Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin Wins Center for Biological Diversity’s 2008 Rubber Dodo Award
“Governor Palin has waged a deceptive, dangerous, and costly battle against the polar bear,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Her position on global warming is so extreme, she makes Dick Cheney look like an Al Gore devotee.”
Congrats to Sarah on the esteemed achievement.
Comments
There’s a ‘trophy’ she truly deserves.
The momentum seems to be gathering as evidenced by this article in the LA Times by Gloria Steinem:
Subject: Steinem on Palin in LA Times
Palin: wrong woman, wrong message
Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
By Gloria Steinem
September 4, 2008
Here’s the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing — the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party — are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women — and to many men too — who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the ‘white-male-only’ sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.
But here is even better news: It won’t work. This isn’t the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.
Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton’s candidacy stood for — and that Barack Obama’s still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, ‘Somebody stole my shoes, so I’ll amputate my legs.’
This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can’t do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn’t say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden’s 37 years’ experience.
Palin has been honest about what she doesn’t know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, ‘I still can’t answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?’ When asked about Iraq, she said, ‘I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq.’
She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she’s won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain’s campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn’t know it’s about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate’s views on ‘God, guns and gays’ ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.
So let’s be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can’t tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.
Palin’s value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women’s wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves ‘abstinence-only’ programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers’ millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn’t spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
I don’t doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn’t just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn’t just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn’t just echo McCain’s pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.
So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, ‘women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership,’ so he may be voting for Palin’s husband.
Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.
Republicans may learn they can’t appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.
And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.
This could be huge.
“While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President …
The old rancher said, ‘Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.’
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was.
The old rancher said, ‘When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a post turtle.’
The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued to explain. ‘You know she didn’t get up there by herself, she doesn’t belong up there, she doesn’t know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with. “
John,
Thanks for that! Funny but wise!
I am looking forward to seeing her debate Biden. I wonder how well queenie wave and smile will do when she is asked questions by someone who is intending and educated enough to rub her nose in her messy puddles. I don’t think saing she can see Russia is going to fly when he says “Yep, you can see Russia, so can Georgia….now what?”
Seems Palin has a “pastor” problem too……
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2008/09/palins_new_pastor_problem.html
I think I could find a high school student that would give a better showing than this:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-onthemedia26-2008sep26,0,7467803.story
Wow, I’m speechless at this video from Bill O’Reilly……..
Actually, I think Caribou Barbie would be seeing more specifically Siberia from her house, not “Russia………”
If Biden is smart, he will just smile and let her sink herself.
I agree, Barb. It would be great, however, if Gwen Ifill (spelling?) would display some journalistic moxie and really grill both the Guv and the Senator on actual issues. (What a concept!) Nobody could accuse Ms. Ifill of being sexist.
Maska,
We shouldn’t be able to accuse Palin of being sexist either, but her platform would suggest otherwise. She seems to think women should smile, wave, look good, and have no right or say so with their own bodies.
I hope they do get grilled, because Palin-ike McCain- already takes too long to respond to questions…you’d think with all the stalling and looks indicating concentration that they’d have better answers!
Maybe if Palin takes long enough, she’ll run out of time to answer and we won’t be subjected to anymore of her b.s.!
I just read she is now being shown as receiving zoning aid and some questionable gifts. Maybe should should really stand behind what she says and throw herself out of office for corruption!
as I read these post all I see in most of them is intallerance and fear, a bunch of name calling and no real “honest” talk about issues, how can you ever expect to be taken serious if this is how you repesent yourselves
wow Outsider, you just described Palin. Do you take her seriously?
I don’t know where you came up with “fear”, butthe only fear I have seen is that she will end up in office and cause further destuction to our environment.
We do talk about issues. Look through the threads a bit (don’t have to look far), we get right to the ugly truth of things.
You may not agree with our stands, but you are welcome to counter them with your position anytime. We are pretty open to new ideas here.
vicki, I think Palin is the real deal, just as you think oboma is. I am willing to except some losses on the enviroment to save the rest of the county. Even though we dissagree on most of the issues here, I have no need to get into the gutter, with my remarks. I find the name calling and snide remarks childish, I was mostly comment on this thread,
I am not so sure I believe any politician is the real deal. They all lead duel lives, and at best, give the public what they think it wants to hear.
I do not have much faith at all in Plain’s integrity. I have less faith in her ability to manage not only the environment, but this country’s economy-which is on life support at present due to mistakes Palin and McCain backed.
As far as her record on environmental issues…it speaks volumes.
I personally have great issue with her making her religious beliefs part of her political agenda. I would no sooner vote for her that good ole’ Pat.
I find her to be a show piece which was placed upon a mantle in hopes of drawing attention to the fading mcCain campaign. It did, but notthat attention is growing negative. It is becoming more and more obvious by looking into Palin’s backgroung that she is not different than those politicians she boasts having wrangled out of office for this misdeeds and corrupt ways. She uses her political power to ease her way through life. Were it not for her crying ethical superiority over others, that might not have been so shameful. But to boldly throw stones while you reside in a very galss house is asking to have her reputation shredded by the shards she sends crashing down upon herself.
I think she stands for a few good things, like patriotism-well that may be it actually. But she shows little knowledge on the subject of international affairs, shows blatant disregard for all things environmental, has not the wisdom to see the effects that man has on this planet, has turned a blind eye on the obvious problem of teen-aged pregnancy (she is opposed to funding for contraception), and pretends to stand head and shoulder above the rest of us. She is the definition disaster in a national office.
I am not rolling into a gutter, and have expressed my humble opinion on several issues surrounding her.
Though I m quite sure you will disagree with my assesment, I am glad to give it.
Please know that this can all be very serious, and sometimes some comic relief helps shed light on the one fact that remains constant here…we are all capable of poking fun, and being poked at. I have been on the receiving end of that a time or two.
Life is short, and tomorrow will surely hold many problems that today cannot solve…so remember to laugh when you think you can’t and smile when it is hardest.! There is always time to be serious, but you cannot get back what time you have already given to stress.
Martin Samuel,
The London Times, 7Oct2008
“Shallow, fake… Sarah Palin is beyond parody”
“There is a time when it is necessary to take the gloves off and that time is right now, said Sarah Palin in Colorado. Interesting that she did not want the gloves off before her vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden. Oh, gloves on then. Headgear, too. Maybe some of those big shoulder pads that quarter-backs wear; and throw cushions for a softer landing. In fact, Palin and her minders could not have demanded a safer arena for debate when the opposition was within striking distance. Biden appeared with his hands tied, his intellect muted, his manner subdued, lest he should seem smarter, better informed or more competent than his opponent, a move which was inexplicably deemed undesirable. This shows how far we have come. Intelligence is now viewed as a threat. Isn’t that how Pol Pot operated?
Meanwhile, the Republican lobby put pressure on the debate moderator not to go heavy on foreign policy, perhaps fearing that Palin would repeat her view that experience in this area was linked to proximity to a coastline, and expectations were lowered so that just avoiding intellectual humiliation would be seen as victory. And it worked. She got the name of the Nato commander in Afghanistan wrong and Biden smiled politely. She pronounced nuclear the same way that Homer Simpson does and he had to find it charming. She failed to answer direct questions, while advancing a carefully moulded image as a straight-talking maverick, and it went unquestioned. Now, from a safe distance, Palin wants the gloves off. Of course she does, with no chance of instant scrutiny.
Palin is the queen of misinformation, delivered with faux folksiness as authentic as a three- dollar bill. She is not the pitbull in lipstick of popular myth; she is Deputy Dawg with a forked tongue, engaged in a war against intelligence. Those falling for this act are her collateral damage. Barack Obama did not pal around with terrorists. He did not vote to increase the tax burden on families making $42,000 a year, or vote 94 times to increase taxes. Palin’s statements on these subjects are not a reality bulletin from Main Street, Wasilla. Palin’s statements are lies. Madeline Albright did not speak of a place in Hell reserved for women who do not support other women. Palin misquoted her. Albright said help, not support. And there is no such place as Hell.
Even so, for those American women who worry that they risk damnation if they don’t vote the Republican ticket, it should be explained that eternity with a pitchfork impaled in your rear is still preferable to a vote for a politician who aided her political career by using her Down’s syndrome child to cover her daughter’s pregnancy bump. And it is at this point that we need to talk to the Democrat women considering joining Palin’s ranks and ask: what the hell is wrong with you? People were imprisoned and trampled to death by horses for this? They marched, they demonstrated, and for what? A vote cast on the basis of a Y chromosome? You go, girl. Go? Go where? Go to college? Go back to that Republican cramming camp to be told what newspapers to say you read and be fed another set of fake statistics where real knowledge and opinions should be? It is easy to parody Sarah Palin, wrote one commentator last week. No, it isn’t. It is near impossible because so much of what she says reads like a satirical script anyway. Tina Fey, the finest Palin imitator, was reduced on Saturday Night Live to using Palin’s exact words in response to a question about the bailout package last week, because they were beyond imitation.
“That’s what I say that I like every American I am speaking with we’re ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bailout, but ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, um, helping the, oh, it’s got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and, and putting it back on the right track; so healthcare reform, and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade we have we got to see trade as opportunity not as, a, a, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today we, we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity, all of those things under the umbrella of job creation, this bailout is a part of that.”
Genuine answer from potentially the second most powerful politician in the free world. How can anybody parody that?
Tina Fey is at least attempting to do the job of nailing Palin’s shallowness, her falseness, her studied populism and the way the standards and expectations of public debate have been lowered to accommodate her. Yet if there truly were this liberal media elite to which Palin makes constant reference, it would have bounced her out of the building by now. Anyone who thinks Palin’s performances since her catastrophic CBS interview have been adequate must also believe the American public are stupid. By any normal yardstick of political discourse – substance, accuracy, coherence – she is a bust.
Against Biden she was judged a success, not on what she said, but on the connection she is believed to have made with a fictional Joe Six-Pack: so those giving the thumbs-up must also believe Americans to be simple suckers for a wink, a dropped “g” on a verb, and the use of the odd folksy phrase. You betcha. Doggone it. She’s a bump on a log. Darn right.”
I found her fake southern ‘drawelle’ to be a gimmick that was transpearant. Since when does an Alaskan sound like they were raised in Mississippi? Please.
The polls and editorials I saw and heard were that she was successful at not falling on her face, like in the interviews previous. But they gave Biden the win check for the debate.
It is sad that the republican party is reduced to rating their V.P candidate’s success on wether or not she makes an idiot out of herself, as opposed to if she actually won the debate.
I have to ask though, did anyone find it impressive when she said how she was the governor of a huge state? I mean, it is also a very sparcely populated one, so how is it so different than governing Maine, or any othr small state?
More square miles? But no more people than most other states. What ever, that is like saying I am qualified to run the Walmart corporation with it’s tens of thousands of employees just because I used to manage a local carwash with three employees. It just doesn’t add up to impressive to me.
Funny how she thinks being governor is an all encompassing position which makes her ready for the possibility of being president. She doesn’t even get how the legislative branch works….wanting to expand a V.P.’s authority and duties…..doesn’t Sarah Cheney, uh, I mean Palin get it? Rhetorical question.