A Very Palin Thanksgiving

I really couldn't care less about this palin phenomenon. But how stupid is this:

What if

Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?

In what respect, Charlie?

What do you interpret it to be?

Well, Charlie, that's tough. Is it the Bush doctrine that says you can go back on your promise to cut global emissions as soon as you take office? Or the one that says ignore PDBs that warn of an imminent attack on the United States? Perhaps you're speaking of the Bush doctrine of sticking the government's nose into private family health decisions? Or the one that says you can spy on any American at any time for any reason? Or maybe the one that says, hey, let's politicize the Department of Justice! How about the one where you can divert resources from the war on terror to invade a country because its leader once tried to kill your daddy? Or ignore congressional subpoenas at will? Or change laws anytime with signing statements? That doctrine? Am I close?

Well, I was thinking...

Wait, I know! Is it the Bush doctrine that says torture is okay and that the writ of habeas corpus is "quaint?" Or the Bush doctrine that says the free market will regulate itself and bring us endless prosperity? Is it the doctrine that says deficits don’t matter? Or the one that says cronies are competent stewards of the nation's safety? Maybe it's the doctrine of thinking that cutting taxes in the middle of two wars is smart? Or the doctrine that says government commissions---like the Iraq Study Group---should be taken seriously until they release their report, after which they should be ignored? Then there's this one: no matter how much people beg for relief, don't lift a finger to fix the health care mess in this country, but do pass major legislation that increases the profits of drug companies. How about the doctrine that says any country that doesn’t make themselves over in America's image should be mocked and ridiculed and even invaded? Hey, here's a great doctrine: running the Iraq war "off the books" so it looks like it's not costing us anything. Brilliant! Are these doctrines ringin' any bells, Charlie?

Err...um...

Is it the Bush doctrine that says you should commute the sentence of a top White House official who committed perjury to help cover up the fact that you outed a covert CIA operative as an act of political revenge? Or the one that says vote for me because I'm a CEO and I know what I'm doing? That is, unless it's the one that says vote for me because I'm an oilman and I'll keep gas prices low? How about the one that says let's privatize Social Security by putting it into the hands of companies like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers? Maybe it's the doctrine that says it's a good idea to taunt terrorists by sneering, "Bring 'em on!" Wait a minute! It must be the Bush doctrine of raising the terror threat level when it's politically expedient! Oh, wait...it could be the doctrine of spending more time on vacation than any other president in history. Actually, it might be the doctrine that says let's fuck up the country as much as possible and then blame it on the Democrats.

Tell me, Charlie: which Bush doctrine are you referring to?

The Bush Doctrine as I understand it is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense. That we have the right of a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?

Hell, I dunno. Ask the lady over there beating her ex-brother-in-law with a moose antler.

It keeps getting better

Palin was baptized at Wasilla Assembly of God and attended the church for over two and a half decades, and she has been publicly blessed by a number of pastors and religious leaders employed by and associated with that church.

Last Sunday our research team released a video, a ten-minute mini-documentary, focusing on the Wasilla Assemblies of God and the video seemed on the verge of a massive "viral" breakthrough when YouTube pulled it down, citing "inappropriate content".

At the point the video was censored by YouTube it had been viewed by almost 160,000 people. The short of it is that YouTube has censored a video documentary that appeared to be close to having an effect on a hard fought and contentious American presidential election.


Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

ha!

The real clip is here or here.

Former Republican John Cole on Sarah Palin:

Sarah Palin is the distilled essence of wingnut. She has it all. She is dishonest. She is a religious nut. She is incurious. She is anti-science. She is inexperienced. She abuses her authority. She hides behind executive privilege. She is a big spender. She works from the gut and places a greater value on instinct than knowledge.

And most dangerous of all, she is supremely self-confident to the point of not recognizing how ill-equipped she is to lead the country.

Why do you think they love her so? But Cole really nails it here:

George Bush in a dress. The Palin interview should be a gut-check for Republicans and conservatives who think the last eight years has been a perversion of conservative principles. I am betting most of them will not even put down their pom-poms, though.

Conservatives are trying to rescue the reputation of their battered ideology by claiming that Bush was either incompetent, or not a good enough conservative. It may be laughable, but they've got to somehow explain away why conservatism has failed this country so disastrously. Their ideology is sacrosanct, infallible. Conservatism can't fail, only people can fail conservatism. Yet as Cole notes, the very qualities that made Bush such a failure are perfectly encapsulated in Palin (with a healthy dose of Cheney-style abuse of power for added spice).

Um, what is the Bush Doctrine?

Gibson: Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?

Palin: In what respect, Charlie?

Gibson: What do you interpret it to be?

Palin: His worldview.

Gibson: No, No, the Bush Doctrine. He enunciated it in September 2002, before the Iraq War.

Palin: I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is to rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hellbent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made. And with new leadership--and that's the beauty of American elections and democracy--with new leadership comes the opportunity to do things better.

Gibson: The Bush Doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory defense. We have the right to preemptively strike any other country that we believe is going to attack us.

Palin: I agree that a president's job, when they swear in their oath to uphold our Constitution, their top priority is to defend the United States of America.

I know that John McCain will do that and I, as his vice president, families we are blessed with that vote of the American people and are elected to serve and are sworn in on January 20, that will be our top priority is to defend the American people.

Actually, the first priority is to defend the constitution of the United States. Palin doesn't even know the oath she is supposed to swear. And any serious person who has followed the debates about US foreign policy knows what the Bush doctrine is. But we do not have a serious pick for the vice-presidency in the GOP, do we? We have an absurdity. And a joke.

Ha!

See more Gina Gershon videos at Funny or Die

Thanks Eli, for sending me this. It's right on.

posted last week on huffingtonpost

Deepak Chopra

Obama and the Palin Effect

Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche
even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the
rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention
inMinneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President
Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in
the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000
residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running
one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering
international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her
forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his
idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological
terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight,
countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed
to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the
other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they
don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher
selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind.
(Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact
that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his
arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics
is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can
be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov.
Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to
change and a higher vision.

Look at what she stands for:
-- Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to
petty, small-minded parochialism.
-- Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to
repairAmerica's image abroad.
-- Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for
social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be
heeded.
-- Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these
issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
-- Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
-- Reform -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out
corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't
fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has
been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that
minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types,
can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a
foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all
right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of
course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time.
She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty
years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of
women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are
voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national
elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to
change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The
shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a
shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces
of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive
appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin
is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate
honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona
was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the
demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without
disguise.

I saw this last night and Chach sent it to me today (thanks chiz)

This letter is written by someone who knows Sarah Palin, lives in Wasilla, and has city council lurker cred. (There ought to be a badge for that.) I think that babygate is on the way out of the news cycle, and the next aspect of her life to come under scrutiny will be her tenure as mayor. This is a good place to start. And thanks to Anne Kilkenny for speaking out. Wasilla is a small town. It takes a certain amount of conviction and downright bravery to lay it all out there like this. So a hat tip and a big sweeping bow to Anne...

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992.
Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a
first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her
father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a
first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more
City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the
residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular
girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and
won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because
she is a “babe”.

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She
kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents
for seven months.

She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby.
There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out
there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

full letter here