Weekly Roundup, June 11-17, 2012

by Blueberry T

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Palin to Give Half-Baked Speech

The irony of inviting Sarah Palin to speak before a convention of dairy and bakery professionals was not lost on our friend Kevin at The Midnight Review.  His post revisits one of Sarah Palin’s many “gates” – this one “Dairygate,” which is the scandal that took place when Sarah Palin fired the state board that oversaw the Matanuska Maid Dairy and appointed her cronies to run it (into the ground) at taxpayer expense.  Those that Palin appointed had no experience running a dairy, but did have close ties to the few dairies still operating in Alaska.  Palin ensured that an initial $600,000 payment plus more to follow would continue flowing to the dairies.  The story is complicated, but can be boiled down to a diversion of taxpayer dollars to a few well-connected people, a staggering conflict of interest and breathtaking mismanagement, which continues under Palin’s successor.  When Palin talks about “crony capitalism,” this is where she learned all about it and became a master practitioner.  As we’ll see later in the week, her crony capitalism did not end with Dairygate; she applied the lessons learned to the gas pipeline deal, at even higher cost to Alaska.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Bristol Palin Sued

Patrick had the scoop last year, showing that Bristol Palin had bought a house in Wasilla two months before she claimed that a confrontation in a bar in LA played a key role in her decision to move back to Alaska.  [BBT:  this means she was planning to buy in AK months before the deal was finalized.]  Now, the guy in the confrontation, Stephen Hanks, is suing her and his suit refers to the info that Patrick published.  He also claims that the widespread publicity about the bar incident damaged him, and says that he never signed any waivers allowing him to be filmed.  While Hanks is not beyond reproach here, it is somewhat refreshing to see someone fighting back against the Palins’ bullying behavior and calling them out on their lies.  Several readers expressed some skepticism about the whole bar scene, which seemed staged to them, so time will tell how this episode of the unending Palin soap opera will end.  Having said that, it’s great to  debunk another myth about poor-little-victim-Bristol, who is as fake and mentally twisted as her mother. 

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Palin Urges Bloggers to “Keep on Telling the Truth.” Okay, then!

Sarah Palin has a long history of animus toward bloggers, accusing us of hanging out in our pajamas in our parents’ basements makin’ stuff up.  Now, all of a sudden, she advises us to keep on telling the truth. Well, okay, then, we will!!!  The truth is, she is an utter fraud and hypocrite, a mentally unstable narcissist who manipulates and uses people (especially her own children) and is highly vindictive, and whose persona, accent, hair and boobs are all fake, and who did not give birth to Trig, and…  Oh, she didn’t mean us? ;-)  Kathleen’s post highlights the subtle little twist where Palin implies that the MSM has accused her of not birthing Trig, when the MSM has actually helped her cover up the story.  My small glimmer of hope is that someday, she’ll piss someone in the MSM off enough that he/she will stop covering for her. 

The post also includes an important update by Patrick on Palin’s “crony capitalism” in spades – as if Dairygate were not damning enough, here is the story of AGIA and how Palin personally intervened in negotiations about the pipeline, after having been repeatedly advised not to do so.  She was very involved in steering the contract to TransCanada, whose lobbyists were closely tied to Palin’s administration.  This was $500M to TransCanada for help with regulatory and permitting issues, and did not require or ensure that the pipeline would ever be built.  That is not pocket change (neither was Dairygate).  More utter hypocrisy from the Lady of the Dead Lake. 

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Lesson Unlearned: The Port Arthur Massacre

Sunnyjane offers another excellent post on the subject of gun control.   (Here is an earlier post she wrote on the subject.)  Her new post revisits a horrific tragedy that took place in Australia in 1996, when a gunman killed 35 people and wounded 21 in a shooting spree with a semi-automatic rifle.  Australia was left in a state of horror and grief.  It also experienced an initial effort by the gun lobby to prevent more restrictive gun control laws.  However, rather than being manipulated or cowed by the gun lobby, people saw the gun lobby position as extreme, and Australia enacted very tough gun control legislation and a buy-back program that took 643,000 weapons out of circulation.  Australia also has a no-nonsense approach to the glamorization of guns.  Imagine if the U.S. could enact sensible controls on guns, as even many gun owners support – it is likely that Tucson, or Virginia Tech, or Columbine, or many of the killings that happen daily throughout America could be averted.  The Australians had it right – the gun lobby is made up of extremists – but here in the U.S., unfortunately, they control Congress, and all GOP candidates have to pander to the gun lobby (including Mitt, who hunts "varmints.")

Some Comments and Links:

PalinStuff:  - Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with old nonsense. This day is all that is
good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Cheeriogirl posted this:  Someone needs to tell Mitt, it's--- "by the people" NOT  "buy the people". ^JustDon'tGetIt

Psalm023:  It's just strange to watch another human being that has severe issues be used and exploited on their own reality tv program…  Shows that use little judgment and place young people with emotional problems in front of a screen pretending to do reality are messing with people's minds.  When viewers then scorn and criticize, and a lawsuit is filed against the show and Bristol,  a person like Bristol would be taking any failure or criticism about the show as an intimate personal attack, which just increases the self-pity, without any self-reflection.     Most normal people have the ability to separate their personal lives from their camera lives, but with an immature single mom who seems to prefer to live in a fantasy than FACE the real world and deal with it, this won't bode well for her.

NJfan:  Thank goodness the President keeps his cool because I'm sure it gets under their skin when they can't make him look like an angry black man.  His anger is very controlled, you could see it in his eyes and hear it in the tone of his voice but all done with calmness and politeness. He knows how to act Presidential and it must eat them up because they come across as the racist agitators that they are.

Linda1961:  …when called out for their racist behavior, they whine about "the race card" being played.  It's supposed to shut down the conversation, so that they won't have to defend their actions.  My response is "It's not playing the race card to point out racism or racist behavior.  Engaging in racist behavior is playing the race card."  [And later:]  SInce when was rudeness refreshing?  That's like saying "War is peace."

JCos:  We really shouldn't mock Palin for her ever-changing breast size.  It's obvious her boobs get bigger when her chest swells with pride in being a real, god-fearing, gun-loving, minority-hating, female-denigrating American.  She's just so patriotic, I could cry.

Enigmaplanner responded:  I was under the belief that like Pinocchio's nose grew when he lied, Sarah's breasts enlarged as the lies flowed.

Older_Wiser:  It's really sad that vanity is so rampant in this country.  Culturally, we are a very narcissistic society and it's an indication that people simply are refusing to mature, seeing it as a "deadly" occurrence, and instead going into a kind of constant "rejuvenating" mode.  We shun intellectual achievement and concentrate on the fleeting, the trendy, all superficial applications about appearance and consumerism of the latest in the fashion and "beauty" industries… We are never satisfied with "appearance".  We are becoming character-less caricatures of "beauty" in an effort to forestall aging…We have no respect for maturity and the aging process, and that means we dismiss our own concerns as we age, tossing aside completely our own judgments in favor of what is being "sold" at the moment and, in effect, discard respect for the dignity of our own selves as whole human beings… 

Kathleen:  Private ownership of handguns is illegal in the UK.The Dunblane massacre resulted in public petitions calling for the banning of handguns for private use and if my memory is correct one of them was led by parents of one of the victims. Many newspapers supported them and I believe that it was that support which shifted public opinion. A public inquiry, the Cullen Report recommended tighter controls but stopped short of recommending an all out ban. The government at the time banned certain types of handguns and in 1997 the new Prime Minister banned all handguns apart from those that were of historic value or muzzle type guns. 

Remember that many of the children killed on that very sad day were five and six years old. Their teacher died trying to protect the children in her care. It was an horrific event and the people of Scotland were traumatised by it for quite some time. March 13th will always be in my memory. 

HonestyinGov let us know about  “Scout” from the Sunlight Foundation, a site where you can set up alerts about actions in Congress on issues you care about.  

HIG also posted this about Troy, Michigan’s clever and successful campaign to save its library.  

and these links to articles about Romney and Bain making $20,000 per worker who lost his/her job.    

Linda1961 pointed out this article at politicususa on foreign investors seeing growth opportunities in the U.S.  

Juicyfruityy gave us some hope that the IRS will crack down on non-profit tax exemptions for groups engaging in politicalactivities.  

Sunnyjane linked to this from Stephen Colbert on the Romney’s “sport” interest, dressage.  

Pallottine found this excellent article by Geoffrey Dunn on Sarah Palin and “crony capitalism.”  

Here’s a very clear post by Robert Reich: Why the economy can’t get out of 1st gear. 

Older_Wiser linked to WaPo’s transcript of President Obama’s commencement speech at Barnard College.  

Rachel Maddow’s Chronicles of Mitt’s Mendacity,Volume XXII.  

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UPDATE (by Patrick):

Believe it or not, but earlier today, Mike Huckabee made some stinging remarks about Bristol Palin and reminded her that she is now "fair game", because she "chose the spotlight." He also was not happy that junior-celebrity Bristol Palin stood him up and did not call into his radio without any explanation, despite a previous arrangement.

Watch this remarkable clip and tweet it out: