Video shows dog leading Alaska trooper to fire

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Following is a press release from the Alaska State Troopers recounting a remarkable tale of hero dog.

Go read the whole thing. Damn, dogs really can surprise you sometimes.

Discovery Channel Insider: Sarah Palin's Show "New All Time Low", rolled eyes

By GottaLaff

Somebody pinch me. Reality is starting to become... a reality. First the Tea Tantrumers shoo away Orly Taitz like the annoying little gnat she is, and now the Discovery channel ad buyers call out Bendy McFlexStraw's new reality show for what it is: a bad joke.

Discovery had the ad buyers in for their yearly sales conference. That's when they showcased their new shows, including Sarah Palin's Alaska.

Maybe they should think about doing a reality show about reality, because hey, it's a concept that's just novel enough to sell. Cenk has the scoop:

Our source says "the whole thing [was] comical." Apparently the ad buyers were not impressed. This Discovery insider said, "When the promo was over, people (employees and buyers) were rolling their eyes, snickering, and even laughing. People were laughing and it's not even a comedy. No one took it seriously."

This person was concerned that given the lack of interest from ad buyers that Discovery would have to dump the show to "a crappy time slot" to cut its losses. They added, "Bottom line everyone thought it was a new all time low for Discovery. My guess is the show is going to tank big time."

Sounds like it has already. And Bendy's pulling in a cool 250 grand per episode for the snickerfest. But at least she can see First National Bank of Alaska from her house.

Cenk makes a great point:

Many people would argue that Palin did great ecological damage to Alaska and would like to do more by drilling all over it. So, getting her to host a show about the natural beauty of Alaska is a bit like getting Jeffrey Dahmer to host a cooking show for the Food Network.

Dahmer would have probably gotten better ratings.

H/t: 42bkdodgr

VIDEO: Kathy Griffin rips Sarah Palin... in front of Alaskan audience

By GottaLaff

Via Gawker:

Kathy Griffin spent five straight minutes laying into Sarah Palin, whom she says she invited to the show.

The sound isn't great, but you should get a few laughs out of it. Five straight minutes on Talky McHollywood by Kathy Griffin? Good times.

Alaska Rep. Don Young on way to DC: Returning to “monkeyland”

By GottaLaff

The Mudflats has a quote from Alaska's Republican representative Don Young as he was on his way back to Washington D.C. And what a quote it is!

This was what a Mudflatter overheard at the airport, and I'm surprised it's not getting more attention:

I flew into Seattle yesterday with Mr. Young. Waiting in line to board he remarked to someone beside him that he was returning to “monkeyland”… I almost lost control when I heard this, but decided to not create a “situation.”

Um... is that what the insiders are calling it these days? Really?


More here.

Palin pitching TV show

By GottaLaff

Pitchy McClueless, who belongs in UNreality Tee Vee, is pitching a documentary. This could be a first! And by that I mean, the first time she approaches anything near the truth:

While Palin and famed reality TV producer Mark Burnett are in New York and Los Angeles this week meeting with six networks about a new series - a story first reported Wednesday by Entertainment Weekly - the source emphasized that the show would be a "Planet Earth-style" documentary about Alaska.

Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, will likely be featured in the show, the source said. But the source added that "it's not going to be focused on her family, or in her house, or in Wasilla.

Good move. Especially because her house(s) don't exactly help her credibility issues.

"She is just going to use her name to help produce and promote the show," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. [...]

"This is not 'The Osbournes Go North'," said the source, referencing the MTV reality show that featured rock singer Ozzy Osbourne's family. "This is not a reality show based on the Palins."

How clever that they're going out of their way to convince us that Pitchy and her family are not-- repeat, not-- the focus of the show.

A memo must have gone out to avoid them at all costs.

Conoco Alaska president killed in avalanche

By GottaLaff

Jim Bowles

Tragic:

Poor weather will prevent state troopers from searching today for a Conoco Phillips Alaska employee missing in the avalanche that killed company president Jim Bowles on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers says.

Separately, troopers today identified the skier who died in an avalanche off Hiland Road on Saturday as William Brasher Schorr, 60, of Eagle River. Schorr had been skiing just after 4 p.m. near the top of a ridge above Mile 7 of Hiland Road when he appeared to trigger the avalanche, rescuers said. He was pronounced dead two hours later. [...]

Bowles has headed Conoco Phillips Alaska since November 2004 and oversaw roughly 900 employees in the state, said spokeswoman Natalie Lowman. [...]

A group of about a dozen snowmachiners were traveling together in the Grandview area when the avalanche struck, troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

H/t: Jason Leopold

Video- Miss Alaska makes a Palin Joke

Even the other beauty queens are sharpening their knives? Ouch.

Alaska's big fat problem

By GottaLaff

Sarah Palin Hawaiian vacation - December 16, 2009

And by big fat problem, I wasn't referring to Sarah Palin... this time.

Speaking of whom, no wonder Barbie McLipSchmutz left to go on her book tour:

Alaskans getting fatter at an alarming rate

REPORT: Two-thirds of adults in the state have weight problems.

Is this a result of staying indoors a lot? Seriously, that is an extremely high number. The related health issues are nothing to sneeze at...

...and, of course, one's weight is most assuredly considered to be a pre-existing condition.

PhotOh! Sarah Palin's just like us! You can tell by her new mansion!

By GottaLaff

Via my Twitter pal Celtic Diva, here are photos of Barbie McLipSchmutz's new home, side by side with her old, tiny little hovely one that she simply had to move out of so she could be more like us reg'lar folk:

Oh that's right. We don't own gigantic, spacious, fancy schmancy manors like that new one. We really must add "writing a best-seller" to our To Do lists. Then we can be wealthy and multiple homey just like her!

Here's her brand spankin' new Barbie McMansion all by its lonesome:

Maybe she can take a bus, er, plane, from her old house to her new one, since it's such a long way. Come to think of it, she may need a plane to get through all that square footage just to get from the kitchen to the bedroom.

The Palin house on the left, new house in the middle, unidentified house on the right.

See how "just like us" she is? What a maverick!

Best perk of the new digs: She can see her bank account from her McMansion!

Palin's former aide annoyed by portrayal in 'Going Rogue'

Does she ever tell the truth? Lying is a hobby for her.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue," blames her first legislative director for moves early in her term that helped poison her relationship with state lawmakers. But the ex-aide, John Bitney, calls Palin's account a fabrication and said he wishes his former boss would leave him alone.

"I'm just pilloried right and left and turned into the big bad wolf here for stuff I didn't do," said Bitney, who is now an aide to Valdez Republican Rep. John Harris. "It's like I'm this fictional character that she's decided to make me out to be this sort of incompetent slob."

Palin's lawyer, Tom Van Flein, responded in an e-mail that Bitney and others have been talking about "their perceptions of, and distortions about" Palin for more than a year, since after she was chosen as Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate.

Video- Glenn Beck Calls Military Behind Obama During Speech "Props"

Because I knew you needed some crazy.

Video- President Obama Speaks To Troops In Alaska

President Obama is going to Alaska, you betcha

By GottaLaff

This will be Prez O's first trip to the state that Barbie McLipSchmutz quit:

President Barack Obama will visit Alaska next week, as he begins a longer trip to Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore.

I understand the president can see Alaska from his White House.

While in Alaska, he'll mark the Veterans Day holiday with the military personnel at the base, the White House said.

H/t: Dr. President

Video- David Letterman compares Sarah Palin to Squeaky Fromme

Stings.

Countdown: Sarah Palin's Greatest Hits

Video- Wingers Coulter, Buchanan and Frum: Palin, "Bigger" Than Obama, or Quitter?

Even the wingers can't decide. I like the way Frum compared her to Michael Jackson.

(CBS) Is Sarah Palin still a star, or a fading quitter? What does the future hold for her?

If a three-way discussion among Republican pundits on "The Early Show Saturday Edition" is any indication, more of the same -- she'll remain as controversial and passion-provoking rod as ever.

Author and right-wing firebrand Ann Coulter, GOP strategist Bay Buchanan, and NewMajority.com founder and former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum had at it over the question of whether Palin could be a viable presidential candidate at some point.

(snip)

Buchanan said Palin's quitting will tarnish her severely, Coulter claimed Palin is still so big she's even a bigger story than President Obama, and Frum cited the very discussion they were having as proof of how divisive Palin is, even in her own party.

Video- David Letterman: Top Ten Things Overheard At Sarah Palin's Farewell Party

Video- Sarah Palin's Wasilla goodbye picnic draws a crowd

Toodloo honey. Jonathan has some good analysis of the situation as Palin leave.

Sarah Palin: Ready to go "less politically correct"

Oh I can hardly wait.

From Palin's Twitter feed:

AKGovSarahPalin: elected is replaceable;Ak WILL progress! + side benefit=10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site

Feed pic via WT. Click to enlarge.

Arctic coast plays host to huge blob of floating goo

Anyone else thinking of the Black Oil from X-Files?

Something big and strange is floating through the Chukchi Sea between Wainwright and Barrow.

Hunters from Wainwright first started noticing the stuff sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough's Planning and Community Services Department.

Brower and other borough officials, joined by the U.S. Coast Guard, flew out to Wainwright to investigate. The agencies found "globs" of the stuff floating miles offshore Friday and collected samples for testing.

(snip)

"It's certainly biological," Hasenauer said. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter.

"It's definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it's some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism."

Something else: No one in Barrow or Wainwright can remember seeing anything like this before, Brower said.