Latina Lista: News from the Latinx perspective > Palabra Final > Politics > Gov. Palin’s speech is expected to be a D — defensive, defiant and dismissive

Gov. Palin’s speech is expected to be a D — defensive, defiant and dismissive

“I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”


Gov. Sarah Palin
LatinaLista — The above excerpt is from what Governor Palin will deliver before the delegates of the Republican National Convention. From this small passage, we can tell her tone will be defensive, defiant and a tad dismissive and some will argue that it’s only natural that she respond in this way given the almost unusual amount of scrutiny of her credentials.
And for that reason, she’ll be given a pass for tonight — to state her case, introduce her “voice” to the American public and solidify her place in Republican Party history. It’s the speeches after tonight that will count.
How Governor Palin carries forward in the face of what will be unrelenting media scrutiny, pundit criticism and public doubt will play a much bigger role in how people perceive and receive this abuela-to-be as vice president of the United States and the right hand woman of John McCain.
For right now, all anyone can do is wait and see.

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Comment(33)

  • Michaela
    September 3, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    Wow, she really pounded Obama…what a lady!!

  • Grandma
    September 3, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    Sarah Palin’s speech tonight was extrodinary. She’s down to earth but one smart woman!! I think she blew Obama out of the water. And did it with humor. I love her!

  • Evelyn
    September 4, 2008 at 5:13 am

    On the other thread about Palin some of you said I was not sticking to Issues and only focusing on her person.
    After hearing her speech last night it donned on me why, because McSames campaign manager hit the nail on the head when he admitted the following.
    McCain Manager: ‘This Election is Not About Issues’
    UPDATE, 6:18 pm:
    In reaction to Rick Davis’ comments about the election not being about issues, Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe released the following statement: “We appreciate Senator McCain’s campaign manager finally admitting that his campaign is not in fact about the issues the American people care about, which is exactly the kind of cynical old politics people are ready to change.”
    ORIGINAL POST
    Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain’s presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning.
    “This election is not about issues,” said Davis. “This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”
    Davis added that issues will no doubt play a major role in the decisions undecided voters will make but that they won’t ultimately be conclusive. He added that the campaign has “ultimate faith” in the idea that the more voters get to know McCain and Barack Obama, the better the Republican nominee will do.
    Davis generally dismissed the controversies surrounding McCain’s vice presidential pick — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — as a media creation but did acknowledge that her acceptance speech, which seems likely to come tomorrow, is critically important to defining who she is to the American public.
    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/09/
    mccain_manager_this_election_i.html?
    hpid=topnews
    ~~~~~~~
    He was correct, her speech said nothing about the economy, health care, immigration, etc, nothing about issues only defensive, defiant and dismissive!

  • EYES OF TEXAS
    September 4, 2008 at 7:14 am

    Her statements rang true about her experience over that of the fraud Obama. She is more qualified than Obama and America now knows her as a down to earth candidate with a strong connection to common folks, unlike the arrogant elitist Obama that thinks he can create rainbows and happiness with his hallow words of hope and change.

  • TexMex
    September 4, 2008 at 10:01 am

    Watching Palin last night, I became very disgusted with that poor baby being at the convention. A down syndrome baby or a regular healthy baby should be home and in his/her crib sleeping safely and soundly . That is just abuse.
    I am a very old fashion latina woman raised in an an old culture.
    Babies are precious and should be cared for. To have that poor baby in Cindy McCain’s arms for political gain is just too much.
    American women who are Moms know babies are resilient and can take alot of distractions. However, a good mom puts her baby first and has a nanny, Grandma, a sister, somebody that can keep the little one at peace while family life whirls around. We all know she has a baby and know the baby doesn’t need to be there.
    I am pro choice and one reason I am pro choice is because I don’t think children should be abused. A non existent baby can not suffer abuse or rape or hunger. But to drag a baby around as a gimmick through a national convention is just sickening.
    I just saw a the little girl lick her hand and paste down that baby’s hair down and the baby didnt’t react at all!!!!
    Is that baby drugged?
    This is a woman that doesn’ t care for anything but herself, and baby be damned.
    I see that McCain’s minions are here trying to get point for that golf bag.
    A look at the convention shows absolutely NO outreach to Mexican Americans who are socially conservative, deeply religious and support their military sons and daughters. But the Republicans can’t be see reaching out to Mexican Americans even though they are the largest segment of the Hispanic population. Why? Ask them.
    They forefathers were pioneers, but they consider our forefathers anchor babies.
    She punishes her daughter for getting pregnant but was too busy to see that her daughter didn’t. Then knowing the baby was down syndrome, she had it anyway and then wil be pawning it off on other people to raise.
    She cut Alaska funding for the disabled.
    She cut funding in Alaska for teen mothers.
    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_help.html

  • urbanleftbehind
    September 4, 2008 at 10:18 am

    Yet, she was remarkably silent on that “I” issue.
    What the heck, maybe she is down for Amnesty, after all- maybe thats why Romney and Pawlenty didnt get the call. She knows Alaska would become the hottest real estate on earth from all the native borns wanting to move in.

  • Texano78704
    September 4, 2008 at 10:38 am

    As I said before, image politics is the best the GOP can offer. In the end, expect another four years of the last eight years from McCain/Palin.

  • Liquidmicro
    September 4, 2008 at 11:22 am

    Evelyn, your disdain for Governor Palin is ridiculous. You want to criticize her speech, what was Bidens VP acceptance speech about?? Absolutely nothing. He said nothing about anything other than his and BHO’s biographies.
    Even BHO in his acceptance speech barely mentions Illegal Immigration, in only one line. The DNC doesn’t care about it, it’s to them, a non-issue.

  • Evelyn
    September 4, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention
    By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
    Wed Sep 3, 11:48 PM ET
    ST. PAUL, Minn. – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the trut
    Some examples:
    PALIN: “I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.”
    THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a “bridge to nowhere.”
    PALIN: “There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate.”
    THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
    PALIN: “The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.”
    THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain’s plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
    Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
    He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
    MCCAIN: “She’s been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply … She’s responsible for 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. I’m entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson.
    THE FACTS: McCain’s phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she’s no more “responsible” for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
    MCCAIN: “She’s the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” he said on ABC.
    THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under “federal status,” which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska’s national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
    FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.”
    THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
    FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: “We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.”
    THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.
    ___
    Associated Press Writer Jim Drinkard in Washington contributed to this report.

  • EYES OF TEXAS
    September 4, 2008 at 1:18 pm

    I see “E” has her thong in a knot again. She realizes that our next VP, Sarah Palin, hit a home run right out of the park with her acceptance speech. Poor Barak probably cried all night after he saw his pipe dream going down the tubes. Watch the polls real close so you don’t miss the bounce.

  • Alex
    September 4, 2008 at 1:41 pm

    Sarah Palin sounded like a more articulate, younger G.W. Bush with boobs. Arrogant, total disregard for human rights and using fear tactics to drive people to vote Republiklan.

  • Evelyn
    September 4, 2008 at 7:58 pm

    What I realize Eyes is that this Palin situation is even better for Obama then I realized before.
    She is handing Obama and Biden the win in November on a silver plate.
    I know you guys over at Stormfront have your sheets in a twist over the thought of a black man as your President.
    When he passes CIR all those prisons for profit Bush built to fill with Immigrants will be empty.
    I think maybe Obama will put them to good use by lowering the numbers of all the hate groups.
    It might be a good idea if you dont go out on your midnight cross burning, inferior complex, with the dunce hat rides anymore.

  • Grandma
    September 4, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    TexMex, you’re kidding when you say this, right?
    “Watching Palin last night, I became very disgusted with that poor baby being at the convention. A down syndrome baby or a regular healthy baby should be home and in his/her crib sleeping safely and soundly . That is just abuse.
    I am a very old fashion latina woman raised in an an old culture.
    Babies are precious and should be cared for. To have that poor baby in Cindy McCain’s arms for political gain is just too much.”
    Where is the same outrage when an illegal pays a smuggler (someone they don’t even know) to sneak their illegal child over the border? Where is the same outrage when illegals enter this country without taking responsibility for their children, knowing that they will probably get caught and deported and have to leave their children? Why aren’t you outraged about that?

  • Texano78704
    September 4, 2008 at 8:09 pm

    As usual, it takes someone like Jon Stewart to show us what kind of hypocrisy Republicans peddle.

  • Evelyn
    September 4, 2008 at 8:13 pm

    Liquidmicro :
    Evelyn, your disdain for Governor Palin is ridiculous.
    E
    What about your disdain for Obama?
    Glasshouses! LOL!
    LOL! Why dont you like Obama? Because he is black!
    I dont like the woman because she doesent respect nature. I dont like people who kill animals for sport.

  • EYES OF TEXAS
    September 5, 2008 at 7:56 am

    “Sarah Palin sounded like a more articulate, younger G.W. Bush with boobs. Arrogant, total disregard for human rights and using fear tactics to drive people to vote Republiklan”.
    Alex, Governor Sarah Palin is the salt of the earth, yet confident, intelligent and experienced at running the state of Alaska on an executive level. She relates closer to common people than any of the other candidates. If you think she is arrogant, then Barak H. Obama must think he is god-like. No one is more arrogant and stuck on themselves than the media created unexperienced untested Barak H. Obama. The man can not and will not be elected because of his questionable past with radical bombers, real estate scammers and racist anti- American reverends. American voters, most anyway, are more savvy than you give them credit for and will remember all the stumbling blocks that Barak hit on his bid to become President.
    Governor Palin has a supportive hard working husband, a special needs child and an unwed pregnant teen daughter. Governor Palin and family are Americana with all the same issues and problems that people have to face on a daily basis in this country. She will be this nations first female VP, so get use to it.

  • EYES OF TEXAS
    September 5, 2008 at 4:23 pm

    I don’t like Obama because of the direction he wants to take our country, nothing to do with his color. If we would have been give Powell or Rice, both 100% African-American, they would have my vote along with most of the votes from people that believe in American values.
    Nobama is not to be trusted to protect this nation when tough decisions are required. He would rather see a conquered America than to defend it to his last dying breath, as the other candidate would.

  • EYES OF TEXAS
    September 5, 2008 at 4:34 pm

    “I dont like the woman because she doesent respect nature. I dont like people who kill animals for sport.”
    No, you would rather see them die a painful slow death from overpopulation, disease and dwindling sources of food. Did you not hear Governor Palin mention eating moose burgers? It’s as natural as killing and eating a cow, a chicken, a fish or anything else that people have eaten since the beginning of humankind. Believe someone here mentioned Native American ancestory, damn them savages for eating buffalo and all them deer.

  • Liquidmicro
    September 5, 2008 at 7:14 pm

    Where have I shown disdain for BHO? You try to label me a racist with your own IGNORANCE.
    My exact quote was: “As for her experience, she has more executive experience than Obama. She has actually done more for the people of her state than Obama has done for anybody but himself.”
    Your feeble attempts show your complete ignorance to anything and everything. Should I continue to give reasons as to why I’m not voting for BHO, and run them by you first?? so that I am not labeled by you. Your own throwing of the race card does nothing but show who the real racist is, EVELYN!!, thanks for playing, please try again.

  • Evelyn
    September 5, 2008 at 8:03 pm

    Grandma said:
    TexMex, you’re kidding when you say this, right?
    “Watching Palin last night, I became very disgusted with that poor baby being at the convention. A down syndrome baby or a regular healthy baby should be home and in his/her crib sleeping safely and soundly . That is just abuse.
    I am a very old fashion latina woman raised in an an old culture.
    Babies are precious and should be cared for. To have that poor baby in Cindy McCain’s arms for political gain is just too much.”
    Where is the same outrage when an illegal pays a smuggler (someone they don’t even know) to sneak their illegal child over the border? Where is the same outrage when illegals enter this country without taking responsibility for their children, knowing that they will probably get caught and deported and have to leave their children? Why aren’t you outraged about that?
    E
    Why would anyone think trying to feed one’s family is an outrage.
    I would be more outraged if they sat and did nothing to try and follow the wealth of their country brought here because of our greed. I think they are heros.
    It takes courage and tenacity to do what they do without help, being hunted and unaccepted.
    Just imagine being forced to leave everything you are familiar and comfortable with to travel across dangerous places being guarded by armed vigilantes, without knowing the language, without food or money, not really knowing where you are going to look for a job so your family wont starve.
    I dont think many of us would have the courage to do the same.

  • Evelyn
    September 6, 2008 at 2:04 pm

    EYES OF TEXAS :
    No, you would rather see them die a painful slow death from overpopulation, disease and dwindling sources of food. Did you not hear Governor Palin mention eating moose burgers? It’s as natural as killing and eating a cow, a chicken, a fish or anything else that people have eaten since the beginning of humankind.
    E
    Gee I wasent aware Palin also liked to eat wolves, so that’s why she compared herself to canine stating the only difference was LIPSTICK??? LOL!
    Palin Defends Right To Hunt Wolves By Plane
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article….
    We can’t tell you how Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin would do on national defense, but when it comes to defending Alaska’s right to shoot wolves, she’s not afraid to pull the trigger.
    Just ask Rep. George Miller.
    Miller, D-Martinez, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, introduced federal legislation last year to end Alaska’s policy of allowing people to shoot wolves from airplanes – a practice used to keep the number of wolves in check so they don’t eat all the state’s moose and caribou.
    Miller – who has strong support from environmental groups around the country – deemed the kills cruel and unnecessary to preserve the moose and caribou population. What’s more, he said, they violate federal law banning airborne hunting.
    Faster than you can cry wolf, Palin told the East Bay congressman and his Washington pals to butt out.
    “Congressman Miller doesn’t understand rural Alaska (and) doesn’t comprehend wildlife management in the North,” the Alaska governor said in a statement issued last September.
    Miller is also clueless to the fact that game hunters rely on the moose and caribou “to put healthy food on their families’ dinner tables,” Palin said.
    Miller, however, tells us there are plenty of moose and caribou for native Alaskans to hunt. He says his bill, still waiting to be heard in committee, is really about stopping the state from HANDING OUT LICENSES TO SPORTSMAN “IN THE NAME OF PREDATOR CONTROL.”
    “Shooting wolves from airplanes probably doesn’t look like a good deal to most Americans,” he said.
    Wolves aren’t the only item on Palin’s list. She’s also taken on the federal government over polar bears, suing the Interior Department on Alaska’s behalf in reaction to the feds’ decision to list the animals as threatened.
    She believes the listing will cripple oil and gas development in sensitive areas – and, in any case, says the enviro argument that global warming threatens to wipe out the polar bears’ habitat is a crock.
    In case you were wondering, Miller, who just returned from the Democratic National Convention, doesn’t think much of Palin as a vice presidential candidate.
    “I just don’t get it,” he says. “Her incredible lack of experience is serious

  • Evelyn
    September 6, 2008 at 2:34 pm

    Eyes said
    Believe someone here mentioned Native American ancestory, damn them savages for eating buffalo and all them deer.
    E
    Is it out of pure stupidity that you call Native Americans, savages when your savage white ancestors raped, tortured and massacred 95% of Native American population and you belong to an organization that wants to follow Hitler’s savage footsteps, or is it out of ignorance, or both?
    Savage White Man
    Ben Franklin remarked, “Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility.”
    I think to myself, what is civilized about a race of people who tell themselves rape is okay? History tells us that it was not the native or tribal folk who did the raping, but the supposedly white, civilized Christians
    At considerable length, Franklin went on to reflect on the qualities of savagery and civility, using the massacres to illustrate his point: that no race had a monopoly on virtue. To Franklin, the Paxton Men had behaved like “Christian White Savages.” He cried out to a just God to punish those who carried the Bible in one hand and the rifle in the other: “O ye unhappy Perpetrators of this Horrid Wickedness!”

  • Michaela
    September 6, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    EYES OF TEXAS :
    No, you would rather see them die a painful slow death from overpopulation, disease and dwindling sources of food. Did you not hear Governor Palin mention eating moose burgers? It’s as natural as killing and eating a cow, a chicken, a fish or anything else that people have eaten since the beginning of humankind.
    I agree. Evelyn, what say you about the vile Spanish/Mexican custom of bullfighting, cockfighting and dog fighting? The vicious cruelty of these “sports” is incomprehensible to Americans? Do you support them?

  • Michaela
    September 6, 2008 at 7:52 pm

    TexMex
    “Watching Palin last night, I became very disgusted with that poor baby being at the convention. A down syndrome baby or a regular healthy baby should be home and in his/her crib sleeping safely and soundly . That is just abuse. .
    Babies are precious and should be cared for.”
    I agree so why do Mexican women leave their babies behind in search of a “better” life? That is cruel. A good mother would never, ever leave her children behind, no matter what the circumstances of her life. Your self-righteousness is nauseating especially in light of the large number of abused Hispanic children in our country.

  • Michaela
    September 6, 2008 at 7:52 pm

    TexMex
    “Watching Palin last night, I became very disgusted with that poor baby being at the convention. A down syndrome baby or a regular healthy baby should be home and in his/her crib sleeping safely and soundly . That is just abuse. .
    Babies are precious and should be cared for.”
    I agree so why do Mexican women leave their babies behind in search of a “better” life? That is cruel. A good mother would never, ever leave her children behind, no matter what the circumstances of her life. Your self-righteousness is nauseating especially in light of the large number of abused Hispanic children in our country.

  • Evelyn Chavez
    September 7, 2008 at 12:19 pm

    Michaela said:
    EYES OF TEXAS :
    No, you would rather see them die a painful slow death from overpopulation, disease and dwindling sources of food. Did you not hear Governor Palin mention eating moose burgers? It’s as natural as killing and eating a cow, a chicken, a fish or anything else that people have eaten since the beginning of humankind.
    E
    Look above for the answer to this part!
    ~~~~~~~~~
    I agree. Evelyn, what say you about the vile Spanish/Mexican custom of bullfighting, cockfighting and dog fighting? The vicious cruelty of these “sports” is incomprehensible to Americans? Do you support them?
    E
    HA! HA!
    I say you should have done your homework before accusing the Mexicans for something that originated across the pond.
    That way you wouldent have to figure out on a daily bases how to pull it out! LOL!
    Of course I dont support these barbaric so called “European Gentleman’s Sports”
    Going to the encyclopedia to see what the history of Bull fighting was, I
    found the following. “Even before the Punic Wars the Celtiberian people knew the peculiarities of the savage cattle that inhabited their forests, having developed their hunt
    into a game and also having used them as an auxiliary in war.
    …Carthaginians and Romans, disputing the known world between them, were
    astounded by accounts of Barca’s annihilation. They were equally amazed at
    subsequent tales of games held in Baetica (the Spanish province of
    Andalusia) in which men exhibited dexterity and valour before dealing the
    death blow with ax or lance to a savage horned beast.
    ~~
    The History of Dogfighting
    Dogs have been the unwitting victims of exploitation for blood sports since ancient Roman times when they fought against other animals in the Coliseum. The practice of pitting dogs against other animals, such as bulls and bears, continued through medieval times in England until it was outlawed in 1835 by the Parliament in the Humane Act of 1835. Around that time, the Staffordshire Bull terrier was developed and modern dog-fighting was born.
    The dog was brought to America in 1817 and dogfighting became part of American culture. The “sport” was endorsed by the United Kennel Club, which actually formulated rules and sanctioned referees. Although dogfighting had become illegal in most states by the 1860’s, it continued to flourish as an American pastime through the early twentieth century. It was so popular in fact that in 1881 the Ohio and Mississippi railroads advertised special fares to a dog-fight in Louisville between Lloyd’s Pilot, owned by ‘Cockney Charlie’ Lloyd and Crib, owned by Louis Krieger. Public forums such as Kit Burns’ Tavern, “The Sportsman’s Hall” at 273 Water Street in Manhattan, regularly hosted matches and the sadistic culture became immortalized in the annals of American history and folklore.
    By the 1930’s and 1940’s, the blood sport had been driven further underground as high profile organizations such as the United Kennel Club withdrew their endorsement. Although dogfighting was outlawed in all the states by 1976, it did not begin to receive serious law enforcement attention until recently.

  • Evelyn Chavez
    September 7, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    Michaela said
    The vicious cruelty of these “sports” is incomprehensible to Americans.
    E
    Yeah right! LOL!
    ~~~
    Most authorities allege that the beginnings of cockfighting were in southeast Asia.
    Themistocles, the Athenian general, is credited with introducing the sport into Greece, and Greeks introduced it into Rome, while Rome diffused it into the greater empire including Britain.
    The Romans introduced artificial spurs for combat, developed organized cockfighting, and engraved fighting cocks on silver coin of the empire.
    Archaeologists, at the Italian excavations of Pompeii (destroyed in 79 A.D.), unearthed a mosaic of two cocks in combat. Pit sports, in general, took deep root in Roman society, culminating in the contests of lions against Christians.
    The Borderlands immigrants (Ulster and the Irish Republic, Wales, north England, and south Scotland) to America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had practiced cocking widely. On the east coast, the English and Irish were the most prominent cockers.
    By the early nineteenth century New York, Brooklyn, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, and rural America were scenes of regular pit sport with gamecocks. Enthusiasts constructed arenas from St. Louis to New Orleans, and later San Francisco became
    a West Coast center. City directories listed the operators of cockpits and their addresses.
    America’s elite icons competed, too. They included Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew and Stonewall Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln, who, according to lore, not only was a referee at cockfights, but received his sobriquet, “Honest Abe,” for his fairness as a sporting judge.
    In fall 1994, as arguments over cockfighting proceeded in Kentucky (where cock-fighting was legal in the early 1990s), proponents claimed that banning the sport in that state would take millions of dollars from local economies. The owner of the state’s largest pit in Montgomery County said that his audience came from eighteen states, “professional men who fly here in Lear jets.” (A December 1994 appeals court ruling once again made cockfighting illegal in Kentucky.) In Louisiana, sportsmen in two parishes claimed $6.5 million annually in revenues.
    Reliable estimates for money that changes hands in Missouri is not available. Nationally, observers can only assert that cockfighting has become a multimillion-dollar underground industry.
    In Missouri, about five pits operate with sponsorship of the United Gamefowl Breeders Association–the largest, and probably the most successful, is in southern Stone County. Leading spokesman Phil Church of Ozark says that Missouri cockers want to keep the sport as it is, “quiet, small, and gentlemanly.” The dominant middle-class society seeks to further discipline the modern working class into higher standards of “public order and more industrious habits” by outlawing pit sports while “gentlemen’s fox-hunting, fishing and hunting” remain free and legal sport
    Frank Herbert summed up the controversy this way: “You don’t have to attend a poultry show to see that the chicken has scratched its mark into our culture as it has into the customs and folklore of most peoples. When your chickens come home to roost you may be as mad as a wet hen or just have your tail feathers ruffled. You can lay an egg at the theater as easily as you can at a hen party. Birds of a feather do flock together and you can’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs.
    And that’s no cock and bull story.

  • Evelyn Chavez
    September 7, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    Michaela :
    TexMex
    “Watching Palin last night, I became very disgusted with that poor baby being at the convention. A down syndrome baby or a regular healthy baby should be home and in his/her crib sleeping safely and soundly . That is just abuse. .
    Babies are precious and should be cared for.”
    I agree so why do Mexican women leave their babies behind in search of a “better” life? That is cruel. A good mother would never, ever leave her children behind, no matter what the circumstances of her life. Your self-righteousness is nauseating especially in light of the large number of abused Hispanic children in our country.
    E
    According to you a good mother would let her children starve to death! She also wouldent want what is best for them! Twisted, twisted logic!

  • laura
    September 8, 2008 at 6:36 pm

    Getting back to Governor Palin’s speech: it was actually written by McCain’s speechwriters before she was nominated. They said it had to be adapted because it was too “masculine” for a female nominee.
    So her accomplishment in giving this speech is that she capably and convincingly read off the teleprompter. We don’t have to discuss what a great speech she gives – you can say what a great speech McCain’s speechwriters can write.
    The contents of the speech was lies about herself and lies about Obama, along the same lines that Bush lied about Kerry in 04.
    Please, think whether you want the same thing that happened in 04 and 05 and 06 and 07 and today. Are you doing well? Do you want this to continue?

  • Evelyn
    September 9, 2008 at 2:04 pm

    Buchanan Gushes Over Obama Speech
    Posted by Liza Sabater, Culture Kitchen on September 9, 2008 at 4:25 AM.
    Check out Pat Buchanan, a historically rabid white supremacist, fanboying all over Barack Obama. What do I love? The look of disbelief on all the other talking heads including Rachel Maddow.
    LOL!
    http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/

  • EYES OF TEXAS
    September 9, 2008 at 3:59 pm

    All the candidates have speech writters and read off the teleprompter, even the media created fraud Barak. I’ve heard him on several occasions try to field a question that was not prescreened and he could hardly put together a complete sentence from his own thoughts. The only honest statement that he has made recently was his admission of his Muslim faith. Please read below.
    ELECTION 2008
    Obama slips on TV: ‘My Muslim faith’
    Presidential candidate drops line in interview discussing his belief
    ——————————————————————————–
    Posted: September 07, 2008
    3:42 pm Eastern
    By Aaron Klein
    © 2008 WorldNetDaily
    Slip of the tongue or momentary confusion? In a television interview today discussing his religion, Sen. Barack Obama stated, “My Muslim faith.”
    Obama, speaking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” was talking about what he described as “smears” that were claiming he was a Muslim when he maintains he is a practicing Christian.
    “Let’s not play games,” Obama stated. “What I was suggesting – you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you’re absolutely right that that has not come.”
    Stephanopoulos immediately interrupted Obama, stating, “Christian faith.”
    “My Christian faith,” Obama quickly said. “Well, what I’m saying is that he (McCain) hasn’t suggested that I’m a Muslim. And I think that his campaign’s upper echelons have not, either. What I think is fair to say is that, coming out of the Republican camp, there have been efforts to suggest that perhaps I’m not who I say I am when it comes to my faith – something which I find deeply offensive, and that has been going on for a pretty long time.”
    Sometimes the truth has a way of slipping out at the most inopportune time. As is said the truth will set him free to not be burdened with the Presidency. This way he can go back to Chicago and staple more flyers on telephone poles and organize some more communities. These are the extent of his abilities and qualifications anyway. At least now, with his admission, we have a better understanding where a lot of his campaign funds came from.

  • Evelyn
    September 9, 2008 at 11:32 pm

    The McCain-Palin Lies and the Neil Armstrong Principle
    stumble
    Posted September 9, 2008 | 10:04 PM (EST)
    If John McCain and Sarah Palin were to say the moon was made of green cheese, we can be certain that Barack Obama and Joe Biden would pounce on it, and point out it’s actually made of rock. And you just know the headline in the paper the next day would read: “CANDIDATES CLASH ON LUNAR LANDSCAPE.”
    Why doesn’t somebody call Neil Armstrong? He’s been there. Or go to the Smithsonian and open the glass case that contains a piece of the moon. The moon is a rock. That’s a fact, Jack.
    Facts are indeed stubborn things, but the McCain-Palin lies are more stubborn still.
    In the face of demonstrable, provable, incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, McCain and Palin continue to assert that Gov. Palin opposed the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” They do so in their speeches and ads, and their supporters say so on television until their pants are on fire.
    McCain and Palin also claim the Alaska governor opposes earmarks — despite the fact that she’s gotten her state so much pork she’s at risk for trichinosis.
    I was in the middle of a Neil Armstrong Moment when I was on CNN Tuesday morning. Rather than let McCain and Palin get away with their lie, anchor John Roberts played a videotape of Sarah Palin in a 2006 gubernatorial debate in which she endorsed the bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina Island saying, “I’m not going to stand in the way of progress that our congressional delegation and the position of strength that they have right now.” Perhaps her supporters, noting Palin’s support for banning books, teaching creationism and doubting global warming will argue that for her, calling the bridge “progress” was her way of saying she was against it.)
    But the Anchorage Daily News forecloses that option, reporting, “In September, 2006, Palin showed up in Ketchikan on her gubernatorial campaign and said the bridge was essential for the town’s prosperity.”
    After the videotape ran, I said the media was at fault for letting Palin and McCain get away with “flat out lies.” GOP strategist Alex Castellanos manfully tried to shine a cow patty, saying, “The amazing thing about Sarah Palin is when she became governor she actually stood up and said no.”
    Increasingly frustrated, I pointed out that just was not true, and the “debate” continued.
    Most of political debate is subjective: who’s more qualified, who’s more compassionate, whose experience is more relevant, who has better ideas on health care or energy or global warming or the economy? There is no Objective Truth on those matters, and debate — even when voices are sometimes raised — can help voters decide who they agree with. On those matters of subjective judgment it’s perfectly appropriate for the media to hold the coats of the candidates and let them fight it out.
    But facts ought not be debatable. The media have an obligation to point out when a politician is lying about a matter of fact, but the right-wing attack machine has so cowed some of them you can almost hear them moo. Steve Schmidt, McCain’s top dog, is a brilliant and audacious strategist.
    His candidate has had the most favorable press coverage of any politician of the last century — fawning, adoring, sycophantic press coverage. And yet he is brutalizing the press, waterboarding them into pretending that whether Gov. Palin supported the “Bridge to Nowhere,” or hired an Abramoff-connected lobbyist to secure massive earmarks are somehow debatable.
    The real debate is over whether the media will be vigilant watchdogs, sounding the alarm when McCain and Palin lie, or fall back to the role they’ve played for most of McCain’s career: lapdog.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Analysis: Obama’s Acceptance Speech
    Robert G. KaiserWashington Post Associate Editor
    Thursday, August 28, 2008; 11:00 PM
    Washington Post associate editor Robert G. Kaiser was online Thursday, Aug. 28 at 11 p.m. ET to examine Sen. Barack Obama’s speech tonight in accepting the Democratic nomination for president.
    Robert G. Kaiser:
    Good evening. On an unusual night in American political history (to say the least), we’ll spend an hour or so discussing Barack Obama’s acceptance speech and the presidential campaign. I would also like to post the commentaries of readers who would like to share their reactions to the speech. If this interests you, prepare a coherent paragraph or two or three and send it in as a question. I’ll post them, often without any comment of my own.
    San Francisco: I’ve heard Obama writes his own speeches. Did Obama write that speech himself?
    Robert G. Kaiser: He did, and I can’t tell you how impressive that is to cynical old reporters like me. Washington has very few personalities left who read their own books, do their own thinking, write their own speeches. But Obama not only reads the books, he writes them–and his speeches.
    Chuck Hagel is another senator who does this; it can happen on either side of the aisle, but I wish it happened a lot more often!
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/08/23/DI2008082300772.html?nav=hcmodule

  • maria
    September 15, 2008 at 6:46 pm

    ella tiene mi voto!!

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