One of the GOP’s premiere hypocrites has been acting out a big victim stance over her computer being hacked.
Sarah Palin took the stand Friday in the trial of Former University of Tennessee student David Kernell. Kernell is charged with hacking Palin’s Yahoo! e-mail account while Palin campaigned in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Kernell is facing 50 years in prison over this incident. He would be 72 years old when he gets out of prison. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Palin was asked if she thought the charges against Kernell were excessive:
Palin said, "I don’t know, but I do think there should be consequences for bad behavior."
Hmmm…consequences for BAD BEHAVIOR???
This coming from the Quitter Governor of Alaska who:
used state resources to relentlessly pursue a family vendetta
took per diem as governor while sleeping in her own bed
took her kids at state expense on official State of Alaska business trips
lashed out at socialized "death panel" health care while her family was covered by socialized "death panel" health care
enjoyed socialized health care in Canada when she growing up and needed it
has health care provided to her grandson through Indian Health Services
advocates abstinence when it never worked for her own family
family members ignored subpoenas and were found in contempt
and the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on….
But…the pinnacle of Palin’s hypocrisy might just be with this trial. "…I do think there should be consequences for bad behavior." Really? What about hers? How about Sarah Palin’s hacking into another state employees’ computer back in 2004? If hacking into someone’s computer is "bad behavior," what were her consequences?
Sarah Palin hacked Randy Ruedrich’s computer to find some dirt on him… [emphasis added]
Lest I be accused of diverting, a thinking error to which I have attributed right wing comments on other blogs, let me say that what Kernell allegedly did was wrong. I agree with Palin that there should be consequences for bad behavior. If convicted, he deserves a standard sentence, not inflated over Palin’s notoriety.
However, what’s good for the gooseolini is good for the Mooseolini. Should there not be consequences for her bad behavior as well?
Thankfully, the visit to our state by Mooseolini the Misanthrope was not the only event of note here.
Nobel laureate Jody Williams sat on the stage, wearing a T-shirt, jeans and black cowboy boots with teal stitching. She dangled one leg over the edge, swinging her foot as she spoke to an audience that packed the Memorial Union Ballroom.
"Real, sustainable peace is not just the absence of war. Real, sustainable peace is a world in which people’s basic needs are met," Williams said. "War is just powerful people wanting other people’s resources. War is not glorious."
It was Williams’ second time participating in PeaceJam, an international education program that works with Nobel Peace Prize winners to engage young people in volunteerism and encourages them to transform themselves, their communities and the world. About 300 students, teachers and college mentors attended the two-day PeaceJam conference at Oregon State University.
After the speech, students rushed the stage… [emphasis added]
Smog? Worse! Oil Spill? Even worse! Teabuggery? Yep! 🙁
On Friday night, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin “stormed” into Oregon for a speech at the Lane County Republican’s Lincoln Dinner. She called on the crowd to help elect more Republicans, joked about speaking in such a liberal state, and hit the “lame-stream media”:
During a question and answer session, Eugene City Councilwoman Jennifer Solomon read a pre-screened question from the audience about her role at Fox News. Palin said she was proud to be a part of Fox News for being “fair and balanced.”
She also praised Fox host Glenn Beck and said with “his chalkboard technique he’s changing our country.”
Journalists who covered Friday’s speech were subject to strict restrictions from the Palin camp. No cameras or recording devices of any kind were allowed and reporters were only allowed to watch the speech on a video feed in an adjacent room.
I didn’t know she was coming, and if I had it’s too far to go heckle without a car. No wonder my kashit detector kept going off. The environmental cleanup could be massive.
Yesterday I felt a little better. I caught up on replies to comments and returning visits. Today I may not. I have to go to a doctor appointment. What I wouldn’t give for a rubber chicken.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 4:47. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Raw Story: Oil is leaking from the ruptured well of a large rig that exploded, burnt and sank in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, the US Coast Guard said Saturday.
The Coast Guard estimated that up to 1,000 of barrels of oil, or 42,000 gallons (158,987 liters) were spewing each day from a riser and a drill pipe, prompting further concerns of damage to Louisiana’s fragile ecosystem, already stressed by hurricanes and coastal erosion.
Offshore drilling is hazardous to living things.
From Ashville Citizen-Times: Asheville Regional Airport police arrested a 23-year-old Ohio man who was carrying a handgun and listening to police radio scanners near the runway around the time President Barack Obama’s flight was leaving Asheville, according to investigators.
Joseph Sean McVey, of Coshocton, in southeastern Ohio, pulled his vehicle in front of a gate in the rental car parking lot as Air Force One was taxiing on the runway just before 2 p.m., according to a case summary filed by police.
Pray for our President. The GOP’s minions are seriously out to get him.
Raymond Johansen is looking for advice. Perhaps we can help.
Tim Phillips, lobbyist and chairman of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is in Europe and Oslo to endorse and teach the Norwegian right wing party (Fremskrittspartiet) how to organize so-called grassroots campaigns. But the grass root campaigns such as those the Tea Party Movement and AFP holds aren’t bottom-up crowds, but pure lobbying campaigns financed by billionaires with a clear political agenda.
When the financial crisis was a fact Mr. Phillips and AFP among others funded and organized campaigns to spread disinformation, fear and hatred. Crowds called the American president a Marxist to fight against government intervention to counteract the financial crisis. To the contrary Newsweek interviewed our Party Leader and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg this week about the financial rescue that really worked.
The campaigns have also traveled the country with a bloody hand logo to deny poor Americans the right to health insurance, and launched the "Hot Air Tour" to claim that the climate crisis is conspiracy and carbon cap and trade is the expressway to national bankruptcy. These so-called grass root movements and Mr. Phillip’s salary is for the most part paid by the oil and gas company Koch Industries. This week he shared the podium with Party Leader of the right wing party Ms. Siv Jensen, called Scandinavia’s Margaret Thatcher by her own International Secretary. Next week he shares the stage with non other then the Tea Party queen herself, Sarah Palin, to fight their common goal of tax cuts and limited government.
Until now we in Europe have watched this absurd political theatre from afar, but now I truly worry that the right wing party will learn from these extremely reactionary forces and adapt the same strategies, in Norway and Europe. It represents a form of campaigning that the Norwegian Labour Party fears. I am truly afraid that our society will not be recognizable in 20 years if the right wing party comes to power, with the help of a speculative American lobbyist – far away from the real grass root.
I ask you American progressives and people from the real grass root movements. How can we disclose and prevent these pure lobbying campaigns financed by billionaire’s political influence? Please tip me on Twitter or Facebook.
Raymond Johansen, Party Secretary of the Norwegian Labour Party, which is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government, with Jens Stoltenberg as the current Prime Minister of Norway. The Labour Party has been the central actor in building the Norwegian Welfare State after the Norwegian Model post World War Two.
Raymond the first thing I can tell you, should the Teabaggers establish themselves in your country, is to be ready for an end to civility in politics. You will receive none from them.
The second thing you can expect is an end to honesty and integrity. The Teabaggers specialize in the big lie. No matter how absurd, they will repeat a lie over and over again until it sinks in. You will be tempted to ignore the big lie, because you will not think that anyone will believe it. We made that mistake here. At one point, over 25% of Americans actually believed that the health care reform Democrats proposed actually contained provisions for death panels to kill senior citizens. You must challenge every lie they tell, adamantly and forcefully, using unequivocal evidence, and keep up the challenges as long as they persist in the lie.
The third thing you can expect is outrageous behavior. They do it for media attention, and they will get it. I don’t know if Rupert Murdock has media outlets in Norway, but I know he does in other European nations. His outlets will promote the Teabaggers. Hopefully you can turn the behavior against them by holding it up to ridicule. Here I coined the term Teabuggery to label their more distasteful activities, including virtually everything they do.
The best advice I can give you is to start organizing authentic grass-roots opposition to them before they become established.
This morning, Leslie, aka Tnlib, who writes a fine blog, posted this video on Facebook.
This is the face of your enemy. Take him seriously. I know little of Norwegian politics. What I do know is good. Yet I have no doubt that you have a Quisling there, just waiting to embrace this foul philosophy, hoping to ride it to power.
I hope our readers will add to this advice in comments.
I have seen Lloyd Blankfein on CSPAN stating unequivocally that Goldman Sachs did not see the the housing crisis coming.
In an internal e-mail released Saturday, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein wrote in November 2007 that the firm "didn’t dodge the mortgage mess," but "made more than we lost" by betting against the U.S. housing market.
Blankfein’s e-mail, which a Senate investigations panel released with three other subpoenaed company documents, appears to contradict Goldman’s denials that it profited from the subprime mortgage meltdown by secretly betting that housing prices would fall. At the same time, Goldman was selling tens of billions of dollars in risky mortgage securities.
Goldman has said that its contrary bets were largely on behalf of its clients.
The release of the documents sets the stage for a confrontation on Tuesday, when Blankfein and six other present and former Goldman executives are scheduled to testify to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which will begin revealing the results of a yearlong investigation.
In a second e-mail, in July 2007, Goldman’s chief financial officer, David Viniar, updated company President Gary Cohn on the performance of residential mortgage securities.
"Tells you what might be happening to people who don’t have the big short," Viniar wrote, referring to Goldman’s negative — or "short" — bets on housing.
Goldman Sachs, the world’s most elite investment bank, was the only major Wall Street firm to escape much of the subprime crash that set off the global economic crisis.
Goldman reported $1.7 billion in mortgage-related losses, but the company has never divulged how much it earned from exotic contrary bets using insurance-like contracts known as credit-default swaps.
McClatchy reported last November that Goldman marketed $57 billion in risky mortgage securities, including $39 billion backed by risky home loans in 2006 and 2007 without telling investors it was secretly shorting the housing market.
Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the committee, said in a statement releasing the e-mails that Goldman Sachs and other investment banks were "self-interested promoters of risky and complicated financial schemes that helped trigger" the economic crisis ravishing the nation the past two years.
"They bundled toxic mortgages into complex financial instruments, got the credit rating agencies to label them as AAA securities, and sold them to investors, magnifying and spreading risk throughout the financial system, and all too often betting against the instruments they sold and profiting at the expense of their clients," Levin said. "These e-mails show that, in fact, Goldman made a lot of money by betting against the mortgage market."… [emphasis added]
One of the reasons Goldman Sacks came out smelling like a rose is that most of their losses were paid when the Fed opted to but out AIG’s obligations at 100 cents on the dollar, even when Goldman was in the midst of negotiating the payment rate with AIG. This crime against US taxpayers was facilitated by Paulsen, Bernanke, and Geithner. Their claims of innocence are totally transparent. The practice of regulation of Banksters by Banksters must end.
Yesterday I caught up replying to comments. Today, I’m feeling a little better, and unless I feel the need to rest later, I’ll try to get some visiting in.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 3:46. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: In Illinois, a telemarketer recently sold an elderly woman a fraudulent health insurance plan that supposedly protected her against “death panels,” the state insurance director says.
That’s criminal! Teabuggery in the first degree!!
From Common Dreams: Vermont lawmakers made clear Friday that recently enacted federal health care reform did not go far enough toward a public model, passing legislation that could bring to the state the "public option" health insurance rejected by Washington or even a Canadian-style single-payer system.
By a vote of 91-42, the Democratic controlled House passed its own version of legislation passed earlier by the Senate. Both bills call for designing a single-payer system, in which a government agency would administer and make all payments for health care.
Vermont may become the best place in the US to live.
From Newshounds: In recent years, at least twenty Fox News personalities have endorsed, raised money, or campaigned for Republican candidates or causes, or against Democratic candidates or causes, in more than 300 instances and in at least 49 states. Republican parties and officials have routinely touted these personalities’ affiliations with Fox News to sell and promote their events.
Is it any wonder that I call Faux Noise the GOP Reichsministry of propaganda.
Sarah Palin took the stand Friday in the trial of Former University of Tennessee student David Kernell. Kernell is charged with hacking Palin’s Yahoo! e-mail account while Palin campaigned in the 2008 presidential campaign.
