The Palinator?

New News On The Governor Palin Hacked Email Account

"Was Tennessee Democrat's son the Palin hacker? A politician’s son is being fingered for the hacking of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s personal Yahoo email account. David Kernell, the son of Democratic state Rep. Mike Kernell of Tennessee, is being questioned by authorities, including the FBI and the Secret Service, which began an official investigation following last week’s hacking. Knoxville’s Tennessean reports that Kernell refused to disclose any information regarding his 20-year-old son, who is a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. A message on a web site popular with hackers that purported to be from the hacker talked about how he reset Palin’s password to get access to the account. Personal photos as well as some of Palin’s family members’ email addresses and cell phone numbers ended up circulating on the web on sites including Gawker and Wikileaks. " -Media life web shorts

Mondays Missives

"Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, considers Palin "extremely responsive and smart" and says she is in charge when it comes to in-state services, such as emergencies and natural disasters where the National Guard is the first responder"

• The above not only serves to illustrate the picture well, it's a quote from the same article that detractors are using over and over and over that points out when federalized, the Governor has no authority over her states troops. It's meant to make her and her supporters somehow look bad when they compare her command role experience to Obamas experience. I doubt anyone assumed she meant to convey she commands those troops when they are federalized and deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan but, they are scared. I understand, we've all been there I suppose and when you are scared you do and say things you wouldn't otherwise. I remember I made a childish response to fear like that once- I was surrounded, the enemy was everywhere they wanted my blood. I didn't know what to do so I passed the ball off and still got massacred. Kill the man with the ball is hard.
• I think the point was she had to be the one to lay awake at night and wonder if her state had done enough to train their troops up before they are turned over to federal authority.
• She had to learn how/when/why to deploy her states troops and know after meeting them and spending time with them she'd be living with that decision.
• She had to live with the knowledge if her troops weren't adequately trained, led, equipped and in sufficient numbers and they were needed for a stateside response not only would people she was directly responsible for and knew personally suffer, she would be held accountable and would forever be remembered for this shortcoming.
• This may be a case of we'll believe whatever we want to believe but I simply cannot picture Obama standing among his troops in a flightsuit. I promise you, if he ever tried that not only would he look uncomfortably ridiculous, the perception as such by the troops would be painfully obvious and a similar op. picture would never make it to print.
• Part of the reason when someone like Palin comes out to a military exercise they wear a uniform is for safety. Flightsuits are fire resistant to an extent and she doubtless flew that day. Civilian clothes may also be inadequate for the environment as they might snag on equipment.
• If this blog were a stock and I were an analyst I'd be expecting the political component of it to peak right around early to mid November and drop sharply off back into pictures of local wildlife (including my kids) and goofy demotivational posters.
  

Nutty Stuff Palin Pulled As Mayor Of Wasilla

"Despite the rocky start, Palin gained favor with Wasilla voters. She kept a jar with the names of Wasilla residents on her desk, and once a week she pulled a name from it and picked up the phone. She would ask: "How's the city doing?" Due to income generated by a 2% sales tax that was enacted prior to her election, Palin was able to cut property taxes by 75% and to eliminate personal property and business inventory taxes. She made improvements to the roads and sewers (financed through municipal bonds) and strengthened the Police Department. She also reduced spending on the town museum, prevented building of a new library and city hall, put in bike paths, and was able to get funding for storm-water treatment in order to protect the region's lakes."

Accomplishments highlighted in red from random-ish paragraph pulled from Wikipedia. I could have left it like it was but, the idea was to highlight the positives and evaluate the balance.

Evidently, girl power is awesome.

Fridays Dispatch

I understand if we love someone we find them more attractive than we would if we had no feelings for them and they will be perceived as more attractive to us than another might find them- does this extend to people we don't know but, we admire? People that admire Michelle Obama speak constantly of her beauty, detractors compare her appearance to a chimp. Palins admirers say she's hot, detractors compare her to a mousy librarian and rag on her supposed lack of fashion sense. I understand beauty is in the eye of the beholder but it seems aspects of qualifying beauty should be somewhat objective. How does the way we perceive a persons character so thoroughly affect the way we see them physically?

• When I hear the dog snoring I feel more at ease and I guess contented.
• Friends when rummaging through my laptop to check out my music have given me an unmercifully hard time over the number of soundtrack albums I have. If you think about it, the music budget for a top flight movie is going to be huge so it can attract the best composers and artists, it is used to set a tone and convey a message so it will be powerful, regardless of the genre it will be pleasing because it has to appeal to a wide audience, even if you don't remember the movie specifically, if you had a pleasant experience with it hearing the music will have a good connotation. I can think of three people by name who gave me a hard time over having that music who found different soundtracks to be some of their favorite music.
• I hate using the word genre.
• If I had any vocal or instrumental musical ability, had a little bit of rhythm, could write songs or basically any talent at all- I think I would be good in a band.
• I've had at least three friends who were in bands. One was a country singer who was so good it was unbelievable. He brought a tape to work once that had some original work which as good or better than anything on the radio and there were covers on it that honestly blew the originals away. Of course, across the board we all said,"What are you doing here? You belong in Nashville!" He said something like," You go to any of the honky tonks around here, say in a fifty mile radius, if there aren't ten guys good enough for the big time, there's fifty- there's only so much room at the top and anyway, breaking into the business is like winning the lottery- there's a lot of luck involved."
• I had another friend who looked quite a bit like Clint Black. He was in a Dairy Queen in Holiday Texas once that happened to have a bus style motorhome in front and noticed everybody who walked in would stare and point him out to other people. One lady approached him with a napkin and a pen, he said," Wait a second, I know where this is headed..." The woman acted like she didn't hear a word and said,"Mr. Black, I know you're busy but, can I please have your autograph?" He said,"I'm sorry, I know what you're..." "I'm your biggest fan, I have all your music!" was the interrupting reply as she placed the pen and paper on the table. "Look, I get this all the time I'm not Clint Black- I'm sorry." The woman snatched the pen and paper off the table and snarled, " You try to come across as so nice in all your interviews and music but you are just a hateful little man aren't you? I was your biggest fan, see if I ever buy any of your music again!" and she then stormed out without even ordering any food.
• I would have said,"Sure darlin', who should I make this out to?"

Crazy Comments From Some Crazy Site

"Also, people, don't for a minute believe Track is destined to deploy to Iraq out of some divine intervention on the EXACT day the infidels attacked our nation...There is a deployment CEREMONY scheduled for Sept 11, in which his unit will be involved. It is very contrived and planned to evoke a weepy, patriotic response and to make Track look like a hero to for the republican cause...Anyone seeing it any other way needs to take the Pub-colored glasses off..."

"Good Luck Kid. Your mom just shipped you off to hell."

I know there are some things that should not even be dignified with a comment but, the first statement shocked me so much I have to ask, could anyone on this planet really be simple enough to think what they just proposed is even remotely possible? That deployment would have been been scheduled months before Palin knew she'd be nominated- before McCain even considered her for that matter and actually before that kid would know for certain he would be deployed. Yes, it was scheduled on that day for a "patriotic response" of the people being deployed.

The second statement? I know very little about that kid (Palins son Track) but, I'll guarantee you his time in Iraq will be remembered for the rest of his life as one of the most satisfying, thrilling, unforgettable and even fun times in his entire life.

No Surprise

There's been some pretty crazy accusations against Governor Palin. The outrageousness of many of the claims stem from the fact that well, there's nothing there- she's clean as a politician comes and things are having to be made up out of thin air and Obama supporters professional and otherwise had mountains of negative data to use for every likely nominee except Palin, so they're scrambling. I promise you, I would find it sadly hilarious even if I wasn't a supporter.
One claim I'd heard was in spite of having a disabled child she cut funding to special needs students. This was going around in emails. Intuitively, I knew there was absolutely no way this was possible but, didn't know she had in fact increased spending for these children.

"Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years." -LGF

"Advocates for rural and remote schools have lobbied for years for more funding, in particular noting the higher fuel, transportation, and other costs associated with providing education in communities scattered across the vast state." Alaska Dept. Education and Early Development

Governor Palins increased general funding for rural areas will be phased in over a five year period.

Back to the special needs students issue- "A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008."- Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

That's a 175% increase in funding.

American Awesomality

Mondays Missives

• I'm known for having a crazy good memory, so much so that it seems no matter the setting I'm constantly called on to mediate disputes over something based on my memory and If I don't remember? People will sometimes assume I just don't want to help their side because they think I should have remembered. I have to look at it like a superpower that must be used for good and not evil.


• 38-12-26- my locker combination from high school. My 25 year reunion was a couple of weeks ago.


• I have no pleasant memories of my marriage.


• I can often effectively erase an unpleasant memory so that it doesn't intrude into my thoughts ever again.


• My son asked me if there was ever a time in life you'd use non-real numbers in daily business. Um, I might have been able to answer that one bubba if I knew what non-real numbers were. It reminded me though of what kids would say when I was in school,"When am I ever going to use Algebra in my life?" I had a job once where I used fairly complex Algebra on a daily basis and not to sound too melodramatic but, peoples lives depended on my calculations.


• I remember kids by name, hobbies and things they said from school who may have only been there a short time and other people have no recall of them whatsoever.


• There was a kid who I went to school with that was born without thumbs and one who was born with only three fingers on each hand, there was also a kid who lived next door to friends in my hometown whose right hand had only one large very short finger where his middle two fingers should have been.


• People saying,"Governor Palins pregnant daughter proves what a dismal failure abstinence only education is." Seems disingenuous on many levels. 1) Do they know that child received abstinence only education or a very thorough one? They can't have any idea. 2) The logical take on this would be if it happened to this family?- it could happen to anyone. And how bad would this problem be if no one ever stressed to their children to wait for marriage?


• Another disingenuous aspect- Obamas mother was unmarried at the time of his conception. He can be president but, Palin can't be vice president because her unmarried daughter is pregnant? Bizarre.


• The really good thing for Palin supporters? If her detractors are this desperate she should be in good shape. This should be apparent regardless of your political beliefs.


• People believe all teenagers have sex. Do they base this in any way on personal experience? If a person was 15 ten years ago and going at it like a bunny every weekend it doesn't mean everyone one else was and is and if they weren't doing it but, assumed everyone else was that isn't correct thinking either. And surveys and studies? A kid may lie about nothing else but, you aren't going to get them to admit they aren't having sex if they think everyone else is having sex.


• I knew a guy once who got his girlfriend pregnant. Not news you say? Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to mention he was 11. He and the girlfriend were still together when I met him- he was 22, she was 30.


• The term eye boogers is gross, funny and wonderfully descriptive.

• The guitar pictured above was Jimi Hendrix 1965 Fender Strat which was the first one he set on fire. It had been in a guys garage since he burned it in 1967, it sold yesterday for 500,000 dollars.

Fridays Dispatch

• Had an odd little flashback this morning due to flies getting stirred up by the rain and trying to get in from the cool-ish weather, I've been mortally murdering at least three a day that sneak past security and get into the house and it reminded of an anecdote that may show how different westerners and middle easterners think- not just differences in opinion but, how we totally process information differently. A westerner (say an American) sees poor middle easterners (say Iraqi) with flies swarming them at mealtime, children with minor sores becoming infected due to fly activity and loss of their livestock due to same. A westerner might offer to provide swatters, fly strips and other options including education like "Hey man, burn or bury your garbage." The middle easterner would look at you bemused and say to the effect,"The flies and garbage have always been around, they are everywhere. Yeah, we know they get in the children's eyes and torture our animals but, what can I do?" and shrug their shoulders. These facts would make a westerner go crazy enough do something but, I think a middle easterner would be too fatalistic to believe a difference could ever be made.
  

• Some are making a big deal out of a DWI Gov. Palins husband was charged with when he was in his early twenties. They weren't even married at the time. It was twenty years ago. Maybe he wasn't even intoxicated. If he had buried a claw hammer in someones head and Palin was a candidate liberals wanted they would say,"They weren't even married at the time. It was twenty years ago. Maybe he wasn't even guilty." You know I'm right.

• Newt Gingrich was on the Daily Show last night. He combines in equal measures, intelligence, common sense, compassion,humor and ethics more than any other political figure I'm familiar with.
  

• "Andy and Wayne are entrusted with the simple task of guarding Canfield University's mascot "Lucky" until the big game against rival school Farnan University."- Synopses of new show on hulu.com called Campus Cops originally aired in 1995. The following are user generated reviews. 1) "I read the reviews and thought "gosh, I want to see what these people are talking about, can something really be this bad?" seriously, DON'T WATCH THIS, it's not like "wow, this is so bad it's funny how bad it is!" it passes that kind of bad and dives straight into "I might hurt myself if I watch any more of this" "Ugh. 2) if you actually like this show... you have no soul" 3) "This is a crime, and I can't understand why this is not illegal. The most horrible thing I have ever seen." I started watching it anyway, I lasted about 45 seconds, the above reviews are kind hearted passes.


• My yard looks pretty awesome since it rained. Two of my neighbors have said the appearance of my lawn inspired them to make theirs look better- wow, I'm an inspiration.


• At the DNC a bunch of retired generals were trotted out to endorse Obama, one was introduced as General Fig Newton, huh? Yep, and here's his bio:


• "GENERAL LLOYD W. "FIG" NEWTON
  Retired Aug. 1, 2000. Gen. Lloyd W. "Fig" Newton is commander of Air Education and Training Command, headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. As commander, he is responsible for the recruiting, training and education of Air Force personnel. His command includes Air Force Recruiting Service, two numbered air forces and Air University. Air Education and Training Command consists of 13 bases, more than 43,000 active duty members and 14,000 civilians. "
• Another flashback: I went to a volunteer fire department near where I lived once to get an application to see if I could help out. There was a guy a guy at the station who gave me a kind of smug look and said,"Here's an application." I went ahead and started filling it out and during the course of this talked to that guy and another who came in a little later and both kind of warmed to me. One said," Since you are here, ______ is on his way we can interview you." The interview consisted of the three of them sitting in a semi circle around me staring me down, asking What would YOU DO? questions like, "There's a baby in a burning house, Billy Bob is down and running out of oxygen- he calls for help..." I guess I did well, as there was a lot of talk from them afterwards like,"You are going to fit in around here just fine if we can keep you away from _____." And then, " _________ can have old _______ and ______ anytime, I think we can trust this guy." while they slapped me on the back. I really felt like I had walked into a minefield and was about to get in the middle of something really messed up. Later, they called and left messages on my house and cell phones, called references I'd listed looking for me, wrote me a letter trying to get me to come back, it was pretty weird. Years later I mentioned this little tale to someone and they said,"I'd say you were about to get in the middle of something. Haven't you heard the story on those guys? They were the ones who argued over who was going to drive the trucks, who was going to spray the fires, who was in charge and a bunch of other craziness, then they finally had some big blow up and some left, one even bought his own fire truck and tried to start up his own fire department!"

For once, my womans intuition might have payed off.