Arkansas Blog

I'll bet you a nickel, Max, that the other shoe will drop by Sunday or Monday, revealing charges if not against Palin herself, against the contractor who built the Wasilla Sports Center and also worked on Palin's home. Only an impending scandal can explain Palin's very nervous and hasty resignation. Her spokesperson was in New York and gave a similarly stammering, scatterbrained CYA statement but it seemed clear the spokesperson had no warning. If we afford Palin enough credit to speculate that she's launching an early national campaign for the GOP nomination, we are indeed seeing "strategery" at its most Bush-like.

The Empress has no clothes and it will be amusing to see the pundits who spent yesterday saying "Yes, er... brilliant move!" eat their words when the scandal emerges. Overshadowed at last by what now has to be called the perfect storm (Michael Jackson's funeral plus Palin's shenanigans) the question is will Sanford finally shut up? It is clear the man has not a friend in the world, nor an aide or counselor worthy of the title.

There's my prediction. What say you, AT'ers?

I'm with you mag....something is "fishy" up in Alaska.

Sarah Palin is dumber than a sack of hair.

Either that or she saw the money that Mike Huckabee was making and wanted a piece of the action. Maybe CNN has offered her a show to compete against Mike Huckabee.

http://a11news.com/2125/sarah-palin-embezzlement-scandal/

Mag wins!!

>>the question is will Sanford finally shut up?<<
mag

Let's hope not. As progressives his damage to the other side is compounding a lack of Tea Parties, acontinuing meltdown of the Gay Old Pervs, and the marginalization of the GOP. His state party had called for his resignation but he fails to see the light. It was his "soul mate" after all and how many times in life does one find their "soulmate?"

Plus, being the deceptive species that homo sapiens is, eLwood suspects Sanford keeps glorifying his Argentine "soulmate" to keep noisy people from wondering about his other USA soulmates.

May the Republicons continue to live in "interesting times."

A phenomemom is presently happening is worrisome, annoying, and yet at the same timis quite amusing.

Many of the morons of my acquaintance who have historically aligned themselves with the Republican Party have begun to see the lightas to what is happening to their party (it is dying...not with dignity, but with embarrassing foolishness and stupidity) and are jumping ship. Actually, what is happening is that they are morphing themselves into some funky sort of hybrid Libertarian/Constitutionalist type people.

Folks, I'm talking Ron Paul kind of zealots. Everyone of them can quote chapter and verse some bit of warped ideology of his and will look you squarely in the eye and tell you that he is right on target with what he believes. Scarey!

I believe we are on the cusp of a major change in this country. Polarization to the max! Nothing in the mind of these folks is ever a shade of gray...it is all black and white...it will be their way or the highway...

Are any of you experiencing this in your area?

my republican friends aren't changing.
"They attack her so much because they're scared of her"

Whoa Nellie!! And I thought she might have been in Argentina. Thanks ALiJE

Thanks, Ali! I think we'd better wait for the action on those rumored indictments to begin before I can claim a "win." There have been plenty of news stories about this Wasilla Sports Complex and Palin, so I'm no genius. The construction began before her election as governor, so what took so long? And again, what does it say about McCain that he chose Palin?

The Republicans I can observe who soured on Bush only got quieter. I really only encounter full-on crazy right wing zealots online. I have seen very few full converts to my way of thinking, but consider all the steps they have to go through (backwards) to unwind their preconceptions. Just because they are forced to realize that the Iraq war was a tragic sham doesn't mean they won't hold onto their belief that we are "The Greatest Country in the World," etc. This is what they want to believe. I want to believe it, too, but I think we'd better get busier making it that way than wishing it were true.

You know that Blanche and Mark read this blog or at least hear about the vitriol we direct towards them, but it makes no difference in their voting behavior. I have managed only one personal, two-minute encounter with Pryor and that was even before the war began, but I learned later from an aide that Pryor did indeed remark our encounter and was startled by what I said to him. (My remarks were only to encourage him to vote like a progressive Democrat, not a Blue Dog. Proved to me that he never hears this.) This needs to happen to him, in person, daily! All over Arkansas! I am almost done emailing and calling them - it seems useless. Four or five months later, you get a boilerplate "thanks for contacting me" letter on his free postal account. Big deal.

It's sickening to think that Pryor and Lincoln will now be the impediments to progressive action. They'll join with the minority, soundly-defeated Republican party to block legislation most of us desperately need and want to be passed - health care reform being the most critical.

There are road signs going up in Fort Smith noting improvements made with stimulus funds. Arkansas has an excellent web site detailing how the money is spent. Within the last month, a massive building program in our public school district was detailed in the newspaper. Stimulus money will make a huge wave of construction and renovation in existing public schools here. Many new educational programs are being funded. It all looks beneficial to me. Why isn't Pryor here, taking credit? He's not even here campaigning on the successes and benefits of the stimulus. It's utterly amazing to me.

I had only a brief career as a news reporter and limited contact with David Pryor, Dale Bumpers, Bill Clinton, Frank White and other state and national elected officials. At the time I had a hollow feeling that some of them were less than impressive. C'mon, I was a recent college graduate and these were "important" elected officials. Zoom ahead decades later and what passes for news now is so much more personal and revealing. Why do most Americans seem to want to watch politics as if it were entertainment? Why does "Reality" television captivate the masses more than reality? Only here and with a close group of friends do I feel it is fruitful to discuss the state of our nation. The rest of my acquaintances can't seem to see beyond the end of their driveways and do not care to try. But they vote. Sheesh.

Thanks for the link, Ali. We shall see...

How long do y'all think it'll be before she shows up nekkid in Playboy?

A lot of people don't know this. Gov. Palin is resigning to come to southwest Arkansas to lead the fight against the McNab electric plant.

This might be the other shoe................

clicky

Guess I was late to the party and typed before I read...................
sorry Mag and ALiJB. I still think there might be even more shoes to drop.

Paul Begala writes a hilarious column about Palin. Link at my name.

"How long do y'all think it'll be before she shows up nekkid in Playboy?"

Good thinking,jod. A mother of 5 is bound to look good nekked after air fluffing, etc. is done!

No apology necessary Jazzy. the more it's out there the better.
You can jump on the bed so many times, you get pretty good at it, start to be a little adventurous, jumping a little higher , doing flips. sooner or later your gonna fall of the bed.

My friend who lives just down the road from the Palins and has been active "as a progressive" in Alaskan politics for many years.. says there are any number of scandals / possible indictments which may be coming soon to a television or blog near you.

progressivealaska.blogspot.com/

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/6105/

*********
Most likely the questions about how their house was built, or about how Todd collected scores of thousands from Arctic Cat that didn't make it into his tax returns for sponsorship of his of his Iron Dog snow machine team, or specifics about Bristol's phone being the one used in Levi's mom's oxy bust, or the deals she's been making to funnel state money to fundamentalist organizations, or weird money involving bringing Exxon in with TCA on AGIA, or ....
*********

There is also some talk about a church fire and so on.

Sara Palin was a dangerous idiot, in way over her head as Governor. The smartest thing she ever did was step down (whatever the reason). I hope she does get a job with Huckabee at FOX.. and that Mike has to work with her every day.

Just a quick post while the meat cooks, and I apologize in advance that I haven't invested the time to read all the other comments, I will when I'm resting my full belly.

But I just want to remind everyone about another conservative loser Repuke the left once made fun of, everyone take a trip in the wayback machine to the late 70's and peruse the lefty commentariate opinion on one Ronald Raygun. He got his revenge, and how.

Point well taken, 79%er. I truly would prefer that Sarah Palin reach obscurity because the electorate realized how incredibly stupid and incompetent she is, rather than through a Federal indictment. But if it takes an indictment, that'll do.

Thanks for the link to the Paul Begala column Mag. Very funny.

The news these days is like a 3 ring circus--Mark Sanford and his bevy of soulmates is Ring 1; Michael Jackson's freak show in Ring 2; and Sarah Palin's wacky resignation in Ring 3. I've heard and seen enough from Rings 1 and 2 and wish those stories would just go away. I can't wait to see what the true story is behind Ring 3 even though I grew tired of Sarah Palin almost as soon as she hit the news media 10 months ago.

Belly full.

I'm just saying that us lefties have a knack of enhancing our worst nightmares. I would hope we don't repeat this behavior with Palin. Just today I saw a Palin sticker on a new car, that means it's not left over from '08. She's a force among the same people who twice elected Raygun. We better be careful.

Palin's house-corruption thing has been around awhile. Note the date on this Village Voice article-

The Book of Sarah (Palin)
Strafing the Palin record
By Wayne Barrett
Tuesday, October 7th 2008

"Along with the winks and folksy "doggone" moments early in her debate with Joe Biden last week, Sarah Palin repeated her familiar claim to the title of "maverick," declaring that "as a governor and as a mayor," she's had a "track record of reform" and has now "joined a team of mavericks."

Despite the free fall that her polling numbers went into after her disastrous interviews with Katie Couric, that branding as a "reformer" has been resilient.
.........
Todd Palin told Fox News that he built the two-story, 3,450-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath, wood house himself, with the help of contractors he described as "buddies." As mayor, Sarah Palin blocked an effort to require the filing of building permits in the wide-open city, and there is no public record of who the "buddies" were.

VillageVoice is clicky

(as I posted yesterday[Barracuda jumps to another ocean] the scandal will be on her hubby. Todd will take the fall for MooseWoman.)
.

Sanford AWOL again as fifth serial killer victim dies.... wow, this is Republican Governors from Mars day. Sanford is in Florida. How do y'all think any Arkansas governor - or ANY governor would be acting if five people had been shot in their homes in one county of our state by an apparent serial killer who isn't taking the holiday off?

Incredible.

I will say this about RayGuns, 70%er.

While he failed to uphold his oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, circumvented congress, broke the law in ignoring the Boland amendment, traded arms to the Iranians (after they broke into the embassy and took everyone hostage) for hostages and then he and George H.W. lied their a**es off to avoid another GOP scandal like Watergate, but I will give you this. He wasn't corrupt (filling his own pocket); contrary to almost every Republican leaders since Gingrich's Contract with American.

Until the GOP can get pass the impression "scratch a Republican and find corruption or a sex scandal," you can have five RayGuns and still have little success.