Life in the Third Layer

Sarah Palin has refused to lead Alaska, and she clearly doesn’t follow anything except her rush to nomination in 2012.
She has a right to both of these decisions, but she shouldn’t have been on Twitter about 6 hours ago complaining that the stimulus she blocked isn’t working. Here is her message from Twitter (using 2 Tweets):

AKGovSarahPalin More talk of #2 “Stimulus” Pkg? Please no- for so many reasons- incl the 1st one hasn’t done what’s promised, & debt forced on AKn kids is [begin second Tweet] selfish & immoral bc it robs their future opportunities!”If there is trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace ” Thomas Paine about 5 hours ago from TwitterBerry

On May 21, Sarah Palin slashed $80 million from Alaska state budgets, at the same time refusing $28.6 million in federal clean energy work stimulus money, claiming it would impose state-wide building codes. She did this by veto, without consulting with her own senate finance committee:

From NewsMiner.com, By Rena Delbridge, Friday, May 22, 2009
He [Sen. Joe Paskvan, D-Fairbanks] said the funds clearly do not require a state-wide building code as Palin originally protested.
?Rather, it requires efforts to implement energy standards that can be accomplished on a local basis,? he said.
Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, said he can?t figure Palin?s rationale for turning down the energy money.
?I remain dumbstruck,? he said. ?When I look at how hard we all worked to get the $7 million to $9 million in the budget for in-state gas studies that would directly benefit Fairbanks, and then to turn away twice that much?
?I don?t know how to respond. It must be nice to live in the Mat-Su Valley where you have the lowest natural gas prices in the United States. The rest of Alaska is struggling, and now they can?t access that $28 million.?
He suggested Palin?s veto could be for ?bragging rights? as she appears more frequently on the national political stage.

Sarah Palin accepted 2% of the offered stimulus money for other activities, but refused 98%, including the large clean energy work package:

Legislators were caught by surprise that Palin acted on the bills, since they hadn?t received prior notice about her veto plans. In the past, governors have notified at least Finance Committee co-chairmen as a matter of courtesy.
Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, is co-chairman the House Finance Committee. He said yesterday he?d had no contact with the governor?s office on budget matters since the legislative session ended in April. He said protocol would have meant working more closely together.

I am getting my rule book and adding another level to the making things work adage, “Lead, follow, get out of the way, or shut up about things not working.”

I know freedom of speech is a real democratic value, but this?

I am impressed by how much hatred can reside in a head that looks like a plastic baby doll.

From Greg on the Virginia Democrats website:

McDonnell had stated at least five times that he would not reject any stimulus money, including saying in February that “we ought to take it to the maximum degree as possible.” [Washington Post, 2/27/09]
On February 27, 55 local elected officials from across Virginia signed a letter to McDonnell asking him whether he would join Governors like Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin in rejecting portions of federal stimulus funds.
In a response letter on March 4, McDonnell responded emphatically that he would accept federal funds. “If I am Governor I am not going to deny the taxpayers of Virginia the federal funding that they and their children are paying for.”

I guess that it is now apparent that McDonnell will keep faith with his party ideologues even if it means selling out the citizens of the Commonwealth.

When you reject worker training and workforce stability for political nonsense, what do you have to be thinking?
Maybe the Obstructionists believe the working poor are part of the local color of the South, able to survive on beans and cornbread, uneducated but wise in the way of the world, happy in a rural innocent rag-tag way uncorrupted by education, money, and a desire for luxuries like clean water and Internet access.
Maybe they think that training and financial stability would corrupt the help, and workers would forget their place, even come to believe that they actually deserve health care.
Maybe they see that with education and incentives for clean energy, Virginians would not consent to have their mountaintops bulldozed, their streams polluted, and their homes blackened in coal dust when the wind and sun are free. That would cause serious problems for a very few wealthy mine owners and operators.
But maybe the obstructionists aren’t thinking at all. They gave that up during the Bush II administration, and now they can’t get it back, neither for love nor money.