Prank Call of the Weekend

"Nicolas Sarkozy" calls Sarah Palin.

Tee Hee

McCain aide calls Palin a "whack job".

I've been calling her that for weeks!

My Final Post on Joe Sam the Plumber

Turns out he was vetted about as well as Sarah Palin.

dailykos: McCain/Palin throwing Joe the Plumber under the Straight Talk Express

The facts - as even the reluctant to bother actually doing reporting Corporate Media have revealed - are that: Joe The Plumber only makes $40,000 a year, doesn't have a valid plumbers license in the state of Ohio, has only been a "plumber" for 6 years - not 15, has never finished his plumber courses, has never apprenticed as a plumber, can't afford to buy his bosses business - which only generates $100,000 a year in income, not $250,000 - is a registered republican who owes over a $1,000 in back taxes, and under any version of Obama's plan would get a tax cut that would be larger than McCain's.

His name isn't even Joe -- it's Sam!

McCain/Palin: Throwing shit at the wall, hoping it sticks.

A Little Vetting Goes A Long Way

From +17 to +1 in six days.

FiveThirtyEight.com: Palin's Favorability Numbers Eroding

As voters have taken a second look at Sarah Palin in venues like the Charlie Gibson interview and even Tina Fey's SNL sketch, they may not be as enamored of what they're seeing.

The Research 2000 poll for Daily Kos now has Palin's favorability-unfavorability scores at 45-44 -- just a +1. Six days ago, when the poll, launched, she was at a 52-35, a +17.

Perhaps they've heard that she's no longer cooperating in the Troopergate investigation; is still lying about the Bridge to Nowhere; is the Queen of Earmarks and John McCain has been lying about her record; is telling a new lie about the teleprompter breaking during her Republican Convention speech (reporters could see it, and it didn't); and installed a tanning bed in the Governor's Mansion in Alaska (so middle class).

And that's not even getting into her crazy religion, the fact that her town refused to pay for rape victims' rape kits, and that that decision was probably because she is so anti-abortion that she didn't want to pay for the morning-after pill. And so anti-abortion that she picketed a doctor's office. She believes the world will end in our lifetime. In other words, she's a complete whack-job.

She is a Trojan hockey mom who doesn't believe in Trojans.

Peggy Noonan: "It's Over"

How unhappy are Republicans with the reckless pick of Sarah Palin? Caught on an open mike they didn't know about, they are miserable. Watch this video (or read the transcript, below) to see Peggy Noonan (former Reagan speechwriter) and Republican strategist Mike Murphy chat while Chuck Todd of MSNBC is on the air:

Noonan: [obscured by crosstalk]

Murphy: Um, you know, because, I come out of the blue swing state governor work. Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, I mean, and these guys, this is all how you win a Texas race, just run it up, and it's not gonna work.

Noonan: It's Over.

Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech and do himself some good.

Todd: Don't you think this Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson to...

Noonan: I saw Kay this morning...

Todd: She's never looked comfortable about..

Murphy: They're all bummed out.

Todd: I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they can turn to?

Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives and youthfulness and the picture...

Todd: Yeah, but the narrative?

Murphy: I totally agree.

Noonan: Every time Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.

Murphy: You know what's the worst thing about it, the greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and..

Murphy and Todd together: This is cynical.

Todd: And as you called it, gimmicky.

Remember This Speech

When you're watching the speech McCain's Bushies have carefully crafted for Sarah Palin over the last few days, remember this speech. This is who she really is: a rightwing loon with not a lot going on upstairs, speaking in a chirpy voice.



PZ Myers calls her Palinanity. He's right.

This is a terrifying video. It's Sarah Palin going on and on in front of her Assembly of God church, talking about the war in Iraq as "a task that is from God", promising the congregants the gift of prophecy, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…it ought to make any rational human being ill.

It's scary to think that there are a lot of people out there who will admire this.

For To Laugh

Sarah Palin's first Vlog:



There's some NSFW audio near the end, be forewarned.

GOP Vetting Emporium

Cheap, fast, and maybe not so thorough (but funny):

Sarah Palin Should Never Have Been McCain's Choice

How bad is McCain's judgment? Even Katie Couric noticed.

Palin is a real piece of work. For one thing, she's a rightwing nutjob:

Used her line-item veto to slash $1.1 million in funds for homes for unwed mothers. (I guess she thought that championing abstinence would make those unnecessary? Like it worked out in her own family? Fool.)

Tried to have books banned in her local library in Wasilla, then she tried to fire the local librarian who refused. (I'll send a bouquet of roses to the first reporter who asks what books she wanted to ban. The usual suspects, I suppose? Catcher in the Rye? Heather Has Two Mommies? Tropic of Cancer?)

She has stated in her church that Alaska's natural gas pipeline and the Iraq War are both God's will. She sat silently in that church two weeks ago when a speaker said that terrorist attacks in Israel are God's punishment to Jews who don't convert to Christ.

Reformer? Against earmarks? No.

She lied in her very first speech on the public stage, claiming to have rejected the "bridge to nowhere", but she was only against it after the federal funds were withdrawn. Before that she spoke out in favor of the earmark while she was running for governor.

She employed Jack Abramoff's lobbyist to get federal earmarks for Wasilla, Alaska. $27,000,000 -- 27 million -- in earmarks for a town of 6,700.

As governor, Alaska led the nation in earmarks and federal money. Got pork?

She took campaign contributions from VECO, the oil field services company that has admitted bribing Ted Stevens. Not surprising, as she led Ted Stevens 527 group.

Nasty person:

Last year, went on a radio talk show and laughed as the hosts called the Alaska Senator Lyda Green (a cancer survivor) a "cancer" and a "bitch". Yeah, funny.

Fired city employees who hadn't supported her mayoral candidacy. Just what we need, a politician who requires loyalty oaths.

Executive experience?

In 1996 Palin described her job as mayor of Wasilla, AK as "not rocket science". No kidding.

And yet she was McCain's pick. Why was that?

McCain's impulsivity: His own campaign staffers are saying they hadn't finished vetting her yet.

No one had even met with her in person until late in the day -- the day before she was announced as his running mate! Reckless.

Palin is competely unqualified for high national office. Oh, she's minimally qualified. She's an American, and she's over the age of 35. But she has no significant national or international experience, and her beliefs and positions are far out of the mainstream. At this point I hope McCain sticks with her. She will guarantee Obama/Biden victory.

Oh yeah, she was never Miss Congeniality. Another lie.

Drip, Drip, Drip

How long will this be the logo?
Palin/Tired '08!

John McCain will be a terrible President. He didn't even have the patience to make a careful choice of a Vice Presidential running mate. In the end, he rushed to judgment, throwing his staff's six months of research on other candidates to the wind. Do we need more of George W. Bush's rash decision-making in the White House? I don't think so. Just think about what has come out about McCain's supposed "vetting" of, and decision to choose, Sarah Palin:

Palin was vetted in one day. One day!

McCain's campaign did barely more than a rushed google search:

One Republican strategist with close ties to the campaign described the candidate's closest supporters as "keeping their fingers crossed" in hopes that additional information does not force McCain to revisit the decision. According to this Republican, who would discuss internal campaign strategizing only on condition of anonymity, the McCain team used little more than a Google Internet search as part of a rushed effort to review Palin's potential pitfalls. Just over a week ago, Palin was not on McCain's short list of potential running mates, the Republican said.

The Anchorage Daily News can hardly find anyone who was actually contacted by McCain's campaign.

Her portfolio is managed by Smith Barney (what will she do for Barney Smith?) She owns three houses!

Three spouses, 16 houses, Palin/Tired '08!

Even Republicans Are Not Impressed

Mrs. Dan Senor:



Joe Scar and the repulsive Pat Buchanan (she supported him in 2000!):



Vet/Palin '08! (or never. whatever. POW! POW! POW!)

Snap Judgment

Who is this woman? I don't have any idea.

John McCain had six months to pick a Vice Presidential running mate. He did it in one day:

NYTimes: Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process

With time running out — and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable — he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later.

A man so careless and reckless in choosing his running mate has no business running the government. I'm more careful than that when I hire a file clerk.

Religious Right Picks McCain a Running Mate

What's the old horndog looking at, anyway? Bet he had no idea what she was going to say. James Dobson did, though.

John McCain has thrown caution, and judgment, and good sense to the wind and chosen first term Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Well, I use the word "chose" and that may be taking it too far; it is pretty obvious that Palin was chosen by the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican party, by James Dobson and his ilk. The secretive Council for National Policy vetted Palin last week. Who are they?:

...[A]n ultra-secretive cabal that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy.

CNP members have included Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Grover Norquist, Tim LaHaye and Paul Weyrich. At a secret 2000 meeting of the CNP, George W. Bush promised to nominate only pro-life judges; in 2004, then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told the group, "The destiny of the nation is on the shoulders of the conservative movement." This year, thanks to Sarah Palin's selection, the movement may have finally aligned itself behind the campaign of John McCain....

...while Dobson once said he could "never" vote for McCain, he issued a statement last week hailing Palin as an "outstanding" choice.

Palin has been governor of Alaska for 20 months. Before that she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town with a population of less than 8,500.

Wasilla City Hall

Her duties as mayor were gargantuan, for sure, for according to their municipal code she had to be prepared on day one to:

1. Preside at council meetings. The mayor may take part in the discussion of matters before the council, but may not vote, except that the mayor may vote in the case of a tie;
2. Act as ceremonial head of the city;

Now that's quality experience for being a heartbeat away from leading the country!

She has no foreign policy experience, though comically both Fox Noise and [fellow former beauty queen] Cindy McCain claim she has foreign policy experience because Alaska is next to Russia. I grew up in New York, and that's next to Canada, so I have foreign policy experience, too! She only got a passport last year, and is listed as having visited Kuwait and Ireland, though I think her visit to Ireland is the dreaded Shannon layover. Maybe she got some duty-free hooch.

She's being investigated in her own state for a scandal Alaska calls "troopergate"; Palin has been using the power of her office and her staff, trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from his job as a state trooper.

She left the tiny town of Wasilla $20,000,000 in debt.

She doesn't believe in global warming, favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and is suing the federal government to get the polar bear taken off the endangered species list.

She's an extreme social conservative: anti-abortion even in cases of rape or incest; against sex education; in favor of teaching creationism in public schools.

She has five children, and her fifth was just born in April. He was premature and diagnosed with Down's syndrome; despite this, when her water broke when she was at a political event in Dallas, Texas, she went ahead with her speech, then flew back to Anchorage and drove to Wasilla to have the baby half a day later. Talk about risky behavior! (And the British press is reporting that there are internet rumors that the baby is actually Palin's oldest daughter's baby. Whew.)

She (or someone close to her) made 30 changes to her Wikipedia entry the day before McCain announced her selection.

Since I started writing this post, the Palin campaign has issued a press release stating that Palin's 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant and that she has chosen to have the baby and will marry the father. (And I wonder, how could she choose to have the baby if the family is anti-abortion? Did she really have a choice? If she did, why doesn't Sarah Palin support other children having the same choice? And you know what? The kid would have benefitted from sex education, and a lesson on contraception.)

And just now it has been reported that Palin's husband has a DUI arrest in his background.

She claims to be a reformer, but she was actually the head of indicted Senator Ted Stevens 527 group.

McCain appears not to have vetted Palin; it is reported that his vetting staff arrived in Wasilla yesterday and have taken 8 hotel rooms. Also that his campaign never asked to see the archives of the local newspaper.

Not that any of this will matter to the fundies. She is an extreme social conservative and that is all that matters to them.

Personally, I think I had better put this post up fast before Sarah Palin resigns from the McCain campaign to spend more time with her expanding family.

If she does resign, perhaps McCain can blame the 21-year-old who has been advocating for Palin to be VP for over a year.

I can't decide which prior failed nomination this pick is more like: Spiro Agnew, Harriet Miers, Clarence Thomas, or Thomas Eagleton. What do you think?

I'm going to call McCain's campaign Palin/Tired '08, from the good Roger Ailes.

More funny: PHILOSORAPTOR: Ham Sandwich McCain's Actual Choice for Veep