Sept. 4, 2008 (democraticunderground.com) – Forget shrill and all the words that will get PUMA's panties in a twist. There are plenty of better words to describe what we witnessed tonight.
Try mean, as in it is mean spirited to say that a community organizer does not have actual responsibilities. If Palin is correct, then the women who founded the Fort Worth Women's Center decade's ago did not have responsibilities when they created a haven for battered and raped women and later added facilities for women who found themselves without jobs or skills or income for the first time in their lives. Hmmm. If they do not feel responsible, I wonder why they rush to the emergency room in the small hours of the morning to comfort women who have been sexually assaulted? And the people working to solve the infant mortality crisis in Fort Worth–they are as idle as rich folks sailing their yachts all day, even though they work hard for no pay trying to keep babies from being born premature.
Try ignorant. Palin talked about change, but real change, effective change does not come from the mayor's office or the governor's office or the president's office. Public health studies have shown that the most effective way to get people to change their lives for the better is to get the people themselves invested in the process of change. To do that, you need to get someone or some group of people at the community level to begin to organize citizens to assess their community's needs, strengths, weaknesses. They gather their resources. They make plans. They tackle problems. This is the way that change comes about. Leadership from above inspires it, but you have to have workers at the community level to get it done. Sarah Palin demonstrated her own lack of real world experience when she mocked the work of all those who have brought clean water to communities which lacked it, adult literacy to communities which lacked it, prenatal care to communities which lacked it and a host of other vital services.
Try hypocritical. That is what you have to be to spend two whole days practicing someone else's speech in front of tele-prompters with a professional coach, so that you can come out on national television and trash the other party's nominee for being too good a speaker and writing too good a speech.
Try pit bull because she called herself that. I'm betting that was not scripted.
Try liar. "I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment." Um, yes you are. You brought Republican politics and strategy straight out of Newt's uber conservative Congress to your little town in Alaska where you were running for mayor in the mid 1990s even though races in that town had not been influenced by partisan politics before you decided to interject it. You brought the political establishment to your Eden, Gov. And as for the Bridge to Nowhere, you told Congress "Pretty please" before you told them "No, thanks—but I will be happy to keep the money!" (See this Reuters article.)
Hmmm. That makes her a liar and a thief. Wait, there is more. "If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves." You sure you wouldn't use any of that federal money that was given to your state for the purpose of building the bridge? I think Sarah Palin and the truth have a troubled relationship.
Try con artist. Remember this stirring moment?
That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.
Guess which foreign power will own the pipeline and control the flow of Alaska's natural gas? Guess which foreign power will be able to decide how much it wants to charge Alaska for the use of the only viable way to get its gas to the lower 48? The country that tried to spread lies about a major presidential candidate this spring before the Ohio primary, because its conservative government favors John McCain's energy policy of dependence on foreign oil over Barack Obama's policy of energy independence. Give up?
Canada.
Yes, even Canada can be a dangerous foreign power when its lobbyists are also bundlers for all of the major presidential candidates except Obama, and its prime minister tells lies about Obama and it is trying to sell its dirty, greenhouse gas generating oilsands oil to America even though Obama and the nation's mayors do not want it. The multibillion dollar gas pipeline deal that Sarah Palin is so proud of, the one that she has revoked Exxon's oil leases on the Northern Slopes for, is with a Canadian Company called TransCanada. Once that pipeline is built, a foreign company will control Alaska's natural gas flow.
Now, that is foreign energy dependence that we can count on.
Try fascist fear mongerer mocking the Constitution, as if its existence weakens the country and enables terrorists to attack. Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he's worried that someone won't read them their rights?
Try idiot. Only an idiot can use the word victory in the same sentence with Iraq, since the Bush administration's response to any events in that country are always "Good, that means we need to stay." "Victory" to the American people means getting the hell out of there so that our soldiers are out of harm's way and so that we stop pouring $10 billion a month down the big gov't drain. "Victory" to the oil interests which Bush and McCain represent means a permanent U.S. military presence so that U.S. companies can plunder Iraq's oil. Maybe if Palin had completed more than a bachelor degree, she would understand this.
Sarah Palin's gender is going to affect how many people in America perceive her, but it does not need to affect the way that we describe her. A man who gave the same speech would be just as much an asshole.