Saturday, July 4, 2009

Saturday Alaska Progressive Blog Roundup - July 4th, 2009

This past week began with many speculating that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford would be announcing his resignation by Friday, the 3rd. It ended with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announcing her resignation on the 3rd.

The week began with Gov. Palin positively twittering away from Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, about Alaska Natives and other rural residents on the lower Yukon having met 50% of their subsistence needs. It ended with Palin having little positive to tweet, speaking a half a mile from where the person for whom Camp Bondsteel was named, James "Buddha" Bondsteel, had worked for several years, running the Wasilla Vet Center.

The week began with Palin being the butt of hundreds of jokes, thousands of humorous blog posts around the country and world commenting upon her lack of irony. It ended with rampant speculation that her stepping down looked surprisingly like some part of a plea bargain deal.

For Progressive Alaska, the past week began with Saradise Lost - Book 2 - Chapter 73. It ended with Saradise Lost - Book 3 - Chapter 3, and with Book 2 having been completed.

The week began with Palin and her supporters attacking Alaska's progressive bloggers and citizen activists. It ended with Palin and her supporters attacking Alaska's progressive bloggers and citizen activists.

The week began with the crash of fundraising for Palin's dubious legal defense fund, handled by the Palin shrines Conservatives4Palin and Team Sarah. It began with Linda Kellen's successful conclusion to her fundraising drive to pay the costs of obtaining vital information about how the Palin administration may or may not be orchestrating its campaign against Alaska citizen activists through organs of the local media. It ended with Kellen actually filing her request.

The week began with the Anchorage Daily News, through their most aggressive reporters on the subject of Palin administration shortcomings, at least attempting to get the truth out to Alaskans on the gap between Palin's statements on subsistence fishing on the lower Yukon and the facts; and on the disparities between Palin's claims and reality, through Kyle Hopkins' reporting; and with Sean Cockerham writing about the huge disparity between Palin's claim of administrative costs pertaining to complaints against her conduct, and the facts.

But the ADN, then decided to run a fundraiser for Palin on their front page! It was a low point in the history of journalism in the state of Alaska. It was a local high point in the American tradition of presstitution.

For the ADN, the week ended with their reporter being shut out of the resignation press conference for the governor they had been so carefree about for the past, oh, thirteen years.

The week began with Linda Kellen's blog, Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis, through global interest in her fight for transparent government in Alaska, getting hundreds of thousands of hits per day. It ended with Alaska's highest traffic progressive blog, The Mudflats, crashing their server.

With so many important issues facing Alaska, this past week our progressive bloggers spoke and emailed back and forth about our growing frustration in having to deal with Palin's lies and distortions on a daily basis. She has been an enormous distraction at a key juncture in Alaska's future.

It is ironic, but also immensely pitiful that Palin, whose higher aspirations began with a mayoral campaign based on lies and distortions about her opponent (John Stein is "really" a Jew, John Stein's wife has a different last name, maybe they aren't even married, etc.), has ended with a speech rife with more lies and distortions.

Steve at What Do I Know? has brilliantly taken Palin's resignation speech to pieces.

Author Geoffrey Dunn, whose criticism of Palin's introductory remarks at an Anchorage speech in early June was noteworthy, has described another interesting symmetry to Palin's higher aspirations:

Some pundits have said that Palin's resignation is out of character. Hardly. Don't forget that she resigned from her last statewide office -- that as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Sarah Palin is a quitter. She fancies herself something else. But, in the end, she quit her position at AOGCC and she has now quit her governorship. That's two-for-two at the statewide level. In Wasilla, there was nearly a recall launched against her as mayor. Trouble and turbulence have followed her everywhere.

Soon after the Alaska Legislature's sound rejection of Wayne Anthony Ross, Palin's totally unfit nominee for Attorney General, I wrote a column here, called Can We Return to Our Lives Now, Governor?

I'll ask the same question again, slightly rephrased:

Can we ALL now return to our lives, Governor?

image - Zina Saunders

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bet Gov Sanford is sending Palin a bottle of champagne!

Anonymous said...

Yes, Phil, Palin is indeed a quitter. When the going gets tough, the supposed "saracuda" picks up her toys and goes home. She cannot bear that she's a failing, self-serving governor wannabe who has no leadership skills or grasp of the management of ANYTHING, so she quits midstream. How pitiful that the state's first female governor sends the message that a woman cannot handle the job. Some feminist.

Thank God for Alaska and Alaskans that this incompetent woman quit. Maybe Parnell can pick up the pieces and do something right and righteous in the wake of the Palin Titanic.

Anonymous said...

Maybe she was actually Mark Sanford's running partner? Crossing those infamous lines??

Let the jokes fly because this is cause to celebrate. Ding Dong the Witch is gone.

Anonymous said...

Palin never DID her job. There was a viable recall of her as Mayor of Wasilla. Her Governorship was non-existent. Remember the Ak legislature with their buttons saying "where's Sarah???". She was never there for any of them.

She's a sad excuse for an executive, that's all I can say and she had the nerve to say that Obama was just a 'community organizer' - hah! She couldn't organize a community of ants with sweet nectar.

Imagine this nightmare if you dare: With cancer-ridden McPappy at the helm and Pitiful Palin second in command, where would this country be with a "quitter" running the show? I hate to imagine such a nightmare.

McPappy should be strung up for his lack of patriotism in selecting such a quitting dimwit as one who would lead this country.

Anonymous said...

Say it ain't so, Joe! Palin takes pipe before the pipeline comes into existence. Thanks, but no thanks, Sarah-dupe.

Anonymous said...

There is just so much to read that I'm happy to see you posted Geoffrey Dunn has written too. To try to read everyone's writings or comments, I'd have to hire help to clean the house & feed the family as you could be on the computer 24/7.

If there is any truth to Housegate, the Palinbots will have a hard time selling it that it was the fault of MSM and bloggers as this was from when she was Mayor -- when very few people in Lower 48 had ever heard her name. It was only when McCain picked her, her name became familar to everyone.

There is too much of a time gap between Mayor and VP pick including her election to Gov office -- but they will try!! They'll still blame the MSM and bloggers.

In celebration of her resignation, we should all invest in some new PJ's!! Think of the rise in the consumer spending to help the economy for us to all appear on the 25th of July with new PJ's on to celebrate her last walk out of her office when the door slams her ass!!

Remember too to take inventory of state owned property in her office and Gov Mansion. She lifted the RNC clothing yet said she had returned it all, so who knows what she'll pack up as her own. Charge her for all the breakage by the kids too!! Remember too -- there is a lot of state owned property in her home where she carried out her Gov duties. That too should be inventoried now before it goes south. I anticipate seeing the clothing appearing on her back shortly after she leaves office.

Anonymous said...

Excuse me if I've said this before - but I noticed she was quite focused and angry about the people who descended upon AK to dig up dirt about her - makes me think they dug some up - and yeah, she's blaming the national media for that!

Anonymous said...

As in, she was not at all contrite about there being dirt to dig up, but mad as hell that the media had gone up there and dug it up.

Anonymous said...

"Yes, Phil, Palin is indeed a quitter. When the going gets tough, the supposed "saracuda" picks up her toys and goes home."

No-one in politics should have to be exposed to the vile hatred, misogyny and insanity that Palin faced from the Left. No male politician in the US has ever faced the kind of attacks Palin and her family had to face on a daily basis. It is tragic that the so-called "progressive" movement in the USA has sunk to this gutter level. There is a sickness on the Left that can only bring disaster to this country and our society. When Leftist blogs like the Huffington Post gleefully run articles comparing Trig Palin to, and I quote, "The retards who are greeters at Wal-Mart" you have to wonder what has happened to the ideals of the 1960s. To ridicule a baby because of his mother's politics and to describe Down's Syndrome children as "retards" shows that the Left has crossed over to the level of abuse previously only used by fascists. You people make me sick.

Anonymous said...

Cry me a river, anonymous! You, obviously, have your factoids erupting from your lower orifice.

No one ridiculed Trig although there is nothing a sociopath who suffers from schizophrenic delusion would love to be victimized by. Palin is a total 'victim' - the archetype persona which we've all witnessed this past year. If there's no boogeyman out there, she'll do something to manufacture one.

What she needs to do right now is to spend some of her PAC money in inlisting a good psychiatrist - one who is credentialed in aberrations of the ego such as narcissism and delusional gradeur.

McCain's camp call it 'post partum depression' however, her history of quitting - everything from those 7 colleges to the board upon which she sat and now this - creates a long lineage of psychiatrically aberrant behavior.

As for any of us making YOU sick, the mirror is up for you isn't it?

The only thing the GOP has left is a huge dose of "self-loathig.... and we cry for you.

Cry me a river.....

Anonymous said...

Palin can sure dish it out, but she ain't tough enough to take it. Good riddance to the grifter who keeps on grifting. There's certainly more to this story and I suspect the iceberg is about to hit soon. Hopefully, she'll be held accountable. She's gotten away with murder so far with her at-will employees on the Personnel Board.

Parnell may be a milquetoast, but he's also an honest person who knows hot to work with others. What a welcome and refreshing change for Alaska. I wish Sean well and hope he'll have the guts to get rid of the unethical bunch Palin hired.

Anonymous said...

Anyone with faculties for critical thinking knows that those photoshopped pictures were mocking Sarah, not Trig. Although we should not expect Sarah to exhibit any critical thinking skills.

Anonymous said...

Alaskans need to do a better job of electing governors. These past two sure have been doozies. What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Frank Murkowski? 18 months.

KaJo said...

To Anonymous @ 9:34 AM:

Link, please, for your wild and heretofore unfounded claim about "retards who are greeters at Wal-Mart" -- and did that happen HERE? I doubt either -- that you can come up with a link, or that anyone here has written such calumny.

I believe you should apologize for your characterizations of progressive blogs like Progressive Alaska, the Mudflats, Diva's Oasis, Shannyn Moore's Just a Girl From Homer, and the host of others that have sprung up since last year -- because, if any of them ever commented on Trig Palin at all, it was to wonder why he was his mother's political pawn and to hope that he was getting the therapy and care he deserved (WHERE are those glasses?). Recent Photoshopping was done to ridicule Sarah Palin, not that poor innocent infant.

But you and your ilk take such arrows slung at Sarah Palin, and deflect them YOURSELF to try to wound the child. Shame on you!

Also, I point to your own right-wing haters over at C4P and their hateful misogynistic personal insults towards Linda Kellen Biegel and their unrelenting badly aimed and completely false accusations towards Jay Ramras.

C4P'ers are as unforgiving and vengeful as Sarah Palin herself, and see it as a VIRTUE. I honestly think both Palin and her minions at C4P are manifestations of Satan, for they seem to have twisted the 10 Commandments into the opposite of what the rest of us believe.

Your claims about "no male politician...has ever faced the kind of attacks..." -- in fact ALL your claims in the above paragraph -- are hyperbolic projections of what the majority of US citizens see as hateful behavior of your small segment of right wing politics.

Bill Clinton is no angel, and he and his wife have been involved in some questionable activities, but I'd say he and his wife and daughter were daily lampooned, ridiculed, and vilified by people like you.

I could go on and on with other examples, but meanwhile, I await your link about the Wal-Mart comment.

Anonymous said...

"No one ridiculed Trig"

Oh, so all those photoshops of Trig on Leftist blogs were actually a touching tribute to the little guy, huh ?

Anonymous said...

KaJo, you really need to look around at what you fellow "progressives " are up to.....here's the link

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/07/
huffington-post-celebrates-palins.html

ella said...

Anon. 10:23 a.m.: I will try to say this in a few easy-to-understand words. Once Eddie Burke's face was placed on the baby, it WAS "BABY BURKE!" Same for any other faces - it was NOT Trig! Get it?

winkwinkWA said...

Anonymous said...Weren't you the ones who plastered that picture all over the internet trying to get back at Linda?? So if really believe what your saying, then you used Trig too!!IF THE SHOE FITS!!!Quit your whining.

Anonymous said...

Discrimination has no party affiliates. Funny how all of a sudden the issue of a baby with DS has become an important prop as if to prove heart. Yet, there are folks who discriminate or joke about folks with handicaps and disabilities on a daily basis, and that affects every age.

I thought it was extremely distasteful for a mother of a baby with DS dress the baby in a Dumbo costume. Wasn't cute or funny under the circumstance. Shameful.

Thanks, Phil, for great coverage! I, too, am a mudpuppy!

Anonymous said...

Only in Palinland is quitting not make one a quitter. According Meg S., "it's wrong to say Palin is quitting." But what can you expect from a regime that sees being found quilty of abuse of power the same as being completely exonerated.

At least she didn't make it to the White House (like Nixon), before she had to resign. Now that she's gone away, one can only hope she stays away. To be honest, tho; will have to admit that I will miss her for comic value if nothing else.

Laugh out loud article at HuffPo by Paul Begala...short, funny read.

Quote from piece..."(Note to self: if one of my kids becomes governor, throw away refrigerator magnet that says: "Murray's Oyster Bar: We Shuck Em, You Suck Em!")"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/sarah-palin-turns-pro_b_225633.html

Anonymous said...

According Meg S., "it's wrong to say Palin is quitting." - that is beyond classic!

Begala's piece at HP is awesome.

Here's my take:
http://breepalin.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

"Same for any other faces - it was NOT Trig! Get it?"

Judging by all the lame denials and excuses being trotted out here, I'm guessing that many of you are actually too ashamed to admit the truth about the whole take-down of Sarah Palin and her family.I hope that is the case, the alternative is too depressing to contemplate.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous/Todd/Meg/Whoeverloseryouare:

Note: Please cast your mind back to words that Sarah Palin directed to Hilary Clinton during her primary days, i.e., don't be a whiner, suck it up, you are giving women in politics a bad name when you paint yourself as a victim, etc etc...

Then go away, back to watching Fox News. Progressive Alaska has never demeaned Trig, you are on the wrong site, bashing the wrong people.

SMR

Aussie Blue Sky said...

Great post, Phil.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Parnell can pick up the pieces and do something right and righteous in the wake of the Plain Titanic.


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Julie
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