Country First?? No, Alaska and Big Oil First.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Joel Badeaux
Submitted September 3, 2008

How John McCain could pick Sarah Palin for Vice President is beyond belief. Besides the fact that she is just about the least qualified pick ever and has no foreign policy experience at all, her views on the issues are the most extreme for anybody ever considered for the Vice Presidency (yes, even worse than Cheney, who believes in gay rights). She is against abortion even in the case of rape and incest -- and, yet, she claims to believe in freedom and acts like she is taking up the mantle from Hillary and Geraldine Ferraro on women's rights?

Not to mention the fact that the Republicans think we are stupid enough to believe that she can properly raise a 4-month old infant with Down's Syndrome and be ready to step in as President of the United States at the same time. This would not be fair to her child or America. She works vigorously against sex education and contraception in schools and then has an unmarried teenage daughter that gets pregnant? Where was she as a parent when it came to teaching her daughter about how to be abstinent and finish her education first -- maybe out moose hunting? So much for Faith-Based Birth Control. Sadly, McCain passed over all the qualified women in his party like Condoleezza Rice, Olympia Snowe, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Carly Fiorina in order to pick the closest thing he can find to Britney Spears' mother and put her on the Presidential ticket.

At present the Republicans have canceled Palin's previously scheduled appearances and interviews and are trying to hide all of her views on the issues, while claiming she is being unfairly attacked because she is a women. And this is the party that spent the last 16 years savaging and ridiculing Hillary Clinton? Now they think Palin should get a free pass and not have to answer any questions about her positions on the issues? No doubt they will try to portray her as a moderate "hockey mom" in her speech tomorrow. Ha!!!

In fact it turns out that she and her husband were active in the Alaska Independence Party, which puts the needs of Alaskans above other Americans and even wants to debate whether or not to secede from the United States and become their own country. Here is a Youtube video of Governor Palin addressing the Alaskan Independence Party, as well as a link to the party website.

YouTube - Sarah Palin and the Alaska Independence Party. Palin addresses AIP convention

Alaskan Independence Party

Notice their party slogan -- "Alaska First, Alaska Always." Notice their mascot is a Polar Bear -- yeah, like the ones out there drowning on melting ice sheets because of global warming that she doesn't believe in and the Big Oil companies that she does. This is who they want us to believe is a patriot? McCain and the Republican Party have the nerve to adopt 'Country First' as their slogan and then put a modern day Secessionist on the ticket. This is the person he would put a heartbeat away from the Presidency, when he is 72 years old and has had four episodes of melanoma already? This is an example of his experience and judgment? God help us. Fortunately he has probably thrown away his chances of winning the election with this ridiculous selection.

In less than 2 years as Governor she is already under investigation for abuse of power. She is accused of having the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner fired because he was unwilling to have her brother-in-law fired, who is a policeman, when he was getting divorced from her sister. Then she appointed an old friend to that position who was forced to resign after 2 weeks because he had a history of reprimand for sexual harassment. Of course this friend got a $10,000 severance package. And we would want to bring her type of ethics to Washington? Please.

Yet it's easy to see why she is "the most popular Governor in America." Why? Because she copped a Democratic idea and put a tax on oil company revenues and sent $1200 checks to all residents of Alaska. Alaska is of course the state that gets more pork per person out of the Federal budget than any other. When she was the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she sent out a team of lobbyists to Washington to collect as much pork for her town as she could possibly get, and she was very successful. Now we are supposed to believe she will "fix" and "reform" Washington, DC? Well, it turns out she was for the famous "Bridge to Nowhere" before she was against it, and she actually kept the money for Alaska even though they never built the bridge!!

Are we living out an episode of "The Twilight Zone," or maybe this is just a "Saturday Night Live" sketch (starring Tina Fey, of course)?

In my worst nightmare I would never have thought that John McCain, who I used to think was a bipartisan patriot, would do this. Sadly, for the John McCain of 2008 it seems to be about putting the far-right-wing of the Republican Party first and America last.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

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