Bristol Palin Believes Abstinence is “Not Realistic”
This story broke in the blogosphere big time yesterday, but to be fair, I had this post started yesterday, so it only looks like I’m late with this.
Bristol Palin sat down with Fox News two days ago for an intimate interview on being a new, teenage mother and given what she had to say, she confirmed our suspicions when she divulged that she had just told her mother, Sarah Palin, the day before she did the interview. What Bristol Palin had to say, however, may have surprised Fox News, her family, her family’s devout Republican, anti-choice followers, but most of all, us–The feminist population; but in a good way.
The very last few seconds of this interview may have caught everyone off guard, but between her candid words and amateur, teenage vocabulary, Bristol Palin hit the nail on the head–Abstinence is not realistic.
Sarah Palin is a Grandmother
Bristol Palin, the daughter of former (thank. goodness.) Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin gave birth to a healthy, 7lb. 7oz. baby boy on Saturday at 5:30am. The baby’s name is Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.
Sarah Palin first released news of Bristol’s pregnancy after she was “tapped on the shoulder” to run for office with former Republican presidential nominee John McCain at a convenient time while rebutting rumors about a cover up of her own pregnancy.
On Monday, Bill McAllister, a spokesman for Gov. Palin said, “This office will not be issuing any statements on [Bristol's baby]. We’re here to talk about state government and that matter falls outside of that.”
And because politicians and their families are treated by people as well as the media as celebrities, baby pictures of Tripp are said to be going for upwards of $300,000.
The bidding for baby pictures started at $100,000 and the price tag didn’t seem to be going up due to Sarah Palin recently gracing the covers of People, US Weekly and OK!, all of which saw a drop in sales. I would guess it has something to do with America being over Sarah Palin, not interested to learn more about a defeated political candidate. The bidding for the pictures started before the baby was born, but what really jumped the price was when Levi Johnston’s mother was arrested on drug charges.
Bristol and Levi plan to marry in 2009 and raise their child together like all teenage victims of strict, anti-choice parents.
What struck me as a little odd, to say the least, is the name of Bristol and Levi’s son. Sarah Palin’s son’s names are Track and Trig, why would Bristol be extending the line of off the wall names by going with Tripp? Perhaps because Trig and Tripp are so close in age? I have no idea. Thoughts?
Planned Parenthood Received over $1 Million in Honor of Sarah Palin
Gretchen Peters wrote the beloved, hit song, ‘Independence Day.’ What we saw a great deal of during the 2008 presidential election, was the RNC using inappropriate hit songs on the campaign trail; most notably we heard Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ during an event to introduce Sarah Palin, but the one misstep that did the most damage to the RNC and helped Planned Parenthood immensely was when ‘Independence Day’ was used by the RNC at an event promoting the McCain/Palin ticket. They most definitely should have thought twice about using a song that was written by a pro-woman woman when introducing one of the worst examples of a “feminist” to hit a political ticket; but what Gretchen said herself can sum up the entire Republican train wreck we saw during this past presidential campaign–The verse is the story, the verse is the message and when have we really seen the Republican party to do their homework?
When Gretchen heard that Independence Day was used on the campaign trail by the RNC, she decided to do something remarkable that would help literally millions of people–She donated all of the proceeds she received from ‘Independence Day’, from the time Gov. Palin took the stage the day Peters’ song was used until Election Day, to Planned Parenthood.
Because of Gretchen Peters’ bold statement and unfailing generosity to help the women, men and teens who walk into Planned Parenthood in need of health care, Planned Parenthood invited her to join their Board of Advocates which consist of prominent individuals united by their commitment to reproductive freedom and sexual health. She was also invited to perform ‘Independence Day’ at a Planned Parenthood event hosted by actors Julianne Moore and Olympia Dukakis in New York City on November 6, 2008. Yes, I know I am ridiculously late with this, but I haven’t seen this video posted on any of my regular-read blogs and am so inspired by this story and decided to post it, so watch the Planned Parenthood event and Gretchen’s performance:
The statement that Gretchen Peters made was truly amazing since over $1 million was donated to Planned Parenthood in honor of Sarah Palin.
Bloggers in Pajamas, Sarah Palin Hates You
While catching up on some political news, I was watching some MSNBC news clips and came across this little gem. Apparently Sarah Palin thinks bloggers are simply people who sit in their parent’s basements, in their pajamas, getting off on the fact that they are spreading gossip and lies. I guess bloggers are simply contributing to the “rotten apple baskets of media” she likes to go on about so much.
Sarah Palin sure likes to blame the media a lot and is simply proving, by doing all of these interviews after the Republican ticket went down in flames on election night, that it was a good idea made by the RNC to keep her away from the media without a teleprompter.
And for the record, no I don’t live with my parents, I’ve been out of my father’s house since I was 17, thank you very much Sarah Palin. Now, as for the whole pajamas thing, we like to be comfortable, okay?
I Don’t Think Palin Would Answer My Questions
On Wednesday, Wolf Blitzer will be interviewing former (thank goodness) Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on The Situation Room. What makes this interview different from any other interview formerly conducted with the woman who finds a way to dodge all questions she cannot answer, is that we can all be a part of it–If we submit boring, Palin-friendly questions, I’m guessing, but it’s a worth a shot either way. So if you have a question for Palin, CNN is asking you to submit them here.
Apparently she will be taking questions on “a wide variety of topics,” however, I doubt she would answer any question that I, and I’m guessing many others, would ask. But just for the hell of it, here’s mine:
- Do you know the difference between being a feminist and benefiting from feminism?
Here are some ideas for questions, all of which she has previously dodged or knew nothing about; maybe the Bush cronies taught her some things in the time she spent with them.
- Do you believe dinosaurs existed?
- What is the Bush doctrine? (Yeah, you knew it was coming.)
- How did you feel about that whole bailout thing, again?
- What newspapers did you read before being “tapped on the shoulder” to run with John McCain? What newspapers do you read now? Any? More of a right-wing radio type of person? TV? Fox News?
I’m sure you all probably have trillions of Palin questions going through your minds right now, so go on over and submit a video of your question and also leave it here because I’m rather curious what questions everyone would ask.
John McCain Concedes: ‘The American People Have Spoken and They Have Spoken Clearly’
Outside of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel shortly after 9 pm, McCain conceded the presidential election to Barack Obama, starting with ‘the American people have spoken and they have spoken clearly.’
Standing with Governor Sarah Palin, her husband Todd and his wife, Cindy, McCain spoke to a crowd of disappointed supporters as he wished President Obama the best and urged unity within the American people. While I commend McCain’s dignified, albeit forced, speech, his supporters have once again proven to be the type of people who will not let this go and who will not accept defeat and work as a people towards change and the democracy this country was based on. The supporters of McCain’s who gathered outside of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel have proven to be the type of people we have become all too familiar with throughout this past campaign; the type of people who resort to name calling when the facts aren’t the facts that they want to accept and the type of people who are afraid of what this country can do when it is united for one purpose. These people went as far as to obviously strike a chord within John McCain himself and the one thing that I must absolutely commend him on is not allowing his supporters to disrespect their new president.
If you missed McCain’s concession, the video is below. I personally have watched it three times because apparently, my local news could not get enough of it and had it looping for an hour.
Sarah Palin is Not a Feminist and She Agrees!
Just two months ago, when Sarah Palin was announced as the Republican vice presidential candidate, I wrote a post voicing my outrage over Palin calling herself and being called a feminist. To this day, that post is the most popular post on Menstrual Poetry, receiving more comments than any other post on this website, mostly from McCain and Palin supporters telling me that indeed Palin is a feminist and how dare I say that she isn’t just because she possesses stronger anti-woman policies than even most male Republicans.
Recently, much to my satisfaction and most likely to the dissatisfaction of some Palin supporters (like the LA president of NOW, for one) Palin has recently had a change of heart on her whole “I’m a feminist” stance.
So what’s behind her change of heart on feminism? Perhaps it’s because of the disapproval of actual feminists. Perhaps she realized that it’s a hell of a lot easier to claim she’s a feminist than to actually believe in what feminists fight daily for. While I doubt Palin will comment on her flip flop, I think we can all think of a few reasons why it’s really a great thing that she is choosing to not label herself as anything. For a woman with strong, anti-woman policies to label herself as a feminist is an insult; not only to feminists, but to all women, everywhere.
Good going, Palin! Never insult us by claiming you are one of us again, got it? Good.
I Would Suggest that Cindy McCain Change Shoes with Any Middle Class American
At a recent McCain/Palin rally in Bethlehem, PA, Cindy McCain made a speech where she said:
“I’m proud of my sons, but let me tell you, the day that Senator Obama cast a vote not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body. I would suggest that Senator Obama change shoes with me for just one day, and see what it means.”
First of all, Cindy McCain is not the first person in this Republican choke hold to the top to make this remark; in fact, she probably was not smart enough to come up with it on her own, so she took it from Governor Sarah Palin, who was most likely told to say it by Senator McCain or one of the Bush speech writers lending Palin a hand with all of this political talk business. On October 2, 2008, during the vice presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri, Palin said:
“I know that the other ticket opposed this surge — in fact, even opposed funding our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama voted against funding troops after promising that he would not do so,”
So let’s take a closer look at this particular, horribly misleading remark (although Obama has already disproved this remark several times, but you know, people don’t listen to him and would rather get their information from a camp that has been proven to have made over 62 different false and misleading points about Obama throughout this campaign.)
Obama, along with 13 other senators, voted against a war-spending plan that would have provided emergency funds for American troops overseas on May 24, 2007. The reason Obama voted against this plan was because, he said:
“We must fund our troops, but we owe them more. We owe them a clear, prudent plan to relieve them of the burden of policing someone else’s civil war.”
Now, what Palin and Cindy McCain failed to mention is that Senator Obama supported and voted for an earlier version of that bill which would have provided the same funding for American troops, but had established a timeline for Bush to begin bringing them home.
Also, as a side note, Biden had also voted for that version of the plan as well.
Now guess how McCain voted on this war spending plan? Yeah, he didn’t, so doesn’t that make McCain, a former POW and also a father of a deployed American soldier just as bad as Palin and the McCains are trying to make Obama out to be? Yeah, I think so.
So now that we know the point both Sarah Palin and Cindy McCain made about Obama is bullshit, let’s take a look at how a woman who is an heiress to an estimated $100 million beer company, who makes approximately $6 million a year, has the right to compare herself to average, middle-class citizens who have sons and daughters currently deployed or who have been deployed themselves.
If we know anything by now, it is that the McCains make enough money where John McCain seriously cannot recall just how many houses he has, so why does Cindy McCain think it is okay to compare herself, a woman with potentially 11 different homes, to a family who is struggling to pay their mortgage on their one and only home, or perhaps even their rent on their one apartment? Because her family and your family both have deployed family, although she will rest her head on $800 sheets and you will be laying awake all night wondering what bill is important to pay this month or if you can afford to put gas in the car and buy groceries? While Cindy McCain makes bold statements, do you think she would change shoes with you, or any middle class citizen with deployed family? I wouldn’t count on it and neither would the many military spouses (most of which who coincidentally support Obama) Cindy McCain offended with her statement.
“When millionaires such as Cindy McCain act as if they understand our lives, and the lives of everyday military families and veterans, we get upset,” said Himel-Nelson.
Perhaps the next time Cindy McCain feels the need to publicly offend middle class, military families, someone should ask her why John McCain received a 20% rating from Disabled American Veterans (Barack Obama received an 80% rating) and a D grade for his voting record on issues such as additional funding for combat body armor and for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other medical treatment by the non-partisan group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. (Barack Obama received a B+.)
Rally of the Buzzwords
From here on in, expect any smear campaign that McCain launches towards Obama to be taken at face value, but instead of those of us who are sane, practical and logical, we know to do our homework on any candidate, no matter who they are, and make an informed decision based on what that candidate can do for this country and for us. However, like many of us are all too aware of, there are some people out there who instead of doing their research on a candidate or thinking for more than 1.3 seconds about the legitimacy of what kind of bullshit “their” candidate is putting out into the media, there are way too many people who will soak up McCain’s bogus ads, go to see him speak and then throw nothing but buzzwords out, believing wholeheartedly that the bullshit their brains soaked up like a sponge from the oh so “reliable” sources like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Fox News and John McCain and Sarah Palin themselves are completely right, not giving any of these accusations a second thought and accepting them as truth.
So for those who believe that the video in the last post was a fluke or that “not all” McCain supporters think or act like those who made asses of themselves in that video, here is another from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I am ashamed to share a state with these people.
A big thanks goes out to all of the aforementioned sane, practical and logical folks who were also at that rally trying to spread the truth about McCain/Palin such as the fact that Palin made women in Alaska pay for their own rape kits. The replies of their supporters? Well, they believe that a woman who is raped should pay for their own rape kit and not only that, but they should pay double, die, or be killed.
Nice, huh?
This election is ugly, yes, but a woman is never at fault for being raped and the people who believe that a woman is at fault are the same people who believe that she was asking for it, deserved it, should be killed because of it or they are the people who believe rape doesn’t exist, don’t teach their children about sexual assault at a young age, or maybe they are also the people who are abusers themselves.
While it is obvious that the McCain camp is “turning a page” and doing very little but launching attacks on Obama, what the fuck ever happened to humanity? As a feminist, activist, and advocate for rape and sexual assault, myself and many other people out there are speaking out about abuse and trauma and if you ever thought “Hey, this is about human decency, who doesn’t care about something that should come naturally to being a human?” These are obviously the people we are up against.
If there is one issue that is screaming at the top of its lungs that we need to reform, it’s education. There are so many people in this country who need to be educated and you just saw a video of several.
Just Name One Newspaper! Any Newspaper!
How does a question like “What newspaper did you read before accepting the vice presidential nomination from John McCain?” turn into Palin talking about how American citizens think Alaska is a foreign country?
Apparently Palin has either read every newspaper ever created or none at all. Do Alaskan cities have local newspapers? If so, why can’t she name one? Just one? She could have just named a newspaper out there that she has at least heard of that she didn’t really read, but at least knew the name of.
What is expected of someone who runs as a Republican vice presidential candidate? I mean, apparently all you need to do is not drool all over yourself while speaking, know how to read a little bit, talk in circles, make up your own questions in your head and answer them while completely ignoring the question that was initially asked. Oh Sarah, you’re lowering the bar more and more every time you open your mouth.
A candidate for any type of office in the United States should be just that–An educated, intelligent and on point candidate; not hours of entertainment. But hey, what the hell am I talking about? Look who was “voted” into the presidency for the past 8 years.
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