Sarah Palin speaking in Philadelphia yesterday -
Photo taken by our reader "ComeOnPeople" (click to enlarge)
Photo taken by our reader "ComeOnPeople" (click to enlarge)
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By ComeOnPeople
For 4 ½ years I have
waited to see Palin in person. I know she is not Tri-G’s birth
mother and relish the opportunity to tell her to her face that she
did not fool me. When I heard she was coming to my city, I bought a
ticket and gave up tickets to a very important skating event so I
could hear her in person.
I went to the Phila
airport yesterday, guessing at the flights she could be taking. I
guessed wrong, although she said in her speech she did fly in on 4/4.
I wasn’t going to wait around all afternoon. Had I run in to her, I
had a speech all prepared. I am passionate about exposing her hoax.
I think because I am in healthcare, I have some anger about the role
medical professionals and institutions played in the hoax. I know
there is not much you can do about stupid people who believe her, but
I definitely expect more from the medical community.
I got dressed up in a
cocktail dress, drove downtown alone and observed the event. There
were about 380 people – 38 tables of ten. The crowd was lily white
– I did not see Adrienne Ross there, but could have missed her. The
only person of color I saw was the foster child of a couple from
Washington with whom I chatted for a bit by the bar. Everyone was
well dressed, very nice and very, very Catholic. Many professional
couples, doctors, lawyers, many families, MANY families with DS
children attended. All age groups were represented but the majority
were older couples. There were Catholic school girls in uniform who
directed you up the escalators to the cocktail reception. They were
also selling some book someone wrote about Terri. AND they were
auctioning off these really bad pictures that they say Teri had
drawn. I thought it was comical that the totally amateur drawings of
a nobody were framed and being auctioned off. However, since I went
to the shindig alone, I did hang out by the drawings for a while to
kill time.
I had actually
purchased a pen that records audio and video, but it turns out I did
not need it as cameras and cell phones were allowed and were used
freely by many people.
I left the official
program on my table , so I am sorry I forget the hosts name. She is a
woman who works in Hollywood, was second runner up for Miss America.
She made a really inappropriate comment before we said the Pledge of
Allegiance: something to the effect that she can’t say the Pledge
in Hollywood, or Hollywood people won’t. Some drivel. Then, a very
disappointing video of Gary Sinese was played. Sinese apparently is
involved with the Schiavo Foundation and WAS going to be at the
event, but his band was playing a show , so he did a video instead.
Damn! I’ve really liked him since he played in Apollo 13. I had no
idea he was so uninformed.
Palin was the keynote speaker. She wore a suit with an appropriate length skirt. I couldn’t see her shoes. I don’t think she looked terrible emaciated in this suit as she has in many recent pictures. Her hair looked awful – uncombed with a big birds nest in the back. I think she was a tad late getting to the room as the emcee lady kept looking over to her right and ad libbing until Palin got there. I did not see Todd. Palin’s 40 minute screech was one that we all have heard ad nauseum over the years. It seems she stuck with the birth version from Going Rogue. She talked about the ultrasound tech noticing a thick neck and CBJ calling her a few days later and delivering the DS diagnosis over the phone at 2:22 one cold winter afternoon. She talked about keeping the” pregnancy” a secret until 7 months, wearing layers of clothes, etc, etc. She said she held Tri-G as soon as he was born. Yeah right. Doubling down on the fantasy high risk premie delivery . If you listen to the videotape, I apologize in advance for my sighing and other vocalizations of disgust and incredulity…but I did not curse! I stared Sarah down the entire speech.
My face told a story
every time she spoke about the pregnancy and birth. I had my camera
and Iphone up and recording the entire speech. I was pretty close to
her and perhaps it is wishful thinking, but I think she saw my scowl
and quizzical looks and got unnerved. She would look down at her
notes A LOT .
The crowd obviously
had not heard many of her jokes before, because they earnestly
laughed at the “my kid has more chromosomes than your kid” and
other old, old, old recycled same- old jokes. Since she was talking
to Catholics she mentioned she was a Catholic and then went to
Assembly of God church. She talked about God a lot. I absolutely see
her becoming the next Tammy Faye Baker. These people, even though
many were obviously successful in life, lapped up her bull@#$% and
asked for more.
Her speech ccntent was
disjointed, and she took up a lot of time making doctors, clergy,
veterans, Terri’s parents all stand up individually for applause.
Then she read some of the Constitution She went on and on about
death panels again and I saw a lot of people nodding their heads in
agreement. I stopped looking at the crowd then because I can’t fix
stupid. She talked about Philadelphia which made me laugh because
although the Marriott is 5 minutes from the world famous Art
Museum, the Reading Terminal Market , our beautiful City Hall and
other exciting parts of the city, we pretty much know she spent her
time in the hotel room. I wonder if Todd moseyed over a few blocks to
Arch St. to check out the working girls?
After milking the
speech along for exactly 40 minutes, she ended and got a standing
ovation…I only stood to take some more pictures. Palin was then
given a Life and Hope Award from the Foundation (which will probably
get dumped in a dumpster somewhere like she ditched the empathy belly
in Texas) and then she excited stage left….not sure if anyone
signed up for a $25,000 Meet and Greet or not.
After
she spoke, I excused myself from the table and hightailed it out of
there. There is only so much a girl can take. There was some
literature distributed at the event in case people needed to learn
some more about Palin. There were some laminated business cards and
some posters in the bathroom stalls. Someone has a sense of humor. I
sent the blogs a picture of the items.
Drawings by Terri Schiavo which were auctioned at the event -
Photo taken by our reader "ComeOnPeople"
More pictures of these drawings can be found on the Corbis-website.
More pictures of these drawings can be found on the Corbis-website.
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By Patrick:
Many thanks to ComeOnPeople for this excellent report, and for making the effort to go to the event in the first place!
These were the items which ComeOnPeople cleverly left at several place during the event:
From our "special friends" at C4P we learn that Sarah Palin also told her standard "I was not a spring chicken any more" and "Todd is not Abraham" story again, which she recycled word-by-word from old speeches:
When it comes to personal experience with life issues, Sarah Palin has more clout than most. Fittingly, she discussed them at the Schiavo event. Palin recalled her pregnancy in 2008 and how she kept it out of the public eye until she was seven months along even though she was in the daily spotlight as governor. She said in Alaska it’s easier to hide a pregnancy than in most states because you can always add layers. But eventually folks started wondering if she was getting “chunky”. Palin had just become the youngest governor in state history and the first woman to serve in the high office. The last thing she needed was the good old boys pointing the finger at her for getting pregnant. Finally she let the press and America know she was in fact expecting. She had been thrown a “curveball”. Palin pointed out that she was no spring chicken at the time and she prayed about her new addition. She joked that even though her name is Sarah her husband’s name is not Abraham!
Once doctors determined the new Palin baby would have Down Syndrome, they were overcome with a slew of feelings and emotions. Many in this country immediately suggest abortion in cases like this. Todd and Sarah Palin chose life. A new baby boy was born. “Trig melted into my arms,” Palin said. “What a blessing he is.”
Yes, what a blessing! Unfortunately, Sarah Palin did indeed fake her pregnancy with Trig, so this story is made up just like myriads of other Palin stories.
Sarah Palin told her audience the same "spring chicken/Abraham" story for example at an event in Texas in September 2010:
So why not pay $ 90,000 plus expenses for up to three people for lame recycled speeches in which the old lies are repeated over and over again. Because $ 90,000 plus expenses is still Sarah Palin's standard speaking fee, as we discovered yesterday, thanks to the help of a young overly enthusiastic Palin-fan.
"Dissent" to Sarah Palin's appearance at the Terri Schiavo Gala comes from an unlikely source, the comments at C4P. There, commenter and Palin-fan "colint" left two long comments, defending the actions of Terri's husband Michael Schiavo - and ultimately criticizing Sarah Palin's participation in the event. Let's see whether this comments stays up. Excerpt (h/t Older_Wiser):
"TERRI the truth" author Michael Schiavo, 360 pages, published 2006. I obtained this book from my local library in Vancouver, Canada. It is an excellent book. After reading it, I am convinced that anyone's opinion on the Schiavo case is worthless without reading this book. I wish someone like CHUCK HEATH Jr would read it and he might see that Sarah should not again be involved with this charity created by Terri's father as he was not a nice or honest person.
(...)
Michael also faced the abusive power of Governments. Florida and the state government with Jeb Bush and later the US House and Senate (signed by POTUS Bush) passed UNCONSTITUTIONAL laws to stop Michael from allowing Terri's body to die as has been done under law in thousands of other cases involving Persistant Vegative State.
Michael declined several large offers based on giving control of Terri to her parents. Google "Gloria Aldred Michael Schiavo" for story re $1,000,000 offer.
Many people at the time were MISLED by seeing on TV a 2 minute clip of Terri Shiavo where she appears to be responsive. This two minutes (collection of reflex movements not thought directed) was cut from 4 HOURS of film made for evidence for the court with the rest containing 238 minutes of NO movement. About 5,500 days passed between when Terri's mind died and when her body was allowed to die. While she did not know it, in those years she was fed a paste like nutrition and liquid through a tube in her abdomen to her stomach. Each day she expelled urine and feces requiring several adult diaper changes each day. She acquired diseases. There were records of Michael (after dressing her etc) taking her in a wheel chair to a doctors office over 100 times. There was also a record that, due Michael ensuring her care, she NEVER had bed sores.
Some on this site have called this Schiavo event a "Gala" to celebrate Terri's life. Apart from the years between meeting Michael and her collapse, she had a ROTTEN life. At high school she weighed 250 lbs. She was ridiculed by her father. This may have caused an obsession with weight that resulted in her bulumia . They were trying to have a baby and consulted a doctor. She had been purging (making herself vomit). She was down to 115 lbs when she collapsed.
(...)
This article is based on an interview with Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler. He said that Terri's diagnosis, her prognosis, her wishes, her autopsy are no longer that important to him. Neither he or his father, who died in 2009, were ever interested in Terri's wishes or the well documented medical facts of the case. Until the media showed up the father and son had rarely visited. Without a doubt her husband, Michael, based on visitor records kept by the institutions caring for Terri, spent over a thousand times more hours with Terri than these two. In the early years her mother did visit but that declined.
It is in the record that the Schindlers tried to get control of funds held in trust for Terri. The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network was formed supposedly to help others but it is providing a good extra income for the Schindler family. In 2011 Bobby got $47,062, the mother $23,250 and the sister $39,042. The son says his father died "broken hearted" that he was unable to save his daughter. When Terri weighed 250lbs in high school she was ridiculed by her father which may have caused bulemia that later resulted in her collapse. In a deposition and in court he testified that if his daughter had limbs with gangrene, if it was up to him, he would have authorised amputation to keep keep her body alive. Terri's soul would have been welcomed in heaven. I doubt the father's soul ended up in the same place.
Schindler said "when the autopsy came out, showing the extent of her injury, he thought people used it as justification for her death". He accidently made a true statement. The autopsy did show that the destruction of critical areas of her brain prevented any recovery. He said that "he thinks that people like his sister are a "blessing". How we care for them is in a way testing us, a reflection of our culture" What a phony. These people are tragedies. He rarely visited his sister. Schindler failed the test.
Michael Schiavo did become the best example of caring for someone.
I found this comment by a Palin-fan quite remarkable. We are dealing here with very complex ethical, medical and human issues which should not be open for quick "law and order" solutions and for political exploitation. Read also this thoughtful article about the subject, which raises good points.
Due to technical issues, we will publish the video by ComeOnPeople from the event at a later point.
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UPDATE:
Our commenter "Andi" was also at Sarah Palin's speech yesterday and told us the following additional points:
I was there last night at the Schivo Banquet...just a few things to clarify from ComeOnPeople's great post.
1. Adrienne Ross was there. She and a few other "Palinistas" ran out of the ballroom to catch up with Palin. After Palin greeted the parochial school girls, they trailed off after her to the elevator.
2. You are right about Palin flubbing things. She was really subdued, not her normal histrionic self.
3. She actually left Philly Saturday Morning. Mark Lamont hill said she came up to him at the PHL airport and said hello. It's on his twitter feed.
4. I am betting those big gulp cups came from the 7/11 right across the street from the Marriott. They are so pathetic.
5. Best story was I spoke with the Getty and Corbis photographers after Palin's speech. They were wrapping up. Some Palin person came up to them and said, you can't publish these pics until Palin's person approves of them. She does not want any unflattering pics out there.
You can imagine how that went over with the Pro's. They were also not allowed to video much of the speech.
Oh no! That's the "freedum of the press" the US troops are apparently dying for, according to Sarah Palin! She has her own version!
Many thanks for the information, Andi! We really appreciate it!
The Getty photos from the event can be found HERE.
The Corbis photos can be found HERE.
I have asked Getty and Corbis for a statement whether "pre-approved photos" at public events are an acceptable policy for them.
Imagine president Obama doing such a thing! The outrage...
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UPDATE 2 - Correction:
Our reader "Andi" clarified his/her comment and would like to make it clear that he/she does not know whether the Getty and Corbis photographers at the event followed the request for the approval of the pictures. Andi commented:
To clarify Patrick, They were asked by a Palin Person to have the photos approved. I don't believe they did get approval as both photographers were ticked about it and were packing up to leave. IDK what happened after as I went back into the banquet.
Therefore we do not know whether Getty and Corbis followed the request. I have also changed the headline of the post accordingly.
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UPDATE 3 - NEW VIDEO:
Our wonderful reader ComeOnPeople has now uploaded the video of the speech. It includes some very interesting parts. Funny that no Palinbot found the words of their goddess worthy enough to record them, but that our crowd had to do it! :-)
The edited video is now online! What I have done is, with the permission of our reader ComeOnPeople, to "crop" the video in a format that looks more like "typical video-size." The content is identical, nothing has been cut.
Watch the new video:
The original video by ComeOnPeople is also still online.
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