Slapping Kids Around, Alaska-Style

As the late philosopher George Carlin said: 'If you're pre-born, you're fine. If you're pre-school, you're fucked.'

Another stark example of TheoCon hypocrisy and cruelty today from Alaska.

The guy who took over from $arah vetoed an expansion of state health care coverage for poor children and pregnant women because it covers abortion.

His veto of Denali KidCare money drew by far the strongest reaction, with Democrats saying it was outrageous. Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bettye Davis, who sponsored the Denali Kid Care money, said it would have allowed 1,300 children and 225 pregnant women to receive care.

Ethan Berkowitz, one of Parnell's Democratic opponents for governor, called the decision cold-hearted. "If you want to be tough, you don't be tough by slapping kids around," he said.

Hollis French, a Democratic state senator who is also running against Parnell, said the decision was depriving hundreds of children of coverage "because you're afraid a few women might make a choice you don't agree with." The courts made it clear the state has to pay for "medically necessary" abortions for poor women and the program doesn't fund elective abortions, he said.

Officials with AARP Alaska and the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Head Start program said the governor's veto will hurt people struggling to raise children.

Parnell said he wanted to offer the health care to more women and children. But he said he couldn't bring himself to do it after recently discovering Denali Kid Care also funded abortions. Parnell said he couldn't believe it when he found out.

SHRIEEEEEEK! HE COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!! HE COULDN'T BRING HIMSELF TO DO IT!!!!

Such delicate sensibilities, yet he can quite blithely deny healthcare to a bunch of poor kids and women.

If I were within slapping distance of this prick, he'd get a faceful.

The Rootin' Tootin' Truthiness of $arah Palin

There's currently a federal court jury trial of a man charged with hacking into Palin's private e-mail account in 2008.

Andrew Sullivan is a serious $arah Palin observer. This is what he said about her court appearance last week.

Well, she can't help herself, which is why her decision to testify to anything under oath was possibly, shall we say, imprudent. I haven't seen the precise testimony so I cannot verify the precise wording she used (which may be critical). But, on the face of it, this seems demonstrably wrong. Anyone aware of the emails can see that her hacked private account [...] was routinely used for state business [...].

Finally, from the "We couldn't make this s**t up" category, it appears that there's a fund-raiser for the TeePeePee / Teabaggers / Tea Party Patriots (aka The Hatriots) being held in Chicago: a Sarah Palin sexy lookalike contest - titled “Less Taxation, More Stimulation” - with a cash prize for the winner. It's scheduled for May 12, the same day $arah is speaking at an event to boost the Illinois Republican party's coffers.

I wonder if they'll let drag queens compete?

Sarah Palin VS Reality.

This is one of those 'Whatever shall I blog about today?' moment. But I believe that I shall eschew Mags Wente's strategy, described by balbulican in the combox after this blogpost.

The time-honoured tradition here at DJ! when drawing a blank is to ask oneself: WWSD? So I searched her name on Google News.

There's a lot of material to mine there. Where to start? Palin asking $1 million per episode of reality series? Or about this, from here:

Sarah Palin, a woman who's never allowed a deep thought to get between her brain and her tongue, recently remarked how her family in Alaska "used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse... and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada."

Yeah, how ironic. The former governor of Alaska holds out our healthcare system as a nightmare example of the Nanny State morphing into the Big Bad Welfare Wolf. Palin's Tea Party fan base has slammed the Obama administration for its efforts to reform the broken U.S. health care system.

Goaded over the past two years by the Fox News network and rage radio shock-jocks like Rush Limbaugh, they have gathered across the U.S. for oxymoronic protests against federal plans to "socialize" Medicare--a government-run program kept afloat by taxpayer dollars. The tentative
inclusion of a rider in the health care reform bill, which would require at least one meeting between doctors and family to address the wishes of a loved one in terminal condition, was somehow transformed into "death panels" intent on heaving grandma into a casket as fast as possible.

But back to the notion of a reality show scripted and based upon Sa-wah's concept of Alaska.



OR

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too.

Todd Quits Day Job.

No matter who spins it, the story is real. The husband of ex-governor Sarah Palin has left his job as a production operator for petroleum multinational BP.

In addition to working on the North Slope, Todd Palin is a commercial fisherman and for years has participated in the world's longest snowmobile race, the Iron Dog. As the governor's spouse, he was unofficially referred to as the "First Dude" and also took part in official duties, such as hosting a tea for former first ladies of the state.

Todd Palin earned nearly $34,472 working part-time last year for BP in Prudhoe Bay and about $51,679 in the family's commercial fishing business, according to state financial disclosures. He also had $5,600 in snowmobile race winnings and an undisclosed discount on snowmobiles from racing sponsor Arctic Cat.

Meanwhile, the Alaskan blogsite Mudflats has a different take on the choice of title for Palin's 'memoir'.

During the ethics investigation of Sarah Palin now known as “Troopergate,” that phrase became seared into the collective consciousness of Alaskans. Palin’s spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton used that word referring not to Palin, but to the former Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan.

Palin had pressured Monegan to fire her ex-brother in law Trooper Mike Wooten whose nasty divorce from Palin’s sister had left bitter feelings. Monegan refused to fire him, and was subsequently dismissed by the governor, leaving the Department of Public Safety without leadership, and leaving many Alaskans with a bad taste in their mouths.

In a stinging press conference, Stapleton said that Monegan, a particularly well-liked and respected public servant, former police chief and ex-Marine had displayed “egregious rogue behavior.” Stapleton, who had been a respected news anchor before her association with Palin, suffered withering criticism from Alaskans on both sides of the political spectrum.

Alaska is a small town. Monegan was no “rogue,” everyone knew it, and the use of the term disgraced her.

What had Monegan done, according to the governor, that earned him this brand? He had planned a trip to Washington D.C. to seek funding to help combat sexual assault in a state that leads the nation in that category. Rogue, indeed.

The Iquitterod continues.

FANS. Sarah has fans. Lots of fans.

eh. Someone on Twitter with the screen name 2012Palin has linked to one of our posts at DJ!

So I checked out what other .... erm, useful links to all things Sa-wah led to on the Web.

Oh dear. It seems that some opportunist got the scoop on a Palin mini-biography. Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down. Oh - a gushing, fawning review. (Have you noticed that diehard fans still think Palin is hotshit?)

I read this book while my 2 year napped in about 3 1/2 hours. I was blown away at Sarah Palins politcal sucess. For the first time in my life I am proud to really support this woman's candidancy. This book is simple and easy to read through. It is NOT all fluff, it is factual and to the point. I wanted to have an open mind about Sarah Palin's experience and was not afraid to be somewhat critical of her. She DID SHAKE THINGS UP IN ALASKA. Living in the Left Coast (CA). The way things are in Alaska makes me want to pack my bags right now and raise a family in Wasilla. Sarah Palin is an amazing true Feminist, she is what TRUE WOMAN IS ALL ABOUT AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT SHE DOES IN WASHINGTON. GO SARAH!

Lots of capitalized words there. Must be an affliction associated with rightwing religious disorder zealotry.


And. Also. What the hell is that woman giving her toddler in his juice? A three and a half-hour nap?

The weird turn pro, Part Deux.

C'mon. Everybody was waiting for the other shoe to drop. If there's one thing that one can safely predict about the ongoing PR train wreck that is Sarah Palin, it's that someone somewhere in the biggest small-town in the world that's the state of Alaska has sumtin' more to add.

This is Levi Johnston's post-script to Sarah's big news bomb she dropped last week. Johnston apparently lived with the Palin family after baby Tripp was born.

Johnston, the 19-year-old father of Palin's grandson and ex-fiance of the governor's daughter Bristol, said at a news conference Thursday that he personally had heard Palin discuss the possibility of leaving her state behind to go capitalize off her quick rise to fame. "She had talked about how nice it would be to take some of this money people had been offering us and you know just run with it, say 'forget everything else,'" Johnston said ...

Ah well, at least Levi's still got that cool tattoo to remind him of 2008, right?

More here.

By-bye Governor - Hell-o Runner.

The US media are buzzing about the anticipated confirmed announcement by Sarah Palin that she won't seek re-election for a second term as governor of Alaska - in order to concentrate on her run at the nomination for presidential candidate for the Republican Party? Some in Alaska will be happy to see her and her micro-management strategies leave. For example, some might hold her accountable for the loss of two dedicated public servants in the state department of Health and Social Services: Director Beverley Wooley and the state's chief medical officer, Jay Butler.

Wooley said her office did get direct criticism from the governor's office regarding the wording of a press release on teen pregnancy. The governor didn't like a quote from one of Wooley's staff so the quote was removed.

Wooley said she never had a policy discussion with Palin on any health topic, and they never met one-on-one. ... [She] says she was forced out of office because Gov. Sarah Palin felt she wasn't in step on social issues. ...

The division has about 550 employees and a budget of $100 million. It includes nurses and epidemiologists, health facility inspectors and keepers of birth and death records. Its staff members run health laboratories and try to prevent diseases like HIV and diabetes. The key source of tension was legislation that would have required girls under age 17 to get parental consent for an abortion, Wooley said Thursday. ...

Wooley said she also intended to answer questions from legislators and said she would rely on data, not anyone's personal beliefs. Whether she personally agreed with the governor is beside the point, Wooley said.

She intended to refer to studies from states that already had passed similar legislation, she said. Some of the research shows that, with parental involvement requirements, girls tend to get abortions later in their pregnancy, which is riskier and more expensive, she said. Other research shows fewer girls get abortions, which abortion foes like Palin likely would applaud. Wooley cautioned that the studies are small and not definitive because such laws are still fairly new.

"You let those facts speak for themselves. And truly, people will interpret those facts differently based on their own personal history and experience," Wooley said.

This interview in Runner's World with Palin is informative, with regard to her running style.

Update: Palin has resigned from her office, effective July 26.

Added by fern hill: AKMudflats is burning up. Just now, there were 205 comments, but subsequent pages wouldn't open. I'm going to check back later.

Hypocrisy and the Fetus Fetishists

SHE says I don't understand what hypocrisy is. I wonder if the object of HER girl-lust, Sarah Palin does.

Poor Sarah is having a rough week. While she was being celebrated by fetus fetishists for CHOOSING not to abort her fifth child, back in Alaska the legislators were restive.

First, they rejected her 'controversial' nominee for attorney general, Wayne Anthony Ross.

According to Legislative Research Services, it was the first time in state history a head of a state agency has failed to be confirmed by the Legislature. All the Democrats in the Legislature voted against Ross and were joined by nine Republicans, including the Senate president and House speaker.

Controversial? Boy howdy.

In addition to being a gun-nut, a racist, and a 'men's rights' advocate, Ross is apparently cool with marital rape:

According to Burton, who detailed the allegations for me, Ross allegedly declared during a speech before a 1991 gathering of the “father’s rights” group Dads Against Discrimination, “If a guy can’t rape his wife, who’s he gonna rape?”

So, how did Palin take this rebuff?

Not well. Oh, looky, she's accusing legislators of hypocrisy.

Palin said the "hypocrisy" is that the state House last year unanimously passed a citation praising Ross as a distinguished Alaskan and a vocal proponent of free speech whose career has been dedicated to defending individual rights.

"The hypocrisy there is quite glaring. I believe they need to be called out on that," Palin said. The legislature passed the citation to honor Ross' 65 birthday.

Well, Sarah, the legislators don't appear to see hypocrisy in giving some nutbar a phony honour while refusing to put him in charge of the state's legal system.

(You can read more about Ross, who sports his initials, WAR, on the vanity plate of his Hummer here.)

But wait, the bad news continues. 'A top priority' of Palin's also failed last week.

The Legislature dealt another blow to Gov. Sarah Palin on Friday when a bill requiring girls under 17 to tell their parents they're about to have an abortion failed to move from committee, effectively ending its chance of passage this year.
. . .
Controversies surrounding the bill include its requirement a teen must wait 48 hours after telling a parent before having the abortion, and the fact it forbids coercing a minor to have an abortion but is silent on forcing a minor to have a baby.
. . .
She was particularly public about her desire to get an abortion bill passed, holding a press conference in February announcing that she was behind it. What Palin really wanted was a law saying parents not only must be told about an impending abortion but also give permission before a teen could undergo the procedure.
. . .
It was clear the state Senate wouldn't pass a consent bill, so Coghill and Palin said they'd settle for parental notification.

Ah, hypocrisy as it is practised by fetish fetishists. Forbid coercing a minor to have an abortion but totally OK with forcing her to be pregnant.

Am I getting this right, SUZY?