Palin for “Death Panels” Before She Was Against Them

So, it turns out that while Sarah Palin is now claiming the section of proposed health care providing for counseling patients in end of life care means there will be “death panels” deciding whether Trig or your grandma lives or die, as Governor she signed a proclamation supporting the same kind of services be available to Alaskans (two days before Trig was born, as someone pointed out).

So was then Governor Palin for “death panels” and she’s now against them?  Or – is she lying to terrify her far right supporters into opposing real health reform? 

According to Think Progress:

However, on April 16th 2008, then Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed some of the same end of life counseling she now decries as a form of euthanasia. In a proclamation announcing “Healthcare Decisions Day,” Palin urged public facilities to provide better information about advance directives, and made it clear that it is critical for seniors to be informed of such options:

WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions. […]

WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.

Of course, former Governor Palin isn’t the only conservative apparently for “death panels” before they were against them.  As Think Progress points out “At a conference in April of this year, Gingrich said advance directives can ‘save money’ while also helping to ‘decrease the stress felt by caregivers.’”

According to the Huffington Post, Sen Chuck Grassely, who is also now railing against “death panels” voted for counseling for end-of-life issues in the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill. He wasn’t the only one. “Reps. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.), who both claimed end-of-life consultations could result in “government encouraged euthanasia,” also voted for similar policy in 2003.”

So either Republicans were for death panels in 2003 before turning against them now–or they’re lying about end-of-life counseling in order to frighten the bejeezus out of their fellow citizens and defeat health reform by any means necessary. Which is it, Mr. Grassley (“Yea,” 2003)?

As Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer notes in article in Crosscut, the most disturbing part of this is the outright lying.  Apparently, with the Republicans, no good deed goes unpunished.  It was Blumenauer’s amendment made to help make sure dying patients’ wishes would be respected that some of the far right Republicans have been making dire “death panels” warnings about.

Blumenauer, who joined the powerful Ways and Means Committee only in 2007, placed his amendment in HR 3200 as it passed the committee. His intent, which he says was shared by Republicans on the committee, is to improve patient-doctor communication when the end of life nears, to be sure patients understand all the options. Specifically, the language authorizes Medicare to pay doctors for counseling patients about end-of-life care, if the patient wishes. The Blumenauer language prohibits payment for counseling that involves physician-assisted suicide, which has been legalized by popular vote in Oregon and Washington.

So, physician-assisted suicide, the right-to-die legislation we passed in both Oregon and Washington (I voted for it both times), will not be covered.  It’s a non-issue as far as national health care (and if it’s something you’d never consider, it’s a non-issue for residents of Oregon or Washington; it’s there for those of us who would consider it if the pain is bad enough and there’s no hope and our choice, not yours).

Claims by Betsy McCaughey that “the elderly would be required to have counseling on assisted suicide” were “quickly debunked by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning independent fact checker, PolitiFact.com.”  Palin’s claims “envisioning ‘death panels’ for the disabled and elderly” were quickly proven false by fact-checkers for the Associated Press. That wasn’t enough to stop Palin, though.

Palin on Thursday refused to retreat, causing Blumenauer to say he was “astounded” that Palin had not withdrawn her comments. “If she wasn’t deliberately lying at the beginning, she is deliberately allowing a terrible falsehood to be spread with her name.”

What is happening here?

This willingness to spread outright false statements, the Oregon Democrat told Crosscut, is one of the most disturbing aspects of the new political climate. “This would never have happened in the politics of our youth,” he observed. “This is not just a philosophical or policy dispute,” he continued; “it’s outright lying and then refusing to admit it when caught. They are fighting to stop the conversation [with disruptive acts at some healthcare forums].”

This is a disturbing continuation of the type of lies that started during the election. McCain deliberately misunderstanding Obama’s use of the common “lipstick on a pig” expression as being a personal attack on Palin instead of directed at McCain’s policies. Ads claiming Obama wanted to teach in depth sexual education to kindergarten students.

On the one hand, the lies are so blatant that it’s tempting to just laugh at the lies and discredited liars.  Given the amount of screaming and shouting and threats of violence these lies are stirring up, I can’t help but find the lies of Palin and others a bit more sinister, though.  I recall other big lies that worked – Nazi Germany, Rwanda. 

Yes, it’s ironic because some of these right wing nuts are bringing signs with Obama as Hitler (and other, more obviously racist signs).  That’s the idea, though – to demonize those you oppose, to make them less than human.  Instead of trying to get fair and equal health care for everyone including and especially children and the elderly, those of us on the left are allegedly really pushing for “death panels,” even though people are really dying under the current system.

There’s still the underlying racism, too, that these lies are appealing to.  Just witness the “birthers”.  Obama isn’t one of us.  No matter that a birth certificate, closely examined by FactCheck.org had been produced.  No matter that there are copies of newspaper announcements from Honolulu papers at the time.  Some how, these must all be fake and the President was, what, secretly born in Kenya or maybe Mars?

True, the birthers are the right wing fringe and we still have those on the left who claim Trig isn’t Sarah Palin’s son.  Some of the “death panels” claims are coming from elected and formerly elected Republican officials, though, including former Governor Palin.  Many of whom, including Palin, obviously know they are telling lies, yet willing to stir up hatred and anger anyways. 

Health Care: The People vs. the Insurance Companies

So, now, facing the serious question of health care reform, we’re back to the silliness of the campaign trail. We have Sarah Palin claiming, on her Facebook page, that President Obama is going to set up “death panels,” a claim that merited a “pants on fire” rating on PolitiFact.com’s Truth-O-Meter:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

We have people organized by ultra-conservative groups shouting down congress members at Town Hall meetings echoing that inane claim and others, including everyone’s going to be forced to government care, but, oh, don’t mess with their Medicare (which they don’t seem to have figured out is a government plan). Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands go without insurance and many of the rest of us are in danger of losing ours.

Cupcake Royale’s blog, Legalize Frostitution, gives a humorous take on the top five health care lies, while really pushing for reform on NBC and NPR. MoveOn.org provides more facts on those same top five lies, and the White House has started a Reality Check page to refute them.

Meanwhile. . . I’m thinking of the lyrics of a Steve Earle song – Amerika v.6.0 (The Best We Can Do):

Meanwhile, back at the hospital
We got accountants playin’ God and countin’ out the pills
Yeah, I know, that sucks – that your HMO
Ain’t doin’ what you thought it would do
But everybody’s gotta die sometime and we can’t save everybody
It’s the best that we can do

We can do better though.  We had thousands marching and (hopefully still)contacting their legislators on the need for comprehensive health care reform. This is the real populist movement. 

As Katha Pollitt asks in The Nation:

Whatever happened to, um, health? Wasn’t that a big part of the original case for reform? The 46 million uninsured, the 20,000 people who die every year for lack of medical care, the studies showing that people without insurance get worse care than those with it, even after car crashes? Where are all those people with infuriating stories of being denied essential care by insurance company bureaucrats, and those who thought they were covered when they weren’t, and those who were hit with huge bills because of fine print in their contracts?

According to Washington CAN, “600,000 Washington residents are uninsured. More than 70 percent are members of working families. . . Employer-based coverage is eroding. In 2004, 38 percent of companies in Washington State did not offer health insurance. . . Small businesses and self-employed individuals are especially vulnerable.  Premium costs have increased more rapidly for small businesses than for large ones, but the  quality of coverage they receive is lower.  One third of the uninsured are self-employed.”

I’m sure former Governor Palin has good health coverage for herself and the rest of her family, including Trig. None of which will change with health care reform. Meanwhile, insurance companies are deciding the fate of others.

From Katha Pollitt’s column:

Listening to the radio earlier this summer, I heard a 59-year-old nurse named Robin Batin testify in the most heart-rending way before the House subcommittee on oversight and investigations, chaired by Representative Bart Stupak. When she developed invasive breast cancer, her insurance company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, rescinded her coverage because of a pre-existing condition–dermatitis–even though her dermatologist called to say it was acne, not, as the company claimed, a precancerous condition. Stupak confronted the heads of Assurant Health, UnitedHealth and WellPoint with the fact that there are some 1,400 conditions that can be used to cancel a policy, most of them so minor and obscure that the executives had never heard of them. Between 2003 and 2007, the three companies saved $300 million by rescinding at least 19,776 policies. By the time Batin finally got her surgery, her tumor had doubled in size. The Congressmen were shocked–they had no idea. Neither did I. The program? This American Life. I love Ira Glass, but come on, people! “Rescission” should be a word on the tip of everyone’s tongue by now.

You see, as former insurance insider Wendell Potter explains on Bill Moyers, insurance isn’t about helping you when you get sick or injured, it’s about making profits for their Wall Street investors by paying out as little as possible.

From the transcript:

BILL MOYERS: You told Congress that the industry has hijacked our health care system and turned it into a giant ATM for Wall Street. You said, “I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick, all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.” How do they satisfy their Wall Street investors?

WENDELL POTTER: Well, there’s a measure of profitability that investors look to, and it’s called a medical loss ratio. And it’s unique to the health insurance industry. And by medical loss ratio, I mean that it’s a measure that tells investors or anyone else how much of a premium dollar is used by the insurance company to actually pay medical claims. And that has been shrinking, over the years, since the industry’s been dominated by, or become dominated by for-profit insurance companies. Back in the early ’90s, or back during the time that the Clinton plan was being debated, 95 cents out of every dollar was sent, you know, on average was used by the insurance companies to pay claims. Last year, it was down to just slightly above 80 percent.

So, investors want that to keep shrinking. And if they see that an insurance company has not done what they think meets their expectations with the medical loss ratio, they’ll punish them. Investors will start leaving in droves.

I’ve seen a company stock price fall 20 percent in a single day, when it did not meet Wall Street’s expectations with this medical loss ratio.

For example, if one company’s medical loss ratio was 77.9 percent, for example, in one quarter, and the next quarter, it was 78.2 percent. It seems like a small movement. But investors will think that’s ridiculous. And it’s horrible.

A truly warped way of making money, when you think of it.  What’s someone’s health, or even life worth, as long as the investors have their profit?

This is the reality of what’s happening.  Meanwhile, Sarah is trotting out Trig again for political gain.  Let’s hope she keeps whatever good insurance she has, so insurance executives and Wall Street investors don’t decide whether he can have care while she’s busy making more false claims about Obama.

Meet Me in St. Louis vs Republican Cynicism

So, even though the polls show it’s actually losing them votes, McCain, Palin and their allies continue with their vicious attacks.   Meanwhile, Barack continues to take the high ground, even though there’s plenty of mud he could sling back, and talks about the issues. 

Oddly enough (at least to the Republican nominees), the issues do seem to be what the American people want to hear about.  Witness this crowd that the police estimated to be 100,000 Saturday in St. Louis, Missouri. 

The latest has been the “Joe the Plumber” strategy, of claiming Obama is a socialist bent on radically redistributing wealth.  Interestingly enough, the good people of St. Louis seem to like the idea of a tax cut for those 95 % of American workers (and 98% of small businesses) making less than a quarter million a year.  People who make up most of the crowd, and I’m sure aren’t happy with their characterization by McCain of not paying their taxes (which the IRS most certainly asks them for each April 15, although less so if Obama gets in).

Meanwhile, I guess Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann will want all these people investigated, claiming in this surreal MSNBC video that Obama’s friends and liberals in general are “anti-American” and the press should do a McCarthy era type investigation of anyone to the left in congress.

OK, I know the McCain/Palin campaign has brought out a lot nuts, but this woman is a U.S. Congresswoman?  The United States still being a democracy, the last time I checked? 

I’ve got news for Rep. Bachmann.  All those people in St. Louis, and around the country, who are coming to hear Obama; and all of us who are going to be voting for him on November – We Are the American People, too.

And . . .

We’re Voting for Real Change.

Yes, We Can!

Tags: St.+Louis, Barack+Obama, John+McCain, Sarah+Palin, Michele+Bachmann

An Economic Plan vs Sowing Seeds of Hatred

One of the things that really impresses me about Barack Obama is how he just ignores the vicious attacks from the Republicans and continues talking about the issues that matter instead of responding in kind. 

Once again, I feel absolute despair if I focus on McCain and Palin’s thinly disguised racist and undisguised anti-liberal attacks, whipping up this time charges of treason.  On the other hand, I feel genuine hope for America when I look at Barack’s rallies.  I hear him talking about substantive plans for issues like the economy, education, and health care. I see positive, engaged crowds; ready to help Obama put his vision for a positive future for them and their families in action.

If I focus my energies on the fear and hatred being sown for the minority of the Republican base, I miss the fact that rallies are still going on around the country like this one in Philadelphia (photos courtesy of Barack Obama’s Flickr page):

One of four “mini-rallies” in different neighborhoods in Philly this Saturday!

I’d miss the crowd reactions, the hope he brings in places like Philadelphia:

The enthusiasm in places like Toledo:

More importantly, I’d miss hearing details of his economic plan.  Details from the Toledo Blade (full speech below):

Highlights of his plan include:

* A temporary tax credit of $3,000 for firms that create new jobs in the United States over the next two years.

* New legislation that would allow families to withdraw 15% of their retirement savings — up to a maximum of $10,000 — without facing a tax-penalty this year (including retroactively) and next year.

 A 90-day foreclosure moratorium for homeowners that are acting in good faith.

* Calling on the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to work to establish a facility to lend to state and municipal governments.

Mr. Obama’s plan also calls for temporarily eliminating taxes on unemployment insurance benefits; keeping all options on the table to help automakers deal with the financial crisis; having the Fed and Treasury prepare for guaranteeing a broader range of liabilities of the banking system; and instructing Treasury to help unfreeze markets for individual mortgages, student loans, car loans, loans for multi-family dwellings and credit card loans.

Notice two other important things from the video.  First, that he immediately silences any booing of McCain and Palin, insisting on civility (something sorely missing from McCain, Palin and their supporters these days).  Second, that, just like with education and calling for students and parents to make learning a priority, along with training more teachers and education improvements; he also calls for Americans to look at their own tendency to live beyond their means on credit, while also calling for accountability from the banks, credit card companies and others responsible for the economic crisis. 

Definitely guilty here, and have learned the hard way.

Tags: Barack+Obama, John+McCain, Sarah+Palin, Philadelphia, Toledo

Grassroots Organizing for Change

While I should have thought it over a bit and realized the event was a bad fit (and I probably wouldn’t follow through), I don’t regret going to Renton for the Canvassing for Change event Saturday morning.  I was inspired after a discouraging week, not so much by Howard Dean’s speech, as by the 400 or more people who crowded the room (and that was for the 1^st shift). 

I think Howard Dean is right, Obama is going to win this election by grassroots organizing.  That being said, I don’t know if I’m going to be one of the people knocking on doors.  I’m a shy person, and truly, even with someone to go with, I’m not sure if I could handle it or be at all articulate.  There’s a reason why I write.  It’s an easier form of communication for me (though sometimes I even get shy writing).

I was at first encouraged Saturday when they mentioned being able to canvass your own legislative district.  I found the 43^rd was not represented, though, and it was just as while they brushed me off to come back during the break between speakers when I was trying to figure out what might be close.  The more I thought it over, the more I realized that it looked like the situation was that I would be getting my own packet to go out and knock on doors myself.  There didn’t seem to be pairing off, as most people had someone.  With a smaller event, maybe I would have asked.

I did have one friend who could have made the second shift (2–5pm), but that wouldn’t have worked out as I had long before committed to being at the Amnesty International table that night for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Dinner (more tomorrow on that).  That was my other problem, and after the hour trip home (with a half hour wandering around Renton snapping photos, as I had just missed a bus), I realized I only had a couple hours to get ready for the dinner as it was.  Over scheduling, obviously, another problem for me.

After checking later on the King County Democrats website, I realized there would have been another problem, as it looks like all the Legislative Districts were outside Seattle, in south or east King County.  Which would make it rather difficult, as I’d have to figure out how to get to a neighborhood in another city by bus from Renton, then back from Seattle.  Do that without a computer to find that information, and then all the time that would take.  It was the 41^st and 48^th that were suggested to me as being closest (which may well be, without Seattle districts in the mix), but those were in Bellevue (so an hour back to Seattle, another hour to Bellevue, and probably another half hour wait or two).  So, it probably wouldn’t have worked anyways if I waited around for a packet. 

Then, there’s the idea of me, knocking on strangers doors and trying to convince them how to vote.  Would I have even followed through if I did get a packet?  No matter how much Barack inspires me, it’s pretty hard to go against my basic nature as an introvert. Believe me, I’m already beyond my comfort zone much of the time as it is, especially with my activism, and sometimes I think I should become a recluse. I know I would be happier.

Going out to Renton for the canvassing was a little crazy anyways (given the lengthy bus trip both ways, including waits).  I just so wanted to do something after the nastiness of the McCain attack ads.  I could have canvassed closer, either through the 43rd District Democrats or the new  Neighbor to Neighbor feature on Barack Obama’s website (informational video below).  I’m still not sure if I could do it, and definitely not by myself.

That being said, there are other things I can do, and the My Barack Obama feature, state pages (here’s Washington’s) and groups are helpful for finding those.  I’ve already written some postcards for Obama, and may do a shift at a Buttonpalooza or a voter registration drive.

Buttonpalooza?   Do I live an exciting life, or what? 

Well, life is going to get more exciting one way or another, whoever wins this election.  I’d just like it to be a positive excitement.  Let’s see, encouraging children to learn, creating more American jobs, tax breaks for working people and small businesses; vs cronyism, turning back the clock to the 19^th century, and if John’s ticker doesn’t hold up, all White House cabinet positions held by Sarah’s old school chums from Wasilla.  Will that be fun, or what?!

Love the part about her friend who’s the head of the State Division of Agriculture, a former real estate agent, who now draws a $95,000 a year paycheck because of her qualification of “her childhood love of cows.”  Why do the words, “Heck of a job, Brownie” come to mind?

As noted in a previous blog, the time is getting short for people to register to vote or update their registration addresses, generally by the end of the month (and the vote caging continues).  Make sure you’re registered, and get all of your friends to register by checking Vote for Change:

http://www.voteforchange.com/

Then vote for change November 4^th (or sooner for those who vote by mail).

Vote for real change (and if you live in Seattle, buy a copy of Real Change, the long running homeless newspaper)!

Tags: Barack+Obama, Howard+Dean, Democrats, Sarah+Palin, John+McCain, Real+Change

Time for a Howl-In with Howard Dean

That’s it!  After the last two weeks of listening to insults, wedge (or wedgie) issues and swiftboating (not to mention voter suppression) by the Republicans so they can avoid discussing the real issues, I’m actually going to go canvassing this Saturday.  In Renton.  After a speech by (and maybe some good howling with) Howard Dean.  Canvassing, and I hate knocking on strangers’ doors and talking to them.

If you live near Seattle, and are fed up too, come and join us.

Details at: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gs745w

This whole “lipstick on a pig” bit was the last straw (and they still want to pretend like they think Barack was insulting Palin when he was talking about McCain’s economic policy).  As Barack said, “Enough.”  Can we talk about the real issues, or is it that John McCain and Sarah Palin don’t have much of a plan to talk about?

Enough!  These are serious times, and we need serious solutions, not wedgies and swiftboating.  Where is the media in covering the candidates’ plans for the economy, education, healthcare, to end the war in Iraq?  The issues that should really matter when we vote for a President.

On the same day as the “lipstick on a pig” comment, Barack made this 36 minute speech on education:

So what’s the McCain/Palin plan for education?  Isn’t that what we should be talking about and comparing less than 60 days before the election?

Tags: Howard+Dean, Barack+Obama, John+McCain, Sarah+Palin, Democrats, Republicans

Student Voter Suppression, Too!

So, they’re not just suppressing the poor and black vote this time.  Since Barack appeals to students, the Republicans are trying to stop them from voting with lies, too.

According to the New York Times:

Late last month, as a voter-registration drive by supporters of Senator Barack Obama was signing up thousands of students at Virginia Tech, the local registrar of elections issued two releases incorrectly suggesting a range of dire possibilities for students who registered to vote at their college.

The releases warned that such students could no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns, a statement the Internal Revenue Service says is incorrect, and could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ car and health insurance.

As I mentioned in my last post (just a few minutes ago), I think it’s really important for everyone to register and vote (and get everyone they know to register and vote) for Barack in this election.  It’s also important that we fight this “caging” and voter suppression by Republicans.

It says a lot about the Republicans that they apparently only think they can win by lies, sarcasm and deceit.  Currently we have the McCain/Palin camp acting like they’ve never heard the expression “You can put lipstick on a pig – it’s still a pig.” in their lives (even though it’s older than McCain, and he himself used it against Hillary).  Instead, we have Republicans like former Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift (who started this round of “swift boating”) claim the expression, which Barack used referring to McCain, was meant as a sexist insult to Sarah.

Please!!!  Really, the expression does really apply to Senator McCain and Governor Palin.  No, I’m not referring to their appearances, which are very photogenic (poor Abe couldn’t run these days, though he’d even recognize that expression).  I’m referring to their record, their ethics, their vicious attacks; all meant to cover up the lack of any real plan to deal with the issues that concern the American public and affect real working class people.  Barack has a plan to deal with issues like the economy, education, health care, women’s rights, veteran’s concerns, ending the war in Iraq. . .  Where’s McCain’s? 

It does appear McCain and Palin would prefer to roll in the mud, rather than discuss the issues.

Who do you want in office for the next four years? 

Register.  Vote.  Fight voter suppression.

Fight the spin.  It seems like the whole point of this “lipstick on a pig”, of pretending Barack’s using that old expression against McCain was meant as an insult to Sarah, was meant to plant the seed that a black, elite, man was insulting a white, working class, woman.

I find that Republican spin very insulting to me – as a white, working class woman.  Like we’re supposed to be such bimbos we’ll vote on identity and not realize the McCain/Palin platform is neither supportive of the working class or women.

We’re not that dumb.  Guess you’re going to have to try to suppress the white, working class women vote, too!

Tags: vote+caging, voting, Barack+Obama, Republican+party, Sarah+Palin

Hope vs Cynicism: Register. Vote. Yes, We Can!

The Republican Vice Presidential candidate has filed an ethics complaint against herself.  What more can you say? 

Ever since the conventions I’ve been torn between the images of hope and unity from the Democrats (and especially of Obama’s acceptance speech detailing a better future to a multi-cultural crowd of over 84,000), and the meanness and cynicism of the mostly white and rich Republicans (especially Sarah’s nastiness toward Obama, and McCain’s speech offering nothing but trickle down economics, lies and playing on people’s fears).

I have to go with Hope, though, and I do believe Hope is going to win. If there is a silver lining to Sarah’s speech, it is this – that thousands of Democrats (more than 130,000 by the next afternoon) donated an estimated $10 million to Barack before McCain even took the stage.

Grassroots organizing is still going on as well.  I attended a salon for Obama at a friends’ house Sunday with about 20 others to help plan how we’re going to win this election.  Thousands of similar events, vote drives, house parties and more are going on around the country.  Yes, We Can!

Meanwhile, the ethics of Alaska’s supposed ethics reformer and VP Candidate Sarah Palin seem murkier and murkier.  According to Robert Perry of the Consortium News (reprinted in Truthout):

Moreover, on Tuesday, just one day before giving her widely acclaimed speech to the Republican National Convention, Palin took the unusual step of filing an ethics complaint against herself – to move the investigation to the state personnel board whose three members are appointed by the governor.

This was known by the mainstream news media before Palin’s speech, yet it “was rarely, if ever, mentioned by TV pundits filling hours of air time with chatter about her charisma, her moose hunting and her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy.”

Then, this mornings Washington Post reports that:

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

And this is Alaska’s ethics reformer!

Meanwhile, as Michelle Obama mentioned at a Women for Obama event in Albuquerque last week, time is getting short, especially for voter registration, which has to be done by the end of this month or early next month, depending on where you live.

This is an important election.  Register, and if you’re already registered, make sure all your address is up to date, then make sure your friends and family are registered (convincing any fence sitters to vote for Barack).

Information online (including deadlines):

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/vrachome

One slight inaccuracy on the website’s Washington state information.  They say Pierce is the only county still voting at the polls.  Actually, while we were supposed to be switched over to all mail voting by this year here in King County, they delayed it until after this election.  Most people are voting by mail even here, but there are a few of us hold outs going to the polling booth on November 4. 

When I vote, I always remember going in the polling booth (which looked huge to me at 4) with Mama back in Apalachin, New York when she voted for Robert Kennedy for New York State Senator in 1964.  Seems kind of appropriate that I’ll be casting what will probably be my last vote in an actual polling booth (soon to go into a museum?) for Barack Obama.

This moment has been a long time coming in so many ways.  If you’re thinking of not voting, listen to what some people had to risk to vote in 1964 in Mississippi. 

Should this not convince you, check the Truthout article on vote “caging” by the Republican party in Ohio (then make sure your voter registration address is up to date).  It’s the 21st century and this is still going on.

Vote.

Yes, We Can!

 

Tags: Barack+Obama, voting, Sarah+Palin, John+McCain, Democratic+party, Republican+party, vote+caging

Palin, The Republicans and the Truth

Sarah Palin is known as the Barracuda for the way she’s played politics since her days of Mayor of Wasilla.  So her rhetoric against Obama was no surprise, and no stretch for her, even if it was written  by McCain’s people, as rumored.

What about the truth, though?  As Robert Parry noted in the Consortium News (reprinted in Truthout):

In speech after speech, Republicans didn’t so much as tell the Big Lie as they deployed Wholesale Lies.

The Associated Press, which mostly had been recycling the Republican spin about the supposedly “maverick” ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin, was so struck by the litany of distortions that the AP produced a special fact-checking article describing how Republicans had “stretched the truth.”

For instance, Palin said about Obama, “it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform – not even in the state senate.” 

However, as the AP noted, Obama “worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year.”

Plus, the AP reported, “In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.”

 

As for the “Bridge to Nowhere” Palin says she opposed?

As the AP noted. Palin, as  mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla, hired a lobbyist and made annual treks to Washington seeking earmarked spending that totaled $27 million, and then as Alaska’s governor for less than two years, she sought nearly $750 million in special federal spending, “by far the largest per-capita request in the nation.”

And as for that $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents, the truth is that Palin enthusiastically supported the project before she reluctantly opposed it, rejecting the “Bridge to Nowhere” only after it had become politically indefensible.

 

Not only that:

The Los Angeles Times discovered that Sen. McCain had specifically cited several of Palin’s earmarks on his annual list of wasteful pork-barrel spending.

In 2001, for instance, McCain’s list included a $500,000 earmark for a public transportation project in Wasilla, and in 2002, he criticized $1 million targeted for an emergency communications center that Palin sought but local law enforcement said was redundant and a source of confusion.

 

Meanwhile, Pataki, Giuliani and Palin all mocked Obama’s work as a community organizer at the Republican Convention, admitting they were clueless as to what a community organizer does.  While this has brought a lot of (justifiable) wrath from people who do the hard work of community organizing, personally, I think it’s a good thing that Republicans are clueless.  It is, in fact, by the grassroots techniques of community organizing (on a nationwide level) that Barack won the Democratic nomination, in spite of the fact in the beginning most of the party insiders were for Hillary. 

 

That Republicans are clueless about the connection between “community” and “organizing” is a good thing.  Shhh!  Let them thing $5000 a plate dinners with the country club set are the way to go. . .

 

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin’s choice by McCain is being touted as a Feminist turn by the Republican party (there’s something I never thought I’d see in my life; admittedly this is a breakthrough of the right-wingers glass ceiling), and anyone who questions that is just sexist.  What do longer standing Feminists think? 

 

Gloria Steinem sums up the cynicism of the Republican’s choice and it’s alleged appeal to Hillary’s supporters in the LA Times:

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton’s candidacy stood for — and that Barack Obama’s still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, “Somebody stole my shoes, so I’ll amputate my legs.”

 

I disagree that anything was stolen.  Obama won by organizing community support around the country from people like me.  Still, no matter what they want to believe about that, do they really want McCain and Palin in the White House instead of Barack? Hoping everything they believe in won’t be totally ruined by the end of four more years and then Hillary will be able to win and turn it all around (and remember, Supreme Court appointments are for life)?

 

As Steinem points out, Sarah doesn’t have much knowledge of world affairs, while she does support all the most extreme conservative positions.

So let’s be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can’t tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

Palin’s value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women’s wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves “abstinence-only” programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers’ millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn’t spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
 

 

OK, but what do Republican women think of McCain’s choice? Check out the New York Times blog and the YouTube clip below to hear what Peggy Noonan of the Reagan administration and other Republican pundits are saying off air (or so they think) in an accidental live mic discussion on MSNBC.

Peggy Noonan, speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and columnist, interjects: “It’s over.”
Asked whether Ms. Palin is really the most qualified woman Mr. McCain could have picked, Ms. Noonan responds rather incredulously, “The most qualified? No. I think they went for the — excuse me — political (expletive) about narratives. … Every time the Republicans do that, because that’s not where they live and that’s not what they’re good at, they blow it.”

 

Even Republican women would prefer a woman with some real experience and world knowledge on the ticket.  How dumb do McCain and his cronies think women are?

 

 

 

Tags: Sarah+Palin, George+Pataki, Rudy+Giuliani, Republicans, Barack+Obama, Gloria+Steinem, Peggy+Noonan

Palin – Seriously, What are the Republicans smoking?

After actually hearing Sarah Palin tonight, I know what Katha Pollit meant when she said in The Nation that Sarah’s candidacy would make a great Lifetime channel movie, but this is real life.

Sure, Palin is cool — she’s pretty and vivacious and athletic, a former beauty queen who runs marathons, hunts , fishes and eats mooseburgers, plus she’s got five kids with unusual names like Willow and Track, including a newborn with Down’s syndrome. I feel tired just thinking of what her daily life must be like, and if she were my neighbor I would probably like her a lot. It shows how deeply feminism has penetrated American culture that even anti-choice, right-wing-Christian women are breaking out of the old sugary-submissive pastel-suited stereotype. And if life were a Lifetime movie, Palin would do just fine running the country should McCain keel over. Girls can do anything! and look great doing it!

But seriously. Vice President? After a stint as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of less than 8000, and barely two years as governor of a state with more grizzly bears than people? She makes Obama’s resume look as thick as Winston Churchill’s.

Sarah made a great case for being Mayor of Wasilla, and, yes, I do give her credit for taking on the corruption in Alaska (though she’s on a little shaky ground herself lately), booting out former Republican Governor Frank Murkowski in the primary and selling his private plane he bought at taxpayer expense (putting it on eBay as one of her first acts in office).  I know the party base agrees with many of her extreme positions from abortion to drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; but. . . should something happen to McCain, do they really think she’s ready to lead the United States of America? 

There are certainly Republican women who are qualified to lead who McCain could have chosen.  Was it that they didn’t pass the far right litmus test of being even more reactionary than McCain on abortion?

As the New York Times noted:

Why Mr. McCain would want to pander to right-wing activists — who helped George W. Bush kill off his candidacy in the 2000 primaries in a particularly ugly way — is baffling. Frankly, they have no place to go. Mr. McCain would have a lot more success demonstrating his independence, and his courage, if he stood up to them the way he did in 2000.

Maybe because they are the majority in the room at the convention?  Seriously, they all came alive when Sarah was speaking, no matter how far out there the rest of us think she was.  I was amazed how bored they were for the earlier speakers, unlike the Democrats at their convention who were energized.  Until Giuliani, to some extent, and especially Palin.  She’s good with the party base.

It was both laughable and scary to hear both Giuliani and Palin knock and belittle Obama’s considerable experience; then act as if the PTA and being Mayor of Wasilla, and less than two years as Governor of Alaska, were impressive credentials for Vice President and even President, should something happen to McCain.

John Nichols of The Nation has dubbed Sarah as Spiro T. Palin for her attack dog mode tonight:

Sarcastic, bombastic, at times witty, at times savage, Palin ripped and ridiculed Obama with an eye toward challenging the common sense, logic and patriotism of the Democrat.

. . .

Never mind the conflicts between reality and Palin’s over-the-top mischaracterizations of Obama’s record and positions. The governor of Alaska was not about to be constrained by the facts.

So, Barack’s experience as U.S. Senator, in the Illinois legislature, and as a community organizer don’t count; but if we question Sarah’s experience as a small town mayor as qualifying her for vice presidency, we’re being elitist? 

Tax breaks to the wealthy while the poor get poorer and the middle class disappears along with American jobs (and cynically telling people they need to lift themselves up by their bootstraps), now that’s real elitism.

Tags: Sarah+Palin, Republicans, Republican+party, John+McCain, Barack+Obama