I've heard rumors that Vice Presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska is a motorcyclist. I tried to do some quick research around the Internet to learn more. It's an intriguing thought, having a motorcycle enthusiast in the White House.
However, the only thing I found that links Governor Palin to motorcycles is a press release of a speech she made proclaiming May, 2007 as "Motorcycle Awareness Month" in Alaska.
And for that I applaud her, thank you Governor. But if it turns-out she is actually a motorcyclist herself; will that affect my decision on whom to vote for in the upcoming November election?
If it was tossup, and I couldn't decide either way, maybe the motorcycle connection would be the deciding factor. However, for me anyway it's not even close, not by a long shot.
So, what do you think?
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11 comments:
Kano,
I really never thought about it. I'll need some time to digest this one and get back to you. But I could tell you this much, politics apart, she'd make one hell of a good rider.
Good post, well done!!!
We already have a "motorcycle enthusiast" in the Bush Administration. She's the secretary of transportation, Mary Peters, an actual Harley rider. She's made it her mission to get helmet laws enacted in all 50 states. Not exactly, the motorcycle rights advocate we've been hoping for.
But then again, what did we expect in this age of political correctness? Will Palin actually seek to eliminate helmet laws, smog laws, and noise laws, just for us Harley riders? Or will she advocate the politically correct thing also?
I look around and my motorcycling needs no political backing thanks.The buy out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers,Peak Oil, Georgia, The Sixth Amendment, let's see? Motorcycling? Hardly of any weight to my vote.
baron's life -Good rider maybe, bad choice for VP a certainty in my opinion.
motorcycle philosophy -I don't know and hope I don't find out!
conchscooter -Mine neither, but whenever I even hear the word "motorcycle" it perks up my senses. -Now that several days have passed since this post, I've learned a lot more about Gov. Palin and am even more inclined not to believe anything. It seems a whole persona has been invented about her to make her palatable to the average joe (and jo-ette). The motorcycle riding mama story was probably just that, a story.
Sarah and her husband used to own a motorcycle dealership in the 90's.
If right wingers read this, I'm sure it'll bring some heat. but Tim Wise wrote a great article about Palin.
Here it is....
This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
9/13/08
For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good
church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
mr. motorcycle -Thank you for the article, very interesting and so true. Not a level playing field at all! I just don't think the press is questioning Palin's statements and record enough.
Yes indeed, in some moments I can bruit about that I approve of with you, but you may be inasmuch as other options.
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