On the Contrary

Well we have all seen the Birthers, you know, the nitwits who continue to challenge the citizenship of President Obama.  What is shocking is that Republican Congressmen and women are pandering to this to these nuts.  Is this how low they will go to hold on to their base and is this how crazy their base really is?  The answer to that is yes and it is an indication of how far the Republican Party has fallen.  But there is a very dark side to this pandering and that is that they may be enabling some nut case who believes this stuff and thinks the President should be removed by any means necessary.  Much as the hate speech on conservative talk radio and from Bill O’Rilley undoubtedly egged on the killer of George Tiller, the doctor who performed legal late term abortions, this kind of pandering to nut jobs could be very dangerous for this country.

But what has really got my attention today was listening to the pundits talk about the political future of Sarah Palin.  Some seemingly intelligent people thought she just needed some polishing.  Their failure to grasp her lack of intellectual abilities or understanding of basic reasoning makes me wonder if they all have some form of brain defect.  Now not all Republicans are so blinded as was evidenced by the David Frum and
Ann Coulter argument about her prospects (Huffington Post).   But having said that, you have to wonder if Republicans truly are brain dead.  Do they remember the disaster of the George Bush Presidency and he has a whole lot more horsepower than she does, which is not saying much?  Throwing red meat to the faithful is not a platform to build a country on.  And that is all she does.

If you don’t believe me, just listen to her farewell speech (Palin Farewell Speech).  It didn’t make sense.  She is neither coherent nor thoughtful, not to mention illogical.  Just what we need in a leader, you betcha.  So without further ado, here are some of her gems:

“And it is our men and women in uniform securing it, and we are facing tough challenges in America with some seeming to just be Hell bent maybe on tearing down our nation, perpetuating some pessimism, and suggesting American apologetics, suggesting perhaps that our best days were yesterdays.”

Just who would be the one tearing down the nation Sarah?  Would that have been you when you tolerate the chants of kill him at your political rallies?  President Obama is offering us hope and restoring our reputation overseas so what are you talking about?  Oh, I get it, a strawman who the other brainless people you connect to can hate.  Anybody know what American apologetics is?

“Democracy depends on you (news people), and that is why, that’s why our troops are willing to die for you. So, how ’bout in honor of the American soldier, ya quite makin’ things up. And don’t underestimate the wisdom of the people, and one other thing for the media, our new governor has a very nice family too, so leave his kids alone.”

I would bet a lot of money no one is fighting for news people.  They may be fighting for freedom of the press.  Then she wants them to quite making up stories.  Would that be the Republicans in the House and Senate with their health care horror stories from Canada?  How can she be for freedom of the press and then tell the press what is made up and what suits her?  And then there is the family thing.  Here is the woman who trotted out her family as a down home political ploy, but it is unfair if then the press really looks at them.  Her real problem was that she can’t control them so we are back to her original conflict about freedom of the press and only reporting stories she approves of.  My guess is nobody gives a damn about the new governor’s family as long as he doesn’t try to use them as political flack like you did.

“…because you’re going to see anti-hunting, anti-second amendment circuses from Hollywood and here’s how they do it. They use these delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets, they use Alaska as a fundraising tool for their anti-second amendment causes. Stand strong, and remind them patriots will protect our guaranteed, individual right to bear arms, and by the way, Hollywood needs to know, we eat, therefore we hunt.”

Oh where to start on this one. For some reason delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets are very dangerous and are everywhere trying to stamp out hunting and take their guns away.  I have never seen one, but I trust her on this one.  Starlets are everywhere and you have to be wary.  On the other hand are assault weapons necessary for hunting in Alaska, especially from helicopters?  Apparently she doesn’t think people in Hollywood eat.  I would be somewhat disturbed if we gave everyone in LA a gun so they could hunt.  Oh, I forgot, they all have one and the usually “hunt” in liquor stores and 7/11s where the real food is.

“I resisted the stimulus package. I resisted the stimulus package and we have championed earmark reform, slashing earmark requests by 85% to break the cycle of dependency on a stifling, unsustainable federal agenda, and other states should follow this for their and for America’s stability. We don’t have to feel that we must beg an allowance from Washington, except to beg the allowance to be self-determined. See, to be self-sufficient, Alaska must be allowed to develop – to drill and build and climb, to fulfill statehood’s promise. At statehood we knew this.”

Oh, this one I truly love.  Here is a state that gets back from the federal government $1.85 for every dollar they pay in.  They are a welfare state and is why they wanted statehood.  Without the federal government this state would be on its ass.  Now here is the queen of cut taxes who is living on oil tax revenue and will sell her soul and rape the environment as long as she can keep it coming in.  She was against the climate bill that would have actually helped her natural gas pipeline plan.  So just exactly where does she stand on anything?

“Yes, America must look north to the future for security, for energy independence, for our strategic location on the globe. Alaska is the gate-keeper of the continent.”

There is not one analysis that says if we drilled all the oil in Alaska it would make a dent in our energy/oil dependence, and it would make our climate warming issue worse.  As far as the gate-keeper stuff goes, we here in California have been overrun with Eskimos taking jobs away from hard working white people.  Do they make this stuff up?

“Now, people who know me, and they know how much I love this state, some still are choosing not to hear why I made the decision to chart a new course to advance the state. And it should be so obvious to you. (indicating heckler) It is because I love Alaska this much, sir (at heckler) that I feel it is my duty to avoid the unproductive, typical, politics as usual, lame duck session in one’s last year in office. How does that benefit you? No, with this decision now, I will be able to fight even harder for you, for what is right, for truth. And I have never felt like you need a title to do that.”

I think she said I am quitting because I don’t want to face all the problems I have created.  I want to go to the lower 48 and cash in while the cashing in is good.  Because we all know that getting rich off stupid and gullible people is a Republican virtue and is the American thing to do.  Money after all is the only measure of success and if I can continue to chuck read meat to morons while offering no coherent plans for our future, then that is God’s purpose for me.  Besides I can even get more media attention, which of course I hate.  I wonder if Ann Coulter is threatened by another Republican woman making less sense than she does?

If this is what the Republican Party think is something to admire and is Presidential material, then they have totally lost their way. If appealing to the base by attack and ridicule is more important than thoughtful alternative plans, then they are no longer a party, but a mob.  And If the rest of us  don’t see through her politics of the mean and spiteful, her language of exclusion, and her total lack of knowledge or intellectual curiosity about the larger world, then we are all in big trouble.  Or maybe I am old and I don’t get the new way of speaking where you just throw in nouns, verbs, and adjectives with words that excite the base and it really doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not.  If that is the case we are no longer a thinking nation.  I will leave you with one of her opening paragraphs and if you figure out what it means, please let me know:

“And getting up here I say it is the best road trip in America soaring through nature’s finest show. Denali, the great one, soaring under the midnight sun. And then the extremes. In the winter time it’s the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though, doesn’t it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs? And then in the summertime such extreme summertime about a hundred and fifty degrees hotter than just some months ago, than just some months from now, with fireweed blooming along the frost heaves and merciless rivers that are rushing and carving and reminding us that here, Mother Nature wins. It is as throughout all Alaska that big wild good life teeming along the road that is north to the future. That is what we get to see every day. Now what the rest of America gets to see along with us is in this last frontier there is hope and opportunity and there is country pride.”

And I thought there could not be a worse communicator than George Bush.