The Truth will prevail, But only if we Demand it from Congress!
9-11 Inside Job and Neocons Hacked 2004
By AlterNet Staff, AlterNet
Posted on September 2, 2008, Printed on September 2, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/97198/
Sarah Palin was named John McCain's vice presidential nominee just
three days ago, yet it seems that weeks have passed in terms of the
mountains of controversy it has stirred up. An overwhelming amount
of negative publicity and sometimes shocking information has come
out about her and her relatively short political career.
Choosing Palin has been called alternately a brilliant stroke that
reinforces McCain's maverick image and a desperate, irresponsible
"Hail Mary" pass in the face of an almost sure defeat in November.
The fundamental question being raised: Why Palin? True, her personal
narrative has lots of color: former fisherman, NRA hunter, mother of
five, small-town mayor, short-term governor of a state with a small
population, etc. But that does not qualify her to be a heartbeat
away from the presidency.
Anathema to Moderates, Liberals and Progressives
George Lakoff, in an accompanying article, lists some of the issues
swirling around Palin:
She is inexperienced, knowing little or nothing about foreign policy
or national issues; she is really an anti-feminist, wanting the
government to enter women's lives to block abortion, but not wanting
the government to guarantee equal pay for equal work, or provide
adequate child health coverage, or child care, or early childhood
education; she shills for the oil and gas industry on drilling; she
denies the scientific truths of global warming and evolution; she
misuses her political authority; she opposes sex education and her
daughter is pregnant; and, rather than being a maverick, she is on
the whole a radical right-wing ideologue.
Part of the shock that many are grappling with: How could a
72-year-old man with bouts of cancer choose someone who appears to
be completely unqualified to become president? Thus, McCain's age
and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his
judgment, although it may be tricky for Democrats to raise these
issues without creating some backlash.
As Democratic strategist Paul Begala notes: "It is interesting that
McCain passed over Tom Ridge, a decorated combat hero, a Cabinet
secretary and the former two-term governor of the large, complex
state of Pennsylvania; Mitt Romney, who ran a big state,
Massachusetts, a big company, Bain Capital, and a big event, the
Olympics; and Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas senator who is
knowledgeable about the military, good on television and --
obviously -- a woman."
Not Good in the Polls
Republican pollster Frank Luntz, working with the AARP, did some
focus groups of "undecided" voters and found some bad news for John
McCain:
They don't like his choice of Sarah Palin for vice president. Only
one person said Palin made him more likely to vote for McCain; about
half the 25-member group raised their hands when asked if Palin made
them less likely to vote for McCain. They had a negative impression
of Palin by a 2-1 margin ... a fact that was reinforced when they
were given hand-dials and asked to react to Palin's speech at her
first appearance with McCain on Friday -- the dials remained totally
neutral as Palin went through her heart-warming(?) biography, and
only blipped upward when she said she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere
-- which wasn't quite the truth, as we now know.
Then there was this, from a woman named Teresa, who went to the
Democratic convention as a Hillary delegate and is leaning toward
voting for McCain -- obviously the target audience for the Palin
pick: "His age didn't really bother me until he picked Palin. What
if he dies in office and leaves us with her as president? Also she
leans toward the rigid right, and I always thought he was a
moderate. ... You know, I change my mind almost every day, but right
now I'm wondering where the John McCain I really liked in 2000 went.
What happened to the moderate? This John McCain has the look of
someone who is being manipulated -- probably by Karl Rove."
A commentator to the article appearing on the Time Magazine blog
BlankSlate wrote:
Only someone in the throes of a serious mental condition could have
make a pick this astonishing. This focus group confirms the
Rasmussen Reports polling that, among undecided voters, the Palin
pick makes 6 percent more likely to vote for McCain and 31 percent
less likely to vote for McCain. About 59 percent of these undecided
voters do not think Palin is qualified to be president. It is a
stunt gone terribly amiss. And the hilarious thing is that the right
wing really believes that this is going to turn everything around.
Amazing, amazing, amazing.
Local Media Unhappy with Palin
Greg Mitchell, the editor of Editor & Publisher, checked out the
Alaska newspapers to see how they felt about their governor. He
found that they were nervous to say the least:
The pages and Web sites of the two leading papers up there have
raised all sorts of issues surrounding Palin, from her ethics
problems to general lack of readiness for this big step up. Right
now the top story on the Anchorage Daily News Web site looks at new
info in what it calls "troopergate" and opens: "Alaska's former
commissioner of public safety says Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain's
pick to be vice president, personally talked to him on two occasions
about a state trooper who was locked in a bitter custody battle with
the governor's sister."
A reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, Gregg Erickson, even did an
online chat with the Washington Post in which he revealed that
Palin's approval rating in the state was not the much-touted 80
percent, but rather 65 percent and sinking -- and that among
journalists who followed her, it might be in the "teens." He added:
"I have a hard time seeing how her qualifications stack up against
the duties and responsibilities of being president."
His paper found a number of leading Republican officeholders in the
state who mocked Palin's qualifications. "She's not prepared to be
governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or
president?" said Lyda Green, the president of the state senate, a
Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's
done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"
And from the editorial in the Anchorage Daily News: "It's stunning
that someone with so little national and international experience
might be heartbeat away from the presidency."
What's Next?
With the Republican National Convention delayed by Hurricane
Gustav's arrival on U.S. shores, there must be lots of discussion
and soul-searching going on in Republican circles as to how the
Palin candidacy will hold up over the next two months. The biggest
question perhaps is whether the McCain inner circle, perhaps in a
major concession to the extreme right wing, which hasn't been
friendly to McCain, has made a drastic error to woo its support. Or
in fact, as some would suggest, McCain is crazy like a fox. Under
that scenario, Palin will weather the initial avalanche of negative
publicity that paints her far outside of the political mainstream,
and she undermines many of McCain's efforts to appear to be the
maverick moderate. Palin becomes a strong campaigner, and her
extreme positions get lost in her efforts to support McCain.
AlterNet editors have collected a list some of the major issues that
are bubbling up about Palin. Here are our top 10 most disturbing
facts, rumors and impressions of Sarah Palin, gathered in the past
two days:
1: Palin supports gunning down wolves from planes
Sarah Palin is no friend of wildlife. And let's not blame this on
her being a hunter. Plenty of subsistence hunters respect animals.
But Palin reportedly came out against legislation introduced by Rep.
George Miller, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee,
that would "end Alaska's policy of allowing people to shoot wolves
from airplanes."
Miller is among a large number of folks who believe the practice is
not only cruel, it's unnecessary (proponents say it is to keep
caribou and moose numbers up for other hunters) and a violation of
federal law banning airborne hunting.
Palin has also tried to make gunning down wolves (and even bears)
from the air easier and financially rewarding.
As the Huffington Post reported:
Last year, the state offered a $150 bounty as an incentive for
pilots and aerial gunners to kill more wolves. And leading up to
this week's statewide vote on Measure 2 to stop the aerial shooting
of wolves and bears, Palin's Board of Game spent $400,000 of public
money on brochures and radio ads to influence the election. She not
only took an inhumane and unsporting position at odds with the
principles of wildlife management and fair chase, but did it in an
undemocratic and underhanded way.
Palin has been said to have a "failing record" on wildlife --
including being in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge -- and she has opposed efforts to protect beluga whales in
the Cook Inlet (whose numbers have dropped to just 375) because it
might adversely affect the oil and gas industries.
2: Palin doesn't believe global warming is man-made
At every campaign stop, McCain says that human activity is the
driving force behind global climate change.
For the first time in its history, the GOP caught up to the rest of
the planet by accepting the reality of man-made climate change in
its 2008 platform. It reads, "The same human activity that has
brought freedom and opportunity to billions has also increased the
amount of carbon in the atmosphere," and "increased atmospheric
carbon has a warming effect on the earth."
But Palin is among the conservative fringe that rejects the
scientific consensus. According to the Washington Post, "Sarah Palin
told voters there she wasn't sure climate change wasn't simply part
of a natural warming cycle." Palin told the conservative Web site
NewsMax, "I'm not one ... who would attribute it to being man-made."
This may help explain why Palin announced this year that Alaska
would sue the Department of the Interior over its decision to add
the polar bear to its list of endangered species. If people are
"over-reacting" to global warming, as Palin has said, then the polar
bears' rapidly dwindling habitat should be fine and those bears can
fend for themselves. As Palin explained in an op-ed in the New York
Times, "I strongly believe that adding them to the list is the wrong
move at this time. ... The Center for Biological Diversity, an
environmental group, has argued that global warming and the
reduction of polar ice severely threatens the bears' habitat and
their existence. In fact, there is insufficient evidence that polar
bears are in danger of becoming extinct within the foreseeable
future."
3: Palin is the candidate of powerful far right-wing cabal; her
nomination seals their support for the little-wanted McCain
As Max Blumenthal reports:
Last week ... the country's most influential conservatives met
quietly in Minneapolis to get to know Sarah Palin. The assembled
were members of the Council for National Policy, an ultra-secretive
cabal that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top
conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy.
CNP members have included Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Grover
Norquist, Tim LaHaye and Paul Weyrich. At a secret 2000 meeting of
the CNP, George W. Bush promised to nominate only pro-life judges.
... This year, thanks to Sarah Palin's selection, the movement may
have finally aligned itself behind the campaign of John McCain.
What happened at the secret meeting was the topic of online
commentary by one of its attendees, top Dobson/Focus on the Family
flack Tom Minnery.
Minnery described the mood as CNP members watched Palin: "And I have
to tell you, that speech -- people were on their seats applauding,
cheering, yelling ... That room in Minneapolis watching on the
television screen was electrified. I have not seen anything like it
in a long time."
Minnery added that his boss, Dobson, has yearned for a conservative
female leader like Margaret Thatcher to emerge on the American
scene. And while Palin is no Thatcher, "she has not rejected the
feminine side of who she is, so for that reason, she will be
attractive to conservative voters."
The members of the Council for National Policy are the hidden hand
behind McCain's Palin pick. With her selection, the Republican
nominee is suddenly -- and unexpectedly -- assured of the support of
a movement that once opposed his candidacy with all its might. Case
in point: While Dobson once said he could "never" vote for McCain,
he issued a statement last week hailing Palin as an "outstanding"
choice. If Dobson's enthusiasm for Palin is any indication, he may
soon emerge from his bunker in Colorado Springs to endorse McCain,
providing the Republican nominee with the support of the Christian
right's single most influential figure.
4: Palin staunchly opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and
incest
Sarah Palin is strongly anti-choice, but she has taken her views on
abortion to an extreme that may prove unpopular even among
Republicans. Palin only supports abortion if the mother's health is
in danger. Rape and incest don't register with her as legitimate
reasons to honor a woman's right to choose -- not even if the women
is her own daughter. In 2006, when her daughter Bristol was only 14,
Palin said that she would not support choice even if her daughter
were raped.
She made that announcement at a time when Alaska was plagued with a
rape rate more than twice as high as the national average.
"This is absolutely outside the mainstream. Even in South Dakota
they rejected (outlawing abortion in cases of rape) in '06 because
it has gone too far and everyone can identify that in a case of rape
or incest a woman should have the chance to make the decision with
their family or doctor," Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro Choice
America, told the Huffington Post. "Women voters are going to reject
both her and John McCain, and I think we see it specifically because
we reach out to Republicans and independent pro-choice women. They
live in the suburbs and exurbs. They are very much part of the
mainstream America. And woman in general will reject that ticket."
5: Palin takes unnecessary risks with the health of her own child,
supports failed abstinence-only programs
Amid the now-disproven rumors that the Palins' fifth child, Trig,
was the son of her 17-year-old daughter, are reports that Sarah
Palin seriously endangered her child during labor. Palin was in
Texas delivering a speech when she allegedly began to leak amniotic
fluid. Instead of immediately checking into a hospital, Palin
finished her speech. She then flew to Anchorage, Alaska, where she
drove to a hospital 45 minutes away to give birth.
Palin's apparent need to rush to Alaska for the delivery helped fuel
rumors she was faking the pregnancy to cover for her daughter. Now
that the story has proven to be false, it nevertheless raises
questions about Palin's judgment. In this case, she seems to have
taken unnecessary risks in the delivery of her child. As the past
eight years have shown us, the last thing we need is a reckless
politician in office.
And speaking of unsound judgment, her daughter's pregnancy
demonstrates seriously poor decision making -- not on the part of
Bristol but by conservative politicians like Palin and McCain, who
have decided that the best way to ensure kids learn about sex is by
depriving them of information. Palin is a firm supporter of
abstinence-until-marriage sex education, despite the fact that
numerous studies show that abstinence-only sex education does not
delay sexual activity and may in fact lead to unsafe sex practices.
It would be cheap to trade on the irony that a firm backer of
abstinence-only sex ed is now the mother of a pregnant teen. But it
does need to be noted that many pregnant teens do not have the
financial and emotional supports that Bristol appears lucky to have.
Palin's abstinence-only stance on sex ed, like McCain's, is wrong
because it puts everyone's kids in danger.
6: Palin is under investigation for allegedly abusing her power as
governor to help her sister in a messy divorce
Politicians are supposed to recuse themselves, or step away from
matters, when there is a conflict of interest. Yet according to the
Washington Post and other news outlets, Palin "has been embroiled in
a bitter family feud that has drawn in the state police, the
attorney general, the governor's office and the state legislature."
In fact, a "bipartisan state legislative panel has appointed a
special prosecutor to investigate whether Palin improperly brought
the family fight into the governor's office," the newspaper reports.
At issue is whether Palin and her staff pressured and then fired the
public safety commissioner, Walter Monegan, because he did not fire
Palin's ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, from the state police after
he apparently threatened her sister and other family members,
including her father, in 2005. The Post reported that Palin heard
Wooten "threatening to kill their father" for helping his daughter
obtain a divorce. Palin, who did not call the police that day, later
reported the incident.
Upon becoming governor, Palin and her staff asked Monegan to fire
Wooten, but the state's top cop replied that the matter had been
investigated and had been closed. In July, Palin fired Monegan. The
state legislature subsequently launched an investigation into
whether she had improperly used her office's power. A report is due
in October.
The so-called troopergate incident apparently is not the first time
Palin fired police officers for failing to follow her wishes,
according to Andrew Sullivan at TheAtlantic.com.
Sullivan cites an Anchorage Daily News report from December 1997
when, as mayor of Wasilla, Palin faced a recall "in response to
Palin's controversial firing of Police Chief Irl Stambaugh."
Sullivan reports that Stambaugh and another city official, the
library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, were fired for "not fully
supporting her efforts to govern."
"Both had publicly supported Palin's opponent, longtime mayor John
Stein, during the campaign last fall," the Sullivan report said.
"When she was elected, Palin questioned their loyalty and even
initially asked for their resignations."
7: Palin lied about her plans for the "Bridge to Nowhere"
When accepting the GOP's nomination for vice president, Sarah Palin
took credit for killing a controversial bridge project in Alaska
dubbed the Bridge to Nowhere: "I told Congress, 'Thanks but no
thanks on that Bridge to Nowhere,'" she exclaimed to a cheering
audience in Ohio. But it turns out that her relationship with the
bridge wasn't that cut and dry.
The Gravina Island Bridge would have linked the town of Ketchikan to
its international airport, which is extremely difficult to get to by
car, as it is on Gravina Island (there is currently a ferry in place
to shuttle people to and fro). The bridge was to be federally funded
but was quickly labeled a pork barrel project by many conservatives
in Washington, including McCain.
So maybe it was an eagerness to please her new boss that caused
Palin to lie to the American people right out of the gate. Who can
say? But thanks to reports from the Washington Post and the
Anchorage Daily News, we are now aware that that is exactly what she
has done.
It turns out that initially Palin was a big fan of the bridge --
although it could be that Palin wasn't so much a fan of the bridge
as she was a fan of telling Ketchikan's 14,000 residents that she
was while on the campaign trail in September 2006. "She was the only
candidate who was saying, 'We're going to build that bridge,'"
former governor Tony Knowles, a Democrat who lost to Palin in the
2006 general election, told the Washington Post. "She's taking a
position now which certainly wasn't what it was when she was
campaigning."
After a long fight about how much federal assistance should be
granted to Alaska for the bridge, Congress decided to grant Alaska a
lump sum of $454 million to spend on general infrastructure
projects, instead of specifically earmarking federal money for what
had become a very unpopular project.
Even then, though, there where plans for the bridge. It wasn't until
September 2007, a year after her promise to the people of Ketchikan,
that Palin finally shut down the project, citing overspending. As
Keith Ashdown, an investigator with Taxpayers for Common Sense, told
the Post: "She made the final decision to kill a very bad project,
so she deserves credit for that. But she didn't do it as an
ideological opponent of earmarks. She did it as someone who had to
balance the books."
Palin lied to her constituents about getting the bridge done, and
now she is lying to the American people about what her position was
in the first place. It looks like Palin isn't the type of politician
who would clean up Washington after all.
8: A so-called political reformer, Palin has big money ties to
Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who has been indicted for political
corruption
Former Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil was known for
political witticisms, including "Dance with the one that brung ya."
That refers to being loyal to your supporters through the thick and
thin of political life. According to the Washington Post's The
Trail, from 2003 to 2005, Palin was one of three directors of "Ted
Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that could
raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. A "527" refers to a
section of the tax code governing such campaign groups.
"Palin, an anti-corruption crusader in Alaska, had called on Stevens
to be open about the issues behind the investigation," the Post
reported. "But she also held a joint news conference with him in
July, before he was indicted, to make clear she had not abandoned
him politically."
Stevens, who is running for re-election this year, was inducted by a
federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., this summer for failing to
disclose sizeable gifts from a now-defunct Alaskan oil company,
including assistance with renovating a vacation home.
The Post report said that Stevens agreed to lend his name to the
campaign committee, but it did not say how much was raised or how
the funds were distributed. A report on the group at the
CampaignMoney.com Web site also does not list funds raised or spent.
It is not inconsistent that Palin would have been able to muscle
major oil companies into making financial concessions for the
benefit of Alaskans as governor -- and would have raised funds from
those same corporations, the largest doing business in the state, as
a director of a 527 group. Such clout is part and parcel of modern
campaigns and governing. While much remains unknown about Palin's
role as a fundraiser for Steven's 527, her role as a white knight
reformer of Alaskan politics has some shades of gray -- as anyone
who follows money in politics in small states will affirm.
9: Palin exploits her son's Iraq service for political gain
Taking the stage alongside John McCain last Friday, it took no time
for Palin to play the 9/11 card. "On September 11th of last year,"
she announced, "our son enlisted in the United States Army. … And on
September 11th, Track will deploy to Iraq. ... And Todd and I are so
proud of him and of all the fine men and women serving this
country."
Palin's public pride in her son served a purpose, one the media
dutifully picked up. As campaign operatives rebuffed charges that
Palin is unprepared, they reached for her son's military service.
Confronted with her admission that she has "not paid much attention"
to the war in Iraq, one guest told Hardball's Chris Matthews that,
as a military mother, "she pays attention to it with her heart."
Maybe so, but Palin is hardly alone. The 2008 presidential race is
remarkable in that three of the candidates have sons in the active
duty military. But standard practice seems to be not to discuss it
publicly.
Take John McCain. His son Jimmy returned from Iraq in February. "We
have two sons in the military," he told Sean Hannity, "but we never
talk about it, if that's all right." Similarly, Joe Biden, whose son
Beau will deploy to Iraq in October, has kept uncharacteristically
quiet about it.
So what gives Palin license to wear her son's military service on
her sleeve?
Simple: She's a mom.
Palin's uber-motherhood is already the stuff of legend and
controversy. With five children, including an infant with Down
syndrome, now she's dealing with her teenage daughter's pregnancy.
In a game that has traditionally shredded male candidates on the
slightest hint that they are not tough enough for the job, Palin is
the Right's version of what a strong woman should look like. That
she'd be given a pass for exploiting her son's military service on
emotional grounds is one thing. For her campaign to construe it as
somehow making her more qualified to be commander-in-chief is
absurd.
10: During her time as mayor, Palin drove a town deep into debt
According to Politico, "Palin, who portrays herself as a fiscal
conservative, racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt as
mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla. That amounts to $3,000 per
resident. She argues that the debt was needed to fund improvements."
© 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/97198/
