Alaska in the news today!!
Front page news today pivoting around a small town in Alaska called Wasilla. Wasilla Alaska is a place with special memories for me and several family members and old friends still reside there.
The news is all about Alaska governor Sara Palin, a rebel, an outsider, a convention-bucker and the Republican nominee for Vice President. Holy shit!
She's a highly popular governor in Alaska, the place I was raised in. McCain was brilliant to choose her, I must say. Even die-hard liberals like me are questioning what to do. I don't agree with several of her political views, yet this woman has not been afraid (at her own risk) to expose corruption, take on some big dogs and basically do what she believes is best no matter the consequences. That's rare in politics. She seems more libertarian than anything really.
I just got off the phone with my sister Heidi, who works at a lovely coffee shop owned by some of our childhood friends called Pandemonium. Apparently the media has descended upon Wasilla already and there is quite a hubub at the cafe. Total mayhem.
They've been interviewing people at the cafe of course (Heidi used to go to church with Sara but she declined to tell that to interviewers because she wanted to stick to non-personal stuff) so if you're watching CNN tonight you just might see a radical unschooling Mum talking about the topic!!:)
It's all rather strange because Wasilla is such a small town and people just don't know much about Alaska anyway. It will be interesting to watch this all unfold.
posted by Ren Allen | 3:24 PM
15 Comments:
It's ALL anyone can talk about today! I'm really tired of politics for the day, lol. People are so confused now!! This definitely puts a twist on things. I believe I will still be voting for Obama but I think this will bring up a lot of good conversation. This state will vote for McCain anyway because its so darn conservative! I'm rooting for Palin 2012!!
I think it's very cool that this is your hometown :)
I'm a libertarian, freedom seeker who wants very little government and definitely no interference in my personal life.
I was a Ron Paul fan and now I'm digging Palin. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Palin may be a compelling woman, but she is still too damn conservative for my taste. I've had enough of THAT brand in office. ick.
But Obama is not much of a choice for anything. Certainly not change. Change is doing away with government as it stands today, Obama is interested in more government everything....THAT isn't exactly change in my opinion.
Change is less government in our lives. Change is handing control back to individual states and the PEOPLE. Republicans seem to think big business is what needs to run our country. Democrats seem to think we all need the government to tell us what is best. I say get them all the hell out of my life and this country will be a much better place.
Personal responsibility needs to return. Neither party is really a believer in that anymore.
Sara Palin may be willing to take big risks, and for that I admire her. But I don't think she has what it takes to piss off all of Washington and actually create real change. By being the VP to McCain,she has to agree with most of his policies. I've had enough of that style.
There's no real choice for libertarian types. If there was,you'd just be pissing your vote away anyhow....
Side note: Wasilla is not my hometown, just where some family and friends live now. Fairbanks is our hometown, about five hours north of Wasilla.
Yes, I totally agree. It's very frustrating when we get to this point time after time and it seems we are just picking the best of the two evils. This campaign is particularly frustrating to me because we do need change SO bad and we aren't going to get it. My friend Josh's interview was played last night, not mine, but I love what he said, "I really wish I could vote for McCain but I'm conservative so I can't." I just thought that was hilarious. Obviously, he wasn't talking about religion or anything else. He was talking about true conservatism in government spending, etc. His argument too was that they are both warmongers - McCain would probably push for Iran and Obama has talked a lot about Afghanistan. They did show me on the news last night sipping on my coffee though, did you see it? Here it was on Channel 11 KTVA but that is local. He said it was supposed to be on CNN, I don't know.
The first thing I thought of when I heard the news was, "I wonder what Ren and Heidi have to say about all this?" Thanks for letting us know what you know. ;)
Well, I'm more excited than I was when it was just John McCain, that's for sure. I think she is certainly an interesting woman and a great choice for him politically. I lean to the conservative side, but then again conservative seems to have lost its original meaning. :-(
I think we should all stick a fork in them both and vote for Ron Paul! Sadly that would be nothing but wasted votes.
She's wrong on every issue and that makes her a good fit for the R ticket, I guess.
Nance
REally? Seriously? You just say "wrong on every issue" because you might disagree?? It's not a matter of right and wrong every time but different views about how to achieve certain things.
Beyond that, you say she's "wrong on every issue"...like protecting homeschooling rights? You think the Dems want to give you MORE freedom that way? Think again.
Palin supports a parents right to homeschool. So how is she "wrong on every issue". That just sounds so damn ignorant to me.
But I hate both parties and don't believe there is a truly liberal choice anywhere on the horizon.
OH! And Palin is a fiscal conservative...something I agree with wholeheartedly.
Go REN!!
I know, I'm getting exhausted trying to show people that there are two sides to every story. See my blog:) One of the things I commented on is that she has been known to set aside her own views and opinions for what the people want. There is never "all bad" or "all good" but many people see it that way. You've got to research people! It's kind of like this whole rumor about Obama saying he wanted to change the national anthem and it was totally false but everyone was freaking out. All I had to do was google to get the truth. Or this story about Sarah Palin saying that Satan put the dinosaur bones here. Could be true, but knowing Sarah, I really doubt she said that. It's all interesting conversation though:)
I thought God put the dinosaur bones there to test our faith. Will we believe Baptist ministers over what we see with our own eyes? And if we do, we vote Republican, right?
If republicans win, better a compelling female conservative vice president than yet another east-coast or midwestern conservative male vice president, in my opinion.
Bill Richardson of New Mexico isn't running, but there are mutterings of possible cabinet positions. That would be interesting. But it probably wouldn't be someone from New Mexico and Alaska both. Richardson could be an Obama add-on, though, if dems win.
Hsing is the big issue in this election? I don't think so. Not even close.
And, if it is your make or break issue, Obama supports the right to hs, too.
And do we know Palin's views on unschooling?
Nance
You missed the whole point Nance. I'm not using homeschooling as any decisive issue for myself. YOU stated that ALL of her views were wrong. That's a pretty broad statement and not well thought out.
Homeschooling was used to make a point. Republicans typically support educational choices more than Democrats. I don't give a shit what any of their views are on unschooling, you won't find support for that anywhere.
It doesn't hurt to try and see a person from many viewpoints rather than washing them with a broad brushstroke of "all wrong". That's the problem with our country today. Everyone wants to create an "us vs. them" mentality and paint anyone different as "wrong" and "bad".
It's ridiculous. As I stated before though, I can't stand either party and believe that a two party system is an idiotic thing.
That's the problem? That when a politician is wrong on every important issue of the day -- glad we agree hsing is not one of them --that someone says so?
The problems with our country include, but are not be limited to, the Iraq war, healthcare, energy, the economy -- issues.
This Alaskan Governor's ideas are either in line with McCain/Bush, which got us here, and/or are out of the extreme right-wing mold.
Neither of which actually help address the actual problems this country faces.
Saying so isn't wrong. There really is a very clear choice in this election.
Nance
Hi Ren,
Love your blog. First post here but I wanted to add to the discussion. On page 344 of The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes: “none of these policies need discourage families from deciding to keep a parent at home…For some families, that may mean doing without certain material comforts. For others it may mean home schooling….Whatever the case may be, such decisions should be honored.”
From Frank Rich (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/opinion/07rich.html?em)
We still don’t know a lot about Palin except that she’s better at delivering a speech than McCain and that she defends her own pregnant daughter’s right to privacy even as she would have the government intrude to police the reproductive choices of all other women. Most of the rest of the biography supplied by her and the McCain camp is fiction.
She didn’t say “no thanks” to the “Bridge to Nowhere” until after Congress had already abandoned it but given Alaska a blank check for $223 million in taxpayers’ money anyway. Far from rejecting federal pork, she hired lobbyists to secure her town a disproportionate share of earmarks ($1,000 per resident in 2002, 20 times the per capita average in other states). Though McCain claimed “she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” she has never issued a single command as head of the Alaska National Guard. As for her “executive experience” as mayor, she told her hometown paper in Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996, the year of her election: “It’s not rocket science. It’s $6 million and 53 employees.” Her much-advertised crusade against officials abusing their office is now compromised by a bipartisan ethics investigation into charges that she did the same.
I think a lot of the Republican talk about their party making government smaller is just talk...Republicans consistently support more bureaucracy (think "No Child Left Behind", the many examples of corporate welfare throughout the Bush administration and tax cuts for the richest Americans.
More on this from an Article (3/15/07) from Cato institute, libertarian think tank entitled 'Bring Back Clinton'.
Excerpt:
But results matter, not intentions. Bush has allowed federal spending to climb by nearly $800 billion in six years, and he hasn't once used his veto power to control the size of government.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8137
So anyway, some more food for thought. I think Obama would make a great leader, McCain/Palin not really, based on many factors.I think Palin has some good PR folks though.
Make no mistake, I can't stand the Republicans. I also can't stand generalized statements that lump everything together and don't look at individual people or issues.
In all fairness, I've supported and argued for Obama for a long time now (back when he first got voted into the Senate I grew to like him very much) but I think he, like so many, is entering a broken system and thinks the government can somehow fix it's fucked up self.
It won't. It can't.
But my questioning of the Democrat values is not endorsing the Republicans in any way. Believe me. I can't stand them even more than I can't stand the Democrats.;) Neither party represents my views.
I believe in clarity and truth. You don't get much of that any more. I've sent several emails back to people who sent me false allegations about Obama this year, lambasting them for not doing better research.
So to be fair, I'll share more info. on Palin too:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_palin.html
I'm not here to encourage anyone to vote for McCain. The fact that he wants more troops in Iraq is enough for me to stay far away from that vote. But I also believe people should know facts. Not half-truths and lies.
Most of the lies and bashing were aimed at Obama most of this year. Now it seems that everyone is having fun with Palin. She should have expected it though. They all get the treatment eventually.:)
Anyhoo...no need to remind me of how badly the Republicans have screwed things up. I've been ranting about it for years.
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