Sarah Palin Doesn’t Vomit On Camera
Aug 9, 2010 Sarah Palin 2012, Sarah Palin's poltical future, Sarahpalooza, sarah palin
therefore she showed her coolness under fire from impolitic liberals/progressives who probably hang out with terrorists. See how that works?
Tags: sarah palin
More Teabaggers Failing – Palin Edition
May 8, 2010 Sarah Palin 2012, The Teabagger Fail, sarah palin
Sarah Palin endorsed the “demon-sheep” establishment candidate Carly Fiorina this week, causing many of her supporters to complain right on her Facebook page. Of course, the whole purpose of Palin’s Facebook-centered campaign is to avoid exactly that sort of confrontation, which is why media figures increasingly question coverage of her Facebook releases. Nor is Palin’s Twitter account free of scrutiny (note to Sarah: it’s generally not a good idea to use a “foreign company” as your whipping-boy when your husband has spent years working for said “foreign company”).
This is the default GOP nominee for 2012.
Palin’s Party Prattle
Mar 23, 2010 Republican Front Groups, Republican Party, Republicans Meet The Teabag Terror, Sarah Palin 2012, Sarah Palin's poltical future, Sarahpalooza, Teh Train Wreck™, The Teabagger Fail, republicans, republicans suck, sarah palin
Sarah wants a new third party to, y’know, make Republicans have to debate harder an’ stuff:
ThinkProgress has a list of her statements about a third party; up til now she has taken the more popular position among teabaggers that the movement shouldn’t form its own party. But Sarah was never good at that consistent-thought thing, and she’s always eager to grow her personality cult one way or another.
Yes, Republicans, your creation will now go to war with you. Bad enough it was shouting insults and spitting on Congress members over the weekend; now it’s going to take all those RNC-supplied signs and attack you with them. But keep it up! You’re doing great!
Sarah’s Reality
Mar 4, 2010 Sarah Palin 2012, Sarah Palin's poltical future, Sarahpalooza, Teh Train Wreck™, Television, sarah palin, sarah palin's wardrobe
She’s flirted with tea party televangelism; now she wants her own reality show. Somehow, it seems to me the natural end of the Sarah Palin story is a non-reality-based “reality show.” Think “John and Kate” with extra moose-hunting.
What’s sad is that she actually sees this as a step up in the world.
Of course, Celebrity Barbie has no capacity for self-examination, which is why she will never know that her sad paranoia and diva attitude piss people off. It’s the second coming of Anna Nichole Smith.
Teh Train Wreck™ continues off the rails and long past Denial Station.
Teh Train Wreck™
Feb 14, 2010 2012 GOP nomination, Sarah Palin 2012, Sarahpalooza, Teh Train Wreck™, sarah palin
The presumptive 2012 Republican nominee actually has 29% of Americans convinced she might be qualified to be president. This is the frightening result of a Washington Post-ABC poll. Did I mention that I live among an unusual concentration of such people?
The numbers are similar to Bush’s late approval numbers. So as far as I’m concerned, the Republicans can go ahead and crown her; she’s only going to say more stupid between now and then. The electorate knows what they’re seeing, but it will take time for the true believers to realize that she’s just cashing in on the ignorance she promotes.
Palin’s permanent revolution is a train wreck that left Denial Station on November 5th, 2008, and whistled past acceptance a long time ago. There will be no president Sarah and she knows it. But she would rather play queen anyway. Expect the old white men who DO plan to run in 2012 to fawn all over her like a schoolboy crush.
Tea Party Crashing
Feb 7, 2010 Breitbart, James O'Keefe, Sarah Palin 2012, Sarahpalooza, Teh Train Wreck™, The Teabagger Fail, sarah palin
Gaylord. Heh. Sumptuous digs for a "populist" movement.
Well, last night was interesting.
I needed to be in Nashville yesterday anyway, so I crashed the tea party at the Gaylord (heh!) Grand Ole Opry Hotel and Convention Center to catch as much video as possible. I went as a citizen journalist with every intention of promoting my work via Huffington Post in all probability, but in the form of You Tube video that will be available elsewhere (including, and especially, my own website).
I introduced myself as Matt Osborne to everyone who asked. No one asked if I was with a media organization, including the woman who eventually “threw me out,” until Sarah’s speech was over and I was literally leaving the way I’d come. I got silent video of convention participants and Judge Roy Moore of Ye Ten Commandments. I talked to “media colleagues” and got samples of the propaganda. Though I was refused entry to the ballroom to so much as take a photo of Sarah, I watched a little of her speech on somebody’s laptop.
After getting shots through the wide-open banquet hall doors, I proceeded to interview two participants off-camera for research purposes. I didn’t take quotes and continued introducing myself as Matt Osborne.
I say all of this as prologue to explain that I’m working on a video involving Andy Breitbart; I was hoping to run into him, but was more concerned with getting video to lay out the narrative of astroturfery and right-wing nontroversy. If you follow my posts at HuffPo or my blog, you know that these are very big areas of interest for me; they’re subjects on which Maddow has reported as well.
So just in case I ran into Breitbart, I had decided to adopt the O’Keefe method: I went under pretext. The best part is, I did not lie about these things, and still got plenty of video. As far as professional ethics go, I think I did pretty well. My girlfriend thought it would be fun to try and say she was a high school senior working on a report for her government class; she does in fact appear quite young, but she’s no professional. Nevertheless, it’s her camera.
As I said, I got GREAT video that will be ready later today (I hope), but I didn’t get to meet or see Breitbart. So I was on my way out the same way I came in (the back door leads to the Opry Mills Mall parking lot; the facility has 24-7 public access) when I was stopped by a woman who claimed to be the event’s media liaison.
She had the a sharp, angry tone of a harpy. Mind you, this woman had already caught sight of us and the camera shortly after we came in and did nothing. When I now held out my hand and introduced myself as Matt Osborne, she asked me who I was with and I suddenly grew devil’s horns. Remember, I had already done what I’d come to do; just to find out what would happen, I said two words that may get me in real trouble:
“Huffington Post.”
I said that because (of course) Huffington Post is not a “real media organization” (while Breitbart, who borrowed the Huffington Post business model to spread demonstrable lies and paranoid racist agit-prop, was a central figure at the convention). Huffington Post alone does not get invited to the tea party. Wing Nut Daily is more “respectable.”
The harpy said I would have been treated like any other media organization if I had checked in with her, but I got VIDEO of their plan for me. No thanks — the media room was on the opposite end of the extremely large building, and reporters from other news agencies described an oppressive atmosphere.
Remember, I used public access. I took video of people already appearing on video. I didn’t tape or record interviews. As far as ethics are concerned, I’ll gladly compare mine to James O’Keefe any bloody day. Which must be why I grinned when the harpy said she should have expected as much, that HuffPo was an unprofessional outfit and I was the perfect example.
I tore a page out of the Breitbart-O’Keefe playbook and she called me “unprofessional.” Let that sink in.
Anyway: the harpy texted or tweeted someone. I did not have a press credential from HuffPo (I don’t think they have any, actually) so I began to explain that I am an unpaid blogger for Huffington Post…but she was already calling security as the words started coming out of my mouth.
The harpy said that I was to be detained and held for questioning, which was not about to happen for any number of reasons. It’s still the goddamn United States of America; I am not easily intimidated by civilians playing tinfoil god. I also found her highly offensive, so I just said “no” and turned to walk away.
Then the harpy followed me (she would follow me all the way to my car, she said). She attempted to taunt us (laughable) and hollered that we were in terrible trouble — which, in fact, we were; my girlfriend has breathing problems and was now having difficulty getting enough air.
When the harpy realized how I’d accessed the building, she took verbal offense that I had not paid $18 for self-parking. At that point I turned to her in an attempt at reconciliation; there were no grounds for arresting us, and my girlfriend was having a panic attack.
Which is the moment the harpy called the police. Irony: I was in a building full of people convinced the president was an illegitimate foreign agent bent on removing their constitutional rights.
We lost her and made a clean extraction, but there’s no video of all this — my girlfriend was so scared she thought she would drop the camera.
I will understand if Huffington Post is forced to disavow me. That’s fine; I’ll take whatever bad-boy punishment Arianna determines — and make no whimper of complaint under the lash. (Though it would be great to get some consideration from George Soros, who has yet to send me that check we’re all supposedly earning in the liberal ’sphere.) The fact is, I haven’t made any money by being on HuffPo and that’s not what I blog there for.
The woman called herself an employee of Gaylord’s, but I have yet to confirm that and have reason to doubt it. More as this develops…
ADDING: She actually yelled a verbal no-trespass order for the entire convention center and the Opry Mills mall at my back. Boo f***ing wa wa hoo, I can’t drive two hours to pay a retail markup.
ALSO ADDING: Did you know that shutting a door is “assault?” I didn’t, until the harpy shouted this fact too. Interesting how adaptable definitions become whenever wingnuts get involved.
Also also Adding: Gaylord (heh). Turns out the great Nashvegas institution is a corporate welfare recipient.
Sarahpalooza!
Nov 29, 2009 2012 GOP nomination, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin 2012, Sarahpalooza, Teh Train Wreck™, sarah palin
Make no mistake, this is what the beginning of the race for the 2012 GOP nomination looks like:
Train Wreck Whistles Into La-La-Land
Nov 20, 2009 Sarah Palin 2012, Teh Train Wreck™, rush limbaugh, sarah palin
The Sarah L Palin book tour express has crossed the borders of surrealism. She went on Rush Limbaugh’s show the other day and used 35 variations on the phrase “commonsense solutions” without suggesting a single real solution.
The default GOP candidate for 2012 also appeared on Christian Broadcasting Network, where she called her detractors “onely people, some shallow people who want to take a shot like that and we need to pray for (them).”
Limbaugh called Going Rogue “one of the most substantive policy books” he’s ever read.
Then Palin went on Hannity and confused Iran and Iraq more than once:
The default GOP candidate for 2012 also appeared on Christian Broadcasting Network, where she called her detractors “onely people, some shallow people who want to take a shot like that and we need to pray for (them).”
Politeness: Last Refuge of Idiots
Nov 17, 2009 Sarah Palin 2012, Teh Train Wreck™, sarah palin
Sarah Palin told Oprah that she was annoyed by Katie Couric’s question, “what books or magazines do you read?” because it is offensive to Alaskan-Americans.
“No, it was more like, ‘Are you kidding me? Are you really asking me? To me, it was in the context of, ‘Do you read? How do you stay informed, you’re way up there?’” said Palin. “It seemed like she was discovering this nomadic tribe, a member of a tribe from some Neanderthal cave in Alaska, asking me, how do you stay in touch with the real world? That’s how I took the question.”
Spin: so easy, a cavewoman can do it. The least-recognized reversal of our time is how the right resorts to political correctness every time you challenge their Stupid™. We’re supposed to believe that the White House is full of socialists because one of them actually read Mao, but we’re not supposed to ask whether Miss Congeniality reads The Anchorage Daily News because it’s an insult to Alaskans, or something.
This is a version of events that could only come from a mind afflicted with Palin-Bachmann Syndrome™. Palin is clearly suffering from a mental illness that her base demographic refuses to see. Yet this woman could very well be the default GOP nominee for 2012:
If Palin launches a 2012 race – and survives the South Carolina primary with her aura intact – she could theoretically sweep the winner-take-all states without ever winning a majority anywhere. The Republican establishment (the congressional leadership, the governors, the major donors and national consultants) could all agree that Palin would be an electoral disaster against Obama in November and still be powerless to halt her juggernaut.
The Couric interview was a defining moment in the 2008 campaign. Oprah gave Sarah Palin a platform to repair her image, but I don’t think Sarah’s going to win back much public approval. Which means 2012 has the potential to turn into the greatest Republican train wreck in history.
Krauthammer Invites Palin Cult Fury
Aug 23, 2009 Charles Krauthammer, Sarah Palin 2012, Teh Crazy™, Teh Wacky™
I came across this op-ed by Charles Krauthammer on some right wing site:
Let’s see if we can have a reasoned discussion about end-of-life counseling.We might start by asking Sarah Palin to leave the room. I’ve got nothing against her. She’s a remarkable political talent. But there are no “death panels” in the Democratic health-care bills, and to say that there are is to debase the debate.(Emphasis mine)
Quackhammer then proceeds to repeat the very meme he was to debunk, i.e. that ObamaCare will eat your grandmother. Schizophrenic much?
No, say the defenders. It’s just that we want the doctors to talk to you about putting in place a living will and other such instruments. Really? Then consider the actual efficacy of a living will. When you are old, infirm and lying in the ICU with pseudomonas pneumonia and deciding whether to (a) go through the long antibiotic treatment or (b) allow what used to be called “the old man’s friend” to take you away, the doctor will ask you at that time what you want for yourself — no matter what piece of paper you signed five years earlier.You are told constantly how very important it is to write your living will years in advance. But the relevant question is what you desire at the end — when facing death — not what you felt sometime in the past when you were hale and hearty and sitting in your lawyer’s office barely able to contemplate a life of pain and diminishment.
Well, as pain and diminishment enter your life as you age, your calculations change and your tolerance for suffering increases. In the ICU, you might have a new way of looking at things.
Aha. Health care reform will make you not want to spend another six months hooked to a machine, unable to leave your bed, while life goes on and your kids’ inheritance gets drained and you watch your family’s whispered arguments over who has to stay with you. Sounds great — where do I sign up for this wonderful program?
Death, like taxes, is inevitable; this reality is slowly filtering into the minds of Medicare patients, so in the wake of his schizoid opening Quackhammer attempts another mixed message. After arguing that living wills are bad, he admits he has nothing against them.
He even proceeds to offer a precis of his own living will — “more a literary document,” he claims — complete with baseball metaphors. Because legal documents are well-known for their literary value to baseball fans.
There’s no scenario in Quackhammer’s mind where patients are no longer able to announce these decisions for themselves. Furthermore, what he’s denouncing is an amendment that would merely pay your doctor to have a conversation with you. His Wacky™ would only guarantee the poor don’t have as much preparation as the “literary.”
But back to Teh Crazy™. Quackhammer drew fire from conservatives; he was panned by Hot Air and Little Green Footballs. But in the minds of the most rabid Palin supporters, he committed the ultimate sacrilege: implying that Miss Alaska is not smart. Several blogs denounced him, and the comments were vicious.
But reading the blogs, I realized something: even on the right, belief in “death panels” is starting to peak as more and more media sources debunk the rumor. In fact, it is just about the only rumor being consistently debunked.
Krauthammer is making an ill-advised attempt to eject Teh Crazy™ and shock new life into a dead talking point — he’s a witch doctor blowing powder and shouting buggidyboo to raise up some Zombie Outrage™. Someone should tell him that Sarah has a serious problem with witch doctors.
