McCain-Palin, In Contrast With The Facts
The Alaska state legislature's investigation into Governor Palin's firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan has found that she criminally abused her power in using the governor's office to pursue a vendetta against State Trooper Mike Wooten, her former brother in law. Those are the findings, they are right there for anybody to see, they are unambiguous.
Palin has said publicly, however, that she has been "cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of unethical activity there". This is flatly incorrect - the investigation concluded the opposite, that she unlawfully abused her power. On the other hand, Thomas Van Flein, Palin's attorney, claims that the Alaska state ethics law recognizes an act as unethical only if the perpetrator makes money from it, and Palin didn't make any money stalking Mike Wooten. So that's that, Palin says. The mercenary she pays to tell people she's not guilty has told the people she's not guilty. Case closed.
I am not an expert in Alaskan ethics, but I find it hard to believe that the law is written in such a way as to, for example, permit a governor to threaten an aide with being fired in order to get the aide to "consent" to letting the governor chain them over a leather-topped bench and beat them with a cruelly flexible and slender riding crop. Or, in a more to-hand example, to allow the governor to go about ruining the careers of anyone she has a beef with, without regard to law, regulation, and contract. But even supposing that Palin's pressuring of Monegan and hounding of Wooten were, technically, legal, it remains a fact that many legal things are also despicable.
In the meantime, Palin's boss, John McCain, has made Joe the plumber his mascot. McCain's central argument against Barack Obama is that he will tax small business owners to death, but a study by CNN, linked below, shows that Obama's plan would raise taxes only slightly on only the richest 2% of small businesses.
And of course there is the Bill Ayers business, with Palin bellowing from behind the microphones that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists" on the rice paper pretense of his acquaintanceship with a man who has never been convicted of, nor even tried for, any act of terrorism whatsoever, who was under suspicion thirty years ago or more, who is today a prominent person on the Chicago political scene, and who's long ago radicalism Obama has publicly denounced. And by the way, in politics - and when you're President of the United States - you have to do business with some doubtful characters. It's just that kind of world.
McCain-Palin keeps saying things that aren't true. Not things that are a matter of opinion, or are true from a certain perspective - things that are simply Not True version 1.0, in accordance with the principle of that great saint of the far right who wrote in Mien Kampf, "The great mass of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one".
One of the most noticeable glitches in McCain-Palin Not True 1.0 is the idea that Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President, waiting to step up when the septuagenarian cancer survivor in the Round Room dies. It is so infuriating, so undermining to the dream of America as the world's beacon of freedom and intellect, that this tin pot tyrant, this corrosive buffoon, this book banner, this rape kit seller, this babbling ignoramus, this vindictive witch hunter, this hubristic grasper, this American Taliban would even be offered to us as a choice for the most important and influential position in all the world that I can hardly find the words to define my outrage or the power of will to contain my fury. Daily, it's a struggle for me not to ricochet off the walls like an orangutan raised mean and fed for weeks on Red Bull and red meat sprinkled with crystal meth.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/palin.deposition/index.html
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/15/smallbusiness/small_biz_taxes_factcheck.smb/index.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/palin.investigation/index.html
Palin has said publicly, however, that she has been "cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of unethical activity there". This is flatly incorrect - the investigation concluded the opposite, that she unlawfully abused her power. On the other hand, Thomas Van Flein, Palin's attorney, claims that the Alaska state ethics law recognizes an act as unethical only if the perpetrator makes money from it, and Palin didn't make any money stalking Mike Wooten. So that's that, Palin says. The mercenary she pays to tell people she's not guilty has told the people she's not guilty. Case closed.
I am not an expert in Alaskan ethics, but I find it hard to believe that the law is written in such a way as to, for example, permit a governor to threaten an aide with being fired in order to get the aide to "consent" to letting the governor chain them over a leather-topped bench and beat them with a cruelly flexible and slender riding crop. Or, in a more to-hand example, to allow the governor to go about ruining the careers of anyone she has a beef with, without regard to law, regulation, and contract. But even supposing that Palin's pressuring of Monegan and hounding of Wooten were, technically, legal, it remains a fact that many legal things are also despicable.
In the meantime, Palin's boss, John McCain, has made Joe the plumber his mascot. McCain's central argument against Barack Obama is that he will tax small business owners to death, but a study by CNN, linked below, shows that Obama's plan would raise taxes only slightly on only the richest 2% of small businesses.
And of course there is the Bill Ayers business, with Palin bellowing from behind the microphones that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists" on the rice paper pretense of his acquaintanceship with a man who has never been convicted of, nor even tried for, any act of terrorism whatsoever, who was under suspicion thirty years ago or more, who is today a prominent person on the Chicago political scene, and who's long ago radicalism Obama has publicly denounced. And by the way, in politics - and when you're President of the United States - you have to do business with some doubtful characters. It's just that kind of world.
McCain-Palin keeps saying things that aren't true. Not things that are a matter of opinion, or are true from a certain perspective - things that are simply Not True version 1.0, in accordance with the principle of that great saint of the far right who wrote in Mien Kampf, "The great mass of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one".
One of the most noticeable glitches in McCain-Palin Not True 1.0 is the idea that Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President, waiting to step up when the septuagenarian cancer survivor in the Round Room dies. It is so infuriating, so undermining to the dream of America as the world's beacon of freedom and intellect, that this tin pot tyrant, this corrosive buffoon, this book banner, this rape kit seller, this babbling ignoramus, this vindictive witch hunter, this hubristic grasper, this American Taliban would even be offered to us as a choice for the most important and influential position in all the world that I can hardly find the words to define my outrage or the power of will to contain my fury. Daily, it's a struggle for me not to ricochet off the walls like an orangutan raised mean and fed for weeks on Red Bull and red meat sprinkled with crystal meth.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/palin.deposition/index.html
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/15/smallbusiness/small_biz_taxes_factcheck.smb/index.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/palin.investigation/index.html