Final Pages of Chapter 3

In this section we get Sarah’s pregnancy with Trig, her traveling a lot, and more whining and rewriting of history.

The chapter opens with Sarah discovering she is pregnant with Trig.

There was no way I could buy a home pregnancy test in Alaska. The cashiers would know, the people in line would know, and the next thing I'd see was a headline...As governor, I knew that my life was even more of an open book, and there were a few things that I thought were not for public consumption, at least not at first. (171)

Okay 2 Things: (1) Sarah isn’t close enough to one of her friends or her mother or her sister and they couldn’t go to the drugstore to pick her up a pregnancy test. & (2) For someone who drones on & on about her common sense, Palin, per usual, has exhibited very little. You can buy things like pregnancy tests online from stores like drugstore.com. I guess Sarah never thought of using the new fangled Internet.

We continue on with Sarah wondering how this pregnancy will effect the public perception of her & I am going to go with the conservative response: She spread her legs, she’s getting what’s coming to her. Slut!

Sarah contemplates abortion on the next page writing:

And for a split second it hit me: I'm out of town. No one knows I'm pregnant. No one would ever have to know. It was a fleeting though, a sudden understanding of why many women feel pressured to make the "problem" go away. Sad, I thought, that our society had elevated things like education and career above the gift of bringing new life into the world. Yes, the timing of this pregnancy wasn't ideal. But that wasn't the baby's fault. I knew, though, what goes through a woman's mind when she finds herself in a difficult situation. at that moment, I was thankful for right-to-life groups that affirm the value of the child. That say, yes, every child has value and a purpose and a destiny. (172)

Oh wait, she’s clarifying her remarks from earlier this year & saying it was only a half-second thought. Amazing that wouldn’t even nudge her a tiny bit. And since simple Sarah doesn’t believe in teaching women about contraception, quite a few of us will be pregnant in “less than ideal situations.” Thank God for those right-to-life groups for helping us through those unplanned pregnancies.

Without that message out there, it would be easy for women to wonder, well, am I the only one who thinks maybe there is some purpose for this baby? Am I off base in believing that what's easiest isn't always what's best? If not for those groups providing an affirming voice, it would be so easy to go along with what society wants women to believe: that it's easier to end a pregnancy than to bring the baby into the world. Society has made women believe that they cannot do both--pursue career, or education, or anything else, and still carry a baby. Pro-life and pro-adoption groups affirm the power and strength of women. Even if it's just a seed of faith the pro-child message plants in a parent's mind, that bit of faith can grow. I reassured myself that it was going to be okay, that giving this baby life was the right choice. It wouldn't be the last time I had to hold on to that seed of faith. (172)

I find her tone to be incredibly patronizing & rude. Sarah, why don’t you actually talk to a woman who has gone through an abortion. Abortion is NOT a simple, easy decision. Women agonize over it & there are a number of reasons why a woman would chose abortion. While I find it commendable that you support adoption groups (b/c I think adoption is amazing), that does not give you the right to take such a judgemental tone with your fellow women. What was written on your Starbucks cup? That’s right! "There's a place in hell reserved for women who don't support other women!" (Even though you completely botched the quote! But you betcha I think it's cute Palin gets her philosophy off of those liberal coffee cups.) You are not supporting women by taking a pro-life stance. So instead of pretending to support other women, actually fucking do it.

Two pages later, we learn that Trig has Down syndrome & Sarah is, per usual, arrogant enough to wonder why God would make her family suffer so much, as her sister had a child with autism. “Obvious He knew Heather had a special needs child. Didn’t He think that was enough challenge for one family?” (177) Of course, God always is watching & plotting every move in the Palin family’s life.

We get Sarah talking even more about abortion, saying:

I read that almost 90 percent of Down syndrome babies are aborted—so wasn’t that a message that this is not only a less-than-ideal circumstance but that it is a virtually impossible to deal with? Now, just a couple of hours into this new world, I could not get my arms or heart around it. That fleeting thought descended on me again, not a consideration so much as a sudden understanding of why people would grasp at a quick “solution,” a way to make the “problem” just go away. But again I had to hold on to that seed of faith. (178)

Like so many other pro-lifers, Sarah Palin is pro-choice when it comes to herself. Of course, she is different & special, even ordained by God. I love how Palin obviously considered abortion but is not back stepping, as the anti-choice loons make up such a huge part of her base. And again, abortion is not decision for a woman to make. I find it incredibly patronizing that she goes on & on about how many women take the easy way out—wait, isn’t the easy way out something like quitting halfway through one’s term.

We also get Sarah Palin mocking Senator Kerry:

I recalled Senator John Kerry’s comment to California college students in 2006: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

What a loon, I thought. What an elitist loon. (181)

Oh geez, Sarah. It’s not like you’ve ever misspoken.

We have Sarah complaining about how mean the Senate president was to her. Of course, she does not bother to name the Senate president, who is Lyda Green. I wonder if Palin is so angry, because Lyda had this to say about her when McCain nominated her: “She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation.” (source)

Anyway, Palin wanted to move her speech time for the opening of the legislature, and Sen. Green said no, that it should be at the traditional time. Sarah whines:

I had scheduled our trip for Track’s graduation a month prior. My chief of staff made sure the state Senate president knew I’d be taking two days outside of Alaska to attend. (The sixty-nine-year-old Republican was a fixture in state politics and was one of the gang not happy to see a new administration rock the boat.) We gave her the date. A letter was sent. We did this because after I was elected, the rules for governors’ travel seemed to have changed with no notice. (181-182)

Poor Sarah, everyone is so mean to you & victimizes you all the time & you are so damn important to Alaska that they never, ever allow you to leave.

I sensed the senator was enjoying the media attention that this “showdown” brought. She rallied a couple of radio talk show hosts to her cause, and they were milking the drama, such as it was. Such drama: it must have been a slow news week. (183)

Yes, because Sarah Palin has never, ever stirred up a fight/controversy for media attention.

In the next page, Sarah Palin is arrogant enough to write her family members a letter from God announcing Trig’s Down syndrome. And God tells us why Trig will be named Trig: “I put the idea in your hearts that his name should be ‘Trig,’ because it’s so fitting, with two Norse meanings: ‘True’ and ‘Brave Victory.’” (185) God, I just love the naming of Palin babies, but this one isn’t that funny. And then God goes on to complain that, “Some will think Trig should not be allowed to be born because they fear a Downs child won’t be considered ‘perfect’ in your world.” (186) There she goes with the “perfect” argument. People don’t abortion Down babies because they are imperfect—they abort them because not everyone has the resources, time & Bristol Palin to raise those children.

Now we have Sarah & Todd in Dallas, where she is keynoting an oil & gas conference. Sarah feels she is going into labor 4 weeks and like a normal person who is older and has a higher-risk pregnancy, she goes to the hospital. HA! Of course she didn’t. She gave her speech & then got on her plane & went back to Alaska to give birth. However, once she is back in Alaska, she gives birth to Trig Paxson Van Palin. I’m going to guess: Paxson after Bill Paxson & Van after Van Halen.

Sarah brings up that stupid perfect argument again saying, “she sees it in the eyes of other parents who have a child that perhaps our world doesn’t consider precious or prized.” (196) Blah. I’m done talking about that.

We get info on Troopergate, which was apparently started by some mean, local Alaska blogger & those liberal media types didn’t bother fact checking it.

The next page we get Sarah talking about China, which is hilarious. “An energy-thirsty Communist nation controlling Alaska’s natural gas reserves was not in the best interests of the state or country.” (205) Things which scare simple Sarah: (1) Muslim terrorists, (2) Russia [she can see it from her backyard!, (3) brown people in Hawaii & finally (4) communist China.

Sarah also manages to attack Katie Couric when she talks about how all simple Sarah does is read & read & read. “Perhaps that’s why I was so shocked during the VP campaign when Katie Couric wondered which papers and magazines I read. Maybe I should have asked her what she reads. She didn’t sound very informed on energy issues.” (207) Sarah, I’m sorry that answering a simple question is so hard for you. But what did you expect out of the election? Easy, softball questions at every turn? And furthermore, Couric is the journalist, SHE ASKS THE QUESTIONS. I’m sorry that stammering out 2 or 3 newspapers/magazines was way too complicated for you.

The chapter ends with Palin announcing Bristol's pregnancy. "Truthfully, I was devastated for my daughter. It wasn't the morality of the situation--what was done was done. It was that I saw her future change in an instant." (207) Okay, wingnut Sarah. Had you taught your daughter how to make Levi strap on a condom, you would not be in this situation. These people just don't get cause & effect, do they?

And that ends our chapter. Next chapter, we are GOING ROGUE!!

Michael Steele is Nervous

Tonight, I got an email from Michael Steele regarding "Obama-care." Here are some fun excerpts:

If Harry Reid cared more about real health care reform needs -- like ending his trial lawyer allies' massive fraudulent litigation costs -- than forcing his party's socialist pipe dream upon an unwilling American people, he might be tempted to apologize for his shameless, and false, accusations.

Don't hold your breath.

I'm not surprised that Harry Reid has resorted to such a laughably desperate attack on our Republican senators and the truth.

The Obama Democrats will go to any length to attain their leftist goal of controlling every facet of American life. He knows that the American people don't want to surrender their health care freedoms to Big Government.

Republican senators are on the side of the American people, who adamantly oppose the Obama Democrats' health care takeover -- and with your help, history will prove it.

You and the RNC are all that stand between our sensible Republican plan for real health care reform and the Democrats' scheme to take more of your hard-earned income to pay for two new unsustainable entitlements while making the quality of your health care worse.

Wow. I didn't realize that affordable health care was an "entitlement" that those evil-spending liberals & their media were trying to push on hard-working Republicans. I'm surprised--Steele claims that he is upset about government intervention in "every facet of American life"--yet the RNC was still pushing for the Stupak Amendment, which greatly imposes on the lives of American women (Stupak is dead, Thank God. ) At least the Republicans killed the public option, just not at the expense of American women.

Uganda Homosexuality Law

My girl crush on Rachel Maddow grew exponentially when she reported on the anti-gay law in Uganda.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So what does this bill say, which you can read here:

-any person who is a homosexual (or commits a homosexual act) can be imprisoned for life

-aggravated homosexuality (sexual acts while living with HIV, rape, incest, repeat offenders, etc.) will be put to death.

-anyone who attempts to "commit an act of homosexuality" will be jailed for 7 years.

-anyone who knows of a homosexual & does not tell can be jailed for 7 years.

-people who "promote" (ie support gay rights in Uganda) will be jailed for between 5 & 7 years.

-this is an extraditable offense. Meaning, a gay man with Ugandan citizenship living outside of Uganda who acts on his natural urges can be extradited to Uganda for punishment.

Who is behind this? Interestingly enough, the same people behind the Stupak Amendment, the Family.

"[The] legislator that introduced the bill, a guy named David Bahati, is a member of The Family," he said. "He appears to be a core member of The Family. He works, he organizes their Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which The Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda."

And how did Sharlet discover the connection? "You follow [the] money," he said. You look at their archives. You do interviews where you can. It's not so invisible anymore. So that's how working with some research colleagues we discovered that David Bahati, the man behind this legislation, is really deeply, deeply involved in The Family's work in Uganda, that the ethics minister of Uganda, Museveni's kind of right-hand man, a guy named Nsaba Buturo, is also helping to organize The Family's National Prayer Breakfast. And here's a guy who has been the main force for this Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda's executive office and has been very vocal about what he's doing, in a rather extreme and hateful way. But these guys are not so much under the influence of The Family. They are, in Uganda, The Family." (source)

How wonderful. Instead of actually focusing on real, proven ways that work in preventing HIV, some Americans are choosing to promote this kind of law, which, I imagine, will only serve to drive homosexuality underground in Uganda, but also stigmatize it in such a way that safe sex practices will not be taught, therefore causing HIV rates of infection to go up. These people are just so damn smart.

So what can we do:

-read the bill

-join Speak out Against the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality group on Facebook. They have petitions to sign & a lot more information than I am offering here.

-And, as always, email your representatives, telling them how important it is to not support this kind of legislation abroad.

Racist Sarah?

I really hope Palin's base sharpens up soon & realizes what a loon their "savior" is.

She is equally circumspect on the issue of ethnicity, pointing out that Todd, whom she met in high school, is “part Yupik Eskimo” and opened her to the “social diversity” of Alaska. (Wasilla is more than eighty per cent white.)Palin, though notoriously ill-travelled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. “Hawaii was a little too perfect,” Palin writes. “Perpetual sunshine isn’t necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls.” Perhaps not. But Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to Conroy and Walshe. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: “They were a minority type thing and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.” In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, “because it was much like Alaska yet still ‘Outside.’ (source)

Really?? Our vice-president was almost a racist & there is almost no outcry from her base? Wow. Sarah Palin sure gets a pass for every loon-tastic thing she does.

But I guess she's not really racist, since her husband is part-Eskimo, just like Judge Bardwell isn't a racist.

Presented with No (okay a Little) Comment

Sadly, these people's viewpoints seem to typify what appears to me to be much of the argument against universal healthcare.

(h/t STFUConservatives.)

2nd Section of Chapter 3

In this section, we learn about how Palin cleaned up Alaskan politics singlehandedly, her burning hatred for her original legislative director, proof that Palin has traveled outside of the US, committment to parental notification laws & finally, her love of America.

Palin manages to start with the digs at the McCain this chapter, saying, "During the vice presidential campagin, she [Kris Perry] would become the lone state staffer the McCain campaign allowed to accompany me on the trail." (140) Oh poor Sarah! Perhaps the McCain campaign wanted to mitigate any damage the nutbags that Sarah employs would cause.

Palin talks about marriage in this chapter, saying "I support the traditional definition of marriage. One man and one woman make a marriage. And I don't support efforts that can lead to changing that definition." (143) Of course, she doesn't! Carabou Barbie is all about freedom & independence unless Teh Gays are threatening her heteronormative institutions.

We also get Palin bashing her first legislative director, John Bitney (who she, of course, does not bother naming.) "He turned out to be a BlackBerry games addict who couldn't seem to keep his lunch off his tie." (144) How is the fact that Bitney loves to play Brickbreaker & has poor hygeine have ANYTHING to do with the work he did as legislative director. Palin further writes, "During my 2007 budget powwow, the legislative director should have been at the table with us so that there would be no surprises in the state house come veto time. Occasionally, he would wander in and out, plop down in the chair at the end of the table, nibble cookies, and absently thumb his BlackBerry." (150) Again, how is this relevant AT ALL?? "The fact that his shirt was buttoned one button off and his shirttail was poking through his open fly didn't exactly inspire confidence." (151) Again & again, I find Sarah Palin to be a nasty, vindictive person. If he did a bad job, then fine, write about it. But why make nasty comments about this man's personal hygeine & BlackBerry addiction?

She blames Bitney for the lack of conversation between Palin & the legislators regarding the budget cuts Palin wanted. She claims that she told him to write a letter to the legislators with her funding criteria & he did not do so. Palin writes the whole saga off as a mistake in her hiring an "insider." Only mavericks for Palin from now on.

What is interesting is Bitney's take on what happened:

Palin writes that she told Bitney to send a letter to legislators about what sort of spending she would approve but that he didn’t do it. She said he indicated lawmakers were fine with budget vetoes that were coming but it became clear otherwise when they howled about being blindsided. “It soon became obvious just how little the legislative director had done to inform the legislature this was coming,” she writes.

Bitney said it was another staffer in the governor’s office, not him, who was requested to send the letter. The letter asked legislators for suggestions on which of their projects to cut, Bitney said, and not surprisingly they did not rush to answer Palin.

Bitney said he did meet with the four co-chairs of the state House and Senate finance committees to tell them about the coming vetoes, and reported back to Palin that three of them felt that was her prerogative and only one became angry.

But Palin staffers had only identified about $100 million worth of cuts by that point, about half of the final total. Bitney said the following day was when his “troubles” with Palin began. He said he was pulled from the governor’s budget work, and fired soon after. In the meantime, he said, Palin staffers kept cutting beyond what he had told legislators but he didn’t have authority to talk to them about it.

Palin uses Bitney in the book to illustrate a point about government. Bitney had years of experience as a legislative staffer and lobbyist before joining her team. “So much for my idea that I needed to hire an ‘insider.’ Lesson learned,” she writes.

Bitney said he tried to be fair to Palin when national media kept “crawling up my backside” over the past year to interview him about her. But the book is too much, he said.

“I’ve had it. Enough. Just enough; leave me alone,” he said.

Palin's attorney writes back, because of course, him telling his side of the story means he is stiffling free speech.

‘Going Rogue‘ is Sarah Palin’s book to set the record straight. It is her right to speak about the events that occurred in her administration and neither Mr. Bitney nor anyone else has the right to stifle that speech,” Van Flein said. “The statements in ‘Going Rogue’ speak for themselves, and it is Sarah Palin’s turn to get the truth out there after a year of misrepresentations, half-truths and dissembling by her critics.”

Jesus Christ. Do I have to explain the First Amendment YET AGAIN? Sarah Palin, Carrie Prejean, Joe the Plumber, any morons out there: you have the right to say whatever idiotic things you wish. ANYTHING. And I have the right to make fun of you for being such a moron. You got it?? If the GOVERNMENT tries to tell you you can't say what you want, THAT is a violation of the First Amendment. However, if mean anonymous bloggers make fun of the idiotic things that come out of your mouth, YOU ARE NOT BEING OPPRESSED.

Palin writes about how she wanted a smaller budget & that if she didn't get one, she would use her veto pen to get it. Because, she may drone on & on about representing the people, but let's face it. Sarah does what Sarah wants.

We get more love for Ronald Reagan, "I would cut to the chase like Ronald Reagan and just talk to the people in plain language." (158) Is this because that is the only language Sarah knows how to speak & anything more complicated would only confuse her?

Palin also talks about how she uses her children for political purposes, writing "Piper and her cousin McKinley stood beside me throughout the dedication [of the Alaskan pipeline], representing the future of Alaska." (160) And she's amazed when Letterman makes crude jokes about her children & everyone accuses her of using her children...perhaps she shouldn't put them so far out there.

Proving further that everything Palin does is a simulacrum, even the pipeline bill Palin signs is fake. When the bill doesn't come through, her legislative director says:

"Look we'll sign a ceremonial bill todau and the actual bill tomorrow. It's fine."

Fine wasn't good enough. I cared about the possibility that anything we did with regard to this much-anticipated bill could be perceived as fake or insincere. (160)

HMMM----what else has Sarah signed that isn't real?

When writing about how to calculate Alaska's share of revenue derived from resource development, Palin recognizes how confused her audience will become. "If that kind of explanation makes your eyes cross, it's because we didn't yet have a catchy name for our proposal." (163) Of course, it's not about the actual issues with Palin, it's about the image she projects. Palin further writes "political terms are meant to paint a picture. For example, liberals prefer the term 'social justice' over 'welfar' and why conservatives prefer 'marriage protection amendment' over 'gay marriage ban.'" (163) I don't think I have ever referred to welfare as "social justice," but go ahead & believe what you want Sarah as long as it supports your beliefs.

Palin goes on to prove to her critics that she has traveled abroad extensively--starting in 2007. We get a laundry list of where Palin went to visit the troops: Kuwait, Germany, Kosovo.

When writing about son's Track's hockey injury, Palin whines that the hospital would not do anything until getting her consent & therefore could not get a sip of water, lest he need surgery.

Apologetically, the nurse explained that they couldn't even let him walk down the hall to the drinking fountain becuase if he needed surgery his stomach should be empty, but they couldn't treat him without me. Of course I understood, but I still fumed inside. I even wondered out lout why this big, strapping, nearly grown man who was overcome with pain couldn't even get a drink of water without parental consent, yet a thirteen-year-old girl could undergo a painful, invasive, and scary abortion and no parent even had to be notified. The nurse seemed to agree with me, and on the spot I mentally renewed my commitment to change Alaska's parental consent laws so that our daughters would have the same support and protection we give to our children in other medical situations. (169)

Okay a few things: (1) How much do you want to bet that if Track were operated on & something happened to him, Palin would be railing against the fact that she wasn't consulted. (2) Abortion & teenage sexuality are highly sensitive issues. I know that Palin is naive enough to think that teenagers will not have sex, but that is simply not the case. Furthermore, some teneage girls could literally be killed by their parents if it was found out they had sex (or even talking to boys.) Abortion & reproductive decision making should be left up to the person making those decisions--the woman in question, not the parents. Parents do not own their children's sexuality & we should trust our teenagers to make the correct decisions.

On the next page, Palin contradicts herself yet again when Track enlists. Instead of him being a "big strapping man," he is "just a kid!!" (170) Geez. The inconsistencies in this narrative are staggering. Is he a man who can make his own medicial decisions or a young child? Make up your mind Sarah.

In the next section: Palin's pregnancy w/ Trigg.