Sarah Palin shows she's not ready

Notes on last night's prime time special:

heavily-edited... allowed Sarah Palin to squirm her way out despite Charlie Gibson's mock-stern professorial play-acting... ABC should make the unedited tapes available online to show the real story, what went on between the takes, and what Palin really had to say after her responses were lopped into "soundbites"... the network would have been better served had there been a panel of questioners, or at least a producer allowed to step in and challenge her... the one-on-one "anchorman vs. candidate" setup is outdated show biz... Palin was obviously and simply rehearsed and reciting... the short archival clips from Alaska's local news stations seemed to promise more insight... she's out of step with civilization on the issues of guns and women... she believes she's on a mission from God...


ABC gave Palin a pass because in return for the "exclusive" interview because it gave them ratings and future access...the heavily-edited presentation that told only part of the story, left many questions unanswered...


Palin did make a few things clear: not lived or worked in American mainstream society... She's a stunt candidate and potentially very dangerous... McCain's choice was cynical and thanks to our celebrity culture who's judging her on her looks, persona and scripted one-liners, he's looking like a genius.

...Beware...

BONUS!

Something that didn't make the ABC News special...

ON SEPTEMBER 11TH, THE DAY OF THE CHARLIE GIBSON INTERVIEW, SARAH PALIN GETS IT WRONG AS HER SON IS SENT OFF TO IRAQ, CLAIMING THAT HE AND OTHER SOLDIERS WOULD BE FIGHTING "THE ENEMIES WHO PLANNED AND CARRIED OUT AND REJOICED IN THE DEATH OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS." (4:40)

Even we know that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the attacks on September 11th...

Dr. Ruehl's Realm of Bizarre News Double Feature

The Realm Of Bizarre News 38: Old Hollywood

Tabloid Baby pal, contributor, columnist and TV, movie and music video star Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. has been working overtime, churning out his Realm of Bizarre News reports two at a time!

The Realm Of Bizarre News 37: Signs Of (Tiny) Life

We'll try to keep up!

Geraldo Rivera toppled by storm-- deliberately?

Live on Fox News a few minutes ago, that old ham Geraldo Rivera went and got knocked over by the wild waves as he reported from Galveston on the approach of Hurricane Ike.

Geraldo tumbled after he had a word with a firefighter, then mentioned YouTube as soon as he got up.

Think he did it on purpose?

Geraldo?

ABC News helps rehabilitate & polish Sarah Palin

ABC News is helping the Republican Party launch its cleaned-up sanitized phony version of the extremist right wing Sarah Palin to the American public and make seem as safe and sane and ready for the job, and in fact heralds its role in the spin campaign in a news release about her interview that they're milking for two days and turning into a prime time television special:

"Palin defended a previous statement in which she reportedly characterized the war in Iraq as a 'task from God.'

"Gibson quoted her as saying: 'Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.'"

"But Palin said she was referencing a famous quote by Abraham Lincoln.

"'I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words. But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that's a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God's side.'"

The words weren't "reported." Sarah Palin is on tape saying them. Shes been holed up for days with GOP experts, consultants, hypnotists and hacks, programming her to her to say whatever it is they want to put in her mouth and talk away her past. And you can decide whether she had Abraham Lincoln in mind or is some Republican Party hack found a way to spin it in that direction by running all her words through a database and seeing whose speeches came out:

Sarah Palin isn't Britney Spears.

Running for vice president of the United States, she shouldn't have the luxury of getting to choose a folksy rumpled old newsman to toss questions for her carefully-rehearsed interview answers, and then wrap it in a one-hour entertainment special that will show her in chummy B-roll shots and present her a way that obscures most all of the controversies and makes seem safe and prepared to lead this nation.

She's not. ABC News should have demanded she face a panel of journalists who can parry and thrust and not accept the party line. Instead, they're aiding in the scam.

Kanye West was taunted by TMZ thugs

It's no small wonder it was a cameraman from the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com who taunted notoriously tetchy celebrity Kanye West into smashing his camera at LAX this morning. And no small wonder the scumbags at TMZ had a second thug with a video camera there to shoot the scene, nice and wide.

CNN's perverted corporate cousin makes money for its corporate overlords at Time Warner and AOL by harassing and taunting celebrities, and the police ought to let Kanye go free for that reason alone.

And the television executives who put the inconsequential whitewashed television version of the guttersite on the air ought to ban them from showing this video on television-- because TMZ provoked and orchestrated the incident.

TMZ's time has come and gone. Everybody's tired of the rent boy shenanigans of shaved bronzed midget frontman Harvey Levin and his rent boy crew of lowlifes. And it would be nice if Kanye came back strong.

(Yes, that's one of Harvey's boys at right. It's the kind of photo that TMZ producers put on their MySpace pages.)

Sex On The Bench!!??

We premiered the outrageous and sexy new promo for Cristina's Court, the syndicated television show that snatched the Outstanding Courtroom Show Emmy from the grasp of Judge Judy. Now if there's any doubt that the latest hit from tabloid television creator Peter Brennan is taking the genre to new levels check out the new promo for the promo.

EXCLUSIVE! TODAY'S McCAIN-PALIN RALLY!

"In a break with tradition, Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin could spend more time together on the campaign trail than apart, a senior campaign aide said Wednesday.

"'It is under serious consideration that they will spend more time together than not and more time than is traditional,' the aide told reporters aboard Palin's campaign plane during a refueling stop in Montana en route to Alaska. 'There's just a huge amount of enthusiasm'..."

"Phony outrage!" Obama's straight talk express

Barack Obama, this morning:

“Enough!

"I don’t care what they say about me, but I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics. Enough is enough.

“What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country. They seize on an innocent remark, try to take it out of context, throw out an outrageous ad because they know it’s catnip for the news media.

“I’m assuming you guys heard this watching the news. I’m talking about John McCain’s economic policies and I said here’s more of the same, ‘You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.' Suddenly, they say, 'Oh you must be talking about the governor of Alaska!’

“See it would be funny, it would be funny except, of course the news media decided that was the lead story yesterday. The McCain campaign would much rather have the story about phony and foolish diversions than about the future.

“Spare me the phony outrage. Spare me the phony talk about change. We have real problems in this country right now and the American people are looking to us for answers, not distractions, no diversions, not manipulations.”

The Enquirer's latest Sarah Palin story

The tabloid goes and the mainstream will follow. Click picture to enlarge.

More on Sarah Palin and Judgment Day

From The Times of London:

At the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, Sarah Palin’s former pastor sees powerful signs that the end of the world is nigh.

Pastor Ed Kalnins cites conflict in the Middle East, America’s dependence on foreign oil and the depletion of energy reserves as evidence that “storm clouds are gathering”. He told The Times: “Scripture specifically mentions oil instability as a sign of the Rapture. We’re seeing more and more oil wars. The contractions of the fulfilment of prophecies are getting tighter and tighter.”

He declined to set an exact date for the Rapture, or the “End of Days” – the belief in a time when Jesus will return, raising up believers to Heaven and leaving the wicked to be ruled by the Antichrist – but hopes it will be in his lifetime. “I’m looking out the window and I can see it’s going to rain,” he said. “I’m just looking at the turmoil of the world, Iraq, other places – everywhere people are fighting against Christ.”

Since Mrs Palin’s nomination as John McCain’s Republican running-mate 11 days ago, her social and religious beliefs have become subjected to intense scrutiny. As a supporter of the teaching of Creationism in schools, an opponent of abortion – even in cases of rape or incest – and a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, she threatens to reopen the culture war that has scarred American politics for a quarter of a century...

The Governor of Alaska left the Wasilla Assembly of God Church in 2002 after 26 years’ attendance, but she returned there in June to link religion to both energy and war. She said that troops in Iraq were on “a task that is from God”, and went on to urge the congregation to pray for the completion of a $30 billion pipeline across the state. “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built,” she said.

Interviews with friends confirm that the foundation of her beliefs and constant source of guidance is the Bible...

At the main Sunday service at the Assembly of God, hundreds gathered to ask God to help their former mayor. “We’re showing our support through Jesus,” said Pastor Ed, “Sarah is a great woman. A religious woman.”

The service began with 40 minutes of song. Teenagers with ponytails and bandanas gathered at the front of the stage, dancing and swaying in time. Their eyes screwed tightly shut and their arms lifted towards the ceiling, some worshippers started speaking and singing unintelligibly. Pastor Ed said afterwards that they had been speaking in tongues, a common part of the church’s services.

This was the church into which Mrs Palin was baptised – or “saved”, as she described it – at the age of 12, immersed in the waters of a lake during a family holiday. Before that she had been baptised a Catholic as an infant, but her mother began to take her and her siblings to the Wasilla Assembly of God and her faith began to change.

She gradually embraced practices of the Pentecostal faith, such as the laying on of hands and speaking in tongues. “I grew up in the Wasilla Assembly of God,” she once said. “Nothing freaks me out about the worship service.” Later, as a high-school basketball star, she became the leader of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, writing Bible verses in her friends’ senior yearbooks.

...Indeed, her decision to switch to the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church has been interpreted by some as politically motivated – not least because it coincided with her first run for state-wide office.

...Pastor Ed knows that sermons such as the one he delivered in 2004, when he suggested supporters of John Kerry’s Democratic presidential campaign would go to Hell, are unlikely to help Mrs Palin this time around. He promises to refrain from “tongue-in-cheek” comments in the future.

Mrs Palin’s new church practises a less extrovert religion than the Assembly of God, where members stand up, clap, sing and cry with joy. “We’re more reserved,” Larry Kroons, the pastor of Wasilla Bible Church, said. “People can just sit down and worship.”

...But the Wasilla Bible Church is not necessarily a safe haven from controversy. Mrs Palin attended a service recently where a guest speaker, David Brickner, suggested that terrorism in Israel was God’s judgment against the Jews for failing to accept Christ as the Messiah.

The McCain campaign played down the sermon, saying that Mrs Palin “would not have been sitting in the pews of the church if those remarks were remotely typical”. But Pastor Kroons said that Mr Brickner had a point and that he would invite the “Jews for Jesus” leader back.

Last Sunday’s church bulletin advertised a forthcoming meeting of Focus on the Family, a group that believes homosexuality is a sin that can be “prayed away”. Pastor Kroons said he had no problem with the group, adding that he would like to see religion used to cure other “sins” such as pride or lust...

Video: Obama bites back at Republican flying pigs

BIZARRE VIDEO: JOAQUIN BLANCO IN PERIL?

Performance artist Joaquin Blanco has been "underground" since we posted the photos he claimed showed a flying pig over Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles. Yes, a flying pig.

Now we've received a phone video from Blanco that is, in a word, disturbing.

If anyone can send us a translation, we'd appreciate it. In the time since we posted his story, he's sent us a couple of emails asking that we "be discreet," mentioned meetings with NASA-related "contacts" and expressed genuine fear about what he'd stepped into.

Don't believe the spin! Palin did try to ban books

Republicans are more devious and trickier and drink more than and have fun sneaking up behind and pantsing Democrats and watch tabloid television instead of PBS, so it's small surprise that they've managed to take the unsettling facts about unqualified extremist vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and twist them around to make it appear she's being slimed rather than outed.

While it's funny enough to hear sophisticated mouthpieces like that honking-voiced radio yakker Laura Ingraham rave on about a woman she'd mock in private (even saying she believed it's God's will that Palin showed up on the scene), it's more impressive to hear the way she and other GOP flaks turn the tables on the truth-- for instance, muddying the story that Palin wanted to remove certain books from the Wasilla, Alaska library after she became mayor, by shooting down an imaginary list of banned books that one of their operatives posted online so others could say that lies are being spread!

Get it? No one said that Sarah Palin banned any books.

The "list" is a red herring meant to confuse the issue.

Palin wanted to ban books. She tried to. She fired the town librarian who stood up to her.

Clever, those Republicans.

Take it from the Anchorage Daily News, her hometown paper:

Palin pressured Wasilla librarian

TOWN MAYOR: She wanted to know if books would be pulled.

By RINDI WHITE

Published: September 4th, 2008

WASILLA -- Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and had to go.

Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job.

It all happened 12 years ago and the controversy long ago disappeared into musty files. Until this week. Under intense national scrutiny, the issue has returned to dog her. It has been mentioned in news stories in Time Magazine and The New York Times and is spreading like a virus through the blogosphere.

The stories are all suggestive, but facts are hard to come by. Did Palin actually ban books at the Wasilla Public Library?

In December 1996, Emmons told her hometown newspaper, the Frontiersman, that Palin three times asked her -- starting before she was sworn in -- about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose.

Emmons told the Frontiersman she flatly refused to consider any kind of censorship. Emmons, now Mary Ellen Baker, is on vacation from her current job in Fairbanks and did not return e-mail or telephone messages left for her Wednesday.

When the matter came up for the second time in October 1996, during a City Council meeting, Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla housewife who often attends council meetings, was there.

Like many Alaskans, Kilkenny calls the governor by her first name.

"Sarah said to Mary Ellen, 'What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?" Kilkenny said.

"I was shocked. Mary Ellen sat up straight and said something along the line of, 'The books in the Wasilla Library collection were selected on the basis of national selection criteria for libraries of this size, and I would absolutely resist all efforts to ban books.'"

Palin didn't mention specific books at that meeting, Kilkenny said.

Palin herself, questioned at the time, called her inquiries rhetorical and simply part of a policy discussion with a department head "about understanding and following administration agendas," according to the Frontiersman article.

TEST OF LOYALTY

Were any books censored banned? June Pinell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee since 1984, checked her files Wednesday and came up empty-handed.

Pinell-Stephens also had no record of any phone conversations with Emmons about the issue back then. Emmons was president of the Alaska Library Association at the time. Books may not have been pulled from library shelves, but there were other repercussions for Emmons.

Four days before the exchange at the City Council, Emmons got a letter from Palin asking for her resignation. Similar letters went to police chief Irl Stambaugh, public works director Jack Felton and finance director Duane Dvorak. John Cooper, a fifth director, resigned after Palin eliminated his job overseeing the city museum.

Palin told the Daily News back then the letters were just a test of loyalty as she took on the mayor's job, which she'd won from three-term mayor John Stein in a hard-fought election. Stein had hired many of the department heads. Both Emmons and Stambaugh had publicly supported him against Palin.

Emmons survived the loyalty test and a second one a few months later. She resigned in August 1999, two months before Palin was voted in for a second mayoral term.

Palin might have become a household name in the last week, but Kilkenny, who is not a Palin fan, is on her own small path to Internet fame. She sent out an e-mail earlier this week to friends and family answering, from her perspective, the question Outsiders are asking any Alaskan they know: "Who is this Sarah Palin?"

Kilkenny's e-mail got bounced through cyberspace and ended up on news blogs. Now the small-town mom and housewife is scheduling interviews with national news media and got her name on the front page of The New York Times, even if it was misspelled.

Sarah Palin cheats on her expense account

Sarah Palin billed Alaska taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office as givernor, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

She also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Sarah Palin, the end of days and the end of gays

Reverend Jeremiah Wright, meet Pastor Ed Kalnins from the Wasilla, Alaska Assembly of God Church. This is where Sarah Palin was baptised at the age of 12, and the church she attended the church for most of her adult life.

Pastor Ed preaches that the world will soon come to an end and that Alaska will serve as a "rescue state" for those who have been saved.

Her current church, the Wasilla Bible Church, teaches that homosexuals can be "cured" through prayer.

The video below shows Sarah speaking at the Assembly of God Church about God's plans for US troops in Iraq and God's hopes for a pipeline in Alaska.

Sarah Palin lied about the Bridge to Nowhere

"Well, now, let’s get the facts clear here. When she was mayor, she hired a Washington lobbyist to get earmarks -- pork barrel spending –- all the things that John McCain says is bad, she lobbied to get! And got a whole lot of it.

"When it came to the Bridge to Nowhere, she was for it until everybody started raising a fuss about it, and she started running for governor, and then, suddenly, she was against it!

"You remember that? 'For it before you were against it'? I mean you can’t just make stuff up. You can’t just recreate yourself. You can’t just reinvent yourself.

"The American people aren’t stupid."

--Barack Obama, 8 September 2008

Read more about unqualified extremist party hack Sarah Palin-- shown using a t-shirt to promote the "Bridge to Nowhere"-- and her lies about the "Bridge to Nowhere" here.

Dr. Ruehl's back with Bigfoot-- but no Sarah Palin!

The Realm Of Bizarre News 36: Bigfoot's Back

All this vitally-important Sarah Palin coverage has forced us to bump Tabloid Baby pal, contributor, columnist and TV, movie and music video star Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. from his usual weekend perch.

Sorry, Doc! And sorry, Dr. Ruehl fans. To make up for it: a Ruehlapalooza!

The Realm Of Bizarre News 35: The Invisible Man

OASIS ATTACKED ONSTAGE!

Noel and Liam Gallagher were attacked onstage in Toronto last night. A man ran from backstage during Oasis' show at Virgin Festival and crashed into guitarist Noel, knocking him hard to the ground as the band played (What's The Story) Morning Glory. The man then appeared to clash with Liam before security rushed in and escorted him off stage in front of the shocked festival crowd.

Virgin's "security" spokesman said that unnamed man evaded both Virgin and Oasis security personnel in his dash onstage. No reason was given for the rush, but Nathan pointed out that both brothers were fine. After a 15 minute pause, the world's greatest rock 'n'roll band returned to the stage and finished the show.

Update: Times article confirms Sarah Palin gave birth in April; cites witnesses in delivery room; unclear how much detail was taken from People

The New York Times article on Sarah Palin's five-month-old Down syndrome child does not mention the rumours that the child was actually delivered by her daughter Bristol. Instead, it is a straightforward chronology of the events leading to Palin's delivery of the child and an implicit editorial criticism of her use of the child as as political prop:

"... with Trig in her arms, Ms. Palin has risen higher than ever. Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, says he selected her as his running mate because of her image as a reformer, but she is also making motherhood an explicit part of her appeal... In just a few months, she has gone from hiding her pregnancy from those closest to her to toting her infant on stage at the Republican National Convention.

"No one has ever tried to combine presidential politics and motherhood in quite the way Ms. Palin is doing, and it is no simple task. In the last week, the criticism she feared in Alaska has exploded into a national debate... some accuse her of exploiting Trig for political gain.

"But her son has given Ms. Palin, 44, a powerful message. Other candidates kiss strangers’ babies; Ms. Palin has one of her own. He is tangible proof of Ms. Palin’s anti-abortion convictions, which have rallied social conservatives, and her belief that women can balance family life with ambitious careers. And on Wednesday in St. Paul, she proclaimed herself a guardian of the nation’s disabled children..."

Reported by three Times reporters, the article relies heavily on the authorized People magazine interview with Palin and her family, yet does seem to confirm that Palin went through with the delivery:

"When Ms. Palin arrived at the hospital, she was still not in labor, so her doctor induced it, Ms. Bruce said. Trig was born early the next morning, weighing 6 pounds 2 ounces.

"Parents who were in the next delivery room said the scene looked like any other, with no security detail in sight. The three Palin daughters came and went, and as Todd Palin passed through the corridors, he stopped to accept congratulations..."

The article also points to the possibility that Palin, who is solidly against abortion, may have considered the alternative herself:

"...A few weeks later, after an amniocentesis — a prenatal test to identify genetic defects — Ms. Palin learned the results (that the fetus was afflicted with Down syndrome). Some abortion opponents decline such tests, but as her older sister, Heather Bruce, said, Ms. Palin “likes to be prepared.” With her husband, Todd, away at his job in the oil fields of the North Slope, Ms. Palin told no one for three days, she later said.

"Once they reunited, the Palins struggled to understand what they would face. Children with Down syndrome experience varying degrees of cognitive disability and a higher-than-average risk of hearing loss, hypothyroidism and seizure disorders. About half are born with heart defects, which often require surgery.

"The couple decided to keep quiet about the pregnancy so they could absorb the news, they told people later..."

The question of Sarah Palin's parentage of her fifth child has been a major issue in Alaska since her surprise announcement, and a troubling and issue since she was cynically and recklessly selected by John McCain as his running mate. The Times, a paper that has often demonstrated good tabloid instincts, confirmed the story's legitimacy through its follow-up, while demonstrating to its "mainstream" colleagues an effective way of chasing a lead that could be seen as an unseemly: getting to the bottom of it without mentioning the reason for the investigation.

The Times did not "take their word for it."

Now, on to that affair and those photos!

The Palin e-mail: "She has hated me since back in 1996, when I rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship"

The e-mail below has been bouncing around the Internet for about a week now. It was written by Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla, Alaska-- a stay-at-home mom, letter-to-the-editor writer longtime watcher of local politics, and woman who's known Sarah Palin since childhood. She's a registered Democrat. She was a delegate to the Conference of Alaskans in Fairbanks back in 2004. She e-mailed this letter to family and friends "Outside," and despite her requests, it spread through the Internet.

It's posted here with her permission.

Dear friends,

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

Thanks,
Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT

*"Hockey mom": true for a few years.

*"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since.

*"NRA supporter": absolutely true

*social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).

*pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.

*"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation

*"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

*political maverick: not at all

*gutsy: absolutely!

*open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

*has a developed philosophy of public policy: no

*"a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

*fiscal conservative: not by my definition!

*pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.

*pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents

*pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history.

*pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that's life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS

I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.

Anne Kilkenny
August 31, 2008

URGENT! DRUDGE REPORTS THAT THE NEW YORK TIMES IS FOLLOWING TABLOID BABY'S LEAD WITH A MAJOR STORY ON PALIN BABY

Who would have guessed that Sarah Palin's baby would turn out to be the Tabloid Baby of the Year?

We would.

For a week now, we've been saying that the "mainstream media" was cowardly and wrong to, in the shocking words of CNN talking head Jeffrey Toobin, "take their word" and, despite convincing evidence, step away from investigating whether Sarah Palin's newborn child Trig is actually the son of Palin's daughter Bristol-- and that Palin, the evangelical, fundamentalist, abstinence-promoting conservative hypocrite, pretended to have given birth in order to score political points with right wingers and right-to-lifers.

Whether because of misguided elitist politesse or fear of corporate overlords, any journalist who'd dismiss the story needs an old-school tabloid re-education.

So hooray for liberals grinding axes!


This afternoon, Matt Drudge reports that the New York Times, who've sharpened the blade expertly all week, plans a major story on the subject.

Drudge got us going with the original headline

NYT PREPARES TO FRONT EXPOSE
ON PALIN'S BABY...
DEVELOPING...

before knocking it down a storm category or two, but still promising some real investigation:

NYT PREPARES TO FRONT
DETAILED STORY ON PALIN'S
BABY, NEWSROOM SOURCES TELL
DRUDGE... DEVELOPING...

The conclusion to the six-month mystery doesn't matter as much as the fact that journos doing their jobs.

Timesman Frank Rich warned today that "by hurling charges of sexism and elitism at any easily cowed journalist who raises a question about Palin, McCain operatives are hoping to ensure that whatever happened in Alaska with Sarah Palin stays in Alaska. Given how little vetting McCain himself has received this year — and that only 58 days remain until Nov. 4 — they just might pull it off."

Not if we can help it.

And by the way, where's PETA in all of this, with macho mama's aerial wolf hunting and all?

Video: John McCain gets BarackRoll'd

Just give these guys their movie. Brilliant!

Liberal Frank Rich has it right about reckless John McCain and the easily-cowed "mainstream media" and investigations into the Sarah Palin scandals

From his column in tomorrow's New York Times:

"...We still don’t know a lot about Palin except that she’s better at delivering a speech than McCain and that she defends her own pregnant daughter’s right to privacy even as she would have the government intrude to police the reproductive choices of all other women. Most of the rest of the biography supplied by her and the McCain camp is fiction.

"She didn’t say 'no thanks' to the 'Bridge to Nowhere' until after Congress had already abandoned it but given Alaska a blank check for $223 million in taxpayers’ money anyway. Far from rejecting federal pork, she hired lobbyists to secure her town a disproportionate share of earmarks ($1,000 per resident in 2002, 20 times the per capita average in other states). Though McCain claimed 'she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,' she has never issued a single command as head of the Alaska National Guard. As for her 'executive experience' as mayor, she told her hometown paper in Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996, the year of her election: “'t’s not rocket science. It’s $6 million and 53 employees.' Her much-advertised crusade against officials abusing their office is now compromised by a bipartisan ethics investigation into charges that she did the same.

"How long before we learn she never shot a moose?

"Given the actuarial odds that could make Palin our 45th president, it would be helpful to know who this mystery woman actually is...

"Whatever we do and don’t know about Palin’s character at this point, there is no ambiguity in what her ascent tells us about McCain’s character and potential presidency. He wanted to choose the pro-abortion-rights Joe Lieberman as his vice president. If he were still a true maverick, he would have done so. But instead he chose partisanship and politics over country.

“'God only made one John McCain, and he is his own man,' said the shafted Lieberman in his own tedious convention speech last week. What a pathetic dupe. McCain is now the man of James Dobson and Tony Perkins. The 'no surrender' warrior surrendered to the agents of intolerance not just by dumping his pal for Palin but by moving so far to the right on abortion that even Cindy McCain seemed unaware of his radical shift when being interviewed by Katie Couric last week.

"That ideological sellout, unfortunately, was not the worst leadership trait the last-minute vice presidential pick revealed about McCain. His speed-dating of Palin reaffirmed a more dangerous personality tic that has dogged his entire career. His decision-making process is impetuous and, in its Bush-like preference for gut instinct over facts, potentially reckless...

"By hurling charges of sexism and elitism at any easily cowed journalist who raises a question about Palin, McCain operatives are hoping to ensure that whatever happened in Alaska with Sarah Palin stays in Alaska. Given how little vetting McCain himself has received this year — and that only 58 days remain until Nov. 4 — they just might pull it off."

For those who, like CNN's Jeffrey Toobin, "take their word" that Sarah Palin gave birth this year: The Anchorage Daily News story from March 6th

Ha! Democrats call us fascists while Republicans call us liberals. And they're calling us much worse now that we've dared bring up the negative side of John McCain's "narrative" as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Well, there's a difference between being a patriot and a being a Republican, and with his cynical, dangerous bow to the Religious Right by choosing the unqualified Sarah McCain as his running mate, old reckless McCain has set a new low in devaluing the office of the Vice President at a time when the current Vice President has shown how crucial and powerful the office can be, by running this country for the past eight years.

And yes, evidence points to the real possibility that she faked her pregnancy to cover up for her daughter. Start with this article from the Anchorage Daily News of March 6, 2008:

Secret's out: Palin pregnant

SEVEN MONTHS ALONG:
Even her staff was unaware that
the first family was expecting a fifth child.

By WESLEY LOY

JUNEAU -- Gov. Sarah Palin shocked and awed just about everybody around the Capitol on Wednesday when she announced she's expecting her fifth child.

"I thought it was becoming obvious," Gov. Sarah Palin said. "You know, clothes getting snugger and snugger."

The governor, who recently turned 44, told a handful of reporters as she was leaving work to expect a new member of the first family, then headed to a reception at the Baranof Hotel to feast on king crab.

Palin said she's already about seven months along, with the baby due to arrive in mid-May.

That the pregnancy is so advanced astonished all who heard the news. The governor, a runner who's always been trim, simply doesn't look pregnant.

Even close members of her staff said they only learned this week their boss was expecting.

"I thought it was becoming obvious," Palin said. "You know, clothes getting snugger and snugger."

But people just couldn't believe the news.

"Really? No!" said Bethel state Rep. Mary Nelson, who is close to giving birth herself.

"It's wonderful. She's very well-disguised," said Senate President Lyda Green, a mother of three who has sometimes sparred with Palin politically. "When I was five months pregnant, there was absolutely no question that I was with child."

Having a baby as governor has happened elsewhere, but it's rare. The former acting governor of Massachusetts, Jane Swift, in 2001 was the first governor in office to give birth when she delivered twin girls.

Palin beamed as lawmakers, Cabinet members and others came by to congratulate her at the Baranof reception, a legislative event Kodiak officials sponsor annually.

Her husband, Todd, was there holding the couple's sleepy 6-year-old daughter Piper in his arms.

Palin said she's not aiming to take any time off from her job as governor, assuming all goes well with the pregnancy. She said when she had Piper -- Palin was mayor of Wasilla at the time -- the baby was born on a Monday and she returned to the office on Tuesday.

"I've always been a believer that God's not going to give us anything that we cannot handle," Palin said.

Todd Palin, a BP oil field worker currently on leave from his job, said he's thrilled to be headed toward five-time fatherhood.

"I'm really excited," he said. "Every child you get from God. The more the merrier."

Aside from Piper, the Palins have three other children: Track, 18, serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks; Bristol, 17, a high school junior; and Willow, 13.

Palin, a Republican, was elected as Alaska's first female governor in 2006 and took office in December of that year.

She's kept a hectic schedule in recent days, traveling last week to the National Governors Association conference in Washington, D.C., followed by a trip to Los Angeles on Monday for a Newsweek magazine conference also featuring Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. The magazine profiled the two in its Oct. 15 "Women & Power" issue.

With Palin riding extraordinarily high popularity ratings, pundits have mentioned her as a potential vice presidential candidate. But she said Wednesday night she's "not pursuing or perpetuating it," adding, "I have no desire to leave my job at all as governor."

Palin said she decided to reveal the pregnancy after she felt the signs were giving her away, like doing less running this winter and being "ravenously hungry."

She's known as a fashion plate, but said she hasn't been dressing differently to cover her barely perceptible bulge.

Palin noted another Alaska governor welcomed a new baby to his family while in office -- Mike Stepovich, who served as territorial governor in the late 1950s.

Having kids and serving as governor are entirely compatible, she said.

"To any critics who say a woman can't think and work and carry a baby at the same time, I'd just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave," Palin said.

Then the expectant governor turned to greet more well-wishers.

CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin explains why he and the "mainstream media"are not following up the Sarah Palin fake pregnancy and cover-up story

Sarah Palin's "lover" tries to have divorce sealed

Scott Richter, who's been named in some reports as the man accused of having an affair with the married Sarah Palin, has filed an emergency motion to have his divorce records sealed!

The McCain campaign threatened to sue the National Enquirer for reporting that Sarah got it on with her husband's former business partner. The religious right "family values" wing will probably give her a pass on this one, just like they gave her unwed daughter a pass on the teen pregnancy.

But imagine if this were the Obamas... or if Michell Obama had belonged to a political party that wanted to secede from the United States...

The keys to why John McCain is not fit to lead

Getting political is the one thing that's guaranteed to be more polarizing to our readership than a year of posts tracking the Israel Baseball League. Sorry. This election is too important and the prospect of a John McCain-Sarah Palin victory-- or worse, Palin succeeding McCain after he dies in office-- isn't acceptable. So like the guys at Fox News who've used our tabloid techniques to advance their conservative agenda, or the morons at MSNBC who spout their liberal bile so clumsily under the leadership of that sad mental case Olbermann, we'll point our tabloid resources to help give this country a chance to right itself.

And the "mainstream" media is relying us on to do the dirty work. Last night on Bill Maher's show, CNN's Jeffrey Toobin said that despite the evidence, he'll "take their word" that Palin really did give birth to a Down Syndrome baby in April. He and his colleagues will give her a pass because it's beneath them to investigate such an issue. Thank God for the National Enquirer.

No worries. The truth will come out. And the weight of the scandals and issues surrounding Sarah Palin will result in her being dropped from the ticket.

The most important issue is the bellicose John McCain's mental health in light of his five and half years of extreme mental torture as a prisoner of war. Is he the real Manchurian Candidate? Or will he simply snap? McCain himself has laid out the clues.

We'll begin there.

John McCain, UK Daily Mail, 08 February 2008:

"Interrogations were regular events. The sound of jangling keys at night, or other irregular times, had the effect of unexpected gunfire. I shot bolt upright the moment I heard it, gripped by terror, my heart beating so loudly I thought it would be audible.

"In the years after I came home, I never suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome. But I would tense up whenever I heard keys rattle, feeling the onset of an old fear come back to haunt me..."

From Salon, 22 May 2008:

"There are behaviors associated with the candidate that would be consistent with a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Author Robert Timberg mentions McCain's intense explosions of anger --- a hallmark sign of lingering mental trauma from war -- in his book 'John McCain: An American Odyssey.' Timberg describes the episodes as 'an eruption of temper out of all proportion to the provocation.' Timberg, who McCain has said 'knows more about me than I do,' wrote that McCain's sudden fury is a result of Vietnam coming 'back to haunt him.' McCain has himself described having an adverse reaction to the sound of jangling keys, which reminds him of his Vietnam jailers. McCain also told doctors that during solitary confinement he had strayed pretty "far out" and had referred to himself as 'mentally deteriorating'..."

Whites Only: Help us find the 36 black people at the Republican National Convention

Hey, here's something to chew over while trying to swallow John McCain's talk about "change":

Out of the 2,380 delegates at the Republican National Convention, thirty-six were black.

36.

Out of 2,380.

That's too bad. Because it would have been nice if Sarah Palin could have met a black person.