Tuesday 20 July 2010

Palingates Weekly Roundup July 11-18, 2010


By Blueberry Tart


Sarah Palin - backasswards tweet

Just after I finished last week’s roundup, Patrick posted a gem about Sarah’s “backassward” tweet, another of Sarah’s little attention-getting ploys. This is what 46 year-olds do, when they never got beyond their mean middle school personas.


Sarah and Blago 3

Two “Pees” in a Pod – LOL! On Tuesday we had an excellent guest post by BfromC, comparing Rod Blagojevich with Sarah Palin – two erstwhile governors who spent many workdays goofing off at home, fond of big hair, and consumed by their “hatred-envy” of President Obama. Some good quotes re narcissistic personality disorder: "He's very glib and superficial," [Dr. Daniela Schreirer] said. "He's very self-confident, maybe overly self-confident. He's dramatic and erratic. He has an inability to acknowledge, 'I messed up.'" And from psychologist Scott Amber: "One hallmark of a narcissistic personality is they're motivated almost exclusively by self-interest," he said. "So if you're going to have someone in public office whose motivations are predominantly, 'What's in it for me?' in the long run they're not going to serve the citizens very well." Sound familiar?

Believing Sarah Palin

Next up was a post on Dave Weigel’s guest blog (on Andrew Sullivan’s site, of all places), claiming as fact that Sarah is Trig’s mom and accusing those questioning her story of being irresponsible (he’ is the objective judge of responsible reporting: LOL). Weigel claims, “All of the evidence indicates that Trig Palin is Sarah's son, and none of it suggests otherwise.” You’ll have to trust him, because he didn’t bother to actually present any “evidence.” Why be troubled by the tedium of fact-checking? Patrick and litbrit brilliantly rebutted his self-righteous and self-serving pronouncements.

Simmering since PG’s post that Levi was spending time at Bristol’s condo, the news finally broke (in the midst of the comment thread) that Bristol and Levi are re-engaged (a close relative of re-virginization). In keeping with the Palin’s long-standing practice of keeping their personal lives private, Bristol announced her engagement to Levi via a weekly tabloid (for a mere $100K), claiming that Sarah did not even know yet; Sarah responded via the media also2. (But Weigel yells: “Leave her family alone.”) Some quotes: “Bristol tellsthe glossy, ‘It is intimidating and scary just to think about what her reaction is going to be. Hopefully she will jump on board.’" (US Weekly) And: "Bristol says that had her mom not been a VP candidate, she and Levi would already be married and would never have split." (from HuffPo/US)

Dlb44 and cheeriogirl posted the link to a great rebuttal to Weigel, written by a reader of the Daily Dish, on Andrew’s blog: “She is the one who brings her family into the debate for one thing, and moreover - as a candidate, the Trig story means she's at best an exaggerator, and at worst an outright liar, rash and stubborn to the point that she'd endanger her baby to deliver him where she wanted to, or a wretched decision-maker under considerable pressure. If that doesn't impact her candidacy, I don't know what does. And if anyone thinks she isn't going to make another run at something, they're deluding themselves as much as she is.”



what happened to bristol palin
Bristol Palin on Oprah, vowing to be abstinent

Patrick reluctantly wades into the muck and mire of the long-running Palin-Johnston soap opera. The post includes links to the video of Levi and Bristol sharing their special, private moment with millions of people; Kathy Griffin’s hilarious scene tearing up Levi’s Playgirl spread; catfight; some behind the scenes info about Bristol’s prior roommate, Ben Barber (abstinence, anyone?) and some insider takes on how angry Sarah is about Bristol “going rogue” on HER – how dare she, that ingrate!! We end up where we need to be – back focusing on Sarah Palin – reminded of how idiotic and petty she looked during her public spat with Andrea Friedman over the Family Guy episode.


Surrealist foot
Sarah Palin: Surrealist hero

Back to business, as Patrick revisits a theme right out of a Buñuel film: Sarah’s qualifications to be the leader of the free world. (I am gagging and gasping for breath even as I type this.) Let’s see: she has “common sense” (sez who? But arguendo, this makes her unique?), has American values and is not one of those spineless elitists who run the country; and she speaks for “normal Americans.” OMG, that is truly surreal, given how abnormal she really is. In the interview (like the book), Sarah criticizes the evil “campaign operatives” who screwed things, and claims that Gibson and Couric were out to get her and make her look bad – Gibson’s was a “gotcha” question and Couric’s (“what do you read”) was “condescending” because Sarah “didn’t ingratiate herself to the liberal media.” She claims to have more executive experience than the President, but fails to mention that she was incapable of doing the job of mayor, so Wasilla had to hire a city manager, and she quit the oil & gas commissioner and governor jobs. She thinks W did a great job, ignoring the inconvenient fact that he ran up the very large debt to China that she now feels is unacceptable and blames on President Obama. Yada yada. The interview also covers her bizarre assertion that “some people” thought she should abort the square pillow. (Classic psychological projection.) The post has a few of the all-time classic clips of Sarah’s idiotic interviews…they may help you get over the sheer terror of imagining Sarah as POTUS.

+++

Comments of the Week:

Peacepax: …Sarah…Everybody understands about you and fences. Fence out the rent paying Joe M. Fence out the tuition paying CSU students. Fence out Citizens from the country that borders us to our South...

Finny has Sarah pegged: “Here is the subtle sub-text of her tweet: Mr. President! Mr. President! Pay attention to meeeee! Can you hear me? Can you see me? Mr. President! Over here! Hey! I'm right heeeere why don't you talk to me!!!! I'm Sarah Palin, look at meeeeeeee! Mr. President, if you don't pay me attention, I will SCREAM! Pay attention to ME.”

Ripley in CT: Jerky on the seat?.... I thought they were talking about her chair when she sits down!

Turuk: “Sadly, Palin thinks her use of ‘backasswards’ is witty. She thinks she is being very clever and edgy… you can hear her snide, arrogance…where she says Obama has some nebulous ‘plan’, ‘imposed on the county we love,’ because…Obama by implication doesn't love this country as ‘we’ do. What plan is being imposed? She doesn't say. It doesn't matter just so long as she is framing the situation as ‘us’ vs. hem.’ ‘Them’ of course is anyone who is smarter than she (which includes my cat.)…”

Apparent Reality: “It is probably more a part of her psychiatric illness as a crazed sociopath…she has been a liar and a poor loser long before she was a gov.or vp candidate. When she loses anything, she retaliates and attacks, not with facts, but with things she makes up off the top of her bumpit. She hates that she lost to President Obama and she will invent any phrase or lie to throw out there, like a disturbed child having a tantrum. She exists in a state of rage…”

For Molly_WI: “Resolved: To work much harder at commenting much more worthwhile and/or snarkier stuff in order to catch Blueberry's eye!” [Here you go, Molly!! ;-) ]

OMG, Armchair Jane found a brilliant new Palinism in the Hannity interview: "refudiated"! It joins “mandation” and “Alexis de Cokeville” (along with new meanings for “ions” and “ravage”) in the Palin-lexicon! (At some point, maybe FormerRepublican will do a new Wordle with some of these – ahem – unique words?) AND RipleyinCT has a great Urban Dictionary entry: http://tinyurl.com/32wo23w

Honestyingov: “Floyd Orr's 'Palin Babygate' post today has an interesting analogy comparison of how the Media refuses to tell the real truth behind Palin and expose her. They are enablers in this whole process and complicit in allowing the fraud to continue. ( for their own gain.. $$$$$ )”

Peacepax: "And WHO did Dave interview in Alaska that he talks/brags about...? I bet It wasn't CBJ,
who with her lawyer standing by her side, refused to confirm Sarah gave birth to Trig.”

Ice_nine: “Sounds like he took the same journalism classes as Palin.”

Louiecypher: “Wow Sarah I saw your latest facey booky post and I must say, nail on the head, because you bring more people together than a unicorn farting rainbows!!”

Krbmjb05: “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.”
Adolf Hitler

Lola summed it up: “What is wrong with you, Dave Weigel? Are you on a mission to completely sabotage whatever shred of journalistic credibility you have left?”
1. ‘Trig Palin is Sarah Palin's son and it's irresponsible to suggest otherwise.’ This is a cheap shot at your supposed ‘colleague’ and you know it. Your flat out assertion that ‘Trig Palin is Sarah Palin's son,’ based so-called ‘evidence’ that amounts to nothing more than the anecdotal stories we've all been privy to since Trig arrived on the scene ... now, that's being irresponsible. Honest research, anyone?
2. ‘I paid close enough attention to this in 2008 ...’ uh, no you obviously didn't. Besides, it's 2010, Mr Weigel, and a good portion of the Trig maternity iceberg has been methodically uncovered in the past two years.
3. ‘... because they've got nothing else to criticize Palin about.’ A simply stunning falsehood... laughable on its face because it's so ludicrous, but also rather sobering. You wildly underestimate the intellectual capacity of this readership when you try to pass off empty platitudes as "journalism," in your efforts to pander to Sarah Palin.”

Disqusux: “Dave Weigel has less credibility than Levi Johnston.”

Gyalist: “Dave Weigel would do well to read this article in today's Guardian about Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks: ‘Journalism should be more like science…As far as possible, facts should be verifiable… If Dave Weigel has substantive evidence that Sarah Palin is Trig's birth mother, he should reveal it lest he be doomed to further irrelevance when the truth finally comes out.”
AKRNC: “The newest version of Webster's Dictionary should have a picture of Palin next to the word "hypocrite.’”

Zane1: “Well said Patrick, it seems like reporters & the media want to create their own reality that has very little to do with the truth & we are expected to go along with them because they are getting paid big money to lie...”

Avasmom: “[Weigel] argues… for the sake of argument. …No real knowledge. No basis.”

NJFan: “If they want ‘privacy’ then tell them to stop selling themselves for money.”

ArmchairJane: “Come on Dave, those kids are just scraping by, earning a meager living by selling stories and photos about their "private" lives to the tabloids at $100K a pop, and here you go trying to rob them of their hard earned and modest income!”

laprofesora: “Yes, she's in the news everyday, but she's in the news for being a screeching lunatic, and the matriarch of a completely dysfunctional family.”

Clairey (commenting on article in The Nation, with this quote): “’She doesn't have real support among actual people, even Republican primary voters. She is a self-perpetuating phenomenon of, by and for the media.’ This says it all. People are afraid to go on the record criticizing her (her fans are dangerous, after all), and she's NOTHING without a complicit media.”

Anon: "’But the young parents are forging ahead with what could be a short-order wedding, one in which Palin reportedly wants to incorporate camouflage.’ Just what might they be ‘camouflaging’? LOL”

ThanksABunchJohn: “This is not a matter to ignore, it is key in exposing the vile nature of Sarah Palin, and exposing the hypocrisy of the proverbial ‘Mama Grizzly’ myth. There will be more to come from Bristol, and I will not take my eye off of that ball, it might finally be the unlatching of Babygate, once and for all.”

In response to Joey’s dissent, Patrick had this comment, which in a nutshell is why we love Palingates: “Joey, I fully understand your view. We don't claim that it's the ‘ultimate truth’ what we present here. It's our opinion, based on the available information. Other people might come to different conclusions, and we strongly encourage everyone to discuss these issues and make up your own mind.”

laprofesora picked up a good quote from NYT: “Michelle Church, who was active in local politics with Sarah Palin, said of the young pair: ‘They both learned from the best on how to be an opportunist. Everything’s a farce with this family.’”

PMom (GA) astutely observed that Bristol’s former boyfriend, Ben Barber, would likely know if she were abstinent and should not need to ask…hmm. AKRNC picked up a comment on from crystalwolfakacaligrl on previous thread, indicating Bristol is pregnant. She says no. Time will tell…

espresso4me: “Palin's ego is seriously ravaged and can be easily refudiated by any sane, thinking person.” And later: “Nightmares are made of this but, then too also, there is comedy.”

mocha: “Once again, Palin is exaggerating and I think this is the story for Patrick and Kathleen - mountain climb gate - how she can't just tell a story straight, she has to embellish it to increase its difficulty, momliness, complexity, and make herself appear bigger stronger faster.”

BanditBasheert: “She is NOT exaggerating ... she is LYING. She is claiming she is going to CLIMB SWEETTOOTH.”

Barb_Dwyer (on a previous TLC Discovery Ch show): “The entire show was a total fabrication. He was never further than a few feet from civilization at any time, he was sleeping in hotels and being flown from shoot to shoot by helicopter.”

sickntiredofPalin posted this gem from hotair.com: “One adviser to Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and, by traditional standards, the putative 2012 frontrunner, says of Palin, ‘She’s not a serious human being.’ Another Romney intimate warns, ‘If she’s standing up there in a debate and the answers are more than 15 seconds long, she’s in trouble.’”

Aside from BBT on Mitt: Romney called his staff out on this because he doesn’t want to offend potential voters. Remember that he rode back into Massachusetts on a high horse, forced Acting Governor Jane Swift out of the race (possibly offending women voters). Then he won the Rep. nomination to run for governor against the Dem candidate, a woman. He got another woman, Kerry Healey, to run as his Lt. Gov. He will do what he thinks it will take to win; don’t be surprised if his running mate is a woman. I’m not saying Palin; he’s very strict about controlling the message, and he must know she is uncontrollable.

maelewis had interesting comments on W’s and Sarah’s intellectual deficits and Sarah’s narcissism: “I think that Sarah has the same overwhelming sense of panic at being found out, so she fills the air with nonsense and empty words, covers her lack of knowledge with a high skirt, high heels, high hair, and heavy makeup. Sarah uses frantic gestures and motions (a psychologist would call it an affect)…”

anne_123 (offering talking points): “…Mention she and her husband are jobless; Mention her kids have been cared for by other people for close to a year now; Mention every time she speaks she gets the same sort of money an actor on a sit-com might make; Mention she is never seen "doing" anything; Mention her constant attacks and finger pointing while not offering any solutions of her own…”

sari737: “...it's interesting if you google "famous narcissists" you find the likes of Hitler and Stalin… the [Teabaggers are too] stupid to realize that their "queen" is just like them!!”

JCos: “…if she had any sense, she wouldn't go on about people advising her to consider an abortion. It's an option available to women, as you well know Palin, because you've had one.”

sunnyjane has a great post (1:41 Sat): “Why Sunnyjane is Not Qualified to be President” followed soon by lilybart on why she IS qualified. Brilliant! ;-D

daisydem: “Especially since no one knew she was pregnant until she was 7 months ... who told her to abort: could not have been family (they didn't know); staff (they didn't know); friends (they didn't know); constituents/opponents in AK (they didn't know); supporters/enemies on the national scene (she wasn't known nationally); so was it her doctor? Todd? Herself?”

McNett: “If President Obama should be held to account for "palling around with terrorists," then Palin should be held accountable for her abortions, faked pregnancy, affairs, criminal and delinquent children, and racist beliefs.”

anne_123 had another interesting post, linking to 2008 comments from "Spenserrr": “the baby being bristols and not sarahs can basically be confirmed. like i said, theres the aerobics instructor that had her in her class during that time who says theres no way she was pregnant. both my parents know this lady and she works at the university a mile from my house…”

And another early Sunday on how a rival candidate could deftly use Sarah’s empty and frivolous comments and FB postings against her in a debate (Mitt, take note).

I love this from Sjkfromthebellyoftheplane: “Facebook the nation…”

EyeOnYou: “She needs to have the sympathy vote because she is nothing without it…” and later: “She craves attention and this is how she gets it, or at least the majority of it. She uses sympathy as a tool in her desire for attention. The more the better.”

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