A new Sarah Palin video that's more painful to watch than those Katie Couric interviews

Just in time for the holidays, we bring you the latest YouTube sensation: A video of Sarah Palin talking to reporters on a turkey farm yesterday while, in the background, a farm worker slaughters turkeys and drains their blood.

The gruesome footage was shot at a farm in Gov. Palin's hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. She was there to grant the traditional Thanksgiving pardon to one turkey.

You can watch what happens to the turkeys who weren't pardoned below. But be warned: it is not for the faint of heart.

-- Kate Linthicum

Comments

[Skip Johnson from Stoneham, MA]

If fyou eat turkey, don't gripe because they are being slaughtered behind a news interview with Sara Palin, regardless of whether you approve of her personally, or not. (Currently, I'm a watcher of her--a still undecided. I'm also a fourth generation vegetarian.)

Do you think because you don't personally see the critters slaughtered that go into your burritos, burgers and onto your Thanksgiving tables (and Bible covers, for that matter) that their pain and the grusomeness of the process of eating of flesh foods and using of animal products doesn't exit?

I'm glad this video is out on the web. Take a good, long, realistic look at what your food choices and product consumption choices actually involve. Or visit a slaughter house with your third grade class. Eating meat not only holds moral implications concerning out relationship with the animal world and its needless suffering for our convenience and pleasure, it also has economic and ecological ramifications as well.

It takes 12-15 times the amount of land to grow vegtable food to feed to livestock in order to be able to consume their flesh as it would to feed that vegtable kingdom food directly to human beings. Sit down at a table with seven chairs and look around. If you are a meat eater, you will consume the same amount of resources personally as would be required to feed an entire table of non-meat eaters. The rain forests are larely being clear cut for a few seasons grazing of future beef for fast food markets on ground that quickly loses its potency for even grazing and becomes an erosion disaster. It takes two Olympic sized swimming pools full of water per meat eater per year to water food fed to livestock first, while only 1/2 of a swimming pool to grow the food for a vegetarian to consume annually.

Take another look at what is going on behind Governor Palin, and consider your own current lifestyle. There is a reason countries like India and China, where the population density is so high, are also largely vegetarian. It takes far less land area to support a vegetarian than a meat eater. On a crowded and hungry planet, who gives some of us the right to a predator's share of the available food resources, while others are starving?

The single decision a person can make that will allow them to "tread lightly on planet Earth" and be genuinely "eco-friendly" is to move strongly to a non-meat and even non-animal products diet. Almost nothing else can match that single choice.

As the best testing shows a marked increase in life expectancy among vegetarians (and even a couple added years for a total vegan), this ultruistic choice of diet stands to greatly benefit the one who choses it also. I am a health educator for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, one of the three longest living groups on the planet at present. About half of us have adopted the vegetarian lifestyle, with the other half choosing a largely kosher diet. We also do not smoke, drink, or use recreational drugs, and take Saturday off from work each week to devote to worship, rest, community service, and family time. We are living between 7 and 14 years longer on the average as a result. As we exists in 200+ countries around the world, nationality and location do not affect our health advantage nearly as much as the internal environment we create through lifestyle choices.

Leaving the poor turkeys alone for at least half of our number is one factor in the marked health advantage we enjoy as a result of dietary choices.

I know this is a political blog designed to give the thumbs up or down on specific politicians. Hopefully, it will allow a bit of introspection in regard to the viewers relationship to those poor birds as well...

P.S. I'll eat pretty much anything without a face or a mother. Don't think I'm deprived in the area of food enjoyment.

[John Wallace]

Nice to see someone who's not so contrived and scripted that she get's caught in an awkward scene. I wish everyone was so candid and trusting. I remember when liberals were like this. What happened?

[glenn debard]

It is absolutely amazing to me...the need to somehow convince anyone that will listen- to the belief that Sarah Palin and McCain are idiots.

Idiots?..because they have the moxie to stand up for what is morally right? It is very obvious that the election came down to the basics: Are you wanting to vote for a candidate that supports defending our country, and in the process of that defense, allowing young men and women to be in harms way (which they are willing to do) - or- vote for a candidate that allows innocent babies, who HAVE NO CHOICE to be slaughtered without any chance to defend themselves and without being willing to do so. At least our troops have a choice. Yet, in spite of the poor moral choice, the moral minority are willing to do as God has commanded us to do- support our President. I doubt- no, I know that the voters who supported Obama would not be willing to support McCain had he won.

[tb]

if you dont like it dont watch it

[slmoslely]

I am so glad that she and McMac did not win!!!! Sarah is just not real smart....what is she saying...I don't know what her thought process entails......she can't put two sentences together to explain a point....She is dangerous and our country is just lucky she was not elected as VP........

[Karen Mamont]

I can't wait to see Saturday Night Live's Paray on this. Sarah Palin doesn't even find anything wrong with this stupid horrid display of insensitivity. She is the stupidest idiot I've ever seen in my whole life time! "This sure was fun" what a disgusting moron!

[Saskin Ordek]

Yes, to eat the turkey you have to slaughter it. They don't grow nicely packaged and ready to be roasted. It is part of life. Right? No need to dramatize it, right?

How about being consistent and using the same logic for the American troops who get killed in Iraq? They are also doing their jobs. Right? Part of being a soldier after all. Right? Why don't they show the gory images of disfigured and blown up dead bodies of US Marines on TV or any news media? Why can't we stomach that either? That's life too.

I think the hypocrisy of the Palin/GOP supporters is disturbing and disgusting.

[Sharon Riggen]

Hello There:
The Bible tells us that God created animals for humankind to eat. That's a fact! It's that simple!

You live in a city and do not witness or participate in the process of getting edible meat on your plate. The sight is not detestable, it is necessary to prepare your meals you eat in public restaurants and in your home.

This process does not in any way detract from Sarah Palin’s leadership qualities. She is an experienced and fine leader. She cares for and about people. She also serves the people in her state.

Sorry. I cannot conclude that the natural process of the human food chain (diet) is detraction to Sarah Palin.

Have you ever worked indoors in the slaughter house? There, you get to pluck the feathers from the turkey, and then scrape the yellow film-like skin off to expose the white skin. The odor is not that pleasant. The building is kept cool so the meat will not spoil. It is very chilly, smelly work.

During the holiday season when family gathers ‘round the table to enjoy this annual feast, the distasteful experience was well worth the effort.

You just dislike watching your next meal being prepared, in living color. Unfortunately, you cannot eat a living turkey and expect the turkey get up off the Thanksgiving dinner table and walk out into the yard after dinner. You just can’t have it both ways.

Tomorrow morning when you have your breakfast ponder this. The eggs you eat are baby chickens that never got to take their first breath. Will you be ordering bacon, sausage or ham? Did you know it isn’t possible to quickly expire a pig? They do scream and it is blood curdling! I cannot forget the screaming. It was very sad to me as a teen. Will you have a hamburger for lunch tomorrow. Maybe a small steak for dinner. Poor cow. Well, it just goes on and on doesn’t it.

These are just the hard facts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The whole, full process of meal preparation happens! It has been happening for centuries, long before Sarah Palin was born. Sorry, my friend, you cannot blame this fine, courageous leader for the death of somebody’s next meal.

Sincerely,
Sharon Riggen

[JACK]

To all you prudes complaining about Palin's video get a life
you sicko's that video is real life, it's a pictorial of what goes on in the world, I don't hear any whining when most of you sit down and eat those Turkeys. All this criticism isn't about Turkeys being readied for market it's
all about liberals so afraid of a woman that they will critique anything she does.
Sarah Palin could be passing out dollar bills and you lefties and the woman Kate Linthicum that wrote the article would find something wrong with that.
One thing for sure you crybaby liberals can't destroy Sarah Palin because she's a real woman not some fancy talking typo babe that sits in an air conditioned room trying her
best trying to defeat Palin, but you and the rest of the
wolf pack are wasting your time, because another reason you can't make a dent in her armor is the fact that she doesn't waste time in needless responses to your vitriol and hate
speech against her, she is far above any of you in class and demeanor, the more you try to put her down the more
popular she becomes and that really rankles you.

[Glenn DeBard]

Someone is using my name to post things here. STOP IT!!!!!!!