"The bear is loose." President Obama takes an impromptu stroll along the National Mall.

Courtesy of TPM: 

President Barack Obama took an impromptu stroll Wednesday along the National Mall, and some bystanders freaked out at the prospect of meeting their commander in chief. 

"It's good to be out," Obama quipped to reporters. "The bear is loose." 

He greeted people along the way with handshakes, hugs and White House-branded M&M's. One enthusiastic woman asked the President to snap a photo with her family. 

"This is like the best day of my life," she said as the picture was taken. "Someone's gonna think you're, like, wax."

Hey, I visited that t-shirt stand when I went to Washington. Bought two souvenir shirts for the family.

Now see THAT is the kind of bear that people respect.

Not some batshit crazy, poorly bewigged, Mama Grizzly.

Nothing to see here just the President and the First Lady greeting people on the White House tour in person.

Such a shame that the President is so cool, and aloof, and unapproachable, don't you think?

Alaska still a little sensitive about their biggest embarrassment.

You know we used to get teased about living in igloos, and having polar bears for pets, but since 2008 it has been nothing but jokes about Sarah Palin.

Personally I would LOVE to have somebody give me shit about living in an igloo.

Perhaps this is why the makers of "The Undefeated" will not be showing their Sarah Palin propaganda film in Alaska.

One of the members of our IM community took a recent trip to Alaska.

While visiting Skagway, she happened to see this rather decorative automobile.

You see the Palin-bots can peddle their Sarah Palin revisionist history all they want down in the Lower 48, but Alaskans know EXACTLY who Sarah Palin is.

And we also know that she eats poop.

Sarah Palin's "One Nation" bus tour is not only potentially damaging the intellect of the American people, it is also putting their very lives in jeopardy.



Sarah Palin hands out autographed copies of the Constitution. Hoping that somebody will explain it to her.

 Courtesy of Politico:

Sarah Palin’s bus is plastered with a mockup of the U.S. Constitution. But her entourage — both the three-vehicle motorcade that includes the bus and the smaller, two-SUV version she uses for smaller events — hasn’t been very respectful of the traffic laws.

They speed. They run red lights and stop signs. They make last-second lane changes to get off the highway, sometimes without signaling.

So do the reporters following them.

Journalists in the caravan trailing her One Nation tour bus describe the experience as harrowing, a rolling menace careening up the East Coast in hot pursuit of the former Alaska governor who declined to provide any advance itinerary of her tour over six days on the road.

As they left the clambake she attended Thursday in New Hampshire, Palin’s two-SUV caravan did 52 miles per hour in a 35 zone as it peeled away from the hosts’ neighborhood. Both cars blew through a stop sign about a mile later. They did 70 mph in a 55 mph zone on I-95 — and then, after they got off, without signaling, flew right past a flashing sign informing them they were going 45 mph in a 35 mph zone.

And that was after they’d already stormed the major cities — and just missed driving through a tornado on the road into Boston.

On Tuesday, the bus nearly hit a biker turning off of Pine Street in Philadelphia

You know I am not sure ANY other coverage of this bus tour does a better job of illustrating what a Palin Presidency would look like.

We have already seen that it would be dangerously anti-intellectual, but as this story demonstrates it would also undoubtedly ignore the existing laws that are in place to contain its power and do whatever the hell it wanted, just like Palin did as Mayor of Wasilla. Or have everybody forgotten this quote: 'I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.'"

I know that Palin likes to argue that all of those ethics complaints filed against her while she was Governor were frivolous, and perhaps one or two fit that category, but the majority of them were in response to some rather serious ethical lapses, and they became the ONLY way to hold our Governor accountable for her actions since she never responded to good advice nor common sense.

This is why I NEVER take the teabaggers seriously.  They say they want their leaders to adhere to the Constitution and follow the rule of law, and yet they support candidates who have demonstrated nothing but disdain for the rules, and who do not even appear to have a rudimentary understanding of what the Founding Fathers envisioned for this country.

The next time that Sarah Palin tries to hand a copy of the Constitution to an American citizen I hope they ask her if she could explain to them ANYTHING specific about what it says, and watch her stumble to provide an answer that is not just some version of the word salad that she dishes up every time anybody puts her on the spot.

The woman is virtually unteachable, and simply has NO respect for any rules or laws that do not let her do what she wants to do.  And that is NOT somebody that you allow to gain power, that is somebody you walk to the park in a child safety harness so that they do not run out into traffic.

Of course for Palin it might need to come with a gag, since in her case the mouth is her most dangerous orifice.

Sarah Palin gets a case of the nerves and balks at Israel checkpoint, deciding to turn around and skip visiting Bethlehem. WTF?

Courtesy fo the Guardian:

Sarah Palin apparently had second thoughts about crossing an Israeli checkpoint on Monday to visit Bethlehem during a three-day visit to Jerusalem.

The former governor of Alaska pulled up to the checkpoint run by the Israeli border police to the south of Jerusalem in a white people carrier, with her husband, Todd, her assistant and Israeli guides.

None of the occupants left the car nor did they speak to the police officers at the checkpoint, according to photographers at the scene. They then turned around and drove away. A spokesman for the Israeli police said there was no incident at the checkpoint and a spokesman for the Israeli army said that Palin's group had not co-ordinated a visit to the occupied Palestinian territory.

Palin's group then stopped at a nearby Greek Orthodox monastery before returning to her hotel in the centre of west Jerusalem from where they later continued their tour of the city.

Tourists need to carry passports to cross checkpoints into the occupied Palestinian territory and Israelis are not normally permitted to enter areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, such as Bethlehem.

Okay color me confused.  Why in the hell would a woman who claims to be this super Christian, NOT visit Bethlehem after she flew all the way to Israel?  That makes no sense to me.

Why wouldn't a woman who called it "overwhelming" to touch cornerstone of her faith, NOT continue on to the place where Christianity was literally born. (You know if you believe all of the information in the Bible of course.)

She must have had her passport so that cannot be the reason. Unless it was left behind in their hotel, but why wouldn't they go back and then try again?

Was she afraid to enter the West Bank due to her anti-Iranian rhetoric? That would seem unnecessarily paranoid.

You know at this point I just have to throw my hands into the air and say, "Beats the hell out of me."

Any ideas?

Update: Here is Hardball's take on Klondike Kardashian's worldwind tour, and her odd avoidance of Bethlehem.

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

Here is tomorrow's schedule for Rally to Restore Sanity.

From Digital Journal:

10:00 a.m.: The pre-pre-show begins with videos and music on the jumbotron to keep the gathering crowd friendly and entertained.

Noon: The pre-show starts with a performance from The Roots.

12:40: A comedian (to be determined) warms up the audience.

12:57: A video countdown with a show introduction.

1:00: The show kicks off with the national anthem by a musical guest (to be announced).

1:05: Mr. Stewart welcomes the crowd

1:20: Mr. Colbert enters, and two actors – Don Novello and Sam Waterston – perform readings.

1:40: Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staple perform for 10 minutes, followed by Stewart and Colbert until 2 p.m.

2:15: Sheryl Crow performs for five minutes, followed by speakers and guests (to be determined).

2:30: Musical guests (also still being lined up) play

2:40: The show turns to a pre-taped sequence – The Sanity and Fear Awards

This rally in Washington will also air on Comedy Central and The Comedy Network.

It is my understanding that there are also several surprises not included on this schedule.

I just returned from walking to the East Seaton park at the end the National Mall.  It is about a half hour walk from where I am staying and I intend to get there early, probably around 9:00 A.M..

I did the touristy thing and visited as many of the Smithsonian buildings as I could, including the Natural History and the Air and Space Museum. I also saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the World War 2 Memorial, and of course the White House. Whew!

The wind is blowing like crazy today, and there are dark clouds rolling in, though the forecast says it should be sunny on Saturday.  I hope so, not that I would not GLADLY sit in a downpour to see Jon and Stephen. Cause you know I would.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow and hope I do better at taking pictures then I did today.

Here are a few that survived.

Building the sets

For those who are overwhelmed with all of the sanity

I am not gay or anything but I have to say that Georgie was rocking quite a physique

Like I said I hope to have more, and better pictures, after the rally tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

Update: As for meeting up tomorrow, I have received a number of phone numbers and contact e-mails from many of you to facilitate a meet up. However, I don't really have the time to answer each query individually. So if you don't mind how about if I just use my twitter account (You can see the twitter feed on the right hand side of this blog) to let you all know where I will be tomorrow during the rally (as soon as I figure that out of course), and we can meet then.  I will be wearing a McAdams "It's about Alaska" pin so I should be easy relatively easy to spot.

As for this evening I am heading over to Malia Litman's book signing at Borders Books on 1800 L Street at 6:30, so we can meet up then as well. .Even if we don't see each other I hope that ALL of you attending have a great time.  I know I will!