Posts by Russell Brown
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Like much of this distasteful business, I don't want to know about it. A week ago he was a kid who had knocked up his girlfriend, who happened to be the daughter of a local politician. He's still the same, just that local politician is now in the national spotlight.
Yes, your concern for his privacy is undertstandable but I admit to a high degree of fascination in just watching the whole thing unfold on what seems like an hourly basis.
But would it make any difference if you knew that Levi is now going to be presented onstage at the Republican convention?
From my point of view, these people have made certain political representations about the nature of the family and then they've sought to spin those as events have required. It is news.
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Hi all! I wrote a post before I took the boy out to see some hackers -- and I lost it!
But anyway: this morning's further installments of the Palin meltdown:
Palin's "visit" to Ireland -- touted by the Republicans to talk up her foreign policy credentials -- was actually a refuelling stop. But she did get to do some shopping at the airport, so that'll be her grounding in European trade issues.
Palin has her own crazy pastor, who told his flock that anyone who voted for John Kerry would go to Hell. The same link includes a video in which Palin, this year, returned to the church and gave a speech describing the war in Iraq as "a task from God".
Time magazine wades in with a backgrounder, revealing, among other things, that she ran for the Wasilla (pop. less than 5000) mayoralty in part on a gun rights and pro-life platform, with assistance from a national anti-abortion lobby group.
And about that librarian she tried to fire:
Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.
Fascinating account by a Wasilla local:
Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).
As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it ... She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
This visceral preference for loyalty over competence does, I confess, make her well suited to any modern Republican administration.
Aaaand the New York Post gets on Levi's MySpace profile:
On his MySpace page, Johnston boasts, "I'm a f - - -in' redneck" who likes to snowboard and ride dirt bikes.
"But I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing, shoot some s- - - and just f - - -in' chillin' I guess."
"Ya f - - - with me I'll kick [your] ass," he added.
He also claims to be "in a relationship," but states, "I don't want kids."
Stay tuned. I'm sure there'll be more.
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You're far from a handy target, I admire you're writing a great deal. But true, I'm angry at this whole thing obiovusly, and especially angry at the fact that it didn't come out on the National Enquirer, but on Daily Kos
But the other part -- Palin's risky behaviour -- "came out" in an ordinary newspaper, back in April, and, as I noted, an obstetrician was quoted saying (I paraphrase): WTF?
Is it not okay to talk about something that was in a newspaper?
And as Richard noted, the release of medical records is a perfectly conventional thing for people running for presidential office (if you're actually in office, they're public anyway). Why doesn't Palin just do it now? It is interesting.
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Perhaps this is a cultural difference? I am writing from the US, spent the day talking with locals of various stripes; nobody wants to believe but it neither can they not talk about it.
This occurred to me too: you're in a different environment, where everyone is talking about it.
I can't completely stifle my curiosity either. On Levi's sister's MySpace page (now deleted) there are pictures of her with the Palin family (including Trig) and the one with Sarah refers to her as "my mother-in-law".
If things are that chummy, why didn't they just say Bristol was going to get married, instead of leaving Palin's own spokesman (and by the look of it, the McCain team too) none the wiser until the day after her nomination? It really does look like they were trying to hide an issue that jibed with the moral image they were seeking to project.
That has implications. And you only find those out by talking about it.
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(Spoiler: he can't come up with one)
It gets better: the Republicans have started referring to her as the "Commander in Chief" of the Alaska National Guard.
It turns out that not only does she not make any decisions, she's not even due briefings. All the command is federal. The governor is as much in command as my cat (although he does rule).
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A Washington Post columnist has a thoughtful piece on how things are different for the wingnuts when an unmarried teen mother is is, um, black.
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The NYT seems to know all the faces and places in saying that the wingnuts vetoed McCain's first choice, Lieberman, and Palin was a last-minute pick.
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TPM has a handy Palin wrap-up for those who haven't been able to keep up.
McCain's camp is having to finesse its "oh, we knew about Bristol all along" message after the ADN revealed that Palin's own spokesman had no idea. It rather appears that this was a complete surprise to them.
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McCain met Palin a while ago and was impressed with her. He made sure she stayed in the race. she got through the vetting. but imho that did not really matter.
Meanwhile, in real life, it appears that McCain's lawyers
are only just vetting her now. -
Realistically, though, Palin's family isn't going to not be news, if only because the ethics investigation in which she's about to be deposed under oath is all about a family feud that she and her husband chose to extend into her official role.
It seems in general that Todd Palin doesn't understand the boundaries of being "first dude".
So yeah, I'm picking that it gets a little more Jerry Springer yet.
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