Of course the photo to the left is photo-shopped. It appeared during the 2008 presidential campaign and mocks Gov. Sarah Palin as a gun-toting, barefoot and pregnant "trailer-trash" woman with a cigarette-smoking son.Even now, with the campaign over for months, Palin and even her children continue to be the butt of disgusting "humor".
- Just last month Palin and her 14-year old daughter attended a Yankee's baseball game. A major talk-show host joked that the girl has been "knocked up" by one of the players.
- A crude hit piece in the current Vanity Fair, headlined "It Came from Wasilla" caricatures her (or "It" as the headline calls her) as "casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency".
The photo to the right is of Palin with her husband Todd and their "special needs" child Trig. This innocent baby was mocked by photo-shopping an ugly adult's face over a similar photo of him being carried by his mother. (I've included that photo at the end of this posting with an appropriate warning so don't scroll down there if you don't want to see it.)
Alaska has a law that allows any resident to inexpensively file an ethics complaint in writing against any government official. However frivolous, such accusations must be investigated by state authorities and defended by the accused government official.
So far, about a dozen and a half such ethics complaints have been filed and all have been rejected, at a reported cost of about $2M to the taxpayers of Alaska and $500K by Palin and her supporters. It appears these ethics complaints have no merit and have been filed for the purpose of generating negative publicity and harrassing the accused officials. Perhaps we need a law that requires anyone who files such a complaint to share the legal expenses of the state and the accused if and when the complaint fails to pan out.
PALIN DECLARES HER INDEPENDENCE
Palin's July 4th weekend decision not to seek re-election, and hand her office over to her Lt. Governor, has generated howls of phony anguish from opponents who hypocritically term her resignation a "betrayal to Alaska" and "leaving the people of Alaska high and dry". These are the same people who call for Governor Mark Sanford to resign because of his stimulus package visit to Argentina to bone up on foreign affairs :^) Where's the worry about the people of South Carolina being left leaderless if Sanford resigns? (For the record, I and a majority of members of his own party want him to resign immediately.)
There is speculation Palin resigned ahead of some coming revelation of a political scandal. Perhaps she has been to Argentina lately? Her college degree is in journalism and Sanford's love interest in Argentina is a journalist! :^) A scandal of some sort is certainly possible - the major media would love that, and are scrambling over each other searching for something that would take her out of the picture for good.
For now, I take her at her word that, having decided not to run again, she did not want to draw a paycheck while travelling the country and the world and giving speeches as so many 'lame duck' politicos have done before her. That is so refreshing that virtually none of the political 'talking heads' on cable news could imagine it could be true.
POLITICS OF PERSONAL DESTRUCTION
It is perfectly fine to criticize her views on important issues. For example, I do not share her religious beliefs and I disagree with some of her views on abortion. If one of my loved ones learned she was carrying a seriously handicapped baby and chose to terminate the pregnancy in the first or second trimester for that reason, I would fully support her decision. The key point, as the pro-abortion woman's "choice" side correctly points out, is that it is the WOMAN's decision to make.
But, Palin's opponents don't stop at criticizing her opinions, they practiced "politics of personal destruction" during the campaign, and well afterwards. They lampoon her upbringing in the wilds of Alaska and her social and religious beliefs. Worst of all, they belittle her children, even her youngest and most innocent, Trig. Well, some of them say, she invited that criticism by dragging her children throughout the campaign. Had she left them behind, they would have criticized her for abandoning her young children. (A male candidate with young children generally leaves his wife at home to care for the children during a political campaign, and features them only at a few political events. Palin campaigned with her husband, and, as a female candidate she naturally wanted her young children to be with her as much as possible. That, again, is a WOMAN's choice.)
FEMINIST HYPOCRACY
"Sometimes the 'best man' for the job is a WOMAN" is what the self-proclaimed feminists tell us (and they are correct). Palin has shown herself to be capable of doing a 'man's job' in commercial fishing, in hunting moose for her family's larder, and as a hard-charging "barracuda" in sports. In politics she aggressively 'skinned' more than one man who got in her way, working her way up from the PTA to local government to the highest position in state government.
Unlike most other women who inherit their political offices from their prominent husbands or politically-connected families, or who buy their way in with support from their rich families, she did it all on her own. She is the very model of a modern woman: strong-willed yet feminine and fertile, smart yet not effete or elite, and capable of combining her family with her career. She can both shoot and butcher a moose and prepare moose stew and serve it with home-baked cookies.
So, why does the feminist establishment hate her so much? Well, truth be told, a woman is free to choose her opinions so long as they are the politically correct opinions! "All animals are equal" is the rule adopted in George Orwell's Animal Farm, - it is later changed by the ruling pigs to "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others".
Yes, indeed, EVERYONE IS EQUAL! When standardized tests show some identifiable group is not equal to some other identifiable group, we need to throw out the test results! But, some are "more equal" than others. That is, those who have graduated from an Ivy League college and who are part of the New York and east coast, Hollywood and west coast and Chicago midwest elite are more equal than the common people who cling to their guns and religion. You can tell who these "more equal" people are. They have politically correct opinions and read and write for the politically correct newspapers and watch and appear on the politically correct talk shows. All others are fodder for rude humor.
PALIN'S FUTURE
Unlike many other politicians, Palin doesn't need an official position, or a great deal of income, to live a satisfying life. Her husband earns good money in the oil fields of Alaska, and that, plus a few moose in the freezer, could support her lifestyle adequately.
Her legal expenses defending frivolous lawsuits will most likely be paid off by contribution from her many supporters. She reportedly has a seven-figure book deal and could earn tens of thousands of dollars for public appearances. She could probably host a talk show on any of the cable news networks (her college degree is in journalism, after all :^)
I do not think she plans to run for President (or even VP) in the 2012 election. If the economy recovers, as I predicted it will, President Obama will be secure to win a second term. She could run for Senator from Alaska to build up her national knowledge and reputation. She has six years to build up her political and international knowledge and reputation if she wants to run for President (or VP) in 2016. At her age, she has the time to wait. I hope we have not seen the last of her in public affairs.
WARNING - DISTURBING PHOTO BELOW
The photo below originated on a fringe Blog and I would not normally run it on this Blog. However, I am showing part of the detail on this Blog only because the photo-shopped photo was posted on a major online site last month.
The base photo appears to be genuine, but the photo-shopper has superimposed the face of a talk show host over Trig's face, making him look ugly.
5 comments:
[for Vi Glickstein] This comment was inadvertently posted to the "Nova" Topic. I am reproducing it here:
Vi Glickstein said...
An amazing rewrite of history by Ira (my husband)who thinks he is the arbiter of the definition of feminism. I find Sarah Palin to be the sneaky, mean-spirited, uneducated, inarticulate person who has risen to the level of her incompetence(e.g. Peter Principle). I found her resignation statement to be a stream of consciousness with her own version of the facts yet again.
She speaks of the politics of personal destruction as if only she is the innocent recipient of this and had nothing to do with the horrors of the recent campaign. I live in Florida and heard the Palin rallies with the hateful statements made by her and her supporters.
Ira has drawn a very narrow model of feminism to me in private conversations regarding a woman who has been elected governor or US Senator: limited money, no family wealth, got herself elected. Well there are examples of women Governors such as Ann Richards (TX) and Ruth Ann Minner (Delaware) and Margaret Chase Smith. But there are more - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_state_governors_in_the_United_States.
Concerning Letterman's comment about A-Rod and Palin's daughter, Letterman's writers just knew Palin was there with A daughter who they assumed was Bristol. The "joke" was not about the younger daughter who was present - it was about the 18yr old. You are just like the other GOP die-hards who insist on twisting everything to your "advantage". Note that all the comments made about Bristol during the campaign by the late-night hosts were never answered. Palin answers them all now and twists them around because it enhances her 15 minutes of fame.
She is a quitter! She could have run out her term and worked at solving the problems her state is experiencing now that oil prices have collapsed from last summer. She has managed to alienate people who have worked for her and with her. She never worked at being governor - never went to Juneau but stayed in Wasilla and billed the state for per diem for the 3 months the legislature is in session. The reasons she is leaving is that her popularity is sinking like a rock (80+% just 9 months ago and now just 50%). She sees a way of making beaucoup money (her book deal which of course will be written by someone else and via speech fees to the conservative die-hards). The lame-duck analogy is a joke - the only part of it that is true is the "lame" part. Regarding the photoshopped photo of Trig, this was done by someone within her state - see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/25/palin-attacks-blogger-for_n_220668.html.
Oh well - I could say so much more but I will leave it for now.
Vi Glickstein
As a Libran I can empathize with both sides. I also recommend reading Stanley Fish's column for a more detached view.
Howard
I don't really care much about this topic. I'm neither a supporter nor detractor of Sarah Palin. However, I feel driven to let Vi know that her rant about Sarah Palin strikes me as unrivaled in its mean-spiritedness. Was all that bile really necessary? -Joel
Thanks Vi, Howard, and Joel for your comments. I hope we get more.
Vi's comments are representative of the feminist mainsteam. I welcome them as a balance to the male-dominated tilt of this Blog.
Howard is pretty much in the middle. I thank him for the link to the fine NY Times column by Stanley Fish. I have included some of his text below.
Joel approaches this issue from yet another direction. While I do not share his detachment from Palin and this issue, I agree with his reaction to some of what we see as mean-spirited criticism. For example, I cannot square the idea Palin is incompetent and a quitter with the idea she is leaving her fellow Alaskans leaderless when she could have worked at solving the problems her state is experiencing now that oil prices have collapsed.
Stanley Fish Column
-------------------------
I do not know anything about Fish other than what he says in his column. He says did not vote for Palin and would not have voted for Sanford, so it appears he is not a Republican.
Fish wrote, in part:
"Both Republican governors made rambling and sometimes halting statements ... and in response the commentators speculated endlessly about why they had said what they said. The one explanation they didn’t seem capable of coming up with was that they meant it, that their words were coming from the heart, from an interior that may have been fissured and rocky, but was nonetheless (dare I use the word) genuine.
"Palin had barely finished speaking when ... analysts from both sides of the aisle [said]: it was a disastrous performance, ... they couldn’t for the life of them figure out why she had delivered it. ... It’s hard to understand why she’s resigning. ... What she’s essentially done is guarantee that no pundit could make any intellectual defense of her. ... It’s hard to find a compelling reason. ...
"[They] should look at the video and pay attention this time to the reasons she gives. It is true that her statement was not constructed in a straightforward, logical manner, but the main theme was sounded often and plainly: This is not what I signed up for. I’m spending all my time and the state’s money responding to attack after attack and they aren’t going to let up because, 'It doesn’t cost the people who make these silly accusations a dime.' ...
"She complained that 'millions of dollars go down the drain in this new political environment.' She signaled repeatedly her weariness with the 'superficial political blood–sport' politics has become. She returned to her own sport, basketball, to explain that because she had become a distraction she was going to do what a good point guard always does, pass the ball to someone (her lieutenant governor) in a better position to make the shot. And in the end she earned the declaration that 'I have given my reasons plainly and candidly.'
"But the pundits didn’t want to hear them or, rather, they were committed to believing that the real reasons lay elsewhere, and were strategic. They couldn’t fathom the possibility that she was just giving voice to her feelings. It must, they assumed, be a calculation, and having decided that, they happily went on to describe how bad a calculation it was.
"They did this even when reporting on something that might have given them pause. It was generally agreed that because the statement was structurally chaotic, even formless, Palin had written it herself. No self-respecting political operative would have produced something so badly crafted. One would have thought that this would be seen as evidence of the absence of calculation, but instead it was received as evidence of her Alaska-limited understanding of politics. (Doesn’t she know, they asked, that resigning is no way to run for president?) Rather than reasoning from what they took to be the political ineptitude of her performance to the possibility that it wasn’t political, they just continued on their merry, muckraking way."
Ira Glickstein
Today's column by Camille Paglia, a self-proclaimed Democrat, is a fairly balanced view of what she calls Palin's "chaotic and rushed statement" of resignation. You can read the whole column at the link above. Here are excerpts:
"Given her success with finalizing the massive Alaska pipeline project, I think Palin should have stuck it out, but of course she is master of her own fate. What certainly was blameworthy was the chaotic and rushed statement itself. Something so politically consequential needed more careful composition and rehearsal. ...
"Unfortunately, it's pretty obvious that Palin still lacks that cadre of trusted pros who are the invisible elves behind every successful national politician -- the assistants who gather and vet material and who filter proposals and plan logistics. In a way, this is part of her virtues -- her complete freedom from routine micromanagement and business as usual. She does her own thing with seat-of-the-pants gusto. ...
"It's why she remains hugely popular with the Republican grass-roots base -- as I know from listening to talk radio. Callers coming fresh from her rallies are always heady with infectious enthusiasm.
"Of course you'd never know that from reading hit jobs like Todd Purdum's sepulchral piece on Palin in the current Vanity Fair. Scurrying around Alaska with his notepad, Purdum still managed to find comically little to indict her with. Anyone with a gripe is given the floor; fans are shut out. This exercise in faux objectivity is exposed at key points such as Purdum's failure to identify the actual instigator of Palin's extravagant clothing bills (a crazed, credit-card-abusing stylist appointed by the McCain campaign) and his prissy characterization of Palin's performance at the vice-presidential debate as merely 'adequate.' Hey, wake up -- Palin cleaned Biden's clock! By the end, Biden was sighing and itching to split.
"Whether Palin has a national future or not will depend on her willingness to hit the books at some point and absorb more information about international history and politics than she has needed to know in her role as governor. She also needs a shrewder, cooler take on the mainstream media, with its preening bullies, cackling witches, twisted cynics and pompous windbags. ..."
There is much more in the column, including stuff about a famous daughter I had not heard about before and am not sure is worthy of public attention or mention on this Blog (or even true).
Ira Glickstein
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