Joe McGinniss corrects the erroneous reports that "The Rogue" is not selling well.

Courtesy of Joe's blog:

THE ROGUE is selected as an “Editor’s Choice” in the October 9 edition of the New York Times Book Review. That is a distinction not carelessly awarded. 

It also debuts on the New York Times Best-Seller list on October 9, as #7 on the e-book nonfiction list, and as #10 on the hard-cover list. 

And that’s on the basis of only the first six days of sales, not even a full week.  

Some hostile Beltway sites gleefully pointed to the fact that THE ROGUE had sold “only” six thousand copies, as recorded by Bookscan. 

As if 1,000 copies a day was a poor rate of sale. 

In fact, the Bookscan number of 6,000 represents only 75 percent of hard-cover sales. 

So make the six thousand 8,000. 

And Bookscan does not include e-book sales, so nobody buying for a Kindle or Nook gets counted. Given that the NYTimes list ranks the book even higher on its e-book best seller list than on its hard-cover list, we can add another 8,000. 

And then there’s Canada, whose sales are not included, and which average up to ten percent of U.S. sales. 

Ten percent of 16,000=1,600. So a more realistic count of sales over the first six days would be at least 17,500. 

Hey, the numbers will be what they will be. 

But the MSM attempt to spin the first six days into evidence of “lukewarm” reception is dishonest. 

In any case, having first made the New York Times Best-Seller List top ten in 1969, and having made it again in 2011, that gives me best-sellers written over a span of 42 years, which my publisher believes to be a record.

They did the best they could. 

And they came from both the right and the left of the political arena. Dismissing, undermining, attacking, literally doing everything in their power to sabotage this book and keep it out of the hands of the very people who desperately needed to understand just how close they had come to allowing a crazy person to be the Vice President of the United States.

One even going so far as to forward a personal e-mail to an individual so despicable that they will NEVER be able to shower off the stench of their collaboration.

Yet McGinniss, and his book "The Rogue," persevere. As all TRUE lovers of truth and justice should have wanted, and worked for, all along.

And that is very bad news for a certain half term Governor, and very GOOD news for the rest of us.

The Oddest Couple, Chris Christie and Sarah Palin.

This video was put together by the New Jersey Democrats:

New Jersey Democrats are working to tie Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) to former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), dubbing the two the "oddest couple" in a satirical video over the ongoing clamoring for both to enter the GOP presidential race. 

The video, released Thursday by the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, mimics the opening credits of 1970s television show "The Odd Couple," using the show's original theme song but featuring cutouts of Palin and Christie traversing New York City.

However the Democrats are not the only ones who are finding fault with the constant  teasing from these two.

This from conservative commentator S.E. Cupp:

Time's up, governors. If Chris Christie and Sarah Palin want to run, get in there. If not, definitively and convincingly take your names out of the running. Conservatives need to begin the arduous job of whittling down the field and picking their frontrunner. The fact that there have been five GOP straw polls in as many weeks with as many different winners is proof that these unanswered questions are creating a dangerous ambivalence among conservative voters. 

The breathless speculation has been fun, but now it's time to get to work.

Now I disagree with Ms. Cupp on everything (And I do mean EVERYTHING!), but clearly she has a solid point here.  And it is yet another indication that Palin has performed this political prick tease MUCH to long to be considered viable by conservative pundits, or the American voters, any longer.

So now it is time for the Republicans to stop playing "What if?" and start the arduous task of selecting the sacrificial lamb they will choose to go up against President Obama in 2012.

Who will it be? The guy with the magic Underoos, or the guy that plays golf with a sniper rifle?

Personally I just can't decide!

Levi Johnston's book. Deer in the Headlights, or Boy Trapped Under Sarah Palin's Bus Tire? Part One.

I know I promised to write the review quite awhile back, but I have a good excuse for putting it off for so long.

I don't want to do it.

Not because it is a bad book. It is.

Not because I want to protect Levi. I don't.

And not because it is in competition with Joe's book. Believe me, it offers NO real competition.

No the reason I don't want to write a review is because to do so I have to reveal long held secrets that are only going to confuse the issue of Trig's parentage, Tripp's birth, and Levi's part in the Palin melodrama.

And because it might cause his sister, who I care about, and his mother, who I adore, unnecessary pain and confusion.  Though many of you believe that Sherry and Mercede are somehow in on the secret that Levi still seems to be protecting, I don't.

However I gave my word, so here goes.

As I mentioned before, much of the book deals with Levi's love of hunting, and his passion for hockey. Signifying that neither he, nor his ghostwriters really understood the demographic for which this book should have been written. The book is NOT good, but I have read worse.

But that is not to say that there are not portions that will prove of interest to those of us who wanted some inside information about what Palin and her family were like when they were not performing for the cameras or having their words ghostwritten for them.

Let's first address the portion that is of the most interest to the readers of this blog, shall we?

Sarah's pregnancy:

On page 51, Levi claims he got a call from Bristol in March of 2008, asking him to come over.  When he arrives, she tells him that Sarah is pregnant, apparently having just become aware of that fact.

Now as we know Palin's official announcement was on March 5th, 2008, yet on page 52 Levi says that the girls had noticed Sarah's weight gain, and that Willow had found a "Clear-blue pregnancy stick" in her mother's drawers.

So essentially we are expected to believe that the girls, who live in the same house with their mother (Though to be fair Sarah is spending a significant amount of time in Juneau, yet still coming to Wasilla quite often.), ONLY become suspicious that Palin is pregnant, and then find a pregnancy test to confirm it, during the same seventh month of pregnancy that she is in when she tells the whole world? Since the rest of the world found out on the 5th of that month, it only gave the girls four days in March to make their "discovery."

My, THAT is awfully convenient!

Also on page 52 Levi claims that "when he thinks back on it, maybe she did" appear pregnant "a little." But he claims that she "started putting around her neck this scarf-y shit that hung down the front of her" which apparently was enough to confound his eyes, which earlier in the book he claims are trained to pick up the tiniest of details from years of hunting in Alaska.

Okay let's back up a little here.

Apparently Levi is claiming that his girlfriend, who had witnessed her mother "with child" at least twice in her young life, did NOT notice that she was pregnant for SEVEN MONTHS, because she wore some "scarf-y shit?" Seriously?

Somehow I doubt that Sarah wore that "scarf-y shit" around the house, or while she was sleeping. Yet according to Levi, Bristol was shocked by the discovery that her  mom was pregnant in her seventh month. Sorry that does NOT make any sense.

However let me just add that I actually know exactly when Bristol learned of her mother's pregnancy.  And in fact it WAS in March of 2008. To be more clear she learned the same way that everybody else learned, by seeing it on television.

Now roll that around in your head a little.

Bristol Palin, who HAD to have seen her mother around the house quite frequently in various stages of undress, did NOT realize that she was with child until it was announced on television during her seventh month of pregnancy.

Now even if you did not know EVERYTHING that you know about this bizarre pregnancy story, wouldn't THAT little tidbit almost immediately make you suspicious?

Levi also addresses the rumors about Bristol being pregnant as having started back in 2006 while Bristol was in Juneau.

Interesting, except for the fact that Bristol was NOT in Juneau in 2006.

Sarah did not even start her term until January 2007, and Bristol did not move to Juneau until the spring of that year. How could he be off by an entire year? (Did NOBODY fact check this book?)

Levi also clears up the rumor that Bristol had Mono. She didn't. (Though actually Sadie cleared that one up quite awhile ago.)

He goes on to say that the family was not told that Trig had Down Syndrome until April, right before Trig was born. And that "she (Sarah) had been telling Bristol during the past month that her water was leaking once or twice a day, in drops."

Really?  She is supposedly leaking "water," sharing that information with her daughter, but NOT telling her doctor?

How do I know she was not telling her doctor? Because if she had, what do you think her doctor would have suggested?

She would have immediately prescribed antibiotics to fight possible infection, suggest she get lots of rest, and insist that she stay very close to a medical facility in case things suddenly progressed.

And I can tell you another thing, she would NOT have signed off on her patient taking a flight to Texas! That is for damn sure!

Trust me, there was NO water /amniotic fluid leaking.

Now also according to Levi Sarah called Bristol when she arrived in Anchorage, and told her that the "drops were pretty much constant." Levi says he went back to sleep and only arrived at Mat-Su Regional AFTER the baby was born.

"My heart went out to the delicate child. I picked him up, cuddled him

Also on page 54: Between the flight and the delivery (Which Levi did NOT witness), Sarah was pale, whipped. There'd be a help at home when she got there. A retired special-needs teacher had been lined up to care for the infant."

It's not in the book, but when appearing on the Joy Behar Show Levi revealed another heretofore unknown bombshell:

JOHNSTON: Bristol wasn`t pregnant at that time. And the only thing I could say, I actually showed up at the hospital probably four or five hours after she apparently had Trig. When she was in there she had you the outfit on. She was lying in the bed. She had the IV in her arm. On a blackberry, Trig was in there, Todd and all the kids. 

Now this is important, because Levi is the FIRST person, outside of Chuck Heath of course, who claims he saw Sarah in bed, and even adds the detail of the IV in her arm.

Did he actually see an IV, or was he instructed by someone to say he saw an IV?

Now here dear readers we have to make a choice.

Was Levi an unwitting witness to a charade put together to convince people outside of the family that Sarah had just given birth?  Or is he a willing accomplice helping to cover up what actually took place?

Sadly I think I have the answer to those questions. As well as to the questions of WHY Levi does not fight for his visitation rights with Tripp, why Rex and Tank did not sign up for the book deal I helped to put together in 2009, and why this book delivers nothing earth shattering even though Tank Jones used to tell anybody who would listen that what Levi had on Sarah Palin was "bigger than Watergate."

However before I lay all of my cards on the table I believe it would be instructive to examine what this book says about the NEXT bizarre pregnancy in the Palin household.

Coming soon! Bristol's odd, and very politically convenient, pregnancy with Tripp Johnston.

No surprise to Alaskans that some of the people who dared to speak to Joe McGinnisss on the record are now being threatened.

Courtesy of Winnipeg Free Press:

Author Joe McGinniss says some of the people quoted by name in his controversial book on Sarah Palin have been threatened since its release last week. 

"A couple of them have already gotten some blowback," McGinniss said Thursday in a telephone interview from Toronto, where he was in town promoting "The Rogue: Searching For The Real Sarah Palin." 

"One guy was even told he'd better watch his back because it's going to be a long winter; he might not see the end of it because he has such a big mouth." 

After months spent fending off similar threats when he moved next door to the former Alaska governor last year while researching the book in Wasilla, Alaska, McGinniss suspects Todd Palin and his pals.

"Todd really is a bully," he alleges with a sigh. 

This is the point that has to driven home repeatedly concerning why so many people will NOT speak on the record about Palin and her numerous scandals.  Because they are terrified of just this kind of thing happening to them.

And if anybody has reason to doubt Joe, then listen to what Nick Broomfield has to say on that same topic:

To make matters worse, word had spread throughout the town that Broomfield was intending to make “a hit piece” on Palin, which scared many of the townspeople into silence, with one former Palin classmate worried that speaking out against Palin would ruin him financially in Wasilla. And that's when things got strange. 

“I got Anchorage police calling me up, then I started getting some weird phone calls to the office—people calling me ‘scum' and a lot of people just saying one word and then hanging up,” said Broomfield. “Just creepy stuff.” 

By the way in this interview Joe also responds to a question about the letter from Palin's lawyer threatening a lawsuit:

Although Palin has dismissed the book as defamatory and warns she will sue, Crown Publishers says it stands by the book and its author, while McGinniss says he's not worried. 

"Anybody can have a lawyer write a letter threatening to sue," he said. "To actually sue is a very different business and you open yourself to a discovery process."

I have it on good authority that Joe is chomping at the bit for the opportunity to face Palin in a courtroom.  There are some on the Right who claim that he and his publisher are in deep doo doo and that because the lawsuit would take place in Alaska that McGinniss and his Crown Publishers are sweating the cost involved in traveling back and forth to Alaska.

Bullshit! Take it from me, Joe LOVES Alaska, and if he could get his publishers to foot the bill to fly him back and forth, while also receiving tons of press for his book during a lawsuit against Sarah Palin, the man would be in hog heaven!

Seems fair.

Want to see something really funny?

I don't know about you guys but I need a break from all things Sarah Palin for the rest of the evening. So when I saw this YouTube video of what could happen if a bad lip reader was asked to dub Rick Perry's Texas drawl I thought it was the perfect way to top off a long day.

I dare you not to laugh!

(H/T to Mediaite.)

Alaska's richest man blasts Sarah Palin for double crosssing her fellow Alaskans. Update!

Courtesy of the National Enquirer:

Alaska’s richest man is blasting Sarah Palin for failing to avert a po­tentially devastating environmental disaster in the state she once governed – and now he wants ENQUIRER readers’ help to get the job done! 

In an exclusive interview, Bob Gillam, founder of McKinley Capital Management and a staunch envi­ronmentalist, alleged that a foreign mining venture called Pebble Mine in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay is believed to be threatening the habitat of the salmon-filled natural wonder. 

“Sarah double-crossed us,” he says. 

“When she was governor, Sarah told me on more than one occasion her daughter Bristol was named after Bristol Bay and she would never do anything to hurt the area, especially since she had a salmon fishing permit herself,” said Gillam. 

The benevolent billionaire fears the toxic waste from the site could leak into the water after one of Alaska’s regular earthquakes, killing half of the world’s wild salmon. The pink-fleshed fish is the dietary staple of the more than 15,000 aboriginal Alaskans who live around the bay.

The residents of our state are STILL feeling the aftershocks of Palin's time as our Governor.

That bullshit movie put out by Steve Bannon notwithstanding, REAL Alaskans know she was devastating to our state's reputation, its people, and possibly even our future.

You might believe that my last point is mere hyperbole, but if the plans for the Pebble Mine are allowed to move forward, for many Alaskans living off the waters of Bristol Bay that is EXACTLY what her legacy will mean to their way of life.

And don't think for a moment that the blame for this ecosystem killing disaster does not rest completely on the Grizzled Mama's shoulders, because it does.

This from a report written by environmentalist Bill Sherwonit explains how hard our half term Governor pushed for this project:

Pebble Mine opponents hoped to cripple the project with Measure 4, which would have strictly limited the pollutants that metal mines could discharge into streams and drinking water. But the mining interests’ massive advertising campaign successfully painted Measure 4 as an extreme initiative that threatened the state’s mining industry and its 5,500 jobs. In addition to speaking out against the measure and allowing her image to be used in mining industry advertisements, Gov. Palin also allowed her Department of Natural Resources to promote a “no” vote on its Web site. The Alaska Public Offices Commission later ordered the department to take down its statement of support. Palin’s critics said her involvement in the ballot measure was a misuse of her power and violated the spirit of the constitutional ban prohibiting state officials from getting involved in citizen initiatives.

This is just part of the deadly legacy that Sarah Palin left the people of Alaska. Just as she left the city of Wasilla 20 million dollars in debt after serving as the worst mayor they ever had.

You may still be able to find a few people in the lower forty eight who still believe Palin's lies, but in Alaska we learned who she was the hard way. And it is a lesson that we are helping to teach others before it is too late.

Thankfully, it appears they have been listening.

Update: Somebody asked how we can help.  Here you go:

HOW YOU CAN HELP: ENQUIRER readers wishing to speak out can write the Renewable Resources Coalition at 605 West 2nd Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501, or e-mail info@renewable resourcescoalition.org. Alaskan Governor Sean Parnell can be reached at: Governor Sean Parnell, P.O. Box 110001, Juneau, AK 99811-0001. E-mail: sean.parnell@alaska.gov.

Very professional interview with Joe McGinniss on CTV News. Another example of Canadians demonstrating to the Americans how to conduct a REAL interview. Update!

The videos are not embeddable, but you can watch Part One here, and Part Two right here. They are really quite excellent and well worth the ten and a half minutes it will take to watch them. (By the way in part two is where Joe holds forth with his opinion on babygate.)

After dismissing a couple of requests for an interview on the Joe McGinniss e-mail kerfuffle I am about to grant an interview with somebody who does NOT have an agenda to protect Sarah Palin while at the same time destroying Joe's credibility.

Hopefully that will be made available sometime next week, and will clear up a number of misconceptions.

Update: I thought this would be a good place to insert Tina Dupuy's excellent review of Joe's book:

The book does illustrate how she rose to fame. It demystifies why Sarah does the things she does (spoiler alert: she’s a narcissist). 

I compiled the list of Sarah Palin’s media feuds, mostly because it’s hilarious. What I’ve observed about her is she never takes the proverbial high road. So of course she’s threatening to sue McGinniss’ publisher. The greatest defense against slander is the truth. And truth is something Palin has feuded with more than anything else. 

The Rogue paints a more complete picture of Sarah than has been written before. It’s a quick read. It’s also a sincere love letter to the state of Alaska. There are things that are interesting if we needed to find something politically damaging to her (we don’t). For example, she raised taxes when she was mayor of Wasilla. Sales taxes even. She signed off on a half cent sales tax increase to pay for a stadium in Wasilla. I talked to a colleague of one of the lawyers who vetted Palin for the ’08 election (check out that unnamed source) and he said Palin was brought on because she was thought to be a moderate. She had worked with both Republican and Democrats in her state and in her city to get things done. And then she became the campaign Kraken with a quarter million dollar wardrobe accusing her “enemy” of pallin’ around with terrorists. 

What’s interesting about Joe’s book is that he really illustrates just how much of a mirage Palin has been to her supporters. Her perfect appearance on the horizon is diminished with each step closer to her. Which is why Republicans are not clamoring for her to run for president. The right can no longer dismiss all criticism of Palin as just liberals who hate her for not aborting her Down Syndrome child. No, now the right suspects she's incompetent too. They now agree with us. As they say in the south, she ain’t right. And instead of being a divisive figure – she’s bringing left, right and in betweens together in their mutual disdain for her. Poetic.

Now THAT is a review from a journalist who actually read the damn book!

Gee I wonder if Tina now has second thoughts about  her out of hand dismissal of babygate?

Jon Stewart on Sarah Palin: "You are either running for President of the United States or you are a crazy person."

 (Video courtesy of Mediaite.)

First Nicolle Wallace labels Palin "Cuckoo for CoCoa Puffs" and now Stewart just calls her "a crazy person."

Thanks for finally joining the "No Shit Sherlock" party. What took you all so long?

Geez HOW long have I have been telling people that she's certifiable? Three years now?

Absolutely MUST SEE review of the documentary "Sarah Palin: You Betcha!"

Courtesy of the New York Observer:

For a shrill, obnoxious loudmouth spouting more semantic goofs in public than Mrs. Malaprop, she has mangled more facts, misquoted more people and been on the wrong side of so many things that she’s ready for a cinematic firing squad. And for a veteran documentary filmmaker with the credits of British director Nick Broomfield, I expected Sarah Palin—You Betcha! to be a hair-raising exposé. But he didn’t have to put in much overtime. All he had to do was go to Wasilla, Alaska, open his eyes and ears, and keep his cameras rolling. As her family, friends and enemies—including just about everybody she has ever worked with as mayor, governor and vice presidential nominee-—prove in every scene, Sarah Palin defines self-parody. 

The result is a balanced job of reporting that drives a stake through the heart of whatever she had left of a political career. Not easy, when a subject speaks only through Facebook and Twitter. But Mr. Broomfield, who wrote and directed the film with Joan Churchill, has profiled difficult subjects before: Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, and lesbian serial killer Aileen Wuornos, for starters. This might have been his easiest job yet. She was a pistol-packin’ mama who arrived on the scene after shooting and killing animals from a helicopter just in time to wreck John McCain’s bid for the presidency (although he did plenty to make a fool of himself on his own), stuck around to drive the Tea Party to infamy, and flapped her mouth with notable quotables like “What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.” It’s all in the movie. She does the work. You just shudder.

In case you think Sarah Palin—You Betcha! is a hit job on an easy subject, see the movie and learn something. It’s terrifying, but in all fairness, no disgrace, no rumor of extramarital affairs in office, no broadside is explored unless it can be substantiated. No need to gild a poison lily. She didn’t know Africa was a continent. She still insists you can see Russia from Alaska. The movie has wry humor and sobering facts, but Mr. Broomfield doesn’t make anything up. By the end, the catalogue of her failures, hypocrisies and lies is still overwhelming. But despite her political irrelevance, her biggest supporter is Rupert Murdoch, who paid her a $3 million salary for Fox and a $7 million advance for her book, Going Rogue. She is currently being offered a cool million to undergo a polygraph test to disprove accusations of immorality in public office in the new Palin biography by Joe McGinnis. Ignorant, self-serving, vengeful, deeply dishonest, power-mad and pathological are just a few of the descriptions in this film, and they do not come from a bunch of sore-headed Democrats either. Both sides get a chance to cast a ballot. One long-time Palin voter says, “When she meets people, they just melt.” Oh, where have I been? 

This is a great review.  I loved it!

Even I had not already been convinced to go see this, I certainly would be now.

P.S. For a reminder of where you can see this film just click here.

Democracy in danger as laboratory discovers that Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control!

Courtesy of Salon:

It could be one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date. 

Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind. 

"We believe these man-in-the-middle attacks are potentially possible on a wide variety of electronic voting machines," said Roger Johnston, leader of the assessment team "We think we can do similar things on pretty much every electronic voting machine."

I cannot for the life of me understand why we have not done away with ALL of the e-voting machines in this country!

I have a great deal of faith in the American people to make the right decision and vote to give President Obama a second term.

I have virtually NO faith in the Republican party to play by the rules.

After what happened in 2000 during the Bush v Gore election, I have been convinced that the Republican motto is "win at all cost."

They no longer care about democracy, or fair play, or the will of the people. All they care about is winning.

And as long as these incredibly faulty machines are still being controlled by that party, and we know that they are, the ONLY way we have of beating them is by having our candidates win by the largest margin possible.

Unless something changes concerning these machines in the next year, the only way that we can ensure a victory for our democracy is by making sure that people turn out to vote, and to make sure the vote they cast is the one that is recorded.

Which is why whenever I hear a progressive suggest that they will stay home because this President is not EXACTLY who he  wanted him to be, I literally want to throttle them into unconsciousness.

This is not a game, this is serious.  The very definition of who Americans are is at risk and the Republicans have already demonstrated that they have NO intention of playing by the rules.

In other words, THIS seems like the perfect job for Homeland Security.

I have sent them an e-mail with the article, if you would like to do the same here is their contact information.

How to Analyze a Palin Interview.

Huge hat tip to our friend Love & Knishes.

The truly funny part is that this is EXACTLY what the Palin-bots see when they watch one of her interviews.

Just in case there are NOT enough nails in Sarah Palin's political coffin, let me present the devastating Rachel Maddow interview with ex-McCain staffers Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The first part of this interview is about Chris Christie and Barack Obama, which IS very interesting and worth watching. But if you really just want to see the Palin portion you might want to skip it

The Steve Schmidt/Nicolle Wallace portion starts around the 12:23 mark.

The skewering of Palin begins around the 17:31 mark.

And things REALLY heat up around the 19:40 mark.

Wallace also finally admits that the "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" VP in her book is based on Sarah Palin.

Wow, who could have figured THAT out? I mean besides everybody?

Rationalizations run rampant at the Sea O'Pee!

"Hah! Even when I crap on them they make excuses for me! I wonder what would happen if I told them that sacrificing their first born children would convince me to run?"

Retrieved from the depths of Mordor:

Oh Greta! Everybody’s a little nervous now apparently. But hey, we’ve got a bumpy 14 months ahead, and it is my hope that we can do this all together with our joy intact. Sometimes that’s hard. 

Here’s what I do when I’m feeling confused about the way things should go … I remember the following: 

1) I have never been a candidate for city council, mayor, lieutenant governor, governor or vice president. Governor Palin has. So, she might have some knowledge that I do not possess. 

2) I have never been villainized by a rabid press and targeted even by my own party for political annihilation. Governor Palin has. So, she might have some knowledge that I do not possess. 

3) I have never had a political action committee comprised of trustworthy and intelligent staff members, including a chief of staff who ran a presidential campaign, a foreign policy advisor who has consulted with former presidents, and a brilliant speechwriter who is primed for battle at all times. Governor Palin has and does. So she might have some knowledge that I do not possess.

Oh that is just freaking pathetic!

Another attempt to make sense of this clusterfuck from somebody calling themselves technopeasant:

Ask yourself why did the Sarah Palin approach Stephen K Bannon after the 2010 midterm election to do some You Tube videos to supposedly “rehabilitate her image?” If Sarah Palin was planning to remain on the sidelines why would she desire to rehabilitate her political image? 

And even more from some bot called BrianusBerkleianus:

I can perceive that some people may have become a little discouraged, and may be thinking that, when Sarah says she does not need a title to make a difference, and when she says that she might be constricted by a POTUS campaign in the way that she was constricted during the VP campaign of ’08, that all of this means she may not run in 2012. 

NO WAY!! She is running!! 

IMHO, what she is telling us is NOT that she is not intending to run, but rather that her “finis,” as the Romans said, her “telos,” as the Greeks said, her “goal” or “purpose,” as we say, is not to seek a title, but rather to serve the American People. 

There is all the difference between seeking a title plain and simple, out of pride, out of greed for power, out of ambition, and seeking to serve the common good, in the course of which, as a MEANS TO AN END, one seeks a title, in this case, President of the United States. 

Sarah is saying that she is not going to “run for President” in the way that other candidates traditionally have, but rather that she will seek to open her beautiful, brave, and noble “servant’s heart” to the service of her country in the highest and loftiest way possible…and that she is going to find that the best MEANS to serve her END is to run for POTUS. 

You know for a VERY long time I have predicted that when Palin finally lets her Bots know she is not running that they would be unable to accept it, and that we would see them lose their grip on reality and slowly go insane.

 Sucks to be right sometimes.

What kind of inhuman monster treats the people that look up to her, and believe in her with such disdain and callousness?

The Grizzled Mama, drops her facade, and virtually admits that she has NO intention of running for President in 2012. That wailing sound you hear are little hearts breaking over at the Sea O'Pee.

 Video courtesy of Mediaite:

 If you watch the interview you cannot help but come away with the feeling that Palin is becoming bored with the tease, and much of her body language, and talk of having an impact "without a title," is clearly her way of saying she has no intention of running in 2012. 

I also tweeted during the interview.  Here were my observations.

There are rumors that Palin has lost her commenting job at Fox. Anybody hear confirmation? (I still have not heard if this is accurate.)

Palin on now looks angry. (Glowering, working her mouth, and looking tense.)

Attack on Obama five minutes in. Off her game.

Palin speaking for the little people. Who have charter jets, multiple homes, and millions in the bank.

Palin kissing up to Herman Cain. Now would a racist do that? Yup! (I actually heard this wrong. More at the end of my tweets.)

Palin compares CNN to Fox and finds CNN more favorable. Check temperature in hell.(For some reason Palin has been leaning more toward CNN, ever since they co-hosted that CNN/Teabagger debate.)

Greta asks the question she has to ask, but Palin plays coy again. Claims campaign would be too "shackling." (I had to replay the video this morning to make sure I heard that right., Yup, I did!)

"Shackling?"

Palin claims she took action on Israel by having dinner with prime minister. WTF? (When asked what she could do from the sidelines, instead of running for President, Palin talked about having this dinner with Netanyahu, apparently believing that since she did not eat with her feet that Netanyahu now has a much better impression of America.)

Greta is challenging her. Ask her about Joe's book Greta! (She didn't.)

Greta: "do you think you could win?" deranged idiot: "I do!" So sad. (No hesitation. Not one bit. Easy to be full of confidence when you have no intention of putting your ass on the line to prove it.)

Who had "time tested truths" on their Sarah Palin Bingo cards?
And she's off! (Interview over.)

Not one question about McGinniss book. Fox News, where journalism goes to die.

Palin changed Herman Cain's name to "Herb?" I wonder how Herb feels about that? (I had missed this earlier, but apparently like every good plantation owner, Palin had decided to change the African American man's name to her liking. Hey at least she did not change it from "Kunta Kinte" to "Toby.")

As bizarre as I found this interview, the folks over at the Sea O'Pee apparently felt as if their entire world had just fallen away beneath them as Palin left virtually NO doubt that she was NOT running in 2012.

Here are some of their comments:

She better think so is all I have to say. She is already doing a lousy job at campaigning. 
O4P steps up their game and Sarah does this. Good job. /s 
She owes us a decision now. 

Many of us have poured hours and even days and our own money into this and I can't stand this draggig out thing. Tonight I was sick to my stomach watching it and my wife just said "I told you so." I have to say I agree with her after tonight. I cannot speak for Sarah and she is free to make up her own mind about her future. I will say prayers that she gives this decision a lot of thought. 

I willl say that this site is a great thing, and we should not give up on it if Sarah decides not to do this. The information, the mods, everything is all great. Please do not give up if Sarah does not run. 

The one thing I tell myself when doubt creeps in is this: If she was not running she would have told us long before now. This Patriot has and is willing to sacrifice much more so please cut her some slack. 

Just watched the clip on RightScoop as well. My thoughts: Zero hint, actually negative, talking about alternative. She seems very dour, serious, almost resigned. Tense or wound up; even a bit angry. I'm not happy but recognize there may or may not be more going on. Overall, leaves me with a very unsettled feeling. I do think this should give everyone cause for pause, sit back, wait.

I remember when I first stopped believing in the Tooth Fairy. Devastating!

I think these people are virtually too ignorant to effectively figure out how to fill their lungs with air, but even recognizing that what Palin is doing to them is cruel beyond measure.

I believe when people are trying to assess just what kind of a person Sarah Palin is, examining her treatment of the people who literally fawn over her every word is most instructive.

Editor's note: For those who are unfamiliar with the Kunta Kinte reference I suggest you read the book "Roots." Or at least watch the mini-series, like I did. Alex Haley did an amazing job of educating Americans about this country's shameful history of slavery.

Americans trust President Obama to deal with the deficit more than they do the Republicans.

From Pew Research Center:

As the nation prepares for another round of deficit reduction debates, the public’s confidence in congressional leaders, particularly Republican leaders in Congress, has plummeted. Just 35% say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in Republican leaders in Congress to do the right thing when it comes to dealing with the federal budget deficit, down from 47% in May. Fully 62% say they have little or no confidence in the Republican leaders on this issue. 

Public confidence in Barack Obama on the budget deficit, by comparison, has remained largely unchanged. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Sept. 22-25 among 1,000 adults finds that 52% express at least a fair amount of confidence in Obama to do the right thing when it comes to dealing with the deficit, virtually unchanged from 55% earlier in the year.

Another Republican talking point bites the dust.

Next!

Lawrence O'Donnell interviews Nick Broomfield.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here is the information for the upcoming premiers that Nick sent to me yesterday:

Sarah Palin: You Betcha! opens on Friday September 30th in the following theatres:

Angelika Film Centre, New York.
Fri - Sat. 11:00, 12:35, 13:15, 15:30, 17:45, 20:00, 22:30
Sun - Thu. 11:00, 13:15, 15:30, 17:45, 20:10, 22:00
Nick Broomfield will be doing a Q&A on Friday 30th September after the17:45 screening, on the 1st October after the 20:00 screening, and on the 2nd October after the 15:30 screening.
To view information about this screening and purchase tickets click here

Lincoln Plaza Cinema, New York
Fri - Thur. 12:30, 14:10, 16:05, 18:25, 20:30, 22:20
Nick Broomfield will be doing a Q&A on Friday 30th September after the 20:30 screening, on the 1st October after the 18:25 screening, and on the 2nd October after the 14:10 screening.
To view information about this screening and purchase tickets click here

Laemmle Monica, Santa Monia, CA
Joan Churchill will be doing a Q&A on Friday 30th September after the 19:50 screening, and on Sunday 2nd October after the 15:10 screening and the 17:25 screening.
To view information about this screening and purchase tickets click here

Laemmle Monica, Pasadena, CA
Joan Churchill will be doing a Q&A on Saturday 1st October after the 17:25 screening and the 19:50 screening.
To view information about this screening and purchase tickets click here

Kabuki 8, San Francisco, CA Elmwood 6, Berkeley, CA

Sarah Palin: You Betcha! will also play at the following theatres from the 7th October:

Drexel East Theatre, Columbus, OH

Sundance Cinemas 608, Madison, WI

St Anthony Main, Minneapolis, MN

Starz Filmcenter, Denver, CO

Valley Art 1 Theatre, Tempe, AZ

Clinton Street Theatre, Portland, OR

For more information click here

Admiral Twin, Seattle, WA

For any further information on upcoming screenings, please click here.

P.S. Before you ask YES I saw Rachel Maddow, and I will have that video up later.

Fake ghostwritten response for Bristol Palin to address her fake heckling incident from her fake reality show. Update!

Courtesy of some crazy ass Right Wing Palin loving blog:

As a lot of you know, I had an encounter in West Hollywood the other day with an unhinged guy who was yelling hateful things at me about my Mom. The press has only shown a part of the encounter, so many reporters have totally missed the point of my comments. Most people may have walked away rather than go up to some guy raging like that and try to find out what his problem is. But that’s not how I’m wired. I usually do walk away, but I’m very tired of hateful people lying (Telling the truth) about my Mom, my family, and myself. So, this time I tried to get to the bottom of it. 

I asked the guy if the reason he was so angry at my Mom was because he was gay. I was NOT baiting him or mocking him or in any way being derogatory of gays. (Yes you were.)  It was just the opposite! I know that some members of the gay community have completely false (Accurate.) notions about my Mom. I wanted to clear this up with this guy, but he was so far gone in his crazy hatred (Scripted responses) that rational conversation was impossible. 

I think so much of the hatred directed at my Mom is based on lies and misconceptions about her and our family. It’s gotten so out of control that a 40-something guy in West Hollywood started shrieking obscenities at the top of his lungs and wishing death on my Mom, just at the thought of her. She hasn’t done anything to warrant his hatred (except of course everything), and I wanted to address that. 

As I said to that hate-filled guy in West Hollywood: Show me one thing my Mom has done that is so “evil” as to warrant the hatred and death wishes people heap on her and her kids. (Why, why, why could she not have asked ME that question? I have like a whole list!)

The crazy guy had no answer because there is no answer. You can disagree with her politics without vilifying her or lying about us. 

Isn’t it time for this crazy hatred to stop? That’s what I was trying to say to that guy. 

- Bristol

You know if you have somebody read it aloud with your ears stuffed with cotton, and half of your frontal lobe scooped out with an ice cream scoop, it sounds JUST like her! 

For those of you who may have missed Bristol's very reasonable response to the "heckler." here is the video. As you can see "diplomacy" is her middle name.

Update: The "heckler" has learned that even a fake altercation with the Palins can be a frightening experience.

"Having had an opportunity to view the camera footage of the incident this past Thursday at the Saddle Ranch Bar & Chop House in West Hollywood, and having reflected on the incident over the weekend, I have come to the conclusion that no matter what my feelings are towards Sarah Palin, I should not have expressed them towards her daughter, Bristol Palin," Stephen Hanks said in a statement released by his lawyer to E! News. 

"I am very passionate about politics, and believe in equality for all Americans," Hanks continued. "I expressed my feelings in an improper manner in the heat of the moment, and allowed my emotions to get the better of me. 

"My political views are solely mine, and not those of my friends, colleagues or the establishment for which I work. I apologize to them for my poor judgment that night, and to Bristol for any hurt my actions may have caused her. I wish Bristol success with her television show, and much happiness in the future." 

Hanks also says that, as far as he knows, the incident was not a set-up perpetrated by the production company behind her new TV show. He says he didn't even know that their exchange was being filmed, though, considering Bristol had a crew with her duringher entire time in the bar, that seems unlikely. 

"Since this incident, numerous threats have been made against Mr. Hanks, his friends, family, colleagues, and even his pets," Gulden said. "Acknowledging that the exchange between Mr. Hanks and Bristol has generated a lot of media interest and debate, Mr. Hanks would like to put the incident behind him, and hopes that the media and public will respect his rights and privacy."

I still can't buy that the incident was spontaneous, but I CAN absolutely believe that this guy received death threats from the clueless Palin-bots. After all hate is the Palin family's stock in trade.

Author of "The Lies of Sarah Palin" comes to the defense of rival author Joe McGinniss.

Courtesy of Firedoglake:

Five days before a literary embargo theoretically prohibited any reviews from appearing in the mainstream media, the New York Times delivered what was effectively a journalistic hit (executed by Janet Maslin) on bestselling author Joe McGinniss and his long-awaited book-length profile of Alaska’s former governor, The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin. 

I was nearly three-quarters of the way through it by the time that Maslin’s review was first posted on the Times web site. I was immediately appalled by its intellectual dishonesty, its distorted portrait of the book, and its unbridled demonization of McGinniss. She calls the book “dated, petty and easily available to anyone with Internet access.” Really? Then why, one must ask, has the book caused such a ruckus? Are there reports on the Internet, for instance, of Palin’s mass firing of people of color during her first weeks as Governor of Alaska or personal accounts of her dominionist religious beliefs? Is there a full-scale work that combines the elegance and depth of McGinniss’ reporting into a composite narrative? I think not. Indeed, the power of The Rogue is that the whole of its devastating narrative is greater than the sum of its parts.

I should also acknowledge that I am the author of an earlier book on the former Alaska governor, The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power, published by St. Martin’s in May, and which I suppose in some people’s eyes would make me something of a competitor with McGinniss, though I never looked at it that way. I sensed at the outset that our books would be very different—and they are, told through very different eyes and voices, and with an entirely different focus—although they come to startlingly similar conclusions about Ms. Palin, both as a human being and as a political figure. While I have never met McGinniss personally, we were introduced by email last year through mutual friends in Alaska and we occasionally communicated (or, more accurately, commiserated) about the poisonous ordeal of covering Palin. But I had not seen a single word of the McGinniss book until I read the first “installment” in Doonesbury, which featured excerpts from the book (all by “named” sources, incidentally), and then received a review copy that arrived in the mail later that week.

Moreover, roughly nine months after the assassination attempt on Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords—over whose congressional district Palin had placed crosshair images on her SarahPAC website—there’s not a single mention by Maslin of Palin’s troubling behavior and commentary, both before and after the carnage that left six innocent bystanders dead and another 13 wounded; nor is there a single reference to her many demagogic (and unsubstantiated) claims regarding President Obama, with whom she is strangely obsessed (her charges of “death panels” and “palling around with terrorists” come immediately to mind). Nor does Maslin mention Palin’s troubling behavior on the campaign trail, with her ramped up rhetoric that lead respected Congressmember John Lewis to condemn Palin for “sowing the seeds of hatred and division” throughout the country. All of this is apparently forgiven, or conveniently forgotten, by Maslin, whose Sarah Palin is—once again—a victim. Poor Sarah. Poor, poor Sarah Palin.

I cannot urge you strongly enough to read the entire article by Geoffrey Dunn.  And while doing so please keep in mind that Geoffrey did his OWN painstaking research into the life of Sarah Palin, and essentially wrote about THE EXACT SAME PERSON that Joe McGinniss described in his book.

I would like all of you to also remember that this person described in Joe and Geoffrey's book bears a striking resemblance to the person also described in the book "Game Change," Frank Bailey's book, and, yes, even Levi Johnston's book.

Which by the way is the exact same person that I have been writing about for these last three years.

So why did Joe's book receive such vitriol and hatred, while others have only received what could probably be described as a simple slap on the wrist?

Well if you read Chapter Nineteen, I do believe that will answer your questions. (Oh and Glen Rice might deserve a little of the credit as well.)

Publishers of "The Rogue" to Palin attorneys: "Book is solid, reliable, and well-substantiated." In other words, "Game On!"

Sarah: "What, they're not afraid?" Todd: "I told you that wouldn't work stupid!"

Courtesy of CBS News:

A publisher is standing behind a book about Sarah Palin, a day after Palin's attorney threatened to sue over it. Crown Publishers spokesman Stuart Applebaum says the company is confident the reporting in Joe McGinniss' book is "solid, reliable, and well-substantiated." 

Applebaum says Crown stands behind McGinniss and the book, "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin." 

Never a doubt in my mind they would call the bluff of Palin's attorneys. Bunch of fucking amateurs!

By the way I guess I should share with all of you one of things about my interactions with Sister Sarah that I think used to make Joe kind of envious.

I was the recipient of a letter from Thomas Van Flein threatening to sue me.

Well I guess he can now cross THAT off his bucket list.

By the way it is only about seven more hours until Palin makes her appearance on the Greta Van "Damn it sucks to be Sarah's bitch" show where we will get to see Sarah demonstrate what this bullshit letter from her lawyers was really all about, by refusing to answer any questions about Joe's book due to "impending legal action."

Of course there is NO "impending legal action," so if Greta was not a pathetic excuse for an interviewer she would bring that up and press her for a response.  But we all know that won't happen!

And this, boys and girls, is why we don't see Palin making anymore appearances on The Factor.  I am pretty confident that O'Reilly would NOT let her get away with that kind of response and would probably tear her a new one, while Roger Ailes chuckled and rubbed his prodigious belly behind the scenes.

The Massey brothers might be regretting allowing their names to be connected with Bristol Palin's.

Courtesy of Hollywood Life:

Kyle Massey may be Bristol Palin‘s buddy and roommate, but he’s not pleased about her homophobic freak out at Saddle Ranch in West Hollywood Thursday night. 

HollywoodLife.com caught up with Kyle over the weekend, who reluctantly commented on Bristol’s behavior. At first, Kyle wasn’t going to say anything about the situation, but his older brother, Chris, spoke out first saying, “We didn’t have anything to do with that, we don’t know what’s going on with that…” 

After that, Kyle chirped in, adding, “We don’t condone what happened!” 

I have to imagine that there are some very angry phone calls going back and forth between the brothers and their agents.

I know that everything on these shows is fake, but it seems the one REAL part of this "reality show" might be that the Massey brothers had NO idea what the hell they were getting themselves into.

You know if they would have just bothered to take time to Google "Bristol Palin" they could have saved themselves all kinds of possibly career ending drama.

By the way I wanted to take this opportunity to let you guys know that I AM still working on a review, and addendum, to Levi's book.

As you know there have been more than a few distractions, But I have started the process, which will still take a few days, and be made up of two different posts.

After I finish you will have to deal, as I have for two years, with what the revelations add, or undermine, about what you think you know about Levi, Sarah, Bristol, Trig, and Tripp.

I wish I could promise that this information will make things clearer, but sadly that I cannot do.

Roger Ailes steers Fox News away from the hard right and back towards the middle, leaving Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin abandoned by the side of the road.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:

The left has long branded Fox a propaganda arm for Ailes’s pugnacious conservatism, and while his journalists maintain they play it straight, the network has certainly provided ample fodder for liberal detractors. But as President Obama’s popularity has plummeted and the country has grown increasingly sick of partisan sniping, something unexpected happened. Roger Ailes pulled back a bit on the throttle. 

He calls it a “course correction,” quietly adopted at Fox over the last year. Glenn Beck’s inflammatory rhetoric—his ranting about Obama being a racist—“became a bit of a branding issue for us” before the hot-button host left in July, Ailes says. So too did Sarah Palin’s being widely promoted as the GOP’s potential savior—in large measure through her lucrative platform at Fox. Privately, Fox executives say the entire network took a hard right turn after Obama’s election, but, as the Tea Party’s popularity fades, is edging back toward the mainstream. 

While Fox reporters ply their trade under Ailes’s much-mocked “fair and balanced” banner, the opinion arm of the operation has been told to lower the temperature. After the Gabrielle Giffords shooting triggered a debate about feverish rhetoric, Ailes ordered his troops to tone things down. It was, in his view, a chance to boost profits by grabbing a more moderate audience.

As Joe McGinniss reported Roger Ailes was beyond pissed off that Palin made that taped statement after Giffords was shot, and essentially has been done with her ever since. (Gee, I wonder who Joe's anonymous source was for THAT story?)

Palin was a huge moneymaker for Fox News, right up until her crazy started to blossom, and her beauty started to fade.  Now she is just a tenacious dingleberry refusing to let go until Ailes can finally shake his fat ass hard enough to dislodge her.

I have to wonder if Palin attorney John Tiemessen will have yet ANOTHER Palin enemy to sue now.

Okay the idea of little Johnny Tiemessen going up against Random House AND News Corps actually made me laugh out loud.

But you know Palin would pick fights all day long, just so long as SHE did not have to fight them, or pay for them, or have any of her secrets revealed to the media because of them.

So no, she's not suing ANYBODY!

Lawrence O'Donnell discusses the brutality suffered by the "Occupy Wall Street" protestors at the hands of the New York City police department.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

By the way here is the link to The Last Word Blog were you can find the full videos of this terrible miscarriage of justice.

Sarah Palin threatens to sue Random House for publishing "The Rogue."

Courtesy of ABC News:

Sarah Palin’s family attorney John Tiemessen has written a letter to Maya Mavjee, the publisher of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, that Palin may sue her, the company, and the book’s author Joe McGinniss “for knowingly publishing false statements” in his book released last week, “The Rogue,” ABC News has learned. 

A source close to the Palins tells ABC News that the “Palins are fighting back and demanding answers from Random House.” 

“Random House is at the top of the food chain and published a book based upon acknowledged unsubstantiated gossip,” the source said. “The revealing email is key as evidence of this defamatory approach to politics through proxies.” 

Tiemessen writes in the letter that the email “clearly describes the fact that Mr. McGinniss researched and investigated many false and scurrilous allegations, and concluded that there was absolutely no evidence anywhere backing these allegations.” 

Palin’s attorney writes that it is “malicious” for Crown to publish the book when it has proof McGinniss and Crown “were fully aware the statements in the book were false, intended to be false, and were intended to harm.” 

“The final work that was published contains most of the stories that Mr. McGinniss complains were nothing more than ‘tawdry gossip’ that amounted to the wishful fantasies of disturbed individuals,” 

Tiemessen writes. “Since both your company, and the author, clearly knew the statements were false, admitted they had no basis in fact or reality, but decided to publish in order to harm Governor Palin’s family, you and Mr. McGinniss have defamed the Palins.” Tiemessen ends the letter by warning the publishing house not to “delete emails or destroy records” that may be used in the suit. 

The email Tiemessen cites in his letter to Mavjee came to light last week when conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted an email between McGinniss and liberal Alaskan blogger, Jesse Griffin. In the email posted on Breitbart’s site without explanation for how they got access to it, McGinniss writes, “Legal review of my manuscript is underway and here’s my problem: no one has ever offered documentation of any of the lurid stories about the Palins.”

I don't know how Joe feels about this but I say "Game On!'

Those of us who have been blogging about Palin for years have been dying to get her into a court room just for the opportunity to go through the discovery portion and watch her try to prove she DID give birth to Trig Palin on April 18, 2008.

Of course Joe did not make that allegation exactly, but he DID make some rather scandalous allegations that I am beyond confident he has the sources to back up.

By the way Palin is famous for threatening to sue people, and then backing off.  I have to doubt that THIS time she will actually go through with it either.

Oh sure it will excite the Palin-bots into a masturbatory frenzy, but does anybody REALLY think she wants all of these scandalous stories played out in a courtroom in front of the national media, who will all of the suddenly take a MUCH more intense interest in a book that she wants everybody to ignore?

But hell if she DOES sue, how much would you give to be a fly on the wall and hear Alaska Republican Lyda Greene, ex-Head of Security Gary Wheeler, Troopergate victim Walt Moneghan, and ex-boy toy Glen Rice testify under oath concerning what THEY know about the Grizzled Mama?

I swear I will clear my entire calendar the minute they start jury deliberations! I would not miss it for the world!

Been way too serious, for way too long! Time for a little levity courtesy of D.C. Douglas.

Okay before you click the play button let me tell you that this is for grownups with a good sense of humor and NOT SAFE FOR WORK. But it is also damn funny!

Nick Broomfield, director of the documentary "Sarah Palin: You Betcha!", talks about the fear that Sarah Palin inspires in Wasilla.

Courtesy of The Telegraph:

"There was a genuine fear in the community about saying anything against Sarah Palin because people were worried about the power of the Palins and worried about losing their jobs,” he says. “In some cases, the children were friends with the Palin kids and didn’t want their parents to talk. 

She is such a polarising character that, even within a family, the husband or the wife liked her and the other one didn’t. She inspired such strong opinions that people were either passionately for her or against her.

” The 63-year-old Londoner, whose 30 films include Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, Kurt and Courtney, Biggie and Tupac and the memorable Tracking Down Maggie: The Unofficial Biography of Margaret Thatcher, says, perhaps somewhat disingenuously, that he had no preconceived opinion when he set out to turn his camera and wry style of documentary-making on Palin. 

“I just wanted to understand where she was coming from,” he says. “I didn’t have any strong opinions, and I didn’t know that much about her. I’d seen her on stage with lots of babies and all the rest of it, and I wondered who the hell she was and where she had popped up from and what she believed in. 

“Sometimes when you hear her talking it’s as if she doesn’t quite understand what she’s saying. She comes out with all this stuff and you think, 'Who’s the real person here? You’ve learned the speech, but who are you?’ ” 

“A lot of people would talk off the record but wouldn’t talk on the record, so you pick up an impression, and, even if you can’t quote them, you still get the inside story. One of the things we got from a lot of people there is that she really didn’t spend any time with her kids at all. There seemed to be a big disappointment in the community about her – inevitably, I suppose, when you’re hobnobbing with the McCains and Washington elite – that she had moved on and she had no loyalty to her old friends, who had been left by the wayside.”“T

If you watch Broomfield's documentary you will hear people tell the same exact stories that are in Joe McGinniss's book "The Rogue." Except Joe got more information because he did not ask to put people on camera.

However the fact is that everybody who REALLY investigates Sarah Palin hears the same stories, by a variety of different people. And simply calling them "haters" or "disgruntled ex-staff members" does not negate the truth of what they are willing to share.

By the way, I have a name for these people as well.  I call them "Heroes."

The next time somebody claims that there are NO pictures of Barack Obama as a child, you can use this to shut them up.

I am always amused by the people who fervently deny that there is any racism behind all of the challenges that are constantly thrown in Obama's face. When has ANYBODY ever had to prove that they had a childhood?

Joe McGinniss and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week!

Courtesy of Joe's blog:

I must have committed a truly egregious crime in order to turn MSNBC hosts into clones of those at Fox News. 

What do they have in common? 

Fear of Sarah Palin. 

Even though she holds no office, nor ever will again, MSM cowers in anticipation of her lash. 

And they don’t like being told they didn’t do their job in 2008 and haven’t done it since, having made no effort to see the grotesque face that lies behind the snazzy mask. 

I got behind the mask. I did find the real Sarah Palin. 

But it’s a whole lot easier to try to kill the messenger than it is to read the message.

(Read more by clicking the link at the top.)

During a conversation I had with Joe pretty early in his research, he said that he did not want me to blog about talking to him or coming to his house until after he left.

I told him I completely understood because once the Palin-bots realized that we were talking they would essentially use me, and my now damaged reputation, to bludgeon him into submission.

Joe said that he did not care about that, and that he had been through worse, but he did not want to give them any hints as to who he was talking to.

Of course part of this conversation was BEFORE Palin realized he was renting the house next door and unleashed the "Hounds of Hell" in his direction.

THAT was something he had NEVER experienced before.

But Joe's a tough old bird.  He handled it pretty well I thought.

But today Joe is taking a terrible beating, and yes some of those blows (due to the leaked e-mail) are being delivered using me as a bludgeon.  Of course even before they knew about me, they had already labeled Joe a stalker and "creepy," so they already had a quiver full of verbal slings and arrows to use against him.

For all of you who have often asked why MORE people don't speak out about the Palins, I think that you are having those questions answered at this very moment.

Daring the "Wrath of Palin" is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for those who are concerned about their reputations, their livelihoods, or their families.

But dammit, SOMEBODY has to do it!  Thankfully Joe has taken up that challenge, but he is now getting hit from all sides, and needs support.

Please do what you can to reach out to some of these people who have written Joe off, like Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and others at MSNBC and CNN.  Let them know that we expected more from THEM.

After all we already have Fox News to attack him on Palin's behalf.

Look I was born to be a fighter.  I got kicked out of Sunday School at age five for busting the kid in the chops who dared to sit next to my girlfriend, and was fighting grown men in the ring before I even hit puberty.

I don't sweat the Palins. But if we really expect others to feel safe enough to venture out and tell their stories we have to support those who have gone before.

In other words if we want to know the truth we have to help protect those working to expose that truth.

Sometimes Joe misses the point and says that bloggers, and their commenters, don't make a real difference.  Well we know that is not true, so let's remind him of why Sarah Palin and her sycophants spend so much time on this blog. (It ain't just because of the pretty blue color you know?)

Let's go out there and make that difference!

P.S. For those who missed it yesterday, here is the full transcript of Joe's Q and A over at FDL.

Reality show co-star Kye Massey ALSO thinks the confrontation in the bar between Bristol Palin and a "liberal hater" was staged.

Courtesy of TMZ:

Palin got into it with a guy named Stephen Hanks at a bar on the Sunset Strip Thursday night. Hanks told us it was NOT a setup, but we're told Massey doesn't buy it. 

According to our sources, Massey -- who is starring with Bristol in a reality show for the BIO Channel -- feels it was a little too convenient that so many cameras were there to catch the confrontation. 

Our sources say Massey feels the producers of the show were behind it all, but that Bristol had NO part in it. We're told Kyle feels that Bristol would never have agreed to something like that and that Bristol has been nothing but genuine and honest with Kyle so far. 

According to our sources, Massey is not happy with the direction the show has taken. We're told Massey feels the show is now "sleazy" and thought he was signing on for a scripted show ... and not a reality show. 

Well this is what I have been saying since it first happened.

 I am well aware that reality shows are completely phony and that all of the conflicts are staged for the camera. That's why I don't watch the damn things!

Besides my daughter has worked on a few reality shows as well and I have heard what kinds of things the producers fake in an attempt to make them interesting. And yes, the participants are almost always in on the plan.  Especially since it often requires more than one take to get it right.

Of course Massey is foolish to believe this about Bristol: Kyle feels that Bristol would never have agreed to something like that and that Bristol has been nothing but genuine and honest with Kyle so far. 

Yeah buddy there is an ex-hockey player in Wasilla who used to feel that EXACT same way.

Here, go ahead and watch it again and tell me if you don't agree that Kyle and I are right.

Bristol can be a nasty piece of work, that is for sure. But she does NOT get into people's faces like that unless she has protection.  And if that guy were an unknown person she would have no idea whether or not he might hit or injure her.And there is nobody close enough to stop him if he did.

Bristol is like her mother, she either sends others to do her dirty work, or makes nasty comments from the safety of Facebook or text messsages.

I know, I've seen them.

Bringing dignity to the office.

President and Mrs. Obama make a striking couple during an appearance before the Congressional Black Caucus.

In fact whether you agree with his policy decisions or not, it simply cannot be argued that the President and First Lady have ever been ANYTHING except dignified and respectful of the office of the Presidency, since they day Obama was sworn in.

Which makes images like THIS one..

...e-mailed to friends by Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose, back in February of 2009, even more odious and disrespectful of the Presidency, and the man that the people of this country elected to hold that office.

SNL starts its new season with a bang.

This is an absolutely hysterical parody of the GOP debates.

FDL Book Salon with author Joe McGinniss.

Courtesy of the Rogue blog:

FDL Book Salon Welcomes Joe McGinniss, The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin 

Author: Joe McGinniss 

Sunday, September 25, 2011 1:55 pm Pacific time 

Welcome Joe McGinniss, and Host Phil Munger “EdwardTeller”, (Progressive Alaska) 

The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin

This is your chance to speak directly to Joe McGinniss, ask him a few questions, and perhaps offer a little emotional support after the rather eventful last week he just had.

I imagine he would appreciate any kind words he might receive at this point.

Morgan Freeman has no doubt that the Tea Party is made up of racists. Now THAT, Sarah Palin, is what common sense looks like!

Courtesy of Mediaite:

Morgan Freeman thinks that Barack Obama‘s presidency has “stirred muddy waters” and inspired a certain racism amongst republicans and Tea Partiers who say, “Screw the country; We’re going to do…what ever we can to get this black man out of here.” Talking tonight with Piers Morgan, Freeman somberly suggests that Republican anti-Obama goals are “a racist thing” that show “the weak, dark undersides of America.” 

“We’re supposed to be better than that,” he mourns. “We really are.” 

Citing the Tea Party and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell specifically, Freeman says that, “Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term,” and that, “It’s a racist thing.”

I love Morgan Freeman, and I am very glad that he has the courage to tell it like it is.

In my opinon only a fool, or a liar, still claims that the Teabaggers are NOT racists.

The only thing that would make it clearer is if they walked around in white hoods while sporting tattoos of swastikas. And personally I would like to see somebody roll up Mitch McConnnell's shirt sleeve. P.S. I hope the video embedded properly. If not just click the link at the top and visit Mediaite directly.

Female "Occupy Wall Street" protestors maced by New York City police. WTF?

Apparently the women are part of a group of protestors called Occupy Back Wall Street:

The Occupy Wall Street protests have taken place since last weekend, when hundreds of people descended upon the Financial District. So far, the protests have been non-violent. "We're not here to make life more difficult. 

We're here to help empower you to take on the real enemy, which is the greedy corporate hedgefunders and bankers on Wall Street that are making life more difficult for everybody here," a protester named Justin told CBS. 

Twitter accounts from OccupyWallStNYC have reported problems, but police have not confirmed anything. "More than 50 ppl arrested, at least 5 women maced in the face #nypd #usdor," the group tweeted. 

The group also retweeted, "Tensions reportedly escalate as videos of protestors being pinned and surrounded by police emerge on Sept 24." 

"We're seeing an absolute erosion of our civil rights," 23-year-old Patrick Bruner told the New York Daily News.

Here is what David Corn, of Mother Jones, tweeted about the incident:

If Tea Partiers were pepper-sprayed by police while peacefully protesting an Obama event, what do you think the reaction would be? 

Yeah, no shit! No matter how you slice it, this is fucked up.