Hero of the Month – August 2009

This Month’s Hero: Sarah Palin

I think she's gonna cry.

     So after more than a year, I’m bringing back the Hero of the Month. I would have posted about Heroes from the last year, but let’s face it, nothing really happened in the past year. For this month, I have nominated former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Although resigning her governorship, she has managed to remain in the news cycle, mostly by making bizarre statements about a variety of different issues. Her ability to indefinitely extend her fifteen minutes of fame is commendable and deserves attention.

     First let’s examine her earlier political career. She served two terms as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. While Mayor, she did some concerning things. According to Wikipedia, she “increased funding to the Police Department…At the same time, the city reduced spending on the town museum and stopped construction of a new library and city hall.” If you’ve ever read “The Dead Zone” by Stephen King you know that Greg Stillson did the same thing as mayor of Ridgeway, New Hampshire. Quoting directly from the book:

     ”It was some of the other things that had happened while Stillson was mayor that made Johnny feel scared.
     Funds for the town library had been cut from $11,500 to $8,000, and then in the last year of Stillson’s term, to $6,500. At the same time, the municipal police appropriation had risen by forty percent.”

*Spoiler Alert* At the end of the book, Johnny Smith tries to assassinate Greg Stillson because he foresaw a global nuclear war if Stillson was elected President of the United States. Now I’m not trying to state that Sarah Palin absolutely would precipitate a nuclear holocaust, but it is likely. Johnny was right (not about the assassination), it’s disturbing when you beef up local defense while trying to gut public education. Police State anyone?

     Also as mayor, she seemed to go on a spending binge. According to Wikipedia, during her term “The city’s long-term debt grew from about $1 million to $25 million.” I thought Republicans were fiscally conservative. I guess it’s alright to spend a shit-ton of money and then move on up the ladder without worrying about whats going to happen. It’s what all the cool kids are doing.

     Then there is the matter of some strange firings. While mayor of Wasilla she had some issues with both the city librarian and City Police Chief. Again Wikipedia:

“Wasilla librarian Mary Ellen Emmons strongly objected to remarks by Palin that Emmons characterized as being about censorship. Emmons said that Palin asked two or three times in October 1996 if she would object to books being removed from the library. Palin has said the question was ‘rhetorical’.”

Umm, that is not the kind of rhetorical question that a mayor asks a city librarian. Wikipedia again:

“Police Chief Irl Stambaugh, who was fired by Palin, was previously nominated to be Alaska’s Municipal Employee of the Year. Because he had heard that Palin had felt intimidated by him during a meeting, he made sure to sit when talking with her, and to use a soothing voice. Nevertheless, Palin said, ‘When I met with you in private, instead of engaging in interactive conversation with me, you gave me short, uncommunicative answers and then you would sit there and stare at me in silence with a very stern look, like you were trying to intimidate me’.”

Really? Grow up. Finally, there is some suspicion that then Governor Palin fired Public Saftey Commisioner Walt Monegan because he refused to fire state trooper Mike Wooten who was in a child custody battle with the Governor’s sister. Shady, just plain shady.

     Okay, let’s talk about more recent history. I’m not going to talk about her resignation speech. It made no sense, but I don’t know if that was because she was rambling incoherently or because I was a little tipsy. What I want to discuss is her recent comments on Facebook about the new health care plan reproduced here:

“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”

Let’s not even talk about how a former governor posting political opinions on Facebook is suspect. This comment is downright irresponsible. As far as I know, the new health care plan is still in development stages. That means that legislators are coming up with proposals, discussing them, and figuring out which should be included or discarded. Isn’t that what we want? I would think that this issue warrants serious discussion from serious people with serious ideas. When you come out and make ridiculous claims about things that you know nothing about, it sends people into an insanity spiral. Welcome to these so called town hall meetings. More like town hall cluster-fucks. I saw Arlen Specter (PA-R/D/Whatever he is today) almost get punched in the face by one of his constituents. It looked like a cop was about to drop this guy like a bag of dirt, but Senator Specter waved him off. I heard a Fox News anchor say something about Sarah Palin being able to resonate with the American People. I agree, since she seems to know as much about the health care situation as the American People: Not too damn much.

     Lastly, if you’re Sarah Palin you respect the office that it seems that you aspire to. If you’re going to refer to Obama, you refer to him as PRESIDENT Obama. Especially if you’re going to publish something worldwide on Facebook.

     There is SO much more to say, but I’m looking at how long this post is and getting concerned about if anyone is really gonna read all this. If you just skipped most of it to this paragraph, I don’t blame you.

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Listen: Electric Light Orchestra, “Evil Woman”
Quote: “I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t.” – Sarah Palin