Greta Van Susteren and Tucker Carlson have a knock down, drag out, hair pulling, slap fight over Sarah Palin. Don't forget your popcorn!

Van Sustern: You're a liar!

Carlson: No I'm not!

Van Susteren: Yes you are!

Carlson: Am not! Am not! Am not!

I think I will play this over an over today whenever I am feeling a little down. It cannot fail to put a huge smile on my face.

Gryphen's Sarah Palin checklist. A work in progress.

When Sarah Palin burst on the scene as John McCain's VP candidate and started fanning the flames of racism against Barack Obama, as well as making incredibly dangerous and fraudulent claims against our future President, I made a mental list of priorities that I wanted to help accomplish. (By the way this list evolved over time and now includes subjects that I was not even aware were coming down the pike in 2008.)

1) Stop John McCain and Sarah Palin from making it to the White House.

2) Reveal the truth behind the fantasy that Sarah Palin is a good and effective Governor.

3) Get her out of office!

4) Reveal the pathetic and controversial truth about Sarah Palin's personal mythology.

5) Provide a platform for those who know truthful stories about Palin, yet are afraid to report them to the press.

6) Direct focus on Palin, and her family's, attempts to grift money from her ignorant supporters, and report on how frivolously she spends that money.

7) Help journalists, authors, documentary makers, and anybody willing to tell the truth about Sarah Palin, make contact with sources willing to tell of their experiences with the Grizzled Mama.

8) Reveal to the widest segment of the American public possible, one of the BIGGEST, and most egregious, hoaxes ever perpetrated on them by a politician in our country's history. Babygate!

9) Draw back the cloak of secrecy that shields those that supported, and used Sarah Palin for their own nefarious reasons, to reveal them to the American public.

10) Help to make sure that another potentially dangerous politician, like Sarah Palin, George Bush, or John Edwards never gets close to the White House again. (I only include Edwards because his adultery could have made him a very easy person to blackmail into supporting policies that could have done our country great harm.)

So let's see how I've done.

1) After her defeat I received a lot of heartfelt thanks from many of the visitors here.

But in my opinion it was mostly undeserved.

I did only a small part in getting the truth out about Sarah Palin, John McCain, and the Republican party.

Others like Katie Couric, Keith Olbermann, Charlie Gibson, and even Tine Fey deserve FAR more credit than I do.  Of course ultimately the real thanks should go to Sarah Palin herself for being such an incredibly unqualified, and gaffe prone candidate.

(Half-check mark for me.)

2) I helped to found the Alaskans for Truth, and used my blog and networking, to get the truth out about Troopergate, the per-diems she paid herself to stay in her own house, the free travel vouchers she got on behalf of family members, the cronyism that riddled her administration, etc., etc., etc., to my fellow Alaskans.

(Check mark!)

3) I don't actually know how much I helped to accomplish this, but she's out! (Check mark!)

4) I don't believe there are too many people who are now unaware that the idyllic life that the Palins paint for themselves is pure mooseshit. Check mark!

5) I helped Mercede start her blog, wrote posts containing information from anonymous sources about the Palins that they could not get published in other places, helped Shailey get her story out in the National Enquirer, on this blog, and later on her own blog, tried to help Levi get his book written two years ago when it would have made a huge impact, and have maintained a blogroll linking to blogs ("Sarah Palin's Least Favorite Blogs") that have done some truly ground breaking work on getting the truth out about Klondike Kardashian. (Check mark!)

6) From SarahPAC, to "Sarah Palin's Alaska", to Dancing with the Stars, and even to Palin's 2012 Political Prick Tease, I have tried to rake away the Palin bullshit to lay bare what is REALLY taking place as often as possible.

(Half check mark. I could have done better.)

7) I have provided support to Geoffrey Dunn, Nick Broomfield, Joe McGinniss,  as well as others, and I have helped them as much as I could to make contact with people living in Wasilla, and around Alaska, that have stories to tell about the REAL Sarah Palin. I have certainly not provided ALL of their sources, and in fact all of them have made very impressive contacts of their own, but I did what I could. Some truths remain unrevealed.

(Half check mark.)


8) Most of this work has taken place right here on this blog, or on one of the blogs in the IM blogroll, but with Joe's book we are finally seeing the bizarre story reaching a much larger audience, and hopefully with the release of Fred's book , a much larger audience still.

(Pending check mark I hope to give myself soon.)

9) The Koch brothers, Fox News, the Dominionists, and the Republican party have all had their hands up the back of Sarah Palins blouse working her like a ventriloquist dummy voicing on their behalf crazy inflammatory things like "death panels," or "palling around with terrorists.'" Or ginning up racial hatred toward Barack Obama or the Muslim community.  This is clearly a work in progress, but I believe that we have made some significant connections between Palin and her puppeteers that have caused them some serious blowback and have forced them to abandon her in order to move on to less controversial marionettes.  However now that we know how they operate we can remain vigilant and help to identify the NEXT empty vessel that they fill up with their rhetorical poison.

Looking at you Rick Perry!

(Half check mark.)

10) This has ALWAYS been my ultimate goal, even while I am recognizing the possible futility of ever making it a reality.

Sarah Palin was chosen to be McCain's VP for the most superficial reasons imaginable.  She was attractive, she had faked having a Down Syndrome child to cement her pro-life position, she had hacked various polls to make herself seem popular in Alaska, and she was considered a Christian.

And that my friends was the whole package.

The fact that this occurred should have sent an electric shock of realization to the American population that candidates for the most important political positions in our country were being selected by shadowy figures who have determined that we are so simple minded that we could be seduced by a horribly unqualified pretty face, trained to read talking points off of cue cards.

If this had worked, and it came much closer to working than I think most of us want to admit, it would have furthered a continuing change in the political realities of our country that could have proved devastating.

This change has been orchestrated by the Republican party and started with Ronald Reagan, an actor who played the President, to George W. Bush, a simpleton who played a cowboy playing a President, to a Sarah Palin, a telegenic spokes model who played a Governor, who could have been groomed to play the President, once John McCain kicked the bucket served out his term and she ran in 2012. (Insert scream of horror here.)

Ultimately THIS is what the American voting population needs to be educated about, and Sarah Palin is the perfect example to illustrate that lesson. After reading what Frank Bailey, Geoffrey Dunn, and Joe McGinniss have written, it is clear that the information is now available for any of those who want to really understand how completely broken the political system is in this country.

Now all we have to do is help to encourage people to read the information that is now available, and the information that is still coming, about Sarah Palin, and then use that to vet the shiny new politicians that are just over the next horizon.

That sounds simple, right?  Yeah right.

Well I am not giving up.  After coming this far, there is NO WAY I am just walking away now.

Are you with me?

If you are then I perhaps someday this item will have a check mark as well. But not yet.

Sarah Palin trots out new serious political pundit image, as illustated by her new serious political pundit wig.

To watch the video just click the picture. Warning, it does take you to a Fox News site so take your Maalox first.

According to Klondike Kardashian now that CNN has hosted this "Tea Party" debate they have moved from "Lamestream" media to the Teabagger ass kissing media, which greatly pleases this insignificant political prick teaser. Good job CNN!

Palin has a favorite new term that she just learned, "Crony Capatalism," which she uses repeatedly during this interview to essentially smear the whole group of GOP candidates at one time or another.

However she really brings out the long knives when Greta mentions Rick Perry, the HPV vaccine, and the suggestion that the reason he went with the program was due to possible payoff from the manufacturer of the drug. Here Palin goes for the jugular and starts throwing charges of, her new favorite term that she just learned about, "Crony Capitalism" all over the place like a Ninja star.

She even compares Perry's decision to make the vaccination semi-mandatory to HER decision, around the same time, to NOT go with the program.  Essentially creating as much space between Rick Perry's policies and hers as possible, which is a complete turnaround to how she described "Governor Good Hair" only  few short months ago. You know BEFORE he threw his Texas sized hat into the ring and rustled all of her Teabagger support away from her.

At the end of this interview Greta asks the question that she is apparently contractually obligated to ask concerning whether or not Palin is still considering throwing her wig hat into the ring to run for President? I almost feel sorry for Greta who appears to be very tired of this dog and pony show, but Palin leaps on the question like a feral Wasillian and implies that she LOVES the fact that by staying out she can still influence the subjects that the OTHER candidates take on, including her favorite new term she just learned about, "Crony Capitalism."

This interview was just as bizarre and full of misinformation, attacks on our President, and barbs thrown at her own party as usual, the only REAL news seems to be that she is now blatantly, and aggressively, attacking Rick Perry, which seems to suggest that the sources who have said she is angry with him for very personal reasons are probably dead on.

Oh and of course the OTHER news from this interview is that whatever was on Palin's head from her LAST interview has clearly escaped and is undoubtedly still at large in the greater Wasilla area.

Residents should remain vigilant!

Map of Voter Suppression Legislation state by state.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

What the map doesn't show is that five states, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, and West Virginia, have actually curtailed early voting as well. As Ari Berman reported, some of these ban voting on "the Sunday before the election—a day when black churches historically mobilize their constituents." 

"Americans are killed by lightning more often than they are victimized by fraud that voter ID would do something to stop," said Justin Levitt, a professor of law at Loyola Law School. "We've amputated a foot to stop a potential hangnail." The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that nearly ten percent of eligible voters lack the kind of photo ID required by these voter ID laws. 

Republican defenders of voter ID laws claim that higher black turnout in Georgia during the 2006 and 2010 elections proves that voter ID laws don't suppress the minority vote—an argument repeated by minority witness Hans von Spakovsky in his Senate testimony Thursday. But in states without such restrictions, the increase in black turnout was actually much larger. Von Spakovsky's analyses would "fail statistics 101 at just about any college in the country," Levitt said.

Before we all get too cocky about the embarrassingly inept pack of Republican candidates fighting over who will suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of our President, don't forget that the Republicans are essentially cowards who are terrified of a fair fight.

They will pull every trick in the book to level the playing field, and WE have to remain vigilant to call them out on these tactics and hopefully find ways to render them ineffective.

And if any of you have doubts that the GOP can steal a national election, than either you must be new to this country, or you were born AFTER the election of 2000.

What the hell is all of that screeching? Oh, I should have known!

Click picture to view interview.

Okay first off, and not to appear too shallow, but somebody needs to tell Snowdrift Snooki that whatever is on her head is raping the shit out of whatever else is on top of her head. I know it is getting a little cooler with winter coming, but we layer our CLOTHING in Alaska, we don't layer our wigs!

This "rebuttal" to the President's speech the other day is sooo ignorant that I think it would save Palin a lot of time if she just started wearing a shirt that says "I just got lobotomized" and then she would not have to spend so many minutes demonstrating how completely brain damaged she is.

At one point Palin claims that the President is playing us all for fools, and I swear she said it with a straight face, which indicates to me that she is either completely lacking in self awareness or that she is the world's best poker player.

And by the way when Palin claims that Obama is arrogant, and feels he does NOT have to explain what he is planning, that is complete bullshit. The President DID explain what he is planning, she was just TOO stupid to understand him because he was using clear and concise ENGLISH. (Oh and by the way don't think for one minute we don't realize that"arrogant" is just racist code for "uppity.")

You know I cannot speak for everybody else, but I can quite literally go the rest of my life without hearing Sarah Palin say the words "shoving down our throats."

It always makes me gag a little when she uses that phrase.

James Murdoch expected to be called back before the House of Commons after evidence reveals he may have lied in earlier testimony. A Murdoch lying? Oh the humanity!

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

Yesterday it was suggested that James Murdoch must have known as long ago as 2008 that phone hacking was widespread at the News of the World, MPs were told. 

The News International chief executive had informed the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee in July that as far as he knew, voicemail interception had been limited to one ‘rogue’ reporter. 

But devastating evidence yesterday from two of his most senior managers alleged that he was alerted three years ago to the existence of an e-mail indicating that journalists other than Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007, had been engaging in illegal hacking. 

Former News of the World editor Colin Myler and ex-legal manager Tom Crone told the committee the e-mail strongly implied that others at the paper were deeply involved. 

Mr Crone said it was ‘absolutely inconceivable’ that the full significance of the e-mail had not been explained to Mr Murdoch who is now expected to be recalled to give evidence to MPs. He said last night that he stands by his testimony. 

Less than 24 hours after the pair delivered their powerful testimony before MPs, police this morning arrest a 16th suspect in their investigation of phone hacking at the News of the World.The 35-year-old man was arrested at his north London home in a dawn raid and has not been named.

Yes I am still paying attention to this case, and I still am of the opinion that it might very well eventually have a damaging effect on Fox News, and by association the Republican party. Well at least that is my hope.

I believe that the investigation on this side of the pond is just now getting started, however the recent revelations of just how chummy Murdoch was with Tony Blair should make investigators salivate at the possibility of finding some very high placed politicians with some very difficult to explain connections to the media mogul.

Did you know that Tony Blair was the godfather of Murdoch's daughter?

Oh yes, this could get very juicy indeed!

Today's "Things that once seen, cannot be unseen" brought to you by our friend Azure Ghost.

Oooh that's just not okay!

But hey, it is perfect for today's caption contest.

Fire up your imaginations folks, this should be a cake walk for most of you!

(P.S. I am leaving for the Alaska State Fair in about an hour, but I should still be able to okay comments with my handy dandy I-Phone. Hmm I wonder if I will run into anybody "interesting" at the fair?)

Sarah Palin pops up to satisfy her contractual obligation to Fox News.

I have been noticing lately that Palin has started cramming two or three interviews with Fox News into one day about two or three times a month.  To me this appears to be an indication that she is really not terribly interested in doing them anymore (Except for the paycheck), and that they are not terribly interested in having her do them (No more ratings boost for them like the old days.)

So yesterday Klondike Kardashian heated up her old leftover talking points in her microwave and sat down to pull a train of Fox News interviews one after the other.

First up the feisty Megyn Kelly, newly returned from birthing a future bubble-headed Fox News commentator.

Now I was going to go through the interview and pick it apart, but there are three of these damn things and I just don't have that kind of time. (If you are absolutely determined to subject yourself to what Palin vomited forth, just click the image and it will take you to the You Tube of the interview.)

Besides I had a REALLY hard time listening to her drone on about how the President is screwing up this country, and that all we need are "common sense" solutions, because I swear that whatever that is on her head flipped its tail and hissed at me, which completely threw me off my game.

Now this interview was broadcast about 9:00 Alaska time.

Just one hour later Snowdrift Snooki shows up on Fox's "I don't know anything about business" channel with Lou Dobbs.

Do you see it too?

Yep she is still sitting in front of the same backdrop, but whatever had taken up residence on her head seems to have made its escape. (I called the Wasilla PD and told them to be on the lookout for a psychologically wounded, possibly rabid, furry creature racing through the woods screaming in agony. My advice was to shoot on sight.)

Palin also changed out of her Nancy Reagan brand red blazer from Sears, and changed into whatever the hell that outfit is. You will notice she also changed her necklace, but kept the flag pin. (Because as we know seeing Sarah Palin without a flag pin might make the Fox News viewers believe she is a Socialist.)

Now eight hours later Sarah Palin popped up again in her last interview of the day with Greta Van Susteren.

As you can see, though he she had plenty of time, Palin did not bother to change for Greta essentially giving her Lou Dobbs' sloppy seconds.

You will also notice that she is no longer sitting in front of the fake fireplace set, but is now sitting in front of the window overlooking the dead lake next to her house.  But do you want to know something odd? (Yes, I know that everything about this crazy bitch is "odd' but just bear with me.) I live less than an hour away from where Palin was giving this interview, but when I turned and looked out of MY window, though it was overcast, there was substantially more light streaming in than can be seen outside of HER Wasilla window.

In fact Greta even asked her about why it was so dark in the second half of the interview, and Palin made some halfhearted mention of fall coming and a nip in the air. However I find it hard to believe that Fall is coming faster to Wasilla than to Anchorage.

Which of course once again makes me consider whether or not she is sitting in front of a fake backdrop instead of an actual window. But who knows, perhaps her presence also sucks all of the light and heat out of the room just like it sucks all of the oxygen out.

So there you have Palin's contractual Fox News appearances crammed together in one day, each featuring the same tired old talking points and viscous attacks on the President, but each distinguished by different hair, changes in attire, or simply the movement of her chair.

Watching Palin's lazy ass approach to these interviews kind of reminds me of an old married couple where the husband finally convinces the wife to have sex with him but she stipulates that he not take very long, not mess up her hair, and not block her view of the TV.

Just imagine how thrilled Fox News is that Palin has NOT thrown her hat in the ring to run for President, and is still making them honor their part of the contract they made with her lo those many, many months ago when they actually thought she was worth a million plus dollars.

Serves them right, don't you think?

(Just a reminder that if you want to watch the interviews, just click the images to be taken to You Tube.)

The Daily Show wonders if perhaps we should NOT do away with the Bush tax cuts to the rich, but instead just take everything away from the poor to balance the country's budget?

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Is Fox News not even pretending they are not working for the corporations in this country anymore?  Some of that footage was absolutely brutal.

To Sean Hannity's embarrassment Iowans tell what they REALLY think of Sarah Palin jumping into the race.

The most telling part is AFTER Hannity gets schooled about Palin's true appeal and Frank Luntz steps in to demonstrate how Fate  how Fox News manipulates reality to support the myth of Palin' popularity.

This is a VERY revealing piece of footage.

Talking Points Memo has a MUST SEE highlight reel of the Republican debate from last night.

Just in case you thought I exaggerated with my earlier post.

By the way I just have to say I that I think Bachmann won the debate when she reminded the panel that SHE introduced the "Lightbulb Freedom of Choice Act."  I mean seriously, which one of THEM has done anything even remotely as important?

(I know a lot of you have asked me to post the bit from the Daily Show about this Ames poll, and I will later, but I really thought that this video was actually funnier and more entertaining. Which is especially humorous because this bunch of nincompoops actually thought they were convincing Americans that they could be President.)

"I'm the worst possible choice for this country! No, I am! I hate this country! I hate it more!" Last night's GOP debate in a nutshell.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I was only able to watch a little of this three ring circus, because I have a doctor's note that excuses me from watching too much Fox news since it dramatically impairs my ability to engage in rational thought.

However what I did see was MORE than enough to convince me that we need to work our little progressive asses off to make sure that President Obama gets reelected, and that not ONE of this simple minded douchebags should be allowed anywhere near the White House!

Seriously I don't care HOW disappointed you are in this President, or how frustrated you are that he did not wave his magic negro wand and solve all of the nation's problems like you convinced yourself he would, from what I saw last night he is this country's only hope of not ending up looking like a real life version of a "Mad Max" movie.

These are the scariest bunch of lunatics I have seen gathered on one stage since I watched patients at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute put on their version of a "Midsummer Night's Dream." (Not bad really.  I especially enjoyed the part where the actor playing Puck forgot his lines and kept asking if anybody in the audience had a copy of Shakespeare with them.)

Hearing these slack jawed candy asses claim that they would NOT raise taxes even if they were promised ten spending cuts for each tax hike made my frontal lobe scream for mercy.

I know these people are smarter than that (except for Michele Bachmann who is only about six brain cells away from having to have a cork stuck to the end of her fork) and yet they refuse to stand up to Grover Norquist and the Teabaggers, and tell the voters the truth about what it will take to fix this nation's economy.  That was a shameful display.

There were a FEW glimmers of intelligence, such as Jon Huntsman saying that he would repeal NCLB, but for the most part this appeared to a contest to see who could act like the most ignorant man on the stage.

In fact these wannabe leaders of the free world had dumbed themselves down to such a degree that having Sarah "all you need is common sense" Palin and Rick "I can't figure it out so let's pray for a solution"Perry join them onstage might actually have RAISED the combined Intelligence Quotient.

Yeah, it was THAT bad! 

Now if you will excuse me I have to write a check to the Barack Obama reelection campaign.

The True Villian of the Economic Meltdown.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:

But Obama is not the villain in this story. Every time I step back and ponder this sordid history, I am amazed that the Republican Party has any credibility and even 100 members of Congress, let alone a sizable House majority and enough juice to be driving the nation’s agenda as it is.

The Boston Globe ran a chart last Sunday that I’d buy billboard space to reproduce in every decent-size city in America, if I were running the Democratic National Committee. 

 (Here's the chart  to save your the trouble of searching for it.)

The premise of it was very simple: It showed how many trillions each president since Ronald Reagan has added to the nation’s debt. The debt was about $1 trillion when Reagan took office, and then: Reagan, $1.9 trillion; George H.W. Bush, $1.5 trillion (in just four years); Bill Clinton, $1.4 trillion; Obama, $2.4 trillion.

Oh, wait. I skipped someone. George W. Bush ran up $6.4 trillion. That’s nearly half—44.7 percent—of the $14.3 trillion total. We all know what did it—two massive tax cuts geared toward the rich (along with other similar measures, like slashing the capital gains and inheritance taxes), the off-the-books wars, the unfunded Medicare expansion, and so on. But the number is staggering and worth dwelling on. In a history covering 30 years, nearly half the debt was run up in eight. Even the allegedly socialist Obama at his most allegedly wanton doesn’t compare to Dubya; and Obama’s debt numbers, if he’s reelected, will surely not double or even come close as we gambol down Austerity Lane.

The GOP and the Teabaggers are going to use every one of their pet media outlets, from Fox News to Right Wing radio, to try and hang this debt crisis, and the lowering of our debt rating, on President Obama.

It is up to all of us, and what remains of the so called "liberal media," to continue pointing out who is REALLY responsible for this disaster.

And those responsible are the Republicans who increased the debt by 6.4 trillion dollars between 2000 and 2008, the Right Wing media that provided cover for them while they were doing it, and the Teabaggers who are now determined to fight this President every step of the way so that he cannot repair the damage, in the hopes that they can blame him for the whole mess in 2012 and put another GOP asshole in the White House to finish the job of bankrupting this nation once and for all.

(H/T to the Obama Diary.)

Sarah Palin complains to Sean Hannity that some Americans consider her and the Teabaggers "terrorists." Truth hurts, don't it?

I CANNOT believe that Hannity would dare to bring up Gabby Giffords' name, only days after her miraculous return to the floor of Congress after the assassination attempt against her, to use as an example of how Sarah Palin has been unfairly treated.  That is absolutely disgusting!

And then in the very next handful of sentences, with no sense of irony whatsoever, Palin brings up the long dead issue of Obama's minor association with Bill Ayers. This of course fires Hannity up and he goes off on how he was virtually the ONLY one who kept bringing up the Obama/Ayers connection. (Gee I wonder why dumbass?)

At one point Palin even says: “if we were real domestic terrorists, I don’t think President Obama would have a problem with us.”

Okay so is she saying that it is open season on condemning people for their associations?


Well thanks for the opportunity Sister Sarah.  I guess that means it is perfectly reasonable to remind Americans that you aggressively defended a talk show host who repeatedly screamed racial epithets at an African American woman on her radio show? Or that you were once the team manager of convicted murderer Jeremy Morlock's hockey team? Or that both you and Joe Miller have increasingly strong ties to Schaeffer Cox and his radical militia group?

Since Obama's tenuous connection to a man who was a radical over forty years ago, can be used to condemn him, than what do we make of Sarah Palin's multiple associations with known racists, murderers, and terrorists, whose crimes have happened in the very recent past?

After all Sarah, you do remember this guy don't you?

Eddie Burke, Palin-bot, racist, Teabagger, and ex-radio host.

One has to wonder if Palin is even remotely aware of how fragile her glass house is, while searching the ground for the next rock to throw?

(H/T to Mediaite.)

Jon Stewart pokes fun at the hypocrisy of the Fox News channel becoming defensive over the Oslo terrorist being labeled a "Christian."

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I LOVED this segment last night, and thought that Stewart did an amazing job of mocking the Fox News talking heads. So of course I felt I needed to share it with you.

I actually almost forgot about it because there was so much going on today. 

However perhaps saving it for last is not so bad as it is a great way to end our day, don't you think?

Oh, and there is SO much more coming tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Greta Van Susteren pulls the short straw and once again has to pretend that Sarah Palin has anything intelligent to say about what is going on in this country.

You know the first thing that leaps out at me is that Fox News hosts ALWAYS refer to Palin as "Governor" multiple times, like they are trying to remind their audience that once upon a time this dimwit actually had a real job.

Then only a few sentences into her remarks she starts the middle school attacks on our President. (By the way you nasty harpy bitch, the President is referred to as "No Drama Obama." HE is not the reason that we are facing a potential crisis, that would be the politically illiterate Teabaggers YOU helped get elected to sabotage our country!)

By the way Geitner said we "would not default" based on his belief that the politicians would not really allow that to happen:

Geithner said Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell "had been absolutely clear, they are not going to let this country default.

But pressed several times, Geithner refused to reveal if the Obama administration had a back-up plan and had begun deciding which checks would be signed and which would not.

"We will do everything we can to mitigate the damage," he said, revealing that the United States writes 80 million checks a month.

That does NOT mean there is not a crisis, only that the grownups will try to minimize the damage if the children continue throwing a fit and not taking seriously the responsibilities that the American people assigned to them.

Okay is it just me, or does Palin look especially venomous today?


Gee I certainly hope I did not have anything to do with that.


"Well scaring the American people is exactly what President Obama is doing in that bizarre speech he gave last night. It reminded me of when he insisted that TARP had to be passed. You know it was life or death at that time also. We had to..uh..increase spending or the Federal government, or people would be starving on the streets..I mean..uh uh..look at what TARP resulted in."

You know I hate to distract Palin while she is on one of these anti-Obama rants of hers with facts (After all we know how much she hates facts, because they always seem to favor liberals.), but TARP was passed in October of 2008, by George W. Bush.  It is kind of hard to blame President Obama for legislation that was put into place BEFORE he was in office.

Oh, and you would think that Palin might remember this, since her running mate John McCain suspended his campaign to help get it passed. (Damn, no WONDER Palin hates facts so much!)

But sorry to interrupt, you were saying?

"Reinvent the will?"  You know I have never met an Alaskan who could not say "wheel" properly. Every time she opens her mouth she embarrasses the crap out of us.

You know the minute that Palin says, concerning the debt ceiling, "I don't want to see it raised," is when a real journalist would stop the interview and apologize to their audience for bringing on somebody who has no understanding of the topic being discussed.

And riddle me this Batman, why are the Teabaggers, who wave the Constitution around like it is a sacred document on par with the Bible, now pushing for a Balanced Budget Amendment?  Aren't they the crowd who believe that the Amendments which freed the slaves and allowed women the right to vote, are what started this country's downward spiral into Socialism in the first place?

When I watch these "interviews" there is always a moment where I stop and wonder if ANYBODY is really taking what this idiot says seriously.  I hear her spout these canned talking points, and rattle on using inflammatory language, and yet everytime she stops to take a breath I realize that the oxygen that she just used up was completely wasted. Actually, not that I want to see any harm come to her, I kind of think ALL of the oxygen she uses is wasted on her.

I really think that the only reason that we see Palin in this interview is because she is contractually obligated to appear on camera a couple of time a year, and that she was overdue. She has no expertise on the topic, adds nothing to the debate, and, even with the teleprompter reflected in her glasses, relies almost solely on the regurgitation of one size fits all talking points that essentially make her sound like a Chatty Cathy doll.

Her looks are fading rapidly, her wigs are becoming more obvious, and her talking points are becoming punchlines for late night comedians.  Hell even her most ardent supporters cannot force their families to go to her movie with them, or buy her daughter's book.

Even an endorsement from her, which used to carry some weight in conservative circles, would probably hurt a candidate far more than it would help them, so I cannot see anybody seeking her out for a photo op.

I still think we need to keep at least one eye cocked in her direction, because her base is potentially the most likely groups of Americans to open fire in a mall, or drown their children because they are possessed by liberal demons, but I think for all intents and purposes that Palin is yesterday's news.

Of course I still think we all need to buy Joe's book, and Nick's movie.  After all every corpse deserves a postmortem.

P.S. Oh, and don't forget the babygate book too. I have a call into the author for an update, andI hope to have that for you soon.

Stephen Colbert ridicules the coverage of the Oslo terrorist attack by Fox News and other conservative news outlets.

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I thought this was one of Colbert's most brilliant segments ever.

It demonstrated just the right amount of seriousness about the attack themselves before using comedy to mock Fox, and other Murdoch owned media, for using the attacks to fan the flames of Islamic hatred.

Though there was no connection, Fox News used the Oslo terrorist attacks to fan the flames of anti-Muslim hatred.

In early reporting all anybody knew was that there HAD been a bombing in Norway and a shooting at the youth camp.  Yet that was all Laura Ingraham needed to state unequivocally that, “Two deadly terror attacks in Norway, in what appears to be the work, once again, of Muslim extremists,” and then to immediately jump to a pre-recorded Bill O'Reilly interview with the lawyer representing the Islamic Community Center in New York, which prominently featured O'Reilly bullying the man and insinuating that the Muslim people were to blame for 9-11.



We can wait until we are blue in the face for Ingraham, or Fox News, to apologize for their blatant hate mongering but it will never come. This was a purposeful decision to gin up more hatred toward Muslims, and as a byproduct keep Americans supporting the wars overseas which financially benefits Fox News, and which feeds Roger Ailes personal xenophobia concerning the Islamic people.

This morning I wrote:

And hidden in the shadows there can be no doubt that America has its version of an Anders Behring Breivik, just waiting in the wings for that last straw to snap his emotional camel's back, or perhaps for direction from a Right Wing radio host or Fox News talking head, to provide a clue as to which enemy he needs to place in his crosshairs.

Can there be any doubt who Fox News is actively attempting to place in those crosshairs?


And is that not exactly the kind of rhetoric which inspired Anders Behring Breivik to launch his devastating terrorist attack against his own people in the first place?

Breivik had talked admiringly online about conversations he had had with unnamed English Defence League members and the organisation Stop the Islamification of Europe (SIOE) over the success of provocative street actions leading to violence.

"I have on some occasions had discussions with SIOE and EDL and recommended them to use certain strategies," he wrote two years ago. "The tactics of the EDL are now to 'lure' an overreaction from the Jihad Youth/Extreme-Marxists, something they have succeeded in doing several times already."

In other words it appears that the promoters of terrorism that Laura Ingraham, and her bosses, are having such difficulty identifying, may in fact be found staring back at them from the mirror. 


(H/T to Moral Low Ground.)

Palin supporters are STILL clinging to the idea that their idol can fundamentally change how a campaign is run and still win the GOP nomination. There is a word for people like this, but if I say it I will be accused of attacking Trig again.

Courtesy of Politicususa:

Greta Van Sustern asked Rove if Palin could run an unconventional campaign. Rove answered, “Her people think so. They’ve talked with people about it, whom I’ve talked to, and they’ve been very explicit about it — that she doesn’t need to go to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, press the flesh and go to all these local events in order to cultivate the local leadership. She can talk to people over that. She doesn’t need to cultivate the fundraisers and the bundlers, because her mere presence in the race will generate the cash needed for the campaign. She doesn’t need to do things in a normal way to lay out a message. She can do it on Facebook. She can do it by having a friendly producer release a movie that is seen in theaters, and that’s going to be the interesting thing.”

Rove then issued a warning about the Palin strategy, “I frankly think that the people in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, there are some of the niceties that you ignore at your own peril. There is a reason why, these people in the early states take it very seriously, and they expect to see you, be able to hear up close, be able to ask you questions, be able to see you multiple times before they make a commitment, and we’ll see if that old rule remains the same.”

He said that Palin is making it clear that if she runs, she is doing it by her rules. Nobody should be surprised that Sarah Palin wouldn’t want to hit the campaign trail, but the real stunner is that she arrogantly believes that she doesn’t have to fundraise either. She seriously thinks that the day she announces the floodgates are going to open and millions of dollars will pour in.

The real problem with the people who support a Palin run, besides their obvious lack of intellect, is that they keep confusing media attention with voter support.

Yes, if Sarah Palin decides to announce her candidacy she WILL receive a ton of attention from the media. And she will also attract a rather significant initial infusion of cash for her campaign. (If her sycophants aren't in the poorhouse after buying dozens of tickets to her crappy movie and several copies of Bristol's book that is.)

But then what?

She clearly cannot stand on stage and engage in a debate with the other GOP contenders, so she will have to find some reason avoid that. (Perhaps she could get a note from Michele Bachmann's doctor?)

She cannot appear on any cable, or network, news program to answer REAL questions from an interviewer who is not paid to resist the urge to embarrass her, so she will have to avoid that.

Every single potential scandal about her, including babygate, will be revisited by the journalists who, having no access to her, will feel the need to investigate them aggressively in order to answer voter's questions about her worthiness to be the President.

And finally the people who have agreed not to reveal the things they know about her, in the GOP and around Alaska, unless she decided to run for President, will suddenly start showing up on news programs all across the country, and telling tales that NO amount of public relations management will be able to suppress.

In other words, it would be insane for Sarah Palin to decide to run for President, but as we all know....

Personally I believe that Palin is currently caught in an internal war between her fantasy of who she is and what she can do, and the reality that keeps slipping through the cracks of her giant wall of denial and reminding her of her devastating limitations and how aggressive the press will be in revealing them.

That taken into account with the fact that her pool of supporters has diminished to the size of a mud puddle exposed to the Arizona sun, would seem to indicate that she will not run for office, and might instead work overtime to think up a viable excuse that will keep her supporters sending her money while she decides which candidate might be desperate enough to promise her some cushy appointment to their cabinet in exchange for her now relatively useless endorsement.

The obvious hypocrisy demonstrated by Fox News in not covering the News Corp phone hacking scandal is tailor made for the Daily Show.

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