to do with being Vice President and everyone knows it. But consider this and this is important. When you get “Jesus” you have to turn a blind eye to anythingyou thought and disremember everything you did before you were saved. I know this from experience. Born again women have no problem tearing their kid’s “bastards” out their arms and giving them away. I have seen it happen. First the riot act is read chapter and verse when the news of the pregnancy is found out. Then the hot baths and the triple pee on a stick tests. Abortion comes to mind but a condition of being saved is you must be willing to save everyone and everything no matter what. Did Bristol choose to stay knocked up. I doubt it. But knocked up she is and married in the cross hairs she will be – I don’t think it was in the plans however. So Sarah Palin is not well-acquainted with being politic. It appears she is in NO way being a heartbeat away. Didn’t anyone learn anything from Speak of the Devil Cheney? Okay, Dumb As Dirt Dan Quayle? Guess not.
Thanks John.
Voolavex 