Saturday, August 30, 2008

Sarah Palin is a woman. So are Ann Coulter, Anita Bryant, Phyllis Schlafly, the late Elena Ceausescu...

Oh, you know what else that list has in common? Not really known for being great for -other- women; including, but not limited to, reproductive rights.

Specifically, McCain's veep choice, well, let's see now:

In a gubernatorial debate, Palin stated emphatically that her opposition to abortion was so great, so total, that even if her teenage daughter was impregnated by a rapist, she would "choose life" -- meaning apparently that she would not permit her daughter to have an abortion.

Palin also had to withdraw her appointment of a top public safety commissioner who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, although Palin had been warned about his background through letters by the sexual harassment complainant...


Oh yeah, some of her best friends are gay, you know, but with friends like these...

As Governor, Palin currently supports the efforts of radical activists to strip Alaska residents - specifically state workers - of the most basic domestic partner benefits.

- It was only when the Alaska Attorney General warned Palin that the Republican position of stripping domestic partnership benefits was unconstitutional (in light of a recent Alaska Supreme Court ruling) that Palin reluctantly vetoed legislation that would have defied the court ruling. Palin quickly moved on to support an alternate strategy to strip domestic partner benefits by placing an anti-equality amendment onto the state ballot.

- When Alaska had the opportunity to extend the freedom to marry to all Alaskan couples, Palin joined with radical efforts to scapegoat same-sex couples in order to scare voters on this issue. In 1998, Palin championed a constitutional amendment that deeply discriminated against same-sex couples in the Alaska constitution. The passage of this amendment, with the full support of Palin, kicked-off a wave of discrimination by encouraging Republicans and radical activists in other states to place similar measures on state ballots for the next decade to come.

- Palin is the friend of anti-LGBT special interests. At the Republican National Convention, Palin will be honored by anti-LGBT crusader Phyllis Schlafly [see?] at a reception for leading anti-LGBT advocates seeking to further influence the positions of the Republican Party. Palin will share the stage with Congresswoman Michelle Bachman (MN) who is known in the media for her frequent, anti-gay, blathering statements and tirades.

A CORRUPT, WASTEFUL RECORD

An Anti-Equality Advocate from Day One

- The FIRST piece of legislation signed by Governor Palin was done at the request of radical, anti-LGBT groups.

- Palin squandered over $1.2 million of taxpayer money to place an anti-LGBT "vanity" vote before voters at the request of radical anti-LGBT activists - including Focus on the Family, the Concerned Women of America and the Family Research Council. The ballot language asked voters if they supported Republican efforts to strip existing benefits for LGBT state employees. As a non-biding initiative, the measure had no influence on Alaska law. As the only question on the ballot, Palin willingly wasted over $1.2 million in state money to promote the talking points of anti-LGBT activists...


Oh, but she's a moderate, right? The way McCain is a maverick, a "moderate," and now, apparently, totally a friend to women. I mean, okay, conservative on "family values," but not really that -extreme,- as these things go, right?...Oh, wait.

There are quite a number of extremely troubling links between Sarah Palin and neopentecostal dominionists--enough that, in truth, she may be ultimately as much of a "dream candidate" for the dominionist movement as Mike Huckabee was. Even worse, she's running in a manner that has been frighteningly successful for dominionist groups since the early 80's--specifically, as a "stealth candidate".

Palin's Assemblies linkage

The first link in and of itself is a doozy--and one of the most damning indeed. No less than the official newsletter of the Assemblies of God of Alaska promotes her proudly as one of the denomination's own, and she was actually feted at an official function of the Assemblies' Alaska District as recently as this year:

The opening night banquet of the 2008 Alaska District Council was honored to have Governor Sarah Palin address the delegates and guests. Governor Palin spoke of her appreciation for the Assemblies of God and requested that the Council pray for both her and the State of Alaska. Superintendent Ted Boatsman, who was Palin’s junior high pastor at Wasilla Assembly of God, along with Pastor Mike Rose of Juneau Christian Center, where Palin presently attends church when in Juneau, laid hands on the Governor and led the Council in prayer.

...she and her husband, Todd, believe that every child is a gift of God, deserving of life, and that God was asking them to accept His will for their lives. The Alaska District Council believes that the State of Alaska is blessed to have a woman of faith and courage as Governor.


A look at the home website of Palin's church tends to be revealing. Among other things, a particular Assemblies buzzword associated frequently with Hillsong A/G and New Zealand Assemblies churches shows up ("Destiny", here, is a buzzword for "Joel's Army", and is being preferred even as the phrase "Joel's Army" is getting enough negative spin that even the Assemblies is now having to do some rather massive spin control); cell churches are promoted (of the same sort that are linked to short-term and longterm psychological damage and are among the most coercive tactics ever documented in spiritually abusive groups). The church, like a number of other large Assemblies churches, is the center of a dominionist broadcast TV center whose programming is carried across multiple channels in Alaska.

...As if the Assemblies links weren't enough (and between this diary and the stuff that has been reported re John Ashcroft--much less George W. Bush's consistent support for Assemblies frontgroups--that should be a pretty big damn danger sign right there!), there's still more to indicate Sarah Palin may have been put in as a "stealth dominionist".

Among other things, Palin explicitly promoted "teach the controversy" by calling for the misnamed "creation science" to be taught in public schools (as now well documented in Kitzmiller vs. Dover School District, it's known that "creation science" is nothing more and nothing less than a method of putting young-earth creationism in public schools).


The other thing about dominionist types, female ones, too: they tend not to be real big on preserving the environment. You know, "God said the Earth is yours. Take it, rape it..." They're not the only ones who aren't green, of course. Still, worth noting, whatever the reason, Palin's not a friend:

"Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration."

...[Palin] [s]ays the climate models are unreliable, and claims that there is no relationship between global warming and human activity or greenhouse-gas emissions.


But, wait, anyway, she IS a feminist, Palin, right? Feminists for Life, true...

FFL in fact engages in "cultural appropriation" of women's suffrage icons to promote a very woman-unfriendly agenda that--despite attempts to sound "not like those crazies in Operation Rescue"--would not only criminalise abortion but the IUD and hormonal birth control methods, and potentially everything outside the rhythm method (the term "abortifacient birth control" is a codephrase in the dominionist "pro-life" community for hormonal birth control--partly due to a unique urban legend claiming "the pill" and other hormonal birth control causes abortion and partly because of a unique definition of pregnancy beginning at conception rather than at implantation (the latter is what most mainstream OB/GYNs use) and thus making anything preventing implantation potentially "abortifacient").

FFL promotes such fun bogosities as "post-abortion syndrome" (the idea that having an abortion will inevitably lead to PTSD and insanity), and promotes mandatory waiting periods and misinformation guidelines that can be insurmountable for poor or rural women--even those forced to make the most heartbreaking choice because of a nonviable pregnancy. In fact, one of their biggest causes isn't feminist at all--they actively promote the idea that the best choice for women is to stay home as fulltime mothers, and it can be well argued that the only traditionally feminist viewpoint they really support is women's suffrage!

One of the big things FFL promotes is deceptive "pregnancy counseling centers"--where pregnant teens are forced to essentially listen to an altar call on how "abortionists want to murder their children" whilst a pee-stick test clears--and if she tests "yes", she gets a hard-sell to keep the child or to check herself into a dominionist-run "halfway house for teenage moms" where she will ultimately be forced to sign her kid over. (Yes, there is an entire private adoption industry in the dominionist community--mostly focusing on adopting out the infants of poor teenage mothers who have been forced to give their kids up and who have been either scared into it or checked into such facilities by their parents.)

Ironically, FFL itself is rather a "stealth" organisation in and of itself--yes, even the dominionists admit this. Interestingly, despite their claims of being more "moderate" than most anti-abortion groups, very few real solutions are offered on how they intend to fund such things...


Oh, well. Details, right? At the end of the day, I think Sylvia's right: Sarah Palin is Hillary Clinton. Is Maggie Thatcher is Rosa Luxemberg is Marie of Romania is Mother Jones is Mother Theresa is Mother Frickin' Hubbard. Symbolic gender solidarity uber alles, gyns! Go Republicans for breaking on through that glass ceiling, because it's not like there's ever been a female vice presidential candidate before either. That tear in my eye is a tear of joy, really.

.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seriously, if we're gonna go with gender essentialism, there's still a female Presidential candidate in the race.

But, y'know, she's BLACK.

libhom said...

All these facts. What is it with you? You are supposed to blindly fall in the Republican line.

soopermouse said...

You do know thatherhusband workED for BP as a oilfield technician, right?
And isn't it a mysoginist staple to accuse a woman of herhusband's choices? Of course, a case can be made that blue collar peoplein Alaska don't have a lot of choice regarding careers.

Seriously, attack her on what she does. If you seriously think "working for Big Oil" applies to a mere technician... "shakes head".

belledame222 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
belledame222 said...

okay, point taken, SM. still, I really really don't want either her or McCain in power, dammit, it's important. you saw the business about "Feminists for Life," yes? she's against abortion even in the case of rape or incest...


welcome, libcom.

Anonymous said...

Much of that Palin stuff you quote out of Alaska is inaccurate. I've read the court documents there and you need to go a little deeper than you are writing.

Anonymous said...

care to provide links oh great anon?

belledame222 said...

yes, beat me to it. can you give us a f'r instance?

Nina Miller said...

Ouch. I think you have the state trooper thing wrong, at least based on what I've read from the Alaska news articles.

Basically Palin along with her father and her sister asked for an investigation of her sister's husband, a state trooper, who among other things was found to have tasered his 11 year old stepson. He had quite a record of misdeeds, including drunk driving and drinking while in his patrol car. Also threatening to kill Palin's (and Palin's sister's) father if Palin's sister hired a divorce lawyer.

"Troopergate" is based on Palin's dismissal / reassignment of the top public safety official. Something that was within her power as governor to do. After the fellow was fired (he refused to take a lateral move to a different position) he claimed it was retaliation for his not having taken a more active role in having the bad cop fired.

So not exactly the way its being portrayed by us libruls.

Nick Manley said...

I've posted on here under Venus Cassandra and Natasha before. I am not knowledgeable enough about different types of energy and their practicality to comment much on her environmental views, but I will say that the current energy industry has state subsidy -- for example, the risks involved in nuclear power are socialized onto the taxpayers.

A less distorted market would probably lead to greater variety-competitiveness in energy options.

On social issues, I am much more confident in asserting outright condemnation.

She is like my WORST nightmare on LGBT stuff.

Christ, I'll probably definitely vote for Obama out of self-defense now.

belledame222 said...

okay, so I cop to reprinting gossip wrt the trooper thing then. i'll look it up later and edit if i can be arsed. honestly though, for me this is the least of it. i don't really care that much about her personal business or scandals, including Bristol ("Bristol?!") except in one regard, which I'm going to post on next. what i care about is what kind of policies is she going to help push. and so far, the news is really, really not good. and yeah, Nick, I can't see not voting for Obama even if he's admittedly not wonderful in many ways; McCain was already more than bad enough. this shit's gone on way way too long. sometimes the lesser of two evils is enough difference to matter, yeah.

Roland Hulme said...

The Republican party have a core voter base of conservative Christians who pick and choose which facts they believe.

Of COURSE McCain's choice was going to reflect that.

Given the circumstances, I think Palin's pick could have been a lot worse.

But I suspect McCain won't get all the disgruntled Hillary supporters like he imagined.

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