One third of Americans received Russian backed content on their Facebook feed during the 2016 election cycle.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

An estimated 126 million Americans, roughly one-third of the nation’s population, received Russian-backed content on Facebook during the 2016 campaign, according to prepared testimony the company submitted Monday to the Senate Judiciary Committee and obtained by NBC News. 

Underscoring how widely content on the social media platform can spread, Facebook says in the testimony that while some 29 million Americans directly received material from 80,000 posts by 120 fake Russian-backed pages in their own news feeds, those posts were “shared, liked and followed by people on Facebook, and, as a result, three times more people may have been exposed to a story that originated from the Russian operation.”

The testimony by Facebook's general counsel, Colin Stretch, was submitted to the Judiciary Committee ahead of a hearing on Tuesday with executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter. The hearing is part of the congressional inquiry into Russia’s use of these platforms to try to influence last year’s U.S. presidential election.

Facebook was not the only social media platform to provide stunning evidence of Russia's interference during the 2016 campaigns.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Twitter, in its prepared remarks, said it had discovered more than 2,700 accounts on its service that were linked to the Internet Research Agency between September 2016 and November 2016. Those accounts, which Twitter has suspended, posted roughly 131,000 tweets over that period. 

Outside of the activity of the Internet Research Agency, Twitter identified more than 36,000 automated accounts that posted 1.4 million election-related tweets linked to Russia over that three-month period. The tweets received approximately 288 million views, according to the company’s remarks.

I think we can do away with the talking point that Russia only paid about $150,000 to influence our election. They clearly paid significantly more than that.

This was a very large, and very coordinated effort to do three things.

Divide Americans and get them fighting one another, defeat Hillary Clinton, and help to elect Donald Trump.

And to their credit they manage to accomplish all three.

So, do you want to see some of those batshit crazy ads the Russians bought on Facebook. You know you do, don't even try to deny it.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:

That community, called SecuredBorders, positioned itself as the work of conservative Americans concerned about U.S. border security. In truth, according to (Russian news outlet.) RBC, it was operated by a notorious St. Petersburg troll factory called Internet Research Agency, which is financed by “a close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence,” according to a public report by U.S. intelligence agencies. 

Facebook finally closed down the page last month in its belated purge of Russian propaganda. By then SecuredBorders had 133,000 followers. 

So far, Facebook is refusing to release any of the posts and ads from Russia’s campaign, opting instead for this terse description: “The ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum—touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.” 

That sanitary language doesn’t do justice to the actual content. The Daily Beast scoured search engine caches and found remains from the now-shuttered SecuredBorders page, just one of Russia’s propaganda communities, including dozens of their posts and graphics.

Here are a few more examples of what these Russian trolls vomited all over Facebook.

I think a new badge of honor should go to those of us who did not see any of this one their Facebook feed, because that means you are not burdened with batshit crazy, potentially racist, friends or family.

However before we pat ourselves on the back too hard, here are some that DID pop up on Facebook for many of us.

I am not sure about the last two but I definitely saw that first one on my Facebook feed more than once.

Remember the Russians did not only target the conservatives, xenophobes, and racists, they also targeted the progressives.

And they will do so again.

How Donald Trump attempts uses Twitter to manipulate the press.

How Trump uses his tweets to try & manipulate the press & American people in one gif. #TrumpMustResign #ImpeachTrump pic.twitter.com/VDQBfaNxtq

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) August 19, 2017

So accurate.

He also uses tactics like this: 

President Donald Trump plans to address the nation on his strategy for the war in Afghanistan. 

The White House says Trump will speak to the country on Monday at 9 p.m. EDT from Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia. 

Trump and his national security team met Friday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland to reach agreement on a strategy.

Smoke and mirrors my friends, smoke and mirrors.

Literally EVERYTHING that Trump tweets or says right now is to distract us from the Russian investigations or the shit storm that is happening within the White House right now. 

Personally I am not that easily distracted.

Former Fox News contributor, or "hitman" as they were called, reveals how Roger Ailes REALLY described his cable news network behind the scenes.

This comes courtesy of Tobin Smith who worked as an on air contributor to Fox Business for 14 years. (Smith was fired after it was revealed that he engaged in stock fraud.)

Here is what Smith wrote about Roger Ailes and his "off the record" opinion of Fox over at Medium: 

“Toby . . . I created a TV network for people 55 to dead,” Ailes said. 

“What does our viewer look like? 

“They look like me…white guys in mostly Red State counties who sit on their couch with the remote in their hand all day and night.” 

“What do they want to see” 

“They want to see YOU tear those smug condescending know-it-all East Coast liberals to pieces . . limb by limb . . . until they jump up out of their LaZ boy and scream “Way to go Toby…you KILLED that libtard!” 

He did NOT tell me what he told Joan (who recently reported her brief one-time conversation in 2000) discussing a new more liberal show idea (as she shared in her recent Nation.com article): 

“And Joan they don’t want to see anyone like you,” looking directly at my liberal friend . “They don’t want to see you — they don’t even want to know that you exist!”

(This of course refers to Joan Walsh, the National Affairs Correspondent for the Nation, and frequent guest on MSNBC.)


Here is how Tobin Smith describes what Ailes built:

 . . . he perpetrated the biggest TV scam ever . . . against the most vulnerable and gullible senior Americans . . . one that makes the game show fixing scandal of the late 50’s look like a tea party. 

By careful design and staging Fox News manipulated (and ultimately addicted) the most vulnerable people in America to the most powerful drug cocktail ever: Visceral gut feelings of outrage relieved by the most powerful emotions of all . . . the thrill of your tribe’s victory over its enemy and the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

You know those "debates" that take place on Fox shows between the host and a supposed progressive?

All bullshit.

The outcomes for Fox’s “panel debates” have ALWAYS been carefully fixed by the producers so that the home team (i.e, the conservative panelists like me) ALWAYS won.

So essentially it was always as we suspected. A cable news network that had virtually NO respect for its viewers, and manipulated their emotions on a daily basis in order to keep them tuned in and supporting their conservative agenda.

And they tapped into underlying feelings of misogyny, racism, and xenophobia to bait the hook.

Yeah, I think it is time that Fox News was no more.

How about you?

Now Donald Trump is trying to manipulate Bernie Sanders into attacking the DNC and Hillary Clinton.

An analysis showed that Bernie Sanders would have won the Democratic nomination if it were not for the Super Delegates.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2016

There is no longer a Bernie Sanders "political revolution." He is turning out to be a weak and somewhat pathetic figure,wants it all to end!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2016

Sorry folks, but Bernie Sanders is exhausted, just can't go on any longer. He is trying to dismiss the new e-mails and DNC disrespect. SAD!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2016

Does he really think that people don't see through this crap?

So fucking pathetic.

You may remember that Trump attempted this same tactic with Elizabeth Warren yesterday and she schooled his ass.

The guy is just a giant troll.

So the Republicans tried to delay the release of Americans held in Iran until it was in their best interests politically? Really?

Courtesy of Tasnim News Agency: 

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said a recent prisoner exchange between Iran and the US went ahead as planned despite calls by Republicans for a delay until US presidential elections. 

“In the course of the talks for exchanging prisoners, the Republican rivals of the current US administration who claim to be humanitarians and advocates of human rights sent a message telling us not to release these people (American prisoners) and continue this process (of talks) until the eve of US presidential elections,” Shamkhani said Thursday in an address to a rally held in the central city of Yazd to mark the 37th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution’s victory. 

“However” he said “we acted upon our independent resolve and moved the process forward.”

Now of course the Republicans are going to dismiss this as mere propaganda, and usually that would be a reasonable charge to make.

If in fact this was not standard operating procedure for the GOP.

Courtesy of Truthout:  

Behind Carter's back, the Reagan campaign worked out a deal with the leader of Iran's radical faction - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini - to keep the hostages in captivity until after the 1980 Presidential election. 

This was nothing short of treason. The Reagan campaign's secret negotiations with Khomeini - the so-called "October Surprise" - sabotaged Carter and Bani-Sadr's attempts to free the hostages. And as Bani-Sadr told The Christian Science Monitor in March of this year, they most certainly "tipped the results of the [1980] election in Reagan's favor." 

Not surprisingly, Iran released the hostages on January 20, 1981, at the exact moment Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.

So do I think that at the same time the Republicans were criticizing President Obama for not getting the prisoners released BEFORE he signed the nuclear deal with Iran, they were also working behind the scenes to keep those men in prison even longer until it could help them politically?

Oh hell yeah!

Bristol Palin takes a page out of her mother's "Manipulating the Masses" handbook.

Courtesy of Bristol's Instagram page:Trig officially loves her 😻#mybrotherhasmorechromosomesthanyou

Ah yes, her mother's favorite political prop loving on the child that Bristol wants to protect from scrutiny.

Well played.

This photo has already started to circulate around on the tabloids. Including People, E Online, Page Six, and Perez Hilton.

Yep, the acorn certainly does not fall far from the batshit crazy oak tree, now does it?

The "Draft Biden" SuperPAC releases its first advertisement. I don't know how I feel about it.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Draft Biden, a super PAC encouraging Vice President Joe Biden to run for president, released its first advertisement on Wednesday. 

The 90-second ad, “My Redemption,” first released on the Internet, uses Biden’s own words from his commencement address at Yale this year to describe how the tragic loss of his wife and infant daughter in a 1972 car accident made him a better parent and a stronger person. Biden’s sons, Beau and Hunter, survived the fatal accident, which occurred just a few weeks after Biden’s election to his first term in the Senate. 

“The incredible bond I have with my children is the gift I’m not sure I would have had, had I not been through what I went through,” Biden intones, as we see images of his Senate swearing-in by his sons’ side in the hospital. “But by focusing on my sons I found my redemption.” 

The ad then shows images of Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in late May at age 46.

Okay let me just admit up front that his ad bothers me.

Now it took me a bit to really understand what about it was bothering me, but now I think I know.

It's the fact that the ad seems to use the numerous tragedies in Joe Biden's life to sell him as a potential Commander-in-Chief.

That, to me, is not something which convinces me of a person's leadership abilities.

What's more it seems like an attempt to tap into the viewers emotions and elicit sympathy for Biden, which I assume is supposed to then translate into warm feelings about him as a person.

Well I have warm feelings about Joe Biden as a person, but this ad actually makes me suspicious that those feelings, which have a lot to do with Biden's authenticity and the recent passing of his son, are being manipulated for potential political gain.

And I can tell you that if true, my feelings will go from warm and fuzzy to extreme dislike in a matter of seconds.

I recognize that this is a SuperPAC, and not affiliated directly with Biden, but it might serve him well to make sure that point is understood by the public at large if he is actually considering throwing his hat into the ring. 

What the hell MetLife?

Okay as a one time single father, who had to scrape to make ends meet, I am especially vulnerable to this kind of thing.

Hit me right in the feels. Hard!

Whatever happened to Snoopy? At least that made me laugh.

Fox News affiliate "apologizes" for selectively editing and misrepresenting protester's chants to make it seem they were calling for the murder of police officers.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A Baltimore Fox affiliate station apologized to a Black Lives Matter protester on Monday after the station deceptively edited a chant by protesters to say “Kill a cop.” 

According to Talking Points Memo, the chant, led by protester Tawanda Jones, actually said, “We won’t stop, we can’t stop, ’til killer cops, are in cell blocks.” 

On Monday, Gawker noted the deceptive editing, juxtaposing Baltimore Fox station WBFF’s footage against actual footage from the protest event, which the site acquired via C-SPAN. 

The Fox station apologized to the protesters and to Jones both on its Facebook page and in an interview with Jones. 

The Facebook post claimed that the station’s engineers misheard what the protesters were chanting and called it an “honest misunderstanding.”

"Honest misunderstanding?"  Seriously?

As I reported before it appears that the Fox affiliate went out of their way to make the protesters appear scary and bent on violence.

Below you can see the interview with Tawanda Jones, during which the affiliate plays an unedited video of her chants, which is NOT the same footage shown on WBFF originally which also featured a voice over completely misrepresenting what she was saying, and then attempts to make it sound like it was an honest mistake.

It clearly wasn't.

Florida pastor accused of raping women at shelter assaults female reporter for daring to ask him about it.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A Florida pastor accused of raping women at a shelter that he ran was caught on video this week ripping the microphone out of a reporter’s hands when she asked him about the crimes. 

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, 44-year-old Pedro L. Custodio — who is known as “Pastor Pete” — was accused of forcing himself on at least three women who had been clients at Our Father’s House of Refuge Ministries, Inc. 

Documents said that in July of 2013, Custodio took one victim into the shelter’s pantry, locked the door, removed his pants, grabbed her hips, and began kissing her. The woman said she was eventually was “able to convince him” to stop because he was married. 

During the investigation, Eustis police learned of two other victims. One said that she had a consensual sexual relationship with the pastor, but that he also raped her on her birthday in May of 2013. 

“[The victim] advised she was crying during the entire incident and [was] repeatedly begging for Pastor Pete to stop,” police documents said. 

The third woman said that she also felt “pressured” to have sex with the pastor. 

“Pastor Pete would tell her she could always go find another shelter in Orlando if she did not do what he wanted to do,” according to police.

Now I am not saying that this man's disrespect for the female reporter proves that he would force himself on women in the shelter, but I will say that I would bet quite a lot of money that if this were a male reporter that he would not have dared grab at the microphone.

Rapists are often people who feel inadequate and who force themselves on those they perceive as undeserving of respect.  And this guy clearly demonstrates those traits.

And if he is guilty, and used his positions as a pastor to manipulate these women, then he is truly a piece of shit and I hope they throw the book at him.

Not only does Bristol Palin not understand President Obama's connection with black people, she also does not understand his connection with gay Americans.

Brancy titled her post using this picture thusly:

Awkward: The President Asks a Cashier if He’s Gay

And then linked to yet another Right Wing news site for an article essentially suggesting that Obama's interaction was strange and the cashier even stranger.

Of course this encounter was heavily covered when it happened this weekend, including here at IM, and for the most part it was covered as an essentially human interest story illustrating Obama;s connection to both the youth and LGBT community.

Of course the Right Wing folks have to mine these things for something sinister or distasteful in order to push forward their meme that the President is out of touch and aloof.

Which leads me to my conclusion as to how Bristol's blog is being used by her mother and her mother's conservative puppet masters.

You see they believe that Bristol carries some influence among the Millennial crowd by virtue of her age. And they are using that essentially nonexistent influence to attack Obama's strengths, his support among the African American and LGBT communities, to undermine him and somehow damage his reputation.

However virtually all evidence suggest that it is Bristol who is lacking connections, not the President.

In fact the vast majority of the millennials are not only left leaning, they are even more to the left than the Democratic party as it stands today.

They are also incredibly supportive of gay rights, comprehensive social programs, and expanded government.

In other words virtually everything that Bristol and her mother stand against.

It must be pointed out.

But hey, don't let the facts interfere with your unquestioning faith.

After all where would we be without unquestioning faith.

Besides on Mars of course.

(Source.)

Mitt Romney attempts to play at being a human. Fails!

This from Politico:

The Republican is using a three-day Florida swing to make a direct emotional appeal to voters. He is for the first time speaking more candidly to voters about his good deeds on behalf of others, a trait he has stubbornly shied away from during the majority of this campaign even as Democrats have painted him as an unfeeling corporate raider. 

Starting on Friday night, Romney devoted nearly one-third of his stump speech to telling three revealing and personal stories that have been related before by other Romney allies — his wife, his friends — but never by himself. 

It’s a dramatic, and seemingly intentional shift for the Republican, who until now had avoided such personal sharing in favor of portraying himself as a competent economic manager. 

Oh yeah nothing transparent about this!

Here look at how HARD Mittens worked in order to dredge up some emotion for the press to witness.   

He recalled seeing a friend from graduate school, Billy Hulse, at an event in Atlanta a few weeks ago. After an accident paralyzed him, Hulse devoted himself to supporting medical research. The governor said that when he saw Hulse, he leaned into his friend’s wheel chair, put his arm on Hulse’s shoulder and whispered into his ear. 

“I said, ‘Billy, I love ya and God bless ya’,” Romney said. 

The sprawling crowd of 6,200 applauded. Some cheered. 

Romney then added, “I got a call from a friend that he died the next day after that visit.” 

The deflated crowd let out a collective moan: “Awwwww.” 

“It’s rare that you get the chance to tell someone how much you love them while you still can,” Romney added softly. 

This Romney, the man engaged in a sort of call-and-response with the audience, telling them personal stories about his hard-luck friends, is a far cry from the the stiff candidate who has often made awkward jokes on the stump or gotten off stilted lines such as “the trees are the right height” when describing his nostalgia for his home state of Michigan. He seems more comfortable on the stump. 

“I thought back to a time a little earlier in my life when I was serving as the pastor of my congregation,” Romney continued. 

Then he told the story of knowing a boy, David Oparowski, who became afflicted with leukemia at 14. David’s parents first told their story at the Republican National Convention in August, and Ann Romney has referenced it, but this is the first time Romney himself has related it. 

“I spent time with David,” he said. “We became more and more friendly. I asked him what would he like more than anything else in the world. He said fireworks. So I bought some. We had a big box of fireworks and … lit them off.” 

I'm sorry but if I had been telling these kinds of personal, heart wrenching stories in front of an audience, you would have had to mop me up afterwards. All that would be left of me would be a puddle of tears and a broken heart. Hell I almost choked up reading Romney's stories.

So how did Mitt respond?  

Romney sounded as though was on the verge of choking up, but he didn’t.

Yeah, that's what I figured.

Look I'm not going to call the man a liar (Even though we have caught him lying NUMEROUS times.). but this is one of the most hackneyed and transparent manipulations that politicians ever use.

And in Romney's case I would be surprised if even his MOST aggressive supporters would buy into it.

This is how MOST people respond to Romney on an emotional level.

Let's face it, no matter what Mitt Romney does, he will NEVER be more liekable or more human than the President.

Never!

Movie about assassination of Osama Bin Laden to be televised 48 hours before election day. Oh Republicans are not going to be happy about this!

Courtesy of The Guardian:

Film producer Harvey Weinstein may prove to be the secret weapon of the Barack Obama re-election campaign thanks to a film about the killing of Osama Bin Laden that is set to air on US TV just 48 hours before polling day. 

Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden is the first high-profile dramatisation of the attack on the al-Qaida leader's Pakistan hide-out. The incident, in May 2011, was widely regarded as a coup for the Obama administration, following former President Bush's failed seven-year attempt to catch Bin Laden "dead or alive". 

Produced by the Weinstein Company, the film will be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel on Sunday 4 November. "While some of the characterisations have been dramatised for creative reasons, the core story is an accurate portrayal of an event that ended the longest manhunt in American history," the channel said in a statement.

Okay usually I just pooh pooh the Right Wing's conspiracy theories, but THIS time I think that we can definitely say that timing for the release of this movie is purely political.

And do you know what? It will very likely have some positive impact for the President too.

Forgive me if I don't get too bothered by the fact that the signature talking point of the GOP, going after terrorists and keeping America safe, has been usurped by President Obama, and will very likely contribute greatly to his reelection.

Fox news summed up perfectly.

There is really nothing I can add to this.

Recently unsealed documents reveal that the National Organization for Marriage attempted to "drive a wedge between black and gays." Apparently "traditional values" involve pitting one minority group against another.

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

The Southern Poverty Law Center has more:

In one NOM documents entitled “Sideswiping Obama,” the group urges activists to raise “such issues as pornography” and “the protection of children.” “We will put a special focus on exposing those administration programs that have the effect of sexualizing children,” along with other “policy threats to children.” 

What do pornography and sexual threats to children have to do with same-sex marriage? Well, nothing really. But as another NOM document points out, the object isn’t so much to appeal to rational argument, but rather “a new, more emotionally powerful set of messages.” You know, like gay men molesting your kids.

Now if THAT tactic sounds very familiar to you, then I imagine you will not be surprised to learn that  a certain half term Governor has a rather cozy relationship with this group as well.

A week after the Obama administration announced it believed part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was unconstitutional and said it would no longer defend the law in court, former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin is out with a statement that slams (surprise!) President Barack Obama for the decision. 

But just as interesting as what Palin said is who Palin said it to. Unlike most of her pronouncements, this didn’t come from her Facebook page or on her Twitter account. Instead, Palin “offered this exclusive response” to the anti-gay group the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which has been fundraising off the Justice Department’s decision that DOMA was unconstitutional. 

“I have always believed that marriage is between one man and one woman,” Palin told NOM’s Maggie Gallagher. “Like the majority of Americans, I support the Defense of Marriage Act and find it appalling that the Obama administration decided not to defend this federal law which was enacted with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by a Democrat president.” 

“It’s appalling, but not surprising that the President has flip-flopped on yet another issue from his stated position as a candidate to a seemingly opposite position once he was elected,” she added.

So a group that attempted to push forward their agenda to fight gay marriage by pitting one minority group against another, create a meme that homosexuals are prone to pedophilia, and slime President Obama as a "social radical," apparently has Sarah Palin on speed dial.

Now isn't that interesting?

Teabaggers FINALLY realize that Sarah Palin has just been using them. Everybody else on the planet goes "Duh!"

From The Hill:

Wary that some are joining the grassroots conservative movement merely to sell books and enhance their celebrity status, a Tea Party group is putting the heat on former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to make her presidential plans clear. In a Tuesday statement, Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots paints former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as the prime example of that kind of behavior. 

The group, which consists of former military members, wants Palin to announce whether she will seek the White House or sit out the 2012 race. 

“If not we are at risk of having major Tea Party speeches and events used as political rallies for a selected candidate [versus] a citizen based movement that forces the legislative agenda and serves as a fundamental check to the current corrupt culture in Washington, D.C.,” the group said in the statement. 

In other news Teabaggers also just realized that the sky is blue, water is wet, and that people they see on television are NOT actually living inside of their television.

The bad news for the Teabaggers is that EVERYBODY has been using them all along, including the Koch brothers, Fox News, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Jim Demint, and probably every person whoever realized that they might be a group consisting of possibly most gullible people on the planet.

I don't expect much to come from this epiphany.  All Palin has to do is strap on the "Belmont boobs" and these morons will start throwing dollar bills at her feet like drunk horny members of a bachelor party hoping against hope that THIS time she will take them into the champagne room, and make all of their dreams come true...which in this case means announcing she will run for President.

SarahPAC creates another campaign commercial for Sarah Palin's non-existent campaign.

So let me get this straight.

SarahPAC spends their donations on air travel, bus rental, and hotel costs for Sarah Palin, and whichever family member she can bribe/convince/threaten to come with her, so that she can travel to a certain venue in the United States.

Then Palin is filmed walking around, shaking hands, and answering a few reporters questions.

That footage is then very carefully edited to make it appear that she did something political. 

The same soaring soundtrack that was in her previous pseudo political advertisements is then added to tug at the heartstrings of the viewers.

After that the whole thing is thrown up on various pro-Palin websites to encourage MORE donations to SarahPAC, which are necessary to pay for the NEXT fake political appearance, in order to obtain MORE footage to use in the NEXT fake political commercial, which can then be used to grift MORE money from the slowest learners on the planet.

Do I have that about right?

A couple of things to note.

First, we now understand the reason behind this huge, gaudy bracelet that Palin wore in Iowa. 

If you watch the video you will notice that EVERY time she shakes someones hand the red, white and ridiculous accoutrement is prominently displayed, sending the subliminal message that Palin is super-duper patriotic.

Second there were also a large number of brown people in the video, which proves, once again, that Palin is definitely reading the comments here and recognized that people noticed that her other videos had featured ONLY white folks.

Third, there was a LOT of effort this time to show Palin answering questions from REPORTERS.

Clearly that is in response to criticisms that she never spoke to any members of the press except Fox News talking heads.  Which means to me, that Palin purposefully went out of her way to talk to reporters specifically for THIS video.

"Wait, are you saying that she used me?"

Yes Don Lemon, yes I am.

So Palin swoops into Iowa, distracts the media from covering the REAL candidates running for the GOP nomination, and gets a fundraising video out of the deal as well. Pretty slick.

The only down side for Sister Sarah is that she managed to piss off almost everybody who ever supported her.  But as long as she can still string along the dipshits over at the Sea O' Pea, and get them to send her their hard earned money, I am not sure she even gives a flying crap about whose toes she steps on.

Which I guess really only leaves one question left to answer about Snowdrift Snooki's next move.

(H/T to Azure Ghost for the graphic.)

Sarah using Tripp to trash Levi in preemptive strike against tell-all book. Surprised?

From Hollybaby.com:

As Levi Johnston, 21, prepares to release his expose, Deer In The Headlights: My Life In Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs in September — the Palin family are begging him to end his attacks on the ex-Governor and be a proper dad.

“Levi’s seen Tripp maybe just a handful of times in the last year,” a source tells Star magazine. “There were months when he and Bristol were both in Alaska and he didn’t visit.”

“It would be nice to think that Levi would like to have some sort of relationship with his child, but so far that hasn’t happened.”

It’s not the first time Levi’s been accused of abandoning his son — back in January, Bristol, 20, told the Bob & Mark Radio Show her former fiance had spent just 12 hours with his son since she ended her stint on Dancing With The Stars the previous fall.

A source close to the Palins tells HollyBaby.com that Levi is an absentee father, adding that Bristol offers him plenty of opportunity to see Tripp, but he declines the offers.

We have put out numerous calls and emails to Levi’s attorney and manager, but those calls have remained unanswered.

Is it time Levi stopped his war with the Palins, if only for the sake of his son?

My understanding about this whole thing is that Bristol has made it almost impossible for Levi to see Tripp by essentially moving him out of state, that she will only give Levi a few hours notice as to when he can see the boy, and that when he IS able to spend time with him she places numerous restrictions on where they can go and who Tripp is allowed to be around. 

Essentially she does not want Tripp around Mercede, who has not seen her nephew since January.

This, by the way, is why I was so adamant that Levi get a good attorney and fight for joint custody of his son. Anybody who did not see this kind of thing coming has simply not been paying attention to how this family operates.

And as others have already noticed apparently this, "The parties agree that they shall not allow the child to visit with, or interact with, any family member who publicly ... or in front of the child, criticizes the other parent or the other parent's family," only goes one way.

A lot of this is Levi's fault for not fighting this family tooth and nail in court, but I also know that he received some very bad advice. And is apparently continuing to receive that bad advice.

In the long run this only hurts an innocent child, but since when have the Palins ever REALLY seemed to care about how their decisions affect the children?