Not by the leftmedia, anyway.
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Ever since Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain's running mate last year, she has faced a barrage of ethics complaints. No less than 14 complaints have been filed against her, for everything from firing Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner, to taking trips out of state, to conducting television interviews in her state office, to Palin wearing a jacket from her husband's snowmobile racing sponsor to a public function. Out of the 14 ethics complaints, obviously motivated by partisan politics, Palin has been cleared of every single one.
Palin said defending herself against all the frivolous complaints has cost more than $500,000, and she set up a legal defense fund to cover the costs.
Can anyone guess what happened next ?
Palin has been charged with ANOTHER ethics violation for setting up the defense fund !!! From the Washington Times:
Eagle River resident Kim Chatman challenged [Palin's defense fund]. "Governor Palin is perched to improperly receive an enormous amount of money for herself and her family and position a pool of pre-paid defense lawyers organized to deflect consequences of wrongdoings," Ms. Chatman said in the filing.
Egads. At what point do Palin's opponents go from being watchdogs to being harassers ? I think the line has definitely been crossed. Why don't they just cut to the chase, make it illegal to oppose liberals, and be done with it ?
In related news, be sure to stay tuned for MSNBC's upcoming "Palin removes tag from pillow !!" blockbuster expose, complete with Keith Olbermann's finest faux gesticulations and hyperbole, including a couple "Palin is worse than Hitler" comparisons for good measure. Do I smell a Pulitzer ?
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As the USA moves left politically, with Democrats scoring big victories in the last two elections, the European Union is moving to the right. The EU countries, having already seen the consequences of adopting socialist democratic policies, handed big electoral victories to conservatives in last sunday's elections. From AP:
The European Union said center-right parties were expected to take the most seats — 267 — in the 736-member parliament. Center-left parties were headed for 159 seats. The remainder were expected to go to smaller groupings.
Right-leaning governments were ahead of the opposition in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties were leading in Britain and Spain.
We are the force that is acting level-headedly and correctly in this financial and economic crisis," said Volker Kauder, the leader of Merkel's [conservative] party in the German parliament.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing conservatives trounced the Socialists, while an ecology-minded party vaulted to a surprisingly strong third place, according to official results.
The Socialists, who dominated the last vote in 2004, suffered a stinging defeat, barely clinging to the No. 2 spot.
"Tonight is a very difficult evening for Socialists in many nations in Europe," said Martin Schulz, the leader of the Socialists in the European Parliament. "(We will) continue to fight for social democracy in Europe."
For all those who have desired America to be more like Europe….okay, it suddenly sounds pretty good to me. Let's go for it.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
King, just how much do the libs fear Palin? It seems that their fear of the woman may well be without bounds as this latest bit of court room foolishness proves. They give her so much more attention than any other Republican and I think I know why. I am now in support of her for President in 2012 unless someone better shows up to take the job. I can't believe that she could do any worse than our present President does. This could change but since so many of us voted for her, and that whitehaired buy who ran with her I would say there is a lot of support for her which the left is helping grow with their seeming fear of her.
As for the switch from left to right in Europe, do you remember the old Aussiemale who used to write on some forums here? He is a small businessman who thinks the Socialists in Australia have about killed themselves off in about 2 years and that Australia will turn back right in their next election which is less than a year away. This changing of directions is just a normal thing in democratic nations and we will do the same thing soon, if those of us from the right are still voting like in 2012. If Napolitano remains in office that long she may well have us buried in accusations of being real terrorists and the Dem government may well pass some law to keep us from taking part.
Fear Palin? Really? No libs just know a hyprocrite nobody when they see one. She's done nothing, and is it really surprising that an Alaskan ethics commission found no ethics violations? Didn't the last person that disagreed with her get "re-educated"?
Sorry folks, you can run her 100 times and she will lose 100 times, and if you were really honest with yourself you would realize that McCain lost because he ran with a woman that wanted to set women back 50 years.
Of course all the super cons love her, she is what they live for, completely aged an impractical ideas. Too bad for you super cons only make up 27% of the voting population.
When far right conservatives lose elections…it's always explained away by casting the losing candidates as victims. Palin is no victim. Palin was not prepared or qualified to be a heartbeat away. Independents and moderate Republicans will never vote for Palin for president.
King didn't mention that Alaska is primarily represented by Republicans. So, if ethics investigations have gone on into Palin's behavior….it would be Republicans leading the way.
Notice how in Europe….it's not liberals and conservatives….it's socialists and conservatives. That is because even European conservatives would be considered liberal by America's standards. Strong safety net, universal health care, regulated capitalism, etc.
Really ? 14 frivolous ethics charges against Palin, and she ISN'T being victimized ? She ISN'T being harassed ? She ISN'T being persecuted for the sole reason that she's a nationally known conservative who might be a presidential candidate ?
Whatever you say, fellas. Keep slingin' it. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
But maybe you're right. Palin did wear that jacket with a logo on it. Heaven forbid. That's much worse than, like, Pelosi saying the CIA lies to us "all the time." We should just forget about that. Let's get Palin for wearing that jacket instead, not to mention for pulling the tag of that pillow. The woman's a menace.
Rev, at this point, there isn't much difference in this country between liberals vs. conservatives and socialists vs. conservatives. It's the same thing. The Europeans socialists are just more honest about it than our American liberals are. American liberals are deathly afraid of admitting who they really are (socialist democrats, just like in Europe), for some reason, probably because Americans recoil at the idea.
The Left's attacks on Palin is merely another example of identity politics in action. Consider the following syllogism:
1) All "authentic" women adopt the liberal positions as announced by the New York Times editorial page.
2) Palin does not adopt the liberal positions as announced by the New York Times editorial page.
3) Therefore, Palin is not an "authentic" woman.
It necessarily follows that Palin has no right to claim to represent women or their concerns.
The Left's visceral hatred of Palin, as well as minorities who adopt conservative positions, is perfectly understandable. Such people might become role models that will lead young people astray into following traditional values such as honesty, hard work, patriotism and service rather than looking to the government as the Great Savior of all life's problems.
Did the Times really say Palin was not an authentic woman ? Wow. Don't know how I missed that one. We have some sick puppies writing for our major newspapers.
Did you hear about Playboy's list of conservative women they'd most like to "hate f*ck" ??? Twisted stuff by twisted people.
Palin is the person who sought to segregate America into two camps. Those who are "real Americans" and those who aren't.
Palin claimed that some citizens were not "authentic" Americans.
Like I said, she's no victim.
Palin made one comment about 'real americans," and she apologized for it, because she didn't mean it the way it was portrayed.
Has the NY Times or any other liberal organization apologized for their savage treatment of Sarah Palin ??????? I'm going to go out on a limb and say – NO.
Speaking of which, has Obama apologized for his "bitter clingers" comments ? Has Sotomayor apologized for her "Latina women reach better decisions than white guys" comments ?
Why do you treat Palin's mis-speak as a condemnation, but then turn around and bend over backwards to make excuses for liberals who say similar things ?
from the Newsmax story……"The personnel board is a three-member panel of non-state workers who are appointed by the governor. Mrs. Palin's predecessor appointed each of the three current members, Chairwoman Debra English, Laura Plenert and Alfred Tamagni Sr., although Mrs. Palin reappointed Ms. English for another term in January 2008.
Rules dictate that no more than two of the members can belong to the same political party. Ms. English is a registered Republican; Ms. Plenert and Mr. Tamagni have no declared party affiliation."
Did I ever tell you the story where I filed a complaint against a Wadsworth attorney? Both the investigator for the Medina Bar, Patricia Walker and assistant disciplinary counsel Kenneth Donchatz ignored the evidence submitted by BOTH myself AND the attorney, fabricated a story that favored the attorney and then based their determination on their own fabrication. They then advised the attorney to tamper with the evidence to obstruct any further investigation.
The Alaska Ethics panal could be a 1000 times more honest than the Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Ohio but that would still leave them in the crooks and liars catagory
I have to say that Quidpro made the best statement about Palin and the Liberals who are so afraid of her.
I listened to Palin talking about our present economical condition twice in the last 24 hours and found her to be making too much sense about where we are and where we seem to be going. She really doesn't agree with Obama at all and that fits my thinking very well.
Dumb Red, are you sure that 3 years from now our people will still be under the spell of the Great Campaigner?
King, you are so right about socialists and liberals, or in our case Democrats. What about the behavior of our Dems and Obama earns them the right to not call themselves socialists? I just can't see much they have done in growing our government the past 6 months that hasn't been leading to socialism.
walter,
You have a point (and a great story about fighting insiders when insiders run the game), but there's no evidence the Alaskans rigged the results in Palin's favor, the Alaskan panel was non-partisan (to the best of my knowledge), and you have to admit, those ethics complaints against Palin were about as flimsy as can be.
Roy,
I think the term 'socialist democrat' fits them perfectly, just as it fits them in Europe. The only one in Congress who calls himself that is Bernie Sanders from Vermont, so I give him the award for truth in advertising, even though he's technically an Independent. He votes with the Dems ALWAYS, because he is one.
from the Newsmax story……"Rules dictate that no more than two of the members can belong to the same political party. Ms. English is a registered Republican; Ms. Plenert and Mr. Tamagni have no declared party affiliation."
see any democrats on the panal?
No, but I see two independents out of three in an independent investigation.
But like I said before, you still have a point. All three were appointed by the former governor, and he was a Republican.
And I still see no actual proof of wrongdoing on Palin's part.
I don't see where you get 2 independents. You have 2 that have not declared any party affiliation. They could be anything.
After my experiences with the Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Ohio I just have a very different perspective of these ethics panals.
And no, after the ethics panal gets done there will be no proof of wrongdoing……..that's what these ethics panals do.
There is a plus side to my story about my dealings with the Disciplinary Counsel. I'll never have to serve on jury duty. The courts realize that those who serve on jury duty NEED to believe that the people who run the system are NOT criminals themselves.
People with no declared party affiliation are called Independents.
But you've given me a good excuse for getting out of jury duty next time they call, because I don't trust the courts and attorneys very much either.
Then again, maybe that's the reason I should serve the next time I'm called. I know I'm honest.
King sez……."People with no declared party affiliation are called Independents." I don't think that automatically makes one an "independent".
Your honesty has nothing to do with the price of tea in China……..it's the honesty of the people running the system that's in question.
If you believe they're honest…..then I would question your honesty