How Palin Can GET 12M in Only 9 months

April 14, 2010
Filed under Pastiche

Half-term Governor Palin has proven how easy it is for (as she likes to say all in one breath) “real patriots, real Americans, people who love this country, pro-Americans” can receive (not “earn”) $12 Million dollars in as little as 9 months. It doesn’t require hard work, years of effort, an original thought, or obtaining a special degree. All you need is the ability to spew forth nonsensical, incoherent sound bites peppered with satire, sarcasm, and hypocrisy.

Once you’ve mastered the fine art of fooling some of the people all of the time with your shtick, and can string together nauseating cutsey-wootsy phrases like “hope-y, change-y” and “Nahhh…we’re the party of HELL NO!” spoken in angry populist rhetoric, then it’s just a matter of finding enough people willing to hand over their hard earned money to you. Just give it to you; No questions asked (unless they’re scripted questions, of course). Obviously, there are plenty of people ready, willing and able to hand over their money.

The general idea behind this get-rich-quick scheme is to rile up a crowd by stoking anger, hatred and fear towards the “other.” It doesn’t matter what the “other” is, but “big Government” seems to work rather well as a common denominator. There are those who would argue that less Government in a country the size and ever-growing population of the U.S. would be a good thing. We don’t need any more/better public schools, roads, bridges, infrastructure, military bases, police officers, teachers, libraries, hospitals, public parks, and so on. Of course, this scheme only works on people who are so busy being consumed by their fear of other that they have no time to read, research or think for themselves. Being an independent thinker is a lot more difficult than simply playing the role of a lemming.

Ideally, you’ll need to baffle the crowd with your BS, so you better have enough to go around… and Palin, et al. has more than enough to feed the masses. What you don’t want to do is offer up any sort of common sense solutions, be grounded in reality, or cite empirically proven facts that would indicate that the vast majority of “real Americans” tend to be optimistic and hopeful. After all, America has a history built on hope…and 233 years of change. Constant change. Palin has made a side show out of disparaging Americans who are at their core very optimistic and hopeful people. How sad, yet proven to be extremely profitable.

Clearly, we know who Palin, et al. is against, but we have no idea WHY, other than the fact that she’s a GOP/Tea-Party-Real-American-Patriot. (And by the way, I resent the implication that if I’m not part of the Tea Party movement, I’m not a “real American.”) Her ad hominem attacks offer only sarcasm and sweeping generalities: no solutions to any of the problems we’re up against. No specific concepts to solve economic and social problems. She has said absolutely nothing even remotely close to being helpful, or positive for that matter. Other than demanding mega bucks to regurgitate the same sound bites (her applause lines) at various GOP complaint conventions and depression sessions, and demanding bendable straws (maybe unbendable straws are too sharp for her) and a Learjet for transportation to events, what, exactly, has she done for those so willing to give her their money? Her so-called speeches are short on evidence and logic, and long on one-liners, conceit and BS. Then again, she only speaks in front of crowds who are more impressed by BS than by facts, logic, solutions and rationality.

Palin does ALL Americans, in ALL States, from ALL walks of life, an incredible disservice by glamorizing ignorance and giving voice to the worst elements of our society. Surely we have evolved enough as a society to the point where we can move past the anger, fear and violence she so loves to inspire in people and work towards real solutions to real problems. At least I would HOPE so.

Don’t speak out against Government run Health Care WHILE you’re GETTING Government run Health Care…

That’s just bad form. Palin loves to rant about “socialized, government run health care,” along with the pointless “repeal and replace” GOP mantra. Apparently, “socialized health care” and “Government run health care” is completely acceptable to her for her own family, but not for the rest of the “real American” families who can barely make ends meet in this Bushy-Cheney created recession. How can someone who is raking in millions of dollars not be able to afford – or are unwilling to pay for — private insurance?

Recently released documents from the custody battle show clearly Tripp Palin Johnston has socialized health care through Indian Health Services and the Alaska Native Medical Center.

A look in the rear view mirror…

When Palin mocked Obama by asking, “how’s that hope-y, change-y stuff working out for ya?” why didn’t someone ask, “How’s that Bushy, Cheney stuff working out for us?” Let’s briefly recap:

BUSH/CHENEY

Two unfunded wars. (No one seemed to care about what that would do to the deficit.)
Borrowing billions from China to pay for those unfunded wars (if China calls in their markers, we are in deep, deep trouble).
Turned a surplus into a HUGE deficit.
The Enron Collapse (People would have been outraged if they understood what happened.)
Debt rose under the G. W. Bush administration by $6.1 trillion (No one seemed to care about what that would do to future generations)
No progress on homeland security. (I don’t want to mention 9/11, but, well, that did happen under Bush’s watch.)
Skyrocketing health care costs. (No one seemed to care about what that would do to the deficit.)
Skyrocketing health insurance premiums. (Why would anyone in Congress care? They already have great insurance coverage…paid for by We The People.)
Financial market meltdown creating that “too big to fail” scenario. (No one seemed to care about the long term effect of giving Wall Street carte blanche to do “whatever” would have on the economy, and of more import, on We The People.)
Tax cuts for the already rich and powerful. (No one seemed to care about what that would do to the deficit.)
Unfunded Drug Prescription Program. (What’s one more massive unfunded program.)
Millions of people lost their jobs, their health insurance, and their homes. (No one seemed to care enough to stop this from even starting. No one wanted to regulate the financial industry and risk losing their biggest political contributions.)

OBAMA/BIDEN

So far, and only one year into the “hope-y, change-y” side of things Obama has:

Passed the stimulus package, generating jobs (see graph below)
Eliminated wasteful spending; The Washington Times reported on January 14 that Obama won “60 percent of his proposed cuts” and also managed “to get Congress to ax several programs that had bedeviled President George W. Bush for years.”
Sotomayor nomination
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which expands the rights of workers to sue employers over wage discrimination claims.
SCHIP expansion.
Credit card reform.
Transparency. The Washington Post reported that moves by the Obama administration to improve government transparency “included a ban on lobbyist gifts; restrictions on the hiring of lobbyists; publication of White House visitor logs and other records; and a move to bar lobbyists from serving on advisory boards.” A report by Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, and U.S. PIRG stated that: “The cumulative effect of the Administration’s actions has been to adopt the strongest and most comprehensive lobbying, ethics and transparency rules and policies ever established by an Administration to govern its own activities.”
Tobacco regulation.
The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which expands the scope of AmeriCorps and provides opportunities for young people and senior citizens to join in service programs.
Stem cell research.
Plutonium Disposal Agreement with Russia
Getting China to work with us on Iran Sanctions
…But wait… there’s MORE! You’ll just have to do the Google search yourself.

The slow climb out of a very deep hole…

Today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that he has confidence the unfolding economic recovery will have staying power, although it won’t be strong enough to bring quick relief to high unemployment. I’m not sure how the Tea Party-goers can expect and/or demand “quick relief” from a problem that was 10 years in the making. Wanting instant gratification seems to be the norm in our country.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36496933/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

We are climbing out of the hole and on our way to full recovery. Slowly, but surely….