Slimey to the Moon

Thanks to Media Matters.

Palin and Ethics Violations

I'm again running a bit late with this but I heard an interview with a columnist and former editor of The Anchorage Daily News and thought I'd copy the editorial here. I think the description of her reaction as Orwellian is dead on. It's more than a lie.

Palin vindicated? Governor offers Orwellian spin (10/13/08 22:02:58)

Sarah Palin's reaction to the Legislature's Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.

She claims the report "vindicates" her. She said that the investigation found "no unlawful or unethical activity on my part."

Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.

Page 8, Finding Number One of the report says: "I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act."

In plain English, she did something "unlawful." She broke the state ethics law.

Perhaps Gov. Palin has been too busy to actually read the Troopergate report. Perhaps she is relying on briefings from McCain campaign spinmeisters.

That's the charitable interpretation.

Because if she had actually read it, she couldn't claim "vindication" with a straight face.

Palin asserted that the report found "there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired."

In fact, the report concluded that "impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired."

Palin's response is the kind of political "big lie" that George Orwell warned against. War is peace. Black is white. Up is down.

Gov. Palin and her camp trumpeted the report's second finding: that she was within her legal authority to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. But the report also said it's likely one of the reasons she fired him was his failure to get rid of her ex-brother-in-law trooper.

That's not "vindication," and surely Gov. Palin knows it.

Gov. Palin does have a defense. She could have said:

"I'm gratified that the report confirmed what I said all along, that I had the authority to terminate Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner.

"I absolutely disagree that I violated state ethics law. In repeatedly complaining about trooper Mike Wooten, Todd and I were not pursuing a personal vendetta. We were trying to protect the integrity of the Alaska State Troopers from having an arrogant, almost-out-of-control law-breaker in their ranks. Because the action we were seeking was in the public interest, not purely our personal interest, there is no ethics law violation."

Gov. Palin and her husband felt so passionately about Wooten because the case was so personal to them. Their passion blinded them to any other considerations.

They had no sense that the power of the governor's office carries a special responsibility not to use it to settle family scores. They had no sense that legal restrictions might prevent the troopers from firing Wooten. They had no sense that persistent queries from the governor's office might be perceived as pressure to bend state personnel laws.

Gov. Palin and her husband were obsessed with Wooten the way Capt. Ahab was obsessed with the Great White Whale. No Wooten, no peace.

Has Gov. Palin committed an impeachable offense? Hardly.

Is what she did indictable? No.

But it wasn't appropriate, especially for someone elected as an ethical reformer. And her Orwellian claims of "vindication" make this blemish on her record look even worse.

You asked us to hold you accountable, Gov. Palin. Did you mean it?

Bottom line: Gov. Palin, read the report. It says you violated the ethics law.

Yard Sign Theft

Video of Obama sign being stolen by fat white woman in an SUV.

The Republicans have been shouting for years that their candidates' yard signs are being stolen but the only evidence of theft I have ever seen has been Democrats' signs being lifted. It's as if the Republicans are using code to tell their followers to get out there and steal Democratic yard signs. Yes, "as if."

Been There, Done That

Or, Repeating History for Lack of Remembering It

From the January 1933 issue Harper's Magazine

Inside the R.F.C.: An adventure in secrecy

By John T. (John Thomas) Flynn

The Congress which now presides over the dying months of President Hoover’s administration will, let us hope, bring to an end that fatuous adventure in secrecy which has stained the record of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. In the very act of its birth the R.F.C. was stricken dumb by the President. Thereafter for five months it passed round hundreds of millions of dollars of public money to banks and railroads without affording either to the public, or even to Congress itself, a grain of information about the identity of the objects of its bounty.

...

Before lifting a corner of the curtain let me insert a word about this dangerous notion that government can be safely conducted in secrecy. There is a school of politicians–in close communion with their business allies–who hold to what is sometimes called the idiot theory of government, because of certain expressions which the President himself has let fall. There is a belief that the citizens are stupid; that the less they know the better off they will be; that knowledge in their immature minds will frequently produce economic disorder, and that they will be better served if they will entrust their affairs to the strong and able men set over them by Providence and a well-oiled election machine. The theory ignores a very old truth: that if there are foolish citizens there are also selfish rulers; that the poor judgment of the masses is to be trusted hardly less than the bad ethics of their leaders, and that, in any case, those who supply the funds for governments and the blood for wars have a right to know what is being done with their money and their lives. [more...]

Vote McCain, He's Just Like W Except Older With a Worse Temper

See more Hayden Panettiere videos at Funny or Die

Insane & Failin'

McCain's Robocall About Ayers

According to sources these robocalls began today, the day after the debate. It is just staggeringly pathetic that they keep beating this dead horse especially considering that McCain's transition chief lobbied* for Saddam Hussein, there's McCain's direct involvement with the Keating 5,** and McCain's friendship with traitor and felon G. Gordon Liddy. In my opinion people like Liddy have done far more to damage this nation than Bill Ayers ever would have wished.

*two of his associates were jailed for this
**who arguably cost the citizens of the US far more than the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers combined

Thoughts On the Last Presidential Debate

Obama: Very cool headed, answered all but one question directly, seemed like the calm adult, exuded confidence and understanding.

McCain: Seemed oddly rattled and afraid at the beginning, snorted, sighed, rolled his eyes, bared his teeth, arched his eyebrows (looking surprised and angry as a result), tried several maneuvers that have worked in the past but fell very flat for him, didn't ramble as much as last time, seemed a bit thrown off at times and repeated himself too often.

HBO's Presidential Debate

Was There Too Much Sex And Profanity In The HBO Presidential Debate?

McCain Comics

Some really funny stuff here.

This Modern World: Google It Yourself

Art Cars For Democracy!

Inflatable Art

These are pretty damned cool.



via

Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies is a really great little television show. It's visually striking. It's sweet. It's funny. It's a bit weird. Watch it!

Poetic Justice: Richard Fuld Decked

...Vicki Ward, a US journalist, said "two very senior sources - one incredibly senior source" had confirmed it to her. "He went to the gym after ... Lehman was announced as going under," she told CNBC. "He was on a treadmill with a heart monitor on. Someone was in the corner, pumping iron and he walked over and he knocked him out cold.

"And frankly after having watched [Mr Fuld's testimony to the committee], I'd have done the same too."

"I thought he was shameless ... I thought it was appalling. He blamed everyone ... He blamed everybody but himself." [more]

The Debate(s) in a Minute

For some reason this site's videos won't embed here so just click on this sentence.