Q:  Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

PALIN:  "Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance".

The U.S. Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance as the national pledge on June 22, 1942.  A decade later, despite significant nationwide debate and opposition, that phrase "under God" was added to it in 1954.  Our founding fathers had no concept of any sort of "pledge", and in fact might well have considered the very idea repugnant.

(Should you wish to verify for yourself the duplicity of those who strong-arm webmasters into removing damning political evidence, this WAS the URL for that questionnaire - try it yourself): http://eagleforumalaska.blogspot.com/2006/07/2006-gubernatorial-candidate.html

But now on to the more important item - a shockingly incriminating report about Palin from one of her Alaskan "Soccer Mom" friends.  I'm quoting it in its entirety below, fully expecting it to also vanish from its original web site.  Get this:

From: The Washington Independent

Submitted by Michael Wrightson on Sept 1, 2008

A note to all by Anne Kilkenny

Dear friends,

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

[This was already posted on Washington Independent comments area, with a controllable hotmail account, and was obviously meant by the author to be read.]

Thanks,
Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT

• “Hockey mom”: true for a few years

• “PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since

• “NRA supporter”: absolutely true

• Social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).

• Pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.

• “Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation

• “Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

• Political maverick: not at all

• Gutsy: absolutely!

• Open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

• Has a developed philosophy of public policy: no

• ”A Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

• Fiscal conservative: not by my definition!

• Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.

• Pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents

• Pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.

• Pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.

Anne Kilkenny
annekilkenny@hotmail.com
August 31, 2008

=======

Updates:

See Palin's Start in Alaska: Not Politics as Usual - NY Times, 9/3/08.

Also, Documents detail Palin's political life - Politico, 9/2/08.

So, finish up your e-mail, make yourself a cup of Maxwell House coffee (a long-time radio show sponsor), relax, and listen to the actual radio broadcast in which Gracie announces her candidacy.  Her campaign song was "Vote for Gracie, and keep voting all day long".

"Say good night, Gracie".

Palin: "What is it exactly that the Vice President does every day?"

Maher: "Let me field that one for you, Sarah ... they start wars, they enrich their friends, they subvert the constitution, and they shoot people in the face."

That's really great news.  Finally, after all these years - and perhaps due to a bit of positive backsplash from Obama's candidacy - our gay community is enjoying some visible progress. 

Then again, one has to consider the differences between polls and actual action.

When polled, a lot of people say they'll vote for Obama too, yet when confronted by that voting booth screen, research indicates that a surprising number of them will actually press the McCain button.

That's the disappointing fallacy in all sampling polls.  People often want to appear to agree with whatever they perceive the premise of the poll to be, but in their hearts they really feel differently.  Also, few will own up to being bigoted or prejudiced, even in an anonymous poll.

The key word in that quote above is "qualified", and qualifications are ultimately defined by the voter (and those who seek to influence him).

For example, racists may claim to support Obama, yet on election day find "reasons" other than his race to vote for his opponent.  Likewise, when push comes to shove, many claiming to support a gay candidate might well decide that his/her "lack of experience" or "unproven family values" or even the candidate's religion reverses their ultimate vote - when in fact, it's just plain homophobia at work.

Only zealous wingnuts are so out of touch with reality as to take pride in their bigotry.  But homophobia lives and breathes in ignorance, prejudice, and nauseatingly misguided religion.

If asked five years ago whether we'd ever expect to see a black presidential candidate, most of us would have said no.  So maybe someday, we'll see a gay one too.  A win by Obama could certainly ease the path toward that glorious day, but only time will tell ...

To read the entire LA Times story, Click Here.

Nothing special, I knew, because so could most of my classmates in that Pennsylvania public school.  And our teachers made sure anyone who couldn't knew how by the time they moved on to successive grades.  You simply didn't progress through school unless you had a good working knowledge of the English language and math.  Everything started there.  It was a given.  Everybody could read.

I knew, of course, that the wrinkled old lady across the street who always dressed in black barely spoke anything I could understand and probably didn't read either, but hey, she was from Bulgaria or some such place.

In later years I learned that there are tiny pockets of backwoods hill people in Kentucky and West (By God!) Virginia who are functionally illiterate, but of course they speak a dialect nobody further than fifty miles away understands, and they don't have electricity or indoor plumbing either (or so I surmised), so it seemed reasonable to assume they also never learned to read.  But of course I knew that all but a tiny percentage of Americans in cities and their suburbs not only can read, but they happily do so on a daily basis, just like the rest of us.

Turns out I was wrong.  Dead wrong.  Today I'm stunned to discover that nearly half of the citizens of New Orleans are essentially illiterate.  Get this ... we're talking about five-hundred-thousand people living in and around a major American city who cannot read simple English.

Not only that, but one of the major reasons so many in New Orleans are still living in filthy flood-damaged homes is because they can't decipher the stacks of government forms they're required to complete in order to qualify for assistance.

It would be easy to blame this shocking situation on the past eight years of the Bush Blunder, but obviously this goes far deeper.  Somewhere, sometime between when I left public school and now, this nation lost touch with the basics of public education.  Somehow, we've blithely sailed on, blissfully unaware that huge numbers of our citizens lack the fundamentally basic knowledge necessary for successful living in this day and age.

How did that happen?  Who do we blame?  Bureaucrats?  Teachers' unions?  Ourselves?

In this article which further explores the New Orleans situation, the writer cites efforts by such organizations as The Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN) to simplify the legal gobbledegook in government forms so that ordinary people can understand them.

But, while a noble and worthwhile effort, that's not the answer to illiteracy.  Schooling is.  Simple, free, and GOOD public schooling.

All the noise and fury during the run-up to this election about world leadership and economic recovery mean absolutely nothing to those who can't read.  Worse yet, all efforts to get our shamefully unemployed blue-collar workforce back to work are doomed to failure unless they can report for their shift armed with good, usable literacy.

For heaven's sake, let's lay off the silly spending of fortunes on multi-language public school classes and government forms and signs printed in umpteen languages.  Let's get back to basics, and absolutely insist that all mentally normal American citizens MUST be able to read and understand an ordinary English-language newspaper by the time they're ten years old - or stay in public school until they can. 

Further, let's make it mandatory that all immigrants to this great nation who desire citizenship must do the same.  No English proficiency?  Then no driver's license, no social security card, and no public assistance beyond limited basics.  All the free English classes you care to take, but nothing else until you pass a reasonable English proficiency test.  Yes, I know that English as a second language is difficult to learn, but so is being a good citizen.  And the latter cannot happen without the former.  It's worth the work.

In this day and age, illiteracy in a great nation such as ours is nothing short of scandalous.  Let's encourage our elected representatives to give all the attention and support toward eradicating this national embarrassment that it deserves.

Boy's Names:  Amen, Audi, Auto, Avon, Berniece, Bird, Brogan, Bucket, Bus, Canteen, Castle, Dannon, DellBert, Dent, DeRail, Digger, Dude, Dull, Ferral, Forever, Friends Forsaken, Gayland, Golden Noble, Halloween, Iron Rod, Jar, Jazz, Justan Tru, Knight Train, Leviathan, Marvelous Man, Messiah Angel, NaLa'DeLuhRay, Nightrain Lane, Nymphus, Orange, Orlon, Rifle, Rube, Sambo, Shag, Slaughter, Soda, Statehood, Sterile, Thermos, Tide, Truck, Tugdick, Vernal Independence, Vilar Bodily, Welcome Exile, Wesson, Zaragrunudgeyon, Zippie

Girl's Names:  Abcde, Apathy, Areena, Arloween, Astrolena, Barbeli, Bardella, Beefea, Bet'C, Blessing Ream, Breezy, Bridges, Brookelynn, Brunette, Camera, Candle, Caprice, Carvel, Celestial, Celestial Dawn, Celestial Glory, Celestial Starr, Chenille, Chinchilla Zest, Chlomania, Christmas Contada, Christmas Holiday, Cola, Confederate America, Corvette, Crayon, Darlin', DeFonda Virtue, Delecta, Deliesha, Delight, Denverly Dawn, Desdedididawn, Dickalyn, Disney, D'Net, Downy, Dynevore, Edys, Eloween, Ethylene, Fawn-Dew, Ferriland, G'ni, Granite, Hallah Lujah, Heaven Lee, Hereditary, Honica, Hydra, Jazairra, Jennyfivetina, Jeopardee, Jilt, JonQuill, Joyous Noel, Justa Cowgirl, Kaolyn,   Kaysional Tempest, Khrysalis, Kinda, La, Laalaa, Latrina, Lawn, Layklynn, Lexus, Liberty Lulu, Lovie Angel, Luvit, Magpie, Mandelyn, Me, Merrily, Mia Sky, Michigan, Miracles Precious One, Mistrie, Mystiq, Nafeteria, Oa, Perpedelia, Phakelikaydenicia, Placentia, Pork Chop, Porsche, Queenola, Radon, Rainee, Rebbel, Revo Cram, Saunsceneyouray, SeaBreaze, Sesami, Sincere Devotion, Snowma, Southern Justice, Speedy, Staccato, Starbuck, Stormy Shepherd, Sunday's Hossana, Syringa, Thankful Flood, Timber, Trauma Anne, Trendee, Tuesdee, Turquoise Nova, Velvaleen, Versicola, Vindalu, VulvaMae, Vyquetoriya Walkasheaqua, Xko, X Y Zella, Zestpoole, Zoola, Zzkora  

Girls: Chernoble? Panorama? Turpentinne? Focaccia? LaChoy?  Canola? Sonesta? Japanne? Lentilia? Kachoo? Kapow? Labiette? LaVida Loca? Vageena? Visine?  Mazola? Cafeteria? Velveeta? Cryesthesia? O'Mygawd? Smegma? Pharmacy? Rheumata?

Boys: Email? Overral? Fairway? Flaccid? Lysol? Salami? Nutella? Gnitwitt?

Nah ... probably much too "Trendee".

P.S. ... always remember to stay "Justan Tru", and watch out for "Ethylene" and "Radon" - they'll "Slaughter" you if you're not careful.

What's GLIB?  What's a BBS?  Click Here to find out.

That was when creative geek artists were doing wonderful stuff like that shown in this video of a new ANSI art show.  Take a look ...