Posted on 09/14/2008 12:30:06 AM PDT by mojito
The New York Times does the all-so predictable Sarah Palin bill of indictment for its Sunday front page. It certainly sounds compelling in the paragraph called the nut graf:
"Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.?"
But what is so remarkable is how little there is in the page after page of minutiae thrown against the wall by the Times. And indeed theres plenty of favorable material there. Up front we learn:
"Ms. Palin has many supporters. As a two-term mayor she paved roads and built an ice rink, and as governor she has pushed through higher taxes on the oil companies that dominate one-third of the states economy. She stirs deep emotions. In Wasilla, many residents display unflagging affection, cheering our Sarah and hissing at her critics."
In just the first few paragraphs you have testimony that she was effective and accessible. So where are we going here? Well, despite the testimony that she was accessible, others find her secretive and inclined to put a premium on loyalty. The evidence? The Governors office declined a request for emails that would have cost over $400,000. Proof positive. Oh, and the records sought (about Polar Bears and such) were in fact obtained.
Then there is the she blurs personal and public behavior charge. The evidence? A phone call from Todd Palin to a state legislator about the latters chief of staff, which Palin denies was mentioned. Pretty thin gruel.
Next we have her tenure as mayor, where again all heck breaks loose because are ya sitting down? she brought in her own team. No! Unheard of. Jeeez. Next shell be firing the town museum director. Oh no its true! Palin says (Oh yeah, she says, you can hear the Times reporters hrrumphing) she was cutting the budget.
This is pathetic, really. Is there something illegal here? Is there something nefarious? What is the point?
The next offense: while she was mayor city employees were told not to talk to the press. The horror! Might there have been a procedure, a public affairs or press person for that? We dont know and the Times doesnt tell us.
Then we get to the book banning. But if you read carefully there is no banning, no censorship, no list and no nothing other than someone became scared of Palin:
People would bring books back censored, recalled former Mayor John Stein, Ms. Palins predecessor. Pages would get marked up or torn out.
"Witnesses and contemporary news accounts say Ms. Palin asked the librarian about removing books from the shelves. The McCain-Palin presidential campaign says Ms. Palin never advocated censorship."
"But in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book Daddys Roommate on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to Ms. Chase and Mr. Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it."
Sarah said she didnt need to read that stuff, Ms. Chase said. It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didnt even read it.
Im still proud of Sarah, she added, but she scares the bejeebers out of me.
So Palin talked about removing books but the piece doesnt tell us what was said. And we hear about Palins distaste for a book about homosexual parenting. Again, is there some story in here? Were up to page three and it hasnt popped out yet.
We then learn that she did take on her own Republican Party and won the election for Governor by, goodness gracious, preparing for debates with notecards. Color-coded no less.
Then on page four of this eye-popping account, we learn as Governor she had the temerity to have surrounded herself with people she has known since grade school and members of her church. No! She hired people she knew? And people she trusted because she had just run against a hostile machine of her own party? The Lieutenant Governor offers up that they were competent, qualified, top-notch people, but are you going to believe him? And then the kicker: it seemed to, well, work out pretty well. We learn:
"To her supporters and with an 80 percent approval rating, she has plenty Ms. Palin has lifted Alaska out of a mire of corruption. She gained the passage of a bill that tightens the rules covering lobbyists. And she rewrote the tax code to capture a greater share of oil and gas sale proceeds."
Does anybody doubt that shes a tough negotiator? said State Representative Carl Gatto, Republican of Palmer."
The nerve hiring trusted people and running a competent, popular administration. So we veer back to secrecy dastardly tales of using a private email account and reliance on a circle of close advisors. Once again, the sheer banality of it all is both numbing and humorous. Surely the Old Grey Lady hasnt devoted all this space for nothing? But thats the conclusion one reaches as we stumble into page five. And that seems to have more of the same people who didnt get emails returned or thought she was too adversarial, harboring a siege-like mentality against her foes.
Wow, are you shocked and appalled yet? Me neither, and I cant for the life of me figure out the point of the story. Ah, yes: the reporters were told to get the goods and this is all they found. But being the New York Times they made it really long, put it on the front page, and hoped people wouldnt read it all that closely and say, I guess she has a pretty good record if thats all they had.
And if you are looking for any detailed description of any of her accomplishments presumably the reason for her 80 percent popularity forget it. No room for that.
Quite the contrary. At the rate the NY Slimes' stock is going south, a reverse split might soon be all the news that's fit to print.
“and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance...”
Says the NY Times as an Obama Loyalist in the Alaska Legislature conducts a so-called investigation of Sarah.
If Sarah were a Catholic, the stuff the NYT dug up wouldn’t add more than 5 minutes to her canonization process. Buchanan said it right: “it’s not what she’s done, but what she is” that ticks them off.
In sewage plant lexicon, Pinch would the HTHIC.
Head Turd Herder In Charge
And klinton fired all U.S. Attorneys with nary a peep from the NYT. Hilary stole 900 FBI files with nary a peep from the NYT.
Exactly. I have a friend who thinks the NYT is the most credible newspaper in the country. Frustrating.
My company has a policy that explicitly prohibits employees from discussing company matters with the press, even when not at work. The rationale is obvious, you can also find someone inside a big company who will say anything, whether fact, fantasy or opinion. You have right to free speech, you don't have a right to a job. Sometimes you gotta choose.
They did fire a vice president who critized the Navy (not the company) in a public forum. The guy now works for one of those "public interest" think tanks and occassionaly appears on Sunday morning talking heads forums, when they need someone who will reliably needle the defense industry and the military.
And why not? He’s a sewer rat, and all his actions, motivations, and directives prove it.
I enoyed your comparison very much.
Liberals are still attacking Palin and ignoring McCain.
If liberals ever went hunting, they would shoot the doe standing next to a B&C record buck.
Good for her. She's my kind of reformer, the "take no prisoners" kind.
Go for the jugular, Sarah, and eliminate anyone that gets in the way of your mission!
Finally, someone who will not be intimidated or bought.
Maybe a 1 for 10 to keep it from getting de-listed or out of the pink sheets...
How many lives did they destroy in that little escapade so that they could bring in the Thompsons.(?) The MSM certainly never went to Billy Dale to ask his side of the story.
They'd run.
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Here is something, we can all do this week to start eliminating the NY Slimes as a threat to our nation.
We can do it at our computers and do it in less than 1 hour. Besides sending a severe warning to the NY Slimes and the mutual fund companies which buy and own NY Slimes stock. We will improve our precious investment capital being wasted on NY Slimes stock.
If a few thousand freepers did this simple action this week and a few thousand new freepers, friends and relatives each following week, we will have a terminal impact on the vile NY Slimes acts like their trashing of Sarah Palin.
Please send this simple "how to" to your blogs, friends, relatives and email lists. This action will serve as a cannon shot across the bows fo the other Dinosaur Liberal Fish Wraps re sedition will not be tolerated any more.
Want to smash the NY Slimes?
How many of us own mutual funds which own NY Slimes stock and even worse have increased their NYT holdings this year. NYT investment by a mutual fund company is a terrible investment re the dollar loss in Stock value the last 2 years. Those investments are an attempt to keep the NY Slimes afloat with our mutual fund $'s. Now it is very evident that the NY Slimes is an agent and abettor of the al Qaeda Serial Killers. The Slimes is endangering the lives of our families, friends, innocent Americans and every warrior of ours. Go to this link to see if your mutual fund owns NYT. http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownership?Symbol=NYT http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp When the MS Money stock home page comes up, enter NYT into the search area and hit enter and the following screen will show up re ownership of the NY Slimes stock: The New York Times Company: Ownership Information
Highlight the Mutual Fund Ownership and hit enter. If thousands of Freepers, whose mutual funds own shares of NY Slimes did the following:
We might have a lot more impact than trying to boycott companies which sell to the elite liberals of NYC and advertise in the NY Slimes. |
In closing: There are no free lunches, and we must support Free Republic on a regular basis! (Link to Donate/Become a monthly donor to Free Republic)
So Sarah Palin plays hardball. Wow. Sounds like she passes the FIRST test for being POTUS.
So, America, after reading that, who do you want across the table from Putin: Palin or Obama?
The unstated divide in this election is that 40% of the country want a President who is therapist-in-chief, 40% want a President who will kick the asses of the bad guys. And the rest will decide the race based on what they dreamed the night before the election.
Sounds like a description of the Chicago politcal scene when the crooks who run Chicago and Illinois are trying to be nice.
I have a buddy who says that eventually the media will come around, but I dont think they will.
Actually, they can't. Their business model requires that the public buy assumption that journalism is objective - but it also requires that journalism function as a special interest which needs, and actually manufactures, bad news. And the public is beginning to notice . . .
If the MSM had any sense of fairness, or even a modicum of commonsense, the “banned book” discussion would be over, and maybe even apologies issued.
However, the media has whipped themselves into a demented frenzy; they really can't help themselves.
Their collective dementia is now so severe that they don't even realize that this kind of coverage is so lopsided, so grotesque that it's hurting, not helping, Obama.
Where’s Tom Friedman in your rogue’s gallery?
I missed his self-satisfied smirk.
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