The Palin Emails

I won't go into all of the details of Troopergate here; they're obviously important to the understanding of this post but if you want to educate yourself you can do that at this site. I'm just calling attention to the glaring discrepancies in Sarah Palin's account of those events. Her official statement on the controversy:

Palin has said previously that she discussed Wooten with Monegan only in the context of security concerns for the family. Monegan has said that Palin never directly told him to fire Wooten but that the message was clearly conveyed through repeated messages from Palin, her husband and three members of her Cabinet.

"To allege that I, or any member of my family . . . directed disciplinary action be taken against any employee of the Department of Public Safety, is, quite simply, outrageous," Palin said in a statement in mid-July after Monegan's dismissal.

In August, Palin acknowledged that "pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it."

I believe that she should be taken at her word on this unless there is evidence that she isn't telling the truth about the matter. Oh right, the emails:

"This trooper is still out on the street, in fact he's been promoted," said a Feb. 7, 2007, e-mail sent from Palin's personal Yahoo account and written to give Monegan permission to speak on a violent-crime bill before the state legislature...

"He's still bragging about it in my hometown and after another cop confessed to witnessing the [moose] kill, the trooper was 'investigated' for over a year and merely given a slap on the wrist," the e-mail said. "Though he's out there arresting people today for the same crime!"

"He threatened to kill his estranged wife's parent, refused to be transferred to rural Alaska and continued to disparage Natives in words and tone, he continues to harass and intimidate his ex. -- even after being slapped with a restraining order that was lifted when his supervisors intervened," the e-mail said. "He threatens to always be able to come out on top because he's 'got the badge', etc. etc. etc.)"

I'm not saying that these lies should disqualify her from being the vice-president of the United States but I do think that the publicized lies and denials about her abuse of power as governor do speak directly to her character as a public servant while also underlying McCain's imprudence in choosing her as his running mate to satiate the Christianist base of the modern Republican party without performing due diligence in the vetting process of her history and record. Character counts; it's definitely not the most important trait I look at in a person running for office but it does count.

Awesome

I agree with this sentiment completely (click to enlarge).

Ferrofluids Are Still Cool

I've posted video of this stuff before but I saw this and just had to share:

People Who Drive Hummers

Something Someone Else Said

"And now the eyeballs of the nation turn to this quintessentially Middle American or possibly southern Canadian city, where in the next few days, weather permitting, the Republicans will answer the Democratic Party's call for change by sounding, loud and clear, their own bold campaign theme for 2008: 'What, YOU Never Made a Mistake?" -Dave Barry

Welcome To The PalinDrome

Sarah Palin's blog; warning: this blog contains extremely inane and ill-informed opinions about things and issues most other Americans have gathered knowledge about in their spare time not working cushy government jobs (ps- spelling counts):

But to help with the foreign stuff, they made me some really great flashcards about friend VS. enemy countries. The pictures of animals are the best part. Almost every country has a traditional animal mascot, a lot like sports teams. You probably already knew that America is an eagle, but did you know that England is a friendly lion (kinda like Aslan), Russia is a bear, and Iran is a scorpion with the head of a goat??

Anyways, finding out that Russia (also known as the Soviet's Union) is a "bear" made me think that hey, wait a sec, maybe i AM kinda ready for this foreign policy thing! I might not have gone on alot of trips away from alaska or talked to to very many foreigners (unless you count liberels!) but i have a heck of a lot of experience dealing with BEARS. one of the parts of my job that i am most proud of is that I have led the fight in Alaska against polar bears. The Interior Department (aka Big Government) tried to tell us alaskans that polar bears are an "endangered species" because of something called "global warming." Um, hey guys, have you BEEN to Alaska? It's cold as heck! anyway, I sued them and basically said "Until you can prove that this global warming stuff is actually science (aka never), then let us do what we want with our bears."

The McCain campaign is teaching her foreign policy using flashcards with animals on them to help her remember the countries, she thinks the "Soviet's Union" still exists, and she refutes global warming by looking out her window; this combined with her "lead[ing] the fight against polar bears" and all, she seems to be gift-wrapped for Stephen Colbert, no? Now I don't blame Sarah Palin for being such an unprepared dunce running for the vice-presidency; this whole debacle is clearly evidence of John McCain's poor executive skills, picking a running mate after meeting with her only once and sending his staffers to vet her the day before he announced it. This kind of ill-informed, gut reaction decision making does not a thoughtful, fully prepared president make.

[Update: The Wired.com article Palin links to from her own blog in the outtake above directly refutes her assertions about the polar bear population using the testimony of one of the world's foremost experts in the field. It's like these guys don't expect anyone to follow up on any of the things they say; the hubris is unfathomable.]

[Update II: It turns out that this is a satirical work of fiction; I sort of suspected as much just because it's so monumentally badly written but in my defense, she has said some pretty stupid shit over the last week. It's still very funny though.

(hat tip: PK)]

Large Hadron Rap

Kate McAlpine is a 23-year-old Michigan State University graduate and science writer who created this rap about the Large Hadron Collider, the groundbreaking particle accelerator that has been built in a 17-mile circular tunnel at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. The $3.8 billion machine will collide two beams of protons moving at close to the speed of light so scientists can see what particles appear in the resulting debris. McAlpine received permission to film herself and friends dancing in the caverns and tunnels where the experiments will take place. I've posted science raps in the past but this one is truly the biz-omb:

Instant Mona Lisa

Adam and Jamie from the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters use computer controlled paintball guns to create works of art. The first painting is cool as a starter but the Mona Lisa painting comes courtesy of 1100 paintball guns firing all at once, instantly creating the famous painting; tres cool:

Voting With The Little Hood

Jon Stewart gives his analysis of McCain's running mate Sarah Palin and why women will vote for her despite the fact that it goes against their own beliefs and self-interests:

Some of you also might have heard the rumors that Palin's recently born baby was actually her oldest daughter's that she was going to raise as her own. These rumors surfaced after her daughter missed 5 consecutive months of school with an illness and Palin, after her water broke in Texas, gave a speech, flew to Seattle, connected into Anchorage, and drove past the two closest hospitals to give birth at the hospital closest to their home. While these actions aren't outright suspicious they do seem to be fairly reckless, given her age.

It turns out though that the rumors aren't true and that the baby is indeed Palin's and that her seventeen-year-old daughter is also indeed pregnant with her own child, which she apparently intends to keep. While this is certainly interesting human drama I don't think that it's at all relevant or germane to this campaign.

[Update: This is how she answered one of the questions on a questionnaire she filled out when she was running for governor:

3. Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

SP: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.

Again, I don't think her daughter's pregnancy is a legitimate campaign issue but I do think her views on this subject are important as to how she will govern and how those abstinence-only policies will affect other minors across this country; her daughter's situation only serves to bring this issue to the fore of the national conversation.]

Palin And The Truth

I mentioned her recent troubles with abuse of power charges in Alaska in a recent post but when I watch this local news story it looks more and more like she was just plain stupid and flat out lied about several things. My question is the same that I've read many people around the blogosphere asking: who vetted this woman?