Hitchens Brothers find common ground on Palin

You'd be hard-pressed to find 2 people more diametrically opposed than Christopher and Peter Hitchens, yet they will be forever linked by genetics. Christopher, the elder, is a former Trotskyist whose main passion in the 1990s was seeing Henry Kissinger and Augusto Pinochet brought to justice for crimes against humanity while claiming Mother Theresa was a fraud who engaged in forced conversions at her mission. A militant atheist, he has rallied against the forces of jihad by arguing in favor of wars in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Peter, on the other hand, is a paleoconservative who opposes each previously mentioned war as well as evolution and abortion. Peter favors sovereignty for the United Kingdom while preferring British control over Scotland and Wales. So when these 2 can agree on the merits of McCain's choice of running mate, it's worth our attention.

From big brother Hitchens:

I partly sympathize with all those who have been trying for a week to paint the former Miss Wasilla as a candidate from (fairly nearby, in Anchorage terms) Manchuria. However, as often as I have forwarded some alarming e-mail about her from a beavering comrade, I have afterward found myself having the sensation of putting my foot where the last stair ought to have been and wasn't. Was she in the Alaska Independence Party? Not really. Did she campaign for Pat Buchanan in 2000? The AP report from 1999 appears to be contradicted by her endorsement of Steve Forbes. (Not great, I agree, but not Buchanan, either.) The most appalling thing I have unearthed so far is the answer that she gave to a questionnaire when she ran for governor in 2006. All candidates were asked "Are you offended by the phrase 'Under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?" Her response was:

Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers [it's] good enough for me, and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
The very slight problem with this—because it would truly be awful if Gov. Palin didn't know that the pledge itself dates from only the late 19th century and that the unwonted insertion of the words "under God" was made in the mid-1950s—is that it is somehow funny. And it's also the sort of mistake that many people can imagine themselves making and thus forgive someone else for making.

I could well be wrong, but I think something similar is involved in the attempt to paint the Palin family as if it were Arkansas on ice or Tobacco Road with igloos and Inuit. Very well, she possibly has had her Troopergate and even trailer-park moments. But whom exactly did the Democrats drown in moist applause, for two nights running, in Denver? The most dysfunctional family ever to occupy not the vice-presidential mansion but the executive one. It's hard to imagine that there will be any more unwanted pregnancies or shotgun weddings when or if the Palins move to the Naval Observatory on Massachusetts Avenue, whereas with the Clintons, the very thing that made all Bill's friends turn white and pee green was that they made him the president, and he still wouldn't stop. For me, it is astonishing that the Democrats have been babbling all week as if this point isn't just waiting—indeed begging—to be made in riposte to their "opposition research."

Here, the author of a book called "God is not Great: How religion poisons everything," whose preoccupation in all of his works is hardline anti-theism followed closely by anti-authoritarianism. Take notice that one of the most brazen men on the planet barely finds her religious views not worthy of any significant attention. More appropriate in his view is to expose the hypocrisy of Obama's DNC mouthpieces to belittle Gov Palin's experience, defend Obama's nearly equal experience, and then feign outrage when she compares mayoral experience to Obama's part-time job.

But Peter's endorsement is more clear:

Which just goes to show that ultra-feminists are not actually interested in promoting women because they're women. They pretend they are, but really their agenda is a campaign against marriage, in favour of abortion and for every other disastrous liberal and socialist cause that ever existed. In which case, they really can't go on pretending that their opponents are women-hating bigots.

Hitchens notes that the supposed feminist agenda is the celebration of womanhood for the sake of womanhood, yet that ideology collapses when exposed to the rigid beliefs that all must follow in order to be called "sister." This is what Peter's older brother would compare to Orwell's Ministry of Love (or Miniluv in Newspeak). Could anyone have predicted a month ago that the all-around conservative governor of Alaska would not only be McCain's running mate, but energizing the entire campaign and bringing the Hitchens brothers together? Somewhere, the moon is turning a shade of azure.

Does Sarah Palin believe the Iraq War is "God's War"?

Alright, I'll spoil it: She doesn't.

It's being murmured throughout the blogosphere and even lurks its way into some legitimate news sources: Sarah Palin believes American soldiers are "on a task that is from God." Any quote that brief should throw up red flags for any objective reader. Here's the unadultered quote in its proper context:

Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan.

Not exactly fire and brimstone, is it? She's asking the congregants to pray for wisdom and sound moral judgment from political leadership, not declaring a Holy War.

There remains an effort to cast Palin as outside the mainstream on a host of issues such as abortion and gay rights. What her critics don't realize (or don't want to realize) is that whether or not Palin's views align with theirs, most voters respect the integrity and credibility that her personal experiences bring to the abortion debate. When it comes to gay rights, seldom is it reported that Palin vetoed a bill outlawing same-sex benefits for state employees, effectively guaranteeing benefits to gay state employees. Curiously, however, most of the focus is aimed at Palin's opposition to gay marriage. While this is portrayed as "outside the mainstream," when's the last time anyone characterized Obama's opposition as extremist?

In fact, the issues for which Palin is made out to be an unapologetic ideologue are when Barry is at his most slippery. Here are his views on each respective issue in his own words:

Gun rights

I think there is an individual right to bear arms, but it's subject to commonsense regulation

I would respect his position if he were to interpret the second amendment to say that guns are meant solely for the militia, but he isn't. He acknowledges that gun ownership is a right, then concludes that a right is up for negotiation.

Death Penalty

The community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage

In fairness to Obama, he's also said he wants to limit the number of executions in order to appear to care about the anti-death penalty crowd (see: abortion).

So the accusation the Palin believes she governs Alaska with a mandate from Heaven is provably false. She has done more for gay unions in Alaska (a red state in which gay rights are more difficult to sell to the electorate) than Obama did in Illinois (Non-existent gay union record in the legislature of a solid blue state). Unlike Obama, her message in uncorruptably clear. In fact, the absence of pandering in her rhetoric signals a genuine departure from politics as usual. That's change you can believe in.

Palin Attackers Dispersing

After an unsuccessful media onslaught against Sarah Palin, the partisan attackers are declaring the battle is lost. I don't believe in the culture wars, but they are literally calling for a retreat. It won't be the first or last time this crowd waves the white flag. It started with the slanted Us Weekly coverage:
Then Us was confronted

I could've done without the shameless "Fair and Balanced reporting" line by Megyn Kelly, but this is the professionalism of Us Weekly's editorial board on display. Bradley Jacobs, the marble-mouthed individual being interviewed, is caught with his pants down as he's taken to task for probably the first time in his "journalistic" career. Normally, Hilary Duff and Tila Tequila don't fight back.

Take a good look at Michael Moore's demand that Gov Palin "Show Us the DNA!", because you'll never see that on his site again... Until another astute group of anonymous bloggers bravely take some other 17 year old to task and he runs with the story for a few days then quietly deletes it. He doesn't even get the pseudo-story right. The claim was that Palin was the "grandmother" of her "son". What a faildozer. At any rate, this statement should have been retracted not deleted.


While, he won't truly acknowledge his own mistakes, Moore is advocating that the anti-Paliners cool it. And in the process, glossing over his own role in the initial claims that Trig Palin was Bistol Palin's son:

One hour after Gustav hit land, the McCain campaign announced that Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's teenage daughter is pregnant. I don't want to say much more beyond this, as I agree with Barack Obama that "people's families are off limits, and people's children are especially off limits."

I do feel very sorry that this minor, this child, now has to have her privacy sacrificed because her mother accepted an offer to run for VP. Obama's right -- the children are off limits.

That's really low and embarrassing, even for Moore. Don't ever let this quarter ton land monster ever claim he has a moral high ground on anything.

But Moore isn't alone. Arianna Huffington, who initially summarized Palin as a Hail Mary pass is now calling Palin a "distraction." Look, even if you don't like Sarah Palin, it should be common knowledge at this point that Palin has a legion of loyal followers who consider her the yang to John McCain's yin. It should come as no surprise that they come to her defense, but when your political opposite calls your attackers sexist, they are probably telling the truth. After a week of prodding into everything from her family to a vague connection to the Alaska Independence Party (which isn't necessarily seccesionist), her detractors have finally realized just how badly they've injured themselves in the process.

Washington Post distortions on Federal dollars for Wasilla

The Washington Post is reporting that while Sarah Palin served as mayor of Wasilla, she helped secure [cue sinister music] earmarks for her fair city. According to the report, this undermines McCain's message of cleaning up pork barrel spending.

In fiscal year 2002, Wasilla took in $6.1 million in earmarks -- about $1,000 in federal money for every resident. By contrast, Boise, Idaho -- which has more than 190,000 residents -- received $6.9 million in earmarks in fiscal 2008

So let's examine the Post's comparison. Wasilla's population from 2000 to 2007 grew from 5469 to 7100 indicated almost 30% growth rate, while Boise's population growth from 2000 to 2007 went from 185,787 to 203,600 or 9.5% growth. What nefarious deeds did your hard-earned tax dollars go for?

• $1.9 million for the Wasilla Intermodal Transit Project, to realign rail and bus routes to increase use of public transit in the region.
• $500,000 for Kids Are People Inc., an emergency shelter for youths transitioning out of juvenile detention facilities.
• $15 million for a rail project to connect Wasilla with Girdwood.
• $1.75 million to upgrade emergency communications between authorities at the Wasilla dispatch center.
• $600,000 to upgrade bus stations.
• $900,000 to upgrade water and sewer facilities.

Imagine! We put trust in our elected officials and they use it to improve transportation, bring efficiency to first responders, and rehabilitate juvenile delinquents? FOR SHAME!!! So the money that went to Wasilla was meant for one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country and provide public transportation between Anchorage's suburbs. And the monetary figure used by the Post is an Olympian reach, because sizable chunks of their $6.9 million are shared with neighboring communities. Not pork by any measure. Oink oink, indeed.

Noun + Verb + 4 more years of failed Bush policies

Much has passed since the last time I posted on this blog. Sarah Palin has become McCain's VP, much to the delight of social conservatives, women outisde of NY, Frisco, Seattle, and Boston, and most importantly, reform-minded Republicans.

The tolerant left has shown its progressive and forward-thinking agenda by attacking the second female on a national ticket in history and her daughter, first by claiming that Governor Palin used a page out of the Desperate Housewives playbook and faked her pregnancy with Trig to cover for what was actually daughter Bristol's child. Daily Kos was the first to jump on it, but has since removed the story. Then it was revealed that Bristol is currently pregnant with her fiance's child. Somehow, this was evidence of some type of vague hypocrisy that detractors never explain.

Normally, I am skeptical of the term "liberal media," but many agenda-driven journalists made their views clear as this election cycle moved from the primaries to the general election. This became even more pronounced when the Palin pick was chosen. Immediately questions rose as to whether or not Palin had the experience to be POTUS. Naturally, MSNBC, CNN, and CBS immediately direct them to Obama's own justification

So Palin delivered a speech that was tremendous to all non-Democrats who were watching. in fact, there was a 9% jump for McCain/Palin among independents. So Howard Dean did exactly what all good public servants do... fell back to his talking points.

From Howard Dean:

I think the first half was terrific. I thought she really laid out who she
was. I was fascinated. The second half, she sounded like Dick Cheney, she
really did. The same old attack stuff, the same old canards about Democrats that
mostly weren't true.

Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney are both 1) Carbon-based beings 2) Need oxygen to survive. The similarities end there. Mind you, this accusation comes from a guy whose party nominated Joe Biden for the sole purpose of having an attack dog who could spew venom while the name above him on the ticket could maintain the guise of a cherub. Dean never elaborated on the alleged falsehoods, by the way. As the interview progressed, he did remember to equate McCain/Palin to Bush/Cheney, also without elaboration.

Like the above instances and many, many more examples that you can find by simply turning on your television set, the DNC continues to disappoint the electorate with their overly simplistic formula to piece together a sentence: A noun + a verb + 4 more years of failed Bush policies.

Don't buy ABC report on Palin not being in Dayton

ABC News claimed the following an hour or so ago:

But one person who will not be there: Palin. The Governor's spokesperson, Sharon
Leighow, tells ABC News she's going to the State Fair in Anchorage, Alaska.

Ms. Leighbow never said Palin won't be in Dayton. It is highly probable that Palin could leave Ohio at 1:00 PM Central time and be back in Alaska in time for the State Fair fireworks at 10:15 PM UTC-9. As a matter of fact, with the time zone change, I'd venture to say the Governor could make the Honky Tonk Allstars at 5 if she's really hauling.

Call Sign N387HA

What's the meaning of this post over at Change & Experience?

Sarah Palin could have left Anchorage on charter flight N387HA on August 27, 2008 at 2:15 YST, and arrived at Boeing International (in Seattle) at 6:13 PST, and departed Boeing International (in Seattle) at 6:51 pm PST and arrived in Flagstaff ( which is 20 miles from Sedona, AZ, the home of John McCain) at 8:59 MST. August 27 was when John McCain was meeting with advisers about his VP choice.

The very next day, on August 28, 2008, flight N387HA, departed at 12:16 pm MST from Flagstaff, Arizona, landed in Amarillo, Texas at 3:31pm CST, departed Amarillo, Texas at 4:02 pm CST, and arrived at the Hook Field Municipal (the same airport that Scenario 1's Anchorage flight landed at) at 7:09 EST. Mccain's Official Campaign airplane tail number is N802TJ.

Why would a chartered plane leave Anchorage, fly to Flagstaff, then to Middletown the next day? If this isn't good news for Sarah Palin, it's a devastating letdown to everyone who wants her on the ticket. This could be it.