BREAKING! Divorce? You Betcha!

Well, this might explain Sarah Palin's quick exit from the governorship and her descent into total (as opposed to intermittent) incoherence.

The Palins are heading to Quitsville, Marital State.

AlaskaReport has learned this morning that Todd Palin and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin are to divorce. Multiple sources in Wasilla and Anchorage have confirmed the news.

A National Enquirer story exposing previous affairs on both sides led to a deterioration of their marriage and the stress from that led to Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska.

The Palins were noticeably not speaking to each other at last Sunday's resignation speech in Fairbanks. Sarah ditched Todd (MSNBC) right after the speech and left without him. Sarah removed her wedding ring a couple of weeks ago.

Sarah has recently purchased land in Montana and is considering moving the family there. Sarah Palin is originally from Idaho.

Todd Palin told Fox News last week that he was heading back to his job in the oil fields of Alaska, yet Sarah recently signed a book deal reportedly worth $11 million.

(If you want the NE link, go to Alaska Report link.)

It seems Alaska Report is pretty reliable. At the bottom of the story:

AlaskaReport was the first website to report that Sarah Palin was running for governor of Alaska and the first website to report that Sarah was picked as John McCain's VP candidate.

Does Sarah Palin have a sense of humour?

Perhaps.

Palin may simply have hired a new speechwriter. From the Christian Science Monitor:

Sarah Palin served up 11-1/2 minutes of gentle gibes aimed at Democrats, the media, the McCain campaign, and herself during an appearance at Saturday evening’s Gridiron12 dinner in Washington. ...

In a nod to the intense media interest in Palin, the Gridiron Club’s board dropped a 100 year old rule – often violated – that comments made at the dinner were off the record and could not be reported. Instead, twittering was allowed, although not during speeches or songs. Palin tweets herself and noted in her dinner remarks that she had “the Twitter thing going.” ...

On the political front, Palin said that “if the election had turned out differently, I could be the one overseeing the signing of bailout checks and Vice President Biden could be on the road selling his book “Going Rogaine.” Biden is known for many things but not a full head of hair. ...

Talking about her bus tour for her book, “Going Rogue,” she said, “the view is so much better inside the bus than under the bus.” ...

The ritual at these dinners calls for self-deprecatory humor and Palin obliged. Being at the dinner meant “at least now I can put a face to the newspapers I do read,” she said, referencing her lack of response to Katie Couric’s question about what
newspapers or magazines she liked to read.

Ummm. Did Palin mean by that she'll be able to put a name to those newspapers she claims to read? Or is she planning to connect faces to what she and her groupies - Michelle Malkin for example - allege to be a vast group of media professionals said to be actively conspiring against Palin?

Update - Ha! I suspected that someone new scripted Palin's speech since it wasn't the usual cobbled together material and improvised ramblin' Sarah is famous for. Complete sentences too. And also. Here, the reporter says that Richard Schnure was hired to write Palin's speech for the evening.

What's Palin lyin' about, exactly?

IMHO, I suspect that deep-down, she wanted the pregnancy to end in still-birth or miscarriage.

Palin wore Spanx or whatever to hide it, and when her labour came on unexpectedly, she deliberately avoided giving birth at hospitals that would have provided her fetus with the best chances of survival.

Her behaviour is not consistent with that of a woman reconciled to a difficult pregnancy and taking all precautions needed to ensure the safe delivery of a fragile fetus in an environment that provided the most advanced medical resources and support.

By her own account, Sarah Palin's pregnancy was a "high-risk" one: she was 44 years old, and it was her seventh pregnancy (she had had two previous miscarriages); the baby had Down's Syndrome and was about to be born prematurely.

The fact that Palin, despite the obvious complications, embarked on a ten-hour plane journey from Dallas to Anchorage with a stopover in Seattle, bypassing the first-rate Baylor Regional Medical Centre in Dallas with a neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) situated ten minutes away from the conference she was attending, is mystifying – even more so since Palin then elected not to attend Providence hospital in Anchorage, which is also equipped with excellent NICU facilities that would have ensured a safe delivery for her premature son. [...]

This issue is not about misogyny, as Megan Carpentier claimed in her recent commentary in the Guardian. We are not misogynist and we have no interest in examining Sarah Palin's "vagina". The majority of our readers, supporters and researchers are female, and they are usually women with experience in giving birth. There are also many readers who have medical backgrounds who strongly question Palin's account of Trig's birth. [...]

The questions about Sarah Palin's pregnancy are relevant, because they raise issues of trust about a woman who almost became the vice-president of the US and who still has a large following and political influence. Journalists who now quickly declare this matter "closed" without having examined the evidence should be reminded that former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt is on record saying that Palin's book Going Rogue comprises "not 70%, but 100% fiction".

From here.

Wasilla mayor: "No crime has been reported."

JJ was faster than DJ!, blogging about $arah Palin's latest battle with the media - that would be those she doesn't like and doesn't get money from (I hesitate to use the word 'work' to describe whatever it is Sawah does when she shows up at Fox).

According to many shrieeeking headlines, Palin is allegedly being "stalked" by a political writer who has rented a small house next door to hers, on Lake Lucille.

McGinniss, author of such best-selling books as "The Selling of the President," "Blind Faith" and "Fatal Vision," is planning a book, tentatively titled, "Sarah Palin's Year of Living Dangerously." It could be on book shelves next year.

The town's republican Mayor, Verne Rupright, said: "No crime has been reported." If Mrs Palin wants to build a fence on her property, he said, that's her right.

Mr Rupright said McGinniss met with him and told him he was researching his book and moving to town. He even told the mayor where he'd be living. "I was a little surprised by it, but I said, 'That's fine."

From here.

In this political blog at Time, a number of views are presented, regarding McGinniss' up close and, some say, invasive strategy in doing field research on the subject of his next book.

Taking up residence next to Palin doesn't even approach violating her legal right to privacy. She has no legal right to blind eyes looking at her property from an adjoining property or even from the street. If McGinniss didn't live next door, he'd be completely within his rights to interview Palin's neighbors about her. In fact, he'd be remiss if he didn't grill them about her. [...]

I'll predict that McGinniss' deck-side observations of the Palin family will not likely turn up much beyond atmosphere for his book. But that's not the reason he rented the house. It's his way of skywriting for all of Alaska—and America—to see that he's on Palin's case and that he's very available to sources if they want to share with him.

Here's hoping that McGinniss interviews the blogger of The Mudflats!

Is Sarah Palin Secretly Pro-choice?

In another instalment of 'DJ! Visits the Dark Side So You Don't Have To', here's the latest on $arah.

She's secretly pro-choice.

Sarah Palin may be America's pro-life sweetheart, but a story making the rounds on conservative websites paints a different picture. It turns out Palin might actually be pro-choice.

Conservative news website Free Republic made their case against Palin's pro-life claims. They say that while governor she appointed a former Planned Parenthood official to the Alaska Supreme Court and that she supports the use of the abortion drug RU-486.

One of the most damning pieces of evidence against her is her continued claim to be "personally" pro-life. This phrase is generally used by pro-choice candidates to make their views seem more palatable to the conservative Christian voting block. It amounts to agreeing that women should have the right to choose but that the candidate wouldn't personally opt for an abortion.

In Sarah Palin's first book, "Going Rogue," she mentions that when she found out she was pregnant with her youngest child (a son who was born with Down's Syndrome) she briefly considered an abortion.

Additionally Sarah Palin has never supported so-called Personhood amendments, which are attempts by conservative lawmakers to grant personhood to fetuses, thus making harming them (such as would happen during an abortion) illegal.

That link cites Free Republic -- and yeah, I went there too -- but the ultimate source is ProLife Profiles, sponsored by American Right to Life.

And woo baby, this gang is Fetus Fetishists on Steroids! They slam National Right to Life for its 'immoral' incrementalist strategy and offers its own strategy.

ARTL Three-fold Strategy

1. Criminalize: recriminalize the intentional killing of the unborn and other innocents through state and national personhood efforts.

2. Demoralize: create unbearable social tension and ensure that there is no child killing with tranquility in order to coerce the government to correct the injustice of shedding innocent blood.

3. Evangelize: persuade individuals by education and evangelism to honor the God-given right to life.

Is this just FF infighting? Who's holier, more fetus-worshipping, panty-sniffing, slut-shaming, woman-controlling than thou?

Or is it just politics, über-whacky Rethuglican-style?

A commenter at FD named smallLliberal speculates:

Interesting stuff.

What I take from this, the GOP knives are being sharpened to make sure she stays out of the race.

There are all kinds of quotes from Rove, Roger Ailes and the other GOP bigwigs attacking her. They clearly think if she is the GOP nominee then Obama will crush her.

If she does not announce soon that she is not a candidate, this will get uglier. Mark my words.

Woo-hoo!

Blind perhaps, but no longer silent on Palin.

Three people who worked closely with Sarah Palin in her early political years have collaborated on a book that sets the record straight on Governor Quitter.

Despite being filled with regret for his own actions while serving for nearly four years under candidate and then half-governor Sarah Palin, Frank Bailey came to fear that his former boss remained a voice in American politics. In Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin, former insider and my co-author Frank Bailey said of his ideals when we first met, “I am still a Fox News Conservative.”

Frank went on to explain that Sarah Palin, despite her carefully managed image and “word salad” lip service to conservative ideals, cared little for the smaller government and social values that attracted him to her candidacy in 2005. She was (and he admits guilt in getting sucked in, and participating wholeheartedly) consumed not with governance, but with image, vindictiveness, and ultimately reaping worldly rewards.

Go read the rest at The Mudflats.

FANS. Sarah has fans. Lots of fans.

eh. Someone on Twitter with the screen name 2012Palin has linked to one of our posts at DJ!

So I checked out what other .... erm, useful links to all things Sa-wah led to on the Web.

Oh dear. It seems that some opportunist got the scoop on a Palin mini-biography. Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down. Oh - a gushing, fawning review. (Have you noticed that diehard fans still think Palin is hotshit?)

I read this book while my 2 year napped in about 3 1/2 hours. I was blown away at Sarah Palins politcal sucess. For the first time in my life I am proud to really support this woman's candidancy. This book is simple and easy to read through. It is NOT all fluff, it is factual and to the point. I wanted to have an open mind about Sarah Palin's experience and was not afraid to be somewhat critical of her. She DID SHAKE THINGS UP IN ALASKA. Living in the Left Coast (CA). The way things are in Alaska makes me want to pack my bags right now and raise a family in Wasilla. Sarah Palin is an amazing true Feminist, she is what TRUE WOMAN IS ALL ABOUT AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT SHE DOES IN WASHINGTON. GO SARAH!

Lots of capitalized words there. Must be an affliction associated with rightwing religious disorder zealotry.


And. Also. What the hell is that woman giving her toddler in his juice? A three and a half-hour nap?

Branding Sarah Palin.

Whatever your political orientations/choices may be, there's some interesting information to be found in the article about Sarah Palin in the October issue of Vanity Fair, now online.

She manages to be at once a closed book and a constant noisemaker. Her press spokesperson, Pam Pryor, barely speaks to the press, and Palin shrewdly cultivates a real and rhetorical antagonism toward what she calls “the lamestream media.” The Palin machine is supported by organizations that do much of their business under the cover of pseudonyms and shell companies.

In accordance with the terms of a reported $1 million annual contract with Fox News, Palin regularly delivers canned commentary on that network. But in the year since she abruptly resigned the governorship of Alaska, in order to market herself full-time—earning an estimated $13 million in the process—she has submitted to authentic, unpaid interviews with only a handful of journalists, none of whom have posed notably challenging questions. She keeps tight control of her pronouncements, speaking only in settings of her own choosing, with audiences of her own selection, and with reporters kept at bay. (Despite many requests, neither Palin nor her current staff would comment for this article.)

She injects herself into the news almost every day, but on a strictly one-way basis, through a steady stream of messages on Twitter and Facebook. The press plays along. Palin is the only politician whose tweets are regularly reported as news by TV networks. She is the only one who has been able to significantly change the course of debate on a major national issue (health-care reform) with a single Facebook posting (in which she accused the Obama administration, falsely, of wanting to set up a “death panel”).

The reaction from Palin's marketing division/PR should be instructive.

Stranger Than Fiction

DAMMIT JANET! just can't stop blogging about Sarah Palin. She has to be the overall best source for rightwingnut news. It appears that former presidential hopeful John McCain is experiencing selective amnesia.

Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Senator McCain said: "When we selected, or asked, Sarah Palin to be my running mate, it energized our party. We were ahead in the polls, until the stock market crashed."

Saying he would work with her again, he said: "She still is a formidable force in the Republican Party. And I have great affection for her. Will Sarah and I - did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No. But let’s let a thousand flowers bloom."

Right. But first those poor little flowers have to make their way out of the truckload of manure that was dumped on them, into the sunshine.

McCain said he was looking forward to reading Palin's book and in particular the chapters about her joining his presidential campaign.

Um, John? Just be grateful if Sarah the narcissist exemplaire spelled your name correctly.

Salon has the CNN interview and more, here.

Taibbi on Palin

Matt Taibbi's hilarious and scary take on Sarah Palin, WWE star.

A taste:

Sarah Palin is the Empress-Queen of the screaming-for-screaming’s sake generation. The people who dismiss her book Going Rogue as the petty, vindictive meanderings of a preening paranoiac with the IQ of a celery stalk completely miss the book’s significance, because in some ways it’s really a revolutionary and innovative piece of literature.

Palin — and there’s just no way to deny this — is a supremely gifted politician. She has staked out, as her own personal political turf, the entire landscape of incoherent white American resentment. In this area she leaves even Rush Limbaugh in the dust.

As they say, go read the whole thing.

You're welcome.

Palin's Ghost (Writer)

Sarah Palin had help writing her MASSIVE autobiography. And according to a blog at the Christian Science Monitor, Sarah chose well when she chose Lynn Vincent as her hack helper.

Here's how the blogpost starts:

By now, you’ve probably heard the news. Sarah Palin – prolific Facebook user, Twitter poet, and former Alaskan governor – is writing a book.

(Tee hee. 'Twitter poet' is a link taking you to a previous blogpost on William Shatner's hilarious poetic rendition of Sarah's farewell speech.)

Not only is Vincent an author whose work sells very well, she's also politically in synch with Sarah.

A review of Vincent’s most recent stories in World [Magazine] reveals a strong focus on abortion, religion, and gay marriage.

The rightwingnutz are slavering.

ADDED for those who haven't seen the Shatner performance and for those who want to see it again.



OOPSIE. Wrong YouTube. Here's the orginal.

Going Rouge?

That's not a typo in the title.

It's a trade paperback set to be published by O/R Books and it will be be released on November 17th.

Hang on - isn't the date that Sarah Palin's memoirs will be foisted upon her zealots fans? Funny you should mention that since Going Rouge will be a collection of essays about Palin by a number of contributors such as Eve Ensler, Christopher Hayes, Jim Hightower, Naomi Klein, Shannyn Moore, John Nichols, Katha Pollitt, Hanna Rosin, Matt Taibbi and Patricia Williams to name but a few.

Compare and contrast the covers.

Yup, yup. And that's not all, you betcha! There will also be "The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring & Activity Book" that is expected to come out in November too.

It should be interesting to watch which book sells the most.

Goin' Rogue?

Which should not be confused with "going Galt".

One is the purported title of Sarah Palin's 'memoir'. The other is a threat by teabaggers, rabid neocons, rightwing religious fundamentalists and sore loser Republicans to go out to their backyards to eat worms, if I catch their drift.

"Going rogue" is what McCain insiders called Palin's behaviour in the last weeks of the 2008 presidential campaign. In the wild, elephants are said to go rogue when they separate from the herd and go off on their own, running amok and creating havoc. According to this, it's the adolescent males who are prone to going rogue; perhaps the Republicans were thinking of Mrs Jumbo, Dumbo's mother?

In any event, getting back to Palin's book:

Publication is being moved up from spring to Nov. 17 in order to catch the holiday book-buying season. The former Alaska governor has been in huge demand as a speaker, and continues to harvest a bounty of media attention.

A mammoth first printing of 1.5 million copies has been ordered — the same first run as “True Compass,” the memoir of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Palin had a deadline of Sept. 15 for her manuscript and turned it in a bit early. Copy-editing and fact-checking are now underway in a race to meet the crash publishing schedule, which has been accelerated four or five months because of the huge anticipated demand.

Should be sumtin'. Just one itsy bitsy question. Is mammoth a literary term for MASSIVE?

Picky, picky, picky.

Is there anything more annoying than having one's opus magni laboris (that's a MASSIVE book, for the rubes) being picked apart by the small minds and fact checkers of the liberal media?

If there's anything worse, count on Sarah Palin to whine about it as she launches her memoirs promotion tour. As expected, most reputable news gathering organizations have been scrutinizing the details of Going Rogue because that's where the deity of your choice - or the devil - are bound to be found.

Palin's new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven't become any truer over time. Ignoring substantial parts of her record if not the facts, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer's dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician roguishly indifferent to high ambition.

More here.

As expected, Palin uses her book to pay back those members of John McCain's campaign team who kept her on a tight leash.

Attack of the killer tomatoes - the sequel 2

A man attempted to pelt Sarah Palin with tomatoes during a book signing at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Both messy missiles launched from a balcony missed the former vice presidential candidate but one caught Bloomington Police Commander Mark Stehik right in the puss. That got Olson busted for suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct. He also may be charged with assaulting a cop.

Two things. One, according to Liesite, all those women who detest Palin are eaten up with envy.

The guy who expressed his displeasure in the classic manner reserved for bad circus acts is clearly not a teabagger captivated with Sarah's MILF mojo.

Second, don't you find it interesting that a police commander is assigned the task of providing security for a book-signing event?

This bodes well for future Palin appearances. What will be the next fruit or vegetable that will be launched in her direction? Rotten turnips? Bruised apples? How about a few months-old slimy teabags?

Salsa update: From JJ at old unrepentant hippie: You say tomato .... I say "INCOMING!!!"

Oh noes! C.C. stirs the pot: Tomatoes ... high-powered rifles ... yeah, that's a tossup, I guess, too. And also.

Associated Press news clip here.

Say it ain't so, Joe!

So, was the charity auction of the thrilling prize of dinner with Sarah Palin rigged?

You betcha!

AKMuckraker who blogs at The Mudflats first describes one of the leading bidders at the time, a man named Ken Morris, as 'Wall Street whiz, trader-turned-financial-thriller-novelist'. The very reasonable reasons he cites for his bid include asking Sarah some questions about healthcare equaling socialism, palling around with terrorists, etc.

AKMuckraker then cites the auction rules

Governor Palin reserves the right to refuse dinner with a winning bidder if, in her sole discretion, the winning bidder is not a suitable bidder based on her subjective standards of suitability, professionalism, background and other factors. In the event the high bidder is rejected for this reason, the high bidder's bid will be refunded, if paid, and the next highest bidder shall be notified, and thereafter, until a suitable match is determined.

and concludes that Morris would get nixed.

That brings us to our second candidate, dubbed c***i by the Ebay alias assignment team, and known to those in the outside world as Joe McGinnis. McGinnis, also an author by trade is best known for his books The Making of the President about Richard Nixon, and Going to Extremes, about Alaska, oil and the 1970s pipeline boom. McGinnis is an outspoken critic of Palin, evidenced most recently by his article for Conde Nast's Portfolio entitled Pipe Dreams, which cast a critical eye on Palin's handling of the ever-elusive Alaska gasline. McGinniss is currently working on a book whose focus will be the ex-governor herself.

Nearing the end of the auction, he had the highest bid -- $60,101.01. But then his identity was revealed. When he returned to Ebay to up his bid, he found out that he had been dis-pre-approved.

Hmmm.

The actual winner, Cathy Maples, is described as 'the owner of a defense contracting company in Alabama', who thinks SP 'is pretty swell'.

Remember that the winner would have to pay his or her own expenses to travel to the undisclosed location of the dinner.

Then, something else odd happened. The location was revealed -- it's Alabama!

Hmmm.

McGinnis wrote Ms Maples a nice note and Morris says he'll make a donation to the charity anyway.

Now, that's classy.

Dear Sarah

I love Carl Hiassen. Go read his hilarious piece, 'Confidential response of Sarah Palin's book editor to the first draft of her upcoming memoir, ``Going Rogue'''.

A taste:

Dear Sarah,

Thank you for turning in the manuscript so quickly. I thought only Stephen King could crank out 400 pages in four months! Seriously, there's some terrific material here, and all of us at Harper Collins are thrilled to be publishing your life story.

Before we move ahead, the fact-checking department has asked me to pass along a few notes and comments that may require some revisions on your part.

1. Eric Clapton spells his last name with a C.

More significantly, his publicists tell us that you were not the inspiration for Layla, and that he doesn't recall ever having an affair with you.

Is it possible you've got him confused with another rock star?

h/t LuLu at Canadian Cynic.

Info from Unauthorized Bio of Palin Censored.

Remember Joe McGinniss, who lived next door to Sarah Palin whilst gathering information to write her unauthorized biography? His book has been published and choice tidbits have been released in the form of Doonesbury strips, censored by newspapers who usually carry Garry Trudeau's biting syndicated political caricatures.

Here's filmmaker Nick Broomfield at the Toronto International Film Festival, speaking about the subject of his new documentary. The money shot? Around the 5 minute mark, Palin blathers incoherently about "death panels".

The pix above are from a location to which I won't link, given its racist tone on the topic of Palin's alleged frolics with pro athletes when she worked as a sports reporter in Anchorage.

Lyin' like a rug.

From Mudflats and Andrew Sullivan, a reminder regarding some of the big whoppers Palin has said, and keeps saying.

Alright, you’re going to need lots of equipment for this one. [...] Protective forehead padding? Check.

Has the cumulative effect of people lying to save their ass, whether in court or on television or speaking to an audience created an environment in which politicians who don't lie seem bizarre or possibly something worse than a liar?

Or do some people lie all the time, whether they're politicians or not? Do they believe their lies, even when there is proof to contrary? Or do they continue to prevaricate, as someone who knows they've done something unethical or committed a crime will proclaim their innocence because they can?

Many organizations - hospitals and professional associations for example - now affirm that honesty is the best policy and they have research to back them up. Let's hope that personal responsibility and institutional accountability are coming back in style - the sooner the better.

Update, from here:

Sarah Palin was an unprepared, uninformed Vice Presidential candidate who repeatedly made false statements in public, according to a top McCain campaign aide.

In a 60 Minutes segment based on John Heilemann's and Mark Halperin's new book, "Game Change," McCain's senior adviser Steve Schmidt recounts some devastating anecdotes about Palin from the campaign trail.

How will $arah's sycophants and admirers explain away these statements from a Republican political operator? It could be difficult to attack Steve Schmidt by claiming he's an unattractive, jealous feminazi who regrets not having babies.

How's that Canadian Mavericky-Roguey Thing Working Out for Ya, Sarah?

Remember the brouhaha over $arah Palin's invitation to speak at a fundraiser for a socialist, abortion-loving hospital with death panels that was hurriedly changed to a fundraiser for children?

Well, it seems the event is not quite the hot ticket its proponents envisioned.

Tickets are still available to hear a potential American presidential candidate in Hamilton.

Despite one organizer's prediction in December that the April 15 visit of Sarah Palin to Hamilton would be sold out within two weeks, good seats remain available.

Organizers have just launched a marketing campaign to sell tickets and attract more sponsors to the fundraiser at Carmen's Banquet Centre for the Charity of Hope, which helps underprivileged children.

They refuse to say how many tickets they have sold, but Carmen's is making room for 1,000 people to hear the former Alaskan governor and vice-presidential running mate of Republican candidate John McCain.

(snip)

Tickets are $200 a person, but $1,000 will get you an opportunity to meet her, have your photograph taken with her and an autographed copy of her bestselling book Going Rogue.

Her plunge in USian polls may be catching on up here.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Wonder if dodo went for the $200 breathless-to-be-in-the-same-room ticket or the moist-panties-for-months-to-come (snerk) dealie?