http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/couric-palin-open/704042/
Just click the link to open. The more you see it, the funnier it gets! Fey is more Palin than Palin.
The Cabin in the Woods 2012 On Sky - Full Film
4 years ago
Monday, September 29, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Running on a Lie
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091502471.html?nav=hcmoduletmv
In Sarah Palin's view of Christianity, apparently, once you say you are saved, any sort of immoral behavior is JUST FINE with The Lord.
Running on a Lie
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, September 16, 2008; A21
What kind of person tells a self-aggrandizing lie, gets called on it, admits publicly that the truth is not at all what she originally claimed -- and then goes out and starts telling the original lie again without changing a word?
Sarah Palin is beginning to seem like quite an unusual woman, and I'm not talking about her love of guns and "snow machines," her faith, her family or any of the presumably non-elite attributes that we in the "elite media" are accused of savaging. Wrongly accused, I should add; reporters are doing nothing more sinister than trying to find out who she is, how she thinks and what she has done in office.
One deeply troubling thing we're learning about Palin is that, as far as she's concerned, unambiguous fact doesn't appear to rise even to the level of inconvenience.
I'm sorry, but to explain my point I have to make another visit -- my last, I hope -- to the never-built, $398 million "Bridge to Nowhere" that was to join the town of Ketchikan, Alaska, with its airport on the other side of the Tongass Narrows.
You'll recall that in her Republican convention speech, Palin burnished her budget-hawk credentials by claiming she had said "thanks but no thanks" to a congressional earmark that would have paid most of the cost. A quick check of the public record showed that Palin supported the bridge when she was running for governor, continued to support it once she took office and dropped her backing only after the project -- by then widely ridiculed as an example of pork-barrel spending -- was effectively dead on Capitol Hill.
In her interview with ABC's Charles Gibson, Palin 'fessed up. It was "not inappropriate" for a mayor or a governor to work with members of Congress to obtain federal money for infrastructure projects, she argued. "What I supported," she said, "was the link between a community and its airport."
Case closed. Except that on Saturday, days after the interview, Palin said this to a crowd in Nevada: "I told Congress thanks but no thanks to that Bridge to Nowhere -- that if our state wanted to build that bridge, we would build it ourselves."
That's not just a lie, but an acknowledged lie. What she actually told Congress was more like, "Gimme the money for the bridge" -- and then later, after the whole thing had become an embarrassment, she didn't object to using the money for other projects.
I'm not shocked to learn that politicians sometimes lie. To cite an example that comes immediately to mind, John McCain's campaign ads attacking Barack Obama have taken such liberties that even Karl Rove says he wonders if they've gone too far. But it's weird for a politician -- or anyone else, really -- to maintain that an assertion is true after admitting that it isn't true.
Maybe Palin cynically believes she can keep using the "no thanks" line and manage to stay one step ahead of the truth police. Maybe she calculates that audiences would rather believe her than their lying eyes. Or maybe she really believes her own fantasy-based version of events. Maybe the Legend of Sarah Palin has become, on some level, more real to her than actual history.
And quite a legend it's turning out to be. The Post reported Sunday that as mayor of tiny Wasilla, Palin pressured the town librarian to remove controversial books from the shelves, cut funds for the town museum but somehow found the money for a new deputy administrator slot and told city employees not to talk to reporters.
And the New York Times reported Sunday that as governor, Palin appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to a $95,000-a-year job as head of the State Division of Agriculture. Havemeister "cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency," the Times reported, noting her as one of at least five schoolmates to whom Palin has given high-paying jobs in state government.
Nothing against cows. Nothing against high-school BFFs and being true to your school. But a different picture of Sarah Palin is beginning to emerge. The McCain campaign would like us to see a straight-talking, gun-toting, moose-eviscerating, lipstick-wearing frontierswoman. Instead, we're beginning to discern an ambitious, opportunistic politician who makes no bones about rewarding friends and punishing those who stand in her way -- and who believes that truth is nothing more, and nothing less, than what she says it is.
The writer will answer questions at 1 p.m. today at http://www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.
Read more from Eugene Robinson at washingtonpost.com's new opinion blog, PostPartisan.
In Sarah Palin's view of Christianity, apparently, once you say you are saved, any sort of immoral behavior is JUST FINE with The Lord.
Running on a Lie
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, September 16, 2008; A21
What kind of person tells a self-aggrandizing lie, gets called on it, admits publicly that the truth is not at all what she originally claimed -- and then goes out and starts telling the original lie again without changing a word?
Sarah Palin is beginning to seem like quite an unusual woman, and I'm not talking about her love of guns and "snow machines," her faith, her family or any of the presumably non-elite attributes that we in the "elite media" are accused of savaging. Wrongly accused, I should add; reporters are doing nothing more sinister than trying to find out who she is, how she thinks and what she has done in office.
One deeply troubling thing we're learning about Palin is that, as far as she's concerned, unambiguous fact doesn't appear to rise even to the level of inconvenience.
I'm sorry, but to explain my point I have to make another visit -- my last, I hope -- to the never-built, $398 million "Bridge to Nowhere" that was to join the town of Ketchikan, Alaska, with its airport on the other side of the Tongass Narrows.
You'll recall that in her Republican convention speech, Palin burnished her budget-hawk credentials by claiming she had said "thanks but no thanks" to a congressional earmark that would have paid most of the cost. A quick check of the public record showed that Palin supported the bridge when she was running for governor, continued to support it once she took office and dropped her backing only after the project -- by then widely ridiculed as an example of pork-barrel spending -- was effectively dead on Capitol Hill.
In her interview with ABC's Charles Gibson, Palin 'fessed up. It was "not inappropriate" for a mayor or a governor to work with members of Congress to obtain federal money for infrastructure projects, she argued. "What I supported," she said, "was the link between a community and its airport."
Case closed. Except that on Saturday, days after the interview, Palin said this to a crowd in Nevada: "I told Congress thanks but no thanks to that Bridge to Nowhere -- that if our state wanted to build that bridge, we would build it ourselves."
That's not just a lie, but an acknowledged lie. What she actually told Congress was more like, "Gimme the money for the bridge" -- and then later, after the whole thing had become an embarrassment, she didn't object to using the money for other projects.
I'm not shocked to learn that politicians sometimes lie. To cite an example that comes immediately to mind, John McCain's campaign ads attacking Barack Obama have taken such liberties that even Karl Rove says he wonders if they've gone too far. But it's weird for a politician -- or anyone else, really -- to maintain that an assertion is true after admitting that it isn't true.
Maybe Palin cynically believes she can keep using the "no thanks" line and manage to stay one step ahead of the truth police. Maybe she calculates that audiences would rather believe her than their lying eyes. Or maybe she really believes her own fantasy-based version of events. Maybe the Legend of Sarah Palin has become, on some level, more real to her than actual history.
And quite a legend it's turning out to be. The Post reported Sunday that as mayor of tiny Wasilla, Palin pressured the town librarian to remove controversial books from the shelves, cut funds for the town museum but somehow found the money for a new deputy administrator slot and told city employees not to talk to reporters.
And the New York Times reported Sunday that as governor, Palin appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to a $95,000-a-year job as head of the State Division of Agriculture. Havemeister "cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency," the Times reported, noting her as one of at least five schoolmates to whom Palin has given high-paying jobs in state government.
Nothing against cows. Nothing against high-school BFFs and being true to your school. But a different picture of Sarah Palin is beginning to emerge. The McCain campaign would like us to see a straight-talking, gun-toting, moose-eviscerating, lipstick-wearing frontierswoman. Instead, we're beginning to discern an ambitious, opportunistic politician who makes no bones about rewarding friends and punishing those who stand in her way -- and who believes that truth is nothing more, and nothing less, than what she says it is.
The writer will answer questions at 1 p.m. today at http://www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.
Read more from Eugene Robinson at washingtonpost.com's new opinion blog, PostPartisan.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Let's Get This Straight!
I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic & different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well-grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as aConstitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 2 years in theUnited States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your broken and disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic & different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well-grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as aConstitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 2 years in theUnited States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your broken and disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
Tawdry Tale of Oil Drillers and "MMS Chicks"
http://www.truthout.org/article/tawdry-tale-oil-drillers-and-mms-chicks
Tawdry Tale of Oil Drillers and "MMS Chicks"
Sunday 14 September 2008
»
by: Carl Hiaasen, The Miami Herald
(Photo: Thaimed.us)
People always say the Bush administration is in bed with the oil companies, but it turns out to be literally true.
According to the Interior Department, some government officials in charge of collecting oil and gas royalties smoked pot, snorted cocaine and had sex with employees of big energy firms.
Meanwhile, the rest of us were getting screwed at the gas pump.
Three reports delivered last week to Congress portray "a culture of ethical failure" in which employees of the federal Minerals Management Service often accepted gifts from oil and gas interests, steered lucrative contracts to cronies and partied hard with those with whom they did business on behalf of the U.S. taxpayer.
The MMS collects about $10 billion annually in royalties from energy companies that drill offshore and on federally owned lands. Beside the IRS, it's one of the biggest sources of government revenue.
During the Bush years, the agency has faced harsh criticism for failing to vigorously pursue millions of dollars in outstanding or potential royalties. One controversial program, called royalty-in-kind, allows energy companies to pay the government in gas and oil, instead of dollars.
According to the inspector general's report, the royalty-in-kind office of the MMS was rife with "substance abuse and promiscuity." Certain fun-loving employees were known as the "MMS Chicks" by energy firm employees, who would generously invite the women to lively social events.
Oil and gas companies named in the reports are Chevron, Hess, Shell Pipeline and Gary-Williams Energy. They paid for MMS workers to attend PGA golf tournaments, Major League Baseball and football games, ski trips, a Toby Keith concert, paintball-shooting events and "treasure hunts," whatever that means.
The inspector general found an e-mail from some dork at Shell Pipeline to a woman in the federal royalty office, asking her to join him at a tailgate party before a Houston Texans football game: "Have you and the girls meet at my place at 6 a.m. for bubble baths and final prep. Just kidding."
This stuff would be a whole lot funnier if the country's energy policy weren't a disaster and gas weren't $4 a gallon. The Republicans' renewed lust to open more offshore leases might not bring down the price of crude, but it would keep the good times rolling at the Interior Department.
Apparently the plan is to tailgate our way to energy independence.
Interestingly, while at least a dozen former and current MMS employees were named in the reports, the Bush Justice Department has chosen to go after only one, Jimmy W. Mayberry.
Last month he pleaded guilty to a felony conflict-of-interest charge for arranging a juicy consulting contract for himself, as sort of a retirement gift.
The woman who helped Mayberry hatch this scam was Lucy Q. Denett, then the associate director of minerals revenue management. She's also married to Paul Denett, who until recently was the top procurement honcho in the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Mrs. Denett has retired from Interior for personal reasons and won't be prosecuted. She told investigators she'd made a "very poor" decision by helping her pal Mayberry rig the consulting contract. No kidding.
Another Bush hack who likely will escape punishment in the scandal is Gregory W. Smith, former program director of the royalty-in-kind office. The inspector general said that Smith wrongly used his government position to market a private tech-services firm to gas and oil companies, and that the firm paid him $30,000.
Smith, now working for a Denver oil company, has refused to publicly discuss the allegations.
The report also accuses him of taking gifts from energy industry representatives, having sex with two of his subordinates and buying cocaine on several occasions from his secretary and her boyfriend.
Who says that being a bureaucrat is dull work?
Such colorful revelations shed some light on the mysterious energy task force assembled by Vice President Dick Cheney at the president's direction, shortly after he took office.
Cheney has stubbornly refused to tell American taxpayers what was decided or who participated in these important meetings, though it's known that many major players were involved, including those geniuses at Enron.
No wonder the vice president is so secretive about what took place. Obviously these weren't serious policy meetings; they were toga parties, with Cheney dressed up as Bluto from Animal House.
In their wildest dreams the boys from big oil couldn't have imagined how much fun the next eight years would be - sex, drugs and "treasure hunts."
Party on, dudes. Drill your brains out.
Tawdry Tale of Oil Drillers and "MMS Chicks"
Sunday 14 September 2008
»
by: Carl Hiaasen, The Miami Herald
(Photo: Thaimed.us)
People always say the Bush administration is in bed with the oil companies, but it turns out to be literally true.
According to the Interior Department, some government officials in charge of collecting oil and gas royalties smoked pot, snorted cocaine and had sex with employees of big energy firms.
Meanwhile, the rest of us were getting screwed at the gas pump.
Three reports delivered last week to Congress portray "a culture of ethical failure" in which employees of the federal Minerals Management Service often accepted gifts from oil and gas interests, steered lucrative contracts to cronies and partied hard with those with whom they did business on behalf of the U.S. taxpayer.
The MMS collects about $10 billion annually in royalties from energy companies that drill offshore and on federally owned lands. Beside the IRS, it's one of the biggest sources of government revenue.
During the Bush years, the agency has faced harsh criticism for failing to vigorously pursue millions of dollars in outstanding or potential royalties. One controversial program, called royalty-in-kind, allows energy companies to pay the government in gas and oil, instead of dollars.
According to the inspector general's report, the royalty-in-kind office of the MMS was rife with "substance abuse and promiscuity." Certain fun-loving employees were known as the "MMS Chicks" by energy firm employees, who would generously invite the women to lively social events.
Oil and gas companies named in the reports are Chevron, Hess, Shell Pipeline and Gary-Williams Energy. They paid for MMS workers to attend PGA golf tournaments, Major League Baseball and football games, ski trips, a Toby Keith concert, paintball-shooting events and "treasure hunts," whatever that means.
The inspector general found an e-mail from some dork at Shell Pipeline to a woman in the federal royalty office, asking her to join him at a tailgate party before a Houston Texans football game: "Have you and the girls meet at my place at 6 a.m. for bubble baths and final prep. Just kidding."
This stuff would be a whole lot funnier if the country's energy policy weren't a disaster and gas weren't $4 a gallon. The Republicans' renewed lust to open more offshore leases might not bring down the price of crude, but it would keep the good times rolling at the Interior Department.
Apparently the plan is to tailgate our way to energy independence.
Interestingly, while at least a dozen former and current MMS employees were named in the reports, the Bush Justice Department has chosen to go after only one, Jimmy W. Mayberry.
Last month he pleaded guilty to a felony conflict-of-interest charge for arranging a juicy consulting contract for himself, as sort of a retirement gift.
The woman who helped Mayberry hatch this scam was Lucy Q. Denett, then the associate director of minerals revenue management. She's also married to Paul Denett, who until recently was the top procurement honcho in the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Mrs. Denett has retired from Interior for personal reasons and won't be prosecuted. She told investigators she'd made a "very poor" decision by helping her pal Mayberry rig the consulting contract. No kidding.
Another Bush hack who likely will escape punishment in the scandal is Gregory W. Smith, former program director of the royalty-in-kind office. The inspector general said that Smith wrongly used his government position to market a private tech-services firm to gas and oil companies, and that the firm paid him $30,000.
Smith, now working for a Denver oil company, has refused to publicly discuss the allegations.
The report also accuses him of taking gifts from energy industry representatives, having sex with two of his subordinates and buying cocaine on several occasions from his secretary and her boyfriend.
Who says that being a bureaucrat is dull work?
Such colorful revelations shed some light on the mysterious energy task force assembled by Vice President Dick Cheney at the president's direction, shortly after he took office.
Cheney has stubbornly refused to tell American taxpayers what was decided or who participated in these important meetings, though it's known that many major players were involved, including those geniuses at Enron.
No wonder the vice president is so secretive about what took place. Obviously these weren't serious policy meetings; they were toga parties, with Cheney dressed up as Bluto from Animal House.
In their wildest dreams the boys from big oil couldn't have imagined how much fun the next eight years would be - sex, drugs and "treasure hunts."
Party on, dudes. Drill your brains out.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
A Gidget for God's "Truth"
http://www.truthout.org/article/sarah-palin-a-gidget-gods-truth
SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2008
Truthout Original
Sarah Palin: A Gidget for God's Truth
Tuesday 09 September 2008
by: Steve Weissman, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. (Photo: Getty Images)
"The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation," declared John McCain back in September 2007. With his vice-presidential pick of Governor Sarah Palin, he has found a winsome soul mate who is even more of a Christian nationalist, eager to use government to impose her religious views on the rest of us.
Palin's stance on abortion illustrates her approach. As she proudly declares, she sees the Bible as literally true, which leads her to believe that aborting a fetus is murder. That position contradicts our long history of common and statutory law. She then goes on to conclude that government should severely punish anyone who has an abortion or performs one, even in the case of rape or incest. She also opposes stem cell research.
Also see:
Steve Weissman |
America's Religious Right: Saints or Subversives? •
McCain hears God less extremely, but the Republican platform echoes Palin, and if she ever became president, she would feel completely justified in making her religious belief a litmus test for appointees to the Supreme Court.
Her attitude toward gays and lesbians is similar, though observers in both the gay press and corporate media have misrepresented the firmness of her convictions. The confusion stems from a legal suit that some same-sex couples filed in 1999, arguing that Alaska had no right to deny domestic partners of state employees the same health and pension benefits that the state gave to married spouses. The case made its way to Alaska's Supreme Court, which ruled in 2005 that the state could not discriminate against the domestic partners.
In the political firestorm that followed, the Alaska legislature passed a bill forbidding state officials to pay the benefits. Alaska's attorney general then declared the bill unconstitutional, and the newly inaugurated Governor Palin felt legally obliged to veto it. But, she loudly proclaimed her opposition to spousal benefits for domestic partners and signed a separate bill calling for a state referendum, which she said would lay the groundwork for overturning the state Supreme Court ruling.
She also declared her long-time opposition to same-sex marriage, a position she had displayed as early as 1998 when she enthusiastically backed a constitutional amendment to ban the practice in Alaska.
"I believe that honoring the family structure is that important," she told the Anchorage Daily News in 2006. She was "not out to judge anyone and has good friends who are gay." But, she explained, her opposition grew out of her strong religious views.
Palin's religious convictions, and her willingness to use the power of government to force them on others, has won strong backing from far-right groups, such as James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, and the Council for National Policy, the normally secretive network of right-wing preachers, political operatives, and fat cats who have been a major force in the Republican Party ever since they backed Ronald Reagan for president.
These overlapping groups view homosexual acts as "an abomination" and have led the fight against what Dr. Dobson calls "the radical Homosexual agenda." Focus on the Family will soon bring to Anchorage a conference on "curing homosexuality" through the power of prayer, an event that Palin's hometown church in Wasilla is actively promoting.
In the same vein, Palin has opposed extending hate crime laws to protect gays and lesbians, called for teaching creationism in public schools, and - as mayor of Wasilla - looked into banning books from the public library because they contained inappropriate language.
She described the building of a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in Alaska as "God's will," which she would work to carry out as governor.
She supports the presence of US troops in Iraq as a "task that is from God."
And she has told colleagues that Christ will return within her lifetime, which raises questions about what sort of Armageddon she has in mind.
However absurd one finds all this, Palin's religious convictions should normally remain her own private concern. But her eagerness to use public office to enforce and implement what she believes makes her beliefs a matter of enormous public importance.
If you don't believe me, just listen to the enormous support Palin is receiving from Dr. Dobson, "End Time" author Tim La Haye, and others on the Christian right. Dobson once swore he would never vote for John McCain. He now calls McCain's choice of Palin "outstanding" and is promising his enthusiastic support.
Sarah Palin is their gal, and if she is elected vice president, these warriors of God could find themselves only a heartbeat away from their long-held goal of turning America into an ultra-rightwing Christian nation.
»
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the New Left monthly Ramparts, Steve Weissman lived for many years in London, working as a magazine writer and television producer. He now lives and works in France.
Comments
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This piece contains
Sat, 09/13/2008 - 10:44 — QueerAlaskan (not verified)
This piece contains inaccurate information on the issue of same-sex domestic partner benefits in Alaska. See the articles posted to http://www.bentalaska.com/search/label/Sarah%20Palin for more accurate information on this history and Palin's involvement in it.
Let's see: Thou shalt not
Sat, 09/13/2008 - 00:38 — Anonymous (not verified)
Let's see: Thou shalt not kill... fetuses. Thou shall kill Muslims... and anyone else who gets in my way.
""She supports the presence
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 22:01 — Verbatim (not verified)
""She supports the presence of US troops in Iraq as a "task that is from God." "" It is particularly useless to presume that we may act as instruments of God or that we are implementing His will. To dare presume is to try to justify not the higher calling but the inconceivable--and the misdeeds some of us would rather attribute to God. For it is mostly when we act out what we believe to be God’s wrath that we fool ourselves into believing that we are implementing his will. Only very seldom do we act out His justice, kindness and patience, to really implement His will.
I am sick to death of the
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 13:50 — C.J.Gelfand (not verified)
I am sick to death of the constant insertion of religion into politics and government, to the point where I will start tearing out my hair if I hear one more person start proselytizing! Our constitution gives us the right to practice, or not practice religion, whatever the case. Our country was never meant to have a state religion, and religion must remain a private matter if we are to be a nation at peace with ourselves. Why isn't it enough for all you religionists to practice what you believe without hitting all the rest of us on the head constantly to make us live your way? What are you so insecure about? Stop the paranoia--people of different beliefs are not out to get you. All religions and philosophies (except those based on hatred) are at our disposal to help us lead a good life. There is not only one way to go. And try thinking for yourselves for a change. I know of no other way to encourage rampant fascism than to let others do your thinking for you without asking your own questions.
Because this column is about
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 10:43 — elizabeth (not verified)
Because this column is about the reactionary religion of a key political candidate, I am sharing comments below providing an alternative perspective regarding that religion. It is not my usual practice, but in this case, it is on topic and appropriate. My comments also come full circle as they are applied to my observations of the candidate. We progressive Christians like to think that we are actually attempting to live according to the Gospels. For example, even if the framers hadn't made the separation of church and state clear, Jesus mostly certainly did. It's also crucial that we take back the word "evangelical" from the fundamentalists, literalists and millienials. Paul charged all Jesus-followers to be evangelical (from the Greek, same root as "heaven" and "angel"). It means we live by the Gospels and use our lives as examples to share the Good News. This is relevant because it is so misunderstood and misused, now by a major candidate for VP (and the media just absorbs it as if she were a theologian). It is not our job to aggressively convert or judge people, unlike the message of the fundamentalists who have hijacked this basic concept and twisted it every way to Sunday, as Sarah Palin does. We also live by the Gospels (and the New Testament), not by the Hebrew Scriptures. The Hebrew Scriptures are in the Christian bible for context, not for instruction, but fundamentalists mistakenly give the Hebrew scriptures more weight than our own. Jesus gave us all the instruction needed for Christians, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. That is not the message I hear repeated by Sarah Palin, nor does she live a life of example according to the Gospels (at least not in public). Publicly, she appears to be a true believer in the worst possible ways. And this concerns me at least as much if not more than the secular concerns I noted in my first post, which was edited by someone other than me, leaving out these concerns, and also leaving other progressive Christians wondering where the progressives were among those commenting. Elizabeth Rose, O.C.P.
I live in Wyoming and attend
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 03:25 — The sHiZ NiCk!!!! MaSTer MMM!!!!! (not verified)
I live in Wyoming and attend a private charter school. Can't tell you the name of the school or the names of the people (I promised my G.F. that I wouldn't). I remember my high school's history teacher last year, he asked my freshmen class this question: What's more important, the Bible or the U.S. Constitution? A few timidly raised their hands up for the Constitution, but the majority quickly raised up their hands in support of the Bible. The teacher asked why they voted that way. One said: "Because Jesus is supreme over anything written by men and that why the Bible is more important because its words comes from God." Another student said, "Because I learned that if it wasn't for the Constitution, you may not have the freedom to believe in the Bible." That student was beaten up after school was out. Some guys in the football team beat him up so bad he was put into the hospital, and he was in traction and partial body casts for 14 months. He transferred to another school. The history teacher that taught the course, he was fired, cut. Seems that a lot of religious parents complained to the local school board about what he was teaching. The science teacher for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th periods was fired too, a week later. I guess they didn't like him teaching the concept of evolution in biology, or geology, as to the age of the Earth. They said our school's better off, now that science, history and biology are now taught by these new Christian teachers that mince no words about convincing the class to vote Republican when they enter into their senior year. Now, almost all the students in our school go to school with a small Bible in our pockets. I don't carry a Bible in my back pocket. FIGHT THE POWER, FIGHT THE CORPORATE BEYOTCHES OF AMERICA, YEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many Religious Right
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 02:57 — Anonymous; I live in a neighborhood full of Evangelists (not verified)
Many Religious Right activists have attempted to rewrite history by asserting that the United States government derived from Christian foundations, that our Founding Fathers originally aimed for a Christian nation. This idea simply does not hold to the historical evidence. Of course many Americans did practice Christianity, but so also did many believe in deistic philosophy. Indeed, most of our influential Founding Fathers, although they respected the rights of other religionists, held to deism and Freemasonry tenets rather than to Christianity. 1799, Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11: "...the United States is in no way a Christian nation..." Unanimously by both chambers of Congress and signed by John Adams, the "father" of the Declaration of Independence. The United States Constitution serves as the law of the land for America and indicates the intent of our Founding Fathers. The Constitution forms a secular document, and nowhere does it appeal to God, Christianity, Jesus, or any supreme being. (For those who think the date of the Constitution contradicts the last sentence, see note 1 at the end.) The U.S. government derives from people (not God), as it clearly states in the preamble: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union...." The omission of God in the Constitution did not come out of forgetfulness, but rather out of the Founding Fathers purposeful intentions to keep government separate from religion. From the 1rst Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” [capital letters, mine] Moreover, the mentioning of God in the Declaration does not describe the personal God of Christianity. Thomas Jefferson who held deist beliefs, wrote the majority of the Declaration. The Declaration describes "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." This nature's view of God agrees with deist philosophy and might even appeal to those of pantheistical beliefs, but any attempt to use the Declaration as a support for Christianity will fail for this reason alone. Note 1: The end of the Constitution records the year of its ratification, "the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven." Although, indeed, it uses the word "Lord", it does not refer to Jesus but rather to the dating method. Incredibly, some Christians attempt to use this as justification for a Christian derived Constitution. The term simply conveys a written English form of the Latin, Anno Domini (AD), which means the year of our Lord (no, it does not mean After Death). This scripted form served as a common way of dating in the 1700s. The Constitution also uses many pagan words such as January (from the two-headed Roman god, Janus), and Sunday (from the word Sunne, which refers to the Saxon Sun god). Can you imagine the ludicrous position of someone trying to argue for the justification of a pagan god based Constitution? The same goes to any Christian who attempts to use a dating convention as an argument against the Constitution's secular nature, and can only paint himself as naive, or worse, as dishonest and deceiving. (For a satire on using calendar words to support pagan Gods, see The United States: A Country founded on paganism. http://www.nobeliefs.com/pagan.htm
I must say it is refreshing
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 00:15 — Anonymous (not verified)
I must say it is refreshing to hear someone takes the bible literally these days. The bible having been scorned as a book giving testament only to the corruption of human nature. May Palin be president if for me to be given the pleasure of me knowing what someone like her could do behind the reins.
I am so tired of the
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 22:59 — Anonymous (not verified)
I am so tired of the hypocrisy. The Republican machine has questioned the patriotism of both Barack and Michelle Obama. They have gone so far as to accuse Michelle Obama's fist bump as a terrorist action! Then we are told that Palin's family is hands off! So do we just ignore the information that Sarah Palin's husband is affiliated with a secessionist group and she is supportive of his involvement? This is a man who wants the state of Alaska to secede from the US! The last time this occurred, we ended up engaging in a Civil War! Is this not treasonous behavior. This smells of militia mentality. My grandfather used to say, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck!
Palin is indeed scary. She
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 22:53 — V. Selanik (not verified)
Palin is indeed scary. She is a glib know it all and that tells you right away she is not qualified. Compare Palin with Nancy Pelosi...another mother of five who waited until her children were mature before she went into politics. Her education is sketchy and shows her lack of connecting with the modern educated women of America.
Read Katha Pollit's
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 21:44 — altovuelo (not verified)
Read Katha Pollit's excellent column about Palin in the current issue of The Nation: "Lipstick on a Wing Nut": http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/pollitt
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 14:00 — Dana (not verified)
Palin is really Cheney with lipstick (not Bush)
To Mr. Anderson, I am so
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 04:55 — Anonymous (not verified)
To Mr. Anderson, I am so sick of the Christians' hypocrisy:I love how Christians interpret "Creator" to mean a Caucasian-looking deity floating in the heavens as opposed to "Nature." I love how Christians seem to embrace any reference to GOD as a reference to something "above" or "different" from "Nature." Perhaps that is what eases their minds when they vote for people whose policies destroy the very "Nature"that GOD (whatever he/she/it is to an individual) obviously intended for humans to live in balance with. And if you truly believe all people are "created equal," whether by Nature, or the floating white head you envision, you should believe that "he" would not condone prejudices against those who are "different" than how you perceive yourself to be. I'm sickened by the fact that most Christians I know vote for people that are obviously immoral because of rhetoric about abortion and gay rights. Do abortion and gay rights really weigh on your day-to-day life MORE than all the other injustices we impose as a nation on ourselves, our children and other nations. Wake up! -S
It is obvious that the GOP
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:58 — truth! not deceit or spin (not verified)
It is obvious that the GOP is DESPERATE at this point, and it is sickly comical to watch the republicans and christian extremists wave their flags so fervently that they have blinded themselves to the truth. Palin Scares me, and so does McCain. Neither are fit for the White House, McCain is a hothead selling just more of the same (and cannot stick to his own stories), and Palin... a mother of a newborn Down Syndrome child - shouldn't that be her first priority? And she also can't keep her facts straight! But then again we are at war, and the truth is always the first casualty in war. I just hope that Obama wins the election and that he isn't just a wolf in sheep's clothing and will make the changes so desperately needed in were not only this country is headed, but the entire world. wake up people across the land! Unplug FOX news and go out into your community and talk about what really matters, right here, right now. Register to VOTE! Follow your heart, not what corpmedia is spinning into your heads! (OK, I'm talking sugar in the candy shop... but still...)
John McCain is not only a
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:45 — Jeanot (not verified)
John McCain is not only a war hero, but is actually a "war lover." He has supported every military move by this nation, and looks first for a power or military response to every conflict that pops up. His instant reaction to the situation in Georgia ("We are all Georgians") shows he has no appreciation for the complexity of the situation. Where thoughtful analysis is called for we get quick gut reactions...helped along by close advisors were recently paid agents for one of the participants. We see in this case that it wasn't a simple matter of the Big Bad Bear running roughshod over its neighbor...all sorts of religious, ethnic, nationalistic divisions were in the mix. There usually are two or more sides to most issues, and unless our leaders can see this we are in for endless conflict. John McCain doesn't seem to get this.
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! I am
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:36 — Anonymous (not verified)
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! I am begging some of the posters here! STOP refering to right-wing evangelicals as "Christians", as if all Christians agree with them. I don't care what religioun you espouse, or if you're an atheist. That's your business, but when you refer to the evangelical right-wing as "Christians", some honest Christians get offended and actually think your attacking them. Liberalism IS NOT LESS CHRISTIAN. It is just MORE HONESTLY Christian. Please don't give these sleazebags more fuel to add to their burning cross. The ONLY thing they believe in is the sanctity of Holy Oil Industry.
I am convinced that she
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:21 — Anonymous (not verified)
I am convinced that she TRIED TO CAUSE A MISCARRIAGE with her latest baby. Why else did she go out of her way to avoid medical treatment and schedule a trip to Dallas while she was leaking amniotic fluid and was obviously going into labor a month early?
Palin is Bush with lipstick.
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 01:31 — Anonymous (not verified)
Palin is Bush with lipstick.
Along with books being
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 21:42 — Anonymous (not verified)
Along with books being banished, women's right set back 2000 years, faux-Christianity forced down our gullets, gay rights abolished, education bankrupted, all intellectuals, artists and dissenters best beware. They are next to be eliminated. We've seen it all before. Remember?
1799, Treaty of Tripoli,
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 20:08 — bob sauerbrey (not verified)
1799, Treaty of Tripoli, acticle 11: "...the United States is in no way a Christian nation..." Unanimously by both chambers of Congress and signed by John Adams, the "father" of the Declaration of Independence. McCain, Palin, and their supports may know their bible, but they a certainly ignorant of history.
Saint Francis of Assisi,
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 18:24 — Fulvia (not verified)
Saint Francis of Assisi, Italy, the Saint who was talking to the the wolf, and teach love to all creature, to the sun to the star to the moon, because all were beautiful and all of them creation of God. I really don't see any link with the appalling misbelieve of Palin and the true Christianity.
Good piece and some
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 17:18 — elizabeth (not verified)
Good piece and some excellent comments. So glad to see the prescient Margaret Atwood novel "The Handmaid's Tale" mentioned. That book has haunted me since 2002 because it was clear even then that we are on the same path. (I read it when it came out in the 80s and saw the excellent film adaptation when it came out in the early 90s.) I would change only one thing. Somehow, growing up in Alaska made Sarah Palin talk not like Gidget, but like a Valley Girl. A Valley Girl spewing invective and inhuman filth. Maybe the campaign is hoping that we'll be like dogs, responding more to the tone of voice than to what is said. And it is sad but true that there are voters who would vote for an ignorant Valley Girl. (Ironically, REAL Valley Girls grew up and many of them have gone on to fine lives and careers.) I've followed Sarah Palin for years, ever since I saw "the moose hunter" hunting wolves from a helicopter. I come from a long line of hunters, and that is NOT hunting. It's vicious and lacks any sense of sport or fair play. That told me everything I needed to know about Sarah Palin, although having her on my radar, I've learned a lot since, enough to almost faint when McCain announced her for the ticket, because I have not found one politically redeeming quality about this woman. And I'm a woman who would really like a woman president. But she has to be the best possible candidate, because if we have a woman in the WH who is as stupid and ignorant as the current crop, it will set women's rights back decades.
has anyone thought this
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 14:16 — Anonymous (not verified)
has anyone thought this woman could be the anti christ?
ditto!! Stop
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 14:02 — Anonymous (not verified)
ditto!! Stop whining! Let's use this time well, to be the best, and win this election. Lets get active, now. Nothing could be more important. What else? What else can we do?
Our Declaration of
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:40 — Anonymous (not verified)
Our Declaration of Independence does not come from Christian origins. Most of the founding Fathers were Freemasons,and Huminists, or claimed no religious belief at all. If you want to argue this passage "The laws of Nature and Natures God" is clear they are talking about "mother nature" or science "natures God" It's PAGAN all over!!
hey sarah? the bible is what
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:08 — Anonymous (not verified)
hey sarah? the bible is what you follow?so i would guess Psalm 137 would be the policy for iraq and such?after all we are doing gods work there arnt we? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_137
Christian Republican males
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:24 — Jesus wept (not verified)
Christian Republican males will vote for McCain because, among other things, they think on some semiconscious or unconscious level that it will improve their chances of getting into the panties of women that look and think like Palin. So what if McCain's policies, combined with Palin's relgious extremism turns this country into a fascist, militant theocracy that goes bankrupt. These chickenhawks voted for the tits and boobs, and Jesus, and Bush-Mccain's machismo war machines that make them obscenely rich... so what do they care what would Jesus do if he was here again, because they believe that Jesus will forgive them of all their selfishness, greed and arrogance; as a result, they believe that when the time comes and they've ruined the Earth, they can take their wealth and power with them to heaven after they become immortal by the way of the Rapture. So in that way, the unchristian neocons that claim they are Christians, can have their cake and eat it, too... at the expense of our rights, drained us of all of our money and our very lives of course, but what do they care? Thanks to Bush in power, they got theirs.
We fought a Civil War and
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:21 — Anonymous (not verified)
We fought a Civil War and killed 1,000,000 of our fellow citizens a hundred and fifty years ago, in what was at base a conflict within the culture of this country. We didn't learn the lesson then, and we probably won't learn it this time, only this time there will be no use to learning it, cos there won't be anything to put back together again. The Lincoln of our time - Barack Obama - is villified for appealing to the better angels of our nature. I remember when America had ideals and hope and faith, and I have watched these past 60 years as they have all turned to dust and facsimile.
"Thou shalt not take the
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:00 — Anonymous (not verified)
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain." A pipeline? "God's will"?!? Why are the fundamentalist Christians not coming out of the woodwork to burn this blasphemous bitch at the stake, politically speaking?
What can all of us do at
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 05:25 — Joan (not verified)
What can all of us do at this stage of the game? Palin Palin is on the scene, alive and well. Now let's get out the vote and challenge the Republicans.Lets go to swing states and talk to people. Get on the phone lines. Make sure all our friends are registered and voting. Make sure the election is not stolen. Support, speak, protest, flood the media when they lie and let the candidates lie. Let's use this time well, to be the best, and win this election. Lets get active, now. Nothing could be more important. What else? What else can we do?
I am so damned sick of all
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 04:09 — Anonymous (not verified)
I am so damned sick of all the religious crap in our politics I could puke! This is what happens people when you don't get involved! The religious right has been working this path for decades! Wake up or you'll get what you deserve with Bush II and the sociopath.
she's beautiful no
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 03:30 — Anonymous (not verified)
she's beautiful no doubt! he loves it! but maybe he chose her because the both have the letter 'in' in their name. how sane!
to j. andersen,(see
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 03:24 — kl (not verified)
to j. andersen,(see above) unalienable rights are human rights. this republican party supports taking unalienable human rights and listing them under crimes and criminal behaviors. back to the drawing board. thanks for the history lesson. pro-life and pro-choice.
Choice is the whole point,
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 01:48 — kcjones (not verified)
Choice is the whole point, M. If America "chooses" the progressive/liberal way for her to go, over the traditional values/conservative way, either way the other half will be screaming they don't want to be forced to do what their opponents have chosen democratically! I don't want to see young children "forced" to be indoctrinated in public schools about the normalicy of homosexuality when I believe with all my heart they've been emotionally twisted somehow, somewhere in their lives, even if they are wonderful, productive, loving people in every other aspect. I don't believe abortion is about "choice" when the fetus is a viable, separate human being who just so happens to be inside their mother's womb. (abortion scripture, btw: Proverb 6:17....which should also convict some Republican warmongers) In fact, if you want something to talk to Christians about, try scripture. Try Proverbs 6:16-19 and apply them to President Bush, for example...And for all you people who think we actually evolved from nothing (ie: spontaneously generated), try watching Michael Behe's movie "Unfolding the Mysteries of Life". I challenge anyone to watch that and deny intelligent design. Or, "The Privileged Planet". Same deal. I'm not red or blue. I'm purple. Both platforms have awesome and horrible attributes. But "Hypocracy Now" (spelled that way on purpose) was the mantra for the last elections. PRO-WAR!! PRO-LIFE!! vs FREE LUV!! PRO-CHOICE!! Let's have some intelligent input on how we can actually live democratically. You know, extremists on both sides actually pull people to the middle, which is good. And for the record, I believe God's will will be done whoever is elected President, and that's what gives me peace. Jesus was no dullard. There are powers that be way beyond most of our understanding.
It is extremely embarrassing
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 01:10 — The embarrassed pastor (not verified)
It is extremely embarrassing and difficult to be a liberal Christian minister in this day and age. There are so many Christians (like those everyone is writing about) who have bastardized the religion and made it into something it is not. I wish people would understand that Jesus was an iconoclast, speaking out against the hypocrites of his day. If we would really pay attention to what he was saying and if we endeavored to follow his suggestions for living a good life, we would understand that what the Christian right and fundamentalists are expounding are man made rules that have nothing to do with Jesus' message. I asked my husband the other day where he would like to move to if the Republicans win. So far, Canada is the favorite. I don't know if they'll take us, but we can try. Pray for the highest good for our country.
As a Canadian, all I can say
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 00:04 — Peg Young (not verified)
As a Canadian, all I can say is, "God (assuming It exists) help America."
The ball is in Joe Biden's
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 00:00 — Carole Auger-Richard (not verified)
The ball is in Joe Biden's camp. Here's an exceptional occasion to kill the Palin myth! Go Joe go!
Sarah Palin is scary . Very
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 23:39 — Anonymous (not verified)
Sarah Palin is scary. Very scary indeed. She as well as John McSame are obviously just puppets of the right wing good 'ol boys that want to stay in power and turn back the clock . Where will it end, in armageddon? I can't believe a person with such an old brain who believes the word of the bible is true) could potentially be the comander in chief. If they steal the election for a third time, it will be time to get the hell out. God bless us all.
These are not Christians,
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 23:22 — Anonymous (not verified)
These are not Christians, but ANTI-Christians. Very very insightful, since in Greek anti can mean "instead of" or a replacement-counterfeit (cf: Liddell and Scott's unabridged Lexicon of Classical Greek). These wingnut Christians are indeed anti-Christians in every sense of the Greek word. Ironically, they may represent the very Anti-Christ they claim is presented in the Apocalypsis of St. John. Just a thought, but how wonderfully ironic.
Any one who says the United
The big dichotomy... I
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 22:47 — mapsguy1955 (not verified)
The big dichotomy... I don't get how the party of the neocons gets the votes of the Christian right. Were those all Christians at the ENRON parties? Didn't jesus say something about turning the other cheek? The Republican mantra is not "Drill Baby Drill", but "The world is REALLY scary, you should be terrified of anyone who doesn't think like us, it might make you GAY or you might be forced to have an ABORTION". The right couldn't possible be more wrong.
I think the diversity of
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 22:32 — Mike (not verified)
I think the diversity of religions is yet another positive dynamic at this unique time. Catholicism, United Church of Christ, Latterday Saints, United Methodist, Baptist, and Assembly of God. I think that if Tim Russert was still with us he would say, "What a country!"
Have the republicans noticed
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 22:28 — Anonymous (not verified)
Have the republicans noticed that they have completely lost control of their party? The sponsorship of McCain and Palin for America's highest office is an irresponsible, possibly criminal act, for which this country will pay dearly if they are elected. Listen to Obama please: America is better than this. Note to McCain: Constantly blowing your own horn about your POW experience does not convince anyone that you are better qualified. Lying about your opponent makes you look dishonorable. What a shame. Picking Sarah Palin makes you look like an idiot and a pawn, not a statesman. Sorry, old man.
So, dean men and women of
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 21:47 — granny (not verified)
So, dean men and women of the "professional" media, when are you going to visit her church, record the rolling and dancing and tongues-talking and armeggadon-expecting, and put it out there for all to see? If you would attack Barack Obama through attacks on his paastor, the same treatment should be accorded to Palin and her pastor. And has anyone vetted McCain's pastor, if he goes to chruch for other than press-op moments?
Christ taught us to love
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 21:22 — Anonymous (not verified)
Christ taught us to love God; to love your neighbor as yourself and to love your enemy. The"new and everlasting covenant" is about promoting the common good, not the chosen few of the old covenant. These people are not Christians-they're Anti-Christians
I'd like Palin to tell us
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 20:57 — M (not verified)
I'd like Palin to tell us what verse of her precious Bilble forbids abortion. Oh, KCJONES. There is a qualitative difference between gays (why you mention them as a voting bloc is mind boggling) and liberals. It's the democratic concept of "choice" which Republicans don't believe in. We won't MAKE you live a life you don't want. You, however, will force everyone to live the life YOU decide for us. That's just a tiny difference, don't you think? It's called Democracy. Ever hear of it?
You can't believe the Bible
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 20:43 — Anonymous (not verified)
You can't believe the Bible is literally true and believe that aborting a fetus is murder. Genesis 2:7 says that Adam wasn't a living soul until God gave him the breath of life. Exodus 21:22 says that if two men are fighting and cause a woman to abort her child, they must pay the father for the loss of his property, the fetus. Ecclesiastes 6:3 says that unless a man has a good life and a proper burial it is better that he be stillborn. People who say they believe the Bible is literally true should read it some time, Especially those scriptures where God commands the Israelites to commit genocide, killing men, women, children and that would include pregnant women and their fetuses. I don't believe God commits murder or commands others to do so.
I think calling Sarah Palin
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 20:42 — Oakjoan (not verified)
I think calling Sarah Palin "Gidget" is a VERRRY big mistake. Gidget was a cute, bouncy, sweet thing. There is NOTHING sweet about Palin. I can easily picture her using a German accent and saying "Vee vill conquer Poland!" A person who holds such ugly and wrong-headed beliefs is anything but cute. She is out to force her beliefs on all of us. This is doubly dangerous since she has proved during her political career that she has few moral scruples. I'm not afraid of her Armageddon and other fundamentalist beliefs, I am terrified of her history of unscrupulous and self-serving behavior in politics (getting back at enemies by having them fired, attempting to bring Fahrenheit 451 to the local library, changing her stance on issues when it became politically expedient). Of course this is not exactly far from the usual politicians' changeable stances, but they usually at least have the smarts to realize they'll be found out eventually. Most of them are not the subjects of governmental investigation as Palin is now. End of rant.
SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2008
Truthout Original
Sarah Palin: A Gidget for God's Truth
Tuesday 09 September 2008
by: Steve Weissman, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. (Photo: Getty Images)
"The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation," declared John McCain back in September 2007. With his vice-presidential pick of Governor Sarah Palin, he has found a winsome soul mate who is even more of a Christian nationalist, eager to use government to impose her religious views on the rest of us.
Palin's stance on abortion illustrates her approach. As she proudly declares, she sees the Bible as literally true, which leads her to believe that aborting a fetus is murder. That position contradicts our long history of common and statutory law. She then goes on to conclude that government should severely punish anyone who has an abortion or performs one, even in the case of rape or incest. She also opposes stem cell research.
Also see:
Steve Weissman |
America's Religious Right: Saints or Subversives? •
McCain hears God less extremely, but the Republican platform echoes Palin, and if she ever became president, she would feel completely justified in making her religious belief a litmus test for appointees to the Supreme Court.
Her attitude toward gays and lesbians is similar, though observers in both the gay press and corporate media have misrepresented the firmness of her convictions. The confusion stems from a legal suit that some same-sex couples filed in 1999, arguing that Alaska had no right to deny domestic partners of state employees the same health and pension benefits that the state gave to married spouses. The case made its way to Alaska's Supreme Court, which ruled in 2005 that the state could not discriminate against the domestic partners.
In the political firestorm that followed, the Alaska legislature passed a bill forbidding state officials to pay the benefits. Alaska's attorney general then declared the bill unconstitutional, and the newly inaugurated Governor Palin felt legally obliged to veto it. But, she loudly proclaimed her opposition to spousal benefits for domestic partners and signed a separate bill calling for a state referendum, which she said would lay the groundwork for overturning the state Supreme Court ruling.
She also declared her long-time opposition to same-sex marriage, a position she had displayed as early as 1998 when she enthusiastically backed a constitutional amendment to ban the practice in Alaska.
"I believe that honoring the family structure is that important," she told the Anchorage Daily News in 2006. She was "not out to judge anyone and has good friends who are gay." But, she explained, her opposition grew out of her strong religious views.
Palin's religious convictions, and her willingness to use the power of government to force them on others, has won strong backing from far-right groups, such as James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, and the Council for National Policy, the normally secretive network of right-wing preachers, political operatives, and fat cats who have been a major force in the Republican Party ever since they backed Ronald Reagan for president.
These overlapping groups view homosexual acts as "an abomination" and have led the fight against what Dr. Dobson calls "the radical Homosexual agenda." Focus on the Family will soon bring to Anchorage a conference on "curing homosexuality" through the power of prayer, an event that Palin's hometown church in Wasilla is actively promoting.
In the same vein, Palin has opposed extending hate crime laws to protect gays and lesbians, called for teaching creationism in public schools, and - as mayor of Wasilla - looked into banning books from the public library because they contained inappropriate language.
She described the building of a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in Alaska as "God's will," which she would work to carry out as governor.
She supports the presence of US troops in Iraq as a "task that is from God."
And she has told colleagues that Christ will return within her lifetime, which raises questions about what sort of Armageddon she has in mind.
However absurd one finds all this, Palin's religious convictions should normally remain her own private concern. But her eagerness to use public office to enforce and implement what she believes makes her beliefs a matter of enormous public importance.
If you don't believe me, just listen to the enormous support Palin is receiving from Dr. Dobson, "End Time" author Tim La Haye, and others on the Christian right. Dobson once swore he would never vote for John McCain. He now calls McCain's choice of Palin "outstanding" and is promising his enthusiastic support.
Sarah Palin is their gal, and if she is elected vice president, these warriors of God could find themselves only a heartbeat away from their long-held goal of turning America into an ultra-rightwing Christian nation.
»
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A veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the New Left monthly Ramparts, Steve Weissman lived for many years in London, working as a magazine writer and television producer. He now lives and works in France.
Comments
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This piece contains
Sat, 09/13/2008 - 10:44 — QueerAlaskan (not verified)
This piece contains inaccurate information on the issue of same-sex domestic partner benefits in Alaska. See the articles posted to http://www.bentalaska.com/search/label/Sarah%20Palin for more accurate information on this history and Palin's involvement in it.
Let's see: Thou shalt not
Sat, 09/13/2008 - 00:38 — Anonymous (not verified)
Let's see: Thou shalt not kill... fetuses. Thou shall kill Muslims... and anyone else who gets in my way.
""She supports the presence
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 22:01 — Verbatim (not verified)
""She supports the presence of US troops in Iraq as a "task that is from God." "" It is particularly useless to presume that we may act as instruments of God or that we are implementing His will. To dare presume is to try to justify not the higher calling but the inconceivable--and the misdeeds some of us would rather attribute to God. For it is mostly when we act out what we believe to be God’s wrath that we fool ourselves into believing that we are implementing his will. Only very seldom do we act out His justice, kindness and patience, to really implement His will.
I am sick to death of the
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 13:50 — C.J.Gelfand (not verified)
I am sick to death of the constant insertion of religion into politics and government, to the point where I will start tearing out my hair if I hear one more person start proselytizing! Our constitution gives us the right to practice, or not practice religion, whatever the case. Our country was never meant to have a state religion, and religion must remain a private matter if we are to be a nation at peace with ourselves. Why isn't it enough for all you religionists to practice what you believe without hitting all the rest of us on the head constantly to make us live your way? What are you so insecure about? Stop the paranoia--people of different beliefs are not out to get you. All religions and philosophies (except those based on hatred) are at our disposal to help us lead a good life. There is not only one way to go. And try thinking for yourselves for a change. I know of no other way to encourage rampant fascism than to let others do your thinking for you without asking your own questions.
Because this column is about
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 10:43 — elizabeth (not verified)
Because this column is about the reactionary religion of a key political candidate, I am sharing comments below providing an alternative perspective regarding that religion. It is not my usual practice, but in this case, it is on topic and appropriate. My comments also come full circle as they are applied to my observations of the candidate. We progressive Christians like to think that we are actually attempting to live according to the Gospels. For example, even if the framers hadn't made the separation of church and state clear, Jesus mostly certainly did. It's also crucial that we take back the word "evangelical" from the fundamentalists, literalists and millienials. Paul charged all Jesus-followers to be evangelical (from the Greek, same root as "heaven" and "angel"). It means we live by the Gospels and use our lives as examples to share the Good News. This is relevant because it is so misunderstood and misused, now by a major candidate for VP (and the media just absorbs it as if she were a theologian). It is not our job to aggressively convert or judge people, unlike the message of the fundamentalists who have hijacked this basic concept and twisted it every way to Sunday, as Sarah Palin does. We also live by the Gospels (and the New Testament), not by the Hebrew Scriptures. The Hebrew Scriptures are in the Christian bible for context, not for instruction, but fundamentalists mistakenly give the Hebrew scriptures more weight than our own. Jesus gave us all the instruction needed for Christians, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. That is not the message I hear repeated by Sarah Palin, nor does she live a life of example according to the Gospels (at least not in public). Publicly, she appears to be a true believer in the worst possible ways. And this concerns me at least as much if not more than the secular concerns I noted in my first post, which was edited by someone other than me, leaving out these concerns, and also leaving other progressive Christians wondering where the progressives were among those commenting. Elizabeth Rose, O.C.P.
I live in Wyoming and attend
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 03:25 — The sHiZ NiCk!!!! MaSTer MMM!!!!! (not verified)
I live in Wyoming and attend a private charter school. Can't tell you the name of the school or the names of the people (I promised my G.F. that I wouldn't). I remember my high school's history teacher last year, he asked my freshmen class this question: What's more important, the Bible or the U.S. Constitution? A few timidly raised their hands up for the Constitution, but the majority quickly raised up their hands in support of the Bible. The teacher asked why they voted that way. One said: "Because Jesus is supreme over anything written by men and that why the Bible is more important because its words comes from God." Another student said, "Because I learned that if it wasn't for the Constitution, you may not have the freedom to believe in the Bible." That student was beaten up after school was out. Some guys in the football team beat him up so bad he was put into the hospital, and he was in traction and partial body casts for 14 months. He transferred to another school. The history teacher that taught the course, he was fired, cut. Seems that a lot of religious parents complained to the local school board about what he was teaching. The science teacher for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th periods was fired too, a week later. I guess they didn't like him teaching the concept of evolution in biology, or geology, as to the age of the Earth. They said our school's better off, now that science, history and biology are now taught by these new Christian teachers that mince no words about convincing the class to vote Republican when they enter into their senior year. Now, almost all the students in our school go to school with a small Bible in our pockets. I don't carry a Bible in my back pocket. FIGHT THE POWER, FIGHT THE CORPORATE BEYOTCHES OF AMERICA, YEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many Religious Right
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 02:57 — Anonymous; I live in a neighborhood full of Evangelists (not verified)
Many Religious Right activists have attempted to rewrite history by asserting that the United States government derived from Christian foundations, that our Founding Fathers originally aimed for a Christian nation. This idea simply does not hold to the historical evidence. Of course many Americans did practice Christianity, but so also did many believe in deistic philosophy. Indeed, most of our influential Founding Fathers, although they respected the rights of other religionists, held to deism and Freemasonry tenets rather than to Christianity. 1799, Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11: "...the United States is in no way a Christian nation..." Unanimously by both chambers of Congress and signed by John Adams, the "father" of the Declaration of Independence. The United States Constitution serves as the law of the land for America and indicates the intent of our Founding Fathers. The Constitution forms a secular document, and nowhere does it appeal to God, Christianity, Jesus, or any supreme being. (For those who think the date of the Constitution contradicts the last sentence, see note 1 at the end.) The U.S. government derives from people (not God), as it clearly states in the preamble: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union...." The omission of God in the Constitution did not come out of forgetfulness, but rather out of the Founding Fathers purposeful intentions to keep government separate from religion. From the 1rst Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” [capital letters, mine] Moreover, the mentioning of God in the Declaration does not describe the personal God of Christianity. Thomas Jefferson who held deist beliefs, wrote the majority of the Declaration. The Declaration describes "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." This nature's view of God agrees with deist philosophy and might even appeal to those of pantheistical beliefs, but any attempt to use the Declaration as a support for Christianity will fail for this reason alone. Note 1: The end of the Constitution records the year of its ratification, "the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven." Although, indeed, it uses the word "Lord", it does not refer to Jesus but rather to the dating method. Incredibly, some Christians attempt to use this as justification for a Christian derived Constitution. The term simply conveys a written English form of the Latin, Anno Domini (AD), which means the year of our Lord (no, it does not mean After Death). This scripted form served as a common way of dating in the 1700s. The Constitution also uses many pagan words such as January (from the two-headed Roman god, Janus), and Sunday (from the word Sunne, which refers to the Saxon Sun god). Can you imagine the ludicrous position of someone trying to argue for the justification of a pagan god based Constitution? The same goes to any Christian who attempts to use a dating convention as an argument against the Constitution's secular nature, and can only paint himself as naive, or worse, as dishonest and deceiving. (For a satire on using calendar words to support pagan Gods, see The United States: A Country founded on paganism. http://www.nobeliefs.com/pagan.htm
I must say it is refreshing
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 00:15 — Anonymous (not verified)
I must say it is refreshing to hear someone takes the bible literally these days. The bible having been scorned as a book giving testament only to the corruption of human nature. May Palin be president if for me to be given the pleasure of me knowing what someone like her could do behind the reins.
I am so tired of the
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 22:59 — Anonymous (not verified)
I am so tired of the hypocrisy. The Republican machine has questioned the patriotism of both Barack and Michelle Obama. They have gone so far as to accuse Michelle Obama's fist bump as a terrorist action! Then we are told that Palin's family is hands off! So do we just ignore the information that Sarah Palin's husband is affiliated with a secessionist group and she is supportive of his involvement? This is a man who wants the state of Alaska to secede from the US! The last time this occurred, we ended up engaging in a Civil War! Is this not treasonous behavior. This smells of militia mentality. My grandfather used to say, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck!
Palin is indeed scary. She
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 22:53 — V. Selanik (not verified)
Palin is indeed scary. She is a glib know it all and that tells you right away she is not qualified. Compare Palin with Nancy Pelosi...another mother of five who waited until her children were mature before she went into politics. Her education is sketchy and shows her lack of connecting with the modern educated women of America.
Read Katha Pollit's
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 21:44 — altovuelo (not verified)
Read Katha Pollit's excellent column about Palin in the current issue of The Nation: "Lipstick on a Wing Nut": http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/pollitt
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 14:00 — Dana (not verified)
Palin is really Cheney with lipstick (not Bush)
To Mr. Anderson, I am so
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 04:55 — Anonymous (not verified)
To Mr. Anderson, I am so sick of the Christians' hypocrisy:I love how Christians interpret "Creator" to mean a Caucasian-looking deity floating in the heavens as opposed to "Nature." I love how Christians seem to embrace any reference to GOD as a reference to something "above" or "different" from "Nature." Perhaps that is what eases their minds when they vote for people whose policies destroy the very "Nature"that GOD (whatever he/she/it is to an individual) obviously intended for humans to live in balance with. And if you truly believe all people are "created equal," whether by Nature, or the floating white head you envision, you should believe that "he" would not condone prejudices against those who are "different" than how you perceive yourself to be. I'm sickened by the fact that most Christians I know vote for people that are obviously immoral because of rhetoric about abortion and gay rights. Do abortion and gay rights really weigh on your day-to-day life MORE than all the other injustices we impose as a nation on ourselves, our children and other nations. Wake up! -S
It is obvious that the GOP
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:58 — truth! not deceit or spin (not verified)
It is obvious that the GOP is DESPERATE at this point, and it is sickly comical to watch the republicans and christian extremists wave their flags so fervently that they have blinded themselves to the truth. Palin Scares me, and so does McCain. Neither are fit for the White House, McCain is a hothead selling just more of the same (and cannot stick to his own stories), and Palin... a mother of a newborn Down Syndrome child - shouldn't that be her first priority? And she also can't keep her facts straight! But then again we are at war, and the truth is always the first casualty in war. I just hope that Obama wins the election and that he isn't just a wolf in sheep's clothing and will make the changes so desperately needed in were not only this country is headed, but the entire world. wake up people across the land! Unplug FOX news and go out into your community and talk about what really matters, right here, right now. Register to VOTE! Follow your heart, not what corpmedia is spinning into your heads! (OK, I'm talking sugar in the candy shop... but still...)
John McCain is not only a
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:45 — Jeanot (not verified)
John McCain is not only a war hero, but is actually a "war lover." He has supported every military move by this nation, and looks first for a power or military response to every conflict that pops up. His instant reaction to the situation in Georgia ("We are all Georgians") shows he has no appreciation for the complexity of the situation. Where thoughtful analysis is called for we get quick gut reactions...helped along by close advisors were recently paid agents for one of the participants. We see in this case that it wasn't a simple matter of the Big Bad Bear running roughshod over its neighbor...all sorts of religious, ethnic, nationalistic divisions were in the mix. There usually are two or more sides to most issues, and unless our leaders can see this we are in for endless conflict. John McCain doesn't seem to get this.
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! I am
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:36 — Anonymous (not verified)
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! I am begging some of the posters here! STOP refering to right-wing evangelicals as "Christians", as if all Christians agree with them. I don't care what religioun you espouse, or if you're an atheist. That's your business, but when you refer to the evangelical right-wing as "Christians", some honest Christians get offended and actually think your attacking them. Liberalism IS NOT LESS CHRISTIAN. It is just MORE HONESTLY Christian. Please don't give these sleazebags more fuel to add to their burning cross. The ONLY thing they believe in is the sanctity of Holy Oil Industry.
I am convinced that she
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 02:21 — Anonymous (not verified)
I am convinced that she TRIED TO CAUSE A MISCARRIAGE with her latest baby. Why else did she go out of her way to avoid medical treatment and schedule a trip to Dallas while she was leaking amniotic fluid and was obviously going into labor a month early?
Palin is Bush with lipstick.
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 01:31 — Anonymous (not verified)
Palin is Bush with lipstick.
Along with books being
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 21:42 — Anonymous (not verified)
Along with books being banished, women's right set back 2000 years, faux-Christianity forced down our gullets, gay rights abolished, education bankrupted, all intellectuals, artists and dissenters best beware. They are next to be eliminated. We've seen it all before. Remember?
1799, Treaty of Tripoli,
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 20:08 — bob sauerbrey (not verified)
1799, Treaty of Tripoli, acticle 11: "...the United States is in no way a Christian nation..." Unanimously by both chambers of Congress and signed by John Adams, the "father" of the Declaration of Independence. McCain, Palin, and their supports may know their bible, but they a certainly ignorant of history.
Saint Francis of Assisi,
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 18:24 — Fulvia (not verified)
Saint Francis of Assisi, Italy, the Saint who was talking to the the wolf, and teach love to all creature, to the sun to the star to the moon, because all were beautiful and all of them creation of God. I really don't see any link with the appalling misbelieve of Palin and the true Christianity.
Good piece and some
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 17:18 — elizabeth (not verified)
Good piece and some excellent comments. So glad to see the prescient Margaret Atwood novel "The Handmaid's Tale" mentioned. That book has haunted me since 2002 because it was clear even then that we are on the same path. (I read it when it came out in the 80s and saw the excellent film adaptation when it came out in the early 90s.) I would change only one thing. Somehow, growing up in Alaska made Sarah Palin talk not like Gidget, but like a Valley Girl. A Valley Girl spewing invective and inhuman filth. Maybe the campaign is hoping that we'll be like dogs, responding more to the tone of voice than to what is said. And it is sad but true that there are voters who would vote for an ignorant Valley Girl. (Ironically, REAL Valley Girls grew up and many of them have gone on to fine lives and careers.) I've followed Sarah Palin for years, ever since I saw "the moose hunter" hunting wolves from a helicopter. I come from a long line of hunters, and that is NOT hunting. It's vicious and lacks any sense of sport or fair play. That told me everything I needed to know about Sarah Palin, although having her on my radar, I've learned a lot since, enough to almost faint when McCain announced her for the ticket, because I have not found one politically redeeming quality about this woman. And I'm a woman who would really like a woman president. But she has to be the best possible candidate, because if we have a woman in the WH who is as stupid and ignorant as the current crop, it will set women's rights back decades.
has anyone thought this
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 14:16 — Anonymous (not verified)
has anyone thought this woman could be the anti christ?
ditto!! Stop
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 14:02 — Anonymous (not verified)
ditto!! Stop whining! Let's use this time well, to be the best, and win this election. Lets get active, now. Nothing could be more important. What else? What else can we do?
Our Declaration of
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:40 — Anonymous (not verified)
Our Declaration of Independence does not come from Christian origins. Most of the founding Fathers were Freemasons,and Huminists, or claimed no religious belief at all. If you want to argue this passage "The laws of Nature and Natures God" is clear they are talking about "mother nature" or science "natures God" It's PAGAN all over!!
hey sarah? the bible is what
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:08 — Anonymous (not verified)
hey sarah? the bible is what you follow?so i would guess Psalm 137 would be the policy for iraq and such?after all we are doing gods work there arnt we? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_137
Christian Republican males
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:24 — Jesus wept (not verified)
Christian Republican males will vote for McCain because, among other things, they think on some semiconscious or unconscious level that it will improve their chances of getting into the panties of women that look and think like Palin. So what if McCain's policies, combined with Palin's relgious extremism turns this country into a fascist, militant theocracy that goes bankrupt. These chickenhawks voted for the tits and boobs, and Jesus, and Bush-Mccain's machismo war machines that make them obscenely rich... so what do they care what would Jesus do if he was here again, because they believe that Jesus will forgive them of all their selfishness, greed and arrogance; as a result, they believe that when the time comes and they've ruined the Earth, they can take their wealth and power with them to heaven after they become immortal by the way of the Rapture. So in that way, the unchristian neocons that claim they are Christians, can have their cake and eat it, too... at the expense of our rights, drained us of all of our money and our very lives of course, but what do they care? Thanks to Bush in power, they got theirs.
We fought a Civil War and
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:21 — Anonymous (not verified)
We fought a Civil War and killed 1,000,000 of our fellow citizens a hundred and fifty years ago, in what was at base a conflict within the culture of this country. We didn't learn the lesson then, and we probably won't learn it this time, only this time there will be no use to learning it, cos there won't be anything to put back together again. The Lincoln of our time - Barack Obama - is villified for appealing to the better angels of our nature. I remember when America had ideals and hope and faith, and I have watched these past 60 years as they have all turned to dust and facsimile.
"Thou shalt not take the
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:00 — Anonymous (not verified)
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain." A pipeline? "God's will"?!? Why are the fundamentalist Christians not coming out of the woodwork to burn this blasphemous bitch at the stake, politically speaking?
What can all of us do at
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 05:25 — Joan (not verified)
What can all of us do at this stage of the game? Palin Palin is on the scene, alive and well. Now let's get out the vote and challenge the Republicans.Lets go to swing states and talk to people. Get on the phone lines. Make sure all our friends are registered and voting. Make sure the election is not stolen. Support, speak, protest, flood the media when they lie and let the candidates lie. Let's use this time well, to be the best, and win this election. Lets get active, now. Nothing could be more important. What else? What else can we do?
I am so damned sick of all
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 04:09 — Anonymous (not verified)
I am so damned sick of all the religious crap in our politics I could puke! This is what happens people when you don't get involved! The religious right has been working this path for decades! Wake up or you'll get what you deserve with Bush II and the sociopath.
she's beautiful no
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 03:30 — Anonymous (not verified)
she's beautiful no doubt! he loves it! but maybe he chose her because the both have the letter 'in' in their name. how sane!
to j. andersen,(see
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 03:24 — kl (not verified)
to j. andersen,(see above) unalienable rights are human rights. this republican party supports taking unalienable human rights and listing them under crimes and criminal behaviors. back to the drawing board. thanks for the history lesson. pro-life and pro-choice.
Choice is the whole point,
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 01:48 — kcjones (not verified)
Choice is the whole point, M. If America "chooses" the progressive/liberal way for her to go, over the traditional values/conservative way, either way the other half will be screaming they don't want to be forced to do what their opponents have chosen democratically! I don't want to see young children "forced" to be indoctrinated in public schools about the normalicy of homosexuality when I believe with all my heart they've been emotionally twisted somehow, somewhere in their lives, even if they are wonderful, productive, loving people in every other aspect. I don't believe abortion is about "choice" when the fetus is a viable, separate human being who just so happens to be inside their mother's womb. (abortion scripture, btw: Proverb 6:17....which should also convict some Republican warmongers) In fact, if you want something to talk to Christians about, try scripture. Try Proverbs 6:16-19 and apply them to President Bush, for example...And for all you people who think we actually evolved from nothing (ie: spontaneously generated), try watching Michael Behe's movie "Unfolding the Mysteries of Life". I challenge anyone to watch that and deny intelligent design. Or, "The Privileged Planet". Same deal. I'm not red or blue. I'm purple. Both platforms have awesome and horrible attributes. But "Hypocracy Now" (spelled that way on purpose) was the mantra for the last elections. PRO-WAR!! PRO-LIFE!! vs FREE LUV!! PRO-CHOICE!! Let's have some intelligent input on how we can actually live democratically. You know, extremists on both sides actually pull people to the middle, which is good. And for the record, I believe God's will will be done whoever is elected President, and that's what gives me peace. Jesus was no dullard. There are powers that be way beyond most of our understanding.
It is extremely embarrassing
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 01:10 — The embarrassed pastor (not verified)
It is extremely embarrassing and difficult to be a liberal Christian minister in this day and age. There are so many Christians (like those everyone is writing about) who have bastardized the religion and made it into something it is not. I wish people would understand that Jesus was an iconoclast, speaking out against the hypocrites of his day. If we would really pay attention to what he was saying and if we endeavored to follow his suggestions for living a good life, we would understand that what the Christian right and fundamentalists are expounding are man made rules that have nothing to do with Jesus' message. I asked my husband the other day where he would like to move to if the Republicans win. So far, Canada is the favorite. I don't know if they'll take us, but we can try. Pray for the highest good for our country.
As a Canadian, all I can say
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 00:04 — Peg Young (not verified)
As a Canadian, all I can say is, "God (assuming It exists) help America."
The ball is in Joe Biden's
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 00:00 — Carole Auger-Richard (not verified)
The ball is in Joe Biden's camp. Here's an exceptional occasion to kill the Palin myth! Go Joe go!
Sarah Palin is scary . Very
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 23:39 — Anonymous (not verified)
Sarah Palin is scary. Very scary indeed. She as well as John McSame are obviously just puppets of the right wing good 'ol boys that want to stay in power and turn back the clock . Where will it end, in armageddon? I can't believe a person with such an old brain who believes the word of the bible is true) could potentially be the comander in chief. If they steal the election for a third time, it will be time to get the hell out. God bless us all.
These are not Christians,
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 23:22 — Anonymous (not verified)
These are not Christians, but ANTI-Christians. Very very insightful, since in Greek anti can mean "instead of" or a replacement-counterfeit (cf: Liddell and Scott's unabridged Lexicon of Classical Greek). These wingnut Christians are indeed anti-Christians in every sense of the Greek word. Ironically, they may represent the very Anti-Christ they claim is presented in the Apocalypsis of St. John. Just a thought, but how wonderfully ironic.
Any one who says the United
The big dichotomy... I
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 22:47 — mapsguy1955 (not verified)
The big dichotomy... I don't get how the party of the neocons gets the votes of the Christian right. Were those all Christians at the ENRON parties? Didn't jesus say something about turning the other cheek? The Republican mantra is not "Drill Baby Drill", but "The world is REALLY scary, you should be terrified of anyone who doesn't think like us, it might make you GAY or you might be forced to have an ABORTION". The right couldn't possible be more wrong.
I think the diversity of
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 22:32 — Mike (not verified)
I think the diversity of religions is yet another positive dynamic at this unique time. Catholicism, United Church of Christ, Latterday Saints, United Methodist, Baptist, and Assembly of God. I think that if Tim Russert was still with us he would say, "What a country!"
Have the republicans noticed
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 22:28 — Anonymous (not verified)
Have the republicans noticed that they have completely lost control of their party? The sponsorship of McCain and Palin for America's highest office is an irresponsible, possibly criminal act, for which this country will pay dearly if they are elected. Listen to Obama please: America is better than this. Note to McCain: Constantly blowing your own horn about your POW experience does not convince anyone that you are better qualified. Lying about your opponent makes you look dishonorable. What a shame. Picking Sarah Palin makes you look like an idiot and a pawn, not a statesman. Sorry, old man.
So, dean men and women of
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 21:47 — granny (not verified)
So, dean men and women of the "professional" media, when are you going to visit her church, record the rolling and dancing and tongues-talking and armeggadon-expecting, and put it out there for all to see? If you would attack Barack Obama through attacks on his paastor, the same treatment should be accorded to Palin and her pastor. And has anyone vetted McCain's pastor, if he goes to chruch for other than press-op moments?
Christ taught us to love
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 21:22 — Anonymous (not verified)
Christ taught us to love God; to love your neighbor as yourself and to love your enemy. The"new and everlasting covenant" is about promoting the common good, not the chosen few of the old covenant. These people are not Christians-they're Anti-Christians
I'd like Palin to tell us
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 20:57 — M (not verified)
I'd like Palin to tell us what verse of her precious Bilble forbids abortion. Oh, KCJONES. There is a qualitative difference between gays (why you mention them as a voting bloc is mind boggling) and liberals. It's the democratic concept of "choice" which Republicans don't believe in. We won't MAKE you live a life you don't want. You, however, will force everyone to live the life YOU decide for us. That's just a tiny difference, don't you think? It's called Democracy. Ever hear of it?
You can't believe the Bible
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 20:43 — Anonymous (not verified)
You can't believe the Bible is literally true and believe that aborting a fetus is murder. Genesis 2:7 says that Adam wasn't a living soul until God gave him the breath of life. Exodus 21:22 says that if two men are fighting and cause a woman to abort her child, they must pay the father for the loss of his property, the fetus. Ecclesiastes 6:3 says that unless a man has a good life and a proper burial it is better that he be stillborn. People who say they believe the Bible is literally true should read it some time, Especially those scriptures where God commands the Israelites to commit genocide, killing men, women, children and that would include pregnant women and their fetuses. I don't believe God commits murder or commands others to do so.
I think calling Sarah Palin
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 20:42 — Oakjoan (not verified)
I think calling Sarah Palin "Gidget" is a VERRRY big mistake. Gidget was a cute, bouncy, sweet thing. There is NOTHING sweet about Palin. I can easily picture her using a German accent and saying "Vee vill conquer Poland!" A person who holds such ugly and wrong-headed beliefs is anything but cute. She is out to force her beliefs on all of us. This is doubly dangerous since she has proved during her political career that she has few moral scruples. I'm not afraid of her Armageddon and other fundamentalist beliefs, I am terrified of her history of unscrupulous and self-serving behavior in politics (getting back at enemies by having them fired, attempting to bring Fahrenheit 451 to the local library, changing her stance on issues when it became politically expedient). Of course this is not exactly far from the usual politicians' changeable stances, but they usually at least have the smarts to realize they'll be found out eventually. Most of them are not the subjects of governmental investigation as Palin is now. End of rant.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A Palin Theocracy
http://www.truthout.org/article/a-palin-theocracy
Truthout Original
A Palin Theocracy
THURSDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2008
Truthout Original
A Palin Theocracy
Thursday 11 September 2008
by: Marjorie Cohn, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate has invigorated a lackluster campaign. The media can't stop talking about her. Given McCain's age and state of health (his medical file was nearly 1,200 pages long), Palin would indeed be a heartbeat away from becoming president. But what would a Palin administration really look like?
(Photo: The Daily Pulse)
Palin is a radical, right-wing, fundamentalist Christian who would love to create a theocracy. She believes we are living in the "end times" which will result in a bloody inferno from which only true Christians will be saved. Palin recently attended a service in her Wasilla Bible Church run by David Brickner, who runs Jews for Jesus, a group the Anti-Defamation League criticizes for its "aggressive and deceptive" proselytizing of Jews. Those who don't accept Jesus as their savior will burn in Hell, according to Palin's brand of theology.
As governor of Alaska, Palin asked her congregation to pray for the natural gas pipeline, which she characterized as "God's will." She thinks the war in Iraq is a "task that is from God." Palin has pushed for creationism to be taught in schools, and she opposes stem cell research.
Palin's choice to have a Down syndrome child and her teenage daughter's choice to continue her pregnancy have made right-wing evangelical Christians ecstatic. But while she chose pregnancy, Palin would deny a woman victimized by rape or incest the right to choose abortion, and then criminally punish both the woman for having one and her doctor for performing it.
McCain would also love to inject a heavy dose of Christianity into his administration. A year ago, he declared, "The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation." Just about the only issue on which McCain has not flip-flopped is his opposition to abortion rights. The next president will almost certainly make at least one appointment to the Supreme Court. McCain has pledged to appoint judges in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito; these would also be Palin's preferred judges. Another conservative on the court would mean that Roe v. Wade would be overruled. That would return us to back-alley abortions with coat hangers.
Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, said that "this election is not about issues ... This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates." The Republicans know they will lose if they really focus on issues such as the economy, the war, healthcare, education and the environment. They are hoping that pro-choice women who supported Hillary Clinton will gravitate to Palin because she's a feisty - albeit anti-choice - woman. They are also banking on support from people who cannot bring themselves to vote for a black man.
But those non-evangelicals who back the McCain-Palin ticket do so at their peril. Not only will they continue to suffer four more years of the disastrous Bush policies; they will also find themselves living in a Christian theocracy.
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(The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer; she is not acting on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild or Thomas Jefferson School of Law.)
»
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Marjorie Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She is the author of "Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law." Her new book, "Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent" (co-authored with Kathleen Gilberd), will be published this winter. Her articles are archived at www.marjoriecohn.com.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sarah Palin "Facts"
http://www.palinfacts.com/
Just some boys having a little fun with Sarah's "pitbull with lipstick" image.
Just some boys having a little fun with Sarah's "pitbull with lipstick" image.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Republicans are Mean
Republicans are Mean
September 4, 2008
by Mary Lyon –
I sat through Rudy Giuliani and the debut of Sarah Palin – and I’ve come to only one conclusion. Republicans are mean. No whining here. I’m no Phil Gramm. Just an objective statement of fact based on first-person observation. Nasty. Snarky. Mocking. Sarcastic. Punch you in the nose first and then laugh at you because your face is full of blood and you look kinda funny now. And then kick you while you’re still down – don’t forget that one. Jesus says so. And then holler “USA! USA! USA!” and “Drill, Baby, Drill!” Nice people. And distressingly enough, on the second/third/whatever night of the Republican Convention, the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul was filled with them. And they sure don’t seem interested in winning my vote.
Sarah Palin winding up
Let’s see, how to appeal to all those wavering independents and disaffected Hillary supporters? Let’s insult those stupid Democrats and Obama people reeeel good and kick ‘em in the teeth, sneer at their efforts to be inclusive, to work toward unity and rehabilitate America’s damaged image around the world, or to help people in great need, and then make a shameless plea for their support at the polls. Scoff, especially rudely, at their community organizing efforts – the ultimate and most effective hands-on grassroots outreach programs that help people in need directly where they live – especially if government has turned its back. If Sarah Palin wasn’t belittling the community organizer, Rudy Giuliani before her was literally laughing at the very words “community organizer” every time he uttered them.
I wonder how the community organizers of America will take to this repeated slap-in-the-face - they who toil long hours for far lower pay and benefits (if they’re lucky) than Palin OR Giuliani likely have ever had to try supporting a family with. “Obama has never had to lead people in crisis,” Giuliani smirked. No, he’s merely been in the trenches with his sleeves rolled up, HELPING people in crisis, when he could have been in Manhattan, going for the big bucks like you’ve been doing, Rudy, ever since your time as mayor ran out.
Maybe Giuliani and Palin enjoy the luxury of being arrogant and smug like this because they’re fortunate enough never to have needed the help or ideas or energy or efforts of a community organizer. I’m sure these Republican celebrities and the conventioneers who snorted and stomped and ate it all up are, at heart, nice people. At least I would hope so. But that’s assuming they even have hearts. And unfortunately, I don’t see much evidence to support this from any of the behavior on display on Sarah Palin night.
Go to Original to read the rest of the article
Random Thoughts
I have combed through reams of material about Sarah Palin over the last few days. Numerous items stand out in my mind that I did not stop to document. I may get back to that later...ahem, anyways...
Here they are:
Rush Limbaugh has been touting Sarah Palin all summer. What do you imagine that the rest of the world will think of a candidate picked by an oxycontin-addict sex-tourist serial-adulterer bully who makes $300 Million dollars a year for telling lies and spreading fascist propaganda?
##
A picture of Sarah in college wearing a t-shirt that said, I may be broke, but I am not FLAT-BUSTED.
##
It might be helpful to rent the film The Dead Zone.
Palin is Greg Stilson, the secret Nazi candidate who charmed everyone with his simple talk and winning personality. Martin Sheen played Greg Stilson. It was masterful acting by everyone involved.
Walken played a man who had survived a serious head injury. When he regained functionality, he found a vacant area in his brain. He called it The Dead Zone. Unbeknownst to him, the Dead Zone was a well of intuition.
He resumed his teaching duties. Then he was tormented by visions of a Nazi rising to power. The face resolved into Sarah Palin. (Oops. I meant Greg Stilson.)
Here they are:
Rush Limbaugh has been touting Sarah Palin all summer. What do you imagine that the rest of the world will think of a candidate picked by an oxycontin-addict sex-tourist serial-adulterer bully who makes $300 Million dollars a year for telling lies and spreading fascist propaganda?
##
A picture of Sarah in college wearing a t-shirt that said, I may be broke, but I am not FLAT-BUSTED.
##
It might be helpful to rent the film The Dead Zone.
Palin is Greg Stilson, the secret Nazi candidate who charmed everyone with his simple talk and winning personality. Martin Sheen played Greg Stilson. It was masterful acting by everyone involved.
Walken played a man who had survived a serious head injury. When he regained functionality, he found a vacant area in his brain. He called it The Dead Zone. Unbeknownst to him, the Dead Zone was a well of intuition.
He resumed his teaching duties. Then he was tormented by visions of a Nazi rising to power. The face resolved into Sarah Palin. (Oops. I meant Greg Stilson.)
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Palin's vetting by Democratic Party in 2006
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/palin-vetting-documents-from-2006-for-hard-core-palin-addicts-only/
The page above links to the vetting performed by the Democratic Party in 2006, when Palin was running for governor.
Some selected items:
"Palin Used Part of the City’s Funds from the Alaska Revenue Sharing Fund to Fund Anti-Abortion Center. In 1997, Palin signed an ordinance appropriating $2,354 in funds to the Valley Crisis Pregnancy Center from the State of Alaska Revenue Sharing fund. The Valley Crisis Pregnancy Center lists itself as an “abortion alternative” in the Yellow Pages. [Ordinance 97-23, 4/14/1997; AlaskaYellowPages.com]"
Palin Opposed Shortening Bar Hours to Close at 3 AM Instead of 5AM. “The Wasilla City Council voted Monday to let bar and liquor store hours in the city keep the status quo. The business only have to close from 5 to 8 am, as required by state law. The ordinance would have closed the businesses 2:30 to 8 am weeknights and 3 to 8 am weekends…With a 3-2 vote, the Wasilla council members defeated the ordinance after a brief discussion. Council members Pat Hjellen and John Hartrick voted for the
ordinance, with council members Philip Lockwood, Sarah Palin and Dave Chappel opposing.”
[Frontiersman, 8/28/96]
Palin Left Behind Almost $19 Million In Long-Term Debt, Compared to None Before She Was Mayor. In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—the bonded long-term debt was $18,635,000. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the budget—there was no general obligation debt. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 10]
Long-Term Debt Was $3000 Per Capita When Palin Left, Compared to None Before She Was
Mayor. In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—the bonded long-term debt per capita was $2,938. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the budget—there was no general obligation debt. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 10]
Office Furniture and Equipment Increased 117% Under Palin. In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—Wasilla owned $741,589 in office furniture and equipment. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the budget—the city owned $342,449. The increase was 117 percent.
[Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, page 19; Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 1996 page
29]
Palin Called Herself “Such a Weasel” For Not Having a Firm Stand on the Property Tax Cap.
“Does that mean she’d vote for it? ‘I still have five more weeks to make up my mind, like everybody’s trying to do,’ Palin said. ‘I wish it were not a statewide issue.’ Palin said she has declined requests by Tax Cap Yes to speak in favor of the initiative. Yet, she said, she doesn’t object to her name’s continuing to be listed on the group’s Web site among 10 current or former government officials -- half from Mat-Su -- in support of the initiative. Palin acknowledged that she was sounding quite the politician. ‘I am so sorry I’m such a weasel,’ she said.” [Anchorage Daily News, 10/8/00]
Palin Signed Ordinance Exempting Personal Property From Taxes—But Created Vehicle
Registration Tax at the Same Time. In 1997, Palin signed an ordinance exempting personal property from the levy of the Wasilla personal property tax and establishing a motor vehicle registration tax. The ordinance said “motor vehicles shall be subject to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough motor vehicle registration tax, pursuant to MSB 3.15.035(B) levied and collected by the State in accordance with A.S.
28.10.431. As provided by A.S. 28.10.431(f), revenue received by the Matanuska Susitna Borough shall be allocated to the city.” [Ordinance 97-18 sub, 12/19/97]
The page above links to the vetting performed by the Democratic Party in 2006, when Palin was running for governor.
Some selected items:
"Palin Used Part of the City’s Funds from the Alaska Revenue Sharing Fund to Fund Anti-Abortion Center. In 1997, Palin signed an ordinance appropriating $2,354 in funds to the Valley Crisis Pregnancy Center from the State of Alaska Revenue Sharing fund. The Valley Crisis Pregnancy Center lists itself as an “abortion alternative” in the Yellow Pages. [Ordinance 97-23, 4/14/1997; AlaskaYellowPages.com]"
Palin Opposed Shortening Bar Hours to Close at 3 AM Instead of 5AM. “The Wasilla City Council voted Monday to let bar and liquor store hours in the city keep the status quo. The business only have to close from 5 to 8 am, as required by state law. The ordinance would have closed the businesses 2:30 to 8 am weeknights and 3 to 8 am weekends…With a 3-2 vote, the Wasilla council members defeated the ordinance after a brief discussion. Council members Pat Hjellen and John Hartrick voted for the
ordinance, with council members Philip Lockwood, Sarah Palin and Dave Chappel opposing.”
[Frontiersman, 8/28/96]
Palin Left Behind Almost $19 Million In Long-Term Debt, Compared to None Before She Was Mayor. In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—the bonded long-term debt was $18,635,000. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the budget—there was no general obligation debt. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 10]
Long-Term Debt Was $3000 Per Capita When Palin Left, Compared to None Before She Was
Mayor. In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—the bonded long-term debt per capita was $2,938. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the budget—there was no general obligation debt. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 10]
Office Furniture and Equipment Increased 117% Under Palin. In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—Wasilla owned $741,589 in office furniture and equipment. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the budget—the city owned $342,449. The increase was 117 percent.
[Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, page 19; Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 1996 page
29]
Palin Called Herself “Such a Weasel” For Not Having a Firm Stand on the Property Tax Cap.
“Does that mean she’d vote for it? ‘I still have five more weeks to make up my mind, like everybody’s trying to do,’ Palin said. ‘I wish it were not a statewide issue.’ Palin said she has declined requests by Tax Cap Yes to speak in favor of the initiative. Yet, she said, she doesn’t object to her name’s continuing to be listed on the group’s Web site among 10 current or former government officials -- half from Mat-Su -- in support of the initiative. Palin acknowledged that she was sounding quite the politician. ‘I am so sorry I’m such a weasel,’ she said.” [Anchorage Daily News, 10/8/00]
Palin Signed Ordinance Exempting Personal Property From Taxes—But Created Vehicle
Registration Tax at the Same Time. In 1997, Palin signed an ordinance exempting personal property from the levy of the Wasilla personal property tax and establishing a motor vehicle registration tax. The ordinance said “motor vehicles shall be subject to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough motor vehicle registration tax, pursuant to MSB 3.15.035(B) levied and collected by the State in accordance with A.S.
28.10.431. As provided by A.S. 28.10.431(f), revenue received by the Matanuska Susitna Borough shall be allocated to the city.” [Ordinance 97-18 sub, 12/19/97]
Sarah Palin's Scary Belief in Apocalyptic Religion and Censorship of Free Speech
http://www.theimproper.com/Template_Article.aspx?IssueId=3&ArticleId=2291
(see videos at the original article, linked above)
Sarah Palin's Scary Belief in Apocalyptic Religion and Censorship of Free Speech
By Keith Girard
It should come as no surprise that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been the subject of widespread rumors. She was a total unknown before Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate. Of course, most of the rumors are untrue.
She has no horns, has not appeared (as far as we know) in a porn flick and has no sex tape, although she may have had an extramarital affair. But a couple of things are true -- and troubling -- about Alaska’s governor, and they go beyond irresponsible parenting that led her unwed, teen daughter to become pregnant.
Religious, Political Extremism
Politically, Palin is a religious fundamentalist whose views on censorship and religion are not only far outside the mainstream, but show no regard for one of our most important rights, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. When our forefathers drafted the Constitution, the realized afterward that it contained no specific provisions safeguarding what they believed to be unalienable rights of all individuals. Thus, the first ten amendments became known as the Bill of Rights.
It’s no coincidence that the First Amendment safeguards the right to freely practice any religion without government interference, i.e. separation of church and state, and the right to free speech. The founding fathers believed these rights were basic to our democracy and our way of life. They knew from first-hand experience that tyrants maintain power by silencing free and open debate, and use religion to subjugate and persecute individuals.
Censoring Thought and Speech
When any individual is elected to public office, even as mayor of a tiny Alaskan town, they must swear to uphold the Constitution. But Palin attempted to impose her own beliefs on the hapless citizens of the town, and to censor thoughts and ideas she did not like. When she first became mayor in 1996, she asked the city librarian if she would agree to ban certain library books should she be asked to do so.
But librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, rejected the idea out of hand. Emmons said the books in the Wasilla Library collection were selected on the basis of national selection criteria for libraries of that size, and she said she would resist all efforts to ban books. A few months later, Palin fired the librarian, claiming she did not fully support her.
Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. Palin was forced to reverse her decision after a wave of public opposition. Emmons courageous stance prevented Palin from actually bannng books at the Wasilla Public Library, despite Palin's determination to do so.
In an interview with the local newspaper, Emmons said Palin ask her at least three times about possibly removing objectionable books from the library. During an October 1996 City Council meeting, Palin again raised the issue. Later when questioned by the paper, Palin said her inquiries were just a “policy discussion.” After the meeting, however, Palin fired Emmons, who incidentally, had supported the incumbent mayor.
Anti-Semitism, Apocalyptic Visions
Palin’s religious extremism is another assault on the First Amendment. She justified the Iraq War and the construction of a $30 billion gas pipeline through Alaska as “all part of God's plan.” Her religious fundamentalism is rooted in the Wasilla Assembly of God where the pastor is a fiery apocalyptic extremist, who believes the world is clearly divided between good and evil.
He’s preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode." More than once, he has denounced criticism of President Bush, and said those who did so were going to go to hell… literally.
As for Palin, he said her election as governor was the result of a "prophetic call" by another pastor at the church who prayed for her victory. "[He made] a prophetic declaration and then unfolds the kingdom of God, you know."
One of Palin’s new preachers at the church she now attends in the state capital said during a sermon last month (Aug. 17) that Jews' "unbelief" in Jesus was the reason for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The pastor also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.
So far, Palin hasn’t said or done anything to distance herself or denounce these hate-filled rants, nor has she explained her views on supporting and upholding the Constitution.
In a presidential election that is focusing on our terrible economy, the threat of terrorism and other weighty issues, such small town politics may seem inconsequential. But Palin could soon be a heartbeat away from becoming leader of the free world. Her disregard for our fundamental freedoms is far more troubling that whether she’s been photographed in a bikini or had extramarital affairs.
(see videos at the original article, linked above)
Sarah Palin's Scary Belief in Apocalyptic Religion and Censorship of Free Speech
By Keith Girard
It should come as no surprise that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been the subject of widespread rumors. She was a total unknown before Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate. Of course, most of the rumors are untrue.
She has no horns, has not appeared (as far as we know) in a porn flick and has no sex tape, although she may have had an extramarital affair. But a couple of things are true -- and troubling -- about Alaska’s governor, and they go beyond irresponsible parenting that led her unwed, teen daughter to become pregnant.
Religious, Political Extremism
Politically, Palin is a religious fundamentalist whose views on censorship and religion are not only far outside the mainstream, but show no regard for one of our most important rights, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. When our forefathers drafted the Constitution, the realized afterward that it contained no specific provisions safeguarding what they believed to be unalienable rights of all individuals. Thus, the first ten amendments became known as the Bill of Rights.
It’s no coincidence that the First Amendment safeguards the right to freely practice any religion without government interference, i.e. separation of church and state, and the right to free speech. The founding fathers believed these rights were basic to our democracy and our way of life. They knew from first-hand experience that tyrants maintain power by silencing free and open debate, and use religion to subjugate and persecute individuals.
Censoring Thought and Speech
When any individual is elected to public office, even as mayor of a tiny Alaskan town, they must swear to uphold the Constitution. But Palin attempted to impose her own beliefs on the hapless citizens of the town, and to censor thoughts and ideas she did not like. When she first became mayor in 1996, she asked the city librarian if she would agree to ban certain library books should she be asked to do so.
But librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, rejected the idea out of hand. Emmons said the books in the Wasilla Library collection were selected on the basis of national selection criteria for libraries of that size, and she said she would resist all efforts to ban books. A few months later, Palin fired the librarian, claiming she did not fully support her.
Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. Palin was forced to reverse her decision after a wave of public opposition. Emmons courageous stance prevented Palin from actually bannng books at the Wasilla Public Library, despite Palin's determination to do so.
In an interview with the local newspaper, Emmons said Palin ask her at least three times about possibly removing objectionable books from the library. During an October 1996 City Council meeting, Palin again raised the issue. Later when questioned by the paper, Palin said her inquiries were just a “policy discussion.” After the meeting, however, Palin fired Emmons, who incidentally, had supported the incumbent mayor.
Anti-Semitism, Apocalyptic Visions
Palin’s religious extremism is another assault on the First Amendment. She justified the Iraq War and the construction of a $30 billion gas pipeline through Alaska as “all part of God's plan.” Her religious fundamentalism is rooted in the Wasilla Assembly of God where the pastor is a fiery apocalyptic extremist, who believes the world is clearly divided between good and evil.
He’s preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode." More than once, he has denounced criticism of President Bush, and said those who did so were going to go to hell… literally.
As for Palin, he said her election as governor was the result of a "prophetic call" by another pastor at the church who prayed for her victory. "[He made] a prophetic declaration and then unfolds the kingdom of God, you know."
One of Palin’s new preachers at the church she now attends in the state capital said during a sermon last month (Aug. 17) that Jews' "unbelief" in Jesus was the reason for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The pastor also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.
So far, Palin hasn’t said or done anything to distance herself or denounce these hate-filled rants, nor has she explained her views on supporting and upholding the Constitution.
In a presidential election that is focusing on our terrible economy, the threat of terrorism and other weighty issues, such small town politics may seem inconsequential. But Palin could soon be a heartbeat away from becoming leader of the free world. Her disregard for our fundamental freedoms is far more troubling that whether she’s been photographed in a bikini or had extramarital affairs.
Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”
LA Progressive
“The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here,” an insurance agent in Anchorage who knows the Palin family, explained. “It’s corrupt and arrogant. They’re all rich because they do private sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they have to.”
Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”
September 5, 2008
by Charley James –
“So Sambo beat the bitch!”
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.
“It was kind of disgusting,” Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the “lower 48” about life near the North Pole.
Then, almost with a sigh, she added, “But that’s just Alaska.”
Racial and ethnic slurs may be “just Alaska” and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We’re talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.
No wonder the vast sea of white, cheering faces at the Republican Convention went wild for Sarah: They adore the type, it’s in their genetic code. So much for McCain’s pledge of a “high road” campaign; Palin is incapable of being part of one.
Tough Getting People Who Know Her to Talk
It’s not easy getting people in the 49th state to speak critically about Palin – especially people in Wasilla, where she was mayor. For one thing, with every journalist in the world calling, phone lines into Alaska have been mostly jammed since Friday; as often as not, a recording told me that “all circuits are busy” or numbers just wouldn’t ring. I should think a state that’s been made richer than God by oil could afford telephone lines and cell towers for everyone.
On a more practical level, many people in Alaska, and particularly Wasilla, are reluctant to speak or be quoted by name because they’re afraid of her as well as the state Republican Party machine. Apparently, the power elite are as mean as the winters.
“The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here,” an insurance agent in Anchorage who knows the Palin family, explained. “It’s corrupt and arrogant. They’re all rich because they do private sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they have to.”
“Once Palin became mayor,” he continued, “She became part of that inner circle.”
Like most other people interviewed, he didn’t want his name used out of fear of retribution. Maybe it’s the long winter nights where you don’t see the sun for months that makes people feel as if they’re under constant danger from “the authorities.” As I interviewed residents it began sounding as if living in Alaska controlled by the state Republican Party is like living in the old Soviet Union: See nothing that’s happening, say nothing offensive, and the political commissars leave you alone. But speak out and you get disappeared into a gulag north of the Arctic Circle for who-knows-how-long.
Alright, that’s an exaggeration brought on by my getting too little sleep and building too much anger as I worked this article. But there’s ample evidence of Palin’s vindictive willingness to destroy people she sees as opponents. Just ask the Wasilla town administrator she hired before firing him because he rebelled against the way Palin demanded he do his job, or the town librarian who refused to hold the book burning Walpurgisnach Mayor Palin demanded.
Ironically, Palin was pushed into hiring the administrator by the party poobahs who helped get her elected after she got herself into trouble over a number of precipitous firings which gave rise to a recall campaign.
“People who fought her attempt to oust the librarian are on her enemies list to this day,” states Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla resident and one of the few Alaskans willing to speak on-the-record, for attribution, about Palin. In fact, Kilkenny actually circulated an e-mail letter about Palin that was verified and printed by The Nation.
For good measure, Palin booted the Wasilla police chief from office because, she told a local newspaper, he “intimidated” her.
Running on Extreme Fringe Evangelical Views
Sarah Palin drew early attention from state GOP apparatchiks when, during her first mayoral campaign, she ran on an anti-abortion platform. Normally, political parties do not get involved in Alaskan municipal elections because they are nonpartisan. But once word of her extreme fringe evangelical views made its way to Juneau, the state capitol, state Republicans tossed some money behind her campaign.
Once in office, Palin set out to build a machine that chewed up anyone who got in her way. The good, Godly Christian turns out to be anything but.
“She’s doesn’t like different opinions and she refuses to compromise,” Kilkenny notes. “When she was mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t hers. Worse, ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits but on the basis of who proposed them.”
Sound familiar? Palin may well be Dick Cheney’s reincarnate.
Something else has a familiar Republican ring to it: Her tax policies, and a “refund surpluses but borrow for the future” attitude.
According to Kilkenny and others in Wasilla as well as Juneau, Palin reduced progressive property taxes for businesses while mayor and increased a regressive sales tax which even hits necessities such as food. The tax cuts she promoted in her St. Paul speech actually benefited large corporate property owners far more than they benefited residents. Indeed, Kilkenny insists that many Wasilla home owners actually saw their tax bill skyrocket to make up for the shortfall. Two other Wasillian’s with whom I spoke said property taxes on their modest, three bedroom homes rose during the Palin regime.
To an outsider, it would seem hard to do, but an oil-rich town with zero debt on the day she was inaugurated mayor was left saddled with $22 million of debt by the time she moved away to become governor – especially since nothing was spent on things such as improving the city’s infrastructure or building a much-needed sewage treatment plant. So what did Mayor Palin spend the taxpayer’s money on, if not fixing streets and scrubbing sewage?
For starters, she remodelled her office. Several times over, as a matter of fact.
Then Palin spent $1 million on an unnecessary, new park that no one other than the contractors and Palin seemed to want. Next, Sarah doled out more than $15 million of taxpayer money for a sports complex that she shoved through even though the city did not own clear title to the land; now, seven years later, the matter is still in litigation and lawyer fees are said to be close to at least half of the original estimated price of the facility.
She also worked hard to get voters approval of a $5.5 million bond proposal for roads that could have been built without borrowing. Anchorage may not be the center of the financial universe but, like good Republicans everywhere, Sarah Palin knows how to please Alaskan bankers and bond dealers.
For good measure, she turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots.
Sarah Barracuda
En route to the governor’s igloo, Palin managed to land what Anne Kilkenny says is the plumb political appointment in the state: Chair of Alaska’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC), a $122,400 per year patronage slot with no real authority to do anything other than hold meetings. She took the job despite having no background in energy issues and, as it turned out, not liking the work.
“She hated the job,” an OGCC staff member who is not authorized to speak with the news media told me. “She hated the hours and she hated what little work there was to do. But she couldn’t figure out a way to get out of the thing without offending Gov. Murkowski” and the state Republican Party regulars, some of whom were pissed off they didn’t get appointed.
But ever the opportunist, Palin quickly concocted a way. First, she waged a campaign with the local news media claiming that the position was overpaid and should be abolished – despite the fact that she lobbied Murkowski hard to get it. Then, mounting what she saw as a white horse, Palin raised a cloud of dust by resigning from the OGCC and riding away with an undeserved reputation as a “reformer.”
But when a local reporter dared to suggest that the reformer Empress has no clothes, Palin tried to get her fired.
“She came at me like I was trying to steal her kids,” said the targeted reporter, who now works for an oil company in Anchorage. “I heard she had a wild temper and vicious mean streak but it’s nothing like you can imagine until she turns it on you.”
Not surprising since some of her high school classmates still openly call her “Sarah Barracuda,” Kilkenny insists.
Still, as a Republican Party hack Palin managed to get herself elected running under the false flag of a “reformer.”
And what did she bring to the job? No legislative experience other than a city council of a village of 5,000 people, which is smaller than some high schools in Chicago. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; after all, she needed to hire a city administrator to run Wasilla. No executive experience, except for almost being recalled as mayor. A philosophy of setting public policy based on one word: No.
And what has she done since winning the job?
According to Kilkenny, nothing. Well, nothing other than suggesting the state’s multi-multi-million dollar, oil-generated surplus be distributed to residents and finance future state needs by borrowing money. Gee, doesn’t that sound precisely what George Bush did with the surplus he inherited from Bill Clinton in 2001 and we all know in what great shape Bush’s economic policies left the nation.
It may explain why, when asked by reporters, including me, what she thought about Palin being picked to be McCain’s running mate, her mother-in-law replied with a sardonic, “What has Sarah done to qualify her to be vice president?” Of course, when the woman – said by many I spoke with to be well-respected in Wasilla – was running to succeed Palin as mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her, so that may explain the family tension.
As Governor, Palin gave the legislature no direction and budget guidelines, according to the chair of a legislative committee. But then she staged a huge grandstand play of line-item vetoing countless projects, calling them pork. “They were restored because of public outcry and legislative action,” the aide said. “She vetoed them mostly because she had no idea what they were or why they were important.”
But it was enough to get the McCain, who is mostly unobservant of the world around him anyway, to think Palin has a reputation as being “anti-pork”.
In fact, Juneau observers note that Palin kept her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork ladled out by indicted Sen. Ted Stevens. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be politically unwise to keep supporting it, these same insiders assert. Then, Palin fell back on her old habits and publicly humiliated him for pork-barrel politics.
As for being “ready on day one” to be commander in chief, despite the repeated public claims she’s made, the Alaska National Guard commander said that, “she has made no command decisions, other than sending some troops to help fight a few brush fires and march in parades at county fairs.”
“Sambo Beat the Bitch”
“Palin is a conniving, manipulative, a**hole,” someone who thinks these are positive traits in a governor told me, summing up Palin’s tenure in Alaska state and local politics.
“She’s a bigot, a racist, and a liar,” is the more blunt assessment of Arnold Gerstheimer who lived in Alaska until two years ago and is now a businessman in Idaho.
“Juneau is a small town; everybody knows everyone else,” he adds. “These stories about what she calls blacks and Eskimos, well, anyone not white and good looking actually, were around long before she became a glint in John McCain’s rheumy eyes. Why do I know they’re true? Because everyone who isn’t aboriginal or Indian in Alaska talks that way.”
“Sambo beat the bitch” may be everyday language up in the bush. Whether it – and the outlook, politics and worldview Palin reflects when she says such things in public – should be part of a presidential campaign is another thing altogether. The comment says as much about McCain as it does about Palin, and it says a lot of things about Americans who overlook such statements (as well as her record) and vote anyway for McCain.
by Charley James
Charley James is an American journalist, author and essayist who lives in Toronto.
Reprinted with permission from The Progressive Curmudgeon
Earlier articles by Charley:
“Bush Lied, They Died” Draws a Drunken Punch
Placid Lake Woebegon Begets a Nasty Police State
Edwards The Confessor vs. McCain’s Ongoing Philandering
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