(no subject)
Sep. 2nd, 2008 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickPolitics.
Sarah Palin is making some bad choices. There is a lot of ick that just doesn't add up in a good way.
Item #1: She did not disclose her pregnancy with Trig until she's seven months along. Nobody noticed even though she is a skinny and fit lady.
Item #2: She did not look very pregnant and staff & news media were amazed at the announcement.
Item #3: Her water broke before she gave a speech in Texas, whereupon she gave the speech, flew eight or nine hours home to Alaska, got in a car, and drove another hour, hour and a half to her podunk hospital to deliver this baby. All this, mind, when she knew she was carrying a special-needs baby.
Item #4: Nobody to whom she gave the speech noticed she was in labor.
Item #5: Nobody on the plane with her noticed that she was in labor.
Item #6. The baby isn't listed on the website of the hospital nursery, which you'd think they would do because she's, like, the gov and famous and stuff.
Item #7: Sarah's daughter Bristol was out of school for five months or so at the end of last year due to an extended bout of mono. I had mono in college, took me about two weeks to get better. I'm somewhat suspicious of a five-month bout of mono.
Item #8: Myspace page of Mercedes, younger sister of Bristol's boyfriend Levi, showing pictures of "Mommy in law" (Sarah Palin) and "new baby brother" Triggybear (the child in question) and "my sister in law, ooh I just love her!" (Bristol Palin). The only sisters in law that I have are married to my brothers, but maybe it's different in Alaska.
Item #9: News reports from the NYT on the "Bristol Palin is pregnant" story contain the following statement: Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. So... Bristol's not married yet? Then why is Mercedes' Myspace page calling Bristol her Sister In Law?
And, FTW, item #10: Wouldn't it have been easier to resolve the whole "Trig is Bristol's Baby" mess by providing some documentation like, y'know, a birth certificate or a couple of affadavits from the doctor and attending nurses who saw the baby delivered instead of throwing one's allegedly-pregnant teenaged daughter to the press?
For the news media:
Has anyone actually checked to see if Bristol and Levi are married or not? (If Trig is Bristol's baby, odds are good that Bristol and Levi have already married b/c the Palins are bible-thumper enough to feel that this is important.)
Has anyone asked to see a copy of the child's birth certificate? (In Alaska, only the individual or his/her parents may request a birth certificate. Birth certificates in Alaska are not matters of public record.)
Has anyone asked for affadavits from the doctor, attending nurses, etc who allegedly *saw* Sarah Palin deliver this child?
Has anyone asked Bristol Palin for a pregnancy test? Y'know, just for kicks.
Sarah Palin is making some bad choices. There is a lot of ick that just doesn't add up in a good way.
Item #1: She did not disclose her pregnancy with Trig until she's seven months along. Nobody noticed even though she is a skinny and fit lady.
Item #2: She did not look very pregnant and staff & news media were amazed at the announcement.
Item #3: Her water broke before she gave a speech in Texas, whereupon she gave the speech, flew eight or nine hours home to Alaska, got in a car, and drove another hour, hour and a half to her podunk hospital to deliver this baby. All this, mind, when she knew she was carrying a special-needs baby.
Item #4: Nobody to whom she gave the speech noticed she was in labor.
Item #5: Nobody on the plane with her noticed that she was in labor.
Item #6. The baby isn't listed on the website of the hospital nursery, which you'd think they would do because she's, like, the gov and famous and stuff.
Item #7: Sarah's daughter Bristol was out of school for five months or so at the end of last year due to an extended bout of mono. I had mono in college, took me about two weeks to get better. I'm somewhat suspicious of a five-month bout of mono.
Item #8: Myspace page of Mercedes, younger sister of Bristol's boyfriend Levi, showing pictures of "Mommy in law" (Sarah Palin) and "new baby brother" Triggybear (the child in question) and "my sister in law, ooh I just love her!" (Bristol Palin). The only sisters in law that I have are married to my brothers, but maybe it's different in Alaska.
Item #9: News reports from the NYT on the "Bristol Palin is pregnant" story contain the following statement: Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. So... Bristol's not married yet? Then why is Mercedes' Myspace page calling Bristol her Sister In Law?
And, FTW, item #10: Wouldn't it have been easier to resolve the whole "Trig is Bristol's Baby" mess by providing some documentation like, y'know, a birth certificate or a couple of affadavits from the doctor and attending nurses who saw the baby delivered instead of throwing one's allegedly-pregnant teenaged daughter to the press?
For the news media:
Has anyone actually checked to see if Bristol and Levi are married or not? (If Trig is Bristol's baby, odds are good that Bristol and Levi have already married b/c the Palins are bible-thumper enough to feel that this is important.)
Has anyone asked to see a copy of the child's birth certificate? (In Alaska, only the individual or his/her parents may request a birth certificate. Birth certificates in Alaska are not matters of public record.)
Has anyone asked for affadavits from the doctor, attending nurses, etc who allegedly *saw* Sarah Palin deliver this child?
Has anyone asked Bristol Palin for a pregnancy test? Y'know, just for kicks.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 04:13 am (UTC)It's easy to come up with "unanswered questions" and long lists of allegedly suspicious details about anything. Suppose a birth certificate and a gaggle of witnesses appear. Who says that the birth certificate isn't faked, or those witnesses aren't just political allies, or bribed? That line of inquiry never ends; it never can end.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 05:08 am (UTC)However, I don't believe the official facts as presented by Gov. Palin and the McCain campaign. The above list is my reasoning for not believing the official facts and a short list of suggestions that would be (in my humble opinion) more palatable ways to address the story than throwing her daughter to the media circus.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 05:16 am (UTC)There's just too much weird going on for me, is all. I'm not buying the story that the campaign is handing out. They can hand it out all they want. I'm still not buying it.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 05:00 am (UTC)I *do* think, however, that she was stupid and reckless in flying all the way back home to have her child. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you're carrying a "special needs" baby and your water breaks, the last thing you should do is... well, what she did. There were many fine hospitals in Texas... and Seattle (where her flight stopped over), and wherever she landed in Alaska, and at any one of them she should have stopped and had the damn baby. I don't know what this speaks to regarding her judgment, but it can't be good.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 05:52 am (UTC)You wouldn't have to lie on any of the official documents. The birth certificate, as I've said, is not public record in Alaska.
As well, HIPAA protects the medical records of everyone involved. (HIPAA information can be revealed but you need to have a warrant or a subpoena or something, which means getting a court to agree that the information is needed. I don't think the courts will feel moved to get involved, here, there having been no actual crime.)
As for looking pregnant in front of people, if you're the gov, I bet you could get away with some maternity clothes and one of those fake pillow belly things that they make for childbirth classes. Nobody's going to put a hand on your pregnant belly or make you lift your shirt to prove that your pregnancy is real.
The actual barriers to pulling it off would be the following...
1. The people who know the Palin family in everyday life and could attest to a pregnant Bristol. (I have no idea how they managed this. None. Having gone to a small rural school, I'm not sure how the whole school didn't know.)
2. Having the sheer, unmitigated gall to attempt it.