A Spork in the Drawer

Poetry Corner

[Via Attaturk.]

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How Can This Even Be Possible?

Soon to be Formergovernor Moose-for-Brains promises that "less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps" once she officially quits.

Less "politically correct"? How? Freely using racial epithets? Describing crude sex acts in 140 characters or less?

Actually, I might sign up for the latter.

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The Stupidest Person On The Face Of The Earth

The "Department of Law"?

Good grief.

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The Crazy Won't Quit...

...even if Caribou Barbie has:

In an extraordinary four-page letter, Alaska-based attorney Thomas Van Flein warns of severe consequences should speculation that until now has largely been confined to blogs about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of a Wasilla, Alaska, sports arena find its way into print.

“This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law,” Van Flein warned, citing Alaska liberal blogger Shannyn Moore.

Unless Mr. Van Flein obtained his JD from a box of Cap'n Crunch™ he knows that the Wasilla Whackjob has no case. Of course, the real purpose of this is to intimidate a blogger who probably can't afford to defend herself.

Also.

[Via Steve Benen.]

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Gov. Moose-For-Brains Quits Mid-Term

Weird.

BooMan: "Her speech was totally incoherent and made more odd by the loud ducks in the background."

---

ADDED: She's certifiable:

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Indulge Me

Pretend for a moment that I'm a late-night talk show host:

Sarah Palin is a dope.

BANG! I've just created a "news" firestorm!

Who knew that it was this easy?

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It Has Begun

www.PalinBachmann.com

[Via Rumproast.]

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Mandatory Reading

RS's Matt Taibbi writes the definitive obituary for McCainPalin '08.

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For A Certain Dim-Witted Governor

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A Thin Neck

Since I remain firm in my attempts to keep this blog free of a certain dim governor of a geographically-large but population-deprived state, I'll let Maria review the holiday teevee extravaganza, A Very Special Palin Thanksgiving.

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Also...

Dress for success:

At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys' club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. "I'll be just a minute," she said.

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Even Dumber Than We Thought

While I'm trying to make this place a Sarah Palin-free zone as quickly as possible I can't pass this up. No, Sarah, Africa isn't a country, it's a continent:

Fox "News" trashing Palin. Who woulda thunk it?

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Wrong

NYT headline: Palin Aides Release Her Medical History

Her medical history?

Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, is in excellent health and has had no major medical problems, according to a two-page, seven-paragraph letter by her doctor released late Monday night.

A note from a doctor doesn't constitute her "medical history," jackasses.

What's Simple Sarah hiding?

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Medical Records

What's Simple Sarah hiding?

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Brutal

McClatchy's Joseph L. Galloway offers some commentary:

High tide arrived with the unlikeliest occupant of the Oval Office in our history, the beady-eyed, smirking, tongue-tied, counterfeit cowboy George W. Bush, and a Congress that after 9-11 was run by runaway Republicans who were too busy enriching themselves and their friends to care what their president was doing to the country, the Constitution and even their own party.

Little wonder, then, that Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin will go down to defeat after a campaign of sheer desperation that’s been nasty, brutish and long.

Bush and his clutch of unindicted co-conspirators will leave Washington at high noon on January 20, 2009, two months and a few wakeups from now, and good riddance to bad rubbish.

Ouch.

Read the whole thing.

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Oh Oh Oh...

...Oh oh oh:

A Quebec comedy duo notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state has reached Sarah Palin, convincing the Republican vice-presidential nominee she was speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In the roughly six-minute telephone interview released Saturday, Palin and the pranksters known as the Masked Avengers discuss politics, pundits, and the perils of hunting with Vice-President Dick Cheney.

[...]

Throughout the conversation, Audette drops plenty of clues that something's amiss.

He identifies French singer and actor Johnny Hallyday as his special adviser to the U.S., singer Stef Carse as Canada's prime minister and Quebec comedian and radio host Richard Z. Sirois as the provincial premier.

Audette also tells Palin that he was impressed with the documentary about her, "Who's Nailin' Paylin."

[Via Scout Finch.]

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All God's Turnips

Meanwhile, in Pennsyltucky:

One of the many things that had 84-year-old World War II veteran John H. Gay on edge was worry for Sarah Palin's safety. "She's a brave woman, an old-fashioned American woman who's not afraid to have kids," said Gay. "She's one of the bravest women around, and someone might just assassinate her." But he was tormented by images of a fantastical Stalinoid world to come. According to Gay, Obama believes the communist "mantra" "from each according to his abilities, and to each according to his needs"; that "if we go the socialist way, you young people will lose all your freedoms -- mentally, physically and religiously." As he envisioned a possible future under Obama, he spoke of scarce hot water and hulking Soviet-era high-rises of the sort that ring Moscow.

And he was not alone in his concern that if the Democrats win on Tuesday, it'll only be a matter or time before Americans are getting in bread lines. "I'm afraid of the slippery slope to socialism," said 51-year-old Mike Brecht, whose 21-year-old son is fighting in Mosul, Iraq, and was adopted from Russia when he was 7. Brecht claims that his son, who was 2 when the Berlin Wall fell, still remembers life behind the Iron Curtain. "He can tell you all about his one turnip a day that he ate," said Brecht of his son. "Everybody got the same turnip."

It's what's for dinner. And breakfast. And lunch.

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John Who?

Simple Sarah visits Florida:

Looking around the Fantasy of Flight aircraft hangar where the rally took place, there were all the usual reminders that it was a pro-McCain event. There were two large “Country First” banners hung on the walls along with four enormous American flags meant to conjure the campaign’s underlying patriotic theme. Many of the men and women in the audience wore McCain hats and t-shirts.

But on closer inspection, the GOP nominee’s name was literally nowhere to be found on any of the official campaign signage distributed to supporters at the event.

The election is still three day off and they're already writing the top of the ticket out of history.

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I Suppose It's Better Than Satan

Then again, what's the difference?

No doubt the endorsement from Vice-President 18% ought to do wonders for McPalin's chances.

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UPDATE: Obama offers his congratulations:

I'd like to congratulate Senator McCain on this endorsement because he really earned it. That endorsement didn't come easy. Senator McCain had to vote 90 percent of the time with George Bush and Dick Cheney to get it. He served as Washington's biggest cheerleader for going to war in Iraq, and supports economic policies that are no different from the last eight years. So Senator McCain worked hard to get Dick Cheney's support.

But here's my question for you, Colorado: do you think Dick Cheney is delighted to support John McCain because he thinks John McCain's going to bring change? Do you think John McCain and Dick Cheney have been talking about how to shake things up, and get rid of the lobbyists and the old boys club in Washington?

Colorado, we know better. After all, it was just a few days ago that Senator McCain said that he and President Bush share a "common philosophy." And we know that when it comes to foreign policy, John McCain and Dick Cheney share a common philosophy that thinks that empty bluster from Washington will fix all of our problems, and a war without end in Iraq is the way to defeat Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists who are in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

So George Bush may be in an undisclosed location, but Dick Cheney's out there on the campaign trail because he'd be delighted to pass the baton to John McCain. He knows that with John McCain you get a twofer: George Bush's economic policy and Dick Cheney's foreign policy -- but that's a risk we cannot afford to take.

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If At First You Don't Succeed...

...try, try again. Once more, Simple Sarah attempts to define the role of the vice-president. And once more, gets it wrong:

Well, they’ve to be exclusively, of course, concentrating on the administrative side of governance. And there again, that’s where my executive experience will be put to good use.

At this point it's safe to assume one of two things: 1) Sarah hasn't been informed of the correct answer or 2) Sarah has been informed of the correct answer but just doesn't care. Either way, it speaks ill of the McCain Campaign.

However evil DeFib Dick may be at least he's intelligent and calculating. Electing Sarah, on the other hand, would be like putting an especially dim toddler into the job.

Video at link.

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Sarah Palin, Constitutional Scholar

Oh fer cryin' out loud:

Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

Glenn:

The Constitution also guarantees freedom of association.  Thus, by Palin's "reasoning," when newspapers -- or Palin herself -- criticize Obama for his associations, they're threatening his constitutional rights.

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Aftermath

The Republicans are planning to survey the aftermath:

Two days after next week's election, top conservatives will gather at the Virginia weekend home of one of the movement's most prominent members to begin a conversation about their role in the GOP and how best to revive a party that may be out of power at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue next year.

The meeting will include a "who's who of conservative leaders -- economic, national security and social," said one attendee, who shared initial word of the secret session only on the basis of anonymity and with some details about the host and location redacted.

Of course, conservatism can't fail, it can only be failed:

Few believe that the Republican party will respond to another brutal election by following a path of moderation, but conservatives are deeply dispirited and anxious to reassert the core values they believe have not always been followed by Bush, congressional leaders and their party’s presidential nominee . Many on the right, both elites and the rank-and-file, see a rudderless party that is in dire need of new blood and old principles: small government, a robust national security and unapologetic social conservatism.

If the Republican Party and movement conservatives move any farther to the right they'll all be wearing same-colored shirts and greeting each other with nifty arm-salutes.

However much the knuckle-dragging base emits starbursts at the thought of the Great Wasilla Hope she isn't going to have an easy time of it:

"She will face the classic problem of being a strong candidate for the nomination, but not such an appealing candidate across party lines," [David Frum] said. "She has a very intense following among core Republicans, but at the same time, non-core Republicans have reached a very negative verdict."

And they might want to take Palin's frivolity and self-aggrandizement into account:

Moreover, McCain campaign sources say, Palin has developed quite a reputation on the campaign trail for shopping.

During this controversy, McCain insiders were appalled to read a blog account from Nevada  noting that the day before Palin held an event in Reno, “Palin's assistant stopped in at the Ann Taylor at the Summit Sierra Mall and bought the skirt suit that she wore during to her speech Tuesday at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. ‘She bought a short, three-quarter sleeve jacket, a skirt and a couple other items,’ store manager Suzette Ludden said.”

[...]

At McCain HQ, senior aides rolled their eyes, unable to believe that Palin was continuing to give the story more airtime.

And some Republicans are starting to now say they should have seen this coming, since Palin has a reputation for making friends who can help her and then screwing them over.

Abject stupidity and stratospheric self-regard are a bad combination.

To say the least.

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BWAHAHAHA!

Knives:

In convo with Playbook, a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description, calling her “a whack job.”

This circular firing-squad is going to be especially fun to watch.

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And Another

Reliable neocon and neo-Thatcherite Anne Applebaum goes for Obama. Although her reasoning is so muddled it defies understanding.

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Yes, Please

The 2012 presidential race is beginning*:

Some are already talking about it. In careful terms. If John McCain loses next week, Sarah Palin “has absolutely earned a right to run in 2012,” says Greg Mueller, who was a senior aide in the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes. Mueller says Palin has given conservatives “hope” and “something to believe in.”

If Simple Sarah is "something to believe in" then I'll be a nihilist, thankyouverymuch.

“She would run in 2012 as the populist, conservative reformer that she was originally introduced to the country as,” Mueller said. “If Obama wins, you will see him moving the country to a sort of Euro-socialism. That will fail, and she can target an economic-populist message to the country.”

Given that Mr. Mueller worked on the campaigns of Buchanan and Forbes, well, let's just say that his judgment is lacking.

And let's not forget the real possibility of a full-scale civil war within the Republican Party...the Big Money types have about had it with the ignorant fundie whackjobs. Palin would have to get through Huckabee for the "economic-populist" Christianist vote all the while fighting off Romney who will the candidate of Wall Street. And, anyway, who the hell knows what the conditions will be in 2-3 years?

But if a large faction of the GOP wants to hitch their cart to the Whackjob from Wasilla then I won't complain.

*Campaigning never stops, huh?

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Patently Insane

Simple Sarah goes all in:

See, under a big government, more tax agenda, what you thought was yours would really start belonging to somebody else, to everybody else. If you thought your income, your property, your inventory, your investments were, were yours, they would really collectively belong to everybody. Obama, Barack Obama has an ideological commitment to higher taxes, and I say this based on his record... Higher taxes, more government, misusing the power to tax leads to government moving into the role of some believing that government then has to take care of us. And government kind of moving into the role as the other half of our family, making decisions for us. Now, they do this in other countries where the people are not free. Let us fight for what is right. John McCain and I, we will put our trust in you.

So, you see, a President Obama will seize all of your belongings and herd the recalcitrant and suspicious into Gulags.

QED

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Wish Granted

As noted below, William the Bloody wants Simple Sarah to go on a media blitz. Was this what Kristol had in mind?

HOST: Governor Palin, as we know, doesn’t give a lot of interviews so did you have a lot of time to chat with her?

FODOR: No, in fact this was the only one she gave today and we were limited to about five minutes of time which is not a lot of time and we had to submit which topics we wanted to discuss ahead of time which is not standard procedure.

Y'know, I've never taken the popular position that George W. Bush is "stupid." Ignorant and incurious, yes, but beyond that I've just never gotten that vibe from him. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is quite simply as dumb as a sack of hammers. She may be shrewd but smart she ain't.

One 72-year old cancer-ridden heartbeat away.

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Month Of The Long Knives

Trouble:

Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain's camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain's decline.

"She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane," said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to "go rogue" in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.

"I think she'd like to go more rogue," he said.

Yes, please do! Every time the focus shifts to the Moose Messiah St. John drops in the polls. She pretty much appeals to only the same 35-or-so% who still like George & Dick.

On the one hand:

The emergence of a Palin faction comes as Republicans gird for a battle over the future of their party: Some see her as a charismatic, hawkish conservative leader with the potential, still unrealized, to cross over to attract moderate voters. Anger among Republicans who see Palin as a star and as a potential future leader has boiled over because, they say, they see other senior McCain aides preparing to blame her in the event he is defeated.

On the other hand:

But other McCain aides, defending Wallace, dismissed the notion that Palin was mishandled. The Alaska governor was, they argue, simply unready — "green," sloppy and incomprehensibly willing to criticize McCain for, for instance, not attacking Sen. Barack Obama for his relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Writes Kevin:

And you know the part I'm really looking forward to? Sarah Palin's role in all this. I expect her to rip McCain absolutely to shreds. On background, of course, but it will be no less vicious for that. Her future, such as it is, lies with the wingnut rump of the party, and she knows what her audience wants: John McCain's blood. And lots of it. They never liked him in the first place, and I expect them to be howling for his head on a platter starting at about 8:01 pm EST on November 4th.

Fun for everybody! But more seriously, in a battle of pin the blame on the candidate there's simply no way that McCain can win. The Base will claim that he wasn't rightwing enough and didn't have the courage to get his hands dirty attacking Obama. (It should go without saying that there's also no way they will ever admit that Obama was the better candidate. Better, perhaps, than McCain but not better than the Divine Sarah.)

Palin may or may not fade into the Alaskan Tundra but St. John will be reviled until his dying day and for a long time afterward.

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The Palin Disaster

Ouch:

Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States. Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic support in January.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis."

Should John McCain lose this election one of the key factors was his choice of some dim nutcase from Alaska for a running mate. Palin might excite the 25% but she scares the hell out of thinking people - even conservative thinking people.

Indeed, it appears that even from within the McCain campaign the end is seen as nigh:

One well-connected Republican in the private sector was shocked to get calls and resumes in the past few days from what he said were senior McCain aides — a breach of custom for even the worst-off campaigns.

“It’s not an extraordinarily happy place to be right now,” said one senior McCain aide. “I’m not gonna lie. It’s just unfortunate.”

“If you really want to see what ‘going negative’ is in politics, just watch the back-stabbing and blame game that we’re starting to see,” said Mark McKinnon, the ad man who left the campaign after McCain wrapped up the GOP primary. “And there’s one common theme: Everyone who wasn’t part of the campaign could have done better.”

“The cake is baked,” agreed a former McCain strategist. “We’re entering the finger-pointing and positioning-for-history part of the campaign. It’s every man for himself now.”

A circular firing squad is among the most familiar political rituals of a campaign when things aren’t going well. But it is rare for campaign aides to be so openly participating in it well before Election Day.

Though there are dead-enders:

One school — including syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker and Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal — called her a drag on the ticket and implicitly rebuked McCain’s judgment in picking her. Another school believes she is the future of the party, a view backed by Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard: “Whether they know it or not, Republicans have a huge stake in Palin. If, after the election, they let her slip into political obscurity, they’ll be making a huge mistake.”

Palin has had her ticket punched and the crazies of the Republican Party aren't likely to give up on her.

I'll give David "Axis of Evil" Frum the last word:

“That’s not a failure of campaign tactics. It’s not even a failure of strategy. It’s a failure of the Republican Party and conservative movement to adapt to the times.”

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A Fair Question

Why won't Simple Sarah release her medical records?

If she's a healthy 44-year old what's to hide?

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Supporter

Grand Junction, Colorado:

Heated words between drivers leaving Sarah Palin’s rally Monday allegedly escalated with one man brandishing a loaded handgun.

Jack B. Cheskaty, 62, of Grand Junction, said he pulled a handgun because “he wanted to be ready for anything” in what started as a verbal spat between drivers in bumper-to-bumper traffic leaving Lincoln Park around 8 p.m. Monday, according to an arrest affidavit.

Cheskaty and three family members were riding in a Chrysler, moving slowly in a line a traffic. A man behind the wheel of a Kia SUV attempted to inch in front of Cheskaty’s Chrysler, the affidavit said.

[...]

The driver in the Kia alleged Cheskaty then displayed a handgun, “racked the slide” and held the weapon over the steering wheel, according to the affidavit.

A 14-year-old girl riding in the Kia noted, “Dad, he’s got a gun.”

A female was heard yelling in Cheskaty’s car, “Knock it off.”

[Via Lindsay.]

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Lovely

Simple Sarah is unsure if family planning clinic bombers are terrorists:

From Steve Benen:

There's no question that Bill Ayers via his own admittance was one who sought to destroy our U.S. Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist. There is no question there. Now others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to, I don't know if you're gonna use the word 'terrorist' there, but it's unacceptable and it would not be condoned on our watch.

Can't upset the base, don'tcha know.

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Relationship

gyma comments on the relationship between St. John and Gov. Moose for Brains:

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A Quote To Remember

Sarah the Fashionista to Mullah Dobson:

"And it also strengthens my faith because I know at the end of the day putting this in God's hands, the right thing for America will be done, at the end of the day on Nov. 4."

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Utterly Clueless

Bill Bennett reads the minds of feminists:

BENNETT: I don’t know which drives them more crazy. Let me give you three things that I think drives them crazy, and you don’t have to comment. That’s [Palin's] very attractive. That she’s very competent or that she’s very happy. You know, as a human being.

DAVIS: Yeah, all of the above.

Rachel brings the snark:

With an intellect like that it's no wonder that Bennett loses at gambling so much.

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All In

It appears that St. John is going to throw everything he has at Pennsylvania in hopes of turning this fine Commonwealth red. As a result, tomorrow Sarah Palin will be visiting Beaver, PA.

It's at this point I could make a joke about Larry Flynt's forthcoming movie "Who's Nailin' Paylin" but that would be cheap and tawdry so I won't.

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A Heckuva Sense Of Entitlement, You Betcha!

Pallin' around with with Nieman Marcus:

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

The cash expenditures immediately raised questions among campaign finance experts about their legality under the Federal Election Commission's long-standing advisory opinions on using campaign cash to purchase items for personal use.

Pallin' around with Trig, Track, Truck, Lugnut, & Socket Wrench:

Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. She also has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor's children. The law allows for payment of expenses for anyone conducting official state business.

Pallin' around with investigators:

Sometime this week, "Palin and her husband will meet this week with an investigator determining whether she violated state ethics law when firing her public safety director. Thomas Van Flein, the attorney for both Sarah and Todd Palin, said Sunday the separate depositions by an attorney for the Alaska Personnel Board will be held out of state. The investigator, Timothy Petumenos, will fly to meet the Palins. Van Flein declined to say exactly when or where the interviews will be held, only that they will occur later in the week. ‘I estimate each interview will take about three hours,’ he said."

Pallin' around with the polls:

McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, is also proving to be a drag on the Republican presidential ticket. Nearly half, 49%, have an unfavorable opinion of Palin. Women under 50 years old in particular dislike Palin, with 60% holding an unfavorable view—up from 36% one month ago.

I have no doubt that DeFib Dick Cheney has used his office to make more than a few bucks but, really, his concern was power, which on some level I can respect (though not in any way condone).

Simple Sarah, on the other hand, seems more concerned with lining her pockets; that political power is about moving to Easy Street. it's not enough to keep up with the Joneses but to rub their faces in her wealth.

In short, Sarah Palin is a typical modern Republican.

Still feel good about the pick, John?

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Random Thought

Karl Marx wrote, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."

Tragedy: Bush/Cheney
Farce: McCain/Palin

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Submitted Without Comment

Western Carolina University:

A black bear cub is shot in the head and placed in the center of Western Carolina University's campus.

Placed over its head; an Obama-Biden campaign sign.

[...]

"I just can't believe people would go to such an extent to state their political beliefs," said WCU Junior, Bethany Rowe.

"A sick individual who thinks extremely badly about Obama," said Freshman Daniel Ford.

[Via Pam Spaulding.]

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One 72-Year Old Cancerous Heartbeat Away

Simple Sarah answers a question posed by a third grader:

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me! … [T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

Need I once again point Sarah to Article I §3 of the Constitution of the United States of America?

You betcha!

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.

- John Stuart Mill, 1866

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Rough

From last night's "Family Guy." For reasons that aren't important right now, Brian, Stewie, and Mort Goldman time-travel back to Nazi Germany:

("This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation")

[via Lisa Derrick.]

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Cause And Effect

In 2004, Karl Rove engineered George's election by painting John Kerry in particular and Democrats in general as too weak to protect us from the barbarian hordes. This year, Rove's children are attempting to get John McCain and Sarah Palin elected by portraying Barack Obama AS one of the barbarian hordes. With the incessant cries that he and his supporters are anti-American, traitorous, and simply Other, things like this are inevitable:

In an exclusive interview with 12 News, 58 year-old Nancy Takehara of Chicago says she was going door-to-door when she came across a disgruntled homeowner.

“The next thing I know he’s telling us we’re not his people, we’re probably with ACORN, and he started screaming and raving,” Takehara said. “He grabbed me by the back of the neck. I thought he was going to rip my hair out of my head. He was pounding on my head and screaming. The man terrified me.”

The man eventually stopped and the Caledonia police were called. Takehara was asked if she needed medical assistance, but she was not seriously injured. Instead, she says she was shaken up by the homeowner’s reaction.

It's occurred to me that the McCain camp is no longer playing to win, they're instead working to create chaos for a President Obama. By not just delegitimizing an Obama administration but portraying it as fundamentally opposed to everything the United States supposedly stands for governing will become impossible.

Or so it is hoped.

McCain is playing a very dangerous game here; his campaign has become nothing less than an appeal to civil war.

[Via BooMan.]

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Supporters

(Michael Conroy/Associated Press)
Later, they're gonna head back to frat house for a kegger and then engage in some good ol' fashioned date rape.

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Endangered

Sarah vs. Beluga:

The Bush administration yesterday named the beluga whale in Alaska's Cook Inlet an endangered species despite opposition to the move by Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee.

It's pretty obvious which one should be extinct.

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Inevitable And Expected

Whip up a frenzy and...

An ACORN community organizer received a death threat and the liberal activist group's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month.

[...]

Kettenring said that a senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television this week, got an email stating that she "is going to have her life ended."

A woman staffer in Providence, R.I., also got a threatening call from someone who said words to the effect that "we know you get off work at nine," and then made racial epithets, he said.

McClatchy is withholding both of the women's names because of the threats.

[...]

McCain's campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Corrupt Much?

Talk about a shakedown:

The office of the Republican vice-presidential nominee has quoted prices as high as $15 million for copies of state e-mails requested by news organizations and citizens.

That's a lot of loot. But wait, there's more!

No matter what the price, most of the e-mails of Palin, her senior staff and other state employees won't be made public until at least several weeks after the Nov. 4 presidential election, her office told msnbc.com on Thursday.

Not that Simple Sarah has anything to hide, nosiree.

Sometimes I think that Sarah just might be afraid of something:

The price quotes reveal that Palin's office has repeatedly tried to charge different news organizations the cost to reconstruct the same e-mail accounts of the governor, her senior staff and other employees. Each time an e-mail is requested, the office quotes the same cost of $960.31 for 13 hours to recover and search each employee's e-mails.

NBC's price quote for e-mails sent to Todd Palin: $15 million.

The AP's price for e-mails between state employees and the campaign headquarters of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain: $15 million.

And the AP again, for e-mails between state employees and the National Park Service (on polar bears, wolves and other topics): $15 million.

It's almost as if she has something to hide...but we know that simply can't be the case as Gov. Moose for Brains is an honest, upstanding Christian woman.

Meanwhile, at a Palin rally in North Carolina, a supporter assaults a member of the media. [From TPM.]

Expect more of that.

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Putin Reared His Head...

...and Alaska's governor was completely unaware of it:

The campaign of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said the Alaska governor was unaware of a visit by Russian energy officials to Anchorage on Monday.

Eight high-level officials from Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled energy conglomerate, traveled to Anchorage earlier this week to meet with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the chief executive of ConocoPhillips to discuss energy projects and the possibility of expanding into new markets.

Perhaps these Russian officials are really a scouting party in preparation for invading Gov. Moose-for-Brains' house. After all, said house is reputed to have a beautiful view of their homeland.

Imagine the irony!

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Consequences

The Secret Service is investigating the latest "kill him!" incident.

Perhaps they should have a chat with Gov. Palin, as well.

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Oh, Freakin' Brilliant

Here.

Be sure to mouse around and click.

[Via PZ.]

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Again And Again And Again

This afternoon in Joe Biden's hometown, Scranton, PA:

1:25 p.m.

Chris Hackett addressed the increasingly feisty crowd as they await the arrival of Gov. Palin.

Each time the Republican candidate for the seat in the 10th Congressional District mentioned Barack Obama the crowd booed loudly.

One man screamed "kill him!"

Perversely, the more attention that this sort of thing gets the more we're going to be hearing it. Like bratty children, when Republicans are told that something they're doing is wrong they simply redouble their efforts.

PA-11, which is based around Scranton, leans Democratic (Obama is up in the polls there) and is the rare district in which the Republican is leading a Democratic incumbent.

The Republican challenger is Hazleton mayor, professional xenophobe, and thug Lou Barletta.

Quite a town, Scranton is.

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