Evan Primakow Online

1. Back in the late 90’s when she was elected Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she was almost recalled because shortly after entering office, she fired the Police Chief and Library Director for not supporting her in her 1996 race for Mayor. She didn’t even have the Republican courtesy to deny and lie: Her official reason for the firings was that they were “not fully supporting her efforts to govern”. (source)
2. She got away with the above tactic as Mayor, so why not try it again as Governor? Once she got the state’s top job, she promptly fired public safety commissioner Walt Monegan. This time, however, it wasn’t because he hadn’t supported her in her run for Governor. He had the gaul to not follow her administration’s pressure to fire a state trooper - who had divorced her sister. (source)
3. She actually had the chutzpah to go on some joke of a radio show and heartily laugh at accusations by the hosts that her apparent arch nemesis, State Senate President Lyda Green (a cancer survivor) is a “cancer” to the state of Alaska and a “bitch”. This wasn’t when she was just Mayor, either. This was in 2008, while she was Governor. An op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News referred to her appearance on the show as “plain and simple one of the most unprofessional, childish and inexcusable performances I’ve ever seen from a politician.” (source)
4. Everyone already knows that Iraq was a war for oil, but any republican running for any big office, especially that of the vice president, should probably know not to admit that. That memo, however, apparently skipped over Sarah Palin. In her words, “We are a nation at war and in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources, which is nonsensical when you consider that domestically we have the supplies ready to go.” Where exactly does she want to get those domestic oil supplies? The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. (source)
5. If you’re think Sarah Palin lacks national security experience, Cindy McCain says you’re wrong. Why? Because Alaska is close to Russia. Yes, you read that correctly, Cindy McCain actually thinks that proximity to Russia makes the governor of Alaska qualified with national security experience. I don’t even know how to react to this, but I guess they’re taking the whole “throw shit against the wall and see what sticks” approach to campaign strategy. (source)

Are there more reasons than these five that make Sarah Palin a crappy choice for McCain’s veep? Of course there are, but these are the 5 that I think will cause the Republicans the most grief. I’ve got no complains whatsoever about John McCain going about his campaigning in a half-assed way without thinking things through or thoroughly vetting important people like, say, his running mate, but he may just want to save the taxpayers money and just call Barack Obama to concede defeat now.

If you’re flying in to my former residence of Minneapolis (or, I suppose, St. Paul), you may notice a large billboard off of I-494 when leaving the airport. It is of the larger-than-life John Stewart along with the rest of his Daily Show crew welcoming Republicans to the Republican National Convention. Want to see it? You’ve got two options. Fly in to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, or just look at the picture below.

Just kidding, don’t worry. That’s just the name of this awesome new video you should spend the next three minutes of your life watching:

Fearmongering is, for those that might not be familiar with the term, the use of fear to advance one’s own opinions and agenda towards some end. Most recently, it has been used in election campaigns and as a tool to enter an unjust war. It was long ago perfected by McCarthy-era politicians playing on America’s fear of communism. Since this time, the Republican party has embraced the strategy, and all of America should fully expect this as an ongoing campaign tactic of the Republican party. Fear of terrorism was essentially George W. Bush’s campaign strategy in 2004. Sadly, however, history shows time and time again that the masses buy in to it. Sure, it’s sickening to watch, but it’s become a mainstay of partisan Republican politics. Until now. One presidential candidate, who I would have hoped was morally above using one of my most loathed political tactics decided to make the use of fearmongering bi-partisan.

Hillary Clinton’s newest campaign advertisement that has been airing in the upcoming primary states (Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont) explicitly uses fearmongering to scare up some extra votes. Don’t believe me? Watch it for yourself.

Whoever the final nominee of the Democratic Party ends up being, it sure would be tough to support someone who uses the same dirty tactics that helped elect George W Bush.

I’m so disgusted with the way that the Libby trial has been run and, moreso, the fact that Bush just commuted his sentence that I’m not even sure how to start this. First and foremost, no one had the balls to actually charge Libby, Cheney, and/or Bush with the charges that should have been filed in relation to the leaking of Valerie Plume’s identity: Treason. Leaking the identity of an undercover operative, ruining her career, and blowing the cover of the entire false company that had been set up to conceal her and her coworkers is no less treasonous today than an American citizen spying for the soviets was during the cold war and should be treated exactly the same way. Whoever was involved, whoever leaked her name, and whoever helped cover it up deserves a treason conviction and nothing else. Here is how treason is defined in United States Code Title 18, Part I, Chapter 115, § 2381:

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

If leaking the identity of an undercover operative and exposing her to our own nation as well as the rest of the world doesn’t qualify as giving our enemies aid, then I’m reading the above law wrong and Libby deserves his commuted sentence. Treason was, however, committed in the leaking of her identify. Libby, Cheney, and probably also Bush deserve a new trial on treason charges and should, once convicted, be immediately removed from office, as per the final part of the above code. This of course, would have probably already happened if the judicial branch of the government weren’t just as corrupt as the executive branch.

I realize that the above fantasy is never actually going to happen due to the aforementioned corruption, so on to Libby’s actual conviction: Four counts of obstruction of justice. Martha Stewart served 5 months in prison for a single count of obstruction and paid a fine of $195,000 for a stock sell-off that only saved her about $45,000. Libby however, was convicted of 4 counts and was fined only $250,000 and sentenced to 30 months in prison for leaking a CIA operative’s identity, ruining her career, and potentially compromising national security - all to get back at her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, for “talking shit” about the Bush administration in an op-ed that appeared in the New York Times. Based on the severity of the crimes, I’d say that Libby got off easy. At the very least, his sentence was on par with Martha Stewart’s. The President, however, has “concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive”. Based on previous convictions of similar charges, this is a ridiculous statement for him to make, as sentence was in fact fair based on the counts he was convicted on. What is even more amazing to me is that in a single sentence Bush was able to use such large words as “concluded” and “excessive”. Three syllable words are tough for him to begin with, but two in one sentence! I’m astonished. It’s almost as if millions of our tax dollars have gone to speech lessons for the President (Conspiracy theory!?).

Hopefully, the next time that charges are brought against a member of the Bush administration, the powers that be will actually make them stick and the perpetrators will get what’s coming to them. I have yet to see corruption like this in my life time and I hope that when this current administration is kicked out or voted out, whichever comes first, that the next administration can begin to fix all of the damage that Bush and his cronies have caused.