Republican VP with strong ties to big oil

[Gypsiyee]

Palin is very impressive. Great choice by McCain. You think they just gave the obama camp a boost, Gypsiyee? rofl This pick by McCain just sealed the deal with them getting elected and pushing obama and biden out. I think it's cool that a woman is going to be VP. The hildebeast was just the wrong woman because of her retarded stance on social issues. Now we have a REAL woman to look up to and to help lead the nation and get it back on track.

The hilarity comes in when the liberal press is already saying stupid things like, "How is she going to do the job when she has a baby with Down's Syndrome at home?" HAHAHA They will stop at nothing with their dirty nonsense.

(I don't know how I overlooked this post earlier but I did)

The bolded statement is the exact type of horrendously insulting statement that McCain is making with his pick. Do you honestly think her sex has anything to do with her ability to lead the country? Get out of that mindset - it's absolutely appalling. I don't care if you're black, white, man, woman - I could give a shit less. It has nothing to do with being the wrong woman or man for the job - it's about if you are the right person for the job. This woman was a poor pick and yes, I feel it gave the Obama campaign a little boost in that I think it slowed down McCain. I have a very staunch republican co-worker (I mean dead-set republican, doesn't care about the person, just votes for the party) who doesn't know who he's voting for now and is furious about the pick. Tell me, Mindia, what are this woman's credentials to be VP when 2 months ago she didn't even know what a VP does? This was purely a strategic pick to target 1. PUMA's who they clearly think are stupid and vote completely based on sex and 2. Social conservatives who don't trust McCain. If you think it was anything but that and that it was based on her ability to lead, you're blind.

How is she going to do the job when she has a baby with downs at home is a perfectly reasonable question - I don't know if you've ever been involved with a downs child before, but I have and it takes a lot of attention and care. A VP position is very time-intensive and might not allow for that care. Try to get past your HAHAHAHA's to see why this question is being raised.

PS - Who were you trying to kid when you said you weren't a republican "anymore"?

[Lueyen]

Haylo of the two that I knew, the high school girl was a toothpick, the one I worked with was an average build and by that I mean not overweight, and not a toothpick. She could very well be pregnant in that photo. Sure she could lie, but unlike Edwards, I would imagine it would very difficult to conceal the identity of a babies mother.

Add to all of this that her daughter is now pregnant and you are seeing how that is handled it really makes that original theory seem even more ludicrous. As far as republican reactions to this new news asking the media to respect her daughters privacy is not the same as asking that it not be talked about in the context of her candidacy for VP. Quite honestly it will probably be used the other way. You now have a very pro-life woman who has had two experiences where when it came down to the real life trials of her views she held firm. She didn't abort her baby with downs, and she didn't talk her daughter into having an abortion.

[araby]

I hope they name the baby "Algebra"

hehe isn't one of the sons named Trig?

sarah palin picks some dumb names :P

yah that's why I posted that, /snicker.

Track, Trig, Willow, Piper and Bristol. Sounds like horse names.

that's me being a smartass meanie, but in all honesty, they're calling out this woman's family on some silly shit. Her husband got a DUI in 1984 *gasp* "oh nos!"
Her teenage daughter is pregnant. Wooptie fucking do. It's called life. We do this to everyone. I don't think it will amount to a hill of beans, just like none of the other shit did on Obama, Hillary, or any other politician. It's the name of the game.

In the end, and I support neither candidate, it was a smart move on their part. I'm just watching from the sidelines.

[Arlos]

To his credit, and the credit of his campaign, they're not the ones stooping to insulting her family.

"Let me be as clear as possible," Obama said. "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president."

Obama said reporters should "back off these kinds of stories" and noted that he was born to an 18-year-old mother.

"How a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics, and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that's off-limits."

"We don't go after people's families; we don't get them involved in the politics. It's not appropriate, and it's not relevant," he added. "Our people were not involved in any way in this, and they will not be. And if I ever thought that there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they'd be fired."

-Arlos

[Lueyen]

I have to applaud him on that Arlos, with the exception of automatically calling family off limits. No doubt he's thinking of his wife to an extent, and if she's going to be involved in making public addresses and promoting his campaign anything relevant to that should not be "off limits".

If Palin's husband came out tomorrow actively campaigning for her and he starts saying stupid shit I'd consider him fair game.

Still he's taken a high road here and I have to give him props for that.

[Arlos]

An interesting commentary on Palin with a lot of info that's actually relevant to her qualifications.

Looks like that scandal may have some real meat to it after all:

Sarah Palin’s sister Molly married a guy named Mike Wooten who is an Alaska State Trooper. Mike and Molly had a rocky marriage. When the marriage broke up, there was a bitter custody fight that is still ongoing. During the custody investigation, all sorts of things were brought up about Wooten including the fact that he had illegally shot a moose (yes folks this is Alaska), driven drunk, and used a taser (on the test setting, he reminds us) on his 11-year old stepson, who supposedly had asked to see what it felt like. While Wooten has turned out to be a less than stellar figure, the fact that Palin’s father accompanied him on the infamous moose hunt, and that many of the dozens of charges brought up by the Palin family happened long before they were ever reported smacked of desperate custody fight. Wooten’s story is that he was basically stalked by the family.

After all this, Wooten was investigated and disciplined on two counts and allowed to kept his position with the troopers. Enter Walt Monegan, Palin’s appointed new chief of the Department of Public Safety and head of the troopers. Monegan was beloved by the troopers, did a bang-up job with minimal funding and suddenly got axed. Palin was out of town and Monegan got “offered another job” (aka fired) with no explanation to Alaskans. Pressure was put on the governor to give details, because rumors started to swirl around the fact that the highly respected Monegan was fired because he refused to fire the aforementioned Mike Wooten. Palin vehemently denied ever talking to Monegan or pressuring Monegan in any way to fire Wooten, or that anyone on her staff did. Over the weeks it has come out that not only was pressure applied, there were literally dozens of conversations in which pressure was applied to fire him. Monegan has testified to this fact, spurring an ongoing investigation by the Alaska state legislature. But, before this investigation got underway, Palin sent the Alaska State Attorney General out to do some investigative work of his own so she could find out in advance what the real investigation was going to find. (No, I’m not making this up). The AG interviewed several people, unbeknownst to the actual appointed investigator or the Legislature! Palin’s investigation of herself uncovered a recorded phone call retained by the Alaska State Troopers from Frank Bailey, a Palin underling, putting pressure on a trooper about the Wooten non-firing. Todd Palin (governor’s husband) even talked to Monegan himself in Palin’s office while she was away. Bailey is now on paid administrative leave.

As if this weren’t enough, Monegan’s appointed replacement Chuck Kopp, turns out to have been the center of his own little scandal. He received a letter of reprimand and was reassigned after sexual harassment allegations by a former coworker who didn’t like all the unwanted kissing and hugging in the office. Was he vetted? Obviously not. When he was questioned about all this, his comment was that no one had asked him and he thought they all knew. Kopp, defiant, still claimed to have done nothing wrong and said to the press that there was no way he was stepping down from his new position. Twenty four hours later, he stepped down. Later it was uncovered that he received a $10,000 severance package for his two weeks on the job from Palin. Monegan got nothing.

There's a lot more other commentary in the posted article, none of it whatsoever about her kids.

-Arlos

[Lueyen]

Have a link to it?

[Arlos]

Sorry.

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/08/2 ... rspective/

-Arlos

[Martrae]

Sounds like she's got a lot of overzealous people surrounding her. She must have suspected something otherwise she wouldn't have asked for the AG to look into it.

[Haylo]

Now they are saying that she was a member of the AIP which is for succession from the union, and promoting Alaskan concerns above all else. They even encourage people to "infiltrate" other branches of government in order to further their agenda. Apparently her and her husbands active membership ended in the mid 90s however as recently this year she addressed the annual AIP convention.

Aside from any personal issues, this woman's has some off the wall political positions and actions that are in question. Let's see:

- Wants to drill in ANWR; a position McCain himself is against (cohesion please?)
- Involved in an ongoing investigation as to whether she or one of her staff pressured or caused an official to be fired
- Believes that abstinence only should be taught in schools eliminating sex-ed (so how well did that work for Bristol?)
- Is suing the Bush administration for listing polar bears as a threatened species-she is worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.
- Does not believe that any climate changes are man-made
- Strongly anti-choice; she opposes abortion even in the cases of rape/incest (WTF?)
- Opposes same-sex unions and feels that same sex couples should not be granted health benefits.

I mean seriously, do people really want Sarah Palin to be one bad cold away from leading this country? I can't fathom it.

[Arlos]

Don't forget, she's also for stopping teaching evolution, and teaching only creationism.

-Arlos

[Ginzburgh]

Eh...I thought she was for teaching them side by side. I could be wrong though.

[Haylo]

I thought so as well Ginz, but I looked at one source that said she had intimated that if a creationist class was being taught and someone in the class brought up evolution, that would not be a discussion that would be allowed. I'll look for the source again.

[Narrock]

Palin is very impressive. Great choice by McCain. You think they just gave the obama camp a boost, Gypsiyee? rofl This pick by McCain just sealed the deal with them getting elected and pushing obama and biden out. I think it's cool that a woman is going to be VP. The hildebeast was just the wrong woman because of her retarded stance on social issues. Now we have a REAL woman to look up to and to help lead the nation and get it back on track.

The hilarity comes in when the liberal press is already saying stupid things like, "How is she going to do the job when she has a baby with Down's Syndrome at home?" HAHAHA They will stop at nothing with their dirty nonsense.

(I don't know how I overlooked this post earlier but I did)

The bolded statement is the exact type of horrendously insulting statement that McCain is making with his pick. Do you honestly think her sex has anything to do with her ability to lead the country? Get out of that mindset - it's absolutely appalling. I don't care if you're black, white, man, woman - I could give a shit less. It has nothing to do with being the wrong woman or man for the job - it's about if you are the right person for the job. This woman was a poor pick and yes, I feel it gave the Obama campaign a little boost in that I think it slowed down McCain. I have a very staunch republican co-worker (I mean dead-set republican, doesn't care about the person, just votes for the party) who doesn't know who he's voting for now and is furious about the pick. Tell me, Mindia, what are this woman's credentials to be VP when 2 months ago she didn't even know what a VP does? This was purely a strategic pick to target 1. PUMA's who they clearly think are stupid and vote completely based on sex and 2. Social conservatives who don't trust McCain. If you think it was anything but that and that it was based on her ability to lead, you're blind.

How is she going to do the job when she has a baby with downs at home is a perfectly reasonable question - I don't know if you've ever been involved with a downs child before, but I have and it takes a lot of attention and care. A VP position is very time-intensive and might not allow for that care. Try to get past your HAHAHAHA's to see why this question is being raised.

PS - Who were you trying to kid when you said you weren't a republican "anymore"?

Don't worry about the kid... it will be very well taken care of when mama is at work. Now about her ability to lead. Palin has a lot more experience in the political arena than Obama, and she's only running as VP. She has an impressive background and a long list of experience dealing with government, which leads me to believe that she was an excellent choice for VP, and has clearly shown that she can handle such a task. She's a proven fighter and will not back down or cater to big oil execs or their lobbyists. (By the way, her husband's "ties" to big oil are completely laughable. He's an oil field production supervisor. He's not on the board of directors or even a lobbyist. If Vonk had done his homework before posting such absurd statement he would have saved himself from looking like a misinformed fool blindly following the ignorant liberal media.)

I don't particularly like McCain, but I'm starting to like him more and more every time I hear him speak. He is very experienced in the political realm, not to mention that he's quite a statesman and of course... war hero. He's also very well liked in his home state of Arizona because of all the improvements he made to that state. Next year when McCain and Palin take office, I hope and pray that they do the right thing and restore my faith (and everybody else's faith) in the GOP.

One positive thing I have to say about Obama is that he made a statement which I appreciate... that political candidate's families, especially the children, are off-limits (Thanks for posting that one Arlos). Perhaps it's because he doesn't want the general public to hear about Biden's miscreant children and the trouble they are in. Nonetheless, it was a nice thing to say.

[Narrock]

Don't forget, she's also for stopping teaching evolution, and teaching only creationism.

-Arlos

Oh the horror.

[Diekan]

I think she was a bad choice. No one knows who the hell she is. Romney would have been a much better choice over all I think. McCain f'ed himself once again - but I hope I turn out wrong.

[Arlos]

Mindia, while I truly thank you for giving Obama props about keeping families out of things, I am going to have to disagree with you on Palin's experience.

So far, she's held exactly 2 real elected offices:

1) First, as Mayor of a town that has about 6000 people. There are HOTELS in Vegas that have more people staying there at any one time. I hardly think that counts as experience that in any way relates to being president.

2) Second, as Governor of Alaska for less than 2 years. Alaska, as an entire state, has less people living in it than Fort Worth, Texas does. While Governor is certainly a worthy position, it's still a tiny state, and due to the massive amounts of oil money coming into the state coffers, it has none of the same problems as most other states do with budgets, etc.

Obama, on the other hand, was a State Senator in a very large state for almost a decade, and has been a Senator, and dealing thus with national and international issues for 4 years. Besides all that, he taught Constitutional Law at University of Chicago for 12 years. So, not only does he have experience in dealing with issues effecting large numbers of people (going back to his work with Chicago's South Side), he also has top-level experience on the National level. Indeed, he's spent more than twice as much time as a Senator as Palin has as a governor.

Not to mention, she and I differ on probably just about every single socio-economic position. She apparently doesn't believe in science at all, what with the claim that Polar Bears aren't threatened, and the whole Creationism thing, and that's even leaving aside abortion rights, etc. No, I think I'll stay with someone who is a much better fit for my values and beliefs, is an expert at Constitutional Law, and has a plan for going forward that I really do agree with, rather than McCain/Palin's promise of 4 more years of Bush/Cheney policy. No thanks!

-Arlos

PS. As we've discussed a lot before, I still say there's nothing in Evolution that in any way doesn't fit with the Bible, and the belief that God created everything....

[Haylo]

Not to mention that as Mayor of that tiny town, she screwed it. When she came into office the town had a debt of zero. When she left office, despite $27 million in funds being fed in, she left the town with a debt amounting to $20 million. Gogo executive experience.

[Diekan]

This is why I am voting AGAINST Obama - well SOME of the reasons. I don't go by hype - I go by voting records.

Voted against giving tax credits to parents who send their children to private school. (1999)

Voted against making gang members eligible for the death penalty if they kill someone to help their gang. (2001)

Unsuccessfully sponsored limit of one handgun purchase per month. (2000)

Voted against letting people argue self-defense in court if charged with violating local weapons bans by using a gun in their home. (2004)

Voted against restrictions on public funding of abortion. (2000)

Let's take a look at what he's done so far:

The public school system is FUCKED, there is no question about. So, for the middle class families (that he supposedly cares so much about) who want the best of the best education for their children can't get tax breaks for sending their kids to a better school?

If ANYONE deserves death it is the filthy human trash gang member who murders someone simply to prove their loyalty to their gang. Yeah, good idea. Let's just put them in prison for a few years and let them out so they can ultimately do it again.

One handgun per month? Does he not realize that gun laws only affect people who ALREADY obey the law? Does he not realize that most people who commit crimes (with guns) do so with ILLEGAL guns? I understand the need for some control, but it's getting rediculous. You may not believe it, but if you take away guns only criminals will have them - the saying is true. Criminals aren't going to say, "golly gee guys guns are illegal now, guess we gotta turn them in!" No, they'll be licking their chops at the idea that they will KNOW you're unarmed because some communist presidential wanna be doesn't want you protecting yourself. He wants you DEPENDANT on the government for your protection.

No self-defense if you live in a ban area. Wonderful! So a gang member breaks into your house, rapes your wife (because has no way to defend herself other than calling 911 and hoping the cops don't take 30 minutes to get there). And, the human waste won't even get death. AND if she does defend herself - she'll probably get MORE time than her would be attacker would have.

Public MONEY used for abortions? Hey! Another great idea!! So, not only can you go out party down and fuck everything that moves - completely unleashed from any responsibility - but we'll use TAX PAYER money for your "birth control."

As for the drilling issue. I hope people realize that oil is about MORE than just gasoline and diesel. Pretty much everything you use, see, own, whatever has been touched by oil in one form or another. Paints, pharmaceuticals, textiles, plastics… everything. I think working on alternative sources of fuel is a wonderful idea – but don’t be fooled into thinking that by building “solar cars” we’ll be completely free of oil. We are going to have to drill, whether it’s for fuel or plastics.

[Arlos]

I am right with him on not going for publicly subsidizing sending kids to private schools. For the most part, that's just a giveaway to the people who are rich enough to be sending them anyway. Even with a "tax break", no one in the lower or even lower-middle class is going to be able to afford to send their kid to a private school, given the cost. So, that sort of tax break only REALLY helps the wealthy and to a lesser extent, the near-wealthy. Tell me again why this is a good plan? Especially considering how much funding it will cost the public schools, making them even worse for those still there? Oh yeah, I love that plan: Benefit the rich, screw the poor! Sounds like a typical GOP plan, at that. Kudos to Obama for opposing it.

I'm against the death penalty, period. So, I'm perfectly in agreement with not voting to extend it even further. I don't know why he is against it, but as for me, I'm against it because our system of justice is imperfect, and I never ever want to have the State be in the position of murder of an innocent man. How many people now have been freed off of Death Row via DNA evidence and the work of the Innocence Project? It's several, but even 1 is way too many. Sorry, but since humans are imperfect, the death penalty is always a bad idea, simply because there's no way to be SURE that no innocent person is ever put to death. Again, kudos to Obama for opposing this.

On the Gun issues, *shrug* I am not a big fan of handguns myself. But, the questions here are moot, given the recent Supreme Court decision. Personally, the concept of drunken frat boys having concealed firearms scares the crap out of me. I've known way too many people that get hyper-aggro when drunk, and have hair tempers. Right now, they just get into fights. Add in weapons.... bleah. Besides which, last I checked, statistics show far more people are harmed by their own guns that they have for 'protection' than intruders are shot. Show me some statistics of how many "wives are raped because their husband didn't have a gun" from a neutral (ie, non-NRA) website. Is there even 1 a year? Talk about making up an out there scenario to use as a straw-man...

As for the last one, you're saying that a poor 13 year old, with no health insurance, who was molested by her father and got pregnant has to carry that kid to term because you don't want the federal government to put ANY money towards it? How about someone who's raped and also can't afford the procedure? She's SOL too? Because she was "asking for it" or something, I bet you'll say? How about some woman who develops severe complications, and the only medical option is to abort the fetus, or the mother dies? According to you she's fucked if she can't afford it out of pocket, huh? Real nice. Yet again, Kudos to Obama for sticking up for those less fortunate.

As for drilling, if we're not using it all for fuel, we've got way more than enough domestic production to use for things like jet fuel, plastics, etc. New drilling wouldn't get us ONE DROP of production for a decade, and could fuck up the environment even worse than it already is. YOU may not live in a coastal state, but those of us that DO don't want our beaches covered in crap, thanks. Having SEEN it in places like Santa Barbara, I don't trust the oil companies in their promises of environmental friendliness any further than I can throw a derrick. No, I much rather investing heavily into green power and renewable fuels so that by the time that new drilling would be coming on line, we no longer NEED it. We can then tell the entire middle east to go fuck itself.

So lets recap, shall we? You're for screwing the poor at every turn, giving monetary breaks to those already wealthy, risking the state killing innocent people, and forcing 13 year olds who were raped by a family member to carry the fetus to term, or worst case, letting someone die if she can't afford the abortion herself, if she has severe medical complications develop.... Excuse me if I don't shout hosanna's at you and proclaim you the next Albert Schweitzer...

-Arlos

[Narrock]

I think she was a bad choice. No one knows who the hell she is. Romney would have been a much better choice over all I think. McCain f'ed himself once again - but I hope I turn out wrong.

I was hoping he was going to pick Romney too, but now I'm more than satisfied with Palin.

[Arlos]

Mindia, you'd rather he have went with Romney than Huckabee?

Kinda curious as to why, if you don't mind saying.

Me, I don't like either one, but I kinda figured Huckabee's positions are a better fit for yours than Romney's generally are/were.

-Arlos

[Evermore]

I think she was a bad choice. No one knows who the hell she is. Romney would have been a much better choice over all I think. McCain f'ed himself once again - but I hope I turn out wrong.

I was hoping he was going to pick Romney too, but now I'm more than satisfied with Palin.

So am I. he just about ensured that Obama will get voted in.

[Tossica]

haha

I'm loving reading all these wing nuts on message boards trying to defend Palin and expecting to be taken seriously.

[leah]

One handgun per month? Does he not realize that gun laws only affect people who ALREADY obey the law? Does he not realize that most people who commit crimes (with guns) do so with ILLEGAL guns? I understand the need for some control, but it's getting rediculous. You may not believe it, but if you take away guns only criminals will have them - the saying is true. Criminals aren't going to say, "golly gee guys guns are illegal now, guess we gotta turn them in!" No, they'll be licking their chops at the idea that they will KNOW you're unarmed because some communist presidential wanna be doesn't want you protecting yourself. He wants you DEPENDANT on the government for your protection.

OK what i don't understand is how "one handgun purchase per month" = "unarmed"

why the heck would you need to buy more than one handgun, let alone more than one per month??