More chaos Sarah Palin's 9/11 copyight trial: In order to secure confidentiality for the settlement, Sarah Palin's lawyer even made an improper filing, was rebuked by the judge and then outmanoeuvered by the plaintiff - Sarah Palin wants "no hint of compromise to be associated with her name", but her huge waste of SarahPAC money is now out in the open

By Patrick

Sarah Palin's 9/11 copyright trial has already kept us busy with two long, detailed posts, which included lots of documentation on the September 14, 2013 and recently on March 25, 2015. In the last post, we reported that despite various assurances by Sarah Palin's lawyer that they really, really want a settlement, this did not happen due to almost comical circumstances: Good luck with trying to reach Sarah Palin! Let's just say that it is pretty difficult indeed.

In any case, her lawyers finally managed to talk to Sarah, and now we know where the problem lay: Sarah Palin, the woman who can never admit to having made a mistake, due to her legendary personality disorder, strikes again. Yes, she wants a settlement, because the dispute is a lost cause for her, as we also explained in our previous post, but she also does not want the world to know that she did in fact compromise.

Because Sarah Palin is "THE UNDEFEATED", and compromise simply is not an option for her! "Compromise" sounds a  ot like "defeat", doesn't it? Unless of course, the compromise can be kept secret. Then it is apparently perfectly fine.

That is what I call a predicament. We can almost visualize Sarah Palin shouting at her lawyer: Make it happen, you elitist New York bastard! No, she probably didn't say it like that, but in any case, she definitely wanted him to proceed with the settlement, as we learn from the recent court documents. But she also wanted the details to be kept confidential, because compromise is apparently just appropriate for liberal losers, and not for a strong frontier women who kills animals to fill her fridge.

So her New York lawyer, Ronald D. Coleman, tried to earn his money and submitted a "sealed" filing, a "motion under seal", only to be sharply rebuked by the trial judge immediately afterwards, explaining that the fact that the motion was only supported by attorney certification was "insufficient":

Screenshot from the docket, download it here.

Therefore Sarah Palin's lawyer wanted certain documents to be sealed, and the judge warns him that unless a "compliant motion" is filed, the "Court will issue a further order unsealing the documents."

In his (insufficient) certification which Ronald D. Coleman submitted together with his motion, he explains: "As set forth in the filings themselves, releasing this material from its current sealed status would result in harm and would severely undermine not only the motion being filed but the ability of the Court to achieve its goal to achieve a negotiated settlement among the parties."

Translation: "My client shouted at me to keep everything secret, because she does not want to make any embarrassing public compromises."


Screenshot:

Download the full document here.

As you can imagine, the plaintiff, North Jersey Media Group, was not pleased. They apparently thought: If Sarah Palin wants to play games, we can play games as well - only much better.

Because what documents could be so sensitive that Sarah Palin is desperate to keep them sealed? Maybe negotiations between the lawyers about the settlement?

BULLSEYE! So why don't the lawyers for North Jersey Media Group just make these negotiations public? Oh wait, they just did!

It's just wonderful: In return, or should I say retaliation, the plaintiff submitted the original email conversations, which leave no open questions any more (Brian Farkas is the colleague of Ronald D. Coleman):

So now we know that Sarah Palin is willing to settle for $ 15,000, but at the same time she does not want her minions to know that she wasted huge resources from SarahPAC for nothing. The legal bill for 1 1/2 years of proceedings will be massive, and the $ 15,000 for the settlement will just be a drop in the ocean compared to the legal expenses.

Sarah Palin could have just apologised for the unauthorised use of the photo for fundraising purposes, and could have easily avoided a trial. But for Sarah Palin, it's all, or nothing. She will never admit a mistake, even if there will be a huge bill in the end, which then has to be paid by her fans via their donations to SarahPAC. 

This is the character of the woman who the Republican Party wanted to be one heartbeat away from the US Presidency.

Even more embarrassingly, the lawyers for North Jersey Media Group revealed in their extensive new filing from April 20, 2015 (in which they also submitted the emails as exhibits)

2. On or about December 18, 2014, NJMG and defendants SarahPAC and Sarah Palin (collectively, “Palin”) tentatively agreed in principle upon Palin’s payment of an amount to settle this case. Attached as Exhibit A is a true and accurate copy of the email Mr. Brian Farkas, counsel for Palin, sent to me at 6:29 p.m. on December 18, 2014.

3. The parties, however, could not initially agree on whether there would be a confidentiality clause. Palin asserted that there must be a broad confidentiality clause. NJMG disagreed. Attached as Exhibit B are true and accurate copies of emails between Mr. Farkas and me on December 22, 2014.

4. Shortly thereafter, Palin’s counsel, Ronald Coleman, Esq., told me that Palin required a confidentiality clause because her political action committee did not want any hint of compromise associated with her name.

5. NJMG did not want to agree to a confidentiality provision because it is one of the largest news providers in New Jersey, and the lawsuit was a matter of public concern.

Screenshot:

"No hint of compromise associated with her name!"

This is truly epic. It's a real shame that the late Joe McGinniss could not see this any more.

Download:

Filing by North Jersey Media Group in opposition to "sealed" motion by Sarah Palin's lawyer

Email 1

Email 2

Email 3

So now we can say good-bye to the secret settlement!

In a rather comical twist, Sarah Palin's lawyer Ronald D. Coleman then quickly conceded on April 21, 2015 that due to the clever response by the plaintiff with the enclosure of the "incriminating" emails, the reason for "sealing" has disappeared:

Download the document here.

I guess that somebody should have warned Coleman that Sarah Palin is not your "everyday" client.

The lawyers for North Jersey Media Group also filed an additional extensive explanation, arguing that a settlement has not been concluded yet.

Download the document here.

So what will happen now?

The media reported that there will be "a decision on the dispute in the coming weeks", but the scope of this decision remains uncertain. After all, North Jersey Media Group asked the court in February and March to reactivate their pending motions, that were put on hold in December due to the impeding settlement.

Therefore it seems possible that the settlement could fall through entirely. Which would mean more wasted resources for SarahPAC, as they have no chance to win this case, just as Fox News lost an almost identical case in February 2015.

But don't blame Sarah Palin. Did I already mention that she is the victim here? I mean, she is just a housewife from Wasilla, how could she possibly understand all these legal details. I mean, WASILLA! Have you ever been there? Well, I haven't, but I heard that the population there is not exactly famous for their legal expertise. So don't blame her! Blame these fancy New York lawyers! If they cannot keep secrets, they should ask their client for help, because Sarah Palin has not shortage of secrets, and most of the time she manages to keep them. Over and out! :-)

Back to the feuds: Sarah Palin's declares guerilla war on "GOP elephants", "GOP cannibals", the "RINO's" and Karl Rove - Fighting the "establishment backstabbers" - UPDATE: Al Sharpton and his panel accuse Sarah Palin of "megalomania" and "narcissism", Steve Schmidt wants the GOP to "stand up" against Sarah Palin and the right-wingers

This woman wants Karl Rove's head, but will she get it?

By Patrick

Sarah Palin loves hunting - hunting enemies. She always did. The purpose of her life is going after her enemies. If Sarah Palin has a grudge, it won't go away. She has a grudge against Karl Rove and the "GOP establishment", and she won't forget about it.

Now she believes to have found the right "cause" to go into battle: "They" are after Ted Cruz, and as this Texan reincarnation of Joe McCarthy is Sarah Palin's only remaining friend, his enemies are her enemies!

Chris Wallace and Karl Rove made Sarah Palin happy, when they gave her a reason to take up the fight during this exchange earlier today:

From Mediaite:

“This has been one of the strangest weeks I’ve ever had in Washington,” Wallace said. “As soon as we listed Ted Cruz as our featured guest this week, I got unsolicited research and questions, not from Democrats but from top Republicans, to hammer Cruz.”

“This was a strategy laid out by Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz without any consultation with their colleagues,” said Karl Rove. “With all due respect to my junior Senator from Texas, I suspect this is the first time that the end game was described to any Republican Senator. They had to tune in to listen to you to find out what Ted’s next step was in the strategy.”

“You cannot build a Congressional majority, in either party, for any kind of action, unless you are treating your colleagues with some certain amount of respect, and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think of my idea?’” Rove said. “Instead they have dictated to their colleagues through the media, and through public statements, and not consulted them about this strategy at all.”

Clearly Sarah had to step in! Ted Cruz had been attacked, by her arch-enemy Karl Rove!

Anything to get the SarahPAC scam going!

So with all guns blazing, Sarah Palin tweeted:

Yes, reveal the anonymous sources, Fox News! You scoundrels!

In this same manner, Sarah declared open hunting season on the RINOs at Breitbart, the disgusting right-wing propaganda outfit where the worst of America come together to relish hate:

As I said in my speech at CPAC this year, it’s time for the Senate to put itself on Cruz Control. Ignore the peanut gallery pundits. They’ve written my political obituary so many times, I’m practically Lazarus. Now they’re trying to destroy Ted Cruz. Good luck with that, you weasels. Texans are just as tough as Alaskans. Smaller, but just as tough.

But here’s the important thing that none of these establishment backstabbers understand. It’s not the messenger that matters. It’s the message. You can try to take out someone like Ted Cruz, but that won’t stop the message from catching fire. The message is liberty, and it’s been resounding ever since a band of patriots dumped tea in Boston harbor.

The message only grows stronger. The grassroots is bigger than any one person. We the People will rise up, and we will make our voices heard. Right now, Ted Cruz is speaking for us in this Obamacare fight. God bless him for it.

Hang in there, Ted and Mike. You have millions of supporters among ordinary hardworking Americans. We support you because you don’t shy away from the fray. May your colleagues in the Senate gain the wisdom to support your excellent efforts so that you can see that the view is better from inside the bus than under it.

Oh, and a little reminder to Republican senators up for re-election in 2014: Moose season ends soon, allowing more time on one’s hands. So, we’ll be watching your votes very carefully this week.

It is a miracle in itself that this mentally ill woman is still being given a platform, but then, with hundreds of thousands of dollars available to pay for consultants from her SarahPAC scam, she still can afford to pay the people who write her articles and who help her to "stay relevant."

But trying to fight against Karl Rove and the GOP establishment in an apparent guerilla war from the sidelines, can Sarah Palin win? Or is she just raging and screaming like Hitler in his bunker in April 1945? After all, it is an acknowledged fact that a guerilla war will be won by simply keeping up the fight. I believe that this is the strategy of Sarah and her highly-paid advisors. By not shutting up, and still having a platform, she "wins", because she stays in the news, and the SarahPAC scam can continue. Her little propaganda machine fuels itself.

So it's all about Sarah. But will the GOP simply keep quiet?

In her latest interview on Fox News, she lectures the "GOP elephants" - they will not like it very much:

It is clear to virtually anyone that this woman not only suffers from severe delusions of grandeur, but continues to be a grudge carrier of the highest order.

The conservative Alaskan journalist Dan Fagan had an ominous warning for Sarah Palin in 2009:

Yes I do believe Sarah Palin has a dark soul. A soul obsessed with her image. A soul focused on hurting others. Sarah Palin’s book reveals her as someone unwilling, unable, incapable of living a life of forgiveness. She is a grudge carrier. Settling scores drive her and she is hell bent on revenge, payback, getting even. (...)

Revenge has become the work and calling of her life. Maybe it always has been. It’s clearly what drives her now. Her cutthroat attacks on others will be her downfall. Her inability to control her desire to hurt those who hurt her will end up in the end discrediting her as a leader, as a person.

This episode today is "classic Palin." The two things she hates most combined: "Anonymous sources", and the GOP establishment, the "establishment backstabbers", as she now calls them, and then there is the "permanent political class", whoever that is:

But the permanent political class is handwringing and howling that if there’s a government shutdown the media will blame Republicans for it. Here’s a little newsflash, GOP establishment: Whenever anything bad happens, the media blames Republicans for it. That’s not an excuse to roll over and play dead. It’s a call to follow the advice I give my daughters: Woman up, stand your ground, and fight like a girl!

I want no pity. I need no empathy. But use me as a barometer. Over the years, the leftwing media has falsely and irrationally accused me of everything from faking a pregnancy to abetting murder. They lie. Deal with it.

Well, she (again) sounds like a Nazi - or a Communist, raging against the "system." Her world is full of enemies: The GOP establishment (the "backstabbers"), the "leftwing media" (the "liars"), as well as anyone else who doesn't adore her.

Also, dear Sarah, yes, you did fake your pregnancy with Trig. You got away with it in the end because the "leftwing media" had been fooled and lacked courage at the same time. But it's still on your mind, is it not, Sarah...? What was your reason again not to run for President in 2012...?

So Sarah's big guerrilla war will continue, and she surely is confident that she won't turn into a moose burger, only to be eaten by Karl Rove. But there are few people who crossed Karl Rove, and had been victorious in the end. Very few. Difficult to name one, actually.

We will watch, and we surely shall be entertained!

+++

UPDATE:

Sarah Palin comments prompted a fierce backlash in the media. On Al Sharpton's show, he and his panel accused Sarah Palin of "megalomania", "narcissism" and "illusions of grandeur."

Mediaite reports:

Sarah Palin has jumped into the fray over defunding Obamacare, but Al Sharpton and his panel Monday said it’s less about the politics and more about the attention. Sharpton, Krystal Ball, and Cynthia Tucker all agreed that Palin, as well as Cruz, is in this fight partly to stand for conservative values, and mostly out of her own “megalomania and narcissism.”

Sharpton said it’s “time to grab the popcorn” now that Palin has weighed in at a time when the GOP is on the “brink of its own civil war.” Tucker said Palin’s just making things worse by throwing in her lot with the “crazy” Republicans, calling the intra-party fighting a “nightmare” for GOP moderates.

Ball argued that Palin and Cruz are a “match made in heaven” because both have one thing in common: they are “motivated by their own selfish interest” in everything they do, and this Obamacare fight is less about ideology and more about all the media attention. Sharpton agreed that they suffer from “megalomania and narcissism,” with Tucker adding if they really cared about the conservative cause, “they wouldn’t be destroying the Republican party.”

The one bright spot Ball found was that Palin doesn’t have nearly the same allure that she used to nor does she have the fundraising pull despite her “illusions of grandeur.”

Video:

r

In addition, Steve Schmidt today totally obliterated Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz and their right-wing "friends" on Hardball with Chris Matthews, and Schmidt even expresses his "regret" to have participated in the creation of "the freak show that's been running wild for four years."

(h/t BinWI)

Steve Schmidt said:

"For the last couple of years, we've had this wing of the party running roughshod over the rest of the party, tossing out terms like RINO, saying we're going to purge the moderates out of the party, that, you know, it's all of the people that she's attacking in her statement. We've lost five U.S. Senate seats over the last two election cycles and fundamentally we need Republicans whether they're running for president, whether they're in the leadership of the Congress to stand up against a lot of this asininity.

You finally see it with Ted Cruz, maybe he was the one that has gone a bridge too far. And as we come up against a potential default, potential government shutdown, wise people understand the political consequences for the Republican party. Maybe we'll start seeing our elected leaders stop being intimidated by this nonsense, have the nerve, have the guts to stand up and say enough is enough, this isn't what the Republican party's about. To fight to take conservatism's good name back from the freak show that's been running wild for four years and I have deep regret in my part, certainly, in initiating [it]. But it's time for Republicans to again embrace what made us successful in the past, which is a party that has solutions to the problems that face the country."

Video:

Sarah Palin and SarahPAC are being sued for using iconic 9/11 photo without permission - Will Sarah Palin now play the victim again? - UPDATE: Read the full filed complaint!

"I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t."

Sarah Palin during her time as mayor of Wasilla, quoted by "Salon"

By Patrick

It does not happen very often that Sarah Palin is sued, but maybe people are not as afraid of her as they used to be. Or not even afraid at all.

Sarah Palin's political action committee SarahPAC recently started placing its logo on all sorts of photographs, often with some text added under the photos, in order to "strengthen" the Pac's political message. These "enhanced" photos were then usually published on Sarah Palin's facebook page as well as the SarahPAC website.

However, many people started to wonder whether SarahPAC actually had permission to use the photos and put the SarahPAC logo on them. Just several days ago, Sarah Palin on her facebook for example used an iconic image of Martin Luther King, taken during the March on Washington in 1963, and had no hesitation to prominently display the SarahPAC logo on the picture.

It appears that this question has now been answered, at least for some of the photos in question, as the use of another iconic image by SarahPAC today promptly led to a lawsuit against Sarah Palin and SarahPAC.

A few days ago, on September 11, Sarah Palin posted the following photo on her facebook, an iconic image from 9/11, again with the SarahPAC logo attached on the photo:

Photo Copyright 2001, The Record (Bergen County, NJ)  "as altered by SarahPAC"

The rights to this photo belong to North Jersey Media Group Inc., and they are not amused!

Bloomberg reports:

Sarah Palin and her political action committee SarahPAC were sued by a newspaper publisher over the use of a photo of firefighters raising the U.S. flag at the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11 attacks.

North Jersey Media Group Inc., publisher of The Record and Herald News daily newspapers, accused the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate and her political action committee of using the photograph without permission in a complaint filed today in federal court in Manhattan.

The picture is of three firefighters, covered in soot, hoisting the flag while standing amid the ruins of the World Trade Center the day of the attacks and taken by a photographer working for North Jersey Media Group, according to the lawsuit. Copies of the image are posted on Palin’s Facebook page and her political action committee page, www.sarahpac.com, according to the complaint.

The publisher, which alleges copyright infringement, seeks a court order barring Palin and SarahPAC from using the image.

SarahPAC representatives didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the lawsuit.

The photo was taken by Record photographer Thomas E. Franklin. The U.S. Postal Service in 2002 issued a stamp called “Heroes” with the image.

This is an interesting development because Sarah Palin is in this case not being handled with "kid gloves", as has so often happened in the past.

Sarah Palin today removed the famous 9/11-photo from her facebook page in an apparent response to the lawsuit.

The iconic photo of MLK which I mentioned above is another particularly shameless exploitation by Sarah Palin, the SarahPAC logo is an insult:

Our reader maelewis also pointed out that in another photo used by Sarah Palin, the "composition" which was created afterwards distorts the real facts:

Sarah is really hitting that Union stuff. At least her logo is on her own trademarked self. Now for the hypocrisy. I'm amazed that Google images can find a photo if I ask the right question. Sarah wants people to thing that her FB photo shows her addressing her union brothers and sisters. Nothing could be further from the truth. That photo comes from a rally in Madison, Wisconsin where Scott Walker was dismantling unions - teachers unions. Sarah was not on the side of unions. She was for Scott Walker cutting his budget any way that he could. First photo: Sarah's FB, second photo, the anti-union rally. And, just to drive home the point that Sarah was anti-union in that photo, click here.

By the way, Sarah is speaking as part of the Tea Party, and the sign on the podium is "Americans for Prosperity," a Koch Brothers enterprise. They are anti-union, anti-workers' rights. Funny that the FB people covered up the AFP logo, and tried to imply that Palin was addressing some union members. Ain't so.

Sarah Palin's "composition" on facebook, created for propaganda purposes:

There, the logo for "Americans For Prosperity" had been cut off, so as not to disturb Sarah Palin's message to her "union brothers and sisters."

An "uncropped" photo from this event in Madison, Wisconsin reveals that she was speaking for the Koch-funded "Americans for Prosperity":

It truly was a terrible "screech" by Sarah Palin, in which she was acting as a paid shill for the Koch Brothers and their infamous fake-grassroots organization "Americans for Prosperity" - watch the speech:

A friend of unions or union-members she is definitely not, our crafty Sarah. She only likes the folks with big pockets like the Koch-brothers who will happily pay her gigantic speaking fees.

Our reader JCos had some suggestions for the future use of the SarahPAC logo:

I think Sarah Palin should seriously consider the last proposal...just think about the headlines!

Good night, everyone!

+++

UPDATE:

The defenders of Sarah Palin, as well as Sarah Palin herself, don't have a leg to stand on in this controversy. One look at the website of SarahPAC reveals that the primary goal of her political action committee is fundraising:

Using iconic images without permission primarily for fundraising purposes therefore constitutes a particularly serious violation of copyright rules, and any other organization would have been sued for such a violation as well.

Even worse: More than 90 percent of the money that SarahPAC raised over the years was not used for the official purpose of SarahPAC - supporting other candidates. The money was used for Sarah Palin herself, in order to pay for her numerous and expensive consultants, for her travels, and even her long-time personal lawyers are being retained by SarahPAC. It's her own personal slush fund, ensuring that Sarah Palin can avoid what she hates most: Actual work.

Her PAC ensures that for example speeches, facebook posts and press articles are being written for her, just like it was the case with speeches, press articles and other items when she was Governor of Alaska. There is only one person, apart from her highly paid staff, who hugely profits from SarahPAC: Sarah Palin herself.

+++

UPDATE 2:

Because we are having so much fun today - Kathleen found an excellent Palin-joke in the comments of Huffington Post:

When they were prepairing SP for VP, they had a security audit checking the passwords on her computer accounts. During the audit, it was discovered that Sarah was using the following password:

“MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofySacramento”

When asked why she had such a long password, she said she was told that it had to be at least 8 characters long and include at least one capital.

+++

UPDATE 3:

It turns out that it was Sarah Palin's own fault that the was slapped with this lawsuit - from NorthJersey.com (h/t NJfan):

Jennifer A. Borg, vice president, corporate secretary and general counsel for North Jersey Media Group, said the lawsuit was filed when neither Palin nor the PAC responded to a letter.

“It is important to enforce our copyright on this iconic photo,” Borg said. “When neither Ms. Palin nor representatives from her PAC responded to our demand letter to remove the photograph, we were left with no choice but to seek redress in court.”

+++

UPDATE 4:

We got a link to our story at "CNN Trends!"

Surely Palinbot-heads will explode when they see that! :-)

Screenshot:

+++

UPDATE 5:

The full original complaint by North Jersey Media Group Inc. has now been published. They specifically mention in the complaint that the photo was used for fundraising purposes by SarahPAC. They also demand a jury trial.

DOWNLOAD LINK HERE.

Screenshot from the complaint:

+++

UPDATE 6:

The controversy about the use of the picture by Sarah Palin and SarahPAC is now already a few days old, and still no word from Sarah Palin! No apology, no word to her supporters not to reproduce the SarahPAC-graphic any more. Talk about "mitigating the damage"...it isn't happening.

We know from history that Sarah Palin cannot take it if she is challenged for alleged "misconduct", because...how dare anyone to challenge her! How dare they! After all, isn't Sarah Palin an iconic item herself? Way more important than a silly photo, right...?

But "joking" aside:

Many thanks to BanditBasheert for pointing out that this iconic photo, taken by photographer Tom Franklin on 9/11, has been used multiple times very successfully for raising funds for good causes, for example for supporting 9/11 victims. The firemen who are depicted in the photo were also involved in the successful attempts to raise funds for good causes, as well as the photographer Tom Franklin himself.

The news website "Patch" provides more details:

It's one thing when a picture you've taken earns you celebrity status. But not everybody's work gets turned into a stamp. That happened in 2002 when the U.S. Postal Service introduced the "Heroes" stamp, featuring the flag-raising photo.

Proceeds from the stamp have raised more than $10 million to help families and rescue workers of 9/11.

Also that year, an autographed original print signed by Tom and the three firemen sold for $89,625 at Christie's Auction House, with proceeds benefiting two 9/11 charities. The photo has also been instrumental in raising money for other charitable causes, including Juvenile Diabetes, autism, cerebral palsy.

In addition, photographer Tom Franklin explained the following in an interview (which, by the way, is worth reading and contains great images) from 2011:

"The North Jersey Media Group, which owns the Bergen Record, owns the copyright of the photo. They have used the image in many ways to raise money, which then has been allocated to aid certain NJ families affected by 9/11. The "Heroes" stamp, which is a semi-postal US Postage stamp (semi-postal stamps are stamps where proceeds are used for charity, like the Breast Cancer stamp) features the image, and has raised over ten million dollars by itself. Those funds I believe were controlled by FEMA and allocated to 9/11-related victims. I believe that some of the funds leftover were used to aid Katrina victims."

Therefore it has to be noted, in order to understand the full context, that we are not talking about an ordinary photo - it is not just an "iconic" photo, but also a photo which has been used multiple times for fundraising purposes for various good causes. It is this context which makes the use of the photo by SarahPAC for their own fundraising particularly reprehensible.

In any case, Sarah Palin and her highly paid staffers messed it up. The photo is also displayed at Wikipedia, but at the same time, Wikipedia provides a precise warning to anyone who wants to use the photo for free, and accurately explains the limits of "fair use." Hint: Fundraising for your own for-profit PAC is never "fair use." Anyone would understand this and immediately offer a swift and sweeping apology, but we betcha that Sarah Palin feels that she was singled out unfairly. After all, she is the victim here, isn't she?

Wikipedia explains:

This image is a faithful digitisation of a unique historic image, and the copyright for it is most likely held by the person who created the image or the agency employing the person. It is believed that the use of this image may qualify as fair use under United States copyright law. Other use of this image, on Wikipedia or elsewhere, may be copyright infringement. See Wikipedia:Fair use for more information. Please remember that the non-free content criteria require that non-free images on Wikipedia must not "[be] used in a manner that is likely to replace the original market role of the original copyrighted media." Use of historic images from press agencies must only be used in a transformative nature, when the image itself is the subject of commentary rather than the event it depicts (which is the original market role, and is not allowed per policy).

+++

UPDATE 7:

Many thanks to our readers Maelewis and Sleuth for pointing out that this photo even has its own website, on which the rules for using the photo are explained in greater detail.

Quote from the website:

The Record (Bergen County, NJ), owns the copyright to the photograph. The following copyright notice must appear with the photo at all times: (c) 2001 The Record, (Bergen County, NJ).

• For personal, non-commercial use, visit NorthJerseyImages.com. Prints are available framed or unframed.

• For editorial use, please visit Getty Images.

• For nonprofit reuse, please call (973) 569-7014 or email groundzerospirit@northjersey.com.

• For licensed products, please use officially licensed vendors.

At the bottom of this website, there is a clear warning:

Please contact us if you find people who may be using our photo without permission.

We seek to ensure that the photograph is not used for personal gain and that it is used in a dignified and proper manner.

Therefore the rules are clear. Non-commercial use is possible with permission. For editorial use, the usual licence fee would apply, but the photograph is not to be used for personal gain. Then there are the "fair use" rules which apply to any photo, as mentioned above.

Nothing here speaks in favor of Sarah Palin or SarahPAC, who used the photo commercially without permission, for their own fundraising purposes. Exactly the opposite is the case: From the rules stated on the website, it is apparent immediately that this type of usage by Sarah Palin and SarahPAC would have never been allowed.

Amazingly, the world is still waiting for a statement from Sarah Palin. What's the problem, Sarah?

Happy Easter! - Easter politics: Conservatives slam Sarah Palin for the disastrous performance of SarahPAC, get into epic twitter-fights with fanatical Palin-fans

By Patrick

Easter has arrived! Hope you all have a quiet and enjoyable time.

As it is traditional on Politicalgates on such occasions, let's post a little bit of music, for your enjoyment.

There is a "hot new boy group" in town, but this time, a little bit different. Three young Italian singers formed the group "Il Volo", and they are not your "average boy group." They sing so beautifully, that even Barbara Streisand" could not resist and performed together with them.

I found this really sweet recording of the three "boys" (born 1993, 1994 and 1995) together with Barbara Streisand, who also sings absolutely beautifully in this clip:

From Kathleen I got one of their CD's for Easter today (thank you, honey, I love you!), and it's very good! 

The next one is a magical song by the amazing "Webb Sisters", who we saw a few years ago when they toured together with Leonard Cohen - "Words that Mobilize" (read the lyrics):

The next song is a "classic." I love it: "Invincible" by Muse, an incredibly inspiring song:

OK, the next one is unusual. It's actually a commercial for Wrangler from brilliant director Jonathan Glazer. I include it not only because it is real art in my opinion, but my question is: Have any of you ever done such a "wild trip?" :-)

Check on youtube for more excellent commercials by Jonathan Glazer.

Jonathan Glazer also created very creative music videos (for Radiohead and others), for example "The Universal" for Blur:

OK, enough videos for today!

There is another message I would like to emphasize for Easter: Be nice to each other! I say that because during the last two days, we witnessed with astonishment how "pro-Palin" and "anti-Palin" right-wingers got into a series of pretty brutal cat- and/or dogfights on twitter.

The underlying cause for these fights was the reporting by Wonkette on the March 28 and by the Daily Beast on March 29. There it was reported by these outlets that Sarah Palin SarahPAC spent more than twice as much on consultants in the 2012 election cycle as it did on candidates, despite the fact that Sarah Palin slammed consultants as a profession in her recent CPAC speech. It was also reported that 94 percent of the whole expenditures of SarahPAC went to the "overhead."

This was partially caused by a devastating post by A.J. Delgado at Mediaite, who is an author with excellent conservative credentials (she even wrote a book about how "cool" it is to be conservative).

I say "partially" because her article was preceded by "conservative outrage" on twitter about the laughable financials of SarahPAC, where the "enemy of consultants" Sarah Palin spent virtually all her money on consultants. The right-wingers gave the Palinbots a good beating on twitter.

From our "new friend", the right-winger Nathan Wurtzel, who is a long-time Republican Consultant and fundraiser (no, not a friend, he blocked us on twitter for being "Trig Truthers"):

An exchange with fanatical Palin-fan Gary:

From the usually "pro-Palin" website "The Right Scoop":

The right-wingers are simply sick of Sarah Palin and her insufferable cultists.

In pretty amazing exchanges, some right-wingers even agreed that the conservative media is just a big propaganda machine:

Nathan Wurtzel with another right-wing friend:

I exchanged some tweets with the conservative author of the mediaite articel, A.J. Delgado:

The following were particularly good tweets by A.J. Delgado in my opinion:

Tweet 1:

Yes, debunked indeed! In the report of Alaska state investigator Tim Petumenos from June 21, 2010 it was publicly revealed for the first time that the State of Alaska was actually willing to pay for Sarah Palin's legal defence - but she refused, for reasons which remain in the dark up until today.

Quote from the report:

Tweet 2:

Tweet 3:

I tried to be a positive example for being nice on twitter, and had a very civil exchange with Palinbot and C4P-writer Adrienne Ross, in which she was surprisingly tight-lipped:

Same with Palinbot and C4P-writer Michelle McCormick, who didn't answer my question about the funds, and who really should ask Sarah Palin for Trig's birth certificate next time she sees her (just to make sure!):

So, we had lots of fun on twitter!

What's left to say on this memorable Easter 2013? Let's give the last word to grumpy cat! :-)