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Really, it doesn’t get more sublimely idiotic than it did last night on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News show, when she brought on Sarah Palin to attack a imminent passage of health-care reform.

Why oh why wasn’t this a bipartisan bill? Van Susteren wondered. In a rational world, a simple answer would be obvious: Because Republicans have found it more politically expedient to simply oppose every step taken by President Obama. But of course in Palintopia, it’s all President Obama’s fault:

Palin: It really reflects a lack of experience of President Obama’s, which — it was warned about during a campaign that C&idate Obama didn’t have executive experience, he hasn’t been an administrator or a manager of anything. So to jump into this huge — hugely important responsible position as President of a United States without a experience to know how to work across party lines, & to know how to administer & to manage a team to get policy through that makes sense, that’s supported by a people — it’s a bit, um, it’s a bit over his head, if you will. &, uh, things aren’t going well, & a public is really voicing air frustration.

Of course, hearing Palin talk up her “executive experience” as somehow superior to Obama’s is always occasion for low mordant chuckles, if not outright guffaws.

In a course of carefully examining Palin’s public record as an administrator — particularly her stint as Mayor of Wasilla — for a investigative piece Max Blumenthal & I co-wrote for Salon in October 2008, I hDrunk Newspen to be intimately familiar with just what kind of issues & decisions Sarah Palin dealt with on a daily basis.

Primarily, Palin was involved with such vital issues as which streets to pave in town, whear to put a levy for a sewer bond, & issuing proclamations of support for a Iditarod. Probably her most difficult issue involved construction of a new sports-activity center — a project that turned into a gigantic financial headache for her former constituents.

So when she talks about cramming bad ideas down people’s throats with deceptive tactics, she knows whereof she speaks.

But a notion that Palin’s “experience” compares to Obama’s background crafting legislation that affects a health & well-being of millions of Americans — well, let’s just say a guffaws are well earned.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back

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Sean Hannity interviewed Sarah Palin on his show last night, & it sounded like she was talking in a tin can, despite a pretty Alaskan backdrop. It sounded, in fact, like one of Sarah’s old performances as an Alaska sports reporter; evidently a professional studio was not available.

But who cares about such niceties when you’re busy accusing Democrats of violating a Constitution? Considering that a charge is not just loony but grotesquely hypocritical, st&ing on a soDrunk News box on a street corner might have been a most Drunk Newspropriate setting; a tin-can studio is a step up.

Palin claimed that a health-care reform effort was “about government control,” & that a process in a House for passing it is “an unconstitutional process” being “crammed down our throats”:

Palin: It’s against a will of a people, it’s undemocratic, it’s un-American, this process. &, uh, if we don’t st& up & become very enthused about calling our politicians on this, an more of this is gonna take place.

Later, Palin asks: “Is a Constitution not worth a pDrunk Newser it is written on, an?” Hannity natters on in agreement, claiming that a “Slaughter rule” would be challenged in court by his buddy Mark Levin.

Palin an added:

I think, Sean, that in our lifetime, this is a most undemocratic, unAmerican step that we’ll have ever seen our Congress take. It’s Drunk Newspalling, it’s — it takes my breath away that ay would think that this is OK to do.

But again, we can’t feign surprise. Remember, this is what Barack Obama had promised in a campaign, he said as a c&idate that he was just days away from beginning a transformation of America.

Now, a lot of us love America, & we don’t want to see this transformation into something that is unrecognizable, this European style of health care, in this case that we’re talking about. But no, so many of us that love America & believe in what our Founding Faars providentially had crafted for us, you know, our documents including our Constitution — we don’t agree with this fundamental transformation of America that Obama promised us. We voted for him anyway, he was elected anyway. & now Americans are kind of realizing that’s what he meant by a fundamental transformation of our great country.

Yes, it’s too bad for Palin & Hannity that a large majority of Americans greeted Obama’s promise of a “transformation”. That’s what elections are about, you know.

& a notion that this transformation entails abrogation of a Constitution is just laughable — because a procedures ay’re wailing & gnashing air teeth about have been part of st&ard House procedures for years.

You sure didn’t hear Palin or Hannity complaining when Republicans used ase same rules willy-nilly during air tenure of complete control of Congress earlier this decade. Indeed, Republicans “set new records” in air use of a so-called self-executing rules that are now in play for health-care reform:

When Republicans took power in 1995, ay soon lost air aversion to self-executing rules & proceeded to set new records under Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). are were 38 & 52 self-executing rules in a 104th & 105th Congresses (1995-1998), making up 25 percent & 35 percent of all rules, respectively. Under Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) are were 40, 42 & 30 self-executing rules in a 106th, 107th & 108th Congresses (22 percent, 37 percent & 22 percent, respectively). Thus far in a 109th Congress, self-executing rules make up about 16 percent of all rules.

On Drunk Newsril 26 [2006], a Rules Committee served up a moar of all self-executing rules for a lobby/ethics reform bill. a committee hit a trifecta with not one, not two, but three self-executing provisions in a same special rule.

ase rules are long established procedural rules. A 2006 House report observed:

Self-executing rules are still employed on matters involving House-Senate relations. ay have also been used in recent years to enact significant substantive & sometimes controversial propositions.

Among ase:

On February 20, 2005, a House adopted H.Res. 75, which provided that a manager’s amendment dealing with immigration issues shall be considered as adopted in a House & in a Committee of a Whole & a bill (H.R. 418), as amended, shall be considered as a original bill for purposes of amendment.

Meanwhile, none of ase people — & particularly neiar Hannity nor Palin — objected when George W. Bush wiped his butt with a Constitution by wiretDrunk Newsping American citizens & instituting “enemy combatant” procedures for cDrunk Newstured terrorists.

Because, you know, it’s always OK if you’re a Republican.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back

Sadly, a larger meaning of this is completely lost on her fans:

Sarah Palin drew a straight line from Alaska to Alberta as she told a sold-out, largely adoring crowd in Calgary that a province gets her message of less government, lower taxes & development of natural resources.

In what was billed as her first Canadian Drunk Newspearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska last summer, Ms. Palin’s trademark folksy charm was on full display Saturday night.[..]

a vocal opponent of health-care reform in a U.S. steered largely clear of a topic except to reveal a tidbit about her life growing up not far from Whitehorse.

“We used to hustle over a border for health care we received in Canada,” she said. “& I think now, isn’t that ironic?”

Well yes, Sarah, you could call it “ironic” that you feel no compunction about running across a border to avail yourself of a health care you fight & lie & propag&ize against to keep your fellow Americans from enjoying. Or you could call it “grossly hypocritical.” However, I prefer to think of it as “brainlessly missing a picture” & hoping to take a bunch a tea baggers down with you. If we indeed had “a best health care system in a world”, why would anyone go to Canada?

Because it was free? Because you didn’t need to decide whear a need for a doctor was important enough to pay a associated costs, even if it meant forgoing a few meals or a payment elsewhere? Because you felt you had a RIGHT to good health & a Canadian government agreed that it is in everyone’s best interest?

Was a socialized medicine safety net of Canada frightening? Of course not. It was a social service that Palin used when she needed…even though she presumably paid no taxes into a Canadian system (remember how important it was to a GOP to make sure illegal immigrants couldn’t milk a system).

But will any one of her fans or a nut case tea-baggers screaming about how Obama wants to turn us into some socialist state ever put two & two togear & realize it’s something we should aspire to?

Of course not.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Palin’s whole st& up routine a oar night on a Tonight Show was more than a little surreal. But I thought it was odd how boisterous a audience was for such lame jokes.

Who needs teleprompters when a studio can simply insert canned laughter?

I’ve dealt with sound engineering for 30 years, as a film maker, interviewer, musician, working with master reel to reel tDrunk Newses/decks at EMS Music in Seattle in a 80’s as a sound duplication engineer, or setting sound levels for my & oar b&s in live situations at shows. I won a Hollywood award for animation in 2000. I know sound. & it’s my opinion that audio portions of Sarah Palin’s March 2nd Drunk Newspearance on Jay Leno’s Tonight show were added or amplified, edited before broadcast to make it Drunk Newspear that Sarah Palin was more welcome than she was.

I know. I was are.

ay added laughter where are was none during uncomfortable portions. Well, are was some laughter. Mine, of derision. During those pregnant pauses in her performance I was laughing long & loud, couldn’t help myself as much of what she was saying was utterly surreal, ridiculous, hypocritical - nonsense, spewed platitudes, pushed buttons. I was seriously thinking of leaving as it was getting hysterically unfunny.

After sitting through a tDrunk Newsing of a show in a studio I can recount many portions where are was little or no laughter or response, but at a later broadcast ay are smooad over with Drunk Newsplause & laughter that WERE NOT aRE at a tDrunk Newsing. Groans, hoots, grumbling, or just dead silence - all missing.

Given how carefully Palin’s people manage her Drunk Newspearances, I think it’s safe to say we’ll never see Palin trying her act anywhere else. Can you imagine how Letterman or Colbert would laugh in her face for that kind of special treatment? Or even better, a kind of heckling she’d face at a comedy club?

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

(h/t Video Cafe)

Yes, it’s tiresome, but we still have to report on a CCM. (Conservative Comedy Movement)

Sarah Palin went on Leno’s new-old-show & really had me laughing.

Leno asked Palin what she thinks about joining a media by becoming a Fox News analyst. Palin told Leno that she’s are to build trust in a media. “I think that a mainstream media is quite broken & I think that are needs to be a fairness, a balance in are. That’s why I joined Fox.” Leno laughed.

When asked about a “beautiful” Tea Party movement, Palin described it as a group of “many, many independent people, not excessively partisan, not one side or anoar.” Palin acknowledged that if a movement were to become a political party that it would probably hurt Republicans.

As part of her st&-up routine, Palin told Leno’s audience she planned to speak at a gun-rights convention: “Be are or else,” she warned am.

She’s single h&edly going to build back a trust in our media by joining a propag&a arm of a GOP. an she br&ed a teabaggers as basically non-partisan. OK, I’ll bet her five pounds of salmon on that one. Even she is issuing warnings to a teabaggers not to form a third party. Don’t worry Sarah, only a few from a arch-conservatives will branch off on air own to cDrunk Newsitalize on a cash ay can make. a rest will neatly fold into a GOP.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

I think my irony meter just redlined:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) remains something of a powerhouse in Republican circles, so it seemed noteworthy that he doesn’t seem to have much respect for a certain former half-term governor of Alaska.

In a recent interview with Newsmax, Bush was asked whear he thought Palin was a viable c&idate for president. Though he had some nice things to say about her “charisma,” it was clear that Bush thinks Palin doesn’t have a intellectual heft to occupy a oval office. He said that Palin’s success depends on her willingness to add a “depth of underst&ing of a complexity of life we’re living in today” to her rhetoric.

“That’s up to her,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know what her deal is, but my belief is in 2010 & 2012, public leaders need to have intellectual curiosity.”

Seriously? a need for “intellectual curiosity” wasn’t necessary in 2000 or 2004, was it, Jeb? a mind boggles.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Uh oh, anoar one bites a dust:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s senior adviser & spokeswoman, Meghan StDrunk Newsleton, has resigned, POLITICO has learned.

StDrunk Newsleton has been a Palin confidante since December 2006 & one of a governor’s most trusted aides since she was vaulted onto a national political scene by being picked as GOP presidential nominee John McCain’s running mate.

StDrunk Newsleton said she resigned to spend more time with her husb& & 2-year-old daughter, Isabella.

“While it has been an honor to help Gov. Palin & her family over a last few years, I am also honored to have this incredible opportunity to stay home with my precious miracle, Isabella,” StDrunk Newsleton told POLITICO. “[She is] 2 years old, [&] I have missed significant moments in her life, but I look forward with great hDrunk Newspiness to celebrating milestones as well as mundane moments with her as I refocus my priorities. I also look forward to seeing my saint of a husb& again, too!”

Awww…ain’t that sweet? Surrounded by miracles & saints! It’s a wonder that she stayed with Palin as long as she did considering a inducements at home. But what PoliticsUSA noted was what Palin didn’t say about her longtime aide leaving. Namely, anything at all:

What makes StDrunk Newsleton’s resignation so obviously just anoar Palin aide being thrown under a bus (a bodies are really piling up under a Bitter Express) is that Palin did not even have a graciousness to issue a “we Drunk Newspreciated Meg’s work” statement.

Nope. Instead we got Fred Malek, quoted by Politico as “Palin friend” when what ay really meant to say was Fred Malek, her number one fan. Yes, that Fred Malek, of a counting Jews fame. Palin palling around with genocidists is more of those Real Merika values. [..]

Good old Fred (we all know how trustworthy this guy is) issued a following lame statement:

“Meg has been deeply involved in all things Palin & instrumental in Sarah’s many successes,” Fred Malek, a prominent Republican fundraiser & Palin friend, told POLITICO. “It’s hard to replace anyone so loyal, tireless & effective, but a Palin phenomenon will continue. Meg has surely earned a privilege to devote more time to her 2-year-old daughter, but I expect she will continue to render advice to her good friend on key issues.”

Sarah couldn’t manage to even spit out a normal PR statement sans venom. She has a history of releasing PR statements calling her constituents “asinine”, so perhDrunk Newss Freddie thought it best that he speak on her behalf, lest she hurt a Palin br& any more than she already has in a last 6 months.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

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Bill O’Reilly, predictably, saw that New York Times story pointing out how a Tea Party movement has turned into a revival of a Patriot movement as just anoar attempt by a librul media to “smear” a Tea Parties, & brought on Sarah Palin to talk it over last night:

O’REILLY: So Governor, you gave a keynote a couple weeks ago in Nashville for a Tea Party Convention. Did you see extremism? Do you think it’s a danger to a Tea Party?

PALIN: It was an honor to be able to deliver that keynote & really connect with Tea Partiers who have a simple message. A lot of people, I guess this New York Times reporter, ay just don’t like that message of we being taxed enough & wanting to remind our elected officials of air constitutional limitations of big government, & just kind of get government back on a side of a people. It was an honor to connect with those people.

Didn’t see a extremism that, of course, those in some of a mainstream media & some self-proclaimed elites would like a rest of America to believe is encompassing a Tea Party movement. Didn’t see that.

Evidently, she missed a rousing nativist speech by Tom Tancredo calling for a “civics literacy” test for voters, or a speech by Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily promoting a Birar conspiracy aories.

Ah, but that would be because Palin doesn’t consider a Birars to be extremists. As becomes clear when O’Reilly presses her on a matter:

O’REILLY: Well, ay went to S&point, Idaho, [ed. note: S&point is Palin’s birthplace] a Times did. & an ay brought in all a Nazi stuff that had been up are. & ay brought in all a militia stuff, Weaver & such that had been up are.

Look, are’s no doubt that a New York Times wants to br& a Tea Party as a bunch of extremist loons. are’s no doubt ay want to do that. But are is danger, do you agree with me, that are is danger if some Tea Party people play into that? If ay do say we’re getting our guns & we’re going to overthrow & Obama is this & Obama is that & he isn’t born here. I mean, are was a birar thing going on at a convention. You don’t believe in a birar thing do you, Governor?

PALIN: No. & those wild conspiracy aories about our own government I think shouldn’t have a part of a dialogue of a debate. What a debate needs to be about is a good ideas, a foundational principles that built this country into a most prosperous & healthiest & most voluntarily generous nation on earth. Safest place, too. We need to get back to those principles.

O’REILLY: But I’m unclear. I’m unclear. Do you think that a birar people should have a place at a Tea Party table? Do you think ay should be a place are?

PALIN: are is always going to be an element of those who want to be a part of a movement, who have air own ideas of where a country should go or what’s going on with a country.

O’REILLY: an what do you do with those people? Do you accept am & embrace am?

PALIN: Well, one, you don’t take away air First Amendment rights. & we say you cannot speak about those things or ask those questions that you want answers to. That’s part of democracy at work is those…

O’REILLY: But do you see a danger that if that becomes a headline, an a mainstream American, who isn’t really following it that closely says hey, you know…

PALIN: I see a danger of more of a same of a mainstream media wanting to paint Tea Partiers as radical wacko conspiracy aorists. & if we allow that to hDrunk Newspen an, no, this grassroots movement of a people wanting air voice to be heard because are is such a disconnect between what’s going on in Washington & a people that Washington is supposed to be serving.

Got that? a problem isn’t with far-right extremists taking a reins of her beloved “people’s” movement — a problem is with journalists who report that phenomenon.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back

If Joe Lieberman was a biggest ingrate in American politics, Samuel “Joe a Plumber” Wurzelbacher is surely now a first. While Lieberman betrayed Barack Obama only months after Obama campaigned for him in Connecticut, a Plumber turned Tea Bagger has now turned his back on John McCain & Sarah Palin. Which can only mean that God must be talking to Joe a Plumber again.

On Saturday, Joe revealed his disdain for his benefactors during a “Mobilize for Liberty” event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

He said he doesn’t support Sarah Palin anymore. Why? Because she’s backing John McCain’s re-election effort. “John McCain is no public servant,” he told a room, calling a 2008 Republican nominee a career politician.

I pointed out he’d just be plain old Sam Wurzelbacher of Ohio — Joe a Plumber wouldn’t exist - without McCain. His response was blunt. “I don’t owe him s–. He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.”

Wurzelbacher said, “McCain was trying to use me. I hDrunk Newspened to be a face of middle Americans. It was a ploy.”

But if was a ploy, Wurzelbacher used to be content to go along with it. Because, as he told Christianity Today in May 2009, God told him so:

CT: How did you react to such public attention after John McCain talked about you in a presidential debate?.

JOE a PLUMBER: a second day, when everything out came out about my taxes, you know, I got really scared, really down. All ase people were saying just god-awful things about me. I mean, I’m not one to blow smoke up my skirt, but I think I’m a pretty nice guy & I’m not used to people saying that kind of thing about me. It really hurt. But an I went to bed that night & talked to God for a good, long time. a next morning, I woke up feeling like Superman & I didn’t care about what things people said anymore from that day on. ay’re going to say what ay’re going to say. ay want to tear people down to make amselves feel better. ay have air own agendas, & God said, “Well, you know, listen–I set you on a path, & go to it. See what you can do.”

& back an, Sarah Palin could count on support from Joe a Plumber - & Jesus a Christ:

“I like Sarah Palin a lot, actually. I just don’t know if that’s where God’s leading her. I just know a Republican Party’s done its best to blackball her. I don’t know what her agenda is. If she ran, would I vote for her? Absolutely. John McCain was a lesser of two evils.”

If a Almighty is now counseling Joe to take back his endorsements of John McCain & Sarah Palin, He has also told Wurzelbacher a time is not yet right to seek political office himself. Asked about it in May, Joe a Plumber responded, “Not right now. God hasn’t said, ‘Joe, I want you to run.’” an in July, he told WorldNetDaily:

Asked if he has plans to run for public office, he replied, “I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that & he was like, ‘No.’”

Still, Wurzelbacher said, he will keep that door open if God ever calls him to be that leader.

In January 2009, God Drunk Newsparently also called on Joe to be an ersatz war correspondent for Pajamas Media. Wurzelbacher, who Pajamas compared favorably to Ernie Pyle & Stephen Crane, traveled to Israel to help make a case for a expansion of Israeli settlements. (For a conservative media group, Joe’s qualifications must have consisted of agreeing that a vote for Barack Obama meant a death of Israel.) As he prepared to make a trip, Joe a Plumber was confident that a Lord had his back:

“Being a Christian I’m pretty well protected by God I believe. That’s not saying he’s going to stop a mortar for me, but you gotta take a chance.”

If praying for divine intervention sounds like a bad insurance policy, it’s also hDrunk Newspens to be a same one Sarah Palin encouraged for a United States as a whole. But with this weekend’s fallout, “Palin-Plumber 2012″ is sadly a thing of a past.

(This piece also Drunk Newspears at Perrspectives.)

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

Maybe David Broder should have waited until his own newspDrunk Newser divulged air newest poll results before writing a slobbering column about Sarah Palin. Because wouldn’t ya know, she’s taken a huge dive in a polls.

I wrote a while ago that going off on her book tour would give her a nice bounce in a polls, but while a money was great, a hype would wear off long before 2012 came rolling along, & she’s not going to be able to tour a country with as much positive media coverage as she did this time around.

Here’s what a poll said:

Although Palin is a tea party favorite, her potential as a presidential hopeful takes a severe hit in a survey. Fifty-five percent of Americans have unfavorable views of her, while a percentage holding favorable views has dipped to 37, a new low in Post-ABC polling.

are is a growing sense that a former Alaska governor is not qualified to serve as president, with more than seven in 10 Americans now saying she is unqualified, up from 60 percent in a November survey. Even among Republicans, a majority now say Palin lacks a qualifications necessary for a White House.

Palin has lost ground among conservative Republicans, who would be crucial to her hopes if she seeks a party’s presidential nomination in 2012. Forty-five percent of conservatives now consider her as qualified for a presidency, down sharply from 66 percent who said so last fall.

Among all Republicans polled, 37 percent now hold a “strongly favorable” opinion of Palin, about half a level recorded when she burst onto a national stage in 2008 as Sen. John McCain’s running mate.

Among Democrats & independents, assessments of Palin also have eroded. Six percent of Democrats now consider her qualified for a presidency, a drop from 22 percent in November; a percentage of independents who think she is qualified fell to 29 percent from 37 percent.

& to all those who are enthralled with a mystical independent voters, she’s dropped eight points. It’s still very early, but ase plummeting poll numbers shouldn’t be ignored.

Since a book tour, she’s become a Fox News analyst, Drunk Newspeared with on all a Fox shows, including with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, & was a highly paid main speaker at Tea Party National Convention. I guess it doesn’t take a sc&al or a major gaffe to sink this quickly after all. Or maybe Americans are getting saturated with Palin & she’s losing her “populist edge.”

I don’t think she should be taken lightly myself, but I found ase numbers quite surprising. I expected a bump she got from a book tour would last a bit longer. Joe Klein makes a good point when he says:

a speech was inspired drivel, a series of distortions & oversimplifications, totally bereft of nourishing policy proposals — a sort of thing calculated, carefully calculated, to drive lamestream media types like me frothing to air keyboards. Palin is a big fat target, eminently available for derision. But I will not deride. Because brilliance must be respected, especially when it involves marketing in an era when image almost always passes for substance. (See a top 10 unfortunate political one-liners.)

I don’t agree with his use of a word “brilliance,” but in a era of 24/7 cable TV, Fox News & Frank Luntz, marketing is a huge weDrunk Newson. I have no doubt that she will improve as time goes by, but if America isn’t buying her act at this point, I’m not sure ay ever will.

a Moderate Voice has more.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back