Two helpful Australians connect the dots for us on the economic crisis. Perhaps they might be persuaded to visit Washington for a few months so that President Obama and his Democratic colleagues in Congress can enrol in their “Economics For Idiots” course….
A neat little twist in the McGinniss/Palin FenceGate saga…..
Eric Boehlert at the allegedly objective MediaMatters fancies he has landed a telling blow against Sarah Palin when he reveals that the place next door was for several years a halfway house for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics.
Until 2007, the house operated as a way station for recovering drug addicts. Catherine Taylor, who inherited the house decades ago, said the Palins never complained about the recovering drug addicts and ex-cons who lived next door.
Cue for a classic Media Matters Gotcha moment from Boehlert
This seems to completely undercut Palin’s hateful attack on the 69-year-old McGinniss and her claim that he poses a unique threat to her.
Au contraire, Mr Boehlert – I think this makes my respect for Palin go up a notch or two.
I would suspect that in the USA, as well as here in the UK, many people would object to such a halfway house in their road, let alone next door. We class such an objector as a NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) because they are, of course, totally supportive of such places but would prefer to see them in somebody else’s road. Often, indeed, they are of the Liberal/Left and always eager to attend charity functions that support halfway settlements to show how much they care – but try to get one built in their communities and you’ll soon be hit by a tsunami of smoothly snake oiled lawyers shafting you in a matter of microseconds.
But the Palins, with all those children bouncing around the grounds, never raised a peep about the addicts and alcoholics just 15 yards from their property?
Maybe it’s because they believe in live and let live and giving folks a second or even third chance.
Or maybe they would prefer to have a group of ex cons as neighbours than someone who is a special friend of Jesse Griffin….