As Federal officials warn of a bleak future and a certain recession  if they don’t get their Wall Street bailout plan passed quickly, a look at the emerging details shows what it is they are really asking for:

Passage of the bailout measures would create huge new federal powers, even as they offer no sure success.

(from Yahoo News)

• Buying Power: Allows Treasury to buy up to $700 billion of privately held assets in the market. The original proposal called for buying power to be limited to “mortgage-related” assets, but a later draft expanded that to allow the government to purchase any “troubled assets.” There’s a staggering difference in authority between the two phrases, and it is a moving target as of press time. The banking industry generally favors the second version, but that potentially exposes taxpayers to much higher costs.

MY ANALYSIS: Of course the banking industry wants to include bad credit card debt- only helps them out. But should all of us taxpayers be on the hook for people who wanted the latest video game console to go with their big screen HDTV? I don’t think so….

• Managing Power: Under the Bush administration’s plan, Treasury would hire private managers to handle the hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of assets it will soon own. But Treasury was silent on whether those managers would be able to actually negotiate directly with homeowners who hold the troubled mortgages. Democrats would go further and demand that bankruptcy judges be given the ability to renegotiate those failing mortgages on behalf of homeowners. This will be one of the more contentious sideshow fights of the negotiations.

MY ANALYSIS: Who are these “private” managers? Who has oversight of them? Since Paulson only very recently headed Goldman Sachs, are we just going to get the same folks who helped engineer this whole fiasco running our public money next? Is he going to tap his former pals in private industry? And since Paulson may well be on the way out, would his appointments be permanent or changeable by the new administration? Plus, the Bushites don’t want to help homoeowners at all. They stridently want to exclude the provision for bankruptcy judges to renegotiate mortgages and help people keep their homes. Soem devotion to the “ownership society, eh?

• Global Power: Under one version of Treasury’s proposal, the government would have the power to buy assets from any institution in the world that it deemed worthy of a bailout.

MY ANALYSIS: WHAT THE FUCK??? Now they want the US taxpayer to be on the hook for ANY failed private institution ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD??? This is a non-starter as far as I am concerned. Oh, a a stupid freaking idea too.

• Pay Power: Democrats on Capitol Hill say they want the final plan to include restrictions on payouts to the executives of the financial institutions that take the taxpayer lifeline. Paulson says he doesn’t like this idea, but it may be tough for elected officials to oppose this populist carve-out in an election year.

MY ANALYSIS: Great idea, and no surprise Paulson doesn’t like it. He’s less than two years out of those CEO chairs and can’t imagine his buddies not making their bazillion dollar bonuses for screwing up the whole country’s financial system.

• Equity Power: Democrats would like the government to get shares in the financial institutions that take federal help — effectively giving taxpayers ownership stakes in the nation’s largest banks and providing them with a huge windfall if those institutions prosper in future years.

MY ANALYSIS: Another rational idea. After all, if the taxpayer is going to bail these bastards out, we should get to reap any potential benefits down the road, NOT THEM. Of course, they say that the taxpayer could benefit but really they just mean that lawmakers will get money back in the treasury to waste on some other boondoggle eventually-earmarks that do not benefit the public as a whole. Typical political double-speak.

• Oversight Power: Treasury’s initial proposal included very little room for congressional oversight of the new effort, calling for reports to be sent to the Hill just twice per year. That isn’t flying with Democrats or many Republicans on the Hill; if a bill makes it through Congress, it will almost certainly have much stronger oversight provisions.

MY ANALYSIS: Another demand from this administration for “emergency” legislation rushed through and based on faulty analysis-it’s their key to all their policy “successes.” No oversight sure worked well in Iraq, in the military medical process, in the Katrina contracts, and on and on and on. If anything is to have a reasonable opportunity for taxpayer support it must include strict oversight.

In short, I’m not keen on a massive bailout, but what is the alternative? Massive economic depression? We may yet still get hit with that anyhow, since there is no guarantee that the government bailout will be big enough or strong enough in the long term. There are literally trillions of dollars of bad paper debt waiting to be unearthed when this complicated financial rubicon is deciphered. We may well find ourselves giving away trillions of dollars and be left in the same sorry mess. Still, if tough measures accompany the plan, and serious oversight is instilled, it may well cover the gaping wound long enough for other factors to work themselves out.

Either way, there will be much pain. Thanks, in large part, to the GOP and their culture of anti-regulation and greed.

As John McSame likes to say, Enough is Enough.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)

It’s no longer an open discussion-we are in the midst of the worst financial storm since the Great Depression. And it’s not even close to being over, despite the exuberance on Wall Street following the announcement of a federal bail-out for the flimsy mortgage market and other financial institutions. Make no mistake about it kids…this storm is only just heating up. Investment brokers and financial institutions now have no real idea what they have on their own books waiting to implode, and even the fed can’t say with any certainty if their bail-out will be able to stop the bleeding. No one can, because no one really knows where all the bad debt lies and who’s holding the bag.

The reality is this-federal policies opened the door for financial mismanagement. Poor federal oversight fostered an environment of predatory lending and corporate malfeasance. Cheap federal interest rates kept the door open. And gross federal spending debased the value of our currency. So now the federal government has to try to clean things up. And while those who exploited the spirit of capitalism to its worst degree are lining up to get a free pass through the federal bail-out, the rest of us Americans will be holding the bag.

What’s a poor working slob to do?

To begin with, there is no guarantee that this massive taxpayer bail-out will stop the bleeding. It’s too soon to tell, despite the joy at the stock exchange. So widespread are the “toxic” loans that it may take years for the final damage to be seen. Right now, the rich investors, the big financial companies and the big corporations are in CYA mode-cover your ass. And to the extent that you can do so, you should be doing it too. I’m no financial wizard, but over the last few days, I’ve talked with some folks who know a lot more than I do and their advice is simple-you’ve got to preserve your capital.

Easier said than done, right? Especially if your capital consists of your paycheck and a small bit of savings or retirement accounts. Still, there are some steps you can take.

If you have a 401k account through your work, now is the time to reallocate how those funds are invested. The volatility of the stock market and the unknown factor of corporate investments backed by toxic mortgage debt means that the market will continue to swing wildly, meaning that funds invested in heavy stock portfolios may well take more hits. For the safest investments available, look for something concentrated in liquid assets. This type of money market fund (now insured, temporarily at least, by the Fed) has a lower potential rate of return, but also a lower rate of risk, at least in theory. (It is considered to be much safer than a stock market account, though if the government itself falters all bets are off.) Keep a good chunk of your 401k money in this kind of safe account for the next 3-6 months as things shake out-longer if necessary. You may not get great growth, but you won’t lose every contribution you make to the 401k. Similarly, you may be able to transfer money from one fund to another. If you have several thousand dollars sitting in a high risk stock fund, get it out and move into the lower risk money market accounts. Preserve what you can by reducing your exposure to risk.

If you have high credit card balances, find a way to pay them down. As credit card issuers realize their own failing bottom line, they are going to increase their fees and interest rates to recoup their bad investments, and they can up your rate anytime they feel like it. If you’re lucky enough to still have a home equity line, transfer the credit balances there- you’ll improve your monthly cash flow by reducing your monthly payments and the interest you’ll be paying on the debt can be written off at tax time. I know this will increase your overall mortgage debt at a time when refinancing is tough and home values are declining, but on the other hand, the Fed is putting together plans to help troubled mortgages too-so in the long run, it may be easier and more feasible to get a reduced or re-negotiated home loan than to dig your way out of a credit card nightmare. And the extra cash you’re not paying the credit companies can be invested in a CD or put towards the mortgage payment, reducing that debt. (Or you can just stuff the money in a jar and create your own personal liquid fund.)

Speaking of mortgages, remember this very important piece of information: it may well be likely that no one really knows who holds the actual deed or note for your home. The crisis in the economy is intricately tied to mortgage loans that have been sold, resold, split up, sold again and so on and so forth. Your actual home loan may now be owned in pieces by several “investment vehicles” meaning its hard to determine who actually holds the note. And without that bit of clarification, there may not be a single entity with the legal power to foreclose if you get behind on payments or have a reset rate inflate your monthly payments. Knowing this gives you power and some protection if a foreclosure is actually started against you. If a bank or lender can’t produce the note, they may not have standing to throw you out.

You have to understand that things are still going to get ugly, financially speaking, and you’ve got to take action to protect yourself. Sure as hell, the bank and government isn’t looking out for you as an individual. The banks are trying to stay solvent with the aid of the government and the government is trying to keep the whole house of cards erect. Sure, we all benefit if the economy improves because of these actions, but we’re still the ones holding the bag and we’ll be paying off this crisis in higher taxes and fewer services for generations. And it may yet still come tumbling down.

Finally, be realistic in your expectations. Photographs of cheering traders on Wall Street does not mean the hard times are over. Those same faces were all in frowns this week too. Bold speeches from federal officials only seek to calm the fears and boost confidence in the markets, but until the plans are in place and they actually start working, the financial picture is the same as before-gloomy indeed. Today’s federal resolve gives no cause to break out the bubbly-all it did was offer a possible lifeline.

(Remember, I am not a financial advisor or economic genius. I’m sharing advice that I’ve received from others and can give no guarantees about anything. You do what you think will best preserve your assets. )

(cross psoted at Bring It On!)

As John McSame does another giant flip-flop on who he wants you to think he is, it’s helpful to remember that as a politician, John McSame often describes himself as “the greatest deregulator” ever interviewed.

Why, it was just a few months ago, in March 2008, that McSame said this in an interview with the Wall Street Journal:

Q: In 1995, when the Republicans won control of both houses of Congress, you proposed a regulatory moratorium, but couldn’t get it passed. Would you declare such a moratorium if you were president?

A: I’m always for less regulation. But I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight. I think we found this in the subprime lending crisis — that there are people that game the system and if not outright broke the law, they certainly engaged in unethical conduct which made this problem worse. So I do believe that there is role for oversight.

As far as a need for additional regulations are concerned, I think that depends on the legislative agenda and what the Congress does to some degree, but I am a fundamentally a deregulator. I’d like to see a lot of the unnecessary government regulations eliminated, not just a moratorium.

Again in March 2008, speaking to the Orange County Hispanic Small Business Roundtable:

“I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.”

and this:

“Our financial market approach should include encouraging increased capital in financial institutions by removing regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital.”

So when you read today that John McSame is embracing regulation, you can be sure that it is a lie, a ploy, an empty campaign retort to try to look like he has a clue.

And when he says that the government had no choice but to bail out AIG and other financially irresponsible private corporations, remember that for years his position has been the exact opposite.

The truth of the matter is this: the only regulation McSame and his eminently (un)qualified co-candidate consider worthy is the regulation that prevents women from having sole authority over their own bodies.

When your economy is in meltdown due to unbridled greed set off by a decade or more of concerted corporate deregulation spearheaded by the GOP and folks like John McSame, you don’t hand the keys to the vault to the very man who helped create the fiasco. And if you do hand him the keys (i.e. vote for McSame for president), you are a big, fat idiot.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)

Everything has an opposite. Day and night. Happy and sad. Good and bad. Progression and regression. The list is endless. How does this apply to the current presidential election? It’s easy to say that Democrats and Republicans are opposites, but in truth, both parties share similar philosophies about governing. Ideologically they have some stark differences, primarily in the arena of social policy, but when it comes right down to the nuts and bolts of running the country, both parties, and their respective elected officials, share a certain disdain for true public stewardship and instead seek to dominate the opinions and news cycles in order to gain and retain power. Once they have that power, they tend to slip into the status quo of political gamesmanship, and instead of trying to effect real, dynamic change for America they revert to the patterns we are familiar with: massive fundraising, ties to lobbyists, misrepresenting reality to push an agenda that benefits few citizens, and an endless series of calculated slams against each other for perceived public support. The last eight years have helped to highlight these similarities between the parties while at the same time seeking to erupt culture wars on the ideological front. For the most part, these efforts are ploys that are understood by the public but often ignored. As voters, we tend to concentrate on the ideological social differences and lose track of the fundamental problems with our government. The politicians love this because it allows them to distract the American public with topics like gay marriage or abortion or flag burning-things that won’t disrupt their cozy little behind the scenes plans. The politicians of both parties know that if they can distract us with things like those then we won’t keep an eye on the real issues that are destroying our democracy- issues like economic malfeasance or corporate welfare or environmental destruction.

This presidential campaign started off in the same vein. And then along came Barack Obama. His began as a message of change-not just a change from a republican to a democrat in the White House, but a fundamental change in the way government does business. He spoke of returning American politics and government to the American people and taking it away from the monied interests that now own the political landscape. He talked about an era where the government and the people worked in concert to solve the real problems of the day instead of a continuation of the same. His message was so resounding to so many people that he turned the Democratic race upside down, in the process wreaking havoc on the GOP candidates who could find no new path or who would walk no new trail. He exposed both the GOP and his Democratic colleagues as frauds who only pretended to want a new way but in reality would stick to business as usual. Obama was a new light in the political arena, and his message resonated with voters of all stripes. His campaign spotlighted the emptiness of the GOP platform and sent the GOP nominee, John McCain, into a tailspin. The GOP base was less than enamored with their candidate and their ideas for a new administration looked just like the one we’ve labored under for the last 8 years.

Then McCain found Sarah Palin. And her nomination as his VP changed the game. Where republicans were dismal about their chances to retain the Oval Office they now have hope. Why? Not because they have a new candidate, but because they have a champion who embraces their darker side. When the GOP failures were exposed under the light of the Obama campaign, the conservatives of America were forced to accept that their party was bankrupting not just the country, but their own ideological identity. But the GOP is nothing if not tenacious and accepting that their ideas were not only NOT helping America but were hurting them as individuals too, they have decided that it is better to fight for what is wrong than to accept that is IS wrong and seek better ideas to follow.

Sarah Palin is the anti-Obama in the political arena. She endorses that which has been shown to be wrong for America. And the GOP is eating it up. To understand why they would do this, one must look farther than the sound bites in the news and investigate human nature.

Deepak Chopra perhaps understands the human psyche better than I do, and is, by any measure, more lucid on this topic than I am. I was recently pointed in the direction of an article he posted on his website that I want to share here.

Obama and the Palin Effect

Deepak Chopra – September 04, 2008

Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin’s pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses . In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.” For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don’t want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.

Look at what she stands for:
–Small town values — a denial of America’s global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
–Ignorance of world affairs — a repudiation of the need to repair America’s image abroad.
–Family values — a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don’t need to be heeded.
–Rigid stands on guns and abortion — a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
–Patriotism — the usual fallback in a failed war.
–“Reform” — an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn’t fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from “us” pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of “I’m all right, Jack,” and “Why change? Everything’s OK as it is.” The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama’s call for higher ideals in politics can’t be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow — we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

I reprinted this here to help elucidate the conservative infatuation with Sarah Palin, a candidate who is (IMO) poorly suited for the second highest office in the land. Palin isn’t where she is today because she has the desire to serve so much as because John McCain needed an anti-Obama to invigorate his voters. Her selection was calculated and cynical and makes this contest a much clearer choice for me at least.

There is the light and there is the dark. We’ve been heading towards the darkest part of the cave for almost a decade now. It’s time to return towards the light again. It’s time to reclaim out better selves.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)

Taking a cue from the King of Made-Up Reality, George W. Bush, the GOP and their candidates have unleashed an alternate reality that they want all Americans to believe.

King George has spent the last 8 years not listening to reality. According to Bush, the economy is fine, Iraq was the best place to target terrorism, nepotism makes for the best government, drilling for off shore oil will bring gas prices down immediately, and massive debt is what future generations of Americans really want and need.

GOP heir-apparent John McCain has so much trouble with the truth that he hasn’t spoken realistically for months. According to McCain, the middle class consists of people who make about $250,000 a year, being a maverick means bucking the party line as much as 10% of the time, POW and POTUS are really interchangable, and his VP choice is someone who hates earmarks as much as he claims to.

The newest member of the GOP glamour gang is Sarah Palin who wouldn’t know reality if it bit her in the knee. According to Palin, abstinance education really works and is the only method worth teaching, God rejoices over pipelines, and that shooting animals from an airplane is the only sporting way to hunt for your trophies.

SEE NO REALITY.  HEAR NO REALITY.  SPEAK NO REALITY.

Better yet…just make up your own reality and repeat it over and over and over again.

You want reality? Here is the reality that the 21st century GOP has brought to America.

Iraq War…torture…gross mismanagement of funds…record deficits…corporate malfeasance…Dick Cheney…Katrina…cronyism…Donald Rumsfeld…economic meltdown…anti-science…politicization of government agencies…Terry Schiavo fiasco…Alberto Gonzales…high unemployment…outsourcing to mercenaries…swiftboating of politics…Iranian nukes…tension with Russia…John Ashcroft…Walter Reed Medical Center…domestic spying…massive future debt…Condi Rice…bankrupted state treasuries…national security theater…Samuel Alito…billions of dollars sent to Pakistan and nothing to show for it…bin Laden still at large…skyrocketing energy costs…widening income gap between rich and poor…Harriet Myers…suspended endangered species act…denial of environmental crisis…The Bridge To Nowhere…foreign distrust…falling dollar value…Karl Rove…tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans…nuclear proliferation…biggest expansion of government in generations and nothing to show for it…Tom DeLay…attorneygate…power to the lobbyists…religious disharmony…

And that’s just the “easy to identify” list. Some say reality is what you make it. This is the reality that the GOP has made in America. Is this the reality you want for another four years or more?

McCain/Palin are now promising change. They lie. The only change they seek is more regressive social and economic policies for Americans. The only change they desire is more debt and war and religiously based laws. The only change we can count on from them is even more government bullying and lies. That is the reality they can promise and that you can expect from the GOP.

If reality really is what we make it, it’s time for a new reality.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)

It’s like my good friend at Bring It On! said over here. Another reminder why this election is so important. And it’s kind of sad we have to still be going down this road. After all, with record debts, a failing economy, energy concerns, environmental concerns, wars abroad and the whole lot of corruption and internal destruction Bush has done to our country and government, the GOP is STILL stuck up on abortion?

Well folks, take a good look at this video. Is this what you want for the women in your life?

(cross posted at Bring It On!)

You’ve heard what the GOP has to say about Sarah Palin. You’ve heard from Sarah Palin herself about who she says she is. Now here’s something from a lady in Alaska who says she’s known Sarah Palin since her days in Wasilla. Originally sent as an e-mail to her friends and then posted as a comment on a Washington Independent comment thread, this letter has been verified by at least one conservative blogger and the NY Times.

A note to all by Anne Kilkenny

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 . . .

(Comment from Ken: This letter has already been distributed through e-mail, in a published comments thread, and can be found on several blogs. Despite the above request not to post on a website, the author of the letter has been contacted by others who have done so (linked above) and apparently knows that her letter is “out there.” As such, I do not feel that reprinting it here constitutes a violation of the aforementioned request not to post.)

 

 

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

 

 

Let Palin, McSame and the GOP spin this any way they want. Let the GOP kool-aid drinkers deny all they can. This letter represents a point of view on Sarah Palin that you won’t get from the “vetters” and is much more even-handed than the attacks from the left. Is it biased? If so, only in that the author, Anne Kilkenny and Sarah Palin aren’t BFF’s. Beyond that, the only agenda here seems to be to get some better information about Palin out before the myth of the GOP and the muck from the DEMS distorts a true picture of who this new “reformer-herione” really is. Plainly put, Sarah Palin seems to be another power-politician who thinks reform means taking steps backwards socially, bullying to get your way is okay, progress means tearing up more earth for unneeded development, and taxes are best borne by the little guy. Sarah palin seems to be a perfect fit for today’s GOP. I hope they choke on her.

(cross posted at Bring It On)

(photo courtesy of Pensito Review)

Damn. How can America say “No” to this? I mean, not only is she classy enough to wear the Stars and Stripes as a bikini, she had the presence of mind to remember to bring the rifle to the local swimming hole.

Screw experience! Let’s all go hunting, Alaska style!

(cross posted at Bring It On!)

Gotta love the 21st century GOP- the party of monster debt, unlawful foreign agression, earth-hating, anti-science dunderheads and creators of the worst president in American history. When it comes to showing the world how NOT to govern and relate to each other, today’s GOP truly is #1. But even being the enablers of malfeasance like the FEMA debacle in 2005 isn’t enough for these folks- they always seem to think they can do better, that they can prove even better than before that they are a bunch of morally bankrupt, inept power-hungry whores.

And so while flexing the muscle of a bully administration, the GOP faithful gather together in Minneapolis this week to honor hypocrisy and failure and administer a promise to give America more of the same thing for as far as the eye can see.

WHAT IS THIS PLACE? TIANANMEN SQUARE?

The GOP convention got off to a great start, as federal troops and local cops were deployed to recreate a domestic version of Iraq’s Green Zone- you know, the place that proved to John McCain that Iraq was a pretty safe place to hang out. Good thing too, because over 280 people have been arrested for protesting the war. Now I’ll grant that some of those folks taken into custody went far over the line of respectable protest and should have been arrested. But many dozens of those hauled away were reporters and peaceful protestors who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And what’s the best way to deal with a flower-wielding protestor? That’s right, drench her with pepper spray. Well, maybe now the GOP can put those not-so-secret domestic detention camps that Haliburton helped build.

But hey…we already know that the US under George W. Bush and the 21st century GOP is a place of brutality first, ask questions after the waterboarding party is over. Almost a decade of illegal spying, foreign agression, and domestic security theater has all but numbed us to the jack-booted thugishness of the Compassionate Conservatives. So these convention tactics should come as no big surprise, right?

And neither, I suppose, should the resounding hypocrisy coming from the mouths of the GOP faithful as they cozy up to their terribly two-faced general election candidates. Remember, not only is the GOP the self-described party of fiscal strength, compassion, and tough on terror, they also hold the halo of moral righteousness, reminding America that sex is awfully shameful, theft is a sin, and lying-well, let’s just say that lying isn’t condoned in polite circles. Oh, and of course, none of those caveats actually apply to members of the GOP- it’s what they SAY, not what they DO that really matters…

ABSTINANCE, SCHMABSTINANCE 

VP nominee Sarah Palin supports abstinence only education. Now she admits that her unmarried 17 year old daughter is knocked up. But that’s okay…presidential nominee John McCain opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits. While the right heartily condems both unwed sex and teen pregnancy, and just as heartily opposes any kind of sex education to prevent at least one of the two above topics, they are managing to pretend that in the case of THIS particular unwed teen mother to be, all is right in the world, because THIS girl plans to wed the redneck who knocked her up. Now some are saying that candidates’ kids should be off limits and I tend to agree. Except when that candidate is vying for the second highest office in the land, and she wants to federally force the rest of us to raise our kids under the rules she so successfully used in her own home. Sorry, Sarah…but we don’t think your way worked too good here, and we sure don’t want our hands tied to your own narrow set of rules when it comes to our own kids’ futures.

SHOW ME THE MONEY! 

And then there’s the “maverick” mentality that beats down the over-spending pork barrel projects with a sledge hammer that is John McCain. McSame says he’ll put an end to the wasteful earmark policies that dominate federal politcs. No matter that Bush said the same thing and has done nothing. We all know that John is just following the playbook. Too bad his choice of running mate didn’t leap on that train a bit sooner. Yes, Palin killed the Bridge to Nowhere that indicted Senator Ted Stevens worked so hard to bring to the Alaskan wilderness, but only because costs for the project were too high, not because she was ideologically opposed to wasting taxpayer money. While mayor of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbying firm to secure over $27 million for hew town of 6,700 people. Sure, they had bad plumbing and needed a new youth shelter. Don’t we all???

WE’RE THE DECIDERS NOW, BITCH

And who can forget the example of political stewardship Sarah Palin has displayed when it comes to being tough on ethics. She’s quite a trooper in this category, as in she pressured the state public safety commissioner to fire her former brother-in-law ( an Alaska state trooper) and when he didn’t cave in, she fired his ass. Who’s your daddy now?!? Add this lady’s cajones to the toughness McSame garnered as a POW and this is one kick-ass super team. Hell, if we elect these two tigers, Al-Qaeda will probably just give up then and there.

EXPERIENCE THAT REALLY COUNTS

And finally, we all know that the only real measure of a commander in chief (and we must view the VP choice as a potential CIC) is the amount of foreign policy experience they have. When it comes to Palin, the Democratic ticket seems to be sadly lacking in this field. After all, Palin lives in Alaska, which is closer to Russia than any other state. And Alaska has a lot of oil, so she’e up on all those oil places around the world simply because has to deal with oil companies. In the 21st century, what other experience do you need, especially when McSame intends to follow the Bush doctrine of attack those with the most oil and the worst armies. Plus, she’s a trophy hunter, so she has all the VP experience needed to shoot a “friend” in the face on a hunting trip. Clearly an important VP consideration if one wants to fill the shoes of Dick Cheney.

Take a close look, voters, at the face of the new GOP. Here’s a hint- the hypocrisy, the thugishness, the lack of respect for individual choice, environmental stability or energy sensibility is all still right there. And so is the preference to give tax money to the richest Americans and the CEO’s of bastard corporations, reward friends and bully enemies with political power plays, and an unnereving desire to adhere to outdated and inadequate mythology to guide us towards the future. The only difference is that they are finally trying to put a pretty face in front of it, even if the do put that pretty face next to McSame’s ghastly grimace.

The 21st Century GOP- a prettier, friendlier “fuck off” to America.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)