In the morning of hearing Ms. Palin’s coin conspiracy, my 5 yrs old Kindergartner and I practiced “Kindergarten Math” using coins. The kind of addition and deduction thingy. We called it “Penny Conspiracy.”
I read that Ms. Sarah Palin is going to wage a “War against “New Class” of intellectuals, government bureaucrats…and parasitic elites.” My first response was......(Read the rest of the post at below website.)
http://mikyunglim.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/coin-conspiracy-penny-conspiracy-and-ms-palin/
It is unfortunate that Ms. Sarah Palin had handled the issue of Health Insurance Reform in ungraceful manner, such as calling it “Death Panel.” As she is likely to run for 2012 Presidential Election, the way she handled the public issue in this thoughtless way puzzles me. Public should expect far more from her than the way she handled this issue. She should have made public statements in far more mature, responsible, well informed, thoughtful, and honest ways, using proper, decent language, with her heart rooted on improving public wellbeing. This attitude is what public must expect to see from a potential presidential candidate of this country.
Another disappointment is, some public actually buying, believing this kind of silly statement, and media creating some kind of shock effect out of it and stirring public opinion. Despite numerous corrections of this false statement via media over time, it is absurd that this kind of statement still grabs public attention, seemingly giving her some political gaining.
It would have been great if she had done her best to understand issues and try to make public statements from her heartful consciousness of trying to identify the best for US public, instead of promoting public sensation with words that are wrong.
I do not know whether what I am going to write may sound joking or reasonable to readers. If I were in shoe of President, I may have thought about creating the corresponding, public sensation-provoking Ads in response to Ms. Palin’s case, in order to grab the attention of the very same public that paid attention to Ms. Palin’s back to the stance of “Pro-health care reform”.
If I were President (in dream), I may think about ordering my staffs, pro-healthcare-nonprofit organizations, Hollywood producers, or other supportive entities to make the counteracting, sensation-provoking Ads in response to Ms. Palin’s statement. The Ads may feature several housewives of Ms. Palin-look-alikes, who are perky, spunky, passionate, active, energetic, in Ms. Palin-image-suggesting-outfits of various occasions (e.g., hunting / fishing outfits, hockey/soccer mom, formal office outfit, housewife outfit, gym/workout outfit, etc) in various scenes of moose hunting, fishing, cheering up at children’s sports events, cooking, doing house chores, working at offices, etc.
Then producers of Ads may make these Ms. Palin-look-alikes to make statements similar to below:
“I do (moose) hunting. I love fishing.
I am a busy hockey/soccer mom. I love my kids.
I am a busy housewife. I am a hard working mom.
I am perky, spunky, passionate, active, energetic……
I am honest.
I love, deeply care for my country and people.
I care for truth.”
“What I don’t do” are:
“I don’t lie.
I don’t falsify, distort truth.
I would never harm my country, my people for my personal gains, interests.
I strongly believe that “Health Insurance Reform” is designed for my wellbeing, wellbeing of my family, and wellbeing of all of you.”
“Calling it as “Death Panel” is a complete lie; it is aimed at personal, political gains at the costs of harming public interests. As an honorable citizen of this country, I would never do this kind of thing to my country. Because I dearly love my country, etc……..” And will add more statement of supporting the Reform, such as “Public Health Care Plan is designed to stop the draining of your money into the pockets of the health care industry riches by increasing competition in the industry, improving industry efficiencies, eliminating industry wastes,.….save your money, give better access to better quality health service to all of us, and protect our financial security. Health care reform is about protecting us from “Harms’ Way” !
(There could be various versions of this kind of Ad; housewives’ version, male version, grandpas and grandmas’ versions, and kids versions, depending on the preference / target viewers of entities/organizations that produce this kind of Ads).
What I would really like to see in this kind of Ads are to clarify the fundamental relationship between (a) the healthcare / insurance industry’s misconduct in their business, (b) their cover-ups, their decades-long lobby activities in Washington to protect Govt laws and rules that have allowed their business practices, and (c) how “Public all together” have been massively losing to the industry’s scheme over decades. As the industry has assigned roughly six lobbyists to each one of over 500 congressmen to continuously garner their usual business, this nature of the industry should be well communicated to general public to make them understand what’s is the fundamental nature of all these mumble and bumble.
Does this sound silly ???? Or reasonable ????
“[Sarah Palin] knows her audience, and she’s going right after them. And I’ll tell you why that’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because you don’t want to define down the standards in any institution, ever, in life. You want to always strive to define standards up. If you start defining standards down—‘Well, I don’t have a big education, I don’t have experience’—yes, there’s a point to be made that not all the smartest people come out of Yale or Harvard. But to intentionally define down in some kind of wild populism, that those things don’t count in a complicated, dangerous world—that’s dangerous in itself.“There was a political party in this country called the Know-Nothings...And we’re getting on the fringe of that, with these one-issue voters—pro-choice or pro-life. Important issue, I know that. But, my goodness. The world is blowing up everywhere, and I just don’t think that is a responsible way to see the world, on that one issue. And, interestingly enough, that is one issue that stopped John McCain from picking one of the people he really wanted, Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge.”-Senator (now former Senator) Chuck Hagel, as quoted by Connie Bruck in The New Yorker; Bruck's excellent full profile of Hagel is here:http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/03/081103fa_fact_bruck?currentPage=all
“[Sarah Palin] knows her audience, and she’s going right after them. And I’ll tell you why that’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because you don’t want to define down the standards in any institution, ever, in life. You want to always strive to define standards up. If you start defining standards down—‘Well, I don’t have a big education, I don’t have experience’—yes, there’s a point to be made that not all the smartest people come out of Yale or Harvard. But to intentionally define down in some kind of wild populism, that those things don’t count in a complicated, dangerous world—that’s dangerous in itself.
“There was a political party in this country called the Know-Nothings...And we’re getting on the fringe of that, with these one-issue voters—pro-choice or pro-life. Important issue, I know that. But, my goodness. The world is blowing up everywhere, and I just don’t think that is a responsible way to see the world, on that one issue. And, interestingly enough, that is one issue that stopped John McCain from picking one of the people he really wanted, Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge.”
-Senator (now former Senator) Chuck Hagel, as quoted by Connie Bruck in The New Yorker; Bruck's excellent full profile of Hagel is here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/03/081103fa_fact_bruck?currentPage=all
For a non-partisan friendly version to share with undecided or confused voters, please send this link: http://www.valuesandtruth.org
Sarah Palin is an attractive choice for Vice President on the surface, but then again George W. Bush seemed an attractive choice for President once upon a time. If Palin were to become President, do we really deserve four more years of someone in the George W. Bush mold?Let me explain. Sarah, like George W., is the life of the party (okay even more than George). She's the gal we'd all much rather hang out and have a drink with. She's fun, lively and looks great on TV. When I look at how we admire Gov. Sarah Palin, it reminds me of how we used to admire Gov. George W. Bush. Bush, the “outsider” was gonna fix Washington. Instead, Washington (and the entire American economy) are more broken than ever. (continues)
The choice by Senator McCain of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate foretells what a McCain presidency will look like. Like George W. Bush, McCain has filled a vacancy, not with goal of finding the most qualified candidate, but with the goal of political expediency. Like some in the Bush Whitehouse, Palin is under investigation for misappropriation of executive power. Alberto Gonzales misappropriated his authority as Attorney General. The vice president’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby was indicted for perjury, only to be pardoned by Bush. Bush’s main political advisor, Karl Rove, continues to refuse to answer a congressional subpoena on what he knows about the politicization of justice department hirings and firings. Just as Rove has refused to cooperate in any way with an investigation into the Bush justice department, Palin now refuses to cooperate with an investigation into the firing of her former brother-in-law. In fact, a lawsuit has now been filed to quash the investigation into whether Palin illegally used the office of the governor to fire her sister’s ex-husband from the state police force. This is simply more of the same we’ve seen for the past eight years from the Bush administration.
Palin’s choice as V.P. is even more of a reflection of John McCain than it is of Palin herself. It is credibly reported that McCain chose Palin at the last minute on advice of political operatives. MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell recently reported that McCain only met Palin once before choosing her. This is eerily reminiscent of President Bush being led by less than stellar advisors. The actual choice of Palin also mirrors Bush’s choice of the less qualified. Remember Katrina’s “heck of a job, Brownie”? McCain and Palin represent more of the same.
Who will the political operatives tell McCain to choose next? Will it be Phil Gramm for Secretary of Treasury? He was the McCain campaign’s financial advisor when he called Americans’ lament over the economy “whining.” Maybe it’ll be a creationist for Secretary of Education? The point is, we cannot afford a president who will continue to appoint and nominate cabinet members and other heads of agencies based on political expediency over qualification. Eight years of this has lead to a disastrous foreign policy and an economy on the verge of collapse. We need someone of exceptionally high intelligence who will seek out the most qualified people for the toughest jobs. Barack Obama, past president of the Harvard Law Review, is such an exceptionally gifted individual. Our country simply cannot withstand another four years of the same we’ve seen from George W. Bush. McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin gives every indication that a McCain presidency will just be more of the same.
After reading a number of articles including "As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin Cut Own Duties, Left Trail of Bad Blood" in the Washington Post, it is clear that Sarah Palin is truly an “agent of change”. She has a strong record of cleaning house and getting anyone who does not agree with her views and agenda out of the way. There is nothing democratic about her governing style. Her record is scandalous. It makes me think of how a small minority in Iraq held tight control of the country under its leader Sadam Hussein (Sunni vs Shiite). However, in her case it is much worst. At least in Iraq, the government was secular. Palin’s record shows an intertwined relationship between government and conservative Christian religion views.
The scary thing for anyone who believes in democratic principles (though a blessing for those who want to gain power and control at any cost) is that she has crafted an artful and effective way to do and get away with her self-advancing and centered agenda.
Reference Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302596.html?nav=hcmodule&sid=ST2008091302649&s_pos= )
If you haven't seen this clip from The Daily Show yet, watch it. Unlike the McCain-Palin ticket, it's a winner, with 2,750,000 views so far on ComedyCentral.com. Sarah Palin Gender Card (video clip, ~5 minutes) Democracy is not a spectator sport. We can't afford to lose another election!
Today: I made five calls for the campaign, got two people to watch the Sarah Palin video above, and got someone (very special!) to donate to MoveOn.org's GOTV efforts to register 500,000 new young voters.
She's a mother of five, but it wouldn't matter if she were a father of five.
IMAGINE YOU ARE THE PARENT OF 5 KIDS, ONE WITH DOWNS SYNDROME. Would you have ANYTHING left over to devote to the Vice-Presidency of the United States?
This is not a gender issue. And if McCain were 45 and healthy, it might be a pass. But McCain is an elderly man with malignant cancer. Let's face it, he's highly likely to be derailed by his illness within the next 4 years. Which would put Sarah Pain and her husband and 5 kids in the White House at the same time that Al Qaeda is on the upswing, global warming is metling the polar icecaps and whipping up ever more devastating hurricanes, more Americans than ever are losing their homes, and record numbers of Americans are dying for lack of medical coverage. Oh, and food shortages are causing famine and war all over the world.
