Archive for the 'Political Conventions 2008' Category
September 9th, 2008, 11:46 am by by Alan Bock, Register editorial writer
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to bookmark Factcheck.org to stay abreast of the various rumors and charges that have arisen so far and are likely to surface as the campaign (which looks to be pretty close) gets weirder. A “consumer advocate for voters” run by the U. Of Pa.’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, it’s been pretty impartial, reporting that both McCain and Palin made some factual errors in their convention speeches, that a recent McCain ad was careless with facts, as was a recent Obama ad and that those still-circulating rumors about Obama being a Muslim are flat-out false, and a great deal more.
Anyway, Factcheck has looked into the rumors about Sarah Palin and discerned:
- “Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.
- She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a “What if?” question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin’s first term.
- She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982.
- Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a “courtesy” when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.
- Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska’s schools. She has said that students should be allowed to “debate both sides” of the evolution question, but she also said creationism “doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”
We’ll be looking into other charges in an e-mail by a woman named Anne Kilkenny for a future story. For more explanation of the bullet points above, please read the Analysis.”
I find it troubling that she even raised the issue of keeping books out of the library (although no library could possibly carry all possible books and there has to be a selection process), but she apparently did so in a hypothetical manner and didn’t fire the librarian. The supposed list of books she “wanted” to ban (I followed a link one commenter provided) was strictly theoretical, based on books others had gone after, and included the Harry Potter books, which hadn’t even been published at the time.
And, of course, she did support the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, and did hire lawyers to get earmarks for Wasilla. So she’s hardly Little Miss Perfect, but can we at least try to stick to the facts?
Posted in: Barack Obama • Democratic/Denver • Election 2008 • John S. McCain • Press & Media • Republican/St. Paul • Sarah Palin | 11 Comments »
September 6th, 2008, 12:40 pm by Steven Greenhut
According to the Anchorage Daily News, “Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so. According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn’t fully support her and had to go.”
Some libertarians have been encouraged by the Palin selection because of her support for homeschooling, gun rights and her status as a Western governor, but the above story suggests that perhaps the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan is right: that Palin is more religious right than libertarian.
Posted in: Election 2008 • Republican/St. Paul • Sarah Palin | 34 Comments »
September 6th, 2008, 8:22 am by Steven Greenhut
Throughout the convention, Republicans talked endlessly about John McCain’s very real heroism in the Vietnam War. It’s an admirable story, for sure. But many of the speakers went on and on about it, and the video commentary focused on it. And the literature everywhere referred to it. John McCain talked about it quite a bit — he has the scars, his opponent doesn’t — and the whole convention was built around that theme. I understand this is politics, and you build on whatever themes will work to gain the votes needed to win. But there is something a bit unseemly about this. Talking about your own heroism diminishes it, and using that heroism as a way to gain something (power) diminishes it a bit more. It doesn’t undermine the real heroism here, but it definitely cheapens it. Again, this is expected in politics, but it’s a reminder of how politics diminishes almost everything else in life.
Posted in: Election 2008 • Republican/St. Paul | 6 Comments »
September 6th, 2008, 7:58 am by Steven Greenhut
In one section of McCain’s overall good acceptance speech he epitomized the problem most libertarians have with today’s Republican Party: it isn’t about limiting or reducing the size of government. McCain, sounding a bit like Barack Obama with his lightweight, feelgood rhetoric, said: “If you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them.” Well, what about working to reduce the size of government rather than collecting a taxpayer-funded salary and pension?
McCain did include an admission that Republicans blew it and became creatures of Washington, but not much about restoring government to its traditional role. The convention trotted out many folks who are working to put “country first.” The typical regular person doing this was someone in the military, a public school teacher, fireman, etc. The convention had a strong theme about celebrating government workers, as if working for the government, especially the military, is the epitome of making the nation a better place. Yes, we need some government. But our government is enormous — it has grown far beyond the reaches of what the founders intended. Its size and cost — including the cost of international interventions — crowds out the private sector, takes our money, and imposes enormous debts on the future.
McCain’s domestic policies are no-doubt better than Obama’s and there’s a case to be made for his election (divided government), but his reflexive celebration of government service suggests that the Ron Paul people are right — the Dems and Reps are two wings of the same bird!
Posted in: Conservatism • Election 2008 • Republican/St. Paul | 8 Comments »
September 5th, 2008, 4:45 pm by by Alan Bock, Register editorial writer
Chris Cillizza at the WaPo’s “The Fix,” thinks the five best speeches at the two conventions were those delivered by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Fred Thompson, and Sarah Palin. I thought Brian Schweitzer was just windy, but I think I agree on the other four. What do you think?
Posted in: Democratic/Denver • Political Conventions 2008 • Republican/St. Paul | 3 Comments »
September 5th, 2008, 4:20 pm by by Alan Bock, Register editorial writer
It is becoming fairly obvious that despite the gun-totin’ frontier image, Sarah Palin is not exactly the great libertarian hope some of us might have fantasized she could be. The scorn for “reading them their rights,” which amounts to a scorn for due process and seems to endorse the idea of detaining people indefinitely was enough almost by itself. Still, there are certain aspects of what are supposed to be scandals about her past that make me almost like her.
For example, when she first became mayor of Wasilla (perhaps the country’s most notorious small town by now), she fired the long-time police chief, one Irl Stambaugh. The reason? Stambaugh wanted to move up the closing hours of local bars from 5:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., and also wanted to restrict the carrying of concealed weapons. Both of those proposals are pernicious — though maybe it would have been justification enough to fire somebody just for having the name “Irl” (though on second thought I guess it wasn’t his fault).
Stambaugh filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination, but a judge ruled she was within her rights. She also fired the heads of several other departments when she took office, to get rid of “deadwood” according to a staff member.
The firing of the state’s public safety commissioner after she became governor, allegedly because he wouldn’t fire a cop involved in a bitter divorce with her sister, might well have more substance to it. At the least, it seems likely that she hasn’t been completely candid about the matter.
Posted in: Civil Liberties • Election 2008 • Republican/St. Paul | 2 Comments »
September 5th, 2008, 3:01 pm by Mark Landsbaum
Before the Democrats’ convention two weeks ago, we noted this:
“Denver’s hometown Rocky Mountain News reported that, ‘With DNC in Mind, City Bans Carrying Urine, Feces,’ which was the city fathers’ way of disarming protesters, who might resort to flinging the stuff when scattered by police. It could be ugly to watch.”
We were on the lookout during our five days in Denver, but didn’t see or smell anything untoward. Well, at least anything untoward of that nature.
But as it turns out it, things nearly did get ugly, according to the Denver Post:
“Among the items police seized during the Democratic convention were bags of feces stockpiled in LoDo (lower downtown) and an estimated 200 bottles of urine in a vacant house, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s office revealed today.
“In a prepared statement, the mayor praised Denver police and public-works officials for their work at the convention.
“Our police and public-works crews engineered an extraordinary behind-the-scenes collaboration preceding and during the Democratic National Convention, which thwarted plans of those intent on disrupting our city,” Hickenlooper said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Democratic/Denver • Election 2008 • Political Conventions 2008 | Post a Comment »
|
|
