Ashley Judd Attacks Sarah Palin for Brutal Killing of Wolves

Actress Ashley Judd stars in a new campaign targeted at Sarah Palin's alleged "anti-conservation agenda" and her promotion of the killing of wolves and bears in Alaska.

Defenders Action Fund launched the campaign today with a new Website, EyeonPalin.org. In a video, Judd condemns Palin for promoting the aerial killing of wolves and even accuses her of suggesting $150 bounties for the severed forelegs of killed wolves.

"Now back in Alaska, Palin is again casting aside science and championing the slaughter of wildlife," Judds recites somberly.

"Palin even proposed a $150 bounty for the severed foreleg of each killed wolf. And now she is encouraging even more aerial killing. it is time to stop Sarah Palin and stop this senseless savagery."

I read this comment on the Christian Science Monitor and it sure rings true:

"So it’s the WOLVES that are decimating the moose and caribou populations? I guess people are the only ones allowed to feast at the table? How pathetic. I have no issue with getting your own food, in fact I encourage it. But taking out your competitor is typical human behavior. Offering 150 bucks for an appendage takes me back to shouts of “bring me his head!”
They shoot from helicopters, often wounding these animals and leaving them to suffer, trying to drag themselves to cover, while the “hunter” picks off the rest of the pack. And pups? Forget about it! Entire dens are usually beaten to death with a rock or shot in the head. What was it…14 pups in one outing last year? Predator control? I don’t think so."

This is from the Seattle Times I found today and explains what might be the outcome of killing off Predators like Wolves:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008667916_wolves25.html

Wolves last roamed the Olympic Peninsula nearly a century ago. A controversial new study argues the absence of these predators has led to dramatic and often destructive shifts in the area's ecology.

Roosevelt elk splash through the Hoh River in Olympic National Park. Since wolves were eradicated in the early 1900s, some scientists say, overbrowsing by elk has damaged the forest understory and increased riverbank erosion, threatening the ecosystem.

Oregon State University researcher Robert Beschta says the forest understory in the Hoh Rain Forest is unnaturally open, and few young trees have survived to maturity since wolves were killed off and elk multiplied.

But the loss of the stealthy predators in the early 1900s left a hole in the landscape that scientists say they are just beginning to grasp. The ripples extend throughout what is now Olympic National Park, leading to a boom in elk populations, overbrowsing of shrubs and trees, and erosion so severe it has altered the very nature of the rivers, says a team of Oregon State University biologists. The result, they argue, is an environment that is less rich, less resilient, and " perhaps " in peril.

"We think this ecosystem is unraveling in the absence of wolves," said OSU ecologist William Ripple.

More:

Just like Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin continues to be in the news.

Although Ms. Palin may not prefer to be lumped in with Mr. Plumber Mr. Wurzelbacher, both were a part of the Republican presidential campaign, both are active now in Republican politics, and both are getting a lot of news attention.

Palin, as the governor of Alaska and possible presidential candidate, and Wurzelbacher as adviser to the GOP on the economy (not to mention war correspondent, author, country western singer, and plumber).

Defenders of Wildlife

Regardless, on Monday, the environmental advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife went after Governor Palin for her support of a predator-control program in Alaska.

The reason they’re focusing on her? It’ll make news. According to a statement from the group, she’s a high profile target.

“Sarah Palin isn’t fading into the background, so neither are we,” said Defenders Action Fund President Rodger Schlickeisen in a statement. “Given her known political aspirations, the American public deserves to know what she’s doing in Alaska, and about her extreme anti-conservation policies.”

The policy in question is aerial hunting. Specifically, shooting wolves from helicopters. Defenders calls it cruel. Palin calls it wildlife management.

Eye on Palin

Defenders launched a new website (EyeonPalin.org) and actress Ashley Judd is cause’s spokeswoman.

“I am outraged by Sarah Palin’s promotion of this cruel, unscientific and senseless practice which has no place in modern America,” Ms. Judd said in a statement. “Because she is apparently determined to continue and expand this horrific program, I am grateful that Defenders will aggressively fight to stop her. I am proud to be a part of that effort.”

Predator control

Palin doesn’t see it that way. Although the practice might seem akin to throwing dynamite in a lake for catching trout, in Alaska, they call it predator control.

She says the new commercial perverts the issue.

“The ad campaign by this extreme fringe group, as Alaskans have witnessed over the last several years, distorts the facts about Alaska’s wildlife management programs,” Palin said in a statement.

“Alaskans depend on wildlife for food and cultural practices which can’t be sustained when predators are allowed to decimate moose and caribou populations. Our predator control programs are scientific and successful at protecting vulnerable wildlife.”

“Shame on the Defenders of Wildlife for twisting the truth in an effort to raise funds from innocent and hard-pressed Americans struggling with these rough economic times,” the statement concluded.

Sarah Palin Turkey Incident: Does TV Interview While Turkeys Are Slaughtered In The Background

Some videos you just have to see to believe. On Thursday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appeared in Wasilla in order to pardon a local turkey in anticipation of Thanksgiving. This proved to be a slightly absurd but ultimately unremarkable event. But what came next was positively surreal. After the pardon Palin proceeded to do an interview with a local TV station while the turkeys were being SLAUGHTERED in the background!! Seemingly oblivious to the gruesomeness going on over her shoulder, she carries on talking for over three minutes. Watch the video below to see for yourself. Be warned, it's kind of gruesome.

Palin Keeps Attacking Obama!

Huffington Post
Sam Stein
November 13, 2008 11:04 AM

Palin Keeps Attacking Obama: "No Present Button":

The presidential campaign is over, but Sarah Palin -- still at the epicenter of media attention -- continues to take digs at Barack Obama.

Speaking at the Republican Governor's Association meeting on Thursday in Miami, the Alaska Governor spoke primarily about the responsibilities of Republican executives in supporting domestic initiatives like tax cuts and budgetary prudence. But then she offered an obvious swipe at the President-elect.

Governors, she said make "tough decisions to best serve the people who hire us. And we are held accountable every day. The buck stops on our desk. We are not just one of many voting yea or nay or present. No. There is no present button in our office, is there? We have to make the tough decisions."

The line about voting "present," of course, is a clear jab at Obama -- lifted from an attack line that the McCain campaign (and the Clinton camp) used repeatedly on the trail. The crowd, it seemed, got the joke.

The dig comes, moreover, after Palin has continued airing concerns about Obama'a associations and readiness to be commander-in-chief in recent interviews.

It's hard to understand just what type of strategy Palin is deploying here. Her popularity rating plummeted as the campaign progressed, in part because of her attacks on Obama, in part because, after the campaign ended, aides to McCain painted her as vapid and out-of-her-league.

As such, she needs to push back against these negative narratives. And so we see her taking all of these national interviews after mostly avoiding press on the trail. But by continuing to take swipes at Obama, Palin seems to be doing little more than reinforcing the image that she is hyper-partisan and bitter over the election outcome.

UPDATE: Reader JMZ points out that in many states legislation can pass without the governor's signature -- the political equivalent of voting present (governors don't have to watch as their vetoes are overturned).

And Arnold Schwarzenegger, what a phony-baloney, two-faced slime-bag, he backpedaled from his campaign-trail joke that Obama has "scrawny little arms":

"Look, I've seen him playing basketball. He's a better basketball player than I am. But I think that no one should take that joke that seriously, because Columbus, Ohio, is the place where they have the world championships in lifting and in body building every year. And so ... you talk about body and legs and skinny and all -- pumping up, and all of those kind of things. So this was not meant to be an insult in any way. It was meant to be to lighten up the place and to make everyone laugh a little bit."

Rosie O'Donnell: "I'd Like To Have A Beer With" Sarah Palin

Huffington Post Extra | November 14, 2008 10:43 PM

At last night's Broadway opening of Billy Elliot, Rosie O'Donnell spoke out to "Extra" for the first time since Barack Obama was elected president - expressing her excitement about his historic win and even praising the woman who could have been vice president. Admitting she'd like to meet Governor Sarah Palin, O'Donnell comments, "I'd like to have a beer with her. I'd like to meet her kids. She seems like a pretty nice woman. Although I have to say, I am thrilled her party did not win. [But] you got to give it to her for spunk."

She continues, "I think I probably would like her [Palin] if I met her....She had an amazing life for herself and her family in Alaska. Very successful. Before you knew it, she was the most famous person in the country..." As nice as Palin might seem, O'Donnell exclaims, "If [John] McCain won...I would be in the depression unit of the ICU."

About Obama's victory, O'Donnell says, "It's really beyond what I had hoped could happen...I can't really recall feeling the way that I did about our country. About the promise of democracy....Seems as though the last eight years have been nothing but a dark, funky depression...Hope is possible and change is here. Way to go America!"

Reacting to the passing of Proposition 8, which overrides the decision to recognize same- sex marriages in California, O'Donnell comments, "I was married four years and I was annulled three years ago, so for me this fight is not new. Prop 8 is nothing new for me. This has been a long journey...and eventually the world will catch up."

Rosie O'Donnell's primetime show, Rosie Live, airs on NBC on November 26th.

Palin Calls Bloggers "Kids in Pajamas"

Huffington Post
Linda Bergthold
Posted November 10, 2008 | 11:55 PM (EST)

In Sarah Palin's interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Monday evening, she referred to bloggers as "kids in pajamas sitting in the basement of their parents' homes" spewing out mean and inaccurate things about her. Well, I am no kid, I am definitely not wearing pajames and I am living in my own house, thank you! And I am seriously depressed about the prospect of this person having a political future.

In the course of the interview with Greta Van Susteren, a softball thrown with great affection by Fox, Palin manages to rebut all the attacks on her without ever providing much, if any, facts to support her position. She never asked for the clothes or the stylists. They just appeared. Nor the clothes for her "eight" member family (eight? I thought she had 5 kids...). She never thought Africa was a country. She was just concerned about Darfur and they discussed "Africa there...the country and the continent". She always knew what countries were in NAFTA. She never thought the crowds were there because of her, it was just because of what she stood or -- just a mom trying to change things.

Pardon me, but I am nearly nauseous by now. There is no acknowledgment by Ms. Palin that she might not have been ready for this job. That there were things she did not know and should have known. That the media intensity revealed her weaknesses -- only that it was mean and unfair.

She deftly avoided the question about 2012, but in a very frightening way to those of us who do not believe God tells what doors to open, she explained that God would reveal to her if she should run. God would tell her if there was a door open with a tiny crack, and she would, "by god", just push through it.

She is also a feminist in the sense of "Feminists for life", which for those of us who believe in the power of women, is not exactly our definition. I actually think she believes women should earn as much as men. But she does not believe government should help women and their families with children, especially special needs children, with any particular programs. Individuals and their communities should do that. Well -- Governor Palin? They do not. And when they do not, why are you in favor of punishing those families when they find they can't make it. They can't support the 24 hour needs of those children without some support. Are they supposed to go out on the street corner and put out a sign that says, "Please feed my special needs child?"

Oh my. We are in for a set of charming interviews over the next few days. The only losers will be the Republican party of "meanies" who have attacked Palin. No one is going to challenge her. No one is going to ask her to be accountable for the leaks from the campaign about her diva personality, her tirades against her staff, her acceptance of all those clothes and makeup and hairdressing, her lack of knowledge of basic facts about American government or foreign affairs. She can just deny it all, smile, wink and we are all ok with it.

Are we?

Palin Didn't Know Africa Is A Continent, Says Fox News Reporter

Okay, thought this was over, but oh my! I need to add some things, I don't want this woman running for president in 2012!

Huffington Post | Nicholas Graham | November 5, 2008 07:40 PM

Now that the 2008 election is over, reporters are spilling all the juciest, and previously off the record, gossip from the campaign trail. Much of it is about the infighting between Palin and McCain's staff, as Newsweek's treasure trove of post-election gossip reveals. However, perhaps one of the most astounding and previously unknown tidbits about Sarah Palin has to do with her already dubious grasp of geography. According to Fox News Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron, there was great concern within the McCain campaign that Palin lacked "a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency," in part because she didn't know which countries were in NAFTA, and she "didn't understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself."

***UPDATE*** Fox News Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron appeared on The O'Reilly Factor tonight and described in much fuller detail the truly astonishing behavior, and lack of knowledge, of Sarah Palin on the campaign trail, as well as the nasty infighting that resulted from, some would say, Palin's "diva" behavior. (Earlier today, Palin said reports of her "diva" behavior and any tension within the campaign were "absolutely false.")

Cameron relates how McCain aides were terrified of Palin's lack of knowledge of international and national issues, and even basic civics. Cameron reports that Palin was unfamiliar with the concept of "American exceptionalism," and that not only did she not understand that Africa was a continent rather than a single country but also that during debate prep Palin was unable to name all the nations in North America.

Palin was apparently a nightmare for her campaign staff to deal with. She refused preparation help for her interview with Katie Couric and then blamed her staff, specifically Nicole Wallace, when the interview was rightly panned as a disaster. After the Couric interview, Palin turned nasty with her staff and began to accuse them of mishandling her. Palin would view press clippings of herself in the morning and throw "tantrums" over the negative coverage. There were times when she would be so nasty and angry that her staff was reduced to tears.

Who Are The Women Against Sarah Palin?

Susan Sawyers
Huffington Post
October 31, 2008

"Ms. Palin frightens me both for my country and for my grandchildren."
-- Jane B., 73

In late August, Lyra Kilston, 31, and Quinn Latimer, 30, two not-very-political editors for Modern Painters magazine, found themselves suddenly immersed in the Presidential campaign. Enraged over the selection of Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential nominee, they sent an e-mail to 40 friends.

"We are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President," the New Yorkers wrote. "She was chosen by John McCain specifically because he believes that American women will vote for any female candidate regardless of their qualifications. He is wrong."

They encouraged their friends to look beyond the patina of politics and focus on the woman selected to fire up the female vote.

To their great surprise, they had 10,000 e-mail responses in ten days. They wanted to give voice to as many responses as they could, showing that they were not alone. With the help of a friend, they designed a website that, like them, is artful in execution and deliberate in tone.

It's just a few days until the election and the accidental activists are up to 200,000 responses. They continue to pour in, at a rate of about one per minute.

Running a blog is a job in itself. Fortunately for the duo, who continue to work their full-time jobs, Kilston's parents, Steve and Vera Kilston, help moderate (they read through everything that comes in) and quantify (categorize, i.e. an average of two percent of the responses are from pro-Palin people). The senior Kilstons' analytical skills (her father is an astronomer and mother is an engineer) come in handy.

Sympathizers to the two-month old blog, like MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser, offered strategic and financial support early on; and New Media Producers, Kathryn Velvel Jones and Charlie Oliver, took the viral-letter to the next level and added audio and video to a live webathon broadcast.

So how did these two downtown hipsters get into the political fray, where they now spend about three hours each day? Latimer's father, Irv Katz, remembers her as more than the introspective poetry student, who studied at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. "She was always fearless," Katz said. "One of her favorite activities as a kid growing up in Southern California was jumping horses."

Kilston, like Latimer, hadn't been involved in politics until now, but she is a thinker. What's more, "her middle name is Liberty," said her father, so perhaps their activism is no accident.

"The idea of being a conservative-feminist is difficult to wrap my mind around. I see Christianity and the right-wing platform as inherently sexist, yet I also wonder if I am defining feminism too narrowly," said Kilston, whose philosophical frame of mind comes from her education at Evergreen College and Bard. "Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers have fiercely fought for."

"Some of our critics claim that we are angry because we only support women who share our ideology, and that we dislike Palin because she is conservative," said Kilston. Not true, say both women. The responses to their message haven't only come from the "liberal elite," but from people living in small towns and big cities, from women who are anti-choice or Independents and Republicans, as well. "Sarah Palin is impulsive, irrational and ill-informed--not a leader I would trust with a nation I hold so dear. McCain's lack of judgment in choosing Sarah Palin is why I am a Republican voting Democratic in this election," wrote Lisa B., 46, from Arizona on their blog.

The groundswell of thoughtful responses to their electronic letter paints a portrait of a group of women who are against Sarah Palin, not just because she is a woman who they believe stands to undermine the progress and freedoms that are enjoyed by Americans today, but because they are afraid of people in the future who will continue to challenge these freedoms. The initiation into political activism for two women who grew up in California in the 1980s, post-Vietnam, post-Roe v. Wade, is one to which they will remain committed beyond the election. Latimer is moving to Switzerland to live with her boyfriend for the year. "If Obama wins," she said, "it's a great reason to come back to the United States. If he doesn't, I may be gone for good."

A Letter to Sarah Palin from God

Ellis Weiner
Huffington Post
Posted October 31, 2008

NOTE: The following words occurred to me, seemingly out of nowhere, in the innermost recesses of the mind of my brain. I can only conclude that they came from God. I present them, therefore, not as a "writer" but as a medium, a messenger transmitting the divine text and converting it, as best I can, from a mode of pure thought into the publicly-accessible form of the written word. E.W.

Dear Sarah:

I would ask, "How are you, child?" but for two things. One, who knows better than I, Who Am That I Am, how you are? And two, my purpose in communicating with you here is not to ask how you are, but to tell you how you are.

You are a disappointment to Me, Sarah.

You seem to think, as do many of your co-religionists, that what you profess to believe -- and, indeed, what you may actually in fact believe -- is more important than what you do. You seem to be under the impression that advertising an ardent belief in Me (or Us, if you prefer) absolves you of any responsibility to act in accordance with what you know -- or, at least, what you should know -- constitute My values and precepts.

The list of your transgressions is extensive, and includes:

- That, while you know full well My admonition to Love Thy Neighbor, you spread calumny and derision about half of the population, presuming to declare who is and who is not "the real America."

- That, while you are fully aware of My Commandment forbidding you to bear false witness, you utter lies and deceptions on a routine basis, verily, you seem unable to speak publicly without lying. You have lied about opposing the Bridge to Nowhere; you have lied about firing the librarian and police chief of Wasilla; you have lied about your previous statements regarding climate change; you have lied about Alaska's contribution to your nation's oil and gas production; you have lied about Barack Obama's position regarding habeas corpus; you have lied about your use of a TelePrompter at the Republican convention; and in manifold other ways have you lied, and lied, and lied.

- That, while you are entirely acquainted with My intention to bestow upon Man dominion over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, yet you play fast and loose and get cute with, and otherwise wink at, the danger posed to all living creatures (including Man) by climate change; and you profess to be unsure as to whether these perils are caused by Man, while all reputable study affirms this analysis beyond dispute.

- That, while you are surely acquainted with My Son's admonition that you "beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye," yet you persist in criticizing Obama's (modest, progressive) taxation plans as constituting "socialism," and abjure it as an evil, whilst never acknowledging that your own Republican Party put in place laws that have resulted in the most egregiously "socialistic" takeover of the nation's banks in history; moreover, your own state of Alaska--particularly under your administration--is the most socialist of all the fifty states, in its collective taxing of the oil industry and its distribution, to every man, woman, and child in the state, a check upwards of three (3) grand each year.

- That, while you proudly profess to believe in "freedom," you have lately complained that if newspapers criticize you for "negative campaigning," they are abridging your First Amendment rights under the Constitution--as though "freedom" means only your ability to say anything that enters in unto your head (regardless of how baseless or slanderous) but does not apply to the press.

Of the sheer stupidity of this last assertion I, Who Am Eternal, shall say nothing, for I love all my creations, regardless of how ignorant, unsophisticated, or just plain dumb. Similarly, I will pass over your inability to answer the simplest question in a coherent sentence, your meanness of spirit, and the great selfishness and want of taste you display in subjecting your poor children to the travails, exhaustion, and abuse of a national presidential campaign.

Rather, Sarah, it is your hypocrisy and mendaciousness that mightily offend Me. I am, as you know, a just and compassionate God. But even I (blessed be Me and blessed be My Name) have a limit to My patience. Thus, I find not only that you are unqualified to be Vice-President of the United States. I find that you are a human person deficient in those basic qualities (honesty, decency, compassion, modesty, personal integrity, a respect for knowledge, and a concern for truth) that are pleasing unto Me and which ought to constitute the character of the righteous woman.

You are not just a bad candidate. You are a bad person. I only hope you will awaken to this fact, acknowledge the error of your ways, and take steps to atone for these transgressions before the Day of Judgment, when I shall be forced to render a decision concerning your eternal fate.

Yours in Me, etc.,
God

cc. Jesus Christ

Palin: First Amendment Rights Threatened By Criticism

October 31, 2008 02:02 PM
ABC News reports:

In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.

Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

Salon's Glenn Greenwald explains why this argument is frighteningly wrong:

If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.

This isn't only about profound ignorance regarding our basic liberties, though it is obviously that. Palin here is also giving voice here to the standard right-wing grievance instinct: that it's inherently unfair when they're criticized. And now, apparently, it's even unconstitutional.

According to Palin, what the Founders intended with the First Amendment was that political candidates for the most powerful offices in the country and Governors of states would be free to say whatever they want without being criticized in the newspapers. The First Amendment was meant to ensure that powerful political officials would not be "attacked" in the papers. It is even possible to imagine more breathaking ignorance from someone holding high office and running for even higher office?

John Cleese on Sarah Palin

The former Monty Python star answers Vinvin's questions and shares his unsparing thoughts and views about vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.

But Wait ... By Palin's Definition, Mohamed Atta Isn't A Terrorist

RJ Eskow
Huffington Post, Posted October 24, 2008 | 07:03 PM (EST)

This campaign gets stranger and stranger -- and more and more frightening. Brian Williams asked Sarah Palin a fairly straightforward question, based on her repeated use of the phrase "domestic terrorist" to characterize Bill Ayers. Williams asked: "Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under this definition, Governor?"

Palin tried several evasive maneuvers before alighting on this answer:

"I would put in that category of Bill Ayers anyone else who would seek to campaign, to destroy our United States capital and our Pentagon and would seek to destroy innocent Americans."
Forget the tortured syntax for a moment. What is truly and deeply frightening in this exchange is the lengths to which Palin will go to avoid disparaging abortion bombers. She is so desperate not to characterize the Eric Rudolphs of this world as terrorists that she forges a severely narrow definition of the act: You have to target the Capitol or the Pentagon to qualify.
That even lets Mohamed Atta off the hook, since he attacked the World Trade Center. Like the doctor's offices and medical clinics struck by abortion terrorists, it's a civilian target. We know that Sarah Palin doesn't believe that Islamic militants who kill civilians aren't terrorists. That leaves only one way to interpret these words: She either supports the bombing of abortion clinics or she wants the political support of those who do (and then there's that reference to "innocent Americans," which seems to suggest that clinic staff or patients are not innocent).

Can anybody think of another explanation?

Either interpretation would seem to reinforce what I call the black-helicopter theory -- that this campaign is deliberately stoking extremism. As for the idea she might have sympathy or at least tolerance toward these attacks -- well, let's hope not. But she had already said these words as she writhed in the unforgiving claws of what should've been a straighforward question:

"Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to -- I don't know if you're going to use the word terrorist there, but it's unacceptable, and it would not be condoned, of course, on our watch."
So the strongest things she's willing to say about bomb attacks on abortion clinics (which have caused deaths as well as destruction) is that they're "unacceptable" and wouldn't be "condoned."
I guess that's something.

So, here we have a Vice Presidential candidate and potential President who has close ties to a separatist party founded by a man with violent hostility toward the U.S. government. She accepts blessing from a "witch-fighting" pastor, when "expelling witches" is its own form of terrorism (witch-hunting may sound quaint to American ears, but it's a living and hideous practice that claims hundreds if not thousands of women and children each year).

Let's face it: The $150,000 in clothing, the highly paid make-up artists, the potentially illegal use of Alaskan state funds to fly her family on junkets ... all that's trivial next to the extreme views suggested by these comments. This is not a game of "gotcha" based on a poor choice of words or associations. This is a pattern -- the pattern of a deeply disturbing individual, one who is not only unqualified to be President but who also holds some profoundly un-American opinions.

And John McCain chose her -- or, more precisely, must take responsibility for her selection. It's his name on the campaign bus. His acceptance of Palin betrayed stunning indifference to the responsibilities of leadership. That is all we need to know about him.

It's no wonder the young woman who claimed to have been attacked and mutilated by a large black Obama supporter turns out to have performed the act on herself (which the mirrored "B" on her face should have made obvious). But before the truth was revealed, we're told she got a phone call from Sarah Palin. This is a campaign that will try turning any lie to its advantage.

Self-mugging: The perfect metaphor for John McCain's campaign.

Sure, there's a strange fascination in listening to Sarah Palin speak. Every sentence seems to pass through an surrealistic archway, as if its grammatical rules had been designed by M. C. Escher. Will it turn into a flock of birds, a school of fish, become its own wall or ceiling or stairway? But underneath this tangled skein of language, a picture is beginning to emerge. It's a frightening picture and an ugly one.

It's a picture that the most expensive makeup artist in the world can't hide.

THE BEST PALIN WEBSITE EVER!

This is the best website on Palin EVER! It's interactive and fun for the kids! Clever, clever...you betcha!

Go here: http://www.palinaspresident.us/

Be sure to click on the various doors, windows, computer, phone... you'll figure it out!

Palin Supporter Brings Racist Monkey "Obama" Doll to Rally

A Sarah Palin supporter brings a racist monkey doll wearing an Obama sticker to a campaign rally. After the man realizes he's been caught on camera, he hides the doll, passing it off to a child. Watch closely:

Is Palin Trying To Incite Violence Against Obama?

Jeffrey Feldman
Posted October 7, 2008 | 09:19 AM (EST)
Huffington Post

MCCAIN CAMP TALKS 'CHARACTER ASSASSINATION,' SUPPORTERS SHOUT FOR REAL ASSASSINATION!

At her last rally in Florida, Sarah Palin told the audience that Barack Obama "palled around with terrorists" adding,"I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America." Upon hearing the Republican VP candidate's concern that Sen. Obama might be a terrorist, a voice in the crowd cried out 'Kill him!'

McCain Campaign Amplifies Violent Rhetoric, GOP Crowds Threaten Obama's Life
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank reported an incident at a Palin rally that should open America's eyes to the central role violent rhetoric now plays in the McCain campaign. Milbank describes how Palin told the crowd in Florida that Obama has close associations with a terrorist who sought to bomb the Pentagon and the U.S. Capital, in response to which the crowd responded with a threat on Sen. Obama's life:

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers...And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Palin went on to say that "Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers's living room, and they've worked together on various projects in Chicago." Here, Palin began to connect the dots. "These are the same guys who think that patriotism is paying higher taxes -- remember that's what Joe Biden had said. "And" -- she paused and sighed -- "I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America, as the greatest force for good in the world. I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as 'imperfect enough' to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country." (link)

Palin's new rhetorical strategy signifies an alarming new development in the 2008 Presidential election, and one that has been not only been documented by such high profile newspapers as the Washington Post, but confirmed by the McCain campaign itself.

"It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice," a top McCain strategist recently admitted to the Daily News. "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose." (link)

The 'dangerous road,' however, is not just a generic attack on Sen. Obama's trustworthiness or honesty. Rather, the McCain campaign has chosen to stand before campaign rallies and accuse Sen. Obama of hiding sympathies with domestic terrorists--to accuse their opponent, essentially, of being a terrorist.

With the McCain campaign now using the Palin stump speech to accuse Sen. Obama of hiding a terrorist agenda, the McCain campaign has staked its future on rhetoric that skirts the boundary between character assassination and incitements of actual violence against their opponent.

Meanwhile, while McCain is not yet accusing Obama of terrorism in his own stump speech, the crowds at his rallies are.

In a recent video clip from MSNBC, McCain asked a rally, "Who is the real Barack Obama?" In response to McCain's rhetorical question, a voice from the crowd can be clearly heard to shout in response, "Terrorist!" (link)

Since the start of the election campaign well over a year ago, voters have been subject to ongoing smear campaigns in emails and push polls accusing Sen. Obama of ties to and sympathies with domestic and foreign terrorist groups. No matter how many times these smear campaigns have been exposed, they continued. Now that John McCain and Sarah Palin have echoed these accusations--the idea that Sen. Obama is secretly a terrorist has the stamp of approval of a presidential campaign, but of a multi-term U.S. senator and a U.S. governor.

One wonders at this point how the various agencies charged with the responsibility of protecting the Presidential candidates from violence will respond to this latest tactic from the McCain campaign. If, for example, a McCain supporter threatens the life of Sen. Obama by shouting 'Kill him!' at a Palin rally, should Sen. Obama's Secret Service contingent launch an investigation? Having been accused of terrorist ties by the McCain campaign, will Sen. Obama's name be put on the 'No Fly' list, effectively making it impossible for him to engage in normal airline travel?

An even more basic question, perhaps: Is Gov. Palin trying to incite violence against Sen. Obama as part of an ill-conceived campaign strategy to change the topic from the economy at any cost?

Time will tell how law enforcement will respond, but one thing is already certain: the more Palin and McCain incite calls for violence against Sen. Obama, the more their chances of achieving a victory in November disappear.

Brigitte Bardot: Sarah Palin Is "A Disgrace For Women"

AFP | October 7, 2008 02:24 PM

Paris-French film legend-turned-activist Brigitte Bardot took a swipe at Sarah Palin on Tuesday, saying the US vice presidential candidate was a disgrace to women.

"I hope you lose these elections because that would be a victory for the world," Bardot wrote in an open letter to Republican John McCain's running mate in the November vote.

"By denying the responsibility of man in global warming, by advocating gun rights and making statements that are disconcertingly stupid, you are a disgrace to women and you alone represent a terrible threat, a true environmental catastrophe," wrote Bardot.

The screen icon from the 1960s, who now heads an animal rights foundation, went on to assail Palin for supporting Arctic oil exploration that could jeopardize delicate animal habitats and for dismissing measures to protect polar bears.

"This shows your total lack of responsibility, your inability to protect or simply respect animal life," Bardot wrote.

In a final salvo against Palin, the 74-year-old ex-star picked up on Palin's depiction of herself as a pitbull wearing lipstick and said she "implored" her not to compare herself to dogs.

"I know them well and I can assure you that no pitbull, no dog, nor any other animal for that matter is as dangerous as you are," Bardot wrote.

AP: Palin Stretches The Truth

BETH FOUHY | October 7, 2008 07:44 PM EST |

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin tells audiences the election is about the "truthfulness and judgment" needed to be president. But the Alaska governor often stretches the truth herself.

She has exaggerated the nature of Barack Obama's personal ties to a former 1960s radical and falsely claimed the Democratic presidential candidate plans to raise most people's taxes.

On Tuesday, she tried rebutting the Illinois senator's criticisms of Republican presidential candidate John McCain over health care and Social Security. She said Obama was misleading and wrong, but she herself told less than the full story.

To be sure, most of Palin's assertions about Obama echo claims McCain himself has made or lines from Republican TV ads.

At a rally Tuesday, Palin tried to link Obama to the failure of housing giant Fannie Mae by noting that two Obama supporters once led the troubled company. The government seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, another housing finance company, last month to prevent their collapse from worsening the global credit crisis.

"What's next, claiming that he didn't know two of his biggest supporters were running Fannie Mae, the subprime mortgage giant?" Palin said. "That has done harm to the American economy."

She referred to Jim Johnson, who chaired Fannie Mae from 1991-1998, and Franklin Raines, his successor who stepped down in 2004 in an accounting scandal.

But Palin exaggerated Obama's ties to Raines and Johnson while omitting any mention of a closer relationship between a top McCain aide and the failed housing giants.

Raines and Johnson support Obama but do not have strong ties to him or his campaign. Johnson briefly headed Obama's vice presidential search last spring but resigned amid controversy over loans he got with help from an executive of Countrywide Financial Corp., a lender damaged by the mortgage meltdown.

Meanwhile, until August, Freddie Mac paid $15,000 a month to a lobbying firm headed by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis. The payment came on top of more than $30,000 a month Davis was paid directly by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 2000-2005 to head the Homeownership Alliance, an advocacy group.

Davis has not taken any compensation from his lobbying firm since 2006, the McCain campaign said.

Palin has made other questionable assertions:

_She suggests Obama was disrespectful of U.S. soldiers when he said U.S. troops in Afghanistan were just "air-raiding villages and killing civilians."

The partial quote is misleading. The Illinois senator said once, in August 2007, when pressing to send more troops to Afghanistan: "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops" so they aren't just "air-raiding villages and killing civilians."

Shortly before his comment, an Associated Press analysis showed that more civilians in Afghanistan had been killed by Western forces than by militants.

_Her claim that Obama would raise most people's taxes. "The phoniest claim in a campaign that's full of them is that Barack Obama is going to cut your taxes," she tells supporters.

Obama has promised a tax cut for those making less than $250,000 per year _ about 90 percent of all taxpayers. Only those making over $250,000 would get tax increases under Obama's proposal.

McCain has pledged not to raise any taxes.

Speaking to reporters aboard her campaign plane, Palin defended her tough talk. When asked if whether her claims suggest Obama is dishonest, Palin said, "I'm not saying he's dishonest. But in terms of judgment, in terms of being able to answer a question forthrightly, it has two different parts to this _ that judgment and that truthfulness."

At a fundraiser Tuesday, Palin also pushed back against an Obama TV ad suggesting McCain's health care plan would force employers to drop coverage for millions.

"Every middle class American family will have a $5,000 credit, tax credit, to buy the health care coverage that you choose and Barack Obama's calling that a tax," Palin said. "I don't know how he can capture this and spin it into being a tax on Americans. No, it is a credit."

In fact, McCain's plan would tax health care benefits people receive from employers in order to finance the $5,000 tax credit. Obama's ads argue the new tax would raise the cost of insurance for employers, forcing millions off the rolls.

In the journal Health Affairs, economists projected McCain's plan would lead 20 million people to lose employer-sponsored insurance, while 21 million people would gain coverage through the individual market.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found McCain's tax credit would be more generous than the current tax break initially but could fall behind in later years. The center also found his plan would increase the deficit by $1.3 trillion over 10 years.

Palin also defended McCain against an Obama campaign TV ad on Social Security that began running last month in Florida and elsewhere. The ad says McCain supported Bush's plan to privatize Social Security and claims McCain supports cutting Social Security benefits in half and "risking Social Security on the stock market."

Palin disputed that.

"We will protect the retirement programs that Americans depend on, above all Social Security," Palin said. "No presidential election cycle is complete ... without the Democratic candidate coming down here to Florida especially and trying to stir up fear and panic on this issue of Social Security."

McCain did support Bush's unsuccessful Social Security plan to allow current workers to voluntarily divert some of their Social Security taxes into private stock accounts. Now, McCain says "nothing is off the table" in ensuring the soundness of the program. But none of what McCain supported would apply to current Social Security recipients.

The benefit cut comes from a separate Bush provision that would have changed how benefits keep up with inflation; independent analysts concluded this change could cut benefits by 50 percent for higher income beneficiaries who retire in 2080.

Watch: Palin Speech Makes Stock Market Fall!

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

In slip up, Palin calls Afghanistan “our neighboring country”

Reuters
Posted by: Jason Szep

SAN FRANCISCO - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin called Afghanistan “our neighboring country” on Sunday in a speech that could revive questions over her tendency to stumble into linguistic knots.

Three days after a mostly gaffe-free debate performance, the Alaska governor fumbled during a speech in which she praised U.S. soldiers for “fighting terrorism and protecting us and our democratic values”.

“They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,” she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.

The gaffe could add fuel to comedians and late-night talk show hosts who have seized on her linguistic infelicities to portray her as someone not to be taken seriously.

Later in a speech in Omaha, Neb., Palin poked a little fun at herself when talking about one comedian in particular — actress Tina Fey whose dead-on impression of Palin’s looks, voice and body language has been a hit.

Fey, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Palin, has parodied her as a rambling, perky politician unfamiliar with world issues for three straight weeks on the comedy show “Saturday Night Live”.

“I was just trying to give Tina Fey more material — job security for Saturday Night Live,” Palin said.

The skits have become a sensation since an awkward interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric in which Palin failed to coherently express her views about Russia, the U.S. government’s $700 billion financial bailout package, and the newspapers or magazines she reads.

In recent days, the 44-year-old self-described “hockey mom” has described the Couric interview as “less than successful”, and apologized to crowds of supporters for her shaky performance, saying she was “annoyed” and “impatient” because she wanted to talk about other issues like energy independence.

Here she goes again, misquoting again, Sarah?

Palin Misquotes Albright: "Place In Hell Reserved For Women Who Don't Support Other Women"

By Nico Pitney
pitney@huffingtonpost.com
October 5, 2008 01:16 AM

At a rally on Saturday in California, Sarah Palin offered up a rather jarring argument for supporting the Republican ticket. "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women," the Alaska Governor said, claiming she was quoting former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

The statement came after Palin had recounted a "providential" moment she experienced on Saturday: "I'm reading on my Starbucks mocha cup, okay? The quote of the day... It was Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State [crowd boos] and UN ambassador. ... Now she said it, I didn't. She said, 'There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women.'"

Actually, Albright didn't say that. The accurate quote is, "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't help other women." (Sources made the same point to CBS's Scott Conroy.)

Palin seemed to realize that the line could be viewed as grating. As the audience cheered, she remarked: "Okay, now, thank you so much for receiving that well. I didn't know how that was gonna go over. And now, California, let's see what a comment like I just made, how that is turned into whatever it'll be turned into tomorrow with the newspaper."

Albright responded to Palin's remarks in a statement to the Huffington Post on Sunday. "Though I am flattered that Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics. This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women. The truth is, if you care about the status of women in our society and in our troubled economy, the best choice by far is Obama-Biden."

AP: Palin's Ayers Attack "Racially Tinged"

Huffington Post
DOUGLASS K. DANIEL | October 5, 2008 08:52 PM EST |

WASHINGTON — By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.

And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

First, Palin's attack shows that her energetic debate with rival Joe Biden may be just the beginning, not the end, of a sharpened role in the battle to win the presidency.

"Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain's ticket-mate echoed the line at three separate events Saturday.

"This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," she said. "We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism."

Obama isn't above attacking McCain's character with loaded words, releasing an ad on Sunday that calls the Arizona Republican "erratic" _ a hard-to miss suggestion that McCain's age, 72, might be an issue.

"Our financial system in turmoil," an announcer says in Obama's new ad. "And John McCain? Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch on the economy."

A harsh and plainly partisan judgment, certainly, but not on the level of suggesting that a fellow senator is un-American and even a friend of terrorists.

Story continues below

In her character attack, Palin questions Obama's association with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground. Her reference was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were "pals" or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers' radical views and actions.

With her criticism, Palin is taking on the running mate's traditional role of attacker, said Rich Galen, a Republican strategist.

"There appears to be a newfound sense of confidence in Sarah Palin as a candidate, given her performance the other night," Galen said. "I think that they are comfortable enough with her now that she's got the standing with the electorate to take off after Obama."

Second, Palin's incendiary charge draws media and voter attention away from the worsening economy. It also comes after McCain supported a pork-laden Wall Street bailout plan in spite of conservative anger and his own misgivings.

"It's a giant changing of the subject," said Jenny Backus, a Democratic strategist. "The problem is the messenger. If you want to start throwing fire bombs, you don't send out the fluffy bunny to do it. I think people don't take Sarah Palin seriously."

The larger purpose behind Palin's broadside is to reintroduce the question of Obama's associations. Millions of voters, many of them open to being swayed to one side or the other, are starting to pay attention to an election a month away.

For the McCain campaign, that makes Obama's ties to Ayers as well as convicted felon Antoin "Tony" Rezko and the controversial minister Jeremiah Wright ripe for renewed criticism. And Palin brings a fresh voice to the argument.

Effective character attacks have come earlier in campaigns. In June 1988, Republican George H.W. Bush criticized Democrat Michael Dukakis over the furlough granted to Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who then raped a woman and stabbed her companion. Related TV ads followed in September and October.

The Vietnam-era Swift Boat veterans who attacked Democrat John Kerry's war record started in the spring of 2004 and gained traction in late summer.

"The four weeks that are left are an eternity. There's plenty of time in the campaign," said Republican strategist Joe Gaylord. "I think it is a legitimate strategy to talk about Obama and to talk about his background and who he pals around with."

Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee "palling around" with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers' day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as "not like us" is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

The fact is that when racism creeps into the discussion, it serves a purpose for McCain. As the fallout from Wright's sermons showed earlier this year, forcing Obama to abandon issues to talk about race leads to unresolved arguments about America's promise to treat all people equally.

John McCain occasionally says he looks back on decisions with regret. He has apologized for opposing a holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He has apologized for refusing to call for the removal of a Confederate flag from South Carolina's Capitol.

When the 2008 campaign is over will McCain say he regrets appeals such as Palin's? ___

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Douglass K. Daniel is a writer and editor with the Washington bureau of The Associated Press.