Why oh why do some Alaskans still seem to carry a bit of a chip on their shoulder about the subject and personage of Sarah Palin? Here's why. My friend Linda at Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis explains it better than anyone. Part 1 and Part 2. Yes, it takes at least that many parts to explain it because with Palin, "it's complicated". Excellent work, Linda! The only thing missing is Todd's sexy silk NY boxers and you can bet your sweet ass you can pin THAT one on Sarah, too.
-Laz
Showing posts with label Ex-Governor Sarah Palin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ex-Governor Sarah Palin. Show all posts
10.29.2009
10.19.2009
Things Are Tough All Over...
Okay. This has got to be a joke, right? I doubt that Palin has ever even heard of LinkedIn, let alone personally know how to sign up for one of their accounts or post he resume there! But I will say in all honesty, if she really needs the work I could seriously use a housekeeper. Seriously. I realize she may be vastly overqualified for the position (or perhaps not if we are to believe Levi Johnson's Vanity Fair account of behind the scenes life within the Palin household) but I'd be willing to pay her $250 for a day and provide her with the HAZMAT suit she'll most likely need to come over and clean my little four room apartment. Standing offer Sarah. Call me!
-Laz
-Laz
10.16.2009
I Love The Smell Of Deperation First Thing In The Morning...
Not mine but rather Sarah Palin's seeming desperation. Remember this is an independent, ad-free and unpaid blog -- thus I have no financial gain or benefits to disclose for writing what I write. It is my personal opinion covered by my right to freedom of speech. Period. Nobody is slipping me money under the table nor paying me either directly or indirectly, in fact it costs me over $600 a year for my broadband access. I have never even asked for any donations to support this blog, myself or my writing! Lastly, Google provides the blogspace for free. So there you have it. That is MY disclosure statement, so please indulge my whims again for a moment by allowing me to relate the following bits of recent Palin related information with those thoughts in mind.
There are two items of recent note about our ex-governor, the perpetual second runner up, that I now discuss -- first, she announced yet another PAC yesterday. Why? According to Fred Malek, apparently one of the few former McCain campaign staffers still willing to talk about her, "She wants to continue to be in a position to help causes dear to her heart and help people close to her". Hmm... does that not sounds exactly like what she herself said on the day she quit her job as governor of Alaska? Perhaps Fred helped her write her July third abdication speech? So basically then it is the announcement of a new PAC funding Sarah and her aparent megalomaniacal personal ambitions, right Fred? At this point you may be wondering as much as I am just what exactly is wrong with the old SarahPAC which would cause the need for an announcement of an entirely new PAC? Incidnetly, even after this announcement the old SarahPAC is still functioning online and continues to beg for more money from her supporters. So really -- why a second PAC?
Allow me to take a stab at explaining this from the perspective of a non-lawyer but as someone who has done extensive research concerning her troubles with personal finance and her various online fund raising efforts. At face value this new PAC appears to be exactly the same thing as SarahPAC, which again immediatly begs the question as to why she needs yet another PAC? Why Sarah, WHY? Is it because the hammer of justice is about to drop hard on SarahPAC due to its original thinly veiled charter that essentially makes it a slush fund to pay her friends, family, cronies and the monthly fees of spokes-model Meg "The Mouth" Stapeltongue rather than actually supporting political candidates and causes other than Team Sarah itself? My short answer is yes I believe so, yes precisely. Here comes the hammer, Sarah and lovers of Sarah. Better brace yourself.
As a PAC, the FEC has already officially grumbled about SarahPAC's legality based upon its original charter, pretty much alleging hers is NOT truly legal under the rules, regulations and laws governing what qualifies as a tax exempt 527 group. It has also been suggested by some at the FEC that there are glaring legal difficulties with the original charter of SarahPAC in claiming it to be a 501(c)3 which would allow her donors to write their contributions off on their taxes. Since Sarah is not currently running for political office how can she and her team continue to ethically claim tax exempt status? It's not a campaign fund. Add to that the fact that the limited amount of FEC disclosures available also show only small portions, indeed a minor percentage of the donations to SarahPAC have actually been passed along to support other political campaigns and causes of interest to her and her team. A comparatively miniscule amount, even. Essentially it seems thus far that the money mostly goes towards furthering her personal ambitions which presently appear to be a nothing less than a personal money making venture for Sarah and her team. No pun intended but the cash cow seems to be Sarah herself as is the direct majority beneficiary of the PAC amply demonstrated by FEC disclosures of the percentage of total monies doled out from the PAC towards other legitimate political causes and concerns. So unless she has declared herself PERSONALLY to be a non-profit entity, a candidate or a registered lobbiest concern and is willing to back it up with public disclosures to both the FEC and IRS, she seems to be dancing around with the truth in a murky gray area both legally and ethically about the usage of funds donated by her supporters to her original PAC.
Her recent FEC disclosures show a limited amount of actual "political actions" or "causes", mostly in the form of donations to a select few of her fellow Republicans and their campaign funds (John McCain and Michelle Bachman amongst them). In addition, the few times she and team Sarah even bothered to actually spend PAC donations on something recognizably political OTHER than her or team Sarah, they over donated above the legally permitted per annum amount which in turn then had to be reimbursed back to her PAC just to keep everything within the law. Fair enough. A simple mistake for which I will not cruxify them. These things happen. Those campaigns returned the excess amounts when directed to do so by the FEC because of excess per anum dollar amount violations, so no problems there other than the seeming perpetual stupidity of her PAC administrators. But as has often been the case in the recent past with so many of her legally required public personal financial disclosures, she and her team may have been playing fast and loose with the truth, the rules and their adherance to actual law. The FEC disclosures I have read show that she has been just as lax at reporting SarahPAC expenditures to the FEC as she has been in declaring (within a legally mandated set period of time) the financial value of gifts given to her while serving as governor of the state of Alaska. I cease to be surprised and -- surprise! -- she has been just as late complying with FEC rules as well. Sarah and team Sarah always seem to be late with their legally mandated "homework", having to erase the smiley faces and hearts and replace them with properly dotted i's and properly crossed t's.
Most interesting to me however is that her team's actions appear to be a literal demonstration of an acting and actual confederacy of dunces! You bet'cha! She has hired herself her very own circular firing squad! From my perspective it is obvious that perhaps she is getting somewhat less than what she is paying for from her employees who continue to act as some sort of perpetual newsmaking gaffe machine. It would almost be funny if it weren't so damn sad. It makes it hard to decide if I should feel cynical or maybe even sorry for her. In most cases I'm going to choose cynical because often it seems intentional and almost orchestrated rather than accidental. On top of all of this it appears, again through the limited disclosuers team Sarah HAS actually made to the FEC and in both the main stream media and as reported on various partisan or non-partisan political blogs, that many of these very same dunces may be directly paid out of her SarahPAC slush fund. Which of course only further compounds her potential problems with the FEC and IRS and their rules. Team Sarah will probably claim otherwise but though their own initial and perhaps accidental uncoordinated press releases and in words taken directly from her spokesperson Meg "The Mouth" Stapletongue, it was originally disclosed that this was actually the case before someone had a cow (Sarah, doing damage control C.Y.A. work as undoubtedly advised to do by her more politically savvy hired gun mercernary attorney, I'd wager) and quickly tried to claw those statements back by asserting that Sarah was actually paying for all these employees personally. Sorry folks. You already said it was paying for Meg and the Team Sarah folks at first. Once you hit the 'SEND' button it it nigh well impossible to 'UNSEND'. In my opinion all of this crazy sideshow freak circus amounts to the appearance of her and her team wilfully skirting the bounds of what is both legal AND ethical and serves only to confirm the hapless antics of her confederacy of dunces perhaps even in a craven effort to only get her still more press merely to keep her name in the headlines. Sad to contemplate that possibility but how esle is one to explain the veritable Keyston Cops nature of her and her team and their crazy press release circus? It's almost like the Three Stooges, only without the funny parts! Oh wait... never mind. Anyhow, the news and press releases are out there in the wilds of the untamed internet and I don't feel the need to provide citations. I've seen them, I've read them and I have now reported them. If you are truly interested in unraveling all this crap (and I pray for the sake of your sanity) then I encourage you all to go look for it yourself. Again, I have nothing to gain from retelling all of this other than amusement at the total and continued ineptitude of her team plus the personal satisfaction of reminding everyone of their possible lies concerning her, her ambitions and the somewhat shadowy financial details of her and her political machine. It totally boggles the mind just how badly one could possibly screw up what supposedly started out as a bright political career and yet from all appearances that seems to be the case.
Whatever the causes or reasons it does appear to help keep her name in the news which is probably the most important issue for Sarah and team Sarah. Especially considering the other item of note today: her popularity. According to a newly published Gallup poll, her popularity numbers nationally are still on the wane as they have been since the end of the McCain campaign. Don't even get me started on how low they have dropped for her within her own state! I'd go as far as to say that even the majority of Alaskan Republicans no longer favor or support her. Most Alaskans don't like quitters. Especially ones that quit on Alaska. Ask former governor Hickel. The latest numbers show fourty percent overall average favorable opinion nationwide, with sixty-nine percent of polled Republicans still seeing her favorably. So nationally many Republicans who didn't have to live with her as their governor still seem to have the wool pulled over their eyes. Perhaps more telling is that twenty-five percent of Republicans nationally see her unfavorably with just six percent registering no opinion. Still even more telling is the approval rating of those valuable "swing voter" independents: a full fourty-eight percent register as unfavorable, with eleven percent registering no opinion and only fourty-one percent registering approval. It goes without saying that the vast majority of Democrats both nationally and locally register as unfavorable.
All of these factors lead me to believe that her announcement of another new PAC is precisely because they already have an inkling that the old one is about to be shut down for both FEC and IRS violations. But as has been the case for her sketchy and incomplete (not to mention LATE) personal gift disclosures while the governor of Alaska, we have yet to have an official declaration of any legal violations and any subsequent penalties or remedies, so this story isn't over yet. Not by a long shot, unfortunately. As an Alaskan I am comfortable with the idea that many of us would prefer that her and the questionable antics of her political machine just go away forever. She has become an utter embarassment for many, many Alaskans and with every hapless gaffe continues to reflect negatively on both the state and it's inhabitants. As far as I am concerned we Alaskans need only be patient a little while longer until the she and the whole shebang implodes on her, her employees and her supporters at NewsCorp (including but not limited to Fox News, Harpers, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal who continue to promote her as Rupert Murdoch's (mostly undisclosed to those NOT in the know) pet project). May we all collectively offer a deep and loud sigh of relief when this impending implosion occurs and she fades into personal and political obscurity as a sad Alaskan hisorical footnote. May we also cheer at her and her hapless minions repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot (as they still continue to do), thus liberating us and the rest of America from any further news about her, her causes and her political ambitions (whatever the hell those may be now she's been branded a quitter and hasn't yet announced for any office) now and forever. Then and only then we will ALL be able to breathe that collective sigh of releif and we Alaskans can return to rebuilding our now sullied reputation as hardy and THINKING rugged individualists. From my fingertips to your eyeballs to her ears. Amen.
-Laz
There are two items of recent note about our ex-governor, the perpetual second runner up, that I now discuss -- first, she announced yet another PAC yesterday. Why? According to Fred Malek, apparently one of the few former McCain campaign staffers still willing to talk about her, "She wants to continue to be in a position to help causes dear to her heart and help people close to her". Hmm... does that not sounds exactly like what she herself said on the day she quit her job as governor of Alaska? Perhaps Fred helped her write her July third abdication speech? So basically then it is the announcement of a new PAC funding Sarah and her aparent megalomaniacal personal ambitions, right Fred? At this point you may be wondering as much as I am just what exactly is wrong with the old SarahPAC which would cause the need for an announcement of an entirely new PAC? Incidnetly, even after this announcement the old SarahPAC is still functioning online and continues to beg for more money from her supporters. So really -- why a second PAC?
Allow me to take a stab at explaining this from the perspective of a non-lawyer but as someone who has done extensive research concerning her troubles with personal finance and her various online fund raising efforts. At face value this new PAC appears to be exactly the same thing as SarahPAC, which again immediatly begs the question as to why she needs yet another PAC? Why Sarah, WHY? Is it because the hammer of justice is about to drop hard on SarahPAC due to its original thinly veiled charter that essentially makes it a slush fund to pay her friends, family, cronies and the monthly fees of spokes-model Meg "The Mouth" Stapeltongue rather than actually supporting political candidates and causes other than Team Sarah itself? My short answer is yes I believe so, yes precisely. Here comes the hammer, Sarah and lovers of Sarah. Better brace yourself.
As a PAC, the FEC has already officially grumbled about SarahPAC's legality based upon its original charter, pretty much alleging hers is NOT truly legal under the rules, regulations and laws governing what qualifies as a tax exempt 527 group. It has also been suggested by some at the FEC that there are glaring legal difficulties with the original charter of SarahPAC in claiming it to be a 501(c)3 which would allow her donors to write their contributions off on their taxes. Since Sarah is not currently running for political office how can she and her team continue to ethically claim tax exempt status? It's not a campaign fund. Add to that the fact that the limited amount of FEC disclosures available also show only small portions, indeed a minor percentage of the donations to SarahPAC have actually been passed along to support other political campaigns and causes of interest to her and her team. A comparatively miniscule amount, even. Essentially it seems thus far that the money mostly goes towards furthering her personal ambitions which presently appear to be a nothing less than a personal money making venture for Sarah and her team. No pun intended but the cash cow seems to be Sarah herself as is the direct majority beneficiary of the PAC amply demonstrated by FEC disclosures of the percentage of total monies doled out from the PAC towards other legitimate political causes and concerns. So unless she has declared herself PERSONALLY to be a non-profit entity, a candidate or a registered lobbiest concern and is willing to back it up with public disclosures to both the FEC and IRS, she seems to be dancing around with the truth in a murky gray area both legally and ethically about the usage of funds donated by her supporters to her original PAC.
Her recent FEC disclosures show a limited amount of actual "political actions" or "causes", mostly in the form of donations to a select few of her fellow Republicans and their campaign funds (John McCain and Michelle Bachman amongst them). In addition, the few times she and team Sarah even bothered to actually spend PAC donations on something recognizably political OTHER than her or team Sarah, they over donated above the legally permitted per annum amount which in turn then had to be reimbursed back to her PAC just to keep everything within the law. Fair enough. A simple mistake for which I will not cruxify them. These things happen. Those campaigns returned the excess amounts when directed to do so by the FEC because of excess per anum dollar amount violations, so no problems there other than the seeming perpetual stupidity of her PAC administrators. But as has often been the case in the recent past with so many of her legally required public personal financial disclosures, she and her team may have been playing fast and loose with the truth, the rules and their adherance to actual law. The FEC disclosures I have read show that she has been just as lax at reporting SarahPAC expenditures to the FEC as she has been in declaring (within a legally mandated set period of time) the financial value of gifts given to her while serving as governor of the state of Alaska. I cease to be surprised and -- surprise! -- she has been just as late complying with FEC rules as well. Sarah and team Sarah always seem to be late with their legally mandated "homework", having to erase the smiley faces and hearts and replace them with properly dotted i's and properly crossed t's.
Most interesting to me however is that her team's actions appear to be a literal demonstration of an acting and actual confederacy of dunces! You bet'cha! She has hired herself her very own circular firing squad! From my perspective it is obvious that perhaps she is getting somewhat less than what she is paying for from her employees who continue to act as some sort of perpetual newsmaking gaffe machine. It would almost be funny if it weren't so damn sad. It makes it hard to decide if I should feel cynical or maybe even sorry for her. In most cases I'm going to choose cynical because often it seems intentional and almost orchestrated rather than accidental. On top of all of this it appears, again through the limited disclosuers team Sarah HAS actually made to the FEC and in both the main stream media and as reported on various partisan or non-partisan political blogs, that many of these very same dunces may be directly paid out of her SarahPAC slush fund. Which of course only further compounds her potential problems with the FEC and IRS and their rules. Team Sarah will probably claim otherwise but though their own initial and perhaps accidental uncoordinated press releases and in words taken directly from her spokesperson Meg "The Mouth" Stapletongue, it was originally disclosed that this was actually the case before someone had a cow (Sarah, doing damage control C.Y.A. work as undoubtedly advised to do by her more politically savvy hired gun mercernary attorney, I'd wager) and quickly tried to claw those statements back by asserting that Sarah was actually paying for all these employees personally. Sorry folks. You already said it was paying for Meg and the Team Sarah folks at first. Once you hit the 'SEND' button it it nigh well impossible to 'UNSEND'. In my opinion all of this crazy sideshow freak circus amounts to the appearance of her and her team wilfully skirting the bounds of what is both legal AND ethical and serves only to confirm the hapless antics of her confederacy of dunces perhaps even in a craven effort to only get her still more press merely to keep her name in the headlines. Sad to contemplate that possibility but how esle is one to explain the veritable Keyston Cops nature of her and her team and their crazy press release circus? It's almost like the Three Stooges, only without the funny parts! Oh wait... never mind. Anyhow, the news and press releases are out there in the wilds of the untamed internet and I don't feel the need to provide citations. I've seen them, I've read them and I have now reported them. If you are truly interested in unraveling all this crap (and I pray for the sake of your sanity) then I encourage you all to go look for it yourself. Again, I have nothing to gain from retelling all of this other than amusement at the total and continued ineptitude of her team plus the personal satisfaction of reminding everyone of their possible lies concerning her, her ambitions and the somewhat shadowy financial details of her and her political machine. It totally boggles the mind just how badly one could possibly screw up what supposedly started out as a bright political career and yet from all appearances that seems to be the case.
Whatever the causes or reasons it does appear to help keep her name in the news which is probably the most important issue for Sarah and team Sarah. Especially considering the other item of note today: her popularity. According to a newly published Gallup poll, her popularity numbers nationally are still on the wane as they have been since the end of the McCain campaign. Don't even get me started on how low they have dropped for her within her own state! I'd go as far as to say that even the majority of Alaskan Republicans no longer favor or support her. Most Alaskans don't like quitters. Especially ones that quit on Alaska. Ask former governor Hickel. The latest numbers show fourty percent overall average favorable opinion nationwide, with sixty-nine percent of polled Republicans still seeing her favorably. So nationally many Republicans who didn't have to live with her as their governor still seem to have the wool pulled over their eyes. Perhaps more telling is that twenty-five percent of Republicans nationally see her unfavorably with just six percent registering no opinion. Still even more telling is the approval rating of those valuable "swing voter" independents: a full fourty-eight percent register as unfavorable, with eleven percent registering no opinion and only fourty-one percent registering approval. It goes without saying that the vast majority of Democrats both nationally and locally register as unfavorable.
All of these factors lead me to believe that her announcement of another new PAC is precisely because they already have an inkling that the old one is about to be shut down for both FEC and IRS violations. But as has been the case for her sketchy and incomplete (not to mention LATE) personal gift disclosures while the governor of Alaska, we have yet to have an official declaration of any legal violations and any subsequent penalties or remedies, so this story isn't over yet. Not by a long shot, unfortunately. As an Alaskan I am comfortable with the idea that many of us would prefer that her and the questionable antics of her political machine just go away forever. She has become an utter embarassment for many, many Alaskans and with every hapless gaffe continues to reflect negatively on both the state and it's inhabitants. As far as I am concerned we Alaskans need only be patient a little while longer until the she and the whole shebang implodes on her, her employees and her supporters at NewsCorp (including but not limited to Fox News, Harpers, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal who continue to promote her as Rupert Murdoch's (mostly undisclosed to those NOT in the know) pet project). May we all collectively offer a deep and loud sigh of relief when this impending implosion occurs and she fades into personal and political obscurity as a sad Alaskan hisorical footnote. May we also cheer at her and her hapless minions repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot (as they still continue to do), thus liberating us and the rest of America from any further news about her, her causes and her political ambitions (whatever the hell those may be now she's been branded a quitter and hasn't yet announced for any office) now and forever. Then and only then we will ALL be able to breathe that collective sigh of releif and we Alaskans can return to rebuilding our now sullied reputation as hardy and THINKING rugged individualists. From my fingertips to your eyeballs to her ears. Amen.
-Laz
9.24.2009
The Bizarre World of Sarah Palin's Brain, Part Deux...
Now with COLOR VIDEO. Dang these internet tubes are freekin' awesome!
The absurdity of Palin's position is untenable. The woman needs a serious wake up call (see previous post, written before I watched this video). At the moment Palin has national ambition stars in her eyes (Shuneman fueled, blowing smoke up her wazoo, whispering promises of ponies, unicorns and untold millions with which to purchase peep toe pumps...) and will be hitting the media with a book tour and her 'just Sarah plain and tall' (in jog togs or the aformentioned peep toe pumps) act soon. I see either her and Beck together (and I DO mean TOGETHER together, as in doing 'it' -- you want to see the anti-christ for real then it would have to resemble an imagined unholy spawn of an equally unholy Beck/Palin union) or she will run for President (actually my guess is that by Shuneman being back in the mix again, McCain is making overtures to have her as VP all over again just to show America he's got huge fucking brass balls the size of Brazil, NO! China... he's SO damn mavrick-y he'd choose her all over again, gawdammit). She will probably do both, milking the media, milking the politics for as long as both are possible but either way, eventually she will lose. Lose in the mainstream majority controlled media and then run for office and lose again as President (though more likely as VP to the maverick-y glimmer twins ticket, back for a second thumping in 2012). Or eventually, if Alaskans are lucky, Palin will just quit every blessed thing altogether as it seems quitting stuff is really her true calling (judging from past history), and I've always supported people committed to their true calling. I was called to be a great writer and thinker but all I have is the lousy t-shirt. Not that I'm saying that would be Sarah's fault... who do you think helped me buy the lousy t-shirt?
-Laz
The absurdity of Palin's position is untenable. The woman needs a serious wake up call (see previous post, written before I watched this video). At the moment Palin has national ambition stars in her eyes (Shuneman fueled, blowing smoke up her wazoo, whispering promises of ponies, unicorns and untold millions with which to purchase peep toe pumps...) and will be hitting the media with a book tour and her 'just Sarah plain and tall' (in jog togs or the aformentioned peep toe pumps) act soon. I see either her and Beck together (and I DO mean TOGETHER together, as in doing 'it' -- you want to see the anti-christ for real then it would have to resemble an imagined unholy spawn of an equally unholy Beck/Palin union) or she will run for President (actually my guess is that by Shuneman being back in the mix again, McCain is making overtures to have her as VP all over again just to show America he's got huge fucking brass balls the size of Brazil, NO! China... he's SO damn mavrick-y he'd choose her all over again, gawdammit). She will probably do both, milking the media, milking the politics for as long as both are possible but either way, eventually she will lose. Lose in the mainstream majority controlled media and then run for office and lose again as President (though more likely as VP to the maverick-y glimmer twins ticket, back for a second thumping in 2012). Or eventually, if Alaskans are lucky, Palin will just quit every blessed thing altogether as it seems quitting stuff is really her true calling (judging from past history), and I've always supported people committed to their true calling. I was called to be a great writer and thinker but all I have is the lousy t-shirt. Not that I'm saying that would be Sarah's fault... who do you think helped me buy the lousy t-shirt?
-Laz
9.23.2009
The Bizarre World of Sarah Palin's Brain...
Perhaps Sarah just has a broken irony meter? I don't know. I find it hilarious that she doesn't see it as ironic that her first major paid speech is taking place today in a communist country, where she will no doubt mindlessly rail against communism and socialism. I'd bet even money that she doesn't even really know that Hong Kong is now part of China and that China is one of the few remaining communist contries left on earth. I'm sorry, but a woman who once referred to Africa as "a country" rather than a continent isn't winning any confidence points for intelligence from me, nosiree.
In fact AP/HuffPo has reported that during Palin's speech today she said, "We [America] got into this mess because of government interference in the first place...". Which is of course diametrically opposed to the facts. Now who is makin' things up, Sarah? Apparently a former popular young cheerleader once named Sarah Heath who was not paying close enough attention to the proper things in history and civics classes, that's who. One that suddenly believes herself to be as credible talking about world financial markets as she purportedly is supposed to be when talking about energy development. Even though she's really not qualified to talk authoritatively about either subject in reality. She's aborted her career in both fields of endeavor prematurely. She's hardly an expert in anything. Other than the good old fashioned down home gum smackin' and eye winkin' Wasilla-billy charm she seems to exude.
No, Sarah -- we got into a financial meltdown (again) because we took the controls OFF the banking industry that we had previously put there after the failure of thousands of savings and loan institutions back in the 80s. Read that again carefully, Sarah. Not "too much government interference" but rather "not enough government oversight". Again you have things completely ass backwards Sarah, pounding your meme nails with the skinny end of the hammer. The entire premise of your speech is laughable precisely because it is exactly the opposite from actual reality. Which by the way does not surprise me in the least. (Sarah was never much of a scholar so the idea that whatever she says, do the opposite still applies).
You see Sarah, without any goverment oversite or interference Wall Street, led by investment banking firms helped finance a banking industry that created high risk loans for people who could not realistically pay them back. Then when those borrowers defaulted they repackaged the whole mess into 'default credit swaps' which were then magically made into something of value by rebranding them as 'derivitives'. What made them valuable was because they were insured against failure by AIG. In fact towards the end, it became default practice to bet against the derivatives as 'investments' and collect your insurance money from AIG for the losses you were helping to cause as a banker.
Older readers will recall 'junk bonds' during the 80s. Well meet the new debt boss, same as the old debt boss. Derivitaves are nothing less than junk bonds whose sole backing is debt itself. The idea is that if you're a multi-billion dollar corporation and you need to not pay taxes, you can buy up a few billions worth of these 'investment' derivatives, show them on the books as an investment, but then mark it down to show it as a loss for tax purposes. It's a ponzi scheme, the same one made up back in the 80s with junk bonds only with all new terminology. Terminology with zazz! Whee. Aren't we so damn lucky that the Amercan system seems to foster some of the worst, most unethical, most greedy and opportunistic bastards on the face of the planet to migrate towards MBA degrees?
So Sarah's next answer? She claimed that if taxes were cut and the capital gains tax and estate tax eliminated, the world would "watch the U.S. economy roar back to life." Wrong again Sarah. All that will do is further entrench the wealth of the most wealthiest 1% of Americans. Your overlords. It does nothing for the majority of Americans. According to one conference attendee "she criticized Obama a lot but offered no solutions." Damn. It's almost like having her back as governor! The the gaffe machine, now humming along like well oiled clockwork churned up the idea that she believes "the U.S. has a role in helping China find its future and that the U.S. will always be on the side of promoting freedom...". Which is always the thing communists want to hear. Yeehaw! We loves us some freedom, Sarah Palin! Freedom from an oppressive state controlled political apparatus! Hey wait... ahem. Awkward.
As if that weren't bad enough she then weighed in with her opinion on the Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese problems in China saying she thought their ethnic disputes were "a sign that China lacks mechanisms to deal with regional issues...". I bet the Chinese laughed even harder at that than I am now. That's a hoot! But only because I KNOW it to be yet another classic example of Palin wrongheadedness. Not only does she have no business or basis for offering such insight to her Chinese hosts, she seems dreadfully unaware of the situation back home. Gee I don't know Sarah, seen a news show lately? Town Hall health care meetings? Rampant racism? Disrespect for a sitting President? Any of these ringing a bell for you yet, Sarah? It's as if somewhere, in a parallel universe, they recast that clueless goes to Washington, D. C. girl as a redhead from Idaho except we're actually living in that parallel universe. At least we are in Sarah's bizarre mind.
-Laz
In fact AP/HuffPo has reported that during Palin's speech today she said, "We [America] got into this mess because of government interference in the first place...". Which is of course diametrically opposed to the facts. Now who is makin' things up, Sarah? Apparently a former popular young cheerleader once named Sarah Heath who was not paying close enough attention to the proper things in history and civics classes, that's who. One that suddenly believes herself to be as credible talking about world financial markets as she purportedly is supposed to be when talking about energy development. Even though she's really not qualified to talk authoritatively about either subject in reality. She's aborted her career in both fields of endeavor prematurely. She's hardly an expert in anything. Other than the good old fashioned down home gum smackin' and eye winkin' Wasilla-billy charm she seems to exude.
No, Sarah -- we got into a financial meltdown (again) because we took the controls OFF the banking industry that we had previously put there after the failure of thousands of savings and loan institutions back in the 80s. Read that again carefully, Sarah. Not "too much government interference" but rather "not enough government oversight". Again you have things completely ass backwards Sarah, pounding your meme nails with the skinny end of the hammer. The entire premise of your speech is laughable precisely because it is exactly the opposite from actual reality. Which by the way does not surprise me in the least. (Sarah was never much of a scholar so the idea that whatever she says, do the opposite still applies).
You see Sarah, without any goverment oversite or interference Wall Street, led by investment banking firms helped finance a banking industry that created high risk loans for people who could not realistically pay them back. Then when those borrowers defaulted they repackaged the whole mess into 'default credit swaps' which were then magically made into something of value by rebranding them as 'derivitives'. What made them valuable was because they were insured against failure by AIG. In fact towards the end, it became default practice to bet against the derivatives as 'investments' and collect your insurance money from AIG for the losses you were helping to cause as a banker.
Older readers will recall 'junk bonds' during the 80s. Well meet the new debt boss, same as the old debt boss. Derivitaves are nothing less than junk bonds whose sole backing is debt itself. The idea is that if you're a multi-billion dollar corporation and you need to not pay taxes, you can buy up a few billions worth of these 'investment' derivatives, show them on the books as an investment, but then mark it down to show it as a loss for tax purposes. It's a ponzi scheme, the same one made up back in the 80s with junk bonds only with all new terminology. Terminology with zazz! Whee. Aren't we so damn lucky that the Amercan system seems to foster some of the worst, most unethical, most greedy and opportunistic bastards on the face of the planet to migrate towards MBA degrees?
So Sarah's next answer? She claimed that if taxes were cut and the capital gains tax and estate tax eliminated, the world would "watch the U.S. economy roar back to life." Wrong again Sarah. All that will do is further entrench the wealth of the most wealthiest 1% of Americans. Your overlords. It does nothing for the majority of Americans. According to one conference attendee "she criticized Obama a lot but offered no solutions." Damn. It's almost like having her back as governor! The the gaffe machine, now humming along like well oiled clockwork churned up the idea that she believes "the U.S. has a role in helping China find its future and that the U.S. will always be on the side of promoting freedom...". Which is always the thing communists want to hear. Yeehaw! We loves us some freedom, Sarah Palin! Freedom from an oppressive state controlled political apparatus! Hey wait... ahem. Awkward.
As if that weren't bad enough she then weighed in with her opinion on the Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese problems in China saying she thought their ethnic disputes were "a sign that China lacks mechanisms to deal with regional issues...". I bet the Chinese laughed even harder at that than I am now. That's a hoot! But only because I KNOW it to be yet another classic example of Palin wrongheadedness. Not only does she have no business or basis for offering such insight to her Chinese hosts, she seems dreadfully unaware of the situation back home. Gee I don't know Sarah, seen a news show lately? Town Hall health care meetings? Rampant racism? Disrespect for a sitting President? Any of these ringing a bell for you yet, Sarah? It's as if somewhere, in a parallel universe, they recast that clueless goes to Washington, D. C. girl as a redhead from Idaho except we're actually living in that parallel universe. At least we are in Sarah's bizarre mind.
-Laz
9.06.2009
Palinbots and Palinistas...
I've actually called them the American Taliban before in discussions with friends. Hardcore radical evangelical Christians who are led by people like Becky Fischer, a youth pastor featured in the documentary 'Jesus Camp':
Max Blumenthal details the history of how all of this may fit in with the policies and practices of a certain ex-governor of ours up here in Alaska and gives us a nice juicy slice of his book, 'Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party'.
Light Sunday reading, for the win!
-Laz
“I wanna see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam,” Fischer said in the documentary during an unguarded moment. “I wanna see them as radically laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places.”She's talking Christian suicide bombers, people. The idea of radical Christianity is just as bad as is radical Islam. Establishing an American Taliban with dominion over America politics and policy is just as wrong an idea here as it proved to be over there. Not only is it wrongheaded in oh so many ways, it's also un-American and unconstitutional. Freedom of religion and the separation of church and state insure our mutual freedom FROM religion if we so choose as well and particularly NOT a state sponsored religion. Which would be illegal. People really need to read their constitution more closely. Maybe read their bible a little more closely as well.
Max Blumenthal details the history of how all of this may fit in with the policies and practices of a certain ex-governor of ours up here in Alaska and gives us a nice juicy slice of his book, 'Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party'.
Light Sunday reading, for the win!
-Laz
8.23.2009
Dear Mr. President...
Whatever Senator John "I knuckled under to the neocons by cravenly picking Sarah Palin as my running mate AND LOST" and "the fundamentals of the economy are basically sound" McCain says -- do EXACTLY the opposite. This man has totally lost all credibility and any respect I used to have for him BEFORE he got in bed with the people who killed his 2000 campaign, the very same people who pushed Palin on him.
The time for bi-partisanship is over. If you drop the public option or a single payers solution, these neocon idiots will STILL vote against it anyhow just to embarrass you. Remember, DO EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE! Time to dig your heels in and make it happen, time to grow a pair and take a stand against these obstructionists in the PARTY OF NO. They not only make me ashamed to be a Republican, they make me ashamed to be an American.
-Laz
The time for bi-partisanship is over. If you drop the public option or a single payers solution, these neocon idiots will STILL vote against it anyhow just to embarrass you. Remember, DO EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE! Time to dig your heels in and make it happen, time to grow a pair and take a stand against these obstructionists in the PARTY OF NO. They not only make me ashamed to be a Republican, they make me ashamed to be an American.
-Laz
8.13.2009
Sarah Palin, serial QUITTER, serial LIAR!
She was for it before she was against it (again...) and then she backed off for a bit while still twisting the knife of her shortsighted world view by reinforcing how she was really FOR IT all along because of her poor reading skills? More likely it's just Sarah being Sarah again -- the sharp tongued propaganda tool of her rapidly diminishing base in the Republican Party as she shills for her supper from her neocon masters. Lying like the lying lapdog she continues to prove herself to be. Lying like a pitbull festooned in clown-like bright blood red slutty smeared liar mouth lipstick.
Sister-girl you're just 18 shades of bat-shit crazy! Thanks for adding another shade to the obvious and unvarnished deviousness and blatant dishonesty you bring to the table of political discourse. By now it should be apparent that Sarah Palin is possibly both ready and willing to say just about anything and everything in her new quest for fame and fortune and she doesn't care who she has to crawl over to get to the top of the liar heap.
You know the story already from oh so many online sites, now -- (dusting off the ol' Charelton Heston doing Moses voice) BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE INTARNETS! An archive of the text of the actual proclaimation she signed back in April of 2008, called "Healthcare Decisions Day".
I mean really. Seriously. At this point it seems her ideas are so toxic that even Murdoch is seeming to keep her at arm's length. What's wrong Sarah and Meg (the the latter probably being the REAL author of any facebook "press releases"), Murdoch owned MySpace not CREDIBLE enough for you and your important "press releases"? The so-called Palin Juggernaught -- her mighty political machine has now been reduced to posting "press releases" on facebook to get her opinion out there? Really?
I'm not providing links to any of her crap. Fuck it! Let her peddle her special brand of crazysauce elsewhere. She gets enough publicity for her idiocy already. Consider this blog entry and any begrudged mention whatsoever of her or her continued bullshit as one merely for archival and historical purposes.
-Laz
Sister-girl you're just 18 shades of bat-shit crazy! Thanks for adding another shade to the obvious and unvarnished deviousness and blatant dishonesty you bring to the table of political discourse. By now it should be apparent that Sarah Palin is possibly both ready and willing to say just about anything and everything in her new quest for fame and fortune and she doesn't care who she has to crawl over to get to the top of the liar heap.
You know the story already from oh so many online sites, now -- (dusting off the ol' Charelton Heston doing Moses voice) BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE INTARNETS! An archive of the text of the actual proclaimation she signed back in April of 2008, called "Healthcare Decisions Day".
I mean really. Seriously. At this point it seems her ideas are so toxic that even Murdoch is seeming to keep her at arm's length. What's wrong Sarah and Meg (the the latter probably being the REAL author of any facebook "press releases"), Murdoch owned MySpace not CREDIBLE enough for you and your important "press releases"? The so-called Palin Juggernaught -- her mighty political machine has now been reduced to posting "press releases" on facebook to get her opinion out there? Really?
I'm not providing links to any of her crap. Fuck it! Let her peddle her special brand of crazysauce elsewhere. She gets enough publicity for her idiocy already. Consider this blog entry and any begrudged mention whatsoever of her or her continued bullshit as one merely for archival and historical purposes.
-Laz
8.09.2009
UPDATE: Your "Dealth Panel" has a burnt fuse, dear...
(which is to say: a.) the current system of private insurers IS a DEATH PANEL, b.) It IS broken, and c.) but you (meaning people like Sarah and Newt) want us to keep shoving pennies in it so it keeps on killing people and slowly bankrupting many along the way as it continues to "function"...)
How oh how to up the "credibility" level of a "press release" in the form of a facebook post from the former governor of a state who aborted her duties to the state 2/3 of the way through her term? Why slather it in more crazysauce, au naturellment!
Bring on the assclowns! Newt is driving the tiny car (neocon) while fully wearing the big rubber nose (of lies) and big floppy shoes (of astroturfing private insurers paying for naysaying obstructionist mobs) to bring us his reliable old "sad clown" act again (gumming up a representational democratic system with asshattery) and it's a classic. Problem is, Newter, the health care system as it exists now is BROKEN. You have to face CORPORATE BUREAUCRATS standing between you and your doctor, deciding who does and does get treatment, whose decisions I (and MANY Americans) believe are largely motivated NOT by concern for human health and well-being but rather by a greed-headed corporate profit motive.
People should not have to go through the personal bullshit of having to fight and argue with these evil, profit motivated bureaucrats over what IS or ISN'T covered and whether or not it IS or ISN'T a pre-existing condition. "Buddy, LIFE IS A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION." Having to argue with the present bureaucrats we already HAVE is bad for our health. I speak from direct personal experience. America needs a public option that not only offers reasonable and affordable medical care to nearly 50 million uninsured Americans but to offers the same to all Americans who wish to choose this option instead of private insurance. We need one that puts ALL OF US back in the driver's seat of the relationship between a patient and his or her doctor. We don't just need it -- this is what the majority of American NOW DEMAND. Bonus points for making it a hassle free SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM. I hope all of you elected representatives are paying close attention right now because your very jobs depend on you doing the right thing. This is not a partisan issue. It is a quality of life in America issue.
So here's your plate of crow, Newtie. Served up to you by a doctor. Try not to choke on it, but do be assured he is duty bound to give you the Heimlich maneuver if need be.
To say that this is socialism is to deny the very "socialist" benefits our government provides all of us already. We all pay taxes for police, fire protection, road maintenance and a host of other services. People use 100% more roads than what my taxes help to pay for because of personal life choices... you'll find me driving the ol' shoebarus on the sidewalk during rush hour traffic. Do you hear me bitching about having to pay for those roads or even the sidewalks I use or the myriad other benefits we ALL share because of our mutual self interest? It's called a society. For those that may have forgotten, the culture is American. Taxes are NOT ala carte. I can't pick and choose to not help pay the $1 TRILLION spent for an unnecessary, unneeded and wrongheaded war in Iraq. I cannot "just say no" to Bush and Paulson declaring a "national banking emergency", driving forward a law on their own watch before the end of the Bush term of office and then handing over $700 BILLION worth of our taxpayer money to bankers who bet the farm on bad investments (also using our money) AND LOST. For anyone to even bitch about $100 BILLION a year over the course of ten years to help improve the health of the citizens of this entire nation is epitome of ludicrousness. So if you're going to bitch about "oh my damn taxes are too high..." you had better look to the real money furnaces burning up all our hard earned tax dollars and not something that would actually and demonstrably improve things for ALL AMERICANS.
For people like Newt and Sarah to deny a basic tenet of one of our founding documents -- "the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness..." by opposing health care reform IS TRULY "downright evil". They would have you accept the status quo. They would have you believe that CORPORATE DEATH PANELS are less objectionable than a system run openly, transparently, by public servants that can be held accountable for any deviations from offering the best available care at the lowest affordable price. They would have you choose to give up, accept things as the presently are and just lay down and die. Thanks, Sarah and Newtie! That'll save America tons of corporate expenses and overhead! Just think of all the extra private insurer money taken directly from client paid premiums that they'll be able to shovel towards CEO BONUSES and corporate CAMPAIGN DONATIONS and ASTROTURFING ASSHOLES (financed by PRIVATE INSURERS) that use organized partisan lobby groups that stir up ANGRY MOBS (of supposedly "private citizens acting alone") to obstruct and impede a reasonable dialog with our elected officials concerning health care reform. Yep, Newt and Sarah, that's a win-win! For you and your corporate overlords. You betcha.
The reality is, what Newt and Sarah suggest is "downright evil". It is anti-American. It is, as mentioned previously, in direct opposition of probably one of our most sacred rights as Americans, that of "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..." -- something I would argue is the very foundation of America itself. Their choice of CORPORATE DEATH PANELS is killing me, which oppresses my liberty and it makes me VERY unhappy. If only either one of these shiftless hucksters, these paid astroturfing charlatans were in office! Then we could drive them out once again! We could NOT vote for them again! Oh and by the way, who died and made these assclowns the spokesmodels for actual elected representatives?
America needs real leadership to "drive the snakes out" of the system. I suggest President Obama act the role of St. Patrick in that mission, the sooner the better. But it's going to take not only passionate words and a call to action on all our parts. We Americans who know what we're doing is right for America need to get out there and support the process of health care reform and ultimately a single payer system -- not just with words, but also with compassionate action. Which is why I will be peacefully attending the town halls offered in my city during the August recess. To peacefully join the dialog and to add my opinion. NOT to obstruct and act as naysayer.
-Laz
(with thanks and a polite golf clap to my friend Allie...)
*** UPDATE ***
This video raises the exact same questions as the original post. When public servants speak we ALL should listen, regardless of their political affiliation. Chairman Stupak gives examples of how private insurance denies patients based upon procedures performed upon them that were not even threatening enough for a doctor to inform the patient himself! Minor health issues that are commonplace and yet a doctor did not feel they were threatening enough to even inform the patient other than to perhaps suggest some lifestyle changes. As doctors are prone to do.
HOWEVER, private, for-profit based and motivated insurers will use those very same miniscule details to deny YOU or Trigg treatment for an illness, laughing all the way to the bank as they collect your premiums and deny you coverage. Now who has DEATH PANELS, Meg, errr -- I meant 'Sarah'? And you like this situation, Sarah? Are you prepared to accept the judgement of a faceless actuairial telling you that the life expectancy of your Down Syndrome baby isn't likely to exceed 30 years of age because of other major health complications as they deny you coverage for him? If so, then you are indeed an idiot. Profit margins and meeting the bottom line of expectant shareholders isn't a compassionate motivator. Removing asshats from out of the equation between oneself and one's doctor is. The status quo (which is latin for "same ol' same ol'", Sarah) should NOT be an option. That is the entire reason why we ARE where we ARE right NOW! Wake up, Sarah!
*** UPDATE ***
-Laz
08/10/09 7PM
How oh how to up the "credibility" level of a "press release" in the form of a facebook post from the former governor of a state who aborted her duties to the state 2/3 of the way through her term? Why slather it in more crazysauce, au naturellment!
Bring on the assclowns! Newt is driving the tiny car (neocon) while fully wearing the big rubber nose (of lies) and big floppy shoes (of astroturfing private insurers paying for naysaying obstructionist mobs) to bring us his reliable old "sad clown" act again (gumming up a representational democratic system with asshattery) and it's a classic. Problem is, Newter, the health care system as it exists now is BROKEN. You have to face CORPORATE BUREAUCRATS standing between you and your doctor, deciding who does and does get treatment, whose decisions I (and MANY Americans) believe are largely motivated NOT by concern for human health and well-being but rather by a greed-headed corporate profit motive.
People should not have to go through the personal bullshit of having to fight and argue with these evil, profit motivated bureaucrats over what IS or ISN'T covered and whether or not it IS or ISN'T a pre-existing condition. "Buddy, LIFE IS A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION." Having to argue with the present bureaucrats we already HAVE is bad for our health. I speak from direct personal experience. America needs a public option that not only offers reasonable and affordable medical care to nearly 50 million uninsured Americans but to offers the same to all Americans who wish to choose this option instead of private insurance. We need one that puts ALL OF US back in the driver's seat of the relationship between a patient and his or her doctor. We don't just need it -- this is what the majority of American NOW DEMAND. Bonus points for making it a hassle free SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM. I hope all of you elected representatives are paying close attention right now because your very jobs depend on you doing the right thing. This is not a partisan issue. It is a quality of life in America issue.
So here's your plate of crow, Newtie. Served up to you by a doctor. Try not to choke on it, but do be assured he is duty bound to give you the Heimlich maneuver if need be.
To say that this is socialism is to deny the very "socialist" benefits our government provides all of us already. We all pay taxes for police, fire protection, road maintenance and a host of other services. People use 100% more roads than what my taxes help to pay for because of personal life choices... you'll find me driving the ol' shoebarus on the sidewalk during rush hour traffic. Do you hear me bitching about having to pay for those roads or even the sidewalks I use or the myriad other benefits we ALL share because of our mutual self interest? It's called a society. For those that may have forgotten, the culture is American. Taxes are NOT ala carte. I can't pick and choose to not help pay the $1 TRILLION spent for an unnecessary, unneeded and wrongheaded war in Iraq. I cannot "just say no" to Bush and Paulson declaring a "national banking emergency", driving forward a law on their own watch before the end of the Bush term of office and then handing over $700 BILLION worth of our taxpayer money to bankers who bet the farm on bad investments (also using our money) AND LOST. For anyone to even bitch about $100 BILLION a year over the course of ten years to help improve the health of the citizens of this entire nation is epitome of ludicrousness. So if you're going to bitch about "oh my damn taxes are too high..." you had better look to the real money furnaces burning up all our hard earned tax dollars and not something that would actually and demonstrably improve things for ALL AMERICANS.
For people like Newt and Sarah to deny a basic tenet of one of our founding documents -- "the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness..." by opposing health care reform IS TRULY "downright evil". They would have you accept the status quo. They would have you believe that CORPORATE DEATH PANELS are less objectionable than a system run openly, transparently, by public servants that can be held accountable for any deviations from offering the best available care at the lowest affordable price. They would have you choose to give up, accept things as the presently are and just lay down and die. Thanks, Sarah and Newtie! That'll save America tons of corporate expenses and overhead! Just think of all the extra private insurer money taken directly from client paid premiums that they'll be able to shovel towards CEO BONUSES and corporate CAMPAIGN DONATIONS and ASTROTURFING ASSHOLES (financed by PRIVATE INSURERS) that use organized partisan lobby groups that stir up ANGRY MOBS (of supposedly "private citizens acting alone") to obstruct and impede a reasonable dialog with our elected officials concerning health care reform. Yep, Newt and Sarah, that's a win-win! For you and your corporate overlords. You betcha.
The reality is, what Newt and Sarah suggest is "downright evil". It is anti-American. It is, as mentioned previously, in direct opposition of probably one of our most sacred rights as Americans, that of "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..." -- something I would argue is the very foundation of America itself. Their choice of CORPORATE DEATH PANELS is killing me, which oppresses my liberty and it makes me VERY unhappy. If only either one of these shiftless hucksters, these paid astroturfing charlatans were in office! Then we could drive them out once again! We could NOT vote for them again! Oh and by the way, who died and made these assclowns the spokesmodels for actual elected representatives?
America needs real leadership to "drive the snakes out" of the system. I suggest President Obama act the role of St. Patrick in that mission, the sooner the better. But it's going to take not only passionate words and a call to action on all our parts. We Americans who know what we're doing is right for America need to get out there and support the process of health care reform and ultimately a single payer system -- not just with words, but also with compassionate action. Which is why I will be peacefully attending the town halls offered in my city during the August recess. To peacefully join the dialog and to add my opinion. NOT to obstruct and act as naysayer.
-Laz
(with thanks and a polite golf clap to my friend Allie...)
*** UPDATE ***
This video raises the exact same questions as the original post. When public servants speak we ALL should listen, regardless of their political affiliation. Chairman Stupak gives examples of how private insurance denies patients based upon procedures performed upon them that were not even threatening enough for a doctor to inform the patient himself! Minor health issues that are commonplace and yet a doctor did not feel they were threatening enough to even inform the patient other than to perhaps suggest some lifestyle changes. As doctors are prone to do.
HOWEVER, private, for-profit based and motivated insurers will use those very same miniscule details to deny YOU or Trigg treatment for an illness, laughing all the way to the bank as they collect your premiums and deny you coverage. Now who has DEATH PANELS, Meg, errr -- I meant 'Sarah'? And you like this situation, Sarah? Are you prepared to accept the judgement of a faceless actuairial telling you that the life expectancy of your Down Syndrome baby isn't likely to exceed 30 years of age because of other major health complications as they deny you coverage for him? If so, then you are indeed an idiot. Profit margins and meeting the bottom line of expectant shareholders isn't a compassionate motivator. Removing asshats from out of the equation between oneself and one's doctor is. The status quo (which is latin for "same ol' same ol'", Sarah) should NOT be an option. That is the entire reason why we ARE where we ARE right NOW! Wake up, Sarah!
*** UPDATE ***
-Laz
08/10/09 7PM
8.05.2009
Lies, Damn Lies and Palinbot Idiots?
Gryphen at Immoral Minority is under full assault and wingnut bombardment all because he chose to report that a reliable and confidential source informed him that the Palin's may "split up" or was it "splits-ville". No matter really. You buys your ticket, you takes your chances. However -- a blog leading the charge to stir up the base of haters is driving all sorts of vile creatures to his blog to say all sorts of unspeakable and might I add, UNFOUNDED things.
Normally I wouldn't waste precious time cruising the websites of mindless Palinistas and Palinbots, but I happened upon one site that was easy to recognize as one of the main sources driving the pitchforked masses (probably all of a dozen of them posting under different aliases in reality) to his site. I will not list it. I'm of the opinion that to pay any attention to them or drive clicks towards them only encourages further foolishness. I also don't provide a link back to their allegedly "viral" video on youtube because that also encourages their continued stupidity and copyright violation. To link to it is to encourage it on the web, so better to let it wither on the vine, as it were. Of course I'm not IN the viral video so it doesn't effect me personally but as a word of advice, do NOT post links to stupidity. The video is so wrong and SO amateurish as to be absolutely laughable. Only an uninformed non-Alaskan idiot would believe all the inferences within it, so in a nutshell, safe surfing campers. To click on wrong links is to encourage them. To post them is to encourage "viral-ness" and legitimacy. In my book they have realized neither. My bullshit filter as a progressive Republican is impenetrable. I can see bullshit from miles and miles -- perhaps even thousands of miles away. Consider the following quote from said website about how "Obama's Alaskan Bloggers" (more bullshit) are "on the run" because of their attacks:
"Of course, as always, Sarah herself put this stupidity to bed with this fantastic quote:
"Divorce Todd? Have you SEEN Todd? I may be just a renegade hockey mom, but I’m not blind!" __Sarah Palin"
This quote purports to be from Sarah herself yet let's take a look at that twitter page, shall we? There it is above. Nope. No Sarah here. So once again it is both a hoax and a lie. It is pure rabid propaganda and allows me, the discriminating surfer to ignore them just like I always do. They have nothing positive to add to any reasonable and intelligent discussion of our ex-governor and her alleged sins against the citizens of this state while in office, so why must we continue to give them any sense of importance whatsoever? They have their own reasons for supporting this "G. W. Bush with boobs neocon in training" that we Alaskans know as "Governor Quitterface" or "Governor I never met a political appointment I didn't quit for no damn good reason" or "Governor Half-measures" -- and it is time for us, as Alaskans and progressives to nip it -- NIP IT IN THE BUD by showing the rest of America just exactly how full of bullshit these idiots really are.
Sarah quit. Move along now. Nothing to see here except for holding her accountable for the two, and possibly most troublesome remaining ethics complaints. Focus, Alaskan's -- FOCUS. Soon she will be these idiots demagog and and their problem, not ours. Through our blogs, Alaskan progressive bloggers have repeatedly and consistently presented what we have come to see as Sarah's lies and half-truths, shown them the shaky and possibly forged accountability documents, proven she hasn't spent a dime to defend herself because of an existing illegal "legal defense fund" that breaks Alaskan laws and acts as slush fund (according to their own damn charter) by paying everything for her, pointed out her difficulties with FEDERAL authorities by not declaring gifts or paying taxes for same in a federally mandated timely manner, shown that the fix is in with an executive branch "independent" investigator acting on behalf of a personnel review board appointed by the governor which pretends to be investigating one of their own while they were ultimately getting their paychecks signed by Sarah as HEAD of the very same executive branch, -- hell we could have Sarah herself, under truth serum, admit to all the alleged sins and lies in person and in front of them ALL and they STILL wouldn't believe it.
Sometimes the only intellectual reasoning that works with mindless zombies is a swift whack upside their skulls with the SHOVEL OF TRUTH. It is well past time we let them all become yet another minor footnote in the annals of political and social history. Just like our quitting governor, whose only political future may be manifest as a spokes-model for FOX NEWS or as a regional fundrasier where she can travel the country, merrily bankrupting the neocon led RNC while wrecking temporary political havoc and inciting incidental, hate fueled violence along the way. That path leads to their own implosion, as they have demonstrated time and time again. As they demonstrated last fall with the losing McCain/Palin ticket.
Exibit 1 shown above reveals the true nature of their bat-shit crazy asshattery and utter, hopeless desperation. They don't need any help from us to look ridiculous. We can either continue to allow all this craziness long after Sarah has left the field of play with her bat(-shit crazy ideology and agenda) or we can trump her by taking all our BALLS and going home first. Stick to the facts, progressive Alaskan bloggers. Refuse to roll around in the mud with these pigs. In the long run, HISTORY will reveal the true winners -- Alaska and the long-suffering citizens who will finally be rid of her and her zombie followers. Meanwhile, Sarah and her minions will be found laughing all the way to the bank, as grifters, snake-oil sellers and charlatans often do, profiting from all the publicity they enjoy while they spread more and more stupidity, suffering and woe to all as they "progress". Frankly, at this point in time and when it's all over, it will have seemed a small price to pay for finally having her out of ALL our (Alaskan) lives.
-Laz
Normally I wouldn't waste precious time cruising the websites of mindless Palinistas and Palinbots, but I happened upon one site that was easy to recognize as one of the main sources driving the pitchforked masses (probably all of a dozen of them posting under different aliases in reality) to his site. I will not list it. I'm of the opinion that to pay any attention to them or drive clicks towards them only encourages further foolishness. I also don't provide a link back to their allegedly "viral" video on youtube because that also encourages their continued stupidity and copyright violation. To link to it is to encourage it on the web, so better to let it wither on the vine, as it were. Of course I'm not IN the viral video so it doesn't effect me personally but as a word of advice, do NOT post links to stupidity. The video is so wrong and SO amateurish as to be absolutely laughable. Only an uninformed non-Alaskan idiot would believe all the inferences within it, so in a nutshell, safe surfing campers. To click on wrong links is to encourage them. To post them is to encourage "viral-ness" and legitimacy. In my book they have realized neither. My bullshit filter as a progressive Republican is impenetrable. I can see bullshit from miles and miles -- perhaps even thousands of miles away. Consider the following quote from said website about how "Obama's Alaskan Bloggers" (more bullshit) are "on the run" because of their attacks:
"Of course, as always, Sarah herself put this stupidity to bed with this fantastic quote:
"Divorce Todd? Have you SEEN Todd? I may be just a renegade hockey mom, but I’m not blind!" __Sarah Palin"
This quote purports to be from Sarah herself yet let's take a look at that twitter page, shall we? There it is above. Nope. No Sarah here. So once again it is both a hoax and a lie. It is pure rabid propaganda and allows me, the discriminating surfer to ignore them just like I always do. They have nothing positive to add to any reasonable and intelligent discussion of our ex-governor and her alleged sins against the citizens of this state while in office, so why must we continue to give them any sense of importance whatsoever? They have their own reasons for supporting this "G. W. Bush with boobs neocon in training" that we Alaskans know as "Governor Quitterface" or "Governor I never met a political appointment I didn't quit for no damn good reason" or "Governor Half-measures" -- and it is time for us, as Alaskans and progressives to nip it -- NIP IT IN THE BUD by showing the rest of America just exactly how full of bullshit these idiots really are.
Sarah quit. Move along now. Nothing to see here except for holding her accountable for the two, and possibly most troublesome remaining ethics complaints. Focus, Alaskan's -- FOCUS. Soon she will be these idiots demagog and and their problem, not ours. Through our blogs, Alaskan progressive bloggers have repeatedly and consistently presented what we have come to see as Sarah's lies and half-truths, shown them the shaky and possibly forged accountability documents, proven she hasn't spent a dime to defend herself because of an existing illegal "legal defense fund" that breaks Alaskan laws and acts as slush fund (according to their own damn charter) by paying everything for her, pointed out her difficulties with FEDERAL authorities by not declaring gifts or paying taxes for same in a federally mandated timely manner, shown that the fix is in with an executive branch "independent" investigator acting on behalf of a personnel review board appointed by the governor which pretends to be investigating one of their own while they were ultimately getting their paychecks signed by Sarah as HEAD of the very same executive branch, -- hell we could have Sarah herself, under truth serum, admit to all the alleged sins and lies in person and in front of them ALL and they STILL wouldn't believe it.
Sometimes the only intellectual reasoning that works with mindless zombies is a swift whack upside their skulls with the SHOVEL OF TRUTH. It is well past time we let them all become yet another minor footnote in the annals of political and social history. Just like our quitting governor, whose only political future may be manifest as a spokes-model for FOX NEWS or as a regional fundrasier where she can travel the country, merrily bankrupting the neocon led RNC while wrecking temporary political havoc and inciting incidental, hate fueled violence along the way. That path leads to their own implosion, as they have demonstrated time and time again. As they demonstrated last fall with the losing McCain/Palin ticket.
Exibit 1 shown above reveals the true nature of their bat-shit crazy asshattery and utter, hopeless desperation. They don't need any help from us to look ridiculous. We can either continue to allow all this craziness long after Sarah has left the field of play with her bat(-shit crazy ideology and agenda) or we can trump her by taking all our BALLS and going home first. Stick to the facts, progressive Alaskan bloggers. Refuse to roll around in the mud with these pigs. In the long run, HISTORY will reveal the true winners -- Alaska and the long-suffering citizens who will finally be rid of her and her zombie followers. Meanwhile, Sarah and her minions will be found laughing all the way to the bank, as grifters, snake-oil sellers and charlatans often do, profiting from all the publicity they enjoy while they spread more and more stupidity, suffering and woe to all as they "progress". Frankly, at this point in time and when it's all over, it will have seemed a small price to pay for finally having her out of ALL our (Alaskan) lives.
-Laz
UPDATED: Why so quiet, Sarah?
Instead of ascribing her current quietness to a de facto admission of correctness over the speculation that her and Todd are possibly splitting I think it is much more likely since the Alaska Fund Trust will ultimately be ruled illegal under Alaska law, she and her family are hurting for cash flow. So she's most likely hunkered down, spilling her word salad to a ghostwriter/editor, preparing her book. A sighting in the wilds of New York city seems to confirm that...
*** UPDATE ***
Apparently she learned how to make phone calls now too instead of just "tweeting". Though this sort of reads funny... POLITICO is the right-wing Huffington Post, or at least they wished they were. But it almost sounds like the guy she talked to (Allen) wasn't buying into it because when she said "Todd's sitting right next to me.." and asked if he wanted to talk to him it never happened. The reporter from POLITICO says, "He didn't come on the line".
Strange. Why ask and say he's right next to you and either not give him the chance to talk or then have him to refuse to talk to a friendly reporter? Especially if you're trying to quash rumors about splitting up with the man? Needless to say, 'strange' is what most Alaskan's have come to expect from Sarah.
*** UPDATE ***
-Laz
*** UPDATE ***
Apparently she learned how to make phone calls now too instead of just "tweeting". Though this sort of reads funny... POLITICO is the right-wing Huffington Post, or at least they wished they were. But it almost sounds like the guy she talked to (Allen) wasn't buying into it because when she said "Todd's sitting right next to me.." and asked if he wanted to talk to him it never happened. The reporter from POLITICO says, "He didn't come on the line".
Strange. Why ask and say he's right next to you and either not give him the chance to talk or then have him to refuse to talk to a friendly reporter? Especially if you're trying to quash rumors about splitting up with the man? Needless to say, 'strange' is what most Alaskan's have come to expect from Sarah.
*** UPDATE ***
-Laz
7.31.2009
The sky was falling, the sky was falling!
As mentioned in my previous post, my good friend Linda at Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis talked me down from my original apoplexy over the missing Palin press releases on the official State of Alaska Governor's website. She posted an update and sent email with the proverbial "remain calm!" command. Since I implicitly trust her and her word -- and I have absolutely no reason not to -- I went frosty. It probably prevented a coronary. She had found the missing evidence at an archive website and shared the URLs in an update to my diary post at the Oasis. Whew.
Allow me to state for the record that I certainly don't mind playing the role of Chicken Little if it brings attention to something potentially as troublesome as the destruction of public records, most especially if those records were potentially libelous and could be used in a lawsuit against the issuer of said libel. Did I overreact? I don't think so. Until Linda revealed her online find it DID appear that the records were illegally expunged. Do I feel embarrassed for all the work I put in on the larger blog post, sleuthing out the truth? Not really. Linda has skills, skills she used to help "talk me down" (ala Rachael Maddow) and for that I give her a big, huge, she just won the Masters Tournament loud and not so polite golf clap. Bravo, I say! Brav-effen-O! Well played! Well played indeed.
Here's a link to the article Lisa Demer at the Anchorage Daily News posted about the incident including the part about my "tizzy". Heh. Tizzy is such a nice word compared to the abject dismay and sinking feeling I experienced at the time. The word "tizzy" seems most kind and motherly, considering... so thanks, Lisa. A polite golf clap for bringing in info from both Linda and I and then adding in some necessary back story to her column in the "dead trees" sponsored main stream media of ADN online. I say it this way because I believe her post is only available online and is fairly well burried. Nonetheless I appreciate the article and the effort. It's not front page news nor do I necessarily think it should be... unless it proved to be true that all of the records were deep-sixed. THAT would have been front page news.
So here are the archives of the records removed from the SOA governor's website, safely held at a site that Sarah and her minions do not and cannot control. I'll give you the raw links:
http://www.archive-it.org/
http://www.archive-it.org/collections/1200
My thanks to everyone involved including the Alaska State Library system for having the foresight to preserve this warped little bit of Alaskan history, for better or worse. I have many librarian friends and the real reason most of them are dead sexy is because many of them know and fully realize that information and free access to it is and should be a right. Especially if it is public records.
Now ladies and gentlemen, START YOUR LAWYERIN' ENGINES! Or satisfy your historical curiousity. Either way, for now I'm moving on to other more important things. Like getting a good single payer/public option health care plan in place. I will try to ignore S.P. v. 1.0 as much as the rest of America and the MSM now seems to be doing unless and until she finally works up the nerve to follow through on her "twitter promise" to let the "...less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside the state site...". Like they were ever PC. And wait -- does that sentence mean her fingertips are outside of the state [site]? Always pushing the word salad envelope, Sarah. Baffle 'em with bullshit, as usual. You stay classy, Sarah Palin. You maverick.
If she ever IS allowed by her lawyers to unleash the dogs of her twitter stupidity again, you can bet Alaskan progressive bloggers will be all over her like a defenseman on Scotty Gomez. Like lipstick on a pitbull. Like. Stink. On. Shit. Because in many ways Alaskan progressives have been the ONLY ones to attempt to hold this elusive hockey mom, to use her own words, "transparent and accountable" during her brief reign of seemingly unethical and unlawful terror as governor of the great state of Alaska.
-Laz
Allow me to state for the record that I certainly don't mind playing the role of Chicken Little if it brings attention to something potentially as troublesome as the destruction of public records, most especially if those records were potentially libelous and could be used in a lawsuit against the issuer of said libel. Did I overreact? I don't think so. Until Linda revealed her online find it DID appear that the records were illegally expunged. Do I feel embarrassed for all the work I put in on the larger blog post, sleuthing out the truth? Not really. Linda has skills, skills she used to help "talk me down" (ala Rachael Maddow) and for that I give her a big, huge, she just won the Masters Tournament loud and not so polite golf clap. Bravo, I say! Brav-effen-O! Well played! Well played indeed.
Here's a link to the article Lisa Demer at the Anchorage Daily News posted about the incident including the part about my "tizzy". Heh. Tizzy is such a nice word compared to the abject dismay and sinking feeling I experienced at the time. The word "tizzy" seems most kind and motherly, considering... so thanks, Lisa. A polite golf clap for bringing in info from both Linda and I and then adding in some necessary back story to her column in the "dead trees" sponsored main stream media of ADN online. I say it this way because I believe her post is only available online and is fairly well burried. Nonetheless I appreciate the article and the effort. It's not front page news nor do I necessarily think it should be... unless it proved to be true that all of the records were deep-sixed. THAT would have been front page news.
So here are the archives of the records removed from the SOA governor's website, safely held at a site that Sarah and her minions do not and cannot control. I'll give you the raw links:
http://www.archive-it.org/
http://www.archive-it.org/collections/1200
My thanks to everyone involved including the Alaska State Library system for having the foresight to preserve this warped little bit of Alaskan history, for better or worse. I have many librarian friends and the real reason most of them are dead sexy is because many of them know and fully realize that information and free access to it is and should be a right. Especially if it is public records.
Now ladies and gentlemen, START YOUR LAWYERIN' ENGINES! Or satisfy your historical curiousity. Either way, for now I'm moving on to other more important things. Like getting a good single payer/public option health care plan in place. I will try to ignore S.P. v. 1.0 as much as the rest of America and the MSM now seems to be doing unless and until she finally works up the nerve to follow through on her "twitter promise" to let the "...less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside the state site...". Like they were ever PC. And wait -- does that sentence mean her fingertips are outside of the state [site]? Always pushing the word salad envelope, Sarah. Baffle 'em with bullshit, as usual. You stay classy, Sarah Palin. You maverick.
If she ever IS allowed by her lawyers to unleash the dogs of her twitter stupidity again, you can bet Alaskan progressive bloggers will be all over her like a defenseman on Scotty Gomez. Like lipstick on a pitbull. Like. Stink. On. Shit. Because in many ways Alaskan progressives have been the ONLY ones to attempt to hold this elusive hockey mom, to use her own words, "transparent and accountable" during her brief reign of seemingly unethical and unlawful terror as governor of the great state of Alaska.
-Laz
7.27.2009
Let the cover-up commence... Palin's vitriol on official site VANISHES!
I knew this would happen and it demands action now! I am personally calling the "new" administration with statutes in hand to ask them why they appear to have scrubbed the entire archive of press releases by ex-governor Palin from the state governor's website. Yes you read that correctly. All the tantrums, all the veiled threats, all the quotes from Nitzche threatening bloggers -- gone.
This is definitely a story I'm going to be following up on at my blog OMFGAK... I'm just throwing it out there NOW so ALL the progressive Alaskan bloggers are aware of it and can move quickly to expose this apparent cover-up in the making. I assert that as public records this action is an illegal one designed to destroy archival public information. It appears at this point that is exactly what they have done!
I'm hyperventilating... having a Maddow moment about this so somebody PLEASE "talk me down!" because this is serious shit. Try clicking on any bookmarks from her press releases. They all go to the root of the new governor's site. That's what is known as "scrubbing"... if we act quickly perhaps we can catch them in the act of this destruction through Google Cache browsing.
-Laz
Update from Facebook:
(I) heart Google! You have to do a search on Alaska.gov with "Palin press releases" to find her old threats, vitriol and vendettas against progressive Alaskan bloggers who merely were exercising THEIR rights to FREE SPEECH. So perhaps a bit of a panic-y "chicken little" moment [on my part] but it still appears that some of the ones that are libelous and/or slanderous have been scrubbed from the site. All links on the main governor's website no longer link to the previous administration and instead plop you down at the main page. This is not right. I understand S. P. v. 2.0 wanting to make a clean break and a fresh start but to "deep six" official public documents and make them harder to find reeks of a cover-up in the making...
-Laz
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