Hypocrite...Opportunist

Ah, Sarah Palin....what more can we say about the Governor of the great state of Alaska and the former Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican party that hasn't already said before (the fundamental problem with the G.O.P., but that's for another time...) ?

We can now use the term 'incredible hypocrite,' but I'll get to that in a minute. For now, Mrs. Palin is one of the three Republican governors who have openly refused President Obama's stimulus money (Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina). From the Governor's website:

Governor Sarah Palin submitted her federal economic stimulus appropriation bill to legislators today to provide jobs and needed infrastructure improvements in Alaska under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Governor Palin is accepting just 55 percent of the available stimulus funds, all for capital projects. This amount includes the funds the state accepted last month for Department of Transportation projects.

"We will request federal stimulus funds for capital projects that will create new jobs and expand the economy," Governor Palin said. “We won’t be bound by federal strings in exchange for dollars, nor will we dig ourselves a deeper hole in two years when these federal funds are gone. For instance, in order to accept what look like attractive energy funds, our local communities would be required to adopt uniform building codes. Government would then be required to police those codes. These types of funds are not sensible for Alaska.”

The state of Alaska would be receiving $930.7 million of the stimulus money, Governor Palin isn't taking $288.1 million of it, according to a report from the Anchorage Daily News.

The biggest single chunk of money that Palin is turning down is about $170 million for education, including money that would go for programs to help economically disadvantaged and special needs students*. Anchorage School Superintendent Carol Comeau said she is "shocked and very disappointed" that Palin would reject the schools money. She said it could be used for job preservation, teacher training, and helping kids who need it. (*emphasis added)

Now, going back to using the term 'incredible hypocrite:' that same day, she criticizes Obama's joke about the Special Olympics last night on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno...while refusing to take stimulus money that would go to help special needs students. And here's the second part on Gov. Palin's blatant hypocritical stance: her fifth child, Trig, was born with Down Syndrome. At the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, then Vice-Presidential nominee Palin boasted that families with children with Down Syndrome would have a friend in the White House if elected.

Wasn't there some passage in the Bible about casting stones if you are without sin or something like that?

The sad part in all of this is the fundamental reason why she's rejecting the money to begin with: to please the shrinking right-wing base of the G.O.P. so she can improve her credentials for the 2012 Republican primaries. And if you don't think that Palin -- along with Sanford and Perry -- aren't rejection almost 30% of the money parley out of principle, then I have this lovely "Bridge to Nowhere" (that the Gov. of Alaska was in favor of until she was selected as the Republican running mate, the bragged how she said "thanks, but no thanks, to that bridge to nowhere.") I want to show ya....

Writing for the hell of it

I know it's been awile since i've done any kind of update and for that i'm sorry. Just been busy with classes and major procrastination. So today I feel like rambling about everything and nothing. Here I go...



* I love songs about heartbreak, love lost, and pondering past mistakes... songs like "Shiver," "You Love Me," "Someday You Will Be Loved," etc. really do speak to me , mostly cause I can relate to pondering about 'what if...', longing to be with the girl, but end up coming short. It's the story of my life (cliche I know, but there's no other way to say it.) - wanting to tell the gilr how I feel, but screwed over in the end.



* Wendesday, my friend Mar, his friend, Kyle, and I were involved in a deep discussion about religion. Kyle's a secular Catholic and Mar is an atheist. Of course, there were serious arguments thrown back and forth. For the record, I consider myself to be agnostic - I beleive in God, but not in organized religion - and both Kyle and Mar made me think. What did I take from their exchange? In the end, people are going to beleive whatever they feel makes sense to them. The fact that both of them could talk so passionately about their viewpoints and at the end BS about golf is truly amazing.



* Speaking about having conversations with friends, Monday, I ran into Clarissa. She was working at Ralph's collecting carts people leave around the parking lot, so I basically acted as company. She has a boyfriend she's been on-again, off-again and their celebrating their one-year and five month aniversary (a belated congrats in advance, you two!).


I ask how she does it.


She says that it's not that hard, you just have to care for one another deeply (or something like that). Then she says when you stop trying so hard to look for someone, eventually that person finds you.


Hmm, where am I going with this?


I guess what I should take from this is to stop worrying, enjoy being single, and do what I'm best at: listening to everyoone else's stories/problems with thier boyfriends/girlfriends. I might just learn something from them about how to go forward in a relationship of my own.



* I think too much.


Way too much.


I can't help it.


I can't stand talking about MTV and reality TV and who Paris Hilton screwed this week, and I don't care much listening to it, especially during the Bush years, when more of my generation cared more about American Idol and The Hills than about how the Bush cronies were lying to Americans about a war in Iraq or how personal freedoms were being sacrificed to the altar for a false sense of security, while Republicans in Congress looked the other way, along with segments of the populous actually willing to do so in order to fight the War on Terror.


It didn't also help that I really dind't fit in with any clique in high school and mostly waisted away four years trying to fit in when I really didn't have much of a connection with 95% of the people and things other sudents were into. Somedays I just have to take a break from being angry and just enjoy the world around me, which is probably my point. What's the point in being so pissed off all the time? It gets you nowhere if you can't learn to simply walk away and see the light come in every now and then.