I’m not sure why I covered this back in 2009, but I mentioned the Sarah Palin 2009 wall calendar in an article on Obama conspiracy books. The calendar featured a very nice photo of Palin lovingly carrying a shotgun in her arms. I didn’t comment on the 2010 “Going Rogue” calendar featuring Palin.
But times have changed. The 2011 Palin calendars available on Amazon.com feature a very different take on the erstwhile vice-presidential candidate. One is titled “WTF? Did she really just say that?” and “You Betcha! The witless wisdom of Sarah Palin“.
Palin Calendar
What does this have to do with President Obama’s eligibility?
About as much as any of the stupidity the birthers have come up with.
Plus Palin, as dumb as she is about the issues, is cunning enough to be able to manipulate the birthers sheep into thinking she will support them, once she’s in power.
Not that that is hard…
I can’t say for sure, by it may be that Ms. Palin is sympathetic, if not aligned with, the birther movement. Late last year, she was interviewed by conservative radio host and birther, Rusty Humphries. Here’s a portion of the relevant exchanges:
HUMPHRIES: [W]ould you make the birth certificate an issue if you ran?
PALIN: I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t know if I would have to bother to make it an issue because I think there are enough members of the electorate that still want answers.
HUMPHRIES: Do you think it’s a fair question to be looking at?
PALIN: I think it’s a fair question just like I think past associations and past voting records. All of that is fair game. You know, I’ve got to tell you too, I think our campaign, the McCain-Palin campaign didn’t do a good enough job in that area. We didn’t call out Obama and some of his associates on their records and what their beliefs were, and perhaps what their future plans were, and I don’t think that was fair to voters to not have done our job as candidates and a campaign to bring to light a lot of things that now we’re seeing manifest in the administration.
HUMPHRIES: I mean, truly if your past is fair game and your kids are fair game, certainly Obama’s past should be. I mean, we want to treat men and women equally, right?
PALIN: Hey, you know, that’s a great point. And that weird conspiracy theory freaky thing that people talk about that Trig isn’t my real son, and a lot of people that went “Well, you need to produce his birth certificate, you need to prove that he’s your kid,” which we have done, but yeah, so maybe we can reverse that, and use the same [inaudible] thinking on the other one.
From Palin’s comments, it’s clear that she doesn’t believe the vital records President Obama has made public are convincing or legitimate. As far as I know, she has not walked away from this position. In other words, she supports, at least tacitly, the belief that there is a conspiracy to obscure the facts of Obama’s birth.
It shows that many in the US feel the need to elect a President which is dumber than they are, which means someone of quite low IQ…
Palin and her crowd love Israel, but hate Judaism and Jewish culture.
The feeling is mutual: I detest them.
Not to be confused with DavidH.
Sarah Palin constantly refers to President Obama as Barack Hussein Obama. She is constantly pandering to the birfers.
Did she really say that? Oh wait….
As President Obama urges Congress to pass the $800 billion-plus stimulus package, one of his favorite selling points is the thousands of projects nationwide that he calls “shovel ready” — meaning planning is complete, approvals are secured and people could be put to work right away once funding is in place.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100295436
“With unemployment hovering near 10 percent nearly two years after President Obama signed his economic stimulus package, Mr. Obama is acknowledging that, despite his campaign promises, “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20019468-503544.html
And, there are many Republican Senators who just don’t care about the unemployed.
Especially when they are beholden to the very “people” who created those unemployed.
The Great Depression did not end until December 7, 1941.
Unless George was lying, there was no financial crisis.
“One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people’s money to help prevent there to be a crisis.” — George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009
Serious economists were saying in 2008 to expect a long period of stagnation. No surprises here.
Uh, the point is not that the recovery is taking a long time, but that shovel ready was the phrase pushed again and again as the immediate fix. Had another individual made the same claim, well, there would be content for the funny calendar.
The stimulus package to date has either created or saved approximately 3 million American jobs. That’s not just Democratic propaganda – I work for an economic modeling firm, and believe me, things would be far, far, far worse today without the stimulus money. If anything, the economists I work with all think that the stimulus package should have been considerably larger than it was.
On “Meet the Press,” fill-in host Tom Brokaw wants to know how quickly Barack Obama can create jobs, and the president-elect promises to move fast. After all, he says, he’s met with a bunch of governors “and all of them have projects that are shovel-ready.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010703662.html
It was a shame that he put so much faith in the word of Republican and Democratic governors.
“Last weekend, President-elect Barack Obama promised the largest public works program since the 1950s – roads and bridges as well as projects to spur green jobs that both reduce energy use and cut carbon emissions.
Even before this announcement, those who build such things have been lining up to do their part. Governors, mayors and transportation officials have offered to create millions of jobs. All they ask in return is billions from the federal government – money the feds don’t have but would borrow from investors foreign and domestic.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2008/12/14/567205/shovel-ready-projects-just-pile.html#ixzz12Zu3zMvK
” “We literally want shovels in the ground and people hired by next month,” Governor Rell said. “It is essential we put people back to work and money back into our economy as soon as possible. These projects will do that as well as improve the condition and safety of our roads and bridges.”
http://www.ct.gov/recovery/cwp/view.asp?a=3711&q=435562
Of course, virtually every economist agrees that the stimulus package prevented the second great depression. Hundreds of thousands of teachers, police and firefighters have kept their jobs because of the stimulus. It’s a shame that they don’t matter to some.
Interesting factoid: Jeremy Morlock is one of twelve US soldiers currently facing court martial charges of premeditated murder of innocent civilians in Afghanistan.
Morlock, 22 is from Wasilla, Alaska- the same home town as Palin and with an estimated population of only about 10,000 residents.
I was there for the Iditarod – you should see it.
I hope that wasn’t directed to me because I never said that, or implied it. Shovel ready projects did not put people to work. If someone else, say a female Republican said that the stimulus would provide shovel ready jobs and made that a catch phrase, but two years later said shovel ready jobs did not exist, that would be stupid woman calendar fodder.
Thread topic.
Take a look at this site to find out what Democrats have done for your CD. http://progress.democrats.org/
Oh really? What, then, were all those construction workers doing on I-10 through Tucson when I was there last year? Or at the Jackson Wyoming Airport? Or Highway 26 between Jackson and Dubois Wyoming? Or on the Grand Loop road in Yellowstone?
Everywhere I went there were highly visible jobs that wouldn’t have been there without he stimulus.
You have to dig deeper than a single quote. The jobs aren’t there because many of the states have been hoarding stimulus money instead of spending it on the projects for which the funds are intended.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/16/eveningnews/main6778654.shtml
A perfect example is the governor of New Jersey, who announced that he was killing the Hudson River railroad tunnel project, which is projected to create 50,000 jobs in the state. He is now reconsidering, but without projects such as this, where are the jobs going to come from?
He is now reconsidering, but without projects such as this, where are the jobs going to come from?
So are you saying the stimulus worked as intended or not?
This should have been quoted (to avoid confusion)-sorry
To keep this on-topic a bit, consider that you’re arguing what a state governor has chosen what to do with federal funds.
Like Alaska during Palin’s tenure, she was provided funds and changed what they were to be applied for.
Same for New Jersey here.
One cannot say bailouts don’t work if the ultimate decisions are made at the state level.
New Jersey also has a history of good ‘ol boy politics and corruption that Wyoming simply doesn’t have.
Comparing the two in this way is like blaming an ATM machine because one guy gets money for his drug habit, while another gets money to feed his family.
It’s what one does (or doesn’t do) with the money that’s important.
The topic was the stimulus and the fact that shovel ready jobs, which were touted to be an immediate fix, was no fix. If the stimulus money was misused or not used, then was the plan successful?
http://progress.democrats.org/
Then argue with President Obama. He is the one who said there were no shovel ready jobs.
I am personally thankful to President Obama for one thing, and I don’t know where the money came from. When my husband lost his job last year the government picked up 65% of COBRA costs because he was laid off within the qualified time frame.
That quote and link was ffrom someone else. I, like everyone, want to see improvement. The ones in power get the blame or the credit. You have to have thick skin to lead the country.
One last thing: we would not have expected the COBRA benefit to go on endlessly. Had it not been there, we would have survived.
I’m saying that the stimulus has succeeded in mitigating the damage from the economic meltdown of 2008. It’s hasn’t been more successful because it was not large enough (read Paul Krugman’s columns written when the stimulus was being passed), and much of it was in the form of tax cuts rather than direct stimulus. Tax cuts don’t do much for people who are unemployed, and the companies which got tax cuts mostly kept the money rather than using it to hire people.
The private sector isn’t going to create more jobs until it sees more demand for its products and services. People who are unemployed don’t have the wherewithal to increase their demand for products and services, and people who are worried about losing their jobs are being very careful about their spending. If the private sector isn’t going to create jobs, the government has to do it. That’s where projects like the Hudson River railway tunnel come into play. Put 50,000 people in New Jersey to work, and they have money to spend, which inevitably leads to more jobs.
Anyone who shops for a simplistic yes/no answer to a complex question has a goal to make a simplistic statement later.
They have no interest in understanding a question’s complexities.
Ignoring details won’t help pound a round peg into a square hole, but if that’s your goal, nothing will stop you either.
The subject… btw… is about a Sarah Palin calendar.
And we call those who search for a complex answer to a simple question “birthers.”
Go back to my 8:44 a.m. comment. It was President Obama who did not understand the impact of shovel ready projects. Had that been Palin, it would have been a calendar quote. I was drawn off topic if you follow the thread.
Charo — you’ve misconstrued what Obama said — he was expressing frustration that so many projects were bogged down in local red tape, which drained off a lot of the impact of the stimulus. In other words, there wasn’t a dollar-for-dollar impact. But there was still a very significant impact:
See: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/obama-lesson-shovel-ready-not-so-ready/
Obviously, for the stimulus to have had greater impact, more money would have had to be authorized at the outset, including money to compensate for anticipated delays. But Obama had to also rely on Congress to get things passed — and right after TARP there probably was a limit as to how much Congress would ever have approved.
I actually live within walking distance of a stimulus-funded project — it was a small project, but I watched the construction work take place and I certainly take advantage of and enjoy the finished product on a regular basis (an improved pedestrian walkway in a marshy area of a local park).
I’d point out that the stimulus has created a huge number of jobs without any doubt — the problem is that it hasn’t been enough to compensate for the even larger number of jobs lost through the Bush administration. See: http://static.businessinsider.com/image/4bb614577f8b9a1667ae0100/chart-020510-update.gif
And you are missing the point. Palin is accused of being ignorant of everything, hence the calendar. President Obama was ignorant of what shovel ready entails. He promised something without, it appears, understanding the problems that you laid out.
That is of no comfort to people without jobs.
Perhaps he should have consulted you?
No, perhaps Rickey. See above.
There would be many more people without jobs if Bush’s policies were still being followed.
There were more jobs created in the first MONTH of the Obama administration than in the entire 8 years of the Bush administration.
You seem to have an odd way of looking at things. It’s like this: Bush was in command of a ship and managed to plow into an iceberg; the ship sank and everyone on it fell overboard. Obama came along with a rescue ship and dispatched all his crew to save as many people as possible…. after they manage to pull half the people out of the water, you blame Obama for the rest? Obama’s policies aren’t the reason that the people don’t have job — he’s doing the best he can with what he has to work with.
If you were also a progressive who was arguing at the outset that a lot more money should have gone to the stimulus, you might have a point — you could say, “I knew that wasn’t going to be enough.”
But your politics seem to be the other way — you seem to be someone who objects to government spending. So what’s your point? That you think things would be better if even more people were out of work, because misery loves company?
Obama said on day #1 that it would take time. He hoped for marginally better numbers, but he never claimed that we would have -0- unemployment or even a very low unemployment rate at this point. He said we were in a very deep hole and it would take time to dig out of it.
I said that he didn’t understand shovel ready jobs. It was a jab at the hypocrisy of the Palin calendar.
From what I gather, many of the commenters here are progressive atheists. I doubt we see eye to eye on very many issues.
You would be right – like me.
Not many authors on a book tour manage to snag a visit with the president of the United States. But Condoleezza Rice is no ordinary book author.
The former secretary of state and onetime national security adviser met one-on-one with President Obama at the White House on Friday afternoon, after a week of television appearances promoting “Extraordinary, Ordinary People,” her memoir about her parents. The White House said Obama wanted to discuss a range of foreign policy issues with her.
Later, at an evening appearance at the Aspen Institute, Rice said she and Obama “covered the waterfront.” “Despite the fact there are changes and tussles, there is still a foreign policy community that believes that foreign policy ought to be bipartisan,” she said. “It was really great that he reached out in that way.”
Rice rolled her eyes at the notion that Obama is a closet Muslim, and she defended him from criticism – led by former vice president Richard B. Cheney – that Obama had weakened the country. “Nothing in this president’s methods suggests this president is other than a defender of America’s interests,” Rice told an audience that included presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/15/AR2010101506018.html?hpid=topnews
Of course not. He’s not even muslin. He’s more worsted or double knit.
I’m not an atheist at all. I am a Witch
What?
charo October 17, 2010 at 5:50 pm (Quote) #
He is now reconsidering, but without projects such as this, where are the jobs going to come from?
So are you saying the stimulus worked as intended or not?
True story: I have so many friends who are Wiccan, that I was invited to join the Philadelphia Witch’s Circle.
That’s the spirit.
Prove it. Turn me into a Newt!
And then I’ll get better…
without Tina Fey, Sarah would be no where, don’t forget that.
I would give more credit to Walnuts McCain.
I would, but it appears some other Witch has beaten me to it.
That’s nothing. I was invited to a BBQ at the Baptist church. Stakes too, no less
Witchs cannot turn someone into a newt. That’s a myth. Wiccan is just like any other religion: humans are spiritual.
That doesn’t explain the former Speaker of the House.
And he didn’t get better. Not surprisingly, he got much slimier.
Good point. One of the few exceptions.
“Secular socialism” WTF?
Of course they can, they just get better so fast that you hardly notice it.