Gunfight At The DC Corral

Sashay, Chante!

Several times this weekend I tried to post this clip of Sarah Palin working the pageant runway in 1984, but the Republicflacks kept getting the clip pulled. I guess they've given up since so many folks are reposting it on their own. The Alaskan guy who posted this portion has promised to also post her flute solo talent segment. What song do you think she played?

Glossolalia, Part 2

Since this cartoon first appeared in the online edition of the Washington Post three weeks ago, over 750 emails of complaint have poured in from people who think speaking in tongues is nothing to laugh at. Oh, wait...I'm 'bout to get caught up in the spirit! Obama Obama bo bama, bonana fanna fo fama, fee fi mo mamah, Obama! Whew!

Palin Falls 27% In "Favorables"

She's now at -10 (meaning 40% view her favorably, 50% unfavorably). Two weeks ago she was at +17.

(Via - Daily Kos)

No Lifeline For Sarah Palin

Dingbatting A Thousand

COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters--

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia--

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.

(Transcript via - Pam Spaulding)

The Palin Principle

The Palin Principle: A theory of workplace economics which postulates that one can be vaulted several rungs above their level of incompetence when it suits the demands of the Religious Right.

The Bush Corollary: Sometimes people rise to their level of incompetence by manipulation of the Supreme Court.

(Image via - Chris Glass)

Go To The 1:10 Mark

You'll be glad you did.

Palin Gets Protection From Witchcraft

Via YouTuber NY Progressive: "In this new video, available only as of today (September 23, 2008), Sarah Palin is shown accepting a special supernatural protection from witchcraft from Thomas Muthee, who also promoted Palin's campaign for Governor as a way to infiltrate the government with the right wing religious agenda of the Assembly of God. Really crazy stuff!"

If the believers had not done something in this country, your president would not be in office today.

We need believers who are educationists. If we hired them today, we would not be talking about the ten commandments being kicked… out of the schools. They would still be there. We need god taking over our education system. If we have God in our schools, we will not have our kids being taught how to worship Buddha, how to worship Muhammad. We will not have in the curriculum witchcraft and sorcery. …

We need believers [in government]. We need men and women of integrity… people that are born-again, spirit-filled people who know God and people who are serious with God. So in a moment… I’ll ask Sarah to come up. Please let’s stand up, and let’s hold hands all over this house.

[Palin walks up to the front of the chapel; two men flank her and lay hands on her, as does Muthee.]

Give her the personnel. Give her men and women that will buck her up. In the name of Jesus, we want righteousness in this state, we want righteousness in this nation… so that the curse that has been on them can be broken. … In the name of Jesus, every form of witchcraft is what we rebuke.

(Transcript via - Slog)

Palin On Couric: Here's Why They Won't Let Her Speak To The Press

Couric: You've said, quote, "John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business." Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?

Palin: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie - that, that's paramount. That's more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.

Couric: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

Palin: He's also known as the maverick though, taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about - the need to reform government.

Couric: But can you give me any other concrete examples? Because I know you've said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action. Can you give me any other examples in his 26 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this?

Palin: I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that has shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today.

Couric: I'm just going to ask you one more time - not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.

Palin: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

Unbelievable.

(Transcript via - Pam Spaulding)

Sully Won't Let Up On Baby Trig

The McCain campaign has leaked an email Andrew Sullivan sent them to the Washington Post in which Sullivan demands proof that Sarah Palin really, really DID give birth to baby Trig. WaPo's Howard Kurtz quotes the email and responds:

"I'm very sorry to say, it's come to this: can you confirm on the record that Trig Palin is Sarah Palin's biological son? . . . Since this is a crazy idea, it should be easy for you or someone to let me know, the most popular one-man political blog site in the world, what the truth is."

A day later, he followed up with a second note: "I asked a simple question akin to asking whether you can confirm that the sky is blue. Here's the question in case it got lost: can you confirm on the record that Trig Palin is Sarah Palin's biological son? Can I please get a response of some sort, even if it is that you will not respond?" The McCain camp, which provided the messages to The Washington Post, did not reply.

Why ask that question, with no supporting evidence? "Like any human being," Sullivan told me by e-mail, "I assume that this baby is hers. Of course I do. But as a journalist, my job is also to ask for confirmation or for evidence. And that is all I have done. By e-mail. Not on my blog. I would be remiss if I did not ask them to confirm it. At least that's my view of my responsibility. And I have published every single piece of evidence we have that he is. What else can I do?" He added that McCain aides "won't respond" but "seek to target the blogger asking the question."

Sullivan did post photos of a pregnant-looking Palin when the pictures surfaced.

Is this a case of the McCain folks trying to marginalize a critic, as in Monday's blast at the New York Times as being in the tank for Obama?

"These e-mails show two things," McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb told me. "One, Andrew Sullivan has the biggest one-man ego on the planet. And two, the insanity that this campaign has had to put up with for the last month."

Why not release the hospital records and put this matter to rest?

"Governor Palin has no history of health problems," Goldfarb says. "We believe that a candidate should be able to preserve some privacy in this process, and we're confident the American people will validate that judgment come election day."

Sullivan, one of the earliest bloggers, has been on a tear about Palin lately, calling her "a compulsive, repetitive, demonstrable liar." But it is the Trig question that has his critics, especially on the right, up in arms. For instance, the Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last, on his Galley Slaves blog, says: "Andrew Sullivan is once again openly using The Atlantic as a platform to demand that Sarah Palin 'prove' that she is mother of her youngest child. It is a disgrace for the magazine and everyone associated with it. One hundred and fifty years of storied history set ablaze in fortnight by a single writer."

There's a difference, obviously, between the fact-checked copy that goes into the magazine and the free-wheeling platform that Atlantic gives its bloggers. But Sullivan's Trig postings have troubled some of his colleagues, and he has been in a veiled debate with fellow Atlantic writer Ross Douthat, who wrote:

"If you think that many of the same people who bleat the loudest about the evils of 'Rove-style' politics aren't happy to similarly dirty their hands for the sake of their own causes and candidates -- well, you need only look at some of the coverage of Sarah Palin's family to see how quickly principle gives way to expedience when power is at stake."

Sullivan responded to his detractors last week:

"All this blog has done is ask for facts and context about a subject that the Palin campaign has put at the center of its message, facts about a baby held up at a convention as a political symbol for the pro-life movement, and cited in Palin's acceptance speech. You do that, you invite questions about it. I make absolutely no apologies for doing my job. I find the account of her pregnancy and labor provided by Palin to be perplexing, to put it mildly, and I have every right to ask questions about it, especially since we have discovered that this woman lies more compulsively and less intelligently than the Clintons."

It has always seemed fishy to me, what with Palin supposedly in leaky labor with a known-to-be birth defect baby, yet getting on a plane in Texas to fly all the home to Alaska to give birth.

Campbell Brown: Free Sarah Palin!

Last night CNN's Campbell Brown went on a rant against the media blackout on Sarah Palin.

Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska for crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters... Let her have a real news conference with real questions. By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you are not showing her the respect she deserves. Free Sarah Palin. Free her from the chauvinistic chain you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do. So let her act like one.

RNC Insider: Lesbian Rumors Killed Condoleezza Rice's Veep Chances

Reporter Ian Alperin is quoting an unnamed Republican National Committee insider as saying that those pesky lesbian rumors killed any chance of Condoleezza Rice being selected as John McCain's running mate.

“Once Obama selected Biden instead of Hillary,” said the source, ” they had this theory that Condi was the perfect candidate to put up against him. She’s tough, conservative and a hawk, not to mention a football fanatic, which would be more than enough for white men. They never expected traditionally Democratic Blacks and women to vote for her in large numbers, but argued that if she could just sway 5-10% of Blacks and 10% of women to defect, it could be enough to tilt the election towards McCain in a number of crucial swing states. At this point, Palin still wasn’t on anybody’s radar screen.”

So what went wrong? “It was the persistent rumors about her sexuality that ultimately killed her chances and removed her from the list,” says the mid-level RNC official. “In Washington circles, it’s just assumed Rice is gay and nobody really cares. But in the glare of the media spotlight, those rumors were bound to get magnified a thousandfold and the mainstream media would have had an excuse to reveal the facts that would have caused conniption fits among the Republican base.”

According to Alperin's source, Rice's name was put forward on the shortlist of candidates, but she was rejected as "unelectable." Last year it was revealed that Rice co-owns a house with longtime gal pal Randy Bean.

How would you feel have felt about a McCain/Rice ticket? Would having a closeted lesbian "one heartbeat from the White House" have made you reconsider your vote? Certainly Rice is infinitely more qualified.

FrankenBarbie Evita Palin

In case your level of doom and panic wasn't high enough, check out Naomi Wolf's take on Sarah Palin in the Huffington Post. Her shit's right out of the X-Files.

Please understand what you are looking at when you look at Sarah "Evita" Palin. You are looking at the designated muse of the coming American police state.

You have to understand how things work in a closing society in order to understand "Palin Power." A gang or cabal seizes power, usually with an affable, weak figurehead at the fore. Then they will hold elections -- but they will make sure that the election will be corrupted and that the next affable, weak figurehead is entirely in their control. Remember, Russia has Presidents; Russia holds elections. Dictators and gangs of thugs all over the world hold elections. It means nothing. When a cabal has seized power you can have elections and even presidents, but you't have freedom.

I realized early on with horror what I was seeing in Governor Palin: the continuation of the Rove-Cheney cabal, but this time without restraints. I heard her echo Bush 2000 soundbites ("the heart of America is on display") and realized Bush's speechwriters were writing her -- not McCain's -- speeches. I heard her tell George Bush's lies -- not McCain's -- to the American people, linking 9/11 to Iraq. I heard her make fun of Barack Obama for wanting to prevent the torture of prisoners -- this is Rove-Cheney's enthusiastic S and M, not McCain's, who, though he shamefully colluded in the 2006 Military Tribunals Act, is also a former prisoner of war and wrote an eloquent Newsweek piece in 2005 opposing torture. I saw that she was even styled by the same skillful stylist (neutral lipstick, matte makeup, dark colors) who turned Katharine Harris from a mall rat into a stateswoman and who styles all the women in the Bush orbit --but who does not bother to style Cindy McCain.

Then I saw and heard more. Palin is embracing lawlessness in defying Alaskan Legislature subpoenas --this is what Rove-Cheney, and not McCain, believe in doing. She uses mafia tactics against critics, like the police commissioner who was railroaded for opposing handguns in Alaskan battered women's shelters -- Rove's style, not McCain's. I realized what I was seeing.

Reports confirmed my suspicions: Palin, not McCain, is the FrankenBarbie of the Rove-Cheney cabal. The strategy became clear. Time magazine reported that Rove is "dialed in" to the McCain campaign. Rove's protégé Steve Schmidt is now campaign manager. And Politico reported that Rove was heavily involved in McCain's vice presidential selection. Finally a new report shows that there are dozens of Bush and Rove operatives surrounding Sarah Palin and orchestrating her every move.

What's the plan? It is this. McCain doesn't matter. Reputable dermatologists are discussing the fact that in simply actuarial terms, John McCain has a virulent and life-threatening form of skin cancer. It is the elephant in the room, but we must discuss the health of the candidates: doctors put survival rates for someone his age at two to four years. I believe the Rove-Cheney cabal is using Sarah Palin as a stalking horse, an Evita figure, to put a popular, populist face on the coming police state and be the talk show hostess for the end of elections as we know them. If McCain-Palin get in, this will be the last true American election. She will be working for Halliburton, KBR, Rove and Cheney into the foreseeable future -- for a decade perhaps -- a puppet "president" for the same people who have plundered our treasure, are now holding the US economy hostage and who murdered four thousand brave young men and women in a way of choice and lies.

Read the rest. It's chilling but I also keep remembering that Naomi Wolf also says that her body was once taken over by a 13 year-old boy, during which she saw Jeebus. So for this piece, YMMV.

McCain Press Watch

Almost 25 days since Palin was picked and they still don't trust her to speak off the cuff. I imagine she's sitting in a hotel conference room while staffers drill her with flash cards. "Um....is that Kim Jong-il?" No, Governor. This is Angela Merkel. Next card.

Sarah Palin Is Ready For The Rapture

Sarah Palin is ready for the believers of the world to be lifted up to Jeebus. Via Newsweek:

Palin's spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of "the final generation," engaged in "spiritual warfare" to purge the earth of "demonic strongholds." Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal? Do we actually want our leaders thinking about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say to the Iranians, or to the North Koreans, or to the Pakistanis, or to the Russians or to the Chinese: "All options remain on the table"?

Andrew Sullivan on Palin and the "End Times":

Yes, she believes in them. Of course she believes in them. Her former pastor believes that Alaska will be the refuge for the faithful in the lower 48 states when the Rapture comes. She is a Biblical literalist who denies evolution - who has to deny evolution - to remain in her church. She believes - because she has to believe - that the earth was created 6,000 years ago. And she believes that the Apocalypse will start in the Middle East.

It is now 24 days since she was announced as a potential president of the United States next January and she still hasn't given a news conference or has any plans to hold one. This black-out of all serious press access has never happened in modern American political history before. If that doesn't concern you, what will?

From the clip: "Our national leaders are sending our soldiers out on a task from God."

I think I just may vomit.

Sarah Palin On Sean Hannity

Real Clear Politics has the complete transcript.

Here's what David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun had to say:

Talk show host Sean Hannity and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin came together for what Fox News Channel promoted as an exclusive interview. But, in truth, what viewers saw was a carefully staged display of partisan political theater -- from the executive-office backdrop to the non-stop stream of smiley-faced softball questions Hannity served up with great servility.

In TV terms, the imagery was impressive, with an American flag over her left shoulder, a richly appointed china cabinet off to the side and thick carpeting throughout. Every table had flowers in a fine vase. It was all supposed to remind viewers of the White House while sending the message: Look how comfortable and natural she looks here.

Typical of their staged conversation was the following exchange:

Hannity: “Senator Obama yesterday was attacking Senator McCain for saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Do you believe the fundamentals of the economy are strong?”

Palin: “It was an unfair attack on the verbiage… because he (McCain) means our work force, of course, and that is what’s strong… So, that was an unfair attack.”

Note that she didn’t answer the question. Instead, she used it as an opening to attack Obama. And Hannity let her go run with that – rather than asking the question again or pointing out that she didn’t answer it.

Even on the friendly confines of the Fox News Channel with Hannity serving up heaping helpings of home cooking, she couldn’t get it right. Her handlers might want to re-think letting her face as skilled an interviewer and journalist as Katie Couric on CBS.

Enquirer: Palin Kids Users & Dealers

The National Enquirer continues their quest to dig up dirt on the Palin family, today revealing that daughter Bristol smoked pot on film and that her high school dropout boyfriend Levi dealt (and smoked) Oxycontin and shot up steroids. Last week the Enquirer reported that Track Palin also regularly smoked Oxy and broke into cars to support his habit. None of which wouldn't be the slightest bit newsworthy unless your mother was a lying hypocritical right-wing crazy running for vice president.

(Via - Gawker)

Pray For Us, Sarah!

In response to Sarah Palin's church's recent "pray away the gay" event, filmmaker Sandi Bachom made this funny and heartwarming short in which gay New Yorkers speak directly to Palin. Watch the whole thing, Bachom found some wonderfully amusing and articulate people.

(Tipped by JMG reader Jeff)

Jon Stewart On Sarah Palin