When John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, her reputation as a tough-minded budget-cutter was front and center.
“I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere,” Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan’s Gravina Island bridge.
But Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.
The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them “nowhere.” They’re still feeling pain today in Ketchikan, over Palin’s subsequent decision to use the bridge funds for other projects – and over the timing of her announcement, which they say came in a pre-dawn press release that seemed aimed at national news deadlines.
“I think that’s when the campaign for national office began,” said Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Weinstein noted, the state is continuing to build a road on Gravina Island to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone – because federal money for the access road, unlike the bridge money, would have otherwise been returned to the federal government.
And let me join the chorus, Rollory: FUCK YOU. I’ll never understand how the people who somehow seem to think they’re “more American” than others are always the ones with the most hate and intolerance in their language.
There’s an interesting summary of Palin’s legal issues over at TPM.
To summarize: before she was governor, Palin’s family had a falling out with her brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, who is a state trooper. Along the way, she filed several complaints with the state police, which gave Wooten a ten day suspension.
Apparently, this was not enough for Palin. When she became governor, the Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan (who was formerly the Anchorage police chief) came under pressure to punish Wooten again. Note that there were no new complaints filed - she just thought the first round of punishment hadn’t gone far enough. Monegan replied that this was wrong, since the formal administrative process had already come to a close. He warned Palin that this constituted abuse of power.
Wooten still has his job to this day. However, Monegan was canned shortly thereafter. He announced that he was fired because he wouldn’t give in to Palin’s demands regarding Wooten. She replied that nobody ever discussed Wooten with Monegan. The legislature opened an investigation.
Oops. Recordings were found in which Palin staffers pressured Monegan to fire Wooten.
Palin responded that maybe her staff approached Monegan, but she had no personal involvement. Monegan’s response: I have emails from you.
Oops. Palin cited “executive privilege” and locked down her emails. The legislature is preparing to depose her. And all of this will probably come to a thrilling conclusion… a few days before the election.
Dude, in the eyes of some, you’re one of those “elitists” if you pronounce it “nuclear”. It’s proof that you’re a real American if you pronounce it “nucular”. There has to be at least one such real American on each GOP ticket, dontcha know.
I’m sorry, as this probably won’t be phrased properly or as diplomatically as I want it to be. It’s strange from my perspective as a Canadian where our “right-wing” isn’t remotely as narrow-minded or scary as the Republicans down south it seems. The closest we’ve had to hicks were the Canadian Alliance/Reform party that moderated down when it merged into the formerly Progressive Conservative tories. The resulting Stephen Harper-led tories are very left-centrist even, fiscally-conservative.
…I’ve been meaning to ask in its own separate thread before P&R became the Palin forum but why does it seem that the most visible and vocal “right-wing” down there seem bat-shit insane/ignorant? Yeah, everything’s so damn polarized down there but…
The amount of knee-jerk vitriol and derision leveled at “liberal” values whenever it appears (and it’s beginning to occur more and more in media up here even, at least amongst so-called right-wing talking heads) is just confusing. By contrast, there doesn’t seem to be anything redeeming or noble about being “conservative” though since it seems to require that brains be checked out at the door in favour of taking fiction like the Bible literally but selectively when it suits their crazy-ass agenda.
Can someone point out some positive values that I’m missing out on? I mean I’m all for fiscal prudence etc. but…
“Right-wing” = white equivalent of “muslim fundamentalists” from what my Canadian ass can tell. I’m just trying to understand the appeal.
2: to remove or separate from a native environment or culture; especially : to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences from
God forbid! And Rollory’s comment comes a whole 45 years after that famous “content of their character” line in MLK Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s incredible how fiercely some people resist the tide of history.
The thing is, I believe that what Rollary said was vile and he should be jumped on for his comments! But what you just said is equally as vile but no one on this forum is going start saying Fuck You for those comments.
I really hope you just don’t understand our political system and Conservative positions and that you meant no harm in those comments. Conservative minded people will be willing to discuss issues with you on this forum but not if you start out with that kind of attitude.
I’m only pointing out that the most visible to ME examples are the most vile–Coulter/Malkin/Rush etc and did not mean to tar all conservatives. I am asking for some examples of positive values since it all LOOKS negative to me. Comparing Christian fundies to Muslim fundies is still perfectly valid though I feel and not meant to incite any hatred or judgment-it just seems like 2 sides of a coin.
I think it’s easy to underestimate the extent to which conservative values have already influenced the Democratic party, starting with Clinton’s brilliant co-opting of many traditional Republican positions (balanced budget, limited welfare) in the 1992 and 1996 elections.
Obama’s speech would have gotten a lot of flack from Democrats back in the 1980s – talking about support for “those who are willing to work”, talking about social responsibility for not having unwanted children, etc. Traditional conservative values have definitely reshaped the winning portion of the Democratic party.
That said, I think the most visible examples in either party are fairly vile. Coulter/Malkin/Rush are opposed by Franken/Moore (Frankenmoore?), and there’s a lot of slander and bile on both sides of that aisle.
The worst, most extreme conservatives are the cryptoracists and extreme religious fundamentalists, who want to reshape the world in their image and wipe out diversity of all varieties. Rollory seems to be aligning himself with that axis.
Conversely, the worst, most extreme liberals are the cryptocommunists and extreme pro-choicers, who won’t admit that there is any virtue to private property or that there are ever any circumstances in which abortion is undesirable or should be limited. These people are just as unelectable.
My wife was asking me yesterday why elections have gotten so much closer in recent years. I really think it’s partly because the center has widened somewhat – Obama is a lot more like Reagan than, say, Carter or Mondale were. The extremes are becoming less electable. Unfortunately, there’s always the risk that someone will run on a given platform and then do something wildly different, such as Bush claiming he would run a tight budget ship and then converting a historically significant surplus into a completely unprecedented deficit. (That being, by the way, one of the most conventionally liberal and anti-conservative things a president could do.)
Seriously the more I learn about evangelicals the more Handmaid’s Tale seems prescient. A nightmare scenario of the ‘Baptist States of America’ seceding with 1/3rd of the American nucular arsenal and a plan to jumpstart the Rapture doesn’t seem too far fetched.
If you’d say that’s likely, I’d say you haven’t learned much about evangelicals at all, then. I don’t know a single one who would be interested in any of that.
