ellenmillion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellenmillion) wrote2008-08-29 08:16 am
ellenmillion) wrote2008-08-29 08:16 am
Politics
I don't generally follow party politics, and I usually lean slightly more democratic than republican (when forced to choose), but McCain TOTALLY won me with his VP nomination. I have nothing but respect and admiration for our governor Palin. I think I may have cheered out loud when I read that. Go Sarah!
PS: Don't worry, that's probably all the politics you'll get out of me for the whole rest of the election.
ETA: WHY I like Sarah Palin. Disclaimer: I don't generally follow politics, and I base this fondness on not much more than my own personal experiences... you want a fair, in-depth and researched opinion, that's not here. This is the stuff that affects me directly.
Point 1. She's tough and charismatic. She usually has a smile on her face and is upbeat and cheerful. I really like her get-it-done attitude. It's something I respect in anyone.
Point 2. She repealed the fee hikes for business licenses that her awful predecessor levied.
Point 3. She thinks ahead and gets it done. Alaska is going to get a natural gas pipeline someday soon. Not only is she working towards that, she's not considering 'oh, we've negotiated it' as the end of the deal. She's already allotted the money to improve our roads to the point where they will handle the construction equipment needed to make it happen. She's looked at things that slowed the 70's gas pipeline and thinking YEARS ahead.
Point 4. At the same time, she's managed to get an oil relief bill through the red tape so that every Alaskan is getting an extra $1200 with their PFD next month. I dunno that it's the best possible solution to the problem, but it Got Done, and I gotta give kudos to her for that.
Point 5. She doesn't say stupid things. There are so many people in politics that I otherwise like that just up and say Stupid Things periodically and make me cringe to support them. She hasn't done that (that I've noticed).
Point 6. Some folks are saying her 'husband is in oil' like this is a bad thing, but he is an oil operator, which is a far, far, FAR cry from being an oil CEO or an oil executive. An operator is a blue-collar, dirt-under-the-nails job. I like that, too. If we smear everyone who ever works in oil ever with the paintbrush of Slimy Big Oil Execubots, that would include a LOT of good, hardworking technicians I know and would be brutally unfair. I like politicians who come from families that work for a living.
Someone mentioned that she ran on a creationism in school campaign, too, but I honestly don't remember ever seeing that. Like I said, I don't pay much attention to politics.
As with all politics, I do suggest you do your own research and go with your own gut. But I feel GOOD about Palin being our VP.
PS: Don't worry, that's probably all the politics you'll get out of me for the whole rest of the election.
ETA: WHY I like Sarah Palin. Disclaimer: I don't generally follow politics, and I base this fondness on not much more than my own personal experiences... you want a fair, in-depth and researched opinion, that's not here. This is the stuff that affects me directly.
Point 1. She's tough and charismatic. She usually has a smile on her face and is upbeat and cheerful. I really like her get-it-done attitude. It's something I respect in anyone.
Point 2. She repealed the fee hikes for business licenses that her awful predecessor levied.
Point 3. She thinks ahead and gets it done. Alaska is going to get a natural gas pipeline someday soon. Not only is she working towards that, she's not considering 'oh, we've negotiated it' as the end of the deal. She's already allotted the money to improve our roads to the point where they will handle the construction equipment needed to make it happen. She's looked at things that slowed the 70's gas pipeline and thinking YEARS ahead.
Point 4. At the same time, she's managed to get an oil relief bill through the red tape so that every Alaskan is getting an extra $1200 with their PFD next month. I dunno that it's the best possible solution to the problem, but it Got Done, and I gotta give kudos to her for that.
Point 5. She doesn't say stupid things. There are so many people in politics that I otherwise like that just up and say Stupid Things periodically and make me cringe to support them. She hasn't done that (that I've noticed).
Point 6. Some folks are saying her 'husband is in oil' like this is a bad thing, but he is an oil operator, which is a far, far, FAR cry from being an oil CEO or an oil executive. An operator is a blue-collar, dirt-under-the-nails job. I like that, too. If we smear everyone who ever works in oil ever with the paintbrush of Slimy Big Oil Execubots, that would include a LOT of good, hardworking technicians I know and would be brutally unfair. I like politicians who come from families that work for a living.
Someone mentioned that she ran on a creationism in school campaign, too, but I honestly don't remember ever seeing that. Like I said, I don't pay much attention to politics.
As with all politics, I do suggest you do your own research and go with your own gut. But I feel GOOD about Palin being our VP.
no subject
Basically, though I don't know that I could ever choose, myself, to have an abortion unless the situation were dire (in the case of a Trisomy 18 baby, for example) and even then I'm not sure, I wouldn't know what I would do until I were faced with it ...
Even so, I resent like hell the idea that any part of my government thinks it can legislate that situation. That people out there think that they can tell me what is right and what is wrong for me under all circumstances regarding my reproductive choices.
I don't *care* what people think in their own heads. What I care about is what they try to pass as laws.
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Another thing that bothers me about Palin is this: http://www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfoPage.htm and, I really found her 'we'll demolish that glass ceiling' (paraphrasing) speech to be a bit 'pander-y' (if that's a word).
ETA: I'm not too keen on the fact that the website is painting Alaskans in broad strokes (ie: "Like many Alaskans, Palin believes that bears – and all Alaskan wildlife, exist for the sole purpose of serving humans" - surely not?!), but some of the things there make me pause - especially points 4, 6, 7, and 10.
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I lived in Alaska for the better part of twenty years, and the number of Alaskans who actually understood the issue I could count on one hand.
Seriously, they are complaining that educating people about the specifics of the program is a bad thing. Good lord.
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no subject
The survival rate of women who were desperate enough to seek an abortion anyway despite the illegality was also abysmal.
The attitude toward abortion engendered in those circumstances, that it was practiced only by the poor, the foolish, the soiled, the evil, the dregs of society, has somehow managed to carry over today into a world to which it has no tie, and makes no sense.
There would not have been a need to legalize abortion if there had not been first a criminalization of it. There was already no "neutrality."
no subject
I stand my ground, there may be mitigating circumstances in a homicide, but that doesn't change the fact that it *is* homicide.
BTW official governement data over here (from this year) show that the legalization of abortion did *not* make clandestine abortions disappear there are those that do not want to go into a hospital, want things done after the legal term, want an abortion no question asked and so...and not few.
And I believe Ellen has had enough already oif this debate on *her* LJ