I didn’t think Sarah Palin would give us so much to talk about in just her first televised interview, but on September 11, 2008, Palin conducted her first interview on ABC World News with Charles Gibson. Gibson asked the question Do you agree with the Bush doctrine? and it took Palin all of 6 seconds to tell us all that she has no idea what the Bush doctrine is.
The Bush Doctrine:The Bush doctrine has set out a radically new–and dangerous–role for the United States.
On September 20, [2002], the Bush administration published a national security manifesto overturning the established order. Not because it commits the United States to global intervention: We’ve been there before. Not because it targets terrorism and rogue states: Nothing new there either. No, what’s new in this document is that it makes a long-building imperial tendency explicit and permanent. The policy paper, titled “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America”–call it the Bush doctrine–is a romantic justification for easy recourse to war whenever and wherever an American president chooses.
In 2 minutes and 34 seconds Palin never did answer Gibson’s question. No, it is not Bush’s “world view,” it is a page out of Bush’s terrorist myth book that blatantly says “Hey, you wanna go to war? Go for it!” However, through Palin’s semi-literate, guess-we-have-to-call-this-an-answer answer (after Charles Gibson was nice enough to tell Palin what it is) then yes, she agrees with the Bush doctrine 110%.
It does not take much to realize how the Republican party sees the US, how they see the rest of the world and how the US can inevitably unify everyone under one, totalitarian government.
I posted a video yesterday of Matt Damon speaking his mind about Sarah Palin. The worst thing that he said during this video was that Sarah Palin being so close to being the actual president is like a “bad Disney movie.”
Well the Palin camp has recently responded to Damon as well as all of the alleged “Barack Obama celebrity supporters” by saying:
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Palin, called the comments “name-calling.”
“It’s not surprising that the Barack Obama and his celebrity supporters continue to tear down Governor Palin with little more than blatant name-calling,” she said. “It’s clear they’re threatened by a candidate who actually has a record of achieving reform and change, while Barack Obama just talks about it.”
First of all, what “name-calling?” Matt Damon did not call Palin any names whatsoever. What he did say about her and concerning her is that he simply knows nothing about her, will not know much more about her in 8 weeks and what he knows is what most of us know–Very close to nothing. Matt Damon did call her a hockey mom from Alaska, which is what Palin has been calling herself through all of her speeches so I don’t know how that is considered “name-calling.” Damon along with other American citizens that do not all include “Barack Obama supporters” know close to nothing about this woman and are terrified at the thought of Palin not just becoming the next vice president, but given how old McCain is and how poor he is in health, Palin could very well become the next president. All that Damon said in the video was that it was scary, which a lot of people can agree with. And with the end of that statement, isn’t the Palin camp issuing some “name-calling” themselves? Don’t we love political double talk?
As for being threatened by a candidate who “actually has a record of achieving reform and change,” that’s just some more biased comments from the right. Palin has indeed set to change a few things…Like freedom of the arts and of speech by asking the library how she could go about banning books. It is noted that while mayor, Palin endlessly injected religious beliefs into her policy which is directly giving the finger to that whole “freedom of religion” thing. Palin also slashed funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live from $5 million to $3.9 million.
So to get all this straight, the Palin camp has the audacity to say that she is a candidate who has a record of achieving reform and change, however, what Palin did manage to change has hurt a great deal of people instead of helping them. Palin believes that abortion should not be legal even in cases of rape or incest so if you are a teenage girl who was raped or is a victim of incest and you find yourself pregnant, under the Palin law, you would be forced to carry that pregnancy to term and either give up that child for adoption, playing that child into a system that is overflowing due to the restrictions set up by the government for people who wish to adopt children, or you can mother that child but Palin does not think you deserve any help whatsoever, even if you are a pregnant, homeless teenager.
Yeah…Great work, Palin! I can’t wait to see other changes you try to make and while you’re at it, why not just get rid of welfare all together, get rid of all great literature and books that were written without religious understones–You know, come to think of it, why doesn’t every library in American just carry millions of copies of the Bible? Sound like a great idea? Yeah, I thought you would like that.
As for other celebrities speaking out about Palin, Pamela Anderson recently said “[Palin] can suck it.” I wonder what kind of response the Palin camp is trying to come up with for that one!
For $27.95 you can get your very own Sarah Palin action figure to do whatever you’d like with but for just $2 more you can get the Britney Spears-like (we’re talking Baby One More Time style here, not crazy, shave your head and get committed Britney Spears) “school girl” doll that even includes white thigh highs and red bra poking out of a white shirt. And because Hero Builders are very uninspired here and are in the “make a quick buck” business, not only did they copy Britney Spears here, but you can also get yourself a Palin superhero action figure with one of Lara Croft’s outfits! All Palin dolls come with the same, super creepy Palin face.
They probably should have done a little more with the face and should have been a little more inspired with the style of the dolls since they look more like miniature sex dolls than anything else with the “school girl” doll, but Hero Builders is simply trying to cash in off of Palin mania that has been sweeping through the right wing.
So Hillary gets a nutcracker and Palin gets a schoolgirl outfit – obviously both of these come from a place of fear of women’s power. With Hillary, just call her a ballbuster; Palin, just sexify her so she’s not a threat but just another hot chick to look at. Either way, blech.
I was going to make a statement today by not making a statement having to do with 9/11, however, I thought that some may think that I was giving today a “moment of silence” and that isn’t the case. Instead, I am going to give you all something to think about; something that I have been thinking about for years, something that infuriates and saddens me to no end.
There is no excuse for what happened on September 11th. There is no excuse for the lives that were lost, for the lives that were traumatized, for the lives that were affected by a death in the family, a death of a friend and the death of so many American soldiers that are still in Iraq. There is no excuse for the lives of our soldiers being taken from them, there is no excuse for the lives of the soldiers that will be taken from them and their families and friends. There is no excuse for the United States of America to be consumed with war, with greed, with tragedy, with death, with oil, with lack of money, with foreclosures, with lost jobs. There is no excuse for the new “red scare” to be “terrorism.” There is no excuse for American people to live every day for the past 7 years and from September 11, 2001 forward in fear.
There is no excuse for the brainwashing of so many American people in fear of terrorism. There is no excuse for the rights of the American people being taken quietly and sneakily out from under them.
This is no such thing as terrorism except for the terrorism that is being conducted by the American government themselves.
I am angry. I am angry that I am being lied to every day by the government that gives me empty promises that they are protecting me when they are spying on me. There is no excuse for the government to tap our phone lines in the name of “terrorism.” There is no excuse for the government to be able to come into my house, search my things and never have to tell me about it if they believe that I am a “terrorist.” There is no excuse for the “terrorist watch list” that affects over 400,000 American people. This is not “protecting us from terrorism.” This is abuse of power. This is the American government lying to its citizens. This is the American government spying on its citizens. This is the American government getting away with too fucking much.
And this is why I feel ashamed of the country that I live in. This is why I feel ashamed of my president. This is why I feel lied to, angry and saddened. This is why I am almost out of hope for this country–Almost.
[If you're interested in more from the movie the above clip was taken from, click here.]
Matt Damon has recently spoken out about his feelings about Sarah Palin. Why am I posting this? Why do I care about what Matt Damon has to say? Well, because his thoughts and feelings are pretty much what a lot of Americans are feeling as they decide who they support in the upcoming presidential election and no, the majority of people who haven’t been keeping up on politics, the candidates and issues have no idea who Sarah Palin is and what she stands for.
Violence against women and female children is a “century-old tradition” and while more and more cases of violence against women in Pakistan turn up, the media is remaining ignorant to the fact that this type of violence does exist. When the media will report endlessly about the resignation of Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan but so few media outlets report about five women being buried alive, something is terribly wrong.
The media’s ignorance towards violence against women in the world makes you wonder about people who gain much of their knowledge from the media. Why is there no international outrage? The sad truth of the matter is that honor killings and international violence against women does not get much coverage at all and because of that, most people do not know what is going on and what is happening to so many women in Pakistan who are victims of honor killings. While it is a rising pandemic it is also an isolated, household tradition.
Five women in Pakistan were buried alive by tribesmen in the same week that Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan. The crime that these women committed was wanting to choose their own husbands. They defied tribal elders and arranged marriages to men of their own choosing in a civil court. Because of this, these women were abducted at gunpoint by some men and dragged off to a remote field, where they were beaten, shot, thrown into a ditch, and then, while still breathing, smothered to death with rocks and mud.
A member of the Pakistani parliament, Israr Ullah Zehri, said that these killings were merely “century-old traditions” and that they are necessary to stop obscenity. The media also did not deem this condoning of barbaric violence against women important and failed to report anything about it. Because of this, the media is also condoning violence against women and honor killings.
It’s high time that we change the shameful fact that when it comes to barbarity against members of the female half of humanity, the silence of not only the press but also of political, religious and other leaders is almost deafening.
Women’s organizations nationally and internationally have for years struggled to change this, and gradually human rights organizations have paid more attention to the pandemic of violence against women. But men — and particularly men who identify themselves as moral leaders — must also raise their voices. They too must voice their outrage about their “brothers” all over the world who are brutalizing women.
Gloria Steinem recently published an article in the LA Times entitled ‘Palin: wrong woman, wrong message‘ In a piece that was published under ‘opinion,’ which I find to be a mistake since a lot of women are unanimously agreeing on the fact that Palin is indeed the wrong woman for potential vice presidency and she is definitely touting the wrong message across America. Why do I think this? Well, let’s leave it to Gloria Steinem herself to clear up the Sarah Palin myths people are buying into when they believe that Palin is a good candidate for women and set the record straight for the media who believe that women who support (and supported) Hillary Clinton for president would be so simple-minded and jump at the chance to get a woman (any woman!) into that white house and vote for McCain simply based on his vice presidential pick.
This isn’t the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere.
To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, “Somebody stole my shoes, so I’ll amputate my legs.”
Palin has been honest about what she doesn’t know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, “I still can’t answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?” When asked about Iraq, she said, “I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq.”
She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she’s won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain’s campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax.
McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.
She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women’s wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves “abstinence-only” programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers’ millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn’t spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
I’m not going to quote the entire article, but these points were way too important to not note here. Read the entire article here.
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