By now, it is obvious to anyone who has not been feeding
their families only rice or living in a mole hole for the last several years,
that Quitter Former Worse Governor Ever Sarah Palin has once again shown
herself to be a pandering, bigoted, delusional, self-deceiving, and hypocritical
buffoon.
In what was supposed to be dead-and-buried Andrew
Breitbart’s final legacy to Fox News cave dwellers and far-right haters across
the nation, an out-of-focus video showing Harvard student Barack Obama and the
late Harvard professor Derrick Bell in a two-second semi-embrace twenty years
ago is proof positive that President Obama was, is, and always will be a racist and a…radical
hugger!
Of course, accusing President Obama of trying to divide
the country based along lines of gender, of religion, of income, even of race
is confirmation that if Sarah Palin could package and sell hypocrisy, she’d
corner the market and be right up there financially with unemployed Mitt
Romney. Let's remember that it was GOVERNOR Sarah Palin who, right after she took office, ordered the mass firing of every person of color because they made her feel uncomfortable.
But, we at Politicalgates have a reputation for blogging
integrity, so it is incumbent upon us to do our usual in-depth investigative
research into this charge. And what we
found was absolutely shocking – shocking, I tell you!
The Radical Serial Hugger Exposed!
The man will hug ANYONE, from an elderly lady needing comfort to a young boy who just wants a hug from his President!
Tammy Duckworth and the President share a hug in November 2011
He even -- gasp! -- hugs Australian school girls!
Senator Barney Frank gets a hug.
Even members of the military need a visit and a hug, and definitely appreciate it!
Musician Stevie Wonder with Rev. Al Sharpton
Dr. Jill Biden
Former presidents need a hug, too.
As do sons of political opponents. John McCain IV
A grieving relative at Arlington Cemetery definitely needed a hug from the President.
Rep. Gabby Giffords
Lilly Ledbetter
And a fussy baby can always be calmed by a good presidential cuddle!
Of Course, the President Does Have His Standards!
Hey, Sarah, listen up: He won, you lost. Go back to your table, sit down, and shut up.
Less than two weeks after President Obama's inauguration, he attended the Alfalfa Club's annual dinner. Palin decided that she would definitely accept the Club's invitation, saying, The Alfalfa dinner, yes, in fact that's because President Obama is
scheduled to be there. And how often will I have an
opportunity to have dinner with the president? I will take up that offer
to do so."
Things didn't exactly go the way Sarah planned. As she brazenly approached the President at his head table, she was intercepted by none other than Joe Lieberman, who had been considered but passed over in favor of Palin, for the vice presidential selection by John McCain.
In his remarks that night, President Obama told the crowd, "Good to see Gov. Palin here. I never expected to see you paling around
in this crowd," Obama said in a wry reference to Palin's charging during
the campaign that Obama had been "paling around with terrorists."
After a good-natured laugh from the audience, he added,
"Congratulations on your Golden Globe for '30 Rock'." That was a
salute to "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" star Tina
Fey, whose Palin imitations turned out to be one of the campaign's unlikeliest
highlights.
There are no reports on her reaction to the President's little Sarah-roast comment, but considering thin-skinned Palin's attacks on him ever since, I think we can all use our imaginations.
END NOTE
Mrs. Janet D. Bell, widow of Dr. Derrick Bell, tells in her own eloquent way during a discussion with Ed Schultz of MSNBC, how disappointed she is that the far right zombies of this country could try to destroy her husband's reputation.
Feckless is a wonderful adjective that is rarely
used these days, but one that accurately describes the woeful state of the 112th
Congress: useless, incompetent, hopeless, spineless,
weak, worthless, ineffective…
There have always been a few political oddballs who somehow
make it to Capitol Hill with their peculiarly opinionated agendas, but usually
they are sized up very quickly and neutralized by their own party
leaders. However, paralyzed by their inability
to think and act for themselves, the current congress is rife with cranks who have
taken over the House, and leaders who are now in charge of their union, Congressional Crazies Local 112. It is a
strange and dangerous coalition that worships at the throne of Koch Industries
in order to Take Back America – to somewhere around the
Seventeenth Century.
John Boehner confirmed this, telling the Wall Street Journal recently, We got some of the smartest people in the
country who serve here, and some of the dumbest. We got some of the best people
you'd ever meet, and some of the raunchiest. We've got 'em all.
It’s way past time to change that.
Model Members of the Congressional Crude Crew
John Fleming of Louisiana
is a Jack-of-all-trades extraordinaire: Congressman, physician, and owner
of Subway shops and UPS stores. But the
man has serious money problems. No, no,
he isn’t losing money on his businesses, he’s not in debt, and he’s not
fighting with the IRS. His financial predicament is right up there with the kind many Americans would like to have
these days: he’s got lots of money. A card-carrying member of Grover Norquist's anti-tax mob, Fleming is seriously against any dadgum socialisttax hikes
that would take away a smidgen of it.
At millionaire status (we’re talking $6.3 million here, folks), Fleming whines fretfully that after he gets $600,000 from his
businesses, he only has $200,000 left on which to “feed my family.” (Note: his four children are all grown, so
feed my family obviously refers to “me and the little wife.”) I'm no financial wizard, but it appears there’s some serious fiscal figure-finoodling going on here that’s
never really been explained by the good doctor/congressman/sandwich maker/mail shipper.
In typical far-right religionist-speak, Fleming warned a group of Republican
women that the 2010 elections would be a choice between godlessness and
Christianity: We have two competing world views here and there is no way
that we can reach across the aisle -- one is going to have to win. We are either going to go down the
socialist road and become like western Europe and create, I guess really, a
godless society, an atheist society. Or we're going to continue down the other
pathway where we believe in freedom of speech, individual liberties and that we
remain a Christian nation.
There
is so much wrong with this kind of uninformed anti-American rhetoric from an elected representative
that it almost takes your breath away.
From the If They Weren't So Pathetic, They Would Be Funny department: In February of this year, radically pro-life Fleming (or one of his ignorant staff members) actually believed a May 2011 story from The Onion that announced that Planned Parenthood had opened an $8 billion "abortionplex" in a Topeka, Kansas mall that offers quick, easy, in-and-out abortions to all women, and represents a
bold reinvention of the group's long-standing mission and values.(So enraged by this...this obscenity were the congressman's staff that they put it on his Facebook page for all his constituents to see. DUH.)
Since 2003, Trent Franks of Arizona has been a major contributor to the toxic atmosphere in the House of Representatives. A little background: Before being elected to add his far-right muck in the U.S. Congress, Franks was appointed in 1987 by then-Gov. Evan Mecham to head the Arizona Governor's Office for Children. We can assume that this meant white children only, because Mecham once indignantly defended his right to refer to African American children as pickaninnies. (Mecham was later removed from office following conviction in his
impeachment trial of charges of obstruction of justice and the misuse of
government funds.)
A strong advocate of a man's right to tell a woman what to do with her own body, Franks is, of course, an adamant and unapologetic pro-lifer. In 2010, he said in an interview that, Half
of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African American community
is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the
policies of slavery. If this statement sounds just a tad familiar, it's because Franks was the co-chairman of Michele Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign, which explains her astonishingly
dim-witted sense of history and her offensive verbal dysentery. Further, while defending a billintroduced in the House in late 2011 to ban abortions based on the sex or race of the fetus, Franks admitted that the real intent was a ploy to criminalize abortion overall.
In essence, Trent Franks is a pro-guns, anti-abortion, anti-affordable healthcare, anti-Muslim, anti-tax hikes on the wealthy, anti-same-sex marriage, pro-James Dobson's Focus on the Family, pro-impeach the President for his stand on DOMA, obstructionist who needs to be as far away from Capitol Hill as possible!
Proving himself to be no Southern Gentleman, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is a little man with a big ego who possesses a trait that we true Southerners refer to negatively as having areal mouth on him. This ugly characteristic took center stage the day he called Elizabeth a liar, not a wise idea in light of Ms. Warren's reputation as one of the most intelligent, experienced, and honorable people in the public arena today.
Briefly, in May 2011, McHenry invited Warren to attend a sub-committee hearing he was chairing because, according to reports, he felt she had given misleading testimony
during another hearing. Earlier that day, McHenry had appeared on CNBC and accused Warren of lying to Congress
about her involvement in government inquiries into mortgage servicing. The meeting had several late and last
minute changes, so Warren altered her schedule to accommodate the chair's
request. Around 2:15 pm, McHenry called for a temporary recess to partake in a floor
vote. In response, Warren indicated that McHenry's staff had agreed to the 2:15 pm closing time to allow her ample time
to attend another meeting. McHenry replied, "You had no agreement. ...
You're making this up, Ms. Warren. This is not the case." As Warren and
some in the audience reacted with surprise, Rep. Elijah Cummings interjected, "Mr. Chairman ... I'm trying to be cordial here,
but you just accused the lady of lying. I think you need to clear this up with
your staff." Even after proving that Warren was correct, McHenry refused to apologize, and was roundly denounced by the media, including his home district's newspaper, the Hickory Record, (not, I understand, a newspaper that could ever be called liberal) and the more widely read Charlotte Observer, to apologize for his brutish behavior.
A darling of the Tea Party and Hero of the Tax Payer, McHenry is a soul-selling anti-American Grover Norquist puppet and a money-grabbing Kochhead. He's accepted money from Countrywide Financial and was embroiled in voter-fraud scheme committed by a former aide. On top of all these less-than-savory activities, McHenry proposed a bill in 2010 to put Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill.
Your tax dollars at work, fellow Americans!
END NOTE
+++
Bonus - by Patrick:
How about adding an amazing new video to Sunnyjane's excellent post?
Well, it's a bit off topic, but as many, if not most of us are "celebrating Game Change" these days, here'as wonderful video which went viral today: Compare Julianne Moore to the real Sarah Palin - and be amazed!
Ebbtide’s guest post ushered in Women’s History Month with a sobering look at GOP attacks on women’s rights that threaten to undo progress that many had taken for granted. We are having to refight battles that we thought were won decades ago. Fair pay. Choice. Contraception. The definition of “forcible rape.” Criminalizing miscarriage (miscarriage of justice). Allowing doctors to deny medical care to women whose lives are threatened, rather than perform abortions – or to deny them truthful information about their pregnancies. This post happened to coincide with the tremendous reaction against Rush Limbaugh’s vile, disgusting and prolonged slander against Sandra Fluke, which led to such outrage that many of his advertisers deserted him. That, and the news that even Republican and Independent women are becoming alienated by the GOP’s “culture wars” and interference in women’s decisions, leaves room for hope that our daughters and theirs will not have to fight these same tired battles.
Kathleen’s post highlights Geoffrey Dunn’s excellent review of the movie Game Change. Dunn characterizes the movie as Steve Schmidt’s confession about his role in picking Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate, without vetting, as a brazen political tactic to counteract Barack Obama’s popular appeal.
Steve Schmidt: “I think that she helped usher in an hour of know-nothingness, and mainstreamed it in the Republican Party to the detriment of the conservative movement... And I think her nomination trivialized American politics, and had a lot of results that I'm not particularly comfortable with. And, of course, you know, I had a very personally difficult relationship with her during the campaign. But it was a mistake. There's just no two ways about it.”
And this from Dunn:Game Changeserves as Steve Schmidt's confession. The film reveals Palin for what she is: intellectually dysfunctional, psychologically imbalanced, and most importantly, politically polarizing. Near the end of the film, Schmidt emotionally apologizes to McCain: "I'm so sorry that I suggested her."
The post also includes several excellent interviews, setting the stage for the movie premier.
Sunnyjane continues her excellent series on the Tea Party Republicans who are wreaking havoc with our government. This post focuses on Congressmen Darrell Issa of California and Allen West of Florida. A more sorry pair would be hard to conjure up. For all his wealth, Issa has repeatedly displayed a paucity of judgment and a moral bankruptcy that spills over into the public domain. West is another RWNJ who is so dysfunctional that none other than Sarah Palin thinks he would be a perfect vice presidential candidate. Perhaps she thinks that he is such a whack job that it would make her look good in comparison? Sunnyjane, thanks for taking another one for the team.
Andrew Breitbart may be dead, but his deceptive, conniving spirit lives on in the Republican Party. Since these people cannot win on the merits of their arguments or their work, they must resort to trickery and cheating. And so it came to pass that on Thursday evening, Palinbots distributed a fake playbill to those attending a special screening of Game Change. The playbill was a poor attempt to discredit the movie, but the likelihood is that it discredited Palin and her minions instead. Rightly so.
The long-awaited premier of Game Change finally happened, and Politicalgates had a live-blogging party! The general consensus is that the movie is an excellent portrayal of Palin’s ignorance, mental instability, hunger for power and willingness to blame and step on people who fall out of her favor. We all agreed that the portrayals of Todd, their relationship and her relationship to her children were completely off-base. In the end, the movie conveyed a strong sense of guilt on the part of Schmidt. That’s nice, but I personally do not accept this as adequate atonement for unleashing Palin on America. He and others need to reveal the rest of what he knows, to put an end to the Hitler-esque rise of a demagogue that we see as the movie ends. Those who enabled her and those who still enable and cover for her are complicit in what happened during and since the election. Palin unleashed latent racism and hatred in this country, and the damage will be here for years to come unless someone shows her for what she really is. The movie is a start, but not an end, to that important task.
Some Comments and Links:
Psalm023: So much news to chew on and it makes me want to withdraw for a day to get a straight bearing again. With the damage and loss of life from the tornadoes, and the hateful Rush-speak, Breitbart, the constant unreasonable criticisms of the President from the far right, the racist remarks, the division, religion being used as a political tool, politicians who will do and say anything to get elected, and SP and those like her who get away with everything, all sounds like a reason to get discouraged. But, a community of people who keep up the good fight, keeping informed and getting the word out, one small step at a time, I think, will open the floodgates of truth and integrity back to the front lines.
Amy1: Imagine an all-women panel setting guidelines for Viagra use! Imagine men asking their female bosses for permission to ask for Viagra ins.coverage.
Louiecypher: Oh Sarah Sarah, you little CT (and that doesn't stand for Crazy Teenager!). Still hoping for a brokered convention, and time to fire up the grift machine or as we call it SarahPac. Ah a pre-paid tripp opps typo, trip to Floriduh for you and the kids, damn maybe you can fire up the Magic Grift O' Bus!!! Warmer climes and better times, oh curious does toad do you iron doggy style or is that just for other ladies? This could be a game changer (damn did I say that?). Just a hint Sarah beware of the Ides of March.... -Louie
Lillibird: In her crazy delusional little brain she does think Obama beat her and she is out for revenge everytime she opens her mouth. She lives with Obama in her head every hr of every day and he doesn't give her the time of day and it's eating her alive and driving her crazier..
HelenNPN had a great long comment on Wednesday night; here is part: The GOP is literally waging a war on women's reproductive rights on many levels… Men usually think reproductive rights (birth control, abortion) is about sex, but it isn't. For women it is about freedom itself. The abilityto control what happens with your own body is probably the most basic freedom that humans have. Unlike men, for women the ability to lead aself determined life, to choose how one's life will unfold, dependsdirectly on being able to control their fertility.
Rush has tremendous reach. Did you know he is piped in daily to the military at taxpayer expense? This is a blatant exercise in dumbingdown troops, providing them misinformation disguised as news with unremitting attacks on minorities, females, other religions, foreigners… Rush Limbaugh is thepurest propagandaist the right wing has…Take Rush off of Armed Forces Radiohttp://wh.gov/X1O
Sunnyjane: Palin IS a big pain, but I think it's really important to expose her for the raving idiot she truly is. Fortunately, I think even the right is tired of her.
More_Cowbell, with an assist from Maddies_Mom: Mary also had a more believable birth story!
IWantTheTruth: Her communication skills may be crazy but she DOES communicate anger, resentment, hatred, disdain, victimhood very well.
EbbtideMB pointed out this gem:Somebody at Little Green Footballs describes the Breitbart fanclub (or bitty-barts, as some call them) this way: "He was in it for the money, his disciples are in it for the cause." Now, who does that remind you of?
Linda1961: On this date in history:
1629 - Charles I dissolved Parliament. Although he ruled alone for 11 years afterward, this didn't end well for him, as he was executed in 1649 by Parliament for treason.
1969 - James Earl Ray received his sentence for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Ray got 99 years in prison.
2012 - A refrigerator in Wasilla AK died due to excessive hits from canned goods thrown by an enraged Sarah Palin as she "didn't watch" "Game Change."
Laprofesora952: My favorite part of the movie was when Steve Schmidt confronted Scarah about the Couric interview, telling her it was her fault it had gone so badly. I had never heard any reports of anyone ever confronting her about her inadequacies or culpability. It was a beautiful thing, I could watch it over and over.
A brilliant Colbert, this one on targeted killing of American citizens; here is his tremendous smack-down of Rush Limbaugh, including this gem:“and Rush knows what he’s talking about, because every time he’s had sex with a woman, he’s had to slip her a pill first.”
The Last Word: Patrick linked to this scathing piece on Rush Limbaugh by Martin Bashir: "Is it really in Republicans’ best interest to be known as an apologist for such an odious, loathsome and tired sack of hatred?" +++
UPDATE (by Patrick):All Americans, regardless whether they are Republicans or Democrats, today should feel proud of Steve Schmidt, McCain's former senior campaign advisor. Steve Schmidt today gave an absolutely brilliant, brutally honest interview on Morning Joe, which I regard as almost historic. Rarely before have we seen such an honest, straightforward and merciless assessment by a former political player. Just the plain truth, free of party politics and ideology, but driven by regret and feelings of responsibility. Steve Schmidt has shown a lot of courage, and hopefully this will have an impact and change things for the better.
Tonight is the big night! Will the hype surrounding HBO's "Game Change" movie (watch the trailers) be justified? Will it have been worth the wait? At least Sarah Palin and her bots got their panties in a wad about it. As you see, I always prefer to set expectations low. Then we can only be pleasantly surprised. Or not.
This movie certainly couldn't have come at a better time. After all, Sarah Palin still hopes that God or somebody else will call her at a brokered convention in order to lead America and the rest of the world (straight into Armageddon). It has almost gone unnoticed that Sarah Palin now has her own "SuperPAC", called "ShePAC", which was co-founded by her chief propagandist and all-time shady character Timothy Crawford. So it's the right time to remind America's voters who the "real" Sarah Palin is. Because we definitely haven't heard the last of Palin, that's for sure!
Will Julianne Moore's portrayal be accurate, of will it only be so-so?
We, meaning our bloggers, researchers and long-time readers, have a certain advantage of knowing many details of what I like to call the "grey areas" of Sarah Palin's life, and this should enable all of us to make a particularly well informed judgement. The "grey areas" are in my view her especially private scandals, her vindictive crusades and her many proven lies in general.
Many of these details have been previously reported, for example by Joe McGinniss, Geoffrey Dunn and Frank Bailey, but others details have not been reported yet - apparently mainly due to the lack of "hard evidence." In any case, we all have a pretty good idea about the madness which originated in Wasilla and then spread all over the country and beyond.
For all those people who are not really sure whether they want to watch this movie, John Cole at Balloon Juice today explains that he is still in recovery mode and he also sums up why Palin is a despicable person. However, even if you share his views, I think you should still watch it. ;-)
+++ Please go to this post from March 7, 2012 in case you are looking for interviews with Steve Schmidt, Nicolle Wallace and authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann! +++
The comedian Katie Halper announced that she will live-tweet "Game Change" - sounds good! Here is the link to her twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/kthalps Ana Marie Cox (founder of Wonkette) will live-tweet "Game Change" as well: https://twitter.com/#!/anamariecox
For all the tweets about "Game Change", go to the #gamechange hashtag! That will be great fun!
A special screening of Game Change was held on Thursday evening in Washington DC. Several Sarah Palin supporters turned up outside the event and handed out a six page showbill, paid for by SarahPac, which purported to give accurate information about the film.
Just how did Palin's supporters get film attendees to accept the showbill? Any one who reads here will not be surprised to learn that they lied. That's right. They didn't say here is Sarah Palin's version of what happened during the election, would you like to read it? Her supporters told the people about to view the film that they were handing out a showbill for the film. That it was free. No mention about Sarah Palin and the fact that the showbill was paid for by SarahPac funds. They wanted to give the impression that the showbill was part of the programme. It was a lie of omission. Important facts were not given in order to foster a misconception about what it was that the Palinbots were handing out. It's the sneeky lie. The silent lie. A Palin type of lie.
Should we be surprised that Sarah Palin's supporters have stooped to employ deceptive tactics in order to get people to read her point of view? No. We should not. That is the Palin mode of operation. Why tell the truth and be honest about something when you can lie and mislead people via a lack of information?
Watch the video and listen to the Palinbot lie over and over and over again:
And if you can stomach it go to the C4P blog and read as they brag about their underhand approach to "cover....Palin's back." The Palinbots may have handed out all of their "showbills" but this event was a major fail if the agenda was about getting out a supposedly truthful message by lying over and over and over again to the very people that they wanted to reach. People do not like being manipulated into altering their behaviour.
At C4P readers can also find the full copy of the showbills that were handed out. I don't want to provide a copy of it here for obvious reasons.
There are a lot of things in this world that I don’t understand. I cannot fathom the technology that allows
me to send an email half-way around the world and get an almost immediate response. I
cannot comprehend why dogs eat poop – their own or anyone else’s. (Fact: there are no gourmands
in the canine world). And I haven’t
figured out why, when I carefully regulate the hot and cold faucets, the minute
I turn on the shower I first get treated to a blast of frigid water.
But these are not the issues that keep me awake
at night. No, what makes me ponder restlessly is
how in the name of all that I hold dear can Republican voters elect some of the
stupidest, nastiest, most incompetent and most ignorant hypocrites in the United States of America. Writing about the crazies in the 112th Congress is beginning to feel
like describing someone's demented old Uncle Charlie’s latest kookiness. The only difference is that all the "Uncle
Charlies" in America
are not assembled in one place with a morally corrupt, all-for-the-Rich-and-the-Right
agenda to destroy the country.
It has
become apparent to this writer that, even collectively, the über-conservative
congress cannot surpass the intellectual competence and moral integrity of Play-Doh.Perhaps that’s unfair, because unlike today's representative body, Play-Doh actually performs its tasks, however limited, with a modicum of honesty.
The wealthiest person on Capitol Hill today, Congressman Darrell Issa of California is the proud possessor what
can only be called a checkered past consisting of car thefts, likely
insurance fraud, an unverifiable military record, carrying a concealed weapon
without a permit, etc. In addition, Rep. Issa has racked up a reprehensible history in the House, at one time calling the horrific events of 9/11 "that plane crash." These less-than-noble activities, in the GOP leadership’s
opinion, gave him the perfect credentials to be named as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after the Tea Party gained control of the House in 2010. The assignment, of course, was merely a thinly disguised mission to "get Obama" and make sure he was a one-term president.
Issa's first target was an unwise choice: the First Lady. I guess I missed the section of the Constitution that spells out the historic role of the first lady,
but Darrell Issa wants to “protect” it by limiting any First Lady’s
role in her husband's administration.
Let’s see now: Issa has been in the House through Mrs. Laura Bush’s entire time
as First Lady. Did anyone see this
recommendation proposed during her tenure? No, I thought not.
This obviously was his transparent effort to make Michelle Obama quiver and quake in her stylish shoes, and stick meekly to the role of "White House hostess" circa the mid-eighteen hundreds. However, Mrs. Obama became, and remains, a very popular First Lady who carries out her worthy causes with vigor, dedication, class, aplomb, and dignity. So, how'd that "muffle Michelle" thingy work out for ya there, Darrell?
There have been criticisms and controversies for "Mr. Chairman" during his first twelve months, but his most egregiously offensive act to date (I'm sure there will be more before November 6) was his decision to call a hearing on the birth control issue in this country. When the....ahem...astute panel of experts, or witnesses, or whatever you want to call them, showed up, they were all men. So much has been written on this badly performed charade and the subsequent shitstorm firestorm that ensued, that there is little need to rehash it here. I will leave the subject with Nancy Pelosi's excellent perspective on the farce: “Where
are the women on that panel? Imagine, they are having a
panel on women's health and they don't have any women on the panel. Duh.”
Rep. Allen West serves hisFloridaconstituents as an arrogant, spiteful, ever-ranting Tea Party star,witha side order of paranoia, please. (He once thought the television network Al Jazeera English was trying to kidnap him on behalf of Muslim terrorists. It wasn't. Snicker)
West spent twenty years in the military, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He may well have remained in the service had it not been for a wee incident concerning the severe beating of an Iraqi civilian police officer.
The condensed version of this story:
An "Intelligence specialist" told West about a plot to ambush him and his men.
Said plot involved the aforementioned police officer, Mr. Yahya
Jhodri Hamoodi.
Mr. Hamoodi was "detained" by
West's men and beaten; West fired a gun next to Hamoodi's head, after which,
out of fear for his life, the detainee gave his captors meaningless
information. (It is important to note the obvious: West was not a trained
interrogator, nor had he ever witnessed or conducted an interrogation.)
No plans for an attack and no weapons were ever found.
West was charged with assault, fined $5,000, and shortly thereafter resigned from the military with an Honorable Discharge.
West's comment on the incident: At
the time I had to base my decision on the intelligence I received. It's
possible that I was wrong about Mr. Hamoodi.
The tidy sum of $5,000 seems to follow in Allen West's wake. The IRS put several liens on his home and a judge ordered him to pay the amount of $5K in unpaid credit card bills.
And after he got to Washington, West was able to put his military experience to work in what has become Battleground Washington: If you ain't with us, you're a'gin us. He once got all hot and bothered with DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (they seem to have a history), ultimately sending her a personal email in which he called her vile, unprofessional, and despicable, a
coward, characterless, not a Lady, and
demanding that she shut the heck up. Lovely talk...sir.
There are many other instances regarding Mr. West's unseemly behavior, but I'll end our visit into his twisted mentality with a January verbal barrage at a dinner in Florida: We
need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and my dear friend the
chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table. Take
your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic
dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit
of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you
can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.(This attack on Harry Reid inspired Jim Manley, Reid's former spokesman, to tweet: Me to Allen West: you first, asshole.)
After this rabble-rousing rhetoric caused something of an uproar in DC, West tried to walk it back by lying, claiming indignantly, I did not refer to any person leaving. Oh, Mr. West, will you and your fellow idiots continue to forget that audio and video equipment record our every word these days?
But, please, let us all remember that Allen West, at this point only a half-term congressman who carries around much personal and professional baggage, has been endorsed (cough, cough) by none other than failed VP candidate and Quitter Half-Term Governor Sarah Palin. Certainly, that's a good enough reason to send him back to Florida -- for good!
END NOTE
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to
remain silent. Thomas Jefferson.
Geoffrey's article reveals that Steve Schmidt thinks that Sarah Palin had a "destructive impact" on American politics. Schmidt further acknowledges that he was one of those responsible for unleashing an "unprepared, know-nothing whose nomination trivialized American politics." Harsh words indeed.
Geoffrey writes that Game Change is "Schmidt's confession" and asks the question that all Americans should be asking themselves "how can the United States best select its leaders when celebrity packs more electoral cache than experience or political courage?" Will the GOP strategists learn the tough lessons that Steve Schmidt did? The jury is out on that one.
Sarah Palin again made headlines today, with a rather passionate defense of Rush Limbaugh. She said to a CNN-reporter who "surprised" GOP-starlet Sarah Palin today in Wasilla:
“I think the definition of hypocrisy is for Rush Limbaugh to have been called out, forced to apologize and retract what it is that he said in exercising his First Amendment rights and never is that the same applied to the leftist radicals who say such horrible things about the handicapped, about women, about the defenseless.
“So I think that’s the definition of hypocrisy, and that’s my two cents for you.”
This is such a brilliant example of Sarah Palin's ignorance and her ever-present willingness to distort facts in order to create sympathy for her friends and in order to smear her enemies, that I decided to create a little clip with this quote. The clip shows the part of the interview in which she defends Rush Limbaugh - and then shows Limbaugh "exercising his First Amendment rights."
I believe that Sarah Palin, America's most famous mean girl, rather enjoyed Rush Limbaugh's performance. I think I could hear a few giggles. After all, this is the woman who giggled when an Alaskan "shock jock" called cancer survivor and Palin's arch-enemy Lyda Green a "bitch" and a "cancer" and who got a kick out of calling Alaskan Rep. Jay Ramras (another one of her Republican arch-enemies) "Vajajay" and "Bird-Nose" in her email messages.
I suggested to Kathleen earlier today to publish a post with the CNN video, but she replied that she was not in the mood right now for, I quote, "Palin crap." Luckily, Geoffrey's brilliant article later changed her mind - and got her in the mood to write about our most (or least) favourite subject. ;-)
Sarah Palin went on — or should we say, was transmitted through someone’s phone-toy in the direction of — CNN during Tuesday’s Super Snoozeday parade, and proclaimed that who knows whether she’ll run for president today, tomorrow, or after the Mayan apocalypse, but anything is possible because Americans can do anything they put their minds to, emphasis on “minds” and excluding jobs. Later on, while Romney was disappointing America, CNN spent a good portion of the long process of cell degeneration we call life talking about Palin some more, with what little comprehensible English was made available by her mouth yesterday. Conclusion: Sarah Palin is an alive person. Plus, hates misogynists as long as they are liberal.
+++ The "war of realities" has begun - Sarah Palin's reality against the reality of the other 99%, so to speak. The AP reported about the outrage of Sarah Palin's "aides" - the people who are on the payroll of SarahPAC. As was to be expected, Sarah Palin's servants dutifully people rallied around the "Governor" and loudly denounced the upcoming HBO movie "Game Change", with good old trusty Megan "Alaska big mouth" Stapleton even calling the movie "sick":
Interestingly, Frank Bailey described in his book "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin" exactly that: The close circle around Sarah Palin was expected to defend Palin under all costs against accusations which quite frequently were directed at Palin. The Governor fumed, raged, screamed, and her subordinates had to defend her honour. Therefore it's like a "deja vu" - and of course it didn't matter that Sarah's busy staffers haven't even seen the movie yet. Sarah has to be defended, period!
She is a grudge carrier. Settling scores drive her and she is hell bent on revenge, payback, getting even. (...)
She has no self-control when it comes to letting things go. She must settle the score. She must. She Will!
So now it's time to settle the score the makers of the "Game Change" movie and the authors of the book. It's that simple. Because everyone lies - apart from Sarah Palin. It has never been any different.
This might come as a surprise to the authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. One has just only to watch for example their interview from 15th March 2010 to realise that they probably didn't expect such harsh attacks.
In the following clip from about 46:00, they start to talk about Sarah Palin in detail. Mark Halperin says that the depiction of Sarah Palin is actually "empathetic towards her" and also provides "a very balanced view." But above all, Mark Halperin stresses: "It's all accurate!" - and Halperin even mentions that in contrast other things which have been written about Sarah Palin elsewheresometimes "have not been accurate."
It's almost amusing to observe that Mark Halperin was apparently under the impression that Sarah Palin is a sane, rational human being. I do hope that he has seen the light now!
The discussion about the upcoming movie "Game Change" is also a good opportunity to take a look at what some of the participants of the 2008 Republican campaign had to say about Sarah Palin. In a very interesting clip from 2010, former Senior McCain-aide Nicolle Wallace didn't hold back - and it sounded like a warning to Sarah Palin. Nicolle Wallace says that people would start to talk about Sarah Palin's "more troubling deficiencies" if she was to become the Republican nominee, "her incredible cynicism, her bitterness, her aggressive attempts to claw anyone that points out an area for her to work on." According to Wallace, "a whole lot of people would stand up and say a whole lot of things."
In case you would like to know more about Nicolle Wallace, take a look at her appearance at Rutgers University from March 2011 where she talks about her novel "Eighteen Acres" which she wrote after the 2008 campaign - a fictional account about "the first female president":
+++ BONUS:
For your enjoyment, here is Julianne Moore on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart:
UPDATE March 12, 2012 (by Patrick): All Americans, regardless whether they are Republicans or Democrats, today should feel proud of Steve Schmidt, McCain's former senior campaign advisor. Steve Schmidt today gave an absolutely brilliant, brutally honest interview on Morning Joe, which I regard as almost historic. Rarely before have we seen such an honest, straightforward and merciless assessment by a former political player. Just the plain truth, free of party politics and ideology, but driven by regret and feelings of responsibility. Steve Schmidt has shown a lot of courage, and hopefully this will have an impact and change things for the better.
The man will hug ANYONE, from an elderly lady needing comfort to a young boy who just wants a hug from his President!
