Looking through

the notes & phrases & jottings that I accumulate, I found the line "their new status as North America's largest indie shop" &, for some reason or other, thought I might be able to use it in a possible "A line from Paul Revere" poem. So went looking for a Paul Revere quote, & discovered that Sarah Palin had just got herself embroiled in a contreveresy by stating that one of Revere's goals was to warn the British that what became the Revolutionary Army was waiting.

I also discovered more cause to be cautious in treating Wikipedia as an authoratitive source though often—as I demonstrate further on in this post—its presence near the top of any search means it's sometimes convenient to use instead of, in this case, plowing through a plethora of political party websites. (I apologize for my hypocrisy & the fact that I'm a lazy asshole.)

"Witness the push-back by defenders of Sarah Palin, a could-be presidential candidate who wrongly characterized Paul Revere’s Revolutionary War-era ride. Palin, on a family vacation-cum-"SarahPac" promotional tour, told reporters Revere was warning the British that the colonists would not give up their guns. She said Revere rang bells and shot his gun as a warning. Historians disagree (Revere was actually warning his comrades, not the enemy British soldiers), but Palin fans rushed to edit the online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite history, seeking to turn Palin’s misstatement into historical fact. (Wikipedia has since locked the page on Revere while things calm down.)" Susan Milligan

Then I discovered a photo of the bus Sarah Palin was using for her current tour, with One Nation emblazoned on its side.....


One Nation is a still extant minor political party in Australia, that was briefly popular around the turn of the century, especially in Queensland where it garnered 22% of the vote in the 1998 state election. & here, shamefacedly, I quote Wikipedia.

"Believing the other parties to be out of touch with mainstream Australia, One Nation ran on a broadly populist and protectionist platform. It promised to drastically reduce immigration and to abolish 'divisive and discriminatory policies ... attached to Aboriginal and multicultural affairs.' Condemning multiculturalism as a 'threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values,' One Nation rallied against government immigration and multicultural policies which, it argued, were leading to 'the Asianisation of Australia.'"

Its public face was Pauline Hanson, & its appeal was based on the racist, redneck, rightwing extremism that exists in parts of this country, though usually a bit more beneath the surface. & part of the reason for the party's decrease in popularity is because the conservative parties have moved even further to the right, in order to absorb most of the constituency that was once One Nation. Another reason is that it appears a major driving force in starting up the party was to take personal advantage of public funding.

Wikipedia again:

"Since the 1998 peak, One Nation has been plagued by internal divisions and has split several times. Lawsuits from ex-members forced Hanson to repay approximately A$500,000 of public funding won at the 1998 Queensland election amid claims that the party was fraudulently registered. The suits alleged that the party was undemocratically constituted in order to concentrate all power in the hands of three rulers—Pauline Hanson, David Ettridge and David Oldfield (in particular Oldfield)—and that it technically had only two members: Ettridge and Hanson."

Pauline Hanson stood as an independent in the recent New South Wales election, failed to gain a seat, & is now claiming fraud by the Electoral Office. It might be different State to & a decade on from her political debut, but her opinions don't seem to have changed.

"If Muslim people are not willing to assimilate into a democratic Australian society, 'don't come here at all,' says former One Nation politician Pauline Hanson."

(p.s. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that Palin's people were aware of & impressed by Australia's One Nation Party before setting out on their obscenic tour.)