Thursday, September 18, 2008

Sarah Palin's dead lake

Sarah Palin's dead lake
Salon.com
September 19, 2008

By promoting runaway development in her hometown, say locals, Palin has "fouled her own nest" -- and that goes for the lake where she lives.


Sept. 19, 2008 | WASILLA, Alaska -- Every morning she's at home here, Sarah Palin wakes up to a postcard view from her lakeside home. Out the windows of her two-story wood-framed house stretch the serene, birch-lined waters of Lake Lucille. Ducks go gliding by the red-and-white Piper Cub floatplane docked outside. With the snow-frosted Chugach and Talkeetna mountains looming in the distance, the scene seems to define the Alaska that Palin celebrates: rugged, majestic, unspoiled.

And, yet, the lake Sarah Palin lives on is dead.

"Lake Lucille is basically a dead lake -- it can't support a fish population," said Michelle Church, a Mat-Su Valley borough assembly member and environmentalist. "It's a runway for floatplanes."

Palin recently told the New Yorker magazine that Alaskans "have such a love, a respect for our environment, for our lands, for our wildlife, for our clean water and our clean air. We know what we've got up here and we want to protect that, so we're gonna make sure that our developments up here do not adversely affect that environment at all. I don't want development if there's going to be that threat to harming our environment."

But as mayor of her hometown, say many local critics, Palin showed no such stewardship.

"Sarah's legacy as mayor was big-box stores and runaway growth," said Patty Stoll, a retired Wasilla schoolteacher who once worked in the same school with Palin's parents, Chuck and Sally Heath. "The truth is, Wasilla is just plain ugly, it's not a pleasant place to live. It's not thought out. And that's a shame.

"Sarah fouled her own nest, and I can't understand why. I hate to think it was simply greed or ambition."

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Sarah Palin's dead lake

Sarah Palin And Magical Thinking

Sarah Palin And Magical Thinking
Andrew Sullivan.com
18 September 18, 2008

A reader writes:

"Regarding the "odd lies" of Sarah Palin. I grew up in a deeply evangelical family, and through the lens of evangelical thinking the world is magical, populated with demons and angels, devils and gods. You are taught not to believe your eyes or your senses, that the wisdom of man is foolishness to god. That belief is Truth. That belief is Truth before reality is truth. What comes out of this is what I'll call magical thinking."

"You feel the presence of God, feel Him talking to you, feel the mission of your life, the purpose the plan the direction given to you by God. So everything becomes like a mythic fairy tale. You get in the habit of fitting the day to day realities into a 'story' the life story of God's purpose in your life."

"This is how Sarah becoming Governor is destiny."

"Her memory is constantly rewriting the reality to fit her proscribed vision within an evangelical Christianity that has direct contact with god. If you see all of her 'lies' through this lens they begin to make perfect sense."

"Thought I would share: I can totally feel what she is feeling. And if you look at those leaked emails, the prayer talk, and faith talk and god talk, it completely fills your thoughts every moment of every day."

The question is simply whether this magical thinking is what we need to address the financial crisis, the terror war and the Iraq occupation. If you want a president who doesn't believe in empirical reality, you know who to vote for.

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Sarah Palin And Magical Thinking

Palin's husband refuses to testify in probe

Palin's husband refuses to testify in probe
By MATT VOLZ – Associated Press
September 18, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and key lawmakers said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.

Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. Palin's lawyer sent a letter to the lead investigator saying Palin objected to the probe and would not appear to testify on Friday.

"The objections boil down to the fact that the Legislative Council investigation is no longer a legitimate investigation because it has been subjected to complete partisanship and does not operate with the authority that it had at the time of its initial authorization," McCain-Palin presidential campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said.

Sarah Palin initially welcomed the bipartisan investigation into accusations that she dismissed the state's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper. "Hold me accountable," she said.

But she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate. The McCain campaign dispatched a legal team to Alaska including O'Callaghan, a former top U.S. terrorism prosecutor from New York to bolster Palin's local lawyer.

In the letter, Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein lists nine objections to the Legislature's investigation into Gov. Palin. Van Flein also argues the subpoena is "unduly burdensome" because Palin has travel plans that require him to be out of the state.

Earlier this week, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said the governor, who was not subpoenaed, declined to participate in the investigation and said Palin administration employees who have been subpoenaed would not appear.

State Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat, said the McCain campaign is doing all it can to prevent the Legislature from completing a report on whether the GOP's vice presidential nominee abused her power as governor.

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Palin's husband refuses to testify in probe

Protesters Interrupt McCain-Palin Event

Protesters Interrupt McCain-Palin Event
Washington Wire - Wall Street Journal
September 18, 2008

Laura Meckler reports from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on the presidential race.

Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin got a new, less friendly reception today: protesters loudly chanting and interrupting her remarks. She didn’t seem to know how to handle it.

As Palin spoke, three young women began chanting, “Palin, Palin, get off our backs! Women’s rights are under attack!” They barely got the first round out of their mouths before the crowd drowned their words with shouts of “USA! USA!” and “We want Sarah!”

Things took an angry turn as the crowd closed in on the protesters. One man stepped within inches of one of the women, shouting “USA! USA!” to her face and appearing to shove her toward the exit.

“He was kind of pushing me. We were nonviolent so we couldn’t do anything about it,” Laura Kacere, a senior at the nearby University of Iowa, said later.

Meantime, Palin awkwardly tried to continue with her remarks even as the crowd continued its chants and police escorted the women out.

Later, while John McCain spoke to the crowd, another set of protesters—Kacere said they were from the university, too–again interrupted. The audience again responded with loud chants. But McCain, more experienced at the art of protest, paused and suggested that what Americans really want is for people to listen to one another.

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Protesters Interrupt McCain-Palin Event

First Clinton, now Palin out of NYC rally

First Clinton, now Palin out of NYC rally
By DEVLIN BARRETT – Associated Press
September 18, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — Organizers of an anti-Iran rally next week have dropped Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin from the event, days after Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton pulled out.

The National Coalition to Stop Iran Now said Thursday that it will put on a rally without "American political personalities" and Palin won't be there.

The move angered Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who accused Democratic rivals of having his running mate disinvited. All Americans should agree on the need to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he said.

"Governor Palin was pleased to accept an invitation to address this rally and show her resolve on this grave national security issue," McCain said in a statement. He blamed "Democratic partisans" and Barack Obama's campaign for pressing organizers to dump Palin.

A number of American Jewish organizers are staging the rally in New York City against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They had announced earlier this week that the event would feature both Clinton and Palin.

Clinton aides fumed over what they saw as a slight by organizers, because they had no idea until told by reporters that Palin was supposed to attend as well...

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First Clinton, now Palin out of NYC rally

Sarah Palin struggles through another interview, this time with friends

Sarah Palin struggles through another interview, this time with friends
Sheldon Alberts - National Post Canada
September 18, 2008

WASHINGTON • Ever since Sarah Palin sat down with ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson last week, Republicans have complained that the venerable newsman was unforgivably condescending and aloof.

Gibson’s sin? Asking Palin, insistently, whether she supported and could describe “the Bush doctrine.” The Alaska governor simply couldn’t answer.

“In what respect, Charlie?”

Gibson: “What do you interpret it to be?”

Palin: “His world view?”

Umm, okay.

Conservative commentators – notably syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer – rushed to Palin’s defence. Krauthammer pointed out there have been “four distinct meanings” of the Bush doctrine.

They include America’s willingness to unilaterally withdraw from international treaties, the president’s post-9/11 ‘with-us-or-against-us’ ultimatum to nations harbouring terrorists, the use of pre-emptive war to protect the United States from imminent threats, and his second-term ‘freedom’ agenda.

Krauthammer chastised Gibson for practicing “gotcha” journalism and said the anchor “captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and intellectual condescension” elitists feel toward Palin.

Or, maybe, Gibson was just asking...

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Sarah Palin struggles through another interview, this time with friends

Shocker: Palin Cancels Big California Swing

Shocker: Palin Cancels Big California Swing
Carla Marinucci - San Francisco Chronicle
September 18, 2008

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was to star at two major California fundraisers and an Orange County rally for 15,000 next week, has canceled her two-day swing through the Golden State, campaign sources said.

The change is a shocker, because Palin's presence had electrified the GOP base in California. Party insiders were distributing 15,000 tickets to her Sept. 26 rally in Orange County -- and fundraisers reported an almost instantaneous sell-out of her two $1,000-a-head Sept. 25 fundraising events in Orange County and Santa Clara.

Both fundraisers had generated such high ticket sales that the OC Lincoln Club event was moved to the Orange County Performing Arts Center, and the Bay Area event was moved from the Woodside home of Tom Siebel to the huge Santa Clara Convention Center.

The change comes in the same week a new Field Poll showed that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama still leads Republican presidential candidate John McCain in California by a whopping 16-point margin.

So Palin's pullout from her Western state swing is sure to ramp up chatter that the GOP ticket -- which has insisted it will compete here -- may be reassessing its Golden State presence. (Team McCain says it's just a scheduling issue.)

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Shocker: Palin Cancels Big California Swing

Bush says he’s worried about financial crisis

Bush says he’s worried about financial crisis
President cancels fundraising trips to focus on continuing market meltdown
September 18, 2008

WASHINGTON - Eager to show that he feels people’s pain, President Bush scuttled a political fundraising trip Thursday to tell the country his administration is working feverishly to calm turmoil in the financial markets.

Bush was supposed to spend the day in Alabama and Florida raising money for Republicans and talking energy policy. He canceled his trip and sent Vice President Dick Cheney to sub for him at the fundraisers to focus on the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression.

“The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial markets and our economy,” Bush said. “And I share their concerns.”

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Bush says he’s worried about financial crisis

Palin excitement levels off as Democrats regain lead

Palin excitement levels off as Democrats regain lead
September 18, 2008

(CNN) -- Is America's honeymoon with Sarah Palin over? Polls suggest that might be so.

Sarah Palin and John McCain are now behind the Democratic ticket in the polls.

Palin appears to be losing some of her initial appeal as Democrats make gains in the polls.

The Alaska governor came out swinging at the Republican National Convention, energizing her party's base and shifting the momentum to John McCain's favor.

At rallies in the week following the convention, the McCain-Palin duo saw their best attendance and a newfound zeal, and the Republican ticket took the lead in national polls for the first time.

But polls show the momentum has shifted once again.

Palin's favorable rating is at 40 percent, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll. That's down 4 points from last week. Her unfavorable rating is at 30 percent, rising eight points in a week.

The poll was conducted September 12-16 and has a sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove predicted Wednesday that Palin's star power would wear off.

"Nothing lasts for 60-some-odd days," Rove told The Associated Press. "Will she be the center of attention in the remaining 48 days? No, but she came on in a very powerful way and has given a sense of urgency to the McCain campaign that's pretty remarkable."

But this week, the Democrats recaptured the headlines and Obama regained his lead in the national polls.

CNN's latest poll of polls, out Thursday afternoon, shows him ahead of McCain by two points, 47-44 percent...

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Palin excitement levels off as Democrats regain lead

Records reveal Palin's push for earmarks

Records reveal Palin's push for earmarks
Posted on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 6:31 PM ET
Filed Under: Politics

By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer
As a vice presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin has railed against federal earmarks, or congressional funding for pork-barrel projects. "In our state, we reformed the abuses of earmarks," Palin recently boasted to a rally in Lancaster, Pa. "We championed earmark reform up there," she said, "to stop Congress from wasting public money on things that didn't serve the public interest."

But musty records culled from the archives of the Wasilla, Alaska, city government reveal that Palin was directly involved in soliciting millions of dollars in earmarks for Wasilla when she was mayor. And she got help from a well-connected Washington lobbyist.

In a monthly status report to the city on March 7, 2000, newly hired "City Lobbyist" Steve Silver describes how the Palin administration had requested $6.6 million in federal earmarks for water and sewer improvements for Wasilla, and another $1 million for police equipment. Mayor Palin reviewed and signed the lobbyist's report, dated April 5, 2000.

Those earmark requests have not previously been disclosed, said Keith Ashdown, chief investigator for the non-profit Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. Ashdown said the lobbyist's report offers a rare window into a normally closed-door process. "The document you've found is a peek behind the curtain of how earmarks get approved in Washington," he said....

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Records reveal Palin's push for earmarks

O'Reilly: Economic crisis is the end of Pres. Bush's legacy'

Link to Bush still hurting McCain, poll finds

Link to Bush still hurting McCain, poll finds
Candidates back to where they were before conventions, and Palin pick
September 18, 2008

WASHINGTON - Despite an intense effort to distance himself from the way his party has done business in Washington, Senator John McCain is seen by voters as far less likely to bring change to Washington than Senator Barack Obama. Mr. McCain is widely viewed as a “typical Republican” who would continue or expand President Bush’s policies, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Polls taken after the Republican convention suggested that Mr. McCain had enjoyed a surge of support — particularly among white women after his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate — but the latest poll indicates “the Palin effect” was, at least so far, a limited burst of interest.

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Link to Bush still hurting McCain, poll finds

Wake Up America

Palin won't pave way for moms

Palin won't pave way for moms
Dallas News - September 18, 2008

Sarah Palin's story of raising five children while serving as small-town mayor, then Alaska governor since December 2006 raises expectations and hopes for working mothers, but it's a fantasy for most of us.

Most mothers cannot take a newborn to work with them – unless she's an elected official, a Hollywood celebrity or self-employed.

It's a great dream, but don't expect a McCain-Palin administration to promote policies that make it easier for working mothers.

Palin won't pave way for moms

Are Fixed-Rate Loans About To Vanish?

Are Fixed-Rate Loans About To Vanish?
Realty Trac - September 18, 2008
Peter G. Miller

For decades the surest and safest mortgage has been the quiet and dull fixed-rate loan. With fixed-rate loans the monthly payment for principal and interest never changes, the interest rate stays the same, the loan balance declines every month and the threat of payment shock is non-existent. The biggest choice faced by fixed-rate borrowers is 30 years or 15.

Given the mortgage calamities seen during the past year it might seem logical that lenders would be pushing fixed-rate mortgages, but the good things which make such loans safe and secure for borrowers are increasingly unattractive to mortgage investors, the people who actually buy loans. The result is that fixed-rate mortgages are about to become increasingly rare even for the best borrowers.

The Good Old Days

One of the first homes I bought was financed in a way that would make TV real estate wizards proud: I assumed a 6 percent mortgage and the seller took back a second loan at the same rate for much of the rest of the purchase price.

This was long, long ago and each month I went to the local bank and made my payment on the first mortgage. The teller would mark my passbook by hand and as corny as it seems I actually looked forward to my monthly trips to the bank and the gradual reduction of my debt.
The problem was that with every payment the lender lost money.

The lender, I have no doubt, hated me. Nothing personal, merely a reflection of the reality that while I was paying 6 percent the very same lender was making mortgage loans in the late 1970s and early 1980s at 12, 13 and 14 percent.

My lender was financing long-term mortgages such as mine with short-term borrowing. The interest rates paid by the lender were higher than my loan rate, so the lender was losing money with every payment I made.

“Today lenders have gotten smarter,” says James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer at RealtyTrac.com, the nation’s best known source of foreclosure data and listings. “Freely-assumable loans don’t exist and the companies we see as ‘lenders’ are most-often mortgage retailers, companies without a vault, deposits or cash of their own. For the past few years the game has been to originate loans, sell them as quickly as possible, and then use the cash from the sale of one loan to finance the next.

“While the system of selling loans has been good in the sense of adding liquidity to the marketplace,” said Sacaccio, “ultimately it’s unchanged from the days of passbook loans: In the end there’s an investor putting up the cash for a mortgage and that investor does not want to take a loss.”

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Are Fixed-Rate Loans About To Vanish?