Ya gotta feel for the die-hard PUMAs, the people who were so much for Hillary Clinton that they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Obama, so they defected to George Bush’s party and hope to sign on with John McCain. (PUMA is an acronym: “Party Unity My [mild profanity dealing with gluteal muscles]”)
“That will show Obama he can’t trample a good woman in an election race,” they were muttering until about 11:00 a.m. Central Time today.
Then, John McCain picked one of those classic Republican women office holders, one who is female in gender only, who looks at the good politics and wisdom of genuine feminism and instead does her best to act like Attila the Hun with a streak of intolerance, though occasionally acting rational enough to hold on to the few rational conservatives who vote. John McCain is so certain of their support that he can spit on their issues and kick dust in their faces. Or worse.
McCain's boys and former supporter of Hillary Clinton?
McCain must figure the PUMAs will only love him more for it.
Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska. That’s about as far from Hillary Clinton as Vladimir Putin is from Harry Truman.
What will the PUMAs do? Maybe they should follow Hillary’s example, and endorse Obama.
What do you think?
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Visit Writing Raven for insights into Palin as governor effects on rural (non-Wasilla) communities.
http://alaskareal.blogspot.com/2008/08/palin-alaska-native-issues.html
You can search my site for what Palin has accomplished so far for us in rural Alaska.
Palin has been very lucky. Palin is accomplished for what she has done; Palin is not an accomplished governor.
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By the way, if we’re talking about misogyny, can someone tell me when McCain will at least apologize for this one?
http://www.salon.com/news/1998/06/25newsb.html
Looking at Chelsea Clinton at the convention last week, I must say that McCain’s eyesight must be going, along with his judgment. What a stupid, injudicious, mean and vicious, thing to say. Plus, it’s just dead wrong on the premise.
Keep that finger away from the little red button, eh?
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Energy, skills, the stands she’s taken on ethics in government, the fact that she’s been able to get elected — there’s much to admire in the woman. I agree with you that poking fun is probably not the way to go, remembering Mark Twain’s observation that the best way to torpedo pomposity and oppression is with ridicule.
The policies should provide plenty of fodder. Especially neophyte politicians thrust into serious policy jobs tend to make goofs. Her support of creationism in the classroom — a guaranteed million-dollar litigation expense for a school district — is one such position.
I’ll wager there are others.
Yes, we’re in Texas. We have fennel and a couple of other plants the swallowtails love (though they’ve not come around much this year, drat), and we’ve left butterfly gardens at all of our previous houses, and in a few other places. My wife, Kathryn, is the super green thumb. Do you write on line? Send a link.
And drop by any time.
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Ediacaran, Palin sounds like a politician who is pandering to her creationist voters. I live in Kansas where we have a hard time electing people who aren’t very conservative, and when we do elect more progressive people, they get themselves in trouble over sex scandals (Paul Morrison.) We did just get rid of ultra-religious Phill Kline, however. I personally don’t know any creationists, but I do know a lot of religious people. I also know a lot of fiscally conservative atheists. They are all inclined toward McCain. Plus I know a lot of Obama supporters.
As for my religious views, I am ashamed to say that I often just keep my mouth shut, except that I do say that I’m a firm believer in the separation of church and state. Thomas Jefferson is my hero for making that essential in our government. I’ve made a pilgrimage to his grave at Monticello. Plus, he was a great natural history enthusiast, another interest of mine.
Ed, I see you have Bug Girl your blogroll. Me, too. Pollination is one of the topics I write about. I have a black swallowtail butterfly “nursery” in my garden. Do you live in Texas? My sister and her husband are physicians in Texas. Very conservative, though. I’ve bored you long enough. Thanks.
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Catherine Sherman, perhaps this article from the Anchorage Daily News will help you discern Palin’s view on creationism:
http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/elections/story/8347904p-8243554c.html
For those loathe to link:
‘Creation science’ enters the race
GOVERNOR: Palin is only candidate to suggest it should be discussed in schools.
By TOM KIZZIA
Anchorage Daily News
Published: October 27, 2006
Last Modified: October 30, 2006 at 09:40 AM
The volatile issue of teaching creation science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor’s race this week when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state’s public classrooms.
Palin was answering a question from the moderator near the conclusion of Wednesday night’s televised debate on KAKM Channel 7 when she said, “Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.”
Her main opponents, Democrat Tony Knowles and Independent Andrew Halcro, said such alternatives to evolution should be kept out of science classrooms. Halcro called such lessons “religious-based” and said the place for them might be a philosophy or sociology class.
The question has divided local school boards in several places around the country and has come up in Alaska before, including once before the state Board of Education in 1993.
The teaching of creationism, which relies on the biblical account of the creation of life, has been ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court as an unconstitutional injection of religion into public education.
Last December, in a widely publicized local case, a federal judge in Pennsylvania threw out a city school board’s requirement that “intelligent design” be mentioned briefly in science classes. Intelligent design proposes that biological life is so complex that some kind of intelligence must have shaped it.
In an interview Thursday, Palin said she meant only to say that discussion of alternative views should be allowed to arise in Alaska classrooms:
“I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”
She added that, if elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state’s required curriculum.
Members of the state school board, which sets minimum requirements, are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature.
“I won’t have religion as a litmus test, or anybody’s personal opinion on evolution or creationism,” Palin said.
Palin has occasionally discussed her lifelong Christian faith during the governor’s race but said teaching creationism is nothing she has campaigned about or even given much thought to.
“We’re talking about the gas line and PERS/TERS,” she said Thursday, referring to the proposed natural gas pipeline and public employee and teacher retirement systems.
The Republican Party of Alaska platform says, in its section on education: “We support giving Creation Science equal representation with other theories of the origin of life. If evolution is taught, it should be presented as only a theory.”
The issue of teaching an alternative to evolution has turned into an issue in the current race for governor in Michigan, where Republican Dick DeVos said he wanted to see students exposed to the idea of intelligent design.
In 1993 in Alaska, several Board of Education appointees of Gov. Wally Hickel considered adding creation science to the board’s list of recommended scientific concepts. The idea was proposed by a member of the school board who taught at a private Christian school in Fairbanks. It failed on a 3-3 tie, with one school board member absent.
In 2003 a curriculum reform panel recommended leaving evolution out of the state requirements to avoid controversy. Their recommendation was accepted by the state Department of Education, but the state board — which had the final say — reinserted the term.
Current state regulations allow local districts to add their own curriculum beyond the minimum state requirements, said Department of Education spokesman Eric Fry. That would arguably include some form of creation science, he said.
“They couldn’t promote religion, but it’s OK to teach about religion,” Fry said.
But efforts to bring such lessons to the science classroom would likely be subject to the same kind of constitutional challenge that blew up into a national controversy in Dover, Pa., last year. After a six-week trial, a Republican judge appointed by President George W. Bush concluded that intelligent design “advanced a particular version of Christianity” and did not belong in class.
Judge John E. Jones III said Darwin’s theory of evolution was imperfect. “However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom.”
Palin said she thought there was value in discussing alternatives.
“It’s OK to let kids know that there are theories out there,” she said in the interview. “They gain information just by being in a discussion.”
That was how she was brought up, she said. Her father was a public school science teacher.
“My dad did talk a lot about his theories of evolution,” she said. “He would show us fossils and say, ‘How old do you think these are?’ ”
Asked for her personal views on evolution, Palin said, “I believe we have a creator.”
She would not say whether her belief also allowed her to accept the theory of evolution as fact.
“I’m not going to pretend I know how all this came to be,” she said.
Knowles was asked Thursday if he believed in a creator and, if so, how he reconciled that with evolution. Campaign spokeswoman Patty Ginsburg responded by e-mail: “Tony wants to stick by what he said last night — creationism has no place in public school classrooms as an ‘alternative’ to evolution.”
Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Billy Toien, the last candidate to answer the question about evolution at Wednesday’s televised debate, posed a question of his own to moderator Michael Carey.
“My question is, who intelligently designed the intelligent designer?”
“I’m only the moderator, not a theologian,” said Carey, moving on to the next topic.
Daily News reporter George Bryson contributed to this story. Contact reporter Tom Kizzia at tkizzia@adn.com.
• HALCRO: “I think anything that is religious-based in, in concept, you know, really should, needs to be taught in the proper channel — philosophy, sociology. I don’t think it should be taught as a science.”
• KNOWLES: “… The answer is no. The reason why is we don’t want politics in our science. We actually want more science in our politics. We don’t want to just teach all things because it may be politically correct. We want to teach the best science there is, and there is overwhelming evidence, there’s almost incontrovertible evidence that evolution is the science that, that we know. And that’s what we should always teach, to never compromise on the principles just because it’s politically popular.”
• PALIN: “Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information. “Healthy debate is so important and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject — creationism and evolution. It’s been a healthy foundation for me. But don’t be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.”
THE BLOG: Speak out on the issues.
http://www.adn.com/thetrail
ELECTION: Look at past stories and find links to Web sites.
http://www.adn.com/elections
SOUND OFF: Do you think creationism should be taught?
http://www.adn.com
SUBSISTENCE: Candidates face off at the AFN Convention.
SWITCH? See who longtime GOP stalwarts are backing.
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Me, again. My Alaskan aunt is a physician’s assistant, not a nurse. Shame on me for getting that wrong.
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I don’t agree with Ms. Palin on many of her policies, but I am tired of men belitting her and HRC because they are women or making fun of people in general. Sarcasm and parody are cheap shots. My nerves are frayed. I’m sorry you were next on my blog click.
There is one new site that particularly stuck in my craw. lolpalin.wordpress.com I left a not so eloquent comment on that site. “You are a jerk!” I don’t know much about Palin, quite frankly, but am impressed with her energy and skills. I would definitely differ with her on eliminating public education, if that’s her position. I take issue with upper middle class people isolating their children in private prep schools (which is how my husband and I were educated…) and enrolled our children in public schools. (Granted, they were excellent public schools for which we gladly pay high property taxes. OK, maybe we wince a little.) A good education is the key to everything. We need to put our resources into schools and teaching. A friend of mine teaches in Pasadena. She wrote a recent post on her blog http://www.planetjan.wordpress.com The post is “It’s Good to Be Queen.” She’s joking, of course, because her kingdom is a wreck. She loves her students, many of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants. I salute her! When you support the public school, you support your community.
I’ll have to check into what Palin believes. I am not a partisan and never pull the lever for anyone just because they are one party or the other. I’m not religious, perhaps am an atheist, so I do vote against anyone who doesn’t want to teach evolution. Candidates of either party making a big deal out of their religion does not go down with me, because I would prefer they would simply state their denomination as “human being.” That will get them nowhere in this countyr, though. I definitely don’t believe in intelligent design! I read about science and politics several hours a day, and I’m afraid I happened to read your blog when I had just finished lolpalin. You’ve been on my blogroll for a while. Normally, I keep my dander pretty well smoothed down.
My aunt already adores Palin, because she identifies with her. My aunt was a teacher in Alaska, hunted and fished and worked on a fishing boat in the summer. Later, my aunt became a nurse and worked with pregnant AIDS patients in prison, giving them prenatal care, etc. She does walk the talk about caring for the least of them. A lot of women see see Palin and think, there goes someone like me or someone I’d like to be. A hard-working real person who has gotten her hands dirty. Of course, that’s not a qualification to take over the presidency. Thanks for taking the time to answer me.
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I’ve only known Hillary personally since 1992. She’s always supported the Democrat over the Republican — I cannot think of any time that was not so. It is also my observation, as a speech writer who watches for these things, that Hillary doesn’t deliver a great speech on something she doesn’t believe in. After her speech the other night, I have no doubt that she will vote for Obama.
Palin is the sort of woman that misogynists love, like Phyllis Schlafly. They say things that are so stupid and so clearly wrong about women that one might seriously wonder whether they have the genes to prove gender. In every other way, they vote the way the misogynists want them to vote, against women’s rights (you should have been on the floor of the Utah legislature in 1974 when they recalled their passing of the Equal Rights Amendment and voted it down instead; that was the beginning of the end for the amendment; misogyny that you can really smell and feel). Like the times Schlafly testified to the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committees that women who get raped “ask for it.”
For example, education is one way Alaskan women secure and protect their rights. Women who have used the Alaskan education system, including my wife and colleagues, need a good public school system. I grew up in a small state also oriented to macho industries like hunting and mineral extraction. Education civilizes the entire state, helps women improve their lives, as well as providing a way out when needed for all people growing up in the state. I understand Gov. Palin’s campaign for city council included a plan to abolish public schooling in the town. At a fundamental level, there is something astoundingly stupid about such a plank. Compared to Obama and Biden . . . well, there simply is no comparison.
I’d like a better way to describe it in conservatives, especially one that wouldn’t get your dander up, Ms. Sherman. Misogynist may be the term — but the misogynist here isn’t Obama and and it certainly isn’t Joe Biden. If it’s a theme of the campaign, it’s a theme of McCain’s.
Those of us who had earlier hoped Hillary would take over the presidency have choices to make this fall — supporting McCain against Obama isn’t even in that universe.
Thanks for dropping by. If you can think of a better way to phrase the misogyny and misanthropic policies of Palin, something other than “female in gender only,” let me know.
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oops, misogyny. I’d better get used to writing that. It’s the theme of the campaign.
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Do you think Hillary wanted to endorse Obama? I bet she doesn’t even pull the lever for him in the voting booth. And what do you mean Sarah Palin is a female in gender only. I’m sick of men telling us what a woman is. Go back to your cave…or your burrow. I wasn’t a Hillary supporter, but the shadow of misogny has really tainted this campaign.
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I think they should vote for McCain/Palin. That’s what Hillary and myself want! Just say NO OBAMA!
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