On the Other Hand..

Bardiac cheers us up.

See now? It's not all darkness and evil out there.

Racist? Palin Racist?

How can Palin be racist, her supporters are claiming, when she married a guy who is half-Innuit?


I'm reminded of Sheriff Harry Lee, our guy in Jefferson Parish, who ordered his officers to arrest any black men who were seen on the streets of Kenner, Louisiana, on the obvious (to him) cause that no black man has any legitimate business walking the streets of that (mainly white) neighborhood. When he was called on the racism of this order, he said, "How can I be racist? I'm Chinese!"


There's one source, which you might have heard already, which says that Palin, having heard that Obama won the nomination, remarked, "So Sambo beat the bitch!" I've held off blogging about that one; but here's this one: Palin only has white folks on her staff (white folks she went to high school with, btw): when confronted with this?


While meeting with Black leaders concerning the absence of any African Americans on her staff, Gov. Palin responded that she doesn’t have to hire any Blacks and was not intending to hire any.


This makes me even more cranky than it might because I've been reading this book, Slavery By Another Name, which is utterly horrifying --Douglas Blackmon writes about what happened to the freed slaves and then black men in America after the Civil War, up to 1930s/1940s, which is, essentially, they were stolen from their communities, their jobs, their towns, convicted on invented charges (changing jobs without permissing, vagrancy, "loud talking") and then "leased" to mines, public works projects, U.S. Steel, along with various large landowners -- leased as in sold them as contract labor.

White-owned corporations, white landowners, white America, abetted by the white justice system, right up through the 1940s, profitted enormously off the stolen labor of black America: not black American criminals: black Americans that white Americans thieved into forced labor and then worked to death in a system as evil as anything the Nazis dreamed up (in the mines and camps of U.S. Steel and Tennessee Coal and Oil, as many as half the contract laborers died, according the meticulous records kept -- records, by the way, that record whippings given and feet and legs amputated due to the blood poisoning from the leg irons and various chain "punishments" inflicted on obdurated contract laborers.)

When I read this sort of thing, and this, where Brad Hicks talks about the real purpose of lynching (not to kill "uppity" black folks, but to terrorize blacks into selling their land to whites -- and yes, historical evidence exists to support this theory), and then I hear Palin and McSame and their crew, I don't have to hire any of them and I don't intend to, and when I look at this election, again? Again we're going to put these evil people in power?

Again, America?

What About That Book Banning?

It's pretty clear that Palin did not try to ban that list of books that's been floating around the internet.

On the other hand, if you've been watching Fox News and CNN, the paid dogs of the Republican Camp have now begun barking about how Palin never ever tried even thought about banning books.  And out on the campaign trail she's beaming her Palin smirk and saying it's an "old wives tale!"  Me ban books!  Never!

Because you know these Fundamentalist Christians!  They love Free Thought!  Honest!

Here, over at Kevin Drum's site, he gives us the lowdown, which is that, no, she never managed to get the local librarian to actually cooperate (cause, you know, most librarians are tough cookies about issues like banning books, if you have ever actually met a librarian) but that doesn't mean Sarah Barracuda didn't try.

Among the books she, honest, never ever thought about banning?  Daddy's Roommate, Go Ask Alice, and Pastor Am I Gay.  Also, when her charming Fundamentalist church could not get the librarian to yank these books from the shelves, they did what the local churches here in Pork Smith have been known to do: disappeared them from the shelves!  Because, you know, God wants you to commit theft if it's for Jesus.

Hmm

Here's AmericaBlog's take on the Rapekit scandal, which basically argues that Palin required rape victims to pay for their own rape kits because to do otherwise would, in fact, encourage them to report the rapes, which would encourage them to acknowledge they had been raped, which might, in fact, lead to them possibly aborting the rapist's child.

This woman is one sick puppy.

Update on Rapekits

Well, now -- according to information uncovered by Huffington Post, Palin not only was on watch while her Sheriff was charging rape victims for their rape kits: Palin not only knew her Sheriff, the one she hired, was charging victims for their rape kits: Palin not only signed off on the policy of charging victims for their rape kits: Palin very well may have instituted the policy in Wasilla of charging victims for their rape kits.

Mind you, it was legal in Alaska to charge victims for their rape kits (as it apparently also is in NC and various other states) but previous to Ms. Sarah Palin's tenure no one was such a horrible person to think that was an appropriate action.

Really.  Seriously.  Fuck's sake.  What sort of evil heart does a human being have to have to think that's right action?

And we want her to quite possibly lead our nation?

Update:

This is from the USA Today article on the Rapekit-Gate:

"In 2000 there were 497 rapes reported in Alaska...That's a rate of 79.3 per 100,000 residents, the highest in the nation."  Which, why wouldn't the state have the highest in the nation, with this attitude toward rape?  Ms. Palin believes (a) a woman should have to bear the child of her rapist and (b) should have to bear the costs of prosecuting that rapist if she's bold and brave enough to bring charges against him.  What sort of message is she sending to the potential rapist in her state?  She's made it legal to shoot wolves from the air; she's all but made it open season on women, too.  Patriarchy much?

And, yes, Alaska wasn't the only place this was going on -- which was why Congress passed a law requiring states to provide rape kits free of charge to the victims in 2005.  Guess who was a co-sponsor of that bill?  Guess who was not? Yes, that would be Obama for the former, and our buddy McCain for the latter.

Republicans: We Support the Culture of Rape!

My Man Obama

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

Go read this.

Watch the video. This is who should be President. Why is this contest even close?

Hey, it's just a word

You know, uppity -- not a racist word!

Just ask them white guys from Georgia. They'll explain it all to you.

Christ

Not that it will matter, since no one cares what the Right does, but look at this: while Palin was mayor of Wasilla? If a woman was raped there, and reported the rape? The city would charge her for the forensic kit.

Her own fault, after all, for leaving the house while female. Who else should pay? The good pure abstinent Christian citizens? I think not!

Deja vu all over again, or I'm Depressed

2000. 2004. 2008?

Crap, I hope not. If this country is stupid enough to buy these lies one more time -- how can we be? I thought, no. Not after Bush. Not after Bush AGAIN. Not after Bush lied and tortured and destroyed their ecosystem and stripped away their civil rights and destroyed the economy and took their jobs and murdered their children and put them in a war which now even most of them can see is stupid and useless, not to mention criminal, now, I said, now, surely this time--

But no. Dance a shiny puppet in front of them who is spitting pretty words (Country first! America Great! Liberals Bad! You Rock!) and that's it.

You'll never go broke, as the man said.

Republican America

Here's their country: the way they like it. Over on Althouse they were cheering this shit. McCain gets in, this is how they'll run the country for all of us.

Yet More Palin!!

The hits keep rolling in!!

From a 2006 Eagle Forum candidate questionnaire:

Q: Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance?  Why or Why not?

Sarah Palin: Not on your life.  If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me.

(Via Uggabugga)

More Palin

Urk:

Before she was elected governor, she was mayor of a tiny Anchorage suburb, where[...]she also sought to have books banned from the local library and threatened to fire the librarian.

Can't we declare this race over now?

(mr. delagar wonders when the naked photos of Palin will appear.)

Palin and Sex Ed

Some have been claiming that Palin is okay with using contraception -- um, no.

Here's a post on her actual positions, including that one.

(I suppose it could be possible that she's fine with her children using it -- she just doesn't want anyone else to have access to it. I've heard there are compassionate conservatives around like that.)

(This is OT, but also adorable. Someone tell me again how thoroughly McCain vetted this candidate?)

We Don't Need No Sex Education

Okay, well:

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign...

I just seriously don't even know what to say about this.

The problem obviously isn't her having the kid -- I'm pro-choice.  She's a woman, even if she's 17, and I'm hoping the decision was left up to her (I'll keep my doubts on that score to myself).

The problem is -- five months pregnant? How are we just now dealing with this?  Why is Bristol afraid to tell her parents about this before now?  What kind of family values do we have in this house?  What kind of judgment have we been teaching our kids?  Also, how's this seventeen year old not being taught about birth control? (Or is that something Ms. Sarah Feminist for Life Palin also doesn't believe in?  Was Bristol supposed to Just Say No?  Did she get the Abstinence Only Sex-Ed?)  

Also, what kind of tool is John McCain, who claims he knew about Bristol's pregnancy (yeah, I believe it too) and chose Palin anyway.

I could go on, but I'll leave further objections to the class.

Gustav

My family is out & safe; my brother and SIL with the new baby and the newly refurbished house in Gentily (they just paid off the Home Depot credit cards with the Road Home check) are biting their nails as they watch the storm track in.  Those new levees don't look good, I hear.  Here's hoping they hold.