REALITYCHEX.COM - Palintology

The Ledes

Friday, February 17, 2012.

New York Times: "The Maryland House narrowly passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage on Friday, delivering a major victory to Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, who had proposed it. But its implementation remained uncertain as its opponents promised to take it to voters in November.... The measure still faces a vote in the Senate, where it is expected to pass...." CW: actually, no; they passed a bill.

Washington Post: "The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police arrested a Moroccan man Friday in downtown Washington after a lengthy investigation into an alleged plot to carry out a suicide attack on the Capitol. Amine el-Khalifi, 29, was picked up while carrying an inoperable gun and a fake suicide vest provided to him by undercover FBI agents posing as al-Qaeda associates, U.S. officials said. They said he entered the United States when he was 16 and was living as an illegal immigrant in Arlington, Va., having reportedly overstayed his visitor’s visa for years."

New York Times: "The need for revenue to partly cover the extension of the payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits has pushed Congress to embrace a generational shift in the country’s media landscape: the auction of public airwaves now used for television broadcasts to create more wireless Internet systems. If a compromise bill completed Thursday by Congress is approved as expected by this weekend, the result will eventually be faster connections for smartphones, iPads and other data-hungry mobile devices. Their explosive popularity has overwhelmed the ability, particularly in big cities, for systems to quickly download maps, video games and movies." ...

... Update: "With members of both parties expressing distaste at some of the particulars, Congress on Friday voted to extend payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits and sent the legislation to President Obama, ending a contentious political and policy fight. The vote in the House was 293 to 132 with Democrats, who are in the minority, carrying the proposal over the top with the acquiescence of almost as many Republicans. The Senate followed within minutes and approved the measure on a vote of 60 to 36."

New York Times: "Anthony Shadid, a gifted foreign correspondent whose graceful dispatches for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Associated Press covered nearly two decades of Middle East conflict and turmoil, died, apparently of an asthma attack, on Thursday while on a reporting assignment in Syria. Tyler Hicks, a Times photographer who was with Mr. Shadid, carried his body across the border to Turkey." The Times' obituary is here. Read this interview of Shadid by Adam Ross of Mother Jones, published just last month. Tributes from colleagues.

New York Times: "Next week, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will recommend whether the agency should approve the first new prescription diet pill in 13 years. The F.D.A. rejected the drug under review, Qnexa, in 2010, amid safety concerns, and the drug’s manufacturer is now presenting additional data to argue its case. But thousands of people ... in central California, where Qnexa’s inventor ran a weight-loss clinic, and others across the country have not had to wait for the drug’s approval. Through a regulatory loophole of sorts, many obesity doctors prescribe two separate drugs that, when taken together, are essentially the same medicine."

New York Times: "President Obama raised a total of $29.1 million for his re-election campaign and for the Democratic National Committee in January, he told supporters over Twitter early Friday morning, with most contributions coming in checks of $250 or less." ...

ABC News: "Before a backdrop of the newest American-made Boeing passenger jets, President Obama Friday will announce a series of steps aimed at boosting U.S. manufacturers, while harnessing their momentum for political gain. Obama, on the final stop of his three-day swing through California and Washington, will tour a Boeing production facility and speak to a crowd of several hundred workers inside the final assembly building for the company's new 787 Dreamliner."

New York Times: "Germany’s beleaguered president, Christian Wulff, announced his resignation on Friday after prosecutors asked Parliament to strip him of his immunity from prosecution over accusations of improper ties to businessmen."

Los Angeles Times: "A confrontation between federal law enforcement agents erupted in gunfire Thursday evening in Long Beach, leaving one dead and another seriously injured.... The incident was sparked by an unspecified dispute between Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building near the city's oceanfront, according to law enforcement authorities."

New York Times: "... Rupert Murdoch ... is scheduled to visit the London headquarters of his British newspaper arm, News International, where reporters and editors are said to be in a state of civil war against Mr. Murdoch and his executives." The Guardian is liveblogging the meeting and reactions. ...

... AP Update: "News Corp. chief executive Rupert Murdoch on Friday told staff at his scandal-hit British tabloid The Sun that executives will continue to give police any evidence of wrongdoing and won't protect reporters found to have broken the law."

Flying High. CBS News/AP: "Two Air Force F-16 fighters intercepted a privately owned Cessna airplane that entered the same Los Angeles airspace as Marine One on Thursday as the helicopter was ferrying President Barack Obama. Police discovered about 40 pounds of marijuana inside the plane after it landed at Long Beach Airport, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to comment publicly on the drug investigation and spoke under condition of anonymity. The Secret Service said the president was never in any danger."

The Ledes

Thursday, February 16, 2012.

Wall Street Journal: Both Houses of the New Jersey state legislature have passed a bill allowing for same-sex marriage, but Gov. Chris Christie (R) says he will veto it. The bill passed the state Senate 24-15 & the Assembly 42-33. "An override vote ... would require 27 votes in the Senate and 54 votes in the Assembly."

Washington Post: "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday sought to bring debt collectors and credit bureaus under its purview, marking the first time the often controversial industries would be subject to federal supervision.... It is the first attempt by the watchdog agency to define which businesses in the vast swath of nontraditional financial institutions will be subject to the same examination process as banks." CW: It isn't clear to me from the article whether or not the CFPB needs authorization from Congress and/or the administration to do this. CW: according to the New York Times story: "The proposal now enters a 60-day comment period. The bureau expects to finalize the rule by July, the two-year anniversary of the agency’s creation." So I guess the CFPB can do it.

AP: "The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell to the lowest point in almost four years last week, the latest signal that the job market is steadily improving. The Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000. It was the fourth drop in five weeks and the fewest number of claims since March 2008." CW: Sorry, GOP!

New York Times: "Members of a House-Senate committee charged with writing a measure to extend a payroll tax reduction said Wednesday that their work was done, just shy of an hour before their deadline to get a bill ready for a Friday vote. After fighting until the very final hour over how to pay for parts of a $150 billion plan that would also extend unemployment benefits and prevent a pay cut for doctors who accept Medicare, leaders of both parties put together a bill that the majority of the committee could support." Washington Post story here.

AP: "General Motors earned its largest profit ever in 2011, two years after it nearly collapsed into financial ruin." CW: Sorry, Mitt!

New York Times: "President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan arrived in Pakistan on Thursday after saying he wanted to explore how Islamabad could help foster peace negotiations with his adversary, the Afghan Taliban. Mr. Karzai’s arrival came after he said Wednesday in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that his representatives had begun talks with the Taliban and the United States government, a potentially significant development suggesting that the Taliban were dropping longstanding objections to face-to-face discussions with his government."

Reuters: "A federal judge is set to decide on Thursday if the Nigerian man who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit in 2009 will spend the rest of his life in prison. A bomb hidden in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, now 25, caused a fire but failed to explode on a Delta Airlines flight carrying 289 people on December 25, 2009." ...

... Bloomberg News Update: "Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was sentenced to life in prison for attempting to bomb a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day 2009 with explosives hidden in his underwear. The Nigerian-born defendant pleaded guilty in October to eight felony counts, including attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds in Detroit today sentenced him to life in prison on five counts and 20 years on three counts."

New York Times: "The Japanese authorities arrested seven central figures in the huge accounting scandal at Olympus — including the camera maker’s former chairman and executive vice president — on Thursday as part of investigations into a decade-long cover-up that has prompted concern over what critics say is lax corporate governance at Japanese companies."

Glenn Greenwald: CNN's Erin Burnett is a warmonger's warmonger, the "worst of the worst," whose actual remarks outstrip any possible parody of warmongers. So, yay! Let's nuke Iran!

Blacklisters Victorious! AP: "MSNBC dropped conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on Thursday, four months after suspending him following the publication of his latest book. The book 'Suicide of a Superpower' contained chapters titled 'The End of White America' and 'The Death of Christian America.' Critics called the book racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic, charges Buchanan denied. MSNBC President Phil Griffin said last month that he didn't think Buchanan's book 'should be part of the national dialogue, much less part of the dialogue on MSNBC.' ... Buchanan, in a column posted on Thursday, called the decision 'an undeniable victory for the blacklisters.'"

Frances Martel of Mediate: the Stephen Colbert show has been cancelled for two nights, Wednesday and Thursday, February 15 & 16, "due to unforseen circumstances," & the suspension of production could run longer. The cancellation came at the last minute, & the show's producers have not explained the reason for the cancellation. ...

... Wall Street Journal Update: "Stephen Colbert has suspended production of his satirical comedy show temporarily because of an emergency in Mr. Colbert's family, according to people familiar with the show. 'The Colbert Report' is expected to resume production soon, perhaps as early as next week, the people added."

The Los Angeles Times coverage of the Grammy Awards is here.

MIDASSTOUCH. Here's a post by Eric Konigsberg of the New Yorker for you New York Times crossword aficonados. BTW, the Times Cookie Monster columnist mentioned in the article is Charles Blow.

For the New York Times, Janet Maslin reviews Mimi Alford's book about her affair with President Kennedy, essentially writing that Alford was full of shit, though you have to understand the utility of Brussels sprouts to get that (she writing in the Times, after all, where discretion is the better part of publication). Amy Davidson of the New Yorker says Maslin is mean.

For you kids interested in a career in writing, or, specifically, writing popular opinion columns, Driftglass shares David Brooks' secret to success: "Once again giving writing by rote a bad name, Our Mr. Brooks pens a quick primer on one method of making a living by writing badly."

Politico has the Sunday talkshow lineup. ...

... New York Times Update: "The new White House chief of staff, Jacob J. Lew, made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows to discuss the budget that President Obama is to release on Monday, but instead he was forced repeatedly to defend the administration’s effort to guarantee that insurers cover birth control for women in the face of criticism from religious groups."

Carly Carioli of the Boston Phoenix: Despite Bill Keller's writing "two smug columns about copyright" in the New York Times, Times columnist Joe Nocera was not above poaching -- or "pirating," in Keller's parlance -- an article from a defunct paper the Phoenix now owns. Instead of linking to the Phoenix page, Nocera uploaded a Times PDF, which of course does not link back to the original article. And this isn't the first time Nocera has done that. So then, "Joe Nocera called me to read me the riot act. He’s pissed that my post caused the Times took down the Clark Booth articleper's article from our company’s archives."

... Click through for more. ...

... The Reliable Source at the Washington Post: "A new book shares explicit details about a 50-year-old presidential sex scandal between JFK and a White House intern." Historian Robert Dallek who "wrote the book on" Kennedy, says former intern & author Mimi Beardsley Alford is "entirely credible." The New Jersey Star-Ledger has a story here. Reliable Source story updated here, with more sordid details. ...

... Update: Matthew DeLuca of the Daily Beast recounts some of the details of Alford's book.

ABC News: Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain "marked her Diamond Jubilee anniversary with a message thanking the British people for their support, and pledging to continue her dedication to serving them and people around the world. The Guardian posts an interactive feature based on 60 years of photos of Elizabeth.

Politico has the Sunday talkshow lineup here.

If you can hardly wait for the Super Bowl, the Washington Post has the best part: many of the ads. Some are pretty awful, however.

Bill Carter of the New York Times on how the networks cheat the ratings system to give their shows better viewership ratings than they've actually earned.

The Los Angeles Times story on the SAG awards is here. For now, there's more stuff here, but it will move.

Politico reports the Sunday talkshow lineup. AND here's Politico's liveblog of the Sunday shows.

Mark Feldstein of the Washington Post on "pathographies," biographies that diminish their subjects, often on the thinnest of -- or no -- "evidence." The latest: a book that suggests President Richard Nixon was gay; evidence? -- somewhere around zero.

Politico: "John Tyler became the 10th president of the United States in 1841 — and today - incredibly - he still has two living grandchildren." CW: I've been aware of the grandkids still be around for years, but it is one of those Amazing But True stories.

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Palintology

Art work by Gawker & Gainsborough (or somesuch).

You're on an auxiliary page. Click Constant Comments-Home on the bar above to go to the main page.

If you think I haven't been linking to all of La Palin's shenanigans, you'e right. I think it's a mistake to give her too much attention. -- Constant Weader

... Update: There's quite a bit about Palin in the blogposts related to the Tucson shootings, beginning January 8, 2011. I do not plan to repost them here. -- CW

David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network (Pat Robertson's outfit) interviews Sarah Palin, February 5: "In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Sarah Palin criticized President Obama for his handling of the situation in Egypt saying that this was his, '3am White House phone call' and, 'that call went right to the answering machine.' Her answers about Egypt are the first time she’s talked publicly about the situation." Includes a partial transcript of the interview, which you know is authentic because it's in classic Palin-speak -- an incoherent, syntactically-challenged, non-specific criticism that in the end says nothing more than "Obama, Muslims bad." ...

... Jeremy Meyer of the Denver Post, February 5, 2011: "Saying it received an 'onslaught of personal attacks,' a Colorado nonprofit announced in a news release today that it was canceling a scheduled May appearance ... by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin."

Politico, December 10: "Websites supportive of former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin came under cyberattack Thursday, a day after Palin’s own site was briefly taken down by hackers.

She Can't Shoot. The Anchorage Daily News gathers some Palin headlines & opinions. A hunting expert says Miss NRA isn't a real hunter. ...

... Aaron Sorkin & others criticize Palin for making "snuff films."

Robert Draper writes a feature piece on Sarah Palin & her inner circle for the New York Times Magazine.

Michael Scherer of Time: once again "humble housewife" Sarah Palin doubles down on one of her frequent misstatements of fact, proving -- even as she was insisting she could read -- that she can't read, lives in fact-free world, & looks down her nose at the "fancy" people who cite actual facts.

New Yorker artwork.In case you accidentally miss "Sarah Palin's Alaska," airing sometime on The Leering Channel, as Nancy Franklin of The New Yorker calls TLC, Franklin's review will tell you everything you need to know.

CNN: "A tweet by Sarah Palin attacking the U.S. State Department for a tweet to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his birthday distorted the State Department's original intent, a spokesman for the department said Friday."

Jonathan Martin of Politico: GOPers say "Princess Palin"'s frequent last-minute schedule changes are wreaking havoc on campaigns & even on Fox "News" schedulers.

CW: since I have declined to link to many of Sarah Palin's comments that other media have breathlessly reported, here's a Jacob Weisberg column that will catch you up. It's hard to pick a favorite, but this comes close:

I did, I did! I'm so proud of myself. I have caribou blood under my fingernails still. -- Sarah Palin, when asked whether she'd killed a caribou recently, at a Sept. 11 memorial event in Wasilla, Alaska

One problem with Palin's endorsement: Raese is running in West Virginia. It's not surprising Palin made the error -- Raese hired Pennslyvania actors to play West Virginians. And Raese's wife doesn't live in West Virginia, either. Hey, mistakes happen

Greg Sargent, September 27: if quitting her governor's gig & nattering on Fox "News" was part of Sarah Palin's strategy to become President, it isn't working.

Washington Post, September 18: "... Sarah Palin came to Iowa on Friday night and left few of her opponents unscathed, sharply attacking President Obama and the Democrats, denouncing the news media and pointedly calling on establishment Republicans to get over their losses in the primaries and unite for the November elections."

Fox "News", September 17: "Sarah Palin may be edging closer to a 2012 presidential run, telling Fox News 'I would give it a shot' if the American people think she's 'The One.'":

AP: "Sarah Palin can take down the fence. Palin's neighbor of three months on Wasilla's Lake Lucille, author Joe McGinniss, is packing his bags and notebooks and leaving Sunday for his home in Massachusetts to write the book he has been researching on the former governor and GOP vice presidential candidate."

Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post, September 3: Sarah Palin caterwauls at every hint of sexist comments about her, but she doesn't mind making overtly sexual & emasculating comments about men, as when she recently described a gay writer as "limp" & "impotent." CW: Marcus doesn't mention it, but Palin used similar language when she accused President Obama of "not having the cojones" to take on illegal immigration. (Weirdly, she said Jan Brewer did have cojones. Really?)

John Dickerson seems to be very interested in La Palin. Here, on August 25, he writes about "Palin's Magic Touch": "She backed five candidates in Arizona, Florida, and Alaska — and they all won."

John Dickerson of Slate writes about how rigorously Sarah Palin trolls scrub her Facebook page of even fairly innocuous comments that might displease La Palin. Here's one that got the ax:

Hey all Sarah fans! Come and 'like' Mike Huckabee on Facebook. Like Sarah, he is a common sense conservative. Sarah and Mike have ideas that will save this great nation.

CW: A genuine Sarah Palin tweet, which Little Green Footballs captured:

... Obviously, Palin thinks "refudiate" is a real word. Via Urban Dictionary:

The President and his wife ... they can refudiate what this group [the NAACP] is saying. - Sarah Palin, on Fox "News"

... Urban Dictionary: "Refudiate definition: a term used to indicate the underlying racism of the speaker. If you as a racist need another group to give up their culture you ask that group to refudiate their beliefs and culture. Users of this term reject the English language, facts, rationalism and black people." CW: def. should be expanded to include non-Christian religions, e.g., Muslims. ...

... Little Green Footballs has the video of Palin on Fox "News." She urges the First Couple to refudiate the NAACP at about 2:35 min. in. ...

... AND Geoffrey Dunn elaborates in the Huffington Post. Really, Palin goes from bad to worse as she likens herself to Shakespeare.

Ari Melber of The Nation, July 14: "Sarah Palin’s new 'Mama Grizzlies' video drew strong reactions from many reporters, politicos and critics. An analysis of viewer data, however, shows that Palin’s video actually failed to reach or excite her base."

AP: "The administrators of a new legal defense fund set up for Sarah Palin have sent out e-mails to supporters and others that downplay the outcome of ethics complaints against the former Alaska governor and accuses her political enemies of waging a 'vicious campaign' to ruin her." ...

... Alan Bisbort of the Hartford Advocate is "awed by ... one of the great con artists of [his] lifetime."

Reuters, June 24: "A legal defense fund for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was illegal and must repay nearly $400,000 to donors, according to a settlement with a state-appointed lawyer announced on Thursday."

Upcoming Newsweek cover...OR...One Example of Why Newsweek Is No Longer a Profit-Making Magazine....

... Update: here's the Newsweek story... CW:... which I am so not reading.

First, Kill All the Biographers. ... Those who are fond of Joe McGinnis might remind him (if he doesn't already know) that Alaska has a law that allows the use of deadly force in protection of life and property. -- Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, via Jason Linkins, whose post is worth a read. ...

... Alaska Dispatch Update, June 21: publisher Kari Sleight fired Tom Mitchell, the managing editor of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, apparently over the editorial above.

CW: sorry about posting another Sarah Palin story, but Dave Weigel, now of the Washington Post, has a good one on writer Joe McGinness' reaction to Palin & Palin's accusing him of being a Peeping Tom. McGinness is working on a biography of Palin, & she hasn't helped turn it in her favor....

Politico, May 7: Palin is losing tea party support over her endorsement of Carly Fiorina in California's U.S. Senate race.

Gabriel Sherman of New York Magazine, April 25: "The Revolution Will Be Commercialized. Sarah Palin is already president of right-wing America—and it’s a position with a very big salary."

Reid Wilson of Hot Line, April 14: "Ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin (R) spent more money to de-ice her private jets than she did donating money to candidates during the first 3 months of the year, according to new filings made with the FEC."

A Woman of the People. AP: resourceful students searched a trashcan & found 5 pages of a contract between Sarah Palin & Cal State Stanislaus, prompting California AG Jerry Brown, who is running for governor, to look into the finances of the university's foundation, "as well as allegations that the nonprofit organization violated public disclosure laws by keeping" secret the terms of the contract. Palin's requirements that do appear on the 5 pages:

first-class flights from Anchorage to California — if she flies commercial. If not, the private aircraft MUST BE a Lear 60 or larger...; a suite and two single rooms in a deluxe hotel near the campus.... During her speech, her lectern must be stocked with two water bottles and bendable straws.

... Ben Smith thinks it's even more remarkable that Palin's contract requires strict control of the questions she's asked; says one veteran, "prescreening of questions is virtually unheard of."

ABC News, April 13: "Since leaving office at the end of July 2009..., [Palin] has brought in at least 100 times her old salary – a haul now estimated at more than $12 million -- through television and book deals and a heavy schedule of speaking appearances worth five and six figures."

Las Vegas Sun, March 27: an estimated 8,000 showed up in Harry Reid's tiny hometown of Searchlight, Nevada, to hear Sarah Palin say stuff like, "It's time to reload," [this comment via Time] & "Someone needs to tell him [Reid] this is not a crapshoot."...

Justin Elliott of Talking Points Memo, Feb. 12: Sarah Palin promised, in writing, to give her $100K Tea Party convention honorarium "right back to the cause." But she hasn't.

After mocking President Obama for using a teleprompter, it turns out Sarah Palin used crib notes penned on her hand to answer an audience question.

Sarah Palin speaking at the Tea Party convention. Her marked-up hand is visible in this AP photo.Are you ready for the closeup?

Now watch her look at her hand after she answers the first part of the question on "Energy." A few moments later, she rubs her leg to erase the notes from her hand. Oliver Willis video:

Update: "...a Palin spokesperson said the former VP candidate had not seen the questions ahead of time." CW: Right. She psychic.

Fifty-three percent of Republicans believe this stupid, stupid woman is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama, who stood up to hostile Republican Congressional questions for an hour, & by everyone's estimation -- including Republicans' -- beat them back.

Media Matters headline: "Palin latest to walk back criticism of GOP leader Limbaugh." CW: Palin Rule: When Rush calls people "retard" in public it's funny. When a Democrat calls people "retard" in private, he should be fired.

Palin on Fox News' Sunday show, Feb. 7, as articulate as ever. As for running for President in 2012, “I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country.”

Mark Leibovich of the New York Times, Feb. 7, writes some stuff about Palin, including the fact that Fox News is giving her her own in-home TV studio....

... AND Kate Zernike of the New York Times: in a paid speech to crazy people, Palin makes fun of the President of the United States. Washington Post story here. The Tennessean story here. C-SPAN has video of the speech here.

CW: the AP has the whole Palin-Emanuel-Limbaugh-Shriver "retarded" story here, which I'll admit I've declined to follow.

Bill Dedman of NBC News: Todd Palin, more than the "First Dude," was enmeshed in the governance of Alaska, though he held no official position.

AP, Feb. 4: Sarah Palin hasn't paid property taxes on large cabins & other structures that have been built on two backcountry plots which she partially owns.

New York Post: Palin gets $100K for magazine cover photo; daughter Bristol has become a born-again virgin.

As the Handler Turns. Jeanne Cummings of Politico: Steve Schmidt settles some scores with Sarah Palin....

... Nicolle Wallace isn't exactly supportive of Palin, either....

... The Huffington Post has video of former Half-Gov. Sarah Palin's debut as a "news analyst" on Fox. CW: I'm not posting it, but I can tell you her "analysis" involved using the terms "b.s." & "crap." ...

Salon picks the Top Bogus "News" Stories of the Year, starting with Sarah Palin's "death panels."

"Death Panels." Politifact, the nonpartisan, Pulitzer Prize winning fact checker, credits Sarah Palin with the "Lie of the Year." Congratulations, Guv.

Why Sarah Palin Will Never Be President Anything of Consequence. Justin Elliott of Talking Points Memo: she & the Dude ban reporter-bloggers from public events.

"Death Panels." Politifact, the nonpartisan, Pulitzer Prize-winning fact checker, credits Sarah Palin with the "Lie of the Year." Congratulations, Guv.

Paul Rolly of the Salt Lake Tribune: when Sarah Palin showed up for a book signing, Costco prudently removed all the tomatoes from the shelves. Also, she stiffed her hairdresser.

CW: I've been trying to ignore Sarah Palin, but this really is too much. DailyKos has the transcript:

... Dave Weigel of the Washington Independent: on her Facebook page, Palin tries to put the toothpaste back in the tube, but her fans are disappointed.

Slate posts the results of its "Write Like Sarah Palin" contest. CW:...which probably should have been called "Write Like Lynn Vincent," the right-wing scribbler who actually penned all that crap.

In The Nation, Katha Pollitt writes her "Last Column about Sarah Palin -- Ever"; CW: and it's a good one.

A funny from Canada's This Hour Has 22 Minutes news-comedy show, via the Huff Post:

Charlotte Observer, Nov. 23: Palin visits Billy Graham.

Thanks to Ben Smith of Politico for finding this riveting story & the snapshot that follows, also taken at the Noblesville event:

From Palin's Facebook page (really). CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE.RumpRoast has a funny take on the doppelgänger snap.

Steve Rubenstein in the San Francisco Chronicle: they ain't Going Rogue here.

Sorry, one more Going Rogue review, & this is the best ever: Thomas Frank of the Wall Street Journal captures the tone of a book that ought to be called The Persecution of Sarah Palin.

Steve Holland of Reuters, Nov. 18: Sen. John McCain defends 2008 campaign staffers Steve Schmidt & Nicolle Wallace against Palin's attacks.

Thomas Rogers in Salon: Going Rogue -- the short version. CW: really, as much as you need to know.

Click to read cover story.

CW: okay, this really is too much. What was it Palin said about Levi's selling his body?: "...those who would sell their body... reflect a desperate need for attention." (Palin said this was a shot for Runner's World & she criticized Newsweek for using it; maybe she should have thought of that before doing the photoshoot.) For Evan Thomas' vacuous GirlieWeek Newsweek cover story, click the cover.

Update: here's editor Jon Meacham's almost hilarious excuse for the cover.

... AND Joan Walsh lambastes Jon Meacham....

... AND Julie Millican of Media Matters documents Newsweek's history of sexist treatment of Palin. CW: in fairness, I have to say that Newsweek editors have been sexists for decades, long before Sarah Palin became an object of their editorial "thrusts." It's what they do. If I remember correctly, Susan Faludi called them out in 1991 in her award-winning book Backlash.

CBS News: Miss Sarah can't keep her lies straight.

Uh, Obama made me quit my day job:

No Schmidt, Red Ryder. CNN: Steve Schmidt, John McCain's 2008 campaign manager, calls Palin claims "total fiction."...

... Christopher Hitchens reads Sarah Palin.

... The AP, Nov. 13, fact-checks Going Rogue. Gosh, it's full of lies & half-truths! ...

... Andy Barr of Politico: McCain staffer calls Going Rogue "petty & pathetic."...

... Greg Sargent: a McCain advisor says Palin's claims about the Couric interview are LOL untruthful.

Media Matters reports a few of the inflammatory, stupid opinions of Palin's co-author (a/k/a the actual writer) Lynn Vincent. Pretty disgusting.

Lying Rogue. CNN, Nov. 13: a former senior McCain campaign adviser says Palin’s claim that she was billed for the costs of vetting her before she was selected as the veep nominee "is one hundred percent untrue."

Richard Pienciak of the AP summarizes Going Rogue.

Here's a surprise -- Fox News fact-checks Sarah Palin who, as usual, has no idea what she's talking about (thanks to TPM for producing the video):

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 7: Palin begins her book tour at an anti-abortion fundraiser. CW: where else?

AP: another out-of-work Palin: Todd quits his oil-field job.

More Proof of the Palin Is Nuts Premise: her speech in China, excerpted here and here.

Update 1: Krugman compares Palin's speech to Qaddafi's.

Update 2: Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "China reacts to Palin," & it isn't very pretty.

Update 3: Brit Robert Fisk of the Independent reviews Palin's speech & performance. Downright ugly.

Jonathan Cheng & Alex Frangos of the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 23: "former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in what was billed as her first public-speaking engagement outside North America, blamed the world financial crisis on government excesses...."

AP: initial estimates put the cost to Alaska taxpayers for Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation at a minimum of $40,000, not including the costs of calling a special legislative session partly linked to her departure.

Vanity Fair: Levi Johnston on the Plan to Hide Bristol's Pregnancy:

Sarah told me she had a great idea: we would keep it a secret—nobody would know that Bristol was pregnant. She told me that once Bristol had the baby she and Todd would adopt him.... Sarah kept mentioning this plan. She was nagging—she wouldn’t give up....

Anchorage Daily News, Aug. 13: an Alaska Superior Court judge ruled that "the Alaska governor's office can use private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, as former Gov. Sarah Palin did."

Apparently without intended irony, Sarah Palin seems to call for restraint in the healthcare debate: "Let’s not give the proponents of nationalized health care any reason to criticize us." Here's a CBS News story titled, "After Health Care Distortion, Palin Calls for Restraint."

CW: I tend to feel sorry for Sarah Palin because I think she's mentally unbalanced & should be getting help rather than scorn. Then she pulls crap like writing this:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

...and robs me of all sympathy.

Anchorage Daily News, Aug. 5: Palin is gone but some of her ethical issues live on, unresolved.

Dan Balz of the Washington Post on the "almost unprecedented" rapid rise & fall of Sarah Palin.

Here's Gov. Sarah Palin's last hurrah:

New York Times: in "a fiery campaign-style speech," Gov. Sarah Palin resigned her position as Governor of Alaska today to write a book and build a political coalition, but she was not specific about her plans beyond that.

Related: Anchorage Daily News: Palin resigns, Parnell is sworn in.

AP: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin "leaves office today with her political future clouded by ethics probes, mounting legal bills and dwindling popularity.... [She] faces queries about why she is quitting more than a year before her term ends and what she plans to do after she steps down."

...BUT Anchorage Daily News: "Thousands of people turned out for Gov. Sarah Palin's Anchorage farewell picnic on Saturday, many to seek autographs and to show their love for her, others just because it was a chance for free food."

Anchorage Daily News: an independent investigator found probable cause that Sarah Palin had violated state ethics laws by asking people to donate to her legal defense fund, but was sympathetic to her having to defend herself with personal funds for charges arising out of her public duties....

...AND Politico reports that, oddly enough,

Palin immediately called the AP report [of the investigator's findings] an 'inaccurate story' on her Twitter feed, and several of the governor’s top confidants sharply criticized it, pointing out that under Alaska law the contents of the document should have remained confidential because the matter is still under review.

... Damsel in Distress. CW: what's bizarre about Palin's Twitter push-back is that the AP story was entirely accurate. Here's the pdf of the inspector's report. So this is yet another case (among many) in which Palin seems to think that denying facts will make them go away. Sadly, Palin defines the term "pathological liar."

Anchorage Daily News: Alaska Senator Mark Begich is trying to get state and federal officials, including Gov. Palin & her successor, to cooperate in providing health services to Alaska's needy after the federal HHS cut off new applicants for the mismanaged state Medicaid program.

Anchorage Daily News: Alaska's home healthcare program is so poorly-run the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new clients. Alaska, where 227 patients have died waiting for a health professional to assess them, is the only state the feds have so sanctioned.

The Washington Post (July 14) carries this op-ed piece on cap-&-trade purportedly written by Sarah Palin.

Ezra Klein says the Palin (or whoever) opinion is "a bit like an op-ed that attacks firefighters for pointing pressurized water cannons at everything but never mentions fires."

Ben Armbruster of Think Progress flashes back to the days way last fall in the vice presidential debate when Palin was an enthusiastic supporter of cap-&-trade (assuming she knew what it was).

Jim Rutenberg & Serge Kovelaski of the New York Times, July 13, write an interesting, in-depth piece on the events that led to Palin's resignation. CW: the Times' writers' reporting is a lot more credible than all of the pundificating on the "real" reason Palin quit.

Conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan on Sarah Palin: "out of her depth in a shallow pool." A very good, comprehensive list of "what it is about Sarah."

Levi Johnston, who lived in the Palin household for a while, states the obvious: a desire to take advantage of lucrative financial offers is what really motivated Palin to resign.

Greg Sargent, July 8: But Palin's multi-million-dollar excuse for quitting doesn't pan out.

Update: the Alaska Daily News looks into Palin's claim that the state government has had to pay out millions in defense of "frivolous lawsuits" & ethics complaints against Palin doesn't pan out.

Palin on a Salmon Reporter Run:

"It's all for Alaska." Time's Jay Newton-Small interviews Gov. Sarah Palin.

Sean Cockerham of the Alaska Daily News: Gov. Palin says she's resigning because frivolous ethics inquiries paralyzed her administration....

...BUT Palin critics say they have followed the letter of the state ethics & freedom of information laws.

Jonathan Alter of Newsweek does an intratextual reading of the ramblin'-on speech & sees it as the opening salvo in Palin's campaign for the presidency -- and she had professional help!

It's Wrong unless I Do It. Gee, less than a year ago (August 2008) Gov. Palin said "women in politics" have "gotta plow through" public criticism, "fair or unfair"; Palin said "it bothers me a little" to hear Hillary Clinton "with any kinda perceived whine about that excess criticism":

July 5. In Her Own Words. Maureen Dowd demonstrates Gov. Palin is "one nutty puppy" by doing little more than quoting her.

July 4. Uh, on her Facebook page, Gov. Palin says she's "sacrificing" her title as governor to go on to "a higher calling." CW: Nun? Pope?? Saint??? And the media are picking on her.

The Editorial Board of the Alaska Daily News says Gov. Sarah Palin's explanation for resigning the governorship "simply doesn't make sense."

New: Ezra Klein of the Washington Post: one thing is clear; Palin wrote that incoherent speech herself. Some of Klein's commenters are quite sharp, too.

Here's the whole, 18-minute I-Quit, in two parts, including a really long preamble, from Talking Points Memo:

Transcript of full remarks from Alaska Daily News. Also from ADN, a list of know ethics complaints, & the status of each, against Gov. Palin.

Stephen Stromberg of the Washington Post on the Palin resignation: "the picture of a politician who is...arrogant, unstable & unwise."

Not the Governor We Thought Might Resign This Week. Sarah Palin says she will step down from Governor's position at the end of the month, won't seek re-election, gives no explanation. Alaska Daily News story here. The pdf of the governor's press release is here. AP story here. The pdf of Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell's prepared remarks. New York Times story here. Washington Post story here.

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The Todd Purdum Vanity Fair article that got insiders talking about Palin is a good read.

AND THIS... “Hey Sarah … the job’s in Juneau.” Yereth Rosen in the Christian Science Monitor: Alaskans are dissatisfied with Gov. Sarah Palin's job perforamance. CW: this article was published the day before Palin quit her gig.

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