A reminder as to why Sarah Palin does not want Bill O'Reilly to interview her anymore. (Wilted word salad from 2010.)

I rarely really enjoy watching these but this one is an exception.

You can literally see her becoming more and more angry.

If she could have reached her arms from Wasilla to Fox studios she would have choked him out.

And he would have gladly beaten her into submission with his falafel. (Look it up.)

(Okay I fixed my misspelling of "falafel." Happy now?)

The Daily Show version of "The Life of Julia."

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Look for the reference to Sarah Palin being a cartoon character at the 1:02 mark, and later in the bit "Grizzly Moms" are slammed as not really even existing.

I thought this was pretty funny, especially the numerous goofs which caused Stewart and Schaal to break character.

Sarah Palin breaks the trail and the new breed of female politician (Or Mama Grizzlies as she calls them) follows her into absurdity.

When I saw this picture of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley striking a pose on a dock, more like a wannabe fashion model rather than a serious politician, I thought, "Now where have I seen THAT before?"

And then I remembered.

Oh yeah, how could I forget? This was the shot that Palin posed for that appeared in a Newsweek story on her before she finally dropped her charade and admitted that she had no intention of seriously running for the GOP nomination.

At the time we lambasted her for presenting the female politician as a bimbo, who presents cheescake instead of intelligence, and uses fake breasts and high definition makeup to hide her lack of political gravitas.

And today we are witness to a sitting Governor following the same path.

So is THIS the future of female politicians in America? Has Sarah Palin so dumbed down, and over sexualized, the blueprint for a successful woman entering politics that they must be photogenic and masturbation worthy first, and  qualified to run for office second?

Because if so I cringe to think what the future holds for this country.

Sarah Palin's ferocious, and possibly rabid, birthday cake.

Apparently this is the cake that SOMEBODY made for the Grizzled Mama for her birthday tomorrow.

In case you can't read it the writing says "Happy Birthday Gov. Sarah Palin Mama Grizzly Extraordinaire."

Well if this does not call for a caption contest I don't know what would.

Have fun!

P.S. Here is the original Tweet with the picture.

Sarah Palin prowling trails near my house. What, it's a REAL Mama Grizzly? Uh oh!

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

Where but in Alaska would the first trail grooming report from the local cross-country ski association note a problem with a trail user that just might maul someone? Yes, look out, another Mama Grizzly is on the prowl in the 49th state. And this one, according to reports, is a real bear: 

"Groomer John reported 2 inches of snow up on the Hillside Trails. He’s rolling it down to a half-inch -- starting that all important base development. He also reported a “Big A**” bear wandering around up there. Last report this morning he (the bear) was walking down (a trail named) Double Bubble." 

Later reports from numerous people who crossed the animal's tracks on the Hillside indicated this one might be traveling with a smaller companion, which would make the animal a "her" and not a "he." Adult male bears are solitary animals. Only sows travel with cubs, which they have to protect from other bears, especially males, that would like to kill them. The danger posed to cubs by other bears is thought to be part of the reason sow grizzlies are aggressively protective.

I posted this because I just let my daughter's dog out to relieve herself, and in a few minutes she started making this weird whining sound I have never heard her make before. I quickly got up to let her in, and she damn near knocked me down getting back into the house.

I have no idea if what was scaring her was bear related, but I will say that Hillside Park is just over a mile away, and that I have had a bear in my yard in the past. (My backyard is only few feet away from the wooded area behind my house.)

Sometimes people ask me if I am ever afraid to take on Sarah Palin while living in Alaska.  The answer is "Of course not!" There are far more dangerous things wandering around out there than Sarah "freaking" Palin.

She can call herself a "Mama Grizzly" all she wants, but she will NEVER be as terrifying as the real thing.

The real thing, which just might be prowling my neighborhood as we speak.

Now if you will excuse me I have to go comfort a quivering canine.

Fear mongering Sarah Palin style.

Courtesy of the Alaska Dispatch:

Political bogeymen are Palin's touchstones. She's tried her hand with a variety of these to varying success. Not that long ago, Palin said it was the federal deficit that was ruining the economy. But having now lost the budget ceiling fight, she appears to have abandoned the deficit. It appears she believes the answer is to warn of capitalism as the root cause of America's downward spiral. 

This message has the dirty word "socialism" written all over it. It sounds in fact a lot like what presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs was saying in 1912. Could Sarah Palin run for president based on the platform of the Social Democratic Party of the United States? Or is it that attacking "crony capitalism" is just another easy for Palin to appeal to the masses? 

Quick: what do "pallin' around with terrorists," "death panels," "lamestream media," and "crony capitalism" all have in common? Fear mongering. 

Palin might not know much about what she reads, as she made evident in the infamous Katie Couric interview of long ago. But she clearly understands how to capitalize on the fears of Americans. When she was running for governor of Alaska, Palin instinctively perceived Alaskans were fed up with what they took to be a rotten establishment controlled by the "Corrupt Bastards Club," filthy-rich Big Oil and an arrogant governor who thought he deserved a private jet. 

And when she quit as governor, there were new fears toward which to turn the people's attention. It was in her resignation that she warned of the "political operatives (who) descended on Alaska." 

Nonresidents of Alaska might not fully understand the appeal to provincial fears inherent in the latter statement, but Alaskans live in a land where it is normal to despise and fear Outside interests. Palin's husband, Todd, is a former member and current supporter of the Alaska Independence Party, an organization that began by advocating secession from the United States. It has since tempered that view somewhat, but still wants to keep the federal government at arm's length. Alaskans really would like to be a foreign country north of Canada receiving a ton of U.S. foreign aid and advice, but not having to take any of the latter. Think of the place as sort of the Pakistan of the Arctic and you'll get the idea. 

And that is the environment that forged Palin. She knows all about playing people's fears. She first ran for mayor of Wasilla on the issues of gun control and abortion. The city of Wasilla was not involved in either issue. The city had no gun control. The city wasn't financing any abortion. But Palin understood she could whip up the fears among the electorate by suggesting her opponents might be for the former and against the latter. 

Bogeymen helped Sarah get elected mayor and then governor. This she obviously understands. Since she quit office, she's been trying to play the Alaska game on a bigger stage by whipping up national fears.

Craig Medred is dead on with this description of Palin's fear based approach to politics and that she learned it in one of the most distrustful places on the planet.

I live in Anchorage, which rural Alaskans disdainfully refer to to as "Los Anchorage" while claiming it is not the REAL Alaska. And they are not exactly incorrect about that.

In my part of Alaska we are only about five years behind the times compared to the rest of America, but many other places they are still dreaming of the day that they will have indoor plumbing and talk to their friends everyday via short wave radio.

Palin took full advantage of the fact that she was surrounded by undereducated God fearing people in Wasilla, who placed faith and church attendance well over the importance of a college education, and played on their emotions until they were afraid NOT to vote for her.

And sadly Palin has learned that there are Wasillians ALL over the country, in small towns and poor communities, who are every bit as responsive to her brand of hateful rhetoric, and scare tactics, as their Alaskan counterparts.

That is the secret of her success, and that has also been the key to her defeat.  Educate the masses and you take away her influence.  Revealing the truth about her, and shining a light on her numerous gaffes and public relations disasters, has slowly chipped away at her support, until today we see her as a mere shadow of her former frightening self.

But I am not convinced that we are completely finished yet which is why I still want people to read the books coming out about Palin this month and take the time to watch Nick Broomfield's very humorous documentary.

Information is like Kryptonite to Sarah Palin, so the more we learn, the less she, and those like her, can affect us in the future.

SNL cold open features President Obama having a change of heart after being kidnapped by the Republicans and suddenly embracing "trickle down" economics, expressing outrage over Bristol's treatment on DWTS, and doubts about where he was born.

Just for fun. Tina Fey revives her Sarah Palin impersonation on David Letterman last night.

I don't know about anybody else but only time I can STAND Sarah Palin is when Tina Fey is channeling her.

If Sarah Palin had been more like Fey, I might even have voted for her.

More at Popwatch.

Sarah Palin's endorsement bankrupts both Karen Handel's campaign as well as the RNC.

I can't believe that bitch suckered me like that!

According to Atlanta Journal Constitution being one of Sarah Palin's "Mama Grizzlies" has put Karen Handel's campaign in the poorhouse:

Karen Handel, the former secretary of state whom Deal beat in the Aug. 10 Republican runoff, spent more than $100,000 to bring Sarah Palin to town to campaign on her behalf.

But it came at a high cost. Handel’s campaign spent more than $100,000 for the visit by Palin, the former governor of Alaska and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate.

Handel’s campaign paid an Ohio jet charter service nearly $92,000 and her latest campaign finance report shows it was for the Palin event. Handel also paid an additional $13,000 in expenses to the InterContinental Hotel in Buckhead for the event.

Handel’s quarterly report shows her campaign committee to be $28,000 in debt, with another $55,000 in outstanding expenses.

Holy crap! A private plane for $92,000 AND an additional $13,000 for expenses!  How much do bendy straws cost in Georgia anyhow?

And what did Handel get for that $100,000 dollars?  Not a hell of a lot apparently.  In fact she lost her primary despite being touted as one of Palin's "Mama Grizzlies."

I am amazed that people have not yet caught on to the game that Sarah Palin is playing.

Even the RNC still has not recognized that a Sarah Palin endorsement comes at a terrible cost:

The RNC has come up $3.8 million short of its money-raising target for September and well over $5 million shy for the past two months, RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen said in private e-mail to members of the RNC's Executive Committee.

The disappointing donation figures were reported despite Mrs. Palin's signature of a mass fundraising appeal in September that was expected to boost the RNC's cash intake to at least the recently revised, more modest goals. The Palin letter was as part of a deal involving the RNC's agreement to pay more than $250,000 of her defense fees related to lawsuits filed when she was governor, as The Times first reported last month.

So apparently Sarah Palin refuses to help the RNC unless they pay her legal bills first, and then when she finally gives in and agrees to sign the fundraising letter they end up 3.8 million in the hole.

You know if the Republicans had just taken the time to come over and visit this blog every once in awhile, they would have learned what I have been telling people for over two years now, which is that EVERYTHING Granny Grifter touches turns to shit!

Hey, I am just here to help.  All anybody has to do, is listen.

Joe Miller is not the ONLY Sarah Palin endorsee who is creating distance between them and the "Grizzled Mama."

From the LA Times:

U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina was boosted by Palin's endorsement in the Republican primary. But now that the general election is underway, Fiorina is opting to keep her distance. [Updated 4:00 p.m.] A spokesman for Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman confirmed that Whitman would also skip the Oct. 16 rally with Palin.

"“It is a national [Republican National Committee] fundraiser and we are unable to attend because we have another campaign event scheduled,” said Whitman spokesman Tucker Bounds.
Fiorina’s spokeswoman said the Republican Senate candidate has other events scheduled on the day of Palin’s appearance in Orange County.

At a tooling plant in Huntington Beach Wednesday, Fiorina said she was “happy” to have Palin’s endorsement and noted “there are all sorts of people who have endorsed me that I don’t appear with.” (She cited moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine as one example).

“Look, Sarah Palin is here for important reasons of her own, and meanwhile I have 27 days left to talk to the people of California about the issues that matter in this race and so that’s what I’m going to go do,” Fiorina said speaking to reporters Wednesday. “I’m happy to accept the endorsement of many, many folks who have been supportive of my campaign—whether they are people like Sarah Palin or Democrats or Independents.”

This was what was predicted by a number of political pundits, as well as myself.  Palin may be good at attracting the rabid right wing voter, but NO serious candidate can have  her anywhere near them in the general election.

And that by the way should serve as a wake up call to Palin about her OWN political aspirations.  But I guarantee you that it will not stop her from throwing her hat in the ring, UNLESS some ginormous scandal forces her away from the media spotlight. (And yes of course I am working on that thing.)

I am still not sure whether or not the Miller campaign purposefully leaked that e-mail from Todd, but I do know that Joe's last interview with Fox News was NOT in Palin's Wasilla studio, but at the local KTUU studio instead.  So THAT, combined with his abject refusal to endorse Sarah and Todd's obvious irritation with that, gives a fairly good indication that Sarah Palin may soon become familiar with the undercarriage of the bus her own darn self.

Have I told all of you just how much I LOVE karma sometimes?

It CAN'T be a good sign when a candidate starts off her political ad with the phrase "I am not a witch."

"None of us are perfect?"

You know I don't think anybody is looking for perfection.  However they ARE looking for sane, and that is not helped by a candidate who makes statements like this one:

When one of O'Donnell's Republican opponents suggested during the primary debate that the U.S. and China should be allies because of their economic interdependency, according to the AP, O'Donnell replied "that doesn't work."

She continued: "There's much I want to say. I wish I wasn't privy to some of the classified information that I am privy to."

Yep, somebody's elevator is not quite making it to the top floor.

However I could not help but notice that in her advertisement O'Donnell looked less...how shall I put it....uptight maybe?  Gee I wonder what could have loosened her up?

Oh!  Well THAT explains it.

Are Sarah Palin's "Mama Grizzlies" much like REAL grizzlies in the wild, "aggressive, irrational and mean?" Oh I think we know the answer to that question.



Cover courtesy of TPM

 From Newsweek:

Palin first described herself as a mama grizzly during her 2008 vice presidential run. She floated the current usage—as a movement—in a speech before a pro-life women’s group in May, and soon she was reflecting on the special qualities of mama bears on her Facebook page. “Mama bears not only [forage] for themselves to prepare for winter, they [work] twice as hard to slay salmon for their cubs, too.” By late June, Palin’s political-action committee had realized the emotional power of the image, and made an Internet ad—nearly half a million views to date, titled “Mama Grizzlies”—which is as plaintive and urgent as a 1960s protest song. It calls America’s women to a sisterhood of grizzlies “because moms kind of just know when there’s something wrong.”

With few exceptions, the grizzlies have been disinterested in the issues and policies that their political opponents say are good for children—despite new numbers from the census showing that rising numbers of America’s children are poor. Most of these candidates have vowed to fight to repeal President Obama’s health-care plan, for instance, and Bachmann and Haley have taken special aim at CHIP, a federal program aimed at helping low-income kids get health insurance. In 2001, as a member of Nevada’s state Assembly, Angle voted no on a domestic-violence bill that would recognize restraining orders issued in other states. In 2007 Haley, a state representative, voted against a measure that would have created a kindergarten program for at-risk kids. As governor of Alaska in 2008, Palin slashed funding for Covenant House that included resources for teenage mothers. In 2009 Bachmann voted no on a bill that would give federal employees four weeks of paid parental leave.

Palin, Haley, Bachmann, Angle, and O’Donnell all declined to comment for this story. (Most grizzly candidates regard the mainstream press as the enemy.) But a review of their positions suggests that a grizzly’s first priority is to protect her cubs by keeping government the heck out of their lives.

“Government,” in this sense, generally means broad intrusions, such as taxes, the U.S. Department of Education, and federal stimulus money, as well as smaller ones, such as proposals to increase Pell Grants (designed to make college more affordable, opposed by Bachmann). From a grizzly’s point of view, the government is everywhere, and it needs to back off. “We’ve watched the tentacles of big government weasel their way into every part of our lives,” said O’Donnell at a Values Voters speech in Washington, D.C. “Bureaucrats and politicians in Washington think they should decide what kind of lightbulb we use, what kind of toilets we flush, what kind of car we drive…They’ll buy your teenage daughter an abortion, but they won’t let her buy a sugary soda in a school’s vending machine.” O’Donnell, who doesn’t have children, refers in speeches to “our grandchildren,” thus forging a conceptual alliance with her sister bears.

Fundamentally, the mama-grizzly phenomenon is not really a movement or even a political term that represents a fully coherent set of ideas. It’s mostly a marketing tool, meant to draw attention to Americans’ broad dissatisfaction with the way things are. Fair enough. Many people are dissatisfied, and they want to vent and they want to change Washington. But in the wild, real mama grizzlies are known to be aggressive, irrational, and mean. The issues facing the country are complex, and bears are not.

I know that Newsweek is going out of business so perhaps they do no feel they have much to lose, but I am VERY gratified to see them joining Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and a number of courageous blogs  in refusing to allow the Palin media machine to intimidate them into avoiding important stories that might piss a certain ex-half term governor, and her crazy ass followers, off.

My feeling is that the more people who speak out and hold their ground against the backlash from the Palin-bots and Fox News, the more people will then be willing to speak out in the future. 

As my daughter says "She is only one little nothing of a person, who is not even a politician anymore, why are people still afraid of her?"  Why indeed?

BTW please take the time to click the link above and read the entire Newsweek article.  There is much more to it than what I cut and pasted here, and they certainly deserve the hits.

Sarah Palin's Top Ten "Mama Grizzlies."

(Old video replaced by new corrected video)



For those who are hesitant to play this video because they believe it is the new SarahPAC ad touting Sarah Palin and the Teabaggers, don't you worry.  This video is a factual, and quite hysterical, take down of Palin and the "Mama Grizzlies" by voice actor D.C. Douglas.  Believe me, you will love it!

That SarahPAC piece of garbage can be found here if you are feeling especially masochistic.

Christine O'Donnell is doing EXACTLY what her idol Sarah Palin told her to do.

From Media Matters:

Perhaps Christine O'Donnell isn't yet ready for prime time -- on the networks or on Fox. As we noted this morning, CBS' Bob Schieffer tweeted that the controversial Republican Senate candidate has backed out of her planned Sunday interview on Face the Nation. Well, the Associated Press reported around noon today that O'Donnell has gone ahead and also cancelled her scheduled Sunday appearance on Fox News Sunday.

And that boys and girls is how a "Mama Grizzly" handles the "Lamestream media."

By running away and hiding in the woods.

Citizens United continues to take advantage of their favorable Supreme Court ruling to make a movie about the GOP's new schizophrenic brand of feminism.

As most of you are undoubtedly aware in January of this year Citizens United won a case in the Supreme Court which allows corporations to pour as much money as they would like into political elections. Using the new freedoms provided by this ruling Citizens United has decided that buying ad space for a single candidate at a time was too limited of a use for their money, so they have decided to make movies that spread a certain, shall we say, vision.

The first one was the one Newt Gingrich and his plastic wife hosted called "America at Risk", which was essentially designed to pour even more gasoline onto the fire of religious intolerance raging across the conservative landscape in repsonse to the so-called "9-11 Mosques" which is neither a mosque, nor on Ground Zero.

Now Citizens United has used their resources to make a film pushing the meme that the new conservative movement, the Teabaggers, is driven by a  new conservative brand of feminism.



It seems that in the Teabagger brand of feminism "motherhood is a political act" and  they consider "women the last line of defense" against the forces of Obama that want to make sure their children will have affordable health care, clean air to breathe, and the opportunity to call themselves Americans with pride after George Bush damn near destroyed our credibility all across the world.

If those aren't feminine ideals I don't know what would be.

It is an absolute slap in the face that this movie prominently features Phyllis Schlafley since she was the woman who became famous for fighting against equal pay for women in the workforce (Something Obama finally fixed during his first year in office) and recently said that ALL welfare goes to unmarried women. The film also features Ann Coulter who starves and smokes herself skinny to attract male attention and then attacks Democratic women as "unattractive', and of course Sarah Palin who has used her now rapidly fading looks to convince men to listen to her crazy ideas since her days on the Wasilla City Council.

You can read more over at TPM.