What kind of subject line do you give a post like this?

[tzikeh]

"So, Sambo beat the bitch!" -- Sarah Palin, in public, after it became clear that Obama would be the nominee.

And yeah, the article only gets better from there.

Comments

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Okay, you know what? I despise Sarah Palin's stands on almost everything, but I think that particular article is mostly...bullshit, not to put too fine a point on it. "Arctic Arabs?" Her husband is part Yup'ik, and while being a PoC doesn't preclude somebody (or their spouse) from being racist, I just...no. There's enough real stuff to hate her for.

signed, person who's just been reading 8000 allegations about America-hating Democrats trashing 12,000 U.S. flags after the Denver convention

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

The letter's been verified as genuine. As more people are starting to speak up, more and more information *just like this* is coming to light. The fact that there are plenty of other things to despise about the woman does not in any way negate what people who have known her personally are saying here.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

The letter, yes (the email, you mean). But the quote from Lucille No-Last-Name has no confirmation yet, and that's what I'm talking about.

Look, I hate the Republican campaign, their candidates, and almost all their beliefs. I just hate the thought more of *my* side possibly acting like them. If Lucille steps forward and goes on the record, repeating what she said, I'll be publicizing it all over the place. Until then, though...you know?

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Hey, if another local who patronizes the unnamed restaurant comes forward and confirms what "Lucille" heard, even.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It would be utterly outrageous if she turned out to be so hideously racist, but I'm going to wait to judge specifically *because* this would be such a horrible thing for anyone to have said.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, anything this nasty I'd want more than one source on. If she talks like that in a restaurant, she probably talks like that in front of people who are now sick of her and will happily report it.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

If Lucille steps forward and goes on the record

If you look at what those who *are* willing to go on record, like Anne Kilkenny and Arnold Gerstheimer, are saying of Palin's vicious methods of intimidation and retribution, I can't imagine how anyone with anything to lose would be willing to speak up at all. Even Kilkenny, who says she has no job she can be fired from or position on any association or local organization, still expects retribution. I wouldn't want my name on record either. There are too many similar stories piling up for me to handwave this one away.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Yes, but...a Native waitress named Lucille in such a closed-ranks environment? Clearly everybody there (including Palin's minions) would be able to track her down in two seconds, which suggests to me that the first-name-only report is false.

From all the confirmed reports (and everything from her own mouth), Palin seems like a dreadful human being. I'd just rather we all concentrated on the verified issues.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go ahead and say it. I'm going to address this comment outside of this specific post, without further comment on whether or not Lucille spoke up (or exists).

I'd just rather we all concentrated on the verified issues.

Like the Republicans do. Taking the high road (spun by Republicans as being "weak") loses the Democrats more elections than all of the political issues put together. The Republicans lie, cheat, smear, bribe, steal -- anything and everything then can possibly do to win, and the Democrats say "Well, we're not willing to just make things up out of thin air to discredit our opposition." And then they lose, and lose, and lose. And if we're not willing to get into the mud pit with them, we'll never be able to push them out of it so we can start cleaning it up.

I know that's a very, very unpopular opinion, but it's one I've slowly come to over the past ten years, after watching Gore and Kerry both refuse to fight back when they were flat-out lied about over and over and over again. After watching Bush's own personal Supreme Court decide that he should be President, after watching the president of the Diebold corporation promise to "deliver Ohio", after watching The Swift Boat campaign *succeed*, I don't think that there's another option. There is no other explanation as to why this race is even *close*, let alone tied.

If Americans really are this stupid, then we have to accept that and play the game to win. How many more times are we going to let them kidney-punch us before we punch back?

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

I understand your frustration. I can't even say that what you're saying doesn't make sense. I'm just...not willing to get down into their mud pit yet.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I'm just...not willing to get down into their mud pit yet.

Fair enough. I never thought I'd be here, frankly.

For more people willing to go on the record, here is an article in the Guardian UK by a journo who actually bothered to *go* to Alaska.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link...

*is reading*

[calendae.livejournal.com]

I'm not here to defend Sarah Palin, but there are a lot of assumptions made in that article that are patently untrue, or at least from my POV. I don't know Palin herself, but Alaskans as a whole, are no more or less racist than people in any other state. And I say this as an Alaska Native who works for a tribal health corporation. So, it's not "just Alaska."

Also laughable is the idea that Alaskans are somehow afraid to speak out against Palin. There are many Alaskans speaking out against her and her inexperience, abuse of power, and flipflopping. I mean there's no less than three separate ethics investigations going on about her administration right now.

This (http://alaskareal.blogspot.com/) is a good blog that explores what Palin has done (or really not done) for Alaska Native people in her tenure as Governor.

I'm sorry for the rambling. I saw you on friendsfriends and I am oddly compelled to defend Alaska (not Palin) each time I see a post about her. There's so much misinformation about the state out there.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Alaskans as a whole, are no more or less racist than people in any other state.

Fine, but Alaskans as a whole are not the Republican pick for Vice-President. I don't have a problem with Alaska; I have a problem with Palin. I don't think it's "laughable" that people are afraid to speak out against anyone who has done what she has done; just as you say, there are investigations in to abuse-of-power issues--the ex-brother-in-law and the librarian just to name two. The evidence of her being a horribly vindictive person gives credence to the idea that many people who will speak, but few willing to be identified.

[calendae.livejournal.com]

And those investigations came out of many Alaskans speaking out against her and being willing to put their name out there as people that had been hurt by her vindictive actions. Again, I'm not trying to defend her, I'm defending the assumptions made about Alaskans by people who know nothing about the state or its politics.

I think Palin is awful and I want to punch her in the face all the time. But that doesn't mean I have to swallow what people are saying about our state.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

But that doesn't mean I have to swallow what people are saying about our state.

Believe me, I understand -- I'm from New Jersey. :D I didn't point to the article because I wanted to say bad things about Alaska. I wanted to point to what people are saying about Palin.

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

I wish to speak on this and only this point: no Alaska Native I've met would ever refer to themselves as Aboriginal and any Alaskans the writer spoke to would have pointed out that the term is not used. At best the writer is being incredibly rude, but more likely is that much of the story is a fiction. The grain of verifiable truth does not make the remainder of the fiction any less distasteful.

There are plenty of legitimate issues to be concerned about, but there are also a lot of fictions being passed around. I suspect people think it's perhaps a little easier to get away with fictions about Palin because it's just Alaska, right? Unfortunately they seem to be correct, because I don't see a whole lot of people speaking up about what are to me blatant inaccuracies and misrepresentations.

For the benefit of anyone reading this comment who has no reason to know better, I am a lifelong Alaskan who never had any intention of voting for McCain and finds the idea of Palin in the White House more than a little distressing. I just think we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard than the Swift Boat crowd when it comes to criticizing the opposition.

[sundara.livejournal.com]

I'd read two weeks ago on some blog somewhere...hmmm...anyway, after talking with Alaskan insiders, someone up there had called her "Dick Cheney in a dress". Yeah.