Make Palin a Verb!

I especially like the shot of Bullwinkle with a ball-gag:

In a surprise move today, representatives from Al Qaeda met with Congressional leaders to request a $10 billion dollar bailout package. The meeting, at an undisclosed location, came amid reports that the terrorist organisation responsible for the 911 attacks was struggling financially as a result of the global economic crisis.

“We’re broke, basically,” says Farouk al-Hassan, spokesman for the group. “Terrorism is expensive at the best of times, but when even legitimate lines of credit start to dry up, it’s very difficult to get decent prices on Stinger missiles and Nikes packed with Semtex.”

Continue Reading »

It’s been a good week for Sarah Palin. Let us count the ways: The New York Times reports that she does know that Africa is not a country, and that reports to the contrary from unnamed GOP sources were a hoax. She has been the media darling of the GOP governors’ meeting in Florida. And now it looks like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, one of her main competitors for the title of Republican Presidential Candidate in 2012, has been rattled by Palin’s popularity in the party. The Associated Press reports today that the “surprising ascendancy of … Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and her popularity among some GOP conservatives have left Romney wondering whether he could wage a viable second campaign for the White House, according to friends and advisers.”

Continue Reading »

The rallying cries have already started by the Republican faithful (read wacko Christian fundamentalist Republican core).

Jindal/Palin 2012!!

Are Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin really the future of the Republican Party? Let’s hope so.

In case you don’t know about Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, he believes that he performed an exorcism that miraculously cured melanoma whilst expelling those nasty evil spirits. He takes his nickname “Bobby” from a 1970’s TV character that he was too young to see, except for in syndication (Jindal was 6 when the show went off the air).

The Republican Party can’t be serious, can they? Sure Jindal is a good public speaker, sure he can handle himself well under fire, but don’t they think that he and Palin are a bit too much to the right of majority of Americans?

This should be fun!

CNN reports that Sarah Palin is offering to help Obama in his new administration. That is awfully generous of her, though I’m at a loss as to what she would help with. Or, for that matter, why Obama would want advice from someone who accused him of palling around with terrorists. Speaking of which, Palin highlighted her generosity of spirit by saying she is still happy to blast Obama because he is acquainted with Bill Ayers (former member of the Weather Underground).

From her interview with Wolf Blitzer: “If anybody still wants to talk about it, I will,” she said. “Because this is an unrepentant domestic terrorist who had campaigned to blow up, to destroy our Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol”That’s an association that still bothers me, and I think it’s fair to still talk about it,” she continued. She then added, in a shocking bit of hypocrisy (given the previous two sentences that had just left her mouth): “However, the campaign is over. That chapter is closed.” Hey, way to foster bipartisanship Sarah!

How could Obama resist an invitation from Palin after rhetoric like that?

In her interview with Matt Lauer that was broadcast yesterday on The Today Show, Sarah blames “bloggers in their parents’ basement just talking garbage” for all of the bad press she got during her campaign.

Sarah was also on Fox News’ Greta this week, where she coined the term “sarah-centric”.

Not much new comes out in these interviews, she gives a great non answer about taking over Ted Stevens’ US Senate seat and a Presidential bid in 2012. She denies having anything to do with the wardrobe scandal. The NY Times has a more in depth analysis of her interviews.

Hopefully she’ll have some more interesting things to say during the Republican Governors Association Conference in Miami today. Wonkette has a nice schedule of events to attend if you happen to be at the conference.

And Sarah, I’ll have you know that I am in my own basement, I moved out of my parents’ basement in 1984.

I am going to get on it for a moment, to emphasizes how rhetoric affect can not only degrade the value of our political discourse but can also substantially affect our individual rights and freedoms.

First, Proposition 8 proponents in California stated over and over again that they did not seek to abridge the rights of homosexual citizens, but that they only sought to protect the definition of marriage. These oft repeated words were directed at making heterosexual voters feel better about their vote, as they were protecting traditional American values. The truth of the matter is that the vote was whether or not to amend the state constitution to eliminate rights. Rights currently guaranteed by the California Constitution’s equal protection clause (Article 1 Section 7) and upheld by California’s Supreme Court. Proposition 8 eliminated minority rights by a slim margin vote by the majority. This is more-or-less the exact situation the equal protection clause is meant to protect, and is why such wide sweeping constitutional changes are required to be revisions to the constitution (requiring a 2/3 vote in the legislature) rather than amendments requiring only a majority vote.

Continue Reading »

Mark Lilla—professor of Humanities at Columbia University—has a cogent analysis of our Sarah’s rise to prominence nationally in yesterday’s WSJ. Rather than turn his attention to the political machinations of how Sarah came to be the GOP’s vice presidential candidate (a thoroughgoing telling is available form Jane Mayer at the New Yorker), but rather of how the rise of Sarah Palin is symptomatic of an anti-elite, anti-intellectual metastasis within the Republican body politic, which regrettably has spread from the populist heart to the intellectual brains of the conservative movement.

Continue Reading »

You can look at over 700 front pages from around the world here.

Driving home today and listening to NPR I heard a woman, speaking at a “welcome home” rally for Palin in Alaska, say that she thinks America will take the state of Alaska more seriously as a result of this election. I find that fascinating. While Palin garnered intense support from social conservatives, she was largely viewed as a bust and has been pilloried by Republican pundits for hurting McCain’s chances. At the same time, Alaska has baffled many Americans this election cycle by voting in huge numbers for a senator who was convicted of multiple felonies and could be facing up to 35 years in jail (though that sentence is VERY unlikely). I’m not an expert on Alaska or Alaskans, but in my (limited) experience they seem to be a fairly pragmatic lot. Why then would anyone in Alaska think that the state’s reputation would IMPROVE as a result of the dual fiascos of the Palin vice presidential run and the Stevens race?

Seriously, if any of you have any ideas please share them. I’m stumped.

UPDATE: I’m not the only one stumped by Alaska this election season. The Washington Post has an interesting article on the questions raised by the Alaskan vote. And, I meant to include this link to 538 when I first wrote this — an examination of how wrong the pollsters were on the Alaskan vote.

The political future of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) still remains unclear as no clear victor has been declared in Alaska’s close Senate race and counting of votes continues. A win for Stevens will not ensure him another term, since Senate Republican leaders have called for his expulsion or resignation. Pundits say Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is his likely successor.

From this All Headline News report.

As The Wall Street Journal said today:

If (Stevens) is re-elected and later resigns, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin must call for a special election. State law is unclear on whether she can appoint someone to fill the seat temporarily.

I could see Sarah appointing herself to the Senate now that she has a taste of the national stage. Washington DC has a lot of nice malls and it is easy to get to New York City to shop.

If Alaska elects her in a special election, (which I think they would since they are on the verge of electing a convicted felon) they will not be doing themselves a favor towards improving their image (see first video here) to the rest of the US. They would be going from a guy who described the Internet as “a series of tubes” to a gal that doesn’t know that Africa is a continent.

Palin as a senator, would also put her on track for candidacy for the 2012 presidential election or possibly 2016, as she alluded to in the Masked Avengers’ prank call.

So I think that we are stuck with her for the long haul. Stay tuned to Palined.com for more updates.

This clip from Fox News must be seen to be believed (how can the governor of any state not know that Africa is a continent?). Ponderous. I imagine we will be getting truckloads more of this in the coming days [ed: Your first morning delivery of McCain-Palin infighting is here from the NYT]:

Update: Here is another video of Cameron on O’Reilly:

Cameron restates a lot of the same claims as he does in the previous video. I think that the best thing to come out in this video (@ 5:25) is that Randy Scheunemann was fired because he didn’t like people Nailin’ Palin. LOL!!

UPDATE: These charges are from a “small bitter type of person”. Funny, most of the small people I’ve tasted have been quite tasty. Someone must have prepared this one wrong or maybe it grazed on too many dandelions.

After being yanked out of Alaska and groomed for national office can she return to govern the state that she was elected to govern?

In the 68 days since Alaska’s governor began her run for vice president, things have changed on the home front. Some of her former allies are fuming, and former enemies are lying in wait. Public perceptions of the governor have also changed. Has the governor changed as well?

From ADN.com

Palin talked to CNN’s Dana Bash last night and spoke some incoherent sentences about running for president in 2012 or something.

BASH: You’re notably not ruling out 2012.

PALIN: Well, you know, right now, I cannot even imagine running for national office in 2012. When I say that, though, of course, coming on the heels of an outcome that I — I certainly didn’t anticipate and had not hoped for.

But this being a chapter now that is closed and realizing that it is a time to unite, and all Americans need to get together and help with this new administration being ushered in, policies that have got to help this nation keep us secure.

Somewhere is that mess of words is a sentence, maybe even an answer.

Video of interview:

The odds for Sarah’s run for president in 2012 have been published.

Ireland’s leading online bookmaker, Paddy Power (US customers prohibited at this time) has wasted little time posting odds on the 2012 US Presidential election, making Sarah Palin a 3-1 favorite to get the Republican nominee, followed by Mitt Romney at 5-1 odds. Palin is also listed with the next best odds (7-1) after President-Elect Barack Obama, to become the next US President. She is listed with better odds than Hillary Clinton (10-1). We can also anticipate a wide list of novelty bets involving Palin, probably in the next few weeks.

So should we keep the MPAV movement and palined.com going?

Thanks to all of the MPAV! readers, it’s been a fun and scary ride. Thank you to the American people who I feel have given our country its greatest chance of success. I am grateful that my children will grow up with a significantly expanded idea of who can become president. I wish the new president and Congress success in tackling the variety of ills facing our country. Godspeed.

Sarah, you can’t wave goodbye yet.

Oh, and also America is “cool” because she doesn’t have say if she voted for Ted Stevens.

The Anchorage Daily News is reporting today that a report, released yesterday, clears Gov. Sarah Palin of any ethics violations and “directly contradicts earlier findings of an investigator for the Legislature”.

The new report says the Legislature’s investigator was wrong to conclude that Palin abused her power by allowing aides and her husband, Todd, to pressure Monegan and others to dismiss her ex-brother-in-law, trooper Mike Wooten. Palin was accused of firing Monegan because Wooten, the target of a series of complaints from the governor and her family, stayed on the job.

The reason given for the report not being released until yesterday is “it just wasn’t ready”.

For some reason I think she is serious here.

I thought the Palin Doctrine would say one thing and mean exactly the opposite.