To those who have heard him on L.A. radio for more than three decades, he is The Big Nasty. To those who have seen him at local sports venues, he is simply Mr. Big, his body ballooning to nearly 700 pounds at his worst. To those who depend on him for information, he has long been among the most plugged-in sports personalities in town with solid sources and an always loud, often controversial, sometimes bitter opinion on everything from Dodger blue to Showtime.
For now, however, that voice has been silenced. Joe McDonnell is out of work.
After nearly three years at AM 570, McDonnell is being replaced by Tony Bruno, another veteran of more than 30 years on the airwaves. The "Joe McDonnell Experience," which ran from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, will become "Into The Night," with Bruno. Joe Grande, McDonnell's co-host, will remain on his weekend show. McDonnell's producer, Tim Cates, will also serve in that capacity for Bruno, who starts Monday.
McDonnell's contract was not renewed, ending his show on AM 1150 as well, a broadcast outlet on which McDonnell roamed far afield from sports to topics ranging from politics to social issues.
"I've been at 15 or 16 stations in my 33 years in the business," said the 52-year-old McDonnell. "I guess that means I'm good enough to keep getting work. I hope that continues. I think I still have a lot to offer. I don't think anybody has the combination of the contacts and knowledge that I have."
McDonnell says he's also disappointed by the course AM 570 program director Don Martin has chosen.
"The Bruno show is a syndicated show, which is unfortunate because I don't think that serves the listeners," McDonnell said. "I don't think anybody in L.A. gives a darn on a regular basis about what's going on in St. Louis or New Orleans."
Martin disputes McDonnell's point.
"This is not your typical syndicated show that is picked up from another market and plugged in here," Martin said.
The Bruno show will be co-owned by Clear Channel, the parent company of AM 570, and the Content Factory, a show provider. The program will originate locally with, according to Martin, the hope it will be syndicated in other markets.
"Tony Bruno lives here," Martin said, "and he will do the show live from our studio. We have a unique situation. We will have a local host who has been one of the top national guys in this format for years."
For loyal McDonnell followers, however, it won't be the same.
"He's the passionate conscience of L.A. sports, the quintessential L.A. guy," said McDonnell's former broadcasting partner, Doug Krikorian. "Love him or hate him, no one was ever indifferent to Joe McDonnell. He had the guys he loved, like Magic [Johnson], Wilt [Chamberlain], Jerry West and Reggie Smith, and the guys he hated, like Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], John Robinson and Rod Carew. . . . This is a real loss for L.A. sports fans."
McDonnell and Krikorian were together, on and off, for 13 years on several stations in the McDonnell-Douglas Show.
While McDonnell faces an uncertain future professionally, his personal life couldn't be better. Married 18 months ago to the former Elizabeth Cahn, McDonnell has lost 340 pounds through gastric bypass surgery, and hopes to lose 100 via a skin removal procedure.
"I look like a normal person now," he said. "I weighed about 275 in high school and then I gained hundreds of additional pounds because of my food addiction. It got so hard for me to get around that I just stayed in the house at one point for five or six months. I came pretty close to dropping dead. I am a lucky son of a gun because I now have a new lease on life."
Barack Obama met the 50 percent threshold for the first time Tuesday in the Gallup daily tracking poll, a symbolic hurdle that until now had eluded the Democratic nominee.
The Gallup daily tracking poll has found that since the conclusion of the Democratic convention, Obama has risen 5 percentage points in the polls and now leads John McCain 50 percent to 42 percent. That represents a positive turn for Obama, after a couple of days in which he appeared to have peaked at the 49 percent mark while McCain was showing slight improvements.
The survey indicates that Obama’s overall post-Democratic National Convention bounce now appears to be roughly at par with the norm of past conventions. Though smaller than several of the sizable bounces of recent decades, the new polling suggests that perhaps the Democratic convention bounce has yet to subside.
While an improvement from 49 percent to 50 percent is statistically insignificant, the 50 percent mark holds significance for a party seeking to win its first majority since 1976, when Jimmy Carter won with 50.1 percent.
Polling will likely remain in flux until early next week, after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention. On Saturday, Gallup reported Obama was ahead by 8 percentage points. By Monday, that lead had shrunk to 5 points. Today it returned to 8.
Obama and McCain were evenly split at 45 percent prior to the Democratic convention, according to Gallup. Should Obama maintain a 5-point bounce in the polls, that would meet the 5- to 6-point norm earned by a typical party nominee, by Gallup’s measure, since 1964.
That also means, however, that Obama’s historic acceptance speech before more than 80,000 people at Invesco Field in Denver Thursday night, a political event seen by about 40 million television viewers, has not vaulted him above the norm of past nominees.
But Obama now has his firmest political footing of the campaign, according to the polls. Daily tracking polls by Gallup and Rasmussen Reports demonstrate that Obama has taken his greatest lead since the beginning of the general election in June when Obama clinched the Democratic nomination.
Rasmussen also recorded an uptick in Obama’s standing on Tuesday, and he now leads McCain 51 percent to 45 percent.
CBS News reported Monday that Obama is ahead in its poll, 48 percent to 40 percent, a 3-point increase in Obama’s standing compared with its poll prior to the Democratic convention.
Well, those old guys certainly know how to shake things up!
John McCain surprised everyone by doing something - well- surprising! He yanked into the national spotlight Rush Limbaugh’s favorite female governor, Sarah Palin of Alaska. She’s an attractive, young, schoolmarm, executive type who could be, by age, John McCain’s daughter. A gutsy choice from what was thought to be a too-old, toothless maverick. John made up for lost time when he reached deep into the VP pool and pulled out “Sarah the Barracuda.” He now has a new set of choppers! A set which is the envy of pit bulls worldwide.
With this choice it becomes clear that John has been answering those middle-of-the-night phone calls. But was he only dreaming when he heard a deep, authoritative voice intone, “If you want my people onboard you better give them some red meat to sink their teeth into. Someone who listens to me. Someone who comes with no ifs, ands or buts.”
John listened obediently and John jumped. He jettisoned Joe Lieberman, his first choice for VP. He took a big breath and, in the time it took to say, “I want to win - regardless,” he swallowed the entire Religious Right - hook, line and sinker.
Governor Palin was received with a vociferous ovation from the Christian soldiers. Gushed Rush, “Sarah Palin: babies, guns, Jesus. Hot damn!” I searched the crowd to see if anyone was waving palm branches. I listened for the blare of trumpets. I began imagining that the delegates sounded like the St. Paul Xcel Center Tabernacle choir. Was that a halo around her head? Judging by the reception given this political unknown, John must surely believe that his late night message came from the Big Guy upstairs.
Governor Palin is now the poster candidate for the religious right. Rush was exuberant, “From now on McCain is McBrilliant!”
And what is all the excitement about?
Abortion: Governor Palin doesn’t even support abortion in the case of rape or incest. God may speak to her and abortion will be outlawed and/or banned by a Constitutional amendment. She was free to choose to bring her autistic child into the world and her unmarried daughter has the choice to carry her fetus to full term. Mrs. Palin would deny that choice to others. She opposes comprehensive sex-ed in public schools. She’s said she will only support abstinence-only approaches. (Oops!)
Gay/Lesbian Rights: Mrs. Palin supports the 1998 Alaska state constitutional ban on gay marriage. And while she finally signed the court ordered same-sex partner benefits bill, she fought rabidly against them. Governor Palin said, “We believe we have no more judicial options to pursue. So we may disagree with the foundation there, the rationale behind the ruling, but our responsibility is to proceed forward with the law and abide by the Constitution.” The Governor opposes hate crime laws that protect gay men and lesbians.
Iraq: Governor Palin told ministry students that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a “task that is from God.”
Big Oil: Governor Palin has close ties to really Big Oil. In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it “God’s will.”
United States of America: As recently as six months ago, Governor Palin supported the fringe Alaska Independence Party, a group who wants Alaskans to vote on secession from the United States.
Creationism: Governor Palin wants creationism taught in public schools along with science.
Global Warming: Palin doesn’t believe that humans contribute to global warming. “I’m not one, though, who would attribute it to being manmade,” she said.
Library Books: Governor Palin asked the library how she might go about banning books because some had inappropriate language in them. According to Time, “news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire (the librarian) for not giving ‘full support’ to the mayor.”
The Bridge to Nowhere: She supported the Bridge to Nowhere, before she opposed it. Governor Palin claimed that she said “thanks, but no thanks” to the infamous Bridge. But in 2006, Palin supported the project saying that Alaska should take advantage of earmarks “while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.” And while the bridge went nowhere, the federal money stayed in Alaska and was used for other projects.
Pit bulls, barracudas, God, pregnancy and guns, these are the big issues of the day heralding even bigger change in Washington. Who knew?
by Carl Matthes
Carl Matthes is a native of Los Angeles and has lived in Eagle Rock for over 40 years. He is a former president and a current Board member of Uptown Gay and Lesbian Alliance. He is a former columnist and a current advisor to the Lesbian News, the oldest lesbian publication in America. He was editor of the GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) newsletter and a former GLAAD National Board member. He has also been a Board member of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Well, those old guys certainly know how to shake things up!
John McCain surprised everyone by doing something - well- surprising! He yanked into the national spotlight Rush Limbaugh’s favorite female governor, Sarah Palin of Alaska. She’s an attractive, young, schoolmarm, executive type who could be, by age, John McCain’s daughter. A gutsy choice from what was thought to be a too-old, toothless maverick. John made up for lost time when he reached deep into the VP pool and pulled out “Sarah the Barracuda.” He now has a new set of choppers! A set which is the envy of pit bulls worldwide.
With this choice it becomes clear that John has been answering those middle-of-the-night phone calls. But was he only dreaming when he heard a deep, authoritative voice intone, “If you want my people onboard you better give them some red meat to sink their teeth into. Someone who listens to me. Someone who comes with no ifs, ands or buts.”
John listened obediently and John jumped. He jettisoned Joe Lieberman, his first choice for VP. He took a big breath and, in the time it took to say, “I want to win - regardless,” he swallowed the entire Religious Right - hook, line and sinker.
Governor Palin was received with a vociferous ovation from the Christian soldiers. Gushed Rush, “Sarah Palin: babies, guns, Jesus. Hot damn!” I searched the crowd to see if anyone was waving palm branches. I listened for the blare of trumpets. I began imagining that the delegates sounded like the St. Paul Xcel Center Tabernacle choir. Was that a halo around her head? Judging by the reception given this political unknown, John must surely believe that his late night message came from the Big Guy upstairs.
Governor Palin is now the poster candidate for the religious right. Rush was exuberant, “From now on McCain is McBrilliant!”
And what is all the excitement about?
Abortion: Governor Palin doesn’t even support abortion in the case of rape or incest. God may speak to her and abortion will be outlawed and/or banned by a Constitutional amendment. She was free to choose to bring her autistic child into the world and her unmarried daughter has the choice to carry her fetus to full term. Mrs. Palin would deny that choice to others. She opposes comprehensive sex-ed in public schools. She’s said she will only support abstinence-only approaches. (Oops!)
Gay/Lesbian Rights: Mrs. Palin supports the 1998 Alaska state constitutional ban on gay marriage. And while she finally signed the court ordered same-sex partner benefits bill, she fought rabidly against them. Governor Palin said, “We believe we have no more judicial options to pursue. So we may disagree with the foundation there, the rationale behind the ruling, but our responsibility is to proceed forward with the law and abide by the Constitution.” The Governor opposes hate crime laws that protect gay men and lesbians.
Iraq: Governor Palin told ministry students that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a “task that is from God.”
Big Oil: Governor Palin has close ties to really Big Oil. In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it “God’s will.”
United States of America: As recently as six months ago, Governor Palin supported the fringe Alaska Independence Party, a group who wants Alaskans to vote on secession from the United States.
Creationism: Governor Palin wants creationism taught in public schools along with science.
Global Warming: Palin doesn’t believe that humans contribute to global warming. “I’m not one, though, who would attribute it to being manmade,” she said.
Library Books: Governor Palin asked the library how she might go about banning books because some had inappropriate language in them. According to Time, “news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire (the librarian) for not giving ‘full support’ to the mayor.”
The Bridge to Nowhere: She supported the Bridge to Nowhere, before she opposed it. Governor Palin claimed that she said “thanks, but no thanks” to the infamous Bridge. But in 2006, Palin supported the project saying that Alaska should take advantage of earmarks “while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.” And while the bridge went nowhere, the federal money stayed in Alaska and was used for other projects.
Pit bulls, barracudas, God, pregnancy and guns, these are the big issues of the day heralding even bigger change in Washington. Who knew?
by Carl Matthes
Carl Matthes is a native of Los Angeles and has lived in Eagle Rock for over 40 years. He is a former president and a current Board member of Uptown Gay and Lesbian Alliance. He is a former columnist and a current advisor to the Lesbian News, the oldest lesbian publication in America. He was editor of the GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) newsletter and a former GLAAD National Board member. He has also been a Board member of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive into recession without it.
Stocks plummeted on Wall Street even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.
Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home. Despite pressure from supporters, not enough members were willing to take the political risk just five weeks before an election.
Ample no votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill.
The overriding question for congressional leaders was what to do next. Congress has been trying to adjourn so that its members can go out and campaign. And with only five weeks left until Election Day, there was no clear indication of whether the leadership would keep them in Washington. Leaders were huddling after the vote to figure out their next steps.
A White House spokesman said that President Bush was "very disappointed."
"There's no question that the country is facing a difficult crisis that needs to be addressed," Tony Fratto told reporters. He said the president will be meeting with members of his team later in the day "to determine next steps."
"Obviously we are very disappointed in this outcome," Fratto said. ". There's no question that the country is facing a difficult crisis that needs to be addressed. The president will be meeting with his team this afternoon to determine the next steps and will also be in touch with congressional leaders."
Monday's mind-numbing vote had been preceded by unusually aggressive White House lobbying, and spokesman Tony Fratto said that Bush had used a "call list" of people he wanted to persuade to vote yes as late as just a short time before the vote.
Lawmakers shouted news of the plummeting Dow Jones average as lawmakers crowded on the House floor during the drawn-out and tense call of the roll, which dragged on for roughly 40 minutes as leaders on both sides scrambled to corral enough of their rank-and-file members to support the deeply unpopular measure.
They found only two.
Bush and his economic advisers, as well as congressional leaders in both parties had argued the plan was vital to insulating ordinary Americans from the effects of Wall Street's bad bets. The version that was up for vote Monday was the product of marathon closed-door negotiations on Capitol Hill over the weekend.
"We're all worried about losing our jobs," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declared in an impassioned speech in support of the bill before the vote. "Most of us say, 'I want this thing to pass, but I want you to vote for it — not me.' "
With their dire warnings of impending economic doom and their sweeping request for unprecedented sums of money and authority to bail out cash-starved financial firms, Bush and his economic chiefs have focused the attention of world markets on Congress, Ryan added.
"We're in this moment, and if we fail to do the right thing, Heaven help us," he said.
The legislation the administration promoted would have allowed the government to buy bad mortgages and other rotten assets held by troubled banks and financial institutions. Getting those debts off their books should bolster those companies' balance sheets, making them more inclined to lend and easing one of the biggest choke points in the credit crisis. If the plan worked, the thinking went, it would help lift a major weight off the national economy that is already sputtering.
The fear in the financial markets send the Dow Jones industrials cascading down by as over 700 points at one juncture. As the vote was shown on TV, stocks plunged and investors fled to the safety of the credit markets, worrying that the financial system would keep sinking under the weight of failed mortgage debt.
"As I said on the floor, this is a bipartisan responsibility and we think (Democrats) met our responsibility," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
Asked whether majority Democrats would try to reverse the stunning defeat, Hoyer said, "We're certainly not going to abandon our responsibility. We'll continue to focus on this and see what actions we can take."
Several Republican aides said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had torpedoed any spirit of bipartisanship that surrounded the bill with her scathing speech near the close of the debate that blamed Bush's policies for the economic turmoil.
Without mentioning her by name, Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., No. 3 Republican, said: "The partisan tone at the end of the debate today I think did impact the votes on our side."
WASHINGTON - A pair of one-night polls gave Barack Obama a clear edge over John McCain in their first presidential debate.
Fifty-one percent said Obama, the Democrat, did a better job in Friday night's faceoff while 38 percent preferred the Republican McCain, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey of adults.
Obama was widely considered more intelligent, likable and in touch with peoples' problems, and by modest margins was seen as the stronger leader and more sincere. Most said it was McCain who spent more time attacking his opponent.
About six in 10 said each did a better job than expected. Seven in 10 said each seemed capable of being president.
In a CBS News poll of people not committed to a candidate, 39 percent said Obama won the debate, 24 percent said McCain and 37 percent called it a tie. Twice as many said Obama understands their needs than said so about McCain.
Seventy-eight percent said McCain is prepared to be president, about the same proportion of uncommitted voters as said so before the debate. Sixty percent said Obama is ready — a lower score than McCain, but a solid 16-percentage-point improvement from before the debate.
In another Obama advantage in the CBS poll, far more said their image of him had improved as a result of the debate than said it had worsened. More also said their view of McCain had gotten better rather than worse, but by a modest margin.
The CNN poll involved telephone interviews with 524 adults who watched the debate and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. The CBS survey involved online interviews with 483 uncommitted voters who saw the debate and had an error margin of plus or minus 4 points. It was conducted by Knowledge Networks, which initially selected the respondents by telephone.
Both polls were conducted Friday night.
Polls conducted on one night can be less reliable than surveys conducted over several nights because they only include the views of people available that particular evening.
Reggie Love, a former Duke University football and basketball player, tried to make it in the NFL, but after tryouts with the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys fizzled in 2004 and 2005, he landed a job on U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's staff, starting in the mail room and rising to his current position as his personal aide. Rachel Nichols gets an all-access pass on the campaign trail. Through interviews with Love and Obama along the way, we'll show you just what a body man does, how Love finds himself now in a position of a lifetime, and the bond that has formed between Love and the Illinois senator.
She hunts, fishes, and eats moose burgers. She is such a keen runner that she named the first of her five children Track. She is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and was runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty contest in 1984.
McCain Is a BooB and wants to get laid. What an awful decision how could he!!!!
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.
“It was kind of disgusting,” Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the “lower 48” about life near the North Pole.
Then, almost with a sigh, she added, “But that’s just Alaska.”
Racial and ethnic slurs may be “just Alaska” and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We’re talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.
No wonder the vast sea of white, cheering faces at the Republican Convention went wild for Sarah: They adore the type, it’s in their genetic code. So much for McCain’s pledge of a “high road” campaign; Palin is incapable of being part of one.
Tough Getting People Who Know Her to Talk It’s not easy getting people in the 49th state to speak critically about Palin – especially people in Wasilla, where she was mayor. For one thing, with every journalist in the world calling, phone lines into Alaska have been mostly jammed since Friday; as often as not, a recording told me that “all circuits are busy” or numbers just wouldn’t ring. I should think a state that’s been made richer than God by oil could afford telephone lines and cell towers for everyone.
On a more practical level, many people in Alaska, and particularly Wasilla, are reluctant to speak or be quoted by name because they’re afraid of her as well as the state Republican Party machine. Apparently, the power elite are as mean as the winters.
“The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here,” an insurance agent in Anchorage who knows the Palin family, explained. “It’s corrupt and arrogant. They’re all rich because they do private sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they have to.”
“Once Palin became mayor,” he continued, “She became part of that inner circle.”
Like most other people interviewed, he didn’t want his name used out of fear of retribution. Maybe it’s the long winter nights where you don’t see the sun for months that makes people feel as if they’re under constant danger from “the authorities.” As I interviewed residents it began sounding as if living in Alaska controlled by the state Republican Party is like living in the old Soviet Union: See nothing that’s happening, say nothing offensive, and the political commissars leave you alone. But speak out and you get disappeared into a gulag north of the Arctic Circle for who-knows-how-long.
Alright, that’s an exaggeration brought on by my getting too little sleep and building too much anger as I worked this article. But there’s ample evidence of Palin’s vindictive willingness to destroy people she sees as opponents. Just ask the Wasilla town administrator she hired before firing him because he rebelled against the way Palin demanded he do his job, or the town librarian who refused to hold the book burning Walpurgisnach Mayor Palin demanded.
Ironically, Palin was pushed into hiring the administrator by the party poobahs who helped get her elected after she got herself into trouble over a number of precipitous firings which gave rise to a recall campaign.
“People who fought her attempt to oust the librarian are on her enemies list to this day,” states Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla resident and one of the few Alaskans willing to speak on-the-record, for attribution, about Palin. In fact, Kilkenny actually circulated an e-mail letter about Palin that was verified and printed by The Nation.
For good measure, Palin booted the Wasilla police chief from office because, she told a local newspaper, he “intimidated” her.
Running on Extreme Fringe Evangelical Views Sarah Palin drew early attention from state GOP apparatchiks when, during her first mayoral campaign, she ran on an anti-abortion platform. Normally, political parties do not get involved in Alaskan municipal elections because they are nonpartisan. But once word of her extreme fringe evangelical views made its way to Juneau, the state capitol, state Republicans tossed some money behind her campaign.
Once in office, Palin set out to build a machine that chewed up anyone who got in her way. The good, Godly Christian turns out to be anything but.
“She’s doesn’t like different opinions and she refuses to compromise,” Kilkenny notes. “When she was mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t hers. Worse, ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits but on the basis of who proposed them.”
Sound familiar? Palin may well be Dick Cheney’s reincarnate.
Something else has a familiar Republican ring to it: Her tax policies, and a “refund surpluses but borrow for the future” attitude.
According to Kilkenny and others in Wasilla as well as Juneau, Palin reduced progressive property taxes for businesses while mayor and increased a regressive sales tax which even hits necessities such as food. The tax cuts she promoted in her St. Paul speech actually benefited large corporate property owners far more than they benefited residents. Indeed, Kilkenny insists that many Wasilla home owners actually saw their tax bill skyrocket to make up for the shortfall. Two other Wasillian’s with whom I spoke said property taxes on their modest, three bedroom homes rose during the Palin regime.
To an outsider, it would seem hard to do, but an oil-rich town with zero debt on the day she was inaugurated mayor was left saddled with $22 million of debt by the time she moved away to become governor – especially since nothing was spent on things such as improving the city’s infrastructure or building a much-needed sewage treatment plant. So what did Mayor Palin spend the taxpayer’s money on, if not fixing streets and scrubbing sewage?
For starters, she remodelled her office. Several times over, as a matter of fact.
Then Palin spent $1 million on an unnecessary, new park that no one other than the contractors and Palin seemed to want. Next, Sarah doled out more than $15 million of taxpayer money for a sports complex that she shoved through even though the city did not own clear title to the land; now, seven years later, the matter is still in litigation and lawyer fees are said to be close to at least half of the original estimated price of the facility.
She also worked hard to get voters approval of a $5.5 million bond proposal for roads that could have been built without borrowing. Anchorage may not be the center of the financial universe but, like good Republicans everywhere, Sarah Palin knows how to please Alaskan bankers and bond dealers.
For good measure, she turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots.
Sarah Barracuda En route to the governor’s igloo, Palin managed to land what Anne Kilkenny says is the plumb political appointment in the state: Chair of Alaska’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC), a $122,400 per year patronage slot with no real authority to do anything other than hold meetings. She took the job despite having no background in energy issues and, as it turned out, not liking the work.
“She hated the job,” an OGCC staff member who is not authorized to speak with the news media told me. “She hated the hours and she hated what little work there was to do. But she couldn’t figure out a way to get out of the thing without offending Gov. Murkowski” and the state Republican Party regulars, some of whom were pissed off they didn’t get appointed.
But ever the opportunist, Palin quickly concocted a way. First, she waged a campaign with the local news media claiming that the position was overpaid and should be abolished – despite the fact that she lobbied Murkowski hard to get it. Then, mounting what she saw as a white horse, Palin raised a cloud of dust by resigning from the OGCC and riding away with an undeserved reputation as a “reformer.”
But when a local reporter dared to suggest that the reformer Empress has no clothes, Palin tried to get her fired.
“She came at me like I was trying to steal her kids,” said the targeted reporter, who now works for an oil company in Anchorage. “I heard she had a wild temper and vicious mean streak but it’s nothing like you can imagine until she turns it on you.”
Not surprising since some of her high school classmates still openly call her “Sarah Barracuda,” Kilkenny insists.
Still, as a Republican Party hack Palin managed to get herself elected running under the false flag of a “reformer.”
And what did she bring to the job? No legislative experience other than a city council of a village of 5,000 people, which is smaller than some high schools in Chicago. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; after all, she needed to hire a city administrator to run Wasilla. No executive experience, except for almost being recalled as mayor. A philosophy of setting public policy based on one word: No.
And what has she done since winning the job?
According to Kilkenny, nothing. Well, nothing other than suggesting the state’s multi-multi-million dollar, oil-generated surplus be distributed to residents and finance future state needs by borrowing money. Gee, doesn’t that sound precisely what George Bush did with the surplus he inherited from Bill Clinton in 2001 and we all know in what great shape Bush’s economic policies left the nation.
It may explain why, when asked by reporters, including me, what she thought about Palin being picked to be McCain’s running mate, her mother-in-law replied with a sardonic, “What has Sarah done to qualify her to be vice president?” Of course, when the woman – said by many I spoke with to be well-respected in Wasilla – was running to succeed Palin as mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her, so that may explain the family tension.
As Governor, Palin gave the legislature no direction and budget guidelines, according to the chair of a legislative committee. But then she staged a huge grandstand play of line-item vetoing countless projects, calling them pork. “They were restored because of public outcry and legislative action,” the aide said. “She vetoed them mostly because she had no idea what they were or why they were important.”
But it was enough to get the McCain, who is mostly unobservant of the world around him anyway, to think Palin has a reputation as being “anti-pork”.
In fact, Juneau observers note that Palin kept her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork ladled out by indicted Sen. Ted Stevens. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be politically unwise to keep supporting it, these same insiders assert. Then, Palin fell back on her old habits and publicly humiliated him for pork-barrel politics.
As for being “ready on day one” to be commander in chief, despite the repeated public claims she’s made, the Alaska National Guard commander said that, “she has made no command decisions, other than sending some troops to help fight a few brush fires and march in parades at county fairs.”
“Sambo Beat the Bitch” “Palin is a conniving, manipulative, a**hole,” someone who thinks these are positive traits in a governor told me, summing up Palin’s tenure in Alaska state and local politics.
“She’s a bigot, a racist, and a liar,” is the more blunt assessment of Arnold Gerstheimer who lived in Alaska until two years ago and is now a businessman in Idaho.
“Juneau is a small town; everybody knows everyone else,” he adds. “These stories about what she calls blacks and Eskimos, well, anyone not white and good looking actually, were around long before she became a glint in John McCain’s rheumy eyes. Why do I know they’re true? Because everyone who isn’t aboriginal or Indian in Alaska talks that way.”
“Sambo beat the bitch” may be everyday language up in the bush. Whether it – and the outlook, politics and worldview Palin reflects when she says such things in public – should be part of a presidential campaign is another thing altogether. The comment says as much about McCain as it does about Palin, and it says a lot of things about Americans who overlook such statements (as well as her record) and vote anyway for McCain.
Actor Matt Damon speaks out on the Republicans' choice of hockey-mom Sarah Palin for VP. Damon compares her rise to a 'really bad Disney movie' and says it's crazy that this woman could become President. (Sept. 10)
LOS ANGELES—Sculptor Tina Allen, who depicted such figures as Martin Luther King Jr. and Fredrick Douglas in her works, has died. She was 58.
Allen died Tuesday at a Los Angeles hospital from complications of a heart attack, said her ex-husband, Roger Allen.
Among her bronze sculptures are George Washington Carver in the St. Louis Botanical Garden; Douglas in the African American Museum in Birmingham, Ala.; Sojourner Truth in Battle Creek, Mich.; and King in Las Vegas.
Allen may be best known for her 13-foot statue of "Roots" author Alex Haley located in Haley's hometown of Knoxville, Tenn.
Allen was born in December 1949 in New York. Her father was jazz musician Gordon "Specs" Powell. When she was 11 years old, she worked with renowned sculptor William Zorach. She graduated from the University of South Alabama and later continued her education at the Pratt Institute in New York and the University of Venice in Italy.
She is survived by her mother, Rosecleer Powell; her three children, Koryan Allen, Josephine Allen and Tara Allen; and two grandchildren.
A memorial service is scheduled for next month in Los Angeles.
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