Video- Fox and Friends push Tampa mayor on latest "bow-gate" episode: "It's hard for me to believe that this is such a major issue"

I hadn't heard about this one, and man do Douchey and friend work hard to push it. Notice the sighs and condescending comments when the Mayor is talking. No wonder Fox's parent group NewsCorpse is low on the list of ethical rankings of corporations. Via NewsHounds.

Dep't. of It's All a Plot: Mayor Calls President A Muslim

By GottaLaff

Not only is President Barack Black Hussein Muslim Obama, the Black Muslim president who is black and Muslim, declaring War on Christmas, he's picking on Charlie Brown specifically! What a dog. What a cur. What a... joke:

The mayor of a suburban Memphis city accused President Barack Obama of deliberately timing his speech about the war in Afghanistan this week to block the airing of the "Peanuts" Christmas television special.

Then, following in Barbie McLipSchmutz's footsteps, he posted on his Facebook page. You think he has a ghost blogger, too?

"We sit the kids down to watch 'The Charlie Brown Christmas Special' and our muslim president is there, what a load. ... Try to convince me that wasn't done on purpose," he wrote, according to the newspaper.

He's right about one thing: What a load.

Pennsylvania city torn by racial strife elects black mayor

Go read the whole story here (the background is fascinating). Every once in a while a story like this comes along to prove that it ain't all bad out there.

YORK, Pa.—A little girl who trembled in her house as a National Guard tank rumbled past during York's chaotic 1969 race riots has grown up to become the first black mayor of the central Pennsylvania city.

Kim Bracey, 45, an energetic veteran of the struggling manufacturing city's improvement efforts will take office in January, to the delight of many African-Americans who thought they would never see a black mayor.

(snip)

Rather, Bracey will inherit a city of 40,000 that is barely able to pay its bills as it loses the manufacturing jobs that helped build it up. Poverty is becoming as entrenched as the racial animosity that led to York's deadly riots 40 years ago.

U.S. census statistics show a city in which average family income is half of Pennsylvania's, while the poverty rate for children is three times as high, at 48 percent.

One unemployed city resident, Butch Maxfield, said race is less important to Yorkers than poverty, crime and how to help the city's aimless young people.

"Everybody's poor. There's no jobs," said the 58-year-old Maxfield, who is black. "Now it's about 'what can you do for me?'"

Still, Maxfield and many others view Bracey's election as an achievement in a city that has a legacy of racial strife.

The 1960s saw a buildup of black resentment against a city administration that they said systematically ignored their community's needs and a police force that used dogs and other tough tactics to antagonize blacks.

Michael Bloomberg win$

By GottaLaff

MSNBC reports that Michael Bloomberg just bought himself a Mayorship in NYC.

Mike Bloomberg Sets Spending Record

At what point does it become plain old buying of the office?

Michael Bloomberg, "the Wall Street mogul whose fortune catapulted him into New York's City Hall, has set another staggering financial record: He has now spent more of his own money than any other individual in United States history in the pursuit of public office," the New York Times reports.

"Newly released campaign records show the mayor, as of Friday, had spent $85 million on his latest re-election campaign, and is on pace to spend between $110 million and $140 million before the election on Nov. 3."

"That means Mr. Bloomberg, in his three bids for mayor, will have easily burned through more than $250 million -- the equivalent of what Warner Brothers spent on the latest Harry Potter movie."

Obama Tells Mayors to Spend Stimulus Wisely

I'm not all that hopeful about this outcome. The wingers will follow their pattern- distort and twist simple things to set the tone. *sigh*

AP Investigation-- Palin exposed: Ethics lapses galore

By GottaLaff

With the vice presidential debates coming up, a lot of IWRC* Palin stories are popping up. Here's a rather revealing one. To quote IWRC, "awesome"!

Though Sarah Palin depicts herself as a pit bull fighting good-old-boy politics, in her years as mayor she and her friends received special benefits more typical of small-town politics as usual, an Associated Press investigation shows.

When Palin needed to sell her house during her last year as Wasilla mayor, she got the city to sign off on a special zoning exception — and did so without keeping a promise to remove a potential fire hazard.

She gladly accepted gifts from merchants: A free "awesome facial" she raved about in a thank-you note to a spa. The "absolutely gorgeous flowers" she received from a welding supply store. Even fresh salmon to take home.

Awesome!

She also stepped in to help friends or neighbors with City Hall dealings. [...] [T]he friend got up and asked them to give his radio station advertising business.

When she tried to help a neighbor/contributor, the city attorney told the mayor she didn't have the authority. Oopsies! I guess her mayorship of a city of less than 7,000 just wasn't enough.

Some of her first actions after being elected mayor in 1996 raised possible ethical red flags: She cast the tie-breaking vote to propose a tax exemption on aircraft when her father-in-law owned one, and backed the city's repeal of all taxes a year later on planes, snow machines and other personal property. She also asked the council to consider looser rules for snow machine races. Palin and her husband, Todd, a champion racer, co-owned a snow machine store at the time.

See what I meant in the blog post title about her "ethical lapses"?

Two months before Palin's tenure as mayor ended in 2002, she asked city planning officials to forgive zoning violations so she could sell her house. Palin had a buyer, but he wouldn't close the deal unless she persuaded the city to waive the violations with a code variance. [...]

The request was opposed by one planning official and some neighbors. [...]

The Palins didn't create the zoning problems, but they should have known about them when they bought the house, wrote Susan Lee, a code compliance officer with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, in response to the Palins' request. [...]

On Sept. 10, 2002, the seven-member Wasilla Planning Commission unanimously approved a variance for both sides of the property, with language covering "all existing structures." Less than a week later, the Palins signed a deed to sell the house to Henry Nosek.

The carport was never removed.

No, these aren't international crises, but they sure speak volumes about IWRC. Imagine what she'd do on a larger scale, say, as vice president... or president.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

VIDEO-- John Sidney McCain: Mayors, governors don't have national security experience

By GottaLaff

Once again, I can't play this on my computer, but I have heard the sound on the radio. Priceless:

10/07: "I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time"

When does being a governor or mayor for a short period of time not disqualify your credentials on national security? When you are John McCain and your task is to defend your vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

When does being a governor or mayor for a short period of time ABSOLUTELY disqualify your credentials on national security? When you are John McCain and your task is to defeat primary opponents Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

Sarah Louise Palin:

"Charlie, again, we've got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time," she said to the ABC host. "It is for no more politics as usual and somebody's big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they've had opportunities to meet heads of state."

Pre-requisite for high office: No resume. That might imply that you have, you know, experience... Like, say, giving birth five times, shooting wolves from airplanes, and forcing rape victims to pay for their own tests.

Wasilla rape victims charged for own tests when Palin was mayor

By GottaLaff

Having read all the comments from the past several hours, I see that a few of you were interested in seeing the following issue covered more. We aim to please, so here you go.

Via AMERICABlog:

Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska from 1996 to 2002. And according to an Alaskan news article in the local Wasilla paper in the year 2000, the City of Wasilla, under Mayor Palin, charged rape victims for their own forensic tests. Most Alaskan municipalities picked up the tab themselves, but not Wasilla, the article notes. You see, the city of Wasilla, the article notes, didn't want to "burden" taxpayers with having to support victims of rape. Yes, they were more interested in lowering taxes. It would have cost the city between $5,000 and $14,000 a year to pay for the rape victims' police medical exams. And if the City of Wasilla, circa the year 2000, wants to go there in terms of balancing rape vs, burdening taxpayers, you should know that each and every Alaskan gets a check from the state government each year, it contains their portion of that year's oil revenues. The latest check, I read, was for over $2,000. I think the citizens of Wasilla had the money.

From the Frontiersman*:

Gov. Tony Knowles recently signed legislation protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for tests to collect evidence of the crime, but one local police chief said the new law will further burden taxpayers.

The governor signed House Bill 270, sponsored by Rep. Eric Croft, D-Anchorage, outside the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) exam room at Alaska Regional Hospital. In attendance at the signing were members of victims advocate groups, law enforcement agencies and legislators.

The new law makes it illegal for any law enforcement agency to bill victims or victims insurance companies for the costs of examinations that take place to collect evidence of a sexual assault or determine if a sexual assault did occur....

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.

Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

In the past weve charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer, Fannon said.

According to Fannon, the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases.

*The Frontiersman is the local Wasilla paper, and has been around since 1947. This article was published in the year 2000, so it wasn't a swipe at Palin at all - that was 8 years before she was chosen for VP. It just so happens that the article inadvertently gives us a rather nasty window into Sarah Palin and the priorities of her city government.

As the old song goes, "Getting to know you, getting to know all about you..."

Sarah Louise Palin: Past history she probably won't tell Charles Gibson

By GottaLaff

These excerpts are from a long, but enlightening piece about Sarah Louise Palin's rise from small town mayor to vice presidential candidate. I left out a lot of the details, but you should get the gist of it:

When Palin ran for mayor in the fall of 1996, she was 32 years old and a four-year veteran of the City Council. Her opponent, John Stein, had been mayor for nine years. [...]

In Alaska, municipal elections are officially nonpartisan. State law tries to distance local government from the machinations of political parties.

A Palin campaign ad displayed the slogan, “Positively Sarah.” “Endorsed by the NRA,” it said. The ad encouraged people to vote for “Conservative, More Efficient Government,” and called Palin “ENERGETIC ... DETERMINED ... POSITIVE.”

The ad pictured Palin with four state lawmakers — all Republicans, pledging their support. More than 100 other supporters were also listed, including the owners of the Mug Shot Saloon and the Wasilla Bar, two taverns that stayed open until 4 or 5 a.m.

To Stein, the three-term mayor, this campaign had unusual overtones, raising issues that had no bearing on local government. He would marvel at how abortion became an issue — he was labeled pro-abortion — and how some people noted that his wife’s last name differed from his. He later noted how Palin’s backers included what he called the “Liquor Cabinet” and Wasilla’s religious conservatives.

In October 1996, about a third of Wasilla’s registered voters went to the polls. Palin collected 616 votes — 58 percent of the total. “It’s a new direction,” she told the Frontiersman, the local newspaper.

Afterward, a TV station called her Wasilla’s “first Christian mayor.” This prompted a letter from Stein, saying: “Really?” He listed eight previous mayors, all Christian, and added: “With a name like ‘ Stein’ some suspected that I must be a non-Christian, have non-Christian blood or at least have sympathized with a non-Christian sometime in my career. I’m proud of such a reputation but I, my family and forbearers are of the Christian persuasion, too.” [...]

For Palin, the firing of Stambaugh was only part of the drama that unfolded in her first months as mayor. The Frontiersman and Anchorage Daily News wrote one story after another about the turmoil. [...]

After notifying the librarian that she was fired, Palin backtracked and decided to keep her on. Palin had twice asked this librarian what she thought about banning books, to which the librarian responded it was a lousy idea, one she wouldn’t go along with. Later, Palin told the local paper that any questions she’d raised about censorship were only “rhetorical.”

Sorryyyyy... just kidding! You don't really have to ban books. Ya big silly.

Palin put in place what the local paper called a gag order, prohibiting top city employees from talking to reporters unless she cleared it first.

Sarah Cheney? Oh. Sorry. I must have heard wrong. The following is part of a longer story, so please follow the link, but, again, you'll get the point:

After Stambaugh and the museum director were fired, two of the four remaining department heads quit. One, the public-works director, accused Palin of undermining him by meeting secretly with contractors and employees.

When three women who worked at the city’s museum were asked to decide among themselves which one should be let go, all three quit.

Palin tried to fill two vacancies on the City Council herself, even though an ordinance said that wasn’t her prerogative. It was the council’s. After the city attorney stopped Palin, the mayor said she’d merely engaged in a ploy. “It was brilliant maneuvering I had to do to deal with the impasse,” she told the Frontiersman.

Sorryyyyy... just kidding again! It was just a ploy. Ya big silly.

The Frontiersman ran blistering editorials, condemning Palin’s philosophy “that either we are with her or against her.” The newspaper accused Palin of mistaking the 616 votes she received as a “coronation.”

Sarah Bush? Oh. Sorry. I must have heard wrong again.

“Wasilla residents have been subjected to attempts to unlawfully appoint council members, statements that have been shown to be patently untrue, unrepentant backpedaling, and incessant whining that her only enemies are the press and a few disgruntled supporters of Mayor Stein. ... Palin promised to change the status quo, but at every turn we find hints of cronyism and political maneuvering. We see a woman who has long since surrendered her ideals to a political machine.”

Sarah McCain? Oh. Sorry. I must have heard wrong... yet again.

The newspaper’s readers chimed in. “Mayor Sarah Palin behaves like a petulant, spoiled teenager,” wrote a woman who ran a flower shop. A tool-and-die maker defended Palin, writing, “We didn’t want ‘ business as usual.’ ”

Some residents talked recall.

I can't imagine why.