Where’s the Outrage?

Governor Sarah Palin the maverick seems really to be Governor Sarah Palin the run-of-the-mill power-abusing neocon. She’s the same as Bush: no better, no worse.

The AP reports:

Branchflower said Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

Palin and McCain’s supporters had hoped the inquiry’s finding would be delayed until after the presidential election to spare her any embarrassment and to put aside an enduring distraction as she campaigns as McCain’s running mate in an uphill contest against Democrat Barack Obama.

But the panel of lawmakers voted to release the report, although not without dissension.

“I think there are some problems in this report,” said Republican state Sen. Gary Stevens, a member of the panel. “I would encourage people to be very cautious, to look at this with a jaundiced eye.”

Full Report here.

So I wonder if we can investigate the White House for…

Tags: Election 2008, Party Politics by ecthompson
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Average White Band was it for two or three years back in the 1970s. I don’t know why they couldn’t keep the hits rolling. Pick up the Pieces, Cut the Cake and School Boy Crush were awesome.

Tags: Fun, Music by ecthompson
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It sounds like a stupid question but it isn’t. At least I don’t think it is. Under the rule of George W. Bush, thoughtful Republicans like Brent Scowcroft were kicked to the curb. James Baker was brought back only after Papa Bush tried to save Junior’s presidency. Junior, of course, didn’t listen and Baker went back into hiding.

But now, with George Jr. being the lamest of lame ducks, isn’t it time for thoughtful Republicans to come out of the closet? There is an excellent letter to the Editor of the NY Times which asks this exact same question:

I write as an American historian, born in the presidency of Warren G. Harding, who has over many decades observed Republican leadership.

One of the most luminous moments — the “Declaration of Conscience” — came during the McCarthy era, when Margaret Chase Smith joined with six of her Republican colleagues in the United States Senate to denounce fellow Republicans for resorting to “the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry, ignorance, and intolerance.”

The coverage of the 2008 campaign leads me to ask:

Are there not today Republicans of conscience who will coalesce to say to Gov. Sarah Palin and her backers: “Stop it. This vilification is not what the party of Abraham Lincoln is about.”

And say to Democrats: “Stop it. The Keating Five was then, and this is now. What we should care about is the lives of Americans in the 21st century.”

As was said of Prague in 1968, “The whole world is watching.”

William E. Leuchtenburg
Chapel Hill, N.C., Oct. 8, 2008
The writer is emeritus professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a past president of the American Historical Association.

Tags: Party Politics by ecthompson
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Friday Morning News Roundup

• Tomorrow at 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, The Errington Thompson Show will hit the airwaves. I will be reviewing the week’s top stories. My guest will be Amanda Terkel from the popular progressive blog Think Progress and my good friend Bill Scher from Campaign for America’s Future and Liberal Oasis, one of the oldest progressive blogs.  You can listen to my show live — here.  You can also catch my podcasts — here.
• The world stock market continues to spiral in a downward trend. Asian and European markets closed sharply lower yesterday. Wall Street lost over 7% of its value on Thursday. It opened sharply lower today. No one quite seems to have a handle on what’s going on or how to stabilize the markets.
• What I thought was going to be one of the great pay-per-view classic wrestling matches (Citigroup versus Wells Fargo over Wachovia bank) has ended with a whimper. Citigroup has had enough. They are walking away. This is actually excellent news for Charlotte, North Carolina, which stood to lose over 20,000 jobs. Now job losses look like they will occur in California.
• A new report reveals that the NSA has been spying on innocent Americans without reason. Civil liberty groups warned us that this would happen. Is anyone really surprised about this in the age of George W. Bush?
• Governor Sarah “Barracuda” Palin is much less of a maverick against the oil companies than we first thought. She’s actually pretty mainstream. Who would’ve thought that Governor Palin would be distorting her record?
• There seems to be a major shift in violence in Iraq. It is true that car bombings have decreased sharply over the last 12-18 months. It seems, however, that recently targeted assassinations of key officials are replacing those massive car bombs.
• Floyd Norris of the New York Times has pointed out how Plan A has not worked. Banks are not lending money. Plan B may be to follow Britain’s lead and actually buy portions of banks. How will conservatives on Capitol Hill take this news?
• Late last night, the John McCain campaign issued a report which covered the investigation of Governor Sarah Palin with regard to the firing of Alaska’s former public safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan. Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen points out that this is like Richard Nixon in July of 1974, “issuing a statement:’ I’ve looked into this whole Watergate thing, and I’ve decided I have done nothing wrong.  Time to move on.’” The McCain campaign is cracking me up. The “real” investigation report is due out later on today.
• OMG. Adam “Pac-Man” Jones gets into a fight with his own security detail and the Sports World goes nuts. Jones is expected to play in Sunday’s game. This is a story that blew up over nothing.

Tags: Economy, Election 2008, Sports by ecthompson
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There are a couple of items that I wanted to string together tonight–

• Governor Sarah Palin hates America. She has spoken before people who she says “have no use for America or her damned institutions.” Wow. That’s worse that Reverend Jeremiah Wright, isn’t it? New article in Salon.com ties Palin with Alaska’s Independance Party.
• President Palin.  AAAaaauuugghhh.  Too scary.
• Looks like Palin’s husband kinda sank Sarah in Troopergate. His testimony clearly shows that he and Sarah had at least a couple of personal beefs with State Trooper Mike Wooten. We’ll get a final report from the investigator on Friday. The McCain camp has already released “their own report.”

More on the AIP and Sarah Palin – check out the video.

Tags: Election 2008 by ecthompson
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