Revisionist History Alert

Yes there are people in America who really think Sarah Palin was our first female VP nominee. Unbelievable, but true. I guess when you live in a bubble that's about to be expected.

Umm ... CNN?

[UPDATE]:

Via Doug at Balloon Juice:

I would not be shocked if Palin eventually makes up some crazy story about an attempted attack on her, maybe along the lines of the Ross Perot story about how the Viet Cong tried to put a hit on him.

And her appearance on Hannity on Monday will be the perfect opportunity for her to tell us how oppressed and beleaguered she is by the big, mean liberals.

---------------------

Predictably, CNN Correspondent Erick Erickson hated on the President’s speech in today’s column. No big shocker there. But he really wallowed in the mud on this one:

Out there somewhere is someone who would love to kill Governor Palin. God forbid they do it. But you and I both know there is some crazy MSNBC watcher and Media Matters reader who even now is dreaming of doing so.

And should they try, we can be equally sure of something else. The left will be divided into two camps: (1) bitch deserved it and (2) not my fault.

It is unfortunate. I hope it never happens. But you and I both know the reality in which we live.

Wow. Way to go, buddy. You really topped yourself this time. Way to take the whole “civil discourse” stuff to heart. As if Sarah Palin were even important enough to bother with. Well, maybe in her own mind, but really. Can you imagine? Most of us ignore her, except when the mainstream media insists on shoving her latest ghost-written Tweet or Facebook post in our faces. Then we point fingers and laugh. Not quite the same as assassination but then again, maybe it is to people like Erick Erickson.

I think those three paragraphs say a whole lot more about Erick Erickson than they do about the Left, Media Matters or MSNBC. And I can't help but wonder why this hack still has a job on CNN.

Adding .... Mr. Beale heard that Erickson thinks some MSNBC watcher "would love to kill Governor Palin" and cracked: "Wait, I though none of 'em have guns?" Which reminded me: I'm always amazed at the right's two completely contradictory characterizations of us liberals, which they seem able to hold in their minds at the same time. We're either weak-kneed surrender monkeys who are "soft on defense," want to offer therapy and understanding to our enemies, and can't be trusted to keep the nation safe OR we're the whacked out anarchists rioting in the streets and fomenting civil unrest.

Cognitive dissonance much?

This Says More About You Than It Does About Us

Via Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice comes this semi-satirical (I hope) piece in Esquire, “How D.C. Became Hollywood for Semi-Attractive People.” The premise is that Republicans are ascendent because they have stars like Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell who happen to be attractive women, and they’re fun to watch because they spew crazy shit. The Democrats are boring, and their women, says the article, “are either old or unattractive.” When given a choice between old/unattractive and boring vs. attractive and entertaining/crazy, the American voter will take the latter, according to Esquire at least.

Before you think Tom Junod just watched this video too many times, hear him out:

The reality-television baseline is becoming the standard of beauty in this country: If you can say really crazy things or lead a really crazy life and become a star, well, then you must be beautiful. The Republicans have cornered the market on beauty because they've cornered the market on crazy, and if they've failed to produce a "candidate" in Delaware, they've succeeded in producing a star, and have made all the tut-tutting pundits look as behind the times as the newspapers they serve. Wherever populism reared its head, there used to be sweaty men; now — in country music, at Fox, and in crossover "Islamaphobe" bloggers who get their picture pasted on the Sunday Times — there are at least semi-sexy women.

Okay, I’m going to call bullshit here, with a bullhorn.

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T!

Sarah Palin lost. Her candidates lose. Christine O’Donnell will lose. They may be attractive and entertaining but they don’t win elections.

Tom Junod and the rest of the media elites may have a hard-on for these women but the country does not want them in elected office. They are “stars” because they are “media-genic” -- Christine O’Donnell was on television long before she was a political candidate, as the current avalanche of embarrassing video from Bill Maher now illustrates. But that is because she fits the media’s idea of what is attractive and entertaining. It certainly doesn’t mean that this is what voters want in their politicians.

Sure, the superficialities matter -- Scott Brown is a case in point. But last I checked, Republican candidates like Rand Paul and Joe Miller aren’t exactly stud muffins. Sharron Angle is no cover girl. So, while I’m trying to be fair to Tom Junod (and Anne Laurie), I think this is BS.

It’s a midterm election, people. The economy sucks. We have a lot of problems in this country, a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety. So when Junod writes

They didn't realize that what we want is drama and nothing but ...

my answer is no. Just, no. We have enough drama as it is. You people are the one who wants the drama, Mr. Junod. It’s the media who demands the crazy and the pretty and the studly. Not the public. It's YOU who turn these people into stars.

Cripes. Don't saddle us with your neurosis, buddy.

And The Money Keeps Rolling On In

Much is being made on the interwebs about this Vanity Fair piece on Sarah Palin. To me the most damaging revelation is the fleecing of the masses that is the Sarah Palin Grift-PAC. The “benefits” that are really just Sarah Palin speaking engagements, and the phony “charities” that her proceeds supposedly support, appear for all intents and purposes to be nothing more than shells. Indeed, the biggest charity benefitting from all of this is the grifter Sarah Palin herself:

PAL-PAC seems to have been created for a single purpose: to pay Sarah Palin to give a speech. PAL-PAC announced the Palin event at the same time that it announced its own formation. After the Palin event was over, most of the information on PAL-PAC’s Web site disappeared. In effect, PAL-PAC was a disposable entertainment company, set up to put on a one-day show that collected the contact information of thousands of people who came to see Palin in the flesh, and to give her their money. The organization has not been mentioned again anywhere online or in local newspapers. The group’s financial statements are curious. PAL-PAC was registered in Missouri last November; as of April 15, 2010, when it made its second quarterly disclosure report to the Missouri Ethics Commission, two weeks before Palin arrived in Independence, PAL-PAC had only $3,202 in the bank. This was not nearly enough money to reserve the venue, much less cover security, printing, advertising, or any of the other expenses associated with throwing an event for 4,000 people. PAL-PAC’s third disclosure report, filed on July 14, reveals large payments to Wayne Graves, a Kansas City physician, whose wife, Karladine, also a doctor, is the president of PAL-PAC. Wayne Graves performed a key service for Winning America Back: he personally paid the speakers’ fees and travel expenses. On June 23, according to the report, he was reimbursed for these outlays: $15,134.83 for “Reimburse Speak[er],” and $126,000, also for “Reimburse Speak[er].” By fronting the money for these expenses, Graves made it possible for PAL-PAC to keep details such as Palin’s precise fee under wraps. But the lion’s share of that $126,000, it seems safe to assume, went to Palin—that would tally with verified reports of what Palin has been paid elsewhere.

[...]

Other stops on Palin’s road show raise questions similar to those surrounding Winning America Back. Palin spoke to a group in Dallas that claimed to be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group but is not registered as one. That event was advertised as a fund-raiser for the Uptown Women’s Center, whose eponymous U.R.L. redirected visitors to a Web site selling tickets for the event, palin4life.com, which has since disappeared. In June, Palin was scheduled to go to Charlotte, North Carolina, for two events, a $300-per-ticket “Evening with Sarah Palin” and the free “Complete Woman Expo 2010.” Both were sponsored by a newly formed organization, the Blue Ridge Educational Resource Group. Like PAL-PAC, the Blue Ridge group had sprung up from nowhere, and also like PAL-PAC, it somehow landed one of the country’s most-sought-after female speakers to headline its very first event. Local officials eventually expressed skepticism that Blue Ridge was competent to manage the logistics for an expected crowd of 30,000, and at the last minute both events were canceled. The Blue Ridge group’s Web site, like PAL-PAC’s, was reduced to a shell.

This seems like a lot of trouble to go through for no discernible reason. Certainly there was much grumbling and negative press over perceived fleecing of patriots at Nashville's Tea Party Convention last February. And Palin’s appearance at that event sparked lawsuits over her $100,000 speaking fee. Maybe she's trying to preserve her image as a legitimate candidate, not a celebrity speaker who justifies $100,000 a gig? Seems to me Sarah Palin's fans wouldn't care one way or the other. As with any cult--and mark my words, Sarah Palin is as much a cult leader as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh--adherents won't begrudge their leader her golden Rolls Royce.

Back in February, Palin claimed she would donate her $100,000 Nashville speaking fee to charity. But I don’t recall ever hearing which charity received the largesse, or even if anyone in the media tried to find that out. It seems to me our media, instead of repeating Palin’s latest ghost-written Tweet or Facebook post, should instead spend a little time looking into the shell PACs and charities behind her various public appearances. How about doing a little more legwork, guys?

Kind of reminds me of another storied “lady of the people” ... but then, when the money keeps rolling in you don’t ask how.

I, Too, Demand My Constitutional Right To A Syndicated Radio Show & Other Thoughts

Constitutional scholar Sarah Palin tells Dr. Laura to not retreat, reload!

Which should make today a fun one on the internets.

Meanwhile, as the nation focuses on the circus sideshow, Nashville is preparing for a repeat of its floods of three and a half months ago. Hopefully we won’t be looking at our fourth 100-year flood in 40 years. Climate change, much? The New York Times connects the dots (although some of us did that a few months ago):

Dr. Meehl, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told me in an interview that the “fairly small” average warming in the earth’s temperature, about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the Industrial Revolution, can be expected to lead to “much more noticeable changes in the extremes” of heat and cold.

“Physically, you’d expect to see more record heat events and fewer record cold events,” he said. “That’s what we are seeing.”
For those intimidated by scientific papers, a simpler write-up on the issue can be found here. And Dr. Meehl is also on YouTube talking about the findings of his research.

Here’s the video:



Conservatives who deny climate change are a lot like Sarah Palin discussing the Constitution: they do it with very little real understanding of the subject matter, lots of false assumptions and politically-motivated finger pointing, and a hefty dose of oil industry backing. They don’t need to prove anything, just sow enough doubt in peoples’ minds that it undermines any real effort to change anything so we can keep sucking on the bones of dead dinosaurs.

Hmm ... maybe the Constitution really does guarantee me a right to a nationally-syndicated radio show! In which case, my first program can be about climate change.

Feel Good Friday

Sarah Palin gets schooled by the always awesome Sarah Hickman and the Austin Lounge Lizards:

Palin We Have A Problem

Much is being made of Sarah Palin’s Facebook page featuring Congress Critters like Bart Gordon in the crosshairs and her related Tweet to not retreat but “RELOAD!” In light of escalating violence and threats against pro-healthcare legislators, it is indeed irresponsible to egg on the thugs of the Tea Party movement.

Of course, the Palin crowd says she didn’t really mean to “target” certain members of Congress, those crosshairs on her map are just a graphic, ya big sillies, and when she said “reload” she meant to “reload Congress.”

Uh, yeah. You do realize that Bart Gordon isn’t running for re-election, right? So why is he in your crosshairs? Ditto with Vic Snyder and Brad Ellsworth -- indeed, that little fact is even mentioned on the map. Which makes the statement “Already retiring at the end of their terms. 17 more to go!” sound even more creepy.

Amygdala America is out of control. Try as they might to mainstream their movement, there is no hiding the hate in the Tea Party.

The Palin Hustle

Yes, I think when it comes to Sarah Palin, the word "hustle" is apt:

Medicine Hat News reports on a speech Sarah Palin gave in Calgary (tickets as low as $150), where a folksy monologue took a shocking turn — an admission about how her family received health care.

We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn’t that ironic.

Palin, born in Idaho, lived in Wasilla, Alaska for most of her life. The nearest city in Canada, Whitehorse, is a 15 hour drive away. Anchorage is only 45 minutes away. I definitely want to hear more about this.

Indeed.

Let's also remember that as governor of Alaska, Palin accepted free health, dental and veterinary care for remote Alaskan villages courtesy of Uncle Sam and U.S taxpayers, called "Operation Arctic Care." While I won't question that decision--these villages are some of the poorest in the nation and are in desperate need of assistance--I do think it's a tad hypocritical to criticize "government giveaways" on the one hand, while taking the same on the other.

And as for this healthcare thing, well, she can just take a big steaming cup of STFU next time she wants to open her yap about "socialized medicine" and "death panels."

Quick Question

Just curious how much longer conservatives will slam the “Hollywood elite” when their own beloved Sarah Palin increasingly acts like a member of that club.

They Think You’re Chumps

So apparently if you donated to Sarah Palin’s “SarahPAC” you basically just put Sarah Palin’s book on the New York Times best-seller list:

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate had her political organization spend more than $63,000 on what her reports describe as "books for fundraising donor fulfillment." The payments went to Harper Collins, her publisher, and in some instances to HSP Direct, a Virginia-based direct mail fundraising firm that serves a number of well-known conservative politicians and pundits.

Sarah PAC spent another $8,000 on colorful bookmarks designed by a Nashville-based event branding firm. And her committee paid her publisher $20,000 for what appears to have been the cost of sending her personal photographer and another aide along on her book tour. Those expenses are listed by the PAC as travel repayment to Harper Collins.

All of the purchases took place in November and December of 2009, the records show.

Oh, there’s always a Nashville connection!

Meanwhile, Salon.com reports:

In the last half of 2009, Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, gave only $43,000 to Republican candidates for federal office. That money was spread over more than a dozen people.

So basically SarahPAC spent more money in two months promoting and publicizing Sarah Palin’s memoir than it did in six months promoting conservative candidates.

Okie dokie.

Meanwhile, we have Judson Phillips’ dubious “for profit” Tea Party convention fleecing people for their hard-earned cash.

Hey, Tea Party folks: someone thinks you’re stupid.

Kabuki Theater

Does anyone dispute the notion that our nation’s political discourse is mere Kabuki Theater designed to distract from what’s really important? If so, this should dispel all doubts:

Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin announced today that she will campaign for a handful of prominent conservative candidates this year, including her former running mate Sen. John McCain.

Are you fucking kidding me? After all the election post-mortems and passing of blame, after "Going Rogue,” which was basically one big venting of campaign spleen, to retaliation by McCain campaign head Steve Schmidt, and all the agita in between?

Remember McCain intentionally not mentioning Sarah Palin in his list of "GOP stars”? Remember Sarah Palin on vacation in Hawaii this Christmas wearing a campaign visor with McCain’s name X’d out?

I guess it’s all bygones.

So I’m thinking we’re all pretty much stage props in this theater of the absurd called American Politics. What do you think?

Did Sarah Palin Back Out Of Nashville Booking?

No, not the National Tea Party convention--at least, not yet. At least, not while she’s allegedly getting $100K to speak at that event.

I’m talking about the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, where Palin was supposedly set to appear with Pat Boone at a Feb. 28 dinner. It was announced waaay back in October. Even Glenn Beck’s 912 project had the booking on its national calendar.

The dinner was sponsored by a pro-Israel group called “Proclaiming Justice To The Nations,” which appears to be one of those scary Fundiegelical organizations which manufactures anti-Muslim fear porn such as their latest film, “The Forgotten People.” The organization’s work has been criticized by local Jewish religious leaders as “an abuse of the memory of the Holocaust, and a manipulation of Holocaust survivors." (As an aside, PJTN’s president and founder, Laurie Cardoza Moore, is a Nashvillian and former lobbyist for Tennessee Right To Life.)

So perhaps Sarah Palin was smart to back away from this PR disaster-in-waiting. From keynote speaker a few months ago, she was downgraded to a "special invited guest” in early January. Now, however, the PJTN website advertises Michelle Bachmann as its keynote speaker on Feb. 28. The NRB Convention schedule makes no mention of Palin, either.

Of course, Palin could still show up as a surprise guest. She and Bachmann appear to be thick as thieves these days, with Bachmann also booked for the Tea Party confab.

Bachmann/Palin 2012, anyone?

Sarah Palin Joins The American Morans Club

I normally ignore all the stupid things Sarah Palin says and does, but I just saw this on Twitter and had show it to y’all:



Ions? Ions? Honey, you were so not ready for national office. Hell, I don’t think you were ready for Alaska state office.

Hilarious.

(More American Morans here; original American Moran here.)

Too Much Work

God forbid Sarah Palin should embark on anything resembling "work," and that goes for the American tradition of turkey dinner with all the trimmings on Thanksgiving. It's Quiznos sandwiches for the Palin family (didn't know they were open on T-Day!) because, as she told this news crew, preparing Thanksgiving dinner is "too much work":



She's right, it is too much work. Next year I suggest we all take the Christian NewsWire up on their War On Thanksgiving fantasy and go to Quizno's instead.

And as for that 5k race she started, well, that was apparently "too much work," too.

Speaking of work, Palin's agent has been very busy lining up the speaking engagements, including not one but two in Nashville. How did we get so lucky? I'm getting lots of e-mails from folks asking if I've heard about Palin's February 2010 National Tea Party Convention appearance at Nashville's Opryland Hotel. Yes, we're all just tickled to death about it.

Here's a little "Ms. Cheap"-style tip for you tea baggers balking at the nearly $560 ticket price: Palin is also booked for the National Religious Broadcaster's dinner on Feb. 28, 2010, also at Nashville's Opryland. Tickets to that event are a comparatively affordable $150, and even better she's appearing with Pat Boone, who I imagine is much more entertaining than Michelle Bachmann.

Unless, of course, she cancels. Which, given her recent history of not finishing things, is always a possibility. You know, someone should tell Palin that things would be a lot less work if only she could ditch her opposition to human cloning and find a way to be in two places at once.

Ooops. Looks like she's way ahead of me:



(Photo hat-tip, Wonkette.)

Don’t Talk To Me About Death Panels

Don’t talk to me about death panels, Sarah Palin.

You, who so carelessly bolstered a lie about healthcare reform to score a cheap political point; you, the most craven of political opportunists, who fearmongers about some dystopian socialist/fascist fantasyland; you, who earlier this year were only too happy to accept free medical, dental and veterinary care from the U.S. military for Alaska’s remote villages; you, dear lady, are an idiot.

In your free market wonderland everyone somehow manages to get healthcare, even those who are poor or live in isolated areas, though the poor and isolated in your own state required assistance from the federal government.

And despite all of this, you appear blithely unaware that the free market healthcare system we have now does, indeed, have “death panels.” I’ve been part of a death panel conversation. I know about death panels.

You have no idea what it’s like to be called into a sterile conference room with a hospital administrator you’ve never met before and be told that your mother’s insurance policy will only pay for 30 days in ICU. You can't imagine what it's like to be advised that you need to “make some decisions,” like whether your mother should be released “HTD” which is hospital parlance for “home to die,” or if you want to pay out of pocket to keep her in the ICU another week. And when you ask how much that would cost you are given a number so impossibly large that you realize there really are no decisions to make. The decision has been made for you. "Living will" or no, it doesn't matter. The bank account and the insurance policy have trumped any legal document.

If this isn’t a “death panel” I don’t know what is.

So don’t talk to me about “death panels” you heartless, cruel, greedy sons of bitches, who are only too happy to keep the profits rolling in to the big insurance companies while you spout your mealy-mouthed bumper sticker slogans about the evils of socialism. You don't even know what socialism is. You don't know what government healthcare is. You have no fucking clue about anything except that you lost the last election and you're pissed off.

You are young. Your parents are still alive. You don’t know enough to take any of this seriously. It's all an exercise in political theater for you. But that will change. We all get older. The time will arrive, someday, when you are tasked with caring for someone you love who is seriously ill. You will be ushered in to that sterile hospital conference room with an administrator you do not know, where you are told to "make plans" for a day you never hoped to see. And then you will get your education.

If on that day you still think the healthcare system we have now is fabulous and worth lying, cheating and threatening people to maintain, I can only conclude that you lack even the tiniest grain of a soul.

What A Difference A Few Months Makes

Sarah Palin was for cap and trade before she was against it. The money quote is at 5:07:

So Much For Country First

I just read the Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin. Nothing that liberal bloggers and news junkies didn’t already know, of course, save the part about the conservative cruise ship:

Palin had been on the national Republican radar for barely a year, after a cruise ship of conservative columnists, including The Weekly Standard’s William Kristol, had stopped in Juneau in 2007 and had succumbed to her charms when she invited them to the governor’s house for a luncheon of halibut cheeks.

OH. So that’s what you did on your vacation. Hopped off the cruise ship in Juneau, picked up a few knick-knacks for the in-laws, some Inuit trinkets for the kids, and oh by the way, here’s your vice presidential running mate.

Glad to know conservatives take this shit seriously.

And really that’s what continues to surprise/offend me about the whole Sarah Palin narrative. I care less about the gossipy tidbits than the fact that everyone, the writer included, seems to treat Sarah Palin like she’s the star of a Hollywood blockbuster who's being difficult at Cannes. No one seems to realize that a person completely unsuitable for high national office (or even high state office, if you believe half of what’s in the article) was trying to be Vice President of the United States. You know, a heartbeat away from the presidency and all that. They knew she was all wrong, dangerously wrong, and they forged ahead anyway.

In a campaign titled “Country First,” no less. Irony is the first casualty of political ambition, I guess.

I have to wonder, amid all of the last minute scrambling and rescheduling as the seasoned politicos realized that Sarah Palin was not ready to campaign for vice president, did it dawn on anyone that she was not ready to be vice president?

As they toured the country under the slogan “Country First” with the woman they nicknamed “Little Shop of Horrors,” did no one stop to think about, you know, putting country first?

You have to read nearly to the end of the article to get that question answered:

In recent rounds of long conversations, most made it clear that they suffer a kind of survivor’s guilt: they can’t quite believe that for two frantic months last fall, caught in a Bermuda Triangle of a campaign, they worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be. They quietly ponder the nightmare they lived through.

Oh no, you don’t. You DO NOT ask for sympathy. For the love of all that is holy, do you people have any idea of what you were doing? Do you not have a scintilla of perspective?

Survivors guilt, my ass. You people should be on your knees begging America for forgiveness. You almost turned the keys to the White House over to the psychodoodle faction of the Republican Party. You folks in the McCain campaign knew that better than anyone.

This is America we’re talking about here! Country first, remember? Hello?

They all know that if their candidate—a 72-year-old cancer survivor—had won the presidency, the vice-presidency would be in the hands of a woman who lacked the knowledge, the preparation, the aptitude, and the temperament for the job. To ask why none of them dared to just walk away is to ask why Colin Powell did not resign in protest over the Bush administration’s foreign policy, or why none of Bill Clinton’s disillusioned aides resigned after he lied to them about Monica Lewinsky. The question cannot comprehend the intense bonds that the blood sport of modern politics produces.

No, no, no. Getting a blow job is not the same thing as working your butt off to elect someone wholly unsuitable to be president or vice president.

And that is ultimately what scares me about America. The riches of political victory have become so vast that people will tell themselves anything if it means their side will win.

Country First is, after all, just a slogan. Words used in a political pitch, like “good to the last drop” or “breakfast of champions.” Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.

If Sarah Palin comes back with a 2012 run, there will be people who think she’s fabulous and there will be other people, insider people, who know she lacks “the knowledge, the preparation, the aptitude, and the temperament for the job,” but will work their tails off regardless because no one steps outside the bubble long enough or far enough to realize the implications of what they are doing. They all lack perspective.

And Sarah, well, she might like to think she’s some kind of “outsider” who’s a “maverick” who doesn’t do things the “Washington way” and that might be true to a certain extent, but honey you’re going through the same sausage factory as every other politician. Don’t delude yourself.

Play Her Off, Keyboard Cat

Wow, what a couple of weeks. First the Jon & Kate thing explodes all over the place and before I can process that we have Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson dying and then before we can catch our breath and enjoy a nice, long holiday weekend, Gov. Sarah Palin decides this would be the perfect week to announce she’s leaving office.

Talk about your Friday news dumps.

Bill Kristol, dean emeritus of the Conservative Clown College, hits the trifecta of stupidity by musing:

It's an enormous gamble - but it could be a shrewd one.

After all, she's freeing herself from the duties of the governorship. Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others, meet people, get more educated on the issues - and without being criticized for neglecting her duties in Alaska.

Uh, yeah. Okay honey, here’s a lolly, now go outside and play while the grownups talk.

Folks whose heads aren’t up their asses are following rumors that a criminal indictment is pending related to a scandal over a company called Spenard Building Supplies. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I got a good laugh over this “it’s always good news for Republicans” quote from Mary Matalin:

Ms. Matalin joked that despite her own initial inside-the-Beltway reaction of surprise, shoppers at her local WalMart in the Shenandoah would be whooping "hoo-rahs" because of Ms. Palin's continued popularity among conservative voters.

Uh yeah, conservatives love it when their Republican governors resign from office. Indeed, conservative voters in California and South Carolina eagerly anticipate the resignation of their states’ Republican governors. It’s how they show their love for their state! Now Mary, go outside and play with little Billy. The grown-ups have some talking to do.

There’s been a lot of silly parsing of Sarah Palin’s resignation speech, reading between the lines and whatnot. Please. Sarah Palin is not deep, that’s what people like about her. What you see is what you get.

Her resignation speech was hastily thrown together and her delivery was shaky, not the polished performance we’re accustomed to seeing from her. Her voice shook, she stumbled over her words, and she was at times drowned out by quacking waterfowl (I at first thought it was bleating goats); perhaps a better location could not be secured at the last minute. And she even botched the "retreat" quote attribution. It wasn't Gen. MacArthur. It was Major General Oliver Prince Smith. I know, I've never heard of him either.

So despite her claim that “this decision has been in the works for awhile,” I ain’t buying it. The decision not to run for re-election may have been a foregone conclusion, but the decision to resign was clearly a last-minute one.

While some speculate she’s clearing her calendar for a 2012 run, I don’t know how you can hear this and not think something is up:

These Troops and their important missions – those are truly the worthy causes in this world and should be the public priority with time and resources and not this local / superficial wasteful political bloodsport.

Sounds like one of her many ethics complaints is about to send everything crashing down around her to me. Sarah Palin is the patron saint of political victimhood, and of course she will write off any indictments to political vendettas and “bloodsport.” The poor thing, the evil liberals hate her, you see, and she’s done nothing wrong, just been a maverick, and beautiful, and a woman who winks.

Alrighty, then. Play her off, Keyboard Cat:

I Don’t Think Sarah Palin Knows What Socialism Means

Seriously. From Political Carnival:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) was interviewed last night by Sean Hannity on Fox News:

Palin: We are the only state with a negative tax rate where we don't have any income, sales or property tax statewide, and yes we have a share of our oil resource revenue that goes back to the people that own the resources. Imagine that.

Hannity: And it went up higher since you've been the governor and you negotiated with the oil companies. That all went up so people get a bigger check.

Palin: There was a corrupt tax system up there and we had a couple of lawmakers end up in jail because of the tax system that was adopted so we cleaned it up and said we wanted a fair and equitable share of the resources that we own, and the people will share in those resource revenues that are derived.

Not long after that Palin made her famous “socialism ... that’s where we’re headed” remark.

Umm .... Someone needs to take the Governor aside and tell her what socialism is. Looks like you guys have a taste of it up in Alaska.

In the meantime, why don’t we nationalize our oil companies the way socialist countries like Norway do. Like Alaska, Norway believes oil revenues belong to the people, not a corporation. Except in Norway, it belongs to all the people, not just those who live near the oil platforms.

Of course, in this country these royalties--when they are collected--are supposed to go to the Dept. of the Interior. However, Houston, we have a little problem:

WASHINGTON - June 9 - The U.S. Interior Department is wrongly withholding information that will reveal whether taxpayers are being ripped off in a controversial oil and gas royalty program, according to a lawsuit filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Interior claims that disclosure of bidding and contracting information about its Royalty-In-Kind sales would reveal oil company trade secrets.

Oh, whah. That would just be too fucking bad, now wouldn't it. Geez, what is it with the graft at the Interior Dept.? Must be too many loyal Bushies still left behind.

Why don't we natonalize the oil companies and get rid of the middle man. And in the meantime, we can create the dream socialist state that the wingnuts are saying we already have?

I"m not serious of course, but I think it's funny that people like Sarah Palin can have their socialism when they want it, and then can call for drilling "our" oil. It's not "our" oil. It's ExxonMobil's. The government gets a royalty but half the time the energy companies are paying someone off with hookers and blow and Toby Keith concert tickets.

Sarah Palin: Pro-Choice At An Anti-Choice Event

Thank you, Sarah Palin, for your stirring support of reproductive choice--at an anti-choice fundraiser in Indiana, no less:

"So we went through some things a year ago that now lets me understand a woman's, a girl's temptation to maybe try to make it all go away if she has been influenced by society to believe that she's not strong enough or smart enough or equipped enough or convenienced enough to make the choice to let the child live. I do understand what these women, what these girls go through in that thought process."

Palin has grabbed headlines and warmed right-to-lifers hearts on sharing her story about being “tempted” to “make it all go away” when she discovered she was pregnant at the age of 44, and then again on learning that the fetus had Down’s Syndrome. As Ruth Marcus writes in today’s WaPo,

For the crowd listening to her at last week's dinner, Palin's disclosure served the comfortable role of moral reinforcement: She wavered in her faith, was tempted to sin, regained her strength and emerged better for it.

As for those us less certain that we know, or are equipped to instruct others, when life begins and when it is permissible to terminate a pregnancy, Palin's speech offered a different lesson: Abortion is a personal issue and a personal choice. The government has no business taking that difficult decision away from those who must live with the consequences.

Palin and her followers do seem purposely stupid about the whole “choice” issue. Sarah Palin had a choice. Her daughter Bristol had a choice. They seem to spend a lot of time talking about the choices they made, even at events where they are trying to take that choice away from everyone else!

This is incredibly, shockingly incongruous. And it kind of illustrates how the anti-choice movement really doesn’t want to end choice--doing so would end the pro-life cash cow that keeps themselves and a lot of conservative groups and candidates in business.

Think about it: if Sarah Palin had her way and abortion were illegal, there would be no Vanderburgh County Right to Life banquet, which

started with approximately 100 people attending in the late 1980’s and has grown to become the largest pro-life banquet in the world with attendance of 2,000. 

(This year, an additional 2,500 got to watch a “live-feed” broadcast of the event at a nearby auditorium for $16 a pop, too.)

There would be no fundraiser. There would be no stirring testimony from a politician with presidential ambitions. No passionate speeches about how Sarah Palin understands the “temptation to make it all go away,” so she’s really like the rest of us, just another working mom, yada yada.

None of this would exist because there would have been no choice. There would be a law, and your only choice is to follow the law or break it. And since Sarah Palin is a politician, she would never give a stirring testimony about how she was tempted to break the law.

No, the decision would have been made for her and everyone else by the law, and Sarah Palin would have to find another issue to foist on the people of Evansville, Indiana, another hook from which to hang her political aspirations.

What’s interesting is that no one, save a few bloggers and a Washington Post columnist, even bothered to recognize the inherent contradiction of Palin’s entire speech.

It’s really quite simple: you don’t talk about the choice you made at a dinner where the point is to raise money to take that same choice away from everyone else.