Palin’s Campaign Film “The Undefeated” Reviewed (Insert Explosion Here)
When returning to my hotel room Friday afternoon. I noticed something slipped in the crack of the door. I was attending the Netroots Nation convention at the Hilton in Minneapolis. As is their habit, the evil (and much smaller) twin of Netroots Nation, called “Right On Line” puppydogs our convention, trailing behind and choosing to hold their convention in whatever city Netroots does. It’s a great strategy if your goal is to look kind of pathetic and really obnoxious at the same time.
This year, they were not only in the same city, they were in the same hotel – mine. This made for several uncomfortable elevator rides with people wearing Right Online badges, who glared at my Netroots badge, and also for a couple impromptu sightings of Andrew Breitbart. His favorite activity was standing around the lobby having people take pictures of him while he looked important. His second favorite activity was standing around outside the main doors having people take pictures of him while he looked important. I noticed that he was constantly followed around by creepy guy in a hat with a strange gait. Bela Lugosi will play him in the movie, if (God help us) there is a movie.
All that said, this serendipitous confluence of politicos did have one little perk – that thing I noticed slipped in the crack of my door. Actually, it was slipped in the cracks of every door of the hotel, and this is what it was:
You can imagine me standing by my door, card key in hand, letting out a huge, “HA!” in the empty hallway. Now, I’ll grant you that this is not everyone’s idea of a good time. But it is mine. I would have been happy to go to the screening of The Undefeated alone, but as luck would have it, I had the best date on the planet! Also attending the conference was my Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin co-author Ken Morris. We were fresh from a radio interview which meant we missed the first half. But as soon as we were able, we went to the ballroom and quietly entered the side door.
The title of the movie alone indicates what will be in store, because of course politically Palin has been defeated in the Lt. Governor’s race in Alaska, and also was soundly defeated in her bid for the Vice Presidency. So spin promises to be the order of the day.
There were a couple hundred people sitting at round tables watching the movie when we entered. I’m not sure what I was expecting to see on the screen, but it wasn’t what I saw. Lo and behold, there was the six-foot tall head of none other than Alaska State Senator Bill Wielechowski (Will a cow ski), who we fondly referred to as “the best Bill in Juneau.” Once my saucer eyes had returned to normal size, I realized why he was there. He was talking about ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share), the oil tax system implemented under the Palin administration.
Palin went to Republicans with a version of the idea, and was soundly rejected. The Democrats galloped to the rescue of the new governor, strengthened the bill, and got it passed. Of course, that whole “Democrats saving the day” narrative was overlooked for some reason. But nevertheless, ACES was great, and it happened under Palin. Alaska is now pocketing $2 billion a year it wouldn’t have had otherwise. Regrettably, the new Parnell-Conoco administration is doing its best to scuttle ACES and return that money to the oil companies, but legislators like Wielechowski are working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. [You can read all about that HERE]
The next half hour of the film was dedicated to talking about oil tax policy, opening leases in the Arctic, the gas pipeline (which is dying an ignominious death, and which sounded in the movie like it was already happily flowing the gas to eager consumers), and all sorts of topics that had most of the audience glazing over like they were sitting in a 9th grade history class. These things are very important, but it’s not what most people get excited about, or why most people go to a Palin rally. As testament to this, a couple dozen people quietly left their seats and slipped past us to freedom.
After the oil and gas lesson, those that stayed were treated to a full on extravaganza of gushing Palinbots. There was former communications harpie Meg Stapleton (known as “Stapletongue” for good reason). She was all decked out in a dark suit, standing against a white background telling the story of the VP nomination, subsequent defeat, and the return home to Alaska. We heard from her throughout the film, usually beginning her sentences with “It was SO sad…” She referred of course to the constant perceived victimization of Palin and her family by the big bad media, fellow Republicans, Democrats, bloggers, voters, and everything and everyone else under the sun.
And who else should pop up but our favorite arch-villain Thomas Van Flein, the Palins’ personal attorney!
And then there was the aforementioned Andrew Breitbart who was ubiquitous, and couldn’t have spoken of Sarah Palin in more glowing terms. Over. And over. And over. Breitbart’s sycophantic appendage (the creepy guy with the hat) was conspicuously absent.
Conservative filmmaker Steven Bannon, who is responsible for all this, seems to have a fondness for freakishly violent imagery. The media attacks, and criticism from Alaskan politicians and commentators were accompanied by devastating scenes of earthquakes, concrete overpasses collapsing and crushing cars full of people, ominously dripping oil, a pack of lions graphically ripping apart a hapless zebra (lions = bloggers, zebra = Palin) – and what would a right wing fearfest be without the obligatory mushroom cloud? Nothing, that’s what.
It was SO sad, Stapleton told us with tight esophagus, that the governor had to leave “the job she loved more than anything else in the world.” She apparently missed that email from Palin that said, “I hate this damn job.” And the other one that expounds “I hate this flipping kangaroo joke of a job.”
It was SO sad, she went on, that when the governor came back to Alaska and it was like a car “going from 60mph to zero.” Cue scene of white van racing down the highway, doing a wicked rollover and coming to rest upside down at zero miles per hour. You get the idea.
According to published reports, “Palin did not have any editorial role in the project and was not interviewed for the film.” At first I found this odd, since large portions of the movie were actually narrated by Palin herself, who was clearly reading from a script. But I guess reading the script doesn’t technically imply editorial control or being “interviewed.” Those conservatives love their sneaky wording.
There was no doubt that this feature length propaganda flick was a campaign film, but it had a twist. This was no Republican propaganda film – this was a Tea Party film that slammed both the left and the right. Any time Nancy Pelosi was mentioned, the crowd in the ballroom swelled with hisses. When Obama was mentioned, boos erupted, and there was even a cry of “Terrorist!” which sent a little chill up my spine. My date and I locked eyes at that one, but tried quickly to look inconspicuous.
Interestingly, the Republicans fared not much better. Slightly less venemous jabs were made at the “entrenched” GOP “elite” while images of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner flashed on the screen. No booing and hissing on this one – just a clenched awkward silence and a bunch of raised eyebrows.
The Tea Party, the film tells us, is going to be our political savior because it’s really “grass roots.” They never mentioned the Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity, Freedomworks or the other conservative foundations funded by the wealthiest families in the nation. But good propaganda must select its message without letting fair and balanced facts intrude.
Bannon, I think it’s safe to say, has guzzled the Kool-Aid.
All in all the film did a great job of selecting all possible 10-second clips where Palin looked like an energetic, funny, spunky, stubborn advocate for all that is great and good. It also did a good job of making me queazy and scaring the bejeesus out of me. The Good vs. Evil themes, the charismatic leader, the cheering crowds, the larger than life personality, the persecution of the martyr, the selective scrubbing of the bad, the exaggeration and bending of the true… It all felt like some horrible history lesson of the future. It even came complete with an enraptured audience clinking their glasses with forks and wooooing and cheering in concert with the woooooing and cheering crowds on the screen.
I even found a review of the film from someone in the room attending the Right Online conference. This impartial critique comes from… you’ll see.
I’ve long been a Palin supporter. I grew up in Wasilla. My family have been friends with the Palins and the Heaths (Sarah’s family) for some time now. I can’t help but support the hometown girl. But even I was taken aback.I had expected, frankly, Palin propaganda. And I don’t mean that derisively. After the treatment Palin has gotten at the hands of the media and the left, she deserves some propaganda. I had expected an hours-long run-down of all the ways the media/left were unfair to Palin.
What I got was a thorough, eye-opening (even for a Palin supporter) run-down of why Palin is everything the media says she isn’t.
A Palin supporter and friend of the family from Wasilla thinks she deserves some propaganda, expected to hear about nothing but how badly the media treated her, and instead found out that everything the media said about her was a lie. What can you say?
After a segment about Ronald Reagan, and a quote from Thomas Paine, this surreal episode of Sarah in Wonderland came to an end. Ken and I filtered out into the hallway with nothing on our lips but “Wow.” Then I noticed a set of oil paintings propped up on a table just next to the main doors. One was of Sarah Palin, and the other was (wait for it) Thomas Jefferson. Yup, Palin was shoulder to shoulder at her screening with a French-loving Democrat who snipped up the Bible and made his own version. I wonder if there’s an army of Palinbots changing history on Jefferson’s Wikipedia page at this very moment.
One of my fellow Alaskans at the convention made it a point to talk to a Palin supporter who was actually in the film and said a few words on the stage after it was over. I caught snippets of their conversation, and the comment that struck me was when the woman said, “Look, all I know is that the left hates her, and the right hates her, so she must be doing something right.”
Everyone hates you = You’re the greatest
It’s all starting to make sense.
Looks like I’m in moderation, and probably all because I said that the movie sounded more like it was an epic about an excessive fl@tus contest. Or something to that effect. What is wrong with the word fl@tus? OK, so, according to the dictionary, it would be an epic about an excessive “gas in or from the stomach or intestines, produced by swallowing air or by bacterial fermentation” contest. Is that better? 🙂
nahhhh… just say “fart”… works better !
This is a high class blog. Just because I’m from the Santa Cruz mountains, doesn’t mean I can just turn all 60’s Left Coast on everyone! 🙂
🙂
Waves to Santa Cruz – was there in the 80’s.
I’m from Santa Cruz, too!
I just now noticed in the painting of SPTM that she looks like she is flipping her white powdered,flipping wig.Or is that a snowdrift in the background?
Who was in the film and also spoke at the screening you saw Jeanne? This Palin stuff gets wilder by the day. I guess the heat was too much for the old girl in AZ. Probably in more ways than one. I think this latest move is the beginning of a very hasty retreat but I wonder where she will pop up next. There are not many more places for her to try—perhaps outer space would be good. I’m not talking about the movie but what this has- been will do next. It is not her style to stay home and take care of her little one and the grandkid or kids. Molly could probably use a babysitter sometimes too. You betcha!
I’m sorry I don’t remember her name. She was a slender, attractive African-American woman, and she spoke about how inspired she was by Sarah Palin both in the film, and afterwards on the stage.
Adrienne Ross at Motivation Truth blog? (maybe)
You could change the e to l in tie title and be talking about her hair or her ego.
“Look, all I know is that the left hates her, and the right hates her, so she must be doing something right.”
If THIS is considered a compliment – then it really is desperate times for Sarah Palin. Anyone who isn’t blind from desperation for their idol can see that it is just scraping the bottom of the barrel for anything that can be spun to shed positive light on Palin.
No one hates Palin – everyone just have no respect for her. None.
Google news has a rumor coming out of a few places that OJ has confessed to Oprah that he did commit the murder but it was self defense. No way Palin is going to be able to compete with that for the media spotlight !
I’m sorry, but that is evidently only a National Enquirer story, and Oprah’s reps are denying it up, down and sideways.
Does anyone remember the movie “They Live”? It was about a guy who finds a pair of sunglasses that shows subliminal messages everywhere and shows people for who they truly are (in this case, aliens). It sounds like a lot of people in the audience, and especially Rob Port, could use a pair of those sunglasses.
That was Rowdy Roddy Piper of pro rasslin’ fame and Meg Foster was in it. She has strange eyes.
If they couldn’t get more than 200 people for a screening at a conservative conference, how do they expect to get anyone to pay for this garbage in theaters. I’m predicting the lowest attended movie of all time.
I thought it would be in a race for the worst film against “Atlas Shrugged” but not according to the comments section at the Roger Moore site, “Frankly My Dear….” movie review site.
Someone compared it to the “Star Wars” trilogy…..REALLY??!
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_movies_blog/2011/04/atlas-shrugged-officially-declared-a-flop.html
The whole thing is just too creepy for words. And the reference to drinking the Kool-Aid reminds me of the documentary I just saw about Jim Jones and Jonestown. The similarity of Palin’s followers being willing to do whatever she says is eerily similar. As I said – creepy and very scary.
AKM,
I’d like your thoughts on where the footage came from for the “movie”. There is some concern among some folks that it might have been shot by the “bomb-shelter boys” (i.e. the Gov’s office’s PR crew) in which case it’s State paid for footage and shouldn’t be being used for such a production.
There was a lot of old news footage from KTUU etc. mixed in with the stock footage of carnage and mayhem. To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about that when I watched it. It wouldn’t surprise me, though. I’ll have to pay closer attention (gulp) the next time I see it.
I believe Zeigler licensed a lot of footage as well. (Before he soured on her.)
Be sure to wear anti-laser safety glasses if you DO watch it a second time…
Oh, don’t watch it another time just for that. It may be possible that the “filmmaker” licensed stuff from the State; it just seems odd and…not right. KTUU stock footage could certainly have been easily licensed.
OTOH, If there was anything from G-t-G used, that prob. would be a problem, as that’s not supposed to be used for anything political.
That could be why she hasn’t tied this thing into an actual announcement that she’s running. She could just say it roused audiences so much that she was drafted to run and is doing so reluctantly, what with having to abandon her family — poor widdoo Trig and all — just like a martyr she wants people to think she is. Sneaky.
I like the picture of Sarah. It appears that she has just come to the realization that her mega-dose of ex-lax is kicking in!
I still like whoever came up with the title
The Undefudiated
As Simple Mind points out, logic does not abound. I am a gun owner, like to target shoot, have a concealed carry permit. I took the class because I wanted to know the law and ended up getting the permit also. That being said, the primary function of guns is to kill. If it were only target practice, it would work just as well with a laser pointer. So (here’s the logic – or lack thereof), progun people usually tack on pro-life. Hmm, guns kill does not equal pro life. Yeah, I know, pro-life as long at it’s in the uterus. Many also tack on pro-God. The Jewish-Christian God must really be pro-gun, that’s why one of the 10 Commandments is “thou shalt not kill.” Yeah, really progun.
Unrestrained capitalism, corporations allowed to pillage and plunder at will but a woman’s most imtimate decision about her own body – nope, government must intervene. Okay, I quit here before I start cussing. When I need that, I go to stonekettle station, he has some wonderful phrases that I will incorporate.
The comandment is really “Thou shalt not kill ME, but if I find it necessary, I can kill you, because God likes me better!”
AKM, thank you for being willing to do something they couldn’t pay me enough to do. Just the thought of seeing that horror makes me nauseus, I really enjoyed reading your book and Dunn’s book, but actually watching Palin, any more than we are already exposed to, is just too much.
That poster with her fists curled up makes me think she is having a temper tantrum. Could not go to see that if I was paid to do it.
Ok, but “google” invisible Richards.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
I said the same thing about temper tantrums.
All reasons to postpone jury duty…..
I have a scheduled trip to the Sudan with Franklin Grahmn.
I have to travel by bus to save America by telling Americans great stories about our tea party heroes.
Somebody was looking for an excuse not to do something. Again.
I wonder if she canceled her Sudan trip because of jury duty too.
The reason given out was the dangerous situation over there. Greta isn’t going either, but Graham still is.
I’m going off-topic here, but did anyone note that Bristol Palin compares herself to Hester Prynne in her ‘memoir’?
I wonder who directed her to the Cliff Notes at a bookstore so she (or her ghost writer) could squeeze that comic relief into her book!
And Levi is just like Rev. Dimmesdale. Oh yeah, I see it, totally.
Just proves to me that her book was written by someone else. Hester Prynne, indeed!
She did not need cliff notes. She saw the movie with Demi Moore and said …”That’s just what happened to me!” …”She even looks like me!”
*smacks hand to head*
Of course!
Yes, and various princesses, heads of state, and aggrieved rock stars, too. This is exactly what too much self-esteem can do to a child. Or too little. I haven’t figured that one out yet. Is it possibly both?
Ah, AKM, always willing to take one for the team. Are you bucking for sainthood?
Thanks for the review, AKM, and sparing WC the cost of the antacids WC would have to consume if WC were to watch this propaganda flick himself. Hope there is no permanent damage to you from the trauma.
This film illustrates as well as anything else the total disconnect between Tea Baggers and the rest of the political spectrum. Palin supporters aren’t dealing in logic; they are dealing in images and fuzzy ones at that. These are people who in the same breath can argue for completely unrestrained competitive capitalism and building a concrete wall to keep out immigrants. These are people who actually think that unions are at fault for the collapse of the financial megacorporations. These are people who think that if the government takes away their health care, their social security, their wage protections and their right to organize and hands it all over to Wall Street investment houses, that this will make life better. These are people who still see President Obama as a boy with a fancy-pants education. There is no logic that will convince there otherwise because they do not deal in logic, just images which this movie with generously provide.
Bingo, Simple. Here’s a newly-released book that does a lot to explain this phenomenon of selectively shoehorning or ignoring facts to bolster a pre-existing belief:
http://www.amazon.com/Believing-Brain-Conspiracies-How-Construct-Reinforce/dp/0805091254/ref=sr_1_cc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308846463&sr=1-1-catcorr
For those of us who want to start reading right away, no waiting, you can also download the Kindle version.
Not that I’m any less chagrined or worried after reading it…but it does help to know what you’re up against in an enemy, and why rational persuasion doesn’t have a chance.
Sounds like an interesting book, and I just checked my library..it’s on the shelf. Thanks for the tip.
The religious right have been in a holy war since the late 70’s. That is what got Reagan elected and that is what started the anti-abortion fever and that is what spawned Phyllis Schlafly and the pink apron brigade.
Democrats have been enjoying the fruits of the successful labor movement and the comfort of the middle class while the RWNJs have been carefully planning the deconstruction of the social networks that created created safety nets and the regulations that created cleaner air, water, and safer food supplies and workplace protections.
This Tea Party movement did not start last year, or the year before, it started when Pat Robertson appeared on the 700 club and began to talk about the evils of this world and how all the liberals were making God mad. The Koch brothers have been in business a long time. They know that a tree has to be cultivated and cared for, and that it will not bear fruit for years. And when the economy tanked after ten years of unfunded wars and a greed-driven housing bubble, they could see the fruit was ready to pick, so they got out a bunch of people that would hang teabags from their hats and trotted them out in front of cameras and called it a grass-roots movement.
It will take a long time to push that pendulum back to the middle. We have work to do.
While I’m not sure I agree that the Tea Party can “carefully plan” anything, I think any difference I have amounts only to a quibble. I think it is obvious there is a rapidly forming schism between conservatives and Tea Baggers. Conservatives who voted for Eisenhower and Nixon and who believe in limited government and international involvement are at most fellow travelers who “sort of” believe some of the same things as Tea Baggers but are rapidly beginning to ask, “What the ……..?”. The TB’rs I’ve listened to seem to envision some magical return to a small town (aka Caucasian) America where everyone has a good job down at the hardware store and James Stewart and Donna Reed wave off their front porch to Andy Griffith and Ron Howard walking down the road to the unpolluted river to go fishing. How this merges with a warming planet, an exploding Third World, and diminishing resources is never addressed. It is enough if you just believe.
The Koch Brothers do the planning. They just wind up the tea party folks and turn’em loose.
So two of my conservative friends went to the screening as well.
They felt the entire production seemed “less than half done… by Bannon forgetting to include a few Palin bits of glory…” and “Palin should of announced her run for pres before the film, cause that seemed why the film was made…Without the “I am running for pres” announcement, the glorified-all-about-Palin film would of seemed less limp…”
I suppose a Alaskan showing wouldn’t be a good idea, considering most Alaskan’s are fully aware of her inept qualities.
“Should OF” pretty much tells me all I need to know about the intelligence of these conservative friends of yours. No offense.
“Should OF” pretty much tells me all I need to know about the intelligence of these conservative friends of yours. No offense.
The poster is hilarious. Also, in California where I grew up (which, I admit, some people believe is not really America) we were taught that the prefix “un” meant “not.” Unless this movie is really meant to be a surrealist fantasy–which, from your description, it could be–shouldn’t the name be “The Defeated?”
Jury duty? I don’t buy it! When you are on jury duty you know about it months in advance. Whatever $P!
Not always – several times I have only been given a couple of weeks notice. I guess it depends on the jurisdiction.
Not in Alaska. Veej is right. The notices come out far in advance of your dates to “call in.”
Breitbart’s biggest problem is the dis-connect between his ears and his brain. He stands around looking important……..except what his doctor had actually told him is he is IMPOTENT. I can understand how people that fawn over a snowdrift,grifter,quitter can fail to see and understand reality for what it is,but these nonks wear their delusions as badges of honor. There is no higher calling than having a bunch of mindless sheep stampede over a cliff to prove their fierce loyalty to Sarah Palin with a TM.
And vidi films I would…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMzepSePD4
AKM, the things you expose yourself to for the greater good continue to amaze. You’re going to have to go through life permanently dressed in a hazmat suit! Sitting though five minutes of that drivel would have done me in.
Who is Rob Port and why is he important? I guess I’m way behind the curve on this one. I discovered that he is the one who wrote the review, but I don’t recall ever hearing of him before. Anyone?
Beats me!
One Rob Port is a conservative blogger-Say Anything Blog- from North Dakota.
Being …older than dirt..the first..shattering-blow..to M’eyeballs..was ..of course..the picture on the flyer. It took me back to the 1950s and the colors/design layouts and graphics used on the street corner religous papers that were sold for a quarter. nuff said.
What caught my attention on the flyer was her raised fists…her followers might think it looks like she is strong, a fighter, but it looks pathetic to me …anyone on here an expert on body language?
I’m no expert, but even I can see the similarity:
http://thebrightestman.wikispaces.com/file/view/Benito_Mussolini.jpg/70275611/Benito_Mussolini.jpg
Or this one.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQfipykYVP-KsauD1PHIT96bFYpZPPI8sdN6CFcngBQnkNAo1Gu
It is typical of temper tantrums.
Palin always has her little fists clenched tight, as if she is fighting of demons only she can see.
Actually, I’d like to compare it to the iconic poster from “Dr. Strangelove,” with the guy witting on a nuke waiving his cowboy hat. That’s what it immediately reminded me of.
“Witting.” Ack!
Sitting on a nuke is what I meant.
Memory serves correctly-that was Slim Pickens and he was trying to free a bomb that was stuck in the bomb-bay and he got the ride of his life.
You tube has the film clip of Major(King)Kong riding the bomb. If you watch the bomb carefully,it looks like it is going to vibrate apart.
Reminded me immediately of this iconic Palin image. Fewer dicks, though. http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/3-invisible-dicks
I am shocked that no one edited out the silly violent images that make this film a total joke. Did none of her crack professional “runnin for president” staff not suggest some editing?
I know her fans are NUTs but didn’t they hope sane people would see it and be influenced to love her?
And the film maker is supposed to be some crackerjack cinema jock, too!
Good grief. I am so behind in news of the art world. I had no idea that Paint by Numbers had released sets of Mrs. Palin and Thomas Jefferson! Boy, is my face 19 (red)!
I can not watch that movie. I thank you for doing so for us. Just thinking about it makes me itchy.
I can not imagine her serving on a jury. No phones. She has the concentration of a fruit fly.
“fruit fly” reminds me about her slam of research of fruit flies, claiming (in a speech during the ’08 campaign which was in support of special needs education, research and support) that it was a waste of taxpayer money even though the research was being done in France and was important for autism studies.
paint by numbers
fruit fly
hahahahaha caw Caw CAW!
If laughter is the best medicine, I’m getting plenty of booster shots here today.
Ha ha… paint-by-numbers… perfect.
Propaganda indeed…all this is crazy..they said President Obama would indoctrinate our children in school if he spoke to them, but say nothing about the crap being said about Palin and that film.
It has got to be more then kool-aide…what could make a thinking person never question anything about Palin and believe she never lies?
Nothing should ever be taken at face value…do your homework!!
Amen, Bev.
Amen.
A math teacher at my high school is famous for calling out any slackers in her class: “You are Not Stupid! You are Lazy! Do. Your. Homework!” Good advice, eh?
I used that too, during my long high school teaching career. Good advice for the ‘bots, and Palin- not that they will follow it.
and we wonder why alaska has a huge high school drop out rate.I had teachers who said things like that to me.They convinced me that I was lazy & stupid and I dropped out of high school.In my 40s i got a GED after being tutored by an incredibly supportive,nurturing,patient teacher and just completed a M.A. a cpl. of yrs ago.My nephew had the same experience with the same kind of shaming experiences.he found the right teachers and the right school and just graduated from college with a 3.95 GPA last week.
“You are Not Stupid! You are Lazy! Do. Your. Homework!”
How in the world did you go from someone telling students they are NOT stupid to citing your experience where you were told you were stupid?
“.They convinced me that I was lazy & stupid and I dropped out of high school.”
Well, maybe you were lazy in high school and you should have done your homework. Clearly you are capable of doing the work as you earned a GED and later an M.A.
what a rude teacher.shaming students in front of their peers.in my field thats called bullying.
Calling people out when they’re making excuses and justifying their poor decisions is not abuse.
Ask anyone in an AA or NA meeting, their therapists, or in this case–a teacher.
‘calling out’ and shaming children by labeling them and name calling is ethically wrong, emotionally damaging, and sends a message that they are bad, not trying, not living up to their potential. Its telling kids that there is something ‘wrong’ with them and that they are not good enough.These experiences impact their self esteem and confidence,not build it and encourage them. Ever occur to you that a lot of these ‘lazy’ kids are living with alcoholic parents, witnessing or experiencing daily domestic violence, experiencing depression, anxiety or thoughts of harming themselves to numb the feelings of shame & worthlessness caused by believing that they are lazy or not ‘living up to their potential’? what an empowering statement to give a kid.how about;you look like you are struggling,how can I support you & help you.you’re a great bright kid but something is getting in your way.want to talk about it? it’s easier to blame and shame the kid. By the way I am intimately familiar with 12 step programs.The 12 steps were created as tools leading to a spiritually based life. I don’t know how to believe in a higher power that tells me that it’s ok for anyone to call anyone lazy or any other derogatory name.. confrontation is not synonymous with name calling,shaming and labeling. therapists who think it’s therapeutic by calling their clients lazy when they don’t ‘do’ what they are told to do aren’t very good therapists,they are abusive.the point of my personal story, and you are covertly suggesting that I was lazy in grade and high school (as well as my nephew) is that I had teachers who told me that I was bad,lazy,not college material and it damaged my self worth,and was very, very shaming.as an adult I countered that experience with teachers who asked me how can I support & help you,then they did,& I slowly realized I wasn’t lazy.I needed support and a lot of help to get over my shame and become convinced that I could do the work and wasn’t lazy.
Not if the calling out is done respectfully and without shaming. That is rarely the case, since the person doing the calling is usually coming from a dominant position, not as a supportive and loving friend. I had teachers that treated me both ways. The ones that sought to understand me and help me succeed were more effective than the drill sargeants.
These generalities just don’t work in real life. There are kids that need a kick in the pants and peer humiliation can be effective. But then there are kids that are just hanging on and that sort of pressure is enough to cause some serious damage. I think an astute and caring teacher can tell the difference. I was not keeping up with my peers in grade school for a lot of reasons. I seemed to be stuck at third grade reading until I lucked out with the most wonderful 6th grade teacher. I was so repressed by that point that I rarely spoke in class. She took me aside with a bookclub order form and suggested I pick a book. “Where the Red Fern Grows” was my very first book and she bought it for me. That little bit of compassion and understanding, and her continued daily interest as I progressed through that book totally got me hooked. I was in an advanced reading class by 7th grade. What I remember of my 4th and 5th grade teachers were just two more adults that I couldn’t seem to please. That 7th grade reading teacher, though, was tough. She demanded all homework complete and had a poem she warned us about the very first day that slackers had to recite in front of the class if they did not produce. “Excuses, excuses, are the tools of the incompetent, those who use them build monuments to nothing and seldom amount to anything”. I had gotten cocky enough at one point to show up to class without completing my homework and was called on it. I recited the poem to the rest of class without recrimination because I knew I had slacked off and it was only far. She was one of my favorite teachers too.
Your reviews of all things Palin are some of my favorite posts ever. Your descriptions are so good I feel like I’m right there with you (but still in my happy, safe place). 😉 This one was especially hilarious–I love the reappearance of your Van Flea illustration!
Thanks for taking another one for the team!! 🙂
My guess is that there is no camping scenes or empty wine coller bottles in the movie.
By the way, does anyone know if you can check to see if she really is on jury duty?
I’m hoping someone will do that quickly. She probably is, since even that lie is too blatant for SP.
The next question(s): What is the date of this jury duty? And she still has to be selected. Couldn’t she just say the bus tour will continue after jury duty? OMG, you were so right on a previous post when you predicted she would refudiate quitting the tour!!
Even if she isn’t lying about jury duty, you’ve got to wonder why she wasn’t up-front with her fans on FB or twitter about the tour postponement. It’s insulting to them to simply leave them hanging. Of course, she would spin that too and blame the media or her critics or anyone and everything other than her selfishness. Anyway…back to “Undefeated”. Great post AKM.
Can you imagine serving on a jury with SP? Or being one of the lawyers or the judge?
Or, even worse one of the litigants? What a circus that would be!
Make her the jury foreperson.
The charged person will probably die of natural causes before a verdict is handed down by the time her verbiage is figured out.
Uh, Oh, I think I just gave the defense of the accused an idea!
Disclaimer:
I’m not an attorney nor do I pretend to be one.
I just like making fun of idiots…….not that there’s anything wrong with being
a idiot.
I just don’t suffer conservative idiots well.
I fear the following might happen…
And her fans don’t care how much she abuses them, they are like wounded dogs, they will lick her ankles no matter how she treats them. They will say, hey I don’t care if tells us her plans as long as she makes the LSM crazy!!
Well, who knows, she could be the best person to have on a jury. As the best liar in the world, she’d be able to spot a defendent who was lyiing, wouldn’t she?
I think that with Palin, like Sally Field’s character in SoapDish, the movie, she will roll the bus tour out again only if and when she needs another “attention fix.”
If you’re on jury duty in AK (at least for state, regular jury duty), you on “on duty” for a month and have to call in daily to see if your group number is called to report in for the next day. If you’re on grand jury duty, you are on duty for three months and have to call in daily or weekly, depending on the court. Federal grand jury duty is also three months long.
And, you only are eligible for the state jury pool if you’re an adult who files for and receives the PFD, so she’d be more than welcome to stop filing for it and not “risk” being called in AK ever again. It will be interesting to see if she’s eligible to file next year, given the home purchase in AZ, though making sure she’s in AK for enough days this year might also have been a reason to come back for the summer, as you can’t be out of state more than some given number of days, unless you’re special and in or working for Congress or the military or other such exepmtions.
Per the trial jury handbook:
In Anchorage, I’ve only had to serve for five days. Palin, though, would probably be called to duty in Palmer, which has both Superior & District courts. So she would potentially have 30 days of service.
But Palin could almost certainly get postponement of her service if she contacted the jury clerk in a timely manner. My sense from reading the jury handbook is that her bus tour might not be sufficient excuse to postpone service, but her Sudan trip probably would be — if she really wanted to go.
She would prefer to be a judge,so I’m gonna guess she wants “DWTS” and her decision will be final.
You think “jury duty” is a whopper, a lie too big to tell? Doesn’t even come close to “I’m pregnant!”
Which state? Alaska or Arizona?
I doubt if it is Arizona. One has to change one’s driver’s license to be put on the voter rolls here.
I can’t wait for the other Palin film by the British film maker to hit–I may even watch that one. This one? Not interested in even watching a clip.
Palin approached the director. The script was the audiobook of Going Rogue, plus she provided home movies/baby pictures, and is selling the movie for $100 for her PAC. But St. Sarah has NOTHING to do with this fan movie. Can she help it if her worshippers are so devoted?
No, she can’t help it, but she should be worried. When she doesn’t run, they are going to be one pissed off group of gun-lovin’ US hatin’ people, and who knows where they will target their anger.
There were a couple of comments on her support blogs like this…”but she wouldn’t let us buy all the bumperstickers and donate if she isn’t going to run, right?”
hahaaaa
A sucker is born every minute 😉
A whole buch of ’em. Ain’t?
wow.