Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Sarah Palin Lets Down Her Fans At The Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield While Playing Cat and Mouse With The Mainstream Media


By Kathleen


Visitors watch a live broadcast outside the Pennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, May 30, 2011.
REUTERS/Molly Riley

Sarah Palin, through her obsessive need to play cat and mouse with the media, is set to cause misery for many of her fans when she does not turn up, as rumoured, at various sites on her "vacation" comprising of a "One Nation Tour" which aims to "educate and energise Americans about our nations founding principles, in order to promote the Fundamental Restoration of America."

Reuters reports that yesterday

Palin was a no-show for several hundred supporters, celebrity-watchers and media who turned out in hopes of seeing her at the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg on Monday. She and her entourage arrived at a hotel outside the town late in the day and spoke to a smaller group of people gathered there.

Yesterday, Palin explained to Greta Van Susteren that she is running an "unconvential tour" and that she doesn't "owe anything to the mainstream media" because she "thinks that it would be a mistake for her to become some type of conventional type of politician and doing things the way that it has always been done with the media in terms of relationship with them." She wants the media to "have to do a little bit of work on a tour like this." Of course she says the tour is "not about me or politcs" rather "it is about highlighting the great things about America". Real Clear Politics notes that Palin is headed in the direction of Iowa in June and "that the road trip was designed as a test run to find out whether she can execute a decidedly unconventional campaign game plan."



In other words Palin knows that her unconventional approach will attract additional attention to her trip not less. This tour is designed to ensure that Palin's fans and those who are unsure about voting for her know that she is a relevant figure -- so relevant that the media is "going crazy trying to figure out what we're doing."

That Palin's games of let's play crazy hide and seek also leave her fans disappointed and unclear about her goals doesn't appear to matter -- sticking one into the media appears to be the prime aim. It's likely that more fans will be left confused and possibly even put out as the tour progresses and there will be similar statements made such as the following:


A nine-hour vigil on a hot, sunny day, for a possible sighting of a woman only for her to turn up later outside the town at the Gettysburg Marriott Courtyard Hotel where she ran into members of the public who said that they are not Palin fans. Still, the rumours are that Palin and her family will turn up at the Gettysburg battlefield on Tuesday afternoon. After giving a short, off the record" interview

Palin posed for photos with the small group, and before hopping into an SUV to go shopping.

Piper, this years cutest prop available now that Trig can say "Grandma", has clearly had enough - watch this:

Raw Video: Sarah Palin In Philly: MyFoxPHILLY.com

And this (cannot embed the video):


How long is this tour supposed to last?

Monday, May 30, 2011

Weekly Roundup, May 23-May 29, 2011

by Blueberry T

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Geoffrey Dunn Book Reading

This post gave me the idea that perhaps we PoliticalGaters can contact our own favorite bookstores, to encourage them to invite Geoffrey Dunn to do a reading from his book. And/or, perhaps there could be a panel, with Dunn, Bailey and McGinniss, highlighting the common themes that emerge from their books… what do you think?

Toki de la Vega? Seriously, RAM?

Missing Person Alert!

In a scene worthy of the theater-of-the-absurd, Sarah’s “trusted aide” Rebecca Mansour confided to an internet acquaintance named “Toki de la Vega” about some behind-the-scenes goings on in Palin’s inner circle, including disparaging comments about Mitt, Newt and Bristol. What could be more Presidential than your aide using Twitter to write confidential DMs to someone she “met” on the internet, with the moniker of Toki de la Vega? (It reminds me of the Masked Avengers, for some reason.) This latest fiasco should be fair warning to anyone out there who thinks Sarah Palin could run the country: she can’t even manage her own pitiful staff. H/T to Patrick, whose files include some interesting stuff on Toki, and to Micmac, crystalwolfakacaligrl, lidia17 and other readers, who found some more, including the change in tone that occurred in 2010 – transforming from Palinbot to critic.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Sarah’s MO

Ennealogic returns with another insightful guest post. This one highlights Sarah’s MO: vengeance. Her motto: No slight is too slight (to be ignored.) The post highlights the new Frank Bailey book, which follows in the footsteps of other books by formerly extreme right-wingers who have redeemed themselves (at least in part) through the publication of revelatory mea culpas. Predictably, the pushback against Bailey’s book is in the form of fierce ad hominem attacks. But the book’s revelations about Sarah’s disturbed psyche and her pettiness, dishonesty and deceptive tactics are well supported by extensive documentation, displaying both Sarah’s and Todd’s vindictive natures and the dysfunction that affects everything that Sarah touches. They also echo themes from Dunn's book, and probably from McGinniss' too (wild guess). A nice addition to the 2011 Sarah Palin book club!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Sarah Palin’s image as a modern-day Queen Esther

It is hard to believe that people are really fooled so much by Sarah Palin that they equate her with the biblical Queen Esther. But the first video in this post shows that not only do her followers view her in this way, but that Palin herself encourages the comparison. In fact, Lou Engle wrote to Palin on the eve of the VP debate to promote this exact analogy. Writers Michael Gross, David Gibson, Andrew Sullivan and others have tried to reveal how Palin taps into this potent biblical symbolism of the extreme-Christian fundamentalists. That Palin has none of the courage of Esther is beside the point. She knows the biblical code and her messaging and actions seek to make this link in the minds of her followers.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Another Crazy Week, Another Crazy Bus Tour

Since the Rapture fizzled, unfortunately Sarah is still with us here on earth, so we are left to try to sort out the events of another Palinesque week. There’s the new house in Arizona (why’d she buy a house if she was going to be Raptured? Oh she of little faith.). The RAM-Toki de la Vega missives. The new bus tour (using the same bus as in SPAK!). And Palin has reemerged on the front pages of numerous papers (NYT, Boston Globe, etc.) as speculation mounts about whether she will run for President. The post includes hear Lawrence O’Donnell’s take on the “will she or won’t she” question: some of us agree; some don’t. Happily, Henry Blodget of Business Insider continues to challenge Palin to prove that she gave birth to Trig, including photos illustrating the impossible changes in her physique shown in photos taken mere days apart.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Palin’s Upcoming Bus Tour Kicks Off by Exploiting the Rolling Thunder Rally

Patrick’s post covers a few recent developments in the continuing soap opera of Sarah Palin’s life. We start with a little propaganda, and then learn that the new bus tour will recycle the bus used in Sarah Palin’s Alaska – how nifty and thrifty! Then it turns out that the organizers did not invite Palin to the Rolling Thunder event and consider her presence to be a distraction. They apparently didn’t get the message that their event would provide the cast of thousands that Sarah needed for her tour kickoff, without having to do any work herself. This way she knows there will be a big crowd…rather than taking the risk that she would have a kickoff event and no one would show up. Clever little exploiter, that Palin. But I have to say, the Washington Post’s “script” for Sarah’s new propaganda movie is the cherry on the cake – who knew WaPo had this in them? On a more serious note, the analogies to the propaganda and manipulation of the press that occurred during the rise of the Third Reich are a warning of how a weakened press puts us at risk.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

McCain and Sullivan on Sarah’s Chances Against Obama, Plus Palin Coopts Rolling Thunder’s Veterans Event

Who among us was surprised that Sarah showed up in black leather and high heels, Bristol, Piper and Todd in tow, arriving via the front gate? She attracted lots of attention, including media coverage by NYT, WaPo and others, but fortunately, not all the reporters and commenters swooned over her – many seem to be seeing her for the shameless opportunist that she is. Kind of funny, for someone who aspires to world leadership, that she couldn’t even put on her helmet by herself… This is someone who, according to McCain and Sullivan (for different reasons) has a chance at defeating President Obama. I think most of us agree that that is extremely unlikely, unless something very dramatic occurs – essentially a 10.0 earthquake that radically changes the political landscape.

This was a terrible week for folks in Oklahoma and other states. Cheeriogirl, Leadfoot_LA and others who have relatives in the area kept us apprised of the alarming situation as tornados wrought destruction. PoliticalGaters’ hearts go out to those in Joplin, OK and other communities that were devastated.

Some Comments and Links:

Tada did some sleuthing about Palin and the Safari LLC, and raised a good question: Something smells fishy about this. Why would someone running for Mayor of a small town like Wasilly have the need to hide her investments by incorporating an LLC in Delaware back in 1996?

AzureGhost had a great name for Palin’s bus: The Straitjacket Express and

Comeonpeople2 dubbed the trip the Magical Mythery Tour.

Consciousatlast: Palin pretends in many areas. She pretends to know about energy. She pretends that she has a "traditional" family life. She pretends that she knows about foreign and domestic policy issues. She faked a pregnancy. So, Sarah just might initiate a PRETEND campaign for POTUS. The point of the campaign would of course be $$$ and media attention which drives $$$ etc. As most of us here agree, her behavior is quite un-presidential. Her various pathologies would probably not allow her to "go the distance" in a real national campaign. What's more, she does not want to actually be the POTUS. She quit her Alaskan position - who would take her as a serious candidate?

Sir Guestalot: Yes, she is damaging to the US and the world. Yes, she has a deal going with Big Oil, the Kochs and Murdoch. But she is not going to win a primary, and she cannot win as an independent. Her negatives continue to GO DOWN the more exposure she gets. That's why she hides. Just my humble 2 cents for the day....

465janedoeseeker: The most infamous political propaganda film ever made is "Triumph of the Will", a documentary made for the purpose of introducing (or should I say, reintroducing) Adolf Hitler to the German people. The film had three themes: religion, power, and unity.

These are the same three themes I see being portrayed in the Palin campaign: religion ('christian' dominionism, to the exclusion of all other beliefs), power (the use of demagogic appeal to engage her audiences in a militaristic and combative mood toward other people and nations), and (false) unity ("One Nation"is a phrase written on her bus, while seeds of racial and ethnic and political division are sown on every side).

I don't think any of this is a coincidence or accident. It worked for Hitler (though not so well for Germany or the rest of the world). Will it work for Palin?

Psalm023: Yes, Patrick's right that Sarah's staff might cause confusions; leak out inconsistent bits of unconfirmed info where it would create media "squirmishes", so Sarah can accuse them of being lamestream. I can just see her now rubbing her hands together concocting all these sinister little plots to confuse and create chaos. Then she'd again roll her eyes, and say how she's such a victim, so please donate more to my PAC.

Ivyfree: She needs a drug screen. She's too irrational. Maybe she's not using, but this is tweaking my inner alarm system, the one I use for patients. Something is off, with her and drugs and alcohol. I'd bet on it.

Older_Wiser had an excellent longer comment; here is the last part: The hell with empire and being "Number One"--it's a pyrrhic victory and one which leads to real moral collapse but it's also one which appeals to our baser nature of Fearing the Other. Will we ever have a Dept of Peace and see the Pentagon as the Dept of Death?

Just Ask: I have to say as a Veteran with a long line of Veterans in my family and a brother in law who is serving currently this really does piss me off in the worst way…this money hungry, narcissist has to push herself onto all of us today and steal the spotlight from those who deserve it. She can't just sit down and be quiet while being respectful for 5 minutes. The sooner someone takes her down the better. In my entire life I've never witnessed a person who has less of a grasp on reality or the desire to allow others to have their moment without her taking full advantage of it just so she can get her ego stroked over and over. She's like a 3 year old that has a tantrum and does something outrageous when she's not getting enough attention from the grown ups in the room.

Lilylake: Palin treats her mental illness the way she treated her "pregnancy" - she refuses to go straight to an emergency room and get HELP.

Lou Snider: She likes the smell off emissions? Sarah, I fart in your general direction. (With apologies to Monty Python.)

Cheeriogirl found this on Newt & Callista Gingrich’s little line of credit with Tiffany’s.

Older_Wiser gave us something to laugh about: titles for the SP movie.

Ella linked to Rolling Stone on Roger Ailes and the Fox Fear Factory.

Another great blog post from Laura Novak, with Brad Scharlott.

Sunnyjane on the Tea Party’s support by (and to keep from regulating) Wall Street.

Hope for America linked to this article on veterans criticizing Palin’s policies that affect soldiers returning to Alaska.

The Last Word (with a prologue from BBT): There are a few areas of disagreement among even our most loyal readers. One is whether Palin will run for President; that will be resolved soon. Another is whether it is better to focus on the Reckless Ride instead of Babygate. A third is whether to highlight the similarities between Palin and Hitler. Fortunately, Politicalgates allows dissent! Here is Patrick’s response to a critique of his comparisons to the way in which Palin is trying to rise to power, and the tactics employed by the Third Reich.

Patrick: Hitler was just as an extreme narcissist like Palin. That's one of the facts I am trying to point out. I don't say that they are identical or have similar goals. But there are quite a number of similarities in my opinion. Just as Palin, Hitler couldn't accept any criticism, was obsessed with the military and with his real or perceived enemies and believed to be on a "godly" mission, guided by "higher forces" - strongly believing that his mission was his destiny. I know that these comparisons might not be popular, but I simply cannot just ignore them. It's also not my fault that Palin's advisors seem to have studied the "art of Nazi propaganda" very carefully. Her upcoming "keep the lamestream media out" campaign is basically the Nazi-playbook. Control the message, try to control the voters, no critical questions allowed, use rousing speeches instead, appeal to the emotions of the supporters rather than their brains, use new technologies etc etc. I could go on. If you don't like all these observations, just ignore them, please. I will try to keep them at a minimum, I promise. But I have studied the Nazis very carefully, and contrary to what it might appear, they didn't become big because they had brown shirts marching through the streets, but because they were capable of very subtle, innovative and efficient propaganda campaigns, and the people who were manipulated usually didn't realize it.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Andrew Sullivan and John McCain believe that Sarah Palin has a chance to beat Obama in 2012 - Palin causing major stir at "Rolling Thunder" (PHOTOS)

By Patrick

If America wants it or not, she is "back." The force of the Palin-propaganda machine is just about to hit the country, and John McCain already appears to rate her as a serious contender. Today on "Fox News Sunday", he said, according to "The Hill":

The GOP’s standard-bearer in 2008 also shrugged off his former running mate’s poor standing in many polls, saying she would have the opportunity to turn that around if she did make a bid for the White House.

“That’s what campaigns are all about,” McCain said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I’ve never seen anyone as mercilessly and relentlessly attacked as I have seen Sarah Palin in the last couple of years,” the Arizona senator added. “But she also inspires great passion, particularly among the Republican faithful.”

So, she "inspires great passion", and she could "turn that around." Thank you, John McCain! Also for unleashing Queen Esther onto the world, we are incredibly grateful, thank you so much, John. She's just what the world has been waiting for. A warmongering, lying, deceitful, demagogic politician whose main argument is that if you are against her, you are against women and against real American values.

Andrew Sullivan is one of the few journalists who have taken the threat that Sarah Palin poses seriously, and of course he has been ridiculed many times, because she is such a joke, isn't she! Who could possibly take her seriously!

This weekend, he was not afraid to defend his position on the Chris Matthews Show at MSNBC:



From the exchange:

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Does anybody here really, does anybody imagine Sarah Palin being elected President of the United States?

ANDREW SULLIVAN, DAILY BEAST: Yes.

MATTHEWS: You can.

SULLIVAN: Yes, because…

[LAUGHTER]

GLORIA BORGER, CNN: Uh oh, here it comes.

SULLIVAN: …not because of her apparent virtues, not because of Obama’s weakness, but because of unforeseen events. I do think that if for example we have a collapse in the markets because of a debt ceiling crisis, if we have a second recession…

MATTHEWS: You’re talking Armageddon.

SULLIVAN: If we have another terrorist attack…

BORGER: Sorry.

SULLIVAN: No, I’m just saying we shouldn’t rule out things.

MATTHEWS: Okay, okay, let’s go…

JOE KLEIN, TIME MAGAZINE: You were around, you were around in ’79 and ’80 as I was. Did you see many people in the Carter administration think that Ronald Reagan could beat Jimmy Carter?

MATTHEWS: Okay, let’s imagine that short of an Armageddon moment like the capture of 80 hostages and the humiliation of the United States for year-long and inflation and unemployment like Carter had.

Well, we’ve got the soaring gas and food prices as well as the unemployment. Apparently Obama gives Matthews too much of a thrill up his leg to notice.

Regardless, a few minutes later, the discussion came back to Palin:

MATTHEWS: Okay, let’s go to Palin. Lot of fun here. Palin, you love Palin. In some strange way you’re fascinated by her, Andrew.

SULLIVAN: As I said on the show many times, she started running the day after the 2008 election ended, and there’s no reason to believe she isn’t running.

MATTHEWS: Did she take a smart break the last three or four months so that the Newts and the Trumps make fools of themselves more or less?

SULLIVAN: Her position has been formerly if no one else will represent this grassroots movement of cutting government down to size and standing up for America abroad, then I will have to go in.

MATTHEWS. Anger. She’ll be the anger candidate.

SULLIVAN: Not just the angry candidate. She’ll be the principled candidate against what she will describe as the free…

MATTHEWS: Are you getting her into this race? Are you escorting her into this race?

SULLIVAN: No, no, no, no, no. I’m too terrified for the country to do such a thing. But I don’t, I do think Washington has misread her, underestimated her, and doesn’t see the…

MATTHEWS: Okay, can Palin and Bachmann run both on the right?

KLEIN: Sure they can both run, but I don’t know that either of them can win. But one thing you have to say about Palin: she doesn’t know anything about policy, but she’s got skills. She knows how to be a standup politician.

MATTHEWS: I agree. Great on the stage.

KLEIN: Yeah.

BORGER: But I believe in the end she’s so relentlessly negative that the, the American people don’t like relentlessly negative politicians. Look at Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was optimistic, positive…

SULLIVAN: But “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” is the most – I know it’s completely phony – but it’s very optimistic. This whole “Triumph of the Will” movie she’s putting out there, two hours of total upbeat, optimistic stuff. She, she knows this, and she’s going to work around it.

The right-wingers surely are mightily upset that Andrew Sullivan compared Sarah Palin's upcoming propaganda piece to Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will", but so be it. "The Undefeated" will be pure propaganda, and even if it's packed with lies, just as "Going Rogue" was, her fanatical fans will love it, because they want to believe in her. This has nothing to do with rational thinking. What we have is a populist who is willing to use every lie imaginable in order to impress her fans - and the potential voters. This should scare anyone, it's no laughing matter - but I believe that large parts of the media will be very happy to play the "Palin media game", again. She will give them the sound bites, and they will happy to pick them up, because Sarah Palin sells. It would help if the media started to take her seriously. So far, not many people in the media seem to do so, which I believe is a great mistake. Sarah Palin is ruthless, and she is determined. Virtually every move she has made after she resigned as Governor is directed to prepare her upcoming presidential campaign. Therefore, nobody should be surprised, and Americans need to realize what's heading towards them.

Sarah Palin's embarrassing interviews have been around since 2008. But journalists have no excuse any more, when it comes to simply repeating Sarah Palin's lies about her record. They are now in a position to educate themselves, as Geoffrey Dunn's book "The Lies of Sarah Palin" and Frank Bailey's book "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin" are packed with facts which are damning.

I was very happy to see that Jack Cafferty highly praised Geoffrey Dunn's book on CNN, saying that it "ought to be required reading for anybody considering supporting a Presidential run by this woman":



Now, I do hope that neither the journalists nor the voters will forget Sarah Palin's disastrous appearances during the 2008 campaign - because one thing is for sure: There will be no more interviews with critical journalists, as Sarah Palin recently announced on Hannity. It will only be propaganda, propaganda, propaganda.

Is the USA prepared for that? I surely hope so, because otherwise we will all be in big, big trouble.

Let's finish this post with Sarah Palin's "Greatest Hits" - we can never see them often enough:



+++

UPDATE:

A new report by the "Washington Post" describes how the appearance of Sarah Palin caused a major stir at the "Rolling Thunder motorcycle ride." Palin did a great job of hijacking the event:

Participants in the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle ride Sunday expressed mixed feelings about the involvement of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R).

Palin, along with husband Todd and daughters Bristol and Piper, joined the hundreds of thousands of riders who gather in D.C. every year to raise awareness for prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action.

Palin’s arrival at the event around 11:30 a.m. caused a huge commotion that event organizers struggled to contain. Photographers swarmed her; young men in suits hung around the press pack asking Palin to sign copies of her books. Rolling Thunder security yelled at press and fans not to touch the expensive bikes.

“I’m very not appreciative of the way she came in here,” Ted Shpak, Rolling Thunder’s national legislative director, said of Palin’s arrival. The former governor came in the front of the Pentagon’s north parking lot, where event staff and press were assembled. “If she wanted to come on the ride, she should have come in the back.”

The ride goes from the Pentagon, past the Vietnam Memorial, to the National Mall. From there, Palin plans to head to the National Archives to see the Constitution. It’s the beginning of a week-long tour of historic sites in the Northeast.

But many riders said politics has no place in the event.

“It intimidates our people if we’re pro or con any particular candidate,” said Wayne Kirkpatrick, chairman of the board of an Illinois chapter of Rolling Thunder. “And until national says there's a candidate we’re and supporting them, we don’t want to feel because the president of this chapter is pro-tea party, ‘Gee, I have to be our else I better get out of this organization.”

While many riders said they were fans of Palin, they still did not want her to bring politics to the ride. “Don’t come here and try to make a political point out of it,” said Joe Clark of Pennsylvania. “If she’s just here backing the cause of the entire run, that’s fine. If she’s just trying to get votes, she should just stay out of it.”

Also, we have the first pictures of Sarah Palin at Rolling Thunder ride, thanks to one of our readers (click to enlarge):







The inevitable "hand":


+++

UPDATE 2:

Major screech alert - Fox News interviews Sarah Palin at the ride - hide your dogs before you watch the video (it's just once sentence, though). Sarah Palin says that she

"loves the smell of the emissions."

I am sure that the Koch Brothers will be happy to hear that!



+++

UPDATE 3:

Many Americans will not be fooled by Sarah Palin's show, and others are certainly not fooled as well. The UK Daily Mail published a good, also very balanced, article, with lots of pictures and additional information, as well as scathing captions, such as:

"Parade time: Ms Palin waves to the crowd, from the back of a hog...
where she sat for a few minutes"

The Daily Mail writes:
Jim Roddey, chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Committee in Pittsburgh, said: 'Overall, most of us feel she could be an important force in the party, but I would hope she would not run for president.

'I don’t think she has the intellectual capacity or the depth of knowledge to be president.'

She has also been criticised by Maryland’s 2010 GOP gubernatorial nominee, Robert Ehrlich, who called her a quitter and said: 'If you look at the categories of potential nominees, most people do not mention her as a tier-one candidate.'
Palin's problem in the north east is the predominance of suburban swing voters, who are not impressed by her social conservatism and anti-intellectual posturing.
Mr Madonna said: 'The overall style, her manner, her approach, doesn’t sit well with college educated, independent-minded women.

'They’re looking for a different persona in their candidate.'
+++

UPDATE 4:

Super-LOL! The Taiwanese are at it again! Especially the depiction of RAM is simply brilliant:



+++

UPDATE 5:

Last for today - raw video of Palin at the ride:



Saturday, May 28, 2011

PalinPalooza reloaded: Palin "recycles" bus from "Sarah Palin's Alaska", "crashes" Rolling Thunder (or did she?), Lawrence O'Donnell's bizarre rant

By Patrick

The good old Sarah Palin madness started again, although some people are still in denial. But let me thank our brilliant readers first: The collection of links and stories in our comments is simply invaluable. Poor Kathleen went to bed already several hours again with a bad migraine, and when I came home today after a tiring working week, I was so glad (as usual) to see all the collected links, news and facts in our comments. This makes it so much easier for us to prepare new posts. Thank you, everybody, and keep up the good work!

Sarah Palin's bus tour starts with a propaganda blast and the usual Palinesque chaos which in the end makes her appear a "victim", as usual, as always, as it was to be expected.

SarahPAC today released this propaganda video for the bus tour - fodder for her gullible fans:



Then there is the usual chaos surrounding this tour, but don't expect that it will make Sarah look bad, because it's so totally not her fault, it's just the others who always get their facts wrong, you betcha.

Andrea Mitchell interviewed Ted Shpak, spokesman of "Rolling Thunder", who said that Sarah Palin was "not invited", that the organizers heard "yesterday through a press release" that she was coming, that the event is not political and that he considers Sarah Palin to be a "big distraction":



Even Ben Smith from Politico, who is known to be incredibly careful in his criticism of Sarah Palin, smelled the blunder and felt compelled to declare:

"Palin invited herself to motorcycle rally"


But he should have known that Sarah Palin makes no mistakes. It's always the others who get it wrong. She is the victim. Do you get it, Ben?

Oh yes, he did - just about one hour later:

"Palin had invite to bike rally"


She had an invite from Alaska! She is the victim. How could the lamestream interview a spokesman who clearly had no idea what he was talking about. How mean of Andrea Mitchell! Sarah, they are all picking on you for no reason as usual!

It's not very difficult to predict that similar "confusions" will probably happen a gazillion times in Sarah Palin's "sphere" during the next 12+ months - and that the "lamestream" will dutifully report each other's "mistakes" as far as Sarah Palin is concerned.

But we have a real discovery, and strangely enough, a Palinbot made it: Sarah Palin uses exactly the same tour bus for her upcoming "One Nation" bus tour that she used for her reality show "Sarah Palin's Alaska!"

A right-winger posted this picture on twitter (click to enlarge):


The busses are not only identical - in fact, even the number plates are the same! It's the same bus, without any doubt.

So what the heck does that mean? On the bus, there now is a huge sign with says:

"Paid for by SARAHPAC"

Is everything paid by SarahPAC, including the bus? Who is the owner of the bus? Who paid for it when it was used for her reality show "Sarah Palin's Alaska?" Did SarahPAC secretly finance parts of the reality show as well?

So many questions - so few answers. This would also be a good title for a Sarah Palin biography. ;-)

In the meantime, Lawrence O'Donnell doesn't believe that Sarah Palin will run for President:

Lawrence O'Donnell is certainly entitled to believe that, and he received much praise for his stance for example in the comments at Huffington Post, and I believe that a number of our readers will agree as well. But I don't agree at all, and I find it quite painful to watch how Lawrence O'Donnell mocks the New York Times because they chose to take Sarah Palin seriously.

His comparison to Donald Trump is as flawed as it can get. Sarah Palin has prepared her run for President for years, and everybody who has closely followed her story also should know that she is virtually been eaten up by her desperation to become President. She is much cleverer than Lawrence O'Donnell realizes: She doesn't need to follow the "usual script" for a presidential candidate - because she always got away with doing it "the other way." Giving speeches to enthusiastic fans, hiding behind facebook and twitter, producing a reality show, produce additional propaganda through more staged events like the bus tour, giving interviews to pro-Palin journalists - that's her dream, and she is just about to live it. Because she is allowed to do it, by the people she despises, by the "lamestream." At some point, they might wake up, but until then, Sarah Palin will be able to do a lot of damage.


But Mr. Trump’s was a brief dalliance with presidential politics that almost appeared to have been done on a whim. Ms. Palin, by contrast, has been moving slowly and methodically for several years. Aides have said for months that she wanted to be in a position to run for president if that’s what she decided to do.

Ms. Palin and her aides revealed few clues on Thursday, which leaves a lot of people in Washington and around the country guessing.

Yeah, but I am not guessing. Please don't look for sanity or logic in Sarah Palin's actions. She is a mad cow on the lose. That's really all one needs to know.

Just in: The Washington Post makes fun of Sarah Palin's upcoming movie and publishes an imaginary script:

MORGAN FREEMAN (voice-over)

Ahem. My name is Sarah Palin. I was born and raised in a small town called Wasilla, Alaska. I’ve spent my whole life trying to escape it, and the rest of the world has spent its whole life trying to return me there, like a package with insufficient postage (chuckles). I wanted a reality TV show. They said, “Fine. Go back to Alaska.” I wanted to govern a whole state. They said, “Fine. Go back to Alaska.” I wanted to be Miss Alaska. They said, “Sorry, that’s just not happening.”

EXT. SOMEWHERE ELSE IN ALASKA – DAY

Sarah stands with Todd. We can only see her feet, because the camera is hidden in some bushes.

SARAH

I’m not going to be engaging in too much of that fictitiousness that I’ve been hearing about, in regards to that stuff in the chitchat, that I’m running with regard to hoping for the attention and the fiscal value and not feeling that good belly-fire. But in the unmortal words of Ronald Reagan, “Give me liberty or give me death, and Sarah Palin should be the President in the future, not of the future, or, as some amongst us say in regards to the future, ‘winning,’ but with and amongst, amongst the all-Americans.” Joe here knows what I’m talking about, don’t ya ,Joe?

TODD

I support you, Sarah, but I’m not sure what you just said actually makes any sense.

Bristol salsas past the camera.

BRISTOL

I’m here too! I’m shy and withdrawn, just like my new chin.

Andrew Sullivan received harsh criticism from right-wing websites for his comparison of Sarah Palin's upcoming propaganda piece "The Undefeated" to Leni Riefenstahl's infamous propaganda masterpiece "Triumph of the Will":

Andrew Sullivan's vendetta against Sarah Palin reached a new milestone on Friday after he insinuated that the former Alaska governor was somehow akin to Adolf Hitler. Sullivan referenced Leni Riefenstahl's infamous pro-Nazi movie after quoting a former Palin spokeswoman on what he labeled "the upcoming propaganda movie, 'Triumph Of The Will' 'The Undefeated.'"

Having watched "Triumph of the Will" (click for youtube), I am sure that there couldn't be a better comparison to Sarah's upcoming concoction, but then, Sarah Palin doesn't have a moustache, and therefore it's a proven scientific fact that she cannot be Adolf Hitler.

But there is something which I have been asking myself. We all know that Sarah Palin hates to give interviews to anyone who cannot be considered to be a faithful supporter - but did Adolf Hitler actually give interviews to the press?

I originally thought that he didn't. However, I was only half-right. Interestingly, there is a very fascinating story on the record about an attempt to interview Adolf Hitler - in 1931, by an American journalist. The story was published in 1936 in Harper's Magazine and can be read here.

The encounter was Hitler wasn't a success - but it surely was expensive:

Hitler’s secretary, a nervous little man who clattered like a teletype, introduced me. Herr Hitler paced back and forth in an almost unfurnished room. He wore black, which set off rosy cheeks against a dead white face. A lock of hair over his forehead frequently got in his way and he pushed it carefully aside. In civilian clothes he appeared far slimmer than in pictures in uniform.

The secretary read to him from my list of questions. None of them was particularly provocative. Hitler answered like a man who has lost all conversational tones. Everything was double or triple forte except the greeting and the farewell. Er brillt, as the Germans say.

“A Fascist government in France and a Nazi government in Germany – then the two nations would understand each other. . . .

“The Jews? Can you shoot flies with machine guns? By the way, you aren’t Jewish, are you? Your name is the same as that of the Jew police commissioner here. . . .

“Put the unemployed on the marginal land. . . .

“Between Germany and the United States there should be nothing but increasingly good relations. . . .”

The secretary said softly, “That was your last question.”

“Thank you.”

“Auf wiedersehen!”

I added. “I shall write this and send it over for your signature.”

“Certainly. With pleasure.”

I sent a copy of the interview and felt satisfied. Hitler had said nothing startling but it was the first interview he had given for many months.

Four hours later a messenger brought me an envelope. In it were the pages of the interview. Every line and every paragraph was crossed out, not neatly but savagely, with many blurs and blots. One line remained: “Between Germany and the United States there should be nothing but increasingly good relations.” Signed, Adolf Hitler. For that astounding fact I had paid two hundred marks. Possibly some of the things said did look brusque on paper but I had written them as they were spoken.

So here we have another politician who didn't like to have his words twisted by repeating them verbatim. Certainly "Triumph of the Will" (1934) was much more enjoyable from his point of view.

How to end on a more humorous note? After all, we can have so much fun with Sarah as well.

Twitter came to the rescue, where I just spotted the following clips from 2008 - have a relaxing Friday evening, everybody!




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Friday, May 27, 2011

Sarah Palin's Magical History Nationwide Bus Tour and Video: Lawrence O'Donnell Reasons Why Sarah Palin is Not Running for US President

By Kathleen

It has been quite a week. The "elected" were not raptured and it seems that they will have to suffer alongside "the sinners" until Judgement Day (which is definitely going to happen) takes place on October 21st, 2011. Elected and sinners, we now face the end of the world together.

Unfortunately, Sarah Palin has dominated the news this week. First the acquisition of what would appear to be the Palin Campaign HQs in Arizona, distastefully furnished with cheap plastic toys for the swimming hole. I can't wait for the inevitable shots of the interior. This was rapidly followed by The Mansour Confessions in which Rebecca concedes to Toki de la Vega that Bristyal is an embarrassment and that every family has one. (Or in the case of the Palin /Heath family a succession of dysfunctional characters.)

It would seem that someone forgot to include Toki or RAM in on the inside information that Bristyal was on a Mata Hari type mission to seduce Levi and get a public confession out of him insinuating that he is a liar and that Sarah is indeed the angel of the north. Subtext: Never underestimate the sexual power of a Palin woman. Toki valiantly continues to push against the unconscious stream of c4p Sarah adulation and advises that it would be unwise for Sarah to run. Still, we should consider the fact that Toki may just be afraid that Palin will pull a tendon or suffer some sort of running sport related injury. After all he does admit that he often posts for the sh*ts and giggles and that he does enjoy getting a rise out of taunting and misleading anti Palin bloggers.

Thanks but no thanks to the GI Film Festival Chairman and "film maker", Stephen K Brannon, a whole two hours of a reformed Palin is about to hit a cinema near you. The "Premier" showing will be in Iowa next month. Freedom isn't free, but the cinemas showing the Palin film would be wise to stock up on give away supplies of wheat grass pills as they are known for their digestive properties.

To round off this "horrible week" we have two further reports. And we finish on a high point.



I call it the Magical History Road Tour because it has been intimated by Palin aides that her trip is a history learning experience. Didn't she go to school? Perhaps she wasn't that exceptional a scholar or she just didn't pay attention? I wonder how many private luxury jets they will employ on the trip this time?

Anyway, the trip begins in Washington DC where Palin has the opportunity to ham it up yet again alongside angry motorcycle builder, Paul Teutal snr. whilst at the same time taking in the historical monuments that the capital has to offer. I just had a horrible thought. What if they decide to film the Magical History Road Tour?

Good news is that Henry Blodget, editor of Business Insider, has once again issued a challenge to Sarah Palin that she release absolute documented proof that Trig is her natural born son. Henry believes that such proof is simple. The article uses the graphic that Brad Scharlott recently posted in the comments here at Politicalgates, and Henry reveals that Brad has had a number of in depth interviews discussing his graphics with Laura Novak over at her blog.


Read Henry Blodget's full post at the Business Insider.

The winners of the five copies of Frank Bailey's, Blind Allegiance, have been pulled out of Patrick's cowboy hat.. Thank you to everyone who took part. Winners are Steve, Celine, Sheri, Maureen, and Cynthia. I hope you all enjoy your books and once again many thanks go to our very generous book donors.

I have 2 copies of Frank Schaeffer's new book, Sex, Mom and God to give away. I will pick names out of the hat again so email me kathleenpoliticalgates@gmail.com. Good luck to those who enter. Entries close end of day Saturday, 28th May, 2011.

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Update:

In the following report at The Last Word, Lawrence O'Donnell outlines his reasons why he believes that Sarah Palin will not run for the Presidency.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


Thursday, May 26, 2011

Yes, Sarah Palin truly wants to be a "modern Queen Esther" - Newly discovered video from 2008 reveals her inner thoughts & Preview of "The Undefeated"

By Patrick

It's Sarah Palin 24/7 again, the very foreseeable development breaks way: Sarah Palin wants to run for President, she has been "plotting" it for years (just wait for her fancy new websites which have been in development already since 2009), she is following a playbook that many people don't like to hear about: After her recent book "Mein Kampf 2" now follows the epic movie "Triumph of the Will 2", and just wait for her rousing speeches at little "Nuremberg Rallies" all over the country. Also, no interviews with evil lamestream journalists, please, as Sarah Palin recently announced in an interview with Sean Hannity.

But as this may seem quite simplistic, predictable, easy to see through for some, a "second layer" is on offer: Religion. It's so useful, isn't it? Who doesn't want to belong to the good and righteous, God-fearing folks? Well, atheists, apparently, but I don't believe that they belong to Sarah's preferred "target audience." But seriously, isn't it even better to be likened to a biblical figure, like "Queen Esther", which could give you "half-God-like" status?

Well, several articles have already been written about Sarah Palin and the comparisons to "Queen Esther", but not much "hard proof" has surfaced so far that could confirm that Sarah Palin really, really loves this comparison. But yesterday my dear Kathleen roamed the internets and made a "chance discovery" which needs to be highlighted: A very religious and very enthusiastic supporter of Sarah Palin posted a clip at youtube on October 17, 2008 which has found little attention so far. However we here at Politicalgates believe that this clip deserves to be seen, as it reveals who Sarah Palin REALLY loves to be compared with, as modest as she is - with Queen Esther.

The footage was shot on October 9, 2008, at a rally in Wilmington, Ohio:





The person who originally posted the video included the following description to it:

I was so blessed to have a few moments with the future VP, Sarah Palin at a Road to Victory Rally in Wilmington, Ohio!

This is what was said....

I TELL SARAH​ "​YOUR OUR MODER​N DAY ESTHE​R!​"​

SARAH​ SAYS "HEY THANK​ YOU! SAY YOUR PRAYE​RS MAN!​"​

THAN I TELL HER "IM CHURC​H OF GOD PENTE​COSTA​L"​

THEN SARAH​ SAYS "IT WILL BE THE INTER​CESSI​ON THAT GETS US THERE​!​ TELL YOUR PRAYE​R CHAIN​S OK?"

THEN I TELL HER "WE HAD PRAYE​R FOR YOU LAST NIGHT​!​"​

SARAH​ "​RIGHT​ ON THANK​ YOU SO MUCH!​ OH MAN THATS​ WHATS​ GONNA​ GET US THERE​!​!​"​

THEN THE LAST THING​ SHE SAYS IS "GOD BLESS​ YOU GUYS!​ THANK​ YOU FOR BEING​ BELIE​VERS!​"

Well, what this guy doesn't mention is that at the end he also said "You are anointed" - as if this would be the most natural thing to say.

What this remarkable footage reveals is for example that Sarah Palin doesn't only enjoy the comparison between herself and Queen Esther, but she even seems to encourage her followers in the beliefs that she is somewhat "biblical."

Journalist Michael Gross reported in Vanity Fair in September 2010 about an email that right-wing pastor and gay-hater Lou Engle wrote to Sarah Palin "as a last-minute exhortation just before she took the stage for her vice-presidential debate against Joseph Biden on October 2, 2008." In this email, Lou Engle compared Sarah Palin to Queen Esther, and I get the impression that she really, really like that email as well. It reads:

Dear Sarah,

Many thousands are fasting and praying for you. I know you’ve heard it, but I believe this is an Esther moment in your life. Esther hid her identity until Mordecai challenged her to risk everything for such a time as this. Your identity is “Sarah Barracuda”. Esther removed corruption from the Persian government and Haman fell. She didn’t have experience, she had grace and favor. Sarah, don’t hide your identity tonight. There will be questions given to you that you don’t know, and I have been weeping over you. I believe the Lord would have you be real. If they ask you a question that you don’t know, don’t be ashamed to say: “I don’t have the experience of 30 years of politics like Senator Biden, but what I have is character, truth, and integrity, and I haven’t been seduced by 30 years of political and moral compromise like these men in DC. I believe America is not looking for more knowledge, they are looking for more character and more truth, and that is who I am. I refuse the politics of neutrality. I will stand for the family, I will stand on foundations of truth and this nation will be better for it.

Sarah I’m sure you’re doing this, but take a moment to still yourself before the Lord. The Lord is a shield about you. To those who have no strength, the Lord will show Himself powerful.

Sarah, I could be wrong, but I’ve been praying for five years for an Esther, with dreams of being a Mordecai to that Esther. I believe you’re the one and I think you’re even wearing a life band. Tonight don’t be ashamed to plead for the life of the unborn and all the wounded woman who have gone through this holocaust. You can throw this email away, but I have 50 young people fasting and praying day and night who are shouting tonight: “Grace, grace to you!”

We love you,
Lou Engle


Palin seems first to have gotten the idea that she might be a new Esther shortly after being elected governor in 2006, when she asked one of her former pastors for an example of biblical leadership that she could emulate. Quoting scripture, the pastor told Palin that she, like Esther, had “come to the Kingdom for such a time as this.”

The reference requires some unpacking. Due to her extraordinary beauty, Esther, a Jew, was taken as a wife by the Persian king Ahasuerus. When an adviser named Haman persuaded Ahasuerus to proclaim that all Jews in his kingdom should be killed, Esther’s Jewish cousin Mordecai (who raised her after she was orphaned) told her that she had to persuade the King to spare her people: “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)


Sarah Palin as Queen Esther? Alaska's soon-to-be-gone-governor as a Hebrew heroine from 2,500 years ago?

But over at the Daily Dish Andrew Sullivan made the connection -- with some help from the New Wineskins blogger ­­-- after musing on Palin's seemingly fatalistic pronouncement in early June, a full month before her surprise resignation.
"If I die, I die," Palin said during a rambling (what else?) introduction for Ronald Reagan's son, Michael, who was headlining an event at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Was Palin subtly signaling her political fate to those with ears to hear?

Perhaps. More likely she was just channeling one of the favorite biblical role models for conservative Christian women, especially the beauty queens, which Palin once was (and still is, if that Runner's World spread is anything to go by).

(...)

Contemporary Christians, especially conservatives, love that story. As Nancy Ammerman, a sociologist of religion at Boston University, told me, Esther represents "a willingness to risk everything on behalf of something greater than yourself, something you believe in." Hence the popularity of Esther's other well-known declaration, "I was born for such a time as this." Esther's words convey a powerful sense of vocation, Ammerman says, "the notion that there is a hand in history that brings a person to a particular place in which their particular gifts have meaning and have an opportunity to make a difference." The Esther story is also ideal for a Christian Right that sees itself as a besieged minority, as the Jews of Esther's day were. The vindication of the Jews, who then vanquished their foes, is also a gratifying scenario for today's believers.

Little wonder that when Palin exploded onto the political scene last year -- accompanied by catcalls from the media elites -- she was fitted for Esther's crown. "She's our Queen Esther," Martha Mota told a Texas newspaper at a debate party as Palin prepared to square off against Joe Biden. "She's going to save our whole country." A full two years earlier, in 2006, when Palin became governor, she called her pastor and asked for a biblical example of a great leader. The Rev. Paul E. Riley told her to read up on Esther.

There are more many hints that Sarah Palin is deeply in love with the Esther story, and the comparison of herself to Queen Esther. Just recently, she visited Jerusalem on Purim, the Jewish holiday which has its foundation in Queen Esther's story - hardly a coincidence.

One of the worst examples of Sarah Palin's "pandering to her religious fans" was the speech at the "Women of Joy" conference in Kentucky on April 16, 2010. The full transcript and video of the speech (six clips) can be found HERE and HERE.

In this speech, Sarah Palin said:

Now I was trying to make a point about preparation with Piper the other night and I’m reading her the book of Esther out of the Old Testament. And I’m telling her all about Esther. See honey, I’m telling her, she’s the underdog, and she’s the orphan, she’s working hard preparing to be judged by others. Essentially Esther, she was out there on the stage wondering if she’d be chosen to have opportunity to really help change her world and Piper’s listening and she’s kinda dozing off and finally she rolls over and she says “Wow, that’s just like ‘American Idol’”.

Video:

Any leader declaring that America isn’t a Christian nation, and poking an ally like Israel in the eye, it is mind boggling for, to see some our nation’s actions recently.

However, Sarah Palin's particular brand of Christianity means only one thing for her: "WORSHIP ME, PLEASE."

We will see much more of this in the following months, that's fore sure! Just wait until "Triumph of the Will 2" hits the cinemas! It should be nothing short of a "worship orgy" of biblical proportions.

Joe McGinniss expressed similar thoughts in a sobering post he published today on his blog:

Her people are out there, they are numerous, they are angry: and there is not another credible Republican candidate in the race.

Up to this point, Sarah has laughed all the way to the bank.

Now she hopes to laugh all the way to the White House–swept there by a tidal wave of “real” Americans who don’t like elitist liberals (i.e. for a start, anyone with a college education) portraying them as racist, pitchfork-carrying buffoons.
Neither Romney nor Pawlenty can active them, but Sarah can.
And she plans to. Because God is telling her to do so.

Oh, man, this makes what I’ve written in THE ROGUE about how steeped she is in Christian Dominionism all the more relevant. She truly believes her “prayer shield” will keep her invulnerable to attacks between now and election day 2012.
After that, she’ll lay down the shield and pick up the sword of fire with which she’s waiting to smite all of us who do not see her as Queen Esther.

We laugh at her and call her a joke, but she’s serious. And she has big bucks behind her, and nothing to lose.

We’d better stop laughing now, or she’ll have us all crying out for mercy on Inauguration Day, 2013.
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(We are eternally grateful to our reader "Tildama" who transcribed Sarah Palin's "Women of Joy" speech in 2010!)

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UPDATE:

Here is a sneek peek of the "spewing piece". Keep in mind while viewing that previews are supposed to be the most riveting part of the film........


Like I said it will be like watching paint dry on a damp and humid afternoon.