Griper Blade: Republicans in Their Own Private Reality

It's the beginning of the end. Barack Obama's push for socialism and fascism and whatever the hell else we're supposed to believe he's pushing is killing his approval ratings. If you need proof, you can look no farther than the average of Gallup daily tracking. Where the president was at 66% approval on day one, his numbers have dropped to 61% through June. This is a 5% drop in 6 months. At this rate, we can expect Obama to be universally hated within 72 months. Clearly, we're looking at a future failed presidency. That'd be around the middle of his second term.

Of course, when we look at what's driving this drop, we see that maybe this isn't exactly a widespread phenomenon. Obama's not the one slipping out of the mainstream here, Republicans are. Obama's actually steady among Democrats -- 88% in January, compared with 89% in June -- and down slightly among independents -- 62% then to 59% now. Gallup explains what makes up the bulk of the drop:

Republicans account for most of the change in Obama's approval ratings from January through June, with their approval shifting downward from 40% in January to 25% today. Most of the change among Republicans came between January and March; Republicans' assessments of Obama have stayed fairly stable since.

So things are going along swimmingly, so long as you leave out Republican opinions. At this point, you probably can. Obama's numbers among Independents in June were down 4 points from May -- 59% from 63% -- but May was kind of a spike in that demographic. The previous month scored 60%.

In fact, take party out of the equation and a majority approve of Obama in every demographic but one -- people who attend church weekly. Normally a GOP bastion, even here it's a wash, with 50% approving. In no group does a majority disapprove of Obama's work as president... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

The Stuff I Didn't Get To -- 7/9/09

Rep. Steve King (JACKASS-IA)

-Headline of the day-
"Steve King: I Opposed 'Yet Another Bill' To Commemorate Slavery, In Order To Protect Judeo-Christian Heritage."

What a load this guy is. Yesterday, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution to include a plaque at the Capitol Vistors' Center (CVC) acknowledging that the capitol building had been built by slaves.

Wait, did I say "unanimously?" It would've been, if it hadn't been for Iowa Rep. Steve King. The bill passed 399-1. His reasoning? It'll make the baby Jesus cry.

"Last night I opposed yet another bill to erect another monument to slavery because it was used as a bargaining chip to allow for the actual depiction of 'In God We Trust' in the CVC," he said in a statement. "The Architect of the Capitol and liberal activists opposed every reference to America's Christian heritage, even to the extent of scrubbing 'In God We Trust' from the depiction of the actual Speaker's chair in the U.S. House of Representatives."

What the hell any of this has to do with slavery is anyone's guess. But King says the bill's "just the latest example of a several year effort by liberals in Congress to scrub references to America's Christian heritage from our nation's Capitol."

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee national press secretary Ryan Rudominer basically said that King is just insane. "This is the latest in a long line of erratic behavior from King that has made him an embarrassment to Iowans and to the Republican Party," he said. That "erratic behavior" is better described as out-and-out racism. Seriously, the guy's more of a xenophobe than Lou Dobbs and Tom Tancredo put together. Even Michele Bachmann was lunatic enough to oppose this.

After seeing that his weird religious defense wasn't flying anywhere -- even on the right -- King tried to spin it away with bullshit. "[O]f the 645,000 Africans that were brought here to be forcibly put into slavery in the United States, there were over 600,000 people that gave their lives in the Civil War to put an end to slavery," he told Radio Iowa. "And I don't see the monument to that in the Congressional Visitor Center, and I think it's important that we have a balanced depiction of history."

A couple of points here; one, the CVC display is about the damned building -- which slaves actually built. Two, you can't turn around in Washington DC without banging into some Civil War memorial. Seriously Steve, I think that period in history is pretty well covered.

Allow me a moment to speak directly to the people of Steve King's Iowa district -- Sioux City and Council Bluffs, I'm talking to you -- what the fuck is wrong with you people? (Talking Points Memo)


-It's all Obama's fault-
One of the more wingnutty blogs out there, Atlas Shrugs, says Sarah Palin resigned because Barack Obama sucks so much. "My take? If Palin is anything like I think she is (know she is), Obama's treasonous presidency is responsible for this," writes blogger Pam Geller. "She, like all patriotic Americans, is shocked by what is happening. Obama is destroying this country. She knows it. We all know it. We need a leader. She is answering our call."

Freakin' commie! Palin was forced to quit, so she could go out and fight Obama. Grrr! Teabags forever! w00t!

And here's the thing, Sarah Palin says exactly the same thing!

Well, not "exactly" -- in that she's not saying that she has to find a phonebooth so she can fight Lexx Obama over the streets of Metropolis. What Sarah's saying is that she had to resign because Barack Obama chased her out of the governor's mansion with an ax -- or something like that. In any case, Team Palin says that, far from fighting the Socialist Menace, they had to take off running from it. That kind of takes a lot of the heroism out it, doesn't it?

"[O]ne of the most interesting aspects of the story is how vehemently the Palin camp blames Barack Obama..." says Jay Newton-Small, who interviewed Palin for TIME. "That's the way they think about it: that these Alaskans filing ethics complaints have been hoodwinked by Obama operatives into wasting the Alaskan government's time and resources."

So here's the score: Commies-1, "All Patriotic Americans"-0. I'd advise panic. (Crooks and Liars, Political Wire)


-About those ethics complaints-
When Palin announced she was resigning, she listed as a key reason the cost of all those ethics complaints filed by those commie Obama stooges. "The state has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some two million of your dollars to respond to 'opposition research' -- that's money not going to fund teachers or troopers or safer roads.." she said.

Turns out that's a bunch of hooey. According to the report, "[T]he governor's own office conceded yesterday that money used to respond to the ethics charges are part of fixed costs that would have gone to the same lawyers, whether the charges were filed or not. The funds wouldn't have gone to schools, police, or transportation, as Palin claimed."

So I guess she was just lying.

I blame Obama's mind control ray. It made her lie. (Political Animal)

Pew: Only 6% of Scientists are Republican

Wow. Just wow. A Pew Research Center for the People & the Press study finds that the Republican party is really unpopular in the scientific community. Check out this poll graphic:



Only 6% identify with the GOP and only 9% call themselves conservative. I suppose you can attribute this to the fact that when science and ideology butt heads among Republicans, ideology wins. The GOP has become the party of the scientific crank -- climate, evolution, environmentalism, stem cell research, Big Bang theory, etc. are all areas that Republicans have politicized.

Add to this that Republican stances on non-scientific issues aren't exactly rational (i.e., "Saddam has a death ray! FREAK THE FUCK OUT!!") and it's no surprise that they don't appeal to minds trained in logic.

There is some bad news here as well. Only 32% of non-scientists believe that "humans, other living things have evolved due to natural processes" and only 49% believe that the "earth is getting warmer because of human activity." Who do scientists blame for this widespread ignorance?

The media. 85% of scientists believe the "public does not know very much about science" and 76% say that the "news does not distinguish between well-founded findings and those that are not" -- i.e., evolution vs. creationism and climate science vs. global warming denial. That's been a long-standing complaint of mine as well; the media is stuck in a version of "objectivity" that doesn't actually inform, but confuses. If you have someone talking about evolution, you absolutely have to talk to some creationist nutjob. And you absolutely have to treat both people as if their arguments are equally sound. In doing so, the media leaves the consumer no better informed after the smoke clears -- no questions were answered, because the report was only about the questions. You watched an idiot yell at a scientist and you walked away just as dumb as you were before. If the media reported the facts, not the ginned-up "controversy," we'd all be a lot better off.

And a lot smarter.

The Stuff I Didn't Get To -- 7/8/09

Possible WMD

-Headline of the day-
"Report: Holes Found In Federal Security."

Turns out that federal buildings aren't as secure as you'd like federal buildings to be. According to the report, "Investigators smuggled bomb parts through checkpoints at 10 federal buildings as part of a test that showed gaping holes in security caused by inattentive and poorly trained guards." The findings were the result of a Government Accountability Office report submitted to the senate today.

"Once GAO investigators passed control access points, they assembled the explosive device and walked freely around several... floors of these Level IV facilities with the device in a briefcase," the GAO found. According to the report, "Level IV facilities are those that employ more than 450 federal workers and have high exposure to the public."

In one case, a guard was sleeping after taking Percocet. In another, "a guard failed to recognize or did not properly X-ray a box containing handguns at the loading dock at a facility." And it's not just bombs and guns that can be smuggled in. In yet another instance "an infant in a carrier was sent through an X-ray machine due to a guard's negligence," the GAO reports. Why would you test for that?

Here's my question; why is it that the names of the people who helped Dick Cheney write the energy policy were a big state secret, but the fact that pretty much any one of the three stooges could blow up a federal building is not?

l'm not saying we shouldn't fix the problems, I'm just saying that maybe advertising them isn't really the smartest way to go here. Before you know it, we could be up to our armpits in guns and bombs and X-irradiated terr'ist babies in federal buildings.

I just don't think that's something anyone wants to see. (NPR)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, like all this high-fallutin' technology? The tweetbooks and the facetubes and the news aggravators?


Click for animation

In related news, racist groups are using Twitter now.

The moral of this story? Go outside. (MarkFiore.com)


-Speaking of racist groups...-
...I give you FOX & Friends, a show that's such unbelievable bullshit that you wish there were a stronger word for bullshit.

In discussing the problem of dementia among seniors (let's just skip over the irony of that, OK?), co-host Brian Kilmeade went a little nazi. ""We are -- we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other..." he said. "See, the problem is the Swedes have pure genes. Because they marry other Swedes... Finns marry other Finns, so they have a pure society."

But now the Finns marry the Swedes and the Swedes marry the Chinamen and the Chinamen marry the Latinos and that's why grandma keeps thinking you're the paperboy -- they're all "other species."

Seriously, sometimes I wonder if you actually have to prove you're an idiot to get a gig with FOX & Friends, because getting three of the dumbest people in America to host the same morning show seems like too much of a coincidence. (Salon)

GOP Argument in Favor of Alito Now Applies to Sotomayor

Turns out that Sonia Sotomayor isn't such a horribly incompetent judge after all.

Reuters:

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor got a boost on Tuesday in what is expected to be a relatively easy road to Senate confirmation when an influential U.S. lawyer's group gave her its top rating.

The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary based its unanimous "well qualified" evaluation on a review of the integrity, competence and judicial temperament of Sotomayor, a federal judge for 17 years who seems headed to become the first Hispanic on the highest U.S. court.

Clearly, this means Sonia Sotomayor should be confirmed yesterday -- unanimously -- and anyone who says otherwise hates America and the Constitution. That is, if you buy Republican arguments in favor of confirming Samuel Alito.

Orin Hatch:

Mr. President, I rise to address the nomination of Samuel Alito to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Judicial nominees should be judged on their qualifications and their judicial philosophy. On the first point, there is no question that Judge Alito is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 1990, when the first President Bush nominated Judge Alito to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the American Bar Association unanimously gave him its highest "well qualified" rating. This body confirmed him at that time without dissent.

Regarding judicial philosophy, the most important principle is that judges are not politicians. When we hear someone talk only about the results of a judge's decisions, chances are they are applying a political rather than a judicial standard. This is what we heard today on this floor from my Democratic colleagues.

Jeff Sessions:

Sadly, partisanship prevailed and Democrats chose to vote in lockstep against this committed public servant. Every Democrat on the Judiciary Committee voted against this well-qualified judge!

And now, Mr. President, as this nomination comes before the full Senate, the unfair rhetoric continues. I find it sad that yesterday, my colleague from Massachusetts, Senator Kerry took to the Floor in this Chamber to insinuate that he could, as he said “Almost imagine Karl Rove right now whispering to Judge Alito, ‘Just say that you have an open mind, say whatever it takes.’ ”

This accusation is insulting not only to Judge Alito - a man who by all reports is a fair and honest public servant – but to the intelligence of every American who shares Judge Alito’s understanding that the proper role of a judge is to interpret law, not make it.

These types of slanderous accusations also fly in the face of the diverse and numerous independent groups who have stepped forward to defend Judge Alito’s character and qualifications.

Many of his former colleagues, including several judges who have served with him, testified under oath that he is fair and independent.

The American Bar Association, hardly known as a bastion of the right-wing, unanimously agreed to give Judge Alito their highest ranking of “well qualified” for his quote “integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament.”

Of course, as much as the Republicans enjoyed pretending that the American Bar Association confirms SCOTUS justices and that the senate just makes it official, this isn't the case at all.

Still, it would be nice if Republicans were consistent in their arguments. Don't expect Sessions to see "well qualified" on her resume and think, "well then, I guess I have to vote to confirm her!"

It's not about being consistent, it's about politics. The ABA's evaluation doesn't mean a damned thing now and, to be honest, it didn't mean a damned thing then.

Griper Blade: Sarah Palin's Brilliant Career Move

Rereading Sarah Palin's resignation speech, I realize that it's impossible to exaggerate it to the point of absurdity. It reaches that point on its own. "Our destiny [is] to be reached by responsibly developing our natural resources," she said. "This land, blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, AND oil and gas. It's energy! God gave us energy." Reading it over, you see it's peppered with exclamation points and odd capitalizations, all while making very little sense. She said that she wasn't going to "appease those who demand: 'Sit down and shut up,'" because that's the "quitter's way out." So it just naturally follows that she had to quit being governor. Only a quitter wouldn't quit.

At first, everyone (myself included) assumed that she was trying to get out in front of some looming scandal. The reasons she gave in her resignation speech were an unfair media and accusations "of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations." But that didn't make a lot of sense -- you don't leave an executive office because the job becomes difficult. If that were the case, no governor or president -- or even mayor -- would ever finish a term.

No. It had to be some sort of damage control. There wasn't any other logical explanation. But in Sarah Palin's world, logic isn't really a consideration.

"There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we're investigating her or getting ready to indict her," said FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez, shooting down the looming scandal scenario. "It's just not true."

Of course, it may be that something is going on, that some sort of investigation is happening, just not by the FBI. But if Palin didn't resign because of some sort of Alaska-gate, then seriously, what the hell's the deal?... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

The Stuff I Didn't Get To -- 7/7/09

Palin taking the Oath of Office as Gov. of Alaska

-Headline of the day-
"The Sarah Palin I-Quit-arod."

Sarah Palin decided that she had to quit being the Gov. of Alaska, because otherwise she'd have to be a lame duck and that's what quitters do. Normally, I'd let you take a second to recover from that logical assault, but it's been a few days since the announcement-- if you're not over it by now, you've been psychically handicapped by the statement. You have my sympathy.

But it turns out that quitting the governorship isn't the only time she decided to not be a quitter by quitting. It's like her hobby or something. During a five year period, Palin went to five different colleges, quitting four. She wound up with a Bachelor's degree from who only knows what school. I believe the degree was in Quit-School-ology.

She also quit a gig with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. "Palin said it was hard to do her job with potential civil penalties hanging over her head if she talked about what went on at her agency," the report tells us. "She said the experience was taking the 'oomph' out of her passion for government service and she decided to quit rather than becoming bitter."

Well, at least she still has her 'oomph' and she's not bitter. That's what's really important.

So the moral of this story is that even if Sarah Palin were to someday become president (and that possibility has pretty much died), we probably wouldn't have to put up with her for more than a year or two. Then she'd quit to found a candy company or become a spokesperson for Ramen noodles or take a job as an elephant wrangler for Bollywood movies or something. As soon as she got bored, she'd pack her knapsack and vamoose.

She was born to ramble... (TIME, via Right Wing Watch)


-Insane in their grief-
Two items from Editor and Publisher's E&P Pub blog on newspaper coverage of Michael Jackson's memorial service:

'WSJ' Goes Absurd Over Jacko: Live Blogging the Live Blogging

Somehow we don't think would have happened pre-Murdoch. A [Wall Street] Journal blog live blogs the live blogging of other blogs live blogging the MJ service.

Say what?

And:

'Los Angeles Times' Map Follows MJ's Body

[...]

The Los Angeles Times has posted a Google map that is constantly updated to show the exact location of Jackson's body as it travels from a private funeral to the Staples Center public memorial and on throughout the day. It's not exactly the O.J. Bronco chase, but still...

Clearly, this is the most important thing that ever happened in my lifetime -- which includes the Kennedy assassination, the King assassination, the other Kennedy assassination, the moon landing, Watergate, the fall of Saigon, the fall of the Soviet Union, the birth of the internet, and the election of the first black president.

Someday, your children or your children's children will ask you what you were doing today and you can tell them you were reading live blogging of live blogging while tracking Michael Jackson's corpse on the internet.

Imagine the wonder in those sparkling young eyes... (E&P Pub and E&P Pub)


-Bonus HotD-
"Franken takes the oath."

According to the report, newly-minted Minnesota Sen. Al Franken was sworn in by Joe Biden, after which "the gallery erupted in an unusual and lengthy applause that continued for several minutes."

Future HotD: "FOX News Host Bill O'Reilly Dies in Red-Faced Fit of Apoplexy." (Think Progress)

Griper Blade: Republicans, Xenophobia, and the 'Real America'

Yesterday, I wrote a post I called "Inside the Republican Brain." In it, I explored the GOP's tendency toward cognitive dissonance. Republicans seem to have an ability (or disability) that allows them to hold two completely contradictory ideas in the same head and believe them both equally.

It's often the case that I come across a story that reminds me of a previous post. Normally, I just post a follow-up to my short-form blog, but occasionally, the subject is too long for that -- it requires a second full-length post. In this case, the point that needs to be made is that the love for logical inconsistency isn't the only problem with modern Republican thinking. There's also xenophobia. This xenophobia often manifests itself as racism or homophobia or sexism, but it's all from the same source -- fear of people who aren't exactly like you. We tend to think of this as hatred, since it usually comes across as irrationally angry, but it's clearly fear.

The story that caught my eye was a John Avlon article at The Daily Beast that involves Facebook, racism, and the Young Republicans -- a branch of the GOP that confusingly includes people as old as 40. It also involves another common Republican mistake -- the belief that Republicans are invisible to everyone else.

On Wednesday, [Audra Shay, vice chairman of the Young Republicans and the leading candidate to be elected its chairman] -- a 38-year-old Army veteran, mother, and event planner from Louisiana who has been endorsed by her governor, Bobby Jindal -- was holding court on her Facebook page, initiating a political conversation by posting that "WalMart just signed a death warrant" by "endorsing Obama's healthcare plan." At 1:52, a friend named listed as Eric S. Piker, but whose personal page says his actual name is Eric Pike, wrote "It's the government making us commies... can't even smoke in my damn car... whats next they going to issue toilet paper once a month... tell us how to wipe our asses..."

Two minutes later, Piker posted again saying "Obama Bin Lauden [sic] is the new terrorist... Muslim is on there side [sic]... need to take this country back from all of these mad coons... and illegals."

Eight minutes after that, at 2:02, Shay weighed in on Piker's comments: "You tell em Eric! lol."

Of course, the proper response to such a comment would be "WTF are you even talking about?" but it's really hard to go wrong with any response short of applause. Shay applauded... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

The Stuff I Didn't Get To -- 7/6/09

What passes for a rational argument on the right

-Headline of the day-
"Jacksonville Tea Party Protest Features Signs Comparing President Obama To Hitler."

Of course it did. The Fourth of July teabag protests may have been a bust, but that just meant there was more crazy to go around. Where the tax day gathering drew 4,500 in Jacksonville, FL, the Independence Day version 2.0 only got 1,000 to show up. You do the math -- that means that the people who showed up had to make up the difference and be over four times as insane.

Judge for yourself how successful they were:




At least they're spelled right. You can check the Duval County Republican Party's Facebook fan page for more fun photos.

I suppose that this would be a good time to point out that white supremacists saw the tea parties as an opportunity to recruit new members. I'm guessing that they're not convinced that Obama's just like Hitler. Bona fide nazis seem to believe that the protesters are more nazi-ish than Obama.

Tea bags forever! w00t! (Think Progress)


-I think Yoda she is-
Sarah Palin is like George W. Bush. She could hold a press conference in which she ate a live baby and the wingnuts would still believe she was the finest person ever to walk amongst us mere mortals. Still, with speculation that she resigned from office because of an upcoming scandal whirling, Palin found that she had to do some damage control. So she displayed her Jedi skills using Twitter.

"Critics are spinning, so hang in there as they feed false info on the right decision made as I enter last yr in office to not run again," she wrote. Go ahead and take a second to decipher that one.

Stuck? Help you I can. Backwards talking she is. Eat it up the loons will. (Washington Times)


-Bonus HotD-
"Joe The Plumber Says Immigrants Should Get 'The Hell Out Of Our Damn Country.'"

I didn't realize that Wurzelbacher was an Algonquin name. (Think Progress)

What We Got Out of the Invasion of Iraq

Well, it was all worth it then...

New York Times:

Many American presidents have kept prized possessions within reach during their White House years. Franklin D. Roosevelt cherished a 19th century ship model of the U.S.S. Constitution. One of Dwight D. Eisenhower's favorite gifts was an engraved Steuben glass bowl from his cabinet. And sitting on John F. Kennedy's desk in the Oval Office was a paperweight made from a coconut shell he had carved with a distress message after his PT-109 was sunk during World War II.

The objects have been bequeathed to the American public, accessible through a visit to each man’s presidential library and museum. And so when the library for George W. Bush opens in 2013 on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, visitors will most likely get to see one of his most treasured items: Saddam Hussein's pistol.

"The gun, a 9 millimeter Glock 18C, was found in the spider hole where the Iraqi leader was captured in December 2003 by Delta Force soldiers, four of whom later presented the pistol to Mr. Bush," NYT reports. "Among the thousands of gifts Mr. Bush received as president, the gun became a favorite, a reminder of the pinnacle moment of the Iraq war, according to friends and long-time associates."

Treasure this nine, because it's probably the only thing we're going to get out of this whole adventure. And, with a projected $3 trillion price tag for this war, this is probably the most expensive trophy in history. We spent a lot of money and spilled a lot of blood so that Bush could display this in his monument to failure presidential library.

Griper Blade: Inside the Republican Brain

A couple of weeks ago, President Obama made an argument I wish more people would make. At a press conference, he was asked if a public option for health insurance would "drive private insurers out of business."

"Why would it drive private insurers out of business?" he answered. "If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality healthcare, if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government -- which they say can't run anything -- suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical."

It's not only insurance companies who say this, it's Republicans. As always. cognitive dissonance rules supreme on the right. There's no way that government can possibly do something better than the private sector -- that is, until the only argument against a government program is that government will do it better than the private sector. Then all bets are off, a core argument of conservative philosophy is abandoned, and we're supposed to believe that everything we were previously told of the supremacy of the private was wrong.

It amazes me that the small minority who still consider themselves Republican can manage this logical origami. When Sarah Palin resigned, she said, "Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: 'Sit down and shut up,' but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out" And we weren't supposed to notice that she was quitting. If you're a Republican, two entirely contradictory concepts are able to exist in the same skull... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

FBI: No Palin Investigation

The Feds are pouring cold water on a story about Sarah Palin's resignation.

Raw Story:

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is not under investigation by the FBI, the federal agency's Alaska spokesperson has said.

“There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we're investigating her or getting ready to indict her,” Special Agent Eric Gonzalez told the Los Angeles Times Saturday. “It's just not true.”

On Saturday, Palin's lawyers came out fighting against allegations that her resignation was prompted by a brewing scandal. On Friday, bloggers including Shannyn Moore and Brad Friedman suggested that Palin is under federal investigation over her activities in the development of the Wasilla Sports Complex, a multi-million dollar facility in Palin's home town built while she was mayor of the town.

Whether this is just the FBI trying to keep an investigation under wraps until it's completed or whether there actually is nothing there is something only time will tell. But if Palin didn't resign because of a dawning scandal, the question still remains; what's the deal? Is this just Sarah Palin being flighty and weird? Without a scandal to flee, resigning from office at a moment's notice like this is a pretty odd thing to do. Then again, it is Sarah Palin we're talking about -- she's a pretty odd thing herself.

Members of her own party are also wondering what's up. "You don’t call a press conference that creates questions. You call one to resolve them," MIke Huckabee told Fox’s Chris Wallace.

"If she wanted to escape the ethics investigations and save the taxpayers’ money, she’s done that," says Karl Rove, adding that "it sort of sends the signal that if you do something like this to a sitting governor, you can drive them out of office." Karl says she's trying to have her cake and eat it too.

"She's not going to be able to escape media attention," he said. "If she thinks somehow she's going to be able to protect her family... and seek a role of leadership for effective change for our country, she's not going to be able to do it."

Whatever the reason -- or non-reason -- for all of this, Sarah's probably done. She's extremely popular among the talk-radio/right wing blogosphere crowd, but there really aren't a lot of those people. Everyone else -- average Republican voter included -- will see instability here.

The Stuff I Didn't Get To -- 7/3/09

Palin to retire to spend more time with daughters Asphalt, Bungie, and Omelette

-Headline of the day-
"Palin announces resignation."

And thank whatever wingnut god she prays to. July 3 is a freakin' desert for news and this third is even worse. If you don't give a damn about whatever happened Michael Jackson's monkey, you're outta luck.

So Caribou Barbie did the right thing here -- at least, as far as a starving blogosphere is concerned.

According to the report, "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she was resigning her office later this month, a stunning decision that could free her to run for president more easily but also raises questions about her political standing at home."

Frankly, I don't see that she resigned to run for president, mostly because it's 2009. There's getting a head start and then there's getting a head start. More likely, she's finally decided she can't take the heat, so she's vacating the kitchen -- Anchorage Daily News reports that the cost of ethics charges against her "had reached almost $300,000, much of that sum owing to the so-called 'Troopergate' probe of Palin." It may also be that so many ethics investigations will eventually turn up some dirt, so she's getting while the getting's good.

Still, I like to think -- with absolutely no evidence at all -- that she's quitting to co-host Glenn Beck's TV Snakepit on FOX News, where she'll wrap Beck in a wet blanket to calm him down when he gets too excited. She does have broadcast experience, after all.

But, hey, let's face it; the smart money's on dawning scandal. White slavery? Gun running? A meth lab in the basement of the governor's mansion? Moose breeding without a permit? Steroid abuse?

Place your bets... (Politico)


-Speaking of crazy Republican ladies...-
...the Democratic Governor's Association is practicing good politics by launching DraftBachmann.com. See, they want batshit-crazy Rep. Michele Bachmann to run for Governor of Minnesota, since she's completely insane and would never win in a million years.

The only real problem I'm seeing is in the sell-job. They aren't making the best case for her candidacy. If you go to the website, you can send these ecards to your friends for the 4th of July. The quotes are real, which is the problem:



And my favorite:



An admirable goal. We all need something to shoot for.

Another (which didn't shrink down from 500X500 very well), has Shelly showing off her brainy science-gal side; "Where do we say that a cell became a blade of grass, which became a starfish, which became a donkey, which became a human being? There's a real lack of evidence from change from actual species to a different type of species. That's where it's difficult to prove."

Yes Michele, where do we say that people evolved from grass, starfish, and donkeys? Because I missed that one...

There are six total, collect them all and impress your friends. (DraftBachmann.com)


-Another reason Palin might be quitting-
Because the National Review's Jonah Goldberg was mean to her today. And he's a big fan.

In an extremely poorly-timed column, Jonah yells at her and tells her she's "blowing it." At issue are stories coming out from former McCain staffers that Gov. Moose-O-Lini was a lazy dimwit on the campaign trail. Seems Sarah wasn't doing enough to dispell that already widely-held assessment.

"So here’s my advice," Goldberg writes, in the form of an open letter. "Stay home and do your job and your homework. You’ll still be a national figure come the primaries."

Don't look now Jonah, but I don't think she took that advice. (National Review)

CBO: Public Option Saves Money

Another Republican talking point bites the dust.

Alternet:

When the CBO scored an early draft of the health care form bill from the Senate HELP committee as costing $1 trillion over 10 years but only covering one-third of the uninsured, obstructionists pounced and proclaimed the public plan option dead.

But the CBO had not assessed the cost of the public plan option, nor a mandate on most employers to either provide insurance or contribute to the public plan.

Now they have. And as serious reform advocates long claimed, including those two key provisions drops the 10-year cost of reform by nearly $400 billion, while achieving near universal coverage.

"Will the self-proclaimed deficit hawks now embrace the public plan option since it would save money?" asks the Campaign for America's Future's Bill Scher. "Or will they come up with fresh excuses, such as fear-mongering that the public plan would decimate the private insurance industry?"

I'm guessing it'll be none from column A, a little from column B, with a healthy dollop of ignoring the real numbers altogether. After all, the Republicans have been using discredited numbers on cap-and-trade for months -- why abandon equally discredited numbers on health care? It's not like they give a damn whether what they say is true.

Griper Blade: Obama's Like Hitler - Except the Nazis Hate Him

John McCain perfected it in the 2008 campaign. You throw together a completely outrageous ad, run it in one market one time -- or post it on the web and never broadcast it -- and watch the media run with it. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did the same in '06 against John Kerry, but not to the extent that McCain did. The idea is that you create a "controversial" ad, then the media covers the controversy. Along the way, they play the ad again and again and again -- nationwide and for free. Eventually, the media finally wised up and stopped covering this controversy porn, but that hasn't stopped people from trying the tactic.

Specifically, an ad from the right wing group Our Country Deserves Better PAC, which is the creation of the PR firm Russo Marsh & Rogers, to air someplace on July 7 -- or so they say. In this new ad, we're informed that Barack Obama is exactly like Hitler.

Examiner:

The anti-Obama group, Our Country Deserves Better PAC, has announced that it will launch an advertising campaign featuring a video claiming that Obama is using tactics common to Hitler’s Germany. An audio teaser video... has been released as a fundraising tool to buy time to air the ad.

The ad lists a series of actions including the report ordered by the Bush administration on right wing extremists released by the Department of Homeland Security after Bush left office. They quote an unnamed Congressman saying, "They proposed a civilian security force and an American congressman warned it was exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany."

An unnamed "American congressman" -- always a credible source of historical analysis. By the way, there is no "civilian security force," that's a popular wingnut lie. Our "American congressman" is probably Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia, who -- unfortunately for OCDB PAC -- later recanted... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]