VIDEO: Sarah the Socialist

By GottaLaff



Great catch by our pals over at The Mudflats:

From the Mystik Lubricant website:

Mystik is an exclusive engine oil sponsor for the 2010 Iron Dog Snowmobile Race and a sponsor of Team #22 Scott Davis and Todd Palin – past Iron Dog Champions.

"So what?" I hear some of you mumbling. "Big deal," I detect from afar. "Now what goofy name is Laffy gonna come up with for Sarah Palin?" I suspect you may be thinking.

Here's the big deal:

It turns out that Mystik Lubricants is owned by… wait for it … Citgo. Yes, that same Citgo that’s owned by Venezuela. Socialist Venezuela. Socialist, Hugo Chavez lovin’, Venezuela.

See? It was worth wading through that rinkydink ad just to witness Lubey McHypocrite step in it one more time.

Thank you Mudflats!

Sarah Palin's property tax problem; ‘I am so sorry I’m such a weasel’

By GottaLaff

The Mudflats does it again:

When the Democrats were finished with her, they had a 63-page document. There were lots of interesting things in the document, including this.

Pg. 48/63 Palin Declined to Appear in Ads for A Candidate Because He Had Not Paid His Property Taxes.

In 2004, it came to light that Republican Rep. Vic Kohring owed the borough $2,277 in unpaid property taxes on property he owns off Knik-Goose Bay Road, according to borough records. “That bothered former Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin enough that she declined a campaign request to do a pro-Kohring TV commercial. As a former mayor, Palin said, it made her uncomfortable to back someone with unpaid taxes when the city relies on property taxes.” [Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), 10/28/04]

Admirable, huh?

Not so fast:

Recently, Sarah Palin gave an interview to Bill O’Reilly and said her favorite vacation spot was “The middle of nowhere at our cabin in Petersville,” Alaska.

And now we get to the envelope. Inside the envelope was an unsigned letter which read:

Todd and Sarah are now millionaires, but they shirk their responsibility to pay local property taxes.

One more nugget:

She talked to the Anchorage Daily News.

Pg. 15/63 Palin Called Herself “Such a Weasel” For Not Having a Firm Stand on the Property Tax Cap.

Palin said she has declined requests by Tax Cap Yes to speak in favor of the initiative. Yet, she said, she doesn’t object to her name’s continuing to be listed on the group’s Web site among 10 current or former government officials — half from Mat-Su — in support of the initiative. Palin acknowledged that she was sounding quite the politician. ‘I am so sorry I’m such a weasel,’ she said.”
[Anchorage Daily News, 10/8/00]

That was the tease. Now go read the post.

Shirky McLieLips: Our never ending source of point-and-laugh news.

"You, my friend have been shmeklenized"

By GottaLaff

The Mudflats has a hilarious post up about a reader who claims that LipSchmutz McWTF punk'd everyone, because, see, "mandation" is a real word. How does the reader know? Well, pfft, because the word was defined in the ever-reliable Wiki Answers!

It's safe to say that McWTF's followers are just as well-read as she is:

In the wee hours of the morning, I got this little gem in the moderation queue from someone in or around Salem Oregon, who calls themselves “AKReport”

Submitted on 2010/01/28 at 1:02am
Sorry AKM, Palin just punked you. mandation is a word, moron.

mandation: “another form of involuntary servitude”

1 : a condition in which one lacks liberty especially to determine one’s course of action or way of life
2 : a right by which something (as a piece of land) owned by one person is
subject to a specified use or enjoyment by another

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_mandation

Ohhh, my friend…

Anyone familiar with dictionaries, and wikis will know immediately why I got such a good chuckle over this one.

Mudflats had a lot to say, a must-read lot to say in fact, but finally responds with this:

You, my friend have been shmeklenized.

verb -Shmeklenize -d
1. To be revealed on a blog or social media website site as having made embarrassing and false accusations based upon knowledge obtained from a wiki.
2. To insult someone in a manner in which you, yourself are guilty.

syn. - sproinked, flubbugated, bloamed

My new favorite word: Shmeklenized. Although "sproinked" is right up there.

Now go read. You'll be glad you did.

"It’s going to be really embarrassing for [Palin] to walk into a half-empty room"

By GottaLaff

In a previous post, I put up a screen shot that revealed that Barbie McCan'tFillARoom can't fill a room.

Why, here it is now!


So now it's today and today I felt like toddling over to The Mudflats. Oh my! I stumbled upon confirmation of the red highlighted text in the screen grab (click it to enlarge)!

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips likely assumed that scoring a dinner speech by the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate would guarantee a huge turnout for his National Tea Party Convention, scheduled to start Feb. 4 at Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Hotel. But according to Tea Party insiders, the tickets for the Palin banquet aren’t selling—and some conservative activists who have already paid to attend are now demanding refunds. With the controversial event shaping up to be a potential flop, some Tea Partiers are urging Palin to cancel her speech to avoid a humiliating public relations disaster.

Palin is reportedly receiving $115,000 to speak at the affair. That’s only $10,000 less than her annual salary as governor of Alaska.

But wait! There's more!

One of the organizers of the event also confesses that most of the tickets to Palin’s speech remain unsold. “I really hope that Sarah Palin doesn’t come to this event because it’s going to be really embarrassing for her to walk into a half-empty room,” he said.

Given all the negative publicity, [Anthony] Shreeve is surprised Palin hasn’t pulled out already. “In her contract she is allowed to send a representative if she can’t make it if she’s sick or something. Maybe she’ll come down with the flu,” he says with a laugh. He adds that Tea Partiers have written her letters pleading with her not to come because they believe that reports of a glitzy, high-priced dinner would hurt the real Tea Party movement, which prides itself on its thrifty, grassroots image.

The Mudflats has more here.

Porn again

By GottaLaff

The Mudflats has a poll for you to take. The premise is basically, porn is in the eye of the beholder.

I won't reveal more than that. Go here.

Meantime, here is an excerpt separate from the poll portion of the Mudflats post, although it is XXX rated.

Why is it? Because it's a quote from the Sean Hannity show about Scott Brown by Barbie McLipSchmutz. That's a triple X if I ever saw one.

The following Barbie quote is not suitable for children:

“It’s going to send a very strong message that the status quo, even in Massachusetts, the status quo of just accepting the big growth of government and health care takeover measures that it seems capital hill wants to cram down our throats today things are gonna start changing thank god things are gonna start changing, but even and I would love to be able to at some point interview “Senator Brown.” I anticipate victory there, but even if he doesn’t win already poll numbers showing that his message is resonating and his message is just, you know, common sense conservative values, principles, solutions, being plugged in to meet the challenges facing america today. People in his state they’re listening to him and are getting excited about this dynamic candidate.”

I don't believe in censorship or I'd have redacted parts all of her endless ramblings.

She really should think about going back to her Run-On Sentence Anonymous meetings. She needs help. Badly.

PhotOh! Palin, Bachmann: Tea Party Babes in Fantasyland

By GottaLaff

I lerve The Mudflats:

(click to enlarge)

Palin’s Virginia Robocalls May Not Be Legal

By GottaLaff

Today's Quickie:

Some residents of Virginia have recently received a robo-call from former-Governor Sarah Palin. Mrs. Palin identified herself by name and then entreated the listener to “vote for our shared principles” and to “vote your values.” A recorded male voice then came on the line and informed the listener that the call had been paid for by the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition.

But was this call legal?

Go to Mudflats for the details.

Palin Critic Rejected By Auction After Identity Revealed

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: If you go to Comments on this post, check out the one from Ken Morris, the first bidder referred to below. Thank you, Ken! And sadly, I couldn't agree more.

So someone had an extra $63,500 to spare and felt that breaking bread, or mooseburgers, with Sarah the Quitter would be worth a hefty donation to a great cause... if she decided to show up. Rich people have all the fun.

However, behind the scenes, there were a few maneuvers that weren't revealed by our pals on the Tee Vee Machine. It seems S the Q was being awfully picky.

Mudflats has all sorts of fun little detaily tidbits, but here are the basics: Sarah gave herself the out to quit anyone she didn't deem worthy:

The auction rules clearly state that:

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.

She calls it refusal, I call it discrimination. Then again, I'm a flaming progressive who feels compassion for those who get rejected for no apparent reason. Call me crazy.

There were seven bidders total. And we know for a fact that at least two of them were not of the “Palinbot” persuasion. And we know that both successfully passed the “pre-approval” process.

First, there’s Ken Morris - Wall Street whiz, trader-turned-financial-thriller-novelist, whose top bid exceeded $50,000.

His motive for shelling out $50K?

I’ll ask her a few questions that might seem harsh, but aren’t intended to offend—after all, we must be honest, no? Do your regret saying several hundred times that our president “…palled around with terrorists…”? Do you really believe that providing health insurance to all Americans is socialism or fascism or Nazism or that there are truly ‘death squads’ in these proposals?

Ruh-roh!

On to the next doomed bidder:

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.

McGinniss, hoping to win the auction had the high bid at one point close to the end. The amount was a whopping $60,101.01, and he was willing to go higher. And then something interesting happened. The Alaska Dispatch came out with a story identifying McGinniss as one of the bidders. When the unsuspecting c***i went to place his next bid in the amount of $60,301.01, he was met with this message:

[...] McGinniss was unapproved, with only an hour to go.

Damn.

So, who did win? Cathy Maples, the owner of a defense contracting company in Alabama. She thinks Sarah Palin is pretty swell, and hopes she gets to be president some day.

Isn't that swell? I bet she's thrilled to pieces that she passed all the tests! Those pesky prerequisites can be so annoying, can't they?

Then again, defense contractors don't have to worry about stuff like, you know, qualifying. Just ask Blackwater Xe.

For the rest of the story, and there is one, go here.

Health Care – How Will We Pay for It?

By GottaLaff

Mudflats rocks, plain and simple. Here are some excerpts from their explanation of how to pay for health care reform, but please go here to read all of it:

There are a couple conservative talking points that are being recycled over and over. This is because people can relate to them. They make sense on a very basic level to most people.

“How are we going to pay for this?”

This is the big stumbling block, they say. [...]

Now, of course, they don’t tell you where they and their outrage were during the Bush administration when this was all going on. The fault lies partly with the corporate media, who was quite happy with the Bush administration [...]

So, let’s say that all this fear over excessive government spending is a legitimate complaint, which it is. We can’t keep up the current rates of spending without suffering some major and very nasty consequences.

This brings up the other talking point, which is,

“You wouldn’t run your household this way!”

Despite the fact that most of America does, in fact, run their household that way [...] we do realize that we shouldn’t be running it that way. [...]

If it’s wrong for us, it’s surely wrong for our government. ... [L]ook at it from a common sense household perspective. [...]

Anyone I know would pretty much do whatever it took to make sure that their loved ones were cared for. Many people do. More than 60 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States are due to medical bills. People give up everything to provide care for the people they love.

And yes, the United States will spend about a trillion dollars in 2009 alone on “defense related purposes.” [...]

The military expenditure of the United States accounts for almost half (41.5%) of the world total.

We wouldn’t run our household this way [...] We would all like a balanced budget, but we all have priorities too. [...]

We have the money for universal health care. We have the money for lots of things. We just need to decide where our priorities lie as human beings, and start running our country accordingly.

Please go here for the unedited version.

Shannyn's & Mudflats' Excellent Keith and Rachel Adventure

By GottaLaff

This is so cool. Our pal at Mudflats, and her pal Shannyn Moore (who is on my Commentator A List), had an MSNBC Excellent Adventure when Shannyn appeared as a guest on Countdown.

Please go read it, because posting excerpts just won't cut it.

Palin camp denies divorce rumors

By GottaLaff

Come on, we barely got a chance to speculate. Golly, there ya go again, you "so-called journalists", spreadin' rumors:

From Governor Palin's Facebook page:

Yet again, some so-called journalists have decided to make up a story. There is no truth to the recent “story” (and story is the correct term for this type of fiction) that the Palins are divorcing. The Palins remain married, committed to each other and their family, and have not purchased land in Montana (last week it was reported to be Long Island).

Less than one week ago, Governor Palin asked the media to “quit making things up.” We appreciate that the more professional journalists decided to question this story before repeating it.

Meg Stapleton

Sarah the Quitter has asked us to quit, so we will. Although I don't trust Stapleton any more than they trust the source of the divorce story.

The release is in response to a ludicrous rumor being spread by Alaskan CNN stringer Dennis Zaki. Zaki, who previously bought into rumors of Trig Truth, picked up these allegations from the same source - the rabidly anti-Palin, Trig Truth-espousing anonymous blogger "Gryphen" of the blog "Immoral Minority". Gryphen is a friend of Zaki's, along with fellow Team Truth members Shannyn Moore, Phil Munger, and "AKMuckraker" of the Mudflats.

Ohhh, so it's back to guilt by association (Team Shannyn/Mudflats), huh? They've been pallin' around with Gryphen who's been pallin' around with Zaki.

Team Quitter really doesn't seem too fond of two of my favorite bloggers. But, hey, I'm posting this out of fairness to the Quitter camp. But shhh, I happen to admire Shannyn and all those wacky Mudflatters. I'd pal around with 'em if I lived in Alaska.

H/t: Cody

Sarah Palin: Vain and Simple

By GottaLaff

The Mudflats had a contest for best Sarah the Quitter book title. And the winner is....?

There it is, book cover extraordinaire. Book cover-up is more like it, based on Miss Personality Disorder's M.O.

To anyone who wrote to Alaskan Rep. Mike Doogan:

By GottaLaff

If you missed it, you should read this post I put up yesterday about Alaska's Mike Doogan v. The Mudflats, an Alaskan blog that I frequent on a regular basis. Doogan revealed the Mudflats' blogger's identity, and she wrote an excellent post on her feelings about that. It's a must-read.

Now we have a follow-up, via a comment by the inimitable Silly Git:

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

If anyone sent an Email to Mike Doogan protesting his outing of AK Muckraker and received a reply from Mr. Doogan AKM wants to know about it.

Please go to http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,6710.0.html

Thank you, Silly, and thank you Mudflatters!

Blogger identity exposed by Alaskan Rep. Mike Doogan

By GottaLaff

As you know if you read TPC regularly, I link to the Alaskan blog "The Mudflats" a lot. In fact, I rely on them for much of what I post about Sarah Palin.

Mudflats is a friendly, reliable, well-written blog that provides accurate and steady information and insight that is hard to find elsewhere.

Now, for whatever reason, Democratic Alaskan Rep. Mike Doogan has chosen to reveal the identity of this blogger. Everything I am feeling and thinking is expressed by her in this post.

Please go read it. I'd love to hear your comments. I value my anonymity for many of the same reasons that she writes about. And I share her outrage and shock.

What was this guy thinking?

Infiltrating the Republican Lincoln Day Dinner

By GottaLaff

Please. Just go read this. Then start shaking your head back and forth very slowly and roll your eyes. Here's a teaser or two:

Doesn't it suck how Sarah gets picked on because she's a woman?

Pop Goes the Weasel

The rest of the room had no idea she’d arrived, and when she walked in, some guy yelled, “SARACUUUDA!” which was followed by rapturous applause. The woman next to me gushed, “Oh my gosh, she’s soooo pretty!” She proceeded to hug, and smile, and sign autographs, and talk and hug and sign autographs, and smile….and eventually Dan Sullivan, like the goobery kid at the dance, came over and had to literally tug on her sleeve to get her to pay attention to him. Glasses were clinked with knives, and a hush fell on the room. “Nothing would make me happier than to work with Dan Sullivan as mayor,” she said. Wow. Nothing? Then she went on to say that Dan Sullivan’s sister works in her office.

Was that teasey enough for you?

Wardrobe Barbie Palin's Big Homecoming

By GottaLaff

This is a fascinating personal account via Mudflats, of Wardrobe Barbie's homecoming. Poor thing nearly got frostbite, literally, but I'm glad she was able to give us this report:

Finally Sarah and Todd stepped off the plane, and down the stairs, Sarah teetering on the most rediculous shoes I’ve ever seen in my life. Let me just say….Sarah Palin knows Alaska. She knows what it’s like when it’s 10 degrees in November at the airport, but there she was tromping through the snow cover in 5 inch black stiletto heels. She reminded me of a little girl playing dress up, the way she walked.

She was all smiles, waving at the crowd, and working the audience. [...] We heard about how she traveled all over “this great country” with Senator McCain, and everywhere there were people just wavin’ Alaskan flags, and Senator McCain understands about Alaska and Alaskan trade, and Alaskan energy, and Alaskan seafood…. Then she said that it was time that we all supported our new President…President Obama. Wow. Didn’t see that one coming. The lady next to me said, “Isn’t she sweet? She’s so nice telling us to support him even when she doesn’t mean it. Awwww. It’s never about her, is it…she wants what’s best for the country.” Luckily my feet were frozen in place or I would have fallen over. Then she said how now we needed to teach our new president about Alaska, and Alaskan trade, and Alaskan energy and Alaskan seafood… “Because,” she said, “at the core of our campaign, my message to them was ‘We’re Alaskan!’” Hmmm. I must have missed that core message somewhere between Bill Ayers and Bill Ayers.

Then she teetered off to go talk to the press who were set up about 30 feet away.

While she was gone, the crowd was a-buzz. “She’s so nice!” “Isn’t it amazing how she can speak off the cuff like that?! And she’s so good at it!” And my favorite exchange from off to my right somewhere:

Woman 1: I wonder what she’s telling the media?

Woman 2: She’s probably telling them to lay off her clothes!

Woman 1: Yeah. And she looked really good in those clothes.

Woman 2: She looks good in anything, doesn’t she?

Woman 1 : Yes. She. Does.

Then more chatter about singing. “We should sing! What should we sing?” “How about God Bless America?” “No! Amazing Grace!” “That’s not peppy….How about: (singing) We love you Saaa-rah, oh yes we doo-ooo! We love you Saa-raah, and we’ll be truu-uue! When you’re not wi-ith us, we’re BLUE! Oh Saa-raah wee-ee love yooooou!” At this point I was ready to stick a shiv in my temple. We were packed in like sardines, and I dared not move or I would lose my reasonably good picture-taking spot so I stayed put.

I started to bounce up and down because my feet were seriously cold at this point. Finally she finished up with the media, and came back over to the line. She started shaking hands, and hugging people she knew, and exchanging niceties, working her way down the line, shaking hands, more hugging, and before I knew it, I was right there 2 feet away, and it was obvious I was the next in line to have my hand shaken. I had to actually recoil to avoid it, and I managed to grab a little girl who was behind me and shove her ahead so it looked like I was being thoughtful, and not because the thought of shaking Sarah Palin’s hand was short-circuiting my brain. The little girl’s mother thanked me and Palin moved on.

I was definitely ready to take off. My toes were starting to really tingle, and it was getting late. I went to head to the gate, and was stopped by Secret Service. “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to get back behind the cone.” I explained how I was really cold and was just heading to my car. “I’m sorry, I’m going to have to ask you to stand behind the cone until the Governor leaves.” There were several other frozen people, some with little kids, who had already tried this apparently. No dice. I was stuck out in the cold behind a fence with a bunch of hard-core Sarah Palin groupies with no escape, and a jammed cell phone. This was not good.

I checked Palin’s progress. She hadn’t gotten far. She was autographing every piece of paraphernalia, every sign, every t’shirt, every flag that was thrust at her. More pictures, more hugs. I was going to be here for a while. I walked around in the crowd to keep circulation going in my feet, but with no success. Numbness was setting in. I found a hot chocolate dispenser in one of the vans blocking my escape. A man handed me a cup. I debated whether I should drink it, or pour it on my toes. I drank it. It was probably the wrong choice.

It was another 1/2 hour before she waved good-bye to the crowd. A new chant erupted. “TWO THOUSAND TWELVE! TWO THOUSAND TWELVE!” I allowed myself a little daydream. What would happen if I started chanting, “O-BA-MA!” at the top of my lungs? It actually made me giggle out loud through my chattering teeth. Then, she hopped in the black SUV and headed off to Wasilla. [...]

Once again, I survived a Palin event. From now on, I’m only doing this if it’s indoors!

Now that's what I call sacrificing for your country. Thank you, Mudflats!

IWRC* Palin jumps the shark

By GottaLaff

Via Mudflats, we see that IWRC* Palin inhabits her own planet, a planet of one:

Here is the transcript of a five minute conference call with Sarah Palin, Meg Stapleton, the Anchorage Daily News, and local TV stations KTVA, and KTUU. The journalists got one question each with no follow up. [...] [It comes] after the Branchflower Report on the Troopergate investigation was released, stating that she had abused her power as governor. As a matter of fact, let’s review Finding Number One as it is written:

“For the reasons explained in section IV of the report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.11(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”

Remember, that the Legislative Council, made up of TEN Republicans and FOUR Democrats voted unanimously to begin the investigation, and unanimously to release the results of the investigation. Continuing with the transcript (emphasis is Mudflats'):

Stapleton: Sure governor, go ahead.

Palin: OK cool.

Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that. Todd did what anyone would have done given this state trooper’s very, very troubling behavior and his dangerous threats against our family. Todd did what I think any Alaskan would do.

And he, Todd did what the state’s Department of Law Web site tells anyone to do if they have a concern about a state trooper. And that’s you go to the commissioner and you express your concern. And Todd did what our personal detail asked him to do. Bob Cockrell early on as I was elected and was asked are there any threats against ya, and Todd brought the concern as I did to Commissioner Monegan about the state trooper’s threats. He did what any – I think — any rational person would do so again, nothing to apologize there with Todd’s actions and again very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing.

(Stapleton invites the first question).

ADN: Governor, finding No.1 on the report was that you abused your power by violating state law. Do you think you did anything wrong at all in this Troopergate case?

Palin: Not at all and I’ll tell you, it, I think that you’re always going to ruffle feathers as you do what you believe is in the best interest of the people whom you are serving. In this case I knew that I had to have the right people in the right position at the right time in this cabinet to best serve Alaskans, and Walt Monegan was not the right person at the right time to meet the goals that we had set out in our administration. So no, not having done anything wrong, and again very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all.

ADN: Have you read the whole report? (No response; Stapleton invites question from KTVA reporter).

KTVA-Channel 11: … The report that came out yesterday, do you think that the end result is partisan?

Palin: Yeah, I did think it did turn into a partisan circus to tell you the truth. Yes I did. You know from Day One it’s been the Personnel Board that clearly laid out in state statute there — Personnel Board deals with any issue of question regarding a governor, a lieutenant governor or an attorney general in the state of Alaska. What this legislative investigation — quote unquote — turned into was a political circus.

KTUU-Channel 2: Governor, so good to hear from you. Do you approve of the way that your campaign has handled themselves here in Alaska? We’ve had a lot of people voice concerns about what they call attacks of good people in our state while you are away.

Palin: Well I haven’t heard of any attacks on good people in Alaska from our campaign. If you have specifics there, maybe I could answer specifically. But no, in John McCain’s mission here, in taking the high road, as you’re going to see too with a lot of unfair shots he has taken in this campaign with some of his opponents’ supporters, McCain and I taking the high road, being positive. I wouldn’t support nor would I condone taking shots at any good Alaskans.

KTUU-Channel 2: Let me answer your question since you asked for specifics.

Palin: Sure.

KTUU-Channel 2: Walt Monegan was called “rogue.” How do you feel about that?

Palin: Rogue isn’t a negative term when you consider that in a cabinet you need a team effort going forward with a governor’s agenda. And our agenda has been to find efficiencies in every department and make sure that we are serving the people of Alaska to the best of our ability given the resources that we have. And remember I fought very hard to increase funding for state troopers so that we could fill positions there and goals not being met that included not being able to recruit and retain all the state troopers that I wanted to best serve Alaska. That could be characterized I think as a cabinet member who – it’s not a negative term I think — being rogue in terms of not meeting those goals.

Palin: Hey, thank you so, Meg. Thank you so much. Thank you also to our local reporters up there in Alaska. Even hearing your names make me feel like I’m right there with you at home. It’s good to get to speak with you. Let me talk a little bit about the Tasergate issue if you guys would let me and, Meg, you want me to just jump right on in there?

The shark has been jumped.

So let’s recap. The report states she has abused her power as governor, and she’s really glad she’s done nothing wrong. Todd did what any “Alaskan” would do. She thinks the mostly Republican legislative council has turned into a partisan circus, but she hasn’t heard anything about attacks on anyone in Alaska from her campaign. The McCain campaign is taking the high road and being positive. And being a rogue cop isn’t a bad thing. Any questions?

If you want to read Lisa Demer’s full account, and hear the interview in the Governor’s own voice: CLICK HERE.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Operation Chaos a Success! Don Young Wins by a Nose!

By GottaLaff

Via our favorite Alasakan blogger:

Operation Chaos, it seems, may have been a diabolical success. You’ll all recall when Rush Limbaugh urged all his supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton in states with open primaries. The theory was that she’d be easier to defeat than Barack Obama. [...]

It was no secret in the polling, that Democratic candidate Ethan Berkowitz was much more likely to defeat long-term but desperately corrupt incumbent Don Young, than Republican newcomer (and some would say Palin-bot) rival Lt. Governor Sean Parnell.

So, devious Independants and Non-partisans (who make up well over 50% of the voters in Alaska), chose the Republican ballot and voted for Young in a desperate attempt to swing the general election in favor of a viable Democratic candidate. How do I know this? Because, just in general chit-chatty conversation, I personally came across FIVE people who did it. I didn’t ask. It was almost like people needed to make this guilty, yet gleeful confession. ....[T]he idea obviously sprang up independently in the minds of those hungry to get the old-guard corrupt politicians out of office.

Weeks after Alaska’s primary, the absentee ballots now counted, Don Young can claim victory by the razor-thin margin of 304 votes. I know five of the voters by name, and I’m guessing that Alaskans like them have put him over the top. Alaska politics makes strange bedfellows.

Parnell will probably call for a recount, so keep those champagne bottles corked for now. The recount could take another 10 days. But, things may be looking up in one branch of Alaska politics.

Go, Mudflats!

The Whackjob Doctrine

By GottaLaff

Mudflats, an Alaskan blog, does it again, this time via a local baptist minister, the Rev. Howard Bess:

Bess is responsible for writing one of the books that Sarah Palin wanted banned from the Wasilla Public Library while she was mayor. The title of the book? Pastor, I am Gay. The book is so bold as to suggest that gay people are not sinners, nor are they diseased. Well, they don’t like talk like that in the Valley. After the book was written, Rev. Bess was targeted by conservative churches, his book was rejected or pulled off the shelves by bookstores, his long-running column in the local newspaper was terminated, and mayor Palin tried to get the book yanked from the shelves of the public library.

Palin now denies that she wanted to censor library books, but Bess insists that his book was on a “hit list” targeted by Palin. “I’m as certain of that as I am that I’m sitting here. This is a small town, we all know each other. People in city government have confirmed to me what Sarah was trying to do.”

[...] Bess was not the only man in the room who has had firsthand knowledge of how Palin’s evangelical views color her world view and therefore, potentially, her policy-making decisions. Phil Munger, our host and author of the Progressive Alaska blog is also a noted local musician and has had many dealings with Sarah Palin in the past.

[He] says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. “She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board,” said Munger, a music composer and teacher. “I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, ‘Sarah, how can you believe in creationism — your father’s a science teacher.’ And she said, ‘We don’t have to agree on everything.’

“I pushed her on the earth’s creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she’d seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them.”

Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. “She looked in my eyes and said, ‘Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.’”

Be afraid. Be very afraid. This woman is whackadoodly-doo.