Billie's Weblog

How All of the Blog Entries Tie Together

billie16 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:03:24 +0000

My Topic:

Basic foundation of candidate’s policies from first presidential debate

According to Barack, McCain is not very open about talking to other countries.

Also one thing I saw in the debate was the John McCain is uninterested in political talks -even with NATO alles, i.e. Spain. (Barack). To me that seems that he is an isolationist and his only foreign policy would be to attack the Middle East. I believe he would be more negliectful of the “genocide” than even bush.

Making of Foreign Policy:

Africa’s effect on America & The Peace Corps

What I said here is pretty much great, so it can be plugged in verbatim

Africa has an impact in the US: through trade, immigration, possesion of oil resources, potential healthcare problems, and their need for financial assistance for peace-keeping measures.

Old Admin

History can serve as an introduction to the current politics between the US and Africa

In addition to these facts, I need to add stuff learn from Afri 050 (to come in next blog post)

Bush said: Africa doesn’t have much to do with our national interests. The Clinton administration was praised for sending money, but unwillingness to commit troops was a negative point. Jimmy Carter was hailed the “applicator of Human rights to forein policy.”

Blog: What would president Barack Obama mean for Africa?

Why is Obama’s F.P. better? Answer: he engages in peaceful discussions with allies whereas McCain is focused on the war.

actual facts such as the video Senator Obama goes to Africa and news reports from the Chicago Sun Times and his plan of action while there are used to show that he has 1. experience and 2. people skills.

I think that the blog is right in saying that Barack Obama is a stronger candidate because he engages in international affairs other than war. I think that the blog would be stronger if it didn’t use pity tactics. It could have employed John McCain’s military prowess against him by saying that his “experience” and his statement that America could stay in the Iraqi war for 100 years imply that he does not know how to lead in times of peace because talks with allies and other members of the open market are neccessary and his main or only concern is fighting. Once the war is over, could McCain lead the nation back into peace and economic stability with more money for beneficial programs like schools which McCain doesn’t belive in investing $ in anyways.

Blog: McCain/Palin interview with Couric

non-useful

they never answer questions, which could be a statement but that is flawed because it can’t be proved/disproved. They could start answering questions after all.

2.1 Assignment:

Summary of already stated

as a president Obama would promote peaceful foreign relations especially in democratic Africa countries and Senator McCain would neglect the issue.

An argument against mine/1st blogger’s

a republican may argue that McCain’s involvement in international affairs, regardless of which continent they are on, is sounder because Barack Obama hasn’t had time to develop relations with diplomat from all of our allied states.

Obama’s Plan:

the plan: he wants to pour money into Africa so help solve problems like poverty, HIV/AIDS awareness, legitimatize peaceful democratic governments, and end the genocide in Darfur.

more background info: Millennium Initiatives. This is a plan developed in early 2000s that set specific numerical goals for reducing poverty and improving the Gross National Income per capita. It relies on a system of international banks known as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The purpose of these banks is to stabilize the economy. All participating African countries have a share and so they can borrow money to run governemnt and build developmental programs. Barack Obama also said he wants to re-establish America’s claim in the IMF and the World Bank.

this raises questions against my argument: Can Barack, much less any politician, itemize a budget to fund a war and fund development of African nations without putting a tax burden on the middle class?

John McCain on F.P.

I can’t belive it: all of this one is useful

“Boost opportunities for service overseas to increase understanding and communication among diverse cultures.” This is the only article I have seen from McCain that expresses good will toward nations with which we are at peace. He is basically leaving it up to the goodwill of Americans to go overseas and experience other cultures. He makes no formal address about Africa on his website. In an interview on Darfur in 2004 McCain says that there needs to be a leauge of democracies. He says that supporting peace-keeping efforts is always a good thing, but he makes no formal statement about putting pressure on the Sudanese government.

Relate to all F.P. Problems w/ China as summarized by AFRI 050:

He says that China, as an evolving major world power, should not be allowed to support corruption He relates this breach of human rights to national safety, which ties in with his strengths as a presidential candidate.

Republicans seem to agree with democrats about the human rights as laid down in the constitution of the united states. Everyone should have the right to be who they are. To John McCain this may not be prosperous, as it is explicated in Obama’s speech. Basically the way I’ll be able to use this in my speech is to appeal to emotion by saying that everyone not matter their race or origin deserves the right to live (once born) and do so in peace.

Summary of Republican view/World view. This presents a statement against which I ill need to argue: keep to ourselves.

Since I think that America should help others this would be an example that I would have to work against, saying that America should mind her own affairs. (Omar al Bashir said so himself: “we don’t want Darfur to turn into another Iraq.

An Initial Outline for the speech:

· Introduction

- History:
  - pre-history of Africa

v colonization/freedom (2 sentences)

- - foreign policy since freedom

v JFK –Peace Corps

v Carter –Human rights

v Bush Sr.

v Clinton –Rwanda (?)

Ø no force used

v Bush

· 2 sides

- Obama: pour in money
  - This should help with
    1. poverty
    2. HIV/AIDS awareness
    3. promoting peaceful democratic governments
    4. Darfur
  - History: Millennium Initiatives

v World Bank/International Monetary Fund

v to relieve poverty and actually promote prosperity –not always a prerogative of politicans

- McCain: leave alone
  - promotes volunteerism overseas to helps us understand other cultures and communicate with people
  - relates all foreign policy with national security
  - everyone would like to end the genocide

· My side

- I think that we should help Africa to the extant that we can afford.
- questions posed by the two candidate’s positions
  - Do we have the money to fund a war and help in Africa?

v yes: prioritize >> like Clinton don’t send troops (?)

v Obama is a stronger candidate because he engages in international affairs other than war.

- - Should America stay out of these politics and become “isolated?”

v Never should we become isolated, because then there is no trade and we are a target for attacks.

v His “experience” and his statement that America could stay in the Iraqi war for 100 years imply that he does not know how to lead in times of peace because talks with allies and other members of the open market are necessary and his main or only concern is fighting. Once the war is over, could McCain lead the nation back into peace and economic stability with more money for beneficial programs like schools?

· conclusion

- The key point was that we should help other struggling nations out of the kindness of our collective American heart.
  - their disease affect us because of globalization they could be easily spread over here
  - trade: A “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” kind of deal

v politics should look toward the future to see that peaceful foreign relations now will lead to better system in the future whenever we are in either direct need or we are fight another nation.

v competing interests in Africa: Russia and China

John McCain on Foreign Policy

billie16 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:01:46 +0000

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/7085eb12-f5f2-4019-a55e-daec115c9590.htm

http://www.askthecandidates.org/candidate/john-mccain

“Boost opportunities for service overseas to increase understanding and communication among diverse cultures. “

This is the only article I have seen from McCain that expresses good will toward nations with which we are at peace. He is basically leaving it up to the goodwill of Americans to go overseas and experience other cultures. He makes no formal address about Africa on his website.

In an interview on Darfur in 2004 McCain says that there needs to be a leauge of democracies. He says that supporting peace-keeping efforts i always a good thing, but he makes no formal statement about putting pressure on the Sudanese government. He says that China, as an evolving major world power, should not be allowed to support corruption.

He relates this breach of human rights to national safety, which ties in with his strengths as a presidential candidate. (Smart Move!)

Since my (tentative) view is that America should help Africa countries, this doesn’t exactly go against what I am saying. Republicans seem to agree with democrats about the human rights as laid down in the constitution of the united states. Everyone should have the right to be who they are. To John McCain this may not be prosperous, as it is explicated in Obama’s speech. Basically the way I’ll be able to use this in my speech is to appeal to emotion by saying that everyone not matter their race or origin deserves the right to live (once born) and do so in peace. Since I thik that America should help others this would be an example that I would have to work against, saying that America should mind her own affairs. (Omar al Bashir said so himself: “we don’t want Darfur to urn into another Iraq.”

Obama’s Plan

billie16 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:02:10 +0000

http://origin.barackobama.com/issues/foreign_policy/#onafrica & Gordon & Gordon text for Afri 050.

His website says tht he wants to pour money into Africa so help solve problems like poverty, HIV/AIDS awareness, legitimatize peaceful democratic governments, and end the genocide in Darfur. These are all good for Africa. The efforts of Obama would help Africa reach the Mellinuim Initiatives. This is a plan developed in early 2000s that set specific numerical goals for reducing poverty and improving the Gross National Income per capita. It relies on a system of international banks known as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The purpose of these banks is to stabilize the economy. All participating African countries have a share and so they can borrow money to run governemnt and build developmental programs. Barack Obama also said he wants to re-establish America’s claim in the IMF and the World Bank.

While all of this is good for our dipolmatic relations, one must assess the factor of realism. Can Barack, much less any politician, itemize a budget to fund a war and fund development of African nations without putting a tax burden on the middle class?

2.1 assignment

billie16 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:55:08 +0000

Billie Ryan

In Sean Jacobs’ blog titled “Think you know US candidates’ views on Africa?” from mid July, he describes the presidential candidates’ stances on foreign policy toward Africa by depicting their past actions and those of their colleagues. First he criticizes John McCain by saying that McCain uses the same advisor as Ronald Reagan did. Apparently this advisor, Charlie Black, promoted an open door policy with African Dictators and racist regimes.

Next Jacobs discusses Obama’s tour of South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti, and Chad as recorded by the politically minded film Senator Obama Goes to Africa. Jacobs clears up the reason behind Obama’s turban attire and discusses his opinion regarding healthcare. “Obama condemns the pharmaceutical companies and the wrongheaded Aids policies of President Thabo Mbeki and his health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.”

In the end of the blog, the argument becomes clear: as a president Obama would promote peaceful foreign relations especially in democratic Africa countries and Senator McCain would neglect the issue. The way in which Jacobs comes to this conclusion is by drawing an outline based on past actions of the two candidates. From specific to general, this is the way deduction works.

Although he went about drawing conclusions through the proper method, I can not say so much for the mode of re-presenting the facts to form an argument. The first premise made is done so through an ad hominid attack against the preferred candidate’s rival. Attacks are unsound because they are often based around subjective articles.

This blog comes to a point where Jacobs is discussing the beliefs of the men instead of discussing thoughts and positions on the issue. The two positions on the issue of aid to Africans through trade and healthcare advancements would be to 1. to help other nations and 2. to neglect other nations and focus on our problems.

I would prefer to see the point to be argued earlier on in this blog. I think that the introduction takes away from the point of the blog by disinteresting readers in old regimes. The argument does not become apparent until the end after which one would need to reread the article, but the readers probably don’t have the time or the attention span for this because they are probably busy people who already know something about politics.

I think that the blog would be stronger if it didn’t use pity tactics. It could have employed John McCain’s military prowess against him by saying that his “experience” and his statement that America could stay in the Iraqi war for 100 years imply that he does not know how to lead in times of peace because talks with allies and other members of the open market are necessary and his main or only concern is fighting. Once the war is over, could McCain lead the nation back into peace and economic stability with more money for beneficial programs like schools which McCain doesn’t believe in investing money in anyways.

Overall I don’t believe that I can say this blog is valid because another blogger could interpret the same information in another way. For example, a republican may argue that McCain’s involvement in international affairs, regardless of which continent they are on, is sounder because Barack Obama hasn’t had time to develop relations with diplomat from all of our allied states.

MCCain/Palin interview w/ Couric

billie16 — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:35:48 +0000

http://breaktheterror.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/john-mccain-and-sarah-palin-did-an-interview-with-katie-courictogether/

Okay, so I guess I just have to summarize this blog.

It starts off with the wierdo blogger discussing his flawed idea that McCain is sleeping with Palin because he nervously plays with his wedding ring. (um-yeah)

Then he proceeds to attack the pair by baltant statements of Palin’s stupidity. He sites the example that she responded to a voter’s question on Pakistan by “promoting Obama’s position.”

Apparently Katie Couric attempted to show disunity in the presiental/vice presidental ticket. Which this blogger said John McCain avoided by side-stepping the issue to discuss “gotcha journalists.”

Wow: so I don’t think that anything in this blog was useful. The comments show the neglectful politics of Americans by how little they know. Basically the only arugment made was … ?

Okay, so I thought that he was making a big deal out of the interview, then I watched it and they never answer questions, which could be a statement but that is flawed because it can’t be proved/disproved. They could start answering questions after all.

So what would President Barack Obama mean for Africa?

billie16 — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:38:58 +0000

http://theleoafricanus.com/2008/07/19/think-you-know-obamas-views-on-africa/

So, the blog said that though there was a history of african politcians and republicans rubbing greasy hands, Barack Obama would have better relations with Africa -McCain is not ready/willing to have discussons with these people.

The way that blogger, Sean Jacobs, goes about making his argument is by comparing McCain to Raegan -so ad homined attacks against his prefered candidate’s rival’s predecessor’s advisors.

Then he tries to get people to feel bad for Obama because people label him “Muslim” and discrimination is wrong.

the final way in which he supports Obama is legitamate in my pinion -he speaks about experience and objectives. instead of using opinions actual facts such as the video Senator Obama goes to Africa and new reports from the Chicago Sun Times and his plan of action while there are used to show that he has 1. experience and 2. people skills.

In the end Jacobs ties up by inering in a “subtle” way that people who would be friends with republics are changing their minds because Obama has a better foreign policy.

So, I guess how does this blog make me feel? Um, I think that the blog is right in saying that Barack Obama is a stronger candidate because he engages in international affairs other than war. I think that the blog would be stronger if it didn’t use pity tactics. It could have employed John McCain’s military prwess against him by saying that his “experience” and his statement that America could stay in the Iraqi war for 100 years imply that he does not know how to lead in times of peace because talks with allies and other members of the open market are neccessary and his main or only concrn is fighting. Once the war is over, could McCain lead the nation back into peace and economic stability with more money for beneficial programs like schools which McCain doesn’t belive in investing $ in anyways.

But this is where blog analysis gets tricky, I have come to a point where I am discussing the beliefs of the mean instead of discussing thoughts/positions on the issue. So the two positions on the issue of Aid to Africans through trade and healthcare advancements would be : 1 (D-Obama) to help other nations -potetially percieved as socialist. and 2 (R_McCain) to neglect other nations and focus on our problems which could be said to be isolationist and would potenially hurt our economy.

Making of Foreign Policy

billie16 — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:54:55 +0000

I watched a hour-long speech on Youtube. It was by the president of the Peace Corps Association, Dane Smith. He talked about the influence of the peace corp on Africa and on US foreign policy toward Africa. While his personal bias (against the bush admin.) was not hidden entiely, the lecture was not partisian and no point was argued.

He spoke abbout how Africa has an impact in the US: through trade, immigration, possesion of oil resources, potential healthcare problems, and their need for financial assistance for peace-keeping measures.

One view, a typical American view he did assert was that socialism would not work for the economy.

He said that when the Peace corp volunteers came back from time abroad they became more involved in foreign-policy branch of politics.

This lecture is now 7 years old, but I still got something out of it. I think the things I learned most were about the two administrations directly related to the time period: Clinton then George W. Smith (the lecturer) said that Bush said: Africa doesn’t have much to do with our national interests. The Clinton administration was praised for sending money, but unwillingness to commit troops was a negative point. Jimmy Carter was hailed the “applicator of Human rights to forein policy.”

When I come away from this lecture I have a greater understanding f what influences foreign policy. But to be able to debate this I have to know the actual policies of candidates.

Smith, Dane F., Jr. Global Forces in Post-Cold War Africa. University of California -Los

Angeles. 2001. YouTube. 1 Oct. 2008

%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Du3qWc_G7sDc>.

This is a copy of an email I got from the listserv of UNC’s Prochoice Organization

billie16 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:21:21 +0000

Hey y’all. This forward has been going around, my older sister sent it to me. Some of you may have already read it, and it is long, but important. I found it interesting to know a little more about Sarah Palin. Please do whatever you can to inform your friends and family that she is a real danger. And with McCain’s age and health, it is a real possibility that she will be President if the Republican ticket wins. Read and educate others!

Jaimie

This is a letter sent by Anne Kilkenny about Sarah Palin …

Dear friends,

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender

and their good looks.

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

Thanks,

Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way. She’s like the most popular girl in middle

school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won’t vote for her can’t quit

smiling when talking about her because she is a ‘babe’.

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is ‘pro-life’. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby. There is no

cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just ‘puts things out there’ and if they

prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in

Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is

fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like

that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She’s smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time),

and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 re sidents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city

was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a ‘fiscal conservative’. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be.

She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska.

Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s surplus, borrow for needs.

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the ‘old boy’s club’ when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of ‘old boys’. Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he ‘intimidated’ her, she told

the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top cop has the ring of

familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire

him, but it’s pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was

because he wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen

contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired,

pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired

with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City

Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness. Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best,

Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the

structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the ‘old boys’ club’ when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted

Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the ‘bridge to nowhere’ after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as ‘anti-pork’.

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her

because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her

‘Sarah Barracuda’ because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Be fore she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and

experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as ‘AGIA’ that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She

has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned ‘as a private citizen’ against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away

from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT

?’Hockey mom’: true for a few years

?’PTA mom’: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since

?’NRA supporter’: absolutely true

?social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconstitutional).

?pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.

?’Pro-life’: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation

?’Experienced’: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

?political maverick: not at all

?gutsy: absolutely!

?open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

?has a developed philosophy of public policy: no

?’a Greenie’: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

?fiscal conservative: not by my definition!

?pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century

standards.

?pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents

?pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.

?pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter

registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google

my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that ‘Bad things happen when good people stay silent’. Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out of. I don’t

belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely

popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s

life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that eve rybody else was afraid to say anything

because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS

I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending &

taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is

impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of

Wasilla, ranging from my ‘about 5,000′, up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was

announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The

official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90′s.

Anne Kilkenny

annekilkenny@hotmail.com <mailto:annekilkenny@hotmail.com>

August 31, 2008

My Topic: Foreign Policy as it relates to Africa

billie16 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:23:00 +0000

Ok. So I watched the debate and it seemed like a whole bunch of interrpting, petty arguments, talking over one another, skirting around the issues, and neglecting domestic policies in a time of critical importance. This is just my little critique, ithas nothing to do with my topic which I may have missed because I turned on the TV late.

I am in this great FYS: Africa’s Bumpy Road toward democracy. That combined with research I did on the Darfur Conflict for my school newspaper Junior Year inspired me to write about the American foreign policy on helping developing nations, mainly in Afria. I may branch into Mexico/South America/Southwest Asia, but this seems too broad.

As I say later, I haven’t done much preliminary research, but what I know about the tpic so far is that during the primaries Hilary Clinton’s campaign managers attacked Barack Obama for wearing traditional garb when in Africa.

**I know that we’re not supposed to say things like “I believe,” but those are the sources that I will be ooking for to support my argument.

Did I dream this, or … I think Bill Clinton said something about on Meet the Press about not allowing another “Holocaust.” While this relates specifically to Darfur. I would like to see how American Peace Corps are sent to counties with high populations of HIV-infected people and which parties is more encouraging of this. I know JFK started the idea of Peace Corps, and he was a democrat! (Turning NC blue this election year!)

I dont have very many sources yet: The Debate, Meet the Press on Sunday 9/28 -specifically the interview with Bill Clinton who had a powerful quote about Rwanda, DTH from 9/29 -a politic carton on pg. 9. Also on pg. 9 there is a letter to the editor from YD, but that isn’t that most credible source.

(Hey I can use my previous work as a source -cool!)

Why is McCain so stupid?

billie16 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:43:34 +0000

Come to the debate!