$2 Million to Kill Polar Bears, for the Sake of Ignorance

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polarbear-stevehillebrand-usfws.jpgMcClatchy has an important fact check on Sarah Palin’s latest interview with Charlie Gibson–noting her, um, fluid views on climate change.

Charles Gibson seemed a little confused about Gov. Sarah Palin’s answers on global warming when he interviewed her this week while strolling beside the trans-Alaska pipeline.

The ABC anchor has plenty of Alaska voters for company. Since entering the governor’s race here two years ago, Palin has shimmied back and forth on the key question of whether warming trends are natural or a byproduct of human activity.

Most interesting, though, is the description of where Palin got the money to sue the Federal government in an attempt to delist the polar bear as an endangered species.

Earlier this year, the state legislature approved $2 million for a conference inviting climate change skeptics here to hash out the causes.

"It is important to remember that climate change is occurring, but then it has occurred continuously for millions of years," wrote the legislature’s Republican leaders, House Speaker John Harris and Senate President Lyda Green. "And, so far, there are too many dissenting opinions to state matter-of-factly that it is being caused by humans."

The project was derided by some as a "conference to nowhere" and now appears unlikely to take place. Much of the money was later diverted to fund a lawsuit by the Palin administration against listing the polar bear as a threatened species. [my emphasis]

The reality-haters in Alaska wanted to host a party for similar reality-haters. But instead, the listing of the polar bear as an endangered species gave them their opportunity to challenge reality on a national scale. With the added bonus for them, of course, that if they won, they could continue to trash the polar bear’s habitat with abandon.

I realize Sarah Palin is suing the government for practical reasons, so, if she won, Alaska could continue to get rich off of selling the Japanese gas and oil, without worrying whether it’ll wipe out polar bears once and for all.

But at some level, isn’t she just going after the polar bears as a propaganda stunt?

Photo credit: Steve Hillebrand / USFWS

The Meddling Husband May Get A Subpoena

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One of the, um, creepiest things about Sarah Palin is that her husband lurks around the Governor’s business, sticking his nose in where private citizens should have no involvement. This includes oil and gas negotiations, her emails, and hiring and firing decisions–including that of Walt Monegan. In fact, when I was reading Wevley Shea’s warnings to Palin, I kept thinking: "Wevley, Dude, she can’t get out of this because she can’t fire one of the "aides" most intimately involved in pressuring Monegan: her husband."

Well, now she might wish she had, because in addition to the seven Palin aides who are cooperating in the McCain cover-up (and therefore NOT cooperating in the TrooperGate investigation), the investigator has asked to subpoena Todd Palin.

The committee investigating this has to vote on who will get a subpoena–so Todd Palin does not yet have to bone up on his "spousal privilege" (no, not that kind of privilege–with Republicans it’s about the cover-up, you know). 

But at the very least, this ought to focus some attention on whether it is appropriate for Todd Palin to be making the hiring and firing decisions of Alaska’s public servents.

Update: In a bipartisan 3-2 vote, the committee has approved the subpoenas.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 today to subpoena 13 people — including the husband of Gov. Sarah Palin — in an investigation of whether Palin abused her power in trying to get her former brother-in-law fired.

The legislative probe has taken on new significance since Republican presidential candidate John McCain picked Palin as his running mate.

Retired prosecutor Stephen Branchflower asked the state House and Senate judiciary committees for power to subpoena the 13 witnesses, including Todd Palin, the governor’s husband.

"He’s such a central figure. … I think one should be issued for him," Branchflower said.

The Senate committees granted the request. Voting for were Sens. Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla, and two Anchorage Democrats, Hollis French and Bill Wielechowski.

Palin’s Advisor Makes the Comparison to the US Attorney Purge Explicit

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If you’ve been watching Sarah Palin’s attempt to cover-up her abuse of power in TrooperGate, it may have reminded you of Bush’s attempt to cover up his US Attorney purge: An executive wants to retaliate against those who have put the rule of law above partisan or personal grudges, so she fires people. And then, when people notice, she starts stone-walling and back-tracking on promises to cooperate.

Kagro X has already made this comparison explicit.

Warning to Democrats Americans: Republicans are fighting this investigation like it was Florida 2000. If you’re harboring any thoughts of taking a hands-off approach, rising above the fray, and then doubling back to investigate it later if she gets elected, think again. At that point we’ll be hearing nothing but how it was "thoroughly investigated" by the Alaska state legislature. The quashing of the subpoenas won’t be mentioned, and all will be forgotten. You know it’s coming.

This is a direct parallel to federal issues playing out as we speak in Washington, with Harriet Miers a no-show once again today on a subpoena that’s now well over a year old.

Turns out, Kagro X isn’t the first one to make such a comparison. One of Sarah Palin’s own personal advisors is.

WSJ broke and CNN did a follow-up story on the warnings Palin’s ethics advisor, Wevley Shea, gave her just as the story that she fired Walt Monegan started to break back in July.

An informal adviser who has counseled Gov. Sarah Palin on ethics issues urged her in July to apologize for her handling of the dismissal of the state’s public safety commissioner and warned that the matter could snowball into a bigger scandal.

He also said, in a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, that she should fire any aides who had raised concerns with the chief over a state trooper who was involved in a bitter divorce with the governor’s sister.

In an interview with CNN, Shea compares the TrooperGate cover-up (and remember–this is a description coming from one of Palin’s friends!) and the US Attorney purge:

"The problem, in my opinion, is that there has been out-and-out cover-up and misleading statements by staffers in the governor’s office," he said. "And the parallel that I tried to draw is, you know, the problem with the firing or terminating of the U.S. attorneys."

Read more →

McCain Makes the Case that Energy State Governors Are Great on National Security

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Joe Sudbay is right—this interview, in which McCain is challenged to explain why Governor Palin is qualified to be a 72-year old heartbeat away from the presidency, is terrible.

But I’m most interested–disturbed, really–by his latest explanation of how Sarah Palin is qualified on the matter that McCain says matters most: national security. 

Reporter: You say you’re sure she has the experience, but I’m just asking for an example. What experience does she have in the field of national security?

McCain: Energy. She knows more about energy than uh probably anyone else in the United States of America. She represe–is a governor of the state that 20% of America’s energy supply comes from there. And you all know that energy is a critical and vital national security issue.

McCain is basically arguing that serving as governor of a state that supplies a lot of America’s energy gives a person great national security credentials.

Hmmm. Governors of states that supply lots of energy … states that supply lots of energy … lets see, those would include Alaska, Louisiana, …

Ut oh.

And Texas.

Now aside from the fact that McCain is wrong about his claim that Alaska provides 20% of our energy supply (it provides 20% of our oil, relatively little–at least thus far–of our natural gas, and insignificant amounts of coal, nuclear, wind, or solar power), he’s basically arguing that a guy like George Bush has the national security qualifications to be President.

And we saw how well that worked out. 

All in all, I’d say, McCain’s making a great case for voting against Sarah Palin.

Now! All New!! One Third the Campaigners

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The McCain campaign, noting that by adding a celebrity to their ticket they can actually fill rallies, has announced McCain and Palin will continue to campaign together after she returns from trying to cover up her dirt in Alaska.

The McCain campaign is "very seriously considering" having McCain and Palin campaign together more often than not in the next two months, a senior campaign aide said, adding it could be the most a presidential and vice presidential candidate campaign in tandem in recent history.

The aide said the two have developed a strong chemistry together and will likely utilize it through joint rallies. He likened it to the chemistry Bill Clinton and Al Gore had in 1992, suggesting it was instinctive.

"Sometimes these vice presidential selections, the pairings, work in a magical way," the aide told reporters on the Palin campaign plane, on condition of anonymity.

Though, really, it’s not so much "chemistry" or "magic." It’s necessity. You can’t promise concert-goers Carrie Underwood and then deliver Lawrence Welk–which is what the McCain campaign will be doing until they get their hot celebrity back on the trail. 

In fact, McCain couldn’t even get through his first campaign rally after Palin left, though that appears to have been Democrats capitalizing on really bad advance work from the McCain team.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain cut short his first public appearance without running-mate Sarah Palin after chanting supporters of Democratic rival Barack Obama interrupted his speech.

After lunching with a roundtable of women at Philadelphia’s Down Home Diner, McCain shook hands with supporters and strode up to a podium to deliver a statement. But as he spoke, chants of "Obama, Obama, Obama" filled the room.

Reporters craned forward trying to hear the Arizona senator. Unfortunately for McCain — and possibly overlooked by aides who planned the event — a section of the diner opened up to a market where a crowd had gathered behind a cordon.

A large contingent of Obama supporters showed up, mixed with some who had bumper stickers reading "Democrats for McCain".

[snip]

His words were barely audible. [my emphasis]

Frankly, this state of affairs has a lot of risk for McCain. He is already depending on her to bring out the crowds–which suggests a real dependency which kind of weakens the whole war hero image.

But I’m most interested in what McCain’s reliance on Palin will do for his ability to campaign. Read more →

As the Lies Pile Up, McCain’s Former Fans Increasingly Repulsed by the Cynicism

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Tweety counts seven times that she has repeated her Bridge to Nowhere line. Meanwhile, as of 2:30 PM, ThinkProgress is up to 27 different uses of this line (including Palin’s 8th use of it today).

Meanwhile, one by one, the weight of this evidence has demonstrated to McCain’s former fans what a dishonorable, cynical creature John McCain has become. There was Mike Murphy, caught on live mike, admitting that the selection of Sarah Palin was cynical and gimmicky. And Joe Klein, labeling McCain’s pro-predator attack on Obama as  "one of the sleaziest ads I’ve ever seen in presidential politics." Even Mark Halperin called last nights piggy lipstick stunt the lowpoint of this campaign. 

Sully is just the latest of former McCain fans to grow utterly disgusted with this new cynical creature.

For me, this surreal moment – like the entire surrealism of the past ten days – is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It’s about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil.

[snip]

McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not have the character to be president of the United States. And that is why it is more important than ever to ensure that Barack Obama is the next president. The alternative is now unthinkable. And McCain – no one else – has proved it. 

These former fans may well be the biggest threat to McCain’s campaign. There’s nothing like a lover scorned and no one to better describe the profound depths of McCain’s cynicism than to have his former boosters describe their newfound revulsion. 

McCain, Bush and Palin – The Freeloading Riches Of The GOP

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images.thumbnail.jpegTurns out Sarah Palin has a very spotty attendance record in her brief experience as Governor of Alaska. Juneau is the state capital of Alaska. From the Juneau Empire:

Palin has spent little time in Juneau, rarely coming to the state capital except when the Legislature was in session, and sometimes not even then.

During a recent special session called by Palin herself, she faced criticism from several legislators for not showing up personally to push for her agenda.

Someone at the Capitol even printed up buttons asking "Where’s Sarah?" Rep. Andrea Doll, D-Juneau, called it a telling question.

"At a time when her leadership was truly needed, we didn’t know where she was," Doll said.

Local Alaskan reporter Shannyn Moore, on Tuesday night’s Countdown on MSNBC, confirmed that many members of the Alaskan legislature wore yellow "Where’s Sarah" buttons. Of course, this must be read in conjunction with the fact that Palin has bilked taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office (well over half of the time), charging a per diem allowance normally intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. She charged the State of Alaska for staying in her own house and away from her job at the state capital.

Habitually away from where her governing job, for which she is paid to attend and perform by the citizens; gee, that makes Sarah Palin just like….

George Bush. Although you can certainly make the argument that the country is better off when Bush is not on the job, the fact remains that he has been the most absentee President in modern history. As of March 2008, Bush had spent 452 days on vacation at his Crawford ranch in Texas; well over a full year of his seven years in office spent down on the farm ranch. And this, of course, doesn’t include the other fun filled time Bush spends slapping bikini clad babe’s butts at the Olympics and all the other larks he galavants off on.

Habitually away from his governing duties in Washington DC, for which he is paid to attend and perform by the citizens of this country; gee, that makes George Bush just like….

John McCain. McCain is the most absent senator in Congress, having missed 63 percent of the votes since the 110th Congress opened session on January 3, 2007. 63%. McCain’s absentee record even beats that of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), who was completely absent nearly a year while recovering from a brain hemorrhage. Read more →

Animal Farm: The Response to McCain’s Piggy Lipstick Stunt

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animal-farm.jpgYesterday, I posted on the McCain camp’s stunt to use false outrage over a common colloquialism to both distract from the mounting evidence that Governor Palin is a sham, and to cow the press into more deferential reporting. I promised to do a follow-up post, to catalog the good, the bad, and the ugly performance of the press in response. Below is a list of the articles that obviously came out of Jane Swift’s performance–I’ll update as new articles appear (and let me know what I’ve missed in the comments; h/t to cbl for an initial list of these, and to the FDL peeps for brainstorming on categories). 

Within categories, I’ve ranked coverage from high to low. Here’s the key to the rankings:

Pork-Buster: Not only did this journalist not buy the piggy lipstick stunt, recognizing a colloquialism for what it was, but in some way this story called out the larger context, in which the McCain campaign was trying to use their false outrage to distract or cow the press.

Kosher: This applies to outlets who obviously attended yesterday’s performance by Governor Swift, but didn’t find it newsworthy, as well as journalists who reported the McCain’s attempt to generate outrage, but then called it for what it was, a stunt.

Hamlet: This applies to journalists who responded to Swift’s stunt by presenting both the McCain claim and the Obama refutation, as if there were a real debate about what Obama meant in his comments. These journalists write with an absolute lack of discernment for truth, but instead pretend on-the-one-side-on-the-other-side journalism results in some kind of laudable objectivity.

"A wonderful, magical animal:" Named after Homer Simpson’s dreamy response to Lisa when she gave up pork (and meat more generally). Stories in this category acted just as the McCain hoped they might–by getting distracted by the shiny object of the false outrage.

Bought the Farm: For the Malkinites out there grateful to have been fed their daily outrage.

Pork-Buster

Mark Halperin, on AC360: Yes, Halperin. He nails the McCain ploy.

HALPERIN: Stop the madness. I mean, this is, I think — with all due respect to the program’s focus on this and to what David just said — I think this is the press just absolutely playing into the McCain campaign’s crocodile tears. I wouldn’t —

COOPER: Crocodile tears?

HALPERIN: Yeah. They don’t think this is sexist.

COOPER: They know exactly what it is.

HALPERIN: They know exactly what he was saying. It’s an expression. And this is a victory for the McCain campaign, in the sense that, every day, they can make this a pig fight in the mud. It’s good for them for them because it’s reducing Barack Obama’s message even more.

But I think this is a low point in the day in his — and one of the low days of our collective coverage of this campaign. To make even — to spend even a minute —

Chuck Todd, MSNBC: Calls it the shiny metal object it is. 

Ari Melber, Washington Indy:  Contextualizes the bogus claim in the false cry of sexism, though doesn’t contextualize the attempt to distract the press.

Kosher:

Marc Ambinder, Atlantic: A solid dismissal of the claim that Obama called Palin a pig.

Jake Tapper, ABC: Jake’s coverage of this has evolved over time–his first, pre-Swift impression was to connect Obama’s comment and Palin. Read more →

If You Had Any Doubts the “Attacks” on Palin Were Manufactured Bullshit …

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Then observe this chronology.

Early today, John Fund wrote a WSJ op-ed claiming the DNC had "airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Anchorage" to do oppo research. The DNC responded that this was a "flat-out absolute fabrication." Nevertheless, purportedly in response to this secret mini-army of oppo researchers, McCain’s campaign introduced a "Palin truth squad," featuring a mini-army of B-League Republican women to protect their precious Sarah Palin from evil falsehoods.

Problem is, the very first "falsehood" they tried to "rebut" is not, in fact, a falsehood at all. 

All: Please join us at 7:00pm ET for a conference call with Gov. Jane Swift, Chair of the Palin Truth Squad, to discuss Barack Obama’s "lipstick on a pig" comments today in Lebanon, VA. 

Rather, it is a completely manufactured smear, the McCain campaign claiming that when Barack Obama said of John McCain’s claim to be a maverick that  "you can’t put lipstick on a pig:"

Obama poked fun of McCain and Palin’s new "change" mantra.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said as the crowd cheered. "It’s still a pig."

"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change.  It’s still gonna stink."

Of which the McCain campaign’s new "truth squad" claimed Obama was calling Sarah Palin, self-described pitbull in lipstick, a pig.

Christy’s got a run-down of how frequently people like Barack Obama and John McCain use this term–McCain even used it of Hillary Clinton’s health care plan (I understand Hillary’s been known to wear lipstick, too).

And though he propagates the suggestion that listeners might tie Obama’s comment to Palin, Jake Tapper has an otherwise damning descripton of former MA Governor Jane Swift’s pathetic attempt to spin this as an attack on Palin.

 And interestingly, the Truth Squad call was full of half-truths and statements that weren’t true at all.

Speaking on behalf of the McCain campaign, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift tonight flatly stated that Obama had called Palin a pig.

"[T]he formation of the Palin Truth Squad couldn’t have happened too soon, as we saw when Sen. Obama in Lebanon, Va., this evening uttered what I can only deem to be disgraceful comments comparing our vice presidential nominee Gov. Palin to a pig," Swift said.

"Sen. Obama owes Gov. Palin an apology," she said.

Read more →

Sarah Palin Has Failed in Her Primary Role as Commander-in-Chief of the Alaska National Guard

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Brandon Friedman has a critical picture of how the head of Alaska’s National Guard flip-flopped on his opinion about Sarah Palin just as she was handing him an extra star. Apparently, her most significant act as Commander-in-Chief of the Alaska National Guard, thus far, is buying off a guy who then went on to shill for her.

But there’s actually more to the story–and it shows that, even according to this now-promoted shill, Sarah Palin has failed in the area where he most relies on her help, recruiting new members of the National Guard.

Here’s what Campbell had to say in his interview for the September 3 BoGlo story about Palin’s role in recruiting:

About 75 percent of the Guard’s budget, he said, is the purview of the National Guard Bureau in Washington, which is responsible for ensuring the Guard is prepared to be called up by the president in a time of war. Her primary role, he said, is in recruiting National Guard volunteers.

Campbell said he has met with Palin about once a month, but communicates with her by phone and email more frequently. Earlier this week, he noted, she ordered the Air National Guard to fly a planeload of supplies to hurricane victims in the Gulf Coast

"She is very much engaged in what we are doing and she asks a lot of questions," Campbell said. "Maybe not the most engaged, but definitely engaged.

She is very much involved in ensuring that I am recruiting enough people." [my emphasis]

That is, Sarah Palin’s primary role as Commander-in-Chief is ensuring the Alaska National Guard meets its recruiting targets.

But measured on those terms, Palin is a failure. That’s because Alaska has the worst recruiting record of all 50 states.

The Alaska National Guard, which Republicans are pointing to as an important national-security credential for vice presidential choice Sarah Palin, has personnel shortages that make its aviation units the most poorly staffed in the nation.

Just six months ago, Air Force Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, the Alaska Guard’s top officer, warned in an internal memo that "missions are at risk." The lack of qualified airmen, Campbell said, "has reached a crisis level." [my emphasis]

Now, maybe when Campbell spoke of Palin’s great support for recruiting last week, he was describing a big turnaround in the state’s paltry recruiting. Except that, even though recruiting has improved of late, it’s still the worst in the nation. Read more →