Saturday, July 04, 2009

If Palin wants to follow a "higher calling", she won't have to go far

...especially since Wasilla turned into the meth capital of Alaska during her tenure as mayor there...

From AP via Yahoo! News -
Outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday laid the groundwork to take on a larger, national role after leaving state government, citing a "higher calling" with the aim of uniting the country along conservative lines.

When I first saw the headline to this article, "Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' ", I thought that she was talking about entering a convent.

I see I was wrong.

While there is no such thing as a "liberal" nun - they aren't conservative enough for the likes of the GOP, what with their devotion to helping the poor, living a modest life, and so on.

Their vows include poverty (which no Republican can tolerate...for him or herself. For others, it's OK, though), obedience (well, I'm sure her husband Todd would just love that one), and chastity (OK, *that* one he'll have a serious problem with. She probably would, too.)

That last is also a problem in the 21st Century GOP of Ensign, Vitter, Sanford, Gingrich, and Foley.

Chastity is for others, not for them.

So, that seems to rule out entering a convent.

What else is left?

Oh yeah - challenging one of the Republican incumbent U.S. Senators from AK, running for President, or perhaps working as a paid speaker on the conservative rubber chicken/Kool Aid drinking circuit.

You know, maybe a trip to the convent would be best, both for her, and for America.

4 comments:

Thane Eichenauer said...

Instead of wasting energy crowing over ex-governor Palin's resignation isn't there an overseas occupation you could comment on?

HR 2404 has two Arizona co-sponsors (Grijalva and Pastor) but it could use a few more.

Eli Blake said...

Or, she could go to Russia and meet Mr. Putin so he can rear his ugly head for her.


Thane,

I've been thinking quite a lot about Afghanistan lately myself.

In 2002 it was the standard Democratic line (and Democrats were absolutely right) that we should the job in Afghanistan before getting sidetracked into Iraq.

However as we well know, that's not what happened and while we were off fighting that other war, the Taliban re-emerged, re-established themselves in much, even most of the country and then even moved aggressively into Pakistan (international boundaries mean nothing to these guys, other than as a terrain feature that they can use to their advantage sometimes.)

So over the course of several years we became the Soviet Union-- in control of most of the large cities and our own military bases and precious little else. As Winston Churchill once wrote about the Boer War (1898-1901) the English army only controlled the land which it was physically occupying at any moment. When it moved the land reverted back to Boer control, and there were not enough Englishmen to physically stand on every square inch of South Africa.

Now, I'm willing to give Obama's new strategy (which involves working with tribal elders, not just shooting and occupying) a chance, but you may well be right, the window of opportunity we had to win in Afghanistan was over by sometime in 2003 and trying to turn the clock back now may not be possible.

Eli Blake said...

Oh, geez.

Sean Parnell (her successor) is calling Palin Alaska's greatest gift to the United States.

Frankly, I'd take a fresly cooked Alaska salmon over Palin any day of the week.

Craig said...

Actually Thane, on this one we are basically in agreement, because I'd like to see the U.S. leave Afghanistan ASAP.

And I was *not* crowing about Palin's resignation...OK, I was. A little. :))

As happy as I am to see her leave elected office, I was happier still to *not* be writing about the AZ legislature. It was a relief to not have to cover the games of the Pearces, Burns, Harpers, and Kavanaghs of the world. Even if only for a few days.

Eli - I think most of the country counts Jewel (http://www.jeweljk.com/) as a greater gift from Alaska.

Of course, after watching Palin in action, most of the country may consider the environmental disaster of the Exxon Valdez to be a better gift. :)