Thursday, October 23, 2008
Juneau Who
Posted by Noah Bonaparte Pais on Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 8:42 PM
A couple of things to ponder with 12 days till political Christmas:
“Spread the wealth” and “socialism” have become the four-letter buzzwords of choice at Palin/McCain rallies. (Hey, they beat the hell out of “terrorist!” and “kill him!”) It’s one thing for Sen. McCain, a 26-year Beltway veteran, to have selective amnesia about the purpose of taxation. (It is, by one definition, the equitable redistribution of capital.) But it’s especially interesting to hear these charges coming from the governor of Alaska, a state in which every citizen receives a dividend from the Permanent Fund — in essence, a $2,000 piece of the mineral-wealth pie. In addition, in the boom year for oil profits that is 2008, every Alaskan is also receiving a second check in the amount of $1,200. (For certified procreation experts like the Palins, that amounts to $22,400, or nearly double a minimum-wage earner's annual salary.) Explain, please, Governor, using your campaign-financed word-a-day calendar and your night-school Ph.D. in communistic regimes, how that kind of spreading of the wealth isn’t socialism?
As for Palin’s platinum pantsuits: The $150K RNC shopping spree is more of a bemusement than a serious concern, just one more seepage from the reputation sieve of a hockey mom who gets booed at hockey games, a frontierswoman who buys tanning beds, an outdoorsy type who supports aerial hunting but who opposes the protection of endangered species, a maverick reformer who is under investigation for ethics violations, a fiscal lockjaw who lost millions of dollars in earmarks for an unused road to a never-built bridge to nowhere, and a self-appointed delineator of pro- and anti-American districts whose husband pledged allegiance to a secessionist group until months before she began her Neil Armstrong-like ascent from the city hall of Wasilla to the governor’s office in Juneau. Stalwart supporters of Sen. McCain’s “Who is the real Barack Obama?” disinformation campaign, if there still are any of you left out there, care to comment on Todd Palin’s affiliation with the Alaska Independence Party?
