Corazon Aquino, R.I.P.

People for the Ethi¢al Treatment of Animal$™

What Might Have Been:

PETA Spokesman Michal Vick Launches
a Yorkie Into Orbit at a PETA Fundraiser

I probably shouldn't be surprised, but it looks like our supposedly saintly friends at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have been caught with their hands in the corruption cookie jar.

Over at Townhall.com, Dwayne Horner has a piece up detailing how the animal rights group seems to have developed a bit of a pay-to-play operation. Or, maybe it was just a coincidence that they launched a campaign against MasterCard while cutting a deal with VISA to issue a special PETA VISA card (with one percent of all purchases made with said card going into PETA's coffers). It's probably also true that everyone's favorite animal lovers had perfectly righteous motives in accusing the IAMS pet food company of animal cruelty - it had nothing to do with the fact that they were getting an 8 percent cut from the sales of a new "holistic" dog food.

Nope - nothing at all is amiss at PETA...and in other news, pigs are sprouting wings and taking to the skies.

Writing for Big Hollywood, Ken Blackwell exposes another potential sellout opportunity for PETA - although luckily this one fell through. Apparently, the dog-lovers were working on a deal with convicted dog-abuser (and former NFL QB) Michael Vick, in which he would film public service announcements condemning dog-fighting. With all due respect to our well-intentioned friends at PETA - rehabilitation is a noble goal, but putting a just-released mutt-murderer in an animal rights PSA is a bit of a stretch...unless you're after money and free publicity, in which case it makes perfect sense.

Listen, I'm sure there are many wonderful (if misguided) people working for PETA, but something definitely smells a little fishy.

Oh...and just in case you were about to mention all of the animals that PETA saves - Horner also pointed out that they only manage to find homes for one out of every 300 animals they take in, with 95 percent being euthanized.

If you to donate money to save animals, I would suggest a reputable conservationist organization like Trout Unlimited - because PETA is obviously not cutting the mustard when it comes to looking out for our furry, feathered, and fishy friends.

Note: Vick photo listed as licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 on Wikipedia - Yorkie photo listed as public domain.

Gov. Sean Parnell (R-AK)

A lot will definitely be said about Gov. Palin's farewell address today - it was one of the best speeches I have ever heard from her. However, we should remember that today was really Sean Parnell's day. With Palin moving on to bigger things, Gov. Parnell now leads the nation's largest state, and I am enthused to see such a stand-up guy taking the reins. I hope we will be hearing more about him here, because he is the first person in the country to openly taking on the Palin mantle. He is the first official, other than Palin herself, who can be unquestionably labelled as coming from the "Palin wing of the GOP", and so he by nature will play at least some role outside Alaska as an example of how "Palinism" works when the media circus fades. Gov. Parnell's success will be a reflection on his former boss -so for my part, I hope that we can keep one eye on Alaska even as our main focus goes national.

Congratulations to Govs. Palin and Parnell. You both embarked on huge new journeys today, and you both definitely count on the support of this blogger.

BPA Will KILL You! (And Elvis is ALIVE!)

On June 10, News Channel 13 in my hometown of Colorado Springs reported that, "More potentially harmful health effects have been discovered for the chemical bisphenol A..." To be sure, the language was all couched with qualifiers such as "potential," but the point was clear: We are very afraid of bisphenol A (BPA).

This was merely the latest in a long string of shoddy stories alleging BPA does serious harm. Never mind the fact that the FDA says BPA is fine, the chicken littles in the media love to scare people, so the story was repeated ad nauseum until no one even remembered where the heck it came from.

Just five days after this news story surfaced, however, a California board of seven physicians and Ph.D.s voted unanimously that the chemical posed no serious danger. As the AP reported,

"The panel, comprised of seven physicians, unanimously decided that the chemical known as BPA should not be covered under Proposition 65, a voter-approved measure used by regulators to identify substances that can cause birth defects, developmental or reproductive harm."

Conservatives are notoriously slow to defend products and companies who have come under attack by radical environmentalists, but several conservative bloggers have picked up on this story, and what they have found has been very interesting.

Most interesting to me, was blogger Rob Port, who recently noted that all the attacks trace back to Fenton Communications, a liberal PR firm that was also behind the ‘General Betray Us’ ads:

“Putting aside the fact that the claims were entirely bogus, the fear campaign against BPA was a brilliant business move for Fenton-and a win/win/win for liberals. David Fenton, of course, is a liberal activist. He represents many radical environmental groups like the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, who could benefit from creating a bogey man. And he also represents trial lawyers, who could make millions by bringing about class action lawsuits against the manufacturers of plastics. Lastly, trial lawyers are major donors to Democratic politicians, so getting them on board was easy. And plastics competitors who didn’t use BPA could now charge absurd prices for their products at upscale stores like Whole Foods, based on the fact that their product (though more expensive) was ostensibly “safer.”

The blogosphere is a wonderful place, but it's still sad that the primary purpose for conservative bloggers is merely to set the record straight - and to correct the mistakes made by the MSM. The "dangers" of BPA are about as real as the Easter Bunny, and I'm amazed that more is not being done to point out this pathetic scare tactic.

Good New Palin Blog

Just wanted to point everybody over to a fun new blog at nypalinpower.blogspot.com - looks like a great startup and the proprietor is an occasional commentor here. She was nice enough to drop me an email, so I figured I would drop her a link. Here's hoping for a sucessful run. She certainly has a lot of energy, so I would expect this to be a fun blog to read.

Palin Actually EXTENDED Her Influence In Alaska Today

I have been asking myself this question for months - "if Sarah doesn't run for re-election, what happens to the pipeline?"

Had she simply not run for re-election, she would have triggered a competitive GOP gubernatorial primary, and run the risk of the "Good Old Boys Club" (or "CBC" for those Alaskans who understand that acronym) taking the GOP nomination and the governorship. Otherwise known as the "Republican Majority", this group is vociferously anti-Palin and even functions as a SEPARATE PARTY in the State Senate - where both the majority and minority leaders are Republicans, due to the "Majority's" decision to govern in coalition with the Democrat's rather than work with their fellow Republicans. If they had taken the governorship, the pipeline project (and many other Palin programs) would have been near the top of the cut list.

However, by resigning now, Palin installs Sean Parnell as an incumbent before the 2010 primary. So, instead of fighting off a strong "CBC" challenger, Parnell will have a much clearer shot at keeping the office in Palinite hands for another four (or possibly eight) years. Sarah Palin did not give up on her reforms today - she institutionalized them, Now, they will not leave office with her, but rather continue under Gov. Parnell.

While we're on the subject of Sean Parnell, I think we need to welcome him to the Governorship. In following Palin for so long, I have followed Parnell by default - both as Lt. Governor and as a congressional candidate. He's a stand-up guy, a fine campaigner, and a fantastic leader for Alaska. In fact, with a little seasoning, he might be a good national candidate himself someday.

So, I'd like to offer a toast to Governor-designate Parnell, all of the accomplishments of the Palin administration, and all of the fun we will be having now that "Gov. Palin" is now "just Sarah". Something tells me this is only the beginning for Sarah, and I for one am more than ready for the next stage of this journey.