News Palin pick an insult to our intelligence

[Gokul43201]

And I am awestruck by the fact that the Dem. Presidential candidate didn't know how many states there were.

The only difference is that one of those statements is true.

We all make slips of the tongue, no matter how smart we are. Doggone few of us could be expected to be in front of a camera 6 to 8 hours a day for months and never make one. When we say that we know Sen. Obama is a smart guy, so it must just have been a slip-up, but we know Gov. Palin is an idiot and that this is evidence for this, we are merely reinforcing our prejudices.

The same behavior we are vocally critical of when it comes from the Right.

How can you even compare the two? One is clearly a slip of the tongue. How is the other?

Besides, your argument makes the faulty assumption that the judgment of the person's intellect is based entirely upon a single quote.

One doesn't need to have a quote from Palin calling Africa a country or South Africa a non-country to make a reasonable judgment of her intellect - there's plenty enough other examples from her interviews.

 

[Gokul43201]

It seems based on the idea that if you're funny enough, then she's an idiot.

Did you watch the SNL bit on the Palin - Couric interview? Most people that watched it probably thought it was funny. But most who watched it likely didn't know how close it was to the real thing (particularly the part about the financial sector bail-out).

 

[LowlyPion]

I understand Vanadium's point - that turning your opponent into a cartoon caricature is a weak style of arguing. It seems based on the idea that if you're funny enough, then she's an idiot.

I'm not sure what your point is. I know you're not arguing that her simplification of a complex argument into a three-word slogan proves that one-liners are an effective and intelligent debate style.

Why the concern for the styles of characterization?

Observing that Palin is a cartoon may in fact be the only characterization available since she demonstrates so little apparent depth.

What I have failed to yet see from Palin, and those of her supporters, is any depth to what she represents. If you or others think she can think her way out of a paper bag, if you think having a vacuous Miss Congeniality in Chief solves any problems or has any value outside a swimsuit competition, then offer up the policy initiatives that you think she espouses that offers some hope for the problems the Nation faces. I certainly heard nothing from her during the campaign in that regard.

Being able to see Russia, and wearing lipstick unlike a pit bull, and tossing about silly guilt by acquaintance slurs hardly seems qualifying for any office.

Maybe if those supporting her had more to work with there could be a discussion. But that is hardly anyone's fault if she herself so readily amplifies the stereotype of her incompetence for office. You would blame the people for pointing out the Emperor has no clothes?

 

[turbo]

I have no idea why McCain chose Palin, but it is frightening how many people voted for their ticket despite her lack of qualifications. If he had chosen a qualified conservative running mate, we would be calling him President-elect McCain, today. I don't think he would have had to fight for the religious right - they would have voted for his ticket anyway.

 

[LowlyPion]

Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy
Stunning Break with Last Eight Years

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."

The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

http://borowitzreport.com/

 

[BobG]

Oh, the horror! Palin pardons turkey

They never did this on WKRP! ... but at least this was fun

Edit: And this is different from the Africa comment. It's definitely true (unless that's really Tina Fey) while the Africa comment is still a comment from an anonymous campaign staffer, meaning its completely devoid of context, even if true.

 

[LowlyPion]

Oh, the horror! Palin pardons turkey

They never did this on WKRP! ... but at least this was fun

You should warn people about what they will see in watching the video.

If beheading turkeys and draining their blood makes anyone squeamish ... look away.

That Sarah Palin ignored the whole thing and chatted up reporters is a monument to her apparent lack of sensitivity.

 

[turbo]

You should warn people about what they will see in watching the video.

If beheading turkeys and draining their blood makes anyone squeamish ... look away.

That Sarah Palin ignored the whole thing and chatted up reporters is a monument to her apparent lack of sensitivity.

I grew up doing seasonal slaughtering on family farms, and it's no big deal. People who hunt won't be turned off, either. The people likely to be offended are the ones that buy their meat at a supermarket with little to no thought as to how it got there.

 

[LowlyPion]

I grew up doing seasonal slaughtering on family farms, and it's no big deal. People who hunt won't be turned off, either. The people likely to be offended are the ones that buy their meat at a supermarket with little to no thought as to how it got there.

Yeah. Well I grew up hunting and I've skinned rabbits and seen geese and chickens beheaded in the backyard for plucking. It's not something that I enjoy watching even though I am familiar with it and all right with it when it is necessary for a purpose like eating.

But still ... I've seen the video and it was a little uncomfortable for me to watch. Slaughterhouses for livestock are just places I am not drawn to. So call me squeamish I guess, if not just conflicted in reverence for life and for living. I just imagine for some people though, it likely may even be more so. Hence a warning seems in order.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Edit: And this is different from the Africa comment. It's definitely true (unless that's really Tina Fey) while the Africa comment is still a comment from an anonymous campaign staffer, meaning its completely devoid of context, even if true.

A not so anonymous, not so existent campaign staffer

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html?th&emc=th

 

[Evo]

A not so anonymous, not so existent campaign staffer

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html?th&emc=th

Funny, I guess Palin did say it, she only complained that it was mean that her conversation about Africa had been reported, not that it didn't happen.

The pranksters behind Eisenstadt acknowledge that he was not, through them, the anonymous source of the Palin leak. He just claimed falsely that he was the leaker--and they say they have no reason to cast doubt on the original story.

 

[OAQfirst]

Hence a warning seems in order.

I do agree with you. However, one might argue that, it being a Sarah Palin video, the warning is a forgone conclusion.

Warning:
Sarah Palin​

Now that's a bumper sticker!

 

[Office_Shredder]

But Evo, can you really trust anything he says?

 

[LowlyPion]

Funny, I guess Palin did say it, she only complained that it was mean that her conversation about Africa had been reported, not that it didn't happen.

Image is everything with her I think.

I thought her cover-up the next day with Carl Crawford after the Katie Couric interview was most disingenuous. She rattled off 3 things she alleges she reads regularly. The WSJ, NYT, and Economist. Like yeah right. Being Governor, 5 kids, 1 a special needs infant and she sits down to read those and then couldn't name a single Supreme Court decision other than Rowe that Couric mentioned? And then she rattled off to Crawford after 24 hours study, 3 obscure recent decisions? It just wasn't credible.

Her claiming to know lots of countries in Africa like Somalia when interviewed by Van Susteren had the same hollow timbre as her Carl Crawford revisionist history attempt. It looks to me like a disturbing pattern.

What's mean apparently is that people noticed that she knows so little. That people had to disturb the enchanted spell and observe that the Emperor had no clothes regardless of how fine the stitchwork was that the Emperor alleged it to be.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

But Evo, can you really trust anything he says?

The point, as I already pointed out myself, is that he was not the source of the comments. He only claimed to be the source of the comments.

 

[LowlyPion]

Audiences gobble up latest Palin interview

BACKFIRE: Camera catches slaughter of turkeys after governor's playful pardon.

By SEAN COCKERHAM
scockerham@adn.com

Published: November 22nd, 2008 02:33 AM
Last Modified: November 22nd, 2008 03:06 AM

It's being called "gobblegate," "the interview of death," and "Silence of the Turkeys."

Gov. Sarah Palin granted a Thanksgiving pardon to a turkey at a Mat-Su poultry farm on Thursday, a photo-op associated with presidents but done by governors as well.

...Anthony Schmidt, owner of Triple D Farm & Hatchery, where this all took place, said Friday that animal rights activists from around the nation had been calling all day to "say how horrible it was they were killing that turkey and people could see it."

"And I guess, to some degree I understand that. If I had my choice it wouldn't have been aired, that part of it. But, on the other hand, that's just life," he said. "Americans are going to consume 46 million turkeys at Thanksgiving. I'm only doing six or seven hundred. Give somebody else a hard time."

...McAllister said the slaughter had not started at the time the cameras were set up. He said that, while the cameras were rolling and a worker at the farm began placing turkeys head-down in a big metal cone to cut their necks and drain blood, Kris Perry, the governor's friend and director of her Anchorage office, "was actually physically nudging (the KTUU videographer), saying 'look at this,' and encouraging him not to frame the shot to include that, or to do something about it later, where he wouldn't use it," McAllister said.

http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/597969.html

 

[BobG]

You should warn people about what they will see in watching the video.

If beheading turkeys and draining their blood makes anyone squeamish ... look away.

That Sarah Palin ignored the whole thing and chatted up reporters is a monument to her apparent lack of sensitivity.

Then I'm glad I used the MSNBC sanitized version instead of the version originally shown on Alaska TV. After the fact, even the local station realized the unedited version might be a little extreme for city folk, even in Alaska.

 

[OAQfirst]

I'm getting suspicious. Anyone notice the reporter's question: "Do you see any state programs being put on the chopping block?"

Was this a set up?

 

[LowlyPion]

Looks like there was a PAC that ended with too much money after the election and this is what they decided to do with it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBoJDXW-ly0

Yeah. Thanks for the memories. I used to think Dan Quayle was about as dumb a candidate as we'd likely ever see for national office. And then along came Bush II.

But Sarah Palin, you have been a bottomless pit of entertainment for me as you thrashed ineptly throughout the campaign from one issue to another. Now that the danger of your assuming office anytime soon has passed, it allows me no end of relief.

When I say grace at dinner next Thursday, you will be in my thoughts that as bad as the economy may be at this time, the nation at least dodged you.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Looks like there was a PAC that ended with too much money after the election and this is what they decided to do with it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBoJDXW-ly0

Yeah. Thanks for the memories. I used to think Dan Quayle was about as dumb a candidate as we'd likely ever see for national office. And then along came Bush II.

But Sarah Palin, you have been a bottomless pit of entertainment for me as you thrashed ineptly throughout the campaign from one issue to another. Now that the danger of your assuming office anytime soon has passed, it allows me no end of relief.

When I say grace at dinner next Thursday, you will be in my thoughts that as bad as the economy may be at this time, the nation at least dodged you.

Let's be honest... a PAC ending up with money at the end of the campaign? Clearly unorganized

 

[LowlyPion]

A Palin Thanksgiving: Thank-you notes or contempt charges?

Posted: November 24, 2008 - 11:15 am
From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

The Palin wars continue this week, at home and Outside. The governor's friends and foes will both find something to like.

First, a right-wing political action committee plans to air a series of commercials thanking Gov. Sarah Palin. One Thanksgiving-themed ad begins with soft music and images of cooked turkey, as someone thanks Palin for her "passionate, hopeful and articulate advocacy of common-sense conservative values."

Based in California, the group is called "Our Country Deserves Better." On its Web site, the PAC talks about stopping illegal immigration and liberal judges, and says the country needs a president who embraces a "culture of life." It lists its one objective as defeating Barack Obama in the presidential election, but has now turned to promoting Palin.

And at home, a group led at least partly by left-leaning bloggers and that staged a big anti-Palin rally during the election - Alaskans for Truth - is calling on the Legislature to run with the Legislative Council's "Troopergate" report, which found Palin abused her power. (As opposed to the conflicting Personnel Board investigation, that cleared her.)

The group calls on lawmakers to:
-- Censure Palin.
-- Seek contempt charges against Todd Palin and state officials "who willingly ignored the Legislative Council's subpoenas during the investigation."
-- Hold hearings on whether the governor and Todd Palin committed perjury in their statements to the Personnel Board's investigator.
-- Investigate whether Attorney General Talis Colberg committed witness tampering.

http://community.adn.com/adn/node/134880

 

[LowlyPion]

A little follow-up. Home for the Holidays.
Meth Lab in the garage? Wasilla is Meth Capital of Alaska they say.

Levi Johnston's mother hit with drug charges

Arrested: her son was in the spotlight as father of Bristol Palin's baby.

By ZAZ HOLLANDER

Published: December 19th, 2008 12:38 AM
Last Modified: December 19th, 2008 01:10 PM

WASILLA -- A 42-year-old Wasilla woman was arrested Thursday at her home by Alaska State Troopers with a search warrant in an undercover drug investigation. Sherry L. Johnston was charged with six felony counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance.

Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, the Wasilla 18-year-old who received international attention in September when Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, announced their teenage daughter was pregnant and he was the father. Bristol Palin, 18, is due on Saturday, according to a recent interview with the governor's father, Chuck Heath.

Troopers served the warrant at Johnston's home at the "conclusion of an undercover narcotics investigation," said a statement issued Thursday by the troopers as part of the normal daily summary of activity around the state.

Troopers charged Johnston with second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance -- generally manufacturing or delivering drugs -- as well as fourth-degree misconduct involving controlled substances, or possession.

Troopers released no other information, including the kind or amount of drugs, because details could jeopardize an ongoing investigation, spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

Asked how long the investigation had proceeded before Johnston's arrest, Peters would only say "a while."

The Palmer District Attorney's office had no comment.

Sherry Johnston was arrested around noon and booked at Mat-Su Pretrial Facility, according to a booking officer there. She was released on a $5,000 unsecured bond just after 2 p.m.

No charging documents had been filed at Palmer courthouse by the end of the day, a clerk said.

Levi Johnston sat with Bristol and the rest of the Palin family in St. Paul, Minn., during Gov. Palin's speech to the Republican National Convention, and he joined the family on the stage afterwards.

When asked about the arrest, Palin's spokesman, Bill McAllister, issued the following statement by e-mail: "This is not a state government matter. Therefore the governor's communications staff will not be providing comment or scheduling interview opportunities."

Johnston didn't come to the door of her home on Caribou Loop Road outside Wasilla on Thursday afternoon. A teenage boy who answered the door said he couldn't provide any information.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/628010.html

 

[Evo]

And in other news, supposedly Palin and the "first dude" may be getting divorced, seems he may not be needed anymore with the book deals and movie offers.

 

[LowlyPion]

And in other news, supposedly Palin and the "first dude" may be getting divorced, seems he may not be needed anymore with the book deals and movie offers.

You know it's difficult for me to relate to these people.

There's a certain je ne sais qua hill-billy gypsyness to the way they conduct their lives.

Skin a moose, pass the Jack Daniels, it's dinner time at the dysfunctional Palin homestead.

Imagine that they would be imposing themselves as National Icons, projecting their trashy ways to the world at large as the best of American values. America's new royalty straight from the set of the Price is Right and Queen for a Day.

What in the heck was McCain thinking?

 

[Proton Soup]

You know it's difficult for me to relate to these people.

There's a certain je ne sais qua hill-billy gypsyness to the way they conduct their lives.

Skin a moose, pass the Jack Daniels, it's dinner time at the dysfunctional Palin homestead.

Imagine that they would be imposing themselves as National Icons, projecting their trashy ways to the world at large as the best of American values. America's new royalty straight from the set of the Price is Right and Queen for a Day.

What in the heck was McCain thinking?

yeah, we need only good people in government, like kennedys.

 

[LowlyPion]

yeah, we need only good people in government, like kennedys.

They haven't all been bad.

Just like the Bushes haven't all been bad. (Unfortunately this doesn't seem to apply to the ones that made it to the Presidency.)

 

[Proton Soup]

They haven't all been bad.

Just like the Bushes haven't all been bad. (Unfortunately this doesn't seem to apply to the ones that made it to the Presidency.)

they seem to have more than their share of drunk-driving and girl-abusing activities. and the preponderance of illness makes one think of inbreeding. heck, even their patriarch was a bootlegger. but they've got better PR and so most americans don't automatically think of them as white trash.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

A little follow-up. Home for the Holidays.
Meth Lab in the garage? Wasilla is Meth Capital of Alaska they say.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/628010.html

I thought that was SLC?
Any way, I heard on the news it was supposedly oxycotton. Rockstar partying Rush style... Rush Limbaugh that is.

 

[LowlyPion]

they seem to have more than their share of drunk-driving and girl-abusing activities. and the preponderance of illness makes one think of inbreeding. heck, even their patriarch was a bootlegger. but they've got better PR and so most americans don't automatically think of them as white trash.

Are you talking about the Palins?

 

[Proton Soup]

Are you talking about the Palins?