S#*! Sarah Palin Says (Corrupt Bastards Edition) - UPDATED

I'll leave the reporting of this one to TPM on the full story of how Andrew "Zero Credibility" Breitbart once again takes an edited, out of context audio clip to successfully make non-thinkers believe an Alaskan CBS news affiliate is in some kind of conspiracy to take down Joe Miller in a scandal.

But as far as Sarah Palin and her shooting from the hip tweets is concerned , 1- she either falls for the Breitbart bullshit hook, line and sinker or 2 - just decides to be her usual dishonest self and take advantage of it to gin up the crazy base.



Oh yes, Sarah, there's been a conspiracy against you from the very beginning, huh?  No reason to look into your background considering you were running for the second highest office in the land and had multiple ethics complaints against you and your half term administration. Why would anyone want to bother wanting to know who you were?

And would there be any doubt that if another political celebrity in the opposition party used the phrase, or Facebooked or tweeted "corrupt bastards," they would shoot up to the top of the GOP/Fox News list as Villain No. 1?

One more thing, Sarah.  The next time you think it would be cute to substitute a name for an acronym like "CBS," make sure you actually use the letters.  C.B.S. does not equal "Corrupt Bastards Club." ...Idiot.

ADDING... Fox News has not been able to confirm Palin's claim.

This afternoon, Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron aired a portion of a tape that Andrew Breitbart has posted and which Breitbart claims is a recording of a voicemail that reporters at Alaska's KTVA left with an aide to Miller's campaign. Cameron reported that Fox News "cannot verify" what Palin claimed. Cameron also said, "We have not been able to confirm it, nor have we been able to listen to the entirety of the message before the conversation that wasn't supposed to be recorded." Cameron further reported that Fox News was "not exactly sure what the authenticity of this is."

UPDATE (11/1/10 10:50am): Looks like Palin's assault on journalism continues as she responds to a Politico story about the possibility of the GOP going after the Mama Grizzly to discredit her to derail her 2012 bid, if there is one.

Politico, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, they're jokes. This is a joke to have unnamed sources tearing somebody apart limb by limb," Palin told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren Sunday. "If they would man up and if they would, you know, make these claims against me then I can debate them, I can talk about it, but to me they're making stuff up again."

So she'll berate Politico and call it "yellow journalism," but take Breitbart's word for it with his endless bullshit stories? Weak.

Limbaugh's Hard-Core Support: A Few Dead-Enders

Cross posted by Fraulein

This validates what I've been saying for ages. The way much of our national media report on Rush Limbaugh, you'd think he speaks for a significant proportion of Americans. Then you see a poll like this one from CBS News, and it turns out that the number who have really drunk the Limbaugh kool-aid --the true dead-enders--is not so huge.



We can take our country back from these people. I really believe that. There just are not as many of them as you might think.

Why Ann Coulter Is A Freakshow

All you have to do is watch (I know it's painful but watch). I'm sure Harry Smith was sitting in his chair wondering A) why CBS didn't think about cancelling Coulter's appearance B) why his producers hate him so much and C) how quickly he would die if he stuck his pen through his temple rather than listen to one more word from the conservative crack ho. Just watching Smith squirm in his chair and basically treat Coulter like the nutball she is, albeit with kid gloves, is worth sitting through the video.

The really sad part is that even when given a chance - and Smith lets her rant on and on - Coultergeist still sounds like she's trying to get a word in edgewise when not being interrupted.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Tom Delay was a victim?! Joe McCarthy was a victim?! How crazy can one person be? But of course, this is what Coulter does. She makes the most outrageous statements one can possibly make to cause a stir and sell books. There is no such thing as bad publicity, especially when it comes to Coulter.

Stop Digging, FCC

The first rule when you're in a hole is to stop digging.

The FCC and it's Chair, Kevin Martin are going to the Supreme Court in an attempt to reverse the 3rd Circuit Court's decision that they "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in fining CBS $550,000 when Janet Jackson bared her boobie during Super Bowl XXXVIII.

That was almost five fucking years ago! Give it up, FCC.

And The VP Debate Winner Is...

... obviously Joe Biden. Look at these stats:

CBS Poll for Uncommitted Voters -

Who won the debate? Biden 46% Palin 21% Tied 33%

Overall image -
Biden: Improved impression: 53% - Worse opinion:5% - No change - 42%
Palin: Improved impression: 55% - Worse opinion: 14% - No change - 30

Knowledgeable about important issues -
Palin: Before debate - 43% After debate - 66%
Biden: Before debate - 79% After debate - 98%

That being said, the conservative pundits are elated that Palin didn't fall off the stage, vomit on the podium or run off in tears and since the bar was set so low, some say low enough to have to dig a ditch to set it, nothing has changed. The Republicans will insist she won even though she didn't answer the questions asked of her, choosing instead to meander into answering questions she herself posed. If by chance she did happen to answer an actual question asked by the moderator, she got it wrong. And here is where she lost the debate:

Q: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?

PALIN: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation. And it is my executive experience that is partly to be attributed to my pick as V.P. with McCain, not only as a governor, but earlier on as a mayor, as an oil and gas regulator, as a business owner. It is those years of experience on an executive level that will be put to good use in the White House also.

So Ms. Hockey Mom didn't even know what the duties of the Vice President are as written under the Constitution and wants to expand those powers. She agrees with Cheney - MOTHERFUCKIN' 18% APPROVAL RATING DICK CHENEY! - when defining to which branch of government the VP office belongs. Is agreeing with Cheney the right answer? No. Here's the right answer, Mooselini:

BIDEN: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.

The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he's part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

BAM! KAPOW! THWAPP!! Everyone who's taken a high school history class knows that the separation of powers is a fundamental key of our Constitution. Everyone that is, except for Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin. Actually, Cheney probably knows but doesn't give a shit. So that leaves Palin.

And since when has it been acceptable to dismiss debate rules and announce that you're not going to answer the questions of the moderator and instead blurt out a list of memorized talking points?

PALIN: ...I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.

If that's the point, why bother having the debate?

Is she stupid? No, of course not. Calculating. Manipulative. But not stupid. Is she out of her element? I'd have to say yes. There was nothing in that debate that made me think she would have known answers to some of those questions two weeks ago or nothing that gave me the confidence to trust her. And there was nothing that made me think twice that I may have initially misjudged her.

Best line of the night -

Biden: "So you're going to have to place -- replace a $12,000 [health insurance] plan with a $5,000 check you just give to the insurance company. I call that the 'Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere.'"


Worst line of the night - it's a tie (besides the Cheney thing).

Palin: "Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today, that's for sure. And it's not what our nation needs to be able to count on."

Palin: "Oh, yeah, it's so obvious I'm a Washington outsider. And someone just not used to the way you guys operate."

Palin: "Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again... Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future."

Palin: "And how long have I been at this, like five weeks?"

Or you can go with any of the 'dart tootin's, 'gosh darnit's, 'Dagnabbit's, 'fiddlesticks', 'gee willikers', or 'confound it's Palin used; or the 847 times she used the word "also" to continue a run-on sentence.

I'm afraid to turn on my TV and watch Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan gush at her performance even though poll figures disagree with them. But I'm curious as to what the spin is in spite of the polls. So maybe I'll have more later unless it's too depressing to keep talking about it.



UPDATE I (9:35am): Thankfully, I missed Buchanan and Scar. Unfortunately, I caught Nancy Pfotenhauer spinning her plastic face off. But I did find this interesting.


CNN/Opinion Research: Biden 51 Palin 36
CBS: Biden 46 Palin 21
Fox: Biden 61 Palin 39


Those Fox numbers are down to 59% for Biden by 9:45am today. Here's a screenshot before Fox decides to take it down. (Click on image for full size.)



You can participate in the poll here. Scroll down to the bottom right to vote.

Also read: The Rude Pundit - What Biden Ought To Say (Rude Version)


UPDATE II (10:12am): What's with the fucking winking?!




UPDATE III (12:02pm): Here's FactCheck.Org's list on the VP debate last night.

We're Number 19! And Yet, Cheney Lives

Of 19 Industrialized Countries, U.S. Has Highest Rate Of Preventable Deaths Before Age 75, Researchers Report

CBS News: The U.S. today finds itself last on a new list of countries seeking to curb preventable deaths in people younger than 75.

...From 1997 to 1998, the U.S. had a high rate of preventable deaths, but it wasn't the worst-ranked country on the list. By 2002-2003, preventable death rates dropped in all 19 countries, including the U.S.

But the U.S. had had the mildest rate of decline -- 4% -- compared with a 16% average decline among the other countries. That's how the U.S. wound up with the highest preventable death rate in 2002-2003.

...the slow decline in U.S. preventable deaths "has coincided with an increase in the uninsured population," write the researchers.

Here's the stellar list in which we come in NINETEENTH!

1. France
2. Japan
3. Australia
4. Spain
5. Italy
6. Canada
7. Norway
8. The Netherlands
9. Sweden
10. Greece
11. Austria
12. Germany
13. Finland
14. New Zealand
15. Denmark
16. U.K.
17. Ireland
18. Portugal
19. The U.S. of Fuckin' A


CHENEY CARE
"If he were anyone else, he'd probably be dead by now."

In a related story that I don't remember the MSM picking up, the California Nurses Association placed in ad 10 Iowa newspapers during the first week of December suggesting that Dick Cheney would probably be dead by now had it not been for his federally funded health care. Sweet!

The ad states:

The patient’s history and prognosis were grim: four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, angioplasty, an implanted defibrillator andnow an emergency procedure to treat an irregular heartbeat.

For millions of Americans, this might be a death sentence. For the vice president, it was just another medical treatment. And it cost him very little.

Unlike the average American, the president, vice president and members of Congress all enjoy government-financed health care with few restrictions or prohibitive fees. They are never turned away for pre-existing conditions or denied care for what an insurance company labels “experimental treatments.”

The rest of us deserve no less.

The ad then calls on the presidential candidates to support HR676, the National Health Insurance Act. Of all the candidates running for in the primaries, only Dennis Kucinich has co-sponsored this bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers. It currently has 88 co-sponsors... out of FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE FUCKING MEMBERS. And what are the chances that it'll pass even if it gets to the Senate?

Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of CNA, refutes suggestions that the shock-value of the $55,000 ad could prompt more discussions on it rather than the underlying health care proposal. “The ad is about the substance of the debate. The ad says Democrats are bad, and Republicans are worse,” she said. “Dick Cheney is just the exemplar of what it means to have a double standard.”

The vice president’s office said the ad isn’t worth more than a no comment. “Something this outrageous does not warrant a response,” said Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Cheney.

Fuck you, Megan Mitchell. You're right, it is outrageous that douchebags like Cheney get A1 health care that they don't pay for while his crony insurance friends bilk billions out of the rest of us.

Of course Cheney's office isn't going to comment. What are they going to do, deny the fact that this walking lab experiment wouldn't be six feet under by now if he'd been Joe Average? Give me a fucking break.

Can We See Your Tongue Stud?!

Is Hannah Storm kidding?! You gotta love those mainstream media "journalists." What an embarrassment.