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TechnoratiAnti-Palin Rally Calls for Colberg Removal
A protest slamming Gov. Sarah Palin's handling of the state's so-called Troopergate investigation -- and calling for the attorney general to lose his job -- drew more than 1,000 people to the Delaney Park Strip in Anchorage on Saturday.
![[Participants hoist a variety of messages at the Hold Palin Accountable Rally along I Street Saturday September 27, 2008 on the Delaney Park Strip. (Photo: Erik Hill, ADN)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/palinprotest.jpg "palinprotest.jpg")
Protesters chanted "recall Palin!" as organizers told the crowd to push state legislators to keep after their investigation into the governor's firing of her top cop.
An investigator hired by the lawmakers is scheduled to present his report on Oct. 10.
"This report needs to be released. Not just for us ... it needs to be released for all those people in the Lower 48 who are going to make a decision on Nov. 4," Democratic blogger Linda Kellen Biegel told hundreds of protesters gathered on the Park Strip grass.
The McCain-Palin campaign dismissed the rally as nothing more than a partisan strike from Barack Obama loyalists.
The crowd lined I Street, waving signs that said "Steady on her heels, wobbly on her words" and "Dude, where's my governor?" at passing cars. They dressed as Richard Nixon, or Hillary Clinton, or as Palin herself, holding a sign that said "hold me accountable."
A group calling itself Alaskans for Truth organized the event, which at times resembled an Obama campaign rally.
Between speeches, Anchorage singer-songwriter Libby Roderick led the crowd in a chorus of "We're gonna keep on moving forward" and "Stand tall for Obama." Obama volunteers signed up supporters under a nearby tent.
"Clearly this was an Obama rally and nothing else," Palin campaign spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in an e-mailed statement. "The rally proves the point of partisanship which the Governor has been trying to remove from the investigation in an effort to get a fair and just result."
Organizer Camille Conte, a radio host on left-leaning KUDO 1080 AM, said the event was about holding Palin to her word, and the pro-Obama message wasn't supposed to be part of the rally.
"It was hard to stop that once it started, and the crowd seemed to want it," she said.
FIGHTING DELAY TACTICS
Next to the political fliers sat petitions calling for the removal of Attorney General Talis Colberg.
On July 28, the Legislative Council -- a bipartisan group of 12 state lawmakers -- voted to launch an abuse-of-power investigation into Palin's firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.
Some Republican lawmakers have tried to get the Legislative Council, or the court, to delay the investigation until after the presidential election.
Rally organizers handed out talking points Saturday urging people to e-mail and call council members and tell them to stick with the probe.
Palin initially said she'd cooperate with the investigation. Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain announced Palin as his running mate Aug. 29, and the McCain camp has argued that the investigation became a partisan witch hunt spurred by Democrats.
Colberg is suing to quash the Legislature's subpoenas of Palin aides in what's become a struggle between the state's executive and legislative branches of government.
DOGGED PROTESTERS
Nicole McCullough came to the rally with her grand-niece and grand-nephew -- twins born the day before Palin's youngest son, Trig. McCullough wore a pitbull mask with giant red lips, a reference to a Palin's joke about hockey moms, pit bulls and lipstick at the Republican National Convention.
The twins held pit bull masks too.
A Hillary Clinton supporter earlier in the election, McCullough called Palin "a female Dan Quayle" and carried a sign that read: "Gov. Pitbull: call off your McCain dogs."
It was a reference to the McCain spokespeople and attorneys, including the self-described "Truth Squad" who have been defending the governor in regular Anchorage press conferences.
The Outside lawyers are clogging Alaska's legislative process, McCullough said.
The McCain camp says it's the other side that's making things political. For example, they say statements by Sen. Hollis French, who is overseeing the investigation and said the probe could end in impeachment, show Democrats are gunning for the governor.
The rally stretched past two hours, with a string of speeches from bloggers, the head of the troopers union and Monegan's mom. Someone read a written statement from Democratic Anchorage Rep. Les Gara -- which at one point ignited a chant of Obama's campaign slogan, "Yes we can" -- and calling for a "shout out" to French.
Like a similar rally two weeks earlier, the event gathered anti-Palin protesters from all corners. Some held signs saying "My body, my rights," while others criticized her views on aerial wolf-hunting.
Unlike last time, no organized counter-protest appeared.
30 Comments so far
Show AllPalin told him that "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time," and "she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the dinosaur tracks."
she must have been walking behind McBush in the snow..and seen her footprints inside of his..
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Sarah Palin was put there by the Republicans to prove they can get away with anything. Why shouldn't they think so? They've been doing it for decades.
Forty years ago we had Spiro Agnew. Sarah Palin is the new Spiro Agnew.
Palin will have a wire just like Bush had for the debates. ( REMEMBER THE BUMP ON HIS BACK??) She will come off as a wiz kid on top of all the issues and answers. So don't wish for something that is controlled by outside forces.
We shouldn't forget about the wire! How did he get away with that? Probably one of Kerry's aids was whispering to him. Clearly Kerry knew he wasn't supposed to win, otherwise why did he concede so early on when Ohio was so obviously stolen? Will Biden shrink from his capabilities, too, and dumb himself down while Palin parrots what's spoken to her in her wire?
She was a good debater. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/27/vice-presidential-debate_n_129907.html
The bad look for Katie may be a sucker punch.
It will be interesting to watch her debate performance on Thursday. I do wish that Matt Gonzalez and Rosa Clemente were participating in the debate (I don't know who Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin's running mates are?). But Joe Biden scares me, so who knows how it will go? I know it is odd but I find Sarah Palin likable while at the same time disagreeing with all of her views!! (I don't understand it either)...
Good for you Alaskans. Keep the pressure up and let the rest of the nation know you don't all support your wingnut gov'ner.
Bring America Back !!!!
**Right, Yeah, and don't you Alaskamos forget about all those cute and
cuddley Polar Bears and Wolves, neither, just because Sarah with those
curvy legs, and her double Kissinger entendres are melting all the ice floes.
***********Instead, Vote for that Irish guy, that O'Bama feller !!
Sara Palin is no TIna Fey.
There's a funny song about Palin at youtube.com - it's called "Bridge To Nowhere". Just search for "eskit", then scroll down to "Bridge To Nowhere".
What angered me (and scared me) was the clip when she encouraged her audience to support the troops in Iraq because they are "on a task from god."
McCain should not worry about a "witch hunt"-Ms. Palin is doing a fine job exposing what an imbecile she is without anyone helping:)
Dafoe
Poor Sarah, semi literate and so naive that as a puppet on the string of the GOP she thinks it is all because of her own efforts she got where she is. God, Guns Gays and fambly values will do it every time in GOP country. Knows the value of nothing. Does she have any redeeming virtues? None that seem to shine through her vices/shortcomings. Won't it be grand when she gets to be presdent?.
More like: oil,guns,wars and wacko bible thumpers. They love gays, they just will not admit it!
This is a veer away from the specific Palin's-not-qualified issue but I saw this on Huffington, and find it very disturbing:
The LA Times reports:
"Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said.
After conducting a college band and watching Palin deliver a commencement address to a small group of home-schooled students in June 1997, Wasilla resident Philip Munger said, he asked the young mayor about her religious beliefs.
Palin told him that "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time," Munger said. When he asked her about prehistoric fossils and tracks dating back millions of years, Palin said "she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks," recalled Munger, who teaches music at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and has regularly criticized Palin in recent years on his liberal political blog, called Progressive Alaska.
The idea of a "young Earth" -- that God created the Earth about 6,000 years ago, and dinosaurs and humans coexisted early on -- is a popular strain of creationism.
Though in her race for governor she called for faith-based "intelligent design" to be taught along with evolution in Alaska's schools, Gov. Palin has not sought to require it, state educators say."
This is scary, considering she could have her fingertips on the nuclear button. I think I want someone who is actually educated one heartbeat from the presidency.
oy vey
The woman is a whack job, and evidently more than a little vengeful, as well. For sure, she is bone-ignorant on the issues - watch her flounder during the Katie Couric interview (my personal favorite was her being able to see Russia from Alaska as the cornerstone of her foreign policy experience). If McPalin is elected, it will set this country back a hundred years, and we cannot let that happen, regardless of how many ignoramuses she manages to win over to her side. It's the economy, stupid - always has been, now more so than ever. Palin needs to be exposed for the joke she is, so that people will be sufficiently embarrassed by her VP candidacy to go the other way - let's get working on that, Hollywood. A little barbed humor can go a long way if used intelligently, and, God knows, she's giving us plenty of material.
McCain's Erratic Behavior
Cluster B: Dramatic or Erratic Behavior
Histrionic (Hysterical) Personality: People with a histrionic personality conspicuously seek attention, are dramatic and excessively emotional, and are overly concerned with appearance. Their lively, expressive manner results in easily established but often superficial and transient relationships. Their expression of emotions often seems exaggerated, childish, and contrived to evoke sympathy or attention (often erotic or sexual) from others.
http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec07/ch105/ch105a.html
We may also note that this behavior may be shared with his running mate.
ROFLMAO,
How cute,...how maudlin...How the hell you people think it'll make a difference WHICH one wins?
You want to control the beast and UN-corrupt the fed?
secede from the union and KILL the beast.
It's too foul, corrupt, murderous, and evil to salvage. Dissolve the union and let 'em all get other jobs.
But wait,....then what will Israel do? they'll have to move on to feed off of ANOTHER Goyim country. Hmmm....well, Russia has had it's fill of Zhids, their "trust" led to the murder of +/- 50,000,000 human beings so it's a no go there.
Nah,...I guess we'll have to forget it for now. they'd play hell finding another Goyim nation this big, corrupt and STOOPID enough to allow their government to be usurped by a few Zionist Bankers.
If it means people won't vote for McCain, I'm inclined to say "keep her on the ticket"!! Maybe it'll mean that we discuss real issues, instead?
If Sarah Palin doesn't scare you; then, you are a either braindead or have not been paying attention.
Sarah Palin AKA "Cruella" got to be governor because she's a Republican in a Republican state, is a Christian evangelical, likes to shoot and kill animals and encourages others to do the same, and was runner-up to Miss Alaska. It doesn't take much to satisfy people who live in a low-populated, isolated area.
Spare me all her other wrong doings. The mere fact that she’s an American fundamentalist Taliban should be sufficient to disqualify her from any public office. How did she get to become a Governor?
How did she get to become Governor? Because she loves OIL,GUNS AND WAR!
There are 2 times more people out of work in California than there are people that live in Alaska. There are almost as many people in California whose unemployment insurance expired and have nothing today, as there are people in Alaska.
AP Investigation: Palin got zoning aid, gifts
WASILLA, Alaska - Though Sarah Palin depicts herself as a pit bull fighting good-old-boy politics, in her years as mayor she and her friends...
Is the GOP picking pre-indicted crooks going in?
This lady isn't qualified for any elected office.
The neocons like her straight faced mouthing of moral platitudes social conservatives want to hear while she will have aboslutely no conscience about lying, breaking the law, intefering with professional civil servants, ruining carreers and reputations, and doing dirty back room deals for her handlers.
About as good a summary as you can get. Excellent.
A similar post at Truthdig:
The Taibbi article at Rolling Stone Posted September 27, 2008.
via AlterNet at http://www.alternet.org/election08/100551/?page=entire is about as point-blank as it can get. Some of his emotional perceptions are worth repeating here and ought to be repeated everywhere it can be, particularly targeting those who do not visit online news and especially those outside of CommonDreams. Send it to all your relative and friends. It is emotion that will win this day. So I will do it here, and should be posted on every CommonDreams article where it could be relevant. We must give thanks to thebeerdoctor for posting the article website on Truthdig. These are the paragraphs I found says it succinctly, but maybe you will have another one.
"Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she’s a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power.
Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she’s the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV -and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation."
The imageering of Obama, is how all political candidates are processed. We all know this already. Once they are seen as real contenders, the crew steps in to polish up the candidate, their words and their physical presentation. This is obviously being done for Palin and it was without question done for Obama. There is no quarrel with this. We are a media-driven society. Taibbi points out the differences and those are crucially important. For the images must be real or not real. The truth comes out in interviews like the Couric one. The mouth betrays the brain...every time.
We don’t have to be “sold down the river” as others are in other countries because they have no power at all. To think that we don’t means we might as well jump into the shitholes of an outhouse. Do we just give up without a fight, tails between our collective legs? It is a defeatist attitude.
We do have power. We can and have to unite and gather the rest of the media-numbed to unite with us. We are the ones with the cards. Maybe there are those who would prefer that we do not know it? Lazy are we? Let there be no mistake that come election day, every single vote is going to count. Does the opposition knows this better than we do?