Open Thread – Quote of the Week
In keeping with the mood of last week, I thought I’d share a quote that really made me think of … someone.
It’s from Harry Frankfurt, a philosopher who wrote an essay entitled “On Bullshit.”
(I slide my reading spectacles down on my nose and read to you.)
“While the liar deliberately makes false claims, the bullshitter is simply uninterested in the truth. Bullshitters aim primarily to impress and persuade their audiences. While liars need to know the truth, the better to conceal it, the bullshitter, interested solely in advancing his own agenda, has no use for the truth. Bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.
Discuss.
If you can’t dazzle ‘em with your brilliance
Baffle ‘em with your bulls^*t………
Ha ha ha ha best quote.
You betcha!!!!!!!
For all Mudpuppies who, of course, are quite unable to bullshit, here is a bullshit generator all of your own.
http://dack.com/web/bullshit.html
Netroots Nation scholarship voting ends Monday. If you haven’t voted yet, please take a moment to click here: http://democracyforamerica.com/netroots_nation_scholarships/609-ian
And big thanks to all who helped put Ian in the #2 spot, next to Shannyn. (Now let’s keep him there.) The Mudflats Nation will be well represented!
Sarah, the BS Door Plower, has hung out her stumping shingle. DemoCrat Conservatives can now apply.
Those silent minorities out there that have been hiding under rocks (or beds) are now shouting from the rooftops about her even “fresher” air. Brilliant maneuvering again, Sarah finds a niche and fills it – and finds rabid and devoted friends along the way.
I remain afraid, not of Sarah, but her followers.
It seems like I am talking to myself. Maybe all of the Alaskans are fishing….
So I am going to re-post this here (one last time):
I have enjoyed the $arah bashing as much a the next person but I am starting to feel sort of like I am picking at a scab. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely do not want her anywhere near the POTUS spot and will do everything in my power to prevent that.
However, as an Alaskan, we have some bigger problems to attend to right now. Please see anonymous bloggers post from today. We need to shed some light on the problems that exist right now.
Our summers are very short and it seems that very few people are paying attention due to the latest $arah media hogging.
The big question is how can we help our fellow Alaskans before things get to a crisis stage?
Taking the media spotlight off of $arah is what bugs her the most. Perhaps that is what we should do. I, personally, need a little Palin detox.
Has anyone heard from JHop lately? Any updates on her efforts? I notice that Grimes slime is still up on the ADN site.
Please, please, please read the anonynous bloggers most recent post. This is IMPORTANT.
Reminds me of when I was going to college. The B.Sc was referred to as bullsh!t. The M.Sc……more sh!t. And the Ph.D…..piled higher and deeper.
If the bull-shitter is a sociopath bent on taking over the world for Jesus, then we should be quite afraid of the bull-shitter.
My BS meter went into full alarm mode the first time I saw Scarah on stage, at the RNC convention spewing lies and snark with her empty sound bites.
Lovemydogs – thanks, I will go to anonymouse blogger site now. High hopes that Parnell will not ignore this issue like his predecessor did.
Seems to me it is possible to be both a liar and a bullshitter. Sarah seems to balance both nicely, with some narcissism thrown in.
Lori in LA: I’m not sure that it can wait for Parnell.
This stuff is SO freaking scary!!! I thinks it’s really good it’s getting exposed, again. It was brought to the forefront in 2005, after that it went underground.
Thank you Sanford and Ensign for screwing up and blabbing them out! Let’s go viral with this. It is SO wrong. And it is SO dangerous!
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/05/0082488
Yup, that sure sounds a lot like simple sarah.
Voted Lani. I think I was 85??
I agree with lovemydogs’ comments. We have huge and immediate problems here in Alaska that need to be addressed. Lets stop focusing on Sarah, and start focusing on getting the new guv, the legislature, agencies, and others to put their attention and resources where they are needed. The fisheries crash has huge impacts, not to mention rising costs of fuel, transportation, and everything related…
(copied from end of last thread…I can’t keep up)
Gramian – Just did a quick google. He addressed Coe’s Annual National Prayer Breakfast in Feb. Apparently every Pres. has done that since Eisenhower. He did just get some heat for not attending the National Day of Prayer activities – definitely not Family-related.
The msnbc link dated April ‘09 included Obama as attending some Coe meetings. It doesn’t seem that Obama’s policies fit the Coe ideology. Perhaps Obama attended as a young Senator to gain connections and see what it was about…same for Hillary…and, hopefully, stopped going.
And to Gramian’s prayer – I say, Amen!
I’m with you I See Villages from my House – freakin’ scared.
I think you should go to the Huffington Post.
Your favourite lady [LOL] is mouthing off again.
Even saying she is willing to camphaign for the Democrates.
Go read, I’ll love to see your reaction to this artical.
Is she trying to start her own party?
I am just getting a chance to check in, yes busy with fishing for last few weeks, but “love my dogs” is right.
We DO have much to do and as exciting as it might seem to some to know SP is leaving our time needs to be filled with preventative things for this winter.
Between Eagle, the Yukon fish, and fuel deliveries there is much to do.
Anonymous Bloggers did raise some good questions today, as others have in the past.
Let’s put some of our summer energies into doing things BEFORE the crisis!!
Victoria
Ugashik, AK
scaredinfairbanks: Have any ideas where we can start?
lovemydogs (5?)
I was just answering on the other thread and learned about this one.
You’re 100% right. And I feel irritated that I let myself get sidetracked on Ms Quittercup instead of focusing on building up (tell me that isn’t one of the catch-phrases, please?)
Not quite the latest post, but still critical… The last I knew, Eagle was ready to build, but still hadn’t gotten any gravel, which I believe was supposed to come via the state? Are they still waiting? Have they gotten it yet?
Going to reread the latest post, want to get a better sense of it.
Thanks for the reminder, lovemydogs
Say No to Palin – thanks for the Harpers link.
scaredinfairbanks – I really appreciate your concern about too much focus on Sarah. AKM will no doubt keep the focus on the AK concerns you mention. I do think this discussion helps towards that if Parnell, the choice for Lt. Gov and a judicial appointee are committed to Sarah’s bad policies.
Hillary is involved with this group? whoa This old world keeps getting stranger and stranger. I don’t know what to say. Please don’t tell me Obama has ties to it, please no.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/09/hillarys-prayer-hillary-clintons-religion-and-politics
“When Clinton first came to Washington in 1993, one of her first steps was to join a Bible study group. For the next eight years, she regularly met with a Christian “cell” whose members included Susan Baker, wife of Bush consigliere James Baker; Joanne Kemp, wife of conservative icon Jack Kemp; Eileen Bakke, wife of Dennis Bakke, a leader in the anti-union Christian management movement; and Grace Nelson, the wife of Senator Bill Nelson, a conservative Florida Democrat.
Clinton’s prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or “the Family”), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to “spiritual war” on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship’s only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has “made a fetish of being invisible,” former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.) The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God’s plan.”
Quote from George Carlin:
“Just ’cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.”
Bush & Company, anyone?
Lovemydogs. I get what you’re staying.
But I think of Sarah Palin’s political career and influence more like killing a roach. Sometimes you really have to stomp on it over and over to make sure it’s really, really dead.
My husband is going to call the volunteer coordinator in Eagle re: the gravel issue and what else they still need as soon as I get off-line (dial-up is such a drag). I will try to get the gravel question answered and get back to everybody on that one. It will be later a I have a lot to do around here today.
Meanwhile maybe we can brainstorm on how to put some pressure on the powers that be to get things moving before it is too late.
Maybe Phil and Shannyn and Gryphen can help to guide us while AKM is gone. I have no idea where to start on the Yukon issues but want to do everything I can as soon as I can.
Thanks for listening. Mudpups can be powerful when we come together and it might as well be for a cause that is more important than SP will ever be.
I, for one, would like the soon to be X-GINO to quickly fade from the press, however, she seems determined to keep herself in the Limelight reaching for the pwerful brass ring. And if she can’t get it for herself – she will continue to throw those of no further use – under the bus – while she hitches herself to another to get where she thinks she deserves to be. Am afraid that J.McC choice to be “mavericky” has given us this Frankenstein.
“I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation,”
read nore @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/12/palin-will-campaign-for-d_n_230226.html
I just read the post @ anon bloggers…. they kept saying, is anyone doing this, is anyone doing that…well if you want something done you must do it yourself! Write to your government officials! Call them demand something be done? The blog states that villages “are quiet” WHY??? The squeaking wheel gets the grease!!! I don’t know about tribal laws but Nick Tucker wrote a letter and let the world know what was going on a Emmonak! No one else… him! And something got done. He did not sit around saying, is anyone doing this, or that? He did it, he spoke out! Since xgino QUIT, All of the people concerned should be hammering Parnell about what he’s going to do about the situation. Most of the villages have email they should be flooding Parnell with email! We all know xgino won’t lift a finger except to bring cookies.
The Villages need to get together somehow. We know they have power, they were a big influence in the NON-appointment of WAR.
“I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation.”
Does anyone know any Independent or Democratic candidates that would believe in Sarah’s version of “the right things”?
Even Republicans don’t want her campaigning for them.
The only campaigning she might do is for a few really right wing whackjob candidates who are really desperate..
AGH, they’re even in hollywood infiltrating movies!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/discover-the-secret-right_b_29015.html
“Less than 72 hours before ABC’s “The Path to 9/11″ is scheduled to air, the network is suddenly under siege. On Tuesday, ABC was forced to concede that “The Path to 9/11″ is “a dramatization, not a documentary.” The film deceptively invents scenes to depict former President Bill Clinton’s handling of the Al Qaeda threat.”
I understand what you are all saying about “the roach”. And I appreciate and hear what you have to say about it. I have no intention of ignoring the damage that she can still do (in fact still is doing).
I need to make her insignificant for a little while in my own mind and follow the path of PO. I just need to put my energy towards what I can do right now for other people in my state who need my attention more.
The basis of every good horror movie is something you can’t kill.
lots of good stuff here……
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/11/752404/-Ensigns-D.C.-House-Owned-By-Group-Touting-Christian-World-Control-Plot
Sayonara Sarah
“Nobody will ever know”: if nobody will ever know, it’s fair game to unleash a ginormous whopper of a lie.
“But does it really matter?”: Palin knows that if she declares that she was found innocent in the Trooper investigation, the media will report her statement.
Palin deliberately makes false claims, to ‘impress and persuade’ her gullible audience. On the other hand, as a bullshitter, she’s interested only in advancing her own agenda, having no use for the truth.
Is Palin clever enough to be a bullshitting liar? (She is a Republican!)
This is an older (short) video that I had not seen before. In it, Walt Monegan says of Palin: “I’d die for her, but I WON’T lie for her.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ET01GUhY3w&NR=1
Such a brave, honorable man – lest we forget the lives this dangerous woman has ruined.
crystalwolf@24:
The native population here are very proud people. They got the news to come out and document (on camera) their illegal fishing so that they could get the word out. It was heart rending.
I believe that the anonymous bloggers point was that they need us to listen. They were not responsible for getting rid of WAR all on their own.
They tried to truck their own fuel in and, unfortunately, that resulted in a crash with environmental results (not very well covered in our local press).
If you read the comments over there, they are thinking about organizing but it is difficult and that is something they have to address themselves.
In the meantime, I believe that we can also be heard (as we were with WAR). It is harder when the legislature is not in session. If they have to go into special session it might be the time to really hammer them. Unfortunately, my own legislators are very conservative and this does not seem to be a priority for them.
Youth With a Mission also runs a global Christian evangelism educational ministry headquartered at the University of the Nations 45 acre campus in Kona, Hawaii.
http://www.uofnkona.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=133&Itemid=182
crystalwolf aka caligrl Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 1:16 PM
I just read the post @ anon bloggers…. they kept saying, is anyone doing this, is anyone doing that…well if you want something done you must do it yourself!
******
I’m sure Ann and Vic can answer this better than I can, but I would like to address this. First, this is the busy season for the villages. They are fishing and rebuilding, and people who have a job for the summer are working their butts off. No time for sending letters and emails to government officials. Summer is short and intense up there.
Second, I think there is a natural resistance to contacting the government, due to the tradition of self sufficiency and the poor responses to Native issues. If you are used to making do, and nobody listens to you anyway, you end up shrugging and going back to doing what needs to be done.
Yes, people need to step up and push the issues, but I think much of that load should fall on the Native corps (I belong to CIRI) and to Alaskans in general. Just as everybody turns out in the midwest to fill and stack sandbags when it floods, EVERY Alaskan needs to get involved and help the villagers. It’s about people, it’s about community, it’s about being a good citizen.
Maybe xgino going by way of the Constitution party??
http://www.theopalinism.com/blog/2009/07/07/constitution-party-not-the-gop-palins-true-party/
Womanwithsardinecan: Thank you.
Why didn’t George Carlin stay around for the campaign? He is missed!
Yikes! I understand Mother Jones is pretty dependable.
Crystal, on the Native village issue, I’d been meaning to post this when all hell broke loose with Ensign, Sanford, MJ, the dipsh*t…….I saw it as a good sign and thought Scarah had bess watch her p’s and q’s, but now she can just go to hell for all I care. I’m not in the best mood over all this crappola, sorry. Will someone post it on anonymous site please. I need some fresh air and a flower to look at.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/849456.html
“The White House announced Tuesday that five Cabinet secretaries will be visiting Bethel this summer as part of a nine-state tour to find out how “communities, states, and the federal government can work together to help strengthen rural America.”
The August 12 visit to Bethel will include Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack. They’ll be discussing rural infrastructure, green jobs and climate change, the White House said.
“A healthy American economy depends on a prosperous rural America, President Obama said in a statement released Tuesday. “Rural America is vast and diverse, and different communities face different challenges and opportunities. That’s why we’re going out to hear directly from the people of rural America about their needs and concerns and what my Administration can do to support them.”
The White House said that the goal is to hear about “the diverse set of challenges and opportunities facing the small towns and rural communities that are so integral to the fabric of American life.” They will report back to the president about the state of rural America and what the administration can do to strengthen it, the White House said.”
I have to go. So many things to get done. I will come back later, hopefully with news on Eagle.
Thanks for listening.
Perhaps someone could re-post where we can send letters/e-mails to whomever we need to send them to in order to light a fire under their butts?
wow this 3 r d wave is everywhere this morning and I am only just learing about it… morning mudflatters!
Like Curiouser, I have been trying to catch up this the last two threads….I’m not caught up yet. But, to answer someone’s question a while back, I offer this link. This article you might find interesting….at the bottom are a list of the folks he appointed.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ObamaAnnouncesWhiteHouseOfficeofFaith-basedandNeighborhoodPartnerships/
Backing to catching up…………
Apologies guys – just dug a lot of posts out of the spam filter.. seems like AKMuckraker forgot that sh!t is considered a swear word by the spam filter!
If you’re going to use the word, put something else in where the i is, and you wont end up in spam.
While we try to forget about SP and her scary followers, I bet she fears that we will. I imagine her fighting the urge to send tweets reminding people to think of her, like
“Senate hearings on supreme court nominee all next week, so instead watch my old youtube interviews with Greta on FOX”
Gotta run….keep up the fun!
Need some mudpup sympathy- just learned that Twittercup’s first non-gov speaking gig will be a mile from where I live, at the Reagan Library. Oh no, I can see Sarah from my house!
The article says no press allowed – what a surprise!
Say NO to Palin in Politics Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Crystal, on the Native village issue, I’d been meaning to post this when all hell broke loose with Ensign, Sanford, MJ, the dipsh*t…….I saw it as a good sign and thought Scarah had bess watch her p’s and q’s, but now she can just go to hell for all I care. I’m not in the best mood over all this crappola, sorry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
You would think the Gov. would go and make a full report, but obviously the FEDS don’t trust in her to do that so they are coming out themselves which is a good thing
Lovemydogs: go to the SOA webpage and just start emailing everyone! I wouldn’t bother with HER, but concentrate on getting info from Parnell what are his plans to help out the villages ASAP! Remind him the FEDS are coming to, to light a fire under his ass. Ann S might know, or some others here on mudflats whose cage to rattle, but rattle it you must!!!! Alaska has put up with governing by 140 characters or less (thanks Shannyn) and photo ops, and cookies, and Platitudes from gov grifter, now is the time to put Parnell on notice it will not be business as usual that All Alaskans and Especially Rural Alaska needs help NOW so not to have a repeat of last winter. It is you right!!!
Don’t accept anything less.
I had to remove MRFF’s link in order to get you to the article ……now I am going outside. I feel better that someone got busted. I think I’ll donate to this guy. This is a cause I can get behind. Spred the word mudpups while this “family” business is in the news. It’s more important than pea brain.
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/press-releases/christian_embassy.html
At last, truth to power. As Mark Twain so presciently said, “A lie goes half-way around the world before truth gets its boots on.” The Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s (MRFF’s) long diligence in requesting investigation has now resulted in the US Department of Defense Inspector General’s determination of misconduct on the part of high-ranking Pentagon personnel. For four years, MRFF Founder Mikey Weinstein has worked to ensure the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which all Americans are entitled.
To #19 Say No to Palin:
Yes, Hillary does seem to be part of “The Family.” I posted about it in the previous Open Thread but my comment is in moderation (probably because I included 2 links).
Here’s one of the links, this one to a 2008 piece by Barbara Ehrenreich in The Nation. http://tiny.cc/FamilyNation
The short definition of unethical behavior: lying.
@snoskred – to my disgrace your post prompted sh!ttercup to pop into my lazy brain – off to naughty corner for afternoon.
@52 Linda (Celtic Diva) Says: July 12th, 2009 at 2:03 PM
IMO, Gov. Palin thinks that she leaves ethical restraints behind her in the gov’s office. But I think there’s no flying under the radar for her any longer. Those darn bloggers are everywhere!
…good to see y’all starting to focus on Alaska issues and picking up after Gino’s messes……..but can you keep her up there?? just saw she’s coming to Cal….aarrghhh !!! ..and thinking about starting a 3rd party ??? at least she’s going to SoCal, and not NorCal !! Snort !! can just imagine her in Pelosi Country !!! hehehhe!
And you know what they also say: You can’t bullsh!t a bullsh!tter.
I do believe she had lying and BS-ing down to a science. A sick, twisted, self-aggrandizing, deadly form of science.
Hi Linda (CD). Read your site, and am hoping you finally get some answers. Keep encouraged!
Never heard of “The Family” and having been in church circles in the past, never heard any references to it. Some conspiracies I have read about, and cannot take any of it seriously. For instance, several authors have suggested some churches are secretly affiliated with some grand world takeover scheme, brotherhood, elite world power brokers who are placing leaders like pieces on a chessboard onto world politics, leaders that are alligiant to a great New World Order, which will eventually raise one man to dominate the world kind of stuff……..sorry, kind of like the Da Vinci Code……(music from Twilight Zone).
48 peggno in socal Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 1:54 PM
Need some mudpup sympathy- just learned that Twittercup’s first non-gov speaking gig will be a mile from where I live, at the Reagan Library. Oh no, I can see Sarah from my house!
The article says no press allowed – what a surprise!
——————-
peggno, as tough as it may be, and especially since there will be no press, will you be our eyes and ears?
AK is the place to invest. 15 new oil & gas explorers rcvd $193M cash from State for their tax credits in FY09. http://tinyurl.com/l2y68b
about 5 hours ago from web
********************************************************
There are quite a few oil & gas operators in Giddings. sarah was there 5 days hangin’ out. Wonder if she was doin’ some bidness ?? Gonna have to check on that list of 15……….
55 benlomond2 Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 2:22 PM
…good to see y’all starting to focus on Alaska issues and picking up after Gino’s messes……..but can you keep her up there??
——————
ooooooh no, we Alaskans like to share the love!
peggno
I feel your pain, dear.
talk about bullsh!t!
“I understand that Sarah made the decision where she can be the most effective for Alaska and for the country,” McCain told NBC’s “Meet the Press”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/12/mccain-offers-words-encouragement-resigning-palin/?test=latestnews
I’m looking for positives……
I am grateful the FBI investigated, broke open and stopped the awful grave site selling scam. Thank you FBI and all who helped put a stop to this.
geez, this guy is nuts. link @# 62
“In all due respect to those who like to examine the entrails and look backward, the fact is we were three points ahead on Sept. 15 and the stock market crashed and we went seven points down. Sarah Palin ignited our party. We were winning and we could have won,” he said.
austintx
It’s also possible, since her religion moved to AK with the oil and gas people out of TX and OK, that her stay was more religious oriented.
Levi is going to be on Monday, I think on the today show, it’s an exclusive. I suppose Scarah will try to steal the limelight back, she doesn’t like to share.
Closet Mudpup -
I saw where she stayed. The person prays at the altar of $$$.
Thanks Nan.
AKGrrl – I’ll let you know what happens when she speaks here Aug. 8.
Benlomond2: I’d send her up to you, but I love Ben Lomond too
much. It’s so peaceful and beautiful there.
austintx, so where did she stay?
GA Peach a/k/a Lance the Boil aka Crust Scramble
I’ve heard that argued, but it was just prior to the Wall St panic that Couric interviewed Rapture Barbie, and the polls that were taken in between those events show the polls reacting to Palin’s interview prior to McCain’s “the fundamentals of the economy are strong!” I believe Nate Silver talked about that way back when (fivethirtyeight.com).
austintx
I understand. lol
48 peggno in socal Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 1:54 PM
Need some mudpup sympathy- just learned that Twittercup’s first non-gov speaking gig will be a mile from where I live, at the Reagan Library. Oh no, I can see Sarah from my house!
I am close by too – wondering if there should be a protest outside, but I AM afraid of her rabid, gun-toting followers. I posted the question (on whether or not to protest) over at the forum.
Sarah Palin Has Lost Her Nerve
“Palin’s biggest supporters have been appalled at her transformation. Just before the Alaska legislature opened this year’s session, a bipartisan group of state senators invited Palin to join them on a retreat. Palin sat at one end of a conference table and listened as Gary Stevens, president of the Alaska Senate, a Republican with a reputation for congeniality, expressed pleasure that she was attending.
Smiling, Stevens asked if she would like to share some of her plans and proposals for the coming legislative session.
Palin looked around the room and paused.
“I feel like you guys are always trying to put me on the spot,” she said.
The room became silent.”
http://www.newsmax.com/kessler/palin_resignation/2009/07/06/232320.html
When and where is Buttercup going to be here in So Cal? I will go! Yeppers!
calipat, invite only. http://newsminer.com/news/2009/jul/12/palin-slated-appear-california-after-resignation/
I didnt think I could get in. Just thought I’d go to see what I could see and take some pictures of the Palinbots and see what we are up against and report back to Mudflats.
Sheesh, invite only and NO PRESS. This group thinks Palin will show up without any Press? I wonder if they have a contingency plan.
I look forward to your observations califpat.
Suchanut: Will do,
CG -
Are you on Forum ??
“For most people, the fact that a statement is false constitutes a reason…not to make the statement.
“For St.Augustine’s pure liar, it is…a reason for making it. For the bullshitter, it is in
itself neither a reason in favor or a reason against… The bullshitter…does not reject the authority of truth, as the liar does…he pays no attention to it at all.”
From: “On Bullshit” by Harry G.Frankfort (via http://members.shaw.ca/nspector3/vansun30.htm)
Many people tend to assume that Sarah Palin is just ‘ignorant’ in the true sense of the word: She just doesn’t know and that’s it. Probably hasn’t had an original thought in politics at all. She is probably a good(intentioned) mother etc etc etc…but she is not mature or objective enough to be President of anything…
As I see it, she seems hardy, primitive, superstitious…but mainly, she seems dishonest to me, a BULLSHITTER using charm like a dirty old man with candy and puppies who tries to talk children into getting into his car.
califpat –
Don’t know if you ckd. at the other open thread before this one , but several ‘pups spoke and had links to “the Family”. Lot of info out there on these creeps. I know the other nite you were very interested in these people.
The good ladies of the California Federation of Republican Women should plan to hold on tight to their Arnold Palmers at lunch on Aug 8. This is a very solid old-school/ pro-business/Jr League/conservative Republican organization. http://www.cfrw.org/ They are celebrating their 50th anniversary. I don’t know that they are aware that they have invited the Talibunny into their midst. Seven Mountains dominionism will be news to them. And why is $P even bothering with these elderly Reaganites when she is purportedly bursting thru the open door of a new Independent Conservative Movement?!
hey califpat and austin and everybody. just checking in.
these dominionists are scaring the heck out of me.
califpat and peggno – I am standing by ready to help if you think there is ANYTHING we can do to attend Reagan Library event or get a respectable number of protestors together. No Press allowed? Wondering if, once exGINO finds this out, if she will do a “no-show.” Is the “ex first family” invited? Is there a big enough platform and high-tech microphone for her Hgihness?
Those Republican women folk better get their act together and bow down to the grifter’s probable list of demands.
Bubbles – these dominionists are scaring the heck out of me too! But we must not be paralyzed by fear. We must bravely take them on. It is the patriotic thing to do.
hey bubbles !!
New thread!
Any Texans in the house?
Any comment on this development way down yonder in TX? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/12/gail-lowe-perry-picks-cre_n_230167.html
Seems like some of the SP ol’ time religion is hitting you folks now. Where I live now, and before I moved here, Cobb County schools have a brou-ha-ha over use of stickers in biology books – creationism v evolution. Court case resulted in removal of all stickers….
no, austintx, it didn’t work out for me at all…I’m going to have to learn how to do it. Never did find JHop’s letter…
From the Newsminer article: “Group spokeswoman Pat Saraceno said the invitation-only event is closed to the media. Several hundred people are expected. The master of ceremonies for the event with be conservative radio talk-show host and filmmaker John Ziegler.”
This must have been negotiated pre-resignation. She probably didn’t confirm until she knew it was no media except her buddy John Ziegler (like he won’t have a camera around while Palin is there).
That is, if she has confirmed and does show up.
And if she does, I will be interested to see if Todd accompanies, or any of her children, and who pays for them – the PAC or the event planners.
@austintex: The more I read, the more frightening they seem.
@Bubbles: Glad youre back.
@Lori: Whatever you guys want do, believe me, I am at the ready.
I just had The Discovery Channel on and Mike Rowe from the ‘ Dirty Jobs ‘ Show was on and doing stories about Alaska. Showed different types of tasks going on… working in the cold etc… One shot as they are getting out of the Airplane on the water carrying their gear they become familiar with the famous Mudflats mud. (mostly on their backside or course)
Mike learns how to be a ‘ musher ‘ and drive a dogsled team. One fact given by the owner of the Dog Team says if racing the dogs can run for as long as 10 hours straight without stopping. He really loves his dogs as well…. just like they were family.
Since the name of the show is “Dirty Jobs”… of course one segment shows them trying to repair and clean the broken ‘ Incinolet’.
For all of the Alaskans… you know what I am talking about. For those NOT from Alaska… you probably don’t know about ‘ Incinolets ‘ ( I didn’t)
Lets just say it fits right in with the ‘Topic ‘ of this Open Thread.
(Google…-amazing what you can find)
I’ll bet $arah needs a BIG one though.
PepperzMom (GA) -
I know this sounds crazy , but she is 3rd pick. The 1st two would never fly. Here is the Austin paper’s take on it. Perry really is staking as far right as possible. KBH knows how to street fight if need be……..it’s gonna be a doozey. Throw in sarah spewing her lunacy , and well , we should just pitch a big top tent and call it a circus .
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/07/10/lowe_to_lead_state_board_of_ed.html
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/07/10/lowe_to_lead_state_board_of_ed.html
Haven’t read everything–but you want BS? A gem of a “tweet” from Sarah:
Problem w/Professional Politicians:They’re more concerned w/holding a title in perpetuity than just accomplishing goals they promised voters
10:17 AM Jul 11th from TwitterBerry
Soooo–I guess that doesn’t apply to her??? Maybe she didn’t “promise” the voters anything….
Someone asked about JHop earlier. Has anybody heard from her or know that she’s alright? Just concerned.
#57 rebekkah, “Some conspiracies I have read about, and cannot take any of it seriously.” With respect and courtesy – that’s the main reason this stuff (and ethics issues!) go unchecked.
Church is for spiritual goodness, you go to chuch, you’re good people, your church isn’t doing that, therefore, it’s not happening and you can’t take it seriously.
It’s in Assemblies of God. Look for the phrase “bible-believing”. It’s not based on the teachings of Christ, but based on obediance to the bible taken literally, as written. Lots of people contributed writings to the bible, but I’ve never seen Jesus’ writings.
Read this article.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/05/0082488
“Not a conspiracy but a cultural transformation, achieved gradually through promotions and prayer meetings, with personal faith replacing protocol according to the best intentions of commanders who conflate God with country. They see themselves not as subversives but as spiritual warriors—“ambassadors for Christ in uniform,” according to Officers’ Christian Fellowship; “government paid missionaries,” according to Campus Crusade’s Military Ministry.” (emphasis mine)
“A spokeswoman for the Pentagon says the military has dealt with fewer than fifty reports of religion-related…But an abundance of evidence suggests that the Pentagon is ignoring the problem. I spoke to dozens…: soldiers, sailors, and airmen who spoke of forced Christian prayer in Iraq and at home; combat deaths made occasions for evangelical sermons by senior officers; Christian apocalypse video games distributed to the troops; mandatory briefings on the correlation of the war to the Book of Revelation; exorcisms designed to drive out “unclean spirits” from military property; beatings of atheist troops that are winked at by the chain of command.”
“Left Behind”, Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven – Christian warriors in full battle gear, patrolling the streets of New York battling for souls against the forces of evil—the “Peacekeepers.” The mission of these warriors is to force everyone else to either convert, and line up with the forces of good (the “Tribulation Force”) or be killed, with their bodies left to rot in the streets. The game’s website notes that killing unbelievers will cause gamers to lose “spirit points” — however, a quick post-bloodbath “prayer” session will rack those points right back up. The game shouts, “Praise the Lord!” every time an unbeliever is blasted away. Gamers can also switch to embody the spirit of the “AntiChrist” and literally devour fundamentalist Christians.
“…2003 Billy Graham rally—televised around the world on the Armed Forces Network—at which he declared the baptisms of 700 soldiers under his command evidence of the Lord’s plan to “raise up a godly army.””
“I asked him [military zealot Young] about an allegation made to MRFF by a captain who served under Young: that Young had made remarks that led him to be relieved of his command. It was true that he had been relieved of command, he admitted, but he had appealed and won. And the remarks? “All that was, I was speaking in reference to inner-city problems and whatnot. I said that the irony is that it would be better for a black to be a slave in America and know Christ, than to be free now and not know Christ.””
“For the fundamentalist front, though, the Constitution is itself a blueprint for a Christian nation. “The idea of separation of church and state?” an Air Force Academy senior named Bruce Hrabak says. “There’s this whole idea in America that it’s in the Constitution, but it’s not.””
At the Air Force Academy, senior Jon Butcher [leads] an underground all-male prayer group.”I was allowed to attend but not to take notes as around twenty-five cadets discussed lust and missionary work, the girlfriends whose touches they feared and the deceptions necessary for missionary work in China, where foreign evangelism is illegal. Butcher asked me not to disclose the group’s name; those who do believe in separation of church and state might interfere with its goal of turning the world’s most elite war college into its most holy one, a seminary with courses in carpet bombing.
““God has told me to become an infantry officer,” Butcher said, explaining his decision to transfer from the Air Force to the Army upon graduation. A pilot has only his plane to talk to; an infantry officer, said Butcher, has men to mold, Iraqis to convert. “Everything is a form of ministry for me,” Butcher said. “There is no separation. I’m doing what God has called me to do, to know Him and to make Him known.””
As long as I brought up sandbagging in the midwest, I would like to say that the issue that kept appearing last winter during the Native food crisis, that the Natives just ought to move, is analogous to people living on flood plains in the midwest. People in the rest of the country do not constantly bring up the question of why people live along rivers that flood regularly, yet those same people were the ones to harp on the idea that the Natives should just MOVE. As a retired geologist, I take exception to that blind spot. The concentration of populations on floodplains that regularly flood costs this country millions of dollars every year, yet we just say get flood insurance and call it good. Flood insurance is subsidized by American taxpayers. Time for those same taxpayers to subsidize the marginalization of Natives.
Okay, rant done. Return to your regularly scheduled Palin fest.
Funny stuff.
Governor’s tweeter, June 12:
We’re gearing up for a beautiful summer in AK, full of boating, swimming & fishing – plan ahead & bring lifejackets for BOTH adults & kids.
5:47 PM Jun 12th from web
Doesn’t sound like planning ahead with her resignation. Or bringing life jackets.
PepperzMom (GA)
One of our Arizona state legs made the news last week for speaking up in favor of opening up Uranium mining – and because she wasn’t concerned about the environmental aspects because the earth has been here for 6,000 years without environmental regs and it seems to be doing just fine.
I liked these wingnuts a lot more when they were content to amuse us with their obsessive compulsion to play rock LPs backwards at half speed and shriek about the satanic messages.
CG -
Now thats some funny s^*t !! Well we know which blog sarah follows…………..
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha !!!!!!!
Funny she mentions that CG, she wasn’t wearing a PFD in some of those gratuitious PR Bristol Bay clips with all those prime MSM networks.
I saw a photo of the Whack Job recently and she had a bottle of Smart Water in the photo with her. LOL. I wish I could remember where I saw that photo. It was in one of the links I got in one of the threads here. Anyone remember seeing it?
After Reagan left the presidency, his supporters bought him a house.
There was one little problem, though. The house number was 666. They had it changed. So Sarah should be in her own element there giving her speech.
Reagan was the first Chance, the Gardiner – Chauncey Gardner, American politician. W, the second, and Sarah Palin, the third, and hopefully, the last.
Lori, califpat and peggno
During Shannyn’s show, senator W…..sky (sorry about the spelling, or lack of) mentioned that $arah may be requested to stay on for two or more weeks in order for the legs to confirm the Lt Gov. Those nasty legs are already hampering her golden future.
Republican Women Federated of Simi Valley announced Palin was scheduled to speak to the group’s private gala on Aug. 8 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. The event _ reporters will not be allowed to attend _ will take place in an airplane hangar that houses a retired presidential aircraft Air Force One and will stir more questions about he curious resignation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/12/palin-will-campaign-for-d_n_230226.htm
What ever happened to her mantra « Walk the and talk the » bs. I bet she didn’t dare go that place in her recent interviews.
In my life i have been blessed to know some of the FINEST bs-ers ever. Now i have learned that a good bs-er needs a truelly honest person to bs to. Otherwise it just aint workin.
A good bser knows you cannot fact check in the instant. being polite one assumes that all is what they say it is. That is the grounding of an honest person. A bs-er will know this instinctively and thrive on it. That is what bs thrives on… Honesty… If you find yourself doubting what has been said. You can feel good knowing that you are but an honest person.
A really good bs-er will stop short of revealing the bs.
A bad bs-er will not stop and reveal their bs. Does this sound like something we see???
Tamara: If Buttercups is forved to stay in Alaska against her will, I say Yay!! But if she slithers to Simi Valley, California I will be a foot soldier lurking and flashing my camera in full force to observe. Yeppers!!
@califpat, and others, I have spoken to JHop by e-mail. Feel free to PM her with your e-mail address to talk.
womanwithsardinecan
about that flooding… I’d say yes and no. There was some snark in various papers around town, but mostly, people seemed to understand “a 500 yr flood, whaddya gonna do?”
After a month or so, more people were fussing about the looks of the “tent cities” around town, as if there were any choice about it.
Later, there was a huge amount of commercial building going on smack in the middle of what had been farmland that had been 6 feet underwater for five months. Still doesn’t make sense.
Mostly, you’re right. Even with
Califpat
Will be looking forward to seing some photos of snarky signs held by determined CA mudpups.
oops. Bad proofreading. end with “you’re right.”
@tamara: Most definitely!!
@problem child: I have not done a PM in a while and have forgotten how to. Can someone enlighten this PM challenged Pup as to how to Pm someone.
And thanks problem child for informing me that JHop is doing fine. That’s a relief/
womanwithsardinecan, I appreciate your attempts, but I almost can’t talk about it anymore.
First of all – there was no real plan on anyone’s part to come up with long-term solutions in the first place.
This issue in not new! It’s been part of the reality of bush Alaska for decades, going back to the boarding school days. And then Molly Hootch.
Second – I’ve been politely reminding people in real life, on internet blogs like this one, that this is not a Native problem, it’s a bush Alaska problem, a problem of rural geographically-isolated communities. So on Shannyn Moore’s most recent radio show, there they go again-the “Native village” problem…
Why do I object to that? Bush Alaska is not exclusively “Native”. There are people who live in villages; this is a community problem and shouldn’t be defined by ethnicity. It’s insulting and ignorant. These are villages with municipal governments under state covenant; anyone can move there, and if they do, they’ll face the same logistical and economic challenges of life as anyone else. It’s got nothing to do with being Native.
As evidenced in interviews of non-Native bush residents this winter, the airtaxi station manager, the Christian school teacher, etc. I asked a question that went unanswered – are the NON-NATIVE village residents having economic difficulty? Are they paying the same prices for heating fuel, gasoline, goods? How are school teachers getting fuel when there are shortages?
No answer. Well, I can guess. Anyone who is not a traditional indigenous resident is subsidized by someone to be there! So someone is planning for and underwriting the subsistence logistics and expense for teachers, construction crews, station managers, pilots, etc. Providing the fuel for their tanks, and seeing to their needs from the outside, whether it’s cost-effective or not!
As long as we participate in the language that makes it a Native problem, then it will BE a Native problem. Saying Native villages minimizes the issue.
As long as it’s a Native issue, then Natives should take responsibility and grassroots themselves out of it. The end. Nothing more to talk about. And both sides can throw around the term ‘sovereignty’, both sides can wax rhetorical about how the ANCSA corps should/should not be responsible and the reasons why/why not.
And no, our corporation bigshots will not be taking responsibility. It’s not their job. Like all for-profit corporations, their job is to see to the bottom line of the corporation.
We’ll send cookies and hire a Native-looking guy to be the government advisor, so that those Natives will feel more comfortable.
Ironically, the only reason this got any attention at all is because Non-Natives that live in rural Alaska villages brought it to the attention of the outside world. Nobody cared what Nick Tucker said, before that.
North Pacific Management Council has been talking about responding to the bycatch crisis for decades. Good Lord! Do a google search, read the stuff going back to Murkowski’s administration.
But really, what is the answer?
Self-determination IS happening; some villages are installing wind projects and Ted Stevens enthusiastically supported those projects. With cash. And training. The Denali Commission is doing its absolute best to follow through.
But the talking heads have already decided that unconventional alternatives are not cost-effective, too Star Warsy, too unconventional, won’t work, can’t be maintained, yadda yadda yadda. Nope-can’t do geothermic, nope-can’t do wind, nope-can’t maintain infrastructure.
Our very American, very white public officials cannot see other options, like looking at European and Canadian models of infrastructure in arctic communities – construction methods, asphalt, energy, recycling, water and sewer treatment. You know, Alaska is not the only cold-weather environment in the world. We could look to the rest of the world, you know? We need to be done with methods, models and “expertise” from Oklahoma and California.
Phew. I’m done.
Bravo CG!
I’m sure the answers are on here somewhere, but I’ll still ask…when palin steps down (off), won’t her investigations continue? jail time in her future? return lawsuits from those she is now slandering? And when she spews and incites hatred across the country on her “any party” tour, should we be afraid? it doesn’t take much to crazy up her crowd and for her to fuel violence. (gulp) You see what she did with the restraints of a government office…what will she do when she is on the loose? :O
Yes, Bravo, CG!
Lainey – I dunno…if her appearances incite hatred and result in a crime, I hope there is a federal authority that would address it as a hate crime and cite the Whack Job as a causal factor. How that would work, I have no idea.
CG; read Harper’s article, from #97; after having known many christians, they don’t fit into that category; the ones I know are good, give the shirt off their back, law-abiding people, with daily struggles, and no time or energy for the kind of behavior in that article. It does sound concerning though. I think the reason so many young people today are looking to this “fringe” in christianity is that it creates an appeal for an exciting adventurous “high-calling” life, which is can be deceptive. They totally ignore the “fruit of the Spirit” – love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, as evidenced in that game video.
Am not trying to preach christianity here. But, will just share this, from my experience. There seems to be an element like these in the article that have left their “first love”, and are in love with power, self-aggrandisement, all the opposites of the fruit of the spirit that I mentioned above. They want the “gifts of the spirit” without the fruit.
The gifts of the spirit are wisdom, knowledge, working of miracles, faith, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues , likethe stuff you may have seen in the Murthee video. When men put their personal unbiblical slant on it, they dishonour it’s purpose. It has never been commanded to use the gifts of the spirit for selfish motives, only for personal aid, and always used with the fruit. Maybe that is why so many christians today are leaving these institutionalized churches. A study found millions have left in the last few years. The wolves in sheep’s clothing are coming home to roost.
Am hoping more and more people are wise enough to see through them.
Harry Frankfurt’s seminal, if not excretory, work, “On Bullshit,” was preceded by Fritz Perls, who classified most conversation/exchange of pleasantries and ideas into three categories:
Chickenshit: small talk, exchange of clichés.
Bullshit: rationalization, explanatoriness, talk for talk’s sake.
Elephantshit: high level discussion on religion, Gestalt therapy, existential philosophy, etc.
Googling these terms to verify that Perls was indeed the author, i saw some interesting attributions in other languages, which chose to keep these important terms not translated into their own languages, to preserve their integrity.
–mudred
Where eschatology meets scatology
Certainly there are non-Native people in the Bush. I’ve known some of them. And I’m part Native. However, part of the reason some of the issues don’t get addressed is due to the Native aspect. It is certainly good that you educate people that it is not just a Native problem, but you can’t just ignore the elephant in the room.
A simple analogy: When I lived in a remote canyon in Arizona, we had a 100 year flood that took out the power, the phones, and the roads. There were only 5 people living in the remote canyon, including us. The nice phone co-op got our phones back in record time, in less than a week. Part of the road got fixed to 4WD level in a week or so. But we were off the power grid for 3 months. Not because it couldn’t be fixed, but because of political issues. I’m not going to go into the details. My point is that we finally said to the power co-op that if the head of the local Mormon church lived in the canyon, it would have taken two weeks to get the power up and running. But because we weren’t the correct demographic, we got blown off.
lovemydogs Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 1:20 PM
I understand what you are all saying about “the roach”. And I appreciate and hear what you have to say about it. I have no intention of ignoring the damage that she can still do (in fact still is doing).
I need to make her insignificant for a little while in my own mind and follow the path of PO. I just need to put my energy towards what I can do right now for other people in my state who need my attention more.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Lovemydogs, I completely understand where you and others are coming from. What I think is that some of us are focused on the forest, while others are focused on the trees. It takes us all to solve the problem, and this is not just an AK issue. SP has shown by her lack of empathy and help towards AK native peoples, as well as other areas hard hit (Eagle), that she thinks the people have to help themselves without Gov. aid. She told the AK villages in the west that they needed to get new elders to guide them (WTF!)…the implication of her words is that the ones who are already guiding the villages need to get with the program – her program. The religious fanatics she aligns herself with want to get ALL of the aid for helping out disaster victims into private hands, and this is a world-wide phenomenon. If we cannot get this political agenda stopped, it doesn’t matter what we do in the short term to help; people will be facing the same issues again and again and again.
That being said, I am not implying that your efforts to help out in the immediate crisis are for naught; like I said to begin with, we are all important in the process. Like you, we all have to pick and choose our battles according to our own internal compasses. Don’t give up; I am not. I really value what you and others are doing.
68 peggno in socal Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 2:53 PM
Thanks Nan.
AKGrrl – I’ll let you know what happens when she speaks here Aug. 8.
Benlomond2: I’d send her up to you, but I love Ben Lomond too
much. It’s so peaceful and beautiful there
———
YUP !! A bit warm today..wish they’d let us up put the dam back in !
Methinks Gino is gonna start her own political party, with the right wing supporters as her base…. after seeing the names for the book, maybe suggestions for her party name would be fun to submit ????
womanwithsardinecan said: “People in the rest of the country do not constantly bring up the question of why people live along rivers that flood regularly, yet those same people were the ones to harp on the idea that the Natives should just MOVE. As a retired geologist, I take exception to that blind spot.”
I respectfully beg to differ. Remember what people said after Katrina? Folks said people in New Orleans should move, why should we spend money rebuilding levies, whyshould people get to rebuild on the MS gulf coast. After massive floods in the ’90s along the entire Mississippi River, people asked why people should be helped to stay. It happens everywhere; doesn’t make it right, though.
Obviously this thread wasn’t fun anymore, but I’m going to keep on going…
A deconstruction of Sarah’s recent tweets about stimulus money~
Caution w/new “short-term 1-time only” Stimulus Pkg programs:”The nearest thing to eternal life we’ll see on earth is a govt program”-Reagan
8:01 AM Jul 11th from TwitterBerry
More talk of #2 “Stimulus” Pkg? Please no- for so many reasons- incl the 1st one hasn’t done what’s promised, & debt forced on AKn kids is..
about 21 hours ago from TwitterBerry
selfish & immoral bc it robs their future opportunities!”If there is trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace”Thomas Paine
about 20 hours ago from TwitterBerry
The Denali Commission NEEDS that energy stimulus funding!!
NOW!! Not next year. That would put Alaska a huge step forward in intelligent solutions.
Construction and barge season is almost over. Hot weather and not enough rain means rivers are too shallow for the fall barge runs.
NAHSDA, HIP, etc. provide weatherization funds, fuel and electric vouchers, home improvement grants, modifications for disabilities and improvements to sub-standard housing. Right now there is a waiting list for those services with ‘shovel-ready’ projects in bush Alaska.
Not only are these programs going to help families meet their needs economically this winter, but there are also a significant number of people in care in Anchorage (amputees, parapalegics, elders and children with medical needs) at enormous expense to Medicaid/Medicare (thousands per day), who could be in their own homes in villages, who cannot GET home, because they can’t physically manage without modifications. They qualify for disability services, but can’t have it because it’s dependent on that energy stimulus resource.
The benefits to communities are multi-dimensional and trickle down. Home modifications put villagers to work on construction projects and deliver paychecks. People coming home to live creates jobs and expands existing labor pools, as well as creating opportunity for skill development and training-administration, personal care attendants-and creates room for developing other service-delivery business that doesn’t exist right now.
Our elected public representatives said yes, we should do that. But based on her self-righteous personal philosophies and ignorant mantra about “growing governent”, Sarah said NO. For all of us.
Her lack of business acumen shows. She doesn’t know or care that smart and successful business owners routinely get capital investment loans to ‘grow’ their businesses and expect a return on the risk. She must not understand that Todd’s fishing operation requires pre-season investment, either out of pocket or P.A.F. (Pay After Fishing).
Hellloo? That’s what “Economic Stimulus” is trying to get at!
I don’t know who her advisors are (and I think that should be made public), but I think we’re all aware by now that decisions affecting a collective of 600,000 Alaska citizens are being driven by a small circle of financially-secure Christian elitists from Wasilla and Anchorage.
She is “selfish & immoral” in that she refuses to acknowledge that there is already a legacy of wont and debt “forced on AKn kids” in rural Alaska, the villages, in Anchorage, in Kenai, yes, even Wasilla.
Her administration “robs their future opportunities” by selfishly refusing to participate in federal solutions offered to state governments in a national economic crisis and recession.
This generation is dealing with the issues, NOW. She’s going to help bankrupt what few businesses there are in bush Alaska. What happens when fishing is poor, prices are low, you can’t buy groceries and pay bills? You stop buying goods from the local stores! Ya stop makin’ the payments on the snowmachine, 4-wheeler, skiff and outboard motor you got on credit from Todd’s mother. You don’t buy that over-priced couch and refrigerator from Sarah’s mother-in-law.
We can do nothing about any of this as long as she’s the governor. We cannot effect positive change while she stands in the way, in a critical decision-making position.
Sarah. Shut. Up.
Clear out your desk and go. I don’t care what you do, what happens next for you. I don’t care how you spin straw into gold for you and your kids. Good on ya, more power to you. Not my problem, nor my interest. I wish you every success. In somebody else’s world. In California or Texas. Great, go.
We’re gonna need an expensive special session? I think Sarah’s travel expenses, per diem, and salary for the last month should just about cover it.
Giddyup~
115
CG Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 5:48 PM
Wow. Just wow.
Thank you very much! I can not put into words the difference between Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin.
CG, we don’t want her in California!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Lainey: Too late! Rumor is, Buttercup will be here in California, Aug 8, in Simi Valley. At least it is just for one day and she is all yours Alaska. My condolences.
CG – your passion is contagious. Keep speaking out!
Let me guess.
The Quitbull’s speech at the Reagan Library is by invitation only and there is a price involved along the lines of those “plate dinners”. It’s going to be out of the price range of the average American’s descretionary income and certainly for any blogger/spy eyes and ears type.
We’ll probably never know what’s said. And we probably don’t want to know.
I’m sure this is a first in a series of “Palin Pocket Lining” speaking engagements.
womanwithsardinecan, which elephant in the room? It might not be the same one.
I think we share the same opinion, but different line of thinking, maybe? Or maybe we express it differently? We both know what a disenfranchised population is and what racial disparity is.
I won’t say whether I’m indigenous, because I insist that it isn’t relevant to the issue. Identifying the problem, quantity and quality, doesn’t depend on identifying race and ethnic background. And I firmly believe that to do so, is a disservice. Identifying solutions isn’t dependent on race, either.
And I firmly believe that identifying the issue and its possible solutions that way, perpetuates the disenfranchisement of the human beings that live on Alaska’s Bering Sea coast, and sets up barriers to solutions.
We have a habit of identifying ethnicity and gender in our ordinary speech, in our writings, in our everyday lives, anecdotaly. As if it somehow provides illustration and better communication of the subject:
“There was this black guy checking in at the airport. Someone choked on a piece of candy and he started CPR, saving the kid’s life.”
“I just came back from town and stopped to pull a Chinese couple in a rental car out of the ditch. Really nice people.”
“There’s a Native woman down the road that ran out of gas.”
We need to stop doing that. It’s meaningless and lends no clarity to the story.
Is the fact that there are communities in Western Alaska facing economic crisis due to a national recession and geographic isolation with very little infrastructure, a Native issue? No. Villages are not reservations.
Okay, having said that, are there elements of this problem that are “Native” in nature? Most decidedly. The Bering Sea coast is the indigenous Eskimo homeland, after all, and the Western Alaska community demographic averages at least 75% Native, even the hub towns Dillingham, Bethel, Kotzebue and Nome. Of course they’re Native.
Here’s another average demographic set:
School teachers – White
Business owners – White
Air taxi operators (and pilots) – White
Medical services – White
Legal system staff (and private attorneys) – White
Police forces – White
Executive administrative positions – White
Seafood processor ownership – White
Social Services (Public Assistance, Child Protective Services, Domestic Violence shelter, etc) – White
State employees (as above and DNR, Fish & Game, Wildlife, Rangers) – White
Are there any of the above that are Native employees and owners? Sure. Not many and mostly in low-level support positions.
What there is that is Native, is the tribal operations. And even they have executive levels filled by non-Natives.
The village clinics are staffed by almost exclusively Native Health Aides.
Village Public Safety is staffed by almost exclusively Native VPSOs (Village Public Safety Officers).
A story about elephants -
Once upon a time, one of the regional large employers in Western Alaska typically provided moving costs to its incoming new employees to offset a pretty stiff financial drain in getting one’s family, furniture and vehicle to the job. Also part of the typical compensation package, a financial differential as part of salary for employees living off the hospital compound and in community housing. Like the military does. Because of the high cost of living.
So one day, one of the Native employees who had moved specifically to work there, followed up because she hadn’t received her moving expenses and wasn’t getting the differential in her paycheck. The response: she didn’t qualify for the additional compensation, because she was “local”. She explained that indeed, she was not local, had accepted a position and then moved there to report for duty, she understood that she would be reimbursed standard moving expenses and that she was struggling to find affordable off-compound housing.
The head of personnel insisted that she was considered local because she was Native, it had been reviewed and there should be no further discussion. So she filed a grievance that this was unfair. The result-they caved but asked her to not discuss it with other “local” employees, because no other “locals” were getting it. And offered her compound housing.
They did an internal review and discovered that they had a sizable discrimination problem on their hands. The ACLU would’ve drooled over it. They were paying the differential to tenured employees-all White-simply because they had arrived as new hires at some time, even though they had long since become permanent residents and homeowners. They had never paid moving expenses or a differential to a Native employee, regardless of where they came from when they were hired. And they hadn’t offered on-compound housing, either.
Did they immediately make changes and provide equal compensation? No. Too complicated and White employees would complain if they stopped getting the bonus. They asked employees not to discuss it, while they worked on a plan to address it and phase it out. They stopped paying moving expenses except as negotiated contracts.
Is that the elephant?
A private employer with a small staff offered employer-paid health insurance. With a need to reduce overhead and good intentions, employees ‘opted out’ of an insurance plan if they were Indian Health Service beneficiaries and able to obtain medical care without the insurance.
The executive director, a fair and honorable person, realized that this constituted a disparity in compensation between Native and non-Native employees. It was changed immediately.
Not only that, IHS beneficiaries do not receive “free” medical care. Tribal operations bill insurance, Veterans’ Benefits, Medicaid/Medicare, the same as any provider. Those without insurance have services paid for out of a different source of money, similar to any charity hospital. The tribally-operated hospitals and clinics need payment for services in order to stay in business. Somebody pays for it. Unless we’re going to have Universal Coverage, Native employees need to have health insurance the same as any employee of any ethnicity.
Is this a Native problem? Is being Native core to the issue? No. It’s an economic issue. Villages happen to have Natives in them, a lot of Natives, so Natives are experiencing this particular economic emergency.
Are there ethnic sidebars to this issue? Yes. Parallel, but not the same thread. Sovereignty, ANCSA, subsistence rights, tribal response and resources – all Native issues, no question about it.
Thank you for your feedback. It’s good meaningful dialogue and these conversations need to happen.
My point with the “don’t constantly tell people to move” in relation to floods was that it is not the first, foremost, and most constant refrain. Yes, during the really big floods, it comes up, but fades rather quickly and isn’t a broad sentiment (I didn’t hear a peep about it during the floods this winter, though the locals may have heard the refrain).
With the Bush issue, it is the first thing that out-of-staters and urban dwellers bring up, and they bring it up forcefully and disrespectfully (that’s another difference. The people who say that about floods don’t tend to go on and on in a disrespectful manner). That’s just my opinion from having watched other floods around the country from afar over the years and having watched and listened to the debate this winter on the food and fuel crisis in rural Alaska.
CG, I’m not disagreeing with you. Your point is well taken and completely valid. I’m certainly guilty of framing the issues in Native terms. My tendency to use the term Native comes from the fact that my grammy was full blooded Aleut and was discriminated against by Colonists. So I’m very sensitive about the Native aspect and that’s the thing I see most in the rural Alaska issues from my perspective. She didn’t live in the Bush (adopted, assimilated from her home on Afognak and ended up raising kids on a homestead in Palmer) so I was never exposed to that set of issues. My point was simply from the demographic point of view, as my analogy explained. It is a human trait to categorize. And people who run government, or have other forms of power, tend to think in terms of demographics. You have a long slog ahead of you to get the controlling powers to switch from the “those damn Natives” perspective to the “remote community issues” perspective. I will do my best to reframe my own language to help.
I should add that the tendency to categorize and think in demographics is strongly influenced by ingrained prejudice, whether against Natives, gays, women, blacks,other religious groups, or whatever group the person in power feels superior to. In my flood story, the Mormons were the superior group in power, the rural non-Mormon ranchers and other non-Mormons were the lessers, and those of us who worked for the Nature Conservancy were the lepers. That demographic influenced all of the politics in the area, and still does.
I was married to a bullshitter for years. This description is perfect.
The one benefit of that relationship is that now I can spot a bullshitter in a moment. That being said, Palin is a bullshitter. Period.
I will also add, concerning flood responses, that the standard response to flooding is to demand more flood control dams. That is finally changing, now that we have seen the long term impact of dams, but in the past, moving wasn’t considered, just build more dams.
The thing that the two issues have in common is a long long precedent for an established lifestyle. Concerning rivers, people have been living along rivers since the dawn of civilization. We use them for water and transport. It only mad sense to be close to them. We can’t simply pack up all the cities along rivers and move them. But we can make changes. We can make sure flood insurance doesn’t ENCOURAGE building in flood zones. We can try to use open floodplain land for its very best use, agriculture (rich soil), while building our homes on higher land farther back (like yukonbushgrandma is doing now).
And as for rural Alaska, I saw so many good ideas for change during the discussion this winter. How to make villages self sufficient without destroying their way of life. How to improve the dialogue between urban and rural. Solid, workable ideas. And CG’s plea for reframing the language is a big part of that, because we humans are funny that way. Changing how we speak and how we think tend move in tandem, with one or the other taking turns being in the lead.
“made” sense.
And yes, I remember now that somebody didn’t like the term lifestyle, but I couldn’t think of another word at the moment so sorry about that. Got up too early and haven’t had enough coffee.
I think Sarah’s latest statement—that she is willing to campaign for Dems and Republican’s has a two-fold message.
1. She is trying to expand her base by trying to appear bipartisan. She knows she can’t win by her right-wing base alone.
2. She is an equal opportunity money grabber. Does anyone think she will be doing these speaking engagements out of the goodness of her heart? In other words, she is saying, I’ll suppport ya’ for cash.
I was married to a bullshitter for many years. The one really good thing that came out of that relationship is that I can now identify one within a few minutes after they open their mouth.
Yes, Palin is a bullshitter.
I think anyone who has two brain cells to rub together see her for who she is. I think most people who are not already underwhelmed by her are starting to take a deeper look at how she operates. She may pick up a few more disaffected worshippers, but not enough to make a huge difference.
I said on another thread that I don’t see Republicans falling over themselves in a mad frenzy to have her represent them and the reaching out to Democrats is not bi-partisan but a desperate move designed to pick up a few more sycophants to her “cause” – whatever that is.
I read yesterday that she speaks in slogans, not ideas.
We’re on the same page, womanwithsardinecan.
It’s a human trait to put distance between you and the other guy. To create superiority, in big ways and small. That distance is racism and gender bias. “We’re not them.”
I dunno why, we must be hard-wired that way. A primal evolutionary trait? Survival of the fittest? Kill or be killed? In Australia, a thousand-mile fence to literally keep the separation.
Hurricane Katrina was a black issue; domestic violence and sexual assault are womens’ issue; inner-city ghettos are black and Puerto Rican issues; gang violence is a Latino issue (in Alaska, a Pacific Islander issue). In Australia it’s the abo problem; in New Zealand, it’s a Maori problem. In Alaska, the villages are a native problem.
“If those people would just…”
Ironically, some of the most invested and financially motivated to not only be there, but keep villages thriving, are non-Native. Because they have businesses, capital investment, little or no competition in a captive marketplace, highly profitable in good times.
So let’s spin a different perspective just for fun. Humor me:
If those air taxi services would just move to Anchorage.
If those building supply outfits and contractors would just move to Wasilla.
If those school teachers would just move to Seattle.
If those lighterage services would just move to Kodiak.
If those snowmachine and boat dealers would just move to Fairbanks.
If those doctors, nurses, lawyers would just move…
They can if they want to, ya know. They choose to be there. They have options. They can move their businesses. There are resources and programs to help them start over somewhere else. They could if they wanted to.
Sure, it might be tough, but that’s what I would do. If I were ‘them’. ‘We’ don’t owe ‘them’ a living.
One more point about that “Native village” issue -
For decades there have been many many urban-based people who make their living and support their families as the remote-site labor pool. They fly in, work on-shift, send wages home to Anchorage and Wasilla, and fly out when the project’s done. Every successful construction company in this state and the Pacific Northwest has bid on a job in Bush Alaska.
There are permanent contracts in place right now for fly-in employees and services. It’s the ongoing Alaska “gold rush”.
Paving and roofing companies employ young men buying homes in Wasilla and Anchorage. Red Dog Mine employs heavy equipment operators and electricians from urban Alaska. A mid-level management nurse in Western Alaska “commuted” from the east coast. The comptroller is a telecommuter who lives in Mexico and flies into bush Alaska once a month. I think they’ve since retired to the Mexican villa paid for by the job in the village.
A school principal owns a ranch in Wisconsin and goes “home” as often as possible.
Two weeks ago, I met an Irishman who is living in the car that he drove up the Alcan from Chicago, studying for the Alaska electrician’s exam that he was taking at the end of the week. He’s been guaranteed work, but he’s gotta pass that exam. He’s a single parent of 5, but will not be moving them here. If he passes the exam, he’ll work in the bush and fly back and forth. Oh surprise.
Decades of biologists, geologists, surveyors, forestry people have earned their families’ living from services to villages. Everybody you meet in Anchorage has a family member who makes a living from providing services to the villages. Test it for yourself.
It’s not a Native issue. It’s a big huge geographical problem that impacts a bunch of urban people, too.
So, why not invest in bush Alaska? Seems to me to be a good investment in keeping other state residents employed as well, and not a few Lower 48 families in their jobs.
This is not meant to be a scolding or a lecture. A simple illumination of scope.