« FRAGILE! McCain campaign handles Palin’s exposure with care…and sexism
Palin on Contraception »



No Wolf Whistles for Sarah Palin’s Compassion (Guest Voice)

September 7th, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

Print Print

A lot is being written about Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, but in this Guest Voice post journalism professor and author Walter Brasch , an award-winning syndicated newspaper columnist and radio commentator, and president of the Pennsylvania Press Club, looks at an aspect that hasn’t gotten much attention. Guest Voice post do not necessarily represent the opinion of TMV or its writers.

No Wolf Whistles for Sarah Palin’s Compassion

by Walter Brasch

Defibrillator usage increased last week after John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate and only a heartbeat from the presidency. But, shortly after most Republicans were shocked back to life they circled the wagons to declare she was the perfect choice. Apparently, the cure also included a dose of psychotropic drugs as well.

The pundits and commentators rallied beside Palin, even lying about how great her ghost-written acceptance speech was, apparently in the mistaken belief that they are being fair and balanced. Since Palin is the topic of everyone’s greatest love or deepest enmity, I won’t be writing about her life and most of her positions.

I won’t write about her lack of experience—or her outrageous statements that she has more experience than Barack Obama, and her delusion that she deserves any of Hillary Clinton’s 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling.

Although I would like to say something about her vicious attacks on community organizers, persons who sacrifice so much to help those with so little, I won’t. That’s for others to talk about.

The fact she’s running on a ticket headed by a man who opposes lobbyist influence, yet had her inauguration as governor sponsored by an oil company—well, I won’t even bring that up. And, of course, I won’t say anything about her excessive use of pork barrel funds that McCain also opposes. And, I see no reason to point out that McCain’s first two choices of Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge were somehow vetoed by the Republican leadership.

I’ll let others write about how Sarah Palin and George W. Bush both believe they are fiscal conservatives, but both are more “tax-and-spend” than the wildest liberal. For Bush, it was beginning office with a surplus of more than $236 billion and running up a $427 billion debt in less than five years. For Palin, it was a balanced budget at the beginning of her six years as mayor of a town of 5,000, and leaving it with a debt of about $20 million.

Although there is no evidence she has had any interest in foreign policy, she did manage to tell us she’s sure that the war in Iraq is “God’s will,” and that Americans soldiers were sent to Iraq on a “task that is from God.” Nope. I won’t write about that, either.

There’s really no need to comment upon the two ethics investigations that have been launched against her for abuse of her office or reasons why seven witnesses suddenly have decided not to testify.

There’s no reason for me to discuss her belief that Alaska schools should teach creationism, and that she’s has doubts about the theory of evolution.

The fact that she believes library books should be banned if they have passages that disagree with her own beliefs, and that she tried to fire the city librarian who disagreed with her beliefs, won’t even be discussed.

And, certainly, I won’t discuss her personal family life. Not her beauty queen background or her family values agenda that opposes single motherhood and supports only abstinence education instead of a comprehensive sexual education program. Her unmarried 17-year-old high school drop-out pregnant daughter can discuss that.

I certainly won’t write about her belief that she is certainly not a proponent of the Green movement, and apparently believes it must be magic fairy dust that created Global Warming, since she doesn’t believe that people caused what’s melting the ice in Alaska and putting polar bears in danger of extinction. Not that she cares—she supports disrupting the balance of nature by drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which McCain opposes, and opposes a federal rule, enacted by the Bush Administration, which makes polar bears a threatened species.

And that’s what I am going to write about. Sarah Palin and her boom-boom mentality. She loves to kill animals. As a youth, she went out daily so she could enjoy mooseburgers. I don’t know how much burgers a slaughtered moose can provide, but I suspect that if she, her family, and all of their friends ate all of the moose she killed, the cholesterol and obesity levels in Wasilla, Alaska, would be significantly higher than the national average.

Killing moose is apparently one of the reasons that as governor she encourages wolf hunts. Alaska is the only state that allows hunters to use helicopters not only to kill wolves but also to chase them down and then execute them while they lay exhausted from the chase. No hunter would ever consider this to be fair chase hunting.

Palin has even offered a $150 bounty for every wolf killed in Alaska. Kill every one of the 9,000 or so wolves in Alaska, and the taxpayers will reap a harvest of about $1.3 million. And, don’t worry about wolves being extinct in Alaska. There’s still another 5,000 or so in the Lower 48, most of which are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Wolves are highly intelligent social animals, who are loyal to their mates, care for their children, and protective of all in their pack. Humans should emulate them rather than murder them.

But just this past May, Sarah Palin had no problem with her own Department of Fish and Game killing 14 orphaned wolf pups in their own dens, in violation of her state’s own law.

Killing wolves doesn’t give hunters the excuse that they kill for meat or clothing. Wolves provide absolutely no meat value, and wolf coats are just not the fashion item for this season. Except when deliberately provoked, wolves don’t attack humans. Even then, wolves try to avoid human contact.

So, the killing of wolves serves only two purposes. The first is because Mighty Joe Hunter can get a trophy. Sarah Palin is a close ally of the Safari Club, which believes in killing animals and mounting their heads on cedar-paneled walls. The other reason is because wolves are her competitor—they hunt caribou and moose, the kind that Sarah Palin wants for her own dinner table.

No, I won’t write about Sarah Palin’s political philosophies. Her disregard for life is enough.



This entry was posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Democratic Party, John McCain, Guest Contributor, Social Conservatives, Republican Party, Sarah Palin, Newsweek Blogitics, Barack Obama, Animals, Conservatives, 2008 Elections, Environment, Religion, Republicans, Democrats, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 16 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    Brasch raises the question about the asymmetric phenomenon (because the Left is society's waste basket) about some of the worst behavior and the predictability of the worst of the worst now that Palin has been selected, was a delightful and worse to scum, a positive, surprise to better people, making it already possible, despite a desperately-degenerate left-wing media's attacks, that she and McCain will prevail and score one for the Good People in large number in this election. ("The horror!")

    It's pathetic that this far-to-the-left-of-the-public site relies in or employs such self-discrediting and, metaphorically to intelligent and decent people, self-and-SITE-destructive sources insofar as reputation is concerned.

    Moderate? [*** SNICKER ***]

    Enjoy your post-Palin-selection diarrhea.
    • ^
    • v
    It's remarkable enough that you're so far to the left of the US public (inviting correction at will by many). But to rely on extremists and nut-cases as guest contributors -- the generously tiny remonstration has made you very, very lucky.
    • ^
    • v
    weird. i lived in fairbanks '00--'04, and though i have nothing against wildlife management (including regulated hunting) per se, this despicable aerial wolf "hunting", when it comes down to it, really does seem to be about producing as many moose as possible. alaskans have a strong sense of ownership: their state, their wolves, their mines, moose, and oil. and as wacky a character as joe vogler seems to the rest of us down here in the "Lower 48", he had/has a lot of fans up there. as fringe-y as the AIP comes off to us, there is an awful lot of sympathy in alaska for its goals.
    • ^
    • v
    DLS:

    blah, blah, blah.

    note that just because joe posts something it doesn't mean he endorses it. THIS is an example of where the Real Far Left actually is, not in the "MSM". how much of this kind of tripe did we see on clinton when she was running? but that was all "fair and balanced", right?

    maybe if palin actually talked to the press (what a CRAZY, librul idea!), the diarrhea would slow down to a trickle.
    • ^
    • v
    Ooohh Kaayy... I guess Sarah Palin has lost the "Journalist professors with P.E.T.A.-like animal rights philosophies" vote then.

    If I were in Palin's camp I'd tell them to promote this article far and wide.
    • ^
    • v
    Brasch raises the question about the asymmetric phenomenon (because the Left is society's waste basket) about some of the worst behavior and the predictability of the worst of the worst now that Palin has been selected, was a delightful and worse to scum, a positive, surprise to better people, making it already possible, despite a desperately-degenerate left-wing media's attacks, that she and McCain will prevail and score one for the Good People in large number in this election.

    Anyone care to try to diagram that sentence? Lol!

    I'm intrigued about the "Good People" part. The fact that it was capitalized leads me to believe it's a kind of club or something. Sounds elitist. If so, Obama must be a member.
    • ^
    • v
    haalp..I've fallen into the Waste Basket & can't get out!!
    • ^
    • v
    Yeah, I don't quite grasp the "score one for the Good People in large number in this election". Does that means McCain/Palin's beliefs are aligned with the "Good People" of this country?
    • ^
    • v
    honestly, when America wises up and cuts out the 20% through greener energy means. We can give Alaska back to the Russians- or maybe Canada, eh. Sewards folly indeed- oh wait, i know- they can disburse that annual payola to the rest of America, or maybe they should pay income tax like most of us poor shlubs.

    Incidentally I was on Shelter Island this weekend- I saw tons of American Flags on rustic Gingerbread victorian houses, and tons of Obama yard signs. Not a single McCain sign in town.

    Where I come from are some of the oldest towns in America, dating back to the 1600's. F you if you call us unpatriotic, we invented the term (patritotic)here.