Day: September 8, 2008
Sarah Palin’s Secret E-Mails
There’s yet another potential scandal dogging Gov. Sarah Palin as she continues to avoid speaking to the media. Seems she is refusing to release about 1,100 e-mails between herself and her aides that a Republican activist claims violate ethics and hiring rules. Of course, Palin and her cronies are crying “executive privilege,” but what is undermining that argument is that the governor’s husband Todd Palin was copied on many of the e-mails. Since he has no position in state government, but is just another upstanding Alaskan, the argument for privilege is moot.
But the real reason the e-mails are being withheld is likely because they contain a whole lotta wrongdoing that might further tarnish Palin’s halo:
The list of confidential emails includes a number of communications related to the Public Safety Employees Association, a union for the state’s police officers and state troopers, and the headings refer to PSEA ads and a “PR campaign.” Many of these PSEA-related emails were CC’ed to Todd Palin—and were also withheld under the deliberative process and executive privileges. (Recently, John Cyr, the PSEA executive director, told The Washington Post that Sarah Palin held a grudge against the state troopers and held down their salaries and other funding because her ex-brother-in-law-the-trooper had not been fired.) A separate email sent from Frye to Bailey and Todd Palin and headed “I may be in trouble here guys” was withheld because it involves a personnel matter. In April, a series of emails with the subject line “from Sheila Toomey” zipped between Sarah Palin, Bailey, Frye, other Palin aides, and Todd Palin. Toomey writes the “Alaska Ear” political gossip column for the Anchorage Daily News. These emails were also withheld under the deliberative process and executive privileges. And a string of emails titled “Racism on the Radio” that went back and forth between Governor Palin and her aides was blocked from release on the same grounds.
Andreé McLeod, the person who originally requested the e-mails and who used to work for Palin in Alaska government, is continuing her efforts to shake loose the secret e-mails:
“I’ve known Sarah for years, ” says McLeod, who moved to Alaska from New York in 1978. “When the finger is pointed at somebody else, she’s all for accountability. When it’s pointing at her, it’s different. Sarah Palin was elected on the basis of providing open and honest government. She has failed miserably.”
“Executive privilege?” Withholding e-mails? Sounds like Palin subscribes to the Cheney School of Vice President (emphasis on the “vice”).
Dick Cheney with Lipstick
Double McSame Dick Cheney took a moment off from his European tour to offer his opinion about his prospective replacement, Sarah Palin:
“I thought her appearance at (the) convention was superb. I watched that with great interest. I loved some of her lines: ‘What was the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? It’s lipstick,'” he told reporters…
“I think she is a good candidate and I don’t see any reason why she can’t be an effective vice president,” he said.
Cheney should be thrilled with the choice of Palin for the ticket. Ironically, he and Palin appear to be more similar in character and ideology than the men who were on John McCain’s short list, including Joe Lieberman, Tom Ridge, Tim Pawlenty or even Mitt Romney.
This is not just about the fact that Cheney and Palin both wear glasses, confuse sarcasm with humor and like to hunt, they have some fundamentally frightening traits in common:
McCain’s Economic Non-Plan (Just Do What Bush Did) Is a Disaster
If you think the economy is bad now, just wait, according to the Daytona News-Journal. And if you want to make it unimaginably bad, vote for McCain.
On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office will release its summer update to the budget and economic outlook. The report will include grim numbers that aren’t being talked about much on the campaign trail, including a budget deficit near or beyond the record $412.7 billion deficit recorded in 2004…
How does McCain intend change that helps 15 million unemployed and underemployed Americans when his economic plan not only adopts Bush’s policies, but digs the hole deeper?Unemployment gets the headlines. But deficits matter just as much in the long run. When they’re small, the government has more room to borrow and smaller payments to finance the debt. Interest rates can go down…allowing businesses to invest more and consumers to buy more on credit.
..When deficits balloon, everything eventually goes in reverse. Interest rates rise to finance the deficit, and auto loans, mortgages, credit cards, college loans and business investments all become more expensive to finance.
The problem with the job losses of the past eight months is that they happened before the effects of much larger deficits take their toll. That doesn’t speak hopefully of the future when, by the White House’s estimate, the next president will inherit a $500 billion deficit.
…John McCain’s plan is sheer folly: Make the Bush tax cuts permanent, and cut taxes and reduce federal revenue even more by abolishing the Alternative Minimum Tax, reducing the corporate tax and doubling the child tax credit. That’s a recipe for trillion-dollar deficits on top of a national debt approaching $10 trillion.
One thing is clear. President Bush’s economic policies failed. The tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 did not produce the promised economic growth. Growth in Bush’s eight years did not produce the promised jobs. It did not lift wages. After inflation, household income has fallen below 2000 levels despite the few years of economic growth between the 2001 and 2008 recessions. Artificially lowering interest rates boosted the housing market artificially, leading to a very real crash. Changing Washington would be nice. But how does McCain intend change that helps 15 million unemployed and underemployed Americans when his economic plan not only adopts Bush’s policies, but digs the hole deeper?
Georgia GOP Rep. Lynn Westmoreland Outs Himself As a Racist
Rep. Westmoreland, who co-sponsored a bill to post the 10 Commandments in the Senate and House, can’t recite the Decaloguge. (Transcript below.)
Any notion that the segregationist mindset died with former N.C. Sen. Jesse Helms this summer should be dispelled with news that in an interview with the The Hill newspaper in Washington last week, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia referred to Michelle and Barack Obama as “uppity“:
“I’ve never heard that term used in a racially derogatory sense.”
– Rep. Westmoreland
Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.
“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said.
Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”
Republican have been using the label “elitist” to describe Obama as a codeword for “uppity” throughout the primary season.
As if more proof were needed that Westmoreland is not only an old-fashioned hater and a class A dumbass, now he is denying he knew that “uppity” is a epithet historically used by bigots to refer to African-Americans who dare to try to rise above servitude:
