Palin is not one of the little people

@plainoldme,

The thread is an anti Palin rant. I don't like her either, and am by now quite bored with her showing up all over the place. Are you just now learning about her?
To me the question Panzade asked was more interesting, as a facet of this latest hoo hah, but you shut him off.

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@plainoldme,

Quote:

What seems obvious is palin is a rather immature, spoiled brat.

This is a state which can afford to shut down entire farming regions for the sake of a "Delta Smelt(TM)"

In fact a friend of mine was visiting friends in Californicatia recently and informs me she was staying in a house in a neighborhood in which the cheapest house sold for around $5,000,000 USD and that the entire neighborhood smelled exactly like seal **** on a permanent basis for this reason: the envirowhacks running the political system out there will not allow anybody to touch a white shark OR a seal, and the former have the later penned up on the teaches and will not allow them to go out and use the restoom in the ocean as was their wont 60 years ago.

You see, in 1955 when Ike was still running things in America i.e. the second to last time America ever had a real president, somebody would have simply gone out in a 30' boat with a length of nylon rope, a big hook, a rubber seal and one of those Marlin lever-action 45/70s and the problem would have resolved itself in less than a day.

Nonetheless, if I ask myself how much I'd charge anybody to set foot in a place where people happily pay $5,000,000 to smell seal **** on a 24/7 basis, the answer is probably going to be AT LEAST $100,000,000, and i'm not even on any sort of a speaking circuit like Gov. Palin is.

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@firefly,

Excellent points!

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@ossobuco,

I agree, osso.

Panzade posted this:

Why not add State's Attorney Jerry Brown's statement?

Quote:
"This is not about Sarah Palin," Brown said in a prepared statement Tuesday. "The issues are public disclosure and financial accountability in organizations embedded in state-run universities."

That is a more important and more interesting topic, than whether Palin demands water bottles with bendable straws or which make of private plane she prefers to travel in.

The university didn't want to disclose what they were paying her for her speech, or what other perks they were paying for to get her to appear there. Palin's contract includes a confidentiality clause, but that doesn't mean that lawmakers don't have a right to know where their money is going. University officials said Palin was invited to speak by the university's foundation, its quasi-private non-profit fundraising arm, which they argued is not subject to public records requests. In a state run university do they have a right to withhold such info about expenditures? Particularly when the state is in the grip of a budget crisis?

Then there is is the intrigue of how the documents were retrieved from a dumpster, and whether Jerry Brown's actions are politically motivated.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/16/probe-palin-appearance-politically-motivated-critics-say/

As for Palin, Margaret Carlson has the right take on her

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-14/palin-launches-campaign-for-bendable-straws-margaret-carlson.html

You just can't explain the behavior of those women who jumped on their chairs, pumped their lipstick tubes in the air, and waved copies of Palin's book. Who cares why they love her?

And the news about her diva like demands will just give Tina Fey more material for her SNL appearances as Palin--and I love Tina Fey.

Quote:

"We may have another Oprah on our hands. Since leaving her job as the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has made more than $12 million. That is a lot of money for someone who can't say words that end in 'g.
And they say $12 million is a conservative estimate. She may have made a lot more, and yet, she continues to blame Obama for the bad economy. It seems -- weird, right?" -Jimmy Kimmel

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@firefly,

Palin is reminding me a lot of Giuliani, a gift of connecting to the people but these two are sunk because they care more about money and fame than doing any work.

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Apparently, there's some sort of a point in net worth, below which, a good populist governor like Palin can be driven out of public office by an endless series of bullshit lawsuits coming from political hacks. Palin now appears to be on the verge of crossing that threshold on a permanent basis, which is why the crybaby acts such as POM mentions.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYdZoyTvFrTc&refer=home

Quote:

Palin Boosted Oil-Company Taxes While Alaska Had Budget Surplus
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By Alison Fitzgerald

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who has joined the Republican national ticket as a tax-cutter, was a driving force in raising a tax on oil companies last year that will help swell the state's budget surplus.

The increase backed by the Republican vice presidential nominee will, at current prices, raise oil revenue to $11 billion this year -- almost twice what the state needs to fund its government -- state documents show. Alaska also has gotten more money from the federal government than its residents pay in taxes -- $1.75 per tax dollar in 2006, the most recent year available, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington research group.

``Alaska is an outlier,'' Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said in an interview. ``They have traditionally used their fossil-fuel resources to generate some wealth for the citizens of the state.''

Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who last week chose Palin as his running mate, is campaigning as a tax-cutter and opposes raising taxes on oil companies because he says they discourage investment and cut production.

``There's never a good reason to raise taxes,'' said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, a Washington group that encourages politicians to sign a no-new-taxes pledge. ``She does have a track record of cutting other taxes. We're interested in what she does going forward.''

Alaska has no state income, property or sales tax.

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http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/08/30/palin-raised-taxes-on-oil-company-profits-to-give-citizens-an-equitable-share-will-mccain/

Quote:

Palin Raised Taxes On Oil Company Profits To Give Citizens ‘An Equitable Share’ " Will McCain?

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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2944336720080829

Quote:

(Reuters) - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is seen as a strong advocate for opening new areas to oil drilling, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but has taken a hard line in negotiations with oil companies and raised taxes on the state's energy producers.

http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080829&t=2&i=5799087&w=460&r=2008-08-29T222407Z_01_N29443367_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE0

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@hawkeye10,

That seems so.

I'm sorry I was snippy, plainoldme. However, I'm vastly more interested in the fate of california state universities - close to my heart - than I am about Palin, and in this situation the two intersect for a bit of time.

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@hawkeye10,

That was my thought too, Hawkeye. After 9/11, Giuliani made a fortune doing much the same sorts of things that Palin's doing now. He, too, cashed in on his instant celebrity as "America's Mayor". He may well have given Palin financial advice.

People overlooked the fact that on 9/10 Guiliani was not a well liked man in NYC, and he had a track record of cheating on two wives before his current marriage. He really didn't have a gift for connecting to the people before 9/11, but he did show excellent leadership in the days after the attack, because he was a calming presence. But he was not what he seemed to be either, and he wasn't about to correct the impression people had of him either. Giuliani simply basked in the glow of the limelight after 9/11, and has continued to take lucrative bows ever since. He's not interested in political office any more, it would cramp his earnings. Smile

At least he does have a law firm as a sideline. Palin gives ghostwritten speeches and markets herself essentially on the basis of her celebrity appeal. If the media stops covering her so much, her balloon will deflate fast because she's not really doing anything other than giving speeches.

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@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

than I am about Palin, and in this situation the two intersect for a bit of time.

She seems to be mostly interested in Palin herself. There are at least 5 threads she's started or commented on her lately.

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@maporsche,

Yes.

We all have our posting behaviors and I am not sans faults, do sometimes post threads emotionally in outrage or some kind of extreme avidity for my subject at the time.

In this case, plainoldme's enthusiasm for posting anti palin stuff is running into my own weariness on seeing Palin all over the place, not least on 'liberal' media outlets. It's all a feed.

Meantime, I'm all scared about cuts in a great university system that I think matters a lot.

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@ossobuco,

It does seem as though Palin's speaking fee and her "maintenance requirements" are being paid for by private funds. They claim that, by her appearance, she will be a good fundraiser for their dinner, and for the university.

The revelations about her rock star requirements, and the $12 million she has made thus far, may hurt her image as being "just plain folk". She probably doesn't care about that. She can laugh all the way to the bank.

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@firefly,

Honestly, requiring first class travel or water bottles doesn't seem that bad too me. If Palin wants bendy straws, it's not like she can run into the grocery store and pick them up.

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@maporsche,

The specifications about the exact type of private plane she requires (A private jet that "MUST BE a Lear 60 or larger (as defined by interior cabin space) for West Coast Events; or a Hawker 800 or larger (as defined by interior cabin space) for East Coast Events") as well as her hotel room requirements (one suite and two single rooms be booked in a "deluxe hotel") do go beyond the bendable straws level, particularly for someone just coming to deliver a speech at a state university dinner. And she demands laptops, printers stocked with paper, and she must control furniture arrangements for photo ops, all questions to be asked of her from the audience are prescreened and preselected, and can only be posed to her by a single person who she must approve of, etc. The list of demands goes on and on. This is diva stuff.

This was like the "bus tour" for her book promotion, except the lady traveled by private plane, not bus. She'd board the bus just outside of town.

She does try to create the impression that she is still a simple down home gal. Do all of these revelations about her demands, and her high flying life style hurt that image? You betcha. But I don't think she was that simple gal to begin with, people just fell for her act.

And the revelations about her lifestyle are raising questions about the money that has been contributed to Sarah PAC
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/malia-litman/can-you-smell-what-palin_b_541184.html

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I expect foundations allied to the universities sway one way or another. I've no idea, and am not sure I would disagree on their presence - and am not sure I would not.

I am someone who still gets the ucla alum magazines - there is one on my bathroom cabinet as we speak. I keep getting it in case I'll see someone I know (unlikely) plus to keep up on some science research stuff. (new thread, the bathroom library..)

This in itself could be taken as a waste, as I'll never contribute given my low income - but I take the funds for this quite interesting periodical as not being from the state.

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@firefly,

Ok, I have no idea how mig those jets are. Are we talking Commercial jet size? Or is she saying "I don't want to be stuck in a tiny Cesna propeller plane for 3.5 hours on a cross country flight?"

she probably has staff too, so she could be specifying extra room for them.

The extra rooms deal could be for staff too.

And are you really concerned about office equipment? Seriously? You want her to head down to the hotel office center at the super 8 motel?

And my gosh, she wants some control of the environment during interviews. Really shocking.

I wonder what some of the other politicians lists look like. You know they are out there.

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I'm no fan of Palins either (although I find her librarian-fantasy like attractive), and it was in many ways because of her that I couldn't vote for McCain in 2008 and voted for Obama instead.

But this stuff seems pretty petty to me. She is someone who cannot do a lot of things we can. She can't head into a grocery store without being mobbed. She can't take a walk. She can't do these normal things. That's why many (all?) famous people have these types of demands. Hell even non-famous people do. At my job there are directors who demand nice hotel accomodations and first class. And they get them. Their thought is, "if you are asking me to travel for business, I should be able to stay somewhere as comfortable as my home".

Not saying I agree. And I understand how people of certain socioeconomic status may find these things outlandish, but they are not uncommon.

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@maporsche,

Here is a DUH! moment for you: palin and, more to the point, the PR industry that supports here are, of course, protected by the FIrst AMendment. That does not mean that she and they are not a clear and present danger.

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Palin is not one of the little people

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