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.
Sarahpalooza! II: Convention Crashing
Feb 8, 2010 Morning Video, Samsara of Wacky™, Sarah Palin's poltical future, Sarahpalooza, Teh Train Wreck™, The Teabag Terror, nontroversy
The revolution will be monetized.
Sorry about the audio quality at two points; there’s nothing I can do until such time as Teh Evil Plan™ sees fit to cut me a fat check to buy better equipment.
If you haven’t read my account of what happened as we tried to leave, you should.
Here’s the first Sarahpalooza for comparison:
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.
Maddow’s Epic Triple Play
Dec 24, 2009 Christmas, Rachel Maddow, Teh Train Wreck™, health care reform, republicans suck
It’s a thing of beauty: three complete deconstructions in a row.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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:
Palinpalooza!
Nov 22, 2009 Teh Train Wreck™, sarah palin
Sarah Palin was supposed to leave Fort Bragg, NC at 1:00 PM CST and get to Books-A-Million in Birmingham by 4:30 PM CST. That’s 3.5 hours set aside to complete a journey 8.5 hours and 529 miles long through mountainous terrain. Apparently, she is still on a bus.
The book tour is turning into a fiasco, and I am waiting in Colonial Brookwood Village shopping center with camcorder in hand to catch the fallout. Will update when possible.
The book tour is turning into a fiasco, and I am waiting in Colonial Brookwood Village shopping center with camcorder in hand to catch the fallout. Will update when possible.
Update 5:55 PM — Palin was originally scheduled to follow right after Mike Huckabee, but postponed her book signing until tomorrow. Teh Train Wreck had already sold out passes for Sunday, and now all those fans will have to miss work on Monday to get their copies autographed.
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).”
Sarah Palin is a Wingnut
Nov 19, 2009 Sarah Palin's poltical future, Teh Train Wreck™, sarah palin
So Sarah Palin gives a shout-out to the “fair and balanced media folks” in Going Rogue, and surprise! They’re all right-wingers, including racists and rape-apologists along with the Faux Noise crew.
Not only does Palin like Sean Hannity, she went on his show yesterday and finally named three of her news sources: Newsmax, The Frontiersman, and the Wall Street Journal.
Newsmax is, of course, the right-wing news site where John L. Perry fantasized about a military coup against Obama. They also have Richard Poe, who goes on the O’Reilly factor every now and then to dish out George Soros paranoia. Their crackerjack staff has published false information about Obama White House appointees. Yeah, tinfoil hat stuff.
The Frontiersman is the Wasilla newspaper, which I imagine to be a colder, less interesting version of the Times Daily. The Journal is an interesting choice for Sarah: I mean, come on. Really? I’ve sat absorbed in it myself, but it’s way above her reading comprehension level. Then again, she did publish a ghostwritten op-ed in the Journal and the op-ed pages are far to the right of their newsroom, so I guess it makes sense.
This woman’s entire world is made up of right-wing nonsense.
Politeness: Last Refuge of Idiots, pt 2
Nov 19, 2009 Faux Noise Channel, Samsara of Wacky™, Teh Librul Media™, Teh Train Wreck™, sarah palin
The Palin camp responded to the AP fact-check of Going Rogue by playing the politeness card. Teh Librul Media™ is just discriminating against Alaskan-Americans:
MSNBC interviewed people at one of her book signings; the results are a study of cognitive dissonance in action:
That’s Sarah’s base: low-information voters. Faux Noise consumers. Idiots. It’s not like they’re affected by fact-checking; indeed, the Samsara of Wacky™ makes if fodder for their narrative of Teh Librul Media™.
“Imagine that,” the post read. “11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book, instead of using the time and resources to ‘fact check’ what’s going on with Sheik Mohammed’s trial, Pelosi’s health care takeover costs, Hasan’s associations, etc. Amazing.”
Thank God we’ve got Faux Noise to investigate these nontroversies very thoroughly, as they — along with the entire body of media — recently fact checked Palin’s absurd claim about American currency. Did I mention that she’s considered a serious contender for the 2012 GOP nomination? Yes, thank God we have Faux Noise to play old Palin rally footage while reporting on her book tour:
MSNBC interviewed people at one of her book signings; the results are a study of cognitive dissonance in action:
That’s Sarah’s base: low-information voters. Faux Noise consumers. Idiots. It’s not like they’re affected by fact-checking; indeed, the Samsara of Wacky™ makes if fodder for their narrative of Teh Librul Media™.
