Move On Needs To Do Just That...

Move On already. They have SO jumped the shark. I used to belong to them until they endorsed Obama with a limited number of members voting, and with the voting rigged (surprise!) by Obama people. I bring them up because THREE different people sent me the following email:

Dear MoveOn member,

Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for 'inexperience,' here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5
She's solidly in line with John McCain's 'Big Oil first' energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here's a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting 'A Woman' in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he's made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain's vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. 'Sarah Palin,' Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. 'McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate,' NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-2822249-AbjgAax&t=1

3. 'Sarah Palin, Buchananite,' The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-2822249-AbjgAax&t=2

4. ''Creation science' enters the race,' Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-2822249-AbjgAax&t=3

5. 'Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science,' Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-2822249-AbjgAax&t=4

6. 'McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy,' Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-2822249-AbjgAax&t=5

'Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past,' League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-2822249-AbjgAax&t=6

'Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor,' The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-2822249-AbjgAax&t=7

7 'McCain met Palin once before yesterday,' MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-2822249-AbjgAax&t=8

"Huh?" is right. They are using OPINIONS from their members as if they are FACTS!!! They are using WIKIPEDIA as a primary source, the same place Progressives have been LAMBASTING as an unreliable source. I guess it is only unreliable when it comes to OBAMA, but not Palin, or Clinton, or anyone else who dares defy The One!

Anyway - the point of this email is clearly to demean and diminish Palin's accomplishments, which are FAR more numerous than Obama's. And to, once again, demean people who bitterly cling to their guns and religion. Holy freakin' cow - are they really that moronic, um, I mean TONE DEAF, that they did not hear the brouhaha of Democrats being insulted that OBAMA demeaned them for their guns and religion?? Now, I should say, I don't own a gun, never have. I don't like them. They scare me. And, even though I'm a minister, I hardly "cling" to my religion. A tree, maybe (as in treehugger - get it?!), but religion? Nope. Still. But still. I respect the right of people in the United States to be responsible gun owners, and worship in a manner that works for them. So what if Sarah Palin hunts? LOTS of people hunt, and do it to put food on their table. So what if she goes to a fairly conservative church? It surely cannot be any worse than OBAMA'S church is! Her minister may be a "fire-and-brimstone" kind of guy, a theology with which I disagree wholeheartedly, but it is her RIGHT to believe in that kind of theology!

For Move On to claim that she is anti-environment is just flat out wrong. She was saying just the other night on CNBC that care for the environment is important to her, and that they are looking at alternative sources of energy, like geothermal and wind. She also said something I had not thought about much (except in terms of Iraq when the oil fields were burning), and that is given that Alaska sits on massive oil and natural gas fields, the technology is such that they can leave a much smaller footprint than in the past. AND, that there is much more care taken toward both human and environmental rights than the other countries from which we currently get our oil. I have to admit, that was kind of a good point, though I REALLY don't want them destroying ANWR. Really, really don't. But it was an interesting point in terms of how much attention we pay to how the oil we now get is processed, and how the workers/environment are treated. I'd say it's pretty low (the attention), but that's just me. Anyway, if you want to hear her for yourself, here's the link to the CNBC video.

Now, I'm not trying to be a huge apologist for Sarah Palin. Not at all. But I am pretty sick and tired of these Obama supporters throwing out whatever trash they can think of and see what sticks to people without basis, and distort their records as a result. And I should say, the three people from whom I got this are all well-educated people who should KNOW better. At the very LEAST, they should check out some of these facts for themselves (one of the people was my sister - she also sent me a thing about Palin being opposed to gay marriage. What Palin said, and it is at her website, is that the people of Alaska voted against it in 1998, and she has to abide by their wishes. But, since the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, she has to abide by the Supreme Court decision. I reminded my sister that OBAMA is opposed to gay marriage himself.)

This was my response to the people who sent this tripe to me:

Just so you know, Palin has as much experience being governor as Tim Kaine does, and no one questioned HIS level of experience when he was on Obama's short list. Moreover, McCain IS experienced, unlike Obama, and HE is at the top of the ticket, not the other way around. That makes a big difference. Obama has never managed ANYTHING, and has very few legislative acccomplishments of his own. He couldn't even be bothered to hold ONE meeting of the European Affairs Subcommittee, of which he was chair. The one that oversees Afghanistan. And NATO. Oh, I guess he kinda managed something with his buddy, Billy Ayers - the Annenberg Challenge. Oh wait - that's the one in which they mismanaged $110 million.

Palin also vetoed a ban on same sex benefits, thus GRANTING them, in her first month in office.

Both Palin and McCain acknowledged the anniversary of Women's Suffrage. The Democrats? Not so much. In fact, Obama and Biden didn't mention it at all.

That is all to say, she ain't all bad.

McCain also pays the women on his staff more than he pays the men, which is the exact opposite of Obama. And McCain has MORE women on his staff in senior positions than Obama. His behavior toward women in general, and Hillary in particular, does not speak well for his treatment of women.

The bottom line for me is this - I may not vote for McCain, but I sure as hell am not voting for Obama. I will not condone the rampant fraud (particularly in the caucuses, and with over 2,000 documented instances in TX alone, and fraud perpetrated by ACORN), and the downright theft of votes taken from one candidate and given to another who was not even on the ballot by his own choice. That was the ONLY way he became the Presumptuous nominee. I will not support a Party that did NOTHING about the numerous reports of fraud, bullying, intimidation, Obama people INSIDE POLLING places, threatening people to vote Obama or leave, and which sat silently by while the MSM and Obama were blatantly misogynistic toward Hillary Clinton, and all women. I won't condone a party that did not want to have the popular vote winner even on the Roll Call, forcing her to negotiate what has been a standard for decades (oh, and Obama wanted it in secret so that she would never be ahead of him - that was also why big states like CA had to wait to do their delegate votes - at NO TIME would Obama allow Clinton to be ahead of him) and stopped her delegates at 20% so that they would not all be recorded even though she had almost 2,000. Jesse Jackson had all 485 of his noted. So did Kennedy when he fought tooth and nail against Carter for the nomination and had almost a 1,000 fewer delegates. The SuperDelegates were bought and paid for by Obama's PAC* so that districts, counties, and states that went for Hillary had the delegates go for Obama - because he gave them money. He is the most unqualified candidate I have ever seen, and does not deserve to be the President. His backtracking on every single position thus far should demonstrate that he is untrustworthy. His secrecy levels exceed Bush's, and that is saying something. Why would I support someone who will not allow ANY information out about him??? Who believes Reagan was a transformational president? Who wan ts to return to the foreign policy of DONALD RUMSFELD, and who voted for the Bush/Cheney energy bill???

That is all to say, when the DNC engaged in voter theft, fraud, and disenfranchisement, as well as ripping apart one of their own (Hillary), demeaning the only two term Dem prez we have had in four decades, they lost me. And the DNC has lost its moral compass. I will not support them until they regain it.

Oh - hope you liked Obama's speech. All of the major policy pieces were ones he lifted whole paragraphs of from Hillary Clinton. He didn't even bother to change ANY of the words. Not the first time. Just like his ads during the Olympics when he talked abt 5 million green jobs - stole that from her, too. So, two known plagiarizers on the Dem. ticket. That's nowhere CLOSE to the best they could do (I can't stand Biden, either).

In other words I think OBAMA is a dangerous choice. IMHO, that is.

Did I go over the top in my response? I don't think so. Like I said, I am sick and tired of these people holding EVERYONE else to a much higher standard than they do Obama. The sheer hypocrisy of it is staggering. ESPECIALLY since they are comparing the top of the ticket - Obama - to the bottom of the ticket - Palin! And do they REALLY want to bring up the whole religion thing?? Really?? Don't they think that just opens the door WIDE for those Jeremiah Wright videos to surface again?? Sheesh.

Enough of that - Gustav is making landfall as I type. McCain did the honorable thing, and suspended the convention except for the actual business part, which had to be done. I may not agree with his politics, but he does seem to actually care about people, and was willing to give up the big hoopla. I daresay, I cannot see Obama doing that at ALL. Especially not after having his Temple built! Couldn't let THAT go to waste, could he? Anyway, I tip my hat to McCain for doing the RIGHT thing at the RIGHT time. That speaks volumes about his character.

I long for the day when the Democratic Party has its character and honor restored. I can only hope that will happen sooner rather than later. Now would be best, but I'll take 2012...

* This video by GeekLove spells it out pretty nicely: