Sarah Palin institutes Official Death Panel Day

um, I mean, official "Healthcare Decisions Day." But we all know what that means, don't we.

Don't forget: April 16, it's time to dust off that Grim reaper costume and go scare some old people.

Okay, joking aside. This is the kind of information that ought to make a difference. If you can get past the fact that I picked it up from Rachel Maddow, whom I consider to be the awesomest chick on TV, and have a little "trust, but verify" attitude with the following, maybe the whole death panel thing can finally, um, be laid to rest. (RIP.)


from: http://gov.state.ak.us/archive.php?id=1094&type=6

WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions.

WHEREAS, in Alaska, Alaska Statute 13.52 provides the specifics of the advance directives law and offers a model form for patient use.

WHEREAS, it is estimated that only about 20 percent of people in Alaska have executed an advance directive. Moreover, it is estimated that less than 50 percent of severely or terminally ill patients have an advance directive.

WHEREAS, it is likely that a significant reason for these low percentages is that there is both a lack of knowledge and considerable confusion in the public about Advance Directives.

WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.

WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance directives.

WHEREAS, as a result of April 16, 2008, being recognized as Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, more citizens will have conversations about their healthcare decisions; more citizens will execute advance directives to make their wishes known; and fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the state of Alaska, do hereby proclaim April 16, 2008, as:

Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

Dated: April 16, 2008

Top 10 Things Palin Should've Said

to prompt line, "You are way hotter in person."

off the top of my head:

You're not.
I'm also way cooler.
Too bad it's not a beauty pageant I'm competing in.
I changed my hair.
(please feel free to contribute. As Kate Eicher tweeted, there are a million witty possibilities)

But I am of the opinion that the only effective rejoinder (politically, not humorously) would have been some variation of "I'm way smarter in person, too." It's what I would have said.

Veep debate lists and tallies

Like my liveblogging of the RNC speech, this post should not be considered serious commentary on the candidates or their respective policies. It will be sarcastic, disrespectful, probably snide. I'm not trying to be fair; I'm trying to express some incredulity and outrage on this, my personal blog, which functions as a useful outlet for, well, incredulity and outrage. My "partisan" Obama leanings will be evident because I ate the arugula a long time ago...and, since having turned into one by virtue of my East Coast over-education, I just kinda like pointy-headed elitists. So there's the disclaimer: read this as an attempt at comedy, the kind of "laugh so you don't weep" kind, and don't get your panties all in a wad, or your knickers all in a twist (if you happen to be from NZ). And finally, please consider these lists and tallies as works in progress, and feel free to contribute.

Tallies

1 blown kiss
2 winks
no observable hip waggles (podium in the way)
4 come-hither eyes, then I stopped counting
1 sexy grin (at least)

nuke-you-ler: at least 6 times.

Folksy Talkin' List

can I call ya Joe [six pack not included]?
darn right
betcha
Joe Six Pack hearts Hockey Mom (I know that's not verbatim)
heckuvalot
darn right
"the tax thing"
bless their hearts*
'em
Main Streeter like me
drill baby drill
Man (come on people: can't we all just admit not all of humanity is male, or is that too much to ask, really? and for the record, Biden followed suit on that question, using the term "manmade". Argh, argh, argh. Though I would enjoy pinning the cause of global warming on solely the male half of humanity, I don't think that would really be scientifically accurate.)
say it ain't so Joe
doggone it


Notable Phrases and Unbelievable Comments

"No, it isn't [correct] but I'm still on the 'tax thing'..."
apparently she can use the word "raping" casually (Anna's observation)
John McCain knows how to win a war (an inside job on Vietnam?)
"the middle class where Todd and I have been all our lives"--um...yeah, I know tons of people who live in governor's mansions. (Actually, I do kind of know someone who used to, now that I think about it...)
can't allow other countries to pollute "more than America will stand for"--wow, well, the whole planet just got dropped in the trash bin, or doesn't she know that America is the world's #1 polluter?
"Talibannie" (the diminutive form of Taliban, apparently. perhaps technically only refers to the young'uns, or maybe just the hotties. Some women just have a thing for beards, after all...)
and my favorite: "where I would lead...with his agenda."

Most Often Heard Outburst from Middle Class Living Room TV Audience

how many get out of jail free cards does she get to play? can't there be a limit to how many times she can redirect a question on anything she doesn't like to energy policy? Gwen Ifill, I demand that you do something about this! Why aren't you doing something??? Oh...I get it...unlimited get-out-of-jail-free was a precondition of the debate, wasn't it...:(

just asking

1. What one personal thing do you like most about Governor Palin?
2. What one personal thing do you dislike most about Governor Palin?
3. What one political thing do you like most about Governor Palin?
4. What one political thing do you dislike most?
5. Favorite line from convention speech? Least favorite?
6. Most revealing or significant Q&A exchange with Gibson?

messed up all around

The real measure of entrenched sexism in our society and political discourse?

My own unquenchable desire to mock Palin's prom hair.

Sarah Palin: No Friend to Children or Adults with Disabilities.

h/t to Jennifer Baker (via facebook).

don't miss it

Buried in the comments of the supermom post is a link to a legitimate article (as opposed to my personal meanderings) on Palin as supermom. Don't miss it. (Thanks, Steven!)

"Whine Not."

link

The Hermits have an excellent post on Palin's record and policies.

SP: Supermom vice-Pres

Sarah Palin's acceptance speech was followed up by another night of so much Mother-worship that, if you didn't look around and see the obvious white male presence of the RNC, you might have mistaken it for a grand coven of Wiccan goddess-worshippers or something. Seriously; Sarah Palin's aggrandizing of the hockey mom, PTA persona was underscored by Cindy McCain's blunt assertion that nothing else she's done in her life has fulfilled her like being a mother; and the star of John McCain's biography video was Roberta McCain.

I was already convinced there was something going on with all the mom-talk Palin was doing in her acceptance speech. I know that part of what happens in these speeches is a sort of introduction of oneself as person and candidate, and that Palin had a lot of this to do, given that she'd been under wraps at the convention until that point, and all the true and untrue things swirling in the media with regard to her family. Even so: the hockey mom line grated.

But now that the role of Mother has been so elevated in successive RNC discourse, I am all the more firmly convinced that this is simply the only way that this voting constituency can even comprehend strong women. Palin has to present herself as "just your average hockey mom..." because that is only category in which women are allowed to be legitimately aggressive, and is attached to the only sphere (the home) in which women are allowed to be leaders. Palin has to distance herself from the frightening feminists, like Hillary Rodham Clinton (who may also be mothers but who don't run for political office by listing their wombs as assets), by making her political activity an extension of her mothering: "...and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids public education even better" flows smoothly into "and when I ran for city council..."

There are many other things that bug me about the deliberate positioning of Palin as mom, including my feeling that Palin's children are being used as political props in the same way that the adopted daughters of McCain and friend were used the night before (and Bridget was, again, made the object of that repeated narrative last night). I've already blogged about that, so that's all I'll say about it here.

Laura's expressed her reservations about Palin on her blog. This is less a critique of Palin as potential VP than it is a question about her priorities as a mother. Normally this might be out of bounds--certainly people are playing the sexism card about it (Guiliani's comment prior to her acceptance speech, and Carly Fiorina's complaint to Charlie Rose, for examples)--but given that Palin is billing herself as Supermom, I think it's actually quite fair.

Now, don't read me as saying that I don't think any woman, or any mother, should consider accepting a nomination for vice president (or any analogous type job). But mothers who do take on those responsibilities have the obligation to make sure that their kids are adequately cared for by someone--dad, grandmom, nanny...someone. Because it's simply not true that the mom can do it all. If Sarah Palin would come clean about that--that there will be others taking on the role of primary caretaker--then the criticisms of her mothering priorities would lose a great deal of force. Of course, she can't; because to come clean about that would mean walking away from the supermom image.

And this brings me to my biggest complaint. Sarah Palin made the pseudo-feminist claim in her acceptance speech that every woman can walk through every door of opportunity. And to that I say, bullshit. Forget the obvious example of poverty stricken female heads of households who are scrabbling for enough wages to put food on the table and pay the rent, let alone childcare. I'm talking about me: affluent (well, you know, relatively), educated, white, privileged, for whom opporknockity tunes twice an hour. And I say, bullshit. The Supermom myth is one of the most pernicious lies about women that we tell ourselves and get told, and here's Sarah Palin lying to us all on a national stage: I'm just a hockey mom who can raise her five kids and be Vice-Pres too.

Well, I'm just a mom of one toddler, and all I'm trying to do is maintain my sanity, take semi-regular showers, and write a dissertation. I've been trying to achieve this for two years now, and so far, my daughter's healthy and happy, I've not showered today, and I'm still writing the same chapter of the dissertation I was two years ago when she was born.

Oh, and the sanity thing is questionable; I'm starting therapy soon.

Why? Because quite frankly, I am tortured at every turn with guilt. Supermom taunts me. I should be able to mother my toddler, feed her nutritiously, stimulate her intellect and curiousity by constant interaction, keep my house decently clean, cook dinner every night, look beautiful, lose those last torturous 12 pounds I'm still carrying, support my husband in whatever way he needs, be involved in church and in other people's lives and have friends, AND enjoy a successful academic career. I should be, because I am a smart and capable and strong woman, and this is what smart capable strong women do: they do it all, without breaking a sweat. Because women are not only innate nurturers, they are natural multitaskers as well. Well, I suck at all that, and because I can't kick the feeling that I should be able to do it, I constantly just feel like a loser. I'm a bad mom, because I can't do the ideal stay-at-home-mom thing the way it should be done. I'm a terrible student, because I'm not making any visible progress and my committee probably has forgotten I even exist. I'm a rotten wife, because I'm so bummed and guilt-ridden and exhausted that I don't want to go out or have fun or do anything other than stay at home, have a glass of wine and spent a few hours asleep trying to forget how bad I feel about everything. And I no longer sleep so well.

Sarah Palin's use of the hockey mom image as a major part of her public persona is therefore pissing me off, because I know it's a big fat lie. And instead of being able to see a woman on the national stage as a triumph for American women, I am experiencing it as a betrayal. Sarah Palin's carefully constructed hockey mom image may reassure those voters who have no category for strong women other than "mom." But in pandering to those who are unwilling to see women as simply other human beings, free to follow any number of possible paths through life, she has also condemned women who are struggling to liberate themselves from the tyranny of unmeetable expectations placed on them by the Supermom.

live blogging Palin at the RNC

**NB: this is belated because Brent's laptop is not on internet, had to retype it all on my desktop this morning.

Giuliani: "how dare they ask if she will have enough time with her children--they would never ask this of a man"--fair point--but unfortunate cut to Cindy McCain holding Palin baby...irony? of course not.

cancellation of the intro video? whaaaa? no maudlin scenes of childhood and gummy music? what on earth for? what's in there? who wants to bet some unscrupulous person gets hold of it and makes a big splash?

No introduction...Giuliani barely mentions her before going back to McCain and then bam! There she is on stage.

how many shots of Bristol Palin can we get? should I be keeping a tally? let's start here at 1.

BP2

BP3

Brent notes catcalls in audience.

she hasn't started speaking yet...still saying "thank you."

hey, good lookin' man she caught there.

"I will be honored to accept your nomination"...you fool. I wouldn't touch it with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole.

BP 4

BP 5

other kid 1

BP 6

baby 4

She does speak well. She's got some edge.

BP 5

getting the slogans in: country first.

wow, MUST she emphasize the word MAN so strongly? "he's a MAN." is this some subliminal message like, "don't worry folks, you're not really voting for a woman"?

fist mom ref: "as a mother of one of those troops"...oldest son Trask gets his first shot.

...extended mom riff...

introduces her whole family: girls stand up to beauty queen wave at cam, boys stay seated. all part of the RNC daughter pawn strategy?

emphasis on "perfectly beautiful" baby boy Trig a little heavyhanded IMO. I don't disagree; I don't think Down's is a reason to abort, esp. considering how many false positives those diagnostic tests get. Just don't like the way the RNC trend of showcasing one's offspring as evidence of one's superior virtue is continuing with Palin.

BP 6

baby

short resume of hubby: something about snow racing? who cares, let's just get him on camera, the hottie. met in high school, "still my guy." Yeesh.

"every woman can walk through every door of opportunity"? really? just not get paid as well, but we better not whine about it? (and what about that teen mom halfway house whose budget you slashed--they don't have a door to walk through because now they don't have a house.)

hmmm..shot of boy not in uniform. other son? [no--turns out to be BP's fiance]

small town, working class, I'm one of you, so is John McCain...

here it is! "average hockey mom" followed by PTA ref in one breath!

it gets better! a hockey mom joke! "what's the diff btw a hockey mom and a pitbull? lipstick!" great! here's another: what's the diff btw a hockey mom and a VP? credentials?

Okay, NOW we're finally getting to making a case for mayoral experience as exec experience, and cred for VP. AFTER spending how much quality time on SP as MOM? what's more important, that she's a mom or used to be a mayor and is now a governor? is there a reason we lead with the MOM bit and not the professional cred? (Oh believe me, I think there is.)

crowd chanting "Sarah." Is Palin too hard to say? Or do we insist on being on a first name basis with ALL our women politicians? ah well. it's not like their last names are really their own anyway, right? so the presumptive first name basis really doesn't show a condescending familiarity in place of respect, after all, right?

who is that? protester led out by security?

Obama slam. I'm one of you, McCain is one of you, the other guy sucks because he said a mean thing about you in CA (guns and religion line, very unfortunate. I guess an NRA member has special contempt for someone who would think clinging to guns is a bad thing).

MAN, again. "he's the same MAN..." this is so not an accident. very clever. disturbing.

"I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment though some in the media take this as lack of experience"--crowd boos that naughty liberal lefty media for far too long. she's just standing at the podium while the crowd boos. cut it off, SP! you don't want to stand there the sole object on stage with a bunch of booing. uncomfortable.

what is this weird accent? Alaskan? it's got this down-homey twang that should be Southern but isn't. (reminds me of that article on Texas accents I read a few years back that noted a study that length of residence in TX had nothing to do with strength of TX accent; loyalty to identity as Texan did, and cited GW as case in point.)

camera catches woman in audience mouthing to neighbor: "I love her."

Why is Mount Rushmore in background while she refers to fighting the "good ol' boys?" I'm sure it's an accident but that is just hilarious!

ah, the luxury jet. you know, if I were in the position of having to divest myself of such an inconvenient object, I would certainly choose the people's way: eBay. so much better than that classist method of parking your unwanted junk in your front yard and haggling...

other proof that she's no elitist: drives herself to work, fired the gubernatorial personal chef. kids regretted that. good line: mentions fam again and also implies that she continues to cook family dinner after all the governing nonsense is done for the day.

uses the above as smooth transition into her record on budget; defends her use of veto power to control "wasteful spending" (like that Covenant House for teen moms thing, I suppose.)

now energy independence: the natural gas pipeline as first step to independence from foreign sources of oil. energy is cast as a SECURITY issue, not environmental one--an American issue, not a global one. Oh, and the tragedy of Gulf Coast hurricanes is that they make us more dependent on foreign oil. (how about, um, deaths and devestation and homelessness?)

"they keep telling us drilling won't solve all our problems, as if we didn't know that"--well we know drilling won't solve all our problems, but there's not reason not to do it in the meantime? what? was that supposed to be a logical argument?

Obama as Moses slam. dudes (and dudette), I would stay away from painting your opponent as divinely inspired and powerful. but that's just me. maybe it really does incite some kind of self-righteous rage against supposed Democat idolatrousness. I mean, after all, we all know we're supposed to be worshiping the FLAG, not some guy.

"Our opponent" is against producing more energy???

Victory in Iraq is within sight???

Obama wants to raise taxes? Why not just out with it and call him a liar?

Boo! Hiss! crowd says, whatever you do, don't take MY $$. bottom line voters.

MAN alert: "chosen the right MAN."

"the American Presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery"--she got applause for this line--WTF does that even refer to? Obama as hero of Bildungsroman?

"only one MAN has fought for you in places where winning means survival and defeat mean death." oh, is this a criterion for Presidency? have the rules changed, the loser gets shot or something?

MAN. MAN. fellow.

God.

Evil.

Ah, POW story.

[pause to note my gratitude that shots of family, even BP, seem to have ceased. Thanks be to God.]

MAN.

Thank you and God bless America. Just once, I would love to see a politician break out of that xenophobic prayer formula and ask that God bless the whole damn world. Or all people. Or all creation. Or something, but all of that something and not just our petty little piece of it.

Why is she still all alone up there? She looks abandoned.

finally here comes the fam...now she's holding baby. I wish I felt like that were a triumphant thing, but I just feel like it diminishes her and every other woman to "mom AND."

BP holding hands with boy. Boy chewing gum.

Finally, here's McCain. Hug. Of course, you can't shake hands with a woman. Seemed awkward though.

Catcalls.

last line of night, John McCain: "and what a beautiful family." why? because that's the most important thing about her.