Celebrity Deathmatch: Sarah Palin vs. The World

For the past several weeks, I've been out of the loop. My writing taking a back seat while I focused on my health, and recovering from a severe viral infection. Thank you everyone for the well-wishes, but tonight I am back in the saddle, and taking a stab at the latest Palin debacle. Halfway through my recovery, I caught wind of her "speech" at Stanislaus, the same college who's foundation focused on encouraging philanthropy tried to cook the books, and destroy financial records to avoid conforming with California state law. What law is that? The California Public Records Act which requires all organizations, both non and for profit to report all donations and expenditures conducted during their fiscal years.

When this all began, CSU Stanislaus, when asked to provide records of the monies spent for Palin's contract to speak at a fundraiser, claimed that the information had been lost, and therefore could not comply with state law. Okay, except they didn't, and 26 year-old student Alicia Lewis recieved a tip that the very records the university claimed as missing were being destroyed by personnel. When did they allegedly do this? On a day when the entire campus was supposed to be closed, including Stanislaus' administrative offices. Working with other students, Lewis retrieved the shredded documents from a nearby dumpster, and found the missing Palin contract which also contained the monies spent on her speaking fee.

It seems that even though the university foundation claims it's strapped for cash, which is why they're laying off professors left and right, they were able to scrape together the $100,000 fee for Palin's speech. No, the irony is not lost me. Aside from that, this mess attracted the attention of Sen. Leland Yee who spearheaded an official investigation into the financial conduct and/or misconduct of CSU Stanislaus.

You would think that people would be proud of Sen. Leland Yee holding the university fiscally accountable. Wrong. Instead, Yee recieved everything from racist and homophobic epithets, to death threats from Palin supporters. I don't know about you, but if my alma mater UAA was caught trying to cook the books, I would want Sen. Mark Begich holding them responsible for their misconduct, and would applaud his determination to shake wanna-be white collar criminals out of the administration offices. Apparently, obeying the law, thwarting embezzlement attempts, and exposing conspiracies to inveigle, obscure, and obfuscate the truth takes a back seat when Mrs. Palin is involved.

Turning our focus to the infamous ex-Governor of this state, I am shocked and appalled at her behavior during the fundraiser. Apparently, the Stanislaus debacle wasn't the result of dilligent students trying to hold their alma mater accountable, instead it was part of a leftist conspiracy to undermine her credibility. I'm sorry, but someone needs to stand up, and tell Mrs. Palin that not every single thing that happens is about her. She is not the center of the universe, political, or otherwise.

I read her speech, it was pretty hard to follow, and honestly if I ever gave a speech like that in one of my communications classes I would have been given a C- at best. A grade that would depend on whether or not the professor was feeling merciful. Her stabs at progressives were just as cutting, and ignorant of the fact that the founding fathers of this great nation were, by definition, liberals who came up with the radical idea of a country composed of a republic united under a democratic constitution.

For this, I love my country. I loved it from the moment I took American history in high school, and again in college with professors who were just as patriotic and passionate about this nation as the most seasoned vet or serviceman. Despite Palin's belief, libs and progressives don't hate America, we don't want to undermine it, and we too want to see the sweet wine of freedom and liberty tasted the world over. Especially in nations where even the mere mention of such a thing can cost a person their life. She wasn't wrong about that, but she was wrong in her subtle assertion that only the late Ronald Reagan and the GOP feel that way.

She was also wrong with her statement that liberals are fine with the practice of female genital mutilation because practitioners claim it's "part of their culture", and so on. No, we're not. Just about every progressive I've ever crossed paths with, especially feminists of both sexes (yes, men can be feminists too) are diametrically opposed to the practice, view it as barbaric, and are working with international human rights groups to stop the so-called "surgery" in its tracks. Next time, she should check her facts. She was right about Napier putting an end to the practice of Suttee in India where widows were burned alive with their husbands. I know that from one of my anthropology classes at my liberal arts college, but again there was that spin and twist at the end to make us look like a pack of accomodating cowards.

The long short of it is that the students weren't out after Palin, she was just a side note. It wasn't a conspiracy against her whatsoever, instead it was an attempt to hold a university fiscally accountable. Palin likes to claim that she is an instrument of God, well maybe He was using her to expose embezzlement, and CSU Stanislaus' attempt to conceal the truth. God did use a talking donkey to speak to Balaam ;-)

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Stanislaus Claims Contract Stolen
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/14/stanislaus-university-pal_n_538287.html

Palin Supporters Threaten Sen. Yee
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/20/leland-yee-california-sta_n_544923.html

Palin Claims Conspiracy
http://cbs5.com/local/palin.CSU.stanislaus.2.1773160.html

Palin Unplugged
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/06/sarah-palin-full-speech-at-csu.html