I suppose the title is a bit of a pun (“pale in threat”) but the more I read about the fundamentalist puppet Palin, the more I see her as a continuance of the very worst aspects of the present administration.

Incidentally, thank you to those who wrote me personally to say you find my comments on Palin insightful. Here are some more you might find of interest.

First, The Washington Independent reports that the GOP’s top pick for VP has tried to ban books in libraries and fire anyone who disagrees with her.

…Palin acted in a way that eerily foreshadows her recent actions while governor. Early in her tenure as mayor, the city council threatened to recall her over accusations that she fired the city’s police chief, Irl Stambaugh, and the library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, without warning. She accused them in a letter saying: “I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment” (The Anchorage Daily News, via nexis)

Ultimately, Palin let the library director have her job back; though Stambaugh’s position was not returned. The police chief took the matter to court, where a judge sided with Palin, saying city law allows the mayor to fire the police chief without cause.

When questioned by the Anchorage Daily News at the time, Palin refused to give details on how Stambaugh had not supported her, saying only: “You know in your heart when someone is supportive of you.”

To be fair, weak executives tend to replace their staff with cronies and even strong executives favor staff that understand and follow their objectives without delay. However, Palin is no executive and her secrecy and deception do not represent an executive mindset. She has a fundamentalist mindset — when she makes a decision, if you disagree you are the enemy. She clearly does not understand the very concept of democracy and she will use whatever power given to her to make rash decisions along with a veil of secrecy to avoid dialogue until it is too late to change course. This is exactly like Cheney’s infamous secret energy policy meetings. Remember how Bush said there was no time to discuss war with Iraq, war was imminent? Palin represents more of the same shoot-first, remove foot from mouth later, miscarriage of justice.

Second, I was sent an email called “The Real Sarah Palin” by Anne Kilkenny. Here are some choice excerpts:

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a fiscal conservative. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food.

[…]

She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.

What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved!

Perhaps some realize that Bush did almost the exact same thing when he grabbed land for a baseball stadium in Arlington, Texas? According to the NYT he raised money from investors to pay for land he did not own or have a clear title, but claimed it a victory when he made money. Seems like fraud to me, but the Times cautions that there is a very slight difference:

The challenge is not catching criminals but injecting public scrutiny into a culture of cronyism in which executives, accountants, regulators and ”independent” board members all ooze empathy for each other.

Palin is thus not a law-breaker, but another cronyist who will bend rules to their limit to advance a minority agenda. Back to the letter…

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas orcompromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or herstaff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

[…]

Sarah complained about the old boy’s club when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

[…]

Experienced: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

Political maverick: not at all

Gutsy: absolutely!

Open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

Has a developed philosophy of public policy: no

A Greenie: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots.

Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

Fiscal conservative: not by my definition!

Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.

Pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents

Pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.

In sum, despite the suggestion from the NYT, it seems one word can be used to describe the Palin-threat:

Fraud

Palin appears by all counts to be a fraud who will hurt those who disagree with her or try to maintain a free and fair society. Her blinded fundamentalism will seriously weaken the security of this nation if elected. People wonder how they could have ever supported a hypocrite like Bush and left him in office. They will have no one to blame if they do it again. Fool me once, shame on you…

The Daily Show reveals the many faces of Palin:

The AP has posted an interesting review of Palin’s speech at the GOP convention:

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.

Ooops. So much for the truth. In fact, Palin seems to have supported residents who requested funds for the bridge, until she found herself in a national spotlight. Then she turned her back on the small community asking for a bridge and started echoing the “nowhere” line.

It does not help to read that she called the Iraq War “a task that is from God” and said that “God’s will” is to get a gas line built in Alaska.

Palin is a thoughtless fundamentalist puppet, who misuses religion and physical charm to compensate for a lack of ethics. She appears to be as crooked and unscrupulous as Pendergast and if elected will seriously undermine freedom and security in America. Robert Mugabe might as well have been nominated VP.

Clearly McCain was being very disingenuous by suggesting all that matters is experience.

The Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) highlights the latest news on “cyberwarfare”:

A North Korean spyware e-mail was reportedly transmitted to the computer of a colonel at a field army command via China in early August. The e-mail contained a typical program designed automatically to steal stored files if the recipient opens it. It has not been confirmed whether military secrets were leaked as a result of the hacking attempt, but their scale could be devastating given that the recipient is in charge of the South Korean military’s central nervous system — Command, Control, Communication, Computer & Information (C4I).

The background to this case is allegedly a woman wanted for stealing in North Korea defected to South Korea, then became an anti-communist speaker for the military. While on circuit she became intimately involved with military officers and sent their contact information back North Korea. Email messages with malware were then sent to the officers. The article suggests this is a sophisticated attack vector.

The Defense Ministry believes that the skills of 500 to 600 North Korean hackers are on a par with those of CIA experts. In 1999, the department said it traced frequent cyber visitors and found that North Korea topped the list.

The more the military command system of a country becomes computerized, the more it looks as though the determining factor in battle will be the ability to hack into and paralyze the enemy’s command system first. We must not be negligent in discovering and preventing the North’s increasingly persistent and shrewd hacking attacks.

The more routine aspects of the story should not be minimized. Officers in the South Korean military were clearly compromised by an attractive North Korean spy. The email attack vector is notable mainly because, as with most technology, it has introduced an incredibly low cost/return ratio. Hopefully the colonel at a field army command would know to always use secure email, just as he would practice safe sex…