Small government for the little people

The GOP and a certain undecided political celebrity have this weird mantra about small government and disparage the "Feds" at any given opportunity. And yet, they seek federal government jobs. The most vocal among them want the biggest federal job of them all, that of President.

"Keep government out of our lives," they chant. "Decisions should be made by individual states," they moan. But state jobs are not satisfying enough for them, they want to go to Congress, to the Senate or to the White House.

They twist the poor old Constitution, mangle the history of the country and make stuff up in the pursuit of power inside the bad, bad federal government they despise so much.

When the Bush administration was spying on "we the people," they didn't say boo. They didn't ask the government to stay out of people's lives. They want to repeal Roe vs Wade and invade women's wombs. They want to regulate people's sexuality, interfere in education and make some religions better then others.

Staying out of people's lives has nothing to do with the people. The translation of their chant is: "Stay out of the corporations' lives." No regulations, no taxes, no obligations for their masters. People only qualify as "we the people" when they have millions of dollars in the bank. The more money they have, the more "people" they become. Their servant's hearts want to serve these people.

Small government is for the little people: Less services and less benefits for their tax dollars. All the juicy benefits go to the other, "proper" people, the ones that don't pay taxes.

Take from the poor and give to the rich. The fiscally conservative mob want to balance the books by cutting services and entitlements so they can continue to give the corporations and the billionaires their daily blow-jobs. I'm sorry I used such coarse language, but what these politicians advocate is obscene.

So they want to go to Washington DC to screw the "little" people, interfere in their personal lives, squeeze every last little dollar out of them and reward them with no services, deny them the "entitlements" they paid for, so the big people, the so called "job creators" can have it all?

Invading the little people's lives and screwing them royally give these hypocrites a feeling of power. Staying out of the big people's lives gives them... $omething.

It may explain why they want to make the sacrifice of joining an institution they despise. They have servants' hearts that long to serve themselves and their corporate masters.

Serve "we the people?" What an obscene joke!

Sarah Palin - Mission accomplished

Karl Rove is predicting that Sarah Palin will run. I'm not convinced that she will, but that's besides the point. She quit on Alaska to become a very well paid talking head with a lot of star appeal. She's been making the headlines for the past two years for a variety of reasons.

Sarah Palin's tweets, Facebook notes and Fox News appearances have guaranteed exposure in the media, perhaps because they've been kept at arm's length. It's a very clever strategy.

She has achieved a great deal for her masters. Coming from anybody else, her statements would have been taken apart, rebutted and eventually dismissed. But this intriguing, unconventional myth of a person gets a pass. She sells copy. Love her or hate her, people can't resist reading her latest tidbit. And she plodded on, publishing ghostwritten notes, tweeting idiotic, snarky attacks on the President and indulging in her usual word salad on Fox News. In a process of repetition, repetition, repetition, she made the outrageous sound normal.

Now a number of GOP candidates feel free to say the most ludicrous things and manage not to get laughed off the stage.

The most notorious candidates are as bad as each other and definitely as bad as Sarah Palin. They're radical and divisive, but it seems that this is exactly what's expected of whoever emerges as the winner in the primaries. Moderates need not apply. Sarah Palin set the tone over these two years, helped the teabaggers win seats in Congress, derailed a few serious debates with her rhetoric and achieved a radical shift to the extreme right.

Most people know that Sarah Palin is profoundly ignorant and incredibly shallow. People laughed at her reality show, her tweets, her choice of clothes, hair, pedicure, you name it. The tabloids go on overdirve about her dysfunctional family. She appears to be harmless, a mere sideshow.

But has any other rightwing talking head had as much influence on the political discourse as she had in the past two years? Sarah Palin was paid to do a job and she did it, under a cloak of innocence, because she's too stupid, too tabloidy, too vulgar.

Ridiculous as she is, her fridge magnet philosophy became mainstream and her idiotic talking points incorporated in everyday political jargon.

Outrageous is the new normal and the declared GOP candidates are banking on it.

Thank you, Sarah Palin.

(There she goes, laughing all the way to the bank...)

Sarah Palin is an opportunist - cynical and dangerous

Aides to Sarah Palin have asked the Republican National Committee to remove her name from an invitation that suggests she might attend a series of committee fundraising events timed to coincide with next week's Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.

Though Palin will speak on Friday at the SRLC, a gathering of top Republican officials and an early cattle call for potential 2012 presidential candidates, the former Alaska governor will not be participating in any RNC fundraising event, a Palin adviser told CNN.

It's difficult to make sense of the moves made by Sarah Palin's camp. Some decisions and statements from former aides were already a bit chaotic, but Meg Stapleton seemed more predictable. Since Meg was pushed under the bus by Jason Recher, things have become even more puzzling.

We have to keep jumping back and forth to guess what the master plan might be. What's driving the bus forward? Politics? Money? Religion?

Sarah Palin went rogue on purpose. Without any particular allegiance, she can slip into whatever mode seems more profitable at the time. She supported some Republican candidates and became the Queen of the Teabaggers, pushing her simplistic anti-government agenda. She tried to be the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, but hasn't mentioned his name in a long time, so perhaps that didn't work out very well.

Sarah Palin has been exploring a number of different avenues since she quit as governor for the good of Alaska. Author, Fox News contributor, TV presenter, speaker, Facebook blogger, twitterer. Her main aim is to stay in the headlines. If a controversy is not readily available, she creates one. And she has props for each occasion. Her family, Alaska, the Republicans, the Teabaggers, God, unborn children, Israel, the military... they are all props.

SarahPac made some eleventh hour token donations to political candidates in order to justify its existence, but in reality it seems to be a nice piggy bank for Sarah Palin and her cronies.

Sarah Palin is a cynical opportunist. If she made her money in the same way as Octomom or the Gosselins, if she grew an extra head and became a freakshow, if she decided to fake another fifteen pregnancies for a reality show, if she made millions of dollars from any of these things, all would be well. The problem is that politics is her main theme. That's why she's dangerous.



This following was no.5 in the top ten 2009 editorial cartoons in the TIME annual competition:



Sarah Palin already appears in several other categories. I hope her targets and inflammatory rhetoric won't find their way into some sinister list in 2010.



She's not the only dangerous person around but seems to be one of the most pernicious and high profile among many. Others may have genuine concerns and are driven by their fears. Sarah Palin's sole motivation appears to be money and she doesn't care about the consequences of her poisonous statements, it's all about her bank balance...

Take the money away and Sarah Palin, with her "servant's heart," would sit down and shut up very quickly.

(Our friend Ennealogic has a very good and very graphic analysis of Sarah Palin's metaphors)
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Sarah Palin, vetting, AIP... (videos)

Whoever searched YouTube looking for a hot candidate to run with John McCain must have seen this video as well as the one with Janet Napolitano.



I love the way she explains how babysitting and waitressing gave her a good grounding on how to conduct herself in the world of politics. Her choice of books is fascinating... But hey, she jumps off the screen!

Did the internet search miss this video?



Sarah failed to say that the "couple" of legislators who were targetting her consisted of ten Republicans and four Democrats. They chose a VP candidate who didn't know what the VP does all day!

How did they miss this one? Or didn't it worry them enough?



Frightening...

Is being a member of the AIP a good or a bad thing?



This one is hilarious! ( H/T to Barb Dwyer). Please pay attention to the AIP guy towards the end. What did he say about Todd? OK, this one wasn't available during the vetting, but it's too good, a pleasure to watch.

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During the campaign, Sarah Palin must have decided that the AIP was bad news after all.

Palin blasted out an e-mail with the subject line "Todd" to Schmidt, campaign manager Rick Davis and senior advisor Nicolle Wallace, copying her husband on the message.

"Pls get in front of that ridiculous issue that's cropped up all day today - two reporters, a protestor's sign, and many shout-outs all claiming Todd's involvement in an anti-American political party," Palin wrote. "It's bull, and I don't want to have to keep reacting to it ... Pls have statement given on this so it's put to bed."

Schmidt hit "reply to all" less than five minutes after Palin's e-mail was sent. "Ignore it," he wrote. "He was a member of the aip? My understanding is yes. That is part of their platform. Do not engage the protestors. If a reporter asks say it is ridiculous. Todd loves america."

She responded with another e-mail, adding five more names to the "cc" box, all of whom traveled on her campaign plane.

"That's not part of their platform and he was only a 'member' bc independent alaskans too often check that 'Alaska Independent' box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan," Palin wrote. "He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed."

Clearly irritated by what he saw as Palin's attempt to mislead her own campaign and apparently determined to demonstrate that the ultimate authority rested with him, Schmidt put the matter to rest once and for all with a longer response to everyone in the e-mail chain.

"Secession," he wrote. "It is their entire reason for existence. A cursory examination of the website shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site. Our records indicate that todd was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect then we need to understand the discrepancy. The statement you are suggesting be released would be innaccurate. The innaccuracy would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews. If you are asked about it you should smile and say many alaskans who love their country join the party because it speeks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country

We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to adress this."

I made a screenshot of the Alaska voter registration form:

Sarah was telling porkers... independent voters don't have box for "independent" to tick!

The Alaska Independence Party website have changed some of their rhetoric since I last visited. On their homepage and introduction, they now put less emphasis on secession than they did before... but they have an interesting Q & A section. Many questions reflect concerns regarding the loss of Federal money, loss of social security, federal pensions, etc. They seem to want the best of both worlds, but the answer to the question about citizenship is quite clear:

Q: Would I lose my U.S. citizenship?

A: Depending on the form of independence, several forms of citizenship would be possible, including the retention of U.S. citizenship or dual citizenship. However, considering the moral, educational, and economic decay of the U.S., Alaskans' who hold themselves to a higher standard might very well decide to at least maintain an arm's length distance from a country in decline.

Independent or not independent? They seem to want to keep all the balls in the air, but they lean towards secession...

And Sarah Palin is hopefully heading to the political scrapheap!

More posts about Sarah Palin and the AIP on palingates.

Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska also thinks it's scandalous that Sarah Palin was considered vice presidential material.
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Sarah Palin, hot president?

Sarah Palin's visit to the East Coast had the usual dose of high drama. Back in March, she wouldn't commit to appear as the headline speaker at the GOP fundraising dinner, but changed her mind:

She hadn't been expected to attend until last week, when her advisers approached organizers saying she would be near Washington and would like to come.

Following some pressure from Fred Malek, Sarah Palin was re-invited:

After being invited — for a second time — to speak to the annual joint fundraiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Palin was told abruptly Saturday night that she would not be allowed to address the thousands of Republicans there after all.

Sarah Palin's camp didn't react kindly to this:

Stapleton said she told the NRSC staffer: “Why, at a time when we’re trying to build the party, would you pull a move like that on somebody who earlier in the day just attracted 20,000 people?”

They say the governor was happy to appear and fire up party loyalists, but that, yet again, GOP operatives and officials in Washington would just as soon try to marginalize her.

The Alaska governor may now skip the dinner altogether, and her allies are miffed at what they see as a slight from the congressional wing of the Republican Party.

But Sarah Palin ended up attending the dinner after all.

Ending weeks of she-said, they-said drama, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin turned in a cameo appearance at the gala fundraising dinner for her party's House and Senate candidates in Washington Monday night.

On Monday, just hours before the dinner kicked off, Palin reversed herself and said she would attend, even though she would not have a speaking role.

Her dithering appears to be having a negative effect:

Palin beginning to irritate some Senate GOPers

Sarah Palin has begun to get on the nerves of Republican senators who say the former GOP vice presidential nominee is taking her own White House aspirations entirely too seriously.

Several GOP senators offered searing criticism of the Alaska governor when asked in recent interviews whether she could pose a credible challenge to President Obama in 2012.

Her high-profile foray to the East Coast has not been without its stumbles — and a scheduling spat with the Senate and House Republican fundraising committees threatens to raise more questions about her viability as a national party leader.

“She’s had some struggles, saying yes and no to the invitation."

Republicans are frustrated that Palin has wavered over whether to accept an invitation to appear as the headline guest at Monday’s fundraising bash for National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

She reportedly worried that she could overexpose herself on the national political stage. But several GOP senators said she has much graver problems to worry about than attending a private dinner to raise money for Republican candidates for Congress.

“She lost support among the independents and moderate Republicans, and a lot of them give money,” the lawmaker added.

Palin’s team was offended that Republicans rescinded the offer to speak at the mega-event and threatened not to send the governor to the dinner, even though she was scheduled to be in Washington on Monday.

Palin has shown herself to be a magnet for political drama since McCain tapped her as his running mate in August. This penchant for melodrama has left a bad taste among some members of the stately GOP Senate conference.

One GOP senator questioned whether Palin has enough gravitas for voters to trust her in tough economic times.

Playing hard to get, then offering herself at the last minute wasn't a very clever strategy. Sarah Palin may draw the crowds but all the drama surrounding her, together with other bits and pieces, seem to be turning the governor into an embarassement for the GOP.

Which brings me to the bits and pieces, which are not necessarily political, but reflect badly on someone with aspirations to the highest office in the land.



Sarah Palin's tabloid family have been active lately. Bristol Palin made appearances on behalf of Candie's, an organization torn between promoting overt sexiness and sexual abstinence. She gave interviews to Matt Lauer (with her "out cold" baby Tripp) and Chris Cuomo. People magazine also reported on her difficulties as a teen mother, her graduation, etc.



Levi Johnston, the other teen facing difficulties as a parent, also kept a high profile, with TV appearances with his mother and his sister and an in-depth article on GQ magazine.

Willow appeared on stage while her mother addressed a crowd about autism in the shortest of shorts and the tightest of t-shirts. Nothing wrong with being young and dressing like that for a day at the beach or some private event, but it was the wrong choice for the occasion.

These family issues can't help Sarah Palin's image as a serious politician.

Sarah Palin herself doesn't contribute to such an image.

Her choice of clothing and general appearance leave a lot to be desired...

Mini skirts, inappropriate shoes, inappropriate pedicure, hair extensions... these are more Victoria Beckham than governor of state with designs on the White House.


Sarah Palin's hair on May 15, then on June 6

Let's make a little list of things weighing against her:

1. Constantly bashing the "feds", Sarah Palin's "affectionate" term for federal government.

2. Lecturing on the economy, criticizing the president's recovery plan with all the knowledge of a "D" student.

3. Lying to the GOP, using Alaska as an excuse not to accept their invitations, then changing her mind and getting offended when they don't bend over backwards to accommodate her whims.

4. Tabloid family.

5. A serious style problem, totally at odds with the office of state governor. Sarah Palin could get away with it in the Last Frontier, but Washington is different kettle of fish.

Can you imagine Sarah Palin in the White House, conducting serious business in her Franco Sarto shoes and mini skirts? Can you imagine Sarah Palin travelling to other countries, meeting heads of state dressed like that?

Would she turn up for world summits or would she keep everybody guessing until the last possible minute? How would the rest of the world regard her "D" views on the economy? How would her "We win, they lose" approach to foreign policy go down in a very unstable world?

Just imagine how many shoes would be hurled at her... designer shoes, with sharp heels!

Apart from her very narrow base, I can't see anybody else taking Sarah Palin seriously.

She's an embarassement to the state of Alaska and now she wants to embarass the whole of the United States as well.

Hot president? Pigs might fly...

Interesting article on Washington Post
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Sarah Palin dissed again

Politico reports on the latest instalment in the saga of Sarah Palin and the GOP fundraising dinner:

Sarah Palin’s on-again, off-again appearance at Monday night’s gala GOP fundraising dinner is off — again.

After being invited — for a second time — to speak to the annual joint fundraiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Palin was told abruptly Saturday night that she would not be allowed to address the thousands of Republicans there after all.

Palin was originally supposed to be the headliner for the dinner. NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas wanted the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee to speak. And officials with the two party committees thought earlier this spring that she had committed, even going so far as to issue a press release announcing her appearance.

But after public uncertainty as to whether she had actually accepted and would attend, the NRSC and NRCC decided to invite Gingrich instead.

The disinvitation from speaking, said a campaign committee official, was done “out of respect” for Gingrich.

This latest snafu involving Palin and the national party apparatus has left both sides deeply irritated.

Tired of being derided as the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, Palin officials want it known that they were not responsible for this latest mix-up. They say the governor was happy to appear and fire up party loyalists, but that, yet again, GOP operatives and officials in Washington would just as soon try to marginalize her.

But the dinner’s planners are equally exasperated with Palin. The NRCC, especially, is still irked about how she handled the original invitation in March, leaving the two committees scrambling to find a fill-in for what is their chief money-raising event of the year.

Many in the party establishment, mindful of her polarizing persona and the devastating caricatures that emerged last fall, would prefer she remain in Alaska and leave the party rebuilding to others who may appeal to the broad middle of the country.

We all know that Sarah Palin lied to the Republicans back in January. She declined an invitation to attend the House Republicans annual winter retreat, claiming to be too busy governing Alaska, then turned up at the Alfalfa dinner with Fred Malek.

Later she used the same excuse not to attend the GOP fundraiser, which she appeared to have accepted. The organizers of the event were embarassed because they had issued a press release confirming Sarah Palin as headline speaker, there was a lot of confusion and they ended up inviting Gingrich to speak instead.

They must have been surprised to see the busy governor celebrating Alaska statehood in the state of New York this weekend, among other engagements outside Alaska.

As Sarah Palin was already on the East Coast, Fred Malek attempted to have her invited to speak at the GOP dinner again:

But then last week — in part due to the urging of Republican überfundraiser and Palin friend Fred Malek — the NRSC extended a new invitation for Palin to speak. The plan, Republican sources say, was to make her appearance something of a surprise for GOP donors in attendance.

This time they pulled a "Sarah Palin" on the governor: they invited, then disinvited her. It's OK for her to come, but not to speak...

Their message to Sarah Palin seems to be: "siddown and shuddup".

This must come as a surprise to the governor. According to her speech introducing Michael Reagan, the people who want her to sit down and shut up are far removed from the GOP:

I…I think things here that have so drastically changed these past months…some want to forbid others from speaking up and it’s been through lawsuits, been ethics violation charges, media distortions…by the way today we won that 14th ethics charge. And only Alaskans can appreciate this one. We won the one where I show up at the Iron Dog because it’s freezing cold and I’m wearing my warm Arctic Cat coat, and a charge is levied against me for wearing the logo on the coat, but we won so that’s cool. And those are the folks that want to tell me, want to tell you to siddown and shuddup.

We will not do so.

Oh, please do! Even your own party would love you to do just that!
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Sarah Palin: all style, no substance

Sarah Palin's camp have commented on her campaign wardrobe, via Meg Stapleton:

"We are pleased to learn that all the purchases and decisions made by senior campaign staffers, and paid for by the RNC and returned to the RNC, were all done according to the law. The clothes in this campaign were treated just like the many stages upon which the Governor stood and the hundreds of lights used to illuminate them; all were used during the campaign and returned upon its conclusion. It is difficult to reconcile the obsessive reference to clothing on the campaign trail with any legitimate political issue and that leaves the unsettling conclusion that Governor Palin is the single national political figure who is critiqued on policy, family and clothing. When people start asking details about the personal effects of other candidates, then maybe the double standard will be eliminated."

Enquiries WERE made regarding Obama's campaign clothes:

Politico checked records for Barack Obama's campaign and the Democratic party: No similar fashion expenditures.

In the light of the CREW complaint outcome, is President Obama feeling shortchanged because he didn't order a few suits from London's Saville Row? Would Michelle Obama's words have sounded more earnest if she had been dressed in designer clothes?



How the RNC choose to spend their money is their business, but dressing Sarah Palin and her whole large, loving family in expensive clothes, having make-up artists and the best hairdressers couldn't mask the simple fact that they didn't have a message to deliver.

Carrie Prejean was artificially enhanced and looked reasonably good until she opened her mouth.

The same happened to Sarah Palin. She looked good and shiny, but had no substance.

Do the RNC really think that a political campaign should be conducted as a beauty pageant?

Was a well dressed Sarah Palin the best they could offer their donors and the voting public when the economy was imploding and people were losing their homes and jobs?

Very good post about Sarah's wardrobe
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