A virtually unanimous and bipartisan Alaska Senate this week found the husband of Gov. Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, and nine state employees, including top Palin aides, in contempt for ignoring subpoenas to testify in the Troopergate investigation. Only one Republican voted against the measure.
The Senate vote is a direct contradiction to Palin’s argument that her staff cooperated and acted appropriately in the matter. However, the Senate voted not to seek punishment in the matter.
The 10 people cited in the resolution are Todd Palin; Sarah Palin’s Chief of Staff Mike Nizich; Deputy Chief of Staff Randy Ruaro; special assistant Ivy Frye; Department of Administration Commissioner Annette Kreitzer; Department of Administration employees Dianne Kiesel, Nicki Neal and Brad Thompson; Kris Perry, the director of the Palin’s Anchorage office; and the governor’s scheduler, Janice Mason.
The legislative special counsel, Stephen Branchflower, previously found that Palin had abused her office in the scandal.
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A healthy sense of self esteem need not be ego worship. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the time in this country what passes as building self-esteem is all too often actually ego worship. A perfect example of the difference was covered in the thread about sportsmanship RE: Dallas Christian Academy vs. the Story of Jake Porter. Coach Grimes is incapable of teaching self-esteem, but perfectly adept at teaching ego worship. Jake’s coaches on the other hand exemplify the difference. Not only did Jake benefit from their actions, but the whole team and community received benefit as well.
http://jonathanturley.org/2009/01/26/christians-cant-jump-coach-grimes-fired-for-beating-girls-basketball-team-100-to-0/
Buddha:
I tend to agree with most of what you said. and you are right meritocracy is different from elitism.
My wife went to UVA and the crowd from Richmond, VA is like you say and she could not stand them. She also thinks that Bush’s mammy fed him too much of the you are better than everyone else line.
I really do hope you are wrong about Cheney and Bush, I supported the war until about 2004 mid 2005 and then realized that we werent really there to win. The idea that this was all done for profit or because Bush wanted to avenge his father would be, as you would say, supremely evil.
I disagree about sense of self being evil, I think you need to have a positive view of yourself, otherwise you get stepped on. My view of someone who is egotistical is someone that is totally self absorbed and self indulgent and thinks his shit dosent stink. I think there is a difference.
But I do agree that there are way too many people that think they know best for us poor pitiful peons. And that is why I like free market capitalism, I dont think you would have all of these elites, they would not be able to keep their money longer than a generation maybe 2. Capitalism in the true form is too dynamic and in my view very egalitarian, if you have a work ethic and some smarts the sky really is the limit. But now I think you have a bastard stepchild that protects these rich assholes from reality.
No one is elite. I repeat. NO ONE.
That’s snake oil someone tries to sell you when they want to have control over you.
No one is special.
No one is superior.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Next time you want to bag on liberalism, you might want to remember that it was so important that Jefferson included it specifically in the Declaration of Independence. Liberty is the core of liberalism.
Don’t confuse elitism with the idea of meritocracy either. They aren’t the same thing. Elitism is a tool for repression, usually used by people who got their money and/or power in suspect manners when they don’t want too much scrutiny. Some of them rightly fear what would happen to them if the scale of their crimes were laid bare. Trust this, if an unedited tape of Cheney’s Secret Energy Task Force were made public? Everyone there would be torn apart by angry mobs. Not lynched. Made into tiny parts. Their employees and families would turn on them first. No cop would lend a hand . . . except to open the way for the crowd. It was their elitism that fostered their arrogance which relates directly to their crimes. Their sense of entitlement doesn’t given them carte blanc to screw up the world for everyone else and suffer no consequences. You kill with a pen, you kill with a gun, no difference – it’s still murder when your motive is profit. Elitism is anti-democratic, contrary to the common good and throughly anti-American. Elitism is also philosophical nonsense. It’s objectivism in drag. If someone tells me they are elite, that’s just a big red sign that says, “I an egoistic piece of shit. Everything I do and say is suspect. Do not trust me.” These are the same kind of people who say “Let them eat cake.” These are the kind of people who cried and protested their innocence until the blade fell. The “elite”. These are the kind of people who spend 1.2 million of tax payer money to redecorate their office after driving their company into the ground and losing thousands of jobs, but never the one that needs to be lost the most – their own. The “elite”. The “elite” are part of the problem, not the solution. Elitism is a form of ego worship and ego worship is evil.
No one is elite. We are all water and stardust. From the lowest of the low to the highest of the high.
End of story.
Buddha:
so you believe then that there can be elites on both sides of the aisle?. Personally I believe the “country club republicans” have done more to ruin the country than any democrat has. I wish they would leave the GOP. They are also responsible for some bad republican presidential candidates.
But there are different forms of elitism, are we strictly talking about the elitism created by inherited wealth or position or are we talking about any type elitism, such as the elitism that comes from doing your job well. Lets call it the arrogance of excellence.
I say we need elites in our society to carry us on to the next level, the Thomas Edisons or Michael Debakeys of the world. Without them society remains stagnant. Where would we be without Newton or Einstein or others like them? And the founders were certainly elites and they gave us a great form of government (at least i think so). Although some of the things I have read that the founders wrote lead me to believe that they were not arrogant, in fact quite the opposite.
Are you talking just plain shit head arrogance with nothing to back it up? Like the bosses degenerate son or something else?
No, populism says no one is elite.
Get it straight.
That’s part of the problem. The arrogance of elitism.
Buddha:
I stand by my statement. She may be a populist of the right but she is a progressive based on things she has said (or my interpratation of things she has said) I do no think she is a true conservative and I think she would be foolish enough to step on the constitution. I have had occasion to view evangelicals up close and personal and I would not vote for one if I had a .45 held to my head, they scare the hell out of me. they truly would step on the Constitution without a moments hesitation and think that God had told them to do it. Talk about your police state! They would read you your rights all right your last rites.
this is my understading of the term and I dont think it necessarily is restricted to one side of the political spectrum.
Populism is a discourse which supports “the people” versus “the elites.” Populism may involve either a philosophy urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style deployed by members of political or social movements competing for advantage within the existing party system.