THE TWO FACES OF SARAH PALIN

When John McLame named his choice for Veep, I made a quiet little vow to myself that I would follow Obama’s dictate to keep personal issues out of the voting question. I still agree with that dictum, and will continue to do my best to abide by it.

The problem I have with Palin is not what she says or what she does. It is that the two are so often so far apart. It is also that she doesn’t seem to learn from the lessons life puts before her and adjust her approach accordingly.

For instance, I don’t care at whether her daughter has premarital sex. I don’t even care whether or not she gets pregnant as a result. What I care about is that Palin herself continues to insist that abstinence is the only viable method of preventing extramarital pregnancy. Studies show that not only does abstinence not work as a means of preventing extramarital pregnancy, but it increases the chances for the unhappy little accident because its practitioners are not prepared when the passion of the moment sweeps away their restraint.

Palin has a clear example of that right in her own family and refuses to recognize it for the sign and symptom it is of a problem that requires more than a single answer solution. Kind of reminds me of somebody else’s approach to everything – Stay the course, Sarah. What change is there in that?

Well, stay the course, that is, until the pressure builds up to the point where the course is no longer politically viable as in the case of the famous bridge to nowhere. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122090791901411709.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

While Palin claims she told Congress “Thanks, but no thanks”, everyone now knows that she first lobbied for the bridge then kept the money when Congress ultimately withdrew support for the project. They never built the bridge, but they are right now spending $27,000,000 building a gravel access road to the site where the bridge would have been.

Sounds to me kind of like claiming you don’t want a war while you are working your butt off behind the scenes to build a false case for starting one. What change is there in that?

McLame/Palin keep pounding the podium about how they will bring change to Washington, then espousing issues like drilling for more oil, continuing the war in Iraq, and making the Bush tax cuts permanent. That sounds about as much like change to me as the Republican records sounds like fiscal conservatism. Take a look at the difference in national debt levels between Republican and Democratic administrations:

National Debt:
Carter $85 Billion
Reagan $252 Billion
Bush1 $399 Billion
Clinton $18 Billion
Bush2 $596 Billion (not counting off books Iraq War debt in the trillions).
Source U.S. Treasury-Bureau of Public Debt.

The bottom line for me is that I am sick to death of double talking politicians. And, yes, I agree with those on the right who point to Democratic double-talk. I abhor it, too, but beneath that bottom line is the one underlined by that debt picture in the little table above. The ultimate bottom line is that the little guy does better when the Democrats are pulling their shenanigans than when the Republicans are pulling theirs, and, being a little guy myself, I am for him.

So when it comes to change in Washington, D.C. this year, I think anyone who advocates for any change other than a change of the party in control is acting the fool.

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR